Thoughts On A Sunday

It was an exciting weekend, with the missus and our son, BeezleBub, graduating from the same college at the same time.

Today they headed to Vermont for a 'gathering of the cousins' for a chance to meet up with family they don't often have an opportunity to get together. It certainly offset the heavy rain we had overnight and into this morning.

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It looks like California is shooting its small businesses in the foot, again.

This time around the want to impose very strict rules on autographed books, requiring the same kind of measures usually reserved for sports memorabilia or classic items. The one side effect will be the virtual shutdown of book signings and yet another nail in the coffin for small booksellers.

Is there nothing the California legislature can't screw up while makes sure that the small business owners get the shaft? I would think they would focus on the important things like the huge pension deficit, crumbling infrastructure, and diminishing electrical and water supplies rather than trivial crap like this.

My message to the sane people still living in California: Get out now while you still can!

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Skip Murphy over at GraniteGrok has covered an idea put forth by Representative Steve Pearce that I can certainly get behind, that being allowing a “virtual” Congress.

Rep. Steve Pearce, after more than a decade in the House, thinks he knows why people are so unhappy with Congress. Once elected, lawmakers become creatures of Washington and lose touch with the people who sent them there. To fix it, the New Mexico Republican has proposed a resolution that would let lawmakers work the way millions of others do: remotely. His resolution, H.Res. 298, encourages the House Administration Committee to explore ways to let members work in a “virtual setting.” That would include letting members debate, vote, and even attend hearings while they’re home.

As Skip mentions, he and millions of other Americans do it every day. Since this past January I have been doing so (in my case due to an injury that severely limit my ability to travel or negotiate stairs), and I found it worked pretty well for me.

If members of the House and Senate could telecommute to sessions, committee meetings, and hearings, it would allow two things that I think would help insulate members of Congress from falling under the sway of the so-called Beltway Mentality: maintain a close connection with their constituents because the would remain amongst them; be less influenced by lobbyists and rent seekers.

That would be fine with me.

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Yeah, like this is the way for Democrats to win back the hearts and minds of rural American voters.

You know they're damn clueless when Democrat Representative Anna Eshoo (California) denigrates Middle America as “Podunk USA”.

I will admit to considering giving Democrats a pass since Eshoo is also from California, so it could be prejudice is based more upon the fact that she's from California and less that she's a Democrat.

No, just kidding!

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This is no surprise to me, having been a former union member.

It turns out that union presidents are most often paid more than CEO's, with their average salary being almost $60K higher than that of chief executives.

Leading union officials earned an average salary of $252,370 in 2016, outpacing the average salary of private sector chief executives, according to a new report.

The Center for Union Facts compiled the salary information from federal labor filings of 192 of the largest national, state, and local unions. The report found that labor presidents enjoyed nearly a $60,000 advantage over the take-home pay of the nation's business leaders, who earned an average of $194,350, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

I think it's ironic these union leaders are making many times that of their rank and file, and more than the 'greedy' CEO's from which the union is supposed to defend their union members.

What a friggin' racket!

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This is a question that must be answered.

How the heck did climate scientists miss 5 million square kilometers of forests and trees? That's an awfully large amount of carbon sinking vegetation to just misplace, particularly when it can have a net positive effect in regards to carbon sinking. That would certainly affect the assumptions they used to create all of their grossly defective climate models that predict climate Armageddon (even though their models couldn't seem to predict what actually happened over a span of two decades, let alone 100 years).

Then again, could those newly 'discovered' 5 million square kilometers of trees actually be the result of the increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? (Don't say that too loud, otherwise Michael Mann might come by your house and beat you senseless with one of his hockey sticks.)

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This overly sensitive SJW triggered into a mental meltdown over a pro-Trump sign on campus doesn't need a 'safe space'. She needs a nice long stay in a mental facility and all of the anti-psychotic drugs they can pump into her before she is allowed to return to campus. Now we know where all of the people who used to be institutionalized went after the homeless people kicked them to the curb.

What a friggin' Looney Tune.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the rains will be ending soon, the temps are forecast to get warmer, and where yet again Monday has come to damned soon!

Bring Sanity Back To Setting The Speed Limits On Our Highways

Like the classic Sammy Hagar song, I always found it difficult to drive at the speed limit on our highways when Congress made the mistake of making the temporary 55MPH speed limit permanent back in the mid 70's. The excuses used to justify the permanent 55MPH National Maximum Speed Limit, or NMSL, were based upon false and misleading statistics compiled by what were later come to be known as the Safety Nazis, or more facetiously, the Anti-Destination League.

The argument was made that “55 Saved Lives”, using data that showed the number of traffic fatalities declined when the speed limit was dropped by an executive order issued by President Nixon after the Arab Oil Embargo in 1973 as a means of reducing fuel consumption. What those statistics used didn't show, and for good reason, was that the fatality rate itself didn't change, meaning the number of motorists killed per millions of passenger miles traveled. What caused the drop in fatalities was the drop in the number of miles being driven by the American public. With a decrease in the number of miles traveled the number of traffic fatalities also decreased.

That was then and things have changed considerably.

For one thing, cars and trucks are much more fuel efficient than they were 40-some years ago. They are also a heck of a lot safer, between structural changes affecting crash survivability, better safety design and equipment such as 3-point seatbelts and airbags, and better tires and braking systems. That maske much of the “55 Saves Lives” mantra even more obsolete.

Around 1985 the NMSL was modified to allow states to set the speed limits in their highways up as high as 65MPH. Then Congress got around repealing the NMSL in 1995. The hew and cry form the Safety Nazis was loud and long, with claims that “blood would cover our streets and highways” with the higher speed limits. The reality – the number of traffic fatalities dropped.

Some states raised the speed limits on their highways back to what they had been before the NMSL. Some almost did so. (My home state of New Hampshire has a maximum speed limit of 70MPH on the Interstates, though in some sections it used to be as high as 75MPH.) Some of the western states have no daytime speed limit on their highways other than “safe and prudent for the conditions”.

But are the speed limits set according to what this post by Erik calls Traffic Engineering 101? The answer is, unfortunately, no.

Every year, traffic engineers review the speed limit on thousands of stretches of road and highway. Most are reviewed by a member of the state’s Department of Transportation, often along with a member of the state police, as is the case in Michigan. In each case, the “survey team” has a clear approach: they want to set the speed limit so that 15% of drivers exceed it and 85% of drivers drive at or below the speed limit.

This “nationally recognized method” of setting the speed limit as the 85th percentile speed is essentially traffic engineering 101. It’s also a bit perplexing to those unfamiliar with the concept. Shouldn’t everyone drive at or below the speed limit? And if a driver’s speed is dictated by the speed limit, how can you decide whether or not to change that limit based on the speed of traffic? The answer lies in realizing that the speed limit really is just a number on a sign, and it has very little influence on how fast people drive. “Over the years, I’ve done many follow up studies after we raise or lower a speed limit,” [Lieutenant Gary] Megge [of the Michigan State Police} tells us. “Almost every time, the 85th percentile speed doesn’t change, or if it does, it’s by about 2 or 3 mph.”

 … Years of observing traffic has shown engineers that as long as a cop car is not in sight, most people simply drive at whatever speed they like.

It all comes down to this: people drive at the speed at which they feel comfortable regardless of the posted speed limit.

Our town had a number of people that demanded that a approximately 1.5 mile portion of one state road that passed through our town have the speed limit lowered from 50MPH to 35MPH because of one intersection towards one end of that 1.5 mile stretch. The intersection was on the other side of the top of a hill and getting out was sometimes problematic with cars coming over the rise and down the hill at 50MPH. So their solution was to lower the speed limit almost a mile and a half away just to lower the speed at that one intersection.

At the public hearing held by our town selectmen, a number of people spoke in favor of lowering the limit. I was one of the few who spoke out against it and for one very good reason, that being that it would be universally ignored because that stretch of highway was four lanes wide with an unobstructed view, and driving that stretch at 35MPH would appear to be ludicrously slow. Not too many people liked my comment, but more than a few nodded their heads in agreement.

In the end the public hearing had no effect. The state DOT denied the request, stating the lower speed was too low for the road design and would likely see only a small percentage of motorists adhering to the lower limit. The rest would still drive up and down that state road at 50MPH just as they always did. The DOT understood the principles of Traffic Engineering 101 and used it to justify their rejection.

They did the right thing.

