Thoughts On A Sunday

It seems the winter weather is catching up here at the lake, with two more storm systems paying a visit this coming week. While the Weather Guys^TM haven’t yet predicted how much snow we can expect from the two storm systems, they have said it will be plowable amounts. I figure I can work from home on those snowy days. It isn’t that I wouldn’t make the trip into our engineering lab since anything less than a foot of snow is a nuisance. But if I don’t have to drive into work that means I don’t have to burn any gasoline since the trusty RAM 1500 won’t be used.

We’ve seen above average temps here at the lake in January, but February saw both some of our coldest and warmest temps of the winter. Our precipitation total is slightly above normal, but mostly due to rain, not snow. It looks like we’ll be making up for the lack of snowfall over the next week or so.

Oh, and sugaring – maple syrup production – has started in earnest. Quite a few producers started tapping trees a week or so ago. I am not aware of anyone who has started their evaporators yet, but they should any day now.

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I keep wondering how long it’s going to take before the clueless among us realize that “equity” has absolutely nothing to do with “equality”? While the words sound similar they do not mean the same thing, something which we must point out again and again as we fight the increasing push for DEI ‘requirements’ in schools, colleges, and businesses.

The clueless do not understand what equity entails - due either to ignorance or indoctrination – that being reducing everyone to the lowest common denominator. Well, everyone except the elite.

History shows that is a particularly abysmal idea as in the end societies that do that die, usually in fire and blood. (The elite will ignore that fact that it is usually their blood will be spilled by the people they reduced to that lowest common denominator, i.e. abject poverty and virtual slavery.)

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Why would a Virginia teachers union and Democrats in Virginia’s legislature oppose teaching children about the victims of Communism?

Although House Bill 1816, the “Standards of Learning; instruction on dangers and victims of communism,” passed the House of Delegates with some Democrat support, it ultimately met its demise in the Democrat-controlled Senate of Virginia, Fox News reports.

The bill was “passed by indefinitely” by the Committee on Education and Health, which means it could be reconsidered at a later date. If it isn’t, the bill essentially will be dead.

--snip--

The bill calls on the governor to “annually issue a proclamation setting the seventh day of November as Victims of Communism Day,” and that the day “be suitably observed” by all public primary and secondary schools.

It also directs the state board of education to update Virginia’s history and social science learning standards to include the “dangers of communism.”

Could it be that they want to hide Communism’s genocidal history, the death toll being somewhere north of 100 million (and counting)? Could it be they want to hide Communism’s/Socialism’s dismal 400+ year record of one economic failure after another? Why would they want to hide any of that...unless they want to make it easier to fool people into embracing Communism and Socialism as a cure-all for the ‘evils’ of Capitalism even though Capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other system?

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Is the real reason Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was hospitalized is because he can no longer take care of himself?

Fetterman was sworn in as Senator on January 3 and kept a low profile until his office reported he had checked himself into George Washington University Hospital, in Washington, D.C. on February 8 after feeling lightheaded. His spokesman released statements that all tests on Fetterman came back negative and he was released after two days.

What the spokesman did not disclose was that Fetterman was diagnosed with depression and was advised to see the Capitol physician, which he did the following Monday. The doctor recommended Fetterman check himself into the hospital for clinical depression.

It turns out Fetterman’s lightheadedness was the result of him not being able to take care of himself: He was not eating or drinking enough fluids to sustain himself.

Fetterman is on his own in D.C. His family did not move to Washington with him, opting to remain in their hometown Braddock. This meant that Fetterman, still recuperating from a debilitating stroke while starting a new high pressure job, had no one to look after him. His staff obviously wasn’t. They knew he was suffering from depression and that between the stroke and depression he was difficult to deal with.

Fetterman shouldn’t have run for office in the first place as he wasn’t physically up to the task. WRBA couldn’t lend a hand because they were so busy keeping Biden functional. They have even less resources available today since Biden requires a lot more ‘maintenance’ now.

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Is the flawed Equal Rights Amendment coming back from the dead?

The Equal Rights Amendment is once again up for debate in the Senate next week, and Democrats and weak Republicans want you to believe that the only “debate” this time around is a procedural one. The original proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to include a clause to guarantee identical legal treatment of both sexes passed in 1972 with a seven-year ratification deadline. Despite extending the deadline to 1982, the ERA never received the requisite approval from 38 of the 50 state legislatures.

Seeking to win some political points by resurrecting the dead amendment, Sen. Ben Cardin, the Maryland Democrat, has proposed a resolution, concurrent with a House resolution passed in 2021, to strike the ratification deadline from the text of the ERA, thus, presumably, reopening the amendment for passage by state legislatures. The Senate will debate the resolution Tuesday, an event that Democrats hope to keep at the bumper sticker level: Who doesn’t value men and women equally?

The amendment, however, does not pose the question of the equal inherent worth of men and women, as Cardin and his colleagues on the right and the left would have you believe. The question, instead, as most political ones, is one of prudence. Is it prudent to treat men and women identically—or, reframing it, to treat women as men? History, and most of the women in it, issue a resounding “no.”

I can think of a number of negative effects the ERA will have, particularly for women. Here are just a few of them I can think of right off the top of my head:

1. Women will have to register for the draft. (It’s not much of an issue now as it was back in 1972 because the draft isn’t active like it was back then...but it could be.)

2. The dynamics of divorce will change, particularly when it comes to child custody. (This is something I can support as in general men get the short end of the stick, being awarded custody under 20% of the time.)

3. Women convicted of crimes will have to receive the same sentences as men for the same crime. Right now women receive lesser sentences for identical crimes.

4.It will mean an end to all sex-segregated spaces – locker rooms, restrooms...and prisons.

5. There will also be repercussions for men: “When you treat women identically to men, it turns out, society merely adapts standards to favor more feminine characteristics, enabling women to succeed but feminizing men in the process. With the ERA in place, it’s worth asking if any part of society would be permitted to exhibit the masculine virtues.” The answer to that is “No”.

The Law of Unintended Consequences will come into play and the downsides are likely to outweigh the upsides, just as Phyllis Schlafly understood back in 1972, which is why she fought so hard against its ratification.

Maybe Congress should take a closer look at the ERA to determine if it will cause more harm than good in its original form.

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And that’s the news from a snowy Lake Winnipesaukee, where February vacation is in progress, the ski resorts are busy, and more snow is on the way.

Social Media Is Hurting Our Kids

The claim has been made for a while that social media is something that children should be banned from using. I will admit that at first I thought that might be going too far, but after seeing its effect on children, and particularly teens, I have to wonder if banning it might not be enough.

The effects of social media on kids has been seriously underestimated since in most cases they do not have the defense mechanisms maturity brings. (OK, defense mechanisms that maturity might bring as there plenty of adults out there who have major problems dealing with social media.)

Social media present people with multitudes of false impressions about how wonderful other people’s lives are as well as being used to torment and bully others, particularly teens. There have been times when social media has driven people to suicide, usually by way of cyberbullying. This is particularly true of teens.

Clearly, kids are in terrible pain. In trying to understand why, many conservatives have embraced ideas about the damaging effects of social media championed by Haidt and Twenge. The Republican senator Josh Hawley cited Twenge’s work in calling for a ban on social media use by kids under 16. “Depression and social media use go hand in hand,” he wrote in The Washington Post.

--snip--

Social media has not connected or united the world. It’s tearing people apart. And young people are suffering the most. Researcher Jean Twenge, who has spent her career chronicling social media’s effects on kids, has observed that the longer children use social media, the more likely they are to harm themselves. This finding held true for both boys and girls — but especially girls. Depression and social media use go hand in hand.

As I have written elsewhere, social media tends to twist people’s perceptions of reality because social media is really cyberspace, and cyberspace isn’t reality. However, people treat it as if it is. Too often they don’t understand that most people try to paint a picture of their lives that is better than reality. People looking at those “My life is great” posts start to feel their own lives don’t measure up. This is particularly true of teens because too often they have little life experience to use as a comparison. It makes them vulnerable...but it’s something we can do something about by distancing our kids from social media. The question is, will we be brave enough to actually do so? We don’t need legislation to do so. We just need to be parents and tell our children “no” when they insist they absolutely must have a smart phone.

Sometimes New Isn't Better

When I saw this post in Instapundit my first thought was “Let me guess: The decision to do this was made by either a bean counter to save a few bucks or some mid-level suit without any understanding of ‘How Things Work’.” What is it I’m talking about?

User interfaces, in this case the user interfaces inside of cars and trucks. (The linked post slams the user interface of the Chevy Colorado.) More specifically, when it comes to controlling various functions like the radio station tuning/volume, interior lights, exterior lights, the heat/AC/temp/fan speed/vent selection, and a whole host of other functions usually handled by knobs, switches/buttons, and sliders.

