Thoughts On A Sunday

Friday was the final day of the boating season as BeezleBub and I pulled the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout from the water. After BeezleBub finished work we got the boat trailer over to the town docks, retrieved the boat from its slip – with a little side trip out to one of the islands – before heading to the docks.

It was well past sundown by the time we were loading the boat onto the trailer and dark by the time it was parked temporarily at BeezleBub’s place. Yesterday was spent removing all the gear and cleaning the cockpit, then stowing the removed gear here at The Gulch. Finally we moved the boat to the boat yard for winterization and storage.

My boating season was officially over.

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Despite the TV ads we see hyping it, 5G cell service isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. While the article linked in the Instapundit post is specific to the UK, the problems seen there are the same ones seen here in the US. The comments are telling as they highlight the problems seen here, including the video which delves into the reasons why 5G service stinks.



Considering 4G-LTE does pretty well, is there a real need to switch to 5G? Not as best I can tell. I certainly haven’t noticed a lack, particularly when my phone connects to WiFi. (At home I don’t have a strong cell signal, so more than half of my phone calls are made via the WiFi connection.)

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Apparently it isn’t just New England that has to worry about possible blackouts this coming winter. Jolly Olde England is in the same predicament.

National Grid warns Britons of blackouts on ‘really cold’ evenings

FT conference hears of various ‘unlikely’ scenarios in which UK might not have sufficient energy

Nathalie Thomas, Energy Correspondent OCTOBER 18 2022

National Grid’s chief executive has warned British households to prepare for blackouts between 4pm and 7pm on “really, really cold” weekdays in January and February in the event of reduced gas imports from Europe.

John Pettigrew said the company would have to impose rolling power cuts on “those deepest darkest evenings in January and February” if generators failed to secure enough gas from the continent to meet demand, particularly if the country suffers a cold snap.

Of course, “really, really cold” in the UK is different than “really, really cold” in New England, with “really, really cold” in the UK being just regular winter “cold” here. “Really, really cold” here means single digits above zero (Fahrenheit) to double digits below zero. Add in wind chills and it gets kinda frosty around here.

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Hearing that Elon Musk is firing Twitter employees, many of which I believe richly deserve to be fired because of their totalitarian view on freedom of speech – “You can speak freely as long as you agree with us” – I have to ask this question: Will Elon fire enough of them? Or will he fire just enough to get the message across that “Freedom of Speech” also means speech they disagree with, that they are not the arbiters of what is and is not allowed?

Only time will tell.

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Speaking of Twitter and Elon Musk, it seems CBS lost it’s mind when Musk finally closed the deal for Twitter, claiming “our democracy is in peril”. That’s ironic considering CBS and the rest of the DNC-MSM have been a bigger threat to our republic than a Musk-owned Twitter ever will.

Musk finalized his lengthy acquisition of Twitter yesterday, tweeting triumphantly: “[T]he bird is freed.” Just hours later, the anti-American liberal press flocked to attack Musk’s deal because it could have “big implications for our democracy” and worsen “misinformation” on the Oct. 28 edition of CBS Mornings. Chief among CBS’s worries: A return of former President Donald Trump to the platform.

CBS, of course, framed the news of the Musk deal around “hate speech,” not free speech, right from the get-go. “How will Musk balance out freedom of speech while at the same time discouraging and reining in misinformation?” CBS correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti asked. “The stakes are incredibly high for millions of Americans.”

“The stakes are incredibly high for millions of Americans”? Indeed. Millions of Americans will no longer be banned for “hate speech” that was nothing of the sort. It was free speech, something we know Progressives hate.

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AVI addresses the growing acceptance of polygamy in the US.

Being married to one person is tough enough. Being married to more than one person has got to be even tougher.

Polygamy has been normal in a number of cultures in the past, with some of it being driven by a lack of a sufficient number of one gender.

Today, it is driven by something else, maybe hypergamy, where a number of women have set their sights on a small group of males who meet their standards, often referred to as ‘Sixes’ – six feet tall, six-pack abs, and six figure income – and it’s to the point that they’re willing to share as long as they can get their ‘perfect’ guy. (This is something that has been making the rounds on social media lately, and there have been a number of videos covering this perception on YouTube and TikTok.)

