Prison Surprise

    For those of you who are not desert rats, this picture has not been photoshopped.  The sign is on the I-17 freeway, just a couple miles north of Phoenix, going to/from Flagstaff.

Daylight Savings Time

    This is why we don't do Daylight Savings Time here in Arizona.  

How's the weather?

    A blizzard, you say?  Storm of the decade?  Basketball and hockey games being cancelled due to the weather?

    Here in Phoenix, we'll have sunny skies for the rest of the week.  Highs in the 90's the whole time, topping out at 95°F on Saturday.

    Time to make cookies while carpooling.

Tonight's Forecast

    We're having a bit of a heat wave here in Phoenix.  Yesterday, it hit 117°F.  Right now today (5:00 PM), it's 114°F.  And tomorrow's high will be 115°F.

    And in case you're thinking, "yeah, but it's a dry heat", no, it isn't.  This is monsoon season, which means we're having Houston humidity.

Arizona Weather

    It'a mid-May, and it snowed in Arizona yesterday.  And as you can see, it was more than just a "dusting".  Now, to be fair, this is in Flagstaff, 100 miles north of Phoenix, and at a considerably higher elevation.  But still, this is quite unusual.

    All will be back to normal in a bit over a week.  The high temperatures for Phoenix for the week after Memorial Day are predicted to be in the 108°F-112°F range,.  Ouch!  That's not supposed to happen until the middle of June.

Happy Valentine's Day!

    And Happy 100th Birthday to Arizona as well!  It's also Oregon's 153rd Birthday, but that's not nearly as noteworthy.

Picacho Peak Pile-Up

    We know Arizona drivers aren't worth a sh*t when it rains.  And they're even worse in snow.  This is not a critical thing, since those two phenomena seldom happen here.  But dust storms are a different matter.  Arizona gets dust storms like L.A. gets smog.

    And we got one today.  No, not a mile-high "haboob-sized" one; just your ordinary happens-all-the-time variety.   But you still have to take care.  At zero-visibility, it is advisable to slow down to at least 80 mph while transversing the freeways.  And pay attention to your surroundings a little bit; maybe going so far as to hang up your cell phone.  You might even consider exiting the freeway until the storm passes.

    Someone apparently forgot all that this afternoon on the I-10, somewhere around Picacho Peak.  The result was a 30-vehicle pile-up; 1 fatality; and several more with life-threatening injuries.  Perhaps Arizonans should be forbidden to drive whenever anything more than two clouds appear in the sky.

Textless Tuesday

New Immigration Hate Law

Governor Jan Brewer, unloved by Arizona Democrats and Republicans alike, signed our recently-passed Immigration Hate Bill today. Essentially, it means anyone Hispanic-looking better be carrying proof that they're an Amiercan citizen at all times, or else they will be stopped on the street for no reason, jailed, and if unable to prove citizenship, deported. . You can read MSNBC's latest post on it here. Once again, Arizona is the #1 laughingstock of the nation. Brewer says she will not tolerate racial profiling by the police, which brought guffaws all around, since we have already have a xenophobic sheriff who's been conducting racially-profiled raids for years. .

John McCain, fighting for his political life against a room-temperature-IQ, ex-sportscaster (and a poor one at that), dittohead Republican challenger, came out in favor of the bill. If you're a Republican in Arizona, you basically win primaries by convincing people that you're dumber and more bigoted than your rivals.

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Steve Benson, our pride and joy political cartoonist for the Arizona Republic, has been having a field day with our state idiocies. Two of his recent efforts are above. Right on, Steve! It's nice to see that not every Arizonan has been lobotomized.

Arizona Stoopid

Meet Karla. (*) She lives here in the greater Phoenix valley, and goes to my alma mater, Arizona State University. She is also in jail, on suspicion of aggravated assault and armed robbery at a local clothing exchange store. With a crowbar. Or a tire iron. Accounts vary. You can see the video clip of this here. . As far as assault & robbery goes, it's not all that extraordinary. (Says the guy who isn't being whacked at with a crowbar). But what earns Karla a spot on this blog under the heading of STOOPID is her major at ASU : Criminal Justice. Way to get some OJT, Karla. Keep going to class; I hear next week they'll be teaching about surveillance cameras. You can read the newspaper account about it here.

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(*) : Actually, I decided not to post Karla's picture, nor her last name. But you can find both by clicking on the links.