1510 Hurricanes can bring new life

Some of the victims of Hurricane Katrina may be starting a new and more successful life in another state or city. It happened to Alexander Hamilton.

On August 31, 1772 a hurricane struck St. Croix where the orphaned teenage Alexander Hamilton lived and worked. He wrote a letter to his father (who had abandoned his family some years before) describing the devastation. Hugh Knox a Presbyterian minister and journalist printed it in the local newspaper. As Chernow says in his biography, “Hamilton did not know it, but he had just written his way out of poverty (p.37).“ Knox started a subscription fund to send Hamilton to the colonies for an education and the rest is history, our history. It reads, in part:

“Good God! what horror and destruction. Its impossible for me to describe or you to form any idea of it. It seemed as if a total dissolution of nature was taking place. The roaring of the sea and wind, fiery meteors flying about it in the air, the prodigious glare of almost perpetual lightning, the crash of the falling houses, and the ear-piercing shrieks of the distressed, were sufficient to strike astonishment into Angels. A great part of the buildings throughout the Island are leveled to the ground, almost all the rest very much shattered; several persons killed and numbers utterly ruined; whole families running about the streets, unknowing where to find a place of shelter; the sick exposed to the keenness of water and air without a bed to lie upon, or a dry covering to their bodies; and our harbours entirely bare. In a word, misery, in all its most hideous shapes, spread over the whole face of the country. A strong smell of gunpowder added somewhat to the terrors of the night; and it was observed that the rain was surprisingly salt. Indeed the water is so brackish and full of sulphur that there is hardly any drinking it. My reflections and feelings on this frightful and melancholy occasion, are set forth in the following self-discourse. Where now, oh! vile worm, is all thy boasted fortitude and resolution? What is become of thine arrogance and self-sufficiency? Why dost thou tremble and stand aghast? How humble, how helpless, how contemptible you now appear. And for why? The jarring of elements . the discord of clouds? Oh! impotent presumptuous fool! how durst thou offend that Omnipotence, whose nod alone were sufficient to quell the destruction that hovers over thee, or crush thee into atoms? . . .Death comes rushing on in triumph, veiled in a mantle of tenfold darkness. His unrelenting scythe, pointed and ready for the stroke. . . See thy wretched helpless state and learn to know thyself. . . Despise thyself and adore thy God. . . . O ye who revel in affluence see the afflictions of humanity and bestow your superfluity to ease them. . . Succour the miserable and lay up a treasure in heaven.” Royal Danish American Gazette, October 3, 1772

An so a homeless, illegitimate immigrant rides out a hurricane to be come the founding father of the United States government.

1509 If the Democrats design the memorial

Dr. Phat Tony is speculating about how Democrats will design a politically correct memorial for Katrina victims, based on how some want the 9/11 tragedy memorialized.

"Of course we’ll need to set up a memorial for the dead, but instead of showing the heroics of the people that came to save the stranded, it will have to be the politically correct. It will depict police officers of all races throwing dice at Las Vegas, people of all nationalities looting from stores, and buses of all colors flooded in a parking lot."

1508 Forth born?

Weren't we all?

I took one of those internet tests to predict my birth order (I was third of four). The answer was "forth born." Forth means onward in time, place or order; out into notice or view, but it doesn't mean 4th (fourth). So I think we are all "forth born."

Makes me think of the lovely rose bush I saw at the Park of Roses in June labeled "Forth of July."

1507 Brain Pattern

Your Brain's Pattern

You're a simple thinker, and this is actually a very good thing. You don't complicate matters when you don't have to. You look for the simplest explanation or solution, and you go with that. As a result, your mind is uncluttered and free of stress.

What Pattern Is Your Brain?

1506 Ophelia, don't come back home

Was it somethin' that somebody said?
Mama, you know we broke the rules
Was somebody up against the law?
Honey, you know I'd die for you

Boards on the window
Mail by the door
What would anybody leave so quickly for?
Ophelia
Where have you gone?

