Month: September 2005

Gold got up to $475/ounce today. The dollar is dropping like a rock lately.

Baptistry.
What’s most offensive about this, on further reflection and considerable correspondence, is that this is a New England church that is pretending to be asking whether someone else’s misery is justified by God’s just anger at someone else’s supposed sins.
(I haven’t seen Pat Robertson’s ministry saying, “Maybe our leader’s fibs brought this down on other people’s heads. We’re really sorry and we’ll try to make it right.”)

Responses:Sooz. [Mark Bernstein]

Christians believe that their god exterminated virtually all life on Earth because some humans weren’t living the way he wanted them to. Next to that, killing a few hundred to a few thousand people is pretty insignificant. It’s hardly surprising that some Christians are asking this question.

Frustrated: Fire crews to hand out fliers for FEMA. As New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin pleaded on national television for firefighters – his own are exhausted after working around the clock for a week – a battalion of highly trained men and women sat idle Sunday in a muggy Sheraton Hotel conference room in Atlanta.

Many of the firefighters, assembled from Utah and throughout the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, thought they were going to be deployed as emergency workers.

Instead, they have learned they are going to be community-relations officers for FEMA, shuffled throughout the Gulf Coast region to disseminate fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA.

[…]

“They’ve got people here who are search-and-rescue certified, paramedics, haz-mat certified,” said a Texas firefighter. “We’re sitting in here having a sexual-harassment class while there are still [victims] in Louisiana who haven’t been contacted yet.”

[…]

But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew’s first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas. [Salt Lake Tribune]

More details on one of the ways that FEMA interfered with rescue efforts in Louisiana.

Armed militia protects its New Orleans neighborhood. The Algiers Point militia put its armaments away Friday as Army troops patrolled the historic neighborhood across the Mississippi River from the French Quarter.

But the band of neighbors who survived Hurricane Katrina and then fought off looters has not disarmed.

‘Pit Bull Will Attack. We Are Here and Have Gun and Will Shoot,’ said the sign on Alexandra Boza’s front porch. Actually, said the spunky woman behind the sign, ‘I have two pistols.’

‘I’m a part of the militia,’ said Boza. ‘We were taking the law into our own hands, but I didn’t kill anyone.’ [FirearmNews.com]

bq. Now the Algiers Point militia has defiantly declared it will not heed any orders for mandatory evacuation. The relatively elevated neighborhood area is across the Mississippi River from the city’s worst flooded areas and has running water, gas and phone service.

“They say they’re going to drag us kicking and screaming from our houses. For what? To take us to concentration camps where we’ll be raped and killed,” said Ramona Parker. “This is supposed to be America. We’re honest citizens. We’re not troublemakers. We pay our taxes.

Note that the Gestapo and their Stormtrooper backup are not trying to disarm the Algiers militia. Slaming little old ladies against a wall is one thing, but taking on several dozen armed and organized defenders is more than those bullies are ready for.

Privacy Enhanced Computer Display. From the Mitsuibshi Research Laboratories:

bq. The privacy-enhanced computer display uses a ferroelectric shutter glasses and a special device driver to produce a computer display which can be read only by the desired recipient, and not by an onlooker. The display alternately displays the desired information in one field, then the inverse image of the desired information in the next field, at up to 120 Hz refresh. The ferroelectric shutter glasses allow only the desired information to be viewed, while the inverse image causes unauthorized viewers to perceive only a flickering gray image, caused by the persistence of vision in the human visual system. It is also possible to use the system to “underlay” a private message on a public display system. [Schneier on Security]

From the description it doesn’t sound like this would do any good as TEMPEST.

From smith2004:
bq.
“The first American Revolution wasn’t fought with petitions. People
actually had to take stands and put their lives on the line. They had
to be rude. They had to disobey the nice officers.

“It worked. It can work again.”

— Shelley Thomson
[End the War on Freedom]

Aid. Linda has been working hard to find the answer to a simple question: how can we help people from New Orleans? (The government wants you to send money to Pat Robertson to fund his pro-assassination ministry, but we’d rather not. I know I’ll get pounded for saying this, but there are historical reasons not to embrace the Red Cross. And lots of cash donations get turned into profits for Wal-Mart, which seems inefficient)
Linda writes:

[Mark Bernstein]

The historical links seem to be broken, since they don’t even mention the Red Cross. There certainly are historical reasons not to trust them, though.

I sent a check to Direct Relief International, but for those who know somebody near (but not in) the affected areas, it would probably be more effective to FedEx a few cases of MREs and some water filters and arrange to have them driven in by somebody with an SUV.

#
John Sabotta at No Treason –

Shoot The Sheepdogs – Mr. Sabotta comments on Bill Whittle’s latest
missive. Hehe. [notreason]
bq.
Everyone who reads Whittle’s rambling drivel probably likes it
because, deep down inside, they imagine themselves to be a
“sheepdog” . But that’s not the correlation of forces. The vast
majority of those reading Whittle’s disgusting ass-licking festival
are really the sheep, no matter what “warrior” fantasies they
indulge in. And the reason the sheepdogs are protecting them is not in
order to build “something wonderful”, but instead to deliver them,
conveniently herded, to be cut up for mutton at the pleasure of the
State.
[End the War on Freedom]

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee commandeers Sam’s Wal-Mart stores. Sunday, 10:30 a.m. Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee said he has “commandered” the Sam’s and Wal-Mart stores in the parish… [Times-Picayune]

bq. Lee said he took the action after he learned that a Wal-Mart store wanted to open recently but was told by FEMA officials that it could not.

[…]

Lee said anyone from FEMA who tries to close either store will be arrested by deputies.

Sounds like the people in Jefferson Parish are pretty fed up with FEMA.

#
John in Central Texas at…. #
John in Central Texas at Lonestar MVPA –

Hurricane Katrina – Labor Day 2005 – a vet who drove his deuce and
a half into Beloxi and New Orleans shortly after the hurricane, and
delivered food and cleared debris. This would be an amazing story from
a young guy, but John has some medical problems. God bless you,
sir. [kimdutoit]
bq.
I was trying to untangle some of the two by fours in the street when
my back gave up on me. At this point, I had better clarify my medical
condition. During one of my many overseas vacations with Uncle Sam, I
suffered multiple explosive impact traumas against my spine. T his
left me with multiple broken vertebrae and a lifetime of prescription
painkillers. After years of poking and prodding by the Veterans
Administration, the federal government declared me 100% disabled and I
now became an official burden to society. Whatever you say, Doc.
Driving, standing and sitting is painful, but walking is agony.
Bending and lifting is torture beyond belief…
[End the War on Freedom]

An amazing story about how one guy made it into the disaster area with food and water, and helped a lot of people.