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We are trying to begin something like a weekend entry of quick points. We are envisioning rapid-fire points that folks can use for a conversation ender, or a comeback just before you turn on your heel and leave the conversation and your liberal-talk person standing his/her ground with the drool dripping off'n his/her chin. Of course...we are doing this....with all due respect....at the end of the day.....in a bi-partisan spirit of co-operation.....and free health care for all, not just the one per cent.
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As the OROG can probably tell, we have tired of trite phrases, along with the rest of the hard working American people in the middle class....to the point that El Gringo Viejo is going in for hair transplants so that he will have something to pull out when he becomes exasperated at the agar-agar and Styrofoam packing peanuts that are shovel-readied into every conversation.
If Hannity goes through his litany of the offenses of the left-think dumboes in the Congress or White House, one by one with the change of every guest set one more time, El Gringo Viejo will burn down his television.
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"Gore said the fingerprints of man-made climate change are now increasingly visible in extreme weather events, fueled by a warmer atmosphere that retains more moisture. He pointed to Hurricane Sandy, which caused insured losses of about $25 billion when it hit the U.S. East Coast last year, as well as drought that cut U.S. crop yields." (!?)
In this matter El Gringo Viejo will let the world and Universe have it on the chin. To begin, the Hurricane Sandy affair, like Hurricane Katrina, was repainted, corsetted up like Miss Scarlet, post-partem, with a corset wench, and bathed in a thousand pounds of cheap, smelly cosmetics. The sad and bitter truth is different and much sadder.
One of the greatest losses to New York City, the State of New York, and to America in general was the burning of Staten Island. A million Union members and other assorted self-entitled people are going to send us endearing e-mails and threats, but it will neither cover up nor ameliorate the facts.
Given the well-analysed path of a relatively weak to low-medium strength hurricane, any Fire Department worth its salt would have remembered that all electricity in and on Staten Island should have been cut off, 12 hours before the arrival of the storm.
Further, we fault the middle and upper echelon of the New York City Fire Department for failing to remember or for never having reviewed the architectural configuration of the Twin Towers. It seemed strange even as the events were unfolding that entire companies of firemen were going up to the highest points possible in those buildings when there was genuinely not the remotest chance of achieving any positive effect. With the fires essentially becoming smelting engines, drawing in tons of oxygen into a kerosene and general combustible (plastics, paints, etc.) fuelled fire....temperatures would have to increase to the melting point of any structural steel, especially in the particular configuration of the Twin Towers.
Another time, almost the same place:
On July 28th, 1945, a U.S. Army B-25D bomber crashes into the Empire State Building in heavy fog, killing 11 people in the building and all three of the plane’s crewmen.
The plane, on its way to Newark from Bedford, Mass., was commanded by Lt. Col. William F. Smith Jr., a West Point grad and veteran of over 30 World War II bombing missions. After encountering thick fog while approaching New York City, he contacted LaGuardia Airport to attempt to land there. Visibility was too low, however, and LaGuardia’s control tower instructed him to continue to Newark, maintaining at least 1,500 feet while crossing Manhattan.
Perhaps Smith mistook the East River for the Hudson and began his descent to Newark too soon, or maybe he just got disoriented in the fog. Whatever the case, soon the plane had descended to around 500 feet and was on a collision course with the 850 foot RCA Building (known today as the GE Building) at 30 Rockefeller Center. A last moment turn averted disaster, alas temporarily. Flying south at 225 mph, they were only seconds away from the Empire State Building.
Witnesses along 5th Avenue and 34th Street, who looked up when they heard the noise of the props, said they saw a plane flying toward the building, only to climb steeply and disappear into the clouds. And then they heard an explosion. The first thought on many minds was that the faltering Japanese had launched a desperate Kamikaze attack in New York. But it was only a disoriented American pilot who had tried to outclimb the world’s tallest building, and the building won.
At an altitude of 913 feet, the 15-ton bomber impacted the Empire State Building’s 34th Street face between the 78th and 79th floors, carving an
18 ft x 20 ft hole in the building’s limestone facade.
Despite flaming debris slicing elevator cables within the building and engines and debris flying into neighboring buildings, all of the dead were contained to the floors immediately impacted and burned by the plane. Somewhat ironically, the offices destroyed were occupied by War Relief Services and the National Catholic Welfare Council, both Catholic organizations dedicated to helping European refugees of the ongoing war.
Hundreds of firemen were dispatched to the highest fire in city history, a distinction that would remain until Sept. 11, 2001. (Sadly, it is still the only fire at such a height that was ever successfully controlled). Their spectacular efforts kept damage to the building very minor outside of the impact floors.
Even Hizzoner, Mayor Giuliani, was almost trapped, and almost bought the entire agricultural enterprise during the collapse of the first tower, and I remember, when it fell, commenting that I was surprised that it had taken that long. The pancaking was predictable, given the nature of the fixing of each floor onto the floor below. The Empire State Building is much sturdier, and did in fact take a blow from a B-25 Mitchell bomber during the World War II period, 28 July 1945. Of course, considering size, weight, passengers, and so forth, it would have taken 10 B-25s to even approximate the weight of the Boing 767 with its nearly full load of kerosene. And, it should be further noted, the Boing 767s were flying more than twice the speed of the Mitchell B-25. The Empire State Building was struck on a Saturday, and the fire was controlled in 40 minutes. It was fully re-opened the following Monday, except, of course, for the Catholic Relief Agency office that had been almost destroyed.
