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New Orleans...man made disaster ????????? |
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Woody72
Optics GrassHopper Joined: November/06/2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 9 |
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Thanks .357 mag I think you have hit it on the head. I see this is a old post but maybe some one will look at it any way. I am from Louisiana. I can honestly tell you that the entire STATE is just like New Orleans. Sure you can find a few small towns that are ok. I am not a racist but I am tired of looking at my check stub and seeing the taxes that are held out to feed these jerks that I know would shoot me in the head if I left the main roads in Shreveport, Monroe, Jonesboro, etc. We are so over taxed. Has anyone ever driven through Louisiana? The roads suck also. Louisiana politics suck. It's not just N.O. I could go on for ever but, I'm not. I would just like to say that I want what Texas has. There tax rate is awsome. The police can intimidate a criminal because they still exersize the right to kick a crook in the ass if they want to. So if you dont mind the next time you talk bad about N.O. please go ahead and talk about the whole damn STATE. Thanks and good day.
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Chris Farris
TEAM SWFA - Admin swfa.com Joined: October/01/2003 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 8024 |
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MISSISSIPPI'S INVISIBLE COASTAs Aug. 29 recedes into the conscious time of many Americans, the great storm that devastated 70 miles of Mississippi's Coast, destroying the homes and lives of hundreds of thousands, fades into a black hole of media obscurity. Never mind that, if taken alone, the destruction in Mississippi would represent the single greatest natural disaster in 229 years of American history. The telling of Katrina by national media has created the illusion of the hurricane's impact on our Coast as something of a footnote. The awful tragedy that befell New Orleans as a consequence of levee failures at the time of Katrina, likewise, taken by itself, also represents a monumental natural disaster. But, of course, the devastation there, and here, were not separate events, but one, wrought by the Aug. 29 storm. There is no question that the New Orleans story, like ours, is a compelling, ongoing saga as its brave people seek to reclaim those parts of the city lost to the floods. But it becomes more and more obvious that to national media, New Orleans is THE story - to the extent that if the Mississippi Coast is mentioned at all it is often in an add-on paragraph that mentions "and the Gulf Coast" or "and Mississippi and Alabama." The television trucks and satellite dishes that were seen here in the early days have all but disappeared. While there has been no study to quantify the amount of coverage accorded to the plight of so many here or in New Orleans, it is obvious to any observer that the number of news stories on New Orleans is many times that of those focused on Mississippi. So, why does that matter? It matters first as it relates to journalism's obligations to cover human beings whose conditions are as dire as those that exist here. The depth of the suffering and the height of the courage of South Mississippians is an incredible story that the American people must know. But, in the shadows of the New Orleans story, the Mississippi Coast has become invisible and forgotten to most Americans. Could it be possible that the ongoing story of an Alabama teenager missing in Aruba has received more coverage on some cable networks than all of the incredibly compelling stories of courage, loss and need of untold thousands of Mississippians? Maybe a lot more coverage? The second reason that the coverage matters is in the realm of politics. If the American people and their elected representatives do not truly know the scope of the destruction here, and if they are not shown the ongoing conditions afflicting so many, then there are consequences which are playing out even this week in Washington, where Congress will act, or not act, to relieve the incredible pain that has reduced the condition of so many American citizens to Third World status or worse. If the people do not know, they cannot care. We believe if they are shown the extent of the devastation and the suffering, they and their representatives will respond. So the coverage matters. A lot. The problem, to some extent, is that you have to be here and see it for yourself to comprehend the utter destruction that is so much like Berlin or Tokyo after World War II. We would like to invite our news colleagues from across the nation to come and view the Coast with us. It is impossible to comprehend this disaster from afar. A television can display only a single screen of the damage. When you have driven mile after mind-numbing mile and viewed the complete nothingness where cities and homes and businesses once stood, only then will you begin to understand what has happened here. Then you will begin to wonder, where are all the people who used to live on this beautiful shore? What has happened to their families and all of those shattered lives? That is when you will understand that the story of Katrina in South Mississippi isn't over, it has only begun. On the third day after Katrina crushed us, this newspaper appealed to America: "Help us now," the headline implored. America answered with an outpouring of love and help. That response saved us then. Our plea to newspapers and television and radio and Web sites across the land is no less important today: Please, tell our story. Hear the voice of our people and tell it far and wide. We are here. Do not forsake us. We are no footnote. And one more thing... Thank you. To every out-of-state volunteer, to every friend and family member who has sent supplies or prayers, we sincerely thank you. And we ask that you do one more thing: Call your senators and your congressional representative and ask them to support additional aid for South Mississippi's recovery. We couldn't have gotten off our knees without you. But we can't get back on our feet without federal help.
