When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted on Jan. 15, it sent a tsunami racing around the world and set off a sonic boom that circled the globe twice. The underwater eruption in the South Pacific Ocean also blasted an enormous plume of water vapor into Earth’s stratosphere – enough to fill more than 58,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. The sheer amount of water vapor could be enough to temporarily affect Earth’s global average temperature.That is a lot of water, or in this case, water vapor injected into Earth’s stratosphere. Water vapor is a greenhouse gas, but it also has an amplifying effect in regard to other greenhouse gases. With the amount of water added to the stratosphere due to the Tonga eruption it shouldn’t be surprising there may be warmer than normal temperatures. Eventually that extra water vapor will be gone and the amplification effect won’t be there.
“We’ve never seen anything like it,” said Luis Millán, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. He led a new study examining the amount of water vapor that the Tonga volcano injected into the stratosphere, the layer of the atmosphere between about 8 and 33 miles (12 and 53 kilometers) above Earth’s surface.
In the study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, Millán and his colleagues estimate that the Tonga eruption sent around 146 teragrams (1 teragram equals a trillion grams [146 million metric tons]) of water vapor into Earth’s stratosphere – equal to 10% of the water already present in that atmospheric layer. That’s nearly four times the amount of water vapor that scientists estimate the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines lofted into the stratosphere.
8/06/2022
It Ain't The Carbon Dioxide
I have been hearing more than a few of the AGW faithful blaming the heat waves we’ve been experiencing on CO2, totally ignoring anything else that might have contributed to the heat waves...like water. Or in this case, over 146 million metric tons of extra water injected into the atmosphere.
8/03/2022
From The Archives - Ignore Human Nature At Your Own Peril
This post came from October 2012. Be aware it does make references to the 2012 Presidential elections, but some of the subjects referenced are still germane today. I did make a few small changes with the ‘old’ out of date information struck out and new info right next to it.
The subject matter of this old post is always timely, but something that needs to be stated again and again. People need to be reminded of things they may have forgotten, or perhaps never knew.
I have to say that I have been a student of human nature since I was twelve. Not that I knew I was studying human nature at that tender age, but looking back from44 54 years later I see that even then I wondered what made people tick, what made them do what they do. Not that I was delving into individual behavior so much as human behavior in general.
Over the years I've realized that much of human nature cuts across all cultural and racial lines. There are cultural differences, but for the most part the variations are minor compared to baseline human nature.
I'm not going to get deeply into this subject as it could easily exceed 100,000 words. Besides, I know you do not have either the patience or the time to read something that long. I won't be dealing with psychology as I have no expertise in that area.
Before I continue let me state that I am in no way professionally trained. All of my 'expertise' is derived from over4 5 decades of observation, personal experience, and deductions derived from that. Please keep that in mind as you read my non-scholarly scribblings.
First and foremost, people will act in their self-interest or the interests of their family and friends above all else. Altruism, as nice as it sounds, is something that we humans will express now and then, and then only under certain conditions or circumstances. No one can be altruistic 24/7. It isn't possible as it makes them either doormats or slaves to others wants and needs to the detriment of themselves or their families. Yet this little bit of human nature is something oft ignored. Over centuries there have been many attempts to create altruistic societies, some by mutual agreement and others by force of arms and 're-education'. Every single attempt has failed.
One of the better documented attempts at all-altruism-all-the-time took place in the American Colonies, specifically in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in the early 1620's. They predated Marx's axiom “From each according to his ability. To each according to his need” by 350 years. All colonists would supply the common larder and all colonists would draw from that larder as needed. The problem this created was that more people were willing to draw from the larder than to fill it. It lead to famine and the colony almost died out. Only help from the local Indian tribe prevented them from starving to death. Once they abandoned that philosophy and went back to doing things on an individual basis did the colony flourish.
Over the centuries other countries and cultures have tried the same thing and all their 'experiments' have ended the same way – utter failure, economic collapse, and many times, armed revolution. We've seen it again and again just in the 20th century: the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Cuba (falling apart), and Venezuela (also falling apart). The People's Republic of China, while still a Marxist state, has abandoned most of the Marxist economic policies because they knew they didn't work and saw the results of not making a change. And while their economy is now more capitalist and the economic riches they have brought has made China an economic powerhouse, they still cling to some of the Marxist economic oversight/planning and much of the political baggage that goes with it. In the end it is still likely to come apart as world economics change around them.
And now we get to the crux of the matter – politics. It is here where politicians of all stripes get it wrong in regards to human nature. (Well, not all politicians. Just most of them.) And because of this lack of understanding, much of what they do at the local, state, and federal level falls prey to the Law of Unintended Consequences. This in turn tends to create more problems that what they thought they were fixing (if indeed anything really needed to be fixed in the first place).
During the 20th century a number of attempts have been made to improve the conditions within our society. Some have worked. Many have not. Those that succeeded tended to work with human nature. Those that failed chose to ignore it, or worse, those supporting them believed that human nature could be changed.
Many of the welfare programs that existed prior to 1965 worked, for the most part. Both control and funding were provided locally and the welfare officials knew their clients. Except for those truly incapable of supporting themselves, most folks weren't on welfare long. In fact, the welfare rolls had been decreasing starting just before the Korean War. The welfare system as it was was working. True, there were more than a few that weren't very good, but they were the exception, not the rule. Then came along Lyndon Baines Johnson's Great Society, a massive takeover of welfare by the federal government. It's theme was “The War on Poverty.” It looked good on paper, but it overlooked human nature in regards to how the programs were regulated and structured. While the new welfare system was supposed to help those in need, it ended up trapping many of them in poverty, providing too much in the way of help and making remaining one welfare preferable to working. The laws and regulations also had the effect of breaking up many families as too often the only way a family with children could receive assistance was if the father was absent. Other 'incentives' such as increasing benefits with each additional child perversely created more single parent homes with each child fathered by a different man. This was not the original intent of the Great Society (at least I'd like to think it wasn't), but that's what we ended up with. The people 'stuck' in the welfare system decided it was in their best interest to stay within the system rather than taking jobs that provided far less than their welfare benefits.
