Trail of Idiocy, not Tears
There’s a story going around about a group of a few hundred people who tried to leave New Orleans after the hurricane by pooling their money (to the tune of $25,000) to get buses to get them out of there, but the buses were supposedly commandeered by local authorities before they got to them, and then the people weren’t allowed to leave New Orleans. Read what Michelle Malkin has on this. She quotes Mark in Mexico, who said:
The story is a modern Trail of Tears and will leave you speechless.
No offense, Mark, bit I couldn’t disagree more. More like a Trail of Idiocy.
Here’s my gripe. I read the story, and all I heard was bitch, bitch, bitch. You know what? I say TOUGH. If these people had the money to 1) stay in hotels in the French Quarter (which is where they supposedly came from), and 2) cough up $45 apiece for the buses, then what’s their excuse for not evacuating before the hurricane struck?
Don’t these people feel the least bit responsible for their own stupid decisions? All they can do is bitch that no one took good enough care of them? Uh, pardon my insensitivity, but TOUGH. IF this story is true (which I seriously doubt, anyway), then those people decided they could handle themselves no matter what happened. Worse, they had children with them and stayed! Furthermore, if these people were so tough that they could choose to “ride out the storm,” maybe they were passed over by rescuers in favor of people in more imminent danger.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: any parent who has the means to evacuate and chooses NOT to when faced with disaster should be charged with criminal child endangerment. I have LESS than zero sympathy for them. For the children, yes. For the adults–hell NO. I just hope they’ve learned their lesson.
Stupid assholes. Here’s something to think about: Pretend you work in a building like the World Trade Center, say, “the XYZ Center,” on September 31, 2005 (fake date, I don’t want to jinx anything). The government announces that there is an 80% chance that in two days, some Islamofascist terrorists are going to crash planes into your building and turn it into rubble. Let’s just assume for this scenario that you don’t get paid for days you don’t show up, but you can afford to take the day off. Toss in the fact that your kids go to day care in the same building. My question: Do you and the kids go to work and daycare at the XYZ Center on September 33, 2005, despite the warnings? Or do you say, “eh, I can handle it.”
Can someone please tell me what’s the damn difference between that scenario and what these mental midgets did in New Orleans? What’s the difference between the New Orleans people who COULD evacuate before a Category 5 hurricane (with their children, especially!) and Russian Roulette?
Apparently some have taken this as more proof of state and local bureaucratic bungling. Sorry, I don’t read the story it that way. First of all, everyone knows how FUBAR the NOPD is in the first place. Secondly, all I see is an “eyewitness account” by two people who chose to take their chances, and then expected someone else to fix their mistakes (note that the two writers are EMTs, for crying out loud!), and want to bitch when it doesn’t go the way they had planned. I smell a rat–they’re either liars, they have an agenda, or they’re just yet another couple of sheep in sheepdog’s clothing.
I never, ever thought I’d use a Kos line, but “Screw ‘em.”
Vinnie says:
You had me until you used the Kos line. Unforgivable.
Next time, use these Vinnieisms:
“You know what they call it in the Russian Navy? Toughi Shi’iteski.”
“You know what they call it in the Mexican Navy? El Tougho Shi’iteo.”
Ann says:
First of all, you wouldn’t understand this unless you lived in Louisiana. There are numerous hurricane threats every season. More than not they turn elsewhere. They also lessen in strength. There are tons of variables. You can stay with certain hurricanes and be fine. $45 will not evacuate you. you cannot rent a car or get a room for that. Not to mention the interstates are jam packed with people leaving. What has happened is a tragedy, not time for you to insult people.
Beth says:
Ann, are you one of those idiots too?
What the fuck do you think the “bama” stands for in the domain name? How f’n stupid ARE you? I live in Mobile. I evacuated. The hundred-plus year-old house that my mother grew up in (in Pascagoula, MS–and it survived Camille) just disappeared last week, as did those of all of their neighbors.
I know hurricanes, moron. They don’t ONLY happen in Louisiana–nor did Katrina.
I guess you’re one of those farking retards who thinks you can “ride out” a Category 5 hurricane, aren’t you? Well, good luck with that, but don’t go crying when things don’t work out According To Your Planâ„¢.
God, the stupidity of people like you is just astounding. Here, lean in closer…
::FWAP:: Dumbass! :roll:
DragonLady's World says:
Welcome to Potty Mouth Friday!
It worked well for my stress level last Friday, so I am going for a regular Friday “purging” of weekly stress. I feel the need to do some venting particularly after my latest dental issues. I wholeheartedly agree with her.
First, though, I have so…
Barb says:
If I had been in New Orleans, I’d have gotten out of there somehow! Like a cousin said to me, “I’d got myself and family out, had I had to walk, bicycle, beg, borrow, or steal! There was plenty of warning. WHY did some of them wait until the very day to try and get out? But, then, there was the ‘the hurricane isn’t coming our way’ mentality. In a city surrounded by water, OUT should have been the operative word, the minute they said Hurricane!
basil's blog says:
Lunch: 9/9/2005
Try one of these specials with your lunch: Harvey (Bad Example version) says Dubya’s right, but wrong. Beth (MY VRWC) Kosses those that didn’t leave. Steve (Hog On Ice) says we should do as much as we did for the
Shamalama says:
Beth:
Hear! Hear!
