Thoughts On A Sunday

Even though the calendar says it's spring, the weather gods have been saying otherwise.

We did manage to avoid the last two out of the five Nor'easters that came this way, meaning we had little, if any snow to move. But it has been below normal temperatures, though that's supposed to change late this coming week.

At least the temps haven't kept us from making preparations for downsizing because at the moment The Manse is too big for us, so we're putting it on the market and will buy/build a smaller place, preferable one on a relatively flat piece of land that doesn't have a driveway with a 23% grade.

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It seems some of the kids who protested for more safety at their school are going to get it...good and hard. It's obvious that they didn't think that their platform against mass school shootings, which by the way are not an epidemic, would come back to bite them.

From the very founding of our nation, we learned that order and safety can be just as devastating — if not more so — than chaos. Just as liberty and chaos are closely related, so is tyranny and order. You might live in a more safe world where danger is kept at bay, but there’s a good chance you won’t like how the powers that be go about it.

And the Parkland students just learned that lesson. Needless to say, the freedom they just gave up to get safety isn’t sitting well with them.

According to the Daily Wire, the Superintendent of the Broward County School System issued an order that all students must have their student ID on them at all times. Furthermore, the students may only have clear backpacks, that the school will issue free of cost, that display their contents for everyone to see.

They really didn't like that idea, not realizing that was what they were asking for. If they really wanted to help prevent another occurrence then they should have been demanding that law enforcement and the judicial system do its job. If they had then the murder of 17 people in Broward County, Florida would not have happened. Adding more gun control laws on top of those already in existence but not being adequately enforced won't solve the problem, something the kids do not understand. Then again, the folks that helped them plan these 'spontaneous' walkouts knew this, but it wouldn't push their agenda if they informed the kids.

What I find ironic is the tweet from one student protesting the measures being taken at Parkland inadvertently made the case against tougher gun restrictions when she posted:

“So, we’re giving up all illusions of normalcy. okay. why should 3300 students be penalized for the failure of security to do their job?” asked MSDHS student @Nikta04.

Heh.

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One would think that the Left and their MSM mouthpieces would have learned this lesson by now, that being “Don't trash the folks living in 'flyover' country,” particularly if you don't actually know who those folks are.

Apparently Matthew Dowd didn't get that memo.

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I find it interesting that the Progressive folks who have managed to take one-third of the seats in our little town's Budget Committee now believe that they control the purse strings and will be dictating to the other 8 members how we're all going to be voting to greatly increase spending (and taxes), particularly on the school side of the budget.

I think they're going to find that it isn't that easy and that the voters aren't as stupid as they think they are. If they propose large spending increases I believe they'll find the proposed budgets will be voted down because with few exceptions, no one wants to see their tax bills increase by between 5 and 8 percent. (Mind you, this conclusion about the increased taxes is based upon rumor and innuendo, but I have also heard first hand one new member has stated their intentions to increase spending, specifically school spending even though our student population has shrunk by over 10% to date and continues to do so.)

The budget season this coming fall is going to be 'interesting' to say the least. Here's hoping that reality will reassert itself and these new members will come to realize they aren't going to get what they want...but I ain't holding my breath.

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Here it is, all this time we thought that the Rothchilds controlled the weather, and we now find it's actually Big Chocolate. Who'da thunk it?

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Best sign ever at #MARCHFOR OUR LIVES protests. It puts everything into perspective for those who haven't a clue.

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As a follow up, here are the 10 Dumbest Signs at the #MARCH FOR OUR LIVES protests.

We got to keep a balance here, don'cha see.

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I have to make a note that while we have been preparing The Manse to go on the market, we've been amazed at the amount of dreck and junk we have accumulated in our 13 years residing here. All the stuff we thought was so important to hold onto a few short years ago has us scratching our heads, wondering “Why did we keep that...that...whatever it is?”

It's amazing to see how quickly we accumulate that stuff, how something that we figured we could find a use for 'sometime in the future' became just another item taking up space and gathering dust.

We easily went through about 3/4ths of our basement yesterday and have a very large “take to the dump” pile. We have a much much smaller pile for “goes to Goodwill”. There is still quite a bit of stuff to go through, mostly my electronics/computer/ham radio parts stash, something we will tackle next weekend. I expect that by the time we are done a good 85% of the stuff we have in the basement will be gone. It's just that much less stuff we'll have to pack and move when the time comes.

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I came across this again, something from last August, that has certainly made me think more than once. I have posted about it once before, but it bears repeating.

Are some cultures superior?

Yes, without a doubt. Next question?

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With the attempted hacks of our power systems by Russia (and the successful hacks of Ukraine's power systems), I am glad to see that the power companies and the US government are finally taking notice and trying to do something to prevent future breaches.

Looking at this from an engineer's point of view, I have one very important question ask in regards to the security of our electrical grid: Why the heck are these systems in any way connected to the Internet?

They should be standalone systems that have absolutely no connectivity to the Internet in any way, shape, or form. The utilities own thousands of miles of dark fiber that they lease to customers, much of that fiber run along their existing transmission routes using what is called optical ground wire (OPGW) which is an electrical cable that has optical fiber buried at its core, allowing utilities to provide both electricity and telecommunications using the same cable. So it can't be because the utilities don't have the fiber available, right? So why shouldn't they build their own network that is entirely air-gapped from the Internet? (Such a system wouldn't have any wireless access points connected to it because WAPs can be hacked.) With no connections to the Internet, the utilities command and control networks cannot be hacked from someone's computer in Moscow or Sophia or Beijing. You can't easily hack something that has no external points of entry. (I'm not saying it can't be done, but that usually requires someone to physically break into the network to attach hardware that is connected to the Internet.)

The standalone network should be heavily encrypted to deter would-be crackers from running scripts to break into the system. Make it defense in depth. But for cryin' out loud, disconnect the utilities' networks from the friggin' Internet as step one of making them more secure.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we're still waiting for spring, spring cleaning (at least indoors) is continuing apace, and where thoughts of the upcoming boating season have started to intrude.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It seems to me that our winter has become something of a paradox.

We had temps in the 70's in February, but are seeing below zero temps in western and northern New Hampshire this morning. Daytime temps will be more what one would expect for late January/mid February rather than two days before the spring equinox.

We experienced three Nor'easters in 11 days, something we usually see in that same late January/mid February period. It's definitely been a head-scratcher of a winter this year.

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Has the MSM deteriorated so much that it's reached the point where it can no longer be bothered to spend the time check whether an important story is true? When some of the big media outlets reported that Trump had fired McMaster, it probably sounded like a great scoop and they ran with it. The problem?

It wasn't true. McMaster was still on the job.

I don't know why anyone bothers listening to the MSM anymore...unless they do it to confirm their own biases.

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If anyone needs an example of cognitive dissonance, this is it.

There was a murder-attempted suicide at a mall in Thousand Oaks, California. A woman was killed and her murderer attempted suicide. Of course one of the gun grabbers decided she could use that tragedy as a means of 'sticking it to the gun nuts'. However it is quite apparent to anyone paying attention that she didn't think the whole thing through before posting her tweet.

Where were all the “responsible gun owners” who “have their guns for protection” when someone was shot dead in Thousand Oaks hours ago??? If u want the right to own a gun that comes with the responsibility of protecting ppl. Thats what a “well regulated militia” means u gun nuts.

Since almost all gun owners are responsible and law abiding people, there was no way they could have been able to intervene with their own guns to stop this tragedy. Why?

Because the mall where the shooting took place was a “Gun Free Zone”. That means those same law abiding gun owners would not have been armed because, surprise surprise, they followed the law and left their guns elsewhere.

See what I mean by cognitive dissonance? She doesn't like gun owners, then lambastes them for not breaking the law by carrying guns in a gun free zone (a mall) in order to stop a murder. It's a “Damned if you do. Damned if you don't,” scenario. In other words it's a no-win situation for law abiding gun owners.

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You know our society is in trouble when our young college students cannot see that something like human sacrifice is a reprehensible and criminal act. When their response to this is “Who are we to judge?” then you know we are in a lot of trouble.

Basically what they are saying is that there is no right, there is no wrong, and that evil doesn't exist. What that tells us is that they are amoral, incapable of judging anything, and that they should never be allowed anywhere near an office that bestows upon them any power to make decisions for any of us.

