2/14/2010

Thoughts On A Sunday

An end of an era came upon us yesterday.

I took Deb's trusty 1991 Buick LeSabre to our mechanic for its annual state inspection yesterday morning.

It. Failed. Big. Time.

The list of things needed to allow her car to pass inspection was lengthy and expensive, too expensive, at least for a 19-year old car. It made no sense to spend $3000 or more to keep a car that will require an ever increasing amount of work every year. It was time to put the Buick out to pasture.

So today we went car shopping, or more accurately, truck shopping. We found a 2004 Ford F150 4x4 with only 60,000 miles on it. We managed to negotiate a reasonable price, knocking it down $2500 from the original selling price.

(In case you're wondering, the truck was not my idea. It was Deb's. I thought she'd go for another Buick but after talking things over with her dad, she decided a pickup truck would be a good idea.)

For the time being I'll keep driving the trusty ten-year old Intrepid. I figure I can count on it for the next 5 years at least.

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As Coyote Blog reminds us, difficulty in passing legislation is a feature, not a bug

(H/T Viking Pundit)

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Some folks are sick, twisted individuals, particularly when it comes to animals.

The person that did this to a poor dog is living proof of that. And if they can be this cruel to helpless animals, what kind of cruelties might they visit upon their fellow human beings?

I find it hard to fathom the thought processes that allow people to be cruel to animals. The thought of someone abusing any of the feline members of our household fills me with disgust and anger. The thought of those kind of people abusing animals and people makes we want to make use of my S&W Model 1076 to punch some non-lethal 10mm holes in their hides.

UPDATE: The perpetrator turned himself into the police. All I can say about this guy: “What an idiot!”

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Ah, this explains it! I was wondering why those on the Left were so in the tank for Obama's economic pseudo-policies. Now we know.

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BeezleBub and I watched the Daytona 500 this afternoon, the opening race of a new NASCAR season.

With two red flags for track repairs with 78 and 37 laps to go, the race took a long time to reach the end, finishing well after dark.

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John Stossel comments on the forced unionization of daycare workers/owners in Michigan, something I covered back in December of last year. (Scroll down towards the bottom of the post.)

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The AGW fall from grace just keeps getting better and better, particularly now that one of the major players in ClimateGate, Phil Jones, is admitting to the fraud of cooking the books to 'prove' global warming, and saying that over the past 15 years there has been no statistically significant warming.

Stick a fork in 'em. They're done.

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To add insult to injury, you know it's bad when a 15-year old high school girl has a better handle on global warming and the problems with the ground stations used to measure temperatures here in the US than Dr. James Hansen of NASA.

(via Don Surber by way of Pirate's Cove)

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I mentioned last week that Bogie had placed her seed order for her garden. This week I can report she's received them, including three free packets of an experimental variety of bean.

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This is yet another example of “This is just plain stupid!”

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I'm beginning to like Liz Cheney more every time I hear, see, or read her. She's definitely her father's daughter. She was able to let Juan Williams have it with both barrels, after her blasting the Obama Administration for its rank incompetence.

I'm wondering if we could see a Palin/Cheney or Cheney/Palin ticket in 2012?

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Speaking of Cheney (in this case Dick Cheney), he's hasn't been shy about slamming the Obama Administration, either. Maureen Dowd gives us an inside (though fictional) view of a meeting between Cheney and Obama before Cheney's weekend appearance on ABC Sunday morning.

Because of Cheney's scheduled appearance this morning on ABC, Obama made Joe Biden available to the other networks to rebut Cheney's opinions or claims about the present administration's policies.

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Somehow it seems both contradictory and fitting that an piece about cheating spouses should appear on Valentine's Day.

It appears we Americans have two opposing opinions about cheating, frowning down upon it while tacitly condoning it in their own relationships at the same time.

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While out on our truck shopping expedition today, we had occasion to drive by Alton Bay, the southernmost part of Lake Winnipesaukee. Normally, that isn't noteworthy. But today was the annual Alton Bay Winter Carnival. There were hundreds out on the ice in the bay. There were cars, trucks, snowmobiles (including some drag snowmobiles doing speed runs), ATVs and, believe it or not, aircraft out on the ice. (A runway and helicopter landing pad were created on the ice.)

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter carnivals have started, new trucks are being purchased, and where snow will return later this week.