Taking Control Of Our Lives For Our Own Good

Jonah Goldberg was right on target about how governments want to take more control over every aspect of our lives. It isn't happening just here, but over in Europe as well. In fact, this effort is much farther along in Europe than it is here. If nothing else they may serve as an example of what not to do in order to prevent the Nanny State from coming to fruition here in the US. One example he cites confirms my opposition to “universal” health care:

When government picks up the tab for health costs, it inevitably feels it is responsible for curtailing them through "prevention," which can often elide into compulsion. As Faith Fitzgerald, a professor at the UC Davis School of Medicine, put it in the New England Journal of Medicine: "Both healthcare providers and the commonweal now have a vested interest in certain forms of behavior, previously considered a person's private business, if the behavior impairs a person's 'health.' Certain failures of self-care have become, in a sense, crimes against society, because society has to pay for their consequences."

But there's another factor at work as well. We are seeing a return to the idea -- first championed by social planners in the progressive era -- that government can and should play the role of parent. For instance, Michael Gerson, once a speechwriter for President Bush, advocates a new "heroic conservatism" -- an updating of his former boss' compassionate conservatism -- that would unleash a new era of statist regulations. On the stump, Hillary Clinton refers to her book, "It Takes a Village," in which she argued that we all must surrender ourselves to the near-constant prodding, monitoring, cajoling and scolding of the "helping professions." Clinton argues that children are born in "crisis" and government must respond with all the tools in its arsenal from the word go. She advocates putting television sets in all public gathering places so citizens can be treated to an endless loop of good parenting tutorials.

So, because the government 'pays the bills' they have the right to tell you how to live our lives? Of course the money they're using to pay those bills come from the very people they're trying to control. The only problem is that the people within government making those decisions are no wiser than the people they want to control. They're no less screwed up. But somehow they believe they are better qualified to tell us how to live our lives. What arrogance!

But wait! There's more!

We've seen this before. The original progressives -- activist intellectuals, social reformers, social gospel ministers and other would-be planners in the late 19th and early 20th centuries -- touted "social control" as the watchword of their movement. One reason the progressives supported World War I so passionately was not because they supported the aims of the conflict but because they loved domestic mobilization. John Dewey, the American philosopher and educator who sang the praises of the "social benefits of war," was giddy that the conflict might force Americans "to give up much of our economic freedom. ... We shall have to lay by our good-natured individualism and march in step." The progressives believed that people needed to be saved from themselves. Journalist and commentator Walter Lippmann dubbed average citizens "mentally children and barbarians." "Organized social control" via a "socialized economy" was the only means to create meaningful freedom, argued Lippman, Dewey and others. And by free, the progressives meant free to live the "right" way.

A similar dynamic defined much of Nazi Germany. Nazi Youth manuals proclaimed that "nutrition is not a private matter!" "Gemeinnutz geht vor Eigennutz" -- essentially, all for one, one for all -- was the rallying slogan of the Nazi crackdown on smoking, the first serious anti-tobacco campaign of the 20th century. The first systematized mass murder in Nazi Germany wasn't of the Jews but of the "useless bread-gobblers" and other lebensunwertes leben ("life unworthy of life"). The argument was that the mentally ill, the aged, the infirm were too much of a drain on the socialist economy.

Could we end up following the same path? Oh, it wouldn't happen all at once. It would be a little here (No Smoking!!), a little there (No Transfats!!), and then one day some bureaucrat would make the decision that you no longer contribute enough to society or the economy that supports it. You've become a drain and therefore should be euthanized. After all, the government pays all the bills.

Am I overstating the case? Maybe. But are you willing to take the chance?

Would a national health care system lead to this outcome? Probably not. But it would lead to poor health care for everyone...except the bureaucrats and those who have the wherewithal to afford health care outside the system. That doesn't seem fair, does it? So let's tell the government, and Those-Who-Would-Be-President, to back off.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a busy day yesterday, leaving no time for blogging. It happens now and then, even to someone like me. Deal with it.

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When I woke this morning it was 16°F outside The Manse. That's as warm as it was going to be today. The temps have been dropping since then and the winds has been picking up, giving wind chill factors of as low as -20°F. It will make for excellent playing conditions for today's Patriots/Chargers game down in Foxborough.

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I'll admit that I was a little disappointed in the results from the South Caroline Republican primary, Frankly, I expected Fred Thompson to do a bit better than he did. On the other hand Mike Huckabee didn't beat John McCain, which pleased the South Carolina Fredheads to no end. To say that there's no love lost between Fredheads and Mike Huckabee, keeping in mind the alleged push-polling done by Huckabee or those supporting him.

One Fred supporter went so far as to write a letter to the Senator.

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One thing I forgot to mention earlier – the New England Patriots were 14-point favorites over San Diego for today's playoff game.

I just hope they can pull it off. Oh, and one other thing: we'll be watching over at the WP Parents on their new HDTV! So cool.....

UPDATE: The Pats beat the Chargers, 21-12.

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I watched Dirty Harry on the History Channel and flashed back to all of the signature cliché phrases from that movie. Surprisingly, my favorite one is not “You've to ask yourself one question: do I feel lucky? Well, do you, punk?”

Instead it's “When I see a naked man running down an alley with a butcher knife chasing a woman, I figure he's not collecting for the Red Cross.”

There's something to be said for some of the old movies.

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George Santayana told us some time ago that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Philo of Alexandria reminds us of that by way of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr's 30-year cycle theory, which states that every generation has to relearn the lessons of the previous generations the hard way. When it comes to politics, and particularly political ideologies, that 30-year cycle comes at a cost of the reduced civil liberties, increased social spending to no good effect, and the crippling of our military might. As Philo noted:

I see echoes of the 1970s all around me, and so far it looks as if those who are succeeding in this campaign are those most likely to repeat its mistakes.

Unfortunately, I see the same thing.

(H/T Instapundit)

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Could it be the war against boys has succeeded all too well?

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One thing my dentist suggested I buy to help maintain my dental health was a Waterpik. If you've never heard of or seen a Waterpik, it's a device that uses a pressurized water jet to clean between the teeth and below the gum line. It's supposed to work better than flossing, being able to reach places that flossing can't.

After three days using it I have to say it does indeed work better than flossing. It takes some practice to get it right (I got wet more than once while I was figuring it all out), but it's worth it.

My only complaint? It makes a lot of noise.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather has returned to its winter norm, the ice has completely covered the lake, and where we know the New England Patriots are going to the Super Bowl.

New Hampshire Tax Revenue Shortfall Planned By Democrats?

One problem we're suffering in New Hampshire is a Democratic-majority legislature that passed a budget that grew 17.5% from the previous budget, knowing that the likelihood of a budget shortfall was high. The Republican minority warned their fellow legislators the budget was too fat and that their revenue estimates were overly optimistic. They were ignored. It turns out they were right.

So what do the Democrats in the legislature do? Blame President Bush, of course.

Never mind they were warned about the shortfall a year ago. They ignored it and now the bill has come due. There's a $50 million revenue shortfall to date. It could rise to $75-$100 million by the end of the fiscal year. But somehow it's all President Bush's fault.

The question is will the governor order an immediate freeze on hiring and discretionary spending as well as budget cuts for all departments? He hasn't so far. Some, including me, wonder whether this budget crisis will be used by the broad-base tax proponents to shove a sales or income tax upon the people of New Hampshire. There are a number of Democrats in the state that would love to have billions more dollars to spend on all of the social programs they want to foist upon the taxpayers in an effort to make New Hampshire more like our neighbor to the south – Massachusetts. Never mind that those programs waste billions and solve nothing.

Some may propose the broad-based tax as a panacea for rising property taxes, but previous experience in other states show that such taxes have a very short-lived effect on property taxes and then they start rising again. Too often the legislators find new and interesting ways to spend the extra revenue and funnel less and less of them to their intended purposes, leaving the taxpayers in the same predicament they were in before, but now with even less money in their pockets to pay their property taxes.

Will the governor step up and order spending cuts? Or will he let the tax-and-spenders win the day and destroy what has come to be called The New Hampshire Advantage, the low taxes and local control of spending that makes our state attractive to businesses?

What's your answer, Governor Lynch?

Anti-War Lawyer Gets His Comeuppance

An anti-war lawyer in Chicago made a mistake when he keyed the car of a US Marine who was visiting a friend before he deployed to Iraq.

Attorney Jay Grodner had his day in court. It was a bad day for him.

