Thoughts On A Sunday

The rains arrived with a vengeance this morning. Not that I minded its arrival. We’ve needed the rain as it’s been rather dry here the past month. However the rain brought all work outside The Manse to a halt.

There’s still some painting and repairs to complete before The Manse goes on the market and we really didn’t need yet another delay. We are already three weeks behind schedule and the ‘hot market’ window will be closing when school starts late next month.

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With the ongoing debate about energy, specifically the means of generating electricity, the push seems to be for expanding renewables in favor of other more traditional technologies like oil, coal, natural gas, and particularly nuclear.

While renewables sound appealing, the reality is that they aren’t all that great (with the exception of hydro), particularly when you look at the costs. The cost of maintaining the renewables like wind and solar is much higher than originally forecast and their service lifetime is shorter. Because of the intermittent nature such renewables, meaning they cannot be counted on to generate power at any specific time, something that makes them non-dispatchable. The rest of the system has to adjust to the variable nature of renewable sources, making the system less stable.

Another downside to renewables – subsidies.

While many utilities receive subsidies of one form or another, renewables cannot exist without them. The others can, even nuclear. (Yes, the federal government heavily underwrites the storage/disposal of spent nuclear fuel, but that’s under federal non-proliferation laws.)

With all of that in mind, nuclear is one of the best non-carbon energy sources available. And if Elysium Industries has its way, nuclear power may be on the brink of a resurgence.

While a number of companies have been working on next generation reactors, many which have yet to build their first prototypes, Elysium is building upon already proven molten salt technology using materials that are already nuclear qualified. While it is taking a slightly different path in regards to the molten salt, preferring to use chloride salts rather than the fluoride salts of other reactor. As molten salt thorium reactors have a number of advantages over uranium/plutonium reactors, I think it is time that we make the move in this direction.

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Why doesn’t this surprise me?

If you have the misfortune to be a young Republican in Washington, DC, or worse, a Trump staffer, the dating scene is all but non-existent. Considering the atmosphere in the District, particularly after eight years of the Obama Administration and the entrenched Deep State it left behind, that Republicans are in effect social outcasts is to be expected. After all, they are not of the proper political ideology and do not live within the constantly shifting confines of the Left’s paradigm. They are the untermenschen of Washington, to be devoutly ignored, minimalized, and disparaged.

Yet another gleaming example of the intolerant Tolerant Left.

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After the Supreme Court decision that allows states to collect sales taxes from other states where their residents make Internet purchases, one has to think that the 45 states that do have sales taxes expected the revenues to start rolling in once they enacted legislation to collect them. However they may find that a few states, particularly those 5 states that have no sales tax of their own may balk at collecting them for the states that do. That’s certainly the case with my home state of New Hampshire.

While New Hampshire doesn’t like the idea of collecting revenue for other states (and there has been a NH Supreme Court decision – Town Faire Tire vs. Massachusetts Department of Revenue Administration - that have stated that New Hampshire doesn’t have to), it may be forced to do so. However that won’t come without a cost for those states demanding our state do so.

Since New Hampshire does not have a system in place for collecting sales taxes, retailers will have to invest time and money to install the software in their systems to do so as well as pay for the constant updates that will be required to keep the tax requirements up to date. So what plan does the state legislature and the governor have in mind to deal with this?

Make the states demanding we collect sales taxes for them reimburse all of the businesses for the expenses they incur to implement the collection of those taxes. They will also be required to present themselves to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office and prove they have the legal circumstances to ask for the collection and aren’t unfairly targeting small businesses.

How many states will want to go through all of that to collect what will in the end be less than what they think they will get? (I expect that California, Illinois, and Connecticut will do so because they desperately need the revenue. And maybe New Jersey. Of course there will be many different sales tax rates in some states, between the state, county, and municipal sales taxes that exist that have imposed.)

As one commenter to the linked post suggested, “Ironically, my fee, for administration and management of your taxes, is the EXACT amount of your taxes...PLUS postage.”

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I haven’t quite figured out the math, but so far no one has been able to explain to me how it is that having more than one job lowers the unemployment rate. Does the Department of Labor automatically assume that one job filled equates to one person? Or do they look at how many people are looking for work versus how many people have jobs?

Senator Elizabeth Warren seems to think that all of the real reason the unemployment rate is so low is because everyone is working more than one job. This is a similar point that Congressional hopeful Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has brought up as well. What makes it worse is that she has a degree in economics and should know better. But she’s pushing the Progressive narrative and purposely ignoring real world economics as a means of gaining elective office.

To this point I haven’t seen where having more than one job affects the unemployment rate. Using Warren’s and Ocasio-Cortez’s reasoning, we could have a theoretical unemployment rate in the negative numbers if everyone capable of working had more than one job. The labor participation rate could exceed 100% under that same reasoning.

Does anyone else see a problem with this?

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Oh, noes! Colorado snowflakes has a sad because Starbucks has released a coffee mug showing that state’s oil and gas industry.

The blue Colorado mug, part of the coffee giant’s “Been There” series touting the distinctive features of U.S. states and cities, included drawings of bighorn sheep, pine trees, mountains, skiers — and a drilling rig.

Losing their minds over a friggin’ coffee mug? These folks need to get a life.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the rains have arrived for the next couple of days, all outside work has come to a halt, and where once again I look forward to Monday because it means I can get some rest at work.

Thoughts On A Sunday

Another weekend winds to close, meaning that the work I’ve been doing to prep The Manse for sale is slacking off. Work intrudes on doing the work that remains. Little will be done tomorrow due to other commitments and Tuesday looks doubtful as thunderstorms are forecast for the afternoon, meaning any work to be done after work is likely to be pre-empted by Mother Nature.

Isn’t that always the way?

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Could it be that women are avoiding STEM careers not because they aren’t interested, but because they are dissuaded by college professors outside the science fields?

It doesn’t surprise me if this is indeed the case. After all, things like engineering “is only for those who enjoy “rote” work. Engineering is not creative. There’s only one right answer. You’ll live your life in a cubicle. It’s dehumanizing. You’ll never talk to anyone. And, of course, it’s sexist. All this from professors whose only substantive experience with STEM is a forced march through a single statistics course in college, if that.”

I find it amusing that some of these professors seem to think that engineering has “only one right answer”. Not in my 40-some years of engineering it doesn’t. What a lame claim.

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Wirecutter gets into the whole “Why do women always try to change the man they’re involved with?” thing. As he writes:

It seems like damned near every relationship I’ve been in, the woman felt like I could be improved on. I never could understand that s**t – you got together because you like each other, but after you get together you find out that you’re basically just the rough draft. Sure, there’s always something about the other person that you don’t care for, but with guys it’s different. Sometimes we just accept the fact that that’s the way that particular woman is and hey! accept her for who she is. Other times we just figure it ain’t worth the f**king time and effort so we just deal with it. If she blows monster farts right before she wakes up, get up before she does. That’s dealing with it.

I’ve been involved with a few women like that and the relationships didn’t last as it was quite apparent to me that weren’t really interested in me as I was. They wanted to turn me into someone else, someone that was nothing like the real me and that wasn’t going to happen.

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If you need any more evidence of the fake news being put forward by the MSM all one needs to look at the Washington Post’s story that got it wrong about US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley.

With their ‘layers and layers of fact-checkers’, you’d think that could have got this one right, wouldn’t you? But then again, it doesn’t fit the Progressive narrative so the facts must be ignored and the hit piece on Nikki Haley must be published. Too bad it backfired on them…again.

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See what happens in the real world when Progressives run cities? In case you didn’t know, nothing good. Between rising crime rates, shootings, feces in the streets, increasing numbers of the homeless, decaying schools, and rising taxes, endless examples show us that the Blue Model just doesn’t work.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer continues apace, NASCAR returns next weekend, and where Monday is getting here none too soon. (I need to rest!)

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s nice to have a decent bout of weather, with the high temps and humidity being replaced with temps in the 70’s and dew points in the low 50’s. It’s made for much better weather for working outside The Manse in preparation for putting the place on the market.

All kinds of outside work is easier when you don’t have to worry about heat stroke. Painting is easier without worrying about sweat dripping on the wet paint.

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Speaking of heat waves, it was 107 years ago that a heat wave slammed the northeast, killing an estimated 2000 in New England alone. Temperatures in excess of 100°F slammed cities from Baltimore to Bangor for eleven days. While I didn’t see any reports about the relative humidity, I am assuming it was probably very high which added to the misery.

No air conditioning. Fans and ice were luxuries. Removing clothing was not considered an option due to the morals of the time which only added to the injuries and deaths.

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At the other end of the temperature spectrum, it has snowed in Capetown, South Africa.

Obviously it’s all global warming’s fault…or Al Gore was visiting South Africa.

