12/23/2007

Thoughts On A Sunday

BeezleBub and I spent a good portion of the day yesterday cleaning up from Thursday's snow storm. There was snow to shovel from the decks, snow banks to cut through in order to reach the front door, snow drifts to remove, and plenty of slush on the driveway to get rid of.

All of this was in preparation of the rain that's forecast for later today and tonight. Removing the snow was necessary to prevent one of two possible problems: the decks collapsing due to the heavy load of water-laden snow, or said water-laden snow freezing and turning into something resembling concrete. Neither is an acceptable outcome, so we spent the day clearing what we could.

As a back up I picked up 100 pounds of calcium chloride (also called Super-Melt) in case the driveway ends up being one big sheet of ice come morning.

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The New England Patriots are 14-0. With such success, the Patriots have become universally reviled by fans of the other NFL teams. It's a burden the Pat's and their fans are willing to bear.

The Patriots are going up against the 1-14 Miami Dolphins today at Foxborough.

UPDATE: The Patriots beat the Dolphins 28-7, moving the Pats to 15-0.

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There are times when school zero-tolerance policies can backfire, punishing victims of violence as well as perpetrators. I can see where there's no evidence showing which party was the aggressor. But when there's video showing clearly perpetrator and victim, punishing the victim is stupid and unfair.

One parent fought back after his daughter was attacked, beaten by another girl. The incident was caught on the school's video surveillance system. The high school suspended both girls, but the father of the victim informed the school he intending to charge the aggressor with assault and battery and sue the high school for failure to protect his daughter while she was in school. The school backed down, dropping his daughter's suspension.

Frankly, I see so-called zero-tolerance policies as nothing more than a crutch of the lazy.

(H/T Instapundit)

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Nuclear power is poised to make a comeback. It seems that the TVA is ahead of the game, with a utility in Texas following not too far behind.

It's about time.

While the article linked above talks about the resurgence of nuclear in the US, it gets some things exactly wrong – nuclear waste. For one thing, the only reason nuclear waste is a problem is politics, not technology. By reprocessing spent fuel, much of the waste is eliminated and what remains consists mainly of short half-life radio-isotopes that require short term storage before they decay into harmlessness.

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Michelle Rhee is shaking up the education bureaucracy and taking on the teacher's union in Washington, DC. In the process she's been turning around the school system and making long overdue changes.

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If global warming is a fact then why haven't temperatures risen since 2001?

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

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John Stossel has Part 2 of his interview with Ron Paul.

I have to say that Mr. Paul is incredibly ignorant when it comes to the motivations of our enemies, particularly the Islamofascists. Our very existence is reason enough for them to plot our destruction for we represent everything they find abhorrent and un-Islamic, or at least in relation to their twisted version of Islam. He makes the assumption that if we leave them alone they'll leave us alone. I can't even begin to list all of reasons why he's wrong.

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I've mentioned before how we've used far more firewood than we had thought we would. At first I thought it was because of miscalculation or faulty memory on my part. However, after a discussion with a number of friends and acquaintances it appears everyone has been using more firewood. heating oil, or propane than they had the past few winters.

It's been far colder this year up to this point and we haven't even reached the coldest part of the winter. The colder temps would certainly explain why we've used as much firewood so far as we did for the entire winter last year. In another couple of weeks we'll be heading back to the WP In-Laws with the deuce-an-a-half for another load of wood.

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Posting will be light for the next day or two, for obvious reasons.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where last minute Christmas shoppers are making the rounds, families are finalizing plans for Christmas Day, and where this part of the Weekend Pundit Team will be making merry for the holiday.

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