Kepler, the probe that keeps on ticking, has found a well populated exo solar system of a type that could one day be the subject of a focused search by SETI — because there’s another interesting feature here: this star is very similar to our sun, it’s just a little smaller. Oh, and much, much older: [Read more…]
I wonder how many Boston liberals spent the night cowering in their homes wishing they had an AR-15 with a hi-capacity magazine? #2AIt begins. Because everyone knows shooting at an explosion fixes everything ::Eyeroll:: An actual relevant, valid question might be more along the lines of how did these guys manage to assemble such a vast deadly arsenal and would background checks or other restrictions have made that more difficult? Meanwhile Tony Perkins also has a theory …
RW Watch — If Congress wants to stop these tragedies, then it has to address the government’s own hostility to the institution of the family and organizations that can address the real problem: the human heart.
As I’ve said before, America doesn’t need gun control, it needs self-control. And a Congress that actively discourages it–through abortion, family breakdown, sexual liberalism, or religious hostility–is only compounding the problem
The two men sought by the FBI in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing led police on a wild shooting, robbing, bomb-throwng chase through downtown Boston and Watertown last night beginning around 11PM local time. After a fierce firefight with police one suspect is dead, at least one police officer seriously wounded, and last I saw one suspect remains at large. Another police officer died from multiple gunshot wounds received in what is believed to be the initial confrontation with the two suspects earlier. So who are these guys? [Read more…]
UPDATE: THESE ARE NOW THOUGHT TO BE THE SUSPECTS SOUGHT IN THE BOSTON BOMBING. ONE DECEASED, ONE AT LARGE ARMED AND EXTREMELY DANGEOUS
A police officer is reported shot dead tonight and there are reports of explosions and a firefight going on or just concluded in Watertown, MA. There are rumors that one person is in custody and one person being chased. So far there are no links to the Boston bombings and, reader beware, there have been some stellar dumbass false reports out of that area all week. The only thing I can say for sure I’ve seen blowing up is Twitter. That being said there is rampant speculation this may be related and that one of those people involved fits the descriptions and images released earlier today. There are conflicting rumors it may be related to an armed robbery investigation.
Follow hashtag #SCanner; #Watertown; Reported on #Scanner: “We Do Not have the second suspect in custody”.
Update: Police reportedly have a suspect on the ground at gunpoint and then suddenly backed up as if he were wired or somehow posing a danger.
Update: MSNBC showing video of a suspect stretched out prone on the ground.
You poor misled romantic saps. Marriage has nothing to do with love or happiness. Just ask the unofficial Catholic leader Bill Donohue– who holds no position whatsoever in the church proper but still manages to embarrass Catholics the world over on a regular basis: [Read more…]
Here they are, if these guys look familiar the FBI would like to hear from you. Cllick image for more info at Talking Points Memo.
This is all unfolding about an hour and half north of me. There are at least three people I know who we haven’t heard from who live near the area. I have no reason to think they’re among the 5 to 15 reported dead or the 200 or more injured, but it’s definitely close to home. Meanwhile, in a report that should be shocking to no one, the plant reports on itself as being completely safe just a few years ago:
Dallas Morning News — The fertilizer plant that exploded Wednesday night in West, Texas, reported to the Environmental Protection Agency and local public safety officials that it presented no risk of fire or explosion, documents show. West Fertilizer Co. reported having as much as 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia on hand in an emergency planning report required of facilities that use toxic or hazardous chemicals.
But the report, reviewed Wednesday night by The Dallas Morning News, stated “no” under fire or explosive risks. The worst possible scenario, the report said, would be a 10-minute release of ammonia gas that would kill or injure no one.
It’s certainly possible that someone at the plant did this on purpose, it’s probably more likely there was a confluence of unlikely events that conspired to cause a freak accident. But it’s just as possible a company was squeezing every last dime of profit they could, fuck the employees and safety, and took advantage of underfunded government oversight orgs and a state governor who thinks the EPA and related groups are the economic spawn of Satan to skirt regs and cut corners.
Regardless of which one of those scenarios, if any, turns out to be closest to the mark, I assure you, taxpayers will be stuck cleaning this mess up and the local middle class working community will continue to bear the brunt of the pain. Socialism and government is only evil when it helps the middle class or working poor. When grabbing government dough, when fat subsidies are being handed out, and most especially when pawning off the losses caused by anything from bad luck to gross negligence, socialism is the tea-party CEO’s best friend.
The main explosion occurs at about 30 seconds. The guy who got this video was interviewed on the news and added both he and the little girl you’ll hear are doing fine.
And if that sounds too bitter or cynical at this early juncture, sorry, but it’s the truth. Over the last decade our nation has become the most crooked, corrupt, ugly joyless place to work and live I’ve ever visited, much less lived in. And it’s almost entirely the doing of corporate money buying politicians and picking the pocket of everyone they can get their filthy mitts into.
Update: it’s not clear what happened in West, obviously, even the exact substances are not agreed upon right now. But here’s a video showing you a scaled down version of the basic physics that may have been at work. A heat source ignites a cloud of explosives, the basis of a Fuel Air Bomb or thermobaric device when weaponized.
More terrible news for an already grieving nation. A huge explosion at a fertilizer plant has laid waste or caused structual damage to everything in some 20 to 30 square miles in the town of West, Texas (West is the town’s name, it does not refer directly to the region of Western Texas) located 19 miles north of Waco, between Dallas and Austin, on Interstate 35. The air is rife with noxious fumes, casualties are estimated to be in the hundreds, the devastation is so great no one can really say yet. [Read more…]
Abstinence, it’s all the rage. And you know what we call young couples who rely on abstinence? That’s right, we call them parents. So it was that the abstinence only tide swept bottom feeding grifters high into the sweet hills of West Virginia this week, using the phrase God’s Plan for Sexual Purity (It seems God has a rather perverse interest in who puts their whats in where … or at least the people who speak for him do …) except one local high school girl wasn’t taking their nutty shit laying down. Naturally, her principal allegedly retaliated: [Read more…]
Our Senate at work. Once the spotlight was off the families in Newtown and on the families in Boston, our illustrious Senate took advantage of the moment to bravely turn their tail and flee: [Read more…]