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Who, precisely, thinks that sending out a lot of jumpy looking guys with sub-machine guns to hang around subway and bus stations is a good idea? If you are trying to reassure people why not use some calm looking people who can project confidence, instead of people that inject fear and concern into the atmosphere?

When all of the National Guard personnel showed up with their M-16s at the airport, I was concerned that there would be an accident.

Just wondering.

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New articles may be few and far between because Mama Nature wants to have a conversation with a Bush brother about global warming:

The Weather Channel reports –

Four Atlantic weather systems — Arlene, Bret, Cindy and Dennis — reached Tropical Storm status by July 5, the earliest for so many named storms in recorded history. Only three major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher) have hit the U.S. coast in July in the past 100 years. When the maximum sustained winds in Hurricane Dennis peaked at 150 mph this past morning, Dennis officially became the strongest July Atlantic Basin hurricane on record and the strongest Atlantic hurricane this early in hurricane season.

This page contains some of my thoughts, which need some upgrading since Ivan. We are doing a lot of things earlier in the process but have been blind-sided by Tropical Storm Cindy. The gasoline moves from the refineries to the tank farms by barge, and the barges were hauled out of the Gulf for Cindy. Locally we ran out of gasoline last night, so if you didn’t get it you are out of luck.

I’m at 30° 25′ 20″ North / 86° 36′ 37″ West if you’re playing with your tracking chart at home. As things stand now, Dennis looks like it is going to hit just East of Pensacola on Sunday afternoon.

One of the few local media outlets that manage to stay on the air is the NPR station at the campus of the University of West Florida in Pensacola. WUWF has a live audio feed, which unfortunately uses the Windows Media player.

I’ve been there and done that, but after these things leave the exciting part begins: amateurs with chain saws.

I have back-up systems that I will use if the phone lines work, but there is no guarantee. I hang around to help others and keep track of things. There are people who have no choice but to stay and I can help them.

A warning: I have no ethical problems with shooting looters or sightseers and the state of Florida has just made it legal.

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[™ Kevin Drum]

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Ringo Has A New Toy

Surrender or die white thing!

[Edit: It was a nearly empty roll that was being used to clean glasses before she discovered it.]

Friday Ark

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