Thoughts On A Sunday

The Fourth of July fireworks started Friday night, with some towns having them Friday night and others last night. One of my neighbors who lives on the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee had his own fireworks show Friday night which meant all I had to do was sit on a next door neighbor’s deck to watch the show. He’s been holding this show since the Bad Old Days of Covid and certainly all of the folks in this part of town have certainly appreciated it. While neither I or the WP Mom did much on Fourth, though we did partake of the Boston Pops Fourth of July concert on TV, something we’ve been watching on and off for years on those nights when we didn’t attend a fireworks celebration in person.

One thing that was nice was that Saturday wasn’t nowhere near as hot as the previous four days, being only in the mid 80’s, though the humidity was still a bit on the high side. Today was a little cooler but the humidity was down quite a bit. All in all, I have no complaints about the weather.

One the really hot days during this past week I managed to get most of my errands and chores taken care of during the morning hours before it got too hot. In a few cases that meant I was out and about a little after 6:30am and back at The Gulch before 10am. (I took a couple days off from work to give me a five-day holiday weekend. Most of my vacation time is used to extend holiday weekends by a day or two.)

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Seen over at Powerline in it’s “The Week In Pictures” feature are these two gems:

“White Time”: Dutch professor argues that time itself is racist.

and

Expecting people to be on time is part of “white supremacy culture”, Duke Medical School proclaims.

Just when I thought the Left couldn’t get any crazier and/or deluded, they prove me wrong.

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I will admit that I haven’t seen the trailers for this movie, but after hearing review after review after review, I won’t be adding it to my “Must See” list...ever.

Woke Supergirl Movie Belly Flops In Movie Theaters

The semi-sequel to last year’s Superman stars Milly Alcock as the hard-partying Krypton cousin scrambling to find the antidote to her drugged dog Krypto.

Yes, that’s the film’s plot, and the dog in question was obviously CGI. That may partially explain the film’s tepid reception. This failure is far from an orphan, though.

Let’s start with the main character, a minor player in the DC Comics universe. Alcock, a relative unknown, introduced the character via a boozy cameo at the end of Superman.

Apparently it all goes downhill from there. It seems Hollywood still hasn’t gotten the message that people want to be entertained, not preached to. It has forgotten the lesson of the late 1960’s/mid 1970’s that ‘message movies’ do not sell and is not learning it today.

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I have enjoyed Rick Beato’s YouTube channel for years. He’s a musician, producer, and educator about all kinds of things musical. One of the first videos of his I watched was one of his regular features - What Made This Sing Great - with the first one I caught being about Boston’s More Than A Feeling. I’ve seen him do interviews with all kinds of musicians, songwriters, and producers about a wide range of musical topics. One of my favorites was with Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, an out-of-this world guitarist and songwriter.

But the video I am writing about today is one that Rick posted a couple of days ago about AI and how too many people are using it to copy or rip off YouTube content creators.


I have to agree with Rick on this.

I have seen more than a few AI generated ‘talking head’ reports about one timely topic or subject or another. It’s one thing if they are labeled as being AI generated, but too many of them aren’t. As I have mentioned in a few other posts, all it takes is paying attention to head movements, eye blinks, and if their hands are visible, the hand movements as the AI speaks as they do not match what the AI is saying as far as cadence or tempo is concerned to determine if the talking head is AI generated.

Frankly, I find it annoying.

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The World Cup has been in the news for some time and I will admit I haven’t been paying a lot of attention to it once Scotland was eliminated. But one thing I have been paying attention to is the World Cup fans who have discovered America, finding out they’ve been lied to about it all these years. I have seen numerous YouTube videos from these fans who have come from all over the world, showing their shock and amazement about what they’re experienced here in the US, including experiencing America’s 250th birthday celebration on the Fourth.







This is but a small sampling of what’s out there on YouTube about foreign visitors discovering that America is not what their news media has been portraying.

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I have to agree with the following sentiment.

The ‘transgendered’ would find their lives far simpler if they’d stop trying to make their beliefs other people’s business

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” ― George Orwell, 1984

Living on a rural farm, in a small, mostly rural county, in a very politically conservative state, I only rarely see the ‘transgendered.’ I saw one such gentleman pretending to be a lady, as a customer, in the Corto Lima restaurant in downtown Lexington several years ago, and another such gentleman working as a waiter in the now-several-years-closed Applebee’s on Bypass Road in Richmond. I thought such was humorous, because neither one came anywhere close to ‘passing’ as a real woman, but I had no interactions with either of them. They were doing what they wanted to do, in a manner which had no impact on me at all. Unlike the “Party’s” most essential command, I accepted the evidence of my eyes.

That, of course, was simple: these gentlemen who thought they were ladies weren’t trying to force me to accept them as ladies. The problem today as that so many of the ‘transgendered’ are attempting to compel the rest of us to accept their delusions.

And therein lies the problem. So many of them get in everyone’s faces about their transgenderism to the point where it is intrusive and annoying. That is not how one wins over the general population. Instead it tends to have just the opposite effect and it pisses people off. Then those same transgendered individuals claim they are being oppressed and vilified and that people don’t like them. They claim victimhood for being annoying a**hats.

Read The Whole Thing.

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I was wondering when someone was going to mention the following:

Europe’s Heat Wave Isn’t The Crisis — Energy Poverty Is

I admit I have had difficulty understanding Europe’s hatred of air conditioning, or more accurately, the various European governments’ hatred of air conditioning, particularly in light of the brutal heat wave they suffered last week. Knowing that some European countries’ electrical grids cannot handle the load due their conversion towards “Net Zero” systems, it really isn’t all that surprising, is it?

When temperatures elevate in Europe, political rhetoric rises even faster. Within days of the June 2026 heat wave, familiar voices rushed to assign blame. John Kerry, speaking to the BBC, labeled the current U.S. administration “dangerous and reckless” on climate.

U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell declared that “Europe’s savage heat wave has the fingerprints of the climate crisis all over it; it’s the latest price to pay for fossil fuel pollution baking our planet.”

This hyperbole has no scientific basis. The urgency of assertions that carbon dioxide (CO2) is overheating the atmosphere is never matched in reports about cold snaps that are at least as dangerous.

The imbalance reflects an apocalyptic narrative that prioritizes fear and ideology over nuance and evidence.

Seeing how many electrical grids no longer have the on-demand capacity to meet electrical demand should air conditioning be used, it certainly makes sense that the climate cultists would aim hatred and animosity towards air conditioning. It keeps them from having to answer the real question, that being “How come we don’t have the capacity to support such lifesaving equipment during heat waves?”

If they can lay blame on the US for those heatwaves it shifts focus away from the real issue. (I have to mention here that if the Euro-climate cultists want to blame carbon dioxide emissions for their heat wave problem, they should be focusing on China and not the US seeing as China has many times the carbon dioxide emissions of the US, Europe, and most of Asia. It doesn’t help that their emissions keep on climbing.)

Maybe Europe needs to get rid of the “Net Zero” nonsense and start building more nuclear. Their windmills aren’t going to be able to meet the demand, particularly when they aren’t running because there’s little or no wind.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the heat and humidity have dropped, the A/C is turned off, and where once again Monday is coming to harsh or weekend mellow.

