Thoughts On A Sunday

Even though the calendar says it's spring, the weather gods have been saying otherwise.

We did manage to avoid the last two out of the five Nor'easters that came this way, meaning we had little, if any snow to move. But it has been below normal temperatures, though that's supposed to change late this coming week.

At least the temps haven't kept us from making preparations for downsizing because at the moment The Manse is too big for us, so we're putting it on the market and will buy/build a smaller place, preferable one on a relatively flat piece of land that doesn't have a driveway with a 23% grade.

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It seems some of the kids who protested for more safety at their school are going to get it...good and hard. It's obvious that they didn't think that their platform against mass school shootings, which by the way are not an epidemic, would come back to bite them.

From the very founding of our nation, we learned that order and safety can be just as devastating — if not more so — than chaos. Just as liberty and chaos are closely related, so is tyranny and order. You might live in a more safe world where danger is kept at bay, but there’s a good chance you won’t like how the powers that be go about it.

And the Parkland students just learned that lesson. Needless to say, the freedom they just gave up to get safety isn’t sitting well with them.

According to the Daily Wire, the Superintendent of the Broward County School System issued an order that all students must have their student ID on them at all times. Furthermore, the students may only have clear backpacks, that the school will issue free of cost, that display their contents for everyone to see.

They really didn't like that idea, not realizing that was what they were asking for. If they really wanted to help prevent another occurrence then they should have been demanding that law enforcement and the judicial system do its job. If they had then the murder of 17 people in Broward County, Florida would not have happened. Adding more gun control laws on top of those already in existence but not being adequately enforced won't solve the problem, something the kids do not understand. Then again, the folks that helped them plan these 'spontaneous' walkouts knew this, but it wouldn't push their agenda if they informed the kids.

What I find ironic is the tweet from one student protesting the measures being taken at Parkland inadvertently made the case against tougher gun restrictions when she posted:

“So, we’re giving up all illusions of normalcy. okay. why should 3300 students be penalized for the failure of security to do their job?” asked MSDHS student @Nikta04.

Heh.

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One would think that the Left and their MSM mouthpieces would have learned this lesson by now, that being “Don't trash the folks living in 'flyover' country,” particularly if you don't actually know who those folks are.

Apparently Matthew Dowd didn't get that memo.

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I find it interesting that the Progressive folks who have managed to take one-third of the seats in our little town's Budget Committee now believe that they control the purse strings and will be dictating to the other 8 members how we're all going to be voting to greatly increase spending (and taxes), particularly on the school side of the budget.

I think they're going to find that it isn't that easy and that the voters aren't as stupid as they think they are. If they propose large spending increases I believe they'll find the proposed budgets will be voted down because with few exceptions, no one wants to see their tax bills increase by between 5 and 8 percent. (Mind you, this conclusion about the increased taxes is based upon rumor and innuendo, but I have also heard first hand one new member has stated their intentions to increase spending, specifically school spending even though our student population has shrunk by over 10% to date and continues to do so.)

The budget season this coming fall is going to be 'interesting' to say the least. Here's hoping that reality will reassert itself and these new members will come to realize they aren't going to get what they want...but I ain't holding my breath.

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Here it is, all this time we thought that the Rothchilds controlled the weather, and we now find it's actually Big Chocolate. Who'da thunk it?

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Best sign ever at #MARCHFOR OUR LIVES protests. It puts everything into perspective for those who haven't a clue.

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As a follow up, here are the 10 Dumbest Signs at the #MARCH FOR OUR LIVES protests.

We got to keep a balance here, don'cha see.

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I have to make a note that while we have been preparing The Manse to go on the market, we've been amazed at the amount of dreck and junk we have accumulated in our 13 years residing here. All the stuff we thought was so important to hold onto a few short years ago has us scratching our heads, wondering “Why did we keep that...that...whatever it is?”

It's amazing to see how quickly we accumulate that stuff, how something that we figured we could find a use for 'sometime in the future' became just another item taking up space and gathering dust.

We easily went through about 3/4ths of our basement yesterday and have a very large “take to the dump” pile. We have a much much smaller pile for “goes to Goodwill”. There is still quite a bit of stuff to go through, mostly my electronics/computer/ham radio parts stash, something we will tackle next weekend. I expect that by the time we are done a good 85% of the stuff we have in the basement will be gone. It's just that much less stuff we'll have to pack and move when the time comes.

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I came across this again, something from last August, that has certainly made me think more than once. I have posted about it once before, but it bears repeating.

Are some cultures superior?

Yes, without a doubt. Next question?

