Thoughts On A Sunday

This past week was a record low...for blogging. But that is about to change now that things are returning to normal, relatively speaking.

The “We gotta get this done for the trade show!” pressure at work is now gone. Deb's radiation treatments have ended and she's feeling much better. Our local elections/town meeting will be taking place in a little over a week. (I am running for one of our local offices.)

Everything is settling down which means I'll actually have time to sit down and start writing again...assuming we don't get hit with a monstrous late-winter/early spring blizzard of epic proportions or an alien invasion.

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It's official. This February was the coldest on record here in New Hampshire.

As I have written before, this is probably one of the more brutal winters I can remember. There have been some winters with more snow. There have been some with colder temperatures. But this one had the combination of high snowfall totals over a short period of time (a bit less than three weeks) and well below normal temperatures for even longer. It isn't often we'll see below zero temps all through February.

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In relation to yesterday's post, here's another story about just how the eco-nuts false ideology has infected the general populace.

 Jerry Taylor of the Cato Institute tells a story about Julian Simon, the late and great economist.He was at some environmental forum, and he said, “How many people here believe that the earth is increasingly polluted and that our natural resources are being exhausted?” Naturally, every hand shot up. He said, “Is there any evidence that could dissuade you?” Nothing. Again: “Is there any evidence I could give you — anything at all — that would lead you to reconsider these assumptions?” Not a stir. Simon then said, “Well, excuse me, I’m not dressed for church.”

It has become, for all intents and purposes, a religion and a close-minded and hateful one at that.

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

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Poor Nancy Pelosi, being forced to live paycheck to paycheck. Apparently this is a problem with Congress in general, at least according to Pelosi.

Hell, Pelosi is so down on her luck these days, she had to burn the Constitution just to keep warm. Also, because she hates it.

Frankly she'll get no sympathy from me as too many of the rest of America has had to do that since Obama took office and stifled any economic recovery.

(H/T Instapundit)

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The latest attempt by the Democrat operatives with bylines to smear Governor Scott Walker has failed again.

As more than one person commented, 20 seconds on Google would have helped Jezebel writer Natasha Vargas-Cooper to get her facts straight and not make the false accusation that Walker wanted colleges to stop reporting sexual assaults on campus.

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The totalitarians-in-training at Clemson University are calling for stripping everyone on campus of their First Amendment rights, making sure no one can voice opposing viewpoints they may find offensive, or worse, true.

What shocked the Clemson community was the professors’ support of the students’ first demand, which called on the university “to prosecute criminally predatory behaviors and defamatory speech committed by members of the Clemson University community (including, but not limited to, those facilitated by usage of social media).”

Unfortunately this idea is not restricted to Clemson alone. There are plenty of colleges and universities where the same push to censor free speech reside. I remember having a conversation with a college student on the campus of the University of New Hampshire a few of years ago. He was protesting the freedom of people to voice opinions that he found to be “hate speech” and “contrary to progressive beliefs” and a bunch of other such drivel.

At one point after he had ranted about all of the offensive speech he thought should be banned, I gave him a reality check when I told him that if he succeeded in destroying the First Amendment that I would exercise my Second Amendment rights and kill him, much as members of the Greatest Generation did to the Nazis who believed many of the same things as he did. Obviously he didn't like the idea, but as I reminded him, the only reason he could even speak the way he did was because of people who killed our enemies who would be more than willing to silence those who disagreed with their totalitarian ideology. That I would be willing to kill him for the same reason shut him up.

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Tractor p*rn, indeed!

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You can't tell me with a straight face that the reason there are so many 'scientists' claiming that AGW is real is because it's true. The real reason there are so many is because that's where the money is.

99+% of all climate funding goes to alarmists rather than skeptics. Greenpeace laments donations of funds to skeptics by Exxon of a million dollars or so and wants to drive out all such funding when Greenpeace and Tides and the US Government are giving literally billions to alarmists. Despite this staggering imbalance, the only stories you ever see are about the dangers and bias introduced by that measly 1% skeptics get. I guess that 1% is spent pretty well because it sure seems to have people running in circles declaring the sky is falling.

One would think that at some point the world would wake up and realize that criticizing the funding sources behind an individual does not actually rebut that individual's arguments.

Beyond the strange implicit assumption that fossil fuel funding would automatically "disprove" a research paper, there is also an assumption that oil company funding is "unclean" while government or non-profit environmental group funding is "clean".  Remember the last time you saw a news story about a climate alarmist's funding?  Yeah, neither do I.

It appears that in regards to climate alarmism, the only way you'll get funding for research is if you're willing to provide 'evidence' that proves the predetermined results rather than using the evidence to generate unbiased results and prove or disprove the AGW hypothesis.

That isn't science. That's propaganda.

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As a follow on to the above, ut appears one Congressman – Raul Grijalva (D - AZ) – has decided it's time for a 'climate inquisition'.

Grijalva has sent seven letters to seven universities about researchers who, in Grijalva's eyes, have been having “impure thoughts about climate change.”

Science as an enterprise usually doesn’t need political enforcers. But proponents of a climate alarmism that demands immediate action to avert worldwide catastrophe won’t and can’t simply let the science speak for itself.

In fact, for people who claim to champion science, they have the least scientific temperament imaginable. Their attitude owes more to Trofim Lysenko, the high priest of the Soviet Union’s politicized science, than, say, to Gregor Mendel, the founder of modern genetics, whose work was shunned by Lysenko for ideological reasons.

The climate change debate ended long ago and has devolved into nothing more than an inquisition. Science has been set aside for politics and ideology. When that happens one of the first casualties is truth followed by the destroyed reputations of those who dare question ' the one true faith'.

With apologies to Monty Python, “No one expects the Climate Inquisition!”

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Now that the FCC has voted 3-2 along party lines to bring the Internet under Title II regulation, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai destroys the net neutrality claims with three easy points.

1. The Internet has grown rapidly, creating untold economic benefits, largely because the government.

2. Title II regulations attempt to solve problems that don't exist with enough consistency to address.

3. Title II regulations will lead to new taxes and slower broadband speeds for consumers.

Since when has government regulation ever helped any business do things better/faster/cheaper? Never.

This regulatory grab by the FCC will have just the opposite effect and will give the government too much control over the 'Net which has done just fine without government control It is nothing more than a naked power grab at the behest of the White House.

I have a feeling we'll see this change overturned by the courts once all of the players, big and small, file their lawsuits against the FCC on this matter, or by Congress once their donors start screaming at them to undo this bit of regulatory idiocy.

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This example proves the much-praised (at least in the US) Canadian health care system isn't nearly as wonderful as many here in the US believe it is.

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In regards to Obama, Flopping Aces reminds liberals that they voted for this.

“What we’ve done is we’ve expanded my authorities under executive action and prosecutorial discretion…”

In other words, Obama now rules by fiat and the rule of law and the Constitution be damned. Let's see how that works for you guys when he decides you are now a threat.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where many are wishing for warmer weather, more are still moving snow, and where our woodpiles are starting to look a little too small.

A Reality Check For The Eco-nuts

Something we must remind our more radical environmentalist brethren: The Earth is not a god. Unfortunately too many of them believe exactly that which in turn leads some of them to propose actions that are, on the face of it, genocidal.

The seventeenth-century philosopher Sir Francis Bacon argued that the human mind had been squandered on superstition: metaphysical speculation, theological disputation, and violent political delusions. Bacon’s greatest American disciple, Benjamin Franklin, agreed. It would be better, both believed, to focus on the conquest of man’s common enemy: nature. Bacon and Franklin were right, but they misjudged superstition’s staying power. Fast-forward to a conversation I had with the late Arne Naess, the Norwegian father of “deep ecology” and guru of the European Green movement. With a straight face, Naess told me that the eradication of smallpox was a technological crime against nature. For Naess’s deep ecology, the smallpox virus “deserved” and needed our protection, despite having maimed, tortured, and killed millions of people.

So in this guy's eyes, the smallpox virus has more value than human life. He sounds almost like some of the eco-nut characters in Michael Crichton's novel State of Fear. Those same eco-nuts got the chance to live (or die) by their philosophy when they were 'induced' to strip themselves of their clothing and make a trek across 100 miles of jungle back to civilization. They found out the hard way that their ideology didn't match up with the realities of the real world, finding out that their beloved Nature was indeed “red in tooth and claw.” But I have no doubt that they would have no problem with the rest of us having to live like that as long as they didn't have to do so.

Then there are ecological apocalypse prognosticators who always get it wrong.

Why do hysterical warnings about sustainability and depletion persist despite the failure of the crackpot 1960s and 1970s predictions? Because the non-impact standard—conceiving of the environment as a loving but finite God—sees the environment as having a limited “carrying capacity” of gifts, such as arable land, water, and crucial minerals, in addition to fossil fuels. The more people on the planet, the closer we are to maxing out that carrying capacity, the thinking goes.

