Wow!

Via Drudge, "Blizzard Causes 100 Car Pil-up In North Dakota".

Wow!  They have 100 cars in North Dakota?

Comments

[Janet]

via Drudge -
Will this kangaroo be the next icon, like the "poor polar bears trapped on ice" picture, to raise funds for AGW?

[BumperStickerist]

left unreported -

100 cars, 12 combines, 37 tractors, and two 40 mule teams involved in pile-up

.

[Captain Hate]

South Dakota's sparsely populated enough except for Wall Drug; NoDak must be extremely desolate. And cold.

[Sue]

Michelle Obama, interested in healthy and natural foods, raises bees at the White House and makes her own honey. She's gifted Wong with a supply of White House honey.

I'll bet she raises bees at the WH and makes her own honey. Just like she gardens.

http://www.honolulumagazine.com/Honolulu-Magazine/Biting-Commentary/December-2010/Cooking-for-the-President-Obama-Dines-at-Alan-Wong-039s/>Source

[TexasIsHeaven]

And I can tell you from experience - those are some hardy folks that live up in that part of our 57 states.

I lived in northwest Wyoming for a couple of years and the snow and the ice and the bone-chilling cold seemed to last forever in the winters.

Then one morning, I fell out of bed and broke my nightgown. That was the day I moved back home to Texas and I ain't never been back - ain't ever going back either.

Happy New Year to everybody.

[Sue]

I fell out of bed and broke my nightgown

LOL.

[centralcal]

TexasIsHeaven: Sue once again beat me to it, but that "broke my nightgown" line is hysterical!

[Bill in AZ sez it's time for Zero to resign]

Very little mention of AZ's blizzard over the last couple of days. Prolly too inconvenient for the warmists. I-40 and I-17 closed off and on through much of the last 2 days, along with several major state highways. It warmed up to a balmy 15F here in Payson this morning at 5000 ft elevation after an overnight low of 9F, with 16 inches of snow outside. 30 inches just a few miles north of me, along with 0F or below temperatures. Snow was even falling in the Phoenix metro area yesterday.

[squaredance]

Both Dakotas actually have some very beautiful parts to them/ The settlers were hearty--all across the great plans. many spent their first winters there in mud buildings as there are little trees in some parts.

But the settlers of Texas were equally as hearty.

We take our past for granted. The settling of this country was a monumental tasks and required courage, patience and industry.

Knowledge of this, more than anything else, is what makes the flippant and juvenile degradation and depredation of our history and the plundering of the wealth heaped up through it so provocative.

[Captain Hate]

Northwest Wyoming; around the Tetons and Yellowstone? I'd imagine winter starts in early October and ends in mid May. And I LOLled too.

[squaredance]

An yes, car are as scarce in the Dakotas as are Patriots in New York.

(You can bet that the unions "sending a message" tied up a lot more than 100 cars.)

[Threadkiller]

They were all on their cellphones? A new law will prevent this from ever happening again.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Cap'n-

Winter has been known to start in August around Jackson.

[Captain Hate]

Mel, I was camping in late August in the Tetons and every morning I woke up to frozen water. Plus there was a chance of snow one day (which didn't happen but still...).

[Sue]

The high was 71 in NE Texas yesterday. My husband and I went running in our summer shorts.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Swimming, Warren Buffet-style, around there in mid-July is considered self-abuse.

I don't care how warm that top inch of water feels.

[anduril]

More good news from the Islamic Republic of Iraq that we created: Ethnic/religious cleansing continues in Muslim Iraq.

[cathyf]

One of my kids' former teachers, now retired, is from North Dakota. She reminded the kids every so often that ND has the best-rated schools in the US.

[BobDenver]

So, Bill in AZ, there's snow on Four Peaks? I think I've only seen that in old Arizona Highways magazines.

[Porchlight]

My dad's family is from North Dakota (and my mom's is from South Dakota). Beautiful country, I don't care what anyone says.

