Thoughts On A Sunday

We’ve made it through our first week-and-a-half with our new cable provider and so far so good. While Internet speeds aren’t quite as advertised = are they ever? - they are still a lot faster than our previous provider. They allow me to wait just that much faster than the old speeds!

It’s taking a while for the WP Mom to get used to the different TV channel numbers, for the most part she doesn’t have too much trouble as she uses the voice remote to navigate.

One thing that’s no different is the bombardment of Christmas movies on Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, WE, and a number of other channels the WP Mom frequents. (I am more of a streamer.) I don’t need to indulge in any sweets when those are on because they’re already too sugary and sweet. If I truly paid attention to them I would probably go into a diabetic coma from the sugary sweetness.

I figure I can put up with it for the few more weeks. Once we get past New Years I expect the Valentine’s Day movies to start. I can hear my pancreas screaming just at the thought.

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It doesn’t surprise me in the least that when our institutions of higher ‘learning’ talk about diversity, they are only talking about diversity of race and/or culture, not diversity of thought or ideology. That kind of diversity is strictly verboten. That kind of diversity will be punished.

Colleges and universities are obsessed with racial diversity. But a new analysis provides even more proof that our higher education system has a different and arguably more important diversity problem: a woeful dearth of intellectual diversity.

The College Fix analyzed a sample of 65 academic departments across seven universities and found that more than half of the departments had zero Republican professors. All told, 92% of the professors at these departments identified as Democrats, meaning there was an 11-1 ratio of Democratic to Republican professors.

This analysis can’t necessarily stand in for all colleges, but it’s quite similar to the figures other analyses have come up with. The general takeaway is clear: Higher education is overwhelmingly dominated by ideological liberals, with a real shortage of differing perspectives on most campuses.

“These results should be another wake-up call that higher education is severely biased and broken,” concluded College Fix editor-in-chief Jennifer Kabbany. “Higher education is one of the most important battlegrounds for the heart, soul and mind of this nation.”

Colleges and universities should be encouraging diversity of thought and ideology, not suppressing it. At that point they are no longer institutions of higher learning but centers of indoctrination and any thinking outside that allowed by such indoctrination will not be allowed.

(H/T Instapundit)

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By way of PJ Media comes the continuing saga of Twitter’s subservience to government, more specifically to the Democrats/Deep State in the US government, delving a deeper into Twitter acting as an agent of the government.

Friday night, journalist Matt Taibbi provided the first installment of internal Twitter communications. The first dump focused on the suppression of information during the 2020 Election, specifically the censorship of Hunter Biden’s laptop. According to Twitter CEO Elon Musk, there is more to come about shadow banning and other forms of censorship as thousands more pages are released. Still, taking what we have already learned at face value, some former Twitter executives have quite a bit to answer for.

--snip--

Let’s begin with the premise that suppressing the content of Hunter Biden’s laptop affected the outcome of the 2020 Election. The Media Research Center (MRC) conducted one of the only polls about how the information on the computer would have affected the way people voted. MRC’s analysis found that full awareness of the Hunter Biden scandal would have led 9.4% of Biden voters to abandon the Democratic candidate. This would have flipped all six of the swing states Biden won to Trump, giving the former President 311 electoral votes.

The linked post includes other incidents where Twitter’s suppression of free speech had major consequences, not just for the US but other places in the world.

This illustrates the Law of Unintended Consequences coming into play yet again, creating distrust, havoc, and at its worst, death and destruction.

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My thoughts when I heard there might be a walkout by personnel in the New York Times newsroom over a pay dispute?

Would anyone notice...or care?

Probably not.

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As an engineer one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to test equipment, computers, smart phones, tablets, and other equipment is the user interface.

Some are great, are easy to use, and don’t require looking in the user manual to figure out how to turn on the power. Others are awful, make little sense, have circular work flows that mean you can get from one screen to another eleventy-eleven different ways, but never the same way twice in a row.

Our engineering department has a UI/UX (User Interface/User Experience) engineer, someone who designs, develops, and tests the user interfaces for functionality and ease of use. In her I have a kindred spirit because she dislikes poor user interfaces as much as I do and we have, one more than one occasion, evaluated user interfaces on competitors’ equipment and rated them. Some have been very good, in some cases intuitive and easy to use. Others have been awful. Yet others have been somewhere in-between those two extremes. When we have disagreed about one element or another, it’s usually been a matter of degree, not magnitude.

This is an interesting treatise on user interfaces which delves into the good, the bad, the ugly, and the deceptive, and not just in the interfaces on equipment, but in places like retail shops and ads.

It doesn’t get too technical, looking more into the psychological aspects of UI design, but it does give a good look into why UI’s work or don’t work.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee where preparations for Christmas continue, decorations abound, and where Christmas will arrive all too soon.

Was Twitter An Instrument Of The Government?

One of the elements of fascism is that industry is subservient to the State. We saw that in both Germany and Italy prior to and during World War II. While industries were still privately owned, meaning they weren’t property of the state, they knew they existed only at the pleasure of the State. (In the Soviet Union all industry was owned by the state.) Both fascism and communism are instruments of the Left. Fascism and communism still exist. What’s frightening is that we see some of that here in the US.

A recent example of this presence:

The revelation that Twitter suppressed free speech under the orders of the government.

As Elon Musk tweeted:

Twitter acting by itself to suppress free speech is not a 1st Amendment violation, but acting under orders of the government is.

That blows the “Twitter can block misinformation/disinformation and not violate free speech because they are a private corporation” claim out of the water. It wasn’t misinformation they were blocking, but free speech and they were doing so as an agent of the government. What did the government want to keep the from public?

As such, the folks who were running Twitter and suppressing free speech should be prosecuted for Civil Rights violations as should those in government ordering them to do so. They willingly violated the First Amendment, knew they were doing so, and did it anyways. They deserve time in a Federal Take-It-Up-Butt Prison...or maybe worse for them, in a SuperMax prison where they are locked in their cell for 23-1/2 hours a day and the only people they see are the guards delivering their meals or escorting them to and from an isolated exercise ‘yard’.

Such consequences would be a warning to others who think things like the Bill of Rights apply only to our supposed ‘betters’ and can be ignored without consequence.

This Can Never Be Stated Enough

By way of Nitzakhon over at GraniteGrok comes this reminder about the Second Amendment and what it actually says and means:

I have to constantly remind our Progressive brethren that the Bill of Rights does not grant rights, but enumerates inherent rights the citizens already have and that government does not.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s the wind-down from Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Small Business Saturday. Cyber Monday is on its way.

I have survived a week off from work. I haven’t been idle by any means, putting the finishing touches winterizing The Gulch – thermal drapes being put up, installing heat shrink on two windows whose seals have ruptured (they’ll be replaced next summer), pulling out the humidifier (used to keep the air inside The Gulch at a comfortable humidity level once winter arrives), cleaning the lint out of the clothes drier vent, and swapping out the summer stuff for winter stuff.

The trusty RAM 1500 has new tires, the proper type this time - Passenger, not Light Truck tires like last time...which were the only ones available at the time – which ride better and restore the fuel economy lost with the Light Truck tires. It is scheduled to have its undercoating touched up and an oil change/lube later this week. Then it will be ready for the upcoming winter.

About the only thing left to do is perform an oil change on the Official Weekend Pundit Portable Generator, something that will be performed next weekend.

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By way of Instapundit comes this prognostication about the upcoming winter:

Snow extent in the Northern Hemisphere at the end of November represents an important parameter for the early winter forecast. This year snow extent is running much higher than average and according to existing global estimates, it is now beyond the highest ever observed so far. Winter forecast, especially in its early phase and in Europe, might be strongly influenced by such a large snow extent, although many other factors need attention.

Northern Hemisphere snow extent is currently indeed very high, now at about 41 million square kilometers, according to the NOAA/Rutgers Global Snow Lab.

While we have very spotty snow coverage here at The Big Lake, there’s plenty up north. I don’t know if it’s a normal amount or not. I do know the ski areas have been liking it.

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Somewhere, Skynet smiles.

It seems the Kalifornia Totalitarians have no problems with authorizing the San Francisco Police Department robots to kill.

