Wednesday, May 30, 2007

I'm Tired, and They're Stupid

My 3 loyal readers have probably been wondering why I dropped off the face of the earth. It started innocently enough. Things picked up at work; I decided to focus on taking care of neglected areas of my life. I got lazy and used to not blogging, and once I'm in a pattern...

Work also started to get busy on top of really starting to suck, and in post-K New Orleans, it doesn't take much for me to give into the urge to say: fuck it. i'm tired. i'm just done! stick a fork in me.

There's been lots I've wanted to say. God knows there's no shortage of absurdity to comment on around here -- just haven't had the time or energy. Fortunately, all my thoughts can be summed up into what may just end up being my mantra: I'M TIRED; AND THEY'RE STUPID!

I'm also real fuckin' tired of "The Stupid." You know, our legislators, leaders, etc... I can't believe some of the shit they've proposed in the legislature, like raising auto insurance rates -- because we're not paying enough insurance. But then again maybe that bill sponsor was on to something; since more and more people will be living in their cars while waiting on Road Home payouts, maybe we should pay more to cover the belongings we'll be hauling around.

The haggling over using Road Home money to pay flood only or wind damage too? If this ain't another cheap stalling tactic, then I'm starting a petition to amend the city charter so Nagin can run again.

A bill to add about 25cents tax per beer to fund building a mental health hospital in St. Tammany? First, why the tax? it's exorbitant AND shouldn't such an emergency need be eligible for coverage under ohh i don't know...emergency funds or part of the $3 bill+ surplus? Second, if the hospital is an urgent need for the New Orleans area since the city lost so many psych beds, has it occurred to anyone to fucking build one in New Orleans?!?

Somebody needs to tell these folks that they're doing a horrible job at hiding how badly they want this city to change.

This pales in comparison to prior posts, but i figured maybe posting any thing might get me back into posting more often.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Friday's Flood

Just thought I'd share my little piece of Friday's adventure. It's not exactly breaking news, 4 days after the fact, but whatever.

This was LaSalle St. between Tulane Ave & Canal St (Canal St. being just yards to the right of this shot) at approx. 1:35PM Friday, May 4. Mine is the little dark blue Jetta. In the less than a minute it took to take this shot, the water went up maybe another inch before I waded in nearly knee-deep to rescue the only thing besides this computer that I own outright! We made it, by the way.

And to think that I took finding such a great (i.e., free) parking spot as the sign of the beginning of a good day...
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It's Called "INVESTING IN ONE'S FUTURE"

Yet another example of how our leaders' small-mindedness and lack of foresight and ingenuity only feed the ignorance of our populace and hold us down. Senator Vitter is reacting as if building a world-class medical complex is the absolute worst idea ever proposed. I've posted my thoughts on this before . (In a nutshell, I'm all for going bigtime on this thing. I mean, raise your hand if you'd rather not have the best doctors and hospitals in your own city. Unless, of course, you enjoyed your exodus in Houston so goddamn much, you'd do anything to go all the way to M.D. Anderson for treatment.)

It's also funny how those with access to the best in life (and who will do anything to keep that standard of living) suddenly become all apoplectic when the rest of us would like to use OUR public money to get the best for US. That's a whole 'nother post though. I'm not at all knocking the awesome healthcare providers we've had past and present. But what's wrong with aiming higher?

Why haven't things gotten better here in the past several decades? Because people here want easy answers.
Crime's up? Just lock everybody up in jail.
The schools suck? Just blame parents and morality.
Huge fuckin' pothole on your street? Ehh, just put some cones and yellow caution tape around it. Aw shoot, it's flooding again? Just go rake your damn leaves out of the catch basins!

Oh, we forgot to re-open the hospitals down there? Just throw some paint on Charity and open it back up like it was before.

To OPPOSE improving pretty much the only industry we had aside from tourism just plain don't make a lick o' sense to me.

Wake up, my neighbors! It's time to realize we have to INVEST in our future, which means putting something IN to get something good out. Most good things don't come without sacrifice, and these days good healthcare sure as hell don't come cheap.