Thoughts On A Sunday

The weather here in New Hampshire has been somewhat schizophrenic - freezing cold to unseasonably warm, with snow or heavy rain (along with local flooding) – and the madness isn’t likely to end anytime soon. To add to the craziness, the Weather Guys^TM have forecast temperatures in the teens for a high on Thursday, with high winds generating wind chills well below zero (-20ºF or lower). The lows that day will be in the single digits, both above and below zero, and that’s before the wind chill is factored in.

With the rains we’ve experienced here, most of the snow we had on the ground has disappeared. We still have ten days before Christmas so we still have a shot at a White Christmas, and if the Weather Guys^TM are right, we may get some this coming week.

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Speaking of Christmas, I have most of my Christmas shopping done. There are only a couple of more to collect (they are waiting for me to pick them up later this week).

One thing I have done that I have never done before for this Christmas: shopping at one of our local gun shops for presents. I am not going to mention here what it is I bought because I know the recipients occasionally read my scribblings here, so I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

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Seeing the results of the elections in the UK, the Tories winning in a landslide, and the machinations of the ‘sour grapes/witch hunt’ impeachment of President Trump by the Democrats, one has to wonder if the Left in both countries have lost their collective minds.

Labour was certainly gobsmacked that the ‘proles’ didn’t sweep them into power, particularly after they promised to destroy what remained of their freedoms and British culture, favoring inimical immigrants over British subjects and ceding power to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats in Brussels. That the Tories slapped them down and stiffened the resolve of those wishing for ‘Brexit’is evident and it looks like Great Britain will be out from under the EU’s thump after the first of the year.

Here in the US, it looks like the Democrats are working hard to insure the destruction of their power, pushing impeachment to a vote in the House, sure that they’re going to “get” Trump and get him kicked out of office. But the polls, even those friendly to the Democrats, are showing the American people aren’t supporting their efforts.

It seems the die-hard Democrats are ignoring what their constituents are telling them and are moving forward, wasting time and taxpayer money in order to overturn the results of the 2016 elections. Moderate Democrats, particularly those representing districts that voted for Trump, must be feeling the pressure to vote against impeachment, particularly if they want to remain in office. (One Democrat congressman has even gone so far as switching parties.) I have a feeling that Pelosi, Nadler, and Schiff may be disappointed should the vote go against impeachment, something I think is quite possible. But even if the House does vote for impeachment the chances of the Senate convicting the President is effectively zero. If the Democrats believe enough Senate Republicans will defect to vote for impeachment, then they’re either on drugs...or off them when they should be on them.

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If this is true, then it tells me Trump made the right move.

Bureau of Land Management bureaucrats are quitting rather than relocating west close to the land they actually manage.

Some folks have opined that it is a bad idea, not necessarily because it will help decentralize government but because some folks are worried that the relocated bureaucrats will ‘infect’ the places to where they relocate, turning them blue. But some are overlooking the likely possibility that many of those bureaucrats won’t relocate and will be replaced by locals. It’s also likely they won’t need nearly as many personnel, a further saving for the taxpayers.

Now all we need to do is get more federal agencies and departments out of Washington and closer to the people they serve and away from the Beltway mentality that has so suffused them.

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“Quantum supremacy” is racist?

My response to such a ridiculous thing: So what?

These ‘academics’ calling it racist need to buy an effin’ clue.

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By way of Maggie’s Farm comes this quote from Scott Adams:

Incompetence is the most massively common problem in the world.

Indeed. All we have do to see the truth of that is look at Washington, DC...or the UN.

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And that’s the new from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather can’t seem to make up its mind, the shopping centers and malls (what there is of them) are packed, and where I’ll soon have all my Christmas shopping done.

Weekend Pundit's Guide To Country Living - Part V

I realize I've been remiss in regaling you with (mostly) true stories and northern New England wisdom, the kinds of things that will help visitors (or those thinking of moving here) survive...er...enjoy their time here.

Time: One thing that new residents and visitors seem to have a difficulty with is time. Not telling time so much as understanding that time moves at a different pace up here. While California is often seen as the capitol of 'laid back' it was actually invented here. The old saying “The hurrier I go the behinder I get” pretty well describes how we don't do things around here.

For instance I've seen too many people up here on vacation trying to jam in a month's worth of recreating into one or two weeks. They go home more exhausted than when they arrived and then they need time off to recuperate before they go back to work. It defeats the purpose of coming up here.

Folks have got to learn to slow down a bit. Not so much to the point that mañana becomes the theme of their stay, but more like not trying to do too much in a single day. No one needs to go skiing, sledding, snowmobiling, shopping, and ice skating all before lunch. Nor is it necessary to go swimming, boating, water-skiing, jet-skiing, and playing video games at the arcades all between lunch and dinner. It's OK to kick back, sit on a lawn chair in the shade and read a good book or watch other folks recreating hard or even lie back and do nothing at all. Heck, folks are even allowed to take a nap any time they want. It's not like we're going to tell on you if that's what you want to do. Take a walk. Take a hike. Ride a bike. Go to a movie, maybe even a drive-in! Stop at a roadside ice cream stand and indulge yourself and your family. But for cryin' out loud, don't try to do it all at once. All anyone trying to do that will do nothing but tucker themselves out.

For those moving here to live rather than to recreate, some of the same advice applies. Also. don't over-schedule things, particularly your kids' extracurricular activities. They don't need to play soccer, football, basketball, field hockey, ice hockey, golf, run track, cross-country ski, etc. in order to be 'complete'. Allow them some time to be just kids, to hang out and play with their friends. And whatever you do don't fall into the habit of 'play dates'. Save that crap for the city. You didn't move here just to do exactly the same things you moved from the city to get away from, did you? If you did, then why did you bother to move up this way in the first place?

Next, something near and dear to my heart – Driving:

One thing that visitors and new residents learn the hard way is that the posted speed limits are pretty well enforced on the smaller highways and town roads. The police seem to give more leeway on the Interstates, but even that is subject to change without notice. While there are stretches of road that appear to have an artificially low speed limit, it's usually because there are farm or logging operations going on somewhere along that road, so the speeds are kept down in order to make it easier for the farmers and logging truck drivers to pull out onto the road. Farm tractors don't move very quickly and fully loaded logging trucks take a while to get up to speed. Give them time and space to do so. It's the courteous thing to do, something that we take quite serious around here.

Another thing – that doodad on the left side of your steering wheel is called a turn signal. Learn how to use it, and use it before you actually make a turn rather than after in order to show us what it is you just did. (I believe that's something endemic to the People's Republic of Massachusetts because it's mostly folks in cars with Massachusetts plates that pull that little stunt.)

Even though we don't have many toll plazas on the highways here, we do have a few. A word to the wise – pay attention to the signs showing the EZ-Pass and the Cash lanes. Zipping across three lanes of traffic to get into the correct lane because you weren't paying attention during the two miles before the tool booths is not just uncool, but dangerous and likely to lead you to handing even more cash over the state for your bonehead move.

One thing that a lot of folks from away have a tough time getting used to is stopping for pedestrians in crosswalks. City folk might not think it's all that important, but around here the pedestrians have the right of way. That, and you must also remember that some of them carry guns. So be polite and stop for those crossing the street, even if they aren't in a crosswalk.

Okay, that takes care of the driving part of this post. Let's move on.

Trash: One thing that we really like up here in northern New England is the scenic beauty that surrounds us. We try hard to keep it clean for both visitors and the folks living here. All that we ask is that you do your part, too. In other words, clean up after yourselves. Trash belongs in a trash barrel, not along the side of a road or a hiking trail, and certainly not in the rivers, lakes, or streams. While we enjoy the fact that tourists like to come here, enjoy our scenery, partake of the various recreation opportunities, for the most part we are not your servants and we don't take kindly to people trashing our home. This applies to every country town, no matter where it is, so please clean up after yourselves.

I'll close out this post with a quote from Lorrie Baird that explains a very important concept that visitors must understand:

Only the people who live here and pay taxes have earned the right to complain about local services – which is almost a sport around here.

To be continued.........

Trump Is Doomed...Or Not

Listening to the MSM as they report that “Trump is doomed” now that the House will soon be voting on his impeachment, one would come to think that it’s all over but for the shouting. Only those who haven’t been paying attention would believe the Democrats have Trump’s impeachment in the bag.

More Congressional Democrats have been opining that impeaching Trump is either premature or a non-starter. The smart ones understand that hitching their re-election hopes to ‘getting’ Trump is going to be more like tying an anchor to their ankle and jumping into a lake. It is more likely to bring them down when their constituents vote them out of office because they wasted so much time (and money) trying to undo the results of the 2016 election.

What makes a lot of this even worse is that Democrats have been planning to impeach Trump since he took office. How do I know that? Because Nancy Pelosi said as much.

I have become convinced that when the time for the vote in the House comes, the Democrats aren’t going to have as many votes as they’re believe they will. It might even be possible the Democrats won’t have enough votes for impeachment. Should that happen, I don’t expect them to give up trying to unseat him.

