Posts from — October 2015

Position: 28.0N 68.9W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: Northeast [050°] near 20 mph [31 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 130 mph [215 kph].
Wind Gusts: 150 mph [280 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 205 miles [335 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 70 miles [110 km].
Minimum central pressure: 944 mb ↑.

Currently about 385 miles [ 620 km] Southwest of Bermuda.

The storm has strengthened and is a Category 4 again at 10AM CDT. At 1PM is has become the strongest Category 4 possible. Any further strengthening and it will be a Category 5.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for Bermuda.

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.]

This afternoon I received a telemarketing call congratulating me on winning a cruise to the Bahamas. I informed the person that I was well aware that they didn’t get to pick what they were promoting, but they might want to check the weather reports before calling anyone else, and then wait a week to see if the Bahamas are still there after 24 hours with a Category 4 hurricane.

I didn’t mention that the Coast Guard was using helicopters to remove the crew of a container ship that lost its engines and was adrift inside of Joaquin or that they were still looking for another ship with 33 people on board.

People selling the tropics during hurricane season really need to watch the weather.

Kim Davis’s fundy lawyers could not have possibly misrepresented (lied about) her ‘secret’ meeting with the Pope: Pope’s meeting with Kim Davis not an endorsement – Vatican

The Rev Federico Lombardi said the Pope met “several dozen” people at the Vatican’s embassy in Washington just before leaving for New York last week.

“The Pope did not enter into the details of the situation of Mrs Davis and his meeting with her should not be considered a form of support of her position in all of its particular and complex aspects,” Rev Lombardi said.
…

The Pope was asked for his views on the question of government officials refusing to discharge their duties because of their religious beliefs during his return from the US on Sunday.

He told reporters on his flight back to Rome that conscientious objection was a “human right”.

Public servants object to performing acts that conflict with their conscience by resigning. I suspect that translating what the Pope said as ‘conscientious objection’ may cause a misunderstanding as it has acquired a specific, limited meaning in US English as an objection to war, whereas other English speakers will see it in its broader meaning.

Position: 24.7N 74.0W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: Northeast [040°] near 10 mph [17 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 125 mph [205 kph].
Wind Gusts: 145 mph [220 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 205 miles [335 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 50 miles [ 85 km].
Minimum central pressure: 944 mb ↑.

Currently about 60 miles [ 95 km] North-Northeast of San Salvador, Bahamas.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the Central Bahamas and New Providence, and the Acklins, Crooked Island, and Mayaguana in the Southeastern Bahamas.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the remainder of the Southeastern Bahamas including the Turks & Caicos Islands, and Bermuda.

A Hurricane Watch is in effect for Bermuda.

A slight weakening that downgrades the storm to Category 3, but still moving slowly and the Bahamas are being pounded. The US is being affected by coastal flooding from waves and surge from Georgia to Long Island. The low that was dumping rain on me earlier in the week is now stuck in the Southeast and with the moisture that Joaquin is pushing on shore will be causing flooding at least from Georgia to New Jersey.

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.]

I assume that everyone else will cover the Umpqua Community College shooting in Oregon. This is ‘olds’, not news. I expect at anytime there will be a section in the greeting card aisle for “Family and Friends of Victims of Mass Shootings”.

So I was drawn to some good news from Australia: Troy Newman, anti-abortion activist, to launch a High Court bid against deportation.

Newman is the current leader of Operation Rescue which is not really a terrorist organization. You have to understand that just because they say that suspected abortion providers are mass murderers, when followers gun down three people on the Florida Panhandle and they won’t actually condemn the men who pulled the triggers, that doesn’t mean that they advocate violence. 😈

For some reason Australia refused to issue him a visa, and when he showed up without one, he was taken into custody at the airport to be deported.

Yo, Newman, if Johnny Depp couldn’t get his pocket puppies into the country without visas, you have no chance, but they probably won’t put you down.

Update: The High Court tells Troy to go away. If he had appealed the decision in the US the Court would have looked at his case, but by breaking law and attempting to enter without a visa he lost his right to appeal.

MSNBC notes GOPers scramble to denounce Benghazi comments as Clinton pounces:

Republicans are scrambling to undo the damage from some too-candid comments made by the likely next speaker of the House about the Benghazi committee, and Hillary Clinton is already looking to take advantage.

“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Sean Hannity on Fox News Tuesday night. “But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened had we not fought.”

The incident at Benghazi has been investigated by a dozen committees who all concluded that there was ‘no there, there’, but the ‘select committee’ keeps going trying to find something, anything to justify its existence. The latest dodge is an e-mail server. Kevin McCarthy screwed up and told the truth – it is nothing more than a political attack created and maintained to smear Hillary Clinton. It remains to be seen if the GOP will still vote to make McCarthy Speaker.

Position: 22.9N 74.6W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West [260°] near 3 mph [ 6 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 130 mph [215 kph].
Wind Gusts: 145 mph [220 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 205 miles [335 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 50 miles [ 85 km].
Minimum central pressure: 935 mb ↑.

Currently about 75 miles [ 125 km] South of San Salvador, Bahamas.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for Central Bahamas; and the Northwestern Bahamas including the Abacos, Berry Islands, Eleuthera, Grand Bahama Island, and New Providence, and The Acklins, Crooked Island, and Mayaguana in the Southeastern Bahamas.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the remainder of the Southeastern Bahamas including the Turks & Caicos Islands, Andros Island and the Cuban provinces of Camaguey, Los Tunas, Holguin, and Guantanamo.

A Hurricane Watch is in effect for Bimini & Andros Island.

Joaquin is now a Category 4 Hurricane. The Bahamas are getting pounded. The storm is moving slow enough that the storm surge will have the time to really build up, and the rainfall will be really heavy.

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.]