Gustav Coverage Fails to Serve Public Interest

It’s amazing how the press can turn a blessing into a curse.

I have been glued to the screen, watching the Gustav coverage. Earlier today, it seemed that things were going very well. No hurricane-force wind for New Orleans. No real problems for our oil industry. No significant flooding. But the TV commentators managed to half-convince me that we were headed for another disaster. Fox News was the worst. I would hate to see their reaction to a true catastrophe.

All the cable networks are focusing on a levee in the northern part of the 9th Ward. The levee is twelve feet above normal water levels, and the water has risen 11.2 feet. So there are waves coming over the top of the levee. And the levee is a thin concrete wall. I’d say under a foot thick.

The Fox crew found out a barge had come loose in the Industrial Canal, which is in the area of the levee. You should have heard the hysterics. A runaway barge broke a levee during Katrina, so clearly A BREACH COULD HAPPEN AT ANY MOMENT, FLOODING THE ENTIRE NINTH WARD. I halfway expected Shepard Smith to ask for the last rites. By the way, he was hyping the storm while standing outdoors in a golf shirt.

When they first began describing the barge problem, there wasn’t a whole lot of video from the area. I’ve seen a bunch of hurricanes, so I know you don’t want to be outside while the wind is blowing. I had a mental image of twenty-foot waves, with a giant barge bucking on top of them looking for a levee to break. They said the Coast Guard was going to “attempt” to recover the barge and secure it. I wondered how they would manage to navigate.

When they showed video of the canal, the water was calm enough for a small boat. It gets worse here in the bay. And the wind was so light, no one had trouble standing. And the rain was on and off. In weather like that, getting to a barge would be no problem at all. The problem was easily solved by two tug boats, which went out and rounded the barge up.

Other reporters said there was flooding already! Homes and stop signs were underwater!

Okay, think about that. If a stop sign is underwater, how can you tell? You wouldn’t be able to see it through the dirty water. Obviously, what really happened was that water came up and covered the base of a sign. As for the houses, my bet is that a few low-lying homes have water up to their foundations.

Funny, they haven’t shown any submerged houses or signs, which is exactly what they would have done, had they had any footage. That probably tells us everything we need to know.

I saw an honest weatherman a few minutes ago. On another channel, someone was saying the new estimate for the surge went as high as fourteen feet. You can imagine how awful that would be, with an eleven-foot wall. This guy must have missed the “Please Terrify the Viewing Public” memo, because he pointed out that the eye of the storm had already passed its nearest approach to New Orleans, and that the storm was getting farther away, and that things should start improving.

I truly do not understand the ethics of a journalist who exaggerates the severity of a natural disaster. This hurricane could have been a horror, and it could also have impacted a national election. It could have been a very big deal. People all over the country were concerned. I certainly was. It’s not right for reporters and anchors to yank our chains like this. It upsets people, and it erodes the credibility of the press. If the TV heads scream every time the wind blows, who will believe them when we really have a problem?

Another thing: what is the explanation for the eleven-foot levee? You should see this thing. It would remind you of the little concrete half-walls they put between lanes of highway traffic during road work. We already know ship owners aren’t responsible enough to secure their vessels. Why build a thin levee which would give way when struck by a ship? Today the winds were something like forty miles per hour, and the water only rose eleven feet. What if the surge went over fifteen feet, as it has in other places, and the wind went to 175? What good would that little wall be? If you can make a wall a foot thick, you can make one six feet thick. If you can make it eleven feet high, you can make it twenty feet high. We’re not talking about building the Panama Canal, here. We’re talking about a few miles of wall, to save lives. Am I wrong? Is there some reason why we can’t do better? Here in Miami, we have dozens of miles of elevated highway. That took much more material and effort than a decent levee. If we can build expressways, why can’t we build levees we know will work?

What if Gustav had landed five miles east of New Orleans, with 150-mile-per-hour winds? Those levees would have been underwater, along with the rest of the city. No question. How would our government officials have explained that?

Regardless of my complaints and criticisms, it’s great to see this mess behind us. I just hope the right people are scared enough to prepare for the next Gustav.

Everyone is Happy, Except Michael Moore

Isn’t it wonderful to wake up to good news?

