Some Folks Just Don't Get It

The level of ignorance/stupidity/virtue-signaling that has bombarded us regarding Covid never ceases to amaze me. This one makes me wonder which of the three applies here. Maybe all three?

Is the mask really necessary here?

(Shamelessly stolen from Knuckledraggin’)

Thoughts On A Sunday

I had the good fortune to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra this past Friday. It was the 25^th anniversary of the release of their first album, Christmas Eve And Other Stories, and they performed the music from the entire album to celebrate, as well as some of their other songs.

The concert was amazing. I can guarantee the photo below doesn’t come close to doing it justice.

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After the concert my friends and I walked out of the venue to find it was snowing. It was our first snowfall of the season. It made the first part of the trip an adventure considering the heavy snowfall and poor visibility encountered. It was necessary to engage 4WD for that part of the trip. But as I headed farther north and back to Lake Winnipesaukee, the snow tapered off and most of what was falling was rain. The slush covered roads were replaced by wet roads and by the time I got home, the precipitation had pretty much stopped.

It was a twofer on Friday night – a great concert and our first taste of winter weather.

==+==

Canada has had to dip into its maple syrup strategic reserve due to a massive shortage.

Canada has strategic reserves...of maple syrup?

Hmm. Makes sense….

==+==

A discussion with the Left-leaning daughter of a friend of mine gave me a glimmer of hope that the younger generation isn’t doomed. One of our topics of discussion was about the whole ‘woke’ movement.

At one point, I made a point that the woke appear to me to be people desperate for a cause, people who will latch on to any cause like a drowning man will latch on to a floating bit of debris to save oneself. So many have taken up causes on behalf of people who they believe should be offended about some small thing. That they aren’t offended about that small thing offends the woke, so they become offended on behalf of those people who aren’t offended, in many cases offending the very people on whose behalf they are being offended.

I also made a point that the woke also will seek trivial or non-existent causes, amplify them all out of proportion, and then be offended when anyone has the audacity to question their new cause, accusing the questioner of being a ‘whateverist’ because they don’t support the cause du jour.

She was about to reply, then her eyes opened wide when she realized what it is I had just said.

My thought was “Ah, light dawns over Marblehead!”

I could see she was thinking things over and she finally said something along the lines of “You know, I hadn’t thought about it that way before.”

After a few moments of cogitation, the course of our discussion changed paths a number of times as we we continued devouring our evening repast.

It will be interesting to pick that particular thread of discussion again sometime in the future.

==+==

The newest variant of Covid – the ‘not-Xi but Omicron variant’ – is already being touted as the next ‘deadly variant everyone needs to be afraid of’ even though reports from its place of origin – South Africa – state “it presents ‘unusual but mild’ symptoms.”

I expect the DNC-MSM will be playing up this latest variant for all it’s worth, as will WRBA, the CDC, and that font of public health wisdom, Dr. Fauci. No doubt they will be offering their usual precautions that everyone knows don’t work. It will be hyped to no end.

Dr. Angelique Coetzee, the South African doctor responsible for alerting health officials about the omicron variant of COVID-19 says it presents “unusual but mild” symptoms.

Coetzee first observed patients with unusual symptoms who were otherwise healthy in mid-November.

“Their symptoms were so different and so mild from those I had treated before,” Coetzee told The Telegraph. Coetzee has been a General Practitioner for 33 years, has her own practice, and chairs the South African Medical Association.

--snip--

While symptoms in younger patients appear to be very mild, Coetzee is still concerned about how the new variant will affect the elderly, who have typically been the most at-risk group from COVID.

Concerns about how the new variant will affect the elderly and those with comorbidities are not unfounded. Covid and the annual flu virus affect both groups more than rest of the population, so the concerns are justified. But if the Omicron variant is indeed a much milder version of the previous variants, then the over-the-top and ineffective precautions taken will be an even tougher sell.

==+==

And speaking of Covid, who has the better scorecard when it comes to handling Covid, Biden or Trump?

Joe Biden has ordered a ban on travel from eight African countries due to the emergence of the latest coronavirus variant. The countries from which Biden is cutting off travel are South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.