The move away from the traditional controls and towards using a touchscreen on the vehicle’s infotainment center has some serious downsides, the biggest being the driver is required to take their eyes off the road in order to use those controls.

As Glenn writes, “Touchscreens are cheaper than buttons and knobs, which is why they’re pushing them. But they’re inferior.”

There’s one comment to the post that lays it out succinctly:

The biggest problem with the interface is that everything uses the same control. By that, I mean that unlike 'traditional' controls in automobiles (even if they all go through some kind of on-board computer) is that there's no muscle memory involved with controlling various systems.

With traditional controls - buttons, switches, and sliders - one quickly learns which button, switch, or slider does what. That in turn leads to a driver not needing to look at the controls in order to change anything from the the fan speed, temperature (heat/AC), the vent outputs (defrost, floor, side/center vents), headlights, internal lights, radio station/volume, and so on. All require different actions and the body quickly remembers how do these various functions without thinking about it. The driver doesn't have to look away from the road in order to do any of these things.

The touch screen interface destroys that because the same action will have different functions depending upon which screen is active. The driver has to look at the screen in order to perform routine functions. That means taking their eyes off the road. That is what is called "A Bad Thing" in the engineering biz.

While some may try to use the "Then why don't you use voice command?" argument, I have found that can be as distracting as having to look at the screen, particularly if you have to perform some function you do only now and then as compared to every day.

User interfaces are supposed to be designed to make things easier for the user, not the manufacturer or engineering staff.

It isn’t just in automobiles that I’ve seen user interfaces that were awful and not very easy to use.

Does anyone remember the debacle that was Windows 8?

The programmers decided that a user interface that looked just like the ones seen on smart phones and tablets was a great idea...and it might have been if laptops and desktops had touchscreen monitors. But back then only a few monitors had that capability. People were still using a mouse or touchpad to navigate and the tablet style user interface was a painful experience with those devices. This drove Microsoft to come out with Windows 8.1 which returned to a version of the Windows 7 interface. (By then the damage was done and most people stayed with Windows 7 rather than switch to Windows 8.)

I have seen other poorly designed user interfaces for things like test equipment which made it more difficult for service personnel to use the equipment for its intended purposes. The engineers who designed it may have had no problems navigating the interface, but the average users hated it.

With that it mind, GM needs to go back to the drawing board for the Chevy Colorado’s user interface and return to using actual knobs, switches, and buttons...before it gets someone killed.

Thoughts On A Sunday

I was out making a quick trip to our local Walmart to pick up a couple of things I needed to help my friend I mentioned in yesterday’s post when I ran across Skip of GraniteGrok fame. He was doing some grocery shopping with his grandson when he spotted me and wondered what I was doing there on a Saturday afternoon. (As I have mentioned more than once in TOAS, I tend to do my Walmart shopping Sunday mornings prior to church. So me being there on a day other the Sunday was unusual.)

As I was driving to and from my usual Sunday Walmart shopping run, I saw that much of the ice that had formed on the lake during the sub-zero temperatures a couple of weekend ago was gone. There were still sections here and there that had a thin skin of ice, but there were large swaths of open water. This is going to be one of those few winters where the lake never freezes over entirely. I can think of three occasions over the past 20+ years when Lake Winnipesaukee did not freeze over entirely, so it is not an unprecedented event. Of course the Climate Change Faithful will point to it as yet more proof the Earth’s climate is warming. If the failure of the lake to freeze over had occurred only over the period of the past 20-some years, I might agree. But history shows numerous winters where the lake didn’t freeze over entirely over the past 150 years or so.

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Skip at GraniteGrok (mentioned above) has posted about the logic we use up here in New England to decide whether or not it’s time to turn on the heat in our homes. Considering the cost of heating oil, propane, and natural gas, the decision can seriously affect our bank balances, so it’s something we take seriously. If the house is heated with wood, the decision is more about when it’s time to put more wood in the stove.

As I think I’ve written before, back when I was working for Digital Equipment Corp (“DEC”), I was transferred to Honolulu for a 3 month stint. I remember a couple of days after arriving that the morning was around 65 degrees F when I got up for work. Coming from a few weeks of 10-28 degrees, this was SPRING TIME! Just a polo shirt and khaki pants.

The locals were walking about in puffy down jackets. Quite the contrast.

The above also ties in with my post from yesterday.

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Richard Fernandez reminds us (and the Progressives and their ‘followers’) what Communism is all about and how it’s been a dismal failure everywhere it’s been tried.

It’s really amazing how Communism, even after killing hundreds of millions of people on the past 100 years and ruining every country it ever ruled – without exception – can routinely take the moral high ground and unfailingly strike the pose of the movement of tomorrow.

That some of our young people think communism, or it’s slightly less destructive sibling – socialism – will solve ‘problems’ that aren’t really problems shows they have never cracked open a history book and have absolutely no understanding of human nature. If they had, they would be running away from those related genocidal ideologies as fast as they could.

Communism and socialism go after the ignorant young because they have no basis to make any judgments about whether or not what they’re being told is BS or not, makes any sense or not, will work or not. They’re gullible, inexperienced, and have little knowledge of the real world. That makes them the perfect target for indoctrination, exploitation, and use as cannon fodder.

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It turns out the ignorant young aren’t the only ones supporting Progressive ideology. The willfully ignorant white liberals aren’t much different than the indoctrinated youth, particularly since they don’t have to deal with the fallout of destructive Progressive legislation, regulations, and programs.

My good friend Harrison Finberg — OK, OK, I’ve never actually met him, but we can be good friends on Twitter these days — noted this tweet from Philly First Ward, the Democratic Executive Committee in Philadelphia’s First Ward. We have previously noted the mayoral candidacy of Helen Gym Flaherty,[1] one of the furthest left of the ever-growing list of hopefuls, whom The Philadelphia Inquirer described as a “longtime activist who is typically aligned with the Democratic Party’s left wing”. Mrs Flaherty’s campaign website is full of the usual ‘progressive’ bromides, but, at least as of this writing, there’s no actual issues page, telling the city’s voters — of which I am not one — what she would actually do, other than those bromides, in office if elected.

While she says that she will fight “gun violence,” what she doesn’t want to do is fight the criminals who use guns. I guess that’s not much of a surprise, since ‘progressives’ seem to think that guns simply levitate and shoot people all by themselves.

As long as none of the laws and policies put forward negatively affect them they don’t care what their Progressive politicians do to others that are not “them”.

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First, it’s Elizabeth Warren. Then it’s Rachel Dolezal. Now it’s Raquel Evita Saraswati.

What do they all have in common?

They are all liberal white women who claimed ethnicity they don’t have.

Elizabeth ‘Fauxcahontas’ Warren claimed Native American heritage. She doesn’t have a single drop of blood that allows here to make that claim.

Rachel Dolezal claimed to be of African American heritage. But like Warren, she has no such genetic heritage.

The latest is Raquel Evita Saraswati who claimed to be a “queer, Muslim, multiethnic woman.” However she, like Warren and Dolezal, is not what she said she is.

But now it has come to light that contrary to her claims, she is infected with the Left’s original sin: Raquel Evita Saraswati was born Rachel Elizabeth Seidel, and is as white as the native population of Switzerland.

And so it continues.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the ice is receding, the skiers are still coming to hit the slopes on this holiday weekend, and where I do not have the holiday off.

Dependence

I was recently reminded of just how dependent we’ve become on the Internet when friend called me in a panic, asking if I could help her configure her new cable modem and wireless network.

Apparently her old wireless router decided to end itself and died. She ended up deciding to both update her Internet service speed and replace her now defunct wireless network. Herein lies the problem.

Her ‘tech’ guy couldn’t seem to get the new setup up and running before the weekend.

I headed over there last night and attempted to get her network up and running.

I failed.

It wasn’t until my second trip there today I was able to figure out that her new cable modem was the problem. After being activated by the cable company I found out that even though it would be recognized by the cable system and link in, there wasn’t any Internet access. It was necessary to perform the necessary rituals to gain access to the Internet. But the modem would lose connection to the Internet when the power was cycled, a necessary step in setting up the wireless router. That necessitated performing the rituals...again.

In the end I could not get her network up and running which upset my friend to no end. Without access to the Internet there were many things she was going to be unable to do, and the inability to do those things had her upset.

It showed me just how dependent she was on the ‘Net, how much she could no longer do without it. How much so many of us could no longer do without it.

