Kingdom by the Sea
Asymmetrical Information has this link to a Juan Cole post, citing the lack of destruction in New Orleans (on August 30) as a refutation of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson's assertion that God visited 9/11 on America for its moral transgressions. The text of Professor Cole's blog post is reproduced below and it is utterly convincing.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Bourbon Street Unscathed Christian Terrorists Proved Wrong
Bourbon Street in New Orleans is relatively unscathed. Amid so much death and destruction, that New Orleans did not take the full fury of the storm, and so many lives were spared, is one small consolation. But let us consider what this means in light of the twisted logic of notorious Christian terrorists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell (I once saw Falwell advocate assassinating Muammar Qadhafi). Their shameful attack on the United States and its values is below. In the terms of their logic, and given today's news about Bourbon Street being saved from destruction, only three conclusions are possible.
1. God does not exist.
Or:2. God does not use natural or man-made catastrophes to punish people for moral failings.
Or:3. God does not actually object to people having a good time occasionally.
However, if we substitute the term "History" for God in Fallwell and Robertson's argument, we arrive at Ward Churchill's Justice of Roosting Chickens. Professor Churchill argued, "On the morning of September 11, 2001, a few more chickens -- along with some half-million dead Iraqi children -- came home to roost in a very big way at the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. Well, actually, a few of them seem to have nestled in at the Pentagon as well." It is the same theme of retribution visited on innocent people -- oops, "little Eichmanns" -- for the moral transgressions of America.
Not far behind on behalf of their deity are Gaia's adherents. Der Spiegel has a roundup of European commentators who feel sure that Katrina is nature's way of warning America about the effects of Global Warming.
Hurricane Katrina is big news for German commentators, whatever their ilk. For some, the powerful storm which slammed the Gulf Coast on Monday, is a symbol of the sort of environmental terrors awaiting the world thanks to global warming and proof positive that America needs to quickly reverse its policy of playing down climate change.
Of course, it does not follow that because Cole turned out to be wrong that both Falwell and Robertson are right -- or does it? I leave it to the readers to discover, what, if any, logical errors these arguments contain, bearing in mind of course, that those who advanced them are still confident of their eventual vindication. My favorite example of possibly mistaken causality is provided by Edgar Allen Poe. But then he was part mad, and probably knew it.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love -
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulcher
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me
Yes! that was the reason
(as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
posted by wretchardthecat at 9/02/2005 11:33:00 PM
176 Comments:
Masques of Death .
New Orleans has one of the highest murder rates in the country. By mid-August of this year, 192 murders had been committed in New Orleans, "nearly 10 times the national average," reported the Associated Press. Gunfire is so common in New Orleans -- and criminals so fierce -- that when university researchers conducted an experiment last year in which they had cops fire 700 blank rounds in a neighborhood on a random afternoon "no one called to report the gunfire," reported AP.
New Orleans was ripe for collapse. Its dangerous geography, combined with a dangerous culture, made it susceptible to an unfolding catastrophe. Currents of chaos and lawlessness were running through the city long before this week, and they were bound to come to the surface under the pressure of natural disaster and explode in a scene of looting and mayhem.
Like riotous Los Angeles since the 1960s, New Orleans has been a wasteland of politically correct dysfunction for decades -- public schools so obviously decimated vouchers were proposed this year (and torpedoed by the left), barbaric gangster rap culture no one will confront lest they offend liberal pieties, multiculturalist frauds who empower no one but themselves, and cops neutered by the NAACP and ACLU.
The Highwayman
By Alfred Noyes
Part One
I
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight, over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding-
Riding-riding-
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
II
He'd a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
They fitted with never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh!
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
His pistol butts a-twinkle,
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.
III
Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
IV
And dark in the old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked;
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,
But he loved the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's red-lipped daughter,
Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say-
V
"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize to-night,
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way."
VI
He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,
But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
(Oh, sweet black waves in the moonlight!)
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the West.
Part Two
I
He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon;
And out o' the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon,
When the road was a gipsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor,
A red-coat troop came marching-
Marching-marching-
King George's men came marching, up to the old inn-door.
II
They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead,
But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed;
Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets at their side!
There was death at every window;
And hell at one dark window;
For Bess could see, through the casement, the road that he would ride.
III
They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest;
They bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!
"Now keep good watch!" and they kissed her.
She heard the dead man say-
Look for me by moonlight;
Watch for me by moonlight;
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!
IV
She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good!
She writhed her hands till here fingers were wet with sweat or blood!
They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like
years,
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!
V
The tip of one finger touched it; she strove no more for the rest!
Up, she stood up to attention, with the barrel beneath her breast,
She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again;
For the road lay bare in the moonlight;
Blank and bare in the moonlight;
And the blood of her veins in the moonlight throbbed to her love's refrain.
VI
Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs
ringing clear;
Tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did
not hear?
Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
The highwayman came riding,
Riding, riding!
The red-coats looked to their priming! She stood up strait and still!
VII
Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night
!
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!
Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath,
Then her finger moved in the moonlight,
Her musket shattered the moonlight,
Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him-with her death.
VIII
He turned; he spurred to the West; he did not know who stood
Bowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood!
Not till the dawn he heard it, his face grew grey to hear
How Bess, the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.
IX
Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!
Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
When they shot him down on the highway,
Down like a dog on the highway,
And he lay in his blood on the highway, with a bunch of lace at his throat.
* * * * * *
X
And still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
A highwayman comes riding-
Riding-riding-
A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.
XI
Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard,
And he taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred;
He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
Notes:
This is the original version of The Highwayman, copyrighted 1906, 1913.
A city which boasts as one of its businesses memorial "death t-shirts" -- clothing made popular by the frequency of gangland slayings in New Orleans that say things like,
"Born a Pimp, Died a Playa"
-- was headed for collapse even without a hurricane, and had become, as the exodus of cops illustrates, unlivable.
99 Search and Rescue Personnel from San Diego were assigned under a new post 9-11 national plan.
In the first 3.5 hours before dark, the first group on scene had swift water lifeguards rescue 250 and saw 500 more awaiting rescue.
The next day they were not allowed to resume due to security concerns.
- Roger Hedgecock
The Big Uneasy .
Cynic that I am, I wonder if that's one of our semi-legals that are filling up our prisons.
Cole is no logician. He would have us believe that "One X is not a Y" implies that "No X is a Y". There is nothing inconsistent with the statements that "God uses natural disasters to punish people for moral failings." and the statement, "God did not use _this_ natural disaster to punish people for moral failings."
Frankly, I don't see why people who don't believe in God get so upset about these pronouncements. If some semi-famous rable rouser had declared that the hurricaine was the revenge of the fairyfolk because Mississippians had stopped leaving out saucers of milk for the brownies, I can't imagine getting all worked up about it.
I lie, of course. I know very well why people get so worked up about Falwell and Robertson. It's because a powerful set of opinion makers in this country have spent decades convincing Americans that moral decisions have no material consequencs, and they are concerned that Americans will begin to doubt that dogma.
Speaking of twisted logic, here is something from the Gov of La.:
"Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, said she asked Bush during his tour of New Orleans on Friday to act within 24 hours to put a single official in charge of the overall relief effort who would report directly to him."
Sure would have thought that the State of La would have a disaster coordinator and would take the lead for telling the Feds what the state needed.
We need to realize that the people who are critising the Federal lack of action ARE NOT FEDERALISTS except when it suits them.
You name it: Civil rights, education, abortion, taxes, they want the Federal Govt to impose a solution that is mandatory everywhere.
The only place you hear about States Rights from them is Gay Marriage.
Somewhat off topic:
Do you find it strange that, with all the coverage the disaster in New Orleans is receiving, there has not been a single estimate of the number of people who have died there as a result of the storm? We have network news reports of babies dying, of elderly, wheelchair bound people dying, of people dying at the Superdome (with photos, in the latter two cases), but no overall casualty figure beyond Senator Landrieu's off the cuff figure of "thousands".
As I recall, at a comparable time after the tsunami, the press had estimates of the dead from, literally, the middle of nowhere. We've long since received casualty counts from Mississippi. With all three broadcast networks doubling the length of their nightly news broadcasts and devoting the entire hour to Katrina, why are there no comparable estimates for New Orleans?
Is it that the body count simply isn't high enough to be "sexy"? Am I being too paranoid, or not paranoid enough?
how would jerry fawell and pat robertson feel about this?
America is pushing Israel to remove homes from ancient Israel for peace...
Now america is being punished for going against israel by destroying new orleans homes?
makes ya wonder...
When is gaza going to get hit by a tidal wave?
we arrive at Ward Churchill's Justice of Roosting Chickens. Professor Churchill argued, "On the morning of September 11, 2001, a few more chickens -- along with some half-million dead Iraqi children -- came home to roost in a very big way at the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. Well, actually, a few of them seem to have nestled in at the Pentagon as well." It is the same theme of retribution visited on innocent people -- oops, "little Eichmanns" -- for the moral transgressions of America.
I kinda think this is true when i hear about suicide bombers (and attacks) in the arab countries
``Stay out of low-lying places'' might be a message, but it's not felt as moral enough, that is to say, as if it's been sent.
The feeling that a message has been sent is how language starts, so it's not as if it's a completely bogus mistake.
The apocalypse is full of signs and messages. The word means uncovering.
A message is like a disaster. You start over and listen.
