Beer Tour Of The United Kingdom, Part 1

Beer Name: Tanner's Jack
Origin: Morland England
Type: Brown Ale

This beer is from Morland England, brewed by the Greene King people. I would describe this beer as a fine brown ale. It kind of reminds me of Newcastle. Anyway, when I first tried this beer I was not very impressed. The label said it was “well hopped”, so I guess I was expecting an IPA. But I gave it a chance. I allowed the stuff to warm up a bit, and it got better! It is well hopped – for a brown ale. Alcohol content for this beer is probably not more than 4%. This makes the beer very drinkable, perfect for the hot Florida summer. The beer is very well balanced; it has enough hops to prevent the beer from being too malty, while at the same time allowing just a hint of malt sweetness. Brown ales are not supposed to be too hoppy. Tanner’s Jack would be a good boat beer, as the alcohol content is not too high. It would also make a good BBQ beer for the same reason. If you like brown ale, you will probably like Tanner’s Jack. But I am more of a pale ale person. But even with my finely tuned taste for pale ale. I would buy this beer again. On the Lazy Iguana scale of 1 - 10 pints, this beer scores a solid 8.

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Beer Name: Traquair House Ale
Origin: Scotland
Class: Scottish Ale (Scotch Ale)
Label Text: A handmade Ale brewed in the ancient Brew House of the oldest inhabited house in Scotland

This stuff is very good. It has a deep reddish color, and a very good smell. When poured into a glass, it almost looks like a porter, it is that dark. But held up to light, you can see its deep red color. The beer is balanced more to the sweet side than the hoppy side, but not so much so that it is too sweet. I can not find any information about the alcohol content, but I can tell you that it is high. More than 5%, but probably not more than 10%. I would split the difference and call it 8% if I had to guess. The beer full body of this beer can not be enjoyed till the beer warms up to just below room temperature, which for me is about 72 - 74 degress F, (about 25 degrees C if you are metric). On a scale of 1 - 10 pints, this beer can be given a 10. This is one damn fine ale. I wish I had bought more than one bottle.

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Beer Name: SkullSplitter Orkney Ale
Origin: Orkney Brewery, Scotland
Beer Type: Scotch Ale
Label Text: Orkney - A small group of islands off the northern tip of Scotland, shrouded in magic and mystery, was the home of Thorfinn Hausakluif ("The Skulsplitter") 7th century Viking Earl of Orkeny, around 1,000 AD.

This is the second Scotch Ale on the tour. Scotch Ales are usually very strong, but what would you expect people who consider hurling TREES around to be a sport? Not a weak girly man beer! Skullsplitter has a deep reddish color, and boasts an alcohol content of 8.5%. A few years ago, this beer would be unavailable in Florida, unless it was labeled a malt liquor. After a few pints of a beer like this, even a Viking Warrior-King would have trouble swinging a war axe.

The beer is very complex in taste. There is the usual malt/hops taste, it is very clear this is in fact a beer. But there is also a fruity-yeasty taste, and a medium smoky flavor. There is also some chocolate malt flavor going on, but judging by the final color not much chocolate malt was used (chocolate malt makes a very dark beer).
I was not really expecting this much from this beer. To be honest, the label screamed "buy me because I look cool". The perfect thing to hide a sub-standard beer behind. I will never underestimate any beer from Scotland named after a Viking Warlord again. This stuff is NOT for the timid casual beer drinker. If your idea of beer is a cold Old Milwaukee, this stuff will give you an ass kicking that you will not like. On the other hand, if you like stouts or strong ales, you will find Skullsplitter to be pretty good stuff.

I will give this beer a score of 8.5 pints. Very close to a perfect score. I think I would enjoy this beer more in the winter. It is just too hot to truly enjoy a 8.5% beer right now.

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Beer Name: Monty Python's Holy Grail Ale
Origin: Yorkshire, UK.
Type: Bitter Style Ale.
Label Text: Tempered over burning witches.

This beer is from The Black Sheep Brewery, and was first made in 1999 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Monty Python's Flying Circus. As you can see, it was named after the most famous of all the Python movies, The Quest For The Holy Grail. So how is it? I do not know yet. I am letting the beer warm up a bit. But I am going to open it now. One moment please.

The beer has a golden ale-like color. I would light the ale shaped beacon over my house, but the hurricane outside would just blow it away. Also, the power JUST WENT OUT. When there is no electricity, it is hard to light the ale shaped beacon. Good thing the laptop has batteries! All real Floridians blog on a laptop, just in case this shit happens.
Back to the beer! Even though this IS technically a bitter, it has a malty finish, but there is enough hops to prevent the beer from being too sweet. It is actually very good stuff. When I bought it I thought "what a neat novelty beer", but this stuff is the real deal. The label might be silly in nature, but the beer inside the bottle is not like Brave Sir Robin. No chickening out or running away. Maybe this is because it was tempered over burning witches? I will have to look into that.
Now if you will excuse me, I have to go throw the empty bottle at a particularly nasty bunny. He may look cute, but he has long sharp fangs. I can not find my Holy Hand Grenade Of Antioch.

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Beer Name: Belhaven Scottish Ale
Origin: Scotland
Type: Scotch Ale

When you first pour this beer into a pint glass, it looks like the other scotch ales on the list. It kinda smells the same too. But all that is just for show. The other scotch ales have a fairly strong flavor - maybe too much for a lot of people. This one is more mellow. The typical smoky flavor is there, but it is less overpowering. This is one well balanced ale. If the other scotch ales are just too much for you, try a Belhaven. And if you do not like it - no problem! Mail the ones you do not drink to me. I will set up a post office box and post the address here later.
This beer also seems to not have a very high alcohol content. It is very hard to estimate alcohol in a beer. At the best, all you can do is classify it as light, normal, or high. I would call this one normal. In other words, 4 - 6 percent. It is on the high side of normal, so this is not exactly something you would want to kick back with on a hot summer day. But it would be PREFECT on a cool autumn day.

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Beer Name: Belhaven Wee Heavy
Origin: Scotland
Type: Scotch Ale

This is like the Belhaven Scottish Ale, only on roids. Jose Can-Suck-O (and the other roid monster baseball players) would like the steroids thing, but his taste in beer is highly suspect. This is not really a "heavy" beer, which is where the "wee" part comes in. It is a wee bit on the heavy side. I think the alcohol content is 8% or something. The name fits this beer perfectly.

The flavor is similar to the Scottish Ale, only more pronounced. The smoked wood flavor is in there. Not as much as in Traquair House, but more so than in Belhaven Scottish Ale. This is a good crossover beer for those who have grown to like a lighter scotch ale, and would like to move up to something more. I can get this beer at Titanic Restaurant and Brewery in Miami, so I will be drinking more of this wonderful beer in the days to come.

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So there you go. Part 1 of my beer tour. I have a bunch of other beers still in the fridge. A lot of what I have left are pale ales, but there are also porters, stouts, barley wines, and even some more stuff from Scotland. What you see here is about 1/3 of my stash. So far, this has turned out to be the best blog idea in the history of the universe.

If you find any of these beers in the store, buy a bottle. Or better yet, buy more than one bottle. If you do not like it, mail it to me. I will find a way to dispose of it properly.

People Say Stupid Things

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."
-- Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda, 1933-1945

So what does the words of a nazi propaganda minister have to do with today? Just look around. Listen to the crap that is said on rabid foaming at the mouth right wing radio. Listen to the swill told to us by the executive branch of the government, or the legislative branch allied with the executive branch.

We have been lied to. We are being told the same lies over and over. Anyone who tries to speak against the lies is targeted by the neocon movement as "Un-American" or "against America" or whatever. Anything to shield the people from the political, economic, and/or military consequences of the lie. Just like good little goose steppers, marching with jack boots on.

A while back, someone at Titanic said to me "we are fighting terrorists over there (Iraq) so we do not have to fight them here". Oh really? In this case, we should also fight hurricanes over there so we do not have to fight them here. Or maybe we should fight gangs over there so we do not have to fight them here.

