Lots of thunder-boomers happening this summer. The last one featured loud cracks of thunder and horizontal rain coming down in sheets. I thought for sure my neighbor’s oak trees would land in my living room.
Yes, this summer has definitely been the Summer of Thunder and Lightning. To date, I have not lost electricity. NOVEC customers rarely lose their service. Part of my good fortune is because of underground cables. However, Westgate still has above ground wires and they rarely lose power either. NOVEC just gets things right.
I did notice that my electric bill was higher by about 30 bucks than it was for this time a year ago. I guess the weather was hotter in June, other than on the weekends. I am looking forward to the polar vortex that is due to arrive next Wednesday. Bring on the cool!!
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/12/showbiz/tommy-ramone-dead/index.html
R.I.P. Tommy Ramone.
I felt like Hurricane Lafayette when I couldn’t get to the Haymarket Farmers’ Market this morning. As I was entering town, myself and others we swiftly redirected by the deputies. Can’t the Town PD handle a main drag closure for themselves?
Apologies. The blog has been down most of the afternoon and evening. The problem should be fixed now.
9:14
Moon-Howler
If you ever cannot get on, try using http://www.moonhowlings.net. Without www, you just couldn’t get in.
Just a thought….. while taking a break from homework.
Doing late night homework is SO much better with an open bottle of single malt Speyburn at your elbow. My writing is so much improved.
Of course, I’ll have review all of it again in the morn….afternoon.
College is wasted on the young.
Cargo, that is probably one of the great truisms: College is wasted on the young. I have come to appreciate that concept more and more, the older I get and the more fools I see running around thinking they are so frigging smart.
What kind of homework are you doing? I am surprised you didn’t email me that the blog was down.
Has anyone seen Wolve around? He is MIA?
@Moon-howler
I didn’t know that it was down. Every time that I visited, it was fine.
I’m doing a presentation of text sets for “reading instruction for content” or something like that.
a masters level course.
Might as well get it out of the way when I can.
I had to pick for literature text sets…and write them up for summary, rationale for picking them, how I would use it, and the readability level of each.
I had to pick two (I picked three) NON- print texts…(yes…oxymoron, I know. I brought that up and was told…. “don’t worry about it.)
And I have to present something that I’ve built in my content area.
Soooooooo……since I already have a history presentation on the Ipson family experience of the Holocaust (Jay Ipson is the founder of the Richmond Holocaust museum and friends with my wife’s cousins.) …I’m building a set for teaching the Holocaust.
Due Monday. I’d rather stay up late tonight and finish it. I can sleep late tomorrow. NOT Monday. Besides…….SCOTCH!
yeah….Its hit me a little. My give a damn is more broken. I’ve already written myself a note to review EVERYTHING tomorr…..um….today.
It sounds very interesting. Nice that you have a connection.
Just as an aside, my husband sold the DC Holocaust museum the data base for their museum. I guess everything was included on that system many years ago. I just remember people calling the house from Israel. I guess that software would be considered horribly primitive now. So non-print text didn’t sound as weird to me because of our family experience.
May the force be with you!!!
hmmmmm…..was some naughty little poltergeist been messing with our blog? It seems that we have been twice stricken, yesterday and night before last. Hmmmmm again…the host is on the lookout for strange, “ghostly” things. I think they just call the FBI. It’s their time too.
Germany wins.
Pretty good soccer match – but I had hoped
for Argentina to win. Missi got MVP but looked
like he was going to his own funeral, when he picked it up.
Tough to swallow.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/07/11/we-must-destroy-the-children-in-order-to-save-them/?hpid=z5
We must destroy the children in order to save them By Radley Balko July 11 at 12:45 PM
My colleague Tom Jackman’s story about the efforts of officials in Northern Virginia to forcibly induce an erection in a teenage boy in order to pursue “sexting” charges against him has deservedly provoked national outrage. As Jackman points out, Manassas police have since backed down and now say that they won’t execute the warrant. Of course, there remains the problem of why the warrant was issued in the first place.