And so it is with many other 'gifts' bestowed upon the populace by the government. Things that were supposed to help end up making the problem worse as more people come under the sway of things that appeal to their self-interest, not realizing that by taking advantage of these gifts they are giving up some things even more important, namely their independence and self-respect. How often has it happened that the very folks who are 'helped' come to resent those who have provided the help in the first place? How often do they come to feel perpetually entitled to that help? Call those but two of the many unintended consequences of political action taken to fix a problem that didn't need to be fixed.
Then there are policies, laws, regulations, and taxes that move business owners to do just the opposite of what was intended by those same policies, laws, regulations, and taxes. As we have heard over the past four years all of the government's efforts (or should we say the President's efforts) have had just the opposite effect of what was intended. Call this another example of what happens when you don't understand human nature.
When success is punished by heavier taxation, when laws are passed that make it more attractive to do business elsewhere, when regulations make it difficult if not impossible to do business, one of two things will happen – businesses will move elsewhere or businesses that might have thrived will close. Yet those who figured these laws, regulations, and taxes that burden businesses would be gladly shouldered by them are surprised when they find it isn't so. But anyone who understands human nature knows they won't. We've certainly seen that in a number of places over the past few years. All we need to do to see examples of businesses giving up is to look to California, the EU, Argentina, Venezuela, and a host of other countries and states. If government goes against human nature when dealing with business, everyone loses as businesses flee or pull the plug and close their doors. It's happened again and again, yet the Powers-That-Be fail to learn the lesson: punish people enough for being successful and they'll stop being successful or move someplace else and be successful there.
Ayn Rand outlined that issue in Atlas Shrugged, where government took all kinds of actions “for the good of the people”, yet every action they took made things worse. All those efforts by the government had exactly the opposite effect, and businesses and business owners “went Galt”, meaning they refused to support the government and went on strike, denying the government the fruits of their labors. The business owners acted in their own self-interest – as is human nature – and told the government to go screw itself. The result – the economy, and with it the government, headed for collapse. (Rand certainly seemed to understand human nature as evidenced by Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.)
OK, enough said. I haven't covered anything I haven't covered before. But with the upcoming elections I have to remind everyone that the one thing we have to keep in mind is that one party has a somewhat better understanding of human nature than the other, and it's not the party that presently holds the US Senate or the White House. If nothing else they have ignored human nature and taken a course of action that has deepened the recession, driven prices up across the board (except for housing prices, which have collapsed), and made it very unattractive to do business here.
The subject matter of this old post is always timely, but something that needs to be stated again and again. People need to be reminded of things they may have forgotten, or perhaps never knew.
==++==
I have to say that I have been a student of human nature since I was twelve. Not that I knew I was studying human nature at that tender age, but looking back from
Over the years I've realized that much of human nature cuts across all cultural and racial lines. There are cultural differences, but for the most part the variations are minor compared to baseline human nature.
I'm not going to get deeply into this subject as it could easily exceed 100,000 words. Besides, I know you do not have either the patience or the time to read something that long. I won't be dealing with psychology as I have no expertise in that area.
Before I continue let me state that I am in no way professionally trained. All of my 'expertise' is derived from over
First and foremost, people will act in their self-interest or the interests of their family and friends above all else. Altruism, as nice as it sounds, is something that we humans will express now and then, and then only under certain conditions or circumstances. No one can be altruistic 24/7. It isn't possible as it makes them either doormats or slaves to others wants and needs to the detriment of themselves or their families. Yet this little bit of human nature is something oft ignored. Over centuries there have been many attempts to create altruistic societies, some by mutual agreement and others by force of arms and 're-education'. Every single attempt has failed.
One of the better documented attempts at all-altruism-all-the-time took place in the American Colonies, specifically in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in the early 1620's. They predated Marx's axiom “From each according to his ability. To each according to his need” by 350 years. All colonists would supply the common larder and all colonists would draw from that larder as needed. The problem this created was that more people were willing to draw from the larder than to fill it. It lead to famine and the colony almost died out. Only help from the local Indian tribe prevented them from starving to death. Once they abandoned that philosophy and went back to doing things on an individual basis did the colony flourish.
Over the centuries other countries and cultures have tried the same thing and all their 'experiments' have ended the same way – utter failure, economic collapse, and many times, armed revolution. We've seen it again and again just in the 20th century: the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Cuba (falling apart), and Venezuela (also falling apart). The People's Republic of China, while still a Marxist state, has abandoned most of the Marxist economic policies because they knew they didn't work and saw the results of not making a change. And while their economy is now more capitalist and the economic riches they have brought has made China an economic powerhouse, they still cling to some of the Marxist economic oversight/planning and much of the political baggage that goes with it. In the end it is still likely to come apart as world economics change around them.
And now we get to the crux of the matter – politics. It is here where politicians of all stripes get it wrong in regards to human nature. (Well, not all politicians. Just most of them.) And because of this lack of understanding, much of what they do at the local, state, and federal level falls prey to the Law of Unintended Consequences. This in turn tends to create more problems that what they thought they were fixing (if indeed anything really needed to be fixed in the first place).
During the 20th century a number of attempts have been made to improve the conditions within our society. Some have worked. Many have not. Those that succeeded tended to work with human nature. Those that failed chose to ignore it, or worse, those supporting them believed that human nature could be changed.
Many of the welfare programs that existed prior to 1965 worked, for the most part. Both control and funding were provided locally and the welfare officials knew their clients. Except for those truly incapable of supporting themselves, most folks weren't on welfare long. In fact, the welfare rolls had been decreasing starting just before the Korean War. The welfare system as it was was working. True, there were more than a few that weren't very good, but they were the exception, not the rule. Then came along Lyndon Baines Johnson's Great Society, a massive takeover of welfare by the federal government. It's theme was “The War on Poverty.” It looked good on paper, but it overlooked human nature in regards to how the programs were regulated and structured. While the new welfare system was supposed to help those in need, it ended up trapping many of them in poverty, providing too much in the way of help and making remaining one welfare preferable to working. The laws and regulations also had the effect of breaking up many families as too often the only way a family with children could receive assistance was if the father was absent. Other 'incentives' such as increasing benefits with each additional child perversely created more single parent homes with each child fathered by a different man. This was not the original intent of the Great Society (at least I'd like to think it wasn't), but that's what we ended up with. The people 'stuck' in the welfare system decided it was in their best interest to stay within the system rather than taking jobs that provided far less than their welfare benefits.
