Thoughts On A Sunday

School has ended for the year for BeezleBub and he's spending a week down at the WP In-Laws before returning to work at the farm full time. I expect he and his grandfather will spend a good portion of their time together working in BeezleBub's Jeep. (Yes, he bought a 1975 Jeep CJ5 with money he earned working at the farm. As he said, “Most kids in our high school have drivers licenses but no car. I have my own car, but no drivers license...yet.”)

This will be a year long restoration project, meaning that by the time BeezleBub gets his license his Jeep should be ready for the road.

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The weather has not been conducive to celebrating Bike Week 2009, with two days during the week and most of Saturday during both last and this weekend. Also, the Official Weekend Pundit Camera has not recovered from our trip to Florida. Therefore, I also have no photos of my own to show.

That sucks.

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It turns out that one of my favorite conservative members of the MSM now has his own blog. Stop by John Stossel's new digs and check it out.

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Tom Bowler offers his opinion on the Trojan Horse that is Obamacare, showing that it is merely a deception designed to move the US to a single payer medical system, also known as socialized medicine.

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Blackfive schools us, and in turn a certain US Senator from California, about respect and how the military shows respect by their forms of address for individuals. This is something I learned as a teen while a Civil Air Patrol Cadet back in the late 1960's/early 1970's. I have never forgotten.

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Bill Whittle deconstructs revisionist history in regards to the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There are some people today that believe there was no need to drop the bombs on Japan, that it was immoral to drop such a horrible weapon without warning the Japanese people living there.

But they were warned 5 days before the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima that they were targeted for destruction by American bombers. Dropping those bombs also did away with the need to invade the Japanese home islands, meaning over 1 million+ casualties on both sides did not occur.

As the saying goes, “Read The Whole Thing.”

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Why is anyone surprised at Obama's moves, dismissing or firing anyone having the audacity to investigate his actions or the actions of his cronies or associations connected to him? After all, it's The Chicago Way.

I wonder how many of the dead will vote for him during the next presidential election? That's also The Chicago Way.

(H/T Instapundit)

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Are the days of the mullahs numbered? As protests across Iran spread even as the government forces have turned their guns on protesters, the number of protesters has increased. Unconfirmed reports also have protesters seizing weapons from police and basij and defending themselves against them.

If the protests continue to spread in defiance of the Ayatollah Khamenei's orders, a second Iranian revolution could be in the making.

It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of dictators.

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One thing Congress isn't telling you about the health care bill intended to provide health insurance for the American people: Congress and federal employees will be exempt.

It should apply to everyone or no one.

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Our latest addition to The Manse's feline menagerie, Charlotte, has been integrating well into the household. She still hisses and growls at the others, but only now and then. I figure it will take another week or two before she stops doing that and feels more comfortable with her new family.

Like Hilda, Charlotte is a Maine Coon Cat, but with different coloring. We believe she is older than five of our six cats, but much younger than Bagheera The Magnificent.

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It's interesting that when Republican legislators propose budget cuts to help balance a state budget, they're called immoral , unfeeling, and cold hearted. But when Democrat legislators propose the exact same budget cuts, they're called “tough cuts that had to be made.”

All of this is not simply to point out the hypocrisy of politicians who portray themselves as noble defenders of children, the poor and the infirm only to cut programs for those same people when times are tough. It is to note that so many funding decisions cast in stark moral terms are not about morals at all, but about basic economics. In flush times it is easy to pretend that government spending is all about morality. When money is tight all around, that theory is exposed for the canard that it is.

So it's moral and right if the Democrats propose cuts, but immoral and cold heated if the Republicans propose the same cuts.

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It's Father's Day today. It's also the first day of summer, though you wouldn't know it looking at the weather we've been experiencing here in New England. There's been lots of rain, below normal temperatures (lower 60's rather than lower 80's), and not a whole lot of sunshine.

Does someone want to tell me about global warming again?

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As Rand Simberg reminds us, the economic crisis was not caused by the free market.

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They have got to be kidding, right?

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Like many others, neo-neocon wants Obama to fix Medicare first before tackling the health care for the rest of us.

President Obama hasn’t given up on his plans for sweeping reforms—including a public option—in health care and health insurance. But if Obama would slow down and work on Medicare first, and actually succeed in cutting costs there, he could actually garner some bipartisan support for his plan as well as some perception that he might really know what he’s doing.

Of course, that would mean actually showing some concrete results in tackling a very knotty problem, not Obama’s strong suit.

Indeed. Our president is very good at talking about 'solutions', but has a poor track record for actually carrying through and finishing what's he's started. I doubt that will change, even with Pelosi and Reid doing much of the work.

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Hotspur points us to a list of Toys That Would Be Illegal Today, including this one. I remember most of them and owned or used a like number.

How any of us survived to reach adulthood remains a mystery.

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The rumble of thousands of motorcycles has faded away for yet another year as Motorcycle Week 2009 ends. Attendance was down, as expected, though the rainy weather had more to do with it than the economy, in my opinion.

Hopefully next year's Motorcycle Week will more than make up for this year's dismal weather.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where bikers are heading home, rain has been coming and going, and where we're still waiting for summer weather to arrive.