The Problem with California

As her neighbors’ wells began running dry, Ms. Serrato warned her three children that they should cut down on hour long showers, but they mostly rebuffed her. “They kept saying, ‘No, no, Mama, you’re just too negative,’ ” she said. MSN

Hour long showers? Really? I can take a shower in five minutes, after about ten minutes I'd be banging on the bathroom door and wouldn't take "No, no" for an answer from my kids.  It's hard to feel empathetic towards people like this.  Seems like they get what they deserve, unfortunately her neighbors also get what she deserves.

This is what happens when liberal government removes consequences from peoples lives...

Tulare County, just south of Fresno, recently began aggressively tracking homes without running water, delivering bottles to hundreds of homes and offering applications for biweekly water deliveries, using private donations and money from a state grant. In August, the county placed a 5,000-gallon tank of water in front of a fire station on Lake Success Road, and plans to add a second soon.

“We will give people water as long as we have it, but the truth is, we don’t really know how long that will be,” said Andrew Lockman, who leads the Tulare County Office of Emergency Services. 

Saturday Sessions: The Tower Theater

Photo: Mtruch

I grew up in this neighborhood, my family shopped on this street, and I saw a movie or two here before it returned to its musical past (vaudeville and burlesque) and became a springboard for contemporary musicians.  In 1970 the theater was showing 3rd run movies for the price of $1, in 1972 it showed its first revival concert under the Midnight Sun banner, Dave Mason and Buzzy Linhart.

Also in 1972 it showcased some relatively unknown artists:

Genesis  also had a midnight show here in 1972, tickets were $4

In 1974 a local artist unveiled his new backup band here... The E Street band. It was Springsteen's biggest show yet: $5000

In 1975 the owners of the theater sold to Electric Factory Concerts.  Regulars at The Tower included Jackson Browne, Lou Reed, Steve Miller, and Jerry Garcia. David Bowie returned to record his David Live album. In 1980 Paul Simon performed here as part of his One Trick Pony tour, the concert at The Tower was to become the video Paul Simon in Concert.

The theater continued to showcase both up-and-coming and established artists.

And the theater is still going strong today

The Tower Theater was built in 1927 by John H McClatchy (I grew up in a McClatchy home, he built more than 40,000 and is perhaps most famous for The McClatchy Building) for William Freihofer (of bakery fame), and the interior design was by  Erte; Romain de Tirtoff the noted Art Deco designer.  It opened in 1928 just before the great depression.  Less than a block from the Philadelphia suburban transit hub, the 69th Street Terminal, making it convenient for both suburban and urban concert goers. Contrary to popular belief, the theater is not in Philadelphia.

The Tower Theater

No Force On Earth Can Stop Us

NOT EVEN THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

President Obama gave this message to immigration activists at a dinner last night.  

 

"That's the promise of America then and that's the promise of America now. People who love this country can change it. America isn't Congress."

 

Actually Mr. President you're right, America is a continent, the United States however is represented by the congress of the people assembled.  For a constitutional law scholar, you are either a complete and utter idiot... or you just don't care, and the underlying message in your speech is repugnant to the principles of a democratic republic.

Coyotes, no really, the canine.

Photo:Yathin S Krishnappa

 CUTE HUH?

HOW ABOUT NOW?

 

Coyotes are becoming a problem...

... not just in the United States but all of North and Central America.

“They are killing our animals. They are scaring us. I go out every morning with rocks in my pockets, tennis shoes on, mace on my neck, a whistle on my neck and a foghorn on my leash, and I still don’t feel safe,”

Earlier this month, a woman living in the Leisure World retirement community opened her screen door to pick up her newspaper, only to watch a coyote scamper inside, grab her cat, and run back out. Washington Times

This guy was in Chicago's Lincoln Park

Photo: John Picken

They've been captured in San Francisco's Golden Gate park, New York's Central Park, one even wandered into a Quizno's in downtown Chicago.

Mangled pet carcasses turn up on front lawns, often identifiable only by their tails.  How long before one runs in that open screen door and snatches an infant?

    In rural America, the solution is obvious: Trap and shoot the varmints. In suburbia, however, local governments are increasingly adopting a “coexistence” philosophy promoted by animal rights groups that rejects lethal control in favor of education and behavior modification.