Now if they would only apply Traffic Engineering 101 to the Interstates and state highways and reset the speed limits to what they were before NMSL made driving so miserable for everyone.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a fifty-fifty weekend here at The Manse, with the weather being a bit schizophrenic – warm and sunny part of the day, rainy, cool and damp another part of the day, and back again. Both Saturday and Sunday repeated this pattern, leaving little time to really get a good start on some of the yard work as the ground was still wet. The coming week is going to be rather damp, reducing the chance for outdoor work until next weekend.

And so it goes in New Hampshire.

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As a follow on to yesterday's post about the passing of the AHCA and the long overdue repeal of ObamaCare, there's this little tidbit about how ObamaCare would have lead to the death of one woman's husband if it had been in effect when he suffered his heart attack.

I doubt anyone can tell me it hasn't led to countless deaths since it went into effect.

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Dr. Helen comments upon the Netflix show 13 Reasons Why, the story of a teenage girl who commits suicide and leaves behind audio tapes of the 13 reasons why she killed herself.

While she is concerned that it glorifies suicide, I don't see it that way. Then again, I am an old fart who hasn't had to deal with teen angst for over 40 years. The responses in some of the comments are telling, many of them pointing out that while the show deals with the suicide of a teenage girl, a vast majority of teen suicides are commented by teenage boys, by almost a 3-to-1 margin. But most of the focus seems to be on girls killing themselves. Boys appear to be ignored. But then that's what the focus has been on over the past few decades. One comment hit the nail on the head:

Boys today are indoctrinated that they are worthless to the human species. They are constantly harangued for acting like adolescent hormone driven males, even when they have done nothing to deserve scorn. Hopeless and despondent, they fall into depression which leads to a lose, lose situation. What they see is, no matter what they do, it is wrong. So, after contemplating this very uneasy position, that they have been forced into, they opt for the easiest way out to end their suffering. They are not mentally ill, they just want their suffering to stop and cannot see the alternative way out.

Then again, maybe the gender feminists see teen boy suicides as an answer to their prayers. I wouldn't put it past them.

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I can agree with this: Get the US Government out of Washington DC.

As the Instaprof suggests, “...make the move in a way that takes federal employees out of Virginia, and puts them in the run-down parts of blue states. Fresno! Bakersfield! Utica! Lower costs, and a firsthand view of economic decline.”

Indeed.

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One has to wonder how long those in power in Venezuela will stay in power as the country implodes around them? To hear NBC tell it, the problem isn't because of socialism.

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As much as the greenies decry the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity, they always choose to ignore the actual efficiencies between the coal and gas-fired power plants and solar generated electricity. One of those efficiencies is the number of workers it takes for each source to produce the same amount of electricity.

Here are the cold hard facts: What takes 1 coal worker or 2 natural gas workers take 79 solar workers to produce the same amount of electricity. How is solar efficient at all, considering the amount of labor it takes compared to coal or natural gas?

I wonder how many nuclear workers it takes to produce the same amount of electricity?

If I had to guess, it's probably close to coal, if not better.

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I've read this a couple of dozen times and I still don't understand how these idiots can possibly believe the horses**t they're trying to pass off as being thoughtful, being considerate of the feelings of others, or politically correct.

The scientific journal Pediatrics has published a study that claims “It’s “ethically inappropriate” for government and medical organizations to describe breastfeeding as “natural” because the term enforces rigid notions about gender roles.”

Really? So what is it, unnatural? Seems to me that it's perfectly natural for all of the other mammalian species on the planet, but somehow it isn't for homo sapiens?

These folks need to get psychiatric help before they can do any more damage.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where our boat's launch will be delayed a week, the college graduation of my son and my wife take place next weekend, and where we're planning a big party to celebrate.

Fatally Flawed ObamaCare Is Repealed - Let The Bleating Begin

The fallout from the passage of the ObamaCare repealing AHCA continues. While some are decrying the possibility of many people losing the health insurance covered provided to them by the fatally flawed ACA, those same people have chosen to ignore the millions of Americans who were hurt by the ACA. Millions lost their affordable “junk” health insurance plans, only for them to be replaced with very expensive and unusable plans that bent or broke many a household budget.

One such victim of ACA was Mary Katherine Hamm.

You may know me as a political pundit and writer who has spoken publicly about how the Affordable Care Act negatively affected my family. What you might not know is two years ago, I was a seven-month-pregnant widow with one toddler who got a letter two weeks after my husband died, informing me I’d lost my third or fourth health insurance plan since the Affordable Care Act passed. If you’ll remember, the promise was that I could keep my plan if I liked it. I could not.

--snip--

It has come to my attention that, even among those who should know, or assert they know a lot about health care policy and the market, many don’t know that people like me exist. But there are many of us, many with far fewer resources than I, who now have much more expensive, less effective, junkier, nearly unusable plans than we had back when our allegedly “junk” plans were outlawed. Again, we are not the only ACA story. But we are part of the story, we were sold a bill of goods, and we’re often overlooked.

A family member of mine saw their health insurance premiums skyrocket along with the out of pocket deductible, meaning they would shell out for over $12,000 between the two before their insurance even kicked in. Considering that was about a fifth of their annual income, that's one hell of a kick in the teeth, financially. How was this either affordable or health care?

Those screaming the loudest about the passage of AHCA are those enamored by the possibility of losing yet another outlet for “Free S**t”. A close friend of mine had thought his 'free' health insurance was great...right up until the point where he wanted to use it and couldn't find a doctor who would take him on as a patient because the practices he called couldn't afford to take on any more of the folks who were now covered by the expanded Medicaid program.

As I wrote some time ago about this particular problem, having health insurance did not guarantee health care. My friend was living proof.

I expect we'll soon be hearing about millions 'dying in the streets' because AHCA passed.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It's been quite a change in weather over the past 48 hours, with Saturday seeing temps in the upper 70's while today's temps were in the upper 50's. A little rain has rolled in after a mostly sunny day, so there are no complaints to be made about this weekend's weather.

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The more I hear people opine that if we don't “do something” about climate change that we're all going to be doomed, the more I come to the conclusion that AGW faithful are not really interested whether or not human-caused climate change is real. For them it is their new religion.

They don't want to be confused with the facts or shown data that places doubt upon their firmly held beliefs. Even when confronted by the hard evidence that the sacred climate models upon which they base the faith are shown to be wildly inaccurate, meaning the projections don't even come close to matching the observed data (even the data conveniently 'adjusted' with no justification or methodology provided by NOAA).

They will go out and protest the so-called “climate-deniers”, make lots of noise about how we're all gonna die if we don't impoverish ourselves, and then go home feeling better about themselves for having “done something” about the issue. Of course they haven't really done anything to alleviate what they see as the problem. On top of that, most of them will make very few if any changes to their lifestyles to lessen their carbon footprint, except maybe for buying some LED light bulbs or some carbon credits. They won't reconsider taking their vacation in Cabo San Lucas or Key West, both of which would require them to catch a flight from where ever they live, giving them a huge carbon footprint. After all, they protested against climate change, so they've done their part.

Yeah. Right.

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Speaking of the AGW faithful, why is it that they leave so much trash behind for someone else to pick up rather than doing it themselves? It would certainly reduce the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere because cleanup crews using gas and diesel powered vehicles wouldn't be needed to pick up after these hypocrites.

Then again, we've seen the difference between rallies held by Left and those held by the Right, and for the most part there's very little to clean up after the latter. For the former, it's up to “someone else” to clean up their messes as that's what they've been taught. It's always up to “someone else” to clean up this, fix that, or to make the sacrifices they deem necessary to maintain the status quo.

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Sometimes Reality slaps some of the deluded Left in the face in a fashion they cannot ignore.

The latest example is the lesbian couple from London who found out that being lesbians in a Muslim country is a very dangerous thing.

I didn’t plan to preach a sermon when I started writing this post, but the escape of this naïve couple from the trap set for them by [one of the couple's] father is a latter-day parable, a warning to those in the West who think they can advance “human rights” by destroying Western civilization. Your rhetoric about “human rights” is utterly worthless in those parts of the world where the brutal regime of Islamic sharia law is enforced. If you want to preserve your life and liberty, you may need to reconsider your politics, because modern liberals are never going to summon the courage necessary to stand up to the Islamic menace.

Heh.

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Is Fox News slated to become the next MSNBC or CNN?

If what I've been reading is even half true, yes it will.

With Rupert Murdoch having turned the reins over to his liberal son, James, the purge of conservatives has already begun. First, Bill O'Reilly. Next they've set their sights on Sean Hannity, using the false and misleading reports of his supposed sexual harassment of a woman, something the woman in question has strongly denied ever took place.

Not that I have been a regular viewer of Fax News, but to lose one of the last conservative news outlets to the likes of James Murdoch and his very liberal wife, Kathryn, a former Director of Strategy & Communications for the Clinton Climate Initiative, is disturbing.

