We know it's snowing!

I came home from work early today because of the snow. I travel from Milwaukee to West Bend so in weather like this it's not only hazardous but lengthy. Sometimes taking over an hour to get home.

Anyway, I shoveled first thing then sat down to dry off and warm up. I turned on the TV to see what was on. Good thing we have cable. I can't speak for all the local stations but channel 4 was all snow all the time.

All snow all the time.

All day.

Once you see it's snowing . . . once you're told it's going to snow a lot, that conditions are bad, and that there are cancellations, what more is there?

Hey, let's look at the fuzzy and wet traffic cams to see the slow traffic we just told you about! Over and over and over and over again. Look, 10 minutes later and it's still snowing and the traffic is still moving slowly! Now let's update you on the storm we just told you about. AFter that, we'll go to the crappy traffic cams and have a look at the slow moving traffic again. It's moving slow because . . . it's snowing out!

Over and over and over and over and over . . .

You can't simply give us a 60 second update every 30 minutes? A scroll at the bottom of the screen?

Stupid. I can't stand local news on TV anymore. They lost me. This is one reason why.

At least TMJ4 didn't recommend going to Chucky Cheese with the kids today.

Freedumb of Speech

Something I think we've all wondered about, particularly with regard to the war in Iraq, and our national security. Does the press go too far in it's reporting? Does it reveal too much? Does the press have an obligation to safeguard the public? According to this short article negative news about the war inspires the insurgents.

Insurgents in Iraq get a boost from coverage in the news media that shows support for troop withdrawals from the war torn country, according to a study.

Two Harvard University economists found that insurgent groups are responsive to "antiresolve" statements in the media.

"It shows that the various insurgent groups do respond to incentives and shows that a successful counter insurgency strategy should take that reality into account," Jonathan Monten, a co-author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, told US News and World Report.

Insurgent attacks increased between 7 and 10 percent immediately after a spike in "antiresolve" statements in the media, according to the findings.

The study was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Baghdad was excluded from the study and it did not review overall cost and public debate.