New England Learns A Lesson About Government In An Emergency ... J. D. Longstreet

New England Learns A Lesson About Government In An Emergency
A Commentary by J. D.Longstreet
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Viewing the storm destruction in New England has tripped "flash-backs" for me.  I've seen it all before -- on more occasions than I care to remember. 

If you are a regular reader of this scribe's "stuff," then you know I often mention that I reside in "Hurricane Alley."

If you look at a map of the Carolina coastline, right where the SC and NC border meet the Atlantic ocean, you will notice there is what we call a "cut-back."  The coastline swings inward creating what we resident's refer to as "the catcher's mitt."   Little River, SC, sits almost at the middle of that mitt. 

More often that I care to recall, embryonic hurricanes roll off the western coast of Africa and barrel across the Atlantic headed, it seems to us, right for the catcher's mitt.  Too often we are right -- and we get creamed!

"The list of North Carolina hurricanes includes 403 known tropical or subtropical cyclones that have affected the state of North Carolina. Due to its location, many hurricanes have hit the state directly, and numerous hurricanes have passed near or through North Carolina in its history ... "   SOURCE:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_Carolina_hurricanes#1980.E2.80.93Present

Yeah, we know a little something about hurricanes here on the North Carolina coast.

Having been in numerous hurricanes on the ground here in SENCLAND, and within the eye of two storms -- meaning the eye passed directly over me -- I can tell you with no reservation that when you are within the storm it is the worse storm ever.  At night a hurricane is sheer terror -- especially with no electricity. 

As a young broadcast reporter I can also report that I never found it necessary to prove my manhood by standing out in the rain and wind to make a report on the obvious.  It is stupid to subject oneself to the dangers of an unkind, uncaring, Mother Nature.  She will kill you in a heartbeat -- and never flinch.

Here, just inland of the Atlantic seaboard's "catcher's mitt" we watch the storms -- ALL the storms.   Many of us still plot the storms on our own hurricane maps and we've done it for so long that we have learned there is a pattern, of sorts, to the tracks the storms take.  We watch for the characteristics of that pattern.  When we see it,  we batten down, or we get the hell out of the storm's way -- or both.

Only those with a death wish plan and attend hurricane parties in the path of one of those hellish storms.  In fact, police officers visit those who stay and get the names and addresses of their next of kin.

The most predictable things about hurricanes is their unpredictability.  You can never know, for sure, exactly where a hurricane will make landfall ... until it makes landfall.   The thing is -- the breadth of the storms is such that it really doesn't matter where the eye is if you are within oh, say, 100 miles of it (or more, depending upon the size and intensity of the storm) -- you're going to catch the dickens. If you happen to be unfortunate enough to be located on the right front quadrant of the storm -- you are REALLY going to be hit with the highest winds, etc. 

When you have no electricity  you cannot watch the radar on your TV or computer -- but you can get a workable idea of where the storm is -- in relation to you -- by watching the direction of the winds. The walls of a hurricane vortex turn counter clockwise.  That is important to know if you are watching a storm approach and watching its progress as it passes.

I'm telling you all this as a veteran of numerous hurricanes.  As such, I can also tell you that the horse hockey being spread around about the "super storms" and hurricanes with greater intensity, higher winds, and all that frightening stuff, due to global warming, is, well, pure horse hockey -- or bovine scatology -- take your pick because both apply.

In the first place there is no such thing as global warming.  The earth has been in a normal warming cycle as we come out of the last mini ice age.  That warm-up ended near the end of the decade of the 1990's. Beginning almost immediately we entered a new cool-down phase because we are heading into the next ice age, which we can only hope will be a "mini-ice age." (I'll forgo the purchase of new long-johns as I do not expect to be here when the really cold temps arrive.)

As I do not expect to be alive then, I wonder, with some amusement, how well Americans are going to survive after preparing for the hot temperatures of global warming only to be dumped in a freezer locker barefooted and shirtless, as it were.

America and, indeed, much of the world has been duped, some willingly, into believing the false propaganda of the greatest hoax ever perpetrated upon mankind.  Well,  make that the SECOND greatest hoax following "Satan doesn't exist."

There IS a connection between the two, however.  Much as parents of generations ago would frighten their children into the behavior the parent wanted by threatening them with "the boogie man will get you" our lefty, socialist, Marxist "Greenies" are threatening the world with death and destruction -- by global warming -- if we don't behave the way they want us to behave ... which is to say:  shut-up, sit down, and accept a Marxist global government with the United Nations in total control of all the peoples of the earth from cradle to grave.

I don't know about you, but I fear that scenario more than I fear those super-duper hurricanes with which they threaten us !

It's WEATHER -- not CLIMATE.  The Greenies are using weather to scare folks into accepting climate-change/global warming.  All that is required for one to see through their lies is to THINK!

Even though I have lived past my biblical expiration date doesn't mean that my mind and reasoning ability have deteriorated -- not yet, at least.  I am not so slow that I don't know that eventually a massive mean-as-heck hurricane is going to roll off the coast of western Africa, plow across the Atlantic, and maul the US mainland.  When that happens, your best defense is -- COMMON SENSE.  If that requires running, then, by all means,  do so.

Over the years my family has acquired enough survival gear and equipment that we can take care of ourselves for a very long time without depending on the government -- or anyone else.  WE are our own first line of defense.  WE are our own "first responders."  We have shelter, food, water, light, heat, and, yes, we have weapons for protection. Law enforcement will break down.  They will quickly become overwhelmed. Count on it.  

The best advice anyone can follow when threatened by a hurricane is, again,  use common sense!   Always, ALWAYS, assume the worst, prepare for the worst.  If it makes you feel better -- then hope for the best -- but ONLY after you prepare.

A final note about hurricane preparedness.  And this is the lesson our fellow Americans are  learning in New England.   Don't ever count on the government to save your rear end. They may show up.  They may not.  When they do, they are inevitably late and -- THEY ARE IN CHARGE -- and the red tape is overwhelming -- not to mention the many, many, ways open to them to abuse their authority.  You think you feel small in the presence of the storm, wait 'til you try to deal with a government bureaucrat after the storm has passed.

It is bad enough to have to deal with a hurricane.  It is even worse to have someone insisting that YOU and your lifestyle are ultimately to blame for the storm. 

Nothing motivates like fear.  That has not been lost on the Greenies of the left.  They are using fear and intimidation to reach their goal of a one-world Marxist government.  Never forget that.

J. D. Longstreet