duck and cover (4½ days from now)

I know, I know .. hurricanes aren't funny. But the dashed-red line showing the projected path of Hurricane Rita takes it here to Dallas by 2am Sunday. I wonder if I should begin perfecting my looting scavenging skills?

Speaking of not funny, here are two items I wandered across lately:

1- American diaspora - Katrina shows how people have migrated from New Orleans since Katrina

2- Chip Ward's article: Bush's Holy War on Nature

with all due apologies to John Paul Jones

Gene Bob predicts .. that it won't be much longer before the Radical Right begins to turn on President Quagmire because He's getting carried away with Doing The Right Thing after Hurricane Katrina. This means His statements about spending "whatever it takes" to bring New Orleans back into civilization aren't going to set well, for the political party that Doesn't Do Social Programs (per their Prophet, Ronald Reagan ... may He rest in Peace).

Everybody Knows™ that The Regressives Eat Their Young, so don't be surprised when they start yanking President Quagmire's chain even more than they have in the past (trust me: they have not yet begun to yank).

Back to N'orluns: I heard someone say they'll probably take all those submerged vehicles, concrete and broken/moldy wood and dump them in the ocean! Doesn't it make a lot more sense to use them as landfill in those parts of the city that are below sea level? Well, okay .. maybe not the cars, with all their recyclable components. Isn't landfill how the California city of Newark was formed? What about learning some lessons from the Netherlandites? Granted, neither of those places is in Hurricane Country, so the levees are of a different scale, but .. you get the idea.

---

Everybody Knows is a trademark of Fox "News"; Rush Limbaugh Productions; and the Christian Fascist Republican Party.

how soon before I can vote for him?

News item (slightly modified):

The youngest son of Florida Governor John Ellis Bush ("Jeb") was arrested early Friday (16.9.5) and charged with public intoxication and resisting arrest. John Ellis Bush Jr, 21, was arrested by agents of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission at 0230 on a corner of Austin's Sixth Street bar district, said commission spokesman Roger Wade. The nephew of President Quagmire was released on $2,500 bond for the resisting arrest charge, and on a personal recognizance bond for the public intoxication charge.

"Like uncle, like nephew", I always say.

Maybe Daddy Jeb (not to be confused with Uncle Jed) will sign him up for a couple years with the Florida National Guard?

Little known fact: Jeb Junior called his older bubba (George Prescott Bush) to bail him out of jail, but "Pee" told him to "Suck It Up!" and "Be A Real Man, like your Uncle Quagmire!" Ah, a tight-knit family.

first rule of restaurateuring

I lunched with Drew Bob today, but not after (re)discovering the restaurant row that parallels LBJ-635 in Irving (northeast of DFW).

We originally were going to meet at a "Classic Denny's" (a retro-1950's concept diner) but when I arrived waaay early I found a closed "Lone Star Diner" in its place. Another restaurant also sits idle on the western end of Market Place Drive .. the ones near MacArthur appeared mostly crowded during lunch. Location, location, location?

Since I had beaten Drew there by 30 minutes (!) or so, I had time to kill, and kill it I did! Here are the eateries along that stretch of dirt, in order from east to west: Whataburger; IHOP; Steak & Shake; Boston's (pizza); Buffalo Wild Wings; On the Border; Chili's; Razoo's; Lone Star Diner; A&W/Long John Silvers (combo). Across the street were a Sam's Club, a PetSmart and a Wal-Mart. We opted for Chili's, after briefly (not) considering the haute cuisine at Sam's Club (mmm/mmm .. those day-old hot dogs look divine!).

Unrelated #0: I loved the phrase "lobbying against puppies" in this news item: Charities are for Suckers. Now I'm all misty-eyed!

Unrelated #1: I watched an item on Democracy Now! with Rosa Clemente ("Educating, Organizing and Mobilizing the Hip Hop Nation!") which reinforces what I've seen of the rural South through my own white eyes: the smalltown police forces are mostly white and racist, which hasn't changed much since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. I wonder if that'll ever change?

Supreme Crescent

John Roberts gives me the willies. The heebie-jeebies. He reminds me of Some Scary Someone in my Long Distant Past, but for the life of me, I can't put my finger on it.



I can hardly wait until President Quagmire quips:

"You're doin' a heckuva job, Johnnie!"

The Vanished City

I finally finished reading all 186 pages of Michel Mazor's The Vanished City: Everyday Life in the Warsaw Ghetto which I started what .. 3 months ago? Mazor wrote the book circa 1953, and the English translation was printed in 1993.

This was a difficult book to read for several reasons, including the subject matter; the author's style; and (undoubtedly) translation difficulties. That said, it's a very rare subject because I'm unfamiliar with anything like it : a firsthand recollection of what happened to the large number of Jews forced into such a small space by the Nazis, prior to their eventual deaths at the gas chambers.

The fact that this book exists at all is remarkable, given the obstacles. The author had to jump from a train bound for Treblinka, avoid capture until World War II ended, then have the presence of mind to commit everything to paper. Wow.

compassionate conservatives, part 2

.. and the Pulitzer goes to: Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky, two San Francisco paramedics who were staying in the French Quarter for a convention, when Katrina came to visit. Be sure to read all the way to the end of page two. What they have to say is amazing.

unrelated: It seems that Tom DeLay (another one of Texas' Most Compassionate) asked some Katrina refugees if they were having fun "camping out" in the Astrodome .. as if losing your home, friends, and earthly possessions was like a week at Summer Camp. DeLay must be related to George HW and Barbara Bush. Why heck, I'm sure he opened his garage to a family or two .. compassionate guy that he is, trying to set a good example ...

Is sleeping in the Astrodome better than the slip road? Are there enough flats (with loos) and minders to go around? Anything to do besides play a thousand games of naughts-and-crosses? (for those BritSpeak-challenged, this English to English translator may be needed)

in the "fun reading" article for today, see James Ridgeway's Pumping Us Dry: Katrina tragedy is an absolutely perfect storm for oil companies