Thoughts On A Sunday

Once again it appears northern New England will be escaping the oppressive heat and humidity being seen elsewhere in the nation. While it will get warm, maybe as high as 90ºF, the humidity won't be as high as originally predicted. That doesn't mean we won't get thundershowers as is usually the case when the temperatures get above the 80's, but they won't necessarily be as heavy or severe due to the lower humidity.

We can live with that as long as we get the much needed rain.

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The ongoing backlash by the Remain supporters of the Brexit vote continues. As I wrote yesterday, there's been a petition drive to have a second referendum vote because Leave supporters supposedly 'didn't understand the ramifications' of leaving the EU. But I don't believe that at all. I think almost every Leave supporter understood there would be side effects and disruptions due to the UK's departure from the EU. But the ruling elite don't want to believe that anyone would want to leave the 'benevolent' dictatorship headed by them. The again, the elite have been so out of touch with everyone who is not them that they are incapable of understanding that what they believe things that “just ain't so.”

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An interesting tidbit came up on the web that relates to the above, that being that “most of the actual signatures for the second referendum are from people who do not live in the United Kingdom.” In fact, about 70% of those signatures on the petition come from outside the UK, including places like France, Spain, the US, Australia and Germany as well as 207 other countries. I'd say that invalidates the petition.

Ah, so non-residents (and I am assuming we're not talking about ex-pat Brits) are petitioning a government of a country where they do not live (nor are they citizens of said country) for a do-over of a vote where they are not even eligible to cast a ballot.

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Is there nothing Dunkin' Donuts can't do? It's so powerful it even changed the dictionary!

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John Ratzenberger hits the nail right on the head - “Millennials Never Built Anything.”

However, he doesn't put the blame directly on them, but on the system that made them incapable of being able to do things their parents and grandparents were able to do, and making a pretty good living at it.

We’re headed for a precipice right now. That’s what I spoke to Congress about. Just in manufacturing, we’re almost a million people short. These are jobs that are $50,000 a year and up. But when you graduate children from high school who don’t even have the ability to read a ruler, much less know how to use tools, it’s impossible to train someone like that if they’ve never used tools in their life.

Most children now grew up in a fantasy world. Baby boomers played outside, climbed trees and dealt with the real world. So it doesn’t surprise me that when they get to college and they’re faced with the real world that they have nervous breakdowns and need safe spots.

They lived in fantasy worlds that they controlled. They never built anything. CEOs now say young engineers come to facilities and design things that can’t be built because they’ve never built anything.

They did eliminate shop classes, and that was a problem. When the ’60s generation took over schools, that’s when it all started to fall apart. Boys and girls are all the same, so let’s eliminate shop classes and home economics classes.

This is the unintended consequence: we don’t have people who actually know how to do things in the real world. We have a lot of computer programmers and software designers, but the actual, real-world, pick up a tool and make something is an endangered species now.

All we've done is build a generation dependent upon others to get things done. I know of few millennials who are capable of swinging a hammer, wiring a switch or outlet, cleaning out the trap of a clogged sink, let alone run heavy equipment, build houses or buildings, or fix things people of my generation took for granted that almost anyone could do those things.

Such is the result of 'progressive' educations foisted upon out kids.

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Tom Bowler digs into the ongoing and seemingly endless battle over the Second Amendment. People are still trying to redefine the Right to Bear Arms to make it impossible for citizens to carry guns even though the US Supreme Court decided in Heller v. District of Columbia that it means what it says, that the rights of the citizens to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

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New England had better get on the ball and stop with all the NIMBY bull in regards to building new electrical generation capacity to replace a number of coal and nuclear plants that will be retired in the next few years.

NIMBYism has stopped the Kinder-Morgan natural gas pipeline that would have ensured an adequate supply of natural gas to New England during the high demand winter months. That same NIMBYism (or rather BANANAism – Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near ANYTHING) is trying very hard to kill the Northern Pass project that would bring thousands of megawatts of clean Canadian hydro power to New England. Should these anti-everything forces continue to stop any and all power projects to a halt, one has to wonder who will be the first to scream the loudest when they flick on that light switch and nothing happens? These are many of the same people who are all for alternative energy projects as long as they are built someplace else.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer is in full swing, our boat is almost ready to head out onto the lake, and where we have been remiss in mowing the lawn for the past two weeks!