I keep hearing people say they’re baffled or can’t understand why the federal government, i.e., the Bush Administration, has been so slow to respond to the Katrina disaster and why, even today, the rescue operation is so disorganized.
All I can say is that they haven’t been paying attention for the past 5 years.
Bush sat reading a children’s book for 7 minutes as thousands perished in the World Trade Towers.
Iraq was raped by looters after the initial invasion by the U.S.-led “coalition of the willing” because of poor planning and organization.
Currently, there is no strategy in Iraq, except empty words like democracy is hard work and the insurgency is in its last throes.
This administration is good at nothing save for words and photo ops.
For the past year I have told family and friends that I now have a shotgun and pistol in my home and I have stockpiled bottled water and food supplies. I told them that, if disaster strikes, it’s clear to me we’ll be on our own. They chuckled and rolled their eyes, and thought I was perhaps “losing it.”
Now they don’t think I’m so crazy anymore.
5 comments:
I'm still not entirely sure of the wisdom of guns in the house. I still see far more troubles with one than without.
I think properly stored and secured guns are fine -- as I understand it, many folks enjoy going out on weekends and shooting things for fun and recreation. But a loaded handgun in your nightstand drawer so that you can shoot unexpected intruders? That's not my cup of tea. But if you know what you're doing, go for it.
I'm not with you on the guns as protection route -- it's bad enough my step-niece goes to high school in Alabama, where you can join the rifle team and learn to shoot before you're old enough to drive, much less smoke or drink.
Yet there are times I regret being in favor of gun control...like now, when I know that if we lined up levels of government, eventually we'd come down to one that is competent and wants to protect us more than Iraq.
The whole Y2K experience made some people paranoid enough to lay in supplies. This amused me -- we all live in apartment buildings, and come January 1, if the computers had gone haywire, we all would have frozen to death (electricity brings heat to higher flowers from the boiler). And evacuating the island off the coast of America (aka Manhattan) that is my home? Not a chance in hell.
Canadians are universally appalled at the gun culture of the USA. Actually, not in Alberta, one province where they are big on guns.
I don't know what I would do if I lived in the USA. Events in New Orleans confirm my conviction that it's a really bad idea to let anybody and everybody own a gun. Shooting at rescue helicopters, for example — obviously it would be better if those citizens didn't have guns.
But once Pandora's box has been opened, then what do you do? If the power may go out, and my neighbours are armed, wouldn't I want to be armed, too? How else can I possibly hope to protect my family?
It's like the Cold War: an arms race among the citizenry. *shudder*
Q
On The Mark says -- Don't get me wrong. I'm not a gun nut. I hate the idea of hunting and I don't even like to catch fish. I never owned a gun before this year. I keep the pistol locked in a safe and the shotgun is secured. Ammo is kept separate from the guns. At the same time, I saw how people got completely out of control during the riots over ten years ago. I have no doubt that the same would happen if there were a disaster and food and water were in short supply for an extended period. Then it's everyone for themselves, and I prefer to be on a level playing field.
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