8/14/2025
8/10/2025
Thoughts On A Sunday
It looks like we’re back into the heat and humidity for the next four days or so, with temps expected to be in the 90’s and dew points in the 60’s and 70’s. That means cranking up the A/C again and watching the electric meter spinning like a top...again. Then again, it is summer so none of this should be unexpected.
One thing I and others have noticed over the past couple of weeks is the number of acorns the oaks have been dropping, something that is happening weeks earlier than usual. A wet spring and early summer might have something to do with it, but I don’t recall acorns falling this early.
I am also going to bring up traffic...again. I had the chance to talk with a couple of NH State troopers who live in my town and asked if they’ve seen the much heavier traffic and they both said they have. It now starts early Friday afternoon and has since mid-June. Even this Friday saw very heavy bumper-to-bumper traffic on the main highways starting around noon. It’s insane.
Some criticism has been leveled at Trump after he fired Biden-appointed Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Erika McEntarfer after allegations she purposely provided a July jobs report that had been altered to show less new jobs than were actually created.
There might be something to this as during the Biden administration reports of the number of jobs created was over 1.5 million jobs too high. A million and a half jobs supposedly created during the Biden years never existed.
As with the Biden era jobs reports I will wait for the revised jobs numbers which should be out in another month or two to find out if the dismal July numbers were real or the product of a Democrat/Deep State wishful thinking.
First I thought it was just me, being a “old faht”, looking back to the nostalgic pre-Internet days with fondness. I have seen how, as wonderful as the Internet can be, it has also been problem, particularly when dealing with social issues. Surprisingly it appears a lot of Gen Z are romanticizing a pre-Internet era they never knew, seeing the same thing I and the rest of us Boomers and Gen X have noticed.
I will admit to a small bit of FOMO, but only because I am taking care of the WP Mom who is in her 90’s and I don’t want to be out of touch for too long in case she needs help. But I don’t spend hours and hours on my phone perusing social media. In fact, one of the apps on my phone tells me how much time I spend using my phone on a daily and weekly basis. I average 37 minutes of usage per day. That’s split between calls, texts, and Solitaire. (I have to admit that between 10 and 20 minutes a day is taken up by Solitaire.)
I remember when phones were mounted on the wall and had a long cord between the phone and the handset. I remember when dialing someone’s phone number meant actually using a dial to enter the phone number. (This was pre-Touch Tone phones.) I remember having a party line when we lived in Maine when I was a kid.
I remember when TVs were only black-and-white. Color TVs didn’t become more common until the 1960’s. TV shows quite often included the tag line “In living color!” Rabbit ear antennas were the most common. Outdoor antennas were used in the outer edge of a TV station’s coverage area. You were really lucky if you had an antenna rotor so you could pick up more than a couple of TV channels. TV stations signed off the air around midnight, usually playing the national anthem, then showing a test pattern, and eventually going off the air for a few hours.
If you wanted to send someone a letter there was no e-mail. You had to use paper and pen or pencil and write them out, fold them and put them in an envelope, address the envelope and put a stamp on it, then put it in the mailbox and raise the little red flag that let the mailman know there was an outgoing letter.
Were the old times better? Who knows? Some things were definitely simpler. I can understand why Gen Z has been looking back to those days. For lack of a better term I think of it as “Future Burnout”.
From the Land of Oz comes this tidbit:
Great Barrier Reef in great health, but climate change is killing science institutions.
Whatever are all the science institutions receiving millions and billions of dollars of funding going to do when the funding starts being rolled back because they haven’t been able to produce relatively successful climate predictions and/or climate models? Will they end up being the victims of climate change?
Yes, Sydney Sweeney has great jeans. But Mike Rowe does, too.
And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the hot and humid weather has returned, the traffic is still heavy, and where Monday is coming back to screw up yet another weekend.
One thing I and others have noticed over the past couple of weeks is the number of acorns the oaks have been dropping, something that is happening weeks earlier than usual. A wet spring and early summer might have something to do with it, but I don’t recall acorns falling this early.
I am also going to bring up traffic...again. I had the chance to talk with a couple of NH State troopers who live in my town and asked if they’ve seen the much heavier traffic and they both said they have. It now starts early Friday afternoon and has since mid-June. Even this Friday saw very heavy bumper-to-bumper traffic on the main highways starting around noon. It’s insane.
==+++++==
Some criticism has been leveled at Trump after he fired Biden-appointed Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Erika McEntarfer after allegations she purposely provided a July jobs report that had been altered to show less new jobs than were actually created.
There might be something to this as during the Biden administration reports of the number of jobs created was over 1.5 million jobs too high. A million and a half jobs supposedly created during the Biden years never existed.
Regardless of the allegations that [McEntarfer] deliberately tried to weaken the latest jobs report to make Trump look bad, anyone who’s been paying attention to the jobs numbers over the past few years understands that numbers were reported high, then quietly revised downward. Something shady has been going on at the BLS. That’s what economist Steve Moore is trying to emphasize.One thing I learned from the Biden administration was to wait for the revised BLS jobs numbers a couple of months later as they reflected the reality. Not that most of the media paid much attention to the revised numbers as it wouldn’t reflect well on Biden’s policies.
The Biden administration grossly overestimated job gains, and whereas real wages consistently went down under Biden, the opposite trend is emerging under Trump, based on the data Moore shared.