And so it is with many other 'gifts' bestowed upon the populace by the government. Things that were supposed to help end up making the problem worse as more people come under the sway of things that appeal to their self-interest, not realizing that by taking advantage of these gifts they are giving up some things even more important, namely their independence and self-respect. How often has it happened that the very folks who are 'helped' come to resent those who have provided the help in the first place? How often do they come to feel perpetually entitled to that help? Call those but two of the many unintended consequences of political action taken to fix a problem that didn't need to be fixed.
Then there are policies, laws, regulations, and taxes that move business owners to do just the opposite of what was intended by those same policies, laws, regulations, and taxes. As we have heard over the past four years all of the government's efforts (or should we say the President's efforts) have had just the opposite effect of what was intended. Call this another example of what happens when you don't understand human nature.
When success is punished by heavier taxation, when laws are passed that make it more attractive to do business elsewhere, when regulations make it difficult if not impossible to do business, one of two things will happen – businesses will move elsewhere or businesses that might have thrived will close. Yet those who figured these laws, regulations, and taxes that burden businesses would be gladly shouldered by them are surprised when they find it isn't so. But anyone who understands human nature knows they won't. We've certainly seen that in a number of places over the past few years. All we need to do to see examples of businesses giving up is to look to California, the EU, Argentina, Venezuela, and a host of other countries and states. If government goes against human nature when dealing with business, everyone loses as businesses flee or pull the plug and close their doors. It's happened again and again, yet the Powers-That-Be fail to learn the lesson: punish people enough for being successful and they'll stop being successful or move someplace else and be successful there.
Ayn Rand outlined that issue in Atlas Shrugged, where government took all kinds of actions “for the good of the people”, yet every action they took made things worse. All those efforts by the government had exactly the opposite effect, and businesses and business owners “went Galt”, meaning they refused to support the government and went on strike, denying the government the fruits of their labors. The business owners acted in their own self-interest – as is human nature – and told the government to go screw itself. The result – the economy, and with it the government, headed for collapse. (Rand certainly seemed to understand human nature as evidenced by Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.)
OK, enough said. I haven't covered anything I haven't covered before. But with the upcoming elections I have to remind everyone that the one thing we have to keep in mind is that one party has a somewhat better understanding of human nature than the other, and it's not the party that presently holds the US Senate or the White House. If nothing else they have ignored human nature and taken a course of action that has deepened the recession, driven prices up across the board (except for housing prices, which have collapsed), and made it very unattractive to do business here.
7/31/2022
Thoughts On A Sunday
It’s been a nice weekend, with warm temps and low humidity. I wish I could say I was busy all weekend, but I was under the weather and didn’t make it out except for my usual early Sunday morning run to Walmart.
I had planned to spend Saturday morning down at our town docks to help with our annual Island Clean Up Day, an event that has our town’s island residents hauling junk and other non-trash items to the docks where our DPW workers and volunteers help unload their boats and haul the junk to the waiting dumpsters and trucks. This is something I help with every year and it’s the first time I’ve missed doing so. But I wasn’t up for it.
Instead, I dealt with more domestic chores: vacuuming, laundry, dishes, and so on.
Not exactly what I had planned for this weekend.
China is rattling its sabers again, threatening to intercept and shoot down Nancy Pelosi’s plane of she tries to visit Taiwan. Considering the state if its economy, trying to foment a war with the US seems like the height of stupidity. One has to wonder if this ‘provocative’ action is meant as a distraction to take the people’s attention away from the crumbling Chinese economy.
Does the CCP believe it could invade Taiwan and not pay a heavy price in manpower, prestige, as well as economically? Trying to annex Taiwan isn’t anywhere near as easy as Russia’s attempt to annex Ukraine. That China would expect the US to not keep its promise to Taiwan to help defend it seems foolish, even with SloJo in office. To threaten to attack the Speaker of the House, seems extremely foolish.
Just when I thought things couldn’t get any stupider in San Francisco I am proven wrong.
The latest bit of stupidity? A couple parks their car in a legal parking spot on the street they’ve used for 25 years, then a city crew paints the curb red next to the car, signifying a No Parking Zone, and the couple is issued a $108 parking ticket.
I guess the city of San Francisco really needs the revenue if they have to resort to ex post facto creation of No Parking Zones just in order to be able to issue fines to otherwise law-abiding citizens.
I expect this will help more residents of San Francisco make the decision to “get out while the gettin’s good”.
This certainly has put the climate cultists knickers in a twist, ‘this’ being the results of a NOAA Surface Station site survey conducted by Anthony Watts which showed that “approximately 96 percent of U.S. temperature stations used to measure climate change fail to meet what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) considers to be “acceptable” and uncorrupted placement by its own published standards.”
How much can anyone trust the predictions made by the climate cultists if the data they’re using is junk?
OK, now this whole Bidenflation thing has gone too damn far!
First, it’s gas and oil prices going up with the stroke of SloJo’s Executive Order pen. Then it’s food prices, clothing prices, and everything else prices. Supplies are also short because of the unprecedented inflation.
The latest victim of Bidenflation?
Hershey’s.
Hershey Warns There Won’t Be Enough Candy To Meet Halloween Demand.
This. Means. WAR!!
It’s not gonna be pretty...
Why is it white people find CRT (Critical Race Theory) so threatening?
I guess it depends upon which version is being taught, right?
Having had the opportunity to review some of the CRT courses and most of those directly or indirectly blame white people for all the ills suffered in the world today, both past and present. They teach that only white people can be racist. (I know from personal experience that is not the case having seen and been subjected to racism by non-white people.)
CRT is serving no purpose other than to make people angry about things the don’t need to be angry about as a means of dividing people. It’s right out of Marx and Alinsky.
And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather has been great, the neighborhood has been quiet, and Monday is returning...again.
I had planned to spend Saturday morning down at our town docks to help with our annual Island Clean Up Day, an event that has our town’s island residents hauling junk and other non-trash items to the docks where our DPW workers and volunteers help unload their boats and haul the junk to the waiting dumpsters and trucks. This is something I help with every year and it’s the first time I’ve missed doing so. But I wasn’t up for it.
