Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a farm wedding weekend here in the Lakes Region. The oldest son of the owners of the farm where BeezleBub makes his living got married yesterday. The ceremony was held in one of the meadows overlooking Lake Winnipesaukee and the White Mountains, and the reception in a large tent in another field with a similar view. There was good food, good live music, and lots of good company.

A good time was had by all.

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Antifa strikes again in Portland. (No surprise.) They physically assaulted journalist Andy Ngo. The Portland Police stood by and did nothing. As I have seen elsewhere, Portland is now under control of Antifa just like Birmingham, Alabama was under the control of the KKK.

I think what will spark a general uprising against Antifa is when they finally kill someone “for the cause” and the normal folks will finally fight back. Or worse, the President declares that Portland is in insurrection and sends in the US Army to restore order. In either case I expect a lot of Antifa thugs will die should that happen.

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If the some of the Democrats presidential candidates get their way, we could see the return of busing as a means of decreasing racial imbalances in schools. The only problem?

It didn’t really work the last time it was tried.

It appears that once again the Dems want to ignore history and give it another go, expecting the results will be different this time. (It won’t.)

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I don’t think they thought this one through.

The St. Louis Park, Minnesota city council voted unanimously to do away with citing the Pledge of Allegiance because “it might offend Muslims”.

So, they kowtowed to a minority population while offending everyone else? Were they afraid someone within the Muslim community might kill them if they were offended? Or was it purely Leftist virtue signaling, and the consequences be damned?

If I had to guess, it’s both.

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Socialism: The True Gospel of Greed. Just as Churchill stated decades ago.

If anything, Churchill understated it.

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Once again, my home state has managed to avoid the Democrat-majority crafted tax-and-spend, deficit-ridden state budget due to Governor Sununu’s veto.

The budget made assumptions about revenues that anyone familiar taxes knew wouldn’t be there, increased state spending by a whopping 13% that revenues wouldn’t cover and used one-time revenues to fund programs that required annual funding to maintain, throwing the state into a position of deficit spending which contravenes the state constitution.

The governor also vetoed a stealth income tax that was to be used to fund a state family leave fund. The Democrats promised they would never raise that tax in the future. But that promise wouldn’t last and they’d find some reason to raise it, probably by promising property tax relief or more funding for education. As history has shown us, none of that tax money would go to property tax relief, the most recent examples being Connecticut and New Jersey. Also, any state education funds would come with huge strings attached, including loss of local control of schools, something history has shown always leads to a lower quality of education.

There are also several gun control bills passed by the New Hampshire House and Senate that severely restrict the Second Amendment rights of New Hampshire citizens that are also headed for vetoes. One such bill would allow town school boards to declare schools and school-owned/leased property as gun free zones. That would extend to school buses, even those on the road, which means that anyone carrying a firearm within 300 feet of a school bus would be violating a gun free zone. In effect, that would ban anyone carrying a firearm anywhere.

What’s ironic is that New Hampshire is a constitutional carry state, has the lowest violent crime in the nation, has had no mass shooting, gunfights like one at the OK Corral, or drive-by gang shootings, and a very high percentage of citizens owning and carrying firearms. Yet the Democrats are slinging around restrictive legislation like we were seeing shooting like the ones in Parkland, Florida and Virginia Beach, Virginia every week. These bills are merely feelgood measures that serve two purposes – to disarm law abiding citizens and to make the legislators feel good about themselves for having “done something” even though it was the wrong something.

The next election cycle cannot come soon enough to get these Leftists out of office.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where wedding bells have rung, everyone is preparing for Fourth of July, and where I am taking a few days off this coming week.

They Did Complete The Assignment...

There’s one in every bunch.

In this case the student did complete their homework as assigned, but with a twist as only a smartass (like me) would include.

I hope they got an ‘A’.

(H/T Knuckledraggin My Life Away)

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been another glorious weekend here at Lake Winnipesaukee, the weather being great. At least we haven’t had to deal with the weather Wirecutter has been dealing with down in Tennessee.

We’ve been fortunate that we haven’t had to deal with that kind of weather up here in New England, though the downside has been that we’ve been experiencing cooler and wetter weather than is the norm for this time of year. The growing season is running behind schedule and the lake water temps are below what we would normally see by now which has made swimming a bit of a dicey experience.

