Thoughts On A Sunday

Despite Black Friday. It's actually been somewhat quiet here in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. There were a few places around here that saw the shopping frenzy, one of those being one of the local outlet malls, but for the most part it hasn't gotten too crazy.

I think the after-effects of all that Thanksgiving fare are still making themselves known.

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This ought to work well as a business plan:

The CEO of an Albuquerque-based internet marketing firm has issued a letter telling clients who support President-elect Donald Trump to take their business elsewhere.

Hmm, blowing off about half of your customer base because you disagree with their political choices doesn't bode well for any broadbased business. As such, I would think that the shareholders of that company, assuming it is a not owned by the CEO, would do the prudent thing and fire him before he can do any more damage.

In an interview this week with KOB, a local NBC News affiliate, Mr. Blanchfield said he had a “moral obligation” to stand up for what he believes is right.

“It is my firm belief that we elected a fascist as our next president,” he said.

As long as he's prepared to suffer the consequences of his actions, so be it. However his investors might not be so sanguine about his actions.

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Here's yet another company willing to shut itself off from half of its potential customer base as well.

Did any of these folks actually take any business or marketing classes? One has to wonder seeing they're doing their darnedest to cripple themselves and, perhaps, put themselves out of business.

Of course if they do go under I expect them to blame Trump for their poor decisions.

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Irony indeed.

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Even Forbes magazine is hopping on to the EMdrive bandwagon, particularly in light of tests run by NASA at their Eagleworks lab facility showing the new technology works as advertised.

The problem? The EMdrive violates Newton's Third Law of Motion which states “For every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction.”

That third law is known as the conservation of momentum, and is true not only in Newtonian mechanics, but in electromagnetism, General Relativity and all of quantum field theory. It’s the one law that Newton came up with that still holds, with no exceptions, today.

But if the EMdrive is truly reactionless, then Newton is wrong. Also, Einstein is wrong, Maxwell is wrong and all of quantum physics is wrong. There’s a fundamental symmetry that causes momentum conservation: translational symmetry. It means that if my system is over here, at a certain point in space, it should obey the same laws as if it’s over there, at a different point in space. But if momentum conservation isn’t truly fundamental, then translational symmetry cannot be a good symmetry of the Universe. In other words, there must be a preferred location, where the laws of physics are different in one location than others. The laws of physics, all of a sudden, depend on position.

Umm....oops? This could certainly upset the physics apple cart unless someone can explain how it works and does not violate Newton's Third Law.

If nothing else the EMdrive is pushing pure scientific research in an area of science so many of us have found fascinating throughout our lives.

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Make them live up to their own rules. Otherwise they show themselves to be hypocrites, right?

(H/T Instapundit)

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According to some study, across 33 rich countries, only 5% of the population has high computer-related abilities, and only a third of people can complete medium-complexity tasks.

Reading the comments to the linked post I believe that some of the commenters have confused “high computer-related abilities” with the ability to code and learn new programming languages. But from what I've been able to glom from the original article (linked elsewhere in the original post), it is the ability to use sophisticated applications to their fullest extent that comprise the 5%. Of that 5%, maybe 10 to 15% of those actually code. The third of users that can “complete medium-complexity tasks” I take to mean being able to use things like the various Office suites (Microsoft Office, Open Office, Libre, etc) to do more than some basic word processing, presentation creation, or spreadsheet functions.

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Do you feel like a fraud at work? Don't be surprised as it turns out that around 70% of people have experienced this feeling. It seems like it's a version of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, something I've covered before.

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The New England Patriots played the New York Jets at the Meadowlands today, beating the Jets 22-17. That makes the Pats 9-2 for the season so far.

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Will the cognitive dissonance that is part and parcel of the Left's world view be shattered as Donald Trump fails to live up to their opinion of him? Will they swoon if, as some of us expect, he will end up being pragmatic in regards to the Presidency and actually does a decent job assembling his cabinet, creating and enacting his policies, foreign and domestic?

