Thoughts On A Sunday

The arctic chill has returned to New Hampshire, with morning temps here at The Manse well below zero. Below zero lows are expected for the next few days. Does Al Gore want to tell me again about global warming?

Speaking of freezing temperatures, the indoor supply of firewood for the Official Weekend Pundit Woodstove has dwindled, meaning that BeezleBub and I will soon be uncovering our outdoor stash of firewood and moving some of it in to the garage. The old saying about firewood is inaccurate. It does not warm you twice – once will cutting and splitting it and once when you burn it. Instead it warms you three or four times – once when cutting and splitting it, once when you stack it the first time, once when you move it and stack it again, and finally when you burn it.

The WP Mom-In-Law made the trip home to the southwestern part of the state after a three-and-a-half day visit. Unlike many movie/TV/book stereotypes, she's a peach. I think we'll keep her.

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How many times have we heard about the Law of Unintended Consequences? Too many to count. But that doesn't stop me from posting about another one.

It appears a law passed in response to deal with lead found in toys made in China back in 2007 will be forcing the closure of small shops catering to customers seeking homemade children's clothing. It isn't that the homemade goods have lead in them that's causing the problem. It's the testing mandated by the law that is killing the businesses and the homecrafters supplying them. Each type of item made or sold for children under the age of 12 must be tested by a third party, which can cost $350 per item or more. Small businesses like the shops or the homecrafters can't afford to spend that kind of money to prove that the items they sell or make does not contain above the allowable amount of lead. Somehow I doubt things like wool sweaters, clothing of woven cloth, or rag dolls made by homecrafters will contain any lead. But the law has no exceptions.

How is it a law that intended to protect children is also wiping out honest and responsible small business owners? Simple. It was the need to “Do Something!” that caused the lawmakers to do a poor job of writing the legislation and creating a situation that is crippling small businesses at a time when we need them more than ever.

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I have just started re-reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I had forgotten how dark a picture it paints about the economic conditions existing in the novel. I guess I can forgive myself for that considering it's been 35 years since I read it last. But it acts as a cautionary tale about how the government and political correctness can destroy an economy all in the name of “fairness”. Isn't that what we're seeing now? After all, the liberal Democrats in Congress want to make sure the economy is fair, at least as they define it. But then we've known for a long time that their idea of “fair” is equality of outcome, not equality of opportunity.

Maybe that's why I've been drawn back to it after all this time.

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Keeping in mind Atlas Shrugged, I believe Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) is probably the most dangerous man in the country.

Known for using his power as a battleaxe against people he doesn't like (particularly Republicans and businessmen), as the new chairman of the House committee on Energy and Commerce we can count on him to use the committee to force industry to invest in energy efficiency in a manner he sees fit rather than letting industry do it as their funds allow and their management and stockholders decide.

He isn't known as the meanest man in Congress for nothing.

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Apparently I'm not the only one that's been pondering this: Obama = Carter?

There are too many parallels to Jimmy Carter's policies in regards to those being put forth by President Obama. While the economic problems we're facing today are nothing as compared to the ones Carter was facing when he took office in 1977, the are just as daunting. Unfortunately if Obama follows the same course as Carter, the economy will not recover any time soon and he could end up being a one-term president like Carter.

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Speaking of Jimmy Carter, there's something I have to get off my chest.

Many of the Dems decrying George W. Bush as the worst president ever either chose to ignore Jimmy Carter's dismal record or weren't alive when he was President.

Carter had one problem that is a major failing of anyone sitting in the Oval Office - he was a detail man rather than a big picture kind of guy. A president has to be a big picture kind of guy. He can't waste his time with detail. That's what his staff is for, to handle the details. Carter couldn't see the big picture, which is why he failed as president. He managed to accomplish little, failed to act when the US Embassy in Iran was overrun by the Revolutionary Guard (an act or war), kept a tight control over the economy and energy policies which strangled its recovery, and basically did just about everything wrong.

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Is the expansion of SCHIP by Congress to cover a large portion of the American people merely a ploy to create a socialized medical care system on the sly?

Absolutely.

Grace-Marie Turner, a student of health care policies, says this SCHIP expansion is sensible -- if your goal is quickly to get as many people on public coverage as possible, and to have children grow up thinking that it is normal for them to get their health insurance from the government. That is the goal.

That's all we need. As I commented to a co-worker sometime last week, why would we want to recreate a health care system we already know doesn't work and does nothing but prevent actual health care from being delivered, creates artificial shortages, and discourages people from going into medicine as a career? Both Canada and the UK have already crippled their health care systems, so why should we do the same?

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I am sick to death of hearing the present recession is the worst one we've seen since the Great Depression.

IT...IS...NOT.

The recession in the early-mid 1970's was far worse, with unemployment rates of up to 14% in many states, taxes at state and federal level going through the roof, businesses going bust or moving out of high tax states at an alarming rate, inflation running rampant, and mortgage interest rates above well 10%. This was a time when the steel industry took major hits, with large numbers of steel mills closing across the nation. The auto industry also took a hit, with sales falling and the products they made not much better than nicely painted junk.

During part of that time I was living in the People's Republic of Massachusetts (I didn't have a choice because I was still a minor at the time), and I remember the fear and anxiety everyone felt as job losses mounted, energy prices spiked, and money became increasingly in short supply.

While the present recession may be painful, it isn't as bad as many in the media are making it to be. But then the media has always had a short memory.

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The Cape Wind project is in the news again, as it appears it will finally receive the OK from the federal government to move ahead with construction.

What has always amused me about this project is the objections and protests coming from self-important pseudo-environmentalists, decrying the “destruction of Native American burial grounds.” \

I didn't know the tribes on the Cape and islands buried their dead at sea. I guess I must have missed that lesson during my American history classes at school.

One of the biggest opponents to the Cape Wind project has been the biggest pseudo-environmentalists of all time, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA). His real objection appears to be that he might actually see the wind turbines from the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport on the Cape. I guess he believes such views are only for the little people.

A real class act, Ted.

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Why is it Obama appears to be afraid of Rush Limbaugh? Could it be Rush is 'speaking truth to power', in this case the Democrats entrenched in Congress and the White House?

We already know Speaker of the House Pelosi is working hard to make sure the Republican minority in the House will be silenced by changing the House rules, making debate and dissent difficult, if not impossible. We also know President Obama dislikes dissent as well, particularly when it comes to his ideas about how things should be done. If Rush is silenced, then the Democrats know they'll have an open field and will be able to do what they have worked so hard to do for so long – create a socialist utopia in the US.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the temps will be below zero tonight, the lake's ice is getting thicker, and where the Rotary Winnipesaukee Ice Fishing Derby will soon be taking place.

The CINC Can't Be Bothered

What does it say about our new Commander-In-Chief when he can't be bothered to attend the American Legion's Salute To The Heroes Inaugural Ball, given to honor recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor?

Every President since Eisenhower has attended the ball. Until now.

I guess that shows us how committed he is to our veterans and those presently serving.

A Socialist America?

Two sets of quotes bring home the dangerous path the United States appears to be traveling as both Congress and President Obama steer a socialist course for our nation. The days of taking responsibility for one's self will soon be passé and government will take over that responsibility, and do it poorly.

With a trillion dollars of President Obama's spending in mind, we must take these quotes to heart.

Margaret Thatcher:

"The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money"

Winston Churchill:

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else."

It is the path to misery under the guise of 'helping' that the Left now holding power in Congress and the White House have in store for us. Mind you, their intentions are good. But as we all know, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

No socialist state has ever survived without spreading misery and economic hardship upon its people all in the name of “justice”, whether it be social or economic justice. The more radical socialist states no longer exist because they bankrupted themselves, both economically and morally, becoming something hateful and terrifying to behold.

Not that we are headed to such a state of affairs, but I have little doubt we will suffer the effects of this latest attempt to create a Socialist America for at least a full generation, if not two. Like the Reagan years started us out of the nightmare that was the LBJ Welfare State, so too will we need to suffer some of the same economic and social disasters foisted upon us by the deluded Leftist elite no in power.

All the social programs created during the LBJ years did such harm to the American people, and minorities in general, that it took until the 1990's for many of the Reagan, Bush (41), and Clinton policies to cancel out the horrid effects of Johnson's Great Society. Now it looks like we'll have to do it again after Congress and Obama take us back to the days of the Great Depression. Of course they'll tell us it's for our own good. And they'll borrow trillions of dollars from overseas to make it happen, all while draining our pocketbooks and causing all kinds of havoc with the economy.

Why is it the Left can never learn from history? Are they genetically or ideologically incapable of understanding these two basic concepts?

“Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.” - George Santayana

and

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting the results to be different this time.” - Unknown

It appears to me the Left is guilty of both.

Affordable Housing

Thomas Sowell takes a stroll down memory lane, remembering how it used to be in regards to “affordable” housing as compared to today.

Sometimes some semblance of rationality is given to the phrase "affordable housing" by comparing the cost of housing to the income of those who live in it. That was certainly what I did when I rented my first room. That's not rocket science, then or now.

The difference is that today there is some arbitrary percentage of one's income that sets the limit to what the government will consider to be affordable housing. It used to be 25 percent but it might be 30 percent or some other proportion.