A few days ago, we were worried about Hurricane Gustav hitting New Orleans with high winds, in a cruel mimicry of Katrina. This morning, however, the storm came ashore a good distance away from New Orleans, and it immediately dropped to Category 2, and there is considerable doubt as to whether New Orleans will get hurricane-force winds. On top of that, Gustav missed the bulk of our oil rigs, and the drilling and refining industries are expected to rebound quickly.

Gustav is also a much smaller storm than Katrina, at the core level. While the tropical-storm-force area is as wide as Katrina’s, the width of the area in which winds are at or above hurricane strength is half as big. Tropical storms are unpleasant, but I can tell you from experience that life below 74 miles per hour is much better than life above it.

There is nothing like seeing prayers answered. This storm could have been a nightmare. But God gave us all a break. Our oil supply is fine, the levees are expected to hold, and we’re not going to see bodies floating in the streets. If things keep going the way they are now, this story could be second-page material by tomorrow morning. People’s lives could be back on track by the end of the week.

More good news for Republicans (and by extension, America): the GOP convention will go on more or less as planned. George Bush probably won’t be there, but he has been demonized to such an extent that his presence might have been a negative. The liberal press and the DNC have managed to characterize John McCain–a waterboarding critic and persistent thorn in the side of the GOP–as a Bush puppet. They’re convincing America that John McCain is Bush’s Medvedev, which is absolutely ridiculous. “Would that he were,” is all I can say. I wouldn’t say the storm prevented George Bush from going to the convention. I’d say it gave him a much-needed excuse for staying away.

I wish Bobby Jindal could be there, so the nation could see the difference between him and Kathleen Blanco, who refused to allow the National Guard into Louisiana after Katrina. But I suppose they’ve already seen the difference, as Jindal prepared for Gustav. Any governor who followed Blanco would have improved on her performance, out of self-interest, if nothing else. But it looks like Jindal has done a particularly impressive job. He oversaw the biggest evacuation in US history.

Maybe he’ll be able to sneak off for a quick speech. We need to promote this guy; if McCain loses, he’ll be running in four years. He’s what Obama would be, if Obama had a resume.

I hope the good news continues. Times don’t need to be any tougher than they already are.

Get Religion on the Dirty old Web

I rooted around online today, checking out such local churches as had bothered to create a website.

I’m very confused about the Assemblies of God. On the one hand, they have a lot of problems in their history, such as the Swaggart and PTL scandals. On the other, it seems like many of the churches are fed up with the monkey business, and they’re talking about things like the need to lead a righteous life.

I looked at David Wilkerson’s site, just to find out what he was about. This is the man who wrote The Cross and the Switchblade. He moved to New York City in the Fifties and started reaching out to gang members, and now he has a huge ministry.

I listened to a couple of his sermons. He makes me a little nervous when he talks about how he’s sure the end of the world is close. A lot of preachers have ended up embarrassing themselves, talking like that for fifty years and then dying without seeing any of it come to pass. But he talked very convincingly about living by faith, and unless I have him confused with someone else I listened to today, he said he never asks for money.

I turned on the TV at breakfast time, and a guy named Randy Brodhagen was on. At first, he came off as crabby and maybe a little crazy, but he gave a lot of good, stern advice about forgiveness. He doesn’t ask for money, either, which seems unusual for a charismatic these days.

Sometimes a tough preacher is what you need. In the past I’ve seen preachers make unrealistic promises (on God’s behalf) and then berate their congregations for failing to receive them. Your leg didn’t grow back? You must not be doing X, Y, or Z right. That’s fraud, pure and simple. But a preacher shouldn’t pander, either. Part of the job is telling people what they’re doing wrong. I thought Brodhagen made some good, useful points. I don’t know what denomination he is.

I listened to a sermon by a local pastor with a very nice church. Seems like a great guy, but I could not find the lesson in what he was saying. It’s strange; he’s an AG preacher, and usually, they’re very big on exegesis and so on. But his sermon almost sounded like a secular newspaper column. Not many scriptural references.

I found another local guy who talked about alcohol. He doesn’t drink, and he’s against drunkenness, but he won’t tell believers they have to be teetotalers. That seems reasonable and hard to fault. But he went off on an explanation of the water-to-wine miracle which was a little gross. He talked fast, so I may have misunderstood, but it sounded like he was saying drinking from the six jars, which were ordinarily used for ceremonial washing, was like drinking from a toilet. I must have gotten it wrong. It doesn’t make sense. I’m no zero-century Jew, but my guess is, they didn’t wash with dirty water. And Jesus wouldn’t serve someone from a dirty vessel.