I know I would have to change how I pay most of my bills as with only a couple of exceptions I pay all my bills online. A couple require me to pay either with cash or check since the establishments in question do not have online payment capabilities. I also do quite a bit of shopping online as do most of us.

In my friend’s case, most of her TV viewing is via streaming on the ‘Net, so she’s also been TV-less for some time, too. That’s the case with a lot of us as well.

At least my friend did manage to get a new cable modem and it appears to be working. That means I’ll be back over to her home tomorrow to set up her wireless network.

So True

I can attest to the veracity of this, having seen proof first hand.

Maybe Time To Ban Assault Box Trucks?

After seeing reports of this incident in Brooklyn – a man in a U-haul truck running down pedestrians – one has to wonder if there will now be calls for U-Haul Control measures in the Big Apple.

It appears the driver of the U-Haul was someone who had rented the truck down in Florida, meaning the deadly “assault box truck” was brought in from out of state. His violent rampage injured 8 people and killed 1, bringing into question whether “Assault Box Truck Free Zones” will be declared across the Metro New York area.

Thoughts On A Sunday

Seeing the difference in temperature between last Saturday and yesterday shows an almost 70ºF swing from the low temp last week and the high temp this week. While a bit of weird winter weather-wise, I am not complaining that the temps this past week have been above normal. That’s meant the furnace here in The Gulch hasn’t been running all that much, at least during the day.

The sub-zero temperatures helped more ice form on the Big Lake, though there is still plenty of open water in a section of the lake called The Broads. While Ice In was declared last week, it being defined as all five ports of call for the MS Mount Washington being iced over. That it was declared so late is unusual, but I have seen late Ice In’s before in the 40+ years I have resided in New Hampshire.

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When I heard the governor of my state is considering a run for president in 2024, my first thought was “Oh no!”

My second thought was “Oh HELL no!!”

Mind you, I have no dislike for Chris Sununu. He’s been a decent governor, but there are a lot of things he should have been addressing in New Hampshire that he’s been wishy-washy about, particularly things like CRT/DEI ‘indoctrination’, or refusing to tell the “Abortion No Matter What” pro-choice extremists to step off (though he did sign legislation banning on-demand third trimester abortions despite being pro-choice himself).

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To add to the embarrassment for my home state of New Hampshire, we now have one of our school districts – Milford - deciding that urinals in the boys’ lavatories in the middle and high school be blocked off and made unusable by anyone, all in the name of “compromise” when it comes to bathrooms and gender identity. I kid you not.

Dozens of students walked out of their New Hampshire school after the district banned urinals in a compromise to a proposal that would have blocked children from using facilities based on their gender identity.

The school board decided a few days before the Friday walkout to prohibit students at Milford Middle School and Milford High School from using urinals or shared spaces in locker rooms.

The ban in a town of about 15,000 people roughly 35 miles (56 kilometers) from Concord, New Hampshire’s capital, was the culmination of a long debate about district rules about bathroom use and gender identity.

People need to be fired. The school board needs to be voted out because they have caved to the woke busybodies who are doing this not to actually help anyone, but to make themselves feel better about themselves for having done something, even if it’s the wrong something.

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Yeah, I can agree with this wholeheartedly:

I think what I respect most about Pres. Joe Biden is how every day, in every way, he shows how empty and hypocritical all the Trump hating was.

Also, big shout out for inflation-fueling porkfests, ruinous energy policy and foreign policy humiliations.

‘Nuff said.

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It looks like the actual science is in and it’s telling us that the claims about masks preventing the spread of Covid is just a bunch of hooey.

The landmark Cochrane study shows that the mask skeptics were right.

I believe in the scientific method: make an observation. Ask a question. Form a hypothesis. Test the hypothesis. Listen to the answer. Insisting on the answer before pursuing this methodological approach is not science, it is propaganda.

And “masks work” was never more than propaganda — rooted in mechanical plausibility, not actual science — furthered by public health officials, left-leaning government leaders, the press and the party faithful starting in 2020 and continuing to the present day.

--snip--

Those who claim to be on the side of “the Science” will continue to push unscientific policies in order to prove that they were right all along. This is the sunk cost fallacy writ large. Don’t admit mistakes. Ignore the actual science in favor of “the Science.” And continue to punish those who challenge. As well as those most vulnerable who simply aren’t in a position to challenge at all.

“Science” has apparently been rebranded by the left. It is now a slogan — a tagline — shouted at heretics to signify one’s moral superiority and loyalty to the party. What we have now is “science” that ignores the scientific method, which means “the science” is a cult. And a dangerous one at that.

It’s Lysenkoism brought forward to the 21st century by the Progressives in order to back up their power plays.

The aforementioned Cochrane study is here, and says this:

One of the largest and most comprehensive studies on the effectiveness of masks found they do almost nothing to reduce the spread of respiratory viruses.

The study reviewed 78 randomized control trials—experiments that have long been considered “the gold standard” for medicine—which assessed the effectiveness of face masks against flu, COVID-19, and similar illnesses. It found that wearing masks “probably makes little or no difference” for the general public, no matter what kind of mask is used. Even N95 masks, considered the most effective at filtering airborne particles, showed no clear benefit for health care workers.

The study was published on January 30 by the Cochrane Library, a world-renowned medical database that is famous for its high-quality evidence reviews. It comes as a battering ram to the recommendations of the U.S. public health establishment, which urged children as young as two to wear masks throughout the pandemic.

“This amounts to the scientific nail in the coffin for mask mandates,” said Kristen Walsh, a clinical professor of pediatrics in Morristown, New Jersey. “I just can’t wrap my mind around the fact that some schools are still actively forcing children to wear masks, much less children who need to see faces to learn.”

This will, of course, be devoutly ignored and the mask mandates will continue despite the evidence to the contrary.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it feels more like spring, the snow is melting, and the furnace isn’t running nearly as much as it might.

The Law Of Unintended Consequences Reigns Supreme

I think I can safely say pretty much everyone has heard of the Law of Unintended Consequences. It’s also safe to assume that that a good portion of those folks have experienced the effects of that law.

Throughout history we have seen actions taken, either be individuals, corporations/businesses, and governments that have generated unanticipated, and quite often, undesired results. Depending upon who took those actions, where, and the magnitude of those actions, the unintended consequences can range from trivial to profound.

Sometimes unintended consequences are the result of willful ignorance as there are plenty of examples of others pointing out flaws in plans and warning about likely side effects of the planned actions, yet those warnings are poo-pooed, dismissed out of hand, or ignored as if they never existed.

A recent example of this?

The #FightFor15 movement.

One of the consequences that many warned the proponents of a $15 minimum wage about was the loss of jobs, particularly jobs that could be better and more cheaply handled by machines. States and cities which implemented a $15 minimum wage saw job losses, particularly at some of the chain fast food restaurants. Workers taking orders at the front counter were replaced by ordering kiosks, allowing walk-in customers to place orders without the need for a worker to do so.

As I have mentioned in other posts here and there, our local McDonald’s has done that during a recent remodel. If memory serves, Wendy’s had announced they would be installing ordering kiosks in their franchises. We have a Wendy’s in our town, but I can’t say whether or not it has has such kiosks installed. (I haven’t been in a Wendy’s since the start of the Covid Pandemonium.)

Another reason for machines replacing human workers?

Businesses can’t seem to hire the people they need, even at $15 or $25 an hour.

Where are all of the workers who demanded $15 per hour, who now have access to much higher wages for entry-level, mindless jobs? They’re sitting at home playing video games, smoking the devil’s lettuce, and living off the handout-heavy U.S. government under President Joe Biden. That’s where they are.

--snip--

The answer? Automate. Just look at your local McDonald’s owners or any other fast-food chain businesses. They’re no longer sitting around and begging for slackers to show up and click buttons on a screen.

Robots are now the logical and increasingly affordable solution to the ongoing labor shortage problem.

Sure, it’s more expensive up front than hiring a 16-year-old kid, but robots never take off work, never come in late, and never whine about how hard the job is. And they never need a raise, benefits, unemployment insurance, or any of the other headaches that come along with traditional workers.

Oh, and robots aren’t interested in forming unions, which also happens to be quite attractive to both small and large companies attempting to stay alive in Biden’s inflation-ridden, supply-chain-disaster of an economy.

The #FightFor15 movement really shot itself in the foot years ago when defiant business owners who were merely trying to keep their businesses afloat turned to automation as waves of minimum wage strikes unfolded across the country.

It isn’t like none of this could be foreseen. Businesses in Europe, particularly fast-food restaurants like McDonald’s, have been using ordering kiosks for a number of years because of labor costs and more particularly some of the labor laws that made hiring human workers less attractive.

