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The Nation's Pulse
Stormy Weather
Sandy must be real, if our president is hunkered down at the White House, watching the Weather Channel.
Even after deducting 30 percent for media exaggeration, Sandy will be a horrendous event with human suffering and financial costs of near Biblical proportions. So we can take this seriously, and extend our prayers to those in harm’s way, while still questioning why we must endure the additional storm of clichés without number from the media and the stylized form of storm coverage.
Viewers visiting The Weather Channel, or just about any other TV news program, will surely encounter the young correspondent strapped to a utility pole, or staggering down a beach, while being lashed by wind and rain. He will tell us in the most serious tone that the wind is rising and the rain is coming down, which any fool could see without Jasper saying a word, or even being there, where he will surely be under the feet of first responders who have a legitimate reason for being there. We’ll see the usual fools surfing in dangerous waves, or rubber-necking at unsafe beaches and sea walls. (If there is power next Tuesday where these people live, some of them will vote, which should give us all pause.)
Sandy, as all previous storms, will invoke the standard storm of TV news clichés: People will “brace” for Sandy, though it’s not clear how one does this. Some will even “batten down the hatches” while bracing and “hunkering down.” We have learned that Sandy “packs dangerous winds” and that “authorities are urging extreme caution.” We will learn that “some people are not heeding the warnings.” I guess Republicans can take some tiny comfort in hearing something other than themselves described as “extreme.”
As I write this early Monday afternoon I have just heard President Obama in the White House press room telling us that Sandy is a “large and dangerous storm.” Those just in from Mars or who had not watched television for three minutes over the past week would not have known this.
Speaking of our rookie president, he will certainly use this storm shamelessly to try to look presidential. This story would have shoved Benghazi off the front pages, even if the mainstream media considered Benghazi and associated abominations news, which they don’t. Whatever good work any government agency at any level does over the next week, Obama will attempt to take credit for it. Stand by for a storm of law suits by lefties in any state that Mitt Romney wins where the power is off for any time at all.
In our current 24-hour news cycle, time always exceeds the amount of news needed to fill the time, so speculation is rife. We hear all manner of “worst case scenarios.” We are also treated to endless film of people stripping food, water and batteries from stores in the storm’s path and people boarding up their homes. This helps fill out the available time in a way clear answers to the important questions never can: Where is the storm? How bad is it? Where is it going? When will it get there? How long will it stay?
Of course the worst of Sandy will be the death and human suffering it causes, and this is the most important story and has the first claim on our attention and sympathy. But for some reason the speculators have hardly mentioned what the possible financial cost of Sandy could be. I shudder to think how much it will cost to repair the damage. Do the Chinese even have enough money to loan a broke America to cover the nut on this one? How many Army divisions will Obama have to de-activate, and how many Navy ships de-commissioned, in order to send FEMA trailers to Mystic, Connecticut, and other affected precincts? The cost of Sandy could well be a multiple of that of Katrina because of the densely populated area Sandy is aimed at (this is without all those doublewides sitting unoccupied in Mystic).
No matter how you measure it, this will be a tragic week for Americans in or out of Sandy’s dangerous path, my aesthetic nit-picks about storm coverage aside. For those who believe in and have the habit of prayer, this is the time for it.
About the Author
Larry Thornberry is a writer in Tampa.
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c. j. acworth| 10.30.12 @ 8:21AM
Of course, this is due to Global Warming, and it's all Bush's fault.
Alan Third Party Voter Brooks | 10.30.12 @ 9:35AM
You guys on the Eastern Seaboard can refuse govt. aid for damage from Sandy-- no one will force you to receive the assistance; you can say:
"we'll pay for restoration out of our own pockets."
Frank Drackman| 10.30.12 @ 1:04PM
"Sandy"??
you mean what we call in the South "A Thunder Storm"??
Frank
Otis, my man!| 10.30.12 @ 2:48PM
The eye of Hurricane Sandy passed 50 miles North of my house. We didn't even lose power.
The "Derecho" we had last June was a hundred times worse. Fortunately for us, Sandy was a dud.
