12/06/2015

Thoughts On A Sunday

The El Niño driven above normal temperatures continue here in New England, with the high today here in central New Hampshire expected to be well in the 50's. Not that we're complaining as they allow us to use much less firewood and propane to keep The Manse at comfortable temperatures.

Deb and I managed to get our Christmas shopping started yesterday, though we're nowhere near finished as we aren't ones to go out and get it done all at once. I figure we'll be at it piecemeal over the next couple of weeks. It helps that some of it can be done online, eliminating the need to go searching for some gifts.

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You know the Progressive Left have shown their true colors when they start lambasting people for publicly expressing religious feelings - their “thoughts and prayers” - after the terrorist attack in San Bernardino.

WTF is wrong with these idiots?

First they want to cripple free speech, and now they want to eliminate any public demonstration of religious beliefs. In other words they have no belief in the First Amendment, particularly when it comes to anyone expressing opinions or beliefs different from their own.

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David Starr gets to the heart of the matter when he delves into what he calls an “academic deathwish.”
Some college student demonstrators are calling for more "ethnic (black) studies" programs.  Talk about self destructive impulses.  Although a black studies course may make blacks feel better about being black, they won't do a bit of good when it comes to finding a job.

I will take it a little bit farther than he did by stating any major whose title ends in “Studies” is a loser right out of the gate as it will be a useless degree outside of academia. It won't prepare a student to survive in the real world. All such majors do nothing but create yet another bunch or permanently aggrieved Social Justice Warriors who will end up having to take menial minimum wage jobs because they won't be qualified for any other kind of work.

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The ongoing battle between one of our local farm families and one of their neighbors – the neighbor being someone “from away”, in this case the Boston area - has reached an interesting point. The town's Zoning Board did not give the neighbor what they wanted, that being their desire that absolutely no activity that they deem disruptive or within their sight be allowed. Considering the farm in question has been operating under one owner or another since the late 1700's I think the Zoning Board made the right decision. What makes the neighbor think they should have control over someone else's livelihood? If they didn't want to be next to a working farm then perhaps they should have done their due diligence and bought a home somewhere else in town.

This isn't the first time this kind of issue has raised its ugly head, both here in New Hampshire and elsewhere in the US. I doubt it will be the last.

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Why liberals have deluded themselves into believing that jihadist attacks in the US can be used to persuade the American public that it's in their best interests to disarm themselves is beyond me. I have to wonder: What color they sky is on their home planet?

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

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I think this is a perfect example of exactly what the Progressive Left wants for the US.

Venezuela: A Dictatorship Masquerading as a Democracy.

I'm sure the Left would love to have control over all media, the economy, speech, elections, and a whole host of other activities that go against their narrative. Then again, that's been their aim since the days of Woodrow Wilson and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

That such control in Venezuela has turned a once wealthy country into a economic basket case, has all but eliminated all human rights, all while letting its oil infrastructure crumble away is to be devoutly ignore by the Progressive Left in this country.

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This would certainly have use in combat conditions, particularly when the bad guys outnumber you. If you you think mini-guns (Gatling guns) are bad-ass, this centrifugal gun, called the DREAD, will make it look like a flintlock. Gatlings are capable of firing up to a rate of 6000 rounds per minutes. The DREAD can fire at a rate of up to 240,000 per minute and can vary the velocity of the rounds it fires.

Another plus: the DREAD is almost silent because it doesn't use an explosive to fire each round unlike the Gatling guns.

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I watched in horror as the New England Patriots folded in front of the Philadelphia Eagles onslaught. I don't know who those guys in the Patriots uniforms were during the second half, but they were totally ineffective against the 4-7 Eagles, losing 35-28.

If the Patriots can't get things back on track for the next game I have a feeling they'll end up 10-6 for the season.

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There appears to be more calls for a revival of nuclear power due to its carbon free nature and high reliability and availability. Assuming the federal government can get off it's ass and streamline the draconian regulatory and licensing process as well as give the necessary approvals for new, safer designs in a timely fashion.

Thorium-based nukes do not have the problems that plague uranium-based reactors, the biggest one being the issue of nuclear waste. Thorium reactors can use the waste products of uranium-cycle reactors for fuel. Thorium is plentiful and do not require the expensive processing that uranium requires.

As much as people push for renewable sources of energy to power our technological society, the hard truth I that renewables can't provide the power needed to for today's society. To equal the power provided 24 hours a day by a single 1000 MW nuclear plant located on a square mile of land renewables would require 120 square miles of land. (The nameplate capacity of renewables is at best a third of its instantaneous capacity so you need three times the amount of renewable capacity to equal that of a single nuke plant.)

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where Christmas shopping as proceeding apace, Christmas decorations are starting to appear on homes throughout the area, and where Christmas Day will arrive all too soon.