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We here at Weekend Pundit want to wish you a very Merry Christmas.

Now shut off your computer and go spend time with your family and friends!

By way of Instapundit comes this piece about all weather radials versus snow tires.

I can say the results were not surprising. From personal experience I can tell you snows make all the difference here in the snow belt.

With the exception of the trusty Ford F150 4X4 (my present form of transportation), I have for the most part driven cars with front wheel drive. With one exception, I always put snows on all four corners come winter. (The one exception was my 1988 Dodge Daytona Shelby Z. Proper sized snows were expensive and really didn't do all that well, so I stopped using them.) Over numerous winters I have found that snows make all the difference, with my car(s) handling snow far better than cars with all season tires. Both the Intrepid (now Deb's car) and my much missed Neon were great in the snow with proper snow tires. (My all time favorites are the Nokian Hakkapelittas, probably one of the best snow tires I've ever come across.)

One more than one occasion my car with snow tires did better than many SUVs and 4X4's with all weather tires. Let's face it, all weathers are a compromise at best and will help should you find yourself dealing with an unexpected blast of snowy weather.

While I wish I could say the trusty F150 was shod with straight-up snows, it sports a set of mud & snow tires which are better than all weather tires (barely), but not as good as a set of aggressive snow tires. Should I have the wherewithal to pick up a spare set of rims for the truck I will spend the money for real honest to goodness snows for next winter.

For the most part, things went swimmingly today.

Work went well, with a start on a couple of new projects. BeezleBub and I went to the town of Epsom to pick up his new (at least new to him) truck - a used Dodge Dakota 4X4 with less than 80,000 miles on it. Deb had the day off and was able to spend a small portion of it with a friend from work. (She also took care of the weekly grocery shopping, picking up a few extra items in light of the approach of Hurricane Irene such as a set of batteries for each of our portable radios.)

All in all it had been a pretty good day...right up to the point when the ceiling in the dining room of The Manse collapsed, accompanied by the sound of water and the thundering of 8 sets of feline paws scrambling up the stairs to the second floor and to safety.

Apparently one of Deb's favorite ways to relax - sitting in nice hot water in what we call "the whirly tub" - led to the disaster. Though I have not yet confirmed it, it appears one of the pipes or hoses that circulate water in the tub sprung a leak. This in turn led to water leaking onto the bathroom floor and between the ceiling of the first floor and the subflooring of the second floor. Eventually enough water pooled in one place and it weakened the drywall to the point where it finally gave way.

Mopping up gallons of water and clearing away sodden and broken drywall is not what I had planned to do on this Friday evening. But there it is.

So first thing Saturday morning I will be placing a call to our insurance company to make arrangements for an adjuster to come out to The Manse and assess the damage.

It will be interesting explaining to the insurance company how it is we had flooding in our home a good day and a half before Hurricane Irene even arrived.

I had every intention of writing something scathing about some wrong or perceived wrong, or the 11^th hour agreement that delayed a government shut down for another week. But forces beyond my control required me to put my efforts into a different area.

You see, I had to rescue Twirl Girl.

While her circumstances weren't as dire as that of many a literary or movie heroine, she was still stuck far from home with a broken down car. BeezleBub wasn't available to come to the rescue as he was busy at the farm (and without any form of transport), working on the new post-and-beam pavilion being built by Farmer Andy and his missus. Twirl Girl's dad couldn't help either because he was with Twirl Girl when her car broke down. So it was up to me.

So off I went in the trusty F150, bringing some tools and other sundry items that might allow a repair of her car. And failing that, the phone number of a local towing company.

Fortunately Twirl Girl had broken down in an area of New Hampshire with which yours truly was familiar, so I had no problem finding them.

To make a long story short, there was no way I was going to be able to fix her car and get it home as the diagnosis of the trouble was not forthcoming. That left only one option - to tow it home.

Before leaving The Manse to rescue Twirl Girl I had called a friend with a trailer capable of hauling her car. Unfortunately it wasn't available. So the only option was a tow truck. A couple of phone calls later we had made arrangements for Twirl Girl's car to be towed home. Then she, her dad, and I piled into the trusty F150 and I took them home.

A little more than four hours after embarking upon this mission of mercy I was back at The Manse.

