6/02/2024

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been busy around Lake Winnipesaukee this weekend with an increasing number of boats being launched, seasonal summer businesses now open, as are town and state beaches. The school year will be ending shortly which means summer activities that are at present limited to weekends will be taking place all week. Ice cream stands are open. Lakeside restaurants are open. The food trucks are making their rounds to the various public beaches. The summer concerts have started at our local outdoor venue. It also means there’s a lot more traffic on our roads, the supermarkets are busy as are the nearby factory outlets.

I spent some time yesterday getting the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout squared away. Some of that was just stowing gear on the boat – PFDs, a new fire extinguisher (to replace the old one), a couple of additional mooring lines and fenders – something neither I or BeezleBub had done before launching the boat. It wasn’t because we forgot to do so, but because we realized we had too much stuff we usually put in there. We didn’t need a dozen life jackets. We didn’t need six extra sets of mooring lines. We didn’t need four tow ropes. We didn’t need two electric air pumps to inflate towables. We didn’t need eight seat cushions/throwable PFDs. Instead we launched with just the bare minimum of gear and without all that extra stuff and figured out what we really needed to have onboard. Too much stuff is just as bad as not enough stuff. It’s easy to get into the “We’ll put this one the boat, too, just in case we need it” mindset and the next thing you know every bit of storage is full of stuff we’re not going to use.

We aren’t the only ones guilty of this having this mindset as a friend whose boat is docked on the other side of the pier where mine docks has had the same problem. He bought a new boat over the winter, one bigger than his old boat. When I told him what I was doing he laughed and said “Yeah, that’s why I had to buy a new boat – I ran out of space for stuff!”

And so it goes.

==++++==


If only this could also happen here in New Hampshire, too. We have to deal with New York folks like that...and from Connecticut and Massachusetts, too.

==++++==


I have to wonder when New York City is going to institute a “Blade-Free Zone” after this.

Brutal Machete Attack in Times Square ‘Gun-Free’ Disarmament Zone.

Is NYC going to learn the same lesson as the British when they had to start instituting knife control when criminals couldn’t easily obtain guns and had to resort to using knives to commit violent crimes, that lesson being that it doesn’t work.

If civilians hadn’t been disarmed in Times Square when the attack took place it is likely the offender would have been stopped.

The brutal stabbing of a man in New York City’s Times Square on Thursday underscores the futility of public disarmament, which affects only law-abiding citizens, and proves the proponents of so-called “sensitive zones” are clueless, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said.

Several news agencies reported the incident, indicating three men were involved and they apparently used a machete to wound the victim in both legs. Police have detained three suspects, but CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said the attack never should have happened in a place where honest citizens cannot legally carry firearms for personal protection.

“New York officials have declared Times Square and other public venues to be ‘sensitive places,’ leaving people vulnerable to attack by criminals who don’t follow the rules,” Gottlieb observed. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that disarming good citizens creates risk-free environments for dangerous thugs and crazy people to engage in savagery. The people responsible for disarming law-abiding citizens in Times Square are clueless when it comes to dealing with violent crime.

“Somewhere in city hall, or maybe up in Albany, somebody in government is probably working up a way to spin this tragedy so the mayor or governor can argue that at least a gun wasn’t involved,” he added. “Armed private citizens defend themselves or others upwards of a million times each year, often without firing a shot, but apparently in New York, government is on the side of the criminal element.”

So-called “Gun Free Zones” give the clueless a false sense of security. To criminal miscreants “Gun Free Zones” equate to “Free Fire Zones” because they know no one will be armed and it gives them free rein to commit violent crimes with impunity. Yet that doesn’t stop The Powers That be in New York City from declaring such zones...and then act surprised when violent and property crime goes up.

==++++==


I find it interesting to see the paradox of ABC News/Ipsos poll showing half of respondents think Trump should drop out of the presidential race because of his conviction after the kangaroo court trial, yet he also raised over $53 million in campaign contributions after the verdict.

The one thing I have learned is to take any ABC News/Ipsos poll with a huge grain of salt as I have seen polls from other polling organizations covering the same topic have entirely different results. Make of it what you will.

Seeing the huge boost in fundraising indicates to me that the ABC News poll isn’t to be trusted.

==++++==


To anyone paying attention over the past few decades, this isn’t exactly news:

Oops…Cleaner Fuels Mean Less Clouds, More Warming!

I seem to recall a similar ‘discovery’ was made a decade or so ago when sulphur-based atmospheric particulates were reduced when low-sulphur coal and smokestack scrubbers were employed on coal-fueled power plants – clearer skies made for temporarily warmer temperatures and fewer clouds, which also made for lower precipitation in some areas. So the ‘new’ revelation is nothing new, except this time it’s the cleaner fuel for ships that’s causing this problem. But is it a problem or is it an inconvenient fact that sometimes ‘clean’ isn’t always as much of a good thing as the Climate Change cultists keep try to convince us?

I have to wonder what they’ll want next. Maybe ‘scrubbers’ on active volcanoes?

==++++==


I have to admit that I am looking forward to seeing how the appeal process will go for Trump in both the alleged fraud civil case and the ‘bookkeeping’ criminal case.

That the alleged ‘victim’ in the fraud case has stated again and again that no fraud took place, that overstating the value of property to be used as collateral on the ‘first’ round is common practice and the borrower and lender go back and forth until they agree on a value of the collateral. Only then is a loan issued. That is not fraud, no matter what the prosecution or the presiding judge say.

One of the side effects of this trial is investors shying away from investing money in New York City property because they don’t want to be tried under the same conditions as Trump even though New York Governor Hochul ‘promised’ they wouldn’t go after them for the same fraud, that they were only interested in Trump. But investors like Kevin Leary don’t believe they won’t be targeted if they are seen as “enemies of the state” and will be railroaded like Trump.

In the Hush Money case no one seemed to know what crime Trump was being charged with until after the defense rested its case. It didn’t help that the presiding judge’s jury instructions basically told them they had to convict Trump even if they believed he wasn’t guilty. Talk about jury tampering! It’s no wonder that even the usual liberal media legal analysts have been saying this case never should have seen the light of day. Even those who wanted Trump convicted admitted that if the defendant had been anyone but Trump no trial would have taken place.

Do we need any more proof that these prosecutions have been purely political?

==++++==


And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer camps and cottages are open, the boat slips and marinas are full, and the restaurants are busy.