Thoughts On A Sunday

The warm temperatures we've been experiencing have been welcome, allowing us to shut off the furnace and allow the Official Weekend Pundit Woodstove to go cold. The windows were opened, the screen doors put in, and the patio furniture returned to the main deck behind The Manse.

Despite the warm temperatures, BeezleBub and I spent a few hours moving firewood from the Official Weekend Pundit Woodpile into the garage. While mostly dry, it still needs some time to be properly seasoned. The warm, dry conditions in the garage will speed the last of it and ensure we'll have a least two and a half cords of perfectly seasoned wood for next winter. The last two or so cords will continue drying outside. We expect to get two more cords before fall to ensure we have enough for next winter.

But until then we'll focus on getting things ready for the coming summer.

*********

Speaking of the coming summer, we have secured a new slip for the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout, aka The Boat. Unlike last year, The Boat will once again be berthed close to The Manse, just across the cove where we'd berthed in previous years. Last year we returned to a slip located outside the Original Official Weekend Pundit Manse. While inexpensive, it was not a convenient location, taking over 20 minutes to get there from The Manse and another 40 minutes to get out onto the main part of Lake Winnipesaukee. The new location is only 5 minutes away and it takes only a few minutes to get from there to the big lake. The great thing is that it costs only a tiny bit more than the slip we had last year.

We still have work to do to The Boat to ensure it will be ready for the upcoming boating season, but nothing major. It should be ready to return to the water sometime in the next two weeks.

*********

Now there's another debate about global warming..er..climate change. With the sun at a solar minimum not seen for over 100 years, global temperatures falling, and increasing doubt about Man's part in climate change, the battle is centering on the Sun's effect on climate. If I had to guess, I'd say it has everything to do with it.

There are plenty of records showing a strong correlation between solar activity and global temperatures. (Yes, I know correlation does not imply causality, but it does mean we need to explore this correlation to determine if there is another mechanism driving the phenomenon.) During the last solar minimum, titled the Maunder Minimum, solar activity was very low. It coincided with the “Little Ice Age”, which brought far colder temperatures worldwide. Some solar scientists believe that Cycle 24 (the 11-year sunspot cycle) has not started its upward swing. In fact it is over 18 months overdue and not showing any signs of starting any time soon.

Gee, could it be the warmists are wrong and that climate variation over time is natural?

*********

Obama's first 100 days...and his first 100 mistakes.

(H/T Michelle Malkin)

*********

Via Maggie's Farm: “President Pantywaist does not know who the Enemy is.”

You know it's bad when even the UK press is lambasting President Obama's policies.

If al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the rest of the Looney Tunes brigade want to kick America to death, they had better move in quickly and grab a piece of the action before Barack Obama finishes the job himself. Never in the history of the United States has a president worked so actively against the interests of his own people - not even Jimmy Carter.

President Pantywaist's recent world tour, cosying up to all the bad guys, excited the ambitions of America's enemies. Here, they realised, is a sucker they can really take to the cleaners. His only enemies are fellow Americans. Which prompts the question: why does President Pantywaist hate America so badly?

Said one commenter, “It's a sad state of affairs when this opinion is published in the UK, rather than being trumpeted in the MSM by the Republicans, Libertarians and Independents in the US.”

Nothing more need be said.

*********

Is it a surprise to anyone that federal tax receipts have plummeted, particularly in light of the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) economy? As Tom Blumer puts it, tax receipts are down because Americans are 'Going Galt'.

Even more importantly, they started doing so last summer with good reason.

Starting in June and all the way through to Election Day, Pelosi, Obama, and Reid — but especially presidential nominee Obama — told the country that they were ready, willing, and would soon be able to punitively tax the 5% of the nation’s most productive so they could redistribute money to everyone else. Enough high producers to make a difference believed them and abandoned their previous guarded optimism[...] not because of then-current economic conditions, which were at worst mediocre. They did so because of their assessments of what economic conditions would be in the not-too-distant future, based on the perilous pronouncements of Pelosi, Obama, and Reid. Many of those who didn’t catch on during the summer did so after observing the reckless September-October actions of the Washington establishment.

As a result, they took steps that businesspeople, entrepreneurs, and investors ordinarily take when a serious recession takes hold — not hiring, not expanding, letting people go and not replacing them, making worn-out equipment last longer instead of buying new, and others — before the serious recession took hold. They deliberately downsized in response to stated promises by powerful government officials Pelosi, Obama, and Reid to penalize and punish them and the economy as a whole, if and when they gained power.

In other words, enough high producers to make a difference preemptively “went Galt.”

The end result? A recession of the likes we haven't seen since the 1970's. The cause? The socialist punish-the-rich plans put forth by the Democratic triumvirate.

This shows two things: First, that George Santayana was right. Second, that Pelosi, Obama, and Reid never took (or passed) an economics class in school, or even worse, have had no real world experience running a business and understanding what motivates business owners to do well.

Coming across as a government sanctioned protection racket is not how one spurs business owners to do well.

*********

Just to break up this Obama love-fest, I must relate this Sunday morning experience that illustrates what happens when you can't get good help.

My lovely wife and I decide to have breakfast out this morning, so we went to one of the local eateries, one I happen to frequent once or twice a week. As we entered we could see it wasn't busy, with maybe a third of the booths/tables/counter stools occupied. We thought it wouldn't take long for us to have breakfast. We were wrong.

We sat at one of the booths, which still had dirty dishes from the previous occupants. After 15 minutes of being totally ignored and seeing other diners entering and being treated the same way, we decided to seek our breakfast elsewhere.

The diner was not undermanned by any means. But even with all the apparent activity, I came to realize they really weren't getting anything accomplished. Tables were not being cleared, orders weren't being taken, and patrons had to wait to pay their bills.

This is not a model for success.

*********

From Bruce comes this story about the People's Republic of Taxachusetts and their plans to raise their sales tax from 5% to 6%...or maybe even 7%. As he points out, all this will do is induce even more Massachusetts residents to make the drive to New Hampshire to shop, which has no sales tax. It will also induce Rhode Island residents to spend their money in their home state since Massachusetts sales tax will now equal Rhode Island's.

It appears no one in the Massachusetts legislature or the governor's office has ever heard of the Laffer Curve.

As Bruce says, the alternative title to his post should be “The Great New Hampshire Stimulus Bill Rolls On.”

*********

Raven let's us know the danger of having a narcissist for a president. For one thing, he misses things like the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico, which has now made its way into the US. He is also unaware of the protests symbolized by the Tea Parties.

*********

Bob Parks slams Shane Murphy, second in command of the Maersk Alabama, for his diatribe against Rush Limbaugh's reporting about the rescue of Captain Phillips and the death of the three pirates. Murphy believes Limbaugh's characterization of the pirates holding Phillips was racist. Never mind that Limbaugh's identification of the pirates was 100% accurate.

As one commenter to Bob's post wrote, “[Murphy] is just a tool.”

He'll get no argument from me on that one.

*********

Fred First over at Fragments From Floyd reminisces about the loss of his dog Buster six years ago. The memories came flooding back when he came across a wonderful picture of Buster he'd misfiled on his computer.

*********

Rachel Lucas gives us some insight into the European view of Americans, particular those of us too darned ignorant to not vote for the Obamessiah.

Rachel also lays a smackdown on Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and her complete ignorance about matters dealing with national security.

*********

And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather is more like summer, thoughts of boating intrude on a regular basis, and where work to put up firewood for next winter continues.