Not MIA

I am not MIA, just busy. Helping at a Red Cross shelter with 12 hour shifts being the norm. The volunteers are trying but this is the impression I get from all that they are dealing with. The local M&M plant has exploded and they, the volunteers, have the task of sorting out each color into its own pile while it is raining.

Rita is ashore

Hurricane Rita came ashore about 2:30am Central time just east of the Texas/Louisiana border as a Category 3. Winds of 120mph with one gust of 160mph reported and the hurricane is moving to the north at 12mph. Looking at the radar loop from Lake Charles radar via National hurricane Center, the eye is no longer clear but filled. Lets hope the hurricane does not slow down or it will be a deluge and the renewed flooding in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans may worsen.
Here is the midnight readings of tide, pressure, wind speed, and temperature at Calcasieu Pass, LA. Here is the link.

NPR has the Katrina Watergate tapes

Please go to this link over at NPR and click on the Listen button at the top. I hope someone secures the original tapes for later investigation. And I want to see the transcripts.

Governor Blanco on the Saturday afternoon before landfall on a conference call saying they should not warn people to evacuate but have their churches next Sunday morning tell the people to go home, pack, and flee. I am totally boggled at her cluelessness, her complete lack of sense of urgency. Instead of using radio and TV along with police going house to house, hope all the people will goto church and then be told. And this person is a governor?

Col. Jeff Smith telling people to send up their requests via computer and FEMA would respond. Right..... use a computer and high-speed connection after the power failed. Did no one think of alternate means of communications? Like carrier pigeons?

The missing FEMA gen-packs that last year's Hurricane Pam simulation had already brought to light. That lack of sense of urgency thing again I bet or did the local FEMA directors who are under indictment swindle the money that was supposed to get the gen-packs?

You know what, there is enough feces to cover all of New Orleans.

Hurricanes and Red Cross update

Hurricane Rita is just a few hours from landfall. Thank any deity you pray to it has diminished to a Category 3 storm. It can still cause a lot of damage, but not as much as a Category 4 or 5 could.

Been busy all day and then sat down to watch the DVD box set edition of Ben Hur once I got home. So not been paying that much attention to Hurricane Rita. So am not sure if those talking heads on the Weather Channel has mentioned this little bit of information. Some people are probably wondering why does a hurriane lose power as it approaches landfall. A hurricane is basically a steam engine and it depends upon heat and water vapor to keep going. So as a hurricane approaches any significant landmass, using Northern Hemisphere since that is where cyclones called hurricanes occur, the feeder bands on the Eastern side are swirling in a counter-clockwise direction and passing over land more and more. Hence there is less water vapor and heat to feed the hurricane engine on that side of the storm, so like a car running out of gas so does a hurricane. Another factor is how fast the storm is moving. The faster the storm, the less impact landmass has on those feeder bands before landfall and hence the storm stays stronger. Conversely, the slower moving a storm is the more it will weaken before landfall.

Well we got to the distribution site this morning. The county disaster director was there along with one police cruiser. The Red Cross had folded the check operation the previous afternoon. And incredibly there were no cars waiting at the gate to get in, the police had managed to disperse them before our arrival. So for several hours all we did was watch the gate and make sure any stragglers got the message. As we were doing this, two Red Cross workers showed up. Their bureaucracy had failed to tell them the operation was over, a lady put on her Red Cross vest. Since we had been telling people the place was closed, we quickly suggested to her to pull that vest off. She was quick on the uptake, once the words Red Cross and 'we told them the Red Cross program was closed.' the vest came off in a flash. So a riot was avoided. Have not heard of any riots at any of the places checks were being distributed, but some sites had overt armed guards to keep the people in line. I am glad I was not at one of those sites. Meanwhile it seems where I was not the only place where people were scamming the Red Cross for money. As a result of widespread abuse, even in the face of constantly evolving defenses; the Red Cross suspended writing any checks to Katrina survivors who lost food due to loss of electricity. Hence there we were Friday morning telling the people to call the police to see if they had other information or just go home since we were closed.

So now watching to see if Hurricane Rita will pull any surprises besides those leaking levees in New Orleans. Unfortunately this storm has indirectly claimed 24 lives in Texas when a vehicle transporting elederly people away from Rita's possible landfall caught fire, killing them. Lets pray there are no more deaths from Rita and that Rita continues to fizzle.

Rita/Katrina

I am dog tired but delaying a long soak in the tub to post some comments.

