Inconsistency while complaining about the weather

When growing up in southern California, lo these many years ago, I distinctly recall thinking that there were two seasons - i) February and ii) the rest of the year. You see, southern California is pretty dry - and all the rain that falls in SoCal pretty much falls in February. Sure, there are some times where it rains in other parts of the year but it's pretty much concentrated in February.

Anyway, my concept of weather and climate was rather provincial since all I knew was LA weather. I also remember the weather on the local news being very boring - "Well, it's going to be 78 tomorrow, 79 the day after, and 77 the day after that." Of course, I didn't appreciate how good the weather was - it was where I lived and that was that.

Getting back to the topic of local news and the weather - central Ohio is pretty well known in these parts to have weather that is rather schizophrenic, especially in spring and (to a slightly lesser extent) fall. By schizophrenic, I mean that you can go from 81F one day to 62F the next. That's why spring and fall are my favorite seasons around here.

There is a very annoying thing that happens every time it gets warm around here - the talking heads on the news will say something like "When are we going to get relief from the heat?" And of course, when it cools down, they say "When will it warm up again?" Then when it rains, the easy-to-predict comment is "When will we get relief from Mother Nature?" to be followed by (when it's dry, like it was this past summer) "When will we see rain? Any time soon?"

If I had a brick and TVs cost $1 to buy, I'd destroy a TV every time I watch the local news. It is beyond inane.

Hurricane Katrina - soon to be forgotten

Hurricane Katrina has been in the news for quite some time. This is natural and very understandable since this appears to be the worst natural distaster to hit the U.S. ... ever. I won't regurgitate what has already been written but I would like to opine on two items:

1) Why is New Orleans a backwards city? I've always thought that New Orleans should be the defacto capital of 'big oil' for the United States, especially given its geographic monopoly on the majority of oil shipping/refinery lines for the country. Lo and behold, I stumbled across an excellent post by Thomas Lifson. Basically the difference between New Orleans and Houston (the city that became the oil capital of the U.S.) is the difference between an entrepreneurial mindset and one that thrives on (and suffocates from) bureacracy.

2) As much coverage that Katrina is getting, I predict that only one month from now the press coverage will veer from "24/7" to "sometimes and/or rarely mentioned." It never ceases to amaze me that the U.S news media's attention span is typically similar to that of a gnat's.