Thoughts On A Sunday

In yesterday’s post I talked about traffic observations and today I found out that yesterday a neighbor of mine was a victim of someone speeding along the road that passes by The Gulch. In this case he was broadsided as he pulled out from our neighborhood by someone going well above the posted speed limit. Both vehicles were totaled and my neighbor suffered minor leg injuries. Fortunately, he is already home, his stay in the hospital lasting only long enough to treat his injuries.

This accident shows that some people are speeding even on two-lane roads with limited visibility. I must wonder why they are in such a hurry.

I think one more than one occasion I have mentioned I am hooked on watching dashcam videos on YouTube, watching people do dumb stuff that gets them and others into accidents. I have a feeling my neighbor’s experience would have made an excellent example of why checking cross-traffic again and again and again before pulling out is a good idea. I have also seen more than a few videos of accidents caused by people running red lights, in some cases long after the traffic light turned red. It’s one reason I do not automatically start moving once my traffic light changes to green. I pause for a couple of seconds to check for cross-traffic that missed or ignored the red light. That earned me a few horns blowing because I didn’t stomp on the accelerator the instant the light changed. It has also saved me a couple of times when someone did run the red light. On one occasion the motorist behind me got impatient, pulled around me and into the intersection and got T-boned by someone who ran the red light.

On an entirely different subject it looks like we’ll be experiencing freezing rain overnight, perhaps enough to cause damage and knock out the electricity. Therefore, I will be spending some time later today to move the Official Weekend Pundit Generator and make sure it will fire up should the need arise. Even though the chance of losing power is relatively low, I know that if I don’t prepare it will be the one time I will need it and will have to move vehicles around in the dark to get to the generator. (In case you’re wondering, I did ignore prepping once and had to do the vehicle shuffle at 3 in the morning.)

And one last thing: Beezlebub and I are moving the Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower from the storage unit to his place. I haven’t needed it since we sold The Manse mainly because my present driveway is a couple of feet longer than the trusty RAM 1500, something I can handle with a snow shovel, or if I am really lazy, the Official Weekend Pundit Toro Power Shovel.

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This isn’t really a surprise to me.

NYC phone ban reveals some students can’t read clocks.

For years, parents and teachers have blamed technology for a range of lapsed skills — from legible handwriting to sustained attention to reading whole books — even as their proficiency with technology far outstrips their elders. Still, while educators have widely praised New York’s statewide smartphone ban that went into effect this fall, multiple teachers told Gothamist it has also laid bare an unexpected gap: How to tell time.

So many kids are used to reading the time off their smart phones, tablets, and computers. No one ever taught them how to read a traditional clock.

My son – a millennial – never learned to write cursive in school. His mother, her parents, and I taught him how to do that after we realized he couldn’t read cursive. While he still mostly prints, he can read and write cursive. The school system here in my little town started teaching kids to write cursive again a couple of years ago.

Our state legislature banned smart phones in schools statewide earlier this year. Children’s grades and test scores started rising shortly after the ban went into effect. Some schools had banned phones well before the state ban and I think the resulting rise in test scores motivated the legislature and governor to do so statewide.

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When I read the following, my reaction was “Is it all that surprising?”

The EU Could Be Gone In Four Years.

In 1988, if you had told anyone that the Soviet Union would cease to exist just four years later, you would have been dismissed as a crank. The institutions looked solid, the bureaucracy entrenched, and the power absolute. Yet by 1992, it was history.

Today, European politicians in Brussels, Berlin, and Paris suffer from the same dangerous optimism. They believe they are so safely ensconced in their institutional frameworks that public anger can never truly throw them out of the saddle. But looking at the trajectory of the European Union, I believe we are closer to a revolutionary moment than the elites dare to imagine.

The signal I’ve been reading that has led me to believe the EU as we know it is doomed is something I’ve mentioned before:

Increasingly draconian and expensive environmental regulations that have gone well past the point of diminishing return. I deal with them every day at work and they take up more and more of my time and effort to make sure we comply in order for us to be able to sell our products in the EU. It wasn’t all that difficult to do so when a bunch of new regulations that applied to electronic and electrical equipment went into effect in mid-2006. Since then, those same regulations have increased the number of substances we must quantify and added a new directive that dealt with all kinds of products, not just electrical and electronic products. At present there are 251 different chemicals covered under that newer regulation, and more are added every six months.

