The Big Easy Pork Barrel

Been really busy with other things lately, so hopefully, in the absence of regular posts, I've driven away my last reader. That's pretty much the plan I had in mind when I began writing this thing over a year ago. Post regularly for a while. Get a couple of guys to read it regularly. Quit posting regularly. Lose the two readers. Seems to be working fabulously.

Let's consider Louisiana, shall we? Those backwater, inbred, (and I have the right to use these terms because these are my people) lazy politicians that have control of that state ought to be tarred and feathered and run out of town... no wait... they haven't actually been in New Orleans... they've been in Dallas...so they should be tarred and feathered and run out of the country. They had a week's worth of warning and they had studies by credible scientists and they had historic failures during Ivan and George. In light of all that, they sat on their thumbs while Katrina danced with their daughter. The governor and the mayor compounded the damage by fighting with each other and being unavailable while federal resources waited on their signal.

Now, so you are not left with the impression that everyone in New Orleans is incompetent I must say a word on behalf of the New Orleans Police Department. I know a large portion of the police force just ran away but the ones that didn't run are to be commended. They faced the problem of looting head on. They got right in those abandoned stores and took as much merchandise as their patrol cars would carry so that the looters wouldn't get it all. Good job, guys.

So, we Americans, lucky enough to live in a virtual desert and almost never in the path of a hurricane, have the luxury of looking at all of this destruction and lunatic behavior on our tvs every evening. We hear that our federal tax dollars are being spent to send in the military and to send in FEMA and to fund all sorts of band aids for the state of LA. We're mostly overcome with sadness for the loss of lives and the loss of homes and belongings and poor families that can't find each other. Our hearts break for these folks. Then Senator Mary Landrieu comes back with her proposed federal aid bill. The insanity of Landrieu's bill is that it will cost you and me $250 BILLION. Yep. That's about half a million dollars for each person in New Orleans. She had a city known mostly for it's bars, booze and decadence and now she's apparently wanting it to become an enormous pork barrel.

Let me give this analogy. My truck is a 1987 Ford F150 with 140,000 miles on it. My friends call it, affectionately I'm sure, the Yellow Dog. Frankly, it's a great old truck and it gets me where I'm going and I don't worry about scuffing the paint or getting a little dirt on the carpets. It runs and it starts and has driven me all over the state of Texas. Let's suppose that tomorrow a tree fell over onto my truck and it was crushed. Let's suppose that I turned in a claim to my insurance company for about $60,000.00. See, I would need counseling to get over my grief at having lost my old truck. I'd need to buy myself a brand new Ford F150. I might need to pour a new driveway to park my truck on. I might need a carport to shelter my new truck. I would need time to get my dog used to riding in a new vehicle. My boys would need training on how the new seatbelts, radio and air conditioner works. See, it's not just as simple as replacing my old $4000.00 pickup.

My insurance agent would laugh out loud. So should Congress when it comes time to vote on this unconscionable, disaster exploiting, pork barrel spending, fleecing of America.

Proverbs 26:11

Autobiography in Five Short Chapters
by Portia Nelson

1. I walk down the street. There's a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost.....I am helpless; it isn't my fault. It takes forever to find a way out.

2. I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don't see it. I fall in again. I can't believe I am in the same place; but it isn't my fault.(I disagree with the author here. It is my fault.) It still takes a long time to get out.

3. I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it is there. I still fall in....it's a habit. My eyes are open. I know where I am. It is my fault. I get out immediately.

4. I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it.

5. I walk down a different street.

Muck Raking

The Wall Street Journal opinion page carried this article yesterday. It can give you some idea of the negligence of the city and state government in Louisiana. (Click on the title bar, where it says Muck Raking to connect to the article.)

The blame is consistently being aimed at FEMA and George Bush and the National Guard and... well, anyone but the people who were paid to do the job that didn't get done.

Kanye West went so far as to say that this mess in NO is happening because Bush doesn't care about dark-skinned citizens. (Thanks, Kanye. The flight to Fantasyland is now boarding.)

This mess in NO is happening because we own a huge portion of the coastline on the Gulf of Mexico and that's where a lot of hurricanes happen and when this one happened it hit a city that is not built to withstand a powerful hurricane and Lake Pontchartrain's levies collapsed and... the mayor and the governor and all their respective offices didn't take corrective action when they knew about problems and they didn't implement the written plan that they have.

Yes, I quote DH Lawrence

I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
Without ever having felt sorry for itself.
-- D.H. Lawrence

Slow gazelles get eaten. That's the law... that's the circle of life. Doesn't matter why they're slow. If they're old and worn out or young and unsteady they get eaten. If they're sick and weak they get eaten. If they are otherwise healthy but they trip and fall, they get eaten. If they're lazy they get eaten. Slow gazelles are eaten.

Some people in the swamp formerly known as New Orleans couldn't leave. Some of them are infants and children. Some of them are old and unhealthy either physically or mentally. I'm really sorry for those folks who are caught up in the devastation and couldn't choose to get out.

Some people in the swamp formerly known as New Orleans could leave. Some have cars and houses and plenty of money and could've driven away. Some don't have cars and plenty of money but they could've walked away. Some don't own anything and should've walked away. I'm sorry for their current misery but they own the responsibility for their current condition.

If you are one of the latter stop whining about what everyone else should do for you and should've done sooner and could've done better. Take the responsibility for where you are and accept the fact that any help you get from the National Guard or the mayor or the governor or the president or FEMA or the Red Cross or some guy who pulled you out of your house with his rowboat... accept the fact that anything you receive from these is a great gift, not something you deserve or something that is owed to you.

Accept the fact that you're a slow gazelle and for whatever reason the lioness didn't catch you this time.