Bangin' on the Bongos. . .

Olga Podluzhnaya:

Thanks to Fish Magnate.

Wombat-socho has "Rule 5 Sunday: January Jones" finished on time and within budget.

BUI

Blogging Under the Influence.

So, today was the day for that quattrennial medical ritual, the colonoscopy. Most people, after a uneventful screening at 50 are told to schedule them every 10 years. However, with a family history of colon cancer (both parents had it in their 80s, fortunately both were caught in time apparently), I'm on the 5 year rotation.

As usual, the prep was far worse than the procedure. Starting yesterday morning with a clear liquid diet (I mean, why bother?), and  last evening drinking massive amounts of laxatives and clear fluids, and the resulting fun and games, and a repeat at 4 AM. Good times!

Georgia drove me to the "endoscopy center" before the 10:30 AM appointment, and spent a few minutes helping the admitting clerk with her own search for the prefect medicare package. It is made quite clear that you will not be allowed to have the procedure if you do not have a personal driver to take you to and from.

I was taken into the clinic soon after, gave up my clothes, and dressed in the cold little gown, had a set of EKG leads attached, a blood pressure cuff, and O2 saturation finger tip, answered a bunch of health questions, apparently correctly, as they let me proceed, and added an IV drip. They also asked me who I was and when I was born, apparently in an effort to make sure I didn't accidentally end up with a hysterectomy.

Shortly there after, they wheeled me off to the procedure room, where the anesthesiologist and the GI specialist introduced themselves and asked me who I was yet again. The anesthesiologist explained that he would start to ask questions to gauge my status as he added the Propofol to the IV. He started the Propofol and started asking questions, and I woke up in the recovery room.

I was warned not to drive, operate heavy machinery, or make any important life decisions for the rest of the day because of the sedation, and I fielded a call for Walleye Pete, who wanted to go fishing. I really did feel like crap, as a result of that, and the nights festivities, and after waffling a bit, I declined.

The GI doc came in and said they found and removed three small polyps for biopsy, told me not to take NSAIDs for a week (because of the biopsies), and gave me some pretty color pictures of the inside of my very own large intestine. She explained they would call in about 2 weeks with the results of the biopsies, but that she wasn't especially concerned.

We stopped at 5 Guys for lunch, and came home, where I took a long nap, much to Skye's consternation, before getting up to pen this record of the experience. Another 5 years to go!

Here, Take This

I have somewhere to go and something unpleasant to do, so take some pictures from Chesapeake Bay. Five Photographers Focus on the Chesapeake.

Heh!

Wombat-socho has "Rule 5 Sunday: January Jones" finished on time and within budget.

A Reminder; Cold Kills

Via Watts Up With That, a reminder that cold weather is more lethal to humans than warm weather: Cold is Deadlier than Heat: NY Times Warning About the Winter

Most of the Northern Hemisphere is now in the throes of the deadliest time of the year. Cold kills, and I don’t mean just extreme cold and crippling blizzards. I mean ordinary winter cold, like that typically experienced, chronically or episodically, by people in every state but Hawaii from late fall through early spring.

While casualties resulting from heat waves receive wide publicity, deaths from bouts of extreme cold rarely do, and those resulting from ordinary winter weather warrant virtually no attention. Yet an international study covering 384 locations in 13 countries, including the United States, found that cold weather is responsible, directly or indirectly, for 17 times as many deaths as hot weather.

Over time, as global temperatures rise, milder winter temperatures are likely to result in fewer cold-related deaths, a benefit that could outweigh a smaller rise in heat-caused mortality. In winter in the United States, mortality is generally 10 percent to 15 percent higher than on typical summer days.

The study, published in July 2015 in The Lancet, was based on an analysis of more than 74 million deaths and calculated mortality attributable to heat and cold in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Britain and the United States.
…
Furthermore, unlike what you might expect, the overwhelming majority of cold-weather casualties do not result from vehicular accidents, falls on ice or snow-related activities. Rather, they are attributable to leading killers like heart disease, stroke and respiratory disease, and are especially common among those aged 75 and older.

