Sunday, September 04, 2005
Ludicruity
Yes, it's not a real word. Ludicrousness is, but too many (well. three actually) "s"'s. Not a real word for thes not real world times.
I offer some selected NYT bits from today's paper.
"Marty Montogmery stood on his second-floor balcony on Friday night, playing blues on his harmonica onto empty French Quarter streets that have never seemed so dark, so desolate - or so threatening.
On the table beside him sat a shotgun that he calls 'Kindness'.
"If something happens and I have to use it, I'll be kiling them with 'Kindness', Mr. Montgomery said, laughing with a tinge of menace."
"Ride Hamilton, a firefighter who splits his time between Sioux Falls, South Dakota and an apartment (in NOLA)...has stocked his apartment with water, dry goods, and bath products for him and his friends. Each morning, he drives his Ford Escort to go 'shopping' for more. At the (untended) stores, he see looters with shopping carts who bid one another 'Good Morning'. Like the residents of his apartment building, he justifies his work as a necessary evil to help friends survive deprivation that could last months.
"Call it 'gathering supplies'. Just don't call it looting." Mr Hamilton said.
He added, "Someday, the lights will come back on. The music will start back up. And life will go on. And I'll have ice in my glass again", as he twirled a cube-less glass.
"(Chalmette, LA)'s sheriff's department is now based on the Cajun Queen, a ferry boat parked aside a Domino sugar refinery in the town of Arabi, along the Mississippi River. Sheriff Stephens, interviewed on the Cajun Queen, said federal assistance had been minimal. "I have Royal Canadian Mounties who have gotten here faster than the federal government," he said. "I have made more life and death decisions in the last four or five days than I have in 22 years." The Canadians were actually members of a 47-member search-and-rescue team sent from the municipal government in Vancouver, British Columbia."
Folks, please read that again. ...the municipal government in Vancouver, British Columbia. Unlike our current FEMA leader, Michael D. Brown, I'm assuming the municipal government's administrator's claim to competency does not rest on being a commissioner of horses. These helpful folks have somehow found New Orleans and quickly. They were over 2,300 miles away (well actually 3,910 km) and they got here before the FEMA authorized assistance force.
A bit more about the horses.
Mr. Brown's, whom Dubya affectionately calls "Brownie" and of whom he has recently (Friday, Sept 2nd) commented, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job.", major previous job, (as most of you know by now), was a commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association, (from NYT) from which he resigned under pressure in 2001 after a controversial 10 years.
Perhaps, Mr. Bush was mis-quoted. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, maybe Prez B. actually said, "Brownie, you're doing heck of a job (a helicopter is landing to fetch our prez away at this point) screwing this up big time!. If the reporter had not skuttled away to try to get away from the whirling props of Marine One, he would have heard that clever ending.
Allies and foreign acquaintnaces are sending aid, as well they should, since we were usually there (and there is almost everywhere) first. Fidel C. offered to send doctors and he also held a moment of silence in the National Assembly. And then he returned to business at hand, "passing a resolution condemning the American occupation in Iraq."
Hugo Chavez, presicent of Venezuela and not a tight buddy of the Rev. Robertson, offered soldiers, firefighters, other disaster specialists, and $1 million in cash. He also offered this opinion, "For four days there were warnings that the hurricane was going to make a direct hit, and the king of vacations at his ranch only said, 'You must flee.' Mr. Chavez then added on Wednesday, 'He did not say how.'"
Now, I'm not a huge Hugo fan. Though popularly elected, he has not exactly been the JFK of Venezuela. His economic policies have been atrocious and damaging for Venezuela's people. In fact, his policies have been almost as destructive as Nigeria's, another oil-rich and mis-managed country that is in the economic pits.
The American Red Cross, recepient of over $32 miilion dollars (including some of mine) in donations since Katrina hit, has set up over 135 stations in Louisiana and Mississippi to help the unfortunate folks of those states. However, not one of those stations ( at least as of early this morning) is set up in New Orleans. FEMA and the Louisiana State Homeland Security agency along with the National Guard have not allowed Red Cross to enter the city (formally) to set up aid stations. The thinking seemed to be that if the Red Cross were to be there, people would not want to leave the city or, even worse, people who had left New Orleans would then want to come back, since aid was now available. While I may, after multiple shots of ouzo, follow that logic, what are these groups then saying to the folks that are still marooned in NOLA? Is this the Spartan thinking of healthcare? Put them on the mountain (or in the diseased flooded city) and those who walk out or are bussed out will survive. And those who don't? Well, one person interviewed last night at the hell-hole that was the New Orleans Convention Center said he thought this(Lack of aid and support by the Feds) was the USA's version of ethnic cleansing.
Ludicruity is where we're at.
I offer some selected NYT bits from today's paper.
"Marty Montogmery stood on his second-floor balcony on Friday night, playing blues on his harmonica onto empty French Quarter streets that have never seemed so dark, so desolate - or so threatening.
On the table beside him sat a shotgun that he calls 'Kindness'.
"If something happens and I have to use it, I'll be kiling them with 'Kindness', Mr. Montgomery said, laughing with a tinge of menace."
"Ride Hamilton, a firefighter who splits his time between Sioux Falls, South Dakota and an apartment (in NOLA)...has stocked his apartment with water, dry goods, and bath products for him and his friends. Each morning, he drives his Ford Escort to go 'shopping' for more. At the (untended) stores, he see looters with shopping carts who bid one another 'Good Morning'. Like the residents of his apartment building, he justifies his work as a necessary evil to help friends survive deprivation that could last months.
