No Grasp of Your Reality

Get it? It’s a pun.

So, apparently, a hurricane came through down south somewhere, and people are upset. Lots of finger-pointing. Lots of people playing “the blame game” (I love that game… it’s almost as fun as Mousetrap). As of yet, you, dear reader, have not known what to think about the problem because I have not yet weighed in. Well, you can rest easy because you will now get my opinion.

For many years, our Federal Government has been taking and receiving more and more responsibility from the states. From the highway system to the federal income tax to education to the military, the states have abdicated and the feds have confiscated much of the responsibility that was originally reserved to the them by the U.S. Constitution. Now, for all of George Bush’s (and the rest of our so-called conservative elected officials) faults, they have had a pattern of attempting to shift much of the responsibilities back to their original locations, that is, back into the hands of the states. They have not been flawless in their attempts, but it seems to be their goal.

However, many states have not yet gotten the message. The state of Louisiana has a Democrat for a governor. New Orleans has a Democrat for a mayor. Democrats have a tendency to promote a top-down form of power… that is, authority and responsibility originates at the federal level, and is delegated to the states.

Now, if you have Democrats in local government positions and Republicans in Federal positions, when a disaster happens, you’re going to see some really sad finger pointing. The locals are going to look the feds, and the feds are going to say, “It’s not our job to fix your problems!”

As a good ol’ states’ rights neo-confederate, I agree with the position of the federal government, at least in principle. However, I think it’s very obvious that the handing back of responsibility from the feds to the states much be done patiently and in order. While it’s too early to say that this is what happened, it’s wrong for a federal government to simply stop providing after they’ve been doing so for so long. It’s as bad as simply cancelling federal welfare or social security one day, even though it’s wrong. People are depending on it, and the transition period has to allow those who should be shouldering the weight to get used to it.

It seems that Louisiana and New Orleans were not ready to fend for themselves.

Thomas was watching the trailer for Corpse Bride, and I was explaining to him how stop-motion animation works. He didn’t really seem to be grasping the concept, so I whipped our new camera, set it up on a tripod, and directed him in his first feature film. Here is it’s world premier!

album05/aidenchoco1 album05/aidenchoco2Mrs Gloop: [Augustus is drinking the chocolate] Augustus, mein schatz! That is not a good thing you do!

Chester County Library is holding an “Operation Katrina” day on September 8, 2005. “All fines and fees collected on this day will be sent to the American Red Cross for its hurricane relief efforts.”

Overdue books are considered a crime (one of my dear friends received notice to appear in court to plead in the case of the not returning a book -”theft”- to said library), but if you’re going to fess up, then do it on September 8th… and bring cash or personal check, because you can’t bribe them with your debit card!

How sad is it that human natural always looks for something or someone to blame? We work so hard to prop ourselves up as gods, and when the true God comes to tear down our paper dreams, we need to rant to anyone who will listen how it’s not our fault, and therefore, it must be someone else’s.

This month, George Bush is being blamed for destroying New Orleans with a hurricane. Of course, the truth is that the liberals are upset that President Bush does not see the Federal Government as the benevolent deity that they see it as. So, when Bush failed to order the legion of angels at his call to thwart the deadly storm, they get upset. Because Bush didn’t fly down with Air Force One and fly out the indigent population of New Orleans, he is the one to blame.

Ben Stein has said it better than I can, when he writes (among other good points):

George Bush had nothing to do with the hurricane contingency plans for New Orleans. Those are drawn up by New Orleans and Louisiana. In any event, the plans were perfectly good: mandatory evacuation. It is in no way at all George Bush’s fault that about 20 percent of New Orleans neglected to follow the plan. It is not his fault that many persons in New Orleans were too confused to realize how dangerous the hurricane would be. They were certainly warned. It’s not George Bush’s fault that there were sick people and old people and people without cars in New Orleans. His job description does not include making sure every adult in America has a car, is in good health, has good sense, and is mobile.

Micah required a bath tonight. He was giggly afterwards and smelling like a clean, Johnson and Johnson baby. Couldn’t resist snapping a few photos with him. Check out his fat rolls on the picture where he’s beeping my nose!!MomMicah/mommicah1

“This was a central characteristic of progressive thought in the nineteenth century and the first part of the twentieth. From Darwin, who provided the scientific rationale for such racism, to Margaret Sanger and her ‘human weeds,’ to George Bernard Shaw and the eugenics craze, to Hitler’s final solution, progressives have a lot to answer for. But instead of answering for it, they dropped the whole thing like a hot rock after Hitler, and (of course) turned on traditionalist whites in the South who did not have the kind of flexibility in their joints that makes secularist advances in ethical theory so fun to watch. After a century or so of bloodshed and general mayhem in the name of progressivism, it was apparently time to upbraid Southern Christians for their intolerance” (Doug Wilson – Black and Tan, p. 32).

National Public Radio is now offering podcasts of many of their offerings, including Michael Feldman’s Whad’Ya Know and their news summaries.

The podcasts will allow me to download and listen to the shows when I want to…

I created an overlay of the satellite imagery from New Orleans. You need Google Earth, a free download, in order to be able to see it. It’s amazing stuff.

UPDATE: I should have referenced my sources. I got the image from Digital Globe, via Digg.