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Just when you thought they couldn't get any crazier...

It appears the state of California has decided that it is at war with against a number of red states as proven by Assembly Bill 1887. The bill, which prohibits “state-funded and state-sponsored travel to Alabama and several other red states Thursday due to laws that could discriminate against the LGBTQ community (e.g., prohibiting adoptions).”

Yet again there are unintended consequences to such legislation, one of them being a group of 60 future rocket scientists from Citrus College.

The Citrus College Rocket Owls were one of 60 school teams invited to Huntsville to compete in NASA Student Launch Program in April. Groups from 23 states are competing in the 18th annual event in which teams design, build, test and fly a high-altitude reusable rocket.

Despite their invite, Citrus College, a community college located outside Los Angeles, won’t be attending. Last year, California announced it was banning publicly funded travel to Alabama and seven other states due to laws that could discriminate against the LGBTQ community. In Alabama’s case, it was a law that allows adoption agencies to follow faith-based policies, which includes not placing children with same-sex couples.

Notice that is says could discriminate, not do discriminate. So not one dime will go to get these STEM students to an activity that could boost their careers. But the state has no problem spending $70 billion+ on a high speed train to nowhere than benefits no one.

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And that's the abbreviated news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter temps have returned with a vengeance, the snows of the previous two weeks aren't melting, and where the spring equinox is only 2 days away.

Thoughts On A Sunday

Here it is, the first day of Daylight Saving Time 2018.

While I haven't yet felt the effects of the time shift (I figure that will make itself felt tomorrow morning at 5:30 a.m.) I will say that I do like being on DST and figure we should do away with Standard Time as at this point it is an annoyance. More on that below.

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We have sufficiently recovered from the last Nor'easter we experienced, but it appears we will be seeing another one come Tuesday, with snowfalls in this area forecast (for the moment) to be between 5 and 10 8 and 14 inches.

What else is happening on Tuesday that this new Nor'easter will likely affect?

Town Meeting.

Last year at this time we were also visited by a Nor'easter that severely disrupted Town Meetings/Town Elections across the state. Those who managed to get out to vote early weren't as affected as those who waited until later in the day. Blizzard conditions existed which made traveling dangerous. (I can attest to that because our town experienced a traffic fatality that morning. In fact the WP Mom and I drove past it shortly after it occurred as we were on our way to the polls.)

Here's hoping that this one will not be nearly as disruptive as last year's storm.

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As mentioned above, Daylight Saving Time has returned. The twice yearly time shift has made its presence known again, inconveniencing many people and causing disruptions all across the nation.

Like many, I wonder why we bother any more. Living at the extreme eastern side and northern extremes of the Eastern Time Zone in the US, DST is great while Standard Time is a pain. I am not the only one questioning the utility of the twice annual time change, something that has been taking place on-and-off for 100 years.

It’s absurd – and fitting – that a century later, opponents and supporters of daylight saving are still not sure exactly what it does. Despite its name, daylight saving has never saved anyone anything. But it has proven to be a fantastically effective retail spending plan.

--snip--

Why do we still do it?

Today we know that changing the clocks does influence our behavior. For example, later sunset times have dramatically increased participation in afterschool sports programs and attendance at professional sports events. In 1920, The Washington Post reported that golf ball sales in 1918 – the first year of daylight saving – increased by 20 percent.

While I have no problem with people playing more golf, that isn't why I would support remaining on DST (or a shift to the Atlantic Time Zone, as Florida's, Maine's, and New Hampshire's legislatures have decided would be a good thing to do), eliminating the twice yearly shift. (Maine and New Hampshire won't make the move unless neighboring Massachusetts does likewise.) My reason – I don't like having to drive both to and from work in the dark in December and January. I don't like having to perform outside work in the dark after work (usually removing snow from our driveway). I don't like having to take an after-work walk in the dark. It's dangerous enough without adding that to it.

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Basically, being at the eastern edge of our time zone and being as far north as we are, Standard Time makes little sense to me.

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Has Hollywood forgotten that their purpose is to entertain? Without a doubt, yes. Now it's all about virtue signaling and preaching to the ignorant deplorables. Too bad the deplorables have been increasingly voting with their wallets, or in this case, keeping their wallets closed seeing that Hollywood has seen its worse box office year in decades. I expect it will only get worse...for them.

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You know the whole social justice engineering scam has gone too far when it raises its ugly head at funeral homes.

Yes, funeral homes

This silly s**t has got to stop.

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Sometimes, things go wrong. At other times, things go really wrong.

Here are five examples of things that went really wrong.

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Oh, I'm sure this will provide incentive for the police department to rush right over when they're being robbed.

It appears that a coffee shop in Oakland, California won't serve coffee to police officers for “the physical and emotional safety of our customers and ourselves.”

Because cops aren't welcome there I have to wonder whether the criminal element in Oakland will now see the shop as easy pickings since they know they don't have to worry about police being anywhere near there? That also begs the question whether the shop - Hasta Muerta Coffee - will file a lawsuit against the PD and city if they are robbed? It being California, I'd have to say is absolutely 'yes'.

California has become an insane asylum run by the inmates.

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I wish I could remember where I read this, but the meme stuck with me.

With third-wave feminists decrying 'toxic masculinity' and promoting single motherhood because men aren't necessary or useful when it comes to raising children, one has to wonder why it is then that boys raised by single mothers tend to have more problems when it comes to things like school, social interactions, criminal behavior, and suicide. Could it be because that 'toxic masculinity' is needed as part of a boy's upbringing in order to help him become a healthy, well adjusted adult?

The response from the feminists?

'Crickets chirping'

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Apparently Hollywood has fallen so far that it no longer has much in the way of tolerance for those who served in the American Armed Forces. After a video clip was shown at the Oscars that depicted a “montage of American war films, a tribute to the real soldiers who have fought and died for our nation.” The applause at the end was...underwhelming.

The audience applauded on cue, but hardly with the kind of enthusiasm some might expect. Cameras panned the crowd, catching director Christopher Nolan, among others, clapping robotically with little to no passion.

But they are more than willing to give enthusiastic applause to someone – Roman Polanski - who drugged and raped a 13-year old girl and then fled the country to avoid prosecution.

And Hollywood wonders why people in the rest of America don't like them very much.

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It's such a bad idea that it keeps popping up at least once every generation.

The idea?

It's time to try Socialism...again.

All one has to do is talk to anyone who's lived under socialism to realize that it is a perpetually bad idea. It doesn't work. It has never worked. Yet the deluded youth who have been spoon-fed the Marxist lie that it is the only answer keep trying to bring it back. (They never really tell us what it is better than. Only that 'capitalism' is bad.)

They have never had to live in a socialist state, never had to deal with a truly intrusive and brutal system that brooks no dissent, kills its own with alacrity, and is a 'boot in the face of humanity, forever'. The have never had to live with privation, not being able to buy what they want when they want it. They have never had to stand in line to buy things like food, shoes, or clothing. They never had to fear the demand for “Papers!” They never had “pretend to work while The State pretends to pay them.” They never had to deal with The State running out of other people's money and watching what had been an economy that had been stumbling along collapse utterly to the point where there was no food, no jobs, and no hope.

They will not “do it better than their predecessors” because, quite frankly, they aren't as smart or as well educated as most of their predecessors. They will fail just like those who have gone before them for one very valid reason – Socialism always ignores human nature, and human nature always wins in the end.

If they need an modern example of the utter failure of socialism all they have to do is visit Venezuela, a once prosperous nation that has descended into Third World hell. Nothing works there any more. The economy is dead. Food is extremely scarce and very expensive even when it is available. There is no medical care. The only rich there are those in power, and they didn't become rich until after they took power.

Is this really what they want for us? Or are they just deluded souls who have imbibed the kool-aid and are now incapable of having any thoughts that haven't been programmed into them?

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we're still adjusting to DST, town meeting day approaches, and where we're readying for yet another Nor'easter.

Thomas Sowell Has The Right Of It

As Thomas Sowell has stated,

Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good.

Unfortunately for us, that is all too true. Think about it. For those of us who are of an age, we remember when things worked and worked well. And by things I mean things like education, social organizations, local government, and a whole host of other societal components.