The Band

1505 The Fear Factor

Yesterday I heard the Katrina disaster figures being revised from tens of thousands to hundreds to "we just don't know." We don't know yet how many people died, and of that number, how many died because they couldn't or didn't get out of the way of the hurricane, or how many might have died of heart attack or stroke brought on by fright. We know several died in Florida when it was a category one, and over a hundred in Mississippi. But here's an interesting article about the "fear factor."

"Recently, a report issued by a group called the Chernobyl Forum, a committee made up of several different UN-related organizations, gave a far less alarming assessment [of the Chernobyl catastrophe in the Ukraine]. While Chernobyl remains a far greater disaster than Three Mile Island [1979], the new report estimates the eventual total death toll as a result of Chernobyl to be about 4,000 -- terrible, but far less devastating than the initial estimates (and some recent ones).

The current death toll from radiation since the event is 56 total: 47 emergency responders and 9 children who died of thyroid cancer. The rest of the predicted 3,940 deaths are supposed to occur over an indeterminate future interval, due to other types of cancer, almost all predicted to strike the emergency responders, not the local inhabitants. . .

The UN report emphasizes a factor that the anti-nuclear and other activist groups always ignore: the greatest threat from the Chernobyl accident, and even more so in the case of Three Mile Island earlier, was the fear factor, the "mental health impact," as the report terms it. Somewhere between 200,000 and 350,000 people were evacuated from the area over the subsequent years, although three out of four of the reactors resumed operation before the end of 1986. The earth and water near the facility were heavily contaminated, but again, the report noted that, for the overwhelming majority, stress and anxiety -- the fear of radiation effects, the loss of homes and livelihoods -- were more serious problems than the actual radiation."
Facts and Fears

There are a lot of people making a living by keeping us fearful about everything--going out at night, shampooing our hair, using deodorant, drinking tap water, using microwave ovens, pesticides and herbicides, airbags in automobiles, and yes, natural disasters. The Katrina disaster actually was tracked and predicted, both in the short term (last week of August 2005) and the long term (rerouting the Mississippi River, creating levees and destroying coastal areas). The city had dodged a bullet for 200 years. As has California and the "big one." If everyone had taken heed of all the reports and the money appropriated had actually been spent and not pocketed, apparently there would have been no New Orleans because that area would have been uninhabitable from the natural flooding and rehabilitated marshes. If they don't find thousands of bodies, if it turns out not to be the immediate death toll, the fear mongers will be coming at us with stats that will run the next 50 years for death and disease. They need us to be frightened, or they are out of work. Their jobs haven't been outsourced to China. . . yet.

1504 Someone else asleep at the switch?

Neuro-Conservative tweaks the nose of the New York Times (do papers have a nose, or just a nose for news?)

"[Everyone knew except] New York Times readers the day before Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast. Because the Times did not run a single article on Katrina on Sunday the 28th! Readers of the paper of record only learned of the storm's potential with their Monday morning coffee, as Katrina was making landfall.

Remember (as NY Times editors won't)-- George Bush was already actively preparing the federal response, and urging the governor and heel-dragging mayor to order an evacuation on Saturday the 27th, as detailed in the New Orleans Times-Picayune" Neuro-Conservative

1503 What if it had been a sea of white faces?

No "what if" to it. It actually was and is a story about NAAAs (Not African American Americans). The media just couldn't get 20,000 NAAAs all in one place at one time. They still can't get to many of the ravaged areas in rural and small town Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and even parts of Florida.

