It seems to me that Ann Curry always gets the short end of the stick when it comes to these type of assignments.

This is a "sweeps" month, so this is not unusual for a ratings-starved nutwork.  NBC, the Nuttiest Broadcasting Company, has been doing this particular idiocy for some time now.  So when you see such over-hyped hysteria as this on a nutwork this time of year, remember: it's sweeps time!

Down under, the Australian continent dangerously dry.

Dangerous flooding would be more accurate as shown in this report filed on November 16, 2008 by Channel 7 News in Brisbane Australia.  Bet we won't see this on GMA.

Rather than spreading manure about McCain and Conservatives I see the networks are back into the Global Warming cr@p. Nice to see that they've learned their lesson in regard to treating the public like a bunch of dolts. (okay, so there are at least 33% of the public that are dolts)

"All generalizations are false, including this one.” Mark Twain

I thought annual Global Warming Scare week was in April! 

geez now I have to go out and buy a bunch of "sorry I missed the End of Life as we know it" cards again.

member of the Conservative Independant Witness Protection Program since Nov. 5, 2008

If NBC really wants to scare us all they have to do is show us the internal workings of GISS and the IPCC.

I just saw "Quantum of Solace" last night (don't ask), which replaced the usual Bond plot of world domination/destruction with the nefarious dealings of water rights in Bolivia (?!). There was a preview to a new eco-end-of-the-world film, "2012". Perhaps, the Today cast saw all of this too and confused it with reality...

So the MSM wants to condescendingly lecture US viewers? Oh good, another self inflicted wound on the ratings.  E-X-C-E-L-L-E-N-T. 

People are tired of hearing bad news, and over hyped stuff they already heard about before, rent a movie, send off for another DVD from Netflix or just go to the internet and play your favorite show.  We shall ignore the MSM like they ignored McCain.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, starving the poor one gallon of ethanol at a time. Fill your tank with E85 and cull a village.

Yeah, water is the new oil and will start wars. If only we could find a way to extract potable water from those oshun thingies. 

"Zee reefs die, zee fish go away." Actually, they go elsewhere. Sam Kinison said it best: "There wouldn't be world hunger if you people would live where the food is at! You live in a f-ing desert! You see this, huh? This is sand! Know what it's gonna be a hundred years from now? Sand! Get your stuff, we'll make one trip, we'll take you to where the food is at! We have deserts in America, we just don't live in them!"

It's kinda like the Jerry Springer Show of Scientific Thought.  These folks are little more than photogenic white trash running off at the mouth about things they know nothing about.  Well, maybe not Al "Give Me Two More Twinkies" Roker.  He's not white, I mean.

While the intent is noble to save the plant, the medias reports on GW is equal to "the boy who cried wolf." After so time people get so bored and desensitized by the latest "sky is falling" projections that when the sky finally does fall no one will either believe it or care.

Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Australia is the driest continent that is inhabitated and is no stranger to droughts, it tends to have them in cycles, actually.

So MSM, try another one.

As for glaciers they ignore that despite whether Icelands are melting or not other parts of the world have seen increases in their gacliers, New Zealand for one.

So MSM, try another one.

Also, sometimes ecological problems occur because of local factors, lots of heat isn't necessary.

Try another one, MSM.

Why couldn't this global warming visit itself upon the participants in the Rock n Roll Marathon in San Antonio yesterday?  It was in the THIRTIES (which is inhumane for Texans) at the start!  There were hundreds of people huddled in the warming areas trying to heat themselves before the start.   

I HATE running in the cold.  I despise it. 

"THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING!!!  A WAR ON FREEWILL IS COMING!!!" - Nevermore, "Bittersweet Feast", from This Godless Endeavor (2005)

"What is the ideal surface-to-air temperature of the earth?"

I wonder what they'll answer?

“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” ~ Winston Churchill

Mark Levin just mentioned this blog spot on his show, he read about it and commented, he said this is from my brothers and sisters at NewsBusters...

He was also talking about watching football when this farce came on...glad he felt the same as I did when I saw this blather last night during half-time.