We've seen educational fads come and go, each one worse than the last. An example is the bilingual education fad started in California, the reasoning behind it being that children who didn't speak English would be better off being taught in their native language and some English. After two decades it was abandoned once it was proven to be a failure, leaving the kids undereducated and lacking enough skills in English to assist in their assimilation. An entire generation was damaged because the tried and true was shoved aside for something that sounded good but had no scientific basis. (Any linguist could have told them it wouldn't work.)

The last fad was Common Core, something that twisted school curriculum into something unrecognizable and did not teach our kids what they need to know. I expect the next fad will be even worse.

The list of things that were replaced with what sounded good would take up page after page, but I will list just a few of them.

Teaching reading using phonics – replaced with the 'look-say' method. It didn't work.

Public works projects – something that would take only a year or two now takes a decade...before a single spade of earth is turned.

Public works projects – once embraced by the public is now resisted with NIMBY and BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone).

“Hold the door, say please, say thank you. Don't steal, don't cheat, and don't lie.” has been replaced with “Get outta my way!”, “What?”, and “Screw you, buddy! I got mine!”

Hugs and handshakes – replaced with lawsuits, criminal charges, and destroyed reputations.

Dating – replaced with hookups...that can lead to lawsuits, criminal charges, and destroyed reputations.

School discipline, administered by teachers, coaches, and principals - replaced with lawsuits, criminal charges, and destroyed reputations.

“Can do!” - replaced with “You can't do that! You might offend someone who is offended by everything!”

These are things I came up with in just a brief tens seconds of thinking. How many other things can you think of that worked have been replaced with things that sound good, but aren't?

Thoughts On A Sunday

We didn't get hammered by the Nor'easter like so many others did. We had a little snow, some heavy rain, and some wind, but what we got was a fraction of what the seacoast areas of New Hampshire and Massachusetts received. However it is likely we'll see 'plowable' amounts of snow from another Nor'easter the forecasters are saying will hit this coming Thursday.

We all have to remember that it's still winter.

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If we need another example of George Santayana's aphorism - “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it” - all we need to do is look at South Africa.

It seems their parliament has decided to make the same mistake Zimbabwe did by confiscating land from white landowners without compensation.

This will lead to bloodshed, just as it did in Zimbabwe, and South Africa's agricultural production will drop off to the point where it can no longer feed itself. Despite its riches in natural resources, it will find itself in the same place as Venezuela – broke and disintegrating. All of those who know how to run the mines, the farms, and vital infrastructure will leave or be driven out.

Of course the whole “We're taking back land stolen from our ancestors” schtick is total BS as the land in what is now South Africa was uninhabited when the Boers settled it 400 years ago. Neither the Zulu or the Xhosa tribes which now inhabit South Africa lived anywhere near there when it was settled. They didn't arrive until almost 150 years after the Dutch arrived.

But they won't let historical fact stand in the way of the narrative.

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And speaking of Venezuela, it has now achieved economic equality. Just about everyone (except the ruling class) are destitute and the money is worth more as toilet paper than it is as currency.

Venezuela is also a good example of what happens when government leaders ignore the lessons of history. They took the richest nation in South America and turned it into an impoverished Third World s**thole.

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Chuck Schumer has unwittingly proven that he's a racist bastard, not much different than his colleagues. At least Chuck has admitted outright that he's a racist. His colleagues prefer to use the “soft racism of low expectations” to hold minorities to a lower standard because they do not believe they are capable of meeting the high expectations we have for everyone else.

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I still prefer the original gender neutral pronoun – it – to the new ones being foisted upon the unwilling populace by an extremely small but vocal minority that seem to think their grievances outweigh all others.

Some people may think I'm being insensitive. I am not. I am being offensive because these crybabies want special accommodation made society for their delusions rather than having them seek psychiatric help for their condition(s). I will not buy into or support their delusions.

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Stuart Schneiderman thinks it's time to take a closer look at Prozac, one of the many SSRI's used to treat depression.

It’s been in use for decades now, but mental health professionals are still debating the value of Prozac and other SSRIs. When the little capsules hit the market, the press was chockablock with stories about the new miracle cure. Patients who had spent years on the couch opining about their childhood traumas suddenly felt better. They felt a lot better. Psychotherapy had made them depressed. Prozac made them happy. Who could argue with that?

--snip--

Prozac has not been in use for a very long time and we do not really know the long term effects. We are now beginning to see that these pills have a downside. And we owe it to psychologist and patient Lauren Slater to have analyzed the problem and shared some of her experience.

--snip--

[I]t is sobering for those who have been prescribing these pills to note that a placebo works equally well in two-thirds of the cases. This still suggests that the medicine helps a third of patients.

At the least, the new studies challenge the media-driven orthodoxy—to the effect that depression is a chemical imbalance. They also tell us that the pills have been marketed to death, overprescribed and overused.

There is certainly enough evidence that these drugs have some negative effects that have mostly been ignored. It wouldn't surprise me to find that for some patients things were made worse by their use. Frankly, these pharmaceuticals need some follow on research>,br>

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Another area where medicine needs to take a closer look at the long term effects of a medication is birth control, specifically The Pill and all of its derivatives like Norplant and some of the hormone laced IUDs. I wish I could remember where I read the following, but it appears there may be a link between use of hormonal birth control and the increases in things like homosexuality, autism, mental deficits, as well as a host of birth defects. This birth control method has been around for 50 years now and one has to wonder if we have been unwittingly affecting the health of the children we eventually have. There's also the matter of some of these hormones making their way into the food chain that may be having an effect on male fertility, seeing as sperm counts in men have fallen by almost 50%.

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Did any of you watch the Oscars?

Me neither.

Between the crappy movies over the past year (there were a few standouts) and the heavy political rhetoric being laid upon viewers, I had no desire to watch. It appears from the TV ratings for previous Oscars that a lot of other people have also been tuning out. After all, who wants to be preached at by a bunch of self-important, intolerant, willfully ignorant people who believe the world revolves around them?

Instead, I watched a rerun of NCIS and Bull.

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Call this a 'must see' video.

Apparently Virginia Delegate Nick Freitas discussed the importance of the Second Amendment, something Democrats in the legislature didn't like. They demanded a recess “so that they could calm down because they were so outraged.”

I guess we know where they stand on the Second Amendment...and it ain't on our side.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we're heading for yet another Nor'easter, dreams of the upcoming boating season are starting to intrude, and where we won't have to plow snow for at least another four days.

Thoughts On A Sunday - Monday Edition

It was a busy weekend, hence my delayed Sunday post.

Part of the weekend doings was the snow/sleet/freezing rain that took place on Sunday. Removing the 4-5 inches of heavy snow took quite a bit of time and effort as snowblowers usually have difficulty moving that kind of snow. It didn't help that quite a bit of it along the edges of The Manse's driveway was also waterlogged, making it that much heavier than it already was. It also means the only way to move it is with a shovel.

With the warm temps today almost all of the sleet and ice that was left on the driveway melted away by noon.

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The ongoing debate/argument about Google's intolerance for 'white, heterosexual, conservative males' rages on.

Many see former Google engineer James Damore as a racist and misogynist. Others see him as a symbol of what has gone wrong at Google and other Silicon Valley tech giants. When diversity and tolerance are defined as excluding no one except white, heterosexual, conservative males, and working to extinguish thought that is too diverse, meaning it doesn't follow Progressive guidelines, then a company like Google has indeed abandoned its motto, “Don't Be Evil”, for a new one, that being “F**k Whitey!”.

One of my co-workers, a middling Progressive, seems to think that all of those smart people working at Google are somehow more knowledgeable about life in general than the rest of us. But in my experience, many of those smart folk are indeed much smarter than many of us...in their narrow field, but totally clueless and inexperienced when it comes to the real world and how it works. (To quote one of favorite movie/TV lines, “They couldn't find their asses with both hands.”) They believe they know how the world works, or should work, without understanding that their limited knowledge about society in general means that they are making the very 'problems' they claim they are fixing much worse than they already are.

It seems they believe that “if everyone did things my way, everything would be better.” That's the same reasoning every totalitarian/authoritarian dictatorship has used to make things worse. Why would they think they'll do any better?

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The more we learn about Nature, the more we find out that Nature has beaten us to it in regards to improving on mankind's inventions. A case in point being how the structure of shark skin has been found to reduce aerodynamic drag and increase lift.

