Shell, headquartered in the Netherlands, naturally plans to use a Dutch outfit, Smit Salvage, to try to retrieve that behemoth drilling platform stranded at Kodiak Island.
The only question now is whether the rig will come off the beach whole, or in pieces.
Here is Shell's statement on the grounding.
Get your bids in, boys!
Looks like Southeast Alaska salmon seiners are pursuing another buyback to further reduce their ranks.
Here's a letter that went out to permit holders recently.
You'll recall that last year, the fleet bought and retired 64 permits using a $13.1 million federal loan.
The fishery currently has 315 permits.
Here's a letter that went out to permit holders recently.
You'll recall that last year, the fleet bought and retired 64 permits using a $13.1 million federal loan.
The fishery currently has 315 permits.
Hey Christian...Give Me Your Brain.
Did you read the latest Joel Osteen book? How about the latest Rick Warren book? John Ortberg? John MacArthur? Francis Chan? How about Timothy Keller? Come on! You haven't read Timothy Keller's book....Counterfeit Gods???? I can't believe it.
Yes, there are so many books out there for you to read and get your spirit uplifted, your soul repaired and your heart healed. Then, there are others that can fix your marriage, fix your kids, help you lose weight the GOD way, find that perfect mate to walk God's path with, help you at work, help you at golf, help you get rich, show you how to keep from getting poor, how to talk to your spouse, how not to talk to your spouse and the list goes on and on and on and on. The one I like the best is 'How to Fish With God On Your Hook'. Woo-wee, that's a good'n.
I heard a preacher one time tell a story about giving a non-Christian a small copy of the Gospel of John. When he told another preacher about it, he was chastised by his friend. "What? No study guides to go with it? No pamphlets? No literature at all?" The first one replied, "The Bible is like a lion, you can let it out by itself...it'll be okay."
Boy, how that mindset has flown out the window. Read the Bible? How gauche!!! Now, some will immediately retort, (read the following with a whiny voice) "I read the Bible!! Don't you tell me I don't read the Bible!!" Yeah, and then you supplement it with one or more of the authors above so you can get your spiritual boogie on for a few minutes.
Funny how the Bible goes into great depth to tell us how to have a good marriage. It tells how to fix our kids. It has its own weight plan and shows us how to find the mate God has in store for us. In fact, in the Bible is everything you would ever want to know about how to live a victorious life, a life of contentment, a life of joy. The problem is most of us don't want what it offers because it requires total submission to the one true God. But, again, I digress.
I've heard the lame excuses. (Again, read in whiny voice...Christians are so whiny) "But I don't understand the Bible. It's too hard to understand." That's nothing more than a cop out. You want to understand the Bible? First, get one and actually open it. Second, make sure you have a Nave's Topical Bible with you. Third, have a Strong's Exhaustive Concordance in your lap. Fourth, have close by a Thayer's Hebrew/Greek Lexicon. That's all you need. ALL...YOU...NEED. The fifth thing you have to do is not go into the Bible with preconceived notions or personal agendas, but with an open and prayerful mind.
The reason the Osteens and the Warrens and the Stanleys of this world are so rich is because suckers throw their money at these people to learn what they themselves can get in their own living room. Not only that, but you can learn more that way than from them. Instead of watching these goofballs and looking for a 'word' from them, find a church that suits you and support that pastor and that ministry and get involved on a more personal level. OHHH, but that means EXPOSURE. Yes it does. But you don't have to worry too much since you won't be fully exposed like the pastor or his staff.
You want your heart touched? Read the Bible. You want a word from God? Read your Bible. You want to know how to fix your marriage? Read the Bible. But, there's one more thing you have to do. Once you've read it, start doing your dead level best to live it. Don't trust anybody you don't really know about spiritual things. Trust your pastor that you know personally. Trust the Bible. And Trust God.
And, if you need one of these TV guys or one of these mega-church multi-millionaires to feel as if you got a word that seemed like it was almost sent directly from heaven??? Then you're further away from what it means to have a personal relationship with the Father than you ever realized.
One of the reasons the church of today is in the miserable shape it finds itself is because precious few people that line the pews spend enough time in the word and on their knees. No, they would rather clog their brain pipes up with these heralded trumpeters of truth...when the only truth, the real truth, and nothing but the truth is found in the book you have on your coffee table that's called, The Bible. But, what do I know? I'm sure there's many out there who will disagree and that's fine. Get your own blog and talk about it there.