People sense this instinctively, which explains why more seniors move to Florida than Alaska. And why scenes like this are rare in real life:

Wombat-socho has "Rule 5 Sunday: January Jones" finished on time and within budget.

Maryland Fracking Fight Continues

Maryland fracking rules put on hold, setting stage for legislative debate

A group of Maryland lawmakers has put on hold the Hogan administration’s plan for regulating “fracking” for natural gas in the state, setting the stage for a debate in Annapolis early next year over whether to permanently ban the hotly disputed drilling practice.

In a letter issued late Thursday, leaders of the Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review Committee informed Environment Secretary Ben Grumbles that they want more time to study his department’s proposal to tighten state rules governing oil and gas exploration and extraction.  The panel's co-chairmen, Baltimore Del. Samuel I. “Sandy” Rosenberg and Montgomery County Sen. Roger P. Manno, both Democrats, asked Grumbles to delay final adoption of the regulation and turn over all comments received after it was proposed in November.

A lawyer for the joint House-Senate committee told members last week that under state law the panel could delay final adoption of the rule until mid-February, unless the administration willingly held off longer. Manno had said before the hearing that a delay would give the General Assembly a chance to vote on whether to impose a permanent ban on fracking before the rules could take effect.

As you might expect, the fight breaks out along the usual urban/rural split line with urban environmentalists unalterably opposed to anybody finding more energy to heat their house with. . .

Del. Dan Morhaim, a Baltimore County Democrat, was unpersuaded, raising a series of other concerns. He questioned the deterrence value of penalties laid out in the regulation, which would charge violators up to $1,000 a day, with a maximum of $50,000. Fines that size are just “the cost of doing business” for many oil and gas companies, Morhaim said.

. . . while rural types, where the fracking would actually occur, are more concerned with money and jobs.

Bill Bishoff, a Garrett County dairy farmer who is president of the county Farm Bureau, said farmers and other property owners who favor gas drilling support the rules, though they consider them “a bitter compromise.” They’re so stringent they’re likely to discourage the industry from drilling in Maryland for years until the market tightens up and gas prices can cover the higher costs of complying with state rules, he said.

Even so, Bishoff expressed frustration that the debate has dragged on for years.

“It’s a huge game of whack-a-mole,” he concluded. As regulations have been drafted and debated to address concerns, he said, opponents “keep coming up with new concerns.”

Of course. For the modern green weenie, the objections to fracking are not about making it safer, it's about slow motion prohibition of any fossil fuel production. Solve one objection, and they'll come up with two more.

Realistically, Maryland is a small state with relatively little land in the Marcellus Shale, the major fracking strata. Fracking won't make a big economic boon in Maryland the way it has in other states, although it will certainly be a boost to the "deplorable" counties near Appalachia, which could definitely use the boost.

Iceland Ends Year With No Government

I remember the "Pirate Party" nonsense, but I never heard how that worked out: Iceland's 'crazy' year ends without a government.

Iceland is ending an eventful year in a political quagmire, left without a government for two months after the Panama Papers scandal and a snap election reflecting deep divisions in the island nation.

"In recent years we thought we were seeing the craziest, but we were proven wrong every time -- Iceland found ways to be even crazier," a parliamentary assistant from the Icelandic opposition said on April 6, seeing a government in tatters hesitate on its next move.

Former Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson had resigned the day before over revelations of his holdings stashed away in a tax haven.

This prompted demonstrations for six consecutive days with protesters shouting "Elections right away! Elections right away!" while striking metal fences in front of Iceland's parliament.

The anti-establishment Pirate Party was pushing at the gates of power -- but they never opened.

The government said it would wait six months to hold a snap election, triggered by the latest scandal in a country that had seen its share already after the 2008 financial meltdown.

The outcome in October dashed the hopes of a clear-cut exit to the political crisis. Neither the left, the right, nor the centre had a majority.

Efforts to form a coalition were paralysed by everyone's refusal to deal with Gunnlaugsson's centrist Progressive Party, which won eight of the 63 seats.

- Back to square one -

Journalist Johannes Kristjansson, the only Icelander to have access to the Panama Papers, had been bewildered when he saw how many politicians were listed in the documents. Two months after the election he commented: "They were all re-elected."