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Between all of the hate directed against Trump and his staffers, intolerance towards Trump supporters including attacks against minors, fake news propagated by a major news organization (AP), Democrats trying very hard to make good economic news appear to be awful along with their promises to raise taxes, re-impose taxes and regulations done away with by Trump, open the borders, impose sanctions on anyone and everyone disagreeing with them, is it any wonder people are turning away from the Democrat party and joining the #WalkAway movement?

It appears the DNC is doing everything it can to make sure it will lose the mid-term elections. Of course I expect they’ll be trying to figure out what happened and will crank up the rhetoric and calls for confrontation and violence against anyone not supporting them. And should that happen I expect there will be bloodshed and it will be their ‘supporters’ committing it. Then, of course, they will decry the actions of those who defend themselves by wounding or killing their assailants.

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Mind you, this is only one poll, but this one by Rasmussen shows that 74% of likely US voters prefer a free market economic system over a socialist system.

We’ve seen more than enough socialist economic systems to know that they just don’t work. Such a highly controlled economic system has one major flaw and it always has – it short circuits all of the market feedback systems and the economy doesn’t respond to the needs of the consumers. Shortages of needed goods become a constant experience. Even if those goods are available their quality will be low. “Standing on line” will become an everyday experience…except for the governmental elite. They will not be standing in line for anything. They will have access to goods and services that everyone else cannot get.

Socialist economic systems could work, but only one way: keep the damn people out of it. If everything were controlled by an AI it might work. But once people get involved in controlling any aspect of the economic system it will deteriorate and become highly dysfunctional.

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Gee, I remember when ignorance of the law was no excuse. But in Canada all you have to be is from a different culture in order to be acquitted of sexual assault.

The perpetrator has been in Canada for 3 years. He understands the laws there. But because he is from Syria he gets a free pass? I have a feeling that if tried something like that someplace like Texas he’d either be convicted, or assuming he didn’t get dead by the actions of one of the parents of his victims. (“Why did you shoot the victim 17 times?” “Well, your honor, he just plain needed killin’.” “Oh, why the heck didn’t you just say so? Case dismissed!”)

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Despite not being part of either the Kyoto Protocols or the Paris Accords, the US has managed to lower its CO2 emissions to a level not seen since 1985.

How many other nations have managed to even come close to matching the US in lowering their CO2 emissions? Let’s take a count, shall we?

Hmm. Nope, not that one…or that one.

Ahh, here we are!

None. Not one. NOT. ONE.

We could do even better if we decided to go whole hog for nuclear power, specifically the Third or Fourth Generation plants. If we can get thorium reactors online we’d have all of the energy we would ever need, wouldn’t have to use up large tracts of land for solar or wind, could get rid of all of the existing nuclear fuel waste, build small modular reactors (which lowers costs) and cluster them together rather than building One Big Reactor, and make our power generation system more dispersed. Then the only need we’d have for natural gas-fired power plants would be as ‘peaker’ plants, power plants used to hand peak demands. (Nuclear plants don’t throttle up and down very quickly. Gas plants can be brought on and off line quickly, hence their use as peaker plants.) Our CO2 emissions could be reduced by an even greater extent.

Of course I expect the ‘usual suspects’ to discount the decrease in the US emissions and find some way to blame other nation’s failures to reduce their emissions on us.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the summerfolk up for the Fourth of July holiday have headed home, the lake has calmed, and where I’m glad Monday is arriving so I can get some rest.

Thoughts On A Sunday

We are in the second day of a forecast 8-day long heat wave, with temps today in the 90’s and the heat index around 100°F. Work around The Manse has been curtailed a bit with the bulk of it taking place in the morning before it gets too hot…for the most part.

I have been refinishing the three decks and front steps, working on them when they are being shaded by The Manse. That has meant working on them until 2PM or so.

The weather has also lent itself to late day trips out onto the lake in the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout over the past three days. I expect to hit the lake after work tomorrow before heading home. (Needless to say, The Boat has been used quite a bit since Memorial Day and I’ve gone through three tanks of gas - about 90 gallons - since then. It hasn’t been sitting idle at the dock for days on end.

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Have you ever noticed the biggest socialists all tend to come from wealthy families? That certainly seems to be the case for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democrat running for one of New York’s congressional districts. The so-called “Girl from the Bronx” is the product of a well-to-do family.

Most socialists tend to be insulated from the effects of their ideology, having the money and ‘pull’ to distance themselves from having to live the lifestyle of the proletariat. It’s why they push so hard for socialism because it will only affect those ‘beneath’ them.

I think if they knew they would be obliged to live the same ways as the proles they would abandon the idea of socialism and distance themselves from it as far as possible.

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Apparently not everyone is enamored of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. A former co-worker has less than kind things to say about her and her work ethic. She appeared to show her true colors in regards to her belief that what’s hers is hers and what’s yours is negotiable, just like a true socialist.

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The #WalkAway campaign is growing as more disaffected Democrats are leaving the Democrat Party over its extreme leftward shift and abandonment of moderate Democrats.

How many potential Ronald Reagans have found that, like him, they didn’t leave the Democrat Party so much as it left them? What will this mean for the DNC going forward, particularly if the minority voters they have always counted on turn their backs on them because they no longer represent their interests and beliefs?

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Gee, it seems that ‘millennial’ women aren’t really happy with their sex lives. It isn’t so much that they aren’t having sex so much as the sex they’re having isn’t all that great.

The idea that women are programmed by the patriarchy to agree to sex even when they don’t want to is not a novel concept among modern feminists. The 2017 viral New Yorker story “Cat Person” dealt with this issue, as havenumerous advice columns and women’s magazines. How is it possible, though, that the generation of women’s sexual empowerment is the generation most in need of this advice?

Perhaps their expectations are too high, particularly in light of the “modern feminist expectations for their sexual encounters.”

If I had to guess, those ‘expectations’ are unrealistic.

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Anyone who knows anything about guns understands that reporters really don’t understand guns.

They cannot tell us what defines an assault rifle (other than they are ‘scary looking guns’), do not understand the difference between clips and magazines, do not understand the difference between semi-automatic and fully automatic weapons, and haven’t a clue about how a shotgun works or its limitations. It seems all of their knowledge is based upon what they see in the movies, much of which tends to violate a few laws of physics, and inaccurately portrays how easy it is to hit a target, particularly when said target is moving.

But we know that none of that will stop them from ‘reporting’ about how bad guns are while ignoring the person wielding them.

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Can wind turbines make you sick?

Yes.

It is something that has been known for some time but dutifully ignored by proponents of wind power. After all, negative health effects of a renewable energy source doesn’t fit the narrative. Therefore there can be no negative effects of wind turbines, even if there are.

Does that clear things up?

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I find it interesting to look at two entirely different viewpoints about Donald Trump. The Daily Beast calls him an “Early Stage Mussolini” while the Sydney Morning Herald reminds us that he has been keeping his campaign promises.

One has to wonder where Trump’s promises to ‘make the trains run on time’ were in his platform. I certainly haven’t been able to find it.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the hot weather has settled in, the summerfolk are keeping cool, and where going to work on Monday gives me a chance to rest in air-conditioned comfort.

Thoughts On A Sunday

I wish I could say it was a quiet weekend here around The Manse, but between trying to get more chores done in preparation for putting The Manse on the market, helping the WP Mom shop for a new car, and making an attempt to repair some yard equipment, it hasn't been quiet or restful by any means. The wet weather hasn't helped either, meaning some outside chores had to be postponed for a few more days.

All in all, getting a house ready to sell is taking a lot more time (and money) than we had originally expected. It has also eaten into what little time off I usually have, meaning much of my weekend posting tends to be shorter than what I am used to posting.

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I find it both amusing and disturbing that many of Trump's Democrat detractors seem to have very short memories and a distorted sense of time. They act as if the so-called illegal immigrant crisis at the border is something that only now has come into being. That it has been going on for years, well before President Trump even thought about running for office, is somehow his fault? Worse, some of the photos used to prove the 'crisis' is real were misleading, showing young children separated from their parents by an unfeeling US government when their parents were really just off camera, and in many cases, others showing children in 'cages' were taken during the Obama Administration. Yet somehow it's all the fault of the Trump Administration.

I think too many of these folks going out of their minds about this non-crisis have been off their meds.

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Discussions I've had with the token Progressive at work have covered a wide range of topics. The latest has been the pending trade war because Trump's threatened imposition of tariffs to match those imposed upon US goods. More than once I told him that the move was strategic, getting those nations to the negotiation table. He saw it as the opening shots in a lengthy and costly trade war.

Apparently has has had no problem with the lopsided application of tariffs, seeing it as a way to make us pay for our sins (though he never has told me what these supposed 'sins' are).