But, whatever the percentage, it is no longer the individual's responsibility to choose housing that fits within that limit. It is somehow the taxpayers' job to make up the difference, when someone chooses housing whose cost exceeds that magic number.

Buying a home that one can afford without the need for government intervention in the form of subsidies or Congressional pressure on lenders to give loans that aren't likely to be repaid seems to have become passé. Using real cash money as a down payment had also fallen by the wayside. Somehow 100% financing, meaning no down payment, became the norm for so many that few questioned the concept in the not so recent past. Now it seems ludicrously risky for any lender to give those kind of terms, seeing what the outcome of such an arrangement has been.

My wife and I were fortunate, having the means to make a substantial down payment on our present house. We didn't get a palatial home even though we could have easily gotten a place that cost $100K or more above what we paid. But we couldn't have really afforded the payments even though we qualified for a mortgage worth twice as much as the value of our house. (That's another story illustrative of the financing insanity that prevailed during the housing market bubble.) We can make the payments on our mortgage because we didn't make the mistake so many others did. And our payments, not including taxes and insurance, total about 27% of our disposable income.

We bought a house we actually could afford, just like folks in the 'olden days'.

Like Thomas Sowell has done throughout his adult life, we bought affordable housing. If we end up buying another home in the future, it too will be affordable. It will likely be smaller than the one we have now, but so what? It will meet our needs and, in the end, be affordable. No mansion. No 4000 square foot monstrosity. No polished granite countertops with stainless steel appliances and Italian marble flooring. Just a nice place we can call home that won't bust our budget.

If more people had done it the old fashioned way, the housing bubble and concomitant financial collapse would never have occurred.

Reaching An Undesirable Crossroads

You know either government has grown too big or the number of manufacturing and construction jobs have shrunk when the number of those working for the government is greater than the number of people actually making things for a living.

That's never a good sign.

Princeton Scientist Adds His Voice To AGW Skeptics

Isn't it interesting that yet another scientist has decided to speak out against the proponents of Anthropogenic Global Warming, saying he “believes the community of climate change scientists has become a veritable 'religious cult,' noting that nobody understands or questions any of the science.”

Physics professor William Happer GS ’64 has some tough words for scientists who believe that carbon dioxide is causing global warming.

...Happer, the Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics [at Princeton], said in an interview, “Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. Every time you exhale, you exhale air that has 4 percent carbon dioxide. To say that that’s a pollutant just boggles my mind. What used to be science has turned into a cult.”

Happer served as director of the Office of Energy Research in the U.S. Department of Energy under President George H.W. Bush and was subsequently fired by Vice President Al Gore, reportedly for his refusal to support Gore’s views on climate change. He asked last month to be added to a list of global warming dissenters in a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee report. The list includes more than 650 experts who challenge the belief that human activity is contributing to global warming

This guy isn't just some hack blowing off steam. He is someone with an understanding of scientific method, wants proof of what is claimed, and is finding the AGW faithful sorely lacking in credibility And when it comes to climate he knows a lot more than Al Gore and a majority of the so-called “scientists” who signed off on the UN IPCC report.

In a statement sent to the Senate as part of his request, Happer explained his reasoning for challenging the climate change movement, citing his research and scientific knowledge.

“I have spent a long research career studying physics that is closely related to the greenhouse effect, for example, absorption and emission of visible and infrared radiation, and fluid flow,” he said in the statement. “Based on my experience, I am convinced that the current alarm over carbon dioxide is mistaken.”

Of course there are plenty trying to discredit Happer, falling back on the IPCC report as if it is gospel. One of those is one of the authors of the report, trying to paint Happer as a know-nothing.

Geosciences professor Michael Oppenheimer, the lead author of the fourth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — whose members, along with Gore, received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize — said in an interview that Happer’s claims are “simply not true.”

Oppenheimer, director of the Wilson School’s Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy, stressed that the preponderance of evidence and majority of expert opinion points to a strong anthropogenic influence on rising global temperatures, noting that he advises Happer to read the IPCC’s report and publish a scientific report detailing his objections to its findings.

But there are some major problems with that report, including the claim that a “ majority of expert opinion points to a strong anthropogenic influence on rising global temperatures.” That 'majority' comprised less than 100 scientists, many of whom have no background in climate science or related fields. Some of those have since retracted their support for the report, adding their voices to the over 650 scientists expressing their skepticism about AGW.

Despite claims by AGW proponents, the science is not settled, if for no other reason the models AGW proponents are using are so inaccurate as to be totally useless.

[Happer] noted in an interview that in the past decade, despite what he called “alarmist” claims, there has not only not been warming, there has in fact been global cooling. He added that climate change scientists are unable to use models to either predict the future or accurately model past events.

“There was a baseball sage who said prediction is hard, especially of the future, but the implication was that you could look at the past and at least second-guess the past,” Happer explained. “They can’t even do that.”

Things are starting to look bleak for the Goristas looking to have us spend hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars to fix a problem that may not even exist. Talk about a scam!

Before we commit our resources to battle something that may be nothing more than a well crafted illusion, shouldn't we make sure we know what really needs to be done, even if it's nothing at all?

Thoughts On A Sunday

It's a day inside here at the Weekend Pundit Manse, with snow coming down at a pace that should give us between 8 and 10 inches by the time it ends later today.

BeezleBub and I have taken the path of least resistance when it comes to removing the snow from the driveway, waiting until later tonight to fire up the Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower. The last thing I want to do is get up at 5AM to clear the driveway. Neither does BeezleBub, particularly since he does not have school tomorrow, it being Martin Luther King Day.

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Will Obama's appointment of Carol Browner as the so-called energy 'czar' come back to haunt him? Or will her environmental/socialist beliefs come to destroy the electrical utility industry in the US?

I'm betting on both.

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Circuit City's bankruptcy and closure is no surprise to me. I knew they were heading for trouble a couple of years ago when they laid off their most experienced and knowledgeable sales and technical staff and replaced them with new (and inexperienced) staff as a cost cutting measure. You don't save a company by getting rid of the very people you'll need to survive.

I stopped by the Circuit City down in the state capitol a few months after they pulled that stunt. I wasn't in that store more than a few minutes before I knew for sure the powers-that-be had made a major mistake. After talking to a number of the sales associates it became readily apparent I knew more about the products they sold than they did.

It proved to me they were doomed.

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Reuel Gerecht corrects Jeffery Goldberg, telling him it is possible to turn hardcore Islamic jihadists to moderates by one proven method: defeat them.

History shows again and again defeating a committed enemy is the only way turn them around. It is particularly true of Islamic history.

(H/T Instapundit)

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The mania running through the media about the upcoming inauguration of Barack obama has become quite annoying, almost as annoying as all those DTV transition ads that have been running ad nauseum since just after the elections last November.

Probably one of the most annoying talking heads to me has got to be ABC's Bill Weir. When it comes to Obama he practically orgasms every time he says his name. There have been plenty of times I've seen Weir let slip his intense dislike of conservatives and moderates, and his outright hatred of George W. Bush.

This weekend's Good Morning America showed Weir acting as if Tuesday's inauguration is a coronation. Weir was in his glory, basking in the light of The One.

What a putz.

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At least the New Hampshire GOP is making a move to turn things around for the Republican Party in the state.

Former New Hampshire governor and former Bush (41) Chief of Staff John H. Sununu was elected to head the New Hampshire Republican Party.

After suffering the loss of two House seats and a Senate seat in Congress to Democrats, and an apparent stranglehold on the governor's office by Democrat John Lynch, Sununu “came out of political retirement” to help rejuvenate New Hampshire Republicans.

Sununu, father of former US Senator John E. Sununu, served three terms as governor back in the 1980's.

Maybe this can be the start of a turnaround for the GOP in general. After all, New Hampshire is “First in the Nation” when it comes to national politics.

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In light of these harsh economic times and monstrous federal budget deficit, how can anyone justify spending $160 million on Barack Obama's inauguration?

Here in New Hampshire, Governor John Lynch, a Democrat, decided the inauguration for his third term should be sedate, going so far to cancel the traditional Inauguration Ball because it didn't seem right to spend the funds when the state has a $100 million deficit to deal with.

Maybe the Democrats in Washington could take a lesson from John Lynch in this regard.

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One last thing to amuse you:

All the things cause by global warming.



Who'd a thunk it?

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the snow is falling, the temps are dropping, and the ice fishing is good.

Small Town Democracy In Action

It's that time of year again in New Hampshire, where budgets for towns, their schools, as well as the counties and state are being debated, gone over with a fine tooth comb by selectmen, school boards, budget committees, and legislators, and debated some more.

Next month town and school district meetings will start throughout the state, where the voters will once again have the opportunity to decide what their respective towns and schools will spend over the upcoming fiscal year.

In these hard economic times many towns are holding the line on spending, practicing austerity in order to lessen the tax burden on taxpayers, knowing many of them are having a tough time making ends meet.

While New Hampshire hasn't seen nearly as much economic disruption as other parts of the country, we're still seeing some. The only saving grace has been the fall of gas and heating fuel prices well below the prices paid last year. But still people are struggling.

