Thoughts On A Sunday

We’ve been experiencing a bout of fall-like weather, with cool temps and sunny skies. Though still summer, at least according to the calendar, it feels more like late October/early November. I have no idea if this is a harbinger of a colder winter, but we will deal with it as we always do.

While the foliage has started to change colors, at least farther north, we don’t expect to see the leaf peepers in this part of New Hampshire for at least a couple of more weeks. I have seen a few of the swamp maples already making the change, their leaves sliding from green to bright crimson. The sugar maples will follow in a few weeks, with the bright oranges and yellows of the oak, ash, birch and beech accompanying them. While some expect the colors to be muted this year due to the drought we’ve been experiencing this summer, I don’t think it’s going to make a difference to the folks coming up to take in the scenery and fall colors.

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I was talking with a number of my friends about the weather this morning and the subject of the wildfires out west came up, seeing as how the smoke from those fires has traveled across the US and have affected the sunrise and sunsets, giving them a reddish cast deeper than we usually see. At times there is also a hint of smoke in the air, something we usually only experience during the winter months when folks have their woodstoves fired up to keep their homes warm.

That the wildfires out west are as bad as they are because of poor forest management over the past two decades or so makes it even more tragic. Millions of acres burned, thousands of homes destroyed, and lives needlessly lost because pseudo-environmentalists decided they knew better. Their ‘better’ knowledge was not based upon science but upon what they ‘felt’ was better.

They were wrong.

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With the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the speculation of who will replace her, and when, have been running rampant on both sides of the aisle. A number of Democrats have demanded no nomination take place until after the election. Nancy Pelosi has threatened to impeach Trump if he pushes forward with a nomination. (She seems to think that will be enough to stop Trump. Apparently she didn’t learn her lesson from the last time she tried that. Her last attempt made Trump even more popular. I have to wonder what the charges will be this time. Or is she just blowin’ smoke...again?)

Trump announced he would be making known his choice for Ginsberg’s replacement sometime this coming week.

What I find interesting is that former president Obama stated publicly that it is the President’s duty to fill Supreme Court vacancies and that there are no conditions laid out by the Constitution imposing limits on when he can do so.

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Contrast and compare:

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg passes away and there are condolences for her passing and praise for her years of service and opinions she’s authored coming from both sides of the aisle.

Justice Antonin Scalia passes away in 2016 and it’s a different story.

Nominated by Ronald Reagan, Justice Scalia was a diehard defender of the Constitution, and when he died during the last year of Obama’s presidency, many on the Left couldn’t contain their glee.

David Ehrlich of Rolling Stone asked, “How long do we have to wait till we can openly not be sad about it?”

Charles Finch, a contributor to the New York Times, Slate, and The Washington Post, wrote “I mean, if you don’t want your death politicized, don’t lead a repugnant and profoundly influential political life.”

There are plenty more examples of the hatred voiced by the Left after Scalia’s passing. Have you seen any such reaction to Ginsberg’s death from the Right? Not that I’ve seen, even from folks who disagreed with her opinions on cases heard by SCOTUS.

And therein lies the difference.

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How dangerous is it being a conservative in the US today? It can be deadly...and some Democrats seem to be fine with that.

On Thursday, The First shared a street interview with one of their reporters. In the event, the reporter asked people around Portland their thoughts on the recent murder of a Trump supporter. Here’s what one lady had to say.

“Tough luck. Don’t be a f**king Trump supporter in Portland.”

Yes, not one single person cares that a man lost his life. It is as if the left is saying he deserved to lose his life because he was a Trump supporter. Let me correct that statement; that is exactly what the left is saying.

That is a scary thought. This woman and others like her are already dehumanizing those who support Trump. That’s the first step towards these same people to consider a pogrom to eliminate them. (Every totalitarian state requires someone to hate.) Of course it wouldn’t come down to that if for no other reason that a lot of Trump supporters are armed and will shoot back.

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And that’s the (abbreviated) news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it’s been very cool at night, boating is still taking place in large numbers, and where we expect to start seeing fall colors appearing very soon.

