printThis blog title replicates one written in 12.19.06. The repetitiveness reflects the lack of change in the media status of the people of the “provinces.” Thanks for asking, Robert, we are okay, having weathered a major ice storm that hit the Pacific Northwest. But we were without power for close to three days.
FoxNew reported only yesterday that “250,000 electric customers around Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia were without power Friday because of a winter storm that coated much of Washington state in ice, swelled Oregon rivers and brought the expectation of more flooding in both states with warmer temperatures and rain.”
Scratch that: Power went out on Thursday morning. By nighttime, the temperature inside my home had plunged to 52 degrees. Even though we have a generator (purchased after the 2006, first “Storm in a Tea Cup”), we were caught with practically no fuel, having listened—and heeded—the weather reports. No warnings were issued. If anything, our weather experts predicted a big thaw come Thursday.
However, cold air and an arctic north wind saw temperatures drop into the 20s across much of the region. Fluffy snow (20cm, at least), on which I had jogged happily a day before, was soon covered in a thick sheet of ice. All through the night we listened as clumps of the stuff fell from the giant ceder trees onto the house. Fortunately we had had the trees windsailed, so they seemed stable, but the weight of the ice saw big branches snap off like twigs.
We had been thinking of having a few trees felled, for safety. But, as you know, your property is not your own, and each such consideration demands a letter from an arborist and a hefty shakedown “baksheesh,” paid to the local goons at the municipality. Such regulation is probably responsible for loss of life.
Indeed, sadly, a falling tree killed an unknown neighbor, RIP: “The tree fell on a person backing an all-terrain vehicle out of a shed this morning near Issaquah, said King County said King County sheriff’s Sgt. Cindi West.”
This post reflects upon the stasis among the statists and media sycophants. And since any oscillation in the form of a learning curve is absent from the system called the state, local and federal, I will repeat the questions I posed after the 2006 storm in the Pacific Northwest:
Utilities are only nominally private and are heavily regulated. How have regulations affected their response times and, most crucially, the maintenance of the power grid?
The grid and power lines suffered mostly tree damage. In this part of the world, the trees everywhere are intertwined with the cable. Why? Why isn’t a wide tree-free swath maintained around these vital structures? Why are trees not chopped back?
I suspect the explanation lies in the self-defeating dementia of tree fetishists, and “Watermelon” legislation — green on the outside; red on the inside. However, as usual, the “Watermelon” worldview creates more havoc than it prevents. Because of wood fires, the usually pristine air in our part of the world resembles the air above the shanty town of Soweto. The resources and energy spent–and the lives lost–because of this mess are many times the cost or worth of a few thousand trees.
On a less personal note, this week’s WND column was an especially hot one, but there is no point in posting it to the blog now. I will, rather, post the column once it goes up on RT. My “paleolibertarian” column now features on the Russia Today broadcaster’s website. I ask all my BAB readers to “Recommend/Like” the RT column, each week, and retweet it. RT deserves your support for its support and interest in ideas other banal minds won’t touch, don’t you think?
And on a funny note: It was a struggle to keep our African parrots warm, but they settled into the routine. When T. Cup awoke this morning to warm, normal house temperatures and light levels, he demanded happily, in his old cute voice: “yummy-yummy.” And then he quickly comforted himself, “It’s coming, it’s coming.”
A recent image of T. Cup and his “mommy” is on the gallery. To view TC, wait for the page to upload all the images.
I used to get my weather reports on ‘Weather.com’ then they went ‘Global Warming’ and I get snowstorms when it’s forecast that we will have mild clouds. I have three other weather channels in my favorites list now. Glad to hear that you weathered this one out. In Oklahoma, they keep a wide corridor between the trees and power lines. Of course many Washington state commentators on Yahoo News say that we are backwards here in flyover country.
You should have invited Newt over to the house for a speech. The hot air coming from this man would have kept your birds nice and toasty.
Ilana, sorry to hear about the snowstorm and power loss – but the WND column is first-class and I am ecstatic that you’re up on RT now. Kudos!
[Thanks so much!]
From a PRACTICAL point of view, it doesn’t matter where the Marines urinate but posting it on the web is idiotic:
(a) it puts the Corps in a bad light as unprofessional and undisciplined
(b) it helps the Taliban etc. with recruitment of future Jihadists
From the MORAL point of view, is pissing on a dead corpse worse than:
(1) killing the person if the war is unnecessary
(2) mutilating children as “collateral damage”
(3) blowing up the homes of civilians
(4) exiling civilians as ethnic cleansing ensues following our “liberations”
(5) and one for the leftists: drilling a hole in an 8 month old fetus – after all, the corpse is DEAD but the fetus is not that much younger than an infant that experiences pain during a circumcision!
Yet, of course, Americans get morally outraged at the urination but not at most of these other things done to live humans!
If it’s legal where you live, it is always a good idea to have a drum of fuel at your residence in case of emergency.
I usually stock two cartank fulls’ worth of fuel in case there is a shortage or we are in need of running our own generator.