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Friday, October 31, 2014

Happy Halloween

(If you must have politics, please scroll down.  I posted yesterday)

Photographs by Among the Ruin (sites on Facebook and on Flickr):

The Pumpkin Tender


Mausoleum in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia

Please take a few moments to visit Among the Ruin's sites, linked at the top of this blog post. He specializes in photographing abandoned sites.

About the October 31, 2014 edition of  The Gathering Storm Radio Show:

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Midweek Political Satire

(Note: Active open thread HERE)

Satire — and the wry truth.

With a hat tip to IMAO:


Short video published on YouTube on July 17, 2014:

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Open Thread


So, what's on your mind one week before the November 2014 elections?

Here is your chance to vent, but please observe the guidelines listed below the fold:

Monday, October 27, 2014

Bank Account Seizures By The IRS

(Two posts today.  Please scroll down)

On the grounds of suspicion, no crime required.

From Bunkerville (citing the New York Times):
For almost 40 years, Carole Hinders has dished out Mexican specialties at her modest cash-only restaurant. For just as long, she deposited the earnings at a small bank branch a block away — until last year, when two tax agents knocked on her door and informed her that they had seized her checking account, almost $33,000.

The Internal Revenue Service agents did not accuse Ms. Hinders of money laundering or cheating on her taxes — in fact, she has not been charged with any crime. Instead, the money was seized solely because she had deposited less than $10,000 at a time, which they viewed as an attempt to avoid triggering a required government report....
I almost always make deposits of less than $10,000. Furthermore, because of the nature of my small business, I make frequent deposits (mostly checks). I'm probably safe on this one. So far.

Still our government keeps stepping outside the bounds of our Constitution.

How long are WE THE PEOPLE going to submit to creeping tyranny?

Duncan Lied To The 2nd ER Nurse

Read the article and watch the 60 Minutes video HERE.

Did Duncan also lie to the first nurse he saw two days earlier at Texas Presbyterian Hospital?

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Amazing Mother Nature! (Good And Bad)

(If you must have politics, please scroll down)

Spiders apparently know how to harness the power of music. Spider silk transmits vibrations across a wide range of frequencies so that, when plucked like a guitar string, its sound carries information about prey, mates, and even the structural integrity of a web. (Photo : Pixabay)
At this time of year here in the D.C. area, we are nearly overrun with spiders.

I don't suffer from arachnophobia, but I don't like spiders, either.  Still, in many ways, they are amazing creatures.

Over on Dr. Oliver Sacks's Facebook page last summer, I found the following fascinating information about spiders:

Friday, October 24, 2014

Ebola Policy Change?

According to U.S. considering quarantine for returning Ebola health workers: CDC (dated the evening of October 24, 2014):

Islam: The Murder Machine

(hat tip to Stogie of Saberpoint for the first graphic below)


A non-comprehensive list of deadly deeds committed by the sons of Allah in the name of Allah (most from the list below, from this October 23, 2014, article in the New York Times):

Oct. 23, 2014: New York police officer critically wounded in hatchet attack [details]

Oct. 22, 2014: Canada's parliament attacked, soldier fatally shot nearby

Oct. 20, 2014: Hit-and-Run Kills Canadian Soldier

Sept. 26, 2014: ISIS Lieutenant Tries to Coordinate Attacks in Australia

Sept. 25, 2014: Woman Is Beheaded in Oklahoma

May 24, 2014: 3 Shot Dead at Jewish Museum in Brussels

May 22, 2013: Attack Near Military Barracks in South London [UK soldier beheaded]

March 2012: Gunman Kills 7, Including 3 Soldiers, in France

November 2009, July 2011, and April 2014: Fort Hood Attacks [Yes, THREE jihad attacks on Fort Hood]

June 1, 2009: Gunman Kills Soldier Outside Arkansas Recruiting Station

Go to THIS LINK to read the details about most of the above events.

The common thread is Islam. Denial doesn't change that fact.

I'll end this post with the graphic below:


Open your eyes, see the truth.


Recommended reading: The Religion of Peace.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Nothing New Under The Sun

Yes, this 2014 election cycle is a contentious one. It's tradition and predates the founding of America!

The Polling by William Hogarth (1697-1764)

From Folger Magazine:
Public fascination with elections is as old as politics itself. In the seventeenth century, the press was increasingly filled with election pamphlets offering advice on whom to vote for and even more importantly whom to oppose.

