12/10/2023

Thoughts On A Sunday

We’re going to be experiencing yet another round of New England Weather Weirdness over today and tomorrow. Here in New Hampshire temperatures are expected to reach into the 50’s later today, up to three inches of rain, flood watches, and gusts of winds as high as 40 mph through tomorrow. Some of the northern parts of New Hampshire will also see snow towards the end of this weather system.

In December alone we’ve seen both below and above normal temperatures and that’s only the first 10 days of the month. What’s in store for us for the rest of the winter?

It must be said that if the temperatures were to remain below freezing we’d be seeing up to two-and-a-half feet of snow, something I would have preferred, it being December. I know some of my friends and acquaintances wouldn’t agree with me, but then I am of Nordic descent.

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I guess now-former University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill’s tap-dancing around whether or not calls for the genocide of Jews and destruction of Israel violates Penn’s harassment and antisemitism policies has found out that such non-answers didn’t cut it. The presidents of Harvard and MIT are also finding out that equivocating or playing the ‘context’ card won’t cut it either. This shows us just how deep the rot has propagated in our so-called “institutions of higher learning” that the leaders of such prestigious institutions will no longer condemn such actions by students and faculty on their campuses.

Twenty years ago students would be suspended or expelled and faculty sanctioned for such reprehensible activities. Today there is tacit approval of such actions because the administration refuses to take action against the campus Nazis calling for a new Holocaust.

I have to agree with David Burge’s take on today’s colleges that they are “an oasis of totalitarianism in a desert of freedom.”

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How does one define irony? How about this:

Tennessee’s prison population grows as violent crime drops steeply.

The reason I find this ironic is that there apparently some people cannot make the connection between higher incarcerations rates and lower crime rates. They don’t understand that when criminals are in prison they can’t commit crimes out in the real world.

Maybe the headline should have read “Violent crime in Tennessee drops sharply as the prison population grows”, which better implies why the crime rate has been falling.

Of course, if George Soros gets his way all of those violent criminals will be released into the general public again to commit even more violent crimes.

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First it was math that is racist. Then it was science that is racist.

Now apparently spellcheck is racist.

As a reminder, if everything is racist, then nothing is racist.

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From the “Just When I Thought They Couldn’t Get Any Stupider” Department comes this:

High School Apologizes for Displaying Christmas Tree.

Excuse me? Are Christmas trees now some kind of symbol of something the Left thinks is evil/discriminatory/racist/sexist/whateverist?

An Oregon high school apologized after a Christmas tree triggered a Jewish resident who said the display was not inclusive of any other religion.

“This is public property and I mean it’s supposed to be an education for everybody, not just people who are Christian and not just people who are Jewish,” parent Rick Lester told television station KEZI.

“Our understanding is that number one there is separation of church and state, and that number two it seemed very exclusionary of a lot of people who don’t celebrate Christmas.”

First of all, there is no separation of church and state in the U.S. Constitution and second of all, that sort of logic would mean the school would have to remove the menorah because a lot of people don’t celebrate Hanukkah.

Sounds more like Mr. Lester has decided to be the pain-in-the-ass, either because he wanted to be or to gain attention, or he’s just another leftist trying to further dismantle society.

One has to wonder what the next target will be. Maybe Santa Claus?

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Just when I thought I’ve heard it all, now there’s something called a sandwich shop monopoly.

Really?

There is according to faux Native American Elizabeth Warren.

Warren is warning about a "sandwich shop monopoly." It seems that Subway, the home of above average subway sandwiches, is being bought by the same company that owns Jimmy Johns and McAlister’s Deli, among other sandwich emporiums.

Subway, which is family-owned, agreed to sell its business to private equity firm Roark Capital in a blockbuster (good name for a sandwich) deal worth $9 billion. Along with Jimmy Johns and McAlister's, Roark also owns Baskin-Robbins, Dunkin Brands, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Sonic.

It's an empire, and Warren wants it rein it in.

I wonder how many Americans are vitally concerned about whether Subway is owned by a family or Roark Capital. Warren thinks it's a burning issue and she is asking the FTC to look more closely at the transaction.

The FTC hasn’t been able to block the acquisition since “not liking big business is not the same as legally being able to stop mergers.” It seems Warren and others are going overboard worrying about the “sandwich shop monopoly” because even with all of the sub shop chains listed, local sub shops will still outnumber them. At least that’s the way it is where I live. There are two Subway shops that I can think of in this area, and no Jimmy Johns or McAlister’s Deli. The equity firm buying Subway also owns Baskin-Robbins (of which there are none here), Dunkin Brands (aka Dunkin Donuts which are everywhere), Buffalo Wild Wings (none), and Sonic (none).

I would think Warren would be more worried about the Presidential overreach when the White House has decided for everyone that we’ll have to buy EVs that most folks can’t afford, don’t want, and won’t be able to charge. That’s far more important than worrying about a "sandwich shop monopoly” that no one cares about.

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This, however, is important:


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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the rain is coming down, the snow is being washed away, and where Monday is returning...again.