Skymusings

“Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpation” -James Madison

Friday, September 02, 2005

Katrina and Dependency

75% of the population got out of New Orleans before Katrina hit. The remaining 25% were made up of the welfare parasites, drug addicts, street gangs, criminals who were simply released from prisons in the absence of an evacuation plan, and the true victims -- the aged, the ill, and the handicapped. What I am about to say does not apply to the last group.



After decades of welfare entitlement mentality, there were hundred of thousands of people in New Orleans trained not to prepare, not to fend for themselves, not to protect what was valuable to them; they were trained to wait for the government to "do something", to take care of them.



Most of these people are able-bodied. If they could make it to the SuperDome, they could have made it another 1/4 mile to dry land and started walking. There would be rides and places to stay. There would be comparative safety and comfort. There would be some self-determination to their fate.



They were warned days in advance to get out of the city. They did not. They were ORDERED to get out the day before the hurricane hit. They stayed. Prior storms provided lessons to supply themselves with several days' worth of food, water, and emergency supplies. They did not.



75% of the population had homes, jobs, productive lives, something to lose. They left.



25% of the population had nothing of intrinsic value; no real job, no ownership of assets, no productivity, nothing to miss. They stayed.



The 75% have learned that things can be replaced, that life must trump all, and that they have a responsibility to their own safety and that of their loved ones first. Get away to safety, come back and weep over the destruction, then rebuild and move on. They are not hostage to the governmental collapse of the region.



The 25% have learned nothing, except that the great Welfare State that they put so much trust in has let them down when they needed it the most. They are dependent on a broken system, and they have not learned to work without it. Now they are at best in great discomort, and at worst in fear for their lives.



Accustomed to taking handouts from the government or forcing a living through violent means over vulnerable people, the 25% were doomed to the fate they are facing now. When the crack stopped coming in, the druggies had to go cold turkey, prompting the waves of violence and looting. Naturally, in addition to breaking in to stores and stealing things, it also meant preying on the weaker and more vulnerable in their midst. The welfare state created both the sheep and the wolves, suddenly thrown together in the oldest battle -- for survival. The lack of any "grownups" -- external authority -- has prompted the wolves to begin running wild. Not content to steal or victimize for fun, now they are starting fires, ambushing police, shooting at rescuers, and threatening hospitals.



Arguments about "not having the resources to escape" ring hollow. If you have to get away, you have to get away. Walk. Get a bike. Get on a bus. Hitch a ride. There are reasons survival of the fittest worked so well for so long, and our modern technological burst has managed to allow people who would previously have fallen into Darwin's pit to survive (as long as the modern tech holds up).



Some may say that blaming the victims at this time is callous. As mentioned above and elsewhere, the number of true victims is small -- the aged, the ill, and handicapped. Every single other person still left in New Orleans is only a victim of their own bad judgment and dependence on a Welfare State to take care of them.



Sympathy

I have all the sympathy in the world for the elderly, ill, and truly dependent people who were unable to move out of the way of Katrina. Theirs is a plight that is compounded by what is apparently a horrible reaction in terms of rescue and evacuation. Many have died that might not have otherwise.

I have absolutely none for the welfare-queen denizens of the projects who couldn't be bothered to get out when they could. I have none for the crackheads who had better things to do than plan for their future (a recurring theme in their short lives I am sure). They had a chance to avoid the very situation they are now in, and chose not to take it.

The thug subculture of dependence is rearing its very ugly head, and in plain view of the world. People who are used to getting handouts and taking from others by force if necessary are showing how they survive -- Law of the Jungle rules. Now we've heard that survivors are being flown and bussed here into Atlanta and many other southern cities. We are all going to have to support people who already weren't taking care of themselves in New Orleans.