It is also worth keeping in mind that, as of the start of 2024, the touted “job gains” were going to migrants, including illegal aliens, while U.S.-born men were facing disturbingly high unemployment. While big companies, hotels, and farming conglomerates hired illegal aliens at lower wages, Americans couldn’t find any of the jobs McEntarfer and Biden boasted about.
As with the Biden era jobs reports I will wait for the revised jobs numbers which should be out in another month or two to find out if the dismal July numbers were real or the product of a Democrat/Deep State wishful thinking.
==+++++==
First I thought it was just me, being a “old faht”, looking back to the nostalgic pre-Internet days with fondness. I have seen how, as wonderful as the Internet can be, it has also been problem, particularly when dealing with social issues. Surprisingly it appears a lot of Gen Z are romanticizing a pre-Internet era they never knew, seeing the same thing I and the rest of us Boomers and Gen X have noticed.
What exactly do we think we’re missing? Personally, I assume that before the social Internet people behaved in more authentic and idiosyncratic ways. Social media has sped up trend cycles, resulting in an eerie uniformity across styles and personalities: we buy the same products, wear the same clothes, act in the same way, reference the same memes—even quirkiness itself or more “unique” behavior can be ascribed to trends.One of the downsides to today’s 24/7 mass connectivity is what is called FOMO – the Fear Of Missing Out – which has people clinging to their smart phones and using them with the tenacity of a junkie looking for their next fix. If they don’t have their phone within arm’s reach they start getting antsy. If they misplace it or forget it some will melt down and act almost like they’re going through a drug withdrawal cold turkey. Maybe that analogy is appropriate because some folks have become so addicted to what it presented on the screens of their phones even though most of what they think is important isn’t even real.
I also imagine that if we weren’t on display all the time, our friendships and interactions could be less commodified. Now, spending time with friends is material to be documented and then demonstrated to a faceless audience.
--snip--
But it may be that these “negative” aspects are what young people yearning for disconnectivity actually want—we have a sense that there was a value, now largely lost, in the practical effort required for social interaction, for finding good music, or joining a subculture. Life now in comparison seems streamlined, efficient, more yassified, in a phenomenon that writer Michael Harris calls a “loss of lack”.
I will admit to a small bit of FOMO, but only because I am taking care of the WP Mom who is in her 90’s and I don’t want to be out of touch for too long in case she needs help. But I don’t spend hours and hours on my phone perusing social media. In fact, one of the apps on my phone tells me how much time I spend using my phone on a daily and weekly basis. I average 37 minutes of usage per day. That’s split between calls, texts, and Solitaire. (I have to admit that between 10 and 20 minutes a day is taken up by Solitaire.)
I remember when phones were mounted on the wall and had a long cord between the phone and the handset. I remember when dialing someone’s phone number meant actually using a dial to enter the phone number. (This was pre-Touch Tone phones.) I remember having a party line when we lived in Maine when I was a kid.
I remember when TVs were only black-and-white. Color TVs didn’t become more common until the 1960’s. TV shows quite often included the tag line “In living color!” Rabbit ear antennas were the most common. Outdoor antennas were used in the outer edge of a TV station’s coverage area. You were really lucky if you had an antenna rotor so you could pick up more than a couple of TV channels. TV stations signed off the air around midnight, usually playing the national anthem, then showing a test pattern, and eventually going off the air for a few hours.
If you wanted to send someone a letter there was no e-mail. You had to use paper and pen or pencil and write them out, fold them and put them in an envelope, address the envelope and put a stamp on it, then put it in the mailbox and raise the little red flag that let the mailman know there was an outgoing letter.
Were the old times better? Who knows? Some things were definitely simpler. I can understand why Gen Z has been looking back to those days. For lack of a better term I think of it as “Future Burnout”.
==+++++==
From the Land of Oz comes this tidbit:
Great Barrier Reef in great health, but climate change is killing science institutions.
Despite record high emissions of carbon dioxide, and hottest ever temperatures, the Great Barrier Reef was again enjoying one of its best years yet. In the 40 years that AIMS has been studying it, the last four years are great results.The above isn’t saying the reef isn’t being affected by climate, but that it isn’t being affected to the extent all the ‘experts’ said it would. It isn’t just the reefs where we’re seeing predictions made by the experts falling to the wayside as Mother Nature has refused to cooperate. It’s being seen across the globe. Antarctica has thumbed its nose at the ‘experts’ predictions of declining ice thickness and shrinking ice sheets. Desertification hasn’t occurred. Instead the Earth has been getting greener as carbon dioxide levels have increased.
Judging by the data, corals are coping fine with today’s heat and CO2. But the more money we spend finding a climate crisis, the worse our science institutions get. One-sided money and monopoly science can turn any institute into a tax-grabbing-machine, that serves the Blob, not the people. Thus is it so.
Whatever are all the science institutions receiving millions and billions of dollars of funding going to do when the funding starts being rolled back because they haven’t been able to produce relatively successful climate predictions and/or climate models? Will they end up being the victims of climate change?
==+++++==
Yes, Sydney Sweeney has great jeans. But Mike Rowe does, too.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve undoubtedly seen the liberal meltdown taking place over actress Sydney Sweeney’s ad for American Eagle. Innocent play on words or outright Nazi propaganda? If you’re overweight, over-tatted, and have an unnatural hair color, you’re probably screaming the latter.All is not as it seems.