[DrJ]

Snow in Phoenix isn't really that rare. The hills (the locals call them mountains) around Phoenix were snow-covered a few times while I was there.

[Threadkiller]

">http://www.autoblog.com/2010/01/22/strong-winds-cause-russo-and-steele-auction-tents-to-collapse/"> Phoenix weather the last time I was there.

[DrJ]

Yeah, Phoenix weather can be extreme. The duststorms are very unpleasant. I doesn't rain often, but when it does, it really comes down hard. There are always cars swept away when the foolhardy try to cross "puddles."

[Donald]

lun

I'm, so, so, sorry.

[TexasIsHeaven]

Porchlight you are so right. The Dakota's are beautiful - and I really enjoyed the Black Hills, Deadwood, and Mount Rushmore when I was up there - but be it ever so humble, there is no place like home.

For this native Texan the most beautiful sight and smell on this earth is a fresh plowed field - there's nothing like it.

[glasater]

My Mom was from N Dakota and would tell me stories of the very hard Winters.
How they would go to school on a sleigh during snowy days.
And I did get my share of "how tough" life was for her versus how easy I've got it now.
She was right!

[Ignatz]

--Very little mention of AZ's blizzard over the last couple of days. Prolly too inconvenient for the warmists.--

Bill, cold winters are CAUSED by global warming. Get a clue.
But it does leave me wondering what causes warm winters; an ice age?

[Neo]

Yet another "Global Climate Disruption" related accident.

[Ignatz]

--Mel, I was camping in late August in the Tetons and every morning I woke up to frozen water.--

CH,
I was sitting in my pickup in late June in SW Wyoming one year watching the howling wind blowing the falling snow sideways and listening to the local radio forecast of "periods of winter through the end of the week".

[Old Lurker]

Go to your room, Donald.

Don't come down till we tell you to.

[Donald]

Yes sir.

[jimmyk]

In case anyone missed it, this is what squaredance is referring to above about unions sending a message. If Bloomberg had cajones some heads would roll, or he could even pull a Reagan and decertify the union (probably a popular thing to do right now). But he's too busy worrying about restaurants using too much salt.

[Old Lurker]

And leave the door open, young man (now that we know what websites you visit).

[clarice]

My computer is down. A German friend with a German keyboard is allowing me to connect to inform everyone. Anyway have a great New Zear all.

[centralcal]

lol - Happy New Zear, Clarice!!!

[Extraneus]

I didn't know who she was, but her makeup is pretty impressive. (For when Donald comes back.)

[Porchlight]

She needs the makeup, centralcal, because she is just average-level cute without it.

My girls think she's the cat's pajamas, though.

[Porchlight]

oops, sorry, Extraneus not centralcal...

[Ignatz]

--I didn't know who she was...--

I believe she is the ditz who terrorized, or perhaps enticed is a better word, Elmo with her cleavage on Sesame Street.

[Bill in AZ sez it's time for Zero to resign]

Ignatz: "Bill, cold winters are CAUSED by global warming. Get a clue.
But it does leave me wondering what causes warm winters;"

Global Warming.

BobDenver - can't see any mountains yet, but expect Four Peaks is covered. Still snowing in Payson today.

[Jane (get off the couch - come save the country)]

Any of us from Arkansas?

[Frau Sylvester Abend]

Happy New Zear! Back atcha, Clarice. Zou're the verz best.

(Soooo jealous, Clarice has umlauts at her fingertips! But what will TzpePade do to them?)

When I first started teaching school and had to type my class exercises, the only typewriter we had at home was a German one with the "z" in the the "y" position so I understand. I had to switch back and forth depending on where I typed and finally had to unlearn it altogether.

[Boatbuilder]

Kim (or anybody else)--can you direct me to some reasonably authoritative information on Antarctic ice levels?
My lovely bride is reading "Fraser's Penguins" and is...er... not responding well to my skepticism about the central premise that the world is coming to an end (I don't know if that's really the central premise but that's what the reviewers heaping praise on it seem to think). My not-particularly-well-informed understanding is that there was a hell of a lot more Antartic sea ice than usual over the last several years, while there was somewhat less in the Arctic, but that that has changed (like the weather) recently. If the world is actually coming to an end, I'd like to check out the evidence and act accordingly (i.e., graciously concede defeat to my lovely bride).

