Thoughts on Yet Another Cold Night

It has been very cold here in Indy for several days. We had an entire week with lows dipping below zero and haven't even approached the freezing point since I can't remember when. Now those of you in more northern climes are no doubt unimpressed. But it's a matter of what you're used to. If it snows a half inch in Atlanta, everyone goes ape shit. Indiana normally gets a fair share of "winter" weather, but this stretch of cold coupled with some significant snow is not the norm.

I just read the latest report from upstate New York that some areas have as much as 110" of new snow. That's more than nine feet! Holy crap! They won't dig out of that till the end of July. What the hell do you do with nine feet of snow?

But still.

The local weather guys are predicting no significant break in our situation. There is even another snow storm in the works as an arctic low is set to combine with heavy moisture coming up from the gulf. The next "perfect storm" on the brew. What a crock.

Oddly, we had the warmest January on record. No snow. A good deal of rain. But February has come in like an early arriving lion who has apparently eaten all the damn lambs.

So much for the blasted weather.

I posted some of my articles I've written here at Blog Critics Magazine (http://blogcritics.org) over the last several days. Overall they have been reasonably well received. An older article titled "On Death" didn't get much in the way of comments, but was chosen one of the selected "articles of the week" by their editorial staff. Pretty good, huh?

What is rather funny, though is that an article titled "The Folly of the Iraq War" got what I initially thought was major response. I don't believe that any post I've written here has had more than a dozen or so comments. The great majority of them get none. (No, no, that's all right. I've learned to accept it. I understand. Really.) As of this writing a total of 350 comments have been written under my Iraq article.

When it began to take off, I was delighted and surprised. While some of the comments were rather scornfull of my offering in that they felt it amounted to nothing but old news, some seemed to like all or portions of it for varying reasons. However, it soon became clear that my little article was of no particular concern to anyone. My bubble burst. Of those 350 comments, perhaps a couple dozen are even remotely related to the article. Most are concerned with what I assume are ongoing disputes between a number of contributors, editors and commenters which began long before I came on the scene. Being a newby, it didn't occur to me that there was long established in-house squabbling. Mercy me!

Apparently, one of the commenters is also a heavy contributor and editor on the site, one Dave Nalle. He has made comments under at least two names which others consider a dastardly deed. I have no opinion one way or the other. It comes down to being a tempest in a teapot as far as I'm concerned.

When I went through the process of registering for the site, I read any number of admonishments against personal attacks. They would not be tolerated! Well, aparently that ship sailed long ago. Pretty much everyone ranted that their fellow ranters are lying scum who should go fuck themselves by whatever means available - hard and often.

I should note that this group seems to hover around the "Political" section of the site. It is divided up into various areas of interest. Of course, I posted my Iraq article and also my article about Bobby Kennedy under the "Politics" banner. A couple other articles were posted under "Culture" and one under "TV/Film." As noted, they went largely unnoticed, but at least they were not subjected to the maelstrom of accusation and name calling.

I may avoid the "Politics" section in the future. Although, some of it was rather entertaining. It's surprising how imaginative people can be through their invective. I recommend the site to any of you unfamiliar with it. There is in fact some good writing to be found there. Some of it, if I may say so, is mine. (I'm hot stuff!) By the way, I post at Blog Critics under the name "Baritone" just to keep homeland security off balance.

Hee, hee.

Keep up the good work you motherfuckers! (Sorry, Jazzy)

At least it's something to do on a cold winter's night.

TLS