Signs of Global Warming Climate Change TM

At the Pirate's Cove, our favorite pirate, William Teach, muses on the latest proof of Global Warming Climate Change ^TM: Hurricane Matthew.

The United States hasn’t been hit with a major hurricane (category 3+) in over 10 years, almost 11. We are fast approaching 4,000 days since that last strike, Wilma in October 2005. So, obviously, 'climate change'

Now, for the nit-pickers, there have been category 3 or higher hurricanes since October 2005, but none have hit the U.S. So, yeah, Teach is correct.

Anyway, wasn't the lack of hurricanes considered a sign of Global Warming Climate Change ^TM at one time? Yes.

So, there you have it. Fewer hurricanes is proof of Global Warming Climate Change ^TM. So is more hurricanes.

See how easy it is to be an expert on Global Warming Climate Change ^TM?

A social experiment

Over on The Facebook, one of my friends there, Rachelle Jones, had a great idea. I thought it was great, anyway. You could check it out, but you'd have to be a friend of hers on The Facebook to read her post. So I'll tell you what she wrote. I'm sure she won't mind.

Go to Donald Trump's page and see how many friends like it. Then, go to Hillary Clinton's page and see how many friends like it. Do the same for Gary Johnson.

Why I never thought of that, I have no idea. Anyway, I did it, adding Jill Stein to the mix. And here's how it came out. Some liked more than one, which complicated things. So I have two ways of showing the results:

Clinton 15%
Trump 55%
Johnson 50%
Stein 0%.

or

Clinton 5%
Trump 40%
Johnson 35%
Clinton & Trump 5%
Clinton & Johnson 5%
Trump & Johnson 10%

Now, I'm trying to imagine someone liking both Hillary and Trump ... unless they're a chronic liker. I'm not really surprised that Trump and Johnson had the most page likes of the people I know on The Facebook. The likes for Hillary, though? Yeah, I was kinda surprised when I found out who liked Hillary.

Of course, most of my friends on The Facebook didn't like any of them. They probably have the right idea.

Anyway, are you up for that? Or are you afraid you'll get a shock or two that you just don't feel like dealing with?

It doesn't matter what any other country thinks. But it is nice to hear.

In an interview with CNN, Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi talked about the Republican and Democrat nominees for U.S. president. Breitbart reports that the Egyptian president has some good things to say about Trump:

I think 90 percent of Egyptians would prefer Trump because he will not cooperate with terrorists. He [Trump] will not cooperate with Muslim Brothers and our main concern in Egypt now is terrorist attacks as you saw two days ago in the United States. We saw it daily in Egypt on the hands of Muslim Brothers so we know very well that Muslim Brothers are a terrorist group and we want to build up our democratic regime.

Full story at Breitbart

CNN was asking about remarks made by Trump that they called anti-Moslem. CNN also asked about remarks made by Clinton that were critical of Egypt's government, to which he responded:

"in Egypt there will not be a chance for any dictatorship because in Egypt there is a constitution, there is law, and there is the will of the people which will refuse to allow any leader to stay in his position for any period longer than his term which is four years."

I really don't care what another country thinks of the president, past, present, or future. I do find it interesting to know what countries think, though. I not thinking we should not insult our friends, but that's what Clinton did. The remarks by el-Sisi seem proper, though, considering the circumstances.

Tip: Wild Thing at Theodore's World.

The Scratching Post explains unemployment numbers

The Scratching Post nails it:

COSTELLO: I want to talk about the unemployment rate in America.
ABBOTT: Good Subject. Terrible Times. It’s 5.6%.
COSTELLO: That many people are out of work?
ABBOTT: No, that’s 23%.
COSTELLO: You just said 5.6%.

The "Who's On First" style routine goes on from there. It's great: Abbott And Costello Go To Wall Street

It'd be funny if it wasn't true. Okay, it's true and funny. But a sad commentary.

Voting your conscience

David over at Third World County had an interesting take on one person's use of scripture to pick a candidate. He called BS on one person's statement that Christ gave "very specific vetting lists for consideration when choosing candidates for leadership of a nation."

I'd like to have the scripture citations where Christ noted the qualifications for "candidates for leading a nation," please. TY. I do recall the scripture where he told some folks to "render unto Caesar [a pagan with questionable morals by biblical standards] that which is Caesar's," but cannot seem to put my finger on his "vetting lists" for candidates to be voted into civil office. . .

Link

David has a point. I do know of some Old Testament references to choosing judges and other leaders, but I don't recall anything from Christ in the New Testament about it.

Why is that? Is it because people didn't elect Roman emperors? Is it because the Bible is more focused on helping you be a better person and not on electing someone to solve your problems for you? Or something else?

I think a little of both.

So, should you use the Bible and the teaching of Christ to choose a president? Sure. All Christians will. But, all Christians won't come to the same choice. Some will vote Trump, some Hillary, some Johnson, some Stein, some someone else, and some won't vote at all.

Some will attempt to say that God, Jesus, or the Bible told them to vote a certain way. They may even believe it when they say it.

Me? I think if we've learned or tried to learn the lessons the Bible has for us, and sincerely pray for wisdom in our votes, and then we go where we are truly led, we'll be okay.

Most, though, I suspect, will try to use it as a justification of their choices arrived at by selfish means.

The truth is, no candidate does -- or can -- live up to the standards set for us. None of the voters do, either.

Bad Example: How to Draw Attention to Your Product

Found this one from Harvey:

Bad Example: How to Draw Attention to Your Product

The story behind Band-Aids. Who knew that a clumsy wife could lead to such fame and fortune.

So, is it .net or .com ???

If you've been following this little blog, waiting patiently for it to return, you may have noticed that the URL is now http://www.basilsblog.com instead of http://www.basilsblog.net

Or maybe you didn't notice.

Actually, it doesn't really matter. When this little blog launched, back during George W. Bush's first term in office, I didn't have my own domain name. I did shortly afterwards, and bought both the .net and .com domains. I intended to have one as the primary one, and have the other as a redirect URL. I also changed hosts around that time. During all that clutter -- I want go into all the how this happened and how that happened because then we'd be here all week -- it worked out that basilsblog.net ended up being the URL of the blog. I really meant to change to the .com URL, but one thing or another -- no actual valid reason -- meant it stayed with the .net domain.

Well, as part of my recent consolidation of all my domains under a single registrar, I decided to finally get it right, and go with the .com address.

I have an email address under the .net domain, and that still works, but a .com version works now, too. It's easy when everything's under one registrar and they make it easy to configure it like you want. Well, easier.

Anyway, it's now basilsblog.com -- not that it means anything. Because the .net still works, only now that is the one that redirects to the .com address.

It's good to know everything else in my life is in order that I can fret over silly stuff like this.