Sandy And Its Aftermath

Hurricane Sandy, now continuing to move northward after losing its "tropical" designation, has left a "trail of devastation" along the east coast, especially in New Jersey, where the eye made landfall, and in New York City, which experienced an exceptionally high storm surge and its resulting floods.  Much of Atlantic City, NJ   has also been underwater.  Power outages continue in parts of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

In my part of Maryland, which is well to the west of the Atlantic coast and also to the west of the Chesapeake Bay, we got off easy.  We had strong winds and rain, but from what I can see, the damage was limited mainly to tree branches.  Power flickered a few times Monday evening, but never went off completely.  I'm grateful to be essentially unscathed, but this is tempered by the fact that many people to the north and east my location have been hit hard by this storm.

A few stories about Sandy and its aftermath:

From the Daily Caller, the president discusses some relief plans.

From USA Today, New York struggles with fires and floods.

From CNN, Sandy's trail of devastation, including 30 dead and millions without power.

The New Yorker reports on damage to the City's Upper West Side.

The Huffington Post has a running list of how to help the victims of Sandy.

From MSN News, the cleanup begins as millions remain without power.

The IEEE Spectrum reports on the shutdowns of nuclear power plants and oil refineries.

From Tulsa's Channel 8, photos of the damage in New York and New Jersey.

From the New York Post, many more photos of the damage, and a live blog with still more photos.

Some history from the New York Daily News, the east coast hurricane of 1938.

And finally, from Inga's Angle, a rainbow over New York.

Links For A Rainy Day

Here in Maryland, Sandy is giving us some wind and rain, along with a case of cabin fever due to lots of things being closed down.  But fortunately, my cyber-connection to the outside world so far remains unscathed, thus allowing me to pass on some stories.

From the New York Post, updates about Hurricane Sandy.

From Fox News, Sandy is expected to bring a "life-threatening" storm surge.

From Yahoo News, here's one part of the federal government that will not shut down today - the Marines guarding the Tomb of the Unknowns.

From Twitchy, Sandy has produced an outbreak of fake photos (possibly including the one in the above story about the Marines, which was taken during an earlier storm).  If you have a picture you'd like to put on Twitter, please make sure it's real.

From the Huffington Post, photos (real, I hope) of the damage from Hurricane Sandy in Atlantic City, NJ.

From the Duffel Blog and the "Did I read that correctly?" department, in response to Hurricane Sandy, the Veteran's Affairs Department will close down their facilities "west of the Mississippi River".

From the Washington Post, the HMS Bounty, which has appeared in two films, has sunk off the coast of North Carolina.

From the Wall Street Journal, President Obama hints at appointing a Secretary of Business if he wins a second term.

From Life Site News, this past Saturday over 200 students from Christendom College in Virginia protested in front of a Planned Parenthood clinic not far from the White House.

From the Miami Herald, the 12-year-old daughter of Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) is back home after being hospitalized with a head injury suffered in a golf cart accident.

From Breitart's Big Journalism, the Obama campaign gets testy with reporters.

From the Daily Caller, a congressional report puts the blame for Fast and Furious on several senior Justice Department officials.

From France 24, car bombs strike Damascus, Syria.

To finish up, a bit of hurricane humor from StixBlog.

A Horse Is A Horse, Of Course?

As the rains from Hurricane Sandy start to come down on our nation's capitol, causing government agencies to take the day off, one local resident decided to do a little horsing around.  From the Daily Caller:

Since he is wearing a horse's head, I wonder if he is familiar with a certain town in western New York.

Was The Mohammed Movie Trailer Wrong?

Usama Dakdok, a Christian who immigrated from Egypt in 1992, explains why the Mohammed Movie Trailer, blamed by some for the attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, is correct in its claims according to the Qur'an and the writings of Muslim scholars.  Mr. Dakdok is one of the hosts I listen to on BlogTalkRadio, and has his own Internet-based ministry at The Straight Way.

