Top 500 songs in your lifetime

Blender magazine is kind of a new, improved version of Rolling Stone. They cover music but slant it towards today rather than rehashing Bob Dylan and how great Revolver was by the Beatles, which Rolling Stone is obsessed with. Blender also doesn't seem to have much of a political philosophy, while Rolling Stone is stuck in the 60's and whatever the most left-wing rant you can bring to bear is included. Blender, on the other hand, is a spin-off of Maxim magazine, which although it now is copied by everyone so it doesn't stand out anymore, pioneered the "laddie" magazine in the US focusing on music, gadgets, and girls.

Blender had a cool issue with a list containing (in their words) "The 500 Greatest Songs Since you were born (the best tunes of the 80's 90's and 00's)". This is in their October Issue, you can see it on their web site, or buy it at the newstand.

I love these kinds of lists. And figuring that it was from Blender, it would actually be interesting. I remember in high school they would always have something like the "500 greatest rock songs" that they would tie together with the Indy 500 and then the top song was always "Hey Jude" or "Freebird" or "Stairway to Heaven" or some other boring combination of the three.

Blender didn't disappoint. While I didn't agree (or like) the #1 pick "Billie Jean" by MJ I couldn't believe that they picked "B.O.B." (Bombs over Baghdad) by Outkast which is one of my favorite songs as #2. This is a BOLD choice since the song really didn't chart at all - think of all the songs over the last 25 years that were bigger hits or received more noteriety - but what a great choice from the start at least it is controversial and not off Revolver. That song moves well and just songs like it is from another dimension.

Given that you have only 500 songs and 25 years to cover from rock to rap to everything else in between, I figured that lots of my favorite songs would fall through the cracks to be replaced by the "Hey Jude's" of our day. But look at some of the songs in the top 500 - songs I love that I never guessed would have been picked:

• B.O.B. by Outkast as #2 (!!)
• Love Will Tear us Apart Again by Joy Division at #7 (also the oldest song, from 1980)
• Just a Friend by Biz Markie at #27 - this is just crazy - have you ever heard this guy? He caterwails way off key... I can't believe it - I don't love this song but have to give it credit just for being way, way out there
• Crosseyed and Painless by the Talking Heads at #35
• Got your Money by ODB at #42 (this song makes no sense but ODB is craaazeee)
• Monkey Gone to Heaven by the Pixies at #48 (ever listen to the lyrics on this??)
• Enter Sandman by Metallica at #65 (I guess Metallica had to go somewhere but I didn't figure this high - for whom the bell tolls would have been better, but who is griping)
• Girls Girls Girls by Motley Crue at #77 - Rolling Stone magazine would have picked Tracy Chapman instead, I am sure
• Feel Good Hit of the Summer by Queens of the Stone Age at #91 - I'd have picked "the Lost Art of Keeping a Secret" but who is quibbling... this is kind of a novelty song almost and I am sure was never even played on the radio but a fun choice anyways
• Round and Round by Ratt at #112 - another one no one admits to liking - but what's not to like :)
• Lit Up by Buckcherry at #143 - along with B.O.B. at #2 this is where the list won me over - Buckcherry is one of those bands that you can't believe are even alive...
• Danger! High Voltage by Electric Six at #161 - Dan and I both love Electric Six - this isn't the best song on their album but who's complaining - look at the millions of crappy albums put out in the last 25 years and this is on top - the album was probably made for 5 dollars and these guys are legally insane (check out "Dance Commander" or "Gay Bar" for their best songs"
• Debaser by the Pixies at #199 - I think this is Dan's favorite song - we saw them at the Aragon recently
• Where's Your Head At by the Basement Jaxx at #227 - ever see the video of this - probably the nuttiest video I have ever seen
• Institutionalized by the Suicidal Tendencies at #244 - "all I wanted was a pepsi" - I still remember some poll that voted them "worst band, biggest assholes" - but I love the fact that they are dislodging some crap from the list
• Ace of Spades by Motorhead at #263 - this song is literally perfect in what in intends to do... and is always the theme of madness on Conan late night (like when the Seattle space needle took on the CN tower in their Canadian shows...)
• Rock N Roll High School by the Ramones at #279 - never a hit but a great song
• Down by the Water by PJ Harvey at #284 - a scary song, with a mega bass line
• One Armed Scissor by At-the-drive-in at #288 - the guys that became Mars Volta
• Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana at #352 - should be higher in the ranking but my favorite Nirvana song
• Never Say Never by Romeo Void at #390 - never a hit but a huge smash - those guitars are great - and the singer sounds way way better than she looks
• Celebrated Summer by Husker Du at #394 - one of my definite all time favorites... saved me a letter to Blender - I still can't believe I saw them at my lecture hall at U of I
• Last Goodbye by Jeff Buckley at #423 - too bad he died so young
• We are all on Drugs by Weezer at #485 - this has to be about the newest song on the list... make fun of druggies and the chorus is "we are all on drugs" - very catchy
• History Lesson Part II by the Minutemen at #490 - I couldn't hardly listen to the minutemen in the 80's but I'll still give them props...

