Monday, February 9, 2009

Again, I have to ask why this is news

Southern California, after burning to the ground last summer and fall, is having problems with mudslides now that actual measurable rain is falling. Boo Freaking Hoo.

To paraphrase Sam Kinison "You see this, this is sand. You know what it's gonna be in a thousand years? It's gonna be sand! You live in the desert! Get your kids, get your S!@#$!, we're making one trip!"

Southern California is the edge of the Mojave Desert. People weren't meant to live in that area in any real concentrations. The native vegetation in that area is adapted to live in semi-arid conditions and will burst into flame if you shine a flashlight at it when it's in its dormant, dry period. And we all know how well sandy soil holds together when the vegetation is sparse and charred and you dump a few inches of rain on it in a couple of days. Add to that the fact that occasionally the earth will quake itself into a frenzy underneath the very rocks and sand that make up the landscape, and I quickly remember why I've always called SoCal "The Land That God Forgot".

Why do I keep being bothered when these blithering idiots get burned, rained, mudded, or blown out of their homes? "Oh, my house got washed away after I rebuilt it when my creosote bushes and eucolyptus trees burned it down last summer." Cry me a river and move somewhere sane, like Nebraska.

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