One of the biggest issues in our small town is whether or not to spend the money necessary to renovate and expand our police station. While it is tempting to put it off another year or two, the department has been suffering with cramped quarters and insufficient storage space for over ten years now, and it's only going to get worse.

Does it make sense to commit to that kind of spending given the economic conditions? On the plus side is the lower cost of materials, lower construction costs (contractors are hurting for work with the collapse of the real estate market), and bond interest rates being quite low. The cost of the project may never be lower. On the negative side is the addition to the property tax rate to pay for the project. If the economy gets substantially worse it could hurt the taxpayers. (At least the town won't see the additional taxes to pay the bond until the fiscal year following this upcoming one.)

Our town is not the only one facing this dilemma. Plenty of others have to make similar decisions, putting off much needed work to roads and municipal buildings, cutting services and jobs in order to keep spending increases as low as possible, assuming they don't decrease it below their present budget.

All of this will be hotly debated at town and school meetings, with some going along with the austere budget proposals in order to keep spending in check and others fighting against budget cuts (or level spending) because they believe it will hurt their towns.

Part of the problem with some in the second group is they have a difficult time telling the difference between nice-to-haves and need-to-haves. When times get tough they have real problems cutting back or eliminating the nice-to-haves. It can make for heated discussions, side debates, and on occasion, hurt feelings. But in the end, the voters will decide what will be spent, what won't, and that will be that.

That's just the way it should be.

Heroes Without A Doubt

After viewing the video and hearing the reports of the U.S. Airways jet having to ditch in the Hudson River after what appears to be twin engine failures, I have one thing to say to the captain and first officer of that aircraft:

Job Well Done!

Having been a pilot I can say from experience they did a marvelous job bringing their crippled aircraft down to a safe, though unconventional landing. Any landing the passengers and crew can walk away from is a good one. (Or maybe I should say “swim away from”, under the circumstances.)

Having had a few close calls myself, I can only guess that while the emergency was ongoing the only thought the flight crew in the cockpit had was to get their bird down safely. Nothing else mattered. But once down and their passengers and crew members were safely away, the reality of what they had just done kicked in. Then and only then would their emotions come into play. And I'll bet the first one was of stunned relief.

They have every right to feel that way.

The EFCA Is A Bad Deal For Workers

It seems the Democrats will waste little time after President Elect Obama's inauguration to put forward legislation that will allow unions to more easily push their into businesses that neither require nor deserve unions.

The EFCA, the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as “Card Check”, will effectively do away with secret ballots that will allow employees to exercise their rights to express their desire to form a union or not. While the labor unions claim businesses use the secret ballot as a means to intimidate their workers into voting against the union, card check makes it far easier for unions to intimidate employees to 'vote' for a union whether the really want one or not. Their contention that businesses have had their way when it comes to union votes is belied by the fact that over 60% of labor attempts to organize have been successful.

But big labor isn't interested in facts. They are looking for one thing and one thing only: power. Never mind that they really don't have the best interests of their members in mind. As long as they can dictate to business how they will do business, they can control the economy. And if you're interested how that would work all, all one needs to do is look to Europe to see how the labor unions have slowed sections of the economies, with work rules and layoff policies so draconian that most business are reluctant to hire new laborers because they know they won't be able to lay them off if the economy cools. (This is a poor example, but the only one that comes immediately to mind.) I've seen how this can happen, having been a union member for 20 years. And the union I belonged to was tame as compared to the one the Big Three automakers have to deal with – the UAW. The work rules I and my fellow members had to deal with were a drag on production, where entire production lines would sit idle because someone with the proper job description wasn't around to move a pallet or throw a switch or open a door. It was stupid. The only reason the company I worked for survived this was because they were not a commercial operation but a defense contractor. Had they been a commercial manufacturer they would have gone out of business a couple of decades ago if they had to function under the work rules we were saddled with.

As much as Big Labor says workers need unions more than ever, they are wrong. Much of what the unions were created to do and protect has been codified in law, making them far less necessary than in the past. They have become moot in many industries. In fact, there are very few areas where these days where unions are needed.

Should the “Card Check” law pass and be signed by President Obama, I have no doubt there will be legal challenges based upon the violation of certain constitutional rights, both of employees and employers.

Gettin' Outta Dodge

Is anyone surprised that California is seeing a net outmigration, meaning more people (and businesses) are leaving the Golden State than are arriving? Certainly I'm not.

Considering how hard many in California have worked to turn it into a Nanny State, it wasn't a question of if it would happen rather than when. With the flagging economy, ever higher costs of state services, expanding state services and mandates, and an inability to be able to discriminate between need-to-haves and nice-to-haves, California's state budget woes could not have any other effect. It's not like the State Assembly can jack up the already high taxes and fees. All it would do is cause an already bad economy to become worse, making an unemployment rate of 8.4% higher.

California isn't the only state that's seeing a net outmigration.

New York, Michigan, and Massachusetts have seen the number of people leaving those respective states greater than the number entering. All three of them have high tax burdens on their residents and businesses, between income, sales, and property taxes. None of them, including California, seemed to recognize that their tax policies and business climate could lead to the flight of people and businesses to states with lower taxes and a more friendly business atmosphere.

New Jersey is another state that is doing its utmost to drive people and businesses to more friendly states. It's ironic that while the Garden State has seen quite a bit of job growth over the past few years, most of those jobs were with the state government. In other words, businesses weren't hiring because they weren't expanding, meaning New Jersey saw far less revenue than the employment statistics implied.

My own home state of New Hampshire has been fortunate in that we're seeing more people moving in rather than moving out. But that will change if the state legislature lays a whole host of new taxes and fees in order to balance the state budget. A few legislators have suggested adding a broadbased tax, like an income or sales tax, as if that would solve the problem. They've been reminded that states with those taxes already in place are in financial trouble, too. It's not a state revenue problem. It's a state spending problem.

Unless California, New York, Michigan, Massachusetts, and a host of other states can't get their budgets under control, do away with anti-business laws and regulations, and lessen the tax burden on their residents and businesses, they will feel this recession more deeply and for longer than those states holding the line on their spending, taxation, and regulations. As the saying goes, if you want less of something, tax it. California and the others are proof of that axiom.

Thoughts On A Sunday

Two events have reinforced that we are indeed in the depths of a traditional New England winter.

First, Ice In has been declared on Lake Winnipesaukee, meaning the entire lake is frozen over. And as if to thumb its nose at the idea of global warming, Ice In was declared on the lake earlier than usual.

Second, we're continuing the cycle of snow every three or four days, with snowfall with each storm totaling between 3 and 7 inches. Much of it has also been very dry, fluffy snow, making it easy to move with shovel or snowblower. We had about 5 inches of new snow fall overnight, with a little more coming late Tuesday. We're also heading into the deep freeze, with nighttime temps expected to be below zero by early Friday morning with highs in the single digits.

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Via Maggie's Farm: Are we heading into another Ice Age? If so, we must remember the average Ice Age lasts about 100,000 years, far longer than the warm periods between them (approximately 12,000 years). So maybe global warming is not such a bad thing after all. But don't tell that to Al Gore.

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As mentioned over at Moonbattery: Does the present series of financial 'crises' remind you of something?

Here's a hint: Ayn Rand.

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Some folks never seem to grasp the concepts of coefficient of friction and inertia, particularly when it comes to driving in winter conditions. Failing to understand these linked concepts can cause major problems on roads and highways. Some folks found out the hard way earlier this morning here in New Hampshire, leading to chain reaction pileup on Interstate 93 involving 59 cars, three buses, and two tractor-trailers.

Fortunately no one was seriously injured.

You have to figure some numbnuts heading north from Massachusetts was in a hurry to get the ski slopes, was going way too fast for the road conditions (10” of snow had fallen overnight and the highways were still being cleared and treated), wasn't paying attention, lost control, and triggered the chain reaction behind them.

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We accompanied the WP Parents for a night out to one of our favorite restaurants, , to celebrate both the WP Mom's and Deb's birthdays (Mom's was today and Deb's is on Thursday).

Being a Sunday evening, the restaurant wasn't crowded. In fact, it was quiet. Not that it was unexpected because the ski crowd had already headed home, leaving our favorite place to eat to us locals. We had the attention of the waitstaff since there were only six or seven sets of customers in a place that can usually handle 50 or more. (Yes, we gave our waitress a generous tip.)

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And that's the news from (frozen) Lake Winnipesaukee, where ice fishing bob houses have started appearing, foolhardy fisherman have lost their trucks through the still too-thin ice, and scuba divers and tow truck operators are being kept busy.

How Soon They Forget, If They Ever Knew

I find it interesting that two different groups have somehow managed to forget history, either through selective amnesia or outright ignorance.

The first group is Congress. A number of members who are responsible for the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debacles have conveniently forgotten that they are the ones responsible for those failures, and not George W. Bush. But don't try to tell them that.

Mythmaking is in full swing as the Bush administration prepares to leave town. Among the more prominent is the assertion that the housing meltdown resulted from unbridled capitalism under a president opposed to all regulation.

