New Hampshire Going Nuclear? I Hope So.

Despite claims by people who support so-called “green energy” like wind and solar, we’re finding out that neither technology can meet the growing demand. It doesn’t help that both are heavily dependent upon taxpayer money in order to be built and that they never meet the energy demands or provide the return on investment promised by proponents. On top of that, even though these are claimed as “clean and green energy” technologies, we’re finding that they are neither clean or green.

Proponents keep pushing the “energy is free” meme and even though that is true, it is the cost of harnessing that energy that is expensive, something they choose to ignore. If they are cognizant of the actual cost, they downplay it because they can’t have facts contradicting the green energy narrative.

New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte is well versed in the green energy promises and is smart enough to know they don’t work anywhere near as well as proponents claim. She understands that a reliable energy supply is needed for economies to keep operating efficiently. But it seems that over the past couple of decades there has been a war on more traditional energy supplies like natural gas, hydro, and even coal. (New Hampshire has the last operating coal powerplant in New England.) When the governor of a neighboring state, Massachusetts, worked hard to kill not one, but two new pipelines that would bring much needed natural gas into New England, and then complained when there was a natural gas shortage last winter, you know the leadership needed to ensure adequate electricity supplies is lacking, or worse, they are bought and paid for by the green energy true believers. (It’s gotten so bad that not one, not two, but three powerline projects that would have brought clean, renewable, and inexpensive hydropower into New England were killed off by the same people who then complain about their ever rising electricity bills.)

This is where Governor Ayotte differs from the governors in the other New England states, something that become evident during her recent State Of The State address back on February 5th:

Which brings me to an area of our lives here in New Hampshire that is not where we want it to be – and that is our electric rates. Let’s understand why we are here: Our neighbors, that govern a lot differently than we do, are busy pushing up regional rates with their net zero religion, and lack of pragmatism and consideration for the consumer.

While at the same time they are battling to block new energy projects that would lower costs for all of us by delivering much-needed energy into our region, such as the Constitution pipeline.

Here at home, our Public Utilities Commission has been too willing to go along with the wishes of the big utilities boosting their bottom line instead of being focused on keeping rates as low as possible for the residents of our state. The Commission must provide transparency to residents when it comes to their electric bills and put the needs of ratepayers first.

Looking toward the future of energy in New Hampshire, we can build on the successes of our homegrown power. There are numerous groups, lawmakers and stakeholders looking into the next steps of Nuclear. Today, I am directing our Department of Energy to build pathways to foster the next generation of nuclear power generation here in New Hampshire. I have asked the Department to bring together stakeholders, lawmakers and organizations focused on nuclear generation to ensure our state is at the forefront of this pivotal technology.

She understands that our future when it comes to electricity is going to be nuclear. Whether people want to admit it or not, nuclear power can be a lot cleaner and greener than what we have been told over the past 50 years or so. Too many of those against a nuclear renaissance are stuck back in the 70’s and 80’s when it comes to nuclear technology. Modern Generation III and Generation IV reactors are safer, more efficient, easier and less expensive to construct via Small Modular Reactor (SMR) designs, and some of the new reactor designs can use ‘depleted’ nuclear fuel from Generation II reactors for fuel, eliminating the need to store long half-life depleted fuel for 25,000 years or more. What’s not to like?

I have heard some people who are against nuclear power make the claim that we have no experience with modern technology, particularly SMRs, that it’s all still just theoretical. I beg to differ as there is plenty of experience with the newer nuclear reactor technology. Who has experience with that technology, you may ask? One of the largest users of nuclear power in the world: The United States Navy.

Between nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and nuclear-powered submarines, there is plenty of experience with the technology. The Virginia-class nuclear submarines employ an advanced Generation IV reactor, and I have no doubt the new Columbia-class submarines will do so as well.

Nuclear powerplants run 24/7/365, and the newer Generation III and IV powerplants will be able to run for even longer as some of the designs do not need to be taken offline for refueling like the old Generation II plants.

I have a feeling I’ll need to dig into this technology a bit deeper as I don’t want a topic like this to be dismissed because “It’s just his opinion. What does he know about the technology?”

Friday Funny - Who's Stronger

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was -2°F here at The Gulch this morning. It helps make sure the ice on Lake Winnipesaukee is good for this weekend’s Ice Fishing Derby. There are lots of bob-houses out on the lake, something that is needed as the wind chills are brutal if you don’t have any shelter from the wind.

We’re expecting overnight temps to be around 0°F or a little higher over the next couple of days, though the daytime temps might get close to freezing. Maybe.

I still have to clean off the couple of inches of snow from the trusty RAM 1500, seeing no reason to do so until it gets a little warmer outside as I have no plans to go anywhere today. About the only plans I have is to take care of a couple loads of laundry and to watch the SuperBowl early this evening.

==++++++==

It is SuperBowl Sunday and the New England Patriots are trying to win their 7^th Lombardi Trophy. All the TV news has been covering over the past 2 weeks has been the SuperBowl. Almost every report includes some reference to the game. Over the past couple of days about 50% of the news coverage has been about the SuperBowl. Frankly, I’ll be glad once it’s all over. Mind you, I’ll be particularly pleased if the Patriots beat the Seahawks.

==++++++==

After the recent layoffs at the Washington Post, I have to wonder how much longer Jeff Bezos will hold on to that money-losing fish wrapper? As more than one comment at the linked post has said, they brought it on themselves.

==++++++==

I’ll admit that Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) has had me confused over the years. Between some rather bizarre behavior and a stroke, I’ve had a tough time figuring him out.

However, it seems that Fetterman has been shifting his political views away from the Left and more towards the center. As the Babylon Bee stated “Weird. Man Becomes More Conservative As He Regains Brain Function.”

Maybe not so weird.

==++++++==

This is a really abbreviated TOAS as I am going back downstairs to watch the SuperBowl!

==++++++==

And that’s the (abbreviated) news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it’s back in the single digits, the winds have been brutal, and where Monday is returning…again.

Before We Get Too Old Or Die Tour

I was perusing Instapundit this morning when I came across this post about a number of music artists and groups canceling tours due to health issues, advancing age along with health issues, or possible political disagreements.

Among the artists/bands canceling upcoming tours have been Neil Young, Twisted Sister, and the Rolling Stones. What gets me is just how many artists and bands from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s are still out there touring. That their music is still popular, particularly among much younger people – Millennials and Gen Z – affirms to me that good music is good musing no matter how old it is.

To quote myself using one of my nom du wordprocessors about this:

At our local concert venue, we've been seeing a lot of the older acts and artists over the past couple of seasons. I've been calling it the "Before We Get Too Old Or Die Tour." This past summer I saw Rod Stewart's farewell tour concert. The opening act was Cheap Trick. I saw Chicago two summers ago and they were back this past summer. It may have been just me, but it seems half the acts performing at our local venue over the past couple of years have been part of the "Before We Get Too Old Or Die Tour".

Not that I'm complaining as it seems a lot of people want to see the old acts, including a lot of younger people. As I've heard my Millennial son say, "You guys had all the great music!"

One of the other things I’ve noticed is how many younger people have been making reaction videos on YouTube, reacting to music from ‘back then’. As I also mentioned in one of my comments, “Probably the two groups that have had the most enthusiastic reactions have been Pink Floyd and Boston. Two PF songs that bring out a lot of positive reactions have been Great Gig In The Sky from the Dark Side Of The Moon album and Comfortably Numb from the 1994 Pulse concert with one of the best guitar solos ever, Dave Gilmour's 4 minutes of guitar solo heaven.”

Dark Side Of The Moon came out in 1973 and Boston’s first album came out in 1975 and they are both still very popular.

I saw Boston play in our local concert venue some years ago with Tommy DeCarlo as lead singer. (This was a few years after their original lead singer Brad Delp died.) I saw Pink Floyd in 1990 in Berlin, Germany – The Wall 1990 concert – courtesy of my then employer because they sent me there for business.

Our local concert venue has already been advertising the acts that will be playing in the upcoming concert season and it looks like it will be a continuation of the "Before We Get Too Old Or Die Tour".

I can’t wait!

Friday Funny - Pick The Right Wife

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been a long stretch of cold weather up here at the lake, with many mornings having temperatures in in the single digits below zero. This morning it was -6°F here at The Gulch and -8°F down at the lake itself. (The Gulch is approximately 140 feet higher in altitude than the lake, so it tends to be warmer.) Monday morning will be the first day when it will be above zero in the morning. Over the past two weeks we’ve only had two days where it was above zero in the morning, and on those two days it was snowing. (We got about 20 inches of snow out of that storm.)

One thing that colder than normal weather has brought is increased heating bills. I know we’ve used more than the usual amount of heating oil at The Gulch as well as my neighbor’s home. (I keep an eye on the place as it is only their seasonal home, and they mostly come up from the Boston area during the summer months.) I’ve had to leave the thermostat turned up to keep the inside temperature from dropping to 60° overnight and taking hours to get back up to 68°. That’s not something we usually have to worry about. But with the lengthy bout of below normal temperatures and overnight temperatures being below zero, it has become the reality.

One thing that did give us a piece of mind was that just before the snowstorm arrived last weekend our local heating company topped off our oil tank. Our neighbor’s tank was also topped off right around the same time by a different heating company, meaning we were good to go for heating fuel despite higher use due to the frigid weather.

==++++++==

New York City’s new mayor has barely been in office and he’s already having to backtrack on many of the promises he made during his campaign. Frankly, none of that surprised me as his understanding of economics was crippled by the usual socialist indoctrination in Marxist economics.



There won’t be all those free buses he’s promised. Rent control is likely to remain as it exists now. Those ‘free’ daycare centers won’t come into being. All the folks the mayor was going to tax the heck out of to pay for all those things are leaving New York and taking their businesses and money with them. (Gee, where have we been seeing happening recently?)

Anyone paying attention to history, particularly when it comes to socialism/communism economics, know that they have never worked. Ever. Yet somehow it was going to work this time?

Welcome to the real world, Mayor Mamdani. Oh, and when New York City goes bankrupt, don’t waste you time calling the White House for a bailout because it ain’t gonna happen.

==++++++==

I wonder when someone will draft a Constitutional Amendment that allows the use of ellipses to modify the Constitution and its Amendments as needed? Oh, and add a Press Immunity clause to the First Amendment so ‘media’ can be excused from committing crimes if they have their press credentials on them?

As one of the commenters stated:

The freedom of the press does not protect an individual leading a riot to shut down a religious service, or any other crime by the individual. Freedom of religion is also a Constitutional right Lemon was abridging.

Indeed.

==++++++==

And speaking of Don Lemon, there’s this:

DOJ Charges Don Lemon With Federal Civil Rights Crimes

The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged former CNN host Don Lemon with federal civil rights crimes after he live streamed anti-ICE protesters storming a church in Minnesota. Lemon, who was arrested on Thursday, was charged with “conspiracy and interfering with the First Amendment rights of worshipers during a January 18 protest at the Cities Church in St. Paul…

--snip--

Everybody’s joking about the insane argument that being a journalist provides carte blanche to defy any law whatsoever.

This is going to be interesting, to say the least. It certainly opens up the limits of press immunity, particularly when it is used to deprive people of their First Amendment rights regarding religion and free exercise thereof.

==++++++==

I have to wonder how long it will be before the whole anti-ICE conspiracy falls apart? Seeing some of the polls about the whole illegal immigration issue, and particularly about ICE enforcing federal law, show a majority of the American people are in favor of deporting the millions of illegal immigrants that flooded across the border when the Biden Administration opened the borders. This is particularly true of the criminal illegal immigrants who have been found guilty of criminal acts back in their home countries, in the US since they’ve been here, or both, I find it hard to believe anyone would support not deporting them…or even imprisoning them.

They are acting like these criminals are somehow above the law merely because they entered the US illegally.

Somehow all of this is going to backfire on them and those funding them, particularly should some of those convicted criminal illegals commit even more heinous acts going forward.

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it’s still colder than normal, the ice is pretty much thick enough to drive on, and where ice fishing has been in full swing.

Will Physical Money Ever Go Away?

Over the past few years, I’ve been hearing that eventually we’ll no longer use physical money – bills and coins – because electronic ‘money’ is so much easier to use. Some may think nothing of this, believing it’s just progress. But I have two questions for those who think this would be a good idea.

First, do they realize that every single transaction they make will be traceable? It won’t matter if they’re ordering something from Amazon or buying a sandwich or lottery tickets at the local convenience store, there will be a record of everything they buy or service they pay for. Nothing will be anonymous. Nothing.

But that isn’t the thing that bothers me most. It’s the second thing.

Second, if there is no power and/or no Internet there will be no money. Keep in mind the latest Snowmageddon that took place almost a week ago knocked out power and comm services here and there across the nation. That means that stores would be unable to sell you anything because you don’t have any actual money on hand to pay for anything. You won’t be able to pay for food. You won’t be able to pay for clothing. You won’t be able to pay for gasoline. (Yes , this assumes the gas station has power. I know of a few around here that do have their own emergency generators.) It won’t matter if you have hundreds, thousands, or millions of dollars in the bank because you won’t be able to access any of it because it doesn’t really exist. It’s just 1’s and 0’s in a computer somewhere, a computer that you won’t be able to access.

Will physical cash ever go away?

Lord, I hope not.

Friday Funny - Things You Can Say About Your Dinner...

Thoughts On A Sunday

As I write this (8AM) it is about 1°F here at The Gulch. The sky is cloudy and all is calm. Snow isn’t expected to start here until sometime around 2PM. With a couple of exceptions, we’re all set, and those exceptions will be taken care of well before the snow starts. One of those exceptions is moving the Official Weekend Pundit Generator from the back corner of the garage to the front near the garage door, something I will take care of around noon before the snow starts falling. Not that I expect we’ll need it as we will only be seeing snow here, and a light ‘fluffy’ snow which will pile up quickly but won’t have much weight. There won’t be any sleet, freezing rain, or heavy wet snow falling during the duration. However, that doesn’t rule out traffic accidents that could knock out power.

I still have to move the trusty RAM 1500 to leave the shared portion of the driveway open so the contractor will be able to plow it without obstruction. It does mean I’ll have to shovel out the pickup when the time comes, but I do have the Official Weekend Pundit Toro Power Shovel to help with that task, though I probably won’t be doing so until late tomorrow morning at the earliest.

Update – Noon: It just started snowing here at Lake Winnipesaukee.

==++++++==

Everyone knows there’s been another fatal shooting of an anti-ICE protester in Minneapolis. What gets me is that ‘everyone’ knows exactly what happened and why, meaning the Lame Stream Media and the anti-ICE folks. They all point to the few seconds of video being shown which ‘proves’ what happened. This is no different than when Ms. Good was fatally shot after she struck an ICE agent with her SUV – ‘everyone’ knew there was no reason for the officer to shoot her…until additional video proved that she had indeed driven her SUV towards the ICE agent and struck him with it.

Frankly, I am going to withhold my judgement about the latest shooting because, quite frankly, I don’t believe either side. I don’t know what happened. I haven’t seen all of the video. I (and everyone else) have seen just the last few seconds of what occurred. I cannot be sure it shows everything in context. And therein lies the problem.

The anti-ICE folks don’t want it shown in context, particularly if it goes against The Narrative.

==++++++==

Here is yet more proof of the old adage “That which is old is new again.”

It looks like Minneapolis is following the bad idea from Seattle – the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone or CHAZ – creating an Autonomous Zone by dragging dumpsters “to barricade entire city blocks while the anti-ICE protests rage on.”

This will turn out no better than CHAZ did in Seattle. But that won’t stop them from doing it anyways.

==++++++==

In line with the big winter storm that has stretched from New Mexico to Maine, there’s this to worry about:

Report: Huge Winter Storm Is Your Fault

Isn’t everything our fault when it comes to climate change…even if climate change has nothing to do with this?

I recall the Big Storm of 1993 that was quite similar to the present storm, except that it stretched only between Texas and Maine. No one thought it was unusual other than it hit some of the southern states, something that wasn’t all that unusual given the proper time scale.

So climate alarmists say climate change causes too much warming and too much cold when it isn’t. The goalposts are constantly moved ignoring all of the winter storms of the past that were entirely natural. The alarmists overstretched their hands with their hype so people moved on convinced that the climate will change no matter what they do and no longer see any point in worrying about it.

Yeah. That sounds just about right.

It could be why the “climate change scam has been collapsing.”

==++++++==

I’d like to hear Minnesota Governor Tim Walz explain away this one:

INDUSTRIAL SCALE FRAUD: $400 Million Minnesota Medicaid Scheme Operating Out of Single Building

Is this yet another nail in the coffin of Walz’s career?

Another massive Medicaid fraud operation has been uncovered in Minnesota, centered on the Griggs Midway building – a former linen factory allegedly converted into a hub for fraudulent billing. Roughly 400 Medicaid “businesses” operated out of the building, generating about $380 million in taxpayer-funded claims—an average of nearly $1 million per entity—despite the site’s implausible industrial setting. The revelations, made during a visit to Minneapolis, come amid the Trump administration’s broader crackdown on welfare fraud and have triggered fresh congressional scrutiny over how state oversight failed to flag an operation of this scale.

Massive Democrat fraud is standard operating procedure.

This is on top of the $9 billion of taxpayer money that has gone to organizations, people, and businesses that was acquired through well-organized fraud. What’s worse is that it looks like Minnesota officials knew it was happening and looked the other way or were part of the efforts to steal that taxpayer money.

==++++++==

It will be the New England Patriots going to SuperBowl LX! They beat the Denver Broncos in Denver 10-7 in the AFC Championship Game.

==++++++==

This doesn’t really surprise me.