Considering the slate of Democrat presidential candidates, it’s evident that Trump will be re-elected. And should he be re-elected, I expect they will spend the following four years trying to remove him from office. That may not necessarily be a bad thing because if they’re spending their time trying to get Trump, they aren’t doing things like spending money we don’t have on things we don’t need or passing laws that strip Americans of their rights.

We Wuz Robbed!

It was exciting to be watching the Patriots-Chiefs game Sunday, but I do have to say I was angry that the officiating was so gawd-awful.

The poor officiating costs the Patriots the win. Even the game commentators and the post-game show hosts stated as much. Between a blown fumble/down-by-contact call that was indeed a fumble (it stopped play and the Patriots had to challenge the call, which they won) and an Out-of-Bounds call that robbed the Patriots of a touchdown (video replay showed the receiver did not step out of bounds before breaking the plane into the endzone, but the Patriots had already used their two challenges so couldn’t challenge this one). There were also three defensive pass interference calls that should have been made against the Chiefs the refs somehow missed.

This one should have been a win for the Patriots. If the Kansas City Chiefs coach is as good a guy as I’ve heard he is, I have no doubt he’ll tell his guys “We were lucky on this one. The reason we won was because the refs made bad calls that hurt the Patriots, not because we were the better team.”

Thoughts On A Sunday

Deep winter cold hit New Hampshire, with some towns in the southwestern part of the state seeing temperatures below zero. It was sunny yesterday which helped melt away the snow we got throughout the day Friday. There is still some snow that needs to be removed from the roof of The Gulch in preparation of heavy rains heading this way starting some time Monday and lasting through the day Tuesday. Looks like the snow rake will be coming out of the garage for the first time this winter.

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How much time does CNN have left?

Seeing that its already dismal ratings fell even lower during the ongoing impeachment circus, I doubt anyone can say I am being pessimistic about its chances of survival being as close to zero as it can get without actually being zero. A once great news organization that paved the way for the 24/7 news cycle that others followed has decayed, turning so far left that it has driven away most of its audience.

These days its heaviest viewership seems to come from a captive audience at airports around the world, abd even then no one is really watching. (This is an observation made during four trips down to Washington, DC over the past 6 months. I spent more than a few hours at Dulles Airport waiting for my return flight and noticed CNN was on just about every TV screen throughout the airport...and no one was paying any attention to it. It is anecdotal evidence, but I think it is indicative of how far the pioneering cable news channel has fallen.)

I think it is more a question of when, not if CNN will go dark, closing a chapter in the increasingly tawdry MSM story.

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I am almost expecting House Republicans to show up at the impeachment in House carrying striped bags of Big Top popcorn and sticks bearing cotton candy to watch the circus that is the Democrats impeachment efforts.

Considering that work on impeachment started 5 seconds after Trump was elected based on the fact that the Democrats just didn’t like Donald Trump and the only thing they’ve been able to come up with little more than “I-heard-it-from-my-brother’s-barber’s-second-cousin’s-girlfriend-that-Trump-did-something” types of evidence of wrongdoing, one has to wonder if Congressional Democrats are hoping for some kind of ‘miracle’ to give them what they want. Maybe they believe their efforts to redefine “bribery” to mean something that is otherwise legal for everyone else but will be redefined just for President Trump will come to fruition.

I am beginning to think the Democrats won’t have the votes they need in the House to impeach Trump and that their efforts will come to nothing but the loss of House seats to the GOP next November, and possibly loss of seats in the Senate as well. When more disaffected Democrat voters see their elected representatives wasting their time on a something that is nothing more than a vendetta because Felonia Milhouse van Pantsuit was elected, the less inclined they will be to vote for their do-nothing House Representatives and Senators.

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"Actors are pretty stupid."

So says iconic actor Anthony Hopkins when he explained why he seldom -- actually: never -- talks about politics.

"People ask me questions about present situations in life, and I say, ‘I don’t know, I’m just an actor. I don’t have any opinions. Actors are pretty stupid. My opinion is not worth anything. There’s no controversy for me, so don’t engage me in it, because I’m not going to participate."

--snip--

It is extremely refreshing to see an actor take this position. Sadly, the new generation of Hollywood stars has a different opinion. Take Mark Ruffalo, the millionaire actor who recently endorsed Bernie Sanders. This multi-millionaire (who's reportedly worth $30 million) wrote on Twitter that "it’s time for an economic revolution. Capitalism today is failing us, killing us, and robbing from our children’s future."

The general reaction to Ruffalo's tweet was one of amusement: the only person who didn't understand that it was slightly ironic that he was blasting the very system that made him rich and famous was Ruffalo himself. Everybody else was laughing at him.

Actors are people who pretend to be other people. They don’t say a word or take any actions that aren’t scripted by someone else. It’s rare that they can actually think for themselves, particularly when it comes to politics and those rare ones generally don’t speak about politics.

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You know the climate change faithful have gone off the deep end when one of its congregates decides to ban the sending of Christmas cards by his students in order to combat climate change.

A primary school headteacher has been branded a “grinch” after banning pupils from sending Christmas cards.

Jonathan Mason, head of Belton Lane Primary School in Grantham, Lincolnshire, said the tradition was bad for the environment.

However, parents said the move is not in the Christmas spirit and accused Mr. Mason of “rank hypocrisy” after he reportedly announced the ban in a letter to all parents.

It sounds like he’s trying to use the Precautionary Principle to undermine yet another tradition. But then, to the faithful everything contributes to climate change, so everything should be banned.

Yeah, that will work out for them.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather is going to swing from sub-zero to the 50’s over a couple of days, the lake is still not frozen over, and where preparations for Christmas continue.

Yet Another Close-Minded Leftist Troll

I was surprised to see that a comment I made to a post at Intellectual Takeout over a year ago has garnered some new replies. The post deals with the fact that most Americans, particularly younger Americans, have “almost entirely forgotten their history.” As George Santayana said, “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.” Or as Robert Heinlein once wrote, “Those who do not study history have no past...and no future.”

In America, we celebrate democracy and are justifiably proud that this nation was founded on the idea that the people should rule.

That’s why it is so important that Americans be informed about their government. They are partakers in it. In fact, they control it.

Under tyrannical systems, it matters little if the people are informed about political life. Autocrats make decisions for the people whether they like it or not. But in our republic, we rely on the informed decision-making of citizens to judge policies and the leaders who will implement them.

Unfortunately, we are not very well-informed.

According to a recently released survey, Americans are woefully uneducated about the most basic facts of our history, to the point where most couldn’t even pass a basic citizenship test.

Therein lies the problem. It isn’t just a lack of understanding of our history that’s a problem, but the related ignorance of our laws and of the Constitution that also pervert and twist American’s perception of what’s legal and what’s not. This was amply displayed by a series of exchanges in the comments of that year-old post, where one part, a self-described “70-something female that grew up in Virginia and I know our history.” This same female then went on to prove she doesn’t understand our laws or our constitution, or worse, that she does and wants to see both changed beyond recognition in order to fit her view of what should and should not be legal. Heaven help us if she ever gets her way.

Here are her comments and some responses to her comments:

Her: Liberals started this country.

Him: Yes, classic liberals who believed in the freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, that government that ruled least ruled best, and so on. "Liberal" doesn't mean what it used to and is in fact the antithesis of its original meaning. Liberals today are anything but liberal in their beliefs, the term having been suborned by the regressive Progressives.

Her: And you are expert on what liberals believe since you are one?? LOL. From my view most conservatives don't really believe in liberty. They are the real regressives. I am a 70 something female that grew up in Virginia and I know our history. Our forefathers are rolling over in their graves from the perversions of the right now.

Him: As compared to the Left doing everything it can to strip Americans of their rights while telling us to "trust" them because they know better what the people need than the people themselves? That's what has the Founding Fathers spinning in their graves, the very thing they fought against over 200 years ago.

Her: What rights are the Left trying to strip from you? Seriously? Please give specific answers, What I think is old guys are seeing the country getting more diverse and browner along with women becoming more powerful and it scares them. You do realize that when this country was formed there were no restrictions on immigration. Funny, the right wants gun rights with no restrictions yes wants to limit immigration. Why does the right think they define what being liberal is?

Him: Let's see:

Freedom of Speech is a big one. All one has to do is look what is happening on college campuses which has spilled out into society. You can only speak if you agree with us, otherwise you will be silenced, made an un-person. Owners and staff of social media do that day in and day out. Only viewpoints of those they agree with will be seen. Those with opposing viewpoints (most often conservative viewpoints) are blocked, taken down, removed or accounts are suspended because they disagree with the Leftist narrative.

Right to Keep and Bear Arms is another one. Strip law-abiding citizens of the right to defend themselves against miscreants and tyrants (these days often the same people). Certainly the government is incapable of protecting the citizens. And who protects us against the government? You?