Don’t get me wrong, the ad is annoying. While I could do without the vocal fry, the commercial is otherwise good marketing; it features Sweeney, who is recognizable and gorgeous, and utilizes a fun play on words to sell jeans. It’s really that simple.
…Or is it?
Mike Rowe seems to think something more sinister is going on at American Eagle and he took to social media to discuss the blatant propaganda. The shocking part? Rowe revealed he is also a denim-wearing Nazi. Oh, heil naw.
Jean TherapyGood jeans indeed.
Long before the Nazis at American Eagle began promoting The Master Race in a series of commercials celebrating “good genes,” (with a little help from a hot model wearing some “good jeans,”) I was doing the same thing for another famous denim provider hoping to capture the attention of millions of white people. I refer, of course, to the bigots over at Lee Jeans, who asked me to help them raise some money for The American Cancer Society.
Specifically, as the official “Celebrity Ambassador of Denim Day 2011” I was asked to announce a very promising breakthrough in “gene” therapy, and then, urge Americans to forego the purchase of another pair of “jeans” they probably didn’t need, and instead, donate the cost of those jeans to The American Cancer Society. I said sure, but only if I could do so in a way that would please Adolf Hitler.
“No problem!” they said. “Go for it!”
So I called my mother, an avowed white supremacist and breast cancer survivor who taught me all I know about eugenics. We filmed the PSA later that week, and the bigots at Lee Jeans put it on the air fourteen years ago. In it, you’ll notice I’m not wearing any pants, and flaunting my genes in a way that would have made The Fuhrer proud. In other words, you’ll see me doing the same thing that MSNBC, The New York Times, and countless scolds across the Internet have accused Sydney Sweeney of doing. Accusations that, it must be noted, have led to an unprecedented level of free publicity that’s turned American Eagle into the latest Wall Street darling.
Perhaps, had the mainstream media been this diligent in 2011, those bigots over at Lee Jeans would have raised enough money to cure breast cancer once and for all.
Maybe next time.
==+++++==
And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the hot and humid weather has returned, the traffic is still heavy, and where Monday is coming back to screw up yet another weekend.
8/09/2025
Texas Redistricting Kerfuffle
I’ve been watching the whole Texas re-districting kerfuffle unfold with both concern and amusement.
While it appears that Texas does have the right to do so whenever it chooses to, at least under its state constitution, the response by Democrat legislators to deny a quorum feels more like what a spoiled child does when they don’t get their way, in this case fleeing the state. That Texas law also addresses this problem by allowing the governor to declare their seats in the Texas Legislature as abandoned, just adds to the drama.
That Democrats don’t like gerrymandering whenever it works against them, but are all for it when it works in their favor, shows they hypocrisy of the system. Not that Republicans are any less hypocritical, but at least they don’t act like the aforementioned spoiled child who throws a tantrum when denied something they want.
There is something to be said for redistricting to be handled by an independent non-partisan group to implement redrawing the lines of Congressional Districts when required. We certainly don’t want it to be handled by the courts because even judges can be partisan and biased as we’ve seen over the past few years.
One of the more clueless responses was that of Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey when she threatened to gerrymander Massachusetts Congressional Districts in favor of Democrats. There’s only one problem with her threat.
There are no Republican Congressional Districts to do away with.
All nine House seats in Massachusetts are in the hands of the Democrats. Unless of course Healey is going to try to carve out a tenth Congressional District which is not within her power to do so. It must also be remembered that Healey fought against the Kinder Morgan natural gas pipeline that would have brought more much needed natural gas into New England from Pennsylvania. The pipeline was canceled. Then a few years later she laments the shortage of natural gas during this past winter, conveniently ignoring the fact that she helped cause that shortage to begin with.
California is getting into the act as well, with Gavin Newsom stating he supports independent redistricting, then with his next breath saying he “wants to pick up 5 seats in Congress” by going around the Independent Redistricting Commission in violation of California’s constitution.
Even Washington, D.C. is getting into the act with President Trump asking for a new census to be performed, this time without counting illegal aliens which can seriously skew the number of Congressional Districts in various states.
If nothing else this whole thing will be interesting to watch as it unfolds.
While it appears that Texas does have the right to do so whenever it chooses to, at least under its state constitution, the response by Democrat legislators to deny a quorum feels more like what a spoiled child does when they don’t get their way, in this case fleeing the state. That Texas law also addresses this problem by allowing the governor to declare their seats in the Texas Legislature as abandoned, just adds to the drama.
That Democrats don’t like gerrymandering whenever it works against them, but are all for it when it works in their favor, shows they hypocrisy of the system. Not that Republicans are any less hypocritical, but at least they don’t act like the aforementioned spoiled child who throws a tantrum when denied something they want.
There is something to be said for redistricting to be handled by an independent non-partisan group to implement redrawing the lines of Congressional Districts when required. We certainly don’t want it to be handled by the courts because even judges can be partisan and biased as we’ve seen over the past few years.
One of the more clueless responses was that of Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey when she threatened to gerrymander Massachusetts Congressional Districts in favor of Democrats. There’s only one problem with her threat.
There are no Republican Congressional Districts to do away with.