Icelandic Finance Minister Bjarni Benediktsson, who had set up an offshore company in the Seychelles, even saw his party, the Conservatives, win the most seats, with 21. Gunnlaugsson is still an MP.

The "Pirates" revolution did not take place. Instead, the 2017 budget, adopted days before Christmas, was a compromise between the outgoing government's bill and concessions to other parties.

Maybe they should stick with President Nota (None of the above) for a year or so and see if they can make it work. Maybe they'll like it so much they'll abolish the office.

Let It Rain!

A professional photographer explains how to fake a good rainstorm using manual focus lenses.



That didn't really sink in; I may need to watch it a few more times. Wombat-socho has "Rule 5 Sunday: January Jones" finished on time and within budget.

Just a Meteor Flying Through an Erupting Volcano

I'm pretty sure the meteorite is way in the back, though. Found at the ONT.

First Beach Post of 2017

It was low tide, almost 50 F, mostly sunny and not windy, so why not?

 And Skye had already started lobbying.

 A few other hearty souls and their people were out.

This doesn't happen every day.

 A relatively large Lions Mane jellyfish washed up. It was about a foot across. They get much bigger, but not usually around here. Not to be confused with a huge breast implant.

The Bufflehead ducks are in at the harbor (and have been for a few weeks). There are also lots of Oldsquaw offshore, but not within easy camera view.

A ship is in at the Gas Docks. The project down there to convert the Gas Dock from an export to an import facility is well along. As of August:

• The terminal is 67% complete and on track for an in-service date in late 2017.
• There are currently 1,800 construction workers on site.
• All of the concrete has been poured, the sound wall is finished, and more than 50% of the steel has been installed for this project.
• 31 of the 34 barge loads have been received and 68 of the 77 heavy haul deliveries have been transported.

Happy New Year's!

Wombat-socho has "Rule 5 Sunday: January Jones" finished on time and within budget.

2016 In Review

It seems like everyone is calling 2016 the worst year ever, for various reasons, so I'd like to present my view.

Starting at the beginning, at the end of the year previous, on Halloween day, we broke down and adopted a new dog. Suspiciously similar to our last one, Skye, she was a Siberian Husky, of the black and white "felty" furred variety, also named Skye. The only physical difference is two blue eyes instead of one, and about 5 lbs greater in size and strength. In personality, she has similarities, friendly with both people and other dogs, a stubborn streak, a desire to walk and run, but some major differences. She is much "mouthier" barking to get things, like food, walks, and attention both from people and dogs. She is a runner and can't be left off the leash in an unfenced area, most particularly the beach. As dogs will, she has made a big change in our life. Leaving the house is sometimes problematic; you have to plan more. But most of all, she demands (and I do mean demands) a big exercise event each day, either a long walk, or a visit to the dog park. Our choice. One result is that I have unexpectedly lost about 10 lbs this years, despite no better attention to my diet.

For 65, I think I'm in reasonable health. Sure, I have some achy joints, but nothing life altering. I can walk, fish, garden, and get out as much as I would like. Between gym exercise 3 days a week, and walking Skye, I'm probably as strong and fit as I have ever been, but that's never been an especially high bar. My eyes continue to be a problem; the "leaky" left eye (vitreous hemorrhage) remains unsettled. I think it still leaks a little once in a while; I see more little spots that are the shadows of blood cells on the retina, but nothing like the torrent from earlier in the year. The retina Dr. thinks I'm wrong, but can't find a source. The other eye is now ready, as defined by insurance, for cataract surgery, but I just got new glasses to keep that at bay a little longer. Maybe another year, maybe not.

Georgia continues her long battle with what can only be described as chronic fatigue syndrome, only because nothing striking can be found physically. There have been a lot of hints, many conflicting, but little actual progress. She still tires early in the day, but can't sleep. Many treatments have been tried, but none have produce more than a hint of success. We keep hoping to find the magic bullet, but it continues to elude us. It's extremely frustrating.

Of course, there's the family story. Our first grandson, Graham Robert, was born to our son Alex his wife Kelly on Jan. 24, 2016. We've been able to see him several times, but not as often we'd like. We hear he started walking a few hours after we left on our last visit. We should see him again on his birthday later in Jan.

