On a lighter note...

This is apparently the guy who's going to play Aquaman during the fifth season of Smallville.

Via Kryptonsite:

Kristin at E! Online has revealed the news we've been trying to figure out for a while - the role of Young Arthur "A.C." Curry, aka Aquaman, has been cast for the episode "Aqua." The actor playing him is a newcomer named Alan Ritchson

And some hints from Gough on the behavior of young Arthur Curry in "Aqua:" "He is determined to save the oceans and Lex is doing something nefarious involving a defense contract. In a weird way, Arthur is probably two feet from being an eco-terrorist and Clark has to sort of real him back in terms of what he's willing to do."

Also, James Marsters, Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is playing Brainiac, the big bad, for this season on Smallville...

...And about James Marsters' role as Milton Fine, aka Brainiac: "We know that there was basically going to be something big in that ship," Al Gough told CFQ's Ed Gross. "The ship opens and Kryptonians come out, but they aren't the major ongoing threat. Brainiac comes out of the ship and takes human form, like in Terminator 2, and he's a being of artificial intelligence. He basically takes the guise of Dr. Milton Fine, a college professor who ends up teaching Clark. We call this the grand seduction of Clark Kent, where Brainiac is trying to turn Clark against humanity in general, and Lex Luthor in particular. He basically wants Clark to see that Krypton was better than Earth and that, basically, he's got the making here for a new society. Unlike Jor-El, whose intentions become clear in the season opener, Brainiac has a much more nefarious plan and he uses Lex in it."

...James Marsters is looking forward to his character's psychological seduction of Clark. "I don't have to beat Clark at all," he offers. "It's very important I talk him into joining me. It's always a more interesting thing to watch. Frankly, there's a lot of ammunition on my side. Earth is a beautiful gem of a palnet and there aren't a lot like it around. But there's just one problem: human beings, who are ruining both the atmosphere and the topsoil at an alarming rate and there's no way we're going to be here in 10,000 years. There's nothing in human history that suggests the bare hint that we are about to make the moral leap into behaving the way the philosophers have been asking us to over the years. So the best thing to do, both for Kryptonians and Earth as far as Brainiac is concerned, is to eradicate these stupid, barbaric failures of evolution. His feeling is to just get rid of these humans and let's have a new Krypton, and he wants to use Clark as a tool to achieve his goals."

Why yes, I AM a huge geek, thanks. But I'm okay with that.

Why I Hate Religious People

Okay, fine. SOME Religious People.

But Jesus-H.-Christ-God-Almighty-on-a-Crutch, it's people like this that makes me never, ever want to give it the benefit of the doubt.

What kind of souless, amoral f*&k do you have to be to think this way?

Rev. Bill Shanks, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship of New Orleans, also sees God's mercy in the aftermath of Katrina -- but in a different way. Shanks says the hurricane has wiped out much of the rampant sin common to the city.

The pastor explains that for years he has warned people that unless Christians in New Orleans took a strong stand against such things as local abortion clinics, the yearly Mardi Gras celebrations, and the annual event known as "Southern Decadence" -- an annual six-day "gay pride" event scheduled to be hosted by the city this week -- God's judgment would be felt.

“New Orleans now is abortion free. New Orleans now is Mardi Gras free. New Orleans now is free of Southern Decadence and the sodomites, the witchcraft workers, false religion -- it's free of all of those things now," Shanks says. "God simply, I believe, in His mercy purged all of that stuff out of there -- and now we're going to start over again."

--

"The most curious social convention of the great age in which we live is the one to the effect that religious opinions should be respected." H.L. Mencken

Unbelievable Incompetence - Red Cross Banned From Bringing Food and Supplies to Nola

So basically, screw the people stuck there.

We'll get to them when we get a chance.

Maybe.

"Lemme get this straight. We let people die because if the Red Cross had been there with supplies, others might have been more inclined to stay?"

Hurricane Katrina: Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans?

* Acess to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.

* The state Homeland Security Department had requested--and continues to request--that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city.

* The Red Cross has been meeting the needs of thousands of New Orleans residents in some 90 shelters throughout the state of Louisiana and elsewhere since before landfall. All told, the Red Cross is today operating 149 shelters for almost 93,000 residents.

* The Red Cross shares the nation’s anguish over the worsening situation inside the city. We will continue to work under the direction of the military, state and local authorities and to focus all our efforts on our lifesaving mission of feeding and sheltering.

