Protesters call out Kissinger for ‘war crimes’ while McCain lashes at them as low life ‘scum’ .. Quite the eventful day in a normally dull Senate chamber..

ART BELL MAKES THE CALL: FOURTH OF JULY FIREWORKS COMING

There has been some recent doubt as to whether ART BELL would return, but a message posted to Facebook tonight seems to make it official: Art Bell will face George Noory.. 

ART BELL MAKES THE CALL: FOURTH OF JULY FIREWORKS COMING

A real life polar express in east Pennsylvania with new fallen snow..

A little treasure found in a pawn shop in the Schuylkill Mall in Frackville PA.. Feels like the 80s again when I see these for sale. Of course minus the boxes and comic inserts..

Oh, and stores and shoppers.

Officials: Up to 1K possibly exposed to measles in Arizona

Officials: Up to 1K possibly exposed to measles in Arizona

Jon Stewart accurately destroys major news networks over blizzard coverage

Seriously.. A CNN ‘blizzard mobile’… This all was just shameful..

Jon Stewart accurately destroys major news networks over blizzard coverage

Good day from East PA

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TxzAtyoK_0?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=374]

A blast from the past.. midway through the 1900s this Buchanan Brothers song was played under the covers of darkness.. 

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don’t understand why some people are not concerned

Bill Gates the latest in a line of techcentric people who worry that artificial intelligence is a threat.

Astronomers find solar system more than double ours in age

HUMBLING..

Astronomers find solar system more than double ours in age

Arizona measles outbreak reaches 'critical point': Health officials believe the Phoenix-area woman recently diagnosed with measles may have exposed as many as 195 children to the disease at the Phoenix Children's East Valley Center on Jan. 20 and 21. Maricopa County officials were in the process of contacting the children's families Tuesday. A hospital official told 12 News that the woman was not an employee and it was not known why she was at the facility.

Arizona measles outbreak reaches 'critical point': Health officials believe the Phoenix-area woman recently diagnosed with measles may have exposed as many as 195 children to the disease at the Phoenix Children's East Valley Center on Jan. 20 and 21. Maricopa County officials were in the process of contacting the children's families Tuesday. A hospital official told 12 News that the woman was not an employee and it was not known why she was at the facility.

Andrew Sullivan writes a goodbye to readers!? Enough blogging!?

Andrew Sullivan writes,

I want to spend some real time with my parents, while I still have them, with my husband, who is too often a ‘blog-widow’, my sister and brother, my niece and nephews, and rekindle the friendships that I have simply had to let wither because I’m always tied to the blog. And I want to stay healthy. I’ve had increasing health challenges these past few years. They’re not HIV-related; my doctor tells me they’re simply a result of fifteen years of daily, hourly, always-on-deadline stress. These past few weeks were particularly rough – and finally forced me to get real.

We’ll have more to say – and we’re sure you will as well – in due course. I particularly want to take some time to thank my indispensable, amazing colleagues in a subsequent post. For the time being, auto-renewals have been suspended and the pay-meter has been disabled. While we’re in this strange, animated suspension, I just wanted to take one post to thank you personally, the readers, founding members and subscribers to the Dish.

And this

You were there before I met my husband; you were there when I actually got married; and when I finally got my green card; and when Dusty – who still adorns the masthead – died. I can’t describe this relationship outside the rather crude term of “mass intimacy” but as I write this, believe me, my eyes are swimming with tears.

How do I say goodbye? How do I walk away from the best daily, hourly, readership a writer could ever have? It’s tough. In fact, it’s brutal. But I know you will understand. Because after all these years, I feel I have come to know you, even as you have come to see me, flaws and all. Some things are worth cherishing precisely because they are finite. Things cannot go on for ever. I learned this in my younger days: it isn’t how long you live that matters. What matters is what you do when you’re alive. And, man, is this place alive.

And finally

When I write again, it will be for you, I hope – just in a different form. I need to decompress and get healthy for a while; but I won’t disappear as a writer.

But this much I know: nothing will ever be like this again, which is why it has been so precious; and why it will always be a part of me, wherever I go; and why it is so hard to finish this sentence and publish this post.

