7/31/2016

Thoughts On A Sunday

It's been a fifty-fifty weekend here at Lake Winnipesaukee, with one gorgeous day (Saturday) and one cloudy and damp day (Sunday). Not that we're really complaining because we've really needed the rain.

While we aren't officially in drought, we are close. Southern parts of the state have been in drought conditions for some time, with some towns now imposing water use restrictions as a precaution. Even though we are getting some rain, it won't be enough to relieve the drought though ti will put a dent in it.

At least we aren't seeing the type of drought conditions that exist elsewhere in the country.

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This isn't news to me as I've been seeing this for years...and it's been done to us on purpose.

Teacher Duke Pesta has given his juniors and seniors a ten question American history test and found that nine out of ten students believe slavery didn't exist anywhere else in the word prior to the existence of the United States.

So they've been taught that we, America, created slavery. They are ignorant that it has existed practically since man existed. They have been taught something that is entirely untrue, easily proven to be untrue, yet they believe it. So that begs the question, how much of the rest of American history have they been lied to about? How can they form proper opinions when what they've been fed to them is a tissue of lies?

The answer: they can't. And that's the way the Left wants it because it means they can be more easily controlled and manipulated because they are ignorant of what's really happened.

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Oh,no! Say it ain't so! Snopes.com has been caught lying about a report from the Daily Caller which stated there was a lack of visible American flags inside the DNC convention on the first day.

Snopes claimed “an image from the second day of the convention was actually from the first day in an attempt to debunk a factual story from The Daily Caller.”

The problem is that the DC report was made during the first day of the convention.

Several flags were briefly on stage for the national anthem and pledge of allegiance, at which point they were carried off stage, as the C-SPAN video for Monday clearly shows at the 35:40 mark. Even PolitiFact, which tends to lean to the left, noted that “when the color guard left, so did the physical flag.” After that point, the stage was devoid of any American flags for the remainder of day one.

So which is it? Is the C-Span footage wrong (unlikely) or did Snopes lie (likely)?

I used to be able to take Snopes at their word, but that's been changing over the past few years as I noticed more discrepancies between what was seen and what Snopes reported, even after inaccuracies were pointed out to the Snopes folks. Now they've been caught is a lie and any last shreds of credibility they've had is now gone.

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When any SJWs make the accusation about America's 'cultural appropriation', a good counter to that accusation might be to ask them about these foods which might appear to have been 'stolen' from another culture, but are a purely American creation.

On the other hand, America is based upon cultural appropriation, something that has helped make America great. Too many of the SJWs offended by cultural appropriation also tend to be racist as they want to make America a balkanized nation with no interaction between the various groups. One of America's greatest strengths has been the melding of these various ethnicities and cultures together to create something greater than the whole.

But then again SJWs don't believe in that, and they never have.

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How many times during the DNC convention did we hear the refrain about closing the gender wage gap?

The idea that women are paid on average 81¢ for every dollar a man makes sounds like a no-brainer. It also plays well in the press and in political speeches. It's also absolutely true.

But, and this is a big 'but', that 81 cent figure is based upon the average of women's pay versus men's pay and not the per job pay, meaning if a man and a woman have the same job it's likely they have equal pay. (This obviously doesn't take into account things like time in position, education, hours worked, and effort.)

So why the apparent disparity? Because it plays better to the press.

The Labor Department classifies “full-time” work as any workweek of more than 35 hours; but men typically work more hours than women. Among full-time workers, men work 43 hours per week, on average, and women, 41 hours per week. Women who work exactly 40 hours per week earn 89 percent of what their respective male peers earn. (When unmarried, childless workers under 30 are compared, a “reverse wage gap” appears, with women earning $1.08 for every dollar earned by comparable men.)

The causes of the remaining 11 percent wage gap are numerous. Take men’s and women’s field of study in college. Men outnumber women in nine of the ten highest-paying majors, while women outnumber men in nine of the ten lowest-paying majors. According to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, women make up a statistically insignificant share of petroleum-engineering majors and only 7 percent of electrical-engineering majors—degrees that open the door to lucrative professions. On the other hand, women account for 59 percent of studio-art majors, 56 percent of drama majors, and 88 percent of elementary-education majors—degrees that lead to relatively low-paying careers.

Men also take more dangerous jobs, such jobs usually paying more than the average wage. Some of those jobs include oil rig roustabouts, high steel workers, electrical linemen, construction workers, and commercial fishermen, just to name a few. While women aren't banned from such jobs, few actually take them. That certainly skews the averages quite a bit. There are also a number of other factors that skew the results that many do not take into account.

So the next time someone throws the “Women make less pay then men for the same jobs” line, hit back with the facts and show 'em they're full of it.

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I'd say the chance was 100%.

David Starr figures the hacked DNC computers were running Windows.

As I commented to David's post, it takes a really good IT team and constant vigilance to keep Windows networks and machines secure, and even then they're vulnerable. If you don't have a good IT team, then you're screwed.

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Tom Bowler points to some uncomfortable truths about America's growing entitlement rolls and the coming collapse.

It isn't hyperbole, but straightforward math that shows our entitlement spending isn't sustainable because we have an increasing number of people collecting entitlement payments with a decreasing number of working people contributing to the system. We've seen this problem in other countries and without making some long overdue changes, we'll suffer the same fate – the entitlement system will fail and likely take the economy with it.

Because the main street economy is failing, the nation’s entitlement rolls have exploded. About 110 million citizens now receive some form of means tested benefits. When social security is included, more than 160 million citizens get checks from Washington.

The total cost is now $3 trillion per year and rising rapidly. America’s entitlements sector, in fact, is the sixth biggest economy in the world.

We must remember, that which cannot continue, won't. Our entitlement spending can't continue on this path and at some point in the very near future, it won't.

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They are only two days into their campaign and the Clinton-Kaine ticket has already canceled an appearance. In this case, their Cleveland appearance has been canceled after a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania had only a few dozen supporters show up. The speculation is that the Cleveland stop was shelved “due to a lack of interest.” Others are saying it could be due to an undisclosed health condition.

Either way, it is not an auspicious start to their campaign.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where July has passed, August will start, and where summer is passing all too quickly.