The person at the bar blew me off at this point. He had no pre-packaged cute little lie soundbites to counter with. Nothing he had heard on talk radio could deal with what I said. All the national call in right wing shows are call screened, so only callers who agree 100% are let on the air. This way, the host can shield the listeners from comments that might cause them to think.

Thinking is dangerous.

So next time you hear "we are fighting them over there so we do not have to fight them here" try saying "how about we also get rid of social security over there, so that we will not have to get rid of it here". See what they say. Chances are, they will get angry and claim you do not understand.

Ask them IF fighting them over there is working so well, why the hell do I have to remove my shoes when I walk into a concourse at the airport? I work at the airport, I have a security badge for the airport, and I had to pass a 10 year federal level background check for that badge. I am not some unknown Joe Public dude with a boarding pass. Ask them if fighting them over there so we do not have to fight them here worked for the London subway system.

We are not any safer today than we were in 2000, but hundreds of billions - if not trillions - have been spent. Thousands have died, and many more have been injured "fighting them over there so we do not have to fight them here". And yet, we still have orange alerts. While nothing major has happened since 2001, it is accepted that there are still sleeper cells in America.

The economy is once again burdened with excessive debt. This debt finances a war meant to somehow keep us safe. But as I said already, I do not think we are any safer. As for as economics are concerned, we are close to a disaster due to the reliance on debt.

How will we pay for the hurricane disasters? Bush said he will not raise taxes. So where will the money come from? Magic? From another Naitonal Day Of Prayer? Certianly not from taking money away from the war keeping us all safe! But we should not worry, the Chinese will finance it - for a percentage. We can pay it off for the next 50 years or so.

So much for fighting them "over there" huh?

And yet, people still keep saying stupid things. They say these things over and over, in an attempt to make them the truth. Thinking is bad. And so is dissent.

Thankfully, this time it is not working as well as it did for Goebbels all those years ago.

Stuff To Do

Recently, and for no good reason, I decided to try to cut meat out of my diet.

Not totally of course. This is simply not going to happen. But do I need to eat red meat every friggin day? Probably not. Will it kill me to eat more iguana and rabbit food? Probably not, but then again who knows.

All this started sometime last week. I went to eat at some Indian place (not woo-woo-woo indian, but India indian). Most of the menu at the Indian place was vegetarian, with some meat dishes. The first time I went to this place, I had some meat dish featuring lamb or goat or some other non-cow or pig critter. It was very good.

So this time, I figured I would try something else. That something else I ordered was some sort of veggie-curry concoction, with chunks of tofu added for good measure. It was not bad. In fact, it was actually very good.

So I decided what the hell. I might as well try to eat less animal protien. It will be a challenge. So last Friday was meatless. And so was Saturday. I did not feel any better, or worse, but here is what I did notice.

I did not have to strike a match when I used the toilet. It was not totally stink free, shit will never smell like lilacs blooming in the spring - but the stink did not peel the paint off the walls either.

This alone might make the whole experiment worthwhile.

My plan from here on out is pretty simple. First, I quit eating meat for lunch at work. I bring in frozen macaroni and cheese dinners to nuke. I started this because the other frozen dinners are terrible. When I get food at the airport, I can just go for pizza. Plain pizza is edible, and I do like shrooms and onions and stuff. I can also get fresh fruit salad at a few places. There is other stuff too.

When I am not at work, I will cut back on the red meat. Not totally give it up, just cut back. This means less steak and more soy. Tofu is really not that bad if you prepare it properly. I need to unlock the secret of the curry sauce.

The good thing about this is that I can continue to drink beer.

The Meaning Of Words

I figure I am not the first person to come up with this. Someone HAD TO discover this way before I did.

But I will post it anyway.

Everyone knows that the english language is really a hodgepodge of other languages. There are words that come from french, from spanish, from russian, from latin, from german, from greek, and so on. You name a language, and there are probably words in english derived from it.

So, where did the word politics come from? Here is my guess.

Poly = many
Ticks = little blood sucking spider like insects.

Hummmm....it just works out way too well to be a coincidence.

Something Wrong Here.....

Today (Friday), on my day off, I got called into work. It was not really a surprise, I knew about this on Thursday. I agreed to the whole thing.

Now under normal conditions, the idea of me working overtime is insane. Voluntary overtime is totally unheard of. Me, The Lazy One, going to work on my day off, voluntary? Huh? This can only mean a few things.

1. Another sign that the end of the world is near is here.
2. I am on forced medication.
3. The aliens are using mind control devices again.
4. I have a large gambling debt to pay off, and the bookie is at my door.
5. The price of beer has gone up, and I need more money.
6. I fell off a ladder and hit my head too hard.
7. The radiation from the airport x-ray machines is finally getting to me.

But as much fun as it is to speculate - the truth is fairly simple. I like this job. I like the people who I work with. Also I have nothing else better to do. If I did not go in, what would I have done today? Nothing, thats what. I would have pissed the day away playing Destroy All Humans on the Playstation 2.

Not to mention the overtime pay. That is nice to get. I have racked up a bunch of OT hours for this pay period. I am going to like my next check.

It is nice to have a job that does not really feel like work. Staying late, going in early, or even working on the most holy of all days - my days off - is something I do not mind doing.

Worst Case

What a mess this storm is going to turn out to be.

First off, people are wigging out. Big time. All roads out of costal regions are clogged, like a public toilet at a chili cook-off. At this point, people need to re-assess their plan. The place to be is NOT in your car. You are far better off in your home than a car. If you are not in a storm surge danger area, or other flood zone, secure your home and stay there. If you must leave, hit up a public shelter near your home. You do not have to drive to North Dakota, although at this point it seems like a good idea to move there.

But what I think is interesting is the human buildup. Last storm, Georgie was on vacation, in TEXAS, where he lives, and we all know what happened. There was no plan. It took far too long to get any serious recovery assets in place. The guy in charge of FEMA was shown to be an idiot who got his job because he used to be a drinkin buddy of The Shrub.

For this storm, there are all kinds of assets spread over a wide area. The military is ready to act. Planes and trucks and ships are loaded with all kinds of stuff. There will be a swift and heavy federal response - relief will be pouring in as the winds die down.

Keep in mind that Katrina was only a few weeks ago, and for that storm there was much jackassery afoot.

So where did all these plans come from? Remember people saying stuff like "it takes time to make plans" and "things can not happen overnight" and "Louisiana did not file FEMA form 82.49-A and Pentagon form 5675.997-C, in triplicate, then fax it to the proper location to formaly request help". I remember people saying this stuff. I remember some guy in a suit with the deer-in-the-headlights look saying that the former FEMA director was doing a great job, when in fact nothing was getting done.

Now that it is TEXAS, and more importantly the oil refineries in TEXAS, that are in danger - things are mobilized and ready to move in. And where does Bush supposedly live, before he lived for most of his life in New England? And how did his family get all their money? Texas and oil you say??? Hummmmm....

Of course, The Lazy One does not think that the landfall location is the motivating factor here. The federal government has a history of watching a disaster happen while not being prepared for it - then over compensating for that inaction later. We are just seeing that happen in a short time frame.

The motivating factor for all this is Katrina. Plain and simple. People are wigging out, and roads are clogged, because of Katrina. The federal government has things ready to move in because Katrina made them look so bad.

I hope that everyone in the path does what they need to do - be that evacuate, move into a shelter, or shutter up and ride it out at home. Whatever aid is needed after the storm, people need to get. This whole "nobody asked for it" excuse used for the last storm is total bullshit.

I will wait and see what this storm does, realizing that it COULD have been me in the path. It is not like South Floirda is North Dakota or anything. I want to see swift action on the federal level. I want to see military stuff there. I want to see how fast tent hospitals can be set up.

But I think that no matter what happens, Bush is in a no win situation. If things go well people will point to Katrina and say that things were ready for Rita because it was Texas, and the Texas refineries, that were in the cone of death. And if things are managed poorly, people will rip Bush an ass for obvious reasons.

What would you do if you were President? Do you order in everything to make up for last time? How about doing nothing? Nope, that would be worse.

Fake Hurricane Update

Rita was pretty much a non-event for Dade County. Nothing happened. There was a whole whopping one feeder band, which produced short gusts of winds up to 35 mph. I was called into work. Hell, everyone could have went to work. And school. It was nothing.

But the storm WILL hit someone. The Red Cross is probably going to need more support in the form of monetary donations. Please keep this in mind.

The Red Cross does not need donations only after something happens. They need it all the time. When a house burns down, guess who is there with a voucher for a hotel room? When one city block is flooded, guess who is there with a food truck?

The American Red Cross is there. They are not just the guys who move in after a major disaster. They are there for the little disasters that you never hear about too.

But will the media take back all the stuff they said after the Red Cross announced that they planned to keep a large portion of the donations they got as a result of 9-11 in the general disaster fund? Nope. They will not.

But now we can see why it was a good idea to retain some funds. Disasters happen year round.

Whoever gets hit by this thing, lets just hope that the last event lit a fire under FEMA's ass. The last disaster responce was unacceptible. America can, and must, do better. There is no debating this matter. Mistakes were made, and someone better have UNMADE those mistakes.

The American Way

As you all know, I can be critical of America. I am not one of those who thinks that EVERYTHING America does is great. After all, America is made of people - and people can make mistakes. Like for example voting for Bush. So not everything America does as a nation is going to be correct.

The same goes for every other nation on Earth. People make mistakes, and people run nations. This is the root cause of most of the world's problems. People making mistakes, and running nations at the same time.

But there ARE things that work out great. America is not always wrong.

So what can these things be? There are many, but today I will only share one from the list.

Hurricane Days Off. The County decided to pretty much shut down for the day. I still get paid, but I do not have to go to work. If I DO go to work, I will get paid overtime - PLUS I will get 8 hours of administrative leave time.

Confused? Let me sort it out for you. IF I go in I work for 8 hours, get paid for 12 hours - and rack up another 8 hours in paid leave time. If I do not go in, I still get paid for the day as if it were a regular day.

Chances are it will be a fake hurricane for Dade County. What is a fake hurricane? It is when a hurricane comes close, but does not hit me. Yea, I will get tropical storm conditions - but these are no big deal. It still remains to be seen if I get sustained storm conditions, or just the feeder bands.

There is a high pressure system that looks like it will keep the worst of the storm to the south, but as always this is subject to error. It COULD veer to the north and give nastier conditions to Dade County, but probably not. Of course this means it will hit The Keys. Not that I want it to do this, but I have no control over what the storm does. It will do what it does, and nothing more.

So there we go. My forecast is for a fake hurricane in Dade County, I will not have to go to work, and because this IS America I will still get paid.

The fake storm will "hit" in the morning, and pretty much last most of the day. The feeder bands will probably be enough to keep flights out of MIA, so I will not get called in. No airplanes landing or taking off means no reason to go to work.

But I still get paid, because this is America. This is a great nation indeed!

Lovely Rita, Stormy Whore.

I love living in the troipcs. Really, I do.

Why? Well for one, the heat and humidity is fantastic. Some people (idiots) pay for using a steam room or sauna. I laugh at those people. When I want to go into a steam room all I have to do is walk outside! It is free.

The mold is also a plus. Since the stuff is everywhere, you quickly build up an immunity to the spores. Those who fail to become immune to the mold die. And after they die, guess what happens? Thats right - corpse mold! If you die bald in Floirda, nature gives you post mortum hair. It is usually green, but it is hair. At least you are not buried bald.

But by far the best part is the hurricanes and tropical storms. I am too lazy to post the graphic, but you can the same information that the weather goons on TV get right HERE. According to the National Weather Service, I have a 60% - 90% chance of getting sustained tropical force winds, a 30% - 50% chance of getting 50 knot winds, and a 10% - 20% chance of hurricane force winds. The last time this happened, I lost power for 4 days. But it could have been worse. The people of the Gulf Coast got the real storm.

The funny thing is what the local TV stations are saying. I actually heard one news station (the FOX station - go figure) tell people to "trim their trees now". Trim my trees? You mean the tree that the last hurricane blew over 3 weeks ago? Seriously, I only have one tree now and it has only one lonely branch. Trim my trees? Should I also mow the grass?

The TV is also telling people to get water and gas now. I sent them an email asking them what this "water" and "gas" stuff is. I never heard of it before. Should I also buy light bulbs and rubber bands? I am so confused here.

Good thing I have FOX 7 to tell me. By the way, guess where CNN's own Rick Sanchez came from? Thats right, FOX 7 in Miami. He is a total ass. Of all the asses, none is bigger than the Rickster. The douch bag factor of Miami dropped about 100 points when he left.

But, now that there is a storm or something out there, it is a good bet that The Rickster will be back in town. I will have to put up my douche shutters for his visit.

But no matter what happens - I hope that Rita does not deflect any attention from The Gulf Coast. South Floirda and The Keys will be ok, this will not be more than a category 1 or 2 storm. The people of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana need the help!

All I need to get ready for Rita is a few coolers full of ice. I need to keep my beer cold this time.

Reply

I got a reply to the email I sent yesterday. Here it is.

"I have better things to do with my time than respond to this"

Thats it. The above reply means three things.

1. The guy did NOT have better things to do with his time, as he DID respond.
2. The topic seems to be dead now.
3. Nobody on the list can come close to my ability to combine someone elses words and facts to create some really funny stuff that totally rips someone elses point a new bung hole.

But now that all the mail list frenzy is over, I can go back to the pattern of deleting almost everything without even reading it. Let the children play in the sandbox, for they do not know that my cats leave buried treasure there. One day, and nobody knows when this will be, they will find more treasure. For those who can not follow what I am saying, the children are other people, the sandbox is the mail list, and the buried treasure is the stuff I can write.

In all reality, I could care less about this stuff. Really. Nobody on the list is going to change the world, even if they DO carry around 5 radios every place they go.

So what do I care about? My days off, of course! And what did I do Friday (which is my Saturday. Your Saturday is my Sunday, and your Sunday is my Monday.)??

Why, I went to the Miami Metro Zoo. It is a County Park, so admission is fairly cheap, and as a County employee I get a $2 discount on admission (NOTE - I would rather get a discount on concessions inside the zoo). Metro Zoo is one of those cageless zoos, where the lion and tigers and bears can hang out in enclusures.

The nice thing about going on Friday was that nobody was there. Everyone else had to work, the park was empty - except for a few park employees. It was nice. No crouds to push through, no lines to get bottles of water for $2.50 a pop, the bathrooms were always empty, and so on. It was a great time to go.

I got there when the place opened at 9:30 and left at at close to 5:00. It is not a terribly big place, but it is a full day deal. Here are a few of the zoo highlights.

1. I saw tigers swimming. Tigers love the water.
2. The komodo dragon actually moved! He usually just sits in one spot all day.
3. The new aviary is pretty cool. There are a lot of birds and stuff in there. DO NOT LOOK UP, and wear a hat. The birds can fly free. The best time to go in the aviary is during feeding time. Check your park map for the schedule.
4. Lions are as lazy as the komodo dragon.
5. Green Iguanas have taken the park over. There are tons of them. You can see them in EVERY display, except for displays featuring large cats or apes. You can even see them on the walkways, just hanging out. The zoo did not put them there, they just sort of found the place. Wild iguanas are a growing problem for the ecology of South Floirda.

Next time I go I will remember my digital camera. I am thinking of going back on another day off when it is not so hot. My days off will change soon to EITHER Monday/Tuesday OR Wednesday/Thursday off. I am rooting for Monday/Tuesday off, but if I do not get it I will not go postal or anything. Any day off is a good day when you think about it.