Will it come to be here in the US? Call me old fashioned, but I hope not. I think it would be a negative influence and lead to more social problems. It is a solution to a problem that does not exist.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the boats have been disappearing from their slips and being stored away, my boating season has ended, and where Halloween is been celebrated tomorrow night!

Toyota Decides EV's Aren't Worth It

The world’s largest automaker – Toyota – will not be jumping on the electric vehicle bandwagon like so many of the automakers. Apparently the higher-ups in Toyota have listened to their technical experts who expressed their doubts about the wisdom of going all in on electric vehicles, and their reasons why.

That’s why Toyota’s CEO announced it will not be making the switch over electric vehicles, focusing more hybrids and standard ICE powered vehicles.



The push to EVs is premature. The infrastructure, particularly in the US and Europe, isn’t up the task. Both the grids and the generation capacity need major upgrades and neither is going to occur any time soon. The folks pushing for EVs are quite often the same folks doing their best to prevent the needed upgrades to make their EV ‘paradise’ come true. I don’t know if it is hypocrisy, ignorance, or both causing this disconnect between fantasy and reality.

It Was On Purpose

Hearing the doomsday news regarding energy in the US, specifically the supply and cost of gasoline, diesel, heating oil, natural gas, and downstream effects on electricity rates in places like New England, my first thought is usually “Why have the Democrats done this to us?”

Considering the damage the Democrats in Washington and the states have done to our energy supplies, destroying our energy independence all in the name of combating climate change, while giving our commercial and ideological rival, China, a pass regarding their skyrocketing CO2 emissions even as ours have fallen about 45%, one has to wonder if it is sheer ignorance that has caused the Democrats to wreak havoc on our energy supplies or if it was done on purpose. I try to keep in mind the adage “Do not attribute to malice that which may be better explained by stupidity.”

It’s one thing if the actions that have hurt us so occurred only every so often I might think it was done due to stupidity or willful ignorance, but the actions the Democrats have taken again and again show malicious intent. They keep telling us its “for our own good” but what it’s really about control...and the people are sick of it.

Had Democrats spent the last 3.5 years liberating US oil/gas investment, production, and transport instead of strangling them, energy would be far cheaper.

But Democrats have sabotaged oil investment by 1) supporting various “ESG” policies that call for reduced oil investment and 2) threatening oil producers’ existence.

Since Barack Obama ran for President declaring “the age of oil must end in our time” and continuing through Joe Biden’s “guarantee” that “we’re going to end fossil fuel,” US Democrats have threatened the future of oil production—a major deterrent for investment.

Leading Democrats like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders constantly threaten US oil production and make good on those threats by trying to prevent crucial oil infrastructure projects, such as pipelines. Having these kinds of politicians in power drives investment away from oil.

In addition to sabotaging US oil’s enormous potential by going after oil investment, Democratic politicians have done everything they can to sabotage oil production: threatening to ban fracking, banning federal leases, and calling for new, costly taxes and regulations.

US industry’s incredible ability to ramp up gas production has been desperately needed in recent years as gas has become more central to our economy and more needed by allies—especially those dependent on Russia. But industry has been strangled by Democratic opposition to pipelines.

Our bountiful natural gas is only useful if it can be transported by pipeline—to where it is needed in the US and to export terminals for shipment abroad. But in recent years we have seen a Democrat-led movement to block pipeline after pipeline. (One such pipeline would have brought much needed natural gas into New England, but well funded groups working with Democrats in New York and Massachusetts killed the project, leaving New England dependent upon expensive foreign natural gas that had to be transported into Boston by LNG tankers from Trinidad and Tabago. - ed.)

Considering a lot of the electricity in New England is generated by combined cycle natural gas power plants, electricity rates have more than doubled because of the skyrocketing natural gas prices.

Both diesel and heating oil are in short supply in New England, those shortages caused by the aforementioned actions of the Democrats, those actions taken with malice and forethought and without any consideration for the consequences of their actions.

As bad as it is now, it is only going to get worse if the Democrats continue their systemic destruction of our energy supplies.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was the Last Cruise Of The Season for the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout yesterday. I had my friends – refugees from San Francisco who made their escape to New Hampshire two years ago – accompanying me for a day out on the lake, cruising about and enjoying the fall foliage. We also anchored at one of my favorite spots (which shall not be named for obvious reasons) and enjoyed a late lunch before continuing our cruise.