2016 will also be memorable as the year my mother, Mary Elizabeth passed on. But first, the whole family, my parents, my brothers and their while families, and both my sons and their families, got together for a family reunion. There was never one as complete before, and cannot be again.


It was less than a month afterwards that mother suffered a fall, a blood clot, and the decline which lead to her death. We had to travel back to California to help with the arrangements. Father, almost as old, continues on without her, still living in their house in Murphys with the help of my brother Ted and his family, and a housekeeper.

Alex and Kelly seem to be doing well in their work; Alex at his studio/music store. U Rock Music Center in McMurry, PA, and Kelly at her corporate job.

The year is also also notable for the late return of our prodigal (for more reasons than one) son, Corwin, who asked if he could come home from his years of wandering in the wilderness this Christmas. We said yes, and picked him up from the bus station just before Christmas, even though we were fresh out of fatted calf. He is home now, and working at job and trying to put his life back together again. We're holding our breathes.

So, did you hear there was an election in the United States this year?  A Republican with a libertarian streak, my preferred candidates did not win the nomination. Well, with 14 candidates, it was unlikely all along. I was not pro-Trump, but I was never never-Trump. At least now Hillary will never be President. For better or worst, next year should be interesting politically.

And I hear a few celebrities died. Well, that's the way it goes. Celebrities are just people. They may be better known than the rest of us, but for the most part they are not better people, do not have better lives or live healthier lives. They arise from the populace slowly, by dint of newsworthy activities in music, politics, entertainment or sports, like trees growing in the forest. They are only notable in when they fall, and only because there are people there to hear and pay attention. A new crop is growing all the time.

Free Enterprise Finds the Answer to the Silver Carp Problem

Sell them back to the Chinese, where they came from: Floating factory vessel to process Invasive Asian Carp in Tennessee

Leaping from rivers and lakes like aquatic projectiles and ravaging the food base of native fish, Asian carp are loathed by outdoors enthusiasts and state wildlife officials alike for being not just a nuisance, but a threat to boating and fishing industries worth $2.9 billion and $2.1 billion, respectively, in Tennessee. Enter Joe Gillas. He sees the invasive fish as an opportunity. Gillas’ company, Riverine Fisheries International, plans to moor a factory fishing vessel at the Port of Cates Landing, located on the Mississippi River near Tiptonville, Tennessee, about 100 miles north of Memphis. The nearly 350-foot-long boat would process Asian carp caught in the Mississippi and other rivers and lakes into food products to be exported to some 20 countries, including China and Russia. “I think there’s a good business model here,” said Gillas, 53, who was born and raised in Alaska and has fished all over the world. “I think we can do something good and make money at the same time.” Read the story here 08:35

Imported and invasive carp have threatened havoc in ecosystems across the country, and provided fodder of numerous funny fishing videos.  I expect if this fishery is a success, the government will come in and regulate the crap out of it to prevent it from depleting the numbers of the carp.

EPA to Poor Alaskans: "Freeze in the Dark"

EPA To Alaskans In Sub-Zero Temps: Stop Burning Wood To Keep Warm

In Jack London’s famous short story, “To Build A Fire,” a man freezes to death because he underestimates the cold in America’s far north and cannot build a proper fire. The unnamed man—a chechaquo, what Alaska natives call newcomers—is accompanied by a wolf-dog that knows the danger of the cold and is wholly indifferent to the fate of the man. “This man did not know cold. Possibly, all the generations of his ancestry had been ignorant of cold, of real cold, of cold 107 degrees below freezing point. But the dog knew; all its ancestry knew, and it had inherited the knowledge.”

If only the bureaucrats in Washington DC knew what the wolf-dog knew. But alas, now comes the federal government to tell the inhabitants of Alaska’s interior that, really, they should not be building fires to keep themselves warm during the winter. The New York Times reports the Environmental Protection Agency could soon declare the Alaskan cities of Fairbanks and North Pole, which have a combined population of about 100,000, in “serious” noncompliance of the Clean Air Act early next year.

