Tuesday "News on The Run" and Other Musings

Another dismal rainy day here in downtown Mountaindale New York as a bone chilling dampness fills the air, clinging to the skin when you walk outside.  Look for this weather pattern to continue through at least Thursday with Friday finally bringing us some partly cloudy skies for the weekend.  In short, cool temperatures and wet conditions will be continuing as we get our April showers in May.  Have to love the climate change that comes along with global warming.

The Hummingbirds are back in Mountaindale, and the hummingbird feeders have started appearing all along Main Street as our small hamlet's summertime "Dance of The Hummingbirds" begins.  If you are a photographer and looking for a chance to photograph these magical creatures, a drive into Mountaindale for the day is a great way to get some fabulous shots.  As a bonus we also have a slew of bluebirds that call our community home.

Mountaindale is losing one of our citizens this month...Toby, who is a GREAT portrait artist is in the process of moving to Rock Hill.

"News On The Run"

According to a leak, seems another terrorist threat has been averted.  Seems terrorists from Yemen had built a non-metallic explosive that would have gotten past screening that was intended for a US bound plane.  Glad they caught this one...what concerns me, is the leak to the press.  Do these convenient leaks from people in the know damage our nation's ability to stay one step ahead of those who intend us harm?

Speaking of loose lips...New York's I like to see myself on TV, foaming of the mouth right wing radical Republican Congressman King was quick to rush onto the airwaves too toss in his two cents worth on the foiled terrorist attack, and this weekends drone attack.  People in Long Island really need to vote this dinosour out of office.

In the "We both know you are an asshole" department, former presidential candidate Rick Santorum in the dark of night endorsed Mitt "The Flip" Romney...VIA EMAIL!   My thoughts on this year's presidential election...we have no business allowing another UBER RICH person to BUY POLITICAL OFFICE.  Sorry, but a man that earns (without a job) $36,000 a day is NEVER going to represent the average American.

In a feel good story for the day, "Wilbur the pig wins court case!"

In North Carolina voters today are voting on "Same Sex Marriage".  There is a lot at stake, as this wrong law if passed would eliminate all civil unions, and would define marriage as only between a man and a woman.   Let's be clear...this is a civil rights issue, and it is time that our Supreme Court stop ducking the issue and resolve it once and for all.  Fact is, a marriage license is a government issue document that legal binds one PERSON to another PERSON.  A church BLESSES a marriage, but people are married UNDER THE LAW, and it is time we allow all people who are in love to marry, be they two women, two men, or a man  and a woman.  As for North Carolina...IF THIS AMENDMENT PASSES, I WILL NOT EVEN DRIVE THROUGH THE STATE.

WOW....Winter's Back! Monday "News on The Run"

Spring on Hold as Snow Comes East

So far, temperatures are holding steady here in downtown Mountaindale NY, with rain falling steady for the second day in a row, but tonight that weather may drastically change with rain changing to SNOW in the forecast.  Some communities may get slammed, so lets keep our fingers crossed...though for the record, been telling every one I thought we were going to get hit with a big late April snowstorm since March.  It was an odd fall, a weird winter, and now snow in Spring time...but, some still refuse to believe that global climate change is a reality.

"This has been a crazy, crazy winter" in the region, he said.  Snowstorms of this magnitude are very rare for this late in April. Forecasters expect record snowfall for this time of year in some areas.

In Florida, Zimmerman is out on bail, and probably by this point is in hiding out of state.  I might be wrong, but look for him to be acquitted in the end.  The whole situation is sad, but I do believe that Trayvon did hit the man, perhaps even got him down onto the ground, and we all have a different stomach for risk, a different opinion of when our life is in danger, and under the "Stand Your Ground" law, I think Zimmerman in the end will walk away a free man...but does it matter?  With the coverage and over reaction on all sides, his life is ruined.

Seems our own West Point here in New York is just as guilty as the rest of the military when it comes to women being raped, then instead of arresting and prosecuting the perpetrators, the women find their careers ended, see themselves victimized a second time when the perps walk free, and they are processed out of the military, labeled for life as having mental issues.  This is not a man's world anymore, and even if it was, "No means no" and it is time that rape stops being an acceptable behavior of men in uniform.

Marquet and Kendzior are not alone. Reports of sexual assault at West Point, the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, are up nearly 60 percent, and according to the Department of Defense, of the 65 reports investigated, only one resulted in a court-martial.

Got MONEY, and no commonsense?  If so, Lamborghini's concept SUV might be right up your alley.  Give us a break...sad thing is, the company is serious...meanwhile, as I watch the rich get richer, read stories like this, find myself thinking it is time for a redistribution of America's wealth, and that I want no part of Mitt Romney's "Tinkle Down" economics.

Will Supreme Court uphold Arizona Immigration law?  It should!  Illegal Aliens working in America are criminals, are illegal aliens, not the politically correct term of undocumented immigrants.  It is time that we as a nation get tough on this crime, get tough on those who hire illegal aliens, even those who rent to illegal aliens.   If the Supreme Court upholds the Arizona Law, look for the flood gates to open as states take the steps necessary to do the job our Federal Government refuses to do, which is to DEPORT illegal aliens,, and prosecute those employers who are wrongfully hiring these criminals.  Even here in our own community it is an issue, and fact is, illegal aliens in our economy depresses lower and middle class American wages by over $217 billion dollars a year.

Does it even pay to go to college...half of our college graduates are either under or unemployed. Just a thought...what if we as a nation provided some incentives to get some of us 79 million baby boomers into retirement, and out of the work force.  How about for instance waving both penalties and taxes on our 401 K accounts....that were decimated by the robber barons of Wall Street.    How about rolling back to 62 (without penalty) the age we can collect full Social Security.  Fact is the destruction of the real estate market, and the crashing of the stock market has millions upon millions of Baby Boomers opting to stay in the work place far longer than they had planned on staying say four or five years ago, and that in turn means a lot of those job spaces that would have been empty, waiting for the younger generation to fill are simply not there and unless you find a way to see us Boomers start retiring, college graduation unemployment levels will remain quite high.

A SCARY Fact To Ponder

Global Warming, starving people around the world, Mother Earth's resources being stretched to the limits...this month, somewhere in the world a child will be born that will push our world wide population to SEVEN BILLION PEOPLE. Folks, we cannot sustain this large of a population on the only planet that we have.

Could Global Warming/Climate Change Deny Us Our Chocolate?

Just in from the Huff Post Green Blog...climate change, a temperature rise in West Africa's Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) of just 2.3 Celsius degree would warm the area just enough to make it NOT SUITABLE for the growing of cocoa! The big deal in that fact...almost half of the entire world's $9 Billion chocolate industry gets its cocoa from this area.

Should this potential unfold into reality, our beloved chocolate could become far more expensive, making it a luxury item that most of us may no longer be able to afford. Time to look into growing some Cocoa trees in a greenhouse somewhere here in Mountaindale...I have to have MY CHOCOLATES...it is a necessity, just like coffee.

*Photo Credit-redpanda