Even if one had a reason to stay despite repeated warnings to leave, there is a possibly valid moral argument for desperately looting survival items -- food, bottled water, emergency items, etc. Breaking into appliance stores to steal TV's, grabbing clothes by the armload, even Dyson vacuums (?) is evidence of animal behavior. This is compounded by the rationalizations of the Downtrodden Have-Nots, that "society has been holding us down so long, now it's our turn" arguments. The emboldening of this behavior by the lack of proper enforcement of order has encouraged more violent actions. We are now hearing reports that the armed gangs are ambushing weaker and more vulnerable survivors (who are just trying to survive and get out), that shots are being fired at police and guardsmen, that the rescue craft are being ambushed and shot at.

Why bother with the inner flood zone? Get the survivors out who have made it to the gathering points, establish a perimeter of security, and wait. After a short while, arrest anyone who tries to leave -- eventually the thugs will run out of stuff to steal and consume and will try to split. Shoot the violent ones. They stopped contributing to society by choice.

The majority of survivors do not appear to be violent and opportunistic bastards. They deserve our help, if not sympathy. The violent animals taking advantage of the situation and weak/vulnerable people deserve nothing.

China

There are few times I would say "China could really handle this better than we have."

The lawlessness of the Katrina-ed part of the country, combined with the impotence of government officials (at all levels) to provide order and protection has me thinking that indeed the deadly Communists would know what to do .

1. The minute the winds died down and the realization of flooding was occurring, China would have had 20,000 real soldiers in the area, setting up where they could, coordinating inflow of supplies, and setting perimeters.
2. Looting and street violence wouldn't be tolerated. Looters would be shot, probably without warnings.
3. Survivors who wanted to peacefully get out would be quickly picked up and moved out of the area via a flotilla of ships, small boats, helicopters, and land vehicles capable of navigating the area.
4. There would be no talk of 'rebuilding.' New Orleans would become a big lake at the mouth of the Mississippi. (The enviromarxists should be thrilled at the return of a grotesque manmade place being returned to its natural state.)
5. Survivors would be relocated to other cities and communities. Violent felons and unsavory folks would get to go to a nice little stockade in the desert.

I'm not saying that I would approve of all these actions; only that this is how China would probably handle it. Would it really be worse than what's happening now?

Thursday, September 01, 2005

They're watching

Pssst......

Infrastructure is the key. The bad guys saw what happened to our economy and way of life after 9/11. They're seeing right now what happens when a major city and key energy supplier goes kablooey.

We all feel it, and will continue to do so.

They didn't even do this one -- Mama Nature did.

They get CNN. They get Sky News. And you can bet Al Jazeera is purchasing footage of Allah's Slap to Satan.

The planners are going to put 2 and 2 together. We're already on a knife's edge with respect to energy and infrastructural balance. It won't take to much more of a push to make the rest of the country panic like they already are here in Georgia and elsewhere. Gas at $3-4/gallon will seem as far away as sub-$1/gallon does now.

We had better get hold of our energy situation and border/immigration control NOW. And I believe it's time to let everyone know that the moonbattery has to stop -- be American first, or get out. Treason and sedition cannot be allowed, now or in the coming days.

Fences and guards at the borders. Big enclosures in the desert. Illegals and traitors in the pen. Drilling sites and refineries built.

I hate to sound like a Doomsday wacko, but lessons not learned result in higher tuition costs the second/third/fourth time.

Get self-defense weaponry.
Get some supplies in order (gas, water, food, medical, generator, radio, batteries).
Have a plan.
Don't be afraid to survive.

It's going to be war footing before we know it, if we don't take care of business. Remember grandpa and grandma's moldy stories of conserving rubber and gas, during WWII? We could be there again. New Orleans is showing us what happens when everything is taken away, replaced with nothing, and the local government is helpless or unwilling to keep order.


Again, I am NOT a fan of Big Brother. That being said, I'd also rather not have to be sitting in my house every night protecting a generator at gunpoint from a machete-wielding gang. There are steps, distasteful though they may be, that a responsible government should take in order to protect and aid the law-abiding citizenry from the unlawful horde.

Especially if the unlawful horde is unleashed on the rest of us by the Unlawful Horde. And they're watching.

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