Or will their cast-in-stone beliefs not allow them to see what is actually happening, much as they could not see that The Won was not the answer to their prayers, but instead a divider that has helped destroy their narrative?

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we've survived another Thanksgiving and the follow on Black Friday, leftovers are on the menu for the next few days, and where all of the parking lots at the various malls and outlets will be jammed until Christmas.

Good Riddance To Bad Rubbish

Fidel Castro finally bit it, dying at age 90.

It's about friggin' time.

Despite some people here in the US paying homage to the brutal dictator that caused endless misery for the Cuban people, the celebrations in Miami for his passing show us the true measure of the man.

As bad as the Batista regime was in Cuba, communist rule was far worse. It's time that the apologists for all things communist come to realize that.

I figure that will happen at the same time those wearing the Che Guevara tee-shirts stop wearing them when the realize that Che was a brutal murderer and rapist, covering himself under the revolutionary mantle as an excuse to be a monster.

They Know Not What They Do - And They Don't Want To

With electors still being threatened by the self-anointed 'elite' PC police – people who didn't even bother to vote – one has to wonder if they've given any thought to just what a reaction there would be if some of the electors gave in to those threats? Would there be law suits? Would there be riots? Or worse, would there be a civil war between the Americans who firmly believe in the Constitution and those who see it as nothing more than a historical curiosity that stands in the way of yet another hellish socialist utopia?

Of the options I think that the first and then the third options are most likely. When the rule of law breaks down, so does the society. Once that happens, war is inevitable. And given the proclivities of the two groups, I think the second group is likely to lose because the first has all of the guns and the will to use them to preserve the rights paid for with the blood and treasure of those who have gone before us.

That the Progressive youth think we should abandon the electoral college shows us just how ignorant and close-minded they are. With no understanding of our history or the reasons why the the Framers of the Constitution codified the electoral college, they tread down a dangerous path that can lead to far more strife, death and destruction than they can possibly imagine They believe in tyranny of the majority. (Don't let their protest to the contrary fool you as it has fooled them.) They want to see their version of the Reign of Terror, though I doubt we'll see the random mob-driven killings as seen in France. But they will use the power of the popular vote to strip away one right after another from the minority “for the good of the people.” It's something that's right out of Atlas Shrugged, something they have shown more than once they are willing to embrace.

All of this has to make me wonder if they have truly stopped thinking for themselves, (this assumes they ever had that capability) and are capable of merely parroting what they have been spoon fed by their indoctrination coordinators – once known as teachers and professors. Has critical thinking been replaced by what makes them feel better about themselves? From what I've been seeing from the group of spoiled brats who call themselves Progressives, the answer is yes.

They really don't give a rat's ass about who they'll be hurting as long as they feel better about themselves. They'll continue feeling that way right up to the point that the Deplorables figure they've had enough and start showing them the error of their ways in the most forceful and unpleasant way ever – civil war. It might not be a shooting war, but it will pit “brother against brother” and our country will be all the weaker for it. The differences will be all that matter and the similarities, those things we share in common, will be ignored. But then that's what they've been striving for all along, isn't it? After all, they need someone to look down upon as inferior to them – meaning we Deplorables – so they can feel better about themselves and what they've done all in the name or 'progress'.

OK, enough of my rant. I admit it is a little disjointed, but that happens when I find myself becoming distracted by the actions of willfully ignorant children who do not have anyone else's best interests at heart.

Interview With A Clueless SJW Robo-Spokesthing

I find it interesting that SJW's find ways of explaining away all of the offensive things they do all in the name of “social justice” without once thinking about the hypocrisy of their words and actions. They truly do not understand that the very things they protest against are the very things they are doing, though usually covered up in deceptive language (think 1984 and Newspeak).

What's truly scary is watching one of their spokesthings trying to justify its actions on its college campus. (I refuse to dignify the creature appearing on the linked video as a spokesman because, quite frankly, it appears to be nothing more than a programmed robot set to parrot the talking points of the SJW 'movement'. Or maybe it is one of a multitude of possible gender combinations that absolutely nobody understands or can define, hence “spokesthing”. That's about as gender neutral as I can get.)

