Thoughts On A Sunday

We experienced the remnants of Hurricane Ian yesterday: It was cloudy until around noon and then the sun came out.

Somehow we survived it.

Ironically it’s been quite windy all day today with temps in the 50’s, but not due to Ian. We can thank Canada for today’s fall weather.

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One thing that happened Friday was the Official Weekend Pundit Computer went down. It froze and accepted no input. A reboot didn’t help.

Looking at my records I realized I’ve been using that computer – an HP – for 10 years. I have dug deeper into the problem with the help of my dear brother. What’s ironic is that I had planned to restage the computer with a new hard drive loaded with one of the Arch Linux distributions – probably Garuda Linux – a little later this year. It is fortunate I had made backups of all the data on the computer, missing only a few of the more recent files. I don’t think it will be an issue to recover those last few files since the crash of the Official Weekend Pundit Computer was not due to a hard disk failure.

It looks like I will have to come up with a new computer if I cannot correct the hardware error that caused the crash.

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When I first saw this I thought it might have come from the Babylon Bee since there’s no way it could be true.

It turns out that it’s true...and does not bode well for our nation: The Democrats are pushing an American apartheid.

In this case Kamala Harris announced that federal aid for Hurricane Ian will be distributed based on skin color.

The Biden administration will focus on “giving resources based on equity” by directing funds to “communities of color”. pic.twitter.com/uixPpyQWdU

Yeah, that will help generate more racial harmony...and help cement a GOP victory in November.

They just can’t help themselves, can they?

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I can agree with this wholeheartedly.

Only the Western Woke think the world loves them for their virtue. The rest know that the world really loves them for fried chicken, video games and consumer goods. What used to be called whiskey, democracy, sexy.

The only thing virtue signaling does for these mentally ill woke a**holes is make themselves feel better. No one else gives a sh*t and they cannot be made to do so. It’s time to heap as much derision and abuse upon the woke as we can as it may be the only way to make the woke realize that they’re ill.

Everyone is sick to death of the self-righteous woke. It’s as Tom Knighton stated, “Only the woke don’t know they’re over.”

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It looks like Dish Network is going through the periodic pain of negotiating with a content provider asking for a large fee increase, the content provider in this case being Disney. Because they can’t reach an agreement, Dish has been forced to remove all Disney network programming which includes channels like ESPN, Disney Channel, Freeform, and ABC.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this happen to Dish or our local cable TV provider. I’ve also seen it happen to DirectTV. Of course when the satellite or cable operator caves and agrees to pay the higher subscriber fees, the customers see their satellite or cable bills go up and blame their satellite/cable operator. This is a dance that occurs every few years between the content providers and satellite and cable operators. It doesn’t always lead to programming being blacked out, but it happens often enough because the content providers know they’ll get their subscriber fee increases.

I can only recall one time where a small number of service providers refused to bow to a content provider and had no problem dropping programming. If memory serves, the content provider was Viacom who provided channels like MTV, VH1, and Nickelodeon, just to name a few. The service providers were small rural independent cable operators who couldn’t justify the fee hike Viacom was demanding, so they dropped all Viacom programming. What’s ironic is that the cable operators only received a couple of complaints about the dropped programming and their customers actually saw the video portion of the cable bills drop.

Considering how awful a lot of the TV programming is these days, I’m surprised more cable and satellite operators aren’t telling the content providers “We’ll be willing to pay more once you start providing decent content rather than the garbage you’re peddling now.”

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The Climate Change faithful keep making the claim climate change is fueling more and more powerful hurricanes. However, there are peer-reviewed papers that say just the opposite.

With Hurricane Ian (now a tropical storm) exiting the east coast of Florida, there is no shortage of news reports tying this storm to climate change. Even if those claims actually include data to support their case, those data are usually for cherry-picked regions and time periods. If global warming is causing a change in tropical cyclone activity, it should show up in global statistics.

