The blizzard is definitely a force for conservatism, and not only because it has had the global-warming crowd scrambling for explanations. The blizzard reveals something basic: Liberals in government want to tell us what to eat, counsel us about how and when to die, and in general attempt to engineer our lives. But when reality knocks, they can’t do the basic stuff such as clearing the streets so that newborns don’t die in bloody apartment-building lobbies. Mayor Bloomberg may be receiving an unfair amount of criticism for his lackluster performance in coping with Mother Nature, given the almost unprecedented nature of the storm, but the unplowed city streets provide a metaphor for the nanny state: It can order us to do anything, but it can’t take care of the basic obligations of government.
The storm was not unprecedented. And last I checked Bloomberg neither handles a shovel nor drives a plow. No matter how efficient street cleaning is it is not instantaneous. In any severe weather event there will be fatalities. It is tragic but hardly a valid criticism to blame it on slow response.
And finally can we skip the whole it snowed a lot and that actually means something about global warming. I am agnostic about global warming and firmly believe even if it exists the remedies are not worth the cost. But 2 feet of snow in late December is no more evidence that global warming is false than 90 degree days in July is evidence that it is true.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLet's face it, this is the quote of the day:
"...the nanny state: It can order us to do anything, but it can’t take care of the basic obligations of government."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is why "disaster movies" are such a hoot. The world turns into a sheet of ice, has an asteroid on the way, or is a tectonic mess (or whatever) and, somehow, people buck up and survive.
Meanwhile, in reality, the concept of grabbing a shovel and joining your neighbors to dig out your own little side street is completely foreign to way too many people.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse@Tom, it IS relevant when the Powers-That-Be made bold predictions that snow would be a thing of the past.
While it is true that weather is not climate, weather patterns are. We've had progressively colder winters for the last couple years. Two feet of snow in December is a norm, as you point out, but the logic and justification for climate change legislation is that what we now consider the norm will cease to be so, and theoretically should have already.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJon,
Show me a source that said there would never be snow in December in NY.
It is a bad argument to make because it is so easy to co-opt. They jigger the models to say increased warming leads to more winter storms.
Frankly, I view the whole AGW issue economically. Even in the worst case scenarios the cost of ameliorating a small portion of CO2 emissions that may decrease warming slightly is not worth the cost.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOther, better Mayors of New York found ways to deal properly with blizzards on this scale, despite unions, etc.
Anyway, the Sanitation Commissioner's street was nicely plowed. What a surprise.
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"It can order us to do anything, but it can’t take care of the basic obligations of government"
When you think of it, a large bureaucracy will always fail in the event of a crisis. In uneventful times, staff will be reduced to barely functional levels to save costs, so during a crisis operations will need to be vastly expanded. The logistical problems of just getting started will keep anything from getting done for a while.
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