Picture of the Day - Category Five Hurricane

While in a local gas station paying for my gas earlier this evening, I spotted this bottle and could not resist getting it given my obsession with disasters and the eclectic.

Top Ten Most Significant Disasters of 2015

Below are what I consider the most significant disasters of 2015 in descending order of relative significance to me. Others undoubtedly and perhaps justifiably would arrange these differently and trade some out for other events not listed. There were other events I was tempted to list but this is my final selection for 2015.

1. El Niño 2015-2016 - This event effected the entire world throughout most of the year and whose ancillary events killed thousands of people around the world in droughts, famines, wildfires, floods, storms, landslides, and such. 
2. Nepal Earthquake - M7.8 event on April 25th in the Himalayan Mountains killed over 9,000 people and injured over 23,000 people.
3. Mina Hajj Stampede - The most deadly stampede to date at the hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, killed 2,411 pilgrims on September 24th. Worshippers from all over the world, particularly Persian people, were among the casualties which further soured relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. 
4. Russian Metrojet Flight 9268 - This passenger flight was destroyed by an ISIS bomb over the Sinai Desert of Egypt on October 31st killing all 224 people aboard.  
5. Tianjin Explosions - This spectacular nighttime industrial accident in China on August 12th killed 173 people officially but possibly actually 1,400 people, including 95 of over 1,000 firefighters fighting the fire as well as 11 policemen.
6. Illapel Earthquake - M8.3 event on September 16th along the coast of Chile generated a Pacific-wide tsunami with local run-ups to 15 feet and 3 feet in Hawaii. 13 people were killed by the quake and 6 are missing.
7. Western North America Drought - The ongoing Western Drought continued this year with California entering its third or fourth year of drought depending upon how one counts it. This drought in the aggregate may become the most costly disaster in United States history. California was the hardest hit by the drought in 2015 which led to water shortages and rationing, massive water pumping and resulting damaging land subsidence in the Central Valley, distressing tree mortality in forests across the state, and unprecedented wildfire behavior.
8. Valley Fire - This 76,000 acre fire began on September 12th in Lake County, California. It was pushed by powerful winds in drought-withered fuels quickly over-running a helitack crew burning 4 firefighters on the initial attack and killed four civilians in the following hours. It devastated parts or all of entire communities including Anderson Springs, Cobb, Harbin Hot Springs, Hidden Valley Lake, and Middletown, CA. Destroyed were 1,955 structures including 1,281 homes, 27 multi-family structures, 66 commercial properties and 581 other structures.
9. Hurricane Patricia - Strongest cyclone ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere struck Mexico on October 23rd with no casualties (6 were killed earlier in Central America). At its peak it had the most powerful maximum sustained winds ever recorded anywhere on Earth (200 mph) and the lowest barometric pressure ever recorded anywhere on Earth (879 mb).
10. Canadian Wildfires - A perfect storm of longer-term climate change, short-term drought, and decades of fire suppression conspired to generate unprecedented wildfire behavior in the boreal forests of Canada this year.

Scripture of the Day - Habakkuk

As Hurricane Patricia bore down on the west coast of Mexico I had a bad feeling about how things might go for the local people living in its path. The latter part of this passage kept coming to mind and thus I prayed it as part of a request for safety for those people. So far so good from what I'm hearing but the hardest hit regions are the last to be heard from and flooding rains from this storm will afflict Texas yet to come.

"Oh Lord, I have heard of your legend and have been in awe. Oh Lord, repeat those deeds again in our time, reveal them again in our age; in wrath, remember mercy."

~ Habakkuk 3:2 (Kimicus ad Absurdum translation)

My Favorite Hurricane Patricia Satellite Images

Below are my favorite satellite-derived images of super Hurricane Patricia which I've seen to date. The storm was the most powerful hurricane ever observed (aside from cyclones and typhoons) with maximum sustained winds of 200 m.p.h. and a minimum pressure of 869 m.b. Thus this is most powerful storm to ever strike the coast of Mexico. Thus far are no reports of casualties or damage. However, the current paucity of information from the worst-hit areas is ominous, not good news. Given how these things typically work, their will be many casualties and much damage. It takes awhile for aid workers to reach the worst-hit regions and get an accurate account of what has happened. All images are courtesy of NASA (all rights reserved). 

Here We Go Again!