Printed election material originated in the 1640s, reflecting public interest in the political process, especially in a time of civil war and domestic upheaval. Secrecy surrounding politics had broken down; votes needed to be earned and voters persuaded. Elections became increasingly contested and divided along party lines.

Even voting itself was not a secret process in early modern England. The poll book, at right, published the names of all the voters in London and which candidates and party they voted for in 1710. Each voter was able to cast one vote (indicated at right by a dash) for each of the four seats up for grabs in their constituency. Some crossed party lines, but the vast majority followed a party ticket.
See the rest of the article HERE.

So, carry on.

In less than two weeks will begin the Monday morning quarterbacking, immediately followed by the pontificating about the next election, the 2016 National Election. It's like riding a political carousel.

.
In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“What you do speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you say.”

FEATURED QUESTION: Midterm Elections 2014

(This blog post will remain here for a few days. Please scroll down for other material)

Everybody and his brother seems to have their own sets of predictions for the November 4 National Intelligence Test, otherwise knows as Election Day.

FEATURED QUESTION: What do you predict for the outcome of Election Day 2014? Your answer may be general or specific.

[Before commenting, know that this blog will no longer accept comments about Ebola unless such comments are posted to these threads. Thank you]

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

COMMENT MODERATION

NOTICE TO COMMENTERS: DURING THIS PRE-ELECTION SEASON OF SCREECHING AND PERSONAL DIATRIBES, COMMENT MODERATION WILL BE INTERMITTENTLY IN EFFECT AT THIS BLOG.  APOLOGIES TO THOSE COMMENTERS WHO ARE NOT IN THE ABOVE CATEOGIES.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Notice To Commenters

Unless another outbreak occurs here in the United States, this blog will no longer post about Ebola or, from this time forward, accept any comments about Ebola to any threads other than these.

[comments disabled for this blog post]

Monday, October 20, 2014

Ebola Question: Why Aren't We Using The PCR?

To screen every arrival from the Ebola Hot Zone in Africa — or, better yet, to screen before these potential pathogen-carriers board a commercial jetliner in the Hot Zone:
...[W]e can marry quarantine with technology using polymerase chain reaction, or PCR. At a cost of $60 to $200 the test looks for viral particles in the blood and amplifies them millions of folds, picking up most cases of Ebola patients who may still be asymptomatic. While not 100 percent foolproof, the PCR test increases the level of certainty in determining if a patient has an Ebola infection, which can ultimately lead to a more accurate decision...
Read "Rethinking the 21-Day Quarantine for Ebola Contacts" in its entirety HERE. There is more information in the article than the above excerpt, including the following:
...[A] recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine detailing the first nine months of the 2014 epidemic in West Africa raises concern about the short, often-mentioned 21 post-exposure-day periods in the guidelines. In the journal's study of 4,507 probable and confirmed cases, "approximately 95 percent of the case patients had symptom onset within 21 days of exposure." If we do the math, this means that approximately 5 percent or 225 of the Ebola cases in West Africa had symptoms 21 days after exposure, as reported by the patient or caregiver....
Additional reading: Ebola Protection Guidelines On CDC Website Riddled With Mistakes.

[My unrelated-to-Ebola post today at Infidel Bloggers Alliance: How To Lose A War]

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Musical Interlude

(If you must have politics, please scroll down)

Some easy listening for this autumn season, when the moonlight really is misty:

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Open Thread


So, what's on your mind?

Here is your chance to vent, but please observe the guidelines listed below:

We welcome civil dialogue at Always on Watch. We will delete comments that include any of the following:
1. Any use of profanity or abusive language
2. Off topic comments and spam
3. Use of personal invective
4. We do not respond to anonymous comments

Two matters that have been on my mind:

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Yet Another Ebola Case In Dallas

Confirmed: another healthcare worker who took care of pathogen-carrying, pathogen-spreading criminal Thomas Eric Duncan has Ebola.

Now there are two cases from an individual index patient. An outbreak is not contained until there are fewer than two additional cases from any one individual index case.

As if the above isn't bad enough...No hospital 'protocols' for Ebola treatment: US nurses' group.

Meanwhile, some 4500 West Africans with visas enter the United States every month. How many new index cases are among them?

