Golfer Sparks Wildfires

A golfer in California inadvertently started a wildfire that blazed through 12-acres before firemen brought it under control by hitting a rock with his golf club. Firemen put the case together after interviewing people on the scene. Authorities say the man will not be charged and his name is being withheld from the media.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

Esperanza Fire Arsonist Sentenced to Death

Raymond Lee Oyler has been sentenced to death for the premeditated murder of five, young firefighers who lost their lives saving people and property from wildfires set by the 38-year old Oyler. In 2006, Raymond Lee Oyler intentionally started a fire in Riverside County which was later called the "Esperanza Fire," as it ravaged that small city (about 90 miles outside of Los Angeles). Five firemen, all of whom (save one) were in their 20s, died putting out the blaze.

Oyler was also found guilty of 20 counts of arson and 17 counts of using an incendiary device. The judge could have sentenced the arsonist to life without parole, but opted for the death penalty - a move his lawyer said was "expected."

He's been fine with this whole thing since he got over the initial verdict.

- Mark McDonald, Raymond Lee Oyler's attorney, on how his client responded to the sentence

A jury recommended the death sentence following a month-long trial.

© C Harris Lynn, 2009

A (Possible) Retraction

Yesterday (or maybe the day before - the electricity went off last night and stayed off for a long time and I was right in the middle of putting an entry together when it happened, so I got off-track), I was pretty hard on the American media for reporting - sketchily - on supposed arsons in the California area.

You have to understand, as I feel certain many who are interested in the subjects we cover here do, that the media - and particularly the American media - are just as corrupt as the Decatur County, TN legal system (and that's damnably corrupt!) and they literally ignore stories which are truly newsworthy in favor of lurid and scandalous rumors whenever possible. It's all a ratings game to them and I smelled a rat(ings booster).

But FNC - and I generally consider FNC's actual news coverage to be fairly accurate (though I freely admit their op/ed shows can get downright creepy in their rhetoric) - is reporting today that California police have made several arrests of possible arsons, and even managed to kill one.

I'm pretty sure the one that was killed was in or near L.A. Just... putting that out there.

Now, we here to The Weirding are completely unlike any other "media outlet" you have ever encountered in that we freely admit when we are wrong. And not in some buried, little sidebar somewhere on page 98.

At this point and time, though nothing has been confirmed, it does appear that at least some of the California wildfires may very well have been the result of arson and we are sorry to hear that is the case.

But we were wrong (we think) and we wanted you to know!

The OddBlog: where honesty comes to die.

UPDATE:  Links were changed and re-routed, entire posts found to have been removed relating to the corruption stemming from Decatur County, TN. - 2018

Wildfires in the Media

The California wildfires are still burning. News reports are indicating that this is the biggest evacuation in California's history and the largest in the US since Hurricane Katrina. Nearly 1 million people have been evacuated. Over 1500 homes and structures have been destroyed. Many people lost everything - their homes, their pets, their memories, their possessions. At least five people have lost their lives. And the fires are still burning.

Now reports are coming in that witnesses claim to have seen a white man setting at least one fire before getting back into his car.

Maybe it is just the Human Condition which makes us search for someone to blame when situations we cannot control occur. Obviously these fires had some source - they started somehow, somewhere - but does that mean that someone started them? Fires start spontaneously all the time and much of the United States has been gripped by one of the worst droughts in nearly a century.

Many of these fires start spontaneously when decomposing matter is left in the sun. A chemical change occurs within these piles and they slowly begin to smoke. When this smoke reaches its way to the fresher dead material at the top - material that isn't wettened and corroded by the natural process of decomposition - and the smoke hits fresh air, it bursts into flame. This happens all the time in haystacks and could very well happen in the middle of all that forest and brush they have there.

Of course, this is nothing more than speculation and I am not qualified in any field; I'm just telling you what I know. And admonishing you as to the media's wild speculations.