[Neo]

So where do the 1934/1998/2010 warm years rank in the long-term list of warm years? Of the past 10,500 years, 9,100 were warmer than 1934/1998/2010. Thus, regardless of which year ( 1934, 1998, or 2010) turns out to be the warmest of the past century, that year will rank number 9,099 in the long-term list.

[Jack is Back!]

So, the Constitution is so confusing that Ezra Klein has entered a contest to explain what the Constitution means to him. Iowahawk has a certified copy of his application. LUN

Once spent a summer in Worland, Wyoming doing everything a high school should do out there - riding horses, helping around a radio station, working on a pipeline and eating the best damn French Dip sandwiches evah! But the sky, the scenery, the quiet was all remarkable and God-giving beautiful. I still think the luckiest people in America are the ones who live in Wyoming and the Dakotas.

[Jack is Back!]

Oh, I forgot:

For Clarice and Frau, "Guten Rutsch ins Neue Jahr"!

[Ralph L]

She's gifted Wong with a supply of White House honey
She's gifted -- Wong!

What idiot wrote that sentence?

[Rick Ballard]

Boatbuilder,

Here you go.

Confirmation of your understanding. I didn't know that the ice in Antarctica constitutes 90% of the world's supply.

[Frau Sylvester Abend]

If South Dakota had a French "Youth" population, those cars could be torched tonight as part of their annual Saint Sylvester fete. Problem solved and a gift to the auto industry.

[Boatbuilder]

Thank you, Rick.

[Sue]

Any of us from Arkansas?

None that will admit it. ::grin::

I hope no one is, since Jane asked for a serious reason. Deadly tornado in NW AR overnight.

[Danube of Thought]

I'm watching the Sun Bowl in El Paso and they had to clear the snow from the field before kickoff.

[Frau Sylvester Abend]

Thanks, Jack. I'm glad not to be in Germany right now where that "Rutsch" might mean a pratfall on the ice and snow.

[Boatbuilder]

Rick--What I meant to say was "Thanks for nothin', Man!" Domestic harmony will not be forthcoming.
The entirely unconvincing argument of the Gorists at that site seems to be: Consistent measured increases in the extent of ice in the Antarctic, which has 90%of the world's ice, means absolutely nothing in the AGW debate (except in the very limited area where it's declining, which is very very important) and short term fluctuations in Arctic ice, which is less than 10% of the world's ice, is of primary importance, except when it increases. And that we really don't know everything about the science on this, but what we are really, really sure of is that the world is coming to an end because you drive an SUV.
(The guy who argued that there is more ice in Antarctica because there is more snow because of heat increasing moisture in the water which condenses as snow and then melts into the ocean and then becomes ice when it hits the water was typical).

[Walter]

Jane,

She-Who-Grew-Up-In-CA-And-Thus-Fears-Tornadoes-More-Than-Earthquakes is off touring the local damage in STL. Fortunately no deaths, but lots of downed power lines and trees ("Snapped like toothpicks" say the kids). And a few new homes will be built in the otherwise moribound market.

[Janet]

If South Dakota had a French "Youth" population, those cars could be torched tonight...

A Freeper called into the Dennis Miller show once & complimented him by saying...,"You are brighter than 300 burning Renaults on a cool Paris night"

Hah!

[Chubby]

ND is weathering the financial crisis well. One of my Internet acquaintances is a ND rancher with acreage on Bakken oil fields. A nice place to be.

ND is also known for its state bank model, which is held up by some as a model that every state should follow. Lots of Youtubes on that topic.

