Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a slow, lazy day yesterday, with rain starting some time just before noon. BeezleBub was down working at the farm and Deb was at school. I was in the radio studio between 9 and 11AM, guest-hosting on Meet The New Press, with the last half hour turning into Weekend Pundit Radio because the two main hosts, Skip and Doug, had to head out to attend an NHGOP and 9-12 Tea Party, respectively.

At least I wasn't alone since John Hawkins of RightWingNews was on the phone, discussing one of the more timely topics, health care reform. We both agreed that, as written, it's a scam, having little to do with actually reforming health care. Instead, it's a naked power grab.

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With yesterday's 9-12 protest in Washington DC now in the rearview mirror, I find it interesting to see the crowd estimates varying so widely. Some in the MSM have downplayed it, stating only a few thousand attended, while others have said more than 2 million. Frankly, I believe it was far less than 2 million, though on one blog a commenter stated that a group had been counting the people as they came down towards the Capitol Building and stopped counting after 450,000.

Ironically, it was Democrats saying they expected to see 2 million protesting, but most folks (like me) figured they highballed the number in an effort to discredit the Tea Party movement by being able to state that far fewer people actually showed up, meaning the American people didn't really support the movement. Regardless of the actual number, the MSM took notice. No amount of videographic trickery would be able to hide the large crowd gathered in front of the Capitol Building (though some nutroots folks tried to claim it was all fakery, done with doctored video).

If the 2 million number is correct, then it makes one British press report about the attendees poignant:

Two million people with jobs.

That's quite different from the 'professional' protesters usually seen at protests and rallies run by the Left.

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The large number of protesters in Washington DC aren't the only ones Obama and his Democrat water-carriers have to worry about. Sarah Palin is still a thorn in their sides.

As Dr. Melissa Clouthier called it, Palin is Barack Obama's nemesis.

He certainly needs one.

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Also from Dr. Clouthier, some thoughts about 9/12 and the numbers fight. The best one:

The libs must be completely freaked out. They are obsessing over the details.

Indeed.

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While I am not a rabid NASCAR fan, I have to say I am pleased as punch that “the old guy”, Mark Martin, is in the points lead in the Sprint Cup chase. As a fellow “old guy” I like to see when one of us shows the young whippersnappers that we've still got it, in spades.

NASCAR makes its next appearance up here at New Hampshire Motor Speedway next weekend. The track is less than 15 miles south of The Manse (as the crow flies).

I'll be watching that race from the best seat in the house: my recliner in front of the TV.

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The gubernatorial election in New Jersey is only 7 weeks away an incumbent Democrat Governor John Corzine is 8 points behind his Republican challenger, Chris Cristie.

The smear campaign against Cristie has started, claiming he's a menace to society and isn't fit to be governor. One of his big crimes? Some speeding tickets. If that's the worst New Jersey Democrats can come up with, Corzine is doomed, and rightfully so. (I guess no one remembers Corzine's run in with New Jersey traffic laws back in 2007, one that damn near cost him his life.)

Cristie is a fiscal conservative, while Corzine has been instrumental in making the Garden State one of the most business hostile, high tax states in the country. Is it any wonder Corzine is in trouble?

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An ABC World News report this evening showed the move by schools to go bookless, switching to e-book technology, either iPhone-like pads, laptops, Kindles, or other similar technology. When you think about it, it makes sense. Text books are expensive, take up a lot of space, and can weigh a lot, particularly when they're stuffed into a student's backpack.

Our engineering lab went bookless a number of years ago. Our thousands of data books took up over a thousand square feet of floor space, required floor to ceiling shelving, and needed constant updating and archiving of older data books. As the Internet became ubiquitous and vendors became web savvy, the need to keep data books disappeared. We finally made the switch and in an orgy of disposal, pitched every single data book out of our tech library windows into a dumpster from one of the local recycling companies. Now we go to the vendor's website, search for devices that fit our needs, and download the datasheets to our computers. Bits take up a lot less space than books.

It's about time our schools caught up to the rest of us.

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Dana Loesch gives us a history of the Tea Party movement, including the motivations that created it. One of the biggest factors that brought the movement into being?

Nancy Pelosi.

(H/T Instapundit)

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Is health care a right?

I can't find it anywhere in the Constitution. But that hasn't stopped Obama from believing it is.

I find it interesting that our president believes in ignoring parts of the Constitution he doesn't like or finds inconvenient, while finding rights in that same Constitution that aren't there, nor even implied. Maybe he'd like to bring back the old custom of law by decree once enjoyed by monarchs and present day tyrants and bypass the Constitution altogether.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we don't want summer to end yet, boating is still in full swing, and where Monday has returned too darned soon.