[ScottyS]

Man, I know better than to start in...so to summarize my take:

1) In our country, local govts have responsibility for order until they make the call to the Feds. The State and Local authorities obviously dropped the ball big-time here. They did not have a plan for this crisis (which has been predicted for years, even in Natl Geographic!) that was adequate for THEIR SOCIETY. With the in-depth demographic tracking and cataloguing that local goverments spend TONS of money on (for better service, hawhaw), there is no way to say that the amount and tendancies of the people involved was NOT predictable. Within hours, we had a distraught LA Gov. holding tearful press conferences instead of strengthening the morale and supply line of what local LEs were on the ground. The reins were NOT handed over to the Feds in an orderly manner --- it seems that the Feds pretty much had to re-evaluate the entire crisis themselves. You can't tell the trucks where to go if you don't have a clear situational awareness. THAT WAS THE LOCAL GOVT'S JOB, AND ANY "DELAYS" ARE ON THEM!

2) The type of people being used to sensationalize this crisis worldwide are the typical, helpless, dependent idiots. Scott went over them in detail, but I'll reinforce: a) I know how far it is possible to walk, even if you don't have a lot of food and water, and it amazes me that so many people chose to stay within their sad social construct rather than ACTUALLY MAKE THEIR OWN SURVIVAL DECISIONS; b) the criminals stealing TV's the first day are the same ones that will KILL and RAPE the next day --- in a situation of martial law where the betterment of a large population segment is at stake, you treat all lawlessness with the same consequences, judgement left only to the shooter (it sounds bad, but welcome to earth); c) the lack of action to quell the problems from within the population frankly condemn the population itself --- whether there was a high percentage of walking inmates or not, American society needs to take a long, hard look at the development of this segment of people and discover why there is a lack of honor, self-sufficiency, pity, and sacrifice.

3) Related to #1, when an entire urban area is capable of being flooded (i.e. below sea level), rest assured that in geologic time it is not a matter of if, but when it will occur. Whether or not people are dumb to live there is beside the point --- a review of Pearl S. Buck's "The Big Wave", will show that no society is completely rational. To live in such a place (where the largest river in North America has been permanently diverted, in it's delta, no less), is to bear the responsibility of preparedness and understanding if things go bad. Those pols, people, and panderers squawking all sorts of venom about blame, race, and fault are either fools or manipulators of the worst sort.


In my mind, these broad factors (not entirely divorced) combine in the worst possible way to result in the chaos seen in NOLA. While one can be sure that the "worst-case scenario" would have different results in different areas of the United States (behavior of society, state of command and control, etc), the lessons of NO should not be overlooked as similar societal conditions exist in other US cities, and this type of population is becoming more and more normal. Children are not taught to think outside the box of uniform public education, and are trained that they all "deserve" something. The public naturally wants the government to make life easier, but the long-term effects of dependence is well-known and well-ignored.

The media reporting currently refuses to draw any of these conclusions, however. How annoying.