[Frau Imkerin]

If MO is *raising* bees, I'll eat my beekeeper's hat and veil. You (Zou for Clarice) don't raise bees, you *keep* them. (My husband adds, "If you're lucky.") Next we'll hear how she gets up early to gather each day's new honey. We started out with one hive in the yard and ended up with forty hives elsewhere in a "bee yard" my husband kept behind an electric fence to keep the urban black bears from tearing the hives apart. I want to see photos of FLOTUS with suit, hat and smoker in hand. hahahah!

[Frau Imkerin]

Call me skeptical...

[Captain Hate]

What idiot wrote that sentence?

Either the MFM has fired all their editors or have many that are no damn good.

[centralcal]

Hey skeptical (yeah, you, Frau Imkerin . . .

From the article, here is the full sentence:

Michelle Obama, interested in healthy and natural foods, raises bees at the White House and makes her own honey.

The whole sentence is hysterical. Obviously the reporter doesn't have a clue about "raising" bees or Michelle's talent for "making" honey.

[Janet]

I have no doubt that this giant yam raisin' super woman can also make honey...bees or no bees.

It's a Rhubarb god miracle!

[Porchlight]

Michelle Obama, interested in healthy and natural foods, raises bees at the White House and makes her own honey.

How idiotic is this reporter? First, the bees make the honey. Second, while I can believe there is beekeeping at the White House, Michelle is not doing it herself, because she is not smart or brave enough, nor does she have the time. I'm sure there is an official beekeeper. Maybe Michelle has watched once or twice from a distance.

[MarkO]

Okay. But I feel certain she makes many of her own clothes.

[squaredance]

Jimmyk:

1) Bloomy will not stand up to the Unions as this is a major constituency of his. In fact, no mayor can get elected in NYC without the full support of the Unions,and you and to be clear just what "full support" means: cave to any demand that the Unions make or else.

2) Bloomy is a pompous liberal arse and opportunist. He has already moved on. That lede is already almost buried. There will be some announcement about "an investigation" but all will quickly fade into memory my the end of Jan. The Unions knew they could get away with it. They "sent their message" and are laughing about it, practically right out in the open.

BTW, it was not just the snow removal. The Subways and the LIRR were ust impossible. The LIRR was pretty much out for 2 days--the subways for a day. It is like living in The Warsaw Pact.

Nowhere, not in CA and not in Boston, Chicago or LA, is there a more corrupt political machine than in NYC.

[Janet]

Okay. But I feel certain she makes many of her own clothes.

I don't know about making her own clothes, but I know for a fact that she is a cobbler.
Here is a pair she started, but didn't have time to finish...

[Jack is Back!]

SD,

We went in on the Jitney Tuesday and the city was a joke for walking. But cabs were easy to catch which I thought was weird since it was so crowded but lots of people are out of town also. Agree with your assessment. Surprised that Klein got so much done with the schools.

[MoodyBlu]

Porch:
My girls think she's the cat's pajamas, though.

And middle aged men think her breasticles are marvelous!

[Threadkiller]

--"Michelle Obama, interested in healthy and natural foods, raises bees at the White House and makes her own honey."--

Bee+.

[Janet]

Yeah TK! Hahahahaha

[maryrose]

I loved South Dakota when I visited in the 70's. Especially the aforementioned deadwood and the Badlands and Mt. Rushmore. I had a friend in the the Air Force who was stationed at Minot AFB.. Now that is a cold and remote place. However ND has survived this recession quite well.

[Danube of Thought]

there is more ice in Antarctica because there is more snow because of heat increasing moisture in the water which condenses as snow and then melts into the ocean and then becomes ice when it hits the water

As James Taranto said in response to this argument, it appears that global warming is its own worst enemy.

[pagar]

" I'm sure there is an official beekeeper"

With the money they spend on Vacations, they must take the beekeeepers with them.

[larry]

Janet-giant yam raisin'
Wow, what'll they crossbreed next?

[larry]

I'd bet very large there are no bees kept on WH grounds.

