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terrible

dark clouds and crisp winds
send the message
autumn now begins
t. de a.



if you look here, someone decided to rant. don't get me wrong- ranting can be fun. but this is terrible. it starts with perhaps a quote?
'No country is more than three meals away from a revolution. This truism...'
hand brake comes on, my eyes do a quick reverse powerslide 180. i believe that i like all words that have an -ism at the end, it helps to encompass an idea. but i hate 'truism'. and is this true?

'We will pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off, and carry on in a way that shows why we are where we are in the world'
and how is it that we are 'where we are'? it seems to me that we stopped being hardworking, and now we are just in debt up to our great-grandchildren eyeballs.

'The US may have taken a few hard shots lately, but we will not wait for the rest of the world to bail us out (it is doubtful they would anyway - it is always our job to bail them out).'

'We will not sit around and wait for the world to come to our rescue. We will not complain that the amount of aid offered is too small and demand more'
. -that's the arrogance we're looking for.

well, read it as you wish. i am rather disgusted that this hooligan is representing my country.

and for the next one...

'When the mandatory evacuation was announced, the government knew that several thousand poor people could not afford to leave the city. So, instead of taking them in buses out to higher land, they decided to herd them like cattle into the Superdome.'
well, the egineer said the building was structurally sound, cost effective, and didn't these people not want to leave in the first place? and i recall reading in the news that many who went to the superdome wanted to stay there.

'The city of New Orleans has about 75% of its people living below the poverty line. No one ever hears about that, all we see is Bourbon Street and Mardi Gras.'

right. and that occurs in other states too. there are states that are producing many new jobs, perhaps this is just me- but if i were poor and i could move to get a better job, or even a job, i would. i do not believe that these people were sooooooooo poor that they could not go 100 miles or so out of the way of the hurricane.

'I believe if this disaster occurred in an area with a majority of white middle-class citizens, the response would have been much quicker.'

would it? with most of our help overseas, would it? if someone tells me mack truck it coming to crash right into my house- i leave. should the u.s. have a stockpile of canned food, blankets, shelter, and oil stockpiled for every emergency ever known? stockpile for volcanoe (mt. st. helen's), earthquake (california), etc... i feel we would not have the room.

everywhere you live you are more at risk for certain things. if you live in cali and think you will never witness an earthquake- that you will be fine, you are a moron. people in florida know that hurricane's hit that area. people in kansas know about tornadoes.

i am not saying anyone deserves this- but i believe they knew the risks, and heeded not to the warnings. it takes time to mount a huge relief effort after such a disaster, not seconds.

well, i am unsure that we need two presidents. that would need a whole slew of more poloticians, and then we would probably have higher taxes to pay for those positions.

and though hurricanes happen two months a year, their power and frequency has only increased over the last few years (it was in national geographic). and to add further:

"According to data supplied by Risk Management Solutions, a leading catastrophe modeling firm in Menlo Park, Calif., hurricanes of Category 4 or stronger make landfall within 100 miles of New Orleans about once every 35 years. There have been four storms of Category 4 strength or greater since 1899. Hurricane Camille made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane and was one of only two Category 5 hurricanes to hit the U.S. in the last century. Hurricane Betsy, a Category 4 hurricane, struck about 80 miles to the west of New Orleans, subjecting the populated areas to the stronger winds and surge on the right side of the storm path."

so it doesn't get hit that often. but even still, if someone who knows about weather tells me to go, i go. if someone who knows about volcanoes tells my father that mt. st. helens is gonna blow- my father moves.

and what kind of protection do you offer a city that is below sea level, and that is sinking more every year? outside of turning it into a biosphere, not much in the way of protection can be offered. floridians have their houses built to meet hurricane codes, but that doesn't stop them from being easily demolished. i think florida has a harder time as it gets hit more reguarly.

so you're saying screw New Orleans and its poor, huddled masses?

the presidency doesn't cost that much in taxes. we always elect independently wealthy white men. i think the last figure i recall is $400,000/yr. not much, per capita.

i know that number's off, though, so don't quote me...cheers.

don't get me wrong- they do need help, and should be. i am just saying that evacuation not possilbe is a farse. they had plenty of warning. and knowing that the new orleans region rarely gets hit hard, i can understand why there was not a stockpile of money, goods and oil 'just in case'. that is like stockpiling supplies in new york for tornadoes- which have occured, however, very infrequently.

as far as presidency- you are right, $400k/year for that position. however, that new president will need his staff, advisors, and other underlings. those positions will be funded by us, tax payers. and where will this new president stay? probably another building funded by the u.s. citizens.

not saying that it is a terrible idea, i am just thinking that it will be costly. too many people think that we need not be involved with other countries as is- devoting one whole portion of our government to that front might spark ideas of imperialism.

i did google the salary.

it would bother me not if we had a women in the white house. but again- even if the mr. and mrs. worked in the government, both would need their own advisors and such- more jobs, more tax money.

outside of that, there is no way that anyone would let the mr. and mrs. run different aspect of the country like that. i mean, couples are not allowed to count the offering together at church, just in case. the u.s.'s politcal crediblility and clout would be shot. and i would move out of this country.

with regards to the shut ins- that is a communal problem. if i was fleeing a spot, in advance or just before a disaster was to take place- i would call my neighbors to see who needed a ride. the gov't shouldn't be blamed for the death of those who didn't want to leave or the shut-ins. it is simply infeesible (sp) for the u.s. to search every friggin house to make sure they leave. that would take way too much time and money- they would have had to evacuate months earlier. and knowing that some of the people were too happy to shoot at others- it is too much.

i do agree that things after the hurricane could have went a bit quicker- but how much quick could it have gone? no one knew how much devestation was going to take place- florida has been hit really hard, and last year it was hit like 4 times, billions and billions and dollars in damage. where is the gov't there? disaster relief for them took weeks before clean up crews were underway in full stride.

i think it is mostly due to the contigency plans of the local principalities (sp). and even then- do you plan for the absolute worse? that everyone in the city might decide not to flee?

and we are not seen as imperialists just yet- but iraq didn't help that situation at all. i often wonder what the world would be like if the un headquarters were in another country.

i'll give it a whirl

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about me

  • i'm billiam
  • from prague, Czechia
  • where capital letters have been executed! let's see... i really dislike sunny days. i love precipitation of all kinds. snow is my favorite. i wish that it could be no more than fifty degrees fahrenheit, and clouds covering the sky. i enjoy friends and beer- in that order. i dislike wearing shirts. my random thoughts and unanswerable questions keep me up at night. when i sleep i have dreams; long epic dreams. i believe that it is important to be fit in mental, physical, and emotional capacities. any food worth eating should be as organic as possible, without additives that have letters p, k, x, c, h in close proximity without vowels. save a cow- eat a vegetarian.
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