I applaud you for saying what to many have neither the intelligence not the balls to say.
Don’t give me the “woe is me” chant when you knew a Cat 5 storm was bearing down on you. I don’t care if “More than not they turn elsewhere” or “They also lessen in strength”. What kind of person willingly takes such a chance, especially if there are children involved? Geez.
Louisiana’s governor Kathleen Blanco failed New Orleans. New Orleans’s mayor Ray Nagin failed New Orleans. And in many ways the residents of New Orleans failed themselves.
The evil of “No Personal Responsibility” is encroaching more and more upon a once proud and self-sufficient America.
Linda F says:
Beth,
You are so right! I just moved to SC, and, let me tell you, if a category 4 was headed my way, let alone a category 5, I’d be outta here so fast the palmettos would turn into ferris wheels!
The story struck me as phony, too. Just too pat that the local gendarmes would use threats of force to keep the blacks out - right, like the cops are all white, and 1st cousin to the Klan. I’m confident that the story will prove to be false. Unfortunately, it will also enter the realm of urban legend, long to be repeated, never to completely die.
The fact that the story surfaced on a leftist site adds to my suspicions.
The people I saw (courtesy of TV) in NO were primarily very young, old, ill, or staying with those who were (other than the scum who terrorized the stranded).
Flopping Aces says:
More Katrina, Update XI
How about the welfare state of our nation. I would argue that the welfare state is to blame for many of the needless deaths. The fact that it creates people who cannot fend for themselves, cannot think for themselves, and obviously will not survive o…
Diane says:
Got you blogrolled :) Via DragonLady’s
Now on to the rant I had going good and then messed up and closed the window and lost it all, so now I’m really pissed; which by the way, speaking of piss, whoever stayed in New Orleans of their own volition is too stupid to pour it out of a boot with the directions written on the heel. It’s true there are poor people and old people and sick people, but there was also a damned ignorant mayor who let shi’iteloads of school buses stand idle instead of trying to get everyone possible out of the city. Mr.Bill even knew what would happen if that type of storm were to hit New Orleans. National Geographic wrote about it, and on and on and on. I live on the Gulf Coast of Texas, Galveston Bay and let me tell you, I know DAMN well what a hurricane is, being born and raised in Florida before moving here. I was here in 1983 when Alicia hit and while only a Cat 3 that was bad enough for me. I would never stay for another. If I’m standing in the middle of the road and a semi comes roaring towards me I jump to hell out of the way of it too, but then I have a brain.
The day after the storm I was at a local shelter where people who had the sense to leave BEFORE Katrina hit were fortunate enough to find harbor and I spoke in depth with a 76 year old lady who told me that she had lived in New Orleans her entire life, and had lived through Camille but she knew this would be a bad one so she did what she’d never done- LEAVE.
Ann says absolutely nothing that makes a single iota of sense. Sure there are variables. There’s also only one bullet in a revolver in the game of Russian Roulette, and as Beth so aptly notes this is exactly what staying for a hurricane is. PARTICULARLY a friggin Category 4 or 5. I call it God’s way of thinning out the gene pool.
I didn’t really want to leave a rant as a first comment on a new blog but OH WELL- something about Ann’s condescending and reprimanding tone really irritated the hell out me.
Lorin Friesen says:
What good comes from the blame game?
I know that when I turn to CNN or MSNBC that every utterance is a blame-based crappola on GW’s republican/ conservative/ presidency.
They don’t deliver news, they design a message that is based to divert their own ignorance! The devastation in New Orleans was the result of it’s weakest structure, it’s levee’s. My question to these news media types, where was 20/20 or 48 Hours or any other investigative news body to tell any of us about New Orleans weakness before now? Let’s hear you talk about your roll in that Chris Matthews!
SWM says:
Two points:
a) Yeah, they should have evaculated when they could. According to an interview with one of those involved, they attempted to evaculate prior to the hurricane hitting, but by the time they decided to leave, transportation was unavailable.
b) The crux of the story wasn’t that they were idiots for staying. The crux is that, having survived the storm, they then DID attempt to get out of NO themselves! They didn’t stay put and wait for rescue, and they didn’t hole up in the Superdome or Convention Center and wait for gov’t support. Rather, they attempted to walk out - exactly as I would have done. That they were turned back by the cops is outrageous! (To say nothing about the lies and distortions fed them by other officials). Preventing people from leaving a dire situation is criminal, and I sincerely hope that it will yield appropriate consequences.
Beth says:
SWM - I’ll reserve my outrage at such a situation for those who could not have evacuated. I have NO sympathy for the ones who stayed when they could have left before the storm. None. I’m not cutting the local authorities a bit of slack; I just really don’t want to hear jackshi’ite from anyone who elected to stay and then wants to bitch about the consequences. Tough shi’ite.