So they did the best they could and didn't mean to conspire with Jesse and Kanye and Bobby Kennedy to make this look like a race issue. They kept their crews where they were relatively safe and where they could be flown in and out. But that wasn't where the NAAAs were, you see. So all the viewing world saw was black people waiting on their city and state planners to get them out. That plan really worked pretty well when you think of it. Eighty percent of the city evacuated and another 20,000+ went to a shelter. The chaos started after a levee was breached, and it was a levee that was up to the current standard for a category three hurricane, and it flooded first a working class and integrated neighborhood. What we saw on our TV screens was people coming out of their homes who had refused to go to shelters or to evacuate or who couldn't because of disabilities or age. Since the population is nearly 70% African American, that's what the cameras showed. There are still hold-outs in New Orleans who won't leave. But a lot of those are NAAAs so they won't really get much attention; you'll only see the military or police talking to them through the window.

Because the media couldn't find any NAAAs in large groups, it is saying really stupid things like "The department of Homeland Security facing its first major catastrophe since it was created. . ." (today's Columbus Dispatch), completely discounting all the hurricanes in Florida last year, which must be forgotten because 1) the capable, prepared Governor of Florida is a Bush, and 2) most of the displaced, injured and dead in Florida were NAAAs. Therefore, the 2004 hurricane season was not a catastrophe--it didn't even count on Michael Brown's resume as "practice."

Will the media ever stop editorializing on the thoughts, attitudes, understanding and emotions of the various goverment officials from Bush to the levee supervisors to the police and just report? Will they every stop saying the President (the Congress was on "break") was on vacation? NAAA.

1502 Happy Anniversary

September 11, 1960

1501 Does he get his money back?

Pay attention, this is confusing. In January 2005 a judge granted the surrogate mother of triplets custody of three babies she had contracted for $20,000 to carry for 63 year old James Flynn and his 60 year old fiance. The babies were born to surrogate Danielle Bimber and sperm donor Flynn in 2003. Apparently he and his lady friend didn't show much interest in the kids, so Bimber sued for custody. However, biologically they were not hers--the Indiana agency which arranged this travesty used the eggs of Jennifer Rice of Texas, who first also sued for parental rights, but dropped out. However, now an Ohio Appeals Court has awarded the children to Ms. Rice, the egg donor, who didn't carry them in a pregnancy nor has she raised them as a quasi foster/adoptive mom. This case involves courts in Indiana, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Aren't we so pleased that we have the wisdom of the courts [sarcasm alert] to settle battles over children who when they are fertilized embryos can be bargained for, frozen for future use or disposal, sold, or snuffed out with "Plan B." When they finally manage to see the light of day they become pawns in a giant game of negligent semi-parental clowns, greedy attorneys, and judges who think they are Solomon.

In January the best interest of the children was this (in Pennsylvania).

But in September, it was all different in Ohio.

Then there's the Indiana blunder and the lawyer who didn't file the right papers.

1500 Defending Nagin

Today I've been wondering if the body count stays low, will Nagin be credited with making the right decision about sending people to the Superdome and not out of the city on buses. Blogger Cobb is defending Mayor Nagin and makes some valid points. Read it here.

1499 Hi-jacks and Hi-jinx

A California cowboy asks Democrats to please take back their party:

"I know there are millions of center left Democrats who think that President Bush is doing a terrible job. That's fine, but they don't think he is Hitler, or that he wants only poor black people to die in a natural disaster. They think that although John Roberts wouldn't be their first choice, he is a good man and is an extremely qualified justice. They don't like the war in Iraq but they understand that we are there now, and we can't cut and run. We must win this war on the enemies turf. These people used to be the backbone and voice of the Democratic Party, no longer." Read Roughstock Journal here for who's taken it over.

Howard Dean is acting more unhinged and bizarre than usual. Gary Gross' comments are in blue in this exchange between Dean and Blitzer at Boxer Watch.

1498 Bush: What didn't go right?

Nancy Pelosi, that was a question for you! He gave it back to you and you were unable to answer and said, "Bush is oblivious, in denial." Well, what are you? Certainly not speechless, because you just keep rambling on and on and on. The blame list on your side gets longer and longer and you keep rambling on. There were 6,000 Louisiana National Guard available for the Governor to call up, but all your team can say is they are in Iraq!

