Snowmageddon
Political Officer Putin, reading out of the Bible that had belonged to the wife of Captain Ramius, commander of the Red October, a man with the power of launching nuclear missiles… and a nuclear war.
“Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured forth his bowl into the air, and a voice cried out from heaven, saying, ‘It is done!’” Putin looks up at the Captain. “A man with your responsibilities, reading about the end of the world…. Huh.”- the movie Hunt for Red October
It is disturbing that we have a President with Armageddon on his mind.
There are many ways to describe a snowstorm in Washington D.C., and to my knowledge no one has ever called it Snowmageddon. In fact, I’ve never heard that term used to describe any winter storm, not even one much more severe than this week’s weather. So far as I can tell, our President coined the term a couple of days ago. Very creative. And as I said, quite disturbing.
There are two ways to look at it, I think. The first is that the word was made up by a man who is pretty much out of touch with a nation of people who, at least in the back of their minds, are currently wondering if the world situation is possibly headed toward the actual Armageddon. Especially Christians, within whose numbers the President counts himself. So in this first instance, we have a man who does not have enough sense to realize he has turned a desperate issue into something light and joking. It does not reassure us.
The second way of looking at it is even more disturbing. Here we have a man with his finger on The Button… one of only a few people in the world who can actually bring about Armageddon, or a pretty close facsimile thereof. The nations of the world have literally gathered within a few miles of the site generally accepted as Armageddon, the mountain and surrounding plain of Megiddo, which many agree is in the Israeli northern port of Haifa. The UN troops enforcing the cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon are only about 15 miles away. Those UNIFIL forces are constituted of 27 nations. Add in the military personnel of all the other nations currently conduction operations in the Middle East, and I think we are seeing a gathering that is unique in history.
Is his coining of the word Snowmageddon a window into his thinking? Is our President concerned about the coming of Armageddon? Is he worrying that he may be in the driver’s seat to make it happen? Is this why he is hesitating about dealing with Iran’s nuclear ambitions?
Does he fear that it is coming?
I really wish he hadn’t made up Snowmageddon from the inner reaches of his psyche. I wish he had not released his catchy turn-of-phrase to the media, further emphasizing that he thinks it is a really neat intellectual accomplishment.
But maybe it is a good thing.
For those who have eyes to see, and ears to hear….