Surprise surprise when the nations threatened with tariffs suddenly decide that maybe talking things through and perhaps even lifting the tariffs might be an idea whose time has come.

The other nations really don't want a trade war because they know it will likely hurt them as much if not more so than it will hurt us. They want trade to continue, so reducing or removing tariffs suddenly seems like a good idea.

Gee, it's almost like Trump knows what he's doing.

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I honestly have no words to describe my reaction to this story.

Really. None.

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I love it when the local media get something so wrong that there's no way they can explain it away. In this case the story about an 18-wheeler accident, with the truck hauling a load of liquid nitrogen. According to the news report, a half-mile area around the tanker was evacuated due to the risk of a tank explosion.

Anyone who remembers their basic high school chemistry knows that nitrogen is not flammable. There would have been no danger of a tank explosion. On the other hand a tank rupture was a possibility, something that would have spilled thousands of gallons of liquid nitrogen, something that would immediately freeze anything it came into contact with, making it as brittle as glass. That in itself is one heck of a hazard and is a more likely explanation for evacuation of the local area.

They can't even get a story like that straight? Even if the authorities had made that claim, one would think that there was someone at the station that might have realized the explanation was bogus. But maybe that's too much to hope for these days as most journalists tend to be woefully ignorant about how things actually work.

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How do you get more Trump? This is how:

“The Resistance simply is against everything President Trump does. He figured out more than a year ago how to work this to his advantage. The Resistance now opposes tax cuts, a booming economy, and peace in Korea. The Resistance also now supports MS-13, open borders, and Kim Jong Un.”

Do they honestly think they have a winning platform for the 2018 midterms and the 2020 presidential race with the above? It's obvious that they do, not understanding that most of America doesn't agree with them. Do they think that people really want to return to the Bad Old Days?

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And that is the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather was wettish, the indoor activities took precedence, and where we're hoping to get some dry weather over next weekend.

Thoughts On A Sunday

The last day of Motorcycle week is upon us as the visiting bikers get in some of the last activities of the festival and many make their way home. Some will linger for another day or two, but most will have departed by early evening today.

The large influx of motorcycles gave me the perfect excuse to not travel, giving me plenty of time to work around The Manse in preparation for putting it on the market. Yesterday and today was spent stripping the decks with a pressure washer (mostly to remove dirt, grime, and loose paint, not strip all of the paint off) in preparation for repainting them some time over the next few days. Some of the yard work was also done, though it is nowhere near being finished. (Then again, it never really is, is it?)

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This is something I think more college kids should be doing. For that fact, so should adults from the Blue urban areas.

On a blustery afternoon in April, I filed into a van along with 10 students from Harvard. We had just spent the last two days in Chicopee, Mass., where we had chatted with the police chief and his force, the mayor and his staff, small-business owners, waitresses and firemen about their struggles living in small-town America.

The undergrads were buzzing with their impressions. Chicopee is about 90 miles west of their prestigious university in Cambridge, but when it comes to shared experience, it might as well have been 1,000 light years away.

As they settled in, I looked at them.

“So,” I said, “who do you think most of the people you just got to know voted for president?”

None of the students had an answer. It hadn’t come up in their conversations and they didn’t know I had privately asked each person who they’d voted for.

So, I let a minute pass and told them.

“Nearly every one of them voted for Trump.”

My students looked stunned, at first. But then a recognition crossed their faces.

We were only a few days into a new course I had developed with Harvard’s Institute of Politics, called the Main Street Project, where students are immersed in small-town America. Even though these kids had almost all been raised in the United States, our journey sometimes felt like an anthropology course, as though they were seeing the rest of the country for the first time. And this was their opening lesson.

Too many kids in college these days, particularly attending one of the Ivies, have little exposure to rural America, so-called “flyover country”. The only thing they know about the people living there is what they've been told in their classes or by the media, and just about everything they've been told is wrong. But they won't know that unless they experience small town America first hand.

The Main Street Project is but one small step to correcting the many misconceptions people have about small town America.

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While the idea of renewable energy sounds great and billions have been spent on promoting and building renewables, the actual fraction of power that comes from those sources really hasn't grown all that much.

I could dig deep on why this is so (as I have done in the past), but a lot of it still boils down to the cost of renewable energy being very high, even with government subsidies. The rest deals with dispatchability, meaning they generally cannot supply power on demand, they are highly susceptible to weather conditions, and they take up a lot of land area compared to the more traditional coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear power plants.

Until those other issues are solved, renewables aren't really a viable alternative to the other sources of power.

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There's nothing I can add to this. Nothing at all.

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Yeah, this worked out so well the last time that they decided to try it again.

The Left has called for a boycott of Chick-fil-A because the corporate owners don't support gay marriage.

In case you don't remember, the last time the Left called for a boycott of this restaurant chain, just the opposite occurred – a buycott. Chick-fil-A saw more customers coming through its doors and buying their chicken sandwiches than before the announced boycott. How much do you want to it will have a similar effect this time as well?

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People complain about how bad the air pollution is here in the US. Most of those making that claim weren't alive in the 60's and early 70's when both the air and water were quite polluted. Since then we have cleaned up the air and water to the point were much of the pollution can be measured in parts per billion or parts per trillion, not parts per thousand or parts per million. In fact, a lot of the air pollution to which we are exposed is not generated here but comes from overseas, specifically China. Yet we have people who fervently believe that we must be punished for the pollution caused by other countries, hence their support of things like the old Kyoto Protocols and the Paris Accord, neither of which really did anything other than demand a lot of money from the US.

But do we hear much about the horrendous air pollution in places like China or India? Of course not.

One tends, as a matter of course, to inveigh against pollution in China. The world has never seen a quicker leap into industrialization than what has happened in China over the past four decades. But, we also know that industrialization is the enemy of the pristine purity of nature. And we are well aware of the fact that China sports an authoritarian government, one that keeps its hold on power by poisoning its people.

We keep those facts and beliefs firmly in mind when we examine the state of today’s largest democracy. That would be India. How is democratic India doing with air pollution? We note the said pollution is not the same as the greenhouse gases that our environmentalists hate so much. Those latter include large quantities of carbon dioxide, aka, plant food. Pollution in India is of another order.

Anyway, India is not doing so well on the pollution scoreboard. If you think that toxic masculinity is a problem, wait until you get a whiff of toxic smog.

As the saying goes, Read The Whole Thing.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the roar of motorcycle engines are fading away until next year, the vendors are counting cash stuffing their cash register drawers, and where peace and quite is returning even if it is on a Monday.

Thoughts On A Sunday

Motorcycle Week has returned to central New Hampshire! The roar of motorcycles has ramped up since Friday evening and bikes galore have been on all of the roads. Some people hear the noise of the bike engines. Others hear the ringing of cash registers all over the state.

While in the past most of the focus of Bike Week was here in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, it has since spread out to other areas around the state. That has given the mistaken impression that not as many bikers have been coming up for the festivities because the not quite as many people congregate around Weirs Beach, the 'HQ' of Bike Week. But looking at the tourism dollars rolling in and full hotels and campgrounds, it is obvious that just the opposite is true.

At least this year's Bike Week looks to have great weather all week, with only a chance of thundershowers sometime on Thursday.

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Much has been made of the increasing suicide rate in the US, with a 25% increase seen across the nation over the past few years.

There are all kinds of theories as to why this is occurring running the gamut of the decay of the nation's moral fabric, the attacks on religiosity, readily available abortion which cheapens the value placed upon life, the war against men (most suicides are male, with the number rising alarmingly amongst middle aged men), the jungle that is social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.), and one of my favorites, the rapid increase in the use of SSRIs, a class of drug used as an anti-depressant. Considering one of the side effects in children and young adults can be suicide ideation, is it any surprise that all of these factors are contributing to the rising suicide rate?

I doubt there is one factor that we can point to and say “Aha! Here's the problem!”

What's the solution? Frankly, I have no idea. But I do have on suggestion that I think many should consider, that being to “drop out' of social media. Take a break from it all. Don't log in to any of your electronic addictions. Wean yourself off of the electronic fentanyl, or better yet, go cold turkey for a while. Also consider staying away from all of the so-called news websites and apps. You might be surprised just how much better you feel after a week or so away. You'll likely also come to realize just how much time you have been wasting on something that has no socially redeeming values and lets you get back to living life again.

Will this solve the problem? Again, I have no idea. But it doesn't take any time or money to give it a try and you just might find yourself enjoying the real world again.

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How many times over the past few years have we heard about some busybody bureaucrat shutting down a kid's lemonade stand? Call it the height of asininity and government overreach spuured on mby the Left's need to control every aspect of our lives.

But now folks are fighting back against that crap, specifically the men and women of Country Time Lemonade. They've started a legal defense fund to help entrepreneurial kids fight the bureaucrats and run their pop-up lemonade stands, just like we did when we were kids. Call it one more fight against those who seem to think they know how we should live our lives better than we do.

