I had to go to our town hall to register my boat Friday after work(something I had forgotten to do before storing the gear onboard in preparation for launching it), and there was a line of people waiting to do the same thing. Everyone in line was there to register their boats prior to the weekend. The local marinas were also very busy trying to launch as many boats as they could because everyone wanted their boats in the water in preparation for this weekend.
Saturday morning started just as busy as Friday had ended – lots of traffic. The supermarket parking lots were full at 8AM, something I rarely see. Our usual breakfast haunts were busy as well, filled with summerfolk up for the weekend. Deb and I still managed to get a booth at one of our favorite diners after dropping her car off at our mechanics to get her tires changed over. (Yes, she still had her winter tires on her car. Maybe that’s why winter dragged on so long and our spring has been so chilly and snowy.)
The seasonal restaurants have been busy, with waiting lines being the norm, particularly with the nice weather we’ve had. (The ice cream joints have been particularly busy.)
And so starts summer up here at Lake Winnipesaukee.
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Some may not believe this is important, but to those of us who believe in freedom, particularly religious freedom, the Trump Administration’s launch of an investigation into religious discrimination against Chick-fil-A is of great importance.
The city of San Antonio’s city council voted to remove Chick-fil-A from the San Antonio Airport, citing the owner’s religious beliefs in regard to LGBTQ and gay marriage as being discriminatory even though none of Chick-fil-A’s employment policies or customer relations policies discriminate in any way. The discrimination involved came from the city council, not the restaurant chain. San Antonio wasn’t the only airport to pull this stunt.
The current fad of banning Chick-fil-A from airports in blue cities may be coming to a quick end. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launched an investigation into the current spate of airports that reneged on agreements to lease space to the chicken giant to score political points…It isn’t the company itself that’s discriminatory. It’s the owner, if you are going to believe anything these idiots claim. I wonder what these same folks would say of the owner were Muslim rather than Christian? I can tell you exactly what they would say: absolutely nothing.
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It is against federal law for airports that receive federal funds to discriminate based on religious affiliation or beliefs. Two airports, San Antonio Airport in Texas and Buffalo Niagra in New York, have kept Chick-fil-A out, citing the CEO's stance against gay marriage. The Buffalo decision appears to have been spurred by New York Assemblyman, Sean Ryan (D), who took credit for the ban on his Facebook page and denied that the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority had any need to be involved in what he was planning with the airport's concessionaire, Delaware North. "I don't believe there is anything to discuss with the NFTA on the issue," wrote Ryan. "We can't allow companies who support anti-LGBTQ groups to do business at state owned facilities."
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You know higher education has gone totally off the reservation when one college suspended a young single mother because she posed with a gun at a gun range.
Florida’s First Coast Technical College has a low view of the U.S. and state constitutions, according to a federal lawsuit by a student who says she’s been suspended indefinitely.So, the student in question was shown holding a legally obtained firearm at a legal gun range off-campus that had no connection with the college in any way, shape, or form, but some idiot or group of idiots decided that she did something wrong that required her suspension.
Dia’mon Dallas is suing the Florida college for violating her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights and retaliating against her in violation of the Florida Constitution.
The college, which is part of the St. Johns County School District, suspended Dallas after another student reported a Facebook photo of her and her fiance “holding legally purchased and lawfully possessed firearms at a gun range in Palatka,” according to the lawsuit.
The photo constitutes “purely off-campus Facebook communication with friends,” has no connection to a “school-related activity” and could not “interrupt the school environment,” according to the suit, meaning the college’s sanction on Dallas is retaliation.
I hope Miss Dallas is awarded millions by the court for violation of her civil rights by the college and that the award stands as a warning to other college administrators that our constitutional rights are inviolate, even by Progressive self-righteous and willfully ignorant college administrators on the behalf of SJW snowflakes who were offended by a Facebook photo of a fellow college student exercising her First and Second Amendment rights.
It’s time for these idiots to grow the f**k up and join the rest of the adults in the real world…or they should commit themselves to the nearest mental institution because they are living in a fantasy world in their own minds are are a danger to themselves and others.
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As a follow-on, there’s this bit of insanity from Congressional Democrats. In this case it is the so-called Equality Act they are pushing that is trying to normalize purely politically driven insanity and allowing them to redefine reality at will.
Call it the equivalent of redefining 2+2=5, Pi as 3, or e=2.5 even though the math would never work. Have they considered the unintended consequences of such legislation? Probably not. They rarely do, from my experience. The damage such legislation will cause if it ever became law would be far reaching and would spare no one. Then again, the purpose of the Equality Act may be to sow just such destruction.
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Gee, it couldn’t have happened to a more partisan bunch of news fakers.
For weeks the rumors of layoffs at CNN were circulating. CNN corporate denied there were any plans in the works for layoffs.
Then this past Tuesday CNN announced layoffs.
The majority of CNN's Atlanta division, which focused on health care, was let go. The only ones left behind were Sanjay Gupta and Elizabeth Cohen.Of course this is from the same CNN corporate office that said there weren’t going to be any layoffs. I’m betting this is only the beginning.
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“There are no mass layoffs at CNN. I have no idea where that crazy rumor came from. We have recently offered a voluntary buyout option for employees, and just over 100 people voluntarily decided to take it. That's it,” executive vice president Allison Gollust told Fox News on May 7. “We have nearly 4,000 people at CNN… and around 100 of them exercised the option for a program that was offered. That's it. Those are the facts.”
Next on the hit list is probably MSNBC as their ratings aren’t much better than CNN’s.
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If you don’t believe that cutting taxes can spur on the economy, then how do you explain this?
This is the greatly increased hiring of workers by Connecticut boat dealers after the state cut the boat sales tax by a little more than half.
…Boating companies in the Nutmeg State have seen record sales which have allowed boat dealers to hire 85% more workers after the Connecticut state government cut the boat sale tax from 6.35% to 2.99% starting last July.While the stronger economy certainly has also been a big boost, the cut in the boat tax has certainly added considerably to the boom. We’ve seen this before when Congress had passed a luxury goods tax that put big dent into the sales of aircraft, boats, and top-end automobiles even while the rest of the economy was in good shape. It had the exact opposite effect of the one intended, collecting far less in revenue than anticipated and causing loss of jobs in those industries. The old saw about “the rich won’t mind paying more in taxes” has been proven wrong yet again.
Rick Dieterich, owner of Springline Yacht Sales, sold more than $3.6 million worth of equipment in 2018 following the state's tax cut, and is on track to do more than $4 million worth of sales in 2019. Dieterich credits the tax cut with his boom in business. "He said the average sale is in the $400,000 range but called them 'working people's boats,' for which buyers typically take out a 20-year mortgage."
But still, sales like those have helped marinas and boat dealers across the state stay in business and put more people to work. According to Kathleen Burns, executive director of the Connecticut Marine Trades Association, "average boat sales were up 41 percent per month, marinas reported an occupancy rate increase from 65 to 78 percent, and 85 percent of all dealers hired additional full-time personnel since July 2018." Even during the winter season, sales were up 8% when in previous years that season saw low unemployment and profits for the boating industry.
But that won’t stop the state of Connecticut of making that mistake again as Governor Ned Lamont wants to reinstate the full tax and kill off the job gains made. Then again, the Connecticut legislature hasn’t ever seen a tax it doesn’t like. Maybe that’s why the state is broke and its economy hasn’t recovered like those of most of the rest of the nation.
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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the summerfolk have made their presence known, the cash registers around the lake are ringing up sales, and boats have been crowding the lake on this first unofficial weekend of summer.