Like most myths, this is entertaining but fictional. In reality, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were among the principal culprits of the housing crisis, and Mr. Bush wanted to rein them in before things got out of hand.

Fannie and Freddie are "government-sponsored enterprises" (GSEs), chartered by Congress. As such, they had an implicit promise of taxpayer backing and could borrow money at rates well below competitors.

Because of this, the Bush administration warned in the budget it issued in April 2001 that Fannie and Freddie were too large and overleveraged. Their failure "could cause strong repercussions in financial markets, affecting federally insured entities and economic activity" well beyond housing.

But Congresscritters like Barney Frank (D-MA) and Chris Dodd (D-CT) fought tooth and nail against such oversight, saying both entities were fiscally sound and needed no such regulation or restructuring. They were wrong.

And now that the Bush administration's predictions have come true, it's somehow all President Bush's fault. Both Frank and Dodd denied either one of them had spoken out against any attempt to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac...that is, until video of them doing just that surfaced. Now they try to act as if their actions and words never happened. Unfortunately for them no one is buying it.

The second group would like to repeat one of the bad mistakes of the past, one that helped usher in the Great Depression. For some reason the steel companies have decided it might be a good idea to force some kind of “Buy American” clause into any stimulus or bailout legislation, forcing American customers to pay higher prices for steel by curtailing imports of less expensive foreign steel.

There's a few problems with that idea: it will cost American jobs and possibly ignite a trade war that will only deepen the economic problems we and the rest of the world is facing. And in case the proponents of such an idea have forgotten, something like that has been tried before. It was called the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. It failed miserably by causing international trade to slow to a trickle and drove American unemployment rates through the roof. Yet these morons want to do it again.

Some folks just never learn.

When Is Al Gore Going To Shut Up?

With the latest news on global cooling, we may wish to go back to the days when everyone was worried about, or even looking forward to, global warming.

A few news items:

Sea ice in the arctic is now at the same level as it was back in 1979.

Spokane, Washington has had over six and a half feet of snow over the last three weeks. Normal snowfall over the same period is usually 16 inches.

The Earth's climate is still cooling, as it has since 1998.

Does anyone want to tell Al Gore to STFU about global warming?

To Sleep...Or Not

I usually don't go into posting really person stories on this blog, but every so often I will. Not that what I'm about to reveal is shocking, illuminating, or even interesting. It just is.

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As my three or four readers may have noticed, there was no inciteful post yesterday. There was no post, inciteful or otherwise, period.

It wasn't that I neglected doing so, or forgot, of had nothing to write about. Instead, I had to be elsewhere at the time I usually sit down in front of the Official Weekend Pundit Computer. In this case, I was in a sleep lab associated with one of the local hospitals.

As my dear wife Deb can tell you, I snore. I snore alot. Along with that comes sleep apnea, a problem I've had over the past four or five years. On more than one occasion my snoring has relegated me to sleeping on the couch because it was so loud it kept Deb awake...even when she was wearing ear plugs.

Yes, it's that bad.

Finally, I made a trip to the ENT doc, and he saw I did have a problem. Hence the sleep study at the sleep lab.

The first time was to see if I did indeed have sleep apnea, which it turns out I have in spades.

The second time was to try out a CPAP machine (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure), to select the proper mask and determine the proper machine settings.

The first session wasn't great, being in a strange room, with air too warm and too dry while having a bunch of electrodes attached to by head and legs.

The second session was worse. With the changes in masks and machine settings, while being wired up again, I got very little actual sleep. It...Was...Not...Fun. I ended up taking the day off from work to catch up on my sleep, apnea and all.

The technician assigned to me explained that even if one of those CPAP machines helps, it could take a couple of months to get used to it. A couple of months. Great. But I'm willing to do it, if for no other reason that to make sure Deb gets a full night's sleep without the need for me to sleep elsewhere.

Thoughts On A Sunday

The up and down weather continues here in New Hampshire, with warmer weather moving in to replace the cold weather, to in turn be replaced by colder weather and snow/ice/freezing rain. It seems to be the pattern this winter.

The warmer weather does allow the road surfaces to melt, leaving bare pavement before the next round of snow.

At least New Hampshire isn't supposed to be pounded with snow as badly as it was last winter, at least according to the Farmer's Almanac. Instead, southern New England is supposed to receive the lion's share of the snow this time around.

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You know Senate Democrats are in trouble when Democratic Underground is slamming them for being racists. It also appears those same Senate Democrats don't understand the Constitution when it comes to seating Senators.

Harry Reid's actions to prevent the seating of Roland Burris, selected by embattled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to fill out the term of President-Elect Barack Obama, is unconstitutional on the face of it. There's no provision for doing so unless Burris does not meet the constitutional requirements to be a senator, and Burris does without a doubt.

But we know from experience that many Democrats like Reid don't let little things like the US Constitution get in their way when they run the show. After all, laws and the Constitution are for the “little people.”

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It's no surprise to me more Americans are saying “no” to building casinos in their states.

The push to allow limited gambling in the form of slot machines and video gambling here in New Hampshire is being sold as a way to fill in part of a $200 million+ budget deficit created by the legislature. So far the taxpayers aren't buying it, knowing the problems that come along with gambling establishments can outweigh the benefits.

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One of my favorite refugees from the People's Republic of Massachusetts – Meninostan reviews some crime statistics, comparing the entire state of New Hampshire (population 1.32 million) to the city of Boston (population 600,000).

New Hampshire had 20 homicides last year. A couple were justifiable, i.e. self-defense. Two homicides were committed with guns.

Boston, on the other hand, had 60 homicides in 2008, of which 46 (77%) were committed with guns.

The big difference between the two? New Hampshire allows law abiding citizens to own and carry guns. Boston only allows criminals to carry guns, leaving the average citizen unable to defend themselves.

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I have no disagreement with Branford Marsalis on his assessment of students he instructs these days:

What I've learned from my students is that students today are completely full of sh*t.

That is what I've learned from my students. Much like the generation before them, the only thing they are really interested in is you telling them how right they are and how good they are.

Far too many have come to believe they are entitled to good grades, good jobs, and good lives with little effort on their part. How many of them are traumatized when they find out life doesn't actually work that way?

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As much as we hear about the financial trials and tribulations of American families from the media, it isn't as real as when you hear it from someone you know. In this case a family member speaks about tightening the belt, looking at cutting expenses, and paying down debt. He also talks about the nervousness he feels about his job, knowing no one's job is really safe in times like this.

Even though the industry in which I work tends to be less affected by drops in the consumer side of the economy, it isn't immune. Deb and I have been working to cut down our debt and have been succeeding, for the most part. At least we don't have car payments to worry about. There's just the mortgage, a couple of credit cards (with low credit limits, thank goodness), and a business loan (yes, we are small business owners).

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Our state legislature opens the first session of the 2009/2010 Legislature this coming week, and they will have a lot of work to do, trimming the state budget to eliminate the existing $200 million deficit. At least our governor has shown some backbone, telling the members of the New Hampshire House and Senate that raising taxes and fees will not be tolerated. All we can do is hope he'll stick by his guns and veto any spending or tax increases.

One thing that helps: New Hampshire Republicans picked up a number of seats in the House during the November elections, shrinking the Democratic majority.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the kids return to school tomorrow, the legislature will soon be in session, and where I have to go back to work tomorrow, too.

The Media Makes Things Worse

Does this really surprise anyone?

Poll: 77% of Americans Blame the media for making the economic crisis worse.

How many times in the past have we seen media coverage make a marginally bad situation worse by hyping it to death? Quite a few, in my memory.

Does anyone remember Senator Chuck Schumer's declaration last year that West Coast bank Indy Mac was in trouble and was likely to fail? If the media hadn't played this up as they did, Indy Mac would likely have survived. But because the media gave it a full court press, customers of Indy Mac panicked and withdrew $1.8 billion (that's billion with a 'b') in cash, leaving the bank with little or no liquidity. The bank failed. Chuck Schumer and the media created a bank run that destroyed an otherwise healthy bank. If the media had been more responsible, Chuck's words would never have made it into the papers or on the air, the bank run would never have happened, and Indy Mac would have been just fine.

Of course the media always plays the old “The people have a right to know” card, even if that 'knowledge' is harmful, misleading, or even worse, false. They use it as a shield to deflect accusations that they themselves are the guilty party. The people may have a right to know, but who says they have to know right now? It seems that over the last couple of decades or so the media's need to be the first to break a story has replaced the need to be accurate, to check their facts, and not to report hearsay or second/third hand information as gospel.

Some of that push to be first may be blamed upon the advent of electronic news gathering, making breaking stories available instantly. The time available for fact checking and background has shrunk to almost nothing, meaning far too many reports are aired or put onto news websites before all the facts are available. This has lead to an increasing incidents of erroneous reporting.

But to get back to the main subject, it appears the media revels in the impending doom of economic downturns, massive job losses, and hardships brought to American families. Panic sells, and the media is very good at selling panic. Economic problems are the easiest to sell since they can affect everyone, rich and poor.