San Francisco authorities proposed a new “dystopian” policy heading for approval next week that would license department robots to kill suspects who threaten the lives of citizens and police officers in the crime-ridden city.

This would be just the first step, knowing how the Progressives in Kalifornia think. I hate to think this, but I have to wonder if they would eventually give those robots autonomy about the decision to kill or not. We know The Powers That Be don’t really like the police and if they can replace them with robots they can make sure they aren’t “rayciss” or transphobic or misogynist or homophobic or whateverist.

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You know what’s even scarier than killer robots?

Fidel Trudeau’s discussion with his cabinet about using tanks to “crush the Freedom Convoy” protests.

I find it disturbing that our Canadian neighbors have leaders that are thinking more like the leaders of the old Soviet Union every day.

Despite the fact that the Convoy “at no time” posed a threat to Canadians, Trudeau and his cronies were so hostile to it that his cabinet went so far as to discuss “crushing Freedom Convoy with tanks.” This should scare all Canadians, since it leads to the inevitable question: what does Trudeau have in store next for those who oppose him?

Canadians are at serious risk of losing their freedoms under the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau.

First we see the Aussies surrendering more of their rights to an increasing totalitarian and hostile government. Then another nation of the Anglosphere is going totalitarian, in this case Canada.

We already know WRBA here in the US would like to bring the US into the Progressive totalitarian fold. Goodness knows we’ve already seen efforts to choke off one right after another – Freedom of Speech; Freedom of Association; Freedom of Religion; The Right to Keep and Bear Arms; The Right to be Be Secure in Their Persons, Houses, Papers, and Effects, just to name a few.

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This is something all of us bacon lovers have known for forever.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we’re still recovering from Thanksgiving, the weather is trying to make up its mind between fall and winter, and where actual Monday has returned all too soon.

A Return To Politics

I have no doubt my couple of dozen readers have noticed I haven’t been blogging about things political quite as much as I usually do. It hasn’t been because I’m no longer interested in doing so. Rather it’s been a bit of post-election burnout, between the various campaigns and prepping for and manning the polls on election day which included manual vote counts due to a voting machine malfunction that did not separate ballots with write-in votes. I needed to take a little bit of a break before delving back into politics, and particularly political nonsense being peddled as “The One True Way To Paradise (For The Progressive Elite, You Peasant!)”.

My discussions with the WP Niece on Thanksgiving Day cinched our conclusion that political dialog needs to be done face-to-face, at least in our case, because we find a lot more common ground when we do so than when we debate via texting or e-mail. We miss too many of the subtle nuances when doing so. We find that some of our political differences are not, in the end, profound. It’s easier to explain our viewpoints (and why I am right).

There is no doubt the next two years leading up to the New Hampshire Primary and the Presidential election will be far more contentious than the year leading up to the mid-terms. We’ve already seen some possible 2024 Presidential contenders visiting New Hampshire...yet the Primary is still about 14 months away. I figure the campaigns will start up some time right after the first of the year and we will be increasingly inundated with TV, radio, and print ads the closer we get t over the nexthe Primary in January (or February) 2024.

If nothing else I and the rest of the political bloggers will have an abundance of fodder to report, analyze, and tear apart over a period of 22 months. It will be a target rich environment.

It Is Done

As I brought up last Saturday, we made the switch from our old cable TV company to a new one, a competitor that entered our town over the past year or so. They’ve spent that time building out their network and finally come into our neighborhood here at The Gulch.

The changeover was painless, taking less than an hour to achieve. Setting up the new e-mail addresses took longer, something I hade to deal with, but it was just time consuming as there were a number of verifications required to activate our new e-mail addresses. That was the easy part.

Do you have any idea just how hard it is to close an existing cable TV account? I’m finding out.

The list of requirements for closing an account is long and daunting. About the only thing they don’t require is a DNA swab and a retinal scan. Opening an account it easy...and it’s designed to be that way.

The folks in the ‘Loyalty Department’ (Yes, that’s what they call it) asked me why we were making the switch and I gave them my litany of reasons why I no longer wanted to do business with them which included:

- Lack of tech support. I’ve been dealing with a Internet service problem for two years and in that entire time I haven’t been able to speak to a human being in Tech support to fix it, something that had to be taken care of on their side of the cable modem.

- Service outages. Quite often we would lose Internet service, usually requiring restarting the cable modem. It was an almost daily occurrence. This was a particularly bothersome and inconvenient on those days I was working from home.

- Loss of TV channels. There would be outages of a number of different TV channels, most lasting for only a few minutes, but there have been times when we’ve lost them for hours.

As I mentioned in my previous post on this matter, it’s like they’re trying hard to lose as many customers as they can. If that is their aim, they’re succeeding. I know of at least six of my neighbors who have also made the change and a few more contemplating doing so.

And so it goes.

Thoughts On A Sunday

Thanksgiving is quickly approaching, something I am trying to wrap my head around. Wasn’t the Fourth of July just a couple of weeks ago?

As I have stated more than once over the years, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, even more than Christmas. While I have always liked Christmas, I have found it to be trying, capable of generating anxiety that I don’t experience with Thanksgiving. While both holidays often require travel, it isn’t the travel that is troublesome. Rather, it is the different expectations that go with those holidays. (I don’t need to go into them, do I?)

As is rare for me, I am on vacation this week. It isn’t often that I take more than a day off here and there, usually extending a holiday weekend by a day or two. In this case I am extending the Thanksgiving holiday by three days! As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I will not be idle during my time off. Other than Thanksgiving Day, I will be busy here at The Gulch finishing some winterization and repairs as well as getting the trusty RAM 1500 squared away for the upcoming winter.

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Is Joe Biden actually going to run again in 2024? While he says he is running again, one has to ask if will he be in any (mental) condition to do so?

My guess is ‘no’.

On every subject, confusion abounds, and it’s only getting worse.

On the campaign trail, he forgot the name of the governor of New Mexico. (She does have three names). He lauded Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, then seconds later couldn’t recall his name and instead described Wyden as “that other guy that I just talked about.”

He talked about his visit to Florida in the aftermath of “Hurricane Ivan.”

He wished a speedy recovery to Nancy Pelosi’s husband “Bobby.” (His name is Paul.)

The list of his mental lapses is getting longer and being added to at an increasing pace. This is not someone we want in the White House, even as a figurehead. But WRBA also doesn’t want Kamala taking office as President. So it makes me wonder if she’ll be induced to resign, replaced by someone more palatable, and then we’ll see SloJo removed from office under the 25^th Amendment.

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It seems we’re seeing yet another in a series of attempts to “get” Trump. We’ve seen the politicized Department of Justice fail again and again to “get” him. We’ve seen the DNC fail again and again. It seems to run something like this:

2016 – “We’ve got him now! He’s goin’ down!” Results: Nada.
2017 - “We’ve got him now! He’s goin’ down!” Results: Nuthin’.
2018 - “We’ve got him now! He’s goin’ down!” Results: Not a damn thing.
2019 - “We’ve got him now! He’s goin’ down!” Results: Nil.
2020 - “We’ve got him now! He’s goin’ down!” Results: Zip.
2021 - “We’ve got him now! He’s goin’ down!” Results: Zilch.
2022 - “We’ve got him now! He’s goin’ down!” Results: Zero.
2023 - “We’ve got him now! He’s goin’ down!” Results: To Be Determined...but likely as productive as the previous 7 years.

If the DOJ had been as diligent digging into Hunter Biden’s activities as they have Donald Trump’s, Hunter would be in federal prison...and his dad might be in the cell next to his.

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I’ve noticed this, too.

There are a lot of wild turkeys here in New England. Fifty years ago there weren’t. So why are there so many here now?

In suburban New England, gobbling gangs roam the streets. Wild Turkeys, each weighing in at 10 or 20 pounds, loiter in driveways, trapping residents inside their homes. They lounge on decks, damage gardens, and jump on the car hoods. Flocks of 20 or 30 birds roost in backyards, while particularly plucky turkeys chase down mailmen and the occasional police cruiser.

Even when I relocated here to New Hampshire 42 years ago there weren’t all that many wild turkeys around. I spent a lot of time hiking around New Hampshire during the 80’s and I saw very few wild turkeys back then. Today, I see them everywhere. We would see them all the time at The Manse. I see them quite often here at The Gulch. I see them crossing the roads I use going to and from work, to town hall, to the local Walmart plaza, and going to the dump.