Watch Tucker Carlson demolish the SJW in regards to Hampshire College in western Massachusetts taking down all of the American flags across campus because it represents “misogynistic, Islamophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and behaviors.” It's obvious to me that the college's president who uttered those words has never been outside the US and visited the multitude of cultures/countries (like those in the Middle East and parts of Africa) that are all of those thins (except Islamophobic) in spades.

Here's the video:


That's just creepy.

Thoughts On A Sunday

The fickleness of fall weather is displaying itself, with temps here in central New Hampshire having been around the 60°F mark yesterday and seeing temperatures plummet towards the freezing mark today as a cold front swept through. The front was accompanied by rain (and snow in some of the higher elevations).

We have been hoping for more rain before the ground freezes as we are still in the midst of a drought. At least the rain we've received to this point hasn't fallen on frozen ground, but that will change over the next week or so.

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You know the left is getting desperate when they label someone like Jeff Sessions as a racist, yet it was Sessions who helped desegregate schools in Alabama and got the death penalty for a KKK murderer.

The Left has so overused the racism change that it made it almost meaningless as it is being come to be known as the default charge for anyone the Left disagrees with.

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I don't know about you, but when I buy tickets to see a concert or a Broadway show, I do so with the intent of being entertained. I do not want to be preached at by people I disagree with.

Maybe that's something the cast of Hamilton should have thought about before they took the opportunity to lambaste VP-elect Mike Pence during their performance.

To say the backlash has been bigger than they thought it would be would be understating the matter.

Deb and I had attended a Bette Midler concert back when Dubya was in office and we were treated to a diatribe against Bush by Ms. Midler, something that ruined our enjoyment of her show. We ended up leaving part way through, though we should have gotten up immediately and demanded our money back as we had paid to attend a concert, not a political rally.

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You should see this 'documentary' on the mental illness that is Leftism and its off-shoot, Social Justice Warrior syndrome. That a majority of them are white middle class children shows just how insidious and widespread this mental disease is. It is obviously communicable and is spread through contact in our public schools.

It's a wonder that the CDC isn't on the case in regards to this epidemic.

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Also by way of Granite Grok comes this quote from former 4-star Marine General James Mattis:

Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet.

Yup. I'd say that just about sums it up in regards to our defense.

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The purely politically correct actions taken by a number of state Attorney Generals as a means of forcing ExxonMobil to pony up billions of dollars in cash for supposedly suppressing 'knowledge' it knew AGW was real and it's lobbying efforts against the AGW alarmists has had an unexpected turn.

A federal judge in Texas has ordered Massachusetts AG Maura Healey and New York AG Eric Schneiderman to appear in Dallas on December 13th for depositions in regards to a lawsuit filed by ExxonMobil to block any further investigation by the states in regards to its stand on AGW and any paid studies or lobbying efforts on its behalf on the matter.

The warmist lobby is learning the hard way that actions have consequences, particularly politically motivated legal actions.

It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.

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As an aside, our family has decided to celebrate Thansgiving a little early seeing that we will all be in different places on Thanksgiving Day. Deb will be working that day at the Veterans Home. BeezleBub will be in rural New York celebrating Thanksgiving with his aunt, uncle, and two of his cousins. I and the WP Mom will be at the younger WP Sister's home south of Boston, hence the 'little' Thanksgiving gathering today with Deb, BeezleBub, and the WP Mom.

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Speaking of Thanksgiving, BeezleBub spent yesterday and today slaughtering turkeys at the farm. BeezleBub, Farmer Andy and his missus, as well as two of the other farmhands spent all day yesterday and today attending to the task. Deb and I stopped by today, bringing coffee and cinnamon rolls to feed the troops as they continued with their tasks. Deb even took a few pictures for her sister showing the process. Deb has no plans to post any of those pics on Facebook, knowing the type of backlash and crap she'll get from the food-comes-from-the-supermarket crowd.

