Fabulous news of the day: a fair number of those missing bees that the media was infatuated with a short time ago (and now never mention) have turned up in England! The bad news about it, however, is that they found out the hard way that trying to hitchhike a ride on a jet plane is generally not a good idea.
They got sucked into the engines.
The Palmair Boeing 737 had to return to Bournemouth Airport, Dorset, shortly after take-off at 8:10 a.m. on Thursday following an engine surge.
The pilot decided to abort the flight to Faro in Portugal and returned for safety checks.
The plane's engine was thought to have become clogged with bees, which may have caused possible damage to a fan, the company said on Friday.
Huge clouds of bees have been seen around Bournemouth during the past few days, a spokeswoman added.
But this does provide even more support for the leading scientific theory* of where the bees have gone: vacation.
* According to the extremely well respected Blue Crab Boulevard Scientifical Foundation and Car Wash. Motto: "Forget the how, we know why your car gets dirty."
Match up the following quotes with the people who said them. Your choices are a) Barack Obama, b) Hillary Clinton, c) Moqtada al Sadr and d) Fidel Castro.
1.) "I fully support our troops" but the measure "fails to compel the president to give our troops a new strategy in Iraq,"
2.) "Enough is enough," adding that Bush should not get "a blank check to continue down this same, disastrous path."
3.) "He has $100 billion, all the money he needs to duplicate, however he wishes, the sending of American troops to Iraq and continue the slaughter."
4.) "We demand the withdrawal of the … forces, or the creation of a timetable for such a withdrawal"
Answers: 1-b, 2-a, 3-d, 4-c. That's right, the rhetoric from Fidel Castro and Mookie the "fiery" cleric (not to be confused with Mookie the smoking crater, more's the pity) is more and more resembling the rhetoric of mainstream Democrats. I am not saying that the Dems are wrong to criticize (at least if they are doing so out of principle). I am saying that the intemperate level of the rhetoric is feeding directly into the hands of sworn enemies of this nation.
And politicians should rightly be extremely uncomfortable when their speech is almost interchangeable with people who would cheerfully destroy this nation if they could. Some of this is the thugs and dictators playing the increasingly irresponsible press for all it's worth. But they are using the same words the Dems are. Think about that, politicians. (Yeah, I know, fat chance.)
Ginormous Gambian rats are running wild all over Grassey Key in Florida. The cat-sized rodents have finally attracted the attention of authorities who are taking action against the invaders at last.
GRASSY KEY, Florida (Reuters) - Deep in the heart of the Florida Keys, wildlife officials are laying bait laced with poison to try to wipe out a colony of enormous African rats that could threaten crops and other animals.
U.S. federal and state officials are beginning the final phase of a two-year project to eradicate the Gambian pouched rats, which can grow to the size of a cat and began reproducing in the remote area about eight years ago.
"This is the only place in the United States where this is occurring," said Gary Witmer, a biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Wildlife Research Center in Fort Collins, Colorado.
"They don't belong here and they need to be controlled."
A former exotic pet breeder, living in a small house, bred the species and allowed the critters to escape.
Without eradication, wildlife officials fear the rats could eventually make their way onto the Florida mainland where they could quickly destroy fragile ecosystems.
"They could cause a lot of damage," Witmer said.
In Zimbabwe, for example, ravenous Gambian rats are blamed for damaging nut and young pea crops.
Grassy Key is a 1,500-acre (607-hectare) spit of land, lined with subtropical hardwood hammocks and flowering bougainvillea bushes, about 60 miles north of Key West at Florida's southern tip. Streets are named after limes, lemons, peaches and avocados.
Like other islands in the Florida Keys, Grassy Key is a contrast of inland rustic wooden cottages just a stone's throw from multimillion-dollar waterfront mansions.
"Florida's become quite the hotbed. Florida and Hawaii are vying for which state has the most invasive species," Witmer said.
That dubious honor is attributed to the region's encroaching development, subtropical climate and free-spirited residents who like to keep exotic species, Witmer said.
Free-spirited hell. They're collaborators in the Animal Uprising™. We think the authorities should bait traps for them. Disguise it as an exotic pet store then open a trap door under them when they try to buy a python or a Gambian rat!
Even Rasmussen is reporting on a New York Times/CBS News poll that shows that an overwhelming majority of Americans want the border secured. The Times, of course, spins it as support for the "compromise" bill in the Senate. It isn't. It is an indication of how angry the voters are. And they are angry.
