Recently in Thoughts On A Sunday Category

It's been a busy day here at Weekend Pundit, meaning this will be a rather brief edition of Thoughts On A Sunday.

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It was BeezleBub's last day working full time at the farm this summer. As school starts Wednesday and his normal day off is Monday, it didn't seem prudent for him to work Tuesday as he'll be busy enough getting ready for school. He'll still put in a full day on Saturdays until the after the farm stand closes the weekend before Halloween.

As he told me the other day, he's looking forward to starting school so he "can get some rest."

That's my boy!

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Now that the 2008 Summer Olympics Games have come to a close, we can start paying attention to a real circus - the upcoming Democratic Convention in Denver.

I'll be blogging about the convention for Weekend Pundit and Dodgeblogium, the latter to provide some Yankee insight into the convention for the British readers of Andrew Ian Dodge's blog.

This is something I did for the New Hampshire Primary and Andrew asked me to comment upon the conventions as well.

As I wrote to Andrew when responding to his request, "I have a feeling the Democratic Convention will be quite...umm...dramatic."

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And speaking of the convention, it hasn't even started, yet there are already anti-war protests. One of those protesting is Cindy Sheehan. She is so yesterday and so pathetic.

There are plenty of Gold Star Mothers I know that would give her a run for her money, particularly since she wouldn't be able to claim some kind of moral superiority over them because they lost children to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, too.

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A post-veep announcement poll shows there's been no bounce for Obama, with the presidential race remaining a dead heat.

That's got to be encouraging for McCain.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where school starts soon enough, politics follows close behind, and we're still hoping for another two months of boating.

It looks like summer has returned, at least for the next few days or so. It figures. There's only a week and half before BeezleBub goes back to school. We have plans to make the most of our mutual day off tomorrow, with as much time out on the lake as we can possibly squeeze in.

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I caught Chris Matthews this morning while waiting for BeezleBub to get ready for work.

Matthews brought up an interesting point about Barack Obama's campaign: He's running against George Bush and not John McCain. Even an NBC/WSJ poll shows many of Obama's supporters believe he's running on an "I'm not George Bush" platform. The problem is that he's supposed to be running against JohnMcCain.

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John McCain has turned Obama's campaign slogan ("Change we can believe in!") against him, stating change in and of itself isn't good if it's the wrong kind of change, and that Obama is offering nothing but the wrong kind of change, and too much of it too quickly.

McCain says he's also for change, but for change that will revive the economy, not send it down the tubes as Obama's proposals will certainly accomplish.

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John Stossel tackles job discrimination, specifically age discrimination.

Most everyone says anti-discrimination laws are good laws, especially those that protect older workers.

But they're not.

It's one thing if someone is fired merely because of their age (sometimes triggered by the fact they get paid more for a particular job than someone far youger), but what if they're fired merely because their position no longer meets the need of the employer? Should the anti-discrimination laws protect someone under those circumstances? Of course not. But to hear some folks talk, you'd think that no one over a certain age should be fired for any reason because "it's discrimination."

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It seems the ink is barely dry on the cease fire agreement between Georgia and Russia before Russia shows its true stripes and continues to spread its forces through more territory in Georgia. Despite claims that they're there to ensure order in the separatists provinces in Georgia, it's really about control of natural resources.

Georgia has pipelines that carry oil and natural gas from Azerbaijan to the Black Sea that bypass Russia. Putin doesn't like that because it means he can't control the energy supplies to the rest of Europe, meaning he can't control Europe. The answer? Create a situation in Georgia to "protect ethnic Russians" allowimg Russia to seize those oil and natural gas facilities, and hence, control of the flow of energy in to Europe.

It's nothing but theft writ large by an authoritarian kleptocrat that will allow no competition.

(Before you write, I know Putin is no longer President of Russia, but Prime Minister. However, President Medvedev is nothing but a figurehead, a puppet for Putin to control. Medvedev may speak the words, but they were written by Putin.)

But it's quite possible Putin's move on Georgia has backfired on him. It has also been suggested that in order to prevent Russia's use of the "ethnic Russian" excuse, it would be cheaper for Eastern European nations to pay the ethnic Russians in their countries to return to Russia than to spend money to defend themselves from Russian incursions.