The question is whose behavior is being modified? The coyotes or the humans?

Washington Times

Ebola in Dallas

So you have to figure, what... maybe he flew in on an international flight to maybe La Guardia? Perhaps 250 people on the plane?  Then a flight to Atlanta, say another 225 people on that flight.  The layover in Atlanta, might have eaten lunch at one of the restaurants there, then the flight to Dallas, maybe 225 more people.  

Airports say they are unprepared for screening passengers... does it take a rocket scientist to figure out that maybe, just maybe we ought to be quarantining, or giving thorough screenings to people entering the country with passport stamps from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone?

Just Sayin'

Don't Cry For Me

US District Court

Judge Thomas Griesa declared Argentina in contempt of court Monday in the ongoing saga of Argentina's 100 billion dollar default.  Judge Griesa found that Argentina has been routinely ignoring his court orders for the past year.

Argentina was booked and is being held at Riker's Island.

Photo: Sfoskett

 

Seriously though...

Can a sovereign nation be held in contempt of another nation's courts? Argentina claimed no, calling the action absurd and unlawful interference in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry.  Although the Judge issued the contempt declaration he did not impose any penalties at this time.  Lawyers for the plaintiff asked for $50,000/day in fines. 

Sanctuary

Sanctuary

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy prohibits arrests at religious buildings.  Well that's stupid.

A network of two dozen churches has promised to offer “physical sanctuary” to illegal immigrants facing deportation, saying they want to create a safe haven that federal officials won’t invade as a way of preventing the migrants from being kicked out of the country. WT

Any church aiding and abetting the violation of US law ought to have their tax exempt status immediately revoked. Whether you're Christian, Muslim, or Rastafarian... your religious beliefs don't trump US Law.  The concept of the church as a place of legal or political sanctuary went out in the 17th century.

The Takeaway...

I'm bombing the Khorasan Group in Syria because frankly, I'd look like an idiot bombing al-Qaeda.  It wouldn't fit the narrative.

Which if you recall from previous speeches was:

"al Qaeda is on the path to defeat, and Osama bin Laden is dead." 

"We have gone after the terrorists who actually attacked us 9/11 and decimated al Qaeda."

“al Qaeda has been weakened"

“al Qaeda’s core leadership has been decimated.”

"today, al Qaeda is on its heels"

Yes, apparently al Qaeda is on its heels in Syria planning to blow up American and European subways.

The Khorasan Group IS al-Qaeda

Saturday Sessions: Aerosmith

Adults Only: Language

Dream On

Sweet Emotion

Big Ten Inch Record 

Walk this way

Livin' on the Edge

Look Ma, No Garths

Viburnum: You know I had to, there are so many good Aerosmith tunes ;) 

The Zombie Apocalypse is Upon Us!!!

Photo: Teujune

Two Ebola patients, who died of the virus in separate communities in Nimba County have reportedly resurrected in the county. The victims, both females, believed to be in their 60s and 40s respectively, died of the Ebola virus recently in Hope Village Community and the Catholic Community in Ganta, Nimba.

News of the resurrection of the two victims has reportedly created panic in residents of Hope Village Community and Ganta at large, with some citizens describing Dorris Quoi as a ghost, who shouldn't live among them. Since the Ebola outbreak in Nimba County, this is the first incident of dead victims resurrecting.

AllAfrica

At first I thought this was satire, like The Onion... but no folks, this is real news.

AllAfrica.com is a website that aggregates news produced primarily on the African continent about all areas of African life, politics, issues and culture. It is available in both English and French and produced by AllAfrica Global Media, which has offices in Cape Town, Dakar, Lagos, Monrovia, Nairobi, and Washington, D.C.. AllAfrica is the successor to the African News Service. The President of AllAfrica Global Media, M. Amadou Mahtar BA, is member of the International Advisory Board of the African Press Organization. Wiki

Eat your peas OR ELSE

 

Seattle 

Seattle city council votes to start fining residents and businesses for wasting food.  $1 per can for residents, $50 per month for businesses.

BBC
Seattle Times
Seattle Clerk

Ostensibly this is to encourage composting... can you imagine what Seattle, a city of 650,000 people will look and smell like in five years with a 100% compliance rate.  Now I know that composting doesn't smell if done right, but this is Seattle we're talking about here, not to mention the abundance of wildlife this is likely to attract.  Trash will be inspected, and if it contains more than 10% food waste the fines will be imposed.