Declaration Of Independence - It's Time To Remember Why

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Friday Funny - Living With A Teenager

Friday Funny (Wednesday Edition) - Air Conditioning

Considering that I am on vacation and dealing with a heat wave where temps will be in the upper 90's with high humidity over the next few days, I though this would be appropriate, particuarly in light of Justin mentioning Lake Winnipesaukee which is where The Gulch is located.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s weekend before the Fourth of July and people are already gearing up for the big party. Many of the summerfolk are already here. People are checking to see when the various fireworks shows will be taking place. I plan to attend at least one of them, weather permitting. (The chance of thunderstorms is pretty good considering how hot and humid it’s going to be here over the coming week. It will all depend upon timing.)

We’ll be seeing 90°F starting Tuesday with high humidity and higher temperatures being added to that starting on Wednesday which could last until Saturday. It looks like the the A/C here at The Gulch will be getting a workout leading up to the Fourth. In other words, a pretty normal summer week.

This also means I will check out the A/C in the trusty RAM 1500 as I usually have to add refrigerant to the A/C system every year or so. I didn’t have to do that last year so it wouldn’t surprise me if I need to take care of that this year. At least it is something I can take care of here at The Gulch.

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This isn’t news to any of us space geeks that have been paying attention to the news.

Boeing’s Starliner Is Such a Disaster That We Don’t Even Have Words

I don’t know if it is just Boeing or if it’s NASA or both that have led to this piece of junk.

Boeing's Starliner, originally intended to serve as an alternative to SpaceX's workhorse Dragon spacecraft, has been nothing short of a disaster.

It's been just over two years since the spacecraft launched to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams on board, a maiden crewed voyage following years of delays and major technical setbacks. But thanks to persistent issues with the thrusters and major helium leaks, the capsule stranded the duo in space for nine months, and eventually returned without anybody on board.

Since then, Boeing has continued to struggle to get its act together — over a decade and a half after it struck up its Commercial Crew Program contract with NASA. As Spaceflight Now reports, the long-awaited follow-up to the calamitous test flight — which won't even have a crew on board — still doesn't have an official launch date and could be as far as a year away.

Not that it really matters all that much seeing as the ISS will only be in service for another 4 years (maybe) and the Starliner will have no reason to exist. NASA has spent a couple of billion dollars (that’s billion with a ‘b’) on this barely functional piece of junk.

It doesn’t help that Boeing is the aerospace company it used to be after McDonnell Douglas took it over years ago and changed from a ‘can do’ engineering company that also built airplanes and spacecraft to one that managed to screw up the venerable 737 airliner, the mainstay of commercial aviation for decades.

Rather than wasting anymore taxpayer money trying to make this hanger queen serviceable, it would be cheaper for NASA to buy Dragon spacecraft from SpaceX...or better yet, hire SpaceX to take care of all its manned mission requirements. At least SpaceX still has that “can do” mindset that used to be part and parcel of NASA in the past and can do it a heck of a lot cheaper than Boeing can.

As someone who has been space geek since Alan Shepard became the first American in space, I have to say that NASA has become one big disappointment.

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I saw this earlier last week and it took me a while to decide whether or not it was good news or bad news. Maybe you can figure out which it is.

Auto Glass Repair Businesses Suffer As Oakland Break-ins Decline

So, it’s good that people smashing glass to break into cars and trucks has declined, meaning less property crimes of that type in Oakland.

But it’s bad news for all the businesses that have been replacing all that broken glass because there’s not as much business as there was in the past.

I’m leaning more towards the “It’s Good News” side of the debate.

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I have to agree with those who think that SNAP benefits should not be eligible to be used for junk food.

Republican Texas Rep. Brandon Gill pressed a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) advocate Thursday on why taxpayers should pay for sugary drinks.

The House Oversight subcommittee examined waste, fraud and abuse in SNAP, a roughly $100 billion program that provides food for more than 40 million Americans. Gina Plata-Nino, director of policy and advocacy for the Food Research and Action Center, could not provide a straight answer on why tax dollars should cover SNAP recipients’ sugary drinks.

“You think they need Coca Cola to survive?” Gill asked. “You think that’s the most appropriate use of our tax dollars? … Do the American people need Coca-Cola to survive? You think there’s some Americans who need Coca Cola to survive? Is that your testimony? … I think most people can rationally say that you don’t need Coca Cola to survive, wouldn’t you agree?”

“I agree that we have a hunger crisis and that we need to address it by ensuring that people have the food resources that we need,” Plato-Nino said.

Coca-Cola, Cheetos, Doritos, Twinkies, and thousands of other ‘junk’ foods are not necessary to meet the nutritional needs of SNAP recipients. That’s just more of our hard earned dollars going to waste and running up the size of the grocery tab while at it.

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I had to read this three times to make sure that it wasn’t a typo or an unlabeled Babylon Bee post. But it looks like it is legit.

Don Lemon Admits Trump Is a ‘Media Genius’ Who Played CNN Like a Fiddle

According to one of CNN’s more infamous ex-anchors, the network’s adversarial relationship with President Donald Trump isn’t actually quite as antagonistic as it seems.

Ex-CNN host Don Lemon — no stranger to recent controversy — recently appeared on the “What Now?” podcast, which is hosted by former “Daily Show” host Trevor Noah.

The two men covered a wide range of topics, all with a heavy leftist slant, but the conversation did get a bit critical of a nominally left-leaning network in CNN.

“Did you guys at CNN ever know that [Trump] was, like, playing you guys like puppets?” Noah asked Lemon. “Did you ever figure it out at some point?”

“Oh, yeah,” Lemon replied.

The 60-year-old Lemon continued: “So, I think, honestly, they maybe knew somewhere in the beginning, but it was good for business. Do you remember Les Moonves? He goes, you know, ‘Trump is bad for the country, but he’s good for business.'”

It seems they didn’t realize that Trump has always known how to play the media. He’s been doing it for decades. He understands how the media works, understands how politics works...though I will admit that he didn’t truly understand how Washington works at the beginning of his first term in office. (He more than made up for that during his second term when he hit the ground running and didn’t waste any time after taking the oath of office.)

I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it again – Trump is like a stage magician showing the rubes (the media and the Democrats) the shiny object in his right hand, using it to distract them while with the left hand he’s getting things done.

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In last week’s TOAS, I mention the underwhelming response to the opening of the new Obama Presidential Library.

Now to add insult to injury, it seems that none of the visitors to the Presidential Library could name a single accomplishment by The Won during his eight years in office.

On Thursday, Johnny Belisario, a producer for Fox News’s Jesse Watters Primetime, conducted a series of “man-on-the-street” interviews with visitors to the newly opened Barack Obama Presidential Center. He had one question: “What has been Barack Obama’s greatest accomplishment?”

The results were startling. Remarkably, none of the people interviewed — visitors who respected Obama enough to honor his legacy at his presidential center — could name a single success.

One middle-aged woman said, “Right now it is, you know, I can’t remember, it was a lot.”

A second woman replied, “I can’t think now. You caught me off guard. … Somebody help me out.”

“I’m gonna have to say just being there,” another responded.

That’s sad. Just sad. For all of the things he has claimed he’s done, visitors couldn’t name a single one? I find that disturbing to no end.

I am certainly not going to claim it was Obamacare, something that has failed spectacularly and made medical even more expensive all while eating up hundreds of billions of dollars. I am not going to say it was all the “racial healing” he brought up again and again, because if anything, he set back race relations years, if not decades.

I will give him credit for one thing, that being the ugliest Presidential Library in US history.

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Fortunately for me it is going to be a short work week as I will be taking a couple of vacation days the extend the Fourth of July weekend. As such, it means I only have to deal with Monday and Tuesday at work, and almost all of that will be paperwork.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where preparations for the Fourth of July continue, the weather looks like it’s going to cooperate (mostly), and where the thought of Monday doesn’t bother me this week because I have Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off.