Still, I have no real complaints and am looking forward to the summer and early fall.

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By way of Granite Grok comes this timely joke:

A Democrat walks into a bar and asks “What is your most popular drink?”

The bartender replies “A Russian Collusion.” The Democrat orders one.

The bartender delivers an empty glass…

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The latest bit of outrage being displayed by the Democrats?

They’re angry that President Trump has the gall to defend himself against a ‘perfectly timed’ accusation that he committed rape many years ago.

Although none of us can be sure whether anything happened between President Trump and [author E. Jean] Carroll, we do know that high-level politicians are more often accused of such horrendous crimes, simply because their political enemies know that such an accusation in itself can destroy their careers. The president has just launched his reelection campaign. There can be little doubt about the timing of this attack on his character; it's purposefully timed to destroy his chances of winning a second term.

Furthermore, what we also know is that President Trump denies the allegations. He responded with tremendous anger to Carroll's accusation, which makes sense if he is indeed innocent. An innocent man obviously isn't happy to be accused of such a terrible crime and would fight back with all that's in him.

How dare he defend himself!! Doesn’t he know he’s supposed to quit and let the Democrats retake the White House and continue their conversion of the United States into a failed socialist state? Just who the hell does he think he is?

He’s the freakin’ President of the United States, that’s who he is.

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I don’t know if anyone else out there has noticed this, but I’ve been seeing a lot more incidents of distracted driving over the past month or so. Invariably it turns out the driver is fiddling with their smart phone, either texting, calling, and maybe using a navigation app.

I have been seeing this problem for some time, but it seems the problem has become more prevalent with the start of the summer season with more folks “from away” spending time up here. Even though we have a well-publicized Hands Free law (signs at the state border remind people of the law as well as the fact that recreational marijuana is not legal in this state), they still will use their phones in a manner that promoted distracted driving.

To illustrate just how much of a problem this can be, it has been suggested that a deadly pickup truck versus motorcycles accident up in northern New Hampshire on Saturday may have been due to the pickup’s 23-year old driver having been distracted by his phone. His pickup crossed over into oncoming traffic and collided with a group of 10 motorcycles, killing 7 riders and injuring 3 others. If this indeed the case, then it shows just how deadly distracted driving can be.

One has to wonder what’s so important that people are willing to put their lives and the lives of those around them into danger because they absolutely have to answer texts, comment on Facebook or SnapChat or Instagram, or select the next genre of music to play? Have those ‘indispensable’ smart phones become so addictive that people can’t put them down long enough to pay attention when they’re driving, something that is far more important?

Yes. Yes they have.

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What is the greatest cause of death for law enforcement officers in this country?

Suicide.

Your communities' finest have a better chance of taking their own life than being killed in the line of duty. That is not a misprint or misstatement. Police officers are two to three times more likely to kill themselves than to be killed in the line of duty. In 2018, at least 159 officers died by suicide, which is 10 percent more than the 144 line of duty deaths, which include felony assaults, patrol vehicle accidents, heart attacks, and duty-related illnesses.

Male officers are overwhelmingly more likely than female officers to commit suicide by a ratio of 151 to 8.

This has always been a problem and these days it’s been growing and becoming worse. Yet it is a quiet epidemic, one ignored by the public. It should not be.

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There’s a move afoot to decriminalize ‘magic’ mushrooms in California.

Despite what might be claimed, I think the real reason for the move is to further anesthetize the populace to the descent into socialist hell that California’s Progressive government has been working towards for so long.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather has been superb, the summerfolk have been here in droves, and where Monday has (again) returned to soon.

Farm Wisdom

Every so often we have to be reminded about ‘old’ wisdom that still applies here in the second decade of the 21st century.

Old Farmer's Advice:

Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong.

Keep skunks and bankers at a distance.

Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.

A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.

Words that soak into your ears are whispered... not yelled.

Meanness don't just happen overnight.

Forgive your enemies; it messes up their heads.

Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.

It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.

You cannot unsay a cruel word.

Every path has a few puddles.

When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.

The best sermons are lived, not preached.

Most of the stuff people worry about, ain't never gonna happen anyway.

Don't judge folks by their relatives.

