Turbulent Thursday

The post title refers to the weather...the High Plains, which includes most of eastern New Mexico from the I-40 corridor down to Roswell, is under a "severe wind advisory" until 5:00 p.m. In addition to the usual verbiage about high-sided vehicles being susceptible to cross-winds, the National Weather Service also includes advice to "postpone all outdoor burning." Good advice, since our winds are a constant 32 mph at the moment, with gusts to 45 mph. Lord knows we've had "issues" with the landscape bursting into flames of late. Not so much in New Mexico as Texas and Oklahoma, but enough to justify worry.

I'm still fairly low and slow today. I'm not up to anything that, however remotely, could be called intellectually challenging. Of course there are those folks who would respond with "What's new? Are you ever up to being intellectually challenged?" Uh, no. Not at all! {shaddup}

I've had C-SPAN on all morning, semi-watching the last Q&A session (read that: inquisition) between Judge Alito and the Senate Judiciary Committee. No high drama today. Move along, nothing to see here.

I haven't scanned the news so I'm blissfully unaware of what's happening in the world. Exception: I did read that 345 people were killed and over 1,000 injured in Saudi Arabia's Annual Hajj Stampede, despite new and improved anti-stampede measures introduced this year. It's probably all Bush's fault. Or, at the very least, the ineptitude of his political appointees responsible for coordinating international protocols for The Running of the Bulls, Hajj Stampedes, and Black Friday Wal-Mart Sales.

I spent the better part of this morning reading old posts from the archives of Neo-neocon. I love the way this woman writes. We (obviously?) have a shared POV on most things political. Although my political conversion from Liberal to Conservative pre-dates her conversion by 20 years or so (late-70s vs. 2001), the conversion process was/is remarkably similar. My "earlier" conversion is more a function of age than of prescience. Her series, "A Mind is a Difficult Thing to Change," is HIGHLY recommended reading!

Today I discovered one of Neo's heroes is Winston Churchill, another shared trait. My journey into Neo's archives began with this post containing Robert Frost quotations, and led, predictably, to the Churchill post and other subsequent links. In a previous life I used to append a "Daily Quote" to the Daily Operations Reports I disseminated (daily!) to corporate Senior Management; Ol' Winnie was a reliable and very-well-used source for many of those daily quotes. Reading Churchill quotes brought back some pleasant memories of employed-days-gone-by.

I'm working on putting up a post about one of my oldest, most nagging pet peeves in life, but am stuck. I've done a lot of Googling and reading up on the subject, but here's the crux of my problem: I feel one shouldn't complain about anything in life unless one has a suitable alternative course of action. And I don't have an alternative. So, do I violate my principles and essentially say "Here's something I don't like" and leave it at that? Or just fuggedaboutit altogether? Decisions, decisions...

And so it goes...