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As if we had any doubt that 'comedian' Bill Maher is a douchebag, he proves it to us yet again by wishing the economy would tank and hurt millions of Americans just so he and his cohorts can get rid of Trump. Of course HE wouldn't be hurt by such a slump because he is, after all, wealthy. But the rest of us would have to suffer just so he can feel better about who's president?

And then there's his whole 'losing democracy' shtick which makes us realize he doesn't understand that America is not a democracy, but a constitutional republic.

Then again, the elite don't need to understand these things because everything is about the 'feelz', not the facts.

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For a change of pace (and a palate cleanser), how about a documentary about Mister Rogers?

Apparently it is quite good and confirms many of the good things I've heard about him over the years.

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Apparently even the people living in Massachusetts hate Massachusetts because they are refusing to have kids there. The Pay State has the lowest fertility rate in the nation, has seen its influence in Congress withering away as its population grows slowly (if at all) and other states with higher fertility and immigration (from other states) grow more rapidly, taking away their House seats in Congress.

While not quite a one-party state like California, it does have way too many Democrats spending the taxpayers' money on useless and stupid things. While it's taxes aren't quite as bad as those in neighboring Connecticut, it's still known by many as 'Taxachusetts' as there is little its legislature won't tax.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the roar of engines is expected to get louder over the next 7 days, cash registers will be ringing up sales from visiting bikers, and where for once I have no issue with Monday's imminent arrival.

Where Did All The Time Go? It's Been 16 Years!!

It's hard to believe that this blog has been around for sixteen years, but it has.

My dear brother made the first post 16 years ago today, our former website – World Domination, Inc – having become too cumbersome to maintain. (Our motto was and still is Subjugating Humanity, One Individual At A Time.) His first post can be found here. Just scroll down to the bottom.

This blog started on Blogger, then moved to Blogmosis (long defunct), then Nexcess, and finally back to Blogger. There have been thousands of posts, some lost (when Blogmosis went under), and the rest here at Blogger. The topics covered are too numerous to list, but most of them dealt with the Left, the Wrong (basically the same thing), the Constitution, and just plain tomfoolery of all stripes.

While life has intruded, making blogging much more difficult, I have managed to post on weekends. (I guess that makes the blog title accurate, eh?)

Some have asked if I will eventually give this up. The honest answer is I don't know. All I can say for sure is that if I do it won't be any time soon. It could be I might move my blogging to another well established blog. I might go back to almost daily blogging here. Only time will tell.

I any case, here's to 16 years on the blogosphere, and hopefully many more to come.

Thoughts On A Sunday

This is going to be a somewhat abbreviated post as I literally just got back from some time out on the lake. I hadn't figured I'd be out so late, but family was visiting from Nevada so BeezleBub and I took them out for a tour of the lake.

Frankly, between going out on the lake or working on a post, I'd choose time on the lake every single time.

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The whole dust up about whether or not Robert Mueller can subpoena the President is telling me that Mueller hasn't got squat after over a year of 'investigation' of any collusion with the Russians. There's been plenty of proof that the Clinton campaign had plenty of contact with the Russians, but has any time been spent looking into that? Not from what I can see.

This has been a fishing expedition/witch hunt from the very beginning, pushed hard by the DNC and the Clinton campaign. Millions have been spent and there isn't a damn thing to show for it. If there were we'd be hearing it from the DOJ and the MSM every minute of every day. But what are we hearing instead? Lots of conjecture and innuendo, but outside of that, crickets.

This is one heck of a nothingburger that the DNC cannot stomach.

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When I read the story about a Benghazi survivor, and Army Ranger, 'shooting down' David Hogg's take on gun control, I found myself agreeing with the man.

I honestly don't remember reports of school shootings of the type we've been experiencing since Columbine during the time I was in school – the 60's and 70's. It's only been since Hogg's generation came into being that we've seen this spate of school shootings.

Says former Army Ranger Kris Paronto, “I remember, it was before your generation started shooting up the schools David, even though we still had guns," Paronto tweeted. "Thank you for confirming..again...that it’s not the gun, it’s person, and in particular you & your peers millennial culture.”

With the wall-to-wall coverage given by the media whenever these types of shootings take place, sensationalizing the event and making a 'celebrity' out of the shooter, is it any wonder that there have been such school shootings? Even while reporting on the tragedy, they glamorize the shooter as if it were all part of some first person shooter game and this guy had the high score.

Just how twisted is that?

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Is that they don't care or that they really don't understand that they are shooting the proverbial goose that lays the golden eggs? Of the two, I'd have to say it's the second because it appears that they could that stupid.

To what do I refer?

The alleged plan by some of the NFL players to strike back against the league's kneeling ban by boycotting games.

I wrote 'alleged' because the report about this plan comes from notoriously unreliable Shaun King. If players actually decided to do something that stupid, I would expect them to be kicked out of the league and replacement players put in their place. Of course I would expect those same ex-players to file a lawsuit against the NFL, thought I doubt they could claim breach of contract because it would have been them breaching their contract with the NFL, not the other way around.

Are NFL players that stupid? On the whole, I'd say probably not. But that doesn't mean that one or two of them have so convinced themselves that they are indispensable that they would do something that stupid.

Only time will tell.

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I think it's time for Bernie Sanders to throw in the towel and retire. After all he can't seem to tell the difference between the people in his home state of Vermont and those in California.

Then again, he also doesn't know how economics works which is why he keeps pushing the free college and free s**t for everyone. He doesn't seem to understand that there is no such thing as free anything. Someone somewhere has to pay for it and that eventually he will run out of those other people's money.

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And that's the abbreviated news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the warm dry weather will be gone for the next few days, school will be out for the summer soon, and where Motorcycle Week starts next weekend!

Thoughts On A Sunday

The first 'official' weekend of summer is here, and all that goes with it. That includes the insane traffic, most of which started Friday morning. I took Friday off in order to do some work on The Manse in preparation for putting it on the market, and that entailed running some errands during mid/late Friday morning. That there were traffic tie-ups at some of the local intersections was surprising. That many of the vehicles in those traffic tie-ups were from away was not.

Deb and I went to one of our local eateries this morning and found we were going to have to wait to be seated as we had forgotten to take into account the summerfolk were back. When we did get seated we were fortunate enough to be at a table next to some other locals, and we got into a conversation about the heavy presence of folks from away. One of us (I forget who) made mention that it appeared that everyone from Massachusetts was up here for the weekend. It certainly seemed that was a a very large majority of the out of state plates were from there, with a smattering of Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey plates thrown in for good measure.

Summer has returned, even if the calendar say it won't actually be here for another three and a half weeks.

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One of the biggest problems I find in regards to alternative energy is that too many proponents choose to ignore the negatives. Between low energy densities (both wind and solar are actually rather diffuse compared to oil, coal, natural gas, and nuclear), lack of dispatchability (immediate generation capacity decides on sources, not demand), their vulnerability to weather conditions, and lack of energy storage. These are all “problems to be solved down the road” that need to be solved now in order to make wind and solar viable at reasonable costs. But neither wind or solar provide power at reasonable costs.

While the energy for wind or solar is free, the costs of collecting and converting that energy is not. Both are horrendously expensive which is why they are subsidized, and even then they cost a lot more than conventional power sources.

Then there are the other hidden costs, particularly when it comes to both economic and environmental costs. One of the bigger issues being devoutly ignored by the renewable energy proponents is the amount of toxic waste generated by their manufacture. And that's just on the making them side. There's also the toxicity of panels when they reach then end of their useful lives.

Solar panels are not easily recyclable, they contain lead (which no one mentions), cadmium (which is far more toxic than lead, which no one mentions), antimony, and a host of other toxic substances than cannot be removed without breaking apart the entire panel and properly processing them to recover the toxic materials. Even that process can generate toxic waste all on its own.

Because solar panels contain those materials, they are not supposed to be landfilled because those materials can leach out and contaminate ground water.

So all of that so-called 'clean energy' isn't so clean after all.

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I find it interesting that the most of the media, specifically the LSM, haven't caught on to the fact that President Trump is playing them like a virtuoso violinist. He's had decades of practice at manipulating the media and he does it so well.

Or if that analogy doesn't work for you, how about this one: He's a stage magician that gets the media to focus on the shiny object in one hand while he uses the other one to 'take care of business'. Think about it.

He (or one of his staffers) posts a tweet about one subject or another. The LSM goes insane over the tweet, focusing all of their effort and attention on his latest Twitter 'outrage'. In the mean time they aren't paying attention to what's going on in the background. It's not that he's hiding anything as everything he's accomplished has been out in the open. It's that he's diverted their attention away from it by giving them something else to pay attention to. When they finally do pay attention, they're surprised. And then the process repeats itself.

