11/05/2017

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was an 'interesting' week here in New Hampshire this past week, with widespread power outages after a heavy rain and wind storm. Our neighborhood was without power for three days and others didn't have power restored until late Friday. There are still a few scattered outages across the state.

Normally we see this kind of widespread outage due to heavy snow or ice storms, the last one being in 2008 that had much of New Hampshire in the dark.

While this storm didn't have nearly the number of outages as back in 2008 (400,000+ then versus ~200, 000 now), just the magnitude was surprising considering the time of year.

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Even with power restored, Internet access didn't automatically follow. It took another day for ours to come back to life. Others within my town are still waiting as the local cable company works to repair damage to fiber cables, in-field electronics, coaxial cables, and cable drops to homes.

At least I had 'Net access at work!

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Seeing the reports of the assault on Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) by a neighbor outside his Kentucky home, one would think the newsies would be all over that.

Nope. Not a peep, at least not until about 9:15AM this morning when a short blurb appeared on GMA.

Somehow I think if there had been a 'D' after Paul's name, the MSM-DNC would have been all over it, deploring the attack by a 'right-wing' extremist. But because the victim had an 'R' after his name and the alleged perpetrator is a registered Democrat, it is a non-news item in the eyes of the media.

If the MSM-DNC didn't have double standards they'd have no standards at all.

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Truer words were never spoken.

You know it's bad when even a columnist for the New York Times, in this case David Brooks, comes right out and states on PBS NewsHour “Those of us trying to rebut Trump have the disadvantage that 'our elites really do stink'.”

Maybe you need a better class of elites. Did you ever think of that? The ones you have now are clueless and out-of-touch with a large majority of the American people. They assume too much and listen too little.

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It seems the 'popular' uprising that Antifa called for yesterday failed to materialize.

That's what happens when you isolate yourself into your own snowflake-hugging pissed-off reality.

“Here's a buck. Go buy yourself a clue...”

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The People's Cube shows us a new game called Islamic Roulette. It's like Russian Roulette but you load the revolver with all six bullets.

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Also by way of The People's Cube comes another exciting game: Diversity Visa Lottery 2.0

In the new system, titled "Diversity Visa Lottery 2.0," special military units will be instructed to randomly place explosive devices in highly populated areas. These bombs will then explode at intervals calculated by a Harvard computer algorithm, amounting to an average of once every two weeks.

It eliminates the need to wait for lone wolf terrorists to come to this country and blow stuff up, shoot people, or run them down with trucks. This way we still receive the 'benefits' of the Diversity Visa Lottery without actually allowing any of these guys into the country. It cuts out the middle man.

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While I haven't yet seen the proposed tax cuts put forth by the GOP and the behest of President Trump, I have to say I am already tired of the people bitching about it. The biggest problem I have with the bitching?

It's almost entirely uninformed bitching.

Most of those bitching have picked up on only one or two talking points brought up by people who have an obsessive hatred of Trump and the idea that anyone would be allowed to keep more of their own money.

Is it likely the realignment of the tax code is going to hurt someone? Yup. That's inescapable. No matter what is done it's going to inconvenience or hurt someone somewhere. All I'm asking is that people don't go off half-cocked because one small portion of the tax code change might inconvenience them while ignoring another part that benefits them. Is it stupidity or willful ignorance that drives this? Maybe a little of both?

One of the stupidest complaints I heard dealt with how those who don't pay any taxes won't gain any benefit from the tax plan. Well, yeah. In many cases they already receive an Earned Income Tax Credit, meaning they get a tax 'refund' from the government even though they didn't pay any taxes. So what's the problem?

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Skip tells us the story of a guy who “works just to pay his ObamaCare premium.”

Everyone touts just how wonderful ObamaCare is for those with lower incomes, but totally ignores those who in the past could afford their health insurance, but can't any more. As Skip put it, “...this is a perfect example of the actual purpose of Obamacare – a MASSIVE wealth transfer from one class to another.”

Yup. I'd say that sums it up rather nicely.

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I came across this just after Halloween and knew I had to share it, 'it' being Michael Jackson's Thriller, something that hadn't been available on YouTube the last time I looked for it.

You have to admit, the man was talented.

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Camille Paglia gets it.

Then again, she always has. Too bad that many of her acquaintances don't and likely never will.

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BeezleBub and I went to see Thor – Ragnarok this evening.

I liked it.

It was campy. It was funny. It was entertaining.

That's all I ask of any movie, to be entertaining.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where fall weather has returned, so has Standard Time, and where no one seems to be particularly fond of it.