So, all in all, a great list, and highly recommended.

Who Will Be The Next Reagan?

I don't like to lean on others for ideas for my posts, but this is most certainly the quote of the day from this column:

Bush may still be popular with the branch of the Republican Party that only cares about abortion, stem-cell research and displaying the Ten Commandments, but the fiscal-conservative small-government don’t-tread-on-me wing of the party has had enough.

I have said many times in this blog that I have a very hard time calling myself a Republican. I don't know what I would call myself anymore. Maybe "right wing nutjob". Seriously, I would be best labeled as an "anti-Democrat" at this time. The Republicans in Congress spend more than Clinton did on social programs, relief for corporations, welfare, etc. etc.

Fiscal responsibility. Free markets. Right to gun ownership. I think I may be asking too much of our current bunch of politicos. This country needs a third party so bad I can taste it. Back when Ross Perot ruined things for George Bush the first I was quite bitter. Now, I would probably vote for him!

Miscellaneous

On the left you see a small logo that says "Sitemeter". For those not familiar, it is a way I can track how many hits this blog gets per day and where they come from. In most cases I can tell exactly where the hits come from as it records the place of origin. Not much of anything you do on the internet is anonymous any more.

Anyway, for a recent day I decided to take a look at where all of my hits came from. Some cities, like Chicago, bring many hits per day. But look at some of the other places I got hits from:

Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Scottsburg, Indiana
San Diego, California
Evansville, Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
San Mateo, California
San Jose, California
Blumenau, Brazil
Islandia, New York
Bennekom, Netherlands
Montpelier, Michigan
Tolono, Illinois
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Stouffville, Ontario, Canada
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Nossegem, Belgium
Southfield, Michigan
Hamburg, Michigan
Bedminster, New Jersey
Pensacola, Florida
Boston, Massachusetts
Valencia, California
Danver, Colorado
Midvale, Utah
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Puerto Morales, Mexico
Chesterfield, Missouri
Elmhurst, Illinois
Las Vegas, Nevada
Tokyo, Japan
Birmingham, England
Galveston, Texas
Lima, Peru
...and many more!

Very cool.

I never thought this blog would take off like it has - heck, I just do it for myself! But thanks so much for reading. I will try to keep the quality high and the posts coming.

On a related note, posting will be sporadic in the next week as I am gone (again) on business. Hitting Vegas and plan on doing some sports betting on football. See you next week.

Filthadelphia

Passing the time in the Detroit airport on my way home and thought I would put together a post about my last five days in Philadelphia.

First and foremost, I think Philly is the filthiest city I have ever visited, with the possible exception of Venice, Italy. I stayed in the downtown area, mostly around the Philadelphia Marriott. I ventured forth several times, for a couple of factory tours in other areas of the city and hoofed it around my hotel in the surrounding several square miles. The city has a stench that is hard to describe. Lots of bums and intoxicated people (not during bar time mind you) panhandling everywhere. I assume there are good parts of Philly, too - but their main downtown tourist areas you would think should be clean and bum free. Not so. I have never seen streets strewn with so much garbage - and these are the good tourist areas!

I did lots of neat things, though. I took a ride yesterday on the ducks. It was about 90 minutes and was worth the $23 fare. The driver cracked a lot of jokes and made it a fun ride for everyone. He pointed out lots of historical landmarks. Philly definitely has those. I saw Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross's house, and so much more. Most of the important landmarks are packed within a few square miles so you could theoretically knock them down in a few days even on foot. A big bonus to walking in Philly is the wonderful architecture. Being a very old city it has everything from colonial, to art deco to modern stuff. One of the saving graces for me of the noise, filth and stench was being able to enjoy the architecture.





I liked this building in particular, the Market Street National Bank. It was built in 1930 as a bank and turned into a hotel in 2001. They must have restored the front because the details in the building look like it was built yesterday. Below are some details.

Here are a couple photos of my trip to see the Liberty Bell. I don't know who the woman is in the first photo, but it was tough to get a shot of the Bell without someone in it - everyone wanted their photo in front of it. I took a closeup of the cast for a particular reason. Note the Bible verse inscribed in the cast, from the book of Leviticus. There are those who claim that our country was not founded on principles based on Christianity and that is bunk. Reading the Declaration of Independence or doing something as simple as viewing the inscription on the Liberty Bell does, indeed, show that our founding fathers had a strong moral compass, that compass being guided by the Bible and the philosophy of Christianity. End of story. I am no Bible thumper, but if you can't understand something as simple as that, there is really no reason for me to have an intelligent discussion with you about the founding of the country and the Constitution.