The plane, on its way to Newark from Bedford, Mass., was commanded by Lt. Col. William F. Smith Jr., a West Point grad and veteran of over 30 World War II bombing missions. After encountering thick fog while approaching New York City, he contacted LaGuardia Airport to attempt to land there. Visibility was too low, however, and LaGuardia’s control tower instructed him to continue to Newark, maintaining at least 1,500 feet while crossing Manhattan.
Perhaps Smith mistook the East River for the Hudson and began his descent to Newark too soon, or maybe he just got disoriented in the fog. Whatever the case, soon the plane had descended to around 500 feet and was on a collision course with the 850 foot RCA Building (known today as the GE Building) at 30 Rockefeller Center. A last moment turn averted disaster, alas temporarily. Flying south at 225 mph, they were only seconds away from the Empire State Building.Witnesses along 5th Avenue and 34th Street, who looked up when they heard the noise of the props, said they saw a plane flying toward the building, only to climb steeply and disappear into the clouds. And then they heard an explosion. The first thought on many minds was that the faltering Japanese had launched a desperate Kamikaze attack in New York. But it was only a disoriented American pilot who had tried to outclimb the world’s tallest building, and the building won.
At an altitude of 913 feet, the 15-ton bomber impacted the Empire State Building’s 34th Street face between the 78th and 79th floors, carving an
18 ft x 20 ft hole in the building’s limestone facade.
Despite flaming debris slicing elevator cables within the building and engines and debris flying into neighboring buildings, all of the dead were contained to the floors immediately impacted and burned by the plane. Somewhat ironically, the offices destroyed were occupied by War Relief Services and the National Catholic Welfare Council, both Catholic organizations dedicated to helping European refugees of the ongoing war.
Hundreds of firemen were dispatched to the highest fire in city history, a distinction that would remain until Sept. 11, 2001. (Sadly, it is still the only fire at such a height that was ever successfully controlled). Their spectacular efforts kept damage to the building very minor outside of the impact floors.
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Even Hizzoner, Mayor Giuliani, was almost trapped, and almost bought the entire agricultural enterprise during the collapse of the first tower, and I remember, when it fell, commenting that I was surprised that it had taken that long. The pancaking was predictable, given the nature of the fixing of each floor onto the floor below. The Empire State Building is much sturdier, and did in fact take a blow from a B-25 Mitchell bomber during the World War II period, 28 July 1945. Of course, considering size, weight, passengers, and so forth, it would have taken 10 B-25s to even approximate the weight of the Boing 767 with its nearly full load of kerosene. And, it should be further noted, the Boing 767s were flying more than twice the speed of the Mitchell B-25. The Empire State Building was struck on a Saturday, and the fire was controlled in 40 minutes. It was fully re-opened the following Monday, except, of course, for the Catholic Relief Agency office that had been almost destroyed.
In any regard, the entire effect of Hurricane Sandy on New York and New Jersey was due to it juxtaposition....and had nothing to do with the hyperintensification brought on by any notion of Global Warming/Cooling/Climate Change. Considering the really rough Galveston, Texas hurricane of 1900 that killed as many as 12,000 people and totally destroyed the entire city....one can only imagine what New Orleans and/or New York and New Jersey would have looked like after being hit by such a storm. Sorry Al.....Star Kist wants shysters who don't rough up masseuses.
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Now, consider the basic question. Who is going to win a issue that includes the existence of a 17% government shut-down? As a pretty fair, minor-league social and demographic analyst it would be my estimation that the Democrats will be portrayed and perceived as winning by the Obsolete Media. After all, as the alphabet networks perceive things, only the Democrats are good and think about the poor, while the Republicans are bad and think only about themselves. And racism, of course.
So, allow El Gringo Viejo to point out certain weaknesses in the Wall Street Journal - National Broadcasting Corporation poll of a week ago. It showed that the Republicans were hated by the Pope and the Easter Bunny and the Good Ship Lollipop and by their mothers. But here are some problems:
(1) The sample was the smallest that is accepted for a nation-wide assessment of opinion. It was slightly over 800, while most agencies try to use at least 1,300 on upwards of 2,500.
(2) Basic filtering questions were not asked. Normally, at a minimum, the potential respondent is asked (a) Are you a registered voter (b) Did you vote in the last presidential elections, and if so, would your tell us your preference in that election. This sample included...."all adults".
(3) The question, "With which party do you identify yourself, if any? Democrat, Republican, or Independent?" was not asked until the interview was over. This was after the following question....
(4) To whom do you assign the blame for the Government shutdown and the budget impasse?
(5) This part is critical, because it allows the questioner to subjectively throw the response form into which pile he/she wishes in terms of filling his quota of desired responses. And, as it worked out, the company wants to say the responses came out naturally as 43% Democrat, 32% Republican, and 25% Independent. Well, Gringo Viejo, just why is that so interesting? Huh? Huh?
It is because that just happens to be the division of percentages that had been proposed as a correct sample division between the parties. Advantage, 11% to the Socialist Democrat Workers' Party. It shows that the Big Business swells and the media people and popular culture people had devised a poll that would have to reflect the outcome that was desired by the people doing the poll.
(6) And then finally, it just turned out that in the sample there just happened to be 20% of the respondents were government employees. And, not just government employees, but union thug, central government employees. They also failed to point out that a majority of the Republicans surveyed were very disappointed with the Republicans performance, because they had not been bombastic and aggressive enough.
