Fuck the Federal Government
The federal government just allocated $354 million dollars to help New York City deal with traffic congestion. Yet houses remain unbuilt here in New Orleans, entire skyscrapers stand broken and empty, we're surrounded by roads that barely deserve the name, and the levees and waterpumps that protect the city are woefully undercapable. What the fuck is wrong with our federal government.
Do we have to start an armed revolution in this country to get people to understand? This is bullshit. Oh, and President Bush just vetoed a water bill that would have allocated $22 million to levee defense down here because it "cost too much." Bull shit.
Do we have to start an armed revolution in this country to get people to understand? This is bullshit. Oh, and President Bush just vetoed a water bill that would have allocated $22 million to levee defense down here because it "cost too much." Bull shit.
Labels: Bush, Government, Money, New Orleans, politics
|| posted by mW @ 6:10 PM
More Lies About New Orleans
Don't be fooled by the difference between unfiltered science and a legal rebuttal. After the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina and the devastation of New Orleans the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers issued a report than unequivocally placed the fault of this destruction on the failure of the levees, which was declared to be the fault of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. Funny how the powers that be allowed this report to become public knowledge when it was believed that the federal government was immune from litigation stemming from the damage caused by their faulty work (sad as Louisiana tort law doesn't apply to the federal government, but the cornerstone our tort law is that "Every act whatever of man that causes damage to another obliges him by whose fault it happened to repair it ... Every person is responsible for the damage he occasions, not merely by his act, but by his negligence, his imprudence, or his want of skill." La. Civ. Code arts. 2315-16). However, the federal courts have altered this blanket exemption from such ordinary liability.
Clever lawyers, finding a loophole in liability, found a way to enable persons to sue the federal government for negligence that led to the failure of the levees. Basically, it involves not the work done on flood protection (levees themselves), which remains exempt from liability, but the work done on commercial waterways (canals) constructed for other purposes, which negligently weakened the city's flood protection. And it was the finding of this loophole, which I firmly believe led to the report issued yesterday.
Nowhere is there scientific honesty, but rather a politicized retraction, claiming that the levee failures could not be traced to any one agency or group, and rather should be allocated over fifty-odd years of decisions made by a variety of agencies and persons throughout city, state, and federal governments. Listen, this is no different than when I cut my head on a quick-swinging door at a Bruins hockey game after being kicked out (as a 29-year-old) for giving Sarah (a 24-year-old) a beer -- it's a long story, but trust me, true -- and Sarah wrote a letter complaining of their treatment of us. Her focus was on their service and treatment of out of state persons (especially Katrina refugees) and the Bruins' response was mainly to deny liability for me injuring my head. It wasn't a real response but a legal form letter already written to get the average ignorant person to drop the issue.
This current denial of responsibility is the same. And it honestly boggles me. It's our federal government spitting legalese instead of doing the right thing. They're acting like the cheating man from Eddie Murphy's Raw. The joke was that you could practically be caught cheating in your woman's bed, but as long as you denied, denied, denied, it would go away and she would forgive you. True or not, joke or not, the Bush administration is the same way. There's no problems, there's no problems, there's no problems. Look at something else!
Because of such actions, it is incumbent upon each of us as American citizens to call bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. Our federal government fucked up, they admitted it, so in all fairness they should make restitution. For a government willing to spend $12 billion a month (see recent news articles) on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, for a total of over half a trillion dollars, it is mind-boggling that they refuse to spend money to save a struggling American city. Any funds they do allocate are swept up in red tape and slowed by a mind-numbing skepticism that the money will be spent properly.
If only I could convince our president that Katrina was caused by a new form of Al Queda technology and that the struggles of New Orleans are proof that the fight for freedom is a lost cause unless the city is rebuilt, maybe then he'd do something. The sad thing is, maybe that's what it would take to get our own country to fix something that was their own fault. Or maybe a republic governor.
In closing, let me be clear. No naturally occurring hurricane destroyed New Orleans. Had the levees NOT broken, the city would have been all but fine. It was the levees breaking, i.e. human failure, that led to the massive destruction of New Orleans. Fight anyone that tells you otherwise. It's the truth. Remember it.
Clever lawyers, finding a loophole in liability, found a way to enable persons to sue the federal government for negligence that led to the failure of the levees. Basically, it involves not the work done on flood protection (levees themselves), which remains exempt from liability, but the work done on commercial waterways (canals) constructed for other purposes, which negligently weakened the city's flood protection. And it was the finding of this loophole, which I firmly believe led to the report issued yesterday.
Nowhere is there scientific honesty, but rather a politicized retraction, claiming that the levee failures could not be traced to any one agency or group, and rather should be allocated over fifty-odd years of decisions made by a variety of agencies and persons throughout city, state, and federal governments. Listen, this is no different than when I cut my head on a quick-swinging door at a Bruins hockey game after being kicked out (as a 29-year-old) for giving Sarah (a 24-year-old) a beer -- it's a long story, but trust me, true -- and Sarah wrote a letter complaining of their treatment of us. Her focus was on their service and treatment of out of state persons (especially Katrina refugees) and the Bruins' response was mainly to deny liability for me injuring my head. It wasn't a real response but a legal form letter already written to get the average ignorant person to drop the issue.