For not really doing all that much today, I'm beat. Hero-type stuff takes a lot out of you!

Are you ready for the end of the world as we know it?

Apparently these guys are. And so can you for the low low cost of only $25,000 per person!

But wait, if you buy now we'll throw in this set of genuine Ginzu knives!

If this article in the Washington Times is correct, it is.

While I have no problem with DST, I do find it to be a pain changing the clocks twice a year, and even worse, adjusting to the time change.

As it stands now Daylight Savings Time lasts 8 months (from early March to early November) and Standard time only 4 months. I have no problem staying on DST all year long (I'd rather have daylight later in the day during the winter months).

Back in 1973 President Richard Nixon imposed DST year round during the Arab Oil Embargo in an effort to "save" energy. According to the WT article, it doesn't, but I don't care. The things I liked was that we didn't have to change the clocks and we had an extra hour of sunlight after school. Yes, it was dark in the morning on the way to school, but that wasn't as much of a problem as walking home from school in the gathering gloom.

I will admit to being a bit lazy this past November when we made the change back to Standard Time. You see, I never changed the clock in the trusty F150. I figured "Why bother? I'm just gonna have to change it back in a few months anyways." And here we are, approaching that time of year and the clock will now be right and I didn't have to change anything.

Maybe it's time to stick with DST and do away with the twice-a-year clock change.

How many of the celebrities we've followed over the years are hiding a secret known only by a few people? Many would be shocked to find out what they were hiding.

What is the secret to which I refer?

Brains.

No, not the "I want to eat your brains" kind of secret. Rather, it's the fact that they actually have extraordinary smarts.

The latest to make the list of brainy celebs is Academy Award winner Natalie Portman.

She's not just a pretty face, she's also something of a scientist, and has been since her high school days. She also studied neuroscience at Harvard.

A few others to add to the list include Mayim Bialik (Ph.D. in Neurobiology), Danica McKellar (B.S. in Mathematics), Brian May of Queen (Ph.D. in astrophysics), Lisa Kudrow (B.S. in Biology), and one of the most beautiful film actresses ever, Hedy Lamarr (co-inventor of spread spectrum radio communications).

I decided it would be a good time to take a break from political commentary for one day and cover some of the more mundane day-to-day doings here around The Manse. Not that anything of great import takes place here, but I think more than one of you will be able to relate to more than one of the activities with which I am about regale you, to whit:

We had yet another snowstorm yesterday which dumped about 10 inches of snow here. Schools canceled and ski areas prepared themselves for a somewhat larger crowd than they would usually expect on this particular Friday (schools in Massachusetts were closed for February vacation this past week, so we've had lots of skiers up from there spending time on the slopes).

BeezleBub managed to clear a good portion of the driveway before I got home from work, making it a little easier to pull the trusty F150 into the garage. Then we spent the last of the late afternoon clearing the rest of the snow before calling it a day. I was out again early this morning to clean up the last of the snow that fell overnight.

After our little tasks dealing with snow were done, Deb took the trusty F150 to one of our neighboring towns to open our business. I took Deb's car to take BeezleBub and Twirl Girl to meet up with the WP Mother-In-Law at a place we call The Golden Donut, a donut shop that is just about half way between the Manse and the WP In-Laws place. (That's not its real name, but we call it that because of another establishment that used to occupy that site in the past, which is a story for another time.)

He and Twirl Girl will be spending the next few days there during their school vacation collecting sap and boiling it down to make maple syrup. (Most of New Hampshire's schools are closed for vacation this coming week). It will be Twirl Girl's first experience sugaring, meaning she's in for an education.

I took stock of our supply of firewood and, assuming we don't have a lengthy blast of sub-zero weather between now and spring, we'll have enough to make it to the end of heating season.

There's something else I did today that most folks would consider neighborly, but up here in northern New England it's considered a prank: I took the Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower and snowblowed a neighbor's driveway while they've been away on vacation. While I didn't clear everything (I'm not sure where the borders of their driveway happen to be), I did manage to clear about 90% which will allow them to get into their garage without having to trudge through the snow first.

Another guilty pleasure in which I've been indulging is reading, in this case Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville. Though written in the late 1830's, his observations still ring true and give us a foreigner's perspective of our country and our government at all levels, from small town New England to Washington, DC. Though the book is a bit dry, I've found a number of gems that remind me that our nation is unique among all others.

