The bitter cold aggravating most of the country was of
sufficient schadenfreude value that my wife and I decided to watch the Weather
Channel. While we were experiencing our two days of winter here in Miami, with
temperatures in the low sixties, we reminisced of our days in Canada when we
were young and stupid to live in the prairies.
Meanwhile, the host of the Weather Channel invited a
veterinarian to comment on the well-being of pets during the stormy weather.
Dr. Chow said that all pets are different, and that some of them are more
tolerant of cold than others. She told viewers that “St. Bernard dogs cope
better than Chihuahuas with cold.” Wow, really! I would have never guessed!
That was the moment when it all came together for me. Dr.
Chow epitomized all that is wrong with this country: Low expectations. If you
are going to go on national TV, don’t you want to say something a little
smarter?
I’ve been on TV to talk about serious stuff only very few
times, but every time I went on I studied the topic in great depth. In
contrast, my co-panelists invented answers that had zero empirical evidence and
absolutely no grounding in research. Like Dr. Chow, they had very low
expectations of themselves. Donald Trump, who gets his foreign policy insights
from the Weather Channel, is about to name Dr. Chow as his running mate.
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