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

Live a good and honorable life, then when you get older and think back, you'll enjoy it a second time.

Don't interfere with something' that ain't bothering you none.

Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.

If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.

Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.

The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every morning'.

Always drink upstream from the herd.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.

Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back in.

If you get to thinking' you're a person of some influence, try ordering' somebody else's dog around.

Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, and enjoy the ride.

Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just shoot you!

Thoughts On A Sunday

It is the last day of Motorcycle Week and the bikers have been making the best of it. While it wasn’t sunny today, we did manage to dodge most of the rain (it kept to the south of us for the most part). The weather over the past week was good, with only two days with any rain. The rest of the days have been warm and sunny. From what I’ve heard most of the bikers have enjoyed their time here.

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I have been keeping an eye on the responses to the $33 million in damages awarded to Gibson’s Bakery in the Gibson’s versus Oberlin College lawsuit. With only a few exceptions, most have been positive, with the general thread being “Oberlin is getting what it deserves. Other ‘woke’ colleges better pay attention lest they become another Oberlin.”

For once, the institutions of indoctrination once known as colleges and universities understand that actions have consequences and that they are not above the law, that they cannot ignore the Constitution, and that they are responsible for the actions of their administration, faculty, and students.

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Does anyone else out there believe the whole “Plastic straws are killing sea life everywhere” meme? While at first blush it seems logical, one quickly realizes that it is just so much bulls**t.

First, how many plastic straws are recycled? Just watching customers at local restaurants, both fast food and ‘sit down’, plastic drink straws end up in the trash, not in recycle bins. Even when they are included in takeout orders, most folks toss the wrappers, drink containers, and straws into the trash.

Second, how many people toss their plastic straws into streams, rivers, or the ocean? One, maybe two thousand out of 7.5 billion people on the Earth?

Third, it’s led restaurants and waitstaff to go ‘stupid’ in regard to straws.

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Considering the Gibson’s versus Oberlin College decision, Progressives need to consider any of their divisive actions before they take them. One that should heed the lesson of Oberlin College’s poor decision making is New Hampshire State Representative Jan Schmidt. Her mistake?

Lying about and disparaging a conservative New Hampshire blog, claiming that because of their posts and public forums that a few State Representatives have had to request police protection. A simple Right-To-Know request made to the police department ‘involved’ in providing such protection disclosed no such protective details existed or were requested.

I would consider that actionable as the State Rep in question tried to damage the reputation of a blog that did nothing but report happenings at various public functions and forums and by expressing opinions that differed from hers. She wanted to stifle their First Amendment rights by coming right out and saying they were inciting violence. She lied.

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Bernie Sanders has a bit of a problem, one he’s going to have a difficult time getting past.

His problem? His proposed “Economic Bill of Rights” was cribbed heavily from Stalin’s 1936 Soviet Constitution.

Does he really think he can get people to buy into recreating the old Soviet Union? Maybe. Then again, he is a fan boy of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party. He even took his honeymoon in the old Soviet Union.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the rumble of motorcycle engines is slowly fading away, cash registers are full, and where we can finally get some rest on Monday.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was the opening weekend of Motorcycle Week, the rumble of bikes being heard all throughout the Lakes Region of New Hampshire.

With the weather forecast for the week looking good (with the exception of the possibility of showers or thundershowers on Tuesday), we expect to see between 250,000 to 300,000 motorcycle enthusiasts over the next 7 days.

Sections of Weirs Beach have been closed off to 4-wheeled traffic for the duration with other roads scheduled to be closed to anything other than motorcycle traffic starting Thursday.

Laconia Motorcycle Week is one of the Big Three motorcycle rallies in the US, with Daytona and Sturgis being the other two. Laconia is the oldest, celebrating its 96th year this year.

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It seems that Oberlin College has been doubling down on stupid, sending out a mass e-mailing criticizing the jurors decision in Gibson’s v Oberlin College, a suit that claimed that Oberlin College defamed, libeled, and slandered Gibson’s Bakery and damaged the business after the bakery had three Oberlin College students arrested for shoplifting wine from the shop. The jury found in favor of Gibson’s and awarded $11.2 million in compensatory damages.

