There are still a few more cactus buds here that will open before summer is over. They open during the night when they are the most fragrant and beautiful. I was disappointed after returning from several days out of town to find that about 20 of these had come and gone in our absence. I did manage to capture this photo before retiring the other night.
The following composite picture illustrates the significance of mankind’s contribution to global warming.
Photo courtesy of NASA/SOHO via Astronomy Picture of the Day
Try and picture all the tiny little critters on the surface of planet Earth trying to compete with a Solar Coronal Mass Ejection for climate effects. This sort of puts the relative significance of fossil fuel consumption in perspective, doesn’t it?
The Pacific Trade Center Building in San Pedro, California, is no more. After removing all the glass and asbestos from the abandoned building, a demolition company based in El Monte, California, imploded the old hulk. Nicknamed “The Logicon Building” for a previous tenant – Logicon is now part of Northrop Grumman Information Systems and is currently located in the larger of the two buildings seen at the left in the inset. The old building is the smaller one to the right and is shown as it looked when abandoned for more than a decade before being stripped of the dangerous materials for the implosion.
The building site will be redeveloped into high rise condominiums and new shops and businesses.
For those of us with latent destructive tendencies, this video is somewhat satisfying to watch. And we’re not alone – listen to the cheers as the structure tumbles into a heap.
Not much blogging today – we had some chores and then went for our Sunday Shoot at the indoor range. We shot our .357 magnums and I sent a few cartridges through my antique Ithaca 20 gauge.
Below is a silhouette target before the shooting, after the 20 gauge and after damsel emptied a couple cylinders worth of .38 special rounds. I like to think the first panel is “intruder,” the second two are “intruders after encountering us.”
Here’s a short video of the Damsel sending a tight grouping through a 25-yard pistol target.
When we drive to the shooting range, we pass our local California National Guard armory. Today, the Weekend Warriors were busy with their activities and had this large transport vehicle at the ready. We’re proud of our soldiers and salute them for giving up a part of their regular lives to be in the service of our state and country. God bless them!
Reports of the Governor of California entering into an international accord have brought forth criticism based on the constitutionality of such an accord. That’s not what bothers me though, it’s the insane topic of this accord.
Say it ain’t true, Mr. Governor . . .
From NRO:
Schwarzenegger and Blair versus the US Constitution [Iain Murray]
The sovereign nation of California has done a deal with the government of Her Britannic Majesty:
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — in an apparent end run around a Bush administration that has stubbornly resisted addressing global warming — signed a partnership Monday to share technology and scientific research aimed at fighting the effects of worldwide climate change.
The nonbinding accord is the first between the United Kingdom and a U.S. state on global warming, establishing what officials said would be a continuing commitment to focus on the issue.
I wonder how they square this with the Compact Clause of the Constitution:
No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, …enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power
As I understand it, the Constitution was designed deliberately to remove the powers states had under the Articles of Confederation to deal with foreign powers. By initiating this process, Blair has just stuck two fingers up to the US Congress and the US Constitution. Funnily enough, I hold him to a higher standard than the Governor of California.
(Picture me sadly shaking my head at this one . . .)
Jon at GOP Bloggers seems to be as fed up with the United Nations as much as we are. I take it a step further and include regimes like Venezuela and North Korea in the mix along with Iran and Syria. All insane, all terrorists, all the time.
If the UN ever served a useful purpose, that role is now gone. Its peacekeepers are manifestly not effective at peacekeeping, whether as spectators for mass slaughter in Rwanda and Bosnia or observing a terrorist group’s massive arms build-up, but they are clearly adept at mass rape of children. So the “peacekeeping” function of the UN is no reason to keep it around and there is little else of value the organization does that cannot be handled through other multilateral arrangements.
Read the whole article — it’s a treasure trove of references to just why we should kick the whole lot of them out of Turtle Bay and do something good with our support.