The level of incompetence is difficult to believe. Jewish Senatorial females have been around since the 1990s, guys. Ever heard of Diane Fienstein and Barbara Boxer? Jeez!

I completely agree with Lawrence Auster on this one. And I've subscribed to the monthly American Renaissance newsletter in the past. Racialist, yes. Neo-Nazi? Definitely, no.

Jared Taylor, the founder of the group, wrote a very valuable book on race relations in the early 1990s, _Paved with Good Intentions_.

The level of gubmit incompetence is so breathtaking. I'm never using the USPS again, for example. They lost a check to my mortgage company for nearly $108,000 that I sent certified, return receipt and had insured under priority mail. They can't tell me anything about the whereabouts. It's for the house fire that has caused my house to be completely gutted. The fire was Nov. 16. The check was from my insurance company.

2010 was one of those years. Death in the family--my mother in law who had lived eight years with us. A house fire that caused extensive smoke, heat, and fire damage. Two molars capped--then one of the caps broke and required extensive drilling for a replacement. Three huge, unexpected bills: $7500 for a new furnace, $950 surgery on a wonderful young cat who ingested a huge bolus of plastic, and over $1200 in car repairs. Our savings have been wiped out.

I would be remiss if I didn't include this Public Service Announcement.

By way of Maggie's Farm comes this video which gives us important tips on how to deal with the Zombie Apocalypse during the Christmas holiday:

BeezleBub and I were out Christmas shopping yesterday, heading out around 3:30 in the afternoon. (Yes, I took half a vacation day to duck out of work early. So sue me.) I knew that we would probably miss the evening shopping crowd as we would be hitting the local outlet center just as most folks were heading home for dinner. It turns out we timed it just right.

I though we'd have to park out in the boonies at the outlets, but that wasn't the case. While there were plenty of cars in the lot, there weren't that many. We managed to park all of two rows back from the central section, meaning we didn't have to walk far at all. BeezleBub picked up most of what he needed within 30 minutes and we were on our way to the next stop - WalMart. Another 20 minutes there and we were done.

After a brief dinner stop at Wendy's we were on our way home, and just in time. The moderately heavy traffic we'd seen while heading to the outlets had turned into very slow moving bumper-to-bumper traffic heading towards outlets and other shopping centers.

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One of the most difficult things to find while shopping? Shirt and sweater boxes. Deb needed them so she could wrap some of the clothing she'd bought as gifts. Do you think I could find them anywhere? Nope.

That's one downside to shopping online. When you buy something like that at a store they'll provide boxes to make it easier to wrap them. (Yes, I know some stores will charge for them, but many don't.)

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Something I saw that got me smiling on my way home from last minute Christmas shopping this morning:

Out in front of Funspot, a local year-round amusement center, their electronic sign was flashing it's not unexpected season's greetings messages. Sandwiched among them: "Who is John Galt?"

I wonder how many people driving by there understood the question or its context?

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Driving around various parts of the southern shore of Lake Winnipesaukee this morning I was able to see how much of the lake has frozen over.

Paugus Bay was frozen from its southern-most part to just past Christmas Island. Above that it was all open water. Weirs Beach and Meredith Bay didn't show a bit of ice anywhere. By contrast, all of Alton Bay is frozen over. It could be the wind is stirring up the water enough to keep wide areas of the lake from freezing over.

Considering the annual Meredith Rotary Ice Fishing Derby is a little over a month away, the lake had better hurry up and freeze over.

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Another thing I've noticed while shopping during the past couple of weeks: most folks are either paying cash or using debit cards for their Christmas purchases. Very few are using their credit cards. I did ask a few retailers over the past week or so and they confirmed my observations.

I don't know if this is because of the higher interest rates being charged by card issuers or because card holders nearing their credit limits. Or it could be that people just don't want to see those bills hitting their mailboxes next month. Regardless of the reason, people are using cash and debit far more than they have in quite some time.

Deb has done likewise, forgoing the credit card as much as possible even though she did almost all her shopping online. Not that we didn't use ours, but we kept our use of it to an absolute minimum.

