24 hours of snow.

I've never seen such a thing. Never. I never imagined it was physically possible. Maybe in Alaska or something, I suppose. But -- wow. Snow for a whole day. This isn't normal. Not down here.

We had this "big winter storm" just last week, you see. As a rule, we have *maybe* one of these each year: schools will close, tourists will take charming/shocking pictures of snow on cacti, and certain people will die on certain highways, but everything else will go on just as normal, then everything will go back to how it's "supposed to be".

The forecasts said there'd be another little something following it for good effect just in time for the holidays ("white christmas" in a Bing Crosby way and what have you), but no one expected what we're seeing now. Interstate highways are closed, flights are cancelled, and it takes at least twice as long to drive across town as usual, blah blah blah.

And there's *another* winter storm set to hit us *next* week. Who would ever have thought weather didn't follow the dictates of popular music?

I'm talking about seven inches of snow so far, *in* Albuquerque, with four to six more expected before 5 PM tomorrow. I have no clue what that much snow looks like, much less how anyone may deal with it. It's *not* "normal".

I know, I know. This isn't *anything* to Minnesotans (with apologies to Mike, to whom I've failed to respond to emails recently), who are surely laughing at us for saying "tire chains? what are those?". But in New Mexico it's quite a big deal. I had to leave work two hours early this afternoon 'cause I just didn't trust the roads and drivers on 'em (including myself). All normal rules are off when suddenly people slide sideways and forward without intending to.

While I'm apologizing to readers -- happy birthday to Weasel -- which I think was the 27th -- but it may have been the 28th -- I'm not 100% sure. It's either two or three days after Christmas. I'm pretty sure it was the 27th. At any rate -- congratulations to him on being a year closer to death.

Speaking of which:

Aww -- the pending Hussein execution poses "ethical problems" for US-based corporate TV networks who might not want to show his moment of death publicly. Read Michel Foucault's "Discipline & Punish", you fuckin' shits, and you will understand this so-called "crisis" that you face ain't nothin' new, nor even (by a long shot) the most important aspect of current "criminal justice".

Meanwhile Iraqi Kurds claim this summary execution is a travesty of justice, even separate from human rights claims, calling Mr. Hussein's trial a summary execution by a kangaroo court.

Boing, boing! And who is in whose pocket?

My eyes, overnight, sure won't be on NPR. (I don't care what east-coast elitists make of all this, seeing as Mr. Hussein never quite managed to dress fashionably to begin with.) I want to know what happens. Period. My eyes, tonight, will be on Al Jazeera.

Don't knock it 'til you've tried it, folks. They piss off *everyone* involved, without exception, and still somehow manage to get the story right.

Good news for me: no work on New Years' Day. Why is this good news? Uh, 'cause I can spend all day that day at KUNM. Hooray! With apologies to Bill, who did invite me over for ham, his invitation's not quite the "show up or get fired" thing I've faced from prior employers at holiday time; and like it or not, bigger things are going on worldwide than claims going out. I'd *love* to eat the ham, and my denying to do so has nothing to do with Kosher/Halal restrictions. It's just, you see, there's a better story for me if I spend that time in the newsroom trying to get hold of former Bush XLIII staffers and what have you.

So, uh, I dunno. I guess I'll spend most of Monday at KUNM. YAY!

Good for you Cory Flinthoff. Your courage in never venturing more than fifteen feet beyond the Green Zone is -- well -- words fail me. I'm not exactly criticizing you. I'm not sure I'd do much different if I were where you are and didn't know a word of Arabic beyond "I WANT THE BEST FALAFEL, NOW!".

Eid. Great time for a summary execution. Except for that whole "how dare you insult 1/5th of the world's population" thing. Hm. Not that I'm an expert on preventing non-state actors from engaging in terrorist activity against the US. But it does seem rather DUMB to summarily execute *anyone* without a fair trial on a feast day that the followers of a religion you claim not to be declaring worldwide war against, while claiming you have no standing in inter-sect conflicts.

And Dr. A.Q. Khan? What of him? Last I heard, the man who sold the bomb to Pakistan was in hospital. Poor Dr. Khan. But far be it from any US citizen to ever point a finger at URENCO as a key node in nuclear proliferation, even as they build the National Enrichment Facility outside Eunice, New Mexico, despite local objections to Uranium tailings with no clear strategy as to how URENCO's subsidiary, Louisiana Energy Services, will deal with the wastes.

Even Bush XLIII should not be executed on the eve of Eid, should he ever be convicted of crimes against humanity -- not that the last duly elected Governor of Texas ever showed such solid common sense as to commute a single capital sentence when he was governor.

Expect an explosion. I don't mean just a single car bombing here or there. This is a horrible idea. Horrible. My guess is that whatever violence occurs these next few days will be summarily chalked up to "sectarian strife in Iraq" (thank you, NPR) and not to any US actions whatsoever. No one is actually responsible, you see, it's just all those damn stupid bown-skinned Muslims fighting amongst themselves for reasons we can't ever pretend to begin to understand, since they're all clearly incapable of rational thought themselves, being brown-skinned Muslims living in the "Middle East". Yes. Thank you again, NPR, for your insightful (albeit racist) analysis of these things.

And no, this writing doesn't have any "hidden" messages in it. (And if you disbelieve me, ask the CIA -- even as the current administration passes on the CIA's duties to Military Intelligence.)

No one's actually responsible, you see: it's just those damn dirty brown-skinned Muslims failing to resolve their differences according to the mandate set out by the Bremer's Iraqi National Congress. And goodness knows, Achmed Chalabi is *such* a fine exemplar of Islamic moralism in action. Or something.

Wooo. Cory Flinthoff had to transfer between phone lines in the midst of a radio story. Woohoo. What amazing journalistic courage -- the NPR correspondent had to pick up a second line in the midst of an interview.

WOW.

NPR, you have done it again.

Done what?

Failed.

Happy Eid, everyone.