The author of "Annabel Lee" is actually spelled "Edgar Allan Poe." A common enough mistake by, for example, the sort of persons who know nothing of poetry and thus attempt to bend it into service in their tendentious arguments.
The author of "Annabel Lee" is actually spelled "Edgar Allan Poe." A common enough mistake by, for example, the sort of persons who know nothing of poetry and thus attempt to bend it into service in their tendentious arguments.
There is a story in the Gospels.
Jesus asks those listening to them if they thought the people killed in the Tower of Siloam collapser were any more or less sinful than them. If the victims prayed more or less than themsevles.
The lesson is clear, the ways of God are much deeper than simple punishment and reward.
One last note. Rudy had multiple command posts set up pretty much within hours of the 9/11events. Have Nagin & Landrieu any up yet?
re: pick your poison
Weather is not random, and an a meta-analysis of how and why it occurs does not require faith.
No, weather is not random like the popping of a select individual kernel of popcorn or the radioactive decay of a select individual molecule.
Weather is the combination of uncountable and when it comes down to it unknowable actors and forces. The fart emnating from a yak in Tibet may have been the first cause of Katrina.
I recall from a lecture during my college days that if we had the ability to put a weather sensor on the corner of every cubic meter of atmosphere up a mile a so, AND had the computing power to crunch all that data the horizon on accurate weather forecasts would be pushed out only to a week in advance (or so).
Falwell and Robertson and the Pope also 'deny our lord who redeems us' has returned, although IIPeter2:1 warns us its a 'damnable heresy' to do so in this day.
But what? Me worry? What does it matter if the righteousness that is Christ has returned with a New Name? Who but the intellectually crippled could POSSIBLY believe that religious folderol now, that we are all so informed and cool?
Tweedblazer: Not only that, but U.S. Grant is not buried in Grant’s Tomb.
Do I win the irrelevance competition now or would you call it a draw?
Luke 13:3-5 (New International Reader's Version)
3 I tell you, no! But unless you turn away from your sins, you will all die too. 4 Or what about the 18 people in Siloam? They died when the tower fell on them. Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you turn away from your sins, you will all die too."
Luke 12: 49-- Luke: 13:5
Jesus Will Separate People From One Another
49 "I have come to bring fire on the earth. How I wish the fire had already started! 50 But I have a baptism of suffering to go through. And I will be very troubled until it is completed.
51 "Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you. I have come to separate people. 52 From now on there will be five members in a family, each one against the other. There will be three against two and two against three. 53 They will be separated. Father will turn against son and son against father. Mother will turn against daughter and daughter against mother. Mother in law will turn against daughter in law and daughter in law against mother in law."
Understanding What Is Happening
54 Jesus spoke to the crowd. He said, "You see a cloud rising in the west. Right away you say, 'It's going to rain.' And it does. 55 The south wind blows. So you say, 'It's going to be hot.' And it is. 56 You pretenders! You know how to understand the appearance of the earth and the sky. Why can't you understand the meaning of what is happening right now?
57 "Why don't you judge for yourselves what is right? 58 Suppose someone has a claim against you, and you are on your way to court. Try hard to settle the matter on the way. If you don't, that person may drag you off to the judge. The judge may turn you over to the officer. And the officer may throw you into prison. 59 I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the very last penny!"
Luke 13
Jesus Gives a Warning
1 Some people who were there at that time told Jesus about certain Galileans. Pilate had mixed their blood with their sacrifices.
2 Jesus said, "These people from Galilee suffered greatly. Do you think they were worse sinners than all the other Galileans? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you turn away from your sins, you will all die too. 4 Or what about the 18 people in Siloam? They died when the tower fell on them. Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you turn away from your sins, you will all die too."
AIDS is not rare in Muslim/Arab countries. They just don't report it or talk about it or tell people how to avoid it. I'm not even sure if they know how to diagnose it, since about the only time they talk about it is *after* someone has died in a particularly unattractive way.
I just love the tweedy person's snarky post about the spelling of Poe's name. It's such an exemplar that absolute tone-deaf superiority that you get from all the blue-state academics ... and then they never understand that they are held in total contempt by people who can actually make things happen in the Real World.
As opposed to applying for a Federal grant because no one will actually hire them to do a job, or writing a paper to be published in some obscure journal.
re: roosting chickens
'Tis a Greek tragedy, those things we do to ourselves, wittingly.
JuanC celibrates the preservation of the citizen and their enterprise, these commercial businesses yet to be driven out of New Orleans by the socialists(Bourbon Street, the convention center, dome, etc.) and damns what remains, the blue-collar, the poor, the adult-children dependent on others for their welfare and their predators.
A hopeful result may be that in this most corrupt and dangerous of U.S. cities, the vermin and the predators may be flushed out with the fouled water and waste, in the harsh light of day (and reconstruction, both physical and spiritual).
Amen, Ari Tai.
Ari Tai,
I share your hope but flushing the vermin out needs to start with the officials who allowed this to build to this point. That would entail opening some old crypts and tossing skeletons in the Mississippi River. The current city, parish and state officials should also go in the river before starting to toss the police force in so that real clean up can begin.
Again, I truly hope that the flood flushes the vermin from the 9th Ward out to sea but unless the parish presidents, the levee boards and the mayor are among those flushed it's doubtful that a "new day" will come.
God's response?
You ask Why
Don't ask why.
When death intrudes.
When tsunami strikes.
When evil strides triumphant.
Instead I ask you My beloved.
Do you trust Me fully?
I allow evil and death.
I allow danger and disaster.
Pain and suffering oft result.
I offer you real freedom.
You can choose whom you will serve.
Will you follow Me or be the devil's pawn.
"Why" is far beyond comprehension.
Yet "why" is easy to understand.
If you truly love you give freedom.
Prodigal's father lets him go knowing son can die.
Yet patiently he waits for beloved son's return.
He gave him freedom to fail on order to succeed.
It's not that in Genesis garden myth
devil won when Eve the "apple" bit
and Adam joined her in the bitter fall.
A myth that seems to say
twas mistake to offer freedom they chose
it was their fault and I was not involved.
You think that I am a distant God.
I love you more than any parent
who lets go a bicycle so child
can learn to ride like the wind.
I sent My son and came for you.
To save you from your sin.
Death didn't/doesn't win.
Evil's triumph is not the end.
Hope is real and true.
I love you far beyond your knowing.
Do you love and trust Me?
I give you freedom to come to Me.
What is your choice?
© Presbypoet, January 4, 2005
First written after the tsunami, posted again on August 31. on the blog.
http://poemsfromgod.blogspot.com/2005/08/you-ask-why.html
1. Reality does not exist.
Or:
2. The NY Times uses the conceit to punish GWB for unforgiveable failings.
Or:
3. God does not actually object to the NY Times having a good time punishing GWB occasionally by Ignoring Reality.
---
. NY Times Frontpage.
The president acknowledged again today that his administration had failed to promptly help many of the hurricane's most desperate victims.
. Times "Story".
"...the president acknowledged again today that his administration had failed to promptly help many of the hurricane's most desperate victims and promised to resurrect this city and devastated coastal areas of several states."
. What He Said.
"The magnitude of responding to a crisis over a disaster area that is larger than the size of Great Britain has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities,"
he said, slightly exaggerating the stricken land area in a radio broadcast before television cameras in the White House Rose Garden.
"The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable."
. SLIMES
Mess tho it has always been (tho never like now), the 'spirit' city--what we hear when we hear the name--is pretty much what America wants it to be. I grew up in Baton Rouge and Lafayette (from baby to 18 yr-old). New Orleans was high school's lost weekend. We went down there looking for trouble, always found it, and sometimes it even followed us back home (but the farm guys had vet antibiotics, so parents never got phone calls). Temporary, escapable exoticas ain't all bad, as a psycho-socio-whatchamcallit, for midwesterners to have at the backs of their minds. Miami's Caribbean experience is all Madison Avenue--but New Orleans is the real voodoo McCoy. I can trace it only from the 60s (19 that is), but listen to the city making Mark Twain from a young Sam Clements (scroll halfway, see letter to sister, pretending that on his first stroll thru the city, he had no idea it was Mardis Gras). Yeah, right!
I had an Uncle Bob that was big on Vet Cures for humanoids.
Dad was a Druggist, so Bob always raised his Bp.
Very interesting guy, however.
No trouble hearing his opinion.
On Anything.
Bob's dad was 80 something when I was a kid.
Lived on the farm.
I was impressed.
FWIW
Twat did Sirius Say?
Aristides said...
"re: pick your poison
Weather is not random, and an a meta-analysis of how and why it occurs does not require faith."
---
Is that why we are so darned good at predicting it?
...and why Bush should have signed Kyoto?
"The fart emanating from a yak in Tibet may have been the first cause of Katrina."
---
My Freshman year, I came home from College all excited about some behavioral Psych Course I was taking.
Spun a yarn to mom about how every detail of every second on our timelines through life could result in apocalyptic results, since it was one long chain of reactions dependent on that timeline of events.
Farm Girl Mom said,
"What about stoplights and such?"
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
wichitaboy,
Actually, Aristedes is a Card Counter when he's gambling.
But that's for
REAL MONEY!
You Ask Why
She was probably wondering if you were going to be able to manage that "green=go, red=stop" thing.
pork rinds for allah said...
how would jerry fawell and pat robertson feel about this?