As unusual as this is, to wit, spotting cyclonically-rotating residual clouds from a former tropical cyclone located within a tight-frame satellite image of Southern California,yet it happened again today following a similar event last month I discussed HERE. These clouds are the remnants of Hurricane Paul whereas last month's storm was Tropical Storm John.
On another note, this afternoon I could see the northern edge of these clouds as I looked to the south as I drove south on the 101 Freeway towards Atascadero. At the time I wondered what they were given the fact I did not expect to see mid- to high-level clouds while Southern California was still in the grips of a slight Santa Ana Wind.
Source: National Weather Service - San Diego Office

Something You Don't See Everyday

This image was taken by NOAA's GOES-West satellite at 4:45 p.m. yesterday. It clearly shows what once was Tropical Storm John but now (and yesterday) was only a post-tropical cyclone spinning off the coast southwest of California.  Although fairly devoid of any convective activity (thunderstorms) it looks rather ominous so close to California in light of the context that tropical weather systems rarely reach California. This weather system has been throwing subtropical clouds over the Central Coast the past couple of days even right now as I type this it is partly cloudy and humid and windy here in Paso Robles, CA.
A tip of the hat to Gary Robbin's blog post about this in the San Diego Union-Tribune yesterday which in turn featured a tip of the hat to NWS Forecast Office San Diego forecaster Mark Moede who spotted this image and passed it along to Robbins.
Similarly but less-spectacularly this happened again next month as I shared HERE.

Random Musings of a Ramblin' Fool XLIV

It has been just over three months since I last did this column which means a lot has happened in my life. Therefore, I have a lot to share with you and I shall do my  best to do so without sending self-occupied. On another note of prefacing this blog has really exploded in membership this Summer. We are not up to 137,575 views and averaging over 13,000 views per month. I thank my friend Mark Wiberg for giving me the idea of doing a blog at all. I thank my former friend and girlfriend Krissa Klein for originally setting up the blog and being my tech support. I thank my friend and adopted big sister Lin Kerns for continuing as my tech support and for carrying out a masterful job of remodeling the layout of this blog about a year ago. 

Spring 2012 Semester Grades

In my previous Random Musings column I had just taken my finals at Cuesta College for the Spring 2012 semester but had not learned the results nor what my semester grades were. My final grades for last semester were as follows: English201A ~ A (4 units); Spanish202 ~ B (4 units); MATH07 ~ A (3 units); History207B ~ A (3 units). My total course load was 14 units. My grade point average is now up 3.346. My grades have been nearly perfect the past two years with straight A's aside from two B's in two 4-unit Spanish classes. What is most dragging down my grade point average is my sub-par performance during my second semester at Cuesta College (Spring 1990) following graduation from high school. At that point I was steeply circling the drain in my mental health department as severe depression and anxiety wracked my mind and soul and I could not adequately cope with it and devote sufficient focus on school. I now have 68 units in total from Cuesta College spread over three academic years there, to wit, Fall 1989-Spring 1990, Fall 2010-Spring 2011, and Fall 2011-Spring 2012.

Summer School That Never Was (For Me)

While in Salt Lake City, UT, for Gem Faire last June I experienced an epiphany. I realized that my then-determination to attend Summer School at Cuesta College and take a 5-unit MATH123 class was a terrible mistake. It would not allow me the pace of learning to give the class the sort of time and effort and opportunity for absorption such as I desire to put forth in everything I do. I also did not wish to risk my ongoing high GPA with a potential dud performance in Summer School. Last but not least: Summer School would preclude my taking any trips out of state for Gem Faire over the Summer which would be the closest thing to vacation I have experienced the past few to several years. The wisdom of this choice was borne out by the outcome of the now just -concluded Summer break.

Fall 2012 Class Schedule

Last week I resumed my studies at Cuesta College as the new semester broke forth up the second half of my year.  I am taking 12 units of studies this semester divided amongst three classes: MATH123 (intermediate algebra) (5 units), English201B (English literature) (4 units), and History203A (world civilizations) (3 units). My math teacher is quirky but cool and will make an otherwise boring class quite bearable. My English instructor completely rocks and the subject is something in which I ought to thrive. My history professor (yep, he's a PhD in history) is teaching this subject for the very first time at Cuesta College and Cuesta College has not offered this course in its catalog in quite a number of years until now so I'm getting in on the ground floor. My history prof will challenge me but I already respect the guy and know I will learn a lot from him just as I did from Dennis Judd for the previous three semesters. I expect of myself A's in all three classes.

