Good-bye, Weather Channel...

Hey, I was into the Weather Channel way before being into the Weather Channel was cool (which lasted all of 15 minutes, if I recollect). Being a bit of a weather aficianado, and it being before the current historical era where I essentially have an internet connection hard-wired into my brain, I was a religious watcher of this buried cable gem.

"Local Weather on the 8's", with its basic graphics, soft jazz, and uncluttered format was the focus; the remainder of the hours was filled up with well-spoken, plain-looking, well-informed meteorologists whom knew they were talking to the few who "got it", who understood, who cared - about stuff like millibars of atmospheric pressure and rapidly approaching frontal systems, anyway.

I found it to be an excellent nitetime companion - the repetitiveness and gentle tone soothed me to sleep and was a gentle nightlight should I need to arise in the middle of the night to fulfill nature's demands. Very few understood my love -nay, my passion - for this soft-spoken, drab-looking oddity usually placed at the highest end of the cable channel tier, but that was OK. It was between us, and maybe a selected handful of others who cared like I did...

But two things turned my attentions elsewhere - the aforementioned internet, with its instant delivery of weather, live conditions, and up-to-the-minute radar, and my switch to satellite, which eliminated the local weather reports from the Weather Channel. I still paid my old love some mind, but as "The Channel" began to clutter itself with ridiculous disaster specials, on-the-scene prima donna reporting, and over-the-top dramatic coverage, I left her for good for my new hearthrob, instant internet weather gratification.

So it was with much remorse that I read the following story; it kind of hit me the way seeing an ex-girlfriend's mug shot sprawled on the front page would: First comes shock, then sadness, and finally an I-saw-it-coming tut-tut.
From the most excellent blog It Comes In Pints?:

The Weather Channel's most prominent climatologist is advocating that broadcast meteorologists be stripped of their scientific certification if they express skepticism about predictions of manmade catastrophic global warming. This latest call to silence skeptics follows a year (2006) in which skeptics were compared to "Holocaust Deniers" and Nuremberg-style war crimes trials were advocated by several climate alarmists
The Weather Channel's (TWC) Heidi Cullen, who hosts the weekly global warming program "The Climate Code," [ see what I meant about their specials?-ed.] is advocating that the American Meteorological Society (AMS) revoke their "Seal of Approval" for any television weatherman who expresses skepticism that human activity is creating a climate catastrophe.

Scott Pelley, CBS News 60 Minutes correspondent, compared skeptics of global warming to "Holocaust deniers" and former Vice President turned foreign lobbyist Al Gore has repeatedly referred to skeptics as "global warming deniers."

Nice to know that The Weather Channel and CBS would liken me to the darkest of evils because I believe in the continuation of the scientific process regarding "global warming". But it goes even further - the enviornmental left is so deranged, they literally would have the likes of me hung for putting "global warming" within quotation marks. And these folk are given starring roles on The Weather Channel:

In addition, Cullen's December 17, 2006 episode of "The Climate Code" TV show, featured a columnist who openly called for Nuremberg-style Trials for climate skeptics. Cullen featured Grist Magazine's Dave Roberts as an eco-expert opining on energy issues, with no mention of his public call to institute what amounts to the death penalty for scientists who express skepticism about global warming.

Clink on the Pints? link to get more reference information on the above, but remember you do so at your own peril. And if you wish to find your weather elsewhere, I am a bit biased in favor of Intellicast, with its wealth of comprehensive weather information as well as lots of local radar views. Weather Underground is a big favorite as well, with lots of cool ancillary links (like astronomy!).
Just as long as you stay off the ad-cluttered Weather.com site - remember, if you don't believe in The Doctrine According to The Weather Channel, you are unwelcome there (and may be held legally liable for war crimes).

So it is good-bye, my love...and this time, for the last time. So sad to see what you have become; the beautiful girl with all the potential in the world, now just another crack whore on the intellectual skid row....

UPDATE: More good stuff here, and here. And HolyCoast asks:

You'd think that it would be possible to provide daily and short range forecasts over cable TV without resorting to political grandstanding.

Then he explains some reasons why, of course, that his simple proposition is untenable today...

Spook86 lays it out:

But her call to "de-certify" broadcast meteorologists who don't agree with the global warming
orthodoxy is nothing more than scientific McCarthyism...

And Cullen tries to brush it all of as "spin" here.

Oh, this is all too yummy.... I hate piling on the ex, but boy, did she ask for it...