The trip also got me to thinking. I live in Dade County. But have I EVER been to Fairchild Tropical Gardens? NO. And why not? When was the last time I went to Viscaya, or The Barnicle? Why have I never been to The Deering Estate or Coral Castle? If you do not know what any of these places are, google em.

I am going to make an effort to hit all these places on future days off.

Smoking The Good Stuff.

Normally, I am a fairly reasonable person. But every so often I do something crazy. Not Ted "Unibomber" Kaczynski crazy or anything, just a little crazy.

So I joined a mail list. The mail list was created mainly for people into radio as a hobby, but it has attracted a fair number of people that need to be on the Department Of Homeland Security watch list. Not that they are dangerous or anything - they are just insane. Or at least, more insane than me. They do not need to be given anything sharper than a plastic knife.

For example, there is one guy who I will just call "Guy who sits in the back of the Greyhound bus talking to his ham sandwich (GWSITBOTGBTTHHS for short). GWSITBOTGBTTHHS is one of the people involved in an in depth discussion about the disaster. THAT disaster. The one on TV all the time.

Normally I just delete messages with the same topic line, but in this case I got sucked into the topic. Usually the topic is something retarded, like what is the best antenna connector or why the world would be a better place if there were no Morse Code to worry about. I do a lot of message deleting.

Anyway, GWSITBOTGBTTHHS maintains that everything that should have been done WAS done, but the liberal media will never report it. He also maintains that FEMA has "incident commanders" working hard for us 24 hours a day, and that nobody was sitting on their hands during the disaster. Michael Brown was not important, he was just the director of press confrences - the REAL work was being done by the incident commanders working so hard 24 hours a day. He also thinks that the military was mobilized 5 days before the storm.

So here was my reply that I sent to the list. EVERYONE on the list. I will probably get kicked off, but that is OK.

-- START --

Yea. The liberal Fox News Network at it again. Those guys! Always with the liberal propaganda. Good thing we have all these websites created by anonymous crazy people to get the REAL news from huh?

And thank goodness for all those "incident commanders" working 24 hours a day! I feel so much better now. What could they be working on for all that time? Probably making up all sorts of plans to react to any possible disaster. That or smoking tons of pot and watching Spongebob Squarepants. The 7-11 down the street operates 24 hours a day too, maybe we should make 7-11 workers "incident commanders" as well. At least they could keep the coffee machines working.

And I do not think people at the top in FEMA sat on their hands. I maintain that they were in fact sitting on their thumbs. Or maybe they were sitting on the photocopier, and faxing copies of their ass to random numbers. They have to do something to stay amused for all those long hard hours they put in, planning for incidents like hurricanes. The point is, you are right - no hands were involved.

The military mobilized 5 days before the storm? Are you talking about the US military? Lets do some math here. Keep in mind I did not major in math, my addition might be a little off. 5 days before the storm, plus another 4 days to actually get to the far away, remote, moon republic of Louisiana equals 9 days. Even Delta airlines can get to Louisiana in less time than that - and that includes waiting for the luggage. For that matter, I can drive there in less time. I could be in Alaska in 9 days. Of course, I have far more resources than the military, so it is not fair to compare how long it takes me to drive to Mississippi to how long it took federal agencies to get there. Nobody knows this, but MY truck has a V-6 engine! The military does not have access to this level of technology.

I do not know what is more insane - your assertion that FEMA did a great job or my idea that a goldfish can be trained to breathe air and walk on a leash. I go through more goldfish that way!

-- END --

This email should add to my reputation in the group. I have a good idea what my reputation is, but I do not care.

Bush Joke

What is Bush's opinion on Roe VS. wade?

A: He does not care how people get out of flood water.

Insurance Jackassery.

I could have predicted this one. Victims of Hurricane Katrina (hereby refered to as "the bitch who blows") are being told by insurance companies "too bad, so sad - no claim for you!".

Why? Simple. They are calling the damage "flood damage". Standard insurance does not cover floods by tide, tidal waves, overflowing lakes, spray, or anything else related to water. It ONLY covers wind damage. That is it. Nothing more.

People who were told they did NOT live in a flood zone figured they did not need flood insurance - so many did not carry it. I can understand this logic - there are no volcanos in Floirda so I do not have volcano insurance.

But anyway, back to those who are going to get screwed.

Say you have windstorm insurance (remember, you were told you did NOT live in a flood zone). A windstorm comes. The wind blows. Hard. For a long time. The WIND then rips the roof off your house, and everything you own is soaked.

Your insurance agant comes over and says "we will cover part of your roof, but the rest of your stuff was flood damaged. Claim rejected!"

In the cases where the WIND caused levees to break, or the WIND pushed water far inland, all the damage was considered to be "flood damage" and people are being told they will get nothing. The damage was caused not be wind, but by water.

As if the levees just broke for no reason. Or as if the tide suddenly rose up for no reason. There was no wind! That hurricane? The wind was harmless! It was the non-wind related flood that was the bitch.

But all those premium checks written were accepted by the insurance companies with no questions asked.

The same shit happened in Florida. Nobody wanted to pay claim checks after Andrew. Floirda's insurance commissioner did not allow them to get away with it. Smaller companies declared bankruptcy, larger companies were forced to pay.

So the industry learned. They re-worded policies nationwide. In this case they will likely get away with not paying. And they will also raise premiums.

READ YOUR INSURANCE POLICY! If you have questions about some of the wording, do not just ask the insurance agent. He is a lying sack of shit. The best thing to do is to hire a lawyer for an hour or two and go over your policy with them.

If your policy explicitly leaves out any form of water damage, your policy is not worth crap. You might as well not even carry it. No matter what happens, they will find a way to blame the damage on a flood. Even if there is a fire, they will claim that the damage was caused by a flood caused by firefighter's hoses. Nevermind that the firefighters only hosed down everything because it was burning. It was a flood! No claim for you!

In some places that were put underwater, only 5% of the people had flood insurance. Experts estimate that only 30% of all the property damaged had enough insurance coverage. And that 30% is on the high end of the estimates.

The crisis is far from over. Recovery can not begin until this matter is resolved. If people can not rebuild homes, there will be nobody to work. Without workers, there is no business. With no business there is no money or jobs. And with no jobs, there is no reason for people to move back.

So all this talk about "we will rebuild" is just happy horse shit. It is just some crap that can be put on the evening news to make people feel better, or maybe boost Bush's approval rating. But the reality is far from this world viewed through rose tinted glasses.

Good people ARE going to be screwed. People who were told they did not live in a flood zone could not get emergency federal flood insurance, and their private insurance company would either not provide it OR wanted to charge premiums that were not affordable.

This will result in a land grab for devlopers. They will offer people a handful of magical beans for the plot of land their pile of toothpicks sits on, then they will build nice new homes. Of course the nice new homes will get sold, for a profit. The original owners? Who cares where they go! All the devlopers will care about is the income.

And what can we the little people do about it? Not a whole lot. If you do not carry insurance, nobody will finance your home. But if you DO carry insurance, it might be nothing more than money pissed away when your claim is not approved because your agent says the damage was caused by something not covered in your policy.

I only hope that someone stuffs piles of cash up the asshole of insurance company executives. That is what they want - piles of cash. And if it were up to me, they would get it. Far, far up their ass. So far it would come out their mouth.

Economics Are Everything

The hurricane disaster has provided more proof for the title of this post. Economics are indeed everything.

What happened in New Orleans? You have a lot of poor folks. Being good capitalists, they exploited an opportunity to come up. While there were people only taking what they needed to get by, I think this was the exception to the rule. I think the rule was in fact "grab what you can, while you can". What were people taking that they did not need? Gold. Gems. Guns.

And what else? What about the people seen taking large amounts of supplies like diapers? Once again, I do not doubt that some of the people were taking diapers because they have a baby and NEEDED the things, but I would also suspect that some enterprising street business man was taking them to re-sell them later. I do not think it is a crime to take stuff you need after a disaster, but it is a crime to take more than you need with the idea you can make some money selling the stuff. The right thing to do is to take what you need, and leave the rest for someone else who also needs it.