[Sue]

en White House carpenter Charlie Brandt told some of First Lady Michelle Obama’s staff about his latest hobby in beekeeping, Chef Sam Kass was quick to ask him if he knew how to make honey that could be used in the White House kitchen. Fortunately, not only did Brandts know how to make the honey, but he also had a spare beehive at home that he was happy to donate to the White House. Now Brandt is the White House’s official beekeeper tending a hive of approximately 70,000 bees near the new Kitchen Garden.

Don't bet a large on no bees kept on WH grounds, but you could bet a large that Michelle had next to nothing to do with them.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/06/23/secret-life-white-house-bees>Source

I like the title. "Secret Life of White House Bees".

[Janet]

White House Chef Sam Kass.

"His name is Sam Kass. And when he’s not grilling fish for the first family or tending tomatillos in the White House garden, he is pondering the details of child nutrition legislation, funding streams for the school lunch program and the best tactics to fight childhood obesity."
and...
"(“Do we have a toxicologist who specializes in colony collapse disorder?” Mr. Kass asked in a recent e-mail message about the Department of Agriculture’s position on honey bees, Ms. Merrigan recalled.)"

[larry]

Do we have a toxicologist who specializes in colony collapse disorder?
Yeah. There's ramifications on ramifications here. Way too stupid.

[Janet]

Chef Kass also participated in the pagan rhubarb dance.... :(

"After the rhubarb was in the ground Mrs. Obama and some of the children performed what she called a "growing dance" around the wooden planter. The group chanted "grow, rhubarb, grow" several times, then circled the planter and finished by throwing their hands in the air.

White House assistant chef Sam Kass, who oversees the garden, joined in for the last round of the dance."

[Sue]

Janet,

These people are nuts.

[Sue]

Can you imagine what would be said if Laura Bush acted in this way?

[larry]

Noles-13, SC-3 at half time. A win tonight would give Jimbo wins over Miami, Florida and the much despised Superior. 10 wins total. Quite a successful first season.

[larry]

FSU, my adopted team, USAFA, my alma, Da Bears, my heritage doing almost as well as they did poorly last year.

[PD]

We started the day driving from San Antonio, where the weather was pretty nice. We're now safely ensconced in our hotel room in Emporia, Kansas, where it is "a bit" colder. Brrr! The weather was precipitation-free all the way up, but it looks like we just missed some earlier freezing rain or something. Cars here have a weird buildup of lumpy ice that looks like some combination of freezing rain and hail or something. From appearances, it looks like it's very difficult to scrape off the windows. Some people have given up - at the gas station, a car pulled in that had ice over almost the entire front windshield. I wonder how he could see anything, particularly when the streetlights pour light on all that ice?

Turned on the TV in the room to see the stories of tornados, read about the 100-care pileup in Fargo, etc. I'm very thankful right now to have missed all of this. Wonder what we'll encounter going through MO and IA tomorrow, though.

[larry]

January 1975 I spent a year at Grand Forks, ND. We had a 3-day blizzard where the snirt (amalgam of snow and dirt)blew horizontally for the duration. An airman died from exposure in the parking lot of his billet. The 2 railroad cars that housed our KC-135 simulator took 2 days to clean from all the dust that came in through less-than-airtight doors and windows. Got to be at the runway when the F-15 launched on its flight setting time-to-climb record to 10,000 meters. Awesome.

[larry]

I forgot about the highlight. On the orientation, they take you to see the tree.

[Lesley]

Much of the pile-up problem was due to the fact that these are the major arteries through this section of Minnesota and North Dakota - so, yes, 100 cars does not seem odd to me. All it takes it one timid driver to slam on their brakes and the chain reaction occurs. There is a technique to blizzard driving because there are few trees in this area to hold back the blowing snow.

We traveled a portion of this route on Christmas day from Nebraska to northern Minnesota - actually we travel it several times a year so I am very familiar with the routes discussed in the news report.

I think we all gravitate toward a certain landscape which speaks to our hearts. For me, it will always be dramatic changes in weather, wide open spaces, rolling prairies, and big skies.

[larry]

Yes! So sweet beating Steve Spurrier, the Nancy Pelosi of college football.