This is obviously a huge story and our hearts and prayers go out to everyone who has been affected by this event, as well as their friends and families, but the media has made this more than just a "major" story - they haven't reported on anything else in three days! And now they are putting out nebulous stories about "white men" in "cars" who are jetting about the California countryside, "setting spot fires." By the time they admit that these stories are insubstantial and have absolutely no bearing on the matter, the damage will have been done.

And the US media, like the US government, like US corporations, never, ever take responsibility for their actions!

REPENT! REPENT!

Some pretty wild weather here I thought I would mention, seeing as how the past year or few have been marked by such.

Where I live, we just went through one of the worst droughts in something like 100 years. It broke a week or so back with spectacular thunderstorms and 46 tornadoes which literally encircled the terrible county in which I live.

FNC reported that New Orleans has received 8-9" of rain and has closed the City Hall, canceled school, and is taking other measures. More rain is expected tonight and tornado- and hurricane-force winds are expected in the area.

While slightly above them and below me, Atlanta, GA is saying that millions could lose water within 3 months! Their reservoir is so far below the normal level that the governor has declared a state of emergency and has asked for federal help.

MEANWHILE (elsewhere), tornadic winds are pushing wildfires across the great state of California with the number of houses and structures lost expected to hit the thousands! At least two landmarks have already been engulfed and the fires may possibly reach the sea...

Wild, wild weather phenomena or the end of the world?

REPENT, BITCHES!

I, er, ah sorry...

Smoky Haze All in My State

CNN reported today on how reports had been coming in about the haze I told you I and my neighbors first experienced here yesterday.  It appears that the wildfires may be spreading into our state even now, but I confirmed the reports about the haze.

Today was clear and didn't smell of burning wood, but I heard that there are winds coming up from the South, which may continue to blow the smoke and flames our way.  Luckily, there are also reports of possible rain in the near future, though the weather toolbar at the bottom of my browser shows nothing through Saturday.

Let's hope everything works out fine, but I'll keep you apprised.

Smoky Haze

When I woke up this morning, it looked overcast.   I couldn't tell if it was humidity or heat, but I didn't want to be out in the middle of it.  Needless to say, by a little after noon, I had to be.

The first thing I noticed when I left the house was the smell: Something was burning, but I couldn't tell what.  It smelled like paper burning or maybe garbage.  I was afraid because I live in an apartment complex, but I knew that there would at least be smoke alarms going off, if not any firetrucks in the parking lot.  I looked and looked, but it was obvious from the kids running around and people coming and going that nothing was going on around where I live, so I left.

The haze was everywhere.   I had to drive about 3-4 miles down the road to the store and the haze was all across the roads.  When I got to the store, the smoke was as far up and down the highway as I could see.  Making my purchase, I looked down at the newsstand and noticed on the front page of the local paper where an old gymnasium had burned to the ground.  I didn't look at the story too hard, but I immediately asked, "Is that where all this smoke came from?"

The woman's eyes lit up and she said, "No! They said on the Nashville radio station that it was being blown up this way from the wildfires in Georgia!"

I was a little stunned.  Georgia is at least 2-3 hours from here at the closest and I had no idea the fires were nearby!  The reports I'd heard had said they were between Florida and Georgia, which I assumed meant they were on the far side of the latter state, and that's quite a ways from here!

I guess I just didn't realize how great the fires were nor how far smoke could travel.   It really wakes you up to the whole global warming issue and puts a lot of other things into perspective, as well.

Everyone's so concerned with how technology and the Web have "made the world a smaller place," but something like this really reminds you that the world isn't an infinite landscape.  Of course, intellectually, we all know this, but emotionally, I think it's easy to forget just how small the world really is.  When you look at a map and see all the distant lands, all the countries you've never even heard of, all the places you'll never visit, everything seems so far away.

By late afternoon, the haze had cleared away and it no longer smelled of smoke, but the whole thing really set my little gerbil wheel in motion.