We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
The prospect of trying to rebuild New Orleans "safely" seems beyond stupid to me. Indeed, to do so would be to rip off every American taxpayer to make a futile gesture of defiance towards Mother Nature.
It has been estimated that it would take 15-20 years to build levees which could handle a Cat 4 storm, much less a Cat 5 - which is why the decision was made, years ago, not to. There will be another big storm before that time. Thus another disaster is guaranteed, regardless of expense. My first reaction is "Not on my nickel." As an investor, I wouldn't invest a penny. Would you?
But I have had an inspiration. Disney New Orleans. Call it "Disney NO" for short. Let Disney rebuild it as a tourist attraction, with their own money and their own insurance. I can see it now - Disney's jewel in their crown. A cleaner, neater, civilized New Orleans that America could be proud of. No poverty, no creeps, no dirt, no crime and no-one who would make a church lady from Dubuque uncomfortable. Happy, upbeat lite jazz coming at you through loudspeakers on the streets. Blackened Seafood-like Product at Chez Mickey's. Aerial tramways not just for around town, but also with express lines running to high ground shelters, just in case. Just rebuild the charming tourist stuff, OK? The French Quarter, the jazz bars, the restaurants, etc. Maybe a golf course or two, of course, where the rest of the city has been bulldozed. Golfers love seeing gators lying around: they add a bit of excitement to the otherwise brain-damaging effects of the game. Or they could kill all the gators and scatter mechanical gators around. Hey, and the best part - they could do a Mardi Gras parade daily from 1-4 pm. Maybe they could run the numbers and depreciate the entire investment and collect massive profits before the next hurricane drives Mickey to Baton Rouge.
No amount of money will change the fact that this is no place for a large urban population. Most of the city is below sea level, and it continues to sink, even as the ocean is rising. Over the next century, it's expected to drop by a full meter. Virginia Burkett of the United States Geological Survey told National Public Radio, "Within the next century, the areas that didn't flood this time will be likely to flood under a similar hurricane situation."
Lehman Bros is a Weenie
Can you believe apologizing for slavery? The Lehman leadership may have some things on their conscience - I don't know - but moral responsibility for slavery isn't on the list. Someone scared them enough to cough up an apology, but no cash. Lame, pathetic, and disgusting. Hey - if they really felt bad, they'd give the whole company to the Rainbow Coalition.
Minimum Wage Debate
It's an endless debate, but what semi-clinches it for me is that 50% of the people earning min. wage are youngsters. Anyway, here's a nice summary of the perennial issues.
Ducks Unlimited, along with other hunter-conservationist groups, has begun a "Hunt Fair Chase" promotional program. "Fair Chase", for you non-hunters, refers to the ethics of hunting. Yes, man has a weapon and the animal does not, but there are many ways to apply ethics and respect to the ancient and honorable tradition.
For me, one of the primary ethics is to support conservation measures, and to do it - not to wait for the government to do it. That's why I love Ducks Unlimited, the Nature Conservancy, and a few others.
The General principles, as expressed at the DU website:
Fair Chase allows the hunter to pursue game, using hunting skills, knowledge of wildlife & outdoor savvy, without putting the game animal at an unfair disadvantage.The principles of fair chase encourage hunters to: show respect to landowners & managers; respect wildlife;obey game laws; show courteous to other hunters and those that don't hunt; clearly identify your target; and remain ethical and safe at all times.
Eric uses the example of Katrina to explain why having firearms around the house can be essential for self-protection during civil emergencies. Once the emergency begins, it will be too late to buy them. Here.
Nice example of handy-dandy household firearm at right.
"It seems increasingly likely that when the history of Hurricane Katrina is written, the conclusion will be that it is a wonder that such a powerful storm, striking a uniquely vulnerable area, did not kill more people, considering the gross negligence and sometimes illegal conduct of many individuals and local government officials during the days that preceded and immediately followed the hurricane."
Shots of Beer? Right Thinking discusses the world's strongest beer.