Just got done with a 15 hour day working with the Red Cross. Mainly working as a gopher and helping park cars while they tackled cutting checks to those affected by Katrina's wrath. As we left today there were vehicles already lined up for tomorrow.

Due to Rita, whether there will be a tomorrow cutting checks is very much in doubt. We were told to come back on the assumption the Red Cross would be ready to handle more people. As I said the volunteers were caught in-between helping Katrina victims or preparing shelters for the Rita refugees with no decision yet. Some of the volunteers were scheduled to return home but that is also in doubt.

What I observed of the Red Cross personnel was highly favorable. Always checking on the people waiting, seeing if they need something to drink or snack on while off in a corner several volunteers baby-sat the toddlers as their parents waited. They had multiple stations to process people's claims. They had two counselors standing by along with two medics.

Unfortunately I wish I could report the people who came looking for succor were equally good and noble. Alas it was not. Some people, once they were done, would go into town and try to sell their ticket to someone else. Which meant increased verification of the tickets. One time had to get the police involved when a person in a car waiting outside the gate threatened one of the volunteers with death because we ran out of tickets to issue; the quota is 500 a day and believe me it takes from 9am until after 5pm to process 500 people, so the police escorted the irate person to jail. It was incredible how many fathers were claiming for their children but had no wife. Or the reverse was also true. Or trying to claim adult children just to get an extra $300 per. The police got involved with another case because the person in question had been through the line at least once before and was back trying to get more money. The Red Cross volunteers hardly heard from these people, once the check was signed, a simple 'thank you.' To me that was the worse part, the sheer ingratitude of the people being helped.

Now those volunteers are caught betwixt, keep caring for Katrina victims or get ready for people fleeing Rita. Or try to do both. Tough call someone has to make, I hope they have already made it. Anyway I am off to go soak in tub. Got another long day tomorrow, we get to find out if the people seeking help will riot if the Red Cross does not show up. Thank goodness there will be police present.

P.S. For those who may face such a heartbreaking experience as asking for help from the Red Cross, a few simple bits of advice. Do not bring other family members unless you are car-pooling several households because the Red Cross only allows the ticket holder in, not family unless small children. Which leads to point two, why subject the children to a 24 hour wait in an automobile when they could be baby-sat? The Red Cross requires a picture ID before cutting a check, don't loose your ID. If you have lost your ID and proof of residence, bring a utility bill. Even then the Red Cross may tell you to get a picture ID before they will handle your claim. Also keep track of your SSN card. And for every dependent you claim, better have supporting documents like birth certificates for the children. But most importantly, have patience and understanding, the Red Cross is trying as best they can to help, being a screaming banshee will not endear you to the Red Cross nor your fellow citizens. In fact the Red Cross may get the police to toss you out.

Comment spam

Well, as of late it seems I am speaking into an echo chamber to hear my own voice since there are no comments, automated comment spam is like rubbing salt into a wound. It hurts.

So I am implementing word verifiction. Lets see how this works. I prefer to leave Anonymous enabled since some people like to cruise blogs and comment on things that strike their fancy without becoming bloggers themselves. Let me know what all of you think of the new configuration.

Hurricane Rita

This map is buried in the NHC links via NOAA. You can try this link to find it along with other storms. I think it gives a good relationship between Rita and the hurricane's possible path.

HF means Hurricane Force and TSF is Tropical Storm Force. For Rita, HF extends out to 70 miles while TSF extends 175 miles. Rita's pressure right now is 897 mb pressure and still moving west.

Best estimate for landfall is Saturday morning with Galveston close to the center lane. Pray for all the people of Texas and the evacuees from Louisiana who are now living in Houston and facing another hurricane.

Katrina post

I have been going through the Clarion-Ledger newspaper's Katrina photo slideshows, which can be found here.

There are so many images; some hopeful like Mary Mahoney's resturaunt has spray painted on a damaged wall proclaiming 'We'll be back!', or gallows humour recognizing bitter truth without giving up, others are surreal like a fishing boat sitting on an even keel in a roadway while an American Red Cross van passes by, haunting juxtapositions, and then there are pictures that show the true power of Katrina's storm surge like this one of the Pelican Kay Condominiums or these stairs that harken back to another staircase to nowhere that was a symbol in Gulfport on Hwy. 90 of Camille's powerful storm surge. At least there is this picture showing one of the two replica schooners Biloxi Yacht Club had built to recreate Mississippi Gulf Coast nautical history survived.

