Living in Upstate New York for near a decade now I have seen my fair share of snow. Even in my Long Island hometown, we have always had our lot of powdery precipitation...until now...Two days ago, a record high temperature set back in the 20s was broken in the Capital Region. The old record was around (I think under) 50 degrees. The temperature two days ago?
71! We can talk about global warming until we're blue in the face, and many of us have I'm sure, but it's really not getting us anywhere. I'll tell you one thing, it's almost the only thing that people talk about in cow country NY. I'm not sure what we should do, but I've been walking to work for almost four months now, so I feel a tad better about myself.
So, how about the birds in Texas? Over 60 pigeons dropped out of the sky despite preliminary air quality test coming up negative. This has nothing to do with global warming, but it's a pretty ominous sign, don't you think? Good thing I hate pigeons, or I'd be
really bummed. Similarly, our friends in the Big Apple can attest to a strange gas odor that moved across the island of Manhattan this morning. I got a call from my best friend, who works on 42nd St., around nine. "Well, that's it," he said. "We're dead."
"What."
"Chemical warfare, man! It smells like some kind of noxious gas all over the city! You might be safe up in hick's haven, but we're all dead down here!"
There's a big public outcry around my area about a school (Shenendehowa High School) denying a group of students from holding a protest. An anti-abortion protest. The pro-lifers all over Saratoga County are up-in-arms about the refusal and went so far as calling in the ADF (Alliance Defense Fund, a watchdog group who claims to defend "religious freedom" when there one and only concern is the Christian faith and value system) to bring charges against the school district. Again, Christians displaying their total ignorance (or lack of concern) for the seperation of church and state. I'm sure the Shen principal would have allowed their protest to follow through if, as is the case with any protest of its kind, religious values and slogans weren't the main discourse used. Keep Jesus out of the classroom. The private, religious schools get more tax money in NY anyway, so send your children there. The ADF's biggest complaint? The fact that the principal has allowed t-shirts lampooning the president in the past. Wow. This doesn't have a lot to do with the end of the world, but I'm sure the ever increasing lack of ignorance and insensitivity (be it to opposing views or the basic structures in which the country was built on) cannot be a good sign.
And so, I rely on Red Stripe to make this ugly world beautiful!!
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