Well this isn’t very nice

 

I’d say we both have parents who are doomed to perdition, old man

Preacher selected to give Obama’s inaugural benediction says all white people are going to Hell.  His pal Barry also named him to receive our nation’s highest civilian award, the Medal of Freedom. Just sayin’.

Rev. Dr. James Lowery spoke at St. James Baptist Church as part of a Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) tour across Georgia to encourage black voters to cast ballots for Obama…

Lowery gave the benediction at Obama’s inauguration as 44th U.S. president on Jan. 20, 2009…

Lowery said Obama lost Georgia by 200,000 votes in 2008 while 390,000 black folks in Georgia did not vote.

“I don’t know what kind of a n[igger] wouldn’t vote with a black man running,” said Lowery. “All that he did with the stimulus was genius. Nobody intelligent would risk this country with Romney…”

Lowery said that when he was a young militant, he used to say all white folks were going to hell. Then he mellowed and just said most of them were. Now, he said, he is back to where he was.

“I’m frightened by the level of hatred and bitterness coming out in this election,” said Lowery.

The Great Uniter fails again.

What do you suppose Dannel Malloy’s position on this is?

 

Forgot his rubbers, but our Gov’s in the game

Iowa joins Texas in threatening to arrest UN vote observers. My guess is that Dannel will be out at the polls helping them register to vote.

Google analytics – huh?

All your email are belong to us

Received the following message in my GMail banner heading just now, and I have no idea what the Google computers were thinking. (Can’t expand type, but it reads, “You can make a lovely hat out of previously used aluminum foil.”

One of the Binney Lane casualties

36 Binney Lane was a beautiful home, restored in 2001 and most recently sold, in nine days, in 2011 for its full asking price of $6.795 million. Very sad. Reader David Finn sent along this picture of one of the three houses that burned, not sure which, but there’s not a bad house on that street.

Binney Lane

Riverside (the lesser parts, anyway) did get hammered

Because I left early for Maine yesterday morning I didn’t have a chance to cruise the neighborhood to see how it fared. Today I did, and what a mess. It seems that waterfront properties high enough to escape the waves did just fine, but still higher elevations suffered tremendous wind damage to their trees, and roads are still closed, power lines down and dead pets are littering the street (OK, I made that last part up).

Old Greenwich has no power at all, but that’s Old Greenwich for you.

Hollande and his looters drive France into the ground

No backing off 35 work week and rigid labor policies despite a 1,300 euro premium to build a car in France.

With French labor costs up about 19 percent in a decade and neighboring Germany’s holding almost constant, France’s share of euro-area exports has dropped by 3.5 percent, more than any other country in the region, according to a study by research group Coe-Rexecode in Paris.

Over the period, operating margins of French companies have shrunk by almost 40 percent, limiting their ability to invest and sustain future growth, figures from the Groupe des Federations Industrielles show. The operating margins of German companies have gained about 40 percent, the GFI report said.

In many ways, the situation in the auto industry is emblematic. About 2 million cars are now produced in France, down from 3.5 million in 2005 and employment by car manufacturers has dropped by 30 percent in a decade, the government estimates. The question is whether Hollande is ready to do what it takes to reverse that drop.

Can’t say they weren’t warned about the difference between wishing something were so and stark reality.

 

Report (as of yesterday) on Sandra’s departure

From Mike Finkbeiner, the only engineer/surveyor in town who seems to understand waterfront issues. You got a home on the water or on a flood plain or are considering buying one, hire Mike to do an analysis (I can’t get his website,”earth image.net” to respond at this moment, but I’ll fix the link soon- meantime, he’s in the book).

Assessment report- Tues Oct 30 am. Winds South 25 – 35 mph Waves 4-6 ft Damaged docks – only observed at the Yacht Clubs. General high water observed at NAVD (North American Vertical Datum of 1983) = FEMA Flood datum of 11.0 ft, or 15 ft over MLLW (NOAA’s tidal datum.) Analysis of the storm surge to follow. Findings:  This is a rainbow at the end – promising God will not destroy all mankind by means of flooding. See Jones Rock Light off the Federal Calf Islands in Byram Harbor. For SB – a follow-up photo of Old Greenwich Yacht Club – water about half way up the windows.  What were you all thinking with those sandbags? Governor Cuomo sandbags?

