6/23/2019

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.