"The skin of sharks is covered by thousands and thousands of small scales, or denticles, which vary in shape and size around the body," said George Lauder, the Henry Bryant Bigelow Professor of Ichthyology and Professor of Biology in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and co-author of the research. "We know a lot about the structure of these denticles -- which are very similar to human teeth -- but the function has been debated."

Most research has focused on the drag-reducing properties of denticles, but Lauder and his team wondered if there was more to the story.

"We asked, 'What if instead of mainly reducing drag, these particular shapes were actually better suited for increasing lift?'" said Mehdi Saadat, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard and co-first author of the study. Saadat holds a joint appointment in Mechanical Engineering at the University of South Carolina.

"Airfoils are a primary component of all aerial devices," said August Domel, a Ph.D. student at Harvard and co-first author of the paper. "We wanted to test these structures on airfoils as a way of measuring their effect on lift and drag for applications in the design of various aerial devices such as drones, airplanes, and wind turbines."

"These shark-inspired vortex generators achieve lift-to-drag ratio improvements of up to 323 percent compared to an airfoil without vortex generators," said Domel. "With these proof of concept designs, we've demonstrated that these bioinspired vortex generators have the potential to outperform traditional designs."

If shark skin denticles can greatly reduce drag while increasing lift, the efficiency from wind turbines to air travel can be greatly increased at very little cost. With the increase in efficiency the amount of power needed to get an aircraft airborne and to maintain speed is reduced, something that will also save fuel.

Who says Nature doesn't have anything new to teach us?

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While Adam Schiff may have thought his memo would derail the points brought up to counter the GOP memo dealing with the Russia investigation, it may in fact have caused harm to the Democrats' claims.

These guys just keep digging that hole deeper and deeper. You'd think they would have figured out by now that all they're doing is digging their own graves, figuratively speaking.

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Apparently global warming has gotten so bad that Brazil is experiencing “a year without summer.”

Remember, summer begins on December 21 in Brazil and ends on March 20.

This summer has already seen 12 days of frost, while the summer of 2008/2009 saw 13 days. It’s also the seventh frost of 2018, making it the biggest number of frost days for the start of the year in 64 years!

That doesn't bode well for Brazil. I wonder when the glaciers will starting covering Brazil's rain forests?

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So the barking moonbats of climate change have now declared that both hamburgers and milk are leading causes of climate change.

As the good Cap'n Teach reminds us, “Isn’t it interesting that these 1st World Warmists always come up with ways to attempt to deny Other People the same things they themselves had? Will these same Warmists deny their own kids milk?”

Of course they won't because Shut Up!

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And that's the belated news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where temps are headed up again before our next snowstorm later this week, preparations are being made for the upcoming boating season, and where Monday wasn't all that bad this week.

Thoughts On A Sunday - Delayed

Today's post is being delayed by one day due to a late return to home which left me no time to assemble a post. Please check back Monday evening for my somewhat delayed Thoughts On A Sunday.

CNN School Shooting Town Hall Fallout

We've read and seen all of the hoopla over CNN's so-called 'Town Hall' meeting with survivors of the Parkland, Florida school shootings. One of the best comments I read in response to this post on Instapundit stated the case perfectly:

"Last week these kids were eating Tide Pods and couldn't figure out which bathroom to use. This week, we're supposed to take firearms policy advice from them."

Heh.

Thoughts On A Sunday

We had a bit of a surprise overnight, with a forecast dusting to 3” snowfall turning into almost 10” of snow. Many of the road crews were caught off guard and weren't quite prepared to clear the roads, meaning many side streets didn't get plowed until some time past noon, about 6 hours after the snows ended. That's unusual around here.

I cleared the driveway in anticipation of Deb's having to go into work early due to mandatory overtime and she made it out without difficulty. Of course the snow plow came by some hours after I had finished and filled in the end of the driveway. At least clearing that out only took about 10 minutes.

Ironically we are expected to see temps in the mid 60's to lower 70's during the middle of the coming week which means much of Sunday's snowfall will be nothing but a memory by Thursday.

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The arguments, debates, and back-and-forth over the school shooting in Parkland, Florida continue apace. My biggest problem is that to many involved are focusing on treating the symptoms and not the cause. A lot of people seem to think that the problem is guns. It is not.

The problem is the people who think their only answer to their problem(s) is to kill a whole bunch of other people. Many of these are mentally ill, feeling that no one gives a damn about them or the problems that are plaguing them. Whether that is through neglect or a side effect of a major societal shift that has marginalized the role men as fathers is something we need to figure out. Further disarming potential victims of such deluded souls isn't how you get less of these shootings, but guarantees even more of them.

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Speaking of the Parkland shooting, Skip brings up some interesting points about how the MSM actually encourages mass shootings by giving over-the-top coverage to them. Skip writes:

Here is what the media coverage conveys to every potential shooter out there:

1. You will be famous
2. The world will come to a stop for you and talk about nothing else for days
3. A school is the target that will get you the most attention
4. You should use an AR-15; they are the most dangerous and cool
5. No one will shoot back at you at a school—and we’ll make damned sure it stays that way!

After all, schools are Gun Free Zones, also known as Free Fire Zones.

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Powerline has the right of it, in this case Mankind vs Peoplekind.

Nothing more I can possibly say about this.

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CNN is a 'dead network walking'.

As they've all been told more than once, roll left and die.

The next network to fold unless it cleans up its act?

ESPN. Goodness knows they don't really do sports so much anymore, having abandoned it more for politics. Their viewer numbers have been plummeting as well and it's all their own fault.

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I like Rush Limbaugh's suggestion in regards to the DACA situation: Permanent citizenship for illegal immigrants under one important condition: They will be ineligible to vote for between 15 and 25 years.

That would certainly cut off the Democrat Party's supply of new 'voters' for at least one generation. No more built-in constituencies.

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The PC chickens are now coming home to roost, with college students now pushing back against political correctness, seeing how it instills an a “climate of fear” in anyone seen by the PC crowd as being outside the fold.

PC focuses on identity politics rather than the individual. By doing so it diminishes the strengths of individuals and the true diversity they bring to college campuses. The color of your skin or the makeup of your chromosomes takes on an unhealthy importance. You are no longer judged upon the content of your character. In effect, you as an individual become invisible. Only the collective to which you have been pushed into matters. One's accomplishments mean nothing, and that can destroy the human spirit as much as the overblown racism/sexism and all other -isms that the PC crown seem so enamored of promoting as some kind of inherent 'ism' that doesn't really exist any place but in their minds.

How that helps anyone is beyond me.

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And that's the (abbreviated) news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the cleanup from the unexpected snowfall has completed, the local ski areas are loving it, and where I wish I actually had President's Day off for a change.

Thoughts On A Sunday

Another weekend has come and gone, the weather has been a bit indecisive as it can't seem to make up its mind whether it will be (freezing) rain or snow, and chores still need attending to.

This is the first weekend since September where there is no football (though I can't say I miss it as I usually would considering the whole leftward shift of the NFL by allowing politics to pollute the game).

About the most exciting thing that took place in my little town is the annual town and school district meetings to go over the upcoming budgets. (More on that below.)

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NEWS FLASH: It's cold at the Winter Olympics!

Apparently the news media never bothered to check what the actual conditions might be like in South Korea this time of year. This has caused some equipment failures and, horrors upon horrors, the water-based makeup used by on air reporters to freeze, making it difficult for them to speak.

Gee, who'da thunk that it might be well below freezing in South Korea...in winter? Obviously not the the media.

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My home state has a big problem with voting fraud as it allows non-residents to vote in our elections. (A vast majority of them are out-of-state college students who have an out-of-state drivers license, an out-of-state home address, yet are somehow considered legal residents for the purpose of voting.) It also appears New Hampshire is the only state that allows such fraud.

I have no doubt that the last federal election which saw then-incumbent US Senator Kelly Ayotte (R) ousted by then-governor Maggie Hassan (D), who won by a whopping 432 votes, did so because of a large contingent of out-of-state college students voting for Hassan. Yet this doesn't seem to bother the powers that be with the exception of New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner. Allowing non-residents to vote in our elections seriously skews the election results.

It's time for this illegal action to be stopped.