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With the cooler weather we're going to see over the next few days, something we must keep track of is that Solar Cycle 24 is turning out to be the weakest seen in 200 years.

What does that mean?

It may be auguring a period of global cooling as previous quiet solar cycles have. Both the Maunder and Dalton Minimums tracked the Little Ice Age, a period between the late 1300's and the late 1700's/early 1800's. If cycle 24 is a precursor for a series of quiet solar cycles, we might start seeing colder temperatures worldwide. In the Northern Hemisphere that means much colder and longer winters.

If nothing else it might show the warmists that a warmer world is a lot better than a colder one.

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The New England Patriots played the San Francisco 49ers today in San Francisco, beating them 30-17.

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The hew and cry from the Left about Steve Bannon taking on a position with the Trump Administration has to make one wonder if the Left has lost their friggin' minds.

Accusations from the Left of Bannon's supposed antisemitism have run rampant. But there's a problem with those accusations, that being they have absolutely no proof of any kind from anyone that Bannon is antisemitic. The only hint of Bannon's antisemitism?

His ex-wife's claim during their rather contentious divorce.

I don't know about you, but I would take any claim or accusation made during a messy divorce with a huge grain of salt considering how many accusations are flung far and wide during such proceedings. That there are no other examples or proof of his supposed antisemitism is a pretty good indicator that none exists. It is merely a faux meme trying to become 'true' in order to discredit someone who the Left detests with a passion that goes beyond all reason.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where early evening snow has fallen, the people are glad the Patriots have won, and where everyone is getting ready for Thanksgiving.

1996 Democrat Versus 2016 Republican On Illegal Immigration

What a difference 20 years makes.

Compare and contrast:


Talk about hypocrisy! As I have said more than once, if the Democrats didn't have double standards they'd have no standards at all.....

Thoughts On A Sunday

Welcome to the Post-Election Hangover Edition of Thoughts On A Sunday.

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One sign that the political silly season has finally ended: most of the campaign signs have disappeared from the lawns and roadsides. They should all be gone by Wednesday, or at least that's what state law says. However I have no doubt more than a few from losing candidates will remain for some time, probably to be picked up by town or state road crews.

Now the only things we have to concern ourselves about over the next few months is Thanksgiving, Christmas, and town meeting.

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Speaking of silly, it appears that many of those protesting against Trump came from Rent-a-Mob.

I have to wonder how many of those non-paid protesters against Trump actually bothered to vote last Tuesday? From one obscure report I viewed (lost the darned link), it appears quite a few of those not liking the outcome and blasting social media with the #NotMyPresdient hash-tag didn't even bother to vote. Maybe they figured it was in the bag for Hillary, so they didn't need to actually vote. If that is indeed the case, then they're protesting under false colors. If they want to be ethical about the whole thing, they shouldn't be protesting at all. They gave up that right when they decided not to exercise their constitutional franchise.

As I have told a number of my fellow townsfolk when they complain about one thing or another that was voted in or out at town meeting, if they didn't vote they have no right to protest the outcome.

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

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This is a great rant from a British Progressive, explaining why Hillary lost, placing the blame where it squarely rests – The Left.

Be warned – he uses some rather impolite language.


I'd say he nailed it.

(H/T Legal Insurrection)

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And here's a take on the tweets by idiots reaction to Trump's election.

As in the previous video, there is some harsh language uttered.

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I fully agree with the sentiment on this video, and agree with the fellow who tweeted it that this video should go viral.

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This is something I have noticed over the past 10 years or so, so that others have seen the same thing might mean what we've see is true. What is it?

Liberalism has decayed to the point where rote dogma rules and questioning it means you are one of those who must be silenced.

