or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
September 01, 2005
New Orleans
I'm relieved to see oyster of Your Right Hand Thief got out of New Orleans safely with his family. They are apparently now safely sheltered in Florida with relatives for the forseeable future. Don't miss this pre-Katrina post.
Meanwhile, Chris Floyd's fancy new site is up and running. It includes his thoughts on New Orleans:
The destruction of New Orleans represents a confluence of many of the most pernicious trends in American politics and culture: poverty, racism, militarism, elitist greed, environmental abuse, public corruption and the decay of democracy at every level.Much of this is embodied in the odd phrasing that even the most circumspect mainstream media sources have been using to describe the hardest-hit victims of the storm and its devastating aftermath: "those who chose to stay behind." Instantly, the situation has been framed with language to flatter the prejudices of the comfortable and deny the reality of the most vulnerable.
It is obvious that the vast majority of those who failed to evacuate are poor: they had nowhere else to go, no way to get there, no means to sustain themselves and their families on strange ground. While there were certainly people who stayed behind by choice, most stayed behind because they had no choice. They were trapped by their poverty - and many have paid the price with their lives...
...as well as the lyrics to Randy Newman's song Louisiana, 1927.
Posted at September 1, 2005 08:10 PM | TrackBackAn NBC correspondent yesterday: "67 percent of the population of New Orleans is black and, worse, it is poor."
I guess they don't teach Overt Racism 101 any more in the MSM. Now it's Insidious Racism 101.
Posted by: Bernard Chazelle at September 2, 2005 10:32 AMWorse yet, I think the 67% figure might be a misunderestimation...
Jeezm, just when I thought I couldn't get more nauseous, I read a media quote like that. Gracious.
Thanks to Jonathan for the mention. My fam is indeed safe, but I shudder to think of all my fellow New Orleanians who were, as Chris said, trapped by their poverty and who are now suffering and dying.
A Poem for Bush
---------------
Oh Hydra Heads!
Amerikan sabres
blunting fast...
Bernard,
Yes, but as a glass-half-full sort of guy, I have to point out that Insidious Racism is a big step forward from Overt Racism.
oyster,
Very good to hear from you. I hope that someday not too far in the future we can get together for some beer in New Orleans. I will be buying.
grinna,
Many people have hypothesized that Bush is actually some type of plant by America's enemies, working from the inside to destroy us. If so, I must say whoever put him there is really getting their money's worth.
Posted by: Jonathan Schwarz at September 3, 2005 06:18 AMJonathan - I bet he's a ficus plant placed by Michael Moore! That bastard...
Posted by: saurabh at September 4, 2005 11:42 AMWhen the tsunami we said "God always attacks the poorest. It's not fair".
So here it is: Floods in Germay, Austria, Switzerland, US, etc.
