Monday Musings...
What a difference a weekend makes, eh?
There is plenty of blog-fodder to work with this morning, so let's jump right in and get in rolling...
*** First up, as you may know by my frequent use of GARFIELD pictures (here) that I'm a fan of the feisty feline.
Guilty as charged.
I've followed his adventures since his inception back in 1978.
Kinda made me a cat-love, you might say. And, over the years, I could even draw him handily (and did so a few times for some of my Treasury Department co-workers).
Yeah, there's something to be said for people working for the FEDS who can also draw cartoon characters...there's some sort of irony in there somewhere...I'll have to work on that one and get back to you.
Multi--talented doesn't begin to cover it, folks...then OR now.
Well, yesterday was not ONLY Sunday...AND Father's Day, but it was Garfield's BIRTHDAY.
Yep, he's 33 years "young"...just don't tell HIM that...LOL.
So, here's to another year of comics designed to make us all smile each and every morning we're mulling over the day's "events" and that hot cup of coffee. Thank you, Mr. Davis for having the foresight to provide us all with a humorous look into the Midwest (and cat-ownership).
Where would I be without such things (and with two cats as well)?
BTW, if you're in need of a part-time illustrator...I don't live all that far away and my price is competitive...LOL.
*** Next up, some of those things that simply cry out for the timely intervention of none other than...

CAPTAIN OBVIOUS !!!

And while we're talking of super heroes, this week's champion at the box office was....
GREEN LANTERN.
Seriously, did you honestly think "Mr. Popper's Penguins" had a snowball's chance in Hades?
(even WITH Jim Carrey?)
GL raked in just under $53 MILLION bucks...not too bad a haul.
I've personally loved this character from the time I sat in uncle Phil's barber chair as a "yoot" (in the late 50s), getting my bi-monthly (parentally-supervised) buzz-cut and reading the comics in the shop.
In fact, I re-read that comic a number of times...was my favorite hair-cut reading material (well, I was in elementary school).
Oh, yeah...uncle Phil had a nice collection in his shop, and among them was the ORIGIN story for the (silver-age) Green Lantern (Hal Jordan).
Should have asked him if I could have kept it...he woulda said sure....
That would have been suh-weet.
Moving on...
*** Didja know that NUCLEAR PLANTS are now (mostly all) operating OVER their life-expectancies?
Well, I know that Oyster Creek is in NJ. They were slated to close back in 2009, I think, but have received an extension to remain on-line for another 20 years, barring any problems that would cause a shutdown.
For the entire story, here's the link in today's news:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20110620/NEWS03/306209972
It's a decent read, and does bring up some problems the public isn't always privy to.
I know I hooked my buddy with a job as a technician at Oyster Creek way back in the mid-80s, when I was offered a position but declined.
Figure my buddy was a navy vet, AND an electronics teacher...what the hell.
He made out OK there, too...made twice as much as I did, and even got to go into high-exposure areas (fully-protected, mind you).
I blogged about a TRITIUM leak at that facility within the last 2 years (exact date escapes me, but is archived)...here's a link to that source story:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/owners_of_oyster_creek_nuclear.html Well, it's ONLY TRITIUM...could be a lot worse (like Plutonium), right?
But that's only ONE facility that has been given a "life-extension"...there are a lot more.
And like all of us...are getting OLDER.
Gee, where's all the NEW plants at?
Funny thing, if we started building them TODAY...it'd be close to a DECADE until THEY were on-line...thanks to all that red tape.
Yeah...energy dependency...the "wave" of the future.
*** Here's a story that shows a reason to ALLOW store personnel to CARRY a firearm:
(( Published: June 20, 2011 3:00 a.m.
4 dead in N.Y. drugstore heist - FRANK ELTMAN Associated Press
MEDFORD, N.Y. – A gunman shot four people inside a pharmacy in a New York suburb Sunday morning, killing everyone inside the store in what police said looked like a robbery gone wrong.
The massacre happened about 10:20 a.m. inside a family-owned pharmacy in a small cluster of medical offices in Medford, a middle-class hamlet on Long Island about 60 miles east of New York City.
Police rushed to the scene after getting a 911 call from someone in the pharmacy’s parking lot. When they arrived, they found two employees and two customers dead, said Dominick
Varrone, Suffolk County Police Department’s chief of detectives. No one inside the shop survived. The pharmacy, Haven Drugs, had opened for business at 10 a.m., and Varrone said investigators’ initial belief was that a single gunman was responsible for the bloodbath and that the motive was robbery.
Just how the shooting unfolded, and why, were unclear, he said.
The shooter fled the pharmacy, and no suspects were in custody.
Officials weren’t immediately releasing additional details about the shooting, or the names or ages of the victims.
"It’s absolutely crazy. There are no words," said Scott Radice, who lives four houses up the street from Haven Drugs and said he has been a customer for 15 years. "I’m hoping they had cameras in the pharmacy so they can catch this guy." ))
This COULD have been averted to a much smaller degree had ONE employee had a gun on THEM and took out this killer FIRST!
