While the fires rage in the Cleveland National Forest, Southeast of the Los Angeles area, the offshore upper airflow carries the smoke seaward. The smoke cloud, seen spanning from horizon to horizon, obscures the sky and rains fine white ash all over the area beneath. I snapped this picture of the sun partially obscured in the smoke cloud overhead from Redondo Beach, CA. on my way home this evening.
We pray for the safety of the firefighters and for a quick containment of the blazes.
The San Andreas Fault isn’t the only defining coastal fracture zone in California. Check out the demographic depiction below. Is it something in the seawater that makes coastal residents politically stupid? Thank God that some of us are immune to whatever might be causing the insanity, even though we are only a few miles from the beach.
Excerpt from the Sacramento Bee:
California – Voters reveal true colors: Coastal blue, inland red – sacbee.com
It may not be a seismic split akin to the San Andreas Fault. But politically, it may as well be.California is increasingly divided between a coastal “blue” state and an inland “red” state, according to a recent study by the Field Poll on state election trends.
And Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may want to think twice about spending too much time campaigning among his Hollywood friends. The study suggests he might first work to shore up his Republican base throughout much of the Central Valley.
Coastal voters – in 20 counties from San Diego to Del Norte – favor Democratic candidates by sweeping margins. Meanwhile, California’s 38 inland counties overwhelmingly favor Republicans, according to the Field study, which analyzed 15 years of state political trends.
The coastal-inland divide was demonstrated in the 2004 presidential election, when Democratic candidate John Kerry outpolled President Bush, 59 percent to 40 percent, among coastal voters while Bush led, 57 percent to 42 percent, among inland voters.
Differences between coastal and inland voters don’t end at the ballot box, the study found.
[more]
Read the entire article for some interesting demographics. Also, see the expanded graphic page.
Damsel and I have been tagged by LinkedInUSAF to respond to a list of questions in a meme recently seen circulating in the blogosphere. Since the Damsel and I have to collaborate on our answers, it may be a day or two before the meme gets posted here.
Oh, by the way . . . WTF is a meme?
One definition of meme on the Web:
As defined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976): “a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation.” “Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation.
A meme is sort of like a chain letter, I guess.
One of the greatest presidents – ever.
From the Ronald Reagan Memorial Site:
President Ronald Wilson Reagan
February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004“Whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears; to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty’s lamp guiding your steps and opportunity’s arm steadying your way.”
Visit the on-line Reagan Library
A fake waterfall that is. This would look great in our backyard, but alas, it’s property of our local home and garden shop. This is actually one of two places in the fountain where water cascades down to the pool below.
We were out running errands today, taking the dogs to the dogwash, one of the cars in for service, and a stop at the home shop for some supplies. No real blogging, but we did get a lot of chores done.
Today, there have been over four million hits on the Never Forget Tribute. It only passed three million about January 16th, so it got over a million hits in less than a month! The graphic (to the best of my estimation) is seen on over three hundred sites worldwide. Thanks for all those who display it, and thanks to the folks at North American Patriot for their continued generosity in providing the bandwidth for distribution.
When the weather warms up, our Indian Hawthorne bushes sprout these nice pink flowers.
