Hurricane Katrina

[J. M. Pescado]

I don't think because a woman has a low cut summer top that she is asking to be staired at.   I do ren faire re-enacting,  and some of those dresses have very little coverage.  Got so tired of the guys stairing that I payed to have the all my undershifts modified so that I have cotton and small ruffles 4 or 5 inches above the neckline of the dresses.   

Just as I don't think that girls who wear mini skirts are looking to be attached,  molested or raped.

I disagree. Patterns of dress which call attention to oneself from unpleasant elements *ARE* asking for it. If you walk into a bad neighborhood dressed in flashy jewelry, you are going to be (a) robbed or (b) mistaken for a pimp. These are just things you don't want to do around certain company. On the other hand, maybe you *ARE* looking for trouble. That's good, too. The world needs fewer rapists, and some bait will do a good job drawing them out so you can ventilate them. If that's your plan, go for it. Just remember: Life's a bitch, and then you're raped by wild boars!

Anyway -- when I met hubby I was pumping gas in a full service  gas station,  wearing jeans,  tee shirt,  and jump suite (the regular guy model -- not the female one).  It's not my fault I didn't look like a guy.  Geeze even had my hair died red with purple spikes -- that should have been more interesting to look at than grey covered boobies

I think you misunderestimate the crudeness and simplicity of the typical male mind.

[Judecat]

Yeah,  but the only difference between me and you in one of those greasy gas station jumpsuits is the hair,  and the lumpy chest area -- and some fat boys got just as much lumps as me.

And real rapists don't care what you are wearing -- even fatigues and combat boots don't slow them down,  unless you happen to have your M-16 handy.

[J. M. Pescado]

And real rapists don't care what you are wearing -- even fatigues and combat boots don't slow them down,  unless you happen to have your M-16 handy.

Realistically, real rapists tend not to be those weirdos who stalk you in dark alleys anyway, unless you live in a very nasty place. Still, anything which draws attention to you as a soft target is a bad thing, unless that's your plan. And you should always be prepared, naturally. There are nasty people who will otherwise kill you, rob you and toss your unraped corpse in a ditch all the same, which makes the difference rather immaterial. Just remember: Always wear body armor, and always be ready to kill somebody. Guns, knives, or your bare hands, choose whatever fits your physical condition, situation, and personal tastes best. I personally prefer to kill with my bare hands. Disembowelling someone bare-handed is just so much more visceral.

[Judecat]

I prefer castration without anistesia myself.   Army didn't wanna give medics firearms,  so I got to be pretty good with a scaple.   Of course now I'm old I'm looking for a riffle with a good scope.

edited to add -- The rapists were more likely to be the guy I danced with in the EM club,  or the guy I beat at bowling,  or maybe the one I truned down for a date becasue I had plans that night,  or the guy who bought me a drink at the Rod and Gun club.   Not a scarey stranger -- but not my good friend either.  My friends knew if they asked me when I was in the right mood I wouldn't say no.  Some of them took me up on it,  some never did.       But the ones I had to watch out for were the aquantences.  specially the ones who tried to get me drunk like that was gonna do them some good.   They soon found out I am one mean little drunk.     

[laeshanin]

As a woman blessed (?) with more than her fair share of mammary (let's not go size, cos when I was feeding babies the damn things came into the room before me) tissue I can honestly say they have been the bane, and the joy, somewhat perversely, of my life. It hasn't even made any difference if I was fat, or thin, they are always the only thing a bloke looks at. However, I have found, for some men, breast size correlates closely to IQ. That is, the bigger the boobies, the smaller the brain. This is not good. At least for them... This involves me having to take charge of a situation and deriving some enjoyment from total humiliation. Spleen removal has been an option, J.M., as has heart, but eyes are good too.

And I agree, Judecat. Most rapists are known briefly to their victim, though sometimes the rapist will believe they've got a relationship where none exists. It's about power too, not sex, and not if a woman "deserves" it because she dresses in something skimpy. Damn, I used to dress in things that were barely there and still had respect from my male friends. The others I didn't give a fig about because they were only there to buy booze. 

[Bane~Child]

Yes, but have you ever seen your own spleen, as an external, instead of an internal, organ?

JM, you should be going for the liver anyway, not the spleen - There's at least a market for the livers.

I'm an eye person, specifically direct eye contact.  I can make men very uncomfortable by just maintaining my focus this way.  I have noticed though, that men can't talk and maintain eye contact at the same time - Why?  Is this considered multi-tasking, like when they try talking and driving at the same time?