I always thought that miracle was some sort of metaphor for filling people with the Holy Spirit.

I see the value a church website has. People like me are out there, thinking about going to church, and they’re reluctant to just drive around interrogating preachers. A church with an informative site and some sermon downloads is a lot more likely to get chosen for a visit.

I just can’t get over the power of the Internet as a tool for Christians. I’m so used to seeing filth and anger and depravity pour out of it. It’s amazing to see how wholesome it can be. You can read just about any Bible translation. You can listen to sermons. You can read Bible teaching. And you can shop for a church. Next time you find yourself caught up in obnoxious blogs and political feuds and other unhealthy Internet pursuits, look around for religious material. If you haven’t done it before, you’ll be shocked. And the best thing about it is that it’s habit-forming.

Six Hours of Silence

I appreciate all the comments and emails RE church choices. As you may have noticed, my server was down all day, so I haven’t responded yet. But I have not forgotten.

You Can Eat Them Raw

A while back, I wrote about my plantains. I have a couple of trees. The nursery guy said they were big, long plantains, just like the ones you get at the grocery.

The fruit appeared and got mature. Funny, the plantains were short. They were maybe seven inches long. But they were as big around as regular plantains. Okay, I guessed that was still all right.

I peeled a green one and nuked it. I ate a bite. The texture was wrong, and it had no flavor. But maybe I had cooked it too early. Maybe it was some kind of special plantain that had to ripen a little before it could be eaten.

That was a few days ago. Today I started peeling a yellow one. Plantains are very hard to peel, unless they’re pretty ripe. I did what i usually do. I made slits down the peel with a knife, and then I started yanking the peel off.

Hmm. It sure peeled easy.

Then I looked at the flesh. Plantains are kind of mango-colored on the inside. Not quite as dark, but same general color. This one was white. What on earth?

It smelled like a banana. I took a bite. It WAS a banana. My plantain trees are producing bananas. They gave me the wrong trees.

Now I have to figure out what to do every month with thirty pounds of bananas shaped more or less like a beer can.

Here’s to regularity.

Eeny, Meeny…

I had a sad experience today.

I’ve been looking around online, trying to figure out which Christian denomination suits me best. I really need to start going to church.

I want a church that believes in the Holy Spirit, and that God is as active today as He ever was. And I can’t buy into the saints. That rules out a number of otherwise acceptable older churches. On the other hand, the heavy-duty faith-filled churches tend to get into craziness and greed. I want a church that accepts charismatics, but which doesn’t insist that everyone pray in tongues. And I’d like a church that has a sense of duty; a church that tells members you actually have to try to do the things Jesus told us to do, even if you are saved by grace.

While I was searching online, I came across a church started by a couple my mother knew. Back around 1980, they were teachers. They felt they had the calling, so they took off and went to Bible school in another state. My mother stayed in their house while they were gone. This was a tough time for her, so it was a real blessing to have the house. I remember staying there over spring break when I was in college.

They were charismatics. They studied under a well-known evangelist who used to appear on Trinity Broadcasting from time to time.

When they came home, they started a warehouse church. And it survived for quite some time. A few years back, I drove by the site, and I didn’t see the church. I assumed it had failed.

Today I found that the church had moved to a new, bigger site. Things appeared to be going great. I was so happy to see it. My mother thought the world of these people, and they were good to her, and she would have been pleased.

I wondered if I should go to the church and introduce myself; I’ve never met them. I wondered if it might be a good place to attend services. It would sort of complete a circle.

I took a look at an archived sermon. And the husband was at the front of the church, holding a notebook with a cover that looked like a giant banknote. A twenty or a hundred, maybe. As I understood it, they had printed notebooks like this up for church members, and they were studying from them. And he was talking about money. For the few minutes I listened, that was all I heard. Money, seed, tithe, offering, sowing, reaping. It was like taking a time machine, back to the days when I got so discouraged with the church, I couldn’t make myself go any more.

Maybe they know something I don’t. Maybe they’re right and I’m wrong. But it broke my heart to see that man waving that notebook. My mother admired him and his wife so much, and spoke so highly of them. And they were so brave, leaving their secure teaching jobs to become preachers. And after all these years of work, this is what it amounted to. I can’t believe this is a good result.