No one in the Manassas Police Department, the office of Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Ebert or the judge who signed off on the warrant was able to see what the rest of the country saw, here: an outrageous abuse of power and an unfathomable violation of this kid’s privacy. The Commonwealth of Virginia was prepared to create child porn in order to prosecute a 17-year-old kid for sending videos of himself to his then-girlfriend, who was 15 years old.
Thanks for this opinion piece. Good point. Destroy them to save them.
@Moon-howler
Balko is a good source concerning police and prosecutorial overreach and misconduct.
Interesting struggle for the heart of the Kansas Republican Party http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/kansas-2014-election-sam-brownback-108952.html?hp=f2
Twenty First Century Fox is bidding to buy Time Warner.
Fox owning Time Warner…… that would be interesting.
Or, in other words
HBO, Turner, Cinemax, TBS, CNN, Warner Bros entertainment including DC comics, WB and New Line Cinema lines, WB TV, The CW (50%), Hanna Barbera, Looney Tunes, among other things.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Time_Warner
I wonder if all that would be included if the sale goes through.
How nice.
The Syrian based ISIS is getting their arms from……us.
http://weaponsman.com/?p=16549
Saw McCain today berating Obama for not getting tougher with Russia. Thank God he lost the presidency. We would be at war with Russia
@Starry, I thought the same thing. That guy is really a war monger.
WISE, Va. — Gov. Terry McAuliffe renewed his pitch for expanding health care to the poor Friday by touring a field hospital set up at a county fairgrounds, where people had camped out for days for the chance to see a dentist or doctor.
McAuliffe flew to the Remote Area Medical expedition in far southwest Virginia, where the line for free dental and medical care was 1,500 long by 4 a.m. Friday, when organizers started turning people away.
“That just breaks your heart,” said McAuliffe (D), standing in a horse barn that served as a makeshift doctor’s office, with bedsheets strung up between examination tables to provide a measure of privacy.
McAuliffe chatted there with a single mother who comes to the clinic every year to get treatment for asthma and to see the dentist. The woman told him that she can get insurance through her job as a foodservice worker but that the premium would consume half her paycheck. He told her that he was “working hard so we can get health care for everyone when they want it, not just once a year.”
The free clinic springs up at the Wise County Fairgrounds every year. Stan Brock, founder of Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corps, began offering medical services in Third World countries 30 years ago but today focuses on poor parts of America, including this scenic but economically depressed swath of Appalachian coal country.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe chats with coal miner Sam Chandler who came to the Remote Area Medical event to get some dental work done. At right is Chuck Flandry who was also there for dental work. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
The event took on added political significance this year, as McAuliffe continues his push to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
Since taking office in January, McAuliffe has pushed to expand Medicaid coverage to 400,000 uninsured Virginians. The federal government has offered to pay most of the $2 billion-a-year cost under the health care law known informally as Obamacare. But the Republican House of Delegates, skeptical that Washington can afford to keep that promise, has blocked expansion.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/at-free-va-health-clinic-mcauliffe-tells-the-poor-hes-working-hard-to-help-them/2014/07/18/cbdc89de-0e7d-11e4-b8e5-d0de80767fc2_story.html?hpid=z4
Utterly outrageous. Parts of our state look like a third world country.
It is outrageous!! It should be criminal also. What selfish pricks are voting against Medicaid expansion? Just look around us. We treat animals better than people. This truly is third world. 4 am there are 1500 people lined up?
Where are the TV cameras. Is Virginia that morally bankrupt that the people wont demand that we push through Medicaid?
I hope that joker who resigned for his big tobacco job that he ended up not taking has a real guilty conscience.
If Medicaid is expanded, will John Foust’s ob/gyn wife then relent and take Medicaid patients at the private practice she shares with the wife of Eric Holder? Or does she fall under the “prick” classification?
She should take Medicaid patients. I leave the prick classification for those who vote to not expand Medicaid. I haven’t followed the Foust/Holder story but if they won’t take Medicaid patients then they are simply selfish. They might even be prickesses.
“Parts of our state look like a third world country.”
Wait until they close down all the coal mines.
