The Church of England has worked itself up into an interesting discussion on God, his holy planet, and fracking.
It's hard to figure how you'd make this discussion work. The idea laid out by the Church of England....is that God has given us a planet with limited resources, and we should not destroy the work of God.....in his creation of this planet.
Naturally.....fracking is the work of the devil (not said but you can't avoid missing that connection).
When you go over to their site....there's an entire page where the ministers of the church have written up a simplified version of what fracking is about and how it does harm. At one point, they note reports of fracking contaminating US wells....yet there's isn't one substantiated case where this has ever been proven and no court has ever acknowledged this and given a claim to anyone.
The ministers then go to note pollution created by transport trucks involved in fracking, and the leaking of storage tanks on fracking sites. Again, no state or federal authority has ever identified leaking tanks that were connected to fracking sites. As for the pollution of transport trucks? Well....you could make the case that people driving their cars to a church service.....create as much or more pollution.
I looked over the Church of England's web site. There's a flurry of activity connected to oil, natural gas, global warming, global cooling, and climate change.
Naturally, all of these issues relate to man's own fault. If God wanted the Earth to heat up....he'd just make it happen, without the help of man. If God wanted to chill the Earth....he'd just wave a hand and make it happen....without the aide of man. If God wanted the fracking oil to special and precious, and never be used.....God probably would have dumped all this specially blessed oil a great deal deeper and made fracking a terrible pain.
It would seem that souls and blessings....come second to the Church of England....where they worry a bit on man, science, and climate episodes. Would they pray to God to stop global warming? My humble guess is no. Would they pray to God to push the holy fracking oil deeper into the Earth to prevent man from using it? No....I doubt it. Would they pray that God lays down a mighty tidal wave to wash away all of the whale hunter ships from Japan? Well....no.
I'm not sure what the ministers for the Church of England really pray for. And I'm probably going out on the limb for this comment....but I doubt if they are capable of praying for much...except for the health of their membership.....ever dwindling each and every year. Dying off? Well....due to climate change and some newly discovered suffering called "age-change".....it is drastically affecting the church.
Yes, age-change is hurting the world and we probably need to elevate it to a worldly problem. And sadly, it was probably the one thing that God just figured was right to inject into our society. Fracking? Well....if you ask me.....God must have handed it down to the right guys....and has no intention of interfering.
Wednesday, 14 August 2013
Sunday, 11 August 2013
Sometimes, Things Twist More Than You'd Expect
Normally, it'd be a Arlington story that went national, and then just ran out of steam after five days at the national level. Air Force officer....heading up the Air Force office at the Pentagon over sexual assault. Lt Col Jeff Krusinki....out drinking late at night in Arlington.....does some kinda pat on the butt of some gal in a bar parking lot.
It was a big deal nationally, and got tons of attention. Just so terrible.....over and over....the journalists could not get enough of the episode.
Well....quietly (it won't be covered nationally now).....the Arlington charges have been changed. They won't run sexual assault charges now. Explanation....it's not exactly clear. The local guys are only saying it's going to be assault charges only. You could still get a year for that.....but it draws some questions why it can't be sexual assault.
Then, you start to notice a strange thing about the location of this parking lot. There are a couple of bars within distance of this area where the 'event ' occurred. One of them? It's a cross-dresser gay bar. Yeah, the kind of place where guys dress as women, drink, party, and have a good time.
So this has gotten some folks to wondering. This woman who complained and called the cops on Lt Col Jeff Krusinski? Was it a real woman or a fake woman?
If it's a fake woman....sexual assault charges in a Virginia court become awful hard to establish and prove. Plain old assault? Well....even fake women have their day in court over this.
But you have to grasp this....so far....no one has said it's a fake gal. The national news folks? Well, they'd prefer not to get into details like this.....because it spoils the original story they wrote. And it's screwing up the agenda.
For the officer? Well, it starts to be more of a mess if it was a fake woman, and it's best to start planning on some second career path.....maybe as a Sears manager, county agricultural agent, or dairy farmer.
It was a big deal nationally, and got tons of attention. Just so terrible.....over and over....the journalists could not get enough of the episode.
Well....quietly (it won't be covered nationally now).....the Arlington charges have been changed. They won't run sexual assault charges now. Explanation....it's not exactly clear. The local guys are only saying it's going to be assault charges only. You could still get a year for that.....but it draws some questions why it can't be sexual assault.
Then, you start to notice a strange thing about the location of this parking lot. There are a couple of bars within distance of this area where the 'event ' occurred. One of them? It's a cross-dresser gay bar. Yeah, the kind of place where guys dress as women, drink, party, and have a good time.
So this has gotten some folks to wondering. This woman who complained and called the cops on Lt Col Jeff Krusinski? Was it a real woman or a fake woman?