When Donald Trump banned travel from China in the early days of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, Biden called the move xenophobic. I suppose that makes Biden’s travel ban racist by similar reckoning.

Speaking of Trump, Biden, and Covid, the Wall Street Journal points out that deaths in the U.S. from that virus since Biden was inaugurated exceed the number of deaths that had occurred when, during a 2020 campaign debate, Biden proclaimed: “Anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as President of the United States of America.” At the time Biden proposed this disqualifier from holding the presidency, the U.S. had recorded 220,000 Covid deaths, according to the Journal. Since inauguration day, it has recorded 350,000. And counting.

The Narrative must be preserved. Therefore, Biden’s crappy Covid numbers must be ignored even though they are far worse the Trump’s. Biden’s words about Trump’s Covid numbers must be ignored because they would be seen as hypocritical.

==+==

How can they have gotten this so wrong?

Back in 1995, the New York Times stated that most East Coast beaches would be gone by 2020.

Here it is, 2021, and the beaches are still here. Some are even bigger than they were 25 years ago. Yet the rising sea levels are supposed to submerge much of the coastal low lands? Call it yet another prediction of doom that has turned out to be overblown and has, in fact, showed just the opposite of what was predicted.

==+==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter temperatures are visiting, leaves still need cleaning up around The Gulch, and where we’ve avoided as much in the way the Black Friday craziness as we could.

Drivers Are Driving Me Crazy

I hope this isn’t going to make me sound like the stereotypical grumpy old man, but it seems to me that people are driving stupider...or maybe they are more oblivious.

Over the past week I have witnessed drivers driving well below the posted speed limit. On three separate occasions on the same day I witnessed drivers going 30 or 35mph in a 55mph zone. It was day time, sunny, and little traffic beyond what was normal. One on of those occasions I saw the vehicle between me and the slowpoke try to pass the slowpoke and as soon as they pulled around and sped up to make the pass, the slowpoke sped up and tried to prevent the pass. He didn’t succeed as the passer had more horsepower and out-accelerated the slowpoke. As soon as the pass was completed the slowpoke was right back down to 35mph. I had to follow another mile before I turned off as the opportunity to pass didn’t present itself.

I have witnessed drivers wandering back and forth across the travel lane, sometimes crossing over into the next lane, or worse, into the oncoming traffic lane.

In the past I would have wondered of the driver was drunk. These days I tend to think the driver is distracted, maybe texting or otherwise using their smart phone, or operating the touchscreen on their dash. On one occasion I saw a vehicle almost miss a curve on an otherwise straight road. Just before the vehicle contacted the Armco the driver realized what was happening and swerved away from the guardrail. I have to think this was due to being distracted by their smartphone because I didn’t see this happen again with that vehicle.

I have seen a number of others come to a stop at a green light, check traffic in cross directions, and then cross the intersection just as the traffic light changes from green to yellow. What the heck is up with that? There’s also the variation, sitting at the traffic light after it has turned green and not moving until the light changes to yellow, or worse, to red. This scenario I have seen far more often than I care to admit, but it is a very common occurrence these days.

I could go on ad nauseum, but I think you get the idea.

So, am I just being a crotchety old curmudgeon, or is anyone else seeing this as well?

Have They Forgotten?

It was 58 years ago today in Dallas, Texas that Lee Harvey Oswald murdered President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

I have not seen a single mention of this somber anniversary in the news or on the 'Net. Not. One.

How sad.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s the weekend before Thanksgiving and I am on vacation, sort of.

Last year I left two weeks of vacation on the books due solely to Covid. Everyone in my engineering department was working from home most of the time. (Some of us did have to go into our labs from time to time to build and test prototypes of new products and evaluate parts or assemblies that would be used in other products.) Vacation was not on anyone’s mind as there was no place to go since everything was shut down. Work gave us something to do since there was nothing else going on and no place to go.

This year I have used much more of my vacation time, being on vacation this week and being on vacation again the week before Christmas and the week before New Year’s. I’ll still be leaving a couple days on the books because, quite frankly, I can’t squeeze them in before the end of the year and still be able to stay on schedule with the projects I’m working on.