America is pushing Israel to remove homes from ancient Israel for peace...
Now america is being punished for going against israel by destroying new orleans homes?
makes ya wonder...
5:36 AM
//////////////////////
christian conservatives these days generally hang to the right side of the Israeli establishment. So if Sharon can't keep the right and in Israel together and Netanyahu gets reelected or if Hamas is good as their word and uses the Isaeli withdrawal to move up their guns and keeps up the fireworks and Netanyahu gets reelected--then the US Christian conservatives will go with Netanyahu. Right now, they mourn with Israel over the loss of land.
Lesley said...
Let's roll.
///////////
Yes. The difference between God Wrath and God's Testing... is how you react.
I get it:
Buddy's French!
This is Pierre's Last Update: Hope he and his family are doing OK.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
As many of you know, Ross has been in the Superdome in New Orleans since noon yesterday working alongside Acadian Ambulance medics to help the sick and injured refuged there from Hurricane Katrina.
He was able to get through to me by satellite phone at 4 AM today. I want to share his news with you, in the hopes that you will press your government officials and even the White House to take action as soon as possible.
Ross arrived at the Superdome at noon yesterday, as more and more people were being brought in after being rescued from floodwaters. He said that countless people had seen their family members drown right beside them. When he arrived, several emergency helicopters had been sitting on the helipad outside the Superdome for 2 hours...and no one was directing that patients be put on them to be evacuated. Ross took charge and started getting people on and helicopters out.
There are now 20,000 people inside the Superdome. The only medical personnel at the Superdome are Acadian Ambulance paramedics and EMT's and a small team of doctors and nurses from New Mexico. They are exhausted understaffed and out of medical supplies. The only current source of medical supplies are those that Acadian is able to ferry in. Dialysis equipment is no longer functioning. Sick people are getting sicker. 30 people have now died in the Superdome, including one suicide. Ross said there have been at least 2 rapes.
There is no plan to provide for an evacuation of the 30,000 people in the Superdome. There is no plan to evacuate the people trapped in their hotels and houses (who are almost or completely out of food and water)---when the floodwaters were still low enough, these people were simply told to "go to the Superdome". Now they are sitting outside the Superdome because there is no room inside.
Satellite phones are not working very well, and the officials inside the Dome are having trouble calling out for assistance.
New Orleans is in a desperate state of chaos including, and the Federal Government needs to step in at a higher level than FEMA and the National Guard: we need the resources that the US Armed Forces can bring to bear.
I am writing, actually BEGGING, you to contact any elected official you know at any level to urge the White House and Pentagonto to take immediate action to step in at a greater level. Many more lives will be lost in the next few days if action is not taken.
. Pink Flamingo
"Randomness" is a far deeper concept than is generally realized.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
I think the term Wichitaboy and Spiney are looking for is chaotic. Ask a cryptographer if you want to know the difference between the two.
Wretchard are you talking about (((Juan Cole))) who considers the Iraq war a "Vast Ring Wing Conspircy" and labels 'Iraq The Model' by Omar and his brother, some sort of 'covert US intelligence operation?' Are you talking about the Ultra Left-Wing Juan Cole who blames the US for of all the problems in the Middle East? The same Juan Cole who tends to fabricate facts to prove his point? Juan Cole is right up there with Ward "16th Indian" Churchill. Take what Cole says with a grain of salt.
"For a trained historian, even in Middle Eastern studies, Juan Cole is scandalously incompetent when it comes to cause and effect..." -Martin Kramer
Making Cole-slaw of history
"...Cole is following in the tradition of Tailgunner Joe McCarthy– one conspiratorial allegation follows another." -Austin Bay
Juan Cole knocked Cold
"...Cole didn't misspell a word or post a broken link; he invented a rationale for 9/11 that bin Laden himself couldn't possibly have claimed..." -Tim Blair
Cole's mistakes
"...Cole, who led the lobby to clear Saddam of any ties with terrorism, believes that a group of Jewish "neo-conservatives" largely runs U.S. policy toward the Middle East. His recurrent theory is that a nebulous 'pro-Likud' cabal controls the U.S. government from a small number of key positions in the Executive Branch... Cole has been named one of the eight most biased professors in America..." -Steven Plaut
Old Juan Cole: A Very Sad Soul
Satire on Juan Cole
[and]
Errors on London Bombers by Cole
re: randomness
Ask yourself why there is such a thing as tornado alley, or why Montana does not see hurricanes, or why Miami does not get lake-effect snow. The answer to these questions should elucidate why weather is not random.
Very few things actually are.
Senior Kuwaiti Official: "Katrina is a Wind of Torment and Evil from Allah Sent to This American Empire"
http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD97705
Best wishes and prayers for our troops as they begin combat operations in New Orleans.
I hope they drive the vermin into the river where they can drown hugging a flat screen TV.
Obviously, GWB should have done this the day after the Hurricane, for Optimal Results.
...and by this time he may already have been run out of Office for
. Waging a Racist War.
Against THE REAL Saints of New Orleans.
---
“This place is going to look like Little Somalia,” Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard’s Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana Superdome. “We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.”
This is Not a Game .
While the sound of gunfire had been common in the streets of New Orleans for much of the week, it seemed to taper off. Michael D. Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said that much of the earlier violence had been by youths with guns. "Some of these kids think this is a game," he said. "They somehow got their hands on a weapon. They think they are playing Pac-Man or something and shooting at people. Those kinds of hot spots will continue, but I can tell you they will learn very quickly the 82nd Airborne does not like to be shot at. This is not a game."
Aristedes is subject to Random Conversations on occasion.
Doug,
Democrat Gov. Blanco order the LA NG to hunt down and kill poor, black teenagers. Those troops aren't federalized and the President has no authority over their actions.
Posse comitatus, don'tchaknow. This is a 100% Democrat action.
So, counting cards does not mean you can predict when, and how much you will win?
Thanks, Tweedblazer, for pointing out my spelling mistake in Poe's name.
Historically "natural philosophy" and theology were part of the same broad discipline until perhaps the 16th and 17th century and this conjunction meant that empirical investigation always had to be judged against the yardstick of heresy, not simply as against Christianity but also as against older beliefs like Pythagoreanism. For this reason, there was immense resistance to the concepts of zero and a void. When men could ask "why" without first considering the theological implications of their answer it was the beginning of a fundamental shift in science.
But little by little and almost unnoticed, the old conjunction between theology -- this time in its modern guises -- and science has reasserted itself. Michael Crichton very eloquently describes the modern theological intrusions of environmentalism into the debate on DDT. And so people like Professor Churchill and some environmentalists begin to locate empirical phenomena within their own unconscious framework, yet imagine themselves to be 'modern men' of the 21st century. "Oh Brave New World, that hath such people in it!"
Rick,
I am confused:
She FINALLY did it?
...and what about the active duty troops?
Doug,
The Regulars will pick up the grunt work - hauling and standing around looking like soldiers. The President probably has an Executive Order prepared for his signature suspending Posse Comitatus and federalizing the Guard but he won't sign unless the Guard can't handle the action.
Blanco gave the "shoot to kill" order yesterday. I havn't seen the written order yet but you can bet the ranch that the Gen who gaver the Army Times interview has a signed copy in his wallet.
A large portion of the timing problem with relief has to do with Blanco holding off on that order. She didn't even want the NG to carry bullets. They told her if they didn't have clear ROEs she could make her own damn deliveries. That's also the reason that order couldnt be maintained within the Superdome and at the Convention Center.
She and the mayor are a just the type of pols that NO deserves.
I wish the LA NG very good hunting this evening. There is no law without order and restoration of order can be very nasty business.
What the?
...Salevaa Fauli Atisanoe at the Superdome, and Democrat Gov. Blanco in England?
Cedarfard: AIDs is a rare disease in the Muslim part of the population. So the two goofy Jesus-lovers may be wrong about God having any involvement in mishaps, diseases, natural disasters. Or - God prefers Muslims to Christians.
If this is true, I'd be more inclined to subscribe to the theory that it's not God's involvement and preference for Muslims, but man's. More specifically, Muslim men. Given the behavior pattern of Mussulmen towards Christians and Jews, it wouldn't surprise in the least if it was found out that the real spawn in the AIDs pandemic in Africa is the jihadi Mussulmen.
So what happens if the 82nd is fired upon, and Bush has not yet signed?
Killa,
Is that a long way of saying
"Up Yours?"
;)
Doug,
Any member of the 82nd who is fired upon would have the right to defend himself. He would also have the right to use lethal force if he felt himself in imminent danger or if he thought someone else was in imminent danger.
They just can't organize and conduct hunting parties.
I think killa was just assessing the probability that Arafat was Case 1 for the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It's logical, I remember pictures of Khadaffi and him with their arms around a sickly looking goat back in the late '70's. And all those rumors about his escapades with his 'body'guards seem to have some credibility.
C4: "Tax Cuts for the Rich"
. US media slams hurricane response Suprise, Suprise.
"One thing is certain: if President Bush and his Republican Congressional leaders want to deal responsibly with a historic disaster of this scale, they must finally try the path of honestly shared national sacrifice," The New York Times said.
"If they respond by passing a few emergency measures and then falling back on their plans to enact more tax cuts, America will have to confront the fact that it is stuck with leaders who neither know, nor care, how to lead," the influential daily said.
