Tonight, if the skies are clear, those who are hearty enough to brave cold weather might have a real treat in store. Tonight is an annual meteor shower that is only increasing in intensity.
Before the Civil War, the meteor shower was sort of a dud. For starters, who wants to go out in the cold to watch the night skies? Over time, however, this meteor shower has only increased in intensity. According to nasa.gov:
The Geminids are not typical meteors, also known as shooting stars. Most meteors are created when tiny particles from comets slam into the Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrate. Meteors fly through the sky every night, and when there are a lot, they are called meteor showers.
The Geminids are among the few meteors created from an asteroid, Cooke said. Several hundred or perhaps a few thousand years ago — scientists aren’t sure when — something caused what is now known as the 3200 Phaethon asteroid to start spewing debris. Perhaps something hit it. No one knows.
“The Geminids are kind of mysterious in that regard,” Cooke said.
What isn’t a mystery is the arrival of the Geminids each December. They are in different places in the sky, depending on the time and location. From about 9 p.m. until after midnight Sunday, look to the northeast.
The Geminids radiate near the constellation Gemini. At around 10 pm, locate the constellation Orion. Then look above Orion and to the left. Hopefully you will see at least 2-3 ‘shooting stars’ per minute. We could be getting a real light show tonight, or, if skies remain cloudy like they are Sunday morning, we could see nothing. It is all a crap shoot at this point.
You should know it will be here, at least once a week. Elena and I are big Jon Stewart fans so he will appear. This week he tries to rescue Gretchen Carlson’s IQ from an Offshore Account. Stewart accuses Carlson of playing the troubled mom and says she has dumbed herself down. She sure doesn’t come across as a valedictorian, a Stanford graduate nor someone who has studied at Oxford. So why is she always playing like she doesn’t know which side is up?
Best selling prolific author Stephen King and his wife Tabitha have donated $12,999 to bring 150 members of the Maine National Guard home for Christmas. King is superstitious about numbers and would not donate the $13,000 he was originally approached about. The Maine troops will eventually deploy to Afghanistan in January of next year. They are currently stationed at Camp Atterbury in Indiana.
The couple donated $12,999 toward the expenses of the trip. King’s assistant, said that King thought 13 was an unlucky number. “Steve is such a numbers person,” said Julie Eugley in an interview with the Bangor Daily News. “When we were approached for $13,000, he thought that number was a little unlucky. He didn’t want any bad whammies associated with these troops.” Eugley dropped the extra dollar to make the donation an even $13,000.
According to The Digital Journal, the money was solicited by Operation Community Support, a not-for-profit Bangor-based military assistance agency. The Kings’ donation is the largest ever received by the agency, and was given from their personal finances – not their foundation, according to Eugley.
The donation from King, a Maine native, will fund two bus trips for the 150 soldiers.
Long known for his horror novels, novellas and short stories, King was seriously injured himself several years ago when he was run over by a van while out for a walk.
This speech has been called historic by people not necessarily in the Obama camp. I believe the looked at the speech as American rather than Democratic. So much acclaim has been given to this speech, I decided to post it in its entirety. It is approximately 4000 words long, twice as long as his inaugural speech.
This morning, just before 6 am our time, President Barack Obama received and accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. Many people, probably including the president himself, were caught off-guard over when this award was announced last summer. President Obama had not been in office all that long.
How can this award be anything but good for the United States? A sitting president awarded the Nobel Peace Prize can only signal that the United States is a world leader whether in war or peace. It gives us stature. It de-fangs some of our aggression that we have had to exhibit because we are a world leader. We are obviously still at war and in 2 regions. Our resolve has been strengthened in Afghanistan.
The President was spoke well for the nation in his acceptances of this prestigious award:
This award is seen by some as somewhat duplicitous since President Obama has recently announced that 30,000 new troops will immediately be deployed to Afghanistan. Keeping the peace isn’t always free or without strife. World opinion as well as US opinion on this issue is dominating the news and blogs. Is it possible to deploy troops and be considered a man of peace? How can we reconcile these 2 opposite concepts?
