Amateur Hour

Just watched Israeli PM Netanyahu’s speech at the UN. I loved it. And I can’t help but feel a bit jealous. Why can’t we have a president who can speak like that?

Oh, Obama can read a teleprompter like no one’s business. He’s got more camera-pretty personality than any 5 Prime Ministers from anywhere. And the man positively oozes charm and charisma. But after watching Netanyahu’s speech, I can’t help but feel that Obama is more charm than substance. He’s all razzle dazzle and no foundation. He has showmanship but no sincerity. The man simply has no gravitas.

It’s like watching American Idol when they have a guest/real performer sing. You think your favorite contestant is amazing, better than any current famous performer, and why doesn’t this person have a contract already? Then the guest/real performer sings and you realize that there is a difference. Your favorite contestant isn’t nearly the same calibre as the professionals. Obama’s like that; He’s Justin Guarini.

Netanyahu is Nat King Cole (ignore the corny video and just listen… sweet).

It’s Rainin’ All the Time

We had buckets of rain yesterday. And by “buckets of rain” I mean “a downpour of Biblical proportions”. I’ve got a river of red Georgia clay in my backyard and some wet drywall in my bedroom from a leaking window we “fixed” a few months ago. Our damage is nothing serious, certainly nothing like some of our neighbors and relatives experienced. I’ve never been so happy that we don’t have a basement. It seems like everyone we know who has one is going to spend today scooping water out of it.

So Georgia’s cleaning up from the mess of mudslides, sinkholes, and floodwaters. (Oh my.) And we’re not out of the woods yet. We’ve got more rain on the way, though the weather prognosticators are predicting that it won’t be anything like what we’ve already experienced. Here’s hoping. The little bit of rain we’re expecting won’t create the drastic problems we experienced yesterday, but it is going to make the cleanup all the more difficult. I’ve got a fan on my damp drywall, but it’s not going to dry until it dries up outside.

We’ll probably see more sinkholes, particularly inside I-285. If you’re in the flood area, keep a look out for anything different around storm water structures (inlets, manholes, etc), particularly if they were submerged at some point.

Our storm water systems were stressed yesterday and I imagine that the pipes were under pressure. They’re simply not designed for that. Putting those pipes under pressure creates a prime condition to create sinkholes around structural connections. Inside I-285, most sinkholes are created by failed storm water system structural connections. Most of those failures are from age, so when pressure is added to an aged system that wasn’t designed for pressure, it’s only to be expected that we’ll see more sinkholes than usual in the next year.

So keep a look out around storm water system structures. Sinkholes generally aren’t created overnight. They can take months, even years to fully develop.

[The post title is from Lena Horne’s incomparable Stormy Weather.]

Just Wrong

Reprehensible: If you haven’t seen the World Wildlife Fund’s ad featuring September 11, you should.

It’s not often that I’m speechless, but I have no words for it.

LATER: For crying out loud. On the video:

Deceiver just updated with this:

Well, now the video has been taken off Youtube. “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by DDB Brasil.” So it wasn’t done or authorized by the agency or the client, they don’t know who created it, and yet they’re claiming copyright. Hey, why not?

Ace has more: DDB Brasil entered the thing for competition at Cannes.

Nope. Totally not theirs. Just because they’ve entered it into a competition doesn’t mean they had anything to do with it. Not their fault that someone stuck their name on it. Right.

Less Than 2 Hours

I pay my credit card bill online. The good part about it is that I can wait until the last minute to pay my bill if necessary. The bad part is that if I forget the due date, I get smacked with a $39 late fee.

Here it is 1:40AM and I just paid the thing, thinking that it was due today, September 3. Oh noes. Due September 2. I was late less than 2 hours, and the late fee was already charged to my account. Dammit.

I’ll call later today after their offices open and see if I can get them to drop it. I doubt it, because I’ve tried numerous times to get them to lower my interest rate (to no avail).

The good thing about this is that they can’t increase my interest rate  because of the late payment. It’s already up there at the maximum, somewhere just under 30%.

Dammit. $39. I can’t even afford $2 for tacos.

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I Believe

I keep linking to Bill Whittle over at PJTV. Well, he keeps making sense.

Latest topic: American Exceptionalism. Our dear leader, President O, doesn’t believe that America is exceptional. Bill Whittle explains why the president  is wrong.

I have experience with the US civil engineering educational process (bachelor of science). I can tell you that in college there were students in my classes from all over the world. It’s simply because they can’t receive the same level of education, and at such an affordable price, anywhere else in the world. 

Whether the liberal elite like to believe it or not, science education is good here and it’s relatively cheap, which is why the US is such a powerhouse in the sciences worldwide. Producing scientific advantages is efficient and easy when the scientific education is good, affordable, and nearby.

LATER: Having such a large source pool of scientists and engineers also ensures that the entire population has a higher standard of living.

LATER, MAY OR MAY NOT BE RELEVANT: When I was in college most of the international students were from India, Asia, or South America. I don’t remember many European students. Also, most of the international students intended to return home once they completed college.

MUCH LATER: Ack! I forgot to include my source. I found the link originally at Ace of Spades HQ. Oy. Usually I’m better at giving credit… I think the brain is still mushy from yesterday.