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By way of Power Line comes this warning from the Halls of Science:

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the cold has been more than making up for the unseasonably warm weather we had earlier in the month, the snow from Buffalo has not made its way here, and where I don’t care if it’s Monday tomorrow because I’m on vacation!

Random Stuff On A Saturday

While we haven’t seen the extremes experienced by the folks in Buffalo, the difference a week makes in weather here is amazing.

We had temps in the 60’s with some evening temps in the upper 50’s a week ago.

This past week we were in the upper 30’s with evening temps below freezing. We also got snow mid-week, though only about an inch of a slushy mix here at The Gulch. It will be in mid-teens over the next couple of nights. This has driven me to take care of the last few ‘winterization’ chores here, specifically heavy winter drapes over the slider leading out to the porch and heat shrink over a couple of windows on the north side of the house.

The trusty RAM 1500 will have its ‘winterization’ completed this coming week, between new tires and updated undercoating. (I might have been able to squeeze out another winter with the existing tires, but the tread is a bit thin. The last time the trusty RAM got new tires I had to settle for Light Truck tires because the tires I needed weren’t available. The LT tires have a much harder ride which also caused a loss of almost 4 miles per gallon in fuel economy. The new tires are the correct ones for the truck so I expect I’ll gain back the better ride and fuel economy.)

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One of the other changes taking place here at The Gulch over this upcoming week is a change to a new cable provider.

Our town now has two cable TV companies, with the newer one having just finished installing their cable infrastructure in our part of town. (Call me a cynic, but as I have stated more than once, “Now we have two cable companies to hate!”) The new cable company - who shall remain nameless...but owns NBC - offered a great two-year deal for less than half of what we have been paying our existing provider, with slightly higher Internet speeds.

Our existing provider went from being a pretty darned good cable company to being totally unresponsive to customer needs. This change took place during Covid as they closed local offices and moved their customer/tech support out of state. I know I have been trying to resolve an issue with my Internet service for almost two years now, an issue I know how to fix but takes the actions of the tech support guys on the “other side” of the cable modem to resolve. Do you think I can reach them?

Nope.

There are only two paths for tech support: going to their web page and reading the various FAQs, or invoking the chat function and waiting for 4, 5, 6 hours or more to deal with an actual human being. Their phone number points to the web page and doesn’t connect to an actual human being. My problem cannot be resolved via the FAQs, and I have more important things to do than hang around online for hours on end only to be disconnected and leaving my problem unresolved.

There have been other issues as well, with one of the most annoying being losing the video in the middle of a show for no apparent reason (and finding related channels have also disappeared). It’s been happening with increasing frequency which has certainly peeved the WP Mom to no end.

It’s as if the C-level execs are doing what they can to shed themselves of their holdings up here, pushing towns to dump them as a provider. (If they don’t want to provide services up here any more I would think they would sell their assets to another provider and be done with it rather than letting them just wither away.

All cable companies have franchise agreements with the towns they serve which generally run for 10 years and which are reviewed and then renewed at the end of existing agreement. If a cable company doesn’t meet the terms of the agreement – a contract – the town may decide not to renew the agreement and the cable company has to leave. (This doesn’t happen overnight. Usually the decision not to renew is made a year or two before the agreement expires which allows the town to find a new cable provider.)

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We’ll be off to the youngest WP Sister’s for Thanksgiving, the largest gathering of the WP Clan on Thanksgiving for some time. I’m looking forward to it after the Covid-driven hiatus kept us apart for three years.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a bittersweet day today at church for the WP clan, it being a remembrance of the passing of three members of the family, all of whom passed away on the same day – November 14th – though years apart. One of the WP Uncles passed away back in the late 1960’s, the WP Dad eight years ago, and one of the WP nephews four years ago.

The oldest WP sister and her S.O. came up to join us (and to help with some work around The Gulch). It was a nice seeing them as we don’t get together nearly as often as we’d like.

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More than a few folks have mentioned more than once that the ‘woke’ Disney is going to pay the price for going woke, yours truly included, and now it looks like that is just about to happen in the form of mass layoffs.

Woke Disney isn’t cutting it these days. While they continue to groom and sexualize children with their woke agenda, people are starting to boycott Disney. They missed their earning by nearly a billion dollars and are expected to announce mass layoffs before either Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Disney has fallen under the sway of “Go woke, go broke” trap and is paying the price as have so many other corporations. If they don’t reverse course I expect they will also suffer the same fate so many other ‘gone woke’ businesses have.

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Michael Shellenberger delves into how ‘woke’ is being used to generate profit from victimhood.

We tend to think of the people, and businesses, supporting Black Lives Matter, LGBT rights, and climate change advocacy as altruistic. They aren’t doing it for fame or fortune. They’re just doing it because they care about victims of violence, prejudice, and environmental degradation.

And yet over the last year, all three movements have been caught profiting from creating victims. BLM’s founder bought a $6 million home using donations intended to protect black lives from police violence. A British medical clinic is being sued by parents who allege that their gender dysphoric children were rushed into puberty blockers that can harm health. And climate activists funded by the heirs to the Getty and Rockefeller fortunes have staged protests on roadways that have caused several deadly traffic accidents.

Such behaviors shouldn’t surprise us, argues psychologist Sam Vaknin, who I interviewed at length on Monday. “Victim movements go awry when they are appropriated by the elites and become integrated into existing power structures, including profit-motivated power structures,” he argues. “Suffering becomes a commodity. The minute you monetize suffering, you have a vested interest. Victimhood becomes a permanent fixture because that's your product line. You're going to produce victims and suffering.”

This isn’t the first we’ve seen the like happen. How many times did we see leaders and organizations from the Civil Rights era corrupted by the money and power inherent in such movements? It is not different today.

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It seems even more rural cities in the Northeast aren’t immune from the effects of the “Defund the Police” movement, the city in question being ultra-blue Burlington, Vermont.

Burlington is starting to resemble places like Portland and San Francisco with homeless and drug-addled derelicts increasing in number as the number of its patrol officers has declined by 70% from 50 to 15 officers. That supervisors and detectives have had to step in to fill those open patrol slots is not a good thing.

Defund police departments and crime goes up. Does that surprise anyone? No. But the real problem isn’t the lack of police but of the tolerance of drug addled transients. They know full well if they get arrested they’ll just be out the next day. They’ll never pay a fine and never do more time. There are no consequences whatsoever. That’s the real problem.

As one commenter wrote in the linked Instapundit post, “As per usual they ignore human nature and are then surprised when human nature slaps them in the face...so they try to ignore it even harder and get slapped harder in return.”

As Glenn Reynolds warned us back in 2020, “When “defund the police” fever was in full bloom in latte towns across America, “the breakdown of law and order won’t go as [leftists] hope. Ultimately, the police are there to protect criminals from the populace, not the other way around. Get rid of the police, and armed vigilantism is what you’ll get. And what you’ll deserve.”

We’ll see the return of so-called vigilance committees since neither the police or justice system are capable of doing their jobs. Like vigilantes of old, punishment is likely to be harsh with many crimes being punishable by death. There will be no appeals, no extenuating circumstances, no “He’s just a poor boy from a poor family” excuses. There will probably be no rehab offered, particularly to the drug-addled miscreants defecating and urinating in the streets or the doorways of homes and businesses and accosting residents minding their own business.

That won’t bode well for those on the wrong side of the law, at least in the eyes of the vigilance committees.

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Then there’s this point to ponder, courtesy of Nitzakhon over at GraniteGrok.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee where the warm weather has fled, colder weather is replacing it, and snow might be showing itself later this coming week.

A Family Day

It's been a busy day here at The Gulch with family up visiting for the weekend. It has left me little time to do my usual Saturday scribbling. We are headed out to dine at one of our favorite eateries shortly.

In its place I offer this image shamelessly stolen from PowerLine. I present to you the Addams Family...of Pennsylvania.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s felt more like summer the past few days, with temps in the 70’s and an elevated humidity. It’s usually in the 50’s this time of year, but I am not complaining. It’s meant we haven’t had to turn up the thermostat as even over the past few nights the temperature has been in the upper 50’s/lower 60’s.