Nuclear Power Returning To New Hampshire (And The US)?

It looks like New Hampshire is preparing for a nuclear power renaissance, something Governor Ayotte promised when she ran for governor.

Between signing an executive order earlier this year creating a road map for next generation nuclear power and a conference this past week focusing on a return of nuclear power to New Hampshire, with the focus being on Small Modular Reactors, it shows New Hampshire is serious about bringing modern nuclear technology back to the state and to greatly expand its power generation capacity.

The traditional look of nuclear power generation, with the big cooling towers, will most likely not be what next-generation nuclear energy looks like in New Hampshire.

--snip--

Small modular reactors were among the topics being discussed at the conference this week.

"This technology, we believe, could provide a real savings going forward," said Jared Chicoine, commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Energy. "When it comes to development, we believe we're a few years away from that, but New Hampshire is taking the steps to investigate what this could mean for us in the future."

New companies like StarCube are working on advanced portable microreactors. StarCube CEO Bill Spellane said it could be some time before such technology is deployed in New Hampshire.

"There's some policy decisions that have to be made," he said. "The ISO New England queue is three to five years long. We are looking to deploy our first reactor in a slightly different way before 2030."

There are skeptics when it comes to next-generation nuclear. Some like its potential to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, but they worry about how expensive it is to produce this kind of power.

The idea behind the use of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) is that they wouldn’t be expensive to build like the previous generation of nuclear power plants like the existing plants in operation, like the one in Seabrook, New Hampshire. The would be built on an assembly line, then transported to the build site, installed, tested, licensed, and turned on. Plants like Seabrook took many years to build, in some cases due to delays caused by lawsuits by anti-nuclear organizations and hostile state legislation that destroyed funding mechanisms that greatly increased the costs of construction. (Seabrook was plagued by both of these problems which caused the original price of $800 million to balloon to $6.2 billion and bankrupted the utility company building the plant.)

Nuclear power, at least here in New Hampshire, won’t be pursuing the old One Big Nuclear Power Plant model as it’s too expensive and take too long to build. SMRs can get the job done much more quickly and at a much cheaper price per megawatt-hour. The SMRs aren’t using “your grandfather’s nuclear technology”. (I have found that a lot of folks who are against nuclear power think we’ll b e building plants using technology from 60 years ago!) The new Generation III and Generation IV reactor technology is better, safer, and cost less money to build, operate, and maintain. Some of them can even use ‘depleted’ nuclear fuel from the older Generation II nuclear power plants for fuel which helps get rid of the nuclear waste problem.

Seems to me we should look more deeply into this across the nation.

Friday Funny - I Wish I Was Your Phone

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was the last day of Laconia Motorcycle Week and I can say that it has been pretty good. Yes, traffic wasn’t great at times. Local eateries were full of bikers “from away”. The same of the local ice cream stands and supermarkets. But all in all, it was pretty good. I know I haven’t had any real complaints. The only problematic weather we had to deal with was during this past Thursday when there were thunderstorms passing through and the Weather Guys^TM issued a tornado watch for the entire state. During the rest of the week and both weekends the weather was quite nice which certainly helped bring out the crowds of bikers.

Not that there won’t be motorcycles around after Bike Week ends. We see groups of them around from late spring through early to mid-fall, with their presence tapering off after foliage season. New Hampshire has miles and miles of scenic roads all throughout the state, as does neighboring Maine and Vermont. That we see groups of motorcyclists traveling around, enjoying scenery, restaurants, and attractions is no surprise.

Oh, and one more thing:

It’s the first day of Summer!!

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It looks like Derek Hunter over at Townhall has brought up a question too many folks in the Democrat Party have been choosing to ignore, that question being “Were Democrats Always This Dumb?”

I admit that my first thought was “No. It’s only been over the past few decades we’ve seen their collective IQ tumble.” To paraphrase one of the commenters to the piece put it, I didn’t really understand politics until the late 1960’s/early 1970’s and the Democrats didn’t seem dumb back then. Misguided, maybe, but not dumb.

It’s a rhetorical question, but it’s one worth asking: Were Democrats always like this? Did they always hate the country? Did they always side with our enemies if they didn’t like the President? Did they always choose abusers of women if they voted in the right way? Were they always willing to overlook anything, no matter how horrendous, if it was done by someone on their team? Ultimately, the real question is whether or not Democrats were always this dumb?

I’m not talking dumb, as is a stupid person, no. Kamala Harris is a stupid person, educated well beyond her intelligence, famous for tossing word salads full of empty calories and meaningless platitudes.

--snip--

Kamala Harris was chosen to be Joe Biden’s running mate because she, like a short person hanging out with midgets to seem taller, was one of the few people on the planet who could make Joe Biden seem smarter than he was.

Harris, however, was more the norm than an outlier.

The ‘dumb’ has been taking over the Democrat Party and is moving higher up the ‘chain of command’. That does not bode well for either the Democrats of the nation.

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Frankly, none of this surprises me in the least. The latest ‘dumb’ stuff from Germany?

German Wind Turbines Face Regulatory Shutdown Due To Excessive Noise

Wind turbines are not only blighting Germany’s landscape everywhere, but are also creating excessive noise.

Germany’s online Blackout News reports that two Nordex wind turbines are exceeding the permitted nighttime noise limits at the Königseiche wind farm near Uhingen-Baiereck, (south Germany).

Anyone that lives near a wind turbine knows they generate noise, including infrasound that is below the human frequency hearing range. It can all have a deleterious effect on health, not just of humans but of domestic animals and wildlife, too. I find it difficult to think that Germany didn’t take any of this into account beforehand.

One would thing the Germans of all people would have figured that into their calculations when they decided to go all Net Zero. It’s only been after the fact that they started regulating noise levels from wind turbines and it’s starting to come back to bite them. (We have to remember they also planned to cut down a “storybook forest” that has been around for centuries in order to build more wind turbines.)

If they want quiet, they should consider recommissioning their nuclear power plants as they are pretty quiet and only take up a fraction of the land that wind turbines do for an equivalent amount of power generated.

It seems the Germans have fallen into the “replacing what works with things that sound good” paradigm. In this case the “sounds good” part isn’t true because the turbines are making too much noise.

==++++++==

Apparently a lot of people are not enamored with the new Obama Presidential Library. I think the kindest thing I heard it called was ‘monstrosity’. I have to say that it is indeed ‘fugly’.

The Obama Presidential Center finally opened to the public on Friday (not that you care), and the verdict from the internet was swift and brutal. People are calling it a "monstrous insult to architecture," a "concrete nightmare," and simply a "monstrosity." Social media has spent the week comparing the thing to a trash can and a dystopian movie set, which, having seen the photos, feels generous.

It’s hideous.

Naturally, the man who helped design the building's most mocked feature has a different take. Chris Bird, the Washington structural engineer who designed the upper portion of the center's towering centerpiece, sat down with Fox News Digital just before the doors opened and insisted the design is not a monstrosity at all. It's a "grand gesture." A "bold statement." Something with "no architectural precedent."

It looks more like a defensive installation one would find on the Death Star of the Empire of Star Wars fame. I keep waiting to see the pulse cannons to deploy and fire.

As seen on another blog, Bustedknuckles, it looks more like a large refuse can.

How much money was wasted on this...this thing?

==++++++==

It was Father’s Day today and we celebrated it over a BeezleBub’s with some nice brisket he’d made. He broke out the smoker, fired it up, and a few hours later we were dining on nice brisket.

All in all, it was a pretty nice celebration and a great dinner!

