Whenever there is a natural disaster, the tsunami in the Indian Ocean for example, the world community expects the United States to help.
When a natural disaster hits the USA, the world community is silent.
where are they when the coastal United States needs them now? This disaster will affect not only the country's economy, but probably the world's.........ah well, life goes on, does it not? And the hurricane season is only half over.......
I just wonder what it's going to take to wake people up to the inevitability of gas rationing, and astronomical prices of food, products, etc. I mean, do they realize that despite we're still in the end days of summer, we're approaching fall, and there are a lot of people who heat their homes with oil? (I have a heat pump that works off of electricity, and for back up during power outs, a simple fireplace in one room with an electric blower which of course won't work during a power outage, but at least I can open the doors ) and that oil will be so highly priced they'll have to decide wheather to be cold or buy high priced food?
sigh.................we ain't seen nothing yet on how this hurricane has affected the country.................................(I was horrified yesterday by them showing the main pipeline that runs from New Orleans up thru to New York that has a major break in it....... I mean, wanna just send flyers out to potential terrorists for strike targets?? Geeze! and no, I don't normally worry about stuff like that, I mean, I live less than 60 miles from Oak Ridge for crying out loud, I won't have time to do more than put my head between my knees and kiss my arse goodbye if something were to happen over there............
Howze yer gardening going, lady? haven't heard from you in awhile. I've been laying low, myself letting the weedy grasses overtake the pathways, and enjoying the multitude of flowers that persist despite my lack of involvement. Depression and disaster are interesting bedmates. I've been struggling all summer. But at least I'm safe. I feel badly for the people down in the gulf. And if it weren't for the fact that I am the transportation for my son's job responsibilities, I'd pack up and go down there and do what I could to help. I'd feel much better doing that, believe me.
thanks for hollering back. maddie
The attitude is we can afford to assist our own. In the aftermath of the tsunami, many of the effected areas were not near airports with runways large enough to accommodate transport aircraft, and those that were, did not have the equipment necessary to unload and distribute relief supplies.
That is why the marines and navy were deployed into those areas. Any city in America has sufficient roads and an army of forklift operators, truck drivers and near an airport capable of landing a transport airplane, so we don't really need to park an aircraft carrier to act as a mobile airport and air traffic controller. Every sheriff's department and fire department in the country has a trained Search and Rescue (SAR) team, so we don't need SAR teams from Europe
The problem is, if we weren't at war, the national guard from every neighboring state would have been activated to assist with security, clean up and search/rescue. The problem is of course, all the equipment, and guardsmen are busy searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
-S
understood, didja see those pictures of I-10 and the causeway? I also watched CBS the other night when they decided on short notice to take "the backroads of 190" and pointed out that major roads were bad enough, but for rural back road communities, a 200 year old oak tree across the only road was more devistating than anyone who doesn't understand this can comprehend. I lived in an area where if the train was running, you sat until it passed. Nevermind that the only grocery store was on the other side....you had to wait. I can well imagine if the backroads to this disaster haven't even been thought about....................little things lift my thoughts though......like that Turkish man in front of his little Po-boy and convenient store who was saying he was staying open to feed anyone who needed food, that he could cook over a pit.............that speaks of the core of what america used to be and possibly is still.
I like to hope that in the face of more disasters that would affect MORE of the country, we'd come together and tell the rest of the world to take care of their own...........how I wish our son's and daughters were home taking care of their own business in their own part of their country. I can't imagine how the people who are FROM the area's hit hard are dealing with the fact that their homes, possibly their families are gone for good.........will the military let them come home to seek out their families and assess the damages, or will they just have to find out when information is released?
good point. and you gave me a ponder to think about..............
oh yes, and didn't you hear? there were NO MDI's.........................................I feel that if shrub really wanted Iraq for the oil, why doesn't he just come out and SAY it, we have the troops, we have the equipment, just take the country, take the oil and sort out the terrorists from the rest of the folks who just wanna live in peace, set up shop and build a few refinaries since the EPA isn't gonna slow things down over there.....................and no, I didn't vote for the bastage.........................................................boy does the Bayou boys song take credence here right now.........(no pun intended) (Creedence Clearwater Revival) Bad Moon rising...........
just makes me tired. and how sad, shrub had to break off his vacation early.......enough of this, I'm going outside to watch the frogs that live in my BBQ pit fountain, and the hummingbirds who are oblivious of nothing else but my late summer buffet, and pick a few ripe figs and thank the gods for a sunny day, heat, and humidity all. madgardener
As an aside to the storm, I am absolutely over-run with hummingbirds. I had lots of hummingbird attractant flowers in my yard, and the storm knocked all the blooms off. I had taken down the feeders, so the wind wouldn't get them. The evening of the storm, I had cooked over a campstove, was sitting outside eating and oh my gosh, got bombed by a hummer. I immediately put down my dinner and filled up and re-hung the feeders. The little darlings must have put out the word because it is hummingbird heaven. A bright spot in all this mess. Perry Houma, LA southwest of New Orleans
interesting that some not so friendly countries, such as Venezuela, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Russia, have offered help. I could not find mention of help from the UK or Italy, both current allies in Iraq.
madgardener wrote: which reminds me, I need to
Gas hit the $3.00 mark here this morning in Cleveland Ohio.
