Thoughts On A Sunday

It still being March, we are seeing another round of snow here at the lake. After some warm days and rain, much of the snow cover around here has melted away. It’s mostly the snowbanks that remain. But we’ll be seeing between 1 and 6 inches of snow by the time it’s all done. (There are conflicting forecasts with one saying 1-3 inches and another saying 3-6 inches. Time will tell.)

Not that either range will be causing major problems. Probably the worst we’ll see is some slick roads and a small amount of snow that we’ll need to shovel off the driveway.

One related issue we’ll be dealing with is the end of ice fishing season. New Hampshire Fish & Game is reminding ice fisherman their bobhouses need to be off the lake by April 1st. For some, it may be too late to remove their bobhouses easily as their only way off the ice is blocked by open water. They’ll have to float them across the open water to get them to shore. This is nothing new as there are always a few procrastinators who wait until the last minute only find they can’t reach them without using a boat.

And so it goes at the ‘official’ close of winter here at the lake.

==++++++==

How often over the past 20+ years have we heard that the US Air Force wants to do away with the A-10 Warthog? It is a formidable Close Air Support aircraft that can carry a considerable amount of ordnance on 11 hard points as well as shred targets with its GAU-8 30mm Gatling gun.

The Air Force says the F-35 is more than capable of filling the role presently held by the A-10, but a lot of the ground troops – Army and Marines – think otherwise. We are certainly see it filling a role in the Iraq war, taking out boats and smaller ships of the Iranian Navy in the Straits of Hormuz to safeguard ships wishing to pass through the Straits.

The close-support aircraft, battle-proven in the Gulf War and Global War on Terror, has been threatened with retirement for decades. Congress has often pushed back; the most recent National Defense Authorization Act caps the number that can be scrapped until the Air Force details its retirement strategy. Experts told Defense One that the aircraft’s latest operations prove the war in Iran shouldn’t be the Warthog’s last rodeo.

The A-10s renewed use in the Middle East should serve as a “wake-up call” for lawmakers and the military calling for its retirement, said Dan Grazier, a Stimson Center senior fellow and the director of the nonprofit’s national-security reform program.

“The longer the A-10 exists, the more impressed I am with that aircraft,” Grazier said. “It’s just proof positive that when you design a weapon system that is stripped down and all the decisions that were made in the course of its design were all made for matters of military effectiveness, you get a really effective aircraft.”

One of the biggest issues with this argument about whether the A-10 should be retired was whether or not the F-35 could fill the role of the A-10. It turns out there was a “fly off” competition between the A-10 and the F-35 some years ago…and the results were buried, at least until recently.

A report on the controversial close air support-focused flyoff between the A-10C Warthog and F-35A Joint Strike Fighter that took place between 2018 and 2019 has finally emerged. The declassified review, which was only completed last year and has been essentially buried until now, is heavily redacted and raises more questions than it provides answers in many areas. However, it does still offer valuable details that have not previously been made public even as the U.S. Air Force looks to retire the last of the Warthogs no later than the end of the decade.

--snip--

One of the things that is immediately unclear from this report is why it took nearly three years to produce this final product in the first place or why its core findings were never announced publicly or even distributed to stakeholder communities in the military. It is The War Zone‘s understanding that very few people had previously seen any portion of this document, or details from it, and that it was not provided to members of the A-10 community or F-35 communities. In essence, it has been effectively ‘buried.’

I do have to wonder why the report has been buried. Could it be the A-10 showed to be the better aircraft when it comes to close air support (CAS), airborne forward air control (FAC[A]), and combat search and rescue (CSAR) than the F-35?

It looks like every time the Air Force tries to kill one of the most effective air support aircraft in the world it proves to the rest of the world that it is anything but old and ineffective.

While it is not a multi-mission type aircraft like the F-35, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. One of the truisms that anyone familiar with military aircraft is that multi-mission aircraft don’t perform some aspects of their missions nearly as well as mission-specific aircraft.

==++++++==

It looks like some folks are finally waking up to the fact that Iran has had the capability to strike targets in Europe with ballistic missiles for some time. This realization was brought about when Iran launched a couple of missiles at the joint UK-US base on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, a distance of ~2361 miles. Neither missile reached its target as one failed in flight and the other was shot down by US Navy warship using an SM-3 interceptor missile.

The distance between Tehran and Paris is 2610 miles.

The distance between Tehran and London is 2750 miles.

The distance between Tehran and Berlin is 2200 miles.

Estimates puts the maximum range of the missiles of the type used by Iran to attack Diego Garcia at 2800 miles.

So Iran hasn’t been a threat to anyplace but the Middle East?

Another talking point busted.

==++++++==

Talk about hypocrisy!

All the hypocrites whining about Trump’s reaction to Mueller’s death stayed silent while Democrats mocked Charlie Kirk.

Trump posted that he was “glad” Mueller was dead.. Not something I would post, but Trump doesn’t hide how he really feels, especially about fraud like Robert Mueller.. Now of course Democrats, the media and some worthless RINO Republicans are whining about Trump’s reaction… These are the same scum who either had nothing to say or participated in the mocking of Charlie Kirk, and his wife after the assassination of Kirk in Utah.

When there are a mass of people mocking the death of Robert Mueller, and it even being applauded on networks like Fox when TMZ went live, then get back to me.. Until then, STFU.. You have no leg to stand on and you are nothing more than hypocrites.

It seems their hypocrisy has no bounds. Therefore we need not listen to anything they have to say.

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the ice on the lake is getting thinner by the day, plans to pull our boats out of storage are being made, and where Monday is returning all too soon.

Iran

I have been watching the news and online content covering the war with Iran. I have seen hundreds of different opinions about it running the gamut from “Let’s finally finish this long war once and for all!” to “Trump has gotten us into another forever war and attacked Iran for no reason!”

I will admit that my own opinion leans more towards the former and not the latter.

I remember when Iran fell to the Islamists with the return of the Ayatollah Khomeini and the exile of the Shah of Iran. I remember when the new Islamic Republic of Iran committed an act of war against the US by invading the US Embassy in 1979 and taking a number of embassy personnel hostage, holding them for 444 days. (That hostage situation ended the day Ronald Reagon took office because the Iranian regime understood that Reagan was nothing like Jimmy Carter.)

Iran has supported terrorism across the world, has attacked its neighbors, has killed thousands of Americans directly and indirectly, killed thousands in the Middle East directly and indirectly. It has also killed thousands upon thousands of its own citizens, with approximately 40,000 killed by the regime recently because they had the temerity to protest against the theocratic government that has been a thorn in the side of the world for almost 50 years. It is a brutal dictatorship with one thing on its mind – nuke Israel and the US in the name of Allah and to kill anyone who disagrees with the regime, including other Muslims.

This tacit war with Iran has been going on since 1979 and I know I would be just fine with bringing it to and end by ending the power of mullahs and returning it to the people of Iran.

Do I think our present hostilities against Iran is a bad idea or illegal or immoral?

No. It is long overdue.

Is the war causing economic disruptions around the world? Of course. I would expect any such action to do just that. But what be would the economic effects of a nuclear weapon detonating in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem or New York or Washington? Mind you, if something like that did happen, I would expect Tehran, Qom, and a number of other Iranian cities and military bases and installations to suffer the same fate.

Is that something I want? Don’t be silly. Almost no one wants that.

I would like to see the war against Iran to succeed, to depose the mullahs, eliminate the IRGC and basij, and return Iran back into a civilized nation.

Friday Funny - The Husband Rulebook

I'll Tell You The Story - Hijinx With Binky

Thoughts On A Sunday

It has been one of those weird weekends where a number of different events have come together. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. Between my ex moving into the same neighborhood as The Gulch (No, I am not upset about that)]; BeezleBub being away which has left me, his mother, and his girlfriend taking care of his steer; and a change in our little town’s zoning ordnances which has an effect on Short Term Rentals, i.e. AirBnB’s/VRBO/Vacasa, that also affects the neighborhood here at the Gulch. I am also most of the way through emptying out my storage unit so I won’t have to pay the monthly rent anymore. (This ties back to my ex moving into the neighborhood because she also had a lot of stuff there that is now being moved into her new home.)

It’s going to be busy during the coming week as work continues as the ex continues moving into her new home, duties at work as equipment calibration comes due, town duties, and making sure the sole member of the feline contingent here at The Gulch makes it to her appointment with the veterinarian.

And so it goes.

==++++++==

A Blast From The Past (Month):

Cuba Becomes The First Country To Reach Net Zero.

Of course, it must be said that Cuba hadn’t planned to reach Net Zero.

[W]ith a small assist from the United States, the island nation of Cuba has almost entirely ended the use of fossil fuels. Finally, we have the first country in the world to achieve the climate movement’s Holy Grail and nirvana — Net Zero! Or at least a very close approximation. This should be cause for a huge celebration.

But has anyone asked the people of Cuba if they’re happy to be the first country in the world to reach that goal? Somehow, I doubt it.