First, he showed up late for his court date, so the judge issued a bench warrant for his arrest. Second, the judge raised his bail to $20,000. Third, when he did finally arrive, the had him arrested, booked, and made to do the “perp walk”, meaning his tie and belt had been removed and he was given some stainless steel bracelets to wear. Fourth, the courtroom was filled with active duty military personnel and veterans. And last, but not least, the judge hearing the case is a former Marine and a big supporter of the Corps.

It was a very bad day for Attorney Grodner.

There Oughta Be A Law....

While some folks out there think there's nothing wrong with texting while driving, I beg to differ. It is a distraction, and the one thing we don't need is more distracted drivers out there on the roads. There are too many out there as it is. As far as I'm concerned a texting driver is no different from a drunk driver. They have the same reactions times, will exhibit many of the same driving errors, and will end up injuring or killing nearly as many people as drunk drivers.

Some states are trying to do something about it, including passing laws that will make it illegal to text while driving.

Some civil libertarians may feel that I've gone over to the dark side, but when drivers who text are putting my life and the lives of my family on the line because they can't seem to put down their damn phones and drive, I'm all for punishing them for their selfishness and disregard for public safety. If they were only ones being immolated because of their stupidity I'd have no objection to them texting as much as they want. It will only serve to remove them from the gene pool and prevent them from procreating. Unfortunately that's not the case.

Up The Empire!

Why doesn't this surprise me?

Windows Vista/Office 2007 Expelled from British schools.

The agency that governs educational technology in the United Kingdom has advised schools in the country to keep Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system and its Office 2007 software out of the classroom and administrative offices.

"Upgrading existing ICT systems to Microsoft Vista or Office 2007 is not recommended," said the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, also known as Becta, in a report issued this week.

Becta officials said a study the group commissioned found that upgrading school systems from Windows XP to Vista and Office 2007 would increase costs and create software compatibility problems while providing little benefit.

It could be that there's hope for the British Empire. At least their education folks are smart enough to see that Vista and the latest version of Microsoft's Office will do nothing but drain their coffers to little gain. A large number of businesses in the US have come to the same conclusion, including the company where I'm employed.

For the time being Windows XP works just fine. It's still being offered on Dell computers. Microsoft has also extended their support of XP for an additional 5 years, which tells me that business users are staying away from Vista in droves.

Latest PJM Poll Numbers

In the latest Pajamas Media Presidential Straw Poll, Fred Thompson leads on the Republican side, and Barack Obama on the Democrat side.

I hope this bodes well for Fred in South Carolina this weekend.

Is Ron Paul Isolationist?

I have listened to many of Ron Paul's ideas and campaign rhetoric, and while there's a lot to like about some of his beliefs, there is one that fills me with dread.

It appears that Mr. Paul is espousing isolationism, a withdrawal from the international scene, specifically the Middle East. It may sound great to him, but it would be damn near impossible to achieve, and dangerous to boot.

Of Israel's relationship with its neighbors, he argued that if only America got out of the way by cutting off the aid spigot (which, he claimed, favored the Arabs by a 3-to-1 ratio), there would "be a greater incentive for Israel and the Palestinians and all the Arab nations to come together and talk." And of America's relationship with the Arab world, the congressman said in a previous debate that "they attack us because we've been over there."

Dr. Paul's own remedy is that if "we trade with everybody and talk with them . . . there's a greater incentive to work these problems out." But here's a rub.

As historian Michael Oren observes in "Power, Faith and Fantasy," his history of America's 230-year involvement in the Middle East, as early as the 1790s "many Americans had grown dismayed with the country's Middle East policy of admonishing the [Barbary] pirates while simultaneously coddling them with bribes." It was precisely out of a desire to "trade with everybody" that the early American republic was forced to build a navy, and then to go to war, to defend its commercial interests, a pattern that held true in World War I and the Persian Gulf "Tanker War" of the 1980s.

These details of history pose a problem not just to Dr. Paul's views of the Middle East, but to the intellectual architecture of libertarianism itself. Liberal societies are built on the belief in (and defense of) individual rights, but also on the overawing power of government to transform natural rights into civil ones. In the same way, trade between nations is only possible in the absence of robbers, pirates and other rogues. Whose job is it to get rid of them?

As I constantly remind folks promoting ideas that have been tried before (and failed), “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.” And so it seems with Ron Paul. All American isolationism would do is promote more attacks upon us, not less. As I have said before, Dr. Paul assumes that our enemies think the same way he does. That belief is delusional and ultimately dangerous.

This is not someone I would want leading the United States.

Thoughts On A Sunday

There was never any doubt the January Thaw wouldn't last much more than a week, and the weather forecast for Monday bears that out.

A Nor'easter is forecast to start sometime early in the morning with snowfall totals in this part of New Hampshire expected to be between 5 and 12 inches. Because we live at a higher elevation we tend to get a little more snow than those living down by the lake, I'm expecting closer to 14 inches here at The Manse. The only question is, will the schools close for the day or will they shorten their day as the storm intensifies? Only time will tell.

Welcome back, winter!

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We are still suffering the aftermath of the New Hampshire Primary, feeling wrung out after the non-stop campaigning, the barrage of TV and radio ads, and the endless polls being taken or talked about by the so-called pundits. It was exhausting. At least we've got a break from all of this until October, when the national campaigns will kick into high gear.

Then once we get past the national election in November we can count on a break until...umm...two or three days after the election until the campaign for the 2012 nomination starts.

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Speaking of the New Hampshire Primary, our friends over at GraniteGrok/Meet The New Press had some visitors during their radio show yesterday.

Doug and Skip had a crew of film makers filming their radio show as part of a documentary about how the new media has a big effect on presidential campaigns.

Very cool.

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Bogie had one of those “What the hell was that noise?” moments the other night.

I can say I sympathize with her plight as BeezleBub and I had a similar experience the other evening while we were stacking our latest pile of firewood.

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Bruce gets on Boston mayor Menino's case when it comes to health care.

Apparently Hizzoner believes that only the government should be allowed to provide health care and that for-profit walk-in clinics should be banned. Just because most of these walk-in clinics can provide basic health care faster and cheaper than government run clinics (think Boston City Hospital) is no reason to allow them. After all, they'll be making a profit! Hizzoner can't allow that! It would be against his liberal beliefs that the private sector are nothing by greedy, money-grubbing exploiters of the poor. Never mind that they can do it cheaper and faster than the government.

Sheesh!

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The New England Patriots managed to squelch the Jacksonville Jaguars' Super Bowl ambitions by beating them 31-20 last night in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The Patriots managed to score on all but two possessions, one of them being a missed field goal attempt.

The Patriots will be playing San Diego next weekend.

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BeezleBub and I managed to finish stacking the firewood Deb ordered last week. The only downside to this job was collecting and cleaning up of the bits and pieces of wood that are useful only for kindling. There's a lot of kindling, so much so that we had to pile it and cover it outside the garage in order to protect it from the upcoming snowstorm. We have no other place to put it for the time being.

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John Stossel continues his interview with Ron Paul. The topic: prostitution, drugs, and gay marriage.

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The Times in the UK seems to think that the US is on the brink of financial ruin, with an oncoming recession that will drive the race for the White House. To read Liam Halligan's article you'd think we were going into a recession to rival that of the great Depression.

One cynical commenter made the claim that this recession will be worse than the one in the 1990's because “its not just GM or Ford on the ropes, its the banking sector.” How soon they forget.

During the 90's recession lots of banks failed, particularly because many of them held non-performing mortgages. The housing market tanked as a consequence of the deepening recession. Too many people were upside down on their mortgages, then lost their jobs. Once the banks foreclosed on their mortgages they held billions in property they couldn't dispose of, forcing many of them into receivership. Ford, GM, and Chrysler weren't in trouble the way the banking industry was back then.

This time around the banks are not the ones at risk. It's the investment houses. Banks are not the ones holding sub-prime mortgages. They aren't the ones holding a large number of adjustable rate mortgages. They learned their lessons from the 1990's recession and were careful about mortgage lending. The investment houses, on the other hand, saw an opportunity to develop new income paths. They gambled on the housing market. They lost.

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Many on the Left in the US have been pushing multiculturalism as a cure all for all our problems. However practical application of multiculturalism in the UK has proven to be a dismal failure, with some long time residents feeling like unwelcome aliens in their own towns.

Immigrants have failed to assimilate, creating cultural enclaves where residents speak nothing but their native languages, maintaining their native customs, and in some cases ignoring the laws of the UK in favor of the laws/customs of their native lands. It is always a recipe for disaster.

Yet this is something the Left here thinks would be just dandy.

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As the deadline for complying with the federal Real ID Act approaches, opposition to it has been growing. One major opponent is Senator John E. Sununu (R – NH), who believes the Act has civil rights problems and represents a $4 billion unfunded mandate for the states. He hes filed legislation to repeal the Act.