While in the past compliance with those regulations could be handled through documentation – statements listing the chemical components if they were on the list and what percentage of the chemicals in question were contained in the products, that will soon end, and only certified testing labs will be allowed to quantify the content. That adds a lot of time and cost to each product and testing will have to be performed again and again and again as new chemicals are added to the list even if the product in question does not contain those added to the list.

That is a sign of a runaway bureaucracy, something that has never benefitted the people under the control of those bureaucracies. It will get to the point that it becomes almost impossible to do business in EU or with the EU.

That is but one small example of the EU’s decline. There are plenty more…like Net Zero mandates.

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I’m lumping these two stories together since the both deal with fraud, one about $1 billion student aid fraud and the other about daycare fraud in Minnesota.

In the first case it appears the Department of Education managed to block $1 billion in student aid fraud and are promising to block even more such fraud in 2026.

The U.S. Department of Education announced it has stopped over $1 billion in attempted student aid fraud in 2025, crediting strengthened identity verification policies reinstated under the Trump administration.

The reforms, which include mandatory ID checks for select first-time FAFSA applicants, were introduced after a wave of fraud schemes exploited loosened rules under the Biden administration.

Federal investigators found nearly $90 million in aid had already been fraudulently disbursed, including over $30 million to deceased individuals and more than $40 million to bots posing as students.

The Department responded with a nationwide identity check in June, immediately flagging nearly 150,000 suspicious FAFSA submissions and notifying colleges of potential fraud.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said requiring an ID to access taxpayer-funded aid is common sense. “From day one, the Trump administration has been committed to rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse across the federal government,” she said. “Merry Christmas, taxpayers!”

Of course I expect the Left to scream bloody murder about the inadequate Biden guidelines and policies being blocked by the Trump Administration because how else can they fund protests carried out by Rent-A-Protester Inc., Antifa, and other leftist organizations? Let’s hope that Trump’s DOE can chop out even more fraud in the coming year.

And then there’s the fraudulent daycare centers with no children and health care operations with no patients in Minnesota being funded by taxpayers:

Minnesota’s fraud problem is no longer theoretical or buried in audit reports. It is happening openly, in real buildings, during normal business hours, with millions of taxpayer dollars flowing to providers that appear unwilling or unable to explain what they actually do.

Recent video investigations by YouTuber Nick Shirley show what happens when someone simply shows up and asks basic questions.

Again, organized fraud siphoning millions of dollars while providing no actual services. In this case it seems to be mostly Somali immigrants defrauding the public and stealing taxpayer dollars. Yet the state of Minnesota seems to be doing absolutely nothing to stop it. It makes me wonder if members of the state government gain something through this fraud.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we’re waiting for the freezing rain to start, we’ve prepped our generators, and where we won’t need to venture out on Monday.

More Observations From The Road

Just after Thanksgiving I posted about my observations of traffic on the highways and byways both in my home state of New Hampshire and neighboring Massachusetts over the lengthy Thanksgiving weekend. I thought what I saw might nave been primarily because of the holiday, people wanting to get to their Thanksgiving dinner and home again as well as Black Friday and Local Shops Saturday.

It turns out I was wrong.

I have been on vacation since December 11th, burning up almost 3 weeks of vacation time I had on the books. My employer has a “Use it or Lose it” policy when it comes to vacation time so I decided to use it. Not that it would put a strain on my employer as December tends to be one of the slowest months for us, so it wasn’t likely I’d be leaving anyone in the lurch. In any case, this means I had a lengthy amount of time to observe traffic as I traveled quite a bit before, during, and after Christmas.

What I saw during Thanksgiving wasn’t an anomaly.

My latest trip was earlier today down to New Hampshire’s Seacoast to celebrate the birthday of my Dear Brother’s wife. It was a 90 minute trip between the lake and the seacoast.