How about the Rule of Law in general? The Left consistently wants laws that stand in their way to be re-interpreted to greatly weaken them or eliminate them entirely. An example: immigration law. It seems these days that illegal immigrants have more rights than citizens. Leftist judges block implementation of long standing laws or executive orders, often without stating what law or constitutional article/amendment is being violated.

If need be I can go on and on (after I get out of work). But those are the top three that come to mind. There are plenty of others.

Her: You need to read the Heller decision. Gun ownership is not unlimited.

Him: But states/cities legislating gun control laws that make it darned near impossible to buy or own a gun go too far. Then again, those states tend to have very high rates of violence and property crimes and it seems the Powers That Be want to keep it that way by making sure citizens will be incapable of defending themselves. Only the criminals seem to be allowed to own/carry guns there.

Heller has been studiously ignored by Washington DC, making law abiding potential gun owners jump through all kinds of hoops just as a means of denying them the right to own a weapon, something that Heller was supposed to eliminate. Heller also stated that the right to keep and bear arms was an individual right, not a collective right.

McDonald was supposed to stop the abuses by the city of Chicago in regards to gun ownership by law abiding citizens. That city has also ignored the ruling by dragging its feet when it comes to following the SCOTUS decision.

Her: The current administration is ignoring the Rule of Law and our Constitution. Impeachment is constitutional. It is not a hoax or witch hunt. The left is not trying to strip you of the right to own guns. They just want better gun controls and gun control enforcement. I own a gun. Many liberals do. You seem to think if anyone on the left disagrees with you, exercises their freedom of speech, it is somehow an attack on your freedom of speech. It is not. Seems the right is guilty of that more so. The right is very quick to start name calling and being demeaning in my experience. I agree that younger Americans are not being taught history as well as I was. What is really astounding is the number of older Americans that do not really know the history of this country, or worse, twist it. I am very grateful my two sons have studied not only our history but world history. I promise you they can easily pass a citizenship test, as can I.

Him: Ignoring the rule of law? OK, you made the accusation, now provide proof. (Sorry, links to TPM, HuffPo, or CNN don't count.)

Or is this just your opinion masquerading as fact because you want it to be so?

Her: Link here This administration doesn't follow our asylum law. Asylum seekers can be IN THE COUNTRY BEFORE they ask for asylum.

Second example, calling the impeachment hearings a hoax. Impeachment is constitutional.

Third obstruction of justice by intimidation of witnesses and blocking witnesses testimony

For proof of these simply listen to Trump.

Him: To address your second point first, since when is opining about a law unlawful? Maybe on your world, but not mine. Calling the impeachment a hoax may indeed be the truth, but that doesn't mean it's breaking any law. If it is, then cite chapter and verse.

There is a thing such as executive privilege that every President can exercise. Until a court rules that the privilege doesn't exist in specific matters, it does exist. If anyone was intimidating witnesses it was Schiff, making all kinds of threats against potential witnesses, holding closed door interviews which the inquiry process does not authorize as all testimony is supposed to be public. (Star Chamber, anyone?)

Presidents can issue executive orders that suspend existing laws. Obama did that when he created DACA out of thin air, something that violated existing immigration law. By your lights, Obama should have been impeached for that bit of legal legerdemain.

Think executive orders can't overturn established law? Think again. Lincoln suspended habeus corpus during the Civil War by executive order.

That Trump modified the asylum process temporarily by requiring asylum seekers to apply for asylum from outside the US rather than within its borders is minor by comparison. With the borders having been leaking like a sieve and activist judges blocking implementation of existing immigration laws, the President was well within his power to modify the asylum process temporarily. It did not ban anyone from seeking asylum, but changed the process on a temporary basis.

Her: When the one opining is President and should be aware it is constitutional and then proceeds to obstruct justice by demanding non compliance with lawful subpoenas. He took an oath "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." This violates his oath of office.

Him: Your first sentence in no way represents what you wrote earlier.

You stated, and I quote "...calling the impeachment hearings a hoax." It doesn't matter that impeachment is constitutional. Calling the present impeachment efforts a hoax, meaning its only purpose is to mollify those who didn't like the fact that Felonia Milhouse van Pantsuit is not in the White House, is not against the law, is not unconstitutional. I know you desperately want it to be.

A president stating his opinion about anything is legal, is constitutional. It's covered under that whole First Amendment thingy. It doesn't matter who is opining about the impeachment circus. They have every right to do so. You do. The President does. I do. Everyone does. That you don't like it is significant of nothing and doesn't change the fact that the President has every right to declare the whole thing "a hoax".

There has not as yet been a response nor do I expect there will be other than some kind of clueless off-topic comment or irrelevant comparison or appeal to authority. She tries to make it all about the constitutionality of the impeachment process while at the same time trying to twist the meaning of the Constitution to agree with her ideology, something that does not reflect reality.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been great to have time off from work over the week of Thanksgiving. It’s given me a chance to decompress a little, visit family, deal with some work around The Gulch, and to bring up my ‘new’ laptop.

This week’s TOAS is being written on the aforementioned new laptop, something I salvaged from work (after removing the hard drive and giving it to our IT guy). $99 for a new 1TB SSD, a copy of Ubuntu Linux (version 19.10), a USB thumb drive, and the laptop was up and running. It has an Intel i7 8-core CPU and 16GB of RAM. It was pretty fast running Windows 7 Enterprise and it’s a screamer running Linux.

I have been using Open Office on my home desktop for years. The laptop uses Libre Office and I find it to be as useful as Open Office. (I believe Libre Office was created by a bunch of folks who originally created Open Office which is now owned by Apache.) So that the two Office suites are very similar is not surprising. It will be fun putting Libre through it’s paces.

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As much as the Congressional witch hunters are trying to keep their inquisition of President Trump at the forefront of the people’s interest, it hasn’t worked out so well for them. It seems more of the American electorate’s response to it is “Meh” or “Who cares?” or “Don’t you have something more important to do?”. They understand the Democrats are desperate to “get” Trump even if they have to make something up.

Do they realize the American people really don’t care for their posturing or endless bloviating about things that, in the end, aren’t important? Even Democrat voters are tired of it and becoming more so. So why do they keep pushing a busted narrative?

Because they have to or they lose face...and maybe their elective offices.

If they back down now they believe they will be voted out of office. What they don’t understand is that they are likely to voted out of office because they started this nonsense in the first place.

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Who are the racists in this country?

Hint: It’s not the GOP, Trump, or a large majority of white Americans.

The guilty white Progressives are a good example of racism hiding in plain sight, employing the “soft racism of low expectations”, seeing racism under every rock, behind every door, in every glance or gesture, in every turn of phrase, as part of every historic event, and only committed by whites. As far as they’re concerned, only white Americans can be racist despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.

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Glenn Reynolds asks “Remember when it was all about consent, which could be revoked or withdrawn at any time for any reason?” It appears the only ones not allowed to change their minds when it comes to sexual relations are heterosexual males.

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Go woke, get fired.

That’s what a woman in San Francisco found out after harassing an elderly man wearing a MAGA hat at a Starbucks. What makes this story more remarkable is that she was fired by the music store where she works.

When the video of her harassment of the religious Jew and Trump supporter went viral, showing her calling the elderly man a “Nazi” and lambasting him for supporting President Trump, the music store where she works fired her.

Apparently there are still some sane people left in the San Francisco area. Too bad they appear to be few and far between.

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Ashe Schow has a thread about “commercials she hates”. While I agree with some of her choices, the comments delve into most hated and most beloved ads.

My all time favorite? The Domino’s Pizza ad that paid tribute to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

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We are awaiting the first snowstorm of the season, with between 8 and 14 inches of snow forecast for this part of New Hampshire and 16+ inches for the southwestern part of the state. It’s going to be a slow moving storm, starting some time around 7 this evening and lasting until Tuesday morning.

While the TV stations have had a chance to use their ominous sounding Storm Center music and intros, they haven’t been pushing the “We’re-all-gonna-DIE!” meme. No one is rushing out to clean out the supermarket shelves of milk and bread. No one is stockpiling gasoline for their generators. About the only concessions I’ve made in the way of preparations for the upcoming snowstorm is filling the gas tank of the trusty RAM 1500 and taking the snow brush out of the truck and leaving in the foyer of The Gulch. (I won’t have to use my hands to clear away the snow from the trusty RAM 1500 in order to open door to get the snow brush out of the truck.)

I did have the trusty RAM 1500 undercoated last week, about a week earlier than I usually do, and had the front rotors and brake pads replaced while I was at it. It’s all set to go for the winter.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the snow will soon be falling, decorating for Christmas has started, and where I am glad Monday is returning for once.

Trump Makes The Media Look Like Chumps - Again

The headline reads “Afghanistan Thanksgiving: Trump makes the press look like boobs.”

