Weather

2011 Joplin Missouri Tornado Review and Update

The tornado that hit Joplin Missouri in May 2011 devastated a large swath through town. The first video below was recorded as the tornado hit a gas station/minimart.  The people in the store ended up huddled in the storage refrigerator in back and were extremenly lucky to survive.  The person who made this video explains:

The video i took while at Fastrip on east 20th street. We huddled in the back of the store until the glass got sucked out , then ran into the walk in storage fridge. Sorry for the lack of visuals but the audio is pretty telling of how intense the storm was. The tornado hits at around 1:20 seconds.

The next day, this person documented the structure from the outside.  You can see how fortunate these people were to survive this tornado.  Y9u can hear a lot of praying to Jesus during the tornado.  I think this is why these people survived without injury.

Aftermath

Update

Two months after the tornado, recovery efforts were just beginning.  The city had been focusing on cleaning up the mountains of debris. More than 7,000 homes were destroyed.  The May 22 tornado killed 159 people, displaced 5,000 workers, smashed 10 public school buildings and ruined 18,000 cars.

The TV show Extreme Makeover is building 7 homes in Joplin and I am sure will be on the television soon.  It looks like a long recovery time for Joplin.  Keep them in your prayers.  If you would like to help, see the links below.

If you would like to help

 

Justice

Amanda Knox is innocent and she is home

With Amanda Knox (who was convicted of murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy) on her way home after having her conviction overturned in Italian court, I would like to say I am happy she is free.  Meredith Kercher’s own mother said today that they don’t want the wrong person convicted of killing her daughter.

I believe Amanda Knox is innocent of this crime.  And I believe the Italian justice system botched this case in countless ways.  Here is an interesing video of a panel that was held at Seattle University in April 2011 about the case for Knox’s innocence:

 

Spiritual

Only Evil Continually

Gen 6:5-6
(5) Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
(6) And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

Often when I read the news, I am reminded of these verses in the Old Testament.  This was said of God just before Noah and the flood.  God saw that men were so evil He decided to erase the drawing board and start over.  He destroyed the whole world, save one righteous man and his family.

As I was mulling over these verses, I wondered what God thought of TODAY’S world. I was reminded of Jesus’ words when He was asked about the time of His return.  Interestingly, He seemed to draw from the story of Noah to couch His answer about the end:

Mat 24:37
(37) “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.

 

Jesus goes on to clarify that “just like the days of Noah” involves sudden destruction on the world, just like when the flood came.  But in my mind, I wondered if, like in the days of Noah, God felt the same about the world today.

I know I do. I just heard a news story about a 14 year old girl who was adopted from an abusive life in another country, only to be abused by her adopted parents.  She died in her own yard after being forced to stay outside in the cold with no clothes on.

Thank God for salvation through Jesus Christ.  But this evil world doesn’t deserve it.

 

Faith vs Faithless

Public School vs Christian school

Just saw the video below where some dumb ass teacher in a California public school actually penalizes students for saying, “Bless You” if someone sneezes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUerHTLFzq0

Contrasting this, here are some quite different experiences and attitudes at a typical Christian school; upper classmen PRAYING for junior classmen.  Imagine that!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Co9s0BEs30

Retirement

Retire in the land of the SUN!

I want to retire where the sun shines more than 50% of the time.  I’m tired of the dreary grey of the Pacific Northwest.  So I googled “most sun in the USA” and got this chart:

City % Sunshine
Yuma, Arizona 90
Redding California 88
Phoenix, Arizona 85
Tucson, Arizona 85
Las Vegas, Nevada 85
El Paso, Texas 84
Fresno, California 79
Reno, Nevada 79
Flagstaff, Arizona 78
Sacramento, California 78
Pueblo, Colorado 76
Key West, Florida 76
Albuquerque, New Mexico 76

Hey, look what #2!  Redding, California.  What a coincidence.  I guess we’ll have to start looking there again.

We bought property in Texas but the economics in the age of Obama have all but killed our plans to go to Texas.

By the way, to compare these top sunny places with Seattle, here is a chart that pretty much tells the story:

Seattle Sun Chart
Yearly Seattle Sun Chart
Tea Party

Is the Tea Party Racist?

The left just loves to accuse the opposition of racism concerning every topic from soup to nuts.  It becomes a loud din in the ear after a while.  Anyone that knows anything about the Tea Parties knows that the issues among tea party sympathizers has NOTHING to do with race.

As far as I’m concerned, Accusations of racism only expose that the left is bankrupt of ideas and is lashing out in desperation.

Herman Cain set the record straight in Georgia when the Tea Party there was accused of harboring KKK members and white supremacists.

Economy

The Rich Paying their Fair Share

“Now the Republicans, you know when I, I talked about this earlier in the week. They said ‘well, this is class warfare.’ You know what? If asking a billionaire to pay their fair share of taxes. To pay the same tax rate as a plumber or a teacher is class warfare, then you know what? I, I, I, I, I’m, I’m a warrior for the middle class. I’m happy to fight for the middle class,”

President Obama said at the Brent Spence Bridge in Cincinnati, OH.

What a truck load this is!  I think Pres. Obama generally believes a lot of what he says, but in this case, he is just being a politician.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to KNOW that if anyone needs to pay “their fair share” it would be the lower 47% of taxpayers who pay no federal income taxes at all. According to the Office of Tax Analysis, in 2002, the top 5 percent of taxpayers paid more than one-half (53.8 percent) of all individual income taxes, but reported roughly one-third (30.6 percent) of income. The top 5% pay over half the bill while the bottom 47% pay nothing and Obama wants to stick it to the top 5%!!  More accurately, Obama wants to get re-elected.

What I don’t understand are the people who not only don’t think this is unfair, but think the rich should pay even more!  These people sound like a bunch of children to me.  Children are immature and don’t understand the world around them.

Obama is trying to generate energy in his base.  And his base are leftist ideologues who hate anyone who has succeeded in our country.  The sad part is that Obama is our president and this nation needs a president who is willing to fix our economy.  Leftist politics won’t fix our economy.  Leftist policies are what broke our economy in the first place and is keeping a strangle hold on it still.

2010 can not come soon enough for our country.  We all know someone who is about to lose their home, their business, their job as a result of the silly leftist policies of Barack Obama. And it’s not because the rich have too much and pay too little.  It is because the rich are being stifled and scared.  And the rich (individuals and corporations) are those who employ the rest of us.  Until they feel it is SAFE to start investing in jobs and business again, nothing will change in our economy.  And Obama does not get that.

 

Dave's Conservative Blog