Seventeen states, including New Hampshire, have already voted to not implement Real ID because of the civil rights implications, the costs or implementation, or both.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter is returning, the firewood has been stacked, and where I still don't need a federally sanctioned ID in order to board a plane.

Both The Extreme Left And Right Are Wrong

I've been a fan of sci-fi author Orson Scott Card for years, with his Ender series being one of my favorites. His political commentary has also made me stop and think more than once.

One of his more thoughtful pieces was originally the afterword to his novel Empire, a story about the next American Civil War. In this case it's a war between the extreme Left and the extreme Right, the so-called “blue staters” versus the “red staters”, with everyone else caught in the middle. It's a cautionary tale.

In the afterword Card does a pretty good job of defining the problem with both the left and the right.

...we have never been so evenly divided with such hateful rhetoric since the years leading up to the Civil War of the 1860s. Because the national media elite are so uniformly progressive, we keep hearing (in the elite media) about the rhetorical excesses of the "extreme right." To hear the same media, there is no "extreme left," just the occasional progressive who says things he or she shouldn't.

But any rational observer has to see that the Left and Right in America are screaming the most vile accusations at each other all the time. We are fully polarized -- if you accept one idea that sounds like it belongs to either the blue or the red, you are assumed -- nay, required -- to espouse the entire rest of the package, even though there is no reason why supporting the war against terrorism should imply you're in favor of banning all abortions and against restricting the availability of firearms; no reason why being in favor of keeping government-imposed limits on the free market should imply you also are in favor of giving legal status to homosexual couples and against building nuclear reactors. These issues are not remotely related, and yet if you hold any of one group's views, you are hated by the other group as if you believed them all; and if you hold most of one group's views, but not all, you are treated as if you were a traitor for deviating even slightly from the party line.

To the extreme Left and extreme Right it's all or nothing. To the rest of us, it's not so clear cut.

In case you haven't been able to figure out from my posts, I am a conservative, though not nearly as conservative as many others. There are a few social issues where I am more moderate than my brethren. But for the most part I am one of those that believe that more often than not government is the problem, not the solution. Many of my liberal brethren believe just the opposite. I'm a firm believer that once taxes reach a certain point they have a negative effect on the economy as they pull too much capital out of the economy and put it towards non-productive ends. Some of my liberal brethren believe there's no such thing as too many taxes. I believe that too many of my liberal brethren think that because I disagree with them that I'm evil. On the other hand I think that too many of my liberal brethren have ignored the lessons of history and keep trying social 'experiments' that have failed again and again, which makes them ignorant or insane.

Other than that, we see eye to eye on some other things. But that doesn't mean I'm not part of the problem.

It is part of human nature to regard as sane those people who share the worldview of the majority of society. Somehow, though, we have managed to divide ourselves into two different, mutually exclusive sanities. The people in each society reinforce each other in madness, believing unsubstantiated ideas that are often contradicted not only by each other but also by whatever objective evidence exists on the subject. Instead of having an ever-adapting civilization-wide consensus reality, we have became a nation of insane people able to see the madness only in the other side.

Does this lead, inevitably, to civil war? Of course not -- though it's hardly conducive to stable government or the long-term continuation of democracy. What inevitably arises from such division is the attempt by one group, utterly convinced of its rectitude, to use all coercive forces available to stamp out the opposing views.

Such an effort is, of course, a confession of madness. Suppression of other people's beliefs by force only comes about when you are deeply afraid that your own beliefs are wrong and you are desperate to keep anyone from challenging them. Oh, you may come up with rhetoric about how you are suppressing them for their own good or for the good of others, but people who are confident of their beliefs are content merely to offer and teach, not compel.

I wholeheartedly agree with Card on this. Unfortunately there are plenty on both the extreme Left and Right that do not. That's scary. Talking with someone who disagrees with me gives me an opportunity to find out their views and, if I think they're mistaken or have been misled, I'll try to lay out my arguments, my evidence, and ask them to think about it before responding. It's not often I'll succeed, but just often enough that I keep trying.

The impulse toward coercion takes whatever forms are available. In academia, it consists of the denial of degrees, jobs, or tenure to people with nonconformist opinions. Ironically, the people who are most relentless in eliminating competing ideas congratulate themselves on their tolerance and diversity. In most situations, it is less formal, consisting of shunning -- but the shunning usually has teeth in it. Did Mel Gibson, when in his cups, say something that reflects his upbringing in an antisemitic household? Then he is to be shunned -- which in Hollywood will mean he can never be considered for an Oscar and will have a much harder time getting prestige, as opposed to money, roles.

How many academic careers have been curtailed or ended because a faculty member didn't conform to the politically correct viewpoints espoused by the Leftist academics? How many times have we seen liberal institutions of higher learning institute unconstitutional speech codes, which do nothing more than stifle free speech and the free exchange of differing opinions? How many times have we heard people talking pr writing about tolerance, yet these very same people tend to be the least tolerant people we would ever meet?

I'm not saying the Right is any less guilty, but it seems to me the Left is far more egregious in trying to impose their beliefs upon people who disagree with them. But then again, I am one of those evil conservatives, so my opinion means nothing......

Election Day Observations

I finally got the chance to exercise my Constitutional rights and vote in the New Hampshire Primary, 2008 Edition.

When I dropped Beezlebub at the middle school at 6:55 this morning there was already a line of people waiting outside for the polls to open. That's the first time I've seen that in a very long time. Maybe it was the warm January Thaw weather. Maybe it was the two close races – Republican and Democrat. Maybe it was a little of both that has turned out a large number of voters.

When I returned to the middle school after work to vote, there was quite a long line waiting to enter the gymnasium, where the voting booths and checklist tables were set up. Once through the door the single line split into four lines, divided alphabetically in order to make it easier for voters to check in and pick up their ballots. Another line that had a large number of people waiting in line was for those wishing to register to vote.

There were a larger number of younger voters than I have seen in a number of years, which pleased me to no end.

New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner expects a record turnout, stating he thought that 500,000 New Hampshire residents would vote today.

Even as I write this WMUR-TV reports that there's still long lines of voters all throughout the state waiting to cast their ballots before polls close tonight.

A Last Push Before The Primary

Today the presidential hopefuls, Democrats and Republicans both, swept through New Hampshire, spending the last few hours before Tuesday's New Hampshire Primary campaigning in towns big and small in an effort to garner a few more votes.

Some may have managed to convince a few undecided voters, others may have lost a few.

Democrat John Edwards pulled out all the stops, campaigning non-stop for 36 hours and bringing with him his own celebrities – Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon – in an effort to bolter his campaign. However a recent WMUR-TV poll shows that his standing haven't changed since after the debates Saturday night.

Fellow Democrat Bill Richardson spent the day out on New Hampshire's Seacoast area, walking the streets and visiting a number of businesses.

The rhetoric level has certainly cranked up to high levels, as have the radio and TV ads. In fact almost all of the ads airing on local television are campaign ads. Since I started watching the evening news all but 3 ads have been political ads. The only non-campaign ads I've seen on the local TV station so far have been for Bowflex, Verizon, and Pfizer. They stood out because they weren't campaign ads.

In my home the number of phone calls from the various campaigns peaked some time yesterday and they haven't leveled off as I write this at 7:50PM Monday night.

Some of the candidates are starting to sound a little desperate. Others aren't staying here for the voting, having already departed for South Carolina in order to prepare for the primary there as they see their chances for success are better there than in New Hampshire.

It's not just the candidates making their presence known. The media is here in droves. Dead tree and electronic media from other parts of the country as well as a good number of foreign media are so numerous that it's hard not to bump into them no matter where you go. It will only get worse on Tuesday.

I can't wait for Wednesday.

More Fred

Fred answers some post-debate questions.





(H/T GraniteGrok)

Thoughts On A Sunday

I made the sacrifice and liveblogged both debates last night. It was painful on two levels.

First, it became quite obvious to me that the top four Democrats haven't got a friggin' clue about how the economy works, how foreign policy works, how free markets work, or the true situation in Iraq. Their answer to every problem was yet another government program that will piss away taxpayer dollars and fail to do what they were supposed to do. They will then suck even more money out of the economy in the form of higher taxes to pay for even more do-nothing government programs.

It also became obvious to me that Ron Paul is living in a dream world. He seems to have little understanding of what motivates people that don't think the same way he does, particularly when it comes to Islamofascist terror organizations. Here's a clue, Ron: They want to kill us. All of us.

