A bit more on Katrina

So it's now Wednesday morning, roughly two days after Katrina made landfall, and the extent of the hurricane's effects are only just starting to really be made known. Entire coastal towns in Mississippi were destroyed, the actual damage in Mobile was considerably worse than I had expected myself, and Lake Pontchartrain continues to drain itself into the city of New Orleans.

What has struck me so far is that, in so many situations like this, the very best in people is what the disaster brings out. From what I've seen, that doesn't seem to be the dominant case here. Fights breaking out in lines at gas stations, neighbors stealing from each other, and rampant looting. I can honestly barely put into words the distaste and contempt I have for looters. I suppose it would be one thing to get necessities... food, drinking water, whatever. But these bastards are walking out with TVs, microwaves, DVDs, toys for their kids, etc. Never mind that they'll have no way to power these appliances up for weeks or months on end. Never mind that they have nowhere habitable to go with their newly-stolen color TV. They just want to steal something. It's absolutely infuriating that instead of helping their neighbors or even just being good citizens, these able-bodied adults are using this time of incredible loss and suffering to just commit petty theft. I think that people like this are among the lowest kind of scum in society and really have nothing to offer to a civilization whatsoever. I wish they could just be shot on sight. That may sound harsh or melodramatic, but I mean it quite sincerely. Strafing them from a helicopter would be efficient. Watching them fall to the ground (or the water, in New Orleans' case) in a hail of bullets as they try to flee from their local Wal-Mart with an armload of DVDs and sundries would just give one a profound sense of justice. Even some of the lowlife cops in New Orleans were taped just helping themselves to shoes and clothes. They should not only be fired, but prosecuted.

I'll be very interested to see how the worsening crisis in New Orleans will be addressed. From even the most basic engineering standpoint, this is a complete catastrophe. They most likely cannot repair the multiple breaches in the levee system while the lake is continuing to drain into the city. Lake Pontchartrain is about 5 feet above sea level, while much of New Orleans is a few feet below sea level, so until the water levels of both places are equal, I'm not sure the flooding can be stopped. Once the lake stops draining into New Orleans, however, then the question becomes how do they get the water out? The pumps are a reasonable answer, but pumps require power. From what I've read, it sounds like a good deal of the power grid will have to be rebuilt, which could take months. Obviously, the longer that water sits and stagnates in New Orleans, the worse it's going to be. It is a fixable problem, but then what one wonders is why bother? Why spend billions of dollars rebuilding and repairing this city when this will inevitably happen again? Long-term solutions will have to be considered.

Let's talk about the current administration in Washington with regards to all this. Now it's completely ridiculous and unreasonable to blame Bush & Co. for what's happening in New Orleans. This city has been at high risk for decades. It was only a matter of time. But some pundits I've heard raise some salient points: There have been numerous reports published in the last few years about the dangers facing New Orleans; indeed, the prospect of losing an entire American city. So why are we spending untold billions and billions of dollars on this "war on terrorism" (which, by the way, cannot be "won") -- essentially trying to prevent something that might happen, when we really need to be spending billions on trying to prevent something that will happen? And while I don't place that blame on Bush, I do very much blame him for the fact that because our military and National Guard units are stretched so thin because of his stupid, petulant little vendetta in Iraq, we don't have sufficient troops to take care of things here at home. As a direct result, lawlessness is now pervasive in many of these areas, and there just aren't enough people available to help.

It should come as no surprise that in a new poll released yesterday, Bush's approval rating continues to sink. I'm continually flabbergasted by people who still think he's a great president and is doing a good job. I just want to shake them and ask them, "By what measure?" Honestly, by every single criterion which you would use to gauge the effectiveness of a presidency, George Bush is an utter failure. Economically, socially, environmentally, fiscally, domestically, internationally... he is, by far, the absolute worst president this country has had in my lifetime. And I was alive (barely) during the Nixon years, so that's saying something. Every time his little chimpanzee stupid smirking face comes on the TV about the "turrible, turrible storm" that hit the Gulf Coast, I just want to throw a brick through the screen.

Meanwhile, I actually saw gas stations with prices over $3 a gallon on the way to work. It's not conjecture or hyperbole any longer... $3 gas is here. Two stations had premium unleaded priced at $3.039 (regular unleaded, which here in Denver, is 85 octane, was $2.899). Insane.

More to come...

Of Kat and Pat

Wow. As much as I enjoy writing, you'd think I would contribute to my blog more regularly than I do. I just get easily sidetracked, I guess.