Yes, I believe we’re supposed to have prosperity. No, I don’t think we should wear hair shirts and live in huts. But like another preacher said in an article, God is not a vending machine. You give out of duty, and because you feel in your heart that it’s a privilege to give. You give to know the pleasure of being allowed to help people God cares about. I just can’t believe it’s right to go to church and donate money with wealth as one of your main goals.

That church is out.

I like Corrie ten Boom and Brother Andrew. I tried to see if I could find something resembling the Dutch Reformed Church, to which they belonged. But it has split over and over, and they expelled Brother Andrew for evangelizing. I can’t find out what denomination he belongs to now. He says he has no use for denominations. That’s fine, but where does he go every Sunday? I know he’s not sitting around the house.

It appears that the Assemblies of God has changed a lot. The church I used to belong to was somehow affiliated with them. At that time, they were too caught up in TBN-style money-and-miracles theology. But now they openly condemn prosperity preaching. This is the church to which Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker used to belong. Is it possible that they’ve reformed enough to be considered viable?

The Seventh-Day Adventists seem to be less scary than you would think. Most of their theology seems very reasonable, and I think they may be right about hell. But they’re a bit on the cultish side, and they tell you what to eat and so on. They seem like fine people, even though I don’t agree with their more-unusual ideas.

I took a look at the Foursquare website. This is Jack Hayford’s church. Seems pretty much okay, although somewhat inclined in the TBN direction. The thing I don’t like is that their website proudly features the biography of Aimee Semple MacPherson, while omitting the part where she pretended she had been kidnapped and was nearly indicted. You shouldn’t hide a thing like that. Makes you wonder what else they hide.

Someone mentioned the Reformed Church in America, which is somehow related to Dutch Reformed. This is Robert Schuller’s organization. A church with that much pomp scares me. If you can’t preach in a normal voice, and if Larry King actually likes you, it makes me uncomfortable. I’ll give Catholicism credit; the Pope wears some fancy outfits, but he doesn’t seem affected, and he doesn’t seek approval from people who don’t believe.

Some churches substitute theater and human effort for the active power of God; that’s the thing that worries me. A church the world accepts and praises seems unnatural. I’ve always thought that a church that demonstrates God’s power will provoke the god of this world and spark resistance and persecution. Going to a big, bland church that accepts everyone…well, to me, it seems like going to one of those churches the government of China approves. If people on the other side of the aisle like what you’re doing, maybe you should stop. It’s just an impression, though. I know virtually nothing about the Reformed Church.

It occurs to me that this is like any other kind of Internet shopping. You get so many choices, in the end, you become paralyzed.

I came across a couple of interesting concepts. They’re not churches, but they’re worth commenting on. One is the International House of Prayer, or “IHOP.” This is an outfit that keeps prayer services going at all times. If you walk in at 3 a.m. on a Tuesday, there they are. I really like that. Isn’t that a fantastic idea? Off the top of my head, I think prayer and Bible study are the things we neglect the most, and they’re the most powerful parts of a Christian life. What could be more powerful than constant prayer? The IHOP folks seem a little “out there,” though.

I found another group called Healing Rooms. They have offices where you can go and receive prayer for your illnesses. I’m not sick, but you can bet I’d want to go, if I had a real problem. Free prayer from total strangers who don’t owe you a thing? How can you turn that down? When I saw it, I thought it would be a great place to volunteer to help. But they probably don’t take walk-ins, and I’d feel a little funny, showing up and offering.

It seems like we don’t DO much, when it comes to prayer. Do most Christians even pray every day? I know there have been many days in my life, in years past, when I didn’t. And what percentage of Christians fast when they have problems? It’s pretty neat, having establishments whose sole purpose is providing a place for prayer. Prayer is powerful, right? If so, we should be doing it every day, with goals and direction. If not, why do it at all?

I checked out the Promise Keepers. Not a church, obviously. They seem okay, but they have offended people by letting gays show up at their events. They have an unusual policy. They say homosexuality is wrong, but that they will still allow gays to participate. I guess that’s a good approach. It’s a tough decision. Do you want to run people out of the church, when you believe they truly need help? On the other hand, you don’t want them becoming such a big part of the group, they start agitating to change the rules. You don’t want to have to celebrate Promise Keeper Fantasy Fest.

I think it’s pretty obvious that Catholicism is not in my future, but I did check out some Catholic TV, just so I could claim to be open-minded. The thing that struck me was that nobody on EWTN seems happy. They seem kind of worn out. Like a party that just lost an election.

