Thoughts On A Sunday

This January-like November we’ve been experiencing in New England has finally receded, with temps today being close to normal (lower 40’s) and rain helping to melt away some of the snow we’ve received. On Thanksgiving Day we had temperatures in the single digits and low teens, with wind-chill factors well below zero all day. I had to keep checking he calendar to conform that we were indeed still in November, not mid-January.

Our Thanksgiving gathering at the youngest WP Sister’s place went off without a hitch. Though it wasn’t the largest gathering we’ve had by any means, we still had a good portion of the WP clan in attendance.

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OK, folks, I think we have to agree that Hollywood has run out of ideas and has been resurrecting old movies and TV series. The next TV series to be raised from the dead?

Northern Exposure.

While I liked the show, goodness knows it was a quirky show with a lot of appeal, I’m not sure how well it will do. Should the project go forward, I can see where the first episode would garner a lot of viewers. Most of those viewers are likely to be fans of the original (like me), but if the resurrected version does not retain the quirkiness and, dare I say ‘fun’ of the original, it won’t survive.

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Oh, this is embarrassing!

One group of special operations undercover police officers in one Detroit precinct acting as dope dealers were targeted for arrest by another group of special operation undercover police officers from another precinct acting as buyers.

Don’t these special operations groups talk with each other?

As amusing as this sounds, this kind of mistake could have ended up with cop-on-cop shootings. Somebody needs to be fired.

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Coyote Blog has a suggestion when it comes to government involvement with health care: Have the government focus on the one thing it does best and keep it away from the rest. What is that “one thing”?

…the one thing the government is really, really good at is being an insurer of last resort -- they have the deep pockets and the fiat money power to do this better than anyone else -- that is why they are the insurer of last resort of bank deposits and for flood insurance (I am not saying that there are not moral hazards in these or unintended consequences, but the insurance works). So there is the clear opportunity -- what people need most is catastrophic insurance even when the private market won't provide it and the government does really well is provide catastrophic insurance as a last resort.

Keep it away from everything else. As Coyote states, the government is awful at things like cost control and service effectiveness. Goodness knows there are enough examples to prove these two points, including things like Medicaid and Medicare.

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The Perpetually Offended Social Justice Warrior Snowflakes have cost yet another college administrator his job. His offense?

Asking questions that needed to be asked about those accusing then SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault that had the snowflakes swooning onto their fainting couches.

While the administrator himself was not fired, he was suspended by the college and he later tendered his resignation.

I have one message for these snowflakes: Grow up!

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This is something anyone with even a smattering of economic smarts has known right from the beginning: Green energy is a disastrous flop.

“Green” energy is expensive, even with government subsidies, is not dispatchable (not readily available when needed), and tends to displace inexpensive and reliable energy sources because they take priority.

Green energy is a loser and the sooner people realize it the sooner we can get back to sane, fact-based energy policies.

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I’m with Skip Murphy on this one: Stop Premature Christmas Decorating!

It seems Christmas decorations go up in stores earlier every year. I have seen them while Halloween decorations are still up!

As a kid I remember that Christmas decorations in stores didn’t go up until after Thanksgiving. There was no ‘Black Friday’. No endless TV commercials hawking unidentifiable presents. Our Christmas decorations didn’t go up into about a week before Christmas and came down on New Year’s Day.

I figure it’s only a matter of time before the Christmas decorations start going up even as the flashes and booms of Fourth of July fireworks are fading away.

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Are we an ungrateful nation?

Unfortunately, the answer is mostly “yes”.

According to Pew Research from 2015, when it comes to standard of living, "The U.S. stands head and shoulders above the rest of the world. More than half (56 percent) of Americans were high income by the global standard ... and 2 percent were poor."