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Hey, Colorado did something that was actually smart! And to top it off, even the more liberal politicians (formerly from California) agreed I was a smart thing.

What was this miracle thing that the state pulled off?

Abolishing free speech zones on college campuses.

But taking a closer look, did they really pull it off?

One part of the legislation, Senate Bill 62, still allows public universities to impose “reasonable time, manner, and place” speech policies. Like that isn't going to be twisted and abused by the college policy makers and the usual PC crowd in the institutions of higher indoctrination.

I'm not holding my breath on this one.

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Is there another American Civil War in the offing?

According Faith Goldy, that war is already been here and it will be one fought by the Millenials.


Faith states it all started back in the 60's, the movement by the Cultural Marxists, but it's coming to a head now.

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By way of the Jeff Reynolds come this little tidbit of advice when it comes to arguing with Liberals, that being the Eight False Pretenses Liberals Use to Frame an Argument.

Keep them in mind and you will be able to demolish any argument they put forward, and make them look deluded while you're doing it.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where more boats are making an appearance on the lake, summer businesses are gearing up for their openings, and where we're looking forward to even more great weather.

Measles Outbreak In Minnesota - Anti-vaxxers Stike Again

It looks like the anti-vaxx chickens have come home to roost, with 32 children now suffering from measles in Minnesota. (The linked post states 28, but that number now stands at 32. I expect we'll see more.)

While a majority of the affected children are those of Somali immigrants, it isn't limited to just them, nor is it limited to just the US as over 1500 cases have been reported in the EU.

As I have written before, though measles itself can be a killer, it is the aftereffect of measles that tends to kill those affected, that being a reset of the patient's immune system. Most or all of the acquired immunity of the patient can be wiped away, leaving them vulnerable to the infections and diseases to which the once had immunity. That has been a bigger killer of measles patients than the measles itself.

To think that we have the means to prevent this and other diseases through immunizations, but parents have been sold on the idea that the vaccines are far more dangerous than the diseases they prevent. A bunch of pseudoscience and falsified studies made links to vaccines and autism, something that years of clinical studies have disproven again and again. What's worse is that this junk science has been sold to immigrants who are in no position to be able to tell fact from fiction, hence a higher percentage of infections by otherwise preventable diseases.

Jenny McCarthy and her fellow anti-vax idiots should be flogged in a public square for all the harm they've caused.

The Lame Stream Media Is Peddling Fake News...Again

It seems the 'fake news' onslaught from the Left has tried to collect another conservative scalp. However it seems that reality kicked in and showed the sexual harassment accusations against Sean Hannity made by the Lame Stream Media, a wholly owned subsidiary of the DNC, were totally bogus.

The plot is thickening in the Debbie Schlussel-Sean Hannity sexual harassment incident. Schlussel was interviewed this morning by Lawnewz and said she was never "sexually harassed" by Hannity, that he invited her back to his hotel, not his hotel room, but that she thought Hannity "weird" and "creepy."

--snip--

Note that anti-conservative media leaped to the conclusion that Schlussel was sexually harassed by Hannity despite her never using that term in her interview.

This incident says a lot more about those wanting to smear Hannity using spurious charges of sexual harassment than it says about Hannity himself.

I expect the 'usual suspects' will start bleating about how Debbie Schlussel is wrong and that she was sexually harassed, she just doesn't know it. This will be explained by them as one of two possible scenarios: 1) She was threatened by Hannity et al to keep her yap shut;or 2) she's too stupid or too 'indoctrinated' by conservative thought to understand that she's a helpless female victim of the patriarchy.

It still all boils down to this – The LSM ain't got nothing and the crap they make up is so blatantly false that only the other members of the LSM, their masters, and the Progressive lamebrains who slurp up every bit of dreck that flows from the LSM actually believe it.

Is it any wonder the LSM is losing readers and viewers at an increasing rate?

Thoughts On A Sunday

The warm weather has returned after a few dreary and wet days here in central New Hampshire. I wish I could say I made the best of it, getting started on the spring yard cleanup. But as I am still recovering from a knee injury I suffered just prior to Christmas, my mobility is somewhat limited. That certainly has limited my ability to do much in the way of yard work, particularly considering the wet ground and steep slopes upon which The Manse sits.

Looks like I’m going to have to hire some folks to help me out this spring.

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One of the latest SJW ‘causes’ – cultural appropriation – has gone from the merely ridiculous to the extremely ridiculous. Case in point, the Tiny House movement has been labeled as ‘poverty appropriation’ by the SJW idiots.

Yes, believe it or not, some of them actually believe that bulls**t. They want to enforce cultural balkanization as if it were some kind of sacred duty, not understanding that that kind of stasis is death for any culture, or worse, not caring. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s both. Then again most of these willfully ignorant morons seem to wish for the destruction of everything that has allowed them to become willfully ignorant morons.

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As if the SJW madness hasn’t infected colleges here in the US, the same virus has also made its presence known in the UK. The latest example comes from Cambridge University where students who do not make eye contact could be considered racist.

So what they’re saying is that someone who is somewhere on the autism spectrum is automatically guilty of racism? That someone who is deeply introverted and uncomfortable among people in general can be considered racist? What about blind people?

I have only one comment: WTF?!!

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I was going to opine about the so-called March for Science, but David Starr beat me to it.

I wonder how many of the marchers had a minimum of scientific education. I strongly feel that all high school students should take chemistry, physics, and biology. In the 21th century when so many policies and issues have science (or claim to have science) at their base, all citizens ought to have some science at the high school level in order to understand the arguments pro and con.

Too many haven’t had that education. What’s worse is that some that have had it still don’t understand that in regards to climate science that climate models aren’t science, but they base all of their closely held beliefs on the defective climate models that do not track reality. What’s worse is that many of the same climate scientists they believe wholeheartedly have no problems with ‘adjusting’ climate data to meet AGW theory rather than adjusting the theory to match the climate data. On top of that they will not release the reason why past data needs to be adjusted or the algorithm they used to adjust the data. In other words, they told the faithful “Trust us!”

But science isn’t based on trust. It’s based upon verifiable data, experiments, and the ability for others to reproduce the results. But too much science is based more politics and funding and not actual science.

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Speaking of (climate) science, it turns out the global warming hiatus is real, at least according to science.

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I think this explains it a lot better than I can.

Heh.

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This is just so cool!


I. Want. One!

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where boating season fast approaches, the yard work needs doing, and where the Boston Bruins are out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It is Easter Sunday and we've been blessed with excellent weather – warm, breezy, and sunshine with temps in the upper 70's.

One of the WP Sisters made the trip up from the People's Republic of Massachusetts for the weekend, allowing a mini-WP Clan gathering.

All in all, it's been a good weekend.

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Why doesn't this surprise me in the least?

Twenty-one arrested as hundreds of Trump supporters and counter protesters clash at Berkeley rally.

As one tweet stated, “The utterly predictable consequence of 'punching Nazis' as a strategy.” This is particularly true when the so-called “Nazi punchers” are themselves the Nazis despite their claim to be antifascist. It seems most of the antifascists seen running away in the distance are dressed in black.

Kind of ironic, eh?

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This is what can only be termed Nuclear Grade Stupidity.

Do these people actually believe that the very teachers, diplomats, 'culture', and aid they're demanding to be sent will turn ISIS or the Taliban away from their jihad? It is far more likely the teachers will be killed or sold into slavery, the diplomats will be gruesomely executed (seen on HD video), the 'culture' will be destroyed as “un-Islamic” and the aid will be taken by the jihadis and used for their purposes, that being buying more weapons.

The one thing that I find that is true about many of the people who believe that all that's needed to fix things in ISIS or Taliban held areas are those teachers, diplomats, 'culture' and aid have never been out of the US and their only exposure to other cultures is a visit to one of their local ethnic food restaurants.

Then again, for them it's all about feelz and not real life. They believe that everyone else, including those working so hard to destroy Western Civilization, believe exactly the same things they do. Too bad for the rest of us that it just isn't true.

(H/T Pirate's Cove)

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I've seen this before and I expect I'll see it again and again.

Some Times It's You.

I recall once having lunch with a female colleague who was complaining vociferously for the millionth time about not advancing fast enough in the corporation. Her boss was a misogynist, he was always giving the best projects to the men in her department – who only had engineering degrees while she held both an engineering degree and a law degree – both from the University of Michigan!