So the news is currently being completely -- and rightfully -- dominated by Hurricane Katrina. Even apart from all the photos and video of sheer destruction, even apart from the estimates of losses in the tens of billions of dollars, you know this was a big-ass storm because it caused our worthless President to "cut short" his like thirtieth damn five-week vacation. I literally almost groaned aloud when I read that -- "Bush cuts short his vacation due to Katrina" -- like he was making such a sacrifice. It's sickening.

I'm originally from the Gulf Coast. I was born and raised in Mobile, Alabama and have spent a great deal of time on the beaches and shorelines of Mississippi, Alabama, and the panhandle of Florida. So when these hurricanes roar into my old stomping grounds, I'm filled with a mixed sense of thrill, awe, dread, and I guess something like guilt (for not being there). Much of my family on my dad's side still live down there, and I've not yet been able to get in touch with any of them. Power and phones are likely out to much of southwestern Alabama and coastal Mississippi, so it may be awhile yet before I'm able to contact my dad or grandma or anyone.

My initial thoughts a day after Katrina made landfall is that the true depth of this disaster will unfold much like the Asian tsunami, just on an obviously smaller scale. It will take a few days for the enormity and sheer magnitude of the catastrophe to really be made known. The death toll will almost surely be the greatest from any single natural disaster in this country in a very long time... many are even now saying it will surpass Camille's death toll of 256. The loss of life aside, I think the breadth and severity of the devastation will really shock a lot of people, even those who, like me, have been through hurricanes before. The power of nature, and particularly that of water, is awesome, humbling, and fearsome.

What will New Orleans do? With the failure of a large section of the levee holding back the waters of 35-square-mile Lake Pontchartrain, those waters are draining today into the city. According to the mayor of New Orleans, some 80% of the city is flooded. Both airports are underwater. Anywhere from six to twenty feet of water throughout the city. I've seen aerial photos of entire neighborhoods submerged up to the eaves of the houses. It's absolutely amazing. And there's nowhere for that water to go; no way for it to drain. I can't even fathom the mess. My hometown of Mobile experienced some of the worst flooding in its long history. I'm sure the coastal Mississippi towns, like Gulfport, Pascagoula, and Biloxi, were just inundated. Apparently Biloxi had something like a 25-foot storm surge, which is really quite incomprehensible... it's so easy to hear that or read that in the news and just skim over it. But think about it: Standing on the beach, looking out at the ocean... and imagining the level of the sea rising over the head of a six-foot tall person. Then imagining the sea rising FOUR TIMES that level. Or look at the room you're likely sitting in, and imagine water three times higher than the ceiling of that room. I read that one of the floating casinos near Biloxi was lifted and deposited onto a nearby hotel. Many houses and buildings were simply scrubbed from their foundations. There is literally nothing remaining.

Yet even in light of this unfolding tragedy along the Gulf Coast, I can't refrain from commenting on Pat Robertson's recent call to have the President of Venezuela assassinated, then lying about it! "Well, I didn't really say 'assassinate'," he waffled. "I said 'take him out'." Take him out? What, like to dinner? And even if there was any doubt in what he meant, he actually did say the word "assassinate," basically saying that since this guy is so worried that the U.S. is going to assassinate him, we should just go ahead and do it since we have the means, and you know, since it would be so much cheaper than starting a war. Unbelievable. I'm sure actual Christians are wishing freaks like Pat Robertson, Fred Phelps, and, increasingly, James Dobson, would just wander off and form their own religion and leave Jesus out of it. Did ol' Pat completely skip the part in Exodus where Moses had those wacky tablets with the rules? Chief among them being "Thou shalt not commit murder"? What a complete lunatic, honestly.

What else is going on? Oh, I went to Las Vegas a couple of weekends ago for a little R&R. I used to go all the time... seriously, like 5-6 trips a year. Everything was comped, I usually won at the blackjack tables, so it was a very cost-effective (even profitable) way to have fun. Vegas is truly like no place else on Earth. After I got laid off from my last job, I stopped going over simply because I didn't have the disposable income. So I went over recently for the first time in quite awhile and it was pretty good to be back. It wasn't the most fun trip I've had there, but once again, I won money, had my room comped, etc., so that made it much more tolerable. My win-loss record on my last ten trips to Vegas now stands at 8-2, so I can't really complain about that at all.