==++++++==

Seeing the Democrats’ efforts to ‘punish’ the GOP for not reigning in ICE as it does its job turn into punishing the American people by making the US even more vulnerable to terrorist attacks has me in a bit of a quandary. Is it “punishment” or are the Democrats hoping that by crippling our antiterror defenses by refusing to fund DHS that they are facilitating terror attacks that they can then use to win the mid-term elections in November? Seeing just how much the Democrat Party has decayed into a tacit socialist/communist party, I think it may be both.

Democrats have imposed a partial government shutdown to cripple DHS, the department responsible for defending us from Islamic terror. Their explicit purpose is to hamper ICE, which would facilitate unlawful entry into the country by hostile foreign agents.

According to leftist Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI), Democrats are “very serene” about how this will play out. Even now, they believe the media can prevent voters from realizing what they are doing to the country.

It’s like they’re working hard to destroy America and trying to the lay the blame should such destruction succeed upon the GOP.

Nothing new there.

==++++++==

This illustrates one of my reasons for not buying into solar to be a large part of ‘baseload’ capacity, that being its vulnerability to severe weather as seen recently in Indiana and Illinois.

In the quiet town of Wheatfield, Indiana, a powerful storm system unleashed chaos on March 10, 2026, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. While initial reports suggested hail as the primary culprit, investigations point to a suspected tornado as the main force behind the widespread damage. The Dunns Bridge I and II solar farms, key components of Northern Indiana Public Service Company’s (NIPSCO) renewable energy portfolio, bore the brunt of the storm’s fury. These facilities, located in Jasper and Starke counties, represent a combined capacity of approximately 700 MW of solar power, making them among the largest in the region.

Eyewitness accounts and drone footage circulating on social media depict twisted metal frames, shattered panels, and debris scattered across acres of farmland. NIPSCO confirmed the damage in an official statement, noting that teams were on-site to assess and secure the area as soon as conditions allowed.

I have seen other instances where solar farms were heavily damaged during thunderstorms when hailstones smashed thousands of solar panels. One has to remember that solar panels are, for all intents and purposes, glass. Glass doesn’t like hailstones hitting them as they tend to crack or shatter.

There was one solar farm that had been proposed in my town many years ago that would have roughly 500KW of generating capacity if it were built. The developer had put up a small demonstrator solar ‘farm’ at the proposed location consisting of three panels to show how it would work. One thunderstorm later and it was offline, heavily damaged. The thunderstorm that caused that damage wasn’t even all that much of a thunderstorm. It wasn’t hail that damaged the panels, but a wind gust that caused a tree branch to break off and ‘fly’ almost 30 yards before it hit the demonstrator, cracking the panels and knocking over the portable setup.

I think I’d rather have a Small Modular Reactor rather than a solar farm any day.

==++++++==

I’m glad the climate change faithful were so wrong on this one.

Climate Alarm Brews False Coffee Crisis As Global Production Sets Records

WTAE ABC, Pittsburgh, published a story titled, “Climate change affecting global coffee production, study finds.” The study is false, perpetrated by a climate activist group called Climate Central, and uncritically echoed by WTAE meteorologist Jill Szwed.

Had Szwed or WTAE fact-checked Climate Central’s claims against real-world data, they would have found coffee production has increased dramatically around the world amid the modest recent warming, including in each of the countries cited in WTAE’s story.

I have to wonder if these are the same folks who predicted climate change would also cause shortages of chocolate because cocoa bean yields would be negatively affected. So far I haven’t seen any indications of chocolate shortages. Have you?

So far the predictions made by the climate change faithful over the past few decades have not come to be. Have there been weather ‘anomalies’? Of course there has. But these anomalies are not climate and have always occured. Trying to turn them into indications of climate change works against them because they haven’t been repeating as one would expect if they were indicators of climate change.

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee where we’re expecting a lot of rain and temps in the upper 50’s on Monday, hopefully the snow banks will continue to shrink, and where we’re still getting used to the change to Daylight Saving Time.

Something New To Be Paranoid About

As I mentioned in last Sunday’s TOAS, I came across an article that had my level of paranoia rise. Not that it went off the chart, but it did go up when I realized that people, including the government, have a new way to track your car or truck without having to use a GPS tracker, that new method being using your vehicle’s Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS).

Most people don’t realize the TPMS system in their vehicle uses a radio signal from each sensor – one in each wheel – to measure the tire pressure in each tire. That radio signal, weak as it is, can be received from roadside receivers. Each TPMS sensor transmits tire pressure data along with the sensor serial number so the vehicle’s system knows which tire’s data is being sent. That also makes it possible to identify the vehicle transmitting that data.

But wait! There’s more!

Researchers at IMDEA Networks Institute in Spain, together with European partners, have found that tire pressure sensors in modern cars can unintentionally expose drivers to tracking. Over a 10-week study, they collected signals from more than 20,000 vehicles, revealing a hidden privacy risk and highlighting the need for stronger security measures in future vehicle sensor systems.

--snip--

However, the researchers found that these tire sensors also send a unique ID number in clear, unencrypted wireless signals, meaning that anyone nearby with a simple radio receiver can capture the signal -- and recognize the same car again later. Most vehicle tracking today uses cameras that need clear visibility and line-of-sight to a car.

TPMS tracking is different: Tire sensors automatically send radio signals that pass through walls and vehicles, allowing small hidden wireless receivers to capture them without being seen. Because each sensor broadcasts a fixed unique ID, the same car can be recognized repeatedly without reading a license plate. This makes TPMS-based tracking less expensive, harder to detect, and more difficult to avoid than camera-based surveillance, and therefore a stronger privacy threat according to the researchers.

To test how serious this risk is, the team built a network of low-cost radio receivers, located near roads and parking areas. The necessary equipment costs only $100 per receiver. In total, they collected more than 6 million tire sensor messages from over 20,000 cars.

The sensors use 315MHz in the ISM (Industrial, Scientific, and Medical) license-free band in North America and most of the rest of the world, and 433MHz in Europe. Receivers capable of receiving those frequencies are readily available. Decoding the signals isn’t difficult since they employ data formats laid out in the TPMS specifications. In the US, TPMS requirements and specifications are laid out in 49 CFR § 571.138 - Standard No. 138.

Those involved with the study have addressed the issue, bringing up the security of automotive systems including TPMS.

"As vehicles become increasingly connected, even safety-oriented sensors like TPMS should be designed with security in mind, since data that appears passive and harmless can become a powerful identifier when collected at scale," says Alessio Scalingi, former PhD student at IMDEA Networks and now assistant professor at UC3M, Madrid.

Despite these risks, current vehicle cybersecurity regulations do not yet specifically address TPMS security. The researchers warn that without encryption or authentication, tire sensors remain an easy target for passive surveillance.

"TPMS was designed for safety, not security," adds Dr. Yago Lizarribar, former PhD student at IMDEA Networks during the research study, and now a researcher at Armasuisse, Switzerland. "Our findings show the need for manufacturers and regulators to improve protection in future vehicle sensor systems."

Therefore, the research team urges the manufacturers and policymakers to strengthen cybersecurity in future cars, so that safety systems do not become tracking tools.

The question is, will those manufacturers and policymakers make the changes needed? I have a feeling that they will, but not anytime soon.

Friday Funny - Are You A Newspaper?

I'll Tell You The Story - Binky Votes

Thoughts On A Sunday

Once again, we have had to make the change from Standard to Daylight Saving Time, something I wish we could end. Being at the easternmost edge of the Eastern Time Zone it would work better for us if we remained on DST year-round or changed from the Eastern Time Zone to the Atlantic Time Zone and remain on Atlantic Standard Time year-round. (If you cross from Maine into New Brunswick you also cross from the Eastern Time Zone to the Atlantic Time Zone.) I know a lot of folks around here are certainly tired of the twice-a-year change. It doesn’t really serve a purpose, at least not this far east in the time zone.

Another change – we will be seeing temperatures in the 50’s and 60’s over the next few days which means a lot of melting snow, shrinking snowbanks, and more potholes in the roads. Most of the snow has disappeared from the roof of The Gulch, with most of the remaining snow being on roof of the garage which is unheated. The snow on the roof of the heated portion of The Gulch is gone except for one small portion that does not receive any sunlight.

I by no means believe that we are all done with snow as I have seen too many late March/early April snowstorms that have dumped a foot of snow or more. In fact, there was an April Nor’easter two years ago that dumped almost 20 inches of snow and caused a power outage here at The Gulch that lasted almost 2 days. The Official Weekend Pundit Generator got a workout during and following that storm.

It is that storm that convinced a lot of my neighbors to spend the money for standby generators for their homes so they wouldn’t have to deal with another lengthy power outage without power. Now, over a third of the homes surrounding The Gulch have them. A few others, like the Gulch, have portable generators. A couple of them are also dual-fuel which means they can use either gasoline or propane. I primarily use propane because it doesn’t go bad like gasoline can. In the seven years I’ve had the Official Weekend Pundit Generator I’ve never had to use gasoline. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t have my gas caddy filled and ready to go if needed.

==++++++==

I agree with Nick Sortor (by way of Dr. Helen) on this one: Unhinged.

==++++++==

A big deal was made by the media about “devices found outside Gracie Mansion” during an anti-Muslim rally and counterprotest. The media implied the devices came from the protesters, trying to paint the protesters as Islamophobic. But there’s one problem with that assertion.