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Dennis Prager explains why he is not a liberal.

The following is a list of beliefs that I hold. Nearly every one of them was a liberal position until the late 1960s. Not one of them is now.

- I believe that the bigger government gets and the more powerful the state becomes, the greater the threat to individual liberty and the greater the likelihood that evil will ensue. In the 20th century, the powerful state, not religion, was the greatest purveyor of evil in the world.

- I believe that the United States of America, from its inception, has been based on the Judeo-Christian value system, not secular Enlightenment values alone, and therefore the secularization of American society will lead to the collapse of America as a great country.

- I believe that the American military has done more to preserve and foster goodness and liberty on Earth than all the artists and professors in America put together.

- I believe that the trial lawyers associations and teachers unions, the greatest donors to the Democratic Party, have done great harm to American life -- far more than, let us say, oil companies and pharmaceutical companies, the targets of liberal opprobrium.

And those are only a few of the reasons he lists for not being a liberal. I happen to agree with every single one.

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Will the four-day work week become more common? Unlike the mandated 35-hour workweek in France, this is something that businesses in the US have been considering in an effort to reduce energy usage and decrease the commuting costs for their employees. Some businesses also see the move as a way to retain existing employees as well as attracting new ones.

The hours worked during the week will remain the same, meaning four 10-hour workdays, but that doesn't seem to be an issue with many workers.

I know I'm more than willing to make that kind of change, my employer having experimented with that kind of schedule during summer months a few years ago. It made for a great summer with more leisure time available without the need to burn vacation time to enjoy it. And while my commute to work isn't all that long - 8 miles one way - plenty of my fellow employees commute quite some distance would be able to cut that commute by 20% each week, meaning more of their money stays in their pockets. That's one heck of an incentive.

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Ace of Spades believes John McCain had it all over Barack Obama at Saddleback. To quote Drew, "If I were Obama and his people, I'd be trying to figure out how to get out of the debates. The two of them just aren't in the same league."

That's not news to me.

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The AEGIS weapons system, consisting of the AEGIS radar and Standard Missile series of anti-aircraft/anti-missile interceptors has undergone continuous development since the late 1970's. I worked on some of the radar subsystems and SM-2 guidance subsystems when I was employed by Raytheon. Even then the system was awesome. Today it's even more so, with the ability to intercept sub-orbital warheads and low altitude satellites, giving it the means to provide greater protection to carrier battle groups as well as naval ships operating in littoral waters during close to shore/amphibious operations.

That's a capability we only dreamed about way back when.

(H/T Instapundit)

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer weather has returned, boating is now possible, and where many of us still have lawns that badly need mowing.

While yesterday provided weather we haven't seen in a while - a bright and sunny day - we didn't have as much as an opportunity to enjoy it as we might have.

I checked out the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout to make sure there was no damage caused by the series of thunderstorms that have ravaged the Lakes Region in New Hampshire the past few days. Heavy downpours dropping two or three inches of rain in less than half an hour caused flash flooding in a number of areas, and killing a 7-year old girl at a campground owned by friends of our family. Roads were washed out and tourist areas damaged, including the boardwalk and train tracks at Weirs Beach, one of the more popular summer destinations on the lake. We've had so much rain that we've already had more rainfall than is normal for the entire year.

The spring-like weather pattern given us sun in the mornings and showers and heavy thunderstorms in the afternoons and evenings. It's made for poor boating conditions for the WP family as most of our boating is usually done after work during the week and weekend and on Mondays (the only day off all three of us have off in common). We've managed a small portion of the boating we'd planned for the summer, all due to the weird weather pattern we've been experiencing for almost 2 months.

We had a sunny morning today, but by noon the thunderstorms and heavy downpours swept through the area. Some of the precipitation here at The Manse included pea-sized hail. We experienced a second round later in the afternoon.

So far the summer weather has been a real bummer.
 

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Is Russia's invasion of Georgia the start of an effort to rebuild the old Soviet empire? Or was the decision to do that based purely on being able to maintain an energy monopoly in Europe?

Either way, it appears the bad old days of the Cold War may return...with a vengeance.