The latest peer-reviewed study (March 2022, here) of the accumulated wind energy in tropical cyclones since 1990 (when we started have sufficient global data) showed a decrease in hurricane activity. There was an increase in Atlantic activity, but this was matched by an even larger decrease in Pacific activity, due to a shift from El Nino to La Nina conditions during that time.

So, yes, there is climate change involved in the uptick in Atlantic activity in recent decades. But it’s natural.

We haven’t been seeing nearly as many hurricanes (and a smaller number of tropical storms), and those we do see aren’t making landfall as often as in the past.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the leaves are changing color, the cooler weather is here, and Halloween is 4 weeks away.

This Is Why

It seems to me that many young women - well, young to me at least – are asking the question “Where have all the good men gone?”

I could delve into the many reasons why this question has become far more common over the past 20 years or so, but that would be a 30,000 word essay, something that I wouldn’t want to write and that you probably wouldn’t want to read.

More young career women are finding themselves without a mate or a family of their own and wondering why. Bishop T.D. Jakes may have one of the answers to that question:

“We are raising up women to be men. And you are not applauded for your femininity. You are applauded in the contemporary society by how tough, rough, nasty, mean, aggressive, hateful, possessive you are as you are climbing the corporate ladder.”

“But we are losing our families.”

“I know you can buy your own car. I know you can buy your own house. But until you create a need that I can pour myself into, I have no place in your life. So stop coming home bragging to me about how much you don’t need me and wonder why I shy away.”

Unfortunately his observations may be all too true. We are certainly seeing the outcome of the mindset Jakes describes and it is only getting worse. But fortunately more young women (and men) are waking up to this truth.

There may still be hope.

Thoughts On A Sunday

We experienced a blackout here at The Gulch Friday evening, the lights going out just past 7PM. It had been very windy and cool all day and apparently a tree limb decided it was time to break loose and take down some power lines on the other side of the shoreline road. After a call to the power company to report the outage, apparently limited to just our small neighborhood here around The Gulch, they contacted me a few minutes later to let me know it was going to be at least three hours before power would be restored.

It was time to break out the Official Weekend Pundit Portable Generator.

This would be the first time it was used to power The Gulch as we hadn’t had any outages requiring me to take it out of storage. It has been run a few times in the two years I’ve had it, either as a test or to power equipment at a remote project.

I pulled the genset out of the garage, retrieved the 40lb propane bottle, connected it to the genset, switched off the main house breaker, connected the genset to the outside house connector, fired up the genset and then flipped on the breakers on the genset. The lights in The Gulch came on.

The genset handled the power draw of The Gulch without a hitch. The only things the genset couldn’t handle were the stove and clothes dryer, but it wasn’t like we would have needed to use either of them over that short span of time. For a longer outage it still wouldn’t have been an issue because I can use the microwave or cook with the Official Weekend Pundit Gas Grill and take any washed clothes down to the laundromat to dry them, assuming I couldn’t use a laundry rack and dry them out on the porch.

All in all, it was a good full-up test of the generator’s capability to power The Gulch.

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It now officially being Fall, foliage season around here can’t be too far behind.

We’re already seeing the swamp maples changing color to their brilliant red. They start a few weeks ahead of all the other trees, a harbinger of what’s to come.

Peak foliage color around here usually occurs between October 10th and October 20th. Some have been concerned the drought experienced in New England will affect both the intensity and peak foliage timing, but central and northern New Hampshire weren’t affected by the drought – rainfalls were normal or slightly below normal – so there are expectations the brilliance and timing of the foliage will be normal as well.

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I don’t see how anyone but the willfully ignorant or the deluded couldn’t see this coming.

Why the mass exodus of law enforcement from blue cities? Blame the blue city officials driving it.