Second, my knee was killing me after three hours of liveblogging. Because I was couch-bound with the laptop, my legs were motionless for the most part. I had a tough time standing up once it was all over. Hopefully I won't have to do this again until some time in late October.

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It seems weird that there's no Patriots football game this weekend. At least the time off will give them a chance to rest up, practice, and get ready for their first playoff game next weekend.

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The January thaw has arrived, which will give us some warmer than average temperatures over the next few days. It is a normal occurrence, happening almost every winter, but I expect that someone will get around to blaming it on anthropogenic global warming.

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John Stossel continues with his interview with Ron Paul. The subject this time is immigration.

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Voter turnout is expected to be heavy for Tuesday's New Hampshire Primary. The warm weather will certainly help increase the number of voters participating. New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner expects a record turnout as there's no clear frontrunner in either party.

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It appears that freedom of speech is quickly becoming a thing of the past in the UK. British blogger Lionheart has been arrested for so-called hate speech due to a post he made decrying the undue influence immigrant Moslems have having, creating a Christian underclass by silencing anyone critical of Islamofascism.

One commenter to a post covering Lionheart's trials and tribulations at Gates of Vienna has the right idea: he should come to the US and seek political asylum. It might be just the right move.

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It should be a quiet week for me for a change. No big meetings at work. Only a couple of regularly scheduled meetings for town committees I'm involved with. In other words, it will be a relatively normal week for me. Normal is good every now and then.

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And that's the (abbreviated) news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the debates are done, the Primary voting is on Tuesday, and where I received my invoice for my boat slip from the marina for the coming summer.

A Four Day Scramble

The seats in the various caucus precincts had barely gone cold when the remaining presidential candidates were boarding their private jets and winging their way to New Hampshire. Most had arrived in the wee hours of the morning. John McCain was already here, deciding to remain in New Hampshire to campaign rather then spending another day in Iowa.

All of the candidates hit the ground running, either basking in the results from Iowa and hoping for a boost in their poll numbers or trying to make up for their less than stellar showing in the Iowa contest.

To say that there's going to be intense campaigning between now and Tuesday would be understating the case. While many of the TV networks had crews spread throughout Iowa, the networks have their news anchors here in the Granite State, running their nightly news broadcasts from sets in Manchester or elsewhere in the state.

The next four days will be interesting, with so much campaigning be crammed into a very short amount of time. If we aren't tripping over candidates stumping for our votes, will be bumping into the media covering them. To quote Bette Davis, “Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night.”

Indeed it will.

While I haven't covered the campaigns in my usual fashion, I will attempt to add a few insights about the candidates and the issues over the next few days. I admit to a large amount of campaign fatigue, having put up with visits from presidential wannabes for the last 13 months. It's been a long road already and there's still another 11 months to go before the big election in November.

The Beginning Has Begun

The first real contest in the race for the White House has finally arrived.

The Iowa Caucuses started this evening, with much of the media looking on. This is nothing new. However the fact that the caucuses are being held only a couple of days after New Year's is different.

While I haven't written much on the subject of the campaigns, I will be starting on the morrow. After all, the New Hampshire Primary is next Tuesday and I will be so glad when it's all over. It's been a long campaign already and we still have 11 months to go before the November election. So I'll have to hurry and get my licks in while I can.

A Look Back And Forward

It's New Year's and everyone is writing about the past year and hopes for 2008. Who am I to do any different?

First, let's look back on 2007, if only briefly:

The “Iraq War is lost” group in Congress have found that it just ain't so. This is the same group that thought the surge was a failure before it had even begun. And these are the folks that claim to have the backing of the American people, a mandate, despite evidence that the American people didn't so much as vote for them as against those they replaced. There is a difference.

And speaking of Congress, this one has to be the biggest do-nothing Congressional sessions in American history. That may not be a bad thing.

The “juicing” scandals in professional baseball and other sports have finally started having an effect, with pro athletes coming under the proverbial microscope in order to ensure their performance out on the field is due to their skill and ability, not modern chemistry.

The endless campaign for President started in full force just about a year ago. Many people I've talked to are already sick to death with the whole thing and have been tuning out a lot of the ads and rhetoric.

Locally, New Hampshire Democrat Party Chairman Ray Buckley claimed the state's civil union law was the most important piece of legislation dealt with by the New Hampshire House and Senate even though it affects a very small percentage of the population in the state. On the other hand the education funding crisis, which affects darn near everyone in New Hampshire, was ignored. Mr. Buckley has this one exactly backwards.

The housing market softened even further, with foreclosures going up, particularly on homes with sub-prime or adjustable rate mortgages. Fortunately it appears that banks learned their lesson from the housing crash back in the late 1980's/early 1990's and didn't get involved with sub-prime lending.

Global warming seemed to be in the headlines just about every day. Far too many people are calling it a crisis. These are the same people demanding that trillions be spent to deal with a problem that may not be of humankind's making, but rather part of a natural climatic cycle. While many of the “crisis callers” keep saying there is a consensus that humans are the cause of all climate change, far too many respected scientists are saying just the opposite. That doesn't signify a consensus to me.

Also on the global warming topic, New Hampshire had the snowiest December in 131 years. It was also one of the colder Decembers on record, too.

The New England Patriots closed out the regular NFL season with a perfect 16-0 record. If they can make it to the Super Bowl and win that, they would be 19-0.

And now let's take a brief look forward at 2008:

The Patriots will win the Super Bowl, as well as their first few games of the regular 2008 season, breaking their record of 21 consecutive wins over two seasons.

The Red Sox will not win the 2008 World Series, but they will be playing!

The housing market will continue its slump, but only for new homes. Existing home sales will stay neutral for the year.

The organizations fronting sub-prime mortgages will either go bankrupt or will turn to other investment vehicles. Foreclosures on homes will peak sometime late in the year and then start falling off.

Oil prices will continue to rise.

Winter 2008 will be seen as a more normal winter than the past few years, with colder temps and higher precipitation than we've seen in a while. This will be a continuing trend for the next few years. In relation to this, global warming will be blamed for above normal temperatures and precipitation, below normal temperatures and precipitation, and normal temperatures and precipitation.

And that's how I see it. Of course you should take any of my predictions with a grain of salt. They are neither more or less scientific than anyone else's.

Oh, I almost forgot: Happy New Year!

Fred Makes His Case

If this doesn't make the case to Iowa voters that Fred Thompson is in the race to win the White House, nothing will.



Note: This is a lengthy video, running about 16 minutes. But it's well worth watching.

(Via Instapundit)

A Chicago Lawyer Gives Scumbags A Bad Name

There are lawyers. There are scumbag lawyers. Then there are lawyers like this guy.

Marine Sgt Mike McNulty is on activation orders to Iraq (second tour). On December 1st, 2007, Mike went to visit a friend in Chicago before deploying to say goodbye. In order to get to his friend's residence, and keep in mind that Chicago is a myriad of diagonal and one-way streets, the front entrance (right way) to the one-way street was blocked. Mike, being a Marine, overcame and adapted by driving around the block to the other end of the street and backing up all the way to his friend's place.

While saying goodbye, at about 11am, he noticed a man leaning up against his car. Mike left his friend's apartment and caught the man keying his car on multiple sides.

After caught in the process, the man told Mike, "you think you can do whatever you want with Department of Defense license plates and tags". (In Illinois you can purchase veteran, Marine, or medal plates. Mike has Illinois Marine Corps license plates.) During the exchange, he made additional anti-military comments.

Mike called the Chicago police and had the man arrested. A citation against the man was issued for misdemeanor criminal damage to private property.

As it turns out, the man is Chicago lawyer Jay R. Grodner, who owns a law firm in the city and has offices in the suburbs.

This piece of s**t figures because Sgt McNulty has to deploy and can't show up in court that he will get off scot-free. But readers of Blackfive have turned the tables on this turd and are making his name and his actions known to all who will listen.

This guy is toast.

He's already had his office and home phones disconnected, shut down his law firm's website, and appears to have disappeared off the face of the earth. While the Illinois State's Attorney office has tried to get McNulty to accept an insulting offer from Grodner to cover the deductible of McNulty's auto insurance, they have done nothing about this jerk.

This is not reflecting well upon the legal profession. It doesn't look good when lawyers close ranks in order to protect a lowlife like Grodner.

Read the comments to Blackfive's post and you'll find that Jay R. Grodner, Esq. has a long history of screwing clients, filing false petitions, and a host of other legal shenanigans that would have gotten anyone else thrown into prison.

Thoughts On A Sunday

The Patriots have done it! A perfect 16-0 win-loss record for the regular season.

Next stop, the Super Bowl!