As mentioned numerous times, “from the start of this case I have questioned the aggressive and demeaning attacks on the Gibsons as a defense strategy,” and “I’m still shaking my head at the tone-deafness of the defense in belittling this family business.” The jury seems to have agreed, rendering a combined $11.2 million compensatory damages verdict against Oberlin College and its Dean of Students, Meredith Raimondo.

The next stage is a punitive damages hearing, since the jury found the defendants acted with intent and malice. A separate punitive damages hearing is required under the Ohio Tort Reform legislation that passed several years ago. The point is to keep some of the more inflammatory evidence that does not go to liability or compensatory damages away from the jury during the initial deliberations. That additional evidence relevant to punitive damages could include information as to the wealth of the defendants, but also additional information supporting the need for punishment.

In this context, there is nothing more baffling than a statement sent to alumni after the verdict by Donica Thomas Varner, Oberlin College’s Vice President and General Counsel.

The statement was contained in a mass email sent to alumni (and possibly others) criticizing the jury verdict and repeating the same stale defenses that failed at trial…

Seems stupid of me to antagonize jurors who will be deciding how much additional damages may have to be paid to Gibson’s. Then again, we’re dealing with a ‘woke’ college who let uninformed, overly emotional know-nothing students go off on a crusade that wrongly accused the bakery of racism, canceled long-standing contracts with the bakery, and gave blatant support to the SJW students who protested and defamed the bakery.

Oberlin isn’t receiving a fraction of the punishment they deserve.

If I had to guess, I’d say that no one in the Oberlin administration is likely to lose their job despite their major screwup despite that fact that they should be fired and thrown out bag and baggage.

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John Ringo adds his take on the Oberlin matter:

One point that none of the commentors seem to be making/noticing is the ‘town/gown’ dynamic.

Oberlin is the classic small liberal college in a less liberal (though still very) town that exists entirely to support the small liberal college.

Thus the jury was made up of ‘townies’ who resent the college, the students and the administration and the college resented that the unwashed townies were ALLOWED to have any input on the actions and deportment of their superiors.

Throw in the many notable examples of the current ‘elites’ being both lacking in competence and unlacking in hubris and you get everything from the protests against an innocent (townie/unwashed/ignorant) baker through the hubristic email. Not to mention a jury that’s about to throw the Oxford Unabridged Dictionary at them.

I’m not getting why others aren’t getting this. The dynamic is obvious to me.

Indeed.

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Common Core has failed. Seven years of a liberal education experiment shows it doesn’t work.

How much damage has this “experiment” caused? A lot, damage from which our kids may never recover.

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Sometimes it take the viewpoint of a foreigner to teach us the American Dream.

Starr DeJesus admits she learned a lot about both the generosity of the American people and her own potential from an immigrant who spoke to her civics class.

--snip--

The larger lesson she and 100 or so other high school students here at East Allegheny High School learned was something they sheepishly admitted afterward that they had taken for granted: how lucky they are to be born in America.

Nick Adams, the immigrant from Australia who spoke to the students, appreciates this in a way a native may never truly understand.

Read The Whole Thing.

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And that’s the (abbreviated) news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where motorcycles abound, the lake waters are slowly getting warmer, and where the schools are closing for the summer over the next two weeks.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was one of those fifty-fifty weekends, weather-wise. Decent weather on Saturday followed by so-so weather today, including some heavy showers.

BeezleBub and I managed to get the Official Weekend Pundit Runabout, aka The Boat, launched and to its summer berth just before the weekend. There had been some issues that had required the boat to be pulled from the water for some additional work. There are still some issues we’re working on, but minor ones that won’t prevent its use.

One small issue we did have was our slip, that being a number of cleats and uprights were missing, making it difficult to tie off the mooring lines to secure The Boat to the dock. The owners were notified and they hoped to have the problem squared away some time during this coming week.

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We been watching the deterioration of our institutions of higher learning as feelz have been replacing logic, reason, and science. The latest victim of just such deterioration is Williams College where students’ Social Justice ideology is overriding science.

The Atlantic published a piece Tuesday by a biology professor at Williams College who offers her perspective on how students at the school have changed in the past couple of years, coinciding with Trump’s election. Luana Maroja said she never had any trouble teaching students about basic biological concepts like heritability before, but now some of her students are putting their social justice ideology ahead of science.

