Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s a gloomy-looking day here at the lake. Cloudy, some light showers here and there, and heavy or severe thundershowers forecast for late in the day. All in all, not a bad day to stay close to The Gulch. Not that any of that would preclude the WP Mom and I from attending church or helping to get things prepared for our small town’s Old Home Day next weekend.

The only thing that might get interrupted by the weather is today’s running of the NASCAR Dollar Tree 301 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway south of here this afternoon. If I heard correctly NASCAR will be starting the race 1 hour earlier then scheduled in order fit it in before the thunderstorms move in.

==++++++==

I was saddened to learn of the passing of a friend of mine, Charlie St. Clair, who is the driving force behind the annual Laconia Motorcycle Week which takes place every June. He’d been involved in a motorcycle accident in Ohio on August 4th after a tire failed, passing away from heart failure while being treated in the hospital.

I mostly knew him through the motorcycle rally, though he also served as a representative in the New Hampshire House, representing Laconia. He was one heck of a guy and he will be missed.

==++++++==

We’ve been hearing an increasing number of ‘stories’ and observations about how more men are “ditching the workplace”, particularly younger men. What we haven’t been hearing?

The reason or reasons why.

Here’s one take by Auron MacIntyre:

Men did not “ditch the workplace”

They were literally discriminated against and exiled by woke hiring standards under the Civil Rights Act

The fallout from the #MeToo and “Believe All Women” movement has also helped create a hostile work environment, putting many men in a situation where even saying “Good morning” to a female co-worker can be reported as harassment or as making the victim feel ‘uncomfortable’. Little or no proof is required and men can see their careers damaged or reputations besmirched if HR does not perform their due diligence and investigate complaints filed.

Men have responded to this in some workplaces by not interacting with women at the workplace with other than work-related discussions, withdrawing socially. In some workplaces men are wearing body cameras as one means of protection, so if any allegations are made there is a record of any interactions that took place.

Such work environments men that men are wending their way through a minefield. Who wants to deal with that day after day? In some cases men decide not to put up with it anymore and leave, distancing themselves from such an environment.

Are these scenarios actually occurring in the workplace? Yes.

Do they happen to level that some men are saying? I haven’t any idea.

However I keep hearing the stories, in some cases first person stories, about how someone’s job was lost and their reputation demolished due allegations made. What’s worse is that even if after an investigation it is shown no such transgression took place, the subject of any such investigation will still be seen as guilty.

Is the situation out of hand everywhere in the US? No. I have a feeling it is a problem primarily in the cities, particularly blue cities. But the fear is still there.

And then there’s the tacit discrimination that has some businesses that they would not even consider hiring a straight white male. But that’s for another time.

==++++++==

I have asked this question, too.



Maybe there’s nowhere near as much money in it anymore?

==++++++==

This is something I noticed years ago and it’s only gotten worse.

Europe In Free Fall

1. [T]he terrifying fact [is] that Europe's erasure as a civilization is underway.

2. Economically, Europe is in ghastly shape.

3, For nearly five decades, the European Union's economic growth and productivity rates have lagged behind those of the United States.

4. European Union countries have established welfare states that have steadily expanded since 1980 and stifle economic growth.

5. The European Union has also proliferated stifling regulations that place a heavy encumbrance on businesses. Restrictions on gas and electricity production, combined with a drive for a rapid and extremely costly transition to "renewable energy", have resulted in natural gas prices in Europe that are now three to five times higher than in the US, and electricity prices that are 2 to 4 times higher than in the US. To survive, many European companies have relocated production outside Europe.

6. International investment is turning away from Europe. Nine of the world's top ten tech companies are American; the tenth is Taiwanese.

(Note: The formatting for the above was modified to add the ‘point’ numbers for my convenience, not yours!)

There are six other factors on the list, all of with which I agree. (See the others in the linked post.)