* The original plan was to evacuate all the residents of New Orleans to safe places outside the city. With the hurricane bearing down, the city government decided to open a shelter of last resort in the Superdome downtown. We applaud this decision and believe it saved a significant number of lives.

Congress Likely to Probe Guard Delay

WASHINGTON - Several states ready and willing to send National Guard troops to the rescue in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans didn't get the go-ahead until days after the storm struck — a delay nearly certain to be investigated by Congress...

Superdome Evacuations Temporarily Halted

NEW ORLEANS - Buses taking Hurricane Katrina victims far from the squalor of the Superdome stopped rolling early Saturday. As many as 5,000 people remained in the stadium and could be there until Sunday, according to the Texas Air National Guard...

... it remained a mystery why the buses stopped coming to pick up refugees and shuttle them away.

"Everywhere is walking distance if you have enough time..."

[Or, why I seem to be having the worst luck with trains...]

It is approximately a 3 hour walk from Mitoma to Tsuyazaki.

Ask me how I know... go ahead... Okay, okay, I'll tell you.

So I went into town last night to catch up with Kev, a gent I used to work out with when I lived here last. Good times. Catching up. Psuedo-intellectual pontificating over world events and a beer or two.

So I take out at about 1120 to catch the train back home... bit of background... Tsuyazaki to Tenjin/the city takes two trains... the Nishitetsu line, the slow train, right by my house, goes into Kaizuka. At Kaizuka you take the subway into the city. Simple enough. But on the way back home, I make my connection at Kaizuka but the Nishitetsu only makes it to Mitoma before it shuts down for the evening. Mitoma being about the halfway point to Kaizuka.

So, 1215 at night. No more trains. No cabs at the stations. And even if there were, only 4000 yen or so on me, so it wouldn't have covered the cab ride.

So.

What to do?

The obvious answer. Start walking.

Tried following the train tracks for awhile, but the gravel/stones/lack of lighting made for a fairly unpleasant and slow going experience. So then tried to parallel the tracks on the roads, but those soon diverged. So then stick to the main roads and when in doubt, bear left towards the ocean. If nothing else, I'll end up swimming home.

So, after about an hour of walking it becomes some absurd test of ability and self reliance. Here I am, middle of the night, barely passable Japanese, no reading ability to speak of... Can I even find my way home? Can I actually walk the entire way? Pride is now on the line. Ego has entered the picture. Common sense and intelligence have left the building.

So after about 90 minutes and change, I see a sign, thankfully in English, for Koga City. Brilliant! Sandy's old school [Genkai] was in Koga! Can't be long now!

Koga actually is much bigger on foot than you'd think.

So I keep on moving, starting to actually recognize, or at least think I recognize, some landmarks, and finally do see some things I absolutely know... again though, on foot, nothing quite so much as close as you remember it. I pass the road leading to Sandy's old school and start to figure that I know positively where I am at... time to look for a cab.

Ego now having left the building. Rationalization having entered.

"Surely, I've found my way home... and if I had to, I could walk it... and definitely, the cost of a cab from Fukuma to Tsuyazaki shouldn't break the bank..."

Sad really, when you used to do 20mile marches with 50lb packs. However... word of advice. A pair of Converse Chuck Taylor's really don't cut it as hiking shoes. A good pair of boots are priceless...

So, the cab is caught and they drop me off at the Nishitetsu train station where my bike is at, where... wait for it... someone's gone through all my stuff again.

Now before you all flip and think "Rob you're a moron who clearly hasn't learned his lesson" it was neither my backpack, nor was anything taken, nor did I leave anything of value with the bike. I've learned that lesson.

But I had picked up a little pouch for the bike for my pump and some cans of compressed air and a maintenance tool... and all that was still there... but it was open and clearly someone had gone through it.

What the hell is happening in this country? It was probably some foreigners :)

Quite a night.

Oh, and Sandy, slept right through your message/call... sorry... off the top of my head, I'd say the worst lessons learned - probably competitiveness or secrecy...

News Shocker! CNN does actual reporting!

Here:

The big disconnect on New Orleans
The official version; then there's the in-the-trenches version

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Diverging views of a crumbling New Orleans emerged Thursday, with statements by some federal officials in contradiction with grittier, more desperate views from the streets. By late Friday response to those stranded in the city was more visible.

But the conflicting views on Thursday came within hours, sometimes minutes of each of each other, as reflected in CNN's transcripts...