This also begs the question of how Seattle's finest sanitation engineers are going to be able to tell 9% from 10% or even 11% from a cursory examination of one's garbage, last time I checked sanitation engineers weren't the finest mathematicians in the world.

Me, I'd just start peeing in my trash, I might still have to pay the fine but I'd be able to do so with a deep rooted sense of satisfaction.

Fight the Power

Wake up, progressive apologists. You have become the stodgy, regressive establishment.  There is no labor shortage. Unemployment is the problem. Remember?


Senator Jeff Sessions:  Don't Give Masters of the Universe Their Amnesty


Our political, cultural and financial elites don’t give two shits about ordinary people. The Silicon Valley Masters of the Universe, modern day robber barons, are labor exploiters and bigots whose workforce is overwhelmingly white male, but they throw some nickels and dimes to progressive causes and America's leftists bow down and worship them.

America's political, corporate and cultural elites hide behind walled communities and send their children to private schools, so they and their loved ones are shielded from the societal dysfunction and cultural decay their anti-American policies foster.

Source:  UPI - Santanist Statue "Erected"

Given how our feral government views it subjects, the statue pictured to the right should be the new national symbol of the Government of the United States.

That’s right. Out feral government is a red devil with horns and an erect penis, penetrating every orifice of the populace, and even creating new ones where none previously existed.

As long as the elites rest easy, assured of their comfort and safety, nothing will change in this country.

Vergeltungswaffen

Meet the New War

Photo: Pazuzu

 Same as the Old War

Photo: Hautala

NY Times: The United States and allies launched airstrikes against Sunni militants in Syria early Tuesday, unleashing a torrent of cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs from the air and sea on the militants’ de facto capital of Raqqa and along the porous Iraq border.

"I can confirm that U.S. military and partner nation forces are undertaking military action against ISIL terrorists in Syria using a mix of fighter, bomber and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles," said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary. 

The first picture is of an AGM-86 C Air Launched Cruise Missile, the second is of the Fieseler Fi-103, known to the West as the V-1.  While referred to as the Buzz Bomb in England, the Germans called it Vergeltungswaffen; translation: retaliatory or reprisal weapon.

The AGM-86 C carries either a Block 0 2000lb conventional warhead or a Block 1 3000lb conventional warhead, the AGM-86 D carries a 1290lb unitary penetrator or bunker buster.

I just blundered across the striking similarity in design and purpose, again... the AGM-86C and the Fieseler Fi-103:

 The more things change

the more they remain the same

Air attacks in support of ground troops can be decisive in battle, air attacks alone are likely to be no more effective than the 9,521 V-1's launched at London by the Germans in WWII, that is unless you're willing to launch the B-variant which contains the "Physics package".

And in the world of believe it or not, the AGM-86C costs roughly 1.2 million, the AGM-86D costs 1.8 million... 

The AGM-86B only costs a clean 1 million, and if you hadn't figured out what the "physics package" is, it contains a W80 variable yield 5-150 kiloton fusion device. 

Strategic Bombing

If you lived in London or Berlin in WWII or today, if not killed outright in the attack, conventional bombing could ruin your whole day and many days to follow.  The problem is we're bombing people, if not killed in the actual attack, whose lives aren't really going to change at all - post bombing.  Strategic bombing is an element of psychological warfare designed to break the enemies will to fight, without the psychological impact of altered lifestyle there is no impact.  

The people of London and Berlin in the bombings of WWII suffered major impact from the loss of utilities: electrical, water, sewer... you cant deny electricity to people not reliant upon it, you can't deny water to people who draw it from a river, and you can't deny sewer service to someone that poops in a hole.  I would venture that this costly escapade is no more, if not less effective than our previous strategic bombing campaigns against other pre-industrial militaries such as the Viet Cong.


Despite its precision, this is nothing more than weak albeit expensive strategic bombing... strategic because without boots on the ground to exploit the effects it cannot be considered 'tactical'.  Frankly, it's pointless, except for the very minor psychological feel-good effect it generates because we're doing something.

If you bomb cavemen back into the

stone age, how will they know?

Fail, Columbia!

Why are we sending our military to fight ebola in Africa?