Democratic city mayors continue to complain about astronomical police overtime expenditures and dismal recruiting numbers in the post- George Floyd era of unrest. But this is a Frankenstein monster of the " progressive " Left’s own making. For the past two years, leftist activists have relentlessly vilified law enforcement and pushed policies to strip them of their funding and authority. So it’s no mystery why many are retiring or leaving hostile jurisdictions for a more hospitable environment in the suburbs.

Now that the extent of the damage the Left has wrought is becoming apparent, the same mayors and city councilmembers who voted to slash police budgets are backtracking and suddenly acting to increase funding. It’s no coincidence that their change in heart occurred during a consequential midterm election year. President Joe Biden, for example, is calling for more police funding. This is curious, especially since he delivered an insulting diatribe at the Police Week memorial ceremony last year, in which he chose to highlight police abuses and misconduct rather than the sacrifices made by officers.

This mass exodus has had the expected side-effect in those urban bastions of blue-think: rising violent crime rates, dropping property values, an exodus of businesses and workers along with a similar exodus of residents seeking a safer living and work environment. Yet those same blue city officials are baffled by the results of their actions and the anger being directed towards them by their subjects. (I refuse to call them constituents since so many of these officials treat them more like subjects.)

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Is conservatism being prohibited?

Yes. Yes it is.

First, Scott Adams’ “Dilbert” comic strip has lost 77 newspapers, apparently because it ridiculed “woke” doctrine…

A second case comes from the U.K. and involves PayPal. The Telegraph reports:

It all moved up a gear this week when PayPal closed the accounts of the Free Speech Union and the anti-lockdown Daily Sceptic with no explanation given. The latest victim is the UsForThem campaign, which sought to highlight the impact of school closures during lockdown. They use PayPal to fundraise, but the account has been suspended. Given PayPal’s dominance of the market, it’s quite a problem.

Tech giants are universally hostile to free speech, so shutting down the Free Speech Union–which gets a third of its membership fees through PayPal–is no surprise. The other two are anti-lockdown and anti-school closure organizations.

Finally, Mike Lindell is back in the news. You may remember that the FBI caught Lindell red-handed driving through a Hardee’s and confiscated his cell phone. The warrant supporting that seizure has now emerged.

--snip--

Of course the “identity theft” and “damage to a protected computer” have to do with Lindell’s role in questioning the integrity of 2020 election results.

Mike Lindell is a wealthy man who wasn’t trying to steal someone else’s identity for fraudulent purposes, and he doesn’t go around bashing computers with a baseball bat. This all has to do with his opposition to the regime.

I think Lindell’s theories about Dominion are probably wrong. Dominion has sued him and others, I believe, for vast amounts of money. Those issues presumably will be thrashed out in court. But why does the FBI swing into action to suppress any suggestion that our loosest election ever might not have been on the up-and-up?

Then you have Twitter and Facebook declaring verifiable facts and events as mis-/disinformation, even info that came from the US government because it doesn’t fit the Progressive narrative. Any questioning of the narrative must be quashed and those doing the questioning must be silenced, or worse, prosecuted and imprisoned.

It looks like the Democrats are trying very hard to make any opposition to their political ideology be declared ‘extremist’ and therefore illegal.

That whirring sound you’re hearing? That’s the sound of the Framers of the Constitution spinning in their graves.

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The electricity rates here in New Hampshire went up 100% last month, much of it attributed to the spike in natural gas prices. Much of the natural gas in New England comes from overseas – Libya and Yemen – thanks to the efforts of the NIMBY’s, BANANA’s, and Watermelon Environmentalists block construction of a new pipeline into New England. The foreign natural gas costs a lot more than US natural gas and has to shipped across the Atlantic.

These same folks also blocked transmission line construction that would have brought cheap green hydro power into New England from Quebec.

Now it’s Massachusetts’ turn to deal with higher electricity rates, with rates slated to increase by 64% on November 1st and for the same reasons.

It doesn’t help that the natural gas prices have spiked due to actions taking by SloJo his first day in office and much later, the sanctions placed on Russia after they invaded Ukraine. (To be fair, most of the price increases happened well before Russia invaded, Biden’s claims notwithstanding.)

