I wouldn’t be taking a Carnival Cruise

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All joking aside what is going on with Carnival cruises?

To have so many ships in such a short time with serious / sometimes critical problems is concerning.

An engine fire could be called an accident, or an anomaly and it’s a good thing that the fire was controlled even if that meant 5000 passengers had a hellish week while the ship was being towed in.

Honestly, it could have been a lot worse. Fires on ships a sea are bad things. It’s not like you have a place to go, and you’re not going to hear a fire engine whizzing by to put out the flames. Sure you can hit the lifeboats then what? You wait for rescue, that is IF a distress call got out. Otherwise it’s up to the emergency beacons or radios in the lifeboats. The only place that a fire would be worse is in Space.

If the fire was a “one off” I’d be well everyone was lucky and I’m sorry their cruise was ruined.

What caught my attention is that Carnival has a fairly substantial number of it’s fleet reporting problems.

The problems being reported aren’t little things like a light bulb or a toilet not working.

All of these are engineering related problems.

Which in my mind begs the question… Are these ships being maintained properly? My knee jerk response is to say obviously not.

Looking at the dates the ships were completed you can see that they’re all pretty new, they shouldn’t be having these kinds of problems. There are freighters and fishing boats and other luxury liners that are operating every day which are much older.

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What does this say?

There are a couple of theories I can put out there.

1) The engineers maintaining the ships are young and inexperienced.

Ask any older worked if the person that replaced them could read well, or really understood cause & effect or could logically think through a problem to its resolution and you’re probably going to get a general trend in the answer. The trend will be towards “NO”.

 

This could simply be symptomatic of the retirement of experienced workers and their replacement with inexperienced or inferior workers.

Where do the mechanics and engineers on these cruise ships come from? Are they fully qualified to be doing the jobs they’re doing?

OR

2) Carnival Cruises is simply not paying to have the proper maintenance performed.

It wouldn’t be the first time that public / passenger / employee safety took a back seat to maximizing profit.

You really don’t want to think about how much fuel one of these ships burns per hour. With the world wide fuel prices bouncing all over hell and gone, it might be a situation where executives and accountants were trying to keep the bottom line in the black.

To do it, they started curtailing the routine replacement or refurbishment of critical components. I can hear the “Make it last another cruise” arguments now.

Having more than a passing familiarity with the business end of a screwdriver I’ve heard that argument myself. “Do we absolutely have to replace that powersupply right now? Can’t you make the machine work just a little longer even if it’s not perfect?

Regardless of which of the theories is true or close to the truth.

I think that Carnival should be ordered to cease operations.

Each of their ships should be inspected from stem to stern and none of their ships should be allowed to leave port with passengers until all necessary maintenance has been completed.

Thus far, around 20,000+ passengers have been lucky. No-one has been seriously injured, they’ve only been inconvenienced.

It’s only a matter of time before something catastrophic happens and people start dying.

N.Y. mayor ‘shocked’ by soda law ruling

I saw the following headline this morning. This link should take you to the whole article.

N.Y. mayor ‘shocked’ by soda law ruling, takes shot at Mississippi law

I couldn’t help myself…

 


 

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Dear Mayor Bloomberg.

First… REALLY???

You really don’t understand why Mississippi has passed an anti Bloomberg law?

You really were shocked that  the Judge ruled against your soda law? Obviously you must have forgotten about a little thing called freedom.

You can’t be that clueless, therefore you have to be working at being purposefully obtuse.

Let me explain this to you in a way that perhaps your sycophant aides won’t.

Mississippi, isn’t legislating in favor of obesity they’re legislating against government interference in their lives, a phenomenon all too present these days.

I wouldn’t expect someone like you to understand this concept, you’re so sure that you know whats best for everyone.

In your arrogant conceit you assume that no-one is capable of thinking for themselves or making their own choices. Further, you seek to remove any choice that could have deleterious effect.

Where Mr. Mayor would you stop?

Would Steak and all red meat be outlawed in the city of New York? Would you further legislate that only a vegan diet is acceptable? A healthier lifestyle requires less in medical costs doesn’t it?

Would you ban all alcoholic beverages from your city? That should put a stop to drunk driving. It would also reduce employee absenteeism thereby making your city more industrious and productive.

To protect society and New Yorkers Would you criminalize sex out of wedlock? Or Would you simply pass legislation to enforce reversible sterilization? This would prevent the poor from overly burdening themselves with children that could require assistance from the state, or who might become criminals.

How about requiring registration and licensing for use all cooking knives over 5” long?Those too can be used as deadly weapons.

Would you decide that fashion envy is a threat to the stability of your city and require uniforms to be worn by everyone?

Would you try to engage in eugenics, assigning men and women to each other for the purposes of reproduction. After all, in just a few generations you could erase or significantly blur the color lines in your city. Homogenous is good isn’t it?

Would you outlaw religion? Or will you simply define a State religion, thereby removing any potential conflict over beliefs?

When your ideas were rejected and the people engaged in protests and other forms of civil disobedience would you give the police a shoot to kill order? Would you bring in the national guard to enforce your will? I suppose you wouldn’t need the national guard, NYPD does seem to shoot and kill innocent people with frightening efficiency. 

Mr Mayor…

As insane as these ideas sound. To some extent throughout history been tried in various times and places, thankfully for the most part they’ve failed or at least been mercifully short lived.

