Thoughts On A Sunday

Two events of great import took place yesterday – the Blog Free Or Die Con and the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout – aka 'The Boat' – was pulled from the water, bringing about the official end of summer.

The blog con took place at the Common Man Restaurant in Concord, NH, a WP favorite. We met blog friends old and new at the gathering, including Jay Tea of Wizbang, TJ of Better Living Through Chemistry, and personal friend Jay Solo of Dispatches from Blogblivion.

Well before the festivities at the gathering, BeezleBub and I saw to it that The Boat was pulled from the water, hauled to its place next to The Manse, and prepped for winter. The cooling system was flushed, the oil in the engine and stern drive was changed, as were the fuel and oil filters.

There's still plenty of work to do on The Boat, but mostly of a cosmetic nature. There will be a need to haul it to one of the marina's sometime before next boating season in order to have some mechanical maintenance attended to, but nothing that needs to be done immediately.

******

Hawaii was hit by an earthquake at 7AM this morning Hawaii time. It measured 6.6 on the Richter scale.

There are unconfirmed reports of injuries and one of the main highways on the island of Hawaii was closed due to debris caused by a landslide blocking the road.

******

With out a doubt this election season's campaigning has a far nastier tone to it that I have seen in the past. Not that there haven't been election battles that turned downright unforgivable and nasty in the past. (Election campaigning during the mid to late 1800's and early 1900's was far nastier and personal as compared to today.)

It's gotten so bad that one of the local newspapers has noticed it, even here in New Hampshire.

While there are no high-profile offices up for contention, in the past week or so the campaigning for the governor's office and the two congressional districts has become nasty on both sides.

******

It seems that Senator Chris Dodd (D – CT) needs to check his history.

By equating some of the actions that the US has taken against illegal combatants and terrorists to the what Nazi Germany did to its own people and evoking the Nuremberg Trials as well means that he has missed the point entirely. People seem to forget that illegal combatants and terrorists aren't covered by the Geneva Conventions, nor should they be protected by those rights enjoyed by American citizens and residents, particularly habeas corpus.

These are enemies of the US who do not abide by our laws or the protections laid out by the Geneva Conventions. Never in our past have enemy aliens been afforded the rights as guaranteed in the US Constitution. It is only now that such protections been pushed forward by the US Supreme Court, something I believe to be a grave error.

******

And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer dreams have finally ended, the foliage has just hit peak color, and where we will see very few summer folk until next May.