Thoughts On A Sunday

It was our little town’s Old Home Day yesterday. The activities encompassed an early morning 5K road race, a parade, a pancake breakfast, and a number of activities that spanned the range from our local library’s book sale, one of our local church’s flea market/fair, exhibits from our local historical society, numerous food and craft vendors, games for kids 2 to 99, a number of bands playing at the bandstand, and at the end of the day, fireworks.

Some friends from downstate made the trip up to enjoy the festivities. While their home town also has an Old Home Day, it is far more commercial and not nearly as encompassing of all age groups as the one here in our town. It was one of the first thing they noticed as we made the rounds.

It also seems fitting that our Old Home Day takes place the weekend before the kids return to school. Call it a way to close out their summer vacation and getting mentally prepared to start school. It’s also one of the last weekends of the summer season for a lot of the summerfolk as their kids are also returning to school.

The Labor Day weekend is usually seen as the ‘official’ end of the summer season, though many of the summer businesses will remain open for a few more weeks, though only on weekends. The unofficial end of summer is usually around Columbus Day weekend as that’s when a lot of summerfolk close up their camps and cottages for the winter. Most of the remaining boats are also pulled out of the water to be prepped for winter storage.

I expect that I’ll be hearing Don Henley’s Boys of Summer on the local radio stations starting any day now.

******************

With the passing of Senator John McCain, I expected plenty of coverage by the media and on the ‘Net. Unfortunately a lot of the people on the ‘Net dug deep into their “hateful derangement” vault and excoriated McCain, his family, and extended it to White House press spokesman Sarah Sanders by slamming the condolences she posted on Twitter. It proves to me that too many people are suffering from serious mental issues.

While I didn’t agree with John McCain on a number of issues, I did respect him. I voted for him in the 2008 New Hampshire Primary and the presidential election later that November. I defended him in some comment threads where more than a few Leftists tried to paint him as a “cowardly old man”, either not caring or not knowing his history as a POW and the torture he endured at the hands of the North Vietnamese.

******************

Playwright Neil Simon has passed away. He was 91.

As Ed Driscoll reminds us, “…[he] was often called the world’s most popular playwright after Shakespeare.”

******************

Apparently the “record-breaking” temperatures seen this summer across the US weren’t all that record breaking…unless those looking at the records stopped looking prior to 2000.

The summer of 1936 was far worse, with temps in some cases over 100 degrees F from California to Virginia and Texas to Minnesota for days on end.

But according to the warmists none of that matters. The past can be ignored as long as the narrative is served.

******************

South Africa is one step closer to becoming Zimbabwe South.

******************

You might call this a Tale of Two Professors, one local to us here in New Hampshire and the other at the University of Kansas.

The heart of the tale is the Second Amendment, where one professor is a wholehearted supporter of the people’s right to bear arms and the other has no like of the Second Amendment and seems to think that everyone who legally carries a firearm on campus is a threat to his personal safety. Because of that threat he no longer has personal office hours and will only deal with students via e-mail or Skype.

Is it paranoia or is it virtue signaling? Of the two I’d have to guess it’s more the latter than the former.

******************

One thing the media and the Left are choosing to ignore in regards to the convictions of Cohen and Manafort (and the hung jury for other of the charges against Manafort) is what laws were actually broken? David Starr hasn’t been ignoring it and has been asking the questions that everyone should be asking. The questions point to something that makes both prosecutions seem more like part of a witch hunt aimed at taking down Donald Trump. Certainly they were far out of the scope of Special Counsel Mueller’s investigations. Are these prosecutions nothing more than leverage to get Cohen or Manafort to implicate Trump? It certainly wouldn’t be the first time an overzealous prosecutor has pulled that particular stunt, even if there was nothing there for him/her to use to get their target.

That this investigation has been dragging on since shortly after Trump took office and to this point has found nothing that implicates Trump in regards to the focus of the Special Counsel’s original purpose should tell us something: There’s nothing there.

If anyone were investigated long enough the investigators would find something on them, even if it were only something embarrassing, but not criminal. But if it’s part of a witch hunt, even the embarrassing can somehow be turned into something that appears criminal. More and more Mueller’s investigation is looking like this – finding embarrassing information that isn’t criminal but is being massaged to make it look like it is.

******************

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the summerfolk have been out on the lake in droves, the weather has been spectacular, and another Old Home Day has gone off without a hitch.

Thoughts On A Sunday

With the exception only a few minor touch-ups, the work on The Manse in preparation for selling has been completed. All the painting is done. All the repair/renovation tasks have been completed. The Manse has been cleaned top to bottom. The over half of the feline compliment will be staying at relatives while The Manse is being shown. (Three will be staying here because they require special care that does not lend itself to being performed by others unfamiliar with their needs.)