Great News On The Financial Aid Front

Earlier this year I signed up very early for a Pell Grant for academic year 2012-2013. Unbeknownst to me  in so doing I unwittingly qualified for a second grant of $400 simply for signing up so early. I also qualified for the full amount of the aforementioned Pell Grant. This money will help with automobile repairs, rent money otherwise not earned from shows I will miss this Fall due to my class schedule, other basic life necessities as well as an "oh shit" fund, something I have not had in a very long time.

What I Did With Myself This Summer

The thing that stands out foremost in my mind about my just-concluded Summer Break was my work travel schedule. Over the course of my Summer Break I helped my friend Dave do Gem Faire events in Salt Lake Lake City, UT; Tulsa, OK; Portland, OR; and Eugene, OR. On the Salt Lake City trip I got to enjoy downtown Salt Lake City and the scenery of the drive there and back. On the Tulsa trip I got to visit John Brown University in Siloam Springs, AR, where I am contemplating transferring upon completion of my Cuesta College course program. My friend Dave was willing to make a run over there for me to check it out since we were so close already given that we were in Tulsa, OK, which isn't very far west of there. I also got to experience Old Town Albuquerque (New Mexico) as well as Old Town Flagstaff (Arizona) and Downtown Portland (Oregon). In addition to all these places I visited I also had the privilege of observing and on a couple of occasions and experiencing first-hand the mighty thunderstorms of the South. Lastly, I also experienced the pleasure of confronting my agoraphobia issues from the past and trample all over them as I traversed the flatness of the Texas Panhandle and much of Oklahoma without any issues arising that I was not able to quickly confront and deal with on my own. On the home front I helped with the harvest at Kiler Canyon Farm and took a day trip out to Parkfield, got in some decent fire-chasing (Calf Fire Blow-Up) and some El Ejercicios activities and attended a beach bonfire event. Oh, and I worked my arse off the rest of the time!

El Ejercicios Fall 2012 Line-Up

As I reported in my previous Random Musings column I have perchance become a member of an ad hoc eclectic accumulation of schoolmates at Cuesta College. We all became friends in Spanish 201 & 202 during the Fall 2011 - Spring 2012 academic year. We used to hang out before class in one of the student common areas and then began hanging out away from campus earlier this year taking a series of hikes and even hooking up for birthday bonfires at the beach. We have lost Maile, Tanner, and Dina now as they transfer elsewhere.

21st Annual Rockhounds Round-Up

In three weekends the Santa Lucia Rockounds will host its 21st Annual Rockhounds Round-Up gem, mineral, and jewelry show at the Pioneer Park in Paso Robles, CA, the weekend of September 15-16, 2012. I am a member of that club and am the chairman of this show and strongly urge you to come visit us. There will be educational and entertaining activities for all ages both in park as well as in the adjacent Pioneer Museum. This year we are involving local schools in promoting this event as we hope to get students to come to the show with their parents, something we had not attempted in the past. On that note please read the following item below.

What is Wrong With This Picture?

The Santa Lucia Rockhound's past-president recently approached the school districts of Atascadero, Templeton, San Miguel, and Paso Robles in regards to acquiring permission to leave show fliers at the schools so their teachers can dole them out to their students. All four school districts assented to this but one of them added a caveat: Paso Robles Unified School District. They require that any promotional materials left at their schools be printed in Spanish and English. As someone who is in the process of learning Spanish (two semesters of it at Cuesta College already) and whom believes it is a good idea for Americans to know two or more languages simply as a matter of cultural sophistication not to mention practicality,  I am appalled and outraged by this requirement out of the principle of the matter. Spanish is not an official co-language in this nation nor should it become so just as Mexico does not have an official co-language nor ought it to do so. Needless to say, out of a matter of principle and practicality we are not going to be passing out fliers to any schools in the Paso Robles Unified School District as our fliers are already printed on two sides and this requirement would be an unaffordable added cost of a whole separate run of fliers needing to be designed and printed out. The political correctness and misguided motives of the top leadership of the Paso Robles Unified School District managed to ace ALL their students out of a benefit right in the middle of their city that the kids in Atascadero, Templeton, and San Miguel will benefit from in three weekends. D'oah!

