Thoughts On A Sunday

This first weekend after Memorial Day was quiet in comparison to last weekend. Yes, the weekenders were still here in numbers, but the frantic energy of trying to cram a week’s worth of recreation into three days wasn’t there. It’s been a mellow weekend, something the year-round residents appreciate.

It won’t remain that way for long because once the kids are out of school – something that takes place over the next couple of weeks - that frantic energy will be back, and not just on weekends. In other words, we’ll be back into our normal summer environment with summerfolk galore and the ever annoying “summah people” making their presence known, lots of boats out on the lake, beaches full of folks, and lines at the ice cream (black raspberry is my favorite flavor), seafood, and takeout joints.

I know I am looking forward to Fourth of July and our town’s Old Home Day this summer. Hopefully Katy will be able to join us for both of those. I also look forward to spending time on the lake, either solo or with friends and family, even with the astronomically high gas prices putting a bit of a damper on our boating season.

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Elon Musk is a class act. Joe Biden is a crass and doddering fool.

How do I know this?

Musk’s graceful reply to Biden’s snide insult.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk did not come to enjoy his fiscal success by ignoring trends or dismissing troubling projections.

He recently indicated that Tesla will be pausing hiring worldwide and that jobs cuts are coming next, based on a ‘bad feeling’ about the economy.

Biden, of course, knows that this is as close to a “no confidence” vote in his economic leadership as one gets in the country. So at a recent press conference, the Curmudgeon-in-Chief took a question from a reporter, so he could launch a snarky retort (probably worked on for hours by his incompetent staff).

Asked by Reuters about Musk’s comments, Biden suggested maybe the issue was with Tesla.

“While Elon Musk is talking about that, Ford is increasing their investment overwhelmingly,” Biden said. “Ford is increasing investment and building new electric vehicles. Six thousand new employees, union employees I might add, in the Midwest.”

“So, you know, lots of luck on his trip to the moon,” he added.

Musk’s reply?

Thanks Mr President!

Like I said, a class act.

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This means war!

From Cap’n Teach comes this latest bit of climate doom-and-gloom:

Climate Cult Gets Dirty, Claims Pizza Sauce Is Next On The Hit List.

The Watermelon Environmentalists are claiming the climate change will greatly reduce or eliminate the tomatoes needed for making pasta and pizza sauce. But they are making a mistake by pushing the idea that those tomatoes only grow on one place on Earth: California.

Increasingly hot and dry climate conditions are withering Californian tomato crops on their vines — a crisis that could leave pizza and pasta without a key ingredient: Tomato sauce.

One has to remember that much of California is arid and semi-arid climate and always has been. Great public water projects capable of ensuring 20 million California residents had enough water as well as providing enough water for the agriculture sector were built. However, there are now 40 million people living in California, water resources are being stretched to the limit, with water for the agriculture sector being cut again and again. Then to add insult to injury, many of those same Watermelon Environmentalists have succeeded in their push to dismantle many of the water projects, decreasing an already tight water supply even more. This leads to even more cuts to the water provided for agriculture. Then add in one of the cyclical multi-decade droughts to add even more stress to the water supply. (The drought that wiped out the Anasazi civilization in the Southwest - California, Arizona, New Mexico and into Mexico - lasted over 350 years, hundreds of years before we all started driving SUVs.)

I think most of us realize that tomatoes grow in more places than just California. Heck, they’re grown here in New Hampshire and the other New England states. They’re grown in a lot of the states here in the US. Somehow, I doubt tomato sauce is going to disappear if California’s tomato crop keeps shrinking. If California can’t tell their Climate Cultists to piss off and start rebuilding and expanding their water projects (including desalinization plants), the water problem there is only going to get worse.

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This is an idea I think we can all get behind.

If there are waiting periods for buying guns, also known as a cooling off period, then there should also be one for new laws and government regulations.

How many bad laws and regulations have been passed or issued after some bad event? Too many, in my opinion.

In some states, you still have to wait several days to pick up a firearm after you’ve bought it from a dealer. The idea is that you might need a ‘cooling-off period’, if you were considering using the firearm in some illegal way — to commit a robbery, to confront an ex-spouse, and so on.

Basically, if you were thinking about doing something stupid, you get a little time to reconsider. Ten days, say. Time to let reason catch up with emotion.

--snip--

...waiting periods would be appropriate when considering new laws or regulations.

That is, whenever some legislature is thinking of enacting some legislation (or some regulatory agency is thinking of issuing some regulation) in response to that we have to do something feeling that so often follows a tragic event, it should have to go through a cooling-off period first.

Basically, if it’s thinking about doing something stupid — whether unconstitutional, or unlikely to have the intended effect, or untethered from reality — it should get a little time to reconsider. Six months, say. (Or until after the next election.) Time to let reason catch up with emotion.

For example, New York is about to enact a law increasing, from 18 to 21, the age at which someone can buy an AR-15 rifle. But just a couple of weeks ago, the same kind of law in California was ruled unconstitutional by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

That the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (also known as the 9th Circus Court) has made such a determination, one more in line with many of the more conservative courts, implies New York’s proposed law is likely to meet the same fate, perhaps at the US Supreme Court level.

This is a perfect example of a law that needs a cooling off period before going into effect. There are a lot of other proposed laws and regulations that should also fall under a cooling off period if for no other reason that they are so awful and won’t do what the sponsors say they will.

One other suggestion I am going to make, something that we used to do here in New Hampshire and should be taken up to federal level is a Sunset Commission, one whose sole purpose is to suggest the repeal of laws and regulations that either no longer serve a purpose or work at cross-purposes to other laws and regulations. Perhaps add the power to suggest the dissolution of departments, agencies, and bureaus that no longer serve any purpose or duplicate the efforts of other departments, agencies, and bureaus.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weekend weather has been superb, the traffic hasn’t been awful, and where Monday is making its appearance again all too soon.