The End of the World? Or Just Oklahoma?

It didn't take long for Pat Robertson to say that the Oklahoma earthquakes over the weekend were a sign of the end times.

To Robertson and his ilk, every disaster, or even little mishap is a sign of the end times.  Every time there is bad weather somewhere, it means the world is ending.   So we'd better get in shape, Robertson says, or God or Jesus or somebody will punish us. Kind of like Santa Claus not bringing us presents if we don't make our beds and stop pulling our sisters' hair.

Pat Robertson explains how a random Oklahoma
earthquake means the world is ending.

I guess if we're not good, we will kill somebody in some distant disaster. And remember, you have to be good in the way Robertson, et al think you ought to be good.  Better research Robertson's morality and follow suit, or else!

Could anything be more pathetic? Keep warning about the "end times" in a futile attempt to keep us in line. Robertson continually does this  end times schtick so tirelessly, and tiresomely. Does he actually think he has that power of persuasion? Or that God talks to him about how He likes to unleash random disasters on unsuspecting humans because it's fun or something?

Yes, there are gullible people that follow Robertson and those end time types, but really.

By Robertson's logic, if somebody in Vermont likes the fact that gay marriage is legal here, the end result will be, I don't know, a typhoon in North Dakota or something. If somebody is "bad" in, say, New York, why do the nice people in Tulsa have to bear the cost of some jerk sinning in Schenectedy?

And don't even get me started on Harold Camping and his repeated warnings of the impending end of the world.

Maybe it's just Oklahoma that's ending. Yesterday, the day after the worst of Oklahoma's earthquakes, some nasty tornadoes spun through the state, and flooding hit other sections of the state.

 And so far this year, Oklahoma had its sharpest cold snap on record, one of its worst blizzards, one of its worst droughts, the hottest summer ever and a nasty spring tornado season that was hard to bear even by Sooner State standards. God hates Oklahoma. Well, actually no. The state has just had really, really bad luck in the weather department. At least the Weather Channel has been winning big time with storm footage from Oklahoma, so there's that.

Where I live in Vermont,. things are tranquil. It's been sunny lately,  mild for early November, and there have been no earthquakes or tornadoes.  So are we Vermonters better than the folks in Oklahoma? Or will a plague of locusts descend on Oklahoma City tomorrow because I sit here in St. Albans, Vermont thinking about what a moron Robertson is?

A Burlington Monday for the Birds

The photo in this post is one I shot early Monday afternoon. A bird waits patiently on her friend's shoulder as the woman feeds a parking meter in downtown Burlington, Vermont.

Cool Bird Video

In Britain, there are some amazing starling flocks, and people are trying to understand exactly how these abruptling shifting flocks work.

A starling flock. Image from Telegraph UK

I thought of this phenomenon because I stumbled upon a bit about these starlings in Andrew Sullivan's Daily dish blog.

We don't have anything that I know of like it in Vermont, so I'll just have to satisfy myself watching the number of wild starling videos on YouTube. Here's one of the better ones:

Oops. Truck Driver's Bad Day

Right in front of my office building in downtown Burlington, Vermont yesterday, a truck driver finished a delivery at a nearby restaurant. He either didn't put the lift on the side of the truck back under the vehicle, or it slid back out once he started moving.

The truck driver didn't notice the problem until it was waaaayyyyy too late. The lift crashed into an SUV, which was pushed into two other cars. The SUV is pretty much ruined, the other cars have minor damage.

You can see some of the damage in the photo I took in this post.

But the scary thing was a woman an little girl were at the back of one of the cars that got hit, and almost got smushed between the bumpers of two cars. The woman had a leg injury but looks like she'll be OK. The girl, maybe four or five years old, wasn't hurt.

I'm sure the truck driver had some 'splainin' to do to his boss. Hope he doesn't get fired. Though this is awful, we are all prone to bonehead moves.

Here's hoping none of us do anything particularly stupid today.

"Wardrobe Malfunction" Shocker

Wednesday, there was a court ruling on the famous "wardrobe malfunction."

This dates back to 2004, when Janet Jackson accidently exposed part of a breast on national television during the Super Bowl half time show as she sang with Justin Timberlake. The question since then has been whether this indecency, such as it was, deserves hefty fines.

The tragic wardrobe malfunction of 2004.

This has been litigated since 2004?  You wonder why nobody has been able to just move on. Gawd.  The people involved sound like those stereotypical naggy wives who still complain about her husband's boorish behavior at that New Year's Eve party back in 1979.

How much money has been spent on these court cases? How many zillions of hours have droned away in law offices and hearing rooms, over a millisecond flesh exposure. I'm sure some of the law firms are happy with all this. Think of the billable hours!

Do people other than the attorneys and the networks and the government workers creating growing piles of paperwork and bytes really care about this?

I've noticed that ever since this incident, I haven't seen a lot of sexiness during Super Bowl half times, at least until this year, when they took a chance of sorts with the Black Eyed Peas, Usher and Slash.  But in the years after the Wardrobe Crisis of '04," they've booked the likes of Paul McCartney, Rolling Stones, Prince, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen and The Who.

There's a lot of talent in that list, but nobody most people really want to see much exposed skin.  Then again, there's probably a number of people who don't want to see Janet Jackson give us another flash. 

The world probably has three people left who are still distraught over Jackson's very, very minor minute of exposure? Know how to make these three peoples' heads explode?   Make the 2012 Super Bowl teams play the entire game naked.

That'll show 'em.

Rich Hoarders?

Here's an interesting perspective that's been making the rounds on Facebook and other places.

It certainly is worth considering in these days of Occupy Wall Street and other concerns about the economy and monetary inequality

What do you think of the statement about hoarding? Accurate? Unfair? Silly? Awesome? A rallying cry? Class warfare? Something else?

Discuss!

Kardashian Trouble Spreads

Oh, hell, I'll put up something about the Great Kardashian Divorce Tragedy of '11 since everybody else is doing the same.

For the three people in the world who are uninitiated: Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries got married a couple months ago, and got paid a zillion dollars to do so by having a reality show or something built around it.

The Kardashian family tends to do that. They don't have anything going for them, at least in my opinion, except for an extreme talent for putting themselves in the public eye and milking it for all its worth.

So Kardashian and Humphries got married and got their zillions. Very nice.

A whole 72 days later, Kardashian filed for divorce.

The news of the divorce set the media awhirl and a-Twitter, with breathless updates on why this couple are leading such tragic lives. After all, a divorce between rich young people is much, much worse, than say, war criminals killing children in Africa, or starvation, or senseless murders, or even another Lindsey Lohan pratfall.

The news is coming so fast and furiously (It's important, after all!!) that some news outlets are not updating their Web sites properly. An example is in this post: The image shows a Web page announcing this terrible divorce with an advertisement begging people to watch the thrilling Kardashian/Humphries nuptials a couple months back. Oops.

Well, nothing good ever lasts.  Some marriages last 60 years, some last 72 days. Whatever.

Buzzfeed had a great list of things that lasted longer than this marriage.

My favorite on the list: the Kardashian/Humphries engagement lasted 85 days, or thirteen days longer than the actual marriage.

I wonder if people who gave them expensive wedding gifts will get their stuff back. Maybe Kardashian will mistakenly send me a gold plated blender she might have gotten from somebody else.

One can only hope.