Exciting evening

We spent a couple of hours last night in our storm cellar. We called our next-door neighbor and she met us there, too.

A large tornado was seen on the ground somewhere northwest of us, heading southeast, which is why I was ready to go. I was watching the sky in that direction-- I could still see pretty well due to constant lightning flashes. Then the tornado sirens started blaring and we stuffed cats (and the chinchilla) in crates and ran to the cellar. 

The cats weren't happy-- except for Whiskers the one-eyed cat. As long as my daughter is there, he's content. The chinchilla didn't express his opinion.

It was really hot and stuffy (and a bit crowded). We sat there and listened to the wind, rain, and hail.

Finally, when the worst had passed and the radar on our phones showed the dangerous parts of the storm had moved on, we came up and went back in the house-- getting drenched as we did so.

This is only the second time we've retreated to the cellar for a storm. The last time was probably 10 years ago. This was the first time the tornado sirens were screaming at us.

I checked the house and yard this morning and there doesn't seem to be any real damage. Leaves stripped from my "trees" and stuff moved around a little by the wind (we have worse winds without storms-- we didn't get the 90-125 mph winds reported in some other areas).

Around town, some trees lost large pieces of themselves. I'm about to take my daily stroll around town and I'll see if anything else seems damaged. 

Anyway, it was thrilling and we survived just fine. I kind of thrive in survival situations-- even minor ones. I'm still glad I have a storm cellar.

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My colon surgery fundraiser.
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Global communism-- inevitable or stillborn?

I can't help but find it funny when a communist lectures me about my need to grow up and face the real world.

Communists are so very convinced of the "inevitability" of communism. We are all going to be there eventually. We might as well stop fighting it now-- we are just wasting our time. 

Well, I'm accustomed to being on the "losing" side. Still not convinced it's the wrong side.

I had a discussion with one communist a couple of days ago. It was illuminating.

He couldn't help himself-- he needed to assign me to "the left" or "the right". So he told me I'm a capitalist ("the right"). 

When I said I support the market, the communist launched into a lecture about how capitalism requires government, cops, theft, and exploitation. I tried to steer him back to the topic of the market, but he only wanted to criticize capitalism.

He hates that rich people are allowed to spend their own money (which he believes isn't theirs) on what they want. He says they are tyrannizing me by doing so. Should I feel tyrannized by them if they aren't using legislation against me?

He also started in about the communists' favorite Phantom Menace: class. To me, "class" is in the same category as "race" a distinction that doesn't make any difference since it doesn't say who is archating against whom. I don't give one Planck Length about someone's supposed "class".

He couldn't have an intelligent conversation because he couldn't get past "class" and "capitalism". He's stuck in the mud.

They can't stand that I say I don't care if they establish a communist community as long as they don't force anyone to participate. He told me I'll be begging to join them as soon as I run out of canned beans and dogs. OK. If that's true it doesn't change my position even a little.

He wasn't willing to have an actual conversation because...well, I'm not sure. But I could see it wasn't accomplishing anything to keep trying to discuss it with him.

So I set him loose to go hallucinate at someone else.

Communists: they aren't that smart but at least they can sometimes fight their own straw men to a draw.

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Help me cover the expense of my colon surgery, if you can and if you want to.
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