It's George Bush's Fault
Twelve months ago we heard endlessly that Hurricane Katrina had been caused by global warming which, in turn, was somehow George Bush's fault. Here, for example, was how a column in the Boston Globe began last August 30:
We can't help but notice that, exactly one year later, neither hurricane nor tropical storm has made landfall in the United States, and we're only up to Tropical Storm Ernesto (that would be "E", the fifth letter of the alphabet), rather than Katrina (that would be "K", the eleventh letter). Eleven minus five equals approximately six.
So if it was Mr. Bush's fault that global warming caused Katrina last year, then it must certainly follow that . . . ? Will there be an editorial in the New York Times? We didn't think so.
In other hurricane news, we see that New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas was scheduled to appear yesterday with Chris Wallace on Fox News. He didn't make it. Wallace explained:
It's George Bush's fault.
It's George Bush's fault.
It's George Bush's fault.
Thank you for your attention.
THE HURRICANE that struck Louisiana yesterday was nicknamed Katrina by the National Weather Service. Its real name is global warming.In fact, if you GOOGLE "Katrina" and "global warming," you'll get over 11 million hits.
We can't help but notice that, exactly one year later, neither hurricane nor tropical storm has made landfall in the United States, and we're only up to Tropical Storm Ernesto (that would be "E", the fifth letter of the alphabet), rather than Katrina (that would be "K", the eleventh letter). Eleven minus five equals approximately six.
So if it was Mr. Bush's fault that global warming caused Katrina last year, then it must certainly follow that . . . ? Will there be an editorial in the New York Times? We didn't think so.
In other hurricane news, we see that New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas was scheduled to appear yesterday with Chris Wallace on Fox News. He didn't make it. Wallace explained:
We promised you an interview with New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas, but he apparently overslept this morning. Not only did he not make it to our studio for this interview, but we also understand that he missed a briefing on Hurricane Ernesto this morning.Repeat after me:
It's George Bush's fault.
It's George Bush's fault.
It's George Bush's fault.
Thank you for your attention.
Presented for your delectation by the Gentleman Farmer at 7:10 PM
Comments on "It's George Bush's Fault"
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Brian said ... (5:24 PM) :
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Chris said ... (5:11 PM) :
post a commentYes, how "inconvenient". So little light is being shed on the lack of storms.
Whether last year was atypical or this year is atypical will take at least 5-10 years to figure out for the short term. The thing that can be learned is that any one event or series of months is not an example of something so possibly huge as "global warming". A good statistical analysis of events over hundreds of years would give a better idea of whether what we are seeing is global warming or not. Any statistician will say... the bigger the sample size, the better.
This is especially true given that such huge earth cycles exist (sometimes 10 years longs, 100 years long, 100,000 years long), so who really knows.
What I do know, is that if the world has a hard time predicting the weather of tomorrow, why would anyone think they can predict it 2 years from now?
of course, most of the rage against the president didn't come from those saying he "caused" the storm. my anger on this issue was caused by his absolute failure to respond to the aftermath of Katrina (and then Rita) in a way befitting a man in his position.