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During the festivities I had more than a few opportunities to discuss topics of import with the youngest WP Sister and her husband, the token liberals in the family. It seems that over the past few months their 'love affair' with The One has soured. They also admitted their disgust with Congress, and not just the GOP. Like me, they have come to believe it's time to fire them all, including their local Congresscritter.While this is only anecdotal evidence, the fact that WP Younger Sis and her husband are expressing such dissatisfaction with members of their own party is telling to me. For one thing it signals that the Democrats may be in bigger trouble than they may have thought and that the 2014 elections maybe be more hotly contested than many originally believed, particularly in the primary races. I think we may see a lot of incumbents in both parties being ousted by challengers in the various state primaries, caucuses, and conventions.
The GOP certainly might benefit from such a thing as Establishment Republicans – long out of touch with their base – are replaced by more fiscally conservative members who resonate better with people in Flyover America.
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Gee, if the economy is recovering as Obama has stated again and again, then why are major corporations cutting thousands of jobs?And before you start looking for small businesses to pick up the slack and start hiring, remember that many small businesses are being taxed and regulated so heavily that they are unlikely to add jobs and are more likely to close their doors.
Welcome the the Obama Economy.
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
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A not-so-quick story having nothing to do with anything:When I arrived home from work Thursday afternoon it was a wee bit chilly in The Manse, so I figured I'd turn up the thermostat and take the chill out of the house. Nothing happened. I thought I might have forgotten to turn the power on to the furnace (I usually shut it off once we get past heating season), so I went down into the basement to flip the switch...except that it was already on. A quick check of the pilot light in the nearby water heater showed there was no pilot light.
Uh-oh.
I made quick trip outside to the 500 gallon propane tank out behind The Manse, opened the weather cover to expose the fuel gauge, and saw that the gauge was reading 0%. That certainly explained the lack of heat and hot water.
A call to our local supplier to confirm whether we were on their automatic delivery schedule proved that we were and that by their calculations there should have been about 100 gallons of propane remaining the the tank, at least by our past usage history. The problem was that we had used more propane during the last few weeks of the heating season because we had exhausted our firewood supply, meaning we had burned that 'remaining' 100 gallons back in early spring. But they had no way of knowing that. Oops.
They scheduled an immediate delivery and by 9:30 that evening the delivery truck arrived and filled the tank. At least we didn't have to pay an 'emergency delivery' charge because we were on automatic delivery scheduling and they cut the margin too closely.
One good thing about it happening now: the weather was relatively good so lack of heat wasn't much of an issue.
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Rachel Lucas is still in the process of reintegrating into American life after almost 5 years away, settling in to her new house and unpacking all kinds of stuff she and her husband put away in storage before their departure for Europe.One of her biggest surprises? Wondering why they had decided to store some of the stuff they did when it would have been better off being thrown out or donated.
The Tuesday after closing, that stuff was delivered to the new house, and all I can say is that 5 years is a long time and I had no memory of half of these things, plus styles have changed, plus we’ve gotten older and have much better taste than we did then. Box after box, I’d open it up and laugh out loud. OH MY GOD THESE PANTS! OH MY GOD THIS TABLE IS GARBAGE WHY DID WE STORE IT? OH MY GOD I HAD THIS HANGING ON A WALL?!? Why????Heh.
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The Farmer's Almanac has predicted a bitterly cold and snowy winter for New England. Apparently one of the weather forecasting organizations in the UK has made a similar prediction for Olde England...and Wales and Scotland.At least we in New England are used to such weather, dealing with it on a pretty regular basis. But the folks in the UK aren't, as we've seen more than once over the past few years as 'unusual' winter weather hammered Great Britain. (That type of winter weather was quite common there until the early 1800's.)
I wonder if Al Gore has been spending time in the UK?
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Is it possible that a simple solar astronomical model beats the IPCC Global Circulation Models when it comes to making projections about climate?Wouldn't that be a kick in the teeth for the Warmists if it turns out to be true?
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I've been pondering these questions for some time: How is that not raising the nation's debt limit means it will default on loans it already has? Doesn't it really mean that it can't borrow any more money? How is that a default? We'll still have tax revenue that is already being used to repay outstanding debt, plus interest. If we're still doing that then how can we be in default? Isn't default defined as not making payments on outstanding debt?No one has adequately explained this to me in terms everyone can understand.
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Sometimes even the government realizes crony capitalism doesn't work. In this case the EPA, one of the rogue agencies in the Obama Administration, has come to realize that the Renewable Fuel Standard isn't workable and are considering rolling back the ethanol-blending requirements for refiners. That certainly has the ethanol lobby screaming bloody murder because they won't be able to sell as much ethanol to the refiners as they want.If there isn't enough demand there's no way the EPA can require refiners to 'create' the demand by mixing more ethanol into gasoline, particularly when automakers have already told the government that they won't support such a move and will void the warranties of any vehicle using more than a 10% ethanol blend.
The Renewable Fuel Standard was defective from the outset because it ignored two possibilities when it was drafted: gasoline demand might go down and new domestic sources would be found that would eliminate the need to import any oil from unfriendly foreign nations. All the Renewable Fuel Standard has done is guarantee ethanol producers a market even though renewable fuels are a actually a money loser and no better for the environment than petroleum.