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Speaking of the invasion of Russia, the responses of the two putative Presidential candidates illustrate one of the major differences between them. McCain's response sounded like something I would expect of a president, while Obama's was a "vapid statement that would ingratiate him with the State Department while not requiring any distraction from his Hawaii vacation."

John Hindraker concludes his post with something with which I cannot disagree:

It is often said that Obama is not ready to be President, but I don't think this is exactly right. It seems pretty obvious that Obama, given his temperament, his self-regard, his blithe ignorance of history and of the material conditions of life on this planet, will never be ready to be President. He is not unready: he is unsuited for, and inadequate to, the office.

'Nuff said.

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

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Dr. Helen comments about an article claiming men in Scandinavia are being feminized against their will and the fallout from those efforts.

As interesting as her post is, it is the comments where the real action takes place.

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Professor Bainbridge reports on further collateral damage from the incompetence of the Prince George County police department and their raid on the residence of the mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland. He also makes mention of the fact that the same kinds of mistaken raids on homes of those with black or brown skin are vastly under-reported by the media.

(H/T Instapundit)

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Soulmaster Isaac Hayes has died.

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Jay Tea, one of my favorite Wizbangians, gets into the definition of Orwellian, its relation to Obama, the Democrats, and efforts by leftist activists to silence dissent from the Right through intimidation and outright lies.

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The Jerusalem Post has a positive article about John McCain, character, honor, and humility...and how other Presidential candidates have little of what McCain in spades.

Is this a partisan piece? You betcha. So what?

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We've been watching the Olympics in Beijing. It's been a long time since I've had much interest in the Olympics, but this time around I've been watching whenever I can. Part of it may be the incredibly good coverage provided by NBC, some of the best I've seen in years. The rest might be explained by the location of this summer's Olympiad and the high quality of the competitors this time around.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather is stuck in a spring pattern, flash flooding is a daily worry, and where we're still waiting to get back out on the lake.

As I mentioned in the previous post, we went to see Styx and Boston in concert last night. Both Skip of GraniteGrok and Bogie of Bogieblog were also in attendance.

BeezleBub said he enjoyed Styx more than Boston, though I liked both. Being a big Boston fan, I liked their set better, but they were both excellent!

Boston's new lead singer, Tommy DeCarlo, absolutely blew me away. They made the right decision asking him to join the band.

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We're still seeing this Florida weather cycle - sunny in the morning, cloudy with showers and thundershowers in the afternoon - and I'm getting pretty sick of it. The Weather Guys™ have been telling us it's being caused by a 'trapped' low pressure area in Canada steering the weather into this pattern. This has been going on since June.

So now we know the real cause of Anthropogenic Global Warming: Canadians!

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Here's more on MIT's electrolysis breakthrough I posted about earlier that will make residential solar and residential/commercial wind power far more practical and cheaper.

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Heard this weekend on NPR's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me (from memory):

Al Gore also admitted to being a space alien. His plans to cool our planet will allow his fellow aliens to colonize our frigid planet...

If it's true that Al Gore is a space alien, then a whole bunch of his Inconvenient Truth claims start to make sense.

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Bruce at No Looking Backwards lets us know what he really thinks about Nanci Pelosi, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty, Barack Obama, and the Brady Center.

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It appears Obama is proposing the Europeanization of America by mandating that everyone here should learn Spanish, since so many people in Europe speak more than one language. As one commenter to the above linked post wrote, "Obama only speaks English - what a poseur."

I have a number of problems with this idea. One of them is that Spanish wouldn't do us any good here in northern New England where the second language of choice is most often French due to the proximity of Quebec and the large number of residents of French Canadian descent. Another is that multi-lingual capability is necessary in Europe where one can drive through four countries in less eight hours while it would take days to drive from coast to coast in the US without ever needing to speak anything but English.

Somehow Obama seems to think multi-lingual ability equates to sophistication. I'm sure my late grandmother (from Finland) would find it amusing that she would be though of as sophisticated just because she could speak Finnish, Swedish, and English. Not bad for a former housekeeper!

