Thoughts On A Sunday

It looks we’re finally going to be getting some snowfall above a nuisance amount. The Weather Guys^TM have predicted we’ll see between 4 and 8 inches overnight here at the lake, with 8 inches being more likely than 4 inches. At least it will be a light fluffy snow which means we probably won’t have to worry about power outages. It will also be easier to move when the time comes to shovel out tomorrow morning. Not that the snowfall will cause much in the way of disruptions since it is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day tomorrow and quite a few folks have the day off and schools are closed.

This will also be a chance to try out the Toro Power Shovel I purchased at an end-of-winter sale late last winter. It’s been sitting in the attic since then and I pulled it out this morning, plugged it in, and tested it to make sure it worked. (It does!)

One thing I have to say about this snowstorm is that the local TV stations aren’t sowing panic, making it sound as if it could be “The End Of The World As We Know It!” I haven’t seen the ‘Storm Center’ logos or heard the ominous sounding music intro, or at least not as much as is usually seen or heard.

The only downside to this weather is what follows: sub-zero temperatures on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. We will also see sub-zero wind chills on those days as well.

In other words, it’s winter.

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It isn’t as if we need proof that more spending per student doesn’t equate to a better education, but here it is.

NY teachers unions pump school spending to highest in the nation at $36K per kid — yet they rank low in reading and math: report.

New York funnels more money into its schools than any state in the nation — with only mediocre results to show for it, a withering report released Friday reveals.

Spending on education has gone up — to a whopping $89 billion on New York school districts this academic year — even as both enrollment and test scores have plummeted, according to the analysis by the Citizens Budget Commission.

The statewide average of spending per student came to an eye-popping $36,293, a 21% increase since the 2020-21 school year, the report by the budget watchdog group found.

That’s even as the scores of New York schoolkids on the National Assessment of Educational Progress — the one common test taken by students from across the US — dipped further than the national average.

In my home state, New Hampshire, the average cost per student is $20,323. Some communities in New Hampshire have much higher costs, but they aren’t so much educational costs as they are transportation costs. One such town is New Castle which has a per student cost of $44,375, but much of that is transportation costs as some students attend school in another town. That’s true of most towns sending students to a regional school or towns with a very small number if students. Yet despite the lower level of student spending, New Hampshire has a pretty good education system.

Too bad New York can’t do likewise.

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I’ve heard TikTok has gone dark in the US.

It’s not like I noticed it all that much before it went dark.

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Just when I think they can’t get any woker stupider, they prove me wrong.

In this case, it looks like the Denver public schools are going to dump Girls bathrooms for “All Gender” bathrooms.

Why is it always women who must sacrifice their rights to accommodate the gender confused?

Female students attending East High School in Denver returned from Winter break to see one of their private spaces demolished. Their girl’s bathroom on the building’s second floor has been converted into an “all gender” restroom.

Now girls will have to share one of their few remaining spaces with men so the virtue-signaling “adults” in charge of Denver’s school district can feel good about themselves.

It’s a self-serving move that “has sacrificed the comfort of these young females for this dubious change,” according to one East High School parent, Lori Ramos.

"We, as adults, should be protecting students at all costs. Not using minors for this social experiment,” she told members of the school board during a recent meeting.

But protecting non-gender-confused students doesn’t fit the narrative and therefore must be ignored, nay, sacrificed to protect the narrative. Maybe those virtue-signaling “adults” have missed the signals that this kind of nonsense isn’t going to be tolerated by the public anymore.

Maybe it’s time for the public school administrators who put forth this discriminatory action to be fired.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee where the snow will soon start falling, the preparations for the storm are complete, and even though Monday is tomorrow I don’t have to work tomorrow...

Equal Rights Amendment Adopted By Fiat?

Is this for real - a big “F*ck You” from SlowJoe - or has one of his social media ‘handlers’ been eating too many magic shrooms and hallucinating? What makes me ask this question? This:

Presidentish Joe Biden declares the Equal Rights Amendment is now in effect as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution.