"The annihilation in New Orleans is an irrefutable sign that the national tax-cut party is over. So is the idea that American voters cannot be required to accept sacrifice or inconvenience, no matter how great the crisis. This country is better than that."
Yeah, old Arafat never did look too wholesome.
And he was so attached to that checked skirt he wore on his head.
Its funny how people will isolate one event and then use it for their purposes.
Katrina is just one hurricane of thousands to hit over recorded history. More are yet to come.
The North American continent thanks to the Gulf of Mexico has the most violent weather in the world and the greatest climactic swings.
Thats the way it is.
Some people's fixation on Katrina as the symbol of the Apocalypse is reminiscent of the mental gyrations of the meth head who has to get their next hit. Who wants their news delivered by coke heads who are on their own high?
Cedarford:
"But AIDs is rare in Muslim nations, while common in Christian ones"
Yeah right. The UN says AIDs is just as prevalent in Saudi Arabia as elsewhere. But because its not publicly discussed, its getting worse.
Wretchard:
"Historically "natural philosophy" and theology were part of the same broad discipline until perhaps the 16th and 17th century and this conjunction meant that empirical investigation always had to be judged against the yardstick of heresy, not simply as against Christianity but also as against older beliefs like Pythagoreanism. For this reason, there was immense resistance to the concepts of zero and a void. When men could ask "why" without first considering the theological implications of their answer it was the beginning of a fundamental shift in science."
Very interesting. I wonder if there was a time when empiricism ruled and then subjectivism was injected? Did the latter arise with tyrants and kings as a means of bondage? Or have the two always been intertwined?
The dead end of socialism was a unique 20th century detour, but have there been others? Were the Mongols able to conquer due to the passivity of large populations due to severe vassalage? How is this related to the idea of viruses and severe lethality?
BTW,
Justice Rehnquist just died.
Rehnquist's death becomes not simply a human tragedy for his family, nor the case of another old man dying or even of an SC Justice requiring replacement, but a disturbance in our comos. The lesson to me of the last few days is that nothing is exempt from politics, not nature nor disease nor individual human folly.
Taking up on my previous comment, the modern day "litmus test" is very similar to the old time "heresy test". What is truth in such circumstances?
Cedarfard: AIDs is a rare disease in the Muslim part of the population.
AIDs must be very rare in the Muslim world (assuming it's not covered-up). There has one been one high profile Arab to have most likely died from it - Yasser Arafat.
[11/7/04 JNW]:
Based on the symptoms Yasser Arafat is suffering from, as well as accounts of his rampantly homosexual past... medical experts believe the blood-soaked Muslim terror chief is dying from complications related to the AIDS virus... Arafat has been hospitalized... for more than a week with blotchy skin, a low platelet count that is affecting his immune system, decreased mental capacity and a considerable loss of weight – all indicators of the presence of AIDS. His homosexual tendencies have been attested to by numerous sources, including a now infamous set of surveillance videos taken by his former communist allies in Romania showing Arafat in perverted encounters with his bodyguards... In his book "Red Horizons", Pacepa unveils Arafat as an insatiable homosexual by recalling a telephone conversation with Constantin Munteaunu, a general assigned to the PLO... "I just called the microphone monitoring center to ask about the 'Fedayee,'" Arafat's code name, explained Munteaunu. "After the meeting with the Comrade, he went directly to the guest house and had dinner. At this very moment, the 'Fedayee' is in his bedroom making love to his bodyguard. The one I knew was his latest lover. He's playing tiger again. The officer monitoring his microphones connected me live with the bedroom, and the squawling almost broke my eardrums. Arafat was roaring like a tiger, and his lover yelping like a hyena."
Intelligence analyst John Loftus told ABC... that the CIA had known for years Arafat was infected with AIDS, and it was largely due to this fact Washington had urged Israel not to eliminate him... Israel Insider notes that while "homosexuality is rife in the Arab world, it is at least officially consider a sin and a crime, and regarded - especially in fundamentalist circles - as a mark of great shame and depravity."
Homosexual Arafat said dying of AIDS
Paracelsus
An interesting field of study might be cultural comparisons using Science as a measuring stick. For example, given phenomenon such as Paracelsus, the father of pharmaceuticals, who one might consider as an alchemist, one might suggest Western man is in fact closer in life feeling to the Arabian culture rather than the Classical as Nietzsche observed.
//////////////////
well popular culture in the west these days outside of the christian subcultures is definitely classical in that it ridden with gods. We live today in what's called a post modern culture.
Paracelsus dual interest in Pharmacy and Alchemy maps over well today in that the tools developed for Pharmacy shift over well to materials reasearch --or Alchemy as it was known.
However, Paracelsus dates are not classical but rather early Rennassance. He was born in 1493 a year after Columbus sailed for the new world.
For this reason...
I'm not sure I understand how you get from "[Paracelsus] who one might consider as an alchemist" to this conclusion "Western man is in fact closer in life feeling to the Arabian culture".
Except if you're broadly alluding to the many years that Newton whiled away on alchemy and the arian heresy--and you're somehow linking the two. Nietzche's father was a German minister at a time when all germany had abandoned the foundational belief that Jesus is fully God,(as well as fully man.) In the 300's AD this was called the Arian heresy after an Alexandrian name Arius. The Nicean Creed dates from this period.
And while it is the case that up until the enlightenment the west abandoned the arian heresy. This is not the case for the moslem world. The moslem world rather embraced it.
So if you mean that both moslems and modern westerners are practioners of the arian heresy--there has been some truth to this since the Enlightenment.
However, there is a problem here.
As can be seen in the relationship between Nietzche and his father the arian heresy leaves ones theology very vulnerable to the claims of atheism.
the liberal churches that practice Arianism are in steep decline in the USA and are nearly extinct in europe. Pastors who don't believe in God have a real hard time holding on to their congregations.
The trends these days in christendom are back to classical Trinitarianism. While the trends in the larger culture are back to pre Christian era paganism of the type that Old Testatment prophets used to rail against.
Family mourns as fate catches up with notorious female fugutive .
Was she struck down for murder, adultery, or her sexual orientation?
Kazuko Fukuda was never really good when it came to managing time.
Just days before she could have ensured her freedom forever, she managed to fall into the hands of the law enforcers chasing her and ended up slapped with a murder conviction that carried a penalty of life imprisonment.
And, just when it seemed she'd get a bit of a break and had some hope of eventually spending time with her beloved family, the woman made famous for being on the run for 15 years and getting caught mere days before the statue of limitations on her case ran out, was beaten by time again as she collapsed following a stroke and died.
"She loved her kids more than most parents do. She would have been shattered that she was unable to spend her dying days living with her son," Shigemasa Tanaka, Fukuda's lawyer, tells Asahi Geino.
Saki added that in the days immediately before her sentencing, Fukuda had even jokingly compared herself to Masumi Hayashi, a convicted murderer now on Death Row for killing four people by poisoning a pot of curry served at a 1998 neighborhood festival. "I remember she told me, 'You'll have to get along to the Wakayama Curry Killer case now,'" Saki says.
However, once the conviction was confirmed, Fukuda became disappointed and appealed the ruling to the higher courts. Fukuda's claim was that she had been involved in a lesbian relationship with her victim, who she killed in a crime of passion rather than simply an act of cold-blooded murder.
William Rehnquist was a good man. He will be hard to replace. May he rest in peace.
I wonder if Bush will wait until Roberts is confirmed before nominating another US Supreme Court Justice.
HILLARY [Mark R. Levin]
. contributes her wisdom to the situation. .
"I want to go after the oil companies and the oil speculators and the manipulators of the money, because they're the ones who I think are really behind this," Clinton told an audience in Elmira Heights on Thursday. "You have a hurricane, and all of a sudden you see prices going up like that. That has . . . everything to do with people trying to make money off the backs of this tragedy."
ledger,
Clearly the President's political strength will be a key factor in who he can get confirmed. How Katrina interacts with the process will be interesting, because I think it has weakened both sides of the political spectrum. On the one hand, it is hard to argue that the Federal Government has covered itself with glory; but on the other hand people looking at New Orleans will be reluctant to endorse more of the same liberal policy-making which produced the underclass which they gimpsed. But if it has weakened both sides it has also made them more militant. As the Left shrills, so too does the Right sometimes, if only to keep up.
Ledger,
Maybe he'll sneak in Bork while they're distracted by
Katrina Kerfuffle Syndrome.
Wretchard,
My 6:46 PM Media Link
Says it proves we should go back to fighting the
War On Poverty!
While reading accounts in Foreign Press, seeing that reporting is 180 off course in terms of what Katrina says about us,
I realized that folks like the Guv and the Mayor really do have a lot of blood on their hands.
But they will never be held accountable.
Even in print.
"I wonder if Bush will wait until Roberts is confirmed before nominating another US Supreme Court Justice."
---
He shouldn't:
Rogers is very popular with the public, and all advantage should be taken of the spectacle of the Dems trying to Demonize him.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Well, yeah, he's brilliant!
. Roberts's Worldview Set Early
Friends say the seven years Supreme Court nominee spent at Harvard ended up reinforcing his conservative views rather than undermining them.
.• Red-State Democrats Tilt to Yes on Roberts
Praise like this is bad news for the nearly 30 liberal special interest groups calling on Democrats to block Roberts's rise to the Supreme Court.
