Thoughts On A Sunday

Imagine my surprise when I woke this morning to see that it was snowing. The original forecast by the Weather Guys^TM said little about any snow up here at the lake. Not that there’s been a lot of snow with only a coating showing as I write this, but it is still snowing. (Update: We ended up with almost 4 inches of “only a coating”.) Such are the vagaries of winter weather in New England.

The trusty RAM 1500 is going back into the body shop first thing Monday morning to take care of a loose antenna mount, something they had forgotten to tighten when they replaced the front fenders a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately, it shouldn’t take more than an hour to complete the task which is a good thing as the trusty RAM 1500 will be going back to my mechanic’s later the same day to have its annual undercoating performed. (That will be done first thing Tuesday morning as they will keep the pickup inside overnight to make sure it’s warm which helps the undercoating spread to cover everything being sprayed.)

One thing that has put a small crimp in life is that I haven’t been able to receive any mail for over a week now. New mailboxes were installed to replace the 40+ year old mailboxes that were starting to fall apart. The new mailboxes were installed about a week and a half ago…and they couldn’t find the key for our mailbox. We have no key for our mailbox, so we can’t open it. We keep getting vague responses to our queries about when (or if) we will finally get our keys from our property management company. If it comes to down to it I will inform the USPS about the situation when I go to the main post office to retrieve my mail and ask for a lock change. That will cost $50 to have performed and somehow, I think I’ll be stuck paying for it.

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This is something we’ve been watching develop over the past couple of decades, “this” being the increasing decay of so-called Blue Zones – basically blue cities and some blue states. What’s worse is that this decay is deliberate. “There’s a lot ruin in a blue zone. People in neighborhoods work at the preservation of order while they vote for disorder.”

We see that in cities like San Francisco and Portland and Seattle and Chicago and New York. We see that in states like California, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, and New York. Policies, laws, and regulations that may sound good on the surface but are seriously flawed are implemented and everything goes just the opposite of what was promised. Increasingly, the Law of Unintended Consequences comes into play and then the folks that pushed the original policies, laws, and regulations double down which makes things even worse. And then they double down again.

And they’ll blame everyone else for the collapse except the person in the mirror. It always seems that way. I doubt it will be any different this time around.

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The subject of Netflix buying Warner Brothers keeps popping up and one of the refrains I keep hearing is that it will lead to end of moviegoing, or so says John Podhoretz. I hate to say it, but the number of people actually going to movie theaters to watch movies has been declining for years. Part of the cause is that movies have been awful lately with only a few hit movies scattered here and there. Another reason is the cost, between the ticket prices and price of refreshments. It’s cheaper to stream a movie even if you pay a small amount above your streaming subscription to do so, refreshments are cheap, and you can pause the movie if you need to visit the bathroom. There’s no travel involved. No worries about parking or other movie patrons causing problems while trying to watch the movie, and so on.

It is true that you don’t get the ‘shared’ experience of watching a movie with hundreds of others which can add to the experience, particularly if you are watching a great movie. I’ve experienced that again and again during my almost 70 years on this planet. Watching the original Star Wars back in 1977 was an incredible experience, one that cannot be replicated watching it for the first time on your 75” OLED 4K UHD television in your living room. It’s not the same.

I’m not saying the moviegoing experience can’t be revived, but it’s going to take some work. Otherwise more theaters will close. (A couple of movie theaters I used to frequent have closed, something that saddens me.)

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Is it just me or does this year’s Christmas season seem more subdued than in the past?

Watching the ads on TV, the holiday specials, decorations, sales flyers, community celebrations, and so on, Christmas doesn’t seem to be as festive as I remember them being. I don’t see or feel nearly the amount of wonder of the season whether we’re talking about the religious or secular holiday. It’s like the volume has been turned down and the brightness has been dialed back a bit.

This isn’t cynicism on my part as I love Christmas and always have. But something seems off about it this year, something I can’t quite put my finger on.

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I found this to be highly amusing.

It turns out the “Epstein” photo released by Democrats turns out to be Trump with Miss Universe contestants in 1996.

I have to guess the Democrats thought they finally had something on Trump with the photo showing him with a bevy of beautiful women, trying to twist it so it was ‘proof’ he’d been a customer of Epstein. What’s even more telling – Donald Trump owned the Miss Universe pageant back then.

I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about the photo.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where more snow had fallen, the lake is freezing up, and where I don’t care if Monday is returning because I’m on vacation!

News Coverage Of The Brown University Shootings

It was while I was watching the UConn Huskies Women’s basketball game against the USC Trojans that the “Breaking News” logo popped on the screen to report on the news of a shooting on the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. At the time the news was spotty and not much of the way in details were known or available.

While you will get no argument from me about the tragedy of such a crime nor about prayers for the victims and families of the victims, you will see that I was not pleased with the quality of the news coverage. In this case it was the news team from Boston’s WFXT Channel 25, a Fox affiliate, that was covering the news.

My complaint?

The incessant reporting that they really didn’t know anything other than a shooting had taken place. Oh, there was a lot of speculation whether it was one or more shooters. There were reports of casualties, but that was it. Facts dribbled in here and there, with one of the final reports before they returned to their “regular program” after almost an hour of reporting they didn’t really know anything was that there were two confirmed deaths. There as continuing speculation about motive, suspects, and related subjects ad nauseum which added absolutely nothing to the story. What took them almost an hour could have been handled in 15 minutes with the occasional break for updates. It seemed to me that the reporters and news anchors were more interested in the sound of their own voices than providing any actual news. To quote Don Henley from his song Dirty Laundry:

We got the bubbleheaded bleach-blonde
Comes on at 5
She can tell you about the plane crash
With a gleam in her eye
It's interesting when people die
Give us dirty laundry

You don't really need to find out
What's going on
You don't really want to know just
How far it's gone
Just leave well enough alone
Keep your dirty laundry

It’s almost like some of the news media just can’t wait for tragedy, for death, for injuries so they can pontificate about This, That, and The Other Thing. I have no idea how any of the other news outlets handled the report, but I’m going to guess they were no different than the channel I was watching.

What’s the old saying when it comes to news?

If it Bleeds, it Leads.

Am I just being cynical? Yup. But then I earned the right to be cynical after almost 70 years on this earth.

Friday Funny - Dishwasher Is Broken

I'll Tell You The Story - Fern's Tattoo

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s a relatively warm day here at the lake, ‘warm’ being defined as “in the low 30’s”. I was out, performing my usual Sunday morning shopping at Walmart when I realized it really didn’t feel all that cold. But then, the temperature wasn’t in single digits. It’s been sunny, something that will certainly help some of the remaining ice on the driveway, making room for some more snow overnight (though it will likely only be a dusting here) as well as some more snow forecast for Wednesday.

I have three more days of work – Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday – and I will then be on vacation until January 5th. I hadn’t paid attention to how much vacation I used this year and realized I had almost 3 weeks of unused vacation left, so rather than losing it I figured I’d take it now. Not that things are all that busy at work in December as it is one of our ‘slow’ months.

I won’t be slacking off by any means as I have a long list of “Things To Do” while I am on vacation, one of them being emptying out the Official Weekend Pundit Storage Unit which contains some of the last items from The Manse that I had no room for here at The Gulch. My ex and I have been slowly emptying it out and the few things that remain are primarily furniture that the ex-wife plans to sell. Ony one furniture item is mine – a 200+-year old dresser that was my grandfather’s - and it will be coming here to The Gulch. Rent for the storage unit will be one expense I will not be sad to see go away.

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Here it is, Pearl Harbor Day, “a day that will live in infamy”. It was 84 years ago today that the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor and brought the US into World War II. Like 84 years later, it was also a Sunday. Everyone who was alive back then knew where they were when they heard the news, just like those alive on September 11th, 2001 knows where they were when they heard the news about the attacks on the World Trade Center towers.

I’d like to think that we will never have to experience such events again…but I’m not that naïve.

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I heard about Netflix purchasing Warner Brothers and my first thought was “Netflix has enough money to buy them? Really?”

I must admit I really don’t have any feelings about this one way or the other as compared to some folks. I stopped paying attention to the doings in Hollywood, particularly after Disney sold out and went woke as well as Hollywood churning out so-called “message movies” that preach progressivism to audiences rather than entertaining them. (As I have mentioned a number of times before, it looks like Hollywood needs to relearn the lesson that message movies aren’t popular for the reason mentioned above and that they always lose money.)

However, the real question is whether the acquisition of Warner Brothers will be a good thing or a bad thing? Only time will tell.