Call it another example of how the Law of Unintended Consequences reigns supreme over all of the ignorant economic nonsense put forth by the Give-Us-More-Money-Or-Else advocates.

I Gotta Get Some Of This Too

I thought this post would be enough to give the anti-gunners the vapors.

I figure this one will give them nightmares:

Thoughts On A Sunday

The sub-zero temperatures have departed, making today’s temps in the 20’s and 30’s feel absolutely balmy. My neighbors had issues with their heating system during this bout of arctic temps which made for a couple of interesting days of trying to keep their pipes from freezing.

For the most part it was business as usual for most folks. Some ski areas closed their lifts because of the high wind chills (-40ºF to -50ºF). Firefighters had to battle frozen hydrants, frostbite, and hypothermia.

I could hear the furnace here at The Gulch running almost continuously once the outside temps fell below -15ºF. I saw dollar signs in the form of water vapor exiting from the furnace flues here and at my neighbor’s homes.

At least the trusty RAM 1500 had no issues dealing with the cold. However, some friends found their vehicle batteries weren’t up to the task of starting the engine under such cold conditions. (This happens every time we experience sub-zero temps.)

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This isn’t something that surprises me in the least.

Wind power isn’t what was promised...but not necessarily for the reasons you think.

While wind power sounds like a great idea, the reality is that it hasn’t come close to meeting the promises made. Those who went all in one wind are finding wind cannot meet their needs, particularly when they need the power they generate the most. There were a lot of things ignored by proponents, or worse, were not informed or mis-informed about.

However, there’s a different problem affecting wind power: Wind turbine manufacturers are having problems while others have shut down.

Now the entire industry is hitting headwinds they hadn’t counted on and it could spell disaster.

The European wind industry has warned of continued difficulties in 2023 as high materials costs and slow approvals for new wind power projects drag back profitability, despite rising demand for renewable energy.

…The effects of the Russian war on Ukraine drove up prices for energy and important raw materials such as steel last year, creating a perfect storm for the European wind sector.

Despite escalating demand from governments and customers for renewable energy as a result of the energy crisis, the slow EU and UK approval processes have created a backlog of projects and delayed new turbine orders.

And then there are quality issues to deal with, with two companies, Vestas and Siemens, having a problem with quality which has eaten into earnings, turning profits into losses.

Don’t you find it odd that they are having demonstrably terrible problems with faulty products and hardly a peep about any of it in the mainstream cheering for wind? There seems to be a concerted effort to hide the reliability of these products from the get-go in the hype and renewable raptures.

You (say, Siemens, for example) get a reputation for overpriced junk – no matter how subsidized it is, your order sheets will start reflecting your reputation.

It isn’t just overseas manufacturers having problems.

Here in the U.S., General Electric was humming along in its financials except…*sad trombone*…when it got to their turbine business. Ooo, they took a hit, too. Really fugly numbers.

…The company’s renewable energy business has been facing challenges due to inflation and supply chain pressures. The unit reported a loss of $2.2 billion in 2022. GE is reducing global headcount at the onshore wind unit by about 20% as part of a plan to restructure and resize the business.

How is GE and Vestas and Siemens planning to deal with their problems?

Subsidies funded by taxpayers.

Any industry that is supposedly so beneficial and popular with ‘everyone’ shouldn’t require taxpayer money to survive. That should be telling us something right there.

==+++==

Biden finally ordered the Pentagon to shoot down the Chinese spy balloon. I’d say he waited too long.

That it carried such a huge instrumentation package - the size of three buses - makes me think it had nothing to do with studying weather. The package was large enough to carry high-resolution multi-spectral imaging systems, ELINT systems, and more.

If the Chinese had talked about these ‘research’ balloons well in advance, talked about the mission and the instrumentation being used for weather research, I would have been more inclined to believe them. But the fact that they hadn’t and was dismissive of questions about them after they were spotted makes the paranoid side of me doubt their explanation.

Having been involved in the defense industry for over 20 years, understanding reconnaissance systems and their requirements, the Chinese using high altitude balloons (60,000+ feet) for intelligence gathering makes sense. Satellites are expensive to build and launch, even to low earth orbit (62 miles minimum altitude). Balloons are cheap and the instrumentation packages can be much larger, heavier and carry more equipment than satellites. The also move a lot slower than satellites (1-200mph versus 17,500 mph) which can allow for much higher resolution imaging.

Weather research balloon versus ‘spy’ balloon? Of the two, I believe the one shot down was the latter.

==+++==

Karens can ruin just about anything. It’s even worse when NPR gets involved and backs the busybody Karens.

What are this batch of ‘woke’ Karens complaining about?

The Kansas City Chiefs.

Kansas City has been on an adrenaline high since the Chiefs won the AFC Championship last Sunday. Go anywhere in the metro and you’ll see Chiefs gear everywhere. Next stop: the Super Bowl in Arizona.

But of course there are the party poopers, the Debbie Downers, the Karens, who want to take the city’s pride down a notch or two. You can find them at KCUR, the National Public Radio affiliate in KC.

--snip--

On Friday morning, as the victory high in KC was beginning to taper off, the KCUR website published a story with this title:

“As Kansas City Chiefs head to the Super Bowl, their violent traditions alienate even some local fans”

It goes downhill from there...like it always does with these ignorant, intolerant, narcissistic wokerati.

==+++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee where the lake still isn’t frozen over, the temps have returned to somewhat normal levels, and winter rolls on.

From The Comments (From Someone Else's Blog)

A little over a week ago I addressed California’s money grab by way of a wealth tax that could end up being the death knell for the once Golden State.

However, I didn’t give enough thought to the constitutional implications of such a tax, something that may prevent California (or heaven forbid, Congress) from being able to impose upon taxpayers. But someone else did.

From the comments to this GraniteGrok post comes this analysis of those constitutional implications:

Isn't this the same thing the Bottomless Pit of Sacramento wants to do with its subjects...er...citizens? California wants to tax "the rich" a portion of all of their assets, including unrealized gains. Worse, they want to continue to do so for ten years after "the rich" depart from the Pyrite State. After all, 'The State' has better use for their assets than those who own them, earned them, made them, right?

Too bad there will be constitutional restrictions - primarily under the Fifth Amendment's "Not be deprived of...property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." They aren't taxing income or sales. They want to confiscate private property for public use, but not compensate the owners for the property taken by the state.

This is something I think SCOTUS will find compelling should California do something this stupid. Then again, California has been doing increasingly stupid things that is driving out more people, businesses, and the money that goes with them.

Wicked Cold

It’s going to be a might chilly up this way. As I write this the temperature is -9ºF with a wind chill of -33ºF. The temperature will hit -17ºF by morning with the wind chill hitting close to -50ºF.

The summit of Mount Washington has already seen a record breaking wind chill of -106ºF -109ºF. (Update: Overnight the 'old' record which lasted all of a few hours was broken with an even bigger windchill record.)

I got home around 4:30pm after dealing with some town business and parked the trusty RAM 1500. I have no plans to use it again until late tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. I have no plans of stepping outside The Gulch until then, and even then only if it’s absolutely necessary.

At least the trusty RAM 1500 hasn’t balked at starting during these cold temps...so far.

Unfortunately one of my neighbors has been having problems with their furnace, something that has been difficult to handle because they live in another state as their place is their vacation home. The last thing they need is for their furnace to fail during the deep freeze we’re experiencing.

It’s wicked cold up here...

Thoughts On A Sunday

We had yet another winter storm this past week, accompanied by yet another power outage.

That’s six outages since the beginning of December. The shortest outage lasted an hour-and-a-half. The longest lasted 22 hours.

This is the most winter power outages I’ve seen, ever, and winter has another couple of months to run. The snowiest part of the winter runs between mid-February and mid-March.

It has been suggested these outages are what I am calling “cascade failures”. One storm brings down a number of tree limbs and damages others. During the next storm the damaged limbs come down and other limbs are damaged. The cycle then repeats. That the storms that brought about outages had either heavy wet snow, high winds, or both wasn’t surprising. The only storm we experienced that had very few outages across the state was the one that dropped over 14 inches of snow here at The Gulch, the snow being drier and ‘fluffier’, and the winds were very light.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I haven’t had to use the Official Weekend Pundit Generator during the previous two winters, it being fired up once a month or so to ensure it was in working order. And then in a period of seven weeks I’ve had to use six times.

Some neighbors have complained that with the recent doubling of their electricity bills that power should be more reliable, but I had to remind them that it wasn’t the utilities fault for the higher bills, but that’s a story for another time.

==+++==

The story of ‘woke’ crybullies continues, in this case a female student journalist is demanding an apology from he university she attends - Shippensburg University – because they dared showing two males in a photo highlighting Engineering studies at the university.

