Record Snowfall

My humble neck of the woods outdid itself yesterday. Instead of 5 inches of snow, which would've been a LOT itself, we broke the previous record set 30 years ago and got a FOOT AND A HALF of the white stuff! That's just frickin' AMAZING!!!!

I went outside this morning and took some pictures on my street. When I stepped in the snow it almost came up to the top of my boots. It was almost scary. The pics, though, are great. I never knew how pretty snow covered trees could be. Unfortunately, the snow is starting to melt. The stuff on the trees is the first casualty of warming temperatures, but the ground cover is so thick it'll probably be here until Valentine's Day, if not later.

This has been quite an experience. Beautiful snow, a four day weekend, great pics. And I owe it all to global warming. Who woulda thunk it!

Thank God For Global Warming!!!!

Thanks to global warming I got an unexpected day off from work today. You see, my humble neck of the woods is getting hit with more snow than we've seen in YEARS. As much as 5 inches of the white stuff is expected to fall by tonight. And if the wet, snowy roads freeze overnight, as is predicted, I won't be going to work tomorrow, either. No driving on snow or ice for me. No way, no how. So I'm looking at a possible FOUR day weekend. Yippee! Ain't global warming WONDERFUL!!!!

The "R" Word

I've been thinking about the tempest in a teapot, as I view it, over Rahm Emmanuelle's use of the word "retarded" in a tirade he launched against far-left elements in Barack Obama's administration. Emmanuelle's use of that word got him into hot water with many people, particularly Sarah Palin. Now, I'm a Palinista; I like the woman, but I think her reaction to what Rahm Emmanuelle said was as uncalled for as her reaction to her cover photo on Newsweek magazine. Sarah Palin called for Rahm Emmanuelle to be fired. Fired? Please! Whatever trouble Emmanuelle should get for his remark, he doesn't deserve to be fired.

I understand Palin's reaction. She's the mother of a Down's Syndrome child and obviously took Rahm's remark very personally, but come on. I'm sure Rahm Emmanuelle didn't have Trig Palin, or any other "special needs" child, in mind when he called those far-left people "f---ing retarded". He was just expressing his anger at and contempt for the left-wingers he was talking about at that time. Yes, he used a poor choice of words, but who hasn't in the heat of the moment? And if we're going to chastise Emmanuelle for his language, shouldn't we chastise him for using the "F" word, which is real profanity? I mean, what are our priorities here?

We are getting too thin skinned in this country. The effort to turn every word in the dictionary into a slur is utterly ridiculous. It's getting to the point where people can't say two words to each other without someone getting sanctimoniously and gravely offended. And it's disheartening to see conservatives joining in this sorry pc game instead of challenging it. It's time to challenge it.

Retarded is not a slur. It simply means slow or backward. "Mentally retarded" means mentally slow or mentally backward. It's not a smear; it's an accurate description of an unfortunate condition affecting some people. And that condition won't change just because you change the name of it. Thinking you can change reality by changing names is just plain stupid--oops!--I mean logically challenged.

With all due respect to Sarah Palin, she needs to calm down and maybe even apologize. We don't need to make profanity out of perfectly acceptable words while ignoring real profanity. When people say things that are truly hateful or demeaning, they should be held to account. No one, though, should be skewered for violating some rule set by the pc language police.

The Scriptures say, "Come, let us reason together." How can we do that if we can't agree on the meaning of the words we say to each other? How can we "reason together" if we're itching to be offended? Answer: we can't. And maybe that's the goal of the language police. If so, that's all the more reason not to cooperate with the linguistic cops. Let's save our outrage for words that are really offensive, mean-spirited, and intended to harm. Verbal gaffes made in the heat of the moment don't fit the bill. Let's use some common sense here, people. Let us truly reason together.

Crash! Part Deux

Well friends, it happened again.

Only a couple of days after my laptop, Li'l Lappy, was repaired after he crashed, he started crashing again. Remember, he was in almost like-new condition when I brought him home from the rental store Saturday. By Monday that like-new condition was gone, baby, gone! I, however, was in denial. I didn't want Li'l Lappy to be on his last legs, but by Tuesday evening I had to admit LL was going belly up. It was kind of sad 'cause I was rather attached to him; but, time to move on.

Tonight I went back to the rental store and got a laptop upgrade. Now, I'm the proud "parent" of a Dell whom I've named D-Bop, which is a play on one of my favorite Cindy Lauper songs, "She Bop". I only turned D-Bop on just over an hour ago so we're still getting to know each other, but I think this is going to be a great relationship. D-Bop is much faster than Li'l Lappy was when I first got him, and he has Windows Vista. Li'l Lappy just had Windows XP.

Yep, I think this is going to work out just fine. I don't think there'll be any more interruptions to my posting due to computer problems. How can there be? Dude, I've got a Dell!