"...And the pointing finger having writ moves on."
by The Windjammer
O.K., so I reworded it to suit the occasion.
It seems that every lefty and far-out environmentalist on the planet has started blaming the Third George for the disastrous hurricane, Katrina, and its destruction of a part of the Gulf Coast.
If you think that is something new, I have news for you.
The offspring who are now blaming George for Katrina no doubt sprung from some of the same folks who blamed Eisenhower for the drought which hit the northern Midwest during the early fifties or from some others who were remarkably similar.
If they really believe the Third George caused the hurricane, why don't they go one step farther and say that he should turn all hurricanes out to pasture in the mid-Atlantic where they can flood nothing but heaps of water?
The pointers ignore both historical and scientific fact. First, there is only one God and his name is NOT George W. Bush. There is at present some question about what that God actually is, but Jesus Christ and the American Indians told us. Most of us didn't pay attention. There are among us multitudes still 'tilting at windmills' in their objection to an anthropomorphic God. Let them tilt. They know not, and know not that they know not, what God really is.
There have been hurricanes (the stats actually say "tropical storms," but it means hurricanes and typhoons, among others) since man learned to draw pictures on rocks. Since he began keeping score in some kind of language that three or four of us can read, there has been NO (Yup! I said NO) increase in the number of such storms. It only appears that way today because of what some call improved communications. The reason we see so much more damage from storms today is not necessarily because of an increase in general ferocity, but because of an exponential increase in population in areas normally affected by such weather.
Contrary to what some of the wild-eyed have been touting as truth, air temperature has very little to do with the magnitude of hurricanes. They need to read a few books on the cause and effect before going off the deep end. The supporters of the Kyoto protocol who criticize Bush and the
Republicans for rejecting it also ignore several facts about that piece of junk mail and who did and who did not support it.
We had a tornado in WV in the early forties which destroyed property and claimed more than a hundred and a half lives. I was there and later helped with the recovery. It passed within about a hundred yards of my dwelling place which was untouched. I can't recall anybody blaming Roosevelt at the time, but then he was the shining hero of the day. If a tornado of the same strength would hit today and follow the same path, even in this poverty-level state, the damage would be far greater and the toll would be at least three times as many and the entire fault would be laid squarely on the shoulders of the Third George. Ain't politics just grand?
The ones with the sharp fingernails are also griping about the response time. They ignore logistics. There may be at least one or two of them who have no idea what the word means, let alone understand what it entails. It would have been nice if the Third George, possessing all the powers of a god which the left seems bent on ascribing to him, had told us ahead of time that the hurricane was going to hit the coast with a bang and urged us all to leave as quickly as possible because it was going to be one devil of a storm, what with all the wind and water within it. Come to think of it, that is just what he and all his angels (the weather prognosticators, etc.) DID tell us.
Should we all be blaming him for the fact that so many of us didn't wash our ears?
I am an environmentalist. I agree that mankind, not just a few men, need to preserve the environment to the best of our ability. ALL of it, not just dogs and cats and trees and greenbriers. I hope that at some time in the VERY near future we can put away our tomahawks and quit trying to take scalps and concentrate on the real problem facing us.
That problem is NOT the use of fossil fuels. It may soon be, but not now.
5 comments:
I don't think anyone is blaming President Bush for the hurricane.
I think everyone should ask why it has taken so long to get aid to the victims of the hurricane.
Buffalo, As Mr. Shott could attest, I have never been exactly what you could call a Bush fan. I voted for him twice because I thought that he was immeasurably better than either of his opponents. I am not about to criticize his handling of this crisis and certainly not his (and our) response to 9/11.
The column was written in response to the claims in other media,both foreign and domestic, in which there was criticism of President Bush for opposition to the Kyoto Protocol and an attempt to connect global warming and the treaty to the storm. One series of comments by a prominent person directly stated that position on TV, blaming the President. He ignores history.
One domestic paper in D.C. and one in TX carried columns which prompted the part about God.
I, too, believe that response time could possibly have been quicker, but the media carried stories on Monday that New Orleans had been largely spared. That was very likely true at that moment, but when the dikes or levees failed, the destruction was multiplied many fold. There is now some question about why the local officials used revenues to build casinos and other projects which were of only pecuniary benefit rather than to reinforce the embankments which had been under scrutiny for several years.
Do I think help should have arrved more quickly? Certainly. Do I believe there is ANYONE in this country who could have responded more quickly, given all the extreme circumstances? Not likely. Do I believe that efforts were slowed because of gunfire directed at rescue persons, properties and vehicles? Yes.
Mobilization of the 8-mile-long convoy and the loading of materials needed to fill it with relief supplies had to take time. Putting a few bottles of water and food into the multitude would have heightened the disaster.
I don't think anyone yet has a real handle on the number of displaced persons across the South. We will be extremely fortunate if we can manage to find the necessities for all of them for the full time help is needed.
We certainly do not need to be pointing fingers at this time, but instead utilizing what resources we have to take care of the problems. Perhaps we can use the knowledge we gain in this situation to be better prepared for the next.
The Windjammer
*insert Buffalo's comments here*
The majority of this catastrophe has absolutely nothing to do with the hurricane other than it (Katrina) was the impetus for a full demonstration of the total lack of leadership on the part of this administration.
Everyone knows damn well that if CLinton and his administation had exhibited even 1/3 of the incompetence exhibited by this administration... there would have been hell to pay. It would have been blamed to blowjobs...
I am so damn sick of this incompetent BS... this total lack of Leadership... of this "theoretical" moral superiority...
It is becoming more and more apparent to most people the total lack of legitimate substance (leadership, tax policy, policy in general, morality, compassion, competence, style, REALITY) to this administation.
This is not conservative. I voted for a conservative. I did not vote for a fool's idiot. This is not freaking conservative. This is not republican... If you take this administration for what it is... it is a Political Military Industrial Religious Complex.
By other terms, that is approaching Facist.
2008... I would say "Hurry up, 2008," but this happens to be my son's childhood... and, to me, damnit, that is just a sad-assed state of affairs.
More and more everyday all I can say is... "You have got to kidding me."
Ridiculous. Anyone that has less than 20 million dollars that supports this incompetent Administration has taken the Moral Superiority argument way too seriously.
*wipes sweat from brow*
No, Katrina is not the result global warming. But be prepared for the scene in New Orleans to be repeated over and over in countries who would be ecstatic to have the kind of response we did as climate related disasters increase.
And since you brought Jeusus into it, rest assured he would not approve of the current Repugs- usind His name to justify discrimination, increase the divide between rich and poor, and destroying His creations to so that they can afford their ivory backscratchers.
What we have here is vintage right-wing rhetoric.
It starts with a ludicrous assertion which noone could possibly back up...
It seems that every lefty and far-out environmentalist on the planet has started...
...and goes on to draw conclusions from this which is kind of like building a house on a foundation of quicksand.
I think it would be safe to say that the majority of people want to see these poor people sorted out and relocated before the start of finger-pointing.
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