Still in shock at the imagery from Oklahoma
The things I normally blog about every day seem so unimportant today. Last night I had to force myself to stop watching the news long enough to make a pick in the Streak For The Cash contest I play in with some friends. I needed to focus and research a game and it was the last thing I wanted to be doing.
Last night, the girlfriend of someone I follow and who follows me on Twitter tweeted that the house of his family was destroyed in the tornado. She was there for a family thing, but everyone is okay. As okay as you can be when your home was obliterated by Mother Nature's fury. How okay can you be? You are grateful to be alive, but you have to pick up the pieces of your life. The shattered pieces. The remnants of a lifetime of work, gone in a few moments of winds strong enough to leave nothing but the concrete slab where a home once rested.
I wanted to write about other things today. A tribute to Ray Manzarek, co-founder of the Doors and brilliant keyboard player. I wanted to write about how it has come out that some of the top aides in the Obama Administration did know about the IRS fiasco weeks ago, but that they claim to have kept it from the President and I believe them. I will write about some of that stuff, if not later in this post, then later today or tomorrow. Right now my mind is filled with how we see the fury of our world on display and how every so often that rage seems to be turned up to full blast.
When I went to bed last night, they were talking about a death toll of 51 and expecting that to rise. Now they've revised the number down to 24, although they say it could well increase again. Let's hope not.
What I'm waiting for is for the first idiot conspiracy theorist to step up and say "the Obama Administration caused this tornado to shift attention away from all the scandals going on". Maybe it will be Rand Paul. Or Karl Rove. We should hold a lottery to guess at the first moron to raise that issue, and donate all the proceeds to the American Red Cross. Speaking of which, did you text REDCROSS to donate $10 to the American Red Cross relief efforts for the victims of the tornadoes? Share that information with your friends.
The feeling of helplessness and frustration that many of us are experiencing as we watch the footage of the devastation and the effort to search for survivors/clean up has a simple root cause. We have no evil to blame for this. With the Boston marathon bombing, we knew someone had done it, and we could wish and pray for them to be brought to justice. With tornadoes, there is no one to bring to justice. The scientists in this field are doing everything they can to improve the ability to provide earlier warnings of these impending tragedies. Perhaps we can hope that when these schools are rebuilt in Moore and Oklahoma City, even though it will be prohibitively expensive, they will blast through the bedrock to provide basement shelters for the next devastating twister. That children may have died because the "best" safe place for them wasn't safe at all is beyond tragic.
Here in California we have building codes that mandate buildings constructed after a certain date must be capable of surviving an 8.0 earthquake. But I don't believe that there is a way to mandate the construction of homes in places like Oklahoma so that they can withstand a category EF-5 or even EF-4 twister. Their ability to destroy is cataclysmic.
Let me finish on this topic by saying I am holding good thoughts for every person still missing and unaccounted for, that they will be found alive. That they will survive. That the nation will respond to this tragedy as the world responded to Haiti. That we take care of the victims and help them rebuild their homes and their lives.
Ray Manzarek died yesterday. I'll write a proper tribute to this incredibly gifted and important musician another time. I was a fan of The Doors from the moment I first heard their music.
There is a thief in the Boston area who should rot in hell for what he's done. A family received a Purple Heart after their son was killed while serving in Afghanistan in 2006. It has no value on the street, but an intruder stole their most precious memento of their son.
This Date in History:
On this date in 996, Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor. He was sixteen at the time.
On this date in 1851, slavery is abolished in Colombia, South America.
On this date in 1863, the Seventh Day Adventist Church is organized.
On this date in 1881, the American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton.
On this date in 1904, FIFA (soccer's international governing body) is founded in Paris.
On this date in 1927, Leopold and Loeb commit their "thrill killing" murder of Bobby Franks.
On this date in 1966, the Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army.
On this date in 1979, there are riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for murdering Harvey Milk and and George Moscone.
On this date in 1992, Johnny Carson hosted his penultiate episode of The Tonight Show.
Famous Folk Born on this date:
Henri Rousseau
Glenn Curtiss
Horace Heidt (he had a restaurant/bar on the old mall in Santa Monica)
Fats Waller
Harold Robbins
Raymond Burr
Dennis Day
Andrei Sakharov
Ara Parseghian
Ronald Isley
Bobby Cox
Bill Champlin
Leo Sayer
Al Franken
Mr. T.
Judge Reinhold
Nick Cassavettes
Richard Caputo
Carolyn Lawrence
Notorious B.I.G.
Fairuza Balk (she was a practicing Pagan when she filmed "The Craft")
Movie Quote of the Day is from "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!":
Frank: It's the same old story. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girls dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.
Jane: Goodyear?
Frank: No, the worst.
#2
Jane: I've heard police work is dangerous.
Frank: It is. That's why I carry a big gun.
Jane: Aren't you afraid it might go off accidentally?
Frank: I used to have that problem.
Jane: What did you do about it?
Frank: I just think about baseball.
#3
Frank: It's true what they say: Cops and women don't mix. It's like eating a spoonful of Drano; sure, it'll clean you out, but it'll leave you hollow inside.