The great thing about the warm temps is that it has allowed me to do some work on the trusty RAM 1500, in this case dealing with some small rusty patches in the bed of the truck. I don’t want the trusty RAM 1500 to become the rusty RAM 1500. I saw that happen with the trusty Ford F-150, the predecessor to the RAM. I also touched up the bed of the truck with some Rustoleum to cover the surface scratches, again as a means of keeping the truck rust free. It will be undercoated again during the week of Thanksgiving. It’s also getting some new tires before winter as I doubt the existing tires have enough tread left for another winter. I need to do what I can to extend the life of the trusty RAM 1500 as long as I can because I don’t want to pay $40K to $50K to replace it (which is what I figured a good used pickup will cost if I have to replace the trusty RAM anytime in the next 5 years).

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With the warm weather we’ve been experiencing I have regretted pulling the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout out of the water last weekend. It’s been perfect boating weather. Then again, the weather is warmer than average we see this time of year. It could have just as easily been below freezing with snow and freezing rain.

Who knows, if I had delayed pulling the boat from the water it’s likely that’s what we would be experiencing right now...and it would have been all my fault!!

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It appears I hadn’t done my research before I wrote yesterday’s screed against changing back to Standard Time.

The US Senate passed bipartisan legislation that would make Daylight Savings Time permanent, with a few exceptions. However, the bill stalled in the House.

Some have made the argument that year round DST would be harmful and suggested year round Standard Time. I can counter that with the same argument I made during yesterday’s post, New Hampshire (and Maine and Massachusetts) being at the extreme eastern side of the Eastern Time Zone, where Standard Time means the sun setting well before 4PM. That isn’t healthy either, the report from CNN to the contrary.

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I made the mistake of watching some of the political reporting on TV yesterday, and to hear it, some of the media is claiming the Democrats will retain control of the House, gain full control of the Senate by winning two more seats, as well as take the governorships in a number of states.

But RCP is saying that isn’t so.

RCP adjusted some of their numbers based upon previous errors in underestimating GOP numbers, which has shifted their results. But even I have my doubts about RCP’s prediction. However, there is one ‘poll’ in which I have more confidence, that being the “Betting Poll”, something that John Stossel delves into.



It seems Las Vegas has a better record of predicting the winners than the polling organizations. Maybe it’s time to look at the betting line for the Midterms than the pollsters.

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PJ Media asks the question “Are Lithium-Ion batteries safe in the home?”

My first response is “It depends.”

I deal with lithium-ion batteries as part of my job and I can say there are some manufacturers I trust and some I don’t. There have one or two trusted manufacturers who had batteries that were manufactured incorrectly that caused problems, one being Panasonic who, many years ago, had a production run of cells that had a propensity to ignite under normal use due to a contamination issue.

We’ve also seen issues with lithium-polymer batteries in smart phones, specifically one of Samsung’s new phone lines that had issues with the batteries igniting. (The reason for that problem was never released though the speculation was it was caused by an overly aggressive charging profile since the problem occurred with batteries from two different manufacturers.)

If the lithium-ion batteries are made by manufacturer with a good track record, the proper safety/control circuitry, and a proper charging profile, they can be safe. Otherwise all bets are off.

Here at The Gulch we have a number of devices with Li-Ion batteries: two laptops, two cell phones, two tablets, and a pair of hearing aids. All are from reputable manufacturers as are their batteries, so I don’t have too much concern...but I will not fully trust them.

==++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the air is warm, the leaves are almost gone, and Election Day is two days away.

Here We Go Again

We are approaching yet another change from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time, something I always hate. The downsides to the time changes in mid-fall and late winter far outweigh the upsides. One of the biggest downsides is the increased number of traffic accidents and medical emergencies that take place for the week or so after the change.

I have always disliked going back to Standard Time, seeing the sun setting here around 3:30PM by the time Christmas rolls around. I would rather have that extra hour in the afternoon.

Some have made the argument that having more light in the morning is better than having it in the afternoon, but for me that is a specious argument in light of the fact that I still have to get up in the dark, and in some cases, drive into work in the dark regardless of whether it is Standard Time or Daylight Savings Time. At least on DST I don’t also have to drive home in the dark.

Considering I live on the eastern edge of the Eastern Time Zone, the time zone being far wider than the others in the US, remaining on DST makes more sense. And if we can’t do that, then it would be to our advantage to change to the Atlantic Time Zone and remain in Atlantic Standard Time year round (which is the equivalent of Eastern Daylight Time).

I don’t know of anybody who likes changing the clock twice a year. Anecdotally, most people I have talked to would prefer to remain in DST year round, at least here in New Hampshire.

Update: Here’s some information that explains another benefit of remaining on Daylight Savings Time: It can save wildlife as well as human lives.

A Different Path

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time you know of my healthy skepticism about electric vehicles. From an engineering point of view they really don’t make sense, particularly since we do not have the electrical grid needed to support EVs and aren’t likely to have one any time soon. This is particularly true if the Renewable Energy acolytes figure we can meet all of our ever increasing electrical demand with wind and solar.

We can’t. The numbers don’t add up. It also doesn’t help that even though the Renewable Energy acolytes like the idea of wind and solar they are quite often against the powerlines needed to get the electrical power where it’s needed.

Surprisingly, while a number of major automakers have hopped on board the present EV bandwagon, two major automakers have said “No thanks”, those two being Toyota and Honda. I covered Toyota’s decision not to go down the EV path, where Toyota’s CEO explained their decision. Honda is also following that same path.

Some folks have seen the decision as one that will lead to the end of those two automakers, but when one finds out why, their decisions make sense.

The US and Europe are going down the battery EV route which requires connecting the EV to charging stations in order to refuel. The downside to this is the amount of time it takes to charge the batteries and the amount of electricity required if we change over to this model.

So what are Toyota and Honda going to do to not be left behind in the EV game?

Hydrogen.

Both are going all in on fuel cell vehicles. They are both still EVs, but rather than requiring being plugged into the grid to ‘refuel’, they are connected to a hydrogen pump to fill an actual fuel tank, taking a little more time to refuel than traditional gas or diesel-fueled vehicles. The only exhaust from these vehicles is water vapor.

The argument can be made that it isn’t easy or necessarily ‘green’ to generate hydrogen, and that’s true if one uses traditional means of generating hydrogen. But the Japanese have an ace up their sleeve, one that can generate as much hydrogen as needed in the quantities needed.

It’s called Red Hydrogen and it can replace most fossil fuels.



The great thing about using hydrogen and fuel cells is that it doesn’t require such a major shift in how we use our cars and trucks. Just the fuel being used will change from being liquid to a gas and the technology will switch from traditional internal combustion engines to fuel cells and electric motors. (Hydrogen can be used to fuel traditional internal combustion engines, just like compressed natural gas and propane have been used. Hydrogen can also be used as fuel in gas turbines.)

Are fuel cell EVs the correct path to take rather than the battery EVs? I believe they are. So do Toyota and Honda. Apparently so does Japan as they are going heavy into hydrogen production. I think it’s time we consider doing the same.

Thoughts On A Sunday

Friday was the final day of the boating season as BeezleBub and I pulled the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout from the water. After BeezleBub finished work we got the boat trailer over to the town docks, retrieved the boat from its slip – with a little side trip out to one of the islands – before heading to the docks.

It was well past sundown by the time we were loading the boat onto the trailer and dark by the time it was parked temporarily at BeezleBub’s place. Yesterday was spent removing all the gear and cleaning the cockpit, then stowing the removed gear here at The Gulch. Finally we moved the boat to the boat yard for winterization and storage.

My boating season was officially over.

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Despite the TV ads we see hyping it, 5G cell service isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. While the article linked in the Instapundit post is specific to the UK, the problems seen there are the same ones seen here in the US. The comments are telling as they highlight the problems seen here, including the video which delves into the reasons why 5G service stinks.



Considering 4G-LTE does pretty well, is there a real need to switch to 5G? Not as best I can tell. I certainly haven’t noticed a lack, particularly when my phone connects to WiFi. (At home I don’t have a strong cell signal, so more than half of my phone calls are made via the WiFi connection.)