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With the attempted hacks of our power systems by Russia (and the successful hacks of Ukraine's power systems), I am glad to see that the power companies and the US government are finally taking notice and trying to do something to prevent future breaches.

Looking at this from an engineer's point of view, I have one very important question ask in regards to the security of our electrical grid: Why the heck are these systems in any way connected to the Internet?

They should be standalone systems that have absolutely no connectivity to the Internet in any way, shape, or form. The utilities own thousands of miles of dark fiber that they lease to customers, much of that fiber run along their existing transmission routes using what is called optical ground wire (OPGW) which is an electrical cable that has optical fiber buried at its core, allowing utilities to provide both electricity and telecommunications using the same cable. So it can't be because the utilities don't have the fiber available, right? So why shouldn't they build their own network that is entirely air-gapped from the Internet? (Such a system wouldn't have any wireless access points connected to it because WAPs can be hacked.) With no connections to the Internet, the utilities command and control networks cannot be hacked from someone's computer in Moscow or Sophia or Beijing. You can't easily hack something that has no external points of entry. (I'm not saying it can't be done, but that usually requires someone to physically break into the network to attach hardware that is connected to the Internet.)

The standalone network should be heavily encrypted to deter would-be crackers from running scripts to break into the system. Make it defense in depth. But for cryin' out loud, disconnect the utilities' networks from the friggin' Internet as step one of making them more secure.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we're still waiting for spring, spring cleaning (at least indoors) is continuing apace, and where thoughts of the upcoming boating season have started to intrude.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It seems to me that our winter has become something of a paradox.

We had temps in the 70's in February, but are seeing below zero temps in western and northern New Hampshire this morning. Daytime temps will be more what one would expect for late January/mid February rather than two days before the spring equinox.

We experienced three Nor'easters in 11 days, something we usually see in that same late January/mid February period. It's definitely been a head-scratcher of a winter this year.

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Has the MSM deteriorated so much that it's reached the point where it can no longer be bothered to spend the time check whether an important story is true? When some of the big media outlets reported that Trump had fired McMaster, it probably sounded like a great scoop and they ran with it. The problem?

It wasn't true. McMaster was still on the job.

I don't know why anyone bothers listening to the MSM anymore...unless they do it to confirm their own biases.

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If anyone needs an example of cognitive dissonance, this is it.

There was a murder-attempted suicide at a mall in Thousand Oaks, California. A woman was killed and her murderer attempted suicide. Of course one of the gun grabbers decided she could use that tragedy as a means of 'sticking it to the gun nuts'. However it is quite apparent to anyone paying attention that she didn't think the whole thing through before posting her tweet.

Where were all the “responsible gun owners” who “have their guns for protection” when someone was shot dead in Thousand Oaks hours ago??? If u want the right to own a gun that comes with the responsibility of protecting ppl. Thats what a “well regulated militia” means u gun nuts.

Since almost all gun owners are responsible and law abiding people, there was no way they could have been able to intervene with their own guns to stop this tragedy. Why?

Because the mall where the shooting took place was a “Gun Free Zone”. That means those same law abiding gun owners would not have been armed because, surprise surprise, they followed the law and left their guns elsewhere.

See what I mean by cognitive dissonance? She doesn't like gun owners, then lambastes them for not breaking the law by carrying guns in a gun free zone (a mall) in order to stop a murder. It's a “Damned if you do. Damned if you don't,” scenario. In other words it's a no-win situation for law abiding gun owners.

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You know our society is in trouble when our young college students cannot see that something like human sacrifice is a reprehensible and criminal act. When their response to this is “Who are we to judge?” then you know we are in a lot of trouble.

Basically what they are saying is that there is no right, there is no wrong, and that evil doesn't exist. What that tells us is that they are amoral, incapable of judging anything, and that they should never be allowed anywhere near an office that bestows upon them any power to make decisions for any of us.

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Just when you thought they couldn't get any crazier...

It appears the state of California has decided that it is at war with against a number of red states as proven by Assembly Bill 1887. The bill, which prohibits “state-funded and state-sponsored travel to Alabama and several other red states Thursday due to laws that could discriminate against the LGBTQ community (e.g., prohibiting adoptions).”

Yet again there are unintended consequences to such legislation, one of them being a group of 60 future rocket scientists from Citrus College.

The Citrus College Rocket Owls were one of 60 school teams invited to Huntsville to compete in NASA Student Launch Program in April. Groups from 23 states are competing in the 18th annual event in which teams design, build, test and fly a high-altitude reusable rocket.

Despite their invite, Citrus College, a community college located outside Los Angeles, won’t be attending. Last year, California announced it was banning publicly funded travel to Alabama and seven other states due to laws that could discriminate against the LGBTQ community. In Alabama’s case, it was a law that allows adoption agencies to follow faith-based policies, which includes not placing children with same-sex couples.

Notice that is says could discriminate, not do discriminate. So not one dime will go to get these STEM students to an activity that could boost their careers. But the state has no problem spending $70 billion+ on a high speed train to nowhere than benefits no one.

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And that's the abbreviated news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter temps have returned with a vengeance, the snows of the previous two weeks aren't melting, and where the spring equinox is only 2 days away.

Thoughts On A Sunday

Here it is, the first day of Daylight Saving Time 2018.

While I haven't yet felt the effects of the time shift (I figure that will make itself felt tomorrow morning at 5:30 a.m.) I will say that I do like being on DST and figure we should do away with Standard Time as at this point it is an annoyance. More on that below.

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We have sufficiently recovered from the last Nor'easter we experienced, but it appears we will be seeing another one come Tuesday, with snowfalls in this area forecast (for the moment) to be between 5 and 10 8 and 14 inches.

What else is happening on Tuesday that this new Nor'easter will likely affect?

Town Meeting.

Last year at this time we were also visited by a Nor'easter that severely disrupted Town Meetings/Town Elections across the state. Those who managed to get out to vote early weren't as affected as those who waited until later in the day. Blizzard conditions existed which made traveling dangerous. (I can attest to that because our town experienced a traffic fatality that morning. In fact the WP Mom and I drove past it shortly after it occurred as we were on our way to the polls.)

Here's hoping that this one will not be nearly as disruptive as last year's storm.

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As mentioned above, Daylight Saving Time has returned. The twice yearly time shift has made its presence known again, inconveniencing many people and causing disruptions all across the nation.

Like many, I wonder why we bother any more. Living at the extreme eastern side and northern extremes of the Eastern Time Zone in the US, DST is great while Standard Time is a pain. I am not the only one questioning the utility of the twice annual time change, something that has been taking place on-and-off for 100 years.

It’s absurd – and fitting – that a century later, opponents and supporters of daylight saving are still not sure exactly what it does. Despite its name, daylight saving has never saved anyone anything. But it has proven to be a fantastically effective retail spending plan.

--snip--

Why do we still do it?

Today we know that changing the clocks does influence our behavior. For example, later sunset times have dramatically increased participation in afterschool sports programs and attendance at professional sports events. In 1920, The Washington Post reported that golf ball sales in 1918 – the first year of daylight saving – increased by 20 percent.

While I have no problem with people playing more golf, that isn't why I would support remaining on DST (or a shift to the Atlantic Time Zone, as Florida's, Maine's, and New Hampshire's legislatures have decided would be a good thing to do), eliminating the twice yearly shift. (Maine and New Hampshire won't make the move unless neighboring Massachusetts does likewise.) My reason – I don't like having to drive both to and from work in the dark in December and January. I don't like having to perform outside work in the dark after work (usually removing snow from our driveway). I don't like having to take an after-work walk in the dark. It's dangerous enough without adding that to it.

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Basically, being at the eastern edge of our time zone and being as far north as we are, Standard Time makes little sense to me.

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Has Hollywood forgotten that their purpose is to entertain? Without a doubt, yes. Now it's all about virtue signaling and preaching to the ignorant deplorables. Too bad the deplorables have been increasingly voting with their wallets, or in this case, keeping their wallets closed seeing that Hollywood has seen its worse box office year in decades. I expect it will only get worse...for them.

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You know the whole social justice engineering scam has gone too far when it raises its ugly head at funeral homes.

Yes, funeral homes

This silly s**t has got to stop.

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Sometimes, things go wrong. At other times, things go really wrong.

Here are five examples of things that went really wrong.

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Oh, I'm sure this will provide incentive for the police department to rush right over when they're being robbed.

It appears that a coffee shop in Oakland, California won't serve coffee to police officers for “the physical and emotional safety of our customers and ourselves.”

Because cops aren't welcome there I have to wonder whether the criminal element in Oakland will now see the shop as easy pickings since they know they don't have to worry about police being anywhere near there? That also begs the question whether the shop - Hasta Muerta Coffee - will file a lawsuit against the PD and city if they are robbed? It being California, I'd have to say is absolutely 'yes'.

California has become an insane asylum run by the inmates.

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I wish I could remember where I read this, but the meme stuck with me.

With third-wave feminists decrying 'toxic masculinity' and promoting single motherhood because men aren't necessary or useful when it comes to raising children, one has to wonder why it is then that boys raised by single mothers tend to have more problems when it comes to things like school, social interactions, criminal behavior, and suicide. Could it be because that 'toxic masculinity' is needed as part of a boy's upbringing in order to help him become a healthy, well adjusted adult?