Though in lore the yardstick of Camille's destruction was the Richelieu Manor Apartments in Pass Christian [ locals drop that last 'i' so it sounds like the word ends as 'ann']. Here is before&after picture of those apartments. Stu Ostro's blog had something to say about the Richelieu Manor Apartments. Here is the NOAA image of the shopping center that covered over the remains of the Richelieu Apartments, Katrina wiped out a different set of apartments nearby and I hope no one was in those. The damage is just staggering.

Lets all hope Rita fizzles out, people do not need another storm so soon.

Impeach Blanco web-site

To quote Tip O'Neil, "All politics is local."

And I think some locals are up in arms. All residents of Louisiana please go look at this site. Let them know if you agree or disagree with their idea. Let the voice of the people be heard.

Thanks to Smash and his Indepundit site for posting the link.

Alles kaput?

The problems that New Zealand is wrestling with are mirrored over in Germany. The German elections for the Bundestag is not a mandate for anyone. Angela Merkel's CDU and sister party CSU gathered 35.2% of the vote and possibly 225 seats while incumbent Gerhard Schroeder's SDP got 34.3% and maybe 221 seats.

There is talk in Germany of a grand coalition between CDU, CSU, and SDP. Truthfully in my amateur opinion this would be best solution for Germany since these three parties have 70% of the votes and hence represent a more mainstream view than various small parties like the Greens or the New Left.

The only dragon's tooth I see impeding such a grand coalition is Gerhard Schroeder himself. While he has virulently denounced America and promised domestic reforms; the economy has spluttered, unemployment has risen to 12% and that is the worse since World War II, and the Euro has lost ground to the US Dollar. Before the elections Schroeder had said if defeated he would retire from politics. At 34.3%, I would say the SDP did lose. Schroeder is now campaigning to lead such a grand coalition because he has the experience. I refer to my previous points on the German economy spluttering and high unemployment, some experience. Schroeder is placing himself before the needs of the nation, his ego before the people's needs.

I hope members in the SDP will realize that Schroeder is endangering their party and a possible working government to feed his ego. And that they tell Gerhard to go take that month's vacation as guaranteed by German law while they work out some details. Or better yet to tell him to shut up, sit down, and eat some sauerkraut. Because if they don't, then Germany will be ruled by a shaky minority coalition that will have no mandate while being held hostage by the smaller parties. And as long as Germany seems rudderless, the economy as a whole in Europe will falter. Which could breed all kinds of mischief if it goes on long enough.

The New Zealand election

After previous post on New Zealand I went haring off through the wilds of the Internet to learn some more of what is going on with the Kiwis and how they got there.

It is looking like Labour under Helen Clark will win, but only if it allies with Anderton, Green, and Maori parties. The president of the Maori party, Professor Whatarangi Winiata, has gone on record vowing to oppose any chance of National taking power; so even with overseas ballots and provisional ballots still to be counted along with a Maori Party council, it looks like Maori will ally with Labour and hence Labour will lead a minority coalition government.

This truthfully leaves Clark as PM in a perilously weak position. Labour only has 50 seats and one needs 61 to form a government. If one of the minor parties bolts, then New Zealand may face another national election. John Anderton, who leads the Anderton Party, is a major shareholder of Kiwibank and he should worry if Labour's largesse of throwing free cash at college students in the form of interest free loans will send the ship of state onto financial shoals; I would think if it does, it would be a good reason to leave the coalition since it would be bad for Kiwibank and there goes one seat. The Greens could bolt over various issues, but since Helen Clark has already declared New Zealand a nuclear free zone it does not look likely unless Labour repeals/modifies that foreshore/seabed legislation to get the Maori Party aboard and there would go six seats. And if the Maori Party does not get some modification of that legislation, then they could bolt also and take four seats. Any of these scenarios would leave Labour in the minority and out of power unless it got cozy with National, First, ACT, or United to form another coalition. And since National gained many rural seats at Labour's expense when Labour concentrated on metropolitan seats and National MP Tony Ryall has been voicing strong concern over one of Clark's minister's interfering with the immigration case of one foreign worker who happens to work for that minister. I do not see National allowing itself to be co-opted and even if National does come aboard, I would bet the Maori Party would bolt then. And if National does not join Labour to form a majority coalition, then Labour needs ACT, United, or First to join to keep the minority coalition; it all depends upon which group bolts from the Labour coalition to see which of the other parties Labour would talk to. ACT has two seats, United has three seats, and First seven seats. For Labour to entice any of these three parties to join would involve some kind of deal that hopefully would not alienate Labour's remaining allies.

