News and Current Events - 2013 to 2014

[Tony_]

  Lyle, I had supposed cars exploding in fireballs were not absolutely unique.  I can't believe, though, that this is a routine occurrence in L.A., as otherwise the residents, there, have acclimated themselves to the odd ka-boom, semi-routine, and very annoying during tv or skateboarding, or whatever.
 So, given the millions of autos there, it must be a matter of %'s.  And so, maybe the likelihood somewhere at .0000000001?
But then, what % for reporters that break unusual stories?
And what % for reporters saying something was up and they gave warning of the same, 24 hours before?
.0000000000000000000000000000000000000.......1?
This strains credulity.
But.  The Flat Earth Society could still be right  .  Statistical possibilities, however remote?

[Jeff Wrangler]

  I hope it is sooner, rather than later.  Otherwise, we'll all end up Episcopalians  .

And what's wrong with being an Episcopalian? 

    

[oilgun]

I occasionally wonder why people feel they have to have definitive answers and so choose one.
The truth is, neither of you really know what happened.

Even the person who wrote the article says:

"I have no idea what happened to Michael Hastings, and it's certainly both possible and reasonable that
his accident was solely due to his own error or a mechanical fault. In fact, that's probably the most likely
explanation."

The article keeps talking about the improbability of cars catching on fire so quickly and/or exploding and yet
they do all the time. Here's one:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLoF99LYdts

A guy saw a car on fire outside his apartment and took cellphone video of it.  The car exploded.
Then, of course, you see commenters on the video writing that it's fake. The firemen were in on it.
Etc. (That wasn't you two, was it?) Google Los Angeles car fires and pages of photos pop up.

cars don't explode .

[Tony_]

  Oops.  Nothing, Jeff.  Episcopalians are just fine.
But for me, in Virginia, it would mean different clothes, and scrumbling up more money somewhere.  Also, back to golfing and yachts.  It's a Southern Virginia thingie  ....

[Jeff Wrangler]

 Oops.  Nothing, Jeff.  Episcopalians are just fine.
But for me, in Virginia, it would mean different clothes, and scrumbling up more money somewhere.  Also, back to golfing and yachts.  It's a Southern Virginia thingie  ....

Oh, I'm sure! That reputation isn't limited to Southern Virginia. It's why I try very hard to ignore that the church I go to on Sundays is Episcopal.    I was just pulling your chain. I apologize for that. 

[Marge_Innavera]

The supposed reason for not ordaining women is that the faithful cannot see Jesus if they look to the altar and see a non-male there

“The faithful” pretty much see whatever they're told to see.  

[Lyle (Mooska)]

cars don't explode .

A woman who was awakened by this and came outside told a reporter it
sounded like an explosion which turns into it WAS an explosion.  Even if it
was an explosion doesn't mean it was foul play. There's a median there after
Melrose that he careened into scraping the undercarriage over the cement, a
fire hydrant, watering pipes and perhaps traffic signs, not to mention hitting a
tree. If any of that caused gas to leak and sparks to ignite, why is an explosion
impossible to believe? Truth is, I don't know and you don't know. At least I don't
know enough for a definitive answer which leads me not to make one.

In the cars don't explode department:

LA Car Chase: Car Explodes Into Flames In Boyle Heights On 10 Freeway (VIDEO)
by John Stephens   Posted: 02/07/2013

A DUI suspect who fled Los Angeles police late Wednesday night crashed on the 10 freeway east of Crenshaw Blvd. after losing control of his vehicle. As shown on a live broadcast of the chase on KTLA 5, the car spun out, hit a sidewall and exploded into flames.

The station reported that the car -- identified as a red Ford Mustang -- was occupied by a single driver and had been pursued through downtown Los Angeles before the accident. KTLA reporters, who followed the chase until its fiery end, were heard saying it was "unbelievable how fast he was going" and that "I can't ever recall seeing anything like this."

Link HERE

[Tony_]

......The article keeps talking about the improbability of cars catching on fire so quickly and/or exploding and yet
they do all the time. Here's one:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLoF99LYdts

..... Google Los Angeles car fires and pages of photos pop up.