But in this case, the right thing to do is so anti-capitalist that even Adam Smith would call you a fool. Under our system of economics, the "right" thing to do is to exploit the crap out of any opportunity that you see. After all, if you do not cash in someone else will. Our system does not care what the opportunity is, or what the circumstances are. So if the street price for a gallon of water is $5, and I bought my water for $1 - I made $4! And if I stole the water, I made $5! This is, on paper, the same thing as buying at wholesale and selling at retail. The ONLY difference is that people see buying a PDA at a lower price than I sell it for is OK, but selling water for a large markup after a disaster (when supplies are limited and demand is HUGE) is not OK.

As far as economics go, either case is OK. Supply and demand at action.

I have often said that our system is not sustainable. This is what I mean by that statement. We can not reasonably expect that a system that allows business to dictate government policy, that encourages rampant consuming, and has no theory issues with me selling diapers for $50 a box after a disaster - can possibly last forever.

And looting will ALWAYS be a problem - until views change. And views can not change, because economics drives everything.

See the problem here? Capitalism will not allow people to only take what they need. Capitalism is going to drive people to exploit ANYTHING they see for fun and profit. Capitalism is, indirectly, one of the reasons why things got so out of hand in New Orleans. Capitalism in its pure form drives people to madness and greed.

But nobody wants to talk about this fact. This blog is probably the only place you will read anything like this. Nobody wants to even think about what I have written. Nobody wants to realize that they ARE part of this problem too. Do you really need that electric can opener? I know you have one - but do you need it? How much energy is wasted daily because of those things?

Now for part two of the problem. What alternative do we have? The answer to that is none. No other economic system created in the past few hundred years has lasted. Commuism? Blah! It was never really put into place. What the Soviets had was not really what Marx wrote about. But that is not important - the Soviet system did not work. That alone is enough proof that the USSR was on an economic dead end street. And as for Marx, his ideas assume that nobody is greedy. But we all know that people tend to get greedy. Sorry Karl, but your stuff will not work either.

I have no idea what the system will evolve into. Nobody does. I only hope that the system evolves before it collapses.

Care to guess what will be next? Give it a shot right here!

O.T.

I think I managed to skip a day. One whole day and no blog posts.

Oh well. Sue me. If you win in court, you can take Cornelius. I might also have some other junk in the backyard collecting water and breeding mosquitos that you can have.

Anyway, the new job situation has cut into the vast amount of time I used to piss away on the computer. Now I piss it away and get paid for it.

But before you call the County Manager to report me for clock milking, I do work. It is just that it often SEEMS LIKE I am not working. Really. The assignments I go on are like fun adventures in airport land. Nobody is with me most of the time. I just go. So even if I am "working" it is not like I am lifting heavy things, or trying to de-claw polar bears. I like what I do.

The point is, it does not always feel like work. Needless to say, the job is working out fairly well.

More proof of just how well the job is working out is evident by the fact that I stay for overtime! I had another job that offered overtime, but I never took it. Why? Because the job sucked. I did not like it. So when asked if I could say, the answer was always "I could stay, but I do not want to". The clock could not tick fast enough. The 8 hour shift would never end. My ass was ALWAYS one of the first out the door at quitting time.

Needless to say, I got out of that job as soon as I could.

But this job is not like that. Overtime is good now, as opposed to before when it was a punishment. Today, I worked 5 hours OT. I got out of work at 12:40 AM. And when I go back in at 11:30 AM this morning, if I am asked to stay over again I will. No problem.

It is not like I have grand important things to do here. I can set the VCR to catch Spongebob Squarepants on the TV.

If you can ever snag a job that you actually like, I highly recommend going for it. The work day goes much faster when it does not seem like you are working. Also you do not get suicidial thoughts when things start to get really busy. You do not even notice that it is busy! It is very strange. The best way to describe it is being sucked into a giant tear in the fabric of space-time. Since you are not stressed out to the point that you may go postal, the usual stress associated with a busy day at work hardly causes your blood pressure to go up at all. The time passes very quickly. You show up, do something, and poof! The day is over.

Fish Or Cut Bait

This just in - former and current president Bush visited the hurricane ravaged areas again. Someone took this photo.

I do not make these up, I simply pass them on.

Mental note - collect and destroy ALL photos of me fishing. In the unlikely event I ever obtain an elected position I do not want some smart ass doing this to me. Of course I would also not sit on my ass for 5 days before doing anything.

Crazy Idea

So today I was talking to one of my friends. Lets just call him Philosophy Major Dan.

Now when having a conversation with PMD (Philosophy Major Dan) topics can (and do) vary greatly. And when I say "vary greatly" I mean that sometimes things turn into a topic willy-nilly.

For whatever reason, the topic for the day turned to energy policy and oil companies. We all know the deal here - record high fuel prices for us consumers, yet record breaking profits for them. This means that not only are the costs being passed on to us, a whole lot more is also being passed to us.

I think the rub for the public is the whole record profits thing. Our purchasing power is declining, while the oil companies are raking the cash in. Ill bet that along with those record profits are record bonuses for executives.

Now I do not know about you, but my pay is not increasing. Not yet anyway. I just started the new job very recently, so I have not had a performance review yet. But for many millions of people, there are not any performance reviews. There is not any annual cost of living increase. And even my annual cost of living increase might not keep up with the pace if fuel prices keep climbing, because my base pay is not very high right now.

But even so, about a year ago fuel prices were pushing $2 per gallon - now prices are pushing $3 a gallon (these are national average figures, numbers for your region could differ). According to my lazy math, this is a 50% increase.

Now this does NOT mean that the cost of everything will increase by the same 50%. One unit of fuel represents X amount of energy. So if a product requires X/10 units of energy to produce, the price increase due to energy costs will only work out to 5%. Something like that. My lazy math might be a little bit too lazy here. If you feel like looking up the actual formulas and working it out for yourself - go right on and do that. This is a free country.

But I get a cost of living increase! Why should I complain here? Well last year's increase was 3%. Far short of 50%. Even short of 5%. The cost of living adjustment calculation is based on a "basket of goods" that some egghead makes up. If you buy EXACTLY the stuff in that basket, in EXACTLY the same proportions, then your cost of living EXACTLY matches your rate increase (if you get one).

But nobody buys only the stuff in the basket. Well some people might, but they are not normal. So even if you get a cost of living increase, chances are it does not match your actual increase.

Given all this evidence, a crazy idea popped into my head!

Electric companies are regulated monopolies. They operate as private companies, but their price per kilowatt hour is regulated by the state. They ARE allowed a profit, but they are not premitted to charge whatever they please. For prices to increase, they have to demonstrate a need (other than "the president of the company wants a new yacht") to the state. Florida operates this way.

What are acceptible reasons for raising the cost? Well, building a new power plant would be one, but the most common reason cited is "oil costs".

This got me thinking. Why not fold the oil companies into a regulated monopoly system? As it is now, federal subsidies are floating the industry. Why should all this tax money, and more money from our pockets, go to make some oil barron richer than they are now? Yea, there are stockholders who invest in these companies - and not all investors are already rich. I know that there are working people who invest, and retired people who hold stocks. However, for the most part, the BILLIONS in profits every quarter do not go to the little people. Thats right, BILLIONS per quarter in profit. And there are 4 quarters in a year.

I work at the airport. It is said that 1 on 4 jobs in Dade County are related to the airport. There are people like me who work for the county, there are airline employees in the terminal, there are airline employees on the ramp, there are federal government employees (CBP and TSA), there are resturants, there are shops, you name it and it is there.

Fuel increases are hurting the airlines. Think about this senario for a minute. American Airlines folds. Miami is a hub for AA. Instantly, THOUSANDS of people who work for AA would be jobless. And with close to 1/2 the flights into the airport gone, entire concourses could close. This means that TSA and CBP would have to get rid of positions. Less people in the airport means that not as many places to get food would be needed. And so on.

And where could all these jobless people go? It would be a mess.