All nine House seats in Massachusetts are in the hands of the Democrats. Unless of course Healey is going to try to carve out a tenth Congressional District which is not within her power to do so. It must also be remembered that Healey fought against the Kinder Morgan natural gas pipeline that would have brought more much needed natural gas into New England from Pennsylvania. The pipeline was canceled. Then a few years later she laments the shortage of natural gas during this past winter, conveniently ignoring the fact that she helped cause that shortage to begin with.
California is getting into the act as well, with Gavin Newsom stating he supports independent redistricting, then with his next breath saying he “wants to pick up 5 seats in Congress” by going around the Independent Redistricting Commission in violation of California’s constitution.
Even Washington, D.C. is getting into the act with President Trump asking for a new census to be performed, this time without counting illegal aliens which can seriously skew the number of Congressional Districts in various states.
If nothing else this whole thing will be interesting to watch as it unfolds.
8/08/2025
Friday Funny - Black Face Is Wrong
Just a warning: If you are offended by everything or feel you need to be offended on the behalf of people who aren't offended who you think should be offended, then the following is not for you.
8/07/2025
8/03/2025
Thoughts On A Sunday
We’ve managed to escape the hot and humid weather we’ve been experiencing, with temps in the mid 70’s yesterday and upper 70’s/low 80’s today. About the only thing we’ve really had to deal with is the haze caused by smoke from Canadian wildfires coming out of the northwest. I’ve seen the reddish haze but I haven’t felt any of the effects that some folks with asthma or emphysema or other respiratory problems might. All in all it’s been a low key weekend so far and I’ve been able to get some things squared away around The Gulch, particularly in the attics as the temperatures inside them haven’t been eleventy-eleven degrees.
I am hoping to get out onto the lake late today after the weekend folk have departed. The observations about traffic that I made in yesterday’s post also applies to the lake, so when the weekenders are gone so is much of the boat activity on the lake.
I have to add to yesterday’s post about traffic. I asked some friends and family members and dropped the question about traffic on one of the Facebook groups I frequent and without fail, every single response I got –26 39 102 153 in total - confirmed what I noticed. It wasn’t just in New Hampshire that people have noticed the increased traffic, but in a number of 13 different states.
I have to agree with Sarah Hoyt about this: It’s about friggin’ time.
One of the biggest mistakes made in US history was JFK’s executive order that authorized federal employees to unionize. (Some states had already done so for state employees.) Allowing federal employees to unionize was something that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and labor leader George Meany were against and warned about as they both knew it was inherently corrupt as it meant that the government was “negotiating with itself” when it came unions and that since the money paying for the wages and benefits came from the taxpayers and not the earnings as was done with labor unions in the commercial world.
However, that mistake may soon be corrected.
A federal appeals court lifted a judge’s order which originally prevented President Trump to end union bargaining for federal employees. The appeals court ruling will now allow the President to do so.
In meteorological terms, it’s a blink of the eye.
It seems that a number of Nordic countries are in the midst of an unprecedented heat wave with temperatures in the 30’s (Celsius), breaking records “going back to 1961.”
Umm, that’s 64 years which is nothing in meteorological time.
However, there are accounts of an expedition back in 1927 by a group of women trying to drive to the Arctic Ocean but they weren’t able to make it because “hot weather, melting permafrost and forest fires forced them to abandon their expedition.”
Like I said, a blink of the eye.
Another thing that has definitely been a scam being funded by taxpayer dollars is offshore wind farms. They are expensive to build, expensive to maintain, require much more maintenance than land-based wind, and don’t have anywhere near the service life of land-based wind. Not that land-based wind farms are much better as they have failed to deliver the benefits promised by the climate cultists. It’s not cheap. It’s not reliable. And it’s not dispatchable.
Now it appears the Trump Administration is going to “restore sanity” when it comes to the off-shore wind farm scam.
Wind sounds nice, but the reality doesn’t come close to matching the promises made by its proponents. If it did, then taxpayer subsidies would be unnecessary and the costs per kilowatt-hour would be lower than the more traditional power generation sources.
And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the road traffic is high, so is the boat traffic, and where Monday has returned yet again to “harsh our mellow”.
I am hoping to get out onto the lake late today after the weekend folk have departed. The observations about traffic that I made in yesterday’s post also applies to the lake, so when the weekenders are gone so is much of the boat activity on the lake.
==+++++==
I have to add to yesterday’s post about traffic. I asked some friends and family members and dropped the question about traffic on one of the Facebook groups I frequent and without fail, every single response I got –
==+++++==
I have to agree with Sarah Hoyt about this: It’s about friggin’ time.
One of the biggest mistakes made in US history was JFK’s executive order that authorized federal employees to unionize. (Some states had already done so for state employees.) Allowing federal employees to unionize was something that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and labor leader George Meany were against and warned about as they both knew it was inherently corrupt as it meant that the government was “negotiating with itself” when it came unions and that since the money paying for the wages and benefits came from the taxpayers and not the earnings as was done with labor unions in the commercial world.
However, that mistake may soon be corrected.
A federal appeals court lifted a judge’s order which originally prevented President Trump to end union bargaining for federal employees. The appeals court ruling will now allow the President to do so.
U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco in June had issued the injunction blocking 21 agencies from implementing Trump's March executive order exempting many federal agencies from obligations to bargain with unions.This has been long overdue as it has been proven over the past sixty-plus years that FDR and Meany were right. The ‘negotiation’ process has been corrupt since day one.
