benign for the USA

Today's headlines declare that this year's "hurricane season is benign for the USA", that is, not as many hurricanes as the Predictors predicted.

But now, what about those Predictors? These are the people who work for the media, who make a living by churning up our fears, justifiably, or not, and using our fears to sell us Toyotas. The Predictors get all the benefits of a dire hurricane season - before the wind even starts blowing. Viewers grasping and gasping at their every word, and then when viewers are properly hammered into a quivering fear-filled pulp, they peek out meekly from under their sofas, and there on the TV is the Ford Guy swaggering around grinning under his hat-brim and selling us F-150s. What has this to do with hurricanes? It's not hurricanes - it's FEAR, and FEAR SELLS! People are addicted to fear.

And what if the predictions are just . . . plain . . . wrong? What if, every year since Katrina (which they did NOT predict), what if the Predictors predict a hurricane season which is projected to be much, much worse than Katrina? But, what if -- just speculating here -- what if the season does NOT meet the Predictors' quota of mayhem and destruction? What if it's just a peaceful season, with a few major storms, but nothing totally devastating. What, then? Well..... nothing - that's what! The Predictors go on as if they hadn't even said anything about any hurricanes. "What hurricane? What prediction? Who can predict the weather, certainly not me! Are you prepared for the worst Winter in 1,000 years? "

Well, I'm the one standing up in the back, holding them accountable, asking the question. How could your predictions have been soo far off? How is it the East Coast is still there? And how does it apply to their credibility - other things They've predicted? I hope that some day they'll be found out.

Well, gotta cut this short and head for the basement. A guy with a very colorful moving map of our area, filled with swirling blinky-lights and red blotches just spotted some "potentially tornadic cloud cover" in the next county. . . now I wish i'd bought an F-150, I could outrun it....