Fantastic products are cheaper than ever. Human Progress investigated the amount of time Americans must spend to earn enough money to buy key products and found that since 1979, the amount of time spent to earn a refrigerator had dropped 52 percent, 95 percent for microwaves, 65 percent for gas ranges and 61 percent for dishwashers. Between the mid-1960s and 2007, Americans were able to work less and leisure more: They worked nearly eight hours fewer per week, according to The Heritage Foundation. The wage gap is almost entirely a myth: Women who work the same jobs as men for the same number of hours, and have the same work history and same education as men make the same as men. The chief obstacles to income mobility in the United States are related to personal decision-making, not racial discrimination: As the Brookings Institution points out, of the people who finish high school, get a full-time job and wait until age 21 to get married and have children, nearly 75 percent join the middle class, and just 2 percent remain in poverty.

What of freedom? In America, people of all religions practice freely, so long as the government isn't attempting to cram social justice down on them. People are free to speak, so long as government actors aren't utilizing the heckler's veto. We are free to use the press, free to associate and free to protest.

All of this is the result of the greatest governmental philosophy ever committed to paper: God-given individual rights protected by limited government. We haven't always lived up to that philosophy -- in some areas, we've progressed mightily, and in others, we've regressed. But the overall success of the United States should be ringing proof that at the very least, we should be grateful and proud to live here.

I know I am. I have managed to spend time in 40-some countries over the past 40+ years, and not as a tourist. A few have been wonderful places. More than a few of the others have been nightmares best forgotten. And the rest lie somewhere in between those extremes. Yet none of them measured up to the US. None of them.

Of course I realize that it is my bias speaking, but it is a well-earned bias and one to which I am unapologetic.

We take so much for granted, have so much, and yet some of us are unhappy and ungrateful. For some, the answer seems to be to unmake America and turn it into a Third World s**thole as some kind of atonement for our success. They believe we are guilty of some kind of sin and must flail ourselves in punishment, and if we don’t do it voluntarily they’ll force us to even if it means tearing America apart to do so. What a bunch of ungrateful morons.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where warmer weather has returned for a few days, where the snow is melting as a result, and where the stress of upcoming Christmas is ramping up.

Thoughts On A Sunday

Though it’s still mid-November we’ve been experiencing weather that is more fitting for January, with daytime temps at or just below freezing and nighttime temps in the teens and single digits. We also had 4 inches of snow on Friday, just enough to remind folks that winter is just around the corner and that it’s best to make sure our vehicles are ready for adverse road conditions.

I have been using the Official Weekend Pundit Woodstove to heat The Manse. It’s good thing we had almost a cord of dry firewood still stacked in the garage. It’s meant I haven’t had to use the furnace (and burn expensive propane) to keep the rather sparsely furnished Manse warm. (I am still in the process of packing up our various belongings and moving them into storage, so most of the rooms are empty.) Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend I expect to get most of the rest of our belongings put away.

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As the trend of our younger generation becoming more enamored of socialism despite knowing nothing of its history, I have spoken to many of them about what they find so appealing. Almost every one of them responded with some or all of the following:

“It’s so appealing in its equality.”

“No one will be more equal than anyone else.”

“Poverty will go away.”

“Racism and sexism won’t exist anymore.”

Of course they know nothing of the history of socialism and its unbroken chain of failures, the bloody trail it has left behind, and how it has left economies and financial systems in ruins that leads to the populace living in abject poverty.

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I think it’s long past due time for the UK to make a break with the EU. Delaying Brexit is causing more harm than good and with some of the British politicians working hard to kill of Brexit, the UK is being torn apart.

Frankly, I have long been of the opinion that the UK would be better off joining an Anglosphere organization, maintaining their independence, and ending their increasing dominance by unelected officials and bureaucrats in Brussels. It’s time to tell the EU to piss off.

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You know the Democrat gun-grabbers have gone over the edge when one of them threatens supporters of the Second Amendment with nuclear weapons if they won’t willingly give up their guns.

Class act, that one. It also gives us a damn good reason to keep our weapons because politicians like that are a danger to everyone.

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Uh-oh.

It looks like the scientific Powers That Be are about ready to dethrone the physical representation of the kilogram, redefining it.

When the 26th General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) convenes next week in Versailles, France, representatives of the 60 member nations are expected to vote to redefine the International System of Units (SI) so that four of its base units—the kilogram, ampere, kelvin, and mole—are defined indirectly, in terms of physical constants that will be fixed by fiat. They’ll join the other three base units—the second, meter, and candela (a measure of a light’s perceived brightness)—that are already defined that way. The rewrite eliminates the last physical artifact used to define a unit, Le Grand K.