Donato concluded Trump's order retaliated against unions deemed critical of the president and that had sued over his efforts to overhaul the government, including the mass firings of agency employees, violating their right to free speech under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.
But the 9th Circuit panel said Trump's order on its face "does not express any retaliatory animus," and it agreed with the Trump administration that the president "would have taken the same action even in the absence of the protected conduct."
The 9th Circuit panel included U.S. Circuit Judge John Owens, an Obama appointee, and U.S. Circuit Judges Bridget Bade and Daniel Bress, two Trump appointees. Another federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., had in May paused a similar order that had also blocked Trump's order.
==+++++==
In meteorological terms, it’s a blink of the eye.
It seems that a number of Nordic countries are in the midst of an unprecedented heat wave with temperatures in the 30’s (Celsius), breaking records “going back to 1961.”
Umm, that’s 64 years which is nothing in meteorological time.
However, there are accounts of an expedition back in 1927 by a group of women trying to drive to the Arctic Ocean but they weren’t able to make it because “hot weather, melting permafrost and forest fires forced them to abandon their expedition.”
...the motor party journeyed to 270 miles north of the Arctic Circle, prepared for freezing weather. To their continued astonishment the temperature was never less than 90 degrees F (32ºC) in the shade.As best I’ve been able to determine most weather records go back maybe 200+ years, and then only in certain parts of the world. The British Royal Navy has records from the logbooks of their ships going back maybe 400 years, and again they don’t cover everywhere. So when someone says some weather conditions are “record breaking”, be aware those records only go back maybe 200 years, if that.
The intention was to reach the Arctic Ocean, but 40 miles of marsh country on the coast prevented this. An average of 210 miles a day was made on the journey, which was arduous in the extreme, and at one time the car had an actual race with death among the forest fires in Sweden over terrible roads.
Like I said, a blink of the eye.
==+++++==
Another thing that has definitely been a scam being funded by taxpayer dollars is offshore wind farms. They are expensive to build, expensive to maintain, require much more maintenance than land-based wind, and don’t have anywhere near the service life of land-based wind. Not that land-based wind farms are much better as they have failed to deliver the benefits promised by the climate cultists. It’s not cheap. It’s not reliable. And it’s not dispatchable.
Now it appears the Trump Administration is going to “restore sanity” when it comes to the off-shore wind farm scam.
The Trump administration’s move to rescind all designated Offshore Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) in the United States is being characterized as a “major policy reversal,” but what it truly represents is a refreshing application of rationality in a field too long dominated by dogma, groupthink, and the wishful economics of green technocracy.Supporters keep playing up the “Energy is free” side of wind, choosing to downplay if not ignore the great costs involved with ‘collecting’ that free energy. The costs and subsidies for offshore wind farms are even greater than for those land-based wind farms and the cost per kilowatt-hour is quite high compared with ‘traditional’ power sources. Proponents push the low carbon footprint of wind, but choose to ignore the carbon output of the entire manufacturing, construction, maintenance, and operation chain and finding it isn’t nearly as green as is claimed. And then there’s the power factor which is defined as actual power produced versus the plate capacity of the wind turbines/wind farm which is somewhere around 30%. Coal, natural gas, and nuclear are much higher with nuclear being somewhere above 90%.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced the decision to rescind every single federally designated wind energy area on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, which brings to an end the federal protection of more than 3.5 million acres previously targeted for “offshore wind development.” The scale of the reversal cannot be overstated: this is not a minor adjustment or a routine regulatory tweak. This is, in the words of the article, the effective “end” of offshore wind leasing in the United States—at least for the time being.
To understand the gravity and necessity of this move, let’s remind ourselves how we got here. The Obama and Biden administrations, along with their European counterparts, threw unprecedented support behind offshore wind, an industry that—despite the tidal wave of public subsidies—has shown a knack for floundering economically and technologically whenever taxpayer money is not propping it up. In fact, the very need for designated wind energy areas is itself an admission that offshore wind cannot compete on a level playing field; it requires the full faith, credit, and political muscle of government to exist.
Wind sounds nice, but the reality doesn’t come close to matching the promises made by its proponents. If it did, then taxpayer subsidies would be unnecessary and the costs per kilowatt-hour would be lower than the more traditional power generation sources.
==+++++==
And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the road traffic is high, so is the boat traffic, and where Monday has returned yet again to “harsh our mellow”.
8/02/2025
Traffic, Lots And Lots Of Traffic
I decided to forego any politics today as it’s been a great day and I have no wish to “harsh my mellow” (or anyone else’s) for the most part. That doesn’t mean I won’t complain, bitch, and moan about one subject or another as goodness knows there are plenty of topics to choose from.
Today’s target...er...topic is traffic.
No, I am not talking about the traffic coming to Weekend Pundit. It seems to be fine, though it comes nowhere near matching Instapundit. (Frankly, I wouldn’t want it to because at that point posting becomes a job rather than something I like to do.)
I am, of course, talking about the traffic we see on the roads, streets, and highways. At first I thought it was just me, but it seems to be a lot heavier this summer than any other I recall, and not just here in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. We all expect traffic to be heavier on the weekends, usually starting sometime Friday afternoon and dropping of starting Sunday afternoon.