Speaking of the Constitution, here is a shot of Independence Hall, the place where all of the details of our Constitution were hammered out. I like imagining George Washington, Ben Franklin and others entering through those very doors you see in front of you. I didn't actually go through Independence Hall for a pretty good reason, to me anyway. There is a security checkpoint to see the Liberty Bell, then you see the Bell and get a ticket with an assigned time to enter the grounds of Independence Hall. There was a private security firm contracted to manage the human traffic across the street. The guards were ruthless in their treatment of people who may have not understood the process. You can walk around Independence Hall but not enter it unless you first go through the Liberty Bell, then go through a series of metal barricades and then get shepherded across the street to the grounds of Independence Hall. If you were just simply a pedestrian with no knowledge of the "system" you may just go over there with no ill intentions, but the guards swarmed you, yelled, blew whistles and acted generally rude to you. Guilty until proven innocent. Anyway it was a very confusing situation to me and I got yelled at by two guards before I finally said to myself "to heck with this" and decided not to go in. I think it is what the founding fathers would have wanted. Power tripping guards ruining the experience for anyone who steps one little bit out of line. Lame. And who came up with the barrier system anyway? If you decide to go someday, you will understand what I mean when I say it could not have been done worse.

I will end this post with a few shots of the wonderful architecture and details of buildings. I guess my final thoughts about Philly are that I will probably never go back unless I have to tend to business there. If I do go back, I will probably try to spend time seeing more of the historical sights - I really wanted to tour the USS New Jersey, but time just didn't allow. It is moored just across the Delaware River in Camden, New Jersey. I got a great view of her on the duck ride, however.

The top row of photos in this last set are just some random details I liked. On the bottom row is, from left to right:

A statue of George Washington in front of Independence Hall.

The Philadelphia City Hall. This is a very interesting and beautiful building. They are currently restoring it. Here is a great site that gives you lots of historic photos. Up until the late seventies there was an ordinance in Philadelphia that said you could not build a building any taller than the brim of William Penn's hat, who stands on the top. Well, that came to an end and since then lots of people believe in William Penn's curse - that no pro sports team in Philly has won a world championship since the ordinance was cancelled.

Lastly, this photo is quite interesting. Outside the City Hall are statues of many of the important people from Philly over the years. This is a statue of William McKinley, erected some time after his assassination. The plaque was very complimentary and even calls him a "martyr". Not typically a word used to describe a former president, but I guess times change.

NOTE: After making this post I was checking to see if you could enlarge the photos by clicking on them and indeed you can. Except, that is, if I have three photos across. The two outside photos can be enlarged by clicking on them, but the middle ones cannot be enlarged. Don't ask me why. Blogger, the platform this blog runs on is funny sometimes. I will try to remember in the future not to post three in a row.

"Accountability" rating of companies is insane.. run from these companies

Another NIMBY group has their listing of "accountability" for companies, with US companies lagging and European and Asian companies taking top spots.

Here is a link to the list. It will be published in Fortune magazine. Well, I guess I will be cancelling my subscription to Fortune, because this is one of the stupidest things that I have seen in quite some time.

If you look at the list, Tokyo Electric Power is in the top ten as a "good guy". Hmmm.... isn't this the same company that FALSIFIED NUCLEAR RESULTS for twenty years in a way that would get them all thrown in jail in the US - check here. I guess now they bend at the whim of every interest group; well why not, since it is the ratepayers' money, anyways.

Here is another company that the NGO's love... they hate companies in the US that use nuclear power but they love EDF, the big electricity monopoly in France, because it provides insanely generous union benefits - check out this article - they can retire at 55 with 75% of their paycheck, and they use the dirtiest of tactics when they strike and they challenge any attack on their overwhelming power. I guess if productivity is low and everyone pays more for power that is OK, as long as you have unions.

Of course, US companies like Wal-Mart show up nowhere on the list, even though getting goods to low income people has revolutionized buying in the US and raised the standard of living overall more than almost anything else I can think of. And you won't see ExxonMobil, because even though they are essentially identical to BP in operations (who is on the list) they don't bend over and lick boots of every NGO like BP does.

These are exactly the shares of companies you should RUN from. This means that they are at the whim of some anti-capitalist zealots... who value shareholder return at nothing in favor of vague and ever shifting environmental criteria.

Does anyone think that the world would be better off if companies stopped worrying about the bottom line and started caring about what a bunch of NGO activists think? What have these people ever designed, built or deployed... when have they ever run a payroll or paid taxes that contribute to the government... never.

Oil Markets and Our Future

Dan wrote an interesting post about oil and our future and the power of capitalism to resolve our problems. While I am generally optimistic about capitalism, the oil markets have been and will continue to be rigged for the foreseeable future unless deep structural problems are fixed. These barriers will cause our current problems to drag on out indefinitely.

For one, we limit drilling in lots of places where there is known oil, from Alaska to off the coast of the US. We limit natural gas drilling, as well. When you take huge swathes of potentially productive resources off the market, you are crippling the resolution to your problem right there.