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Bagheera is a bit miffed that the Mount Washington Observatory hasn't contacted him yet about the open position of Chief Observatory Cat.

I have told him more than once that he really isn't cut out for life at the Obs, but he denies it. I don't think he really understands what the obligations of the job entail. Frankly, he's too lazy to fulfill the duties of Chief Observatory Cat. Oh heck, he's just plain too lazy, period.

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The Christmas decorations gracing the Manse came down today. As always they come down a lot faster than they went up. The artificial (but real-looking) Christmas tree and all of the ornaments that go with it, the snowy village and nativity scene have been returned to their boxes and stored away in the basement have been packed away for yet another year.

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It started as an offhand comment from BeezleBub; “I wonder what the living room would look like if we moved the TV from that wall over to the corner?'

Five hours later and we were pretty much finished rearranging the furniture in the living room and the dining room. The new arrangement makes better use of the space in both rooms but has created a problem: I can't run the wires for the rear speakers of the surround sound system where they need to go without cutting holes in the drywall and drilling some holes through a few floor joists.

I'll bite the bullet and do the work the right way, but it might have to wait until spring.

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Fred Thompson slams a reporter that reported on one of Fred's town hall meeting in Iowa and got it wrong. In fact she wasn't even there.

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John Stossel has Part 3 of his interview with Ron Paul, whom he has dubbed “Dr. No.”

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I just happened to catch a YouTube of Michael Jackson's Thriller. It's easy to forget that at one time he was the number one entertainer on the planet. The video of Thriller was one of the most elaborate and expensive at the time it was released. It was an awesome production and stands up to any that followed.

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It appears that we are in danger of having the third, or maybe even the second snowiest December on record. With up to eight inches of new snow forecast for early to mid morning on Monday. The “normal” New England Winter is holding up so far this year. Goodness knows the ski areas are loving it, as are the businesses that cater to them and the snowmobilers.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where Patriots fans are rejoicing, New Year's is rapidly approaching, and where even more snow is on its way.

Confession Of A Fred Head...Or Two

As any of you reading this blog on any kind of semi-regular basis knows, I am I dyed-in-the-wool Fred Head. I support Fred Thompson's run for the presidency. I am not a rabid supporter of Fred. I just think that he's one of the best choices for the Republican candidate for President of the United States.

That said, I have a confession to make. Well, more of an admission.

Fred isn't going to win the New Hampshire Primary.

I'm not the only Fred Head that knows this. So does Belknap County chairman for Fred Thompson, Joe McCormack.

As he said on today's Meet The New Press, Fred won't win here. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have a chance of winning the follow on primaries, particularly in the South.

Time will tell.

Deception

The first time I heard the ad on the radio I thought I was mistaken. But hearing it the second time removed all doubt. (The quote below is not verbatim. I don't remember the exact words, so bear with me.)

“I will end George Bush's war against science. I will end the ban on stem cell research.”

So which candidate's ad was this?

Hillary's.

My problem with the ad? Both statements above are pure political BS.

First, there has been no administration war against science, unless Hillary considers that scientific ethics stand in the way of certain kinds of research as “a war against science”. Of course we could ignore ethics and go the route others have followed, conducting inhumane experiments upon the unwilling much as Josef Mengele did in Nazi Germany. Do we want to follow in his footsteps? Of course not. That's one reason why many condemn stem cell research that requires the creation, cloning, and destruction of human embryos.

Second, there is no government ban on stem cell research. However there is a ban on federal funding for research that creates and destroys human embryos in order to harvest their stem cells. Research with existing stem cell lines is being funded with tax dollars. To say this is a ban on stem cell research is disingenuous at best.

The ad is pure deception. No amount of spin can say it is otherwise.

Thoughts On A Sunday

BeezleBub and I spent a good portion of the day yesterday cleaning up from Thursday's snow storm. There was snow to shovel from the decks, snow banks to cut through in order to reach the front door, snow drifts to remove, and plenty of slush on the driveway to get rid of.

All of this was in preparation of the rain that's forecast for later today and tonight. Removing the snow was necessary to prevent one of two possible problems: the decks collapsing due to the heavy load of water-laden snow, or said water-laden snow freezing and turning into something resembling concrete. Neither is an acceptable outcome, so we spent the day clearing what we could.

As a back up I picked up 100 pounds of calcium chloride (also called Super-Melt) in case the driveway ends up being one big sheet of ice come morning.

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The New England Patriots are 14-0. With such success, the Patriots have become universally reviled by fans of the other NFL teams. It's a burden the Pat's and their fans are willing to bear.

The Patriots are going up against the 1-14 Miami Dolphins today at Foxborough.

UPDATE: The Patriots beat the Dolphins 28-7, moving the Pats to 15-0.

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There are times when school zero-tolerance policies can backfire, punishing victims of violence as well as perpetrators. I can see where there's no evidence showing which party was the aggressor. But when there's video showing clearly perpetrator and victim, punishing the victim is stupid and unfair.

One parent fought back after his daughter was attacked, beaten by another girl. The incident was caught on the school's video surveillance system. The high school suspended both girls, but the father of the victim informed the school he intending to charge the aggressor with assault and battery and sue the high school for failure to protect his daughter while she was in school. The school backed down, dropping his daughter's suspension.

Frankly, I see so-called zero-tolerance policies as nothing more than a crutch of the lazy.

(H/T Instapundit)

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Nuclear power is poised to make a comeback. It seems that the TVA is ahead of the game, with a utility in Texas following not too far behind.

It's about time.

While the article linked above talks about the resurgence of nuclear in the US, it gets some things exactly wrong – nuclear waste. For one thing, the only reason nuclear waste is a problem is politics, not technology. By reprocessing spent fuel, much of the waste is eliminated and what remains consists mainly of short half-life radio-isotopes that require short term storage before they decay into harmlessness.

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Michelle Rhee is shaking up the education bureaucracy and taking on the teacher's union in Washington, DC. In the process she's been turning around the school system and making long overdue changes.

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If global warming is a fact then why haven't temperatures risen since 2001?

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

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John Stossel has Part 2 of his interview with Ron Paul.

I have to say that Mr. Paul is incredibly ignorant when it comes to the motivations of our enemies, particularly the Islamofascists. Our very existence is reason enough for them to plot our destruction for we represent everything they find abhorrent and un-Islamic, or at least in relation to their twisted version of Islam. He makes the assumption that if we leave them alone they'll leave us alone. I can't even begin to list all of reasons why he's wrong.

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I've mentioned before how we've used far more firewood than we had thought we would. At first I thought it was because of miscalculation or faulty memory on my part. However, after a discussion with a number of friends and acquaintances it appears everyone has been using more firewood. heating oil, or propane than they had the past few winters.

It's been far colder this year up to this point and we haven't even reached the coldest part of the winter. The colder temps would certainly explain why we've used as much firewood so far as we did for the entire winter last year. In another couple of weeks we'll be heading back to the WP In-Laws with the deuce-an-a-half for another load of wood.

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Posting will be light for the next day or two, for obvious reasons.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where last minute Christmas shoppers are making the rounds, families are finalizing plans for Christmas Day, and where this part of the Weekend Pundit Team will be making merry for the holiday.

Holiday Wishes From Fred Thompson

Unlike those of Clinton, Obama, Giuliani, Huckabee, et al, Fred Thompson's holiday video is far more powerful and thought provoking.



No self aggrandizement. No pithy words. No false humility. No reminiscences of childhood Christmases. If only more political candidates were like this.....

The Endless Campaign Goes On And On

It appears I'm not the only one already tired of the Presidential campaigning.

Every four years the campaigns start earlier, run longer, and the primary/caucus schedule becomes more compressed. The madness has got to stop. Even Karl Rove agrees with me.

The Iowa caucuses are 14 days away, with the New Hampshire primary five days later. And what follows from there won't be pretty. The way Americans are selecting our presidential candidates in 2008 is, frankly, a mess.

The first problem is the overall length of the campaign. There are few more demanding physical activities than running for president, other than military training or athletics at a very high level--and this will be the longest presidential contest on record. The first candidate this season announced Dec. 12, 2006; virtually all the Democrats declared by late January, and almost every Republican by mid-March. So next fall we'll elect a president who's spent two years rocketing around the country in an aluminum tube and sleeping in strange hotel rooms on a brutal, exhausting campaign trail.

This gives America the longest leadership selection contest in the democratic world.

The joke making the rounds lately is a number of presidential hopefuls have been trying to make sure they won't miss any of the upcoming debates...for the 2012 elections.

By the time November 2008 rolls around most people will be bored to death with the lengthy campaigns. Most won't really care who's running. They'll just want it all to be over. So will I.

