Blowhard Low Pressure Low Blow

Rush Limbaugh implies that Barack Obama manipulated the government's prediction of Isaac's storm track to disrupt the GOP convention.

The Republicans Are Getting Ready For Isaac

So too the Episcopalians.

God Weighs In On The Republican Party?

When an earthquake struck the Nixon library in June as he and other panelists discussed DOMA and Prop. 8, conservative former law school dean John Eastman got a round of applause when he said, "See what happens when you mess with traditional marriage?" The moderator, my Nixon brother Hugh Hewitt, headlined a blog post as follows: "God Weighs In On The Same Sex Marriage Debate?"

With a hurricane named for the great patriarch himself bearing down on Florida, the GOP has just canceled the first day of its convention. Was it the Ryan pick? The pre-1920 platform on women and abortion? No way. I trust with all my heart that God doesn't punish people with weather and falling buildings, including especially the three reported killed already by the hurricane. In June I praised Br. Hugh for the wisdom of his question mark; I only jokingly borrowed it for this post (before getting back to praying for all in Isaac's path).
Photo: USA Today

Intersper-// ced With Scatter- // red Showers

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The weather in Anglican chant. According to a YouTube comment, this performance by the Master Singers has been around since 1966.
Hat tip to Mark Shier

You Think?

The people at our Marriott hotel in Manhattan venture the theologically sound proposition that the weather is "subject to change without notice."

Yorba Linda Sky

Looks like snow this afternoon.

Must Be Some Snow Plough

Lead, South Dakota, Jan. 5

Hat tip to Tom Tierney

After This Winter, We're Even More Confused

My former colleague Paul Saunders, executive director of the Nixon Center, and Vaughan Turekian on the international and U.S. domestic political complexities of the climate change issue:

[T]hough they have tried many different arguments, climate advocates have thus far largely failed in making a sufficiently strong case for emissions limits on any basis. While the scientific case for climate change is solid, the “approaching calamity” argument about its expected consequences hasn’t gained traction. This appears partially due to good public relations by climate skeptics (helped recently by foolish and highly-publicized emails among a handful of scientists) and to record-high snowfall throughout the United States in the winter of 2009-10 that was consistent with climate change modeling but confused many Americans.

The moral argument for action to save indigenous peoples, animals, and glaciers is closely related to the calamity argument and often has a greater emotional appeal. However, despite support from some evangelical Christian groups focused on humanity’s stewardship of God’s creation, this has also fallen short.

St. John's Sky

Go blue!

Rain's A Pain, But Fewer Houses Will Burn Down

Lightning strikes over Palmdale, California early Tuesday as a low pressure system brings unsettled wet weather to southern California. (Photo and caption by AP/Mike Meadows)

Weather Or Not

I took this photo the other afternoon at St. John's. The sky had flickered to life after a long, dry summer, when the vast blue curtain had been drawn across the screen while the audience went to Hawaii. The sky show has recommenced, but so far, at least in my parts of southern California, it's been big cloud and no drench. Driving home from downtown LA last night, I saw lightning over the foothills around Diamond Bar. This morning in Yorba Linda, we heard thunder for a couple of hours. But while the air feels thick, like summertime in my native Michigan, the sky's already clearing after giving us just a three-minute dusting. Maybe next time.

It Was Bad For Frank Nixon's Lemons, Too

There was frost on the mighty Saturn in my Yorba Linda driveway this morning, but not a window scraper in sight. They're illegal in southern California.