==++==

Apparently it isn’t just New England that has to worry about possible blackouts this coming winter. Jolly Olde England is in the same predicament.

National Grid warns Britons of blackouts on ‘really cold’ evenings

FT conference hears of various ‘unlikely’ scenarios in which UK might not have sufficient energy

Nathalie Thomas, Energy Correspondent OCTOBER 18 2022

National Grid’s chief executive has warned British households to prepare for blackouts between 4pm and 7pm on “really, really cold” weekdays in January and February in the event of reduced gas imports from Europe.

John Pettigrew said the company would have to impose rolling power cuts on “those deepest darkest evenings in January and February” if generators failed to secure enough gas from the continent to meet demand, particularly if the country suffers a cold snap.

Of course, “really, really cold” in the UK is different than “really, really cold” in New England, with “really, really cold” in the UK being just regular winter “cold” here. “Really, really cold” here means single digits above zero (Fahrenheit) to double digits below zero. Add in wind chills and it gets kinda frosty around here.

==++==

Hearing that Elon Musk is firing Twitter employees, many of which I believe richly deserve to be fired because of their totalitarian view on freedom of speech – “You can speak freely as long as you agree with us” – I have to ask this question: Will Elon fire enough of them? Or will he fire just enough to get the message across that “Freedom of Speech” also means speech they disagree with, that they are not the arbiters of what is and is not allowed?

Only time will tell.

==++==

Speaking of Twitter and Elon Musk, it seems CBS lost it’s mind when Musk finally closed the deal for Twitter, claiming “our democracy is in peril”. That’s ironic considering CBS and the rest of the DNC-MSM have been a bigger threat to our republic than a Musk-owned Twitter ever will.

Musk finalized his lengthy acquisition of Twitter yesterday, tweeting triumphantly: “[T]he bird is freed.” Just hours later, the anti-American liberal press flocked to attack Musk’s deal because it could have “big implications for our democracy” and worsen “misinformation” on the Oct. 28 edition of CBS Mornings. Chief among CBS’s worries: A return of former President Donald Trump to the platform.

CBS, of course, framed the news of the Musk deal around “hate speech,” not free speech, right from the get-go. “How will Musk balance out freedom of speech while at the same time discouraging and reining in misinformation?” CBS correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti asked. “The stakes are incredibly high for millions of Americans.”

“The stakes are incredibly high for millions of Americans”? Indeed. Millions of Americans will no longer be banned for “hate speech” that was nothing of the sort. It was free speech, something we know Progressives hate.

==++==

AVI addresses the growing acceptance of polygamy in the US.

Being married to one person is tough enough. Being married to more than one person has got to be even tougher.

Polygamy has been normal in a number of cultures in the past, with some of it being driven by a lack of a sufficient number of one gender.

Today, it is driven by something else, maybe hypergamy, where a number of women have set their sights on a small group of males who meet their standards, often referred to as ‘Sixes’ – six feet tall, six-pack abs, and six figure income – and it’s to the point that they’re willing to share as long as they can get their ‘perfect’ guy. (This is something that has been making the rounds on social media lately, and there have been a number of videos covering this perception on YouTube and TikTok.)

Will it come to be here in the US? Call me old fashioned, but I hope not. I think it would be a negative influence and lead to more social problems. It is a solution to a problem that does not exist.

==++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the boats have been disappearing from their slips and being stored away, my boating season has ended, and where Halloween is been celebrated tomorrow night!

Toyota Decides EV's Aren't Worth It

The world’s largest automaker – Toyota – will not be jumping on the electric vehicle bandwagon like so many of the automakers. Apparently the higher-ups in Toyota have listened to their technical experts who expressed their doubts about the wisdom of going all in on electric vehicles, and their reasons why.

That’s why Toyota’s CEO announced it will not be making the switch over electric vehicles, focusing more hybrids and standard ICE powered vehicles.



The push to EVs is premature. The infrastructure, particularly in the US and Europe, isn’t up the task. Both the grids and the generation capacity need major upgrades and neither is going to occur any time soon. The folks pushing for EVs are quite often the same folks doing their best to prevent the needed upgrades to make their EV ‘paradise’ come true. I don’t know if it is hypocrisy, ignorance, or both causing this disconnect between fantasy and reality.

It Was On Purpose

Hearing the doomsday news regarding energy in the US, specifically the supply and cost of gasoline, diesel, heating oil, natural gas, and downstream effects on electricity rates in places like New England, my first thought is usually “Why have the Democrats done this to us?”

Considering the damage the Democrats in Washington and the states have done to our energy supplies, destroying our energy independence all in the name of combating climate change, while giving our commercial and ideological rival, China, a pass regarding their skyrocketing CO2 emissions even as ours have fallen about 45%, one has to wonder if it is sheer ignorance that has caused the Democrats to wreak havoc on our energy supplies or if it was done on purpose. I try to keep in mind the adage “Do not attribute to malice that which may be better explained by stupidity.”

It’s one thing if the actions that have hurt us so occurred only every so often I might think it was done due to stupidity or willful ignorance, but the actions the Democrats have taken again and again show malicious intent. They keep telling us its “for our own good” but what it’s really about control...and the people are sick of it.

Had Democrats spent the last 3.5 years liberating US oil/gas investment, production, and transport instead of strangling them, energy would be far cheaper.

But Democrats have sabotaged oil investment by 1) supporting various “ESG” policies that call for reduced oil investment and 2) threatening oil producers’ existence.

Since Barack Obama ran for President declaring “the age of oil must end in our time” and continuing through Joe Biden’s “guarantee” that “we’re going to end fossil fuel,” US Democrats have threatened the future of oil production—a major deterrent for investment.

Leading Democrats like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders constantly threaten US oil production and make good on those threats by trying to prevent crucial oil infrastructure projects, such as pipelines. Having these kinds of politicians in power drives investment away from oil.

In addition to sabotaging US oil’s enormous potential by going after oil investment, Democratic politicians have done everything they can to sabotage oil production: threatening to ban fracking, banning federal leases, and calling for new, costly taxes and regulations.

US industry’s incredible ability to ramp up gas production has been desperately needed in recent years as gas has become more central to our economy and more needed by allies—especially those dependent on Russia. But industry has been strangled by Democratic opposition to pipelines.

Our bountiful natural gas is only useful if it can be transported by pipeline—to where it is needed in the US and to export terminals for shipment abroad. But in recent years we have seen a Democrat-led movement to block pipeline after pipeline. (One such pipeline would have brought much needed natural gas into New England, but well funded groups working with Democrats in New York and Massachusetts killed the project, leaving New England dependent upon expensive foreign natural gas that had to be transported into Boston by LNG tankers from Trinidad and Tabago. - ed.)

Considering a lot of the electricity in New England is generated by combined cycle natural gas power plants, electricity rates have more than doubled because of the skyrocketing natural gas prices.

Both diesel and heating oil are in short supply in New England, those shortages caused by the aforementioned actions of the Democrats, those actions taken with malice and forethought and without any consideration for the consequences of their actions.

As bad as it is now, it is only going to get worse if the Democrats continue their systemic destruction of our energy supplies.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was the Last Cruise Of The Season for the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout yesterday. I had my friends – refugees from San Francisco who made their escape to New Hampshire two years ago – accompanying me for a day out on the lake, cruising about and enjoying the fall foliage. We also anchored at one of my favorite spots (which shall not be named for obvious reasons) and enjoyed a late lunch before continuing our cruise.

It was a perfect day for that last cruise of the boating season – sunny and warm (65ºF) – with very little in the way of boat traffic to deal with. The lack of summerfolk boat traffic is one reason I like boating after Labor Day. One can actually spend time out on the lake on weekends without worrying about the Cap’n Boneheads.

The Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout will be coming out of the water later this coming week, be taken over to BeezleBub’s place so we can remove all of the gear and clean the cockpit before it makes its trip the boatyard which will winterize and store it for the winter.

==++==

I made the mistake of watching Good Morning America this morning.

To hear their reports and comments about the upcoming mid-terms it seems they are expecting Democrats to keep their House majority and gain three Senate seats. They are basing their viewpoints upon their own ABC/Ipsos poll and focusing on what Democrat voters see as important issues. However, they reported that abortion rights are one of the top three election issues.