But it is good politics for Democrats such as Conrad who are running for reelection in states that President Bush won, according to several senators and strategists.
Tony, rwe:
U-2 to photograph GulfCoast storm damage The Air Force has dispatched a U-2 surveillance plane on a 12-hour mission to take high-resolution photographs of the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina’s devastating landfall Monday. _____ (more) _____
Wretchard
but on the other hand people looking at New Orleans will be reluctant to endorse more of the same liberal policy-making which produced the underclass which they gimpsed.
////////////////
Everyone watched Heraldo last night. His performance was just this side of hysterical. Today, he said the difference is night and day. Things are moving along just fine. He went on to talk about plugging the dike.
By next week the foul stink that came out of new orleans as the black underclass exited will have seemed natural as breathing. Likely too we'll start hearing stories of trouble following that group of people on their journey.
Lord have mercy on the people who take them in.
"The argument that girls will provide a new viewpoint in the classroom is probably valid, although I certainly can't imagine what points will be viewed,"
he wrote in the newspaper, the Torch.
He said he would not want "the football team waiting on the sidelines for practice while the girls finish their field hockey or whatever.
Game times should be interesting, too.
Imagine the five cheerleaders on the sidelines, with block 'L's' on their chests, screaming 'Give me a 'L.'
Give me a break!"
trangbang68,
"media storm" -- Interesting phrase. I just got an email from the Project Defense Alternatives, providing links suggesting Bush did not having enough military on hand because of the "War On Iraq". That's the problem, right? Not enough military. Then there's Kanye West who says on an MSNBC fundraiser that "We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way -- and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!"
It's the old Catch22. The military is a fascist organization. Why isn't there enough of it? Send the Guard in, but please don't issue them live ammo. Stop the looters. Hello Kanye West? Hunt down Al Qaeda. But don't cross any international borders.
So what is the message in this mass of logical contradiction. How do you parse it? One mistake, I think, is to take statements at face value when they consist entirely of dilemmas. What did Yogi Berra say? When you get to a fork in the road, take it.
But there is a meta-message, something along the lines of 'we hate you'. And the question is how do you respond to that?
wretchard said...
trangbang68,
But there is a meta-message, something along the lines of 'we hate you'. And the question is how do you respond to that?
9:56 PM
////////////////////
the way Arial Sharon puts it: "Dogs Bark But The Caravan Rolls On:
I saw this on a pretty good thread over at free republic.
I just left a baseball game in OKC and sat in front of an FBI agent and talked with him during the game. According to him, NO police dept is authorized 2100 officers. Before the storm, normal attrition had reduced the force to 1800 active officers on duty. He stated there are now less than 800 NOPD officers (1000+ have quit). Many have just walked off the job and disappeared. Others have joined the street gangs. Federal law enforcement is heavily involved and many of the NOPD will be in jail when it is all over. Federal SWAT teams have been operating for several days and "taking out the trash". He says there is much going on behind the scenes that most people will never know about, but the house cleaning has been underway for several days and progress has been substantial.
It will be interesting to see what the MSM picks up and how they report this (if they ever do)
regards - red
29 posted on 09/03/2005 9:42:09 PM PDT by rednek (if it isn't large caliber, it isn't worth carrying)
has to be said,don't it.
"Nietzsche is dead."
It's Penance Time for Telling the Truth:
Denny Must Pay!
---
By 4 p.m., Hastert had reached the Capitol, eager to explain his tardiness and to try again to show his solidarity with Katrina's victims. The Indiana fundraiser, he told reporters, had been on his schedule "for a long, long time."
"Yes, I went to a charity auction," Hastert continued. "I took one of my cars and sold it for tens of thousands of dollars. And that money will go to hurricane relief efforts."
As it happened, La Lumiere enrolled its first three black students in Roberts's sophomore year.
Two of them were Paris and Neil Barclay, gifted brothers recruited by the school's priest from a lower working-class neighborhood near Chicago.
Their presence, however, did not foster much political awareness. As an eighth-grader at a Catholic grade school, Paris Barclay said, he got into trouble for wearing a black armband. But after arriving at La Lumiere, he said, "I was really focusing on achieving and keeping my head down. . . . I didn't want to seem separate and apart. I was struggling to compete with these Lacoste [shirts and] blue blazers, and I was there with my Penney's stuff, trying to fit in."
If Roberts had gone to Michigan City's public high school, he would have been exposed directly to racial tensions bruising the community.
---
So Roberts had the perverse experience of going to a school where blacks acted like, and were treated as, fellow humans.
How Strange.
So he was left "unaware."
Thousands Remain To Be Evacuated(still no state of emergency in LA)
Washington Post ^ | 9-4-2005 | By Manuel Roig-Franzia and Spencer Hsu
Posted on 09/03/2005 9:07:35 PM PDT by aft_lizard
Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday.
The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.
A senior administration official said that Bush has clear legal authority to federalize National Guard units to quell civil disturbances under the Insurrection Act and will continue to try to unify the chains of command that are split among the president, the Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor.
Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said.
"The federal government stands ready to work with state and local officials to secure New Orleans and the state of Louisiana," White House spokesman Dan Bartlett said. "The president will not let any form of bureaucracy get in the way of protecting the citizens of Louisiana."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1476864/posts
I saw this over at FreeRepublic and this too makes sense:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1476864/posts
Wake up folks to what is really going on here. The Democratic power structure in Louisiana and New Orleans realizes that the massive evacuation means that New Orleans will not have the population (and the voters) it had a week ago for decades. People evacuated from NO will resettle and put down roots elsewhere. Businesses that get back in business elsewhere is mostly stay there.
New Orleans will be a town of the French Quarter, Garden District, Irish Channel, and Uptown. Gone will be the 9th Ward, Treme, Bywater, Central City, City Park, Lakeview, Bucktown, Gentilly. Give it 150,000 to 200,000 people at most. There just won't be the population there to produce those massive, lop-sided vote totals for the Democrats. There are some members of the Louisiana State Legislative that won't have any constituents to represent or vote in the next election. (How they handle that one will be interesting).
This has the Democrat power structure (of which Harry Connick Jr.'s family is part) scared ****less. That explains the charges of racism, the anti-Bush attacks, the refusal of the Governor to let the feds take over. Their backs are against the levees, and the water is rising.
17 posted on 09/03/2005 9:25:16 PM PDT by slyfoxvirden
Mega bureaucracy at work:
---
The procedures for what to do when the inevitable disaster hit were also subjected to a bureaucratic overhaul, still unfinished, by the department. Indeed, just last Tuesday, as New Orleans was drowning and DHS officials were still hours away from invoking the department's highest crisis status for the catastrophe, some department contractors found an important e-mail in their inboxes.
Attached were two documents -- one more than 400 pages long -- that spelled out in numbing, acronym-filled detail the planned "national preparedness goal." The checklist, called a Universal Task List, appeared to cover every eventuality in a disaster, from the need to handle evacuations to speedy urban search and rescue to circulating "prompt, accurate and useful" emergency information. Even animal health and "fatality management" were covered.
Could this be a "bitter-sweet" opportunity? A sad, multi-death moment with fault-finding and blaming which is soon recognized as America's chance to 1)totally clean out, and KEEP out, the corrupt and ineffective and ignorant policymakers in NO; and 2) build within 10-14 days a temporary tent city of organized Americans, hard-working round the clock in CLEANUP and REFURBISHING; and 3)reactivating the Port facilities to enable NO to function in its primary responsibility, thereby not wasting this year's harvest throughout the Missippi valley; and 4) beginning long-term design and creation of a NEW New Orleans?
Hate to rain on your beautiful parade, Carridine, but my guess is the Mayor will become a national hero to the M. Moore impaired.
What results from that, who knows.
...there should be attention given to why he could not get the Guv to request federal aid/intervention earlier, but there won't be.
"Buddy, the Early Years" .
(At least they didn't name it Bareback Mountain)
Brokeback Mountain, the movie.
Response at early preview screenings has been positive, if notably damp. After one, Mr. Schamus said, "my wife came out of the ladies' room and said, 'There are 15 women in there, and they're all crying.' I said, 'You ought to see the mens' room.' "
"There's a private feeling to the movie, an intimate feeling," Mr. Lee said. "I think eventually everybody has a 'Brokeback Mountain' in them. Someone you want to come back to. And of course, some people don't come back."
Mr. Lee has it right: in whatever medium, "Brokeback Mountain" tells a great love story. Part of the story's power is the way the men's need for each other slips the bonds of definition, of categories. That's what makes it feel so elemental. You recognize the truth and the mystery of their experience.
But in a country that makes not just a virtue but a fetish of rugged individualism - and set against the big-sky backdrop most identified with that virtue - "Brokeback Mountain" strikes a deeper and more haunting chord: it's the story of people who, for no good reason under the sun, are not allowed to live their lives.
Will be looking forward to your Desert Station Posts, Dune Runner, glad to hear your sisters got out.
Amazing what how different cultures can be living border to border in the "same" State and Country.
Soug and Dune Runner: I think that people may gradually be coming to the realization that a whole subculture has died. Accoridng to all reports, NO was a world of its own for many people, and many could not bear the thought of ever leaving it.
That's all gone now, probably forever, since the people from there will of necessity be scattered to the winds.