While I haven’t been in a movie theater for years, I do stream movies now and then or pull out one of the DVDs or BluRay disks from my library. I have Netflix membership so it will be interesting to see what they will offer going forward.

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I mentioned in yesterday’s post that it looked like we’d be seeing an old-fashioned New England winter this winter and it looks like the folks at MIT are saying it could be the harshest winter in the US in 12 years.

I have no real problem with a real old-fashioned New England winter. I’ve lived through enough of them over the past 60+ years and I’m still here.

Heavy snow? Check.

Blizzard conditions? Check.

Sub-zero temperatures? Check.

High winds and drifting snow? Check.

Hunkering down and watching the snow fall while sitting in front of the woodstove? Check.

A 4x4 pickup with great AT tires, tire chains, and a full tank of gas? Check.

Snow shovel, snowblower, and roof rake? Check.

Generator and fuel for same? Check.

Yeah, I think we’re pretty well set for a traditional New England winter.

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This is why we need to really tighten our controls over immigration, particularly when it comes to criminal immigrants (and I don’t mean illegal immigrants in this case):

Muslim Migrant Rapes Woman to Death On Church Steps After Nashville Freed Somali Rapist 16 Times

Excuse me? Sixteen Times?

A 34-year-old woman was raped to death on the front steps of a Nashville church, in public, under streetlights, caught in progress by firefighters.

Her accused killer?

A 39-year-old Somali repeat offender with multiple identities and 16 prior charges for sexual battery, indecent exposure, trespass, drug offenses, and more.

--snip--

Authorities can’t even agree on his real name – Mohamed Mohamed, Mohamed Abdi, “Mdamed” Mohamed, or Ceter Mohammad.

If the courts can’t identify him, how are they protecting anyone?

Despite raping a woman to death, the judge set just $75,000 bond per rape charge, meaning he could have walked free again. The only thing stopping his release was an ICE detainer.

This wasn’t an accident.

It was the direct result of judges, prosecutors, and politicians choosing leniency over public safety.

If this had happened up here in New Hampshire he wouldn’t have been set free on bail after the first rape. And since he killed his latest victim during the commission of another felony, he would be ineligible for bail. One thing Tennessee has that New Hampshire no longer has is the death penalty. I hope this ‘miscreant’ gets the death penalty once he’s properly tried and convicted. Then there will be no need to deport him.

Of course, this assumes a Tennessee judge doesn’t release him on bail…again.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter is making itself at home, the lake is freezing over ahead of schedule, and where Monday is returning all too soon.

It's Going To Be A Normal New England Winter

I don’t know about you, but I have been looking at forecasts for this coming winter and I am beginning to think that the ones predicting a colder and snowier winter here in New England may be right.

Here at the lake we’ve seen temperatures well below average, with one overnight low reaching 0°F just a couple of days ago. (It was 2°F here at The Gulch that same morning.) We’ve seen quite a bit of snow, receiving just shy of 11 inches of snow here earlier this past week. Our local ski resort opened this weekend, with plenty of natural and manmade snow on the trails. We’ll be seeing single digit temps and more snow this coming week.

Another indicator is the ice on the lake and some of the local ponds. One such pond has had ice on it from shore to shore for the past three weeks, well ahead of when we usually see it. The cove where the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout is docked during boating season is also frozen over, again weeks ahead of when we usually see it.

My little town’s road crews had a chance to try out their plows and sanders to make sure everything was ready for the coming winter. We’re also hoping the town’s ice rink will be ready sometime after Christmas after undergoing some major renovations.

Going back to the ski resort for a moment, I’ve seen the major resorts here in New Hampshire as well as Vermont are ready to go, with quite a few of them already open. There’s also more than enough snow around for some of the snowmobile trails to be open, but I don’t know if any are open at the moment.

The heavy winter drapes went up over the slider here at The Gulch last weekend and I’m glad I got them up because we certainly needed it on the single digit temperature nights. I also dug out the el cheapo humidifier I use to keep the humidity inside at a reasonable level which makes it feel warmer. (Humid air retains heat better than dry air and feels warmer even at the same temperature.)

I’ve seen more than a few cars have already mounted their snow tires in preparation for winter snow. It’s something I always suggest, particularly to newcomers who have never had to deal with a northern New England winter. The ubiquitous “All Season” tires are a poor compromise at best and don’t have anywhere near the traction of actual snow tires. I proved that when I used to have my trusty Dodge Neon and after a couple of winters decided I needed snow tires and had it shod with Nokian Hakkapeliitta’s, some of the best snow tires I’ve ever used. I could navigate snowy roads better than some 4x4’s shod with All Season tires. (The trusty RAM 1500 is shod with Cooper AT’s at the moment and I have found them to be pretty effective during the winter.)

One other preparation I’ve made is ensuring the Official Weekend Pundit Generator is ready to go, having changed the oil and firing it up to make sure it works. Hopefully I won’t need it, but when we get an ice storm or a Nor’easter with heavy winds, you can almost guarantee a power outage.

For the moment we’re almost ready to handle the winter. The only thing left to do is to get the trusty RAM 1500 an oil change which will happen this coming week and its winter undercoating which will take place in another week-and-a-half.

Now all I need to do is find the tire chains for the trusty RAM 1500.

Friday Funny - Three Nuns

Thoughts On A Sunday

Well, the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is winding to a close. That means no more worries about “Black Friday” or “Local Shops Saturday” Christmas shopping crowds to deal with. Holiday traffic has tapered off, at least around here. Things have returned to normal for the most part. About the only thing we'll have to keep an eye on is a possible snow storm on Tuesday, one that out local Weather Guys^TM can't quite seem to pin down as to where and how much we might expect. But then, that isn't out of the ordinary, is it? For the moment they're predicting between 4 and 8 inches of snow here at the lake.

If you read my Saturday post you'll know that I spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday traveling here and there, all of which made for long days. The only 'traveling' I did today was for my usual pre-church shopping at Walmart early this morning.

Things have been settling down back to a more normal routine for now. There are still plenty of things to be done before Christmas, but I'll take those one day at a time.

Tomorrow it's back to work, something I am actually looking forward to despite it being a Monday.

So, how was your Thanksgiving?

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Have you ever noticed just how intolerant our “tolerant” liberal friends and neighbors are should our viewpoint differ from theirs? This seems to be particularly true if the particular liberal is of the female persuasion. They preach tolerance but but I get the feeling that word is misunderstood by most of them as it only applies to those they happen to agree with or those they see as “victims”, even if those alleged victims are intolerant, rapists and murderous bigots who have no problem killing people they disagree with.

Can anyone explain the logic behind why liberal women are supportive of importing Muslims into their countries, cities, and neighborhoods?

Despite all of the evidence that this is a horrible idea, they still do it.

This phenomenon is happening in all white countries.

I have to wonder how many of these liberal women are AWFLs – Affluent White Female Liberals – who always seem to focus on the wrong things and paint too many criminals as “victims” of whichever injustice is currently popular amongst them.

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This isn't all that surprising considering that more people have come to recognize that much of the climate change industry is being seen as a scam that is used only to raise money.

One of the first indications that people aren't buying what the Climate Cult Faithful are selling is that the Sierra Club has lost 60% 0f its members, “proving even the Green left can 'Go Woke, Get Broke.'" Then 350.org “suspended operations” earlier this month.

I have to wonder if some of this might also have to do with that fact that their dire predictions of climate doom haven't played out. Heck, they haven't even come close and people noticed.

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The following is something even the more savvy and open-minded climate change activists have admitted, something that is quite refreshing.

Ecological Impacts Of Offshore Windparks Are Worse Than Expected, New Study Finds

I've been hearing about some of the major negative effects of off-shore wind farms for some time, particularly when it comes to how they affect marine life and can cause warming of the atmosphere and sea surface water. (It's not just that, but also the off-shore wind farms are more expensive to build and to maintain, and don't have the service life of land-based wind turbines and require more frequent maintenance due to the hostile environment.)

How can wind turbines warm the climate? The secret lies in the vortices and the altered air circulation.

1. The rotors extract energy from the wind. This creates vortex structures that spread over wide areas.

2. These vortices weaken the natural mixing of the lower air layers and the surface water.

3. The natural cooling capacity of the sea surface is thereby reduced. Heat cannot be dissipated as easily, which intensifies the temperature increase at the sea surface. This additional heat rises into the atmosphere.

Measurements confirm this effect: there are slight but constant temperature increases near the ground. In densely concentrated wind farms, these effects can reinforce each other.