TonightWUSA 9 NEWS had a fairly long story on the Woodbridge campus NVCC shooting. There were several articles with updates and interviews on their website. It is hard to imagine just how lucky we really were yesterday. According to one of the WUSA 9 articles:
MANASSAS, Va. (WUSA) — A former high school teammate says suspected shooter, Jason Hamilton, was a “quiet” person who ran varsity track in high school.
“We used to have pasta parties at his house before [track] meets,” says 19-year-old Jarrod Zong. He says he graduated last year with Hamilton from Hylton High School.
Hamilton has been charged with shooting inside a classroom in NOVA’s Woodbridge campus, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009.
“Definitely one of the nicest people on the team. Just a quiet guy. I ran with him four years. Athletically, he came out of his shell. I didn’t see it coming,” says Zong.
9NEWS NOW saw Zong drop off flowers on the door of Hamilton’s house at the 14000 block of Baneberry Circle in Manassas.
Zong says he ran track and cross country with Hamilton. He says the track team was a second family to the suspected shooter.
9NEWS NOW obtained the charging documents from Prince William County Court. The documents indicate that Hamilton brought a bag with a hunting rifle into the classroom. He shot and missed the professor, Tatyana Krvchuck, twice. Hamilton later confessed to his actions
PepsiCo has dropped the Tiger Gatorade drink. One can only assume it has to do with the 11 women who have come forward as paramours of Tiger ‘Cheetah’ Woods. Today Fox News’s Neil Cavuto explored why so many people have reckless affairs. Cavuto usually reports financial news. Today he digressed.
Cavuto’s guest, Dr. Victoria Someone, suggestsed that the reason rich and powerful men have reckless affairs is because of narcissism and need for instant gratification. The rich and powerful have every need attended to and it becomes habit. She said that men who are extremely successful have a high testosterone count.
Soon to be no more
That leads to the next question. Why do women play along with this behavior? What did those 11 women who were ‘mistresses’ of Tiger Woods get from their relationship? I refuse to believe all rich and famous men are fabulous lovers. So what is it?
The people on Anti surely will know the answer. What makes so many rich and powerful men fall into these brazen affairs when the price is so costly if they get caught? Often they lose both the power and lots and lots of money. The sensation seeking and risk taking seem to go hand in hand. Start with a list of louses. What do they all have in common?
Shots were fired on the NOVA-Woodbridge campus this afternoon. The shooter is in custody and law enforcement is doing safety sweeps. Insidenova.com reports:
Police confirmed that shots were fired Tuesday afternoon at the Woodbridge campus of the Northern Virginia Community College.
Police said that a student armed with a high-powered rifle entered the main administration building at about 2:40 p.m.
Police responded to the call and treated it as an “active shooter” situation and the college implemented its emergency lockdown procedures, police said.
Police have one man in custody and said there are no injuries reported at this time.
More information will be released and we will update on the thread. According to witnesses, gunshots were heard and teachers told students to run. Thank goodness no one was injured.
UPDATE (5 PM): From insidenova.com:
Prince William County police spokeswoman Sgt. Kim Chinn says a student pointed a gun at a teacher in class Tuesday at the Woodbridge campus of Northern Virginia Community College. Chinn says the teacher ‘hit the floor’ when she saw the gun. The student has been arrested.
Parents of a student who commited suicide 2 years ago have filed a $43 million dollar lawsuit against Va Tech because the school allegedly did not take the proper steps after learning that Daniel Kim was suicidal. According to insidenova.com:
BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — A $43 million lawsuit accuses Virginia Tech of negligence in its response to a warning that a student was suicidal.
According to the lawsuit, Daniel Kim committed suicide on Dec. 9, 2007, about a month after the university closed its review.