RIP Leslie Nielsen, we'll never forget Lt. Frank Drebin or Dr. "Stop Calling Me Shirley" Rumack.
Last night, the girlfriend of someone I follow and who follows me on Twitter tweeted that the house of his family was destroyed in the tornado. She was there for a family thing, but everyone is okay. As okay as you can be when your home was obliterated by Mother Nature's fury. How okay can you be? You are grateful to be alive, but you have to pick up the pieces of your life. The shattered pieces. The remnants of a lifetime of work, gone in a few moments of winds strong enough to leave nothing but the concrete slab where a home once rested.
I wanted to write about other things today. A tribute to Ray Manzarek, co-founder of the Doors and brilliant keyboard player. I wanted to write about how it has come out that some of the top aides in the Obama Administration did know about the IRS fiasco weeks ago, but that they claim to have kept it from the President and I believe them. I will write about some of that stuff, if not later in this post, then later today or tomorrow. Right now my mind is filled with how we see the fury of our world on display and how every so often that rage seems to be turned up to full blast.
When I went to bed last night, they were talking about a death toll of 51 and expecting that to rise. Now they've revised the number down to 24, although they say it could well increase again. Let's hope not.
What I'm waiting for is for the first idiot conspiracy theorist to step up and say "the Obama Administration caused this tornado to shift attention away from all the scandals going on". Maybe it will be Rand Paul. Or Karl Rove. We should hold a lottery to guess at the first moron to raise that issue, and donate all the proceeds to the American Red Cross. Speaking of which, did you text REDCROSS to donate $10 to the American Red Cross relief efforts for the victims of the tornadoes? Share that information with your friends.
The feeling of helplessness and frustration that many of us are experiencing as we watch the footage of the devastation and the effort to search for survivors/clean up has a simple root cause. We have no evil to blame for this. With the Boston marathon bombing, we knew someone had done it, and we could wish and pray for them to be brought to justice. With tornadoes, there is no one to bring to justice. The scientists in this field are doing everything they can to improve the ability to provide earlier warnings of these impending tragedies. Perhaps we can hope that when these schools are rebuilt in Moore and Oklahoma City, even though it will be prohibitively expensive, they will blast through the bedrock to provide basement shelters for the next devastating twister. That children may have died because the "best" safe place for them wasn't safe at all is beyond tragic.
Here in California we have building codes that mandate buildings constructed after a certain date must be capable of surviving an 8.0 earthquake. But I don't believe that there is a way to mandate the construction of homes in places like Oklahoma so that they can withstand a category EF-5 or even EF-4 twister. Their ability to destroy is cataclysmic.
Let me finish on this topic by saying I am holding good thoughts for every person still missing and unaccounted for, that they will be found alive. That they will survive. That the nation will respond to this tragedy as the world responded to Haiti. That we take care of the victims and help them rebuild their homes and their lives.
Ray Manzarek died yesterday. I'll write a proper tribute to this incredibly gifted and important musician another time. I was a fan of The Doors from the moment I first heard their music.
There is a thief in the Boston area who should rot in hell for what he's done. A family received a Purple Heart after their son was killed while serving in Afghanistan in 2006. It has no value on the street, but an intruder stole their most precious memento of their son.
This Date in History:
On this date in 996, Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor. He was sixteen at the time.
On this date in 1851, slavery is abolished in Colombia, South America.
On this date in 1863, the Seventh Day Adventist Church is organized.
On this date in 1881, the American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton.
On this date in 1904, FIFA (soccer's international governing body) is founded in Paris.
On this date in 1927, Leopold and Loeb commit their "thrill killing" murder of Bobby Franks.
On this date in 1966, the Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army.
On this date in 1979, there are riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for murdering Harvey Milk and and George Moscone.
On this date in 1992, Johnny Carson hosted his penultiate episode of The Tonight Show.
Famous Folk Born on this date:
Henri Rousseau
Glenn Curtiss
Horace Heidt (he had a restaurant/bar on the old mall in Santa Monica)
Fats Waller
Harold Robbins
Raymond Burr
Dennis Day
Andrei Sakharov
Ara Parseghian
Ronald Isley
Bobby Cox
Bill Champlin
Leo Sayer
Al Franken
Mr. T.
Judge Reinhold
Nick Cassavettes
Richard Caputo
Carolyn Lawrence
Notorious B.I.G.
Fairuza Balk (she was a practicing Pagan when she filmed "The Craft")
Movie Quote of the Day is from "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!":
Frank: It's the same old story. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girls dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.
Jane: Goodyear?
Frank: No, the worst.
#2
Jane: I've heard police work is dangerous.
Frank: It is. That's why I carry a big gun.
Jane: Aren't you afraid it might go off accidentally?
Frank: I used to have that problem.
Jane: What did you do about it?
Frank: I just think about baseball.
#3
Frank: It's true what they say: Cops and women don't mix. It's like eating a spoonful of Drano; sure, it'll clean you out, but it'll leave you hollow inside.
RIP Leslie Nielsen, we'll never forget Lt. Frank Drebin or Dr. "Stop Calling Me Shirley" Rumack.
posted by me at 10:22 AM
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