Instead, I dealt with more domestic chores: vacuuming, laundry, dishes, and so on.
Not exactly what I had planned for this weekend.
==++==
China is rattling its sabers again, threatening to intercept and shoot down Nancy Pelosi’s plane of she tries to visit Taiwan. Considering the state if its economy, trying to foment a war with the US seems like the height of stupidity. One has to wonder if this ‘provocative’ action is meant as a distraction to take the people’s attention away from the crumbling Chinese economy.
Does the CCP believe it could invade Taiwan and not pay a heavy price in manpower, prestige, as well as economically? Trying to annex Taiwan isn’t anywhere near as easy as Russia’s attempt to annex Ukraine. That China would expect the US to not keep its promise to Taiwan to help defend it seems foolish, even with SloJo in office. To threaten to attack the Speaker of the House, seems extremely foolish.
==++==
Just when I thought things couldn’t get any stupider in San Francisco I am proven wrong.
The latest bit of stupidity? A couple parks their car in a legal parking spot on the street they’ve used for 25 years, then a city crew paints the curb red next to the car, signifying a No Parking Zone, and the couple is issued a $108 parking ticket.
I guess the city of San Francisco really needs the revenue if they have to resort to ex post facto creation of No Parking Zones just in order to be able to issue fines to otherwise law-abiding citizens.
I expect this will help more residents of San Francisco make the decision to “get out while the gettin’s good”.
==++==
This certainly has put the climate cultists knickers in a twist, ‘this’ being the results of a NOAA Surface Station site survey conducted by Anthony Watts which showed that “approximately 96 percent of U.S. temperature stations used to measure climate change fail to meet what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) considers to be “acceptable” and uncorrupted placement by its own published standards.”
The chart...found on page 17 of the report, shows 30 years of data from NOAA temperature stations in the Continental United States (CONUS). The blue lines show recorded temperatures and the trend from stations that comply with NOAA’s published standards. The yellow lines are temperatures taken from stations that are not compliant with those standards (i.e. near artificial hot spots). The red lines are the “official” adjusted temperature released by NOAA.Junk data gives junk results. Junk data gives junk predictions and models using the junk data give erroneous results.
“If you look at the unperturbed stations that adhere to NOAA’s published standard – ones that are correctly located and free of localized urban heat biases – they display about half the rate of warming compared to perturbed stations that have such biases,” Watts said. “Yet, NOAA continues to use the data from their warm-biased century-old surface temperature networks to produce monthly and yearly reports to the U.S. public on the state of the climate.”
How much can anyone trust the predictions made by the climate cultists if the data they’re using is junk?
==++==
OK, now this whole Bidenflation thing has gone too damn far!
First, it’s gas and oil prices going up with the stroke of SloJo’s Executive Order pen. Then it’s food prices, clothing prices, and everything else prices. Supplies are also short because of the unprecedented inflation.
The latest victim of Bidenflation?
Hershey’s.
Hershey Warns There Won’t Be Enough Candy To Meet Halloween Demand.
This. Means. WAR!!
“We will not be able to fully meet consumer demand due to capacity constraints,” Hershey chief executive Michele Buck told analysts during a Thursday earnings call.If chocolate goes into short supply I don’t want to be anywhere near thickly settled areas when our womenfolk start suffering from withdrawals.
The Hershey, Pa.-based manufacturer said it began in April to build a stockpile of Hershey Bars, Kisses, KitKats, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Twizzlers and York Peppermint Pattys to prepare for the crucial Halloween and holiday seasons.
“And we were really producing,” Buck said of the early push.
The problem, Buck explained, is that Hershey makes its seasonal candies and all-year-round products on the same manufacturing equipment, and demand for sweets in general has exceeded the company’s expectations.
Movie theaters also reported difficulty in procuring enough sweets and snacks earlier this year, as The Post reported.
It’s not gonna be pretty...
==++==
Why is it white people find CRT (Critical Race Theory) so threatening?
I guess it depends upon which version is being taught, right?
Having had the opportunity to review some of the CRT courses and most of those directly or indirectly blame white people for all the ills suffered in the world today, both past and present. They teach that only white people can be racist. (I know from personal experience that is not the case having seen and been subjected to racism by non-white people.)
CRT is serving no purpose other than to make people angry about things the don’t need to be angry about as a means of dividing people. It’s right out of Marx and Alinsky.
==++==
And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather has been great, the neighborhood has been quiet, and Monday is returning...again.
7/30/2022
From The Comments - Gun Violence
Seen in the comments from this post over at Instapundit:
Of the mass shootings committed over the past decade or so, how many were by “known wolves”, meaning law enforcement officials were aware of the eventual perpetrator’s proclivities and mental state, knew of threats made directly or on social media? Most of them.
The problem is violence. The problem is mental illness. Both are being ignored and the focus is being placed in the wrong area. That solves nothing.
I hate the term 'gun violence' when what they really mean is 'gun crime'.When it comes to gun crime, it is almost always known criminals committing them. In places like Chicago, it is mostly gang violence with members of one gang shooting members of another gang. That there is collateral damage, meaning innocent bystanders being wounded or killed, doesn’t matter to these miscreants. That none of the weapons used are legally obtained – bought on the black market and not at a gun store or gun show – doesn’t mean anything to anti-gunners.
Violent crime is an increasing problem, particularly in the Blue enclaves. A lot of that increase in violent crime can be laid at the feet of the political leaders since so many of them have done what they can to give violent criminals free reign to victimize the people in those enclaves.
It isn't 'gun' violence. It's violence. It isn't 'knife' violence. It's violence. It isn't 'blunt object' violence. It's violence.
And now the folks in Washington want to spread that particular plague nationwide and make sure only violent criminals will have guns and the law abiding citizens will be defenseless. Every gun crime is used as an excuse to disarm the people even though any measures to 'reduce gun violence' will have the opposite effect...exactly as intended.
Of the mass shootings committed over the past decade or so, how many were by “known wolves”, meaning law enforcement officials were aware of the eventual perpetrator’s proclivities and mental state, knew of threats made directly or on social media? Most of them.
The problem is violence. The problem is mental illness. Both are being ignored and the focus is being placed in the wrong area. That solves nothing.
