AnimaMundi

The New Orlando?

No, please not the new Orlando!

Cashing In On Katrina

Operation Eden posts this from Rolling Stone. On September 26th, Bill Hoagland, a senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, assembled money mongering corporate consultants in the Hart Building to discuss how many hundreds of billions of dollars they could swindle. They were all foaming at the mouth. This was not on CSPAN. 

Speech 5 Response 1

Shrub's famous speech in an artficially lit Jackson Square is one of the great moments in American history. The theatre was dazzling. The cathedral in the background attesting to God's confirmation of Shrub's mission. The shrouding placed over the storefronts on the sides of Jackson Square. The neatly concealed fact that a few blocks away bodies were putrefying. The Atlantic Journal-Constitution weighs in on the speech and the aftermath.

(Via Nola.com)

NYC Transit Strike Solution

This hobo  has a solution to the transit strike. The strikers are looking toward secure benefits for future workers, e.g. retirement age 55 years versus 62. It's also costing a lot of people a lot of money. The poor are the ones who suffer the most. They can't get to their jobs. No job = no rent = no housing. Many poor people pay half their wages in rent alone.

The Halifax Explosion

On NPR the other day, I heard a bookseller from Mt. Holyoke, MA speak about The Halifax Explosion recounted in the book "Curse of the Narrows : The Halifax Explosion 1917" by Laura MacDonald. It's something I'd never heard of. Yet, it was the largest man-made explosion in history until we killed untold scores of Japanese civilians in WW II.

The Times

Katrenema says it all.

At appetites you have another take on it all.

And yet another take on the New Orleans food scene. People in New Orleans don't ask what you do for a living during an evening of conversation. They ask if you'd like more to eat and drink. My kind of place.

Levee Flaw Elusive

The Times-Picayune covers the elusive design flaw of the levees and the inability of the USACOE to produce the drawings of the levees as built in this article. (Via Harry Shearer)

I had previously blogged that the depth of the piles wasn't as deep as should have been. I was wrong and stand corrected. They were driven deep enough so the focus now shifts to the pervious soil underneath the levees.

Over the past week, there has been a lot written about Richard Pryor, one of the best comedians of our time. Appearing on Imus in the Morning, George Carlin said that we lost Richard Pryor a long time ago. It was 15 years ago that MS ended his career. This is one of the best tributes that I've read. RIP

The Holiday Spirits

Here's a good example of what the holidays do to people.

Bad Breeders

Evidently, Aldo was not the only Frenchie born with defects sold by this breeder, Pat Rauh. This meetup group in NYC has some horror stories too. I've read of at least four or five people in the NYC Frenchie meetup group who have purchased very unhealthy Frenchies from this breeder. There's no way that anyone is going to receive compensation from this breeder. I believe she no longer is selling to individuals due to the bad press that she's deservedly got. She's reportedly selling to pet stores in the Saugerties-Woodstock-Purling NY area. This woman has sold horses, birds and English bulldogs too. The only recourse that people have is to somehow throttle her source of income.

Mardi Gras Is On the Table

                

This article from the Times-Picayune leaves no doubt about Mardi Gras.

FEMA Ups and Downs

Craig Giesieke at Metroblogging New Orleans gives a good overview of what a small business owner has to go through to recover his decimated source of income. Many think that people and businesses don't need help much anymore. Wrong.

The fallout from Katrina is not pretty and pat.

Shrub's Snub

Mike Tidwell, author of "Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast, posts this article on Bush's quiet kiss of death bestowed on the city of New Orleans. The funds aren't going to be provided to rebuild the wetlands and barrier islands. Unless there's a national outrage of some kind, this is likely to mean the demise of the city, as it has been "known". On the page of this article there's also a lot of informative Katrina links. All this bullshit coincides with damning testimony of displaced people from New Orleans on Capitol Hill and the revelation that The Army Corps of Engineers didn't construct the levees as they were supposed to be. Nobody was looking, so they only drove the reinforcement material 16.7 feet down instead of 25 ft. It must have been the heat and mosquitoes.

Apocalytic rants are not my style. I do believe in the basic inhumanity of man towards man and other living creatures on the planet. Man has been so consistently brutal in his short history on this globe. It's been truly astounding in its expanse and durability. Jesus Lap Dancing Christ, it's almost 2006. Maybe we should try another species other than mankind to head up matters. It's been a gigantic failure. Devolution might be a shot in the dark. We might sneak through by the skin of our teeth. A noted Swiss psychologist had visions when he was at that infamous threshold during a severe illness. He was told/saw that we would barely make it through a worldwide catastrophe. He came through the illness to complete some noteworthy books.

Late Night Thoughts

This time of year brings out the best and worst in people. Many strive to ring in brotherhood and love during the season of the Christ child. This is the way it should be 365 days of the year, Jesus Slam-Dancing Christ! It's not that way though. We save all our love and devotion for these 3-4 fucking weeks. What the hell is that about? Material goods, Watt says. We can only turn on the love if the cash register is blinging or the online sales are clicking? It's a proven factoid. I have witnessed, within my own extended disintegrated family, a glut of presents beneath the Xmas tree that could feed the people of Somalia for a year or so. These relatives claim to be limiting the ludicrous expenditures on Xmas each year. The shear volume of presents beneath the tree remains staggering year to year. Do these people ever think why they put a star on top of a tree at Xmas? I wonder how many people think of the solstice. The mythological Halcyon laid her eggs on a nest in the ocean when Aeolus made the seas calm for seven days at the time of the winter solstice. The symbol of tranquility has turned into a name (Halcion) for a very useful insomnia drug for our sleepless times. Ga' night.