With the real estate market as it is, our realtor expects The Manse will sell quickly.

******************

As bad as this story is, I have to say I was not surprised by the outcome. Worse, I could be tempted to say they had it coming.

A naïve American couple believing that “evil is a make-believe concept” found out the hard way that evil exists and is deadly.

They decided to prove their belief by biking across Africa, parts of Europe and into parts of the Middle East and southern Asia. They ended up being stabbed to death by ISIS fighters while riding across Tajikistan near the Afghanistan border. So ended their naiveté.

From reading the post by Sarah Hoyt and an article posted by the Daily Caller, it appears that these nominal adults were more like children who never had to face adversity, were never left unsupervised, or ever experienced unkind words.

First, how protected and innocent do you have to be to think the worst evil in the world is “ax murderers” and not the men who smile and smile and are villains. And second, how can you think that everyone – everyone – is wonderful and generous and kind. Sure, when you travel through as a tourist, you will mostly be tolerated and treated nicely. Sure, most humans are fundamentally decent, for a given description of decent. But consider that these twits were bicycling from the tip of Africa to the North, and yet had no concept that not only evil does exist but a lot of societies are set up in such a way as to be evil to women, to children, and even to the men who are — by and large in such societies — in charge. How could they be so blind unless they were looking at the world through the eyes of kindergartners convinced that because someone smiled and gave them cookies they must be nice?

The problem is that there far too many people just like this young couple who cannot conceive of the possibility that people they don’t even know would have no problem robbing them, beating them, raping them, or killing them. If they are naïve about things like that, then what else might they believe that “just ain’t so”, to paraphrase Ronaldus Magnus.

******************

Steve MacDonald ponders the real reason why the Washington Post, CNN, and BuzzFeed want the name and addresses of the jurors of the Manafort trial. The reason is simple, really.

Intimidation.

They want guilty. To make sure they get there they are willing to unleash liberal mobs on the homes and lives of innocent jurors to get what they want.

The judge, himself, says he has US Marshall protection 24-hours a day because he has been threatened.

Ladies and gentleman of the public jury, this is the promise of Liberal rule. It has always been and always will.

If you do not care now you will be made to care after it is too late to stop them.

So the media wing of the DNC has tasked itself to make sure the verdict turns out the way their political masters want in a trial that never should have taken place because it was well outside the scope of Robert Mueller’s mandate.

Too bad they didn’t get their way…NOT.

******************

It’s hard to believe how quickly summer has been passing. It seems it was only a couple of weeks ago that it was Memorial Day and a few days ago we were celebrating Independence Day. But Labor Day is only a couple of short weeks away and the kids start school next week

While I haven’t been out in the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout (aka The Boat) nearly as often as I would have liked, I’ve still managed to get out at least twice a week on average. Work prepping The Manse for sale has taken up a considerable amount of time which cut into some of the time I would have spent out on the lake. But now that The Manse is finally going on the market I plan to make up as much time as I can over the next two months and spend more time out on the lake before The Boat is pulled out of the water and prepped for winter.

And so it goes.

******************

Are people obsessed with cats?

Yes. Yes we are. What’s it to ya?

Considering that the feline contingent here at The Manse numbers seven, I’d say the WP family certainly is.

******************

To quote Squidward, “Just when I thought they couldn’t get any stupider.”

In this case, the California legislature passed a resolution that demands that Congress and President Trump “apologize to illegal aliens, including MS-13”.

Really? Apologize to people who broke our laws just coming into the US they way they did, and others who have committed violent crimes after breaking our laws just coming into the US the way they did? I think there can no longer be any doubt – California is being run by the inmates of an insane asylum.

******************

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather has turned pleasant, people are running around trying to enjoy one last week of summer vacation, and where summer is running out all too quickly.

Thoughts On A Sunday

Just when you think you’ve gotten everything taken care of in regards to prepping your home for sale, you find something else that needs fixing. Such was the case this past week when I found a last minute repair that needed doing. It was something a bit past my abilities and skill to attend to, so a call went out to one of our more skilled local handymen to deal with it. The need for the repair delayed listing The Manse for another week. While much of the repair has been done, there are still a few more details to complete, something that must wait until things dry out a bit after the rain we had over the weekend.

And so it goes.

*****************

When anyone looks at data from any kind of source, in many cases it is not the raw data but data filtered and massaged. Sometimes such filtering removes important information that leads to improper conclusions.

It is no different when it comes social media, where posts are censored, ‘tweaked’, or outright banned. How does this skew the ‘conclusions’, or in this case, the message being but forth?

It’s simple, really.

It silences dissent. But that’s the point, isn’t it?

*****************

This isn’t exactly news to me and it’s something I’ve been complaining about for a long time.