Rick Moran goes Sane on us:
Perhaps the politicization of the relief efforts surrounding the aftermath of the hurricane was inevitable. Frustration on the left at Bush’s presidency exploded into recrimination almost before hurricane force winds moved inland from the stricken areas on the coast. And the predictable push back by those of us on the right who were at first taken aback by the ferocity of the attacks and then frustrated ourselves at some of the coverage in the MSM has not been a very edifying display for the rest of the world to see.
This is politics in America at the turn of the 21st century. Troubling to some, tiring to many more, I am clueless as to how to fix it or who can fix it or even if it needs fixing. There have been many periods in American history where this kind of partisanship has been the norm. We’ve survived it and gone on to thrive as a nation and a people. I suspect the same will happen here.
That said, sit right down in your easy chair and let your face assume that Carnival stare! Perhaps laughing at ourselves is the best medicine after all.
Read the whole thing, which concerns Ben Hur, and this week's Carnival.
Here they come - out of the woodwork like cockroaches, hoping that Katrina might offer a feeding opportunity. Or, could you say, like looters during a flood? You thought they were gone, didn't you? Irrelevant, ancient history, self-charicatures, now replaced with a healthier and more positive view of race in America, right? A new generation of positive, hopeful, independent, self-respecting black Americans, right? Nope. Sorry. Those old folks - the black leaders of the 70s who built their reputations on "government programs" weren't gone - they were just resting, biding their time, waiting and hoping for an opening.
And waiting for any opportunity with increasing apprehension, because the Repubs have been chipping away at the plantation with their emphasis on morals and responsibility.
What is the strategy of these old folks, raised on the politics of poverty scams? Scare the blacks back onto the Dem plantation, and guilt the whites into handing over more $ which they can deliver to their constituents. Same old same old.
Everyone jokes about the black hurricane caused by Bush, but some of these folks talk as if they believed it. As if the people harmed by hurricane Andrew, which devastated white Florida, did not also require 5 days for federal help to arrive. No damn difference. But facts have nothing to do with this. As RRWH delicately puts it: "But to those who've been sucking off the government tit for 4 generations, then Big Momma Government is the first ones they turn to to bail their asses out of a jam."
Does anyone take these losers and their race-baiting seriously in 2005?
In my opinion, nothing did more damage to American poor, including the black poor, than the 1970s "War on Poverty," and we continue to reap what was sown then - seeds of helplessness, dependency, excuse, grievance, and entitlement - the worst possible lessons for proud, free people in America. Far more lives down the drain than a thousand hurricanes. Let's hope this older generation of black "leaders" will be ignored. And let's begin hearing voices from black leaders who have faith in their people and who respect their intelligence and abilities and pride.
Now that the people of NO are safe, the blog-news cycle turns to coverage of the coverage - always a worthy task for newsy blogs, one of whose primary functions can and should be to try to keep the MSM honest...a sisyphusian task.
It is widely agreed that coverage was not only hysterical and lacking in facts, but it appears to have been used in an effort to bloody President Bush's nose via distortions, selective use of facts, etc. - something which the silly Sheehan story failed to do, despite their utmost efforts to make this poor benighted soul the spearhead of a 60s-style antiwar movement.
LLBS has a very fine rant about all of this (Thanks for the tip, Classical Values). One paragraph - but read the whole thing:
"...I don’t have the faith in Bush’s and FEMA’s godlike power to make everything all right that they have apparently betrayed I am unable to sympathize never mind empathize with this hyperbole. I wouldn’t be president in this unstable, infant-brained country for anything; sitting in the Oval Office must be like sitting in the middle of a giant nursery, and every baby has a full diaper."
In addition to Regime Change Iran, we have been alerted to another serious and interesting Iranian site, the English translation of Iran-Va-Jahan.
SDA on Katrina Coverage
"Especially for those of you new to SDA and the blogosphere, I suggest you read Jeff's entry. In his disassembly of the Newsweek article, he exposes that much of the coverage we've been treated to on Katrina and the responses of the various levels of government is, at best, pathetically superficial and selectively factual. At worst (and most of it falls into the worst category) it's intentionally politicized and misleading.