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I guess it’s never too early to start with a disinformation campaign based upon TDS.

In this case it’s focused don Ron DeSantis and it’s claiming he’s “worse than Trump”.

I figure this theme will soon be cranked up to ‘11’ the closer we get to the Presidential primaries which start in January 2024.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee where Fall has finally arrived, there’s still plenty of boating to do, and the foliage will start changing in a couple of weeks.

Indeed

We had a power outage in our little neighborhood last night so I didn't have a chance to post anything as I was busy dealing with the outage. I came across this image over at GraniteGrok and, having showed it to a co-worker, he spewed coffee all over his computer screen because he couldn't help but laugh.

Thoughts On A Sunday

We’ve had a short preview of fall weather over the past few days, with nighttime temps in the 40’s (and some up north in the 30’s) and daytime temps in the upper 50’s and low 60’s. However, today we’ll see temps in the 80’s. But we’ll be back in the 60’s tomorrow with rain all day and 60’s the rest of the week.

I have already seen the swamp maples turning color, but they are usually a good month ahead of most of the other trees when it comes to the fall foliage color. I expect we’ll see heavy tourist traffic with the so-called “leaf peepers” arriving from all over the world. Colors are expected to be a bit muted in the southern part of New Hampshire due to the drought stress the forests have been subjected to, but central and northern New Hampshire should see spectacular color since there was little if any drought stress. I know I will be using the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout to view the foliage colors when they are close to peak, something that I look forward to every year.

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The TV media has been busy covering the preparations for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. Seeing the lines of people waiting to pay their last respects to the only monarch many of them have ever known has been eye-opening.

I will admit to feeling sorrow at her passing. She always reminded me of my own grandmother, and I’ve thought of her as “America’s Grandmother”. Yeah, it sounds strange, I know, but that’s how I’ve thought of her.

She was gracious, but she also had a wicked sense of humor which she showed the world now and then.

I will miss her.

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It’s interesting seeing Bill Maher’s ‘awakening’ to the perfidy of the Left. While still a Leftist himself, he has been pointing out the extreme views and measures of the radical Left that had had him rethinking his positions and questioning the motives of those presently running the nation.

Maher also had strong words for Leftists who refused to consider the possibility that what he was saying was true: “And that’s why you seem like you have such contempt for half the country. I don’t think that’s going to get us where we need to go.” Speaking about the deep political divisions in the country today, he asked: “I think we’ve crossed this line and now the question is, how do we walk it back? How do we walk it back from, ‘I hate you so much that I can’t live with you?’ And we have to live with each other. This is not an apartment where we can put the tape down the middle of it. We have to find a way.”

--snip--

In other words, Leftists have completely departed from reality and from a rational assessment of the contemporary scene. While Maher is correct that we have to live with them, it’s like having to live in a house with an insane person: one must always be on guard, for one never knows what the insane one is going to do, or how much damage he is going to cause. It is at least refreshing that a committed Leftist such as Maher can show signs of waking up from the insanity and deciding that he doesn’t want to along with it any longer. Maybe others will follow. We can hope.

If committed Leftists like Maher can see that he path other Leftists are leading us down will lead to the destruction of the United States and to a ‘woke’ totalitarian state, then there may be hope that just a few more like him will also wake up and realize where we’re headed down the wrong path.

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We keep getting the “We all have to switch over to EVs” meme rammed down our throats. Of course those saying we have to make the switch are ignoring the downsides to EVs, one of the biggest being the cost of replacing the battery pack when the time comes. Just one example: The cost to replace the battery pack for a Tesla is $26,000.

That’s not a typo.

It will cost $26,000 to replace the battery in a 2014 Tesla. That’s more than I spent to buy the trusty RAM 1500. I could replace the engine and transmission and gas tank in the RAM for what that battery pack costs and have a lot of money left over. (Not that I should ever need to do so. As long as regular maintenance is performed, they should last another 10 years or so.)