Like most people in Alaska, the residents of those frozen cities are burning wood to keep themselves warm this winter. Smoke from wood-burning stoves increases small-particle pollution, which settles in low-lying areas and can be breathed in. The EPA thinks this is a big problem. Eight years ago, the agency ruled that wide swaths of the most densely populated parts of the region were in “non-attainment” of federal air quality standards.

That prompted state and local authorities to look for ways to cut down on pollution from wood-burning stoves, including the possibility of fining residents who burn wood. After all, a declaration of noncompliance from the EPA would have enormous economic implications for the region, like the loss of federal transportation funding.

The problem is, there’s no replacement for wood-burning stoves in Alaska’s interior. Heating oil is too expensive for a lot of people, and natural gas isn’t available. So they’ve got to burn something. The average low temperature in Fairbanks in December is 13 degrees below zero. In January, it’s 17 below. During the coldest days of winter, the high temperature averages -2 degrees, and it can get as cold as -60. This is not a place where you play games with the cold. If you don’t keep the fire lit, you die. For people of modest means, and especially for the poor, that means you burn wood in a stove—and you keep that fire lit around the clock.
. . .
Of the earnest bureaucrats at the EPA fretting over the smoke from Alaskans’ wood stoves in the dead of winter, we might say something similar: they understand facts but not the significance of them. Burning wood when it’s -20 degrees outside will indeed cause the smoke to descend, and breathing such air is admittedly not very healthy. What the EPA doesn’t accept, or even grasp, is man’s place in the universe: in the face of Alaska’s deadly cold interior, there’s only so much we can do. So we build a fire.

EPA Delenda Est. Hopefully Donald Trump can begin the process. One way to get the message across to the EPA bureaucrats would be to prohibit heating or air conditioning for human comfort in EPA buildings across the country, on the grounds that it contributes to life threatening "carbon" pollution and global warming. That ought to spur some indignant sputters.

Rule 5 Saturday - Another Brazilian - Sophia Resing

This week's Rule 5 extravaganza features Sophia Resing, one of the rookies at SI Swimsuit this year.

Sofia Resing is a Brazilian model. She was born on September 25, 1991. . . Resing was born in Porto Alegre in Brazil, but later came to New York to live. She is currently living in New York. Resing was in Brazil during the 2016 Rio Olympics and worked as a sideline reporter to cover the women’s beach volleyball events. 

She would dramatically improve the appearance of Brazil's Beach Volleyball teams, IIRC.

Resing was actually discovered by accident. She was at a Halloween party in New York dressed like the Green Hornet, when her potential as a model was seen. From then on her career as a model started. She started as a runway model in 2013 for designers like Tracy Reese and Sally LaPointe. Resing has also been a model for L’Oreal cosmetics. In 2016, she made her debut as a swimsuit model in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition. She was named in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit’s 2016 Rookie Reveal.

I'd like to see her in that Green Hornet outfit. She's from Brazil, so you know what that means (NSFW links)

This week GOODSTUFFs BLOGGING MAGAZINE (274th Issue) closes out this horrendous year with a tremendous meta blog post, with old friends, as Tara Reid's notorious boobs lead some spurious Arctic climate change reporting. Wombat-socho at The Other McCain steps up with "Rule 5 Sunday: Happy New Year!" and "FMJRA 2.0: Grand Finale." Linked at Pirate's Cove in "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup – Happy 2017 Edition."

Farmer Mounts Chicken Shit Defense

From the Chesapeake Bay newsfeed, a chicken farmer promotes his second product, chicken manure: It’s not poultry waste – it’s organic fertilizer

I would like to set the record straight on the value of poultry litter as organic fertilizer.

Poultry litter is a mixture of chicken manure and wood shavings. The wood shavings are the bedding used in poultry houses. Chicken manure, which has very little moisture, mixes with the shavings. It produces a dry product that is easily handled and very stackable.

Contrary to many assumptions, poultry litter is low in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, but high in organic matter. It carries a nutrient value of 4 percent nitrogen, 3 percent phosphorus, 3 percent potassium and 90 percent organic matter. It is considered one of mother nature’s perfect fertilizers.