"Rush Limbaugh, earlier today saying that those that were still in New Orleans deserved what they had gotten, as they had chosen to live there..."

John Cole:

I have said I am out of touch with America regarding what is expected for disaster relief. Maybe, but the people spreading the meme that the vast majority of who did not evacuate New Orleans did so because they simply chose to ignore the warnings are out of touch with reality. I just heard James Carville state that the Governor and Mayor did all they could, and that some people “just didn’t listen.”

That may very well be. ‘Some people’ probably didn’t listen, and instead chose to just weather the storm. But the vast majority of people who are stranded, and, I fear, dead in the flooded parts of NO in numbers we have not yet begun to discover and comprehend, did not ‘choose’ to ‘ignore’ the warnings.

They simply had no place to go, no way to get there, no way to afford living in a motel/hotel somewhere else, no relatives outside the region, no automobile. I know it is always funny to make fun of the “Hurricane Strikes- Poor Hit Hardest” headlines, but there is some truth to it.

Sure, a lot of the people interviewed on cable may say they just stayed because they have seen all sorts of hurricanes. They may say that. But I am willing to bet a lot of them are just saying that to save face. Ever been broke? And I mean, chronically, long-term, without ANY money, broke? It sucks, and it can be embarassing, and it isn’t likely most people are going to admit it. I know most of you are affluent, but was there never a time in college when all your friends were going somewhere, going to a concert, going out, going on Spring Break, and you wanted to go, but couldn’t? Instead of saying “I’m broke,” how many of you said something like “I’ve got better things to do,” or “I hate Florida,” or made some other excuse?

We Would Have Fought or Died

More than likely my family would not have survived, if we were in the same circumstances we were when I was a kid - and been in New Orleans the day Katrina hit.

I don't talk much about growing up - my childhood - because many would not understand. Some would make incorrect judgments. Others would look down on me. Some would take pity. I've never wanted any of that. Never asked for any of that. And I am proud to have made it to where I am pulling up my own bootstraps.

But as a kid - me and my family lived Social Security check to Social Security check. It would get to us on the 1st of the month. Each month the 1st was a happy day. But as the month wore on - there would be less and less of everything - including food.

Katrina hit on the 29th. We would not have had cash to leave town. We would not have had cash for public transportation. We would not have had cash for food. We would not have had cash for water.

Since we moved so often, and knew no neighbors - our choice would be stark: to give up and die - or be among those foraging for food – "looters" to you hate mongers - and treking our way out of town.

Via Kos [Diary]:

The Right, as embodied by Limbaugh, Frist, Bush, Hastert, DeLay. They would move heaven and earth to save the life of one White Woman in Florida to combat the very idea of euthanasia (which technically it was not). A woman that a decade earlier had lost her ability to so much as ask for help, much less have coherent thoughts about the quality of her own life.

And they would sit on their ass and watch as tens of thousands of poor men, women, children, babies, and elderly bake in the New Orleans heat surrounded by water, sewage, gasoline and an abandoned city, now devoid of anyone with the means to have escaped ahead of the storm.

This is the culture of life. The culture of life wants to save brain dead white women and unborn children. The culture of life wants you to watch endless non-news about the disappearance of one white teenager in Aruba. The culture of life wants you to support your nation as it kills tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians in its Quixotic quest against a non-threat. The culture of life wants a zero-tolerance for looters policy to sound authoritative as babies die of dehydration. The culture of life expects you to take care of yourself, and if you can't, then it is your own fault for getting into that situation in the first place. Fuck off. You had your shot. Station in life, where you hang your hat, and whether you have the $40 at the end of the month to pay for the overpriced gasoline to get out of that home in time is all up to you.

Always I have argued with Republican friends--the reasonable ones--that not everyone was dealt the same cards on their original Birth Day. Not everyone has been given the same gifts by God, friends, family, or luck. Always those Republican friends believe that they deserve where they have gotten in life, and that no one, including the government, should be asking for their hard-earned cash to help the less affluent. It is always the fault of the lesser-affluent themselves. Circumstances are irrelevant in all cases and constitute class warfare if the question is raised.

Bullshit.

But that's their thing. That's how they see the world. They earned everything they got. Their parents might have given them a nudge, but nothing more. Get a fucking clue.

I have no words...

