Friday, September 02, 2005

funny thing about mother nature

or the mofo brought up some points that made me think:


funny thing about new mexico and the southwest for that matter is, they have their own separate daring mother nature issues...water. robbo works with a guy who used to live in vegas. vegas has lake mead (rocket fuel and all). it's the water supply for the whole southwest. i'm sure that there is other places that they get water from but lake mead is a big source. you have people in the southwest and california (who has to draw water from mead as well) who have lawns. kentucky bluegrass. do you know how much water you have to waste to keep kentucky bluegrass growing in the desert and/or dry steppe. i read a piece in the la times or the hollywood reporter and i cam across this bit about actress rene russo (there goes lethal weapon again). russo and her husband buy this place and have the garden redone in indigenous plants to the state of california. it cut her water bill down by one or two thirds. two thirds more so you can have grass like they have back east? what the hell are you thinking?

funny thing about the environmental movement. i came across this bit in the national review about the blame game on this. how environmentalists actually tried to blame the tsunami on global warming but tectonic shifts much to recovering heroin addict robert kennedy jr.'s chagrin, have nothing to do with global warming. there are similar rumblings with regard to katrina. global warming is contributing to stronger hurricanes. well according to the national weather service, the facts say otherwise. this is a natural phenomenon, and more of these storms struck land in the 1800's and the 1940's. so one can never really tell can we. on the other hand the bastard will no doubt eat his hat if we exceed 24 hurricanes strikes in this decade so, i'll have to get back to you on that in 2010. i'm sure you'll be waiting with baited breath.

and here's a wacky fact for you. this morning i heard on the news and the bastard wants to find out when the levees were built. you see, allthough only 92 category 3,4,5 hurricanes have made landfall since 1851 (not including this year's batch), new orleans' levees are only built to withstand category 3 hurricanes. i know that alot of opportunistic bush bashing has been going on since this happened and george did cut some funding to FEMA but, who the hell thought to build substandard levees? i would have built them to withstand category 10. ida know, maybe the technology didn't exist at the time but, it makes me wonder. my man jonny's world told me as he is taking FEMA course for the coast guard that storm surges develop into bigger thing in shallow water and the gulf is one big shallow pond. What are they thinking down there? I shouldn't presume but I have to wonder. And another thing, I'm sorry, I know this is a national tragedy but I can't get that bucking led zeppelin song out of my head. the worst part is, i'm not very familiar with the "song when the levee breaks" so the voices in my head inevitably go straight into "rhyming and stealing" by the beastie boys. it's like a hugely inappropriate curse i have on myself.

anyway, i don't know if we build these things (ie mofo's trade center example) to challenge mother nature or because engineers and city planners feel that these things are a testament to mankinds ability to live harmoniously with nature while polluting it but, there has to a time and a place for these city planners to occasionally take stock and improve. amsterdam did. they have a huge system for preventing floods. venice is building something to save venice. new orleans should have been thinking about this years ago instead of bringing in more riverboat casinos. ida know. the bastard's not there. the bastard can't understand it all. the bastard is glad his wife filled the gas tank before they raise the price of fuel this weekend. enjoy those SUVs, you suckers.

—the bastard

15 comments:

Rob S. said...

Certainly the FEMA cuts are hurtful, but it's the cuts in SELA funding (Southeast Louisian Urban Flood Contol Project) that may have made the original problem worse than it may have been.

Editor and Publisher has details.

Anonymous said...

the head of FEMA was on tv this morning, and it was put to him, "why was the government and FEMA so unprepared?" (i am, of course taking this out of context, because katie couric was being her usual cheerleader snipster self, and i have little patience for it--i was waiting for the weather report)--the head of FEMA went into the usual spin, how they did tests and reports and all the yadda-yadda for a Catagory 3 storm--which in and of itself was irresponsible, considering that a good deal of the state is below sea-level, and should have been tested for a Catagory 10,000 hurricane. and for what? because they followed NONE of the recommendations that were made in the first place!

