Susie wonders about the ‘terrorist’ arrest in Chicago, and this makes me wonder about everyone involved:

“The men had been making Molotov cocktails out of empty beer bottles filled with gasoline and fitted with cut bandanas for fuses,” Cook County state attorney Anita Alvarez told a news conference after the bond hearing.

“It is pretty clear from the evidence they were making the bombs,” Alvarez said. “There was a lot of discussion about making these Molotov cocktails and what they were going to do with them.”

How much of a discussion can there be about making a Molotov cocktail – breakable container, inflammable liquid, and rag for a fuse? If you can figure out Legos you are over-qualified to make a Molotov cocktail. Was there some big discussion of Corona vs Bud or regular vs high-test, cotton vs polyester? Did they wonder about the effects of ethanol being added to the gasoline? What was there to discuss?

If they had bottles sold for home beer brewing, they had a problem – the bottles don’t shatter easily because beer-brewing generates a lot of pressure and the people who sell to home brewers carry heavy duty bottles. Not exactly as tough as old Coke bottles or wine bottles, but robust. Reusing bottles from commercial beer is not recommended for home brewing because of the pressure problems.

Molotov cocktails are OK in Europe because they have cobblestone streets, but not very effective in the US.

The real issue is that there was obviously a police agent inside. Are there recordings, or are we supposed to believe someone who is paid to lie? If there was an agent inside, why didn’t the police get a warrant? If there was time for a lot of discussion about bombs, there was time to get a warrant.

Position: 30.9N 76.5W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: East-Northeast [065°] near 13 mph [20 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 35 mph [ 55 kph].
Wind Gusts: 45 mph [ 70 kph].
Minimum central pressure: 1008 mb ↑.

Currently about 245 miles [390 km] East-Southeast of Charleston, South Carolina.

Alberto’s stay in the cooler water close to the coast sapped its strength and now it is heading out to sea.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]