From Salon:

...In contrast, some residents of the French Quarter appear comfortable, well-fed and relaxed. About 150 New Orleans police officers have commandeered the Royal Omni Hotel, part of the international luxury chain of Omni hotels that is housed in an elegant 19th century building, complete with crystal chandeliers and a rooftop pool. "All of the officers that are here, I can tell you in a classical sense, are gladiators," says Capt. Kevin Anderson, commander of the Eighth District of the NOPD (French Quarter). "To be able to put your family's concerns aside to protect the citizens of New Orleans, it's just an awesome job," he says.

Across the street from the Royal Omni at the Eighth District police department, several police officers keep a wary eye on the street with shotguns at the ready, while some fellow officers grill sausage links over charcoal barbecues. They are under strict orders not to communicate with the media. Capt. Anderson does confirm, however, that locations where officers were housed came under gunfire on Tuesday night. No officers were injured. "It is a very dangerous situation that we're in," Anderson says.

...We walk half a block down Royal Street from the Eighth District headquarters and come upon Brennan's Restaurant, one of New Orleans' most venerable dining institutions. The Brennans are a high-profile family of restaurateurs and run several of the highest-end eateries in town. Jimmy Brennan and a crew of his relatives are holing up in the restaurant along with the chef, Lazone Randolph. They are sleeping on air mattresses, drinking Cheval Blanc, and feasting on the restaurant's reserves of haute Creole food.

The atmosphere in the French Quarter, while relatively quiet, is decidedly tense, but Brennan isn't worried. "We're not too concerned. The police let us go over to the Royal Omni, to take a shower, freshen up, and we cooked them some prime rib. We take care of them, they take care of us," says Randolph. Two Brennan emissaries whisk past, bearing multilayer chocolate cakes, headed toward the precinct. "This has been working out real well for us," says Jimmy Brennan.

Politics

When Government Is 'Good'
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, September 2, 2005
Washington Post

The sight of rescue workers, the police and the Coast Guard, governors, mayors, and federal officials struggling desperately with the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina brings to mind Cohen's Law: "Government is the enemy until you need a friend."

...One can hope that our individual generosity will pour forth to our fellow citizens suffering on the Gulf Coast. We can take some solace in the fact that for every looter, there is a sport fisherman who brought a boat up to New Orleans to help in rescue efforts. There is a Red Cross nurse caring for an injured person, a Coast Guard member conducting a daring rescue, a volunteer in a church basement comforting a homeless child.

Yet this is a moment in which individual acts of charity and courage, though laudable and absolutely necessary, cannot be enough. It is a time when government is morally obligated to be competent, prepared, innovative, flexible, well-financed -- in short, smart enough and, yes, big enough to undertake an enormous task. Not only personal lives but also public things must be put back together.

You wonder if this summer, with deteriorating conditions in Iraq and now this terrifying act of God, might make us more serious. This is said not to be a time for politics, and we can surely do without the petty sort. But how we pull our country together, make our government work at a time of great need, and share the sacrifices that war and natural catastrophe have imposed on us -- these are inescapably political questions...

"I thought with fascism that you get organization. Apparently not."

Rushkoff:

The Thin Brown Line
9/02/2005 02:52:00 PM

Sorry, but it is about race. The New Orleans neighborhoods in which black people live were always more likely to be flooded; those who "refused" to leave town were the ones who had no cars or money to get out; those doing the looting were - originally - those told to gather in spots like the Convention Center but left with no food or water; people used to depending on authorities for direction and care begged for someone to show up with a bullhorn and tell them what to do; those doing the shooting are mostly drug addicts in the insantiy of withdrawal, for whom rehab has been replaced by a prison industry.

What most whites don't want to admit is that their distress at watching the CNN footage is twofold. Sure, we're all upset at seeing people treated like animals, dying in the streets, getting raped, and being ignored by those with the power to do something. ("Why don't rich people just use their private planes and copters to drop food and water?" my wife asks.)

But the greater torment is the fear of how quickly civil society can descend into utter chaos. It's Thomas Jefferson time, again, and America once again feels it has, in its black population, "a wolf by the ears." Listen to the ranting of right-wing radio for a couple of minutes, and you'll hear what I mean. Blaming the victims for their stupidity; graphic descriptions of what one black person will do to another, or to those offering to help. How could "these people" shoot at helicopters trying to bring aid?

(Take any swim safety class and the first thing they'll teach you is that to rescue a drowning person, you have to immobilize the victim. Instinctually, the panicked drowning person will try to push you down under the water. And this is true of black and white drowning victims, alike.)

