weather idiots

also know as weathermen (and not weatherwomen, but that's a prejudice so inherent in our language and culture it deserves complaints of it's own so we won't let this one get too distracted for now) and meteorologists... giving the people in this particular field of study some benefit of doubt, i will not propose to assume that all those who study meteorology are idiots... this complaint is primarily about tv meteorologists anyway... even there i will not propose to assume that all tv weather-people are idiots either... what i will state as this complaint is that almost all tv meteorologists appear to be idiots in the way they are scripted, presented, and possibly manipulated... business as usual, the media is selling product and not reporting the news accurately without bias and ulterior motives...

what i mean is... just like the news, the weather sells product... the news (and sports and weather) programming is big business and made way more dramatic, scary, shocking, and stupid than it needs to be to do what it is supposed to do, present an accurate report on real events outside of our homes and immediate daily experience... we want to know there are traffic delays on our routes to work or wherever we go, we don't need to know how many people died or are injured and what agony their family is going through "how do you feel about the critical condition your son is in?" type reporting... we want to know it is going to rain or snow or storm, but we do not need to know live coverage of idiots hanging on to street light polls in hurricanes telling us not to leave our homes...

today, i refer to an even more serious stupidity... a dangerous stupidity... i refer to the vultures picking at the carcass of potential news, specifically the over-excited alarmists trying to make much more out of the weather than is necessary or responsible... the problem with meteorologists who pander to the news media and actively represent themselves as prophets of doom on television is that goes beyond the irresponsible scare tactics that manipulate viewers... the serious issue is that people are conditioned to worry, stress, and even panic over storms that never appear and then are complacent when a real threat arises...

today's tv meteorologists are boys (and girls) who cry wolf and much like the story about the boy who cried wolf, they reduce their value to the public to side show annoyances... they find the one power line that is down and present it as widespread damage... they find the one branch that fell on one car and interview the owner as if he is one of many who were devastated by the storm... they "predict" worse case scenarios as if there is no doubt that we are all in serious danger...

earlier this year they did this with a storm that never actually became a hurricane but was still presented as a potentially catastrophic event... Hurricane Sandy that is heading up the east coast of the USA this week is the latest storm to be the fuel for irresponsible and dangerous reporting... if the world (God, Mother Nature, or whatever you believe might control the world) had a Risk Management department would identify the irresponsible cry wolf reporting by television meteorologists as a potential risk reducing actual preparedness for an actual serious weather event...

the culpability of the news media for false reporting and actively pre-determining heightened threats could be called into question in court by a savvy lawyer who demonstrates that repeated exposure to over-zealous television meteorological reports could desensitize and therein give credible cause for inadequate preparation that leads to serious injury by the public the news organizations are commissioned to serve...

beyond litigation, people can be hurt and killed because they do not take weather dangers seriously because they have repeatedly been exposed to television weather idiots who manipulate news to over-state dangers only to be repeatedly proven to be wrong...

news and weather

i am beginning to feel enough dislike (i really hate the word hate ya know) the news and weather media in the usa... it is madness and so very unhealthy, which is why i stay away from watching or reading it quite often... the fear-driven culture we live in has produced a society of adrenaline junkies afraid of everything and worse, unable to think for themselves... a clear sign of a failing culture...

what brings this meaningless complaint out today is the tropical storm isaac reports that have been pounding into millions of people's heads over the past week, especially the last few days as the news people are begging for the national weather service to call this storm a hurricane (in fact, the weather people have mistakenly called it a hurricane more than a few times, on the weather channel no less, where they are supposed to know what they are doing - and don't they?... they know scaring people gets more people to watch and rating and selling products is their first priority, not protecting people or providing fair and accurate reporting of the news... journalism is such a dead profession these days in the usa)...

and after hours of telling us that the 11am national weather service report should upgrade the storm to a hurricane (note, that's an upgrade - sick) again and again and the disappointment was obvious in the reporters voices and words, even questioning the national weather service making statements like "it would have been better if they upgraded to a hurricane"...

how shameful greed is so acceptable...

how irresponsible fear-mongering is so acceptable...