It is totally false.

It turns out the “bombs” were thrown at counter protesters by Muslim men who yelled “Allah akbar” at the crowd.

So much for that narrative.

==++++++==

Oh, I like the headline on this one:

40-year trail of failed forecasts: ‘If the Climate Crisis were a commercial product, it would have been recalled for false advertising decades ago’.

As they say up here, “Ayuh.”

==++++++==

It seems that even the increasingly Islamist United Kingdom is feeling the effects of the war with Iran, in this case finding they only have a couple of days supply of natural gas left since their supply has been cut off.

The UK’s gas reserves have shrunk from 18,000 GWh worth last year to 6,700 GWh – enough for just 1.5 days of demand, according to new data published by transmission operator National Gas.

A similar amount is stored in tanks as liquefied natural gas. Europe, by contrast, has built up reserves of several weeks-worth of gas.

The crunch in supplies has resulted in traders charging the UK a premium for gas, exploiting its need to outbid rivals in other countries. It means the UK is now paying the highest wholesale gas prices in Europe.

Hmm. Could this be why the UK has suddenly gotten involved in the war with Iran?

==++++++==

The question isn’t whether or not I am paranoid. The question is “Am I paranoid enough?”

I came across a story in an industry publication that had me sitting up and taking notice. Looking into it I decided I had to delve deeper to find out if what this article claimed was true. To what am I referring?

The Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) on vehicles can be used to track cars and trucks.

I will look into this and will post about this if it turns out to be accurate.

Great. Yet another thing we have to worry about…

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather is going to be warm for the next few days, Town Meeting for a lot of towns in New Hampshire take place on Tuesday, and where I find I am back to doing some farm chores for my son while he’s away.

Proof That Cognitive Dissonance Is A Mental Illness

I came across this by way of Instapundit and figured I’d share it because everything on the list rings true and explains so much.

The Complete (And Growing) List Of Things The Left Simultaneously Believes

#1 - "My body, my choice"... but you MUST get a vaccine or lose your job, your ability to travel, and your right to eat inside a restaurant. Both things. At the same time.

#2 - "Believe all women"... unless the woman is Tara Reade, Juanita Broaddrick, or Paula Jones. Those women apparently came with an asterisk nobody mentioned.

#3 - "Tax the rich"... said by a woman worth $120 million (Pelosi), a man worth $9 million (Schumer), and a senator who owns three houses (Bernie) — all while their stock portfolios grow on insider access the rest of us will never have.

#4 - They are outraged — OUTRAGED — about billionaires having too much power... and then accept $1.6 billion from George Soros without blinking. Quinn's Law #7: it is different when you are a Democrat.

#5 - "Defund the police"... and then hire private security for themselves. I am not making that up. Multiple city council members who voted to defund their police departments had private, taxpayer-funded security at the same time. You literally cannot invent this.

#6 - "No one is above the law"... until a federal judge in Wisconsin helped a criminal evade ICE agents and half the party defended her. Judge Hannah Dugan. Look it up. Suddenly "no one is above the law" had an exemption for people who agree with them.

#7 - "Science is real"... but a biological male who identifies as a woman is medically, biologically, and athletically identical to a biological female. Just go ahead and ignore the entire fields of endocrinology, genetics, and sports medicine while you are at it.

#8 - "We support the working class"... and then they vote AGAINST no tax on tips. And no tax on overtime. Every. Single. Democrat. Voted against the One Big Beautiful Bill. The party of workers apparently does not want workers keeping their own money.

#9 - "We need more gun control to stop violence"... but releasing violent criminals back onto the street with zero bail is compassion. The criminal is not the problem. The gun on the shelf of the law-abiding citizen is the problem. I need someone to explain that logic to me using small words.

#10 - They want a $20 minimum wage to help the poor worker... and then they celebrate the illegal immigration system that lets employers pay $6 an hour in cash with zero benefits to people who cannot say anything without being deported. That is not progressive. That is the economic model of the antebellum South with extra steps.

#11 - "We are pro-union"... and then they fought tooth and nail against school choice, which would allow poor minority children to escape failing schools. The teachers unions fund the Democrats. The children can stay in the failing building. Their priorities are perfectly clear.

#12 - "The borders are secure"... announced by Biden's Autopen while EIGHT MILLION people crossed illegally in four years. For comparison, 8 million is the population of Virginia. An entire state's worth of unvetted people. Secure.

#13 - They call DOGE "an attack on government"... but cannot name a single program it should cut. Not one. They are against cutting fraud. They are against cutting waste. They are against cutting abuse. I am genuinely asking: what exactly are they trying to protect in there?

#14 - "Reducing the deficit is important"... announced every election cycle by people who have never once voted for a budget that reduced the deficit. Quinn's Law #5 in action: when liberalism conflicts with reality, reality must give way.

#15 - They want to cancel student loan debt for people who voluntarily signed loan agreements... but they will absolutely NOT cancel your mortgage. Or your car payment. Or your credit card balance. The magical debt cancellation only applies to the demographic that votes for them. Totally not transactional. Not at all.

#16 - "Latinx"... a word that zero actual Hispanic people asked for, that grammatically violates Spanish, and that studies show roughly 3% of Latinos use voluntarily. Created by and for white progressive academics to describe a community that did not request a renaming. And they wonder why Latino voters started leaving.

#17 - "We are the party of science"... and then they told you masks did not work, then they DID work, then one was enough, then two were required, then cloth ones counted, then they did not, and anyone who asked a follow-up question was "anti-science." That was not science. That was compliance theater.

#18 - They supported Luigi Mangione — the guy who murdered a health insurance CEO — as a folk hero and a symbol of justified rage against insurance companies... and now they want you to keep the ACA, which funnels BILLIONS to those same insurance companies. I genuinely cannot keep up.

#19 - "We need to get money out of politics"... and then they raised $1 billion for Hillary in 2016 and $916 million for Biden's Autopen in 2020. The most expensive campaigns in American history. Both Democrats. The bumper sticker and the bank account are not on speaking terms.

#20 - They said the economy under Biden's Autopen was GREAT and prices were FINE... and then when the ACA COVID subsidies expired, they screamed that people would not be able to afford their health insurance. So which is it? Was the economy great, or were people so financially destroyed they could not pay their own premiums? Pick a lane.

#21 - "Diversity is our strength"... but every single diverse thinker who leaves the Democrat reservation — Clarence Thomas, Tim Scott, Candace Owens, Larry Elder — gets called a race traitor, an Uncle Tom, or worse. The diversity of skin color is welcome. The diversity of thought is absolutely not.

#22 - "We support women"... and then every single Senate Democrat voted against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act on January 14, 2025. Every one. Girls can lose their scholarships, their safety, and their athletic careers — but at least the Democrats have the correct bumper sticker.

#23 - They say the January 6th protesters were "insurrectionists who nearly destroyed democracy"... but the people who spent the summer of 2020 burning federal courthouses, attacking police precincts, and occupying city blocks in Seattle with an armed border were "peaceful protesters exercising their constitutional rights." Funny how that works.

#24 - "We are the party of the working man"... and they gave us inflation that cost the average American family $34,000 in purchasing power. Grocery bills up 22%. Housing costs through the ceiling. Rent to income ratios at historic highs. And they want credit for a $1,400 check they sent you with money they printed.

#25 - "We must protect democracy"... and then they tried to remove a candidate from state ballots, weaponize the DOJ against a political opponent, and indict a former president four times before an election. If a foreign government did what they did to Trump, the State Department would call it election interference.

#26 - They are horrified — genuinely horrified — that Trump talked to foreign leaders without their approved talking points... and then Biden's Autopen handed $6 BILLION to Iran, who then funded Hezbollah, Hamas, and a proxy war against American allies. But Trump's phone call. That was the threat.

#27 - "Black Lives Matter"... and the BLM organization raised $90 million in 2020 and spent it on mansions, consulting fees, and a production company. Meanwhile black communities where they marched saw record homicide increases. Quinn's Law #1: liberalism always generates the exact opposite of its stated intent.

#28 - They say voter ID is racist because minorities supposedly cannot get an ID... and in the same breath they mandate that same minority population show a vaccine card to enter a restaurant. The ID they cannot get for voting is somehow obtainable for dinner. I leave the logical conclusion to you.

#29 - "We believe in free speech"... announced right before they pressured Twitter, Facebook, and Google to deplatform their political opponents, flagged parody accounts, asked federal agencies to flag "misinformation," and colluded with social media companies to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story — which was verified and real. Quinn's Law #12: liberals do not engage in debate. They try to silence you.

#30 - They say the rich do not pay their fair share... and then they exempt the rich from their own rules. The Inflation Reduction Act — the one they said would make billionaires pay up — was written by and for corporate lobbyists. The effective tax rate on the top 1% actually went DOWN after its passage. You genuinely cannot make this up.

#31 - "Children should not be sexualized"... and then they put sexually explicit books in elementary school libraries, hosted drag performances in schools, and any parent who objected at a school board meeting was flagged as a potential domestic terrorist by the FBI under Biden's Autopen. That actually happened. The FBI memo is a matter of public record.