Red States Have Reliable Power Because They Embrace an All-of-the-Above Strategy

My state, New Hampshire, which has a Republican Governor, Legislature, and Executive Council, has been trying to keep some of the more traditional power generation systems operating as well as seeking a nuclear power renaissance. Thinks like solar don’t bode too well up this way and wind is restricted as a lot of the land in the state is restricted by conservation easements.>br>
We shave the last operating coal-fired power plant in New England. We have a number of bio-mass powerplants. We have some trash-to-energy power plants. We have natural gas combined cycle power plants. We have hydro dams. We have a large nuclear power plant. But some folks want to shut down everything except the solar, wind, bio-mass, and hydro dams. Many of the folks wanting this are also against powerline projects that would bring clean, cheap, and abundant hydropower into New England, something that is paradoxical to me.

However, we also have a governor who sees the advantages of nuclear power and wants to build new nuclear plants. She understands the advantages of the present Gen III and Gen IV technology and the advantages of small modular reactors. She ran on building more nuclear power as part of her campaign platform. Let’s hope she can pull it off.

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it’s snowing heavily, the snow is piling up, and schools have already canceled classes for Monday.

Snowmageddon 2026

I’ve heard the storm that is sweeping across the country being called Snowmageddon. A lot of areas not used to either snow fall or freezing rain or sleet are receiving a couple of years’ worth in only a day or so. On TV we’ve seen long lines of people waiting to get into supermarkets to stock up on storm supplies. We’ve seen equally long lines of people waiting in the checkout lines. Some store shelves are empty. There are also long lines at gas stations as people fill the gas tanks on their cars and trucks as well as gas cans for their generators.

It isn’t often we see something like this, but then it isn’t often we see a storm system that affects people from Texas to Maine. The last time I can recall something like this was the Blizzard of 1993 which followed a similar storm track. The biggest difference being that storm and the one we’re seeing now is that temperatures were not below zero just ahead of the storm. It was -6°F here at The Gulch this morning with a wind chill sitting somewhere near -30°F. That certainly didn’t make it feel any less cold when I had to go out to shovel the driveway as we got just under an inch of snow overnight as the frigid air swept into New England. I also went next door to check the neighbor’s home after they called me, asking me to set their thermostat higher for the duration of the frigid temps today and overnight and the 12 to 18 inches of snow predicted to fall starting tomorrow afternoon.

Normally I do my weekly shopping on Saturday or Sunday morning but considering that the morning temperatures on both days this weekend were forecast to be below zero, I took care of it Friday afternoon. I knew the local Walmart where I do my shopping would be busy due to the approaching storm, but it wasn’t as busy as I thought it would be. I didn’t buy anything different than I would have on my normal weekend shopping trip, so my shopping cart wasn’t nearly as full as many of the others being pushed around by other customers. In fact, it didn’t really take me much longer to complete my shopping as I thought it would.

I did stop at our local gas station to fill the tank in the WP Mom’s car and there wasn’t a line of cars waiting to gas up. Fortunately, it didn’t take long as it was brutally cold due to the wind chill and standing outside the car as I pumped gas was not a pleasant experience.

We are as ready as we can be for the coming snowstorm as we can be at this point. Hopefully the only time I’ll need to step outside tomorrow is when I check on the status of my neighbor’s house to make sure everything is okay and when I need to rearrange things in the garage to move the generator near the garage door in case it is needed. The WP Mom will be attending church online tomorrow morning so she won’t need to brave the subzero temperatures.

Friday Funny - Hard And Wet

I'll Tell You The Story - Snowblowing Binky

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s another snowy weekend here at the lake. We had about 2 inches yesterday, an amount barely worth shoveling. We’re due for another 4 inches which will start falling sometime early this evening and will end sometime early tomorrow morning. It won’t be a heavy snowfall by any means, but it will make the roads slippery.

It also means that it will be snowing down in Foxboro, Massachusetts during the New England Patriots game as they play the Houston Texans. I wouldn’t think it would negatively affect the Patriots but I have no idea if it will affect the Texans in any way.

==++++++==

I admit that I spend a lot of time watching YouTube. Sometimes it’s to be amused or to catch the news from various sources across the globe. At other times to learn how do something that I have little or no experience doing. There are times when I watch dashcam videos to see just how bad it can get out there on the roads. Some of my favorites are webcam videos at intersections that see lots of traffic accidents, with two of them being at the intersection of Friant and Shepherd in Fresno, California and near 783 Meeting Street in Charleston, South Carolina.

However, something I’ve been noticing over the past few weeks are the number of videos reporting on problems in California that run the gamut from multibillion dollar corporations moving operations from the Pyrite State to other states, decisions made by the oil industry to close refineries and abandon offshore oil operations, to the aftereffects of the much hated AB5 which has recently forced over 70,000 owner-operator truckers to abandon California and mandates that required gas stations to have dual-walled gas tanks or be fined $5000 per day which has caused almost 500 gas stations across the state to shut down.

The one thing (other than California) that they all have in common?

They are all hosted by AI “talking heads”. The image you see, and voice you hear are all AI generated.

I didn’t notice at first. I was more interested in what was being talked about. It wasn’t until after I started paying closer attention to the videos that I realized the images were AI generated as were the voices.

Facial expressions and head motion didn’t look natural and eye blinks that also looked wrong. There were also hand motions that looked wrong. In most cases when someone is moving their hands while talking, the motions sync with the speech. However, in these videos the hand motions seem random and are rarely in sync with the speech. Here’s one example.

When it comes to speech there are sometimes ‘hiccups’ where some words have a nonsense pronunciation or the emphasis on the wrong syllable. There are also times when pauses in speech that I would expect from a human being are absent, telling me what I’m seeing and listening to is AI generated.

I’m going to keep watching these videos and I will have a follow-on post linking to some more of the videos. Watch them yourselves and tell me I’m wrong.

==++++++==

Via Instapundit comes this: What Blue Zone Collapse Looks Like.

While Chris Bray’s Substack post is looking primarily at California, many of his observations are true of other Blue Zones as well.

As one commenter to the Instapundit post observed:

California is following the same paths that led to the downfall of many socialist countries. It doesn't matter how many sheep they have to shear as those people and companies that employ the 'sheep' leave, taking their jobs and money with them. We're seeing multibillion dollar corporations pulling up stakes and relocating to more business-friendly states. Investment is starting to dry up as investors look for safer places to put their money as they see California being too risky, particularly if they do pass more confiscatory taxes that tax "unrealized capital gains".

We will need to keep an eye on New York City as I do not find it difficult to believe that it too will collapse if Mayor Mamdani gets even half of what he’s promised to the useful idiots who voted him into office. Because you’re dealing with a smaller area and a smaller population it’s possible the collapse will happen sooner than it will in California.

These Blue Zones will end up being an object lesson to those who think the Progressives/Left have the answer – socialism – to the nation’s problems. They don’t understand that the Progressives/Left are the problem

==++++++==

Speaking of Blue Zone collapse, here’s John Hawkins on one idea that will help hasten the fall: Wealth Taxes.

Wealth taxes are pretty much always bad ideas, the sort of thing nations turn to when their backs are against the wall, and they’re headed down the tubes. However, the wealth tax being floated in California is particularly disastrous to founders of companies and makes it extraordinarily dangerous for them to stay there.

Granted, California is already a poorly run state with high expenses, even higher taxes, and insufferable politicians and activists, but it has advantages, too. Big cities, great ports, lots of tech talent, and beautiful countryside. I just got done vacationing for a week in San Francisco. Setting aside the amazing food and pleasant weather, when you look at…pictures I took in San Fran and the surrounding area, you can understand why ludicrously wealthy people might be willing to pay more to live there.

--snip--

Still, there’s a difference between paying a premium to live somewhere, which pretty much anyone who pays taxes in California is already doing, and having greedy parasites take a significant part of the money you’ve earned IN YOUR ENTIRE LIFE just for the privilege of having their state as your primary residence.

The incredibly wealthy tech bros who live in California have been a huge asset to the state. They pay staggering amounts of taxes, create lots of other high-paying jobs, and have turned California into one of the biggest technology hubs on the planet.

So, what happens when they leave?

John goes on to write that they are already leaving the Pyrite State. That doesn’t bode well for those who are still living there as it means they will have to shoulder the increasing burden as those people and corporations leave California for less expensive and restrictive states.

Looking at the history of wealth taxes, it can be shown that they don’t work and never have. Yet that doesn’t stop the “tax-and-spend” folks from trying it again…and again. And they will fail again and again.

And so it goes.

==++++++==

I found this ironic, but not surprising.

The US State Department has ended all aid to Somalia.

Considering how much money Somali immigrants, legal or otherwise, have managed to scam from the American taxpayers, sending quite a lot of it ‘back home’ to Somalia, would Somalia even notice that US government aid has ended?

Probably not.

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where Ice In was declared this past week, the ski areas are plenty busy, and where I don’t have to worry about Monday this week because I have the day off.