I guess he forgot that the President doesn’t have that power. He has also chosen to ignore the fact that it failed to be ratified before the the 1982 deadline, or in this case he’s commuted the ERA’s deadline, yet another power the President doesn’t have. While he thinks Virginia’s ratification of the ERA in 2020 as the 38th state makes the ERA a legitimate amendment, it comes decades too late. It also ignores the fact that five states that had originally ratified the ERA ‘de-ratified’ it some years later.

The key point is whether the ERA, which was passed by Congress in 1972 and was sent to the states for ratification, has amassed the 38 states needed.

Just 35 had ratified the amendment by 1979, which was the deadline set by Congress. Capitol Hill then approved a three-year extension of the deadline, but that came and went with no new ratifications.

In 2017, Nevada belatedly voted for approval, followed by Illinois in 2018 and Virginia in 2020. ERA backers said that was enough to cross the finish line.

But that argument was rejected by federal courts that ruled the deadline had passed.

Mr. Biden’s Justice Department has also ruled that the deadlines are valid and the post-deadline ratifications cannot be counted.

As another part of one of the linked posts states, “Presidents don’t get to overrule the courts, nor do they get to declare what is and is not in the Constitution.” Of course that doesn’t mean that President John Gill...er...Joe Biden wouldn’t try to do just that. It isn’t like he’s all that cogent these days.

And then there’s the Law of Unintended Consequences coming into play that I believe would lead to chaos and overloaded courts as a lot of existing laws would either need to be changed or repealed by Congress and state legislatures or courts declaring those laws unconstitutional under the ERA. As I commented elsewhere:

If [an Equal Rights Amendment] were to be ratified I can see all of the lawsuits lining up to dismantle all kinds of laws that would then be unconstitutional, but it won't be the ones proponents think they'll be.

One of the first ones right off the top of my head will be about the Draft. Women would now be required to register for the Draft just like men...or the law mandating registering for the Draft would have to be either rescinded or declared unconstitutional due to its discriminatory nature.

I would expect all kinds of discrimination lawsuits to be filed against Family Courts because of the inherent bias against men in the laws administered in those courts. Family law would need to be rewritten.

What about all of the VAWA (Violence Against Women Act) legislation? It would be void because it discriminates in favor of women.

The list of laws that would need to be changed, rescinded, or declared unconstitutional would be lengthy.

One set of laws and court precedents that would need to change would be those involving divorces, and more specifically child custody decisions. Right now custody decisions heavily favor women even though there are numerous studies showing that joint custody tends to be better for the children. When fathers are removed from regular and constant presence in the lives of children, the children don’t do as well in life. Those laws and court precedents would need to overturned and 50-50 custody would need to be the default. Of course I would expect some women to fight tooth and nail to prevent such changes as it takes away their advantage over their ex-husbands. (It also means that any child support they might get would be minimized, if not eliminated altogether.)

Fortunately all of this is theoretical as the ERA is not part of the constitution. Though some laws should be changed regardless of the existence of the ERA as they do discriminate against men.

Friday Funny - Wolfman In New Hampshire

Thoughts On A Sunday

We had some more snow yesterday, though it was only a couple of inches. It was what we call a “nuisance” amount as it did make the roads slick but didn’t cause any other issues. One other thing that snowfall accomplished?

I showed that Lake Winnipesaukee had a lot more ice than we thought when the snow started accumulating on that ‘invisible’ ice. It was quite evident this morning as I was out running my usual Sunday morning pre-church errands. With the exception of some patches here and there, there was ice shore to shore, even in an area of the lake known as The Broads. The Broads are usually the last area to freeze over every winter, but there was a lot of ice there this morning.

One thing that delayed ice formation was the heavy winds that visited us over the past week. Those winds broke up what ice did form and piled it up against the eastern shores of the various islands, bays, and coves around the lake facing the main body of the lake.

Despite our weather we are suffering a snow deficit up here in the Northeast. The jet stream which usually steers snowstorms our way has shifted such that rather than directing storms up along the East Coast it sends them out to sea. It also means that areas of the mid-Atlanfic coast and down into northern Florida see snow, in some cases seeing snowfalls that we would normally expect to see up here.

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As the saying goes, what goes around comes around. And so it is with the consequences of the L.A. wildfires and the conditions that led to them being so devastating.

Unlike some of the other wildfires that have taken place in California, the L.A. wildfires have struck the elite just as much as it has the “little people” (meaning working folks like the rest of us) and in this case that devastation can be laid at the feet of blue misrule.