The response from the feminists?

'Crickets chirping'

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Apparently Hollywood has fallen so far that it no longer has much in the way of tolerance for those who served in the American Armed Forces. After a video clip was shown at the Oscars that depicted a “montage of American war films, a tribute to the real soldiers who have fought and died for our nation.” The applause at the end was...underwhelming.

The audience applauded on cue, but hardly with the kind of enthusiasm some might expect. Cameras panned the crowd, catching director Christopher Nolan, among others, clapping robotically with little to no passion.

But they are more than willing to give enthusiastic applause to someone – Roman Polanski - who drugged and raped a 13-year old girl and then fled the country to avoid prosecution.

And Hollywood wonders why people in the rest of America don't like them very much.

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It's such a bad idea that it keeps popping up at least once every generation.

The idea?

It's time to try Socialism...again.

All one has to do is talk to anyone who's lived under socialism to realize that it is a perpetually bad idea. It doesn't work. It has never worked. Yet the deluded youth who have been spoon-fed the Marxist lie that it is the only answer keep trying to bring it back. (They never really tell us what it is better than. Only that 'capitalism' is bad.)

They have never had to live in a socialist state, never had to deal with a truly intrusive and brutal system that brooks no dissent, kills its own with alacrity, and is a 'boot in the face of humanity, forever'. The have never had to live with privation, not being able to buy what they want when they want it. They have never had to stand in line to buy things like food, shoes, or clothing. They never had to fear the demand for “Papers!” They never had “pretend to work while The State pretends to pay them.” They never had to deal with The State running out of other people's money and watching what had been an economy that had been stumbling along collapse utterly to the point where there was no food, no jobs, and no hope.

They will not “do it better than their predecessors” because, quite frankly, they aren't as smart or as well educated as most of their predecessors. They will fail just like those who have gone before them for one very valid reason – Socialism always ignores human nature, and human nature always wins in the end.

If they need an modern example of the utter failure of socialism all they have to do is visit Venezuela, a once prosperous nation that has descended into Third World hell. Nothing works there any more. The economy is dead. Food is extremely scarce and very expensive even when it is available. There is no medical care. The only rich there are those in power, and they didn't become rich until after they took power.

Is this really what they want for us? Or are they just deluded souls who have imbibed the kool-aid and are now incapable of having any thoughts that haven't been programmed into them?

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we're still adjusting to DST, town meeting day approaches, and where we're readying for yet another Nor'easter.

Thomas Sowell Has The Right Of It

As Thomas Sowell has stated,

Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good.

Unfortunately for us, that is all too true. Think about it. For those of us who are of an age, we remember when things worked and worked well. And by things I mean things like education, social organizations, local government, and a whole host of other societal components.

We've seen educational fads come and go, each one worse than the last. An example is the bilingual education fad started in California, the reasoning behind it being that children who didn't speak English would be better off being taught in their native language and some English. After two decades it was abandoned once it was proven to be a failure, leaving the kids undereducated and lacking enough skills in English to assist in their assimilation. An entire generation was damaged because the tried and true was shoved aside for something that sounded good but had no scientific basis. (Any linguist could have told them it wouldn't work.)

The last fad was Common Core, something that twisted school curriculum into something unrecognizable and did not teach our kids what they need to know. I expect the next fad will be even worse.

The list of things that were replaced with what sounded good would take up page after page, but I will list just a few of them.

Teaching reading using phonics – replaced with the 'look-say' method. It didn't work.

Public works projects – something that would take only a year or two now takes a decade...before a single spade of earth is turned.

Public works projects – once embraced by the public is now resisted with NIMBY and BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone).

“Hold the door, say please, say thank you. Don't steal, don't cheat, and don't lie.” has been replaced with “Get outta my way!”, “What?”, and “Screw you, buddy! I got mine!”

Hugs and handshakes – replaced with lawsuits, criminal charges, and destroyed reputations.

Dating – replaced with hookups...that can lead to lawsuits, criminal charges, and destroyed reputations.

School discipline, administered by teachers, coaches, and principals - replaced with lawsuits, criminal charges, and destroyed reputations.

“Can do!” - replaced with “You can't do that! You might offend someone who is offended by everything!”

These are things I came up with in just a brief tens seconds of thinking. How many other things can you think of that worked have been replaced with things that sound good, but aren't?

Thoughts On A Sunday

We didn't get hammered by the Nor'easter like so many others did. We had a little snow, some heavy rain, and some wind, but what we got was a fraction of what the seacoast areas of New Hampshire and Massachusetts received. However it is likely we'll see 'plowable' amounts of snow from another Nor'easter the forecasters are saying will hit this coming Thursday.