1497 Corps says lack of funds not the problem

On September 1, the Chicago Tribune reported that "The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday that a lack of funding for hurricane-protection projects around New Orleans did not contribute to the disastrous flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina.

In a telephone interview with reporters, corps officials said that although portions of the flood-protection levees remain incomplete, the levees near Lake Pontchartrain that gave way--inundating much of the city--were completed and in good condition before the hurricane.

However, they noted that the levees were designed for a Category 3 hurricane and couldn't handle the ferocious winds and raging waters from Hurricane Katrina, which was a Category 4 storm when it hit the coastline. The decision to build levees for a Category 3 hurricane was made decades ago based on a cost-benefit analysis." Tribune story here.
So it wasn't Bush Administration's fault that this levee, the one that was in good condition and up to the inadequate standard, failed. It was a "natural disaster?"

1496 What the Left will resist

Tooth and nail, they'll resist, like a cat 4 hurricane they'll resist easing up on environmental laws so that the three states can recover more quickly; relocating under-employed African Americans to areas of greater opportunity; cutting gasoline taxes; easing up on work "prevailing wage" rules so that companies can hire anyone who wants to work without threat of union interference; cutting through government red tape so that faith based and community organizations can provide assistance without threat of law suits. Katrina has shown that layers and layers of government bureaucracy with conflicting regulations cause problems, but the Left will want to solve this with even more government. The huge aid package will just encourage more government graft and dishonesty.

Dig through some of those levee rebuilding problems in New Orleans and you'll find law suits stopping repairs--in order to save the wetlands you can't encourage what was already a crazy system--rerouting the Mississippi River.

Two years ago when we were traveling through Arizona with a tour guide we asked him why the diseased trees in the forested areas which were clearly a fire hazard weren't removed. "Can't," he said. "Environmentalists are afraid it will encourage more people to live around here if it were made safer." Hmmmm. Sounds a bit like the reasoning that kept the Red Cross out of the Superdome, doesn't it?

Racism fanning the Hurricane

Kanye West was sort of the marker--he's an entertainer who strips his fans' wallets with songs about crack cocaine and gangster glorification. (Before his Bush bashing TV appearance, I'd never heard of him, but then that's not my kind of "music.") But everyone could see it. The TV crews were aiming their cameras at two large facilities and almost all the faces were black. Convenience and safety--for the TV crews, that is. They couldn't get their camera crews into the areas of rural and coastline white communities, where probably the number of afflicted, those who refused to leave or couldn't leave, far outnumbered the blacks who were following the instructions of the Mayor and headed for the safety of two large buildings.

The initial group who went to those safe areas were carrying food, water and clothing in their suitcases; the first night was sort of a party atmosphere. When the water rose after the levees were breached, the U.S. military (Coast Guard) was there, picking people up off rooftops on Tuesday morning, long before Connick and Oprah arrived with their TV crews. More people headed to the now crowded facilities. Both the regular military and the LA Guard stood prepared on stand-by away from the storm area waiting for the Governor to act.

The state of Louisiana, not wanting to create more crowding, prevented the Red Cross from going in with food and water for those waiting for buses, and the Gangster element (probably inspired by West's music and others) started taking pot shots at volunteer rescuers and the police.

And the cameras kept rolling. A sea of black faces, mostly women and children. The cameramen still couldn't get to the rural and coastal areas so the only footage we saw (and still 10 days later) was large crowds of African Americans, now getting panicky as services were denied to them by their own local governments, the people who had told them to go there.

I don't think the TV crews conspired with Jesse Jackson, Kanye West and Nancy Pelosi to fan the winds of racism, but they have contributed to a horrible mess, simply by doing the best they could with the areas they could get to. They showed the terrible devastation to the homes and lives of the people who had obeyed the orders to evacuate their homes.