I'd likely close out this entry with something cheesy and trite like, "My prayers are with all those people affected by Hurricane Katrina," but let's face it, folks: Prayers aren't going to really help those poor people in any appreciable way. I've been through hurricanes, though none on this epic scale, and the victims of this catastrophe are just in for many, many weeks of misery and hard times, followed by many months of trying to recover. Probably some years, in all honesty.

Did someone put a curse on the Boy Scouts?

I only ask because they're rather dropping like flies this summer. Let's recap, shall we:

• Four Scout leaders are electrocuted at the Boy Scout "Jamboree" in Virginia
• Half the attendees of said Jamboree nearly pass out from heat exhaustion
• Five Boy Scouts have been killed by lightning or drowning in Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico and California
• And it's not just limited to boys anymore: Some girls were at an overnight first aid camp at a Boy Scout retreat when a 31-foot tree suddenly just snapped in half and fell on them, killing one girl and injuring three others.

So what's going on? For those of you keeping count, that's nine dead Boy Scouts and Scout leaders and one dead Scout camp attendee... and all this has happened in a matter of just a very few weeks. Personally, if I were involved with the Boy Scouts, I don't think I'd be spending any appreciable time in the wilderness. Actually, if I were involved with the Boy Scouts, I'd submit myself for a lobotomy, but after that, then I wouldn't hang around outside much. Because it seems God or whomever is just mighty perturbed with this particular organization lately.

Oh, and also? I'd like a job as CEO of Walt Disney, Inc., please. But only for a year. Because apparently you can work that job for like 14 months, suck at it so completely that you get fired, and still be paid enough to retire very comfortably for the rest of your natural life ($140 million). Ten million dollars a month to do a shitty job? No wonder Disney stockholders are pissed off at their Board of Directors. Not even George Bush makes that much to do a shitty job.

America Collectively Awakens (or at least hits the snooze button)

So it seems that Bush's numbers continue to plummet. Clearly, millions of people are slowly awakening from their long, stupid slumber. Bit late, thanks, but at least they're realizing what they're responsible for by voting this administration into a second term. And kudos to Cindy Sheehan, the mother of the Army kid who was killed in Iraq, for being vigilant outside Bush's Texas "ranch." (By the way, is it at all questionable -- to anyone -- that this man has spent literally over 20% of his shitty presidency on vacation? That's two and a half months a year, guys.) Evidently, many people and organizations are joining her protest (read about it here), but not surprisingly, you'll hear virtually nothing about it in the U.S. media. In fact, a quick search on CNN will show Britney Spears' name being mentioned in the last week by more than a 2-to-1 ratio over Cindy Sheehan's. But if you really dig, you'll learn that a whopping 34% of people polled actually approve of Bush's handling of the Iraq war. The only surprise there is that the number is so high. Are 34% of Americans really that dimwitted?

Wait, don't answer that. Like the old saying goes, "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."

How is it that nothing sticks to Bush? I mean, folks, he lied about the reasons for going to war and, for the first time in American history, invading a sovereign nation. We started a war! Thousands upon thousands of people have died, we've spent (wasted) hundreds of billions of dollars, and it was all because of Bush's lies. Why is this not a bigger deal? I honestly don't get that... Clinton gets a hummer in the White House, lies about it (what man wouldn't?), and gets castigated beyond belief by the conservatives. Then, just for good measure, he gets impeached! Meanwhile, Bush lies about his reasons for starting an actual war, for God's sake... and everyone just shrugs and goes about their business, pumping their SUV full of $2.40 a gallon gas. The 9/11 Commission report, the WMD report (oops, there weren't any!), the Downing Street Memos (which 90% of Americans are still clueless about), the Senate Intelligence report... it goes on and on. How is this man still holding the office of President of the United States? Truly, it boggles the mind. I'd be very angry about it if I weren't just so totally incredulous.

Bush also signed his energy bill this past week, you know, to give his oil industry buddies a few more tax breaks. Actually, I'm all about saving energy, and I'm admittedly pretty ignorant at this point about the true nuts and bolts of Bush's bill. I do know there are tax breaks for oil companies, though, and that Daylight Savings Time will be extended by a month come 2007. I'm sure there are some other high points, though, as the thing was 1,724 pages long. How about starting some energy savings by limiting the damn bill to one ream of paper? Anyway, I hope it's good... Ol' George hasn't done much good in his time in office, so this would be something. Interestingly enough, though, the bill's cost (over 10 years) is over $12 billion, twice what the Bush administration had said it would be. Sounds suspiciously like the Iraq war...