Could it be that's how he's gotten the judicial nominees he's wanted appointed? Is that how he's managed to be so effective in regards to foreign policy? (You have to admit he's certainly gotten the attention of a certain leader in a country north of the 38th Parallel.) Is that how he's managed to roll back many of the economically damaging regulations imposed by his predecessor?

Yes.

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Truer words were never on a tee shirt!

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The more we hear about Stormy Daniels' lawyer, the more disreputable we're finding out he is.

Between stiffing his partner for monies earned by their practice, shorting clients on money they were awarded in lawsuits, and now it appearing that he's a tax cheat, why would anyone, including Stormy Daniels, trust this publicity-seeking shyster? He certainly has a less than stellar reputation.

I figure it's only a matter of time before he's busted for something or Stormy wises up, fires the jerk, and finds a more reputable attorney. Or maybe both will happen.

Either way she should put as much distance between her and this Avenatti guy.

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I have to add the same comment Glenn Reynolds added about this piece, that being “It’s very important to list all the things you won’t do for your future husband before you meet him.”

While I can understand why some women don't want to change their names after marriage, one has to wonder what other things some women might not do for/with their husbands after marriage.

I know I've mentioned overheard conversations between young women expressing their totally unrealistic expectations about marriage. More often it sounded like they were talking about a relationship with a monied doormat who would let them have sex with anyone they wanted outside of the marriage, not a man. (Not even a beta male.) That's not a marriage, that's a financial arrangement with a whore. No, strike that. A professional would give value for the money paid to her. These women wouldn't.

How did I make the connection between a women explaining why she wouldn't change her name after marriage to a cuckolding gold digger? I didn't really. It was just that Glenn's comment triggered the memory of the overheard conversations.

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If things go well on Monday I will have the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee in the water and tied up at its slip before the sun sets. I had to delay the launch as the owner of the docks where I berth The Boat informed me that they had not yet finished laying down the new deck after some structural repairs were made. Without that deck there was no way I would be able to make it from the dock to the shore without walking the proverbial tightrope. So launching The Boat was delayed.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer has (unofficially) arrived, as have the summerfolk, and where we're still plugging away at getting our house ready to sell.

Thoughts On A Sunday

The presence of summerfolk was unmistakable this weekend, despite the rains we had on Saturday. Lot's of out of state plates on the various vehicles filling our local roads, lots of boats being towed towards their summer berths, and a lot of folks at the local big box hardware stores pickup up needed items to get their summer places ready for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend.

Some of the seasonal eateries have been open for the past couple of weekends and will be open all week long starting on the aforementioned Memorial Day weekend.

If the weather forecast for the next 7 days holds, next weekend's weather will be perfect for the unofficial start of summer.

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The First Street Journal has another post on The Success of Socialism, particularly when it comes to dealing with the problems of obesity. This one is number 16 in the series. Links to previous posts can be found at the web page.

It still amazes me that people actually believe that socialism is a good idea when so many examples abound showing it is a very bad thing. Some of those examples go all the way back to 1620 AD. You'd think that after 400 years of experimentation socialism would be perfected, if it were at all possible. But as history has shown us it is not. But that doesn't stop every generation from trying to “polish the turd” that is socialism.

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Speaking of socialism and keeping in mind Thatcher's aphorism - “Socialism works until you run out of other people's money” - a number of blue states have found out that they can no longer ignore their looming fiscal crisis.

With the change in the tax code that has eliminated so-called SALT (State And Local Taxes) deductions from income tax returns, the actual cost of running many of these just-about-broke states is coming to the forefront. States like Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and, of course, California are likely to see either a mass exodus from their states or one heck of a tax revolt now that their heavily taxed residents can no longer reap the benefits of the SALT deductions. For many that means thousands of dollars they can no longer deduct from their returns and more federal income tax they'll have to pay. It also means that more fiscally responsible states' residents will no longer have to subsidize those in heavily taxed states. (Residents in more lightly taxed states subsidized those in heavily taxed states because they didn't have nearly as many state or local tax payments to deduct.)

The days of being able to depend upon 'other people's money' to pay for all of the over the top programs, kickbacks...err tax incentives, and outright feel good but worthless 'help' given to the less fortunate (those less fortunate residents being created by the very states 'helping' them) or fading away. The actual costs of supporting all of that can no longer be ignored or hidden.

Maybe we can hope it will help bring fiscal sanity to the blue states, but I'm not holding my breath.

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Work intruded into today's posting efforts, meaning I spent a few hours this evening on-line in an effort to close out some paperwork for a couple of ongoing projects before I take a little vacation time starting late this week.

I'm not going anywhere for vacation. Rather I'll be home working on The Manse to get it ready to list for sale. There are a number of last tasks to complete before listing it and there isn't enough time on the weekends to accomplish everything, hence taking a few days off.

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I thought I'd seen everything.

I was wrong.

Apparently someone somewhere thinks that paper bags are now racist.

Just when I think SJWs can't get any stupider they prove me wrong.

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And that's the (abbreviated) news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer is almost (unofficially) here, more boats are appearing on the lake every day, and where I still haven't mowed the lawn yet.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It's been a pretty good weekend, weather wise, though a bit cooler than I had thought it would be.

I did manage to retrieve the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout from the local marina, it having been unwrapped and serviced. There's a little clean up to take care of and the stowing of gear before it returns to its summer berth, something I am hoping will take place later this week.

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I find it amusing that some Congresscritters actually think it's a good idea to give 16-year olds the vote. Really? With very few exceptions, they have neither the maturity or the wisdom to carefully weigh the issues when it comes to voting. (Then again, neither to a lot of adults.)

The one thing that I find majorly wrong with this idea is that it gives the “Feelz” party a bigger leg up because, let's face it, teens are far more emotional than rational at that age as compared to their older and more 'sophisticated' college-aged siblings. (No, not really, but that's the argument I would put forward.)

The proponents are selling the idea that they'll take voting more seriously than adults, but I seriously doubt that. Or if they do, it will be because they have been manipulated by the “Feelz” party.

Have you every wondered why so many revolutionary movements try to recruit the young? It's because they are neither smart enough or mature enough to understand when they're being lied to and why. They have been the cannon fodder is too many revolutionary movements because they don't know any better.

It's a damn good reason not to give them the vote.

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I have to wonder, but does that pinko Tom Steyer really think he'll be able to get President Trump impeached, and if so, on what grounds? That he just doesn't like him? The he doesn't like what he's accomplished? Of is it because Trump has consistently played the media and the Progressives (but I repeat myself) like the chumps they are?

I have to wonder how close this comes to sedition? After all, he is advocating the overthrow of a duly elected president, one that won't play to Steyer's rules.

To remind Mr. Steyer of a quote from his messiah, “Elections have consequences.” That he thinks he knows better than we so-called Deplorables shows us just what he thinks of us, which is 'not much'.

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Is the Democrats' much crowed about “Blue Wave” turning into something more of a “Blue Swirl”, much like the water swirling down a toilet bowl? If the latest poll numbers are anywhere near accurate, it looks like that might be the case.

When the Democrats are promising to undo the tax breaks and purposefully slow the economy by restoring crippling,unneeded and unwanted regulation on businesses, why should they expect that they'll be swept back into power?

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What has this world come to?

Now we have to deal with Grilling While Black?

It figures that this stupid incident took place in the Pyrite State (the once 'Golden State' of California.)

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The news has been regularly covering the fissures that have opened and started spewing lava on the Big Island in Hawaii. Mount Kilauea has had a number of lava spewing fissures open in the lowlands at its base and it is causing some major damage.

I hate seeing something like that happening in that tropical paradise. It's something that should be happening in California instead, maybe as a precursor to the coastline between just north of San Diego and San Francisco separating itself from the mainland.

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It turns out that some SUNY students were 'deeply hurt' by a speech given by a fellow student about liberal intolerance on campus.

My initial response: I don't care! Maybe they needed to be 'deeply hurt' in order to find out what it's like to be on the receiving end of ridicule, threats, and actual physical assaults.

This was doubly bad because the student who gave the speech has been reprimanded for her “uncomfortable” speech during an open mic event on campus.

College Liberals, Thy Name Is Hypocrisy!

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It looks like liberals (and the perpetually offended) are running out of things to be offended about and are desperately looking for things to offended about. After all, without something to be offended about they'll have nothing to fill all of those empty hours they'll experience.

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Stuart Schneiderman points us to a warning to liberals by Gerard Alexander that “just because they control the media, the arts and the academy… they seem to believe that they control the American Mind.”

It just ain't so.

How do they explain the fall off in movie and TV viewership, decreases in college admissions, and people staying away in droves from “the arts” when all of them try to ram progressive beliefs down our throats? The rubes (that's us) aren't intimidated by liberal self-importance and self-aggrandizement. Most of us understand that they really don't understand us and don't want to understand us. They just want us to kowtow to their 'greater' wisdom and beliefs, even though many of them are twisted and abhorrent to many of us. The rest is just insane and nonsensical. That's why we ignore them, at least in regards to how we are supposed to live our lives. We do pay attention to the rest, mostly as a means of keeping an eye on them and the next stupid thing they're going to tell us is important fro us to do (but not them, of course).

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer is approaching, the summerfolk have been showing up in increasing numbers each weekend, and where Monday is intruding into our recreation all too soon.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was another fifty-fifty weekend in regards to weather, but I'm not complaining. The wet weather today gave me a perfect excuse to be a bit lazy, something that was welcome after the very busy day I had yesterday.

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The so-called investigation by Special Counsel Mueller continues to drag on. After all of this time one would think that the investigation would have either found any compelling evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians or nothing at all. What exactly have they found?

Bupkus.

When a federal judge castigates the DOJ and Special Counsel for going well outside their mandate, vigorously prosecuting people only on the periphery of the campaign as a means of forcing them to flip on the President, you know things have turned from an investigation and into a fishing expedition, or worse, a witch hunt.

When the judge finally gets a chance to review the unredacted memo that laid out the duties and scope of the investigation, I have a feeling he's going to quash any further investigative efforts because of one of two reasons: the investigation has gone far outside the scope of the limits set by the memo, or the memo had limits so broad as to be meaningless and unconstitutional. Should the DOJ appeal the decision and it ends up going to the Supreme Court, I have a feeling they will agree with the lower court's decision.

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Another thing to consider in regards to the Mueller probe is that it's so bad that even a former Hillary advisor believes it is corrupt.

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Then there's the folks that keep saying that the Stormy Daniels kerfuffle will lead to Trump's impeachment or resignation. I have to ask those folks one simple question: What laws were broken by the president that could lead to impeachment?

That he may have banged a porn star isn't a crime, or even a misdemeanor. If he did indeed have sex with her, he wasn't in office or even running for president when the alleged affair took place. That she alleges that she was paid hush money isn't a crime either.

If Trump did indeed have an affair with Stormy Daniels, so what? At least she's classier than any of Bill Clinton's extramarital honeys.

Frankly, I suspect most Americans don't really care. I know I don't.

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Is John Kerry delusional? He must be if he thinks he's still Secretary of State, working behind the scenes to keep the horrible flawed Iran deal alive. I guess he feels he isn't subject to the Logan Act and can negotiate foreign policy for the US even though he is no longer a representative of the United States government.

I think it's time for him and the other Deep State operatives to find out that they are not immune to the law. Kerry should be made to make the perp walk as he's hustled into the FBI HQ in handcuffs before being arraigned in front of a federal judge.

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Has Andrew Cuomo lost his mind?

Yes. Yes he has.

What triggered this loss of sanity?

The fact that someone actually had the gall to challenge him in the Democrat primary in New York, in this case actress Cynthia Nixon. This has driven him to do some pretty bizarre things, including some actions that will hurt New Yorkers at a time when everyone else (except those in other Blue States like neighboring Connecticut, New Jersey, Illinois, and California) are reaping the benefits of the economic boom fueled by President Trump's tax reform and business regulation cutbacks.

Yeah, that's a winning strategy.

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And that's the abbreviated news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer has suddenly arrived, boats are appearing on the lake, and where Monday is once again going to ruin a perfectly good weekend.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a half-and-half weekend in regards to weather – sunny on Saturday and raining on Sunday. Overall, I have no real complaints.

One thing I have noticed is that the traffic has been getting heavier every weekend. I figure a lot of folks have come up to start getting their summer cottages and camps ready, particularly now that Ice Out has been declared on Lake Winnipesaukee. I know some folks took advantage of the warmer weather at the end of this past week and took their boats out onto the lake. Mine won't be headed to the lake for another two weeks as there are a few minor things to take care of before it goes to its summer berth.

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I've discovered a new blog by way of Deb, one written by a friend of hers.

Go check out WrantingandWraving. The author (who shall remain nameless to protect his identity) is an educator and has some noteworthy views and opinions, many of which I know many of his colleagues would likely disagree.

So far I haven't come across anything to which I disagree, or at least not greatly. (Mostly a matter of degree and not magnitude.) Then again, he's not s prolific blogger, so posting is sporadic.

Despite the above this one will be one to check for new content every now and then.

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I still think the Trump/Russia thing has pretty much run its course. As more than a few have opined, it has been a big “nothingburger” from the beginning. But that won't stop the True Believers from digging away looking for any tenuous thread they will try to use to unseat the president.

One would think they'd stop digging as every time something new comes up it points towards the DNC, the Hillary campaign, and a number of other Progressive groups and people pulling off some pretty shady (an illegal) shenanigans in their efforts to take down Donald Trump. They are following Alinsky's rule about accusing your opponent of doing things that you are doing. However it doesn't seem to be working this time because so far no evidence pointing to Trump has shown up. Not one iota.

One has to wonder if they're going to try to drag this out until the 2020 elections as their means of unseating Trump. If they do I have to think it will end up being a non-starter because just about everyone, including many Democrat voters, are already sick to death of this witch hunt.

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Yeah, like HE has had anything to do with it.

I find it interesting that after all of the work and gamesmanship President Trump has put in in regards to North Korea, and seeing now that North Korea appears to be ready to negotiate about their nuclear weapons and an official end to the Korean War, former president Obama has claimed the credit for making it all happen. Then again what do you expect for a narcissist with delusions of adequacy?

Unless Obama has been using some illegal back channel, I doubt he's had anything to do with the possible rapprochement between North and South Korea. Seeing his dismal record in regards to foreign policy, there's no chance he had anything to do with it.

Then again, we're dealing with The Won, so take any of his claims with a huge effin' grain of salt.

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Why is it I cannot get this image out of my head? Could it be because it is most likely quite accurate?

Yes, I know I'm making a generalization. But having met more than a few Antifa and some of their sympathizers, and knowing just what they think about firearms, I have no doubt that the linked image is quite accurate in regards to those known to me.

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From the Just When You Thought They Couldn't Get Any Stupider Department comes this gem:

A high school student was suspended for 3 days for singing the national anthem in school.

Really? For 3 days? I have to ask: How long would he be suspended for punching a fellow student or singing the Internationale? I bet not nearly as long as he got for singing our nation anthem.

Since when has that become a disciplinary action? Why did his school forbid him to sing it? Just what the hell is going on in his school district??

Someone there needs to be fired, and I mean really fired because they sure as hell haven't got a friggin' clue about this nation, its people and their love for this nation.

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It appears that so-called “cultural appropriation” only works one way. If we here in America like something from another culture and add it to our own, it is somehow bad and disrespectful of that other culture. (More on the opposite below.) And here it is I thought that was one of the things that made America a great place, taking the best from each of the cultures of the people who came here to be Americans and adding it to our own. Instead it has now become something to be avoided because a bunch of crybullies feel it denigrates those other cultures. They want to make sure we never 'appropriate' anything from any other cultures, ever.

So what they're really saying is that they want this country to become Balkanized into separate cultural enclaves where no one will exchange anything about anything and that our culture will not be allowed to change under any circumstances.

Yeah, like that's going to work. (Even if it did, I would expect ethnic and cultural wars to erupt just like back in many of the places that many immigrants came here to get away from.) Most folks are going to tell those whiners to “Sod off, swampy!” The crybullies do not get to determine what we will or will not appropriate. They are neither smart enough or wise enough to do so. And should they push it, I have a feeling they will experience first hand what it's like for revolutionaries to seek them out, drag them from their 'safe spaces' put them up against a wall or have them climb the gallows and end their miserable existence because “we ain't takin' their s**t no more.”

At the same time these crybullies go on and on ad nauseum about cultural appropriation, people in other countries dressing in Levi's is somehow American cultural imperialism.

What this proves to me is that these people seriously need some mental help. They are not living in the real world, but are stuck in some kind of delusion that makes them believe that they are the arbiters of what is allowed and what is not, what is good speech and what is bad speech, and what is good and what is evil. All this from people who need safe spaces, think speech that disagrees with theirs is violence, and need to be shielded from ideas and beliefs that do not match their own.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather is supposed to get better later this week, boats are making their appearance on the lake, and where preparations to get mine back on the lake continue.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It appears spring has arrived (at least temporarily as I still don't trust Mother Nature), with temps in the 50's here in central New Hampshire. There is no freezing rain, snow, or sleet in the forecast over the next few days, so it's looking promising. A good portion of the ice covering Lake Winnipesaukee has melted or broken up, though a considerable amount of ice can still be seen along the northern side of the lake.

