Who knew there's a World Clown Association? I didn't, either. But there is one, and the members are none too pleased about the upcoming film release of the latest adaptation of Stephen King's tale about a murderous clown. They claim that his "Pennywise" character is ruining their industry. Apparently, they view clowning as an industry. Darn. They may have to get real jobs at some point.
But in Portland, you don't have to give up clowning. Just look at City Haul.
Arkema Chemical plant: hold my beer and watch this.
Chemical refrigeration at the plant has been compromised due to high water and lack of power. Employees at the plant have been evacuated and families were being evacuated into early Wednesday morning.
Something about potential fires and explosions seems to have put people on edge.
And there have been a few other issues:
Best Buy is peddling bottled water at one of their Houston stores. I've never considered them to be a "best buy" for anything, although my 90 year-old in-laws seem to think the stores are the cat's pajamas. I've no idea why.
In any case, Best Buy says that their $43 packs of water were just a mistake. You can bet they would say that, because in Texas they have price-gouging laws that carry steep fines - as much as $250,000 per incident if the victim is 65 or older.
They also have issues with looters in the Houston area - it was reported yesterday that they were shooting at the Cajun Navy rescuers and trying to steal their boats. Well, that sort of thing is another example of Texan intolerance; they don't much cotton to such behavior, and it's mandatory jail time. No probation and no plea bargaining. They're not goofing around down there, as at least two dozen miscreants have just discovered.
As it stands, they estimate that 40,000 homes have been damaged; many irreparably. The actual number is expected to rise. One thing I've noticed is that unlike pretty much everywhere you go in Portland, I'm not seeing any tents and shopping carts or bums sleeping on the sidewalks in Houston.
He was a So-So-Ology Perfesser at University of Tampa. "Was" now being the operative term. He went onto a media platform (Twitter) and announced that Texas residents deserve the death, destruction and suffering caused by Hurricane Harvey because a majority of Texas voters supported Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
He apparently believed that they should have gone with the serial lying harridan instead.
He deleted his posts and apologized, but that was insufficient; the internet never forgets. And in a rare burst of sanity from an institution of higher vegetation, he's out of a job.
That university costs $39,000 a year to attend. Four years there, you could probably buy a house for that kind of money. At least in Florida.
Or at least rent a place in an assisted-living complex.
Who pays that kind of money to take a sociology class from a certified loon? Future government employees?
When I was in college, I took classes might be beneficial. So-so-ology wasn't among them.
This is great - from up here, you can't see across the Tualatin Valley because of all the wildfire smoke. I went down the hill to pick up some dog food and other stuff, and could barely make out the trees on the hillsides. These are all due to lightning strikes - and the fact that enviros sue constantly to block any logging or thinning operations. What with the resultant excessive fuel loads, we now have the worst air quality in the country. Hey -
We're Number One!
Yay.
At least it's All Natural™, and you know how environmeddlists believe that's Really Important. Note that I did not say "think".
A health professional in California reported cases where eclipse-viewers sought medical treatment because they put sunscreen on their eyeballs to view last week’s solar eclipse.
Welp, I reckon that if they can't pony up a buck for the actual cardboard-and-poly eclipse glasses, they figgered sunscreen, because why not?
I can't wait for everything from L.A. up north along that coast to secede.
Rafts of fire ants. When flooding occurs, the entire colony - queen, eggs, pupae, the whole deal - forms a raft. The ones on the bottom climb to the top; the ones on top head to the bottom, and the process continues until they encounter something solid to which they can adhere.
"By the time water covers the mound and the tunnels are flooded, the ants have moved up and out of the nest, locking legs together and forming a floating mass of fire ants, called a raft," Dr. Robert Puckett, assistant professor and extension entomologist at Texas A&M University told the Chronicle. Experts at Texas A&M warn not to make contact with these floating ant colonies, not even with the oar of a boat because they may "climb aboard."
They're called fire ants for a reason - you don't want to get stung by them.
And they're just one of the many issues now facing residents. It's still raining. Reservoirs are about to overflow, panic is setting in.
And while the famed "Cajun Navy" is there, trying to rescue people, they're running into trouble:
HOUSTON — A rescuer for the famed Louisiana Cajun Navy says looters tried to steal their boats and fired shots at them while they were trying to save Houston residents from flooded homes.
They've had to halt some rescue attempts due to the hostile responses. And the folks they're trying to rescue aren't making things any easier:
“They’re making it difficult for us to rescue them,” he said. “You have people rushing the boat. Everyone wants to get in at the same time. They’re panicking. Water is rising.”
What with the panic, the rising waters, rafts of fire ants, and the looters, it's not a good time to be in the Houston area.
Hmm. How would Portland fare?
Short answer: not well.
Given the topography, a mass evacuation is simply "unthinkable", according to local emergency management folks.
Also given the crummy roads, one would imagine. But the EM people aren't looking at that aspect; they're looking at how you clear people out of here in the event of catastrophic flooding. And their conclusion is: you can't.
The best they can do is steer folks to temporary emergency shelters and hope for the best.
The difference between us and the remaining California Condors is they don't know they're going extinct.
Well, Condors are on the rebound. Blockbuster video? Well, the in-laws bought themselves a big-screen TV and WiFi so they can stream Netflix and stuff - assuming they can figure out how to make it all work. They're old, and can barely move what with the arthritis and everything, so they basically sit around watching TV. They're sure not going to go rent DVDs.
You may have thought that things couldn't get any weirder there. You'd be wrong:
A bill has actually been passed in the State Senate and is now under consideration in the Assembly which would impose criminal penalties – including jail time – if you are found to be addressing a transgender person using pronouns which don’t match the gender they imagine themselves to be.
Penalties include a $1000 fine and as much as a year in prison for the "crime" of referring to "Cait" Jenner as the guy that he is, for example. Genetics don't lie, but they don't matter when you're on the cutting edge of political correctness.
If a transgender person is upset because someone refers to them by a pronoun they don't want, why should the government care? That's not what government is supposed to do. They're not supposed to take sides and try to determine whose feelings are hurt and who is offended by whom. It's not their core function. But...
CA Health and Safety Code 26-12.
Apparently, they'd like it to include hurt feelings.
Who knew there's a World Clown Association? I didn't, either. But there is one, and the members are none too pleased about the upcoming film release of the latest adaptation of Stephen King's tale about a murderous clown. They claim that his "Pennywise" character is ruining their industry. Apparently, they view clowning as an industry. Darn. They may have to get real jobs at some point.
Republicans, of course, are racist.