7/24/2022
Thoughts On A Sunday
It’s been hot and humid up here at the lake, nothing unusual for summer. (If it were January I’d be worried about it.) I actually had to use the A/C in the trusty RAM 1500 for the first time. Yes, I have used it when the WP Mom was riding shotgun because she doesn’t like the wind blowing on her. But this was the first time I’ve used it this summer because I thought it was a bit too hot. That doesn’t happen too often.
The A/C at The Gulch is running, but it hasn’t been cranked to ‘11’. Mostly it has been to dry the air (our A/C can be set to cool or to dehumidify the air), making 79º inside feel quite comfortable without making the electric meter spin like a blender. One A/C unit running, a ceiling fan, and another small fan is enough to keep The Gulch comfortable even when it’s above 90º and very humid outside.
I’ve seen a few gas stations here showing the price of Regular at less than $4 per gallon, with the station where I usually fill up the trusty RAM 1500 selling it at $3.779/gallon. However, my ‘reference’ gas station has Regular posted at $4.099/gallon. On my travels around yesterday I saw that gas prices were all over the place, with the highest price being $4.799/gallon seen at stations near or on the Interstate, and $4.599/gallon here and there, both here at the lake and a number of stations south of here (Concord and Manchester, NH).
However, gas prices at the gas docks at one of the nearby marinas lists Midgrade (89 octane) for $5.399/gallon...and that’s one of the cheaper prices I’ve seen listed around the lake. I know that BeezleBub and I haven’t been using the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout, aka The Boat, nearly as much as we usually do. If we’re lucky, we have been making it out once a week. We’re usually out three or more times a week. The high gas prices have certainly put a damper on our boating season so far.
I came across this by way of Skip over at GraniteGrok, a great idea that could save relationships and marriages across the nation. When you ask your significant other where she’d like to eat and she responds “I don’t care”, you’ll now have a place to take her:
I think we could franchise this idea, a chain of restaurants with that name, and make billions! After that we start a second restaurant chain called Wherever You Want. It’s a stroke of genius!
The question of whether nuclear power plants, a truly zero-carbon power source, will ever be allowed to be built again in North America is one that still needs to be answered. Plans have been announced for a number of GEH (General Electric – Hitachi) small modular reactors to be installed in Saskatchewan and Ontario.
But in the end will they be allowed? Quite a few people commenting on the linking post asked that same question. One opined “The ecoloon lawsuits to prevent it will begin in 3,2,1…” They are probably right. That nuclear technology has changed over the past 50 years will not be germane to any discussion. Too many are viscerally opposed to nuclear power because they’ve been told “It’s bad for children and other living things.” That privation and lack of needed energy has killed more ‘children and other living things’ than nuclear power ever has is ignored.
That renewables are incapable of providing the power needed is also ignored, as is the environmental damage these renewable sources cause. I have found that some of the renewables proponents I’ve talked to have no idea the amount of land, the amount of ecosystem destruction that will be required for the ‘green’ energy they say they want. What is ironic is that many of the same proponents are against the infrastructure needed to support the green energy they claim they want. Specifically, they don’t like power lines. Do they even see the paradox of their diametrically opposed causes?
Do you want a preview of what the watermelon environmentalists have in store for us? Then you only need to look to see how Australia is handling the switchover to government dictated to ‘green’ energy.
In this case, seeing if it will be the cold or the carbon monoxide that will kill you first.
The A/C at The Gulch is running, but it hasn’t been cranked to ‘11’. Mostly it has been to dry the air (our A/C can be set to cool or to dehumidify the air), making 79º inside feel quite comfortable without making the electric meter spin like a blender. One A/C unit running, a ceiling fan, and another small fan is enough to keep The Gulch comfortable even when it’s above 90º and very humid outside.
==++==
I’ve seen a few gas stations here showing the price of Regular at less than $4 per gallon, with the station where I usually fill up the trusty RAM 1500 selling it at $3.779/gallon. However, my ‘reference’ gas station has Regular posted at $4.099/gallon. On my travels around yesterday I saw that gas prices were all over the place, with the highest price being $4.799/gallon seen at stations near or on the Interstate, and $4.599/gallon here and there, both here at the lake and a number of stations south of here (Concord and Manchester, NH).
However, gas prices at the gas docks at one of the nearby marinas lists Midgrade (89 octane) for $5.399/gallon...and that’s one of the cheaper prices I’ve seen listed around the lake. I know that BeezleBub and I haven’t been using the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout, aka The Boat, nearly as much as we usually do. If we’re lucky, we have been making it out once a week. We’re usually out three or more times a week. The high gas prices have certainly put a damper on our boating season so far.
==++==
I came across this by way of Skip over at GraniteGrok, a great idea that could save relationships and marriages across the nation. When you ask your significant other where she’d like to eat and she responds “I don’t care”, you’ll now have a place to take her:
I think we could franchise this idea, a chain of restaurants with that name, and make billions! After that we start a second restaurant chain called Wherever You Want. It’s a stroke of genius!
==++==
The question of whether nuclear power plants, a truly zero-carbon power source, will ever be allowed to be built again in North America is one that still needs to be answered. Plans have been announced for a number of GEH (General Electric – Hitachi) small modular reactors to be installed in Saskatchewan and Ontario.
But in the end will they be allowed? Quite a few people commenting on the linking post asked that same question. One opined “The ecoloon lawsuits to prevent it will begin in 3,2,1…” They are probably right. That nuclear technology has changed over the past 50 years will not be germane to any discussion. Too many are viscerally opposed to nuclear power because they’ve been told “It’s bad for children and other living things.” That privation and lack of needed energy has killed more ‘children and other living things’ than nuclear power ever has is ignored.
That renewables are incapable of providing the power needed is also ignored, as is the environmental damage these renewable sources cause. I have found that some of the renewables proponents I’ve talked to have no idea the amount of land, the amount of ecosystem destruction that will be required for the ‘green’ energy they say they want. What is ironic is that many of the same proponents are against the infrastructure needed to support the green energy they claim they want. Specifically, they don’t like power lines. Do they even see the paradox of their diametrically opposed causes?
==++==
Do you want a preview of what the watermelon environmentalists have in store for us? Then you only need to look to see how Australia is handling the switchover to government dictated to ‘green’ energy.
