Month: August 2005

An employee at a web services company at New Orleans has a weblog. Apparently they’ve managed to keep everything running with a diesel generator. There’s a link to a webcam, but it doesn’t seem to work for me.

New Orleans under water. AT FIRST IT LOOKED AS IF NEW ORLEANS DODGED THE BULLET when Katrina weakened and shifted her track. But levee breaks have now put most of the city under water — in some places as deep as 20 feet. That’s as high as a two-story building! Some reports say the city is under martial law. Other reports say those reports are wrong. But it appears that the poor slobs forced to take dubious refuge in the Superdome, are now locked inside, forbidden even to go out on a walkway for fresh air. Note to self: Increase the three-day food supply in the bug-out bag to a full week’s worth. Plan ahead for a non-government refuge if you must flee. Stay out of big cities … Oh, I already know that one. Stay the hell out of big cities …
[Wolfesblog]

Or if you live in a big city, come up with a plan ahead of time for remaining in your home as safely as possible. For people who live in flood-prone areas, it would appear that keeping an inflatable boat in the attic is a good idea.

Dome has hole in roof. The roof of the Superdome, where thousands of New Orleans residents have sought refuge from the storm, was damaged and there are reports of water pouring into the building.

Two sections of the roof were missing, about 1 foot wide by 6 feet long. Witnesses said rain was coming through; people were moved from a section of the Dome floor from the 30-yard line to the end zone, up into the concourses of the building. [The Times-Picayune]

I’d be willing to bet that the Gestapo, having made sure that everyone inside is helpless, is now refusing to let them leave.

Law and Disorder. Mandatory evacuations, such as that ordered in New Orleans on Sunday, are a wonderful invitation to looters, and they came in droves. Where was the law? “Looting on Tuesday took place in full view of police and National Guard troops…. Looters filled industrial-sized garbage cans with clothing and jewelry and floated them down the street on bits of plywood and insulation as National Guard lumbered by.”

Far from protecting property owners, they protected looters. “At a drug store on Canal Street just outside the French Quarter, two police officers with pump shotguns stood guard as workers from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel across the street loaded large laundry bins full of medications, snack foods and bottled water… ‘ ‘We can commandeer whatever we see fit, whatever is necessary to maintain law.’” [Mises Economics Blog]

New Orleans has a reputation for having the most corrupt police in the country, so this isn’t surprising. It’s something to keep in mind for anyone who ever receives word of a “mandatory” evacuation, though.

#
Jack Duggan at LewRockwell.com –

Superdome of Shame – on the criminal delay of refugee entrance
into the Louisiana Superdome so that they could be searched. [lew]
bq.
Think about it. They can allow in 30,000 screaming fans with
fifty-dollar bills and costly NFL tickets in their hands in a few
minutes, but poor black people fleeing for their lives, four
hours. Four HOURS!

…

This is the real story of the Louisiana Superdome. Hurricane Katrina
can certainly destroy the environs of the Louisiana and her
neighboring states, but that can all be rebuilt. What will never be
rebuilt is the dignity of the poorest citizens of that region, since
the government acted with a greater destructive force than a
hurricane. The lamp of freedom has been blown out by force-five
bureaucrats, their sycophants and their head-embedded media enablers
who will insure that it will never get re-ignited. For our own good,
of course.
[End the War on Freedom]

The victims of this outrage should all receive written apologies and payments for having to put up with this. The money can come from the salaries and pension funds of everyone involved in searching them or giving the orders for it to happen–they won’t be needing that money in prison, where they belong.

More police thuggery. It seems there’s an article like this in the paper every day. And these are only the instances that get press. In this case, (see here, too)an innocent breastfeeding woman is tossed around by some cop in front of her… By Ryan McMaken. [LewRockwell.com Blog]

From one of the articles on this case:

bq. “If (the detective) had to spend a day in jail like I did and be scared, not knowing what’s going to happen, and have her family crying and worried about her, then I think she would understand where I’m coming from,” Mercedes said.

That sounds like a good idea to me.

It seems that Gmail is expanding again–my number of invites has gone up to 100.

I rented Alexander over the weekend, and was amazed to find that someone managed to make a movie about one of the most interesting people in history tedious. Then at the end I saw “directed by Oliver Stone.” That explained it.

Lockerbie Bombing Evidence Faked by CIA /A. August 29, 2005 (offsite) [Cryptome]

bq. A FORMER Scottish police chief has given lawyers a signed statement claiming that key evidence in the Lockerbie bombing trial was fabricated.

The retired officer – of assistant chief constable rank or higher – has testified that the CIA planted the tiny fragment of circuit board crucial in convicting a Libyan for the 1989 mass murder of 270 people.

15-year-old burglar shot by South LA woman. From GUNED.COM– A 15-year-old burglary suspect died Wednesday, a day after being shot by a woman who told police she returned to her South Los Angeles home to confront a tire iron-wielding boy in her house. [FirearmNews.com]

bq. The shooting took place about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday when Mary Ann Talley, 59, returned to her home after her daily walk, police said in a statement. When Talley entered her home, a young burglar confronted her with a tire iron and she shot him with a handgun she keeps for protection.

The story doesn’t say (and it probably never occurred to the reporter), but it sounds like the lady was (illegally) carrying on her daily walk. Good for her! It’s too bad she had to use it, but it’s better that she had the means and will to defend herself than the alternative.