Judgecat - I would love to live in one of the vaults they have in the mountains there in Salt Lake. 

[KellyQ]

My first husband would look at the wall/tv/stare off into space, anything other then look directely at me when talking (now you know why he was my first husband!), so I was actually somewhat uncomfortable with how when I met the man I am now married to, made direct eye contact at all times when talking to me. The reason for the unwavering eye contact? He said when he was a younger man, he was talking to a very beautiful woman who suddenly, but very gently,cupped his chin in her hand, raised it up, looked directly into his eyes and said, "no matter what you say, they won't talk back", lol. He said he never forgot that and always made sure to address a woman "from the neck up" from that point on.

[Judecat]

Edited


Sorry about the whole post -- It was typed under the influence of Ambien,(sleeping pill)  and I have no idea what I was talking about.   Maybe I ought to type like that on the official BBS

[Bane~Child]

Look at this article that appeared (unsolicited) in my personal email:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An Unnatural Disaster: A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State

An Objectivist Review

by Robert Tracinski | The Intellectual Activist

September 2, 2005

It has taken four long days for state and federal officials to figure out how to deal with the disaster in New Orleans. I can't blame them, because it has also taken me four long days to figure out what is going on there. The reason is that the events there make no sense if you think that we are confronting a natural disaster. If this is just a natural disaster, the response for public officials is obvious: you bring in food, water, and doctors; you send transportation to evacuate refugees to temporary shelters; you send engineers to stop the flooding and rebuild the city's infrastructure. For journalists, natural disasters also have a familiar pattern: the heroism of ordinary people pulling together to survive; the hard work and dedication of doctors, nurses and rescue workers; the steps being taken to clean up and rebuild. Public officials did not expect that the first thing they would have to do is to send thousands of armed troops in armored vehicle, as if they are suppressing an enemy insurgency. And journalists--myself included--did not expect that the story would not be about rain, wind, and flooding, but about rape, murder, and looting. But this is not a natural disaster. It is a man-made disaster. The man-made disaster is not an inadequate or incompetent response by federal relief agencies, and it was not directly caused by  Hurricane Katrina.
This is where just about every newspaper and television channel has the story wrong. The man-made disaster we are now witnessing in New Orleans did not happen over the past four days. It happened over the past four decades. Hurricane Katrina merely exposed it to public view. The man-made disaster is the welfare state. For the past few days, I have found the news from New Orleans to be confusing. People were not behaving as you would expect them to behave in an emergency--indeed, they were not behaving as they have behaved in other emergencies. That is what has shocked so many people: they have been saying that this is not what we expect from America. In fact, it is not even what we expect from a Third World country.

When confronted with a disaster, people usually rise to the occasion. They work together to rescue people in danger, and they spontaneously organize to keep order and solve problems. This is especially true in America. We are an enterprising people, used to relying on our own initiative rather than waiting around for the government to take care of us. I have seen this a hundred times, in small examples (a small town whose main traffic light had gone out, causing ordinary citizens to get out of their cars and serve as impromptu traffic cops, directing cars through the intersection) and large ones (the spontaneous response of New  Yorkers to September 11).

So what explains the chaos in New Orleans?
To give you an idea of the magnitude of what is going on, here is a description from a Washington Times story: "Storm victims are raped and beaten; fights erupt with flying fists, knives and guns; fires are breaking out; corpses litter the streets; and police and rescue helicopters are repeatedly fired on. "The plea from Mayor C. Ray Nagin came even as National Guardsmen poured in to restore order and stop the looting, carjackings and gunfire.... "Last night, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco said 300 Iraq-hardened Arkansas National Guard members were inside New Orleans with shoot-to-kill orders. "'These troops are...under my orders to restore order in the streets,' she said. 'They have M-16s, and they are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary and I expect they will.' "