For the past two or three years they media has been trying to sell a recession, even though until recently there wasn't one, nor were there signs of one. But they kept making the claim, and eventually people started believing them. And once that happened, and the people started acting as if there was indeed a recession by cutting back on expenditures, lo and behold, a recession arrived. Why? Because people started cutting back on expenditures, which dropped sales, which in turn caused a cut back in orders from manufacturers, which in turn led to layoffs, which caused more people to cut back on expenditures. It was self-fulfilling prophecy made by the media.

Some may claim it was the meltdown of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that led us to this point, but they were but one more symptom of the problem, not necessarily the problem itself. The media was also one of those in the cheering section for those supporting more loans to low-income families wanting to buy their own homes. But when those families started defaulting on the loans because they really couldn't afford them, the media acted surprised.

Is it any wonder most Americans don't trust the media and blame them for the economic problems we now face?

New Year's Resolutions

2008 is gone and 2009 has arrived. Thank goodness.

With the arrival of the new year, it's time once again to make my resolutions. Here's but a few of them.

Gain back the readers this blog had before the major meltdown of the old site. While Weekend Pundit had nowhere the readership of blogs like Instapundit, it did have about 1000 hits a day. Since the meltdown back in May 2008 readership is only a few dozen a day. The former readers haven't found the new site.

Get back to fightin' weight. I'm ashamed to admit I tip the scales at 245 pounds. Four years ago I was at 195. The change since then? Marriage. Deb is a great cook, but she goes heavy on the pasta and sauces, something that always packs the weight on my frame. It's time to get away from the carbs!

Spend more time out on the lake this summer. Our family didn't get nearly as much time on the lake this past summer, partly due to the weather and partly to our schedules.

Stain the decks and stairs of The Manse...again. The rather wet weather late last spring and through the summer last year made it impossible to get it all done. All I need is three weekends without rain.

Take more photos. 'Nuff said.

Write posts much more betterer.

Cut down on my dark chocolate consumption. Yeah. Right. Like that's gonna happen.

Pay closer attention to the legacy media, particularly the big city media. We shouldn't let 'em slide on anything. They've gotten away with it for far too long.

I could continue, but the post would be a few thousand lines long. I can't in good conscience expose what few readers I have left to such drivel.

It's Time To Stop The 'Ugly House' Syndrome

There are lots of topics I could cover this evening, this being the last post of 2008. I could list my New Year's resolutions, but that will wait until New Year's Day. I could write about 2008's biggest stories, but that topic has been beaten to death by the print and electronic media, so why go there?

Instead, I will go in a different direction and cover a subject near and dear to my heart: ugly houses.

Obviously this isn't an original subject, seeing as I linked to a post over at Sippican Cottage about the subject. But it is one that seriously needs to be addressed considering how many homes built over the past ten years or so I've seen that never should have seen the light of day. I'm not the only one.

Here's a house for sale in the town I grew up in.

Everyone looks around and sees houses like this. They pass unremarked now. After a while, if it doesn't look like this, people are going to think a house looks strange. And it's wrong, wrong, wrong. The situations where a house nailed on the ass end of a garage are appropriate are so few there's no use talking about them. Never do this.

There's Postmodern evil afoot here. Everything is boiled down to a pastiche, and you put all these disconnected totems into a blender and put the mixed up parts on a concrete rectangle. It's making us all crazy in a very subtle but profound way.

There has been a concerted effort to dismantle all standards of right and wrong and beauty and truth. If ever truthiness was put into sticks and bricks, this house is it. When you rebel against standard things, sooner or later you run out of ways to be original, and all that is left is to do the exact opposite of good. It's the only permutation of new that's left to you after a while. The American house is becoming that perfect distillation of bad ideas. Everything exactly at cross-purposes with its stated purpose.

Indeed. I have seen far too many homes built that look like they came out of the mind of a schizophrenic off their meds. There's little thought to the layout, no logic that dictates what the floorplan should look like. Such homes are soulless, having less character than a refrigerator box one of the homeless would use to shelter themselves from the cold. The exteriors look bland, almost sterile, even though they have the vague form of houses we call Cape, Victorian, Ranch, Saltbox, Colonial, Federal, and so on. They are boring. Those designing them, whether professional architects or the future homeowners themselves, prove the only taste they possess is in their mouths.

Even our Manse, a supposed Cape, suffers from this malady. The basic looks are there, but the details have been overlooked or ignored, making our home an ersatz Cape Cod at best.

First, the siding looks more like clapboards rather than shakes, and most Capes are sided with shakes. While I have no desire to pull off the vinyl siding and replace them with cedar shakes, I have seen siding that looks like shakes while maintaining the advantages of vinyl siding.

Second, our fireplace is in the wrong place. Capes have their fireplaces near the center of the house, allowing more even heating. Ours is located at the south end of The Manse. What's worse is that we don't even have a real chimney. Instead it's a chase covered with siding that hides the two vent pipes, one for the furnace and water heater and one for the fireplace/woodstove. So it's a chimney-looking construct without the brick or stonework.

Third, the front door doesn't really match the Cape décor. It has a large cut glass oval with brass highlights that fills half the door. No Cape worthy of the name I've ever seen has a door like that. Only ersatz Capes like ours bear doors like that.

Fourth, the front door to the mud room is solid, bearing not a single pane of glass. Not one. The back door has the proper lights in it, but not the front. That means we don't get much light in there until late in the day. That's poor design.

Fifth, our home has sliders opening out onto the rear decks. That's right, not one, but two sets of sliders on the rear of The Manse! Sliders are an abomination on a Cape.

Sixth, though not the last or least, our garage dominates the front rather than the house itself. It should have been set back 5 or 10 feet, making the house the focus of the front. Instead it is even with the front of the house, and because of the nature of Capes, the front of the garage looks larger than the rest of the house. That's plain wrong.

I could easily go on and on about the soulless design of The Manse. Whomever dealt with the details either got lazy or got a great deal on doors, sliders, and siding. It's ironic considering there's so much that's right with our home. Much of the interior finish is excellent, belying the blandness and poor layout of the exterior. The amenities are quite good, too. But still, the proportions aren't quite right due to the lack of attention to detail.

Since we live up here in the Lakes Region of central New Hampshire, we've seen more than our share of fine lake shore homes and cottages that have existed for generations being torn down and replaced with tasteless and bland monstrosities that look so out of place they should be made illegal and burned to the ground. The owners and the architects responsible for those eyesores should be ridiculed...or maybe flogged in the town square for the crime of poor taste.

Well, maybe not. Flogging might be too good for them.

Congress Doesn't Deserve A Pay Raise

I have to agree with so many others on the issue of the upcoming Congressional pay raises: the Congresscritters don't deserve them.

It seems everyone else must tighten their belts, to look for ways to cut costs. Pay raises aren't likely for many workers these days, and even if they are lucky enough to get them, they'll be a mere pittance.

Frankly, when it comes to Congress, they haven't earned a pay raise. With the soon-to-close 110th Congress having been one of the biggest do-nothing, ineffective congresses ever, they have yet to prove to me or the rest of the American people that they deserve their upcoming 2.8% raise (about $4700). They certainly haven't performed, passing little in the way of important legislation, fooling around with other legislation that does little if any good, all while wasting hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on bailouts that should never have made it through the House or Senate. Come to think of it, maybe we should consider cutting Congressional pay. Let them feel some of the average American's pain.

Due the last economic downturn back in 2000/2001, the so-called dot-com meltdown, no one within my company saw a pay raise for over 4 years. Since then we certainly haven't made up for it. It's likely we never will. But our representatives in Congress will receive a pay raise despite the economic conditions, the huge budget deficits, and the lack of anything useful from either chamber over the last two years? What's wrong with this picture?

Why Don't They Have TV Ads Like This Here?

I have to agree with Insty on this one:

The best TV commercial, ever.

Believe it or not, it's an ad for a Siemens washing machine.

Note: Not safe for work.

Link:

Thoughts On A Sunday

The long Christmas holiday winds to a close here at The Manse. The Christmas music has been stilled, and decorations and ornaments packed away carefully until Christmas once again fills our hearts and minds.

Our tree came down today, something that is always bittersweet for me. Deb and I removed the ornaments, the garlands, the lights, putting them away. The angel that adorns the top of the tree was carefully removed, wrapped, and placed in a box, not to see the light of day until after Thanksgiving next year.

All too soon we return to our daily lives, the magic of the season fading from our consciousness as our attention returns to living from day to day.

I have always found this saddening.

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This does not surprise me in least:

Americans give more to charity, per capita and as a percentage of gross domestic product, than the citizens of other nations.

A number of reasons are cited, one of them being Americans usually have more money left in their pockets after paying taxes as compared to their contemporaries.

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Finally, the cause of anthropogenic global warming has been found: NASA computers used to plot global temperatures.

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It appears science illiteracy is the latest rage among celebrities, politicians, and other glitterati.

This is a disturbing trend.

How can we expect our so-called “betters” to make the right decisions about science and technology if their heads are filled with pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo and outright junk science?

Being of a scientific bent of mind (I'm an engineer), I don't know how many times I've come across people with little, if any understanding about how things in their every day lives actually work. Some of these people have been politicians tasked with deciding the path of research or spending on science and technology.

