IT'S PAUL RYAN FOR VEEP

Rep. Paul Ryan will be named Mitt Romney's running mate on Saturday, ending weeks of speculation about the No. 2 slot on the GOP ticket.
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Ryan, 42, is best known as the chairman of the House Budget Committee and author of a dramatic plan to overhaul Medicare, the government-run health insurance program for senior citizens.
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Ryan, a House member since 1999, has proposed to overhaul both Medicare and Medicaid, the programs that have been a hallmark of the nation's compact to provide health care to senior citizens and the poor. Under his plan, Medicare would be run by private insurers while Medicaid would be turned over to the states.
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Ryan's budget plan has been widely criticized by President Obama and his fellow Democrats, who contend it would "end Medicare as we know it." Obama has called Ryan's plan "thinly veiled social Darwinism."

Romney has been described as the candidate without policies.  With his choice of Ryan, may we assume that Ryan's policies will be Romney's policies?  Ryan's plans for the country are specific, and detailed.  With prescience, The New Yorker recently published a lengthy profile of Ryan. What stands out in my memory from reading the profile is that Ryan wants to avoid any movement in the direction of a European type of government.

STRUCK MY FUNNYBONE

He has a tattoo of his right hand on his left hand so that “my right hand knows what my left hand is doing.”

"Shouts & Murmurs" - Bob Odenkirk in The New Yorker

ROMNEY: "WE HAVE CHALLENGES..."

Mitt Romney misspeaks:

“We obviously have challenges around the country. I was in Chicago earlier today. We had a moment of silence in honor of the people who lost their lives at that sheik temple,” said Romney, speaking to a group of donors gathered at a fundraiser at a West Des Moines country club.

“I noted that it was a tragedy for many, many reasons. Among them are the fact that people, the sheik people are among the most peaceable and loving individuals you can imagine, as is their faith. And of course, the person who carried out this heinous act was a person motivated by racial hatred and religious intolerance. It’s really, really a tragedy,” he said.

Rick Gorka, a spokesman for Romney, later clarified that the candidate “misspoke” adding that it was the “end of the day.”

Oh how I wish it was the end of the day for Romney as a candidate for the presidency of the United States...how I wish he was waving bye-bye to public life. 

In all fairness, Romney did get the name right earlier in the day when he led the moment of silence to honor the people who died, and sure, we all get tired and misspeak on occasion.

COLORFUL QUESTION

nakedpastor says:

I have learned a secret: living in the question is the place of greatest happiness. It is not living in the answer where it is devoid of Mystery.

One of the best Bible study classes in which I participated at my church was the Living the Questions DVD series. The well-known "heretics" in the church (Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, Hans Kung, John Shelby Spong, Matthew Fox) are included in the series, along with others who are regarded as more orthodox.  After watching the videos, we had wonderful, lively discussions in our group. 

"GOD...EXPECTS US TO TAKE A STAND"

“If we had been holier people,” Templeton wrote, “we would have been angrier oftener.” Which translated means: Never endure what is not in itself essentially good, or designed to make everybody’s world a better place, or, in the end, really good for your own development. To violate any of those things is to violate the will of God for creation. God, scripture shows us, expects us to take a stand.

~Sr. Joan Chittister
"From the Heart"

Bro John Anthony posted in St. Cuthbert's Cottage

TREMORS, BUBBLES IN THE BAYOU, AND A SINKHOLE

 

A 381-foot-deep sinkhole that emerged last week near the Bayou Corne community is filled primarily with salt water mixed with traces of diesel fuel, while the muck and vegetation visible at the surface is only six inches deep, Assumption Parish [Louisiana] officials said Monday.

A nearby 20-million-barrel Texas Brine Co. LLC of Houston salt cavern, which was plugged in 2011, was filled with brine, a water-salt mixture, for structural integrity, company officials have said.

Some closed salt caverns also have diesel fuel at the top as a “pad” to prevent erosion of the salt from the brine, said John Boudreaux, director of the Assumption Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

The disclosures Monday may further point to Louisiana Department of Natural Resources officials’ suggestions Friday that the sinkhole, which has a diameter of 372 feet, was caused by the possibly failed cavern.

“It’s suspect,” Boudreaux said.

In an earlier story in the Baton Rouge Advocate, people who lived in the area of Bayou Corne reported  tremors and gas bubbles in the bayou, as in the photo above.  You may or may not know that earthquakes are extremely rare occurrences in Louisiana.  Gas bubbling up in a Louisiana bayou is also an unusual event.  So what's going on?

Assumption Parish emergency officials have asked to meet with an expert from the U.S. Geological Survey and for portable seismic equipment to get a better understanding of new tremors reported in the Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou areas, officials said Friday.

The earth tremors are being reported by residents in a swampy area of northern Assumption Parish where venting streams of natural gas have been roiling the surface of waterways for about a month.

