Sunday, April 6, 2014

Our Wacky World—4/6/2014

There was a big mudslide and a number of people were killed. Let's take the story up close and personal...
"Right after the huge slide event of Jan. 25, 2006, Daniel Miller revisited the area. He saw that instead of people moving out, five more new homes...were being built. Even as they could still hear the huge tree trunks in the recent slide snapping in two, more nails were being pounded in. Ironically, a new 2006 law in the State of Washington had gone into effect prohibiting the building of more homes in danger areas such as this."
So far so good. People rebuilding in the path of the next disaster, tempting fate a second time, nothing new about that…

"...one of the main activists protesting the 2006 zoning law to prevent runaway building in hazardous areas was Thomas Satterlee. He was one of the leaders of the activist anti-government “Patriot” movement, organizing armed militias in the area to fight back against the “big bad Government.” In the 1990s, he tried to declare the area as “Freedom County” and hoped to run it without any oversight from state or federal law"
"...he and his family are among the missing and presumed dead."
Oh good, one of those guys. Guess the government can't touch him now. (Skepticblog)

But I know you're dying to hear it—the even more pathetic backstory to the backstory...

"By the time it petered out in the late 2000s, Satterlee and his fellow secessionists had announced their independence from Snohomish County (based on a petition that drew more than 12,000 signatures), appointed a sheriff (a former FBI agent who legally changed his name to “Fnu Lnu”) and demanded that Snohomish officials halt governance of the roughly 1,000-square-mile area that they claimed as their own."
"Lnu made assurances that he did not intend to carry a firearm in carrying out his new duties, but Snohomish County officials grew more concerned that the group could pose a threat of violence, particularly after two Freedom County supporters showed up at a county councilman’s home in the dead of night to demand $750 million."
Comedy gold.. (NBC)

Update: Check out Satterlee's twitter account.

"When even [senator Dianne Feinstein], who's never met a national security program she didn't like, says it's bad, it's bad. ...Feinstein is the dysfunctional mother who insists her national security boys would never do anything wrong. But the Senate is always quick to protect themselves from abuses they tolerate for ordinary citizens"
Crooks & Liars


Fake bomb detectors arise from the grave in Romania:
"Maybe I'm wrong but a scientific guy at the same level of competence like me should disprove me, not the BBC."
BBC

"After investigators had initially 'laughed at' the claims linking the [titanium] golf clubs to the fires, research led to hard evidence that there was indeed a connection."
Bleacher Report


God is on Russia's side:
'What gave Buchanan a thrill up his leg this time was Putin's defense of the annexation of Crimea, wherein the autocrat declared Russia to be a Christian nation. 
'"Heard any Western leader, say, Barack Obama, talk like that lately?" Buchanan wrote.'
TPM

Putin also insulted George Bush's dog. What a man.


It'll always be happy hour in Georgia:
"The bill allows people with a weapons permit to carry loaded guns into bars, as long as they do not consume alcohol — although the bill does not say how that caveat would be enforced."
Crooks & Liars


Another "celebrity" talking about moving somewhere else:
'[Steven] Seagal, a Republican who is thought to be a relatively close acquaintance of Putin partly due to their shared love of martial arts, said that Putin is "one of the great living world leaders" and that he "would like to consider him as a brother."'

'Seagal also said that although he loves the United States, it is possible — "sometime" — that he will follow the lead of French movie star Gerard Depardieu and take Russian citizenship.'
He can hang out there with Eric Snowden.

Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. (The Moscow Times)


Jesus cannot abide a tomboy:
"You're probably aware that Timberlake Christian School is a religious, Bible believing institution providing education in a distinctly Christian environment.. We believe that unless Sunnie as well as her family clearly understand that God has made her female and her dress and behavior need to follow suit with her God-ordained identity, that TCS is not the best place for her future education"
Crooks & Liars

'The 24-year-old "continued to perform this experience as she grew up assuming, as mentioned, that 'everyone could do it.'" This is how she described her out-of-body experiences: "She was able to see herself rotating in the air above her body, lying flat, and rolling along with the horizontal plane. She reported sometimes watching herself move from above but remained aware of her unmoving “real” body."'
Popular Science