Numbers-wise, EVs make no sense to me. The cost of battery pack replacement makes those numbers make even less sense.

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I wonder if they realize just how stupid they sound?

NY Times: American Democracy Is In Crisis From Republicans Adhering To The Constitution.

Apparently the NYT doesn’t like things like the Electoral College, something that helps prevent a tyranny of the majority, or Freedom of Speech, or the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, or protection against Unreasonable Search and Seizure and so on. It gets in the way of creating the “Perfect Socialist Utopia”, also known as Hell on Earth.

Those of us in the know understand what really needs to be done to save our nation from those who hate it so much:

1- Repeal the 17th Amendment, allowing state general assemblies to appoint senators to represent the will of the state, ambassadors to the federal government, as intended. They will do what their states say, not what the big money donors.

2- Term limits for Representatives. Eight years.

3- Federally elected positions and appointed administrators will not be allowed to trade stock while in office. Period. No trading stock for any federal employee if it is related to the agency they work for Balanced budget amendment.

4- Those running for the House may not take in more than 10% of their campaign donations from outside of their district. How does it help the people of that district when a goodly chunk comes from outside?

5- Allocation to federal agencies will be based on what the agencies need, not what they want, reducing overspending, just like at private sector companies.

6- No more allowing cost over-runs when contracting something, unless the agency requests it. If the contractor is running late and over-budget, tough. Fulfill your contract, eat the money.

7- Fed govt needs to stop funding everything local. Which gives them power over the towns and cities. Such as all the money to police depts, giving the feds power over the police.

8- Lower taxation. Money should be going to your town and state, not so much to feds.

I would probably change #2 to incorporate one of my suggestions, that being members of the House of Representatives should be drafted, not elected. We’re likely to get a better class of people that way.

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By way of Maggie’s Farm comes this image:

What’s scary is that this is closer to the truth than most people realize. But there there’s also this truth:

‘Nuff said.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee where most of the summerfolk are gone, die-hards are still plying the waters of the lake, and where we’re waiting for foliage change to take place.

Let's Call It What It Is

I found it interesting to see the outrage of some of the residents on Martha’s Vineyard when they got a taste of what so many others have had to deal with regarding illegal immigrants being shipped into their neighborhoods.

It seems most of the outrage is coming from people who own second homes on the island rather than year-round residents. Of course the hypocrisy is strong considering Martha’s Vineyard is allegedly a sanctuary community. But once illegal immigrants actually arrive there, their virtue signaling sanctuary status magically disappears...at least until the illegals are kicked off the island.

I had the chance to ask a friend of mine who is a native Islander (fifth generation) about her reaction to what happened out there and she was not surprised at the outrage. However, she did mention that most of those expressing outrage are from “off-island” (the Martha’s Vineyard equivalent of New Hampshire’s “folks from away” or more derisively “flatlanders”). They have vacation homes on the island and don’t live there. They tend to be the most vocal when things don’t go the way they think they should.

I have dealt with some of those folks on Martha’s Vineyard in the past, having spent a lot of time on the island in my teens, 20’s, and 30’s, mostly during the off-season. I’ve been dealing with the equivalent up here in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire for the past 30 years. The only difference between the two is the folks on Martha’s Vineyard have even more money and tend to be snootier and more entitled than the folks here.

Why do folks who think being a sanctuary community is fine...until actual illegal immigrants show up? Let’s call it what it is:

Hypocrisy.

Red Pill Blue Pill Choice

“Take the Blue Pill and you’ll wake up in your bed and will live an 18th century life in California, believing you are living a virtuous life of onerous labor, privation, illness, and premature death. Take the Red Pill and see how deep the rabbit hole goes, finding a long and healthy life in a modern, clean, high energy technological society in Florida that will someday reach the stars.”

“Choose wisely, for once you take the pill there’s no going back.”