So what would be worse for the economy? Having the public take over all the oil companies, or allowing the oil companies and their hunger for record profits to cause the cost of EVERYTHING to increase on a whim? Would you loose any sleep over some executive having to downsize his $50 million yacht to a $25 million yacht? I think I could still sleep at night.

Going to a regulated monopoly system would mean an end to their record profits, but it would also mean an end to the subsidies. They would still get some profits, so it is not like being the CEO of Exxon would suddenly be a crappy job. He would still be able to afford health insurance and a ski vacation to Aspen.

The energy sector can make or break the entire system. I do not trust the greed of oil executives with this much power. The public regulates power companies, and I do not see any electricity shortages. FPL can not make as much as they want, but the CEO still has a pretty sweet pad. FPL offers many good paying jobs. There is no evidence at all that public regulation of FPL has hurt the company.

But it will never happen. The oil barrons are too happy raking in our money on both ends (subsidies from the federal government, and profits from the people who pay the taxes to the federal government so that they can give to to the oil industry). And they pretty much own the government at this point.

Stability VS profits. You decide.

Let Them Eat Cake

I can not believe this one myself. When I first heard about it, I thought "this has to be bullshit". Then I heard the audio. It is a good thing my vehicle was already parked at the work location, otherwise I might have run off the road.

Here is what was said:

In a segment at the top of the show on the surge of
evacuees to the Texas city, Barbara Bush said: "Almost
everyone I’ve talked to says we're going to move to
Houston."

Then she added: "What I’m hearing which is sort of
scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is
so overwhelmed by the hospitality.

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you
know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she
chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."

** END**

What a bitch! It is scary that people want to stay in Texas? Why is it scary? Is it that the people might be poor? Is it that they might be black? Is it that they might need help in the form of money and food? Or is it scary because the money they will need might come from people at the higher end of the income spectrum?

And what did she mean by "this is working very well for them"? Did she mean "darkies like to play football, they should love living in a real stadium!"?? Did she mean that since the people who are in the stadium are so poor that they should be happy to have air conditioning? Did she mean that people should be happy their homes were wiped out, because now they can live on cots in Texas?

Rot in hell you out of touch bitch. EVERYONE is poor compared to you. How about we the people level YOUR houses, and then let YOU live on a cot in a stadium. Would that work out well for you? Would you find any humor in that? Would you find people seeking food and clean water scary then?

When the Queen Of France supposedly said "let them eat cake" when told that all the people had to eat was bread (cakes are basicly bread when you think about it), there was a revolution and her head was removed. Someone ought to give Barbara Bush a history book. And a muzzle.

I can not believe she said the things she did. No doubt the right wing spin machine will try to re-write her words - they NEED TO do some damage control at this point.

Barbara Bush was a decent first lady. I think that the population by and large liked the woman. Her husband lost his re-election bid, but as I remember it there was no outright hostility towards Mr. or Mrs. Bush. It was just that the nation was looking for a change after 12 years of the same people running the nation. Nobody back in 1992 would have ever said negative things about the first lady.

But the comments I heard today were something I would have not believed if I had not heard them for myself. I always thought that Barbara Bush was smarter than to say something like this.

I am shocked, and frankly dissapointed by her comments. I had held her in a much higher regard. But not anymore.

Training Day 2

Some of my readers might be wondering about the second day of training. And as much as I would love to tell everyone, I learned about the "cone of silence", so now I can not post about it. After all, how do I know you are NOT involved in a contract bid to sell training material to the County?

Speaking of cones, check this one out.

Thats right, a perfect circle. This storm is going to give Florida the reach-around. It missed the state, so it is turning around in an attempt to try again.

One of the storms did the same crap last year, and I think it ended up hitting the state. Wait a minute, they ALL hit Florida last year! You would think that this would have lit a fire under someone in charge of FEMA's ass, but since hurricanes do not wear turbans apparently they were not on the "do not admit into the USA" list that Customs And Border Patrol has in their computer, they were not questioned at the port of entry. All the storms also had valid US Visas, and could not be fingerprinted. So they sliped in under the radar. But not under the doppler radar. Someone get FEMA a doppler radar!!

Anyway, lets just hope that this one does not pull across Florida, intensify, and hit the gulf coast of Mississippi again. That would be absoutly horrible. Even if the thing hits the gulf coast region as nothing more than a very wet depression it would be bad news for a city already flooded like Wal-Mart on $15 DVD player day.

And here is the kicker, with a perfect circle cone of death, the storm has the same odds of being in North Carolina as South Florida in 5 days. And I am no Rick Sanchez of CNN here, but when storms do the loop-de-loop they have to be moving slow. So in 5 days, the thing could be stalled just offshore, dumping rain on someone - probably Florida. Everyone in the cone, or near to the edges, need to pay attention to this thing.

And if by now you do NOT have a disaster kit, you are retarded. Go build one. And not just us people living in hurricane states - EVERYONE needs a disaster kit. No matter where you live, there are earthquakes and tornados and floods and blizards and wild bears and crazy people with guns and falling chunks of space rocks and volcanos and who knows what else. Build a disaster kit, store it somewhere, check it regularly, and cycle the stuff in it with new stuff every so often. It is even a good idea to have drills, if you live someplace where disasters can creep up with no warning.

If you live in an area at risk of tornados, you SHOULD have a SAME compatible weather radio. These radios are not expensive, so get one OK! Everyone should have one. Here is how they work. You program your radio with your SAME code and set it to the proper frequency. Your radio will constantly listen to NOAA weather broadcasts, and if it detects that ANY kind of watch or warning is issued for your area it will turn itself on and you will hear the alert. When the alert is over, it will turn back off.

So lets say you are sleeping and you hear rain outside. No big deal - so you go back to sleep. Then a tornado touches down. How do you know about it? Well, you don't - unless you have a SAME radio. So get one. The best ones run on two power sources, electricity and batteries. The ass it saves could be yours.

But what can I do about all this? Not a darn thing. I want to use my boat on Saturday! I am working full time again - and what the hell is the point in that if I use the boat LESS than I did when I only held a part time job? So I will keep one lazy eye on the storm, but I am not going to worry about it. If it hits it hits. No point in stressing out here. The NHC wind speed forecast model only has the thing as a minimum category 1 storm in the next 48 hours. And what about after that? The model center line (median data average) is a straight line (no chance in wind speed from 48 to 72 hours), but the orange area (30% probability on either side of the median line) show a slight decrease. So this is is not very likely to be anything major, at least not in the next three days.

But right now there is no way to tell where the thing will go. The cone is a perfect circle. You can only make an accurate guess when the cone is cone shaped. I guess I will hold off on replacing the tree I lost in the last storm (I want to get a gumbo-limbo tree).

Know Your County Government

Yesterday (Tuesday) and today I am scheduled for some new employee stuff at the main County building downtown. Both are full days, 8 hours each. Well not exactly 8 hours. There are short breaks and the 1 hour lunch. And the day usually runs short, once everything on the agenda is covered then you can leave.

So if someone asks too many questions, I give them a super mega wedgie. That is when you grab the back of someone's underwear and pull it over their head. A regular wedgie is just when you pull it out a little bit.

Tuesday, the class ended about 45 minutes early. It was a pretty good deal for me. And I got a full days pay.

Now for the downside. I had to be downtown by 8 AM. And the topics covered were not exactly exciting. I would rather be at the job site, but the program is mandatory. The topics covered are related to stuff that new employees should know about - like for example the FRS program (Florida Retirement System) and the various health plans offered, and stuff like that.

At least the confrence room has windows, and is on the 18th floor. I have a good view of the Miami "river" (more like the Miami Canal really - rivers usually do not have concrete banks). I can also see a little bit of Key Biscayne and Biscayne Bay. I can also see beyond Key Biscayne and into the ocean. If I get really close to the window and look sideways, I can see the Port Of Miami. And on break, I can see the FAA tower at the airport. So that is a plus. The view is pretty nice.