It was a perfect day for that last cruise of the boating season – sunny and warm (65ºF) – with very little in the way of boat traffic to deal with. The lack of summerfolk boat traffic is one reason I like boating after Labor Day. One can actually spend time out on the lake on weekends without worrying about the Cap’n Boneheads.

The Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout will be coming out of the water later this coming week, be taken over to BeezleBub’s place so we can remove all of the gear and clean the cockpit before it makes its trip the boatyard which will winterize and store it for the winter.

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I made the mistake of watching Good Morning America this morning.

To hear their reports and comments about the upcoming mid-terms it seems they are expecting Democrats to keep their House majority and gain three Senate seats. They are basing their viewpoints upon their own ABC/Ipsos poll and focusing on what Democrat voters see as important issues. However, they reported that abortion rights are one of the top three election issues.

The problem is that there are a lot of other polls, including WaPo and NYT polls, that show abortion isn’t anywhere near the most important issues for voters. Almost every poll shows it is inflation/energy costs and the illegal immigration crisis at the border that are above abortion rights, in some polls more than a few places above abortion rights.

It goes back to something I’ve written elsewhere earlier about the DNC hammering away at abortion, trying to make it the #1 election issue...and failing. They are also pushing January 6th for all they can and aren’t gaining any traction there either.

Almost all of the Democrat campaign ads I’ve been seeing here in New Hampshire covering the two Congressional Districts, the US Senate, and the Gubernatorial race are aimed at abortion rights, and lately, Social Security and Medicare.

The new DNC ads are claiming GOP candidates Don Bolduc - US Senate - and Karoline Leavitt – CD1 - want to ‘destroy’ Social Security and Medicare, using some creative editing in the ads to make it seem they want to do away with both. They aren’t proposing anything both Republicans and Democrats haven’t proposed over the past 40 years or so.

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OK, what’s going on in China?

It seems former Chinese leader Hu Jintao was forced to leave a meeting of the Chinese Communist Party congress under duress.

Why does this sound familiar?
>br> Wait, could it be the former Chinese leader is being subjected to the Chinese version or Trump Derangement Syndrome where the former leader - Hu - is being sidelined/minimized/criminalized by the present leader – Xi – to ‘keep him in his place’?

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It looks like our neighbor to the north has decided to go stupid, banning handguns.

I expect Canada is going to learn the same lesson as the UK: Only criminals will have guns...and will continue to use them against a now unarmed populace. They will also see and increase in knife violence, just as they’ve seen in the UK. That also implies Canada will impose knife control at some point, too.

Canadians will also learn a lesson already learned in Australia after they banned guns: The government will become increasingly intrusive and tyrannical because they know their now disarmed citizens can no longer tell the government to “F*ck off!”, or at worse, be unable to depose the tyrants.

It’s time for our Canadian brethren to kick out Fidel Trudeau and restore the rights that have already been stripped from Canadians. The same goes for the Australians.

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EVs are supposed to be cheaper to ‘fuel’ than ICE vehicles, at least according to the EV purists. But it turns out that isn’t true, at least in the UK.

The price of charging an electric car using a public rapid charger is now more expensive than filling up with diesel according to data gathered by Parkers. The soaring price of wholesale gas and electricity has forced up the cost of charging a typical electric car, with £10 of charge taking you less far than the same amount of diesel.

This rise in EV charging begins to bite just as petrol and diesel prices are finally beginning to fall. Despite the spiralling costs of using public electric car chargers, the long-term consideration of an electric car is still very much on many drivers’ minds.

However, we’re seeing much the same thing here, particularly as electricity rates keep climbing. Here in New Hampshire electricity rates have doubled for some ratepayers, and more than doubled for others. It is expected the rates will go up again some time around February. The same is true in other states, one of them being California. As bad as the electricity rates are here in New England, they’re worse in California.

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We keep hearing claims that Republicans are working hard to prevent people from voting in elections, putting up all kinds of roadblocks to keep the poor, minorities, and others from participating in elections in violation of the US Constitution. Below is an illustration of just how we evil Republicans are doing so:

(Image courtesy of Patriot Post)

Our nefarious plan is coming to fruition! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where boats are disappearing from their slips to be stored away for the winter, the fall foliage is now past peak and the leaves are falling, and where the Mid-Terms are a little over two weeks away (Thank Goodness!).

