Snow Emergency

Lucas County in Ohio went to defense readiness condition (DEFCON) 3 last night, and dropped to DEFCON 2 sometime this afternoon. I gather that at level three everyone is prohibited from using the street except the authorities and certain necessary news personnel. Heaven forbid we should miss the local talking heads blabbering about the lousy weather we're having. We, the great unwashed residing in Sylvania Township located in Lucas County, in the North by North West part of the great State of Ohio, were promised 16 to 18 inches of snow along with 1 to 2 inches of ice. We didn't get either. Instead, we got about six inches of snow topped off by a little sleet. I can deal with that. Now Chicago on the other hand...

Bad LSD Trip: Who's to Blame?

The title ought to tell you something. Cutting right to the chase, the National Weather Service and every other freaking service in the city of Chicago warned the residents in every way that residents could possibly be warned that the hammer was about to fall. Stay inside, they said. No foolin', they said. Still, after all that, well over 1000 people decided to drive home via Lake Shore Drive which runs parallel to Lake Michigan and which catches the fresh water spray off the lake, which spray then freezes... get my drift? Approximately 1000 vehicles got stranded on Lake Shore Drive around 5:00 PM, and at 8:00 AM the next morning they still hadn't towed all the cars off. Hell, people were still out on the highway at 2:00 AM, and some didn't get off the highway until 8:00 AM the next day. Meantime, the idiots who got stuck on the highway complained bitterly that the government should have closed down Lake Shore Drive sooner so they wouldn't have gotten stuck on it, and the government should have done a lot more to rescue them once they got stranded.


Clearly Chicago has it's very own brand of stupid. Call it Nanny State Stupid (NSS).

If I was young and dumb enough to get stranded on a highway in the middle of a blizzard and anyone, government or not was kind and generous enough to come out and give me a bottle of water and a blanket, you better believe I'd be six different kinds of grateful. After all, I'm the one who was dumb enough to pull this harebrained stunt to begin with. I have no one to blame but me.

What really should have happened is this: Anyone stranded on Lake Shore Drive in the middle of a blizzard that they knew was coming is now on their own. If they can get out, fine. If they can't make it, then let the idiots freeze to death. This will serve as a warning to others as well as eliminating the number of people who are NSS. Darwin and all, you see.

As for me, I was just never that stupid and I never expect to be rescued by The State. I've got enough problems already, thanks.