 Lyle, as I said before, this does seem to possibly be an L.A. thing, and I rather think it is way too strange.  There don't seem to be fireballs "all the time" (see above quote) anywhere else.
 I mean, doesn't this interfere with normal, everyday life?
  Is it maybe related to the La Breya tar pits?  All I know is, Mr. Hastings was driving, possibly, in the wrong town.  It's like Portland has the Grimm monsters, and L.A. gets all the routine explosions of reporters and others cars  .

[Tony_]

In Plain Sight
   
  Well, it kind of just hit me. The supposed revelations of Edward Snowden were that the NSA, through various programs, was storing all internet and phone communications of everyone.  Considered ok, supposedly, because accessing that info required a warrant.
  Bull crap.  What Snowden said (and I didn't get it) was that any of the millions of IT computer smurfs could get into anything stored by those super-computers.  With or without using the Navy-developed Tor portal.  He did.  And said anybody could.  Forget warrants and secret courts.  The NSA data leaks like a sieve to anyone who wants it. THAT'S the social and political armeggadon.
 Businesses spying on businesses? Tap into the NSA.  Taking out a political opponent? Call in an IT specialist.  The NSA is, apparently, a whore to anyone.
  Consider, also, police and federal agencies, that don't wanna get a warrant ? Plug into the NSA.  Consider also, the physical safety of our leaders.  Want to target them?  Wheee..... track them through the always easy...NSA.
  If anything, Snowden was NOT just a hacker, he was, in plain view, showing that the extreme danger, past constitutional abuse, was that the system is flawed to such an extreme, that it is a clear and present danger to the United States, its political process, and the safety of our leaders. And filing a warning to his superiors?  Seriously? Snowden would have been guilty of criminal non-feasance, if he DIDN'T jump past the dum-dums and report them.
 And anyone who doubts our tech-crazy intel people are collapsed and dangerous morons, should review the Boston Bombing, where normal tracking of terrorist web sites AND warnings from a foreign government, were met with a huge Duhhh.
 It's in plain view.  Snowden exposed a physical safety threat to our people, not just a constitutional issue. They need to shut the damn programs down, NOW, before hostile IT specialists use the NSA whore.....to attack our safety, or domestic political extremists destroy our electoral process by tapping in and then leaking everything to Fox news or MSNBC.
 And basically, we just ignored this threat, because Snowden is so soft-spoken, he just said this plainly, and it went over our heads.  We were too interested in his poor choice of shirts, and his sexy girlfriend  .

[oilgun]

A woman who was awakened by this and came outside told a reporter it
sounded like an explosion which turns into it WAS an explosion.  Even if it
was an explosion doesn't mean it was foul play. There's a median there after
Melrose that he careened into scraping the undercarriage over the cement, a
fire hydrant, watering pipes and perhaps traffic signs, not to mention hitting a
tree. If any of that caused gas to leak and sparks to ignite, why is an explosion
impossible to believe? Truth is, I don't know and you don't know. At least I don't
know enough for a definitive answer which leads me not to make one.

In the cars don't explode department:

LA Car Chase: Car Explodes Into Flames In Boyle Heights On 10 Freeway (VIDEO)
by John Stephens   Posted: 02/07/2013

A DUI suspect who fled Los Angeles police late Wednesday night crashed on the 10 freeway east of Crenshaw Blvd. after losing control of his vehicle. As shown on a live broadcast of the chase on KTLA 5, the car spun out, hit a sidewall and exploded into flames.

The station reported that the car -- identified as a red Ford Mustang -- was occupied by a single driver and had been pursued through downtown Los Angeles before the accident. KTLA reporters, who followed the chase until its fiery end, were heard saying it was "unbelievable how fast he was going" and that "I can't ever recall seeing anything like this."

Link HERE

Sigh, I meant cars exploding are relatively rare.  Of course this was a pretty serious crash so it could have exploded even though it was a high end Merc.  Hastings, as far as I know did not have a history of unsafe driving so that, along with the statistically rare car explosions, some witness accounts saying they saw an explosion before the crash and the car expert claiming that hacking a car's system is pretty easy, are compelling evidence that this was not an accident. Not to mention that he was working on a hot story and was being investigated by the FBI.  All these factors taken together  should at least warranr further investigation in the tragedy.