On The Job Front

I currently have all the work I can schedule into my life. Between working with my friend Dave helping him do gem, mineral, and jewelry shows and working for him on his grounds doing general labor stuff as well as doing general labor for several other clients I have all that I can handle for now. Add to that my volunteerism time and I have no extra time and energy left to devote for much if anything else! That being said, I would love to upgrade to a weekly job working in a wine tasting room. Were I properly trained for this sort of work I would be an irresistible monster working a tasting room. Given my love for decent wines and my ability to connect with all sorts of people and engage them where they live and and talk to them on their level whomever they be I feel that I would be scary good working in a wine tasting room environment. Somebody around here needs to recruit me! Do I have any takers?

California Fire Season 2012

Following two sub-par fire seasons we are back to burning here in California. Currently, there are six major fires burning in the state for a total of 475,317 acres. Dozens of homes have burned in this fire and the next community in line to get burned appears to be Seiad Valley in Siskiyou County as the Goff Fire in the Fort Complex bares down on it. California's new largest wildfire (by acreage consumed) is winding down now, to wit, the Rush Incident in Lassen County near the Nevada state line (and a bit over that line). Over the past week the Ponderosa Fire consumed 52 homes and 90 outbuildings. Yesterday, the North Pass Fires burned up a fire engine in Mendocino County. Be careful out there!

There's A Whole Lot Of Shaking Going On

The Imperial Valley is once again experiencing a vigorous earthquake swarm reminiscent of the one that struck that area back in 2005 except this one is a bigger deal. It began last Saturday evening August 25th and continues into the present with nearly 500 events in the sequence to date. The climax (thus far) were two damaging moderate events (M5.5 & M5.3) that left nearly two dozen mobile homes red-tagged as a result of being knocked off their foundations/supports. Odds are this will ebb and disappear without anything major hitting the San Andreas Fault Zone but one cannot say that with certainty as anything is possible and that segment of the fault is 10-months pregnant with a great quake (M8.0+).  

Tropical Storm Isaac

This monstrous storm (in reference to its great physical size) continues to churn in the Gulf of Mexico with the Big Easy sitting below sea level in its path. At last check Tropical Storm Isaac was near hurricane strength and continuing to intensify even as it slows down giving it more time to strengthen prior to making landfall and also giving it more time to build up a destructive storm surge which its huge size also helps generate. Given that this storm has already killed people in Haiti its name will undoubtedly be retired from the list of storm names per tradition. It will probably kill some Americans next by way of the aforementioned storm surge as well as the inevitable flooding from torrential tropical rains. This storm bares watching!

My Journey Continues Apace

I am bringing this up last but it is not least but of foremost relevance to me. This has been the best year of my entire life to date. My life continues to get only better and better. As time passes I continue to draw closer and closer to God and I am growing and can see God's progress with me from month to month. The progress is not at a constant pace and at times I get sloppy following a prolonged period of progress and inevitably I loose a bit of momentum and temporarily stagnate. Quite fortunately my loving and patient Creator invariably prods me into getting back with the program. In such instances I recover my equilibrium and things move forward again in yet another spiritual growth spurt. I need to and am working on consistency (the right type, not the wrong type). Not only is tithing money important but even more so tithing time to God as it pertains to devotional time spent reading the World and praying. I also need to continue to make progress toning down my use of at-times overly-colorful metaphors and invective when I get peeved. All that being said, I am incredibly grateful for all that my Creator has done within me and all around me in my life. I am incredibly excited in regards to what the future holds for me. I hope the handful of people who used to be in my life years ago but left my life at the time because they did not like who I then was now give me another try. I invite them to come back to me and see what marvelous things God has wrought within me the past few years and see if they wish to resume friendship. I am metaphorically in transition between being a homely-looking caterpillar and a beautiful butterfly.

Too Much Rain Over Paradise

Following the Hurricane Mitch disaster that befell Central America in November 1998, Andre "The Teutonic Trance Master" Tanneberger (known to the world as "ATB") created a song entitled "Too Much Rain Over Paradise" in tribute to and for the aid of the victims of the storm.

The first video below merely plays the song as no video was created for the original version by ATB.



This song was then remixed several times by a collective of trance DJ's called United Dee Jay's For Central America 1998 as part of a fund-raising competition to assist survivors of the regional disaster that was Hurricane Mitch. The storm killed over 20,000 people across seven Central American nations as well as nations in North America (Mexico and U.S.) and in the Caribbean (Jamaica) making this possibly the first hemisphere-wide disaster in the modern history of the Americas. Below is a remixed version of the song and the one I believe won the competition. It comes with an interesting video that juxtaposes images of the storm with stills of the various artists involved in the project.



