Thoughts On A Sunday

If there were any doubts winter has arrived, they were dispelled with the arrival of sub-zero weather this weekend. Another unmistakable sign: bob-houses showing up on the frozen bays and coves of the lakes here in central New Hampshire.

While Lake Winnipesaukee has not frozen over entirely (a section in the widest part of the lake called The Broads is still open water), the ice is growing and thickening rapidly in the cold temperatures. Some of my fellow employees ave already ventured out onto the ice, placing their bob-houses in preparation for ice-fishing (and the upcoming Ice Fishing Derby).

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Speaking of freezing temps, one of BeezleBub's former classmates moved to Florida late last summer to “get away from the cold”. It's ironic she's been seeing colder temperatures in Florida than we experienced here the other day.

It must be global warming.....

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Bogie has noticed a bigger tax bite out of her first paycheck of 2010.

I haven't received my first 2010 paycheck yet (that will happen later this week). It will be interesting to see if my taxes have gone up as well. (Yeah, like that won't happen!)

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Don Surber points us to a Rasmussen poll that tells us 45% of voters would replace Congress with names drawn randomly from the phone book. Not a bad idea. However I think our Modest Proposal to reform Congress - not all that different from the Phone Book idea - would work better.

Glenn Reynolds adds “Only 45%?”

From one commenter:

Preferably the Yellow Pages!!! At least they can run a business.

Hmm. Not a bad idea.

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It's been confirmed: Sarah Palin will be speaking at the first TEA Party convention in Nashville starting February 4th and running through the 6th.

One downside I can see about this convention: the 'party' will be highjacked and start sounding too much like the Dems and the GOP, taking the movement in the wrong direction and putting the brakes on the growing momentum.

But then again, that's just what the Left wants and is doing everything it can discredit the TEA parties, even if it means lying about the movement and manufacturing controversies about its members and platforms.

As if that's anything new.

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How can US health care be both the worst and the best in the world at the same time? It's either one or the other.

The WHO believes that we could have done better because we do not have universal coverage. What apparently does not matter is that our population has universal access because most physicians treat indigent patients without charge and accept Medicare and Medicaid payments, which do not even cover overhead expenses. The WHO does rank the U.S. No. 1 of 191 countries for "responsiveness to the needs and choices of the individual patient." Isn't responsiveness what health care is all about?

Does gaining universal health insurance coverage in exchange for much poorer service mean we'll have the best health care system in the world? No, it means we'll truly have the worst health care system instead of a rhetorically poor health care system. I don't see how that would be attractive to anyone.

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The New England Patriots played the Baltimore Ravens in Foxboro in the Wild Card playoff game.

The Patriots' heads weren't in this game, allowing the Ravens to score two touchdowns in less than 5 minutes. Brady was stripped of the ball during the Patriots' first possession, allowing Baltimore to score their second touchdown. On the kickoff after the second Raven touchdown the Patriots kick returner lost the ball in the sun and darn near gave it back to the Ravens.

The Patriots defense was non-existent. Rushing defense couldn't keep the Ravens off of Brady. Brady got picked three times, fumbled once, with the Ravens able to exploit each turnover into a score.

Somehow the Patriots managed to score two touchdowns, but they still got crushed by the Ravens 33-14. This was the first Patriot loss at home since 2006.

The painful Patriots season is now over, with too many star players lost to injuries, too many rookies trying to play at a level they really wouldn't reach for another season or two, and a quarterback still trying to get back to where he was before he was injured last season.

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Despite record cold temperatures and widespread snowfall in Great Britain, the UK Met Office insists this winter is the warmest on record. That certainly isn't true here in the US, with most of the South seeing record low temps and, in some cases, recordable snowfall in places that have never seen snow before. The rest of northern Europe and Asia have also been seeing extended below normal temperatures and above normal snowfalls.

This is looking more and more like the Fallen Angels scenario.

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

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And speaking of “warmest winter on record”, maybe Britain can once again look forward to wheat fields and vineyards across the island as once existed when the weather was warmer.

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

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Can the GOP win Kennedy's US Senate seat in the special election January 19th? It's looking like the tide is shifting and GOP contender Scott Brown has evened things up with Democrat Martha Coakley just 9 days before the election.

Should Brown win, will Massachusetts Democrats stall his swearing in just long enough to keep him from voting on ObamaCare? Considering previous Massachusetts succession law shenanigans to ensure no Republican could ever be appointed by a GOP governor to fill a senate vacancy, I have no doubt they'll find some way to keep him from taking the senate seat for as long as they can get away with it. There's also the question about Senate Democrat machinations to delay Brown's certification as a US Senator to prevent him from voting on any health care bill that may come before the Senate.

(H/T Pirate's Cove)

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George Will tells us more about the failed state of California that liberalism built. What makes it worse is that the very people that helped create the crisis in the first place believe that more of the same will somehow solve the problem.

Haven't we seen the same thing from Obama and Congress in regards to the federal budget and the exploding deficit?

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the ice is getting thicker, the snow isn't melting, and where more cold weather is on the way.