The CNN headline for the Associated Press report: ‘Flooding of biblical proportions’ in Iowa

“We are seeing a historic hydrological event taking place with unprecedented river levels occurring,” said Brian Pierce, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Davenport, Iowa. “We’re in uncharted territory — this is an event beyond what anybody could even imagine.”

Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan today, and it’s dumping into the Mississippi, so there will be more states downstream under water in the near future.

There are nine rivers above flood stage.

Were I an evangelical I might suspect I had elected the anti-Christ President – twice.

CNN reports that At l[e]ast two die as 6.9 earthquake rattles Japan

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) — Two people were killed and at least eight others injured Saturday when a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck northeastern Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said.

Machimura said one man was killed when he was buried in a landslide in Fukushima Prefecture and the other was struck by a truck as he rushed out of his house in Iwate Prefecture.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda sent priority orders for rescue operations, Machimura said.

The quake, which struck at about 8:45 a.m. (11:45 p.m. GMT Friday), was centered 100 km (60 miles) north of Sendai in southern Iwate prefecture. Aftershocks of 5.0 and 4.4 magnitude followed, the Japanese Meteorological Agency said.

[Read more →]

… or possibly “Indecent”.

“The Constitution is not a suicide pact” is a rhetorical phrase in American political and legal discourse.

It is most accurately attributed to the rhetoric in a dissenting opinion in Terminiello v. Chicago 337 U.S. 1 (1949), a case involving a $100 fine for disturbing the peace, that had been reviewed by the appellate and supreme court of Illinois before reaching the Supreme Court of the United States.

[Justice Robert H.] Jackson’s dissent in this case is most famous for its final paragraph:

This Court has gone far toward accepting the doctrine that civil liberty means the removal of all restraints from these crowds and that all local attempts to maintain order are impairments of the liberty of the citizen. The choice is not between order and liberty. It is between liberty with order and anarchy without either. There is danger that, if the Court does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact.

[Read more →]

Another Kryten42 Recipe:

Genoise Cake Tiramisu

Part 1: Make the Genoise Cake

Ingredients:

3 whole large eggs
1/3 Cup + 3 tablespoons Sugar, granulated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (NOT syrup)
1/2 cup cake flour, sifted
2 tablespoon butter, melted

[Read more →]

Yes, it’s Friday the 13^th again. The 13^th falls on a Friday more than any other day of the week, so get over it. It’s only valid in in English and Portuguese speaking countries, so go visit a Spanish-speaking neighborhood for the day.

If you want to blame someone, it’s the calendar of Pope Gregory XIII that created this imbalance.

Pass and ID

It’s me…really, I’m too small to lie!

[Editor: The Lone Ranger checks on her sister’s kitten to be sure it’s allowed to eat with the group. These checks are a constant feature of the feral’s society.]

Friday Ark