The EPA and local NIMBY groups, which are emphatically averse to capitalism, basically prohibit the building of new refineries which would reduce our crippling bottlenecks, and the EPA's asinine rules on gasoline additives only make things worse.

Try building a new gas pipeline? Forget it. Not only are the costs prohibitive, you can't get rights across most of the USA, especially in California and the Northeast, where lots of the demand is concentrated.

And who benefits from high prices, anyways? One big group - state and local government. Ever look at how much of the gas price at the pump is due to taxes - it is huge! Here is a link that shows levies by state. Note that there are 2 components - the "cents per gallon" tax which is flat on every gallon sold, and the state tax component (here in Illinois) that goes up at about 6-9% per gallon depending on your jurisdiction (you can guess which jurisdiction has the highest sales tax rate in Illinois and almost the nation, Chicago of course). Thus on $3 / gallon gas the government is taking in an extra 27 cents / gallon - this is pretty much a windfall that they are using to fund their chronic deficits and miserable programs. Don't forget that your home heating bill, powered by natural gas (probably), also has a big government tax on top of your costs, so they are also benefiting from the rise in prices there.

Another group crucially linked with our transportation infrastructure, which consumes most of the fuel, are the car makers / parts makers / airlines. Each of these industries are basically "circling the drain" in terms of survival, with Delphi threatening bankruptcy, GM / Ford's credit at junk levels, and Northwest / Delta filing for chapter 11 and likely to dump their retiree obligations on the Federal government. It is hard to see much capitalism here, since these industries are all propped up by our capitalism-defeating bankruptcy system that allows companies like United Airlines to languish in a zombie-like state for years, dragging down the healthy companies with it. When the car industry starts to die the same way the government will likely follow the same broken model to keep them half-alive for years to come.

Another element to our energy problems that usually is not discussed is the fact that Mexico is energy rich but their constitution and obtuse government does not take advantage of these resources. We could be receiving natural gas and oil from Mexico to a much larger degree but Pemex, the local monopoly, is starved for capital to re-invest because the government siphons off the cash for their dubious plans and foreign firms are generally barred from significant development, so their technology is stale, as well.

We should be extremely thankful that we are right next door to Canada. They are providing a huge portion of our energy and will continue to do so into the future, unless the Greens go berserk and stop them from developing the oil shale or the federal government starts looting the proceeds that belong to Alberta, which will diminish their appetite to keep the energy pumping. Check out their proposal to build a nuclear plant to provide electricity for the oil shale project in Alberta - now that has guts - I can't even imagine how that request would be reacted to by the NIMBY crowd in the states.

Here are the imports by country, where you can see Canada, Mexico and Venezuela.

Thus the vibrant capitalism that usually allows us to overcome obstacles is blunted by the dead hand of government actions, government agencies, and our refusal to bring capitalism-hating NIMBY groups to heel.

The outcome of this is the sad continuation of us sending our money overseas to ruthless and morally bankrupt dictators and fundamentalist regimes in the middle east (and South America, let's not forget how much oil we get from that idiot Chavez).

The other outcome is that oil and gas prices are the most regressive of price rises, hitting the poorest the hardest. $3 gas is an annoyance to most people and a $250 / month heating bill is something to get angry about, but it pushes the poor right over the edge. I don't know how the NIMBY groups can sleep at night, forcing all of the poorest people to foot the bill for their schemes and protests...

Rita, Oil, Markets and our Future

I have been rolling around in my head for some time the effect that Katrina and now Rita will have on our nation in the future. One thing that you have to remember is that we live in a capitalist society. Always remember the current quote at the top of this blog. Free markets create efficiencies. Efficiencies are the net result of competition.

The market for world oil is rigged, however. When you insert governments, either corrupt or benevolent, into any free market, things get skewed. The supply and demand curves are flattened. But the laws of economics tend, over time, to straighten those curves out anyway. A perfect example of this is the basketcase economy of Russia. The majority of their GDP comes from the black market. Why is this? Well, it goes back to the days when the corrupt government under the cloak of communism inserted itself into the every day lives of people and began to regulate and control the markets that people used. The end result was to try to keep the corrupt government in charge (while making a big buck). Some enterprising individuals thought they could do it better so smuggling began. Now there was an outlet for people to get not only different goods, but to actually get them at a reasonable price - the scarcity of goods, of course, sets the price, good or bad.

Another great example of a free market reaction to government regulation is the black market for cigarettes in New York City. They have the highest taxes in the nation on cigarettes. So what happened? Probably before the ink was dry on these tax hikes individuals (usually crime families) set up a TAX FREE black market and it thrived. I have heard of many individuals who buy cigarettes on line or at indian reservations to avoid the tax. The black market, the internet and the indian reservation are all examples of reactions of a person who wants to pay less for a product. Efficiencies are provided and the market responds.