"America isn't the problem...America is the solution." ~ Rush Limbaugh

"Apocalyptic may be one of the first mythological beliefs that emerged in the Paleolithic era. Unfortunately, it was a severe distortion of the nature of the developing human brain which has a built-in orientation to hope and progress.

"Apocalyptic arose out of a serious misreading of nature by early humans who were just emerging to what was a more modern form of human consciousness. It became a central idea in the complex of myths that developed out of early humanity’s experience with the forces of nature. The Paleolithics had become aware of what they perceived to be greater invisible powers or spirits behind nature and life; behind the visible material world. As nature was often violent and appeared malevolent, so they misread natural disaster, accident, and disease as evidence of the anger of the spirits. This led them to believe that the invisible powers controlling such things needed to be placated and some innovative ancient eventually came up with the idea of placating these powers with sacrifice.

"These beliefs were most likely developed by the first power holders in ancient society- the shaman. The shaman claimed that they knew what the gods wanted, why they were angry, and what people needed to do to placate them. They eventually created the set of beliefs noted in the previous paragraph that became the basis of their authority over their fellow tribesmen. They claimed a special relationship to the spirits and special insight or knowledge of the secrets of the invisible world. And they presented the way of salvation from the anger and punishment of the spirits. In doing this they became the first specialists to manipulate the fear and guilt of others in order to thereby control them. They were the first to create differences among former equals and this led to special elite status and formal authority in human societies.

"From the very beginning there appears to have been a strong association between apocalyptic and social control by people with a salvationist program to push on others.

"To summarize: the shaman would tell people that things had been better at the original time of creation, in the original golden age or pure beginning. But now things were obviously worse and the people were responsible for angering the spirits and bringing such worsening conditions and suffering about. Hence they needed to placate the angry spirits. The shaman would then present a way of salvation where people had to submit to and obey their authority as the special mediators between the spirits and the human community.

"Apocalyptic was a central idea in this early social control. People were told that they had screwed up, punishment from the spirits was coming (evident in natural disaster, disease), and they had to subject themselves to the way of salvation that the shaman offered. Apocalyptic was an essential part of this early mythology created to promote the authority of shaman over others.

"Much environmental expression presents its vision of apocalyptic in more secular and scientific terms which then proffers the aura of scientific credibility. But despite the public facade of science, the energizing spirit of apocalyptic still manifests itself in varied ways. This may be done by emphasizing certain information over other data to create the appearance of catastrophe.

"Also, environmentalists with an apocalyptic outlook will focus on aberrations to long terms trends (downturns, setbacks, isolated situations of catastrophe) and extrapolate these out to characterize some general situation. So it is possible to express an apocalyptic outlook in a variety of ways under the canopy of science, such as focusing on isolated incidents or localized situations and short term aberrations and then claim these represent some greater whole (the state of the planet).

"But no matter how much science is employed, the shaping of environmental catastrophe scenarios expresses the same spirit of fear and despair and the same dismal way of perceiving nature and life as that of primitive apocalyptic.

"Life is not fragile and subject to collapse. To the contrary, it is resilient and durable, and progression defines its very core nature. Life has been hit with meteorites, massive changes in climate, Ice Ages, and yet it emerges after each assault to continue growing even stronger and more complex than before.

"And human civilization epitomizes the overall universe story of enduring progress toward something better. It expresses the grand story of the exodus of humanity from animal existence to discover the freedom of human existence, a more humane existence free of base animal drives. With intelligence, human civilization exhibits even more the grand drive to progress that is evident all through life and matter.

"Apocalyptic has been around for a long time and has been beaten into human consciousness endlessly over past millennia. It has infected much human perception with its dark outlook and spirit of fear and despair. But it is entirely alien to what it means to be human. It violates the very nature of our brains as wired for optimism. It also violates the very nature of reality and life as rising trajectories of progress."

From: The Human Spirit by Wendell Krossa

www.thehumanspirit.net

I guess it could be called "sad" that these doom 'n gloomer's keep digging their own graves by continually spewing their biased trash, while the Internet and conservative TV and radio continue to give us more and more options from which to hear the truth.