"Call it 'gathering supplies'. Just don't call it looting." Mr Hamilton said.
He added, "Someday, the lights will come back on. The music will start back up. And life will go on. And I'll have ice in my glass again", as he twirled a cube-less glass.
"(Chalmette, LA)'s sheriff's department is now based on the Cajun Queen, a ferry boat parked aside a Domino sugar refinery in the town of Arabi, along the Mississippi River. Sheriff Stephens, interviewed on the Cajun Queen, said federal assistance had been minimal. "I have Royal Canadian Mounties who have gotten here faster than the federal government," he said. "I have made more life and death decisions in the last four or five days than I have in 22 years." The Canadians were actually members of a 47-member search-and-rescue team sent from the municipal government in Vancouver, British Columbia."
Folks, please read that again. ...the municipal government in Vancouver, British Columbia. Unlike our current FEMA leader, Michael D. Brown, I'm assuming the municipal government's administrator's claim to competency does not rest on being a commissioner of horses. These helpful folks have somehow found New Orleans and quickly. They were over 2,300 miles away (well actually 3,910 km) and they got here before the FEMA authorized assistance force.
A bit more about the horses.
Mr. Brown's, whom Dubya affectionately calls "Brownie" and of whom he has recently (Friday, Sept 2nd) commented, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job.", major previous job, (as most of you know by now), was a commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association, (from NYT) from which he resigned under pressure in 2001 after a controversial 10 years.
Perhaps, Mr. Bush was mis-quoted. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, maybe Prez B. actually said, "Brownie, you're doing heck of a job (a helicopter is landing to fetch our prez away at this point) screwing this up big time!. If the reporter had not skuttled away to try to get away from the whirling props of Marine One, he would have heard that clever ending.
Allies and foreign acquaintnaces are sending aid, as well they should, since we were usually there (and there is almost everywhere) first. Fidel C. offered to send doctors and he also held a moment of silence in the National Assembly. And then he returned to business at hand, "passing a resolution condemning the American occupation in Iraq."
Hugo Chavez, presicent of Venezuela and not a tight buddy of the Rev. Robertson, offered soldiers, firefighters, other disaster specialists, and $1 million in cash. He also offered this opinion, "For four days there were warnings that the hurricane was going to make a direct hit, and the king of vacations at his ranch only said, 'You must flee.' Mr. Chavez then added on Wednesday, 'He did not say how.'"
Now, I'm not a huge Hugo fan. Though popularly elected, he has not exactly been the JFK of Venezuela. His economic policies have been atrocious and damaging for Venezuela's people. In fact, his policies have been almost as destructive as Nigeria's, another oil-rich and mis-managed country that is in the economic pits.
The American Red Cross, recepient of over $32 miilion dollars (including some of mine) in donations since Katrina hit, has set up over 135 stations in Louisiana and Mississippi to help the unfortunate folks of those states. However, not one of those stations ( at least as of early this morning) is set up in New Orleans. FEMA and the Louisiana State Homeland Security agency along with the National Guard have not allowed Red Cross to enter the city (formally) to set up aid stations. The thinking seemed to be that if the Red Cross were to be there, people would not want to leave the city or, even worse, people who had left New Orleans would then want to come back, since aid was now available. While I may, after multiple shots of ouzo, follow that logic, what are these groups then saying to the folks that are still marooned in NOLA? Is this the Spartan thinking of healthcare? Put them on the mountain (or in the diseased flooded city) and those who walk out or are bussed out will survive. And those who don't? Well, one person interviewed last night at the hell-hole that was the New Orleans Convention Center said he thought this(Lack of aid and support by the Feds) was the USA's version of ethnic cleansing.
Ludicruity is where we're at.
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<< Home Verging on Pertinence Just some more disposable thoughts clogging up the hinterlands
The North American Continent is likely to be populated by entirely bald people, following this spectacular debacle. I've torn out so much hair while watching the footage. Now I'm reaching up there for more ... dammit, it's not growing fast enough!
I've had my darkest laughs reading some of the apologist sites, ranting about "the French" or "the Germans" or "the Canadians" or anyone foreign - "where are they now when we need some help?" they ask.
Even Jamaica - closer to N.O. than Baltimore - had offered hospital ships and rescue ships days in advance, all turned away. The Germans - the bloody Germans - opened their Strategic Oil Reserves to us before Bush ever thought to dribble our own? Who knows, maybe they've plundered those too? Maybe they are fictional assets of Enron Corp, bought and paid for at ridiculous prices?
"Horsies". Final category in an SNL Celebrity Jeopardy skit. How dagnabbed prophetic was that?
Even Jamaica - closer to N.O. than Baltimore - had offered hospital ships and rescue ships days in advance, all turned away. The Germans - the bloody Germans - opened their Strategic Oil Reserves to us before Bush ever thought to dribble our own? Who knows, maybe they've plundered those too? Maybe they are fictional assets of Enron Corp, bought and paid for at ridiculous prices?
"Horsies". Final category in an SNL Celebrity Jeopardy skit. How dagnabbed prophetic was that?
I am embarrassed Dubya calls himself, "Texan". Please don't judge the fine citizens of this state with that piece o'crap...
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<< Home Verging on Pertinence Just some more disposable thoughts clogging up the hinterlands