The problem is that there are a lot of other polls, including WaPo and NYT polls, that show abortion isn’t anywhere near the most important issues for voters. Almost every poll shows it is inflation/energy costs and the illegal immigration crisis at the border that are above abortion rights, in some polls more than a few places above abortion rights.

It goes back to something I’ve written elsewhere earlier about the DNC hammering away at abortion, trying to make it the #1 election issue...and failing. They are also pushing January 6th for all they can and aren’t gaining any traction there either.

Almost all of the Democrat campaign ads I’ve been seeing here in New Hampshire covering the two Congressional Districts, the US Senate, and the Gubernatorial race are aimed at abortion rights, and lately, Social Security and Medicare.

The new DNC ads are claiming GOP candidates Don Bolduc - US Senate - and Karoline Leavitt – CD1 - want to ‘destroy’ Social Security and Medicare, using some creative editing in the ads to make it seem they want to do away with both. They aren’t proposing anything both Republicans and Democrats haven’t proposed over the past 40 years or so.

==++==

OK, what’s going on in China?

It seems former Chinese leader Hu Jintao was forced to leave a meeting of the Chinese Communist Party congress under duress.

Why does this sound familiar?
>br> Wait, could it be the former Chinese leader is being subjected to the Chinese version or Trump Derangement Syndrome where the former leader - Hu - is being sidelined/minimized/criminalized by the present leader – Xi – to ‘keep him in his place’?

==++==

It looks like our neighbor to the north has decided to go stupid, banning handguns.

I expect Canada is going to learn the same lesson as the UK: Only criminals will have guns...and will continue to use them against a now unarmed populace. They will also see and increase in knife violence, just as they’ve seen in the UK. That also implies Canada will impose knife control at some point, too.

Canadians will also learn a lesson already learned in Australia after they banned guns: The government will become increasingly intrusive and tyrannical because they know their now disarmed citizens can no longer tell the government to “F*ck off!”, or at worse, be unable to depose the tyrants.

It’s time for our Canadian brethren to kick out Fidel Trudeau and restore the rights that have already been stripped from Canadians. The same goes for the Australians.

==++==

EVs are supposed to be cheaper to ‘fuel’ than ICE vehicles, at least according to the EV purists. But it turns out that isn’t true, at least in the UK.

The price of charging an electric car using a public rapid charger is now more expensive than filling up with diesel according to data gathered by Parkers. The soaring price of wholesale gas and electricity has forced up the cost of charging a typical electric car, with £10 of charge taking you less far than the same amount of diesel.

This rise in EV charging begins to bite just as petrol and diesel prices are finally beginning to fall. Despite the spiralling costs of using public electric car chargers, the long-term consideration of an electric car is still very much on many drivers’ minds.

However, we’re seeing much the same thing here, particularly as electricity rates keep climbing. Here in New Hampshire electricity rates have doubled for some ratepayers, and more than doubled for others. It is expected the rates will go up again some time around February. The same is true in other states, one of them being California. As bad as the electricity rates are here in New England, they’re worse in California.

==++==

We keep hearing claims that Republicans are working hard to prevent people from voting in elections, putting up all kinds of roadblocks to keep the poor, minorities, and others from participating in elections in violation of the US Constitution. Below is an illustration of just how we evil Republicans are doing so:

(Image courtesy of Patriot Post)

Our nefarious plan is coming to fruition! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

==++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where boats are disappearing from their slips to be stored away for the winter, the fall foliage is now past peak and the leaves are falling, and where the Mid-Terms are a little over two weeks away (Thank Goodness!).

Yet Another Reason To Dislike Wind Turbines

One of my gripes about wind turbines has nothing to with their power ratios (operational capacity versus plate capacity), their unreliability due to the vagaries of weather, non-dispatchability, power grid synchronization issues, heavy tax subsidies, and health issues caused by the infrasound generated by the blades as they spin.

This gripe has to do with wind turbines being very good at chopping birds, and more specifically endangered species of birds, into two or more pieces. I find it funny that environmentalists love the turbines but seem to have no concerns for the animals they kill.

This is how I see them:

To quote a favorite meme, “Prove me wrong.”

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been great weather here at Lake Winnipesaukee – sunny and warm – something that has had the leaf peepers out and enjoying peak foliage. I certainly saw a lot of traffic when I was out an about yesterday, with a lot of the vehicles bearing out-of-state plates. The restaurants were certainly busy.

On two different occasions, once yesterday and once today, I had folks who were obviously “from away” asking me for advice of where they might go for great views of the foliage and I obliged them. However, I did not point them to places where folks from here would go. We’ve got to keep those places to ourselves. (As a note, for some of us all we have to do is look out of our windows to see wonderful views. I wish I could say that was true here at The Gulch, but my home doesn’t have that kind of view. The home I am hoping to build, tentatively named The Redoubt, will have great views of some of the surrounding mountains.)

There was one downside to the weekend, that being I found the batteries on the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout were run down, making it impossible to start the engine. I had to pull one of the batteries out, bring it home and connect it to a battery charger I borrowed from BeezleBub, then take the battery back and install it, start the engine, then change the battery switch to charge to second battery. The cause of this problem comes down to two simple things: we haven’t used the boat much this season and the batteries are getting a bit long in the tooth. If they get me through the next couple of weeks, I’ll see about replacing them next spring.

Oh, I almost forgot. The Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout will be coming out of the water in two more weeks. It isn’t the latest I’ve pulled the boat out of the water by any means, that being November 9th one year, but it’s right around the time my boating season usually ends.

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Iran is seeing increasing unrest, something that has been taking place over the past 5 weeks, with the latest incident taking place at Evin Prison where a large majority of anti-regime protesters are being held.

Is this a sign that the Iranian people have had just about enough of the theocratic regime that has ruled Iran since 1979? The increasing unrest seems like a mirror image of the unrest that took place back in 1979 which helped bring the Ayatollah Khomeini to power, deposing Shah Reza Pahlavi. The fundamentalist rule has gotten increasingly repressive and the people are no longer afraid to voice their displeasure with the regime.

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Any of you who have been reading my blog know my feelings about the ‘woke’, likening their beliefs to untreated cases of mental illness. Mark Judge goes a step farther, relating it to a form of narcissism and referencing the book The Culture Of Narcissism which certainly explains the woke and why they are the way they are.

The nature of the Left in 2022 is rooted more in psychology than political science. Specifically, liberalism is suffering from narcissism.

To understand how, it’s essential to grasp the true meaning of narcissism. In its clinical definition, narcissism is not self-love — it’s the opposite. The narcissist isn’t full of ego. Rather, he has no real sense of self. Where the self would be is emptiness, which results in a mad effort to fill the psyche with meaning. Lacking a stable and confident sense of identity, the narcissist hunts for meaning in therapy, self-help, sex, or radical politics. None of these can give meaning to empty lives.

There’s also this take on the issue, courtesy of Instapundit commenter No Feelings:


What I find ironic is that a large majority of the woke are not from the disadvantaged socio-economic demographics, but from upper middle-class and upper class upbringings. It seems they think they have to make other people’s lives fit what they define as ‘right and proper’ even though that definition goes against human nature. It also allows them to virtue signal their ‘superior’ viewpoints and beliefs. That most people see that virtue signaling as something to be devoutly ignored drives the wokerati to make their ‘inferiors’ care. This led to the so-called “Cancel Culture” which has damaged many lives, many careers, many businesses, and many communities. That Cancel Culture is now being targeted for cancellation is a sign that everyone else has had enough of their twisted nonsense.

It’s time to get these narcissists into treatment and to undo the damage they have done.

==++==

This shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s been paying attention.

It seems CNN is upset that the American people are more concerned with rampant inflation rather than the January 6th investigations. Could it be that the American people have a better sense of what’s important than CNN does? Could it be that the American people know the ‘importance’ of January 6th is nothing but yet another form of TDS?

I’ve seen a lot of hypocritical headlines, infuriating headlines, stupid headlines, and manipulative headlines, but this is probably the most pathetic headline I’ve seen recently. It’s tragic, really. You can practically hear the disappointment and frustration in this headline: “Voters may care more about the cost of French fries than January 6 panel’s compelling evidence.”

Y’all, the people who are in trouble for the events at the Capitol on January 6th should certainly be punished for their crimes. Which are probably mostly trespassing related, if we’re being entirely honest. Does it deserve a year and a half of investigation by a special committee of lawmakers who have far more important things they should be doing for the American people? No. It doesn’t.

The things that the media and their DNC masters think are important are entirely different from what a majority of the American people obviously think are important. That’s not really any different than it was over 20 years ago, but the people are more cognizant of the fact that the media are not their friends.

==++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather has been great, the latest crop of campaign signs are growing like weeds, and where the fall foliage is spectacular.

Dating Apps Are Toxic

A few days ago I penned a piece about how smart phones have been both a blessing and a curse to our society. One of the parts of that post referenced one of the more controversial dealing with dating apps:

The old-fashioned ways of meeting someone have faded away to be replaced by dating apps like Match.com, Tinder, Bumble, FarmersOnly, and a host of others. The problem with so many of them is that they have devolved from dating apps to ‘hook-up’ apps for sexual assignations.

I am not the only one that has noticed this.

My own son has had direct exposure to this with one app he tried a couple of years ago, deleting his profile from the site and the app from his phone after a number of disappointing experiences. This brings me to something I saw from Jordan Peterson.

He delves into the “dating app world” and how it is a toxic environment that should be avoided by those looking for possible romantic partners. He also gets into how it twists people’s perceptions and their psyches and makes it less likely they will form lasting relationships with anyone.

Here’s what Dr. Peterson has to say about the topic:


If what a fraction of what Peterson says is accurate, it certainly explains how relationships between younger men and women have been deteriorating, if they start at all, and one reason why.

Very Interesting...And Disturbing

I saw this in the comments in Thursday’s DayByDay cartoon and thought it was something worth sharing.

Even if you aren’t a Sports Fan, this is Very Interesting!

36 have been accused of spousal abuse
7 have been arrested for fraud
19 have been accused of writing bad checks
117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
3 have done time for assault
71, I repeat 71, cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
14 have been arrested on drug-related Charges
8 have been arrested for shoplifting
21 currently are defendants in lawsuits,
And 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year!

Can you guess which organization this is? Is it the NBA or NFL?
Give up yet?

Scroll down...



Neither.

It’s the 535 members of the United States Congress, the same group of Idiots that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line.

Remember, most of them are up for election this year!!!

(The above has been edited only for formatting.)

This shows that many of our ‘august’ Representatives and Senators in Congress aren’t any better than the people they represent. Some are even worse.

Smart Phones - Both A Blessing And A Curse

Over the long weekend I had the opportunity to do some people-watching. One thing I noticed that was common to almost everyone I saw – a smart phone. This is not something new. I believe I have mentioned such an observation more than once over the past few years.

I, being an old faht, remember the days when cell phones didn’t exist. Phones were connected via wires, there was no texting, and answering machines didn’t really come into general use until the late 1980’s. Today ‘phones’ also text, navigate, take pictures and record video, play games, and even make phone calls. Today there is more ability for humans to communicate than any time in history, whether it’s between people in the same building or on the other side of the world, be it by voice, text, or video. Yet with all of this marvelous technology making communications ubiquitous we seem to be communicating less than we have in the past. It is a paradox.

We ‘talk’ more but say less. We miss nuances that can change the meaning of what’s been said. This last is particularly true of texting, something that both I and one of the WP nieces can attest due to a number of online debates that became contentious because of the missing nuances. When we are face-to-face the contentiousness vanishes.

Something else I’ve noticed?

People become anxious if they are separated from their phones. I have seen people panicking when they find they’ve left their phone someplace (usually either at home or in their car) and it isn’t in their possession. It seems some folks feel like they don’t exist if they don’t have their phones with them at all times.

I have actually asked people if they feel anxious or nervous if they find they’ve left their phones at home or wherever. The people who most often answered ‘no’ were older (like me) while the younger the respondent the more often the answer was ‘yes’.

I have to wonder if it is a manifestation of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) if they have no access to SMS, Twitter, SnapChat, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook and can’t get immediate feedback to the things they post. This brings up another negative of this incredible ability to communicate.

Disconnection from reality.

To so many people their phone is their connection to an alternate reality. To them the most important parts of their lives can only be reached through their phones. But those lives aren’t real. They are electronic chimera, a “Through The Looking Glass” existence. Real life becomes less real, less important. But they can’t or won’t give them up. They are addicted.

That’s scary.

And then there are human relations, specifically of the ‘romantic’ type. The old-fashioned ways of meeting someone have faded away to be replaced by dating apps like Match.com, Tinder, Bumble, FarmersOnly, and a host of others. The problem with so many of them is that they have devolved from dating apps to ‘hook-up’ apps for sexual assignations. It’s all too easy to look through hundreds of profiles for matches, swiping left or right to reject or accept a match. But how many of these matches ever evolve into something beyond a transitory sexual connection?

How may of you have walked into a break room/lunch room/cafeteria full of people only to realize that only a few of the people are actually talking to each other? The rest have their heads bowed over their phones texting people elsewhere...or just across the table from them. The don’t actually talk to each other any more.

How many have attended a family gathering only to see a number of family members more interested in what’s on their phones and not the family surrounding them? I saw that happen one Thanksgiving at The Manse, with a number of the younger members of the WP Clan spending more time texting their friends back home rather than interacting with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents right in front of them. We solved that problem by making those younger family members shut off their phones and give them to their parents who would return them just before they left for home, something a few of them protested vehemently against. But in the end they gave in. From that point on it was the rule that their phones would be turned off and put away when they were attending family gatherings.

Smart phones are wonderful things, but like any technology they are a two-edged sword. They enable worldwide communications and access to information and knowledge to a level unprecedented in human history. But they can also beguile and ensnare the unwary and can disconnect them from the real world and suck them into a world that exists only cyberspace. That isn’t healthy. It isn’t desirable.

We have to find a way to strike a balance. It isn’t going to be easy...but it must be done.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was our annual neighborhood Clean-Up Day here at The Gulch, with us cutting back brush, trimming tree branches, small trees, sumac, and other bits and pieces. It only took a couple of hours to get everything done as many hands made for light (and quick) work. Fortunately there wasn’t quite as much to attend to this year as last year we did quite a bit of cutting and removal of some of the more troublesome bushes and trees.

It also helped that it was cool this morning though we did lose the sun about an hour into our cleanup. Temps only made it into the mid-50’s today and should be in the low 60’s tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to make it out on the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout for a quick jaunt on the lake.

We’re about a week away from the peak of fall foliage and I am hoping one of my last trips out on the lake this season will will be next weekend at peak foliage. It’s not a bad way to close out the boating season.

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Just when I though AOC couldn’t get any stupider I find proof to the contrary. Does anyone else need any more proof of her absolute cluelessness?

(H/T tricknologist)

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With Putin threatening use of nukes if he doesn’t get his way in Ukraine, there’s one question only a few of us are asking, that being “Have the Russians maintained their nuclear weapons any better than the rest of their military equipment?”

If I had to guess, and I do, I’d have to say the answer is ‘no’.

Maintaining nukes is not the same as maintaining tanks, trucks, planes, ships, artillery, guns, and so on. It takes highly trained and capable specialists with equipment that you won’t find at your local maintenance depot to maintain a nuclear warhead in operational condition. Nukes don’t like sitting around in storage for years on end without maintenance. Considering the state of maintenance of the rest of Russia’s military equipment which is easier to maintain than nukes, I’d be surprised if more than 20% of all their nukes might work. Do the Russians know which of their warheads might work?

The same is true of many of the delivery systems. How many warheads and their delivery systems can be considered operational?

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The claim keeps being made that renewables are the cheapest form of energy. However, it seems that manufacturers of renewable energy systems in Europe are struggling to survive the soaring energy prices.

It’s ironic considering Europe has made itself so dependent upon renewables which haven’t been able to meet demand and aren’t likely to do so any time in the future, particularly now that the renewables manufacturers are teetering on the edge. One, like French solar module manufacturer Maxeon Solar Technologies has had to shut down its factory because of rising energy prices as well as increasing costs and taxes on materials. According to a Maxeon spokesman, they could no longer compete in the European market.