After writing the above, I have to agree with some New Zealand editorialist. Helen Clark has to be thinking working at the UN would be easier. This is a house of cards just waiting for one errant gust of wind to collapse it.

Kiwi Kaos

While the world watches with interest as the people of Afghanistan brave violence to cast their votes. And meanwhile the people of Europe holds its collective breath over the tight elections in Germany between Schroeder and Merkel, Merkel's lead has shrunk in recent months but Schroeder political hand is still weak with 10 of the local states in opposition party hands and a struggling economy. These are races to watch with interest naturally, but another political drama is already playing out.

Down south in the Pacific Ocean to the east of Australia is another lovely country called New Zealand. And the recent history of the country shows much political turmoil since Labour under Helen Clark rose to power. The Royal New Zealand Air Force has been effectively abolished. They have 'accidentally' let in refugee Ba'athist thugs from Iraq. Opposed Operation Iraqi Freedom and got into a diplomatic squabble with Israel. Now the simmering local political pot is boiling over and looks to claim everyone. New Zealand just had national elections pitting Labour against the National party with various splinter parties muddying the water: Greens, Jim Anderton, First, United, Act, and Maori parties. Neither Labour nor National has enough seats to form a majority. Labour with Green and Jim Anderton has 57 seats while National and Act have 51 seats. United has three seats and First has seven seats. Which leaves four seats in the 122 seat parliament to the Maori Party. Both Labour and National are going after all three parties with fervor but it looks like the 18 month old Maori Party will be in the driver seat at least to form a coalition and they got some grievances to settle with both major parties. National does not believe the Maori should have special seats and wants to abolish them, so National gaining Maori is very slim but National with fewer seats need Maori more than Labour does which could form a government if both United and First join. Labour is equally estranged from the Maori party, partially it is bad blood between PM Helen Clark and Maori co-leader Tariana Turia and due to government legislation on foreshore and seabed legislation.

So stay tuned to possible political eruptions south of the Equator along with all the other possible upsets and upheavals.

I thought it was a movie.

Nicholas Cage is starring in an upcoming movie called Lord of War in which he plays a Russian arms dealer who can get any upstart nation any weapon it wants for a price.

Just to prove reality is far more strange and posibly dangerous than fiction, I present to you this little gem that I found on eBay: F-16A Fighting Falcon for sale. The sellers actually say they have two from a foreign government along with spares for sale. Hopefuly BATF, US Customs, and the rest of the government alphabet fall on these jokers like a ton of C4.

Though if these sellers are legit and if I won a huge lottery like last night's MegaMillions jackpot of $250million, I think an F-16 would be a pretty cool ornament to grace the driveway.

Hugo goes off his meds, again.

After President Hugo Chavez's energetic speech at the United Nations villifying the United States' actions in Iraq and elsewhere along with the idea of moving the UN from New York City to Jerusalem[ hey what a neat idea, move to a city that is targeted with carbombs weilded by those darlings of the UN - the oppressed Paleostinians], I did not think he could top it so quickly or is that dig any deeper. I guess since he did not pound a size 12 shoe on the desk like one of his heroes he felt duty bound to compensate with more verbal spewing.

So I present to you dear readers the following: President Chavez claims because the US Navy put some sailors ashore at Curacao for shore leave it is the prelude for a US invasion of his country. He even claims it has a name, Operation Balboa. And he vows a 100 year fight if the invasion happens. I have a few questions for President Chavez; if the US is plotting an invasion by staging troops on Curacao, then why isn't he demanding that Holland evict these Americans since Curacao is a Dutch territory? Has it slipped his mind who owns that island, much like he has let slip his mental marbles? Or maybe because there is no substance to these crazy claims? That he is merely preening in the international spotlight as someone who is daring to speak 'truth to power' by standing up to those big bad Yanquis?

After this latest eruption, I think Hugo Chavez has suprassed Qaddafi of Libya for title of 'National Leader who says the most Outrageously Crazy Things.' Qaddafi still has Hugo beat in the fashion sense though.

Source:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,169658,00.html

Sept 11th and Katrina comments

Just returned from a conference. Got to fly on September 11th and back on the 14th. So will post some comments in relation to the first day plus Katrina.