A couple of studies have found that smart phones harm the dining experience.

That certainly has been my experience and it is one reason one rule we have instituted at our family gatherings is all phones be put away for the duration. No texting. No Facebook. No Instagram. No e-mail. No web surfing. The same rule should apply when eating a meal at home or at a restaurant. If people are gathering to enjoy each other’s company, they should actually be there, not stepping into cyberspace and leaving the real world behind.

*****************

Yet another energy project that can help northern New England bring cleaner electricity, much needed electricity, has been targeted by the Neo-Luddites who will not sanction energy projects of any kind, with the exception of politically correct (and very expensive and unreliable) ‘renewable’ energy sources. (Hydro is not politically correct which is why a separate bunch of Neo-Luddites killed a new power line that would have brought massive amounts of hydro-electric power into New England.)

This same group worked hard to kill the Kinder Morgan natural gas pipeline that would have greatly increase the availability of natural gas from Pennsylvania in New England. At the moment the only natural gas pipeline into New England is at full capacity and cannot meet the demand. This forces New England to import natural gas from Yemen during winter to meet the high demand. This means we pay much higher natural gas prices than the rest of the nation even though domestic natural gas is cheap, and that suits these Neo-Luddite watermelon environmentalists just fine.

These jerks will not be satisfied until we are paying the highest electric rates in the nation (Oh, wait, some us already are!) for unreliable electricity that will not meet the demand and will damage our economy, all to meet some pie-in-the-sky dream of 100% renewable energy powered by unicorn farts.

*****************

This stuff writes itself.

The RNC has been running some ads that Chicks On The Right have stated are absolutely awesome. The kicker?

They’re using video from the Left that shows just how cray cray they are. Other than some narrative they’ve been able to use video created by the Progressives and their minions.

How better to run a campaign than to use your opponents’ own invective against them?

*****************

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it’s rained all weekend, the work on the house continues, and where summer is slipping by to quickly.

Thoughts On A Sunday

The last few bits of work to The Manse are close to being finished, with one last bit of painting to be finished and parts of our office and the last of my ham shack to be packed away. One or two last trips to the dump and everything should be done.

It’s been a long haul to get to this point, with work starting back last September with initial cleanouts and brush cutting, followed by new roofing installed on the Official Weekend Pundit Garage and The Manse’s driveway being rebuilt and repaved. Repainting the interior of the house, removing and refinishing the heating baseboards, replacing and refinishing some of the woodwork started in the spring. More landscaping work and repair of the decks started in the spring, and then refinishing the decks and some of the front steps were completed last week.

Doing it a little at a time was far less daunting than trying to get everything done in a very short period of time. I’m just glad it’s almost over.

******************

Do they hate you?

Yes. Yes they do.

How much?

This much.

Any questions?

******************

Then there’s this little bit of violence baiting from Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes making a lame and very poor ‘joke’ about Senator Rand Paul’s beating at the hands of a neighbor.

On has to wonder when the violent rhetoric will be surpassed by actual violence against Republicans/conservatives/’not’ Democrats. We’ve already seen the so-called ‘antifa’ fascists beating anyone they disagree with, meaning anyone who isn’t an anarchist/communist/Progressive.

******************

I found it interesting that Candice Owens had her Twitter account suspended for posting tweets identical to those of new NYT editor Sarah Jeong. The only difference? Owens changed the word “white” in Jeong’s tweets to “black” and “Jews”.

So why wasn’t Jeong’s account suspended?

Because at Twitter, bashing white people is perfectly acceptable behavior, even though it’s just as racist as bashing any other ethnic group.

******************

I think David Starr is right on the money with this – Vote all the bastards out!

******************

We also need better federal judges, something that President Trump is working on, because apparently at least one of them doesn’t understand federal law.

In this case we have a judge who has ordered DACA to be reinstated even though it isn’t covered by statutory law, was created out of thin air by President Obama even though he knew it was both unconstitutional and against the law.

The judge’s excuse for his ruling? ICE didn’t explain their rationale for suspending DACA. Did they really need to?

******************

It appears the Left is starting to let their mask slip. In this case a Santa Barbara, California city council member came right out and told everyone “Unfortunately, common sense is just not common. We have to regulate every aspect of people’s lives.”

And there you have it. “We have to regulate every aspect of people’s lives.” This Progressive asshat believes no one is capable of running their own lives, so he and others like him will have to do it for us. I have no doubt that many of his fellow travelers believe exactly the same thing and are working to make sure they will take control of everything.

One unintended consequence of something like that? Armed rebellion by those who will not submit to their control. And the first victims of that rebellion are likely to be the very people telling us they are going to control our lives because we are incapable of running them ourselves.

******************

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer continues, work on the Manse is almost finished, and where I really need to get back out onto the lake.