Obama was more than an Hour Late showing up to make his remarks regarding Bin Laden at the Whitehouse last evening. Trying to sober up enough to read his teleprompter, I guess . . .
Here’s Ramirez’ visualization of the event . . .
Current Events
Visualizing the BP Oil Spill Disaster
Via The Corner:
A very neat interactive map that lets you see what the spill would look like if its epicenter were your house.
I’ve set this one for Wickenburg, AZ . . .
You Can’t Smell Your E-mail
From National Review Online – Charles Krauthammer’s take on the Postal Service:
I’m kind of old-school. I like the delivery. I like the snow and sleet and time of day and all of that.
Look, it’s very obvious that you can’t privatize this. Three studies have looked at the postal service. Because of the new technology there is no entrepreneur in his right mind who would purchase it. So it’s going to be on the government dole forever.
The question is, is it completely obsolete? Look, it has one mandate which other private services don’t have. It has to reach every tiny hamlet everywhere in the country no matter what. It’s got to be universal. So that’s a slight handicap that the private companies don’t have.
Its main handicap, of course, is the crushing labor union contracts and the new technology, especially e-mail, which makes most of what it does obsolete. So that’s why it runs a huge deficit.
But, look, anything that is in Article 1 Section 8 of our constitution, anything that Madison had waxed enthusiastic about it in Federalist 42 — the postal roads that have kept us together — as an old-school guy, I don’t want to see it die.
As a conservative who believes in the market, it ought to die, but as a conservative that believes in tradition and stuff that really holds us together, I would subsidize until it dies a natural death in the next generation. But for old guys like me, keep it going for a while. …
[As for] the hard-hearted younger generation — well, if you ever got a sweet-smelling love letter at 17, you’d feel otherwise. Of course, I never did, but somebody did.
You can’t smell your e-mail.
Pandemic Fears Benefit Catalina Island Tourism
Cruise ships normally destined for sunny Mexico are diverting to Santa Catalina Island to avoid possible exposure to the Swine Influenza Virus at Mexican ports like Ensenada and Puerto Vallarta. Cruise ship traffic to the island is normally three to five ships a week, depending on the season.
Through May, the island now expects 25 cruise ship calls, possibly more. With one ship in the harbor, it is our personal experience that the foot traffic in town and the island’s attractions become quite busy. Now, according to the Catalina Island Company, there are likely to be several more instances of two ships in the harbor at the same time.
Image: a 2005 photo of Avalon Bay taken from Island Express Helicopter.
Our anniversary is in September and, as usual, we’re booked in to the Hotel Metropole. We hope that the rush is over by then.
Some Choice Quotes
Taken from Charles Krauthammer‘s comments on Fox News yesterday about Obama‘s California Townhall meeting:
Well, Obama’s modus operandi is when the going gets tough, he gets going. He gets out of town. The best thing he does is campaign, so that’s what he wants to do. He’s not apparently that good at governing. He is not a lot of experience. He never ran a candy store in the past and he’s having a little stumbling trouble these days running his government. But, you know, presidents who are good speakers have charisma and popular support, like Reagan, will go over the heads of Congress directly to the people when they are in trouble and need help.
Gospel according to Ronald Reagan:
Firestorm Caused by a Bird?
A Local brush fire is now under control, but not before the smoke nearly blotted out the sun. Fine, white ashes continue to fall here, even after sunset. This is how the sun looked mid-afternoon from the back yard. Click to enlarge.
SoCal Edison blamed the fire on a bird. From the Daily Breeze:
Firefighters mopped up the remnants of a 10-acre brush fire this afternoon that briefly threatened the Rancho Palos Verdes City Hall earlier in the day.
Unlike fires raging elsewhere in Southern California, the one on the Palos Verdes Peninsula was put out quickly. It took about 100 firefighters and two helicopters about an hour to extinguish it, authorities said.
The fire was reported at 11:02 a.m. It burned in a canyon near Hawthorne Boulevard and Palos Verdes Drive South.
“It started to go to the city yard,” said Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Jeff Vroomes. “That was our priority. We made an aggressive attempt to get in front of it.”
No homes were immediately threatened.
Southern California Edison officials determined the fire was caused by a bird that landed on power lines. After being killed by electricity and catching fire, the animal fell into the dry brush, Vroomes said.