Comedian Billy Crystal lost his home — all but its tennis court — in Pacific Palisades.

The homes of actors Anthony Hopkins, Miles Teller and John Goodman were wiped out there, too.

Heiress Paris Hilton said she saw her luxe Malibu vacation house “burn to the ground on live TV.”

It’s unpleasant to talk about the politics that led to the loss of entire neighborhoods, but it’s necessary to examine the terrible policies that led to this preventable disaster.

After over a decade of one-party rule, California has become the testing ground for the left’s most extreme ideas — and we are seeing the results in real time now.

Whether it was cutting the budget of fire departments, not refilling the reservoirs, ignoring deforesting guidelines under pressure from environmentalists or simply deflecting blame, California’s leaders are agonizingly inept — and it shows.

There were so many opportunities for those in charge to take measures that would have reduced the chances of wildfires like those still burning in Los Angeles. That also applies to most of the wildfires experienced in California. The question now is whether the Powers That Be will actually do anything or whether they will maintain the insane status quo. I’m guessing it will be the latter.

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If this were to happen, it wouldn’t surprise me.

Biden May Blanket Pardon Those Who Targeted Trump and Those Who Weaponized Government

Joe Biden was asked yesterday if he would pardon anyone else. He couched his response, “it depends on some of the language and expectations that Trump broadcasts in the last couple days here as to what he’s going to do,” Biden told reporters at the White House. “There’s still consideration of some folks, but no decision.”

Now, think carefully about that response to the question. Biden handing out more pardons depends on what Donald Trump says he is going to do.

What exactly is the negotiating factor here? If Trump says he will hold people accountable for the weaponization of government, then Biden will preemptively pardon them. However, if President Trump does not say they will be held accountable, then no preemptive action is needed.

So Biden (or WRBA) will try to take the wind out of Trump’s sails if he decides to go after the cabal’s henchmen for trying to railroad him into prison and impoverish him as well? Not that it would stop Trump from having them investigated and exposed for their machinations. I am not sure on the law when it comes to civil law, but does a presidential pardon absolve such miscreants from being sued in civil court by an injured party?

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Hmm. This sounds intriguing.

Could it be that Donald Trump wasn’t just blowing smoke when it comes to Greenland? After much back and forth and speculation about that arctic land as well as the dismissive rhetoric from a lot of Democrats in the US, it seems Trump may be on to something, particularly in light of Greenland’s Prime Minister Egede is “ready to speak with Trump as ‘the status quo is no longer an option‘.”

…Egede said that “the status quo is not an option” as he laid out the desire of the vast and geopolitically crucial island of 57,000 to have “its own voice” by gaining independence from Denmark and turning down Trump’s attempts to buy Greenland.

“We don’t want to be Danish, we don’t want to be American, we want to be Greenlandic,” he told a news conference on Friday. Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at the same meeting that Greenland’s desire for independence was “legitimate and understandable”, while calling US interest in the autonomous territory “positive”.

Does this mean that he thinks Trump may be able to help Greenland achieve its independence? That would certainly be a ‘feather in his cap’ if Trump could do so while also making ties between Greenland and the US even closer. Might this be what he’s actually be working towards?

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From the “Just When I Thought They Couldn’t Get Stupider” Department comes this:

Environmental Experts To Rip Out Trees, Build Solar Electric Plant In Snow Belt To “Save The Environment”

So in some kind of backroom deal, Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources decided to auction off 420 acres of State forest on which a solar plant will be constructed. After the trees are cut down. The idea is to “save the environment”. Which you have to admit is a great joke.

It becomes a knee-slapper when you learn that solar plants result in a net increase in “greenhouse gases”.

--snip--

...Otsego county has about 26,000 people, and Gaylord itself is about 4,400. Gaylord has the largest snowfall in the lower Peninsula, a marvelous area for winter sports: I did a lot of cross-country skiing. Besides snow, except in the two to two-and-a-half month summer, there is not a lot of sun, and what little of it there is does not come direct, because the town is at the 45th parallel.