Yes, there are so many books out there for you to read and get your spirit uplifted, your soul repaired and your heart healed. Then, there are others that can fix your marriage, fix your kids, help you lose weight the GOD way, find that perfect mate to walk God's path with, help you at work, help you at golf, help you get rich, show you how to keep from getting poor, how to talk to your spouse, how not to talk to your spouse and the list goes on and on and on and on. The one I like the best is 'How to Fish With God On Your Hook'. Woo-wee, that's a good'n.
I heard a preacher one time tell a story about giving a non-Christian a small copy of the Gospel of John. When he told another preacher about it, he was chastised by his friend. "What? No study guides to go with it? No pamphlets? No literature at all?" The first one replied, "The Bible is like a lion, you can let it out by itself...it'll be okay."
Boy, how that mindset has flown out the window. Read the Bible? How gauche!!! Now, some will immediately retort, (read the following with a whiny voice) "I read the Bible!! Don't you tell me I don't read the Bible!!" Yeah, and then you supplement it with one or more of the authors above so you can get your spiritual boogie on for a few minutes.
Funny how the Bible goes into great depth to tell us how to have a good marriage. It tells how to fix our kids. It has its own weight plan and shows us how to find the mate God has in store for us. In fact, in the Bible is everything you would ever want to know about how to live a victorious life, a life of contentment, a life of joy. The problem is most of us don't want what it offers because it requires total submission to the one true God. But, again, I digress.
I've heard the lame excuses. (Again, read in whiny voice...Christians are so whiny) "But I don't understand the Bible. It's too hard to understand." That's nothing more than a cop out. You want to understand the Bible? First, get one and actually open it. Second, make sure you have a Nave's Topical Bible with you. Third, have a Strong's Exhaustive Concordance in your lap. Fourth, have close by a Thayer's Hebrew/Greek Lexicon. That's all you need. ALL...YOU...NEED. The fifth thing you have to do is not go into the Bible with preconceived notions or personal agendas, but with an open and prayerful mind.
The reason the Osteens and the Warrens and the Stanleys of this world are so rich is because suckers throw their money at these people to learn what they themselves can get in their own living room. Not only that, but you can learn more that way than from them. Instead of watching these goofballs and looking for a 'word' from them, find a church that suits you and support that pastor and that ministry and get involved on a more personal level. OHHH, but that means EXPOSURE. Yes it does. But you don't have to worry too much since you won't be fully exposed like the pastor or his staff.
You want your heart touched? Read the Bible. You want a word from God? Read your Bible. You want to know how to fix your marriage? Read the Bible. But, there's one more thing you have to do. Once you've read it, start doing your dead level best to live it. Don't trust anybody you don't really know about spiritual things. Trust your pastor that you know personally. Trust the Bible. And Trust God.
And, if you need one of these TV guys or one of these mega-church multi-millionaires to feel as if you got a word that seemed like it was almost sent directly from heaven??? Then you're further away from what it means to have a personal relationship with the Father than you ever realized.
One of the reasons the church of today is in the miserable shape it finds itself is because precious few people that line the pews spend enough time in the word and on their knees. No, they would rather clog their brain pipes up with these heralded trumpeters of truth...when the only truth, the real truth, and nothing but the truth is found in the book you have on your coffee table that's called, The Bible. But, what do I know? I'm sure there's many out there who will disagree and that's fine. Get your own blog and talk about it there.
Hard aground
Any hope for the Kulluk? USCG photoAnd here's a map of the platform's location.
The latest word from the unified command is the vessel remains stable, with no sign of a hull breach.
This is news? Well....sort of.
So, 86 year old Hugh Hefner married a 26 year old. Ewwwww. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not against older guys going after younger women. But...really? A 60 year age difference? That's not robbing the cradle, that's....that's...robbing the mother's egg when the mother was like...20? I say again, ewwwwww. Hef's oldest daughter is 60. How would you like to be 60 and your stepmom be 26? I can't help myself....ewwwwwww.
We all know what the deal is. For her, it's about money and 'prestige'...I guess. For him...well, we know what it's about for him.