At least this year I have plenty of things to do and places to go. This week I am working around The Gulch getting the last of the summer gear cleaned and stored away, removing some items from rental storage and bringing them to The Gulch. There is also Thanksgiving dinner at one of the WP Sisters’ homes on Thursday, being the first gathering of a good portion the WP Clan in a year.

I am hoping to be able to spend some time with Katy around the Christmas holiday weeks, too, as we aren’t able to spend nearly as much time together as we’d like.

And so it goes.

==+==

My phone rang at a little past midnight early this morning. My first thought was ‘Uh-oh. No one calls this late unless there’s trouble.’ When I saw who was calling I got a bit of a chill, wondering if something had happened to a family member.

It was my ex.

Her first words had me both relieved and puzzled at the same time.

“I’m in Portland. I got on the wrong damned bus!”

My ex had been away, visiting Texas. She left Dallas yesterday afternoon and arrived in Boston last night. She then caught a bus that was supposed to take her to Concord, New Hampshire. But she got on the wrong bus (which was apparently parked just in front of the bus she was supposed to be taking) and ended up in Portland, Maine. Hence the phone call.

Yes, I got up, got dressed, and drove the 2 hours from Lake Winnipesaukee to downtown Portland, picked her up, drove the 2 hours from Portland to Concord so she could get her car, and then the 45 minutes home. I rolled in back at The Gulch at just past 5 this morning.

Am I tired? Yes, of course.

Would I do something like this for just anybody? Hmm. I don’t know. However, I will admit I’d be willing to drive 4 hours...or more...for Katy. (But don’t tell her that!)

==+==

In my previous post I mentioned some of the intentional misportrayal of what happened during the Kenosha riots, and specifically what happened to Kyle Rittenhouse. The media certainly did their best to push the narrative that Rittenhouse was a cold-blooded killer who turned Kenosha into a hunting ground to support white supremacy.

Now that the trial is over, verdict rendered, and the true story has been exposed, some of the media still gets it wrong. In this case, they can’t even get the race of the miscreants who assaulted Rittenhouse correct.

==+==

Matt Margolis asks “Are Liberals Even Human?”

Yes, I understand that they are (technically) part of the human race, but have you noticed how they seem driven by issues that defy human nature?

I certainly have. Recent weeks have made it clear that the left doesn’t possess two basic human instincts: self-preservation and protecting our young. And two key events have demonstrated this clearer than ever before.

The first is the Virginia gubernatorial election.

As much as I was thrilled about Youngkin’s victory over Terry McAuliffe, it was hard not to be disturbed by how that election exposed the alarming number of liberals in the state who don’t believe in parental rights.

“I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decision,” McAuliffe said during a debate with Youngkin in September. “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

--snip--

And then there’s the Kyle Rittenhouse trial.

I understand that people have strong opinions about Kyle Rittenhouse. Still, anyone who took the time to watch the trial or review some of the evidence presented would have concluded quite easily that Rittenhouse was acting in self-defense.

Yet, the trial revealed the shocking truth that the left also doesn’t appear to believe people have the right to defend themselves.

Or maybe only white people, who knows? What we do know is that people on the left in the media, Hollywood, and our own neighborhoods took the side of rioters, looters, and even a child molester, because they fell for the idea that Rittenhouse was a white supremacist (thanks, Joe Biden) and that he was in Kenosha looking for trouble. Nothing, not even the evidence, was going to change that.

I have always thought that liberals, in the modern definition of the term (socialists), had no understanding of human nature. It certainly explains why they keep trying the same experiment over and over again even though the results are always the same: abject failure because they ignore human nature. It also explains why they cannot seem to grasp the two important aspects of human nature mentioned by Matt above: self-preservation and protecting our young. Without those two things society will not survive.

Does this mean that liberals aren’t human? No, not in the least. But it does point to them being mentally ill.

==+==

I keep seeing ads about how awful it is that New Hampshire’s Governor Sununu signed legislation that banned late term abortions. The ban was part of the the state’s budget bill, signed this past June.

To hear the ads, one would think the bill banned all abortions, more restrictive then even Texas’s abortion bill and how awful it is and that women in New Hampshire would be relegated to having to have back alley abortions.

