That's right, ladies and gentlemen -- hurricane Alberto is the 3rd earliest hurricane on record. He's slated to wipe Florida's armpit clean this week.

It turns out that my paranoid fantasies of hurricanes being fueled by rising ocean temperatures caused by global warming may be nothing more than a paranoid fantasy, thank God. Climatologists have predicted a hurricane cycle -- increased intensity for the next two decades or so. Global warming has nothing to do with this.

Global warming might have an impact on these hurricanes. But of course even if is no one except Al Gore wants to discuss it.

Alberto may be the beginning of another extremely interesting hurricane season -- and another body-blow to the slumping real estate market.