Journalists, take note. This is why increasing numbers of Americans - and Canadians - are turning off their network news and cancelling subscriptions. The "art of omission" is a dangerous ploy in an age where the media consumer has near instant, unfiltered free access to legal and constitutional experts, transcripts, archival material, and witnesses on the scene.
When viewers and readers discover you are ignoring the details - in this case, details like the limitations placed on presidential powers by the US Constitution - in a transparent ploy to score political points, you damage the relationship with the information consumer on a multitude of levels.
That you inflict long term damage on your own professional credibility goes without saying. What seems less understood by your profession is that your actions convey a profound contempt for your readers and listeners. Disingenuously superficial and/or inappropriately politicized versions of current events are an insult to our intelligence - and we know it. "
"What is the real story of Katrina is (I suggest) not so much that nature wrought fury on land, water, people, property, and animals, not at all anything about racism, not much about federal government incompetence. The real story is that the mainstream media rioted."
From New Orleans to Cape Cod...waiting for Nantucket to step up to the plate
The evil racist American system, which created a hurricane at the secret Republican/KKK/Israeli/Saudi hurricane-generating machine at a top-secret oil platform in the Caribbean to destroy black New Orleans, has brought hundreds of refugees to Cape Cod, along with their arrest records, thanks to Mitt Romney (is he running for anything?). They will like Massachusetts, except for the winter, and the lack of jobs, and a Cape Cod culture which is about as far from the NO view of the world as you can get. Fitting in might take a while, but not because of skin color. John "Gig-John" Kerry's Liberal Nantucket ought to be good for about a thousand of these refugees, don't ya think? ("Gig-John" - short for Gigolo-John - you already knew that, right?) The world is waiting... and waiting to see whether Bush will create an anti-white hurricane. Doubt it - not that racist Bushitler monster....but if there is a white hurricane, it will be a Rove deal - to create an illusion of fair-and-balanced weather. Hey - it's easy to figure things out - just get a bit paranoid and connect the dots. (You get to pick your own dots in this game.)
"You never gave five seconds of thought to the risk of flooding in New Orleans until it became impossible to think about anything else? Me neither. Nor have I given much thought to the risk of a big earthquake along the West Coast — the only one of the top three catastrophes that hasn’t happened yet — even though I live and work in the earthquake zone.
Of course, my job isn’t to predict and prepare for disasters. My job is to recriminate when they occur. It’s not easy. These days the recriminations business is overrun with amateurs, who are squatting on all the high ground. The fetid aroma of hindsight is everywhere."
"Jack Kelly supplies the information about hurricane response time that the MSM is too biased and lazy to provide. For example, he quotes Florida National Guardsman Jason van Steenwyk, mobilized six times for hurricane relief, who states: "The federal government pretty much met its standard time lines, but the volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented. The federal response here was faster than Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and Jeanne." Indeed, Kelly makes a good case that the response to Katrina represents "the most monumental and successful disaster relief operation in world history." If true, then the MSM's coverage must rank among the most monumental and (thus far) successful frauds in the history of journalism."
Gwynnie reports a flash of insight reading the Houses of Worship article in the Friday 9/9 Wall Street Journal, which said in part:
"Pity Larry Lowenthal. His job as executive director of the Boston branch of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) includes finding and training leaders from among the 700,000 Russian Jews who have immigrated to the U.S. in the last 30 years. Mr. Lowenthal has fared well: Today there are Russians helping to guide a number of major Jewish organizations, like the one called Boston for Israel. But now these immigrants turn out to be … oh no! Republicans!
"To judge by his public statements and writings, Mr. Lowenthal's idea of a faithful Jew is someone who opposes the nomination of Judge John Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court, supports gay rights, abortion and euthanasia, and demands a strong separation of church and state. After all, as Mr. Lowenthal concluded approvingly in a July op-ed for the Jewish Advocate, Jews are "the most liberal" and "the least religious people in America."
"Imagine his consternation when an avalanche of emails from Russian Jews began to pour in to the Web site of the Jewish Russian Telegraph, a daily blog, in response to his article. About 100 people wrote to say that Mr. Lowenthal needed to stop making "outrageous statements" on behalf of people whom he doesn't represent.