Yet Another Reason To Dislike Wind Turbines

One of my gripes about wind turbines has nothing to with their power ratios (operational capacity versus plate capacity), their unreliability due to the vagaries of weather, non-dispatchability, power grid synchronization issues, heavy tax subsidies, and health issues caused by the infrasound generated by the blades as they spin.

This gripe has to do with wind turbines being very good at chopping birds, and more specifically endangered species of birds, into two or more pieces. I find it funny that environmentalists love the turbines but seem to have no concerns for the animals they kill.

This is how I see them:

To quote a favorite meme, “Prove me wrong.”

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been great weather here at Lake Winnipesaukee – sunny and warm – something that has had the leaf peepers out and enjoying peak foliage. I certainly saw a lot of traffic when I was out an about yesterday, with a lot of the vehicles bearing out-of-state plates. The restaurants were certainly busy.

On two different occasions, once yesterday and once today, I had folks who were obviously “from away” asking me for advice of where they might go for great views of the foliage and I obliged them. However, I did not point them to places where folks from here would go. We’ve got to keep those places to ourselves. (As a note, for some of us all we have to do is look out of our windows to see wonderful views. I wish I could say that was true here at The Gulch, but my home doesn’t have that kind of view. The home I am hoping to build, tentatively named The Redoubt, will have great views of some of the surrounding mountains.)

There was one downside to the weekend, that being I found the batteries on the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout were run down, making it impossible to start the engine. I had to pull one of the batteries out, bring it home and connect it to a battery charger I borrowed from BeezleBub, then take the battery back and install it, start the engine, then change the battery switch to charge to second battery. The cause of this problem comes down to two simple things: we haven’t used the boat much this season and the batteries are getting a bit long in the tooth. If they get me through the next couple of weeks, I’ll see about replacing them next spring.

Oh, I almost forgot. The Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout will be coming out of the water in two more weeks. It isn’t the latest I’ve pulled the boat out of the water by any means, that being November 9th one year, but it’s right around the time my boating season usually ends.

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Iran is seeing increasing unrest, something that has been taking place over the past 5 weeks, with the latest incident taking place at Evin Prison where a large majority of anti-regime protesters are being held.

Is this a sign that the Iranian people have had just about enough of the theocratic regime that has ruled Iran since 1979? The increasing unrest seems like a mirror image of the unrest that took place back in 1979 which helped bring the Ayatollah Khomeini to power, deposing Shah Reza Pahlavi. The fundamentalist rule has gotten increasingly repressive and the people are no longer afraid to voice their displeasure with the regime.

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Any of you who have been reading my blog know my feelings about the ‘woke’, likening their beliefs to untreated cases of mental illness. Mark Judge goes a step farther, relating it to a form of narcissism and referencing the book The Culture Of Narcissism which certainly explains the woke and why they are the way they are.

The nature of the Left in 2022 is rooted more in psychology than political science. Specifically, liberalism is suffering from narcissism.

To understand how, it’s essential to grasp the true meaning of narcissism. In its clinical definition, narcissism is not self-love — it’s the opposite. The narcissist isn’t full of ego. Rather, he has no real sense of self. Where the self would be is emptiness, which results in a mad effort to fill the psyche with meaning. Lacking a stable and confident sense of identity, the narcissist hunts for meaning in therapy, self-help, sex, or radical politics. None of these can give meaning to empty lives.

There’s also this take on the issue, courtesy of Instapundit commenter No Feelings:


What I find ironic is that a large majority of the woke are not from the disadvantaged socio-economic demographics, but from upper middle-class and upper class upbringings. It seems they think they have to make other people’s lives fit what they define as ‘right and proper’ even though that definition goes against human nature. It also allows them to virtue signal their ‘superior’ viewpoints and beliefs. That most people see that virtue signaling as something to be devoutly ignored drives the wokerati to make their ‘inferiors’ care. This led to the so-called “Cancel Culture” which has damaged many lives, many careers, many businesses, and many communities. That Cancel Culture is now being targeted for cancellation is a sign that everyone else has had enough of their twisted nonsense.

It’s time to get these narcissists into treatment and to undo the damage they have done.

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This shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s been paying attention.