Epstein argues brilliantly that the carrying-capacity superstition amounts to a “backward understanding of resources.” The fact is that nature by itself gives us very few directly supplied energy resources: most resources “are not taken from nature, but created from nature,” he maintains. Every raw material in nature is but a “potential resource, with unlimited potential to be to be rendered valuable by the human mind.” Right now we have enough fossil fuels and nuclear power to last us thousands of years. “The amount of raw matter and energy on this planet,” Epstein writes, “is so incomprehensibly vast that it is nonsensical to speculate about running out of it. Telling us that there is only so much matter and energy to create resources from is like telling us that there is only so much galaxy to visit for the first time. True, but irrelevant.”

Two hundred years ago one could believe that the fuels needed to keep society warm and to power industry were indeed limited. But they couldn't conceive of the power sources and natural resources available to today, something that would seem magical to them. We have also developed means of reusing some resources again and again and again, lessening the burden on natural resources. Better technologies and new discoveries have lessened the demand for some resources, and in some cases, eliminated them altogether. But that isn't good enough for some of these “Earth is a god” believers, and it never will be.

Too bad for them that 99.999% of the human population disagrees with them and their goals.

Thoughts On A Sunday

The latest snowfall ended before sunrise, leaving behind about 4 inches of snow. At least this time there were no below zero temps following it, at least not immediately. The lows for tomorrow morning will be below zero, so we'll be back into arctic air for the next few days.

The warm temps today made it easier to clean part of the driveway down to the pavement, meaning it will be unlikely we'll have to deal with ice come morning, something that is always problematic for us, making it difficult to get out considering the driveway has a pretty steep slope.

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I find it interesting that the Democart-Operatives-With-Bylines, i.e. the MSM, have been trying to twist the battle of words between Rudi Giuliani and Barack Obama into a litmus test for potential GOP presidential candidates. Their first target was Scott Walker, slamming him for not commenting upon the kerfuffle, stating that he has “remained silent” about it, but in truth informing the MSM that “The mayor can speak for himself,” he said on CNBC the next morning. “I’m not going to comment on what the president thinks or not. He can speak for himself as well.”

As far as the MSM is concerned, that is confirmation that Walker agrees with Rudi. All we have to do is remember is that's how the MSM works and their bleating about it becomes meaningless noise.

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It's scary to think that over 40% of Democrats polled think it's perfectly OK for their messiah to be able ignore the courts and the laws and do what he wants. That's more than scary. That's how dictators rule. So now we know that those 40%+ Democrats are really totalitarians because they do not believe in the rule of law.

Who says the communists didn't win the Cold War? They just moved across the ocean and infected the Democrat Party.

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I've always thought the push for multiculturalism was a crock, a false flag means of balkanizing any nation. It turns out I was right, just as Europe is finding out the hard way. The Progressives keep pushing diversity, but America has had it for over 200 years. Then again, their definition of diversity has no relation to reality, but that hasn't stopped them for pushing it for all its worth. After all, how else can they take over our society unless the create cultural rifts and then offer to 'fix' them?

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As an offshoot of the above, the push by Progressives to kill off freedom of speech on college campuses continues, though not without increasing pushback.

Rather than using the usual excuses for limiting freedom of speech, the Progs say they are trying to shield the perpetually offended weaklings from speech they consider offensive, which these days means anything they disagree with.

Call this yet another step towards a Progressive totalitarian state.

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David Starr explains the difference between real jobs and government jobs.

It all comes down to this: One creates wealth and expands the economy. The other doesn't.

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Are we on the verge of being able to create Rearden Metal? If this new technology for producing metals proves out, the answer is yes.

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First, it was the so-called “Red Scare”.

Then it was the day-care sex scandal that sent an untold number of people to prison for acts that never happened.

Today it's the campus sexual assault 'epidemic' being used as the basis for yet another witch hunt and the violation of the civil rights of anyone accused of such an act, specifically male someones. How many people will be adversely affected by this new panic, with lives and future careers ruined all on the basis of a ruling by a government sanctioned kangaroo court? How many lawsuits will be filed by students sanctioned by these kangaroo courts, and how many millions will the colleges end up having to pay in damages?

(A note: The Red Scare, though over the top, had its basis in truth. After the fall of the Soviet Union large numbers of KGB files became available and the activities of Soviet moles and sympathizers in the US during 1950's were exposed.)

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The one thing we must remind ourselves about when it comes to Hollywood is that most of what they put up on the screen isn't reality.

We've seen that a number of times when Hollywood has tried to force the narrative on a number of issues, That's certainly true when it comes to things like nuclear power, with one of the first examples being the awful and thoroughly inaccurate The China Syndrome. Their latest foray into this subject is the cyber-thriller Blackhat which portrays the ease with which hackers could cause a meltdown of a nuclear power plant. Without belaboring the point, the movie got just about everything wrong, but it succeeded if its aim was to scare the bejeebers out of everyone when it comes to nuclear power, just as the aforementioned The China Syndrome. managed to do.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the brief bout of warmer weather has already fled, everything that melted is freezing again, and where we're still removing snow that fell two weeks ago.

Winter Observations

Since so much of the eastern half of the nation is suffering the effects of global warming, being hit with temperatures well below normal, I figured I'd at least chime in on what we've seen here in New Hampshire over the past couple of months.

While winter weather and cold temperatures are the norm here, the large amounts of snow over a relatively short period of time and the well below zero temps that just go on and on for weeks on end aren't what we usually see here. (Not that it hasn't happened before, but it is unusual.)

We've had snow totals here at the The Manse as high as 150 inches, but that was accumulated between the beginning of December until April. There were numerous small snowfalls on the order of 3 to 6 inches, and a couple of larger storms that dropped between a foot to a foot-and-a-half, all adding up to that 150 inches. Each snowfall was manageable and some of it melted away before the next one came along.

This year, however, we'd see one storm after another dropping a foot or more of snow, with temperatures during these storms in the lower teens or single digits, and then temperatures would plummet and there would be no melt off. Icy roads remained icy because the salt the local and state highway departments normally used to de-ice the roads wouldn't work if the temperatures were below 17ºF. In a little bit less than three weeks we easily saw almost 60 inches of snowfall and we'd still be digging out as another storm approached. Some towns exhausted their snow removal budgets as well as their road salt supplies. Some cities were running out of places to put the snow. (Boston has received over 80 inches of snow in this same short period of time and they've had to resort to dumping snow into Boston Harbor, something to which the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Quality Engineering had to give its blessing because the city's normal snow 'storage' locations were full.)

One thing I noticed that was peculiar for this winter compared to all of the others I've experienced: I've had to use four-wheel drive far more often and for much longer periods than any other winter I remember. There have been some stretches where the trusty F150 was never out of four-wheel drive for days on end. Even the state-maintained roads were always snow covered, between the fresh snowfall and the drifting snow caused by the high winds that usually accompanied the well below normal temperatures.

Both here and elsewhere in New England roof collapses and failures have been all too common. Quite a few schools here in New Hampshire had to close due to the heavy snow loads on their roofs. In some cases teachers or other school staff would notice cracking walls or sagging ceilings, prompting the evacuation of the school and an all-hands effort to remove the snow before any further damage could occur. More than a few businesses and homes suffered roof collapses, something that happens rarely here. (Most homes and many of the smaller businesses have steep pitched roofs that, in theory, should prevent large snow loads from building up. But with the relentless snowfalls many of these roofs couldn't shed all of the snow on them before the snow loads exceeded the design limits, and they failed.) I spent part of this morning over at the WP Mom's, pulling snow off her roof with a roof rake as a means of reducing the load on her roof and preventing ice dams, something that can cause water damage inside a home as the snow on the roof melts.

All in all, I have to say this is probably one of the more brutal winters I have experienced in all my years, between the weeks and weeks of endless below normal temperatures and the well above normal snowfalls. Yet despite all of that, we are far better prepared to handle it than many of the others in the south who have been hit with record low temperatures and record snowfalls and/or ice storms. Watching the endless reports of highways with multiple accidents clogging them or ice coatings that bring traffic to a standstill has become all too common this winter, particularly over the past four weeks or so.

I still have snow to remove and will hopefully get it done today before the next round of snow arrives. There are decks to clear on the backside of The Manse and the main front door that needs to be shoveled out. (We can't open the door because of the snow piled up in front of it, a dangerous situation if we need to get out because of an emergency.)

And so it goes in winter-time New Hampshire.

Quote Of The Day

From this post about climate doom-mongering comes this quote that could easily apply to politics and ideologies in general:

Reality imposes constraints even on people who are detached from it.

When the 'detached' are slapped in the face by reality, they are usually the ones screaming the loudest about how “unfair” reality is being. They demand 'someone' do something about it, even if that something defies the laws of physics.