"Alex Koifman, who arrived in the U.S. from Belarus in 1978, and whom Mr. Lowenthal trained for his position as a board member at the Boston AJC, criticized his old teacher for overstepping his bounds, saying: "Since when are these concerns [abortion, gay rights, and church-state separation] concerns that are specific to the Jewish community? These are the Left's concerns."
"This was only the most recent in the Boston area's Russian Jewish population's battles with the so-called Jewish leadership. Last fall, Mr. Lowenthal came down hard on the Hasidic community in Wellesley for putting up a menorah display on public property. The Russian Jews wrote scores of emails to the AJC and Russian-language media in response, suggesting that the display was actually a triumph of religious freedom.
"In August, Mr. Lowenthal found himself in hot water again. During an interview with the Boston public radio station, he showered praise on the leaders of the Islamic Society of Boston. When Russian Jews learned that the society was distributing Arabic-language pamphlets with the words of Dr. Yusuf Abdullah al-Qaradawi, a cleric who condones suicide bombings, they were outraged. The Telegraph editor wrote an article contrasting Mr. Lowenthal's intolerance toward their community with his embrace of the local Muslims.
"Mr. Lowenthal finally became so exasperated by these conflicts that he emailed Jim Kaufman, the immediate past president of the local AJC: "I am sorry we ever started up with the Russians." Unfortunately, his confessional somehow fell into Russian hands, and Mr. Koifman published it in the Telegraph."
Gwynnie would lo love to hear from Maggie's brilliant psychiatrist contributor Dr. Joy Bliss, but her insight is that the secular leftist American Jew is filled with a sense of self-loathing and guilt, which raises many issues.
Is a self-loathing Jew anti-Semitic?
Does this explain the NY Slimes' hatred of Israel and embracing of the Palestinian "cause"?
Does this explain the NYT's 9-part series on class which intentionally tries to stir up class warfare (even though their perceived under-classes aren't generally NYT readers, and and even though they would be among the first victims of real class warfare)?
Does all this guilt and self-loathing result in a subconscious desire for self-destruction (which would explain the sick embracing of the Islamofacsists and encouragement of class warfare)?
Gwynnie feels like a key has turned in a mental lock and all sorts of things are now falling into place. She feels like a passenger in a lifeboat with a maniac who keeps tryng to scuttle it; she sees they threaten her very survival and that she must fight them at all times and in every way she can, as well as their Islamofacsist allies.
Mrs. Darling first heard of Peter when she was tidying up her children's minds. It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day. If you could keep awake (but of course you can't) you would see your own mother doing this, and you would find it very interesting to watch her. It is quite like tidying up drawers. You would see her on her knees, I expect, lingering humorously over some of your contents, wondering where on earth you had picked this thing up, making discoveries sweet and not so sweet, pressing this to her cheek as if it were as nice as a kitten, and hurriedly stowing that out of sight. When you awake in the morning, the naughtiness and evil passions with which you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the bottom of your mind, and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out your prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on.
The J.M. Barrie website is a good source of info on the enormously popular turn-of-the-century Scottish playwright. He had so little confidence in the commercial potential of Peter Pan that he underwrote its production himself, so as to protect investors. After the play became successful, he wrote the book. Like Lewis Carroll and Arthur Conan Doyle, his "minor" work is what he is remembered for.
A number of us at Maggie's are off to Nantucket for a wedding this weekend. My Nantucket photos are on the other computer and it is too much trouble to move them, so I'll offer a photo of my favorite town in Cape Cod - close enuf, with fewer yuppies and fewer Hummers (meaning the auto - not the "thing") than Nantucket, which used to be a distant, rough-and- ready Yankee place but sure has changed into a new East Hampton, which I do not approve of. Photo of downtown Wellfleet. Need a good photo of the Cong. Church but they never came out very well - always rainy or foggy etc. It rings ship's bells - not regular time. Curved pews - not a bad place to connect with God. As is any other place on earth, if one's head is in the right place. Well, really, the place hardly matters.
Thanks to Mark Levin, here is the sad story of how environmental activists scuttled the 1977 New Orleans hurricane barrier project. The following is from the website of Save Our Wetlands, Inc. (S.O.W.L.).
LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN HURRICANE BARRIER PROJECT
During the same time period the Corps was also pursuing the development of a Corps’ project called the Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Barrier Project. This plan proposed to build a billion dollar dam stretching from Fort Pike to the Rigolets under the guise of hurricane flood protection. This area is approximately one mile wide and is one the entrances of to the Gulf of Mexico. The proposed project would have created hundreds of millions of dollars in dredging contracts. This pork-barrel project was the brain child of U.S. Congressman F. Edward Hebert. Had this proposed project been undertaken it would have destroyed the wetlands of New Orleans east and promoted further housing development in extremely low-lying hurricane susceptible areas. The project also would have destroyed the ecology of Lake Pontchartrain by causing it to become stagnant.
. . .
What the Corps really wanted was the construction of the billion dollar barrier/dam across the Rigolets at Fort Pike, and the hundreds of millions of dollars in dredging contracts it would create.
. . .
The United States Army Corps of Egineer's [sic] Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Barrier Project had the potential to make Lake Pontchartrain a stagnant body of water, which would have negatively affected its productivity. Under the guise of hurricane protection, this project was not only going to destroy Lake Pontchartrain but was in fact going to drain the wetlands of New Orleans East and promote development in these newly drained areas, regardless of the fact that they would have been highly susceptible to flooding due to hurricane tidal surges. This project was also going to create hundreds of millions of dollars in dredging contracts for F. Edward Herbert political supporters and for the cronies of the Orleans Levee Board. Judge Charles Schwartz ordered the Corps not to intimidate, threaten, or in any way jeopardize the job security of Glen Montz, for telling the truth.
After three days of testimony and hearing Judge Charles Schwartz stated from the bench that Save Our Wetlands had proven her [sic] case and ordered defendants to sit down and negotiate with Save Our Wetlands a type of solution and compromise. Save Our Wetlands spent an entire day communicating with counsel for the defendants in attempting to obtain a compromised injunction on these barriers. This discussion lasted into the night. At all parties met in Judge Charles Schwartz chambers Save Our Wetlands was of the impression that the defendants would agree to cease all of their operations on the construction of the Hurricane Barrier Project.
. . .
Judge Charles Schwartz orders the Army Corps of Engineers to do a new Environmental Impact Study on the Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Barrier Project. During the trial one of the key arguments of Save Our Wetlands was that alternative hurricane protection measures should be considered including building up preexisting levees. The new EIS conducted by the Corps concludes that building up the existing levees is in fact a better alternative to the Hurricane Barrier Project. The end result of this litigation is that the wetlands of New Orleans East were saved and the Bayou Savauge National Wildlife Refuge was created.
An interesting side note is when the attorney for Save Our Wetlands went before Judge Schwartz to obtain attorney fees. Judge Charles Schwartz agreed, in his injunction that the Corps of Engineers lied to the public. However, now he tells the Save Our Wetlands attorney that, “he is interested in ‘fish’ and ‘birds’ while the Corps was interested in the welfare of the people.”
The Save Our Wetlands attorney says "how can you possibly talk to me that way after all we have proven." Judge Charles Schwartz says, “I have been waiting to hold you in contempt of court for sometime, one more peep out of you and you will go to jail.” The Save Our Wetlands attorney collected no fees for the time and energy he invested in saving the wetlands of New Orleans East and the entire Lake Maurapus, Pontchartrain, Catherine, Bornge, ecosystem. Many people in this litigation are now dead and even though Save Our Wetlands did not recieve any monetary compensation SOWL's legacy lives on and on within the heart and spirit of every man, woman, child, bird, red fish, speckle trout, croakers, etc.
Disney New Orleans
Fair Chase
Annie Get Your Gun
From Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie:
than Nantucket, which used to be a distant, rough-and- ready Yankee place but sure has changed into a new East Hampton, which I do not approve of. Photo of downtown Wellfleet. Need a good photo of the Cong. Church but they never came out very well - always rainy or foggy etc. It rings ship's bells - not regular time. Curved pews - not a bad place to connect with God. As is any other place on earth, if one's head is in the right place. Well, really, the place hardly matters. 