The source of the natural gas remains uncertain and is not an explosive risk but detailed tests to fingerprint the source of the leaking gas are pending, said John Boudreaux, director of the parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

The word from the state at that time was that tests show the gas was not explosive, and no connection has been made between the tremors and the gas bubbles.
  

Then comes the sinkhole. Who would ever have expected...?  But wait! Maybe the sinkhole should not have been so much so much of a surprise to state officials.  

In a Jan. 21, 2011, letter, Mark J. Cartwright, Texas Brine Co. Saltville LLC president, informed DNR about a failed integrity test of the cavern and company officials’ subsequent suspicion that the cavern may have breached the Napoleonville Dome’s outer wall, possibly explaining a loss of pressure in the cavern during the test. (Read letter.)

“One obvious concern is the cavern’s proximity to the edge of salt,” Cartwright wrote to DNR’s Joseph “Joe” S. Ball Jr. “There have been several studies in this regard, and Texas Brine has mapped the salt boundary near the cavern applying available well log data, seismic data, and most recently, vertical seismic data gathered during the workover. At this time, a breach out of the salt dome appears possible.”

Ball is the director of the DNR Injection and Mining Division, which oversees salt caverns.

Neither parish officials nor the public was informed that the integrity of the salt cavern may have been compromised.  Over 300 people have been evacuated from their homes, and more may have to go.  In addition to concerns about natural gas and diesel leaks, we learn that some years ago, Texas Brine was allowed to pump radioactive waste into the cavern which may now be leaking.

As I read the Advocate story linked at the beginning of the post yesterday morning, I noted another story on the same page of the announcement by the governor's office that Scott Angelle, Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources, resigned, no reason given.  We could maybe take a guess as to the reason.

I've been trying to post about the story since there was only one report, but I have not had time.  Now I have four links expanding the story, and I could probably find more.  The story grows and grows, and the situation looks grimmer and grimmer.

Question: If we extract large amounts of materials from beneath the ground, why are we surprised, when the ground collapses?

BEAUTIFUL AND INCREDIBLE IMAGES FROM MARS

The time for me to post pictures from the incredible Mars adventure is overdue, so here they are.

More, many more amazing pictures may be seen at the NASA website.

NASA publishes the latest pictures, news, and updates on the Mars mission at their website.

Is the photo above the incredible part of the mission? Who can say?  From a friend who can take credit or not. I chickened out and did a bit of editing to the photo, because I didn't want to offend.

ALL ABOUT ME...AND EGRETS AND ALLIGATORS

So have you missed me?  I haven't been posting much lately,  nor have I been visiting around in Blogland nearly as often as I once did, because I've been busy with family responsibilities and other demands on my time.  Today we went to the funeral of a good friend of Grandpère and left from there to go to New Orleans for me to have my left eye zapped with a laser to remove the cloudiness which sometimes occurs after cataract surgery.  Now I have clear vision in both eyes.  Yay!

Two egrets visiting with each other

 
We stopped on the way home and had a nice meal at Spahr's Seafood in Des Allemands, where the view is fabulous, with a lake in the distance and a bayou just behind the restaurant.  A sign near the bayou said, "WATCH OUT FOR THE ALLIGATORS!"  No joke, for we saw an alligator during our meal.  Three egrets were hanging out near the bayou, giving us our fair share of wildlife.

Lone egret checking out the other two

My family responsibilities are not going away any time soon, so I will blog less and spend less time on Facebook.  I love chatting with my Facebook friends, but my heart is in blogging, which remains my priority.

My favorite - Egret in flight

No photo of the alligator.  Only the head was out of the water, and it was some distance away.  In truth, I was rather excited about seeing the creature and didn't think of taking a picture.  A group at the next table included two teenage girls from England, who were visiting their grandmother, and I was happy for them to see our native wildlife.

The view

Apropos of nothing in this post, a couple of afternoons ago, a helicopter circled rather low round and round our house and neighboring houses, and I thought, "Is it me?  Are 'they' spying on me?"  Ha-ha.  Just kidding...I think.  When the drones come, I will know.  I'll take egrets to helicopters any day.

BEAVER'S IN HOUSTON SAYS, "TAKE THAT, CHICK-FIL-A!"

Beaver's announced a new addition to its menu, the "Chick-On-Chick" Filet, which is described as "two loving chicken breasts married on toasty buns with a honey mustard witness and joined in celebration with tolerant fries." A photo of the menu special has since been circulating on Facebook.

The Texas restaurant is pro-marriage equality, according to Gawker. Not only is owner and celebrity chef Monica Pope a lesbian, but her Houston restaurant is also known for attracting a diverse clientele.

That's showing 'em.  Thanks to Paul (A.).

From The Huffington Post.

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