Ed White| 10.30.12 @ 10:29AM
Pat Robertson, our nation's fundamentalist Christians turn their eyes to you!
You are the almighty televangelist and interpreter of natural disasters.
You are notorious for turning natural disasters such as the Haiti earthquake and Hurricane Katrina into supernatural communications — God’s curse on Haiti or New Orleans for bad religion or widespread abortions. And with this “Stormpocalpyse” arriving on the eve of the election, I suspect some will suggest that the rain and the wind are God’s judgment on the leadership of President Obama.
Yep, I predict this is the spin Robertson will give it, and AmSpec's more gullible fanatics will eat it up.
And Alan, I love your suggestion that those Republicans on the Eastern Seaboard not accept government assistance for their damages and instead, pay out of their own pockets.
Hilarious.
Alan Third Party Voter Brooks | 10.30.12 @ 10:58AM
The only Rightists who refuse govt. funds and services are perhaps libertarian sheepherders in the Yukon.
Tom Kyba| 10.30.12 @ 11:18AM
Sorry to ruin your dreamy little dreams Ed Schultz, but Robertson isn't on anybody's radar right now, except of course...
Albert Constantine Jr.| 10.30.12 @ 3:47PM
...and Democrats and liberals never politicize storms (it's Bush's fault! it's global warming! Gaia is displeased)...
Mr. Oppy Poppy III| 10.30.12 @ 4:47PM
Oh . . . it's you again. Mr. Pompous Constantine Jr. You absolutely have to chime in, don't you? Mr. Constantine prefers to forego the comma before jr, which is not traditional, but correct in the modern sense. (one bow to modernity)
Mr. Pompous Constantine has to add his 2 cents, no matter what the topic.
When I read his drivel, I involuntarily hear a snooty "sniff, sniff" every time I come to a period.
Mr. Constantine, you've added your 2 cents. Time now to wheel yourself into the kitchen to see what your helper has prepared for your supper, or do you call it dinner (sniff, sniff)?
Albert Constantine Jr.| 10.30.12 @ 5:20PM
It appears the walk in the rain in Brooklyn has not yet cleared your head (or was it snow in the mountains in Portland?). Along with your obsession with my bodily functions, you also seem to have a compulsion to continuously change the name under which you post. But have no fear, you continue to amuse me (and I notice that their is never a refutation of anything that I post, just your attempts to create a picture of someone over whom you might exercise a physical advantage).
Have no fear, as when I return from clearing storm debris from the roof, I will check back in to see who you're pretending to be next, so that it appears that there is someone who might actually agree with anything you post.
Mr. Oppy Poppy III| 10.30.12 @ 6:37PM
Mr. Constantine Jr.,
I knew you would respond. I posted at 4:47, you at 5:20. May I call you Quick Draw McGraw?
Since you are the one who frequently corrects other's posts, please allow me to correct yours.
You improperly employed the word "their" when you should have typed "there." I just hate myself for being so school-marmish, but I hope I have made my point. (sniff, sniff)
Mr. Oppy Poppy III at your service.
Frank Drackman| 10.31.12 @ 8:22AM
Mr. Oppy Poppy III
you improperly used whatever that "-" thang is called in the word "School-Marmish".
And I've been to a war, supersonic in an FA-18, and spent the night for
Albert Constantine Jr.| 10.31.12 @ 11:24AM
Thank you for drawing my attention to my error. While infrequent, one will slip by stringent editing and proofreading process from time to time. Given the volume of hurrican debris and the fact that there is no electrical power to my residence, I will forgive myself the error.
I hope you can learn to get over your hatred, which you claim here is directed at yourself (I imagine it is difficult for most others you encounter, as well). Your point, or at least, the point of who and what you are is made with each post, and you perform your service with each stroke of the keyboard.
Thank you for the continuing amusement during the weather-related chaos.
Alan Third Party Voter Brooks | 10.30.12 @ 9:15PM
"but Robertson isn't on anybody's radar right now, except of course..."
But some of you still fret about Slick Willy and Monica??
