What a spin doctor in our midst! You make me laugh with your ignorant spins that you are trying to play. You remind me so much of Rush Limbaugh, turning others comments into something they did not say.

You want me to talk to your points, okay -

1) "I'm sure if the media ignored this you would have jumped all over them for failing their responsibility. If they did not pursue answers as to why this occured ... you would say they glossed it over. Wow! You've got the gift of second sight, too!"

That wasn't even my quote. Nice editing Greg! I appreciate you proving my point how you twist things around. I said "If they did not pursue answers as to why this occured I WOULD BET THAT that you would say they glossed it over. "   Those four words changed the whole tone of what I was saying from an assumption to a suggestion of a possiblity. Plus, I would still make that bet.

2) "I didn't single out yuppies for ridicule (touchy, touchy, Ron!)

Actually, you did. See your own quote.

You did take offense to my joke, which was made in response to the several comments you made.

3) "I made general comments about morons- of whatever persuasion: yuppie, newscaster, president, whatever - who blow inconveniences up out of all proportion into major tradgedies and then pat themselves on the back for "surviving" them. Do you perhaps number yourself among this group?"

Again, you did not read what I said. I never claimed to have suffered.

I actually agree with your statment about morons of whatever persuasion.   Our discussion only started when I disagreed with you that people were patting themselves on the back for "surving" them. Sure there were stories of "hardship" that some went through, and there were stories of what might have been, but the overall tone was that "hey, it wasn't so bad and it could have been worse. Time to turn back to the ballgame." We still want answers.

4) "You ignorantly disparage what a power outage can mean to people engaged in agriculture, particularly dairying or stock raising, where loss of mains power really can be a disaster- with effects far more serious than any of the situations you describe."

No, I did not. Now you are the one making assumptions. (Spin doctor again) Of course this would be a tragedy in a rural area. I never claimed otherwise. You simply failed to recognize the possible danger in having 50 million people without power, the large majority living or stranded in urban areas.

Most of us have sympathy for those that were affected and we are grateful that it wasn't worse. We are sorry for the handful of deaths that occured because of this.

We are also grateful that it did not affect farmers and those who had a tougher time.

Believe it or not, I do agree with you on a couple of things.   I do think those in rural areas would have been more prepared. However it is apples and oranges. Completely different circumstances and potential problems. Again, I'm thankful that it wasn't worse.

I also agree with you that it really wasn't a huge problem.

The one item that I disagree with you with (from the beginning) was the role of the media.   From the coverage I saw, they were being pre-emptive and not over reactionary.   I've worked in network newsrooms and the data the flows through is often is mind boggling. There is often a rush to report, simply to get the "bragging rights" that they reported it first. This leads to wrong information being transmitted. That can be dangerous.

I've never claimed the media is holy. They make huge mistakes. In this ONE instance, I felt that they did not over react, nor do I think that the people in the areas over reacted as you claimed.   I felt that the media handled its responsiblity wisely in this ONE case.

Sorry this has turned into a grudge match. (I have no clue who you are).   I have always been calm, even if my notes may not read that way. I've never claimed to be a author or master of letters.   I simply respect common sense and I don't care for the Chicken Little response these events produce.

I've said enough. Greg, it is obvious that we have different opinions and we will never get the other to agree, even though we probably agree on more items than either of us would care to admit publicly. Maybe it is the heat. (I rarely use air conditioning, even when we have power). I'm sorry for bothering the rest of the Mudcatters with what has become a silly war of words. This is not in the spirit of what these forums are about.

I agree to disagree. Let's get back to the ballgame.

Ron