This same thing happened last year here in Florida. I live on an island off the coast that weathered the storms and now has more homes than a year ago, but 70 miles or so south of here is another island near where two of the hurricanes came ashore last year. People lived happy, quiet lives there, but it was so devastated that most have left and have not even begun to rebuild. Those people probably never will goe back.
In the Florida panhandle, a number of the hotels destroyed by Ivan last year have not yet been rebuilt. You wonder if they ever will be.
New Orleans was far more insular and suffered far more destruction, both from the flooding and the aftermath. The effects will no doubt be telling.
The greatest thing about this idea, IMO, is it is one whose time has come.
Someone else in a previous thread suggested just this.
...w/o the details.
And I am TIRED of being penney wise and pound foolish on all this PREDICTABLE stuff:
....And they are all of that and a six pack.
I would need a dozen pages to really go into their capabilities. Fortunately for me, someone else already has. To really understand what they can do, take a few minutes and check out the pages at globalsecurity.org. Be sure to click the side links for details. Go ahead, I’ll wait…
The Navy decided a few years ago to replace this class of ships with a new and improved version. The new ones are beginning to be deployed, so the LHAs are going to be decommissioned. The first one to go is the USS Belleau Woods (LHA-3), set for decommissioning at the end of October this year.Although I was in the Navy for many years, I never served on any type of “Gator Freighter” (sailor-ese for any of the Amphib ships).
So why am I inspired to blog about these fine ships and their impending demise? Well, that brings me to the water part. Lots of water. Lots of water flooding the homes of my sisters in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana.
Fortunately, they were rescued and got out safely, but I didn’t know that for many days. So I spent most of my time searching the message boards for any word of them, and just generally following the tragic events that Katrina left as they unfolded. Like many of you, I couldn’t believe it was taking so long to get basic things like food and water and medical help to people there.
Not to people in St Bernard, completely cut off by floods, and not even to people in the Superdome and Civic Center that were apparently accessible by anything bigger than a good sized pickup pretty much anytime someone decided to drive there.
While I was searching and not finding information about my sisters, I was also thinking about hurricanes in general.
We don’t know exactly where they are going to hit until they do, but we DO know that at least 2 or 3 a year are going to hit somewhere on the US coastline.
Large or small, they will do so much immediate damage to the infrastructure wherever they hit, that it takes days to get relief supplies organized, staged and delivered from outside over damaged or impassable roads. We go through this on a larger or smaller scale, in at least two or three different places, every single year.
We KNOW we’re going to go through it every year.
Which brings me back to the Belleau Woods.
The same things that make this class of ship stand alone in assaulting a shoreline with 2000 Marines also make them stand alone in the ability to deliver immediate aid to hurricane ravaged coasts.
Instead of scrapping or sinking or selling these amazing machines to a foreign government, why not turn a few of them over to FEMA as they are decommissioned and use them for disaster relief?
If we had one of these on each coast, and one in the Gulf, we would be able to respond to disasters like this immediately anywhere on our coast, or the other islands and countries around us.
Hurricanes are usually identified, and their general track predicted, at least 5 or 6 days before they actually make landfall in the US. If we had these ships pre-loaded and ready with supplies, the full-time civilian crew could get ready to get underway. Notification could go out to pre-identified doctors, nurses, and other responders including National Guard if need be, giving them 48 hours to get on board.
The ship then puts to sea, gets in behind the hurricane at a safe distance, and just follows it to landfall.
Imagine how the scenario in New Orleans could have played out if this ship, fully loaded with equipment, relief supplies, helicopters, landing craft, trucks and bulldozers, and a couple thousand doctors, nurses, search and rescue specialists, aid workers and experienced cargo handlers, would have followed the hurricane in.
Literally within hours after Katrina struck, we could have had a small army on the ground moving relief supplies, setting up field hospitals for triage, evacuating critically injured people to a fully functioning hospital, conducting SAR by air and by boat. Delivering tons of food and water not only to the Superdome, but to isolated communities throughout the area.
Freeing up the police to be police and control the looting early.
Providing a command and control center with reliable communications to coordinate the work of all local and imported rescue workers.
If the supplies started running low, the ship could have been quickly re-supplied in place, from a cargo ship out of Texas or Florida, a short sail away.
It can be argued that keeping even one, let alone 3, of these ships in the sort of readiness needed is an expensive proposition.
I would agree, it takes a lot of money to run one of these monsters. Millions and millions a year in maintenance, upkeep and crew.
But we spend billions and billions every year on hurricane relief.
And we don’t know where to pre-stage that relief, because we don’t know where the hurricanes will hit.
So we are ALWAYS dealing with them in a reactive way.
That is wasteful in terms of dollars, let alone in lives lost due to the length of response time.
Bringing in the initial response by sea, we don’t need to know where the hurricane will hit.
We will have everything we need for the initial response following along right behind it wherever it goes.
By establishing this as our standard first response, we also develop a group of people who are highly experienced and expert at providing this relief.
Its their regular job.
Last but not least, think of the political gains here.
Rightly or wrongly, President Bush is taking the big hit for the ‘slow response’ to this tragedy.
Personally, I believe there is plenty of blame to go around at all levels of government on this one, from the city on up. But as one of his predecessors said,
“The Buck Stops Here”
Best thing he could do now is say something like
“The initial response to the recent tragedy caused by Hurricane Katrina was unacceptable, and I take full responsibility for that.
So here’s what we’re going to do. Starting this October, I have ordered the Dept of the Navy to turn over to the Dept of Homeland Security three of the Tarawa Class Amphibious Assault Ships as they are decommissioned, beginning with the USS Belleau Woods this October.
These ships will be operated by FEMA, and converted to use specifically for immediate relief efforts in the case of hurricanes or other disasters that affect America’s shorelines.
These ships will be capable of following a hurricane in to wherever it strikes,
and providing immediate and massive amounts of relief supplies, medical assistance, and search and rescue capabilities by air, land and sea;
all within hours of the hurricane passing.”
You can almost hear him saying it can’t you?
And if it were up to me, I know what I’d call a re-named Belleau Woods when it was placed in service – the
“Parish of St. Bernard “
posted by dune runner @ ___10___
NOAA is the only agency that has its act together from the get go. The forecasters all the way up to the head of the agency deserve a round of applause and drinks on the house.
Check out these pics.
http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/katrina/
We are helping a family from NO. Their house which they own is under 10 fet of water. We thought they needed a place to stay, but all they really needed was info on Dallas. We got them a map and showed them around town. The dad is illiterate but works his butt off, but the mom is pretty sharp. The sons are very bright and will do well here. They plan to live here and will not go back. They were looking for apartments last night.
They have a special hatred for Nagin now. And they had many tales of the corruption in NO. It made my blood boil. That city was already on the verge of collapse due to teachers not getting paid. Wretchard, I think the financial issues may have been a contributing cause.
They praised Bush to God for what he is doing. "They need a Texan to go in there and clean house."
Katrina due to the diaspora and its effects will realign politics even further in the South.
I also think that at least in Texas, race issues will recede. This has brought out both communities in drove to deal with the issue.
"They have a special hatred for Nagin now."
---
GRRREAT!
Mental Health Prevails.
Hurricane info at NASA scroll down and click the movie link "Looking at Hurricanes".
anybudee,
Yeah, what was weird, was Trish's link 2 days ago, which let us see what REALITY was there, on the ground, apart from MSM approved weirdness, and the NEED was obvious.
The challenge, is how to get the message through the massive new "Homeland Security Dept." that never should have been created IMHO.
...responding to Democrat Madness.
Judged on an international scale, do other countries compare or excel to our national responses to these occurances?
Looking at the ENTIRE area affected and the entire scale (1 million plus people), how do other countries compare...
re: Katrina and Politics
Richard Feynman once said, "No matter what you look at, if you look at it closely enough, you are involved in the entire universe."
Man's universe is first and foremost political. Events rarely reach the necessary escape velocity to slip the surly bonds of that sphere.
But the political is in fact artificial, a contrivance of the mind. Should we then be surprised when perception creates truth, instead of the other way around?
Pork,
Palestine is Cooler.
Trust Me.
Carter and Bubba Do.
and,
Bubbado sounds cool.
Aristedes,
But the politics of the left has been the INVERSE of reality for far too long, and getting crazier by the minute.
ie
All politics is not the same.
(except possibly to MeMe believers)
:-)
It is really amazing to see the utter helplessness of the Louisiana governments. Apparently the other governors along the Gulf of Mexico were much more proactive in getting help for their constituents. Such incompetence as was displayed by Louisiana and New Orleans governments should be a warning to other local governments. Insist on competence from your elected officials.
Perhaps New Orleans is suffering from the low-IQ syndrome that afflicts many third world countries. Anyone with sufficient intelligence may tend to move away. There may simply not be enough citizens of adequate intelligence in the region to keep a complex society going in adverse circumstances.
How many other regions of the USA may share the same problem?
I think the 'leadership' in LA was doing a Chappaquiddick. Quite unlike Giuliani and Co. four yrs ago.
again, think macro....
how many people evacuated SAFELY and CALMLY?
how many people were WARNED and LISTENED?
how BIG a land mass in total are we talking about..
Our system is built on the principle that "no authority decides what is a good idea." Perceptions and interpretations compete in the political arena, and once adopted they are tested by reality and observed by the loyal opposition, who is, of course, quick to note any error or discrepencies.