I think a line from a movie...which I've used before, is appropriate here. Olympia Dukakis as Rose, in Moonstruck, tells her cheating husband, Cosmo, "I just want you to know that no matter what you do, you're still gonna die. Just like everybody else."
Young, beautiful women are not the fountain of youth. If they were, Hef would still look like he was thirty. Their skin is still smooth, it's not wrinkled, and they look good. Other than that, I can't come up with anything else.
These two have absolutely nothing in common. Nothing. Except their desire to use people for their own purposes. Hugh Hefner has really been nothing more than a blight on the stage of America's worst. He's the poster child for rampant wantonness and unbridled lust. There are no barriers for him within those two categories. The only difference between him and John Holmes is that he didn't put his sexual exploits on film for all the public to see.
Some men see him as some kind of 'hero'. There's the Playboy Mansion, the riches, the constant and steady stream of beautiful, if not gorgeous (in a fleshly way) women. He's the poster boy for many males across the planet.
But, he's 86. What is he going to say to this woman? "Hey honey, can you come in here and change my colostomy bag?" Or, "Hey baby, my Depends need changing." How about, "No, darling...I don't need another Viagra. What are you trying to do...kill me?" Uh, probably.
The only worse thing that could come from this partnership would be if she got pregnant. Ewwwwww. That could only mean one thing. They actually DID it!!! Ewwwwww.
I'm sure, right now, she's thanking whatever deity she believes in for the 'Doggy Style' method. She'll probably be burying her face in a pillow and fantasizing about Brad Pitt while OLD Hef...no pun intended, is grunting and grinding behind her. AAAGGGGHHHH!!!!! Ewwwwww.
There's one other thing I'm sure of. If there is an afterlife...which I believe there is...Anna Nicole Smith is trying to send a message to this poor girl from beyond the grave. It would probably read, "It's not worth it, baby girl. It's just not worth it."
We all know what the deal is. For her, it's about money and 'prestige'...I guess. For him...well, we know what it's about for him.
I think a line from a movie...which I've used before, is appropriate here. Olympia Dukakis as Rose, in Moonstruck, tells her cheating husband, Cosmo, "I just want you to know that no matter what you do, you're still gonna die. Just like everybody else."
Young, beautiful women are not the fountain of youth. If they were, Hef would still look like he was thirty. Their skin is still smooth, it's not wrinkled, and they look good. Other than that, I can't come up with anything else.
These two have absolutely nothing in common. Nothing. Except their desire to use people for their own purposes. Hugh Hefner has really been nothing more than a blight on the stage of America's worst. He's the poster child for rampant wantonness and unbridled lust. There are no barriers for him within those two categories. The only difference between him and John Holmes is that he didn't put his sexual exploits on film for all the public to see.
Some men see him as some kind of 'hero'. There's the Playboy Mansion, the riches, the constant and steady stream of beautiful, if not gorgeous (in a fleshly way) women. He's the poster boy for many males across the planet.
But, he's 86. What is he going to say to this woman? "Hey honey, can you come in here and change my colostomy bag?" Or, "Hey baby, my Depends need changing." How about, "No, darling...I don't need another Viagra. What are you trying to do...kill me?" Uh, probably.
The only worse thing that could come from this partnership would be if she got pregnant. Ewwwwww. That could only mean one thing. They actually DID it!!! Ewwwwww.
I'm sure, right now, she's thanking whatever deity she believes in for the 'Doggy Style' method. She'll probably be burying her face in a pillow and fantasizing about Brad Pitt while OLD Hef...no pun intended, is grunting and grinding behind her. AAAGGGGHHHH!!!!! Ewwwwww.
There's one other thing I'm sure of. If there is an afterlife...which I believe there is...Anna Nicole Smith is trying to send a message to this poor girl from beyond the grave. It would probably read, "It's not worth it, baby girl. It's just not worth it."
Not looking good
The U.S. Coast Guard took this shot today of Shell's mobile offshore drilling platform, the Kulluk, aground on remote Sitkalidak Island on the southeast side of Kodiak Island. Shell used the platform in drilling operations this summer in the Arctic Ocean. A tug was towing the nonmotorized rig to Seattle for maintenance when it experienced engine and towline problems in tough weather. A huge emergency response and salvage effort is under way, but the Kulluk could be doomed. Shell had spent $292 million upgrading the platform, which was evacuated well before the grounding. USCG photoMusic Music Music!