But the bill bans late-term abortions, something that even has the support of many pro-choice advocates. Governor Sununu, a Republican, is pro-choice. Yet he had no problem with supporting this ban.

At a time when other states are legalizing abortion up to birth, the Granite State has boldly gone in the opposite direction and rejected its longstanding commitment to pro-abortion absolutism. In fact, New Hampshire has just become the first state in the country to go from allowing abortion up to birth to passing a late-term abortion ban.

I have never liked the idea of abortion, specifically as a means of birth control. Late-term abortion seems absolutely barbaric to me when used as a means of birth control. We should be better than that.

Stated NH House Democrat Leader Renny Cushing, the ban was “forcing right-wing ideology on the people of New Hampshire.” So forcing left-wing ideology on the people of New Hampshire is perfectly fine?

Yet another double standard being imposed on the people of New Hampshire.

==+==

And the hits keep coming.

It is necessary to heap even more well deserved abuse on the Left.

One of our local state reps felt she had to add her woefully (willfully?) uninformed opinion to the myriad of others out on the Intertubes regarding the Rittenhouse verdict. Her understanding of the trial, the evidence, and the testimony of eyewitnesses is apparently as close to zero as one can get without being zero.

Then again, she is nothing a but a drone, incapable of having her own thoughts. She only thinks and says what she’s told to think or say.

How pathetic.

==+==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the temperatures have gotten colder, preparations for winter continue, and where I won’t have to go back to work for another week.

Some Thoughts On The Rittenhouse Trial And Verdict

It would have been easy to do an immediate “Me too!” post on the outcome of the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. However, I wanted to think about what we had seen, as well as to peruse the responses of the “usual suspects” on the Left.

I admit to having paid attention to the trial as it was taking place. I also have to admit my growing dismay (and later anger) as it became clear the case never should have seen the light of day. Between prosecutorial misconduct – suborning perjury, failure to disclose exculpatory evidence - and bringing up the defendant’s silence in reference to exercising his Fifth Amendment rights (something the judge had ruled the prosecution could not use as part of its case), it became quite evident that DA Binger was doing his best to ‘Nifong’ Kyle Rittenhouse. (To those not understanding the reference, Mike Nifong, the prosecuting DA in the Duke University Lacrosse Team rape trial, was found to have committed numerous acts of misconduct as he tried to railroad three members of the lacrosse team for the alleged rape of a stripper – Crystal Mangum - hired to entertain at a party. He interfered in the police investigation of the alleged crime. Witnesses were intimidated. Exculpatory evidence was withheld or hidden. Nifong was disbarred for his actions. He also served jail time for contempt of court.)

The prosecution’s case was weak to begin with and it tanked when its own witness, the one surviving miscreant, testified about both what he saw – the attack on Kyle Rittenhouse – and his own action, in this case pointing his own pistol at Rittenhouse as Rittenhouse was lying on the ground after having been attacked. He testified Rittenhouse didn’t fire at him until he pointed his pistol directly at Rittenhouse. Video withheld from the defense showed plainly what had happened, showed the attacks on Rittenhouse. That same video wasn’t presented at trial until the end by the prosecution as a ‘Hail Mary’ ploy, trying to show that Rittenhouse was the provocateur. The video did just the opposite.

It was clearly self-defense right from the get-go.

The jury saw it that way and acquitted Rittenhouse on all charges.

As interesting as the trial and its outcome was, it is the reactions to the verdict that I found even more interesting...but not unexpected.

To paraphrase the original Star Wars movie, “The Narrative is strong in this one.”

Seeing the over the top responses from the Left indicate to me that the facts, the evidence, the testimonies didn’t matter because they didn’t fit the narrative the Left was selling. They needed Kyle Rittenhouse to be guilty, to be a white supremacist, a cold-blooded killer who came to Kenosha for the sole purpose of killing people of color. That he was there to protect the property of small business owners, to protect members of his family (who lived in Kenosha), to prevent those who wanted to Burn, Loot, and Murder from doing so was immaterial. That the people he did shoot, people who assaulted him and were trying to kill him were white didn’t matter. The Narrative had to be served.