Moreover, the impacts are not just local; analyses show that the effects of the vortices extend over more than 100 kilometers and cause measurable temperature increases up to 200 meters in altitude.

While I wasn't aware that wind farms could cause warming, I have heard reports of whales being affected by the infrasound generated by the wind turbine rotors which can confuse them and affect their health. But the effects of infrasound doesn't affect just whales and other marine life. It can affect humans as well. (This isn't just caused by offshore wind farms, but by wind turbines in general.)

Read The Whole Thing.

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And that's the post-holiday news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we've had a little snow on Sunday, are expecting more snow on Tuesday, and where Monday doesn't really matter this week.

Observations From The Road

It being an extended holiday weekend, I had the opportunity to travel New Hampshire and Massachusetts highways on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Local Shops Saturday, though only one of those three days was for travel to and from the gathering of the WP clan to celebrate Thanksgiving. Friday's travel was to meet up with a couple of long-time friends for dinner followed by a concert by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, something that has become a bit of a tradition as this was the third time we have done so during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The final trip was down to meet up with my aforementioned friends at one of those friend's home to help raise an antenna to be used for our mutual amateur radio hobby.

I figure that taking in those three days of travel I have driven the trusty RAM 1500 somewhere around 500 miles.

One of the things most obvious things I observed with all that driving on Thursday, Friday, and today?

Just about everyone was traveling above the posted speed limits. Even me.

Speeds I observed ran anywhere between 5 and 25 miles per hour above the posted limit.

On my trip home from the WP Sister's place on Thanksgiving afternoon speeds ran between 70 and 80 miles per hour. On Saturday on my way to and from dinner and the concert, highway speeds had to be between 75 and 85 per hour...even in the 'slow' lane. No one was traveling at the posted speed limits. No one.

On my trip down to my friend's place in the southern part of New Hampshire it was pretty much the same thing, but the speeds I observed people traveling were as high as 90. (The posted limit was 65 for the most part.) I was the 'slowpoke', driving in the slow (right-hand) lane at between 75 and 80 from the time I got on the Interstate in Concord and got off the Interstate in Windham. Traffic wasn't heavy and there were three, four, or five travel lanes depending on where along the Interstate I was traveling. Driving at the posted speed limit would have meant being a moving traffic obstruction and possibly causing a traffic accident. (This goes back to a lesson I learned from a couple of friends of mine who were State Troopers 'back in the day'. They told me it was safer to travel at a speed that kept up with the rest of the traffic rather than being that “moving traffic obstruction”. The WP Dad learned that lesson on Texas when he was pulled over for going too slow – 70 mph – when everyone else was doing 85. The Texas trooper told him the same thing my State Trooper friends told me.)

I don't recall seeing so many motorists driving at such high speeds like I saw over this holiday weekend. I have to wonder if the posted limits are too low, something that is quite possible. The Interstate I usually travel has a posted speed limit of 70 mph once you are north of Concord and people would push that to 75. But it seems like the posted speed limits were being universally ignored during the holiday week.

I wasn't like the State Police in Massachusetts and New Hampshire weren't stopping speeders. I saw more than a few motorists pulled over for speeding. One in New Hampshire blew by me north of the tolls on the Interstate and I'm estimating he was going over 100 mph. I saw him pulled over a couple of miles further down the highway and in this case he was out of his car and in handcuffs. Not surprising since he blew through a speed trap at that speed. With speeds like he was going it is more than just getting a speeding ticket.

I wonder if we'll be seeing this “Everyone Driving Above The Speed Limit” phenomenon during the upcoming Christmas holiday?

Friday Funny - She Caught Me

Thoughts On A Sunday

Here it is, the weekend before Thanksgiving, and things are busy, at least for me. While I am taking off this entire week from work, it doesn't mean I won't be working. It just means I'll be whittling away at my “To Do” list, taking care of things at The Gulch in preparation for the upcoming winter. That includes rearranging the contents in the garage to make winter tools – snow shovels (both manual and electric), the ice melt buckets, and the roof rake – more accessible while putting away the 'warm weather' tools which means putting them in one of the back corners of the garage, as well as the 'boat' stuff which has gone up into the attic.

I am also emptying out my storage unit, one that has held some of the stuff from The Manse since the move to The Gulch 7 years ago. I had to dispose of a lot of stuff in the garage's attic in order to make room for the things in the storage unit. I expect to have most of it moved here to The Gulch over this coming week and finishing up a week or so before Christmas. (In case you are wondering, the ex and I got rid of a lot of stuff before we sold The Manse. A lot of stuff.) The ex has been doing her due diligence regarding the storage unit, having already moved a lot of her things out over the past month or so. It never ceases to amaze me just how much stuff we can accumulate over the years.

When it comes to Thanksgiving itself, the WP Mom, my dear brother, and I will be heading down to the younger WP Sister's home to celebrate the day. A good portion of the WP clan will be there. One of my nieces, however, will be unable to attend as she is overseas working. She does plan to come back to home for Christmas, but for the most part she will be working overseas for the next two years.

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Why doesn't this surprise me in the least? It isn't like we haven't seen it before.

This certainly looks like astroturfing to me.

I guess if you can't find any actual anti-semitic MAGA Americans you have to find or hire people to portray them, even if they aren't actually Americans.

It's almost like the woke-Right is just an astroturfed foreign op to fracture MAGA from within.

Ya think?

And then there's this: The number of people on the ‘American online right’ exposed to be foreigners is staggering.

It's all astroturfing.

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You know “they” are out to get Trump when even some media are willing to outright lie. It went so far that the venerable BBC doctored a video to make it seem Trump said things he did not say. Trump has not taken this lying down and has filed a lawsuit against the BBC for doing so.

...Donald Trump is preparing to sue the storied news and entertainment company for between $1 billion and $5 billion. That “B” for “bankrupt.” “I have an obligation to do it,” Trump said Friday. Why? Primarily because the BBC meddled in the 2024 presidential election. How? In a Panorama program called “Trump: A Second Chance?” they tampered with footage from the January 6, 2021, Trump rally in order to make it seem as though Trump was urging his supporters to storm the Capitol. He wasn’t. The BBC then aired the doctored footage in October 2024, just a week before the election.

Trump said that he wants monetary damages. He wants to stop the BBC from doing to others what it did to him. He also said that he wants the BBC to explain in court why they created and aired the doctored video.

If anyone believes it's only the BBC pulling stunts like that they'd be wrong. We see selective editing that takes things said out of context as a means of trying to make it seem Trump meant something other than what he actually said.

Personally, I hope Trump bankrupts the BBC.

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Oh NO!! We're all doomed! DOOMED, I SAY!

Well, not really. But to hear it from the Climate Change Faithful we were supposed to be experiencing increasing numbers of hurricanes along with many more severe hurricanes because of Glowball Warmening. But is seems Mother Nature didn't get the memo since we've been seeing just the opposite – fewer named storms with 2025 reaching a 10-year low with only 13 names storms in 2025.

With the 2025 hurricane season wrapping up this was one of the lowest hurricane numbers in recent years. With only 13 names storms this is down from 19 last year and 23 the year before and is a 10 YEAR LOW for tropical Storm activity!

And the "experts" spent literally months telling us that this was going to a historically high year for Storm activity - NOPE it was a 10 year low, with two years of declining activity.

Check out the linked post to see the previous nine years records.

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Seeing how businesses and residents are fleeing California for greener pastures, is it any wonder the Pyrite State's college students are doing likewise?

In 2022, California experienced a net loss of nearly 24,000 students who chose to attend college in other states, according to data from the Public Policy Institute of California. That number has nearly quadrupled since 2002 and now represents 15% of the state’s college-bound high school graduates.

Most of these students are not going to more prestigious institutions.

Instead they're enrolling in schools with lower admission standards and weaker academic outcomes, often at a higher cost. Public universities in Arizona and Oregon are among the top destinations.

--snip--

Despite generous state funding, families are increasingly looking elsewhere, often sacrificing quality or affordability to escape a system burdened by overcrowding, ideological activism, and bureaucracy.

You know it's getting bad when families don't want their college-bound children to go through the indoctrination California forces on college students.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee where we're getting ready for Thanksgiving, some of the ponds actually have a skim of ice on them, and some of the ski resorts have already opened for business.

Oh Canada!