In the past the meter was redefined in terms of the speed of light, making the old meter ‘stick’ nothing more than a relic. And so it will be with the platinum-iridium sphere that is presently is the physical representation of the kilogram.

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Earlier I wrote about the incredible ignorance of our younger generations when it comes to the actual outcomes from the socialist systems. If they need a real world example of just how bad it gets, all we need to do is point them to Venezuela, and particularly their oil output which is in freefall. That Venezuela has some of the largest oil reserves in the world makes this news even more ironic. It was the wealthiest nation in South America, then Hugo Chavez was elected and imposed his vision of a Socialist Venezuela, carried on by his successor Nicolas Maduro. Now Venezuela is the poorest nation in South America and it’s poverty is purely self-inflicted. Famine is wide-spread. Healthcare is non-existent as are badly needed medications. Electricity is in short supply. Foreign capital investment is only a dream. The only wealthy in Venezuela are the leaders who have enriched themselves by impoverishing the people they lead.

Such is the promise of socialism.

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Here’s something that doesn’t surprise me in the least.

A study from tech developer Asurion has found that cellphone etiquette has shifted to the point where cellphone use is ubiquitous and intrusive.

Americans will often use their mobile phones in places such as public bathrooms and are not shy about the personal topics they discuss.

In fact, one of the advantages of the phone booth was the relative privacy. That’s not the case in a public bathroom, but that has still become the new phone booth, according to the survey – nearly half (45%) of people have talked, texted or checked their phones while in a public restroom. One in 10 people surveyed said they use their phones in public restrooms at least once a week; additionally, one in 7 said the person they were talking with knew they were in a public restroom and didn’t care.

I can attest to that, having witnessed more than a few restroom cellphone conversations that should have taken place more private.

Then there’s the other end of this experience where people will pay attention to their smart phones rather than the people with them. We all see it all the time, with people bowed over their smart phones, typing, swiping, or tapping the phone displays as they surf the web, text, watch cat videos, and so on. No one exists outside their area of focus.

How many of you have walked into the break room at work or a coffee shop filled with people and no one is looking up, talking to the people beside them? I’ll bet that most of you would answer “I have!” It’s an all too common occurrence these days. It is also rude, something that present day cellphone etiquette fails to address.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter has arrived early, my boat is safely stored away for the winter (whew!), and even colder weather is forecast for Thanksgiving Day.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a happy event for the WP clan on Saturday with the nuptials of one of the WP nephews. My dear brother’s middle son tied the knot in a farm wedding setting in the little town of Greenfield, NH. It is one of the few times we’ve been able to get most of the family together at one place at the same time.

As the saying goes, “A good time was had by all.”

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I did make a post on Election Day and promised a follow up, but never did get to it. I ended up getting back from the polls a lot later than I had expected and all I was thinking of going to bed.

I do have to say that some of the results were disappointing, especially in regards to one of our Congressional districts. The GOP candidate did do pretty well considering he had a fraction of the money to spend that his Democrat opponent had available, losing by 3 percentage points.

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You know things are getting bad when the SJW snowflakes start slamming a long time greeting – “Long time no see” – as being racist because it’s “not inclusive”. For the life of me I cannot figure out how such a greeting is “not inclusive”.

I have a feeling that they will whittle away all greetings until “F**k you, all you a**holes!” will be the only politically correct and inclusive greeting allowed if these idiots get their way.

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If this doesn’t sound like election fraud and a cover up, I don’t know what does.

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One thing I have to admire about President Trump is that he refuses to yield in regards to things that have been weakening the US. He’s been undoing a lot of the damage that has been done by the previous administration and by the Deep State. That he has been unyielding and even impolite to those wishing to turn us into a tyrannical socialist hellhole.

