9/25/2011

Thoughts On A Sunday

It's NASCAR weekend up here in New Hampshire, with the second of two Sprint Cup races taking place today at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.

While I am a NASCAR fan, I am also a New England Patriots fan, and there lies the problem. Both the race and Patriots game are taking place at the same time. I could easily record one while watching the other, but for events like these the last thing I want to do is watch a recording when I already know the outcome. So this time around I dumped NASCAR in favor of the Patriots.

I should have watched NASCAR. The Patriots tanked against the Buffalo Bills 31-34, after having held a 21-0 lead. The two biggest problems – rookies pulling down major penalties and a Bills defense that intercepted 4 Brady passes.

Once the Pats lost the momentum they couldn't get it back and the Bills stomped all over them. They won because they wanted it more and prepared better than the Pats had.

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We're only into our second full day of fall and already the foliage is starting to change. I noticed during my drive between our small business and my 'regular' job late yesterday morning that the ferns along the sides of the roads were already browning and the swamp maples and birches were starting to sport more red and yellow leaves, respectively.

It won't be too long before the hoards of leaf peepers will arrive to take in the fiery fall display.

At least these folks tend to be far more polite (and better tippers) than the now departed “summah people”.

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Glenn Reynolds has a number of links about the whole Solyndra debacle and how it seems the White House is playing a game of CYA, with the help of the most disliked man in Congress, Henry Waxman.

Glenn also quotes an e-mail received from one of his readers that asks:

“The question I have not heard asked is, How many Solyndras are there? How many have already failed? Or on the brink of failure? How many are still being planned?”

Indeed.

And then there's the LightSquared scandal.

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Charles Krauthammer writes about “the return of the real Obama” - the redistributionist, share the misery, but not the power – socialist.

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To paraphrase Art Linkletter, “Liberals Believe The Darnedest Things.”

One has to wonder whether at times they are looking into a parallel universe where the laws of that universe are different from ours rather than seeing what is directly in front of them.

Some of the things they believe that aren't so:

Myth #1: Conservatives are outside the American mainstream.

Myth #2: Conservatives represent special interests.

Myth #3: The Republican party is moving to the right.

Myth #4: The Tea Party is dangerous and extreme.

Myth #5: Ethnic minorities must be liberals.

Myth #6: Women are naturally liberals.

Myth #7: Liberals take the country forward and conservatives take it backward.

Myth #8: Liberals have moved beyond old-fashioned religion.

Myth #9: Good intentions are enough for liberals.

Myth #10: No logical arguments need be made against conservatives.


The rebuttals to each myth are quite good, though I don't necessarily agree with all of them.

I find myths 5 and 6 to be the most hubristic as they assume things that just aren't so and they always catch liberals by surprise during election season. Myth 9 is an arrogance of biblical proportions, considering where that road leads (and has led in the past). And myth 10 is self-contradictory since it is a rare thing when liberals of the type we're talking about use logic for anything.

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

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Though not exactly breaking news, I was gladdened to hear that Heathkit is returning to the kit business.

I've written before about Heathkit and its influence on a few generations of electronics and amateur radio enthusiasts. It's nice to see they're making a comeback. I wonder if at some point they'll bring back some of their amateur radio kits? They used to have a wide range of them from relatively simple meters to full-blown transceiver and power amplifier kits.

(H/T ARRL)

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Scary Yankee Chick is looking to buy a new snowblower for the upcoming winter and is looking for some comments and suggestions. She links one model she and her husband have been looking at as one possibility.

We here at The Manse are also in the market for a new Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower as the old one finally broke down and would have cost more than it was worth to repair. We've decided on one from John Deere, the 1330SE. As I wrote in my comments to SYC, it will throw snow farther than our old machine, something that is quite important for those winters with lots of snowfall, and will allow us to clear our rather treacherous driveway in less time.

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You can't tell me this isn't going to have unintended consequences, bad unintended consequences.

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While some in the GOP are hoping Chris Christie will change his mind and run for President, I don't think he will. As he's said more than once there's too much left to do in New Jersey and he wants to see it through.

I agree with him wholeheartedly. Better he finish the job in the Garden State and then maybe consider a run for the White House, but not one minute sooner.

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The Official Weekend Pundit Satellite Receiver/DVR has been getting a workout since the new fall TV season started. There are a couple of new shows that look promising, one of them being Person Of Interest. Of course the fact that I like it means it's probably doomed as the Gods of TV Networks like to be ironic, canceling good shows and keeping really trite dumbed down shows on the air.

At least the cable networks tend to give shows more of a chance than ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, or the WB.

I expect the first shows to hit the chopping block will be announced in the next few weeks as TV execs quickly kill off shows that don't immediately become smash hits.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the NASCAR folks have departed in their jets, summer weather has returned, and where I'm fighting off a cold...and losing.