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While we did have a White Christmas this year here in New England, you wouldn't think so considering temps here have run from the lower 50's to the upper 60's today. The warm temps have allowed for melting of some of the ice and snow from the previous couple of weeks, leaving roads and roofs bare. Even the Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout's winter storage cover is clean.

It was warm enough to eschew use of the Official Weekend Pundit Woodstove today. Deb even opened a couple of windows upstairs to air things out.

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The New England Patriots played and beat the Buffalo Bills in Buffalo, 13-0. In order for the Pats to make the playoffs, either the Jets must beat the Dolphins, or the Baltimore Ravens must lose to Jacksonville Jaquars. If that doesn't happen, the Patriots are finished for the season.

Frankly, I'd rather have the Patriots stay out of the playoffs this year. This will allow their hurt players more time to heal and/or go through rehab, allowing a fresh start come next season. The Patriots are hurting, with many of their first and second string players either out hurt or playing hurt.

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I've never doubted this, particularly when I've heard it from a liberal:

Conservatives love America more than liberals.

There are far too many examples for liberals to say otherwise.

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One of our feline residents has taken it upon herself to start her own blog. (No, not Bagheera. He posts here, feeling it is beneath his dignity to maintain his own blog. He has better things to do...or so he says.)

Hilda, our resident Maine Coon Cat, was pushed into it after curmudgeonly Bagheera made some disparaging remarks during one of his last posts.

You can find her not-so-daily posts at Hilda's Home. (Hey, she's a cat. She posts whenever the mood strikes her.)

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we've received a brief reprieve from winter weather, Christmas decorations have already started coming down, and where winter will return soon enough.

AGW Predictions - Another Failure?

And the hits keep on coming.

It is no surprise to me and other Anthropogenic Global Warming skeptics that many of the predictions made by the AGW faithful have failed to materialize. As Andrew Bolt wrires:

If your current computer models can't predict the known past from retroactively entered data, then why, precisely, would you expect them to accurately predict the future.

You can't, of course.

Computer models—all computer models—do nothing more than produce an extrapolation from the assumptions that are programmed into them. The input always determines the output.

Moreover, when it comes to climate, the number of variables is so incredibly large, and often prone to chaotic effects—that I don't believe anyone has ever built, or realistically can ever build a valid computer model with our current state of computer technology.

I use computer models to predict the behavior of electronic circuits, and while they are not nearly as complex as climate models, they still have errors that will throw off the accuracy of the circuit model here and there. With circuit models we're only dealing with a few hundred well defined parameters with errors measured in fractions of a percent. With climate models, we're dealing with millions of parameters with a 1, 5, 10, 25 or even 50% margin of error. If a simple electronic circuit model can show a measurable error in its results with barely measurable errors in the input, how can anyone honestly say extremely complex climate models with wide margins of error on its inputs won't show large errors in its results? I guess it's easy if your one of the AGW faithful.

AGW Proponents Making Same Dire Predictions

Despite increasing evidence their predictions about anthropogenic global warming are wrong, some of the biggest proponents are still making dire predictions about arctic ice being completely melted in 5 years and record high temps returning in 4 years.

These predictions have been put forth despite record cold temperatures and snowfalls in the northern hemisphere and rapidly growing arctic ice and resurgent glaciers.

As always, the dating of these predictions is just far enough ahead so should they not come to pass most people won't even remember them being made...except for many of us in the blogosphere.

Folks like NASA scientist James Hansen and former Vice President Al Gore keep cranking up the rhetoric even though their predictions have not borne fruit. Climate models used by the AGW faithful have been no more successful, yet many cling to them like an overloaded lifeboat, praying their flawed models will somehow and miraculously turn out to be right before the chilly waters of ridicule and hard evidence drowns them, figuratively speaking.

There's good reason for them to be doing this: they cannot afford to be wrong. If they are, their grant monies and world importance will slip away and they will join the ranks of the many other alarmists and crackpots that have gone before them into the “dustbin of history”.

Merry Christmas

The Weekend Pundit family would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

We will be spending time with our families, meaning we will return to our regular blogging schedule on Friday, December 26th.

Yet Another Blow Against AGW

The voices of the Anthropogenic Global Warming choir have grown shrill as more evidence that AGW is a crock comes to light.

First, it was the debunking of the Mann “hockey stick” graph, showing clear evidence the global climate was getting warmer. Then, once the data sets and proxies were examined, the 'evidence' of such warming evaporated, shown to be selective deletion of data and proxies that, if included, would have shown little, if any warming.

Next, solar physicists and paleoclimatologists showed a direct correlation between sunspot cycles and changes in global temperatures. (We must remember, though, that correlation does not imply causality. Instead, it merely means there's some kind of connection between the two.)

Then, claims that 1998 was the warmest year on record turned out to be erroneous. Instead, the warmest year was way back in 1934. And 1998 was instead a turning point, where global temperatures started falling.

And then, Al Gore's prediction that the arctic ice would be gone in less than 5 years has been turned on its head because satellite photos and ground observations show the arctic ice is growing, as are glaciers that have, until recently, been shrinking.

Now there's yet another slap in the face of the AGW faithful, one they will have a tough time ignoring:

Pre-industrial CO₂ levels were about the same level as they are today. Not lower. Not higher. But the same.

By now you must be asking yourself “How can that be? They said the CO₂ levels were higher today than anytime in recorder history!”

The answer? They lied.

It hasn't necessarily a pre-meditated act, but some of the collected data was ignored or factored out as “noise” even though it was anything but. This skews the results to achieve a preconceived idea of what the data should show.

How many failed predictions, discredited assumptions and evidence of incorrect data are required before an idea loses credibility?

[...]

Most people don’t know that thousands of direct measures of atmospheric CO₂ were made beginning in 1812. Scientists took the readings with calibrated instruments and precise measurements as the work of Ernst-Georg Beck has thoroughly documented. Guy Stewart Callendar was an earlier visitor to these records. He rejected most of the records including 69% of the 19th century records and only selected certain records that established the pre-industrial level as 280 ppm.

[Looking at graph in the article] [i]t is clear how only low readings were chosen. Also notice how the slope and trend is changed compared to the entire record.

In other words, only the data supporting the hypothesis that CO₂ levels were lower in the past was included, meaning data was selected to fit the hypothesis rather than the other way around.

According to acceptable scientific method, one is supposed to collect data through observation and experimentation, and then generate a hypothesis based upon those observations and data. Then one tests the hypothesis by making further observations and design experimental studies to test the hypothesis. If the observations and tests do not match with the hypothesis, then it is time to go over the observations and data again, then modify the hypothesis, then retest the hypothesis. This is done until the hypothesis matches the observed phenomenon. The testing and results should also be reproducible by others. But when it comes to anthropogenic global warming, far too many proponents appear to be forcing the data to match the hypothesis in order to prove that they are right and everyone else is wrong. In many cases results are not reproducible by others, meaning either the data is suspect or the the hypothesis put forward is erroneous, or worse, fraudulent.

Regardless, somehow we're supposed to take action and spend our money based upon suspiciously derived theories with little or no basis in fact? I don't think so.

Thoughts On A Sunday

Round 2 of our weekend snow has started. I admit to sleeping in this morning, with a brief period of wakefulness just before 7AM to stoke the Official Weekend Pundit Woodstove. At that time I did see a few snowflakes falling past the windows. By 8:30AM the snow started in earnest.

Last night's local forecast said we'd see about 10 -12 inches of snow here in the Lake Winnipesaukee area by the time it was all done. This morning's forecast upped that total to 12 – 18 inches. That means BeezleBub and I will be out snowblowing and shoveling sometime around 9PM tonight. Better that than getting up at 5AM Monday morning to clear the snow before heading off to school and work. (It's likely BeezleBub will have a one or two hour delay Monday, so the real reason is to make sure Deb and I can make it to work without delay.)

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The New England Patriots played the Arizona Cardinals today in Foxboro. It's been snowing like heck down there, something that helped the Pats since they were 9-0 playing in snow.

The Cardinals had a distinct disadvantage because they rarely if ever play in those conditions. In the first quarter the Pats managed to score two unanswered touchdowns. The Cards had 0 (that's 'zero') yards versus 95 yards for the Patriots in the first quarter.

In the end the Patriots won 47-7.

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Even if the Employee Free Choice Act, the so-called 'Card Check' act, passes in Congress and is signed by soon-to-be President Obama, it may be moot. There are serious Constitutional flaws with the act, particularly with the First and Fifth amendment rights of targeted employers.

The News Junkie at Maggie's Farm wonders if 51% of a unionized business wanted to get rid of the union, could they? I know if the unions had their way the answer would be 'no'. They'd prefer it to be along the lines of “once you're in, you're in for life...”

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Did the capital gains exemptions on homes passed during the Clinton Administration help fuel the housing bubble?

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

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It figures.

The California Supreme Court has ruled it is perfectly legal to sue Good Samaritans despite the existence of a Good Samaritan law in that state. The court has ruled it was meant to cover those rendering medical aid. But what of the person that pulls an injured person from a burning vehicle? Nope. Not covered. The accident victim or their family can sue them.