I keep hearing and seeing news and opinions about Wexit – the exit of Canada's western provinces – because of Ottawa's increasing interference with their economies and increasing levies being imposed upon them. They increasingly see themselves as Ottawa's “ATM” as all they get for the taxes and fees levied are increasing restrictions on their economic activities. To get a better fell for why Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Yukon feel they can do better without Canada and go independent, or alternately, join the United States, particularly since their economies are so closely tied with that of the United States to begin with, check this out:


He makes good points about the ties between the western provinces and the US. Whether those strengthen because the provinces withdraw from Canada or join the US will be up to the residents of those provinces. In either case, Ottawa can be see to carry the blame for the possible dissolution of Canada, a once great nation.

Friday Funny -Things You Can Say About Your Dinner...

I'll Tell You The Story - Binky's Attic Of Old Friends

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been a very busy day for yours truly, said day including a trip out the NH Seacoast to celebrate the birthdays of my grand-nephew and grand-niece. One of the WP Sisters also came up to The Gulch from the People’s Republic of Taxachusetts Saturday evening with her boyfriend, staying overnight and going to the Seacoast as well. It meant a lot of changes and a not unexpected upheaval of my Sunday routine. For one thing I didn’t even start writing this until well past 8pm. I usually start Saturday night or early Sunday morning and peck away at it throughout the day. But that wasn’t happening today.

This also meant that I haven’t been able to finish up in getting the Official Weekend Pundit Linux Desktop computer squared away. There are still a couple of steps I need to complete before I have it restored to full function. They aren’t difficult, but they are time-consuming, and I haven’t had the time to do so.

Oh, and one more thing that threw a wrench into the weekend works: The trusty (but no longer rusty) RAM 1500 is still in the body shop and unlikely to be ready before this coming Tuesday.

As such, this will be a greatly abbreviated TOAS post, something I am loath to do.

==+++++==

Oh, this next thing is going to work out well…NOT.

Fannie Mae is removing minimum credit score requirements.

I have to ask if this is just another version of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) that had banks giving mortgages to people who in no way could afford to make mortgage payments. Interest Only mortgages were popular where the homeowner would only be paying interest on the mortgage for a set period of time. But once they also had to start paying on the loan principle they could no longer afford their payments. Some of the thinking by folks who took such loans was along the lines of “If we get into trouble, we can just sell the house.” The problem was that so many people got into trouble that a lot of homes went on the market at the same time and there were a lot more sellers than buyers. There was also the so-called NINJA (No Income, No Job or Assets) mortgages issued, again because of the ‘incentives’ under the CRA. Is the removal of the minimum credit score requirements going to lead to a repeat of that debacle?

Under the existing system at least one person on the loan had to have a 620+ credit score with no exceptions.

That’s now gone and home-buyers will be evaluated “using a holistic, risk-based assessment.” What? Can anyone tell me what that means? The below is what “they” say will be used:

• Credit history and payment patterns
• Income stability
• Savings and assets
• Property factors
• Overall borrower + loan profile

There’s a lot more in the article that explains the changes by Fannie Mae, but it isn’t giving me a good feeling, particularly in light of the continuing increase in the cost of housing.

Will this end up creating a repeat of what we experienced starting in 2007 and lasting through 2011?

==+++++==

And this was the (abbreviated) news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we saw some snow on the ground this morning, the winds have been gusting enough to make it interesting driving on the roads and highways, and more wind is on the way.

Sick To Death Of "Epstein Epstein Epstein"

It seems the whole Epstein debacle keeps popping in and out of the media spotlight. I know I can’t speak for anyone else, but quite frankly I am sick to death of the whole thing. So much of it revolves around the Democrats’ insistence that Trump was one of his clients, citing ‘proof’ of e-mails, ones they won’t show unredacted, which also have problems with timelines as some Democrats have claimed Trump was taking advantage of underage girls while at the same time he was with friends and family while also under the eyes of the media. Somehow, he was in two places at the same time.

There have been other claims of all kinds of alleged misdeeds Trump committed, none of them substantiated and others having been proved to be total fabrications by either the Clinton or Biden campaigns, yet some Democrats keep trying to use them as ‘proof’ even though they were debunked years ago.

Every time I hear some news ‘report’ mentioning Epstein, Epstein’s list, Epstein’s island on one of the network news broadcasts, I cringe because I know they will bleat about Trump and Epstein again…repeatedly. I guess the media is taking a page from Joseph Goebbels book, telling the Big Lie over and over again until people believe it and will act like it’s the truth, holding on to that belief like a new religion. The truth won’t matter, even with positive proof that their belief is based upon a Big Lie. They will believe it’s true.

Frankly, I wish all of the documentation on Epstein was either released to the public or destroyed because I am sick to death of the whole thing.

Friday Funny - Porch Pirates Get Theirs

50 Years Ago Today

It is hard to believe that it’s been 50 years since the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald sank during a storm on Lake Superior. While it wasn’t big news “back in the day”, Gordon Lightfoot immortalized the sinking and the loss of 29 men in his song “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”, telling the story of the ship and the men who manned it.



When Gordon Lightfoot passed away in 2023, “the Mariners' Church in Detroit (the "Maritime Sailors' Cathedral" mentioned in "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald") honored Lightfoot the day after his death by ringing its bell a total of 30 times, 29 for each of the crewmen lost on the Edmund Fitzgerald and the final time for Lightfoot himself.”

There have been a small number of covers of the song, but only one has stood out, at least to me, that being the one performed by Home Free. It was released early this year in commemoration of the 50 years since the Edmund Fitzgerald was lost with all hands.

Thoughts On A Sunday

The Weekend Pundit Computer Follies continue, with efforts to restore both the laptop and desktop having been partially successful. I did manage to backup all the files off of the desktop by booting Linux from a USB key and copying the files onto one of my external 2TB hard disks. That was one of my major concerns, but everything was intact. Restoring the laptop, on the other hand, has been problematic as it did not want to boot from the USB key. I didn’t have this issue when I did so a few months ago in order to backup all the files that resided there. I keep getting an error I have not yet been able to translate. I haven’t given up, I’m just taking a step back to see if I have another approach I can use. I may try booting to a different distribution of Linux to see if it may be a problem with the disk image I’m using to do all of this.

One thing I did complete today was dropping off the trusty RAM 1500 at the body shop this afternoon. It will be waiting for them first thing in the morning.

And one more thing I finished – cleaning out the front gutters on The Gulch…again. I took care of it early yesterday and with all the wind and rain overnight they had collected a lot more leaves. I will also be doing likewise for a neighbor.

It seems the remaining leaves decided to come off the trees all at the same time which has made it an ongoing chore to keep the gutters open over the past couple of days. With the rain we have coming overnight and on Tuesday, I must keep the gutters clean. Thank goodness it is only one set of gutters on the front of The Gulch and the neighbor’s house I must attend to, so it only takes about 10 minutes or so to take care of each of them.

==+++++==

This doesn’t exactly surprise me. My only question about the move is why did Ford what so long to do so?

Report: Ford Might Kill the F-150 Lightning Electric Pickup Truck.

Seeing as the F-150 Lightning did so poorly in towing comparisons I can see why Ford might be willing to kill the Lightning. My old 2004 F-150 with the V6 and four-speed automatic outperformed the Lightning when towing, and cost a small fraction of the cost of a Lightning, even taking into account inflation. Some folks may have bought it for the same reason folks who bought the Tesla Cyber Truck and the Rivian, and it had nothing to do with their suitability for use as an actual work truck. It’s been virtue signaling across the board.

With that in mind, I will not lament its passing should Ford kill off the Lightning.

==+++++==

I don’t know about you, but I am finding it more difficult to shift back to Standard Time than I have in the past. Being that I live on the eastern edge of the Eastern Time Zone might have something to do with it, so that sunset is around 4pm now and will be closer to 3:30pm by the winter solstice. (Actually, the sun will dip down behind the surrounding hills by 2:30pm.)

I am still waking up at 4:30am EST, a good hour earlier than necessary. It’s taking me a lot longer to adjust to the time change. Frankly, we here in New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts would be better served if we stayed on Daylight Savings Time year-round, or alternately, moved from the Eastern Time Zone to the Atlantic Time Zone and stayed on Standard Time. Being at the extreme eastern edge of the Eastern Time Zone makes the shift back and forth a real pain. I know it’s likely the folks on the extreme western edge of the Eastern Time Zone would rather stay on Standard Time year-round. I think that is true of the four time zones in the Continental US, but probably more so in the Eastern Time Zone since it seems to me it is wider than the Central, Mountain, and Pacific Time Zones.

I know most folks would prefer to have more daylight later in the day despite it being darker for longer in the morning. Some make the argument that dark mornings will put school children at risk, but the same argument could be made for them being at risk at the end of the afternoon as well.