A Remembrance Of That Awful Day

This past Friday I was speaking with one of my co-workers about the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, someone we both admired. We talked about how she had been the only Queen we had known all our lives. We talked about the things we remembered about her and since September 11th was only a couple of days away, I mentioned seeing the Guard at Buckingham Palace play the Star Spangled Banner at her request, the day after the September 11th attacks. Just talking about that moment had tears brimming in my eyes as they did my co-worker. Even writing about it has me feeling a little choked up.

Seeing as today is the 21st anniversary of That Awful Day, I thought it fitting that I replace my usual Sunday post with this remembrance.

I have to start with saying that until September 11th, I never understood the folks who had experienced the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 saying that they remember exactly where they were when they heard the news, remembered their feelings on that day. The one thing that so many of them said that to them, it hadn’t happened ‘x’ years ago, but ‘yesterday’.

On September 12th, 2001, I understood what they meant. In the 21 years since That Awful Day I know exactly what they meant when they said it didn’t happen all those years ago. To me That Awful Day happened yesterday.

Twenty one years later when I see the Twin Towers on an old TV show or movie I catch my breath. I flash back to That Awful Day, remembering exactly where I was when I first heard of a plane hitting the North Tower and the subsequent report of another plane hitting the South Tower. I remember watching TV as the towers fell. I remember seeing the report of a plane hitting the Pentagon and another crashing in the town of Shanksville, Pennsylvania. I remember my pager going off again and again and again as I was called in to our state’s Office of Emergency Management. (I was a staff member back then.) I remember the faces of the people in my workplace and the Emergency Management office.

It was yesterday.

Over the years we have heard the stories of the heroes, both individuals and groups, who did amazing things to help the people they didn’t know under daunting circumstances. But it is those stories that have been a silver lining on an otherwise horrific and horrifying day. It is something that when the memories and feelings start weighing me down, I watch this story, one that exemplifies the selflessness of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. It allows me to see the good things that happened on That Awful Day.

Thoughts On A Sunday Saturday

This is a special Saturday edition of Thoughts On A Sunday, the reason being that Sunday is September 11th and I will be dealing with that anniversary on Sunday.

As such, I am going to mention that even with the nice late summer weather, much of the usual weekend visitors we would see have not been here. I’m not complaining as it means we have fewer clueless boaters on the lake and we can actually enjoy some weekend boating again.

It hasn’t lessened the lines at the seasonal restaurants, at least on the weekends. But the usual 10 AM Saturday morning traffic ‘crush’ didn’t materialize. It is usually caused by locals taking care of their grocery shopping and other errands and seasonal renters departing or new seasonal renters arriving. While there will still be a couple of weekends that will see that type of traffic crush, it still won’t be anything near what we see during the June, July, and August.

Our local farm stand was a busy as ever and will likely stay that way until Halloween.

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From the “Just When I Thought They Couldn’t Get Any Stupider” Department comes this gem from Illinois. The only thing I can think of is that the Illinois legislature is working their hardest to make their state as bad as California. Certainly their latest bit of legislation is going to spread the misery already being felt in Chicago to the rest of the state.

The legislation that will add to Illinois residents’ misery is called the “SAFE-T Act”. It was passed in the middle of the night after only 40 minutes of review. Forty minutes.

This is what the misnamed bill will do to help spread violent crime through the entire state, with the three main points being:

- The new law eliminates cash bail for almost every crime, including 2nd-degree murder, kidnapping, and armed robbery.

- Criminals with ankle bracelet locators who don’t show up to court can’t be pursued for 48 hours, giving them ample time to drive almost anywhere in North America.

- Police will no longer be able to remove trespassers from your property.

We already know the first point hasn’t worked out anywhere it’s been implemented. All it has done is allowed violent criminals back out on the streets to re-offend. The second point is just outright stupid.

