RAIN, RAIN...

How I wish I could send some of the rain that fell all day yesterday and, so far, all day today to the places that suffer from drought.  Donning the waterproof parka and gathering up the wet umbrella to walk Diana in the rain is getting old.  She doesn't mind a walk on the lead in the rain, but when she's off the lead, she's not content on her bed on the patio and wants to be inside.  I do mind the walk in the rain.  On the first walk of the day, I made the mistake of using only the umbrella, and I got soaked.

The photo above was not taken in the worst of the weather, which was yesterday, with rain, wind, lightning, and thunder, but you can see the puddles under the trees from the heavier rainfall.  Earlier today, we had a downpour, and I decided to pass on church.  With age come privileges of avoiding the drive in the rain and sloshing through puddles.  The picture below shows the puddle around the flower bed near the front porch.

And just for fun, the dinosaurs in the neighborhood are pictured below.   Who says humans and dinosaurs do not inhabit the earth together?

PAUL RYAN'S FELLOW ROMAN CATHOLICS ON RYAN'S BUDGET

Mitt Romney expects his running mate to help deliver the Catholic vote and smooth over any discomfort among Catholics about Mormonism. (This is the first major-party ticket to go Protestant-less.) Yet after Ryan claimed his budget was shaped by his faith, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops deemed it immoral.

“A just spending bill cannot rely on disproportionate cuts in essential services to poor and vulnerable persons,” the bishops wrote in a letter to Congress.

The Jesuits were even more tart, with one group writing to Ryan that “Your budget appears to reflect the values of your favorite philosopher, Ayn Rand, rather than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” (My emphasis)

The nuns-on-the-bus also rapped the knuckles of the former altar boy who now takes his three kids to Mass. As Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of the Catholic social justice group Network, told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, it’s sad that a Catholic doesn’t understand that “we need to have each other’s backs. Only wealthy people can ever begin to pretend that they can live in a gated community all by themselves.”

Even Ryan’s former parish priest in Janesville weighed in. Father Stephen Umhoefer told the Center for Media and Democracy, “You can’t tell somebody that in 10 years your economic situation is going to be just wonderful because meanwhile your kids may starve to death.”

Ouch!  So much for Ryan's adherence to the social justice teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.  Thanks to Maureen Dowd for putting it all together.  And do read the entire column.  There's other good stuff there like Ryan's votes in favor of Bush's break-the-bank budgets, including two off-budget wars.

Paul Ryan then:

"The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand," Ryan said in a speech in 2005.

Paul Ryan now:

“I reject her philosophy,” Ryan says firmly. “It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview."

Has the leopard changed his spots?  I report; you decide.  It's the budget, stupid.  Focus, focus, focus on the budget.

AYN RAND'S "THE VIRTUE OF SELFISHNESS"

Because a reader suggested I read at least the title essay in Ayn Rand's book, The Virtue of Selfishness, I did so.  What follows is my unedited, brief commentary as I picked out selected quotes.  Toward the end of the essay, I may have stopped my notes.  I'm not saying that my responses are in any way worthwhile, but they are mine.  The beginning of the essay was tedious, nearly beyond what I could bear, and, although it became more interesting further along, I was not at all taken with the ideas nor with the style of writing, and I remain perplexed about the appeal of Rand's philosophy, except to those who wish to justify their own egotism and selfishness.  The text of the book may be found here in pdf format.
    
Rand: "The Objectivist ethics holds that human good does not require human sacrifices and cannot be achieved by the sacrifice of anyone to anyone. It holds that the rational interests of men do not clash—that there is no conflict of interests among men who do not desire the unearned, who do not make sacrifices nor accept them, who deal with one another as traders, giving value for value."

Me: Bullshit.  Just because you say so does not mean that my rational selfishness will not conflict with your rational selfishness?

Rand: "The principle of trade is the only rational ethical principle for all human relationships, personal and social, private and public, spiritual and material.  It is the principle of justice.  A trader is a man who earns what he gets and does not give or take the undeserved. He does not treat men as masters or slaves, but as independent equals. He deals with men by means of a free, voluntary, unforced, uncoerced exchange—an exchange which benefits both parties by their own independent judgment. A trader does not expect to be paid for his defaults, only for his achievements. He does not switch to others the burden of his failures, and he does not mortgage his life into bondage to the failures of others."