Frank Drackman| 10.30.12 @ 1:00PM
(with apologies to Clint Eastwood's "Heartbreak Ridge"(Warner, 1986)
"Did you say "Pat Robertson"?
(whispering) ain't been no Pat Robertson's round here for centuries, man, you been freeze dried or doing hard time?"
Frank
Dave Williams| 10.30.12 @ 12:43PM
Prayer....the least you can do....literally.
I mean, c'mon!
There might've been an excuse for it back in the day when people were ignorant of how nature actually works -- and a BIG hat tip to SCIENCE for getting (most of) us out of that abysmal condition. But really; wouldn't it be better to stock up on water, buy a generator, board up your windows, and hunker down and hope for the best?
Appealing to the Non-Existed Big Guy in the Sky in 2012...just pathetic.
Frank Drackman| 10.30.12 @ 12:48PM
was watching (P)MS-NBC yesterday(Hey, I like that slut Mikna Zzzzzzbrynksi's legs) and that Mongoloid(Seriously, he has the stigmata of Mongoloidism)Chuck Todd started blathering about how they never used to get up to the "S" storms when he was a kid...
Umm except for 1887, when there were 30 named storms, and that was without weather satellites.
Frank
Frank Drackman| 10.30.12 @ 12:56PM
Can I be Frank?,
and yes, I enjoyed the "Frank"n-storm Meme...
and let me go all "Network" Howard Bean on y'all.
ITS AN EFFIN CATEGORY 1 STORM!!!!!!!
In Alabama/Florida/Mississippi we wear flip-flops and enjoy some barbecue Polecat when its only a Category 1 Storm(OK, in Mississippi they wear flipflops all the time) Its only when its a Category 5 or 6 that we hunker down and hope someones fool enough to try and break into our bunker with 20 years supply of freeze dried pork rinds, and VHS tapes of the entire 1995 Atlanta Braves season...
And I better not here that "Southerners have sex with their sisters" I mean "Southerners can't drive in Snow" thang again, how come no one ever says,
"Yankees don't have balls enough to use the "N" word" I mean "Yankees can't board up windows"
Seriously, I've been to Braves games it rained harder at(*it's actually OK to end a sentence with a proposition)
Frank
Drunken Sailor| 10.30.12 @ 4:11PM
Frank,
Southerners can drive on snow but it's like watching a duck sprint. They can do it but the look funny as hell, can't stay in a straight line, and usually end up wiping out.
Frank Drackman| 10.30.12 @ 5:15PM
wiping out? you mean like when I tried to drive my 95/ Z28 on ice?? You've heard of" 360's"?? mine was more like a "3600"
and any man who hasn't pulled a "Rockford" to avoid a DUI checkpoint hasn't lived...
George "W" Bush, now there's a man who know's how to drive...
Frank "the big Ca-huna" Drackman
Appleby| 10.30.12 @ 3:53PM
New York City is going to be a long time drying out and putting itself back together after the music stops. Fortunately, NYC is rich, and this will give Mayor Bloomberg something to do besides slap legal products out of the hands of willing adults and scream "No No! No No! NO NO!" I was amused to read an editorial in our Canadian Conservative Blue Collar Paper this morning called "Use Your Common Sense" -- in which the author points out how many times the Americans were told by Governors, Mayors and Our President to "obey orders instantly and without question." I had noticed that myself, but I didn't think much of it because frankly, most of the people who live in those areas don't HAVE any common sense and assume that all orders and rules and suggestions DO NOT APPLY TO THEM. They're the same people who lean on the subway doors although there are signs on them saying not to, and the announcements say that if you lean on the doors, the train will not move. THEY LEAN ON THE DOORS ANYWAY because the rules do not apply to them. P.S. to Frank -- I have been in Atlanta when it was "buried under seven inches of snow" and believe me, y'all are absolute morons when two flakes hit the ground anywhere east of Memphis. I have stood by the hill on Lenox Road and watched Atlantan after Atlantan get halfway up the hill and jam on his brakes, throwing his car sideways and wiping out everybody behind him as he slides back down the hill. Keep your bragging to yourself, Bubba.