I think the twice-yearly switch between Standard and Daylight Savings Time has outlived its usefulness, at least on the eastern and western edges of the time zones. It also makes no sense that Standard Time is in effect for four months and Daylight Savings Time for eight months.

Let’s save time and annoyance by staying on one time or other.

==+++++==

This is something I’ve known for a long time, “this” being that socialism/communism doesn’t work. It never has and never will, particularly if it’s human beings trying it. We have hundreds of years of history showing again and again that it doesn’t work. One of the first trials here in the US was the Mayflower Compact of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts back in the 1620’s. The colony almost died out because the “From each according to their ability. To each according to their needs” didn’t work because everyone wanted to draw from the common larder but no one wanted to work to fill it. Once the Plymouth colony abandoned their experiment in socialism it started to thrive. But it seems we can’t learn the lessons from the endless failures and now it looks like New York City is going to learn that lesson the hard way.

In January 1996, Democratic President Bill Clinton declared during his State of the Union address that “the era of big government is over.” And following America’s decisive victory in the Cold War, it seemed it might be so. Socialism began as a hypothesis – that central planning would improve the human condition. The ensuing decades-long experiment, stretching across all corners of the world, resulted in the opposite: Where communism spread, liberty’s flame was extinguished, ushering in unprecedented human suffering for billions.

By every empirical measure, the socialist hypothesis has been falsified. And yet, socialism is catching fresh wind in its sails – not in Moscow, Havana, or Hanoi, but in New York City, capitalism’s capital.

This week, New York voters elected self-declared and unapologetic socialist Zohran Mamdani, a man endorsing proposals like widespread rent control, fare-free public transit, and government-run grocery stores. In November 2025, the Democratic mayor-elect declared during his victory speech, “We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve and no concern too small for it to care about.”

The incoming mayor’s policies have been tried and tested many times, and robust evidence shows they don’t work, putting their continued advance in the same category as flat Earth theory, Moon-landing denial, and chemtrail conspiracies.

While the linked article posits that socialism and its even more malignant cousin, communism, was more of a modern phenomenon, but as I mentioned above. It’s been tried again and again under different names in many places and it never worked.

If Mamdani gets his way I think we’ll see New York City starting to resemble the Moscow of the Bad Old Days of the Soviet Union and not a Socialist Utopia.

==+++++==

I think we can place the following under the “Well, That’s Obvious You Moron” heading.

The More Violence You Find Acceptable the More Violence You Will Get

I think we can safely replace the word “violence” in the above with “crime” and it will be equally valid. We’ve seen that amply demonstrated in US cities that have been ignoring crimes and taking on bail reform of the kind that means little or no bail for criminal miscreants who then go out and commit more crimes. Then they wonder why crime is skyrocketing, not making the connection between their actions and the dramatic rise in crime. This in turn leads to businesses and citizens deciding it is no longer viable to remain in the crime-ridden areas and leave.

In the case of the article linked above, they are looking at violence as being politically motivated and the worries that people have about the increasing violence, particularly politically motivated violence. Their concerns are no less valid.

==+++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the winds and rain have done a good job of stripping many of the remaining leaves from the trees, those same leaves are clogging gutters and causing some roads to be as slippery as if they were covered in ice and snow.

Computers And Trucks

It’s a busy weekend for yours truly between trying to resurrect two of the Weekend Pundit computers and prepping the trusty RAM 1500 for its visit to the local body shop.

One computer, the Official Weekend Pundit laptop seems to be working after I reloaded the OS – Ubuntu Linux – and seeing if I lost anything. Fortunately, I have a full backup of the laptop data files which I will check on Sunday. The other computer, the Official Weekend Pundit Desktop, also needs the OS reloaded. I need to download the latest image and create a bootable USB key so I can do that. It gives me the option to run Linux from the USB key or to load the OS. I plan to run it from the USB key first and see if I can access the files on the hard drive. If I can, I will backup the files before reloading the OD, in this case Linux Mint.

I have no idea why two Linux machines could not boot after installing an upgrade and restarting. This happened about 6 months apart and I haven’t seen an answer on the Linux forums I’ve pinged.

I’ve used Linux for years and never had any issues with it until recently, something surprising. Hopefully, I can get the desktop squared away by the end of the weekend.

As mentioned above, the trusty RAM 1500 is headed to the body shop first thing Monday morning to have both front fenders replaced as the rust has gotten to them (though only in two places on each fender). One of the ‘preps’ I did was perform the twice yearly repaint of the RAM’s bed with a half-can of Rustoleum, something I do to deal with the scratches on the truck bed from all of the stuff that goes into and out of it during the year. The scratches generally aren’t deep or down to the metal. Rather they are surface scratches that expose the primer layer. If there’s rust showing the wire wheel gets installed on my drill to get rid of the rust, then primer is sprayed and once that dries, a coat of Rustoleum. I haven’t had to deal with any deep scratches/rust streaks over the past year and a half, and that suits me fine.

The trusty RAM 1500 will be in the body shop until Friday, and the week after that it will be going to the mechanics shop for an oil and lube job, tire rotation, and undercoating. Then the it will be ready for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday and the travel it will entail.

Friday Funny - Confusing As It Gets

I'll Tell You The Story - Binky And Megabucks

Thoughts On A Sunday

As you may have seen in yesterday’s post, my Linux desktop failed to boot after an OS update. I ma using my work laptop to craft today’s musings, but I am hoping to have everything squared away by the end of the day tomorrow as I am taking my time before applying the needed fix. One thing I did was boot Linux Mint from a USB key which allowed me to access files on the machine and back up the most recent ones onto an external drive in case my restoration effort fails, and I must reload the OS from scratch. It’s a pain in the butt, but at least I can be sure I won’t lose anything…I hope.

It was quite windy up this way over the previous two days and a lot of leaves have been blown off quite a few of the trees. Some are bare, primarily those which hit their peak colors early. Those that followed recently still retain a lot of their leaves and I don’t expect to see them fall anytime soon. The winds also caused quite a few power outages across the state, but fortunately our area wasn’t affected.

==+++++==

Today’s post will be abbreviated for the reason mentioned above.

==+++++==

I know it was getting bad, but I didn’t realize it was getting this bad.

NBC News Spins Illegal Alien Pedophile as “Undocumented Father”

Really?

An NBC News affiliate is facing backlash for attempting to portray an illegall immigrant with an extensive criminal background—including lewd and lascivious acts with a child—as merely an “undocumented father.”

Gerardo Rojas-Leyva, an illegal immigrant whose arrest by federal agents was covered by NBC Bay Area … has “a rap sheet including lewd and lascivious acts with a child, battery of a spouse, domestic battery, and providing compensation for prostitution,” according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

How can they possibly explain their ‘support’ of a pedophile with a long criminal history?

==+++++==

This is something of which I have been aware for some time.

Study: Onshore Wind Turbines Are Major Cause Of Environmental Damage

I’ve known of the environmental issues with off-shore wind turbines and have seen more than a few reports of the effects of land-based wind turbines as well. However, now there’s some data showing that such damage isn’t just anecdotal but is a real problem.

Fresh insights into the ecological devastation caused by onshore wind turbines around the world are contained in a shocking new paper published last month by a group of ecologists in Nature. The paper is paywalled and has attracted little mainstream media interest, but it highlights research that illustrates that the effect of utility-scale wind energy production “can be far reaching and sometimes have large and unexpected consequences for biodiversity”. An annual figure of around one million bats are killed in the countries with the highest number of turbines, but harmful effects are seen in many other parts of the ecosystem. The number of top predators such as jaguars, jungle cats and golden jackals can be changed by turbines in tropical forest gaps, leading to the “possibility for cascading effects” along similar latitudinal levels.

Yet another example that “green” energy isn’t automatically better than more traditional means of generating electricity, but that it can be worse.

==+++++==

The trusty RAM 1500 is heading to the body shop next week to get the last of the rust taken care of, in this case on the two front fenders. I stopped by the body shop last week to get an updated estimate for the work to be done and then scheduled the work.

As with the original estimate a couple of years ago, both front fenders will be replaced rather than repaired as the owner of the body shop, someone I trust, stated “If we just fix it, you’ll be back in two or three years to have it done again.” At least he was able to get me OEM replacements for the cost of aftermarket fenders.

Some of you may wonder why I’ve been putting thousands of dollars into an 11-year-old pickup truck. The answer is simple: It’s a lot cheaper than buying a new pickup.

