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.