The Ongoing PR War - ICE Shooting In Minneapolis

I came across the following in this post about the PR battle taking place about the shooting by an ICE officer in Minneapolis and how the GOP can win it. A commenter to the linked post did a deeper dive put forth what should be done and gives examples of how PR has been used by the Left in the past to push false narratives that didn’t even come close to reality and that they shouldn’t be allowed to do that in this case.

The main thing is the local Chief, Sheriff's, Federal Agent-in-Charge, whoever should get an accurate briefing as to what happened and get the story out quickly. Then add film as soon as possible, if not at the initial briefing.

So much damage was inflicted by the Left because LE Leadership was more worried about getting a comprehensive investigation done in preparation for a distant Court date or trial. You have at best hours to get an accurate story out before the Left, via social media spreads a false narrative of endless lies. Months later a comprehensive Report is released of the incident that debunks every lie--and it's instantly ignored.

Secondly, LE Leadership is often worried about optics and appearing fair and balanced. So they try to please the media instead of doing what's right. You see this when a shooting occurs in a minority area and the Left immediately claim police brutality. The next thing you see is the local Chief telling the public that a comprehensive, unbiased, and fair investigation will be done--and if it's found that early reports of the officer screaming "white power" as he unloaded into an innocent black child is true, that officer will be found guilty and spend the rest of his life in prison; or get the death penalty. This is where you see useful idiots and activists in the back of the room whooping and hollering and the Chief grins this idiotic grin believing he's done a good thing. Later the media only show the clip of him saying "that officer will spend the rest of his life in prison"--cut to the News Anchor: "Strong words from the Chief of Police to a community in pain--but is it enough? Let's talk to the head of 'We hate Cops' for their fair and balanced opinion." Cue a detailed, and well supported Report of the shooting getting released months later that finds none of the narrative was remotely true--it's a damn shame the defamed officer was fired a week after the shooting in order to "bring down the temperature" or some other stupid line. He's now suing. A billion dollars in property damage--terrible. A few will wonder why the truth, along with a strong LE response to any rioters, wasn't a better option.

Remember the false narratives:

A white police officer, for no reason, confronted a black teenager walking home from the store and executed him. The black teenager, who was starting college soon, died with his hands in the air begging the officer to not kill him. The media later released a photo of the adult that was taken at his junior high school graduation.

The truth. A police officer spotted an adult robbery suspect walking down the middle of a street. He tried to detain the suspect. The suspect trapped the officer in his patrol unit and beat him, he then tried to murder the officer with his own gun and almost succeeded, ran away after being shot in the right hand, but then turned around and tried a second time to murder the officer.. He was shot before he could reach the officer.

A young black teenager was walking home from the store when he was confronted by a white-hispanic racist who had profiled him. When the innocent black teenager asked why the man was following him--he was shot dead. A photo of the innocent black teenager was released that depicted him when he was 13-years old. A booking photo of the white-hispanic was released that depicted him when he was arrested seven years prior for a incident in a bar. In both cases the media had access to current photos of the two.

The truth. A 17-year old high school football player who had been sent to live with his father after his guardian/mother had determined he was violently out of control, and who was also credibly suspected of multiple burglaries. One night the young man went to a local store to buy the ingredients of a drug called LEAN that he had previously spoken about on social media. While walking back to his father's house, he spotted a local neighborhood watch member. This man had previously been honored by the NAACP for his speaking up about a police brutality incident he had witnessed. He was a local hero. This man also knew that his area had been victimized by a number of burglaries and for some reason, the 17-year old was looking in the windows of various houses.

The man called the police, gave a detailed description and location of the person he was watching from a distance. When asked for a street name, the man got out of his car, ran down to a corner, and relayed the information while out of breath. He had lost sight of the young man. The 911 Operator told him not to follow the young man and the neighborhood watch guy agreed and started walking back to his vehicle--the police were now enroute and were going to meet him. That is when he was suddenly confronted by the young man who knocked him to the ground and started slamming his head on the ground while the older man screamed for help. Luckily, the man being attacked was armed. He managed to get his firearm and fire one round at his attacker killing him. What followed was one of the biggest smear jobs in American history by both the United States Government and the State of Florida. The older man was charged with murder. Despite this, the man was easily acquitted of all charges.

A 911 Call was made by a man walking in a local park about a young black child causing a disturbance. A two-man police unit responded to the park. When they arrived they saw an 11-year old boy walking. One of the officers got out of the patrol unit and for no reason, shot the child down, killing him. Video was provided to the media and the country saw images of a police car stopping in front of the child--that is where they stopped the video. Cut to various activists who called it a clear murder. Cue the protests.

The truth. A 911 Call was made. The caller said a young man was walking around pointing a firearm at people. The man was frightened and left after making the call. A patrol unit was dispatched. When the unit arrived at the park they saw the suspect--who was about 5'8 and almost 200Ibs. Since it was winter the person was wearing a heavy jacket. The patrol car attempted to stop some distance away from the suspect. Unfortunately, the patrol unit skidded on some ice and mud and finally came to a stop directly in front of the suspect. As the passenger officer got out of the car--the suspect walked towards him, lifted up his jacket, and pulled what looked like a semi-automatic handgun from his front waistband. The passenger officer immediately shot him dead. He put out a radio broadcast stating he had shot a suspect who appeared to be in his 20's.

The firearm turned out to be a pellet gun that resembled a 45 caliber handgun. The suspect was 11-years old and had been pointing the gun at various people in the park. He might have been "playing," and wanted to show the cops that the gun wasn't real? The 911 caller stated it "might" be a kid--but he wasn't sure. The media edited out the part of the video where the kid pulled up his jacket and pulled out the gun. That version of the video was played thousands of times--usually followed by an immediate cut to an "expert" who told the audience how unjustified the shooting happened to be. The kids family received millions from the city--the officer was fired and demonized as incompetent.

I won't even go over Eric Garner who was supposedly "choked to death" when he actually died of a heart attack. Or Freddy Gray, who was supposedly murdered by cops in the back of a transport vehicle, when it turned out he had tried to self-inflict an injury on himself in order to sue the police--he had done it before--but this time he ended up killing himself. Then we have St. Floyd of Fentanyl OD which led to mob justice at its finest.

Does any of this mean the police don't overstep at times? Nope. Or that unjustified shootings don't occur? Clearly not--we've seen them. But none of that means anything to the media and their fellow Democrats. Every police shooting is unjustified no matter what the circumstances and the death of a black man only matters if a white cop, or civilian kills him.

Ayuh. I’d say that covers it.

Friday Funny - Women Are Magical

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been a busy weekend. So busy that I didn’t get a chance to post last night. Part of that was due to celebrating the WP Mom’s 92nd birthday. Family was up today to take her out for lunch after church. All in all she had a great time.

We were expecting a small amount of snow to fall overnight into Sunday morning, but Mother Nature saw fit to make it rain instead. Not that we were expecting all that much – just a coating – but the overnight temperatures were high enough to keep all the precipitation as rain. Not that I’m complaining. On the contrary. It helped melt more of the ice on the driveway and more snow from the roof of The Gulch. We’ll see sunny skies and temperatures just above freezing on Monday. It shouldn’t affect the ice on the lake all that much…at least I hope it doesn’t. However, we’re also expecting windier conditions overnight which might break up some of the thinner ice covering the lake. At least it is likely to be below freezing over the next few nights so maybe the ice won’t be affected all that much. Only time will tell.

==++++++==

In last week’s TOAS I mentioned the gas station ‘meltdown’ in California caused by the mandate for double-walled underground tanks at gas stations. Well over 450 gas stations across the state had to close on January 1st when the mandate went into effect or face a $5000 per day fine if they remain open.

I came across this video from Elizabeth Davis delving a bit deeper into this mandate, outlining why so many stations weren’t able to replace their old single-walled gas tanks.

A lot of the blame for the gas stations not being able to meet the deadline can be laid at the feet of the California’s inertia bound bureaucracy which made it impossible for them to do so.

==++++++==

I have been reading and watching the responses to the shooting of the anti-ICE protester who was shot by an ICE officer. When I first saw the original video, particularly in slow motion, it looked to me that Ms. Good’s SUV struck the ICE officer as she tried to leave. Now that other videos have also been released, including one from the officer’s phone, I am convinced she did strike the officer, knocking him over. Whether it was purposeful or an accident doesn’t make any difference. It still came down to that she struck him with her vehicle. It may have been a glancing blow, but he was still hit. This same officer had been struck and dragged by another anti-ICE protester some months ago.

Did this affect his decision to fire on the driver? Maybe.

Despite some claims made online, Ms. Good and her wife were not there by accident, did not block ICE vehicles by accident. Their presence and action were premeditated. That it ended in tragedy is something that was always a possibility under the circumstances.

However, “The problem isn’t ICE. It’s ICE Watch.”

==++++++==

Oh, this will work out well for Philadelphia.

