The Blizzard of '09

Again! Another call for excessive snow fell flat.

I recall President Obama's amusement when the D.C. schools were closed a few weeks ago because of a little ice and snow.

The Philadelphia area was braced for 6 to 8 inches (or more) and yesterday I couldn't find a cart at the supermarket...people were shopping like they were gonna be trapped in their homes for a month. What's with that?! The store ran out of milk! Do shoppers think that all the cows will freeze to death? Don't people listen to the week's forecast and realize that it'll all be melted within a few days.

As I was pushing the white stuff off my walkway (the snow was so soft and light that I didn't have to lift the shovel to move it) I started to laugh at the absurdity of the whole thing. Fear is a great motivator (but only in the short run)...it sells advertising time on the radio and TV and gets us to listen and/or watch the news and weather. However, it can also have the reverse effect (see my Rush Limbaugh thoughts on my leadershipinbusiness blog).

I think many of us have grown skeptical of fear mongerers whether they're in politics, the supermarket, or in the weather/news business. At least I hope so. Certainly in politics and the U.S. news media so many of the personalitites have become clownish...cartoon characters with outsized egos. I know that, when it comes to snow, it's better to be safe than sorry, but...when you look at the results over and over and over again don't you start to wonder that maybe the snow was pushed harder on us than we had to push the snow!