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The big GOP debate before the New Hampshire primary took place last night at St. Anselm College in Manchester.The top three performers last night in my opinion: Romney, Paul, and Gingrich, with Romney and Paul edging out Gingrich.
The losers: Santorum, Huntsman, and Perry. These three needed to do well last night and as far as I can see, they fell short. I expect at least two of them to drop out after Tuesday's primary.
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I have to agree with Steve MacDonald on this one.As he writes:
You are more than welcome to visit us on weekends. We’d love to have you stop buy, spend a few bucks, and enjoy what we have to offer. But if you were thinking about turning New Hampshire into another progressive wasteland, no thanks. We’re all set. We’d rather you didn’t.Over the past 30-plus years I've seen people move here from away and enjoy the low taxes and lack of government bureaucracy. But then they start asking for the same things they had 'back where they came from.' When they found out they would have to pay for them directly through their property taxes, they rebelled. Where did they think the money to pay for all that stuff was going to come from? If they expected the the state to pay for it, they found out it wasn't going to happen. (There were a few close calls when the Democrats held majorities in both the New Hampshire House and Senate, but common sense finally reasserted itself and the voters kicked out the tax-and-spenders lock, stock, and barrel.)
So that is what we mean when we say, “Welcome to New Hampshire. Now Go Home.” The water is fine, and everyone is invited for a swim, but if you have come to pee in the pool, we are going to have to ask you to leave.
We'd love to have you come visit. But leave your nanny-statism back home. We neither need it or want it.
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Bogie tells us about a break-in at her place of employment. From what she describes, it had to be an inside job.And they did something odd, which points to it possibly being an inside job; they broke into the IT guys desk, which had been locked. The IT guy had just moved over to that building the previous Friday. The IT guy had no sign pointing to which was his desk (and no, he doesn't have an office), so it is rather odd that someone would pick his desk at random to break into. They didn't try to break into any of the other locked desks.I think that certainly narrows down the list of suspects. It goes to show you, criminals really aren't all that smart. That's why so many of them get caught.
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As I wrote earlier this past week, gas prices have taken a big jump recently. The prices have gotten higher since then. Yesterday I filled Deb's car and paid $3.329, up an additional 3¢, giving a total increase of 25¢ per gallon since just before Christmas.I still believe it's the end of the ethanol subsidies driving the price. I wonder how long it will be before Brazilian ethanol starts making inroads into the fuel supply chain? Considering it costs a lot less than our corn-derived ethanol, it probably won't take long. But the question begs, how will it affect gas prices. If the past is any indicator, fuel prices will go down very slowly, if at all.
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Is the Green movement dead? If Amanda Carey is right, it's breathing its last gasps.While the original intent of the environmental movement was good, it has devolved into a purely political operation that has little to do with environmental issues. These days it's more about control of the populace through environmental 'protections' rather than the environment itself. Many of the proposed protective measures will waste hundreds of billions of dollars yet add little actual benefit to the environment. (Many of these proposed measures deal with issues that have already reached or passed the point of diminishing returns, meaning spending more money will have little if any impact on anything but your wallet.)
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
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Both Bogie and I agree: George Foreman Grills are awesome. Right now Amazon has them for 40% off.************
Obama as Pharaoh. “So let it be written. So let it be done.”Heh, indeed.
(H/T Instapundit)
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Scary Yankee Chick laments the lack of real winter weather. Not me.Though I am a hardy Yankee through and through, I am not missing the traditional northern New England winter weather. Not one bit. While it is true that we scrambled to get the new Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower into the garage this fall, we've had occasion to use it only twice – once at the end of October and again just before Thanksgiving. Since then it's been sitting in the garage unused. The fact that I haven't had to go out at O'dark thirty in the morning to clear our rather treacherous driveway doesn't upset me one bit. I also haven't had to do much in the way of sanding the driveway either, something else that is not upsetting to me in any way.
While there has been a few brief blasts of frigid temps, with only one night getting below zero, I'm not missing them. With the warmer than normal temps I haven't had to stoke the Official Weekend Pundit Woodstove nearly as often, meaning the supply of cordwood will last just that much longer and will let us get by on just three cords rather than the more normal four cords for the heating season. That's $250 that stays in our bank account, thank you very much.
There is a downside to this, I admit, that being the ice is not forming on Lake Winnipesaukee as it usually does. During yesterday's trek up to Center Harbor I was able to look at many of the bays and inlets to the lake. For the most part all I saw was open water. There were a few rafts of ice in one or two of the bays (Paugus Bay had a few sheets of ice at its northern end and Meredith Bay had a little ice along the shore of Hesky Park). What happens if the ice doesn't form? The annual Rotary Ice Fishing Derby may be postponed, if not canceled. No ice means no ice fishing.
Before someone goes off on how this mild winter (so far) is obviously a sign of global warming, let me remind you that last winter was bitterly cold, with a lot of snow and ice. This is merely a mild winter (as predicted by the Old Farmer's Almanac), something that has happened numerous times since people have been living in this portion of North America. It's weather, not climate.
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One little leftover from our Christmas decorations that will be remaining for the time being: a candle in the window.While Deb, BeezleBub, and I were taking down the Christmas tree and other decorations last weekend, the subject of the WP Niece came up. (She's presently deployed in Afghanistan.) We decided we would leave one of the candles that usually grace the windows of The Manse during Christmas in place for her. It burns 24 hours a day and will remain there until she is safely home.
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The Lonely Conservative tackles the spin the White House has applied to the 'recess' appointments to the NLRB. As he says, the White House's claim they were necessary due to obstruction by Senate Republicans is a blatant lie.There wasn’t even enough time to conduct routine background checks on the individuals. But I’m sure the media will continue to give Obama a pass as they tout his “We Can’t Wait” power grab.“So let it be written. So let it be done.”