To all the lovely readers of CNN.com...

…who have been leaving such eloquent comments on the various stories about the Oklahoma tornadoes, I have but one thing to say:

May you all die in a [STRIKE]fire[/STRIKE] twister.

Hard though it may be to believe, the people of Oklahoma aren’t inbred cretins, much though it may shock you to hear that. They are, in fact, not much different from people elsewhere in the US. And believe it or not, most of them have more experience with, and knowledge about, tornadoes than you do.

No, the people who live in Tornado Alley (and it’s lesser known cousin, Dixie Alley) are not idiots. There are, in fact, perfectly good reasons to live here. In any case, we are not going to be evacuating 1/3 of the landmass of the continental United States any time soon. There is no place on this continent that is not at risk of natural disasters, many of which do way more damage than a tornado and kill far more people on average when they happen, so it wouldn’t even make sense to do so. Besides, where do you think most of your food comes from?

And why are you so dammed fixated on basements? Basements are expensive, compromise the structural integrity of the house if they are installed incorrectly, and offer suboptimal protection from tornadoes (especially violent ones). It makes perfect sense for people in the southern Great Plains and the Deep South, where basements are not needed for structural reasons because the frost line is shallow, not to want one. Why pay $20,000 for a basement when you can pay $5000 for a specially-designed tornado shelter which offers superior protection? Oh, and basements and/or tornado shelters save lives, not property, so stop whining about the cost of the damage. We’d all be paying for that even if every house in Oklahoma had a basement, as basements don’t magically keep houses from toppling over. There is no affordable residential construction which will withstand an EF 5 tornado. And requiring everyone in Tornado Alley and Dixie Alley to live in the sort of heavy concrete bunkers which WOULD have a chance of withstanding an EF 5 twister would cost way more than just rebuilding the (relatively few) houses which each year get destroyed by tornadoes.

And here’s a special shoutout for the CNN.com European commentators (particularly those hailing from a certain island famous for, among other things, its unusually placid weather): timber DOES NOT automatically equal flimsy. If a timber-framed house is flimsy, it’s because the contractor cheapened out when building it, not because wood is an inherently inferior building material. It’s perfectly possible to build a timber-framed house that will hold up to wild weather (I live in one). And that residential concrete, brick, and stone construction you are all so very proud of? I’ve seen it firsthand, and I’ve seen photographs of what happens to such construction when it’s hit by a violent tornado. Alas, I can’t put up a link to it (as the footage is on a DVD I own), but think “bombing of Dresden” and you’ll have the right general impression. If you think your house will hold up to having two-by-fours, bricks, metal I-beams, washing machines, refrigerators, cars, and tractor-trailer rigs repeatedly hitting it at 150+ miles per hour, you are frankly delusional. When God decides He wants to mix Himself a smoothie, He uses a blender that’s more than up for the job.

(I’m all for sensible discussions of whether building codes should be changed in various parts of the US to better withstand the local natural disasters. Personally I think all houses in my part of the world should be built to withstand at least EF 1 tornado damage, and be fitted with some sort of safe space that can be used to protect the residents from an EF 5. But I understand why those who make less money than I do might feel differently on that issue, and in any case there’s no excuse for the willful and aggressive ignorance and smug condescension so many of those readers at CNN.com and elsewhere on the web are exuding.)

Whew! I feel better now. :smiley:

<points> CNN.com is over there.

CNN.com appears to be run by Obsessive Compulsive Morons these days. They latch onto an issue, no matter how insignificant and run it into the fucking ground over and over and over right there on the front page. In the name of ‘balance’ they have extremists writing opinion pieces, and just sort of spam news coverage without fact checking or editorial control in the hopes that some of it might be accurate.

Cannot stand reading it anymore.

So maybe it’s a case of morons attracting morons, then? Because most of the reader comments were bad.

I still check the main page every day, but find myself reading less and less of CNN. I don’t care who received what scores on “Dancing With the Stars,” why is that next to your breaking news???

Stop. Reading. Comments.

Seriously this goes for every site I’ve ever seen. From CNN to YouTube to the local paper website to almost every blog in existence. The people who have the time and motivation to put their comment out there are exactly the people you shouldn’t let in your head.

Don’t look at them and you’ll be happier.

Most of the reader comments on every site on the internet are bad. There’s no point hoping for reasonable comments, they don’t exist.

I think this rant was targeted at the commenters, not CNN itself.

In general, the comments section is the Mos Eisley of EVERY news site; you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Curiously, the OP seems to be responding to commenters who were at least addressing the idea of construction standards and weather damage, as opposed to the typical off-topic torrent of boasting, racism, misogyny, homophobia, conspiracy-mongering and unintelligible spewing…and (perhaps the lowest of the low) the commercial hotlinkers.

So feel free to rail against their uninformed, smug assumptions and ignorant viewpoints, but at least remember you’re dealing with the best commenters the Internet has to offer…not the worst. Or even the average.

On mouseover preview, the STRIKE formatting is invisible, leading to the charming concept of a fire twister.

Frankly, a fire twister is too good for some of commenters I’ve seen.

“Fire twister” was my favorite part of the OP. I’m sorry to find out it was a typo.

I won’t say stop reading comments everywhere - at most of the blogs I frequent, for instance, the smart commenters easily outnumber the idiots.

But certainly at any site that draws a mass audience, the vast majority of comments are written by people who apparently combine double-digit IQs with a total absence of human decency. There’s no use wasting another minute of one’s life reading the comments in these places.

With all due respect, electing Tom Coburn and James Inhofe to the U.S. Senate stands as evidence to the contrary. :slight_smile:

When a reporter who should know better asks a leading question like Blitzer did, you can tell that CNN is rapidly approaching rock bottom.

[del]fire[/del] twister

{del} {/del}

I didn’t address them because frankly they’re not worth the effort; there’s no sign whatsoever of any rational thought there. As opposed to the commenters who were trying to address real issues, but failing in ways which were so obvious that even 30 seconds’ thought should have revealed the holes in their logic.

Are these folks REALLY typical of the average person? Because I sure don’t see them in my daily life. Most of my friends, work colleagues, and neighbors seem to be capable of at least some level of rational thought. Or are the commentors at the typical news website the cyber equivalent of the Mole People?

That’s what’s so terrifying. (Even more terrifying: these people vote. No wonder our country is in such a state!)

And I’m sorry I can’t edit the post now, because “fire twister” is far better than what I actually wrote! :smiley:

I kinda like [STRIKE]fire[/STRIKE] twister, it sounds like one bad-ass storm.
mmm

Thanks! I’ll remember that bit of coding for the future.

A Fire Strike Twister would be kinda cool.

This, especially the absence of decency part. Where do these people come from (do they live in the sewers, perhaps?) and why do they think the rest of us are interested in anything they have to say?

I’ve given up on CNN. I can’t stand having to sit through a 15 to 30 second commercial before they let me see the story. I just look elsewhere for my news fix on those stories.