Disaster Overload

Currently Reading: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Well, if you're like me, and let's face it, you all want to be like me don't you?, you're WAY overloaded with the disaster stuff. You probably spent the better part of the week watching New Orleans fall apart. It's now starting to look like a very bad mini-series that the networks fell in love with and just won't stop showing.

That being said, let's rant a bit about it :-)

First rant, what the hell were those city officials in NO thinking when they ignored the rather obvious signs that the levy was unsound? A disaster of this magnitude doesn't "creep up on ya" the way some reporters have said. Hell no, we all saw this big ass hurricane sitting there in the gulf, we knew it was coming. She was a cat 5 for crying out loud, that's just a little more than isolated sprinkles and a stiff breeze. But, as we know now, it wasn't Katya that did the bulk of the damage, it was the breach in the levy. So, who's fault is that? I was thinking, well, hell, Katya must have done it. Then CC tells me she saw a report on TV that the city KNEW the levy was weak to begin with. Ok, so...first priority down there in NO once they get everything cleaned up, run them city officials out of town. Hell, if possible, don't even let em come back. If they can't be trusted with something as basic as keeping the levys working, they sure as hell don't belong in charge of anything in the government.

Second rant, seriously news people, do you want Bush there or not? Make up your minds. The reports are either that he should have gone in sooner or he went in too soon and should have waited until things settled down a little. You can't have it both ways. You're mostly all on the same page with this politics stuff anyway, so sit down, figure out your stand, then send out an e-mail.

Third rant, for crying out loud, the story is NOT about the reporters and what they're going through while trying to report the story. Reporting the news is their JOB. What we get too often is news along the lines of say, the hardships that football players go through when they play football. Hell that's not the story, playing football is their JOB. No other business, except perhaps Hollywood, does this sort of thing. "Let's now go to our reporter who will tell you all about what it's like to be a reporter." No, let's not.

Fourth rant, what the hell is wrong with those people in NO? Turn on FOX or CNN now and have a look for yourself. They're shooting at police? Armed gangs roaming the streets? Looters taking anything that's not nailed down? At this point I'm tempted to suggest we bus the remaining decent folk out of the city then just wall off the rest and let em fight it out. Of course, that would mean giving up the French Quarter and let's face it, the French Quarter looks too cool so obviously we can't do that. Besides, where would all the drunk, college girls go to flash their breasts on camera?

Fifth rant, ok famous people, time to put up or shut up. You all got your panties in a knot about the US not sending enough relief to other countries when they got a disaster. Now it's our turn. Let's see how you handle things at home. We've already got some good stuff going here. Ellen DeGeneris is setting something up. Probably dish out some money to help. Hell I heard Hillary Duff dropped a check for $250k and she's just a kid. So, where are the rest of ya? Ted Turner? He sent his check to the UN all those years ago and CNN is making a killing off coverage of this storm. So how much is he going to donate? For that matter, how much are all those over-paid Hollywood types going to donate? How about those high-priced atheletes? This is all basic Social Contract stuff folks. If we're going to dish out our hard-earned money to see them perform and make them rich, they gotta put something back in the community in times of need. That's just how it works.

Sixth rant, this was NOT caused by any person. It's not Bush's fault any more than the other hurricanes were Clinton's fault. Presidents barely control their own government much less the weather. So let's drop this rubbish about it being Bush's fault.

Seventh rant, this was NOT caused by global warming. If you were fortunate enough to catch the famous hurricane predictor guy, you know that we're just about at the peak of a regular hurricane cycle. They go up and down, lots of hurricanes, strong ones, then back down to fewer and weaker, then up again. We still got a few more years of big hurricanes before it drops off again. So no more whining about global warming. This is nature.

Eighth rant, and finally, seriously, you gotta ask yourself at some point, what the hell were we thinking building a city BELOW sea level? Ok, actually it's a FRENCH city, they built it. It's just ours now. Damn french. It's always their fault in the end isn't it? :-)

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