Tenth Anniversary...

September 11, 2001

Jumping Stingrays!

Michelle and I spent most of the week down at the beach and for some reason, every single day, we saw stingrays jumping out of the water!

The first one looked pretty big even from fifty yards out but they just kept jumping...maybe we were watching some sort of aquatic football game?

Stingrays usually jump to make time....water is 800 times denser than air, so they can mover greater distances by doing this...but constantly?

There is a plot afoot by the stingrays!

I am not too worried about them...its the idiots in the Department of Homeland Security I am worried about...they will screw up any operation you put them in charge of and waste gobs of taxpayer money in doing so....

I like the stingrays better :-)

Wild Weather!

Blizzards, hurricanes, and earthquakes (?!)

East NC was shaken by an earthquake and bashed by Hurricane Irene all in one week. Let's not forget the blizzard in January...we can honestly say the temperature ranges for 2011 have been from 0 to 100. Actually, 105 back in July so now you can add heatwave to the list of climate catastrophes....alliteration is alive and well in my world.

The East Coast usually does not have earthquakes. The last major quake on the East Coast was in 1886 in Charleston, South Carolina. I am not sure what the Richter scale reading was on that but I have read that experts, whoever they might be, estimate it somewhere between 6.6 and 7.3. You have to go to 1811-1812 for the last quake before that east of the Mississippi...that was the New Madrid fault that is, still active occasionally, and located near St. Louis.

I didn't feel the August 23 quake. I have felt tremors before in Greece. I remember seeing rocks sliding off of hillsides and some waves rippling across the Bay of Argos so this one could not have been too bad. I have not heard of any damage.

Now, I can talk about Hurricanes....Hugo 1989 in Charleston when I was at the Cesspool by the Sea, and Fran here in NC back in 1996. Floyd in 1999 did a number on the northeast quadrant of the state but missed Fayettenam. I was in Wilmington, NC in 2008 for Hurricane Hanna. The storm itself was actually rather brief but I remember most of all the attempted price gouging gas stations embarked on until several thousand phone calls to the Attorney General's office put a quick stop to that. No attempted gouging this time.....due to the storm at any rate.

I can tell you a lot about blizzards too. The big difference between a Pennsylvania and Saskatchewan blizzard is that in Steel Town, the wind can be blocked by the hills but at the same time channeled down one of the three rivers and into your face. On the Canadian prairies , there is nothing to break the wind for five hundred or so miles. Temperatures in Canadian blizzards are worse but it is so bad, your body doesn't even bother noticing so you are actually colder in Pittsburgh even though the temperature might be 20 degrees warmer. If the temperature is -40, does the wind chill even matter?

Of course, on the East Coast, winters tend to be cold and wet whereas the Canadian Midwest's winters are cold and dry. That might make a difference.

The blizzards in NC don't really compare but they can still be pretty bad. Very wet and the roads freeze up quicker because the DOT, although they do an outstanding job, simply does not have enough salt to toss around the tenth largest state in the Union.

Worst of all, the wet snow is terrible for making snowballs.....

I end this post on a note of irony....In 2006, the Carolina Hurricanes won the Holy Grail of hockey--the Stanley Cup.

Think about it.....

Greece from above

An interesting Youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq52EWu9ES0&NR=1&feature=fvwp

Attempted Soviet Coup, 1991

Or "The Coup Everyone Expected"

Twenty years ago today, the KGB and some hardliners tried to overthrow the Soviet government. The people, and the army, would not allow it. The Party trembled in the background waiting to see what would happen.

The Soviet Union was ruled by a troika of the Communist Party, the KGB, and the Soviet Armed Forces (usually called the Army since it was (and still is) the senior service. The Army and the KGB did not like each other but were well matched. The Army had the numbers and the raw firepower. The KGB had better training and focus. The Party held the balance between the two since it was the actual government.

The only way the KGB would win was a quick attempted decapitation. They tried with an early morning arrest of Gorbachev, installation of some cronies as an emergency General Secretariat, and orders to the Army to get in line.

What no one was prepared for was the support of the People.

They, as you can see by the picture, provided by referl.com, backed the Army. No great surprise there since soldiers come from....The People.

It was not really a reaffirmation of Gorbachev but a refusal to be pushed back into the darkness after seeing the light of the outside world. People who wish to be free cannot be held down.

This event is naturally being compared to the dimming of the lights we are seeing in the West.

