Rant #1,971: Bits and Pieces

With Hurricane Harvey continuing to dominate the news--it will continue to bring many more inches of rain to Texas and now to Louisiana--it is really difficult to focus on anything else, but we will try, with little tidbits that don't really require full-length stories,

Newsman Knocked For Reporting of Looting in Hurricane Harvey Areas: ABC News Chief National Correspondent Tom Llamas has been accused by some of being a snitch in telling police about looting in the Texas areas heavily impacted by the hurricane.

Evidently, Llamas reportedly saw masked intruders looting a store, and he told the police about it, and put it up in a message on Twitter. Some people took offense at this, stating that there was a great difference between people stealing things and people who were in such dire need that they took things to survive.

Oh, here we go again ... the PC Police actually having the nerve to differentiate between "stealing" and "taking."

Llamas later clarified his statement on Twitter, saying, that he wanted "to clear things up ... we were with police who had discovered a dead body, and mentioned we saw people with faces covered going into a supermarket nearby."

Evidently, Llamas did not call police, but what he did do was notify authorities that he was already working with to get the clearest story on the hurricane that was possible.

He continued to get barraged by negative comments on Twitter, and he took both messages down because of the backlash.

Again, the PC Police are about, even in a tragedy like this, trying to explain that "stealing" and "taking" are two different things.

The only thing I have to say to the idiots that knocked Llamas is this: If these people broke into your house and started to remove things from it, would it be "stealing" or "taking?"

Gas Prices Starting To Rise: Although many people are trying to rip our nation to shreds over this thing and that thing, one thing to remember is that even with this nonsense, we are, in fact, one nation, and this is being witnessed during the Hurricane Harvey saga.

Sure, the weather may be perfect in your neck of the woods, but you are going to feel the wrath of Harvey one way or the other, too.

Since so many refineries are in the affected area, and with so many of these having to stop production due to the storm, gas prices are going to be going up.

If this has not hit your local area yet, it will be hitting it soon.

Over the last week, the average price of gas in the U.S. rose to $2.38, a five-cent increase, and experts predict that gas will rise during the next couple of weeks between five cents and 50 cents due to the situation.

Sure, there are gas stations which take advantage of such situations immediately, really too quick to be believed.

One gas station by me raised its price by 15 cents literally the day after Harvey hit Texas. I don't understand how this can be, how the hurricane impacted its price literally 24 hours after the storm hit hundreds of miles away, but this gas station saw fit to raise its prices.

Soon, whatever gas most gas stations have will have to be supplemented with the next shipment, and that is where you are going to see the prices rise.

And you just know the hurricane is going to greatly impact prices in other areas, including at the supermarket, and even if you plan on taking a plane somewhere during the next few months.

So get your wallets out ... you can thank Harvey for having less money in your billfold, whether you live in the affected area or you live in New York, in Washington State, or in the Midwest.

Strange Occurrences on TV: I woke up this morning as I always do, early, around 3:30 a.m., to get ready for work and to do things that I need to do to reach the point that I can leave the house and not have to think about anything I did not have the time to do.

After getting dressed, I always put on the CBS Overnight News, which then leads into another national newscast and then into the local WCBS news.

But this morning, I noticed that there was no CBS Overnight News; it was replaced with a rerun of "The Young and the Restless" soap opera.

At the end of the soap opera, it segued right into another half hour of national news, but evidently, the CBS Overnight News was not on for some reason, a reason that I can't yet figure out.

I notice as I am typing all of this that WCBS, our local New York affiliate, has gone out here and there, and I am wondering if the local station is having some technical difficulties and was unable to show the CBS Overnight News because of that.

No mention of it has been made on the news shows that followed the errant "The Young and the Restless," so I--and probably many other viewers--are left to wonder what happened.

Is it related to Hurricane Harvey? I don't know, but as I said, even though this storm took place hundreds of miles away from where I am, it is impacting everything, so why not blame it on Harvey, too?

Update on My Job Search:

That is all for today. Speak to you again tomorrow.