I could get behind the third point if it the law also allowed property owners to use the force necessary to remove trespassers, up to and including lethal force, without consequences. Otherwise the third point is going to be used to embolden squatters, burglars, and a whole host of other miscreants.

I think we’ll see a rise in gun purchases in The Land Of Lincoln going forward.

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By way of Libs Of TikTok we find out that the MSM isn't mad about gender surgeries on teens, they're mad you found out.

Two weeks ago you may have seen a lot of news segments surrounding Boston Children’s Hospital. Deleted videos and archived web pages pointed to the fact that they were providing “gender affirming” care to young people including puberty blockers, double mastectomies, phalloplasties, and hysterectomies.

The Left immediately seized upon the wording of one tweet in regard to hysterectomies and argued that it’s only done on 18-year-olds. Because they apparently think that’s okay.

This week we learned that that’s not the case. I dropped a bombshell report with a recording of 2 hospital employees admitting in no uncertain terms that they do hysterectomies on 16-year-olds and younger kids in the name of transgender healthcare. There were also archived web pages alluding to that fact. The media panicked. I couldn’t wait to see how they would spin this one.

We can’t trust the hospital, we can’t trust the media, we certainly can’t trust the more radical members of the LGBTQ community.

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This is something I can wholeheartedly agree with. I think most people would also agree with it, that being the world is not going through an energy crisis but a ‘crisis of common sense’. Goodness knows we’ve seen more than enough blatant and very public evidence that the totally clueless have been making decisions about energy policy that are devoid of a lick of common sense.



We have certainly seen that since SloJo took office, issuing Executive Orders that have crippled our energy industry and then goes begging for more oil from the Saudis. The Germans decided to dismantle their nuclear plants and make a deal with the devil (Russia) for natural gas despite warnings the Russians would use that natural gas as a weapon. They also went heavy into renewables, specifically wind, which has left them with electrical supply shortages. Despite their severe electrical supply shortage, they have not stopped their plans to decommission their last operating nuclear plants. We have seen California make many of the same mistakes which has left them with extreme electricity supply shortages during a heat wave all while passing legislation that will mandate the sale of EVs only starting in 2035. They have also made sure their grid won’t have enough capacity to charge all of those EVs...unless they can drive 13 million people out of the Pyrite State before then which might leave them enough power to do so...unless they do even more to cripple their electrical grid between now and then.

It seems that so many energy policies are being driven by feelz rather than data, logic, and reason. Now that more of those policies are making their effects known we’re finding out those polices are incredibly deficient of common sense. Unfortunately, I see even more such energy policies being developed and implemented.

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And that the ‘early’ news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we’re enjoying the departure of the regular summerfolk, our restaurants are slowly being returned to us, but our boating is getting better.

Unconditional Versus Conditional

Call me a surly curmudgeon, an unabashed cynic who has earned his right to be cynical over almost 70 years on this earth, someone who has seen social mores eroded away, ethics cast aside for expediency’s sake, the relationships between the races torn asunder by the intolerant woke, and the covenant between men and women destroyed by those who see no issue with tearing apart families all in the name of ‘equality’ that has nothing to do with actual equality.

I have seen what we used to call dating devolve into what has become to be called ‘Hookup Culture’, with dating apps used not to meet up with potential romantic partners but for casual sex. I have heard more than a few young women state openly “The first marriage is for money. The second marriage is for love.” They were not being funny or facetious. I have heard young men declaring they have no desire to date or get married because they don’t trust women and have decided they have better things to do with their time.

Probably one of the worst things I have seen is the increasing divide between men and women, driven by those who see men and women as different species, with men being monsters who cause all of women’s ills. But men and women are human and like all humans there are differences between them. Yes, they communicate in different ways and that sometimes causes misunderstanding, but that’s something that has been understood for generations. Yet some folks try very hard to increase the misunderstanding and the negative emotions that go with them.

Then there’s love, something that has also been under attack. I could try to explain it, but I think that would be better explained by this meme rather succinctly:

How sad is that?