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the roar of motorcycles has faded away, the traffic has died down...until next weekend, and where Monday is coming around again.

Interstate 95 Electronic Surveillance And Ticketing Becoming A Reality

It was while I was partaking of of one of my YouTube guilty pleasures – dash-cam videos – that I came across the video below that informed us of new traffic enforcement means that includes a host of electronic. I will admit that at first glance it seems much more ominous than the reality of what’s happening. However, the reality isn’t all that great as I can see a number of legal problems these new measures may have , including constitutional issues, specifically in regard to the Sixth Amendment.

First, the video:



The first thing I am going to mention right up front that this video was made with AI assistance. (You’ll notice that eye blinks and head motions do not seem natural, a giveaway that the ‘talking head’ we’re seeing is AI generated.)

The video gives the impression the entire length of I-95 from Maine to Florida will have these systems installed and being used. That’s what drove me to dig in a little deeper to find out how all of these diabolical electronic surveillance systems were going to be used and who would be controlling them, and just as importantly, who would be issuing and collecting fines. From the video it sounded like it would be the Feds running the show. However, that is not the case. Not that it makes it any better.

It turns out the individual states which I-95 passes through will be using these systems. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be legal issues to address.

To get an idea about what some states have planned there’s this small primer from factually that looks at some of them:

Automated enforcement on I‑95: speed cameras in Delaware and civil penalties

Delaware’s work‑zone cameras on I‑95 near Churchmans Marsh moved from a warning phase into active fines after a trial period, issuing civil penalties (no license points) for vehicles exceeding the limit by 11 mph or more, with early data showing thousands of high‑speed violations including dozens over 100 mph and a top recorded speed of 139 mph. The policy calculates surcharges from the posted limit even though the citation threshold includes a built‑in tolerance; the program’s immediate stated aim is work‑zone safety, but automated systems also generate steady revenue and raise civil‑liberties concerns among enforcement skeptics—an implicit tension present in the reporting [2].

--snip--

The broader 2026 context: a nationwide push toward hands‑free, automated enforcement and higher penalties

Across states in 2026 there is a clear trend to restrict hand‑held device use, expand automated enforcement, tighten roadside protections and adjust speed policy, with commentary from driver education and insurance outlets urging adoption of hands‑free tech and attention to changing signage [7] [8] [9]. Legislative variations matter — for example, Florida legislators debated raising some highway limits to 80 mph even though many I‑95 segments remain at 70 mph today — underscoring that I‑95 drivers will encounter a patchwork of rules and should consult state and local DOT updates for specific corridors [10].

The above are just a couple of excerpts of what’s changing in general. However you can find a list of the I-95 states that have basically the same law, i.e. “Keep Right” requirements - here.

For the first three states on that list – Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts – the “Keep Right” laws have been tacitly ignored...sort of. I have seen in all three states where you’ll see a slower moving vehicle in the left lane(s) and other cars and truck will pass them on the right. On the other hand, I have experienced staying in the right lane(s) even though I am traveling at 75 or 80 mph...because I am traveling slower than all the other vehicles doing 80, 85, or even 90 mph. This has become more common than it was in the past, though I am not sure why. I guess people are in a bigger hurry than they have been before.

Will all of the measures listed in the video actually come to into use? How many of them will end up failing to pass constitutional muster? That might explain why more of these laws are assessing a fine as a part of civil law versus criminal law which might not be protested under the Sixth Amendment. On the other hand I have seen motorists beat tickets issued by automated speed radar systems on Sixth Amendment grounds, so who knows?

If nothing else it will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Friday Funny - Hall Pass

Thoughts On A Sunday

The roar of motorcycle engines can be heard day and night now that we’re in full swing of Laconia Bike Week. While there’s a pretty good crowd here already, a lot more will be showing up starting this coming Wednesday to finish out the week. We also expect a lot of motorcycle traffic in my town on Wednesday as that’s when the hill climb event will be taking place at our local ski resort. It usually draws a pretty big crowd.

One nice thing is that the weather is cooperating this year with warm (if not toasty) temperatures, plenty of sun, and any rain forecast to occur during late evening. Yes, I know forecasts can change but so far things are looking good. That will certainly bring in a lot more motorcycle enthusiasts.

The downside to all of this is that there are going to be a lot of motorcyclists around until the end of next weekend. The roads will be full of them and that means taking a lot of extra care when out on the road. While that means I may not be out and about as much as usually am, I will be out. But that will mostly be for going to and from work and two town-related meetings at the beginning of the week.

==++++++==

Now that the New York Knicks have won the NBA Championship, we can pay attention to all the World Cup matches taking place across the US.

Our ‘local venue’, Gillette Stadium located in Foxborough just south of Boston, was temporarily renamed Boston Stadium. I am assuming that was done to either reduce the confusion of soccer fans attending the game being played there, or to reduce the “crass commercialism” of how we name our stadiums. Maybe it was a little of both.

In any case, it hosted Haiti vs. Scotland yesterday, the first World Cup match being played there. Scotland won that match 1-0.

If nothing else it will give we Americans a chance to meet a lot of folks from across the world and vice versa.

==++++++==

Just when I thought I couldn’t dislike the delusional Left any more than I already do they come up with something else I have to roll my eyes about. Mike Solana certainly sums it up about the Left’s hatred of Elon Musk:

[L]sten up, we have to vote for the man with the nazi tattoo so he can stop the man landing rockets and curing the blind from making any more money, otherwise we’ll get fascism.

[Y]ou see how stupid you sound, yes?

I’m not sure who they hate more, Musk or Trump. Not that it really matters in the end.

==++++++==

Yup, this sounds dead on target.

Socialism is the merger of envy and government.

Just ask Bernie Sanders…

==++++++==

It seems a new study is confirming what I’ve known for a long time and is backing up the conclusion of similar studies in the past.

“Conservatives are happier than Liberals.”

As one commenter put it:

My wife spent her career as a licensed clinical psychologist and confirmed this for me repeatedly. The majority of her patients over decades, including the unhappiest, were overwhelmingly white, leftist women. Many left her care when she wouldn't agree with them or justify their complaints. Those were immediately replaced with more just like them, all complaining about how unhappy life had made them. They were mainly overweight, single and childless.

What’s even worse are the AWFLs, Affluent White Female Liberals.

==++++++==

It’s not like this is news by any means.

The Breakdown of Civilization in California

This latest bit of savagery perpetrated in the Pyrite State has become far too common. It doesn’t help that the state seems to be ‘legalizing’ crime. We certainly see that with the shoplifting mobs that hit stores, cleaning them out in moments. Even when they are caught they aren’t jailed, being released under California’s reformed bail laws where they can go on to commit more crimes. Even violent criminals are released. And of those, how many actually go to trial? Considering how many of the DA’s are so-celled “Soros DA’s” I’m surprised if any of them make it into a court. But then, that’s what Soros and so many of the lunatic Leftists want.

This is what the globalists want, the complete breakdown of civilization. This is the end-stage of toxic empathy, giving people what they say they want (e.g. drugs) and not what they need (i.e. help). 37-year-old man stabbed to death after violent dog attack on Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The unprovoked attack happened on May 20 as Berry Henderson, 37, was standing at a bus stop near Hollywood Boulevard around 3 p.m.

Surveillance video showed Henderson running into the street as a dog was seen chasing him and aggressively biting him.

That’s when a group of four men, one of whom was the dog’s owner, rushed over to attack Henderson. A suspect who was armed with a machete was seen stabbing and punching Henderson.

The guy with the dog was known to law enforcement, and so was the dog.