Indonesia Thwarts Planned Terrorist Attacks

Indonesian police have arrested 11 suspected terrorists who were allegedly planning several attacks, against targets that included the U.S. Embassy, a U.S. Consulate, a plaza near the Australian Embassy and police headquarters.  The suspects are members of a group calling itself Harakah Sunni for Indonesian Society, or HASMI.  Authorities have not yet determined if HASMI has ties to Jemaah Islamiya, the group responsible for the bombings in Bali in 2002.  Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim country, but is ruled by a secular government.

Read the story at Fox News.

Dubya Weighs In

After all the times that Teh One^TM has blamed his predecessor for his troubles, former president Bush the Younger finally has an answer to Barry's accusations.  Dubya's not exactly defending himself, but I think reply is valid nonetheless.

(Found in a TwitPic somewhere on Twitter)

The Determinators Movie

Based on the book The Battle for America's Soul by C. L. Gray, MD, and posted on YouTube by Tea Party Patriots, The Determinators features health care experts who have read the law and try to explain how it will affect us.  Dr. Gray also gives some historical perspective on the matter, tracing two competing philosophies on the role of physicians from their origins in ancient Greece.

Bigfoot Vandalizes A Winnebago?

Every once in a while, I run across a story about the large furry quasi-human beast, which might not even exist, whose name I have appropriated.  This one is written by Benjamin Radford in Fox News.  According to Radford, some people believe that Bigfoot has committed acts of vandalism, including throwing rocks at the Winnebago mobile home of John Reed, himself the founder of a Bigfoot hunting group.

Read the full article.

Thugs Beat Up Son Of Wisconsin State Senator

During the early morning hours of this past Friday, Sean Kedzie, son of Wisconsin State Senator Neal Kedzie, caught someone removing a Romney campaign sign from in front of his residence in Whitewater, WS.  After he yelled at the thief, telling him to return the sign, the thief and an accomplice attacked Kedzie, putting him in a choke hold and beating him on the head.  After a neighbor scared off the attackers, Kedzie was rushed to a local hospital, treated and released.

Go to Breitbart's Big Government to read the full story, and see what these thugs did to Sean Kedzie.

There's No Voter Fraud?

Something strange is going on in North Carolina.  Either their health care establishments have enabled several hundred of their citizens to reach the age of 112, or something is not right with their voter rolls.  According to the Examiner, during the absentee ballot phase of this year's election, 832 people who have already voted are 112 years old.  This is very odd, because in the Guinness Book of World Records, the world's oldest man is just a bit older.  Could one American state produce that many people so close to the record?

To the liberals out there, this is the sort of thing that makes us on the right support voter ID laws.  It's not because of some alleged desire to prevent non-white citizens from voting.

Read the full article.

George McGovern 1922 - 2012

George McGovern, who served as an Army Air Corps pilot in World War II and later as a U.S. Representative and Senator from South Dakota, before running for president as the Democrat Party's nominee in 1972, died early this morning at a hospice in Sioux Falls.  During his political career, McGovern embraced the term "liberal", even as some of his fellow Democrats shied away from it and some Republicans used it as an insult.

In 1956, McGovern successfully ran for a seat in the House of Representatives, and was re-elected two years later.  In 1960, he ran for Senator and lost, but ran again and won in 1962, ousting incumbent Joe Bottums by only 597 votes.  He was also appointed by President John Kennedy to lead the Food for Peace program.  During his unsuccessful presidential campaign, his running mate was Kennedy brother-in-law R. Sargent Shriver.  In Arkansas, their campaign staff included some young volunteers such as Bill Clinton and his girlfriend Hillary Rodham.

Read more at ABC News, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, US News and the Washington Post.

Fall Foliage

Now that fall has arrived, the trees here in Maryland are undergoing their annual change of color.  These are a few that I've seen in the general vicinity.  This one has turned bright red-orange.

He Said "Allahu Akbar"

Via the Tea Party Command Center:

Was the Fort Hood Massacre a terrorist attack, or merely workplace violence, as it has been classified?  Listen to the people who were there.

Friday Links

A few stories out there in the news:

From NBC News, a New York man has allegedly been stranded in Europe since October 1st, because his name appears on a no-fly list.  This, of course, begs the following question.  Why was he allowed to fly over there in the first place?

From Life News, Bruce Springsteen campaigns for Obama and abortion.