If it's a fake woman....sexual assault charges in a Virginia court become awful hard to establish and prove. Plain old assault? Well....even fake women have their day in court over this.
But you have to grasp this....so far....no one has said it's a fake gal. The national news folks? Well, they'd prefer not to get into details like this.....because it spoils the original story they wrote. And it's screwing up the agenda.
For the officer? Well, it starts to be more of a mess if it was a fake woman, and it's best to start planning on some second career path.....maybe as a Sears manager, county agricultural agent, or dairy farmer.
The Other Eden
There was a piece over at Al.Com.....entitled: Alabama the Beautiful (by Magic City Writer) that caught my interest this morning.
Few people come to grasp this. Bama actually ranks fifth in the nation....in species diversity.
Bama has over sixty types of terrestrial ecosystems. It provides twenty-five forests to the nation. It offers eleven wetlands. It even offers up seven glades/prairies. All of this, and over 75,000 miles of rivers, streams, and creeks.
Hunters would rattle off at least a hundred animals within the state that you could spend a Saturday afternoon looking for.
Fisherman would shed a tear as they described the dozens of fish that they've caught over the past thirty years.
A pine tree enthusiast would chatter for an hour over the various pines that you could see out in Limestone county.
A Bankhead Forest resident would need four hours to conclude his description of the local surroundings.
A Dolphin Island resident would drag out some digital notebook with fourteen thousand pictures of birds, fish, crabs, and weird creatures that they'd seen over their lifetime.
A farmer would sit and spend an entire afternoon at the local gas station noting the sixty-six different garden variety items that he's got growing this summer, and how proud he is over this year's successful pea crop.
On and on....even NASCAR freaks and NCAA football folks would pause and describe the abundance of diversity in nature within the borders of Bama.
Then, you'd come to some minister, who'd round this up in typical fashion. Yes, it would be deserving of a Sunday sermon.....that Bama is in effect....the "other" Eden. God blessed Bama....giving it more nature than a state really deserves. God then directed animals to expand in abundance. The end of the sermon? We need to give thanks for such an Eden, and live our lives in appreciation.
Somewhere in the back of the church....some guy would be sitting there and pondering. Eden ended up going off-track and spiraling out of control....once folks gave up their naive nature and got some bit of understanding of their surroundings. It's best to just accept what you got, not brag too much, and hope heavily for a dynamic NCAA season. In that case, we rank number one already, and don't need much discussion, or preaching.
Few people come to grasp this. Bama actually ranks fifth in the nation....in species diversity.
Bama has over sixty types of terrestrial ecosystems. It provides twenty-five forests to the nation. It offers eleven wetlands. It even offers up seven glades/prairies. All of this, and over 75,000 miles of rivers, streams, and creeks.
Hunters would rattle off at least a hundred animals within the state that you could spend a Saturday afternoon looking for.
Fisherman would shed a tear as they described the dozens of fish that they've caught over the past thirty years.
A pine tree enthusiast would chatter for an hour over the various pines that you could see out in Limestone county.
A Bankhead Forest resident would need four hours to conclude his description of the local surroundings.
A Dolphin Island resident would drag out some digital notebook with fourteen thousand pictures of birds, fish, crabs, and weird creatures that they'd seen over their lifetime.
A farmer would sit and spend an entire afternoon at the local gas station noting the sixty-six different garden variety items that he's got growing this summer, and how proud he is over this year's successful pea crop.
On and on....even NASCAR freaks and NCAA football folks would pause and describe the abundance of diversity in nature within the borders of Bama.
Then, you'd come to some minister, who'd round this up in typical fashion. Yes, it would be deserving of a Sunday sermon.....that Bama is in effect....the "other" Eden. God blessed Bama....giving it more nature than a state really deserves. God then directed animals to expand in abundance. The end of the sermon? We need to give thanks for such an Eden, and live our lives in appreciation.
Somewhere in the back of the church....some guy would be sitting there and pondering. Eden ended up going off-track and spiraling out of control....once folks gave up their naive nature and got some bit of understanding of their surroundings. It's best to just accept what you got, not brag too much, and hope heavily for a dynamic NCAA season. In that case, we rank number one already, and don't need much discussion, or preaching.
Thursday, 8 August 2013
Those Sneaky Americans
We plotted to take down the banks of the world.
We plotted to bring crappy television shows to third-world republics.
We plotted to make the world's population addicted to our tobacco.
We plotted to hook everyone into the internet....eventually to spy on their every single move.
We plotted to commercialize pain-killers to such a degree, that people from around the world would become addicted to them.
We plotted to expand violence into entertainment.....so that that the world would be a terrible place to live in.
We plotted to expand out racism, and everyone is part of the overall strategy.
Yes, all of this.....and no one ever caught onto our master plan.
