Wednesday, January 09, 2008

"I see stupid people"

I just read an article on MSN reporting on the displaced residents of New Orleans suing the U.S. Government for more than $3 quadrillion. To put this in perspective, that is a 3 with 15 zeros behind it. What is this world coming to?

My wife bought me a t-shirt for Christmas. It’s solid black with white lettering on the front. It says simply, “I see stupid people.” I’m thinking it is quite appropriate for this situation. And for all those people who are trying desperately to find someone to blame for what happened to them, I have a few things to say:

1. The levies always fail. No exceptions. If the flood waters are rising, the levies will fail. You can count on it. Once the water reaches a certain level, the levies will break. It has happened over and over and over again and it will continue to happen because there is nothing manmade or in nature that can withstand the eroding power of water.

2. Contrary to popular belief, George W. Bush is not God. Bush did not call down the powers of nature to send a destructive hurricane to your doorstep. Bush does not have the power or authority to use the forces of nature to target specific neighborhoods. Furthermore, Bush did not build the levies and he certainly did not sabotage the levies causing them to fail. They do that on their own.

3. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you live below sea level in a coastal city … there is the potential for moderate to heavy flood damage. Come on, people. Grow up! I live in tornado alley and I guarantee that if a tornado rips through my house tomorrow I am not going to sit atop the pile of rubble crying until the president and government officials feel my plight and offer to bail me out of my situation. First of all, I don’t want splinters in my butt. Secondly, I’m smart enough to know that if I’m not doing anything to fix the situation, there’s a good chance that it ain’t gonna get fixed. And thirdly, since I live in a volatile area, I half expect a tornado to disrupt my life some day, anyway. I give thanks for every tornado season that passes without incident in my neighborhood.

4. Finally, and I know this one is really hard to believe if you are inclined to lean that direction, but hurricanes are not racist.

Needless to say, I’ll be one upset tax payer if the government uses my money to help these people who want nothing more than a free handout. I have no problem with the government stepping in to aid those who are working hard to better their situations, but I guarantee those people are probably not the ones who are filing multi million-dollar law suits. After all, some people in my part of the world are already paying for mandatory flood insurance policies in order to keep cost down for those who live in legitimate flood planes. That’s asinine enough, but it leads to another point that if they are going to rebuild, they should not rebuild below sea level. It will happen again. And again, the levies will fail.

7 comments:

spookyrach said...

Hell, I wouldn't want ya getting any splinters in yer butt, either. Might interfere with that corn cob.

But, I gotta admit - the hurricanes are not the fault of the government. And there are a LOT of stupid people out there who refuse to take responsibility for themselves.

Princess of Everything (and then some) said...

If a tornado rips apart my house today, I am suing you. You jinxed us.

jonboy said...

Rach -- I'm not the one who's about to be in her LATE 30s.

Princess -- Your landlord has insurence. What are you complaining about.

That Janie Girl said...

"Hurricanes are not racist."

Awesome. Frikkin' awesome.

Dayna said...

Loved your blog!!! Levies fail, hurricanes aren't racists, and these people do want handouts and continue to want them. Therefore, as a fellow taxpayer I think we should sue New Orleans for re-electing Mayor Ray Nagin after he failed to evacuate his city in an ample amount of time prior to the hurricane. No, it's the city that never closes and it must stay open for business at all costs. Well we all know what it costs and the federal government was not to blame as much as the city and state government in the evacuation, recovery, and rescue efforts that took place prior to and after the hurricane. If you ask me, Ray Nagin should be spending time in prison for not activating an emergency evacuation plan at least 72 hours prior to landfall,for his poor response to using all city resources available to complete that project, for the city's poor emergency action plans....etc, etc... Point is that New Orleans could have been fully evacuated for anybody that was willing to leave and the Mayor and the Governor could have taken these people further inland to a safe and secure place. However, they really didn't want to mess with it and they didn't want to pay their workers overtime, etc. This has costs the rest of us money already and will continue to do so, as people tend to forget what really happened or don't want to face the truth. It's easier to blame Bush and his administration as they are the scapegoats for everything. We all know that New Orleans has already received millions of dollars in relief and what did Mayor Nagen use some of that good 'ol FEMA money for? Well he spent millions of it on rebuilding the Superdome. One of the very first things that he did!! I think he could have found a better use for that money than on the stupid Superdome. It's not like the Saints have ever been that good of a team and they had use of the old Astrodome in Houston for their home games anyhow. Regardless, this could go on forever, but I loved your story and I think we should file a counter lawsuit against them for being stupid and idiotic!!!!

jonboy said...

Dayna -- thanks for the comment. I'm not from that area, but it certainly seems as thought Nagin and the governor were fairly incompetent in their response. I can't believe they reelected Nagin.

Anonymous said...

With quad-rillions of dollars we could buy Plainview and the university on the hill and do what we want!!! We can hold a levee of the grandest sort!!! Hee-hee!