I've been reading some of the stories talking about Hurricane Ike and what it did to Tezas. All the stories mention that despite a mandatory evacuation order, over 140,000 people remained in the region...and now of course they all have to be rescued from their flooded houses.
Each person they've interviewed so far (that's only a handful though), has said essentially the same thing. "I didn't think it would be this bad."
Well, the people who remained are stupid, for the most part, and they should just be left where they are. After all, that's where they wanted to be.
Okay, that sounds a little unsympathetic, and in one way that's not fair because I'm sure one reason quite a few people stayed in their homes was because of the fear that the instant they left, looters would descend in droves and make off with their stuff. And ya know, I'm sure that happened in places. Humans don't pass up a chance to get free stuff.
And since it's Sunday, I'm sure every church across the country has got priests saying, "Let's pray for the victims of Hurricane Ike." And the stupidity of that just boggles the mind. I bet Texas is a home of fundamentalists...weren't they praying and praying that the hurricane wouldn't hurt them.... (and, if you incline that way, I suppose you can be thanking your god right now that the hurricane actually wasn't as bad as forecasters had feared... 11 foot high water instead of 25 foot high water... quite kind of God to not send the full whack, wasn't it? Those prayers must have gotten through!)
Sharon Stone famously said a few months ago that the earthquake that happened in China was "karma"... I wonder what she thinks of the hurricane that hit Texas...what had Texas done to deserve it, but to open their arms to Katrina victims a few years ago?
One hopes that the cleanup and reconstruction of Houston and Galveston will go faster and more efficiently than that of New Orleans, and one also hopes that the thousands of non-Houston residents who are pouring there now in hopes of scamming off some free welfare will be deported out to the middle of the ocean or something...
But since people and governments never, ever learn from their mistakes, I think we're going to see the same incompetence and idiocies as before.
But, a shout out to the rescue services who are putting their lives on the line every minute of the day to rescue victims of Hurricane Ike. May they all return home safe...and may the idiots who stayed behind, also be safe.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
God helps those that help themselves
I'm not a religous person... and I don't understand how anybody can be.... but if you are a religious person... that still doesn't explain why you wouldn't evacuate your Galveston or Houston home in the face of Hurricane Ike.
Some bright guy, 75 years old,explained why he was staying in his home. "God will look after me."
Well, gee. Where's God each time some innocent soul is killed in a drive-by shooting? Or in a crane collapse. Where was God when all those people died during the New Orleans disaster? Where was God when that commuter and passenger train collided in California and over 10 people died?
I think God's a little too busy watching people starve to death in the Sudan or Somalia or wherever the heck it is.... or to busy watching the genocide in the Sudan...to pay attention to one little old man who decides to remain in his house despite the fact that a hurricane is heading straight for him.
Some bright guy, 75 years old,explained why he was staying in his home. "God will look after me."
Well, gee. Where's God each time some innocent soul is killed in a drive-by shooting? Or in a crane collapse. Where was God when all those people died during the New Orleans disaster? Where was God when that commuter and passenger train collided in California and over 10 people died?
I think God's a little too busy watching people starve to death in the Sudan or Somalia or wherever the heck it is.... or to busy watching the genocide in the Sudan...to pay attention to one little old man who decides to remain in his house despite the fact that a hurricane is heading straight for him.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The Politics of Pregnancy
Barack Obama is under fire today by the media pundits Limbaugh and Hannity (well..at least Hannity) because he is in favor of age-appropriate sex education in schools, starting in kindergarten.
Well...I don't know if "sex education" is necessary in schools, but "gender education" is definitely needed. Something to teach girls that they are important people just as people, and not only if they're existence is validated by having a boyfriend or worse, a baby, which is what most teenagers seem to think. (And that's the all-pervasive sex media at work).
Illegitimate pregnancy is dragging the US down. It's a real problem in the African-American community, where 2/3rd of all children are born out of wedlock. Forget about the fact that there's no father influence for all these kids, and just think of the fact that these are girls who probably can't read or write, will never be able to get jobs, and will thus be on welfare for the rest of their lives, as will their children. (And since they have nothing better to do with their lives, and no reason not to, they'll just keep popping out those kids...)
It's not just a black problem, of course, Chicanas and Latinas and whites have the same problem. Will sex education in schools stop it? Who knows? But perhaps if Sarah Palin's 17-year old daughter had known about condoms, she wouldn't now be pregnant and unmarried. And yeah, apparently there is going to be a wedding...so at least she knows who the father is...
