Scuttlebutt
Let’s start with good news from an article by Cortney Moore at foxnews.com, edited by yours truly: Three premature babies have been safely transported from Ukraine to Poland, rescued by Project DYNAMO, an American civilian and ally rescue nonprofit based in Tampa. It was male twins and a female. Kudos. Here are Lenny & Moishe:
Also from FN, article by Stephen Sorace, edited by yt: Florida trooper Toni Schuck drove her patrol car directly into a speeding drunk driver who was barreling toward a 10K route where thousands of runners were participating on Sunday. Both drivers survived. The hero is recovering at home.
I’m sure we’ll be cursing even more at the pump, but suspending oil imports from Russia is the right move. Too bad it had to be forced by public opinion and was not an immediate product of common sense. Of course, the administration being what it is will now seek black gold from the monsters of Iran and Venezuela rather than turning our own spigots back on.
Headline from Rich Lowry’s op-ed piece at nypost.com: “If the Ukraine war hasn’t scared the West straight on energy, nothing will.” Cue Metallica: “Sad but true.” The only thing that will is Republicans holding power until alternative methods are up to snuff and cost effective — if they ever get there.
Only diehard leftists expect the UN to do any good. Headline from foxnews.com: “UN says email ordering staff not to call Russian war ‘invasion’ came from regional office.” Spin, baby, spin.
Writers love irony, so it has been fun hearing Elon Musk, maker of electric cars, come out in favor of reopening the U.S. pipelines. He has also said Europe should bring its nuclear plants back online. And here’s an excerpt from a nypost.com editorial about the lifeline he has provided the Ukraine: “Russia aims to ‘knock the country fully offline,’ but Elon Musk has provided Starlink, ‘a global satellite internet provider owned by Musk’s company SpaceX.’ Now everyday Ukrainians can ‘coordinate their defense,’ rally ‘people to their cause’ and show the ‘devastating cost of war.’ And in the future, ‘Satellite internet might one day offer an uncensored alternative for people living in North Korea, China or Cuba.’” Kudos, sir.
They called it scuttlebutt in old films. The Russian convoy may be plagued by corruption and drunkenness. It is suffering not only the lack of gasoline but the lack of tires, as the commanders had not anticipated the roads being so bad. That is a big problem because much of the country’s commerce is controlled by thugs, not businessmen. As for alcohol, it has been a problem for Russia for decades. According to worldpopulationreview.com, Hungary has the highest rate of alcoholism, 21.2%, followed by Russia, 20.9%. The USA is seventh, 13.9%.
Time for the insignificant. Given today’s wind, I wasn’t looking forward to the floating book shop. Fortunately, an abundance of sunshine took a lot of the sting out of it. I retreated to the car only once for a few minutes to take the chill off. My thanks to The Quiet Man, who bought two kids books, and to Ira, who purchased The Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel by Michio Kaku; and to young Abdullah, who once again overcompensated me for several titles: two in Russian, and Tobacco and Shamanism in South America by Johannes Wilbert; The Septembers of Shariz by Dalia Sofer; and a tiny medical dictionary.
My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE
FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vic-Fortezza-Author-118397641564801/?fref=ts
Read Vic’s Stories, free: http://fictionaut.com/users/vic-fortezza