So what to do about oil? If Rita scrapes Galveston clean, the US will be in trouble for the short term. By trouble, I mean $5 per gallon gas. But gas is a much more technical product to produce and deliver than cigarettes. You can make much more money today selling a semi full of cigarettes than a semi full of gasoline. Today, that is.

Will there be a black market for gasoline? Well, for the reasons I mentioned I highly doubt it. Asia still has super high demand for oil. Our demand here will remain steady unless the American people change their way of life and drive less. Is it doomsday? Are we sentenced to pay $10 per gallon for gas someday? Well, I feel the future is so bright I gotta wear shades.

Lets say Rita blows Galveston off the map. In the short term we will be paying higher fuel prices. But our economy, being capitalist based is still going to thrive. If nothing else, Americans living under capitalism are inventive, creative and driven. There are other technologies for getting us the oil we need. Shale is one of the biggies being discussed now. The oil futures price, when it gets to $70 per barrel, is at or even above the level required to start extracting oil from shale at a decent price. That price may go down as we continue to innovate those technologies. Several companies in the automotive world are announcing stepped up production schedules for hybrid cars.

In the long run, it is apparent that the capitalist methods of dealing with inefficiencies are already starting to grind out solutions. Whether it is shale, hybrids, conservation or a combination of all three, our innovative capitalist companies will find ways to satisfy demand and make a big buck along the way. I think that wiping out our oil capacity may be the best thing to ever happen to our country in a very long time. Imagine being able to tell the oil cartels, especially the ones in the middle east to go, well, pound sand! Maybe I am wrong. But my gut tells me that in the long run an oil shortage may be just what we need. I am willing to take some short term pain for the long term gain.

As I wind up my week here in Philly, I have to tell a story about a plant manager at a factory tour I just took. It ties in neatly with what I have been saying about this impending oil shortage. He said the following, and I quote it as best I can from memory. Pardon the language, but to change it would change the feelings and passion this guy has. As you think about what he has said, please know he is right. Come on Rita, give us all you've got. And now for the plant mangers quote:

People ask me about the Chinese - I say fuck the Chinese! We are Americans. We are on top! We will change this assembly line to gain efficiencies and create more value to our customers. We are hard working, innovative people and we will win - mark my words!

Franz Ferdinand in Chicago

On Tuesday night I saw Franz Ferdinand at the Aragon ballroom in Chicago.

For those that have memories of the Aragon, you might want to reconsider the place. It is located in Uptown, and the neighborhood seemed pretty lousy when I used to go to shows there. I have seen a lot of bands there, from Yngwie Malmsteen when I was like 16 or so until just recently.

However, the neighborhood is way better today. There is a big Borders bookstore just a block or so away, and they cleaned up the big bank building that is right down the street, and there are new houses / shops and bars in the area. You can take the Red Line and get off there, and the station seems pretty well lit and safe.

I remember when I was a kid we used to go there and they would put us in the alley next to the Aragon and we would sit there for hours and hours, split into groups with police barricades. The clock on that run-down bank building would just tick by so slowly and either you froze in the winter or broiled in the summer. Usually someone would have a boom box and listen to the tape over and over, generally the band you were seeing that day (I can never hear the first Metallica album again after listening to it on a loop for literally 16 hours with the numbskull right next to me). One time we were just about to go in and the crowd was all psyched up - a bum came by and asked for spare change and it seemed like the whole crowd just opened up and threw change at him at once - must have been a thousand people - he was in bum heaven.

Back to Franz Ferdinand - the crowd seemed very discrete. Hardly anyone was smoking, a huge departure from the usual Bucktown scene where literally everyone smokes. Dan thought I was exaggerating but he came to a bar by my house one time in winter and 5 girls walked in by our pool table and every one of them immediately lit a cigarette as soon as they took off their coats and opened their purses - it was like it was in a commercial or something.

Franz Ferdinand put on a good show. It is interesting - even though they are one of the biggest "indie rock" bands today there were still tickets available at the door at show time (didn't sell out) - I guess everyone listens to rap or something like that nowadays.

They also figured out the beer thing - there were about 100 people working the bar, as soon as you walked near it you were served instantly. Funny that they used arm bands - they should have banded the under 21 people instead, the crowd skewed pretty old.

One thing that is still creepy about the Aragon is that for men you can buy beer in the bathroom. The mens bathroom on the ground floor is this giant room from when it actually used to be a ballroom (hence the name) so they use some of the space to sell beer. That still seems kind of wrong, though.

Lunch in Philly

I went on a nice long walk from my hotel today. I am staying at the Marriott on Market St. in Philadelphia. From here I am within walking distance from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, both of which I saw today.

The Reading Terminal Market is right across the street from the Marriott. As the name implies, it is a market in a terminal. An active train terminal - I guess it is a subway because I didn't see any trains in my long walk today.