So did this miscreant and his friends do something similar to this before? Is that how he and his dog are known by law enforcement?

Let us hope that barbaric ‘custom’ doesn’t make its way outside of the blue states. On the other hand, in a lot of the non-blue states the citizens have the right to keep and bear arms. If something like that had happened here in New Hampshire it is likely the dog, the dog’s owner, and the machete wielder would have been shot by the victim, a number of bystanders, or both.

I have to wonder if California might be heading towards a Death Wish scenario?

==++++++==

I have been seeing more YouTube videos that tout other YT videos made by Europeans who have been touring the US, both prior to and during the World Cup matches. What’s been surprising to me (and others) has been how positive they have been about the US. It seems many Europeans think the US has no culture, no heritage, and that we are all like the images of people they see in the movies and TV shows from the US. Many have been pleasantly surprised about the American people and where they live. More than a few have expressed the desire to relocate to the US, particularly the British visitors. (Gee, I wonder why?)

I’ll keep an eye open to see if this shifts as the World Cup matches continue and people are expozed to more of America.

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather has been more humid than expected, where heavy showers/thunderstorms are expected overnight, and where Monday’s return is refusing to “harsh my mellow”.

Brown Eggs Versus White Eggs - Part Deux

In last Sunday’s TOAS I mentioned the nonsense about brown chicken eggs having a larger carbon footprint than white eggs. It seems that a poultry farmer sees it for the nonsense it is and is debunking the claims made.

I am a poultry Breeder. The hens that lay white eggs (Amberline/White Star) DO NOT have a lower carbon footprint.

Yes they eat a bit less and produce roughly the same amount of eggs as the Brown egg layers (Bovan/Lowman/ISA Brown) but they live shorter lives, are prone to dying suddenly when startled, a flighty and nervous and because they live shorter productive lives (12 -18mnths) vs brown 18/24mnths (both commercial farmed), you have to incubate more which is increased (Electricity/gas costs) and their eggs are not the same quality.

I breed and keep 20+ different breeds, including: ISA Brown hens and White Stars. All my hens are 100% free range, Not a single barn kept bird, I have ISA browns that are 5yrs old and still laying beautiful Brown eggs, I have not seen a White star live beyond 3yrs and certainly none have laid eggs past 18-24mnths.

--snip--

You want to know about eggs, come talk to someone like me, Don’t rely on some hairbrained imagination of a buyer who’s trying to squeeze the profit margin for a few extra pennies at our expense and to the poor hens detriment.

The comments made in the second linked post certainly support the disdain from the poultry farmer in question.

And the climate cultist BS continues.

Friday Funny (A Little Late) - When Movies Get Science Wrong

Sorry for the delayed posting as I was distracted by the arrival of thousands of motorcyclists for Laconia Bike Week...and a lengthy Internet outage in my area due to a traffic accident.

But now that we have Internet connectivity again...

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a 50:50 day yesterday being a mix of clouds, spotty rain, and occasional sunshine. It was a good day for running errand because I certainly didn’t miss any of the better weather activities. I did spend a couple of hours at two different banks during the morning, making a few changes to my accounts there. I wish I could say I was depositing a couple of million dollars in each bank, but it was something more mundane along the lines of modifying the accounts.

Probably the most ‘exciting’ thing I did yesterday was watch a couple of episodes of History Channel’s new World War II series. It reminds me a bit of the BBC’s old World At War series that we used to watch on PBS. The one big difference between the new series and World At War was the original series included interviews with a lot of people who fought in World War II from both sides. I will say that I like what I have seen in the new series so far as it does cover things the original World At War did not, digging deeper into the politics before and during the war.

==++++++==

When I saw this a few days ago my first thought was “Can they really be this dumb?”

It turns out they are...or at least this one is.

You wanna hear something funny?

Lemme tell y’all what Rep. LaMonica McIver just said to Secretary Mullin during the hearing. Paraphrasing but you get the gist…

“You wanna talk about racism and everything… tell me why every person locked up in Delaney Hall is a foreigner?”

Who’s gonna tell her that ICE facilities ONLY house illegal aliens?

GOOD LORD! Democrats are truly the stupidest breed out there.

The comments in the Instapundit post are brutal...and rightfully so. So are the over 4000 replies to the post in X.

Note: According to some of the Instapundit comments, it is possible Rep. McIver was not the one who made this comment. However, the sources for this refutation are suspect...at least to me.

==++++++==

I have to wonder when the exodus of the British will begin from the UK?

Seeing how they are being treated by their government and the increasing abuses being heaped upon them by “innocent” migrants that seem to have no problems committing heinous acts. And then they lay the blame on the victims with the police supporting the narratives.

3 days after his son was murdered, Mark Nowak had to fight tooth & nail to stop the police from issuing a statement claiming Henry had racially abused Vickrum Digwa.

They had no evidence of any racial abuse from Henry. The police are trained to side with foreigners by default.

What’s worse is that these foreigners are the antithesis of British culture and are in the UK to tear it down and replace it with 7th century barbarism. They are already acting like run the country.

Hmm. Maybe they already do.

That might explain why I have been seeing more and more Brits on YouTube talking about moving to the US.

==++++++==

Seeing what’s been going on in the UK, one has to ask a follow-up question: Is Saving Europe Still Possible?

Considering just how wishy-washy some of the other European countries have been when it comes to allowing ‘enemy’ migrants into their countries by the millions, I’d have to say they are teetering on the brink. If they don’t get the Muslim immigrant problems squared away they will go the way of so many other nations and empires and cultures that didn’t stop similar problems cold: extinction.

It doesn’t help that European birthrates have plummeted while Muslim immigrant birthrates in Europe are much higher. All they have to do is wait a couple of generations and the white Judeo-Christian culture will be outnumbered and doomed to dwindle away. And what’s worse is that the Europeans have been doing it to themselves. It’s not much different here.

==++++++==

From the “Just When I Thought They Couldn’t Get Any Stupider” Department comes this climate change nonsense:

Brown Eggs Canceled for Offending the Climate

The advantage of a totalitarian ideology is that it can be applied to everything. For example, global warmism dictates even what color eggs should be offered for sale.

An assessment by SAC Consulting for Sainsbury’s found that brown eggs have a 12.7% higher carbon footprint than white eggs, as the hens that produce brown eggs are larger and eat more food.

Next comes the government ban on brown eggs. Next after than come restrictions on how large a hen can grow. If this fails to perfect the weather, tighter regulation will be required.

Hmm. I would have thought larger hens would be a good thing because they have more “meat” on them. Did anyone take into account the ratio of the amount of feed versus the amount of meat on the chicken carcass? What good are smaller chickens if you need more of them to provide the same amount of meat if it also means in total they’ll eat just as much if not more that the larger “brown egg” hens?

And so it goes.

==++++++==

You can’t tell me there won’t be a federal investigation about the voting in Los Angeles as it seems that just about every mail-in ballot was for Nithya Raman which moved her from a a distant third place to a solid second place. This means she’ll be running against fellow communist Karen Bass for mayor of Los Angeles.

To quote Dan McLaughlin, “The machine wins. Absolutely nothing will change in LA.”

Statistically, the split in the mail-in votes should have approximated the results seen from ‘regular’ voting. But against all odds, the mail-in votes heavily favored one candidate.

If this holds up the only thing I can do is quote Ed Koch: “The people have spoken. Now they must be punished.”

I figure the exodus from LA is going to accelerate going forward and will resemble what’s been happening in New York since fellow communist Mamdani became mayor. I do have to wonder how long it will take either of those cities to look more like Detroit when it hit rock bottom.