Me: What of inherited wealth?

Rand: "Nothing is given to man on earth except a potential and the material on which to actualize it. The potential is a superlative machine: his consciousness; but it is a machine without a spark plug, a machine of which his own will has to be the spark plug, the self-starter and the driver; he has to discover how to use it and he has to keep it in constant action. The material is the whole of the universe, with no limits set to the knowledge he can acquire and to the enjoyment of life he can achieve. But everything he needs or desires has to be learned, discovered and produced by him—by his own choice, by his own effort, by his own mind."

Me: What about education in childhood and youth?

Rand: "In spiritual issues—(by “spiritual” I mean: “pertaining to man’s consciousness”)—the currency or medium of exchange is different, but the principle is the same. Love, friendship, respect, admiration are the emotional response of one man to the virtues of another, the spiritual payment given in exchange for the personal, selfish pleasure which one man derives from the virtues of another man’s character. Only a brute or an altruist would claim that the appreciation of another person’s virtues is an act of selflessness, that as far as one’s own selfish interest and pleasure are concerned, it makes no difference whether one deals with a genius or a fool, whether one meets a hero or a thug, whether one marries an ideal woman or a slut. In spiritual issues, a trader is a man who does not seek to be loved for his weaknesses or flaws, only for his virtues, and who does not grant his love to the weaknesses or the flaws of others, only to their virtues."

Me: Love as conditional; love as long as the beloved gives you pleasure; love as a commodity to be traded.  Not love at all.

Rand: "But these very benefits indicate, delimit and define what kind of men can be of value to one another and in what kind of society: only rational, productive, independent men in a rational, productive, free society.  Parasites, moochers, looters, brutes and thugs can be of no value to a human being—nor can he gain any benefit from living in a society geared to their needs, demands and protection, a society that treats him as a sacrificial animal and penalizes him for his virtues in order to reward them for their vices, which means: a society based on the ethics of altruism."

Me: Is illness a vice?

-------------

As I've already said, I read The Fountainhead when I was in college, but I thought it weird and boring, and, in hindsight, I believe I didn't "get" it. I'm not the only one who "missed the point".

Journalist Nora Ephron wrote that she had loved the novel when she was 18 but admitted that she "missed the point," which she suggested is largely subliminal sexual metaphor. Ephron wrote that she decided upon re-reading that "it is better read when one is young enough to miss the point. Otherwise, one cannot help thinking it is a very silly book."

As I read the information about the book at Wikipedia, I remembered that I saw the 1949 movie with Gary Cooper, and I have a vague sense that I thought it dull and dreary and found Cooper's Roark to be a lackluster character.  Thus, I saw no reason to follow up and read Atlas Shrugged, Rand's pièce de résistance.

Ayn Rand's given name is pronounced to rhyme with "mine ".

Paul Ryan then:

"The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand," Ryan said in a speech in 2005.

Paul Ryan now:

“I reject her philosophy,” Ryan says firmly. “It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview." 

GILES FRASER ON "REPUTATIONAL RISK"

"Reputational risk" was a phrase often used at St Paul'sCathedral, and in the City generally, and one that a number of us especially disliked. What would the man who was attacked for hanging out with prostitutes and tax-collectors have made of "reputational risk"?

Surely he would have had no place for it. Indeed, he was the stone that the builders rejected, and yet became the cornerstone. So how is it that the Church built in his name has become so concerned with its own reputation? In a sense, if the Church does not have a bad reputation - or, perhaps better still, if it were indifferent to the fact that it might - it would not be doing its job properly.

The thought that the church is too respectable has crossed my mind more than once.  Jesus seemed unconcerned about risking his reputation, as he did not hesitate to speak and act in ways that outraged the respectable people of his day.  A good many of the saints cared nothing for their reputations.  In fact, a number of the saints would likely be labeled mentally ill today.  I remember reading the first biography of St Francis of Assisi as an adult in Butler's Lives of the Saints, and I thought, "Francis was insane!"  (Butler's version of the saint's life would not be my first recommendation.  I liked Julian Green's God's Fool.)