It’s difficult to imagine the arrogance of an 18 or 19-year-old student telling their professor she ought not to be teaching. But that sort of arrogance seems par for the course when it comes to campus Social Justice Warriors.

This is something that Bret Weinstein, a former biology teacher at a similarly progressive school, has warned about. The students are getting these verities from the humanities departments and trying to apply them to everything, including the sciences. It sets up an inevitable showdown where what can be discussed about what is becomes limited by student conceptions of what should be.

Facts, evidence, data, experiment results, and experience hold no sway with this kind of SJW. Only what they want to be true, even if it defies the laws that govern existence (biology, chemistry, physics, etc.), is important. They want to live in the world of Harry Potter, not the world of muggles. Too bad for them the former doesn’t exist despite how hard they try to make it so.

In their delusional state they make the rest of the world miserable. Maybe it’s time someone take them over their proverbial knee and give them a long overdue spanking.

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Do you need yet another example of just how far the SJW rot has set in within the halls of academia? Then here’s one for you.

A business professor at the University of Utah was reported to university administrators for “assigning too many historical texts written by influential male economists of the past.” Yeah, male economist like Smith, Hayek, and Friedman.

Apparently, the student didn’t think the professor delved deeply enough into their ‘sexist’ beliefs. Of course, the same student didn’t bother to detail those sexist beliefs allegedly held by the economists.

The student continued: “Many of these figures are of great importance. But at what cost do we continue to plant the seed of sexism in the minds of individuals? But especially in a course and college that is already deemed to be a ‘boys club’, continuing those teachings, and those teachings being delivered by a professor of [his] character is dangerous.”

“As a top university in the nation, I believe we have a duty to lead by example. Pave a new path and right the wrongs of those before us. Some may argue enduring this type of behavior is what needs to be done to play in the ‘big leagues’ of male-dominated fields, such as business. And I can agree to play the game to some degree, but if an opportunity to help change the game presents itself, you take it. [My] professor’s behavior and certain choice of text have greatly affected me both emotionally and academically.”

The student still had not delineated the sexist beliefs of the economists in question or how economic theory is sexist. (She didn’t come right out and say it, but her rhetoric certainly implies that she thinks economic theory is sexist by nature and that somehow endless apologies must be made by all male business/economics professors for the still undefined sins of Smith, Hayek, Friedman and others.

If that student is that sensitive to things like this then I must suggest that she withdraw from the university and seek treatment at one of the other fine state institutions in Utah. It is obvious to me that she is not capable of dealing with the real world.

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Seeing the large field of Democrat hopefuls running for president, one would think that at least a few good (and feasible) ideas would be put forth. Instead we’re seeing the same old stale and unworkable ideas being repackaged and put forth as something “new and improved”.

What’s worse is that the ideas aren’t really ideas. “They are feelings. Strongly held feelings, mind you. But feelings, nonetheless”

Take health care. There is only one interesting public policy question there: If we paid for care in a different way (for example, through taxes instead of fees for services rendered) would health care become cheaper, better and more accessible?

Would you believe that Democratic presidential candidates have no interest in even discussing this question?

They assiduously avoid telling us how national health insurance would be paid for or how it would work – except to assure us that there would be no lengthy waits for care or lack of access to modern medical technology, as there is in Canada. But how do they know nothing bad would happen, if they refuse to think about the details?

Throw out a good sounding idea, provide no details about how it is supposed to work, ignore how it will be paid for, and hope ‘the rubes will buy it’. Yup, sounds like standard Democrat campaign tactics to me.

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This isn’t news to anyone paying attention over the past few years.

Green Energy Incentives Are Failing To Keep The Lights On.

Australia has gone heavily into renewables and its finding that they don’t work the way promised, have created a growing grid instability and an increasing number of blackouts. The push to go ‘green’ has had just the opposite effect of the one intended, with higher emissions of carbon dioxide as consumers are driven to install generators in order to ensure a stable electrical supply.

How has the Australian government responded to the issue? Not the way most would expect, with it finally confessing that green energy doesn’t work and is adversely affecting their economy. Nope, it looks like they’re going to double down on stupid, even with the big shakeup after the recent Australian elections.

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And that’s the new from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather is being fickle, summer is still only sorta-kinda here, and where Monday has returned far to quickly.