Cause for Concern

Irene grew to a size of the Southeastern United States. An official at the Department of Atmospheric Research at Colorado State University described, "If you were to just put it on a map of the United States, it could go from South Florida to Pennsylvania, and from North Carolina to eastern Oklahoma." (Mitch Weiss and Samantha Gross, "Huge storm churns up East Coast", Associated Press via San Francisco Chronicle, August 28, 2011)

This is a big storm, and it is dumping inches of rain on the east coast. Oddly enough, the ground there cannot handle the 5 or 6 inches of rain because it is saturated. As it happens, there has been unusually high rainfall this year.

The National Hurricane Center at NOAA is putting our tax dollars to good use by monitoring these storms so we can prepare. We will need that this year as there is another named storm right on Irene's heels. The yellow spot is an area of atmospheric activity that has below a 30% chance of becoming a hurricane (actual, 10%). The orange spot has a 30-50% chance (actual, 40%).

I don't want to forget about the scientific method in all this, which helped us examine the skys appropriately both directly and indirectly by helping to create the ability to even get images of our planet like this. Remember to thank science that the death toll is in the single and double digits, instead of quadruple and quintuple. Of course, one could argue that science caused all of this in the first place, but at least we can use it to protect ourselves too.

Free Speech and Dangerous Delusions

After walking Steve to work yesterday, I bummed around Telegraph and stopped across from the Delusion Corner to observe. For the longest time, some Jesus Crispies have been preaching near a fenced off plot of land at the northeast corner of Telegraph and Haste. The used to use the natural volume of their voice, and hand out fliers. Then they got microphones, and now they have a rock band.

The music, itself, wasn't that bad, and had they just used their instruments, it might have been a nice backdrop for shopping, but there was singing too. At first, the songs were inanely delusional - stuff that would cause an individual to waste her life following someone's fever dream, but nothing that impacts me - but then they pissed me off. In a litany of things we should trust Jesus for, they claimed that we should trust in him for our government and economy.

I had set myself up on the southwest corner of the intersection to observe in amusement, but I was furious. I stated "No we shouldn't" a couple of times, but not loudly. For all the idiots whining about Sharia Law, here was someone with a permit issued by the city declaring his wish to undermine the constitution for religious purposes. I angrily wondered how to get these idiots off the street, but then I remembered.

Long ago, I saw a video clip of an interchange happening in the middle of the 20th century between someone speaking out in favor of Communism and some observing US Soldiers. I think the interchange was staged, for propaganda purposes. The Communist had his standard speech and one of the soldiers said [roughly]:

You should be happy to live in the United States, where you are free to say these things.

The legal precedent of our nation also allows these people to say what they want, even with amplifying devices, on the street. So while the authoritarian in me wanted to shut these idiots down, I decided instead to observe and record their now less than amusing delusions.

I got audio of a song with a completely contradictory message, and observed a completely indifferent crowd pass by the band and the people handing out fliers. My initial fury gave way to a larger perspective. Just as communists can say what they want, even about "radical revolution", so too can these people, and it looks to be just as productive.