For the U.S. troops abroad, President Trump made a major personal sacrifice by skipping his own Thanksgiving in order to surprise them by helping to serve them theirs. Under cover of secrecy, he flew nearly 7,000 miles, met with them, praised and cheered them, took selfies with them, served them in the chow line, and generally gave the brave fighting men and women in the world's most forlorn hellhole something to smile about. It was a lovely presidential gesture, well in keeping with past presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who also made holiday trips to cheer the troops.

But unlike them, he also had a goodie for us back home: he managed to expose the press as presumptuous boobs.

Newsweek meant to criticize Trump for golfing on Thanksgiving, which actually would have been an acceptable thing for him to do, given that it was a holiday and every chief executive needs what project managers call "maintenance time."

What’s so remarkable about this? Nothing, really. Hasn’t President Trump been doing this since before he took office, making them report one thing as ‘fact’ when what they reported was nothing of the sort. This time it led to the firing of the Newsweek reporter who originally published the report stating Trump “spent Thanksgiving tweeting and golfing rather than visiting troops in Afghanistan.”

How many other news reports have been of the same caliber as Jessica Kwong’s? How many reporters and/or editors have been sacked for reporting like this? Is Ms. Kwong merely the latest to be canned by her employer? Or has she been the only one because there was no way Newsweek could spin Ms. Kwong’s fake story to mean something different?

I doubt we’ll see too many others “losing their situations” because of sloppy reporting. Otherwise we would have seen most of the staff of the New York Times and Washington Post losing their situations over the past few years.

A Reminder That Socialism's 400-Year Experiment Keeps Failing

It was around 399 years ago that the first known experiment in socialism started at Plimouth, Massachusetts. (No, that is not a typo. That’s how they spelled it back in 1620.) This is something I’ve referenced more than once in numerous posts in the past. The linked post goes into more detail than I ever have, so it seemed appropriate create a separate post to cover the topic in more detail.

In the diary of the colony’s first governor, William Bradford, we can read about the settlers' initial arrangement: Land was held in common. Crops were brought to a common storehouse and distributed equally. For two years, every person had to work for everybody else (the community), not for themselves as individuals or families. Did they live happily ever after in this socialist utopia?

Hardly. The “common property” approach killed off about half the settlers. Governor Bradford recorded in his diary that everybody was happy to claim their equal share of production, but production only shrank. Slackers showed up late for work in the fields, and the hard workers resented it. It’s called “human nature.”

The disincentives of the socialist scheme bred impoverishment and conflict until, facing starvation and extinction, Bradford altered the system. He divided common property into private plots, and the new owners could produce what they wanted and then keep or trade it freely.

The first socialism experiment lasted only two years, brought death and poverty to the people of the colony, and proved during that first experiment that human nature was stronger than the ‘ideal’ the Pilgrims tried to live by. This was a small group, not a nation, brought together by common cause and persecution back in England. These were people of faith, isolated from the other colonies with no “outside interference” so often blamed by socialist nations that fail to achieve their “utopia”, and they couldn’t make it work.

Over the centuries, socialism has crash-landed into lamentable bits and pieces too many times to keep count – no matter what shade of it you pick: central planning, welfare statism, or government ownership of the means of production. Then some measure of free markets and private property turned the wreckage into progress. I know of no instance in history when the reverse was true – that is, when free markets and private property produced a disaster that was cured by socialism. None.

Why supposedly smart people think they can make it work when people even smarter and wiser than they are couldn’t baffles me. Whether it’s because they have never studied the history of socialism (most likely), were indoctrinated by ‘true believers’, or have chosen to ignore because the truth is inconvenient, arm-chair socialists push to do away with the capitalist system because they don’t like it, or just as likely, don’t understand it and don’t want to.

Almost 400 years of failure and yet some folks still think they can make it work. They fall under Einstein’s definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results this time.

Need I say more?

Real Life 101

On more than one occasion I have suggested that one course that needs to be taught in our schools and colleges is Real Life 101, aka Life Isn’t Fair 101. It is sad that so many of the kids in our schools have not been taught the harsh realities that entail life. This is something that parents and teachers should have been instilling in the children from day one. But teaching these truths has been sadly neglected to the point where students have come to believe that they should never have to deal with life’s unpleasantries such as receiving poor grades for poor work, having to listen to ideas or beliefs that disagree with theirs, finding out that their way isn’t the only way, and most important, the truth about Rule #51, that being that sometimes they are wrong.

As I have mentioned in other posts recently, I have been perusing the 17-and-a-half years of Weekend Pundit archives and have come across something from 2015 that is even more important today.

Were I a professor at one of these institutions that used to provide higher education rather than coddling these self-made 'victims', this is the what I would say to them on their very first day in my class:

“Welcome to Real Life 101. I am Professor Pundit and I'm going to tell you right now that I don't believe in trigger warnings.”

“You will be hearing and seeing things you should have been exposed to earlier in life, but that your misguided and ignorant parents chose to shield you from, meaning you arrived here unprepared to deal with life as it is.”

“I also expect that a good portion of you were told all through school that you were special and never had to worry about losing because 'everyone gets a trophy for just showing up'. Unfortunately, you were lied to because very few of you, if any, are special. Instead, you're average. No, strike that. You're below average because you have no idea what it's like to fail. When you do, you'll have no idea how to deal with it and you'll fall apart. You aren't prepared for failure and that's one of the biggest failings of your parents and teachers.”

“One of the first things I'm going to teach you is this one solid and perpetual truth: Life isn't fair. It never has been and it never will be. Get used to it. If you can't handle this, then I strongly suggest you drop this course and salve your wounded psyche by taking Basket Weaving 100 or Bunny Hugging 110 and leave real life to the rest of us.”

“I intend to flush out all of the crap that has been force fed to you over the previous 12 years of your scholastic life and teach you how to think, not what to think. I will help you develop the skills you need to survive out there in the real world where there will be no trigger warnings, no safe spaces, no college tribunals to take your side because you were offended by what someone said, wrote, or did that everyone else in the world sees as trivial and not worth mentioning.”

“I am going to shove reality in your face. I'm not going to sugar coat it or make it easy for you to coast through this course. I'm going to show you that not everyone can be reasoned with. I'm going to prove to you that there are people out there who don't give a good goddamn about you or your feelings, nor should they. I'm going to show you that there are evil fucking people out there who wouldn't think twice about raping you and then slicing your head off with a knife because it pleases them to do so to someone they see as sub-human. (Yes, this means you, Miss Sorority Pledge.)”

“I'm going to prove to you that the only person you can count on is you when you're out there in the real world. Your mommy or daddy won't be able to bail you out and none of the teachers from your schools will lend you a helping hand once you leave this place. You'll be on your own. If you fail to learn these lessons and the others I hope to teach you, then you will be truly and totally fucked. The only way you'll survive is to move back in with your mommy and daddy and live in their basement. At worst, you'll be curled up on your bed down there, stuck in a semi-catatonic state because you were set up by your parents and your teachers to fail, being totally incapable of dealing with real life as it is, not as you want it to be.”

“Any questions before we begin? No? Good. Then let's get started....”

I feel the need to add a list of a few topics that would be covered in such a course to bring this up to date: .

Grades are earned, not owed. They are based upon the work you do and are not based on your race, ethnicity, political leanings, gender, sexual orientation, or religious beliefs. This is particularly true out there in the real world. Employers expect you to do the work they hired you to perform and none of those things listed will matter to them, period.

Feeling is not the same as thinking. Too often you equate one with the other. They are nothing alike. Basing all your decisions upon feelz rather than facts and reasoning will lead you to make the wrong decision most of the time.

Opinions abound and everyone has their own. Your opinion is no more valid than that of anyone else. Get used to it. A lot of folks will have opinions that differ from yours, but that doesn’t automatically mean yours is valid and theirs are not. They may know things you don’t and have had experiences you cannot fathom.

Just because someone disagrees with you doesn’t mean they’re racist or any other kind of ‘-ist’. It just means they disagree with you, period. If you try to push the ‘-ist’ narrative, you’ll prove that you are willfully ignorant about the subject at hand and can be ignored because your opinion isn’t based upon anything but ‘feelz’.

Freedom of speech includes speech you may find offensive. The First Amendment also applies to speech you disagree with, even ‘hate speech’, a concept that is so vague that someone saying “hello” could be defined as having used hate speech. Get used to the idea that hate speech is constitutionally protected speech, not just the speech with which you agree.

Respect is earned. It is not owed nor can it be demanded, no matter what you may believe. If you show no respect, don’t expect to get any in return. If you demand respect, don’t be surprised if you receive only ridicule in return.

I could go on, but then I’d need a bigger blog.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a dark and stormy…day. It started with a little freezing rain which then turned into heavy rain later in the morning. Since I was driving the WP Mom to meet up with the youngest WP Sister at the half-way point between her home and The Gulch. The WP Mom will be spending a few days with my sister helping to get my sister’s place ready to host Thanksgiving this coming Thursday. In the mean time I’ll be ding some work here at The Gulch, getting Christmas items out of the attic and putting the last of the summer items away.

