No Whiners in North Dakota!

North Dakota News
This text allegedly comes from a county emergency manager out in the western part of North Dakota after the recent snowstorm.

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 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 tens of thousands.

*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.
*Our governor did not blame Bush.
*CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit or report on this Category 5 snowstorm.
*No body 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.
*No body expected the government to do anything, either.
*No Larry King, no Bill O'Rielly, no Oprah, no Chris Mathews and no Geraldo Rivera.
*No Sean Penn, no Barbra Striesand, no Hollywood types to be found.
*Nope, we just melted the snow for water and sent out caravans of SUVs to pluck people out of snow-engulfed cars.
*The truck drivers pulled people out of snowbanks and didn't ask for a penny.
*Local restaurants made food, and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families.
*Families took in the stranded people – total strangers.
*We fired up wood stoves and 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% of the world's social problems evaporate."

Maybe ... SOME people will get the message. The world does NOT owe you a living!

HT: Right Mind

A blizzard won't stop the Marines

Here is an article about the Christmas spirit and patriotism of a good Samaritan and a Few Good Men.

Here is the beginning of the article:

As far as Stacey Kible is concerned, Santa drives a Ford Windstar.
Kible was despairing that her son Matt Kible, a 20-year-old Marine, would not make it home for Christmas. Matt, who is stationed in Japan, was stranded at San Francisco International Airport. He was told that he probably wouldn't be able to get a flight to Denver until Christmas Day.

Matt Kible met three fellow Marines at the airport, all of them trying to get back to Denver. Two were returning from Iraq. The four young Marines commiserated that they might not be able to be with their families at Christmas. None of them was old enough to rent a car, and the blizzard that descended on Denver seemed about to ruin their plans.

"Our hopes and dreams were shot when they told us we couldn't get home for Christmas Eve," said Chris Redlin, a 21-year-old Marine from Aurora who is also stationed at Okinawa.

Then a stranger came bearing gifts. "We thought we were out of luck, and then this guy named Paul, out of nowhere, just walked up to us," Matt Kible said. "He said he lives in Englewood and could rent a car."

The next thing they knew, Paul Deines and four Marines were in a van on their way to Colorado.

Apparently the Navy is still in charge of taking Marines home!

HT: Michelle Malkin

Pre-Christmas Blizzard 2006

Well winter has arrived in full force, at least it has in Denver (it is still in the 50s here in ATL). The In-Laws were supposed to arrive Thursday/Friday to spend Christmas with us, but apparently 3 feet of snow is going to get in their way! For those of you that don't watch the news on television or online; or that don't get a newspaper or blog updates: the snow also shut down Denver International Airport (DIA) from Wednesday until about noon (Mountain Time) Friday.

Here is what inside DIA looked like over the last 60 hours or so (DenverPost.com). We are really bummed that Morgan/we won't be able to see the Grandparents and Auntie Brea over Christmas, but are planning on seeing them to have "Christmas 2006 - Take 2" in January.

Here is the winter up date that Papa Brian put up on YouTube (it says day 2, but day 1 was no longer on youtube?):