That’s already iffy. That’s damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Coal mining kills, destroys the environment, makes the landscape ugly, but also brings work to communities. What came first, the chicken or the egg. Did the people come to the jobs or were they there to start with? Probably goes back too far to determine.
“Prickesses.” Doggone, I’ll have to remember that one!
Again…. what do we stop paying for to enable us to afford increasing our Medicaid?
Also, why won’t the administration allow an audit of the current Medicaid program before expanding it?
Yes…the gov’t will pay for MOST of the expansion, temporarily. Then what? We cannot afford an increase in medical costs. The state cannot print money.
After that, it will pay 90%. Hopefully we will have saved the money because lower income people will have better health to make up that 10% ourselves.
We cannot affort not to increase coverage. Pay me now or pay me later. It really is a math problem.
Oh, bullshit.
How would you like it if you were forced to tutor a student at half your normal hourly rate? That’s exactly what Medicaid tries to do with medical professionals. The average Medicaid reimbursement is 61% of what Medicare would normally pay.
You term those who oppose Medicaid expansion as pricks? That’s fine, I guess. I have a term for those who cluck incessantly to expand it: common thieves. They may not carry pistols, and lack the temerity to stick someone up on the street like an honest crook would, but at the end of the day they’re just your standard mugger.
You and I obviously see the world differently. You are aware that they only have to take a certain percent of the medicare and Medicaid patients. They don’t HAVE to take them. I believe there are some penalties. Their choice.
What you advocate simply costs us money in the long run. Just call me Robin Hood then if I must be called a thief. I will be Prince of Thieves. I guess that makes you still a prick, but you sir, are no Secretariat.
@Moon-howler
Yes…it costs us money.
So….what do we stop spending on to pay for this? Transportation? Hiring more teachers? What?
Notice….I did not say…”don’t do it.” I asked about paying for it and auditing the current system since it is reported to be grossly inefficient and fraudulent.
A personal thought:
Why doesn’t the US invest more, or rather SOMEthing, in preventive
medicine starting with well-baby clinics for pre and post natal care
for mother and child?
Why don’t the schools have basic dental clinics, where kids can be
checked? Dental health is extremely important in childhood. Bad
teeth can be the root of many deceases.
Just thinking.
@Cargosquid
Cargo, we don’t have to become a third world country like you tea partiers always suggest.
Isn’t most of the fraud with the doctors anyway. And if you even suggest doing away with Medicare, the gray panthers will probably hunt you down and kill you. For the record, Medicare isn’t free. Not even close. Even though its a government program, people love it.
I don’t know much about Medicaid. I think its nursing homes and doctors scamming off the system. Back to greed. Meanwhile, we need about 400,000 on Medicaid. It will sa ve money. Sick and unhealthy people cost the taxpayers a bundle.
Cargo needs to grow older. Little change and a little softer…..and a lot grayer!!!!!
@Moon-howler
It is only yourself that sees us becoming a third world country in some way.
Of course, if you look at second world countries, like Greece, Portugal, Spain, etc…all of them are broke because of over spending. Funny how that works.
Your comment reinforces my statement. We need to audit the CURRENT program before we add millions to it.
Mmmph. Anthony Mirhaydari in The Fiscal Times says that market “Black Swan” fears are at record highs. Apparently the S&P 500 SKEW index has really been on the rise in the past few weeks. Sheesh! A large negative performance in the stock market is all we need right now on top of everything else.
@Lyssa
I’m holding at 39.
If it worked for Jack Benny……..
Cargo — 39 only works if you don’t have grandchildren who pipe up with: “But Grandpa, you’re almost the same age as my Daddy!”
My granddaughter who is 8 stood me down that her mother was only 27. She told me she knew better than I did how old HER mother. She totally overlooked the fact that she was speaking of MY daughter. That’s what my daughter gets for lying to her.
Jack Benny was really funny wasn’t he? So now, when I see your posts, I’ll think Jack Benny leaning, arms crossed.
@Wolve
I’ve got nieces and nephews with children older than mine to do that for them.
@Lyssa
That is a very nice thing to say. Thanks.
Before Jack Benny died he made arrangements for a red rose to be delivered to his wife every day until she died.