The organic matter improves the soil’s water-holding capacity, as well as soil health. Poultry litter is one of the only sources of fertilizer for organic growers on the Eastern Shore and in most of Maryland.

Contrary to what is being taught, there is not an excess of poultry litter in Maryland. There is actually a shortage of organic fertilizer. When anti-poultry advocates say elevated phosphorus levels in soils near poultry houses proves there are too many chickens in the state, they are wrong. The fact is scientific researchers advised farmers for many years to build up phosphorus in the soil.

In recent years, scientists have determined there is a saturation point, after which no more phosphorus can be held by the soil.

In response to the scientific findings, Maryland’s Nutrient Management Plan was modified to require phosphorus be regulated and limited in 2006. In 2015, additional limitations were added through the Phosphorus Management Tool. This tool uses the soil P levels, topography and the closeness to water resources to determine where P must be limited — or in some cases banned altogether.

According to the Maryland Department of Agriculture, 312,393 tons of chicken litter are collected from Maryland poultry farms annually. Based on nutrient management regulatory calculations, we would need 156,196 acres of cropland to spread the litter produced each year. There are 469,767 acres on the Eastern Shore that are low in phosphorus and litter eligible.

Thus, there is three times the needed amount of land just on the Eastern Shore to properly use all the litter produced in Maryland.

Because of its organic value, poultry litter is a commodity poultry farmers can sell or barter. Poultry growers also often use the litter as fertilizer on their own crop operations for a significantly lower cost, and less carbon footprint, than transporting commercial fertilizer.

So what does this mean? If the legislature passed law that required poultry companies to take all the litter from farmers, it would only make the company richer. The companies would have a valuable commodity to sell to the highest bidder.

Quite a credible defense.

Post Christmas Obamacare Schadenfreude

The year is winding down, and soon a new Congress and a new President will take up the issue of what to do about Obamacare.

By way of Wombat-socho's "In The Mailbox: 12.28.16", the usually sensible Megan McArdle admits, somewhat belatedly, that Obamacare as a failure, after all: Obamacare Didn’t Fail Because It’s Timid

Kevin Drum of Mother Jones thinks that making Obamacare work could have been a simple task for Democrats. All they needed was two things:

• About twice as much funding, and
• A higher tax penalty for not buying insurance.

More funding would have allowed them to offer higher subsidies to people with incomes above 200 percent of the poverty line, plus lower deductibles, while a mandate equal to the cost of an insurance policy would have left people with little choice other than to buy insurance. Since the people who forgo insurance today tend to be the folks who use little health care, this would have lowered the average cost of insurance for everyone.

Why didn’t they do this? Kevin blames timidity -- “Democrats were fixated on Obamacare costing under $1 trillion” -- and a “hack gap”:

If this were a Republican plan, and it were something they really wanted, they wouldn’t have bothered with funding. They would have just made up a story about medical inflation coming down (which it is) and broader health coverage leading to improved economic growth blah blah blah. Democrats weren’t willing to do that.

Judging from my interactions with readers and my friends and family who don’t happen to spend their days marinating in health-care policy, the view that Obamacare’s problems are due to Democrats not being sufficiently left-wing, or dishonest, is pretty common on the left. That makes it worth refuting, because -- with all due respect to Kevin -- it’s completely wrong. . .

Read the whole thing to find out why.

Meanwhile, in the real world: Another Obamacare Co-Op Exits Exchanges, Leaving Only 5 Co-Ops in 2017. Because it was so well planned.

Republicans prime the ground for Obamacare repeal

Republicans are trying to prime the ground for Obamacare repeal with a key message: The law was failing anyway.
. . .
"This law is hurting families in America," Ryan said before Congress left Washington for the holidays.

"This law is canceling insurance plans people wanted, this law is giving people repeated double-digit premium increases, this law is raising deductibles so high it doesn't even feel like you have insurance," he said. "So you have to bring Obamacare relief as fast as we possibly can in 2017, and that is our plan."
. . .
"Once Obamacare is repealed, we will make sure there is a stable transition period so that people don't have the rug pulled out from under them," Ryan's office said this week in a statement, one in a series of Obamacare-themed releases this month.

