Still Standing

Don't you know I'm still standing better than I ever did
Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid
I'm still standing after all this time
Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind

I'm still standing yeah yeah yeah
I'm still standing yeah yeah yeah
(Elton John/Bernie Taupin, I'm Still Standing)

The USS Hurricane Camille is still standing proud in Gulfport, Mississippi almost 40 years after the 72-foot long tugboat was washed onto shore in the hurricane it is now named after. And it is up for sale.

GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — After standing for nearly four decades in the same spot, the future of the SS Hurricane Camille is unknown, as the land it stands on is up for sale.

The 72-foot tugboat, originally named East Point, was pushed ashore in August 1969 on the property owned by Lucille Moody's parents. The boat soon became a tourist attraction and the Moody's bought it and changed the name.

The family had several holes cut in the hull so if another storm surge came through Gulfport, the boat would not float away. Another surge did hit the area during Hurricane Katrina.

Moody was a college student when Camille struck south Mississippi. Now in her 60s, she has no plans of reviving the vessel or the gift shop that accompanied it.

"I'm too old to start over," she said. "We're going to sell the property, and I don't know what will happen to the boat."

In case you are too young to remember, Hurricane Camille is the most powerful hurricane that ever hit the mainland United States. In fact, it is the most powerful hurricane that ever hit anywhere, ever. It is the world record, as far as weather records go. It did so in 1969. I remember the news reports on it at the time. It did not pass over upstate New York, however. That would happen about three years later when Agnes made a wee visit. And did an enormous amount of damage all over the state, especially in places like Corning. The last time I visited the Corning Glass Museum there, they had a nice, little line painted on the walls of the museum to show where the waters from the flood had reached.

The line was on the second floor. Pretty high up, as I recall.

Hey, Let’s All Hunt Some Otter!

This is one of those stories that should get you thinking. It seems that sea otters in Alaska's Port Heiden bay have had to move onto the land recently. There, they are easy prey for various predators and for human hunters (native Alaskans are allowed to take the animals even though they are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.) Why are they moving to the dangerous land from the relatively safe waters in the bay? Well, it's because the otters are starving. They can't hunt in the bay.

Because the bay is completely frozen over. The first time that has happened since 2000. And it is frozen very, very hard. A recent thaw has done nothing to clear the ice on the bay as yet.

Some of the starving animals — with ribs showing — have waddled or belly-slid several miles inland, residents said. Others have been attacked by dogs near houses, killed by villagers for their hides, or died on sea ice where eagles and foxes pick at their remains.

No one knows how many have come ashore in the unusual exodus, said Mark Kosbruk, village fire chief. Natives have skinned at least 17 to make hats, gloves and blankets from the luxurious pelts.

They've clubbed some with 2-by-4s or axe handles, shot others and collected a couple of frozen carcasses, he said. Several rotted before they could be gathered or died on the sea ice where people won't travel.

"When it first froze over, they were everywhere," said Kosbruk, 34, who is teaching younger hunters how to skin and salt the hides for tanning.

The sea otters are probably on land looking for water where they might find food, said Douglas Burn, head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Alaska sea otter program. They usually scour sea bottoms for clams or sea urchins, but the ice froze them out.

Similar die-offs have been documented before, but biologists are worried and keeping an eye on the situation, he said.

Does this prove anything? In and of itself, no it does not. But if the weather somewhere is hotter than normal, it is trotted out for some major tub-thumping that the warm spell is proof positive that global warming is occurring. You do not see the same tub-thumping when it is colder than usual. Maybe just a report like this one. But between kids bundled up in heavy winter clothing in Washington, DC to hunt for Easter eggs, record-breaking cold all across the country and turtle-sicles in Texas (along with concurrent warming on Mars that almost exactly mirrors the warming on this planet) you should begin to wonder what is going on, exactly. Because something is not quite adding up. Is there a warming trend on this planet? Sure. But is it out of the ordinary? Maybe not so much. Is it caused by human activity? Despite the screeching, there is no way to say that with certainty.

If we want to have an intelligent discussion about the need to stop using fossil fuels, that is worthwhile. But to gut the Western economies and do absolutely nothing whatsoever to actually reduce global carbon emissions (because China ain't gonna get on board, no matter how much Al Gore talks) is the height of self-centered arrogance. And to tub-thump about any warm spell, pontificate that global warming is causing gingerbread house collapses in Sweden and forecasting ginormously overweight moose while ignoring the turtle-bergs bobbing in one bay and the starving, ice-bound otters in another shows that there is disinformation being spread as Truth®.

UPDATE: Others:  NewsBusters, Clayton Cramer, Scared Monkeys,

Crazed Cow Causes Carnival Of Collisions

Winchester, Kentucky was the scene of the latest attack by the suicide squads of the Animal Uprising™. A killer cow walked out in front of a car and set off a chain reaction of accidents that reached epic proportions. Well, ok, it reached five vehicles, but you get the idea.

