Clearing the Browser Tabs - Wind, Rain, That Sort of Thing Sunday Edition

I”m writing this at about 2:15 AM. I spent most of the day here riding out Hurricane Irene, which dumped somewhere between 4 and 10 inches of rain on the Southern Maryland area (depending on how close you live to the Chesapeake Bay) and blew a gale for well over 10 hours. I’ve seen reports that my immediate area faced sustained winds of at least 40 MPH at the height of the storm with gusts near 60 MPH, which is solidly in the realm of a tropical storm. Even now, sustained winds have been reported of 35 MPH, with gusts at 50 MPH.

I never lost power for more than a few seconds, though things did look bad at about 10 PM. In all, my area appears to weathered the storm without major mishap (thank the Almighty!). We didn’t get hit as badly as some areas of North Carolina or the Atlantic coast of Maryland and there are some pretty big areas that will face Irene’s wrath today.

As I’ve written before, your go-to web sites for storm information are here, here, here, and here. For those of you in New Jersey, New York, and points north, be safe and smart. Irene may not be as strong as she was, but she is still a huge and dangerous storm. Don’t mess around.

Oh, and a bonus to anyone to can name the movie from which I got the post title today. One hint, it’s not an exact quote. I changed one word.

And now, links!

• Ed Driscoll: On Obama, the MSM, and really big asteroids. No, really. It’s a good read.
• And while I’m here, let me point you to another Ed Driscoll classic on the intrusion of rock and roll music into our daily lives. It’s now what it sounds like and you’ll probably end up nodding your head in agreement (and in time to your favorite rock song) by the end.
• The one thing you can say for sure about tyrants is that they are strangers to the truth.
• I hope Jonathan Alter, who wrote a glowing hagiography of President Obama’s first year in office, was serious when he asked people to tell him how Barack Obama has failed as a President. If so, the answers he receives will enlighten him and make him a better, more insightful, journalist. If not, well, he’ll remain mired in hackery.
• Bob Belvedere is cleaning out the spam pits of his blog and boy did he find some choice specimens!
• The more I see of Rick Perry, the more I like him. It takes a certain amount of courage to send the federal government a bill for the cost of incarcerating criminal illegal immigrants. I hope he wins that fight.
• Stacy McCain asked a question about journalism, hard economic times, and entrepreneurship that has come up a couple times in our conversations. I think it should be asked a bit more often.
• This is the face of today’s spoiled, ugly left-wing: a protest in front of a school where children are actually getting an education, preceded by petty vandalism. And why were the protesting? Because they despise that Governor Scott Walker took away most of the power of their union to steal money from the citizens of Wisconsin.
• Maggie’s Notebook reminded us recently that we need to be careful where we send our charitable donations. I restrict my giving to local groups, my church, and bloggers whose work I admire. In each case, I know where my money is going. Not, by the way, that politicians are not on that list. Speaking of which, have you donated to your favorite bloggers this month? Remember that they will do good with your money — more good in many cases than some random Senator or political party.

Other Posts of Interest:

• Clearing the Browser Tabs - It’s the Coercion, Stupid Tuesday Edition
• Clearing the Browser Tabs -A Little Campaign Hucklebuck Sunday Edition
• Clearing the Browser Tabs - Silent Monday Edition

Tags: Linky Love

Category: General