"P-shaw" says you.
As though even the likes of even Foxed-up News would go so far as to propose eliminating the NWS while a deadly hurricane (Irene) chews up the east coast of the USA and is taking aim at NYC.
As though predicting the weather is of little importance to the defense department, the airline industry, the shipping industry, the insurance industry, the trucking industry, and even the hotel and convention industry.
As though Americans from coast to coast have no interest at all in knowing what the weather is likely to be for the next five days in their area.
It ain't perfect, but the information IS provided free to all of America. Besides, it's the weather - nobody gets it right all the time. But, would you rather be WITHOUT the NWS? Would you prefer to PAY a corporation for this info? Perhaps those who pay more would get the accurate weather info and those who pay less for it - well, maybe not quite the same level of accuracy, detail, or length of forecast. Wouldn't that be a better way to get weather info?
FOXNews thinks so. I'll meet you below that squiggly thing for the rest of this.
In an article titled, "Do We Really Need A National Weather Service?" published Saturday, August 27, 2011 on the FOXNews website, a couple of dip-shits named Iain Murray And David Bier attempt to make the case for, "No, we DON'T need a NWS in the USA."
How stupid can somebody get? Well, about as stupid as these two folks, it seems.
Although it might sound outrageous, the truth is that the National Hurricane Center and its parent agency, the National Weather Service, are relics from America’s past that have actually outlived their usefulness.
". . . sound outrageous . . ."??? NO! That seems perfectly reasonable considering the current state of weather affairs. Please - tell us more about why this agency is a complete waste of our taxpayer dollars.
Today the NWS justifies itself on public interest grounds. It issues severe weather advisories and hijacks local radio and television stations to get the message out. It presumes that citizens do not pay attention to the weather and so it must force important, perhaps lifesaving, information upon them.
Ah! So this whole "public interest" thing is just a false-front used to justify the existence of a federal agency we no longer need? Well, heavens-to-Betsy! Why do we still have it??? DUH!
To call a Severe Weather Warning (which usually takes 10 to 20 seconds) a "hijack" of TV and radio stations is about as abysmally absurd as it gets, folks. This is (even these jack-holes admit this) potentially life-saving information that is being issued. When more Americans pay attention to "Dancing With the Stars" than important issues facing our nation, OF COURSE the NWS needs to break into programming to let people know that there is a problem. Anybody here live in Tornado Alley? Anybody here live in the path of Hurricane Irene?
These two lunkheads go on to compare the NWS to The Weather Channel (which provides LOCAL weather forecasts from the NWS) and Accu-Weather (which also quotes the NWS every day - especially during severe-weather conditions) and complains that it hasn't been as accurate in several instances.
But, let's give them that, even though their claims are based on some cockeyed "report" from a place called "Forecast Watch" - which I've never heard of, and I'm a weather junkie. Let's say that the NWS isn't as accurate as some of the private services. So what? It's information is provided free to every American regardless of ability to pay. That's the beauty of taxpayer-funded services like police, firefighting, and weather forecasting - it's there when you need it and you don't have to pay for it every time you want to use it. Without the NWS, wouldn't AccuWeather go to a system where you have to pay for access to the information? You bet yer ass that they would!
So as Hurricane Irene bears down on the most densely-populated part of our country, two dumb-asses decide to write (and Fox News decides to publish) an article calling for the abolition of the National Weather Service.
Their timing is almost as STUPID as is their proposal.
Oh, and a final important point is to be made here:
Iain Murray is Vice President at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and author of "Stealing You Blind: How Government Fatcats Are Getting Rich Off of You." David Bier is a Research Associate at CEI.
Yes, the authors are
both (with sincere apologies to sex workers everywhere)
corporate whores.
Thanks for the soapbox. Your comments, questions, opinions, and obscene hand gestures are now welcome.
EDIT:
This diary has made the Rec List. My gratitude to those who felt it important enough to place it there.
Also, please check out these two important comments from our own weatherdude and a former NWS Kossack golfervet who provides important background info on the Santorum bill from 2005.