This current denial of responsibility is the same. And it honestly boggles me. It's our federal government spitting legalese instead of doing the right thing. They're acting like the cheating man from Eddie Murphy's Raw. The joke was that you could practically be caught cheating in your woman's bed, but as long as you denied, denied, denied, it would go away and she would forgive you. True or not, joke or not, the Bush administration is the same way. There's no problems, there's no problems, there's no problems. Look at something else!
Because of such actions, it is incumbent upon each of us as American citizens to call bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. Our federal government fucked up, they admitted it, so in all fairness they should make restitution. For a government willing to spend $12 billion a month (see recent news articles) on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, for a total of over half a trillion dollars, it is mind-boggling that they refuse to spend money to save a struggling American city. Any funds they do allocate are swept up in red tape and slowed by a mind-numbing skepticism that the money will be spent properly.
If only I could convince our president that Katrina was caused by a new form of Al Queda technology and that the struggles of New Orleans are proof that the fight for freedom is a lost cause unless the city is rebuilt, maybe then he'd do something. The sad thing is, maybe that's what it would take to get our own country to fix something that was their own fault. Or maybe a republic governor.
In closing, let me be clear. No naturally occurring hurricane destroyed New Orleans. Had the levees NOT broken, the city would have been all but fine. It was the levees breaking, i.e. human failure, that led to the massive destruction of New Orleans. Fight anyone that tells you otherwise. It's the truth. Remember it.
Labels: levees, New Orleans, politics
|| posted by mW @ 12:02 PMShort Stories Updates
A large component of my fiction writing is playing with "what ifs." I find creating an event or alternate existence that pushes the boundaries of accepted science gives me a unique opportunity it explore different morals. This is what has always drawn me to fantasy, horror, and science fiction. I like asking "what if" you were a vampire? What moral code would you subscribe to? Wouldn't it have to be different than those of humans.? And if so, doesn't that prove morals are relative? It must. It is that conclusion and its effects that I want to explore; I think doing so forces us to re-examine our own surroundings.
In my writing, I've played with time travel, what the modern-day return of Christ would be like, and various takes on myths (from voodoo to lycantropy to druidism to magic). I feel that when you go to these places and look at these people's lives, they force you to ask strange questions that hopefully result in arriving at answers that can translate to our lives in the "real world."
Maybe it's all window dressing. People are certainly more fascinated by a modern magician asking what his purpose is on earth rather than a construction worker doing the same. But maybe also that's our fault as bad writers. Yet it's not just that; it's about wonder, too. About the dreaming we had as children when we believed that anything was possible. Today, we only say such things are impossible. I for one think that's sad. At the very least, I want to wonder what if.
Which brings me to the actual updates. I have three stories currently in production. I just finished a new story about a lycanthrope (very raw, but my first authentically set in New Orleans story). I also have a story about a wizard in modern times that I adapted from a past story in a universe not my own (once fan fiction-and no, not Harry Potter, it's much darker). That one I feel might be the most polished already, but I'm waiting for Sarah's feedback. The third story I've spent the most time on recently, is about what I call an Immortal. In many ways, they are vampires, but I have modified the myths enough that they certainly disdain that term. However, those readers needing some set of classification would find that's the closest match. It's not that I'm pretending to have created something truly original, I'm just playing with myths and picking and choosing and changing what I will. It's the characters who'd be offended, not me.
Unfortunately, I feel as if I'm struggling with the story, tentatively titled "Immortal Twilight" (which is about my fifth dumb title-I'm not so worried about nailing that right now, though). It takes a new Immortal from one of my unpublished novels and picks up where the novel left off. He has only recently come into his Immortality, he is unexpectedly flush with power, and is struggling to find out who he is. It deals with the consequences of one of his worst actions in the novel, and explores his inability to control his raw emotions, all over a cynical view that human existence is a series of fabrications to soothe the weak mind. I like the concepts, but the writing is giving me trouble. I've given it several heavy edits, and it doesn't feel good yet.
I hope the fact that I continue on is a good sign. However, I fear that maybe if I was a better writer, I would have nailed it out of the gate more. It's not that I mind editing. As a former editor in chief of a journal, I'm used to it, and actually am cool with it. It's just hard to have three stories at the beginning of the work. I wish I had something great at the end of the process so I could see where I'm heading.Ah well, time will tell. [Sorry, that was so cliche, damn my foolish brain...]
In my writing, I've played with time travel, what the modern-day return of Christ would be like, and various takes on myths (from voodoo to lycantropy to druidism to magic). I feel that when you go to these places and look at these people's lives, they force you to ask strange questions that hopefully result in arriving at answers that can translate to our lives in the "real world."
Maybe it's all window dressing. People are certainly more fascinated by a modern magician asking what his purpose is on earth rather than a construction worker doing the same. But maybe also that's our fault as bad writers. Yet it's not just that; it's about wonder, too. About the dreaming we had as children when we believed that anything was possible. Today, we only say such things are impossible. I for one think that's sad. At the very least, I want to wonder what if.
