Uncharacteristically, I didn’t say much about weather in yesterday’s post. I mentioned only in passing that last night we’d be getting something “severe.” As it turned out, we didn’t get much — everything headed in our direction either rode north of us or dissipated.
Well, not quite everything.
A small and isolated but angry thunderstorm “capable of producing a tornado” blossomed just west of Marion County around 3am, literally coming out of nowhere. The National Weather Service issued its tornado warning at 3:05am. We didn’t see much rain out of the cell, but straight-line winds blew hard on The Mountain for a half-hour as the storm passed between Flippin and Bull Shoals.
The warning was lifted at 3:30am.
Deb told me about all that over coffee a couple of hours later. I’d slept through the whole thing. Sheesh.
I won’t say anything more right now about our weather forecast for the total solar eclipse. I’ll wait ’til we get closer to Monday before I put much stock in what’s being predicted. Suffice to say that the outlook has changed since the last time I brought it up.
What I do want to talk about, related to the eclipse, is totality — or, to put a fine point on it, whether or not totality matters.
(Spoiler alert: It does.)
I’ve never been under a total solar eclipse. This’ll be my first. I was in New England 30 years ago for an annular solar eclipse, but that’s it. I want to make it clear that I don’t speak from firsthand experience.
Those who do, however, say that totality makes an enormous difference. Light, shadow, air temperature, wind, sound, animal behavior — all are very different within the path of totality. And only when the sun is completely covered by the moon is it safe to look at it directly and see the corona.
People who insist that “almost is good enough” either have never experienced totality, or they have some vested commercial (or emotional) interest in the claim. But no, 93% or even 99% still aren’t the same as 100%.
The best illustration I’ve seen, undeniably blunt, is “The Nope Map” included here. Sure, a partial solar eclipse will be cool in its own way, ’cause it doesn’t exactly happen every day. A genuine once-in-a-lifetime experience, though, requires totality.
We’re fortunate and grateful here that all we have to do is walk out the door.
You’d have to be extraordinarily committed to ignoring the news to have missed the current occupant of the Oval Office proclaiming last Sunday “Transgender Day of Visibility.” It’s the fourth straight year he’s marked March 31st this way.
This time, however, it fell on Easter Sunday.
Predictably, American Christians are outraged. They, along with traditional Americans of other faiths (and no particular faith), see the designation as an insult to those who observe this holiest day on the Christian calendar.
Whether it was merely thoughtless or a calculated act of disrespect, they’re right.
A regime that specializes in gaslighting really outdid itself in the aftermath. When a reporter asked Doctor Dementia yesterday about the proclamation, his response was, inexplicably, “I didn’t do that,” calling his critics “thoroughly uninformed.”
Translation: The Left and this misbegotten administration don’t give a rat’s ass. They have a country to destroy, dontcha know.
But, in my opinion, objecting loudly to this year’s Tranny Day falls flat. Like I said earlier, this “president” did the same thing in 2021, 2022 and 2023, always on March 31st. And everybody knew on what day Easter would fall in 2024.
Did anyone believe that progressives would move Tranny Day to avoid upsetting Christians?
Face it, People, we’ve done a shitty job of defending country and culture. The Land of Opportunity has become The Kingdom of Identity, with every race and special interest fêted with its own History Month or Heritage Week. We’ve reached the point where a federal executive proclamation lifts up mental illness — it’s called gender dysphoria — not as cause for compassion and treatment, but as something to be celebrated, an abnormality to be normalized.
We allowed this to happen to America. It’s our fault. Progressives are doing what progressives do, and we’ve been silent. Waiting ’til a leftist identity play hits on Easter Sunday to bitch about it is inexcusable.
Shame on us.
I’ll leave you today with an image Deb captured while leaving The Mountain this morning.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB