← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Angeleyes
Thread ID: 20369 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2005-09-24
2005-09-24 03:27 | User Profile
The pundits of America seem to like rushing to conclusions in the wake of various events of moment, and Hurricane Katrina is no exception. People are already, before the whole story is told, trying to sell lessons learned as though they mean something.
Heck, why not start learning lessons from Rita before it hits? As in, don't put all those oxygen tanks on one bus? :bag: Man, that was a harsh turn of fate. RIP and vaya con dios, folks on that burning bus near Dallas.
Some guy named Ziegler (I am not familiar with him) posted this on his web site, and it was emailed to me. He's seems to be a talk radio wag, so he may just be a neo con shill. Even so, and considering the nods to Rush and Bush, it's still pretty on point, and scores a few nice face shots to those who deserve them. [QUOTE] As of September 13, 2005, what we learned from Hurricane Katrina
That nature is still far more powerful than man, and our planet is not nearly as conducive to preserving human life as we would like to believe.
That New Orleans was a disaster waiting to happen.
That our expectations of government are completely unrealistic and downright scary [u]for a nation founded on the principles of self reliance and limited government[/u].
That government in general is probably even more incompetent than most of us realize.
That it can take as little as three days for the fabric of our society to tear apart at the seams.
That human beings suck worse and are even more animalistic than we previously thought, especially when they are hungry, thirsty, scared and think that the law canââ¬â¢t/wonââ¬â¢t stop them from doing whatever they want.
That it is ok with liberals if people live in poverty for years, but it is absolutely unacceptable for them to do so for a few days if they can find a way to blame it on a conservative.
That we apparently no longer expect able bodied human beings to be obey evacuation orders or be able to fend for themselves for even a couple of days without the help of the same government whose orders they just ignored taking care of all their needs.
That it is perfectly acceptable and even admirable to blame anyone and anything for someoneââ¬â¢s suffering, except for the people who allowed themselves to be put in danger in the first place.
That if those who are harmed by a natural disaster are mostly poor and black, that expectations for their behavior will be incredibly low and accountability for their actions and plight will be almost nonexistent.
That if the area that is supposedly being neglected by the government is black (even if the mayor of the city is black) then that result is due at least in part to racism, but if the same thing happens to a mostly white area, then that is just because it was a horrible disaster and/or the government was just incompetent.
That if you are a liberal it is possible blame the federal government for the massive screwups of democratic-run local governments and most of the news media will blindly follow suit.
That if you are a black democrat mayor and your cityââ¬â¢s response to a crisis is abysmal; you can avoid universal criticism by almost completely breaking down and blaming everyone else really loudly.
That once the conventional wisdom of ââ¬ÅBlaming Bushââ¬Â has been established, even if it is well before the facts come in, it is almost impossible to reverse, even when the majority of the evidence does not support that conclusion.
That if this conventional wisdom gets so pervasive and the perception of incompetence is too great, even President Bush will eventually admit wrongdoing, again without specifics, and his critics will then say, ââ¬ÅSee! We were right. He is the only one to admit wrong doing so he must be the one who screwed up!ââ¬Â
That even when it is totally obvious that he/she is really by far the most responsible for all of this, God still never gets blamed for anything. (I am not real pleased with this one. :disgust: AE)
That if you are a female Democrat governor and you refuse to ask the federal government for help as the law requires, it is the federal governmentââ¬â¢s fault that they didnââ¬â¢t invoke the Insurrection Act for the first time since the Civil War in order to overcome your stupidity.
That an entire nation can blame the President and the Director of FEMA for the results of an unprecedented natural disaster without even one specific, blatantly wrong action or inaction ever being proven or even really cited, while a mayor still doesnââ¬â¢t have to answer for unused buses and a governor isnââ¬â¢t required to explain the preventing of federal intervention.
That if you are a female Democrat Governor or Democrat Senator and you lavishly praise the head of FEMA after a hurricane, but before the levies break, that those comments will be totally forgotten and days later it can become universally accepted that the head of FEMA should never have been hired in the first place.
That the fact that FEMA was never designed to handle a disaster of this magnitude, especially when the local authorities are incompetent, will not matter if everyone needs a convenient fall guy.
That if you are a Republican you are far more likely to be forced to do the ââ¬Årightââ¬Â thing and resign, even when there is no actual evidence that you did anything egregiously wrong, but if you are a Democrat there is no need to resign even when there is plenty of evidence you screwed up.