Here is a photo of my lunch. A damn good bowl of clam chowder and some goofy oyster crackers with a glass of ice water and lemon.




These are photos of the market. It is absolutely huge and you can get anything imaginable from produce to fresh fish to steaks to chocolate. Well worth the time if you are in Philly.

Liveblogging from Detroit

Here is a shot of me hard at work in the Detroit airport. They have internet wireless you can buy for $7 for a 24 hour usage. Not bad for a guy like me who is getting more and more e-mail based. I replied to 12 emails, turned around a turn of Combat Mission Afrika Corps to Carl (see the Battlefront link on my sidebar for info on this game) and got info from two vendors who were getting me some data on products I will be looking at when I get to Philly. By the way, some make fun of me for having and using a hotmail account. I admit hotmail is clunky but I think it is indespensible when you are on the road. If you don't have a verizon wireless card, you can't use your outlook e-mail addresses when using someone elses ISP. I simply download the email (you can receive in Outlook, but not reply) forward it to my Hotmail account and then reply from there. If that doesn't show the value of "third party" email providers I don't know what does. The new Detroit airport is VERY nice. In the new Northwest wing anyway. This is interesting because they just declared bankruptcy and are, like most airlines that are not Southwest, teetering on the brink of collapse every day. Anyway, the new terminal is very spacious and clean, with many coffee shops and nice shopping if you are into that sort of thing.

Why aren't the Illini on TV???

I am kind of a freak when it comes to TV. I don't have cable TV or satellite. I can hardly get any over-the-air TV due to all the interference downtown.

However, I usually go to a nearby bar called O'Learys and watch the games there. They have everything that is on cable.

But the Illini football today wasn't on TV! What the heckis up with that! Even though Cal was favored by 21 points the Illini were up at the half and played tough until they fell apart in the fourth quarter.

I don't understand why they aren't on TV. Aren't there like 1 million cable channels? Can't they push some crap off the TV and televise the Illini? There are infomercials and stale reruns on all of the local channels, not to mention the cable channels that are running even worse drivel.

There must be 100,000 + U of I alumni in the Chicago area, and their average income has to be higher than the norm. Aren't these consumers that someone wants to advertise to?

Let's look at some of the crap that was broadcast instead in Chicago...

Stargate, My Wife and Kids, The A Team, Fox News Chicago, Miracle Pets and Just Shoot Me. I am sure that it would have been a calamity if any of these awesome shows were displaced by the Illini. I pity da' fool...

Natural gas and our energy policy

I know that energy and utilities can sound (and be) kind of boring but I spent ten years plus on them so it is an ongoing interest of mine. If you want a good briefing on the state of the US energy industry, check out this link and look at natural gas (the document is hyperlinked)

Natural gas is a critically important but not well known driver of our energy policy. Natural gas is used for heating (if your home is hooked up to gas) and also as an energy source for electricity, typically used for "peaking" plants (plants that are only turned on during very hot or cold days, otherwise sitting idle).

Natural gas is generally drilled within the US or Canada, although it can also be imported. Natural gas is much more difficult than oil to transport across the ocean since it has to be supercooled via special technology and then it can only enter via special ports of which there are very few in the US. More of these LNG ports are on the drawing board but they face intense NIMBY pressure, of which at least a bit is warranted (if one of these went up it would make this famous Halifax explosion look like a black cat firecracker by comparison).

Note that natural gas can only (typically) be moved by pipeline. Thus not only does it have to be drilled for or unloaded from an LNG terminal, it also has to have a pipeline to connect it to and then that pipeline needs to take the gas where it is needed. These pipelines have a finite capacity. Natural gas can be stored, typically in underground caverns under pressure, and then released during peak days (very cold or very hot).

Right now the big issue is the price of natural gas. When I was in the business they thought that a price of $2/mcf (thousand cubic feet of gas) was a typical price to use in planning. At this price natural gas plants were very competitive with coal and even nuclear plants (which typically have the lowest "busbar" or incremental costs). A lot of decisions were made based on the key assumption that natural gas would remain reasonably priced.

Now, however natural gas is around ELEVEN DOLLARS an mcf. This is a major deal and will have significant impacts on the US.

Due to our broken de-regulation of energy, some states (notably California, Texas and Illinois) deregulated their energy policy, separating generation and transmission from distribution. By distribution I mean the local wires and substations, transmission being the "grid" that connects distribution and the generating stations, with generation being the base load plants (nuclear plants and big coal plants) and the peaking plants.

Many of these (bad) deregulation plans put an over-reliance on the "spot" market. By this I mean that you could lock in a long-term price, or you could just pay whatever the current spot market demands. The spot market, however, is heavily impacted by the price of natural gas, because the peaking units determine the spot price during heavy days (the base load plants are already running full blast so they don't have anything else to deliver to the market).