Solar, particularly large scale solar in places that far north that also have a lot of snowfall, don’t make sense to me. While where I live is just north of the 43rd parallel, we don’t see a lot of large scale solar here either for many of the same reasons. My state is over 80% forested and like the Gaylord, Michigan project it would require cutting down a lot of trees. It’s counterintuitive to cut down trees that are effective carbon sinks and replace them with something that will increase greenhouse gases.

During a back-of-the-envelope calculation about how much land area solar would be required here in New Hampshire to replace the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant, it came to approximately 120 square miles plus a lot of storage in order to provide the 1300MW of power generated 24/7/365 by Seabrook. At a minimum that would mean at least 96 square miles of forest would need to be cut down to provide the space needed for all those solar panels.

A note from the author of the linked post: I wrote the post...before learning the company that wanted the DNR’s land backed out (yesterday); however, the DNR has similar plans for other plots of land...so the details...still have value.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we’re watching the ice cover increasing, waiting for the winds to pick up again, and for the snows to return.

The Los Angeles Fires

Watching the coverage of the wildfires in LA has left me agog. Yes, wildfires aren’t unusual in California, but that these hit a major city and has destroyed an estimated 12,000 buildings so far is mind-boggling.

Like many of you I find the sheer scale of the destruction almost incomprehensible. What disturbed me were the recriminations for the inability of the fire departments involved to deal with these fires. That those fighting the fires were dealing with the hurricane force of the Santa Ana winds made the idea of being able to contain those fires absolutely ludicrous. As I heard one experienced firefighter who used to work for Cal Fire state it, they were having to deal with a “fire hurricane”. No amount of water or fire personnel or apparatus were going to be able out down those fires under those circumstances. At best they would be able to keep evacuation routes open and even then they were fighting a losing battle.

One of the videos I watched showed a recording from an exterior security camera as fire approached a home and what was seen was perfectly described by the “fire hurricane” label. It was amazing to see just how quickly the embers inundated the home that caused it to ignite. No amount of water would have been able to extinguish the flames.

However, both the state and city level government will need to be held responsible for the severity of the fires. In particular the state’s failure to mitigate the fuel load through brush cutting, controlled burns, and other measures. Building codes which would have required fire resistant construction methods and materials were quashed. Yes, they would have added to the cost of building homes, but what is the cost of rebuilding homes that were burned to the ground by wildfires? (In case you’re wondering, I saw more than a couple of reports showing a small number of homes in some of the burn areas that were unscathed because of the use of those construction methods and materials while homes surrounding them were all destroyed by the fires.)

The extent of the destruction so far is inconceivable. As much as the idea of extinguishing those fires is appealing, we just remember that in the case of wildfires it isn’t a matter of putting them out as much as it is containing them and letting them burn themselves out. Though these wildfires are urban, the same principle applies – contain them and let them burn themselves out. That thousands of more buildings may be lost before this happens is indeed a shame, but unless someone can come up with a more effective way to deal with fires like these, the present imperfect method is what we’ve got.

Once this is all over, it will take months, if not years, for Los Angeles to recover and for the investigations to figure out how to prevent something like this from happening again.

Friday Funny - Auto Parts

No video today and I still can't post pictures as Blogger still seems to buggered up. Instead I am including a link to O'Reilly Auto Parts, said link listing a part some of you might find useful.

Part# 121g.

Thoughts On A Sunday

I have to admit that getting back to work after New Year’s was a little daunting, though I did ‘cheat’ as I worked from home on Thursday and Friday, allowing me to edge back into work. Tomorrow I do actually have to go into the office. Some of my co-workers won’t be returning from their vacations until the 13^th of the month, so it is going to be quieter than usual in the office over the coming week. Fortunately there isn’t a lot of work waiting for me in the office as not a whole lot gets done during the last couple of weeks of the year which is one reason I take a majority of my vacation time at the end of the year.

If nothing else the three weeks I took off gave me a small view of what retirement would be like...and I didn’t like it in the least. Maybe I’m one of those folks who feel I should be productive and retirement means I would be just the opposite. I know more than a few folks who have voiced that sentiment, including a few who “unretired” because they had too much time on their hands and didn’t like it. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t consider changing careers or dialing back on the hours I put in for my existing job, but I would continue working.

