Bibles, Babies, and Bullets

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita could be a Luddite's dream...millions of dollars of high tech gadetry and no power to operate any of it! Even in the best of times it's difficult to reach thousands of poor or tuned out people by home entertainment centers, CD players, Ipods, Laptops, and cell phones. In the worst of times, power to those devices is cut or runs dry. When that happens,  millions are left behind in deadly silence.

We live in a high-tech, high energy bubble planet that can burst with a pin prick. If the 300 channel sattelite dish blows over, victim and rescuer can be within a half mile of each other and not know it. This is not only tragic, it's insanely stupid. We of the Microsoft Age are not the first humans on the planet to develop communication systems for emergency situations big and small. During World War II high frequency hand cranked radios worked quite well without electrical power. These are still available. Sirens in London and Trieste were effective in urging people to seek bomb shelters. In the US midwest sirens are used for tornado warnings. In many villages and towns the church bells still ring out announcements. You don't need electricity to power a churchbell. Smart boaters carry flares and oars. Smart hikers carry a two way radio, a tiny portable radio, or at the very least a reflective blanket and a whistle. Smart disaster planners should take a hike and get a clue.

Mood: Enlightened
Listening to: "High Above Me"

In recent endorsements for Judge Roberts the L.A. Times noted he “had the intellect and temperament to lead the Court and Federal Judiciary.” The Washington Post noted he was a “modest and smart lawyer who is well regarded across party lines.”

You may ask what’s so important about these endorsements. They all are some of the most liberal papers in the nation and no friend of President Bush. If we do not get more Federalist views in our courts, that is a court that will interpret our Constitution, the Constitution “will become a mere thing of wax in the hands of the Judiciary, which they can shape and twist into any form they please” according to Thomas Jefferson. Kodiak Daily Mirror  9/21/2005

Hold on there Mr. Kodiak Daily Mirror! Thomas Jefferson didn't endorse Federalist views, he warned against a government, including a Judicial branch unrestrained by the Bill of Rights! Jefferson and the Anti-Federalists knew that the bankers had no intention of letting the bakers shape and twist the principle of equality into popular sovereignty. 

John Roberts may come across as a modest nice guy, but Federalists old and new equate "nice" with privelege. They believe that some people are naturally   superior to others, such people are smarter and more disciplined. By virtue of  superior "faculties"  these lucky few tend to accumulate wealth and to develop profound insight into the purpose of government. For a Federalist, the purpose of government is to protect the wealthy and powerful from the collective idiocy, ignorance, and resentment of the people. 

Fear of ordinary people, not trust,  motivates men like John Roberts and his neo-Platonic neo-conservative backers. They see a thief in every bread line.  Human misery and injustice are the product of limited intelligence and sloppy character; the dumb bring about their own sorrow yet blame the wise. The dim-witted, overly emotional masses must be controlled or they will turn on their superiors and destroy society. The only way to prevent the collapse of America is to appoint Federalist judges to the courts, men  like John Roberts and women like Janice Rogers Brown who won't allow those pesky 10 Amendments to get in the way of traditional Republican values.

It's not surprising that intelligent, literate liberals writing for the Washington Post feel that a "modest" Federalist Judge like John Roberts is a safe bet. Few literate, educated Americans trust Joe Blow to steer the ship of state. In America the rich and the educated elite fear each other less than they fear the collective idiocy, ignorance, and resentment of the people. It's therefore not surprising that mean justice trumps the principle of equality.

Many parasitic infections are common in Africa, Asia and South America, but rare in developed countries. This is explained by the theory of intelligent design. While the human body is parasite free in its design, residents of these underdeveloped countries have some rather peculiar dietary customs and are therefore more at risk of aquiring protozoan and helminithic parasites. Protozoans such as Entoamoeba histolytica are in fact not really parasites---they are not designed to live in our blood, stomach, liver, and lungs---but they are quite tasty and plentiful in certain areas of the world. Since protozoans do not find humans very tasty, their attempt to eat or flush their way out of our bodies makes us feel sick. If Africans, Asians, and Latin Americans changed their food preferences, parasitic infections would disappear along with floods and earthquakes


  

Many people, especially the president of the United States, balk at the idea that they could in any way be responsible for the bad things that happen to good people. If those bad things are done by something (hurricane) or someone else, then we aren’t involved in ethical decision making and therefore absolved from moral responsibility.  This is the reasoning of a five-year old, it is not acceptable in “compassionate” adults. A ship owner who sends an old ship with a full crew and cargo out to sea hoping that a storm won’t brew, has decided to risk lives for profit. He hasn't simply decided to make money, he has decided that making money is more imporant than protecting lives.