When I used to go to church, I had a wonderful time. I went twice a week. I enjoyed the teaching. The music wasn’t that great, but I got through it. I enjoyed seeing people I knew. I loved the atmosphere; that relaxed sensation that God was present. I don’t get much of that flavor from Catholicism. I’m trying not to be critical. Don’t get out the comfy chair and the stuffed cushions. Catholics say it, too. Where do you think guitar masses came from? Priests were trying to compete with the wacky Protestants.

There used to be a charismatic priest down here who was considerably more upbeat than the EWTN crowd.

There has to be some healthy middle ground, between Robert Tilton and Mel Gibson. One thing I will never believe is that you have to belong to a certain denomination to be saved. God has given me a number of supernatural experiences. Surely He wouldn’t go to all that trouble without warning me I was on the way to hell for going to the wrong church. Surely there would have been a clue by now, with all my searching.

It seems like an odd thing is happening. Bible-believing Christians have more denominations than ever, yet we seem less inclined to be divisive. We tolerate each other better than we used to, I think. I sometimes wonder if the charismatic movement has brought people together. It started with Protestants, but some Catholics proudly insist one of their Popes got the ball rolling with a prayer. And now it seems to have penetrated many denominations to one extent or another.

I’ll figure this out eventually. I want a church, and I would also like to be of some use to God.

I used to believe you could measure a person’s goodness by what he didn’t do. Lately I’ve learned I was wrong. The Bible says your deeds will be measured in the afterlife. And you can’t get points just by naming all the sins you didn’t commit. You have to make some effort to improve the world. I would like to feel that I accomplished something of value on earth. Luckily–if that’s the right word–the opportunities are endless. The world is a smorgasbord of remediable suffering.

I suppose I should see this as a hopeful time for me.

One Katrina was Plenty

I hate to say it, but the global warming prophets of doom are having a good week, apart from the Sarah Palin pick. It looks like Hurricane Gustav is sure to hit the Gulf Coast, and there’s no guarantee it won’t strike New Orleans. And the approach of Tropical Storm Hanna is not comforting, either, although computer models and historical tracks indicate it probably won’t hit the US.

I feel so bad for people on the Gulf Coast. I always breathe a sigh of relief when a hurricane misses me, but I can’t stand the thought of Gustav approximating Katrina’s landfall. It’s good that Lousiana has Bobby Jindal instead of Kathleen Blanco, and it’s good that we have the benefit of hindsight, but this would still be a devastating blow.

One sad thing is that some people will be hoping for a major catastrophe, to deflect attention from the Republican convention and make Bobby Jindal look bad. I hope you’ll join me in praying for a different result. I would not want to see a major hurricane hit an American city during a Democrat convention, or at any other time. I hate to see the American people divided into camps that are pro- and anti-hurricane.

I believe you have to be careful in your prayers, when a hurricane is on the way. You can’t really expect to get results if you ask God to send it to another populated area. I always ask for things like a reduction in strength and a move away from concentrations of human beings.

The weather people don’t talk much about the size of storms. They should. You can get tracking and wind-strength information on just about any storm since the middle of the 20th century, but it can be tough, finding out how wide the storms were. Why is that? A wide storm is much worse than a small one. If you look at Katrina’s cumulative wind map, you’ll see that the storm was very bad, many miles from the center. Andrew, on the other hand, tore up Dade County and had little effect one county to the north. Katrina was big, and Andrew was small. Gustav is small at the moment. That’s a mercy. The models seem to predict a landing west of the city. If the storm stays small, that might limit damage.

A big storm can do as much damage as several small storms. They have a scale for wind strength. They should have one for diameter. Maybe they do, but I’ve never heard of it.

When I watch video from New Orleans, I see the sun shining, and I see order and calm. That’s comforting. Then I think about the difference a couple of days could make. I imagine the chaos and destruction. That breaks the spell.

Gustav killed 59 people in Haiti. It always amazes me to read casualty figures from undeveloped countries. Gustav wasn’t even a hurricane when it hit Haiti. If you look at casualty numbers for the most deadly storms in history, they’re all in places where the standard of living is low. Not one occurred in the Western Hemisphere. It seems like every time a big cyclone hits a place like Bangladesh or India, the casualties go into the thousands. The recent Burma storm is believed to have killed 138,000 people. It seems like a strong capitalist economy is the best defense against storm deaths, except in Cuba, where totalitarianism assures that the government can force people to evacuate.