Some Fred Links

I have been remiss in keeping up with Fred Thompson's campaign. Call me lazy. So here are a few links that you might find interesting.

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Proving once again that he does indeed have a sense of humor.

While addressing the issue of habeas corpus for Gitmo detainees, Fred said:

“The detainees at Guantanamo are not American citizens, they are enemies of this nation and they do not enjoy the rights of American citizens,” he said. “And they are not entitled to habeas corpus protection.”

The crowd of a little over 100 people in Waterloo applauded the line, as they did several others on the last stop of first day of “The Clear Conservative Choice: Hands Down!” tour across Iowa. Thompson also clarified when he would he would be willing to raise his hand. “When Chief Justice John Roberts swears me in, I won’t mind raising my hand.”

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Avoiding a Mike Dukakis moment, Fred decides not to don a fire helmet during a visit to a fire station in Waverly, Iowa.

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Fred managed to pick up the endorsement of four major bloggers from the conservative side of the blogosphere. Pejman Yousefzhadeh, Polipundit, Frank J of IMAO, and Jonathan Adler of the Volokh Conspiracy have endorsed Fred's run for the White House.

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Fred's campaign appears to be picking up steam now that he's spending far more time in Iowa than in the past.

He won't be visiting New Hampshire again until after the Iowa Caucuses, appearing in a debate with his fellow Republican candidates on January 5th.

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More to follow.

NHPUC Raises Questions About Verizon/FairPoint Deal

As the date of the proposed sale of Verizon's wireline system in northern New England to FairPoint approaches, regulators have some questions and some doubts about the wisdom of the sale.

In New Hampshire, the state Public Utilities Commission has serious doubts about the sale as proposed.

Public Utilities Commissioners worried aloud about FairPoint Communications Inc.'s promises of expanded broadband, financial viability and changing terms of its proposed $2.7 billion purchase of Verizon's landlines in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont.

"One conclusion has become clear, and that is that the petition as filed is not in the public interest," Commission Chairman Thomas B. Getz said.

"Given that conclusion, the question then becomes is there some set of conditions that would satisfy the public interest," he said.

The biggest problem New Hampshire has with the deal is the price of the sale, $2.7 billion, which the PUC believes is too much for the assets being acquired, which will leave FairPoint unable to service their debt, pay expected dividends, and expand broadband access as they have promised.

My problem with this sale? FairPoint is buying an increasing share of a decreasing market. Even with their plans to make DSL widely available, it will be too little to late. DSL is a soon to be obsolete technology. It is incapable to providing the bandwidth that will be needed in the near future. Only fiber optics, in the form of Fiber To The Home, can provide the voice, data and video bandwidth the future demands. FairPoint will not be deploying fiber, meaning they won't be able to keep up because they will be deploying the wrong technology that will quickly leave northern New England behind the rest of the nation when it comes to broadband access. That's not in our best interests.

This is one deal that should die.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It's snowing like hell this morning.

“Stay tuned to NewsNine for our Storm Watch Team coverage of the [add ominous news theme music here] Nor' Easter!”

Give me a break.

It's not like we haven't had snowstorms before. It's not like we haven't had Nor'Easters before. And it's not like we really need to see hours and hours of coverage of the storm, ad nauseum. An update once or twice an hour should be sufficient, wouldn't you think?

Frankly, it looks more like we're going to have a real old-fashioned “normal” New England winter.

Yeah!

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Speaking of snowstorms, I had thought that BeezleBub and I would be out at least two or three times to run the Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower during this storm. But now I'm thinking I want to do it all at once. Maybe it makes me lazy. Maybe it makes me cheap (I only want to run the snowblower once rather than two or three times). In any case we won't be going out to clear the driveway until some time this evening.

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The storm certainly hasn't stopped New England Patriots fans from making the trip to Foxborough to watch the Patriots play the New York Jets this afternoon. The aforementioned NewsNine interviewed a number of Pats fans heading south on Interstate 93. As more than one of them said, “What? We're not going to let a little snow stop us from watching the Pats go 14-0!”

UPDATE: The Patriots beat the Jets 20-10.

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Our fellow Weekend Pundit team member Brent has been going to town with a number of posts yesterday and today. He'd already posted four times by the time I got up this morning and at least twice since I stared working on this post.

Way to go, Brent!

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Yes, I know comments are broken. I'm hoping that they'll be fixed sometime soon.

I've also dropped a note to Matt, our blog host, about the new free version of Moveable Type 4.0. We never did make the transition to MT 3.x on this blog. That was more my fault than anything else. I think it's time to upgrade this blog.

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This is no surprise.

Housing prices dip this year in New Hampshire.

Tell us something we don't know.

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The move back to nuclear power in the US is picking up more speed and support.

Electrical utilities and environmentalists support the move, seeing nuclear power as a carbon free power source that can replace coal, oil, and natural gas fueled power plants. Advanced Generation IV plower plants will also be able to generate hydrogen in large amounts, allowing a move away from fossil fuels and further moving us towards more carbon neutral or carbon negative technologies.

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John Stossel has Part 1 of his interview with Ron Paul.

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The Top 10 Economic Myths of 2007.

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

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It looks like BeezleBub and I will have to plan another trip to the WP In-Laws with Submarine Tim's deuce-and-a-half sometime in the next three or four weeks. We seriously underestimated the amount of firewood we would use to heat The Manse. Last year we used about three cords between late October and the end of March. But last winter was relatively mild, with only a few nights below zero and a number of days/weeks of temps well above normal (January had a number of days in the 60's). With a “normal” New England winter and the temperatures to go with it, we'll have used three cords of wood by the middle of January!

With propane selling for over $3 per gallon, I'm in no mind to switch to using the furnace at this point. I'd rather spend $160 on gasoline for the deuce-and-a-half rather than $1500 to $2000 for propane.

We've been talking about upgrading to a better, more efficient woodstove. Unfortunately it will have to wait until next summer because it will require some renovations in The Manse's Not-So-Great Room in order to properly install it.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the lake is not yet frozen over, the snow is still falling, and where it looks like a white Christmas is guaranteed.

Report From Baghdad

Our friends at Meet The New Press had a very special guest on their show this morning – Major Kirk Luedeke of the Dragon Brigade, stationed in Baghdad.

Major Kirk, the newest contributor to GraniteGrok, brought us up to date on the progress being made by Coalition Forces .

Kirk covered a number of topics, including how the Iraqi populace has changed their allegiances, helping Coalition forces fight against the insurgency, particularly against Al Qaida forces. He related how on one foot patrol soldiers of the Dragon Brigade were warned by a number of Iraqi children and some of their parents about an IED that was located farther up the road they were patrolling. It prevented an ambush and saved the lives of US forces and, as likely, Iraqi civilians.

A link to the audio of the segment will be posted here once it becomes available. It is definitely worth listening to the whole thing.

Sometimes Fear Is A Good Thing

Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Back in the days of FDR, those words range true....until December 7th, 1941. Then fear became a necessary emotion to ensure our survival against an intractable enemy.

The media uses fear to sell themselves and to expand their viewership/readership. The government uses fear to sell this program, that tax, or worse, a softening of our rights. And lately, some in both the media and government have been trying to make us fear our own country rather than our enemies, as if our enemies aren't trying very hard to kill us.

Ron Silver (yes, that Ron Silver) writes about how fear can be a healthy thing as long is the thing we fear is tangible and there is little doubt that the fear is not unfounded.

In February of 2004, NYU held a conference about fear. The conference was called “Fear: Its Uses and Abuses.” In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, posters with crude caricatures of Japanese and Nazis appeared with “Warning! Our homes are in danger now!” Exclamation points at the beginning and close of the warning, in case the message escaped us. It was called propaganda. As reported in the New York Times, in an article by Edward Rothstein, (propaganda’s) “accepted function was to galvanize, urge, justify, remind and yes, frighten.” (italics Ron's)

After September 11, with the emerging threat of Islamic terrorism becoming more manifest in the public mind (many of us took this threat more seriously than others prior to this atrocity), what sticks out most immediately is how, again according to Edward Rothstein, there were “[s]o few examples of graphic American propaganda and none using ethnic or racial caricatures. Yet beginning with Al Gore, who delivered the keynote address at the Conference, the former vice president asserted again and again that the American government is preoccupied with instilling fear.” The conference was essentially about fear being encouraged by our government and exacerbated by the media. It was compared with the irrational fear of Communism and the perversions of McCarthyism.”