Too many of my progressive friends seem to have forgotten how to make actual arguments, and have become expert instead at condemnation, derision and mockery. On issue after issue, they’re very good at explaining why no one could oppose their policy positions except for the basest of motives. As to those positions themselves, they are too often announced with a zealous solemnity suggesting that their views are Holy Writ — and those who disagree are cast into the outer political darkness. In short, the left has lately been dripping with hubris, which in classic literature always portends a fall.

Indeed.

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One thing the results of this election have shed light on is the awful parenting skills of the Left. All one has to do is read these tweets.

I feel sorry for these kids because they likely to be unable to survive in the real world because they've been infected with their parents' neuroses.

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Glenn Reynolds offers a retrospective of what he wrote after the 2008 election. It is quite a contrast from what we've been seeing from supporters of Hillary.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we're happy the political silly season is over for now, not worry about being deluged by political ads, and where we can actually look forward to Monday.

Election Fallout

The responses from the American people to Donald Trump's election seems to be pretty wide. Between the over-the-top rioting by the trophy-for-just-showing-up crowd because they never learned about losing (almost all of whom supported Big Nanny Hillary who promised them Free Shit), their only response to seeing their chosen lose the election is to burn and otherwise damage other people's property and beating Trump supporters, the not yet fulfilled promise by numerous celebrities to leave the US (Canada doesn't want them), and the positive reactions from the stock market and the Deplorables' reaction to the list of those who may become part of Trump's cabinet, I think we can see just who are the mature responsible adults .

There has been both good and bad reactions to Trump choosing an AGW skeptic to lead the EPA transition team. That's not a surprise considering the so-called leaders of the EPA under Obama have been deep in the pockets of the climate alarmists and have studiously ignored any data that weakens their beliefs that man is the sole cause of climate change, as well as ignoring court decisions and court orders. It is a rogue agency that has gone far beyond its charter and needs to be reined in.

Trump is also supporting nationwide concealed carry, which means if you have a permit to carry a concealed weapon in your home state it authorizes you to carry concealed in all states, much as driver licenses are recognized nationwide now.

Another thing Trump's election has inadvertently revealed to the world is that social media is not reflective of real life. This is something I've been aware of since social media came into existence. As the old saying goes, “On the Internet no one knows you're a dog.” It can also be said that a relatively small group of people can make it seem that 'everyone' is for or against some issue that has come to the attention of the people, at least for a short while. But once reality sets in, most folks realize the social media frenzy isn't real. It would explain why more people are dropping Twitter and feeling better about life in general once they've done so.

The few things mentioned above are just the few I could think of off the top of my head. I'm sure there will be plenty more as time passes.

Advice To The Oh-So-Tolerant Intolerant Left

Hearing and reading about the over-the-top outbursts by our Progressive youth (rioting, defecating in the streets, and general assholery) and the overly emotional and, dare I say, insane responses by our self-appointed 'betters', I figured this response posted by my dear brother on Facebook should set all of these emotionally immature and overly dramatic anti-Trump persons straight. Not that it will. After all, they are fragile snowflakes with absolutely no sense of history and a complete lack of understanding about how our government works or of the US Constitution and how it is supposed to limit government.

Experiencing all the wailing and rending of shirts on assorted social media sites is already becoming tiresome and extremely disappointing. Tiresome is obvious, but disappointing needs some explanation. I am disappointed that so many people I consider to be level-headed and intelligent seem to have lost even the most basic understanding of how our government works.

Everybody needs to take a deep breath and calm down. Trump is not a monster. Embarrassingly lacking in verbal self-control and possessed of some pretty deplorable character flaws, yes. Monster, no.

Trump does not have a free hand. The GOP members of the House and Senate are not beholden to him in any way and many if not most actively dislike him. Furthermore, despite all the mudslinging that has run rampant in the House and Senate races, most of the GOP in congress are not interested in rolling back the cultural changes of the past twenty years if for no other reason than that they know they CAN’T. When or if Trump sends something outlandish to Congress it is going to die a quick and silent death.