From the LA Times, Malala Yousafzai, the 14-year-old education rights campaigner recently shot by the Taliban and taken to Britain for treatment, has recovered the abilities to stand and to write.

From CBC News, the Catholic Church will declare Kateri Tekakwitha a saint.  A member of the Mohawk tribe, she will become the first native North American woman to receive this honor.  (Full disclosure:  I have visited her shrine in Fonda, NY.)

From the NY Post, alleged would-be bomber Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis may have had an accomplice who was busted on kiddie porn charges.

From Yahoo News, a car-bomb explodes in Beirut, killing an anti-Syrian intelligence official.

From Reuters, the Curiosity rover eats Martian dirt.

From Breitbart's Big Journalism, the magazine Us headlines the cost Ann Romney's dress, even though it cost about half of what Michelle Obama was wearing, as the two ladies watched their husbands debate.

From Iconic Surrealism, watch Mitt Romney's speech at the Alfred E. Smith dinner.

Form Human Events, Romney gets the endorsement of lifelong Democrat Lee Iacocca.

And last but not east, from Pinterest, some of Obama's favorite golf courses.

ER Physician: Death Panels Are Here

From The Grouch at Right Truth via Monkey In The Middle:

The Grouch is a practicing emergency room doctor who is starting to deal with the onset of Obamacare as it starts to affect Medicare.  Under the new rules, if someone who has been discharged from a hospital is readmitted after less than 30 days, Medicare will not pay for the treatment after readmission.  At first, this only applied only if the readmission was for the same diagnosis, but was then extended to any reason for readmission.  As the Grouch puts it:

Today while working my shift in the emergency room, an old lady was brought in very sick and in fact near death. I did my usual workup and evaluation and attempted to administer life saving treatment. It was my plan to admit this woman to the hospital. I found out a little later that this same woman had been a patient here just slightly more than 2 weeks ago with a DIFFERENT DIAGNOSIS. I was told that if this woman was admitted, the hospital would not be paid.

Up To 140 Spitfires Buried In Myanmar

As many as 140 Spitfire fighter airplanes, left over from World War II, are believed to be buried in Myanmar, and are believed to be in "near-pristine condition", according to an article by Boston.com.  They were brought in crates from Britain to what was then the British colony of Burma, but too late during the war to be used against the Japanese.

Read the full story, and watch this video of a restored Spitfire in action:

Punt Reverses Direction

This punter in a Texas high school football game found out how difficult it can be kicking into the wind.  I don't think he tried to fool Mother Nature, but she certainly changed the trajectory of his punt.  His teammates would recover the ball, in their own end zone.

Would-Be Terrorist Arrested In New York

A man who allegedly plotted to bomb the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has been arrested by the FBI.  Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, of Bangla Desh, is said to have traveled to the United States for the purpose of forming a terror cell and carrying out a terrorist attack on U.S. soil.  In his attempt to find possible Al Qaeda contacts, Nafis had the misfortune, so to speak, of contacting an undercover agent.  After Nafis and the agent constructed what Nafis believed to be a bomb, loading it onto a van, driving the van into New York, and parking it next to the bank, Nafis soon found out that the bomb would not go off, and found himself in FBI custody.  According to the Bureau, Nafis has been charged with "attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to Al Qaeda."

Read more at Yahoo News, CNN Justice, ABC News, the New York Post and NBC New York.

Earthquake Strikes Maine

An earthquake occurred in Maine at 7:12 PM this evening, and was felt in the Boston area.  The epicenter was near Lake Arrowhead, west of Portland.  At 4.6 on the Richter scale, this quake was smaller than the one hitting Virginia during the summer of 2011, and probably would have been considered to be very minor if it had hit California.

Read the story at the Boston Herald, NBC News, USA Today and NESN.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

From rightwing musician and Fox News contributor Steven Crowder, and quickly brought to my attention on Twitter, the Obama Change Song:

Arlen Specter 1930-2012

Former Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Spector died this morning at his home in Philadelphia of complications from non-Hodgkins lymphoma at the age of 82.

