Thoughts On A Sunday

BeezleBub has been thriving at his summer job on the farm. Even though the job has meant that he hasn't been able to indulge in his usual summer activities, he hasn't complained. Well, not much.

He likes the work, the fact that he's busy all the time, and that he's out of doors. He also gets the chance to drive some of the farm machinery, something he loves to do. (It helps that he already knew how to drive a farm tractor courtesy of the WP Father-in-Law.)

He's seen his savings account grow at a precipitous rate. It helps that he spends very little of his money. Then again, he hasn't had any time to spend his money.

He has another week or so before he returns to school, but he'll still be putting in hours at the farm on the weekends until they shut down some time in October.\

He's already been invited back for next year.

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I was guest co-hosting again on Saturday's Meet The New Press, something I could very easily get used to. While the radio station is a small low-power AM station, the show is live streamed on the Internet and available as a podcast.

Frankly, I believe the show has more online listeners than those listening on the radio, but that's fine. After all bloggers are the “new press” and we use the 'net as our means of distribution. It seems fitting.

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Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) is at it again, pressing for a resurrection of the military draft.

His motives have nothing to do with making sure that the US military has enough personnel to perform its duties. Rather it's his way of trying to prevent us from ever going to war again. How do I know this?

Because he came right out and said so on today's Good Morning America Weekend.

His theory is that if the children of the upper class (read that as “rich white folk”) are forced to serve due to the draft, we will be less likely to send our armed forces off to war. He wants no deferments or political string pulling that will allow the upper class to get their children into the National Guard, etc.

He keep spouting the old line that it's primarily the lower and lower middle class that make the sacrifices to defend our nation. He's also spouted the since disproven canard that it's mostly the soldiers from the poorer levels of the socioeconomic scale (read that as “minorities”) that are most often in combat.

It also means that the Left will have a cause identical to the one during the Vietnam War because most of the troops fighting will be draftees and not volunteers, as is the case these days.

Of course it doesn't matter to Rangel that the Pentagon doesn't want draftee troops. They want volunteers because then they can pick and choose who they'll accept. The fact that the level of education and training of members of the US Armed Forces is above that of the general population means nothing to Rangel. His proposal will do nothing but bring down the quality of the men and women serving. These days that's the last thing we want or need.

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It's no secret that the number of mortgage foreclosures has been climbing. It's also no secret that a large majority of those foreclosures are on homes financed with sub-prime loans. It's certainly true here in New Hampshire, with 1,800 foreclosures predicted for this year and 2,000 for next year before the number drops off.

Approximately 34% of new mortgages in New Hampshire between 2003 and 2007 were sub-prime mortgages. About 70% of all foreclosures in the state are on sub-prime mortgages. Also, about 20% of the adjustable rate mortgages are expected to go to foreclosure. This is despite low unemployment and rising incomes. I don't know if those numbers hold true in the rest of the country, but I think the figures here certainly give an indication that they might.

At least one bit of good news about this problem: New Hampshire banks gave out few, if any, sub-prime home loans. It appears they learned their lessons from the housing bust back in the late 80's/early 90's. The same can not be said about a number of mortgage companies, a number of which have gone into bankruptcy.

It was suggested by Hillary Clinton that a federal bailout might be forthcoming. However, that would be a bad idea. The mortgage companies took the risk with eyes wide open, knowing it was a crap shoot. The last thing we need is a taxpayer financed bailout of companies that gambled on the housing market and lost. It's not up to us to help them recoup their losses.

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With copper prices rising the number of copper thefts from construction sites and unoccupied buildings is on the rise. Copper piping, wiring, flashing and a host of other copper building materials are being stolen in record numbers.

It doesn't affect just the building trades or homeowners. Even the electrical utilities are being hit with wholesale theft of electrical cable from work sites where aerial cabling is being built or replaced.

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One of the topics of discussion on the aforementioned Meet The New Press was the sale of Verizon's wireline infrastructure and customers in northern New England to FairPoint Communications.

While at first I thought it was a good idea, considering Verizon apparently had no plans to offer its FTTH services statewide within New Hampshire, I have since come to the conclusion that it's a raw deal for Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The more I looked into the deal and the financial data, including union contracts and FairPoint's plans for expanding broadband service, the less I liked what I saw.

While I am not usually in tune with the two unions that represent Verizon employees, I have to agree with them as well as the New Hampshire Office of the Consumer Advocate that the details of the deal are too vague and that the risk is too high.

All three states involved in the deal must agree to the sale. Should one state balk the deal is dead.

It can't die soon enough for me.

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Talk about the gullibility of some people, particularly when it comes to the environment.






(H/T Rob Boyce)

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Even with the downwards revision of the predicted number of Atlantic hurricanes/tropical storms we'll be seeing this season, I think the number is still overstated. It's looking more and more like this year's hurricane season will be very much like last year's: much ado about nothing.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer weather is hanging in there, farm harvests are looking pretty good, and where nary a tropical storm has been seen.