Yesterday BeezleBub graduated from high school along with 129 of his fellow students. The WP Parents, WP In-Laws, the WP Sister-In-Law and her husband attended the ceremony. The oldest WP Sister joined us at The Manse after the ceremony to help celebrate.
The ceremony was one of the better ones I've attended. It was short, sweet, to the point, and was enjoyable. It also helped that the weather was great, too.
And now BeezleBub starts his summer hours at the farm in earnest.
How time flies.
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Another change here at The Manse: a new member of the feline contingent.One of Deb's friends convinced her we needed to take in Tom, an orange long-haired cat. A large orange long-haired cat. He's 19 pounds (yes he's overweight, but we'll work on that) and kind of the male version of Hilda as he's also very fluffy and loves to be brushed, just like her.
So we're back up to a full complement of 7 and three-quarters cats.
But I still miss Bagheera.
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Oh, I almost forgot to mention this: Laconia Bike Week has started!Motorcycle enthusiasts started arriving Friday afternoon and have made their presence known all weekend. The largest part of the crowds won't start arriving until this Wednesday or Thursday.
So far it's been great weather and it's supposed to continue through at least Tuesday, with some rain late Wednesday and into Thursday. Hopefully it will clear out again and be great weather for next weekend.
Unfortunately there have already been a number of accidents, including one I saw at the end of the Laconia Bypass while I was out running an errand to WalMart. I have no doubt it won't be the last.
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Obama's “Private business is doing just fine” gaffe is paying endless dividends, making even is quasi-supporters say “WTF?!” (And we don't mean “Win The Future”.)All it proves to me is that he really has no understanding of how the economy works and what it is that drives it. It caused John Hinderaker to wonder if it was Obama's most clueless moment yet.
The gaffe has certainly boosted Romney's chances.
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Texas will soon be opening a new toll road between Austin and San Antonio. That's not big news. However, the fact that it will have an 85 MPH speed limit is.A number of states have speed limits greater than 65 MPH, particularly out west. (It makes sense when you have to cover large distances just to get to the next town.)
The speed limit in New Hampshire is 65 MPH, but way back before the dreaded double-nickle (55 MPH) mandated by the Feds in order to “Save Gas And Save Lives”, the speed limit was 70 MPH. To all intents and purposes, it's still 70. I rarely see anyone driving 65 on the Interstates, me included.
People will drive at speeds at which they are comfortable, the posted speed limit notwithstanding. Traffic engineers know this and in the past set speed limits based on the 85-percentile, meaning they would measure the speed of all traffic along a highway and set the speed to that which at least 85 percent were traveling. Most of the Interstates were designed for much higher speeds than the posted limits. (It might have had something to do with the fact that there were stretches designed to be used as runways for combat aircraft in times of war.)
I hope New Hampshire will at some point go back to its original 70 MPH limit.
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You know Obama's in trouble when veterans of Special Operations Forces in our Armed Forces are organizing against his re-election.You know it's got to be bad when former Navy SEALs, Air Force Air Commandos, and Marine Corp MARSOC members are creating a SuperPAC to defeat the Commander-In-Chief.
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Tom Bowler links to and comments upon the increasing disappointment and dislike Progressives are expressing for Obama. They've come to realize that is he's not one of them.I remain fascinated that anyone pretending to have Democratic, progressive, let alone liberal, political views cares whether Pres. Obama wins or loses. What it’s going to take for people to understand he’s not fighting any of your battles, but only waging his own for himself, is unknown at this point, but maybe when he shoots for legacy on the “grand bargain” fence of history people will tune in and, perhaps, wake up. Then it will be too late, though it already is and was a long time ago.If he's losing even the Progressives/Marxists/Chavistas in the Democrat Party, he's toast come November.
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Jeff Soyer tells us that in Canada when it comes to guns they've doubled down on stupid.The father of a four-year old girl was handcuffed and arrested by the police because his daughter drew a picture of him “shooting monsters and bad men”. This apparently caused a panic to her “weak-minded teacher”, sucked in a “gullible principal”, who in turn frightened “reactionary child welfare officials”, who in turn called the police.
As Jeff reports, “An exhaustive search of the Sansone home revealed a plastic toy gun.”
These folks should be fired. Who needs people this stupid teaching their kids?
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James Delingpole posts a list from another blogger that gives us a number of all too true “Only in America..” insanities.Two of my favorites are number 9 and 10:
9) Only in America could the government collect more tax dollars from the people than any nation in recorded history, but still spend over a trillion dollars more than it has per year while the President complain that there is not nearly enough money to do what he wants.On number 10, I've asked a number of people who've made that complaint in my presence what amount would be fair. I almost always got the ubiquitous, unthinking, and envy-filled response: “More than they pay now!”
10) Only in America could the people who pay 86% of all income taxes be accused by the President of not paying their "fair share" on behalf of the people who don't pay any income taxes at all.
(H/T Pirate's Cove)
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Also by way of Cap'n Teach we have this post at Say Anything reminding us that if anything is taxed at a high enough rate, a black market for that good or service will arise.One of the first rules of free markets is that markets are dynamic, while regulations are static. Regulations, or in this case taxes, that are more arduous than consumers care to bear are usually circumvented, be it legally or illegally.The case cited here is the onerous $4.35 per-pack tax on cigarettes in New York State. Is it any wonder there's a booming black market for untaxed cigarettes there?
Call it yet another example of the Law of Unintended Consequences.