These are SO great. A friend sent them to me. I think THIS one is my favorite...lol!
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
FRIDGE MAGNETS FOR THE MODERN WOMAN
These are SO great. A friend sent them to me. I think THIS one is my favorite...lol!
LONG TIME NO SEE...
9-28-05
Good morning to all of my friends, family, and visitors. It has been about 10 days since my last post due to the usual 24hr chaos filled days + some other developments. Sometimes I wonder if life is just one big tragi-comedy and the creator is some weirded out LA-type movie director who likes to have a good laugh while his gerbils run around their wheels frantically and for no apparent purpose other than for his amusement...but I'm not bitter or anything...;)
Spare me the stories of true human goodness, beauty, and hope right now. Because if I see another Fox hope -filled -creative -hollywood spot...er I mean News segment, I'm pretty sure I'm going to hurl.
Fiction is fun...but now for some reality. This is an Op Ed posted in the Miami Herald. Yes foks its true. And I'm sure there were much worse stories to share-we just haven't heard them. Anyone who has ever been in a crisis situation (and usually for most americans this is the supermarket being out of their favorite brand of Snackwells) will tell you that life is definitely NOT like the movies.
Heroes are usually NOT revealed and in fact what we usually are privy to is the true nature of human beings. Which seems to be usually bordering on evil and depraved if nothing else. Read on...
Crises reveal character
leonard pitts JR.
The women were on the roof of the hotel, calling for help as floodwaters rose. Then a motorboat full of policemen came by.
“Can you help us?” the women cried.
The policemen replied, “Show us what you’ve got!” and motioned for them to lift their T-shirts.
The women said no. The policemen left them there.
I figured that story for an urban legend when one of my students wrote about it in a class I teach. Too crazy to be true, I thought.
But the tale turns out to be an eyewitness account from one Ged Scott, a bus driver from suburban Liverpool, England, who, with his wife and son, was on vacation in New Orleans when that city was swamped by Hurricane Katrina.
Scott’s story has received considerable play in British newspapers. As near as I can tell, it has not been picked up stateside.
Small wonder. Katrina has given us enough homegrown tales of People Behaving Badly without importing new ones.
Meaning the people whose first thought in a time of cataclysm was to smash windows and grab cell phones. And the ones who thought it a good idea to shoot at rescue helicopters. And the ones who used disaster as a cover under which to rob and rape without fear of retribution.
We find ourselves caught in one whopper of a storm season. Indeed, the National Hurricane Center is down to the last four storm names on its list for 2005. And yet, even among all the storms, and even among all the stories they have produced, are producing and will yet produce, this particular tale from Hurricane Katrina stands out.
Show us your breasts, and we’ll get you out of here?
You’ll have to go some distance to find a better illustration of the utter banality of evil.
I’m reminded of a piece of wisdom picked up somewhere along the way: Crises, it said, do not so much build character as reveal it.
Calamity, in other words, has this way of knocking down artifice and pretension, the devices people construct to keep other people from seeing who they really are. In a very real sense, you become yourself when things are disintegrating all around you.
And let’s face it, more than levees broke in New Orleans. Social order broke. Police authority broke. Chain of command broke. Communications broke. All the structures we build to restrain the floodwaters of human behavior broke.
Who would you be if there were no rules? What would you do if there were no accountability? What would you get away with if you could get away with anything?
Some people got away with being martyrs. Some did heroic things. Some became heroes.
But some, if we believe Scott’s account, could think no higher than their crotches.
You have to wonder how that request for a peep show fell on those stranded women. Doubtless hungry, doubtless tired, doubtless bug-bitten and sun-baked, and doubtless scared that they might die here, drowned in fetid water or pierced by bullets.
You have to wonder whether they were stunned, angry, appalled. You have to wonder whether they found it hard to believe what was being asked of them. You even have to wonder whether maybe they considered lifting their shirts, figuring indignity a small price to pay for salvation.
But in the end, they said no.
We don’t know what became of them. Scott’s account ends with the boat motoring on and leaving the women stranded.
It is an image of petty opportunism, yes, but also one of quiet integrity, and it’s that part I choose to take with me as a reminder for when floodwaters recede and structures of artifice are put back in place.
Even in a broken time, some things did not break.
©2005 The Miami Herald
Leonard Pitts Jr. is a columnist for the Miami Herald. To reach him, send e-mail to lpitts@herald.com.