The reference to Iraq is eerie. The photo that accompanies this article shows National Guard troops, with rifles and armored vests, riding on an armored vehicle through trash-strewn streets lined by a rabble of squalid, listless people, one of whom appears to be yelling at them. It looks exactly like a scene from Sadr City in Baghdad. What explains bands of thugs using a natural disaster as an excuse for an orgy of looting, armed robbery, and rape? What causes unruly mobs to storm the very buses that have arrived to evacuate them, causing the drivers to drive away, frightened for their lives? What causes people to attack the doctors trying to treat patients at the Super Dome? Why are people responding to natural destruction by causing further destruction? Why are they attacking the people who are trying to help them? My wife, Sherri, figured it out first, and she figured it out on a sense-of-life level. While watching the coverage last night on Fox News Channel, she told me that she was getting a familiar feeling. She studied
architecture at the Illinois Institute of Chicago, which is located in the South Side of Chicago just blocks away from the Robert Taylor Homes, one of the largest high-rise public housing projects in America. "The projects," as they were known, were infamous for uncontrollable crime and irremediable squalor. (They have since, mercifully, been demolished.) What Sherri was getting from last night's television coverage was a whiff of the sense of life of "the projects." Then the "crawl"--the informational phrases flashed at the bottom of the screen on most news channels--gave some vital statistics to confirm this sense: 75% of the residents of New Orleans had already evacuated before the hurricane, and of the 300,000 or so who remained, a large number were from the city's public housing projects. Jack Wakeland then gave me an additional, crucial fact: early reports from CNN and Fox indicated that the city had no plan for evacuating all of the prisoners in the city's jails--so they just let many of them loose. There is no doubt a significant overlap between these two populations--that is, a large number of people in the jails used to live in the housing projects, and vice versa. There were many decent, innocent people trapped in New Orleans when the deluge hit--but they were trapped alongside large numbers of people from two groups: criminals--and wards of the welfare state, people selected, over decades, for their lack of initiative and self-induced helplessness. The welfare wards were a mass of sheep--on whom the incompetent administration of New Orleans unleashed a pack of wolves.
All of this is related, incidentally, to the apparent incompetence of the city government, which failed to plan for a total evacuation of the city, despite the knowledge that this might be necessary. But in a city corrupted by the welfare state, the job of city officials is to ensure the flow of handouts to welfare recipients and patronage to political supporters--not to ensure a lawful, orderly evacuation in case of emergency. No one has really reported this story, as far as I can tell. In fact, some are already actively distorting it, blaming President Bush, for example, for failing to personally ensure that the Mayor of New Orleans had drafted an adequate evacuation plan.
The worst example is an execrable piece from the Toronto Globe and Mail, by a supercilious Canadian who blames the chaos on American "individualism." But the truth is precisely the opposite: the chaos was caused by a system that was the exact opposite of individualism. What Hurricane Katrina exposed was the psychological consequences of the welfare state. What we consider "normal" behavior in an emergency is behavior that is normal for people who have values and take the responsibility to pursue and protect them. People with values respond to a disaster by fighting against it and doing whatever it takes to overcome the difficulties they face. They don't sit around and complain that the government hasn't taken care of them. They don't use the chaos of a disaster as an opportunity to prey on their fellow men.
But what about criminals and welfare parasites? Do they worry about saving their houses and property? They don't, because they don't own anything. Do they worry about what is going to happen to their businesses or how they are going to make a living? They never worried about those things before. Do hey worry about crime and looting? But living off of stolen wealth is a way of life for them. The welfare state--and the brutish, uncivilized mentality it sustains and encourages--is the man-made disaster that explains the moral ugliness that has swamped New Orleans.
 
And that is the story that no one is reporting.

[Bane~Child]

My current favourite is "So many men... So many reasons to sleep alone."

No no no no no. That's the only thing they're good for! Joking, of course. (I really hope my boyfriend never sees this...)

I know you are kidding - Girl, this is the age of handheld technology! ~wink~

[Azkar]

Look at this article that appeared (unsolicited) in my personal email:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An Unnatural Disaster: A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State

An Objectivist Review

by Robert Tracinski | The Intellectual Activist

I really hope the author is alone in feeling that was in any way, shape, or form, objective.  I'd be pretty worried if that's what passes as objective journalism, these days ..

[Kitiara]

Look at this article that appeared (unsolicited) in my personal email:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An Unnatural Disaster: A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State

An Objectivist Review

by Robert Tracinski | The Intellectual Activist

I really hope the author is alone in feeling that was in any way, shape, or form, objective. I'd be pretty worried if that's what passes as objective journalism, these days ..

I agree. It was a well thought out theory, possibly even a true one. But, in no way objective and most likely unprovable. We can analyze demographic statistics all day long, but can not know the motivations behind people's actions. Not definitively. I would say that the welfare system in America is broken and tends to spawn its own continuing problems in circular fashion. But, this is my opinion. Not objective fact. We can sit here and point out all of the problems with the system, and for everything we find, we could find someone else to point out why this is the most efficient way to do this. We can find statistics to prove our point. Someone else will find different ones.