The rest of us understand that life in general is unfair. Bitching about it merely gives us some temporary emotional relief, but doesn't change life's basic unfairness. We just carry on living our lives and deal with life's inequities.

Thoughts On A Sunday

We're cleaning up after yet another bout of snow. While we didn't receive as much as had originally been forecast, there was still enough that needed to be moved. The winds certainly haven't helped, between the blowing snow and wind chill, making it more of a chore to snowblow and shovel out the driveway. But that's winter for you.

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David Starr question whether the record labels shot themselves in the foot when they pushed hard for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which in turn has killed off Top 40 radio. What they forgot was that air-play drives sales, but since radio stations don't have to pay for copyright royalties for any songs prior to 1973, a lot of stations have switched over to “Oldies” format.

So much for driving sales of new music.

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Here's a two-fer from Mister Starr, in this case dealing with the F-35, the long overdue and over budget Joint Strike Fighter.

It doesn't help that the Air Force wants to kill off the A-10 Warthog, the most effective ground support aircraft ever built, stating the cost of continuing A-10 operations is seriously delaying deployment of the F-35. But as anyone familiar with both programs know, this is an outright lie as the cost of keeping the A-10 flying and fighting is a small fraction of the cost of flying the F-35.

The Air Force has been trying to kill the A-10 for decades, mainly because it isn't “sexy”, meaning it's ugly compared to the F-15 and F-16. But the ground troops love it, knowing that when they have air cover by the Warthogs the bad guys are going to die in large numbers when they do their job. They are also very tough and very hard to shoot down. Ground fire that would swat an F-15, F-16, or F-35 out of the sky is shrugged off by the A-10 and allows it to complete its mission.

If the Air Force really wants to get rid of the A-10, then perhaps they can give it to the Army and/or the Marines, despite the so-called Key West agreement that only the Air Force would have attack aircraft like the A-10.

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This isn't the first time I've written about our dying shopping malls and I doubt it will be the last. But they are dying for a number of reasons, with one of them being the explosion of on-line shopping. Major 'anchor' chains like JC Penney and Sears are closing stores across the country, stores that helped drive foot traffic in the malls.

One of our malls in the state capitol has been slowly dying, never having achieved full occupancy since it first opened and present occupancy lower than an its peak. Even the food court is at less than 50% occupancy, not a healthy sign by any means.

That doesn't mean all shopping malls are doomed, but that is dependent upon their location, with urban malls like the one in downtown Boston doing just fine because the foot traffic is huge, it has more than one of its own subway stations, and it provides isolation from the weather even as it lets you traverse a couple of city blocks.

It will be interesting to see how many malls will close their doors and be converted to some other purpose having nothing to do with retail.

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Yet another assault by the DRMA is on, believe it or not, tractors. The days of 'fix it yourself' by farmers on their $100,000+ tractors is gone, with the electronic control systems locked down, making it very difficult for them to look for or bypass problems.

Not that the lockdown has stopped them, with access to so-called 'gray market' computers, interface connectors, and software that allows them work on their tractors themselves.

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BeezleBub and I have been watching (and recording) the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary show. Lots of great memories as SNL has been a favorite show of ours on and off for years.

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The bitter cold temperatures and high winds have kept us from dealing with the snow out on our driveway. It seems that five minutes after the snow has been cleared it's like it's never been touched. So we made the decision to tackle the job tomorrow morning after the winds have died down.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it's bitterly cold, the winds are howlong, and where we may be in line for yet another snow storm.

Here We Go Again (Again)

(Cue ominous Storm Center music.)

OK, here we go again.

Yet another winter storm is going to drop a lot of snow on New England (again). There will be blizzard conditions along the coast (again). Boston has run out of room to put all the snow (again).

It's going to be freakin' cold as the storm pulls out, dropping temps below zero (again).

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!! (again).

Yes, it's another typical winter of the like we haven't seen in well over 150 years. (This type used to be pretty common in the 1700 and 1800's around here.)

I expect we'll be seeing reporters out in the snow (again) holding up handfuls of fluffy snow (again) somewhere along one of the major highways or byways (again) just to show us how bad it is (again).

Thoughts On A Sunday

The winter snows have returned to New England, with 10 to 18 inches of snow expected here by the time its all done come Tuesday morning. At least this storm isn't a swift moving one with high winds and snowfall rates of over an inch an hour. Instead, this one is coming out of the west along a front that means it will be snowing all day today and tomorrow. This means it's easier to deal with as both the snow plows and our snowblowers can stay well ahead of it.

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I have been reading Bill O'Reilly's Killing Patton , a fascinating book about Patton from the time after the Normandy Invasion until his death . O'Reilly makes the case that Patton's death wasn't an accident, but most likely an assassination. One party O'Reilly points to is Stalin, who feared Patton. But O'Reilly also makes mention of Wild Bill Donovan, head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and later the CIA. Patton had a lot of enemies, both in and outside the US. A lot of people wanted him dead.

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It appears the damage done to the Department of Justice by the Obama Administration is far worse than many have thought.

When a federal judge resigns from a panel whose oversight is supposed to ensure the DoJ pre-trial forensic evidence is within the bounds of actual science and meets the same burden of proof as is required by defense forensic experts, citing the DoJ's refusal to recognize the panel's authority and recommendations to ensure the credentials of forensic experts and the methodology used, you know the DoJ isn't interested in justice. It is only interested in winning its cases, and is more than willing to use evidence whose veracity and accuracy is impossible to establish.

As the judge, Jed S. Radkoff, put it, he sees the government “would rather keep its bad forensics and broken discovery procedures because it gives it the advantage when it comes to prosecution.”

Then again the Department of Justice hasn't had anything to do with justice ever since Eric Holder became Attorney General. It has been more about revenge and racial politics than the law.

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To paraphrase Glenn Reynolds, if anyone says they're for controlling climate change but are against nuclear power, then they aren't really serious about controlling climate change.

Nuclear power is the only carbon-free electrical source capable of generating large amounts of power. While the argument will be made that building nuclear plants generates a lot of carbon dioxide, so does every other means of generating power, including wind and solar, so it's a straw man argument. Once online, nuclear plants have an enviable record of up time versus every other form of electricity generation. Newer plants based upon new designs (some of which are actually old designs abandoned because they didn't generate enough plutonium for US weapons production) won't generate the waste seen with existing plants and, in some cases, can make use of the existing waste to generate a lot of power.

Let's face it, we are a technological civilization and such civilizations require a lot of power to make them both clean, healthy, and wealthy.

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David Starr lists a few actions we can take to help keep our home computers and laptops less vulnerable to hacking. No method is fool proof, but at least we can lessen the possibility of being hacked.

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Eric the Viking links to and comments upon the situation in Greece, where the new government thinks they can schmooze the very people they condemned as being greedy and evil to give their country even more money they'll never pay back.

Yeah, that'll work.

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The more we hear of ISIS's atrocities, the more I come to believe there is only one means of stopping it: total war. History has shown us the only way these folks will stop is if we defeat them utterly. If it comes to it, I have no qualms of using nuclear means to wipe them out. They do not deserve the benefit of doubt.

It seems that many who have joined ISIS aren't religious fanatics so much as people who love the idea of religion-backed brigandage, rape, and murder. They don't give a rat's ass about Islam, but love the idea of being able to get away with things that would get them imprisioned or executed in their home countries.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the snow is falling, the annual Ice Fishing Derby has finished, and where the skiing and snowmobiling is excellent.

Town Meeting 2015 - Part 1

It was town meeting in our little New Hampshire town last night, an annual ritual that is an expression of small town democracy. It is where the voters, and just as importantly, the taxpayers decide how much the town will spend over the coming year and on what. There are also changes in town ordinances that are presented and explained.

Twenty five warrant articles were read, motions were made, and in a few cases, debated.

One would think there would be lively debate, particularly on articles that spent our hard earned money. But you'd be wrong.

One would think people would question some of the new or changed ordinances because they affect what people could do (or not do) with their property. But you'd be wrong.

What was the most debated and hotly contested issue brought up before the people at town meeting?

Fireworks.

A citizen's petition was filed that would ban all fireworks from being used in town unless they were handled by professional pyrotechnicians. The problem? Fireworks are legal in New Hampshire. The ban would even outlaw sparklers, something that is legal in just about every state of the union.

What prodded this petition into being? Something quite simple really: The Precautionary Principle.

The various reasons I heard ran the gamut, from “Someone could get hurt” to “It's usually someone who's drunk and can hurt others” to “I heard of a little girl whose clothes caught on fire because of a sparkler.” Of course no mention was made of actual injury rates or of the fact that these types of fireworks are legal here.

But what was the real issue here? Was it the nuisance factor, something no ordinance is going to stop? Was this a false flag operation, meaning the Precautionary Principle was used as an excuse to do away with what some saw as a nuisance they didn't want to deal with?