Good morning to all of my friends, family, and visitors. It has been about 10 days since my last post due to the usual 24hr chaos filled days + some other developments. Sometimes I wonder if life is just one big tragi-comedy and the creator is some weirded out LA-type movie director who likes to have a good laugh while his gerbils run around their wheels frantically and for no apparent purpose other than for his amusement...but I'm not bitter or anything...;)
Spare me the stories of true human goodness, beauty, and hope right now. Because if I see another Fox hope -filled -creative -hollywood spot...er I mean News segment, I'm pretty sure I'm going to hurl.
Fiction is fun...but now for some reality. This is an Op Ed posted in the Miami Herald. Yes foks its true. And I'm sure there were much worse stories to share-we just haven't heard them. Anyone who has ever been in a crisis situation (and usually for most americans this is the supermarket being out of their favorite brand of Snackwells) will tell you that life is definitely NOT like the movies.
Heroes are usually NOT revealed and in fact what we usually are privy to is the true nature of human beings. Which seems to be usually bordering on evil and depraved if nothing else. Read on...
Crises reveal character
leonard pitts JR.
The women were on the roof of the hotel, calling for help as floodwaters rose. Then a motorboat full of policemen came by.
“Can you help us?” the women cried.
The policemen replied, “Show us what you’ve got!” and motioned for them to lift their T-shirts.
The women said no. The policemen left them there.
I figured that story for an urban legend when one of my students wrote about it in a class I teach. Too crazy to be true, I thought.
But the tale turns out to be an eyewitness account from one Ged Scott, a bus driver from suburban Liverpool, England, who, with his wife and son, was on vacation in New Orleans when that city was swamped by Hurricane Katrina.
Scott’s story has received considerable play in British newspapers. As near as I can tell, it has not been picked up stateside.
Small wonder. Katrina has given us enough homegrown tales of People Behaving Badly without importing new ones.
Meaning the people whose first thought in a time of cataclysm was to smash windows and grab cell phones. And the ones who thought it a good idea to shoot at rescue helicopters. And the ones who used disaster as a cover under which to rob and rape without fear of retribution.
We find ourselves caught in one whopper of a storm season. Indeed, the National Hurricane Center is down to the last four storm names on its list for 2005. And yet, even among all the storms, and even among all the stories they have produced, are producing and will yet produce, this particular tale from Hurricane Katrina stands out.
Show us your breasts, and we’ll get you out of here?
You’ll have to go some distance to find a better illustration of the utter banality of evil.
I’m reminded of a piece of wisdom picked up somewhere along the way: Crises, it said, do not so much build character as reveal it.
Calamity, in other words, has this way of knocking down artifice and pretension, the devices people construct to keep other people from seeing who they really are. In a very real sense, you become yourself when things are disintegrating all around you.
And let’s face it, more than levees broke in New Orleans. Social order broke. Police authority broke. Chain of command broke. Communications broke. All the structures we build to restrain the floodwaters of human behavior broke.
Who would you be if there were no rules? What would you do if there were no accountability? What would you get away with if you could get away with anything?
Some people got away with being martyrs. Some did heroic things. Some became heroes.
But some, if we believe Scott’s account, could think no higher than their crotches.
You have to wonder how that request for a peep show fell on those stranded women. Doubtless hungry, doubtless tired, doubtless bug-bitten and sun-baked, and doubtless scared that they might die here, drowned in fetid water or pierced by bullets.
You have to wonder whether they were stunned, angry, appalled. You have to wonder whether they found it hard to believe what was being asked of them. You even have to wonder whether maybe they considered lifting their shirts, figuring indignity a small price to pay for salvation.
But in the end, they said no.
We don’t know what became of them. Scott’s account ends with the boat motoring on and leaving the women stranded.
It is an image of petty opportunism, yes, but also one of quiet integrity, and it’s that part I choose to take with me as a reminder for when floodwaters recede and structures of artifice are put back in place.
Even in a broken time, some things did not break.
©2005 The Miami Herald
Leonard Pitts Jr. is a columnist for the Miami Herald. To reach him, send e-mail to lpitts@herald.com.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Walking symbol of failure...
This was noted in a recent article in the NY Times about the 45 people found dead in a hospital after being left for more than four days with nothing but temperatures exceeding 100 degrees in the wake of Katrina.
