We Didn't Start the Fire

This is absolutely insane. Almost all of Southern California is on fire. Smoke has been filling the skies all over for almost a week now. The sun is often hidden behind large clouds of this smoke, appearing as a small, insignificant orange ball. There's ash floating around and there are times when it hurts to breathe. I guess this is what life must be like during a nuclear winter.

Aside from the inconveniences of not being able to see the sun and from coughing continuously as my asthma acts up, my life is remaining relatively unchanged. My apartment building is really not in any danger, as there are no fires anywhere near me...at least not yet.

There doesn't appear to be an end in sight for that San Bernardino fire, which has just crossed into the mountains and is threatening to destroy the communities of Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear. My friend Katie's parents live in Big Bear, so hopefully their house survives.

Authorities have released a sketch of the possible arsonist. He actually looks quite a bit like the character that Eric Stoltz played in the movie Mask. Apparently they also arrested a man who was attempting to set another fire tonight, but there's no indication yet of whether or not he set the others.

One thing that has been pissing me off is the extent to which some people are already politicizing this tragedy. I've heard conservative talk show hosts complaining that this happened because Clinton prevented the clearing of brush in National Forests. I read a ridiculous letter to the editor in the Los Angeles Times in which the writer purported that if the members of the U.S. Army Reserves who normally worked as firefighters had not been sent to Iraq by President Bush, then these fires could have been stopped sooner. And, during a press conference today, Governor Davis tied the tragedy in with his tripling of the car tax...saying that money from the tripling of the car tax would provide for more firefighters but the people have spoken on that issue and Governor-elect Schwarzenegger has made clear that he will repeal the increase.

Couldn't all these people have at least waited until the tragedy was gone before pointing fingers?

In other news, tonight was the night for which I have been waiting since May. The season premiere of 24. If tonight's episode is any indication of how this season is going to be then all I have to say is, wow. Tonight's episode was fast-paced, well-written and did quite a good job of filling in the things that have happened over the last three years. Now, hopefully there won't be any cougars this season.