I can't wait for the hew and cry when people start dying because bystanders won't help someone in need due to this ruling. Call it another example of the Law of Unintended Consequences.

What a bunch of effin' morons.

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The WP Mom-In-Law called us earlier today to inform us their phone line is not working. (Yes, she used her cell to call us.) She informed me FairPoint Communications, the major incumbent local exchange carrier for northern New England, told her she would have to schedule an appointment for them to come out to service the phone line, and charge her $91 for the service call.

Excuse me?

First, it's likely the problem is with the phone company's lines and not inside the In-Law's house, particularly in light of the damage to hundreds of power lines and telephone poles caused by the ice storm that hit the area a little over a week ago. If that's the case, how is it my In-Laws should be required to pay for a service call until it's determined the problem is in their home?

This isn't the first time I've heard of FairPoint pulling something like this.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the first day of winter has arrived, the snow is still falling, and where we still have a lot of it to move.

A White Christmas

There's no doubt at this point that Christmas in New England will be a white one. Friday evening into early Saturday morning we got about 8 inches of the dry fluffy stuff, with another 12 inches forecast for Sunday night/Monday morning. The temps have been well below normal for this time of year, meaning the snow we will be getting Sunday will be like that we got Friday, dry and fluffy.

I'm beginning to wonder if we're going to see a repeat of last winter, with one snow storm after another dumping a few inches here and there, but adding up to about a foot of snow each week.

Does anyone want to tell me about global warming again?

Environmental Lawsuit

At the suggestion of Dan from Taiwan (see this post), I looked into the lawsuit filed by an environmental activist against world leaders to the tune of $1 billion, citing their failure to prevent global warming.

Say what?

So this boob has decided because world leaders won't act on questionable scientific hypotheses they should pay up?

Activist and blogger Dan Bloom says he will sue world leaders for “intent to commit manslaughter against future generations of human beings by allowing murderous amounts of fossil fuels to be harvested, burned and sent into the atmosphere as CO2″.

The prosecutor’s office at the ICC, the world’s first permanent court (pictured below right) for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, says it is allowed to receive information on crimes that may fall within the court’s jurisdiction from any source.

“Such information does not per se trigger a judicial proceeding,” the prosecutor’s office hastened to add.

The question is: will or should the prosecutor take on the case?

I would think true environmentalists would want the ICC to stay as far away from this suit as possible. Should the prosecutor decide to go forward with the suit, the “warmists”, those blaming all climate change on human use of fossil fuels, will finally have to put up their evidence, meaning all their evidence, to back up their claims. They may find their evidence falls far short of convincing anyone, let alone a judge or jury, that climate change is All-Our-Fault. The skeptics will finally be able to present their case, putting holes in the claims made by the AGW faithful. It could be such a suit would finally put a stake through the heart of the warmist dogma. Then we can get back to doing the things that need to be done rather than wasting our time with this dreck.

Anthropogenic Global Warming Skepticism Grows Among Scientific Community

Despite the Sainted AlGore's claims to the contrary, the case for Anthropogenic Global Warming is falling apart. As scientists look more closely at the issue, more of them have become skeptical about the UN IPCC report conclusions and the measures AlGore and others say are necessary to halt it.

These skeptics aren't run of the mill pseudo-scientists or scientists commenting upon an issue outside their field of expertise. These are climatologists, meteorologists, geologist, solar astronomers, paleontologists, environmental chemists, and a host of others from a number of related scientific disciplines weighing in on the issue.

Quotes from just a few of the 650 scientists expressing skepticism about AGW, including some formerly supporters of the AGW theories:

“I am a skeptic…Global warming has become a new religion.” - Nobel Prize Winner for Physics, Ivar Giaever.

“Since I am no longer affiliated with any organization nor receiving any funding, I can speak quite frankly….As a scientist I remain skeptical...The main basis of the claim that man’s release of greenhouse gases is the cause of the warming is based almost entirely upon climate models. We all know the frailty of models concerning the air-surface system.” - Atmospheric Scientist Dr. Joanne Simpson, the first woman in the world to receive a PhD in meteorology, and formerly of NASA, who has authored more than 190 studies and has been called “among the most preeminent scientists of the last 100 years.”

Warming fears are the “worst scientific scandal in the history…When people come to know what the truth is, they will feel deceived by science and scientists.” - UN IPCC Japanese Scientist Dr. Kiminori Itoh, an award-winning PhD environmental physical chemist.

“The IPCC has actually become a closed circuit; it doesn’t listen to others. It doesn’t have open minds… I am really amazed that the Nobel Peace Prize has been given on scientifically incorrect conclusions by people who are not geologists.” - Indian geologist Dr. Arun D. Ahluwalia at Punjab University and a board member of the UN-supported International Year of the Planet

“Anyone who claims that the debate is over and the conclusions are firm has a fundamentally unscientific approach to one of the most momentous issues of our time.”- Solar physicist Dr. Pal Brekke, senior advisor to the Norwegian Space Centre in Oslo. Brekke has published more than 40 peer-reviewed scientific articles on the sun and solar interaction with the Earth.

“It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don’t buy into anthropogenic global warming.” - U.S Government Atmospheric Scientist Stanley B. Goldenberg of the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA.

“The Kyoto theorists have put the cart before the horse. It is global warming that triggers higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, not the other way round…A large number of critical documents submitted at the 1995 U.N. conference in Madrid vanished without a trace. As a result, the discussion was one-sided and heavily biased, and the U.N. declared global warming to be a scientific fact,” Andrei Kapitsa, a Russian geographer and Antarctic ice core researcher.

“Gore prompted me to start delving into the science again and I quickly found myself solidly in the skeptic camp…Climate models can at best be useful for explaining climate changes after the fact.” - Meteorologist Hajo Smit of Holland, who reversed his belief in man-made warming to become a skeptic, is a former member of the Dutch UN IPCC committee.

“All those urging action to curb global warming need to take off the blinkers and give some thought to what we should do if we are facing global cooling instead.” - Geophysicist Dr. Phil Chapman, an astronautical engineer and former NASA astronaut, served as staff physicist at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

More information can be found in the full minority report which can be downloaded as a PDF.

There's plenty of rebuttal that can be viewed, such as this post on the New York Times Dot Earth blog.

Andrew Revkin supports that AGW is a fact, claims of the skeptics to the contrary, and that something must be done now to forestall the catastrophic effects of AGW. The comments are telling, with those trying to open the debate being labeled as “mindless contrarians”, “denialists, “distractors”, “delayers”, “crybabies”, “lowly”, “vulgar”, and “stupid”. So much for open discourse. Read the comments to the to post and you'll see what I mean. Far too many of those dismissing the skeptics out of hand appear to be letting emotion rule their opinions rather than data, evidence, a actual debate. That's never a good sign.

Will The Networks Get It Right?

I wrote about why good television shows are canceled earlier this month, commenting that the networks (meaning ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox) have got to change the paradigm they've been using to select which shows live and which die because it is so out of date and does not reflect present day viewing habits. The networks have been trying to force viewers to watch programs at times the networks choose, something that no longer works.

Now James Joyner adds his two cents worth, linking to a New York Times piece about upcoming changes in network programming in order to draw more “live” viewers and commenting about it and how, for him, it won't work.

I watch nothing “live” anymore. Indeed, I’m only vaguely aware of what networks air the shows I watch, much less the time slot in which they’re broadcast. Everything is either on my DVR or otherwise downloaded to watch at my convenience.

Increasingly, my wife and I don’t even bother watching new shows when they debut, preferring instead to catch them a season or two later on Netflix. It’s actually quite annoying, especially for serial dramas, to be at the mercy of the network’s scheduling vagaries. It’s much more enjoyable to watch the episodes back-to-back in a relative short period.

Deb, BeezleBub and I tend to rely heavily on the DVR, shifting our viewing to meet our needs and convenience. The number of shows we watch “live” has steadily been decreasing. About the only shows we watch live these days is the local news and certain sporting events, like the New England Patriots, as an example, and a few network and cable programs. All the rest are relegated to the DVR.

There are some shows we've also purchased on DVD, such as ABC's Lost and the former WB's (now the CW) Everwood. I have a feeling that this will become more of the norm for us as time passes, particularly if the networks keep trying to force us to watch when they tell us to watch.

We have better things to do with our lives than to be locked in to someone else's schedule.

Thoughts On A Sunday

The post-ice storm cleanup in New Hampshire continues, with over 200,000 homes and businesses still without electricity as of this morning. (The statewide newspaper has a storm blog which can be found here.)

Out of state utility crews started arriving yesterday, helping the overwhelmed New Hampshire crews restore service. Some towns, like Washington and Derry, have little or no power. The little town of Washington has no power, with the only road in and out of the town closed due to the large number of downed trees and power poles blocking passage. It certainly makes repairing the power lines darned difficult. Derry, a town of about 30,000 residents, has power in only 10% of the town after three days of work clearing roads and repairing power lines.

While power has been restored here at The Manse, we didn't have phone or Internet service until late this afternoon, which made it impossible to post or check out other blogs.