Seeing as a 2025 version of my present pickup costs about three times what I spent to buy my 2014, it is a lot cheaper to put the money into the existing pickup. While it is 11-years-old, it only has 101,000 miles on it and it is in excellent condition mechanically. I have kept up with all of the regular maintenance as well as preventative maintenance to keep it that way. I figure between all of that and the body work over the past couple of years I’ll have dropped about $8500 into my pickup. That’s a lot cheaper than having to make loan payments on a $75,000 truck. What I’ve spent would amount to approximately 8 months of loan payments on a new truck. (I’ve seen some auto loans running $1000 a month. Thanks, but no thanks.)

Once the body work is done, the trusty RAM 1500 will be headed to the mechanic for an oil change, lube, tire rotation, and undercoating. It will all be done before Thanksgiving comes around and it will all set for another New England winter.

==+++++==

In light on my tale above, I find it interesting that Chrysler has decided to resurrect the Hemi-V8 in the RAM 1500 pickups. It had switched over to the twin-turbo inline V6 Hurricane engine as a means of reducing some costs (and emissions), but Mopar enthusiasts didn’t like that and a revamped 5.7-liter Hemi is returning to the RAM1500 line for the 2026 models.

After Tavares’ departure from Stellantis late last year, the company immediately set to work righting the ship, and the reintroduction of the Hemi became one of its top priorities. Aside from a few tweaks that were needed to get it to play nice with the truck’s recently revamped electrical architecture, the 5.7-liter Hemi returned to the Ram 1500 lineup for the 2026 model year essentially unchanged from the version that had bowed out in 2024.

Even with Ram’s eTorque mild hybrid system now standard for V-8-equipped models, the 5.7-liter Hemi still lags behind the standard-output Hurricane engine in terms of both horsepower and torque (395 horsepower and 410 lb-ft of torque versus 420 hp and 469 lb-ft, respectively), and it requires an additional $1,200 outlay over the more powerful standard-output I-6. So why, you might ask, are these less powerful and more expensive V-8-powered trucks selling so well?

The baritone bark that’s triggered by a press of the engine start/stop button immediately makes it clear what you paid for. In a stroke of product planning brilliance, Ram also decided to make a sport exhaust system standard equipment on all 2026 Ram 1500s equipped with the V-8, and while the 5.7 might be getting on in years, it still sounds fantastic both at idle and when you’re muscling the truck through traffic. There’s an emotional connection here that you just don’t get from the inline-six, which, while totally competent at its job, is virtually silent in almost everything Stellantis has used it in so far. Even in the admittedly excellent Ram 1500 RHO, which uses an active exhaust setup that allows the high-output Hurricane to sing the song of its people a bit louder, it just feels like something’s a little bit off.

As someone who has owned a few turbocharged vehicles (a ’85 Dodge Daytona and an ’88 Dodge Dayton Shelby Z), they do have the advantage of lower weight and a lot of horsepower. The only downside to owning both of those cars was that I had to use high-octane gas – minimum 91 octane – in order to extract all of the horsepower and fuel economy. My present RAM 1500 requires minimum 89 octane mid-grade gas, but it’s a lot cheaper than the high test gas.

Give me the rumble of a V8 any day…

==+++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee where the leaves have finally dulled and are falling, nights are getting close to freezing, and where Monday is coming around to plague us yet again.

Oh...Doggonnit!!

The Officcial Weekend Pundit Linux Desktop suffered a malfunction after an OS upgrade and I am in the nidst of a recovery before reloading the OS. As such, I did not put together a post for Saturday. There will be a Thoughts On A Sunday post as I should have the computer up and running again by then.

Friday Funny - Fluffy On Disneyland

I'll Tell You The Story - Haunted New Hampshire

Considering Friday is Halloween, I thought this might be appropriate.

Thoughts On A Sunday

We’re finally seeing rather cool temperatures up here at the lake. So far we have not seen freezing temperatures overnight, but the nighttime temps have been in the upper 30’s around here. Daytime temps have been in the 50’s, so it isn’t time to break out the heavier jackets.

We have had some rain and ironically that has helped some of the fall colors to ‘pop out’ seemingly overnight. Though we were supposedly past peak foliage colors, I have been seeing more trees changing and with more brilliant colors than we saw during the alleged peak. However, due to the lengthy drought they do not last very long and the trees seem to be shedding them more quickly than is usual.

The water level on the lake continues to drop, though this time it seems to be due to what is called “draw down”, where the lake level is dropped on purpose to help prevent ice damage to docks and piers during the winter months. Quite a few of us are asking they the state is doing this seeing as how the lake level was already close to the normal draw down level due to the months long drought. It doesn’t make sense to us.

==+++++==

The New Hampshire legislature has brought forth a bill that “will reaffirm that it is the state legislature…that holds the sole authority to regulate weapons on public property.” Not state agencies. Not local governments.

House Bill 609, sponsored by Rep. Samuel Farrington (R-Rochester), seeks to close what he calls loopholes in the state’s existing firearms preemption law after learning the New Hampshire Department of Transportation barred its employees from carrying firearms on the job.

“The intent here is to emphasize that the Legislature’s preemption is the last word on the subject,” Farrington told the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.

New Hampshire’s current preemption law , signed in 2003 by then-Gov. Craig Benson, already reserves regulation of firearms, components, ammunition, and supplies to the Legislature. In 2011, Gov. John Lynch expanded that statute to include knives.

Farrington’s proposal would extend those protections even further—covering stun guns, Tasers, pepper spray, and other self-defense tools. It also bars any state, county, or municipal agency from creating or enforcing its own weapons rules that conflict with state law.

If this bill becomes law, a lot of so-called “Gun Free” zones would be eliminated. Not that Gun Free zones have ever stopped criminal miscreants from carrying and/or using guns in those zones. All they do is signal that everyone on those zones are unarmed and are easy targets.

==+++++==

It looks like Germany is taking yet another step in de-industrialization by eliminating yet another source of energy needed by its industrial sector, in this case by demolishing the cooling towers of an inactive nuclear power plant.

I find it inconceivable that Germany has shut down and is decommissioning its nuclear power plants in favor of wind turbines, coal, and Russian natural gas to generate electricity. I have a feeling that Germany will end up being yet another object lesson showing why governments shouldn’t be listening to the rabid and deluded “green energy” faithful when it comes to what is and is not green energy.

==+++++==

I have to wonder if this is true:

Just the sight of an American Flag entices people to vote for Republicans.

Can it be that easy?

==+++++==

I’m not sure I understand the logic behind this reasoning, that being that dropping gasoline prices are actually bad news for President Trump.

Really?

To recap: low gasoline prices are bad for Trump. If prices fell further, that would be more bad. If prices went up again, that’s more bad news for Trump.

The national average gasoline price stood at $3.07 per gallon on Friday, according to AAA. That’s down from $3.16 a month ago and $3.15 a year ago.

Yesterday I saw gas prices at the gas station where I usually buy my gasoline for the trusty RAM 1500, with regular at $2.79 and mid-grade (89 octane) at $3.19 which are down about 20 cents from about a week-and-a-half ago.

A drop in gas prices isn’t all that unusual around here once we get into mid-October as tourist traffic drops off after summer and again after fall foliage season comes to an end.

I’m curious as to what heating fuel - #2 heating oil and propane – will cost over the heating season.

==+++++==

Well, the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout was dropped off at the boatyard for winterization and storage this past week. It will be serviced, cleaned, shrink wrapped, and then stored away for the winter. Seeing the large number of boats waiting at the boatyard to be winterized I figure it will be at least another week or two before they get to it, something not unusual at all. Even with boats being pulled out of the lake earlier than usual because of the low water level, there are still quite a few that are still at their slips in our local cove. Again, something that isn’t all that unusual.

==+++++==

And that’s the (abbreviated) news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the temps are getting chillier, the boats are still coming out of the water, and where Daylight Savings Time will be ending next weekend...

Democrats Deception

Listening to the rhetoric flying back and forth about what is now being called “The Schumer Shutdown” and the media’s reaction to it one would think that it’s The Mean Old Fascist Republicans stealing food from the mouths of homeless orphans. But we must remember that the battle of the Continuing Resolution has to do with funding the government until the end of November until a full budget can be presented, period. However, the Democrats in the Senate are using the shutdown as a means to extort $1.5 trillion taxpayer dollars to fund things that won’t make the cut in an actual budget, or that the Democrats aren’t willing to negotiate in order to get what’s needed versus what they want, even if what they want is not wanted by a majority of the American people.

