According to SiteMeter, I have about negative-5 readers on this blog each day, which is liberating in a way. I can now use this blog as my personal graffiti, writing whatever and whenever I want, without fear of retribution or recrimination, no matter how outrageous my views may be.

For example, these idiots in Louisiana who are refusing to leave their homes and hampering rescue efforts with their pigheadedness… just shoot them with tranquilizer darts and cart them outta there like they’re livestock. I don’t understand why people are allowed to flagrantly disobey the law, and be treated like they’re making some sort of heroic stand. They’re freakin’ stupid! And it’s little consolation knowing that they’re basically living in a sewer because ultimately I’m gonna be paying for their health care when they’re dying from some bacteriological parasite.

The people I feel bad for are the elderly and the children. Many of the elderly couldn’t leave when told, some were in nursing homes, some were handicapped, some were homebound. Many didn’t have family close enough to evacuate them. I fear many of the dead will be elderly who were either trapped or incapable of leaving their homes, and not by their own choice. Similarly, children who stayed with their parents had little or no choice in the matter. Listen, if you had a car, you should’ve left, especially if you had children. Kids can’t leave on their own, they’re depending on their parents to make the smart, safe choice. And many parents didn’t, opting to risk their children’s lives to make a pointless stand.

And what’s with the flock of liberal shitheads who are trying to pin this on the President? Even the vultures at insurance companies call these situations “Acts of God”. Until W outranks God, I don’t think he’s to blame for the flooding. Now, has the federal government been completely mismanaging the relief/rescue efforts? Yes. Is the Department of Homeland Security a bunch of paper-pushing bureaucratic cubicle retards? Yes. But they didn’t break the levee. Nor did they fail to inspect the pumps that could have mitigated some of the damage. That falls squarely on the state and local governments, who were too busy trying to minimize the negative publicity (lest they damage the tourist industry which represents 99.9% of the money generated by Louisiana) to properly manage the system of levees that protected the city.

The unfortunate reality is that when you build a metropolis in a bowl-shaped valley surrounded by the Mississippi River, protected only by man-made dikes, dams, and levees, you’re asking for trouble. Especially in an area that has hurricanes, oh, every fucking year. Hello? Not a good idea unless you’re gonna spend every penny of taxpayer funds on that system of dikes, dams, and levees… and not on building a network of cathouses, saloons, and tourist traps.

And the American people have come through. Hell, we sent money to tsunami victims in Asia, we sent money to families of the victims of 9/11, we sent money to famine victims in Africa, and now we’re sending boatloads of money to the Red Cross for flood victims. Soon we’ll be sending money to our insurance companies to cover the inevitable increases in our premiums. We’re already sending more money to the oil companies who immediately hitched to the tragedy gravy train by upping gas prices. Money makes the world go around. And it makes the rest of us feel like we’ve done something to help.

In California, we live with the potential of a cataclysmic earthquake every day. No prior notification, no Weather Channel warning, no hurricane siren… nothing. Every school in California teaches an earthquake preparedness plan: water, canned food, etc. If there’s a hugemongous earthquake that cuts off water, gas, and electricity, most of us are prepared. In 1989, freeways collapsed on cars and people. Nobody sent money. Most said “Well, that’s what you get for living in California”. No warning, a mile of the freeway just dropped on top of some people. Truth be told, if given a day’s notice of such a disaster, I’d get the hell outta the Bay Area and far away from the bridges and freeways that ring it. And if I was stupid and pigheaded enough to try to stay home, I certainly wouldn’t demand that the federal government airlift me out of the area and provide me with a mega-sports complex to live in.

We have many choices in America… where we live is a huge one. Each area of the country comes with inherent tradeoffs. Horrible winter storms, blistering heat, earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, monsoons… no region is exempt. If you choose to live somewhere, you’re accepting the risk. If you live on the San Andreas Fault, you should expect at least one earthquake that might level your home. If you live in Oklahoma, you should expect a tornado that wipes out your farm. If you live in Seattle, you should expect rain and mist 300 days of the year. And if you live in the Gulf region, you should expect hurricanes every year. And if you live in between a bunch of dams and levees, you should expect them to eventually break, especially you live in the Gulf region, especially if it’s hurricane season. And you should prepare accordingly. And not blame others if you didn’t prepare. It’s an ugly reality…. But it’s a reality nonetheless.