Whenever guns are outlawed, ONLY outlaws will have them...that's a given.
But try convincing the families of the slain employees AND customers of that pharmacy that GUN-CONTROL WORKS ....I dare 'ya.
*** Hey, ever hear the term "Pregnant Rollerskate" ?
Well, here is your future staring RIGHT at'cha, kids...
http://www.chevrolet.com/sonic-family/
Now this "cheapy" is going to shed a whole new light on vehicular safety, that's for sure.
Even looks smaller than the "flawed" AVEO, which I had the distinct (dis)pleasure of driving a couple of years ago.
I told Wifey that NEXT time you have to rent a car for a few days...rent a CHARGER or MUSTANG...LOL!
The AVEO was underpowered, handled like a kite in a windstorm, but got pretty decent mileage...not bad for a "puddle-jumper", but I wouldn't recommend it for the OPEN HIGHWAY where semi trucks blow past you at 70 MPH!
Tell 'ya one thing, IF you had a 1971 Pontiac Bonneville and wanted a good "spare" in the trunk, THIS car (the Sonic) might fill the bill...and would come close to FITTING in that B'ville's trunk!
*** In a related story:
(( Crash-death rates highest in small cars - Angela Greiling Keane Bloomberg News
WASHINGTON – Drivers of Nissan’s 350Z sports car and Titan pickup, and General Motors’s Chevrolet Aveo mini and compact Cobalt are more likely to die in accidents than those of other vehicles, an insurance group says.
Drivers of sport utility vehicles, who used to be the most likely to die in crashes because of rollovers, are now among those with the highest probability of survival, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said in a report last week.
"The rollover risk in SUVs used to outweigh their size/weight advantage, but that’s no longer the case," Anne McCartt, the Arlington, Va.-based group’s senior vice president for research, said in the report on driver death rates for passenger vehicles from model years
2005 to 2008.
None of the 26 lowest-rated vehicles had standard electronic stability control, while almost all of the top-rated ones did, the study found. Models equipped with the technology, which can automatically apply brakes or reduce throttle speed when drivers over- or under-steer, had lower death rates than those without it.
Last week’s results analyze data from 2006 to 2009, using fatality reporting from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Vehicles with the lowest death rates include the Audi A6, the Mercedes E-Class, Toyota’s Sienna minivan, Ford’s Edge SUV and Nissan’s Armada SUV. ))
I guess we can also soon and (next year) the Chevy SONIC to those ranks, hmm?
Well, that's ONE way to "decrease the surplus population", as Dickens would say, right?
Bet'cha eugenics advocate Maurice Strong (good friend of George Soros) is behind THIS one.
(look this guy up...he's a real "funster" like Soros)
He wanted people to get a LICENSE to procreate...better to have unsafe cars and then blame safety issues...more "convincing", right?
*** Naturally, with disaster comes "fallout", such as THIS.
Here's the link to this "domino":
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20110619/BIZ/306199971
Now we ALL know that CORN is vital to life...not as much as water, but it's still an important commodity and resource.
Consider the effect of all these dominoes fall.
Less CORN means HIGHER prices all around.
We FEED livestock with ...CORN.
Farmers rely on CORN for a living (unemployment rising AGAIN?) We consume...CORN
We are making ethanol (a fuel that is only 75 percent AS EFFICIENT as gasoline) with...CORN.
We depend on CORN for additives to many other foods and drinks (corn syrup)
We ship CORN overseas to nations that have NO interest in the USA (except as the hand that feeds them for free).
Yepper...what a tangled web that's woven HERE...isn't it?
*** Lastly today...saw the premier of the TNT channel series FALLING SKIES...pretty decent show.
Think of "WAR OF THE WORLDS meets RED DAWN" (without the Chi-Coms).
Good cast, interesting plot, and some decent "headshots" to hold one over until the NEXT season of AMC's series THE WALKING DEAD returns...LOL.
Aliens invade Earth, knock out the power and comms grids, kill damn near all the military bases and personnel off, kill civvies and abduct kids with control devices. And what's left of humanity has to overcome this...
Talk about a daunting task...sheesh!
But it was a good ride for 2 hours last evening, and I do recommend the show, but be warned, it might provide some interesting sleep patterns.
Maybe this nation needs a kick in it's complacency (via this show), and maybe it's time that what worked for us in our Revolutionary War might work again.
Maybe we need not take up arms, but rather be the voices that refuse to be silent when calling for action...action that will return this nation to it's rightful place as the bastion of freedom and liberty.
Let this be a country where evil has no place to play, and a place where every one of us retains the same and equal opportunity to succeed, based on our OWN merits and character, and not by some legislated mandate, regulation, or decree.
I think we do have the chance here to bring this nation back from disaster...if we all do what we can, based on our own talents...tempered with the courage needed to imbue others with a sense of purpose they are also seeking.
Hey, 'ya never know...until you TRY, eh?
Have a great week.
Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay safe out there, America,