Making Good on the Promise to Repeal Obamacare

. . . Obamacare is the newest of our Big Government entitlements. It’s been completely operational for three years. So if Republicans can’t repeal this latest addition to the welfare state, then they ought to throw in the towel and go over to the Dark Side. Even though premiums and deductibles are soaring and the only people who like Obamacare are the ones not paying for it, Democrats say it would be heartless to take it away from folks. But we don’t have the money. . . 

GOP considers holding off on repealing ObamaCare taxes Repealing taxes is nearly as difficult as repealing an entitlement.

The NYT notices: Health Exchange Enrollment Jumps, Even as G.O.P. Pledges Repeal Yes, that's why they call it a mandate; something you have to do or pay a price. Obama to huddle with Hill Democrats on saving Obamacare He's not even gone yet, and he's already the worst ex-President ever.

Seal Dies in Bay Kayak Incident

Sailor who died after kayaking incident identified as Navy SEAL

Petty Officer First Class Devon Grube was assigned to an East coast-based Naval Special Warfare Command, the Navy says.

The Coast Guard says they were notified around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday that a kayak had overturned and a search was launched to look for Grube.

Authorities say the kayak overturned approximately two miles offshore.

The Coast Guard says Grube he was in the water for two hours wearing a lifejacket before he was rescued around 11 a.m.

The water temperature was 45 degrees.

Grube was transported to Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital on the Eastern Shore where he later succumbed to his injuries.

On Thursday the Grube family released a statement:

"The Grube family would like to extend their gratitude to the community for their interest in our beloved Devon. Thank you to those who showed up to look for him. He was a devoted father, a true professional and a wonderful husband."

A YouCaring crowdfunding account has been set up to show love and support for Devon and to give the Grube family a savings account with USAA.

Cold water is relentless and unforgiving, and it doesn't care about how well you can swim. Sometimes all the life jacket is for is body recovery.

Be careful out there.

Ariana Grande Objects to "Objectification"

Ariana Grande, the Objectification of Women, and Our Culture

Apparently we need a national conversation on the objectification of women, spurred by a fan’s interaction with pop star Ariana Grande.

In Grande’s account, she was out with her boyfriend, rapper Mac Miller, picking up food from a restaurant when an enthusiastic “young boy” told Miller, “Ariana is sexy as hell, man, I see you hitting that!”

Now, that’s rude. Gentlemen ought to be gentlemen, at any age. And no, the fact that Grande dresses in skimpy or revealing outfits in her performances does not give any male fan carte blanche to say or do whatever he likes without consequence. How you choose to treat people doesn’t make a statement about them and their standards; it’s about you and your standards.

But let’s add two other notes: Grande said “it hurts my heart that so many young people are so comfortable enough using these phrases and objectifying women with such ease.”

Indeed, but many of us on the Right feel like we’ve been making this argument about a coarse, vulgar public discourse for years and we’ve been dismissed as old-fashioned prudes. You can’t have people marinating in a culture that moved from Hugh Hefner to George Carlin to Madonna to Andrew Dice Clay to Howard Stern to Bill Maher to Marilyn Manson to twerking to rappers walking around with women on leashes and then be surprised that people say vulgar, sexual things on the street. (Fun question: How would the American society of a generation or two generations ago greeted Donald Trump’s more vulgar comments and moments? Would they have deemed it disqualifying for a president?) If you have a culture that is extremely open about sexual topics, you’re going to have people expressing thoughts about sex in ways that offend other people – i.e., “I see you hitting that.”

 A little juvenile looking for my taste.

Grande points out that she is in a relationship with “a man who treats me with love and respect.” Wonderful! But if she’s wondering why one of Mac Miller’s fans might have thought it was acceptable to objectify her, she may want to peruse the lyrics to his “Break the Law” or “God Is Fair, Sexy Nasty.” They’re way too explicit to print in NR. The first words of the latter are “Open your legs,” and I think you can get the idea from there.

Grande adds that she’s “felt really quiet and hurt since that moment.” She is 23 and has a net worth estimated to be around $25 million. Movies, television, music, concerts – the world is her oyster right now. It seems a little odd that one crass comment from one “young boy” is being treated as this major event that requires a national conversation about the objectification of women. If you become a celebrity, you accept the risk of running into an uncouth fan.