In my mind the only other event that comes close to Hurricane Mitch as being a hemisphere-wide disaster in the modern history of the Americas is the "Storm of the Century" of 1993, that devastated parts of Cuba, the U.S., and Canada which killed over 300 people along the way.

 Fini

Hurricanecity.com

During the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season during which Florida was slammed by not one but four damaging and deadly hurricanes, to wit, Hurricane Charley, Hurricane Frances, Hurricane Ivan, and Hurricane Jeanne,  I finally got my own online access and my own computer after borrowing friend's computers and online access prior to that year. By whatever means I found it I remember not but somehow I came upon the website Hurricanecity.com and immediately was taken with it and fully availed myself of its utility throghout the course of that season and those four hurricanes. I must confess that even by the following year during the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season which included super-hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, I did not utilize it nearly as much or at all as I recall. For some reason my mind has been put on it a lot lately (even before 2011 Atlantic hurricane season really got going) and I'm paying attention to the website once again. I have yet to check out any of their podcasts. and live streaming coverage of storms. In fact, they are based in Florida and during at least one of the 2004 Florida storms they were hit and knocked offline. Given the current hurricane emergency developing on the Atlantic Seaboard of the United States with Hurricane Irene this website is particularly useful. To visit the website click on the icon below.

Random Musings of a Ramblin' Fool X

Hurricane Gustav

Mercifully, Hurricane Gustav didn't live up to its potential as it got hit with some dry air and some sheering along with the west coast of Cuba being more disruptive to it than originally projected.
It ultimately made landfall near Grand Isle, LA, as a Category Three storm with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph.
Earlier in its life it was a Category Four storm with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph as it approached Cuba.
Despite not being the monster originally feared, having never fully regained its strength after passing over Cuba, Gustav may still be in the top ten of most costly storms in U.S. history.
It remains a tropical storm at this late hour and it remains to be seen what the storm will ultimately inflict upon our nation as its story is still being written as its rotation lashes Louisiana and parts of Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi.
However, it already has a deadly pedigree having killed 97 people in the Caribbean Basin which includes the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Given that fact, it is all but certain the name "Gustav" will be retired from use again.

R.I.P. Tanker 09

Tanker 09, a P2V based in Montana, crashed late Monday near Stead Airport outside Reno, NV.
All three crewmembers aboard were killed.
Witnesses report it coming down on fire and exploding upon impact creating a small mushroom cloud.
The aircraft had been fighting the Burnside Wildland Fire in Eastern California.

BREAKING NEWS:
GOVERNOR SARAH PALIN'S 17 YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER IS 5 MONTHS PREGNANT OUT OF WEDLOCK!!!

The lovely Leftist Liberal news media today seemed all too eager and earnest to report this shocking "news". I'm sure it hurt them to have to do it.
Larry King devoted his hour-long show to it this evening as if it mattered at all.
This follows right on the heels of the wild internet rumour making its rounds throughout the internet in recent days regarding Alaska Governor Sarah Palin allegedly not being the biological mother of her youngest child but its grandmother instead with its biological mother being Sarah's 17-year-old daughter now 5 months pregnant . Conspiracy theorists can't have it both ways!

Motorcycle vs. Deer

Saturday night I was driving in my neighborhood after dark heading into town when I passed a male pedestrian holding a motorcycle helmet. Something about his gait caught my attention but I wasn't sure what.
When I got to the next intersection I encountered a motorcycle wedged up under a guard rail at the intersection with a long set of abrasion marks crossing the intersection leading to the bike.
I drove on past that scene and pulled into Atascadero Fire Department Station #2 and drove up to a firefighter talking on his cell phone and told him all I observed and then left and drove on up town to get yogurt.
I then turned on my scanner and listend as I drove to find out what became of that situation.
By the time I arrived at Adobe Plaza to get said yogurt Atascadero City was dispatching police and fire to an "unknown injury motorcycle 't-c'" and one of Atascadero's finest was screaming Code Three down US101 en route.
I felt almost embarrassed to have triggered such a rucus but I knew I had done the right thing.
I soon discovered over the scanner that they had run the motorcycle's plates and found the house on my street its registered owner lived at and went and talked to him and determined he was not drunk, but had encountered a deer, instead, and was uninjured and awaiting help to get his bike unwedged.
After that the police were then sent on to a loud party they had been on their way to prior to my phone call. However, before they could get to that incident they received another call of a person backing into a large light pole at In-&-Out Burger which caused said pole to fall partly over.
Ah, just your typical Labor Day Weekend nighttime hijinx.

