Colby Cosh points out the precedents from the Hanshin earthquake that wiped out Kobe, Japan in 1995.
Most interesting possibility: The immediate need to use other ports will increase other ports' profits enough for them to invest in infrastructure improvements that will give them an advantage relative to what they have now, making them more attractive even if the destroyed port is reconstructed completely.
I would also suppose that the general infrastructure of the nation would also be altered so as to make it easier to us other ports, which would also bleed business from the destroyed port once it is reconstructed.
That is all.
Friday, September 09, 2005
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Bolton: Mend it, Don't End it. Bah.
Bolton wants a more effective, more powerful UN, says Charles Featherstone.
This explains why paleoconservatives like myself, who naturally hate the UN, do not unite with the neoconservatives to oppose it, which so bewildered Richard Poe. The neocons' goal was never to destroy the UN but to make it more amenable to their own ends. Most paleos were afraid that if they tried to help the neocons, they would use that help not to dismantle the UN but to take it over, and to make it more powerful and more active in the world, albeit to different ends. Such an alliance could well strengthen the very world governmental institutions that the paleocons abhor so much. If the paleocons are against world government itself, and not just the current people trying to run the embryonic world government, such a risk might be too much to take.
That is all.
This explains why paleoconservatives like myself, who naturally hate the UN, do not unite with the neoconservatives to oppose it, which so bewildered Richard Poe. The neocons' goal was never to destroy the UN but to make it more amenable to their own ends. Most paleos were afraid that if they tried to help the neocons, they would use that help not to dismantle the UN but to take it over, and to make it more powerful and more active in the world, albeit to different ends. Such an alliance could well strengthen the very world governmental institutions that the paleocons abhor so much. If the paleocons are against world government itself, and not just the current people trying to run the embryonic world government, such a risk might be too much to take.
That is all.
Add Environmentalists to the List (of Blamees)?
Lawrence Auster discusses an article by Michael Tremoglie that suggests that environmental lawsuits prevented the construction of floodgates that might have ameliorated (although not entirely prevented) the situation in New Orleans post Katrina.
I'm fairly certain that there will be people contesting that the floodgates would have done any good, and it may be awhile before there is any consensus on the issue, but it is important to get this issue out into the open so it can be explored.
That is all.
I'm fairly certain that there will be people contesting that the floodgates would have done any good, and it may be awhile before there is any consensus on the issue, but it is important to get this issue out into the open so it can be explored.
That is all.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Thoughts on Katrina
Jim Henley muses on the occurrences during Katrina, as well as on the general problems associated with "disaster relief."
There is also a link to this Clark Stooksbury post.
I am tired now, but maybe I will do commentary on these things later.
That is all.
There is also a link to this Clark Stooksbury post.
I am tired now, but maybe I will do commentary on these things later.
That is all.
Someone's Head Should Roll for This
Unacceptable discrimination by the idiots who run FEMA.
What BLEEPING MORON doesn't make a government disaster website Mac- and Linux-compatible?
That is all.
P.S. Forgot to say, "Thanx and a tip o' the hat to Sully.
NOW, that is all.
What BLEEPING MORON doesn't make a government disaster website Mac- and Linux-compatible?
That is all.
P.S. Forgot to say, "Thanx and a tip o' the hat to Sully.
NOW, that is all.
Diana Moon is Back
Blogger Diana Moon, of Letter from Gotham, is back fter a nearly 6-month hiatus (more like 10-month if you don't count one or two blog isolated blog postings early this year).
That is all.
That is all.
Thank You, Adelphia!
I have finally ditched my NetZero dial-up and opted for Adelphia high-speed internet.
It was a good decision.
That is all.
It was a good decision.
That is all.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
"Anti-American" Disaster Relief?
Protect our own people last?
Is it racism? (White UKers and Aussies vs. Black Americans)? Or anti-Americanism? Or are we just more interested in keeping countries who are giving us extra troops in Iraq happy than in saving the lives of people who are poor and who have no special significance politically?
"Sorry, sir, you're an American while these are foreigners, but you're expendable because you aren't likely to be fighting in Iraq." (I doubt that most of the people in the shelters would qualify for military service if they were so inclined).