Pray this thing shrinks and breaks up and moves away from cities. It would be great to see an improvement in the forecast.

Apparently we Have Had a Very Bad Day

I’m up way too late. Here are some quotes from Democratic Underground, where the level of hysteria is, hopefully, indicative of how powerfully God has blessed us with McCain’s VP choice. Some are funny, and some are just, well, par for the course.

About the unwillingness, by intelligent Democrats, to promote the indescribably pitiable and desperate rumor that Palin’s baby son (who has Down’s Syndrome) is actually her daughter’s:

Did the Repukes wait for “proof” before slandering Edwards with the affair charges? (And it WAS slander if they didn’t know it to be true at the time). The fact that he had actually had the affair and had lied about it during the campaign is IRRELEVANT… they didn’t KNOW he was lying at the time they accused him of it.”

Apparently you can slander someone by telling the truth.

Here’s a fine citizen’s take on choosing not to kill your baby:

She should have aborted the tissue and moved forward with her life… Stupid is as stupid does.

She calls him Trig, but apparently, his real name is “the tissue.”

About an oil-state governor who openly attacked the oil industry:

Palin is associated with oil producers. That’s all one needs to know .

That’s like saying Scooter Libby is associated with Patrick Fitzgerald.

This one is just priceless:

Did anyone else see that picture of her with a fish. What a Nazi nut! She is nothing but more of the same failed policies looking out for the oil industry. She has to be and will be stopped. Just because she has a vagina does mean we will vote for her. She is a hate-filled fraud. Biden will rip her lungs out in the debates.

The hate shines forth in that family photo at the Drudgebart Report. And we are all aware of the link between raw fish and Nazism.

Here is proof that more kids are taking an interest in politics:

I bet Republicans are quacking in their boots right now!! Imagine little Sarah sitting down to debate BIDEN, of all people. He is going to chew her up and spit her out!

I have been quacking all day. Isn’t it clear that we’re all terrified? Republicans are on cloud nine. PUMAs are on cloud nine. And Obama just went from rock star to roadie. For the GOP, this has been the first good day of 2008. This may actually help us forget what Fred Thompson did to us.

The debate thing is what should be scaring Democrats most. Obama isn’t really a genius, in spite of the hype, and he falls apart when he doesn’t have a script. He’s openly ducking McCain, although it will be hard to keep that up if McCain gets a big Palin bounce. The underdog always has to take the fight to the leader. As for Biden, he is verbose and boring and not all that clever. There is no reason to think he’ll do well. And he’s not running for President, so a good Biden performance won’t be a big help to Obama.

One interesting thing: the PUMAs are criticizing Obama from within the left wing, with insights the right might never have come up with. They say he has a history of stealing huge chunks of Hillary’s speeches, for example. No one can hurt you like a former friend.

Guess I’ll get to bed so I’ll have energy to quack tomorrow.

GOP Toolbar

Here’s something fun. Get yourself a GOP toolbar. I know toolbars are annoying, but this one actually has a reason for existing. Every time you use the little search window (it’s Yahoo), you may end up sending a couple of cents (someone else’s) to the GOP. I’ve sent 18 cents already. This may push McCain over the top.

It’s so weird. After I saw Sarah Palin’s speech, I decided I was finally ready to donate. And later I looked at my comments, and other people were saying she shoved them over the brink, too.

I celebrated my bitterness and devotion to God by running back to Bass Pro tonight, to return the useless scope rings and rifle sling I bought. I could not figure out how a sling with one swivel was supposed to work, but I figured there had to be a reason for it. I returned it and went to look at the other slings. Guess what? They had the same model I returned. With two swivels. Somehow, the manufacturer shipped one with a missing swivel, and guess who bought it?

It’s irritating. I sort of know a little about guns, but every once in a while, I come up against something that proves I’m still lost. I was positive there had to be some kind of gun that only required one swivel.

I wasn’t able to get scope rings that would work on the Savage without raising the scope too high, so I have to order the damned things. While shopping online, I found the solution to my K31’s windage problem. If you have a K31 with a scope, take note. You can use Millett Angle-Loc .22 rings. They actually work. And you can adjust the windage.