Obama needs to be reminded that the United States is not in Europe. In a country this large, with a historically diverse ethnic population, language becomes a unifier. The fact that English is the one language spoken in a country of this size provides evidence of our independence and unity.

But Obama wants "change we can believe in!" I'm not sure I like his idea of "change".

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The housing slump/foreclosure debacle has claimed another victim, this one close to home.

A neighbor and friend of ours, a single mother of two, lost her house to foreclosure when her mortgage rate reset and her payments rose beyond her ability to pay. Today she and her kids had to move out of the house, being ordered to vacate by Monday, August 4. I was over at her place helping her pack and putting boxes into her SUV. Later in the morning other friends and family arrived with a rental truck, some pickups, and a trailer to help her move her belongings to her new lodgings.

Ironically, the place she's renting is only a little smaller than her house, but she's paying almost $1000 per month less to rent it than she was paying for mortgage and taxes on the place she lost.

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I've noticed the number of homes for sale in this area has increased quite a bit over the past two months. More than a few of them are owned by seasonal residents, meaning the urgency of a sale isn't there since most seasonal home owners aren't under time constraints to sell quickly.

Another WP neighbor just listed her home for sale, but she's selling because she's building a new (and bigger) house than the one she has now, a small seasonal camp converted to a year round home.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where rock legends come to play, homes are falling on the auction block, and where BeezleBub and I will be spending Monday out on the lake.

Cleanup continues in the area of New Hampshire hit by a tornado this past Thursday. We rarely see tornadoes here in the Granite State, but they do make an appearance now and then.

Deb and I managed to avoid the storm by pure happenstance, having driven through part of the area damaged by the tornado only an hour before it hit.

I guess timing is everything.

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This is something I realized a long time ago:

The NEA is the mirror image of the Taliban.

Considering the resolutions passed by the NEA during their annual convention held over the Fourth of July, I'd say the NEA is scarier than the Taliban.

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

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Neo-Neocon comments upon Obama's travels and speeches and comes to the conclusion that his actions may have played directly into John McCain's hands, showing Obama for the ambitious showboat he is.

She also links to a post she wrote over a year ago offering an analysis of Obama and stands by what she wrote back then as nothing has happened to change her opinion of him.

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The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Virginia contains the seventh largest deposit of uranium in the world, but the anti-nuclear kooks are willing to do anything to prevent the mining of that uranium, even lie through their teeth.

To quote Jack Dunavant, who tries to "paint a picture of environmental apocalypse":

"There will be a dead zone within a 30 mile radius of the mine," he says with a courtly drawl. "Nothing will grow. Animals will die. The radiation genetically alters tissue. Animals will not be able to reproduce. We'll see malformed fetuses."

It is the typically overblown rhetoric used to elicit fear even though there is no basis to make any such claim. But isn't that what many of these anti-nuclear wackos do, appeal to emotion rather than fact?

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Why is it I'm not surprised that labor unions are all for making it easier to intimidate workers into forming unions?

Despite their claims of employer intimidation, supposedly abetted by the use of secret ballots, it is they who will use intimidation by requiring an "open" vote, overseen by union officials.

Related stuff here.

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Eric the Viking links to an Economist article that makes the statement "the election is Obama's to lose". This statement is based upon the state of the US economy and Obama's plans to increase taxes and redistribute wealth.

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Thunderstorms had been threatening all afternoon and finally swept through this part of New Hampshire. At least they weren't as bad as the ones that hit this area on Thursday. About the only threat these storms posed was some localized flooding.

I'd take that any day over the tornadoes we experienced last week.

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Speaking of weather, we're hoping to make it out on the lake Monday morning as it looks like the best weather of the day will be before noon. It's been almost two weeks since we've been able get out on the lake due to the unusual weather cycle we've been experiencing the past few weeks; morning weather great, early afternoon weather clouding up, and thunderstorms late afternoon and early evening. With BeezleBub working until 4PM most days and feeling pretty tired once he gets home, evening trips have been out of the question. So tomorrow will be our first real chance in a while.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather has been unkind, Leann Rimes is performing at Meadowbrook, and where we hope to get some boating in tomorrow.