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As I mentioned above, this past week we held out town's deliberative sessions which went over all of the warrant articles for both the town and school district spending and other related issues. The tone between the two different meetings was the difference between day and night, with nary an objection raised about a $26 million+ school budget, but a but of controversy over the $13 million town budget.

One would think that with almost $39 million of our tax money being spent someone would have asked questions about the large budget items. But there wasn't a peep. However there were lots of questions and haranguing about smaller budget lines, the fiscal equivalent of arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. This isn't the first time I've seen this phenomenon and I doubt it will be the last.

Spend a couple of million dollars and this and that? Sure, why not! But cut a $2000 line item out of one department and rending of clothing and tearing of hair was overwhelming. You'd think someone was stealing the food out of the mouths of starving children.

I just don't get it.

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One of the biggest problems we have when it comes to trying to determine past climate conditions – so-called paleoclimatology – is that too many present day climatologists have used localized paleoclimate conditions and tried to extend them to apply everywhere. That is erroneous at best and fraudulent at worse. That “[p]aleoclimate data still spotty and incomplete, leaving climate models vague, uncalibrated and filled with uncertainty” is something to many of the AGW faithful have chosen to ignore.

Vast tracts of the Earth's land surface remain unexplored when it comes to past climate conditions. How can someone comparing ice cores from Greenland say that the conditions outlined there in any way match conditions in the Arabian Peninsula or sub-Saharan Africa during the same period? They can't, just as we cannot make that correlation in present day. But that doesn't stop the true believers from assuming that the conditions on one part of the globe were affected the same way on another part.

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I thought “Legalese”, the lawyers version of English, was bad enough when dealing with laws and contracts. I was wrong.

Having dealt with patent law for some time now (I have applied for and been granted a number of patents over the years) I have found that “Patent Legalese” is far worse. Basically, it states the same thing – a concept, idea, or actual physical invention – a bunch of different ways, with only a word or phrase here and there changed slightly from the previous iteration. I don't understand the reason behind such recursive/repetitive phrasing within the patent claims, but it makes for really boring reading.

As part of my job I usually have to look at competitors' patents or patent applications to see if we are violating any of their patents. I also have to check now and then to see if any competitors' products infringe on any of our patents. If I find a competitor's patent might preclude us from developing or marketing a product, I then have to check for what is called 'prior art' to see if we were using their idea before they had filed a patent application. (On more than one occasion we've been able to prove that a product we sell did not violate a competitor's patent because we had marketed it well before they had even filed for a patent, in one case six years before they had applied for patent. That meant they couldn't file a patent infringement suit against my company because we could prove we had been using it a prior to their patent application.)

Sometimes the “Patent Legalese” makes it difficult to figure out exactly what a competitor's invention is supposed to do and how it does what it does. That can cause confusion. It also means you can receive a patent for a similar invention that does the same thing as a competitor's invention as long as it does that same thing a different way. I have seen that more than once when one company files a patent for an instrument and the patent claims are too narrow. That allows another company to file for a patent for their instrument that changes one or more elements of the original invention. If I had to guess the obscure language makes it easier to claim infringements because the average person would find it difficult to parse. Even patent attorneys sometimes have problems doing so!

So as bad as “Leagalese” is, “Patent Legalese” is far worse because it looks like plain English, but it isn't.

And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it's raining, the snow is being washed away (slowly), and where we're getting ready to return to work Monday morning.

Thoughts On A SuperBowl Sunday

It's SuperBowl Sunday and almost all of the local news is focused on the coming game. That's not surprising considering the New England Patriots are playing in their tenth SuperBowl.

While I will be watching the game, it hasn't been my main focus as there have been plenty of other tasks and chores to attend to.

I will say this: I will be happy and sad at the same time because it's my two favorite teams playing each other.

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Some people just don't get it, do they? A portion of those “some people” are converts to a new religion, that being the 'Holey' Church of Climate Change led by his Holeyness AlGore.

Like any converts they tend to be fanatical, sometimes to the point that no one wants to be anywhere near them so they don't have to listen to their constant preaching and proselytizing, or worse, their virtue signaling and holy-than-thou attitudes.

Some of these converts have to learn how to shut the hell up, because nobody wants constant in-your-face discussions about something that a very large majority of people do not really care about. Not because they are ignorant about climate change, but because they do not see it as a problem and they do not believe it is anything but a natural cycle.

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Remember this?

Don't be evil.

Too bad the purveyor of that slogan has turned out to be evil in so many ways.

I am, of course, talking about Google, the high tech giant that is being sued by a former engineer who was fired for having the audacity to point out in an internal memo that it's efforts to ensure diversity has had a negative effect on the culture within the company.

For a company that has been pushing the 'Don't Be Evil' trope, they have created an environment of intolerance, racism and sexism that is far worse than what they have supposedly been fighting against. They have suggested (or in some cases embraced) policies that violate labor and civil rights laws. They judge people based upon the color of their skin and not the content of their character. They discriminated against employees based upon their political views, their religious beliefs, and anything else that was the Social Justice Theme of the Day. What's worse is that middle and upper level managers encouraged such behavior.

I hope then end up having to pay billions in damages. (This is quite possible because the case could be certified as a class action suit.)

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For yet another example of a business owner being splashed in the face with the cold water of reality, there's this from 2009 about a woman who started a women-only TV production company as she figured it would be a place of “harmonious workers benefiting from an absence of men.”

Dreams are nice. Too bad this one wasn't the kind she was looking to create.

It was an idealistic vision swiftly shattered by the nightmare reality: constant bitchiness, surging hormones, unchecked emotion, attention-seeking and fashion rivalry so fierce it tore my staff apart.

I can understand why people want to believe that women look out for each other - because with men in power at work and in politics, it makes sense for us to stick together.

In fact, there was a time when I believed in the Sisterhood - but that was before women at war led to my emotional and financial ruin.

Her dream left her bankrupt and far wiser. Maybe this is a lesson those running Google should take to heart.

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While the days of the shade tree mechanic are pretty much over (unless you are working on classic vehicles), I certainly believe that anyone who owns a vehicle or piece of equipment should also have the right to repair it. However you will find that many corporations like John Deere, AT&T, Apple, and a whole host of other companies disagree.

For many folks, this is not an issue. But for those of us who have no recourse because it is either impractical or too expensive to haul our broken down equipment to a store or dealer, the right to do it ourselves is paramount.

BeezleBub has spoken of this many times as he's struggled to fix some of the farm's newer tractors and finding out that he can't because he cannot access diagnostics or activate new part so the onboard computer(s) that control the equipment will recognize it and allow the tractor to run. This has meant an expensive service call or hauling the broken down equipment to a dealer to be fixed. Most farmers don't have that luxury as they need the equipment now, not tomorrow or next week when the dealer can schedule the repairs. This has certainly become a big deal in some states where Right To Repair legislation is in the works.


(H/T Knuckledraggin')

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Is there a #MeToo backlash growing and will it harm more women than men?

The answer to both parts of that question is yes. Call it an unintended consequence of the #MeToo movement which has since turned into a witch hunt.

I have often predicted that the #MeToo movement would backfire on feminists. The picture of angry women retaliating against men for sex crimes, real and imagined, made for compelling media drama. Of course, no one is really empowered by destroying other people… especially people with wives and daughters. And by delighting in the fact.

The backlash has not been long in coming. Men are now refusing to meet alone with females in the workplace. They are no longer willing to have private work dinners or to travel with women. Feminists have increased the risk without increasing the potential reward. 

The much derided Pence Rule has become a means of survival for men in business and politics. It is also undercutting many women in those fields because their ability to interact with male colleagues or mentors is being diminished or destroyed.

Can sexual segregation be far behind?

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Will truckers lose their jobs to automation? It seems it's possible considering we're seeing more autonomous vehicles being rolled out. Dan Hanson begs to differ.

I wonder how many of the people making predictions about the future of truck drivers have ever ridden with one to see what they do?

One of the big failings of high-level analyses of future trends is that in general they either ignore or seriously underestimate the complexity of the job at a detailed level. Lots of jobs look simple or rote from a think tank or government office, but turn out to be quite complex when you dive into the details.