As a Bill Bennett listener e-mailed in, "Ebola is a virus of peace."

Why are we partnering with perfidious bastards in the Middle East? The Saudis, Qataris, and all the rest are double-dealing serpents, and Iran is waiting like a nest of black widow spiders to quietly sabotage us, and Russia still has at least one military installation in Syria. Will Putin (an ally of Iran and Syria) stand idly by and watch the west's pathetic, half-hearted coalition of cowards and double-talkers drop bombs on Assad's country? Will any of those heavily-armed Arab nations fight?

Is America finished?

Even Bill Bennett, no swivel-eyed rightwing loony, says White House officials have routinely met with representatives of the Muslim brotherhood.

Our government is so infested with all of these parasites that have wormed their way in: Banksters, corporatists, noisy community agitators and grievance hustlers, the Israel lobby, Islamists, stinking Saudis, and now, finally, people who loudly and publicly despise us. Are we the stupidest country in the world?

I am pro-immigration... But...

We should welcome immigrants, especially the poor and the downtrodden whom we believe are assimilable, and we should assimilate them. But that's not what we are doing now. Our government is bringing in high tech and low tech workers to undermine American workers, all at the behest of the US Chamber Pot of Crony Commerce and Silicon Valley robber barons.

Our feral government is also purposely bringing in people who are illiterate in their own language and to whom our culture is alien. America was at one time a marvelous assimilation machine, but the gears are stripped, the carburetor is gunked up and the one-magnificent machine now sputters on two cylinders.

We are consciously and purposefully incapable of assimilating people, so we should not be bringing them in.

Can America Bounce Back?

We are reeling from two failed presidencies in a row. Forces from without and now from within are working for, and sometime openly cheering for, our destruction. Not the destruction of the nation, but of our society. They lob cultural neutron bombs that kill the nation’s founding ideals but leave the corporate and military infrastructure standing. Those two eternal pillars of US power can be easily turned to nefarious purposes.

The domestic and foreign malefactors don't want to murder our dear Columbia, they just want to turn her into a two-bit whore who will do their bidding.

Sure, President Obama and his international corporatist progressives want America to be special, just like people from Burundi or South Turdistan think their country is special...

When Obama and the Pelosicrats start talking about our Islamist enemies in the same overheated, bellicose rhetoric they now reserve for conservatives, Christians and tea partiers, we'll know they are getting serious about a serious threat.

Related:
Foreign Funding of US Think Tanks is Destroying our Democracy
The Great Unraveling, by Roger Cohen (Who picked at the thread)
Islamists are not our friends (but Obama will fund, arm and train them anyway)

Blasphemers, Heretics, and the like

Grigoriy Myasoyedov 1835-1911 "Baptism by Fire"

But the Bible says:

Bring out of the camp the one who cursed, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.

Yes it does, but a people should be judged by their actions, not their dusty old words.  I refer to those Islamic apologists that defend Islam by pointing to the Bible and saying "See, your book says it too".

The last person executed for heresy in Britain was Thomas Aikenhead, that was in 1697.  There is not a tribe among men that hasn't killed, killed the outsiders, killed the different, or killed the enemy.  The question then should be, when was the last time they did it?  

Thomas Aquinas said:

“if we compare murder and blasphemy as regards the objects of those sins, it is clear that blasphemy, which is a sin committed directly against God, is more grave than murder, which is a sin against one's neighbor. On the other hand, if we compare them in respect of the harm wrought by them, murder is the graver sin, for murder does more harm to one's neighbor, than blasphemy does to God.” 

To find western nations executing blasphemers one must go back centuries, to find Islamic nations executing blasphemers one generally need look no further than the previous week.

NFL CONCEDES

TESTS NEW SAFETY EQUIPMENT

Which reminded me of this important lesson

Biblical Prophesy has been fulfilled

The meek have inherited the earth

We're all a bunch of pussies

Please leave your male genitalia 

at the box next to the nearest exit.

Leftwing Bedwetter Outs Himself

Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson admitted to sending out a racist e-mail in 2012, and leftwing loons are stepping all over themselves in the latest Pavlovian PC stampede.