In this case, seeing if it will be the cold or the carbon monoxide that will kill you first.
President Obama called it right when he said renewable energy would cause electricity bills to skyrocket. But he forgot to mention all the dead people.
Four more people are rushed to hospital after burning COALS inside their home as the price of electricity soars:This is what happens when government imposes restrictions on energy sources without making sure there’s something to replace the sources they’ve restricted. Australia did that which is why they’re having the problems they are. Presidentish Biden did something similar with his EO’s after entering office and we’ve seen the results at the gas pump, monthly oil/propane/natural gas bill, and electricity bill, though he hasn’t gone as far as Australia’s government has...yet. After all, he’s only been in office for 18 months. Australia has been working towards this for a number of years and their efforts have finally come to fruition – sky high energy prices and dead people.
-Household rushed to hospital after sustaining carbon monoxide poisoning
-Emergency services called to Bedford Park home in Adelaide on Friday morning
-Four people were all feeling faint and taken to Flinders Medical Centre
-They had been attempting to warm their home with a charcoal burner
-Meanwhile family of six taken to Westmead Hospital with monoxide poisoning
-Paramedics were called to Merrylands home in Sydney on Tuesday morning
-They arrived to find entire family sick after warming home with charcoal BBQ
-Najem Nawaseri said he found his 13-year-old son vomiting before calling 000 (Australia’s version of 911 – ed.)
Yeah, that’s a winning strategy.
==++==
And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the temperatures and humidity are high, the A/C is doing its job, and Monday is again coming around all too soon.
7/23/2022
Bannon Guilty Of Contempt
Is it any surprise Steve Bannon was found guilty of Contempt of Congress? Not to me. Then again, as someone commented elsewhere, “ How can Bannon be held in contempt by a governmental body that is in itself contemptible?”
Indeed.
Indeed.
7/22/2022
Entitled...And Not Entitled
This is something we must remind our Progressive/woke brothers and sisters about again and again and again. Maybe someday they’ll get the message.
7/21/2022
Green Energy Policies Aren't Working And Have Little To Do With Energy
We increasingly are seeing the results of the insane energy policies here and elsewhere in the world – skyrocketing energy prices, natural gas shortages in Europe and parts of Australia (Victoria), unstable electrical grids because of the heavy reliance on wind energy (South Australia, parts of Germany) and electricity shortages and blackouts for the same reason (Texas), just to name a few.
None of these things were caused by natural disasters.
In the case of Texas, I don’t consider heatwaves to be natural disasters. They happen all the time and they aren’t like thunderstorms or tornadoes. People know they’re coming days in advance, know what they can do, know what to do...until the power goes out because of poor planning, poor policy, or deliberate actions taken by officials at the behest of ‘advocates’ who don’t give a damn about how damaging the actions taken do nothing to ‘heal the planet’ but cause misery, pain, and in some cases, death.
No new reliable and dispatchable power generation facilities – natural gas turbines, coal-fired and nuclear power plants - are being built...except in China.
The push to rely on unreliable renewable sources is driving much of these problems. Dependence upon natural gas supplies that can be cut off at whim, either by hostile foreign governments (Russia) or hostile domestic governments (Australia) makes planning to meet energy demand difficult. Shutting down coal and nuclear plants without replacing them with generating systems capable of meeting the demand is foolish and has left countries like Germany short of energy. They have since stopped decommissioning their remaining coal and nuclear power plants. There has also been mention made to recommission some nuclear plants that were recently shut down in light of Russia’s shutdown of the natural gas pipeline supplying Germany.
Here in New England we’re seeing a tight natural gas supply and electricity generation capacity. This was by design, not due to calamities, weather, or breakdowns/failures. Between coordinated opposition to a new natural gas pipeline between Pennsylvania and Massachusetts which would have made it possible to meet all of New England’s natural gas demand and opposition to two different power line projects that would have brought clean, renewable, and cheap electricity into New England from Quebec Hydro, we’re dealing with an energy shortage created by our self-anointed ‘betters’. When I hear people asking why our electricity rates and natural gas costs are higher than the rest of the nation, I make sure to tell them why and who to thank.
Our high gasoline and diesel prices are not due to Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine. It’s due to people right here in our own country, specifically Presidentish Biden’s action that shut down construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. That didn’t stop oil from from getting from Point A to Point B. Instead that same oil is traveling by rail in tanker cars - owned by Warren Buffet - at a higher cost and lower capacity and less safely than the pipeline. Then there were federal oil & gas lease auctions that were canceled. Then severe restrictions on fracking on existing leases. Then cancellation of some existing leases. And now banning drilling on offshore leases. That moron is making sure oil prices will rise again, hurting everyone but particularly the poor and middle class. (We know from both words and deeds that the Progressives want to see the middle class destroyed. One way of doing that is making sure they can’t afford the energy they need, impoverishing them, and making them poor. They’re then easier to control...or eliminate if they won’t be controlled.)
Am I being cynical? Yup, without a doubt. I earned my right to be cynical after decades of dealing with both good and bad people. Some of those bad people are in government, in our education system, in various advocacy organizations, and elsewhere...and they don’t really give a damn about anyone not them. This unfortunately includes most of us.
So when are we going to stop letting the bad people keep doing this to everyone else?
None of these things were caused by natural disasters.
In the case of Texas, I don’t consider heatwaves to be natural disasters. They happen all the time and they aren’t like thunderstorms or tornadoes. People know they’re coming days in advance, know what they can do, know what to do...until the power goes out because of poor planning, poor policy, or deliberate actions taken by officials at the behest of ‘advocates’ who don’t give a damn about how damaging the actions taken do nothing to ‘heal the planet’ but cause misery, pain, and in some cases, death.
No new reliable and dispatchable power generation facilities – natural gas turbines, coal-fired and nuclear power plants - are being built...except in China.
The push to rely on unreliable renewable sources is driving much of these problems. Dependence upon natural gas supplies that can be cut off at whim, either by hostile foreign governments (Russia) or hostile domestic governments (Australia) makes planning to meet energy demand difficult. Shutting down coal and nuclear plants without replacing them with generating systems capable of meeting the demand is foolish and has left countries like Germany short of energy. They have since stopped decommissioning their remaining coal and nuclear power plants. There has also been mention made to recommission some nuclear plants that were recently shut down in light of Russia’s shutdown of the natural gas pipeline supplying Germany.