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By way of Pirate’s Cove comes this from Irons In The Fire:

This kind of crap is what happens when a group has no actual problems to deal with, so they have to create something.

Students at a Virginia law school are asking the administration to remove 'controversial' figures George Washington and Robert E. Lee from their graduation diplomas.

That seems problematic considering the Virginia law school in question is at Washington and Lee University.

This is something I have noticed for a considerable number of years: Most of the problems we’ve struggled against have been solved, or at least minimized. With very few “Big Things” needing to be dealt with, the Social Justice Warriors have to find something to justify their continued existence. If that means taking small matters and blowing them way out of proportion, then they’ll do just that. Examples abound. Otherwise how do you explain:

Transgendered bathroom/locker room access?

Math being redefined as racist?

Preaching the Gospel being defined as hate speech?

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. being called an “oreo”?

All this “pronoun” nonsense using made up words no one can pronounce?

Using the wrong “pronoun” being either a firing offense or a criminal act?

The idea that there are eleventy-eleven genders even though biology only recognizes two?

All the silliness about “cultural appropriation” being bad when all successful and thriving cultures have appropriated all kinds of things from other cultures?

Demanding “reparations” for slavery committed by no one alive for almost 100 years and making claims that it didn’t even exist until America created it in the 1600’s?

Western Civilization has never created anything good…except everything being used by the SJWs including things like modern medicine, smart phones, automobiles, denims, TVs, iPods/MP3 players, modern philosophy, computers, the Internet, the U.S. Constitution, and an endless list of other concepts and items?

The idea that arresting underage shoplifters stealing alcohol from a local bakery is somehow racist?

I could go on because there is so many examples of this nonsense. The whole thing is silly, wastes time and money, and lets people who think they have all the answers feel better about themselves briefly before being offended by something new.

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Gee, the barking moonbats can’t even leave Mr. Rogers out of their delusional hatred of Donald Trump.

That’s sad. They really need to get some help.

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From the Weekend Pundit archives:

“I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.” - Thomas Sowell

That's because the folks who believe it think they know how to spend your hard-earned money better than you do. They are wrong, of course.

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If for some reason you feel the need to visit San Francisco you might want to consider reading this item from Legal Insurrection first.

As distasteful as it may be to discuss, complaints to SF 311 about feces on city streets increased again in 2018, including a surprising surge in Glen Park.


The site also notes that so far for 2019, the count jumped to more than 25,000 calls, up seven percent compared to the same time in 2018.

I have only two words to add to this: Poop map.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it’s raining very hard, the lake was showing big white caps, and where I don’t have to go to work tomorrow because I’m on vacation.

Weekend Pundit's Guide To Country Living - Part IV

Here we are, the fourth in a series of knowledge and a little advice for those contemplating a move away from suburbia or “The Big City” and out into the country. I've covered a few subjects including such things as neighborliness, winter survival skills, a few hints here and there on small town politics, and more importantly, how not to act.

Now we get into something that most folks in urban and suburban areas rarely have to deal with.

Critters.

I'm not just talking about the cute little furry animals that you might see around town, like squirrels, chipmunks, or the occasional raccoon, but others like skunks, porcupines, bats, weasels, fisher cats, coyotes, ferrets, deer, moose, and bears.

Let's start with some of the smaller but no less troublesome animals you'll come across if you decide to relocate to the country.

Squirrels and chipmunks, though 'cute and furry' can be both a real nuisance and quite entertaining at the same time. One of the biggest problems they pose is when they decide that your house also makes the perfect home for them, too. Squirrels are particularly good at chewing away at boards and beams in order to make an entrance. Here at The House the upstairs neighbors were surprised to find a family of squirrels had managed to chew their way into their kitchen and tried to set up housekeeping. The were quickly evicted with the appropriate amount of force and their entryway was boarded over.

Chipmunks can be almost as tenacious, but they tend to limit their forays into human habitation to cracks and holes close to the ground.

Raccoons, another animal of the 'cute and furry' category, are quire clever and can wreak havoc with your trash cans and their contents. It's not often that they cannot find a way into even the most 'secure' trash can in their efforts to score a meal. They also have a propensity for carrying rabies, something you don't want to mess with.

Skunks pose their own set of problems, the most obvious one being their ability to spray the unwitting person or pet with their noxious, odious, sinus-clearing weapon. Should you have a run in with one, you'll learn that one of the few things that will help remove the smell from you or your pet is tomato juice. Your clothing, however, may be a lost cause. Skunks are another of those critters that seems prone to carrying rabies, so there are two good reasons to avoid them. In any case should you inadvertently come across a skunk, back away. Make no sudden moves and back away. Usually a skunk will stamp its front feet as a warning before resorting to spraying. Take it to heart and back away.

Porcupines are not something you'll see all that often except as road kill. For the most part they're reclusive. More often than not it will be your dogs that will run afoul of porcupines, if at all.

Bats are one of those animals that people either love or hate. There doesn't seem to be an in-between when it comes to these furry insectivores. My advice to you - get used to them. They help keep down the bug population which means you'll have fewer bugs trying to dine on you.

Bats are nocturnal and come out shortly after sunset so it's not often that you'll see or hear them. In a few places you'll find people have built bat houses to encourage bats to take up residence near their homes. If nothing else they're far less expensive than running a bug zapper...and quieter, too.

Weasels and fisher cats are related, but the fisher is a nastier animal. It can make a meal out of your lapdog or kitty cat. They are voracious and vicious. Weasels on the other hand, tend to be quieter and don't show themselves all that often. While also predators like the fishers, it's rare that they'll go after other predators (like dogs and cats).

Coyotes are more numerous than most folks would think. When people think of coyotes they think of them as being primarily a western animal. But you'll find plenty of them around here. It's not uncommon to hear them barking and howling off in the distance on summer evenings. They are also another critter that will think nothing of helping itself to your trash can, assuming you actually make the mistake of leaving it outside. They will also have no problem making a meal of your dog or cat if they come across them.

There are also coyote hybrids to look out for, such as coy-dogs and coy-wolves. These are mixed breed animals, much as their names suggest. Of the two, the coy-wolves are probably the most dangerous as they combine the characteristics of the coyotes and wolves, and are bigger than coyotes. While not as numerous as the coyotes, there are plenty of these hybrid breed running around.

Wolves have been making a comeback, something obvious considering the presence of coy-wolves. While not numerous and more likely to be inhabiting the less settled areas due to the abundance of game, they still make their presence known at times. Like coyotes, they'll have no problems going after you pets, chickens, or other domesticated animals you may have around.

Many people think of deer as another member of the 'cute and fuzzy' club. It's what I've heard called “The Bambi Factor.”

For the most part deer tend to stay away from people, but there are always exceptions. As some with vegetable gardens have found out, deer will be more than happy to strip their gardens of anything edible. They can also do a great deal of damage when you hit one with your car or truck.

Since most of their natural predators have been wiped out, that leaves only us humans to help keep their populations in check. That means hunting.

Mmmm. Venison....

Moose, a relative of deer, are big. I mean reallybig. A full grown bull moose can top out at over 1000 pounds (454 kg). And unlike their smaller relatives, moose do not run away when they face anything they consider a predator. They stand their ground. That means if you come across one standing in the road while out driving, don't honk your horn. You'll only piss 'em off and make 'em try to flatten your car like a pancake. Moose can be particularly dangerous under two conditions – during mating season (also called rutting season), and if cow is protecting her calf from a perceived threat.

One of the biggest dangers that moose pose is collisions. Moose tend to blend into the background, making it more difficult to see them. This is particularly true near dawn and dusk. It is also when most moose versus automobile collisions take place. Picture hitting a thousand pound moose at 30 or 40 miles per hour. Now picture having that same angry, hurt moose crashing through your windshield and ending up in your lap after you've hit it. Not a pretty picture, is it?

Bears, as slow and as cute as they may seem are damn dangerous. For the most part bears are shy and don't usually come near human habitation. But if they are hungry enough they get over their shyness.

During the spring months bears are particularly hungry and will go through trash cans and pull down bird feeders looking for a meal.

The one thing you never want to do is feed them. Once they know that you're a soft touch for food they will always come back expecting more. If you don't continue feeding them once you've started they may invite themselves into your home by pushing in a door or window. Once that happens they have to be put down. If they learn that there is food to be had inside a house they will break in whenever they're hungry enough. And they won't care if you're inside when they do it. So don't feed the bears!

Another thing to avoid is bear cubs. Every so often hikers come across what they think is an abandoned cub. Trust me when I say that it ain't so- Mama bear is somewhere nearby and the last place that you want to be is between Mama and her cub. So if you're ever taking a walk through the woods and come across a cub, turn around and walk away or it's possible you could become bear food.