Philadelphia Authorities Threaten to Arrest ICE Agents

Liberals seem to be serious about civil war. Larry Krasner is District Attorney of Philadelphia, having been installed by top Democrat donor George Soros.

What crimes are ICE agents committing by enforcing immigration law? Whatever crimes the moonbats running Philadelphia see fit to fabricate. As with the call by leftist senators including Mark Kelly for the military to disobey undefined “unlawful” orders, Krasner is committing sedition.

Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal, who has previously declared her unwillingness to cooperate with federal law enforcement, will be happy to make the arrests.

I dare say that those same Philadelphia officials are likely to be arrested by the FBI or US Marshals for interfering with federal law enforcement officials performing their duties both under US law and the Constitution. It could also lead to martial law if the city is declared to be in insurrection, or worse, rebellion.

==++++++==

If the rumors are true, it’s possible that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is set to resign next week.

It’s possible he’s considering it because he’s “been referred for criminal indictment over massive Somali fraud within the state.”

That he’s dropped his reelection bid because of these issues may be the first sign that he’s in trouble.

But like any rumor, I’ll believe it when I see it.

==++++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee where we’re in the midst of the January Thaw, the Patriots are playing the San Diego Chargers in a Wild Card Playoff in Foxboro, and Monday once again is returning to plague us again.

Friday Funny - When He Hears The Drill

Thoughts On A Sunday

Just a note to let you know that today’s TOAS will be rather abbreviated as I am deep into resurrecting two computers here at The Gulch. They failed almost 2 months ago and I have been careful in trying to resurrect them so I don’t lose any data.

It’s been a lengthy series of below normal temperature days here at the lake starting back in early December. This has led to thin skims of ice appearing on the main waters of the lake over the past few days. I noticed them this morning when I was on my way back to The Gulch after my pre-church shopping at our local Walmart. The bays and coves around the lake have been frozen over for some time but not so much that ice fishing is possible except here and there. Monday will be one of the last below normal temperature days before we experience a few days of the January Thaw, those days seeing daytime highs in the 40’s or even 50’s here and there. It isn’t likely to cause too much loss of ice in the coves and bays, but it will likely affect the skims of ice on the lain part of the lake. That will definitely delay the time it will take for the lake to be frozen over completely, but I have no idea how long it will do so.

This will affect the upcoming ice fishing derby next month and the opening of the ice runway on Alton Bay. (It is the only ‘official’ ice runway in the lower 48 states.)

Monday (tomorrow) is also my first day back at work after over 3 weeks of vacation which I thought would be relatively quiet and uneventful. I was wrong.

I am actually looking forward to returning to work so I can get some rest!

==++++++==

California doesn’t get half the punishment it deserves.

The latest ‘brilliant’ idea that just went into effect with the new year? So-called “Mom-and-Pop” gas stations were required to replace their single-walled gas tanks with dual-walled tanks by January 1st, 2026. What is the average cost to do so?

$2 million.

What this means is that hundreds of gas stations across California are being forced to stop selling gasoline and diesel because they either couldn’t afford to replace their tanks or couldn’t get the required permits in a timely fashion or find a contractor whose schedule wasn’t already filled.

Yeah, this is going to help California’s economy and business climate thrive.

==++++++==

Sometimes the woke parody themselves and they are totally oblivious to it. Case in point?

The Metropolitan State University of Denver deciding that Standard American English is “a tool of white supremacy.” WTAF?

The initial Campus Reform report, published Dec. 8, detailed a Writing Center page titled “Linguistic White Supremacy,” which offered guidance for creating “anti-racist” assignments and described “Standard American English” as a “social construct that privileges white communities and maintains social and racial hierarchies.”

So I suppose that Standard British English and Standard French and Standard Swedish and any language with its roots in Europe is automatically “a tool of white supremacy”?

These folks need to stay on their meds, or if they aren’t already on meds they should be. Just how twisted can their thinking and logic become before society realizes they are seriously mentally ill and should be institutionalized?

==++++++==

And that’s the abbreviated news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we’ll see another night of single digit temperatures, deal with some light snow, and deal once again with Monday now that my vacation is over and I have to return to work.

A Few Thoughts On Venezuela

Imagine my surprise when I heard about the US military operation in Venezuela that resulted in President Maduro and his wife being taken into custody in Caracas with extradition to the US, specifically New York, to face charges of drug trafficking, to name but one crime he’ll be answering for.

Reading some of the reactions to Operation Absolute Resolve one would think nothing like this has ever occurred before. However, folks making this ‘claim’ are wrong. All one must do is look back to the US military operation that found and detained Panamanian military dictator Manuel Noriega who was arrested, extradited to the US, and indicted for drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering. He was subsequently convicted, imprisoned, and then released in 2010 after serving 17 years. He was then extradited to France where he tried and convicted of money laundering and sentenced to 7 years. He was then extradited to Panama in 2011 to answer for crimes he committed during his rule.

Maduro has done some of the same things as Noriega as well as ‘weaponizing’ crime syndicates like Tren de Aragua. Many syndicate members entered the US illegally during the Biden Administration’s unofficial “open borders” debacle and have been responsible for drug smuggling and human trafficking into the US.

One must remember that once Venezuela was the wealthiest nation in South America and was a democracy until Hugo Chavez convinced the people that socialism was the only way to ‘save’ the country. However, after years of rule by Chavez and the Maduro, Venezuela is now one of the poorest nations in South America, its economy is a shambles despite its vast oil wealth, and it more resembles what used to be seen in the old Soviet Union during the Bad Old Days.

Other than some of his leftist allies and admirers here in the US, I haven’t heard too many others angry that Madura has been arrested. On the contrary, it has been just the opposite, particularly among Venezuelan refugees here in the US and other countries.

Friday Funny - Bro Test

I'll Tell You The Story - Fern Flirts

Thoughts On A Sunday

In yesterday’s post I talked about traffic observations and today I found out that yesterday a neighbor of mine was a victim of someone speeding along the road that passes by The Gulch. In this case he was broadsided as he pulled out from our neighborhood by someone going well above the posted speed limit. Both vehicles were totaled and my neighbor suffered minor leg injuries. Fortunately, he is already home, his stay in the hospital lasting only long enough to treat his injuries.

This accident shows that some people are speeding even on two-lane roads with limited visibility. I must wonder why they are in such a hurry.

I think one more than one occasion I have mentioned I am hooked on watching dashcam videos on YouTube, watching people do dumb stuff that gets them and others into accidents. I have a feeling my neighbor’s experience would have made an excellent example of why checking cross-traffic again and again and again before pulling out is a good idea. I have also seen more than a few videos of accidents caused by people running red lights, in some cases long after the traffic light turned red. It’s one reason I do not automatically start moving once my traffic light changes to green. I pause for a couple of seconds to check for cross-traffic that missed or ignored the red light. That earned me a few horns blowing because I didn’t stomp on the accelerator the instant the light changed. It has also saved me a couple of times when someone did run the red light. On one occasion the motorist behind me got impatient, pulled around me and into the intersection and got T-boned by someone who ran the red light.

On an entirely different subject it looks like we’ll be experiencing freezing rain overnight, perhaps enough to cause damage and knock out the electricity. Therefore, I will be spending some time later today to move the Official Weekend Pundit Generator and make sure it will fire up should the need arise. Even though the chance of losing power is relatively low, I know that if I don’t prepare it will be the one time I will need it and will have to move vehicles around in the dark to get to the generator. (In case you’re wondering, I did ignore prepping once and had to do the vehicle shuffle at 3 in the morning.)

And one last thing: Beezlebub and I are moving the Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower from the storage unit to his place. I haven’t needed it since we sold The Manse mainly because my present driveway is a couple of feet longer than the trusty RAM 1500, something I can handle with a snow shovel, or if I am really lazy, the Official Weekend Pundit Toro Power Shovel.

==+++++==

This isn’t really a surprise to me.

NYC phone ban reveals some students can’t read clocks.

For years, parents and teachers have blamed technology for a range of lapsed skills — from legible handwriting to sustained attention to reading whole books — even as their proficiency with technology far outstrips their elders. Still, while educators have widely praised New York’s statewide smartphone ban that went into effect this fall, multiple teachers told Gothamist it has also laid bare an unexpected gap: How to tell time.

So many kids are used to reading the time off their smart phones, tablets, and computers. No one ever taught them how to read a traditional clock.

My son – a millennial – never learned to write cursive in school. His mother, her parents, and I taught him how to do that after we realized he couldn’t read cursive. While he still mostly prints, he can read and write cursive. The school system here in my little town started teaching kids to write cursive again a couple of years ago.

Our state legislature banned smart phones in schools statewide earlier this year. Children’s grades and test scores started rising shortly after the ban went into effect. Some schools had banned phones well before the state ban and I think the resulting rise in test scores motivated the legislature and governor to do so statewide.

==+++++==

When I read the following, my reaction was “Is it all that surprising?”

The EU Could Be Gone In Four Years.