For example, truck drivers don’t just drive trucks. They also secure loads, including determining what to load first and last and how to tie it all down securely. They act as agents for the trunking company. They verify that what they are picking up is what is on the manifest. They are the early warning system for vehicle maintenance. They deal with the government and others at weighing stations. When sleeping in the cab, they act as security for the load. If the vehicle breaks down, they set up road flares and contact authorities. If the vehicle doesn’t handle correctly, the driver has to stop and analyze what’s wrong – blown tire, shifting load, whatever.

Hanson delves deeper into the issue from the viewpoint of someone who has been involved in automation for 20 years, so I'd say his opinion carries a bit more weight than some of those making the predictions about the death of truck driving. He also points out that factory automation is easier because they are closed, static environments that lend themselves to automation while piloting a 40-ton tractor trailer in a semi-chaotic environment with constantly changing conditions and unpredictable obstacles isn't as easy as some people think.

A lot of pundits have a sense that automation is accelerating in replacing jobs. In fact, I predict it will slow down, because we have been picking the low hanging fruit first. That has given us an unrealistic idea of how hard it is to fully automate a job.

Read the whole thing.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where everyone has gathered their supplies for viewing the SuperBowl, nasty weather looks to bypass us (this time), and where I expect there to be a number of people calling in to work tomorrow suffering from SuperBowl Monday Syndrome.

The Democrats Are Fighting A Civil War

One of the best comments I've seen in a long time I found following the Powerline post about the Democrats waging a civil war that too many of us do not realize they are fighting. However more people are coming to realize that the DNC is not the Democrat party of old, but a subversive organization working towards an authoritarian/totalitarian state. We already know they have no use for the Constitution unless it lets them take even more rights away from the average American citizen.

I believe that “Ritchie The Riveter” hits the nail right on the head in this comment:

This nation was not instituted to impose today's definition of "the common good" as defined by a small elite.

This nation was founded to respect and protect the rights of the INDIVIDUAL, first and foremost ... because most of the problems we face in our society are specific to the individual, and are beyond the capabilities of our government operatives to accurately discern, much less resolve.

Thomas, because of that reality, the attempts by Progressives like you to impose your definition of "the common good" have, especially in recent years, proven to be quite counterproductive in terms of producing good ... while also limiting the ability of the rest of us to work around the errors, greed, mendacity, and delusions of Progressives like you and get to the good.

What we conservatives/libertarians support, is a clear-eyed assessment of the truth: that it is the INDIVIDUAL, responsibly exercising his/her initiative, that is in the best position to better their lot AND help their neighbors do the same ... not the Progressive busybodies who embrace the confession of their fundamentalist faith: "that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves."

Conservative and libertarian economic policies are for far more than the upper quintile ... they are for ALL WHO WOULD EXERCISE THE INITIATIVE TO BUILD UPON THE OPPORTUNITIES THAT ARISE IN A FREE SOCIETY.

And that is what you miss, as a Progressive.

You indulge in the soft bigotry of low expectations, that the "ordinary" person CAN'T get ahead via their own initiative and must have your MYOPIC help ... and your attempts to implement that bigoted line of thinking has led millions to stop exercising their initiative to get ahead, expecting your elite to solve their problems FOR them ... comfortably numb to both the likelihood of their failure, and the impairment of their ability to work around such failure.

You have encouraged millions to leave wealth on the table that they could have had by taking the initaitive to do more than just punch in, do what they're told, and punch out each day. THAT is why that upper quintile got more of that wealth ... they took the initiative to HONESTLY acquire that wealth that was left there by those who, like Flounder, f____d up and trusted "experts" and "leaders" as you have to solve their problems FOR them.

The New Deal, now the Blue Social Model that you believe is the norm of humanity, is in fact fundamentally flawed and unsustainable.

Indeed.

Thoughts On A Sunday

The aftermath of the snow/freezing rain we experienced earlier in the week has meant that many driveways and less-traveled roads were still ice covered going into this weekend.

Because the ice was thick, salt and other ice melt products didn't work very well. The individual crystals or pieces would melt their way through the ice and then fizzle out, leaving the treated surface still frozen. Unless a lot of salt or calcium chloride was used they had little overall effect. My neighbors and I had to use a lot of sand to make it possible to navigate our driveways.

To give you an idea of just how bad it was, one acquaintance of mine parked his work truck at the top of his driveway, leaving it on the street. A little while later one of his kids told him his truck was in a ditch, it having slid down the street and off to the side. He figured a good gust of wind must have gotten it sliding, allowing gravity and a poor coefficient of friction doing the rest.

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The hypocrisy! It burns!!

You know that SJWs are truly hypocritical when some of those of the African American persuasion leave the US for Africa to escape institutional racism and white privilege only to revel in their new privilege and racism against their new neighbors.

Recent American immigrant to Ghana, Muhammida el-Muhajir, says she moved because she was always made to feel like a second-class citizen. Although she provides no examples of this, she says she left the USA to fulfill her potential and avoid being targeted by racial violence.

--snip--

If I'm reading her correctly, Muhammida clearly believes that Blacks are second-class citizens in the United States. Her solution to this problem was to move to Ghana, where the education and wealth provided by her life in the United States mean she is an Upper-Class citizen. What this indicates is that Muhammida's struggle is internal, separate from the societies in which she has lived.

By throwing off your oppression in the United States you can access privilege in Ghana. According to intersectional theory, every privilege is countered by someone else's oppression. In this case, Muhammida taking a place in Ghana's upper echelons is an act of oppression against the Ghanaian people. Ghana should implement some form of affirmative action immediately to correct the balance.

Elsewhere she mentions that she doesn't have to worry about being killed by the local police “the police there won't kill a Black person like the racist police in America.” Too bad she's wrong as the Ghanaian police are known to beat, rape, and torture people while apprehending them or interrogating them. So she doesn't have to worry about racist cops killing her, just local corrupt cops. That's so much better than where she came from.

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Do you have any idea how a civil war happens? If not, Daniel Greenfield explains how it happens and points out that we may well be on our way to a Second American Civil War.

...it’s not guns that make a civil war. It’s politics.

Guns are how a civil war ends. Politics is how it begins.

How do civil wars happen?

Two or more sides disagree on who runs the country. And they can’t settle the question through elections because they don’t even agree that elections are how you decide who’s in charge.

That’s the basic issue here. Who decides who runs the country? When you hate each other but accept the election results, you have a country. When you stop accepting election results, you have a countdown to a civil war.

Isn't that what we're seeing now? The Democrats didn't like Trump's victory so they tried to cajole electors to ignore the law and vote for Hillary Clinton. They wanted to change the rules of the election after the election was finished because it didn't turn out the way they wanted.

Read the whole thing.

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I find it interesting that California has felt the need to consider making it a crime to offer plastic straws to restaurant/bar patrons. The penalty for such a transgression: 6 months in prison and a $1000 fine.

What's truly ironic about this moron move to “save the environment” is that it is based upon a research project conducted by a 9-year old, and his numbers are at best a “guesstimation”.

What's worse is that the media has been buying into this research without bothering to find out where it came from.

It's sad that so many outlets are treating the rigorous survey work of an elementary school student as the statistic about plastic straw use. But it's not very surprising. Attempts to ban plastic straws—or indeed any plastic product—have as much to do with signaling your environmentalist bona fides as they do with actually cleaning up the oceans or saving the planet. So people pushing the claim have little incentive to investigate it. And the media have every incentive to hype the impact of a phenomenon they're covering.

Let this serve as a reminder: A statistic's popularity does not prove its accuracy.

Indeed.

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As time goes on I find that Churchill's observations about socialism is proven over and over again.

“Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.”

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”

As long as one remembers that socialism does not help raise to downtrodden but pulls down everyone to the level of the downtrodden (with the exception of the ruling elite, of course). Socialism has always brought with it the spread of misery and, dare I say, fear and tyranny. If one of the proletariat sees that a successful neighbor has acquired some good or another that they do not, they don't wonder if they can possible get one too. Instead they conspire to have it taken away from the neighbor, ensuring that no one will ever be able to have whatever “it” is. Socialism does inspire greed and envy. It always has. It also helps to create laziness as it is always “someone else's job” to provide X, Y, or Z or to clean up the mess made by others.

Socialism is misanthropic. It hates people, particularly individuals. Then again, one of the greatest proponents of socialism, Karl Marx, was a misanthrope. He neither liked or trusted people. That alone should have warned people reading Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto that he hadn't written it to benefit the 'oppressed and downtrodden'.