The majorities the GOP holds are not veto-proof. ANYTHING coming out of Congress that may draw a Trump veto will require Republicans and Democrats to work very closely together to overturn the veto. This is a GOOD thing. Hell, it may be the BEST thing to come out of this election cycle. Trump will not be able to stuff the Supreme Court with crazy people. The Senate has to approve nominees- just hope the GOP doesn’t take a page from the Democratic Handbook and deploy the nuclear option with regards to filibusters. I suspect they will not do so to benefit President Trump. Yes, it is unlikely the SCOTUS nominees will be progressive, “living constitution” types. Elections have consequences. Still, it is extremely unlikely the court is going to overturn decisions such as recognition of gay marriages and the like. Justices, particularly more conservative Justices, tend to take Stare Decisis seriously. Beyond that, somebody would need to bring a case to the Supreme Court- they don’t get to simply hand down a ruling because they feel like it.

Finally, this is TEMPORARY. As a good friend of mine likes to say, the President is just the current temporary occupant of the White House. There is another election in two years where every member of the house and a whole slew of Senators are up for re-election. Two years after that there is a Presidential election. Four years may seem like an eternity, but it is not even close to “President for Life…”

Despair is unbecoming. Knock it off.

Did any of you see the unrest that took place after Obama was elected, with rednecks rioting and burning cars, smashing windows, defecating on a picture of Obama, or beating up Obama supporters?

Of course you didn't...because it never happened.

We Obama opponents winced at the loss of our candidates, saw there was little we could do other than work through the legislative process, and got on with our lives. Yes, we may have grumbled and groaned about what “that ass-hat in Washington” was doing next, but we didn't take to the streets like the thugs we've seen over the past couple of days. We didn't destroy the property of the very people we were supposedly 'supporting'. In other words, we didn't act like the hypocrites on the Left have been acting.

Maybe it's time for them to finally grow up.

But I'm not holding much hope that they will.

A Day At The Polls In Small Town America

I spent all day yesterday at the polls, fulfilling my duty as a town official to help oversee the election process. Except for a brief period (about 45 minutes) I was there from 15 minutes before the polls opened until almost two-and-a-half hours after the polls closed, making for a 14 hour day.

I won’t go into the nitty-gritty details about the process itself as there’s been more than a few people in the media and the blogosphere who have covered that topic again and again. No need for me to repeat it. Instead, I want to delve into my observations about the various people who came into the polls to exercise their constitutional franchise to elect those who would be running our county, our state, and our nation. (Elections for town officials doesn’t take place until March during Town Meeting.)

From the moment the polls opened at 7AM sharp there was a large crowd of people waiting to vote. In the first couple of hours we easily had 1000 voters come through our doors. That’s about one-sixth of the total registered voters in our town. By noon, we’d reached almost half. (I am including in that total the absentee ballots our town clerk had received.) Even without the absentee ballots included, we were on the path to hit 90%. But elections being what they were, we didn’t maintain that pace.

Once we reached noon, the pace had slackened and remained low in relation to what we’d seen earlier that morning. There was a steady stream of voters which kept everyone occupied, but it wasn’t like the crush we’d been dealing with. That all changed by 4PM when the next batch of voters arrived, those being the folks who were stopping to vote after getting out of work. It built pretty quickly until we were processing ballots as fast as our two ballot machines could handle them. There was a constant line of voters waiting to deposit their ballots into the counting machines.

At 6PM it was like someone had suddenly shut off the faucet. The lines disappeared and the flood became a trickle. Frankly, I was expecting it to remain busy right until the polls closed at 7PM. If it had, we might have hit that magical 90% number. Alas, it was not to be.

When all of the ballots were counted, checked, and write-ins and military absentee ballots tallied, over 78% of our voters turned out to cast their votes during the election. That’s pretty darned good, just not where we had hoped it would be.

One of the things I noticed missing about this election that I’d seen at previous elections: there was little exuberance or excitement being displayed. Instead, it was more of an atmosphere of grim determination to get in, vote, and get out. Most seemed to exhibit relief once they saw their ballots deposited in the ballot boxes.

