Thoughts On A Sunday

It's been a 'ballistic' weekend here at the Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Manse, with BeezleBub building not one, but two spud cannons. (One is a cannon, the other is more like a spud 'mortar', with a shorter barrel than the cannon.)

A trip to the grocery store this morning for the ammunition and propellant (potatoes and hair spray) was all that was needed to complete the project.

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The Winter Carnival in Alton, New Hampshire appeared to be well attended, with numerous fishermen, snowmobilers, and pilots converging on frozen Alton Bay. (Yes, they land airplanes and helicopters on the ice in the bay!) Deb, BeezleBub, and I drove through the bay area and we could see the large numbers of people gathered on the ice. My only regrets are that I didn't have my camera with me and that we didn't have time to stop and join in on the festivities.

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It was also the weekend of the 80th Annual World Championship Sled Dog Derby, held in Laconia, New Hampshire (one town over from where The Manse is located).

Mushers from all over the world competed, making for an interesting race weekend.

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If this turns out to be true, we may be able to prevent and maybe cure this terrible disease: Cold sore virus linked to Alzheimer's Disease.

The DNA from Herpes Simplex 1, the virus that causes cold sores, has been found in the beta-amyloid protein plaques that build up in the brains of Alzhaeimer's sufferers.

[Researchers] believe the herpes simplex virus is a significant factor in developing the debilitating disease and could be treated by antiviral agents such as acyclovir, which is already used to treat cold sores and other diseases caused by the herpes virus. Another future possibility is vaccination against the virus to prevent the development of the disease in the first place.

To use a phrase from Instapundit, “Faster, please!”

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

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More pundits are weighing in on President Obama's failure to live up to his campaign rhetoric.

Writes Jennifer Rubin:

Consider his tone and lack of bipartisanship: Obama’s election was supposed to end the “politics as usual,” filled with “divisiveness” and all other sorts of bad things. It was on Inauguration Day, as I recall, when Obama proclaimed “an end to the petty grievances … that for far too long have strangled our politics.” We should “set aside childish things,” Obama suggested, and “choose our better history.”

So much for that. The first thing President Obama did was allow Nancy Pelosi to write the egregious “stimulus” bill, effectively making it her own personal wish list. When opposition to the bill began to mount, Obama brought Republicans to the bargaining table — only to snicker “I won” to their faces.

Additionally, President Obama’s recent speech to House Democrats was as snide and sarcastic of a national address as you will ever see. It was laced with flippant, partisan attacks on those who dared to question the logic of this massive bill. His administration went on the offensive, campaign-style, impugning the motives of those who have philosophical problems with the stimulus — what he calls “bickering” — while discarding any semblance of bipartisan spirit or grace under pressure.

It seems he's working hard to further marginalize the Republicans in Congress, all while showing his pettiness.

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Even Mark Steyn is getting into the act, wondering when Obama will end his Obamateur Hour and start acting serious about the problems facing our nation rather than wasting time on townhall meetings and acting as if he's still on the campaign trail.

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Michael Ledeen tells us “We're all facists now!”

Adds the News Junkie at Maggie's Farm:

Fascism, like Socialism and Communism, assumes that politicians are wiser, more far-seeing, and have more integrity and less self-interest than the average person. Also, that the regular person is a feckless dope. Little evidence for that, on average, thus far in history. Politics is just "Hollywood for ugly people," as they say - but also for many who cannot make it in the real world.

Indeed. I've met more than a few politicians incapable of holding a real job because they weren't competent enough to do so. A number of them had personal lives that were less than 'great'. Oh, heck, their personal lives were a mess. And we're supposed to let folks like these run our lives when they can't even run their own?

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You'll get no argument from me on either of these.

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Personal and small business bankruptcies are on the rise throughout the country. It's no different here in New Hampshire. But what's different about the bankruptcies during this difficult economy is the kinds of people appearing before the bankruptcy courts.

One of the most telling differences is that many of those filing for personal bankruptcy shouldn't have to.

In the seven years Manchester attorney Malcolm Blackwood has been doing bankruptcy law, he has noticed one sad fact: "The vast majority of my clients have paid back every penny they've borrowed several times over."

But because of high interest rates and fees, they never seem to climb out of debt, he said.

Interesting. They had already paid back many times what they owed, but were still deep in debt. What's wrong with this picture?

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where another sporting weekend has passed, the ice is still thick, and where the ice fishing is still pretty darned good.