Like the ship owner, the Bush administration and members of congress are morally responsible for what happens to the people on their ship. Hurricane Katrina was a mighty storm, but the magnitude of harm and horror inflicted was due to human decisions and choices.  The administration and members of congress were warned repeatedly by scientists, engineers, city planners, risk management experts and scores of others that the city of New Orleans and surrounding areas would not survive or be able to cope with a Katrina level hurricane without significant federal investment, planning and assistance. Emergency planners have known for years that poverty and lack of transportation in the New Orleans area would doom the poor to certain death. The federal government  turned a blind eye, diverted funds to invasions instead of evacuations, and left the matter of sinking, drowning and swimming to local authorities and private individuals.  This is what Hannah Arendt, the philosopher analyst of the Holocust,  meant by "the banality of evil."  We don’t have  to build a gas chamber to inflict unspeakable harm, we just need to look the other way and let the vulnerable sink or swim.

The obligation to protect American lives on American soil begins with an assessment of needs and risks.  Hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, epidemics, unsafe driving, poverty,  and lack of healthcare destroy more lives and property than “terrorist” attacks.The Bush administration and congress know this, they have the numbers.  What they lack is a moral compass and the courage to do the right thing for America’s most vulnerable. Instead of investing in the basic life sustaining necessities, such as a public health system that works, they have squandered the wealth and trust of a nation on tax breaks for millionaires, terrorists who still run free,  and “democracies” that don’t want to be. They should step down. There are plenty of decent, courageous people in the gulf shores area who stepped up to do the right thing, let these men and women  take over.

The Christian Science Monitor  9/3/05 proudly reports that American corporations have thus far contributed 83 million dollars to the hurricane relief fund. This sounds like a hell of a lot "compassion."  Given that many CEO's personally take more  than 83  million  home in pocket change (salary), it's as generous as me donating 10 cents to the loose change tray at the BP gas station.  That's pretty damn generous!
In my case giving up that 10 cents hurts, especially since I can't write it off as a tax-deductible contribution.  I could have kept my dime  and left it, free of charge, to my children, but I'm not a CEO and therefore my unworthy, lazy offspring won't benefit from Congress' repeal of the inheritance tax. 

If I could, I'd go back to the BP station and retreive my 10 cents, put it in an envolope and mail it along with heartfelt compassion to the hurricane victims. Unfortunately I ran out of gas, ran out of stamps, and  I have to go to work.

Mood: Defeatist, Selfabsorbed
Listening to: Wasting Away Again in Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffet

"Wasting Away Again in Katarinaville”    Day 5

Starving in her wake, watching the sun bake,
All of those bodies starting to spoil,
Screaming my lungs sing, feeling my roof swing,
“Smell the decay, hell’s beginning to boil!”

Wasting away again in Katarinaville,
Searching for my lost baby Shaynault
Some people claim that there’s a levee to blame,
But I know it’s America’s fault.

Don’t know the reason, I’m trapped here all season,
With nothing to show but this wound bleeding through,
But it’s a real beauty, an infected cutie,
How long I’ll live I haven’t a clue.

Wasting away again in Katarinaville,
Searching for my lost baby Shaynault
Some people claim that there’s a levee to blame,
But I know it’s America’s fault.

Blew out my rooftop, tore through the sheet-rock,
Severed a vein, cut through to the bone,
But there’s flies in September,
and soon they will render
a maggoty white skin that helps me hang on.

Wasting away again in Katarinaville,
Searching for my lost baby Shaynault
Some people claim that there’s a levee to blame,
But I know it’s America’s fault.

Yes, some people claim, that there’s a levee to blame,
And I know it’s my own Black fault.