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In my opinion, the president’s order limiting asylum requests to those made by people who did not cross the border illegally makes sense. Asylum seekers can apply for asylum at the border crossings. If they cross illegally they should be automatically denied asylum, period. If they’re willing to break our laws to get here, how many other laws will they be willing to break in order to stay here? We have to remember that we are a nation of laws. If we start ignoring the law, we won’t be a nation for long. Unfortunately a lot of our fellow Americans would be pleased if America ceased to exist and became an anarchist dystopia. On the other hand I would have no problem making sure they become some of the first victims of that anarchy they want so badly.

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How can you tell when someone really has no grasp on how an economy works, and more specifically, how businesses live or die based upon the economic choices they make? When they believe silly s**t like this:

Tell me again why it should be legal for an employer to pay a wage that doesn’t cover living expenses? Freedom to exploit is freedom to kill, and it does.

This tells me this person has no grasp of reality when it comes to running a business and is pushing what is rhetoric as truth.

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I don’t know about you, but I wear sunglasses to protect my eyes from UV and to be able to see better on sunny days. But apparently one of the more over-the-edge third wave feminists think men wear sunglasses only because “[t]hey’re used to hide ogling eyes and sinister looks.”

Really? There’s no other possible reason someone, or more specifically, men would wear sunglasses?

So here we have yet another deluded close-minded SJW deciding that something that is seen as normal and has been seen that way ever since sunglasses have existed is now a sexist tool?

This is wrong on so many levels.

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I have always wondered why it is that the only time boxes of ballots are ‘found’ is when Democrats are trailing in vote counts? We never see that when Republicans are trailing.

As such, we really need to dig deep into the problems we’re seeing in Broward and Palm Beach Counties considering how often they have ‘found’ ballot boxes or delayed vote counts or ignored state law and court orders.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where temps have been running below normal, snow is coming later this week, and where Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away.

Election Day 2018

It is Election Day in the US and I have been spending the day at our town’s polling place, performing my duties as an election official. (In case you’re wondering, I am writing this during my break, or in this case, a late lunch.)

From the moment the polls opened at 7AM the voter turnout has been heavy, particularly for a mid-term election. Other than some momentary lulls, the voter traffic has been steady. For the most part voter attitudes have been upbeat, unlike the elections in 2016 where voters showed mostly grim determination to vote and get past the election.

More to follow later.

Thoughts On A Sunday

This past rainy Thursday BeezleBub and I removed the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout from the water, ending our boating season for the year. We loaded it onto the trailer and hauled it back to The Manse. It will be here for a few more days as I offload and store all of the gear and perform some pre-storage cleaning before we haul it down to the local boat shop for winterization and storage.

This year’s boating season was spectacular, running from late May until early November. We made it out onto the lake at least a couple or three times a week, something we haven’t been able to do for some time. I guess we were making up for the boating time we lost over some of the previous years when we weren’t able to make it out nearly as often as we would have liked to.

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As if we need any more evidence of what the Left thinks of suburban Deplorables, here’s a perfect example from Vox blogger David Roberts.

I guess only hip urbanites truly understand the issues and the rest of us should go to hell because we don’t. Of course I do have to ask Mr. Roberts just how many other countries his visited or lived in? (Sorry, but places like Acapulco, Cabo San Lucas, and other Spring Break destinations don’t count.)

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Why is it the Democrat Party leadership is starting to sound like a bad gangster movie?

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You know Democrats are getting desperate when they have to make it seem that the booming economy is bad news for Americans.

Tweeted Rep. Eric Stallwell:

The economy is NOT the stock market, the unemployment rate, or GDP. It’s YOU. Are you doing better, saving more, and looking at your kids and dreaming bigger? This @MarketWatch story shows for 3 out of 4 of us, the economy is not working. Let’s make it work for ALL.

He also adds the #TrumpSlump tag as if the expending economy is supposed to immediately fix everyone’s economic woes at the same time. However someone else response to Stillwall’s efforts to make good economic news sound awful. Indychick replied:

Financial health is about responsibility. Saving more has nothing to do with with anything other than personal responsibility and choices. Same for looking at your kids and dreaming bigger.

But yes. In general, I'm doing a LOT better. Thanks for asking.

As are so many others I know, including me and my family.