In the end it won't matter as the voters will make the decision in the voting booth next month.

Another Snowy Day

It's been another snowy winter day here in New Hampshire.

To hear some of the news reports one would think no one has seen snow before, or that everyone's memories are so bad they don't remember the snow we had just last week.

Today's snowfall was similar to last week's blizzard, meaning the very cold temperatures made for light fluffy snow which piles up quickly. The winds are picking up which means we're in fro blowing snow and some drifts overnight.

I figure we got between 8 and 10 inches here at The Manse and it's not done yet.

Thoughts On A Sunday

This is going to be a somewhat abbreviated Thoughts On A Sunday post as a number of real life events intruded on what would normally be a low-key Sunday.

First, I had to accompany BeezleBub in his search for a new truck. (Well, not 'new' new, but 'used' new.) His Dodge Dakota was getting to the point where the cost of repairs would be more than a truck payment, so after talking with me about his reasoning for replacing it, I said I had to agree.

He knew what it was he wanted, some of which was driven by price. Ironically, a used Ford F150 actually cost more than a comparable F250 or F350. One would think it would be the other way round. He did a lot of online research, both for what was available and read through reviews on Consumer Reports and Edmunds.

A trip to the dealer who happened to have what he was looking for in the price range he could afford was in the offing yesterday, giving him a chance to test drive a few trucks and then putting a deposit down on a 2005, two years newer than his Dakota. I made the trip down with him today, figuring the deal was struck and all that was needed was to fill out the loan application and other sundry paperwork. Yeah. That's what I thought. Just fill out the paperwork.

The problem was the dealer was seriously understaffed, Sunday being a slow day for them usually. But it seems everyone was out trying to buy plow trucks and this dealer had more than a few.

We left The Manse at a bit past 11AM and didn't get back until after 4PM. It took over 3 hours to get all the paperwork done.

However, in the end the deal was struck, the last of the paperwork signed, and we were on our way home with BeezleBub's 'new' truck.

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Another thing eating into blogging time today was preparations for the Super Bowl this evening and yet another snowstorm predicted to drop about a foot of new snow here starting some time early Monday morning. I am trying to finish some of the usual Sunday chores before the game. Of course I have absolutely zero chance of completing them in time.

And on top of that, I also am dealing with one heck of a chest cold that has been knocking me for a loop.

All in all it hasn't been a great day.

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Mike Hendrix links to a piece about how the Left has become so illiberal.

They used to be champions of free speech; and now they are its most vehement opponents.

They use to be able to give some sort of argument or logical reason for their position, even if an incorrect argument; now they have no argument, none of them, aside from wild and insincere accusations delivered in a mechanical fashion without any hope of being believed, phony as a three-dollar bill.

They used to be firmly on the side of the workingman; now they hate the workingman as a white racist oppressor.

They used to be in favor of free love and the sexual liberation; now they object to rocket scientists wearing shirts with cartoon women printed on them, they object to science fiction magazines showing a scantily clad warrior princess slaying a monster, and they call all sex rape, and demand strict segregation of women and men. On the same day as these protests, they appear in front of the Pope, writhing on the ground naked with crosses and crucifixes inserted into their vaginas. So the Puritan rules apply arbitrarily, without sense or order, to anyone or no one.

The list goes on and on and I agree with every single one of them.

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A new paper goes against the CAGW grain, stating that global warming will not cause more extreme weather, but less.

Is this but the first step towards debunking the whole “We're all gonna DIE if we don't stop global warming” meme?

I don't know, but I must admit I do like that there is someone out there openly questioning the meme and raising serious doubts about the suppositions being used to fuel the CAGW hysteria.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it's cold and getting colder, snowy and getting snowier, and where the wood pile is slowly dwindling away.

Sometimes Life Intrudes

I could comment upon all kinds of political, technical, or scientific doings around the world.

Instead, I'm going to talk about...me.

As some of you have probably noticed, blogging has been sporadic. I haven't lost interest. In fact there are all kinds of topics I could write about, something I could do all day. But as everyone who blogs knows, sometimes real life intrudes and something must give.

Between a number of family matters – the passing of my father last fall and my wife's ongoing battle with breast cancer – as well as the demands of work as we try to complete a project on that is on a tight deadline, and time I must devote to another endeavor that is taking more time than I thought it would, the time and wherewithal to blog as been in short supply,.

I am not putting aside the word processor as there are still plenty of things to blog about. But until some of these matters are resolved, blogging will continue to be a little sporadic.

Obama Finding Out He Does Have Limits

It seems that Obama was surprised by the backlash garnered when he announced plans to tax withdrawals from 529 education savings plans. What did he expect?

He said during the State of the Union address that he was going to change the regulations governing the savings plans and treat any interest as taxable income, gutting the intent of the plans: to help save for post secondary education. What makes his idea even more laughable is that he would use the revenues to pay for “free” community college, meaning he was taking money from the very people he said he was going to help, in this case the middle class. This sounds almost like the old “Gimme your lunch money!” extortion pulled by the school bully. How is it the President thought there wouldn't be a hew and cry from those who were about to have their savings accounts raided to help pay for someone else's education? Or did he know and just not give a damn?

Of the two, I'd say it was more likely the latter as we already know he has no love of the middle class, indicated by the actions he's taken over the past six years that have decimated it.

While he claimed this would really only affect the rich, the rich generally don't use 529 plans to pay for their kids' education. They usually pay it out of pocket. The biggest users of the 529 plans are the middle class, not that that little detail bothered him in the least.

At least now that he's backed away from the idea, seeing the huge negative reactions to it by both parties in Congress, and knowing he would never get away with imposing such a tax by executive order. (If I remember the Constitution correctly he has no power to do so, which could lead to a constitutional crisis and either intervention by the Supreme Court or impeachment by Congress.)

Obama is finding out rather late in the game that he isn't omnipotent and that elections have consequences...for him.

Snow Storm Thoughtlessness

To prove just how crazy folks have become since the news media has been trumpeting the impending doom that is the coming blizzard, I have this little tidbit that I experienced personally.

I had finished work for the day, went home to pick up the gas can so I could get some fuel for the Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower and to check what Deb might need to help her diminish the symptoms of her cold.

With the gas can in the back of the trusty F150, I headed off to Walmart to pick up their generic version of Nyquil. Twenty minutes later I had the cold remedy in hand and my wallet was 6 dollars lighter. From there it was off the gas station near the local airport, and then home.

I pulled into the gas station, and due to a few vehicles already occupying the pumps, I waited patiently for one of them directly in front of me to finish and then pull away. Finally, the fellow in the car at the pump I was going to used finished, got into his car and pulled away.

Just as I started moving forward towards the now vacant pump, a car pulled into the station from the road, cut in front of me and pulled in next to the pump I was going to use.

I admit to being a bit steamed that someone would pull such a rude and stupid stunt. I came inches from colliding with their left rear quarter as they made their mad dash for the pump. (I'd had to wait a small distance away from the pump because the previous car was facing towards me and needed the room to pull out.)

As the driver of the offending vehicle got out of her car, I honked my horn and gave her a “What the heck?” shrug.

Her response: “F**k you! I'm in a hurry!” It figures, considering she had Rhode Island plates.

My response was to pull up behind her car, put the F150 in park, roll down my window and say, “Here in New Hampshire we try to be polite. You might want to consider that while you're here.”

Her response: “F**k you, pops! First come first serve!” She then proceeded to pump her gas.

While she was doing that, the truck in front of her finished, pulled away, and another vehicle pulled in, facing towards her. It was big Ford F350 diesel and if it was like most of those I know, it was going to pump a lot of fuel, meaning it was going to take a while.

She finally finished, got the receipt printed out by the pump, and started to get into her car when she realized she wasn't going to be able to pull out until the F350 in front of her was done. She then has the gall to tell me that I have to move my truck so she can get out. By then there were a couple of other vehicles behind me, meaning backing up was not an option.

So I did the only thing I could do.

Nothing.

To say she was peeved would be an understatement. That she thought that I had to do anything for her, particularly after her actions and her expletive laden retorts and threats, had me wondering if she was plain crazy, storm crazy, or perhaps a little of both.

It took another ten minutes for the fellow in he F350 to finish filling his tanks before he finally backed out away from the pumps and left. With squealing tires and a flash of an upraised middle finger, she was off, too.

I was able to fill my two gallon gas can in less than a minute and I was then on my way as well.

It was just a mile or so from the turnoff from the state route on to the road to The Manse that I again came across the woman from Rhode Island. She was making the acquaintance of one of our local police officers who must have decided that she'd broken one traffic law or another.

As I drove by I waved. The officer who was standing beside her driver side window waved back and then continued talking to woman in the car. (I must confess at this point that I know most of the police officers in this town and this particular one was a neighbor of mine until recently.)