[MoodyBlu]

Larry:
Got to be at the runway when the F-15 launched on its flight setting time-to-climb record to 10,000 meters. Awesome.

Larry,

I was a young airman stationed at Aviano, Italy during the bicentennial in July of 1976. They had a good size airshow with the star of the show being an F15.

F15 driver taxies up the runway to in front of the reviewing stand, brakes on, full power, rolls about 100 yards and then appeared to go straight up. Incredible sight compared to the old F4s stationed at Aviano at the time. F15 still one of my all time favorite aircraft.

Anyway, I am a retired air traffic controller, and I use to work a lot of the KC135s in and out of McGuire when they put a wing in there. Still see them every once in awhile heading west out of the Philadelphia area.

[Captain Hate]

Yes! So sweet beating Steve Spurrier, the Nancy Pelosi of college football.

Congrats but I think the last name is spelled "Squirrellier".

[I'm tangentially tormenting A. Revkin.]

bb, I see Rick got you right on it. Right now the blogosphere is awhirl with the rejection of Steig's Antarctica is Warming Nature cover of a couple of years ago. Sure, the Antarctic Peninsula, AKA the Palmer Peninsula, warmed for unknown reasons, but his now debunked study temporally and spatially smeared statistically that warming over the rest of Antarctica, more particularly over Western Antarctica, and most particularly over a huge ice shelf. You can see what this leger de macedoine does. The real scandal is the aggressive peer review of the new paper, billed as O10 in the vernacular, but lead by O'Donnell, and including three other heavy hitters in the skeptical rank including Steve McIntyre and Jeff Id.
============

[I think it's gonna be a good year.]

Whoa, that was fun. I link incorrectly and still end up at a wonderful skeptical blogsite. I was trying for Jeff Id's noconsensus.wordpress.com now L!inked U!nder N!ame.
=============

[Jack is Back!]

TM,

Why so many cars in North Dakota? Because that is the one state where something is happening and there is hardly any unemployment. LUN

I am surprised no one has posted this yet on this thread.

[Bill in AZ sez it's time for Zero to resign]

Globull Warming continues here in AZ this morning. Zero degrees in Payson, and -20 to nearly -30F in some locations just north of here. Rescued some stranded folks last night in zero degrees who couldn't get out of their remote cabin - cold but beautiful in the new snow.

[Janet]

Politico says there is gonna be another big push on global warming...all the snow be damned.

Right at the front end of the article they quote Peter Frumhoff, director of science and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists....a kooky organization that is made up of far-far leftists started as a group that opposed the Vietnam war!

[Janet]

Union of Concerned Scientists

from the article - "The Union of Concerned Scientists was born out of a protest against the war in Vietnam. In 1969, a group of 48 faculty members at MIT -- the original “union” -- sponsored a one-day work stoppage of scientific research. A conference that coincided with the strike included appearances from such notables as Noam Chomsky (who is now recognized as a leader of the 21st Century “hate-America left”); Eric Mann, who led the 1960s terrorist Weather Underground; and Jonathan Kabat, who argued: “We want capitalism to come to an end.”

[Sure, Joe, the fish moved. It's been warming since the Little Ice Age. Well, until just very recently.]

Heh, Janet, wait'll Lieberman actually looks at those pictures of ice caps and Branson finds out that the Precautionary Principle won't get airplanes off the ground.
============

[Rick Ballard]

Janet,

We should applaud and encourage the lab coated commie warmist priests to add more cow bell next year. Inhoffe will have Lindzen in to kick the wheels off their epicycles (to the applause of an electorate which continues to believe their lying eyes) and Ryan can draw lines through their requests for funding with impunity.

Clarice provided a link to an RCP piece which outlines the reasons for frenetic activity to be expected across the entire leftist political spectrum (from Marx clear over to Engels). It's going to be rather amusing to watch.

[Porchlight]

Hi Lesley! Great to see you. Happy New Year!

[maryrose]

Yes- Hi Lesley- Good to see you posting.