Today the topics covered will be "know your county government" and something else. I will put a thumbtack into my shoe so that I can stay awake.

Oh yea funny story time. At the thing on Tuesday the guy asked "do you think the county is committed to excellent service" (the vision statement is "delivering excellence every day"). I answered "sometimes". When asked what that means, I said that while there ARE some county departments that try to deliver excellence every day (like for example Fire Rescue, the road ranger program, the police when they are NOT handing out parking tickets, and so on) other departments seem to have missed the memo about it.

I used as an example the Parks Department (search my archives for posts about the stupid boat ramp automated pay stations) and Team Metro. I have been to war with Team Metro on a few occasions over things like radio antennas and stuff. My dad went to war with Team Metro over "junk cars" that had valid tags, insurance, and ran. The County said they were "junk" yet were more than happy to collect the registration fee, and totally ignored the fact that the car did run. In each case, the county lost the war. But really the car WAS junk, just because something runs does not mean you should drive it. But for the purposes of winning the war, the car was perfectly fine.

One of the people in the class is a new employee for Team Metro, but she works in the office - she is not one of the people running around in the county cars looking for violations.

So there you are. You now know that Dade County has a vision statement. And ALL the departments had to make a "business plan" that conformed to the vision statement. I also saw a nifty chart that showed how I was directly connected to the vision statement. I learned all this stuff in a senior level business administration class at Florida International University, but this is the first time that I have held a real job that had a vision statement. The federal government's vision statement seems to be "sit there and look like an idiot while you take a week to decide if you should shit or get off the pot", and the school board does not have a vision statement as far as I know. Uusally only private sector stuff has vision statements.

But really, it is good that the County Manager is trying to bring service back to the public service sector. In theory, my boss is everyone who votes and/or use the airport. This is an ass load of bosses! My job preformance should be able to live up to their reasonable expecations. There will always be someone who is not happy with the level of service no matter what you do, but for the most part people just want to not be treated like shit. For too long, the government mentality was "you have no choice, so stop bitching as it will only make the line longer".

The County Manager is very serious about the "customer service" stuff. And this is ok with me. I work for the Aviation Department, but my inside MDAD I work in the customer service division. So the more serious the County Manager is about customer service, the more secure my job is!

And really - people who pay taxes should get more than sandpaper in the toilet stalls. After all, they do pay for that toilet paper.

My Labor Day

Today, for the first time ever in the historty of the universe - I had to go to work on Labor Day. But do not feel too bad, I was on time and a half PLUS I got 8 hours of regular time. Everyone got 8 hours of regular time, even if they did not show up - but I got paid for that time PLUS another 12 hours. At least I think. I might not have been on time and a half today. I would have to ask payroll, but I am too lazy. I aint gonna squabble over 4 measly hours. I would only do that if I did not like the job.

Now this is not exactly a bad thing. First off, I get more money. I need more money, because at 3 bucks a gallon it could cost me as much as $120 to use my boat (it has a 40 gallon fuel tank). Usually I do not use more than 1/2 a tank, but that is still 60 beans. Plus beer and ice cost, and of course the 10 bucks for the EVIL BOAT RAMP PAY MACHINES. Anyway, we are talking about some cheese here. So I need all the time and a half I can scam.

And then there is the whole Cornelius matter. He still needs his kitten shots. This will not be free. Oh yea and my truck needs new tires. The tires on it now have 40,000 miles on them and they are almost 4 years old, so I can not really complain too much here. But still - I will need 265/75/R16 tires to replace the ones I have now. So there is another $500 unless I can find them on sale. But really now - $500 for another 4 years is not too bad. It breaks down to $10.42 per month for 4 years. I think it is worth $10 a month to NOT have a tire failure while driving 60 mph.

Anyway, getting back to Labor Day and me going in to the office. It got me thinking. Why do we get the day off? It is not called "Happy Fun Time Day" or "Day Off Day". It is called Labor Day, someone who did not know better might think that the proper thing to do on this day would be to labor or something. Not that I am complaining, like I mentioned before I got broke off to the second power for going in.

Therefore I propose the name of the holiday be changed to "Lack Of Labor Day" or "No Labor Day". It could also be called "Work Is Optional Day", or even "Double Time Work Day".

Another plus to working on Monday was the fact that the boss was not there. Not that I have a terrible boss, I actually have a decent boss. But still, no boss day is always good. There were only three of us lowly regular people in the office today. And there was not a lot of work. I only had one assignment, and I worked on some reports I have to keep updated. But was I busy all day? Not really. I would work on the reports for a little, then get up to get tea or chat with other people, then work on the reports some more, then walk around the airport doing the assignment, then get lunch, then print some more stuff out, and so on. I do not remember the phone ringing even once, and the fax machine was quiet.

All things considered, it was a pretty good day. Even if I did have to go to work.

Flip Side

I got some interesting comments about yesterdays post. I also got some links. I clicked em. Here is what I think about it all.

Something on the order of 200 - 300 thousand were in the evacuation zone. Many of those people had cars, but not all. The city had something on the order of 300 busses. If this bus fleet is anything like the fleet in Dade County, at least 10% are in the shop.

So what about the school busses? Could those not have been used?

Not if the bus drivers had CARS and decided to high tail it out of there. I would bet that many of the bus drivers did just that, along with a bunch of the police officers. And can you blame them? If you were a school bus driver would you get yourself and your family out, or show up to work? Would the couple of hundred bucks of overtime pay be enough to keep you there, or would you take the time to load your family and your most treasured objects into the car and haul ass?

Add to this mix the traffic nightmare, and all roads were opened up one way only. Even if the city was able to scrape up 500 busses and drivers, and only 50,000 people needed to get out, it would not be enough without sending busses on a few round trips. This would be hard to do once all lanes on all roads are one way - out.

Floirda has the same problem with The Keys. The Overseas Highway is a two lane road. To do a proper evacuation, enough busses and stuff have to be in place before it is time to leave. Once the order is given, all lanes on US1 and Card Sound Road are northbound only. The only way to get south is by air or sea.

And let us not forget the final problem, people not wanting to leave. There are many reasons why someone would not leave. First, maybe they have no way to get out on their own. In my case, I have a double cab pickup truck and a large flatbed trailer. I can pack up all my stuff and get it out in one shot. Even the crappy little television I watch. Everything can go out with me.

But not everyone has this. Some people only have regular cars. They might not leave when they can because they do not want to leave behind some stuff that is important to them. And those with no vehicles are in even more of a bind. They can not bring pets, and they are very limited in what they can bring. Oh yea, no pets in any shelter.

In short, the logistics of a massive evacuation are very hard to manage for a city where as many as 30% live at or below the poverty line. Lousiana is not exactly a rich state, and New Orleans is not a rich city.

Then there are the flood control devices. I do not know about Lousiana, but in Florida the flood control measures for my area are in the hands of SFWMD (South Florida Water Management District) and the Army Corps of Engineers. SFWMD is limited in what it can do without getting the Corps involved. Why is this important? I would think that the system in New Orleans would be similar. Dade County only has some control over the drainage system here, and no control over the massive levee around Lake Okeechobee.

In short, there was only so much that a local mayor has to get people out of an area - unless he orders people to be removed at gunpoint.

And anyway, all these things to not excuse the lack of action at the federal level. On Saturday, the NHC had the storm track going into the general area where the storm did hit. I know, I was tracking the thing. Before my internet went out on Thursday night the center of the cone of death was New Orleans.

This means that federal policy makers had at least a week to plan something. Actually, longer than a week. Even before the thing hit Miami the forecast track had it in the Gulf Of Mexico. And then there was last year. How many close calls did the feds need?

So who is to blame? I suppose that the hearings that are bound to happen will get to the bottom of that. That is IF someone who tried to stonewall the 9-11 hearings does not try to stonewall again. And just like some other military prison issues, the rush is on to blame the lowest ranking person that can be located. I see a pattern here.

