Sea World takes a page from Big Oil's book and other random thoughts

March heat.

A Twitter posting from April 9:

SeaWorld ‏‪@SeaWorld‬ Apr 9

Please read this information on how our killer whale habitats are some of the largest in the world: ‪http://bit.ly/1GiI0I3 

Tim Jones ‪@tjonesak‬

Apr 9

‪@SeaWorld‪ Just how many of your habitats are the size of the Pacific Ocean?‬

Here's another exchange from April 19:

SeaWorld

Verified account

‏‪@SeaWorld

What's the most outgoing animal at SeaWorld? Click here to find out! ‪http://bit.ly/1GxAycc 

Tim Jones ‏‪@tjonesak
@SeaWorld‪ The PR department?‬

And what page is that? It's the one that says don't spend a lot of money fixing the problem, put the money into a strong public relations campaign and bombard the public with self-assuring lies about what you are doing or not doing.  Just about every 10 tweets on my feed these days are some positive message from Sea World about how great they are. Now commercials are showing up on television touting the great good the whale guardians are doing, even claiming whales in their care live just as long in captivity as they do in the wild. I say show me a 70-100 year old whale. I really don't care how much good they say they are doing, saving a manatee calf does not excuse keeping killer whales in tiny pools for decades.

Meanwhile on the anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico a number of demonstrators were arrested at BP headquarters in the area. So far nobody from BP has been arrested.

Sign at every Walmart checkout stand Monday April 13 read something like this: "Walmart starting wage now $10.23 per hour." Only12 more dollars per hour to reach the adjusted minimum wage from 1972.

At the recent NRA convention, Wayne LaPierre says President Obama has confiscated all the guns in the United States, and that Hillary Clinton will confiscate any that are still out there. I wonder if he can name one person who is not under arrest who had a single firearm confiscated.

March 2015 was the warmest March on record world wide since statistics started in 1880. And the past 12 months have been the warmest on record. Major storms also.

Carly Fiorina. Oh please, it's starting to hurt.

Meanwhile the clown car that's driving around collecting Republican candidates for president keeps rolling along.

And in Washington, President Obama continues his rope-a-dope action, landing a punch and then leaning back on the ropes while those Republicans swing wildly trying to knock him down. This time it was shaking hands with Raul Castro in the gradual process of normalizing relations with Cuba after 50 years of no contact.

The Alaska Legislature is nearing adjournment and has yet to put out a law governing regulation of legalized marijuana. Meanwhile police continue to target users making sure despite the legality, pot will still be illegal in the police mentality. As if it were New Year's Eve, extra patrols are being activated this weekend to catch people driving under the influence because they see the date 4/20 as a big holiday for celebration by stoners. The number has come to symbolize pot in social media; it's based on a time school let out in one California town and kids went out to smoke. There are other interpretations. Their announcement even shows people in stores stoking up on munchies. I wouldn't expect fireworks.  Celebrate 4/20 with the Anchorage police

Note the puffed cheek.

On an optimistic note, I think a couple of the Pine grosbeaks who hung out at the feeders last winter have stuck around to nest and raise a family somewhere nearby. Just about every afternoon a male and a female show up in the yard and poke through the leavings from the winter that I haven't cleaned up yet. I read that they have cheek pouches where they carry food to give to the young ones in the nest.

And that's the day. Seven p.m., there's a storm blustering outside and I haven't even had pants on yet today.