- From the Sun Herald |
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Woody72
Optics GrassHopper Joined: November/06/2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 9 |
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I understand What you are saying and I pray that everyone gets back on there feet. I would just like to say again that I am not Racist but, if you want action You need to have a mad black man of some power get on the TV and declare that he wants the coast to become chocolate again. If you can get that then you will get the money. That is what America likes. They will pay out of there teeth just so they can say they love Black people. This gets them votes. I hate it but thats the way it is. Follw my advice and you will get the backing.
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Stud Duck
Optics Journeyman Joined: May/20/2005 Location: WV Status: Offline Points: 508 |
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SWFA, they greatest damn web site there is!
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cheaptrick
MODERATOR Joined: September/27/2004 Location: South Carolina Status: Offline Points: 20844 |
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Amen!!!!!!!! |
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If at first you don't secede...try..try again.
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cged
Optics GrassHopper Joined: December/15/2005 Status: Offline Points: 9 |
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Hi all,
this is my first post on optics talk. I've been ghosting for a month or so now, trying to get educated on scopes. Let me say first that this is a phenomenal website and it's members amazingly friendly and helpful! On topic though, I live in Mobile, AL and, like several others have posted, saw the devastation all along the Gulf Coast (including New Orleans) first hand. I'm a Coast Guard helo pilot and spent the first week after the storm pulling people out of New Orleans. I flew over Biloxi/Gulfport/etc. almost every day enroute to New Orleans. I know this info is a bit dated now and the topic old, but this thread hit a nerve and I just couldn't resist adding my .02. My apologies up front for a long post. The post .357mag made from a Nat Guard helo pilot sounds like the real deal. Most of his observations match my own, and I have a picture one of my friends took that shows a huey stuck on/in the roof of a house - I suspect the very one he's talking about. The airspace was more congested than anything I have ever seen - it is only devine providence that there were no mid-air collisions. A few additional personal observations (these and .50 will get you a cup of coffee): -Devastation in Gulfport/Biloxi was unbelievable. New Orleans was impressive just because of scale, but for sheer all-out destruction, the "and the Gulf Coast" footnote so many reporters were fond of using looked to be the hardest hit. The first day we flew over, my crewman asked where we were. I said "somewhere over biloxi or gulfport, why?" the reply came back "because there's not enough left standing to give me any landmarks to figure it out". - "The federal government didn't get in fast enough" - What a load of hooey. We were in New Orleans & "the gulf coast" on SUNDAY NIGHT, even as the backside of the storm was still going through. I personally was in New Orleans early Monday morning. And yes, several of our helos were working the Gulfport & biloxi areas too. We ran ops 24/7 - even while many of OUR homes were without power and with hurricane damage. The base I'm stationed at and were most of the USCG helos were operating out of had it's operations center and maintenance control areas wiped out, power knocked out and extensive damage. We were running around with flashlights ,walkie talkies and message runners trying to get aircraft out that first night. Our pilots at airstation New Orleans were literally living in their offices - unable (or unwilling) to go home. DO NOT tell me that "help wasn't there soon enough" (sorry, rant mode off ) - People of New Orleans. A mixed bag. You can't lump them all into one specific category. Many of them were trying to help themselves, many of them were waiting for the calvary. I saw people whose homes were flooded to the roof line getting into boats and helping their neighbors. I saw people with just a couple of feet of water in their neighborhood and access to roads waiting for someone to come save them. I saw people directing helos in to save their family & friends (and turn down rescue so another person could get picked up) and I saw people running over others to get to the rescue basket. The first place we stopped that monday morning was one of the projects. Water was only a couple of feet high, but everybody was just standing around. There was a high & dry road not 25 yards from the entrance to the complex. When I put my rescue swimmer down to assess the situation, he was immediately surrounded by 5-7 guys, one of whom immediately started yelling at him and threatening him with a baseball bat. A word of advise: NEVER threaten a guy whose friends are sitting overhead with 70kts of rotor wash at their disposal. Everything worked out OK in the end, but things were tense for a few minutes. So much more I could go into but won't, this post has dragged on enough already. Also many more personal opinions I would like to share, but won't...I like my job . Suffice to say that I am continually stunned at the generousity and "can-do" attitude consistently demonstrated by many of my countrymen. I will say "thank you" for those who can't (or won't). cged sends |