not to mention that the state of LA has known for some time that the levees (and yes, i can't get that song out of my head either) have been in serious need of upgrading and repair, something that has been ignored since Camille sat on that region in '65. the monies for flood relief and levee upgrading were denied by the government (whomever doles out the money) as "pork". lotsa balls were dropped on this one--there's gonna be finger pointing for YYYYEEEEEEEAAAAAAARRRRSSSS after they find Fats Domino floating in the Pontchatrain (hopefully he managed to get out, God willing)--

DoM

bastard central said...

fear not DoM. fats has been found.

while i can sort of wrap my head around the idea of how stressed the mayor is down there i have to question his lack of ability to lead. or know his state's own laws on martial law. he declares it then he has to reneg on it because LA state law says that it's against the law to declare martial law. i guess every major metropolis can't have a mayor who does the the grace under pressure thing

—the bastard

Anonymous said...

you'd think all mayors could take a hint from guiliani--

i find it amazing that they mayor bailed out of the city not because of the conditions, but because he could not be kept safe from the maurauders by his own security

and it's times like these where you get the federal government to make it's emergency decisions, double quick, not hide your head in the sand--it's harsh, but i had two airplanes change my skyline forever (as did you)--the city could have gone to panic, but rudy kept it in line, by example--don't know about you, but i felt a load better knowing he wasn't bailing out on us--

fats has been found--AMEN! don't know if i told you, i have a cousin who lives in New Orleans--we just heard from her yesterday--she and her life partner bailed out to a friend's home in TX. the house is still standing, but most of her stuff is trashed--her job has been obliterated. funny how none of that is important, how none of the material stuff means anything, as long as i get to see her for many thanksgivings and bbq's to come--

DoM

bastard central said...

i was alluding to rudy but i try not to say the say because we as new yorkers are already viewed as a pompous lot. but yes i was talking about rudy. sometimes you need a leader to say that yes we just lost two towers and the 4 train will be diverted to the 1,9 line until tomorrow morning

glad your cousin is ok. at the end of the day all you got is your family

—the bastard

Anonymous said...

It's funny to me, Rudy had his head on the guillotine on 9/10/01. I was one who would have dropped the blade, but his handling of that catastophe should be put in a How to book for leaders...of any kind. I still think he's a facist though.

bastard central said...

i agree.

i spoke with nemo's daughter on this. she sadi that your guiliani olaya hatin came from an open container violation. those laws were there before rudy. dinkins just sucked at getting stuff enforced.

—the bastard

Anonymous said...

Who is nemo's daughter? And that is only the tip of the iceberg with Rudy. He's a yankee fan and by definition all yankee fans are facists.

Anonymous said...

forget it I figured out the nemo thing, hilarious.

bastard central said...

if we're going to discuss the new yourk bread and circuses vs the new york battlinbg ancient greek polises could we take it to the wfan site. i'm sorry but while i admit that baseball is very culturally relavent, it is also sort of unimportant in the grand scheme of things. it's just a diversion like any other tv program

bastard central said...

not a pox. a cull

bastard central said...

actually the right buttock is the buttock who broke al gore's dad's filibuster against the civil rights amendment (D-TN) in the 60's and got it passed. we forget that it was the right buttock that got the civil rights amendment passed. now the buttockless are in trouble no matter how they vote because they don't vote. folks have gotten very caught up in this human tragedy in Nawlins that could have been fixed if ray nagin had done his job. and we forget to lift of the race card to see that there aren't just poor african americans down there suffering. N.O. is just a city hit by the storm. it wasn't the only place hit. i'm not even going to venture into the states rights nonsense with you.

bastard central said...

wouldn't have gone to LBJ if it wasn't for the republicans.

i disagree. FEMA took its sweet ass time on 9/11 as well. the media in conjunction with the LA heads of state whining made a similar response time look awful. we had the situation in hand because our first responders were on the ground taking care of shit. nagin's first responders were not. you can't pin all of this on the right wing, dub. it's just not the case. sure you can armchair quaretback this but, it goes back further than bush. i just read this little gem not 5 minutes ago. true, it's op-ed but it smacks of damned if george do and damned if george didn't.

bastard central said...

i hear crickets dub. i hear fucking crickets dub!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bastard central said...

1) coulter doesn't write for the national review
2) don't mess with texas
3) the crickets at home eat lettuce and then get eaten by ivan the skink
4) glad to see you conceded
5) don't mess with texas

—bastard by the numbers