Again.

The news outlets are hootin’ and hollering about a “massive” snowstorm that is going to “blanket the lower Great Lakes and New England” Tuesday into Wednesday. The National Weather Service fired off the obligatory panic warnings with a Severe Weather Alert. I long for the days when that alert signal was reserved for an air raid attack or a nuclear meltdown. Now there’s a flash of lightning somewhere in the lower 48 and they fire off those stupid tones and send everyone running and crying like the god mode of SimCity. It’s stupid. But I digress.

The forecast they released predicts two to four inches of snow. This is a Severe Weather Alert? Show me a woman riding a bike in the clouds and we’ll talk.

I’m sure that at this stage of the game, even our friends downstate and in Boston would agree that two to four inches of snow in the northeast is no biggie. When did we become scared of Mother Nature?

I think the 24 hour news outlets are going to be the death of our country. I can get more reliable, less sensationalized news from various sources across the Internet. I typically follow U.S. News from non U.S. sources like the CBC, BBC and France 24. I even read the English version of Al Jazeera. These folks are not being controlled by corporations with a political intent and it’s good to get a perspective from someone outside looking in. Plus, don’t buy into the new American way of being hysterical about everything. I feel like the American news channels are controlled by ratings and ad revenue and that they hype things way beyond reality. Many buy into the hype and basically fear everything outside of their comfort zone these days but I enjoy trying to get a different perspective on it all.

The hysteria over weather this winter is kind of making me angry because there’s nothing we can really do about it. Make sure you have the basics stocked up, act responsibly and then simmer down and enjoy what Mother Nature is bringing us. That’s all you have to do. It’s actually fun to get snowed in once in a while. Worried about food? Cook or if you have to, pop open a can of pork and beans. Buy some C-rats if you’re super paranoid. If you can’t get out, you can’t get out. The sense of entitlement is futile when you’re messing with the elements. Just go with the flow and enjoy nature for what it is.

So what if the forecast turns out to be wrong and we get dumped on with three feet of snow in a day. We’ll shovel and scrape and get on with our lives and by April it’ll be melted and you’ll be enjoying the spring.

People need to chill, forget the ratings and stop buying into the hype. Seriously.