It's SPRING!

It’s Spring! Three cheers, and all that. The ornamental cherry tree outside my window has burst into bloom, right on cue. I should post pictures of those exquisite little pink blooms, but I won’t (today) for reasons that will become clear in a moment. Still, and even, Winter doesn’t feel like giving up just yet. A serious cold front is in the process of moving on to The High Plains, bringing that Ol’ Debbil Wind back with it, in Spades (steady 35 mph, gusting to 44 mph). Our high today will only be 50 degrees, and it’s gonna fall to 21 or so this evening. Tomorrow ain’t supposed to be much better, either.

On the Good News front: last night we got a little over three hours of steady rain that was quite heavy at times. We really needed that rain. When the wind woke me up this morning I was thankful for the rain, as the wind shouldn’t be able to raise a lot of dust on wet ground. Silly me. I’m not sure just how Mom Nature manages to pull off a trick such as this, but she has, indeed. There seems to be an inexhaustible supply of dust in this part of the country. We must be The Strategic Dust Reserve for the entire free world. Just sayin’.

Gerard van der Leun has a couple of good reads over at American Digest. Gerard has, as a public service, developed a generic apology he suggests you print out and keep on your person for those times that require an apology. And he’s written a great essay on why gay marriage is all but inevitable, along with some timely suggestions of which you should take note. Hint: caterers and interior decorators are going to be in short supply pretty soon. Get in now.

Today is also the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Donald Rumsfeld had an Op-Ed in the WaPo yesterday titled “What We’ve Gained in Three Years in Iraq.” The lead paragraphs:

Some have described the situation in Iraq as a tightening noose, noting that "time is not on our side"and that "morale is down." Others have described a "very dangerous" turn of events and are "extremely concerned."

Who are they that have expressed these concerns? In fact, these are the exact words of terrorists discussing Iraq -- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his associates -- who are describing their own situation and must be watching with fear the progress that Iraq has made over the past three years.

The terrorists seem to recognize that they are losing in Iraq. I believe that history will show that to be the case.

While Rumsfeld doesn’t break any new ground in this piece, he does cite the considerable progress made “on the ground.” I believe we need to make a lot more, highly visible, progress to turn “public opinion” around. Americans just don’t seem to have the stomach for long wars, and my feeling is our collective patience is quite near the breaking point. Time is not on our side in this one. And neither, apparently, are The Media or “the loyal opposition.” Once again, just sayin’.