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The Manse is not adorned with its usual level of Christmas lights. Instead we opted for something simpler and more traditional: small white 'candle' lights in each window. The only other adornment is our Christmas tree inside which can be seen through our front windows from the road.

Not that we've ever gone over the top in regards to outdoor Christmas decorations. But we didn't put up the usual outdoor lights outlining The Manse. It wasn't a conscious on our part. Rather our respective work/school schedules left us little time to put them up this year.

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We are heading over the river and through the woods to the In-Laws first thing tomorrow morning.

BeezleBub had hoped to go down there today, but we disabused him of that notion, reminding him we'd have to use two vehicles (Deb is working tonight) and that the sleeping accommodations would be less than optimal. In the end he figured we were right and that going down first thing Christmas morning would be just fine. (Of course his idea of 'first thing in the morning' is 7AM. We'll see.)

Bill Whittle addresses American Exceptionalism, something we know our present President doesn't like and has been working hard to destroy. But I think Obama will find that while he may dent it a bit, he doesn't have the wherewithal to overcome the sheer inertia of American Exceptionalism. American know-how and those providing it will always find a way around those in this country working hard to bring about its downfall.

One thing I found interesting: With only 5% of the world's population, American produces 24% of the world's GDP, which is 3 times more than China produces even though it has over 4 times as many people.

As I wrote here and here, I am not dealing well with the change from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time. I'm not the only one.

Frankly, I think the change back and forth between Standard and Daylight Savings Time has outlived its usefulness. Maybe it's time to do away with the time change entirely and stay with DST year round.

Historically, daylight savings time was proposed by Benjamin Franklin as a way to maintain agricultural productivity and reduce the need for costly candles (they really were a major household expense, back in the day). People rose and worked with the sun, and wound their days down as the sun set. As for resetting their clocks and watches: that wasn't a problem, since most people didn't own one. They assessed time by the sun, or by the sound of church bells.

But that was then, and this is now. We live by electric lights, we live 24/7, we don't start our day with the sun and end it as darkness approaches. To steal a quote from Einstein: "Everything has changed, except our way of thinking."

So here's my proposal: do away with Daylight Savings Time altogether. It's an empty, possibly counterproductive gesture to "saving energy". If people in some areas are worried about the children waiting in the dark for the school bus, they can just start school an hour later. After all, the numbers we assign to the clock and to appointments are human creations and artifacts, which we can redefine and re-label as needed.

I know I prefer daylight later in the day, particularly during the winter months. If DST became the new 'Standard' Time, that would suit me just fine.

The 911 call shows the Costco caller was eminently reasonable and intelligent. Erik Scott was out of control apparently.

Giving welfare recipients voter registration packets? Hmmm. I wonder why that would be so.

Employers: You can no longer take into account prospective employees' criminal pasts. For fear of violating the ruinous--and false--dogma of "disparate impact." Since more brown- and black-skinned people are incarcerated as a percentage of their respective populations, it would therefore be "discriminatory" to take into account said incarceration. Hello, George Orwell.

If you encounter a white person who is actually good at manual labor they are either some kind of performance artist, writing a book, or the host of a show on HGTV.

Has anyone done it better than Mark Twain?

It's here. Notice that the last president who never attended college was a first-class book worm. Truman had large parts of the Bible memorized, for example

"If you voted for Obama ... seek urologic care elsewhere," posts an honest-to-goodness physician. Is he or she a GraniteGrok reader? (Skip has warmed my heart quoting the Randian philosopher Tibor Machan and the great F. Bastiat; his pamphlet The Law is tremendous.)

I don't know why Skip & Chan are so hard on supporters of the left. In a democracy envy becomes most important, that's why not knowing economics is no impediment to having firm convictions. "The rich," after all, can pay for all of it! Most of it, anyway. Here's Bertrand Russell, that left-wing atheist mathematician of yesteryear, writing when clarity was more important than PR:

...when great changes occur the theories which justify them are always a camouflage for passion.  And the passion that has given driving force to democratic theories is undoubtedly the passion of envy.

Steve Sailer wonders aloud why no investment bankers who dented the economy to the tune of a cool trillion haven't been prosecuted. After all, federal prosecutors jailed Martha Stewart for something different than what they were originally investigating her. There are indeed a lot of laws out there.

Because I found myself watching the original Rollerball from 1975...