I have to wonder just how late she was to wherever it was she was in a hurry to get to?

All of this illustrates one universal truth: Karma is a bitch.

Thoughts On A Sunday

We're still cleaning up after the snowfall we got as a result of the first of two Nor'easters (the second is supposed to hit this area starting some time Tuesday morning).

For the relatively small snowfall in this area from the first storm, the effects were bigger than I expected. The roads turned slick very quickly and 4WD was an absolute necessity to go anywhere. Sand didn't help all that much and getting out of The Manse's driveway was iffy at best.

BeezleBub and I cleared away the last of snowfall this morning, spreading sand and some snowmelt (calcium chloride) to melt away some of the ice and compacted snow. Once the sun hit it much of the big slope on our driveway was down to pavement for the first time in over a week.

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The second Nor'easter headed this way is supposed to be a doozy, with anywhere from 10 to 24 inches expected to fall here in central New Hampshire. Normally that wouldn't concern me, but the Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower may not be up to the task of clearing away the snow.

Two earlier snowfalls with heavy wet snow with the consistency of soggy mashed potatoes put a heavy strain on it, causing the drive belt for the auger and impeller to stretch to the point where it no longer engaged when needed. BeezleBub managed to make an adjustment to take up some of the slack on the belt, but it doesn't look to be in good shape. All we can hope for is that it will last long enough to take care of the coming storm (it should all be very light, fluffy snow, something we think the snowblower should be able to handle. I haven't yet found a part number for the belt in question, but hopefully I can find it on the Web later and call our local supplier to see if they have a new one in stock.

As a back up we did talk with our neighbor, asking if we might be able to use her snowblower should ours break down. Since we have taken care of her driveway when she's away, she had no problem with the request. So we do have a Plan 'B' if out snowblower fails.

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I see that Obama is yet again going to snub our allies, in this case he won't lower himself to attend the 70th anniversary remembrance of the liberation of Auschwitz. I guess he's got a golf date that conflicts with this solemn event.

All I can say is that the next president, Democrat or Republican, is going to have to do a lot of fence mending to undo the eight years of damage caused by Obama's total lack of competence in regards to foreign relations.

What. A. Putz.

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I can state with absolute certainty that I agree with Sarah Palin 100% on this:

“Screw the Hollywood Left!”

Heh.

Frankly, I'm hoping she runs for the GOP presidential nomination. If nothing else it will cause heads to explode in Hollywood.

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Juliette Ochieng tells it like it is: Dumb equals death, particularly in regards to black lives.

As the saying goes, Read The Whole Thing.

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Obama says he's for the Middle Class. But if that's so, then why is he going to take away even more money from them? In this case, he is apparently eying the money many middle class families put aside into 529 savings accounts, money that will be used to pay for post-secondary education.

Though millions of Americans have been putting money into "tax free" 529 plans to save for their children's increasingly expensive college educations, President Obama would change the law so that withdrawals from the plans to fund college would be taxed as ordinary income. So while you used to be able to get a nice tax benefit by saving for college, now you'll be shelling out to Uncle Sam every time you withdraw to pay for Junior's dorm fees.

BeezleBub has had a 529 account for a long time and it's the reason why he hasn't had to borrow a penny to pay for school. But if Obama gets his way the result will be that he won't have as much money set aside as he thinks he does because up to a quarter of that money will be taken away when he withdraws it to pay his tuition and to purchase books.

And where will that tax money go? To pay for other people's “free” education. So once again Obama wants to punish the productive and thrifty in order to buy votes from his base, i.e. the takers.

It's yet another action right out of Atlas Shrugged. By the way, it was meant to be a warning, not a how-to manual.

Taxing the 529 plans isn't the only target Obama has his eye on.

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In light of Obama's plan to tax the hell out of the Middle Class, the News Junkie delves into the so-called Death Tax, where the government can confiscate some or all of the estate of the deceased even if it will leave the surviving family destitute.

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Unlike our Teleprompter In Chief, Governor Scott Walker does just fine without one.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the day was spent cleaning up after the last snowfall, getting ready for the next one, and where Spring can't come soon enough.

Leftist Idiocy Should Have A Color

In my previous post about the Left, I called them maroons, a play on words from a Bugs Bunny cartoon used to signify the object(s) of derision were morons. That got me to thinking.

Maybe the idiocy of the Left and their moronic view of the world should be assigned a color. That color should be maroon.

It would signify to the rest of the world that anyone wearing maroon should not be taken seriously because they are morons, a people to be pitied. Any ideas or demands being put forth by these poor souls should be devoutly ignored because experience has shown them to be dangerous, unworkable, and in the end, deadly to hundreds of millions of people over the past 100 years or so.

So the old Bugs Bunny admonition applies well here: What a bunch of maroons!

Showing Their True Colors

Witnessing the meltdown by the Left over American Sniper merely illustrates to anyone paying attention (and not infected with the Leftist 'virus') just how disconnected they are from the realities of life outside their cloistered and imaginary world.

The one thing the Left seems incapable of understanding is that the only reason they have the freedom to be the pathetic delusional idiots they are is because of the very people like Chris Kyle they vilify.

They see their fellow Americans as barbarians and the radical Islamists as kindred souls.

They revere people who would be more likely to enslave, rape, and kill them in the same horrific manner as Al Qaeda did to Nick Berg or ISIS did to Daniel Foley rather than embrace them as their brethren. (A little hint to our resident Leftists: The Islamists see you as corrupt infidels with no morals, no faith, and with little, if any value other than as an object lesson to other corrupt and amoral infidels. They won't care if you're a supporter of the LGBT community because they will kill all the members of the LGBT community due to the perversion of their practices in the eyes of Allah. They will silence you because the one thing they do not believe in is freedom of speech. You will submit or die.)

I think one of my biggest gripes is that so many of the Left condemning American Sniper have neither seen the movie or read the book. But somehow they feel qualified to comment upon it. They are depending upon the opinions of other Leftists who also have not seen the movie or read the book. It's all one big kneejerk reaction to something someone else felt. (Remember, with the Left it's always about feelings, not facts.)

What a bunch of maroons.....

SOTU 2015 - Same Old Same Old

OK, I've read the State of the Union address and I saw nothing new. It's the same old rehashed stuff the President has said before. He stated some outright falsehoods, the biggest one being that unemployment is lower than it has been since just before the Great Recession. The actual unemployment rate, meaning the inclusion of those whose unemployment benefits have run out or have taken jobs that pay far below what many earned before, is almost three times higher than the 'official' rate. Nice try, Mr. President. He is going to raise taxes on the “rich” to pay for even more social programs that will do nothing but eat up taxpayer dollars and give nothing in return. It's right out of the Tax and Spend handbook.

You say everything is better than it was, but 60% of Americans disagree with you. It's not better for far too many Americans, specifically Middle Class Americans. Much of what you've done to fix things helped the very richest and the very poorest, but it screwed over the everyone in between. That isn't progress, Mr. President, that's willful destruction of an entire class of people, the backbone that made America great.

He also used I/I've/Me/My only 79 times during his speech, a record low for him, but still more than 10 times the number used by his four previous predecessors during their SOTU speeches.

Thoughts On A Sunday

There are all sorts of things happening around Lake Winnipesaukee, yet the only thing anyone is paying attention to or talking about is the playoff game between the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts this evening.

Never mind that I had a small accident that damaged the garage at The Manse. (Note to self: don't wear the big-ass snow boots when driving the trusty F150, even if all you're doing is pulling it into the garage.)

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Hearing the news about the crackdown and arrests of terrorist sleeper cells across Europe evokes only one response from me: It's about time.

The virtually unrestricted of Muslim immigrants and their refusal to assimilate was a formula for disaster. All one has to do to see the bad effects of that is Sweden, where the crime rate has skyrocketed, particularly sexual assaults, almost all of which were committed by unassimilated Muslim men.

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A 25-year old “Gender & Migration Consultant” working for the city of Boston was fired by the mayor after she took part in the I-93 protests that blocked traffic into the city the other morning.

Two questions brought up about this consultant:

What the hell is a “Gender & Migration Consultant” from Finland doing working for the city of Boston?

Don’t we have enough Barnard graduates with useless degrees born in America who can do this job?

Indeed.

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Glenn Reynolds comments upon a Washington Post article that reports a majority of children in public schools are in poverty, stating that “[T]he WaPo has missed the big story — it’s not that so many students are poor, it’s that the non-poor students, and parents, are exiting the public schools.”

I wonder what the teachers unions have to say about that?

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That the US is not building more really tall skyscrapers is not a sign of American decline, but rather an indicator of maturity, specifically when it comes to performance versus cost, according to Coyote Blog.

Many of these super-tall building projects make little economic sense, but are completed to validate the prestige of emerging nations, like teenage boys comparing penis sizes.

