MaxRedline

The Saga Continues - And Gets Deeper

A British family currently held in U.S. immigration custody was arrested for making what U.S. agents believe was a deliberate attempt to enter the United States illegally from Canada, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said Tuesday.

The arrest and detention of the Connors family has received extensive coverage in the United States and Britain after their attorney described them as tourists who accidentally drove across the border and ended up jailed with their small children in what they called squalid conditions. The family’s attorney, Bridget Cambria, said her clients were driving near the U.S. border south of Vancouver on Oct. 2 when they swerved to avoid an animal and veered into the United States inadvertently. The family members said they were stopped by a U.S. agent, were denied a request to return to Canada and instead were sent to a family detention center in Pennsylvania, where they are being held pending deportation.

Well, I've been up there, and what they did was no "accident" - the parallel roads along each side of the border have numerous signs declaring the existence of the international boundary. Moreover, in many places there are fences, while in other areas there are ditches. Oh, and lots of CCTV cameras as well....

CBP officials disputed the family’s version of events and said the Connors were spotted via video surveillance “slowly and deliberately driving through a ditch onto Boundary Road in Lynden, Washington,” between parallel roadways on the U.S. and Canadian sides. The roads are not connected by cross streets, and the only legal way to traverse between the countries is through staffed border stations throughout the region. The CBP statement said U.S. agents also determined that two of the family members had applied for travel authorization to visit the United States and were denied.

“Attempts were made to return the individuals to Canada, however, Canada refused to allow their return and two attempts to contact the United Kingdom consulate were unsuccessful,” the CBP statement read.

BUT the tale grows deeper:

The Irish travellers were accused of scamming and stealing their way around Brisbane allegedly used their children to steal designer shoes, police revealed. Most of them are believed to have fled Australia at the weekend after their images were released, while four remaining suspects are being closely monitored by Queensland police and border force officers. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was asked about the Irish scammers on Wednesday, insisting people who commit crimes in Australia should be hauled before the courts.

Looks to me as though our border patrol folks did a good job, here.

As to why Canada declined to have them back: they likely talked with Aussie authorities - the "family" has been banned from returning to Australia.

 

Great News!

BLUE RIVER, Ore. - A threatened fish species is starting to make a comeback in parts of the McKenzie River.

For the first time in nearly half of a century, fish experts have counted hundreds of spring Chinook salmon nests in the Lower South Fork McKenzie River in Blue River. The good news comes after the U.S. Forest Service, McKenzie Watershed Council and other agencies took on about a $2 million restoration project to the area.

Until now, the stretch was essentially devoid of fish. Now, in addition to the salmon, trout are also thriving.

Other wildlife will also benefit from the restoration effort.

Like bears. But it shows that we can undo damage done; in this case, it was the 1960s construction of Cougar Dam that negatively impacted habitat. Mitigation work today appears to be succeeding. I'll have to go back there, come spring.

 

Lieowtha Strikes Again

Much like she did in the questionable ancestry claim, Warren is proving to be just as stubborn in standing by her tale of woe that she was fired from teaching children with special needs after becoming “visibly pregnant.”

Adding to Warren’s problem is that the Washington Free Beacon obtained the minutes of an April 21, 1971, Riverdale Board of Education meeting that showed the board voted unanimously on a motion to extend Warren a “2nd year” contract for a two-days-per-week teaching job.

“That job is similar to the one she held the previous year, her first year of teaching. Minutes from a board meeting held two months later, on June 16, 1971, indicate that Warren’s resignation was ‘accepted with regret,'” the Free Beacon reported.

Yet, Warren insisted in an interview Monday with CBS News that she lost the job due to sexual discrimination.

She faked her Indian heritage, not just to benefit personally from an affirmative action slot against actual Native Americans for whom the Ivy League law slots were intended, but also to browbeat whites about racial discrimination from her ancestors' supposed racially mixed marriage.  That never happened in her home state of Oklahoma, where whites and Native Americans intermarry more frequently than any other state in the country and most longtime Oklahomans actually can claim some Native American ancestry, although, as Warren's case shows, not all of them.  

Time and again, Warren has this worldview that is premised on the lefty idea of everybody being a victim.  She's using that a lot on herself, claiming to be a victim in two instances now, as a means of advancing, and she's used phony victimhood in research to advance her career in a third.

