Researcher Jay Combe has reached a troubling conclusion. He's told his supervisors at the Army Corps of Engineers that if The Hurricane hits New Orleans, most of the buildings in the city would probably be destroyed. If the water didn't demolish them, the hurricane's horrific winds would. And Combe says that raises a question: How many people would die?
Some researchers say 40,000. Some say 20,000. This Army Corps researcher says those figures are probably too low.
Combe worries, "I think of a terrible disaster. I think of 100,000."
Do you dream sometimes about a hurricane?
"It's strange you should ask that," answers Combe. "I had a dream the other night about flooding, and it's unusual because I don't usually have bad dreams. I can't really remember the dream except that water was coming down a slope. I don't remember much of it, fortunately. I don't want to remember."
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Mourning in New Orleans?
New Orleans may very well get wiped off the map tomorrow. If I was a prophet I'd predict it but I'm not and so I won't. All I know is that I read something very similar to this series about a year ago (Read all of it, pretty scary and it was all known in advance) .
Saturday, March 12, 2005
The Midas Touch
This post is taken from my comments left on the blog Just One Minute about the new bankruptcy legislation. I also have a comment about this topic on another blog of mine: Bass Pundit Preach.
I thought my comments were good enough to post here, not that anyone would come by this blog except by accident.
I thought my comments were good enough to post here, not that anyone would come by this blog except by accident.
Politically i would be best classified as a free trading, pro-business, neo-con, religious right wing conservative intellectual. I can't speak specifically about the merits of this bill cause I don't know much about it.
I do know that I have recently filed for and received a discharge of debts under Chapter 7. While I am not proud of having done so and fully acknowlege pure financial
stupidity and poor decision making on my part in the process, still I don't feel
guilty in the least for having pursued bankruptcy protection because of the
circumstances, my worldview, and intellecual nature. To some it may seem odd but
I really don't "credit" myself as guilty anymore precisely because of my
religious and economic/political beliefs. Walk a mile in my shoes and see where
they lead you.
I want to answer the Leesus question as forthrightly as I
can.
"If people get into debt, why should the creditors get stuck with
the bill?"
Simply because a "creditor" by another name is an investor
who is assuming some risk to pursue profit. Money and people are a volitile
combination and things don't always turn out like we want or expect and that's
life; be thankful for what you have, don't envy or covet and be willing to
forgive those who owe you debts if necessary because if you will not forgive
them it would be better that you should not have gone into business at all.
Getting stuck with the bill and paying it is a righteous thing.
At the end of the day after my bankruptcy I was better off and the credit card
companies and their employees while not "better off" than when they had me on
the hook are still far better off financially than me, are plenty solvant and
are reaping healthy profits. They have better financial sense than me, so more
power to em!
Leesus writes this:
"I am sick of personally financing
other people's "fresh starts." I sold my car once to pay for some idiots "fresh
start."
I have little sympathy. Pay your bills."
If you have no sympathy for the destitute why should the destitute or anyone for that matter have any sympathy for you? The only real sympathy your gonna receive for your attitude is the sympathy of the devil and I'm not saying that to be snippy.
No one likes getting ripped off but between the choice of that or being
heavily saddled by a pile of debt, I know which option I prefer and that from
experience of both? Having your stuff stolen or being betrayed sucks, but having
a conscience and some pride yet knowing that you are a financial screw up and
own less than nothing despite working hard and trying to play by the rules is
far worse.
Some people have a midas touch and in some hands gold turns
to dust. Both thought they were cursed (because they were)
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
This is brilliant
No What? is not dead! At least not before this was added.
From the comments of the Belmont Club the remarks of one Buddy Larsen who I suspect is another OGRE. Apparently the really good stuff is a copy of something to that which wasn't linked, maybe from Mark Steyn. Anyway, like Guinness Draft it's Brilliant!
Makes sense to me. And I love the Wackistanis bit.
From the comments of the Belmont Club the remarks of one Buddy Larsen who I suspect is another OGRE. Apparently the really good stuff is a copy of something to that which wasn't linked, maybe from Mark Steyn. Anyway, like Guinness Draft it's Brilliant!
Here's a snip from the host/post's Mark Steyn link (it illumins the OIF critic's fond recollections of those 'stable' 90s; that previous 'tie' game):
"When Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League, warned that the U.S. invasion of Iraq would ''destabilize'' the entire region, he was right. That's why it was such a great idea.