It seems CNN is upset that the American people are more concerned with rampant inflation rather than the January 6th investigations. Could it be that the American people have a better sense of what’s important than CNN does? Could it be that the American people know the ‘importance’ of January 6th is nothing but yet another form of TDS?

I’ve seen a lot of hypocritical headlines, infuriating headlines, stupid headlines, and manipulative headlines, but this is probably the most pathetic headline I’ve seen recently. It’s tragic, really. You can practically hear the disappointment and frustration in this headline: “Voters may care more about the cost of French fries than January 6 panel’s compelling evidence.”

Y’all, the people who are in trouble for the events at the Capitol on January 6th should certainly be punished for their crimes. Which are probably mostly trespassing related, if we’re being entirely honest. Does it deserve a year and a half of investigation by a special committee of lawmakers who have far more important things they should be doing for the American people? No. It doesn’t.

The things that the media and their DNC masters think are important are entirely different from what a majority of the American people obviously think are important. That’s not really any different than it was over 20 years ago, but the people are more cognizant of the fact that the media are not their friends.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather has been great, the latest crop of campaign signs are growing like weeds, and where the fall foliage is spectacular.

Dating Apps Are Toxic

A few days ago I penned a piece about how smart phones have been both a blessing and a curse to our society. One of the parts of that post referenced one of the more controversial dealing with dating apps:

The old-fashioned ways of meeting someone have faded away to be replaced by dating apps like Match.com, Tinder, Bumble, FarmersOnly, and a host of others. The problem with so many of them is that they have devolved from dating apps to ‘hook-up’ apps for sexual assignations.

I am not the only one that has noticed this.

My own son has had direct exposure to this with one app he tried a couple of years ago, deleting his profile from the site and the app from his phone after a number of disappointing experiences. This brings me to something I saw from Jordan Peterson.

He delves into the “dating app world” and how it is a toxic environment that should be avoided by those looking for possible romantic partners. He also gets into how it twists people’s perceptions and their psyches and makes it less likely they will form lasting relationships with anyone.

Here’s what Dr. Peterson has to say about the topic:


If what a fraction of what Peterson says is accurate, it certainly explains how relationships between younger men and women have been deteriorating, if they start at all, and one reason why.

Very Interesting...And Disturbing

I saw this in the comments in Thursday’s DayByDay cartoon and thought it was something worth sharing.

Even if you aren’t a Sports Fan, this is Very Interesting!

36 have been accused of spousal abuse
7 have been arrested for fraud
19 have been accused of writing bad checks
117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
3 have done time for assault
71, I repeat 71, cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
14 have been arrested on drug-related Charges
8 have been arrested for shoplifting
21 currently are defendants in lawsuits,
And 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year!

Can you guess which organization this is? Is it the NBA or NFL?
Give up yet?

Scroll down...



Neither.

It’s the 535 members of the United States Congress, the same group of Idiots that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line.

Remember, most of them are up for election this year!!!

(The above has been edited only for formatting.)

This shows that many of our ‘august’ Representatives and Senators in Congress aren’t any better than the people they represent. Some are even worse.

Smart Phones - Both A Blessing And A Curse

Over the long weekend I had the opportunity to do some people-watching. One thing I noticed that was common to almost everyone I saw – a smart phone. This is not something new. I believe I have mentioned such an observation more than once over the past few years.

I, being an old faht, remember the days when cell phones didn’t exist. Phones were connected via wires, there was no texting, and answering machines didn’t really come into general use until the late 1980’s. Today ‘phones’ also text, navigate, take pictures and record video, play games, and even make phone calls. Today there is more ability for humans to communicate than any time in history, whether it’s between people in the same building or on the other side of the world, be it by voice, text, or video. Yet with all of this marvelous technology making communications ubiquitous we seem to be communicating less than we have in the past. It is a paradox.

We ‘talk’ more but say less. We miss nuances that can change the meaning of what’s been said. This last is particularly true of texting, something that both I and one of the WP nieces can attest due to a number of online debates that became contentious because of the missing nuances. When we are face-to-face the contentiousness vanishes.

Something else I’ve noticed?

People become anxious if they are separated from their phones. I have seen people panicking when they find they’ve left their phone someplace (usually either at home or in their car) and it isn’t in their possession. It seems some folks feel like they don’t exist if they don’t have their phones with them at all times.

