Sunday, August 31, 2008

When The Levees Broke

As Hurricane Gustav bears down on the Gulf Coast, take 10:51 to view the video below, which dispels certain myths about Hurricane Katrina:
  1. Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster. As the video points out, Katrina was an engineering disaster.
  2. New Orleans is in the wrong place. New Orleans lies 125 miles from the Gulf of Mexico and -- until they were dredged -- protected by a vast screen of wetlands.
  3. New Orleans is below sea level. While some parts of the city are below sea level, so are parts of many other cities and countries, including New York, London, and 24% of Holland. 
  4. Because of New Orleans' unique geography, this can't happen anywhere else. In fact, many municipalities depend on functioning levees. For example, Sacramento is at particular risk.
  5. Authorities are aware of the problems and working to fix them. The Army Corps of Engineers has done nothing to change its mode of operation.
For more, see levees.org...

Sarah Palin: Tough on polar bears, tough on wolves, tough on the environment, tough on Darwin, tough on science. But if you've committed incest or rape, don't worry: Your child is safe...

McCain's choice offends Gail Collins of The New York Times, although she hasn't lost her sense of humor: "McCain does not believe in pandering to identity politics. He was looking for someone who was well prepared to fight against international Islamic extremism, the transcendent issue of our time. And in the end he decided that in good conscience, he was not going to settle for anyone who had not been commander of a state national guard for at least a year and a half. He put down his foot!..."

The International Herald Tribune features a summary of both candidates' positions on a number of issues...

Don't Gel Too Soon urges Clinton supporters to back Obama and recalls the consequences of sitting out a critical election...

Don't miss the weekly summary of election issues on As Time Goes By...


3 comments:

Sylvia K said...

Great post! We need more and more people with functioning brains to spell it out. Keep at it! I'm a fan!

Molly The Dog said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Frank Partisan said...

The only positive of American exceptionalism, is that it's not a tribe. The diversity is a positive.

The US hasn't won any major war, since WWII.