After the Tornado.

Wednesday morning, just before 8:00 o'clock, after my wife & son left home for work and school, I went back to bed. It was a short nap. I was awakened forty minutes later by a tornado passing thru our area.

As it turned out, that tornado was one of what the Washington Post called "a series of deadly tornadoes that visited destruction on six Southern states....."

Thankfully, no one in our town was injured. We had no property damage, though as you will see in a video below, the college where my wife works lost several large trees. As a matter of fact, the tornado blew over so many trees in our county that 40% of the town's residents were without electricity due to so many power lines being knocked down by fallen trees.

Oddly enough, on the east side of town, most residents did not realize that a tornado had hit the west side; in east Rome, it was seen as "just a thunder storm". Fortunately, the school were my son attends is on the east side.

At our house, we were without electricity for a day and a half. There was no power outage where I work so I was able to go in.

All in all, I'd say the city of Rome, Georgia, fared rather well....especially compared to Ringold, Ga, in Catoosa county where "there are several homes that are nothing but foundations left” and at least 15 people were killed. Being without electricity is an inconvenience, but we're lucky that's all we experienced....an inconvenience.

The folks in Ringold - and other parts of the South - need our prayers.

Below, I have two videos taken from the Rome News Tribune website.

Obama and Gitmo.

In June, 2008, during the height of the Presidential campaign, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in the case Boumediene v. Bush, declaring that the detainees at the U.S.-run Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba have the right of habeas corpus and cannot be detained indefinitely, without being charged.

I noted in a post at the time [What's Wrong with Habeas Corpus?] that my candidate of choice, pro-life Libertarian, Bob Barr, was in agreement with the Supreme Court decision. Barr stated,

"The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the importance of the ancient writ of habeas corpus, one of the bedrock guarantees of American liberty."

The Supreme Court decision came before the 2008 Democratic convention - I can't recalled how then candidate Hillary Clinton reacted to the ruling, but I remember that Barack Obama was in agreement with the majority on the Court.

This is the only time that Obama and I have agreed on anything. His view on Guantanamo was, however, not enough to get my vote. His views on abortion completely eliminate him from any consideration.

After he was elected, I expected him to take action on the detainees.....I actually thought he would close Guantanamo. Now, nearly three years after Boumediene v. Bush, Obama hasn’t fulfilled his promise to close the facility. The Washington Post article linked to above states, "Only a small fraction of detainees can be prosecuted, President Obama has been told. In many cases, court-worthy evidence is lacking."

"Court-worthy evidence is lacking" and we continue to hold the prisoners.

In the cartoon above (snatched from arabamericannews.com) we see Obama opening the door for Human Rights. A more accurate and up to date cartoon would show him closing the door.

Easter Sunday

Another Republican Presidential Candidate?

Oh, the things we learn from reading the Washington Post.

Had I not come across Post Opinion writer, Dana Milbank's latest piece [Ten Commandments for 2012] I would never have been aware that Roy Moore - AKA the Ten Commandments Judge - recently announced on a Des Moines radio station his intention to form an exploratory committee to look into his chances of becoming POTUS.

For those unfamiliar with Moore, he is known for attempting to defy Alabama and Federal law while Chief Justice of the Alabama State Supreme Court by installing a Ten Commandments "monument" (made from high quality Vermont granite) in the rotunda of the Alabama state judicial building and his failure to remove the "monument" when ordered to do so. He was subsequently removed from office by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary (COJ).

It goes without saying, Dana Milbank has very little love for Moore. Heck, for that matter, I'm not too crazy about him either. I followed his case closely while it was going on in 2003. His home town of Gadsden, Al. isn't far from where I live in Georgia. I don't agree with his notion that the Ten Commandments should be on display on government property and I completely agree with the COJ's decision to impeach him.

On his website -roymoore2012.com- Moore gives his position on several national issues, most of which are standard, conservative Republican positions. His position on the economy and taxation are nearly identical....I don't understand why he bothered to separate the two. Having spent most of his career either as a judge or in private law practice, I can't say that he gives me much confidence in his abilities as an economist.

He appears to be making an attempt at divorcing himself from his fracas with the COJ by his comments on the Constitution, found on his website:

"As a former judge and Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, I know that the Constitution of the United States is the Supreme Law of the Land, and all officials, state and federal, legislative, executive and judicial, are bound thereby. Separation of Powers, Checks and Balances, States Rights, and our Bill of Rights are integral parts of the Constitution, which we must observe. All actions of state and federal officials must conform to the Constitution, and it should only be changed by amendments by the people, not decisions of activist judges. "

As I write this, there have been more than one hundred comments on Milbank's article. It shouldn't surprise anyone that the majority of those comments are anti-Republican/anti-Roy Moore; this is the Washington Post, after all. What does surprise me, somewhat, is the accusation, by some leaving comments, that Moore is a racist. I can't defend Moore on his actions concerning the Ten Commandments, but I haven't seen anything to suggest that he's a racist. In the eyes of some folks, the fact that he's a Republican and from Alabama is enough to tar and feather him with that label.

That's the real tragedy.

The Answer to Everything.

According to Washington Post Editorial page editor, Fred Hiatt, On climate change, the GOP is lost in never-never land.

Maybe.

Both sides of this never-never land of global warming climate change debate are occupied with legions of propagandists. It was, however, one of the comments to Hiatt's blog that prompted this post.

From jameschirico we have this:

"400,000 year old Antarctic ices cores give a timeline going through a few ice ages and warming periods. The scientific evidence is clear. Nature has it's adjusting controls, more snowfall on Antarctica and jet stream change from pole to Canada. Those adjustments will take far too long leaving us with reduced krill population in the ocean and the possible true hypothesis of additional continental shifting from the weight redistribution caused by warming. Japan moved 13 feet with the last earthqua... ke."

It was the "continental shifting from the weight redistribution caused by warming" line that caught my interest. One of the problems I have with global warming climate change is that everything we do causes global warming climate change and global warming climate change is the cause of everything in the world.

The argument says that global warming climate change makes massive amounts of ice melt, which in turn, causes pressure on the tectonic plates, which in turn will cause more earthquakes and tsunamis. To this non-scientist, that sounds reasonable enough, but I don't know if the idea is backed up by real scientific evidence.

On the subject of everything being caused by global warming climate change we have A complete list of things caused by global warming where I learned that Freak weather destroys Afghan poppies and Rising carbon dioxide levels lead to higher concentrations of opiates in poppies.

In the first story, we're told that an especially cold winter caused by global warming is thought to have stopped millions of poppy seeds from germinating in Afghanistan, whereby some farmers will lose half their crop.

In the second story , we find out that the current crop of poppies is twice as potent as those grown at carbon dioxide levels seen in 1950.

If projections hold, the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide will increase morphine levels three-fold by 2050 and by 4.5 times by 2090.

If this is to be believed, we'll have fewer poppies which will be more potent than ever.
(the article goes on to say that the increased CO2 levels that make opium poppies more potent, make for lower levels of nicotine in tobacco).

Hum........

As I said, everything we do causes global warming climate change and global warming climate change causes everything that happens to us.

Time for a nap.