It’s bad enough they showed one male, but two?

Allyson Ritchey, the assistant PR director for the student paper The Slate, said that early last month the official Shippensburg U. Instagram page posted a pic of “two male-presenting students” (pictured), but less than a day later changed the original caption to “Hands-on learning at the Milton and Doreen Engineering Lab!”

Despite the change, there was “no comment or apology publicly made,” Ritchey wrote, adding that “if an offensive post is made […] an apology should be made. Simply changing the caption is like putting a bandage on the situation.”

She added: “For a university that, according to its own website, ‘celebrates diversity’ to make such a claim about engineers is insensitive and discrediting to the students at Shippensburg who do not fall into the stereotype. This brings forth the societal notion that engineering is unfriendly to women and other non-male identifying individuals.”

It sounds more like she is projecting her hostility upon anyone with ‘XY’ chromosomes. For someone who is so concerned with diversity she seems more than willing to divide people based upon their particular group.

It seems diversity is some kind of “Holy Grail” despite not really being important. This is particularly true when such diversity is shoved down one’s throat. (At that point is it really diversity or is it, as has become more prevalent, nothing more than virtue signaling as a means of feeding a narcissist’s ego?)

==+++==

Mike Taibbi continues exposing more of the misdeeds of Twitter, particularly in regards to misinformation which spread false allegations about Trump’s supposed misdeeds.

Matt Taibbi released the most recent Twitter Files on Friday. The focus of this batch is the role a dubious source played in helping shape the false narrative of Russian influence on Twitter.

To some Twitter exec’s credit, they were uncomfortable with the dubious claims that pretty much anything a conservative, MAGA supporter, et al. said was considered “Russian misinformation.” Even accounts that had no ties to any known Russian bot or activity were deemed to be spreading Russian propaganda unknowingly and should therefore be silenced.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because it is. This is the same “logic” used to assert that all white people are racists. Even if they don’t think they are, they are racist. Without knowing it on a conscious level. Or something. It’s an intentionally crafted no-win construct that is now being applied to “misinformation” as well as “white supremacy” and “systemic racism.”

Just another bit of data showing Twitter’s corruption.

==+++==

This is something that has been irritating me for a long time, and has now reached the point that it pisses me off. What is ‘this’?

Demanding tolerance of the abnormal.

What’s worse is this demand is being made by people who are intolerant of anyone who disagrees with them. It’s hypocrisy.

One of the left's primary goals has always been to convince us that we are not normal if we do not affirm its ideology, a well established tactic among totalitarians. People who believe in normal things are under attack in America. We are assaulted on a near continuous basis by leftists who practice and promote behavior that is clearly abnormal. Frighteningly, some of this behavior is not merely abnormal, it's evil.

The online Merriam-Webster Dictionary provides many definitions of normal. Among them are: “conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern, characterized by that which is considered usual, typical, or routine; according with, constituting, or not deviating from a norm, rule, procedure, or principle; occurring naturally.

If we contrast these accepted definitions of normal with many policies and practices of the left, a trend emerges. Much of what today’s left promotes does not comport with what is recognized as normal. Instructing children how to think and behave like racists, as happens in many government schools through variants of Critical Race Theory, is not normal. It's harmful.

They have relabeled pedophiles as “Minor attracted persons”. But they are pedophiles, predators hurting and damaging children. Yet we’re supposed to tolerate them?

Some seem to support grooming children for activities that should never be imposed upon children. Yet we’re supposed to tolerate this?

Abortion right up to the time of birth...or even after? An abomination...yet we’re supposed to tolerate this?

Claiming obesity is healthy and promoting it as such while castigating those disagreeing with them as “Fatphobic”. Working out is “Fatphobic”. Eating healthy is “Fatphobic”. Yet we’re supposed to tolerate this dangerous falsehood?

Examples of this nonsense abound.

Ordinary people are often intimidated into going along with abnormal ideologies because it’s easier than being screeched at by somebody who demands we affirm their abnormal behavior. This intimidation prompts many people to tip-toe around the fact that much of what we see in America today just isn’t normal and sometimes, we keep quiet even though we know it’s not normal. This is how normal becomes redefined.

--snip--

None of this is to suggest we should discriminate against people with such beliefs as they try to do to us. Many of these people have been deceived, coerced or extorted into affirming abnormal behavior and ideas for self preservation or a false sense of power. By the same token, other Americans have every right to withhold their acquiescence of abnormal behaviors without fear. A little more ‘live-and-let-live’ would go a long way. But live-and-let-live is a two-way street.

It’s time we tell the folks pushing this nonsense too far and that “We ain’t gonna play their game no more.” Normalizing the abnormal is just one more step in the decline and fall of any society. Remember the fall of Rome.

==+++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee where winter has finally arrived, the snowmobile trails are open, and where the lake is finally starting to freeze over.

The Wealth Tax (And Greed) That Will Not Die

Almost two and a half years ago I posted about California’s proposed wealth tax. It didn’t get too far, at least back then. Enough people expressed their disdain or outright hostility towards the idea, many of them seeing just how awful an effect such wealth taxes had in other places they’d been imposed.

However, the idea never really died and it looks like California may actually pull it off this time, something that I (and others) firmly believe will finally kill the Progressive ‘utopia’ that is the Pyrite State as wealth (and the wealthy) will flee and investment in any business in California will collapse. To add insult to injury, they are also considering a so-called ‘exit tax’ which will be imposed for 10 years after a wealthy California resident leaves the greedy grasp of the Supreme Soviet in Sacramento.

California’s richest residents — and even those who move out of state — could be required to pay a new wealth tax as early as next year.

A new bill proposed by Democratic Assemblyman Alex Lee would tack on an additional 1.5% tax for Californians who have a worldwide net worth of more than $1 billion, beginning January 2024, according to KCRA-TV, the NBC affiliate in San Francisco.

--snip--

Moving out of state wouldn’t exempt wealthy residents from paying the taxes, either.

Taxpayers who don’t have the cash on hand to pay the wealth tax — because their assets aren’t easily liquidated — would be required to file annually with California’s Franchise Tax Board and eventually fulfill their wealth tax obligation to the state even if they no longer live in California, according to the bill’s language.

Good luck to them in trying to collect those ‘exit’ taxes. You know a lot of California ex-pats just won’t pay them. A lot of the states to which they fled won’t act as California’s collection agents either.

It would not surprise me if the Supreme Court rules that California has no such power to impose or collect such taxes as the targets of those collections are no longer residents and have no assets or investments in the Pyrite State.

I have to wonder if the Progressive morons in Sacramento will consider armed raids into neighboring states to remove ‘excess’ cash from their banks at some point. I wouldn’t put it past them.

As If We Haven't All Done This At One Time Or Another

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been snowing very lightly since dawn, barely accumulating between then and noon.

I did my usual Sunday morning Walmart shopping run – most often around 8 A.M. - and I saw a lot of the ‘Pickup’ shoppers making the rounds with their mobile racks and shopping lists. A lot more than usual. Then I remembered the oncoming snowstorm and it suddenly made sense.

Snowstorm panic shopping.

In this case it was people who sent their shopping lists in to Walmart and letting their shoppers do all the running around.

What gets me is that it isn’t like we don’t have snowstorms up here. It is New England after all. It isn’t like this is a monster storm. At best (or worst, depending upon your point of view), we’ll see 10 inches before it winds down late Monday. It’s an amount barely worth mentioning, at least up here. But that didn’t mean some folks around here – think ‘folks from away’ – might believe they’ll be house bound for days and days, so are doing their panic shopping by proxy.

I bought a few cans of cat food, Dr. Pepper, Half-and-Half, and a few more of the items I usually buy there every Sunday morning.

The only concession I have made to this coming snowstorm is moving the Official Weekend Pundit Generator from one part of the garage to another to make it easier to deploy if the power goes out...again.

==+++==

Are you better off than you were two years ago?

I know I’m not. I have no doubt you aren’t either.

As one commenter put it:

Am I better off than I was two years ago?

Not even close.

I'm still paying more for electricity, gasoline, propane, food, clothing, construction materials, car/truck parts, and a whole host of other things. Any pay raises I received were canceled out in only a few months because of inflation.

Despite the Democrat Propaganda Machine is cranked up to ‘11’ trying to sell the idea that the worst is over, no one but the ‘faithful’ are buying it.

==+++==

I’ve come across yet another definition of woke that I find works as well as mine, in this case by way of GraniteGrok:

“A state of awareness only achieved by those dumb enough to find injustice in everything except their own behavior.”