He wrote them so people would “get the hell off his lawn.”

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OK, this is just plain stupid.

Apparently stores protecting their merchandise from shoplifting is now racist. (These days, what isn't?)

A California woman is suing Walmart, claiming that the store’s policy to lock certain products subject to a higher rate of shoplifting inside glass cases is racist.

Essie Grundy is taking a Walmart in Perris, California, to court, saying she felt like a second-class citizen because items popular with black customers were locked behind glass doors, CBS Los Angeles reported.

Gee, could it be because those particular items have been seeing a high rate of shoplifting? Why wouldn't Walmart take extra precautions if that was indeed the case? I'm sure that in other parts of the country different items are kept under lock and key for the same reason – high levels of shoplifting. It's called loss prevention and any retail outlet tries to do the same thing.

I know I was amazed when I went to our local BJ's and found out that razor blades are kept under lock and key. When 15 razor blade cartridges cost $40 (this was for the Gillette Fusion cartridges) I can understand why they have those clear plastic lock boxes with the RFID tags surrounding every package of razor blades. Why? Loss prevention.

Is it racist? I suppose I could make the case if I lowered my IQ by half. Is it sexist? Darned tootin'. They don't do that for the women's razor blades that I saw.

So basically this is yet another attempt to paint standard loss prevention by retail stores as something other than trying to keep people from stealing stuff.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee where the local pond hockey tournaments and ice fishing derbies will be taking place, the ice on our driveway has finally melted away, and where we just might dodge the next round of snow.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It's been quiet around New Hampshire this past week, with much of any excitement coming from the NFL playoff games taking place today. The weather certainly hasn't been much of an issue with two different bouts of warmer weather over the past week. There was a little snow the other day but in the end it didn't cause anything like the disruptions we saw earlier in the month.

We did get a bit of sticker shock when we finally had our propane tank refilled after our two week long experience with sub-zero temperatures. Our provider pumped 400 gallons of propane into our tank, about twice the amount one would normally expect for one month's worth of heating. We weren't the only ones to see an inordinate amount of fuel used during that cold spell. Almost everyone I talked to about about it related a similar story.

I expect we'll see one more period of sub-zero temps before we get through winter, something that usually takes place in late January/early February. Even then it usually lasts only a few days, not for week after week as we saw at the end of December and beginning of January.

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Talk about the chickens coming home to roost!

It seems that former US Senator Harry Reid did not truly understand what he wrought when he created the so-called 'nuclear option' as a means of choking off a filibuster by the other side as means of pushing through legislation the GOP found reprehensible.

Now that Senate Democrats are grandstanding about the “Schumer Shutdown”, trying to extort the GOP into attaching poor DACA legislation onto the budget bill, President Trump has made the suggestion that Senate Republicans exercise the nuclear option to get a budget passed.

I don't blame either the President or congressional Republicans from wanting clean bills for both the budget and DACA. They want to make sure everyone knows who voted for what. With a combined bill you will have Senators and Representatives voting for legislation they really don't like just to get the money flowing again. It's a bad deal for both the GOP and the American people.

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Will the next Civil War take place in California?

I think the answer is a qualified 'yes'.

Perhaps the most accurate way to state the main causes of the Civil War was the South wanted to preserve slavery under “states’ rights” and the North wanted to protect and preserve the Union.

It is therefore repeating history that the new battleground over “states’ rights” is California.

--snip--

While most people will concentrate on the immigration issue, we believe there is a First Amendment component to California’s actions as well.

Think about this for a second: California is censuring people for reporting crimes and criminals.

In order to censor speech, there must be a compelling governmental interest. There is not one here.

--snip--

Secondly, immigration is a Federal concern, not a state concern. Back in 2012, the US Supreme Court decided the case of ARIZONA et al. v. UNITED STATES, in which the Court held that Arizona could not create or enforce its own laws on immigration. Only the Federal government could deal with immigration as required in the Constitution.

It seems to us that California is trying to usurp Federal authority established by the Constitution as well as going against Supreme Court decisions.

Read The Whole Thing.

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Will the FISA Memo fully expose the abuses by the Justice Department, the FBI, and the Hillary?

The way everyone involved seems to be going into 'duck and cover' mode, I'd have to say that even if it doesn't, it will expose most of it and who is responsible for those abuses.

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I tired not to watch, but I found that it was impossible.

The New England Patriots beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 24-20 and will move on to the SuperBowl in two weeks. Now it's a matter of who they will be facing as the NFC playoff is being played as I write this. Will it be the Vikings or the Eagles?

Frankly, I'm hoping it's the Eagles, my favorite NFC team.

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And that's the (somewhat)abbreviated news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the warm weather over the weekend took care of some of last weeks snowfall, more snow is on the way, and we still have 8 weeks of winter left.

Thoughts On A Sunday

New England weather can be fickle, particularly during winter. In less than 24 hours we went from temperatures in the upper 50's to mid-teens in less than 24 hours. It brought the January thaw to a halt.

A good portion of the snow cover has melted away, between the warm temperatures and heavy rain. Mostly it's the snow banks that we still see. At least the thaw didn't greatly affect the ice on top of the lake, meaning it's highly likely the annual Ice Fishing Derby will take place as scheduled.

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I did watch the AFC Divisional game between the Tennessee Titans and the New England Patriots. Listening to some of the commentators the Patriots were outgunned by a much stronger Titans defense and offense.

The Patriots won 35-14.

The first quarter pretty much belonged to the Titans as they managed to score one touchdown and prevented the Patriots from reaching the end zone. But the next 3 quarters belonged to the Patriots as they scored 35 unanswered points before the Titans managed to score their second touchdown towards the end of the fourth quarter.

Now we wait the outcome of today's game between Jacksonville and Pittsburgh to see who the Patriots play next week.

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By way of Wirecutter comes this story from Michigan where an active duty Marine has been charged with multiple felonies after protecting his family and home from and armed intruder. Ironic considering the miscreant was wounded by the Marine after he had fired into the house after trying to kick in the door, and then released after posting a $500 bond on an illegal weapons charge. The Marine, one Joey Nelson, has been charged with 5 felonies and is being held on a $150,000 cash bond.

WTF?

But wait, it gets worse!

They denied him access to his lawyer, chose to ignore a judge's writ of habeas corpus to release him, and acted as if the law didn't apply to them.

Apparently the police department in Westland, Michigan, where this all took place, has a history of abuse and incompetence. These are the types of guys that give the rest of our nation's police officers a bad name.

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Want to see how some towns and their school work their budgeting? Then take a look at one brief view of our schools budget from the viewpoint of the budget committee, a group of our townsfolk elected to review, modify, and recommend/not recommend certain budget items.

The attendance at our three schools has been declining for years, dropping ~13% over a period of 8 years, but the school budget keeps climbing.

The school board and the superintendent's office have told us that the proposed school budget is just under 1% smaller than the budget approved for the current school year, but they're wrong. It's actually up almost 1% from the budget approved by the town's voters. It's only 1% down from what they've actually spent, meaning they've spent more than the amount approved by the voters last year. That's not the same thing.

While I understand that not all spending is under their control, an example of that being special education expenditures, a lot of the rest is. Special education is funded by the federal and state governments, not directly by the taxpayers in this town. That still doesn't explain the expected expenditures until the end of the present school year being 2% above what was approved by the voters.

I always find it interesting how a budget increase can be portrayed as a budget decrease even though it really isn't.

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I find it interesting that the only person who says President Trump labeled a number of countries as s**tholes is Senator Dick Durbin (D), someone not exactly known for his veracity. That it appears that no one else in the meeting where Trump allegedly uttered that term actually heard him say that means that either they are all lying and Durbin is telling the truth, or that everyone else is telling the truth and Durbin is lying.

Of the two, I am more inclined to believe that it is the latter and not the former.

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Antifa better be careful what they wish for, because if they get it I can guarantee that not long after that they'll wish that the very same folks they want to incinerate were there to protect them.

They really believe that somehow they'll be the ones in control if they get their wish. Instead they'll be the second round of victims once the rest of us decide that “they just plain need killin'”, to use a Southern aphorism.

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The latest thing on the list of things that are racist?

Not wanting to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Really? Hmm, if that goes forth then I guess I am a racist and that will give me power the non-racists won't have, that being knowing what works and what doesn't.

