South Carolina snow!

Is purty! (From my Flickr page.)

I read the news today oh boy...

We've been comfortably snowed in, but today I actually have to go to work in this mess! Ahhh, she said wistfully, our surprise southern snow vacation is over. No more Law and Order marathons for me! (It was almost as great as a real holiday!) I'll try to post some purty snow photos later.

I have been so upset over the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, that I have not been able to adequately verbalize my feelings, except to repeat some variation of I TOLD YOU SO. As I've said here numerous times, it's getting bad out there. I am at Ground Zero of Reload Territory, and I've worried something like this would happen. The Tea Party proudly and routinely traffics in incendiary, artillery-oriented language, and don't let them tell you any different, now that they have this on their heads. Suddenly, those little symbols on Sarah Palin's website are not cross-hairs, oh no, they are SURVEYOR SYMBOLS. (Do you believe that shit? Talk about memory holes, George Orwell, call your office.)

This is what transpires when extremists like Palin and Beck continually fan the flames of Tea Party discontent, using dangerous rhetoric... AND (incidentally) we have a clutch of disaffected, angry young men with semi-automatic weapons running loose throughout the land. Presto.

I'll be back after a trudge through the arctic. For more reading:

The "Politicized Mind" Of Gabrielle Giffords (Andrew Sullivan)

Assassination Attempt In Arizona (Paul Krugman)

Missing from Arizona shooting debate: Guns (Politico)

Second Amendment Remedies (Dave Dubya's Freedom Rants)

Earlier Thoughts on Gun Nuttery and Right Wing Demagoguery (Cogitamus)

"On Extreme Right And Left" (Andrew Sullivan)

Lighthouse encased in ice on Lake Erie

CLEVELAND, Ohio (CNN/WKYC) - Check out this amazing sight.

You're not looking at a snow sculpture. It's actually a lighthouse encased in snow and ice.

It happened after the chilly winds moving through Cleveland blew water and snow all over the Cleveland Harbor West Pier lighthouse.

Parts of Ohio have seen more than a foot of snow in the last few days thanks to a late fall snowstorm.

I understand just how the poor lighthouse feels! And I am very glad I am not in my home state of Ohio right now--as cold as it presently is, South Carolina clearly has its advantages.

I promise I will eventually write a real post. I have so much crap piled up on my "to do" list, I haven't even had time to pay my damn car insurance. The only recreational time I've had recently, I spent watching reruns of Fight Club with Mr Daisy and eating vegetarian quesadillas from Moe's.

And what have you been doing this week? Be especially nice to your local overworked Christmas retail employee!