A Difficult Chore

This morning I got a call from mom that there was an injured squirrel in her yard so I went over to help and found it in really bad shape but not apparently injured but sick.

It could not stand and mostly just lay in the grass without responding but at regular intervals tried to stand up and walk but ended up merely dragging itself several inches and then collapsing again amidst loud gaspy and labored breaths.
It being a holiday weekend I knew getting help from the Pacific Wildlife Care Center would prolly not happen given our experience trying to get help through them the last time a wild animal issue came up during a holiday weekend.
Don't get me wrong: Pacific Wildlife Care Center is wonderful but they are an all-volunteer operation and most folks aren't available on weekends.
Besides, this animal was clearly dying and needed help with dying, not being kept alive.
I found it just about impossible to kill it with a shovel but ultimately I did that knowing it was unkind to leave the critter alive and suffering.
It helped that Mom was there to encourage me on.
Even before I killed the teenage gray tree squirrel, I contemplated the meaning of my being in this situation and "got it" nearly immediately.
God in essence killed His Son Jesus Christ for our sins
If I found it nearly impossible to put this cute little defenseless creature out of its misery when it was terminally ill or fatally injured how might it feel for God to essentially kill His Son for our sins so as to reconcile us to Him?
Modern life is designed in part to get us to lose focus and forget the important things we already know but sometimes forget on a day to day basis.
This object lesson helped me refocus.


Kimmer

Random Musings of a Ramblin' Fool IX

Obama Kitsch-in Served Kool-aid

Barack Hussein Obama gave his Big Speech last night accepting his Presidential nomination to wrap up the 2008 Democratic National Convention and most loyal Democratic troops seem fairly convinced it was the voice of a god and not of a man which interpreted in modern-speak is rendered "it was simply divine!".
I saw a lot of sheeple in the crowd there the past few days drinking their Kook-Aid like good little ideological drones do.
The Democratic Party used to be a great party, the party of Roosevelt and Kennedy.

How have the mighty fallen!

And to watch the Kool-Aid drinking sheeple get all excited in the audience and the Leftist Media covering the event, especially the cast-members of CNN and MSNBC, fatuously act like gushing and blushing schoolgirls with thinly-disguised (if any at all) neutrality and objectivity was nauseating.

It's great if not a bit overdue that we have a black man running for President of the United States of America, but to have a black man running for office just for the sake of having a black man running for office is a monumental mistake!

America and Black America in particular would be better served having a better black candidate than Obama: try Condi Rice and/or Colin Powell. Now I'd vote for either of them and if they ran together I'd volunteer for their campaign organization.

I have yet to see how Obama is going to change anything as he has promised, especially being relatively new to the Beltway with little experience and few of the political connections needed to run the nation in stark contrast to the Clinton or Bush Rolodexes. Then he turns around and picks Mr Beltway Insider himself for veep and it boggles the mind.

Considering Obama's a flaming Liberal how is he going to unite us as he has promised?
Ideologues divide us, not unite us and Obama is one of the most if not THE most liberal of U.S. Senators in the Washington D.C.

Add to that his demonstrable lack of personal judgment shown in his attending Rev. Wright's church for so many years and serving on the board of a Chicago foundation with with 60's radical and terrorist Bill Ayers makes one wonder about Obama's personal judgment.

Obama has been disingenuous and deceptive all along about why he stayed with the Reverend Wright so long if at all.

Barack Obama is a narcissistic lightweight who has the temerity and hubris to run for President simply because he can but lacks the necessary experience and judgment and vision for the job.
At the same time Mr. Biden is part of the very problem needing the change Obama claims to be seeking to bring about.

Remember: the Democratic-controlled House and Senate have even lower poll numbers than Bush The Younger.

A Bold Political Counter-Stroke

Senator John Sidney McCain, the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee has nominated Alaska governor Sarah Louise Palin.
My initial reaction to this was shock and horror and outrage until I had more time to rationally and logically consider it.