Often described as a centrist or moderate, Spector started his political career as a Democrat, became a Republican in 1965, and switch back in 2009.  The next year, he lost the Democrat nomination in the primary.  His seat reverted to the GOP in the general election.

Spector was born in Wichita, Kansas and moved with his family to the small town of Russell, also the hometown of his eventual Senate colleague Bob Dole.  His family later moved to Philadelphia, where he would graduate from the University of Pennsylvania.  After serving in the Air Force, he earned a law degree at Yale.  He was elected to the Senate in 1980, serving from 1981 to 2011.

Read more at the New York Times, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, ABC News, NBC Politics, USA Today and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Felix Baumgartner Makes Highest-Ever Skydive

Austrian adventurer Felix Baumgartner has successfully completed a skydive from a record height of 128,000 feet, which is just over 24 miles.  It took him about 10 minutes to descend from his balloon capsule to the ground in New Mexico.  Whether he met his other goal of exceeding the speed of sound during the jump has not yet been determined.  The height record will not be official until it is confirmed by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale.

Baumgartner's "Capcom" (capsule commander) was none other than the man whose record he broke, retired Air Force Colonel Joe Kittinger, now in his eighties, who jumped from an altitude of 102,800 feet (about 19 and 1/2 miles) in 1960.

Baumgartner's feat gives me a chance to revive a label we used during my time at AndRightlySo, and which I certainly mean as a compliment:  Badass.

Read more at BBC News, the Telegraph, the Washington Post, USA Today and PopSci.
Space.com has this infographic with some technical details.  Blogger's video search feature has turned up this record of the jump.  During the first few minutes, you can hear the audio from Baumgartner and Col. Kittinger.

Roll Out The Bridge

Later this month, the Maryland State Highway Administration will replace two bridges that span the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.  This operation will not involve the costly, time-consuming and traffic-clogging process of tearing them down and then building the new ones.  Instead, the old bridges will be rolled away and the new ones rolled in.  This will be Maryland's first "bridge on wheels" swap, but it has been done in other states.

Read the story at the Baltimore Sun.

Obamaphones And Other Strange Goings On

The first item comes via iOwnTheWorld.  By now, we've all probably heard about woman in Cleveland who thinks we should all vote to re-elect President Obama because he gives out free phones (conveniently ignoring the fact that the phones were paid for, not by the president, but by taxpayers and/or whomever we're borrowing money from these days).  However, she has been seriously outdone by a woman in Baltimore, who has collected no fewer than 30 "Obamaphones".

In a related development, the phones provided to poor people are making the world's richest man even richer.  As reported by Fox News, the phones are made by TracPhone, which makes $10 for each one.  Benefiting from this is Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, whose estimated net worth is $70 billion, and who owns a controlling stake in TracPhone.  This begs some questions for the left.  Don't you guys normally have a problem when the rich get richer?  And what was that about "spreading the wealth around", Mr. President?

Meanwhile in (and above) Cape Canaveral, Space Exploration Technologies launches one of their Falcon 9 rockets into orbit.  Only trouble is, they missed by a few hundred miles.  (From Reuters)

To close on a sad note, from The Inquistr, America has produced her last glass Coca-Cola bottle, at the Winona Bottling Company in Minnesota.  For now on, the popular beverage will come only in plastic bottles and metal cans.

Ammunition Explosion In Russia

Over 4,000 tons of bombs and shells at a military base near Orenburg, Russia exploded earlier today, creating a shock wave, a mushroom cloud and a brushfire.  The shock wave blew out windows in some houses and schools.  Two towns near the base were evacuated.  The shock wave is heard in the opening seconds of this video:



Read the story at RT Question More.

Sandusky Gets 30-60 Years

Convicted sex offender Jerry Sandusky was sentenced today to a prison term of between 30 and 60 years.  Being 68 years old, he will almost certainly spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Read more at Fox News, CBS News, the Washington Post, CNN, Yahoo News and USA Today.

Hugo Chavez Re-Elected

While the exit polls mentioned in yesterday's post indicated that challenger Enrique Capriles had a small lead, the official results were quite different.  Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has carried 54% of the vote with 81% of the voting places reporting, and has been declared the winner.