Naturally, I encountered a new problem while researching. I read about “lapping” scope rings. This means you install the rings and then put a straight metal cylinder in them, with some abrasive, and you twist it until it grinds the insides of the rings so they’re in line with each other. Supposedly you can bend a scope if you don’t do this, and it will also prevent marking. Does it really matter? Hard to say. I’ll tell you what I don’t understand. If you grind the paint off the inside of the rings, what keeps them from rusting? Maybe you can blue them or coat them with a protectant.

Speaking of protectants, a lot of people recommended Eezox to lube and protect guns. I got on the web and checked some tests out, and it looks like Break-Free CLP (which I already have) and Outers Metal Seal may be better.

Naturally, I’m too confused to actually buy anything.

“Game over, Barky. It’s McCain Time.”

I found a blog which purports to be the main PUMA site. As I am sure most of you know, that stands for “Party Unity, my Ass,” and it’s a group of really angry women who wanted Hillary Clinton to get the nomination.

Take a look and tell me. Can this be for real? Tell me Karl Rove isn’t behind this.

On the one hand, it’s great news, if it’s genuine. On the other, it’s depressing that anyone could bail on a party’s principles because of the candidate’s sex.

The Adjective the Knights of Ni Cannot Hear

This is bad. Already, the liberal press has described Sarah Palin as a “staunch conservative” and a “staunch pro-lifer” (because she made the radical choice not to kill her son for having Down’s Syndrome).

I can’t believe they’re hitting her with “staunch.” You know as well as I do, it’s never good to be a “staunch” anything, as far as the press is concerned. You never hear anyone say, “That Algore is a staunch environmentalist.” No one says, “Those folks at PETA sure are staunch animal lovers.” No, it’s always “staunch”-[insert something the press hates].

She has been the VP choice for less than a day, and already, she has to fight the stench of “staunch.”

Man, they must be mad at her. It’s not her fault Obama chose an Alfred and McCain chose a Robin.

Or maybe Catwoman.

Bees Botched

The bee exterminator has made his appearance. And now there is no joy in Beeville. It’s lying in pieces in front of the dining room window.

I cannot believe the aggravation my bees have caused. A guy from another company came out, sprayed, and plugged holes. The bees laughed, and each stood up and gave him four middle fingers. One of the exterminator’s employees came out, drilled holes, explored, and gave up. Finally, the exterminator himself arrived. They drilled three holes in the living room wall and ceiling. Then he got on a ladder, with no bee gear, and ripped open the soffit with a hammer and a Sawzall. When I heard him cursing in pain, I knew he had hit paydirt.

The bees were in a four-foot-long cavity between two rafters. When he yanked the soffit boards open, they poured out like chubby kids through a hole in a fence between a fat camp and a Dairy Queen. And they were ready to dance. Unfortunately for the exterminator, everyone but him was either wearing a net or hiding in the distance. So he was everybody’s partner. I believe they nailed him three times, including one Heart-of-Darkness style sting involving a mission up his pant leg.

It may be an honor thing with bees, like when all the Indians wanted to kill Jeremiah Johnson. Maybe stinging the exterminator is like being a bee suicide bomber.

According to the exterminator and his associates, this hive was over a year old, even though I didn’t notice it until maybe six weeks ago. And some of the combs were full of honey. He tried some of it and pronounced it excellent, while an employee made futile remarks to the effect that he probably shouldn’t be eating insecticide. Another member of his crew said this area produces very good honey, and that it tastes like mangoes. Unfortunately, Coral Gables probably bans beekeeping, on grounds that it might be enjoyable and in some way resemble the behavior of people living in freedom. They ban everything they possibly can.

I guess next time, I’ll spring for a fiber optic camera thing and do the bee-hunting myself. Now that I see how it works, it doesn’t seem like a big deal.

I wish it had been possible to get them out with less sawing, but there was no way these bees were coming out, without some demolition. You can see that from the photos. Little rat bastards.

Here is the hole.

Here is the comb.

A commenter complained about me killing useful, wonderful bees, of which the world needs more. I wouldn’t worry. The exterminator says he can tell this hive sent out swarms. Eight times. He counted the queen cells. These are holes in the comb where queens are raised. When a queen comes out, she hits the road and takes half the hive with her. Bees may be in trouble in some places, but here, they are nearly impossible to kill.

I have to say, I got real satisfaction out of stepping on the ones that were crawling around on the ground, retching up bug spray. The bad news? This hive turned out to be located in a place where it couldn’t do any real harm. I could have left it in there.

The bees are dead, and I got the ants walking on their heels. Is there no one on this planet to even challenge me?