#32 - They say we need to "save the planet" from carbon emissions... and then Al Gore's mansion uses 21 times the electricity of the average American home. John Kerry — their climate czar — flew on private jets to climate conferences. Bernie flies private. Obama bought an oceanfront mansion on Martha's Vineyard. Apparently the rising seas only affect people who vote Republican.

#33 - "We stand with veterans"... and then every single year they vote against or table the Major Richard Star Act. This bill would stop the government from stealing retirement pay from combat-wounded veterans who were medically retired before 20 years. FIFTY THOUSAND veterans. It costs $800 million a year — a number they voted to include in a $924.7 billion defense bill the very next day. The money exists. The will does not. Sign the petition: https://c.org/29rGbKJphj @MajorStarAct @StarActEnemies

#34 - They want to "end income inequality"... and every major American city run exclusively by Democrats for decades — Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles — has some of the worst income inequality, homelessness, crime, and poverty in the developed world. Quinn's Law #3: the amount of wealth in any area is inversely proportional to the number of Democrats running it.

#35 - "Rent is too high"... announced by the same people who blocked every deregulation and permitting reform that would allow more housing to be built. Restricting supply while demand increases does not lower prices. This is not an opinion. It is basic economics. I teach this to sixteen-year-olds.

#36 - They say Republicans want dirty air and dirty water... and then California — the progressive paradise — has the worst air quality in the nation, has had more wildfires than any administration in history, and cannot keep its own electricity on in the summer. Their environmental policy has been in place for thirty years. The results are visible from space.

#37 - "No one should profit off of sickness"... announced by the party that fought to keep the ACA — which mandated that every American PURCHASE a product from a PRIVATE insurance company or pay a fine. They literally made it illegal not to pay the insurance company. And they called that progressive healthcare reform.

#38 - They are obsessed with "protecting our democracy" from MAGA... while 5.2 million protesters tried to override 77,302,416 votes cast in a free and fair election. That is not protecting democracy. That is a minority faction attempting to nullify the expressed preference of the majority. Madison warned about this specifically in Federalist No. 10. Look it up.

#39 - "We need common sense gun laws"... and Chicago has had some of the strictest gun laws in the nation for decades, and it also has some of the most violent neighborhoods in the country. You want to know what does not exist in those neighborhoods? Responsible armed citizens who can protect themselves. What does exist? Career politicians from the same party for fifty straight years.

#40 - They say they want to "tax the ultra-wealthy"... and then they keep giving Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and Wall Street the exact carve-outs, credits, and loopholes that protect their donors' wealth. The ultra-wealthy you hear about in speeches mysteriously never seems to include the ultra-wealthy who write the checks.

#41 - "We follow the science on climate change"... and then they told you biological sex is a spectrum, that there is no meaningful physiological difference between male and female athletes, and that puberty blockers are "fully reversible." One of those positions involves chemistry, physics, and atmospheric science. The others involve ignoring endocrinology, anatomy, and a decade of clinical data. But they follow the science.

#42 - They want immigration to be "humane"... and the cities that declared themselves sanctuaries — New York, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles — screamed for emergency federal aid and started deporting migrants themselves the moment they actually had to house them. The humanity apparently has a geographic radius of exactly "not my backyard."

#43 - "We need more funding for public education"... announced by the same party that has controlled most major urban school districts for fifty years, produced some of the lowest literacy and graduation rates in the developed world, and fights viciously against any accountability measure or alternative that might actually help the children whose futures are at stake. It is almost like the children are not the actual priority.

#44 - They say anyone who questions the 2020 election is "an election denier who threatens democracy"... and Stacey Abrams denied her 2018 loss for four years, Hillary Clinton called the 2016 election stolen on national television as recently as 2022, and over 60 House Democrats objected to electoral votes in 2000, 2004, and 2016. The rule about election denial apparently only applies to one party.

#45 - "Latinx." I know I already put this one on the list. It is so spectacularly disconnected from reality that it deserves to be on there twice.

Some of these things sound like they want to rewrite reality to meet their delusional beliefs. Others sound like they’re severely mentally ill, perhaps strung out on drugs…or because they stopped taking their meds.

Some of it sounds like Orwell’s Newspeak, language that makes it impossible to express dissent. Some try to twist reality to make evil sound like good and good sound like evil. Some paint contradictory pictures of things they want versus the things they actually do.

Is it any wonder more people are abandoning their Leftist leaders? They sound crazier every day, denigrate the very people they say they want to help by pushing the soft racism of low expectations.

As many a modern philosopher has said, “Don’t listen to what they say. Look at what they do.”

Friday Funny - The Scientific Reason Your Wife Is Always Right

Being an engineer, this is something I truly understand.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a nice day yesterday, relatively warm with sun on and off throughout the day. Today is not quite as warm, with it being cloudy during the first part of the day with a few snow flurries here and there. In other words, a typical late winter weather cycle. We do have more snow on the way on Tuesday, but only a few inches.

The kids are heading back to school after last week’s February vacation. At least our town’s high school has something to celebrate with its Boys Basketball team winning a state championship on Saturday. Our Girl’s team was also participating in a state championship game but unfortunately lost. So, it was a 50:50 weekend to celebrate.

==++++++==

I have been taking in the news about the US and Israeli strikes against Iran all I can say about it is “It’s about friggin’ time.”

A lot of the people against this “illegal” war action weren’t alive back when the fledgling Islamic State of Iran declared war on the US, invading the US embassy and holding diplomatic personnel hostage for 444 days. That in itself was an act of war. That war never ended…until now. Time has also shown what a brutal theocratic dictatorship it was.

Ironically, as one post on ‘X’ put it:

Muslim countries that support today's U.S strike on Iran: Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, UAE, Bahrain

Muslim countries that DO NOT support today's U.S. strike on Iran: France, United Kingdom

If you don’t believe that Iran was a brutal dictatorship, look at this little bit of life in the Islamic Republic:

Now I want to introduce you to a brave Iranian woman who understood America better than you ever will.

Her name was Sara Saeidi.
Born and raised in Iran.
39 years old.
A mother of two daughters, 19 and 6.

She was hot in the head for the “crime” of peascefully protesting while wearing a sweatshirt that said MANHATTAN, with the American flag beneath it.

While you stood in Congress under that flag, she carried its name on her chest, not as symbolism for a photo opportunity but as a dream.

She was addressing Ilhan Omar’s tweet about “No War With Iran”. Talk about hypocrisy! Look up the term “hypocrite” and you’ll see Omar’s picture next to it as we know she’s been working hard to undermine America from within and has no intention of keep her oath of office.

This is something that has been brewing for a long time and I hope that it is the beginning of the end of brutal Islamic Republic of Iran.

==++++++==

Do we need any more proof that Virgina Democrats don’t really believe in the US Constitution, particularly the 2nd Amendment?

Virginia Democrats are advancing a bill that would prohibit adults under the age of 21 from owning, purchasing, or transporting certain types of firearms in the state.

Virginians aged 18–20 will no longer be allowed to possess handguns or any guns liberals have decided to call “assault firearms.”

The National Rifle Association pointed out that the prohibition would apply to “those who already own such firearms.”

So first they restrict the right of 18- to 20-year-olds to own, buy, or carry handguns and “assault firearms” unless they are in the company of an adult. However, Virginia law defines adults as anyone who is at least 18 years of age. Talk about a contradiction. If they redefine adults as those who are at least 21 years of age, then does that mean that 18- to 20-year-olds would no longer be allowed to vote? After all, they would no longer be adults under Virginia law.

If they manage to weaken the 2nd Amendment, I expect they will go after the 1st Amendment next.

==++++++==

To quote the Instaprof, “They Aren’t Even Hiding It”:

Think about this:

Leftists cheered the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and condemned the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Good. Evil.

They chose evil.

‘Nuff said.

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather is trying to make up its mind, Town Meeting is getting closer, and where Monday is returning to ruin our weekend.

The Hypocrisy Is Reaching A New Low

When I read the following, I was not surprised:

The New York Times ran a piece on their homepage about a guy getting deported even though he had lived in the US since a teenager and had been here for 20 years, and waited until the end of the article to mention that 19 of those years were spent in prison for murder. (Emphasis mine.)

The comments thread in the linking Instapundit page did provide some links to the NYT post as well as related stories about others who were “here for ‘x’ years” but most of that time was spent in prison for felonies they committed after arriving in the US.

I find it hypocritical that the Propaganda Department of the DNC, i.e. the MSM, are working so hard to paint these illegal immigrants as victims of our immigration policies when what they really are is convicted felons who shouldn’t have been here in the first place.

We can see that even our media are all for protecting illegal immigrants - using a false narrative to do so - and not American citizens.

And while the media keeps trying to paint the anti-ICE sentiment is nationwide we’re finding that it is primarily limited to just a few cities – blue cities – and trying to convince people that the American people are against the Trump Administration’s efforts to undo the damage done by the Biden Administration’s open border debacle. But it turns out that a good majority of the American people, including a good many Democrats, are in favor of expelling the millions of illegal immigrants, particularly those who are murderers, drug traffickers, sex traffickers, rapists, pedophiles, and so on. It seems the only ones who want them to remain are the true believers in the Democrat Party leadership and the Progressive financed organizations working hard to dismantle the US and turn it in to yet another socialist dystopia.