In 1988, if you had told anyone that the Soviet Union would cease to exist just four years later, you would have been dismissed as a crank. The institutions looked solid, the bureaucracy entrenched, and the power absolute. Yet by 1992, it was history.

Today, European politicians in Brussels, Berlin, and Paris suffer from the same dangerous optimism. They believe they are so safely ensconced in their institutional frameworks that public anger can never truly throw them out of the saddle. But looking at the trajectory of the European Union, I believe we are closer to a revolutionary moment than the elites dare to imagine.

The signal I’ve been reading that has led me to believe the EU as we know it is doomed is something I’ve mentioned before:

Increasingly draconian and expensive environmental regulations that have gone well past the point of diminishing return. I deal with them every day at work and they take up more and more of my time and effort to make sure we comply in order for us to be able to sell our products in the EU. It wasn’t all that difficult to do so when a bunch of new regulations that applied to electronic and electrical equipment went into effect in mid-2006. Since then, those same regulations have increased the number of substances we must quantify and added a new directive that dealt with all kinds of products, not just electrical and electronic products. At present there are 251 different chemicals covered under that newer regulation, and more are added every six months.

While in the past compliance with those regulations could be handled through documentation – statements listing the chemical components if they were on the list and what percentage of the chemicals in question were contained in the products, that will soon end, and only certified testing labs will be allowed to quantify the content. That adds a lot of time and cost to each product and testing will have to be performed again and again and again as new chemicals are added to the list even if the product in question does not contain those added to the list.

That is a sign of a runaway bureaucracy, something that has never benefitted the people under the control of those bureaucracies. It will get to the point that it becomes almost impossible to do business in EU or with the EU.

That is but one small example of the EU’s decline. There are plenty more…like Net Zero mandates.

==+++++==

I’m lumping these two stories together since the both deal with fraud, one about $1 billion student aid fraud and the other about daycare fraud in Minnesota.

In the first case it appears the Department of Education managed to block $1 billion in student aid fraud and are promising to block even more such fraud in 2026.

The U.S. Department of Education announced it has stopped over $1 billion in attempted student aid fraud in 2025, crediting strengthened identity verification policies reinstated under the Trump administration.

The reforms, which include mandatory ID checks for select first-time FAFSA applicants, were introduced after a wave of fraud schemes exploited loosened rules under the Biden administration.

Federal investigators found nearly $90 million in aid had already been fraudulently disbursed, including over $30 million to deceased individuals and more than $40 million to bots posing as students.

The Department responded with a nationwide identity check in June, immediately flagging nearly 150,000 suspicious FAFSA submissions and notifying colleges of potential fraud.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said requiring an ID to access taxpayer-funded aid is common sense. “From day one, the Trump administration has been committed to rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse across the federal government,” she said. “Merry Christmas, taxpayers!”

Of course I expect the Left to scream bloody murder about the inadequate Biden guidelines and policies being blocked by the Trump Administration because how else can they fund protests carried out by Rent-A-Protester Inc., Antifa, and other leftist organizations? Let’s hope that Trump’s DOE can chop out even more fraud in the coming year.

And then there’s the fraudulent daycare centers with no children and health care operations with no patients in Minnesota being funded by taxpayers:

Minnesota’s fraud problem is no longer theoretical or buried in audit reports. It is happening openly, in real buildings, during normal business hours, with millions of taxpayer dollars flowing to providers that appear unwilling or unable to explain what they actually do.

Recent video investigations by YouTuber Nick Shirley show what happens when someone simply shows up and asks basic questions.

Again, organized fraud siphoning millions of dollars while providing no actual services. In this case it seems to be mostly Somali immigrants defrauding the public and stealing taxpayer dollars. Yet the state of Minnesota seems to be doing absolutely nothing to stop it. It makes me wonder if members of the state government gain something through this fraud.

==+++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we’re waiting for the freezing rain to start, we’ve prepped our generators, and where we won’t need to venture out on Monday.

More Observations From The Road

Just after Thanksgiving I posted about my observations of traffic on the highways and byways both in my home state of New Hampshire and neighboring Massachusetts over the lengthy Thanksgiving weekend. I thought what I saw might nave been primarily because of the holiday, people wanting to get to their Thanksgiving dinner and home again as well as Black Friday and Local Shops Saturday.

It turns out I was wrong.

I have been on vacation since December 11th, burning up almost 3 weeks of vacation time I had on the books. My employer has a “Use it or Lose it” policy when it comes to vacation time so I decided to use it. Not that it would put a strain on my employer as December tends to be one of the slowest months for us, so it wasn’t likely I’d be leaving anyone in the lurch. In any case, this means I had a lengthy amount of time to observe traffic as I traveled quite a bit before, during, and after Christmas.

What I saw during Thanksgiving wasn’t an anomaly.

My latest trip was earlier today down to New Hampshire’s Seacoast to celebrate the birthday of my Dear Brother’s wife. It was a 90 minute trip between the lake and the seacoast.

I saw the same thing both down and back – people traveling at well above the posted limit. Post speed limits on the divided highways were either 55 or 65 MPH. No one was driving at or near the posted limits, including me. Even in the right lanes I was traveling at 70 to 75 MPH and still being overtaken. In a few cases I had to travel at 80 MPH in order to keep up with the ‘other’ slower traffic.

At least the two-lane highways I traveled didn’t experience that. Most people were driving at the posted speed limit or slightly above.

One saving grace was that the highways were not busy. Traffic was moderate at worst, usually at the junctions of some of the major highways in the state. The rest was relatively light. No traffic jams. No bumper to bumper traffic. No backups at traffic lights.

Yes, it’s still vacation time for a lot of people so I wouldn’t expect traffic to be all that heavy until the end of next week. But It’s still disconcerting to see the much higher speeds, particularly when I know that quite a few of the drivers are driving distracted. (Yes, I saw more than a few examples of that over the past couple of weeks.)

I have to think the State Police will be cracking down on the excessive speeds at some point.

I really like to think that will be the case. Really.

Friday Funny - Wife's Soul Left Her Body

Thoughts On A Sunday

The rain we had a couple of days ago certainly put a dent in the snow cover up here at the lake. It looked like we were going to have another Christmas without snow. However, the Weather Guys^TM are saying we’ll get some snow on Tuesday, somewhere between 2 and 4 inches, which means we may have a White Christmas after all.

Speaking of Christmas, the WP Mom and I will be traveling down to one of the WP sisters home on Christmas to celebrate the day. Fortunately, almost the entire trip will be on major highways well outside of Boston and should keep our travel time there to around 90 minutes.

The work to empty the Official Weekend Pundit Storage Unit continues. BeezleBub and I did make one trip between there and The Gulch to retrieve an antique dresser that had once belonged to my paternal grandparents, one I used when I was attending college and later in my first apartment when I moved to New Hampshire. While it isn’t valuable and could use a little restoration work (a knob on one drawer is missing), it will fill a need here at The Gulch.

If things work according to plan, the storage unit will be empty before New Year’s. My ex still has a bunch of furniture there and I do have a few more items to move to The Gulch except for a couple of containers of books which will be going to my town’s library to be sold during their annual book sale later next year.

==+++++==

It seems the moves by universities and colleges to bolster minority enrollments, paid for by federal funds, are in fact unconstitutional. It discriminates by race, by ethnicity, by sex, giving precedence to minorities and women by giving them precedence over white men when it comes to admissions. More than one court decision has made this clear where “affirmative action” policies and regulations to give priority to minority students over white students.

One such case was in Supreme Court decision in Regents of the University of California vs Bakke back in 1978.

Allan Bakke, a thirty-five-year-old white man, had twice applied for admission to the University of California Medical School at Davis. He was rejected both times. The school reserved sixteen places in each entering class of one hundred for "qualified" minorities, as part of the university's affirmative action program, in an effort to redress longstanding, unfair minority exclusions from the medical profession. Bakke's qualifications (college GPA and test scores) exceeded those of any of the minority students admitted in the two years Bakke's applications were rejected. Bakke contended, first in the California courts, then in the Supreme Court, that he was excluded from admission solely on the basis of race.

One does not cure injustice caused by discrimination by using discrimination to ‘balance the books’. Yet here we are, 47 years later, seeing that same injustice at universities and colleges being funded by the federal government in direct opposition to the Bakke decision.

The Department of Justice certainly sees a problem with the government funded race based programs – renamed “Minority Serving Institution” programs – which are just a repackaged affirmative action policy that has already been stuck down as unconstitutional.

Fortunately there are already moves in progress that would abolish such programs for good.

(H/T Instapundit)

==+++++==

Quid Pro Quo indeed.

Democrats allow Somalis to commit welfare fraud in exchange for Somalis engaging in election fraud.

It will not surprise me in the least if this turns out to be the case. And if it is, some people need to go to prison, and others need to be deported…after they serve their prison terms.

==+++++==

I have to wonder if this will help or hurt the Pyrite State.

California Court to Decide Whether Moonbattery Is Mental Illness

It’s going to take a court to decide this?