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where now that the weekend is over the good weather will return, the roar of motorcycles will start to be heard by Wednesday, and where 300,000+ bikers will be arriving to take part in Laconia Motorcycle Week.

D-Day - June 6, 1944

It was 82 years ago today that the Allies invaded Normandy.

It was the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany.

It was brilliant. It was audacious. It was daunting. It was a gamble.

It worked.

I remember when I saw Saving Private Ryan with a friend, his father, and his father’s friend. I didn’t know until after we finished watching the movie and leaving the theater that both of these elderly men were veterans of D-Day. As we drove back to my home my friend’s father stated that the movie-makers had captured D-Day perfectly. His voice shook as he said this. His friend merely nodded, and I could see he was fighting back tears.

It was a few years ago when I saw this video of John Williams’ Hymn For The Fallen and even today it brings tears to my eyes. As such, I felt I had to post it here, today of all days.

It is only fitting.

Friday Funny - Immediate Regret

Thoughts On A Sunday

Looking at yesterday’s weather one might have thought we were back in mid-April with overnight temps at or below freezing, snow in the mountains, and heavy rain and winds until early afternoon. It wasn’t all that warm around here with high temps in the low 50’s late in the afternoon.

The wet weather did allow me to test out the new tires I bought for the trusty RAM 1500 on Friday. The old tires had definitely outlived their usefulness with the wear bars just barely starting to show. My only complaint about the old tires is that they didn’t wear nearly as well previous tires I’ve had on the pickup. They had been a compromise as the tires I wanted to put on the trusty RAM weren’t available at the time. I got around 30,000 miles out of those before they were worn out. The previous set to those lasted me about 50,000 miles.

One of the first thing I noticed with the new tires is that they were quieter than the old ones and the ride was much better. I also noticed it felt like there was better traction in the rain than I had been experiencing. (Not surprising considering how little tread was left on the tires.)

Things are still gearing up for summer around here, with some of the road construction on one of the main highways going on around the clock. With Laconia Motorcycle Week coming up starting June 13th, they wanted to get all of that work done prior to the 300,000+ bikers arriving. (Truth be told, the bikers will start arriving on the Wednesday before the start, meaning we’ll be hearing the roar of motorcycles starting on June 10th.)

==++++++==

I promise that this was pure happenstance.

It seems that yesterday’s post about how vehicle touchscreens are awful has now been backed up by a YouTube video that I found just this morning. (The first 2:50 covers that issue.)



So far it’s only a few carmakers making the change back to more traditional controls, but I have no doubt others will follow.

==++++++==

The Left is continuing to “harsh our mellow” when it comes to celebrating America’s 250th birthday, threatening celebrities who want to participate in celebrations.

What do you expect from people who have no problems coming right out and stating they hate the country of their birth, the country that hasn’t silenced their hatred by means the Left would have no problems using against those who “Are Not One Of Them”.

One of their excuses for doing so?

The ‘bad’ economy.

Writes Cynical Publius:

Anyone who claims the lack of joy about the 250th is a function of a rough economy was not alive in 1976.

The country rocked in its 200th celebration and the economy was a FREAKING MESS.

There is this Gen Z misconception that the '70s and early '80s were some sort of economic golden age of readily available, well-paying jobs, low cost housing and an all around sense of prosperity.

WRONG.

Google "Stagflation." Google "gas lines." Google "mortgage interest rates in the 1980s."

Our economy today is a golden age by comparison, without exaggeration.

Yet somehow in 1976 we could gleefully celebrate our nation's birthday without Democrats turning it into a Howard Zinn-inspired anti-history hatefest.

I remember the “bad old days” of the 1970’s and particularly during the Bicentennial. The economy was in the dumper. There were jokes about the “last people leaving Massachusetts turning out the lights” because the economic problems were particularly harsh there. Yet nobody had any problems with celebrating America’s 200th birthday.

==++++++==

For anyone who’s been paying attention, the following won’t really be a surprise.

Minimum Wage Wipes Out Jobs in California

What did the people running California think would happen when the minimum wage was boosted way above a reasonable level?

Not everything Democrats do is ineffectual. Consider minimum wage hikes — via Yahoo Finance:

Carl’s Jr. is staring down the potential loss of dozens of California locations after a franchisee and its affiliates filed for bankruptcy protection — blaming the state’s staggering minimum wage. …

Friendly Franchisees Corporation CEO and Founder Harshad Dharod said the state’s $20 minimum wage in the fast-food sector contributes to the chain’s financial distress ahead of bankruptcy filing under subsidiary Sun Gir, according to Restaurant Dive.

Fast food franchises cannot stay solvent while paying teenagers $20/hour to flip hamburgers. No one expects them to. The objective of ever higher minimum wage is to saw off the bottom rung of the ladder, resulting in more government dependence and thereby more votes for Democrats.

Carl’s Jr. isn’t the only fast food franchise that has been hit hard by the $20/hour minimum wage. We saw when Pizza Hut laid off delivery drivers because of the new minimum wage. How many others like McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s and others have installed ordering kiosks to replace workers because they’re cheaper?

And let’s not forget the minimum wage hike for hospitality workers, with L.A. raising the minimum wage for them to $30/hour and San Diego raising theirs to $19/hour. You can’t tell me there won’t be a fallout in the hospitality industry like that seen in the fast food industry.

Like so many others have already found out, the real minimum wage is $0/hour when businesses start shedding workers because of the now much higher wages. Everyone will feel these wage increases as they will drive up costs.

It will be interesting to see how this is going to work out for Californians.

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we’re waiting for summer weather and temperatures to return, the heavy rains we did receive over the end of last week and into Saturday helped reduce the rainfall deficit, and where Monday is returning again to interfere with the weekend.

New Isn't Always Better

I have mentioned more than once my dislike of modern automotive design, specifically when it comes to things like the multifunction touchscreen displays in almost every new vehicle over the past few years. Functions that used to be controlled by switches, buttons, knobs, and sliders have migrated over to the LCD touchscreens that take up a portion of the dash, mostly in the center. Some have gone so far as to replace the gauges – the speedometer, tachometer, fuel gauge, temperature gauge, oil pressure gauge, battery voltage, odometer, trip meter, and so on.

Is it that I am an “old faht” that doesn’t like all the new doodads and gizmos that has me writing this? Considering that I am a techie and have been one since the 1970’s, it isn’t that at all. It all comes down to the fact that some user interfaces, in this case for motor vehicles, really don’t lend themselves to LCDs and touchscreens. The newer technology, while really cool and cool looking, has one major downside to them:

The driver has to take their eyes off the road in order to use them.

It appears the UI/UX (User Interface/User Experience) designers, also know as “Buttons And Stuff Engineers”, have forgotten that distracted driving is a Bad Thing^TM. Any time a driver has to take their eyes off the road means they aren’t paying attention to their driving which in turn can lead to accidents. If they have to take their eyes off the road to handle functions that used to be controlled by physical controls, the aforementioned switches, buttons, knobs, and sliders, they are driving distracted. Drivers could control many functions without having to take their eyes off the road because muscle memory let them do so without having to look at them. The fan speed control, temperature setting, and vent controls were always in the same place. The same for headlights, windshield wipers, radio volume, radio station selection, and so on. But with the new LCD touchscreens muscle memory doesn’t work.

That could be why automakers are reversing course, at least partially, bringing back those switches, buttons, knobs, and sliders that control common functions used every day by motorists, even if it is the onboard vehicle control modules that still drive those functions. They have come to understand why their customers detest using touchscreens for these functions.