Friday Funny - I Couldn't Believe My Ears

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s the “calm before the storm” as a Nor-easter develops along the mid-Atlantic coast. While we aren’t going to see a lot of snow up here at Lake Winnipesaukee from that storm, we will get some. The folks in southern New England will be seeing at least a foot of snow.

With a couple of small exceptions, all preparations have been made in case the storm is worse than predicted. The Official Weekend Pundit Generator has been prepositioned and was fired up just long enough to ensure it would start if needed. A stop by one of our favorite farm stands on the way home from church this morning let us stock up on storm snacks. We’re set to go.

I still have to move the trusty RAM 1500 into position in front of the garage and everything should be all set, but won’t do that until later today in case I need to run any errands.

==++++++==

By way of Instapundit comes this story from the Babylon Bee:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the United States Senate progressed toward voting on the SAVE Act, Democrats warned that requiring voter ID would disenfranchise their key voting demographic of people who are too stupid to get an ID.

Party leaders made the urgent plea as Republicans prepared to bring the bill to the floor for a vote, stressing that people who were not intelligent enough to obtain legal, valid forms of identification would be locked out from selecting who should be in charge of the country.

"We cannot shut out our voting block of morons," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. "If this bill becomes law, then our most important demographics — dead people, illegal aliens, and people who are too stupid to know how to get an ID — will be lost to us. We can't allow that to happen. Total morons must have their ability to vote preserved for future generations."

I question whether this is satire…or maybe a bit of truth…or even worse, the absolute truth.

Scary to think about, isn’t it?

==++++++==

Canadians are now poorer than Alabamans. Many wonder how that has come to be. All Canadians have to do is look towards Ottawa to find the answer. After all, this didn’t really “happen out of nowhere”.

When you have a government that is hostile to large scale economic engines like oil, gas, mining, and agriculture, what do you expect? It is this hostility from Ottawa that has driven the so-called “Wexit” movement by the western provinces to leave Canada and either go independent, form a new nation, or join the US. The dismantling of the Canadian economy has been ongoing since Justin Trudea was Prime Minister and has continued under Carney.

That Alabama has been working to strengthen its economy shows they are serious about leaving the bottom of the state economies list and it’s been paying off.

Canada importing millions of people from Third World countries certainly hasn’t helped things either.

==++++++==

Why does this not surprise me in the least?

California Politicians Propose Law Hiding Corruption from the Public

California’s ‘train-to-nowhere’ program started with a $10 billion budget in 2009 which shot up to $135 billion with no end in sight. The Trump administration has tried to cut off billions in federal funds for the money pit on rails and there are signs that even state voters are growing sick of it.

But California Democrats had an answer.

Around the same time that the CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, was arrested on suspicion of domestic battery after an appearance with Gov. Gavin Newsom celebrating the progress of the ‘train-to-nowhere’, Democrats were moving forward a bill to ban the public from getting crucial information about the project whose budget is more than 5 times that of NASA.

The cost of returning to the moon is estimated at under $100 billion. California is spending more than that on a rail project that still hasn’t gotten anywhere and which no one is interested in.

California Democrat legislators had already become infamous for covering up their own corruption. The California legislatures claimed that disclosing how much they were spending on defending their members against investigations would “violate attorney client privilege”.

The California State Senate had refused to release records of federal law enforcement subpoenas and search warrants, claiming that “the public interest served by not making the record public clearly outweighs the public interest served by disclosure of the record.”

The public interest in this case is that of members of the legislators being raided by the FBI.

Heaven forbid the public get a glimpse of how their legislators and state government officials have been wasting and/or stealing billions of dollars from California taxpayers…and constantly increasing taxes and fees to make even more money available. Is it any wonder California is becoming an economic basket case as it chases an increasing number of businesses, investors, the wealthy, and the Middle Class out of the state?

==++++++==

I am working on updating something my dear brother and I have been advocating for a good 25 years or more, that being a constitutional amendment that would change how members of Congress, more specifically the House, are selected. This would also roll in a repeal of the 17th Amendment that would return election of the Senate to the state legislatures with additional provisos that would ban the use of referendum or plebiscites to do so.

While in the past it was a bit tongue-in-cheek, I have come to think it is something we need to do to fix problems we have with the existing means of filling the seats in Congress. It also removes the possibility of being a member of Congress as a career. For too long we’ve had that problem plaguing us and it needs to be fixed.

Hopefully I’ll have it squared away in the next week or so.

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee where winter weather is coming for another visit, thoughts of the upcoming boating season are intruding, and where many of us are getting ready for Town Meeting next month.

Old Fashioned New England Winter

Back in November I said I hoped that the coming winter would be an old fashioned New England winter.

It looks like I got my wish.

The only thing that wasn’t part of the ‘old fashioned’ winter has been the well below normal temperatures we’ve experienced. But that has helped preserve the snow that has fallen. The Weather Guys^TM mentioned last week that so far, we’ve seen a more normal amount of snowfall but did remind us that winter is not yet over. They also mentioned that some of the heavier snowfalls we see tend to be in late February and through much of March.

We had about 5 inches of snow here at The Gulch between Friday evening and Saturday morning. It was a heavy snow because the temperature was close to freezing overnight. Much of that snow is still hanging on the branches of the trees, though I have been seeing it falling of the trees as the sun has warmed things up.

However, we have more snow on its way as a Nor’easter is predicted to hit New England overnight starting Sunday night. While we’ll see maybe 4 to 6 inches of snow here at the lake, southern New England will see a lot more. Katy, my friend from Connecticut, told me they’ve predicted between 12 and 18 inches of snow down her way.

I had mentioned to here how this was turning out to be a more normal winter for us and she replied “Maybe more like a winter when I was a kid!”

While I will be making the usual preparations for a big storm – the Official Weekend Pundit Generator being moved from the rear of the garage to the front and some extra storm snacks to be bought when I head to Walmart Sunday morning – I won’t be doing anything out of the ordinary in case the Nor’easter tracks a but farther north than predicted.

NOTE: I realize this post hadn’t been published last night until I started on my usual Thoughts On A Sunday post. I hit ‘Save’ rather than ‘Publish’, so it’s a day late!

Friday Funny - Highest Rate Of Divorce

A Snapshot

Seen in the comments to this Instapundit post about NYC getting it good and hard from their new mayor:

NYC residents are about to learn the meaning of an average day - Worse than yesterday. Better than tomorrow.

This Is An AI Movie I Can Get Behind!

Unlike the AI generated movie highlighted on Instapundit, the one below is one I can get behind without reservation!

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been quiet here at the lake. The weather has been decent with little or no precipitation. It’s been sunny but just below freezing which means we have been getting some melting on the roads and roofs. It’s also meant cars and trucks are covered with salt which has in turn meant the local car washes have been busy. I will admit that I have not as yet run the trusty RAM 1500 through the car wash nor has the WP Mom’s Nissan been washed. I may get both of them washed a little later this week in order to make room for more road salt to be deposited. It is one of the things that we up here in the snowy north must put up with during the winter.

It’s a small sacrifice.

The only thing we must be cognizant of is the temperatures of the upcoming night (and days) to prevent a newly washed car or truck from having its doors and windows frozen shut should the temps drop well below freezing.

==++++++==

As I mentioned in an earlier post, it seems our local concert venue is hosting a lot of acts and artists dating back to the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, or as I called it the “Before We Get Too Old Or Die” Tour. I thought we’d seen enough of that over the past two years, but it appears that tour will be continuing during this upcoming concert season as I’ve been seeing announcements about who’s going to be appearing this summer. Some of the artists on the list so far:

James Taylor

Paul Simon

Motley Crue

Chicago

Styx

Out of the 21 acts already booked, 6 are part of the “Before We Get Too Old Or Die” Tour. I cold have added one more - Weird Al Yankovic – but he’s still current and I think he’s a lot younger than those in the other six acts, so I didn’t count him as a member of that tour.

Generally our local venue books between 35 and 50 acts per season, so I have no doubt we’ll see at least a few more added to the “Before We Get Too Old Or Die” Tour.

==++++++==

In my TOAS post back on January 18th I mentioned I was seeing a lot more AI ‘hosts’ reporting news, specifically news about the goings on in California.

This is what I wrote back then:

The one thing (other than California) that they all have in common?

They are all hosted by AI “talking heads”. The image you see, and voice you hear are all AI generated.

I didn’t notice at first. I was more interested in what was being talked about. It wasn’t until after I started paying closer attention to the videos that I realized the images were AI generated as were the voices.

I did say I would dig deeper and provide some examples. I bookmarked almost two dozen examples I was going to use to show what I meant, stitching small segments together to show the weirdness. Imagine my surprise when I found that all but one video is now “unavailable”. The only one I found still available is this one which covers the self-inflicted gas station crisis, and I have no idea how long it will still be available. You’ll see the ‘reporter’, Ava Sterling. Is AI generated. Her facial expressions and head movements aren’t natural.

==++++++==

Can Gavin Newsom get any more clueless than he already is? After seeing this, I have to say he can most definitely get even more clueless than he is now.