Kim’s parents, Elizabeth and William Kim of Reston, filed the lawsuit last week in Fairfax County Circuit Court.
The lawsuit claims the university didn’t contact Kim, his parents, roommates or professors after a friend sent an e-mail to the school’s health center saying the 21-year-old senior was suicidal.
The lawsuit says the school relied on a Blacksburg police officer’s assessment that Kim seemed OK.
We don’t send our children to college to die. Does a college have responsibility for these young adults? I understand that on a large campus, there are several ‘jumpers’ each year. Some kids get away from home and die at parties from alcohol poisoning. Others are despondent and commit suicide. There are traffic accidents. Some are killed by others. Some are accidentally killed. Some disappear.
Where does the college have a responsibility and where is it a learning institution that cannot assume responsibility for everyone’s personal problems? I don’t know the answer but Tech sure does seem to be under the gun. If one believes the media, it sounds like the gang who couldn’t shoot straight. It just sounds like the ball is being dropped way too often.
Occassionally we here at Anti-bvbl blog have been criticized for not posting a thread about child molesters. We could always count on other blogs (that shall go unnamed) to trot out each and every story if the child molester had an Hispanic last name. We didn’t feel the need to cover the story. We also don’t run a mini news series. However, tonight we made an exception. News and Messenger is currently running 3 separate stories about various cases of sex crimes against children.
The first story involved a man with a Latino last name. He was charged with the rape of a 10 year old girl who lived at the same address. The man in this case is being held without bond.
The second story started out in the town of Dumfries and led to the arrest of a man living in Alberta, Canada for various crimes involving pedophilia. According to www.insidenova:
Police were alerted to Mackintosh after a tip from Northern Virginia’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
Dumfries police Officer John Chapman said he communicated with Mackintosh and posed as a male pedophile for two months.
“The man found me online and expressed a desire to meet a young boy at a retail store and then take him by force back to his home,” Chapman said.
After receiving that message, Chapman said he contacted police in Edmonton to alert them.
Police searched Mackintosh’s home and computer, where they found “thousands” of images of child pornography, Wickens said.
Officer Chapman is a hero. Who knows what horrors his actions prevented. MacKintosh has been charged with distributing child pornography.
The third story involved a 49 year old Dumfries man who gets the dubious honor of being dubbed ‘Fugitive of the Week.’ He is wanted for child sexual assault which includes:
The warrants charge him with object sexual penetration, aggravated sexual battery and taking indecent liberties with children.
Anyone with information about Snider’s whereabouts is encouraged to call Prince William County Crime Solvers at 703-680-3700.
So we have a Latino charged with rape , a Canadian charged with pedophilia Internet crimes and a white guy from Dumfries charged with sexual assault which includes object penetration. Obviously sexual deviancy against children crosses all racial and cultural lines, if our sampling is any example. What makes these creeps do these heinous behaviors? Why do these people ever get out of prison?
Every day there is some statement made about childhood obesity. I venture to say half of it is caused by children not being allowed to go outside and be kids. They can’t. It is too dangerous with these kinds of people running loose and preying upon our children. They stay inside, eat, watch TV or play video games.
I vote for life in prison when these acts are committed against children. One child molester is one too many.
They spent their childhood in the roaring 20’s. As teenagers they weathered the Great Depression of the 30’s. Reaching adulthood in the 40’s looked bright until that fateful Sunday afternoon in early December. Every one from the Greatest Generation remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news, much like those who followed now can tell you where they were and what they were doing when they heard of the Kennedy assassination or 9/11.
Many people had no idea where Pearl Harbor was or that our Naval Fleet was berthed there. Yet upon hearing of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, most Americans were filled with rage and a sense of betrayal because of the sneak attack. The Greatest Generation would have their lives unalterably changed forever.
On December 8, 1941 they listened to their president, Franklin Roosevelt, make the following address to Congress:
To the Congress of the United States of America
Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with the government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.