There Are A Lot Of Angry (And Disappointed) People Out There

I will admit I have been spending quite a bit more time than usual perusing videos on YouTube. A good portion of the videos I have been watching are called “reaction videos” where someone watches a music video or movie or ‘reality’ video and gives their reaction(s) to what they saw. Some reactions are amusing. Some reactions are revealing. Some viewers are overcome by emotion in response to some of the more heart-rending music videos, particularly music videos by artists they’ve never heard of before. (One example of one such video is Brad Paisley’s Whiskey Lullaby with Alison Krauss. I haven’t come across anyone who hasn’t been affected while watching that video.)

Some of the other videos have been amusing, particularly those put together by the folks at Black Rifle Coffee Company (this one is my favorite). I’ve come across some videos of people “from away” trying to pronounce the names of towns in Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire and failing miserably. Other videos have been made by folks in foreign countries talking about their experiences in the US have also been eye-opening and in many cases, funny as heck.

One particular topic that kept popping up in the Recommendations were videos referencing something called MGTOW, or Men Going Their Own Way. So, being the curious type, I decided to view some of them.

If even 10% of the videos on that topic I saw accurately relate the experiences of the men making them, there are a lot of angry and hurt men out there. On the other side, there are an equally large number of women posting videos asking “Where are all the good men?” and “Why don’t men want to commit?” and other related questions. That tells me there are also a lot of angry and hurt women out there too.

Which side is ‘right’? In this case, does it matter?

A lot of men are feeling put upon with Third Wave Feminists constantly demonizing men, marginalizing them, denigrating them, blaming them for all women’s ills. They’re shown in TV shows and movies as either being totally incompetent and idiotic dads - more clueless than their children – or malevolent, evil, and violent. There is no in-between. Laws were changed that put more of an onus on men, particularly in regard to family law. The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) enhanced penalties for acts of violence against women, primarily for acts of violence committed by men against women. Women could commit acts of violence against men, yet not receive the same sentences for the same acts. The enhanced penalties only went one way. But men are victims of domestic violence in numbers roughly equal to that of women. (The FBI tracks those numbers and while reported incidents of domestic violence against men was about 35% of all such incidents, they estimate the number is closer to 50% because a large percentage of domestic violence assaults against men are not reported.) #MeToo added even more scrutiny to men’s actions, creating an atmosphere where an accusation of misconduct by a man towards a woman could end a career and destroy a life, all with no proof required. The backlash took the form of men following the so-called Mike Pence Rule which roughly stated says “men should never put themselves in a situation where they can be falsely accused of rape, sexual assault, or fraternization.”

Proving innocence is often difficult or impossible, so the easiest way to avoid false accusations is to avoid women altogether.

This led to men not mentoring up and coming women in the business world, protecting themselves from even the appearance of impropriety. They wouldn’t allow closed door meetings, or would meet with women only if a third party was also present. Some saw this as an overreaction, but it is a reasonable reaction to the witch-hunt atmosphere that exists.

Men increasingly see themselves as being marginalized in society, and worse, in their own families. Is it any wonder the suicide rate for men has skyrocketed?

Women are also on the losing side of this.

One of the biggest disservices ever perpetrated on young women is being told that they “can have it all”, meaning career, spouse, and family. What they weren’t told is that while they could certainly have the first, but the chances of them also having the second and third would shrink, particularly if they waited until they had established their careers and were financially secure. This usually means they are in their 30’s before they get serious about a family. The problem is that by then it may be too late.

It has nothing to do with discrimination or sexism, but more with biology, human nature, and mathematics. They have to face the fact that they are competing with younger women who want families and are in the peak years of their fertility. These younger women like the idea that older men (in their 30’s) who are financially secure want to be with them, marry them, and have children with them. Women in the 30’s (and even 40’s) are having a tough time competing against their younger rivals. There simply aren’t enough men to go around. Or should I say there aren’t enough men of the type they feel they deserve, those men having more money than them and are either 9’s or 10’s. The problem is that of all of the available men, those ‘unicorns’ are maybe 5-10% of the total. The second problem is that 80% of the available women are all after the same 5-10% of the available men. The math doesn’t work.

Then there’s the MGTOW factor working against them – a lot of men are no longer interested in dating seriously, if at all, or in settling down again. They’ve been burned one too many times and are reluctant to put themselves out there again. Instead they are focusing on their careers, their finances, their homes, their hobbies, and other interests. Even some of the 9’s and 10’s women are looking are MGTOW because they too were burned one too many times.

What’s the answer to these problems? For one thing, I think both men and women need to dial back their expectations, need to look at life as it is and not what they’ve been told life should be. They may have to reorder their priorities because right now their priorities and their expectations are not realistic. They need to stop listening to people who do not have their best interests at heart, but are pushing their own agendas that have done more harm than good.

Ever Notice?

A lesson more of our less law-abiding citizens need to learn...again.

Thoughts On A Sunday

We are enjoying the quiet now that Labor Day Weekend is well behind us. For the most part the summerfolk are gone, meaning the places we locals like to patronize are more accessible than they have been the past three months. A good number of the seasonal businesses are closed, with the last of them pulling the plug for the year sometime between now and Columbus Day, allowing them to service the tourist who will be hear once the fall foliage season starts.

Even though ‘official’ summer has ended, there are still a number of summer activities we are enjoying such as boating and swimming – the lake water is still quite warm – hitting the local ice cream stands and clam shacks, and partaking of some of the summer items still on the menus of our local restaurants.

As long as the weather holds I expect we’ll be boating until the end of October, though BeezleBub will be putting his jet ski up for the winter sometime in the next two or three weeks.

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The watermelon environmentalists are making the people of California reap what the enviros had sowed, with years of forest mismanagement now coming back to haunt them.

While Nancy Pelosi is laying the blame on climate change for the widespread fires devastating the Pyrite State, it has been that aforementioned forest mismanagement driving the fires, period. California has become a shining example of how not to manage forests.

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I don’t know about any of you, but I doubt I could care any less than I do about the start of the NFL season. As a long time Patriots and Eagles fan, it pains me to see the NFL become less about sports and more about being woke. It appears I am not the only one.

When the boos rained down on to Arrowhead Stadium at Thursday’s NFL season opener as members of the Kansas City Chiefs locked arms for a “Moment of Unity,” it was the latest sign that some fans want teams to play sports, not politics.

And now, Gallup has confirmed that the nation is upset with the sports industry’s embrace of hot-button political issues.

In its latest industry ratings, sports has gone from Rah! to nah.

“The sports industry now has a negative image, on balance, among Americans as a whole, with 30% viewing it positively and 40% negatively, for a -10 net-positive score. This contrasts with the +20 net positive image it enjoyed in 2019, when 45% viewed it positively and 25% negatively,” said Gallup.

If you go to YouTube and search for “Boycott NFL”, you’ll see video after video of die-hard NFL fans pulling the plug on pro football. Many of them can be seen removing all of the fan paraphernalia from their homes and burning it, explaining that they no longer had use for the NFL because it was no longer about football, but about politics. This attitude seems to cut across all lines, including political lines. Sports usually brings folks together, folks from all walks of life. Now it’s nothing more than an extension of the politics that has divided us and the fans are sick of it.

The NFL is going to learn the same lesson as Gillette did: “Get woke. Go broke.”

You piss off your fan base at your own peril.

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Speaking of YouTube, another topic of great interest seems to be the #WalkAway Campaign, where Democrats, including long time Democrats, tell us why they are walking away from the party, in many cases explaining why they are voting for Trump. Some are even joining the Republican Party. In most cases it’s because they have found it comes closer to their beliefs than their old party.

They are making the same discovery the late Ronaldus Magnus did in his time:

“I didn’t leave the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party left me.”

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If anyone ever tells you government is better at doing things than we are, show them this:

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Heard at the sermon at church this morning:

“You can’t convince anyone by yelling at them.”

That’s why when I am debating someone I tend to speak more quietly when I become angry. Then the person I am debating looks like the “crazed one”.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the quiet has returned (for now), we have the lake to ourselves (for now), and foliage season will be arriving soon enough.

A New Take On An Old Tall Tale

This one will certainly expand my repertoire for my future as one of those old-timers sitting on a rocking chair on the front porch of our local general store, telling Yankee tall tails to all the tourists.

I prefer the “You can’t get theah from heah” stories. Always confuses ‘em.

