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Last updated on July 24th, 2017 at 01:12 pm
Repent America director Michael Marcavage:
Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city. From ‘Girls Gone Wild’ to ‘Southern Decadence,’ New Orleans was a city that had its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin. From the devastation may a city full of righteousness emerge.
Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland:
Katrina has rammed home that message once more, with lacerating force. White Americans, who regarded New Orleans as a kind of playground, a place to enjoy the carnal pleasures of music, food, drink and more, have learned things about that city – and therefore their society – that they would probably have preferred not to know.
Further lines from Freedland (who, by the way, inspired last year’s Operation Clark County debacle): “Yet now, after Katrina, the national mood might alter. Americans have seen where small government leads.”
Hmmm. Anyone who thinks the US has a “small government” is looking through the wrong end of his binoculars.
UPDATE. Mark Steyn on big government and Katrina:
The comparison with Sept. 11 isn’t exact, but it’s fair to this extent: Katrina was the biggest disaster on American soil since that day provoked the total overhaul of the system and the devotion of billions of dollars and the finest minds in the nation to the prioritizing of homeland security. It was, thus, the first major test of the post-9/11 structures. Happy with the results?
Hmm, a $2.8 trillion (that’s trillion with a “t”) federal budget is “small government”?
That’s not including, of course, state and local outlays.
It’s fascinating, on a small level (and in some case, very small), how these major events are like political Rorschach tests.
SMG
Posted by SMGalbraith on 09/05 at 10:38 AM • permalink
The debacle in Louisiana contrasts in a most interesting fashion with the relatively efficient (or at least, lacking in 2000 decible whining and large bands of thugs shooting at looters) clean up operation in Mississippi and Alabama. I think the contrast is due to the fact that there was a bit more sitting back and crying for Uncle Sam to fly to the rescue in Louisiana than there was in the two other states. As Steve H. says, “The federal government is like an ocean liner. It doesn’t start and stop quickly.” That’s why local and state governments have to be on the ball. The Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana, with all due respect, act like their job duties consisted of cutting ribbons and going to dinners, not taking care of the people under their jurisdiction before the feds get there.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 09/05 at 10:49 AM • permalink
Here’s another story: Nagin sending cops to Vegas for vacation.
Unbelievable! It’s hush money.
I can’t imagine wanting to leave my city while there were still survivors to be rescued, wreckage to be picked up, etc., if I were a cop. Sure, some of them (the ones that didn’t bug out) went through a lot, but… Vegas? Yeah, the craps tables will really soothe the fact that they have no city and no home to go back to.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 09/05 at 11:18 AM • permalink
Nope, I don’t have an enormous problem with Marcavage. Read his words carefully– while he’s definitely on the edge, he nowhere makes the claim that this is “God’s punishment”, or that “they deserved it”, etc.
I read it as “We are with those who suffer, but it would also be a good time to remember what an immoral sh*th*le that place was”.
On the subject of what TB (with his bolding power) highlighted above,
“Southern Decadence” has a history of filling the French Quarters section of the city with drunken homosexuals engaging in sex acts in the public streets and bars. Last year, a local pastor sent video footage of sex acts being performed in front of police to the mayor, city council, and the media. City officials simply ignored the footage and continued to welcome and praise the weeklong celebration as being an “exciting event”
I have to sympathize with someone who despairs at what the homo’ lobby has managed to acheive, including but not limited to engaging in sex in public with impunity, in mass numbers, year after year, on a date known well in advance.
While MM words above might be a bit brimstoney in their focus on music and food, (a passage that admittedly should send up a red flag), it would also be disingenuous of us to claim that N.O’s deep problems of corruption and crime, etc, are in no way causally related to its reputation as a place to enjoy “pleasures” which go beyond having dinner in a nice restaurant.
YMMV.
Posted by zeppenwolf on 09/05 at 11:49 AM • permalink
Oops– that was Freedland talking about food.
Marca was “the public celebration of sin”, so yeah. I can feel for that complaint.
Posted by zeppenwolf on 09/05 at 11:51 AM • permalink
The sub-text of Freedland’s predictable piece is that the solution to the racial divide is more govt intervention (e.g. more stupid diversity programs blah blah).
Rather than more government, how about less?
How about encouraging plenty of good old trade & commerce. People buying and selling goods and services as freely as possible in genuinely competitive markets with low barriers to entry. Low taxes, minimal regulation, caveat emptor, hire and fire – all of that.
The interaction of buyer and seller brings people together in an atmosphere of courtesy and respect. Few business owners (like me) can afford to turn away ready and willing customers on the grounds of race. You need to treat every customer with courtesy. Keep multiplying the interaction between people, and over time you will see the racial divides, such as they are, soon disappear.
I reckon you won’t be hearing about this as a solution from the Guardian, SMH, ABC or BBC soon.
Posted by Flying Giraffe on 09/05 at 11:56 AM • permalink
What did I learn from Katrina?
I learned that a Democratic Mayor and Governor can turn an American state into a Third World country.
Is that what you had in mind, sir?
Posted by richard mcenroe on 09/05 at 03:20 PM • permalink
Well in Sydney lets see; critical water shortages, brown & blackouts looming, public infrastructure including rail, bus and roads collapsing, police unable to control rioters in places all over the city.
Have to say our Labor (read Democrat) state government is is lot more efficient than yours, they didn’t even need a flood or an earthquake to acheive the above.
Posted by missinglink on 09/05 at 06:07 PM • permalink
My husband and I took our honeymoon in New Orleans many many moons ago. I remember it as a cluttered, unsanitary place where I was stepping over drunken sailors and drunken American Legionaires, and where I got my first look at genuine hookers and strippers (thus learning that most of them are actually fat/skinny and/or ugly). We had the time of our lives.
Wicked city? How about New York, Key West, South Beach, L.A., Las Vegas, Paris, London, any place in Thailand, your own backyard. I believe the Bible had something to say about the mote in someone’s eye. But of course, it’s really all about preaching loudly and drawing attention to oneself.
Well, you know how it goes on the Left…making big plans is a substitute for actually following through on them, not just a precursor to it.
You really don’t know how true that is, PW.
I know of one idiot leftard in the disaster response community. This person not only prepared a disaster response plan that he had no intention of following through on, said plan was not even practical to execute in the first plan. And this dude actually got it approved by the government agency that he worked for.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 09/06 at 12:59 AM • permalink
“…said plan was not even practical to execute in the first place…”
PIMF.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 09/06 at 01:00 AM • permalink
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Au contraire, Mr. Freedland. I live in earthquake country and have learned that government is a lumbering mass of well meaning confusion and that surviving a disaster is, at least initially, a do-it-yourself affair.
I just packed my first survival kit, and I’ve lived here 25 years.