She had embraced the sisterhood of the traveling victims society long before it was so lucrative. Apparently mistaking me for a member of her sisterhood she seethed on and on about all the unfair exclusionary behavior her boss and male colleagues practiced, including never inviting her to join them for lunch. This was not a problem I encountered in my own department; not to boast, but I was a pretty popular lunch companion and in fact had passed up an invite to our Friday staff lunch in order to honor my prior commitment to Ms. Wendy of the Unwavering Whine.

So perhaps her complaint about never being invited to join the boys reminded me that I was missing the beer, pizza, jokes and good natured camaraderie that comprised Friday lunches back in the day. Whatever the reason, her complaint drew a rather direct (and, I acknowledge, probably insensitive) response: I heard myself saying to her  “maybe it’s nothing as pernicious as misogyny, maybe they just don’t like you.”  I can still see the stunned look on her face; she was a beautiful woman and quite smart but totally tone deaf to anyone other than herself. As a result she was quite lacking in the social graces.  I suspect nobody had ever spoken to her so bluntly in her entire life.

I once had a co-worker much like that. All she did was complain about how things were done differently where she had worked previously, that we were doing it (whatever 'it' was) wrong, that her co-workers weren't friendly, that it seemed all we wanted to do was work (while at work, something we were being paid handsomely to do), and that no one wanted to hang out with her outside of work. Like the aforementioned Ms. Wendy of the Unwavering Whine, the problem wasn't our employer or our co-workers, it was her. She was one of those toxic personalities that set everyone else on edge, was a total buzzkill in social settings, and did nothing but complain.

Her supervisor eventually suggested that she seek employment elsewhere and sent her on her way...just like voters this past November sent Hillary on her way.

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North Korea suffered a failed launch of yet another one of their ballistic missiles.

The Norks keep telling us they'll rain nuclear fire on the US, but one has to wonder it's merely bluster of if they believe their own propaganda.

Assuming they were able to launch a few nukes towards the US, do they think we wouldn't retaliate ten-fold or a hundred-fold and reduce North Korea to a radioactive wasteland? We wouldn't even need to launch missiles from the US mainland. A single US SSBN sitting somewhere in the Pacific Ocean could do that.

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It is said in the Bible that the 'Wages of Sin are Death.” But what are the wages of someone whose minimum wage job are raised to $15/hour? That's easy:

ZERO.

Not long after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a law that will raise New York's minimum wage to $15 and 12 weeks of paid family leave, all of the food workers at one of the SUNY community colleges were laid off and were being replaced by food dispensing machines as a cost savings measure.

Call it yet another example of the Law of Unintended Consequences coming into play to bite the Progressive Policymakers in the ass.

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#Calexit is still a topic in California, with the Progressive coastal elite pushing for secession from the US.

However, before that happens it is likely some parts of the Golden State are working to separate themselves from California because they are sick and tired of being unrepresented in Sacramento and bullied by the ultra-Left Progressives in coastal California.

Efforts have been underway since before World War II to break off more than a dozen rural counties and combine them with a chunk of southern Oregon to form Jefferson, the nation’s 51st state.

The impetus is the same that drives backers of secession: the notion of a far-off government (in this case, Sacramento) ignoring local sentiments and a sense of being outnumbered and outvoted by a population whose social and political views are at odds with the prevailing (in this instance, conservative) culture. The proposed flag — a pair of Xs, or double cross — captures the animating sentiment.

“We really don’t have fair representation,” said Terry Rapoza, 67, a leader of the Jefferson movement in Shasta County...

He cited recent passage of a 10-year, $52-billion road repair and transportation bill; the hike in gas taxes, he said, will have much less impact in urban California than in rural stretches, where people might drive 20 miles to the grocery store, or a dozen miles to pick up their mail.

The rural areas of California, including much of the state's interior, have been marginalized by the Democrat's grip on the state Assembly and Senate for decades. Initiatives to remove dams in northern California may have sounded great to the tree-huggers in San Francisco, but caused havoc to people who needed the water in the northern parts of the state. Irrigation and process water was no longer available. Instead, it flowed into the ocean unimpeded. Taxes and fees that the coastal denizens shrug off cause hardship for those living inland. Laws that have little impact on urban areas generate even greater hardships in the rural area, but for no good reason other than some dimwitted Progressive thought it might make them feel better for having “Done Something” even though there was no 'something' that needed doing.

Better to break up California first, then let the coastal elite have their way with their remaining enclaves. Somehow I doubt we'll miss them all that much.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the warm weather has returned, boats are being shorn of their winter covers, and where Monday has once again returned all too soon.

The Dish Network - Hearst Feud Is a Symptom Of A Bigger Problem

While many of you out there may not know of the issue between satellite provider Dish Network and Hearst television, the ongoing feud between the two should stand as an object lesson.

Back on March 3rd, Hearst blacked out Dish from carrying its local TV stations in 26 cities across the US. That certainly affected us here in New Hampshire as well in Maine, Vermont, and Massachusetts as the local ABC affiliate stations, all owned by Hearst, were removed from Dish.

The issue?

Huge increases in the retransmission fee rate that Hearst demanded from Dish.

What are these retransmission fees? They are what local over-the-air TV broadcasters charge cable TV and satellite systems to carry their signals. These same signals are free to anyone who can use an outdoor antenna to receive them, signals transmitted over the publicly owned airwaves.

It used to be that TV broadcasters loved being retransmitted by cable TV and satellite providers because it increased the coverage area of their stations without them having to spend a penny to build additional transmitters. a definite upside for them. A second upside for them was that they could charge higher advertising fees because now they had more viewers and ad rates are usually dependent upon viewership. So, without having to invest their own money they saw their viewership greatly increased which in turn made them more money.

Then Congress effed it all up.

By allowing the over-the-air TV stations to start charging retransmission fees, they opened the door to abuse by those TV stations. This put them in the same boat as the 'regular' cable content providers like USA, A&E, ESPN, and so on.

Dish has not been the only system operator who has been negatively affected by these fees. DirecTV had the same problem with Hearst back in January, but DirecTV knuckled under to Hearst after a few days. The cable MSOs aren't immune to this as they have felt the wrath of other TV stations, cable content providers, and their parent corporations who have pulled the same stunt.

Whether the broadcasters and other content providers understand that they're reaching a tipping point where cable/satellite subscribers will finally have enough and 'cut the cord' is unknown. I do know that more people have been doing just that as they are tired of paying increasing amounts for TV, and particularly for channels they never watch. That streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, SlingTV, and a host of others are becoming more popular isn't surprising to anyone who has been paying attention.

I know the missus and I are pretty close to pulling the plug on our satellite subscription as we find ourselves using it less often than we have, yet paying more for it every year. We use Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu for more of our TV viewing and for a fraction of the cost of our satellite bill.

I figure we'll reach our tipping point soon.

White People are EVIL! Yeah. Right.

It seems the “white people are evil” meme on college campuses has reached the point of being ridiculous.

Every race or ethnic group has, at one point or another in their history, committed the very acts that whites are being accused of having committed ages ago. In fact, some races/groups commit many of those same evil acts today, yet do not get condemned for them.

Slavery still exists and is practiced in Africa and Asia. (Do you think it isn't? Then how do you explain the present day sale of black slaves in Libya?)

Genocide is still committed in Africa and Asia.

Writes Fred Reed:

If you are a white student in college, you doubtless hear daily that white people are evil, the principal cause of everything wrong with the world. Whiteness is bad, white people are bad. We are to blame for everything.

If you believe this, you are being gamed. What you are being told is nonsense. If you have the intelligence and self-respect to think for yourself, ask:

“What have other races and ethnic groups accomplished in the world compared to what we white people have?”

This question will be shocking to you because you have been carefully programmed not to think such things. But ask. I think you will find that the groups who complain the most have accomplished the least.

Sounds racist as hell, doesn't it? But is it? Is it a response to the institutional racism being force fed to college kids all across this nation, where they are being taught to hate white people even if they themselves are white? The latest PC bulls**t to come out of the colleges and related SJW groups is the notion of “white privilege”. What the hell is that? Hint – it's just another way of being racist against white people without worrying about being called a racist. In other words, it's hypocritical.

