Posted 4:57 PM by steve

Katrina thoughts....

** Supposedly, spending on Iraq and other homeland security issues kept money from being spent on reinforcing the levees protecting New Orleans. Memo to Louisiana and New Orleans officials: the Feds not paying for something does NOT remove your obligation to take care of your own citizens. Instead of spending money on, for example, enticing the Charlotte Hornets with a cost free arena to move to New Orleans, you could have put it into better protecting the lives and property of your citizens. You didn't, and it's the height of chutzpah to blame someone for not doing what you wouldn't do yourself.

** I pay a lot of money in taxes, and a lot more than I want to pay. One of the things my tax dollars are supposed to cover is assistance for people in situations such as this. If this is the case, what need is there for the myriad number of groups collecting on behalf of those affected? Shouldn't taxpayers say "No, I gave on my 1040"? Or, if I donate, why can't I deduct that from my taxes (as a credit, not a deduction from income)?

** How long before the ACLU complains about faith based groups getting involved with the relief efforts? To the ACLU, it is better that no one be exposed to the brainwashing of the Salvation Army than they be able to get a blanket, a place to sleep and some food (and, yes, I know the Salvation Army relief efforts don't preach, but that doesn't matter to the likes of the ACLU).

** As my (few) readers know, I am big on holding people responsible for the consequences of their actions. There was no secret that New Orleans was vulnerable to exactly what happened. Everybody who lives (lived?) in New Orleans did so of their free will. Why shouldn't they, and they alone, take care of getting themselves back on their feet? Residents should have had renters or homeowners insurance and money in the bank in case of emergencies - why should the rest of America cough up for those who chose to spend their money on things other than protecting themselves against such an event? (as an aside, this is why I believe Bush's Social Security reform won't fly, in particular the private accounts - we'll still be on the hook for taking care of those who make stupid investment decisions, the same way the taxpayer is coming to the rescue of those who chose to live surrounded by water and very little earth).

** With so many people living in or near problem areas (midwest tornadoes, big city terrorism threats, California earthquakes), is there a bit of a "you help me now, I'll help you later" element to all of this thing? Or does that thought never factor into people deciding to help?

** For those wanting to give, is it better to give to one of the big charity outfits or to give directly to those affected?

** If you know someone who needs help, is there anything wrong with offering help in the form of a loan, rather than as an outright gift? If someone needs help because they don't have the money, or access to money, right now to pay for what they need, presumably sometime in the future they will have money - why shouldn't they look to pay it back when they have it?

** I don't expect anyone to make themselves poor in order to help out. And not even the likes of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have the resources to make a real dent in what is needed to take care of the people who need help. I guess people will just offer up enough to let themselves feel that they have shown that they care. Probably not so much as to really crimp their style, but not so little as to be seen as merely a token offering.

** I don't know why but I'd like a Sally Struthers telling us that for just XX dollars, we can feed and provide temporary shelter for a person for a month. Paul is doing a bit of this, but I'm guessing he's not half as cute as Sally.

** The ONLY way that looting can even remotely be justified is if every person taking something from a store made arrangements to pay for what they took (actually, in that case, it is not looting, it is paying on a deferred payment plan). You need water and the local Wal-Mart is closed, go ahead and break down the door, take what you need and send Wal-Mart a check for what you took (and as well as the damage to the door). Otherwise, you are a thief (a noble thief perhaps, if you are stealing to feed your family, but a thief nonetheless).

** While people deplore the looting, they recognize that there are other, more pressing concerns for the police and National Guard at this time. I wonder why there was no similar understanding when looting broke out in Baghdad after the fall of Hussein. Just like now, there were more important things for our troops to be doing than standing guard outside some museums. And I am curious: were our troops not forced to stand guard outside museums, would they have been deployed on rounding up Hussein supporters, who were otherwise allowed to escape and plan and carry out the insurgency? Put another way, did liberal MSM carping about uncontrolled looting lead to more American soldiers being killed? If so, they were placing a higher value on some artifacts than they were the lives of the US military.... one more reason to disregard the likes of Sheehan's supporters, who never met a soldier they cared for.

** Liberals blame Republicans, conservatives and Bush for being responsible for all sorts of bad things: Clinton blamed white rightwingers for Oklahoma City. RFK, Jr. blamed Haley Barbour for what happened. The weeping mother blamed Bush for what Katrina (actually, shouldn't the crazies get together and agree on who they want to blame?). And the liberal MSM never calls them on it.

** Isn't Bush flying Air Force One in giant circles around the damaged areas just a non-verbal "Message, I care"?

** I can do my job from any number of locations, as can just about everybody who works with me. Losing access to our offices doesn't screw us big time, and even less so if we have some advance notice that gives us time to get our act together. We would still get paid by our customers and still be able to deliver our products and services. And my staff would still get paychecks. In other words, it would be a pain, but our business would go on just fine. I brought that up to contrast with the situation in New Orleans, where residents not only have no place to sleep, but very likely no place to go to work. And for a lot of those people, not having a place to go to work means having no work. That sucks. It's a bit like the industrial parts of the country when the local manufacturing plants close down; all of a sudden, people are faced with needing to move in order to find work. Of course, per the above paragraphs, everybody in New Orleans made their own bed in choosing to live where a hurricance could come along every three hundred or so years and totally muck things up...

** And Sidney Blumenthal is an idiot (in my opinion, of course)...

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