Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a busy day for two of the WP household, with a trip to the WP-In-Laws in a borrowed pickup to gather more firewood for the Official Weekend Pundit Wood Stove.

While the wood stove has allowed us to keep the thermostats turned down, it isn't really capable of keeping The Manse warm all by itself on those below zero days or nights. While it can help keep the edge off during those times, it does require the assistance of the propane-fueled furnace to keep us within the comfort zone. Still, that's not bad. We would have easily used three (or four) hundred gallons of propane by now if it weren't for the wood stove. Instead we've used less than a hundred, and most of that was for the water heater and clothes dryer.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

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The political buzz is starting to reach a level not seen in four years, with an ever growing number of presidential hopefuls making announcements and paying visits to New Hampshire in order to test the waters. Normally I wouldn't comment upon such a normal activity, but this time I must if for no other reason than it's reached such a level so far ahead of schedule. We usually don't see this kind of activity until much later in the year as we approach the New Hampshire Primary. One would think that the primary is only a few months away rather than a year from now.

I don't know whether this bodes well or ill for the nation, though I am leaning towards the latter. With campaigning starting earlier and ever more prevalent front-loading of the primary schedule with the DNC's approval, it's skewing the political process and endangers the ability of lesser known and less well financed candidates to compete. We don't want this process to become a battle between the candidates with the deepest pockets rather than a contest between candidates with better ideas and policies.

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John Kerry hasn't gotten the message: Keep speaking like an enemy of the United States and you can kiss what's left of your political career goodbye.

Kerry decided not to run for president in 2008, mostly because he found there was little support for him among Democrats. But he's also in trouble in Massachusetts, which may mean that his Senate seat is in jeopardy.

While many of the voters in Massachusetts are Democrats, and liberal Democrats to boot, they don't like one of their own speaking like an enemy of America. He's managed to gloss over his betrayal of his military brethren during the Winter Soldier senate hearings back in the early 70's, but it's unlikely he'll be able to cover up his hatred of Bush and the American people in general after his rant at Davos.

His hypocrisy seems to know no bounds.

Senator Kerry, don't go away mad. Just go away.

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Glenn Reynolds link to an article in The Independent that shows that evolution may indeed solve the problem of militant Islam.

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It's only a week until Super Bowl XLI and I'm looking forward to seeing the game. I'll be supporting the Bears, though not wholeheartedly, for obvious reasons. I'll really be watching in order to see the ads made just for the Super Sunday.

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QandO has an interesting analysis about both Lt. General David Petraeus testimony during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Service Committee and the Senate anti-surge resolutions that send the wrong message to our troops and embolden the enemy.

Some of these Senate clowns need to get a clue.

Also, Tigerhawk writes about how the anticipated surge of troops in Baghdad is already having a positive effect there, one that the naysayers in Congress can't dispute.

(H/T Glenn Reynolds)

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If global warming is All-The-Fault-Of-The-Evil-Humans, how do we explain similar phenomena on the other planets in the solar system? Oh wait, I know. It's all of those probes NASA sent out causing these problems. Yeah. That's it. Again, It's-All-Our-Fault.

NOT.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where nary one of the “summah people” have been seen in months, winter is sorta here, and where plans to get our boats back in the water are already in the making.