(Although the thing is, as I referenced earlier, I think girls do know about condoms. But they want to get pregnant, because they see having a little baby as proof to all their friends that a boy finds them attractive enough to have sex with! Not attractive enough to get married, of course, but attractive enough to have a one-night stand with... Or they want the welfare payments, or they want the unconditional love a baby is supposed to give and don't think about all the hard work its gonna take to raise the little nipper.)
Well...I don't know if "sex education" is necessary in schools, but "gender education" is definitely needed. Something to teach girls that they are important people just as people, and not only if they're existence is validated by having a boyfriend or worse, a baby, which is what most teenagers seem to think. (And that's the all-pervasive sex media at work).
Illegitimate pregnancy is dragging the US down. It's a real problem in the African-American community, where 2/3rd of all children are born out of wedlock. Forget about the fact that there's no father influence for all these kids, and just think of the fact that these are girls who probably can't read or write, will never be able to get jobs, and will thus be on welfare for the rest of their lives, as will their children. (And since they have nothing better to do with their lives, and no reason not to, they'll just keep popping out those kids...)
It's not just a black problem, of course, Chicanas and Latinas and whites have the same problem. Will sex education in schools stop it? Who knows? But perhaps if Sarah Palin's 17-year old daughter had known about condoms, she wouldn't now be pregnant and unmarried. And yeah, apparently there is going to be a wedding...so at least she knows who the father is...
(Although the thing is, as I referenced earlier, I think girls do know about condoms. But they want to get pregnant, because they see having a little baby as proof to all their friends that a boy finds them attractive enough to have sex with! Not attractive enough to get married, of course, but attractive enough to have a one-night stand with... Or they want the welfare payments, or they want the unconditional love a baby is supposed to give and don't think about all the hard work its gonna take to raise the little nipper.)
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Sarah Palin's speech
I didn't watch it myself...if she imploded I didn't want to see it...supposedly she did well...
for myself...I'm not too happy with her stance on abortion rights or creationism.. fundamentalists of any stripe are bad news...
But here she is at Youtube:
Speech pt 1
Speech pt 2
Speech pt 3
Oh...and here's a video of the gaffe where Noonan and Murphy think they're talking off-mike about Palin...and criticize the choice big time.
for myself...I'm not too happy with her stance on abortion rights or creationism.. fundamentalists of any stripe are bad news...
But here she is at Youtube:
Speech pt 1
Speech pt 2
Speech pt 3
Oh...and here's a video of the gaffe where Noonan and Murphy think they're talking off-mike about Palin...and criticize the choice big time.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Well...criminitleys...
Yesterday I shared some video on Sarah Palin, the new vice presidential nominee for the Republicans...
I didn't do any research on her meself...except the cursory look to find that she'd given birth to a baby with Down's Syndrome, and was anti-abortion...
Today, horror of horrors...I found out that she is *for* teaching creationism in schools.
As for the Down's Syndrome thing...she knew the baby would have that before she gave birth, and gave birth to it anyway...
I'm not prepared to say whether she should have had an abortion or not - Down's Syndrome kids can function alright in society, although it's a cruel society ...
And at least it wasn't an autistic kid that sits in his feces all day, hitting himself with his hands and generally acting like a vegetable...
For myself, I'm for abortion. If a woman doesn't want to carry a baby full term, she shouldn't have to. The thing to do of course is to teach young girls that having a baby is not a cachet, and teaching them how to use condoms, which of course the fundamentalists don't like and which just doesn't make any sense to me.
Want to get rid of poverty in the world? Allow people to stop having babies they can't afford to have and can't take care of...whether it be via abortion or by the more common sense solution of using a condom or some other form of birth control!
Anyway...all of a sudden I'm much less happy about the choice of Sarah Palin than I was. Back when I knew only the surface details - she was an outdoorswoman, she was a hunter, she'd put a stop to Ted Stephens' ridiculous Bridge to Nowhere, I was all for her... but as soon as you learn a little bit more... it all goes pear-shaped, as the Brits say.
Well, we're hosed regardless of who gets into power now.
I didn't do any research on her meself...except the cursory look to find that she'd given birth to a baby with Down's Syndrome, and was anti-abortion...
Today, horror of horrors...I found out that she is *for* teaching creationism in schools.
As for the Down's Syndrome thing...she knew the baby would have that before she gave birth, and gave birth to it anyway...
I'm not prepared to say whether she should have had an abortion or not - Down's Syndrome kids can function alright in society, although it's a cruel society ...
And at least it wasn't an autistic kid that sits in his feces all day, hitting himself with his hands and generally acting like a vegetable...