They have used the “We need the expiring tax subsidies for Obamacare to be extended or millions will lose their health insurance” trope as one ‘reason’ to extort the Republicans by blocking the CR. This is something that could be taken care of during normal budget negotiations. (I am going to mention that the expiration of the tax subsidies was built in to the Obamacare legislation. Democrat legislation.

They are choosing to ignore that they also want to force taxpayers to pay for benefits for millions of illegal aliens who are not eligible for them while ignoring American citizens that need their benefits continued. Any money spent on illegal aliens should be for sending them back to their countries of origin, not providing them with housing, medical care, and other welfare benefits.

Am I being heartless? No. I am merely stating what reason and logic dictates. We have a tough enough time meeting the needs of American citizens without having to do the same for up to 20 million illegal aliens. Or worse, putting the needs of those illegal aliens ahead of those of American citizens. But somehow, that doesn’t bother the Democrats in the least.

Schumer’s Shutdown has created conditions that are strangling the benefits of American citizens in need and the pay of numerous government employees, including the military, as a means of extorting funding for things they know won’t otherwise make it through the normal budgeting process.

Shame on them.

Friday Funny - Am I Adopted?

I'll Tell You The Story - Binky Does Standup

Thoughts On A Sunday

The weather has been nice up here at the lake, warmer than it has been over the previous few days. One thing that nicer weather made easier was pulling the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout out of the water, something BeezleBub, our friend Bruce, and I took care of yesterday afternoon. My boating season is officially over.

The boat presently resides at Beezlebub’s as I have some work I need to take care of before it’s winterized and stored away for the winter. Today was spent taking care of those last things: emptying the boat of all the gear, making sure the ‘well’ drains are open and all the water is gone, removing the mooring lines, removing the anchors, wiping down the interior surfaces, vacuum the carpeting in the cockpit, and removing any of the mildew or mold that has accumulated. The boat will be moved to the boatyard for the aforementioned winterization and storage on Tuesday afternoon. It will reside there until early May when the boat will go to the fiberglass shop for some minor repairs before it is put back in the water.

One thing I must mention is that ‘leaf peeping’ season is still in full swing, being we are at or just past peak here at the lake. I have to say that the colors have been somewhat muted, due primarily to the drought we’ve been dealing with since early June. The leaves still change but do so less evenly than we usually see, once changed they do not last nearly as long, and they fall off the trees sooner than usual. But that hasn’t stopped the tourists from visiting and spending their time and money here.

==+++++==

I have been hearing the news about the No Kings protests and I have to wonder how big were they, really? One viral video supposedly showing a large number of protesters in Boston has one little problem…

It’s actually from 2017.

One giveaway? Not one of the trees shows even the hint of fall foliage colors which should be quite visible in Boston by now.

Is this one of those instances of “Fake But Accurate” reporting once touted by former CBS anchorman Dan Rather?

I do like Speaker Johnson’s take on the whole “No Kings” protests.

He didn't just call the protests ridiculous. He pointed out the obvious: if Trump really were the autocrat Democrats claim he is, none of those protests would have been possible in the first place. "If President Trump was a king, the government would be open right now," Johnson said. "If President Trump was a king, they would not have been able to engage in that free speech exercise out on the Mall."

Ayuh.

==+++++==

Umm, doesn’t this go against the very thing they’re trying to ‘fix’?

100,000 Amazon Trees Chopped Down to Build Road for COP30 Climate Conference

Wouldn’t it be better if they used a place that was already accessible?

Spare a thought for the BBC’s Justin Rowlatt as he considers his upcoming trip to the Brazilian city of Belém to report on COP30. Saving the world and its environment is his gig so how will he face the prospect of travelling down a new four-lane highway cut through the dense Amazon rainforest to help speed him and his 70,000 other political activists to their luxury hotels? Based on trees per acre, an estimated 100,000 mature specimens have been chopped down and logged to build the eight-mile Avenida Liberdade causing untold disruption to local wildlife. Happily, all is not lost in despair. If he wishes, the BBC’s activist-in-chief can consider recent findings published in Nature Plants that increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide have led to substantial growth in the remaining Amazon forest, with mature trees growing by over 6% a decade. Perhaps he could start promoting on the BBC the enormous benefits of CO2, rightly known as the gas of life. He could front a campaign to assuage his dented COP conscience along the lines: ‘Forward with Carbon Dioxide, not Chainsaws.’

This eight mile long road seems like a paradox, particularly in light of it being built to support the COP30 Climate Conference. Talk about hypocrisy. Then again, I have become convinced a lot of what goes on at COP is to support the worldwide scam that is climate change, allowing billions, if not trillions of dollars to be ‘obtained’ to spend on ‘fixing the problem’ even if that problem really doesn’t exist.

==+++++==

This doesn’t surprise me in the least.

Rhode Island Public Schools Sued for Discriminating Against White Teachers

White students are not always welcome in public schools. White teachers aren’t either:

A lawsuit recently filed by the U.S. Department of Justice alleges that the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) and Providence Public School District (PPSD) violated federal law by establishing a loan forgiveness program that is open to every ethnicity—except whites.

How many times does this have to be repeated?

You don’t cure racism by using racism.

Maybe the Department of Education needs to learn that too:

EPP Presses Education Department to Expose Hidden DEI and Discriminatory Aid Programs

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It looks like we’re in for some heavy – and much needed – rain starting Monday afternoon. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, we haven’t seen much rain since the beginning of June. It has had the water level of the lake a good foot-and-a-half below normal which has made it difficult to navigate the waters in some portions of Lake Winnipesaukee. Getting into the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout required me to sit on the dock in order to be able to step down on its transom. Getting out at the town docks was also problematic as it was a long way up onto the dock.

The ramp at the town docks was also problematic as some trailers couldn’t go deep enough down the ramp without going off the lower edge of the ramp in the process. This made pulling some of the larger boats out that much more difficult.

What gets me is that the state is still talking about what is called “draw down”, lowering the level of the lake before winter. We’re already seeing water levels that equal what we’d see after “draw down” and they want to drop the lake level even more?

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where boats are coming out of the water, the rains are coming...as is Monday. Again.

Average Price Of New Cars Above $50,000

That average new car prices have skyrocketed is not news to anyone paying attention. That the cause appears to be the sales of EVs causing this rise might be.

Kelley Blue Book, which is about as reliable a source as you can have for tracking vehicle pricing, says September was a watershed moment for new-vehicle pricing. It claims that, for the first time, the median price of a new car in the United States is over $50,000. And yes, the higher cost of EVs and the rapid uptick in EV purchases are to blame.

This finding isn’t sudden, though. EV sales have been on the rise for months, and the average cost of an EV hasn’t risen dramatically. The average EV selling price ($58,124) was up 3.5 percent in September when compared to August, but it’s considered a “normal” inflation rate. Year over year, EV pricing is essentially flat, Kelley Blue Book says. The average price for a new vehicle is $50,800.

That more EVs selling does drive up the average selling price of cars doesn’t automatically equate to all car prices having gone up. For instance, looking online I found the price for a new 2025 Honda Civic Sedan is $24,250 (MSRP), less than half the price of the average EV ($58,124).

I was curious to see what it would cost me to replace my 2014 RAM 1500 Express with it’s present day equivalent and I found the MSRP is $77,550, more than three times what I paid for my present pickup in 2017 ($24,150). In 2017 the MSRP for a new one was somewhere around $27,500. The price has more than doubled in 8 years. I know my pay hasn’t gone up anywhere near that over the same period of time. However, the present day price isn’t nearly as high as what I saw almost 2 years ago when I saw some listed for over $90,000! I had a local dealer here in New Hampshire offer me what I paid for my 2014 RAM when the market for used vehicles was hot. At the time it had less than 100,000 miles on it and was (and still is) in good shape.

As such, I will be doing my utmost to keep the trusty RAM 1500 in good shape as it will cost me far less to do so than to buy a new one. In fact, it will be going into the body shop early next month to have the last of the rust taken care of (both front fenders) before it gets undercoated prior to winter. I aim to make it last at least another nine years.

I understand that tariffs are having an effect on some new vehicle prices, so rising prices of some vehicles make sense. (The Honda Civic Sedan I mentioned above is manufactured in the US as are most of the parts used to make it.)

It will be interesting to see how the new and used car markets will be like going forward. I expect new car sales might flatten though used car sales may rise, much as happened a few years ago.