Five vehicles were involved in a collision early this morning on Mountain Parkway that left a cow dead and an unknown number of people injured. At about 3:20 a.m., a vehicle hit the cow at mile marker eight while traveling west. The vehicle then traveled over the median and crossed the eastbound lane of the road, landing in an embankment. An unknown number of people in that vehicle were transported to Clark Regional Medical Center with injuries. Their names were not available for release this morning.

Another vehicle then crashed after coming across the first collision. The names of the people in that vehicle were also not available for release this morning.

A tractor trailer operated by Jimmie R. Thomas of Booneville then struck the cow a second time. The collision caused a spill of diesel fuel from his truck, according to Clark County Sheriff's Deputy Paul Howard, who responded to the scene.

"It did quite a bit of damage to his truck," Howard said. The Clark County Fire Department also responded.

At 4:40 a.m., a parked vehicle belonging to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet was struck in the rear by a car operated by Jose Alfredo M. Diaz of Louisville at mile marker nine on the parkway. The parked vehicle was at the scene to assist with the earlier collisions. The vehicle was parked on the left side of the eastbound lane with its overhead lights illuminated.

It appears that the animals have diverted the deer to chasing (and catching) airplanes, so the cows are being sent out onto the roads. This is not good news for drivers of subcompact cars. Cows are pretty beefy, you know.

Today In The Tin Ear Department

This is actually rather funny. I honestly do not think Elizabeth Edwards realizes how self-centered this interview makes her sound.

Edwards, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, particularly recalls the time neighbor Monty Johnson brought out a gun while chasing workers investigating a right of way near his property. The Edwards family has yet to meet Johnson in person.

"I wouldn't be nice to him, anyway," Edwards said in an interview. "I don't want my kids anywhere near some guy who, when he doesn't like somebody, the first thing he does is pull a gun out. It scares the business out of me."

But Johnson defended the occasion he brandished a gun, saying those on his land didn't have the proper approval.

"I use the gun for protection, and I considered that an appropriate time," Johnson said. "Sometimes you have to take drastic measures."

Edwards views Johnson as a "rabid, rabid Republican" who refuses to clean up his "slummy" property just to spite her family, whose lavish 28,000-square-foot estate is nearby on 102 wooded acres.

Oh my. He's a Republican and he's driving down her property value out of spite. Wow. Or wah. It's just all about her, isn't it? It's also interesting to note that Johnson has lived on his property all his life. The Edwards mansion is a new - and very, very large - arrival in the neighborhood. And to top it off, she makes highly personal attacks on someone she has never met and has already dismissed as someone she wouldn't be nice to if she ever did.

The Easter Bundle-Up

The annual White House Easter Egg Roll was conducted today. The kiddies had to be bundled up against the chill this year. Which of course, signifies nothing whatsoever other than the weather was unseasonably cold in Washington. As it still is across much of the country today.

The annual White House Easter Egg Roll, started by President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1878, typically has been a rite of spring in Washington. But on Monday, it was afflicted by winter's parting bite — cold air and even colder grounds. Undaunted by any of this, the young guests sprang into action under the watchful eyes of their families, hostess Laura Bush and several Bush administration Cabinet secretaries.

"In Washington, we know spring has arrived when the White House lawn is filled with children for the Easter Egg Roll, one of the happiest traditions here at the White House," the first lady said.

Children competing in the egg roll races pushed eggs across a stretch of grass using giant spoons. The festivities also included an egg hunt, musical performances, reading, magicians and face painting.

Just a nice annual tradition and some cold weather. We've had almost a week of very low temperatures in my neck of the woods and have likely lost most if not all of our apple blossoms - so there may not be much growing on the trees this year. Many of the trees in the area look like they have taken some damage to their buds and/or early attempts at growing leaves. I don't think there's much damage to any other crops at this early stage; not much had begun to grow in the fields yet.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, the Cleveland Indians have yet to have their home opener. Their three game series with Seattle was snowed out.

CLEVELAND - Cold and wet weather wiped out the Seattle Mariners and the Cleveland Indians for the fourth straight day, causing the teams to postpone Monday's scheduled doubleheader.

The forecast called for sleeting rain, snow flurries and a projected high of 34 degrees. While snow stopped falling Monday, the grounds crew was unable to get the field in shape for the games after three days of snow.

A storm left more than a foot of snow in some places in the Cleveland area, and the entire three-game series will have to be played at later dates…….

More like football weather than baseball season, at least so far.

Another Rodent Skyjacking

We brought you the story of the Animal Uprising™ using rodents to hijack airliners back in February. In that incident, a squirrel hijacked a plane to Hawaii. The perpetrator was executed for that offense, incidentally. Now comes word of yet another case of rodents on a plane, so to speak. This time it was a mouse who commandeered a commercial flight.

A passenger spotted the white mouse running on the floor of the plane on an initial leg of the Vietnam Airlines flight, prompting a hunt by about a dozen technicians worried that it could chew through a vital wire.

The mouse was found in a food storage area and the Boeing 777 was cleared for takeoff, said Tran Tien Dung, head of the airline's air safety department.

"This is the first time we experienced something like this," airline spokesman Nguyen Chan said.

As in the incident in Hawaii, the rodent reprobate was summarily executed. It appears that some officials are waking up to the dangers that the animal overlords are visiting on the human race.

Iran Expands Enrichment Program

While the West fiddles along, Iran is busy charging ahead with its nuclear weapons program. Today, they announced a big expansion in the program and also revealed that Russia is paying no attention whatsoever to the UN-imposed sanctions that are supposed to be in place against Iran.

"Now we are entering the mass production of centrifuges and starting to launch industrial scale enrichment, another step toward the flourishing of Islamic Iran," Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh said at a ceremony at Natanz.

Aghazadeh, who heads Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, did not elaborate. Industrial-scale enrichment is the term Iran uses to mean a capability to produce greater levels of nuclear fuel — which would suggest Iran has increased the number of centrifuges working at Natanz.

Iran on Monday celebrated the one-year anniversary of the country's first success in enriching uranium, as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prepared to announce new progress in the key process that the United Nations has demanded Iran halt.

Ahmadinejad was attending ceremonies at the Natanz enrichment plant, where the Iranian press has speculated he will announce the installation of 3,000 centrifuges, a dramatic expansion of the program. State-run TV said only that he would announce "good nuclear news" in a speech at the ceremony.

The U.N. has imposed limited sanctions on Iran until it suspends enrichment a key process that can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or the basis of a warhead. The United States and its allies accuse Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons, a claim the country denies.

Iranian state television reported Monday that an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general who is banned from traveling abroad under the sanctions has visited Russia without any difficulty.

The West is running out of time to deal with Iran. The pirates in charge there have no fear at all of the UN or any other "transnational" organization.

A Presumption Of Stasis

Richard Lindzen, the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has been voicing contrary views about global warming for years now, has an interesting piece in Newsweek that should make you think. He points out what should be rather obvious: most of the screeching from the true believers in an anthropogenic cause for global warming hinges on a belief that we live in the absolutely perfect global environment right now and that any warming would be catastrophic.

Why? They never explain why any change - either warming or cooling - is anything out of the ordinary or is any real cause for concern. In fact, in order to marshal up hysteria over their "proof" they have to ignore the constant fluctuations in the environment over millions of years which obviously had nothing to do with humans causing them. All this is done using computer models that are purported to be uber-accurate about predictions decades from now. Despite the fact that meteorologists can't accurately predict the weather next week.

April 16, 2007 issue - Judging from the media in recent months, the debate over global warming is now over. There has been a net warming of the earth over the last century and a half, and our greenhouse gas emissions are contributing at some level. Both of these statements are almost certainly true. What of it? Recently many people have said that the earth is facing a crisis requiring urgent action. This statement has nothing to do with science. There is no compelling evidence that the warming trend we've seen will amount to anything close to catastrophe. What most commentators—and many scientists—seem to miss is that the only thing we can say with certainly about climate is that it changes. The earth is always warming or cooling by as much as a few tenths of a degree a year; periods of constant average temperatures are rare. Looking back on the earth's climate history, it's apparent that there's no such thing as an optimal temperature—a climate at which everything is just right. The current alarm rests on the false assumption not only that we live in a perfect world, temperaturewise, but also that our warming forecasts for the year 2040 are somehow more reliable than the weatherman's forecast for next week.

Do read the entire thing. Lindzen is a huge thorn in the side of the First Church of the Presumptuous Assumption of Global Warming™ for a very good reason. He's rather good a pointing out the Emperor's lack of knickers. Which is why the true believers want all debate closed off and critics silenced. They hate trying to answer these annoying questions. Which is why they resort to name-calling and high-volume screeching at people who disagree with them. But why is this climate right at this instant in time the perfect range of temperatures? Why is Mars warming up at almost exactly the same rate as the Earth? Why are people who use 20 times more energy than the average American (and own strip mines to boot) anointed as saints of the First Church? Why is diverting food into the grossly inefficient production of ethanol more beneficial for the planet than feeding people?

A lot of the true believers like to try and smear anyone who disagrees with them as tools of the energy companies (Lindzen actually has a disclaimer about that at the bottom of his piece). But they appear to be completely oblivious to the way they are being used by the people who stand to make gobs of money from peddling fake indulgences to true believers who buy into the theory of a nonexistent global climate stasis.