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At least we have satellite TV service, which allows us to keep touch with what's going on around the state and the rest of the world. I'm glad we never made the switch over entirely to cable, as Deb had suggested at one point. Instead, we dropped TV service from our local cable provider, keeping Internet and phone service.

Deb thought the 'triple play' combo from the cable company would be cheaper, and upon first look it appeared to be the case. But a closer look revealed we would lose many of the channels we watch regularly and would have to upgrade to a more expensive package to retain them. It would have been more expensive overall, so we kept the satellite TV service.

The decision was certainly a good one for us for if we were dependent on cable for TV we would have no service at all.

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Speaking of television, I thought once we got past the national elections we would be free of the annoyingly repetitive ads, and for a few days we were. But a new series of annoying ads have replaced the political ads. In this case it's the ones reminding us ad nauseum about the upcoming transition from analog to digital TV transmission on February 17th, 2009. The ads will continue running until that date.

They seem to run once or twice every half hour. One of the local stations even includes a countdown clock, making the ads even more annoying.

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At least Deb's business will be able to reopen tomorrow. A friend of ours informed us power had been restored in the town where her business is located. Not that she'll necessarily have many folks coming in when she's open as a lot of her clients are still without power and the last thing they'll be thinking about is making the trip into town to visit her. They're going to be worried about staying warm and fed.

Deb's won't be the only business that will find that to be true.

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I was getting ready to head over the the corporate HQ of GraniteGrok to post today's post when my local cable MSO came to the rescue, restoring Internet and phone service to The Manse. So this abbreviated post won't be quite so abbreviated after all.

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How is it possible that so many of Obama's friends and associates in the Chicago political machine with proven records of corruption and influence peddling, with some of them already in prison or soon the head there, have had absolutely no corrupting influence on the President-elect? I find it hard to believe he is totally untouched by these folks, considering he used many of them to get where he is.

Apparently I'm not the only one asking the question.

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Can there be any doubt that our federal government is run by “poseurs, windbags, sociopaths and self-dealers”? There's absolutely no doubt in my mind.

Here's how to fix it.

(H/T Instapundit)

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Is Al Gore really really sure global warming is the real deal? Maybe he should go back and check his data. (scroll to the bottom of the post)

Maybe he misread it and confused warming with cooling.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where power is slowly coming back, normal life is resuming, and where we still have time to finish our Christmas shopping.

An Unanticipated Day(s) Off

It happened shortly after 6AM Friday morning after a long day and night of sleet and freezing rain.

The power went off.

In less than a second we were removed from the 21st Century and placed in the 19th. Or at least it seemed that way.

We still had a couple of portable radios and our cell phones (which remained in service, thank goodness).

Listening to one of the radios we discovered BeezleBub didn't have to trouble himself with getting ready for school. Like many towns in New Hampshire, schools were closed for the day due to the heavy ice coating the roads, loss of electrical power, or both. However, that did not absolve me from heading in to work. At least with BeezleBub not having school, I was able to put off my departure for another couple of hours. At one point I called work to see if the voice mail system was still operational, which would let me know if there was power there. My first check at 7AM proved the system was still up, and hence, our engineering lab still had electricity. At the urging of Deb, I called again a little before 8AM and the phone just rang and rang and rang. No voice mail. No power. No work.

A quick call to one of my co-workers, she who is the keeper of the phone list, confirmed our place of employment was closed for the day for two reasons – the treacherous roads/ice laden trees, and no electricity. I didn't need to be told twice.

Because we had no power, we also had no phone, being one of those households receiving phone service via our cable company. That's where the cell phones came in handy.

A call to the WP Parents later in the day elicited no response other than connection to voice mail. It took me a moment to remember all they had at their home were wireless phones, so no power meant no phones. (It also meant no heat, something people in their 70's shouldn't have to endure.) I finally reached them by calling their cell phone and, after confirming they had no power, invited them to join us here at The Manse since we had heat, hot water, and company.

BeezleBub did his grill master wizardry for dinner, doing a pork roast on the grill, cooking it to perfection.

Unlike so many others here in New Hampshire, our power came back on just a few minutes before 10PM Friday night. However, there were still over 350,000 households and businesses without power as of Saturday morning, and many of those will not have it restored any time soon. As New Hampshire Governor John Lynch stated, this ice storm affected almost 10 times as many residents as the last big ice storm in 1998, and it took work crews 7 days to restore power to everyone back then. Utilities crews are coming in from as far away as Michigan and Ohio as well as Canada in an effort to get power restored.

The long term power outages will certainly have a negative effect on retail sales for Christmas, with many shops and business unable to operate until power is restored. That can make for an even bleaker economic picture than had originally been predicted.

NOTE: This post was long delayed due to the lack of a connection to the 'net. My service provider, the local cable company, had quite a bit of damage to their outside plant equipment and service was restored to The Manse but moments ago.

Ice Storm Nastiness

It's an off night for me. Not that I've got nothing to write about, that usually being the least of my problems. Instead, I'm dealing with the nasty sleet, ice, and freezing rain that's been falling since earlier today. We've been fortunate (so far) to not suffer any power outages here at The Manse due to ice laden powerlines failing. However, elsewhere in New Hampshire it's been a real problem.

Because of one of my other vocations, I am off to the state Emergency Operations Center to do my duty as a communications reservist. (Basically, I man a radio console that ties in a number of state agencies as well as amateur radio operations. It's getting busy out there.)

Regular blogging will resume on Friday.

Another Group Affected By The Recession

There are a large number of people being affected by the downturn in the world economy, including factory workers, bankers, homeowners, lawyers, real estate agents, stockholders, and small business owners. Now we can add another category of those affected by the economy: toxic wives. Unfortunately their husbands (or should I say soon-to-be-ex-husbands) are also being affected far beyond the recession.

When the super-rich feel the pinch, inevitably, the Toxic Wife heads off.

The Toxic Wife, first identified in these pages almost two years ago, is a particular and terrifying species.

...the Toxic Wife is the woman who gives up work as soon as she marries, ostensibly to create a stable home environment for any offspring that might come along, but who then employs large numbers of staff to do all the domestic work she promised to undertake, leaving her with little to do all day except shop, lunch and luxuriate.

Having married her wealthy husband with his considerable salary uppermost in her mind, the Toxic Wife simply does not do "for richer, for poorer". Little Dorrit, she ain't.

There are countless stories of them acting in the most bizarre and inhumane ways. For gold-diggers are materialistic to such an extent that they are emotionally detached from other people.

There's an inability to [empathize] with another human being. They certainly don't ''do'' conscience. Money, on the other hand, they both love and understand.

And now you know why they are called “toxic”. All they bring is grief if they don't get their way, particularly when it comes to spending money.

With today's economy in such turmoil, even many of the rich are having to watch their spending, something a Toxic Wife will not embrace nor tolerate. Rather, she bails. She starts looking for another sugar daddy, in many cases while she is still married to her now suffering husband.

Fortunately I won't have to deal with such a woman. I have no money, never did, so my wife sure as heck didn't marry me for my vast financial holdings. But I've come across a few 'toxics' in my time, and very briefly dated one. But once she realized I didn't have millions in the bank, she scraped me off like someone scraping dog poop off the bottom of their Blahniks. Thank God.

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

Vaccination - The Debate Rages On

The debate about vaccinations and the fear they generate continues unabated. Anecdotal evidence about a tie between vaccines and autism has more weight than clinical studies showing no such ties. Fear rules rather than reason. Unfortunately the only losers in this debate will be children left unprotected from diseases that kill, cripple, or maim.

Parents take the advice of people that know people that have a relative that read a story about some tenuous connection between vaccinations and a host of illnesses attributed to them. While I to agree that multiple vaccines given simultaneously may not be a great idea, I cannot subscribe to the notion that vaccinations are merely a means of “Big Pharma” to make boatloads of cash. Making vaccines is not a lucrative business. It is fraught with risk and liabilities. It's one reason why vaccines are no longer made in the US – the fear of lawsuits that would wipe out the company making the vaccines. The drug companies make far more money and take on far less risk making other drugs than they'll ever make manufacturing vaccines. But that makes no difference to those blaming Big Pharma for all the world's ills.

One of the biggest reasons given by parents for their decision not to vaccinate was the aforementioned belief that they can lead to autism. The argument goes that the rate of autism has gone up and that most changes seen in children took place right around the time they received some of their vaccinations. But autism tends to show up right around the same time in unvaccinated children. But that doesn't convince many parents and they choose not to vaccinate or delay vaccinating their children.

One of the effects of this has been the reappearance of diseases the vaccination were used to prevent, such as measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, and whooping cough. Some of these diseases can kill. It's only a matter of time before polio makes a reappearance.

The debate about the issue ran on in the comments to the article linked above, with some responses purely emotional, others purely scientific, and others with a pragmatic view about whether to vaccinate or not.

One of the best comebacks I ever heard by a doctor responding to a young mother's spiel about why she was not vaccinating her young child came from the TV show House (from memory):

Young Mother: “Oh no, I'm not going to vaccinate him. All it does is make huge profits for the drug companies!”

House: “Well I'll tell you another business that will make a fortune if people like you decide to 'stick it to the man' – the companies that make tiny little coffins for infants like yours.

Indeed.