I have actually asked people if they feel anxious or nervous if they find they’ve left their phones at home or wherever. The people who most often answered ‘no’ were older (like me) while the younger the respondent the more often the answer was ‘yes’.

I have to wonder if it is a manifestation of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) if they have no access to SMS, Twitter, SnapChat, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook and can’t get immediate feedback to the things they post. This brings up another negative of this incredible ability to communicate.

Disconnection from reality.

To so many people their phone is their connection to an alternate reality. To them the most important parts of their lives can only be reached through their phones. But those lives aren’t real. They are electronic chimera, a “Through The Looking Glass” existence. Real life becomes less real, less important. But they can’t or won’t give them up. They are addicted.

That’s scary.

And then there are human relations, specifically of the ‘romantic’ type. The old-fashioned ways of meeting someone have faded away to be replaced by dating apps like Match.com, Tinder, Bumble, FarmersOnly, and a host of others. The problem with so many of them is that they have devolved from dating apps to ‘hook-up’ apps for sexual assignations. It’s all too easy to look through hundreds of profiles for matches, swiping left or right to reject or accept a match. But how many of these matches ever evolve into something beyond a transitory sexual connection?

How may of you have walked into a break room/lunch room/cafeteria full of people only to realize that only a few of the people are actually talking to each other? The rest have their heads bowed over their phones texting people elsewhere...or just across the table from them. The don’t actually talk to each other any more.

How many have attended a family gathering only to see a number of family members more interested in what’s on their phones and not the family surrounding them? I saw that happen one Thanksgiving at The Manse, with a number of the younger members of the WP Clan spending more time texting their friends back home rather than interacting with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents right in front of them. We solved that problem by making those younger family members shut off their phones and give them to their parents who would return them just before they left for home, something a few of them protested vehemently against. But in the end they gave in. From that point on it was the rule that their phones would be turned off and put away when they were attending family gatherings.

Smart phones are wonderful things, but like any technology they are a two-edged sword. They enable worldwide communications and access to information and knowledge to a level unprecedented in human history. But they can also beguile and ensnare the unwary and can disconnect them from the real world and suck them into a world that exists only cyberspace. That isn’t healthy. It isn’t desirable.

We have to find a way to strike a balance. It isn’t going to be easy...but it must be done.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was our annual neighborhood Clean-Up Day here at The Gulch, with us cutting back brush, trimming tree branches, small trees, sumac, and other bits and pieces. It only took a couple of hours to get everything done as many hands made for light (and quick) work. Fortunately there wasn’t quite as much to attend to this year as last year we did quite a bit of cutting and removal of some of the more troublesome bushes and trees.

It also helped that it was cool this morning though we did lose the sun about an hour into our cleanup. Temps only made it into the mid-50’s today and should be in the low 60’s tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to make it out on the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout for a quick jaunt on the lake.

We’re about a week away from the peak of fall foliage and I am hoping one of my last trips out on the lake this season will will be next weekend at peak foliage. It’s not a bad way to close out the boating season.

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Just when I though AOC couldn’t get any stupider I find proof to the contrary. Does anyone else need any more proof of her absolute cluelessness?

(H/T tricknologist)

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With Putin threatening use of nukes if he doesn’t get his way in Ukraine, there’s one question only a few of us are asking, that being “Have the Russians maintained their nuclear weapons any better than the rest of their military equipment?”

If I had to guess, and I do, I’d have to say the answer is ‘no’.

Maintaining nukes is not the same as maintaining tanks, trucks, planes, ships, artillery, guns, and so on. It takes highly trained and capable specialists with equipment that you won’t find at your local maintenance depot to maintain a nuclear warhead in operational condition. Nukes don’t like sitting around in storage for years on end without maintenance. Considering the state of maintenance of the rest of Russia’s military equipment which is easier to maintain than nukes, I’d be surprised if more than 20% of all their nukes might work. Do the Russians know which of their warheads might work?

The same is true of many of the delivery systems. How many warheads and their delivery systems can be considered operational?

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The claim keeps being made that renewables are the cheapest form of energy. However, it seems that manufacturers of renewable energy systems in Europe are struggling to survive the soaring energy prices.

