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"Pay close attention to that man behind the curtain!"

Friday, September 09, 2005

The 700 Club harasses at least one victim of Hurricane Katrina

Outrageous!

A friend of mine is living under martial law in the suburbs of New Orleans after evacuating from his apartment in the city. I was only able to get through by phone about 2 days ago. The last time I spoke to him, they were still without electricity or running water.

He got ahold of a laptop computer today and sent me this astounding e-mail:
3 hours ago, I received a call asking to talk to my mother

from the 700 Club asking for a donation !!

CAN YOU F...ING BELIEVE THESE BASTARDS !!

I yelled "WE'RE IN NEW ORLEANS UNDER MARTIAL LAW, YOU IDIOT !!"

"WHERE'S YOUR FREAKING CHRISTIAN COMPASSION !!"

"YOU NEED TO BE SENDING US MONEY, BITCH,

INSTEAD OF TRYING TO ASSASSINATE WORLD LEADERS AND

BLAMING THIS HURRICAINE ON US !!

"GO TO HELL !!
It's bad enough for FEMA to ask people to donate money to an organization affiliated with Pat Robertson, but for one of Robertson's own organizations to call victims of the disaster and ask them for money is enough to make you want to commit a crime!
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Posted at 12:26 AM by: [Permalink]

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Disenfranchised

The looters. The looters! They're stealing stuff in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina! People are shooting at rescue helicopters!

What the fuck?!

I have some guesses.

People are desperate. They're in fear for their lives. They're hungry and thirsty. Their homes are underwater. Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. It's full of chemicals and human waste. Where do you think everybody is urinating and defecating? There's more pollution in that water than you could imagine. [UPDATE LINK]

The grocery stores aren't open, so you can't buy groceries. How long would you wait before you broke into a store to feed yourself and/or your family? What if you or your children have a chronic disease and your medicine is all underwater? Would you break into a pharmacy? Does waiting longer make you a better parent -- or does it make you a worse one?

The governor of Lousiana, Kathleen Blanco(-in-the-brain-o) says that you will be shot if you are caught looting. Wouldn't that just make you feel like a wounded animal that has been cornered? What would you do? (And by the way, with storm damages in the billions, do you really give a flying fuck on a rolling doughnut if somebody steals a TV from Wal-Mart?)

Can you imagine being stuck on the roof of your home in one of the inundated areas where helicopters pass by again and again and don't ever pick you up? What would you do? At what point would you shoot a gun to get their attention? How many times would you allow them to ignore you before you tried to get the boat for yourself? How desperate would you have to be before you started thinking, "Hell, I'm gonna die otherwise. Maybe if I shoot at that motherfuckin' chopper, that'll get their damn attention"?

Pretty desperate? Then perhaps you have an idea of the situation in New Orleans.

In normal times, these kinds of things present ethical dilemmas. But these are by no means normal times.

The rats. The rats! They're eating the dead in the streets of New Orleans. Police have abandoned their posts. Things are exploding. Nothing to eat or drink, nowhere to sleep or to shit. No way out. Nobody helping. Time is running out.

How would you feel? Can you even imagine? If you weren't quite sure what disenfranchisement meant before, the treatment of the victims of this storm ought to make it crystal clear.
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Posted at 1:55 AM by: [Permalink]

Thursday, September 01, 2005

New Orleanians looting for guns

It's all Jonah Goldberg's fault

Who would've known that all those residents of New Orleans who were too poor to own a car, who just barely survived from paycheck to paycheck, and whose circle of friends was just as poor as themselves would be reading The National Review for their "guide to smart looting" after Hurricane Katrina?

Apparently, they are.

How do I know this? Earlier today, CNN reported (no link there, but here are some others: 1, 2) that at least one New Orleans area store has had all of its guns stolen. Look where they apparently got the idea:
ATTN: SUPERDOME RESIDENTS [Jonah Goldberg]
I think it's time to face facts. That place is going to be a Mad Max/thunderdome Waterworld/Lord of the Flies horror show within the next few hours. My advice is to prepare yourself now. Hoard weapons, grow gills and learn to communicate with serpents. While you're working on that, find the biggest guy you can and when he's not expecting it beat him senseless. Gather young fighters around you and tell the womenfolk you will feed and protect any female who agrees to participate without question in your plans to repopulate the earth with a race of gilled-supermen. It's never too soon to be prepared. [Emphasis mine]
As rightard logic often dictates, one event followed the other; therefore an obvious cause-and-effect relationship exists.

Alternate explanation
Or maybe these people -- whose day-to-day survival depends on that kind of attitude -- are living in a society where people like Jonah would leave them to fend for themselves during a situation in which their lives are in real imminent danger. Isn't it rather ironic that he wants others to go to Iraq to fight "his" war?

How about working on real solutions to poverty instead of copping this "mock the victim" mentality. If Jonah thinks such a lifestyle is an easy one, I suggest he try it on for size.

Heads-up via ethan at salto mortale.
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Posted at 2:04 PM by: [Permalink]
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