Despots, and Dictators seem to start out by enacting laws “For the safety and Security of their people”. Historically, it doesn’t end well.

Thankfully you’re not in a position of national power. You pose little threat to the rest of us. 

The people of Mississippi and indeed other states are using you as a means to voice their opinion by saying no to the Nannyism which leads to a dark path, a path that is anathema to the core beliefs of America and her citizens.

That Mr Mayor is why you’ve become a laughing stock in so many places.

That’s why a Judge has ruled against your silly law. That is why other states are etching your name in the annals of their books of law as someone who is on the wrong side of common sense and freedom.

That’s why you’re becoming largely irrelevant.

Mr. Mayor, you do serve one purpose, You’re an example to our politicians about what can happen when you go too far.

I hope they get the message.

I look forward to the phrase “He’s a / Thats a Bloomberg” entering the national conversation as a euphemism for someone or something which is largely irrelevant.

Well I was going to blog today…

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But it’s all the same… 

Guns Bad, Budget, Pope, Horrific Shooting, Iraq Bombing, Afghanistan Friendly Fire, Guns Good, Crazy People doing Crazy Things, President & Congress Fighting, Guns Bad, Budget, Pope, Horrific Shooting, Iraq Bombing, Afghanistan Friendly Fire, Guns Good, Crazy People doing Crazy Things, President & Congress Fighting, Guns Bad, Budget, Pope, Horrific Shooting, Iraq Bombing, Afghanistan Friendly Fire, Guns Good, Crazy People doing Crazy Things, President & Congress Fighting, Guns Bad, Budget, Pope, Horrific Shooting, Iraq Bombing, Afghanistan Friendly Fire, Guns Good, Crazy People doing Crazy Things, President & Congress Fighting, Guns Bad, Budget, Pope, Horrific Shooting, Iraq Bombing, Afghanistan Friendly Fire, Guns Good, Crazy People doing Crazy Things, President & Congress Fighting, Guns Bad, Budget, Pope, Horrific Shooting, Iraq Bombing, Afghanistan Friendly Fire, Guns Good, Crazy People doing Crazy Things, President & Congress Fighting, Guns Bad, Budget, Pope, Horrific Shooting, Iraq Bombing, Afghanistan Friendly Fire, Guns Good, Crazy People doing Crazy Things, President & Congress Fighting, Guns Bad, Budget, Pope, Horrific Shooting, Iraq Bombing, Afghanistan Friendly Fire, Guns Good, Crazy People doing Crazy Things, President & Congress Fighting…

Oh I forgot, Carnival Cruise Ship broken. Travelers get lesson in raw sewage…

In short I’m BORED with the world.

I wish I was a conspiracy theorist. At least then I’d have something exciting going on. LOL

When did the “News” degenerate into nothing but the same re-hashed formulaic stories again and again?

Today, the only interesting things have been Dianne Feinstein and Ted Cruz being testy with each other.

Oh and story about some Congresswoman from Texas named Sheila Jackson Lee who back in Jan suggested that everybody just turn in their guns. What she said wasn’t all that interesting but the comments from her own constituents were priceless. Including that she’d apparently shown up on a list of Communist party members.

There was also an article for which I can only find one source that describes US plans to share American Citizens financial data with all of the various intelligence agencies. The article reports that the Government claims this sweeping monitoring is to prevent terrorism, money laundering, and all kinds of illegal activities.

I’ll believe that when the government stops itself and big corporations from money laundering and corruption.

In the mean time I find myself thinking that a bag ‘o cash stashed under my mattress might not be a bad option, not that i’m involved in money laundering or criminal behavior but I’m uncomfortable with the possibility of an IRS official asking me to account for $600 in cash that I blew on lap dances.

Interesting article about California

I have no idea how I stumbled upon this web site. I was probably reading something in a news piece and clicked on a random link. Thank goodness my Virus protection is up to date or I’d be watching German cartoon porn or something.

Anyhoo, 

I liked what the author had to say and thought I’d share it. I’m going to put the links to the website and also a PDF of the article here in this post. One of them should work.

I’m not sure that I totally agree with all of Mr. Hansons points but I did enjoy the article very much.  There were some parts of the piece that resonated with me enough that I’ve gone on to read some of his other articles. 

If I find others of equal interest, I’ll post them here too.

It’s long, but worth the read.

The 30 year  time frame Mr. Hanson cites is almost an exact match for the time that I’ve been in California. I’ve been here 35 years.

It’s comforting to me to know that I’m not the only one who has seen changes for the worse in the Golden State.

Here is the link to the original article

Here is the PDF of the article.

Works and Days » California at Twilight » Print.pdf

In the “Biting the Hand that Feeds” column…

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Hamid Karzai has accused the US of conspiring with the Taliban so that we can keep troops in his shit hole of a country.

All I can say is it’s a damn good thing I’m not the president of our country.

I’d have ordered our troops out of Afghanistan instantly. Like within 48 hours!

Enough is enough and Hamid fucking Karzai has certainly pushed my personal limits with his duplicity and hypocrisy. 

Secretary of Defense Hagel is visiting Afghanistan. I was pleased that he cancelled a joint press conference after Karzais statements. I’d have been happier if Hagel had also cancelled the state dinner. 

Karzai is not someone that we should trust, deal with, or support. 

Let’s bring our people home and let the Afghani people devour themselves. It’s time for us to cut our losses.