Or as I have put it in one form or another, “Delusional narcissists offended on behalf of people they think should be offended, but aren’t offended...which offends them.”

==+++==

I keep hearing about an impending Spring offensive by Russia into Ukraine. Some have claimed Russia will employ 600,000 troops in this offensive.

I have a question about this: Where the heck is Russia going to get those 600,000 troops?

Those 600,000 troops would be a little over half of Russia’s entire military. (This depends upon whose numbers you believe.)

At the end of 2021 the Russian ground forces had about 400,000 men while the navy and air force each had about 150,000. About a third of air force personnel were paratroopers or air mobile infantry. The navy had about 12,000 marines, who guarded naval bases in peacetime. Right now that means the heavy Russian losses since the invasion began, and failure to mobilize many replacements, reduced the army to about 250,000 personnel. The airborne forces and marines also suffered heavy losses but more of them are still in service.

--snip--

Russian armed forces were supposed to have over a million men but that goal has never been met and at the end of 2021 the total was about 750,000. That is now about 400,000, including the air force and navy. Mobilizations of new conscripts and men who had served the one year of conscript service failed to replace all the losses, in part because the mobilized men knew that the war in Ukraine was not going well and most men sent there had little training, equipment or leadership. Most of the junior officers were killed or disabled during the first months of the war and replacements take months to train.

So where are the 600,000 troops for this impending offensive going to come from? Troops Я’ Us?

==+++==

For decades we’ve seen all kinds of things being smuggled across the border from Mexico into the US: drugs, guns, liquor (during Prohibition) and people. We can add something new to that list:

Eggs.

Traffickers are attempting to sneak thousands of Mexican “huevos” across the border per week after skyrocketing prices have made them a hot commodity, costing up to $8 per dozen in certain parts of America.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said they saw an uptick of 108% in egg seizures in the last three months of 2022, according to Border Report and violators end up having to shell out for a fine of up to $10,000.

Between the avian flu that decimated chicken flocks and inflation fueled by the Biden Administration’s economy destroying policies, is it any wonder eggs have become something new to smuggle?

==+++==

That’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where more snow is coming, the lake still hasn’t frozen over yet, and where yet again Monday is returning...

Yet Another Winter Storm Experienced And Another On Its Way

We went through yet another snow storm yesterday, one that started late Thursday afternoon and lasted through Friday. We received about 7 inches here at The Gulch, a not unusual amount of snow. We also received another power outage, the fourth one in about six weeks.

This wasn’t a lengthy outage like the previous one, lasting about an hour and a half. That didn’t mean I didn’t pull out the Official Weekend Pundit Generator and fire it up, though.

That I’ve had to use the generator as many times as I have in such a short time has me wondering just how bad it might get. It seems that every winter storm we’ve experienced so far has led to a power outage, the longest one lasting a little over 22 hours. It isn’t like we’ve had large amounts of heavy snow or an ice storm causing tree limbs to break and knock out power lines. In one case all we had was rain, but with high winds.

It makes me wonder whether the power company hasn’t been doing enough tree trimming or if we’re seeing a cascade effect where one storm damages tree limbs and a following storm causes the damaged limbs to finally come down and take out the power. I suppose it could be both.

We have yet another storm on its way, forecast to start sometime Sunday evening and run through late Monday afternoon/early evening. It will be very similar to this last storm, with a similar amount of snowfall predicted. Therefore, I am predicting we will lose power during this next storm as well.

As such, I will be making slightly different preparations, those being pre-positioning the Official Weekend Pundit Generator and propane tank such that I won’t have to move the WP Mom’s car out of the way in order to get the generator out of the garage. I won’t need to clean off and move the trusty RAM 1500 out of the way so I can get the WP Mom’s car out of the garage so I can move the generator. That means I can get it set up and running in less than 5 minutes rather than the 20 minutes it took last night.

As I wrote above, I’ve had to fire up the Official Weekend Pundit Generator four times since the beginning to December. I’ve had the generator for over three years and the only other times I’ve had to fire it up was to test it – usually once every 6 weeks or so, and then only for 5 or 10 minutes.

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, The Gulch doesn’t use a lot of power which means the Official Weekend Pundit Generator doesn’t use a lot of fuel, a bit less than a half gallon of propane an hour. Therefore, a full 40 lb. propane tank will last almost a full day.

A Note: I am not trying to diminish the winter weather being experienced by the folks in the Midwest. Our weather here is rather mild as compared to what we usually experience during winter. I just find it unusual that such relatively mild winter weather has had such a large effect on our electrical grid.

It's Not A Game Show

Knowing how clueless people have become, some of them being the delusional ‘woke’, the following makes sense. I wish I could say it was funny, but my experiences over the past few years has shown me it is closer to reality. Just how effed up is it going to get before we stop kowtowing to these idiots?

(H/T Knuckledraggin)

Thoughts On A Sunday

Well, we’ve managed to make it through the first two weeks of 2023. Only 50 more to go!

It’s budget time for many of our towns and mine is no different. Both the town and school budgets are been scrutinized by the Selectmen and School Boards of the towns, public hearings are being held, and eventually the townsfolk vote on the various budget items at Town Meeting and School District Meeting. (In some towns like mine they take place at the same time.)

I wish I could say the process is straightforward and without much in the way of drama, but I would be lying if I did. There always seems to be one or more items the townsfolk will find questionable, contentious, or even outrageous. What I find mysterious about this is the passion that will be displayed during debates on a particular warrant article, that article spending a few hundred dollars on something. Debate may go on for quite some time. However, a budget article of a few million dollars will see barely a ripple of debate. That’s backwards, isn’t it?

At least it means those people in town willing to spend the time and effort can affect how much their town spends and on what. That doesn’t mean they always get it right. Who does? But it was still a collective choice about how to spend the tax money collected from those same townsfolk. (Something they must always be reminded about is that the more town and school district spends the higher their property taxes will be, something some of them forget...or choose to ignore.)

==+++==

While this isn’t news as we’ve seen this before, it is news because of where it’s taking place.

A number of county sheriffs in Illinois are saying they will not enforce a new state law that bans “assault” weapons since it violates the Second Amendment of the Constitution.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law that bans something called assault weapons. Knives? Fists? Oh, guns. Those scary and spooky guns (one of which I own and love):

The legislation bans the manufacture or possession of dozens of brands and types of rapid-fire rifles and pistols, .50-caliber guns and some attachments. The law will allow gun owners to keep the guns they have now but will require them to register them with the state.

Illinois gun manufacturers can continue to make assault weapons and sell them to suppliers in other states, but may not sell them to buyers in Illinois under the new proposal.

Thank goodness many sheriff departments in Illinois have common sense. They won’t enforce this unconstitutional law.

County sheriffs in other states have done likewise, with Oregon and Washington being just two of them.

While the anti-gunners are accusing some of these sheriffs of breaking the law, they must remember that their oath of office includes the phrase “support and defend the Constitution of the United States”. They are obligated to follow the Constitution first and the law second. If the law is in contradiction of the Constitution, the Constitution takes precedence, period. These law enforcement officials are remaining faithful to their oaths.

==+++==

One thing that hasn’t met expectations is winter up here in New Hampshire.

Lake Winnipesaukee is ice free for the most part. The coves are frozen over and there is some ice on some of the bays, but not the big part of the lake. This may affect a number of annual events dependent on a frozen Lake Winnipesaukee like an ice fishing derby, a pond hockey tournament, a winter festival that includes an aircraft runway on the ice, as well as a number of other regular activities.

Some will claim it’s climate change, but this isn’t the first time we’ve experienced something like this. I doubt it will be last.

==+++==

Did anyone notice how quickly the White House backpedaled on the gas stove ban, particularly once it was pointed out the reason behind it was compete and utter bullsh*t? It had nothing to do with them allegedly “producing pollutants that are harmful to human health.” It had everything with exerting further control over energy supplies and particularly the supplies for the unenlightened proles who shouldn’t be wasting space better occupied by the elite.

Too bad for the Progressives more than a few people knew the reason for the gas stove ban was a lie and made sure everyone knew it.

==+++==

No one ever said people who rob convenience stores are all that bright. One guy didn’t bother casing the store he was going to rob. If he had he’d have known the customers in the store were armed.

At least he wasn’t so stupid that he got himself killed.

==+++==

Opponents of school choice always make the claim that it creates a disadvantage for rural families since they don’t have much in the way of choices. However, a Heritage Foundation paper says otherwise.

A common observation made by critics of school choice is that it has little to offer families in rural communities where the population isn’t large enough to support multiple schools, and where transportation is already burdensome.

