Defensive existing

The temperature at Camp J is 23 below, and, no, that isn't wind chill. It is the actual position of the mercury in its little tube. A small stream of water trickles from a faucet to help guard against the even more expensive frozen pipes. The busy wood burner is getting welcome help from a pot of ham and beans which will simmer all day. Experience says both the van and the F150 will start. Experience sometimes lies.

I am here because blowing snow and ice yesterday turned me around about a third of the way into a trip I really wanted to make. In a larger sense I am here because I lack the sense to get a place in the south.

It isn't all that bad right now. There's a pleasant afterglow from a good New Year's Eve party. Two good friends I see too seldom stopped by yesterday. The larder is full.

But it could, and likely will, get old in a hurry:

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD
404 AM CST SAT JAN 2 2010

.DISCUSSION...

THE STORY FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS IS CONTINUED MUCH BELOW NORMAL
TEMPERATURES WITH THE REGION REMAINING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF ARCTIC
AIR...WITH PERIODIC SHOTS OF SNOW...

In more precise language, that means the absolute best we can expect for seven days is a daytime high of six on Wednesday. Otherwise it will be chilly.

The CIA

My sympathy for the bereaved families is as sincere as humanly possible.

And so is my feeling that things just took a sharp turn for the worse in Afghanistan. The stiff personal pride of the agency and its well-known appetite for revenge are now important ingredients in the Mulligan stew of the Middle East.

Happy New Year; Now Let's Get Organized

A.D. 2009 was what it was, and the chore now is to manage A.D. 2010. I just re-read my greeting from a year ago, and it still seems pertinent .

There's a good deal of plain wise-assery in The McGee Reader, and no change is foreseen. But crude and vulgar bile promulgated to the public should rest on some kind of philosophical and intellectual basis, to wit:

Three kinds of people exist.

(1) authoritarians -- the stunted cretins who wish to use government to dictate the manner in which you live your life

(2) libertarians -- the opposite, believers in personal sovereignty who suspect that things like the United States Constitution mean pretty much what they say

(3) inerts -- those who, in return for potted chickens, put authoritarians in power

Happy New Year, friends.

The Obamian Mindset

A number of writing techniques can be effective in trying to keep Our Leaders honest, from the short and snarky clipped phrase to the long and elegant and closely reasoned essays we sometimes see in the blog world and the non-statist press.

The snark prevalent in this gunny corner of blogville is the most fun for most of us, but sometimes I welcome an extended treatment of the current disorder, and so I suggest you trot over to the Old Grouch corner for his relay of a take on our current leadership as the spawn of a not-very-thoughtful protest culture.

(I can't seem to isolate the post, so the link gets you to the top of the blog. The item referred to is at the moment the third one down, introduced by OG as from the comments section of still another blog.)