The goal of the conference promoters was clear to me. Indeed we now all have reason to be afraid. But apparently we’re afraid of different things. Some factions are less concerned with the folks who have declared war on us and who are determined to kill us, our children and our civilization. These factions have chosen our elected government, chosen by us to secure and defend us, to be their adversary. Evidently my fear was rational. I just had the wrong enemy in my sights. To which my grandfather would have responded, had he been born elsewhere and not in a shtetl, “poppycock.”

So, rather than being afraid of the Islamofascist who have carried out attacks and still plan to do so, some of our progressive “intellectuals” are afraid of our government. The Islamofascists only want to kill us and everything we stand for. Our government is tasked with protecting us against them, yet they are the ones we're supposed to fear? Excuse me? The fear generated by the Islamofascists is something that is tangible, seeing their actions and their cruelty and inhumanity. Fear of our government is intangible and, while a little fear that our government may go too far is not unhealthy, to think that it is the greater evil is stupid, to say the least.

As one commenter to Ron's post wrote:

The Left are more afraid of what enemy might think of us then what they might do to us.

Rings true, doesn't it?

It's A Snowy Night

It's easy to forget that, according to the calendar, it's still fall. The winter solstice won't arrive for another 9 days. But looking out the window you'd think we were in the depths of winter.

The snow started falling here in central New Hampshire shortly after 1:30 this afternoon. While we aren't expecting a large snowfall in this part of the state, maybe four or five inches, it's that very fluffy light snow. It's the kind that makes for very poor snowballs and is no good at all for making snow forts. But it's great for skiing and snowmobiling!

Sometime later tonight I'll be outside, running the Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower up and down The Manse's driveway. No reason for me to wait until tomorrow morning as most of the snow from this fast moving storm will have ended well before I go bed tonight. (Besides, I don't want to get up at 5AM to clear the driveway.)

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It's on a snowy night like tonight that I think back to a winter many years ago when I was a kid. It was just before Christmas and we all sat in front of the TV to watch one of the first showings of A Charlie Brown Christmas. I remember looking out our living room window and seeing the snow falling. It was a weird kind of synchronicity – seeing it snow on the TV show and outside at the same time. Music from A Charlie Brown Christmas provided a soundtrack for this little part of my life. Since then, whenever it's a snowy night before Christmas I flash back to that night over 40 years ago. I feel like a kid again and Christmas takes on that magical feeling I remember so well.

And whenever I hear Christmastime Is Here by the Vince Guaraldi Trio, I see Charlie Brown walking through the snow on a winter night, carrying the pathetic little Christmas tree.

Know Nukes!

Isn't it interesting that more environmentalists have rediscovered nuclear power and are finding it isn't the bad thing they all thought it was. Many see nuclear power as one of the better solutions to meeting th energy needs while emitting no green house gases.

Third and fourth generation nuclear power plants are being planned to add to the existing second generation plants or to replace some of the decommissioned or soon to be decommissioned nuclear power plants.

Some of the new designs will lend themselves to generating hydrogen on a large scale, something necessary to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels and make a hydrogen economy possible. Gasoline and diesel fuel will slowly be replaced by hydrogen, and the internal combustion engine will be replaced by the fuel cell and electric motor. Most of that will be made possible by nuclear power.

Think where we might have been in regards to reducing carbon dioxide emissions if we hadn't stopped building nuclear plants in the 1970's?

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a very busy day for this member of the WP team, leaving no time for any blogging. It happens every so often.

Today's post will not be nearly as lengthy due to making up for the things I didn't get done yesterday and getting ready for the New England Patriots game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. We've also been keeping an eye on the weather as it looks like we'll be in for a little more winter weather overnight and into tomorrow morning.

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Our fellow New Hampshire blog, GraniteGrok, has added a new member to the team – Major Kirk Luedeke, milblogger. He is presently stationed in Iraq and will be posting as he is able to, given he needs to pay attention to his duty while he is deployed. His posts will be titled “Dragon Soup”. Fitting title, isn't it?

His first post to the 'Grok can be found here.

Welcome aboard, Major Luedeke!

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One of the side effects of the lack of affordable housing is the use of more energy because workers are forced to commute a longer distances to their jobs. So, in the end, affordable housing some distance away from the job may not be as affordable as it appears. One must include the costs of commuting, which are only going up.

In the long run it's cheaper to build workforce housing.

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The Patriots beat the Steelers 34-13. They are now 13-0!

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The proposed sale of Verizon's wireline assets to FairPoint Communications is generating a lot of advertising and op-ed pieces in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Both Maine and New Hampshire's state consumer advocates have voiced their doubts about the viability of the sale, citing the financial details of the deal and questioning FairPoint's capability to carry out their promised upgrades throughout the more rural areas of each state.

If any of the three states involved in the deal vote it down, the deal is dead. However, FairPoint has said that even if Vermont should vote against the deal, it might be possible for the sale in New Hampshire and Maine to go forward.

The decision in each state will be made soon, and I'm hoping they'll decide that the deal is not a good one for the consumers.

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Deb and I have been contemplating switching from Verizon to our local cable company for telephone service. Regardless whether the Verizon/FairPoint deal goes though I have no doubt the telephone rates will go up. At the moment our cable company is offering rates for local and long distance service about 60 percent of what Verizon is presently charging. The only downside to the cable company as our phone provider: if the power goes out, so does our phone service, even if we have an emergency generator.

While our cell phone is a reasonable back up there's no guarantee it will work if the outage is caused by inclement weather.

Decisions, decisions!

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where more winter weather is on its way, the Patriots have proven triumphant again, and where we're one day closer to Christmas.

Back To The Future

How many of you out there have ever seen or read predictions of the future? I'm not talking about Nostradamus' predictions but those put forward by futurists, scientists, sociologists, automobile and aviation enthusiasts, and every day people? Have you ever looked back to see whether any of those predictions actually came to fruition?

You could use the 'net to track down predictions made over the years, but how much time would you want to spend doing that?

Now you don't have to.

For a trip 'back to the future' check out Paleo-Future, a blog that lets us Look Into The Future That Never Was.

You can browse by decade or by topic. Predictions run all the way back to the 1890's and cover all kinds of topics from technology, transportation, medicine, communications, and homes of the future.

Some of the links are to things I remember, including the CBS series 21^st Century hosted by Walter Cronkite and Mike Wallace, which aired from 1957 to 1970. I remember watching the show from the mid 1960's until the program ended in 1970.

If you'd like to see what people in the past thought the year 2000 would be like, check out Paleo-Future.

(H/T Laser Focus World magazine)

Environmentalists Against The Environment

I find it interesting the schizoid tendencies of a number of environmentalists. They want to 'Save the Earth' - promote alternative energy sources, reduce pollution, and basically help Mother Nature survive. Except when they don't.

They don't like coal-fired or nuclear power plants. No real surprise there. Bit also appears they don't like alternative energy sources like wind, either.

A perfect example of this is a proposed wind farm with 600 turbines just south of Corpus Christi, Texas that will generate a lot of clean renewable power. But the environmentalists are against it because the turbines might kill birds. It's an argument used by those opposing wind turbines all over the country. But domestic cats kill far more birds than wind turbines ever will. Will the environmentalists support killing all of the cats in order to protect birds? Not likely. But if something made by man for man kills a small fraction of that number then it must be opposed by all “right thinking people.”

Those “right thinking people” aren't right in the head.

Election Burnout

It's a little over a month until the New Hampshire Primary and I can honestly say that I am bored out of my mind with the whole thing. Not just the primary, but the whole presidential election season.

In the past I enjoyed the campaigning, the debates, the speeches, the face-to-face electioneering.

But this time around I care very little about the process, the campaigns, the visits by the candidates. It's not that I don't have a favorite candidate. I do. Anyone reading this blog know I support Fred Thompson. I believe he's the best one to take over the Oval Office.

Despite Thompson being 'my man', I can't seem to call up the enthusiasm for this election season. I've puzzled over this malaise I feel. It didn't take me too long to figure out why I'm feeling out of sorts.

The election season is too damn long!!!

This one started all of a day or two after Election Day November 2006. In the past it started sometime during the August or September before the primary. Oh, some of the presidential hopefuls would make low key visits to New Hampshire or Iowa before then, but they weren't in full on campaign mode. This time around candidate visits were more like the full court press one expects just before the election. It never let up. The compression of the primary schedule hasn't helped things either (something that is worthy of a post all on its own). At one point is was possible that the New Hampshire Primary would have been held this month due to other states trying to steal Iowa's and New Hampshire's thunder by moving their contests up on the calendar. And to top it off, the so-called Super Tuesday in early February makes it even worse because it forced a lot of the candidates to start campaigning earlier than ever.