The last gasp of a losing ideology is when it nominates itself as the authority. When reality is unkind, reality must be ignored. "Censure them," the Left cries, "they do not believe!"
The contempt of the snake-oil salesman is strong, and amusing. The Left no longer judges ideas. They judge men.
But there are problems at the top w/the new DemoMandated Dept of Homeland Security.
(Civil Defense, anyone?)
"New leaders such as Allbaugh were critical of FEMA's natural disaster focus and lectured senior managers about the need to adjust to the post-9/11 fear of terrorism.
So did his friend Michael D. Brown, a lawyer with no previous disaster management experience whom Allbaugh brought in as his deputy and who now has the top FEMA post.
"Allbaugh's quote was 'You don't get it,' " recalled the senior FEMA official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
"If you brought up natural disasters, you were accused of being a pre-9/11 thinker."
The result, the official said, was that "FEMA was being taxed by the department, having money and slots taken. Because we didn't conform with the mission of the agency."
Anybuddee's Samuelson LINK
AND, The now famous "Trish's LINK"
A Little Embarrassed for you Trish: You had not yet heard about
"Shopping Cart Rights?"
That will be discussed on Ophra, along with the unbearable racism of southern Rednecks.
The Federal/State issue of Shopping Cart Rights is still being fought out between Brown of FEMA, and the Guverness of Louisiana.
Kid's Pet's Rights still don't exist.
(Not a high enough ratio of anal relationships.)
"Then there's Kanye West who says on an MSNBC fundraiser that "We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way -- and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!"
Someone I know raised the idea [that hadn't even occured to me], that perhaps the reason they were so hesitant to grant permission to kill was they were afraid of other cities going up in flames ala Rodney King.
Cutler, see my 5:53 PM post.
You young whippersnappers should spend more time paying attention to your elders!
...at least worth a smirk or two!
;-)
But the reason the Guverness didn't want to authorize the guard, is,
All Heart, No B....
Doug:
You made me LOL with that one. To be honest though, the person was actually closer to my age than yours. Apparently there's more than one of us young "reactionaries" out there.
Well, judging by South Park, there's a lot more than 2.
Al Fin, 10:26 AM
If they made previous experience as a hooker a requirement for office, the IQ/business acumen score would go up at least 15 points.
Trish,
Maybe you could bring the luggage AND baggage too, if you can have your kid perform a politically correct
"Pet Trick?"
Eerie Saturday Night in the French Quarter (In the Looters Lounge)
My Way News ^ | Sep 4, 8:17 AM (ET) | DAN SEWELL
Posted on 09/04/2005 11:06:15 AM PDT by Mike Darancette
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The only lights Saturday night on Bourbon Street were the flashing blues of police vehicles on patrol, the headlights of rumbling military trucks and an occasional flashlight or cigarette glow among bedraggled holdout residents.
"Why does any local stay? Because this is our neighborhood, this is home," said Ride Hamilton, 29. He has turned his French Quarter home into a mini-warehouse of supplies for his neighbors. He said he accumulated the goods during daily "shopping" trips to local stores, "trying to get it before somebody else does. We're relying on ourselves out here."
Johnny White's Sports Bar, which has no doors and, according to locals, never closes, has become a gathering place for some of those who remained downtown when Katrina devastated the city Monday.
"It's very eerie and disturbing," said Joseph Bellomy, 23, a Cleveland native who moved here in February and has been working as a bartender. His T-shirt's slogan: "How much fun can I have before I go to hell? - French Quarter."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1477191/posts
New Orleans Mayor: "CIA Will Wipe Me Out"
September 3, 2005 10:02 p.m. EST
Douglas Maher - All Headline News Staff Reporter
New Orleans, Louisiana (AHN) - Apparently suffering from stress and a bit of paranoia, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin tells CNN Saturday night that he believes the CIA will "wipe him out" after his criticism of President Bush and the Federal Government in response to Hurricane Katrina.
Mayor Nagin seemed to have calmed down after meeting with President Bush for two hours on Friday but became stressed again over the current situation still unfolding in his city.
The Mayor has come under serious scrutiny and criticism in the last 72 hours after photos of parking lots filled with school buses that were sitting in a foot of water were released on the Internet. Many critics of the Mayor and Gov. Blanco say the buses could have saved an estimated 20,000 people if they had been used for emergency evacuations which President Bush had declared two days before Katrina hit.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7000018155
"Anyone seen the LA governor lately? "
---
She's busy w/her Stealth Presidential Bid:
All out push for the Female/Eunich/Gay/Bi/Trans Demographic.
Would Blacks across the country really rise up in solidarity with looters?
Whites would not. Asians would not. Would Latinos? Surely not Jews. Muslims?
When Blacks study hard and speak proper English, they are accused by their peers of "acting White", of being Uncle Toms. It is the Black Community, whatever that is, that defines its own culture, and it has embraced a characterization of negatives. What's left for them, when they reject Whitey's norms, is unsuccessful behavior, and victimhood. A poor strategy in a world of competitive labor.
What are the percentages of success for "acting White"; how many rise up out of poverty by "acting Black."
Tough questions, with tough answers. As Thomas Sowell points out, many Blacks in this country voluntarily define themselves as rednecks. As memes go, it is quite the virus.
Charles,
RadioBlogger is where I first saw those pics, at least 2 days ago:
Blogstorm Nagin Out of Office!
Aristedes,
Be sure not to miss my 10:26 PM post, and the WaPo link to same article at 9:30.
Mighta known Cnn would not post the pics!
---
It's Bush's Fault!!.
NO Schoolbuses, in place.
. The media's blame game .
The debate is already well underway about who makes the grade and who fails in the response to the mess in New Orleans. Well, the debate is among thinking people. It's not really a debate in the mainstream media anymore. The full court press is on by members of MSM to lay this all off on George W. Bush and his administration. This is complete absurdity.
Hugh and I spoke briefly about that this morning, and he's not as worried as I about the latest campaign by the media sticking, because it's not true. And it's demonstrably easy to prove. Hugh pointed me to a photo that was posted on Free Republic, that is a true example of a picture being worth a thousand words:
Think those buses would have come in handy this week? Especially if you need to move a lot of people out of the convention center and Superdome?
Local government had 48 hours from when Katrina turned north until it hit.
This can't happen if local government is competent. The media will try make this the federal government's fault, but as we continue to see Governor Blanco, a nice lady, but completely over her head, and hear New Orleans Mayor Nagin descend into a foul-mouthed tirade, and continue to see the feds move in, Hugh's right. The American people are going to see through the media's spin.
Nine stockpiles of fire-and-rescue equipment strategically placed around the country to be used in the event of a catastrophe still have not been pressed into service in New Orleans, CNN reports Saturday night. Responding to a CNN inquiry, Department of Homeland Security spokesman Marc Short said Friday, "The gear has not been moved because none of the governors in the hurricane-ravaged area has requested it."
---
San Diego Fire and Rescue brought theirs with them
Rescued 250 people, and then were told to stop, because it was too dangerous.
THE GENERAL WELFARE
What Women Want
Why do the poor have children out of wedlock? It's not just a matter of money.
BY AMY L. WAX
Sunday, September 4, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007207
As I said before:
How many died as a DIRECT RESULT
of their
incompetence/inaction/obstruction?
What children want:
PARENTS.
A mom and a dad.
I just heard on FNC where the Coast Guard reported that they found a HOSPICE in NO that STILL had 20 people inside. 10 had died and the other 10 were clinging to life.
What kind of a city, county, or state government does not make sure the hospices are evacuated!!!!!????
Where I live, the hurricane response leaves much to be desired, but they call every home, advise people that there is an evactuation order, and ask you if you need any help with the evacuation. I have seen THREE police cars at ONE house during an evacuation when there was some kind of problem getting the people out.
And what kind of a government does not make getting to those kinds of places after the storm - hospices and nursing homes - TOP PRIORITY!?!?!
The NO government was not just incompetant, it was crimminal!
Cederford: You are right about the "Helicopter Happy" aspects.
When there is a high rise fire people rush to the roof expecting choppers to come rescue them. There almost never are any. Most hotels and apartment buildings don't have suitable landing areas on the roof anyway, even if the choppers are available.
And as I look at the the pictures from NO I think: "AMTRACS" I know they are pretty big, but they would seem tailor made for that kind of job. Even armed and able to handle the looters if required.
I guess we don't have DUKWs or Weasels or amphib jeeps or the smaller AMTRACS as we did in WWII.
And most ironically of all: New Orleans was where Higgens built all those little landing craft in WWII (LCVP?). Shallow draft, flat bottoms, drop ramps at the bow, and props protected by tunnels; would seem tailor made for this op. I have been fully expecting to see one out of a museum out doing the job in its hometown.
Trish,
That's why a Rumsfeld Type (Wolfie?) should head fema, instead of innocent (experience wise) Lawyer Brown.
rwe,
The plywood boats that won the war!
He made something like 2/3 of the entire Navy Fleet!
...outsider type.
Brown and Chertoff
should both be offed.
C4,
There's no way the military can spend as much with the people's CONSENT/Approval, as "Big Pharma's," so that has to be the Government's Primary Growth Engine.
The Guv and Nagin:
Blood on their hands, mourning orphans at their feet:
---
How many have seen that sad CNN Video of the Australian Family?
3 boys, 1 girl, 1 Dad.
