Belaboring the Point
Posted by Daniel Lyons Thu, 10 Aug 2006 05:09:46 GMT
Since about two months ago, the Gas Widget reports about a 15 cent difference in price. Gas can be had in Albuquerque for $2.96 a gallon right now. Nevertheless, every day this week there has been a story on the morning news and the evening news about the rising cost of gas and what effect it will have on “consumers.”
Since the rains started, interspersed between scenes of amazing flood damage, they talk about the drought. A drought, you may note, is a negative phenomenon, in the sense that it is defined in terms of what it is not. It is, therefore, a purely statistical phenomenon. We are being told to ignore the evidence before our very faces, in favor of the pictures on the screen.
Oh, and Cavuto: everybody hates you.
A drought is a climate condition, the rainstorms we’ve been having are weather conditions. Weather is a subset of climate, and the trend is still toward drought.