Since the primary cost of peak power is the cost of fuel, your electric bill is about to rise significantly depending on where you live and that state's energy policy. The utilities pass on the cost of fuel in a "fuel adjustment clause", meaning that your bill automatically is increased or decreased with the change in the price of fuel.

Meanwhile, if you are using gas to heat your home, you are definitely going to see a huge increase in your costs. The gas industry deregulated before the electricity industry, and the gas companies (distribution) mostly no longer enter into long term contracts to fix the price of fuel, just paying whatever the spot market is and then passing this on to customers with their own "fuel adjustment clause".

I am not even going to get into the impact on industry, because that is more complex. The deregulation of natural gas and power in some states allows some businesses (but not usually individuals) to enter into long-term contracts for power or fuel; they might be insulated from this spike depending on the nature of their contract. Only the most sophisticated businesses are generally able to take advantage of these types of negotiations, however.

I realize that this post is covering a lot of seemingly unrelated threads but here is the general situation:

• Our "de-regulation" of both gas and electricity was botched and all of the states are in various states of distress due to their own choices or lack of action (some states, that NEVER deregulated, are in the best shape)
• Environmentalists have basically killed nuclear, hydroelectric and coal as a source of new energy, leaving natural gas as the sole viable choice for new electrical generation (ignoring the feeble wind / biomass markets that are a drop in the bucket overall)
• Environmentalists and lack of investment have hobbled our LNG infrastructure, so we can't import much more natural gas
• Environmentalists are stopping the US from drilling in many locations that are known to have natural gas, and as a result are greatly contributing to the price hike
• The decision to hook up more of the US to natural gas for heating and being the only fuel of choice for new generation, combined with lack of investment as noted above, has increased demand at a time when new supply is being choked (if you even have pipeline capacity to move it)
• Utilities under deregulation don't have incentive (financially) to make investments in long term deals that could limit the exposure to the (potentially ruinous) spot market which is substantally driven by the current price of natural gas

Thus everything is a "perfect storm" of limited and bad choices that push up the price of natural gas while making everyone feel immediate and direct pain based on that increase.

This is quite a mess we have created for ourselves by a stunningly mismanaged energy policy. We cowered under the environmentalist attacks and threw 100% of our lot in with the price of natural gas, while strangling its supply. Note that the new energy bill that passed congress doesn't address any of the key items, basically it is a grab-bag of special interest items.

Just wait until you see your gas bill this winter, and your electrical bill next summer. And if you work for a company impacted by the price of natural gas (i.e. chemical industry, lots of heavy manufacturing) you might be laid off or at a minimum your business will be under stress.

I really have a hard time believing how badly this entire situation was handled, it is a slow-motion train wreck that has been spiralling for over a decade. At least with Katrina all of the ineptitude was visible in a week...

The Chains

Global Positioning Satellites. Lasers. Text Messaging. Ipods. CD-ROM's. Two sticks with a 10 yard length of chain between them. Cell Phones. Wireless Internet. Digital video. Arthroscopic knee surgery.

In the list above, there is one thing that doesn't belong. Can you figure out which one it is?

Of course you can. Everything in the list is high tech except the sticks and chain. But the sticks and chain are what the National Football League uses on a weekly basis to help decide the end result of some games. I have ranted about the chains before. Now that football season is upon us, I have decided to make it a yearly tradition to have a "chains" post.


Most are familiar with what the chains are for but for those who aren't up on their football terminology, here is a quick primer.

In football, the team with the ball has four tries or "downs" to advance the ball 10 yards. If they are successful, the team with the ball gets a fresh set of "downs" - four more tries to move the ball another 10 yards until they either score, or decide to punt the ball to the other team. At times it is difficult for the officials on the field to tell if the ball has actually gone the 10 yards. To confirm whether or not the team has made it, they bring in - you guessed it - two big sticks with a 10 yard length of chain between them, lovingly called "the chains" even though it is only one chain. Above is a photo from the Bear game last Halloween - the excited NFL official is getting his sticks ready to go.

Now this may sound simple to most but it is so goofy to me that in this day and age of all of the high tech we have, we are reduced to one of the lowest tech things I can think of to measure 10 yards. Has the NFL never heard of lasers or GPS or wireless??? Baffling.

As if that is not bad enough, leading up to the using of the chains (this fixed, rigid 10 yard distance) are usually no less than four RANDOM events. Get ready to get dumb.

Here is what actually happened at a recent game I attended - I was at the Minnesota Vikings vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers game in Minneapolis last Sunday. Tampa kicked off to Minnesota. The Minnesota guy ran the ball back to the 20 yard line. The ref placed the ball down. This is random event one. The refs are usually at least 5 yards away from the play because they don't want to get, well, killed by these steroid pumping behemoths. So the ref can't really see where the guy went down. He just runs over and places the ball down where he thinks best represents where the man was tackled. Then random event two takes place. The guy on the sidelines holding the first stick EYEBALLS where the football has been placed down in random event one and places the stick down. Now, the team has to go 10 yards from this spot to achieve a fresh set of downs.