The ''realpolitik'' types spent so long worshipping at the altar of stability they were unable to see it was a cult for psychos. The geopolitical scene is never stable, it's always dynamic. If the Western world decides in 2005 that it can ''contain'' President Sy Kottik of Wackistan indefinitely, that doesn't mean the relationship between the two parties is set in aspic. Wackistan has a higher birth rate than the West, so after 40 years of ''stability'' there are a lot more Wackistanis and a lot fewer Frenchmen. And Wackistan has immense oil reserves, and President Kottik has used the wealth of those oil reserves to fund radical schools and mosques in hitherto moderate parts of the Muslim world. And cheap air travel and the Internet and ATM machines that take every bank card on the planet and the freelancing of nuclear technology mean that Wackistan's problems are no longer confined to Wackistan. For a few hundred bucks, they can be outside the Empire State Building within seven hours. Nothing stands still. ''Stability'' is a fancy term to dignify laziness and complacency as sophistication."
Makes sense to me. And I love the Wackistanis bit.
Sunday, October 31, 2004
What?'s Blogging problem...
Is this. I have so much that I need to read and learn and that takes priority over me doing commentary in essay form here. Comment sections of blogs are where I do my work and so there is no time for play here. Maybe Someday... Maybe Not!
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Are Terrorists wiser than you?
Ever since the Bush administration chose to pursue the coarse of action we have followed on Iraq, I have been behind them 110% of the way. In doing that I have never harbored any illusions about how easy or difficult this task of eliminating Saddam and building a free, democratic, prosperous, and peaceful Iraq would be. I have always understood that it will take What? it will take, nothing less and nothing more. I am confident that we can and will prevail but on What? time line and What? cost, there has been no way to really know for certain. That is true no matter What? the "experts" predicted in advance because the "experts" were not unanimous; anyone who claims they were is a liar who is cherry picking their experts with the assistance of 20/20 hindsight. The "experts" when taken as a group covered every possible scenario and so inevitably some of them had to be right. What? is needed now most urgently is not debates about the past but a focus on the present realities of the strategy employed by the enemies of freedom.
To repeat something of utmost importance, it will take What? it will take, nothing less and nothing more. Since we have gone into Iraq the picture has become more and more focused as to What? it will take to achieve victory and how it is that our enemies have chosen to prevent that from happening. It should not be a shock that succeeding in What? Bush has set out to do isn't going to come very easy. The main reason for this is not the inevitable mistakes big and small we have made along the way, but is that our enemies are not cream-puffs and ragamuffins.
In Tommy Franks book, American Soldier, he continually alludes to the maxim, "the enemy gets a vote." That basic principle operates in any competitive environment; it does not matter if that environment is sports, business, or war. Our opponents, those arrayed against Iraqi people becoming a free democratic peaceful, and prosperous country, have their heads, hearts and bodies in the game and are not gonna back off until they win or are forced into oblivion; a fate we should be most anxious to visit upon them. This contest is not just a test of brute force, political will, determination, and man power but also of strategy, timing, and tactics .
Many of those set against the Coalition were sent into oblivion trying to stop the US military from toppling the regime of Saddam. However, it would seem that not all of our enemies were so eager to meet their fate and believed that if they were patient than maybe they could win the day after all. Instead of fighting our strength they decided to melt away, lay in the grass, and fight in ways they believed gave them a better shot at victory. Should we really be surprised that our adversaries are not total idiots and morons?
I have always given them more credit than that and so I have looked at the situation in Iraq through a patient and pragmatic lens. It will take What? it will take, nothing less and nothing more. That said, I thought the strategy chosen by our adversaries was more of a loser than it has turned out to be. It was a tremendous risk on their part to think they could melt away and then reorganize enough to cause us as much difficulty as they have been able to do. They ran the risk of defections, being rolled up, or run out by the Iraqi population. It seems that their strategy of risk was a wise one. And we must give them credit and understand What? their plan is.
So What? was there strategy? (Here is What? I believe it to be):
They understood that the prospect of going blow for blow with the US military was a sure fire losing proposition. However, being the brutal bastards that they are, this would not stop them from sacrificing many many of their human resources in the initial battle. After all their pride dictated that they had to at least try to put up a fight and they had some weapons that they thought they should use rather than just lose. They knew their forces would most likely be overwhelmed and just hoped they would give out later rather than sooner.
Upon military collapse, the immediate task would be to go covert and slowly, patiently, and incrementally build their guerrilla resistance movement. They believed they could maintain and recruit man power, had plenty of arms in country, and had lots of dollars on hand stashed in and outside the country to stay in the fight for the long haul if they could just hold on to these things. Coordination between Bathists, Jihadists, and anyone else who would want a piece of the Coalition was in operation well before the Coalition invasion.