As I have mentioned more than once the EU environmental regulations have been placing increasingly heavy burdens on businesses in the EU or those doing business in the EU. (See point 5 above.) I know because I have to deal with them every day at my job. There’s nothing wrong with such regulations...unless they have gone well past the point of diminishing returns. The EU has gone well past that point even if you ignore the whole “Net Zero” push for energy. I used to spend maybe 5% to 10% of my time dealing with various national and international environmental regulations that deal with electronic equipment. Most of my efforts dealt with making sure the electronic, optical, and electro-optical components that go into our equipment met the various environmental requirements that ensured hazardous or toxic materials were not used in our products. (There were exemptions for certain substances under very specific conditions, but there weren’t too many of those.) Today I spend closer to 40% of my time dealing with them as the EU has expanded the scope of those regulations. To give you and idea of just how crazy it’s gotten in the EU they are now implementing regulations on shipping materials...like corrugated cardboard, i.e. cardboard boxes, shipping labels, the ink used on shipping labels, and so on.

The above is but one example why it is becoming more difficult to do business in or with the EU. The other factors are piling even more reasons why Europe is coming apart.

I have to wonder if this might be a reason we’re seeing more Europeans looking to move to the US? I have certainly seen that sentiment in countless YouTube videos of European tourists who visited the US during the World Cup expecting to find a crime-ridden disaster area and found just the opposite. Many apologized about their previous feelings about the US, explaining that their media has been lying to them about the US for years now.

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the NASCAR race managed to finish even with the rain still hanging around, and where the Day That Shall Not Be Named is returning.

It's Yesterday Once More

Normally my Saturday scribblings deal with some social issue or train of thought that have me cogitating about “The Meaning Of It All” or “Just How Silly Is This” or...well, you get the idea. Sometimes it’s something like a new article or Letter To The Editor in my local newspaper or a discussion I’ve had with someone or something I see on TV or the Internet that gets me thinking. However, this week’s Saturday scribblings deal with something I came across on YouTube that caught me off guard, and in a good way.

Unless you’ve never read anything I’ve posted you know I am an ‘old geezer’. I was born in the 1950’s, grew up in the 60’s and attended high school and college in the 70’s. I was exposed to a wide range of music over those years. Certainly my parents had quite a bit to do with that as I remember listening to Classical music and “Big Band” era music (Glenn Miller, Harry James, Kay Kaiser, Bennie Goodman, and so on) as well as pop music as I grew up. I’d like to think that it gave me an appreciation for a wide range of music.

One of the many music groups I listened to back then was The Carpenters. I have to admit to a bit of a crush on Karen Carpenter, but then I know I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

I have heard more than a few covers of some of the more well know Carpenter songs and they ran the range of awful to pretty decent. Recently I ran across a young woman who absolutely blew me away with her covers of a number of Carpenter songs as well as a number Olivia Newton John songs.

I have to admit that the first Carpenter song I heard her perform was We’ve Only Just Begun and I am willing to admit it literally brought tears to my eyes as it had me flashing back to the first time I heard it playing on the radio. I am including that video below. I think you will be amazed.

This video dates back to 2 years ago and it has over a million views.

One thing I did was check out an ‘analysis’ video from Wings of Pegasus which dug into the cover and found that it didn’t use auto-pitch correction. It’s all Tori.

I have checked out some of her other covers and they are no less amazing. She also has some originals you might want to check out. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Friday Funny - Doctor's Orders

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been a gorgeous weekend here at the lake with somewhat cooler temperatures and very little humidity. It’s made for nice days and cool nights, perfect for sleeping without the need for fans or A/C. It certainly has brought out the tourists.

One thing I noticed over the past few days is the large number of motorcycles making their way around the lake, mostly traveling in groups. At first I thought it was just me, but after talking to neighbors and friends around the lake I found they had noticed the same thing as well. I am not complaining by any means as have as much right to be touring around as anyone. They just happen to be more noticeable and are a pretty good indicator of tourist traffic in general.

The restaurants have certainly been busy as signified by full parking lots and lines at the local ice cream stands. What’s hard to fathom is that Labor Day is only three weeks away. Wasn’t the Fourth of July just a couple weeks ago? Where has the time gone?

==++++++==

Honestly, this doesn’t surprise me in the least as it isn’t something new in Lawrence, Mass.

He’s Just Doing The Hit-And-Runs Americans Won’t Do

It seems the soon-to-be former mayor of Lawrence, Massachusetts isn’t just guilty of stealing $1.5 million in COVID relief money, he also capable of of ramming another car after leaving court and leaving the scene.

That’ll look good on his resume going forward.