But the levels I’ve been seeing over the past couple of months have gone beyond what I remember from pre-Covid days.
The older of the WP Sisters and her boyfriend came up from their home just outside Worcester yesterday (Friday), departing at noon for the approximately 90 minute trip up here to The Gulch. It took them over 4 hours to get here. From the time they got on I-495 to the time they got off of I-93 in Concord, NH it was bumper to bumper. No accidents, no construction, and no traffic enforcement seen seen along the entire trip, yet traffic was moving slowly. It can see if this had been a holiday weekend as folks would get an early start, but this wasn’t one of those. There weren’t any really big events taking place like a NASCAR race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. It was just a typical summer weekend.
I noticed heavier than usual traffic this morning as I made my way to our local Walmart at 7:30 to take care of my share of the weekly grocery shopping. The trip between The Gulch and Walmart takes less than 10 minutes if I hit the three sets of traffic lights between here and there just right. It took me almost 20 minutes. Ironically the parking lot at Walmart didn’t have nearly as many vehicles I expected to see early on a Saturday morning and I was able to get in and out in less than 20 minutes. In that 20 minutes the traffic had become heavier, but it still took me about 20 minutes to make it back to The Gulch.
A couple of hours later my sister’s boyfriend and I made a dump run and found the traffic was even heavier and slower. We dropped off the recyclables and trash and looked through the pile of old street signs that were collecting outside the rear of the recycling building, and then headed home. I took a different route back to The Gulch which cut a couple of minutes off our return trip.
Not too long after lunch my sister and her beau headed home, the return trip taking a little longer than the usual 90 minutes, but they hadn’t hit heavy traffic on their southbound trip. However, they did see that northbound traffic was bumper to bumper just as it had been on their trip up. It looks like a lot of people were leaving Massachusetts and heading to New Hampshire and Vermont. (One route into Vermont from the greater Boston area takes folks through New Hampshire to I-89 which goes into Vermont.)
The heavy traffic may also explain the higher than average number of traffic accidents and fatalities we’ve been experiencing.
I have noticed that traffic even during the week seems to be heavier than normal though I haven’t checked with friends at the NH Department of Transportation to find out what the traffic volumes have been over the past few weeks.
In the mean time I will stick to the back roads and byways as much as possible to get where I need to go without having to deal with the heavy traffic on the main roads and highways.
Today’s target...er...topic is traffic.
No, I am not talking about the traffic coming to Weekend Pundit. It seems to be fine, though it comes nowhere near matching Instapundit. (Frankly, I wouldn’t want it to because at that point posting becomes a job rather than something I like to do.)
I am, of course, talking about the traffic we see on the roads, streets, and highways. At first I thought it was just me, but it seems to be a lot heavier this summer than any other I recall, and not just here in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. We all expect traffic to be heavier on the weekends, usually starting sometime Friday afternoon and dropping of starting Sunday afternoon.
But the levels I’ve been seeing over the past couple of months have gone beyond what I remember from pre-Covid days.
The older of the WP Sisters and her boyfriend came up from their home just outside Worcester yesterday (Friday), departing at noon for the approximately 90 minute trip up here to The Gulch. It took them over 4 hours to get here. From the time they got on I-495 to the time they got off of I-93 in Concord, NH it was bumper to bumper. No accidents, no construction, and no traffic enforcement seen seen along the entire trip, yet traffic was moving slowly. It can see if this had been a holiday weekend as folks would get an early start, but this wasn’t one of those. There weren’t any really big events taking place like a NASCAR race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. It was just a typical summer weekend.
I noticed heavier than usual traffic this morning as I made my way to our local Walmart at 7:30 to take care of my share of the weekly grocery shopping. The trip between The Gulch and Walmart takes less than 10 minutes if I hit the three sets of traffic lights between here and there just right. It took me almost 20 minutes. Ironically the parking lot at Walmart didn’t have nearly as many vehicles I expected to see early on a Saturday morning and I was able to get in and out in less than 20 minutes. In that 20 minutes the traffic had become heavier, but it still took me about 20 minutes to make it back to The Gulch.
A couple of hours later my sister’s boyfriend and I made a dump run and found the traffic was even heavier and slower. We dropped off the recyclables and trash and looked through the pile of old street signs that were collecting outside the rear of the recycling building, and then headed home. I took a different route back to The Gulch which cut a couple of minutes off our return trip.
Not too long after lunch my sister and her beau headed home, the return trip taking a little longer than the usual 90 minutes, but they hadn’t hit heavy traffic on their southbound trip. However, they did see that northbound traffic was bumper to bumper just as it had been on their trip up. It looks like a lot of people were leaving Massachusetts and heading to New Hampshire and Vermont. (One route into Vermont from the greater Boston area takes folks through New Hampshire to I-89 which goes into Vermont.)
The heavy traffic may also explain the higher than average number of traffic accidents and fatalities we’ve been experiencing.
I have noticed that traffic even during the week seems to be heavier than normal though I haven’t checked with friends at the NH Department of Transportation to find out what the traffic volumes have been over the past few weeks.
In the mean time I will stick to the back roads and byways as much as possible to get where I need to go without having to deal with the heavy traffic on the main roads and highways.