A new Heritage Foundation paper from Jason Bedrick and Matthew Ladner challenges that notion. The 14 percent of Americans who live in rural areas already have more options than commonly assumed, they argue. For starters, seven in ten rural families live within ten miles of a private elementary school. Counterintuitively, they note the share of rural students in private schools is the same as their urban peers, about ten percent.

--snip--

Rural areas in Arizona and elsewhere are seeing the rise of microschools, which the authors describe as “a modern reimagining of the one-room schoolhouse.” The pair also argue that “high-quality virtual schools are available to anyone with a decent Internet connection.” One surprising piece of data (to me, at least) is that broadband access is not markedly different in rural America: 72 percent of country-dwellers have a broadband Internet connection at home, compared 77 and 79 percent of urban and suburban homes, respectively. That said, the paper is somewhat blithe about the checkered performance of online learning, particularly during the pandemic. “Virtual leaning might not be the right fit for every child,” they note. “But for some it opens a world of possibilities they otherwise do not have locally—all without having to leave the rural community that they know and love,” they write. Fair enough.

I know that here in central New Hampshire there are quite a few private schools that cover grades 1 through 12. There are plenty of them all throughout the state. Considering this state is mostly rural that’s a lot of private schools. That blows the “lack of school choice” claim out of the water, at least here. YMMV.

==+++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the ice is missing, time for it is running out, and even though tomorrow is a holiday Monday has returned yet again.

Million Dollar Stupid

As much as I try to maintain an open mind and be mindful of our little town’s character and the expenditure of my fellow townsfolk’s tax money, there are times I lose focus and ‘stupid’ takes over. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does I am fortunate enough to have family and friends to give me a figurative “Gibbs slap” to the back of my head which helps me regain focus. I almost had one of those ‘stupid takes over’ moments until a friend helped me refocus.

The ‘stupid’ dealt with the discussion about replacing the bath house at our town’s beach. The existing building is almost 60 years old, needs major repairs that may be more costly than demolishing the existing bath house and constructing a new one. The projected cost?

One million dollars.

My first thought was “Is that all?” That was my moment of stupid, thinking that it was only a million bucks.

Only. A. Million. Dollars.

A million dollars for a bunch of toilets, sinks, and some storage in a building not much bigger the The Gulch? Oh, yeah, I almost forgot the commercial kitchen for a vendor that will pay our town a pittance for a concession that is open for 3 months of the year.

Then someone, a friend, asked me “What if we build it ourselves?”...and the ‘stupid’ fled in terror.

Doing it ourselves is something our little town has done before, saving the taxpayers money on projects that everyone supported. So why not for this one as well? Just about everyone in our town uses the beach. Almost everyone there uses the bath house at some point.

So far, everyone I’ve talked to about this thought it was a great idea. Some have offered their help and others suggested people and businesses who would be more than willing to help, either with work, materials, or funding. No taxpayer money involved. All volunteer. Just like small town America has worked in the past and still works here and there, now and then. It’s time for us to embrace the “Can Do” attitude that permeated America for generations. We must replace the automatic “Get the town to pay for it” expectation with a “Let’s do this ourselves” attitude.

Oh, and about that commercial kitchen I have two words to offer:

Food trucks.

I Gotta Get Some

These will be perfect for my Mossberg 590M shotgun...for home defense, of course.

Thoughts On A Sunday

We’ve made it through the first week of 2023 and so far nothing has blown up. About the most ‘exciting’ thing that took place, at least on the national level, was the lengthy saga that was the election of Kevin McCarthy as the new Speaker of the House. If that’s the most exciting thing that happens this year I would be fine with that. But the cynic in me says we won’t be that lucky and that the kerfuffle that was the election of the Speaker will be seen as one of the few good events of the year.

And so it goes.

==+++==

How deluded can the woke pushing all the ‘-isms’ become?

How about this deluded?

White Men's Sexual Interest in Big Butts Is Now Racist.

Seriously? Is there nothing that can’t be declared racist...or sexist...or whateverist?

One of the latest things that is now racist?

Hair oil.

An influencer is accused of racism for using a hair oil 'made for black women.'

Beauty guru Danielle Athena's hair-washing tutorial with the hyped Mielle Rosemary Mint Scalp and Hair Strengthening Oil sparked a heated debate on Twitter after a woman, dubbed @aprettyPR on Twitter, called out the influencer for stealing from black women.

What’s next? Will the color of one’s socks or choice of boxers versus briefs now become sexist, racist, or both?

This ridiculous crap has got to stop. These woke narcissists need some help as in ‘mental health’ help.

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Is modern day Lysenkoism killing scientific advances?

I have to say yes, though it isn’t the only reason.

Over the past few months, I have been exploring the ideological capture of our scientific institutions.

I have reviewed the mainstream media’s roll is strangling rigorous scientific debate. I have explored how government agencies block access to important taxpayer-funded databases if they assert a scientist’s research may enter “forbidden” territory.

I, along with many others, have warned that the commandeering of science to push social, environmental, and corporate agendas would have a tsunami of unintended consequences. The scientific journal Nature has noted one of the most significant repercussions of ideological capture: The death of scientific innovation.

Is it a return to the Stalinist days of the Soviet Union when the ‘science’ of Trofim Lysenko which had little to do with actual science and more about conforming to Stalinist political correctness – Do your science our way or suffer from a 9mm ‘cerebral hemorrhage’? Today you are declared a terrorist, a white supremacist, an unperson, or worst, a conservative! Questioning the ‘science’ of the Progressive Powers That Be is likely to get you on a list for visit by the KGB...er...FBI.

Another reason for the decline in innovation in science?

“Disruptive” research significantly changes the way researchers look at a problem. It need not quite be an “aha!” discovery or theory, but it must at least be something close. It is the kind of research or discovery that changes subsequent research, rather than just being a continuation of a research path followed by many.

In fact, there is a high degree of correlation between the increase in the number of researchers and research studies and the decline in disruptive results.

Despite exponential growth in recent decades of research papers and patents, a new University of Minnesota study published in Nature suggests science and technology are becoming less disruptive.

--snip--

Simply put, most research done today is like a drop of rain into a pool. It gets lost in the great mass of water. It may, or may not, advance the science in some small way, but it doesn’t change things in any significant way.

I think that if one looked back a couple of hundred years you’d see disruptive science and technology tends to happen in waves, with some new discovery or series of discoveries spurring rapid advances in technology which then starts to taper off as the effects of the new scientific discovery fades. Then another disruptive discovery comes to light and the next wave crests and a new cycle begins.

This does not negate the effects of political influence on science, particularly the type of influence that quashes scientific development because it isn’t politically correct or isn’t convenient for The Powers That Be.

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OK, now I have a problem.

We keep hearing from some of the less knowledgeable Climate Apocalypse doomsayers telling us how we’ll see desertification taking place everywhere because of the higher temperatures.

Tell that to California.

It appears that California is now too wet, at least according to the New York Times.

As global warming brings more intense rainfall, experts say the state needs to give rivers more room to flood safely.

As California battles a second week of lashing rain and snow that have flooded communities, broken levees and toppled power lines, the state is facing questions about whether its approach to handling crippling storms is suited to 21st-century climate threats.

For decades, federal and state planners built dams and levees in California to store water and keep it at bay. But as climate change increases the risk of stronger and more destructive storms — like the one that was battering Northern California on Wednesday — experts and some policymakers are urging another approach: giving rivers room to overflow.

So which is it? A multi-decadal/multi-century mega-drought turning California into one big desert, or conversion of California into rain forest and swamps from border to border?

Or is it just weather, just like 1861 - 1862?

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Before I go, there’s this last tidbit about the effects of Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline, the report coming from Biden’s own Department of Energy.

The Biden administration published a congressionally mandated report highlighting the positive economic benefits the Keystone XL Pipeline would have had if President Biden didn’t revoke its federal permits.

The report, which the Department of Energy (DOE) completed in late December without any public announcement, says the Keystone XL project would have created between 16,149 and 59,000 jobs and would have had a positive economic impact of between $3.4-9.6 billion, citing various studies. A previous report from the federal government published in 2014 determined 3,900 direct jobs and 21,050 total jobs would be created during construction which was expected to take two years.

But immediately after taking office in January 2021, Biden canceled the pipeline’s permits, effectively shutting the project down.

“The Biden administration finally owned up to what we have known all along — killing the Keystone XL Pipeline cost good-paying jobs, hurt Montana’s economy and was the first step in the Biden administration’s war on oil and gas production in the United States,” Sen. Steve Daines. R-Mont., said Thursday in a statement. “Unfortunately, the administration continues to pursue energy production anywhere but the United States.”