And consider this - right now there are military units still in the USA that can be anywhere in the world in 12 - 24 hours. There are planes stationed in places like Kansas that can be loaded up with stuff to airdrop. There are troops that are ready to jump out of perfectly good aircraft, and into hostile land. I still want to know WHY THE HELL this was not done.

And if you still want to buy into the bush licking spin machine and blame a mayor who happened to have switched to the democrat party, consider Mississippi. Ain't no stinking liberal democrats there! Just lots of guns and churches! Yet people were left in danger zones. The destruction in Mississippi is not getting as much coverage as The Big Easy, but things are not exactly rosy there either. And the federal response was equally as poor.

So shall we blame Mississippi's governor? You know, the southern white republican guy? Or shall we focus all the blame on the democrat lady governor and the dark complected democrat guy? That will teach him to leave the godly party!

Finally, one last point. What is the federal level plan now? More of the same "do nothing then find someone else to blame" crap, or this time did they learn something?

I have a hurricane kit, and I do not live in an area at high risk of flooding. So in the event of a storm, I am not in an evacuation zone. I would leave the space in shelters for people who need it worse than I do. If I left, I would not stop driving till I was in Canada. It would be a good excuse to visit the place.

But if I stay, and my home is turned into a pile of toothpicks, and in the process my hurricane kit is lost....well lets just say if that happens I hope that whoever is in charge of the federal government is able to make a decision in less than a week.

The Next President Of The United States?

How about this guy for the next president?

In case you are living under a rock somewhere, this is Ray Nagin - Mayor of New Orleans.

On the 2nd of this month, he gave an interview to WWL-AM correspondent Garland Robinette. He said to the president, in so many words or less, "get off your ass and do something".

He said other stuff too. Click HERE for the transcript. There is even an audio link. If you have not heard the audio of the interview yet, you need to. It is great.

Keep in mind this link and story is a few days old already, and since then some help has arrived. But at the time, nobody had gotten off their ass. He pretty much sumed up all the problems with the federal response.

Anyway, if the guy does run for prez in 2008 I have some good slogans for him. If you read this Mr. Mayor, feel free to steal them. I can always come up with more slogans for you. You can pay me in the form of a boat. Email me to work out the details.

"Nagin. He will get off his ass and do something".
"Nagin. Putting the HOMELAND back into homeland security".
"Nagin. He will end his vacation early if disaster strikes".
"Nagin. He will fix FEMA before fixing an election".
"Nagin. Come hell or high water, you can count on him".

And so on. I do not think the man will run, I am just saying that after hearing the interview I would vote for him. If the next two choices for the top job suck, I will write the man in.

Canada On Standby

From The Toronto Star, Canada told Bush that they had equipment, supplies, and people ready to ship out to The Gulf Coast.

But Bush did not take up the offer. Why? Is it that we do not need the portable hospital units (yes, more than one) that Canada offered to send? Do we not need the water purification units? Or the hundreds of experienced emergency services workers ready to ship out?

According to The Star, there are troops, ships, supplies, and more ready to go right now. So what is the holdup?

I think that the holdup is simple. It will be horrible press for the first tent hospitals set up to have the Maple Leaf flag flying over them. It will look bad for the first military transports to roll into a isolated neighborhood with water and food to be flying the Maple Leaf flag.

But the offical excuse is that the Pentagon is "analyzing what is needed". WHAT?!? Everything is needed. At this point analyzing what is NOT needed would take less time. I am an idiot and I have a good idea what is needed.

Politics before action eh? Bush drops the ball, and to cover his ass he puts help ready to go on hold eh?

Few people remember this. but Canada DID send help to South Floirda after Andrew. They sent a Canadian Navy supply ship with more than 250 people with the training to help rebuild. So it is not like the offer is just so many words - they do have people who are experienced in these matters.

And yes, more is needed than one support ship, or a portable hospital. But at this point, turning down help offered by our neighbor to the north is insane. People need that help right now. And the people who need that help could give a crap less whose flag is on the bottle of water, flying over the hospital, painted in the trucks, or sewn onto the uniforms.

I would hope that the Pentagon takes up the offer of help soon. Any logistical issues need to be worked out very quickly. The important thing is not who gets there first, the important thing is that someone gets there as quickly as possible with the stuff people need.

News Strike

The whole hurricane thing is so upsetting that I am back on news strike. I will not watch ANY MORE FOOTAGE. I will NOT be part of the whole "lets profit off dead bodies floating in the streets" thing. I refuse to take part in this insanity.

I urge everyone else to do the same thing. There is reporting the news, and there is exploiting misery for fun and profit.

And a special message for CNN's very own Rick Sanchez. JUST FUCKING DIE ALREADY YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF HUMAN WASTE! I hope you get disentary and shit yourself to death, and then I hope Fox News films your dead body while Bill O'Reily makes comments about how terrible it is. And by the way Rick, that guy you RAN OVER when you were a reporter in Miami is still dead! Why dont you report on that? You know, as an update for the CNN viewers. You turd.

I can not post about this subject anymore. It is too stressful for me. It is almost like the federal government WANTS the people flooded out to die. It would be cheaper after all, dead people will not file for benefits or ask for relocation funds. It is terrible to think this way, but what else am I supposed to conclude given the evidence I have?

Rescue missions are going to become body recovery missions soon, if not already.

And why? Because FEMA, under the great leader we have now, changed its focus from things like hurricanes to shit far less likely to happen, like a dirty bomb. It is now out that FEMA drills for things just like what happened were either scrapped entirely OR had to scale back the budgets to the point where the excersises were useless.

And now people are paying the price. Last year, Florida was hit with 5 named storms. FIVE. And did the government, under Bush, learn anything? Did they decide to take the threat of what they knew could happen seriously? Did they at least devlop a rough draft for a plan? How about we get Tom Ridge back to create a new color coded alert system? That would at least be something.

But nothing was done. No plans were made. And I want to know why. I know the excuse will be a big pile of bullshit, but I want to hear it anyway. Humor me. Who will they blame it on? Al Gore? Clinton? Terrorists? Saddam Hussien? South American Drug Cartels? Castro? Yellow Cake Uranium in Niger? Or will it be the fault of the "liberal media who only wants to show the bad things for political reasons"? Come on Mr. President, tell us that positive things are being accomplished on the Gulf Coast, but the media will not report it. Then tell us the same lie about the Middle East. It is all good.

See, I have done it again. My blood pressure is back up again.

Tomorrow I will TRY to post about something else.

Action

Well, you heard it here first. Sometime AFTER I wrote the last blog entry, someone in a position decided to send some naval ships from Norfolk to the Gulf Of Mexico.

A day late and a few dollars short. That support should have been fueled up and ready to go when it looked like the storm could hit an area known to be BELOW SEA LEVEL.

But what did we all expect. It is not like the president has never froze like a deer in the headlights when immediate action was called for. Obviously, "homeland security" is not looking at the homeland very hard. I bet the people in the Gulf Coast area feel very secure.

Maybe there will be hearings into WHY it took so long for someone to decide to send in the heavy equipment. Why was the Navy still in Norfolk NOT ready to go last week? Why were the ships not staged off the Space Coast of FL when it was clear that Central Florida was in the clear? For that matter, support ships could have followed the storm in.

And if there was no disaster, call it "training" and be done with it. No harm no foul.

But, this did not happen. Someone was on vacation and apparently could not make a decision.

Great leader indeed. Some people can not lead ants to a picnic, yet still manage to get elected.

Meanwhile, things are getting WORST and not better. I do not think that all the flooded areas will come back. The jobs are all underwater, the houses are all underwater, and the people are being shipped to Texas.

So why even bother to rebuild? Who are they going to rebuild for? The people that are now in Texas? Will they go back with no jobs and no hope of ever getting their property insured, or will they try to find work elsewhere and start a new life? The maps need to be redrawn. The United States mainland is smaller, and the Gulf Of Mexico is larger. And someone needs to tell the president, once he is finished riding his bike.

I went to the French Quarter once. I am glad I did when I had the chance. I do not think anyone will ever visit the quarter again.