As a result the Left lost it and tried to preserve the Narrative even though every bit of evidence proved the Narrative as nothing more than wishful thinking. Much of the DNC-MSM also piled on, seeing the verdict as a miscarriage of justice because the verdict didn’t support the Narrative. It was also evident to me they were hoping for public unrest due to the verdict, but that unrest never materialized. Yes, there were protests, but they were sedate as compared to what happened in Kenosha that started this whole thing.

I have to ask whether the reason those incidents of public unrest were rather sedate was because the manufactured outrage wasn’t cranked up to ‘11’. Or perhaps those decrying the verdict aren’t really all that outraged, understanding the Rittenhouse case for what it truly was and putting forth the obligatory protest video and sound bites in order to show their ‘wokeness’.

To me, those protesting the verdict the loudest seem to like the idea of conviction by accusation, law by decree, legislation by courts, modern Inquisitions, and guilty until proven innocent and even then still guilty. Seeing their reactions (and some of their previous opinions), I have come to think that to them Rittenhouse was a symbol of everything they dislike and therefore he needed to be destroyed as an example “to the others”, meaning the rest of us. They wanted to send a message that they control those of us who are not “them”. (Of course they also control those who are. We’ve seen them turn on their own more than once.)

Are they bucking for a three-tiered justice system where outcomes are based upon which group someone belongs?

The top tier – them – can do little or no wrong.

The middle tier – the enlightened disadvantaged minorities, except Asians – can do wrong, but only because of white supremacy/privilege.

The bottom tier – anyone they see as white, including the aforementioned Asians and certain Hispanics like George Zimmerman – are always guilty. They are also always racists, sexists, and whatever other ‘-ists’ with which they can be labeled. The bottom tier can also be safely ignored since they are now the designated untermenschen. All they need to do now is disarm, disfranchise, and silence them. Kyle Rittenhouse was meant to be one of the bottom tier, condemned because he was white, armed, and dared to defend himself.

Of course, this is all BS. It is but one more insurgent attack on America, its laws, its traditions, its culture, and all of its citizens. The outcome of this trial may be yet another step in our efforts to take our nation back from those who seek to destroy it and replace it with a modern dystopian feudal state.

A Sign Of The Times

An interesting juxtaposition, but accurate nonetheless. After all, who else can claim they did away with our energy independence and caused oil prices to skyrocket with the stroke of a pen?

I find it interesting that SloJo thinks the only reason gas prices are so high is because the oil companies are price-gouging. But his Executive Orders canceling a much needed pipeline and banning any more oil and gas leases on federal lands, threats to cancel existing leases and ban fracking had absolutely nothing to do with it?

Yeah. Right.

Quote Of The Month

“There’s always a shortage of people who do useful things. But never a shortage of people who spew useless bullshit.” - Glenn Reynolds

Truer words were never spoken...er...written.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a beautiful day yesterday, though it did throw me off a bit as I described in yesterday’s post. This morning dawned with mostly clear skies and chilly temps. It was cold enough for there to be frost on the windshield of the trusty RAM 1500, but not on the ground cover.

One of the WP Sisters was up to visit yesterday, staying overnight and returning home after church and our Sunday brunch at one of our local diners.

Basically it was a typical mid-November weekend for us here at The Gulch.

==+==

The labor shortage is extending to just about every level. One area being affected that I would never have thought about: Snow plow drivers.

Living up here in New England, snow plows are ubiquitous during the winter months. That some towns are having problem finding plow drivers is surprising, particularly contract drivers.

Paul Cohen is the town manager of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, where last year they spent nearly $1 million on snow removal. This year, that price tag is about to get even higher because of a shortage of snowplow drivers.

"It's a hard job. It’s a lot of stress and it’s harder for people to take that on willingly," he said.

There are signs up around the city pleading for employees. But so far, Chelmsford is short about dozen plow drivers. They have the equipment; they just don’t have the people.

--snip--

To help address the shortage many cities and states are offering massive incentives in an effort to get drivers on the road this winter. Colorado's Department of Transportation is offering drivers a $2,000 performance bonus. Michigan has upped their hourly plow driver rate to $30 plus overtime, and some state drivers in Massachusetts could be making as much as $310 an hour this winter.