What those who are afraid of civil society breaking down don't realize is that civil society has already broken down! This is not a civil society we live in, but a profiteering, every-man-for-himself, oligarchy. The democratic process is broken if not rigged; the largest-ever redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich occurred over the last six years under the guise of economic stimulus; fear and disinformation were used to put the poorest of Americans onto a battlefield under false pretenses; those who seek to engage the current administration in meaningful dialogue are terminated...

Guns don't kill people...

Machete-wielding Buddhist monks do.

[Though, to their credit - I guess - no one actually died...]

Machete-wielding Buddhist monks and novices brawl over woman
Canadian Press
Friday, September 02, 2005

BANGKOK (AP) - Police in northeastern Thailand issued arrest warrants Wednesday against machete-wielding monks and novices who brawled over a woman, urging their abbot to preserve the reputation of Buddhism by expelling them from the order.

More than a dozen monks and novices were involved in the street fight late Monday, with one of the trainees suffering a severe cut and the others sustaining bruises, said police Capt. Cheewin Kasilkam. "I will urge the abbot to (defrock) them before I file formal charges against the suspects today," Cheewin said...

Business Vs Government

Via Driftglass:

I believe that national problems – like clean air and water, security, education, health – require national solutions.

I believe in Capitalism...contained. You want to make a mint, terrific. I’m all for that, but if your business uses public services and relies on police and fire protection, the air not killing you, the roads being passable and the workforce being educated, well then you can fucking well kick in for those things, ya’ moochin’ bastard.

I believe that only the countervailing force of a strong national government can hold Big Business in check and keep it from bulldozing the place form sea to shining sea to improve the bottom line. Making a profit and satisfying the shareholding are the natural drivers of business, and there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as there is a socially conscious foot tapping the brake enough so that we aren’t driven off a cliff.

I believe what goes for keeping Big Business in check goes double for Big Religion. And then cube that.

So I believe in a stong national government that can do these things.

However there is another Party in power now that believes in a weak or non-existent national government, which is ironic given that they ARE the government now – they control every branch, every committee and every agenda.

This other Party believes states and individuals should basically root, hog or die. Fend for yourself, and if you fail, fuck you. Please die and get out of their way. Kind of a mingy, heartless and mean-spirited dogma -– especially since a staggering number of these mean little bastards STRONGLY identify themselves and their Party and not only Christian...but a Damned Sight Better Bunch of Christians than anyone else on the face of the Earth –- but it’s their dogma nonetheless: it’s printed right there on the letterhead... [More at link]

"Rapex"... seriously.

You know, on the one hand... ouch... on the other, yeah, good on 'em. Serves 'em right. At the very least.

Controversy in South Africa over device to snare rapists
Robyn Dixon in Johannesburg
September 2, 2005

A medieval device built on hatred of men? Or a cheap, easy-to-use invention that could free millions of South African women from fear of rape, in a country with the world's worst sexual assault record?

Dubbed the "rape trap", trademarked "Rapex", the condom-like device bristling with internal hooks designed to snare rapists has re-ignited controversy over South Africa's alarming rape rate, even before plans for its production were announced in Western Cape this week.

Some say the inventor, Sonette Ehlers, a former medical technician, deserves a medal, others that she needs help...

William S. Burroughs

In an interview with Gregory Corso and Allan Ginsberg in 1961, Burroughs states:

“To concern yourself with surface political conflicts is to make the mistake of the bull in the ring, you are charging the cloth. That is what politics is for, to teach you the cloth. Just as the bullfighter teaches the bull, teaches him to follow, obey the cloth.”

Corso asks, “Who manipulates the cloth?”
To which Burroughs answers, “Death.”

Nero Fiddles, Rome Burns

Unbelievable.

On the day of what could be the worst natural disaster in U.S. history...

Along with playing a round of golf, (before retreating a final time to his vacation ranch) the prez decided to do a little strumming on a guitar...

Via Atrios:

Chertoff took time out of his busy schedule promoting national preparednesss month on Fox to say this:

"The critical thing was to get people out of there before the disaster," he said on NBC's Today program. "Some people chose not to obey that order. That was a mistake on their part."

Lots of these people were poor. No cars. No credit cards. Nowhere to go. WHAT THE FUCK WERE THEY SUPPOSED TO DO?

Fucking heartless clueless monsters.