In '91, the American did not hate their government to the degree it is hated today. There was no Homeland Security (KGB), no wiretaps on phones (without warrants), no fear of government retaliation for speaking against it, and, most important, the feeling that our government, incompetent and bubbling though it was, was simply that.

Now The People feel their freedom is being taken away by the same people they elect.

They feel the government is not really thiers but instead is in the employ of Wall Street or special interests. They also feel that their government is out of control and actively seeks their impoverishment and even enslavement. Looking at ObamaCare and calls for even higher taxes while spending increases astronomically into numbers that lose meaning, you begin to think our fellow Americans may be onto something. And any discussion about the Fed is going to be "animated", to say the very least.

Some may say this is simply paranoia. Maybe it is. But remember, sunlight is the best disinfectant.

The morons in Washington work for us. Remind them from time to time.

If the Berlin Wall can fall and the Soviet Union can splinter, what kind of totalitarian system can hope to survive a mass refusal of the people to go along with it?

Some people will shout "The tree of liberty must be refreshed with the blood of tyrants." I prefer to use the Civil Rights mantra of "we don't just shuffle along."

But, just in case, don't forget about the Second Amendment....

AA+

Pic from Yahoo.com

I don't know why anyone could possibly be surprised....

When you are spending four TRILLION more than you take in, be happy anyone will lend you money. Everyone in Washington DC clearly needs a refresher course in Economics 101.

The howls of outrage from the Obama administration can be heard as far as the moon, clearly taking this personally and terrified at the damage that has been done not to the nation's economy or pride but to its re-election prospects.

Yet, President Obama continues to press for tax increases in the worst economic downturn since the (First?) Great Depression while blaming the Tea Party for the first ever downgrade of US debt. Look back at the first paragraph if you are wanting to assess blame---spending money you do not have!

Cut taxes and allow businesses to start hiring!

Let the people keep their money!

Get commodities under control though that seems to be happening as oil has slid to $78 a barrel as of this writing....now if the greedy gas stations would lower the price of gas.....Things like that convince me that greed has infected the soul of the nation and that never bodes well but hopefully I will be proved wrong.

I will be overjoyed at issuing an apology.

The stock market, disconnected from reality, got a rude awakening yesterday, plunging 638 points. It was sitting at 246 points under when President Obama got on the airwaves to reassure investors all was well. How do you think the markets reacted to a man who put the country four trillion in debt this year alone?

The stock market sank another 300 some odd points as people started calling in their markers...a game of musical chairs that ended badly.

Maybe it will recover. Maybe the markets will begin to reflect reality. It better or else it will get worse.

America still has a good credit rating. We can work to get back to AAA status but we need to get our financial house in order. In the long run, this downgrade may be a catalyst for just that.

As the Brits say, "nothing focuses the mind like a good boot in the arse."

Meanwhile, for me, it is back to The Thesis!

HOT!

Pic from 1414 Celsius.com

The Sun has clearly declared war on us!

It is not unusual for the Summer to feature 100 days in NC but I don't ever remember Mother Nature stringing several of them together like this. It must be payback for global warming....

Factoring in the blizzard back in January, I can say the temps for 2011 have ranged from 0-100.....more like 105 but like I have said about -40 windchills in Canada, "does it really matter?" No, we just get another day just like the one before. ("We jist get anada day like da won before"....Michelle just did a Haas impression....Western PA accent in NC never fails to attract attention...LOL)

It was 95 last night at 11pm when I went out for a night run...so much for avoiding the heat. Nonetheless, all the sweat gives you a sense of accomplishment...so don't ruin it with ice cream immediately afterwards, declaring, "I've earned it." Besides, you are better off water.....a lot of water!

I remember once long ago and far away, (1994..LOL), I came back from the store on a hot night,smelling like fish and eschewing the shower, I just dove into my parents' pool...LOL

Now, with my own house and wife and no pool, I have to use the shower after all....so I run at night since I stink anyway....logic is a wonderful thing invented by the Ancient Greeks, I might add..

Speaking of Ancient Greeks, the thesis moves along an inch at at time but we are getting there. It is gratifying to read conclusions I arrived at on my own while researching so at least I am doing something right.

I need to mow the lawn but that is not something I want to do in triple digit heat. On the other hand, if anyone wants to play a game of football, I'll be the first one out there....

...some things don't change!