Katrina
A few points on Katrina, who's being dumb, what should be done, et cetera.
Might as well jump in with the non-pc stuff -- the people in New Orleans who stayed in their homes were dumb. Before anyone whines about those without the financial means to evacuate, the city had set up ten shelters for such people. they should have gone to one of those (and yes, I know there have been some issues with some of them, but more on that later). As it is, too many resources have had to be focused on rescuing people from their houses. It also makes it more difficult to supply those affected with water, food, et cetera.
The looting going on there is simply disgusting. People stealing big screen televisions, other electronics, jewelry, clothes, and various other non-essentials. Extremely violent, too. These looters should be shot. Seriously. And i must say, to people like Kathryn Jean Lopez, that i don't think anyone saying the looters should be shot is advocating shooting people taking food, water, or the like. Also for her benefit, I'm not advocating spraying down every looter with a hail of gunfire -- you shoot a couple of them and the others start getting the idea real fast. Again, it's distracting police and national guardsmen from helping those who need it. Moreover, with the lousy job that's been done protecting people's property, more people are going to want to stay behind the next time they're ordered to evacuate to try to protect their possessions, or to loot from stores (some of those who stayed behind apparently did so with that intention). Bit of trivia -- the first order of the mayor of San Francisco following the earthquake and ensuing fires of 1906 was to shoot the looters. Maintaining order is one of the primary purposes of government. The primary, I'd say.
Combining the first two points, what's up with the people on rooftops who have shot at helicopters and boats? Apparently, they're trying to get help for themselves or their families, but is that really the way to do it? Ugh. Stupid people bother me, and they've shown up in abundance.
Reading what some people have to say on the whole matter, I was amazed by the levels of asininity. First there are those blaming Bush for this. Some blame him because of "global warming" -- completely ignoring the fact that, even accepting all the numbers and such that environmentalists toss around, if Bush had started fighting greenhouse gases from the moment he stepped into office, the effect would have been imperceptable; moreover, science doesn't back up the claim that "global warming" -- even if it is actually occurring -- is causing stronger hurricanes, and the author of the study that people are using to make this claim says that he doesn't think global warming can be blamed for the hurricane. Then there are those blaming him because the levees weren't strengthened due to cuts in federal funding, but even if it had full funding, the study on improving the levees wasn't going to be completed until 2008, let alone any actual work. Finally, for the Bush-bashers, at least, there are those saying the troops should be brought home from Iraq to man New Orleans and other affected areas; this ignores that there are already thousands of national guardsmen there, with more on the way, and the logistics of actually bringing the troops home -- by the time they started arriving stateside in any significant amount, the city will have been drained and they won't be needed (that, and would putting 120,000 troops there make any sense?). Then there's all the misperceptions and stupidity surrounding gas, but I think I'll save that for another post. I saw one person saying she's convinced that some people are trapped in their attics, so she wants rescue workers to go around with chainsaws cutting into all the roofs (last I heard, they were still working on getting people off rooftops who managed to get their on their own; it would seem that they need to finish that first before trying to find people who are quite possibly already dead (if they got trapped in their attic, there's a good chance they already drowned or have suffered from a lack of supplies, the contaminated water, and the heat (attics tend to reach temperatures higher than those outside the house)).
The media is also annoying. They're walking around there, not really doing much of anything to help aside from "raising awareness" (a concept I think little of). Also, when talking about the people in New Orleans, I've caught several reporters saying that they've been enduring [insert hardship here] for "days and days and days" on Thursday and this morning. I hardly consider three or four days to be "days and days and days". I dislike over-exaggeration.
How much sense does a city like New Orleans make anyways? A city that's below sea level, located where it is in relation to various bodies of water. It makes no sense. Unless you're talking about the Dead Sea, you shouldn't build a city that's below sea level, it's just asking for trouble.
Now, as to the incompetence of part of the response. It was the responsiblity of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana to take the lead in the response, and the feds were supposed to aid them. However, there's no aiding something as poorly organized as this was. There are those who claim that nobody could have seen something like this coming. Bull. They've been warning about this for decades now, it's nothing new. Unfortunately, there are high levels of corruption in the Louisiana and New Orleans governments (including the police force), which hampered planning (and seems to have led some police officers to be part of the looting, according to some reports). Now, we're not talking Jersey-level corruption, but you don't need that much corruption to generate a problem. Some are eager to blame the feds, as always, but, like I said, this is primarily the state's responsiblity. And they failed miserably. Governor Blanco is in deeper than she knows how to handle; showing she feels for all the people afflicted by crying on tv is all well and good, but ... well, it's not all well and good without any competent action to back it up. As Jonah Goldberg said, she seemed like a second-grade teacher when she was giving her weak condemnation of the looters. The mayor really isn't much better; he whines about the feds not doing enough, but what had the city done to prepare? Not bloody much. And there's the problem.
On a brighter note, Gov. Barbour of Mississippi seems to be handling things a bit better. He at least has an air of competence around him.
And with that, I think I've typed enough for now. I hope all of you don't have any friends or family that were in harm's way.