It’s ironic considering Europe has made itself so dependent upon renewables which haven’t been able to meet demand and aren’t likely to do so any time in the future, particularly now that the renewables manufacturers are teetering on the edge. One, like French solar module manufacturer Maxeon Solar Technologies has had to shut down its factory because of rising energy prices as well as increasing costs and taxes on materials. According to a Maxeon spokesman, they could no longer compete in the European market.

How many other manufacturers and suppliers are in the same position?

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Then there’s this:

It seems that Tokyo has seen no warming in 34 years.

34 years.

There’s another Japanese location, the island of Hachijojima has an automated weather station that shows a similar lack of warming, but for 47 years.

I’ll bet that if we looked at pristine weather stations in the US we’d see something similar.

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Yeah, this is going to go over well with already over-burdened California residents.

They have already been told they will be forced to buy EVs they can’t afford and won’t be able to charge. Now they’re being told the overbearing California government is going to start reducing available parking spaces.

How wonderful that moonbats like Newsom are improving the weather by leaving you with no place to park. Maybe this sudden commitment to reducing housing costs will motivate California Democrats to lighten up with the repressive regulations that have driven them into the stratosphere.

What will Californians do? If I had to guess, they’ll park their non-EVs in states other than California.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the leaves are still turning, the leaf peepers are showing up in increasing numbers, and this Monday is a holiday.

No Surprise - Russia's War In Ukraine Isn't Going Well

As more time passes it appears Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has gone sideways. The Russian military was seen a juggernaut, a powerful force to be reckoned with. But time has shown that while it was once a powerful military, it is a shadow of its former self.

In the beginning of Putin’s “Special Military Operation”, many, including some here in the West, figured Ukraine was doomed once Russia invaded. Some have reported the Russians expected to sweep into Kyiv and seize the government in three days. Yet over 7 months later Russia is on the ropes as Ukraine’s counteroffensive has been gaining ground in Russian-held Ukrainian territory as Russian lines have apparently crumbled.

The Russian air force never achieved air superiority, something it should have been able to do. But Ukraine wasn’t the pushover everyone expected. Russia has lost thousands of troops, thousands of tracks – tanks, APCs, and IFVs – countless trucks, and tons of ammunition either destroyed or abandoned. Bridges have been demolished, supply depots destroyed, and rail lines sabotaged. Manpower shortages have hurt Russia’s ability to stave off Ukraine’s counteroffensive, hence Putin’s call-up of reserves.

It doesn’t help Russia that their reserves are not like those we’re familiar with here. Russia doesn’t have an equivalent of the Reserves or National Guard we have in the US. Their reserves are either former conscripts, who weren’t well trained to begin with, or some former professional now in their 40’s and 50’s who mustered out 20 years ago and whose training is out of date and whose physical conditioning is likewise.

Things aren’t going well for Putin’s war against Ukraine, with their latest setback being the heavy damage to the only bridge between Crimea and the Russian mainland. That bridge and the adjacent railroad bridge are closed, with more than one section of the roadway now in the Black Sea.

The past couple of weeks have not been going Putin's way.

Einstein Was Right

Thoughts On A Sunday

We experienced the remnants of Hurricane Ian yesterday: It was cloudy until around noon and then the sun came out.

Somehow we survived it.

Ironically it’s been quite windy all day today with temps in the 50’s, but not due to Ian. We can thank Canada for today’s fall weather.

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One thing that happened Friday was the Official Weekend Pundit Computer went down. It froze and accepted no input. A reboot didn’t help.

Looking at my records I realized I’ve been using that computer – an HP – for 10 years. I have dug deeper into the problem with the help of my dear brother. What’s ironic is that I had planned to restage the computer with a new hard drive loaded with one of the Arch Linux distributions – probably Garuda Linux – a little later this year. It is fortunate I had made backups of all the data on the computer, missing only a few of the more recent files. I don’t think it will be an issue to recover those last few files since the crash of the Official Weekend Pundit Computer was not due to a hard disk failure.

It looks like I will have to come up with a new computer if I cannot correct the hardware error that caused the crash.

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When I first saw this I thought it might have come from the Babylon Bee since there’s no way it could be true.

It turns out that it’s true...and does not bode well for our nation: The Democrats are pushing an American apartheid.

In this case Kamala Harris announced that federal aid for Hurricane Ian will be distributed based on skin color.