If think that white people are evil and have stolen everything that they have from all of the other races groups, then how do you explain this:

Euclidean geometry. Parabolic geometry. Hyperbolic geometry. Projective geometry. Differential geometry. Calculus: Limits, continuity, differentiation, integration. Physical chemistry. Organic chemistry. Biochemistry. Classical mechanics. The indeterminacy principle. The wave equation. The Parthenon. The Anabasis. Air conditioning. Number theory. Romanesque architecture. Gothic architecture. Information theory. Entropy. Enthalpy. Every symphony ever written. Pierre Auguste Renoir. The twelve-tone scale. The mathematics behind it, twelfth root of two and all that. S-p hybrid bonding orbitals. The Bohr-Sommerfeld atom. The purine-pyrimidine structure of the DNA ladder. Single-sideband radio. All other radio. Dentistry. The internal-combustion engine. Turbojets. Turbofans. Doppler beam-sharpening. Penicillin. Airplanes. Surgery. The mammogram. The Pill. The condom. Polio vaccine. The integrated circuit. The computer. Football. Computational fluid dynamics. Tensors. The Constitution. Euripides, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Aeschylus, Homer, Hesiod. Glass. Rubber. Nylon. Skyscrapers. The piano. The harpsichord. Elvis. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. (OK, that’s nerve gas, and maybe we didn’t really need it.) Silicone. The automobile. Really weird stuff, like clathrates, Buckyballs, and rotaxanes. The Bible. Bug spray. Diffie-Hellman, public-key cryptography, and RSA. Et cetera at great length.

What do all of these things have in common? Do I really need to tell you?

Thoughts On A Sunday

Warm spring weather has returned, with temps in the 60's today and expected for tomorrow, and temps in the 70's expected for Tuesday and Wednesday. That has meant I've let the Official Weekend Pundit Woodstove go out for now as it would easily reach the 80's inside The Manse should I keep it gong, even at its lowest burn rate.

None of this has prodded me to put up the Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower yet as I know Mother Nature can be a bitch and throw yet another snowstorm our way. I think I'll wait until the end of this month before I do so. However I did make arrangements for a slip for the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout (aka The Boat). I expect to get it into the water by mid-May at the latest.

One other milestone this weekend – We fired up the Official Weekend Pundit Grill for the first time since late fall, grilling some nice marinate sirloin tips!

And how was your weekend?

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If the Congressional Democrats didn't have double standards, they'd have no standards at all.

First, they bitch at Donald Trump because he didn't consult with them first before taking out some of Syria's chemical weapon delivery systems. Not that he needed to. We certainly saw enough of that with The Won, with him notifying them well after the fact.

Second, they bitch at Mitch McConnell because he used the “Reid Option”, aka 'the nuclear option', to get around a Democrat filibuster in the Senate over Neil Gorsuch's confirmation. They seemed to be fine with it when it wasn't aimed at them, but now that the table has turned they're appalled and apoplectic.

As they're learning, “Elections have consequences” means that it cuts both ways.

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I think this charts says it all. No further explanation is needed or required.

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I find it interesting that many anti-Trump folks point to his failures to keep his campaign promises. I also find it interesting that these same folks have totally ignored those he's already kept and those he's still working to complete.

Yeah, the repeal of ObamaCare didn't come off as everyone who was against it had hoped. That doesn't mean the effort is dead, the anti-Trumpers and ObamaCare panderers beliefs to the contrary.

There are other things in the works, such as severely paring back the unauthorized and, in some case, illegal regulations and 'administrative' laws that have been an increasingly heavy burden on businesses, large and small. These regulations and laws protect no one (except the rent-seekers), cost businesses billions to implement, assuming they can even do so.

The unelected bureaucrats have somehow come to believe that they decide what the laws are or should be, not Congress, not the courts (not even the Supreme Court), and not the President. They seem to have forgotten that they work for the President, are bound by the laws passed by Congress, and cannot ignore court rulings that seek to limit their overreach.

That Trump has made moves to eliminate these rules and administrative laws, even if it means firing slews of self-important bureaucrats and eliminating departments and agencies that serve no useful purpose other than wasting billions of taxpayer dollars and hampering the lives of the American people with draconian rules and regulations, should surprise no one who has been paying attention. It is a long overdue action that needs doing, and quickly.

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I don't know how I missed this, but it seems there may be an issue with voter fraud here in New Hampshire that might affect the outcome of November's election, specifically for the office of US Senator.

NH1 was told about 6,000 who registered to vote and voted same-day using out of state driver’s licenses. Then, they claim that is legal under state law. I would like to know which state law lets a non-resident vote in NH because I have yet to find one. You can use an out of state driver’s license in the extremely rare case you are in transition from one state to another – but temporary non-citizens must still follow their home state’s laws. There are 49 other states with various laws regarding their citizens voting in another state. It is illegal in all the states I have checked, and in a Federal Election, it is illegal and unconstitutional as well.

Considering the Senate race between then-GOP incumbent Kelly Ayotte and former NH Governor, Democrat Maggie Hassan was decide by less the 500 votes, with many of those 6000 'new' out-of-state voters located in college towns, one has to wonder if the race would have gone in Ayotte's favor if it weren't for those college voters. I also have to wonder how many, if any of those out-of-state college students also voted in their home states via absentee ballot?

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Businesses are finding out the hard way that buckling to the demands of the perpetually offended SJWs almost always backfires, The latest two cases – Target and Starbucks.

Starbucks shot itself in the foot when it stated it set aside 10,000 jobs exclusively for refugees. The result – its stock price plummeted and it saw a falloff in sales. What about jobs for Americans? These jobs aren't the so-called 'jobs Americans don't want to do'.

Target also ran afoul of its customer base, costing it a fortune in lost sales. The trigger? The retailer stated in blog post about its policy change in regards to allowing bathroom access for its transgendered customers and employees, capitulating to SJW hysteria.

What does any of this mean? It's simple really – the SJWs and their 'supporters' are a very small minority and being cowed by their demands has a price, that being losing customers. They should learn the lesson that it is their customers who are important to their survival, not self-important crybullies who are offended by everything.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the warm weather has returned, the snows are rapidly melting away, and we're counting the days until we can remove the shrink wrap from out boats.

Thoughts On A Sunday

While we didn't quite as much snow as some had predicted, the 8 inches that did fall was a pain to move. It was a very heavy snow compared to that seen over a week ago, making it a longer task to clean off the driveway. What usually takes a little over an hour took over two and there were still a few things left undone. (I ran out of gas. No, not the snowblower, but me.)

Ice melt and sand didn't get laid down until this morning.

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This guy should just vomit and get it over with. Then when he explains why he vomited he should be beaten like the asshole he is. And then beaten again because he's such an asshole.

And to think he's teaching your kids at Drexel University. If your kids are going there you should seriously consider either having them transfer elsewhere, demand some of the tuition money you paid be refunded, or work to have this asshole fired.

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I like Rob Schneider's take on the Democrats' problem and who is to blame.

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Here's more on the SJW-motivated non-kerfuffle about why Mike Pence and other men won't have dinner alone with a woman who is not his wife or significant other.

From one comment to the Atlantic article linked in the above:

1. Greatly expand definition of sexual harassment.
2. Make any accusation of sexual harassment career-ending.
3. Proclaim that women should always be believed when they accuse a man.
4. Complain that men won’t have 1-on-1 meetings with women.

The so-called gender feminists have created the conditions listed above and they wonder why men won't put themselves into a position that leaves them vulnerable to extortion, or worse, loss of their careers. The gender feminists call it sexism. Men call it prudent means to survive a hostile business environment.

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Ed Driscoll drills down into the debacle that was 60 Minutes Scott Pelley's interview with with Mike Cernovich. To say that Pelley had his head handed to him by Cernovich would be an understatement.

Scott Pelley: You wrote in August a story about Hillary Clinton’s medical condition the headlines said, “Hillary Clinton has Parkinson’s disease. Position confirms.” That’s quite a headline.

Mike Cernovich: Yeah, Dr. Ted Noel had se-sent a story to me anonymously, that I checked out, analyzing her medical condition. And –

Scott Pelley: It isn’t true.

Mike Cernovich: How do you know?

Scott Pelley: Well, she doesn’t seem to have any signs of Parkinson’s disease.

Mike Cernovich: She had a seizure and froze up walking into her motorcade that day caught by a citizen journalist.

Scott Pelley: Did you, well, she had pneumonia. I mean –

Mike Cernovich: How do you know?

Scott Pelley: Well, because that’s what was reported.

Mike Cernovich: By whom? Who told you that?

Scott Pelley: Well, the campaign told us that.

Mike Cernovich: Why would you trust a campaign?

Indeed. Why would any journalist trust the campaign of anyone running for office? The answer to that is simple – because those same journalists were campaign supporters with bylines. At that point they were no longer journalists but apparatchiks. What makes this even worse is that the so-called journalists actually believe that that's what they are supposed to do.

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Take the Snowflake Test.

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First, Venezuela fell under the sway of socialism and it went from being the richest nation is South America to the poorest. Another country, Brazil, also fell under the sway of socialism and also saw its fortunes decline and almost collapse. But at least Brazilians realized what was going on and worked to change it.