Then it all made sense and the theoretical brilliance of it began to take clearer shape in my mind.

Obviously, it is not the most perfect selection but currently which one would for Obama or McCain?

The metaphorical cupboard is bare for both parties talent-wise so looking for new political stars takes some imagination and in a political year like this, some guts too.
McCain needed to do something bold and not simply play it safe and run the ball when the opposition expected it (to use a football metaphor).

Obviously, Palin is short on experience, even more so than Obama not to mention three years younger (44 versus 47).
However, when looking at both their records in office she appears to have done more with less and in shorter time.

Another knock for her is the ongoing investigation into abuse of power against her in regards to her trying to get her ex-brother-in-law shit-canned as an Alaskan State Trooper and then when that wasn't done fired the Public Safety Commissioner tasked with firing him.
I'm going to assume for now there is nothing illegal in any of this or McCain wouldn't have selected her as his running mate.

Finally, some have suggested, including yours truly when I first heard of the selection, that this choice takes away McCain's primary attack on Obama which has been the question of Obama's inexperience.
The logic of the argument is obvious but that has a serious flaw: Obama is the one running for President on his side whereas Governor Palin is merely running for Vice President on the other.

On the plus side she brings a maverick tradition within the Republican Party as McCain does.
She is a Pro-Life Christian unlike McCain which should help with the Evangelicals.
She is a life-long NRA member and her husband is a union member which should help with the Bubba Vote.
She is a hard-working mom which should help with the Soccer-Mom Vote.
She is a smart, savvy, and strong woman who has left a path of defeated men behind her who had the misfortune of have politically crossed her path which should help her with feminists and even some disaffected female Hillary fans.

Some have suggested McCain would have been better off having selected Mitt Romney which would have strengthened his position in places like Michigan and Pennsylvania.
However, her blue-collar pedigree (she once did professional fishing with her husband) and interest in guns and bibles should help McCain just fine with those folks in places like Pennsylvania where Obama once condescendingly (in a speech in the People's Republic of San Fransisco) referred to as holding onto their bibles and guns when times got rough.

One last thing I want to touch on is her being by definition a, well, um, MILF.

There! I said it! It's not a nice expression although it is a low-brow compliment of sorts.

I know damn well that is going to be the subject of innumerable water cooler conversations in a myriad of work places across the land until election day and if she wins then even beyond that.

Hell, I bet even Jay Leno and Saturday Night Live will follow that angle.

Want to bet against me on that?

World Financial Group Encounter Epilogue

I heard back from Young Jared yesterday morning.
He sent me this email message:

"Hi Kim,

wanted to see if you've given any thought to starting with WFG. let me know if you have any questions or need more info on the company. Talk to you soon.

Jared McNeer"

I replied with this message:

"Jared,

Thanks for getting back to me.
I did my own thorough research.
No further questions and no further interest.

Kim"

Young Jared never got back to me after that.

Hurricane Double-Whammy

The United States is now directly under the gun from two hurricanes.
Hurricane Gustav is bearing down on the Cayman Island and then will
cross over Western Cuba before entering the Southern Gulf of Mexico.
Current progs place it near to just west of New Orleans which doesn't
bode well for the Big Easy nor the other prog that now calls for it to
strengthen into a Category Four storm. Currently it is a Category One
storm with maximum sustained winds near 85 mph.

Hurricane Hanna is further out but also predicted to strengthen and
ultimately interact with Florida in some fashion doesn't bode well.
Currently it is a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph.

Kimmer

Random Musings of a Ramblin' Fool VIII

Mom's Sixty-Fourth

Today mom turned 64. I'm so glad God has given her to us this many years.
I am so broke right now I was unable to do more for her than take her out to dinner in Cayucos following a 3.3 mile walk on the beach from the dog beach at Toro Creek inlet down to the state park parking lot at Old Creek inlet. Mom said she had a great time and since that is all that mattered I'm content.

A New Roommate

Today I got a call from my most promising potential roommate telling me he accepts the room.
I'm so happy and relieved! He looks like a cool guy and is an American of Korean decent and to be quite honest I'm rather fed up with white guys for roommates. They haven't been working out well for me of late.

My First Job?