A Dead Topic
USA Today rarely goes out and does five-star old-fashioned journalism....with investigative reporting. This week, they published one of the more fascinating articles of the year.
What they figured out after requesting information from the Federal Election Commission....was that dead Americans had contributed roughly $600,000 to candidates since 2009. We are talking....absolutely dead, with a death certificate to prove so.
It was a nifty little article, with only one issue. I would have liked to known their thinking, but the journalists can't really go back and ask these dead guys what they were thinking when they wrote the checks.
The odds here? Most all of these were folks who got hyped up and wrote out some $100, or $3000 check to some candidate....Republican or Democrat....and died the next day. They died via heat attacks, heat stroke, car accidents, chain-saw accidents, food poisoning, snake bite, drowning while fishing, or died under suspicious circumstances.
I should note here that USA Today says that roughly $250,000 of that money came to Democratic candidates, with the Libertarians safely in the second spot. Dead Republican enthusiasts were the least likely to donate money. What this says.....most dead Republicans just are plain stingy with their money, and it's better off spent in some other fashion.
What they figured out after requesting information from the Federal Election Commission....was that dead Americans had contributed roughly $600,000 to candidates since 2009. We are talking....absolutely dead, with a death certificate to prove so.
It was a nifty little article, with only one issue. I would have liked to known their thinking, but the journalists can't really go back and ask these dead guys what they were thinking when they wrote the checks.
The odds here? Most all of these were folks who got hyped up and wrote out some $100, or $3000 check to some candidate....Republican or Democrat....and died the next day. They died via heat attacks, heat stroke, car accidents, chain-saw accidents, food poisoning, snake bite, drowning while fishing, or died under suspicious circumstances.
I should note here that USA Today says that roughly $250,000 of that money came to Democratic candidates, with the Libertarians safely in the second spot. Dead Republican enthusiasts were the least likely to donate money. What this says.....most dead Republicans just are plain stingy with their money, and it's better off spent in some other fashion.
Simply Observations
There was a travel association meeting this week in San Diego. One of the topics that came out....was this wild suggestion of allowing you to buy half of the third-seat in a row. Instead of making three guys fit into a very tight space....you'd have two guys sitting in an ample area. The problem with the idea? They said right off the bat....you'd have to pay fifty percent of what the seat currently costs. The positive? Well....if you had six rows on a plane that you converted to the two-seat scheme, then you'd have fewer passengers on the plane, thus less weight, and fewer bags (less weight too). So the airline would save money, while making money. The reaction by the airlines? They didn't really want to touch the subject....thinking folks just won't pay fifty percent more for what amounts to a 75-minute flight between city A and city B. To be honest, I suspect that half the public would be willing to stand for an entire flight of sixty minutes, and you could squeeze another extra sixty passengers onto a plane that normally carries 120 passengers.
The Pentagon has said that gay military couples have to be married....to get these military benefit packages. So they've hustled up this deal....if you are gay and not married to your partner....they will give you (give is really stretched here) a 10-day pass to get married in a state that allows gay marriage. Ten days.....free....to get married. You can sense that some anti-gay folks will get frustrated with this deal. Non-gays won't be offered the ten-day deal, and I'm guessing it will be noted at hundreds of staff meetings around the Air Force. How many folks will run out to get married? Maybe a hundred to two hundred couples. I suspect some folks will review their arrangement and just not feel comfortable marrying their partner, preferring single-status. And the number of divorces from this get married quick deal? Well, it's best not to bring up this topic.
Zillow does real estate estimates as part of their gimmick. So they took on the White House and say it's worth $319 million at the current real estate pricing. It's hard to say it's accurate or a fair value. Some would say the White House is worth a billion. Some would say it's worth $500,000 because of the neighborhood around it.
Jeff Bezos, after buying the Washington Post, has said in public comments that newspapers will generally all be dead in twenty years. The only way they survive in his imagination....is digital form. He may have a point, and maybe his intention of handling the weak Post's profit margin....is to dissolve it from paper print, and require everyone to get a subscription to get a copy. He might also be able to move half of the journalists of the newspaper out of DC, and into some cheaper surroundings....like southern Virginia, to avoid some of the cost issues.
Finally, while I generally avoid discussing baseball topics....this Alex Rodriguez suspension announcement of the last couple of days....is a major episode. He will sit and challenge baseball management over this, while still playing and collecting a pay-check. My humble guess is that no real court decision will be handed down until April-May of 2014....a few weeks into next year's season. It'll go against him, and the 200-odd game suspension will go into effect. For the Yankees, it means picking out your replacement third-baseman by the end of spring training, and just have him sitting in AAA until X-day. This new guy gets roughly 130 games of the 2014 season, and at least half the games of the 2015 season. He will be a permanent asset of the team. Rodriguez? Well....how do you come back eighteen months later and play at any decent level? The team will likely use him only as a DH, and he won't hit for any value. Yet, the Yanks are stuck with this guy for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. He may not make anything during the 200-odd game suspension but they have to still pay him for the remaining years. The big loss here? I'm guessing Alex has a hefty monthly allowance and living cost situation, and he's probably not prepared for eighteen months with nothing coming in. His agent? Same deal.....he was likely getting five-to-ten percent of Alex's monthly income. If you had to pick a major-league with player with zero value and five years of remaining contract.....this guy is the 'king'.