Some people may think I and the others are crazy, but considering the present job situation in this country, there aren’t enough young people filling the jobs opened when someone retires. My employer has had open engineering positions that have gone unfilled for years. If it was just my company that had that issue I’d say the problem was with the company, but this has been an industry-wide problem and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be solved any time soon.

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Now that “Congestion Pricing” is going into effect in New York City, it’s going to be yet another self-inflicted blow to the Big Apple, and it’s likely to have a major negative effect on its economy.

Conservatives joke that the left will eventually get around to taxing the air we breathe and the sidewalks we walk on. The obvious allusion is to the idea that nothing is safe from taxation in liberal cities.

Today, New York City plans to tax the freedom to move in the United States. For the first time in the U.S., a city will apply "congestion pricing" to charge commuters, partygoers, tourists, and drivers just wanting to get from Point "A" to Point "B" $9 for the privilege of driving through lower Manhattan.

CBS News reports, "Drivers will be charged when they enter the Congestion Relief Zone using the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queensboro or Williamsburg Bridges, or the Holland, Hugh L. Carey, Lincoln or Queens-Midtown tunnels. Drivers coming from the Bronx or Upper Manhattan will be charged once they reach 60th Street."

--snip--

... back in June, Governor Kathy Hochul scotched the implementation of congestion pricing when polls showed it would cost Democrats the House of Representatives and several swing seats in New York state. "Unfair to working people" was her excuse then. After the election, she suddenly decided that it was OK to be unfair to working people. She allowed the pricing scheme to move forward but lowered the tax from $15 a trip to $9 a trip.

New Yorkers shouldn't worry. It will be $15 a trip soon enough. The planned tax increase to $15 will take place automatically in 2031.

Does anyone really think that it will increase to only $15 or that it won’t happen well before 2031? I also have to wonder if at some point New York City will start charging an exit fee as well. I wouldn’t put it past them. And then we could see a real life version of the old movie Escape From New York as people try to avoid paying to leave Manhattan. It could also mean that people just won’t bother going into New York at all.

Another thing related to this was something I read about trucking companies being pissed off about congestion pricing considering how much they already pay in taxes, fees, toll, licensing, and so on just to bring cargo into and out of the city. Now add in the congestion pricing on top of that and it’s adding insult to injury.

How many more such ideas like this will it take before New York Democrats wake up to what they are doing or see the Big Apple collapse much as we’ve been seeing in Portland and Seattle and San Francisco?

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Is woke dead? It would be nice if it was and disappeared from the face of the Earth. However, Mike Hendrix of Cold Fury fame shows us it’s hanging on on college campuses. One such campus is Tufts University in Boston.

Tufts University offering ‘Transcestors’ course next semester:

Two concepts for the course will be trans oppression and trans erasure. Other things included in the course description are book bans, transgender-identifying people playing in sports, and “access to trans-related healthcare.”

Tufts University is offering students a chance to study transgender-identifying persons throughout history in a course called “Transcestors: Trans History, Narrative & Influence” next semester.

According to the description, the course will prompt students with questions such as “How have transgender people been systematically misused, misunderstood, co-opted, and erased throughout history?”

It’s going to take a long time for the ‘woke’ madness to fade away and there will be some folks who will do what they can to keep it alive. However, they are members of an ever shrinking part of the population that tolerates such nonsense. It is my impression that the November 5^th election signaled the people’s rejection of the nonsense that’s been rammed down our throats the past few years, ‘woke’ being but one of those nonsensical things.

A meme that Mike included in his post sums up my feelings about the whole thing: “YOUR mental disorder does not constitute sufficient grounds for MY compulsory endorsement of it.”

Indeed.

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In line with the post just above comes this bit of moonbattery from Moonbattery:

Moonbat claims to be ‘oppressed’ by pink dresses.

[An] HMRC [Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs] worker who branded her female boss ‘sexist’ when she said in a meeting that she wanted a granddaughter so she could buy ‘pink dresses’ has lost a discrimination claim, an employment tribunal heard.

Rachel Gladstone demanded that team leader Sandra Edwards apologise, asking that she ‘keep the overt spoilt pink baby girl princess sexism for your private and family life’.

