IT JUST SEEMS RATHER BIZARRE TO FIND THE FORECAST CALLING FOR A RAIN/SNOW MIX, WITH MAYBE SOME SNOW ON GRASSY SURFACES on the overnight, here in the Minnwissippi.

In early April.

And this on top of the likelihood of serious snow melt from recent snows northerly of the Twin Cities which, under the right circumstances, can only worsen the likelihood of flooding later on in downstream areas of the Mississippi River and tributaries like Winona.

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AND STAYING WITH MISSISSIPPI RIVER FLOODING FOR THE MOMENT, it's starting to look that way on the Lower Mississippi River (i.e., south of its confluence with the Ohio River @ Cairo, Illinois) as I write this: Two Mississippi cities on the Mississippi, Vicksburg and Natchez to be exact, are bracing for the onset of serious flooding in the next few days sure to rival the storied flooding of 1927 in those parts.

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TELL ME THIS ISN'T THE KIND OF LAW BILL "NO-SPIN ZONE" O'REILLY AND SUCHLIKE OF HIS ILK WANT TO SEE UPON AMERICA in the name of "promoting a healthy patriot love" for America above all else, and especially so among the vulnerable:

None other than an adaptation of Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, as provides thus (hat tip to The Unrepentant Marxist blog for the English text thereof):

1. Public denigration of Turkishness, the Republic or the Grand National Assembly of Turkey shall be punishable by imprisonment of between six months and three years.

2. Public denigration of the Government of the Republic of Turkey, the judicial institutions of the State, the military or security structures shall be punishable by imprisonment of between six months and two years.

3. In cases where denigration of Turkishness is committed by a Turkish citizen in another country the punishment shall be increased by one third.

4. Expressions of thought intended to criticize shall not constitute a crime.

Which doesn't quite sit well with the European Union in Turkey's desire to enter the EU; hence, a movement under way by the governing (yet embattled) AK Party to modify Article 301's provisions so as to only ban "insulting the Turkish People and Nation."

Never mind where Turkish hypernationalists on both sides of the Bosprous support Article 301 in its present form.

How much longer before Fox Prolefeed and their droogs push for "calls to action" towards legislation in Congress banning "insults to Americanism," never mind where the whole may be legally defective under the First Amendment or otherwise owing to a lack of clear defining tests?

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SO MUCH FOR THE RATHER PATHETIC-SOUNDING PATSIES ON THE RELIGIOPOLITICAL RIGHT ABOUT "CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION" as sound like a broken record, and then some:

How are they reacting to the removal from the Eldorado compound of the so-called Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints of some 400 women and girls over recent days on suspicion of abuse, maltreatment, rape, incest and indecent sexual liberties with minors?

Are they going to start whining "Christian Persecution! Christian Persecution!" (in the key of "Ring around the collar!") vis-a-vis the claims of "child sexual abuse" in the compound, not to mention claiming that the original charges of a 16-year-old girl having issue by her 50-year-old husband are "wildly exaggerated fabrications***discrediting honest, Bible-believing Christians"?

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NEWS CERTAIN TO SEND THE ZEALOTS AND TRUE BELIEVERS IN GOLD-BASED MONETARY POLICY BALLISTO, and then some:

In response to certain serious pressures being put upon the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by way of the current socioeconomic situation (as can be blamed on His Fraudulency in particular), said IMF is studying the possibility of selling some 13 million troy ounces of its gold reserves (about 12% thereof, by one estimate) on the metals markets--which, @ the current NYMEX spot market price of $926.80/ounce, would translate into US$12,484,400,000 overall.

The which the IMF hopes to use to deal with a $400 million shortfall in its own reserves and purchase United States Government debt securities.

Provided, however, that Congress--and, for that matter, the majority of the 185 soverign nations as are IMF member states--approves.

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FOR A COMMUNITY LIKE WINONA, HAVING A SIGNIFICANT POPULATION OF SUCH HAVING POLISH DESCENT (AS WELL AS PRIDE IN THEIR POLISH HERITAGE), what I'm about to mention ought be discussed with nothing less than disgust on the part of such scions of the Polish-American community having strong ties to their ancestral homeland:

The BBC has learned of an epidemic of overt and conscious racism in Polish soccer, never mind where Poland is a co-host for the 2012 European Cup Soccer Championships.

Which BBC Sports Editor Mihir Bose can best explain:

Racism may never be fully eradicated from football, but what I found during an investigation into the problem in Poland was truly shocking.