That is all.
Is it racism? (White UKers and Aussies vs. Black Americans)? Or anti-Americanism? Or are we just more interested in keeping countries who are giving us extra troops in Iraq happy than in saving the lives of people who are poor and who have no special significance politically?
"Sorry, sir, you're an American while these are foreigners, but you're expendable because you aren't likely to be fighting in Iraq." (I doubt that most of the people in the shelters would qualify for military service if they were so inclined).
That is all.
Monday, September 05, 2005
Ol' Sully Is Right on this One
Andrew Sullivan is right.
Bush should fire Michael Brown. Now. And Chertoff, for that matter. Neither one seems to have grasped what the Hell was going on.
Sully also makes some good points as to why Bush is partly to blame for this; although one can hardly exonerate Blanco or Nagins unless one is a partisan hack.
Of course, as good ol' Steve Sailer points out, there is no precedent for Bush firing anyone for incompetence, as long as they stayed loyal to the administration line, so I wouldn't hold my breath.
That is all.
Bush should fire Michael Brown. Now. And Chertoff, for that matter. Neither one seems to have grasped what the Hell was going on.
Sully also makes some good points as to why Bush is partly to blame for this; although one can hardly exonerate Blanco or Nagins unless one is a partisan hack.
Of course, as good ol' Steve Sailer points out, there is no precedent for Bush firing anyone for incompetence, as long as they stayed loyal to the administration line, so I wouldn't hold my breath.
That is all.
And by the Way
Yesterday my Sitemeter account hit the big 10,000 visits!
Some of those visits don't count, of course, because they were my own (due to IP addres shifting, I couldn't get my own visits ignored until Sitemeter switched to cookie-based ignoring a fewe monthsback). So my own visits may have upped the count by 100-200.
But still, I have hit a milestone, or close enough to one.
I hope my readers keep coming back so I can hit 20,000!
That is all.
Some of those visits don't count, of course, because they were my own (due to IP addres shifting, I couldn't get my own visits ignored until Sitemeter switched to cookie-based ignoring a fewe monthsback). So my own visits may have upped the count by 100-200.
But still, I have hit a milestone, or close enough to one.
I hope my readers keep coming back so I can hit 20,000!
That is all.
Sunday, September 04, 2005
A True Hero
A lot of my previous posts have looked at blacks in New Orleans in a rather negative light.
So here is the story of a true African-American hero, eighteen-year-old Jabbor Gibson. There has been some concern that he might be charged for doing this, but so far I see no primary articles stating that he will be prosecuted. Anyone who desires to prosecute him ought to be thrown into a tank of pirahnas.
Thanx and a tip o' the hat to Jim Henley.
That is all.
So here is the story of a true African-American hero, eighteen-year-old Jabbor Gibson. There has been some concern that he might be charged for doing this, but so far I see no primary articles stating that he will be prosecuted. Anyone who desires to prosecute him ought to be thrown into a tank of pirahnas.
Thanx and a tip o' the hat to Jim Henley.
That is all.
More on New Orleans
A lot of people seem to think that the "Looters" people worry about in New Orleans are mostly poor people desperately trying to get food for themselves and hteir families. While there is probably quite a bit of that, the looters that are the problem are actually the criminal elements, who wantonly destroy food supplies, steal TVs and DVD players, and who terrorize the populac with firearms.
Thanx and a tip o' the hat to Steve Sailer.
That is all.
Thanx and a tip o' the hat to Steve Sailer.
That is all.
William Rehnquist, R.I.P.
William Rehnquist, 1924-2005.
There are interesting political implications. But there will be time to discuss those later.
That is all.
There are interesting political implications. But there will be time to discuss those later.
That is all.
National Guard
I have heard a number of complaints that we don't have enough National Guardsmen to control the refugee problem in New Orleans because we have been putting so many of them in Iraq. I am not convinced that this is accurate, however; if all of the National Guard were stationed back home instead of Iraq (as wonderful as that would be), I am not certain of how much it would have improved the situation. (There is also the quesiton of how service in Iraq may have affected the National Guard who are in the US who had done tours in Iraq, and as to whether the National Guard would have recruited more members had the National Guard not been called to serve in Iraq, but again, I am not certain how not invading Iraq would have changed the situation).