My biggest problem with this 'objective view' though was how some of the descriptions sounded so very like, and yet very unlike me.
I am poor. I am not on welfare, though I could be. I live in a mobile home that is way too small for even my small family. We struggle to make ends meet and do not always manage very well. (For people who wonder what I am doing here if I am truly poor, my Sims games were gifts from family and if my internet connection was more than $5.99 a month I would probably have to cancel it. I say this only to make a point) I take pride in my family. I take care of my home (crappy as it is). I take care of my family. I do not steal. If a natural disaster were to come through where I live I would be one of those that could not leave, because I have nowhere to go, and no money for a hotel. It is not my nature however to take advantage of people in crisis. I would not use chaos as an excuse to get away with inexcusable behavior. When I see people who need help, if I can, I help them (even though I may be in need of help as well).

Back to your essay (not article), you may have a point, but do not call it objective. 

[neriana]

Look at this article that appeared (unsolicited) in my personal email:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An Unnatural Disaster: A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State

An Objectivist Review

by Robert Tracinski | The Intellectual Activist

I really hope the author is alone in feeling that was in any way, shape, or form, objective.  I'd be pretty worried if that's what passes as objective journalism, these days ..

Actually, objectivism is a "philosophy" (cult imo) started by Ayn Rand. It's pretty much libertarianism taken to extremes. No one is ever unlucky, everyone started out equal, no one gets sick, no one has anything unexpected happen, etc. You deserve what you get, and how much property you own is the measure of your success and even worth as a human being.

It's often espoused by pseudo-intellectuals who think they're in any way "deep" or "practical" for ignoring what really goes on in peoples' lives and for not having any compassion whatsoever.

[reggikko]

Anyone heard from Reggiko lately?
Wonder how she's doing, hope she found things more or less how they ought to be and can get things sorted out quickly...

I have returned! We just got our phone lines and internet access back today. Things at my house were very good compared to what most people endured. We've been doing clean-up and trying to get our lives as back to normal as possible.

On another note (It's a long story), I have had to start anew with my game, so all challenges, etc, are gone. I got Nightlife even though UPS wouldn't deliver here. I drove to a nearby town about 40 miles away and bought it. I'm in the process of re-introducing hacks and custom content.

I want to extend heartfelt thanks to all who kept me in their thoughts and offered support and encouragement.

[Kitiara]

Look at this article that appeared (unsolicited) in my personal email:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An Unnatural Disaster: A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State

An Objectivist Review

by Robert Tracinski | The Intellectual Activist

I really hope the author is alone in feeling that was in any way, shape, or form, objective.  I'd be pretty worried if that's what passes as objective journalism, these days ..

Actually, objectivism is a "philosophy" (cult imo) started by Ayn Rand. It's pretty much libertarianism taken to extremes. No one is ever unlucky, everyone started out equal, no one gets sick, no one has anything unexpected happen, etc. You deserve what you get, and how much property you own is the measure of your success and even worth as a human being.

It's often espoused by pseudo-intellectuals who think they're in any way "deep" or "practical" for ignoring what really goes on in peoples' lives and for not having any compassion whatsoever.

Maybe I just don't get it, but your reference confuses me. Ayn Rand was a supporter of selfishness as a virtue. According to her writing anything is acceptable if it furthers your own pursuits. I do not understand what this has to do with objectivity, or lack of it. If you explain I would appreciate it.





Welcome back Reggikko. Glad to hear from you.

[rhodaloo]

Welcome back Reggikko.  Sorry to read about starting over with your game, but you are well which is the most important thing.

[J. M. Pescado]

Actually, objectivism is a "philosophy" (cult imo) started by Ayn Rand. It's pretty much libertarianism taken to extremes. No one is ever unlucky, everyone started out equal, no one gets sick, no one has anything unexpected happen, etc. You deserve what you get, and how much property you own is the measure of your success and even worth as a human being.

People *DO* deserve what they get. If unexpected things happen, you should have expected this. Life's a bitch, and then you're raped by wild boars. But it's not how much you own, it's how much you own as compared to how much you actually want. If you don't care about owning anything, then it is no worth to you. Conversely, it's not how much you own, but how well you can keep it in the face of people trying to take it from you. If you can't defend what you own, you won't own it for long.