Here's what happened:


Maybe it's time for both the Venezuelans and our country's millenials to wake up to the fact that socialism doesn't friggin' work, ever.

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One has to wonder whether there will be a Second Civil War in the US, seeing as Democrats is some states believe that foreign laws should somehow hold sway here in the US over our own laws.

I'm sorry, but if people want to be judged based upon the laws from the country or culture they came from, the perhaps they should return to those places so they can be granted their wish.

If you break US laws while here in the US then you should be judged based upon US laws. That is part and parcel of any legal system. If you let the laws of another nation or culture to override US law, then US law becomes meaningless and the legal system breaks down. That can lead to war, particularly if those who believe in law and order and the sanctity of US law and the US Constitution decide they've had enough and decide to do something about it.

That will get ugly real quick and those who believe foreign laws should reign supreme will find themselves on the losing side and, quite possibly, dangling from the end of a rope for treason.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the snow that fell on Saturday is melting away rapidly, the local ski area is closing for the season, and where thoughts of boating season have returned.

A Purely Defensive (And Understandable) Move

I find it interesting, but unsurprising, that the Left has lost its friggin' mind over the revelation that Mike Pence prefers not to dine alone with women who are not his wife.

Reading some of the tweets and comments about his choice, one has to wonder if those who lambaste him and call him sexist truly understand the reason why he does this. I certain do. Just about any man alive today understands.

While Pence has both religious and moral reasons for doing so, many other men understand the risk entailed by doing so. Considering the hostile environment created by the various feminist groups, SJW's, and the perpetually offended Left, it's no wonder no sane man would want to put himself into a position that has a high risk of destroying his reputation, or worse, his career. Call it a necessary defensive move in a situation created by the very same people who are now slamming Pence for publicly stating his preferences and the reason behind them.

These morons need to get a clue.

Here We Go Again...Again

Yet another winter storm is bearing down on New England, with snowfall here in central New Hampshire expected to be between 10 and 12 inches. While the TV media isn’t pushing the whole Storm O’ Doom scenario. Whether it is because even they are tired of the overblown doomsday scenario, knowing no one will buy it. There isn’t that sense of urgency we usually see. Folks aren’t scrambling about, stocking up on bread, milk, ice melt, snow shovels, or any of the other usual storm fare.

Despite the size of the storm, expected snowfall totals, and high possibilities of the power outages, it seems everyone is acting resigned to the fact. Call it storm fatigue. Everyone is tired of winter weather. We’ve had more than a few weeks of warm spring-like weather, only to be hauled back into winter with cold temperatures and heavy snowfalls.

Once again I will break out the Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower, a snowshovel and spade, as well as another 50 pound bag of ice melt and a hundredweight of sand. Once again I will spend a couple of hours clearing away the snow and making our driveway passable again.

I would like to think this will be the last big storm to close out winter weather…but I’m not holding my breath because I know Mother Nature is a bitch.

Thoughts On A Sunday

We survived yet another fading gasp of Old Man Winter, receiving 6 inches of snow on Friday. Much of that snow is already gone. With temps predicted to be in the 50's most of the week I expect we'll see quite a bit more of the snow remaining from the Nor'easter we had over a week ago to diminish as well.

One advantage of the extended warmer temps is less reliance on the Official Weekend Pundit Woodstove to keep The Manse toasty warm. Our most recent propane delivery this past Thursday was only 104 gallons. That covered over 9 week's worth of propane use for heating, hot water, and the clothes dryer, even through some bitterly cold temperatures. At the end of the heating season I expect we'll still have close to one cord of wood left.

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With the failure of the Ryan Bill to repeal Obamacare, it appears that which is old is new again. In this case a replica of a repeal bill that passed in 2015 and was vetoed by President Obama sits in committee and may be fast-tracked for a floor vote.

There was heavy support for the 2015 bill, but unfortunately not enough votes to override Obama's veto.

Maybe the third time for repeal will be the charm.

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This bears repeating again and again: Venezuela used to be the richest nations in South America. Now it is the poorest. What's worse is that it was done to the Venezuelan people on purpose.

See what happens when those in power ignore both history and Ayn Rand's warnings?

What's making it even worse is that they government has stepped up punishing the very few who are still capable of feeding the hungry citizens.

That will turn out well.

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What happens when a bunch of anti-Trump protesters make the mistake of pepper spraying some Trump supporters at a pro-Trump rally?

They get their asses kicked, and rightfully so.

These wannabe fascists are used to facing people who won't fight back, so they're surprised when their intended victims “punch back twice as hard.”

Like Glenn Reynolds, I expect to see less of these types of tactics if the Progressive protesters consistently get their heads handed to them.

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“If there is no God, then murder isn't wrong.”

Some of the more lunatic Progressives might actually believe that...until someone decides to test their belief by trying to murder them.

Here's Dennis Prager's take on the issue:


What “sounds good on paper” rarely works that way in real life. It's time the Progressives/Socialists/Communists/Anarchists come to realize that as there are more than a few examples in history. Then again, they tend to ignore history, particularly history that refuses to back up their ideology.

(H/T GraniteGrok)

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As if no one saw this one coming.

A new Rasmussen poll shows that only 35 percent of those likely US voters polled favor living in a so-called “sanctuary city”.

Apparently the other 65% understand the major downsides to living in such cities and want nothing to do with it.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where warmer weather is returning, dreams of boating have returned, and where the woodpile is shrinking at a much slower pace.

Friends In Safe Spaces

It seems it's another day for a timely video, in this case by way of GraniteGrok.

All I can say is that it is an appropriate commentary on the state of our colleges and universities and the precious fragile snowflakes who infest them.


Yup, I'd say they nailed it.

Domino's Tribute Ad

I've seen this ad a couple of times over the past two days and I had to post it.

While I am not a Domino's customer (they're too far way for delivery), nor am I promoting their products, I felt it was necessary to post this video as it does pay tribute to one of my favorite John Hughes movies*. It even includes one of the original cast members from that movie.


*For those of you unfamiliar with Hughes' litany of successful movies, particularly those of you in your teens, the movie is Ferris Bueller's Day Off. If you haven't ever seen it, you should.

Thoughts On A Sunday

Much of the Lakes Region of New Hampshire is still recovering from last Tuesday's Nor'easter, with some folks not having seen their power restored until today.

At least the roads are all free and clear of any residual ice and snow. Even the very steep driveway here at The Manse was passable the day after the storm passed, though it took a bit of effort on my part to make sure that was so. Moving 19+ inches of snow with a balky snowblower was an adventure in and of itself. Without the help of my neighbor, Oracle Al, it would have been much more difficult. (I refer to him as Oracle Al because he works for Oracle. 'Al' is not his real name, but I had to call him something!)

Warm spring-like weather will be here for Monday and Tuesday, helping even more of the snow to melt away. It is appropriate as the first day of spring is Monday!

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I'm not sure I like this modern version of the Good Samaritan. It's nothing more than yet another version of virtue signaling, something that does no one any good.

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The News Junkie asks “Why does climate alarmism look like a scam?”

Because it is!

It's a multi-billion dollar scam being perpetrated by people who really don't give a s**t about the climate or the people they're scamming. They just want the money.

If they say it isn't about the money, it's about the money.

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Who says there's no such thing as karma?

Rachel Maddow thought she had the dirt on President Trump when she got a copy of his 1995 tax returns. She played it up on MSLSD as if she would be revealing some dirty laundry and have the President by the short and curlies.

It turns out there was no 'there' there. His return was pretty straightforward and plain vanilla.

After this fiasco, Maddow's ratings have plummeted. (Not that they were all that good to begin with. Now they're even worse.) She's also a laughing stock.

It couldn't happen to a 'nicer' Progressive apologist/propagandist.

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When virtue signaling turns to rape.

I'm sure some of those same folks will be trying to explain to the 14-year old victim that she shouldn't be upset by being raped by two illegal immigrants in her school.

These 'More Virtuous Than Thou' assholes need to get a clue, but I'm not holding my breath that will.

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And anti-capitalist leader demands “unapologetically” that white men and women pay her “because they consume intellectual, emotional & creative labor 24/7 w/o my consent.”

If she wants me to pay her, particularly for things that I have created. I have one question for her - “Do you want that payment to be in .308 or .40 caliber?”

This deluded soul needs some mental help. I suggest involuntary commitment until she's rational again.

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Joel Kotkin has the right of it as Hollywood becomes less important and less influential due to it's self-inflicted wounds.

No industry is more identified with Southern California than entertainment. Yet, in the past, the industry’s appeal has lain in identifying with the always-changing values and mythos of American society. But, today, that connection is being undermined, not just by technology, but also by a seemingly self-conscious decision to sever the industry’s links with roughly half of the population.