[Paul029]

National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden has been granted asylum in Russia.

He left the Moscow airport where he had been stranded for more than a month, according to his Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, who said that Snowden was issued papers that allowed him to leave Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, where he had been stuck since his arrival from Hong Kong on 23 June.

“I have just seen him off. He has left for a secure location,” Kucherena told state broadcaster Russia 24.

“Security is a very serious matter for him. I cannot tell you where he is going. I put him in a taxi 15 to 20 minutes ago and gave him his certificate on getting refugee status in the Russian Federation. He can live wherever he wants in Russia. It's his personal choice.”

He said Snowden was not going to stay at any embassy in Moscow, although three Latin American countries have offered to shelter him.

Reports in Russia said Snowden had been granted temporary asylum for one year.

According to the Associated Press, Kucherena said Snowden had accepted a condition laid down by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to stop leaking US secrets in return for asylum.

Read more:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/01/edward-snowden-asylum-russia-nsa
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/01/edward-snowden-leaves-moscow-airport-live

It’s good to see that things are moving at last 

[Marge_Innavera]

Today, August 1st, two states held their first legally-recognized same-sex weddings.

In Rhode Island:

" Officials around Rhode Island began issuing licenses when clerks' offices opened at 8:30 a.m., making marriage an option for gay couples everywhere in New England.  A couple that have been together for 41 years, Federico Santi and John Gacher, arrived first thing at the Newport City Clerk's office. They previously were joined in a civil union and immediately married after getting their license.

"Newport City Clerk Kathleen Silvia calls Thursday, in her words, "a day of smooching" in Rhode Island."

full story at http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/sex-marriages-begin-rhode-island-19836120


In Minnesota, accounts differed as to whose wedding was first.  A Facebook post showed a wedding on the (nicely decorated marble) steps in Minneapolis' City Hall's rotunda; the Pioneer Press covered the wedding of Bradley Weber and Ryan Pfeifle at their home in Eden Prairie:

"At 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, Bradley Weber and Ryan Pfeifle's backyard in Eden Prairie was crowded with people and aflame with candlelight, lanterns and camera flashes: They were there to witness history, they were there to get married.
'
" 'It is worthwhile to contemplate that there are moments in history when together we take a step forward into freedom and into life," said officiant Annamarie Ronning. 'And this is one such moment."

http://www.twincities.com/life/ci_23770751/eden-prairie-grooms-will-be-among-states-first

http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/217858401.html  (includes photo gallery)


One couple decided to tie the knot at the Mall of America's wedding chapel: they had met there at one of the giant mall's food courts.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Hastings, as far as I know did not have a history of unsafe driving

He did have a history of drunk driving, which is unsafe.

some witness accounts saying they saw an explosion before the crash

Which could have occurred because the undercarriage of the car ripped over the median, traffic signs, fire hydrant and such...

and the car expert claiming that hacking a car's system is pretty easy,

So -- anyone could have done it? Just curious, everyone says "it's easy to do" - so why haven't I even seen
this in a movie - they're usually first with things that seem a bit improbable to do...

Not to mention that he was working on a hot story and was being investigated by the FBI.
All these factors taken together should at least warrant further investigation in the tragedy.

Someone he worked with said he was "always" working on a hot story.  I don't disagree it should be
investigated further, is anyone doing it?  Has anyone ever said what he was doing out driving around
at 4:30 in the morning? That's what I want to know.  Why don't we even know those things? L.A. is not
a particularly "late night" town, or even an "all night" town.  Bars close at 2am here, they aren't 4am or
all night rules.  Where was he, was he with anyone, what was he doing, coming from...no one knows or
has reported these things?  Any other time of day, as I said, I wouldn't be as interested, but 4:30 am in
L.A. is pretty much the zero hour for "anything" going on.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Today, August 1st, two states held their first legally-recognized same-sex weddings.

Now it's 13 states and D.C.!

[fritzkep]

More! More!