"Repercussions from the storm continued to echo in Washington, where the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael D. Brown, a walking symbol to many people here of government failure in the crisis, resigned. Mr. Brown was relieved of his role in the day-to-day disaster operations here on Friday. (Related Article)"
Well that's funny...because I guess I would say that the "walking symbol" of failure would probably be good ole dubbya...but then logic doesn't seem to come into play in our "democracy" anymore...
Monday, September 12, 2005
Mike---YOU ROCK...
An open letter from Michael Moore to Dubbya - Just wanted to share...Mike...your my hero.
Friday, September 2nd, 2005
Dear Mr. Bush:
Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.
Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?
Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!
I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?
And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!
On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.
There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.
No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!
You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.
Yours,
Michael MooreMMFlint@aol.com
www.MichaelMoore.com
P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.
---
Friday, September 2nd, 2005
Dear Mr. Bush:
Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.
Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?
Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!
I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?
And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!
On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.
There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.
No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!
You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.
Yours,
Michael MooreMMFlint@aol.com
www.MichaelMoore.com
P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.
---
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
A Good Story For a Change...
Good Morning Everybody
I just wanted to share this story. Its a positive news story in a time that is full with horror and tragedy. Just when I think humans are basically evil...someone restores my faith in mankind...
In New Orleans, human spirit overcomes horror
By Mark Egan 1 hour, 2 minutes ago
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - On a devastated street corner in a gritty New Orleans neighborhood an impromptu shrine stands as testament that even during the horror visited upon this city by Hurricane Katrina, kindness is not forgotten.
Made of bricks from a nearby building destroyed by the storm, the improvised structure protects a body that lies covered by a white sheet.
A cross fashioned of two pieces of wood found among nearby debris marks the site as a grave, albeit a temporary one. On the sheet covering the corpse are written the words "Here Lies Vera, God Help Us."
Before locals built this shrine, the woman had lain dead on the street. Her body was bloated and brutally distorted, untouched and ignored for almost a week by authorities who were working slowly to evacuate the thousands left homeless.
Since Katrina and the floods that followed hit New Orleans, the city has been struck by unexpected hardships.
Looting was rampant, refugee camps became the scenes of rapes, murders and robbery. Many lost everything and lacked even food and drinking water.
But as the worst appears to have passed and most of those left stranded have been evacuated, acts of kindness abound.
Dmitri Kachkov, a 35-year-old man who uses a wheelchair due to extreme physical disabilities, knows about hardship -- his family became refugees from Russia in 1997 and moved here.
When Katrina made them refugees again, they expected to sleep in their van. Just before the storm hit, Kachkov and his parents drove north and took refuge in a roadside truck stop.
Then a stranger -- Diana Cantello of Gramercy, Louisiana -- invited them to stay at her home.
"My mother cried at such unexpected hospitality," Kachkov said. They spent nine days and nights at Cantello's home, where a mother and her two children had also been invited to stay.
"Then yesterday it was my mother's 69th birthday and they baked her a cake and bought her small presents. My mother never expected such kindness, especially during this disaster," Kachkov said on Monday after his family returned to Metairie, Louisiana, to see how damaged their rental apartment was.
Near the Kachkov home is Drago's Seafood Restaurant.
Since the storm raged more than a week ago, five employees of the upscale eatery have lived on the premises to protect it from looters who have destroyed businesses across the city.
Then on Monday the restaurant reopened, serving charred chicken on pasta with a Cajun marinara sauce and ice-cold water -- a rare luxury in this city in recent days.
The food was free to anyone who wanted it.
"We have decided that we will serve free food as long as our resources last, probably until we give away $20,000 of free food," said owner Klara Cvitanovich.
Cvitanovich, 66, who came here from Croatia in her youth, was also shipping food out to poor neighborhoods.
"I can honestly say I have lived the American dream, and now I have to give something back," she said.
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Katrina children seeking parents shown on Web site Reuters
Reuters Photo: Daina (L), a New Orleans resident smokes a cigar outside the Johnny
I just wanted to share this story. Its a positive news story in a time that is full with horror and tragedy. Just when I think humans are basically evil...someone restores my faith in mankind...
In New Orleans, human spirit overcomes horror
By Mark Egan 1 hour, 2 minutes ago
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - On a devastated street corner in a gritty New Orleans neighborhood an impromptu shrine stands as testament that even during the horror visited upon this city by Hurricane Katrina, kindness is not forgotten.