Okay, New Years Eve was fun..avoided the annoying places and saw a show then wandered around half drunk til late. This year is all about being productive for me. Right now I have zero income but for some dough that comes in from our albums selling. It is not enough to live on but John and I have 4 projects coming out this year. Our new album Take a Look at that Baby is two songs away from being done and the artwork is almost done as well. Spending the summer in France was basically a test run to see if we liked it there enough to spend more time in Sauve, where the Crumbs live in their beautiful old castle. We loved the village..met a ton of people and made friends and performed several times and we were welcomed very warmly by all. Our shows were packed..entire town came out and the next few towns over too..a little medieval village can get a little dull for a social, city girl like me but to live there part of the time with all of Europe open to me for travel? HELL YEAH. Spain, Italy, Germany, the UK..big cities are so close and i have yet to see many of them!
Finding work is hard for me..I leave town a lot and have a weird schedule..and i don't bartend or waitress. No one I know who does makes much money doing so anyway from what they tell me. My goals this year are to first of all find some work..save up some money for French classes, learn guitar..not the dozen chords I already know, but REALLY learn it..get these projects out into the world, promote and book the band better and a lot more, eventually spend half of the year in Europe. We are being given a small apt there that is attached to the Crumbs house. It sits empty much of the time and they want us to have it so we can come there when we feel like it and hang out, record and play gigs. I am also slowly writing down some adventures I have had and may try to turn it into a book or something at some point if it goes well.
In the meantime, I am all about the music. Here are some youtube clips of some of the songs we are covering on our upcoming album. Enjoy and happy we didn't die yet year!
Finding work is hard for me..I leave town a lot and have a weird schedule..and i don't bartend or waitress. No one I know who does makes much money doing so anyway from what they tell me. My goals this year are to first of all find some work..save up some money for French classes, learn guitar..not the dozen chords I already know, but REALLY learn it..get these projects out into the world, promote and book the band better and a lot more, eventually spend half of the year in Europe. We are being given a small apt there that is attached to the Crumbs house. It sits empty much of the time and they want us to have it so we can come there when we feel like it and hang out, record and play gigs. I am also slowly writing down some adventures I have had and may try to turn it into a book or something at some point if it goes well.
In the meantime, I am all about the music. Here are some youtube clips of some of the songs we are covering on our upcoming album. Enjoy and happy we didn't die yet year!
And So It Begins....
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the last-minute fiscal cliff deal reached by the Senate and President Barack Obama cuts only $15 billion in spending while increasing tax revenues by $620 billion—a 41:1 ratio of tax increases to spending cuts. This is an irrefutable fact. The House will vote on this later today.
Think about it for a moment...realistically. Please. A 41:1 ratio. That's incredible when everyone...and I mean everyone...knows our country is almost broke. What amazes me, and I don't use that word lightly, is how half the country obviously doesn't expect our government to live within its means when such a thing is expected of all of us to do so. I can't spend money I don't have. Oh, sure, I can pile up the credit card debt and take out loans until I owe more than I make...but there will soon be a day of retribution for me if I choose to do so. Our government acts as if there will never be a day like that to come knocking at their door...which is really OUR door. But, I fear for not too much longer.
What we are seeing played out before our very eyes is the Cloward-Piven Strategy. Richard Andrew Cloward (d. 2001) and his wife Frances Fox Piven (now 80 years old) concocted a theory in 1966 on how to eliminate poverty in the U.S. The foundation of this theory, or strategy, is to place so much weight on the entitlement system...by adding and adding and adding people to the entitlement rolls...that the country's economy will collapse. Once there is no longer any money to hand out, the theory goes, violence will erupt and social confusion will follow, forcing a Leftist political takeover in government. After that happens, they say, a guaranteed minimum income for all will be established, thus eliminating poverty.
For a long time, this theory has been poo-pooed and scoffed at. However, during the course of 2011 we have seen violence in the streets of Greece and Spain. Spending cuts have been met with a vicious backlash by the public who have become accustomed, over a period of many years if not decades, to receiving their piece of the pie. If ever there was a successful test tube case for Cloward-Piven, it is found in these two countries and, on a smaller scale, in others in the Eurozone that are financially strapped.