The correlation between moonbattery and mental illness is well established. But is it clinically accurate to say that moonbattery actually is a manifestation of mental illness? The question has legal ramifications.

--snip--

In April 2024, [Riddhi] Patel, [a 28-year-old Indian-American leftist activist who identifies as “non-binary”] appeared at a city council meeting in Bakersfield, California. She stepped up to the microphone and delivered a furious speech about Gaza, metal detectors, oppressors, and revolution. She concluded her remarks with a blunt threat to the elected officials, “We’ll see you at your house, we’ll murder you.”

--snip--

Prosecutors charged her under California Penal Code § 422, which criminalizes willful threats to commit acts that could result in death or great bodily injury, i.e. “terrorism”.

Patel’s lawyers want to refer the case to California’s mental health diversion program — that is, get her off with the insanity defense.

Did she really think she could get away with making threats like that, particularly during a public city council meeting? She must be mentally ill…or a spoiled entitled brat who needs a serious wakeup call. At this point I think it’s a toss-up. Maybe she’s both.

The case has broad implications.

Leftist activists like Patel increasingly act as though they can intimidate, or openly threaten, government officials and conservatives without fear of consequence, particularly when they believe their views are protected by alignment with the media and a dominant political party. Accountability is simply not expected.

Handing out Get Out of Jail Free cards in the name of the insanity defense would make unaccountability official. Presumably this would apply not only to threats but actual violence, which has always been a hallmark of leftism, as Charlie Kirk’s assassination reminds us. But at least it would also make official that leftists are insane.

The Left will use this as a defense for even the most egregious and violent behavior. If they are found mentally ill, then they should be held in a secure mental institution…forever. It should not be used as the aforementioned Get Out of Jail Free card because they believe they are entitled to perform any act in the name of their cause. It means they’re not capable of being able to tell the difference between right or wrong or that they just don’t care and should not be released back out into the public where they will cause more harm. They have to understand the concept of consequences, be they mentally ill or entitled brats who have never had to face consequences for their actions in the past.

==+++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it’s cold and windy, where more snow is expected on Tuesday, and if that is indeed the case, we can have a White Christmas this year.

Christmas Enthusiasm - Where Is It?

As I mentioned in last week’s Thoughts On A Sunday, “This year’s Christmas season seem more subdued than in the past.” Then, I thought it might have been just me ‘seeing’ this, but after talking to a number of family, friends, and acquaintances it isn’t just me.

Not that people aren’t out doing their Christmas shopping. Quite the contrary. But the enthusiasm I’m used to seeing isn’t quite there this year. I’m not seeing nearly as many Christmas decorations. Maybe I’m not paying attention to what’s being shown on television, but it feels like the number of Christmas specials isn’t what we’ve experienced in the past. The usual ones seem to be missing from the Big Three networks. I know some have only been available on streaming, something that I find disturbing.

Maybe I missed it this year, but I didn’t see anything in the TV listings for one of my old standbys, A Charlie Brown Christmas. Over the previous 59 Christmases it’s been shown it was the one Christmas special we never missed. I remember when it first aired back in 1965. (Yes, I am that old.) But it looks like I missed it this year.

Even shopping seems low key. People are out shopping or ordering online, but folks are taking their time, aren’t nearly as frantic as I remember them being. That may change this coming week as we close in on Christmas Day. I’ll wait and see.

I just hope what I’ve been seeing is just an off-year for Christmas, at least around here.

Speaking of Christmas shopping, I haven’t completed mine, but I have made a dent. Not that I am shopping for a lot of people this year. (That number changes from year to year – up some years and down others. This is an in-between year.) I figure I’ll have mine done by Monday afternoon as I only have a few more people to shop for.

At least some traditions within the WP family have continued. The youngest WP sister dropped off a couple of loaves of pulla, a Swedish coffee bread my grandmother used to make all the time. My sister took over after my grandmother passed away. It took a while for my sister to get it right, but she dialed it in some years ago. She drove up to The Gulch from her place south of Boston early this afternoon to drop them off.

And so it goes…

Friday Funny - Marriage Advice

I'll Tell You The Story - Binky And Megabucks

center>

Thoughts On A Sunday

Imagine my surprise when I woke this morning to see that it was snowing. The original forecast by the Weather Guys^TM said little about any snow up here at the lake. Not that there’s been a lot of snow with only a coating showing as I write this, but it is still snowing. (Update: We ended up with almost 4 inches of “only a coating”.) Such are the vagaries of winter weather in New England.

The trusty RAM 1500 is going back into the body shop first thing Monday morning to take care of a loose antenna mount, something they had forgotten to tighten when they replaced the front fenders a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately, it shouldn’t take more than an hour to complete the task which is a good thing as the trusty RAM 1500 will be going back to my mechanic’s later the same day to have its annual undercoating performed. (That will be done first thing Tuesday morning as they will keep the pickup inside overnight to make sure it’s warm which helps the undercoating spread to cover everything being sprayed.)

One thing that has put a small crimp in life is that I haven’t been able to receive any mail for over a week now. New mailboxes were installed to replace the 40+ year old mailboxes that were starting to fall apart. The new mailboxes were installed about a week and a half ago…and they couldn’t find the key for our mailbox. We have no key for our mailbox, so we can’t open it. We keep getting vague responses to our queries about when (or if) we will finally get our keys from our property management company. If it comes to down to it I will inform the USPS about the situation when I go to the main post office to retrieve my mail and ask for a lock change. That will cost $50 to have performed and somehow, I think I’ll be stuck paying for it.

==+++++==

This is something we’ve been watching develop over the past couple of decades, “this” being the increasing decay of so-called Blue Zones – basically blue cities and some blue states. What’s worse is that this decay is deliberate. “There’s a lot ruin in a blue zone. People in neighborhoods work at the preservation of order while they vote for disorder.”

We see that in cities like San Francisco and Portland and Seattle and Chicago and New York. We see that in states like California, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, and New York. Policies, laws, and regulations that may sound good on the surface but are seriously flawed are implemented and everything goes just the opposite of what was promised. Increasingly, the Law of Unintended Consequences comes into play and then the folks that pushed the original policies, laws, and regulations double down which makes things even worse. And then they double down again.

And they’ll blame everyone else for the collapse except the person in the mirror. It always seems that way. I doubt it will be any different this time around.

==+++++==

The subject of Netflix buying Warner Brothers keeps popping up and one of the refrains I keep hearing is that it will lead to end of moviegoing, or so says John Podhoretz. I hate to say it, but the number of people actually going to movie theaters to watch movies has been declining for years. Part of the cause is that movies have been awful lately with only a few hit movies scattered here and there. Another reason is the cost, between the ticket prices and price of refreshments. It’s cheaper to stream a movie even if you pay a small amount above your streaming subscription to do so, refreshments are cheap, and you can pause the movie if you need to visit the bathroom. There’s no travel involved. No worries about parking or other movie patrons causing problems while trying to watch the movie, and so on.

It is true that you don’t get the ‘shared’ experience of watching a movie with hundreds of others which can add to the experience, particularly if you are watching a great movie. I’ve experienced that again and again during my almost 70 years on this planet. Watching the original Star Wars back in 1977 was an incredible experience, one that cannot be replicated watching it for the first time on your 75” OLED 4K UHD television in your living room. It’s not the same.

I’m not saying the moviegoing experience can’t be revived, but it’s going to take some work. Otherwise more theaters will close. (A couple of movie theaters I used to frequent have closed, something that saddens me.)

==+++++==

Is it just me or does this year’s Christmas season seem more subdued than in the past?

Watching the ads on TV, the holiday specials, decorations, sales flyers, community celebrations, and so on, Christmas doesn’t seem to be as festive as I remember them being. I don’t see or feel nearly the amount of wonder of the season whether we’re talking about the religious or secular holiday. It’s like the volume has been turned down and the brightness has been dialed back a bit.

This isn’t cynicism on my part as I love Christmas and always have. But something seems off about it this year, something I can’t quite put my finger on.

==+++++==

I found this to be highly amusing.

It turns out the “Epstein” photo released by Democrats turns out to be Trump with Miss Universe contestants in 1996.

I have to guess the Democrats thought they finally had something on Trump with the photo showing him with a bevy of beautiful women, trying to twist it so it was ‘proof’ he’d been a customer of Epstein. What’s even more telling – Donald Trump owned the Miss Universe pageant back then.

I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about the photo.

==+++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where more snow had fallen, the lake is freezing up, and where I don’t care if Monday is returning because I’m on vacation!

News Coverage Of The Brown University Shootings

It was while I was watching the UConn Huskies Women’s basketball game against the USC Trojans that the “Breaking News” logo popped on the screen to report on the news of a shooting on the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. At the time the news was spotty and not much of the way in details were known or available.

While you will get no argument from me about the tragedy of such a crime nor about prayers for the victims and families of the victims, you will see that I was not pleased with the quality of the news coverage. In this case it was the news team from Boston’s WFXT Channel 25, a Fox affiliate, that was covering the news.

