phil882 Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 This might possibly be one of the most outlandish things I've ever read. http://www.foxnews.c...ther_Service%3F As Hurricane Irene bears down on the East Coast, news stations bombard our televisions with constant updates from the National Hurricane Center. While Americans ought to prepare for the coming storm, federal dollars need not subsidize their preparations. 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. The National Weather Service (NWS) was founded in 1870. Originally, the NWS was not a public information agency. It was a national security agency and placed under the Department of War. The Service’s national security function has long since disappeared, but as agencies often do, however, it stuck around and managed to increase its budget. 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. A few seconds’ thought reveals how silly this is. The weather might be the subject people care most about on a daily basis. There is a very successful private TV channel dedicated to it, 24 hours a day, as well as any number of phone and PC apps. Americans need not be forced to turn over part of their earnings to support weather reporting. The NWS claims that it supports industries like aviation and shipping, but if they provide a valuable contribution to business, it stands to reason business would willingly support their services. If that is the case, the Service is just corporate welfare. If they would not, it is just a waste. As for hurricanes, the insurance industry has a compelling interest in understanding them. In a world without a National Weather Service, the insurance industry would probably have sponsored something very like the National Hurricane Center at one or more universities. Those replacements would also not be exploited for political purposes. As it stands today, the public is forced to pay more than $1 billion per year for the NWS. With the federal deficit exceeding a trillion dollars, the NWS is easily overlooked, but it shouldn’t be. It may actually be dangerous. Relying on inaccurate government reports can endanger lives. Last year the Service failed to predict major flooding in Nashville because it miscalculated the rate at which water was releasing from dams there. The NWS continued to rely on bad information, even after forecasters knew the data were inaccurate. The flooding resulted in 22 deaths. Private weather services do exist, and unsurprisingly, they are better than the NWS. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, the National Weather Service was twelve hours behind AccuWeather in predicting that New Orleans would be affected. Unlike the NWS, AccuWeather provides precise hour-by-hour storm predictions, one of the reasons private industry supports them. It is not just random mistakes in crises either. Forecast Watch has found that the National Weather Service predictions of snow and rain have an error rate 20 percent higher than their private alternatives. “All private forecasting companies did much better than the National Weather Service,” their report concludes. In 2008, they found that the NWS’s temperature predictions were worse than every private-sector competitor including the Weather Channel, Intellicast, and Weather Underground. Even NWS’s online ZIP code search for weather reports is in some cases totally inaccurate, giving reports for areas hundreds of miles away . NWS claims to spread information, but when the topic of budget cuts came up earlier this year, all they spread was fear . “There is a very heightened risk for loss of life if these cuts go through,” NWS forecasters said, “The inability for warnings to be disseminated to the public, whether due to staffing inadequacies, radar maintenance problems or weather radio transmitter difficulties, would be disastrous.” Disastrous? The $126 million in cuts would still have left the Service with a larger budget than it had a decade ago. The massive bloat in government should not get a pass just because it’s wrapped in good-of-the-community clothing. NWS services can and are better provided by the private sector. Americans will invest in weather forecasting because if there is one thing we can be certain of, people will want to protect their property and their lives. 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canderson Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 You beat me by 6 minutes ... To be completely fair, this piece of trash isn't written by Fox News employees. Doesn't make them running this garbage any less mind-numbingly retarded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k*** Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 many of you likely vote republican...thanks a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kab2791 Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 F*** You Lain Murray. However, I enjoyed the chuckles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyewall Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 Hahah nah we don't need a weather service. Let's go back to the days of 1938 while we are at it, where when a hurricane comes, the only warning people get is to watch their step as they board the rescue boat from their roof. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil882 Posted August 28, 2011 Author Share Posted August 28, 2011 Its not just obviously right winged, but also horrible journalism. Both of the reports they talk about in the article were also done by private companies that claim "beat" the NWS. The guy totally glossed over the fact that the NWS also issues life threatening tornado warnings... and in light of what happened this year, that saved countless lives. The guy suggests that it would be dangerous to keep funding the NWS. I think rather that this guys opinion is rather dangerous as it is idiotic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qaanaaq Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 You beat me by 6 minutes ... To be completely fair, this piece of trash isn't written by Fox News employees. Doesn't make them running this garbage any less mind-numbingly retarded. Yea, and its not new. Another famous ex-Accuweather met has been calling for the demise of the NWS for a long time- the neocons like stuff like this- privatize it so we can have the money....yea, yea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALhurricane Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 The only positive I can take away from reading that horrendous article is that the comments are much more reasonable and intelligent than you usually find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NavarreDon Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 