It's been an interesting few days around here, with thunderstorms and even a few funnel clouds making appearances during the afternoons. It has made any idea of time out on the lake a non-starter. The idea of being out in the middle of the lake during a thunderstorm is not one that fills me with the warm and fuzzies. I've ridden out more than one storm in a boat and it was never a pleasant experience.

Maybe free time and better weather will allow us some time out on Lake Winnipesaukee on Monday.

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I saw this linked on a number of other blogs and I finally got around to reading it. All I can say is it's a good thing their story aired on radio and not TV. If it had, there's no way the two women in the story would receive one bit of sympathy for their plight.

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The fact that more people are shopping online to save money and gas doesn't surprise me in the least. I know the WP household has been doing more online shopping and less time going to brick-and-mortar stores.

Even more about online shopping here.

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At least one celebrity environmentalist talks the talk and walks the walk, unlike Al Gore and the rest of the Gulfstream environmentalists.

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Michael Gerson wonders whether the environment will survive the environmentalists? The question also brings to mind this characterization of Al Gore. All I can say is that it caused chills to run up and down my spine.

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Are Barack Obama's campaign rhetoric so lacking in facts as to make his promises meaningless? Thomas Sowell things so.

As the hypnotic mantra of "change" is repeated endlessly, few people even raise the question of whether what few specifics we hear represent any real change, much less a change for the better.

Raising taxes, increasing government spending and demonizing business? That is straight out of the New Deal of the 1930s.

It also sounds like a repeat of the Democrat mantra of the days of LBJ's Great Society. Do we really want to go there?

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Just who the heck does Barack Obama think he is?
 

Americans are beginning to notice Obama's elevated opinion of himself. There's nothing new about narcissism in politics. Every senator looks in the mirror and sees a president. Nonetheless, has there ever been a presidential nominee with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements?

Obama is a three-year senator without a single important legislative achievement to his name, a former Illinois state senator who voted "present" nearly 130 times. As president of the Harvard Law Review, as law professor and as legislator, has he ever produced a single notable piece of scholarship? Written a single memorable article? His most memorable work is a biography of his favorite subject: himself.

He sure as heck isn't JFK or Ronald Reagan, that's for sure.

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It appears Hollywood is incapable of making a good Iraq War movie. Could it be because the message Hollywood is sending is one of defeat and psychosis?

As one commenter reminded us:

There is a quote attributed to Sam Goldwyn,the classic (successful) producer of Hollywood's own Golden Age:

"If you want to send them a message, call Western Union."

Still true today.

(H/T Instapundit)

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Is the EPA making a bid to take over the country? With their latest Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, they announced they will make CO₂ a regulated pollutant. How the hell will they do that? Will they need to eliminate all sources of CO₂, including people? Hasn't anyone told them CO₂ is a necessary part of our atmosphere? Obviously not.
 

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the rain doesn't want to go away, the EPA wants to regulate your respiration, and where we're still hoping to get out on the lake...sometime soon.

It's been over a week since we've managed to make it out on to the lake. Between jobs, meetings, and weather, we haven't been able to pull it off. Even today is iffy due to the high winds that started late yesterday. We do have plans to make it out on the lake tomorrow, the one day that Deb, BeezleBub and I all have a day off. (Yeah, I'm on my summer work schedule, with every Monday off between now and September.)

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Fellow New Hampshire blogger Bruce of No Looking Backwards is already preparing for the upcoming heating season, having procured a woodstove insert for his home. Yours truly commented, giving him a little advice about what needs to be done before he starts using it to heat his home.

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Speaking of woodstoves, we start prepping the Official Weekend Pundit Woodstove next month, with a visit by the chimney sweep and the replacement of the gasket on the stove door.

We begin hauling firewood from the WP In-Laws in September...all seven cords of it. We'll make two trips in the fall, not wishing to repeat the experience we had last March.

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Watching this morning's edition of Good Morning America I was surprised to see a report about how the so-called recession is more in the minds of people rather than a fact. Another surprise: they placed a lot of the blame on the media for making a weakened economy even worse by stoking consumers' fears about a recession, making many people dial back their spending. Call it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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At least US exports have reached record levels.