How many other manufacturers and suppliers are in the same position?

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Then there’s this:

It seems that Tokyo has seen no warming in 34 years.

34 years.

There’s another Japanese location, the island of Hachijojima has an automated weather station that shows a similar lack of warming, but for 47 years.

I’ll bet that if we looked at pristine weather stations in the US we’d see something similar.

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Yeah, this is going to go over well with already over-burdened California residents.

They have already been told they will be forced to buy EVs they can’t afford and won’t be able to charge. Now they’re being told the overbearing California government is going to start reducing available parking spaces.

How wonderful that moonbats like Newsom are improving the weather by leaving you with no place to park. Maybe this sudden commitment to reducing housing costs will motivate California Democrats to lighten up with the repressive regulations that have driven them into the stratosphere.

What will Californians do? If I had to guess, they’ll park their non-EVs in states other than California.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the leaves are still turning, the leaf peepers are showing up in increasing numbers, and this Monday is a holiday.

No Surprise - Russia's War In Ukraine Isn't Going Well

As more time passes it appears Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has gone sideways. The Russian military was seen a juggernaut, a powerful force to be reckoned with. But time has shown that while it was once a powerful military, it is a shadow of its former self.

In the beginning of Putin’s “Special Military Operation”, many, including some here in the West, figured Ukraine was doomed once Russia invaded. Some have reported the Russians expected to sweep into Kyiv and seize the government in three days. Yet over 7 months later Russia is on the ropes as Ukraine’s counteroffensive has been gaining ground in Russian-held Ukrainian territory as Russian lines have apparently crumbled.

The Russian air force never achieved air superiority, something it should have been able to do. But Ukraine wasn’t the pushover everyone expected. Russia has lost thousands of troops, thousands of tracks – tanks, APCs, and IFVs – countless trucks, and tons of ammunition either destroyed or abandoned. Bridges have been demolished, supply depots destroyed, and rail lines sabotaged. Manpower shortages have hurt Russia’s ability to stave off Ukraine’s counteroffensive, hence Putin’s call-up of reserves.

It doesn’t help Russia that their reserves are not like those we’re familiar with here. Russia doesn’t have an equivalent of the Reserves or National Guard we have in the US. Their reserves are either former conscripts, who weren’t well trained to begin with, or some former professional now in their 40’s and 50’s who mustered out 20 years ago and whose training is out of date and whose physical conditioning is likewise.

Things aren’t going well for Putin’s war against Ukraine, with their latest setback being the heavy damage to the only bridge between Crimea and the Russian mainland. That bridge and the adjacent railroad bridge are closed, with more than one section of the roadway now in the Black Sea.

The past couple of weeks have not been going Putin's way.

Einstein Was Right

Thoughts On A Sunday

We experienced the remnants of Hurricane Ian yesterday: It was cloudy until around noon and then the sun came out.

Somehow we survived it.

Ironically it’s been quite windy all day today with temps in the 50’s, but not due to Ian. We can thank Canada for today’s fall weather.

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One thing that happened Friday was the Official Weekend Pundit Computer went down. It froze and accepted no input. A reboot didn’t help.

Looking at my records I realized I’ve been using that computer – an HP – for 10 years. I have dug deeper into the problem with the help of my dear brother. What’s ironic is that I had planned to restage the computer with a new hard drive loaded with one of the Arch Linux distributions – probably Garuda Linux – a little later this year. It is fortunate I had made backups of all the data on the computer, missing only a few of the more recent files. I don’t think it will be an issue to recover those last few files since the crash of the Official Weekend Pundit Computer was not due to a hard disk failure.

It looks like I will have to come up with a new computer if I cannot correct the hardware error that caused the crash.

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When I first saw this I thought it might have come from the Babylon Bee since there’s no way it could be true.

It turns out that it’s true...and does not bode well for our nation: The Democrats are pushing an American apartheid.

In this case Kamala Harris announced that federal aid for Hurricane Ian will be distributed based on skin color.

The Biden administration will focus on “giving resources based on equity” by directing funds to “communities of color”. pic.twitter.com/uixPpyQWdU

Yeah, that will help generate more racial harmony...and help cement a GOP victory in November.

They just can’t help themselves, can they?

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I can agree with this wholeheartedly.

Only the Western Woke think the world loves them for their virtue. The rest know that the world really loves them for fried chicken, video games and consumer goods. What used to be called whiskey, democracy, sexy.

The only thing virtue signaling does for these mentally ill woke a**holes is make themselves feel better. No one else gives a sh*t and they cannot be made to do so. It’s time to heap as much derision and abuse upon the woke as we can as it may be the only way to make the woke realize that they’re ill.

Everyone is sick to death of the self-righteous woke. It’s as Tom Knighton stated, “Only the woke don’t know they’re over.”

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It looks like Dish Network is going through the periodic pain of negotiating with a content provider asking for a large fee increase, the content provider in this case being Disney. Because they can’t reach an agreement, Dish has been forced to remove all Disney network programming which includes channels like ESPN, Disney Channel, Freeform, and ABC.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this happen to Dish or our local cable TV provider. I’ve also seen it happen to DirectTV. Of course when the satellite or cable operator caves and agrees to pay the higher subscriber fees, the customers see their satellite or cable bills go up and blame their satellite/cable operator. This is a dance that occurs every few years between the content providers and satellite and cable operators. It doesn’t always lead to programming being blacked out, but it happens often enough because the content providers know they’ll get their subscriber fee increases.

I can only recall one time where a small number of service providers refused to bow to a content provider and had no problem dropping programming. If memory serves, the content provider was Viacom who provided channels like MTV, VH1, and Nickelodeon, just to name a few. The service providers were small rural independent cable operators who couldn’t justify the fee hike Viacom was demanding, so they dropped all Viacom programming. What’s ironic is that the cable operators only received a couple of complaints about the dropped programming and their customers actually saw the video portion of the cable bills drop.

Considering how awful a lot of the TV programming is these days, I’m surprised more cable and satellite operators aren’t telling the content providers “We’ll be willing to pay more once you start providing decent content rather than the garbage you’re peddling now.”

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The Climate Change faithful keep making the claim climate change is fueling more and more powerful hurricanes. However, there are peer-reviewed papers that say just the opposite.

With Hurricane Ian (now a tropical storm) exiting the east coast of Florida, there is no shortage of news reports tying this storm to climate change. Even if those claims actually include data to support their case, those data are usually for cherry-picked regions and time periods. If global warming is causing a change in tropical cyclone activity, it should show up in global statistics.

The latest peer-reviewed study (March 2022, here) of the accumulated wind energy in tropical cyclones since 1990 (when we started have sufficient global data) showed a decrease in hurricane activity. There was an increase in Atlantic activity, but this was matched by an even larger decrease in Pacific activity, due to a shift from El Nino to La Nina conditions during that time.

So, yes, there is climate change involved in the uptick in Atlantic activity in recent decades. But it’s natural.

We haven’t been seeing nearly as many hurricanes (and a smaller number of tropical storms), and those we do see aren’t making landfall as often as in the past.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the leaves are changing color, the cooler weather is here, and Halloween is 4 weeks away.

This Is Why

It seems to me that many young women - well, young to me at least – are asking the question “Where have all the good men gone?”

I could delve into the many reasons why this question has become far more common over the past 20 years or so, but that would be a 30,000 word essay, something that I wouldn’t want to write and that you probably wouldn’t want to read.

More young career women are finding themselves without a mate or a family of their own and wondering why. Bishop T.D. Jakes may have one of the answers to that question:

“We are raising up women to be men. And you are not applauded for your femininity. You are applauded in the contemporary society by how tough, rough, nasty, mean, aggressive, hateful, possessive you are as you are climbing the corporate ladder.”

“But we are losing our families.”

“I know you can buy your own car. I know you can buy your own house. But until you create a need that I can pour myself into, I have no place in your life. So stop coming home bragging to me about how much you don’t need me and wonder why I shy away.”

Unfortunately his observations may be all too true. We are certainly seeing the outcome of the mindset Jakes describes and it is only getting worse. But fortunately more young women (and men) are waking up to this truth.

There may still be hope.