Methane Gas Leak Near LA (Update), Hezbollah's Dangerous Game

Invisible methane gas leak forces thousands to flee upscale LA neighborhood

A nauseous gas leak in an upscale neighborhood north of Los Angeles has closed schools and forced thousands of families to flee the area.

Neighbors have left in a mass exodus from the invisible threat of the well, at Southern California Gas Co's Aliso Canyon storage facility, which wafts occasionally, sickening many in its path, as it continues to spew enormous amounts of climate-changing methane.

It has been gushing the equivalent of about a quarter of the state's daily output of methane, along with other gases, since it was reported on October 23. 

California Gov Jerry Brown declared an emergency last week in Porter Ranch for the prolonged blowout that requires the utility to cover the costs and instructs state regulators to protect ratepayers. 

The leak, which causes a sulfur-like smell, has cost the utility $50 million so far and is expected to balloon as the company tries a tricky fix to plug the well deep underground, while also shelling out compensation for exasperated residents and fighting dozens of lawsuits.

This infrared image released by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) shows methane gas leaking from the Aliso Canyon facility near the Porter Ranch suburb of Los Angeles

It is the largest natural gas storage facility west of the Mississippi River and can provide energy to all of Southern California for a month. 

The leak is also blamed for depositing tiny oil droplets on cars and houses that are about a mile away.

The well is one of 115 in the Santa Susana Mountains where Southern California Gas Co, a division of San Diego-based Sempra Energy, stores natural gas in a vacant oil field about a mile and a half underground. 

Porter Ranch resident Laura Gideon and her family endured the sickening stench from the out-of-control natural gas leak for about a month before they could no longer tolerate the nausea, headaches and nosebleeds.

After she went to the emergency room in November vomiting and with a severe migraine, Gideon, her husband and their two children abandoned the only home they'd ever known together in the upscale Los Angeles suburb of Porter Ranch.

They moved in with her parents about ten miles away to await a fix that could still be months away.

'We're in mourning now,' she said. 'We didn't ever want to leave. We were in a nice gated community. We were safe, you know, supposedly good schools. This wasn't our plan.'  

Public health officials said most of the gas is dissipating and not causing long-term problems, but foul-smelling additives that make highly flammable gas detectable has been blamed for maladies including irritated throats, coughs and respiratory problems.

'It's like being in a disaster area, but it's not a disaster you can see,' said Sue Hammarlund, who has seen her share of national disasters as a Red Cross volunteer and has suffered from headaches and nosebleeds recently. 'I think this is more debilitating mentally.'

Two local schools closed before the end of the year and nearly 1,900 students will start the year at different schools Monday.

While more than 4,500 families have either left or are on the move, many have stayed behind - either because they're not bothered by the smell, aren't worried or don't want to hassle with moving.

The company has apologized for failing to disclose the leak after residents began complaining about the smell and for reacting slowly to their concerns.

The incident is unprecedented for a utility and it is 'forging new ground,' said Gillian Wright, a SoCalGas vice president.

Under orders from the county health department to relocate people who want to leave, SoCalGas has offered to pay up to $250 a night for hotels, plus $45 per person per day for food, or up to up to $7,500 a month for rental homes. 

Hezbollah’s Dangerous Game

On January 4, Iran’s Shiite Lebanese mercenary force, Hezbollah, detonated a large explosive device on the Lebanon-Israel border in the Mount Dov region. Their target was a pair of Israeli D-9 armored bulldozers clearing the area of brush and other obstructions. There were no Israeli casualties.

Israel had anticipated an attack from Hezbollah following its liquidation of Samir Kuntar – the notorious child-killer turned Hezbollah commander – and other senior pro-Assad mercenaries in a Damascus suburb on December 19, 2015. Israel’s Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot warned Hezbollah of “harsh” consequences if the group decided to initiate a terror attack to avenge Kuntar.

The attack itself accomplished nothing. The heavily armored D-9 bulldozers were able to withstand the blast. In an effort to bolster its image and play to a demoralized constituency, Hezbollah claimed that the attack targeted a senior Mossad official and wounded some Israelis. The claim of course was false but demonstrates Hezbollah’s desperation.

Hezbollah, in anticipation of the next round, began a period of reconstruction and rearmament. Financed by Iranian petro dollars, it acquired sophisticated anti-tank missiles and cruise missiles and increased its rocket arsenal from 12,000 to over 100,000. Some of these rockets are said to be capable of hitting targets south of Tel-Aviv.

Most of the weapons were either transported overland through Syria or sent directly to Beirut International Airport, where Hezbollah operatives maintain complete control. These weapons transfers represented a clear violation of UN Resolution 1701 but the Western component of the UN had no stomach to challenge the Syrian-Iranian-Hezbollah Axis of Evil and the Muslim component either didn’t care or actually supported it.

As Assad’s army shrunk due to defections, desertions, attrition and draft evasion, Hezbollah’s involvement grew steadily, and with its increased involvement came increased casualties. It is estimated that as many as one-thirdof Hezbollah’s frontline fighters have been killed or injured and many more are simply refusing to fight. Iran is experiencing similar problems losing several senior commanders, including generals, and facing mutinous soldiers refusing to fight in a war far from home.