And this in the country that will co-host the 2012 European Football Championship.

I found racism that was strident and in your face in a way it never was in Britain, even in the very bad old days of English football in the 1970s and 80s.

Then, as one of the regular football reporters at the Sunday Times, I spent my Saturdays at football matches and had several first-hand experiences of racism.

Much of it was very unpleasant. But in Poland it was on a different, deeper and much nastier level.

In a street in central Warsaw, not far from the hotel where I was staying, there was a lot of graffiti about 'white power' and the Ku Klux Klan, all associated with the city's main team Legia Warsaw.

And this wasn't the only place where the problem was evident.

One evening, as myself, my cameraman and producer were going about central Warsaw filming our piece for Inside Sport, we were approached by a skinhead who said he was a Legia fan and made it clear that he was a racist and keen to broadcast his view.

As I interviewed him he told me to go back to my country, meaning India, the land of my birth. He would not look me in the eye as we spoke and at the end of my interview, refused to shake my hand.

He may have been an exhibitionist and, I must stress, Polish passers by were embarrassed by what he said and tried to distance themselves from him.

But talking to many people, including those running football in Poland, he did not seem untypical of a certain section of Polish fans.

Indeed, the president of Legia Warsaw, Leszek Miklas, an impressive and honest man, readily admitted that 15-20% of his club's fans were neo-Nazis.

Legia are banned from Europe because of the violence of their fans. His explanation for such deep-seated racism was that Poles are not used to seeing people of different colours or cultures in their country.

Perhaps the most chilling example of how embedded racism is in Polish football was when I met Jacek Pulski of Never Again, the Polish equivalent of Kick it Out.

We had agreed to meet in the Stalin-built Palace of Culture and Science in central Warsaw, where I expected his offices to be located.

No he said, he did not have his office there or anywhere else in Warsaw. Partly through lack of funding but, more importantly, if they had an office, Jacek was fearful it would be a firebomb target for racists.

We then spent some time driving round Warsaw to find a cafe where we could talk in peace.

He showed me photographs taken during Polish football matches in the last two years where brazen images of neo-Nazi symbols had been displayed.

This not only included the White Legion banner of the infamous skinheads of Legia Warsaw but, most chillingly, a picture of away fans in a lower division league match forming a human swastika in the stands.

He then told me the story of the black player who had been hospitalised by a third division club's supporters, despite scoring two goals. And all because they did not want an Afro-Caribbean in their side.

He told me that I, because of my brown skin, would not be safe in more than two or three grounds in Poland.

I was made very welcome at Legia Warsaw. But there were areas of the ground I was told I could not go into because of the colour of my skin.

This was confirmed when I met Dixon Choto, the Zimbabwean international who plays for Legia Warsaw.

Before meeting him I had spent some time watching his team-mates train. This could have been a training session anywhere - people of different colours united by football.

But, as we walked round the stadium, he pointed to a stand where his friends and family were not welcome because of the colour of their skin.

He also told me I should not go there as I would not be safe. He also said he had his share of monkey chants and bananas being tossed at him. This happened more at away matches now.

Worse still, he said when he reacted to such racism on the field of play, Polish football authorities called him to a disciplinary hearing, where the opposition manager said he did not hear the chants, despite being heard loud and clear by Dixon's wife, who was at home watching on television.

I went to a Legia Warsaw home match at the Polish Army Stadium, where the team fielded black players without any visible problems, although I was not able to go anywhere near the stand, which takes up a whole side of the ground, where the 'ultras' gather.

Before the match I had been to a bar near the ground where the hardcore supporters meet.

It was made clear by some fans, who feared for my safety and that of my crew, I should leave.

I managed to speak to these moderate fans who did not deny that racism existed but insisted that Poland was not alone in having this scourge.

So what does this mean for 2012?

Dixon told me frankly that Poland was not ready to host Euro 2012. Pulski agreed, although he hoped the tournament would highlight the issue and help the country tackle its racism problem.

Polish competition organisers accept there is a problem at league level, but say national team supporters do not display racist behaviour, despite photographic evidence I was shown that suggested the contrary.

They are confident that 2012 will pass without incident.

Poland needs heavy financial investment to get its infrastructure ready for 2012. The Polish media are already expressing worries about how this will be done.

But tackling such deep-seated racism in time to welcome a Europe of all colours may be much more difficult than building roads and stadia.

Something which the Greater International Polonia (as in the Polish diaspora) ought confront and challenge, and take exception to, largely for the sake of solidarity with their ancestral homeland and people.