==++++++==

Seen on ‘X’…and so true:

Things that are now rightwing: Investigative journalism
Academic rigour
Scientific dissent
Nature
Facts
Biology
Politeness
Punctuality
Normality
Free speech
Individual rights
Rationality
Objectivity
Self-reliance
Emotional restraint
Delayed gratification

That shows just how far left the Left has shifted over the years.

==++++++==

Every time I think the EU can’t do something even stupider to hasten their fall, they prove me wrong. In this case it’s the EU’s push to reduce nitrogen emissions and the Netherlands’ increasingly draconian regulations to force those reductions that are seriously and negatively affecting farms and farmers there.

Thousands of Dutch farmers assembled with their tractors in Schermer in preparation for a large protest in Den Bosch. They are opposing the Netherlands’ nitrogen regulations and policies that threaten livestock operations.

Farmers and agricultural organizations contend that the farms possess fully legal permits and have already put forward plans to lower their emissions. They further state that with Dutch government’s proposals farmers may have to cut their herds by more than 50 percent, with no compensation for the lost animals. In North Brabant, officials intend to withdraw permits from five poultry farms, heightening tensions. Not surprisingly, Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten condemns the farmer’s efforts demanding they end their highway protests.

--snip--

This is not surprising. Two years ago, E.U. president Ursula Von der Leyen assured farmers that the body’s nitrogen proposals would not be as heavy handed. After last year’s Dutch elections where globalist parties won a majority in parliament, Von der Leyen and other EU bureaucrats obviously now see it fit to stab Holland’s farmers in the back.

I deal with increasing smothering and detailed EU environmental regulations that are making it more difficult to meet them and still make it worth doing business with and in the EU. They have gone well beyond the point of diminishing returns. The above is just hastening the end of the EU as I doubt the European economy will be able to withstand such willful destruction from within.

==++++++==

I have to agree:

We Don’t Hate These People Enough

[Terry Moran] admits that he was censored by the government and he willfully followed along with the censorship because he’s a partisan Democrat hack.

--Fmr. ABC News’ Terry Moran Says Fauci Shut Down Their COVID Lab Leak Story--

This just demonstrates the lack of journalistic integrity in spades. They have no problem reporting entirely false stories from anonymous sources and based on hearsay but when they have some facts and the guilty party says it’s not true they shut it down. He is an absolute embarrassment to the profession. Another brave journalist determined to get to the truth no matter what….when it’s politically and professionally safe to do so.

If the government can shut down your scoop, you're not in news; you're in advertising.

Or more accurately, propaganda. They toe the government line and the truth be damned.

And they wonder why the American people are increasingly distrustful of the media.

How many people were hurt because the media pushed the story that Covid vaccinations were the only thing that would save lives, that masks and ‘social distancing’ were the only effective means of preventing the spread? It was all lies. The conspiracy theorists were correct all along.

==++++++==

Today’s TOAS is slightly abbreviated as I have had a busy day helping the WP Mom get The Gulch ready for her to host her book club and it took longer than I had expected.

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee where the weather has been marvelous, the goodies at one of my favorite farm stands have been incredible, and Monday is once again messing up our weekend.

The Political Silly Season Is Back

While we’ve been hearing about various state primaries over the past couple of months, said primaries to select who will be running for various state and national offices, I have found that much of it has been “all hat, no cowboy” to borrow a phrase from Texas.

We’ve seen the disaster in Maine where that state’s Democrats can’t seem to find a candidate without a lot of baggage to run against Republican Susan Collins for the US Senate. We’ve seen Democrats in Wisconsin working hard to successfully kill off Francesca Hong’s run for governor there. There’s also been so many revelations about ineligible voters on voting rolls in too many states, with some having been dead for a long time and others not being US citizens.

This and many other stories leading up to the mid-term elections in November make what’s happening here in New Hampshire look tame by comparison.

We’re seeing and hearing lots of TV and radio ads aimed mostly as the Congressional races with New Hampshire’s two House District races slowly warming up and the race for the open US Senate seat starting to gain a little traction. On the GOP side we have two former US Senators running against each other – John E. Sununu and Scott Brown. Sununu served in the House for six years starting in 1997 and for one term in the US Senate after that. Scott Brown was US Senator from Massachusetts, filling the seat left vacant after the death of Ted Kennedy in 2009 after a special election. The different histories of these two men certainly make for interesting reading. At this point I think either one would serve my home state well. One of them will likely be running against present House Representative Chris Pappas (D-NH1) who is seen to be the Democrat favorite.