See any FEMA workers helping out last night?

Romney’s right: place disaster relief back in the hands of local and state governments who know far better than a Washington bureaucrat what aid is needed where.

KEVIN WILLIAMSON: Yes, We Should Cut FEMA: The agency has managed to waste truly shocking amounts of money.

Also, the heroic first responders you saw last night were mostly NYPD and NYFD, and their counterparts in New Jersey, etc. With the exception of the Coast Guard, nearly all the rescuing was being done by state and municipal employees, not by FEMA. The Democrats’ FEMA-worship is an insult to the people who are shouldering the greater part of the load, and the danger.

Stubbornly ignorant and arrogant too

Doomsday, 1975

Rather than wait around for the power to be restored (which it now is) I went up to Maine today to help out my son John. The drive up gave me an opportunity to listen to various people express shock and surprise at the effect of a major storm on beachfront properties. Governor Christie exclaimed that he’d never have imagined such devastation, NPR rang up the usual empty heads to discuss global warming – induced severe weather and on and on and on. New York Governor Cuomo,speaking of river waters flooding the new World Trade Center site, sums up our governing class’s grasp of reality and science neatly:  ““When this space was built, there was no assumption that the river could overcome the bank,” he said. “We’ve just ignored it. We’ve just been blind to it.”

Duh.

To be surprised at this damage is to admit to a lifetime of deliberate ignorance. In 1973 a geology professor of mine used to rail against the insanity of building homes on barrier islands and emergency facilities like hospitals and fire stations on fault zones and flood plains. This was long before global warming was invented; in fact, it was even before the “settled science” told us we were doomed to suffer an ice age. Common sense and a knowledge of geology dictated that you don’t build where destruction is certain.

Warmists ridicule creationists for believing that the earth is just 7,000 years old, but to a warmest, 7,000 years is as irrelevant as 7 billion. A warmist refuses to look beyond 100 years, and therefore any storm, tidal surge, temperature rise or global climate change at all that exceeds what happened in the past century is, within their world, unprecedented, in the literal sense that it has never happened before.

How else can one explain the decision of New York Hospital, located in lower Manhattan in the lowest part of the island and flanked by two rivers and the ocean, to place its sole emergency generator in its basement? “Gee, it never flooded before, and if it weren’t for this darned global warming it would never have happened this time.” Various public officials used the same reasoning today to explain why the subways flooded, railroad tracks were washed away and homes swept into the sea: “who’d have expected that?”

Well my professor did, and so did everyone who’s ever even cracked a geology textbook. There’s no way to move an entire infrastructure out of harms way in an instant, but if our various governments had used the past 40 years to move things up as the original equipment wore out, there would be less damage today. Instead, we get a prescription to spend trillions, shut down the western world’s economy and impoverish the globe, all because the pointy-heads are worried about seeing weather that hasn’t occurred since the dawn of creation: 1938.

Let’s concede the modern rationalists their point about the age of the earth and date it as billions of years old. Only the most arrogant sort of person could claim that a mere century’s worth of time establishes the benchmark for what we’re entitled to expect from our globe – it’s larger, much larger, than we are. To pretend surprise or, worse, to actually be surprised when that is brought home is ridiculous.

Sun’s out

Local readers can figure that out for themselves of course, but it’s all over except for a massive clean up. How are you folks in its next destination, the Midwest doing?

Mike Finkbeiner was right

Based in his previous surveys of my and Pal Nancy’s houses and his charting of yesterday’s surges he’d predicted neither would flood- water came to Nancy’s deck, leaving maybe a foot or less before the furnace went, but a miss is as good as a mile.
Some of the houses on the other side of the creek, which are lower, look damp but no word yet.
Winding creeks are excellent protection against wave damage- there’s a price to pay for a spectacular view of the Sound. Most owners I know, however, have always been willing to pay that price, which I understand and if I could afford the real estate, would do myself.

Forgot to mention this

The GAR Evil Princess has fled her dungeon for higher ground so there’s been no real estate news to report today nor will there be any tomorrow. One can speculate, however, that this storm may dampen buyers’ enthusiasm for low-lying areas of Old Greenwich for awhile.

