Brave Willow firefighter loses home to the very fire he is fighting to stop.

Neighbor walks one of Leo Lashock's dogs by what remains of Lashock's home.

So last night somebody sent me an e-mail with a Daily Kos link attached and asked me to please post something about this story.

I don't usually take requests, but this time it was my pleasure.

Courtesy of the Daily Kos: 

A valiant and unselfish fire captain in the town of Willow Alaska has been fighting fire, without end, since Sunday. Sometime during the week he realized the smoke he saw in the distance was his own home.... his truck.. his dog trailer. Everything. 

Thanks to neighbors, his 17 dogs were rescued, and were returned to their owner today amid the smoldering ruins of the rest of his belongings. 

His name is Leo Lashock. He's 51. He's a fire Capt , a recreational dog musher. And a hero. If you have a few bucks to send his way, he could use them. And he deserves them. His mailing address (PO Box) is readily available on Zabasearch. To read more about Leo, the Sockeye Fire and the brave firefighters battling it, go to ADN.com. This was posted without Mr. Lashock's knowledge or permission. Thank you. This is the best thing you'll do today. 

As it turns out Lashock's mailing address is not "readily available" however there is a Facebook page for the Willow Dog Musher's Association which has information for those wishing to help out.  

And here is the Alaska Dispatch story about Lachock for those who want to know more.

The poor guy really did lose just about everything, except 17 of his dogs who were rescued before the flames arrived. (Three are still missing.)

I don't often suggest that people send money, and you can respond however you want to here.

However I will say that these people are being devastated by these fires, and it seems especially unfair that a man who has been on the front line since the day they started should return home to find virtually everything he owns destroyed.

Well we're on fire again. And not in a good way either.

Courtesy of US News:  

Fire crews are battling two serious wildfires in Alaska that are threatening hundreds of residences and have forced numerous evacuations. 

The most recent fire erupted Monday and burned six structures and prompted hundreds of residents to flee homes on the Kenai Peninsula, roughly 150 miles south of major wildfire that started a day earlier near Willow in the heart of the state's sled-dog community. 

The Willow-area blaze prompted volunteers to join in making sure that both people and their sled dogs as well as other animals were safely evacuated. 

The fire is raging near a far-flung community of about 2,000 people living along a 20-mile swath along the Parks Highway, a major road connecting Anchorage and Fairbanks.

The most current reports I've seen say that this fire has already burned up 8,500 acres, and when I walked out of my back door this morning I could smell it in the air. Quite strong actually.

Which is not surprising since the fire is only around 70 miles away from Anchorage. (But less than 30 from Wasilla.)

We get these fires almost every year up here, but usually they are not so close to people's homes.

This one is a particularly bad one however. 

Arizona Senator Jeff Flake's son may be about to lose his access to Twitter.

"Hey what can I say? Boys will be boys/"

Courtesy of Buzzfeed:  

Sen. Jeff Flake’s high school-aged son Tanner used twitter to threaten the “faggot” who stole his bike that he “will find you, and … will beat the crap out of you,” joked about an acquaintance stealing one-liners because he’s Jewish, and went by the name “n1ggerkiller” in an online game. 

“I’m very disappointed in my teenage son’s words, and I sincerely apologize for the insensitivity. This language is unacceptable, anywhere. Needless to say, I’ve already spoken with him about this, he has apologized, and I apologize as well,” Sen. Flake said in a statement to BuzzFeed. 

Although Tanner has since locked his twitter account, a series of tweets from January and February show the Arizona Republican’s son repeatedly using the slurs.

Here are a few of the more inflammatory tweets:

As many of you may remember Flake is already in the doghouse for lying to the parent of one of the Aurora shooting victims about his support fro background checks.

Hmm now why does this incident seem so familiar?

Oh, that's right.

Handful of Sarah Palin defenders, and daughter, fuming that people who make jokes about her, or play her in movies they don't like, keep getting awards!

After Julianne Moore  and Game Change won their awards the other day, I was actually waiting for the Grizzled Mama to rear her road kill bewigged head and roar from the asylum on the dead lake, but, you know, nothing.