More than a few expressed disdain for the major candidates- Clinton and Trump – saying it wasn’t that they were voting for a candidate as much as they were voting against a candidate. So many of my fellow townspeople were relieved that it was all over and that we wouldn’t have to be bombarded with TV and radio ads, the tons of campaign mailers that were stuffing our mailboxes, or the incessant phone calls from pollsters who wanted “just a few minutes of your time”.

More than a few voters took the opportunity to skillfully express their dislike of the candidates, with one clever fellow standing in line with a nose clip on his nose to “kill the stench” as he voted. More than a few people standing in line with him asked if they could borrow it when he was done with it.

One voter asked me if it was required that they fill out their ballot completely or if they could leave some of the ballot blank because they didn’t like anyone running for some of the other offices or whether the ballot counting machines would kick her ballot out because it wasn’t complete. After assuring her she could safely leave as many blanks as she wanted, she deposited her ballot in the box and fled.

I mention this because of something I noticed when we were checking ballots to determine f the counting machines mistakenly sorted ballots with write-ins into the wrong bin. (This is done to make sure that everyone’s ballot is counted, particularly the write-in votes.) More than few of the ballots I checked showed that voter didn’t cast votes for a considerable number of offices. I didn’t take the time to see specifically which ones were blank, but it appeared more than a few folks only voted for president and vice president, others just for governor or US senator. Others appeared to leave those offices blank and voted for their representatives in the New Hampshire House, Senate, and Executive Council.

I don’t know how common this is, whether it has been done in other elections, but it seemed there were a lot of ballots like those and I checked only a few hundred of them (out of 4800 ballots cast).

Having seen that, it reinforces the idea that I might be on the right track in calling for “None OF The Above” to be a valid choice during an election. We saw a few of those during the counting of the write-in ballots.

All in all, it was an interesting day at the polls. Now we all get to live with the consequences of our choices.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It's been a busy weekend here in Central New Hampshire. Between paying for the winter maintenance and storage prep on the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout, shopping for snow tires for Deb's car (she wanted to be pro-active and get them on before she actually needed them), and attending the Beach Boys concert down in Concord, it's kept us busy. And that was just Saturday!

Today was a little more mundane with the usual weekend house chores. The only 'off' thing about this weekend?

No Patriots game. They're off an a bye week.

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The silly season is winding up, with last minute pushes by the candidates for various offices, state abd federal.

As part of my town duties, I will be stationed at the polls to keep an eye on things and helping to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Our town moderator is expecting a 90%+ voter turnout in our town, the highest I think I've ever seen since Deb and I moved here years ago. Even our state's Secretary of State is expecting a very high turnout, between the contentious presidential election, and tight gubernatorial, US House, and US Senate races.

This will mean a 14 hour+ day for those involved with the election, with the polls themselves being open from 7AM to 7PM. There will be hand counting for a number of ballots due to the counting machines themselves not being able read the selections on some of the paper ballots. (This can happen if someone marks more than one selection for a given office, overfills or underfills the circles next to their selection's name, or cross-outs when a voter realized they didn't fill in the correct selection, crossed out the incorrect candidate's name, and the filled in the correct one.) These hand counted ballots usually account for between five and ten percent of all ballots cast. It seems to differ from election to election.

I'll be glad when this is all over.

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For a slight change of topic, the question has been asked about whether or not virtual reality sex will do more to kill off pornography than monogamy?

My guess?

Yes.

Will that be a good thing or a bad thing?

I haven't a clue.

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Who is the biggest loser of the 2016 campaign? The media.

From cable news employees sharing questions with Democrat Hillary Clinton in advance of TV town halls and debates, to executives making their airwaves endlessly available to Donald Trump for phone “interviews” that the Republican candidate controlled, the media have never performed less responsibly in a modern-era presidential election.

Does anyone trust the major media any more? I know I don't.

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Apparently Huff Po doesn't really understand the Second Amendment or the various state gun laws which codify the rights citizens have to keep and bear arms. Their latest problem?