 Giles recently visited the US to give a speech, and he says:

I was invited to preach in the United States recently, and I suddenly realised how difficult it must be to be a Christian in a culture that continually applauds you for being one. I guess it might be a bit like Pavlov's dog: soon you might begin to think that the applause and the Christianity were connected.

Giles didn't stay long enough to know what it's like for the "heretics" amongst us, who seldom hear applause from unbelievers, nor from certain of our Christian brothers and sisters, some of whom declare us not to be Christians at all.

Anyway, I urge you to read Giles' entire column in the Church Times.  It's not long, and it's good.

PREVAILING

nakedpastor says:

There are two ways to prevail.
Like the tree, you can go with the adversity. Bend with it. Be flexible in the face of it. Surrender to it.
Or, like the crow, you can lean into it. Streamline yourself against it. Endure it. Stand your ground in spite of it.
Both are wise. Both prevail.
Even against the most severe of prevailing winds.

I especially like this drawing and its accompanying words by nakedpastor.

THE SINKHOLE - THIS IS NOT GOOD

 

Texas Brine Co. LLC suspended cleanup work at a large sinkhole in northern Assumption Parish after the southwestern edge of the slurry area collapsed Thursday morning, company and parish officials said.

Two workers with Texas Brine’s cleanup contractor, Clean Harbors of Norwell, Mass., were rescued from their small aluminum boat by a co-worker in an airboat shortly before the workers’ boat sank into the sinkhole along with the collapsing earth, the officials said.

Assumption Parish Sheriff Mike Waguespack said the boat was tied to a leaning tree on the shoreline. The workers saw the tree begin to move and managed to get out the way, escaping with their equipment at about 8:30 a.m., the officials said.

Waguespack said an area of earth collapsed that extended from the shoreline to about 50 feet inland. The sheriff said bubbling in the sinkhole intensified after the collapse.

Texas Brine and the civil authorities expected the sinkhole to expand, but, despite their reassurances, I wonder about the unexpected that could happen.  I fully understand that the authorities don't wish to alarm people unnecessarily, but still...

In an earlier post on the sinkhole, one of my readers speculated that the butane stored in the salt cavern might be in barrels, but I see no mention of barrels thus far.

Crosstex also submitted a revised worst-case scenario analysis in its risk management plan Wednesday at the request of DEQ Secretary Peggy Hatch.

In a statement Thursday, DEQ officials noted that the cavern, which is a half-mile underground and far below the bottom of the sinkhole, cannot release its liquid butane contents without water being pumped into the cavern to push out the butane. The butane is also being held in the absence of oxygen. (My emphasis)

“While it is easy to simply convert the known quantity of butane into a blast scenario, that does not mean this scenario is possible,” DEQ officials said in a statement.

My inner pessimist which, though buried, occasionally rises and now thinks of oxygen somehow getting into the mix in one of those who-would-ever-have-expected...scenarios.  Surely my inner pessimist is way off base.

UPDATE: My inner pessimist is not the only one concerned.

Assumption Parish Sheriff Mike Waguespack said Thursday he is now concerned the sinkhole is close to a well containing 1.5 million barrels of liquid butane, a highly volatile liquid that turns into a highly flammable vapor upon release. A breach of that well, he said, could be catastrophic.

 

Map from International Business Times.

HOW MANY DEATHS WILL IT TAKE?

LAPLACE, La. Two sheriff's deputies in Louisiana were shot to death and two others were injured in an early-morning shootout west of New Orleans, authorities said Thursday.

Five people - both male and female - are in custody, and two of them are hospitalized, authorities said. They said both wounded deputies and both wounded suspects are expected to survive.
....

Earlier Thursday, a tearful Tregre said that the incident started about 5:30 a.m., when a gunman opened fire for unknown reasons on a deputy working an off-duty job along a highway that connects U.S. Highway 61 with the busy industrial corridor along the Mississippi River. That deputy was wounded.

Tregre said someone called deputies with a description of a car fleeing the scene, and officers tracked it to a nearby mobile home park.
....