8/01/2025
7/31/2025
7/27/2025
Thoughts On A Sunday
It’s yet another 50:50 weekend here at the lake, with a sunny Saturday and (sorta) rainy Sunday. Not that’s it’s pouring out, but it’s light which means there’s just enough to let you know it’s raining. The good weather yesterday made sure our town could hold its annual Island Clean Up day. There are 19 islands in our town that are located on Lake Winnipesaukee, most of which have seasonal houses or camps on them. The clean up allows island residents to haul their junk to the town docks for disposal by the town DPW.
I have participated in Island Clean Up Day for a number of years now and every year there are surprising items the island residents bring to the town docks. Some of the most common items are old gas or charcoal grills or mattresses and box springs or old outdoor furniture like Adirondack chairs or windows and sliders. But we’ve also seen 300 gallon water tanks, washing machine agitators and drums, pedal boats, old solar panels, and in one case what I can only call a ‘Treasure Chest’ that looked just like the ones you always see in the movies. (No, there was no treasure in the treasure chest. We looked!)
One of the strangest things we ever saw over the years was a pontoon boat piled high with a couple of dozen mattresses and box springs. It looked just like a marine version of a Borg cube. They guy at the helm would poke his head out to the side of the boat in order to see where he was going. We still have no idea how he managed to dock his boat without running into the dock itself.
All in all it was a good day and we managed to fill all of the large dumpsters that were brought onsite to deal with the junk. There were also two dump trucks used to haul all the metal items that were brought to the docks to our dump...er…Solid Waste Center.
This is a good step – moving departments and agencies of the Feddle Gummint closer to the people they’re supposed to be dealing with.
I remember during Trump’s first term when he moved much of the Bureau of Land Management out to Grand Junction, Colorado so they were closer the land they were managing. Of course the Biden Administration moved those bureaucrats back to Washington DC.
Now Trump is back at it, this time moving “most of the Washington, D.C. employees” of the Department of Agriculture “out of the capital and closer to the farmers, ranchers, and producers.”
Being sequestered away from the people they serve, the people they regulate is never a good idea.
Commenters to the linked post had good ideas where other government departments and agencies should be moved.
I’m hoping the Bureau of Land Management will be moved back to Colorado where it belongs.
This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention over the past few years.
Democrats receive lowest ratings from voters in 35 years.
Considering how far the Democrat Party has shifted to the left which has had the effect of alienating more traditional Democrats and those within traditionally Democrat leaning demographics, what did the DNC expect?
This is a reminder: “Be careful what you wish for...because you might just get it.”
It seems Germany is getting a lesson about its ongoing Islamification, at least when it comes to the law. Int his case, and 18-year old man – a Syrian immigrant – kidnapped and tortured a 13-year old boy for hours, recording the torture.
The perpetrator’s punishment?
Two years of probation.
Oh, and the perp also demanded €1500 from the victim before he would return his cell phone after he was released.
If it had been German citizens that had perpetrated such an attack they would have gotten years in prison for the same offense.
I thought this might happen, but I didn’t think it would happen quite this soon.
Trump Secures Huge Trade Deal With European Union.
Was this because of the so-called Tariff War? It appears so.
Seeing the passing of a number of music icons over the past few months makes me understand why we’re seeing so many tours of music acts and bands from the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s taking place.
I recently saw Cheap Trick and Rod Stewart at out local concert venue. We’ve got Toto, Men at Work, Christopher Cross, The Black Crowes, and Chicago performing here over this coming week. The Doobie Brothers, Neil Young, The Indigo Girls, Melissa Etheridge, Bonnie Raitt, and Blink-182 performing here over the next few weeks.
Could it be a lot of these tours are more along the lines of farewell tours before too many members of the bands get too old or pass away? It seems that way to me, particularly in light of Ozzie Osbourne having performed his last concert only three weeks before he died.
The older WP Sister is coming up this coming Friday to attend the Chicago concert Friday night. I saw them here two summers ago and the one thing I noticed is that most of the audience was older, like me. The same was true at the Rod Stewart concert a couple of weeks ago.
The one upside to these bands and their older audience is that unlike some audiences, these are less likely to cause problems because they aren’t as energetic as younger audiences...and their arthritis makes it more difficult for them to cause problems.
And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we’re heading into another stretch of hot and humid weather, the A/C will be getting more of a workout, and where spending more time in the lake is looking pretty attractive right about now.
I have participated in Island Clean Up Day for a number of years now and every year there are surprising items the island residents bring to the town docks. Some of the most common items are old gas or charcoal grills or mattresses and box springs or old outdoor furniture like Adirondack chairs or windows and sliders. But we’ve also seen 300 gallon water tanks, washing machine agitators and drums, pedal boats, old solar panels, and in one case what I can only call a ‘Treasure Chest’ that looked just like the ones you always see in the movies. (No, there was no treasure in the treasure chest. We looked!)
One of the strangest things we ever saw over the years was a pontoon boat piled high with a couple of dozen mattresses and box springs. It looked just like a marine version of a Borg cube. They guy at the helm would poke his head out to the side of the boat in order to see where he was going. We still have no idea how he managed to dock his boat without running into the dock itself.
All in all it was a good day and we managed to fill all of the large dumpsters that were brought onsite to deal with the junk. There were also two dump trucks used to haul all the metal items that were brought to the docks to our dump...er…Solid Waste Center.
==+++++==
This is a good step – moving departments and agencies of the Feddle Gummint closer to the people they’re supposed to be dealing with.