Frankly, I'm tired of the whole thing and I'll be glad when it's all over..

Thoughts On A Sunday

You'd think a major month-long blizzard was coming from the way folks have been acting since yesterday. It's amazing what an impending snowstorm does to folks.

The supermarkets, hardware stores, WalMarts, and big box home improvement stores (Home Depot and Lowe's) were busier than we'd usually see on a weekend. Folks were stocking up on food, entertainment (DVDs), snow and ice removal implements (shovels, ice scrapers, bags of rock salt or calcium chloride, and maybe a snow-blower or two), and for some strange reason, toilet paper. Did these folks really believe that they'd be snowbound for so long a two month's supply of toilet paper was essential? You'd have thought that we've never had a snowstorm up here before.

Then again, the first real snowstorm of the season tends to make folks a little crazy.

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Unfortunately we have to wait until Monday night to watch the New England Patriots play the Baltimore Ravens. But I suppose it's better than nothing.

Will they go 12-0?

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Why is it the Democrats keep trying to blur the distinction between legal and illegal immigration? Could it be they can't tell the difference between the two? Or are they trying to paint those who want to stop illegal immigration as anti-immigrant?

Whenever a Republican presidential hopeful mentions stemming the tide of illegal immigrants pouring over our borders the Democrats jump all the candidate as if he'd declared an intent to deport all immigrants, even the legal ones.

It could be nothing more than campaign rhetoric. If it is not, the Democrats might actually believe there is no difference between the two.

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The Official Weekend Pundit Woodstove has been doing a pretty decent job of keeping The Manse nice and warm. Even with the colder than normal temps and high winds yesterday the temperature inside The Manse was between 68 and 70 degrees.

Of course it might be it was warmer inside than it otherwise might have been because BeezleBub and I sealed most of the windows on the first floor to minimize the heat loss and any air infiltration. The second floor windows have heavy thermal shades that are closed once the sun goes down, keeping the warmth inside where it belongs.

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Rachel Lucas (always a favorite of this member of the WP crew) lays a reverse hum-bug on those who worry about and work against public displays of any kind of Christmas celebration.

Says one commenter:

Really? So it’s “impolite” to make non-Christians look at a decorated tree and recognize its religious connotations, but it’s okay to piss off Christians by not letting us celebrate Christmas the way we want to?

This attitude just boggles my mind. When Christian schoolchildren are forced to acknowledge non-Christian holidays like Hanukkah, Passover, and Ramadan, they call it “diversity”. But when non-Christian schoolchildren are asked to do the exact same thing by acknowledging Christmas, suddenly it’s “impolite”.

I plan to be as “impolite” as possible this Christmas season.

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Only the Belgians would think of barbecuing as a major contributor to global warming.

And only the Belgians would use a means of surveillance to spot such an activity that generated far more CO₂ than the activity itself.

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Canadians have been warned that this will be the coldest winter in years. By implication, that means we – 'we' meaning New England – probably will, too. Even the Old Farmer's Almanac is saying the same thing.

I have no doubt that someone will blame it on global warming.

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And speaking of cold weather, is it possible that Hell will freeze over?

There's a move by taxpayers in the People's Republic of Taxachusetts to repeal the 5.3% state income tax.

A repeal of the state income tax would remove $11 billion of revenue from the state budget, something the tax-and-spend legislature and special interests say will destroy the Commonwealth.

I recall when so-called Prop 2 ^1/2 (Question 2) became a ballot issue in Massachusetts. It reduced the property tax rate to 2.5% of assessed value across the board. Doom and gloom became the mainstay of the anti-Prop 2 ^1/2 forces. They predicted severe cuts in police and fire personnel and a decimation of all public services in the municipalities. Despite this the ballot question passed overwhelmingly. The world did not end. None of the dire predictions came true and the taxpayers regained some small amount of control over their hard earned money.

Should the state income tax be repealed, I'm sure the Commonwealth will survive and the taxpayers will breath a sigh of (tax) relief.

(H/T Instapundit)

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This is totally cool! I want one! I want one!

(H/T Wizbang)

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The only downside to using a woodstove to heat your home is the extra cleaning around the house it entails. Bits and pieces of firewood are tracked all over the first floor of The Manse, meaning we are vacuuming far more often than we usually need to, often every or every other day. Dusting also needs to be done far more often due to the ash that is the waste product of burning wood. When either BeezleBub or I empty out the ash and clinkers from the woodstove, there is usually a small cloud of ash that rises from the ash bucket with every shovelful we put in there. It goes everywhere, meaning a lot of dusting. Of course I could just use 900 gallons of propane at $3.30+ per gallon to heat The Manse and avoid the extra work.

I'd rather do the extra house cleaning.

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We're all prepared for 8-14 inches of snow the Weather Guys™ have predicted for the Lake Winnipesaukee area.

The Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower has been checked out, the oil checked, the gas tank topped off, and the tire pressure checked. Fifty pounds of snow melt has been distributed into the appropriate containers, the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout's trailer has been moved to one side, and both cars have had their snow tires mounted.

The snow is expected to start sometime around 9PM tonight and run through until sometime late tomorrow morning. It's a safe bet that there will be no school for BeezleBub tomorrow. I know he's hoping there will be no work for me as well, but in the ten years I've worked for my employer they've called off work for weather only once and then only because the peak of one particular Nor'easter last winter was during the morning commute hours. So my chances of a day off are pretty slim.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where pre-snowstorm madness has wound down, the road crews are ready to do battle with with snow and sleet, and where we're looking forward to the first real snowstorm of the season.

Speaking English In America

The controversy about using English here in the US appears to be growing. First, it's the EEOC going after the Salvation Army for requiring their employees to speak English when they're working. Now it's the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) chairman Roberto Fonseca giving his report in Spanish. That angered a number of parents attending the meeting.

The obvious question is this: why did Fonseca (who is bilingual) think it was appropriate to run the meeting in Spanish? After all, African-Americans are well represented on the council, and many of the Latino parents speak English. Furthermore, current bylaws stipulate that all parent meetings across the district be held in English.

Apparently Fonseca took the opportunity to challenge those bylaws, motivated by a lawyer’s conclusion that the English-only rule was illegal and impractical and the district’s assurance that it would not be enforced. The LAUSD probably fears the reactions of parents like Guadalupe Aguiar, who told the [L.A.] Times that it is “racist when parents are told that, in America, they have to speak English.”

...Hispanic Democrat [Rep. Charles Gonzalez of Texas] is quoted in the [Wall Street] Journal as saying, “If it is not relevant, it is discriminatory, it is gratuitous, it is a subterfuge to discriminate against people based on national origin.” This type of heated rhetoric made its way to the House Floor on Nov. 8, when Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois called English-only requirements symbolic of “bigotry and prejudice.”

But not all politicians think it’s racist to insist that employees speak English when working in America. In fact, Gonzalez and Gutierrez were reacting to an amendment introduced by Lamar Alexander from Tennessee. Alexander’s legislation would shield employers from federal lawsuits if they refuse to hire non-English speakers. The amendment passed the Senate by 75-19 last month, and, more recently, the House by 218-186, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is determined to kill it.

It figures that Pelosi wants to kill the bill. After all, why should we speak only English when dealing with government, business, or education? Instead, the rest of us should be forced to learn Spanish to make it easier for Hispanic immigrants (particularly illegal immigrants) to succeed in this country? What kind of madness is this?

It's liberal Democrat madness.

It is becoming more and more evident that many of those like the Speaker of the House dislike mainstream America with a passion. After all, all the world's evils are our fault and therefore we must make penance with the slow destruction of American sovereignty within our own country.

NOT.

A Sure Sign Of Winter

It appears we'll be getting our first real snowstorm of the almost-winter starting sometime Sunday evening.

It's a good thing that Deb got the trusty Intrepid down to the tire store yesterday and had four new snow tires put on. The past three winters I stayed with the all-season radials and, for the most part, they were more than adequate. But the past three winters were below average for snowfall, so that might have had something to do with it. I doubt that I could have gotten away with it this winter as I have a feeling that this winter will more than make up for the lack of significant snowfall the past three years.

The front tires on the trusty Intrepid needed replacement in any case as they were worn to the point where the wear bars would have started showing at any time. So down to the local tire store the Intrepid went, the front tires were thrown away, the rear tires put into the trunk, and four new snows were mounted, balanced, and installed.

Unlike some snow tires I've had in the past or the like the ones on Deb's car, these are surprisingly quiet. There isn't that whine and rumble that one usually associates with snow tires.

Now that the trusty Intrepid is properly shod I can't wait to give the new snow tires a try.