The Biden administration will focus on “giving resources based on equity” by directing funds to “communities of color”. pic.twitter.com/uixPpyQWdU

Yeah, that will help generate more racial harmony...and help cement a GOP victory in November.

They just can’t help themselves, can they?

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I can agree with this wholeheartedly.

Only the Western Woke think the world loves them for their virtue. The rest know that the world really loves them for fried chicken, video games and consumer goods. What used to be called whiskey, democracy, sexy.

The only thing virtue signaling does for these mentally ill woke a**holes is make themselves feel better. No one else gives a sh*t and they cannot be made to do so. It’s time to heap as much derision and abuse upon the woke as we can as it may be the only way to make the woke realize that they’re ill.

Everyone is sick to death of the self-righteous woke. It’s as Tom Knighton stated, “Only the woke don’t know they’re over.”

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It looks like Dish Network is going through the periodic pain of negotiating with a content provider asking for a large fee increase, the content provider in this case being Disney. Because they can’t reach an agreement, Dish has been forced to remove all Disney network programming which includes channels like ESPN, Disney Channel, Freeform, and ABC.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this happen to Dish or our local cable TV provider. I’ve also seen it happen to DirectTV. Of course when the satellite or cable operator caves and agrees to pay the higher subscriber fees, the customers see their satellite or cable bills go up and blame their satellite/cable operator. This is a dance that occurs every few years between the content providers and satellite and cable operators. It doesn’t always lead to programming being blacked out, but it happens often enough because the content providers know they’ll get their subscriber fee increases.

I can only recall one time where a small number of service providers refused to bow to a content provider and had no problem dropping programming. If memory serves, the content provider was Viacom who provided channels like MTV, VH1, and Nickelodeon, just to name a few. The service providers were small rural independent cable operators who couldn’t justify the fee hike Viacom was demanding, so they dropped all Viacom programming. What’s ironic is that the cable operators only received a couple of complaints about the dropped programming and their customers actually saw the video portion of the cable bills drop.

Considering how awful a lot of the TV programming is these days, I’m surprised more cable and satellite operators aren’t telling the content providers “We’ll be willing to pay more once you start providing decent content rather than the garbage you’re peddling now.”

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The Climate Change faithful keep making the claim climate change is fueling more and more powerful hurricanes. However, there are peer-reviewed papers that say just the opposite.

With Hurricane Ian (now a tropical storm) exiting the east coast of Florida, there is no shortage of news reports tying this storm to climate change. Even if those claims actually include data to support their case, those data are usually for cherry-picked regions and time periods. If global warming is causing a change in tropical cyclone activity, it should show up in global statistics.

The latest peer-reviewed study (March 2022, here) of the accumulated wind energy in tropical cyclones since 1990 (when we started have sufficient global data) showed a decrease in hurricane activity. There was an increase in Atlantic activity, but this was matched by an even larger decrease in Pacific activity, due to a shift from El Nino to La Nina conditions during that time.

So, yes, there is climate change involved in the uptick in Atlantic activity in recent decades. But it’s natural.

We haven’t been seeing nearly as many hurricanes (and a smaller number of tropical storms), and those we do see aren’t making landfall as often as in the past.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the leaves are changing color, the cooler weather is here, and Halloween is 4 weeks away.

This Is Why

It seems to me that many young women - well, young to me at least – are asking the question “Where have all the good men gone?”

I could delve into the many reasons why this question has become far more common over the past 20 years or so, but that would be a 30,000 word essay, something that I wouldn’t want to write and that you probably wouldn’t want to read.

More young career women are finding themselves without a mate or a family of their own and wondering why. Bishop T.D. Jakes may have one of the answers to that question:

“We are raising up women to be men. And you are not applauded for your femininity. You are applauded in the contemporary society by how tough, rough, nasty, mean, aggressive, hateful, possessive you are as you are climbing the corporate ladder.”

“But we are losing our families.”

“I know you can buy your own car. I know you can buy your own house. But until you create a need that I can pour myself into, I have no place in your life. So stop coming home bragging to me about how much you don’t need me and wonder why I shy away.”

Unfortunately his observations may be all too true. We are certainly seeing the outcome of the mindset Jakes describes and it is only getting worse. But fortunately more young women (and men) are waking up to this truth.

There may still be hope.