STUCK IN THIS BLIZZARD WITH A JIMMY CARTER

SHOULD HAVE FLOWN SOUTH

FULL UP

THAT'S NOT JIMMY CARTER DRIVING

Friday, 9:00 AM.  16 degrees F, wind W, moderate with strong gusts.  The sky is overcast and it is snowing, but the sun is making a feeble attempt at shining through the wintry mess.  The humidity is up, to 89%, and the barometer is trending down, now at 29.13".  We have gotten perhaps 8"-10" of new snow so far.  Neighbor Jon Nelson just stopped by to sweep out my driveway, for which I am extremely grateful.  It is hard to find places to push it, though.
   By ten o'clock yesterday evening we were in a raging blizzard, an all-too-familiar whiteout, and whatever snow cover we lost in the last few days of thaw has recovered with a vengeance.  Pretty, though!
   The severe weather, with winds up to 40 MPH, has led the National Park Service to temporarily close the Ice Caves.  It is feared the high winds may break up the ice pack along the shore and make access to the caves treacherous.  Meanwhile, Robert Krumenaker, the  Apostle Islands National Lake Shore  Superintendent, has gone on the radio to tell us the caves may not be open in future winters because of global warming.  I wonder if Bob ever goes outside.  Or even looks out the window.
   But not pretty at all is the face of revolutions around the world and the administration's by now familiar meek response to them. We gave little or no encouragement  or even advice to the incipient democratic revolutions, now failed, in Iran, Egypt, and Syria.  And now the blood of patriots is being spilled in the streets of Kiev and Caracas while we stand by as though helpless. The young of the world want to be free, and we are complicit in their enslavement and deaths by "leading from behind."
   As soon as the Olympics in Sochi are through we will see Putin's envoys in the Ukraine; let's just hope they don't arrive by tank, as they did so often during the cold war (think Hungary, 1956, and the youngsters throwing stones at the Russian tanks).  The Czar is angry and looking for revenge; maybe we should have let him win the hockey games (I'm surprised President Obama didn't try to arrange it).   Putin will again threaten to cut off Russian gas and let Europe freeze if he is opposed.  We should crank up our oil and natural gas production so we can supply Europe if he does.  It's all a chess game, and Putin is winning.
   Cuban forces are already reported in Venezuela, and if we don't counter that move we will soon see Iranian missiles in the Gulf of Mexico.  Doesn't anyone in Washington remember the Cuban Missile Crisis?  The Russians won't be back, but Iran will step right up.  And our feckless leaders have declared the Monroe Doctrine dead just when we need it most.
   We also need an Andrew Jackson or a Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office, and we are stuck in this global blizzard with a Jimmy Carter.