Just can the whole damned thing! Geraldo can do the weather & we will save Millions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baroclinic_instability Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 After working in the private weather industry I am pretty used to this type of thinking. I would not be surprised if one of the "big" weather companies like Accuweather contacted these guys for this. After the Accuwx/Santorum scandal it wouldn't surprise me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunkman Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 Yea, and its not new. Another famous ex-Accuweather met has been calling for the demise of the NWS for a long time- the neocons like stuff like this- privatize it so we can have the money....yea, yea. I could be more of a weenie if I had to get forecasts from Accuweather though, we'd have 4 Cat 5s and 10 blizzards a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k*** Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 After working in the private weather industry I am pretty used to this type of thinking. I would not be surprised if one of the "big" weather companies like Accuweather contacted these guys for this. After the Accuwx/Santorum scandal it wouldn't surprise me. of course they did...the "accuwx beat the NWS on katrina" thing is on page 1 of the accuwx propaganda booklet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris87 Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 it costs $4/year per citizen for the NWS....that's definitely the solution to our fiscal problems...I'm sure all private forecasting companies would be super profitable without all their free government data... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kab2791 Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 A little over a penny a day...gee is it worth it? it costs $4/year per citizen for the NWS....that's definitely the solution to our fiscal problems...I'm sure all private forecasting companies would be super profitable without all their free government data... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMADreamer Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 You know if Irene doesn't lay waste to NYC this will be the story all next week over on the crazy channel. I truly hate the media in this country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Organizing Low Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 what a bunch of garbage as a canadian, you guys are really lucky to have the NWS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eskimo Joe Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 The sad thing is that people will believe this crud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hckyplayer8 Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 lolz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunder Road Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 One of the articles linked in the article: And during 2008 s Hurricane Fay, the station s 11 p.m. news broadcast saw ratings jump by 76 percent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HKY_WX Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 Sad state of affairs that this is even being discussed. We dole out so much money to endeavors that either completely wastes our money or in some cases cause us more headaches. Yet we're discussing cuts to a service that at its core saves lives and is probably the most efficient use of taxpayer money vs other gov't agencies/expenditures bar none. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QVectorman Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 Makes sense. I mean lets privatize weather...who is going to run/maintain radars and models etc. While we are at; Why do we have an FAA those blood suckers??? Charging me extra on my airplane tickets, investigating private airline crashes with my money. All while claiming it's to keep me safe while flying. Whore mongers!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canderson Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 Edit: n/m, I'm an idiot who in my Irene-driven excitement misread FAA as TSA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettjrob Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 Dead serious... this could've passed for an Onion article. Amirite? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheeznado Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 Ron Paul said yesterday that FEMA should be scrapped Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amped Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 Dude yer listing to fox news what do you expect? Essentially there this thread is saying "I just stuck my face in ****, and **** has outsmelled itself" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k*** Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 Dude yer listing to fox news what do you expect? Essentially there this thread is saying "I just stuck my face in ****, and **** has outsmelled itself" solid post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
My Weather Today Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 After working in the private weather industry I am pretty used to this type of thinking. I would not be surprised if one of the "big" weather companies like Accuweather contacted these guys for this. After the Accuwx/Santorum scandal it wouldn't surprise me. The Accuwx/Santorum scandal? I'm sorry I miss that one. Nothing came up when I tried to search for it. Not to derail the thread, but what was this scandal all about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k*** Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 The Accuwx/Santorum scandal? I'm sorry I miss that one. Nothing came up when I tried to search for it. Not to derail the thread, but what was this scandal all about? http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=rick+santorum+accuweather Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ski Patroller Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 http://www.google.co...rum+accuweather Thanks for the link. Got tired long ago of the idiotic rants of a former AccuWx blogger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SluggerWx Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 We need to not let this article fade away, and we need to commit to bringing down everyone involved/responsible for writing such a piece of garbage about the NWS. NWS are ungreedy life savers, not profit wh0res like these authors that will burn in h3ll. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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