As we are seeing now in the house-to-house search, those who remained in their homes had food, water, and guns to protect themselves from the gangster element. If they were rich and really prepared, they also had generators and private security guards. I have gained new respect for the hold-outs, rich and poor, black and white. At first they looked demented as they were presented to us. However, they seemed to know from past exerience with hurricanes, particularly Hurricane Ivan of last year, that their local government, rap artists, and Jesse couldn't protect them from the storm or from the criminals. Katrina has proven them right. I salute them.

Now that's a story they need to be showing.

1494 On my short list

I'm sure you've got lots of places to send support, but here's a Lutheran church I'm watching, Gloria Dei Lutheran in Houston http://www.gdlc.org/. They've been housing and feeding survivors and rolling with the punches and changes that are thrown their way. Although I've already donated to the Southern Baptists (their web site actually has the Good News) because they're at the forefront of the volunteers, Gloria Dei is on my short list for the second round.

"Our ministry to Katrina survivors changes every day to meet new challenges. Our special thanks to the many volunteers who are meeting with the over 300 people who arrive on our campus every day looking for some kind of help. Various programs have helped many of these folks find housing, now they’re working on jobs, schools, food, furniture, and trying to get accurate information." Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Houston

I noticed this site at Sherry's Semicolon, a wonderful blog about books.

1493 The Networks cooperate to raise funds

And will they edit out the anti-Bush remarks? If not, then it isn't a fund raiser (most of us know how to donate money without Hollywood telling us), it is a Get-Bush-Fest. If they don't control these mouthpieces, it will hurt the Red Cross and Salvation Army who are collecting the money. Or maybe not. Like I say, people of good will have already contributed. People of ill will are sniping at Bush, and maybe haven't had time to open their wallets.

"As previously announced, musical performers scheduled to appear on "Shelter From The Storm: A Concert For The Gulf Coast" include Sheryl Crow, the Dixie Chicks, Alicia Keys, Randy Newman, Paul Simon, Rod Stewart and Neil Young. Celebrity participants include Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz, Ellen DeGeneres, Jack Nicholson, Chris Rock, Ray Romano and Sela Ward." CBS announcement

BET is also raising money but is calling it SOS--Saving OurSelves. Nice touch.

1492 Get in line behind Jesse

Here's some more people who ought to keep their mouths shut in times of tragedy. The end-times Christians. How many disasters come and go and we hear the same thing? I remember when the tornado wiped out Xenia, Ohio some years ago. Israel is back in the land + tornado in Ohio = Tribulation. Boy, they came out of the wood work. Do these folks never read history? Do they know anything about disasters in other countries? Talk about narcissism. Please people, go read Matthew 25:31-46 about when the Son of Man comes and start clothing the naked and giving the thirsty something to drink.

1491 The power stuggle: stronger than wind or water?

Barbara J. Stock looks at what the other states did that were in the path of Katrina.

"While the governors of both Mississippi and Alabama put in a formal request for federal assistance before Katrina even made landfall, the governor of Louisiana refused to relinquish any of her power for the good of the people. Now she and her party point the finger of blame at the White House.

Liberal blogs and websites are pointing to the Department of Homeland Security's website which states that it can take control in any disaster, natural or otherwise, but this is not true. The Department of Homeland Security can only work with the state and local officials in organizing relief efforts such as food, water, and shelter. There is no military arm of the Department of Homeland Security or the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the military is what was needed and everyone knew that.

Instead of asking why the Democratic leaders of Louisiana failed the people, these sites post disgusting pictures of floating bodies with the message: "George Bush did nothing." The truth is the Democratic governor wouldn't allow Bush to do anything. That floating body belongs to Governor Blanco. She is the one who "did nothing." "
Read article here.

What is most despicable is all the Democrats using this death and destruction to build their flailing, failing party. Investigate, investigate, they yell, and then when the story begins to unfold we find a multitude of errors at all levels. But these people think Bush is so smart and so powerful, he should have prevented it. He was on vacation (as was Congress), you know.