The "Laying in the weeds" strategy has been designed against two key political realities for the coalition that they thought could be exploited.
1. The Coalition needs to bring security and democratic elections to Iraq, which would take time to organize and would be difficult even without their interference.
2. Coalition countries will be holding national elections themselves, but these were far enough off in the distance that they would have to be patient in applying themselves.
Their gamble to lay low in the weeds and only re-assert themselves slowly and incrementally has worked in their favor for many in the impatient West have already conceded defeat or are mired in pessimism. The Iraqi insurgent/terrorists along with their useful idiots in the west have successfully called the motives, direction, and commitment of the coalition into question while further baptizing the nation of Iraq into the brutality of man's inhumanity to man. The goal all along has been to divide the coalition and bring down the governments of the Coalition by counting on the weak wills and fecklessness of voters in the West. They succeeded in Spain, they succeeded with the Philippines.
This analysis is commentary on their wisdom and our folly should we be so foolish as to accept our current difficulties as reasons to pull the plug or change coarse now. If I and many others who accept a similar view of the terrorist aims are right about the strategy of the insurgents, we will see just about everything they are capable of in the run up to the US presidential elections and Iraqi elections in January. Will we stand strong, or our the terrorists wiser than you?
To repeat something of utmost importance, it will take What? it will take, nothing less and nothing more. Since we have gone into Iraq the picture has become more and more focused as to What? it will take to achieve victory and how it is that our enemies have chosen to prevent that from happening. It should not be a shock that succeeding in What? Bush has set out to do isn't going to come very easy. The main reason for this is not the inevitable mistakes big and small we have made along the way, but is that our enemies are not cream-puffs and ragamuffins.
In Tommy Franks book, American Soldier, he continually alludes to the maxim, "the enemy gets a vote." That basic principle operates in any competitive environment; it does not matter if that environment is sports, business, or war. Our opponents, those arrayed against Iraqi people becoming a free democratic peaceful, and prosperous country, have their heads, hearts and bodies in the game and are not gonna back off until they win or are forced into oblivion; a fate we should be most anxious to visit upon them. This contest is not just a test of brute force, political will, determination, and man power but also of strategy, timing, and tactics .
Many of those set against the Coalition were sent into oblivion trying to stop the US military from toppling the regime of Saddam. However, it would seem that not all of our enemies were so eager to meet their fate and believed that if they were patient than maybe they could win the day after all. Instead of fighting our strength they decided to melt away, lay in the grass, and fight in ways they believed gave them a better shot at victory. Should we really be surprised that our adversaries are not total idiots and morons?
I have always given them more credit than that and so I have looked at the situation in Iraq through a patient and pragmatic lens. It will take What? it will take, nothing less and nothing more. That said, I thought the strategy chosen by our adversaries was more of a loser than it has turned out to be. It was a tremendous risk on their part to think they could melt away and then reorganize enough to cause us as much difficulty as they have been able to do. They ran the risk of defections, being rolled up, or run out by the Iraqi population. It seems that their strategy of risk was a wise one. And we must give them credit and understand What? their plan is.
So What? was there strategy? (Here is What? I believe it to be):
They understood that the prospect of going blow for blow with the US military was a sure fire losing proposition. However, being the brutal bastards that they are, this would not stop them from sacrificing many many of their human resources in the initial battle. After all their pride dictated that they had to at least try to put up a fight and they had some weapons that they thought they should use rather than just lose. They knew their forces would most likely be overwhelmed and just hoped they would give out later rather than sooner.
Upon military collapse, the immediate task would be to go covert and slowly, patiently, and incrementally build their guerrilla resistance movement. They believed they could maintain and recruit man power, had plenty of arms in country, and had lots of dollars on hand stashed in and outside the country to stay in the fight for the long haul if they could just hold on to these things. Coordination between Bathists, Jihadists, and anyone else who would want a piece of the Coalition was in operation well before the Coalition invasion.
The "Laying in the weeds" strategy has been designed against two key political realities for the coalition that they thought could be exploited.
1. The Coalition needs to bring security and democratic elections to Iraq, which would take time to organize and would be difficult even without their interference.
2. Coalition countries will be holding national elections themselves, but these were far enough off in the distance that they would have to be patient in applying themselves.