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How does one get 300% less of something? That’s something I think Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) needs to explain to us…if he can.

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My question is whether it’s irony or satire?

Obama has complained about a condition that he himself help create, that being “politics where people are yelling and making lewd gestures.” While he was president he talked about bringing people together, but more often than not he also made statements, veiled accusations, or gave speeches that did just the opposite of what he claimed he was trying to do. He was one of the most divisive presidents since Woodrow Wilson.

Here we are, a couple of years after he left office, and we are reaping what he has sown. The divisiveness, increasing violent language rhetoric, and even physical attacks are fruits of his labors while in office, yet he seems ‘surprised’ that it’s occurring.

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David Starr reminds us that it is important to get out and vote on Tuesday, giving us a good example why.

I remember dragging youngest son to a school board meeting at which the vote was to pass a serious (big bucks) bond issue to construct a new building for the school youngest son had just graduated from. That bond issue passed by ONE vote. On the way home I told youngest son that I never wanted to hear him bitch that his vote would not count. It was his vote that got us a new school building.

One vote does make a difference.

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US Senate candidate Martha McSally has the right of it: Her Democrat opponent Kyrsten Sinema is in the Liberal Witness Protection Program.

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The pollsters were wrong in 2016. Are they also wrong for the midterms in 2018?

Three days before the election in 2016 every major pollster in the nation predicted Hillary Clinton would be the next President of the United States.

--snip--

They were all so wrong.

Now three days before the elections of 2018 pollsters are again predicting that Democrats will win crushing victories and return the control of Congress to the Democrats.

Now three days before the elections of 2018 the media believes it is finally the beginning of the end for President Trump.

--snip--

Three days before the election of 2018 my intuition tells me election night will be a bit of surprise. The GOP should expands seats in the Senate. The GOP may even possibly hold the House in what would be a historical accomplishment not seen in 32 years.

Here’s to hoping that he’s right.

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Speaking of Election Day, I will be spending all day at our town’s polling place, fulfilling my duties as an elected official. (One of my duties is as an election official.) I will be manning the polls from open to close and will be involved in ballot counts and write-in vote validation, something that means it is likely I’ll be home sometime around 10PM.

Both our town clerk and our state’s Secretary of State are expecting a very heavy voter turnout, probably one of the biggest turnouts for a midterm election in decades.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the sun has returned (for today), most of the leaves have been blown from the trees due to yesterday’s heavy rains and winds, and where the excitement of the upcoming elections can be felt almost everywhere.

Mood Of The Voters?

I have been reading the various reports, opinion pieces and letters to the editor in our local paper, as well as the comment sections on various blogs, political and news websites and trying to gauge the mood of the voters in regards to the upcoming elections on Tuesday. Some have been upbeat, some neutral, and some quite pessimistic and, dare I say, apocryphal.

Before I continue, I will admit to some bias as I am, after all, a conservative. I have also been brought up with manners and taught to be civil, even to people who may not be polite or civil in return. I do try my best to keep a balanced view but I do realize I have my biases and they aren’t always easy to keep in check.

There are two different themes I’m seeing amongst the voters: one looking at what has happened over the past two years and seeing mostly positives, though there are some things that still trouble them; the others are emotional, with anger and fear being the most prominent feelings, seeing their political opponents as evil racists/sexists/fascists that need to be stopped by whatever means necessary. This second group cannot or will not see that things have gotten better. Some make libelous/slanderous accusations and are willing to believe the most outrageous rumors and unsubstantiated ‘reports’.

Reading their letters and comments, they seem to be able to believe only the worst about their political opposites. It’s pure emotion with little or no rationale or logic to their screeds. How does one debate with someone who will not listen to anything their opponents have to say? Their minds are made up. As such they will vote for those who are locked onto the same mindset. They also appear to believe that a majority of Americans agree with them so they expect the so-called Blue Wave will return their candidates to power by overwhelming numbers. So that begs the question: What will they do if the Blue Wave doesn’t materialize and the GOP maintains control of Congress? How will they explain away the fact that a majority of Americans didn’t agree with them? Will their mindset allow them to accept the election outcome?

Only time will tell.