Important additional reading...Ebola Preparation ‘Will bankrupt my hospital!’ Director Reacts to CDC Prep Call.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Recommended Reading

See Midnight in Obama's Garden of Good and Evil by Roger L. Simon at PJ Media. Excerpt:
...[C]onsider this: Would the United States today be doing anything at all about the Islamic State — now for the first time waving its black flag above Kobane on the Turkish-Syrian border, on the brink of a massacre of its Kurdish population, while still besieging Baghdad — had ISIS not bothered to behead publicly a few Westerners?...

[...]

Good and evil are difficult concepts for everybody, especially we products of the modernist educational system. But we ignore them at our peril. Otherwise, we really are at Midnight.
Read it all HERE.

Monday, October 13, 2014

Columbus Day 2014

(If you must have contemporary politics, please scroll down)


Unlike the Seattle School Board, I won't replace the Columbus Day holiday with Indigenous Peoples Day. Besides, since 2008, Native American Heritage Day has already been designated as the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Short video about Christopher Columbus:


Why did Columbus set sail in the first place? Not mentioned in the above video:
...Every schoolchild knows, or used to know, that in 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue and discovered America while searching for a new, westward sea route to Asia. But why was he searching for a new route to Asia? Because the fall of Constantinople to the Muslims in 1453 closed the trade routes to the East. This was devastating for European tradesmen, who had until then traveled to Asia for spices and other goods by land. Columbus’s voyage was trying to ease the plight of these merchants by bypassing the Muslims altogether and making it possible for Europeans to reach India by sea.
Some poetry for today:
Columbus

BEHIND him lay the gray Azores,
Behind the Gates of Hercules;
Before him not the ghost of shores,
Before him only shoreless seas.
The good mate said: "Now we must pray,
For lo! the very stars are gone.
Brave Admiral, speak, what shall I say?"
"Why, say, 'Sail on! sail on! and on!' "

"My men grow mutinous day by day;
My men grow ghastly wan and weak."
The stout mate thought of home; a spray
Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek.
"What shall I say, brave Admiral, say,
If we sight naught but seas at dawn?"
"Why, you shall say at break of day,
'Sail on! sail on! and on!' "

They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow,
Until at last the blanched mate said:
"Why, now not even God would know
Should I and all my men fall dead.
These very winds forget their way,
For God from these dead seas is gone.
Now speak, brave Admiral, speak and say" --
He said, "Sail on! sail on! and on!"

They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate:
"This mad sea shows his teeth tonight.
He curls his lip, he lies in wait,
With lifted teeth, as if to bite!
Brave Admiral, say but one good word:
What shall we do when hope is gone?"
The words leapt like a leaping sword:
"Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!"

Then pale and worn, he kept his deck,
And peered through darkness. Ah, that night
Of all dark nights! And then a speck --
A light! a light! at last a light!
It grew, a starlit flag unfurled!
It grew to be Time's burst of dawn.
He gained a world; he gave that world
Its grandest lesson: "On! sail on!"

Joaquin Miller

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Another Ebola Case in Dallas, Texas (With Addendum)

(Two posts today. Please scroll down. The post below is a musical interlude, a much-needed break from politics)

One of the Texas Presbyterian Hospital nurses who took care of Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan, Patient Zero here in the United States, has tested positive on a preliminary test and is in isolation. Thomas Eric Duncan died of Ebola on October 8.

Addendum: The protocols can't be sufficient, if someone following them gets infected despite them.

Musical Interlude

(If you must have politics, please scroll down)

Arwen's Vigil by ThePianoGuys:


Thursday, October 9, 2014

Ebola Quotation Of The Day (With Addendum)

By Aesop, the owner of the blog Raconteur Report:

[T]he hospital in [Madrid] was using BL2 respiratory protection for a BL4 virus, and the nursing union in Madrid sent letters to the authorities months back telling them that if anyone was treated for Ebola in Spain, the hospitals wouldn't be adequately prepared, and that people were going to get infected as a result of inadequate equipment.

Short of hitting them upside the head with a tire iron, the medical workers did everything possible to tell the authorities how badly they were screwing the pooch.

The response from those authorities was to send the dog flowers afterwards, and point out the dog was asking for it.


Are we doing any better here in the United States?


[with a hat tip to FreeThinke for the above graphic]

ADDENDUM: Please read What's Coming Next, also by blogger Aesop.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Another Ebola Case In Texas? (Updated)

In Frisco, Texas, an affluent suburb of Dallas. I think.

There was a massive local response. Details below the fold.