Who knows, I might still be able to launch The Boat during the first weekend of May after all...but I'm not holding my breath.

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Reading and hearing reports on TV about the continuing demonstrations and walkouts by high school students demanding action in regards to gun violence, I see the focus is still on the wrong aspect of the issue. They are focusing on guns, not violence. The 'new' laws and regulations they propose aren't new at all. They already exist, but are being poorly enforced. A complete ban on guns would be unconstitutional (see Heller vs District of Columbia). Both school and law enforcement officials have ignored warnings about people who everyone knows will at some point go on a rampage, whether they use guns, knives, or explosives.

In all of this, people have been focusing on the instruments of violence, not the violence itself. Until they do, the problem will not be solved. Disarming law abiding citizens because of the actions of an infinitesimal portion of the population won't solve the problem. If anything, it will make it worse because then no one will be able to defend themselves against the criminal or the violent mentally ill who will ignore the law.

Treat the cause, not the symptoms. It's no different than treating any disease (violence is a disease). If you only treat the symptoms, the disease itself will continue to do its damage.

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I have long had a problem with the claim that renewable energy sources can meet all of our electrical needs. First, as an engineer I understand the differences between the performance claims and the actual performance of a system or systems, particularly for something like solar or wind energy. (I deal with electronics, optics, and laser systems on a day to day basis, so I am naturally skeptical when claims about some miraculous new system are announced.)

I think the problem with a vast majority of people who are not in any way involved with the power industry is that they have absolutely no understanding of how our electrical grid and generation systems work, how they are managed, and the delicate balance that must be maintained 24/7/365 in order to keep the system from failing. They also have little appreciation for just how much power it takes to run modern technological civilization, covering everything from the food production systems to telecommunications to air transport systems, and so on.

It is this lack of understanding that those who push the meme that “renewables can meet 100% of our electrical needs” exploit. They push the positives – free energy - while totally ignoring the negatives such as the scope of what would be needed to replace all of our conventional means of generating electricity and the actual costs of doing so. Those types of systems take up incredible amounts of land to even come close to generating the power that a coal, natural gas, or nuclear plant presently generate. What effect will all of those arrays of solar panels and wind turbines have on the local environment? How much wildlife habitat will be destroyed in order to put in acres and acres of solar panels? How much avian wildlife will be killed by wind turbine blades and how much of a negative effect will be created by the known effects of infrasound also generated by wind turbines? It seems no one really wants to discuss the environmental downsides, some of which are well known and well documented.

They also purposely ignore just how difficult it will become to keep the aforementioned 'delicate balance' if we switch to renewables so our electrical grid doesn't crash. The concerns are pushed aside with claims that it's only a problem for the skeptics and that somehow when it comes to actually making the switch that the problems will magically fix themselves or worse, won't ever be a problem. The issue is the stability of those renewable sources which are inherently unstable as well as their lack of what is called dispatchability. (This refers to the ability of a grid operator to 'dispatch' generating capacity as the electrical demand rises and falls. Renewables are not considered dispatchable because they cannot be throttled up and down like natural gas plants, and to a limited extent, coal or nuclear plants. The amount of electricity they generate changes with the weather conditions and from minute to minute. Solar is limited to daylight hours and wind turbines to when the wind is blowing. Of the two, only wind might be able to generate power all through a 24 hour period, and even then only every now and then. Renewables aren't consistent. They aren't stable. They aren't capable of providing the power we need that other power technologies can handle readily.

100 percent renewable energy is a pipe-dream.

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I have to wonder what will happen when Special Counsel Mueller's investigation concludes there was no collusion by the Trump team with Russia? I can think of a couple of different scenarios, neither of which is pretty.

One possible scenarios: After the tearing of hair and rending of clothing by Democrats who were so sure that there would be something that could be used to impeach Trump, there would be calls for a follow on investigation of the Mueller investigation to see if there was collusion with the Russians by Robert Mueller.

Another: Most of the people in the US will see it for what it was – a nothingburger – and will hand the Democrats a sound shellacking in the midterm elections for wasting their time and our tax dollars on what was nothing more than a combination witch hunt/fishing expedition.

One definite scenario: An MSM meltdown and violent Antifa demonstrations that will further damage an already heavily damaged Democrat party.

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I think you will have noticed that I have not included any links in my usual TOAS post today. This was intentional, a throwback to some of my earlier days where I provided my opinions on matters that caught my interest or bothered me in some way. Just linking to others' posts and throwing my 3¢ worth in was a lazy way out. It didn't really take a lot of thought and I realized that I wasn't always expressing my full thoughts on a matter.

Looking at Disqus comments I've made on other blog posts or articles made me realize I was doing a far better job there than here, something that proved to me that I've fallen down on the job. (No. I am not going to reveal my Disqus name. That's for me to know and for you to figure out for yourselves.)

I figured I'd try this little experiment and go back to some of my blogging roots if for no other reason as to shake me loose from this lazy habit I've fallen into.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the ice is finally melting away, the boat will soon be out of storage, and where we're not hearing the furnace running every 5 minutes.

Thoughts On A Sunday

Winter has returned to New Hampshire with a vengeance. Snow, freezing rain, and sleet descended upon us overnight, with the freezing rain and sleet being the most 'plentiful' precipitation so far. The Weather Guys^TM have said that we can expect up to a quarter inch of ice to accumulate between this evening and tomorrow morning. That will be on top of what has already fallen. The temps will be below freezing for the next 24 hours or so, which means they will be between 25°F and 30°F below normal for this time of year.

BeezleBub had to head out to the local hardware store to pick up some ice melt (assuming he could find any, which he did, surprisingly). It's not something we usually have to buy this time of year.

One of the things this return to winter will affect is the date of Ice Out on Lake Winnipesaukee, the date where enough of the ice has melted that will allow the M/S Mount Washington cruise ship to make all 5 ports of call around the lake. This also means that it will delay the date that I will launch the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout – aka The Boat – because the chances are the water will still be too 'chunky', meaning there will still be ice floating on the lake here and there.

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So, does someone want to tell me about global warming again?

It seems that there are blizzard warnings posted for six states...in mid-April. There are also Winter Storm Warnings in eleven other states.

As you can see from the initial part of my post above, we're seeing the non-effects of global warming here in New Hampshire as well.

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First, it was Bush Derangement Syndrome. Then it was Palin Derangement Syndrome, followed by Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Now, it's Chik-Fil-A Derangement Syndrome, and it's hitting it's hitting New York City hard.

Really? Somehow the appearance of Chik-Fil-A in New York is the sign of the Apocalypse? Boy, the Left's standards as what signals the coming of The End has fallen to a new low.

These folks need to get on meds, seriously. How can so many deranged people be allowed to roam the streets in America?

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I have to agree with Matt Walsh on this in its entirety: If your sex life is none of our business, stop demanding that we celebrate it and fund it.

Many members of the LGBTQetc community have no desire to 'throw' their lifestyles in out faces. Unfortunately just enough of them do, and then they wonder why people are sick and tired of hearing about it. No one seems to go out of their way to throw heterosexual lifestyles in their faces to the level that the LGBTQ extremists do (sometimes to an extreme).

Here's a message to those folks: No one gives a s**t, nor should they.

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CBS reports that voters could decide whether or not to split California into three states.

On the surface it sounds like a good idea. But once you look at the details you realize those three new states would be dominated by the Progressive cities so many on Red California want to get away from; Northern California would be controlled by San Francisco and Silicon Valley, with most of the counties being affected already vehemently against what those areas have already done to them. California would be the coastal area between Monterey and Los Angeles, and the Southern California would be the rest of the counties to the east. The way the new state lines would be drawn will still give Democrats a large majority in each state and would lead to four new Democrat senators. That would leave those who already suffer from the abuses of the Democrat party no relief and leave them no better off than they were before. That isn't a solution, but more of a problem that could lead to bigger problems down the road, like armed resistance by the disenfranchised.

If those line were redrawn to make the coastal areas from San Francisco to LA one state, northern California counties another state, and San Diego and the eastern counties the third state, then there would be something to support. But if the results of the split are what have presently proposed, then all that's being created are three copies of the insanity that already dominates California.

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Well worth the read: What White Privilege lessons did to my high school.

It certainly didn't help things, didn't create cohesiveness amongst the students, and in fact probably made things more divisive for no other reason than to make sure the Left controlled the narrative.

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Is it time to reform the Renewable Fuel Standard? Yes, without a doubt because the RFS as it stands is causing more problems than it's solving.

The RFS was set when demand for gasoline was increasing annually. Today just the opposite is taki9ng place. But the amount of ethanol that must be used according to the mandate is now outstripping the gasoline supply. Some have suggested increasing the blend of ethanol from 10% to 15% would solve the problem, but it creates a worse set of problems in return, specifically voiding of vehicle warranties and requiring retrofitting every single gasoline storage facility and gas station in the nation.

