Having a moment of sadness… I loved my Pony.

*bimbles off*

Hurricane Katrina is significant not only because of the sheer enormity of lives lost and property damaged, but the profound social and political impact it brought.

Of all these things, however, nothing is so sad as this:  it made a “reporter” out of the weather guy. Seriously, before that, the meterologists and weather bunnies knew their job…. let us know if it was going to rain or not. That’s it. Now, we get a slight mist and you have Bob the third-shift weather guy out with a remote truck intoning on how this significant weather event will impact the rush hour traffic.

Conversely, every TV reporter (and I use that term loosely these days) is now a fucking weather expert. I don’t need Channel 8’s Steve Stoler standing at a freakin’ gas station during a lightning storm (holding a mic… let that sink in for a moment) telling me it’s pretty bad outside. I can look out my window and see the same thing. Without the chance of electrocution.

And, so last night, as a pretty nasty storm system raced through our area, JS and I actually heard the following snippets on TV as we cruised through the channels:

• “… as we watch the lightning light up the sky…”
• “… we can actually hear the thunder bolts now.”
  
• “… as our spontaneous, live Dopper Radar shows….”
  
• “… those of you in Frisco, I want you to find your safe place.”
  
• “Well, it’s really raining here. Raining hard. Can you see the rain?”
  
• “There’s quarter-sized hail out there. But, we can’t confirm that.”
  
• “… I’m expecting it to get really bad where I’m standing because I just heard you say it will be bad.”
  
• “I’m gonna zone in here to give you a better idea of the area. This is Highway 121, where the IKEA store is. You know, the IKEA furniture store? It’s a really big store.”
  
• “… the rain is just coming down in… waves…. sheet-like… parallel to the ground. It just blowing across the ground, parallel. Can you see this?”

Those are verbatim because I starting writing them down after the lightning comment. After watching nearly eight continuous hours of the Hurricane Ike coverage and all the hilarious reporting that entailed (including a streaker in Beaumont), I vowed to write down as many bon mots as possible from future weather coverage.

Because, as they say, you just can’t make this shit up.

*bimbles off*

Okay, this is just completely hilarious!

Yes, dear David, we’ve all been there.

*bimbles off*

Wow… the winguttia has certainly done a 180 on the issue of patriotic dissent, has it not? Apparently, it is now okay to openly criticize your president and the government. It’s your right, nay, your duty as a citizen. Really. It is. The conservatives say so and they have baby jesus on their side.

Curious, though. To all these fervent defenders of the freedom speech, all these people who are buying “Dissent is Patriotic” T-shirts, all these brave citizens who supposedly “didn’t drink the Kool-aid”…. does the name Natalie Maines ring any bells with you guys? You remember Natalie, right? Lead singer for a rather popular outfit called the Dixie Chicks. Beloved by the “new country” establishment in Nashville. Sold-out shows around the world. And, so on.

Until March 2003, when Maines openly criticized former President Bush. On the eve of the Iraq invasion. And, subsequently, was called a traitor, a bitch and a danger to our security. She, the two members of the band and their families received death threats. Their CDs were burned, radio stations stopped playing their songs and the tight, conservative Nashville establishment turned its back on its former golden girls. Their once-bright career faded.

They were told to “shut up and sing.”

Maines became a symbol for all of us who disagreed with the war on Iraq, a crystalization of how divided this country truly was. She bore, on a very real level, the brunt of daring to speak out when the Vice President of this country was calling us traitors for daring to question the president and the government. Protesters were arrested for the mere act of not agreeing. We were told by the right wingers we didn’t love our country and we should just leave.

Fast forward six years and those very people are now the noble dissenters, the lone voices of the “minority.”

And, that’s fine.

I’m not telling anyone to shut up or leave. I’m not calling anyone a traitor for not liking President Obama. And, I sincerely hope these people never know the fear of having threats made to their families, being called vicious names or having their livelihood threatened because of their views.

Because I, unlike some, don’t think the right to freedom of speech was given to us with any caveats. I believe we can disagree with our government in wartime and in peace, in a vibrant economy and in the darkest of depressions, in open protests or through blogging.

I love my country. I respect my government when it merits that respect. I am a patiot and a dissenter.

And, since March 2003, I’ve been an ardent supporter of one Natalie Maines.

*bimbles off*

Aaaaannnnddd…. we’re back up.

Still working out a few kinks, like cleaning up posts that imported weird. Plus, I can’t find a way to import all the Haloscan comments into this format. If anyone has experience with that, please let me know. Otherwise, I’ve lost all those comments for public viewing, which would be a pity because some of that shit is pretty funny, especially when the wingnuts show up.

I like the cleaner look…. it doesn’t scream “GENERIC BLOG TEMPLATE!” and I’ve found about a thousand little gizmos on Wordpress that look fabulous, even if I have not idea what they do. Like that extra silverware you get next to your plate at a fancy dinner party.

Otherwise, I’m back. Because, let’s face it, I’m too damned opinionated to shut up.

*bimbles off*