My complaint?

The incessant reporting that they really didn’t know anything other than a shooting had taken place. Oh, there was a lot of speculation whether it was one or more shooters. There were reports of casualties, but that was it. Facts dribbled in here and there, with one of the final reports before they returned to their “regular program” after almost an hour of reporting they didn’t really know anything was that there were two confirmed deaths. There as continuing speculation about motive, suspects, and related subjects ad nauseum which added absolutely nothing to the story. What took them almost an hour could have been handled in 15 minutes with the occasional break for updates. It seemed to me that the reporters and news anchors were more interested in the sound of their own voices than providing any actual news. To quote Don Henley from his song Dirty Laundry:

We got the bubbleheaded bleach-blonde
Comes on at 5
She can tell you about the plane crash
With a gleam in her eye
It's interesting when people die
Give us dirty laundry

You don't really need to find out
What's going on
You don't really want to know just
How far it's gone
Just leave well enough alone
Keep your dirty laundry

It’s almost like some of the news media just can’t wait for tragedy, for death, for injuries so they can pontificate about This, That, and The Other Thing. I have no idea how any of the other news outlets handled the report, but I’m going to guess they were no different than the channel I was watching.

What’s the old saying when it comes to news?

If it Bleeds, it Leads.

Am I just being cynical? Yup. But then I earned the right to be cynical after almost 70 years on this earth.

Friday Funny - Dishwasher Is Broken

I'll Tell You The Story - Fern's Tattoo

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s a relatively warm day here at the lake, ‘warm’ being defined as “in the low 30’s”. I was out, performing my usual Sunday morning shopping at Walmart when I realized it really didn’t feel all that cold. But then, the temperature wasn’t in single digits. It’s been sunny, something that will certainly help some of the remaining ice on the driveway, making room for some more snow overnight (though it will likely only be a dusting here) as well as some more snow forecast for Wednesday.

I have three more days of work – Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday – and I will then be on vacation until January 5th. I hadn’t paid attention to how much vacation I used this year and realized I had almost 3 weeks of unused vacation left, so rather than losing it I figured I’d take it now. Not that things are all that busy at work in December as it is one of our ‘slow’ months.

I won’t be slacking off by any means as I have a long list of “Things To Do” while I am on vacation, one of them being emptying out the Official Weekend Pundit Storage Unit which contains some of the last items from The Manse that I had no room for here at The Gulch. My ex and I have been slowly emptying it out and the few things that remain are primarily furniture that the ex-wife plans to sell. Ony one furniture item is mine – a 200+-year old dresser that was my grandfather’s - and it will be coming here to The Gulch. Rent for the storage unit will be one expense I will not be sad to see go away.

==+++++==

Here it is, Pearl Harbor Day, “a day that will live in infamy”. It was 84 years ago today that the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor and brought the US into World War II. Like 84 years later, it was also a Sunday. Everyone who was alive back then knew where they were when they heard the news, just like those alive on September 11th, 2001 knows where they were when they heard the news about the attacks on the World Trade Center towers.

I’d like to think that we will never have to experience such events again…but I’m not that naïve.

==+++++==

I heard about Netflix purchasing Warner Brothers and my first thought was “Netflix has enough money to buy them? Really?”

I must admit I really don’t have any feelings about this one way or the other as compared to some folks. I stopped paying attention to the doings in Hollywood, particularly after Disney sold out and went woke as well as Hollywood churning out so-called “message movies” that preach progressivism to audiences rather than entertaining them. (As I have mentioned a number of times before, it looks like Hollywood needs to relearn the lesson that message movies aren’t popular for the reason mentioned above and that they always lose money.)

However, the real question is whether the acquisition of Warner Brothers will be a good thing or a bad thing? Only time will tell.

While I haven’t been in a movie theater for years, I do stream movies now and then or pull out one of the DVDs or BluRay disks from my library. I have Netflix membership so it will be interesting to see what they will offer going forward.

==+++++==

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that it looked like we’d be seeing an old-fashioned New England winter this winter and it looks like the folks at MIT are saying it could be the harshest winter in the US in 12 years.

I have no real problem with a real old-fashioned New England winter. I’ve lived through enough of them over the past 60+ years and I’m still here.

Heavy snow? Check.

Blizzard conditions? Check.

Sub-zero temperatures? Check.

High winds and drifting snow? Check.

Hunkering down and watching the snow fall while sitting in front of the woodstove? Check.

A 4x4 pickup with great AT tires, tire chains, and a full tank of gas? Check.

Snow shovel, snowblower, and roof rake? Check.

Generator and fuel for same? Check.

Yeah, I think we’re pretty well set for a traditional New England winter.

==+++++==

This is why we need to really tighten our controls over immigration, particularly when it comes to criminal immigrants (and I don’t mean illegal immigrants in this case):

Muslim Migrant Rapes Woman to Death On Church Steps After Nashville Freed Somali Rapist 16 Times

Excuse me? Sixteen Times?

A 34-year-old woman was raped to death on the front steps of a Nashville church, in public, under streetlights, caught in progress by firefighters.

Her accused killer?

A 39-year-old Somali repeat offender with multiple identities and 16 prior charges for sexual battery, indecent exposure, trespass, drug offenses, and more.

--snip--

Authorities can’t even agree on his real name – Mohamed Mohamed, Mohamed Abdi, “Mdamed” Mohamed, or Ceter Mohammad.

If the courts can’t identify him, how are they protecting anyone?

Despite raping a woman to death, the judge set just $75,000 bond per rape charge, meaning he could have walked free again. The only thing stopping his release was an ICE detainer.

This wasn’t an accident.

It was the direct result of judges, prosecutors, and politicians choosing leniency over public safety.

If this had happened up here in New Hampshire he wouldn’t have been set free on bail after the first rape. And since he killed his latest victim during the commission of another felony, he would be ineligible for bail. One thing Tennessee has that New Hampshire no longer has is the death penalty. I hope this ‘miscreant’ gets the death penalty once he’s properly tried and convicted. Then there will be no need to deport him.

Of course, this assumes a Tennessee judge doesn’t release him on bail…again.

==+++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter is making itself at home, the lake is freezing over ahead of schedule, and where Monday is returning all too soon.

It's Going To Be A Normal New England Winter

I don’t know about you, but I have been looking at forecasts for this coming winter and I am beginning to think that the ones predicting a colder and snowier winter here in New England may be right.

Here at the lake we’ve seen temperatures well below average, with one overnight low reaching 0°F just a couple of days ago. (It was 2°F here at The Gulch that same morning.) We’ve seen quite a bit of snow, receiving just shy of 11 inches of snow here earlier this past week. Our local ski resort opened this weekend, with plenty of natural and manmade snow on the trails. We’ll be seeing single digit temps and more snow this coming week.

Another indicator is the ice on the lake and some of the local ponds. One such pond has had ice on it from shore to shore for the past three weeks, well ahead of when we usually see it. The cove where the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout is docked during boating season is also frozen over, again weeks ahead of when we usually see it.

My little town’s road crews had a chance to try out their plows and sanders to make sure everything was ready for the coming winter. We’re also hoping the town’s ice rink will be ready sometime after Christmas after undergoing some major renovations.

Going back to the ski resort for a moment, I’ve seen the major resorts here in New Hampshire as well as Vermont are ready to go, with quite a few of them already open. There’s also more than enough snow around for some of the snowmobile trails to be open, but I don’t know if any are open at the moment.

The heavy winter drapes went up over the slider here at The Gulch last weekend and I’m glad I got them up because we certainly needed it on the single digit temperature nights. I also dug out the el cheapo humidifier I use to keep the humidity inside at a reasonable level which makes it feel warmer. (Humid air retains heat better than dry air and feels warmer even at the same temperature.)

I’ve seen more than a few cars have already mounted their snow tires in preparation for winter snow. It’s something I always suggest, particularly to newcomers who have never had to deal with a northern New England winter. The ubiquitous “All Season” tires are a poor compromise at best and don’t have anywhere near the traction of actual snow tires. I proved that when I used to have my trusty Dodge Neon and after a couple of winters decided I needed snow tires and had it shod with Nokian Hakkapeliitta’s, some of the best snow tires I’ve ever used. I could navigate snowy roads better than some 4x4’s shod with All Season tires. (The trusty RAM 1500 is shod with Cooper AT’s at the moment and I have found them to be pretty effective during the winter.)

One other preparation I’ve made is ensuring the Official Weekend Pundit Generator is ready to go, having changed the oil and firing it up to make sure it works. Hopefully I won’t need it, but when we get an ice storm or a Nor’easter with heavy winds, you can almost guarantee a power outage.

For the moment we’re almost ready to handle the winter. The only thing left to do is to get the trusty RAM 1500 an oil change which will happen this coming week and its winter undercoating which will take place in another week-and-a-half.

Now all I need to do is find the tire chains for the trusty RAM 1500.

Friday Funny - Three Nuns