For myself, I'm for abortion. If a woman doesn't want to carry a baby full term, she shouldn't have to. The thing to do of course is to teach young girls that having a baby is not a cachet, and teaching them how to use condoms, which of course the fundamentalists don't like and which just doesn't make any sense to me.
Want to get rid of poverty in the world? Allow people to stop having babies they can't afford to have and can't take care of...whether it be via abortion or by the more common sense solution of using a condom or some other form of birth control!
Anyway...all of a sudden I'm much less happy about the choice of Sarah Palin than I was. Back when I knew only the surface details - she was an outdoorswoman, she was a hunter, she'd put a stop to Ted Stephens' ridiculous Bridge to Nowhere, I was all for her... but as soon as you learn a little bit more... it all goes pear-shaped, as the Brits say.
Well, we're hosed regardless of who gets into power now.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Why do people like crooked politicians?
Ted Stephens, a total jerk who at age 84 is *still* senator from Alaska, won his primary in a landslide, despite the fact that he's under indictment for criminal acts.
I know he's a total jerk because my dad, who used to fly him around, said so, and so did the pilots and stewardesses that my dad worked with.
And let us not forget that Stevens is responsible for the Bridge to Nowhere - a bridge that helps only his family!
And yet the people of Alaska continue to vote for this man!!!
I assume it's because of all the "pork" he brings to the state - if he wants to skim off several layers of that pork for himself, I guess Alaskans don't mind.
But there's also crooked politicians in every state. (Well, in my own view all politicians, whether Democrat or Republican, are crooked, who devote most of their time once they get into power, of keeping that power, rather than looking out for their constituents.)
But here's one thing. If the 84 year old Ted Stephens is still in the Senate, no reason why the 71-year old McCain can't be. (Of course whether he'll be a good president is a whole nother thing... I think he's too close to a Democrat to be good... but he's better than Obama....)
The US no longer has a culture of excellence... if it ever did. That's what we need to get back. Instead, we get inundated by commercials for kids going back to school - and they're buying clothes. And the commercials have nothing to say about getting a good education and making somethign of yourself. It's all about "don't look like a dork in school." "Look good so you can ask that girl out for a date," ya da ya da ya da ad nauseum.
And the kind of clothes being sold? I walked through a display of teen-guy T-shirts at my local Walmart a couple of days ago... 90% of them had skull motifs. Not the skull motif of pirates, but the skull motif of death and destruction. And the ones that didn't have skulls had really funny says such as this one: Stick figure with its lower limbs spread wide and a green cloud emanating from its bottom. At the top the text, "Got gas?"
Yeah, that's nice stuff for a kid to wear on his t-shirt when he goes to school...or at any time, frankly. But hey, guys find that stuff funny. And far be it for anyone to try to civilize 'em...
Even though he's facing federal charges, Ted Stevens remains feisty as ever. The 84-year-old Republican handily won his primary race for Senate and immediately proclaimed the November election a "piece of cake."
I know he's a total jerk because my dad, who used to fly him around, said so, and so did the pilots and stewardesses that my dad worked with.
And let us not forget that Stevens is responsible for the Bridge to Nowhere - a bridge that helps only his family!
And yet the people of Alaska continue to vote for this man!!!
I assume it's because of all the "pork" he brings to the state - if he wants to skim off several layers of that pork for himself, I guess Alaskans don't mind.
But there's also crooked politicians in every state. (Well, in my own view all politicians, whether Democrat or Republican, are crooked, who devote most of their time once they get into power, of keeping that power, rather than looking out for their constituents.)
But here's one thing. If the 84 year old Ted Stephens is still in the Senate, no reason why the 71-year old McCain can't be. (Of course whether he'll be a good president is a whole nother thing... I think he's too close to a Democrat to be good... but he's better than Obama....)
The US no longer has a culture of excellence... if it ever did. That's what we need to get back. Instead, we get inundated by commercials for kids going back to school - and they're buying clothes. And the commercials have nothing to say about getting a good education and making somethign of yourself. It's all about "don't look like a dork in school." "Look good so you can ask that girl out for a date," ya da ya da ya da ad nauseum.
And the kind of clothes being sold? I walked through a display of teen-guy T-shirts at my local Walmart a couple of days ago... 90% of them had skull motifs. Not the skull motif of pirates, but the skull motif of death and destruction. And the ones that didn't have skulls had really funny says such as this one: Stick figure with its lower limbs spread wide and a green cloud emanating from its bottom. At the top the text, "Got gas?"
Yeah, that's nice stuff for a kid to wear on his t-shirt when he goes to school...or at any time, frankly. But hey, guys find that stuff funny. And far be it for anyone to try to civilize 'em...
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