September 11th Boatlift - Unsung Heroes

Here is but one story about some of the unsung heroes of September 11, 2001.



As stated in the video, the evacuation of southern Manhattan was the biggest boatlift in history, bigger even than Dunkirk which saw almost 390,000 British and French troops evacuated over nine days. The September 11^th Boatlift saw over 500,000 people evacuated from southern Manhattan in nine hours.

That Awful Day

It was nineteen years ago.

Or was it just yesterday?

That Awful Day born of hatred. The smoke, the fire, the dust filling the sky. The rumbling and crashing that signaled the death of so many, victims and heroes alike. Final goodbyes knowing loved ones would never hear their voices ever again. Those who ran towards possible doom, putting their own lives on the line for others. Those who put aside their differences, their fears, and worked together to do something positive on That Awful Day.

IT. STILL. HURTS.

Seeing what we all saw on That Awful Day, we also saw how it brought all of us together. Looking around today and seeing what is tearing us apart makes the pain from That Awful Day even worse.

We have forgotten the lesson of That Awful Day. We have let hatred, greed, envy, and the lust for power drive away all that we learned nineteen years ago. Too many of us have forgotten that which we should never forget, assuming some of us knew it at all.

What would be the response if That Awful Day happened today rather than nineteen years ago?

I would like to think it would be the same as it was nineteen years ago.

I really would.

A Peek Into Our Energy Future If The Watermelon Environmentalists Get Their Way

If you want a preview of what the watermelon environmentalists have in store for us nationwide, then take a gander at this tweet from L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti:

California has been replacing its reliable power stations – natural gas and nuclear – with wind and solar. Now the Pyrite State is having problems meeting demand during the present heat wave. It is expected the problem with only get worse when they take their last nuclear power station offline and decommission more natural gas plants over the next four years.

California is showing us renewables are not the way to power our future because they cannot meet demand under certain (but not uncommon) conditions.

Karma And Irony

Who says there’s no such thing as karma?

A Portland antifa protester found that out the hard way.

Anti-police rioters got help from police to put out the flames of a Portland antifa rioter who set himself on fire with his own Molotov cocktail on night 100 of the violent demonstrations.

This was the karma.

So the very people the BLM and antifa protesters have been vilifying over the past 100 nights were the ones who saved one of those very same protesters from accidentally immolating himself.

This was the irony.

Thoughts On A Sunday

Here it is, the Last Weekend of Summer^TM, and the Lakes Region of New Hampshire has been hopping. Heavy traffic coming in to the area Friday night certainly made its presence known, or at least it did with one of the WP Nephews who made the trip up from the People’s Republic of Maskachusetts. What would have normally been a trip of a little under two hours took him over three to get here.

Traffic was also very heavy Saturday morning when I was out running errands. Not that it isn’t usually heavy late on Saturday mornings, but this went beyond what I usually see, even on a holiday weekend.

If I had to guess, this is the last gasp for those folks still making up for the time they lost between March and June. That has certainly been evident out on the lake, with a lot of boats plying their way across the lake. Not that I had any plans of heading out until sometime Monday after most of the weekenders departed.

Something that caught me off guard over this Last Weekend of Summer was the early closing of one of the well-known seasonal restaurants. Usually it’s last weekend of operation has been Labor Day Weekend, but it unexpectedly closed its doors last weekend. The loss of its waitstaff due to their return to college hit them harder than usual because they were already short-staffed, so their doors closed a week early. It felt weird driving by the place and seeing it already closed for the season. It is the harbinger of what’s approaching – the end of summer.

It’s happening too damn soon this year, and I am not the only one saying so.

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Speaking of busy, it’s going to be busy in New Hampshire on Tuesday as it’s the state primary elections to select candidates for a number of state and federal offices. Normally state primaries tend to have relatively low turnouts compared to the general elections in November, but I have a feeling turnout is going to be higher than usual. There appears to be a larger field of candidates across the board, there is a lot of disgust if not anger directed to some of the present office holders in both Congress and the state legislature (at present Democrat majority at both the federal and state level). The larger than usual number of campaign signs is an indicator that this year’s election season is going to be a grim one.

Soon enough I will be watching a lot more TV content on Netflix, Prime Video, and Hulu because I will become so sick and tired of the constant barrage of political ads filling the airwaves.