Therefore, I have not done any snarky posts on the theme of "why were they in Iraq rather than helping with the Katrina mess." I don't know enough about the situation yet (I'm not certain if anyone does) to be certain that having more National Guardsmen (that is, at the levels that we would have been able to maintain without the attack on Iraq; I'm not thinking of a hypothetical situation in which I pull 2 million National Guardsmen out of my hat) would have made a significant difference.
Rest assured, if it becomes clear that such is the case, I will shout it from the rooftops (er... from the desktops).
That is all.
Therefore, I have not done any snarky posts on the theme of "why were they in Iraq rather than helping with the Katrina mess." I don't know enough about the situation yet (I'm not certain if anyone does) to be certain that having more National Guardsmen (that is, at the levels that we would have been able to maintain without the attack on Iraq; I'm not thinking of a hypothetical situation in which I pull 2 million National Guardsmen out of my hat) would have made a significant difference.
Rest assured, if it becomes clear that such is the case, I will shout it from the rooftops (er... from the desktops).
That is all.
Anti-Racism Kills Blacks?
Is that one lesson from Hurricane Katrina?
Yet more of that Steve Sailer good stuff.
Here is a quick summary of the article:
The French nature of New Orleans culture, combined with cultural tendencies associated with African-Americans, who are not only the most populous group in New Orleans but who run it as well (i.e. the city officials are mostly black), led them to be unprepared for the hurricane. Because this unpreparedness was totally predictable (because these cultural tendencies are well-known, even by people who deny them), people at higher levels of government (e.g. the governor of Louisiana and Bush) should have anticipated these problems and stepped in with plans to deal with the hurricane and its aftermath much sooner. The reason they didn't was due to the fact that such an attempt to co-opt the local government (i.e. the New Orleans government) would be seen as racist.
My thoughts:
This appears to me to be relevant in the discussion as to how much autonomy Congress ought to give to Washington, D.C. I recall someone (I'm not certain who) saying that having a lot of D.C. policy determined by Congress was racist because it implied that the (mostly black) residents of D.C. couldn't govern themselves.
Why anyone would think that the residents of D.C. couldn't governm themselves is beyond me. It's not as if they elected a mayor who had previously been thrown out of office for using cocaine WHILE IN OFFICE. Oh, wait.
So were hundreds, likely thousands, of black people condemned to death because no one wanted to admit that, you know, New Orleans is not a city that is likely to prepare well for a crisis on its own, for fear of being branded racist?
That is all.
Yet more of that Steve Sailer good stuff.
Here is a quick summary of the article:
The French nature of New Orleans culture, combined with cultural tendencies associated with African-Americans, who are not only the most populous group in New Orleans but who run it as well (i.e. the city officials are mostly black), led them to be unprepared for the hurricane. Because this unpreparedness was totally predictable (because these cultural tendencies are well-known, even by people who deny them), people at higher levels of government (e.g. the governor of Louisiana and Bush) should have anticipated these problems and stepped in with plans to deal with the hurricane and its aftermath much sooner. The reason they didn't was due to the fact that such an attempt to co-opt the local government (i.e. the New Orleans government) would be seen as racist.
My thoughts:
This appears to me to be relevant in the discussion as to how much autonomy Congress ought to give to Washington, D.C. I recall someone (I'm not certain who) saying that having a lot of D.C. policy determined by Congress was racist because it implied that the (mostly black) residents of D.C. couldn't govern themselves.
Why anyone would think that the residents of D.C. couldn't governm themselves is beyond me. It's not as if they elected a mayor who had previously been thrown out of office for using cocaine WHILE IN OFFICE. Oh, wait.
So were hundreds, likely thousands, of black people condemned to death because no one wanted to admit that, you know, New Orleans is not a city that is likely to prepare well for a crisis on its own, for fear of being branded racist?
That is all.
Saturday, September 03, 2005
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