S'no news from here

It snowed again overnight. I woke this morning to great blobs of it like clotted cream spooned over the hedgerow and weighing down the branches of the cedars and pines. I think I can safely say there’s about 8 inches of snow now. More is in the forecast for the next few days, but right now, the clouds are breaking up a bit and the sun is coming through. It’s just glorious.

I’ve posted a few pics of the psychodog pretending to be a heroic and noble Alaskan sled dog. Tried to toss him snowballs with my left hand and catch him in the act of chomping them on the camera with my right, but it was a wash. But isn’t he a fine fellow, anyway? Our next snow outing will be to cart in more stove wood.

I’m going to try to get a photo of a Steller’s jay – Mr. Wren tossed black sunflower seeds all over the snow outside the kitchen window this morning, so perhaps one will pose for me. That’s for Madison Guy and anyone else who’s curious about these large, gorgeous, bold and raucous birds. I’m absolutely enamored of them – they always make me smile.

In the meantime, I’ll make some garlicky chicken soup, set it to simmer and then settle down by the fire with A.J. Cronin’s great old book, The Citadel. It’s the story of young doctor in a Welsh mining town in the early 1920s. I read it when I was about 15, loved it, and recently rediscovered it. It's just as good -- maybe even better -- than I remembered.

I can’t think of much to say about the situation out there in the world. Today, it all just makes me sad for all of us. It looks like the “surge” in Iraq – undertaken by our government in direct defiance of the will of the people -- was merely a red herring; now the word is out that American soldiers will continue to lose their lives there for the fat cat corporations and oil barons back home for another 10 years or so. We always knew this war was about oil, didn’t we.

Congressional action to put a halt to the carnage seems to be at a standstill unless the Republicans go along. They won’t. Why should they? They’re getting rich.

In other news, people are actually debating the merits of Dinesh D’Souza’s argument that America deserved to be attacked on 9/11 because it’s so morally bankrupt – well, at least, us lefties are. We seem to lack piety, along with “old Europe” and that good 'ol fundamentalist religion will return everything to a proper balance.

I dunno. I’ve gotten along just fine without religious piety all my life, and I think my morals beat out the crazy Christers' hands down. I don't want to kill anyone, steal their oil, destroy their homes and livelihoods or force my way of life on them. Is that immoral?

Hard to believe, sometimes, that it's 2007.