Dad last heard from mom in Superdome reporting she had be robbed and assaulted.
They still have hope.
Unfortunately, I'm afraid ignorance (of our subanimal class rights) and hope are all they have left.
Doug: Supposedly Hitler called Higgens "That guy who is winning the war for the Americans."
And in the town where he built them, and needs them so desperatly now, they don't have any.
I saw a couple literally out in the weeds at Camp Pendleton around 1982 and there are some in the USMC Musuem at Quantico. And I guess they had at least one in the musuem in NO.
Friend of mine used to live in NO until the mid-60's; his father rebuilt PBYs. They could use some of those down there now, too.
The incompentcy of the NO Locals is unbelievable.
The LA Governor's performance has been less than heroic
The destruction in MS and AL is normal hurricane/ storm surge damage.
NO is another kettle of fish, entirely. The city survived the Storm. It was the levees that failed, as they were bound to, eventually.
That the Locals and State officials had no plan to implement upon levee failure is unbelievable.
The Federal response has been reasonable, both timely and scalable.
Considering the poor Local management of the situation the Feds seem to be doing well.
But to claim, as
"... Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff argued Saturday that government planners did not predict such a disaster ever could occur."
is beyond belief.
He should be fired, just for saying such a stupid thing.
Homeland Security should be broken back up:
It was the dems that demanded it as I recall.
Or it could have been DC as a whole, (a-holes more like it)
but making a mega mega bureaucracy was the LAST thing we should have done in response to 9-11.
Brown quote,
"Things are really going quite well."
...80 mi away in Baton Rouge.
What about the bodies all over?
Brown:
"My personnel have not told me of that, and I'm not going to speculate."
They just reported on Fox News that 6 out of a group of 8 armed men were shot and killed on a NO bridge.
Good men took out a terrorist squad, the Battle of New Orleans II begins, today.
We may have a "New Hickory" before it's over.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
2/3 was NOTHING!
---
Higgins Industries.
Of these boats, 12964, or 92% of the entire US Navy, were designed by HigginsIndustries, Incorporated;
8865 were built at the Higgins plants in New Orleans
'Rat,
And the General in charge has gotten APPLAUSE so far.
(Has the NOW unique ability to DISCRIMINATE between peaceful citizens and worthless, violent, scum.)
Nagin got 1 call right:
Lt. Gen. Honore
the
"John Wayne dude."
Oh for the days:
"The Guy who Relaxes,
Is Helping the Axis."
His total output for the Allies during World War II was 20,094 boats, a production record for which Higgins Industries several times received the Army-Navy "E", the highest award that the armed forces could bestow upon a company.
Higgins was the ideal person for the needs of the time. In World War II, with its massive contracts, his strengths - design and rapid production - were all-important. Administrative weaknesses were suddenly irrelevant - the war offered him opportunity. Had the Japanese not bombed Pearl Harbor, Higgins probably would have remained a successful, but small, southern boat builder. Because of the war, he rapidly became an internationally known figure (even Hitler was aware of Higgins, calling him the "new Noah").
trish -- on the subject of liars and damned liars, have you seen an accurate transcript of that Chertoff interview? I'd like to see for myself what he said - rather than how he is being quoted by CNN.
"Kuwait to Give $500M for Katrina Relief"
"The soft bigotry of low expectations."
- to all male Belmont Clubbers: imagine,for one second, that we comprised the men who filled the Superdome. Can you imagine that we would not have done the following (at the very least): (1)organized ourselves so as to make sensible collective decisions; (2) organized the space so as to separate the families from the single men; (3) organized security in case of bad elements; (4) organized search parties to locate provisions and a means of escape; and even (5) organized teams to help RESCUE those who didn't make it to the dome??
Instead, our esteemed media silently deafens us with its view that there is 'nothing to see here;' i.e. nothing chronically dysfunctional about the culture of depravity on display in the superdome.
(btw - i don't mean to be sexist and suggest that only men would or should have done these things: i'm just (perhaps a bit clumsily) trying to share the view that we, as men, would surely have set OURselves far higher standards.)
Ex-Dem: You have a point there, except...
People with that much "stuff" together would not have stayed in the dome and instead would have gone out to find boats and rescue others - and eventually find a way to get out of the area and not stand around and wait to be rescued.
The first bus to make it to the Houston Astrodome was a school bus that a guy located, drove off without authorization, loaded up with refugees and headed out on his own.
ex-dem, 2:43 PM
That wouldn't leave much time for laying back/hanging out, TV Face Time, and etc.
Kinda INSENSITIVE of you.
JMO.
Trish,
Probably the first time the cops felt SAFE firing their weapons since Nagin's been Mayor, the missus/Guv.
(ok, in for a penny...) and WHY are "local volunteers" preparing meals at the Astrodome? have the people brought there suddenly lost the use of their arms and legs?
3:11
In ex-dems world he'd have them serving HIM, not to mention requiring them to scrape and bow.
The Insensitivity is insufferable, and most likely illegal:
Hate Talk Blogging Alert.
Ex-Dem: You know, I wonder how long it will be before there are efforts to make the refugees self-sustaining, at least to a degree. You can hardly expect them to get right off the bus after being washed out of their homes and start right to work cooking dinner. But eventually they should be able to help.
And in that regard, I am going to call someone I know in state govt in Talahasee on Tuesday. Yesterday I recalled a closed USAF facility in the middle of nowhere in FL that has some nice little duplex homes in good shape, a barracks, a cafeteria, and even a gym and place for a store. Could be a real nice place for some of those folks, esepcially if they were willing to set up a community.
re: a question of sexism.
When civilizational equalizers are stripped away, nature determines our duty. As physical superiors, men bear the responsibility of protection. Mostly because the dangers come from men, as well.
The freeloader problem becomes a crisis when a large number of them are gathered together in one place, and expected to fend for themselves. I agree with RWE that men with initiative would not have been herded into the Superdome indefinitely. And I agree with Ex-Dem that if they were, things would have been quite different.
The demographics of Superdome residents set the stage for the events that transpired. The horrors afflicted in the dark of the stadium were not random.
Aristedes,
Read the movie review I jokingly addressed to Buddy, above, if you have time.
Seems the reviewer, and much of New York, just about reaches climax talking about that film and the book it was based on.
I had quite a little rant w/my wife about the disparate amount of physical danger involved concerning current heavy duty promotion of homosexuality in men as opposed to women.
(Although who knows the SOCIAL costs of promoting same in women?)
2:46 AM post
Did you see the CNN/Aussie video, Trish?
Sure brings you face to face w/the tragedies inflicted on others by those subhumans.
"No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem." Booker T. Washington
And this sub-culture is doomed as long as it is encouraged in the pernicious belief that rapping is as dignified as earning your daily bread.
"I don't know how to screen"
---
Just be sure any repeat sexual abusers get housing close by schools and preschools, as they are currently doing in Seattle.
...With the blessings of the Rabi and his wife, nearby.
They are SO compassionate.
Not to mention LIBERAL.
Just heard Rush reading an e-mail saying the Dems don't have any troubling keeping the Buses Running on Election Day!
Even go so far as to help transport the ever important semi legal voters.
the last person evacuated from the Superdome? 81 year-old, Isaac Kelly.
ponder that for a moment.
Just about a mile from my house is the vehicle they need for hurricane relief: A LARC. They made different versions of different sizes, but the one here is HUGE! The wheels alone are probably twice the height of my 4X4 pickup. Amphibious, with a ramp that goes down like an LCVP's but much bigger.
Cederford: You are right about the pathologies from the Hood, but the base I am talking about is not abandoned, but still in use. The housing area was given to the state and some new admin buildings were built closer to where the action takes place. It is still a gunnery/bombing range. And the other thing they have there is a state prison; give them something to think about.
I think that the best way to handle the pathologies is to bust up the old NO neighborhoods the rest of the way, by dispersal. Practical necessity will force this anyway.
I think it was Chicago that did an experiment about 20 or 30 years ago. They took a few of the welfare cases out of the ghetto and the projects and moved them to
the suburbs, the "white" suburbs.
Some eventually chose to go back "home" but all of them realized what life could be like if lived by a different set of rules. It was like an innoculation of middle class values. A few black "intellectuals" decried the experiment as an example of cultural snobbery - but of course all of them already lived in similar conditions and could afford their own brand of cultural snobbery.
I learned a long time ago in the dating game if your girlfriend starts to nitpick on ever little thing (or perhaps on every other) then there are bigger issues.
Quite clearly the left is in this mode wrt President Bush. Understand that but we have to respond and defend because in the middle guy is susceptible.
BTW using lynx to post this so if the formatting is off, forgive me.
Ex-Democrat,
I suppose to avoid duplication of effort. Also, I am not certain it would be wise to have hundreds of families preparing their own food with their own cooking gear.
Just don't try any funny business w/that lynx on This Forum.
ex-dem,
It's a mix of socialism and law:
Law of the Jungle.
How can we *KNOW* Falwell is wrong?;-)
Mat James caries his dog Baby Pearl as he marches in the Southern Decadence parade in the French Quarter of New Orleans, La., Sunday, Sept. 4, 2005. The week long gay festival, which is second only to Mardi Gras, was to have begun Sunday. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
13,
What does "debauch" mean?
one thing it did prove is that neither Fallwell or Robertson speak for God.
What Hubris for them to assume they do
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