Made of bricks from a nearby building destroyed by the storm, the improvised structure protects a body that lies covered by a white sheet.
A cross fashioned of two pieces of wood found among nearby debris marks the site as a grave, albeit a temporary one. On the sheet covering the corpse are written the words "Here Lies Vera, God Help Us."
Before locals built this shrine, the woman had lain dead on the street. Her body was bloated and brutally distorted, untouched and ignored for almost a week by authorities who were working slowly to evacuate the thousands left homeless.
Since Katrina and the floods that followed hit New Orleans, the city has been struck by unexpected hardships.
Looting was rampant, refugee camps became the scenes of rapes, murders and robbery. Many lost everything and lacked even food and drinking water.
But as the worst appears to have passed and most of those left stranded have been evacuated, acts of kindness abound.
Dmitri Kachkov, a 35-year-old man who uses a wheelchair due to extreme physical disabilities, knows about hardship -- his family became refugees from Russia in 1997 and moved here.
When Katrina made them refugees again, they expected to sleep in their van. Just before the storm hit, Kachkov and his parents drove north and took refuge in a roadside truck stop.
Then a stranger -- Diana Cantello of Gramercy, Louisiana -- invited them to stay at her home.
"My mother cried at such unexpected hospitality," Kachkov said. They spent nine days and nights at Cantello's home, where a mother and her two children had also been invited to stay.
"Then yesterday it was my mother's 69th birthday and they baked her a cake and bought her small presents. My mother never expected such kindness, especially during this disaster," Kachkov said on Monday after his family returned to Metairie, Louisiana, to see how damaged their rental apartment was.
Near the Kachkov home is Drago's Seafood Restaurant.
Since the storm raged more than a week ago, five employees of the upscale eatery have lived on the premises to protect it from looters who have destroyed businesses across the city.
Then on Monday the restaurant reopened, serving charred chicken on pasta with a Cajun marinara sauce and ice-cold water -- a rare luxury in this city in recent days.
The food was free to anyone who wanted it.
"We have decided that we will serve free food as long as our resources last, probably until we give away $20,000 of free food," said owner Klara Cvitanovich.
Cvitanovich, 66, who came here from Croatia in her youth, was also shipping food out to poor neighborhoods.
"I can honestly say I have lived the American dream, and now I have to give something back," she said.
Email Story
IM Story
Discuss
Printable View
Katrina children seeking parents shown on Web site Reuters
Reuters Photo: Daina (L), a New Orleans resident smokes a cigar outside the Johnny
Friday, September 02, 2005
LOOTING? MARSHAL LAW?OOPS! I MEAN RESCUE EFFORTS...
This is another thing that is just ludicrous. People are "looting" in New Orleans...well hell! I would too! Given the situation - I need to feed and take care of my family including food, water, medical supplies...and we are receiving little or no aid after we were herded into a stadium. People are dying right and left...there is NO running water, food, medicine, there is human feces and dead bodies everywhere I look - possibly one of my own relatives, children, or friends are laying next to me dead and rotting...hmmm....what would you do?
Prayers for New Orleans
Hi everyone - Sorry it has been a while since I have posted. I have been busy with many issues including job searching, getting the kiddo's back in school, and re-establishing my graduate studies. Plus I haven't been able to jog/run due to a back injury which has been depressing. Otherwise...
I have to mention that we should all be praying, donating, and doing anything we can to aid the people of New Orleans. What a horrific mess. Everyone seems so surprised that something like this can actually happen on "U.S. Soil"...I'm not. Look at our "leadership", look at where our country has been headed. If this is our response to a national disaster on our own soil (one where we cannot "blame" another country or "foreign" people) then what will happen in the future? You say we will learn from our mistakes? Oh really? Well it hasn't even been 30 years since Viet Nam ended...what are we doing again?
Anyway, I'm not going to rant. I just want to say that I am as sickened as everyone by what is happening. I can NOT imagine what they are going through. Put your own family into this situation. It could easily be ANY one of us and may still be. We are not protected anymore just by being "on U.S. soil". Our leadership or whatever it is... is not and will not be here "for the people". If they can't "control" us (i.e. push us back and herd us as we watch our children and family members die due to lack of water and disease running rampant in a disaster situation) what can we expect for the future?
The future is grim...the people existing (they are not "living" by any definition) in New Orleans right now are showing us our future. We don't need a crystal ball - just access to a TV or Computer where we can watch it on a live CNN feed.
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