Meanwhile, while Hezbollah is stuck in Syria’s quagmire, the Israel Defense Forces continues to prepare for the next round that is sure to come. The IDF has been intensifying military exercises simulating battlefield conditions that soldiers would most certainly face in Lebanon and continues to gather intelligence on Hezbollah utilizing both electronic surveillance and human intelligence (HUMINT). Israel’s intelligence forces have been successfulin penetrating the highest echelons of Hezbollah’s command structure.

A special commando unit, composed of hand-picked soldiers from other elite units, has been formed specifically to deal with the Hezbollah menace. The armored forces have been upgraded as well. Merkava tanks and Namer armored personnel carriers are now fitted with special anti-rocket defense shields like the Trophy and Iron Fist systems. These are active defense systems capable of destroying any missile in midair before the projectile reaches the vehicle’s armor. Both platforms are battle-proven and are effective against both Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG) and anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM).

To deal with Hezbollah’s rocket and missile menace, Israel has developed the Arrow, David’s Sling and Iron Dome missile defense systems with the latter proving itself in battle, having over a 90% successful rate of interception. Another system designed to shoot down mortar rounds is currently in development.

But the Israelis are not merely relying on defensive measures. Military intelligence has already mapped out thousands of targets which will be struck in the first days of the war. During the Second Lebanon War, the Israeli Air Force succeeded in destroying Hezbollah’s entire long-range missile capabilities in just 34 minutes.

Israel will not rely solely on its vaunted air force to destroy the missiles. The Second Lebanon War proved that the enemy must be denied territory from where it could launch its rockets. Therefore, an offensive strategy has been devised aimed specifically at acquiring territory so as to deny the enemy a platform from which it could launch its weapons.

Israel has also been carefully monitoring Hezbollah’s activities in Syria. The terror group has been keen on taking advantage of the lawlessness in Syria to transport sophisticated weaponry into Lebanon and set up bases of operations near Israel’s Golan Heights but Israel has conveyed to both Iran and Hezbollah by word and deed that it will not tolerate such nefarious activities.

Cologne Mayor to Victims of Migrant Sex Assaults: You Asked For It

On New Year’s Eve in Cologne, Germany, around 1,000 Muslim migrants congregated by the city’s main train station, where they sexually assaulted numerous women and gleefully defied police; one officer recounted that the attackers showed a lack of respect for the police “like I have never experienced in my 29 years of public service.” An attacker crowed,  “I’m a Syrian! You have to treat me kindly! Mrs. Merkel invited me.” In response, Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker has vowed to make sure that women change their behavior, so that they don’t provoke the poor dears to sexual assault again.

That’s right. As hard as it may seem to believe, Reker blamed the victims, and declared that corrective measures would be taken. She said: “The women and young girls have to be more protected in the future so these things don’t happen again.” She didn’t mean protected by police. “This means,” Reker continued, “they should go out and have fun, but they need to be better prepared, especially with the Cologne carnival coming up. For this, we will publish online guidelines that these young women can read through to prepare themselves.”

Reker’s words recalled a hadith in which Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, said to a Muslim woman: “‘O Asma, when a woman reaches the age of menstruation, it does not suit her that she displays her parts of body except this and this,’ and he pointed to her face and hands.” (Sunan Abu Dawud 4092) The idea behind a woman covering everything except her face and hands is rooted in the assumption that if a man is tempted by her, it’s her fault. She can therefore try to quell that temptation by removing its impetus and covering up. If she fails to do so, or if she covers up and is attacked anyway, the fault lies entirely with her, and her family can cleanse itself of the dishonor she has brought upon them by putting her to death.

There is no room in this web of assumptions, which is all too common in the Islamic world, for the idea that if a man rapes or sexually assaults a woman, he bears the guilt. The guilt is all on his victim.

And now, Henriette Reker has shown us yet again that when multiculturalism and feminism come into conflict, multiculturalism always wins – at least when it comes to Islam. Feminists have been telling the world for decades that it is outrageous and wrong to say that a rape victim was “asking for it” because of the way she was dressed. But now, Reker has said essentially just that: if only the women in Cologne had been properly “prepared,” you see, if only they had access to the “guidelines” she is cooking up, then all would have been well. Reker said nothing about getting Muslim migrants “prepared” for life in Germany, and has made no announcement about issuing any “guidelines” for them about how to keep themselves from molesting women.

No, for Reker, as for Islamic supremacists everywhere, the responsibility to prevent sexual assault lies solely with them women. What, then, will her “guidelines” direct the non-Muslim women of Cologne to do? If she is consistent, they will tell women to buy a niqab. Buy a burqa. Or at very least to “dress modestly.” The “guidelines” will remind women that if they get attacked by migrants, it’s their own fault, as they should have been more careful.

And so Cologne’s Mayor slips without any evident hesitation into the Sharia mindset that it is entirely the woman’s responsibility to avoid tempting men, and entirely her fault if she is attacked.