Video of some of FDR’s Pearl Harbor Address to Congress:
Over 3,000 lives, both civilian and non-civilian were lost in the attack on Pearl Harbor. America had a decimated navy. The politics of war had kept FDR’s hand off the trigger and had kept us out of the war raging in Europe. All but one member of Congress voted to declare war on Japan and within a week war had been declared on Germany and Italy. The United States was fully at war, from the youngest child to the oldest citizen.
Every American went to war in some capacity. Children helped tend victory gardens, saved their pennies for Vicotry stamps and gathered scrap metal. Old ladies wrapped bandages for the Red Cross. Community volunteers, usually pretty young women, met trains carrying troops with coffee. cigarettes and snacks. Civilians watched planes. Women went into the work force by the millions, taking up jobs formerly held by men who had gone to war. Civilians were deprived of basic foods and staples like butter, sugar, beef, and were issued ration books. Gasoline was rationed. Silk used for stockings soon went to the troops, for parachutes. People were asked to donate their iron fences to the war effort. Most people bought war bonds to help finance the cause. Americans had air drill drills and practiced black outs at night.
There has been no war since WWII where Americans have been totally immersed in the war effort. We have not been asked to sacrifice in our every day lives like those of the WWII generation, unless one is a military family of course. In fact, we could go along quite easily and really never be bothered with our wars. We have had very little personal inconvenience. We have suffered no shortages,our gasoline flows, and often our school children don’t even know we are at war. Our wars are financed and paid for by the subsequent generations. There are no great drives for war bonds or to finance our causes.
Perhaps that is why the Greatest Generation, the term penned by Tom Brokow, was indeed the greatest. They gave their all with every ounce of their being. They were throw into a horrific war on December 7. Over 13 million Americans served. Approximately 500,000 lost their lives. Many suffered life-altering wounds. Many children grew up without a father. Many lie buried on foreign soil. Some came home with emotional battle scars that have crippled them. Others came home, went to college on the G.I. Bill and threw themselves back into normalcy. So many of the Greatest Generation would deny they were. Most felt they were just doing what was expected of them as Americans.
What made the Greatest Generation the GREATEST? Or was it the greatest? What sets that generation apart from others and especially those who followed?
It’s that special time of year again, for the Manassas Christmas Parade.
In fact, the parade will be 64 years old tomorrow. Santa arrived via VRE and the Manassas Christmas tree has been lit. Time to roll!
It begins at 10 o’clock am and travels the regular route, along Center Street, going the opposite way of normal traffic.
There are dignitaries, cars, clowns, motorcycles, Shriners, floats, horses, bands, twirlers, ROTC groups, angels, carolers, dancers, and just about anything a person would like to see in a parade. (no elephants)
Manassas folks love their parade! Doing the math, it appears that the first Manassas Christmas Parade began in 1945, right after WWII ended. Was the first Christmas parade to celebrate the end of the war? How did the parade evolve into an annual event? Where are the historians?
The Virginia Tech Massacre in April, 2007 was the worst campus shooting in American history. More information continues to be unveiled still, even after more than 2 years. The state official report now has been revised to show that some members of the response team warned their own families some 90 minutes before students in Amber Johnson dorm were warned.
West Amber Johnson Residence Hall was the site of the first shootings, where Emily Hilscher lost her life. Emily’s family was not notified of the shootings for over 3 hours, even though their daughter was critically wounded and had been taken to 2 hospitals. Ryan “Stack’ Clark, the popular Tech band member with the double academic major was also killed at this time, at West Amber Johnson. The coroner in Mr. Clark’s hometown in Columbia County, Ga., delivered the news of his death to his mother. The victims are pictured at this New York Times Victims Site.
The Virginia Tech Massacre in April, 2007 was the worst campus shooting in American history. More information continues to be unveiled still, even after more than 2 years. The state official report now has been revised to show that some members of the response team warned their own families some 90 minutes before students in Amber Johnson dorm were warned.