The other thing you never want to do while taking your constitutional is to startle a bear. It can have a similar deadly outcome. If you're out walking in the woods make sure you make some noise. This will alert the bear to your presence and give them enough time move away. Remember, bears tend to be shy of humans.

And then there's the mountain lions making the presence known again....

****

That about does it for this round. There's not a whole heck of a lot more that I can cover about critters at this point. Maybe I'll have more later. Maybe I won't.

Cuomo Blaming Utilities For His Failings

Just when you think New York Governor Andrew Cuomo couldn’t get any worse, he says “Hold my chianti,” and proves us wrong.

After banning fracking in the Empire State, then banning construction of pipelines in or through New York, then blaming the natural gas companies like National Grid and Con Edison for their inability to connect new customers in the greater New York City area because they don’t have the supply capacity to do so, Cuomo quadruples down on stupid and threatens to yank National Grid’s public franchise and get someone else to provide natural gas to New Yorkers. (Link may be paywalled.)

Yeah? Who? No one else can supply any more gas than either National Grid or Con Edison if they can’t build the pipelines they need to get the gas from the Pennsylvania gas fields to their customers. Using trucks, trains, or barges is a non-starter because too many New York watermelon environmentalists are against building the facilities to make any of that feasible. Those methods are also quite inefficient compared to pipelines as a lot more infrastructure is needed for the other methods. They can also be more dangerous.

But that doesn’t concern Cuomo. He really wants to make sure one of the cleanest and most efficient fossil fuels (which he hates with a passion) will become less available and more expensive for his constituents.

The Governor’s response: Who cares?

--snip--

National Grid already plans to deliver compressed natural gas by truck during the winter, but what if a snow storm closes roads? Perhaps “heat pumps and renewable sources” could alleviate the gas shortage, Mr. Cuomo says.

Heat pumps? Really? Considering what electricity costs in New York and that Cuomo has no use for nuclear power, where is the electricity to run those heat pumps supposed to come from? Renewables like wind? Yeah, considering renewables aren’t reliable, costs many times what electricity from nuclear, coal, and natural gas-fired plants costs, and hydro-power is committed elsewhere, heat pumps aren’t the answer.

On has to wonder what the anti-fossil fuel governor is going to ban next and do so without spending even a microsecond pondering the side-effects. He certainly didn’t waste any time thinking about the bad effects of the fracking and pipeline bans on his constituents.

Is Cuomo trying to out-California California?

Thoughts On A Sunday

The early deep freeze has continued, with temperatures we usually see in January making themselves felt. We didn’t see above freezing yesterday, the overnight temp was about 16°F, and we reached just over freezing (34°F) today. While the Old Farmer’s Almanac says we’ll have a milder winter, I have to ask “As compared to what?” If -20°F is cold, is -15°F ‘milder’?

The cold temps did make it a little more difficult to make repairs to The Gulch’s front stoop. It was necessary to strip the decking from the stoop and the Trex planking had loosened and rather than refastening it, the decisions was made to lay down some new Trex to give the stoop a fresh look. (The old Trex was looking tired, had rust marks where the nails that were used to secure it to the frame were located, and the color no longer complemented the color The Gulch.) But now the stop looks pretty good and should be good for another 15 years or so.

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Considering the colder than normal temps we are experiencing, it seems like it would be a good idea to post a link to an important article that tells us how to tell if your firewood is seasoned.

I received a phone call from the folks who bought The Manse from us, asking for some advice about firewood. The Manse has a decent woodstove and they were planning to use it but weren’t sure whether the firewood they had was ready to burn. Fortunately for them the firewood they had was seasoned well enough for them to use. I did suggest that in the future they spend the extra money it would cost to get kiln-dried firewood as it is always ready to burn and gave them the phone number of a local supplier. Fortunately, the garage of The Manse had a rack built in to store firewood inside, keeping it out of the weather. The nice thing is that it could easily hold 3-½ cords of wood.

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Ken Lane (aka Wirecutter) over at Knuckledraggin’ relates the heartrending story of the unexpected and sudden passing of his beloved dog, Charliegodammit.

As I wrote in the comments, “They do work their way into our hearts, don’t they? I know there will be a Charlie-shaped hole in your life, much as anyone that has lost a four-footed and furry family member experiences. Bring him home, WC. Bring him home.”

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The Barrister is running an unscientific Scientific Survey for Guys.

The topic of his survey? What do you sleep in, if anything?

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I like this description of the Lord High Inquisitor Adam Schiff (D-CA): “Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff isn’t a constitutional scholar, but he plays one on Impeachment TV.”

His latest trick? Trying to redefine “bribery” so he can impeach President Trump. The problem is that his definition of bribery doesn’t even come close to the definition in the dictionary or the law books.

What a putz.

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Why doesn’t this surprise me?

The California legislature is working hard to make the Pyrite State a Third-World nation by further dismantling its energy infrastructure.

With its green dreams of an emission free state, California has not even been unable to generate enough of its own electricity in-state and imported 29% of its needs in 2018. The bad news is that imported electricity comes at higher costs and those costs are being borne by residents and businesses alike. California households are already paying 50% more, and industrial users are paying more than double the national average for electricity.

The future of electricity in California does not bode well as the State has chosen to not challenge the closure of the States’ last nuclear zero emission generating plant at Diablo Canyon, and 3 natural gas generating plants in Southern California.

With NO plans for industrial wind or solar renewable intermittent electricity projects to generate “replacement” electricity in-state, especially with the huge land requirements for those renewables, there will be a need to import from other states greater percentages of California’s electricity needs in the years ahead. And as you guessed it, more costs to the consumers and businesses who are already infuriated with high costs.

Making the cost of energy unsustainable and the supply unreliable helps no one. As the problems get worse, I have no problem believing that eventually even the high-tech elite will abandon California because remaining there will no longer make economic sense. Once they leave, California is done.

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Who’s next on the #Resisters hit list?

Attorney General William Barr.

Why? Because he said something they didn’t like.

So, what’s the problem? Are Democrats upset that Barr is describing them to a T? The article features multiple tweets by multiple unhinged Democrats being unhinged, forgetting what happened January 20, 2009-January 19, 2017.

Deranged, all of them.

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And that’s the news from, Lake Winnipesaukee, where it feels more like January rather than mid-November, ice has been forming 4 weeks early on some of our ponds, and where the Trusty RAM 1500 will be getting its annual undercoating a couple of weeks early.

Weekend Pundit's Guide To Country Living - Part III

I find I must continue to impart my extensive knowledge to those considering a move to “the country.” While this advice is aimed more towards those considering a move to rural New England (particularly northern New England), some of it pertains to almost any rural area that experiences harsh winters. Some of this knowledge and advice will be new and some previous advice given in Parts One and Two will be repeated because it fits in better with this post.

****

It gets cold around here. That means you will need to dress appropriately for the conditions. There are a number of things to keep in mind when thinking about winter apparel, one of them being this simple rule – layers. Buy your winter clothing with dressing in layers in mind. This is a far better method of staying comfortable over the cold and dark winter months. Wearing a number of lighter layers is far more efficient and comfortable than wearing one or two heavy layers of clothing. It also also allows you to add or shed clothing in order to stay comfortable as either indoor or outdoor temperatures change throughout the day.

Footwear should be warm and dry. Ditch the fashionable high heel knee boots with faux fur trim or your Rockport shoes and go for something that will keep your feet warm and dry. Winter fashion dictates utility and not looks. Always figure that you're going to be standing outside for quite some time even if all you're doing is making a run to local Dunkin' Donuts to pick up a dozen donuts and some coffee. You can never tell when you'll be forced to wait outside in less than great weather. If you aren't sure where to look for such things, check out L.L. Bean.

Think polar fleece. Also called Polartec, polar fleece is one of the warmest materials out there. You can find everything from sweatshirts, sweaters, hats and gloves, to longjohns and jacket linings made from polar fleece. It's warm, light, and inexpensive. Some Polartec clothing even looks fashionable.

Wear a hat. It keeps your head warm and your body doesn't have to work quite as hard to keep it warm, which means that your hands and feet will stay warmer. Why? Because the body will send more blood to the head to maintain the proper temperature and in order to do so will decrease blood circulation to the extremities. Keep the head warm and the feet and hands stay warm.

Use mittens rather than gloves when you're going to be outside for any great length of time. If it's bitterly cold outside, mittens will keep your hands warmer. If you're going to be exerting yourself, then gloves will probably do just fine.

Flannel sheets. One of the easiest and more comfortable ways to stay warm in bed. You immediately feel comfortable and don't have to wait for them to warm up. Far better than an electric blanket and they work even without electricity.

Seal windows and doors to keep the cold air out and the warm air in. Newer homes usually have decent windows and doors that seal properly when closed, but older homes (like the old lakeside house where I once resided) have old wooden double-hung windows that don't seal very well and require sealing with things like Mortite or heat-shrink plastic sheeting. It can make the difference between staying toasty warm on even the coldest winter nights or being chilled and using a prodigious amount of fuel trying to keep the indoor temperature above freezing.

