Groundhogs, Weather, and Prophecy

This is a rare palindrome day where the date reads the same forward and backward in a variety of date methods: 02022020. Something like this specific kind has not happened for 900 years and will not happen again for another 101 years. Now we can move on to something else for you to chew on.

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Some folks get a kick out of pulling a rodent out of a cage and waving it around as a superstitious pretend-prophecy about winter. I wonder if people in the Southern Hemisphere do this kind of thing during their winter seasons, and if people think they can find Bill Murray in Punxsutawney. (It prompts me to ask, "How much ground could a groundhog hog if a groundhog could hog ground?") While it may be fun and useful to know the weather, this device fails. In fact, climate and weather predictions tend to fail more often than not the further out they go.

Weather happens. Climate changes. Despite the fundamentally flawed deep time and evolutionary thinking of climate change alarmists, we have a Creator and he is in control. And don't be blaming the poor woodchuck for the weather, you savvy? He's had enough abuse for one day.

Today is February 2, and you know what that means—Happy Groundhog Day! Every year in several locations around the country, a live (or sometimes “stuffed” taxidermy specimen) groundhog (also called a woodchuck) makes a prediction about when the coming spring will appear. The most famous groundhog is Punxsutawney Phil, and his annual prediction is reported on local and national news outlets. As the story goes, if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow on February 2, six more weeks of winter weather lay ahead; but no shadow indicates an early spring.

To read the rest of this short article and get back to the national object of secular worship, click on "Groundhog Day and Other Weather 'Prophecies'".