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Storm in a teacup Sticking with the ‘names’ theme, it must be silly season in the US Congress. At least, I certainly hope so because this is the quite the daftest thing I have heard in a good long while:
Do devastating hurricanes need help from affirmative action?
A member of Congress apparently thinks so, and is demanding the storms be given names that sound “black.”
The congressional newspaper the Hill reported this week that Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, feels that the current names are too “lily white,” and is seeking to have better representation for names reflecting African-Americans and other ethnic groups.
First there was ‘Scoop’ Jackson, now we have ‘Windbag’ Lee.
“All racial groups should be represented,” Lee said, according to the Hill. She hoped federal weather officials “would try to be inclusive of African-American names.”
What about tornadoes? Don’t they deserve names as well? This is pure weatherism.
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Ah. Yes. Well. Sheila Jackson-Lee is a renowned congressional dumb-bunny. She is most famous for this:
I pale with embarrassment.
Competing with Maxine Waters.
Some folks truly do have to manufacture their own problems.
She is a the reasom the peter principle was created
The principle states that in a hierarchically structured administration, people tend to be promoted up to their “level of incompetence”.
…people tend to be promoted up to their “level of incompetence”.
At which level they tend to stay indefinitely.
This has all the makings of an infinite loop issue. If NOAA starts naming hurricanes with “black” names, the Maxine Waters will be complaining about destructive forces being given “black” names. Give them “black” names, don’t give them “black” names, on and on and on into infinity.
A slightly different question: what proportion of “black” names would suit the honourable representative? And is it achievable?
Since Hurricane names went PC they’ve alternated between boys’ names and girls’ names easily enough, but… Does she think (in that solipistic American way) hurricanes are an American phenomenon and they ought to reflect the proportion of black people in the continental United States, or the larger proportion of black people in the areas generally affected by hurricanes? Or does she want the Carribean, home of the hurricane, where most people are black, to be fairly represented.
Interesting too: what counts as a “black” name rather depends where and when you live. Nowadays there are a handful of common quasi-african names (Jamal, etc) used in the US which are seldom attached to people who aren’t black. In Britain there are a few names that are popular with Caribbean-ancestored families and no-one else but that probably wouldn’t mark you as black in the states–Dwayne, Dwight, Darrell spring to mind… Presumably she wouldn’t be too keen on reviving the sort of classical names formerly imposed on American slaves by their owners. So the stock of distinctively “black” names would soon run out…
If I were at the weather office I’d be tempted to wind up this very silly movement by naming each hurricane then issuing a notice of real people it wasn’t named after. E.g. “Hurricane Morgan is not named for either Morgan Fairchild or Morgan Freeman.”
I recommend we name all tornados after Democrat party politicians, black or white, due to the havoc and destruction they leave in their wake
Let’s give Lee her wish and name a hurricane Mumia.
I find it odd that a woman whose middle and last names are those of Confederate War heroes, is complaining about the inadequate blackness of names given to weather phenomena.
She apparently is completely blind to the fact that, in her circles, her own name is a celebration of white supremacy. The nerve of someone named “Jackson Lee” claiming to represent black people!
In fact, Kevin, it can be a bit worse. Peter’s book suggests that some people stay at the level of their incompetence, but a worrying minority are actually promoted faster once their incompetence is discovered, in an effort to get them out of “our hair”.
You may recall the Evelyn Waugh novel in which a teacher goes from exclusive private school to exclusive private school across England in the 30s because every school wishes to avoid scandal over his interest in sex with his boy pupils, and so gives him glowing references to move him along as quickly as possible?
As for tropical storms, what about a few European names? Jean-Pierre? Wolfgang? Tatjana? Giannoulis? Piero? Why have we never had a Hurrican Adolf?
Samizdata readers might be surprised to learn that ‘Attila’ is regarded as a perfectly nice, normal name to christen a baby boy in Hungary, for example….
The latest US census shows US latinos outnumber US blacks. I think we should consider using latino names as well. But, if we use latino and black names, what about the asians? What about the native americans? The italians, germans, irish, scots, arabs, etc..
Heck, we should just have one huge list with any/every name worldwide and start with the A’s.
So what if the name is hard to pronounce? At least we can’t be blamed for discriminating against anyone.
Where will this lunacy end? Perhaps if we scrap the custom of naming hurricanes after people and give them numbers?
What Sheila wants is more more made up urban names like Clamydia, Akinesia, and Odiferous.
Ms Jackson Lee is smarter than all of us. Much ink has been spilt and many computer bites devoted to addressing her ridiculous suggestion. I’m guessing she can hardly believe her good fortune.
Myron,
“I recommend we name all tornados after Democrat party politicians, black or white, due to the havoc and destruction they leave in their wake”
More naming suggestions: George The Defeated – Oussama Ben Bush – Tim McVeigh – Phony Bliar.
Actually, typhoons in the western Pacific are now named after the various nationalities in that part of the world — each nationality/island group selected several names, and the names are used in a rotation system. One name from each nationality is used each year, and there are several years’ worth of names.
Comedian Lewis Black nailed it when he said Hurricanes should have names that fit their character.
Names like “Holy f****** Moses”
“Jimeney F****** Christmas”
You get the picture.
A woman with three “white” names is saying that “white” names are racist?
Funny how, by and large, the only people who care about racial issues like the colour of people’s skin are black people. My black mates stopped taking the, er, michael out of how pale I am (because I am VERY pale!) when I asked them how they’d like it if the situation was reversed. It had seemingly never struck them that maybe it was wrong – despite proclaiming loudly that people shouldn’t be judged by the colour of their skin.
Many voices were raised that afternoon, and we were nearly thrown out of one restaurant!
Next hurricane: “Sheila”
(nope, too ambibuous)
Howzabout: “Jackson”
(better, but not AfricanAmerican enough)
Okay, howzabout: “Lee ”
(jeeze! too Confederate… or, uh, Chinese)
Maybe Ms Lee needs to change her *own* name, first.
I think this is a *wonderful* idea:
“This just in — Tropical Storm ‘Beeotch’ has been upgraded to Hurricane ‘Motherf*cker.’ Yes, folks, and that’s exactly what you’ll be saying when fifteen feet of seawater is deposited in your living room…”
Gunner, the alternate name for the Peter principle is the rule of the septic tank: Big chunks float to the top.
Ahhh.. the Dilbert Principle
My idea for afirmative action is this…
As whites are under-represented on public transport, they need assistance in order to redress the balance.
My suggestion is to allow whites exclusive access to the front section of the bus to make it as easy as possible for them to use.
surely no one could denounce this right thinking idea?
I take this as a good sign. If Black American “leaders” have time to waste on the ethnicity of hurricane names they must have solved all the more serious problems facing the Black community.
I take this as a good sign. If Black American “leaders” have time to waste on the ethnicity of hurricane names they must have solved all the more serious problems facing the Black community.
This was pretty much my first thought when I read this about a week ago. The sad thing about Sheila Jackson Lee is thar for every insightful and intelligent idea or comment, she comes up wit another 50 wacko ones.
As a black American I am once again embarassed and humiliated by a Congressional moron. *sigh*
Don’t feel bad, crl – as an American, I am daily embarassed and humiliated by a whole passel of Congressional morons.