Use a humidifier in your house. Believe it or not, this inexpensive device can actually make you feel warmer. During the winter the air inside can get quite dry. This can make it feel colder than it actually is. By increasing the humidity inside, a given temperature feels warmer, meaning the thermostat can be left at a lower setting, saving fuel and money. If you have forced hot air heating or a wood stove, then a humidifier is an absolute must. Without it the air can get so dry you might actually suffer nose bleeds because the sinuses dry out so much. You don't need to by a fancy (read expensive) humidifier to do the job. I have used something as simple as a $16 Vick's warm mist vaporizer to do the job. They're readily available from places like Walmart, which means you can easily afford more than one to keep the humidity high enough in your house. Even if they only last one winter they are worth the price.

Keep an emergency kit in your car/truck/SUV. You never can tell when you might get stranded during a snow or ice storm. It's usually a good idea to stow a few essentials in your vehicle just in case. A good basic kit includes a shovel (collapsible is OK), food (something that doesn't require cooking and is individually wrapped), a flashlight with extra batteries, an empty container of some sort (can be used to melt snow for drinking water), a blanket or sleeping bag, and, above all, jumper cables. You might also want to consider adding a towing strap, just in case you or someone else needs a tow. I also keep a change of clothing in the truck (mostly underwear and socks, and sometimes a Polartec pullover and pair of pants).

Keep the gas tank full. It's usually a good idea to not let the fuel in a vehicle to go below half a tank during the winter. This serves two purposes – it prevents condensation in the gas tank if your car/truck/SUV is prone to such a thing (which can lead to a frozen fuel line), and it gives you a comfortable reserve should you get stuck out on the road in bad weather. You'll be able to run the engine from time to time to keep the interior of your vehicle warm. If you do get stuck, make sure to keep your exhaust pipe clear to prevent carbon monoxide build-up inside your vehicle (that's one use for your collapsible shovel).

Listen to the weather forecasts. If forecasters say a major Nor'easter is headed your way, believe them. In New England, Nor'easters are the worst kind of snowstorm, not so much because of the winds but because of the amount of snow they can drop. The blizzards of 1978, 1993, and 2003 were all Nor'easters and they dropped feet of snow in a single storm. Nor'easters can kill, so pay attention and plan accordingly if one is forecast.

If you must travel during a winter storm, let someone know. Check in with them when you leave and again when you arrive at your destination. Think of it like a pilot filing a flight plan. If nothing else if you find yourself stranded you won't have to wait so long for someone to start looking for you.

Get a two-way radio. Whether it is a CB radio or you go the route of getting your amateur radio license and installing a ham radio, you 'll find that quite often it will let you call for assistance when your cell phone has no signal.

In light of the early blast of winter weather we've seen this week, these next two are repeats, but well worth mentioning again.....

Snow tires, your winter friend. Despite having your car/truck shod with all-season radials, you'll find that a good set of snow tires is worth the investment if you live in a part of the country where annual snowfall is measured in feet rather than inches. All-season radials are a compromise at best. Snow tires just plain work better in the snow. They can mean the difference between making it home safely or ending up in a ditch waiting for someone to (hopefully) pull you out before you become a corpsicle. If you are driving a pickup, consider a good set of all-terrain (AT) tires. They serve well for off-roading as well as driving through heavy snow. You can also leave them on year round if you so desire. Just be aware there is likely a gas mileage penalty for having your truck shod with them. Also, consider investing in a good set of tire chains if you regularly receive heavy snowfall or are prone to ice storms. (No, they aren't cheap, but even if you only have to use them once you'll believe they were worth the cost.)

During a heavy snow storm there is no such thing as a short trip to the store. If you know a storm is coming, get everything you need well beforehand. A trip that normally takes 10 or 15 minutes can take up to 2 hours if the roads are covered with a foot or more of snow. Of course that assumes you don't get stuck somewhere along the way to or from the store. If you do get stuck you might be lucky and they'll find your frozen corpse before the spring thaw.

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I think that's enough when it comes to surviving with winters in “the country.” While some of the above may seem overblown, I and family and friends have all experienced one or more of the scenarios outlined above.

San Francisco Is Doomed

San Francisco has been declining for a number of years, particularly in light of the city government’s increasingly tolerance for reprehensible behavior like urination and defecation in the streets, ‘camping’ by the homeless along all city streets, tolerance of panhandlers, and hostility towards property owners trying to keep their stoops and sidewalks feces and derelict-free. Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, the people of San Francisco double down and prove otherwise.

The latest action taken by San Francisco voters that will hasten the City by the Bay’s destruction?

Electing a new District Attorney who has already stated that he will not be prosecuting so-called ‘Quality-of-Life’ crimes.

Incoming D.A. Chesa Boudin’s decision is basically the antithesis of “Broken Windows” policing, such policing addressing the little crimes that help head off bigger crimes. Broken Windows has been proven to work, with New York City embracing it during the Giuliani Administration. It drove a dramatic decline in crime across the board and helped make New York City a much safer (and cleaner) city for all its inhabitants.

What can we expect as Boudin’s policy is implemented?

Today on the other side of the country, incoming San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin promises that he "will not prosecute cases" involving "public camping, offering or soliciting sex, public urination, blocking a sidewalk, etc." In other words, [San Francisco], already rife with such activities, is about to get a whole lot worse.

I wonder how badly crime will escalate. Seeing as the threshold for felony theft in California was raised to $950, shoplifting and theft from retail establishments has skyrocketed. Perpetrators are issued summonses and let go, not arrested and charged with theft. Businesses are seeing losses increase dramatically. I expect crimes outside of those quality-of-life crimes no longer being prosecuted will increase. Things like theft, burglary, robbery, assault and battery, rape, and homicide will increase, No one will be safe, including the political elite.

Will the ruling elite do something once they are victimized by the inaction of the new DA? Or will they ignore it and merely relocate somewhere away from the crime-ridden streets of San Francisco?

My ex-missus has friends in San Francisco that have been planning to sell their home there and relocated to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. I have suggested that she contact them and to tell them to relocate as quickly as possible before the “feces hits the rotary oscillator” and the value of their home plummets due to the widespread crime. Best they get out while they can still salvage as much value of their home as they can.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a busy weekend for yours truly, between trips to the dump, Walmart, the hardware store, one of our local diners, a friend’s home to fix a wireless network problem, and delivering some surplus Android tablets and Pelican cases to another friend. There was also a birthday party for my grandniece and grandnephew to attend at my dear brother’s place.

It’s been interesting weather-wise as we’ve been seeing winter temperatures months early, just like a number of other areas of the nation. While some of those other areas received substantial snowfall, we got a dusting of snow. However, we didn’t escape the windchill seen elsewhere. I have to wonder whether the weather we’re seeing is a precursor to a very cold and snowy winter. NOAA has predicted a warmer than normal winter, the Old Farmer’s Almanac has predicted a colder and wetter winter than normal. If what we’ve seen so far is an indicator, I am more inclined to believe the Almanac.

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I must agree with Skip on this one.

It’s time to start prosecuting public officials who violate their oaths of office.

According to 5 U.S. 7311, it is a federal crime to violate your oath of office. The punishment? Removal from office, prison, and fines.

When we have politicians who willfully and knowingly violate their oath of office, specifically about “defending and protecting the Constitution of the United States”, it’s time to start holding their feet to the proverbial fire. When they had no intention of adhering to their oath because they don’t believe in the constitution (unless it meets their needs at the time).

Unless a winning candidate takes the oath of office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, he cannot take office. But there is more to the law than that. In order to take office, a candidate who has won an election must take the oath honestly, free of perjury, and without reservation. If a candidate takes the oath with the intent not to keep the oath, the oath is invalid, and the candidate is ineligible to hold office, per the law. Yet the governments of America are rife with officials who violate their oath. Not only that, but candidates are permitted to take the oath, and then to take office, about whom it is well known before the fact that they do not bear allegiance to the Constitution of the United States.

How is this known? In many cases, the candidates tell us frankly that they are opposed to all that. But even though they tell us, no one in authority is willing to prevent them from taking office, as per the requirement of the law and common sense.

It’s time we hold our officials to the standards they seem to believe they can ignore with impunity. After a few of them have been ousted from office and thrown into prison, maybe the rest will get the message. But I won’t be holding my breath.

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Cap’n Teach reminds us that the no matter what the weather is – hot or cold – it’s all caused by anthropogenic CO2 driven climate change.

I like how we’re about to do the annual one-eighty from “hottest October in history because of climate change” to “coldest snowiest November in history because of climate change.”

Their “science” turns on a dime!

Everything is caused by climate change.

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The WP Mom and I had planned to see Midway. But after reading this roundup of some reviews, we have changed our minds.

I’m not looking for an action movie, something that more than one reviewer and commenter had mentioned this movie was. I’m looking for something that has historical accuracy and real characters, not artistic license with historical facts and shallow portrayals of real people.

