North of the 48th Parallel (Political Humor)

Chief Bones

Chief Bones

Forums Grumpy Old Man
I came across the following little article and thought a little 'political humor' was just the thing for a few chuckles.

I chose the Political Discussion area because I thought we could use a little lighthearted entertainment to leaven the seriousness which seems to be the hallmark of this thread.

Dakota News
This text is from a county emergency manager out in the western part of South Dakota state after the recent snow storm.
======================================================
WEATHER BULLETIN
Up here in the Northern Plains we just recovered from a Historic event --- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.

FYI:
.. George Bush did not come....
.. FEMA did nothing....
.. No one howled for the government...
.. No one blamed the government
.. No one even uttered an expletive on TV...
.. Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit
.. Our Mayors did not blame Bush or anyone else
.. Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else either
.. CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX, or NBC did not visit - or report on this category 5 snow storm
.. Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.....
.. No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House....
.. No one looted....
.. Nobody - I mean Nobody demanded the government do something
.. Nobody expected the government to do anything either
.. No Larry King, No Bill O'Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera
.. No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found

And
.. Nope, we just melted the snow for water
.. Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars
.. The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny
.. Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snow bound families
.. Families took in the stranded people - total strangers
.. We Fired up wood stoves
.. Broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns
.. We put on an extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die"
.. We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin’ at home' checks.
.. Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early...we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about
48 degrees North Latitude, 90% most of the world's social problems evaporate."
======================================================

I believe the above article says it all. Many Americans want the government to cure all their ills when things go awry, but bristle when they feel like Uncle Sam hasn't come through fast enough or with too little aid.

It's refreshing to read about people who DO NOT expect massive aid from the government but instead resolve their own problems.
 
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I believe the above article says it all. Many Americans want the government to cure all their ills when things go awry, but bristle when they feel like Uncle Sam hasn't come through fast enough or with too little aid.
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Maybe we should introduce socialism to certain parts of the US. It just sounds like they are ready for it. And the other part is ready for communism: nothing works, there is a shortage of everything and the government won't do a thing.... :) Doesn't there hide a commie in every American?
 
Actually, Dakota is pretty close to where I grew up and I completely understand the tone of the article. The reason that FEMA and and everybody else immaginable did not intervene is quite simple. The Mountain West and Northwestern Plains are actually very very well setup for this sort of emergency. Everything has already been planned out and the social norms have already adapted ... all of that from prior insanely huge winter storms. 41" isn't what I would call "Biblical Proportions" either. More like a very big inconvenience and strong guarantee of some pretty ugly drifts and snow-ins. The Dakotas will do just fine without outside intervention. The schmucks in New Orleans were woefully unprepared right in the face of a very well known threat.
 
Same here in South Florida, we're used to hurricanes. Sure, sometimes people need help. But we arren't freaking out. We were hammered last year and the year before. But we're fine.
 
godofthunder9010 said:
Actually, Dakota is pretty close to where I grew up and I completely understand the tone of the article. The reason that FEMA and and everybody else immaginable did not intervene is quite simple. The Mountain West and Northwestern Plains are actually very very well setup for this sort of emergency. Everything has already been planned out and the social norms have already adapted ... all of that from prior insanely huge winter storms. 41" isn't what I would call "Biblical Proportions" either. More like a very big inconvenience and strong guarantee of some pretty ugly drifts and snow-ins. The Dakotas will do just fine without outside intervention. The schmucks in New Orleans were woefully unprepared right in the face of a very well known threat.
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Pretty much says it all.
 
tomtom22 said:
Great post, Chief. I saw this a few days ago but forgot about it, so you beat me to it.
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I got it sometime ago too tomtom but hesitated to bring it up again. I'm glad someone posted it though because nothing is more true. There are tough folks in the badlands.
 
If we get 44 inches no big deal, the thousands of miles of power lines going down around the state sucked but we dealth with it.

Once we get 100 inches of snow though we start to worry a little.

Otherwise, break out the sleds, no school!
 
Let me give you a tip..... Why not bury all your cables? I can imagine that that isn't so smart in earthquake country, but the midwest, why not? We have storms, rain, hail, storms and an occasional storm but rarly the power or phonelines go out. Why? Because we buried them all, smart isn't it?
 
Because there are problems with farmers hitting buried cable lines with their equipment and cattle are extremely sensitive to buried cable lines, there have been lawsuits filed in our state to prevent burying cable lines for that reason.

Plus we are a small, stingy state, not enough money to bury the tens of thousands of miles of power lines we have.
 
FULLMETALJACKET said:
good article, and im glad that there is still some places where people dont blame others for everything.
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It's Canada's fault! They keep sending all these cold fronts down at us and the government does nothing!
 
That's not all the Canadian government allows! Not only cold weather fronts but very cold, arctic water comes down from them!! I think it's a plot to thwart the US economy...

And another thing; if you bury cables, you know where they lay right? So if you cranck up your tractor to plow..... don't go there! Verys simple and very effective at preventing cutting the power. It works overhere :)
 
Where I live:
64° 49' N 147° 52' W
Temp 3 Days ago: -56F
Temp Today: -22F (whohoo!)

Once or twice a year we have things happen up here that if they happened down in the lower 48 Pat Robertson would be on the TV talking about how the Tribulation has started (highlights of the last few years: 8.0 Earthquake, 6,000,000 acre wildfire). We take it in stride, help each other out when needed, and don't whine about it.
 
You know FG, if you bury your cables you won't have any troubles with wildfires :) Earthquackes and Pat Robertson however, are a different sort of problem and might cause some problems.
 
Ted said:
That's not all the Canadian government allows! Not only cold weather fronts but very cold, arctic water comes down from them!! I think it's a plot to thwart the US economy...

And another thing; if you bury cables, you know where they lay right? So if you cranck up your tractor to plow..... don't go there! Verys simple and very effective at preventing cutting the power. It works overhere :)
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But it is not that simple Ted.

It's like saying "All you have to do is find Osama and kill him, not that hard."
 
Ooookaaaay, I'm really really lost here. What the hell does burying cables have to do with anything even remotely related to this discussion? Will buried cables keep the snow from falling wherever or whenver we don't want it to? Prevent all tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic erruptions? If so, sign me up!!
 
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