The Pentagon has said that gay military couples have to be married....to get these military benefit packages. So they've hustled up this deal....if you are gay and not married to your partner....they will give you (give is really stretched here) a 10-day pass to get married in a state that allows gay marriage. Ten days.....free....to get married. You can sense that some anti-gay folks will get frustrated with this deal. Non-gays won't be offered the ten-day deal, and I'm guessing it will be noted at hundreds of staff meetings around the Air Force. How many folks will run out to get married? Maybe a hundred to two hundred couples. I suspect some folks will review their arrangement and just not feel comfortable marrying their partner, preferring single-status. And the number of divorces from this get married quick deal? Well, it's best not to bring up this topic.
Zillow does real estate estimates as part of their gimmick. So they took on the White House and say it's worth $319 million at the current real estate pricing. It's hard to say it's accurate or a fair value. Some would say the White House is worth a billion. Some would say it's worth $500,000 because of the neighborhood around it.
Jeff Bezos, after buying the Washington Post, has said in public comments that newspapers will generally all be dead in twenty years. The only way they survive in his imagination....is digital form. He may have a point, and maybe his intention of handling the weak Post's profit margin....is to dissolve it from paper print, and require everyone to get a subscription to get a copy. He might also be able to move half of the journalists of the newspaper out of DC, and into some cheaper surroundings....like southern Virginia, to avoid some of the cost issues.
Finally, while I generally avoid discussing baseball topics....this Alex Rodriguez suspension announcement of the last couple of days....is a major episode. He will sit and challenge baseball management over this, while still playing and collecting a pay-check. My humble guess is that no real court decision will be handed down until April-May of 2014....a few weeks into next year's season. It'll go against him, and the 200-odd game suspension will go into effect. For the Yankees, it means picking out your replacement third-baseman by the end of spring training, and just have him sitting in AAA until X-day. This new guy gets roughly 130 games of the 2014 season, and at least half the games of the 2015 season. He will be a permanent asset of the team. Rodriguez? Well....how do you come back eighteen months later and play at any decent level? The team will likely use him only as a DH, and he won't hit for any value. Yet, the Yanks are stuck with this guy for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. He may not make anything during the 200-odd game suspension but they have to still pay him for the remaining years. The big loss here? I'm guessing Alex has a hefty monthly allowance and living cost situation, and he's probably not prepared for eighteen months with nothing coming in. His agent? Same deal.....he was likely getting five-to-ten percent of Alex's monthly income. If you had to pick a major-league with player with zero value and five years of remaining contract.....this guy is the 'king'.
Wednesday, 7 August 2013
Detroit Math
In public information....the city of Detroit will admit that they have around 2,030 cops hired for the city. But the city also admits.....that roughly only one-third of this group....actually patrols the city....day and night.
So you sit and do the math here.
Roughly 630 guys are around, doing day, night, and weekend duty. At any one time....there might be one hundred cops moving around the city. I doubt if there's more than eighty to a hundred guys actually on patrol at night.
The remaining 1,400 guys? Well, that's not clear.
Some are likely detectives. Some are management. Some are HR. Some are payroll clerks. Some are jail management folks. Some are doing duty at the city hall. Some are pulling hours over at various schools.
The problem with this math equation for Detroit....is that half of these 1,400 'other' folks....probably aren't doing anything worth discussion. They attend meetings, check up on new cops, and spend time talking to the city council.
For years and years....New Orleans had fake cops on the force, and checks going out monthly. For some reason, I have the feeling that Detroit has the same issue.
So you sit and do the math here.
Roughly 630 guys are around, doing day, night, and weekend duty. At any one time....there might be one hundred cops moving around the city. I doubt if there's more than eighty to a hundred guys actually on patrol at night.
The remaining 1,400 guys? Well, that's not clear.
Some are likely detectives. Some are management. Some are HR. Some are payroll clerks. Some are jail management folks. Some are doing duty at the city hall. Some are pulling hours over at various schools.
The problem with this math equation for Detroit....is that half of these 1,400 'other' folks....probably aren't doing anything worth discussion. They attend meetings, check up on new cops, and spend time talking to the city council.
For years and years....New Orleans had fake cops on the force, and checks going out monthly. For some reason, I have the feeling that Detroit has the same issue.
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