Might as well jump in with the non-pc stuff -- the people in New Orleans who stayed in their homes were dumb. Before anyone whines about those without the financial means to evacuate, the city had set up ten shelters for such people. they should have gone to one of those (and yes, I know there have been some issues with some of them, but more on that later). As it is, too many resources have had to be focused on rescuing people from their houses. It also makes it more difficult to supply those affected with water, food, et cetera.
The looting going on there is simply disgusting. People stealing big screen televisions, other electronics, jewelry, clothes, and various other non-essentials. Extremely violent, too. These looters should be shot. Seriously. And i must say, to people like Kathryn Jean Lopez, that i don't think anyone saying the looters should be shot is advocating shooting people taking food, water, or the like. Also for her benefit, I'm not advocating spraying down every looter with a hail of gunfire -- you shoot a couple of them and the others start getting the idea real fast. Again, it's distracting police and national guardsmen from helping those who need it. Moreover, with the lousy job that's been done protecting people's property, more people are going to want to stay behind the next time they're ordered to evacuate to try to protect their possessions, or to loot from stores (some of those who stayed behind apparently did so with that intention). Bit of trivia -- the first order of the mayor of San Francisco following the earthquake and ensuing fires of 1906 was to shoot the looters. Maintaining order is one of the primary purposes of government. The primary, I'd say.
Combining the first two points, what's up with the people on rooftops who have shot at helicopters and boats? Apparently, they're trying to get help for themselves or their families, but is that really the way to do it? Ugh. Stupid people bother me, and they've shown up in abundance.
Reading what some people have to say on the whole matter, I was amazed by the levels of asininity. First there are those blaming Bush for this. Some blame him because of "global warming" -- completely ignoring the fact that, even accepting all the numbers and such that environmentalists toss around, if Bush had started fighting greenhouse gases from the moment he stepped into office, the effect would have been imperceptable; moreover, science doesn't back up the claim that "global warming" -- even if it is actually occurring -- is causing stronger hurricanes, and the author of the study that people are using to make this claim says that he doesn't think global warming can be blamed for the hurricane. Then there are those blaming him because the levees weren't strengthened due to cuts in federal funding, but even if it had full funding, the study on improving the levees wasn't going to be completed until 2008, let alone any actual work. Finally, for the Bush-bashers, at least, there are those saying the troops should be brought home from Iraq to man New Orleans and other affected areas; this ignores that there are already thousands of national guardsmen there, with more on the way, and the logistics of actually bringing the troops home -- by the time they started arriving stateside in any significant amount, the city will have been drained and they won't be needed (that, and would putting 120,000 troops there make any sense?). Then there's all the misperceptions and stupidity surrounding gas, but I think I'll save that for another post. I saw one person saying she's convinced that some people are trapped in their attics, so she wants rescue workers to go around with chainsaws cutting into all the roofs (last I heard, they were still working on getting people off rooftops who managed to get their on their own; it would seem that they need to finish that first before trying to find people who are quite possibly already dead (if they got trapped in their attic, there's a good chance they already drowned or have suffered from a lack of supplies, the contaminated water, and the heat (attics tend to reach temperatures higher than those outside the house)).
The media is also annoying. They're walking around there, not really doing much of anything to help aside from "raising awareness" (a concept I think little of). Also, when talking about the people in New Orleans, I've caught several reporters saying that they've been enduring [insert hardship here] for "days and days and days" on Thursday and this morning. I hardly consider three or four days to be "days and days and days". I dislike over-exaggeration.
How much sense does a city like New Orleans make anyways? A city that's below sea level, located where it is in relation to various bodies of water. It makes no sense. Unless you're talking about the Dead Sea, you shouldn't build a city that's below sea level, it's just asking for trouble.
Now, as to the incompetence of part of the response. It was the responsiblity of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana to take the lead in the response, and the feds were supposed to aid them. However, there's no aiding something as poorly organized as this was. There are those who claim that nobody could have seen something like this coming. Bull. They've been warning about this for decades now, it's nothing new. Unfortunately, there are high levels of corruption in the Louisiana and New Orleans governments (including the police force), which hampered planning (and seems to have led some police officers to be part of the looting, according to some reports). Now, we're not talking Jersey-level corruption, but you don't need that much corruption to generate a problem. Some are eager to blame the feds, as always, but, like I said, this is primarily the state's responsiblity. And they failed miserably. Governor Blanco is in deeper than she knows how to handle; showing she feels for all the people afflicted by crying on tv is all well and good, but ... well, it's not all well and good without any competent action to back it up. As Jonah Goldberg said, she seemed like a second-grade teacher when she was giving her weak condemnation of the looters. The mayor really isn't much better; he whines about the feds not doing enough, but what had the city done to prepare? Not bloody much. And there's the problem.
On a brighter note, Gov. Barbour of Mississippi seems to be handling things a bit better. He at least has an air of competence around him.
And with that, I think I've typed enough for now. I hope all of you don't have any friends or family that were in harm's way.
posted by DC | 7:55 AM
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