All year long, the weather forecast has been wrong. They have continued to put up these 5 Day forecasts showing Warmth and Sunshine… but every day it’s been cold, overcast, and raining. We’re almost into Summer and it feels like a Seattle Winter. The Forecasters are either lying to us or they are incompetent.
So I think the solution is that they should be treated like salesmen… A Salesman only gets paid when he closes the sale. These Forecasters should only be paid when they get it right.
For the most part, they just read off whatever Our Benevolent Masters have decreed, via the National Weather Service.
I don’t know if it’s 100% accurate, but I was told by one that he was required to provide the NWS forcast, verbatim, or he could get in trouble for something similar to false advertising… even if he was right and they were wrong. I’m not sure if he meant there was a Federal law stating such, a State law stating such, or it if was a policy of the station he worked for.
http://classic.wunderground.com/ seems to have the most-accurate forecasts, in my experience.
They’re going to prosecuting scientists in Italy for failing to predict earthquakes (http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/05/27/italian-scientist-charged-manslaughter-failing-predict-earthquake/#ixzz1NZYglu7Y), so maybe something like you’re proposing isn’t far off.
Well, they have been predicting global warming since Nixon was prez, that NY would be under water by now (Fail) so yeah, if they claim that thier predictions are undeniable, then execute the MF’ers for failing their job.
Problem is, this sets the stage for the slippery slope of Global Warming deniers to be executed using the same rules.
Nothing more than the Militant Eco-cons sacrificing their own for the good of the many, to show how benevolent and equal handed they are with Enviro-Justice.
It’s coming…
I always figure there’s a 50% chance of rain/snow.
Either it will, or it won’t.
Mac, thats how I look at playing the lotto…
50/50 chance, I will either win… or I wont.
Have to like those odds.
Jim
I once heard that there are only two professions that pay you regardless if you are right or wrong even 10% of the time. Of course your above mentioned weather forecasters and economist!
Maybe the weather forecasters could do better than Obama’s economist!! I say switch them around!
Pardon me, but if we are going to institute such a standard for our weather persons, might we first consider applying it to our politicians?
No, politicians should not get paid, at all; they should have to pay for the privilege.
When they screw up, they should have to pay /more/…
No Sir,
Nobody will take the job (which might be a good thing, gridlock, after all, is manna from heaven as far as I’m concerned) so it is impractical.
Politicians should be paid but only the average household income for local state gov critters and a 20% increase for National gov critters (traveling, mandatory dual residence etc).
Term limits for all so that they are forced to live in the world they created. No pensions other than ones they voluntarily pay into themselves. Maximum two terms for any office.
Same healthcare options as the rest of us without Taxpayer contributions.
Wages are tied to the shadow stats CPI so their wages rise and fall based on the success of the economy. This will turn the entire legislative branch into conservatives in one fell swoop. The current CPI is so manipulated by exclusions, hedonics and substitutions that it is a joke. Hell, this Admin has now excluded food and fuel from the CPI. Why have one then?
No bailouts by taxpayers for anything, including and especially all subsidies. You can’t bring your product to market under it’s own business model, tough crap. You lose. (I’m looking at you Ethanol Farmers and Wind Farm leaches).
Banks, GSE’s and corporations are allowed to fail so Capitalism can work as designed.
Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Bank of America, JP Morgan, Fanny Mae, Freddy Mac, GM, GE, etc. should all be dead so that their competitors could pick up the pieces in order to rebuild a stronger financial infrastructure and learn what will happen to them should they fail like their predecessors, who should all be getting analy & orally abused in prison right now and their ill gotten wealth confiscated to pay back the taxpayers.
Flat tax or Consumer Tax (or combination) for everyone. Everybody plays, everybody pays. The more you make/consume, the more you pay, so it’s fair with a built in “progressive” if you will, system. When everybody pays taxes, they pay closer attention to the machinations of their congress critters they vote for when it affects thier paycheck. This also eliminates the need for the IRS, who will also have to go and get real jobs.
I’ve got more but this addresses immediate needs which are distressed beyond repair.
U.S. default is imminent now and will likely happen under this president, or the next one at the latest.
Here in NH, we pay each legislator $100 per year. They fight tooth and nail to get elected.
So no, we don’t need to pay them.
I bet we could make them pay $100 per year, and they’d still fight for spots. Bet they’d fight for spots, even at higher cost. Those who desire power will do nearly anything to get it. Might as well make them earn it…
Right you are, and thanks for forcing me to look this up…
http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=20117
Our legislators here in MN are way over paid.
This definately needs to be done at the U.S. Legislative level.
Public service should be a stepping stone to the private sector.
I like the idea of holding politicians personally financially liable for boondoggles. In Seattle, our outgoing Mayor tried to pass a law banning CCW in public parks. This violated our Sates preemption law and everyone, included the States AG, told him so.
The mayor did it anyway.
Of course it was overturned in court but it costs the city millions to go through this silly exercise in narcissism.
It’s examples like this that make me roll my eyes whenever a state or city claims that it’s out of money.
At least when the weather folks are wrong, I just get a little wet.
Yeah, they should have to post a bond upon election. If a plumber does a connection to the city water or sewer, most places require him to post a bond, in case he screws up and makes a big mess.
Even low-level politicians can make a much bigger mess than a plumber doing a tie-in, so why not require them to do the same?
Cops, too. The equivalent of malpractice insurance. Low rates for those with no claims against them, and the department pays for it at that rate. If they abuse their power and someone wins a claim in court, /they/ pay it out of their insurance, not the taxpayers. The bad eggs will soon find they cannot afford the premiums, letting those who honestly want to help their communities, do their jobs.
Here in NH, they wrote the law so that if a CCW license is denied without cause, or not returned within 14 days, the individual officer who did so is /personally/ liable for all court costs. As a result, they don’t play games with them. They either issue, or they deny, but include a copy of the felony record or such that meets the legal standards for denial.
Well the rumor that I heard was that the National Weather Service uses a Politically Correct computerized weather modeling system favored by the “Global Warming” water melons. Thus when the current data is put into the computer you get results skewed to the warm.
There was a number of stories out of the UK about the weather service over there getting it wrong three years in a row and as a results the passenger rail way service followed their advise and was totally unprepared for the severe winter weather.
You’ll notice how totally unprepared everybody was for the short growing seasons in the East and the North, the droughts in the South West, and as you noted the snow pack building up in the mountains. At least the snow pack was obvious enough to make plans for the melt.
A friend from the UK tells me that, if the official weather is below freezing for more than five days in a row, the welfare recipients get an cold weather stipend tacked on to their usual check. So the government skews the weather reports to avoid having to make those payments.
Gotta love unintended consequences…
Farmers Almanac.
Still the best forcast on the market.
I find such accurate Almanacs to be very creepy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2xqJok68S4
“…but every day it’s been cold, overcast, and raining. We’re almost into Summer and it feels like a Seattle SUMMER.” There fixed it for ya.