We are fortunate here in my small town that we are not suffering from such a shortage, at least regarding plow drivers to clear our town roads. I can’t speak to any of the other towns or cities in the rest of New Hampshire or how the state Department of Transportation is faring in this regard though in the past few years it hasn’t been an issue. But today, who knows?

==+==

Are the Covid-19 vaccines causing an alarming increase in athletes dropping dead from cardiac issues? This seems to be a real problem in Europe.

The first few I looked at made no mention of their status as vaccinated for COVID but there are a lot of athletes in all levels of competition dropping dead with heart-related ailments if this list is accurate.

It also means there are more and we should make some effort to source those incidents and report them. If they are vaccine-related people deserve to know the risk.

If this is indeed an issue it does need to be addressed. If it is a problem then I have to ask if we’re seeing such an issue here, but it’s being devoutly ignored or covered up because the Progressive Powers That Be don’t want the proles questioning the Jab, its efficacy, or its safety.

==+==

I have seen a number of those commenting on sites using Disqus complaining that site moderators are removing their comments because they want to silence dissent.

I have had some comments I’ve made here and there removed for reasons I couldn’t fathom until I realized it was a Disqus filtering algorithm removing those comments, not a site moderator. It appears the filter algorithm has a list of words that will trigger removal of a comment. The apparent problem is that the algorithm can’t parse context, so a word or term that might be problematic in one use is innocuous in another, yet the algorithm will still remove the comment containing the innocuous use of the word/term.

Certain nominally obscene words will also trigger the algorithm. One fellow complained that his use of the name Soros triggered removal of his comment. Another commenter tested that by posting a test comment using the name Soros...and nothing happened. The comment remained. But if I had to guess, maybe the fellow complaining had prefaced ‘Soros’ with the more obscene version of ‘effin’ and Disqus kicked his comment.

==+==

It appears at least one part of the military isn’t going to bow down to SloJo’s vaccination mandate.

As Mike Hendrix tells us, the Oklahoma National Guard is refusing to bow down to the illegal mandate.

The Pentagon Sees Its First National Guard Unit Mutiny Over the Federal Vaccine Mandate. The first state National Guard unit has made itself clear to the Department of Defense it has no intention of enforcing its Covid-19 vaccine mandate.

“The Oklahoma National Guard has rejected the Defense Department’s requirement for all service members to receive the coronavirus vaccine and will allow personnel to sidestep the policy with no repercussions, a potential blueprint for Republican governors who have challenged Biden administration mandates,” the Washington Post reported.

“Brig. Gen. Thomas Mancino, appointed this week by Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) as adjutant of the state’s 10,000 National Guard soldiers and airmen, on Thursday notified those under his command that they are not required to receive the vaccine and won’t be punished if they decline it,” the report added.

I wish our Republican Governor, Chris Sununu, would be ballsy enough to do something similar. I would also like to see him follow the footsteps of Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and ban vaccine mandates and vaccine ‘passports’.

==+==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the last of the leaves are now on the ground, thoughts of the coming winter are moving to the forefront, and where we’re nervously watching to cost of heating oil and propane.

I Hate Standard Time

I have had enough of changing our clocks twice a year.

It’s a pain for me and a lot of other people. That Standard Time only lasts 4 months while Daylihjy Savings Time lasts 8 months has me wondering why we still call it Standard Time. Frankly, I really have no use for Standard Time. Considering New England is at the extreme eastern side of the Eastern Time Zone which is quite wide compared to the other time zones in North America, it makes for late sunrises and early sunsets during the 4 months of Standard Time. For me it means going into work in the dark and driving home in the dark. At least if we remained in Daylight Savings Time I would have some daylight at the end of the day.

It became real for me today when I was running errands just before noon. It didn’t feel like noon at all.

I could have sworn it was closer to 3 in the afternoon, the way it felt.

It’s only going to get worse over the next six weeks.

It’s time for this twice annual event to stop, at least in the easternmost sides of the time zones, and particularly at the northern part of those time zones. It is far more disruptive than just leaving the clocks set to DST year round.

It’s time to end the time change madness. It serves no useful purpose other than to cause disruption, confusion, and problems.