everybody be afraid, stop thinking, just be afraid and above all else - keep watching the news because we have very important commercial messages you need to see between all the fear-mongering reports we repeat over and over...

how ignorant will this culture get before it collapses?...

did i just fear-monger?

truly meaningless complaint

if you are a taxpayer in the usa, you owe $119,913 to private banks and other countries... rich bankers in this country and others living in obscene luxury by are milking you dry while you struggle to pay your bills and taxes...

and children, what are children learning?... it is ok to go into debt for a few times your annual income and have nothing to show for it?...

anybody want to loan me $119,913 today?

free oil for everyone

free oil for everyone

The 'simple solutions' like hay and straw and other products look great in a small bowl or laboratory, but don't be naive, there's no strainer big enough to scoop millions of tons of soaked straw and hay out of the gulf and even if we somehow had that much hay and straw and a three hundred mile strainer, there's not enough ships in the navy to drag that much weight out of the water... the simple solution was to act swiftly and responsibly, but that was not in BP's interest... and don't look at the government, come on, did you forget katrina and new orleans already?...

government is condemned for over-regulating industry when they do anything before a disaster and then condemned for not cleaning up the mess industry makes after a disaster... responsibility is on the businessmen, their greed did this - and you and me - our dependency on luxuries, oil, and our lifestyles did this... we demand more oil, more energy, more consumer goods, and we don't want to see the costs to the planet nor the risks to ourselves in our blind attempt to have it all...

many people still do not want to see, as the flagging of videos on youtube demonstrates... but the only thing keeping our heads in the sand will do is get us covered in oil, or kicked in our up-in-the-air butts... great nations fall when the people stop caring enough to take responsibility and do the right thing... that's history, and we are living it... and we can only hope enough of us wake up in time to realize what we need to do to save ourselves...

political complaints (they are sadly too easy)

this is why politicians, especially old ingrained politicians, scare me

...

and sometimes leave me speechless... it is not just republicans, though the old republicans do say some of the scariest things and seem to have their heads somewhere so out of touch with actual life that, well, of course the planet will recover, and if humans continue, the planet will make humans extict just like the dinosaurs and every other species that lost touch with natural life and the planet...

that's not a disaster, right, human extinction?...

not for the planet.

further readings:

many colors of the gulf of mexico
don young on the gulf oil spill

who is Don Young, Rep. Alaska?...

When John McCain asked Young to give up money earmarked for Alaska to help the rebuilding effort from Hurricane Katrina, Young replied that Katrina victims "can kiss my ear!"

not just insensitive and out of touch, but criminal...

invest $40,000 in a politician, get $10,000,000 plus in return

corruption?

The investor was reportedly Daniel Aronoff, son of Arnold Aronoff, who, in 1979, was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to mail fraud in a scheme to sell Florida swampland at an inflated price. His son found another way, politics as usual, to attempt to increase the value of his Florida swampland by buying a politician.

"It's very possible people ought to go to jail," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, which oversees highway funding.

coconut road

coconut road on abc news
coconut road on cbs news

The worst part of this was that the congressional bill earmarking the ten million dollars did not include this appropriation when it passed the congress and senate. The bill was changed by the Alaskan Representative between the floor of congress and the signing by President Bush. Congress and the Senate never voted to approve the money, Young slipped it in secretly. Does that make President Bush a criminal for signing in the conspiracy to defraud the taxpayers?

what happened after the 2008 call for a federal investigation?

The language requiring the Coconut Road investigation is clear: "Consistent with applicable standards and procedures, the Department of Justice shall review allegations of impropriety regarding item 462 in section 1934(c) of Public Law 109-59 to ascertain if a violation of Federal criminal law has occurred."

republican senator calls for investigation Tom Coburn, Rep, OK
democratic senator calls for investigation

other controversies

Young served on the following congressional committees:

Committee on Natural Resources
Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources
Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife
Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation
Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment

think progress
don young's voting record from sourcewatch
crew's most corrupt (citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington)
washington post vote database
new york times - does young know what he's voting "no" against?
don young on wikipedia

and on an unrelated political complaint:

when ideology gets in the way of common sense:
let the living suffer to save the unborn?