A New York Times/CBS News poll released yesterday found that 69% of American adults believe illegal immigrants should “be prosecuted and deported for being in the U.S. illegally.” Just 24% disagree and say they should not. The survey of 1,125 adults was conducted May 18-23, 2007.
Ultimately, while supporting prosecution, the poll shows that just 33% of Americans believe that most illegal aliens should actually be deported. Sixty-two percent (62%) say that most illegal aliens who have been here at least two years should be “given a chance to keep their jobs and eventually apply for legal status.” Giving them a chance to keep their jobs is a continuation of the status quo requiring no change in policy.
Eighty-two percent (82%) of those surveyed believe the federal government could be doing more to “keep illegal immigrants from crossing into this country.” Only 14% said “the U.S. is doing all it can reasonably be expected to do along its borders.” Sixty-one percent (61%) consider illegal immigration a Very Serious problem for the United States. Seventy-five percent (75%) favor higher fines and increased enforcement of employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens.
The attitudes are consistent with virtually all other polling on the issue. Rasmussen Reports data released Wednesday showing that 72% of Americans say it’s Very Important for the U.S. to “improve border enforcement and reduce illegal immigration.” By a 2-to-1 margin (60% to 28%), Americans believe it is more important to gain control of the nation’s borders than to “legalize the status of undocumented workers already living in the United States.”
Most Americans want the problem solved, not plastered over with meaningless layers of bandaids. This is not a slim margin, politicians. This is two to one for beefing up the border.
Ignore that at your peril.
Congress has passed a bill funding the troops without the deadlines setting a specific surrender date. The left is not at all happy and vows to punish Democrats who supported it.
Congress sent President Bush a new Iraq funding bill yesterday that lacked troop withdrawal deadlines demanded by liberal Democrats, but party leaders vowed it was only a temporary setback in their efforts to bring home American troops.
War opponents dismissed the bill as a capitulation to Bush and said they would seek to hold supporters in both parties accountable. But backers said the bill's provisions — including benchmarks for progress that the Iraqi government must meet to continue receiving reconstruction aid — represented an assertion of congressional authority over the war that was unthinkable a few months ago.
Read the whole article for all the posturing that is still going on but the real reason the whole thing suddenly broke loose? The money was going to run out on Memorial Day - and that would be a disaster for the Democrats.
After weeks of insisting that the Pentagon could fund the war into July, Democrats abruptly changed their tune yesterday. Murtha said Congress had no choice but to act this week, because the war would run out of funds on Monday. The Defense Department could shift funds around, he said, but such accounting tricks would be a "disaster," Murtha said.
I'm sitting on the pool deck just at sunrise as we pull in to the dock at Port Canaveral. Our luggage was whisked away overnight and we're due to depart the ship in a few hours. Our customs form has been filled out all travel arrangements confirmed. So I tried to log in to use up the last of my pre-paid internet minutes only to find out that I can't. The server times out. So I'm all dressed up and nowhere to post, so to speak.
We hit rough water last night and by midnight everyone walking was staggering around looking like they'd been sitting in the bars for too long. Except the ones who actually had been sitting in the bars too long – they walked perfectly in perfectly straight lines. My wife went to bed early when her seasickness acted up again.
In a little while I'll get the family up and we'll go to breakfast, then to one of the waiting areas to wait our turn to leave the ship. It's been a bit disappointing that the weather didn't cooperate, but we had it better than the folks on the last cruise this ship was on. One of the crew mentioned that they got the rough water and high winds plus the bonus of torrential rain. So we had it good in that respect.
But our final excursion, an air boat ride, was canceled due to lack of interest. So now we have a long wait at the airport to look forward to. Despite everything not quite working perfectly, my wife and I had a rather nice time. The kids hung out in the teen center with kids their own ages, leaving us time to see some shows and just be together. We had both been a little nervous that we'd have two bored kids to try to entertain – we were pleasantly surprised that it worked out as it did.
Now the big remaining question: Can I bring those two rum cakes into the country?
Later: Yes, US Customs is fine with rum cakes. But I'm afraid Logan airport has been bumped out of first place on the most hated airports list. Orlando is a nightmare right now. It is a holiday weekend and it is absolutely awful here right now. On the bright side, they do have free WiFi access.
Uncategorized | Gaius Friday, 25 May , 2007 | 
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