The Heat Isn't Just the Southwest US

I think the news that it's hitting 120 degrees in Phoenix today and being so hot all over the Southwest US is getting around. That seems clear.

What isn't also clear is the heat on another continent.

Heatwave scorches Europe, 

from London to Siberia

Europe sizzled in a continent-wide heatwave on Wednesday, with London seeing Britain's hottest June day since 1976 as Portugal battled to stamp out deadly forest fires.

More than 1,000 firefighters were still fighting to control the flames that broke out in central Portugal at the weekend, killing 64 people.

Cooler weather was aiding their efforts, but thermometers were still hovering around 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit)—a level matched across oven-like swathes of Europe, including Italy, Austria, the Netherlands and even alpine Switzerland.

Two forest fires have also broken out since Sunday on Croatia's southern Adriatic coast, prompting the authorities to evacuate 800 tourists, though the blazes have now been brought under control.In Italy, forecasters say the current heatwave could turn out to be the most intense in 15 years, with temperatures around eight degrees above the seasonal average—39 C in Milan and up to 30 in the Alps at an altitude of 1,000 metres (3,300 feet).

Britain saw its first five-day stretch of temperatures over 30 degrees in June since 1995—and the thermometer hit 33.9 C in west London, a UK record for the month since 1976.

In Guildford, southwest of the capital, a road surface melted on Tuesday, with motorists likening it to a bar of chocolate left out in the hot sun.

In Russia, Siberia was also suffering a heatwave, with temperatures of up to 37 Celsius in the city of Krasnoyarsk, Channel One television reported.

It's gotten so clear there's global warming, apparently, even the extreme Right Wing website, Breitbart,  posted the same story.

Heatwave scorches Europe, 

from London to Siberia

So, yeah, it looks like 2017 is shaping up to be, again, the new hottest year in recorded history.

Maybe we need those Paris Climate Accords after all.

Turns Out It Is the Heat After All

Have you seen what's going on this week, just now, in the Southwest? The weather? The temperatures and forecasts?

American Just Cancelled 43 Flights to Phoenix Because This Place Is a Literal Hellscape

While the headline is more than a bit of hyperbole, the fact is, some jet planes can't handle temperatures over 118 degrees. it's been forecast for Phoenix today to be over that. It's supposed to be 120 degrees there today and 119 tomorrow, Wednesday.

And keep in mind, it's not even July yet, of course, let alone the hottest month of the year down there, August.

Then check this out.  While this has become more common, not that long ago it wasn't like this. The following took place in June, 2013.

Death Valley hit hottest U.S. June temperature ever

The temperature hit 129 for the first time that year.  Now? It's not uncommon.

Then this happened, just last year.

Two Middle East locations hit 129 degrees, hottest ever in Eastern Hemisphere, maybe the world

If a person didn't know any better, you'd think the planet was heating up or something.

Links:

Too hot to fly: Dozens of US flight cancellations due to excessive heat

Canceled flights, burning door handles: Heat hits Southwest

Too Hot to Fly? Climate Change May Take a Toll on Air Travel

Planes, Road Burns And Snakes: 5 Things That Extreme Heat Brings

Obama's Coming to Take Our Guns!

From Phoenix this week:

2008: Obama's coming to take our guns!

2009: Obama's coming to take our guns!

2010: Obama's coming to take our guns!

2011: Obama's coming to take our guns!

2012: Obama's coming to take our guns!

2013: Obama's coming to take our guns!

2014: Obama's coming to take our guns!

2015: Obama's coming to take our guns!

It got tiresome the second year they said it.

We knew it was stupid the first year, the first time they said it. The second year, it was already old.

Sorry, Obama haters, signs the economy is picking up

Yes, anyone and everyone who doesn't want this president to succeed (that would be you, Senator Mitch McConnell, among many others, mostly from his own political party and/or the Right Wing of the nation), there are excellent, strong signs the economy is improving. Here are but a few:

--Housing around the country is showing some signs of rebounding. Phoenix and Tuscon, Arizona, for instance--two markets badly hit by the downturn from 2008 on--show increases in places of a 20% range in increased sales. (See all links below).

--Chrysler announced it's experiencing its best sales in 4 years;

--Further, Chrysler announced rather big news that they're not even going to have their usual two week Summer shutdown this year, sales are that good for them;

--In a much "bigger picture" indication and trend for the country and our economy, manufacturing activity is also said to be up significantly;

Is it enough? No. Are we where we want and need to be? Again, no. But it's an improvement. It's a lot of improvements.

In the meantime, the president did a very cool thing yesterday and mixed some international business with pumping up the troops a bit by flying into Afghanistan. He also thanked them for their service and sacrifices and hard work.

The haters will always hate, I suppose, even at the risk of either bringing or keeping their own nation from succeeding.

Links: http://www.npr.org/2012/05/01/151709227/some-housing-markets-rebound-but-bargains-scarce; http://www.npr.org/2012/05/01/151753728/chrysler-sees-best-april-sales-in-four-years; http://www.npr.org/2012/05/01/151761864/manufacturing-activity-hiring-pace-picks-up; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/02/world/asia/obama-lands-in-kabul-on-unannounced-visit.html

OH, NO!!!!!

There's going to be yet ANOTHER Republican presidential candidate debate this Wednesday!! AAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!! To make matters even worse--and come on, we didn't think it could get worse, right?---it'll be in Arizona! You know what that means. They'll be trying to further outdo one another by going even farther Right Wing, but especially on immigration. Yikes. This is one sad state of affairs (no pun intended).

Has the time finally come for gays in American sports?

Could this finally be the tipping point, so to speak, for gays to "come out" in American sports?

First there's this about a week ago from The New York Times :

Rangers' Avery Joins Campaign for Gay Rights

By JOHN BRANCH

Since September, advocates for same-sex marriage in New York have released 30-second videos of celebrities endorsing their cause. More than 30 have taken part, including the actors Julianne Moore and Sam Waterston, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the former first daughter Barbara Bush. On Thursday, former President Bill Clinton released a written statement of support, too.

Until now, supporters have come mostly from the worlds of politics, entertainment, theater and fashion. One type of New York celebrity was conspicuously absent: the athlete.

Enter Rangers forward Sean Avery.

He recently recorded a video, becoming one of only a few active athletes in American team sports to voice support for gay rights, and is believed to be the first in New York to publicly advocate for same-sex marriage. No active male player in a major American team sport has declared his homosexuality, and homosexual slurs remain in use to insult opponents and officials.

So that was some pretty big and welcome news.

Next up was this, yesterday:

Charles Barkley: In sports, ability to play should outweigh sexual orientation

If "Mr. Macho" Charles Barkley can have an open mind on this, can that many people be far behind?

Finally, that was followed closely by this, late yesterday:

NBA executive Rick Welts comes out gay

Sure, there have been people in American sports who have come out but it's been extremely rare and very isolated cases.


So we'll see, of course.  It's a good beginning.  This seems like a groundswell of support for equality and getting over our former neanderthal closed-mindedness and bigotry.

Hopefully this is the beginning of the end for the ugly, punishing silence up to now required for professional athletes in the US.

Good news----out of Arizona, of all places.

Yahoo!

Arizona governor vetoes birther, campus gun bills

By David Schwartz

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Arizona's Republican Governor Jan Brewer on Monday vetoed two controversial bills, one mandating proof of U.S. citizenship to run for president, the other allowing guns on college campuses, in a clear setback for conservatives who control the state legislature.

I wonder what's come over Governor Brewer.  Maybe she and the state have figured out they've gone far enough to the right and they need to reel back.

When you put that with the fact that the Tea Party tax day rallies yesterday were down to tiny numbers, it is just about enough to give you hope.  Maybe the extreme right wing has swung far enough "out there", that they're headed back to the rest of us, back where reality resides.

Here's hoping.

Update:  Later this same day she apparently had to "throw them a bone", so to speak:  Gov. Brewer Signs Law Giving Tea Party Flag Same Status As American Flag


Them's some mighty weird people down there in Arizona.

Link:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110419/pl_nm/us_arizona_birther

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/19/tea-party-rallies-getting-smaller/

Forbes' "Most Miserable Sports Cities": You knew Kansas City had to be on this one (updated)

Oh, yeah, you know Kansas City has to be on the list of Forbes Magazines "Most Miserable Sports Cities".


I'm just surprised--and pleased--we're not in the top 5.  (Or is that "bottom 5"?)


The Stats:


No. 7 Kansas City

Teams: Chiefs, Royals, Kings, Scouts
Championship round record: 3-2
Semifinal round record: 5-6
Total Seasons/championships: 118/3
Last title: 1985

Admit it; just reading the words "Kansas City" induces glazed eyes and the sudden need for a nap. The NBA and NHL both skipped town, and the city's sports postseason history is mostly defined by George Brett's Royals falling just short against the Yankees. Kansas City built the Sprint Center, but no one has come.


At what point, I wonder, does David Glass care?


More to the point, at what point does David Glass REALLY push to win in the MLB and actually SPEND MONEY?

Someone needs to tell him about ROI.  Specifically, they need to tell him that the more you win, the more people show up for games and the  more tickets he sells and food gets bought and parking spaces paid for.


I liked the fan's sign from the "Number 8 worst" city, Cleveland, that said "We are sick of hoping for 'next year'."


Interestingly, here are those "top 5" Most Miserable Sports Cities in the US this year, as judged by Forbes Magazine:


The “top” five:

1. Seattle 
2. Atlanta 
3. Phoenix 
4. Buffalo 
5. San Diego 

So bad as it is sports-wise here in Kansas City, it could always be worse.

Let's hope we don't get there.

We know you can but would you help us with this, Mr. Glass?

Link to original post:  http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ys-forbes_most_miserable_sports_cities_022811

http://www.forbes.com/2011/02/28/seattle-atlanta-phoenix-business-sports-miserable-sports-cities_slide_8.html

Update:  More good news on the Royals today from The Pitch, too:   

Kansas City Royals are not dead last in USA Today's baseball Power Rankings

Link here:  http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/2011/03/kansas_city_royals_usa_today.php

Another big example of health care rationing here and now in the US

As it says above, yet another example--this one the latest--of health care rationing here in the good ol' US of A, this time from The New York Times:

Arizona Cuts Financing for Transplant Patients

By Marc Lacey


PHOENIX — Even physicians with decades of experience telling patients that their lives are nearing an end are having difficulty discussing a potentially fatal condition that has arisen in Arizona: Death by budget cut.
Effective at the beginning of October, Arizona stopped financing certain transplant operations under the state’s version of Medicaid. Many doctors say the decision amounts to a death sentence for some low-income patients, who have little chance of survival without transplants and lack the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to pay for them.

Just don't think and/or don't tell me rationing of health care doesn't already take place in America because it does.  This is just one more example in a long line of them, just the latest.  It's pathetic.
 
If you look at the picture that goes with this story, too, at the top of it, you'll see Mr. Randy Sheperd looks solidly Middle-Class here.  We're not talking only about not giving medicine to the indigent.  This isn't handouts to or for the poor.  It's important to note that.
 
Link:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/us/03transplant.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a23

Leave that forgiveness crap for Jeebus

The Catholic Church will have nothing of it.

From NPR today:

Last November, a 27-year-old woman was admitted to St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. She was 11 weeks pregnant with her fifth child, and she was gravely ill. According to a hospital document, she had "right heart failure," and her doctors told her that if she continued with the pregnancy, her risk of mortality was "close to 100 percent."

The patient, who was too ill to be moved to the operating room much less another hospital, agreed to an abortion. But there was a complication: She was at a Catholic hospital.

"They were in quite a dilemma," says Lisa Sowle Cahill, who teaches Catholic theology at Boston College. "There was no good way out of it. The official church position would mandate that the correct solution would be to let both the mother and the child die. I think in the practical situation that would be a very hard choice to make."

But the hospital felt it could proceed because of an exception — called Directive 47 in the U.S. Catholic Church's ethical guidelines for health care providers — that allows, in some circumstance, procedures that could kill the fetus to save the mother. Sister Margaret McBride, who was an administrator at the hospital as well as its liaison to the diocese, gave her approval.

The woman survived. When Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted heard about the abortion, he declared that McBride was automatically excommunicated — the most serious penalty the church can levy.

The story goes on to rightly mention "When priests have been caught..." sexually molesting and/or physically abusing children... "their bishops have protected them, and it has taken years or decades to defrock them, if ever."

But one nun, saving the life of one mother, with an abortion?

Fugghedaboudit, you'reouttaheah...

Apparently her problems would be solved and she wouldn't have been excommunicated if only she had a penis, poor thing.

Just don't think it's not still a man's world.

Link to original post:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126985072&ft=1&f=1001

California: what a mess

Okay, we know California has horrible budget problems, is broke and can't afford, nearly, to even exist but now comes news that they have five of the worst cities , nationally, for air quality, too.

Additionally, and to make matters worse, news out this morning also shows that "Five states — New York, California, Texas, Arizona and Florida — are perilously close to losing out on congressional seats because of lackluster participation in the U.S. census."

(Side note, four of those five have really horrible real estate and economy markets, to boot, to date. You can bet the government officials are screaming at the top of their lungs about now, telling people to fill in those census forms, if it isn't too late, and to get them in.)

California: it sucks to be you.

Can you say "to hell in a handbasket"?