The race for the two House Districts is where the fun is going to be as there are a lot of people from both parties running. Only one incumbent - Maggie Goodlander (D-NH2) - is running to retain her seat. But that doesn’t mean she won’t be facing challengers. With the First District seat open there are plenty of candidates from both parties working to run in November. It is here that we’re seeing a lot of ads that seem to split time touting the qualifications of a candidate or castigating an opposing candidate for “This, That, and the Other Thing.” Seeing as the state primaries are taking place the day after Labor Day I expect the ad intensity and numbers to climb precipitously over the next three weeks. They will also be out glad-handing the voters and giving interviews and showing up at town events (like my town’s Old Home Day). I expect there will also be a few more debates.

Even with that coming up, I expect the rhetoric will really crank up once we get past the primaries and the silly season will go from being tame (and a bit bland) to full on Thunderdome-like campaigning and attack ads and “Ain’t I Frickin’ Great?” ads and so on. If nothing else, the debates will certainly be interesting.

I have no doubt it will be much the same in other states, be it for local races or Congressional or gubernatorial races.

And so it goes.

Friday Funny - Tires

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s the last day of the ‘Hot and Humid’ days today. We’ve been in them for four days and of course they will end just in time for us to go back to work tomorrow. Not that I’m really complaining as it is summer, after all. The A/C has kept the WP Mom cool as she doesn’t always deal well with the hot and humid weather when temps are in the 90’s and the dew points are in the upper 60’s/lower 70’s. We do have drier air moving in late today which will help things a bit.

Speaking of summer, I have to ask the same thing so many others have asked, and that’s “Where did the summer go?” It’s hard to believe it’s already August and that school starts in a few weeks. Our town also has what is called Old Home Day on the last Saturday of the month and it’s rapidly approaching.

Old Home Day is a celebration of the town by both present and past residents and the activities run the gamut of a pancake breakfast and a 5km road race that morning followed by a parade which in turn is followed by games for the kids along with vendors selling food and crafts in our village fields near our town center. There is also a concert later in the day which is then followed by fireworks in the evening.

This will be my 25th Old Home Day here in my town and I am looking forward to it even though it does signal the coming end of summer. Of course the ‘official’ end of summer is Labor Day which is on the following weekend.

==++++++==

I agree with this 100%.

The WNBA is what the entire country would look like if it were run by liberal white women.

Ayuh.

==++++++==

I find the supposed controversy about Trump’s choice to be the US Attorney General to be a “ho-hum” issue at best. One has to remember that JFK’s choice to be the US Attorney General was his own brother, Robert.

As one commenter put it:

His former personal attorney?

That’s a plus.

Because Trump’s standards are a lot higher than the U.S. Senate’s.

So we’re JFKs for that matter - even 65 years ago.

We have to remember that JFK would be considered a right-wing extremist by today’s Democrat Party standards.

==++++++==

It seems there are some job numbers that might upset some people, particularly Democrats. What might thos ‘upsetting’ job numbers be?

The shrinking number of government jobs.

John mentioned the July jobs report yesterday, which showed a net reduction of 23,000 jobs, driven by a monthly 53,000 loss in government jobs at all levels. The bulk of that reduction came in the category of local government, namely public schools. Overall employment at the federal level also dropped slightly in July.

Let me pause to savor that.

Digging into the numbers, overall employment at the federal and state government levels and with local public schools, are all down for the past year. That means hundreds of thousands of workers are now available for more productive pursuits. The number of federal workers has dropped by almost 11 percent since last July.

Frankly, I am not displeased to see this.

While the linked post mentions that some of the job loss is seen in public schools, I have no problem with that in light of the fact that many schools have been seeing a shrinking student population. If there are fewer children in the schools then wouldn’t one of the side-effects be a shrinking number of school staff? (That certainly hasn’t happened here in my town as our student population has shrunk about 33% over the past 15 years but the staffing levels have increased over that same period of time. Why?)

Some more of that shrinkage in government jobs can be linked to DOGE and it’s previous efforts to trim federal government job numbers by getting rid of redundant or unnecessary jobs, including so-called ‘patronage’ jobs that fill no useful purposes.

I think we’ve barely scratched the surface regarding elimination of unnecessary or unneeded government jobs.

==++++++==

For some reason this does not surprise me in the least.

More Than Half Of New York City Students In Grades 3-5 Failed Basic Reading Tests This Year

Considering the state of the education system in New York, is it a surprise?

More than half of students in grades 3-5 in New York state failed basic reading tests this year. It’s an absolute disgrace.

In New York City, they spend upwards of $40,000 on each student per school year. What is the money going to? Lessons on critical race theory and gender studies topics? Social justice activism?

Reading is one of the most basic and necessary skills that schools are expected to teach children. People who cannot read are absolutely doomed in adult life.

Part of this can be blamed on draconian school shutdowns during Covid but not all of it.

--snip--

Preliminary results released this week by the state Education Department that 57% of 3rd graders, 52% of 4th graders and 57% of 5th graders failed to make the grade on their 2025-26 English Language Arts tests.

City kids in grades 3-8 saw a 6% drop in their ELA scores from last year, with just about half overall rating proficient.

Elsewhere in the linked post it does bring up something that could certainly have a major effect on readings scores, brought up by Stephen Miller on X:

Nearly 40% of children in New York State are foreign-born or the children of migrants. Of that group, about 85% are migrants from the third world. The education debate (like so many others) often disguises the real debate.

I’d have to say that is a big contributing factor, particularly in New York City. It is something often overlooked. Of course the answer to solve this problems is the same whenever it comes to problems with the educational system here in the US: Even More Taxpayer Money.

==++++++==

And lastly, there’s this I came across while indulging in one of my guilty pleasures, that being dashcam videos on YouTube.


Two things I don’t miss from the 1970’s?

Paneling and shag carpets.

The rest was pretty cool, though!

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the last of the hot and humid weather is departing...for now, the ice cream stands have been doing really well, and where the Day That Shall Not Be Named is returning all too soon.

Relationships Between Men And Woment Getting Difficult...If Not Worse

This is not the first time I have delved into this topic and I doubt it will be the last, that topic being how relationships and social interactions between men and women have been deteriorating.

Social interactions seem to have become a minefield. This is even more so in a work environment where a thoughtless word, action, or a simple misunderstanding can end a career and damage a reputation beyond repair even if after an investigation it turns out that no such thing happened.

When we look at dating, things can be even worse because expectations can be too high, and just as bad, too low.

On more than one occasion I have mentioned that it seems to many young women have standards a man must meet before she’ll even consider dating them. There’s nothing wrong with that...as long as those standards are reasonable. But when young women keep talking about men who are now referred to as “Sixers”, meaning that are at least 6 feet tall, have a six-figure income, and have six-pack abs, they are deluding themselves because the number of men in the US that meet those criteria and are available is less than 1% of male population. Add in a few more ‘standards’ and that number gets even smaller. The problem is there are millions of women competing for that small number of men that meet their standards.

A related issue is what when the women who would like to meet a guy to settle down with, particularly those who have successful careers of their own, have their own money, their own homes, etc. but insist anyone they would consider dating must have more income and more net worth than they do. (This is an aspect of hypergamy where women want to marry up, not to an equal or someone who makes less than they do.) The problem is that the wealthier women become, the more their dating pool shrinks. While hypergamy is nothing new as it has been around throughout human history, it seems to have taken on a darker meaning as as it doesn’t deal with marrying up regarding wealth or social status. They also have to be good looking, ambitious (as if they aren’t ambitious even if they’ve reached the economic stratosphere), and be willing to lavish gifts and money and anything the want before they’ll even consider spending more than one minute to get to know them.

The question we seem to hear from many of these women again and again is “Where are all the Good Men?” The problems is that there are plenty of good men around, they just can’t (or won’t) see them because they don’t meet their standards.

For men, it seems to be a “Damned if we do. Damned if we don’t,” situation. We hear women’s complaint that men aren’t approaching women anymore and they wonder why. On the other hand many of those same women castigated men on social media about being approached and told men to leave them alone. Men listened.

I could go on and on about this but I would probably get depressed or angry or both. Instead I will leave you with this from the ‘manosphere’ that might explain some of the problems and why men are keeping their distance:

Friday Funny - Old Lady Scams Her Bank Manager

This one is NSFYE (Not Safe For Young Ears). You've been warned!

I'll Tell You The Story - Binky, Alone