Which brings me to the actual updates. I have three stories currently in production. I just finished a new story about a lycanthrope (very raw, but my first authentically set in New Orleans story). I also have a story about a wizard in modern times that I adapted from a past story in a universe not my own (once fan fiction-and no, not Harry Potter, it's much darker). That one I feel might be the most polished already, but I'm waiting for Sarah's feedback. The third story I've spent the most time on recently, is about what I call an Immortal. In many ways, they are vampires, but I have modified the myths enough that they certainly disdain that term. However, those readers needing some set of classification would find that's the closest match. It's not that I'm pretending to have created something truly original, I'm just playing with myths and picking and choosing and changing what I will. It's the characters who'd be offended, not me.
Unfortunately, I feel as if I'm struggling with the story, tentatively titled "Immortal Twilight" (which is about my fifth dumb title-I'm not so worried about nailing that right now, though). It takes a new Immortal from one of my unpublished novels and picks up where the novel left off. He has only recently come into his Immortality, he is unexpectedly flush with power, and is struggling to find out who he is. It deals with the consequences of one of his worst actions in the novel, and explores his inability to control his raw emotions, all over a cynical view that human existence is a series of fabrications to soothe the weak mind. I like the concepts, but the writing is giving me trouble. I've given it several heavy edits, and it doesn't feel good yet.
I hope the fact that I continue on is a good sign. However, I fear that maybe if I was a better writer, I would have nailed it out of the gate more. It's not that I mind editing. As a former editor in chief of a journal, I'm used to it, and actually am cool with it. It's just hard to have three stories at the beginning of the work. I wish I had something great at the end of the process so I could see where I'm heading.
Labels: New Orleans, short story, writing
|| posted by mW @ 4:07 PMNew Orleans Traffic Laws
There's no way around it. New Orleans drivers are horrible. By contrast, Rochester Drivers are generally skilled and knowledgeable; Pennsylvania drivers are slow; San Francisco drivers are cautious; and Boston drivers, while usually fast and borderline reckless, are at the same time very skilled. I love living in New Orleans, but it's drivers are ridiculous. I speculate this is why my insurance rates were jacked once I moved here (and apparently it is mostly Orleans Parish [counties for the other 49 states], because Jefferson Parish apparently has much lower rates). So I thought for years perhaps this was a result of some bizarre traffic laws here in Louisiana, as if the Napoleonic Code had somehow influenced driving, like horse carriage traffic law was more bizarre in France than in England.
Not so. In researching traffic laws in preparation of defending my girlfriend in court, I realized New Orleans has pretty much the same rules as anywhere. Use a turn signal within 100 feet of an upcoming turn. When turning left, stay close to the median line; when turning right stay close to the right lane line. These are the big ones. No one here uses a turning signal and people routinely swing the opposite direction before making their turns, as if they were about to cut down on an inclined Indy track or were trying to clear the rig of an eighteen-wheeler. Right
New Orleans, I love you. New Orleans drivers, you have no clue what the traffic rules are and you suck. Maybe they don't have a written test here to get a license. Maybe they just put you in a car with an instructor and tell you not to hit anything. And based on my insurance rates and the amount of times they keep replacing traffic light poles and control boxes, I'd say many can't even do that.
Not so. In researching traffic laws in preparation of defending my girlfriend in court, I realized New Orleans has pretty much the same rules as anywhere. Use a turn signal within 100 feet of an upcoming turn. When turning left, stay close to the median line; when turning right stay close to the right lane line. These are the big ones. No one here uses a turning signal and people routinely swing the opposite direction before making their turns, as if they were about to cut down on an inclined Indy track or were trying to clear the rig of an eighteen-wheeler. Right
New Orleans, I love you. New Orleans drivers, you have no clue what the traffic rules are and you suck. Maybe they don't have a written test here to get a license. Maybe they just put you in a car with an instructor and tell you not to hit anything. And based on my insurance rates and the amount of times they keep replacing traffic light poles and control boxes, I'd say many can't even do that.
Labels: drivers, laws, New Orleans, traffic
|| posted by mW @ 11:16 AMNew Orleans
It's hard to go through the holidays and explain to people how New Orleans is. We want the tourists and conventioneers back. So we want to say "great!" And indeed, this infrastructure is sound; the French Quarter, Marigny, Garden District, and Uptown are all thriving. But so much of the city is still a devastatated wasteland and there is a responsibility to say so. There is nothing in some places. It's like block after block after block after block of Ground Zero in New York City. How do these people endure? Where are they?
It makes me so sad to think about. There are so many people without homes or jobs. And it makes me feel so powerless because our governement is doing nothing about it. And then people have the nerve to ask why New Orleans should be rebuilt. It's like asking why your mother should get a pacemaker when her heart fails. Because you love her and you'd do anything to protect her.
It makes me so sad to think about. There are so many people without homes or jobs. And it makes me feel so powerless because our governement is doing nothing about it. And then people have the nerve to ask why New Orleans should be rebuilt. It's like asking why your mother should get a pacemaker when her heart fails. Because you love her and you'd do anything to protect her.
Labels: Endure, Hurricane, Katrina, New Orleans
|| posted by mW @ 2:40 PM[top]
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