I discussed this in the context of rail a while back at Forbes.  In that case, it seems everyone thinks the US is behind in rail, because it does not have sexy bullet trains.  But in fact we have a far more developed freight network than any other country, and shift of transport to rail makes a much larger positive economic and environmental impact for cargo than for [passenger] rail.  It comes down to what you care about -- prestige or actual performance.   Again choosing performance over prestige is a sign of maturity.

Performance over pretty is a good metric for any kind of economic activity.

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I watched Senator Rand Paul (R -KY) on our local TV station's Close Up program and I have to say I think he has a good view about what is needed in the way of a GOP presidential candidate, and it isn't the 'same old, same old' the GOP has put up over the past two election cycles.

That Romney is considering a third run for the Oval Office has generated some buzz, particularly since everything he predicted would happen in regards to the economy, foreign relations, and terrorism has come to pass. But I think he may be past his 'expiration date'. On the other hand Ronald Reagan didn't win until his third run for the White House.

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Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) describes herself as “always an outsider”, but looking at her history I'd have to say that's a delusional viewpoint. While she is keeping the pressure on Hillary and the Democrats in regards to 2016 and the Obama Administrations close ties to Wall Street, she is not really an outsider but a stealth insider. She just hides it better than most.

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While the EPA is tasked with protecting the environment, will it be the cause of a increasingly unreliable electrical grid as it forces more of our power generation stations offline?



With the EPA pushing new mandates and deadlines that are impossible to meet, more generating capacity is going offline just as demand is increasing. With shrinking capacity margins it may be only a matter of time before demand exceeds supply and utilities will be forced to employ rolling blackouts, something we usually see in Third World nations, not here. Then again the EPA has become less about protecting the environment and more about taking more control of the populace be strangling our energy supplies. Then again we've known the EPA is a rogue agency under control of no one. It ignores court decisions, congressional regulations, and even some executive decisions.

Maybe it's time to defund the EPA and start with a clean sheet of paper to create a new EPA that is severely limited in its scope and understands that it exists at the discretion of Congress.

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While both the wealthiest and poorest Americans have fared better over the past few years under Obama, the middle class has taken it on the chin and isn't likely to fare any better of over the rest of Obama's term. It explains why Obama's lost the middle class.

One of the emerging ironies of the Obama presidency, in fact, is the sagging fortunes of the American middle class while those on either end — rich and poor alike — have arguably fared better under Obama.

It’s no surprise, then, that Obama is most popular with the lowest earners, with an approval rating of 52% among people earning less than $2,000 per month. That’s the highest approval rating of four income brackets. Obama’s lowest marks come not from the wealthy, as conventional wisdom might suggest, but from middle earners with incomes between $5,000 and $7,499 per month, who only give Obama a 44% approval rating.

As much as Obama claims he's trying to help the middle class, his actions have been proving just the opposite. But that's not surprising considering a strong middle class is anathema to his beliefs because they don't need him or his cradle to grave help and therefore not beholden to him. That's why he really doesn't care about them because the poor are easy to please and the rich will give him all kinds of money. The middle class will give him nothing so he has no need of them.

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David Starr comments upon the possibility the UK may leave the EU should the United Kingdom Independence Party, or UKIP, gain enough seats in Parliament in the upcoming elections.

I certainly understand the UKIP's stand in regards to the EU bureaucratic strangulation of the economy. They see the UK being slowly wiped away by unelected government officials in another country and they're having none of it. Frankly I would welcome them into a NAFTA-like agreement that opens the entire North American market to them and the UK market to us. They would likely do better considering the North American market is much larger than the EU market and not burdened by nearly as much bureaucratic inertia as in the EU.

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With somewhat warmer temperatures forecast for the next few days I've taken the opportunity to let the Official Weekend Pundit Woodstove to go cold, allowing me to perform some needed maintenance.

Unlike some forms of heating, woodstoves require more maintenance. In this case I've had to remove the air tubes and fire bricks at the top of stove's interior to clean out the accumulated ash. Without this bit of work the stove won't heat as efficiently as it did at the beginning of the heating season. So once during the winter, usually during the January thaw, I let the stove go cold and clean out the not so easily reached parts to remove the accumulated ash. It also allows me the time to apply more adhesive to the door gasket to ensure it remains in place for the rest of the heating season.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the lake has mostly frozen over, freezing rain is making the roads slick, and where I'm making final preparations to watch the Patriots-Colts game.

Fox News Viewers Are More Informed Than The Left Wants To Believe

I am constantly amazed at the obsession the Left has with Fox News. Despite their claims that it is thoroughly biased and close-minded, more than few on the Left have made the observation that Fox does air contrary views while the balance of the MSM does not.

But that the Left decries Fox's 'bias' proves that more than a few of them are watching it, unlike CNN and MSNBC.

Kevin Williamson delves into this issue, deconstructing a PunditFact 'study' that was neither a study or in anyway unbiased and the many Alternet claims about Fox's viewers and just how stupid they are to believe a number of “outrageous” things that they believe are in error. However Alternet's beliefs are themselves proven to be in error. Here are a few Williamson mentions.

91% believe that the stimulus legislation lost jobs. [Some highly credentialed academic economists believe exactly that; economists at large remain sharply divided on the effect of the stimulus.]

72% believe that the health reform law will increase the deficit. [It almost certainly will, if you believe the Congressional Budget Office and the (ho, ho!) Government Accountability Office. Here, Fox News viewers were hardly alone: The majority of respondents answered the same way.]

49% believe that income taxes have gone up. [They have -- the top rate in 2009 was 35 percent; it’s now 39.6. Assuming that 39.6 percent is still more than 35 percent, 49 percent of Fox News viewers are bulletproof here; one wonders why the number isn’t higher.]

Williamson goes on to show how poorly Alternet interpreted the study they cite as proof that “Fox News makes you stupid,” attributing much of it to confirmation bias, meaning they ignored anything that disagreed with their beliefs.

No surprise there.

Yet Another Victim Of Institutional Cowardice

The whole “campus rape” meme got old very quickly, particularly since it has been hurting a lot of innocent people. The whole thing has been blown out of proportion, with much of the justification for the actions taken by colleges and universities based upon a poll that even those who ran it understood was flawed because most of the participants were self-selected. The study was limited to two public schools and was never meant to be used as the basis of an overreaching and, in the end, unconstitutional policy from the Department of Education.

The result has been the railroading of numerous college students, specifically male college students, charged with sexual assault and disciplined or expelled based solely upon an accusation with absolutely no corroborating evidence, no investigations, no means for the accused to defend themselves, without even the appearance of due process. This has left an increasing number of colleges the targets of lawsuits filed by those students summarily 'convicted by accusation'. However that hasn't stopped them from continuing with their persecution of students based entirely upon their gender.

The latest victim of this witch hunt atmosphere is an autistic student who hugged and kissed another student on the top of her head that he had mistaken for a friend of his. His punishment for the mistaken identity?

Expulsion.

It was an honest mistake. No one was harmed, molested, mussed up, or raped. But that doesn't make a bit of difference. So a special needs student has seen his academic studies terminated because the college isn't brave enough to call it an honest mistake and to let it be.

People need to be fired from this supposed institution of higher education because they are incapable of being able to discriminate between a case of mistaken identity and a sexual assault.

Morons.

Are We Going To Become A European "Gimmedat" Nation?

Our leftist brethren must be reminded now and then that even though they admire European socialism, even as it's running out of other people's money, is that America is not Europe, and no amount of cajoling, manipulating, and outright threatening the American public is going to change that.

America has no history of respect or trust in government, a history of defiance of the State, no history of serfdom, no homogeneity at all. And except for the (fortunate, in retrospect) Africans sold by their brethren and the Muslim slavers into slavery to Americans, America's traditions are based on its eager settlers, pioneers, and immigrants and are all about "leave me alone."

JFK spoke for all immigrants with his "Ask not..." speech, which stood in bold contrast to the Euroland of his time and, perhaps, in contrast to some of America today. As we say, America was not made for sissies, but for the few and the brave. Not for farm animals.

Too much of European socialism and its ersatz American cousin are more about the “Gimmedat” nation, where government beneficence is seen not as something bestowed by a caring government but as something owed to the recipient without the need to actually contribute anything towards the benefits they receive. Again the problem is that eventually such a system runs out of the money its been taking from the productive members of society and the “Gimmedat” nation collapses.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It's been relatively quiet here at The Manse. It's been just the regular chores needing doing, and that's suited me just fine.

We did go have breakfast with the WP Mom down at one of our favorite local eateries, something we haven't been able to do very much over the past year.

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Tom Maguire delves into Islam, al-Sisi's speech calling for Islamic reformation, and the New York Times finally taking notice, though it is still clueless.

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It's amazing what happens when one has nothing to lose.

