OF WEATHER AND ELECTORIAL TERRORISM

WEATHER: "Be careful out there; it's going to snow! That's the last thing I heard as I left the office yesterday afternoon. It was said affectionately, of course, but I couldn't help but notice the overly concerned tone with which it was shared. Hoosiers take their weather quite seriously, especially snowy weather. While in other parts of the country where I've lived--including Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Texas, New Hampshire, and Colorado--there's just 'weather,' here in Indiana there's 'WEATHER,' which includes a universally-held concern about 'BAD WEATHER,' i.e., snow. Turn to any local news channel when a snowy front is about to move thru, and you're bound to be hit upside the head with one weather alert on top of another. It's as if they've never seen snow in Indianapolis, yet each and every winter the same thing happens... it snows. I suppose that I don't really have a point here... just ranting about how big a deal Hoosiers make out of snow.

TERRORISM: Just a few short days after widespread terrorist attacks in Madrid, Spain, and that nation's voters tossed out the country's ruling Conservatives in favor of the Socialist party. How large a role did the attacks play in the electorial outcome? The ruling Conservatives, according to pre-election polls, were expected to win big. They didn't. I hate to say it, but it's true... terrorism works. It's hard to deny this in the world we live in today. Normally, we wouldn't give a rat's ass to Spain's election results, but as we all know, these aren't normal times. Spain's outgoing Prime Minister was one of the first, and one of the only, European leaders to support President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq... an invasion that was unpopular with an overwhelming number of Spanish people. What 'best practices' have terrorists taken from the events of the past few days? Do they now feel that they can influence national elections? Might they be so bold as to strike elsewhere as elections approach? Let's hope not!

Ha! You havenít been back to Connecticut lately; the weather on the news has become big news events. They have a reporter on every corner. ìLook thereís a snow flake and look thereís another.î Or they are interviewing everyone walking by and asking them about what they about the ìBig Stormî. Each TV station is trying to out do the other stations in hype. People flock to the stores to buy everything out.

It's true, Mikal. Weather is a BIG topic everywhere you go. It's like it is the only news you can actually verify as true. Yes, see, it IS snowing! These are actual flakes, but will we see 3-6 inches? Stay tuned for later news!
Unfortunately, I think we will see more attacks around election times. They have been successful in their attack in Spain. Will they be successful other places? I don't think so. I hope not. At some point people have to stand up to this sort of behavior.