Biden went to the Saudis begging them to increase oil production. The Saudis turned him down stating they were already approaching maximum capacity. Did he think oil from Saudi Arabia generated less CO2 when burned in the form of gasoline, diesel, propane, and heating oil than oil from the US? He’s also been trying to aid Venezuela’s rebuilding their oil infrastructure so they could sell more oil to the US. Does Venezuelan oil burn with less CO2 generated than US oil?

Biden also canceled oil and gas lease sales, threatened to cancel existing leases, pressured oil drillers to stop fracking on federal lands, all within the first couple of months of entering office.

Is it any wonder oil prices started skyrocketing?

Despite claims by the Biden administration that the problem was caused by Trump energy policies, it was purely actions by Biden that caused the spike in energy prices and shortage of petroleum-based fuels. Later, the Biden Administration tried to lay the blame on Putin’s war against Ukraine, though by that time oil prices had reached very close to their eventual peak.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the temps have dropped to the teens, the ice is starting to form on the lake, and where the ski slopes are doing a lot of business.

That Which Is Old Is New Again

A few years ago I heard of the discovery of what made Roman concrete so tough – volcanic ash as part of the mix – but it turns out that was only part of the recipe that made Roman concrete so durable and strong that it lasts for millennia, even in aquatic environments. Researchers at MIT, Harvard University, and two European labs have solved the rest of the mystery, particularly the mystery of how it self-heals microcracks, something modern concrete can’t do.

Researchers have spent decades trying to figure out the secret of this ultradurable ancient construction material, particularly in structures that endured especially harsh conditions, such as docks, sewers, and seawalls, or those constructed in seismically active locations.

Now, a team of investigators from MIT, Harvard University, and laboratories in Italy and Switzerland, has made progress in this field, discovering ancient concrete-manufacturing strategies that incorporated several key self-healing functionalities. The findings are published today in the journal Science Advances, in a paper by MIT professor of civil and environmental engineering Admir Masic, former doctoral student Linda Seymour ’14, PhD ’21, and four others.

The researchers found a number of anomalies in samples of Roman concrete they could explain, one of them being the inclusion of minuscule particles of lime, specifically what is called quicklime. It turns out to be the material that was the secret to the ability to self-heal cracks in the concrete. The were also able to determine part of the mixing process that made Roman concrete so tough.

Studying samples of this ancient concrete, he and his team determined that the white inclusions were, indeed, made out of various forms of calcium carbonate. And spectroscopic examination provided clues that these had been formed at extreme temperatures, as would be expected from the exothermic reaction produced by using quicklime instead of, or in addition to, the slaked lime in the mixture. Hot mixing, the team has now concluded, was actually the key to the super-durable nature.

“The benefits of hot mixing are twofold,” Masic says. “First, when the overall concrete is heated to high temperatures, it allows chemistries that are not possible if you only used slaked lime, producing high-temperature-associated compounds that would not otherwise form. Second, this increased temperature significantly reduces curing and setting times since all the reactions are accelerated, allowing for much faster construction.”

If we have truly rediscovered how to make Roman concrete, the effects on our world could be immeasurable. Looking at our crumbling infrastructure, much of it caused by the decay and failure of modern concrete, replacing that concrete with durable Roman concrete that will last millennia rather than decades can transform our civilization. The need to rebuild our roads, bridges, sewers, water systems, buildings, canals, and any other constructs making use of concrete every few decades would be greatly reduced, if not eliminated. It would save money, increase the long term safety of our roads, highways, bridges, and tunnels. The money saved could be used for other projects rather than heavy maintenance or replacement of existing infrastructure. But there may be those who might not like the idea of concrete that only needs to be replaced every 2000 years.

As one commenter to the Instapundit post linking the MIT article put it, “Sadly, it will never be allowed in the US, because fat lazy bloated road construction unions won't allow it. They wouldn't get [to] rebuild all of I-94 every other year.” I think the commenter understated it as I think any of the construction unions that would be affected by this new ‘old’ concrete might be against it.

Only time will tell.

Thoughts On A Sunday

Here it is, both the first Sunday of the year as well as the first day of 2023. I enter this year with hopes that it will be better than the year just past...but I have a feeling my hopes will be dashed by the people running this country, people who no longer love this country and no longer believe in its ideals.

I am worried that we will be living out the old Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times.”

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Something I was finally able to do was figure out how much fuel the Official Weekend Pundit Generator uses per hour. I only had a few estimates as to how much propane or gasoline it would use, but they were only guesses and those guesses were based on a number of unproven assumptions.

With three power outages that took place over a period of five weeks - the outages totaling about 27 hours - the longest outage lasting 20 hours which took place last weekend, and then filling the two propane tanks I used to during those 27 hours, I was able to figure out how long a tank of propane will last under the conditions we experienced. This makes it easier to figure out how much fuel I would need for an extended outage. Knowing this has removed most of the guesswork and made planning easier, something important when a storm – be it hurricane, ice storm, or blizzard – is forecast and expected to cause outages.

It’s nice to be able to plan fuel requirements for outages.

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An issue that has been seen popping up all across the US, but is of interest at the local level, is so-called Short Term Rentals (STRs). Many also know them as AirBnB’s, named after the website of the same name. There is also VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner), another STR website, and Expedia.

My home town has been struggling with them and has been working to get some regulation in place, primarily for the ‘commercial’ STRs, or homes that were purchased solely for the purpose of renting out as an STR. In many cases the owners of the commercial STRs in out town are out-of-state corporations. There are a number of downsides to the growth of STRs in our town, one of them being that homes bought for conversions to STRs mean fewer homes available to house families or workers.

But as much as small towns like mine have been struggling with the issue, some of the cities have also struggling with the issue, including New York City.

A new short-term rental registration law put forth by the administration of New York City Mayor Eric Adams could remove thousands of Airbnb listings from the market next month. The new measure, which will go into effect in January, will require Airbnb hosts to register their short-term rentals with the city's database -- including proof that the hosts themselves reside there, and that their home abides by local zoning and safety requirements. If Airbnb hosts fail to comply, they could face $1,000 to $5,000 in penalty fees.

Some communities have tried even more draconian regulations which have led to lawsuits against those communities.

What’s the answer to STRs and their effects on communities? I think it depends upon the communities themselves as there is no one single answer or solution that will meet the needs and wants of all communities and the people in them.

Our town will be requiring registration of STRs, mainly so we know where they are and who owns them. This is aimed more at the Commercial STRs. Commercial STRs will also be required to undergo inspections by our fire department for life safety issues and the code inspector to ensure there are no building code issues. There are a few more requirements but so far no one has claimed they are onerous or will be a burden.

And so it goes.

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The Congressional Democrats and the DNC are celebrating their ‘win’ regarding releasing Donald Trump’s tax returns. Little do they realize (or care) that this will backfire on them ‘yugely’.

Voters are not in a very Christmas-y mood when it comes to Washington’s punishment politics.

In fact, they’d like to see some payback.

While a majority of voters are OK with House Ways and Means Committee Democrats releasing former President Donald Trump’s federal income taxes, they also feel that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

Asked in a new Rasmussen Reports survey if the incoming GOP House majority should release the taxes of Democrats who voted to reveal Trump’s taxes, 54% said yes.

And it wasn’t just Republicans, 63%, and independents, 53%, but included more Democrats than not. Rasmussen said that 45% of Democrats wanted the taxes of the Trump critics released to 38% who didn’t.

The partisan divide was much wider on the overall question of releasing Trump’s taxes, which is to be completed Friday by House Democrats. Some 53% said they approved of the release to 40% who disapproved.

Democrats especially were supportive, with 79% approving of the release. Among Republicans, 63% disapproved.

Let those who live by releasing their opponent’s tax returns, die by the involuntary release of their own. Seems fitting,, somehow. They tried to weaponize Trump’s tax returns and will likely to have that turned against them. Let’s see how many will be willing to release all of their returns. My guess?

Very few.

I doubt Congressional Democrats will be in favor of having their tax returns made public because I am less confident in their veracity than Trump’s. They want to impose such ‘punishments’ but be immune to those same punishments. After all, they might have to explain how they became so wealthy serving in Congress. That just wouldn’t do.

Double standards, anyone?

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Do we need any more proof that the Green Energy elite are trying to create a neo-feudal state? In Germany they are ‘suggesting’ people bathe only once a week.

I figure that once they get the people to do that they will, at some point, convince them bathing really isn’t necessary at all. Neither is living in clean and heated apartments. Better a wattle and daub hovel, a retro residence. How long before the elite start referring to themselves as Nobles?

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee where we’ve entered the January thaw (50ºF here today), the holiday weekend has one more day to run, and I am looking forward to going back to the lab.