As Glenn Reynolds comments, “Also, their movies mostly stink.”

Yes. Yes they do. It's one reason I have only been to a movie theater once in the past two years.

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David Starr tears into Obama's 54.5 MPG mandate, telling us we really wouldn't want to drive a car that gets that kind of fuel economy,particularly if it can't carry the spouse, kids, and all the luggage on a road trip. As he writes, “Heck you cannot get 54.5 MPG out of motorcycle, let alone any sort of decent car.”

Indeed.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the local ski resorts and snowmobile trails have received a boon from Mother Nature, preparations for boating season have ceased (for now), and where the woodpile is shrinking a somewhat slower pace.

Venezuela Closer To The Brink

It is fascinating watching as Venezuela collapses, seeing it as yet another real life example of what Ayn Rand warned us about 60 years ago. It went from being one of the wealthiest nations in South America to the poorest. It wasn't happenstance or natural disaster which brought about this transformation from wealth to poverty. It was caused by deliberate actions taken by Venezuela's socialist government.

Anyone even slightly cognizant of Socialism's major fault, that being that eventually the run out of other people's money and everything then falls apart, could see that Hugo Chavez and his minions chose to ignore the lessons history has taught about that gawd-awful ideology. It's like Chavez, Maduro, and the other Chavistas used Atlas Shrugged as a how-to manual and not a warning.

Their latest dive into Ayn Rand's dystopian tome: Arresting bakers because they can't make enough bread.

Facing a bread shortage that is spawning massive lines and souring the national mood, the Venezuelan government is responding this week by detaining bakers and seizing establishments.

In a press release, the National Superintendent for the Defense of Socioeconomic Rights said it had charged four people and temporarily seized two bakeries as the socialist administration accused bakers of being part of a broad “economic war” aimed at destabilizing the country.

Juan Crespo, the president of the Industrial Flour Union called Sintra-Harina, which represents 9,000 bakeries nationwide, said the government’s heavy hand isn’t going to solve the problem.

“The government isn’t importing enough wheat,” he said. “If you don’t have wheat, you don’t have flour, and if you don’t have flour, you don’t have bread.”

He said the country needs four, 30-ton boats of wheat every month to cover basic demand.

So it isn't that there isn't enough wheat, and hence flour to bake bread. It's that the greedy bakers are 'destabilizing the country'. To me it appears the Venezuelan government has no understanding of cause and effect, meaning that they either don't know or don't care that no amount of coercion can force bakers to make enough bread if there are no ingredients available.

We've seen that before when the Venezuelan government chastised, and in some cases, arrested factory owners and managers because their factories weren't producing any goods. That there were no raw materials available and/or the electrical supply was spotty or non-existent didn't make any difference. It was the fault of the 'greedy factory owners destabilizing the country' that was causing the problem. Funny that the arrests did not motivate other factory owners to get their factories operating again seeing that they were in exactly the same situation as those who were detained – no materials and no power.

That the Chavistas were the ones who created this crisis to begin with is something they can never admit. It has to be the fault of someone else. Therefore there will be no changes until a revolution takes place that removes the Chavistas from power.

Yet Another Storm O' Doom

The snow started falling right around 7 this morning just as the WP Mom and I were making our way to our local polling place to participate in our town elections and town/school warrant articles voting. In an amazingly short period of time the road conditions deteriorated.

Less than a mile from The Manse we came across a bad accident, one that turned out to be fatal. That was after all of 15 minutes of snowfall.

Now one might ask why we were braving the increasingly bad conditions on such a day. As I mentioned above, it was our Town Meeting day which included electing town and school officials as well as voting on various warrant articles that covered the gamut of town/school spending, changes to zoning ordinances how certain default budgets would be prepared. While Town Meeting has no implications at state or federal level, meaning a delay in holding the meeting would have no impact at the state or federal level, New Hampshire state law doesn't allow 'snow day' adjustments during elections. But a contradictory state law gives the town/school moderator the power to reschedule town/school meetings. Which one holds sway?

Of course the governor and the Secretary of State say the first has precedence. But a number of towns around the state ignored that 'advice' and rescheduled their town meetings/elections until Thursday.

You might ask why we here in the Granite State aren't prepared for snow storms like the one we are experiencing at the moment? We are. But with the rapid snowfall rate and even more rapidly deteriorating road conditions one should ask why we would put our fellow townsfolk at such a risk for something that could be postponed for a day or two. When the snowfall rates are high enough the plow crews can't keep up and the road become slick, and in some cases, dangerous to travel. Considering the Weather Guys^TM have forecast up to 2 feet of snow in our area with high winds (up to 50MPH gusts) to start a little later in the day, traveling will become even more dangerous than it has already been. This morning's traffic fatality and other accidents is proof of that.

As an aside, the local TV news operations haven't been going over the top with their all too common “Storm O' Doom” coverage. In fact, most have been rather low key. So far I haven't seen a single on-the-scene reporter reach down to pick up a handful of snow to show that it is indeed snowing and accumulating. They and the talking heads at the studio have merely reminded folks to stay off the roads if they don't need to be out, and if they do, to exercise caution and common sense, and to take their time getting to their destination.

Frankly, that's quite refreshing.

Thoughts on A Sunday

It's been a cold and windy weekend here in central New Hampshire, with winter letting us know it isn't done with us yet. Large snowstorm is headed our way and is supposed to drop between 12 and 18 of snow starting some time Tuesday morning.

One of the issues with the high winds has been downed tree limbs and power outages. Power was out here at The Manse this past Thursday for a couple of hours, caused by the winds dropping one of those aforementioned tree limbs onto power lines nearby.

Another issue has been spotty Internet access. It started a few weeks ago and it wasn't until recently I was able to figure out that we kept losing connection to the 'Net every time it was windy out. That tells me there's some kind of problem outside The Manse, likely a loose or bad connector either on the side of The Manse our out at the pole.

I have had this problem once before when I resided at the Official Weekend Pundit Lakeside Manse some years ago. It took a while for the local cable company to figure out it was a bad connector on a splitter box out on the street. The cable guy is supposed to be here first thing Tuesday morning (just ahead of the storm) to fix the problem...I hope. Until then posting will be problematic. (I couldn't post anything last night because I had little or no connectivity most of the day.)

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I found it interesting that The New Republic has propose a so-called Bluexit to separate the Blue States from the Red States. It reads a little tongue-in-cheek, but I do have one complaint about the premise, that being that they included New Hampshire as a Blue State. We are not.

While our congressional delegation is all Democrat, something that happens now and then in our contrarian state, our state legislature, executive counsel, and governor are Republican. Our legislature recently passed Constitutional Carry and our governor happily signed it. The governor is working hard to trim back if not eliminate some of our corporate taxes as well as do away with our Interest and Dividend taxes. (New Hampshire has no income tax on wages but it does tax the interest and dividends paid out to residents. If it goes away then no income by an individual would taxed by the state. So far there's heavy support for the measure.)

While our previous governor, Maggie Hassan - now one of our two US senators - tried hard to make New Hampshire a carbon copy of the People's Republic of Massachusetts, the legislature dismantled many of her proposals and they never saw the light of day. She did manage, however, to create a huge budget deficit at one point, cooking the numbers on projected revenues including some from casino licensing. One problem – casino gambling is not legal in New Hampshire and I hope it never will be.

How does any of that make New Hampshire a Blue State? It must be wishful thinking on the part of The New Republic.

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Frankly, I'm expecting a civil war in California.

How could it not happen when California's Democrats in the Golden State have been waging war on the poor and middle class for years?

California Democrats frequently bloviate about helping the poor and downtrodden, yet two recent examples — a campaign by the nation’s second-largest public-school district to crush charter alternatives and new state legislation that will boost the cost of housing development — demonstrate how liberal policies can be a direct assault on the financial prospects of the state’s lowest-income residents.

Some of the sore losers on the Left Coast talk about #Calexit, but I think they'll find that most of the counties and communities away from the coast will fight that tooth and nail, knowing that if #Calexit became a reality most of them would be relegated to the status of serfs (as if they aren't already). It would be The Hunger Games brought to reality.

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So it's come to this.

The USDA threatens to shut down a farm for opposing gay marriage.

How is it the USDA has any say in the matter? How is it it can violate the First Amendment rights of the farm owner with impunity?

Oh, that's right. I forgot. The USDA isn't bound by the law because it believes in administrative law rather than constitutional law. It makes up its own rules and laws as it sees fit.