I got a bite today from an employer at a financial firm who is looking for "a part-time associate."
I'm going to call the gentleman tomorrow morning and see how that goes.
He contacted me via Craigslist where he had seen my "Special Job Wanted By Special Guy" piece. I hope this works out but we'll have to wait and see. A financial firm sounds like something I'd be decidedly not interested in, however, none of what I said was a red flag to him and he said my Hawaiian shirt wardrobe should not be a problem which intrigues me so maybe this is a special place which is what I'm looking for.

Selling the Big Sikhote-Alin Meteorite

I've finally decided to sell my big Sikhote-Alin meteorite as badly as I wish to keep it.
I had hoped to make it a family heirloom but given its value and my debt it is just not right to hold onto it. There is a guy up in Santa Cruz County whom I gave assurance to that he'd have first crack at it were I to sell it which I almost forgot so tomorrow I call him and offer it to him.
If he can't afford what I'm asking then I'm going to place it on eBay for $9,800 and see what happens. The thing is the largest Sikhote-Alin I've ever seen and is certainly worth not just the weight value (11 kilograms) which your average good Sikhote-Alin bringing about $1/gram this having 11,000 grams but given its unusual size garners more value as well such as perhaps $2/gram.

Bill Maher Is A Complete Asshole

I saw Bill Maher on Larry King Live last night. I could only bear to watch it several minutes which which was nearly unbearable. I have no problems with folks who hold views I don't agree with including atheism and agnosticism and have met great folks from both ideological camps. However, Maher is just so damned smug and self-righteous and judgmental, not to mention hypocritical and his brand of secular humanistic intellectualism is itself anti-intellectual but he cannot see the irony, of course.

2008 Democratic Convention

Tonight the Dems started their convention which stank to high heavens saved only by Teddy Kennedy. It was sad to him up there speaking in what was his swan song which he and everybody else recognized while giving us a mere flash of that Kennedy passion and a faint wisp of wistfulness at what might have been had his own personal failings not crippled his political ambitions.
It was also sad seeing a man of his age and assumed wisdom and certainly gifted with the Kennedy name and brother to both Jack and Bobby demonstrating a decided lack of judgment extolling a weak sister like Barack Obama and asserting he will bring change.
Nobody, most of all Obama himself, has even begun to explain how he will bring change other than he and his water-carriers using that word as a vapid and trite campaign mantra, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. Indeed, that mantra was one which Clinton 42 memorably used in 1992. Did I mention nothing changed? Indeed, many of Bush 41's policies were continued from NAFTA to immigration to gays in the military even if euphemistically retitled like "don't ask, don't tell."

Uppity Ivan

Now the Russians are threatening to break off cooperation with NATO while NATO threatens same with the Russians who themselves say they aren't too worried about it.
Now add to that the Russian parliament has voted unanimously in favor of recognizing both break-away regions of Georgia, to wit Abkhazia and South Ossetia. This seems ironic if not a bit hypocritical of the Russians in light of their own troubles with restive regions like Chechnya.
The situation between the Russians and the West has not been this tense since the end of the Cold War and keeps worsening by the day it seems. Things are getting interesting in a hurry and Al Qaeda has never seemed less relevant since 9/11.

Tropical Storm Fay

Tropical Storm has turned out to be quite a storm making a record four landfalls in Florida and dumping prodigious amounts of rain across the Sunshine State and leading to the deaths of 13 Americans and 23 people on the Island of Hispaniola. The storm caused a oak tree to fall on the home of former President Jimmy Carter while he and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter were home but neither was hurt.

Fini

Hurricane Andrew 16th Anniversary

Sixteen years ago last night Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida from the east as a Category 5 storm with maximum sustained winds of 165 m.p.h. causing tens of billions in damage and killing 26 people directly and almost 40 indirectly.
The storm reemerged over the Gulf of Mexico and proceeded to strike the coast of Louisiana as a Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 115 m.p.h. on August 26, 1992.

Personal footnote: I was staying at the Best Western Cameron Park Inn in El Dorado County, California, the night this occurred. First reports the next morning were initially few and I began to think that maybe it wasn't so bad given the lack of bad news. Soon it became clear the silence from the path of the storm was bad news as modern civilization as we know it ceased to exist in that zone for several days or more and some people became desperate for lack of basic necessities and still others became lawless and order broke down.

Political footnote: the storm's overwhelming aftermath contributed to the end of George H. W. Bush's Presidency as FEMA and the rest of the Federal Government were perceived as ineffective and slow to respond. Sound familiar?

Kimmer