The color changes, when they happen, are occurring rapidly. It seems like in the morning on my way to work a tree or group of trees will still have the deep green foliage typical of summer, but by afternoon the reds, oranges and yellows have replaced much of the green seen in the morning. It isn't the gradual over-a-week time it usually takes. It's also quite spotty, if that makes any sense.
What may be driving the rapid change was the warmer/drier than usual summer, which seemed to start sometime in May rather than the middle of June. Everything has been earlier or longer than usual this summer, with corn arriving two weeks early, pumpkins and apples a month early, along with a third hay cutting (it's usually only two cuttings a year). Maybe this summer was making up for the previous two wetter/colder/shorter summers.
This past week's temps have also been more like summer rather than early fall, reaching the 80's more than once, including Saturday. Not that I'm complaining. Any time I can delay the start of heating season is just fine by me. That's that much less firewood and/or propane I'll need to burn.
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A number of races for both state and national offices are heating up.We've seen the rudeness of Harry Reid's supporters at a Senate candidates forum in Nevada which ended in a brawl.
Nancy Pelosi doesn't appear to feel she needs to debate her Republican challenger. (Notice I wrote 'feel'. It's a liberal thing.) I guess she 'feels' she's got it all sown up so why take time away form ramming more unwelcome legislation down our throats or finding new ways to subvert the Constitution.
Despite the Delaware GOP's abandonment of Christine O'Donnell, it appears she's doing quite well without their help, particularly with fund raising. It looks like the Delaware GOP has managed to make itself superfluous. It serves them right.
Here in New Hampshire Carol Shea-Porter has been running her ads in an effort to retain her seat in the House. What's ironic about one of them is that she comes right out and says she'll vote the way she feels is right even if she's being pressured to vote otherwise. My question is this: Pressured by whom? Her constituents?
She has a history of ignoring the wishes of at least half her constituents – the Republican half – and voting in line with Speaker Nancy Pelosi's almost every time.
That's funny, I thought she was supposed to be representing the First Congressional District here in New Hampshire, not Nancy Pelosi's district in Berkeley.
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It's not often we have earthquakes here in New Hampshire, but we did experience a 3.1 magnitude quake late last night. To us here in the Lakes Region it sounded like a heavy loud truck passing by The Manse. There was no damage reported but it did startle a number of people throughout the state.**********
As I've always said, there's no such thing as too much bacon.(H/T Maggie's Farm)
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I haven't been the only one making comparisons between the Obama and Carter administrations. Apparently a number of Democrats have been making the same comparison, too.It's even more interesting when Walter Mondale, Carter's vice president, is doing likewise.
That's not a good sign for the Obama Administration.
Walter Mondale, Mr. Carter's vice president, told The New Yorker this week that anxious and angry voters in the late 1970s "just turned against us—same as with Obama." As the polls turned against his administration, Mr. Mondale recalled that Mr. Carter "began to lose confidence in his ability to move the public." Democrats on Capitol Hill are now saying this is happening to Mr. Obama.
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“Obama Stimulus Made Economic Crisis Worse.”Color me surprised.
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Could it be that the sun has something to do with climate change? Who'da thunk it?To many of the AGW 'theorists” (I use the term loosely, applying to folks like AlGore, etc.) have ignored the sun as a contributing factor to climate change. Many have tried to minimize its effects by pointing out the Sun's luminosity varies minutely. That's true of its visible spectrum, but not of its radio, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray, or gamma ray spectrum. To ignore these is to ignore over 95% of its electromagnetic radiation emissions, all of which have an effect on the climate of every planet within the solar system.
The idea that changes in the sun’s activity can influence the climate is making a comeback, after years of scientific vilification, thanks to major advances in our understanding of the atmosphere.
So far, three mechanisms have come to light. The best understood is what is known as the top-down effect, described by Mike Lockwood, also at the University of Reading, and Joanna Haigh of Imperial College London. Although the sun’s brightness does not change much during solar maxima and minima, the type of radiation it emits does. During maxima the sun emits more ultraviolet radiation, which is absorbed by the stratosphere. This warms up, generating high-altitude winds. Although the exact mechanism is unclear, this appears to have knock-on effects on regional weather: strong stratospheric winds lead to a strong jet stream.
The reverse is true in solar minima, and the effect is particularly evident in Europe, where minima increase the chances of extreme weather. Indeed, this year’s cold winter and the Russian heatwave in July have been linked to the sun’s current lull, which froze weather systems in place for longer than normal.
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Here's an interesting Canadian TV report about the Islamization of France and how the government has been complicit in the process.Public resistance against this trend and the government's refusal to enforce its own laws has resulted in regular protests against Islam and the government.
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Do we really need yet another example of how the media, and specifically the New York Times, plays down the way Democrat candidates have gone negative with their faint damnation of such tactics? As Cap'n Teach asks, what if the word 'Democrat' were replaced by 'Republican'? You know they NYT would be all over the story and heavily condemning those same tactics if they were being employed by Republicans.The old double standard still applies.