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Have any of you out there had the chance to watch News Nation on WGN America? I have tried it out over the past few nights and I have to say I am impressed.

They have tried very hard to keep any bias and editorializing from their reporting, going back to what news was supposed to be – reporting the news, presenting both sides of the story, and letting the people decide what it all means.

Let’s hope they can stick to those ideals and can present the news as it is, not as someone may want it to be.

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People keep asking why Trump doesn’t “send in the troops” to restore order in the Blue cities being burnt to the ground by the inaction/tacit approval of the mayors and/or city councils?

My answer: Because Trump isn’t stupid enough to step into the trap set by those same mayors/city councils.

He’s already called Portland’s Mayor Wheeler’s bluff, asking him if he needed help, such help being National Guard troops. Wheeler’s response - “Thanks, but no thanks” - disarmed the trap in Oregon.

Kurt Schlicter’s answer isn’t all that different from mine, but he goes into more detail:

...what folks do not understand are the practical problems with Trump using troops (sending federal law enforcement officers presents similar problems, but also a unique and big one – there just aren’t as many federal cops as there are soldiers). The devil is in the details, and the devil here makes Trump pulling the trigger on the troops in the current situation a very bad idea. We should support his strategic patience and not do what the Democrats want by getting mad at the president for refusing to stumble into an ambush.

--snip--

...what I know tells me that, despite our fantastic soldiers’ abilities, this is a bad idea.

Democrat governors, mayors and district attorneys do not want military forces deployed and will at least refuse to cooperate with them, if not actively hinder them. That makes a blue city like Portland a “non-permissive environment,” and the military is certainly designed to operate in them. That’s why when the military moves in force with, say, an infantry brigade combat team (IBCT) of 5,000 soldiers plus support elements (thousands more), we essentially deploy a small town with everything we need to survive – food, fuel, ammo, medical, maintenance, commo, power, transportation, even lawyers. Typically, in cities engulfed in chaos, it’s a permissive environment. The cops work with us. They take custody of arrestees, hold them, and the DA prosecutes them. Hospitals take in our wounded and sick. We use local government property to operate out of. We have access to the infrastructure of society. But what if the Democrat regime refuses to allow all that? Then the troops are on their own; it’s now an invasion, and while doable logistically, it takes a massive footprint.

The last thing we would want is for something like to happen. If gets bad enough, the troops could be used to surround the city and seal it off, not letting the miscreants flee. No need to go into the city proper. Hopefully it will not come down to that. Next best would be if the city government asks for help and the President provides it.

Schlicter dives down into the logistic and legal issues that using regular Army troops would entail, seeing it as a commander would see it. He knows what it would entail and can see it would be a big negative for the President. However, if things escalate and the BLM, antifa, and their hangers on start killing in earnest, all bets are off.

In the mean time, Read The Whole Thing.

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Is global warming/climate change a scam? According to lengthy weather records from the isolated Japanese island Hachijojima, located in the Philippine Sea, there has been no warming for 80 years. What makes this island such a perfect place for determining of there is any global warming?

What makes Hachijojima interesting climatically is its rural, non-urban features – in the middle of the ocean – making station siting there less prone to factors that could corrupt the data, such as airports, asphalt, concrete, steel, and other heat-sink-acting infrastructure.

If temperature records from an isolated location without the artifacts that can affect temperature readings indicate no warming trend over an 80 year period, then is there actually any global warming, or is that ‘warming’ the result of heat retention by the aforementioned infrastructure?

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You know the electrical grid problems are getting bad in California when the Pyrite State has to beg energy companies for batteries to use for storage because they no longer have the generating capacity to meet demand, particularly during the heat wave it’s been dealing with.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the last hours of summer are slowly counting down, people are busy trying make the best of those last hours, and where peace and quiet will return for a while...until foliage season starts.

Talk About A Disconnect

Something I knew I had to share the instant I saw it:

Yup, that pretty much is the case. I know I get tired of folks from away telling us how we should be living even though they really know little about us, our lifestyles, or our commitment to the environment. As to the last, we're a lot closer to and better stewards of the environment then the folks from away could possibly imagine.