As I boarded the jet that was to take me to Dallas-Forth Worth I had time to really look up front where the pilots are. While still plugged into the ground cart supplying cooling air the cockpit door was open so got to see the MFDs operating and the pilots going through some of their pre-flight checklist. As soon as they were ready to back away from the gate, the cockpit door closed and then the door we all entered through was closed. Has anyone paid attention to what one of the new doors looks like? Before that day in 2001, that door was just an ordinary appearing door with a turn-knob. And if a child wanted to see the cockpit, well if the flight crew did not mind it was not a problem. Now, that door looks like it belongs at the front of a speak-easy or a crack-house. There is metal reinforcement to prevent an easy break-in, a dead-bolt lock, and an armored peep-hole. For all the up-armoring that has gone into that door, there would have been a good chance before 9/11/2001 such a door would have been opened by the flight crew because the training at the time was, ‘these are hijackers and they got demands, so don’t give them a hassle because they won’t kill us if they get their way.’ That is what 9/11/2001 truly changed for many Americans, their mindset. They have been lead from the unreal idea of ‘it could never happen in the United States’ to the very real concern of it could happen on their flight. Therein lays the true defense against more such attacks.

While on this flight, I got a chance to talk to a FEMA team member going home. He had spent almost two weeks on the Mississippi Gulf Coast with his crew eating MREs while trying to help out people after Katrina. They started in Biloxi and worked their way westward. If someone needed medicine, they handed out a five day supply to that person; there was some confusion on this point since some unnamed National Guardsmen had been telling the local populace that FEMA would give them refills. One of their first rescues was a four month old dog with a broke leg, they fixed the dog up, named him Chance, and kept him with their team. He even showed me some of his digital pictures; one series was of a house that looked intact. Until he zoomed in, what I mistook for a large bay window was instead a missing wall courtesy of Katrina’s storm surge. When the water washed back, it dragged the house’s air conditioner across the street along with everything else in the house.

My conference was held in Wichita, Kansas. It was somewhat eye-opening to realize how far Katrina’s reach was, but even Wichita was getting ready to house evacuees of Katrina’s destructive wrath. They had supplies laid in and orderly rows of cots set up. In the end, no one got sent to Wichita to sleep on those cots or use those supplies. So Wichita’s Red Cross and Salvation Army sent all those cots and supplies to the ravaged areas along with almost $2.5million in donations to help people. While there were no mass evacuees, Wichita churches were sponsoring homeless families, pairing them up with their church families and helping them get settled. Some of the evacuees are now preparing to move permanently to Wichita and are taking their first step by seeking employment. To the people of Wichita, KS, thank you for caring and helping.

For more people who have been helping out with almost no news coverage, the countries of Holland and Mexico have sent troops to assist on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Royal Dutch Marines and Mexican Marines have pitched in cleaning up and helping rebuild a school in Gulfport. To them a big thank you I think is in order. To borrow navy fighter puke talk, Bravo Zulu.

And I must take up arms or at least umbrage at the people rallying to Governor Blanco’s defense in regards to her request to President Bush for assistance. “Send everything you got” does not qualify as a formal request for soldiers. Spin all you want but it just aint so. A state governor must specifically request military assistance. For President Bush to do a Vulcan mind-meld on Governor Blanco to realize she meant troops is just plain ludicrous. Can you imagine a police officer telling jurors that he busted into a house because he thought there might be stolen goods in that house? The case would be thrown out and not just in the balliwick of the Ninth Circuit in a heartbeat. But that is exactly what many are saying Bush should have done, he had a hunch and he should have sent in the troops. Never mind by doing so he would be usurping state sovereignty and violating the US Constitution. Now who is trying to act like a cowboy in this instance, not the President but his accusers sure are. I wish they would stop with this faux excuse, but they figure they can get enough gullible people who have been raised on the government teat to believe them and hence deflect blame from themselves. As President Bush has said, there is enough blame to go around for the screw-ups.

Brothers in deed.

Found this link courtesy of LittleGreenFootballs.

I am truly and deeply touched by this act from these brave Iraqis towards those recovering from the ravages of Katrina. Thank you very much and may all of you be blessed a thousand fold.

I observe from FoxNews they are still pulling stranded suvivors out of New Orleans alive. That is very good news. What I find ludicrous is the Tourism Commission vowing to conduct a Mardi Gras next February along with wanting a Super Bowl and dreams of enticing one of the national parties to New Orleans for a 2008 Presidential convention. If draining New Orleans is going to take over a month followed by clean-up efforts, talk of a Mardi Gras even 10% like previous ones is just insane; sure the Krewes might do small Balls with small parades just to ensure they are alive, but nothing grandiose because the city will still be cleaning-up, in mourning for the dead, and wracked by political in-fighting. As for the Super Bowl, wither the Superdome which now resembles the Flavian Ampitheatre in condition? And a national party convention in 2008, I guess it all depends upon who is in jail due to pre-Katrina screw-ups and whether New Orleans will even be in the same spot.

