Snowing ... again!

Having spent my youth in Montreal, I never thought I would get tired of snow in what is usually snow-starved Washington, D.C. But, honestly, as I write it's coming down like nobody's business.

So, in lieu of one coherent post, here go a few ideas:

• The storm and its closing down of the city reminds me of the very fragility of life as we know it in what one school principal called "urban cities" (as opposed to the rural ones, I imagine). I blogged about that fragility in my very first post, before I knew about blogger, when I decided to post essays on a free website I had. Read In Isabel's Wake, still current by my lights.
• Which reminds me ... this storm has no name! What's with that, Weather Service?
• Of course, people in normally snowbound areas are writing to thank me for taking their snow and even sending me pictures of snowblowers. Funny, funny, funnn-ee! I'm not going out until spring.

Nonstorm Items:

• Here I was happy as a clam that the dollar was dropping, making our exports cheaper than theirs and wham ... there goes the euro!
• Are we all terrible slimy people, or is it that as you become aware, the human, fallible condition becomes unavoidably obvious? (Just a general, philosophizing comment based on nothing.)

And, oh, OK, I'll turn comments back on. But moderated.

Haiti: the event

Woke up to an e-mail from iTunes offering an album of songs from the "one of the biggest events in broadcast history," which iTunes says was brought about by "the tragic events in Haiti." Who'd a thunk it?

The poorest, most miserable land in the Western Hemisphere -- the first black-majority independent republic in the world ... coincidence? -- had an annihilating earthquake just so Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and friends in New York, Los Angeles, and London could have a star-studded telethon.

So get yer tunes for only 8 buckeroos.

Oh, sure, "100% of proceeds from the sale" go to the the Clinton-Bush (or should it be Clinton-Bush-Bush?) Haiti Fund, the UN and several other nongovernment charities, including a token Haitian group, named last because no one has ever heard of it.

What are they gonna say: "This is the greatest, cheapest, career boosting promo for managers, producers, singers and distributors ever to come our way and we're doing our darndest to get our share of the limelight"?

Wait!

There's even a book out -- written before the fact -- about "disaster capitalism." Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism spells out how disaster-shocked people and countries faces with wars, coups and natural catastrophes are rapaciously picked clean and reordered into "free" market economies by corporate reingeneering.

It's happening now in Haiti.

Was Coakley an Insurance Company Puppet?

Who knows how these things are done: some fat cats get together in their no longer smoke-filled room and pick people to run for office? They've never invited me to participate. But if you follow the Roman adage "qui bono?" (who benefits?), it's clear that some folks who are powerful get the best government money can buy.

That brings me back to Martha Coakley, the would-be senator (D-Kennedy) who lost what looked like a shoo-in election just weeks ago. Who benefited from that?

Her defeat means that insurance companies can continue to make gazillions off you and me, since what is left of health care legislation no longer merits the name "reform." By some accounts they'll now make more money and squeeze us even harder.

So why couldn't Coakley have been put up to run with the full knowledge that she would shoot herself in the foot worse than Creigh Deeds? There was no one available to run for the crucial senate seat who had enough common sense to know that it's cold in Massachusetts or to hire people who can spell the state's name?

If you believe that, I have a very nice bridge for you. It crosses the East River.