Read more at BBC News, ABC News, Fox News and Bloomberg.

Venezuela Holds Elections

As we Americans look forward to ours, a month away, Venezuela held their elections today, with incumbent president Hugo Chavez facing challenger Henrique Capriles.  Turnout has been high enough to force polling stations to stay open past the official 6:00 p.m. closing time.  The race is expected to be close.  As of this posting, the results have not been announced.

Read more at:
BBC News, the Guardian, Reuters, CNN, and the Washington Post.

UPDATE:  According to the Daily Caller, a Spanish news outlet reports that according to exit polls, Capriles is leading by about 51% to 48%.  However, the offical results have still not been announced.

Music Break

It's been over a month since I've posted a music break, which means that one is overdue.  To start off, a video I saw during my recent trip to Italy, Sempre Noi by Max Pezzali featuring J-Ax.

How Does Islam Regard Christianity?

Muslims believe that their prophet Mohammed is the last of a long line of prophets, which includes many prophets found in the Bible, such as Moses and Jesus.  According to Islam, Allah revealed through these earlier prophets teachings that were substantially the same as found in the Koran, which was given by Allah through the angel Gabriel to Mohammed.  The teachings given to prophets such as Moses and Jesus, however, were later corrupted by their followers.  In other words, Allah revealed what Muslims call the "true" Torah to Moses, and later the "true" Gospel to Jesus, but Jews and Christians respectively distorted these into the Torah and Gospel as found in the present-day Bible.

This, of course, is but a brief summary of how Muslims regard Jews and Christians, and their two religions.  For a much more detailed explanation, listen to Robert Spencer, and read his website Jihad Watch.

Ode To Odd Instruments

I ran across this little ditty on YouTube, played in 5/4 time by Michael Hearst.

The rhythm is kept by a Knockman Cha Cha (which Hearst calls "Chachak").  Various melodies, chords, and accompanying parts are played on the daxophone, Hohner claviola, bass melodica, stylophone, otamatone, and Moog Theremin.  For percusssion, there's an Elasticbrand Audioware rattle and a porter's bell.  The Theremin is named after its Russian inventor.

Wednesday Links

As Barry and Mitt prepare to go at each other tonight, let's see what else is going on.

Let's start with Barry's campaign.  From Breitbart's Big Government, Obama campaign staffers in Florida have allegedly posed as election officials.

From The Hill, according to the CDC, teen births are at a historic low.

From the Christian Post, Tyndale House Publishers has joined a lawsuit against the Obama administration's abortion pill mandate.

From the American Thinker, the alliance - and similarities - between progressives and islamists.

From the Daily Mail, a man busted for his 7th DUI claims he swerved to avoid an elephant.

From Yahoo Sports, it's the artist known as LSU Freak.

From the News Observer, forget underwater basketweaving and ballroom dancing.  Instead, quite a few UNC athletes have been taking a class in Naval Weapons Systems.

From NBC News, and the "you can't make this us" department, a suspicious elongated object bearing the word "Kaboom" was not a pipe bomb, but a walking stick belonging to Natural Hunka Kaboom, who claims that his last name was shortenend from the Polish name "Kaboomski".

From Yahoo News, a prosecutor in New Orleans is arrested in court, after a joint falls out of his pocket.

Also from Yahoo News, a UFO seen over Cincinnati has been identified.

From SFGate, a dog that took an 11-mile ride stuck in a car's grille has been reunited with its owners.

And finally, via Iconic Surrealism, the RNC's ad featuring VP Biden's inadvertent truth telling.

Obama Campaign: Vote Your "Parts"

Earlier today, the Obama campaign posted an e-card on their Tumblr site, saying "Vote like your lady parts depend on it."  Bloggers took notice, and soon afterwards, the hashtag #LadyParts became popular on Twitter.  Hours after bloggers started criticizing the e-card, it was deleted.  However, the Washington Examiner (among others) saved a shot of the e-card.  Obviously, I think that the Obama presidency has harmed Americans, both those with lady parts and those with manly parts.

Woman 1 Bear 0

A black bear wanders into someone's back yard, but knows better than to mess with her.  From the New York Post: