Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a day off yesterday for this member of the WP team.

Yours truly, Deb, BeezleBub, and the WP Parents headed south of the border into the People's Republic of Massachusetts to spend the day with the youngest WP Sister. It was a gathering of the clan to celebrate the Fourth of July as well as my own 50^th birthday (even though it doesn't occur until later in the month).

There was plenty of good food, good drink, great conversation, as well as a handy dandy swimming pool in the back yard.

We made it back into the safe haven of the Live Free Or Die state before 9PM without running afoul of the PRM's Revenue Enhancement Squads. I guess the new cloaking device is working well.....

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Speaking of traveling south of the border yesterday, we all witnessed the very heavy traffic heading into New Hampshire along I-93 and US-3. It was literally bumper to bumper traffic from the junction of I-95/Rte 128 in Massachusetts to at least Concord, a run of something like 60 miles. It wouldn't surprise me to find that the traffic jam extended another 20 miles to the north of Concord into the Lakes Region.

It made me glad that we were heading in the opposite direction.

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As Brent posted earlier, Discovery had to postpone launching yesterday due to weather conditions. They were unable to launch today for the same reason. NASA will try again on Tuesday.

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I caught an opinion piece by Daniel Schorr on NPR this morning about the MSM. He still thinks that it is the media's duty to expose secrets, though he seems to pooh-pooh the idea that by revealing such secrets, particularly those dealing with the War On Terror, that people will die.

And people like Schorr wonder why the MSM has become more and more disliked by the American people.

Charles J. Hanley, and AP reporter, writes in the New Hampshire Sunday News, that around the globe reporters, media outlets, and “leakers” are coming under more governmental and legal pressure. (Sorry, no link available)

“It's grotesque that at a time when political rhetoric is full of notions of democracy and liberty that we should have this fundamental right of journalists to investigate and report on public interest matters called into question,” Aidan White, general-secretary of the Belgium-based International Federation of Journalists, told the Associated Press.

But others counter that national interests requires stopping of leaks of classified information, and that some media reports endanger lives by tipping terrorists to government tactics.

“We cannot continue to operate in a system where the government takes steps to counter terrorism while the media actively works to disclose those operations without any regard for protection of lives , sources, and legal methods,” Sen. Pat Roberts said in Washington.

The media claims that the people have a right to know. I agree. But my counter to that argument is that they don't always need to know right now.

But an editorial from the Sunday Citizen (Laconia, NH) disagrees with me.

But then, I have a little more faith in a local paper than the New York Times.

Joe's Dartblog chimes in on this subject, too.

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The New Editor looks at how the definition of bigotry has been broadened by the so-called “progressive” Left. This is the same progressive Left that has become the most bigoted bunch since the KKK.

(H/T The Instaprof)

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While this article about average families in Maine and New Hampshire having a tougher time making ends meet, the same could be said about average families throughout the US.

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GraniteGrok covers one of my favorite all-time topics of discussion – Tyranny Of The Minority.

I have covered this before, something that has been going in the US on for far too long.

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Michael Yon writes about the use of picture taken by Lucian Read of wounded Marine Brad Kasal by Time magazine. Unfortunately someone at Time decided to use it in conjunction with a story about Haditha, something that Sergeant Major Kasal had nothing to do with. Though Time didn't say that he had, the implication was there nonetheless by use of the photo, in my opinion.

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Cold Fury has a post called Another Day, Another Leftist Threat To Slaughter Conservatives

Need I say more to get you to click on the link?

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Bill Whittle has promised Chapter One of his new book will be posted in the next day or two. The chapter is titled The Web Of Trust.

The introduction – Rafts – has been substantially rewritten and reposted. You might want to check it out before reading the first chapter.

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Risawn is spending the summer in Yellowstone Park and appears to be having a great time. She has plenty photos to prove it. Just keep scrolling.

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Even though it's summer, we've been making preparations for next winter. Considering the cost of heating fuel – in our case, propane – we decided to take steps to lessen our heating costs.

This past Friday we had a wood stove insert installed where our fireplace used to be. We'll be heating a good portion of the Manse with firewood next winter. We already have over a cord of wood dried and stacked with another half cord waiting to be split. We will probably pick up another cord before fall rolls around. We have no idea how much wood we'll use, but I'd rather have too much firewood on hand rather than too little.

We easily spent close to $3000 on propane from May 2005 to May 2006. We hope to spend a fourth of that between May 2006 and May 2007.

There are still other steps we plan to take to decrease our heating costs, including replacing one or both of the sliders leading out onto our decks with real doors. While that won't happen this year, it is in our plans that cover the next three or four years.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the Fourth of July is being celebrated over 4 days, the weather is cooperating, and where I'm still on vacation.....