Meanwhile on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, clean up efforts continue. The Waveland area bore the brunt of the storm fury, there is still very little infrastructure there. Two days ago, a 500 bed hospital was dispatched to the area that was fully self-contained. Phones are still iffy from Hattiesburg south, good chance of calling them but them calling you is not so good, while cell-phone coverage is pretty non-existant. A Mississippi Army National Guard unit returned from annual training in Germany early and was immediately dispatched to Pascagoula where the unit was stationed to assist in the clean-up. Meanwhile units from Delaware, Iowa, Alabama, Florida, Nevada, and elsewhere assist in the clean-up and rescue efforts across all of the devastated areas including New Orleans.

There is still way too much to do and I am thankful my damage was limited to just some spoiled food and to a storage building. Do what you can in any way you can to assist those truly in need, please do this now.

The Divine Wind and the Holy martyrs of Islam

I am taking a break from talking Katrina to deal with something else I think is of importance.

Discovery Channel is running commercials pushing their show on Iranian religious martyrs, Suicide Bombers: Cult of Death. What sticks in my mind is them quoting someone proclaiming these warriors are unbeatable and that no army can stand in the way of martyrdom. The guy speaking looked very well fed and dapper in his checkered headdress. He probably never will actually suicide while teaching others how to productively blow themselves up.

Such talk has been heard before. From the original cult of Assassins which was exterminated by a concerted effort of Muslim and Christian leaders, all fearful for their lives least some drugged assassin follower managed to kill them to just sixty years ago when the Sons of Heaven unleashed the Kamikaze upon the U.S. Navy. Kamikaze is a concatenation of two Japanese words, kami for god and kaze for wind and harkens back to a fierce storm that saved Japan from Mongol subjugation. During Operation Iceberg, the invasion of Okinawa, the U.S. Navy weathered extreme losses. 5,000 dead sailors, similar number of wounded, and twelve destroyers sunk; the survivors were just as scarred like USS Laffey which took nine Kamikazes and four bomb hits but remained afloat to fight another day. Vice Admiral Onishi, called the father of the Kamikazes, survived the Special Attack Units he helped create only to commit sepukku when Japan surrendered.

Something should be glaringly obvious when a nation or a culture is reduced to throwing human lives at their opponent, that this nation or culture is on its last legs and is just determined to take as many of the enemy as they can before finally being overcome. The Iranian government, I must concede, probably does think suicide bombers are a viable military force since it chased the US out of Lebanon with just one bomber and by using children to clear minefields during the Iran-Iraq War they saved their soldiers for more valuable ways of dieing. But here it is, over fifteen years since that war ground to a halt due to attrition and I have to wonder if the restive youth of Iran would appreciate being used as yet more cannon fodder for the thugs who control Iran. And there is always history to study, in the end the US solved the Kamikaze tendencies of Japan by dropping two atomic bombs and shocking the Japanese into surrendering. And the Assassins did not last long either. Iran would be wise to study history least the Western World decides to use Iran as nuclear testing grounds.

Oh, another phrase that has me shaking my head from this show. This story trots out this phrase, from I don't know where, calling the suicide bombers the ultimate smart bomb. It does not take what we call, in a classical sense, brains to be a suicide bomber; what it takes is overriding fervor and commitment to a cause to be an effective suicide bomber. Once again look at the Kamikazes, from the start they were mainly composed of student pilots or even those who could barely lift the plane off the ground since all that was important was for them to dive their plane on an American warship.

Suicide attacks are the last gasp, the last futile measure to stave off an inevitable downfall. There is nothing heroic about it, in fact the whole concept is a tragedy that squanders human lives because the leaders do not want to admit their ideas just might be wrong.

SITREP - Katrina

Am alive so thou needn't worry more. Sneaking in some blogging time so it will be quick. Busy supporting the efforts in the devestated areas.

Talked with parents on phone last night. They are down on the coast where they have weathered every hurricane from Camille to present day Katrina. They say Katrina was far worse than Camille was. They also got power back yesterday. So I asked them how long it took to restore power after Camille, they said two to three weeks. Think on that, with far more population and far more damage it took less time to get power back after Katrina than it did after Camille.

As for Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans. The dead of New Orleans' blood is on your hands. You sir from this day forward I shall call Ragin' Nagin, the Killer Cajun. With apologies to the true Accadians.