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Will the trend towards four day school weeks/work weeks continue as energy prices continue their climb? I dare say it will. There's a lot of money to be saved by reducing the number of days kids must be bussed to and from school or workers must commute to and from their jobs. With schools, it also reduces the number of days the thermostats must be turned up during the heating season.

As I've mentioned before, my employer is considering doing something along these lines, at least as far as reducing the number of commuting days. Unfortunately sales and technical support require 5 days per week coverage, though there may be ways of working around that with call forwarding and remote access to the corporate network.

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It looks like Paul Campos has got it all figured out: The Elitists will fix everything.

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The shockwaves from the Supreme Court's Heller decision still reverberate among the anti-gun MSM and politicians. Some still haven't quite clued in that legally owned guns aren't the problem and never have been. Others aren't willing to believe the Framers of the Constitution meant exactly what they wrote or that the Bill of Rights didn't grant rights to the people, but enumerated them as a natural rights that cannot be infringed. John Stossel tries to set them right.

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Here's yet another example of politically correct idiocy.

At a recent meeting of city officials in Dallas County, Texas, a small racial brouhaha broke out. County commissioners were hashing out difficulties with way the central collections office handles traffic tickets. Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield found himself guilty of talking while white. He observed that the bureaucracy "has become a black hole" for lost paperwork.

Fellow Commissioner John Wiley Price took great offense, shouting, "Excuse me!" That office, the black commissioner explained, has become a "white hole."

Seizing on the outrage, Judge Thomas Jones demanded that Mayfield apologize for the "racially insensitive analogy," in the words of the Dallas Morning News' City Hall Blog.

You have got to be kidding me! Making reference to an astronomic phenomenon is a "racially insensitive analogy"? Somebody needs to be taken out behind the woodshed to have this politically correct BS beaten out of them. This is the most asinine thing I've ever heard.

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Coyote has some interesting links, thoughts, and comments about taxes and their effect on the economy. One commenter proves he didn't pay attention during his Econ 101 classes, assuming he even took an economy course.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer vacation is in full swing, gas prices are still going up, and where I don't have to get up Monday morning!

The Fourth of July weather cooperated, giving us a beautiful day. If only every summer day was like that!

Yesterday was spent at one one of the WP siblings for a family get together. Cousins by the dozen(s) attended and a good time was had by all.

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High gas prices have been having an effect on people's plans for summer vacation. We've certainly seen that here in New Hampshire, with the number of out of state summer tourists down a bit, but in state tourists making up for some of it. A large influx of Canadian tourists have also been making up for the drop in out of state tourists.
 
One place the effect has been quite evident has been out on Lake Winnipesaukee, with boat traffic down a noticeable amount, despite reports in the statewide newspaper to the contrary. I've certainly noticed boat traffic being far less than it has been in previous years. Boat traffic was down last year when gas prices on the lake were $3.50 per gallon. This year it's about $4.60 per gallon. You can't tell me it's not having an effect on boat traffic.
 

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Why does the MSM keep making comparisons between today's economy and the Great Depression? We aren't even in a recession, yet to hear the media tell it we're only a hairsbreadth away from our economy being worse than the Depression.
 
It almost seems they'll be greatly disappointed if the economy doesn't tank and the unemployment rate doesn't reach 20% or higher. It also seems they'll do what they can to make it happen, making dire predictions and scaring the crap out of everyone in order to bring about the economic collapse they want.
 

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Will Obama have to worry about the Veterans For Freedom doing to him what the Swift Boat Veterans did to John Kerry? The VFF will start running TV ads touting the truth of the results of the surge in Iraq and the progress made there and in Afghanistan, which too much of the media has ignored.
 
Obama appears to be ready to flip-flop on Iraq and the VFF will undoubted hammer him on his stands on Iraq and the surge.
 

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And speaking of Barack Obama, making a comparison between him and John McCain when each is "under fire." The response of the two candidates after Wes Clarke slammed John McCain shows one of the differences between the two.
 

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With the rapid rise of oil prices, both businesses and municipalities have been looking for ways to cut energy consumption.
 
Some businesses have shifted their work schedules to reduce the number days their employees must commute, with many of those going to 4 ten-hour work days. By staggering the work schedules the businesses remain open 5 days a week, but commuter costs drop 20%. Other businesses are allowing more of their employees to telecommute.
 
