Katrina fall-out

Jay Honeck wrote:
But, I'm going to name it here, this has not happened with black
Americans, or more properly I should say that it has not happened for
too many of them. This isn't about simple racism anymore- I've ridden

At the University of Iowa we are blessed with the occasional visiting
African professor. The University hospital also gets a fair number of
visiting doctors from Africa -- and we are occasionally able to house them
in comfort at the inn.

I've become friendly with several, and have two personal friends from Zaire.
(One of whom escaped the last revolution dressed as a woman.) All, without
exception, have told me the *exact* same thing. In fact, these very black
men and women have displayed more overt "racism" toward American Blacks than
any white folks I've ever met. They display utter contempt and disdain for
people born into such wealth who continue to show no interest in personal
advancement.

Drawing sharp lines in this area is so tricky. I am a hug believer in
personal responsibility, but at some point you have to concede a social
failure as well. Sure, lock up the criminals, and throw away the key;
black crime harms black victims twice as much as it harms white
victims. But when you hear that something around 50% of black men under
the age of 25 have done some kind of jail time, something larger is
wrong.

America is slowly waking up to the disaster of our underclass.

Yes, and this is where I break with the left on "root causes." No
question there are social issues to be addressed but what, and how?
This article is a bit technical but hits the key points:

http://www.city-journal.com/html/15_3_black_family.html

I was typing up a good why-the-left-is-dumb rant in here, but I'm
walking away from it because I'd like to think that maybe the tragedy
of watching a city go mad will shock us out of the usual
I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I partisan grandstanding that accompanies
any debate these days. Doesn't mean I'm ready to pour money into things
that we've tried before and watched fail but it does mean giving up on
placing blame. As Ronald Reagan was fond of saying, "there's no limit
to what you can accomplish when you don't care who gets the credit."
The Right has often been behind the curve on diagnosing to the
existence of a problem in our cities while the Left has often
prescribed the wrong medicine. So what, water under the bridge
(tasteless pun not intended). We're all Americans today and that's what
counts.

-cwk.

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:cMERe.80425$084.44486@attbi_s22...

And now, for some aviation content: The looters in New Orleans are
SHOOTING at rescue helicopters!

They are just exercising their constitutional right to bear arms;-)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4205074.stm

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:atDRe.80341$084.15014@attbi_s22...
Thank you. I couldn't have said it better.

What some people call "tradition" and "the comfort of staying near home"
many of us call "stupid" and "ignorant".

Those people died for NOTHING.
--

Jay, you are my hero, so perfect, so right in everything you say, you even
surpass Jesus in your wisdom.

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:NDERe.321322$xm3.97573@attbi_s21...
Regardless of why people stayed in NO, they are there and we need to help
them. They have lost literally everything they have. Pointing our fingers
at
the vicitms right now is not helping.

And help them we shall.

No one is pointing fingers at the victims -- we're discussing the
stupidity of man on an aviation newsgroup.


It seems to more about discussing the stupidity of a man on an aviation
newsgroup

It would have been a hell of a lot cheaper to round up as many military
vehicles to form a human convoy to pack everybody a few hundred miles away
befor it hit the fan than paying to pick up mangled bodies afterwards.

Oh, wait, I forgot. Most of the military vehicles are keeping democracy
safe in a country that doesn't WANT us there.

How could I forget?

Jim


"George Patterson" wrote in message
news:IevRe.12899$LK.9312@trndny09...
Newps wrote:

With a ride to the bus station and a three day headstart? All the way to
Iowa.

With what money?

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

Bob Fry wrote in message ...
"js" == john smith writes:

js My perception is hundreds of billions in the south vice tens
js of billions for the midwest.

js The midwest tax base is steadily shrinking do to loss of jobs
js to other locals. Money repeatedly spent to hurricane damaged
js infrastructure in the south siphons money away from repairing
js the crumbling midwest infrastructure even once.

And this is for Jay: can't you show, just once, even one day after a
major disaster, some normal human compassion?

Of course there shouldn't be a major city 4 feet below sea level or
whatever it is. There shouldn't be all sorts of things. But as
someone who lives in California--the Midwest's ATM machine--I know all
about paying for other people's stupid decisions. It's damn ironic
for someone from the Midwest, the red-ink and red-state heartland,

Jay lives in Berkely by the Cornfield, the Athens of the Midwest. Actually,
that's "Upper Midwest". Iowa City is a Deep Blue spot in a Very Blue county
in the Quite Blue half of Iowa. The Upper Midwest is Bluish Purple
Heartland. And what conservatism there is is probably very different from
you may think of as conservative.

to lecture us on where to live and sucking precious tax dollars.

Sucking tax dollars is ok if they go to people who vote for Democrats but
not for people who vote for Republicans, I guess. That's compassion for some
liberals.

BTW, my politics lean a bit left, in case you're wondering. After spending
about 25 years in Iowa and the next 25 in and around Chicago, I think Iowa
conservatives generally do a better job than Chicago liberals at the stuff
liberals say is compassion.

Now to the off-topic at hand. Maybe someone can figure out how to use the
world's biggest silt transportion system to fill in New Orleans, and they
can rebuild it above sea level. That will put Iowa's main export to good
use. Maybe Iowa can even tax the topsoil.

Jay, I do agree with the folks who have said there were large numbers of
people who simply had no means of leaving, but I think the city needed to
have better evacuation plans in place.

- Rick

RST Engineering wrote in message ...
It would have been a hell of a lot cheaper to round up as many military
vehicles to form a human convoy to pack everybody a few hundred miles away
befor it hit the fan than paying to pick up mangled bodies afterwards.

Oh, wait, I forgot. Most of the military vehicles are keeping democracy
safe in a country that doesn't WANT us there.

How could I forget?

I'll bet there could have been better solutions, and I'll bet that there
actually are enough military vehicles. I simply think there wasn't enough
planning and solutions in place.

- Rick

And now, for some aviation content: The looters in New Orleans are
SHOOTING at rescue helicopters!

They are just exercising their constitutional right to bear arms;-)

Which they looted from the WalMart, according to the news reports!

Rick wrote:
I'll bet there could have been better solutions, and I'll bet that there
actually are enough military vehicles. I simply think there wasn't enough
planning and solutions in place.

It sure makes one wonder where all those hundreds of billions of
Homeland Security tax dollars are going?

Imagine if this had been a real disaster?

RST Engineering wrote:
....
Oh, wait, I forgot. Most of the military vehicles are keeping democracy
safe in a country that doesn't WANT us there.

Nearly all Iraqis want us there. The insurgent anachists are the ones
that don't.