@Lyssa
I didn’t know that.
At first…that sounds nice. Very romantic.
Now…imagine a rose being delivered to you….every day….by a service…..
I don’t know if I would want that.
In case anyone reading this intends to carry a pistol in DC in the near future, be aware that the DC carry ban has been declared unconstitutional, effective immediately, and there is NO law regarding carry at this time.
In other words…it is Constitutional carry.
of course, be aware that I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV….AND the cops in DC are notoriously slow on the uptake when it comes to upholding Constitutional rights……
Yea, I remember that from when I got pushed to the ground and stomped on when I was doing clinic escorting 20 years ago. I even though the perp remained in the area terrorizing women trying to get to the clinic and I had his name, it was too much trouble for the dough nut boys to arrest this jerk.
Constitutional rights? ha.
One hundred years ago to the day, Europe saw the beginning of “the war to end all wars.”
Ha. Little did they know the hell it would unleash and the subsequent wars.
Where have all the Flowers Gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the Flowers Gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them every one.
A federal appeals court just upheld a lower court ruling that found Virginia’s ban on same sex marriage unconstitutional.
Take that, Bob Marshall.
Defense attorney: McDonnell marriage had ‘broken down’
RICHMOND — Former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell (R) and his wife on Tuesday unveiled an unorthodox defense to the federal corruption charges against them: Maureen McDonnell had a “crush” on the charismatic executive who lavished gifts and cash on the couple.
Maureen McDonnell’s intense — even romantic — interest in Jonnie R. Williams Sr. helps explain why she let him pay for expensive shopping trips and vacations for her and her family while she promoted a nutritional supplement he was trying to sell, defense attorneys said during opening statements. She was not hatching a scheme with her husband to get rich by abusing the prestige of the governor’s office; rather, she was a woman in a broken marriage who craved attention.
“Jonnie Williams was larger than life to Maureen McDonnell,” said William Burck, Maureen McDonnell’s lead defense attorney. “But unlike the other man in her life, Jonnie Williams paid attention to Maureen McDonnell.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/prosecutor-mcdonnell-had-duty-not-to-selloffice/2014/07/29/b05b6996-1729-11e4-85b6-c1451e622637_story.html?hpid=z1
Wow! So much for family values.
July 2014. 14 days above the average. 17 days at or below the average.
You higher bill is probably due to it costing more.
Just ran the average temp of Virginia. .5 degrees below the average.
I hope you aren’t confusing weather and climate.
It really is cooler than usual right now. By a lot.
What spooked the stock market today?
Why is Ted Cruz pretending to be a member of the House of Representatives?
@Rick Bentley
Think globally, not what’s happening outside your house.
@Moon-howler
Weather is what global warmists use to prove global warming while saying that it can’t be used to show that its not warming. Every heat wave—–WARMING! Cold snap—–its just weather.
NASA’s take on the issue:
The oceans (the Earth’s heat sink) are warming. The oceans are rising. But there is nothing going on there according to one political party. The rest of the world see’s and understands the science. Hotest June on record.
How can those jokers on the so called Hill take off
on a FIVE WEEK VACATION. They have done squat!
Dock’em!
Eric Cantor resigns.
From the New York Times:
@Pat.Herve
Wow. I didn’t realize it was the hottest June. That explains the electric bill, for sure.
“Think globally, not what’s happening outside your house.”
You mean like the way Arctic sea ice is and has been increasing, whereas every Alarmist model thought it would be down near zero by this point in time.
The Earth’s not getting warmer – point blank. If you examine the ways the data is being manipulated, it’s hilarious. temperatures go down and repeatedly the “climate science community” “renormalizes” old data to make it appear that we’re setting new records for warmth.
@Rick Bentley
Rick, no, the Arctic sea ice has not been increasing – it actually has been melting at an alarming large rate. The Antarctic sea ice has been increasing this year so far, although the icing season has been decreasing as the melting season has been increasing. This is part of the disinformation that has been spread.
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/
Scandinavia has had its warmest July on record,
which might explain part of the melting of the arctic sea ice.
Furthermore, it had its warmest winter.@Pat.Herve