I see a class action suit in the future. Or may President Trump can issue an Executive Order overturning the USDA's stand and fire the bureaucrats behind this debacle.

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Talk about irony!

Now that the shoe is on the other foot, Nancy Pelosi wants to know what's in a bill before it's passed.

Where was that concern when she was Speaker of the House and pushed that gawdawful ObamaCare bill? As we know, it was nowhere.

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I covered the subject of China'[s so-called 'Ghost Cities' in the past. One would think that by know there would be hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people now living in them, but you'd be wrong.

When I covered this issue, there were maybe a dozen such ghost cities. Now there are at least 50.

It looks like the trend is accelerating with even more cities planned to be built.

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Want to see the negative effects of gender feminism? Then just look here at the Before and After photos of these poor women who don't realize they've been lied to.

While some out there may say am merely projecting my patriarchal definition of beauty on these womyn, I can say that I am not. I just don't like seeing people purposely mutilating themselves in order to meet someone else's definition of what's acceptable. (See, it works both ways. My definition of what is acceptable versus someone else's definition. Which one is right? I don't really care, but at least I don't expect women to mutilate themselves in order to 'fit it' unlike those who want women to meet the gender feminist ideal.)

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Listening to the bleating from the LSM-DNC, one would think that a new president has never fired US Attorneys appointed by their predecessor.

Bill Clinton fired every sitting US Attorney, some 90+ of them, after he took office and there wasn't a peep out of the media other than reporting that it took place. But Trump asks for the resignation of 46 of them and it's 'unprecedented' or 'purely political' or 'illegal', particularly after one of them balks and Trump fires him.

The LSM ignores the fact that they serve at the pleasure of the President, period. Appointments to these positions are political and always have been. But the fact that a bunch of very liberal US Attorneys have been told their services are no longer required is now seen as wrong. To quote The Won, “Elections have consequences.”

Indeed they do.

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I liked the title of this op-ed piece in the NYT Sunday magazine: The Dangerous Safety of College Campuses.

The moral of the recent melee at Middlebury College, where students shouted down and chased away a controversial social scientist, isn’t just about free speech, though that’s the rubric under which the ugly incident has been tucked. It’s about emotional coddling. It’s about intellectual impoverishment.

Somewhere along the way, those young men and women — our future leaders, perhaps — got the idea that they should be able to purge their world of perspectives offensive to them. They came to believe that it’s morally dignified and politically constructive to scream rather than to reason, to hurl slurs in place of arguments.

They have been done a terrible disservice. All of us have, and we need to reacquaint ourselves with what education really means and what colleges do and don’t owe their charges.

Physical safety? Absolutely. A smooth, validating passage across the ocean of ideas? No. If anything, colleges owe students turbulence, because it’s from a contest of perspectives and an assault on presumptions that truth emerges — and, with it, true confidence.

Indeed. Coddling these fragile snowflakes helps no one, leaves them crippled and unable to deal with real life, and pushes them down a destructive path that will lead to something far worse than what they've been 'protesting' against.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter weather is returning with a vengeance, dreams of spring have retreated, and where we're keeping the woodstove well stoked.

Thoughts On A Sunday

We've dived back into winter temperatures with a 60ºF change in temperatures between Thursday and yesterday. We went from 64ºF to 4ºF along with plenty of high wind to make the wind chill somewhere around -20ºF.

I don't mind the cold all that much, but this swing from cold to warm to cold and back again is getting pretty old.

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This follows some of what I posted yesterday about too many people not knowing how stuff works.

In this case it appears there are people who actually take pride in not knowing how to do things those of us of the older generations can do without even thinking. Being intentionally ignorant about such things merely tells us you're too frickin' immature and are incapable of dealing with life as it is.

It's time to grow up, snowflakes!

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You know the oh-so-tolerant campus Progressives are showing their true colors – pure fascism – when they become violent and start sending non-progressive college professors and average American Trump supporters to hospitals after having beaten them all in the name of anti-fascism.

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Are America's self-anointed elite really elite?

No, not by a long shot. They aren't even close. What they are are run-of-the-mill snobs holding a belief that they are somehow better than those outside their circle...or perhaps I should call it what it is, a bubble.

The other question is are they ready for the rude awakening they're about to receive?

Again, the answer is no.

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Here's your Whining Whiner of the Day.

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Talk about the Law of Unintended Consequences coming to bite you in the ass, there's this little tidbit from the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota.

Tribal leaders say a slowing economy and a snowy winter contributed to losses at the Prairie Knights Casino. Also, the closure of the casino’s main access road due to the oil pipeline protest hurt the facility’s bottom line.

“It’s like it’s fallen off a cliff,” said tribal financial officer Jerome Long Bottom. “When the bridge was shut off, the numbers just plummeted.”

Could it be that the protesters who were there to protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline might have had something to do with it. Could all of the trash, garbage, and human waste they left behind for someone else to clean up have caused the access road to the casino to be closed?

I am sure the Standing Rock Sioux are just overjoyed at the $6 million loss in revenue for their tribe caused by the oh-so-concerned guilty white liberals.

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Due to some continuing connectivity issues I have cut this week's edition of TOAS short. It seems that any time the wind blows I lose my connection to the net. I have already contacted my provider, one of the local cable MSOs, and they have confirmed there is indeed a problem as they could not maintain contact with my cable modem. So with that, that is the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the warm weather has fled...until Wednesday, the local townsfolk are looking close at the town warrants, and where my woodpile has resumed shrinking.

Does The Fact That Clarke's Law Is Becoming A Reality Signal The Downfall Of Civilization?

A long time ago, science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke posited that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” As Richard Fernandez has posted, we are seeing the return of magic, and it's not good.

The 21st century is turning out to be mix of incompetence and brilliance, high technology and primitivism, fastidiousness and brutality all coexisting side by side.

--snip--

Too many everyday things are already indistinguishable from magic to the average man.  Four centuries ago everyone knew how everything in their village worked.  Even a hundred years ago an intelligent person could figure out how anything he would likely encounter, even the steam locomotive.  But today people are surrounded by things about whose workings they haven't a clue.  Medical devices, synthetic pharmaceuticals, designer pathogens.  The proportion of those who can explain the world is gradually shrinking.

This is something I have noticed over the years.

Just within my lifetime I have seen the increase in the level of ignorance about how things work. I'm not talking about just the high tech gizmos that have become ubiquitous, but items and technologies that have been around for generations. I'm talking about things like internal combustion engines, power generation (and the distribution grids that go with it), aircraft, radio and TV, telephones (the plain old telephone systems that require wires), telegraphs, film cameras, light bulbs, steam engines, looms, and a whole host of other tech that has been around for a century or more and are still in use today. When we get into the 21st century tech that we use every day the level of ignorance about how it all works is staggering and getting worse. As I have heard more than one colleague opine over the years, “People think all of this neat wiz bang stuff works by FM – F***kin' Magic.” It never ceases to surprise me how many people I know outside of the geek network haven't a clue how things work. They just know that it does neat stuff.

Many of these folks think that electricity comes from a wall outlet, food comes from a supermarket, gasoline comes from a gas station, and the Internet comes from thin air. They haven't a clue about all of the 'hidden' things that make all of those things possible or how any of it works.

As Richard has written, the number of people who understand it all and can explain it is shrinking. At some point those of us who do understand it, know how it works, know how to fix it, and know how to make new things will be looked upon with awe, and most probably, fear. We will have become the new wizards, or better yet, Techno-Mages, to borrow a term from one of my favorite sci-fi TV series, Babylon 5.

As I mentioned before, this is not a good thing. On the other hand, this could lead to something created from the mind of Ayn Rand – Galt's Gulch. Those of us who understand science and technology, who can actually create things never seen before and extend mankind's knowledge, will sequester themselves away from the growing ignorance and barbarity and wait for everything to fall apart. Or better yet, get ourselves off of this world and expand out into the rest of the solar system and beyond. But I digress.

Such a division is not a good thing as it can lead to unintended consequences. As Robert Heinlein noted:

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as “bad luck.”

If you look at the above quote and then at Atlas Shrugged you'll see he is describing exactly what happened in Rand's dystopian tome.

Think it can't happen? You'd be wrong. We're already seeing the effect today as the willful ignorance typified by reliance on pseudo-science and so-called 'spiritual' beliefs supplant the knowledge of technology and science. The time will come when they denigrate those who are the keepers of all of that hard won knowledge, assuming it hasn't already reached that point.

Am I painting a dark picture of what ignorance about how things work might bring about? Yup, absolutely. Am I off the mark about a likely outcome if this ignorance continues unabated? No way in hell. If anything I'm probably understating the effects of the problem.