He “goes to Germany and compares American law enforcement to Nazi stormtroopers.” Hmm, it seems to me he’s pointing his finger to the wrong group as antiFa seems more like the Nazi SA than US law enforcement. (Yes, I know the SA weren’t the stormtroopers, but they sure as heck act and sound like them.)

Does Governor Hair Gel really think he is appealing to anyone outside of the West Coast Blue enclaves?

==++++++==

I figure they’re going to find a way to blame Trump for this and paint it as Bad News.



After all, if it wasn’t the Democrats who pulled this off, it must be bad by definition because it doesn’t fit The Narrative.

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we’re going to be seeing some warmer daytime temps (above freezing), there’s no snow in the forecast…for now, and Monday is returning.

New Hampshire Going Nuclear? I Hope So.

Despite claims by people who support so-called “green energy” like wind and solar, we’re finding out that neither technology can meet the growing demand. It doesn’t help that both are heavily dependent upon taxpayer money in order to be built and that they never meet the energy demands or provide the return on investment promised by proponents. On top of that, even though these are claimed as “clean and green energy” technologies, we’re finding that they are neither clean or green.

Proponents keep pushing the “energy is free” meme and even though that is true, it is the cost of harnessing that energy that is expensive, something they choose to ignore. If they are cognizant of the actual cost, they downplay it because they can’t have facts contradicting the green energy narrative.

New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte is well versed in the green energy promises and is smart enough to know they don’t work anywhere near as well as proponents claim. She understands that a reliable energy supply is needed for economies to keep operating efficiently. But it seems that over the past couple of decades there has been a war on more traditional energy supplies like natural gas, hydro, and even coal. (New Hampshire has the last operating coal powerplant in New England.) When the governor of a neighboring state, Massachusetts, worked hard to kill not one, but two new pipelines that would bring much needed natural gas into New England, and then complained when there was a natural gas shortage last winter, you know the leadership needed to ensure adequate electricity supplies is lacking, or worse, they are bought and paid for by the green energy true believers. (It’s gotten so bad that not one, not two, but three powerline projects that would have brought clean, renewable, and inexpensive hydropower into New England were killed off by the same people who then complain about their ever rising electricity bills.)

This is where Governor Ayotte differs from the governors in the other New England states, something that become evident during her recent State Of The State address back on February 5th:

Which brings me to an area of our lives here in New Hampshire that is not where we want it to be – and that is our electric rates. Let’s understand why we are here: Our neighbors, that govern a lot differently than we do, are busy pushing up regional rates with their net zero religion, and lack of pragmatism and consideration for the consumer.

While at the same time they are battling to block new energy projects that would lower costs for all of us by delivering much-needed energy into our region, such as the Constitution pipeline.

Here at home, our Public Utilities Commission has been too willing to go along with the wishes of the big utilities boosting their bottom line instead of being focused on keeping rates as low as possible for the residents of our state. The Commission must provide transparency to residents when it comes to their electric bills and put the needs of ratepayers first.

Looking toward the future of energy in New Hampshire, we can build on the successes of our homegrown power. There are numerous groups, lawmakers and stakeholders looking into the next steps of Nuclear. Today, I am directing our Department of Energy to build pathways to foster the next generation of nuclear power generation here in New Hampshire. I have asked the Department to bring together stakeholders, lawmakers and organizations focused on nuclear generation to ensure our state is at the forefront of this pivotal technology.

She understands that our future when it comes to electricity is going to be nuclear. Whether people want to admit it or not, nuclear power can be a lot cleaner and greener than what we have been told over the past 50 years or so. Too many of those against a nuclear renaissance are stuck back in the 70’s and 80’s when it comes to nuclear technology. Modern Generation III and Generation IV reactors are safer, more efficient, easier and less expensive to construct via Small Modular Reactor (SMR) designs, and some of the new reactor designs can use ‘depleted’ nuclear fuel from Generation II reactors for fuel, eliminating the need to store long half-life depleted fuel for 25,000 years or more. What’s not to like?

I have heard some people who are against nuclear power make the claim that we have no experience with modern technology, particularly SMRs, that it’s all still just theoretical. I beg to differ as there is plenty of experience with the newer nuclear reactor technology. Who has experience with that technology, you may ask? One of the largest users of nuclear power in the world: The United States Navy.

Between nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and nuclear-powered submarines, there is plenty of experience with the technology. The Virginia-class nuclear submarines employ an advanced Generation IV reactor, and I have no doubt the new Columbia-class submarines will do so as well.

Nuclear powerplants run 24/7/365, and the newer Generation III and IV powerplants will be able to run for even longer as some of the designs do not need to be taken offline for refueling like the old Generation II plants.

I have a feeling I’ll need to dig into this technology a bit deeper as I don’t want a topic like this to be dismissed because “It’s just his opinion. What does he know about the technology?”

Friday Funny - Who's Stronger

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was -2°F here at The Gulch this morning. It helps make sure the ice on Lake Winnipesaukee is good for this weekend’s Ice Fishing Derby. There are lots of bob-houses out on the lake, something that is needed as the wind chills are brutal if you don’t have any shelter from the wind.

We’re expecting overnight temps to be around 0°F or a little higher over the next couple of days, though the daytime temps might get close to freezing. Maybe.

I still have to clean off the couple of inches of snow from the trusty RAM 1500, seeing no reason to do so until it gets a little warmer outside as I have no plans to go anywhere today. About the only plans I have is to take care of a couple loads of laundry and to watch the SuperBowl early this evening.

==++++++==

It is SuperBowl Sunday and the New England Patriots are trying to win their 7^th Lombardi Trophy. All the TV news has been covering over the past 2 weeks has been the SuperBowl. Almost every report includes some reference to the game. Over the past couple of days about 50% of the news coverage has been about the SuperBowl. Frankly, I’ll be glad once it’s all over. Mind you, I’ll be particularly pleased if the Patriots beat the Seahawks.

==++++++==

After the recent layoffs at the Washington Post, I have to wonder how much longer Jeff Bezos will hold on to that money-losing fish wrapper? As more than one comment at the linked post has said, they brought it on themselves.

==++++++==

I’ll admit that Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) has had me confused over the years. Between some rather bizarre behavior and a stroke, I’ve had a tough time figuring him out.

However, it seems that Fetterman has been shifting his political views away from the Left and more towards the center. As the Babylon Bee stated “Weird. Man Becomes More Conservative As He Regains Brain Function.”

Maybe not so weird.

==++++++==

This is a really abbreviated TOAS as I am going back downstairs to watch the SuperBowl!

==++++++==

And that’s the (abbreviated) news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it’s back in the single digits, the winds have been brutal, and where Monday is returning…again.

Before We Get Too Old Or Die Tour

I was perusing Instapundit this morning when I came across this post about a number of music artists and groups canceling tours due to health issues, advancing age along with health issues, or possible political disagreements.

Among the artists/bands canceling upcoming tours have been Neil Young, Twisted Sister, and the Rolling Stones. What gets me is just how many artists and bands from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s are still out there touring. That their music is still popular, particularly among much younger people – Millennials and Gen Z – affirms to me that good music is good musing no matter how old it is.

To quote myself using one of my nom du wordprocessors about this:

At our local concert venue, we've been seeing a lot of the older acts and artists over the past couple of seasons. I've been calling it the "Before We Get Too Old Or Die Tour." This past summer I saw Rod Stewart's farewell tour concert. The opening act was Cheap Trick. I saw Chicago two summers ago and they were back this past summer. It may have been just me, but it seems half the acts performing at our local venue over the past couple of years have been part of the "Before We Get Too Old Or Die Tour".

Not that I'm complaining as it seems a lot of people want to see the old acts, including a lot of younger people. As I've heard my Millennial son say, "You guys had all the great music!"

One of the other things I’ve noticed is how many younger people have been making reaction videos on YouTube, reacting to music from ‘back then’. As I also mentioned in one of my comments, “Probably the two groups that have had the most enthusiastic reactions have been Pink Floyd and Boston. Two PF songs that bring out a lot of positive reactions have been Great Gig In The Sky from the Dark Side Of The Moon album and Comfortably Numb from the 1994 Pulse concert with one of the best guitar solos ever, Dave Gilmour's 4 minutes of guitar solo heaven.”

Dark Side Of The Moon came out in 1973 and Boston’s first album came out in 1975 and they are both still very popular.

I saw Boston play in our local concert venue some years ago with Tommy DeCarlo as lead singer. (This was a few years after their original lead singer Brad Delp died.) I saw Pink Floyd in 1990 in Berlin, Germany – The Wall 1990 concert – courtesy of my then employer because they sent me there for business.

Our local concert venue has already been advertising the acts that will be playing in the upcoming concert season and it looks like it will be a continuation of the "Before We Get Too Old Or Die Tour".

I can’t wait!

Friday Funny - Pick The Right Wife

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been a long stretch of cold weather up here at the lake, with many mornings having temperatures in in the single digits below zero. This morning it was -6°F here at The Gulch and -8°F down at the lake itself. (The Gulch is approximately 140 feet higher in altitude than the lake, so it tends to be warmer.) Monday morning will be the first day when it will be above zero in the morning. Over the past two weeks we’ve only had two days where it was above zero in the morning, and on those two days it was snowing. (We got about 20 inches of snow out of that storm.)