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cheaptrick
MODERATOR Joined: September/27/2004 Location: South Carolina Status: Offline Points: 20844 |
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cged: Thanks for the intel dump. Welcome aboard and thank you for your service, Sir. |
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If at first you don't secede...try..try again.
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cged
Optics GrassHopper Joined: December/15/2005 Status: Offline Points: 9 |
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Thanks for the welcome cheaptrick! I've got a lot to learn about optics and this seems to be a great place to do it.
BTW, I had to google warren zevon ( I know, showing my ignorance....again ) - "Send Lawyers, guns & money" Excitable Boy, 1978. Great lyrics, I'll have to listen to the music sometime. I really liked "roland the headless thompson gunner" thanks again for the welcome cged |
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cheaptrick
MODERATOR Joined: September/27/2004 Location: South Carolina Status: Offline Points: 20844 |
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Lots of good folks on here and a very diverse optical community as well here.
Most sites are JUST military shooters or hunters or BR guys, etc. Here at Optics Talk we have a good mix.
And yes, Warren Zevon was one of my favorite musicians. He died a while back. The Excitable Boy lives on through his music though. |
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If at first you don't secede...try..try again.
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Steelbenz
Optics Jedi Knight ROLL TIDE ROLL Joined: January/03/2006 Location: Heart of Dixie Status: Offline Points: 5153 |
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cged, No apology necessary, You brown shoes did good. I'm in B'ham, but have many friends in southern Miss. I've even defended you guys, not all are puddle pirates. LOL If you want to rant, we'll let ya, you earned it. &nb sp;
God bless |
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"Don't argue with a fool! From a distance you can't really tell who's who!"
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cged
Optics GrassHopper Joined: December/15/2005 Status: Offline Points: 9 |
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Steelbenz - Thank you, Sir. LOL, I suspect someone spent some time as a squid blackshoe. Appreciate you standing up for us. I've always figured we're all one big family - I can call my fellow servicemen squids, jarheads, wing wipers, etc - but nobody else better bad mouth them. Overall, I've got no complaints coming out of the whole Katrina effort. I'd be lying if I said everything was all peaches and roses and that I'm not pissed about a few things, but I'm proud of what my mates and I did (nothing more than our jobs really) and I'll be telling my grandkids about it one day. In a twisted sort of way, it was the highlight of my career. The number one rule of the day was "get the job done - no matter what it takes"...talk about a blank check . The boss basically tossed me the keys to my $17M ride, gave me a crew of 4 others and said "go do good things". We're trained to operate without a lot of direction and make decisions on our own, but that was about as bare bones a tasking as you could get. If nothing else, I'm hoping that Katrina (and Rita) and it's aftermath has shown at least some segment of our population that a little preparedness goes a long way and if you just sit around and wait for someone else to come rescue you...well..good luck. If even a small percentage of our fellow citizens learn that lesson and apply it, I think the storm and all the damage it caused will be worth it in the long run. Kinda the opposite of that wild pig post from earlier. |
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Chris Farris
TEAM SWFA - Admin swfa.com Joined: October/01/2003 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 8024 |
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I'm sure ya'll all heard the now infamous quote from the esteemed Mayor Nagin. If your asking, "which infamous quote?" because he has so many, I'm talking about this one.