That being in a legitimate national crisis no longer carries with it the moral obligation to refrain form purposely dividing the nation for ones own personal agenda and can actually be used as a political weapon, at least if you are a liberal.
That, in the long run, you will get exponentially more aid from charity and the government if you are harmed my a disaster that also impacts thousands of others (especially if there are horrific pictures involved) than if your life is equally destroyed in a event where only a few others suffer the same fate.
That the answer to saving a city that was doomed by geography/topography and socialism seems to be to change nothing except adding massive amounts of even more socialism.
*That an inherently corrupt and mismanaged city like New Orleans can, with no questions asked, get billions of dollars of federal tax money to bail itself out of a mess, even if that mess was inevitable from the inception of the city and incompetence on the part of that city helped lead to the disaster. *
That most of the rest of world (the same people we give millions of dollars to and whose support we supposedly need to legitimize our anti-terrorism efforts) is never happier than when America appears to be on her knees.
That if you are a Republican President that you are presumed to be against poor and black people unless there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary. If you are Bill Clinton it is presumed that you love poor and black people even with overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
That if you are the reverend at a black church and during a highly publicized show of support for an arrest of a Nation of Islam leader and you claim that Katrina was revenge for a 50 year old lynching and punishment for racism (even though black people were hit hardest), black people will give those words a standing ovation but the John Ziegler Show will be the only media outlet to report it.
That Celine Dion is nuttier, Geraldo Rivera is more of a showboat, Sean Penn is more of a media whore, Howard Dean is even more partisan, and Wolf Blitzer is more of a racist than we ever thought before.
That it is possible for Greta Van Susteren to stop talking about Natalie Hollaway for an entire week. :redface:
That if you are white conservative like Rush Limbaugh and you say as a sports commentator hired to create controversy that the media favors black quarterbacks, you will be forced to quit your job and the NFL and ABC will be pleased, but if you are a black rapper like Kanye West and you go way off script during a national telethon and claim that the President is a racist, the NFL, ABC, and cooperate America will stand by you, you will be invited to participate in an even bigger telethon a week later, and your new single will skyrocket to number one on the charts[/QUOTE] Hope it evoked a chuckle or two. I realize some of the bullets were a bit much.
AE
2005-09-24 03:42 | User Profile
That if you are a female Democrat governor and you refuse to ask the federal government for help as the law requires, it is the federal governmentââ¬â¢s fault that they didnââ¬â¢t invoke the Insurrection Act for the first time since the Civil War in order to overcome your stupidity. I think this one is my favorite.
no this one is...
That our expectations of government are completely unrealistic and downright scary [u]for a nation founded on the principles of self reliance and limited government[/u].
As in, don't put all those oxygen tanks on one bus? ] Man, that was a harsh turn of fate. RIP and vaya con dios, folks on that burning bus near Dallas. This was harsh to see while getting ready for work. All those people were stuck on I 45 for well over 15 hours and then they had to wait for the cleanup. I heard on the evening news though that the charter bus company had been sited on half of its bus fleet for safety violations in the past year and that the company had filed for bankruptcy. Then they did a quick blip on the bus driver having only a Mexican driver's liscense. However, earlier in the day I saw an interview with the bus driver and he was definately a white guy. So I'm not sure about the liscens thing.
2005-09-24 04:01 | User Profile
AE,
I know who this guy is. He's a local talk show host of the Libertarian bent for KFI out in L.A. He considers himself to be an Atheist, supports the war, and wants the borders shut and illegals deported. A mixed bag. [url]http://www.johnziegler.com/[/url]
These idiot pundits are still hollering about being hit with a nuke, chemical, or bio attack. Those are the least things I would worry about. Any terrorist attack will in all probability involve high explosives.
Of course, they could just sit back and allow the Bush Administration do it for them with the idiotic and treasonous policies they pursue.
Here's an idea that might save the Bush administration a considerable amount of thinking, something they are not well versed in. They can get all the reports and translations of how the Germans dealt with man made disasters from the Army Historical department. That will also cover the ones caused by nature in a satisfactory manner too. They have quite a bit of experience with mass destruction from the bombing attacks. They even had to deal with massive flooding following the bombing of the Eder and Moehne dams of the Ruhr in May of 43. Mass evacuations? Try Eastern Germany, 1945. They have experience there as well.