Why anyone pays attention to her remains a mystery.

She lies about everything, as she's repeatedly demonstrated.

 

 

History's Mysteries

The ruins of a 5,000-year-old megalopolis were uncovered in northern Israel, the Antiquities Authority announced on Sunday. The ruins were exposed in a major excavation project in the Ein Assur site near Harish. The city was the largest in the area during the Bronze Age with about 6,000 people inhabiting it, a huge number at the time.

No sign of a large flood, however.

 

Another One Bites The Dust

Paul McCartney has led the tributes today to the 'wild and lovely guy' Ginger Baker after the legendary Cream drummer died this morning aged 80. 

Known as 'the human combine harvester' for his unique drumming style, Baker helped make Cream, fronted by Eric Clapton one of the world's first super groups with global sales success and a lasting musical legacy.

It's happening. Clapton's fingers are now so messed up that he can't play guitar any more. Sad to see the legends falling away - only to be replaced by lip-syncing idiots.

 

Found Item

Keep running, Irishman. Preferably as far and as fast as possible. Go, Bobby, Go!

H/T Rodger at https://curmudgeonlyskeptical.blogspot.com/.

 

Happy Petrov Day!

On September 26th, 1983, the world was nearly destroyed by nuclear war. That day is Petrov Day, named for the man who averted it. Petrov Day is a yearly event on September 26, commemorating the anniversary of the Petrov incident.

Must be Russian thing.

 

In The Market For Furniture?

After aborting a poorly planned and ill-timed attack on the British-controlled city of Montreal, Continental Army Colonel Ethan Allen is captured by the British on September 25, 1775.

He spent a couple of years in an English prison, then was repatriated.

And apparently went on to start a home decor chain.

 

History Mysteries

The Spanish Stonehenge:

The Dolmen of Guadalperal comprises more than 100 upright rocks, arranged in a circle formation.

This formation is surrounded by a ring of stones piled on top of each other with an entrance that faces the direction of what used to be the banks of the Tagus River.

It is believed to have been built about 7,000 years ago.

AND:

Inca child sacrifice victims were purposefully placed in spots where they would stand a good chance of being struck by lightning, a bioarchaeologist has said.

Researchers were examining the remains of six children found on two volcanoes in Peru—Ampato and Pitchu Pitchu—in a bid to find out where in the empire they had come from.

The children, they said, had been placed on special sacrificial stone platforms in areas known to be exposed to lightning strikes, Science in Poland (PAP), a website run by the country's Ministry of Science and Higher Education, reports. The platforms are believed to have been repeatedly struck by lightning, which explains why some of the remains—including clothes and soft tissues—had not been preserved as well as other Incan sacrifice victims. Child sacrifice in the Incan Empire was performed as part of the capacocha ritual. Children were chosen because they were thought to be the purest of society, therefore the best people to offer to the gods.

 

 

Ski Runs, Parking Lots, And Lodges Are A-OK, Though

Scientists warn that Mount Hood, an active volcano outside Portland, Ore., lacks adequate monitoring equipment and bureaucratic red tape has left them blind to detect future eruptions, which could lead to deadly consequences, according to a report. Efforts to install equipment on Mount Hood that would allow scientists to detect the early signs of an eruption have been largely slowed by federal policies designed to help preserve the wilderness, the New York Times reported.

Dr. Seth Moran and his team at the federal Cascades Volcano Observatory submitted a proposal to the Forest Service in 2014, requesting to build three seismometers to measure earthquakes, three GPS instruments to chart ground deformation and one instrument to monitor gas emissions at four different locations on the mountain. Moran’s proposal was initially delayed because it violated the Wilderness Act, which prevents structures and anything that might cause noise pollution from being built in federal wilderness areas. Moran’s plan was finally approved by the Forest Service in August, but his team anticipates further litigation aimed at halting the project.

Mount Hood has not erupted since the 1780s, and Moran warns that leaving the active volcano undetected for this long poses a risk to those who live nearby. There are 161 active volcanos in the United States, many of which line the west coast through California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska in the Cascade Range.

Meh. When Mt. St. Helens blew, Portland got a lot of ash and stuff, but it wasn't really a huge deal. Hood's on the same Cascade line, and about the same distance away. I think the main concern is that if it blows the right way, it could take out a whole lot of east-coast liberals who decided to move here.