Some police departments have decreased the amount of miles patrol cars will cover during a shift, with officers spending more time on foot or bicycle.
 
Schools in the northern climes have also considered switching to a 4 day schedule to reduce their heating and lighting costs once the heating season starts. This will also reduce the amount of fuel needed to bus students to and from school by 20%.
 

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Speaking of oil prices, is it possible oil prices could collapse? The usual driving forces for rising prices aren't really there. The rising prices seem to be more the result of a bubble, and like all bubbles they eventually deflate or burst.
 

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It looks like al Qaeda in Iraq has finally lost its last stronghold, driven out of Mosul or killed. The once feared terrorist organization has been savaged and is a shadow of its former self. With this development the chances for the Iraqi government's success has increased.
 

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Will the UK economy come to resemble that of the stagnant 1970's? If so, paint PM Gordon Brown gone.
 

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the crowds of the Fourth of July weekend have gone, the quiet has returned, and where quiet boating awaits the rest of us.

BeezleBub made it back from the WP In-Laws Friday and was back at his job at the farm first thing Saturday morning. He's now working his summer schedule, meaning Wednesdays through Sundays in the fields. I'm also starting my summer work schedule after Fourth of July, working 4 days a week - Tuesdays through Fridays - meaning BeezleBub and I will have Mondays off together all summer.

It's going to great summer!

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I loved this "cheap shot" handed out by Tom Maguire during his Heller post because it's all too true:

The same folks who can read the Constitution and Bill of Rights and find an unassailable right to abortion and gay marriage can't find a right to possession of a firearm.

All too true.

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It's been another NASCAR weekend here in New Hampshire. The new owners of the local track, New Hampshire Motor Speedway (formerly the New Hampshire International Speedway), have done a lot of upgrades and renovations in order to make the fan experience better. It would have been nicer if the weather had been a bit more cooperative, the rain on Friday delaying qualifying for the Lenox 301.
 
The race today was shortened by thunderstorms, ending after 280-some laps. That's how it goes in New England.

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Have you wondered what's really driving the rising cost of oil? While some point the finger at the "greedy" oil companies, others to speculators, and yet others to simple supply and demand, the answer isn't necessarily all that simple. At least Coyote gives it a shot, and his ideas sound a lot more likely than some I've heard.

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One not entirely unexpected side effect of higher oil prices is the move of some manufacturing from overseas back to the US. While many goods can still be manufactured cheaper overseas, the cost of transporting them to US markets has skyrocketed, making those goods more expensive than if they had been made here. If oil prices remain high, and it is expected they will, we may see a long lasting resurgence in American manufacturing.

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First Chicago mayor Richard Daley goes ballistic about the Heller decision. Then San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom loses his mind, blathering about the rights of the housing authority versus the right of the people to keep and bear arms.
 
Is one of the requirements to be a mayor of a major city to have their common sense surgically removed?

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Paul Marks asks whether collectivism is triumphing in Europe and the US?

...in the United States the totalitarians look set to take over soon. I have presented evidence that they (both key members of Congress and others) are totalitarians in a previous posting and I will not type it all out again - so I will content myself with wondering whether, when the spiritual son of Saul Alinsky becomes President of the United States, he will invite Bill Ayers (and the other comrades he left Harvard to join in Chicago) to his inauguration.

Let us pray it is not so.

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Former New Hampshire Governor and Democratic US Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen has pledged to severely trim oil company profits in an effort to lower fuel prices. Sounds like a great idea until you do the math and find out that even if the oil company profits were cut to 0%, it would only drop gasoline prices by approximately 36¢ at best (assuming gas is $4 per gallon). 36¢.

That's not a big drop in prices, is it? Like too many Democrats, Mrs. Shaheen has overlooked two important facts about the price of any product for sale: profits are usually a small percentage of the sale price; and what profits are made are used to pay stockholders and to invest in future projects.
 
A 9 percent profit margin is pretty common for just about any business. Some have higher margins, some lower. Do you hear anyone complaining about other businesses with 9% profit margins? I certainly haven't.
 