We all have to remember that it's still winter.

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If we need another example of George Santayana's aphorism - “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it” - all we need to do is look at South Africa.

It seems their parliament has decided to make the same mistake Zimbabwe did by confiscating land from white landowners without compensation.

This will lead to bloodshed, just as it did in Zimbabwe, and South Africa's agricultural production will drop off to the point where it can no longer feed itself. Despite its riches in natural resources, it will find itself in the same place as Venezuela – broke and disintegrating. All of those who know how to run the mines, the farms, and vital infrastructure will leave or be driven out.

Of course the whole “We're taking back land stolen from our ancestors” schtick is total BS as the land in what is now South Africa was uninhabited when the Boers settled it 400 years ago. Neither the Zulu or the Xhosa tribes which now inhabit South Africa lived anywhere near there when it was settled. They didn't arrive until almost 150 years after the Dutch arrived.

But they won't let historical fact stand in the way of the narrative.

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And speaking of Venezuela, it has now achieved economic equality. Just about everyone (except the ruling class) are destitute and the money is worth more as toilet paper than it is as currency.

Venezuela is also a good example of what happens when government leaders ignore the lessons of history. They took the richest nation in South America and turned it into an impoverished Third World s**thole.

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Chuck Schumer has unwittingly proven that he's a racist bastard, not much different than his colleagues. At least Chuck has admitted outright that he's a racist. His colleagues prefer to use the “soft racism of low expectations” to hold minorities to a lower standard because they do not believe they are capable of meeting the high expectations we have for everyone else.

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I still prefer the original gender neutral pronoun – it – to the new ones being foisted upon the unwilling populace by an extremely small but vocal minority that seem to think their grievances outweigh all others.

Some people may think I'm being insensitive. I am not. I am being offensive because these crybabies want special accommodation made society for their delusions rather than having them seek psychiatric help for their condition(s). I will not buy into or support their delusions.

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Stuart Schneiderman thinks it's time to take a closer look at Prozac, one of the many SSRI's used to treat depression.

It’s been in use for decades now, but mental health professionals are still debating the value of Prozac and other SSRIs. When the little capsules hit the market, the press was chockablock with stories about the new miracle cure. Patients who had spent years on the couch opining about their childhood traumas suddenly felt better. They felt a lot better. Psychotherapy had made them depressed. Prozac made them happy. Who could argue with that?

--snip--

Prozac has not been in use for a very long time and we do not really know the long term effects. We are now beginning to see that these pills have a downside. And we owe it to psychologist and patient Lauren Slater to have analyzed the problem and shared some of her experience.

--snip--

[I]t is sobering for those who have been prescribing these pills to note that a placebo works equally well in two-thirds of the cases. This still suggests that the medicine helps a third of patients.

At the least, the new studies challenge the media-driven orthodoxy—to the effect that depression is a chemical imbalance. They also tell us that the pills have been marketed to death, overprescribed and overused.

There is certainly enough evidence that these drugs have some negative effects that have mostly been ignored. It wouldn't surprise me to find that for some patients things were made worse by their use. Frankly, these pharmaceuticals need some follow on research>,br>

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Another area where medicine needs to take a closer look at the long term effects of a medication is birth control, specifically The Pill and all of its derivatives like Norplant and some of the hormone laced IUDs. I wish I could remember where I read the following, but it appears there may be a link between use of hormonal birth control and the increases in things like homosexuality, autism, mental deficits, as well as a host of birth defects. This birth control method has been around for 50 years now and one has to wonder if we have been unwittingly affecting the health of the children we eventually have. There's also the matter of some of these hormones making their way into the food chain that may be having an effect on male fertility, seeing as sperm counts in men have fallen by almost 50%.

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Did any of you watch the Oscars?

Me neither.

Between the crappy movies over the past year (there were a few standouts) and the heavy political rhetoric being laid upon viewers, I had no desire to watch. It appears from the TV ratings for previous Oscars that a lot of other people have also been tuning out. After all, who wants to be preached at by a bunch of self-important, intolerant, willfully ignorant people who believe the world revolves around them?

Instead, I watched a rerun of NCIS and Bull.

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Call this a 'must see' video.

Apparently Virginia Delegate Nick Freitas discussed the importance of the Second Amendment, something Democrats in the legislature didn't like. They demanded a recess “so that they could calm down because they were so outraged.”

I guess we know where they stand on the Second Amendment...and it ain't on our side.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we're heading for yet another Nor'easter, dreams of the upcoming boating season are starting to intrude, and where we won't have to plow snow for at least another four days.