Here in New England we’re seeing a tight natural gas supply and electricity generation capacity. This was by design, not due to calamities, weather, or breakdowns/failures. Between coordinated opposition to a new natural gas pipeline between Pennsylvania and Massachusetts which would have made it possible to meet all of New England’s natural gas demand and opposition to two different power line projects that would have brought clean, renewable, and cheap electricity into New England from Quebec Hydro, we’re dealing with an energy shortage created by our self-anointed ‘betters’. When I hear people asking why our electricity rates and natural gas costs are higher than the rest of the nation, I make sure to tell them why and who to thank.
Our high gasoline and diesel prices are not due to Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine. It’s due to people right here in our own country, specifically Presidentish Biden’s action that shut down construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. That didn’t stop oil from from getting from Point A to Point B. Instead that same oil is traveling by rail in tanker cars - owned by Warren Buffet - at a higher cost and lower capacity and less safely than the pipeline. Then there were federal oil & gas lease auctions that were canceled. Then severe restrictions on fracking on existing leases. Then cancellation of some existing leases. And now banning drilling on offshore leases. That moron is making sure oil prices will rise again, hurting everyone but particularly the poor and middle class. (We know from both words and deeds that the Progressives want to see the middle class destroyed. One way of doing that is making sure they can’t afford the energy they need, impoverishing them, and making them poor. They’re then easier to control...or eliminate if they won’t be controlled.)
Am I being cynical? Yup, without a doubt. I earned my right to be cynical after decades of dealing with both good and bad people. Some of those bad people are in government, in our education system, in various advocacy organizations, and elsewhere...and they don’t really give a damn about anyone not them. This unfortunately includes most of us.
So when are we going to stop letting the bad people keep doing this to everyone else?
7/17/2022
Thoughts On A Sunday
It’s been a hot and humid day here today. That’s not unexpected since it is summer. But to hear some folks you’d think it had never been in the 90’s before. While we don’t get a lot of 90º days here, we do get them. Other areas of the US see weeks and weeks of temps in the 90’s and you don’t see people dropping dead in the hundreds (like in Europe). We can handle it.
We spent a few hours out on the lake today despite the other weekend boaters being out there. It wasn’t as quite as bad as I expected, but it still wasn’t great. Marine gas is still expensive and boats aren’t exactly fuel efficient, so a lot of folks are just putting along at headway speed as they head to a place to anchor and go swimming or picnicking or whatever. (I dropped $100 for a little over 18 gallons of gas at the marina across from where we dock The Boat.) We slowly cruised to one of our favorite places, dropped anchor, ate some lunch, and did a little swimming. Once done, we weighed anchor and continued on our way back to our dock.
Not a bad way to spend a hot and humid day.
Speaking of hot and humid, it seems the Europeans are dealing with well above normal temperatures, with some in the UK breaking all time records. It doesn’t help that much of Europe (and specifically the UK) doesn’t have A/C.
I have had more than a few of my European friends and acquaintances asking why we need it. When I tell them that most of the US is considerably farther south than Europe, they don’t believe me. (As a bit of climate trivia, the British considered diplomatic postings to Washington DC as a tropical post...until air conditioning came into being.) I have sent maps similar to the one below to prove my point and they are usually surprised. That US cities like Houston and New Orleans are at the same latitude as Cairo surprises them...and Cairo is farther north than Miami. The entire UK is farther north than the Continental US. Paris is just south of the western US/Canadian border.
Click image to embiggen
It has become quite evident to anyone paying attention that we have a two-tier justice system in the US since Joe Biden took office.
Two examples: 1) Leftists riot, loot, commit assault, manslaughter and arson in a number of cities, yet are not arrested or tried, but a protest in Washington DC gets out of hand and it is labeled an insurrection (but none of the ‘insurrectionists’ were armed and the only ones who died were unarmed protesters killed by police). 2) Pro-life advocates protest outside of abortion clinics and are harassed, assaulted, and in some cases are ordered to cease and desist by a court, but pro-abortion advocates attack over 50 pro-life pregnancy centers and law enforcement does nothing. I figure it’s only a matter of time before these same ‘advocates’ start killing people because they figure they don’t have to don’t have to worry about being punished.
Two-tier legal systems always fail, usually in a spectacular fashion and not to the benefit of those supporting it. Then, the Left has always liked such systems because they use one to protect their operatives and the other to punish their opponents.
Want to know what Congressional Democrats are really doing when they promise “This, That, and the Other Thing”?
Just the opposite.
You hear them talking about trying to help the middle class, the backbone of the American economy. But what are they really doing? Getting ready to tax them out of existence.
I have wondered this, too.
Why is life expectancy in the US lower than other rich countries?
You would think it would be higher considering the level of medical technology and treatments available today. Then again, we have a lot more obese people than other rich countries and we have all been told that obesity is a major contributor to all kinds to health issues. (Obesity and its side effects like diabetes was seen as a major contributor to Covid deaths.) Then there’s this:
And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the summerfolk have been out on the lake in force, gas prices at the marinas are still high, and where we’re experiencing summer weather...not unexpectedly.
We spent a few hours out on the lake today despite the other weekend boaters being out there. It wasn’t as quite as bad as I expected, but it still wasn’t great. Marine gas is still expensive and boats aren’t exactly fuel efficient, so a lot of folks are just putting along at headway speed as they head to a place to anchor and go swimming or picnicking or whatever. (I dropped $100 for a little over 18 gallons of gas at the marina across from where we dock The Boat.) We slowly cruised to one of our favorite places, dropped anchor, ate some lunch, and did a little swimming. Once done, we weighed anchor and continued on our way back to our dock.
Not a bad way to spend a hot and humid day.
==++==
Speaking of hot and humid, it seems the Europeans are dealing with well above normal temperatures, with some in the UK breaking all time records. It doesn’t help that much of Europe (and specifically the UK) doesn’t have A/C.