Gawker:

According to Drudge, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has recently enjoyed a little Broadway entertainment. And Page Six reports that she’s also working on her backhand with Monica Seles. So the Gulf Coast has gone all Mad Max, women are being raped in the Superdome, and Rice is enjoying a brief vacation in New York. We wish we were surprised.

What does surprise us: Just moments ago at the Ferragamo on 5th Avenue, Condoleeza Rice was seen spending several thousands of dollars on some nice, new shoes (we’ve confirmed this, so her new heels will surely get coverage from the WaPo’s Robin Givhan). A fellow shopper, unable to fathom the absurdity of Rice’s timing, went up to the Secretary and reportedly shouted, “How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless!” Never one to have her fashion choices questioned, Rice had security PHYSICALLY REMOVE the woman.

Angry Lady, whoever you are, we love you. You are a true American, and we’ll go shoe shopping with you anytime.

Rude Pundit:

Here's the Rude Pundit's fuckin' amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Fuck all yer anti-choice, save the flag bullshit amendments. Here it goes: No motherfucker who became wealthy due to inheritance is allowed to be President. No pampered pukes who get their hands dirty only as a lark. No asshole socially-connected cocksuckers who own three, four homes, fuck, no one who owns a huge fuckin' house they call a "vacation home." Sure, sure, we may have to sacrifice a Kennedy or two along the way, but, shit, and c'mon, between George Bush I's golfing during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 (which was a double fuck-up because not only was he allegedly the President, but he was in the middle of a campaign to do it again) and now George Bush II's, well, fuck, golfing and goofin' on the guitar when a million of his citizens are displaced and over half of them are fucked for good, we can sacrifice a potential liberal or two to ensure that there's never a President Jenna.

Couldn't do worse if they tried...

Via Digby:

What is needed is a large, visible police and national guard presence directing rescue activity and keeping order. Why that isn't happening is the real question.

I seem to remember something in the recent past --- a war torn city perhaps --- that also dissolved into chaos and anrachy when the authorities failed to provide security. Somebody important said "stuff happens" and "freedom is untidy." Where was that again? It's right on the tip of my tongue...

If at first you don't succeed, clap your hands and do exactly the same thing over and over again.

...On 9/11 we had cops and firefighters running into collapsing buildings to rescue people. Today, days after the crisis hit, I'm watching people with little babies desperate for food and water and nobody is coming in to help them.

What in the hell is going on?

Wolcott:

...a lot of people in this country are shocked and sobered by New Orleans, but they're also worried and pissed off. They're making the connection between the money, manpower, and resources expended in Iraq and how raggedy-ass the rescue effort has been... If you don't say it now when people's nerves are raw and they're paying full attention, it'll be too late once the waters receded and the media-emoting "healing process" begins.

Jack Cafferty:

I'm 62. I remember the riots in Watts, I remember the earthquake in San Francisco, I remember a lot of things. I have never, ever, seen anything as bungled and as poorly handled as this situation in New Orleans. Where the hell is the water for these people? Why can't sandwiches be dropped to those people in the Superdome. What is going on? This is Thursday! This storm happened 5 days ago. This is a disgrace. And don't think the world isn't watching. This is the government that the taxpayers are paying for, and it's fallen right flat on its face as far as I can see, in the way it's handled this thing.

Josh Marshall:

Someone emails Josh Marshall a question a bunch of people have been raising in comments and email. The emergency preparedness for a medium scale biological or chemical attack, or the "dirty bomb" scenario, would be exactly identical to the kind of preparedness you'd have for a natural disaster of this type. Sure, some of the complications would be different in the various situations, but the basic needs - mass evacuation, temporary shelter, the provision of safe food and water, medical care - would be the same.

Haven't they done fucking anything in 4 years?

Krugman:

I don’t think this is a simple tale of incompetence. The reason the military wasn’t rushed in to help along the Gulf Coast is, I believe, the same reason nothing was done to stop looting after the fall of Baghdad. Flood control was neglected for the same reason our troops in Iraq didn’t get adequate armor.

At a fundamental level, I’d argue, our current leaders just aren’t serious about some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they don’t like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on preventive measures. And they never, ever ask for shared sacrifice.

Yesterday Mr. Bush made an utterly fantastic claim: that nobody expected the breach of the levees. In fact, there had been repeated warnings about exactly that risk.

So America, once famous for its can-do attitude, now has a can’t-do government that makes excuses instead of doing its job. And while it makes those excuses, Americans are dying.