This is a majorly big deal in my life. I have loved Andrew Sullivan and hated him.. but each time I wanted depth and perspective on any given issue, I would stop randomly clicking headlines and simply go to his website for that missing piece of the larger puzzle. Sullivan has been wrong on some things.. right on some things. But his blog and opinion was always an evolving work in progress.. he brought with him site intelligence and the highest degree of analysis that could be found online..

His live blogs of the State of the Union speeches each year could not be missed..

And to a degree, his little comic logo even inspired the CoalSpeaker’s emblem that rests atop this page.

Indeed, Andrew Sullivan and his site has meant a lot to me..

I certainly hope he’s not gone for good. And as a fellow blogger, I can say this.. when you do this type of thing, you never go for good. I sense we’ll see and hear from Sullivan soon.

But..go he must.

I will miss him.

Andrew Sullivan writes a goodbye to readers!? Enough blogging!?

England Earthquake: 3.8 'Earth Tremor' Hits Leicester, Midlands

A 4.2-magnitude earthquake struck Leicester, England, on Wednesday. (Page 1)

Also Kansas near a frack well..

And a 5.7 in Northern California..

And 6.2M earthquake in the West Pacific occurred exactly at 300 miles depth….

England Earthquake: 3.8 'Earth Tremor' Hits Leicester, Midlands

Facebook click porn

I’m not a firm believer in the humanity of people.. Proof in the pudding comes from the endless supplies of Facebook posts on a daily basis about bad parenting and suffering children.. It getting rough to surf around my least favorite social network these days..

The latest this morning came with a story if a woman from West Virginia putting feces in her child’s IV in a hospital causing his fever to spike and also resulting in children and youth taking him..

I am constantly reminded by commenting friends on these stories..
I’m inundated with links on my news feed of horrible things happening to the most innocent..
And then after comments are made or ‘like’ is clicked people move on to the next heartbreaking tragedy..

This is how click porn is done on Facebook now: Offer up the worst of the worst for people to sink their teeth into ,just for clicks on a news story or website. Leaving the Facebook user with a lack of hope by noon..

I for one am ready to check out..
I already have no hope in my fellow humans, and I really and getting cost ed by all of the evidence that adds to my anger at people..

Maybe a little zoning out from Facebook is necessary.. Perhaps it’s time to click off and tune out. Or just filter things a hit better than I previously have..

Otherwise the constant flow of horrid news stories of children facing awful consequences at he hands of care givers or supposed parental figures will continue to obscure the beauty that exists in life.

At least I think there’s still some beauty and goodness.
If not that at least there’s mystery.
And obviously misery too..

Latest ISIS beheading video released by campaigners in Syria

Latest ISIS beheading video released by campaigners in Syria

The evil bear watches..

It’s amazing to see a beautiful handmade blanket turn wicked with a simple iphone camera trick..

Astronomical discovery: 'Super Saturn' with rings 200 times as large

Amazing to think that if this would be closer it would dominate earth’s night sky..

Astronomical discovery: 'Super Saturn' with rings 200 times as large

If you believe that they put a man on Mars…

We have had squirrels and garbage cans, Obama’s face and more.. but now may be the biggest shocker for people staring closely at Mars rover images.. 

This picture seems to show a man repairing the probe on the red planet.. At least that is what some are wildly saying online..

Men on Mars?
Or a rover still on earth and faking out the entire population of the globe?

The picture was released by NASA—something strange to do if you would want to hide such an occurrence. 

Shadows, Dear Watson, just shadows.
And really.. with the temperature, you really think EGON from GHOSTBUSTERS would survive without a helmet?

Wiig, McCarthy headline all-female 'Ghostbusters' cast

Director Paul Feig took to Twitter on Wednesday to reveal his all-female leads in the upcoming “Ghostbusters” reboot.

I think this is going to work out just fine..

Wiig, McCarthy headline all-female 'Ghostbusters' cast

Gov. Tom Wolf vows to support state Senate's medical marijuana bill

Gov. Tom Wolf gave an impromptu audience Tuesday to parents of children who are suffering daily from debilitating seizures and vowed to sign a medical marijuana bill that senators are writing.

Pennsylvania already seeing the difference that a Governor’s race can make..

Gov. Tom Wolf vows to support state Senate's medical marijuana bill