Zoot Would be Pleased

John McCain has chosen Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. What do you think? I know Aaron will be happy.

I know little about her. But I hear good things. Christian. Pro-life. Executive experience, unlike Barack Obama. Youth. A sparkling personality. Tons of achievements. It’s hard to believe one human being did all the things she has done.

She’s a woman, obviously. Is that good or bad? When I practiced employment law, I saw a number of valid sex discrimination cases, but I never saw a case of bona fide racial discrimination. It seemed to be much rarer. So if being black hurts Obama, won’t being a woman hurt her more?

Not sure. Somehow, I think a female Vice President will scare the woman-haters less than a female President. And we have Hillary’s furious, abandoned one-issue, female followers. Ordinarily, they might consider Palin male, because she’s conservative. But right after being stomped and abused by the Obama campaign, they may see things differently. And many of them aren’t true liberals. I think there is a difference between a classical (i.e. left-wing) feminist and a female voter who simply has a burning desire to see other women in office.

It’s unfortunate that she comes from a state with 12 residents. I suppose the theory is that her real constituency, in this election, will be all those angry, loosely affiliated women. All over the country.

The Democrats can claim this choice proves John McCain knows a young person can be a good President. But it’s a bad move. For one thing, it highlights Obama’s greenness. For another, her accomplishments dwarf his. Obama got into Columbia and Harvard on affirmative action, and he did virtually nothing with his life except work as a political hack. Sarah Palin has executive experience, she’s a pilot, she hunts, she wins dog races, she has five kids, she was nearly Miss Alaska, and she also has telekinetic powers and has a patent on a perpetual motion machine.

If I remember correctly.

Bless me with your opinions.

More

This shows how unfamiliar I am with this lady: I thought she raced dog sleds, but she actually raced snowmobiles in “Iron Dog” races. Whatever those are.

Leah Improves

I heard from Leah Friedman this week. You may recall that she has a heart problem, and that she went into respiratory arrest and suffered oxygen deprivation to her brain. She has been recovering well, but she still has some language problems, and she has paralysis in her left arm and hand. Thankfully, she no longer walks with a cane.

She has been so upbeat in her communications that I didn’t realize she still had these lingering difficulties.

Leah credits prayer for her recovery, and so do I, and she seems especially grateful for the prayers volunteered by readers of this blog. I’m grateful, too. A lot of fine people show up here every day. Thanks for turning this blog into something that occasionally benefits humanity.

If anyone is still willing to offer a prayer, I feel sure she wouldn’t turn it down.

On the subject of changing things so they turn from harmful to beneficial, I have been trying to work a similar change in myself over the last couple of years, and I highly recommend it. I can’t explain it, but when you focus too much on doing things for yourself, it’s like lying on the couch all day, overeating and drinking beer. You start to feel sated but not satisfied. You start to become conscious that every additional thing you do for yourself adds weight to your burden. On the other hand, turning your efforts outward lightens your load and adds to your peace.

It’s easy to get the idea that all you have to do to make God happy is leave other people alone and accept salvation. But it’s not enough to avoid doing harm. If you’re not actively helping people, you’re missing out on half of the experience. So I’m always–okay, usually–grateful when I get a chance to do something for someone. You can’t help another person without helping yourself. And I have a lot of idle years for which to account. I tried to be good, as I understood “good,” but from my current perspective, I see that I missed opportunity after opportunity.

One of the things I have had on my prayer list for a couple of years (at least) is that I would become less critical and corrosive, and that I would become a person who affects others positively. I was getting sick of myself, to tell you the truth. To some degree, I still am, but I am enjoying the progress.

A reader complained that I seemed crabby since I started trying to improve my relationship with God. I was very surprised. I’ve gone back and looked at things I wrote three or four years ago, and “crabby” doesn’t begin to describe them. Sometimes I’m tempted to delete them, but I think they have a certain amount of value, because they show how things have improved.

Any time you draw closer to God, you’re going to encounter resistance and anger that don’t seem justified. I believe these are signs that you’re headed in the right direction. I think I should try not to take it personally when people react badly. They usually mean well, and they may be under influences they don’t understand.

Anyway, don’t forget Leah. She hasn’t forgotten you.

Cain’t, and Would not Want to, Touch Dis

I hope you’re not watching Barack speak when you could be watching Brak rap.

More

It turns out the Wikipedia entry for Space Ghost is an excellent read.