How did so many of us, become so mean?
Indeed I tremble for my country when reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever: that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events: that it may become probable by supernatural interference!
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia
An item from Cowboy State Daily columnist Dave Simpson (who is not from Wyoming, like so many of Wyoming's far right are not):
Within the column:
Apparently California hasn't had the good sense to encourage landowners to clear their land of the brush that went up in flames around Los Angeles last week, taking 24 lives and destroying 12,000 homes so far. One report explained that landowners clearing brush could be fined for killing rare, protected plants.
Good grief.
Here in Wyoming, we made our places less prone to fire.
Too bad California didn't encourage landowners to do the same.
They're paying the price now.
What a massively ignorant and mean thing to say.
The replies on twitter, at least, were not clueless:
Stephanie Hewitt@Stephhewitt1 2h
But even with thinning the forest, the Snowy Range would not survive with hurricane force winds during a forest fire. Stop the grandstanding.
Indeed the recent fire in Albany and Carbon Counties more than proved that.
Buckwild @veedawhoo 3h
Don't break your arm patting yourself on the back chief🙄
Exactly.
Traveler@JuniperMesa 1h
Fill Sky will massive amounts heat trapping gases, catastrophically overheat Planet = catastrophic climate change, Aridification, Megadrought, FireStorms gone Runaway, beyond Apocalyptic self reinforcing feedback loop, not "potential", Rocky Mountain Ecosystem, not built for heat
And right again.
Of course, as Simpson, who actual Wyomingites would not regard as a Wyomingite (you have to be born here or in a neighboring state, wondering in as an adult doesn't count), is from the far right, and as a far right migrant who didn't grow up here with winters were real, probably is in the climate change is a fib category.
It isn't.
The old saying is "paybacks are a bitch".
How naive and clueless can a person be to not realize that an urban fire.
There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.
Raymond Chandler, Red Wind: A Collection of Short Stories
The fires were driven by Santa Ana winds, strong, extremely dry katabatic winds that originate inland and affect coastal Southern California and northern Baja California.
Chandler wasn't kidding. They're something else, and indeed "Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks."
I fear that Wyoming is about to get a real dope slap.
California contributes five times more to the Federal coffers than it receives.
Then I rapped upon a house with a U.S. flag upon display
I said, "Could you help me out, I got some friends down the way"
The man said, "Get out of here, I'll tear you limb from limb"
I said, You know, they refused Jesus, too, " he said, "You're not him
Get out of here before I break your bones, I ain't your pop"
I decided to have him arrested, and I went looking for a cop
Bob Dylan 115th Street Dream.
Wyoming receives more than it gives.
Sitting there smug with a 307 beer can isn't going to change that.
And we have disasters, including fire related disasters, every year.
This year, the Hageman homestead was burned in one such fire.
Guess the Hageman's didn't know enough to clear the underbrush?
I suspect nobody is going to say that.
And if the fires return here next summer, and its been a very dry winter, what will people who hold such mean spirted views say?
And will Wyoming, which had its hand out for disaster relief in 2024, be too embarrassed to ask for it in 2024. Simpson speaks for a common view here, and the GOP is threatening to hold disaster aid to California up. Indeed, our Senator, in his new whip role, has hinted at that.
Nature and events have a terrible way of humbling the arrogant.
Every proud heart is an abomination to the LORD; be assured that none will go unpunished.
Proverbs, 16:5