The other issue: ethanol was seen as a why of replacing foreign oil with a renewable source. However the demand for foreign oil can now be met with domestic sources and ethanol has a negative energy return, meaning it can take more energy to produce than it delivers.

That's not how any of that was supposed to work.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter refuses to release its grip, ice still covers the lake, and where dreams of boating will have to be put off for a while longer.AC

Thoughts On A Sunday

At least Sunday started sunny and bright, unlike Saturday which had brought clouds and snow. At least all of the snow had melted by the end of the day.

Work continues on getting The Manse ready to put on the market, with the interior painting expected to be finished by the end of this coming week. We're still shoveling out the basement, though I'd say that 90% of the stuff we needed to get rid of has been separated from the stuff we're keeping. Hopefully we'll be seeing all of the stuff that we need to get rid of taken off to the dump some time over the next two weeks.

It is easy to forget just how daunting it can be to get a home ready for sale.

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It's looking to be a real battle for the upcoming elections in November, with both Congressional districts looking to have close races. So far no one who has announced their candidacy is showing as a favorite, even the lone incumbent in the Second NH Congressional district.

This is going to be a long slog to November.

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Why does the Left get a pass on anti-semitism?

Could it be because the modern Left, going back the the time of Lenin, have always hated the Jews? And since the present day Left has its own propaganda wing, that being a good portion of the MSM, they choose to ignore something that would inflame those of us who are not Leftists?

So, let's refresh our memories, shall we?

The Left is anti-semetic.

The Left is racist because we see how hard they exercise their soft racism of low expectations of minorities and they refuse to see the racism pointed towards whites by other races that “can't possibly be racist”.

The Left is intolerant of anyone who isn't them despite their claims to the contrary.

The Left despises actual diversity because if it really existed it would weaken them.

The Left really likes the idea of totalitarian states (we see how much they praise them on a regular basis) because it means they would be able to run everyone else's lives...even though they can't seem to run their own.

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Stepping back a little bit, Legal Insurrection brings up the coming mid-term elections and wonders whether it will be a Big Blue Wave or a Big Blue Bust.

The Democrats seem to think they have the mid-terms all sowed up. However, we must consider some of the things they have stated that they will do if the take the House and the Senate.

One of the first things: reverse the tax cuts and start stealing more of our money from our wallets.

The next thing: Impeach Trump. (It doesn't matter that they have no grounds for impeachment despite what the MSM has been trying to sell us.) Some of them seem to think that if Trump falls then Hillary will somehow become president. I have two words for them: President Pence.

After that I have no doubt they will do their best to cripple the American economy again, much as they did when they took Congress during Dubya's last two years in office and then made it even worse once their 'Savior' was elected.

One has to wonder if their belief is on founded in fact or whether they're just wishing real hard.

I guess we'll find out in six months.

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As the saying goes, karma is a bitch!

I'm going to guess the guy didn't get the job.

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Steve MacDonald has come up with a great for a new TV reality show, one I can get behind totally. In fact, I'd be willing to kick in some money to help make it happen. Maybe he should start a Kickstartr or GoFundMe page to get the ball rolling.

I bet that if he did, he'd get millions of dollars to help fund it.

If nothing else I would want to watch the faces of the participants when they finally realize that they are living the 'dream' they have clamored for and it turns out their dream is really Hell.

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And for a second dip in the GraniteGrok pond, here's a heartwarming post by Skip that made me smile.

I think I'm going to have to visit Harris County, Georgia and meet the sheriff. He sounds like my kind of guy.

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Do you know what is even more rare than Bigfoot sightings? Give up yet?

Proof that employers are paying women for the same jobs as men.

Too many people take the aggregate pay of men and women and point to it as proof that women are being paid less. It's an old trick and one that does not reflect reality.

One has to look at the pay by the job. There are many jobs that women simply will not or cannot do that men do. Many of those jobs are very dangerous and men get paid a lot of money to do them. Men also tend to work a lot more overtime which skews the wages between men and women.

It's time to put that old canard to rest.

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Reading the news from the UK, it looks like the folks pushing for 'knife control' are using the same old arguments that the gun-grabbers here in the US have been using to take away our guns.

The UK has tight restrictions on gun ownership. Everyone thought that would end the senseless slaughter. It didn't. Now more murders and attacks are being committed with knives. So the answer is to make otherwise law-abiding citizens give up their knives?

Again, these idiots are missing the point. It isn't about gun violence or knife violence. It's about violence., something they aren't addressing. Solve the violence problem and the other problems go away. But instead they are addressing the tools used to commit acts of violence which, in and of themselves, are inanimate objects rather than the miscreants committing those acts of violence.

Is it any wonder that they're failing?

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where warm weather might return later in the week, the ice on the lake is getting thinner, and where we've told our local boat shop to get our boat ready for the first week of May.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It's Easter Sunday, and all is quiet here in central New Hampshire. Family will be gathering early this afternoon to partake in Easter Dinner.

The weather has been cooperative for the most part. While it will be in the lower 50's today, a still breeze will make it feel a bit cooler. At least we didn't have to deal with an Easter snowstorm like so many through parts of the Midwest.

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This will be a somewhat abbreviated TOAS as I will be spending most of the day with other members of the WP clan gathering at the WP Mom's.

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You know the whole “white privilege” meme has come close to reaching maximum stupid when an “outdoor expedition that's part of [a college's] freshman orientation...recently came under fire from one student critic who accused them of perpetuating “white privilege” and “prehistoric policies regarding gender.” ”

The college in question, Bates College in Maine, probably one of the whitest parts of the US, has been been accused by Justin Geddes, an editor at the college newspaper, of perpetuating white privilege as part of its freshman orientation program.

Writing in The Student, Geddes states that he knows many people who have “AESOP horror stories,” though he provides no specific examples. He claims that hiking trips organized by the group are “made entirely of microagressions,” and that he has heard of “queer first-years” who end up “surrounded by straight people making eyes at each other across canoes.”

“It’s easy to feel isolated and lost when you’re surrounded by people with nothing in common with you on a trip that you signed up for because you had to,” Geddes added, writing elsewhere that “to have an identity dissociated from a ‘hip,’ outdoorsy norm rooted in a Northeastern white understanding of self seems almost inconceivable by Bates’ orientation standards.”

Of course Geddes, in typical leftist media fashion, has performed a hit-and-run accusation with absolutely no corroborating evidence or quotes from some of these 'victimized/traumatized' “queer first-years”. Then again, isn't that their modus operandi today? All that's required is an accusation in order to be guilty. No proof or evidence required.

Some folks need to get help. Geddes is one of them.

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I am in total agreement with Gay Patriot on this one – I am so tired of the non-stop whining!

LGGBDTTTIQQAAPP Left activists continue their perpetual tantrum, today’s ‘worst injustice ever suffered by any people in history’ is because the 2020 Census might not include questions about sexual orientation.

FFS, what business is it of the Government’s anyway?

Indeed. The increasing hyperbole only ends up marginalizing any actual grievances they may have, if for no other reason that people will stop paying attention to their braying at all of the “injustices” that are anything but.

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Oh, this will win over voters to the Democrat Party!

It appears that New Mexico's Secretary of State believe voters are “too stupid to fill out ballots.”

I kid you not.

[Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse] Oliver argues picking the candidates voters want is "long and complicated," and therefore they need to be told who to vote for based on party. (emphasis mine)

She said having voters choose every candidate they are voting for is "voter suppression."

"Simply put: the decision to end straight ticket voting in New Mexico was a cynical partisan attempt to make it more difficult for New Mexicans to vote," Oliver said.

Oliver also claims voting is too difficult, unless voters can just check the "Democrat" box.

So what she's saying is that Democrat voters are too stupid to vote? They “need to be told who to vote for”. Does she realize she's implying Republican in New Mexico voters don't need that crutch because they're smarter than the Democrats in New Mexico? Probably not. She probably just wants to make it easier for ineligible voters to elect Democrats, allowing them to make a single check mark, deposit their ballots, and then move on the next polling place to repeat the process. (Yes, I am being sarcastic...maybe. Or not.)

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The claim is made again and again that climate change is humanity's biggest threat. But so far no one, and I mean no one has proven a warmer climate is a problem. We have plenty of proof that a colder climate is a big threat, and it seems the 'warmists' are all for the return of another ice age and are doing everything they can to make sure it happens.

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And that's the abbreviated news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where colder than normal end-of-March/beginning of April temperatures haven't dampened thoughts of the coming boating season, where the snow is rapidly disappearing despite some of the cooler temps, and where we are celebrating His resurrection.