If Jeanne Shaheen gets her way, how will she explain it to the millions of stockholders why they'll now receive little or nothing in return for their investments?
 
Who are the biggest investors in oil companies? Retirement and pension funds.
 
How will she explain to millions of retirees that their retirement funds have been confiscated by the government? Oh, wait! I almost forgot. That's exactly what Democrats like Shaheen want. It gives them even more control over the American people. Control their money, control the people. After all, we aren't intelligent enough to spend our own money.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the thunderstorms have been having their fun, the NASCAR fans have left until September, and where we're still wondering how we'll pay for heating fuel next winter.

Our family reached yet another milestone Friday: BeezleBub graduated from 8^th Grade! He also found out that, contrary to his beliefs, most of the girls in his class do like him, and at least half of those want to date him.

Thank goodness he's not following in my footsteps in that regard. My belief at that age wasn't a misconception and I didn't really start dating until I was a senior in high school. Even then I had to date girls from another town. (It's a long story with which I have no intention to bore you)

He's off to the WP In-Laws for the week, returning next weekend to work full time at the farm.

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Today was the last day of the annual Laconia Motorcycle Week. Most people expected the number of bikers attending this year to be down considerably from previous years, but it appears those expectations were wrong as officials are saying the number of visitors was pretty much the same as last year. Most of the vendors have reported record sales, so it appears high gas prices did not have as much of an effect as most people expected.

No one knows if this will be true of the rest of the summer tourist season, but I believe Motorcycle Week will be the exception. There are still too many unrented summer cottages and boat slips for this time of the season.

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Unless you've been completely disconnected for the past few days, you've probably heard about the so-called "pregnancy pact" made by a number of teens in Gloucester, Massachusetts. As Rachel Lucas comments, "I can't possibly fathom why this situation is a mystery to anyone who is paying attention to popular culture. Frankly, I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often and on a grander scale."

As one commenter puts it:

Politicaly incorrect and entirely accurate. The academics, in step with Hollywood, have destroyed our culture. Anything Christian is vilified while the poorest and most base behavior is celebrated.

Indeed.

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Do you want a preview of what a single-payer health care system would look like, at least on the financial side? Then look no further than California, and the financial train wreck such a system will create.

The People's Republic of Massachusetts is already feeling the effect of similar system, the so-called RomneyCare system, where the Commonwealth is finding mandatory health insurance is adding almost half a billion to the state budget above and beyond the projected cost.

The question is whether the proponents of a single-payer system are paying attention. At present I see no evidence they are.

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Eric the Viking clues us in the Jeff Jacoby's latest about the coming population bust and what it means for society.

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George Will points out Barack Obama is having problems with crime statistics, preferring to ensure the victimization of an entire class of young men, black young men, rather than allow it to be known the opposite is true.

Is this a tactic the Dems will use in the presidential campaign, trying to create entirely new classes of victims in order to claim they have the remedy for all those new "victims"?

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I know this to be true - attractive women prefer plain men - because it's certainly true in my case. Deb has been getting more attractive, while I look more like Fred Flintstone.

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It appears there is now a link between Iran and Venezuela, with Hugo Chavez providing support and protection to Hezbollah fund-raisers and facilitators. (H/T Maggie's Farm)

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There are two question both Obama and the Democrats have to answer:

How much will oil prices and supplies be affected five or ten years from now if we start drilling for oil now?

and

How much will oil prices and supplies be affected five or ten years from now if we don't?

I don't expect a cogent answer from them any time soon.

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High gas prices are inducing people to drive less? Who'da thunk it?

(H/T Instapundit)

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The weekend here in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire came to a close with a bang. A line of thunderstorms came through the area with heavy rain, high winds, lightning and thunder. It wasn't exactly the kind of ending to the weekend we like to see here. One casualty was the Official Weekend Pundit Deck Canopy, which collapsed under the weight of the heavy rain and high winds. I still don't know if it's salvageable.

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Why is it when Republicans cut budgets they're accused of being cold-hearted and uncaring, but when Democrats cut budgets they're seen as forward looking and responsible?

And so the double standard lives on.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer officially arrived this weekend, the motorcycles have come and gone, and where the call of vacation is starting to come through loud and clear.