2/17/2013

Thoughts On A Sunday

A little bit of winter weather has returned to New Hampshire, with a light snow falling this morning.

The Weather GuysTM are saying we won't get very much here in the Lakes Region, likely less than an inch, but it does mean we'll have to do some cleaning up.

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Farmer Andy has hired a new hand to help out at the farm now that BeezleBub has to devote more time with his school work. (He started his classes last month at the local college and will be taking classes during the winter term over the next 4 years.)

For lack of a better name, I'm bestowing her with the moniker 'Dixie' if for no other reason she appears to be a female version of BeezleBub, only a lot prettier. They share the same taste in music, attire (John Deere shirts, hats, etc.), and she has a pickup of her own.

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The debate about raising the minimum wage continues, with the economically clueless claiming it will raise more people out of poverty while ignoring the fact that it will in fact create more unemployment.

During some previous rises in the minimum wage it had little effect because the economy was good and many business were offering above minimum wage to get the employees they needed. But that isn't the case today and raising the minimum wage will hurt the very people it's supposed to help.

I have no doubt this debate will continue unabated. I also believe there's no way the effort to raise the minimum wage will make it through Congress.

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Harvard economist Greg Mankiw asks the important question about the president's proposed hike of the minimum wage: Why $9? “Why not $10 or $12 or $15 or $20?”

He seems to think they may have just pulled that number out of mid-air as they have offered no justification for that number.

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If we need yet another example of the endless evidence that the MSM is firmly in the pocket of the Democrats, Glenn Reynolds has an apt illustration showing just how bad and blatant the media has become in giving deference to a Democrat lawmaker and his sexual 'peccadillo' versus a Republican lawmaker's need to drink some water.

They aren't even bothering to give lip service to the idea of fair and balanced reporting anymore.

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As if the use of 10% ethanol in gasoline isn't bad enough, now the do-nothing important EPA wants to raise the percentage to 15%, something this is sure to wreak havoc on cars, trucks, boats, and small engines.

E10 gasoline has caused more than enough problems, some of which I have documented here more than once. And now these 'Do-not-confuse-us-with-the-facts' bureaucrats are aiming to make things worse while telling us it's for our own good. Since when do these ideologically brain dead tin pot dictators know what's good for us? Their record over the past 10 years has been less than stellar.

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As the day has passed, the snow I mentioned earlier has stopped, dropping less than an inch, but the winds have picked up and the temperature has fallen. There are lots of small snowdrifts across the roads and the gusts of wind have made it interesting driving down any open stretches of road.

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You know the enviroweenies are losing it when they claim one of their favorite alternative energy sources, solar, is bad for the environment.

There is no winning with these idiots. Then again, they want all of us - except them – to go back to subsistence farming and to shorten our lifespans by 60 years or so. Maybe it's time for us to force them to put up or shut up. If they aren't willing to make the necessary sacrifices and live the way they want the rest of us to live, then we should ignore them because they aren't serious.

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The gun-grabbers in Chicago need to get a grip on reality.

When they lock up a law-abiding citizen for ensuring her legally purchased and owned firearm is removed from her home during renovations but can't seem to stop the murders that take place on average once every 3.6 hours, they have their priorities screwed up.

But then Chicago has long been the bastion of wrong-headedness since the days of Al Capone.

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You know ObamaCare's in trouble when a lefty website concedes that the GOP was right about its major deficiencies and overreaching regulations and costs.

As more is revealed about its major flaws, it can be seen that the Law of Unintended Consequences is making its influence felt to a greater degree with every passing moment.

It's time for Congress to kill this piece-of-crap legislation and go back to the drawing board.

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I have to admit I hadn't thought about this all that much, but after the meteor strike in Chelyabinsk I did wonder why so many Russian cars seem to have dash cams. We certainly see enough Russian dash cam footage on TV shows like World's Dumbest on a regular basis. About the only dash cam footage we see in the US is primarily from police dash cams. But in Russia they're ubiquitous.

The reason?

The sheer size of the country, combined with lax — and often corrupt — law enforcement, and a legal system that rarely favors first-hand accounts of traffic collisions has made dash cams all but a requirement for motorists.

That certainly makes sense.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter has returned, the woodpile is shrinking fast, and where thoughts of sugaring (making maple syrup) have been intruding.