What a colossal clusterfu*k

Donate to the Red Cross Relief here

New Orleans in Anarchy With Fights, Rapes

New Orleans descended into anarchy Thursday as corpses lay abandoned in street medians, fights and fires broke out, cops turned in their badges and the governor declared war on looters who have made the city a menacing landscape of disorder and fear.

...At least seven bodies were scattered outside the convention center, a makeshift staging area for those rescued from rooftops, attics and highways. The sidewalks were packed with people without food, water or medical care, and with no sign of law enforcement.

An old man in a chaise lounge lay dead in a grassy median as hungry babies wailed around him. Around the corner, an elderly woman lay dead in her wheelchair, covered up by a blanket, and another body lay beside her wrapped in a sheet.

"I don't treat my dog like that," 47-year-old Daniel Edwards said as he pointed at the woman in the wheelchair.

"You can do everything for other countries, but you can't do nothing for your own people," he added. "You can go overseas with the military, but you can't get them down here."

The street outside the center, above the floodwaters, smelled of urine and feces, and was choked with dirty diapers, old bottles and garbage.

"They've been teasing us with buses for four days," Edwards said. "They're telling us they're going to come get us one day, and then they don't show up."

Every so often, an armored state police vehicle cruised in front of the convention center with four or five officers in riot gear with automatic weapons. But there was no sign of help from the National Guard.

At one point the crowd began to chant "We want help! We want help!" Later, a woman, screaming, went on the front steps of the convention center and led the crowd in reciting the 23rd Psalm, "The Lord is my shepherd ..."

..."We've got people dying out here — two babies have died, a woman died, a man died," said Helen Cheek. "We haven't had no food, we haven't had no water, we haven't had nothing. They just brought us here and dropped us."

Tourist Debbie Durso of Washington, Mich., said she asked a police officer for assistance and his response was, "'Go to hell — it's every man for himself.'"

"This is just insanity," she said. "We have no food, no water ... all these trucks and buses go by and they do nothing but wave."

...As he watched a line snaking for blocks through ankle-deep waters, New Orleans' emergency operations chief Terry Ebbert blamed the inadequate response on the
Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"This is not a FEMA operation. I haven't seen a single FEMA guy," he said. He added: "We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans."

...Donald Dudley, a 55-year-old New Orleans seafood merchant, complained that when he and other hungry refugees broke into the kitchen of the convention center and tried to prepare food, the National Guard chased them away.

"They pulled guns and told us we had to leave that kitchen or they would blow our damn brains out," he said. "We don't want their help. Give us some vehicles and we'll get ourselves out of here!"

Storytelling

Australian mythology says the Ancient Ones sang the world into creation. Fundamentally, the world is the result of the singing of songs. And songs are stories.

The world is made up of stories.

Zen Buddhism 101 says that the only real moment is NOW. The past and the future exist only in your imagination.

But imagination is everything.

Everything that has ever happened to you exists, now, only in your imagination. It's only what you THINK happened to you. Your thoughts and memories of the things that happened are not the things themselves. They're only your interpretation, your selection, of experience. We linguistically symbolize the events that occur in our own lives. The map of the experience is not the territory traveled. The map is not the territory. But we all use the maps to navigate our lives.

Your past, your identity, your reality... are all only the stories you repeatedly tell yourself over time. Out of the billions of life experiences you've had, you've chosen to emphasize only a select few to define who you are as a person and how the world is.

This is your story.
About yourself.
About the world.

The world is made up of stories.

Storytelling II

Everyone is the author of their own story.

Maybe you chose to believe someone else's story about yourself... You're smart. You're stupid. Fat. Beautiful. Ugly. Strong. Weak.

But you are the author of your story.

You can write a better, happier, weirder, more entertaining story anytime you want. Just choose. Choose your story or you'll only be playing a role in someone else's...

Choose your story.

Storytelling III

Understanding the Story = Realization

Changing the Story = Magick

Transcending Storytelling = Enlightenment

After Enlightenment?

More stories...

"God made man because he loves stories." -- Elie Wiesel

Storytelling IV

Things like psychoanalysis, prayer, hynosis, runes, hexagrams, neurolinguistic programming/neuroassociative conditioning, meditation, tarot, i ching, general semantics, transactional and perceptive psychology and astrology are all tools to tap into, understand, deconstruct, change or re-arrange the inner understandings of your unconscious storytelling mind.

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages." - Shakespeare