Friday Funny - It Was Getting Crowded In Heaven

I'll Tell You The Story - Old Movies With Binky

Thoughts On A Sunday

I can’t believe it’s Columbus Day Weekend already. The leaf peepers are out and about, particularly around here as we are supposedly approaching peak color. I’ve been seeing a lot of out-of-state license plates, a wider array than we see during the summer. I’ve also been seeing a lot more of those same vehicles wandering around, apparently lost. But I’m not seeing as many leaf peepers as usual for this season. The lack of rain which started in early June certainly hasn’t helped as the colors have been kind of muted this year.

I still see a lot of green here with only a few trees having turned and a few more just transitioning now, so the forecast that we’ll see peak color sometime this week seems to be wishful thinking. We’ll see.

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I’ve been hearing contradictory information about China, particularly its economy. The ‘official’ line from China’s government says everything is just fine, just some minor economic fluctuations that aren’t anything to worry about. Then you see something like the following from the China Observer YouTube channel that paints an entirely different picture:


Is this something that happened in one area of China or is it more widespread? If it’s widespread, just how bad is China’s economy? Is it just deep into a recession or is the economy on the edge of collapse? If it does collapse, what does that mean for both China and the rest of the world? It will certainly mean both economic and political problems for China, both internally and externally. Will China be unable to ‘help’ Russia in it’s three-year long “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine even if it gets Russian crude oils as payment?

My employer uses parts from China, more specifically optical and opto-electronic components used in fiber optic systems. We have been looking for alternate sources for some, finding them in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and pleasingly surprising, in the US. I have no doubt that our competitors are doing likewise as a “Just in case” move, just like we are.

China is also a large supplier of lithium-ion batteries, needed for phones, tablets, laptops, power tools, medical equipment and many other types of portable equipment as well as e-bikes and EV’s. However, there are a number other countries where lithium-ion batteries are manufactured.

All of this contradictory news and information brings to mind an old Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times.”

I have a feeling China is experiencing those “interesting times” writ large.

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New York Attorney General Letitia James isn’t getting anywhere near the abuse she deserves. Look up the word “hypocrite” in the dictionary and you’ll see her picture there.

She ran for office promising that she would “Get Trump” if she were elected. She did just that, using creative interpretation of banking laws to ‘prove’ that standard financial practices for obtaining loans was somehow fraudulent, found Trump liable, and got a $300+ million fine levied upon him. An appeals court found the fine was unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment by an appeals court for being so over-the-top.

But when she commits bank fraud while obtaining mortgages in Virginia by claiming her legal residence is in Virginia, that’s okay? Oh, and then there’s the issue of claiming her legal residence is in Virginia. That would automatically make her ineligible to be New York’s Attorney General because that office requires the Attorney General to be a legal resident of New York. Seems she’s found herself in the middle of a legal pickle, particularly now that she’s been indicted for decades of mortgage fraud.

After four years of relentless lawfare against President Trump, with Democrats shouting that “no one is above the law,” they’ve made one thing perfectly clear: in their world, Democrats are above the law. The evidence that New York Attorney General Letitia James engaged in mortgage fraud is extensive and damning, yet Democrats react with outrage, accusing Trump of “targeting his enemies,” with zero self-awareness or irony.

Make no mistake—unlike James’s baseless case against Trump, the proof that James herself broke the law is overwhelming. Conservative filmmaker and journalist Joel Gilbert laid out a detailed and troubling case, showing that her alleged pattern of mortgage fraud spans decades, and is far more serious than her defenders admit.

Speaking on Real America’s Voice, Gilbert made a detailed James’s extensive history of mortgage fraud.

“Letitia James probably should not have been charging Donald Trump with trumped-up charges of mortgage fraud in New York, given the fact that New York is a public record state and that all of her mortgages for 43 years were online for myself or anybody else to pull up,” Gilbert said. He then outlined a pattern of alleged mortgage fraud dating back to 1983, when James was just 24 years old. “She purchased her first home with her father, claiming that her father was her husband,” he said. “They purchased it as husband and wife in order to help Letitia qualify for a mortgage that she was not entitled to.”

The double standard of too many Democrats in power showed itself far too often during the Biden Administration. Now that the law applies to them again, they’re finding out their arrogance is coming back to bite them. James is going down and so is Senator Adam Schiff as it looks like he may have pulled similar mortgage fraud as well.

Time will tell how this all works out.

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This isn’t really all that surprising any more: Vice President JD Vance annihilates George Stephanopoulos in fiery live interview.

As the linked post states, it was so bad that ABC cut Vance’s feed.

Vance doesn’t suffer fools gladly and he told Stephanopoulos truths he didn’t want to here.

Trump’s Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, is much the same way as she doesn’t let the press get away with their usual shenanigans and calls them out on it all the time.

Refreshing, isn’t it?

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I’ve always liked reading about the Darwin Awards. The way people accidentally do themselves in never ceases to amaze me. One of my favorite types usually has something to do with stupid people trying to steal electrical cabling from inside buildings, telephone poles, electrical substations, and so on. More often then not they fry themselves when they try to cut a cable carrying thousands of volts using bolt cutters. It became so common that the Darwin Awards website no longer accepts such stories of self-elimination.

Sometimes it is the Runner Up stories that are entertaining, like this one:

He was told that his rental 4X4 wasn't good enough. He didn't believe them. Tourist in Kia Telluride Comes Dangerously Close to Tumbling Down Black Bear Pass, Forces Trail Closure.

People have died on Black Bear Pass, well, falling off the pass.

--snip--

It isn't exactly clear how he came to drive off the trail, since there seems to be plenty of room. (As these things go.) One of the commenters guessed that he was busy "looking at the scenery" instead of looking at the trail and paying attention to driving.

There are a couple of lessons.

• Not all 4X4s are created equal

• Not all roads are like they are where you live

• If a local gives you advice about local hazards, you should consider taking the advice.

There are probably more lessons, but that is enough to be going on with.

While I haven’t seen anything quite that severe here in New Hampshire, we have seen people who made the mistake of mindlessly following their GPS which can, during certain times of the year, lead people down roads that aren’t maintained during the winter and they end up getting stuck in the snow. Signs have been put up on some of those roads stating “Your GPS Is Lying To You. Turn Around Now.” or some such language. Other seasonal roads have had gates installed which are closed once winter weather rolls in. They also have signs stating the roads aren’t maintained or accessible during the winter. That still doesn’t stop some people from trying to take those roads.

Some folks just don’t get it.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather is cooler, the leaves are turning (slowly), and where I don’t have to worry about Monday this week because I have the day off.

Oh So True

I saw this on Facebook this morning and I nodded as I read it, recognizing everything as something that was true, something I had experienced myself and knew to be true.

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My name’s Richard. I’m 74.
And I’ve come to realize something about my generation: we are the bridge.
We were born in one world… and grew up in another.
A world where summers meant open windows, the hum of a box fan, and the smell of fresh-cut grass.
Where neighbors waved from their porches, and if your bike chain broke, you didn’t Google it — you knocked on a door and someone came out with a wrench.
We lived in a world built on patience.
We waited for letters to arrive.
We waited for the library to open.
We waited for our favorite song to play again on the radio — and when it finally did, it felt like magic.
Then, almost overnight, everything changed.
Phones shrank. Music became invisible.
News arrived before the coffee finished brewing.
We learned to type, to swipe, to tap.
We learned to talk to machines — and to have them talk back.
We’ve seen milk delivered to the door in glass bottles…
and we’ve scanned groceries without speaking to a single cashier.
We’ve dropped coins into payphones…
and we’ve made video calls to loved ones across oceans.
We’ve known the deep quiet of a world without notifications — and the noise of one that never stops buzzing.
And sometimes, the younger ones look at us like we’re behind.

But what they don’t see is this:
We know both worlds.
We can plant tomatoes and write an email.
We can tell a story without Google — and then fact-check it with Google.
We know the weight of a handwritten letter and the reach of a message sent in seconds.
We’ve lived long enough to understand that you can change without losing yourself.
That you can honor where you came from while still learning where the world is headed.
We’ve buried friends and welcomed grandchildren.
We’ve seen diseases disappear and new ones arrive.
We’ve unfolded paper maps — and followed glowing blue lines on GPS.
We’ve sent postcards with stamps — and emojis with a single tap.

And maybe that’s our greatest gift:
the memory of a slower, gentler time,
and the courage to adapt to a world that never sits still.
We can teach the young that not everything needs to happen instantly.
And we can remind our peers that it’s never too late to try something new.
Because that’s what we are —
the bridge between what was and what will be.
And as long as we keep standing strong, the world will always have something solid to cross on its way forward.
Because every generation builds the road a little further —
and ours? Ours remembers both the dirt path and the highway.