Tuesday, February 09, 2010

1775 AGAIN. Charles Krauthammer on the Democrat's agenda:
This being a democracy, don't the Democrats see that clinging to this agenda will march them over a cliff? Don't they understand Massachusetts?

Well, they understand it through a prism of two cherished axioms: (1) The people are stupid and (2) Republicans are bad. Result? The dim, led by the malicious, vote incorrectly.
Blinded by their ideology, the Democrats continue to fuel another Tea Party.
A BRIGHT SIDE to the blizzard of 2010: anything that brings the federal government to a dead halt can't be all bad.
SNOW UPDATE: 17 inches at 8 pm; that's roughly an inch of snow per hour. It's going to be a long night.

UPDATE: 10 pm; just under 3 inches so far, with a lull in the snowfall.


If there's no more than another inch or so before morning (ha!), we might get through this one relatively unscathed.

THE RIGHT WAY FORWARD on space exploration?

It sounds lovely - all hopey changey - and it would probably work if we had the government today that we had in the mid-20th century.

But we don't. And the next men on the moon will likely be Chinese.
THE LOCAL SCENE. These pictures were taken Tuesday afternoon after most everyone had managed to dig out. For the most part, roads were passable, although for the most part, the secondary streets had only one lane open each way and many of the residential streets (like ours) were one lane only.


Parking lots were half-cleared, with the other half used for snow storage. This pickup was almost completely covered in snow.


Most homes in the neighborhoods were like this one – snow piled up 3-4 feet along the road, with the passable width just barely enough for two cars.



Manassas train station in Old Town.



The skating pavilion in Old Town Manassas.



Signal Hill road.


The Buckhall Store at the entrance to our subdivision.



Moore Drive, leading home. The road is typical of the secondary streets, still layered with snow and wide enough – barely – for two cars to pass.


SCENIC BEAUTY from the neighborhood as – and after – we dug out on Monday.



Sunday afternoon from the front porch.




Along the driveway (which really is there underneath the snow).




The back yard (almost pictured is the wood pile at the far left).




Monday morning, looking across the street. We’re just beginning to dig out.



Monday afternoon. We’ve finally reached the street.




Finally! The mailbox is roughly 4 feet above the street. Amazingly, both mail and the newspapers arrived on schedule ... well, the paper delivery was a bit later than usual.


IT'S STARTING AGAIN: 5:47 pm and the snow has just started. It's cold enough that the snow is sticking immediately; the driveway already has a thin covering.



Time to start the snow countdown (er, countup?). The base is 15-1/4 inches on the back porch yardstick.


Please, let the power stay on tonight ....
BACK AGAIN. Let’s see ... my last (unscheduled) post was Saturday at 8 am. We lost power at 3 pm; not restored until Monday at 4:30 am. Since we have an all-electric house, there was no heat, no light, no telephone, no cable TV, no internet, no water (the well pump is – wait for it - electric). And no leaving as the driveway already had a foot of snow covering it.




We have a fireplace and plenty of firewood, but only after a 25-yard trek through hip-deep snow, Here’s the path I finally stamped out in order to bring firewood into the basement.




The cats weren’t happy and we weren’t happy as we settled in to camping around the fireplace, but at least we had coffee.



Now we’re about to to it again ... 10 to 20 inches is forecast for tonight/tomorrow, and the snow has already started in parts of the DC metro area.

RUSH LIMBAUGH on the State of the Union adddress:

I heard it all before. There was nothing new in it. The only difference was the tone. I went back and listened to some of his soaring rhetorical speeches during the campaign. This was defensive, petulant, immature, childish, sarcastic. He's clearly angry that he's been rejected -- that his wonderfully brilliant ideas (health care and cap and trade) have been rejected. I saw a guy, a young, inexperienced guy just mad. I think, Gretchen -- I really do -- I think this is the first time in his life that there's not a professor around to turn his C into an A or to write the law review article for him that he can't write. He's totally exposed. There's nobody to make it better. I think he's been covered for all of his life. The fact that his agenda has totally failed this year is the best thing that could have happened to this country. I thank God every day that this is going down the tubes, that that Massachusetts election happened. Not that God had anything to do with it. That's just the person I thank.
Link from Don Surber.
OBAMA: “Every economist” says I saved or created 2 million jobs.

I'll believe it when either Thomas Sowell or Walter Williams agree with the President's assertion.