A man openly carrying a firearm outside a Virginia polling place. I guess they don't like idea that it's perfectly legal for a citizen to carry their firearm out in public in Virginia, or anywhere else.

My message to the folks at HuffPo: Get used to it.

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I have to agree with David Starr on this: Can we trust the polls?

As I have stated in an earlier post, it is very easy to sway the poll numbers.

This close to the actual election, I have no doubt that many of the polls run by the MSM has been heavily weighted towards one party or the other, so to me the poll numbers are meaningless.

The only poll that counts is the one that takes place nationwide this coming Tuesday.

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Even Progressive Democrats realize the problems with corruption at the Clinton Foundation can bring down the party, even if it doesn't bring down Hillary.

Even though FBI Director Comey has yet again thrown Hillary a bone by announcing it will not take action against her for the more recent e-mails found on Anthony Weiner's computer, there's still the FBI investigation of the Clinton Foundation sill ongoing. If it is found that it is in violation of the RICO Act, heads will roll, even Hillary's.

I think just about everyone knows that if most people had pulled what Hillary did, between her private e-mail server and the Pay-For-Play tie-ins between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department, they'd already be in jail. This latest round of scandals just shows that the rule of law no longer exists and that the American people can no longer trust the justice system.

As the attitude from the Clintons and the rest of the political elite appears to be “Laws are for the little people”, it is not a surprise that the people are losing faith in our laws, the higher echelons of law enforcement, and our courts.

Once the people lose faith in the rule of law, we no longer have a nation.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the political ads seem to be running every 30 seconds, the politicians are spending their last hours before the election glad-handing everyone they can in the state, and where we'll all be releived when it's all over.

Cultural Appropriation Is How Societies Grow

It appears the latest phrase the deluded Social Justice Warriors like to bandy about these days is “cultural appropriation”, using it as a club to further balkanize our nation along lines that only they recognize.

These clueless and useful idiots have failed to understand that every civilization in history has appropriated the elements of other cultures into their own. It's something that has helped keep them vital, adding new ideas, foods, arts, sciences, and a whole host of other cultural items that help strengthen and transform such a civilization. That civilization in turn has offered cultural items to other cultures, near and far. It's a give and take, one that has been going on since human civilizations have existed.

These knuckleheads want to stop all of that and freeze everyone right where they are. In effect they want to pigeonhole every culture and keep them exactly where they are. No more cultural appropriation will be allowed because, after all, it's R-A-A-A-A-C-I-S-T!!!! But they don't realize that it is they who are perpetrating a great crime, that of racism, and worse, committing these oh-so-precious cultures to a static existence. And for those of you who have studied history, what happens to cultures that become static?

They die.

Is that what these latest batch of SJWs want?

Probably not. But their masters do, their masters being the Progressive faculty infesting our schools and college campuses. They want to destroy what it is that makes America one of the greatest nations on Earth and replace it with an ill-defined socialist utopia that will, like all those that have gone before, be nothing less than Hell on Earth.

While the SJWs decry such things as the American spin on foods from other cultures, fashions, music, literature, and philosophies, they have chosen to be ignorant of how all those things have shaped American culture But now it's gotten worse where SJWs are blasting “cultural appropriation” when folks from one part of the US use phrases or expressions from another part of the US.

In this case a “sweet young thing” from the South lambasted some of her fellow college students for making use of the word y'all. Her gripe? The folks using the word weren't from the South.

In a piece for the Patriot, the school’s official student newspaper, Leah Power explains that although she has “attempted to build up a thick skin towards the insensitive jokes, stereotypes, cultural appropriation and overall ignorance” that she sees around her, she just cannot help but get very upset every time she hears someone who is not from the South use the word “y’all.”

Really? That's what galls her? Then what about many of the various versions of barbecue? Have those also been culturally appropriated inappropriately? When does this silliness end?

An 'Interesting' Campaign Ad

One of the best campaign ads of this silly season!


I have to admit I like the last bit from his missus.