[DrBeast]

Anyone heard from Reggiko lately?
Wonder how she's doing, hope she found things more or less how they ought to be and can get things sorted out quickly...

I have returned! We just got our phone lines and internet access back today. Things at my house were very good compared to what most people endured. We've been doing clean-up and trying to get our lives as back to normal as possible.

On another note (It's a long story), I have had to start anew with my game, so all challenges, etc, are gone. I got Nightlife even though UPS wouldn't deliver here. I drove to a nearby town about 40 miles away and bought it. I'm in the process of re-introducing hacks and custom content.

I want to extend heartfelt thanks to all who kept me in their thoughts and offered support and encouragement.

Welcome back! Glad things are pretty ok for you, have fun with Nightlife (but check out the other threads before you start playing to see what works or not with regards to hacks and what problems you may encounter with the game in general)! Welcome back to the "real" world, hehe!

[gali]

Welcome back Reggiko, glad to "see your voice" again!!! So sorry about the loss of your stories, but you are blessed with imaginative creation talant - you'll overcome....

[Danni]

REGGIKKO!!!! *Huge Hugs* Glad your back... hope things aren't too bad.

I've loved all your stories up to now... I guess you'll have to make new ones? *hopes *

[laeshanin]

Look at this article that appeared (unsolicited) in my personal email:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An Unnatural Disaster: A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State

An Objectivist Review

by Robert Tracinski | The Intellectual Activist

When confronted with a disaster, people usually rise to the occasion. They work together to rescue people in danger, and they spontaneously organize to keep order and solve problems. This is especially true in America. We are an enterprising people, used to relying on our own initiative rather than waiting around for the government to take care of us. I have seen this a hundred times, in small examples (a small town whose main traffic light had gone out, causing ordinary citizens to get out of their cars and serve as impromptu traffic cops, directing cars through the intersection) and large ones (the spontaneous response of New  Yorkers to September 11).

I think there may well be a smidgeon of truth in that essay, but I can see plenty of distortion in it too. After all, I live in the UK which is known for its extensive welfare system and while there are troublesome areas, and people, it is not the welfare state that has caused this. There has always been a part of society that is less than salubrious, and there have always been murderers, thieves and poor. Society was a damn sight less safe two hundred years ago than it is today, and violent crime common. Mugging is not, contrary to belief, a new thing and has been around in all its nasty glory for quite some time.

I wonder if what we're seeing here is the power of the media and journalism? We live in an century were news is the norm and everyone has instant access to it (well, in the developed nations). That news is edited to within an inch of its life, so who knows what we're really seeing or hearing. Could be anything they bloody well want to feed to us! Or is my paranoia showing?

[witch]

Welcome back Reggikko, glad to hear your life is beginning to return to normal. It might even seem extra good for a while, gives you an extra appreciation of what you have I reckon.

So now Reggikko's back, where in hell are Zephyr Zodiac and Veilchen?

[witch]

Or is my paranoia showing?

Yes. Healthy paranoia I reckon. 

[kim]

I wonder if what we're seeing here is the power of the media and journalism? We live in an century were news is the norm and everyone has instant access to it (well, in the developed nations). That news is edited to within an inch of its life, so who knows what we're really seeing or hearing. Could be anything they bloody well want to feed to us! Or is my paranoia showing?

note that the major "news" source cited is the washington times.  that newspaper is owned by and operates in accordance with the philosophy of the reverend sun myung moon, who claims to be more awesome than pescado claims to be.  well, actually, moon claims to be the messiah, and to have saved the souls of hitler and stalin, so i guess that would trump even some pretty good programming skills.

[DuckSpeak]

I wonder if what we're seeing here is the power of the media and journalism? We live in an century were news is the norm and everyone has instant access to it (well, in the developed nations). That news is edited to within an inch of its life, so who knows what we're really seeing or hearing. Could be anything they bloody well want to feed to us! Or is my paranoia showing?

note that the major "news" source cited is the washington times.  that newspaper is owned by and operates in accordance with the philosophy of the reverend sun myung moon, who claims to be more awesome than pescado claims to be.  well, actually, moon claims to be the messiah, and to have saved the souls of hitler and stalin, so i guess that would trump even some pretty good programming skills.

Ha! The thing is there are many more Korean-Christian sects like that out there, it's just that they don't go international.
At least Moon doesn't go around beating the living daylights out of people in subway stations because they didn't listen to him preach.