Pink or Grey?

I will focus my comments on Katrina – the war in Iraq is just too large a subject for me to dissect and opine in the context of the “Tribes” article. (Read the article first or my comments will be empty....err...more empty).

For the most part, I agree with Whittle (and Grossman’s as well) comments. I find myself, almost consistently, falling into the Grey part of the argument when it comes to Katrina. Whittle’s historical examples from our country are dead on and Grossman’s sheep/wolf/sheep dog metaphor is also right on.

We should have armed police in schools. We should have more capital punishment and follow Turkey in its “eye-for-an-eye” punishment system. We’re too soft on crime. We’re too soft with illegal aliens and our boarders. We’re too soft on terrorism.

I will even go further when it comes to the “victims” of Katrina. How dumb do you have to be to live under a dyke and not know how to swim? How dumb do you have to be to go into your attic during a flood with no way of getting out when the water rises? How hard is it to have a $10 raft from K-mart stored in an emergency kit (when you’re living under a dyke!)? Darwin in action.

It isn’t the govts job to save dumb people. It’s the govts job to help people who want to be helped, have done everything they can to help themselves, but can’t seem to get out of the crisis. (Yes, this is also my view on social services.)

Whose fault was it for not evacuating the elderly people in the homes? The owners of the homes, not the governments. They should be tried for murder and executed.

Whose fault was it for not releasing the buses to evacuate literally hundreds of people? Negin.

Blanco is a wimp for crying on TV and it shows her weakness as a leader.

But, at the end of the day the federal gov’t must be held responsible for its lack of responsiveness to the hurricane. Claiming that the chain of command goes from local to state to federal is only to hide behind bureaucratic BS. The entire country knew Katrina was going to be BIG. Anyone with a high school education and/or anyone who has even driven through New Orleans/Louisiana knew that the City/State were completely incapable of dealing with the magnitude of the devastation to come. New York City (as seen by its reaction to 9/11) and LA are perhaps the only US cities with resources available to deal with such large scale catastrophes.

One (Whittle) can’t claim that Blanco and Negin are weak and incompetent (rightly so!) to then say that the federal govt’s hands were tied bc of the chain of authority when it comes to aid and the National Guard. You just can’t have it both ways. I think this is where Whittle’s argument is very thin and his “colors” are a bit too transparent and politically/conservatively biased.

His writings, the writings of many conservatives, claim that the Feds (and Bush) were irreproachable in reference to the Katrina mess. It’s just not true.

The truth, as usual, lies somewhere slightly to the right of the middle.

I Love Magnum P.I.

In college, I got addicted to the Magnum P.I. re-runs. It was my senior year, so studying was clearly residing solidly on the back-burner.

My favorite episode is the one where he falls off his surf-ski and treads water for days, weeks, months even! - sharks and all. I love the flashbacks to Nam and how he has that cool watch from his father.

The flash-backs in this episode are perhaps the best flash-backs of all time. My favorite is when the camera would focus on his watch and it was crusted with sea salt and he would wipe it off to see how long he had been treading water for and then it would cut to a flash-back scene when he was wiping mud off the watch while he was shooting up the Viet Cong in the rice paddies of Viet-fucking-nam.

I think this is also the episode when there’s a flash-back to his father’s funeral. It was a full on JFK junior at dads funeral type of deal. A young Magnum is saluting the casket, and the watch is too big for his 12 year old wrist, and the watch slowly rocks back in forth bringing back images of a cradle gently rocking back and forth and the security that the cradle (watch) provides a child. The metaphor is out of control. Tears in my eyes.

Don't even get me started on how fast he can pick a lock!

Nick's Birthday List

Hi All -
If you are interested in buying something for Nick off of his "wish list," look no further bc here it is:

Fireman costume:
http://www.thefirestore.com/store/category.cfm?cID=88 He wants the brown/beige one on the right...I think you can find it for $50 on other sites if you poke around.

Play Mobile toys: http://www.calicotoys.com/playmobil1.aspx This is just an example of the stuff he wants...he would love some type of structure though...not just the people. You can get this at Target, ToysRUs, etc...

Sleeping bag: http://www.rei.com/online/store/Search?vcat=REI_SEARCH&stat=7889&langId=-1&storeId=8000&textQuery=childrens+sleeping+bag

And for thos of you with money burning a hole in your pocket: a "sit-in" battery powered car...
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=3985042&cat=5353&type=5&dept=4171&path=0%3A4171%3A4198%3A5353

If you are going to get him something from this list, please post to the "comment" link below and let us know what you are getting. Please review the comments to ensure that no one else has already "claimed" the gift from the list.