Their gamble to lay low in the weeds and only re-assert themselves slowly and incrementally has worked in their favor for many in the impatient West have already conceded defeat or are mired in pessimism. The Iraqi insurgent/terrorists along with their useful idiots in the west have successfully called the motives, direction, and commitment of the coalition into question while further baptizing the nation of Iraq into the brutality of man's inhumanity to man. The goal all along has been to divide the coalition and bring down the governments of the Coalition by counting on the weak wills and fecklessness of voters in the West. They succeeded in Spain, they succeeded with the Philippines.
This analysis is commentary on their wisdom and our folly should we be so foolish as to accept our current difficulties as reasons to pull the plug or change coarse now. If I and many others who accept a similar view of the terrorist aims are right about the strategy of the insurgents, we will see just about everything they are capable of in the run up to the US presidential elections and Iraqi elections in January. Will we stand strong, or our the terrorists wiser than you?
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
The Truth about "Mission Accomplished"
Bush critics should be apologizing and embarressed at their conduct now that the truth about the announcement of the"End of Major Combat Operations" has come out.
Their apology should not be to President Bush, so much as to Tommy Franks and every single soldier that served in phases 1 through 3 in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The media and Bush opponents have mis-charaterized this event as Bush Hubris and nothing but overly hyped political posturing drummed up by Karl Rove and Company.
One problem with that theory, the event was thought up by CENTCOM Commander Tommy Franks and it's intent was a public thank you for our troops that had performed so well. See pages 523-524 of Franks book American Soldier. That is What? that announcement on May 1, 2003 was supposed to be about.
However Bush critics in their frothing attacks on GWB don't give a damn about the truth or giving our troops the respect and credit they deserve and have turned this celebration of our troops success into a politicised fiasco for President Bush. Way to go you so called "patriotic" Bush bashers, you made an event that was all about the troops into yet another divisive front on your anti-Bush take no prisoners crusade. Maybe before you Bush critics sneer at Bush for being a "divider instead of a uniter" you should look in the mirror at your own conduct and accusations and see if there is any honesty or truth in them.
Their apology should not be to President Bush, so much as to Tommy Franks and every single soldier that served in phases 1 through 3 in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The media and Bush opponents have mis-charaterized this event as Bush Hubris and nothing but overly hyped political posturing drummed up by Karl Rove and Company.
One problem with that theory, the event was thought up by CENTCOM Commander Tommy Franks and it's intent was a public thank you for our troops that had performed so well. See pages 523-524 of Franks book American Soldier. That is What? that announcement on May 1, 2003 was supposed to be about.
However Bush critics in their frothing attacks on GWB don't give a damn about the truth or giving our troops the respect and credit they deserve and have turned this celebration of our troops success into a politicised fiasco for President Bush. Way to go you so called "patriotic" Bush bashers, you made an event that was all about the troops into yet another divisive front on your anti-Bush take no prisoners crusade. Maybe before you Bush critics sneer at Bush for being a "divider instead of a uniter" you should look in the mirror at your own conduct and accusations and see if there is any honesty or truth in them.
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
"Dag Nabbit Son of a Monkey Spank"
Already it has come to this, one of the great OGRE's of the bloggosphere has been fenced in and forced to have a blog just so they can make comments on other peoples blogs. LAME!
What? is with having to register to make comments anyway? I was forced to do it at THE COMMAND POST and now I have to have a blog to do it here. It looks like the days of the easy and wide open bloggosphere commentary are coming to an end. There ain't no way it will keep all the Trolls out but it might keep some of us OGRE's away for good. And that will be a loss to the blogosphere if we become the endangered species.
And for those that do not know and OGRE is an Opinionated Genius Right Everytime. An OGRE will use the Right hand of reason along with the Left fist of "bullshitastical dumbassery" to beat and eat Trolls and devour or maim anyone else that dares to cross their path.
"Dag nabbit son of a monkey spank"
Dag nabbit that link ain't workin
What? is with having to register to make comments anyway? I was forced to do it at THE COMMAND POST and now I have to have a blog to do it here. It looks like the days of the easy and wide open bloggosphere commentary are coming to an end. There ain't no way it will keep all the Trolls out but it might keep some of us OGRE's away for good. And that will be a loss to the blogosphere if we become the endangered species.
And for those that do not know and OGRE is an Opinionated Genius Right Everytime. An OGRE will use the Right hand of reason along with the Left fist of "bullshitastical dumbassery" to beat and eat Trolls and devour or maim anyone else that dares to cross their path.
"Dag nabbit son of a monkey spank"
Dag nabbit that link ain't workin
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