Binney Lane fire?

Readers are reporting a house fire on Binney Lane that is “spreading from house to house”. That doesn’t sound good.

UPDATE: Reader sends this, from Greenwich Patch.

As Hurricane Sandy blows ashore, the mega storm is wreaking havoc with rescue efforts throughout Greenwich.

Based on emergency dispatch transmissions Monday night, many roads in town are impassable, making it impossible for firefighters to battle house fires and emergency medical crews to respond to calls. According to Greenwich Fire Dispatch radio transmissions, wind conditions and rising tides are making it impossible for emergency crews to reach the scenes to battle the fires at several locations including Old Greenwich.

There were several calls involving ambulances trapped by fallen trees and downed wires.

As of 7:30 p.m., no injuries have been reported.

According to radio dispatches, house fires have been reported on Binney Lane, Shore Road and Hillcrest Park. There have been numerous reports of roads blocked by fallen trees including Sound Beach Avenue, Stanwich Road, Hillside Road, West Putnam Avenue, Old Orchard Road, Sawmill Road, Valley Road, East Putnam Avenue at Maple Avenue.

At 7:38 p.m., Greenwich fire dispatches ordered all personnel to “respond to the nearest firehouse and standby. We are no longer responding to alarms.”

According to radio dispatches, fire crews and Greenwich Emergency Medical Service crews responding to calls are stranded by fallen trees, utility poles and downed wires.

UPDATE: check out this picture from Greenwich Patch (Noah Schwartz) of Ledge Road – that mountain in the background is a wave! It will be interesting to see how those two beautiful homes further down the lane, one of which just sold for $13 million, fare in the face of that kind of surf.

Power’s back, for now

Took advantage of the downtime to travel to NYC and check out conditions there. Holy cow, things look bad!

Planet of the Apes, Part IX?

Power gone, back when it is

Posted via iPhone, but I’m going to have to conserve the battery. Stay dry.

From Dan Rather’s Photo Album

 

 

Ole’s Creek, low tide

 

Tod’s Point

Live from Old Greenwich (and Rhode Island)

EOS has pictures posted.

And of course, there’s this – (thanks, Ant’ny)

I’d forgotten this (as I’m sure Matt Lauer hoped we all would) but AJ remembers

An educational experience

Trained apes at play

Watching television for its hurricane coverage offers a fascinating view of how the media manipulates its viewers. There’s Jim Cantore, speaking to some “expert” in a secure, undisclosed location who is opining on his opinion of surge height. The damn fool won’t get with the game until Cantore presses: “so you’re saying we can expect catastrophic damage?” Well he hadn’t until then but understanding that you don’t get on TV unless you cooperate, the man readily agreed: “Oh yes – people coming back on Tuesday won’t recognize the beaches they left just Sunday”. Only in media land is beach erosion a “catastrophe”, but that term clearly has a different meaning when used by wannabe meteorologist reporters.

And I’m enjoying the shots of anchor women (the phenomenon seems limited to women) who listen intently to what a colleague is saying and then turn to face the camera and nod their head, as though vouching for the accuracy of what the talking baboon next to her has just said. Fun stuff.

Another thing I noticed, and something that must drive TV producers nuts, are the stupid civilians who ruin dramatic shots of “deserted ghost towns” whose residents are supposed to have all fled – they come back just as the cameras roll, dressed in flip flops and shorts or even jogging outfits and get between the intrepid reporter and the raging sea and really crapping up the whole image of men and women braving the elements to bring us the truth.

Then there are the constant comparisons to last year’s hurricane, Irene, which was hardly a hurricane at all, and only Irene. Is this because the producers don’t trust their viewers to have memories that extend back more than a year or because comparing a real storm to a baby one is more dramatic? I’m guessing it’s door number two.

And I just saw some guy who, in the midst of his reporting on the cruel sea took care to note for his viewers that he wasn’t trampling the sea grass – I kid you not – so as to preserve the dunes from human damage and, presumably, let the waves ruin them instead.

Amazing stuff – I’ve got to start watching TV more often.