I saw the same thing both down and back – people traveling at well above the posted limit. Post speed limits on the divided highways were either 55 or 65 MPH. No one was driving at or near the posted limits, including me. Even in the right lanes I was traveling at 70 to 75 MPH and still being overtaken. In a few cases I had to travel at 80 MPH in order to keep up with the ‘other’ slower traffic.

At least the two-lane highways I traveled didn’t experience that. Most people were driving at the posted speed limit or slightly above.

One saving grace was that the highways were not busy. Traffic was moderate at worst, usually at the junctions of some of the major highways in the state. The rest was relatively light. No traffic jams. No bumper to bumper traffic. No backups at traffic lights.

Yes, it’s still vacation time for a lot of people so I wouldn’t expect traffic to be all that heavy until the end of next week. But It’s still disconcerting to see the much higher speeds, particularly when I know that quite a few of the drivers are driving distracted. (Yes, I saw more than a few examples of that over the past couple of weeks.)

I have to think the State Police will be cracking down on the excessive speeds at some point.

I really like to think that will be the case. Really.

Friday Funny - Wife's Soul Left Her Body

Thoughts On A Sunday

The rain we had a couple of days ago certainly put a dent in the snow cover up here at the lake. It looked like we were going to have another Christmas without snow. However, the Weather Guys^TM are saying we’ll get some snow on Tuesday, somewhere between 2 and 4 inches, which means we may have a White Christmas after all.

Speaking of Christmas, the WP Mom and I will be traveling down to one of the WP sisters home on Christmas to celebrate the day. Fortunately, almost the entire trip will be on major highways well outside of Boston and should keep our travel time there to around 90 minutes.

The work to empty the Official Weekend Pundit Storage Unit continues. BeezleBub and I did make one trip between there and The Gulch to retrieve an antique dresser that had once belonged to my paternal grandparents, one I used when I was attending college and later in my first apartment when I moved to New Hampshire. While it isn’t valuable and could use a little restoration work (a knob on one drawer is missing), it will fill a need here at The Gulch.

If things work according to plan, the storage unit will be empty before New Year’s. My ex still has a bunch of furniture there and I do have a few more items to move to The Gulch except for a couple of containers of books which will be going to my town’s library to be sold during their annual book sale later next year.

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It seems the moves by universities and colleges to bolster minority enrollments, paid for by federal funds, are in fact unconstitutional. It discriminates by race, by ethnicity, by sex, giving precedence to minorities and women by giving them precedence over white men when it comes to admissions. More than one court decision has made this clear where “affirmative action” policies and regulations to give priority to minority students over white students.

One such case was in Supreme Court decision in Regents of the University of California vs Bakke back in 1978.

Allan Bakke, a thirty-five-year-old white man, had twice applied for admission to the University of California Medical School at Davis. He was rejected both times. The school reserved sixteen places in each entering class of one hundred for "qualified" minorities, as part of the university's affirmative action program, in an effort to redress longstanding, unfair minority exclusions from the medical profession. Bakke's qualifications (college GPA and test scores) exceeded those of any of the minority students admitted in the two years Bakke's applications were rejected. Bakke contended, first in the California courts, then in the Supreme Court, that he was excluded from admission solely on the basis of race.

One does not cure injustice caused by discrimination by using discrimination to ‘balance the books’. Yet here we are, 47 years later, seeing that same injustice at universities and colleges being funded by the federal government in direct opposition to the Bakke decision.

The Department of Justice certainly sees a problem with the government funded race based programs – renamed “Minority Serving Institution” programs – which are just a repackaged affirmative action policy that has already been stuck down as unconstitutional.

Fortunately there are already moves in progress that would abolish such programs for good.

(H/T Instapundit)

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Quid Pro Quo indeed.

Democrats allow Somalis to commit welfare fraud in exchange for Somalis engaging in election fraud.

It will not surprise me in the least if this turns out to be the case. And if it is, some people need to go to prison, and others need to be deported…after they serve their prison terms.

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I have to wonder if this will help or hurt the Pyrite State.

California Court to Decide Whether Moonbattery Is Mental Illness

It’s going to take a court to decide this?

The correlation between moonbattery and mental illness is well established. But is it clinically accurate to say that moonbattery actually is a manifestation of mental illness? The question has legal ramifications.

