3/11/2012

Thoughts On A Sunday

Once again winter has tried to reassert itself, dumping around 4 inches of snow here at The Manse early yesterday morning and greater and lesser amounts around the Lakes Region.

BeezleBub fired up the Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower and cleared the driveway so the sun could melt off the remaining snow. By mid-afternoon the snow on the driveway and the roads was gone.

Spring will return this coming week with temps expected to be in the mid 50's and low 60's.

************

Adjusting to better vision is still taking some time. One of the first things I noticed when I started driving again was that my depth perception is off a bit.

Another thing: I thought I was doing a decent job cleaning the house, but now that I have close to normal vision I can see a number of areas where I was less than effective.

Yet another thing: Standard analog TV looks so much better and sharper. I wonder what HD TV will look like?

And one last thing: Now that can see better I've noticed that I've aged far more than I thought I had.

Damn.

************

Something I've been kicking around for some time is the idea of a semi-regular political cartoon or comic strip. I've had a lot of ideas or thoughts that would have been better presented visually rather than with lots of words. I have already approached an artistically inclined friend of mine (heretofore referred to as GG) with the idea and GG was quite receptive.

We still have some details to work out but I hope to get the ball rolling by the end of April.

************

How messed up is this?

First, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) sponsors the “Healthy Food In Schools Act” which promotes the availability of more fruits and vegetables in our schools, then works to kill a bill that would make it likely those fruits and vegetables will come from her home state? Without the bill those healthy foods will likely come from outside the US.

After large cuts in the water supply to farmers in California's Central Valley, most farms have had to cut back on their farming activities, if not shut them down completely. The proposed House Bill (HR 1837) would restore the water supply to the San Joaquin Valley, voiding the arbitrary decisions by state regulators caving in to radical environmental groups.

California used to have the most productive farms on the planet. But since the water cuts, the US went from being a net vegetable exporter to a net vegetable importer. In the process the prices of vegetables have skyrocketed, adding even more strain to family budgets.

I have an idea about how to address this issue: Cut off all food to the radical environmental lobbyists behind this debacle and let them go raise their own food....in the Mojave Desert. After a year most of them will have either starved to death or died of thirst, leaving the rest of us to get on with our lives and our farmers to once again become the most productive in the world.

************

By the way, you did remember to set your clocks ahead one hour (in the US), right? Daylight savings time kicked in today, meaning that many of us woke up at our 'usual' time only to find we were an hour late for church, etc.

Penn Gillette sounds off about Daylight Savings Time, saying it's an idea whose time has passed and that it's really not necessary any more. He also explains that it's a government conspiracy and yet another example of overreach.


It wouldn't bother me if we did away with DST altogether..or instead did away with Standard Time and stayed on DST year round, just so we wouldn't have to be bothered with changing our clocks and getting our schedules all confused twice a year.

(H/T Maggie's Farm and Moonbattery)

************

Is the Chinese economy sliding into recession? If one looks at declining electricity consumption and aggregate financing, as well as increasing unemployment, then the answer has to be yes.

It doesn't help that hundreds of billions of government money went into building cities and buildings that are still empty and aren't likely to be occupied any time soon, adding to the financial crush and impending implosion. When it comes will China be able to handle it as they've never had to deal with the end of a business cycle before? I have my doubts.

Welcome to the party, China.

************

Bogie picks up Stu's Old Vinyl Albums meme and is running with it. Bogie's two choices: Fleetwood Mac's Rumors and Boston's first album.

I have to agree with Bogie's choices on this one. Both albums were hits as were most of the songs on them. In the case of Boston's first album I could walk around campus and hear it being played in most dorm rooms along with ELO's New World Record. The campus radio station also played those two albums constantly, along with Yes and Jethro Tull.

I think I'm going to have to do likewise. I have a lot of old vinyl albums dating back to the late 60's and early 70's. Most are pristine as the only time they were played was to record them on tape or cassette. (I was one of those music geeks that would play the albums constantly and recording them and using the tapes kept them from being damaged.

************

Is HBO seeing a falloff in subscribers because of Bill Maher's misogynistic slurs? If so, I hope those canceling have been explaining why they're doing so. I think that if enough people start doing this Maher's days on HBO are numbered. Ann Althouse also adds her 2¢ worth, giving Maher a well deserved fisking.

************

Bring up the subject of Bill Maher's ire, HBO's hit piece on Palin shows the left is still terrified of her. This is yet another reason to cancel your subscription to HBO. It seems a lot of people are doing just that according to a number of e-mails received by Glenn Reynolds on the subject.

You know HBO is going to start noticing when even the customer service reps are commenting upon the cancellations.

Another thing to consider to hit 'em harder: cancel Cinemax as well as it's owned by HBO.

************

And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where spring weather has returned, the ice is melting on the lake, and where many of us are considering getting the snowblowers ready for summer storage.