This begs the question “Why did automakers switch over to using touchscreens?” The answer is simple.

Costs. Touchscreens are cheap.

They can control numerous functions from a single interface depending upon the programming and the design of the systems in the vehicle. A single data connection to a vehicles control module(s) can control all of the usual functions. There’s no need for separate wires or cables for each of those switches, buttons, knobs, and sliders. And while those touchscreen interfaces are cheap, replacing them is not. You know the dealerships and repair shops will charge a fortune for a replacement. All told, the cost of that touchscreen interface including its associated electronics is probably less than $100. But they’ll hit you for up ten times that much plus labor if it ever needs to be replaced.

And there’s also this: If the touchscreen fails your vehicle just became very dumb. You won’t be able to use any of the functions it controls. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?

Now about the crappy engines the automakers have been putting in their new vehicles...

Friday Funny - Baby Weight Or...

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s a rainy day today, something that doesn’t really bother me since we certainly need the rain and the fact that it’s a four day weekend for me. A lot of the weekend chores were taken care of yesterday, so other than going to church this morning, there was nothing that I needed to do. While I usually make my Sunday morning trip to Walmart for pre-church shopping, I postponed it because of the holiday weekend and the resulting heavier traffic as there was nothing I was lacking that couldn’t wait an extra day or two. Most of that shopping is for things I need for the coming week.

While out and about yesterday running errands, I did notice that the parking lots at our local Walmart, supermarket, and a couple of my favorite restaurants were full, a sure sign that the summerfolk are here. What did surprise me was that our town docks weren’t busy at all, at least when I happened to swing by there on my way to where the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout is berthed. There was no line of trucks with boat trailers waiting to launch boats. Talking to the enforcement officer on duty there it seems there was a bit of a rush in the morning that tapered off before lunch and that it had been “onesie-twosie” since then. That’s not to say it didn’t pick up again later in the afternoon, but right then there was no one at the boat ramp launching their boat. However, there were quite a few boats out on the lake throughout the day.

==++++++==

It looks to me (and many many others) that Spencer Pratt has a pretty good chance to become the next mayor of Los Angeles. If nothing else, campaign ads created by others not connected to his campaign have been slamming present mayor Karen Bass. Ads from his campaign have also been highly critical of her actions prior to and during the fires that burned so much of LA and her inaction afterwards.

If nothing else, it’s going to be very interesting in Los Angeles over the next few months, politically speaking.

==++++++==

You have got to be kidding me. Someone, please tell me this is satire!

“White milk is undoubtedly White supremacy.”

WTF? Umm, unless I’ve missed something, isn’t most mammalian milk white in color? Talk about being totally disconnected from reality.

She says that RFK Jr. wanting regular milk in schools is ‘racist’.

This is the Democrat Party.

This is what happens when you close most of the mental institutions and the inmates are allowed to wander amongst the general population. The things I’ve heard from some Democrat politicians and party members have both amazed and terrified me, often at the same time.

==++++++==

Seeing what’s been going on the the UK recently, one that is more and more resembling Orwell’s dystopia in 1964, the following makes perfect sense.

British Flock to Trump’s Free Speech Portal

Even under moonbat rule, Britons may still have free speech — thanks to the USA.

GB News reports on Freedom.gov, a free speech portal designed by the Trump Administration to allow people in repressive countries to share officially disfavored information.

Censorship has become increasingly prevalent in Europe under left-wing domination — an alarming development that the Trump Administration has taken a leading role in combatting (sic).

For now, only the landing page is live, but apparently it is already getting plenty of hits from the UK.

The UK has become increasingly authoritarian, going so far as arresting people for “offensive online comments.” The definition of offensive seems to be “Anything that disagrees with the Leftist elite in Great Britain.” We have seen the British government trying to go after people here in the US for offensive online posts on social media. The US government has informed the Brits that their laws against “offensive” speech does not apply here in the US after they’ve tried to enforce it against both Americans and British subjects here in the US.

I have to wonder if things really start getting bad in the UK that we’ll see an influx of British refugees fleeing an increasingly totalitarian state?

==++++++==

Why doesn’t this surprise me in the least?

Apparently Hakeem Jeffries has a definition of what is and is not acceptable anti-Semitism within the Democrat Party.

Just when I think I couldn’t detest this a**hat any more than I already do, he proves me wrong.

As if we need yet another example of the anti-Semtism inherent in the Democrat Party all we have to do is look to Texas Democratic congressional candidate Maureen Galindo. She has openly called for “prison camps for ‘American Zionists’ and ‘castration processing centers’ for her ideological enemies.”

Hmm. Where have we heard that idea before?

Oh, heck, I’m finding more and more of the ‘usual suspect’ Democrats are becoming increasingly unhinged, and if at all possible, increasingly racist in the “soft racism of lowered expectations” type of racism, pretending that minorities can’t possible get ahead without their helping hands because they’re too intellectually challenged to do it by themselves.

Unfortunately we are seeing more and more of this from the Democrats every day.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it’s been raining all day, Memorial Day approaches, and where Monday isn’t a bother...this week.

The Start Of Summer

It’s Memorial Day Weekend which marks the unofficial start of summer. While there will be the Memorial Day ceremonies and remembrances on Monday, the crowds of summerfolk started arriving in force before noon yesterday to celebrate the start of summer.

The WP Mom and I had to run a few errands early yesterday afternoon including stops at Walmart and one of our local supermarkets for some last minute shopping. The traffic was heavy and the parking lots were full. We saw a lot more out-of-state plates than we have since last summer, with most of them being from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York.

A lot of this goes in line with the boatyards and marinas being busy since the beginning of the month getting boats ready for pick-up by the owners or launching them for owners. That was certainly true for my go-to boatyard as I had to stop by yesterday to make arrangements to store the Official Weekend Pundit Boat Trailer for the summer now that the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout is back in the water. (This used to get stored next to the garage at The Manse, but I haven’t been living there since 2018 and there’s no room here at The Gulch.) The boat slips that I could see while out and about were occupied, for the most part. I expect the rest will occupied before the end of the weekend.

All of the seasonal restaurants are now open on more than just the weekends, as they have been since late April, and the few that I passed while out running errands were busy, but not “Saturday or Sunday” busy as we’ll be seeing from now until Labor Day weekend. Some of the attractions will be open just on the weekends for the next couple of weeks until schools let out for the summer.

Another sign of the holiday weekend?

Road construction ceased after Thursday (with one or two exceptions) and won’t restart until Tuesday after the “madding crowds” have departed. (I have no doubt this is true in other states as well.)

When the work restarts around here in the Lakes Region some of it will be going on around the clock, with prep work taking place during daylight hours and paving being performed overnight. One of the reasons for this around-the-clock work is that Motorcycle Week starts on June 13th – which is three weeks from today - and they want to get as much road repair and construction done before then. The 300,000+ bikers expected to attend will start arriving a few days before that, hence the push to get this round of work done. Once the rumble of motorcycles fades away after that week, the road crews will be back at it.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I will not be venturing out onto the lake until late Monday or Tuesday as it is quite often too crazy and dangerous to venture out onto Lake Winnipesaukee during weekends unless it’s first thing in the morning or early evening. There are too many Cap’n Boneheads out on the lake and it can be exhausting to be out there dealing with them. It’s better that I watch their antics from shore.

Friday Funny - Relatable Marriage Jokes

Thoughts On A Sunday

The weather has been great this weekend up here at the lake - sunny and in the mid-70’s on Saturday and sunny and in the lower to mid-80’s today. It was perfect weather today for working on the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout.