In 1970, the New York Times interviewed Cloward who was quoted as saying that poor people can only advance when the rest of society is afraid of them. The Occupy Movement was a small example of this push.
I have to point out that this theory was fomented by none other than the likes of Saul Alinsky and William Ayers (a very very good friend of our President), who both had the vision of pushing the American people to the precipice of anarchy and to the point of violent protests. In their mind, this was and is the only way to create the opportunity to damage the present Republican form of government and its capitalist system where people on a grand scale would accept radical political and economic change. Chaos, according to this strategy, must occur so then Democratic Socialism can be introduced as the saviour of all.
While many of you may think the violent protests in Greece and Spain are far away, let me use a quote PJMedia.com (PJ Tatler column) to show you how it relates to us here in the U.S.:
“Voters in both France and Greece, two countries ruinously addicted to government entitlements, rejected the ‘austerity’ model of debt-reduction and instead doubled down on unsustainable spending sprees. France elected Socialist Francois Hollande as president, and in his acceptance speech he promised to increase government benefits and amp up ‘stimulus’ spending programs – the exact things that got France into a metaphorical debtors’ prison in the first place. But exactly as Cloward and Piven had surmised, once you get 50+% of the population hooked on ‘free’ government money, there’s no turning back – they will vote for socialists every time. The election of Hollande is the culmination of Cloward-Piven; the strategy worked, but in the wrong country...
“The message is clear: Once enough voters are on the dole, regardless of your party’s ideology or what label it has, you will win elections if you promise to keep the free money flowing. This was Cloward-Piven’s point, and they turned out to be frighteningly correct.”
When the so-named 'Arab Spring' was going on and you were watching governments fall one by one on your television, were you truly paying attention? Were you really listening? International labor unions, specifically the SEIU, were there with the protesters, amid the violence, learning and inciting and developing their skills during the whole ordeal. International labor unions were at the forefront of the protests in the European countries that were writhing in agony from being insolvent, stirring up the mobs to such a frenzy they were demanding the government continue to give them their entitlements, even though they may not have deserved them or earned them. The unions want these governments to fail, so a new socialist state can arise to take their places. These countries, France/Italy/Greece/Spain and eventually others have nothing left to give, and ignorant uninformed people can't seem to understand that. The SEIU provides office space to the Occupy Movement at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. Why do you think that is? It should be clear to any rational mind.
Guess what, people? The Baby Boomers are getting ready to retire. This will create an unavoidable increase in spending and put an intolerable weight on Social Security and Medicare, while both are almost insolvent as this is being written.
Ever expanding entitlements coupled with the growing dependency on Washington hand outs and then added to it Congress' being devoid of any real fiscal policy is sending us on a downward spiral of the death of life as we have known it. All of this has sped up the possible Cloward-Piven Strategy from theory, to becoming a reality.
If it is true that Greece and Spain has proven the Cloward-Piven ideology is viable, then our freedoms, liberty and capitalistic society are in grave danger of surviving. If the dissolution of governments during the Arab Spring and the financial ruination of those in Europe are the results of a carefully orchestrated implementation of Cloward-Piven by the Progressive Movement, then we who love the American way of life that we have known all of our lives should be ever vigilant of what may come to our shores. We have a snake in the White House with several heads throughout every branch of our government that are seeking to paint for us a new canvas for living. And it could be painted with the tinted poison of the Cloward-Piven Strategy.
Think about it for a moment...realistically. Please. A 41:1 ratio. That's incredible when everyone...and I mean everyone...knows our country is almost broke. What amazes me, and I don't use that word lightly, is how half the country obviously doesn't expect our government to live within its means when such a thing is expected of all of us to do so. I can't spend money I don't have. Oh, sure, I can pile up the credit card debt and take out loans until I owe more than I make...but there will soon be a day of retribution for me if I choose to do so. Our government acts as if there will never be a day like that to come knocking at their door...which is really OUR door. But, I fear for not too much longer.
What we are seeing played out before our very eyes is the Cloward-Piven Strategy. Richard Andrew Cloward (d. 2001) and his wife Frances Fox Piven (now 80 years old) concocted a theory in 1966 on how to eliminate poverty in the U.S. The foundation of this theory, or strategy, is to place so much weight on the entitlement system...by adding and adding and adding people to the entitlement rolls...that the country's economy will collapse. Once there is no longer any money to hand out, the theory goes, violence will erupt and social confusion will follow, forcing a Leftist political takeover in government. After that happens, they say, a guaranteed minimum income for all will be established, thus eliminating poverty.