My objection to the concept of "objectification" is that it denormalizes one of the most normal aspects of human attraction."

So, here is a list of eight truths about males and sexual objectification for those who have a degree in any of the “social sciences.”

1. It is completely normal for heterosexual men to see women to whom they are sexually attracted as sex objects.

2. That such sexual objectification is normal and has nothing to do with misogyny is proved by, among other things, the fact that homosexual men see men to whom they are sexually attracted as sex objects. If heterosexual men are misogynists, homosexual men are man-haters.

3. One reason for this is the almost unique power of the visual to sexually arouse men. Men are aroused just by glancing at a female arm, ankle, calf, thigh, stomach — even without ever seeing the woman’s face. Those legs, calves, arms, etc. are sexual objects. That’s why there are innumerable websites featuring them. There is nothing analogous for women. Of course, a woman can be aroused seeing a particularly handsome and masculine man. But there are no websites for women to stare at men’s legs or other male body parts.

4. Every normal heterosexual man who sees a woman as a sexual object can also completely respect her mind, her character, and everything else non-sexual about her. Men do this all the time.

5. Most heterosexual women also see sexy women as sex objects — and they are hardly misogynists. Ask your wife or girlfriend which would turn her on more: watching a male strip show in front of a female audience or a female strip show in front of a male audience.

6. Lucky is the couple in which the man can sexually objectify his partner. The longer a husband can at least occasionally regard his wife as a sex object, the better their marriage. It is not always easy to perceive the woman you see every day, the mother of your children, as a sexual object.

7. The whole purpose of lingerie and other sexual attire is to render the woman a sex object in her partner’s eyes. Are all the women who wear lingerie, bikinis, cheerleader outfits, or whatever else turns their partner on — and hopefully them as well, one might add — haters of women?

8. If your husband denies these assertions, he is lying to you because he is afraid you will react angrily or because he is afraid of hurting your feelings. He may also be lying to himself — after all, he, too, may have gone to college or reads liberal opinion pieces on misogyny, and he wants to be an “enlightened” male.

Now tell me she doesn't want to look attractive. It's just reflexive feminism.

Now read Stacy's "Bitches and Hoes and Feminism". Wombat-socho at The Other McCain steps up with "Rule 5 Sunday: Happy New Year!" and "FMJRA 2.0: Grand Finale." Linked above the line at Pirate's Cove in "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup – Happy 2017 Edition."

Trickle Down Conservation

CBF gets $1.1M to help livestock farmers with conservation

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and its partners received a $1.1 million award to help livestock farmers in Maryland carry out conservation practices like raising animals on pasture rather than in confined areas.

The money, a Regional Conservation Partnership Program award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will support about 20 livestock farmers convert cropland to pasture, the USDA said.

So the program is aimed at converting CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operations) into pasture raising operations? I question the efficiency, as the same number of animals will eat the same amount of forage or more if left in the field. And $1.1 million between 20 farmers is roughly $50 thousand each. I wonder how many farmers will be find that attractive.

"Putting livestock back on pasture, as farmers did for generations, is one of the best means for restoring both farm profits and clean water," Chesapeake Bay Foundation Executive Director Alison Prost said in a statement. "Pasture-raised animals are generally healthier, input costs are lower, and farmers are often paid a premium for selling 'grass-fed' products."

Yes, and I have occasionally even noticed a change in quality. And even more occasionally, a change for the better. YMMV.

Converting cropland to pasture also results in less potential runoff of fertilizer and manure from farms into local streams, Prost said. 

However, in most cases, CBF and it's allies tend to oppose all agricultural land uses as pollution sources.

The projects will target counties within the Upper Potomac watershed, which represent the highest number or concentration of dairy livestock operations in Maryland, the USDA said.

Will this be a typical bait and switch operation, where the money goes to CBF, who spends it on "education" or will this money actually be used to offset the "costs" of converting cropland to pasture. And how much overhead will CBF extract along to way to support its operations. 10%, 20%, 30%?