One thing that colder than normal weather has brought is increased heating bills. I know we’ve used more than the usual amount of heating oil at The Gulch as well as my neighbor’s home. (I keep an eye on the place as it is only their seasonal home, and they mostly come up from the Boston area during the summer months.) I’ve had to leave the thermostat turned up to keep the inside temperature from dropping to 60° overnight and taking hours to get back up to 68°. That’s not something we usually have to worry about. But with the lengthy bout of below normal temperatures and overnight temperatures being below zero, it has become the reality.

One thing that did give us a piece of mind was that just before the snowstorm arrived last weekend our local heating company topped off our oil tank. Our neighbor’s tank was also topped off right around the same time by a different heating company, meaning we were good to go for heating fuel despite higher use due to the frigid weather.

==++++++==

New York City’s new mayor has barely been in office and he’s already having to backtrack on many of the promises he made during his campaign. Frankly, none of that surprised me as his understanding of economics was crippled by the usual socialist indoctrination in Marxist economics.



There won’t be all those free buses he’s promised. Rent control is likely to remain as it exists now. Those ‘free’ daycare centers won’t come into being. All the folks the mayor was going to tax the heck out of to pay for all those things are leaving New York and taking their businesses and money with them. (Gee, where have we been seeing happening recently?)

Anyone paying attention to history, particularly when it comes to socialism/communism economics, know that they have never worked. Ever. Yet somehow it was going to work this time?

Welcome to the real world, Mayor Mamdani. Oh, and when New York City goes bankrupt, don’t waste you time calling the White House for a bailout because it ain’t gonna happen.

==++++++==

I wonder when someone will draft a Constitutional Amendment that allows the use of ellipses to modify the Constitution and its Amendments as needed? Oh, and add a Press Immunity clause to the First Amendment so ‘media’ can be excused from committing crimes if they have their press credentials on them?

As one of the commenters stated:

The freedom of the press does not protect an individual leading a riot to shut down a religious service, or any other crime by the individual. Freedom of religion is also a Constitutional right Lemon was abridging.

Indeed.

==++++++==

And speaking of Don Lemon, there’s this:

DOJ Charges Don Lemon With Federal Civil Rights Crimes

The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged former CNN host Don Lemon with federal civil rights crimes after he live streamed anti-ICE protesters storming a church in Minnesota. Lemon, who was arrested on Thursday, was charged with “conspiracy and interfering with the First Amendment rights of worshipers during a January 18 protest at the Cities Church in St. Paul…

--snip--

Everybody’s joking about the insane argument that being a journalist provides carte blanche to defy any law whatsoever.

This is going to be interesting, to say the least. It certainly opens up the limits of press immunity, particularly when it is used to deprive people of their First Amendment rights regarding religion and free exercise thereof.

==++++++==

I have to wonder how long it will be before the whole anti-ICE conspiracy falls apart? Seeing some of the polls about the whole illegal immigration issue, and particularly about ICE enforcing federal law, show a majority of the American people are in favor of deporting the millions of illegal immigrants that flooded across the border when the Biden Administration opened the borders. This is particularly true of the criminal illegal immigrants who have been found guilty of criminal acts back in their home countries, in the US since they’ve been here, or both, I find it hard to believe anyone would support not deporting them…or even imprisoning them.

They are acting like these criminals are somehow above the law merely because they entered the US illegally.

Somehow all of this is going to backfire on them and those funding them, particularly should some of those convicted criminal illegals commit even more heinous acts going forward.

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it’s still colder than normal, the ice is pretty much thick enough to drive on, and where ice fishing has been in full swing.

Will Physical Money Ever Go Away?

Over the past few years, I’ve been hearing that eventually we’ll no longer use physical money – bills and coins – because electronic ‘money’ is so much easier to use. Some may think nothing of this, believing it’s just progress. But I have two questions for those who think this would be a good idea.

First, do they realize that every single transaction they make will be traceable? It won’t matter if they’re ordering something from Amazon or buying a sandwich or lottery tickets at the local convenience store, there will be a record of everything they buy or service they pay for. Nothing will be anonymous. Nothing.

But that isn’t the thing that bothers me most. It’s the second thing.

Second, if there is no power and/or no Internet there will be no money. Keep in mind the latest Snowmageddon that took place almost a week ago knocked out power and comm services here and there across the nation. That means that stores would be unable to sell you anything because you don’t have any actual money on hand to pay for anything. You won’t be able to pay for food. You won’t be able to pay for clothing. You won’t be able to pay for gasoline. (Yes , this assumes the gas station has power. I know of a few around here that do have their own emergency generators.) It won’t matter if you have hundreds, thousands, or millions of dollars in the bank because you won’t be able to access any of it because it doesn’t really exist. It’s just 1’s and 0’s in a computer somewhere, a computer that you won’t be able to access.

Will physical cash ever go away?

Lord, I hope not.

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

Thoughts On A Sunday

As I write this (8AM) it is about 1°F here at The Gulch. The sky is cloudy and all is calm. Snow isn’t expected to start here until sometime around 2PM. With a couple of exceptions, we’re all set, and those exceptions will be taken care of well before the snow starts. One of those exceptions is moving the Official Weekend Pundit Generator from the back corner of the garage to the front near the garage door, something I will take care of around noon before the snow starts falling. Not that I expect we’ll need it as we will only be seeing snow here, and a light ‘fluffy’ snow which will pile up quickly but won’t have much weight. There won’t be any sleet, freezing rain, or heavy wet snow falling during the duration. However, that doesn’t rule out traffic accidents that could knock out power.

I still have to move the trusty RAM 1500 to leave the shared portion of the driveway open so the contractor will be able to plow it without obstruction. It does mean I’ll have to shovel out the pickup when the time comes, but I do have the Official Weekend Pundit Toro Power Shovel to help with that task, though I probably won’t be doing so until late tomorrow morning at the earliest.

Update – Noon: It just started snowing here at Lake Winnipesaukee.

==++++++==

Everyone knows there’s been another fatal shooting of an anti-ICE protester in Minneapolis. What gets me is that ‘everyone’ knows exactly what happened and why, meaning the Lame Stream Media and the anti-ICE folks. They all point to the few seconds of video being shown which ‘proves’ what happened. This is no different than when Ms. Good was fatally shot after she struck an ICE agent with her SUV – ‘everyone’ knew there was no reason for the officer to shoot her…until additional video proved that she had indeed driven her SUV towards the ICE agent and struck him with it.

Frankly, I am going to withhold my judgement about the latest shooting because, quite frankly, I don’t believe either side. I don’t know what happened. I haven’t seen all of the video. I (and everyone else) have seen just the last few seconds of what occurred. I cannot be sure it shows everything in context. And therein lies the problem.

The anti-ICE folks don’t want it shown in context, particularly if it goes against The Narrative.

==++++++==

Here is yet more proof of the old adage “That which is old is new again.”

It looks like Minneapolis is following the bad idea from Seattle – the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone or CHAZ – creating an Autonomous Zone by dragging dumpsters “to barricade entire city blocks while the anti-ICE protests rage on.”

This will turn out no better than CHAZ did in Seattle. But that won’t stop them from doing it anyways.

==++++++==

In line with the big winter storm that has stretched from New Mexico to Maine, there’s this to worry about:

Report: Huge Winter Storm Is Your Fault

Isn’t everything our fault when it comes to climate change…even if climate change has nothing to do with this?

I recall the Big Storm of 1993 that was quite similar to the present storm, except that it stretched only between Texas and Maine. No one thought it was unusual other than it hit some of the southern states, something that wasn’t all that unusual given the proper time scale.

So climate alarmists say climate change causes too much warming and too much cold when it isn’t. The goalposts are constantly moved ignoring all of the winter storms of the past that were entirely natural. The alarmists overstretched their hands with their hype so people moved on convinced that the climate will change no matter what they do and no longer see any point in worrying about it.

Yeah. That sounds just about right.

It could be why the “climate change scam has been collapsing.”

==++++++==

I’d like to hear Minnesota Governor Tim Walz explain away this one:

INDUSTRIAL SCALE FRAUD: $400 Million Minnesota Medicaid Scheme Operating Out of Single Building

Is this yet another nail in the coffin of Walz’s career?

Another massive Medicaid fraud operation has been uncovered in Minnesota, centered on the Griggs Midway building – a former linen factory allegedly converted into a hub for fraudulent billing. Roughly 400 Medicaid “businesses” operated out of the building, generating about $380 million in taxpayer-funded claims—an average of nearly $1 million per entity—despite the site’s implausible industrial setting. The revelations, made during a visit to Minneapolis, come amid the Trump administration’s broader crackdown on welfare fraud and have triggered fresh congressional scrutiny over how state oversight failed to flag an operation of this scale.

Massive Democrat fraud is standard operating procedure.

This is on top of the $9 billion of taxpayer money that has gone to organizations, people, and businesses that was acquired through well-organized fraud. What’s worse is that it looks like Minnesota officials knew it was happening and looked the other way or were part of the efforts to steal that taxpayer money.