I have had more than a few of my European friends and acquaintances asking why we need it. When I tell them that most of the US is considerably farther south than Europe, they don’t believe me. (As a bit of climate trivia, the British considered diplomatic postings to Washington DC as a tropical post...until air conditioning came into being.) I have sent maps similar to the one below to prove my point and they are usually surprised. That US cities like Houston and New Orleans are at the same latitude as Cairo surprises them...and Cairo is farther north than Miami. The entire UK is farther north than the Continental US. Paris is just south of the western US/Canadian border.
==++==
It has become quite evident to anyone paying attention that we have a two-tier justice system in the US since Joe Biden took office.
Two examples: 1) Leftists riot, loot, commit assault, manslaughter and arson in a number of cities, yet are not arrested or tried, but a protest in Washington DC gets out of hand and it is labeled an insurrection (but none of the ‘insurrectionists’ were armed and the only ones who died were unarmed protesters killed by police). 2) Pro-life advocates protest outside of abortion clinics and are harassed, assaulted, and in some cases are ordered to cease and desist by a court, but pro-abortion advocates attack over 50 pro-life pregnancy centers and law enforcement does nothing. I figure it’s only a matter of time before these same ‘advocates’ start killing people because they figure they don’t have to don’t have to worry about being punished.
Two-tier legal systems always fail, usually in a spectacular fashion and not to the benefit of those supporting it. Then, the Left has always liked such systems because they use one to protect their operatives and the other to punish their opponents.
==++==
Want to know what Congressional Democrats are really doing when they promise “This, That, and the Other Thing”?
Just the opposite.
You hear them talking about trying to help the middle class, the backbone of the American economy. But what are they really doing? Getting ready to tax them out of existence.
Democrats are – by design – causing chaos in the American economy. But Biden’s promise to not raise taxes on anyone with incomes under $400,000 is a blatant lie. If the tax gimmick (HR 5376) they have proposed is enacted, income taxes for everyone in all income brackets would be raised – without any tax relief for anyone.This is nothing new so it isn’t all that surprising to anyone understanding how the whole Tax-and-Spend sleight-of-hand works.
The JCT- Joint Commission on Taxation – a bipartisan commission that has economists as part of its makeup, analyzed the Democrat Tax gimmick and found that even Americans making between $50,000 and $75,000 and all other income levels will see a tax increase by 2029 with no tax breaks. All of which blows Biden’s campaign promises to smithereens.
At a time when everything from groceries to gas has people strapped down, Biden’s tax gimmick threatens to derail Americans’ incomes even worse by increasing taxes. Independent studies by the Tax Foundation and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) have shown that this Democrat proposal would literally wipe out any “hit” on the wealthy and pass the burden to the lower income brackets. America’s middle class would disappear in under this Democrat tax gimmick – which is by design. Communism by any other name is still the same. There is no “middle class” in a communist society. Only the elite wealthy will remain.
==++==
I have wondered this, too.
Why is life expectancy in the US lower than other rich countries?
You would think it would be higher considering the level of medical technology and treatments available today. Then again, we have a lot more obese people than other rich countries and we have all been told that obesity is a major contributor to all kinds to health issues. (Obesity and its side effects like diabetes was seen as a major contributor to Covid deaths.) Then there’s this:
Why do Americans have a lower life expectancy than people in other rich countries, despite paying so much more for health care?As the saying goes, Read The Whole Thing.
The short summary of what I will discuss below is that Americans suffer higher death rates from smoking, obesity, homicides, opioid overdoses, suicides, road accidents, and infant deaths. In addition to this, deeper poverty and less access to healthcare mean Americans at lower incomes die at a younger age than poor people in other rich countries.
==++==
And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the summerfolk have been out on the lake in force, gas prices at the marinas are still high, and where we’re experiencing summer weather...not unexpectedly.
7/16/2022
Have You Noticed...?
Over the past couple of months I have mentioned the traffic insanity I’ve noticed on the highways and byways here in central New Hampshire. The number of clueless, distracted, arrogant, or outright incompetent drivers out there seems to have increased quite a bit as compared to last year. The number of near-misses I’ve seen, the number of drivers going well below the posted speed limits, the number incapable of maintaining a constant speed (slowing down and speeding up and slowing down and speeding up), or drifting in and out of their lanes of travel, or incapable of actually committing to making turns they’ve signaled they’ll be making.
At first I thought it was just me noticing this, particularly since I officially became a surly curmudgeon after my last birthday. But after talking to my friends and acquaintances I have found that it isn’t just me. I mentioned this to Katy a couple of weeks ago and she’s noticed the same thing down in Connecticut. A fellow employee of the company that has the privilege of employing me has mentioned the same thing - she’s down in South Carolina – and that it’s been crazy down there. A friend of mine down on Palm Bay, Florida mentioned the same thing the last time we texted.
I was attending a ceremony at our Town Hall and had the opportunity to chat with a few of our town’s police officers and asked them if they had noticed the same things I and others had: People Driving Stupid. Every single one of them said they had, with one of them rolling his eyes then saying it has been a really bad year for it.
What’s worse is that the number of People Driving Stupid seem to be increasing every week. It doesn’t matter the time of day, they seem to be out on the roads all hours.
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, installing a dashcam in the trusty RAM 1500 is looking to be one of the better things I’ve done this year. I have a feeling I’ll be pulling a lot of video footage from it if this keeps up.
At first I thought it was just me noticing this, particularly since I officially became a surly curmudgeon after my last birthday. But after talking to my friends and acquaintances I have found that it isn’t just me. I mentioned this to Katy a couple of weeks ago and she’s noticed the same thing down in Connecticut. A fellow employee of the company that has the privilege of employing me has mentioned the same thing - she’s down in South Carolina – and that it’s been crazy down there. A friend of mine down on Palm Bay, Florida mentioned the same thing the last time we texted.
I was attending a ceremony at our Town Hall and had the opportunity to chat with a few of our town’s police officers and asked them if they had noticed the same things I and others had: People Driving Stupid. Every single one of them said they had, with one of them rolling his eyes then saying it has been a really bad year for it.
What’s worse is that the number of People Driving Stupid seem to be increasing every week. It doesn’t matter the time of day, they seem to be out on the roads all hours.
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, installing a dashcam in the trusty RAM 1500 is looking to be one of the better things I’ve done this year. I have a feeling I’ll be pulling a lot of video footage from it if this keeps up.
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