I remember during Trump’s first term when he moved much of the Bureau of Land Management out to Grand Junction, Colorado so they were closer the land they were managing. Of course the Biden Administration moved those bureaucrats back to Washington DC.
Now Trump is back at it, this time moving “most of the Washington, D.C. employees” of the Department of Agriculture “out of the capital and closer to the farmers, ranchers, and producers.”
Being sequestered away from the people they serve, the people they regulate is never a good idea.
Commenters to the linked post had good ideas where other government departments and agencies should be moved.
I’m hoping the Bureau of Land Management will be moved back to Colorado where it belongs.
==+++++==
This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention over the past few years.
Democrats receive lowest ratings from voters in 35 years.
Considering how far the Democrat Party has shifted to the left which has had the effect of alienating more traditional Democrats and those within traditionally Democrat leaning demographics, what did the DNC expect?
From the WSJ:Considering how the Democrats and the Biden Administration did everything they could to piss of everyone, including their fellow Democrats, the poll results aren’t exactly a surprise. Young men between the ages of 18 and 25 across all ethnic groups have shifted to more conservative viewpoints. Latinos and African Americans, usually more reliable Democrat demographics have shifted away from the party as it no longer appears to represent their wants, needs, and beliefs. The Democrats were once considered “The Party of the Working Man”. These days it looks to be more “The Party of the Woke and Perpetually Offended.” That appeals to a very small fraction of the population despite what the Party elite may believe.
The Democratic Party’s image has eroded to its lowest point in more than three decades, according to a new Wall Street Journal poll, with voters seeing Republicans as better at handling most issues that decide elections.
The new survey finds that 63% of voters hold an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party—the highest share in Journal polls dating to 1990 and 30 percentage points higher than the 33% who hold a favorable view.
--snip--
Democrats have been hoping that a voter backlash against the president will be powerful enough to restore their majority in the House in next year’s midterm elections, much as it did during Trump’s first term. But the Journal poll shows that the party hasn’t yet accomplished a needed first step in that plan: persuading voters they can do a better job than Trump’s party.
==+++++==
This is a reminder: “Be careful what you wish for...because you might just get it.”
It seems Germany is getting a lesson about its ongoing Islamification, at least when it comes to the law. Int his case, and 18-year old man – a Syrian immigrant – kidnapped and tortured a 13-year old boy for hours, recording the torture.
The perpetrator’s punishment?
Two years of probation.
Oh, and the perp also demanded €1500 from the victim before he would return his cell phone after he was released.
If it had been German citizens that had perpetrated such an attack they would have gotten years in prison for the same offense.
==+++++==
I thought this might happen, but I didn’t think it would happen quite this soon.
Trump Secures Huge Trade Deal With European Union.
Was this because of the so-called Tariff War? It appears so.
The numbers speak for themselves. The European Union will purchase a staggering $750 billion in American energy, severing its reliance on Russian resources and undermining Vladimir Putin’s economic leverage. The EU will put another $600 billion in new investment into the U.S. economy, a torrent of capital poised to create jobs, invigorate industries, and cement America’s manufacturing revival. And Trump forced open European markets with a simple, powerful stroke: zero tariffs on trade, with a uniform 15 percent tariff for automobiles and other imports, ending years of lopsided trade that favored the EU.It’s going to be interesting to see what happens to two largest economies in the world now that trade is far more open than it has been in a long time.
--snip--
As for military cooperation, Trump refrained from naming a specific figure but made it clear that EU countries will be spending “hundreds of billions of dollars” on American military equipment—a move certain to bolster the security of Europe while putting American workers back on the assembly lines. It’s a two-pronged victory: strengthening NATO’s deterrent posture while further unleashing American economic might.
--snip--
Importantly, this wasn’t some eleventh-hour scramble. Trump confirmed the deal is the result of months of persistent, behind-the-scenes work, etched in real diplomacy—something his predecessors either neglected or bungled. “I think it's good that we made a deal today instead of playing games and maybe not making a deal at all,” Trump remarked, dismissing the theatrics that so often paralyze international negotiations.
==+++++==
Seeing the passing of a number of music icons over the past few months makes me understand why we’re seeing so many tours of music acts and bands from the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s taking place.
I recently saw Cheap Trick and Rod Stewart at out local concert venue. We’ve got Toto, Men at Work, Christopher Cross, The Black Crowes, and Chicago performing here over this coming week. The Doobie Brothers, Neil Young, The Indigo Girls, Melissa Etheridge, Bonnie Raitt, and Blink-182 performing here over the next few weeks.
Could it be a lot of these tours are more along the lines of farewell tours before too many members of the bands get too old or pass away? It seems that way to me, particularly in light of Ozzie Osbourne having performed his last concert only three weeks before he died.
The older WP Sister is coming up this coming Friday to attend the Chicago concert Friday night. I saw them here two summers ago and the one thing I noticed is that most of the audience was older, like me. The same was true at the Rod Stewart concert a couple of weeks ago.
The one upside to these bands and their older audience is that unlike some audiences, these are less likely to cause problems because they aren’t as energetic as younger audiences...and their arthritis makes it more difficult for them to cause problems.
==+++++==
And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we’re heading into another stretch of hot and humid weather, the A/C will be getting more of a workout, and where spending more time in the lake is looking pretty attractive right about now.
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