Speaking of which, the boat made the move from the boatyard to BeezleBub’s place late yesterday afternoon. It needs a little bit of cleaning up before I start loading the gear – anchors, mooring lines, a paddle, boat hook, transom light, PFDs, cushions, fire extinguisher, and so on – so I can launch the boat sometime during this week. It will definitely be in the water before the upcoming Memorial Day weekend.

The garage work still continues as I slowly dig through everything residing there to figure out what goes into the attic, what goes back onto the shelves, and what goes to the dump...er…solid waste center. I’m hoping that more than half the stuff presently residing on the shelves can go to the dump. (So far that appears to be the case, but I won’t know for sure until the job is done.)

I have been seeing the summer businesses getting ready, with many of the seasonal restaurants and ice cream stands having been open the past couple of weekends and the summer attractions cleaning up and getting everything ready for Memorial Day weekend. Friends of mine were up this way yesterday and we had lunch at one of my favorite local restaurants because I knew that starting next weekend it would be jam packed with summerfolk until after Labor Day.

And so begins another summer tourist season in New Hampshire.

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Oh yeah, this is going to make the folks in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine happy.

Vast, Untapped Source of Lithium Found in The US Could Last 300 Years.

There could be nearly 330 years' worth of lithium hiding beneath the Appalachian Mountains, which stretch like a stony spine across the eastern United States.

New research from the US Geological Survey suggests that the Appalachians may contain around 2.3 million metric tons (2.5 million US tons) of recoverable lithium oxide locked away in pegmatites, the grainy, granite-like rocks that form as water-rich magma cools and crystallizes deep within the Earth.

"This research shows that the Appalachians contain enough lithium to help meet the nation's growing needs – a major contribution to US mineral security, at a time when global lithium demand is rising rapidly," says Ned Mamula, Director of the US Geological Survey (USGS).

I know there are large deposits of lithium in neighboring Maine, having heard that news a couple of years ago. But that there are deposits in New Hampshire and Vermont is a surprise.

I have no doubt there will be opposition against mining the lithium that resides under the mountains and China won’t have to fund any of the protests. Since I must assume that any such mining will be ‘hard rock’ mining meaning tunnels and shafts rather than strip mining, I can see where folks will be concerned about affects on ground water and aquifers as well as what will be done with the tailings. The mountains in all three states run through pristine forests, all of which contain hiking trails, campgrounds, streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, and a wide range of wildlife.

Things are going to get interesting around here.

Since lithium is used in batteries there is a huge demand for it and at the moment we get a lot of it from foreign sources. Being able to source lithium from domestic sources is very attractive for obvious reasons.

However, we must keep in mind that there are other high-capacity battery chemistries under development by DARPA that could make the lithium-ion batteries obsolete, with one of the more promising chemistries being graphene-silicon that doesn’t use lithium or cobalt or manganese as part of its chemistry. That means it is also cheaper to make because the materials used are available everywhere. It also has much higher energy density and lower internal resistance than lithium-ion batteries and won’t have the propensity of igniting itself like lithium-ion batteries.

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Being one of those engineering types, I have always been skeptical about so-called “green energy”, knowing that even while the energy – solar and wind – is free, collecting it and putting it into a usable form - electricity – was not. It also isn’t cheap, something so many of the green energy proponents keep choosing to ignore. And in many cases it also isn’t environmentally friendly between the mining of materials needed for solar panels and destruction of large tracts of land to hold these “green energy” systems.

However, it seems the luster of “green energy” has waned as the reality of that energy becomes apparent, with the biggest in-your-face factor being that it isn’t capable of meeting the growing demand and doing so cheaply. Instead, the focus has turned elsewhere with nuclear topping the list. The nuclear comeback is something that will leave green fantasies behind.

After years of efforts by radical greens to strangle America’s oil, gas, and coal industries — while forcing the nation to accept costly, land-devouring wind and solar — the U.S. is once again emerging as a global energy superpower.

And this time, it’s not just fossil fuels: In fact, nuclear power is taking center stage.

Tennessee is poised to become the world’s leading hub for nuclear innovation, thanks to Trump administration policies and state leaders willing to back real energy solutions over climate virtue-signaling. Public and private investments are now flowing into advanced reactors, uranium enrichment, and next-generation nuclear technologies.

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Together with a resurgence in oil, natural gas, and coal production, these developments will unleash American energy, manufacturing, innovation, and job creation while lowering electricity prices and reducing blackout risks for families and businesses alike. They also send a clear warning to America’s blue states: If you cling to anti-energy ideology, you will be left behind.

This cannot be said enough when it comes to nuclear power: Too many people against nuclear power today seem stuck in the 1970’s because modern Gen III and Gen IV nuclear reactors “are not you grandfather’s nuclear reactors”. This is particularly true of small modular reactors (SMRs) which can have electrical power outputs of a dozen megawatts to up to 300 megawatts output power. The days of big Gen II 1000+ MWe reactors are gone if for no other reason is that they cost a lot of money to build, take a very long time to build (mostly due to lawsuits and regulatory changes partway through construction which also adds to the cost), and they can be very difficult to site as they can have requirements for conditions that are difficult to meet. But SMRs are different.

One of the biggest differences is right in their name: They are modular. Depending upon the generating capacity they can be built in a factory in a single piece and fit in a shipping container or in less than a dozen pieces that will be fit together on the construction site. They use advanced nuclear technology which makes them safer, easier, faster, and less expensive to build. Some designs can actually use ‘depleted’ nuclear fuel from old Gen I and Gen II nuclear power plants which has the advantage of being able to use fuel that is considered waste and reduce that waste from something that needs to be stored away for 25,000+ years to requiring to be stored only a couple of hundred years or so.

SMRs can be clustered together to provide the equivalent power to the old fashioned Gen II plants or spread out to create a distributed generation and transmission grid.

I could go on and on about SMRs but there’s plenty of information about SMRs on the Internet.

One thing I can say bodes well for a nuclear power renaissance is that my state’s governor, Kelly Ayotte, has been a big proponent of more nuclear power in our state.

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If we need any more proof that green energy and the over the top push to “Save The Planet” is failing, all we have to do is look at the EV market and see who’s either dialing back their production of electric vehicles or is throwing in the towel altogether.

The latest automaker to take a huge hit in the EV market?

Honda.

In this case Honda took its first ever loss in its history and is pulling back on EVs.

Such was the cultural vibe that giant corporations all collectively jumped off a cliff together hoping to invent a new technology fast enough to be able to land.

In the case of Honda, after 70 years of endless profits, they burnt at least $9 billion dollars, and have given up the idea of trying to get EVs to make up one fifth of their sales by 2030. The demand just isn’t there. They also thought they could shift their whole fleet to electric or fuel cells by 2030. That’s gone too.

There are just too many problems with EVs to make them popular enough to replace Internal Combustion Engine vehicles. Two of the biggest problems – the stability of Lithium-Ion batteries (and cost of replacing them) and the lack of electricity generation capacity to meet the projected demand if EVs had truly been popular and didn’t depend on government subsidies in order to drive demand.

Will EVs ever go away? Probably not. But they won’t be nearly as numerous as ICE vehicles unless the battery safety issues, and the battery replacement and repair costs are addressed. We would also need to see the electrical grid capacity expanded and charging stations to become as ubiquitous as gas pumps. Until then I think EVs will be a niche market, Tesla notwithstanding.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we’re seeing actual summer temperatures, more boats are being seen on the lake daily, and where Memorial Day weekend is only a week away.