The original 1976 Midway movie wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t an action movie. It was historically accurate. There was some poetic license taken with some of the side stories, but nothing that changed the accuracy of the actions taken by the forces on both sides of the battle.

I think we’ll wait until it’s available on streaming. Maybe.

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Something that we must be reminded of is the difference between many politicians and the Trumps: The Trumps were wealthy long before they went into government service. The Bidens made money because of their government service.

(H/T Instapundit)

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter has made an early visit, thoughts of a snowy Thanksgiving intrude, and plans to have the pickup truck undercoated have been made.

Socialism Is A Disease

We’ve been hearing that a goodly portion of the Millennials believe that socialism is the answer to all our problems. I have two questions for these Millennials:

First, what “problems” is it supposed to solve?

Second, what has socialism’s history been when it comes to solving the supposed “problems”?

Ironically, many of the problems that socialism is supposed to cure – inequality, oppression, poverty, poor health, privation, and joblessness – are worse under socialism. While some reading this may ask me how I know this, my answer is “Look at its history”.

No one can point at any socialist country or society and say “See, socialism works! Look how prosperous, how happy, how healthy, how well housed the people here are!” In over 400 years, socialism has never prospered. While some may try to use countries like Denmark, Sweden, and Norway as examples of socialist success, those countries will tell you they aren’t socialist states. Rather, they are welfare states because they do not and haven’t controlled their economies or the means of production like socialist states do. They have incorporated some aspects of socialism such as cradle to grave health care, welfare benefits, free college education, and free elderly care, those welfare states are paring back the benefits they have provided their citizens because their system isn’t sustainable. They are running out of other people’s money and they have realized they can’t continue as they have. They’re going broke.

But wait! There’s more!

Multiple forms of socialism, from hard Stalinism to European redistribution, continue to fail.

Russia and China are still struggling with the legacy of genocidal communism. Eastern Europe still suffers after decades of Soviet-imposed socialist chaos.

Cuba, Nicaragua, North Korea and Venezuela are unfree, poor and failed states. Baathism -- a synonym for pan-Arabic socialism -- ruined the postwar Middle East.

The soft-socialist European Union countries are stagnant and mostly dependent on the U.S. military for their protection.

In contrast, current American deregulation, tax cuts and incentives, and record energy production have given the United States the strongest economy in the world.

Yet many in our country are clamoring to emulate those failed socialist states because they see capitalism as the cause of all the world’s ills when in fact it has done more to raise people out of poverty across the world than any other economic system, ever. But apparently that isn’t enough for some folks. They figure they’re owed more. But there’s more to it than that.

Add up a lost generation of woke and broke college graduates, waves of impoverished immigrants without much knowledge of American economic traditions, wealthy advocates of boutique socialism and asleep-at-the-wheel Republicans, and it becomes clear why historically destructive socialism is suddenly seen as cool.

Regrettably, sometimes the naive and disaffected must relearn that their pie-in-the sky socialist medicine is far worse than the perceived malady of inequality.

And unfortunately, when socialists gain power, they don't destroy just themselves. They usually take everyone else down with them as well.

We’ve already seen that outcome recently, that example being the once prosperous and wealthy nation of Venezuela. It was once the richest nation in South America. It has larger proven oil reserves than Saudi Arabia. It is now the poorest nation in South America. Its oil infrastructure has fallen apart and is capable of pumping only a small fraction of the oil it once could. Its electrical grid is barely functional, and blackouts are a regular event. There’s no work because there are no raw materials available, there’s no reliable electrical supply, and no motor fuels.

There’s little food because farmers either can’t get seed, get fuel for their farm equipment, or they don’t have the money to pay for those things when they are available because the socialist government set food prices so low that farmers earn so little, they can’t pay for what they used to grow their crops. There are no medical supplies for hospitals. All of this can be attributed to the socialism. It is the socialism the people of Venezuela voted for because they thought it would solve all of the problems they thought they had.

And now we have ill-educated debt-ridden spoiled children thinking that the answer to the problems of their own making is to try socialism again. It won’t work. It hasn’t worked. It will never work. But just like any infectious disease, every time we think it’s under control and close to eradication, it re-emerges in a new place, infecting the unwary and, in some cases, becoming virulent and killing economies, freedoms, and people.

Weekend Pundit's Guide To Country Living - Part II

I figured I'd add some advice about surviving the severe weather we can see around here. This is for those folks “from away” thinking about moving to the country and living in a little town. And just to make things clear, by “from away” I mean not just people living in the big cities, but those also living in the more heavily settled suburbs surrounding the big cities.

During severe weather it is quite common to lose electricity and sometimes telephone, cable, Internet, and cell service. The farther away you live from 'civilization', the more likely you are to lose power. Heavy thunderstorms, ice storms, snow storms, or heavy winds can knock tree limbs down, taking power lines with them. It's a common occurrence out here. Eventually you'll learn to live with it and be prepared for it. Or you won't.

Be aware that many homes out in the country have wells rather than municipal water. Wells use pumps and pumps use electricity. Remember this phrase: “Generators and gas caddies are your best friends.”

During a heavy snow storm there is no such thing as a short trip to the store. If you know a storm is coming, get everything you need well beforehand. A trip that normally takes 10 or 15 minutes can take up to 2 hours if the roads are covered with a foot or more of snow. Of course that assumes you don't get stuck somewhere along the way to or from the store. (That also assumes the store is open.) If you do get stuck you might be lucky and they'll find your frozen corpse before the spring thaw.

Regardless of the season, four wheel drive doesn't mean you'll still be able to get where you're going. Too many folks have found out the hard way that all four wheel drive means is getting stuck deeper in the woods. Just because four wheel drive vehicles have more traction for getting moving, particularly in the snow, they don't stop any better than two wheel drive cars or trucks because all vehicles have four wheel braking. Inertia is a bitch.

A flooded road, isn't. If you can't see the surface of the road ahead of you because a river or stream has overrun its banks and washed over the road, there's no guarantee that the road is still there. If you like the role of a crash test dummy, go right ahead and give it a try. But don't be surprised if the road disappears from beneath your wheels and you find that you're now a boat, and a quickly sinking one at that.

Though a bit dated, this advice still applies: Cordless phones are nothing but an ornament if the electricity goes out. Have at least one wired phone somewhere in your house. And if you live in a town fortunate enough to have cell service, don't count on it being available if regular phone lines are knocked out by bad weather. Everyone will be trying to use their cellphones the same time you are and the cell site will be overloaded. That's assuming, of course, that the cell site is still functioning and hasn't been knocked out by the bad weather. Some additional (updated) advice: Unless it is absolutely necessary, text rather than call someone you're trying to reach. Texting takes a lot less bandwidth than a voice call and places less of a burden on the local cell site. Your message is more likely to get through.

Don't be bashful about asking a neighbor for help. The corollary to that is don't be bashful about offering a neighbor help. Sometimes they have knowledge, skills, or tools that you don't have and vice versa. You're all in this together.

Chainsaws are your friend. They have multiple uses and come in handy of you have to clear a fallen tree from across your driveway, car, or roof of your house. Just make sure you know how to use them and wear the proper protective gear – safety glasses, earplugs or muffs, leather gloves, shin guards, and a hard hat. They also come in handy when you're cutting up your soon-to-be firewood. In a pinch they can also be used to help dispose of evidence....

There are also tools you'll need for winter, some of which you'll only see around here. One is a snow shovel. There are many types, so you'll have to shop around to find the one that works best for you.

Another tool, nice to have, but not always necessary is a snowblower. If you have a long driveway or large parking area in front of your garage, the last thing you'll want to do is shovel it all by hand. A snowblower does the trick and is far cheaper than a snow plow. Of course you could always hire someone else to plow your driveway, but it's not as much fun as using your toy..uh..snowblower and you're entirely dependent on someone else's schedule.

Last, but not least, the one tool you'll need to buy, beg, borrow, or steal is a roof rake. It's not something you use to remove leaves from the roof, but for raking snow. “Now why would anyone want to rake snow?” you might ask. The last thing anyone wants is snow piling up on the roof. It's heavy and can get heavier if there is any rain or freezing rain after a snowfall. You don't want to find out how strong your roof really is by testing it to destruction. And then, there's something called ice dams.

Ice dams form as the snow on your roof melts. As the water from the melted snow reaches the edge of the roof it can refreeze, forming a ridge of ice, just like a dam across a river. As more snow melts and starts to back up behind the ice dam, the melt water can work its way under roof shingles and start leaking inside your house. It's can be expensive to fix and is damned inconvenient (no pun intended....well actually, yes it was). Snow rakes can remove the snow from your roof and help prevent roof collapse or ice dams. Roof rakes are far safer than going up to shovel the snow off your roof . Trust me, I know from first hand experience. I've got the two plates and twelve screws in my ankle and lower leg to prove it.

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And so ends another episode of The Weekend Pundit's Guide To Country Living.