In this case Dr. Terry Hughes, professor emeritus of earth sciences and climate change at the University of Maine, feels free to speak his mind about climate alarmism and the financial incentives driving it.

Apparently when science professors retire, they finally get to say what’s really on their mind.

“You will never read or hear any of this from the scientific and political establishments,” [said Hughes]. “I’m now retired, so I have no scientific career to protect by spreading lies.”

He said he thinks dire global warming predictions are really all about lassoing federal research funding and votes.

“Too many (the majority) of climate research scientists are quite willing to prostitute their science by giving these politicians what they want,” the glaciologist added.

How long have those of us amongst the “We're NOT all gonna die” camp been saying this?

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

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The New England Patriots defeated the Baltimore Ravens yesterday, 35-31, advancing them to the AFC championship. They'll be playing the Indianapolis Colts next week at home.

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We hear about the murder of French citizens and police officers in France by Islamic extremists, but not a word about the massacre of 2000 people by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram in Baga, Nigeria. They destroyed the town and 16 other surrounding villages and there hasn't been a mention by the MSM in the US except for Fox News.

I guess as long as it's only black people killing other black people, it's perfectly OK with the Lame Stream Media.

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Bogie tells us of the sleeping arrangements she and her cats, Tory and Fuzzy, have. That both of them appear to like settling down with their 'ma' was a peasant surprise for Bogie.

Minnie and Miss have similar arrangements with me, though occasionally Cole, Henry, and Pip will also hop up on the bed and settle in for sleep. That makes it interesting some mornings because I'll have as many as six cats on the bed, making it difficult to get up.

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It appears the hacker group Anonymous is seriously pissed off at the jihadists for the Charlie Hebdo attack and has vowed to shut down every jihadist website it can find in response.

That the jihadists are trying to kill free speech pisses off Anonymous more than just about anything else. If they can kill off the jihadists means of communicating with their followers by the Internet, it may lessen their ability recruit.

More power to 'em.

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Skip Murphy gives us a visual that certainly explains the applicability of certain college degrees in today's job market.

It's funny, too.

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Reliapundit has a take on Obama's proposal to make community college 'free': “It's not about what's affordable for students or the federal government. It's about proposing something that will make the GOP look mean when they oppose it.”

BeezleBub and I discussed this and he his thoughts on the matter took a somewhat different tack, that being that if it did indeed become free, then those without jobs who do not avail themselves of the opportunity to learn a new trade or earn a degree should lose any government benefits they're collecting. It has to be a carrot and stick approach otherwise there's no real incentive to better one's self.

But then we know the whole thing is nothing but a front, a cheap way to make Obama appear beneficent knowing it will never come to be. Then again, that's how he's been since he took office – make great promises but carry through with very few of them. It's easy to make promises, particularly when there's no intention of keeping them.

(H/T Pirate's Cove)

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David Starr reminds us that Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) really sucks at economics and business, particularly in regards to the Keystone XL pipeline. We must remember this is the same Chuck who caused a California bank to fail overnight by incorrectly stating it was in trouble, triggering a run on the bank and withdrawals of over a billion dollars in deposits.

Chuck should learn to keep his mouth shut when he doesn't know what he's talking about. But then that's never been his strong suit.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter continues, the woodstove is running 24/7, and we'll have to break out the snowblower again.

A Bad Day

It wasn't a great day today.

Nothing went wrong at home, always a blessing.

But I had to do something I never thought I would have to do at one of the organizations with which I am involved.

I had to fire a friend.

While I understood the necessity, at least academically, I felt like I was the poor sod heading up the steps of the gallows to a certain doom.

It's never easy to be the cause of a major disruption in someone's life, particularly if it hits them out of the blue with no warning. But sometimes it must be done. I now understand the adage about being a boss that my dad told me years ago: Be friendly but don't be a friend to the employees. (I don't agree with that, but I certainly appreciate the logic behind it.) It certainly makes it harder when it becomes necessary to take an action like firing a friend. I can understand why some businesses will hire a so-called hatchet man to do the deed – it's easier for the boss, but the employee still has their life turned upside down in an instant.

Sometimes it sucks being the guy in charge.

What Good Are Climate Models When They Get The Math Wrong?

Considering the temperatures outside The Manse are well below zero at the moment, it seems almost contradictory to be writing about global warming. But I'll make an exception in this case.

And “this case” deals with the simplistic nonsense that is the climate modeling used by the warmists to 'prove' we're all doomed unless we take drastic action. (More often than not the actions they want us to take will impoverish everyone...except them, and force us to live under a green dictatorship.)

As an engineer, my first experience of a computer model taught me nearly all I needed to know about models.

Some people suggested I make use of the acoustic coupler to input my design and optimise it with one of the circuit modeling programs they had devised. The results were encouraging, so I built it. The circuit itself was a dismal failure.

Investigation revealed the reason instantly: the model parametrised parasitic capacitance into a simple single value: the reality of semiconductors is that the capacitance varies with applied voltage – an effect made use of in every radio today as the ‘varicap diode’. for small signals this is an acceptable compromise. Over large voltage swings the effect is massively non linear. The model was simply inadequate.

I have used and continue to use modeling software much like that to simulate the performance of circuits we use in our designs. It is always understood the models are an approximation and may not reflect the actual performance of the circuit. That's why we build prototypes to test the design under real world conditions.

While the modeling software we use is very sophisticated, the components in the models are represented by a limited number of parameters, far less than are used in climate models. The electronic parameters are well understood and have been refined over the years, and still the modeling software will get it wrong (though not grossly wrong).

The climate model software should take into account many more parameters, many of which are poorly understood, yet we are supposed to believe they're right. The biggest problem with the models?

They get the math wrong.

Most of engineering is to design things so that small unpredictable effects are swamped by large predictable ones. Any stable design has to work like that. If it doesn’t, it ain’t stable. Or reproducible.

That leads to a direct piece of engineering wisdom: If a system is not dominated by a few major feedback factors, it ain’t stable. And if it has a regions of stability then perturbing it outside those regions will result in gross instability, and the system will be short lived.

So called ‘Climate science’ relies on net positive feedback to create alarmist views – and that positive feedback is nothing to do with CO2 allegedly: on the contrary it is a temperature change amplifier pure and simple.

If such a feedback existed, any driver of temperature, from a minor change in the suns output, to a volcanic eruption must inevitably trigger massive temperature changes. But it simply never has. Or we wouldn’t be here to spout such nonsense.

[Climate is] a massive non linear hugely time delayed negative feedback system. And that’s just water and ice. Before we toss in volcanic action, meteor strikes, continental drift. solar variability, and Milankovitch cycles…

The miracle of AGW is that all this has been simply tossed aside, or considered some kind of constant, or a multiplier of the only driver in town, CO2.

When all you know is linear systems analysis everything looks like a linear system perturbed by an external driver.

When the only driver you have come up with is CO2, everything looks like CO2.

Engineers who have done control system theory are not so arrogant. And can recognise in the irregular sawtooth of ice age temperature record a system that looks remarkably like a nasty multiple (negative) feed back time delayed relaxation oscillator.

It also doesn't help that our climate is a semi-chaotic system, something that is extremely difficult to model. More often than not many of these models average the hell out some of the data inputs which has the (supposedly) inadvertent effect of minimizing some of the feedback mechanisms, particularly the negative feedback mechanisms. This can result overestimating the effects of the positive feedback or the sensitivity of some factors, like CO2. Hence you come up with model results that do not match the real world data. What should that tell us?

The models are seriously defective and should not, under any circumstances, be used to predict the future climate. This also implies they should also not be used to create climate policy because the predictions are crap. In other words, they got the math wrong. If my math was as wrong as theirs, I would be fired. Too bad they haven't been.

Thoughts On A Sunday

The snow started falling some time late last evening/early this morning, leaving a few inches behind. Not that it will prevent anyone from going anywhere. The temperatures later in the day are expected to be close to 50ºF, assisting with any melting. However the temperatures are expected to plunge into the single digits overnight and be in the lower 20's and upper teens fof the rest of the week.

It's good thing we got the rest of our firewood put away yesterday.

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It looks like France has fallen under the sway of the Thatcher Axiom: It ran out of other people's money.

Taxing the heck out of the wealthiest citizens didn't generate much but a small percentage of the revenues Socialist President Francois Hollande had believed and the plan is being abandoned.

Some folks can't be told so they have the learn the lesson the hard way.

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The campus kangaroo courts continue, not just addressing 'sexual assault' cases but politically incorrect speech. One would think they would learn the lesson of so many other colleges and universities where they have lost free speech suits in state and federal courts. They still seem to think they are not required to abide by our Constitutional rights and can arbitrarily violate them at whim and besmirch the reputations of students with impunity.

As Glenn Reynolds suggests in cases like this: Get a lawyer.

But until you cost people jobs and reputations — that is, do the kind of damage to them that they’re perfectly happy meting out to others — you won’t bring this to a stop. You won’t see justice in this setting without a healthy measure of fear.

Indeed.

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And they wonder why I don't like large wind turbines beside the fact that they act like large bird-slicing machines?

You never hear about conventional power plants (oil, gas, coal, nuclear) having problems like this.

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The “Great Hiatus” in global warming has been going on for 18 years and 3 months.

How do the warmists explain it away? Simple: They plug their ears and chant loudly “I'm not listening! I'M NOT LISTENING!!!”, as if that will somehow make it all go away.

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Capitalism Is Freedom has the top 10 things scientists used to believe were true. I expect that anthropogenic Global Warming will some day be added to the list.

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Sarah Palin dumps on PETA's idiocy and hypocrisy.

All any of this proves is that Palin Derangement Syndrome still infects the Left and has not weakened a bit since 2008.

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It seems that every time the economy shows a glimmer of recovery, the Obama Administration throws a monkey wrench into the works, telling us it's for our own good.

It's latest move to torpedo the economy? It will issue a number of new major rules meant to kill off the resurgence in the oil and gas industry.

The rules would, among other things, curtail methane emissions from natural gas and oil, place new restrictions on fracking, impose further limits on Arctic drilling and impose new safety standards on rail tanker cars.

Never mind that the oil and gas industry has to rely on rail to transport petroleum because Obama has blocked the far cleaner and more efficient alternative of moving oil and gas through pipelines.

The oil and gas industry has carried the rest of the economy on its shoulders for the last six years. But with prices falling, drillers are struggling to keep operations running. Thanks to the boom in shale oil and gas, oil prices have dropped by nearly 50% since the summer. New drilling permits are falling and some marginal wells are already shutting down.

Could there be a worse time for new EPA regulations to raise the cost of producing our domestic energy? Obviously, the answer is no, but this isn't collateral damage; it's the very point of the regulatory onslaught.

OPEC and Vladimir Putin will just love the EPA's sabotage of our economy.

Frankly I think the EPA should change its name from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Economic Prevention Agency. After all most of its rules over the past six years or so have been aimed at killing off any economic recovery, exceeding its charter, ignoring science as well as court orders issued against it.

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If we need any more evidence that the government doesn't really care a fig what the American people want, all we have to do is look at something as simple as automobiles. The government mandated smaller more efficient (and more dangerous) cars. The people wanted SUVs and the carmakers gave them SUVs.

As usual, technology is leading the way, not politics. That certainly explains why operations like Uber are very popular with the people, but the government is suffering from apoplexy because they didn't ask for official permission to exist.

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David Starr provides some much needed advice for the incoming Republicans in Congress.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the last of the firewood is stacked, the snow has been plowed, and where we're preparing for the arctic blast heading our way.

Fire Wood Heats Twice

I spent a good portion of the daylight hours yesterday stacking firewood.

The second load of dry cord-wood was delivered yesterday morning and I spent the day and part of this morning moving it into the garage and getting to stacked away. That brings our store of firewood back up to snuff, giving us enough to last through April and ensuring we won't need to burn any of our still expensive propane to keep the house warm.

Despite the chilly temperatures and gusty winds, the work moving the wood kept me plenty warm with no need to wear a jacket. What they say about firewood is true: It warms you twice (or thrice).

While heating with wood may seem like a throwback, I have always found it preferable to just cranking up the thermostat. It doesn't really feel like winter to me without heat pouring out from the woodstove. It also wouldn't be Christmas without the woodstove. (I remember more than one Christmas at my grandparent's home, with a fire in their Franklin stoves keeping their house warm.

While heating with wood requires more work, there are a number of upsides to it, the first being that it can be a lot less expensive to heat with than either oil or propane. For what it costs us to get four cords of wood we can heat The Manse for the entire winter plus, meaning from late October thru early April. The same amount of money would pay for only two months worth of heating oil or propane.

A second plus is that during the inevitable power outage during an ice storm or Nor'easter we still have heat. (Some folks are using wood pellet stoves to heat their homes, but they also require power in order to function. No power, no heat.)

The WP In-Laws heat their home with wood, it being built to maximize the heating effect of their stove. They also have an oil furnace as a 'back-up', but they rarely use it.

The Barrister over at Maggie's Farm had an excellent post about firewood, one that he's reposted from time to time. He covers the reasons for heating with wood, the pluses and the minuses, and those commenting have also added their experiences with it as well.

One of the minuses covered, and one I deal with once or twice a year, is the need to have the chimney swept to clean out the creosote. That is something we usually have done twice a year – once before the heating season and once during, usually mid to late January. Regardless of how dry the wood being burned is, it can still leave creosote built up on the sides of the chimney or stove pipe. If it isn't removed it can catch fire and you end up with a chimney fire, nothing you ever want to experience.

Another minus, sort of: ashes. One of the by-products of burning wood is wood ash, which has a powdery gray appearance. It is most often mixed in with unburned coals, something I am loath to dispose of as they will burn if given the chance. Some wood stoves have a built-in shaker grate that makes it easier to remove the ashes, usually doing a pretty decent job of separating the ashes from the coals. Unfortunately ours does not have such a contraption so I end up using a modified ash shovel, a standard model with some slots cut into it to allow the ashes to fall through while retaining the coals. The coals I put to one side and the ashes I remove with an unmodified shovel. While it does take a little extra time to clean out the wood stove, it reduces the number of unburned coals to almost zero and makes sure all of the wood is burned. As to the ashes themselves, they get dumped on to a large pile out behind The Manse and later used to fertilize some of the soil at the farm where BeezleBub works. (They use the ashes from the wood-fired boiler that is used to heat the greenhouses during the winter.)

One plus I almost overlooked is that heating with wood is generally carbon-neutral, something that is not in any way, shape, or form important to me but it is to others. The downside to that is that the EPA has decided that wood stoves must meet expensive emissions standards and have implemented their own versions of Cash for Clunkers, but without the cash, banning the resale of non-compliant wood stoves. Little do they realize is that it is a disincentive to trade up to a new woodstove because there is no trade-in/resale value to their old stove.

In any case, I'm glad we got our firewood squared away considering we have yet another arctic blast headed this way for the coming week. I have a feeling we'll be using more than our fair share of wood to keep things warm here in The Manse during that time.

Zero Tolerance Idiocy Of 2014

As any of you regular readers know zero-tolerance policies, particularly for schools, are one of my major pet peeves. As always they end up hurting the very children they're supposed to protect while still leaving many of the true miscreants untouched. Almost always these policies are not for the benefit of the kids but for the administrators, teachers, and school board members. It absolves them of ever having to make decisions of any kind other than which zero-tolerance policy (or policies) some poor kid has unwittingly run afoul.

By way of Reason's Hit & Run blog comes this list of the Ten Outrageous 'Zero Tolerance' Follies of 2014.

Here are a few that made the list:

A 13-year-old boy at Weaverville Elementary School in California shared his school lunch (a chicken burrito) with a hungry friend. For this, he got detention. Superintendent Tom Barnett explained, "Because of safety and liability we cannot allow students to actually exchange meals.”

Really? A kid can't share his lunch with a hungry friend? But wait, it gets worse!

A letter home from the Harley Avenue Primary School in Elwood, New York, read, in part: "The reason for eliminating the Kindergarten show is simple. We are responsible for preparing children for college and career with valuable lifelong skills and know that we can best do that by having them become strong readers, writers, coworkers and problem solvers."

So, if the kindergarten kids take part in a year-end show it will some how prevent them from getting into college? This is something I would call “Bullshit!” on. My take: they just didn't want to be bothered so they cancelled it and gave this lame excuse.

Da'von Shaw, a Bedford, Ohio, high school student, brought apples and craisins to school for a "healthy eating" presentation. When he took out a knife to slice an apple, his teacher told him he was not allowed to use it. He immediately handed it over to her. Case closed? Nope. Later that day he was suspended for a week because he brought a weapon to school.

Hmm. I have to wonder whether the school kitchen staff or the home ec teacher have also been suspended for using 'weapons'?

And last:

After the fire alarm went off in Como Park High School in St. Paul, Minnesota, everyone evacuated, including Kayona Hagen-Tietza, 14, who had been swimming in the gym pool and didn't have time to change. School policy forbids teachers from having students in the car, so she stood outside, barefoot, for 10 minutes in 5-degree weather until a teacher obtained "permission" to let her sit in her car just this once.

If the poor girl had suffered from hypothermia, frostbite, or other cold-related injuries I suppose the school administrators would have cited their rigid inflexible policies as necessary to 'protect' this child from the predations of one of the teachers?

Unfortunately none of this nonsense will end until someone is severely injured, or worse, is killed by one of these insanely stupid zero-tolerance policies. I would expect should this happen the administrators involved will use the “But it's policy!” excuse to explain it away.

Read The Whole Thing.