"It's time for us to rebuild a New Orleans, the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans. And I don't care what people are saying in Uptown or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day. This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have it no other way."
Did anyone hear his back spinning explanation of what "he really meant".
"How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink. That is the chocolate I am talking about,"
Is he begging for the blacks to come back because he's up for re-election and knows he's out or is he just an ignorant racist. And does he really believe that God wants the city to be black? You can't play the black card and the God card in one hand. If God wants it to be black, then what was his reasoning for destroying it? |
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cheaptrick
MODERATOR Joined: September/27/2004 Location: South Carolina Status: Offline Points: 20844 |
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That mayor is a pee stick and a freakin racist!! |
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If at first you don't secede...try..try again.
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Stud Duck
Optics Journeyman Joined: May/20/2005 Location: WV Status: Offline Points: 508 |
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excellent post Chris!
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Chris Farris
TEAM SWFA - Admin swfa.com Joined: October/01/2003 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 8024 |
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I just got this e-mail today, I guess its been going around since the blizzard hit the N.E.
>Bush Fails To Prevent East Coast Blizzard >Minorities Hit Hardest >by Brian Williams NBC 02/12/06 > >As President Bush and his staff cowered in the White House, the snow >continued to pile up on the many poor and African American victims who >could not afford to get out of town or to safety in Florida. Crucial >supplies of blankets, hot cocoa, popcorn and dark rum - so essential to >surviving the stress of any major snowstorm - lay in stores >undelivered. > >"Where is the government? I need my sidewalk shoveled so I can get out >to buy my damn lottery tickets!" said one D.C. resident from his living >room. "Why are we wasting money in Iraq when we could be spending it >here on me?" Progressive blogs blasted the President for his inaction. >"We find the timing terribly suspicious - just as the Domestic Spying >hearings kick into high gear, what happens? A major northeast Blizzard. >Why now?" wrote blogger America Bush 2. > >Hearings into the Blizzards' effect on hearings are almost a certainty. >Howard Dean has suggested he will call for an investigation once his >new medications kick in and John Kerry took a break from the sporting >activities of the glamorous super-rich in some exotic locale (random >choice: Ice Sailing in Finland) to call for new legislation outlawing >snowstorms. "The Republican Congress has dropped the ball once again. I >have always been a staunch supporter of anti-snow legislation, except >for certain locations where I ski. Snow has no business on our roads >and the President and Congress knows that." > >Calls for impeachment over "SnowGate" as some are calling it already >are mounting as deeply as the snow itself, and what will be discovered >underneath will prove to have a truly chilling effect on the >Republicans, as the inevitable thaw proceeds. Or something like that. > >More breaking news...... >Al Sharpton wants an investigation as to why snow is ALWAYS white. > >Cheney has stock in Tru-Value Hardware. Do you have any idea how many >SNOW SHOVELS they sold today to the unsuspecting consumer? > >I demand to know why FEMA has been so late in reacting to this storm. >THEY KNEW IT WAS COMING! And yet they failed to have crews in place to >fix the electricity as soon as it went off. It just shows that Bush and >the Republicans just don't care about the people in the N.E. The Senate >needs to investigate this with administration people under oath. > >I'll bet that the great junior senator from N.Y. has opened the doors >of her home to all of the heatless poor of her neighborhood and is busy >baking cookies for them while her husband applies body heat to the >nearly frozen teen-aged girls. |
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DogBuster
Optics GrassHopper Joined: February/14/2006 Location: Minnesota Status: Offline Points: 28 |
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What a great thread. I had no idea all this went on as I was away for those months. |
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"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"
Ronald Reagan |
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Mugdock
Optics GrassHopper Joined: October/24/2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 7 |
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It's amazing the difference between what happened in New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina and what is happening now in Southern California and the out of control fires.
The dependent minded whine, complain, cry, moan, and blame others while the independent minded simply pick themselves up, brush off the dust, and get back to work helping others and themselves. |
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Jon D. Graham -- |
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tahqua
MODERATOR Have You Driven A Ford Lately? Joined: March/27/2006 Location: Michigan, USA Status: Offline Points: 9042 |
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Expanding on the chocolate city theme, this email has been going around with a quote from Bill Cosby. This is why he has an honarable doctorate.
They’re standing on the corner and they can’t speak English. I can’t even talk the way these people talk: Why you ain’t, Where you is, What he drive, Where he stay, Where he work, Who you be… And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk Everybody knows it’s important to speak English… except these knuckleheads. Mushmouth is what they speak!? You can’t be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. In fact you will never get any kind of job making a decent living. People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education, and now we’ve got these knuckleheads throwing that all away.? The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids. $500 sneakers for what? And they won’t spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics. I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was 2? Where were you when he was 12? Where were you when he was 18? And, how come you didn’t know that he had a pistol? And where is the father? Or who is his father? People putting their clothes on backward: Isn’t that a sign of something gone wrong? People with their hats on backward, pants down around the crack, isn’t that a sign of something? They’re walking around with their nasty underwear showing, and holding onto their pants to keep them from falling to the ground! Or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up? Isn’t it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up to her panty line, and got all types of needle piercings going through her body? What part of Africa did this come from? We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans; they don’t know a thing about Africa . With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail. Brown or black versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person’s problem. We have got to take the neighborhood back. People used to be ashamed. Today a woman has eight children with eight different ‘husbands’ – or men or whatever you call them now. We have millionaire football players who cannot read. We have million-dollar basketball players who can’t write two paragraphs. We as black folks have to do a better job. Someone working at Wal-Mart with seven kids saying… you are hurting us. We have to start holding each other to a higher standard. We cannot blame the white people any longer. It is not for media or anyone of this time anymore to say whether I’m right or wrong. It is time, ladies and gentlemen, to look at the numbers. Fifty percent of our children are dropping out of high school. Sixty percent of the incarcerated males happen to be illiterate. There’s a correlation. Tell the media to stop asking me what I think about people who don’t believe what I’m saying or feel that I’m too harsh or feel that I’m just running my mouth because I’m old. Seventy percent of the teenagers pregnant happen to be African American girls. Don’t ask me to soften my message. -Bill Cosby Edited by tahqua |
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cyborg
Optics God Gaseous Clay Joined: August/24/2007 Location: North Georgia Status: Offline Points: 12288 |
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Excellent, Bill Cosby caught alot of grief for what he said. but he's dead on.
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With Freedom comes great responsibility, you cannot have one without the other
An armed public are citizens. A disarmed public are subjects. OATH KEEPER #8233 Support us, and join our cause. Cyborg |
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Chris Farris
TEAM SWFA - Admin swfa.com Joined: October/01/2003 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 8024 |
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I think one of the persons Bill is referring to works at the Wal-Mart that made this cake.
Now for the rest of the story.......................
An insurance company had "going away" party yesterday for a lady at their Little Rock claim office. One of the supervisors called a Wal-Mart and ordered the cake. He told them to write: "Best Wishes Suzanne" and underneath that write "We will miss you". As the picture shows, it didn't quite turn out right. It was too funny not to keep it. |
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