Instead what I found was a cupful of urine tossed their by the Sea O'Pee:

Can someone please give Moore and Harris a copy of “Undefeated”, Steve Bannon’s documentary (read: fact filled, historically based film)? Sadly, Moore still lives under the liberal rocks otherwise known as Hollywood and Manhattan: 

"In her acceptance speech, Moore thanked comedian Tina Fey and former CBS anchor Katie Couric for making “a significant difference in the 2008 election.” Fey famously mocked Palin on Saturday Night Live, and Couric won plaudits for an interview with Palin in which the vice presidential nominee seemed flustered and unprepared."

And then give her a copy of Governor Palin’s book, Going Rogue, and Chuck Heath Sr. and Chuck Heath Jr.’s book, Our Sarah. Perhaps then she will fully grasp the errors of her thinking.

Yes, what reliable reference materiel THAT would be.

The only person even vaguely connected to Palin these days to speak out publicly about the awards, was Palin's house boy and loyal butt sniffer Jason Recher. Who said this to CNN:

"It comes as no surprise that the Hollywood Foreign Press recognized another Hollywood group, HBO, for their work of fiction and awarded a prize for best fictional filmmaking,” Recher told CNN. “The reality was an original American story, not a screenplay by people who only imagined events to fit their fiction." 

"The media is reporting last night was Hollywood shining the light on and celebrating women,” he said. “It’s clear however they only celebrate women who fit their political ideology. Women who don’t conform to their liberal values are torn down in terribly harsh ways - a clear double standard which was awarded last night.” 

Yes Hollywood should cover for a person's incredible ignorance and lack of preparation in order to "celebrate" women on both sides of the political aisle. Good call that.

Now the only Palin family member to make a statement recently was Bristol, who was too distracted by the fact that HER nemesis, David Letterman, had told Oprah that he was not REALLY apologetic over a joke he tried to tell about Bristol that, appeared at least, to accidentally be about her sister Willow instead:

In other words, he only apologized so he could continue to make fun of my family. He didn’t mean to joke about Willow being raped, after all. He meant to joke about me being knocked up. Now, that’s a real knee-slapper. 

A notorious liberal, David Letterman’s lack of sorrow for his child rape “joke” shows just how pro-women his politics really are. 

Yes Bristol that was only FOUR years ago, so of course why would anybody expect you to get over it and move on? After all outrage over how the Palin clan is treated is your family's bread and butter.

Isn't that why everybody but Trig has written a book? To "set the record straight?"

Only it seems that every time we read one of these books we are left saying, "That's even worse than I thought!" or "Wait, so reality is only as a Palin family member defines it?"

Oh you Palin people, what WILL you do with yourselves when people finally stop making jokes about that family and nobody even remembers what a fucked up bunch of redneck hillbillies they were?

Update: I alluded to this in the headline but forgot to include it, but I also think that one of the reasons that Brancy brought up this whole David Letterman thing is because he was also recently honored at the Kennedy Center. (Probably didn't help that Tina Fey was the one who did his presentation.)

If there is a God he apparently hates Alaska right now!

Flooding in Seward, Alaska.

Here is more from ADN:

Chuck Van Ornum escaped from his home near Willow Creek with nothing but his 14-year-old dog, named Dammit. 

His area of Friday Road, just off Hatcher Pass Road in the Willow area, was rushing with what looked like whitewater when he left in the dark Wednesday night. The water was so deep that his station wagon briefly floated as he tried to drive down the road. 


"It's the scariest thing I've ever done," he said. "And I've been shot, I've done everything." 

Van Ornum ended up spending the night at a Red Cross shelter set up at the Willow Community Center. About 25 people were expected to take shelter there Thursday night, a staff member said, up from five the night before. 

I'm sorry but when anything knocks down being shot to the second scariest thing that has ever happened to you, you know that new thing must be scary as shit!

Dennis said that his place was all flooded as well and some of the roads were washed out, and even the Old Glenn highway was flooded.

My backyard looks like a Mississippi bayou right now and there is a mushroom growing in the yard so big that I will be able to take cover beneath it the next time the skies open up again.

Well now I guess we know why Sarah Palin is doing her Fox interviews from sunny La Vegas don't we? That's the same thing she did when she was governor, run at the first sign of trouble.

Coward!