Jean
The biggest threat to gas pipe lines, which run across every state and through almost every major town are inattentive backhoe operators. About a year ago contractors for the alameda county water district hit the gasoline pipeline with a backhoe, it ended up sending flames a hundred feet into the air. Fortunately damage to the pipeline is rarely fatal to anyone except the backhoe operator and the nearby crew.
The pipelines are clearly marked, and if you call the power company, they'll even tell you where the natural gas and electric pipelines are. I bet the public utilities commission has maps of where the gasoline pipelines are. Their location is not exactly a secret.
At the most, attacking a gas pipeline would cause a spike in gas prices, but so does a worm fart, otherwise big whoop.
-S
Oops! Here's an address to find your better gas prices.
there's a problem Betsy........the prices have already hit $3.29. I use regular since there's no way I can afford the "premium" gasoline at $3.59 per gallon. At Exxon stations, the premium gas is almost $4! I saw the local Exxon showing prices for premium as $3.89. My best bet would have actually been to have followed my instincts (too late now) and top off the tank, again, and saved myself almost $4 for the total savings.
And that doesn't mean that $3.29 is the lowest price it will stop at before the oil reserves are processed. That might take a little bit. Enough time to clean me out of anything I have to go towards gasoline. At least my son gets paid Friday, but that's every two weeks. So we have to figure that yesterday's half tank of gasoline which cost $24.30 will today cost us $32.90. That's $8.60 difference. Now factor in that unless I jump on the $3.29 now, and wait until tomorrow morning, the price might actually be HIGHER. And gas buddy's website is showing prices relevent to Monday's prices when it was still a DOLLAR cheaper than it is three days later................................... I don't know where you are, but where I am, I'm feeling screwed and it ain't even getting started. Here's the insult. I knew prices were going to go up. I even anticipated higher everything prices eventually because of the cost of transporting. But what I didn't expect was when I decided not to run the very necessairy errand this afternoon after seeing the huge price increase, I stopped at the local grocery store and they had ALREADY RAISED PRICES ON STORE ITEMS..............yesterday I could have gotten the meager items for much less. So gouging is already in progress before the set cost of all this has become evident. I see a long season and winter ahead of me with lots of rice and beans and cornbread...............
(you might think this is being extreme, let me give you the example: yesterday, a good medium sized bottle of orange Dawn liquid detergent would have cost me $1.89 with my Food City discount card. Today, that same bottle was priced at $2.99. Now I know that bottle was there yesterday. It wasn't brought in today by the truck. I went to get a couple of microwave dinners for supper. Monday I could have gotten them for 2@$5. today those same dinners were 2@$6 so you see, it hasn't even begun and the stores are already taking advantage.
Now add insult to injury. My son's friend and his mother and aunt's headed to Houston Sunday in the path of the hurricane. They checked into the hotel and paid $52.95 + tax for their rooms each. Yesterday, Antonio told my son that they were notified by the management that their room rates were higher. They figured since they were approaching Labor Day weekend, and went down to pay for a week in advance until they could find a condo to rent. They were informed that the room rates were now $134.95 per night, and this was no Marriott either. It was a nice average hotel on the outskirts of Houston. He and his mother and aunt's are now frantically searching for a condominium to rent to save money that the hotel is gouging them for now.....................
that IS interesting.....................and considering Venezuela has reason to want to feed Pat Robertson some of their hottest and spiciest food right now with a tall, chilled glass of Mexico's finest water, I'm encouraged that they don't judge all of us by one zealot.....................................
Are you basing this on our wonderful media non-coverage of the "news?" If it doesn't involve a missing drunk white girl or a runaway bride, you aren't going to hear about it. Foreign coverage of the news is out of the question when you have to have several segments on lip gloss and or how to pick a good plastic surgeon. I've been watching the news coverage of this disaster and it is pathetic. No one is asking any tough questions. Most of the "reporters" couldn't find their ass in the dark with a flashlight.
inevitability
On the first day of Economics 101 you learn about the trade-off between "guns and butter." Someone must have skipped that class.
google "foreign aid katrina".
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