At least we haven’t seen any big snowstorms, with what snow that did fall during each of the few storms that have occurred measuring 2 or 3 inches. Of course we still have another three or four months of potential snowfall to go.
One thing that surprised me this morning was the number of shoppers in Walmart at 8AM this morning. Usually there are only a few shoppers and one or two of the registers open at that time of morning. Not today. Quite a few of those morning shoppers were obviously taking care of Christmas shopping as their cart (or carts) were full to the brim with what I had to assume were Christmas presents. There were four registers open and even that wasn’t enough. I know I spent quite a bit more time waiting at the checkout than I did actually shopping. I expect it will be even worse come next Sunday morning.
==++++==
Are we overdue for a Carrington Event? According to a recent study the answer is yes.
Our Sun is not a peaceful place. It roils with convection; its magnetic field snaps, finds a connection, snaps again. It unleashes eruptions of energy in the form of violent flares, and plasma in the form of coronal mass ejections.The Carrington Event saw auroras being visible all the way to the Equator and telegraph systems being able to operate without batteries because of the induced electrical currents along the telegraph lines. What would that do to our present day telecommunications systems and electrical grids were such an event take place today? Unless such systems are hardened to withstand such a flare (which would also harden them against EMP), our 21st century civilization could be returned to the 17th overnight.
Most of this activity lacks sufficient punch to harm us… but every now and then, the Sun erupts with a flare powerful enough to do serious damage. And we don't know how often such events occur. Previous estimates have the range between once a century and once a millennium.
Well, folks, we have a problem. Because a new analysis of the eruption rates of 56,400 Sun-like stars has estimated that the Sun's superflare rate is at the low end of that scale – once every 100 years. If that's the case, we may be in trouble, since even the infamous Carrington Event that took place in September 1859 was only 1 percent as powerful as a superflare.
==++++==
Like this is going to drive the voting public to vote for Democrats.
Incoming West Virginia state representative charged with threatening to kill GOP lawmakers.
One incoming West Virginia state lawmaker on Thursday was arrested and charged with allegedly threatening to kill fellow GOP state representatives, according to state police.So this guy gets elected to the state legislature this past November, having run as a Republican, changes to the Democrat Party, and is arrested the next day for threatening to kill his former GOP colleagues? So did this guy change party because of his ‘disagreement’ with conservative Republican members of the West Virginia House of Delegates, or did he change party because he was really a Democrat to begin with? Did he think his threats to kill fellow legislators would in some way persuade them to vote differently?
Joseph de Soto, who was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates in November as a Republican, allegedly made multiple threats against conservatives in the House after a recent meeting led lawmakers to discuss whether to expel him from the caucus, NBC News reported. It is not clear why state lawmakers were talking about booting him.
The secretary of state's office told the outlet he had switched party affiliation to Democrat on Wednesday.
The suspect has been charged with one count of threats of terrorist acts, a felony, and the bond was set at $300,000.
If I were a West Virginia Democrat I would think it would be best to distance oneself as much as possible from this whack-job lest voters think Democrats agree with him.
==++++==
This is something that I doubt will be covered by the Lame Stream Media:
Trump receives $15 million after ABC settled defamation lawsuit against George Stephanopoulos and ABC prior to going to trial.
Hmm. It seems the LSM has to learn the lesson the hard way that they can’t make up stories about people as a means of influencing elections or trying to destroy someone they don’t like.
==++++==
Constitution? We don’t need no stinkin’ Constitution!
It looks like yet another Congressional Democrat thinks SloJoe Biden can get around the Constitution, amending it by fiat rather than by the process laid out in the Constitution.
By way of the NYT:
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York is on a mission in President Biden’s final days in office. She wants to convince him that he can rescue his legacy by adding the century-old Equal Rights Amendment, which would explicitly guarantee sex equality, to the Constitution as a way to protect abortion rights in post-Roe America.Take away equal rights for women? What rights would those be? The right to vote? The right to free speech? The right to protect themselves by way of bearing arms?
He could do it all, she contends, with one phone call.
Both houses of Congress approved the amendment in 1972, but it was not ratified by the states in time to be added to the Constitution. Ms. Gillibrand has been pushing a legal theory that the deadline for ratification is irrelevant and unconstitutional. All that remains, she argues, is for Mr. Biden to direct the national archivist, who is responsible for the certification and publication of constitutional amendments, to publish the E.R.A. as the 28th Amendment.
The move would almost certainly invite a legal challenge that would land in the Supreme Court. But Ms. Gillibrand wants Mr. Biden to use his presidential power while he still has it to force the issue, effectively daring Republicans to wage a legal battle to take away equal rights for women.
I would think folks like Ms. Gillibrand would want to pay attention to the old adage “Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.”
What specifically is she aiming for, abortion rights? If so then her aim is off because the E.R.A. would not ensure that right at all because men have no say when it comes to abortion at present, even if it is their child being aborted.
If the E.R.A. were ‘backdoored’ then I would expect there to be lawsuits dealing with things like Family Court where divorce and child custody cases heavily favor women. There would also need to be changes in laws across the board that presently ‘protect’ women, the Violence Against Women Act being one, because they would be unconstitutional due to discriminating against men. I would expect Congress to pass a law that would make women register for the Draft. Laws would need to be changed that would eliminate preferential treatment for women of any kind, with one such example of preferential treatment being lighter sentences for women who commit the same crimes as men.
Will Ms. Gillibrand get her wish or will she learn that the Constitution means what it says?
==++++==
And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the last of the boats are gone from the water, the lake is starting to freeze over, and I don’t have to worry about Monday because I’m on vacation.