==++++++==

It will be the New England Patriots going to SuperBowl LX! They beat the Denver Broncos in Denver 10-7 in the AFC Championship Game.

==++++++==

This doesn’t really surprise me.

Red States Have Reliable Power Because They Embrace an All-of-the-Above Strategy

My state, New Hampshire, which has a Republican Governor, Legislature, and Executive Council, has been trying to keep some of the more traditional power generation systems operating as well as seeking a nuclear power renaissance. Thinks like solar don’t bode too well up this way and wind is restricted as a lot of the land in the state is restricted by conservation easements.>br>
We shave the last operating coal-fired power plant in New England. We have a number of bio-mass powerplants. We have some trash-to-energy power plants. We have natural gas combined cycle power plants. We have hydro dams. We have a large nuclear power plant. But some folks want to shut down everything except the solar, wind, bio-mass, and hydro dams. Many of the folks wanting this are also against powerline projects that would bring clean, cheap, and abundant hydropower into New England, something that is paradoxical to me.

However, we also have a governor who sees the advantages of nuclear power and wants to build new nuclear plants. She understands the advantages of the present Gen III and Gen IV technology and the advantages of small modular reactors. She ran on building more nuclear power as part of her campaign platform. Let’s hope she can pull it off.

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it’s snowing heavily, the snow is piling up, and schools have already canceled classes for Monday.

Snowmageddon 2026

I’ve heard the storm that is sweeping across the country being called Snowmageddon. A lot of areas not used to either snow fall or freezing rain or sleet are receiving a couple of years’ worth in only a day or so. On TV we’ve seen long lines of people waiting to get into supermarkets to stock up on storm supplies. We’ve seen equally long lines of people waiting in the checkout lines. Some store shelves are empty. There are also long lines at gas stations as people fill the gas tanks on their cars and trucks as well as gas cans for their generators.

It isn’t often we see something like this, but then it isn’t often we see a storm system that affects people from Texas to Maine. The last time I can recall something like this was the Blizzard of 1993 which followed a similar storm track. The biggest difference being that storm and the one we’re seeing now is that temperatures were not below zero just ahead of the storm. It was -6°F here at The Gulch this morning with a wind chill sitting somewhere near -30°F. That certainly didn’t make it feel any less cold when I had to go out to shovel the driveway as we got just under an inch of snow overnight as the frigid air swept into New England. I also went next door to check the neighbor’s home after they called me, asking me to set their thermostat higher for the duration of the frigid temps today and overnight and the 12 to 18 inches of snow predicted to fall starting tomorrow afternoon.

Normally I do my weekly shopping on Saturday or Sunday morning but considering that the morning temperatures on both days this weekend were forecast to be below zero, I took care of it Friday afternoon. I knew the local Walmart where I do my shopping would be busy due to the approaching storm, but it wasn’t as busy as I thought it would be. I didn’t buy anything different than I would have on my normal weekend shopping trip, so my shopping cart wasn’t nearly as full as many of the others being pushed around by other customers. In fact, it didn’t really take me much longer to complete my shopping as I thought it would.

I did stop at our local gas station to fill the tank in the WP Mom’s car and there wasn’t a line of cars waiting to gas up. Fortunately, it didn’t take long as it was brutally cold due to the wind chill and standing outside the car as I pumped gas was not a pleasant experience.

We are as ready as we can be for the coming snowstorm as we can be at this point. Hopefully the only time I’ll need to step outside tomorrow is when I check on the status of my neighbor’s house to make sure everything is okay and when I need to rearrange things in the garage to move the generator near the garage door in case it is needed. The WP Mom will be attending church online tomorrow morning so she won’t need to brave the subzero temperatures.

Friday Funny - Hard And Wet

I'll Tell You The Story - Snowblowing Binky

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s another snowy weekend here at the lake. We had about 2 inches yesterday, an amount barely worth shoveling. We’re due for another 4 inches which will start falling sometime early this evening and will end sometime early tomorrow morning. It won’t be a heavy snowfall by any means, but it will make the roads slippery.

It also means that it will be snowing down in Foxboro, Massachusetts during the New England Patriots game as they play the Houston Texans. I wouldn’t think it would negatively affect the Patriots but I have no idea if it will affect the Texans in any way.

==++++++==

I admit that I spend a lot of time watching YouTube. Sometimes it’s to be amused or to catch the news from various sources across the globe. At other times to learn how do something that I have little or no experience doing. There are times when I watch dashcam videos to see just how bad it can get out there on the roads. Some of my favorites are webcam videos at intersections that see lots of traffic accidents, with two of them being at the intersection of Friant and Shepherd in Fresno, California and near 783 Meeting Street in Charleston, South Carolina.

However, something I’ve been noticing over the past few weeks are the number of videos reporting on problems in California that run the gamut from multibillion dollar corporations moving operations from the Pyrite State to other states, decisions made by the oil industry to close refineries and abandon offshore oil operations, to the aftereffects of the much hated AB5 which has recently forced over 70,000 owner-operator truckers to abandon California and mandates that required gas stations to have dual-walled gas tanks or be fined $5000 per day which has caused almost 500 gas stations across the state to shut down.

The one thing (other than California) that they all have in common?

They are all hosted by AI “talking heads”. The image you see, and voice you hear are all AI generated.

I didn’t notice at first. I was more interested in what was being talked about. It wasn’t until after I started paying closer attention to the videos that I realized the images were AI generated as were the voices.

Facial expressions and head motion didn’t look natural and eye blinks that also looked wrong. There were also hand motions that looked wrong. In most cases when someone is moving their hands while talking, the motions sync with the speech. However, in these videos the hand motions seem random and are rarely in sync with the speech. Here’s one example.

When it comes to speech there are sometimes ‘hiccups’ where some words have a nonsense pronunciation or the emphasis on the wrong syllable. There are also times when pauses in speech that I would expect from a human being are absent, telling me what I’m seeing and listening to is AI generated.

I’m going to keep watching these videos and I will have a follow-on post linking to some more of the videos. Watch them yourselves and tell me I’m wrong.

==++++++==

Via Instapundit comes this: What Blue Zone Collapse Looks Like.

While Chris Bray’s Substack post is looking primarily at California, many of his observations are true of other Blue Zones as well.

As one commenter to the Instapundit post observed:

California is following the same paths that led to the downfall of many socialist countries. It doesn't matter how many sheep they have to shear as those people and companies that employ the 'sheep' leave, taking their jobs and money with them. We're seeing multibillion dollar corporations pulling up stakes and relocating to more business-friendly states. Investment is starting to dry up as investors look for safer places to put their money as they see California being too risky, particularly if they do pass more confiscatory taxes that tax "unrealized capital gains".

We will need to keep an eye on New York City as I do not find it difficult to believe that it too will collapse if Mayor Mamdani gets even half of what he’s promised to the useful idiots who voted him into office. Because you’re dealing with a smaller area and a smaller population it’s possible the collapse will happen sooner than it will in California.

These Blue Zones will end up being an object lesson to those who think the Progressives/Left have the answer – socialism – to the nation’s problems. They don’t understand that the Progressives/Left are the problem

==++++++==

Speaking of Blue Zone collapse, here’s John Hawkins on one idea that will help hasten the fall: Wealth Taxes.

Wealth taxes are pretty much always bad ideas, the sort of thing nations turn to when their backs are against the wall, and they’re headed down the tubes. However, the wealth tax being floated in California is particularly disastrous to founders of companies and makes it extraordinarily dangerous for them to stay there.

Granted, California is already a poorly run state with high expenses, even higher taxes, and insufferable politicians and activists, but it has advantages, too. Big cities, great ports, lots of tech talent, and beautiful countryside. I just got done vacationing for a week in San Francisco. Setting aside the amazing food and pleasant weather, when you look at…pictures I took in San Fran and the surrounding area, you can understand why ludicrously wealthy people might be willing to pay more to live there.

--snip--

Still, there’s a difference between paying a premium to live somewhere, which pretty much anyone who pays taxes in California is already doing, and having greedy parasites take a significant part of the money you’ve earned IN YOUR ENTIRE LIFE just for the privilege of having their state as your primary residence.

The incredibly wealthy tech bros who live in California have been a huge asset to the state. They pay staggering amounts of taxes, create lots of other high-paying jobs, and have turned California into one of the biggest technology hubs on the planet.

So, what happens when they leave?

John goes on to write that they are already leaving the Pyrite State. That doesn’t bode well for those who are still living there as it means they will have to shoulder the increasing burden as those people and corporations leave California for less expensive and restrictive states.

Looking at the history of wealth taxes, it can be shown that they don’t work and never have. Yet that doesn’t stop the “tax-and-spend” folks from trying it again…and again. And they will fail again and again.

And so it goes.

==++++++==

I found this ironic, but not surprising.

The US State Department has ended all aid to Somalia.

Considering how much money Somali immigrants, legal or otherwise, have managed to scam from the American taxpayers, sending quite a lot of it ‘back home’ to Somalia, would Somalia even notice that US government aid has ended?

Probably not.

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where Ice In was declared this past week, the ski areas are plenty busy, and where I don’t have to worry about Monday this week because I have the day off.