Posts from — September 2012

Position: 37.1N 31.4W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: East-Northeast [060°] near 3 mph [ 6 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 50 mph [ 80 kph].
Wind Gusts: 65 mph [105 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 275 Miles [445 km].
Minimum central pressure: 990 mb.

Currently about 160 miles [ 255 km] South of Flores in the Azores.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the islands of Flores, Corvo, Faial, Pico, Sao Jorge, Graciosa, Terceira, Sao Miguel, and Santa Maria in the Azores.

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.]

It’ll be double rations of grog all around in the galley as ye throw the pasta and pesto down your gullet for the final day of Pasta Week, on Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Arr…
Belay that! ‘T’would be better done by swilling lambrusco directly from the flask!
Arr…

Another local official arrested.

The Local Puppy Trainer informs me that Okaloosa County Commissioner James Campbell has been arrested on four counts of official misconduct and four counts of perjury.

While investigating the misconduct in the Tourist Development Council office, the Sheriff discovered a payment involving Mr. Campbell that didn’t look right, so the Florida Department of Law Enforcement was called in to investigate. [In Florida we know better than to trust the county sheriff to investigate other county officials.]

Mr. Campbell’s story was that he wasn’t really hiding the money from the state, he was hiding it from his wife. Since his wife filled out the state mandated financial disclosure form, if he had included it, she would discover how much he was spending on his hunting trips. [There was a time when that would have been a plausible excuse here, but that time is past.]

Fortunately he didn’t run for re-election, so there is a replacement waiting to take over, and we aren’t forced to have an expensive special election.

From the blind side for the Mittster. It is appropriate that the latest problem was the result of his speaking in Boca Raton. It is a bit childish on my part, but I find humor in the fact that Boca Raton means “Rat’s Mouth” in Spanish. [If you looked at an old map of the inlet on the Atlantic Ocean before real estate developers changed it, you would see the origin of the name.]

CBS NEWS actually fact-checked the 47% comment:

In order to assess whether or not, as Romney claims, these non-income tax payers “will vote for the president no matter what,” it’s helpful to look at a breakdown of who they are. According to 2011 data from the Tax Policy Center, more than half of the filing units not paying income taxes are those with incomes less than $16,812 per year. Nearly a third – 29.2 percent – of those paying no income taxes are tax filers earning between $16,812 and $33,542, and 12.8 percent are those with incomes between $33,542 and $59,486. In other words, the poor are least likely to pay federal income taxes, but many middle-class families are also exempt. Smaller but significant numbers of the higher-income earners are also exempt: The same data shows that in 2011, 78,000 tax filers with incomes between $211,000 and $533,000 paid no income taxes; 24,000 households with incomes of $533,000 to $2.2 million paid no income taxes, and 3,000 tax filers with incomes above $2.2 million paid no income taxes.

It’s the 105,000 filers who made more than $211,000 in 2011 and paid no income taxes that really burns and shows how broken the tax systems is. What happened to the Alternate Minimum Tax that was supposed to kick in? Congress keeps messing with it, but it obviously isn’t very effective.

After the fold are three maps that I find interesting:

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Position: 35.8N 32.2W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: North-Northeast [025°] near 7 mph [11 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 50 mph [ 80 kph].
Wind Gusts: 65 mph [105 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 230 Miles [370 km].
Minimum central pressure: 993 mb ↑.

Currently about 325 miles [ 525 km] West-Southwest of the Azores.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the islands of Flores, Corvo, Faial, Pico, Sao Jorge, Graciosa, and Terceira in the Azores.

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.]

McClatchy apparently wondered how people in the Middle East found out about a single video on YourTube, so they committed a blatant act of journalism and tracked down the story:

Morris Sadek, a Coptic Christian who lives in suburban Washington, D.C., whose anti-Islam campaigning led to the revocation of his Egyptian citizenship earlier this year, had an exclusive story for Gamel Girgis, who covers Christian emigrants for al Youm al Sabaa, the Seventh Day, a daily newspaper here [Cairo]. Sadek had a movie clip he wanted Girgis to see; he e-mailed him a link.
…

Facebook pages started appearing, urging Islamists and youth to protest Tuesday, the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. [Terry] Jones had called for putting Muhammad on trial that day in a web message, which is why, protest organizers said, they scheduled it for that day. Calls started coming into the U.S. embassy as well, catching everyone there by surprise.

Sadek was one of the people who funded the film, and he wanted to make sure that people in Egypt saw it. This wasn’t an accidental discovery, but an intentional action to inflame Muslims in Egypt.

Susie Madrak remembered that this sort of behavior isn’t limited to Muslims. She remembered the conservative Christian response to The Last Temptation of Christ in France – the fire-bombing of a cinema.

India is bedeviled with religious strife all the time, so attempting to blame only the Muslims, is absurd. Almost every religion has its share of violent ultra-conservatives who resort to violence over any perceived slight.

Position: 33.9N 34.2W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: Northeast [045°] near 9 mph [15 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 60 mph [ 95 kph].
Wind Gusts: 75 mph [120 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 195 Miles [315 km].
Minimum central pressure: 989 mb ↑.

Currently about 450 miles [ 790 km] Southwest of the Azores.

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.]

The geographic illiteracy of Rmoney’s ‘national security/foreign policy’ team is pathetic.

The Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia have been off maps for a while. It might shock Liz Cheney [daughter of Dick ‘Dick’ Cheney] but Czechoslovakia didn’t exist during either of her two stints as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State For Near Eastern Affairs in the Hedgemony.

Oh, we also haven’t supported the Hittites, the Mayans, or the Inca, for pretty much the same reason – their empires are gone.

There are few restrictions on free speech in the United States compared to the rest of the world, but they exist. The biggest difference is that the US specifically protects political speech, which is usually the most censored form of speech in other countries.

In the unanimous Supreme Court decision in Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919) Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. wrote: “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic.” That concept has been refined by the imminent lawless action test and the fighting words doctrine.

The current controversy involving the Innocennce of Muslims film has to pass through those filters, and others, for the Federal government to do anything.

First, does the government have jurisdiction? That one is easy to deal with as the actions precipitated by the film affected US embassies and consulates which are US soil, even though they are located in foreign countries.

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Position: 31.4N 38.1W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: East-Northeast [075°] near 18 mph [30 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 70 mph [110 kph].
Wind Gusts: 80 mph [130 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 185 Miles [295 km].
Minimum central pressure: 987 mb ↑.

Currently about 775 miles [1250 km] West-Southwest of the Azores.

The storm is over cooler water in the central Atlantic and has weakened.

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.]

Happy 5773!

At sunset Rosh Hashanah begins, so get your honey, challah, and apples ready.

Día de la Independencia
Estados Unidos Mexicanos

¡Viva México!

Some background on 16 de Septiembre and El Grito de Dolores.

Yesterday Jim DeRosa celebrated his sixth blogiversary™, and tomorrow Mustang Bobby celebrates his sixtieth birthday.

I offer both my congratulations, and apologize to Jim for being a bit late.

Position: 30.6N 46.6W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: East [095°] near 17 mph [28 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 80 mph [130 kph].
Wind Gusts: 95 mph [150 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 185 Miles [295 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 45 miles [ 75 km].
Minimum central pressure: 983 mb.

Currently about 1225 miles [1975 km] West-Southwest of the Azores.

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.]