Ms Gladstone added that it was a ‘triggering’ subject for her as she had spent time while raising her own daughter to counteract the ‘pink is for girls’ culture…

Yet more delusion. As I quoted above, “YOUR mental disorder does not constitute sufficient grounds for MY compulsory endorsement of it.”

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How long before the UK learns the lesson Germany has learned when it comes to wind power, that lesson being that it’s a scam that doesn’t work and costs consumers a lot of money?

Ponder for a moment how intrinsically unsuitable, maladapted, and worthless wind turbines are to a grid. Their failure is so comprehensive, multifaceted and inevitable, an entirely new and bizarre market was invented to reward their failures. Even when they generate electricity, if the time is wrong, the demand is low, or the network can’t handle it, they will still be paid. The grid can’t use the power, but the customer still gets slugged for something they didn’t use, or they couldn’t get. In the UK the costs for this useless power grew to nearly £400 million last year.

The largest provider of useless power was SeaGreen wind plant which made nearly twice as much from being “constrained” than from being of service. The Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) reports that SeaGreen earned £100 million for making electricity, and £200 million for being “constrained”. Effectively, the useful electricity it made costs a shocking £2.70 a kilowatt hour, after the other payments are included.

Obviously, when the government rewards failure, the market responds by planning to fail. It follows then that industrial wind plant developers would be bonkers if they weren’t looking for sites where their output would arrive at the worst possible time, or through the most remote and overloaded corner of the network.

Everything about the wind industry has “Rent Seeker” tattooed all over it.

And it’s going to get worse, not just in the UK, but everywhere that wind is being pushed as a path to Net Zero. The only ones benefiting from it are the wind farm owners.

Here in my home state – New Hampshire – our new governor, Kelly Ayotte, has been pushing for a renaissance of nuclear power, something that has a better chance of reducing carbon emissions while still providing all of the electricity needed to meet demand.

New Hampshire already receives ~60% of its electrical power from nuclear. The balance comes from natural gas, something that is expensive in New England because of the NIMBYs and BANANAs blocking a new pipeline, hydro, coal, biomass, wind, and solar. Since the aforementioned NIMBYs and BANANAs also don’t like power lines, New England can’t bring in cheap, plentiful, and green hydropower in from Quebec. Solar is a non-starter because, let’s face it, it isn’t available when we need it the most (winter). So nuclear is an option, particularly in light of advanced Gen III and Gen IV small modular reactors which keeps the construction costs down, are safer to operate, and some of which don’t have the nuclear waste disposal issues of old Gen II and early Gen III reactors.

Hopefully we can avoid the Net Zero scam of the kind being perpetrated by the wind power advocates in Europe.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the temps are cold, the windchill is colder, and where we’re still waiting for the main part of the lake to freeze over.

A Letter To The Public

I have commented now and then on this blog about how the relations between men and women have changed over the past few decades. Frankly, they aren’t as good as they used to be. I have mentioned that I have seen more young men and women going it alone, meaning they aren’t dating, aren’t getting married, aren’t starting families. I could point out a host of reasons why this is happening, and doing so, could make this post dozens of pages long. Some of those reasons I would cite would be based upon my observations, on my indirect experiences, and on numerous articles and websites. I could lay the blame for this situation on all kinds of social changes that have taken place, one of them being the disconnect that has been caused by social media, something that was supposed to bring people together but has had just the opposite effect.

When I see stats that say that 63% of single men between the ages of 18 and 36 are not dating, that’s a danger signal. That the marriage rate in the US has plummeted while divorce rates have skyrocketed is also a danger signal. I watch posts on YouTube and TikTok which see modern women disparaging men because thy don’t meet unrealistic expectations and those which see modern men disparaging women as self-important with inflated visions of their self-worth and who should be dating them – basically narcissism – and to whom the average man is invisibl. It’s gone too darned far. I could delve deeper into that and spend hours writing this post.

What brought this up at today’s topic? Simply, a letter in today’s edition of our local paper which was more of an advertisement and social commentary at the same time. Here it is minus a few identifying items at the end:

Chance for Love

Perhaps is is now as it has always been in part, some fault of my own that my dear boy, who is now a young man, is unable to find love. My heart aches every day at the concealed loneliness behind his steadfast routine. He is too humble to bestow accolades upon himself and is not well leveraged to meet women. As such, please consider my shameless proclamation herein notwithstanding his consent.

This tall and handsome lad is unique in this time for his genuine character, honesty and benevolence. Strong, healthy and fit, he does not drink nor smoke any variety. He bears a lifelong respect for Christian principles but is not settled on a religion. A constitution-loving American boy, he aligns with those who are proud of this country and its heritage. He has no offspring and no debt despite earning a difficult bachelor's degree and more. An intellectual homebody of sorts, he also enjoys working outdoors, seasonal activities, and playing with his dogs in his home state of (central) New Hampshire.

At age 28, my responsible and dependable son continues to add to his current savings that can easily secure a comfortable homestead. He has long conveyed his desire to marry a kindhearted and hardworking woman of similar values for the purpose of raising a family and mutual, lifelong devotion, adoration and happiness. His presence is always enjoyed and his character admired by those who come to know him, but he is not fluent at fostering these eventualities. Social enterprises and watering holes are not compatible with his reserved personality. Sound like your warm heart? Only if [you’re] true, take a chance and I will reveal to him this post and your response.

That it has come to this is disheartening, at least to me. Fifty, forty, thirty, even twenty years ago young women would be beating a path to this young man’s door. Today, he’s invisible to them because he’s not what have become to be known as a “Sixer” – at least six feet tall, six pack abs, six figure income, and and at least six inches where it counts. He also has to be at least ‘9’ in looks as well as meet a lengthy and unrealistic list of other “must haves” that no man on the planet can possibly meet. He’s not “exciting”, meaning he’s not a bad boy, not a so-called “Chad” or “Tyrone”. Today, he might be someone a modern young women might “settle” for, but that’s about it. That’s a sad commentary.

That this young man’s mother has had to resort to such a letter/advertisement in a newspaper shows us just how bad it’s become. Reading it, I know of a dozen or so young men that fit the description laid out by this woman concerned about her son’s non-existent love life.

‘Nuff said...

Friday Funny - Slaw & Order - SVU

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s the last Sunday or 2024, a year that’s been “interesting” as in the old Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times” kind of way.

We saw politics devolve into yet another “‘He’s a poopy-head!’ ‘No, he’s a poopy-head!’” kind of style of campaigning. I don’t think there was anyone who wasn’t relieved when November 5^th came and went, regardless whether or not one’s candidate won or lost. We saw SpaceX break more records with both the number of launches and the number of launches for their reusable first stage boosters. We have watched the seemingly endless war in Ukraine, with Russia sending it’s soldiers – young, old, and conscripts – to die in the meat-grinder that is Ukraine, all to make Putin’s dream of a reconstituted Russian Empire come true. We’ve seen an administration fall apart as the truth of the President’s mental competence has come to light now that the secret no longer matters to the DNC or the media. And worst of all, the New England

On the other hand, some things have been the opposite. Gas prices have been falling despite the best efforts of the present administration to do just the opposite. There seems to be a resurgence of hope and optimism across almost all strata of society, particularly after the November election. On the personal level, a dear friend has come back into my life after decades apart and it’s as if no time at all has passed.

2025 looks like it might be a good year.

==++++==

From the “Just When I Thought They Couldn’t Get Any Stupider” Department comes this latest bit of of governmental stupidity from the state of New York.

NY Gov. Kathy Hochul Signs Law Forcing Energy Companies to Fund “Climate Change Superfund.

It all comes down to this:

New York is spending billions on illegal immigrants, and is facing a $16 billion deficit in 2028. So the NY Governor and legislature are trying to force fossil fuel companies to pay $3 billion each year for 25 years based on pseudoscience and virtue-signalling.

--snip--

Monies that once went to road improvements and other infrastructure projects has clearly been diverted, and the coffers are coming up empty. The Division of the Budget projects a growing general fund deficit that could reach $7.25 billion in three years. The Citizens Budget Commission estimates a structural deficit that could exceed $16 billion in the 2028 fiscal year.

Faced with these issues, what is a governor to do? Kathy Hochul decided the best play was to blend climate cultism and virtue-signalling to target energy companies, confiscating billions to play for the essential infrastructure projects.

Anyone paying attention knows what the end result will be, and it won’t be what Governor Hochul and the New York City Metro Area think it will be.

Even with the influx of illegal immigrants due to its ‘sanctuary state’ status, the Empire State’s population has been shrinking, with residents seeking freedom and tax relief by relocating to friendlier states, mostly Southern states. By imposing the bogus “climate change” tax all they will do is make it even more attractive to leave New York.

A commenter on the linking Instapundit post brought up an interesting point:

Bill[s] of Attainder are allowed in New York State?

Such legislation certainly might be considered one, and if it is, it is unconstitutional.

It will certainly be interesting to see how this will work out...for the people of New York.

==++++==

China certainly has a lot of exports. It turns out one of its latest exports is slavery.

Brazilian authorities have halted construction of a BYD electric vehicle (EV) factory in Brazil’s Bahia state after rescuing 163 Chinese workers from what they described as “slavery-like conditions.” The workers were employed by Jinjiang Construction Brazil Ltd., a subcontractor hired to build the plant for the Chinese EV manufacturer.

The Labor Prosecutor’s Office reported that workers were subjected to dire living conditions, had their passports confiscated and 60% of their wages withheld. Following the report, BYD terminated its relationship with Jinjiang Construction and vowed to safeguard subcontracted workers’ rights.

I think that’s one Chinese export we should skip.

==++++==

Is NPR and PBS doomed? Seeing the direction Trump wants to go with the help of Elon, Vivek, and DOGE, I’d have to say the answer is “Yes”.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is a private, nonprofit organization that allocates funding to over 1,500 locally owned public radio and television stations across the country, according to its website. In 2023, the federal government appropriated $535 million to support its operations.

Since the CPB’s establishment by the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, the political content on most public media channels has leaned heavily to the left. As a result, every Republican presidential administration has attempted to defund it—and, by extension, the PBS and NPR-affiliated outlets it distributes funds to.

During his first term, President-elect Donald Trump tried – unsuccessfully – to keep funding for public media out of his administration’s annual budgets.

--snip--

Children’s programming and public safety alerts aside, PBS – and NPR as well – present a distorted perspective on political matters. They are indistinguishable from the legacy media in that they offer readers only one side of every story.

So far, none of the Republicans’ efforts to defund the public media have succeeded. But that may be about to change.

According to The New York Times, the reason just might be Elon Musk. The Times sees the current threat to public media as being different from previous fights “because of the newfound passion and sudden ascent of Mr. Musk, who has made plain his deep distaste for traditional media.”

The Guardian reported that in April 2023, Musk referred to NPR as “state-affiliated media,” noting that is the same term they use “for propaganda outlets in Russia and China.” After NPR left Twitter, Musk wrote a post that read, “Defund @NPR.”

I have not been a fan of NPR for years, particularly since it has acted more like a media organ for the Democrat Party and the Left for years. Too many reports did present only one side of the story and ignored any data or evidence that contradicted the narrative being sold. That’s not reporting. That’s propaganda. No government, no political party should control media, be it news organizations or social media.

==++++==

Is the Left now falling apart, both here and elsewhere? That seems to be the case.

In the 1960s, the left-wing radicalism of college students drove massive changes in American politics. The primary issue was the war in Vietnam, but there was more bubbling and churning beneath the surface than just anti-war sentiment. Racial issues had been forced fully into the open. The women's liberation movement was set to explode. Class divisions were heightened as inflation took hold and unemployment began to rise.

At the same time that students were protesting in America, they were also marching in France, Germany, Great Britain, and most of Western Europe. The status quo was out. Progressivism (liberalism) was in.

--snip--

It's been a left-wing world since then.

But the ground is shifting beneath our feet, and reform and revolution are in the air. What pundits and analysts tried to pass off as "backlash," "nativism," and "neo-fascism" was actually the mass movement of minds in revolt against a status quo that didn't care about ordinary people, didn't care that the country of their birth was being systematically and deliberately eliminated for some higher purpose.

People see that Leftism isn’t working and decided they weren’t going to support it anymore. (This isn’t surprising as there are over 400 years of history to show that Leftism, or more accurately socialism, doesn’t work and has never worked.)

==++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it’s been raining, been foggy, and won’t be clearing out until later Monday.