Thoughts On A Sunday

Maybe I'm just getting used to the high snowfall totals, but I didn't believe we'd had nearly as much snow this winter as compared to last winter, but the Weather Guys™ say we're on track to equal or surpass last year's snowfall totals.

While BeezleBub and I have been staying to plan in regards to where to put the snow we move with the Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower, making sure we will have enough room to put snow should we equal last year.

It was a tight fit last year and if we'd had one more storm with a significant snowfall we would have had no place to put it.

But BeezleBub said we could avoid the problem of where to put snow if we replaced the Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower with this baby.

We did talk to one of the sales people at one of the local retailers and he told us this puppy will throw snow up to 100'. He even showed us a video he'd made illustrating the power of that monster. If properly applied we could throw the snow over The Manse and into the back lot. And if a neighbor pissed us off we could easily fill their driveway with our snow from a distance.

We would be able to clear the driveway in two or three passes, finishing the job in 10 or 15 minutes as compared to the 45 minutes or more that it takes now.

Well, maybe next winter.....

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Shades of Katrina!

FEMA's response to the ice storm and massive power outages in Kentucky has been pathetic. Even the press in Australia has reported on the problem.

As one wag put it, maybe Obama doesn't care about white people.

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Will we see a return to trade protectionism and a slide into a chronic EU-like economic malaise? Mark Steyn seems to think that if we allow the 'stimulus' package to pass as written, which includes a lot of “Buy American” provisions, we will be recreating the conditions that will cripple the American economy for decades while allowing big government to be come BIG GOVERNMENT, which in turn will have a stranglehold on the economy.

Atlas Shrugged indeed.

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Opposition to the stimulus plan is growing.

Economists are saying it just won't work. Others see it as nothing more than a payoff for political favors owed. As Walter Williams says, “The stimulus package being discussed is politically smart but economically stupid. It's that bedeviling, omnipresent Santa Claus and Tooth Fairy problem again.”

It becomes more apparent every day the Democrats in Congress and the White House never took a history lesson and are trying their darnedest to recreate the Great Depression.

Bruce has his own take on the stimulus bill. As he says to Harry Reid:

Your party owns the "American Bankruptcy Act of 2009".

And, don't expect any Republican worth his or her weight in snot to go along for the ride and give you the political cover you so desperately crave right now, thinking it will save your bony ass once this crapfest goes south.

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

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Is Global Warming the greatest fraud ever perpetrated? I have no doubt it is.

One of the big side-effects of this fraud, besides the billions that will wasted to deal with it, is the reputation of science. No one will trust science again because it was used to push this hoax.

But what worries me most is that the credibility of science may never recover — and perhaps it shouldn’t. Credibility has to be earned, and once it’s squandered may never be recovered. By now far too many scientists have knowingly colluded in an historic fraud, one that would put Bernie Madoff to shame. We are seeing political larceny here on a truly planetary scale.

Why should scientists who’ve gambled their own reputations on this fakery ever be trusted again? They shouldn’t. Would you entrust your life savings to Bernie Madoff? Right.

I’m not a climatologist. Like most scientists I rarely judge what others do in their fields. And yet it’s been flamingly obvious for years now that the hypothesis of human-caused global warming violates all the basic rules and safeguards that protect the integrity of normal, healthy science. That’s why AGW (anthropogenic global warming) looks like a massive fraud, the biggest fraud ever in the history of science.

Someone better tell Al Gore.

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The presidential election is three months past but the MSM is still dissing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

Why are they so afraid of her? Could it be they see her as a threat to The One in 2012 and are trying a pre-emptive strike to discredit her?

I'd say it's a pretty good bet.

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The brouhaha about bonus payouts in Wall Street financial and banking firms may be much ado about nothing, taking something small and not unusual and twisting it into something appearing ugly and greedy.

A few quick facts about Wall Street bonuses. The pretext for the political outrage was the New York comptroller's report this week on the aggregate data for bonuses in 2008. That "irresponsible" bonus pool of $18 billion was for every worker in the New York financial industry, from top dogs to secretaries. This bonus pool fell 44% in 2008, the largest percentage decline in 30 years. The average bonus was $112,000; bonuses typically make up most of an employee's salary on Wall Street. The comptroller estimates that this decline will cost New York State $1 billion in lost tax revenue and New York City $275 million. Both city and state may have to announce layoffs.

Not quite as nasty and greedy as the media, the Democrats, and the White House have made it sound.

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School and Town meeting takes place in our little town this week, with the voters reviewing the warrants articles and modifying them as needed. Then next month we'll vote on them during town election day. It is by this means we decide what the town will spend for services and on the school system.

As I like to tell the people that can't be bothered to attend the meetings or more importantly, tovote on what the town will spend, “If you can't be bothered then you have no right to bitch about your taxes.”

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where town meetings start this week, money will be hotly debated, and where we'll be watching the Super Bowl from the comfort of our woodstove heated living room.