To think that folks actually believe this drek. If nothing else it shows just how mentally deranged and dangerous these idiots have become. It's time to put them into mental institutions to make sure they don't hurt themselves or others due to their mental state.

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Yup, it must have been Donald Trump that forced that employee at Hawaii's Emergency Management Agency to push the wrong button which sent out the false missile attack warning.

Is there nothing the president can't do?

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the January thaw has ended, things are freezing up again, and where the level in the propane tank is dangerously low.

Thoughts On A Sunday

Here it is, the end of the first week of 2018 and I am glad of it.

Between the heavy snows and sub-zero temperatures (that's not counting windchill), the coming respite over this week will be gladly accepted. It will give me time to finish clearing out the snow from around The Manse, particularly from the decks and the front entry way. With rain forecast for Friday I have to make sure the snow has been removed in order to keep the weight of the rain-laden snow from causing damage to the decks. Fortunately I should be able to finish that task tomorrow after work.

I believe this coming week can be classified as the January Thaw, a period of a few days to a week where the temperatures rise well above freezing. This allows ice and snow to melt off of the roads and people to wearing much lighter outdoor attire.

We'll take what we can get before we plunge back into the deep freeze...which we will.

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This merely proves the lunatics are running the asylum.

A Yale psychiatrist wants to have the Democrats to restrain and force President Trump to have a medical exam. How absolutely Soviet of them!

Considering most of her colleagues thinks she's a disgrace and willfully ignoring the Goldwater rule, I think we can dismiss her as nothing more than yet another delusional Progressive suffering from TDS. Tie this in with Michael Wolff's book where all he offers is accusations about Trumps mental health while not a sign of any alleged afflictions have been seen in public, and it's all beginning to sound like a smear campaign writ larger than we've ever seen before. I wonder how much Soros money has been funneled to the DNC for this effort?

The louder the Democrats and their Progressive masters screech, the more they are showing us it is they who need to look at their own mental health.

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Now that BeezleBub has adopted a dog from one of our local animal shelters, I think he needs to consider showing him how to do this.

Considering BeezleBub works at the local ski resort grooming trails having his dog know how to snowboard might be a good thing. But I wonder if he'll have to buy him a lift ticket?

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As Skip Murphy asks, “Could my favorite movie of all time be made today?”

Unfortunately for everyone, the answer is 'no'.

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First, Trump fixes global warming, then he does something for African Americans that The Won wasn't able to do in 8 years.

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Another thing I have to say about President Trump is that he's managed to shift the attentions of liberals away from the things that matter and towards himself. That certainly gives him and Congress a chance to get the things done that need to be done all while the Democrats are focusing on his non-legislative efforts.

It could be called political prestidigitation where he gets the Democrats and the rest of the Progressives to focus on the shiny thing in one hand while he takes care of the business of getting America back on track with the other.

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I am trying Mozilla's latest version of the Firefox browser, Quantum (version 57 of Firefox).

One thing I can say for sure about it is that it is many times faster than many of the previous versions I've used. The one thing that almost had me abandoning Firefox altogether was its slowing response/rendering and increasingly higher resource loading, at times using up to 75% of the CPU for certain video or graphics intense websites. Quantum isn't the resource hog previous version of Firefox had been.

I wonder if this reboot of Firefox is an attempt to regain market share lost when the founder/creator of Mozilla/Firefox was booted from the organization because of a perceived politically incorrect faux pas.

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Cap'n Teach points us to the increasing chasm between California and the rest of America.

It appears California's state government has come to believe it can ignore federal law when it suits it, even in areas where the Constitution says the federal government has supremacy. One example is immigration. Only the federal government has control of immigration, but California has decided it can safely ignore federal law in that regard. Of course the feds retaliated by making sure that numerous 'sanctuary cities' have seen their federal law enforcement dollars dry up as a result. And now that the state has declared itself a sanctuary state, I expect the feds will be seeing about withholding even more federal funds from the rogue state. I also expect the state government and its congressional delegation will be screeching about that and how 'unfair' the feds are being.

Too bad. So sad.

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Oh, yeah! Show Me The Money!

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the grip of arctic temperatures is giving way, melting of snow and ice on road surfaces will commence, and where we're still digging out from the Nor'easter that pummeled the East Coast.

New England's Energy Shortsightedness - Who Will Pay The Price?

I sit here in my office at The Manse, which is situated near the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee in central New Hampshire, looking at the outside temperature and being glad that I am indoors. It's a balmy -4ºF (-20ºC) at 1PM, with windchills at -25ºF (-32ºC) or worse. My trips outside have been limited by these conditions. I am reluctant to go out unless I have a darned good reason, with clearing the driveway of the snowdrifts in a little bit being one of them. That's something I'll be attending to shortly in order to make sure Deb can make it up the driveway in order to get to work.

While temperatures this low this early in the winter is unusual, it isn't unheard of. Tying them together with the big honking Nor'easter we experienced has merely made those well below average temperatures even more daunting because it's very difficult to spend time clearing away the snow. And that brings us to another problem – energy.

The one thing that has had anyone in the know here in New England to worry has been energy, specifically natural gas and electricity. At one point New England had many nuclear power plants which provided a large percentage of its electricity. A number of those have now closed. The same is true of a number of coal and oil-fired power plants. What has replaced some of that now off-line capacity has been natural gas-fired dual cycle power plants. They burn cleaner than either coal or oil plants and they can throttle up and down easily, something that nuclear plants can't do. But they do have one problem: they require natural gas in order to operate. That's the crux of New England's energy problem.

New England doesn't have the pipeline capacity to provide enough natural gas to feed both power plants and provide heat to residences and businesses. Due to bitterly cold winters like this one has been so far, ISO New England has stated that there may be issues with being able to meet the electrical demand because there may not be enough natural gas to go around. With a number of nuclear plants now in the process of being decommissioned and coal and oil plants also being dismantled, switching to anything other than natural gas is problematic. The natural gas supply situation is such that quite often natural has to be imported from Yemen on huge LNG tankers at a huge cost. That's ironic considering the US is now the largest producer of natural gas on the planet.

What would be the answer to solving this particular problem? That's simple: build more gas pipelines into New England. It solves a number of problems, drops the cost of both electricity and heating, and ensures the lights and heat will remain on during extremely cold weather like we've been experiencing since Christmas. Makes sense, right?

Too bad that virtue-signaling pseudo-greens and renewable energy con-men have decided we don't need no stinkin' pipelines. In fact they've fought tooth and nail to keep two major natural gas pipelines from being built, all in the name of 'saving' the Earth. That it helps the virtue-signalers feel good about themselves for preventing something they have no desire to understand while at the same time helping the renewable energy confidence men reap a huge payoff because they can prevent their competition from solving their supply problems has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Yeah. Right.

New England was warned that it's pipeline constraints could cause problems and now it's happening.

“During extremely cold weather, natural gas pipeline constraints limit the availability of fuel for natural-gas-fired power plants,” the grid operator [ISO New England] noted.

That’s exactly what is happening right now.

Unrelenting cold since late December has caused energy demand to spike, pushing up prices and straining supplies. New England power companies are struggling to keep up with demand.

New England’s current energy woes are the result of years of state and federal policies aimed at closing coal and oil-fired power plants, largely as part of the region’s effort to fight global warming.

In 2000, New England got about 18 percent of its electricity from coal plants. Now, the region gets around 3 percent — though it’s jumped to 6 percent in the recent cold snap.

Most of the shuttered capacity has been replaced by natural gas, but pipeline capacity has not kept up with demands from power plants.

--snip--

Gas supply constraints have made New England the the world’s most expensive power market. Some power plants have taken to burning oil to generate power, but supplies are running low. Federal air quality regulations are also keeping power plants from burning more fuel.

Who will be the first to complain should a power shortage cause ISO New England to resort to rolling blackouts? The very same people who did everything in their power to make sure natural gas supplies were strangled. The very same people who have worked so hard to kill nuclear power. The very same people who are working hard to make sure that transmission lines that would bring inexpensive and renewable hydropower from Canada will never be built.

Perhaps they should be the ones to bear the brunt of their closeminded shortsightedness by being the first to get their power cut and last to get it restored should rolling blackouts come to be. Let them bear the burden of what they've wrought.