Reprinted from Mike Malloy Website
It's rare when there is a positive outcome from global climate change, but Houston taxpayers are getting a filing extension due to extreme flooding that's pummeling the region. The rains have claimed at least four victims, and just keep pouring down.
More than 110,000 homes are without power, offices are closed, classes cancelled, and animal rescue units are trying to save cattle and horses from drowning. Meanwhile -- a few states over -- California is still struggling to recover from a devastating drought that left deep aquifers dry, thousands of trees dead, and a dozen species of river fish teetering on the brink of extinction. And the climate change deniers continue to turn a blind eye to the devastation.
And news from the world of ammosexuals, a Philadelphia father has been charged with 3rd degree murder for "accidentally" shooting his four-year-old daughter in the head while waiving his loaded gun around. Nice. Also accidentally, a Houston man takes a real gun to a water-gun fight at a backyard BBQ and shot a 15-year-old in the shoulder. An 8-year-old was accidentally shot by a man cleaning a gun in a neighboring apartment in Lodi, CA. And in an ironic move, gun-maker Beretta moved its factory from Maryland to Tennessee because it needed a "friendlier" environment more welcoming of makers of deadly weapons.
NPR has more:
"When companies uproot, executives usually point to factors like lower government taxes or fewer unions. But one gun maker, Beretta, blames something entirely different -- a law passed in Maryland to try to curb mass shootings. [emphasis added]
"The company recently moved its factory to Nashville, Tenn., because it says the law in Maryland threatened its business. The opening day was celebrated with shooting demonstrations and a warm welcome from state officials.
"'The Italian gun maker says it's being driven out of its longtime U.S. home on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. The political culture there has grown hostile to guns and to the people who make them,' the company says.
"The view couldn't be more different in the city of Gallatin.
"'They do what the people who live here really appreciate and respect and enjoy,' says Mayor Paige Brown. 'And so it's been a real pride thing for us.'
"The state of Tennessee spent more than $10 million to woo Beretta. Gallatin has also thrown in a $2 million property tax break and 100 acres for free.
"Gov. Bill Haslam says the plant has made him the envy of his Republican colleagues.
"'I literally had the governors of Texas and Georgia and North Carolina and South Carolina and I'm sure a few others walk up and go, 'Dang, Haslam, that's one we really wanted,' he says."
Well shucks, guv'nahs. That's too darned bad you didn't get that big ol' gun factory. And damn them liberals in Maryland trying to stop mass shootings and stuff. What's up with that? Better luck next time -- maybe a cigarette company will move to your holler. Or you can woo a giant stinkin' chemical company to set up shop in a wilderness area on a river. That would be cool!