A beautiful home in Shelburne, VT is now for sale by owner. The home is a 2000 sq. ft. ranch with upper and lower levels, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a gorgeous remodeled kitchen. The home is located directly across from the Shelburne Museum entrance with beautiful Adirondack and sunset views. Easy access to the bus line, stores and everything Shelburne Village has to offer. Lake Champlain and the beach are just 5 minutes away. The home has all new hardwood floors on the upper level and a remodeled kitchen with granite counter tops. Heating in the winter is very inexpensive due to the excellent insulation work done within the house.  This home has been lovingly cared for and you’ll be surprised as to what you see inside. The asking price is $299,500.

• Women must get permission from their husbands to wear false teeth.
• It’s illegal to deny the existence of God.
• It was once illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole.
• Delivery men must walk backwards in driveways of homes worth more than $500,000
• It is not legal to whistle underwater.
• Doves must not be kept in the freezer.
• It is not legal to paint landscapes during times of war.
• It is illegal to give a baby a “comforter”.
• In Rutland, cars are forbidden from backfiring.
• It is illegal for vagrants to obtain food by force.
• It is not legal to use colored margarine in restaurants unless the menu indicates it is permitted in 2 inch high lettering.
• In the town of Barre, all residents must bathe every Saturday night.

Ok, so now we’ve got employee of the month parking, veterans parking and “people with special needs” parking. What does that mean…people with special needs? Does that mean milk and bread or the latest midnight special release of iPhones? A recent drive to Water Tower Hill in Colchester was particularly frustrating. You have many of the typical reserved parking slots but now you must beware not to park in the Fletcher Allen only parking section, etc.

Has this whole business of reserved parking gone just a bit too far? Better off to stay home and order everything and do business online. Us web designers love that and by the way, you can park anywhere you want!

Here are some Vermont accomplishments of which we can be proud (so-to-speak).
The Cato Institute did a study of the percentage of non-poor people in the country who are getting benefits from one of the eight federal welfare programs. Non-poor people are those whose income levels are above the federal poverty level. Of all the United States, Vermont was No. 1 with 17.5 percent of its non-poor citizens receiving welfare benefits. No. 2 was Mississippi with 14.4 percent non-poor citizens on welfare. New Hampshire was No. 32 at 7.8 percent.

The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation periodically rates state education standards for clarity and rigor. In 2010, it found Vermont’s English language arts standards among the worst in the country, rating a D, and our mathematics standards, again, among the worst in the country withan F.

The conservative Leadership Institute ranked UVM 95th (out of 100) major universities for being overwhelmingly biased toward the left, offering such politically correct courses as “Race and Racism,” “Sexual Identities,” “Eco-feminism” and “Human and Social Diversity.”

We already pointed out that the Competitive Enterprise Institute named Attorney General William Sorrell No. 6 of the Six Worst Attorneys General for his role in the tobacco Master Settlement of the 1990s that made a lot of lawyers very rich. Sorrell also supported the U.S. Supreme Court’s declaration that carbon dioxide is a pollutant that must be regulated, reputedly one of the worst decisions of the Supreme Court in history.

With just a little push, Vermont could win other titles: “Worst Atmosphere for Business in the U.S,” up to 50th from 47th that we won this year; Highest Taxed State in the Union, rather than just one of the top five. We already are No. 1 in how much we spend per student in public schools ($14,300 each in 2008).

We can brag that we have the lowest number of students per teacher in the country at 10 to 1,and we just got $19 million from the federal government to hire lots more teachers in order to achieve our goal of a 1-to-1 ratio.

These are just a few of the things that make us proud to be Vermonters. They are also prime examples of the aphorism, “If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.”

Hi Vermonter,
What a great blog! As an avid traveler, I am always looking for unique activities when I am on the road. From great local restaurants and Vermont historical sites, your site gave me such a diverse range of options to make the most of my trip!

John Durfee
Airsplat.com
11688 Clark St.
Arcadia, CA 91006

The colors of autumn are just around the corner. Two things that signal the upcoming Vermont foliage season are country fairs and corn fields with 7-ft cornstalks almost ready for harvest. I received an e-mail a few weeks ago from someone suggesting that I write an article about the declining amount of fun to be had at the Vermont county fairs. In his words, “none of the fairs have been worth a tinker’s damn ever since the hoot shows went away”. He may be right. I was in my teens when the last of the girly shows took place at the Orleans County Fair. I was always too young to get in and from what I heard later on, that’s one experience I’m probably better off for missing out on. I did notice that since those infamous “hoot shows” disappeared, the amount of fun things to do at the fairs have also declined.The “freak shows” are no longer part of the fairs and probably fell victim to the politically correct, “holier than thou” folks who successfully ended the era of the girly shows. Ironic, how these days you can find much more hardcore perversion, indecency and deviant lifestyles every day, just about anywhere in America. Who knows? Maybe all the sensationalism at the fair just became obsolete because it couldn’t keep up with the dose of what we get everyday on TV and in real life, for free. We get Jerry Springer on TV every day so I guess no “freak show” at a Vermont county fair could compete with that.

A recent letter in the Barton Chronicle brings up a question about the lack of amusement rides such as a ferris wheel and other young adult/adult rides at the Orleans County Fair (aka Barton Fair), which was recently held. The writer has a point. It does seem a bit unusual to have a fair or carnival without the typical ferris wheel. Is this a sign that the Vermont fairs we all grew up with are on a slow decline towards becoming obsolete? Maybe so. In this economy where costs are skyrocketing and wages are flat or declining, it’s tough for any business or event to stay afloat.

The Champlain Valley Fair is coming up soon and is Vermont’s biggest fair. Over the years, people gripe that this fair is also “not what it used to be” compared to days gone by. I have noticed that some of the displays that used to take place have dwindled down a bit during the past 10 years but for the most part, the rides, games and of course the food all remain about the same. No “freak shows” anymore though and definitely no “girly show” tents.

I hope this article satisfies the fellow who requested it! Please feel free to add your own comments and thoughts.

During the debate about whether to accept a pay cut, most of those who spoke in favor of the cut insisted that in such dire times, when so many Vermonters are making sacrifices, that legislators should also make sacrifices. However, of those who voted against the cut, most of those who spoke insisted that they work far too hard for anybody to think they should be paid any less than the pay they already earn serving in legislature.

There is now a bill creeping forward, which if passed, will provide each legislator a laptop computer – apparently courtesy of Vermont taxpayers. House bill 385 is sponsored by four Democrats, all who voted against the pay cut. They are Ken Atkins of Winooski, Richard Howigan of Fairfield, Tim Jerman of Essex, and Kathy Keenan of St. Albans City. The following is the “statement of purpose” as recorded on the bill.

“This bill proposes to appropriate sufficient funds for the purchase of laptop computers for every member of the general assembly.”

If this bill comes up for debate on the House Floor it will certainly be interesting to know why the legislators promoting this bill think we all need a laptop computer at taxpayer expense when many taxpayers can’t afford their own.

To find out how your legislators voted on various “roll call” votes, votes that are recorded, go to www.leg.state.vt.us.

The author of this article, Scott Wheeler of Derby, represents Brownington, Charleston, Derby, Holland, and Morgan in the Vermont House. He serves this district along with Representative Robert Lewis of Derby.