"Another person exited that trailer with an assault weapon and ambushed my two officers," Tregre said. Two deputies were killed and a third was wounded.

Two suspects were wounded in the shootout before officers subdued them, Tregre said.

The slain deputies were identified as Brandon Nielsen, 34, and Jeremy Triche, 27. The wounded officers are Jason Triche, 30, and Michael Boyington, 33, identified as the first one shot. They were being treated at area hospitals but the extent of their injuries was not known.
....

"There were more than 20 gunshots," said Col. Mike Edmonson, head of Louisiana State Police, which investigates shootings in which other Louisiana law-enforcement agencies are involved.

The persons arrested were reportedly on watch lists in De Soto Parish, Louisiana, and other states and were under scrutiny by the FBI.  The deaths of the two deputies demonstrate why so many in law enforcement would like to see assault weapons banned. The officers face danger every day as they do their jobs, but should they be at added risk from assault weapons? 
 
How many deaths will it take?  How long before we pass laws to remove assault weapons, the guns that are capable of shooting round after round of bullets, from the hands of citizens?  Those in favor of no gun control reference the Second Amendment to the Constitution, but the foundational document in which we declared ourselves independent of the British, the Declaration of Independence, states:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

What about the right to live?

ENGLISH JOKES

I was at an ATM yesterday when a little old lady asked if I could check her balance, so I pushed her over.

Statistically, 6 out of 7 dwarves are not Happy.

My neighbour knocked on my door at 2:30 a.m. this morning! Can you believe that, 2:30 a.m?  Luckily for him I was still up playing my bagpipes.

A wife says to her husband, “You're always pushing me around and talking behind my back.”
He says, “What do you expect? You're in a wheelchair.”

The wife has been missing a week now. Police said to prepare for the worst. So I have been to the charity shop to get all her clothes back

I saw a poor old lady fall over today on the ice! At least I presume she was poor - she only had $1.20 in her purse.

Don't blame me.  Blame Frank.  A few were not publishable, so I censored them out.

WORD OF THE DAY - MITT ROMNEY

"The president's campaign has put out a campaign that's talking about me and attacking me."

H/T to  Charles Pierce.

SINKHOLE, SALT CAVERN, BUTANE UNDER PRESSURE

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality has asked the operator of a salt cavern near a sinkhole in northern Assumption Parish to describe what would happen if all butane that could be held in the underground storage facility were released to the surface, state officials said Tuesday.

DEQ Secretary Peggy Hatch asked for the updated worst-case scenario from Crosstex Energy LP of Dallas by close of business Wednesday after reviewing the company’s current risk management plan for the cavern, state officials said in a news release.

The Crosstex salt cavern, which holds 940,000 barrels of liquid butane under pressure, is 1,600 feet from the sinkhole on the adjacent Texas Brine Co. LLC property south of La. 70 south.

DEQ says the Texas Brine is in compliance, but the what-if ramifications if the salt dome has failed are sobering, indeed.

DEQ officials said Tuesday there are “a lot of dynamic things” happening around the butane cavern, including expected well drilling, and community concerns have arisen.
....

DNR scientists suspect the Texas Brine cavern may have been carved too close to the edge of the Napoleonville Dome and failed, releasing its brine contents and causing the sinkhole.
....

DEQ officials said Crosstex’s updated plan submitted in January considers risks for butane, natural gas and other gases and suggests a full release might lead to windows being broken at two-thirds of mile. Piehler said two-thirds of a mile is close to the Bayou Corne community, which has about 150 residences, but does not actually include it.

Jill McMillan, spokeswoman for Crosstex said:

“Based on these findings to date, we believe our facilities have not been impacted by the slurry-filled sinkhole, and there has been no indication their integrity has been compromised,” she said in the email.

Let's hope and pray that none of the worst-case scenarios happen, nor a scenario that none of the experts have thought of, and we hear the lament, "Who would ever have expected...?"  That amount of butane under pressure sounds quite dangerous to me, and I hope the authorities are not playing down the seriousness of the situation as authorities are wont to do.

For those of you who may be concerned about us, we are about 30 miles away from the site and presumably safe.

Thanks to MM for his concern.  I planned to post on the situation yesterday but never got around to it.