Only one problem... The e-mail was not racist. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who is becoming my favorite social commentator, explains:

I read Levenson’s email. Here’s what I concluded: Levenson is a businessman asking reasonable questions about how to put customers in seats.[...] Levenson wonders whether (according to his observations) the emphasis on hip-hop and gospel music and the fact that the cheerleaders are black, the bars are filled with 90% blacks, kiss cams focus on black fans and time-out contestants are always black has an effect on keeping away white fans.

Seems reasonable to ask those questions. If his arena was filled mostly with whites and he wanted to attract blacks, wouldn’t he be asking how they could de-emphasize white culture and bias toward white contestants and cheerleaders? Don’t you think every corporation in America that is trying to attract a more diverse customer base is discussing how to feature more blacks or Asians or Latinos in their TV ads? (Time - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)

All I can add is, Amen!

I have two simple questions for you:

Do you think the e-mail was hateful or racist?

If so, which parts?

On a related note, when you compare TMZ and other US outlets’ superficial and sensational coverage to that of London’s Daily Mail (which I understand enjoys quasi-tabloid status... Someone from Britain can correct me if I’m wrong), American ignorance becomes more understandable.

Alba gu bràth September 18, 2014

Photo: Jean-Pol Grandmont

Tiocfaidh ár lá

 

IT IS NOT THE MISSION

 

Of the Department of Defense to fight Ebola

Not one soldier, sailor or airman swore to protect and defend the people of Liberia from all viruses foreign or domestic.

Barack Obama on Tuesday called West Africa's deadly Ebola outbreak a looming threat to global security and announced a major expansion of the U.S. role in trying to halt its spread, including deployment of 3,000 troops to the region. ~Yahoo

To date we have spent more than $100 million to address this challenge, USAID also has announced plans to make available up to $75 million in additional funding.  DoD also has requested to reprogram $500 million in Fiscal Year 2014 Overseas Contingency Operations funds for humanitarian assistance.  White House

National Security vs Global Security

It is the duty and responsibility of the President to ensure US national security, not to guarantee the world global security. 

According to a senior military official, Dempsey said at a recent meeting: “The Department of Defense’s number one priority is combating Ebola.” ~ W.J

Really? In that case General Dempsey ought to be court-martialed and the President impeached for this extra-constitutional abuse of power and dereliction of duty.   If one American soldier dies of ebola his blood is on the President's hands.

Ebola is Serious Business

Don't get me wrong, something needs to be done, but it is not for the Department of Defense or for the American soldier to be ordered to do so.  One would have to seriously question the legality of that order within the context of the Constitution of the United States. Frankly, it's not even the responsibility of the US Public Health Service:

The mission of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is to protect, promote, and advance the health and safety of our Nation. ~ USPHS

And before you start lecturing me on the epidemiological hazards to national security know that a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I was a medical technologist.  I'm not saying we ought to do nothing, I am saying the President has no more authority to order US troops into the midst of a peacetime viral outbreak in a foreign country than he has to order the staff of Massachusetts General there.

You can't argue the President is concerned about national security when anyone with ebola can simply waltz across our southern border.  You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Thoughts?

The Digital Lynch Mob

Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice, Donald Sterling, Brendan Eich, Vivian Schiller, well you get the idea and the actual list is long.  In some cases it involves a violation of the law, in others it is no more than a contrary opinion, in all cases the subjects were tried, convicted, and sentenced in the court of public opinion. One could call it a mob, or more accurately it should be referred to as a pack, a pack of rabid ravenous wolves.

In Adrian Peterson and Ray Rice's cases they've committed acts defined as criminal by society, acts that if and when committed and convicted result in punishment defined by law and limited by the constitution.  The lynch mob is different, the end results often extreme, far exceeding the crime in terms of viciousness and brutality and certainly in excess of the limits imposed on the state in the administration of punishment.  

In the other cases they're guilty of a far more heinous crime, holding a contrary opinion.  Ask yourself, is Vivian Schiller's crime half as bad as Hester Prynne's? Aided and abetted by the paparazzi, social media and the internet is the whiskey that fires this mob complete with digital torches and pitchforks.

Is this the society you want to live in?  Is this the path to civilization or to bedlam? Left or Right, no one is safe from the inquisition. Ray Rice punched his fiance, Adrian Peterson whipped his child with a switch, both abhorable acts, but who should decide punishment? The State or the Mob?

What are your thoughts?