--snip--

In April 2024, [Riddhi] Patel, [a 28-year-old Indian-American leftist activist who identifies as “non-binary”] appeared at a city council meeting in Bakersfield, California. She stepped up to the microphone and delivered a furious speech about Gaza, metal detectors, oppressors, and revolution. She concluded her remarks with a blunt threat to the elected officials, “We’ll see you at your house, we’ll murder you.”

--snip--

Prosecutors charged her under California Penal Code § 422, which criminalizes willful threats to commit acts that could result in death or great bodily injury, i.e. “terrorism”.

Patel’s lawyers want to refer the case to California’s mental health diversion program — that is, get her off with the insanity defense.

Did she really think she could get away with making threats like that, particularly during a public city council meeting? She must be mentally ill…or a spoiled entitled brat who needs a serious wakeup call. At this point I think it’s a toss-up. Maybe she’s both.

The case has broad implications.

Leftist activists like Patel increasingly act as though they can intimidate, or openly threaten, government officials and conservatives without fear of consequence, particularly when they believe their views are protected by alignment with the media and a dominant political party. Accountability is simply not expected.

Handing out Get Out of Jail Free cards in the name of the insanity defense would make unaccountability official. Presumably this would apply not only to threats but actual violence, which has always been a hallmark of leftism, as Charlie Kirk’s assassination reminds us. But at least it would also make official that leftists are insane.

The Left will use this as a defense for even the most egregious and violent behavior. If they are found mentally ill, then they should be held in a secure mental institution…forever. It should not be used as the aforementioned Get Out of Jail Free card because they believe they are entitled to perform any act in the name of their cause. It means they’re not capable of being able to tell the difference between right or wrong or that they just don’t care and should not be released back out into the public where they will cause more harm. They have to understand the concept of consequences, be they mentally ill or entitled brats who have never had to face consequences for their actions in the past.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it’s cold and windy, where more snow is expected on Tuesday, and if that is indeed the case, we can have a White Christmas this year.

Christmas Enthusiasm - Where Is It?

As I mentioned in last week’s Thoughts On A Sunday, “This year’s Christmas season seem more subdued than in the past.” Then, I thought it might have been just me ‘seeing’ this, but after talking to a number of family, friends, and acquaintances it isn’t just me.

Not that people aren’t out doing their Christmas shopping. Quite the contrary. But the enthusiasm I’m used to seeing isn’t quite there this year. I’m not seeing nearly as many Christmas decorations. Maybe I’m not paying attention to what’s being shown on television, but it feels like the number of Christmas specials isn’t what we’ve experienced in the past. The usual ones seem to be missing from the Big Three networks. I know some have only been available on streaming, something that I find disturbing.

Maybe I missed it this year, but I didn’t see anything in the TV listings for one of my old standbys, A Charlie Brown Christmas. Over the previous 59 Christmases it’s been shown it was the one Christmas special we never missed. I remember when it first aired back in 1965. (Yes, I am that old.) But it looks like I missed it this year.

Even shopping seems low key. People are out shopping or ordering online, but folks are taking their time, aren’t nearly as frantic as I remember them being. That may change this coming week as we close in on Christmas Day. I’ll wait and see.

I just hope what I’ve been seeing is just an off-year for Christmas, at least around here.

Speaking of Christmas shopping, I haven’t completed mine, but I have made a dent. Not that I am shopping for a lot of people this year. (That number changes from year to year – up some years and down others. This is an in-between year.) I figure I’ll have mine done by Monday afternoon as I only have a few more people to shop for.

At least some traditions within the WP family have continued. The youngest WP sister dropped off a couple of loaves of pulla, a Swedish coffee bread my grandmother used to make all the time. My sister took over after my grandmother passed away. It took a while for my sister to get it right, but she dialed it in some years ago. She drove up to The Gulch from her place south of Boston early this afternoon to drop them off.

And so it goes…

Friday Funny - Marriage Advice

I'll Tell You The Story - Binky And Megabucks

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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?

==+++++==

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.

==+++++==

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.

==+++++==

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.

==+++++==

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.

==+++++==

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.

==+++++==

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.

==+++++==

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.

==+++++==

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.

==+++++==

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.

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

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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…

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.