Tales From The Classroom

("Tales from the Classroom" is a feature posted occasionally here at this blog.  All tales are true and present matters about which I have personal knowledge.  Note: If you must have politics or discuss Ebola, please scroll down to other posts)

The video below presents information about autistics who have found a way to communicate via RPM. I have one such student in my class this year and refer to him as "the letter board kid" in casual conversations with my friends. He's brilliant — but different, of course.

I have long stated that my personal hero is Annie Sullivan, so it doesn't surprise those who know me that I like to work with those who have learning differences. Indeed, over the years I have found that those who are different bring something new to the table and often have unique insights.

Please watch the following short video, which clearly shows that not all with autism are hopeless cases:


Ah, the mysterious human brain!

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Obama's Ebola Negligence

A team of scientists at Northeastern University in Boston have used air travel information to predict where the deadly Ebola virus could reach in the next three weeks 

From the Daily Mail:
...Professor Alessandro Vespignani of Northeastern University in Boston, who led the research [about Ebola-spread patterns], said: 'This is not a deterministic list, it's about probabilities – but those probabilities are growing for everyone.

'It's just a matter of who gets lucky and who gets unlucky.

'Air traffic is the driver.'...
By not banning incoming flights from the Ebola Hot Zone in Africa, Obama will become Murderer-In-Chief if there is an Ebola pandemic here in the United States.

Monday, October 6, 2014

Information, Please!

Where was that Spanish nurse who just tested positive for Ebola vacationing? Can anybody here ferret out that information? Thank you.

Deadly Dumbing Down


The result of abandoning the proper teaching of geography?

With a hat tip to Barnhardt:
“He said he was from Liberia, not Africa…”

From this thread over at Lucianne.com. Emphases mine.

Reply 29 – Posted by: gone2pot, 10/3/2014 5:50:33 PM (No. 10030644)
It´s us. We are the reason for the panic. We vote for it, educate our kids with it, watch it on TV, “like” and “follow” it, and listen to its music. Here´s anecdotal evidence; my wife´s hospital is caddy corner to Dallas Presby, home of the ebola incident. The docs at her hospital left Presby to start a new, less screwed up system. So, they know Presby and keep in contact with former colleagues. Well, according to the old Presby docs, the thirty-something Dallas Presby nurse´s answer to the CDC was, “He said he was from Liberia, not Africa.” So, next time you want to believe the tin foil hat conspiracy theory answer, remember instead that we ARE that stupid and our stupidity is why we create the cases for panic.
Is the above anecdote true? I don't know, but it could be.  And I don't mean only with regard to the aforementioned nurse!  It's not out of the question that a doctor wouldn't know that Liberia is in Africa.

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Open Thread


So, what's on your mind?

Here is your chance to vent, but please observe the guidelines listed below:

We welcome civil dialogue at Always on Watch. We will delete comments that include any of the following:
1. Any use of profanity or abusive language
2. Off topic comments and spam
3. Use of personal invective
4. We do not respond to anonymous comments

My contributions to this open thread: Leicester KFC customer shocked as he is refused hand-wipe because of branch's halal policy and U.S. tax dollars pay for U.S. mosque security upgrades.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Deadly Political Correctness? (UPDATED)

What didn't the profile of this Liberian national, visiting family and friends here in the United States (not a business trip or the like) result in immediate quarantine when he first appeared at a hospital in Dallas?

Ebola victim was originally SENT HOME from hospital with antibiotics before the deadly virus was diagnosed after he had mixed with other people for TWO DAYS

Also see A Hospital Sent the US's First Ebola Patient Home for Two Days After He Was Sick. Excerpt from the latter:
"We're trying to identify all the people who may have had contact with people while he could have been infectious," Frieden said. "Once identified, they'll be monitored for 21 days after for Ebola. If they have the fever, the same criteria are used."
How many are quarantined so far in Dallas and elsewhere in the United States?

Why are we allowing into the United States any flights from the Ebola Zone of Africa?

Additional reading:

1. Ebola Virus Symptoms and Prevention Tips

2. EBOLA in America (Mustang's site)


UPDATES

1. Patient in isolation in Hawaii (few details at the time of this posting)

2. ‘Hero’ Ebola Doctor Testimony Confirms Ebola Can Spread By Touch

3. VIDEO: NIH Director Admits Possible Ebola Could Mutate, Go Airborne [possible, but unlikely]

4. White House: No Ebola travel restrictions

5. Extensive report by ABC News, October 2, 2014

6. Ebola Expert Tells CNN We Can’t Ban Flights From Liberia Because Of Slavery
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