For a long time, this theory has been poo-pooed and scoffed at. However, during the course of 2011 we have seen violence in the streets of Greece and Spain. Spending cuts have been met with a vicious backlash by the public who have become accustomed, over a period of many years if not decades, to receiving their piece of the pie. If ever there was a successful test tube case for Cloward-Piven, it is found in these two countries and, on a smaller scale, in others in the Eurozone that are financially strapped.
In 1970, the New York Times interviewed Cloward who was quoted as saying that poor people can only advance when the rest of society is afraid of them. The Occupy Movement was a small example of this push.
I have to point out that this theory was fomented by none other than the likes of Saul Alinsky and William Ayers (a very very good friend of our President), who both had the vision of pushing the American people to the precipice of anarchy and to the point of violent protests. In their mind, this was and is the only way to create the opportunity to damage the present Republican form of government and its capitalist system where people on a grand scale would accept radical political and economic change. Chaos, according to this strategy, must occur so then Democratic Socialism can be introduced as the saviour of all.
While many of you may think the violent protests in Greece and Spain are far away, let me use a quote PJMedia.com (PJ Tatler column) to show you how it relates to us here in the U.S.:
“Voters in both France and Greece, two countries ruinously addicted to government entitlements, rejected the ‘austerity’ model of debt-reduction and instead doubled down on unsustainable spending sprees. France elected Socialist Francois Hollande as president, and in his acceptance speech he promised to increase government benefits and amp up ‘stimulus’ spending programs – the exact things that got France into a metaphorical debtors’ prison in the first place. But exactly as Cloward and Piven had surmised, once you get 50+% of the population hooked on ‘free’ government money, there’s no turning back – they will vote for socialists every time. The election of Hollande is the culmination of Cloward-Piven; the strategy worked, but in the wrong country...
“The message is clear: Once enough voters are on the dole, regardless of your party’s ideology or what label it has, you will win elections if you promise to keep the free money flowing. This was Cloward-Piven’s point, and they turned out to be frighteningly correct.”
When the so-named 'Arab Spring' was going on and you were watching governments fall one by one on your television, were you truly paying attention? Were you really listening? International labor unions, specifically the SEIU, were there with the protesters, amid the violence, learning and inciting and developing their skills during the whole ordeal. International labor unions were at the forefront of the protests in the European countries that were writhing in agony from being insolvent, stirring up the mobs to such a frenzy they were demanding the government continue to give them their entitlements, even though they may not have deserved them or earned them. The unions want these governments to fail, so a new socialist state can arise to take their places. These countries, France/Italy/Greece/Spain and eventually others have nothing left to give, and ignorant uninformed people can't seem to understand that. The SEIU provides office space to the Occupy Movement at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. Why do you think that is? It should be clear to any rational mind.
Guess what, people? The Baby Boomers are getting ready to retire. This will create an unavoidable increase in spending and put an intolerable weight on Social Security and Medicare, while both are almost insolvent as this is being written.
Ever expanding entitlements coupled with the growing dependency on Washington hand outs and then added to it Congress' being devoid of any real fiscal policy is sending us on a downward spiral of the death of life as we have known it. All of this has sped up the possible Cloward-Piven Strategy from theory, to becoming a reality.
If it is true that Greece and Spain has proven the Cloward-Piven ideology is viable, then our freedoms, liberty and capitalistic society are in grave danger of surviving. If the dissolution of governments during the Arab Spring and the financial ruination of those in Europe are the results of a carefully orchestrated implementation of Cloward-Piven by the Progressive Movement, then we who love the American way of life that we have known all of our lives should be ever vigilant of what may come to our shores. We have a snake in the White House with several heads throughout every branch of our government that are seeking to paint for us a new canvas for living. And it could be painted with the tinted poison of the Cloward-Piven Strategy.
Disastrous turn of events
Shell's mobile offshore drilling platform, the Kulluk, is now reported aground off Kodiak Island.
Here's the update from the unified command.
Here's the update from the unified command.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)