Then the Vikings ran a running play. The man was tackled, out of bounds. This starts random event three. The ref just EYEBALLS where the man went out of bounds and places the ball down. The Vikings ran two more plays, causing random events four and five. Now, the refs could not tell from EYEBALLING the sideline whether or not the Vikings made the 10 yards so they now bring out the chains (chain). So we have had FIVE TOTALLY RANDOM EVENTS SO FAR but now we are going to bring in a fixed, rigid distance to measure the fruits of the Vikings labors. Startling, no? Pet peeves - I guess we all have them. Here is a photo of a buddy having fun with the "chain gang" and me with a pal when they actually bring out the chains.

Toulouse-Lautrec - a modern celebrity

Today I went to see the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition was 5 dollars for a headset that describes the pictures and you can get it online. The ticket allows you to enter the exhibit hall at a certain time so that the place is not overrun.

For those of you not too familiar with this artist, he is the one that created those iconic and famous posters in bright colors featuring the Moulon Rouge - here is a link to his famous poster from their site.

He was only 4 foot 11 inches in life, and he died at the age of 36. In a lot of ways he was a modern celebrity, for in addition to his obvious artistic skills he was a relentless self-promoter who hobnobbed with the biggest celebrities of his time, capturing them in his work. He also was sent to the equivalent of the Betty Ford center for the time, a place where they locked him up because of his alcoholism and where he sobered up for a bit, only to relapse upon release and basically drink himself to death (syphilis didn't help, either).

One interesting part is that like most modern museums they give you a headset and as you walk next to a picture there is a number like 300 and you punch that into your headset and you can listen to a curator talk about the painting or the context. This is helpful but it gives the whole scene a weird vibe because you walk about in a huge crowd of people but everyone is silent, listening to their headset. They used to have tour guides for this, right? I guess those days are gone forever, more people replaced by technology.

In any case it is interesting art from a vibrant time. At the time he probably would be considered trashy art, maybe someone like the artists in this book "Weirdo Deluxe" showing people like R Crumb, but now he is considered iconic.

I definitely recommend going to the show if it comes to your town.

die Einkommensteuer (The Income Tax)

I read Chicago Boyz every day - you can see the link over there on my sidebar. It is a "group blog". A group blog is a blog that hosts posts from more than one individual. Technically, Life in the Great Midwest is a group blog since we have more than one person posting here. The collection of individuals posting at Chicago Boyz is a very deep talent pool.

Today, Ralf Goergens notes that in Germany a political party (Christian Democrats) has as a potential finance minister a person who wants to instill a flat tax (25%) on every person in Germany. So at the end of the year, 25% of your income goes to the government, and you keep everything else. No more exemptions, no more sales tax, no more spending hours on preparing your tax forms! The Christian Democrats may or may not win the election, but just the fact that in Germany an economics professor has floated out a great idea to simplify and make fair their tax system is a very big deal.

It is sad to me that we have been saddled in this country for so long with our current outdated, unfair tax system that it has been just ingrained in us that we can't change it. When was the last time you looked at your check and noticed the withholding amount? We should all be outraged at the huge sums of our money that just "go away", waiting to pop up in the pocket of some crooked Louisiana levee construction company.

How sorry we are that Germany may reform their tax system (from what I have heard easily the most complicated in the world) before us!

I am not sure what the end solution is to our tax woes but anything must be better than what we now have. I have always been a flat taxer, just from the simplicity standpoint, but it has it's advantages and disadvantages. It is encouraging that the Fair Tax Book has been a bestseller for months now. It champions the idea of a national consumption tax rather than an income tax - this also has it's ups and downs. The good news is that at least folks are talking about doing something. With the rising popularity(!?) of the AMT or alternative minimum tax something has to be done and fast. Or the middle class will be a dinosaur very quickly.

Related but maybe not relevant: In the comments of Goergens' post, there is an interesting discussion about predicting the German election. On the sidebar of the Chicago Boyz website you can see an Intrade futures contract box for betting. It is fairly reliable in predicting things like elections. Yes, you too can bet on the German election from the comfort of your own living room. Lex Green makes a great comment when he says:

...the relevant population in this case would be "people willing to place a bet on the German election".People who put money on the table make better predictions than people answering a poll. I think I can safely assert that categorically.

What is a PC Worth?

Recently I bought a small form factor PC about the size of a shoe box to replace my desktop PC. I live in a pretty small space and wanted to get something that was less intrusive, and my old PC had a loud fan that was kind of annoying. But other than that it was a pretty good PC, only about 3 years old, with upgraded memory to about 1 gig, a big hard drive, and a decent pentium chip.

I figured I could just give the PC away, but no one wanted it in my immediate family or circle of friends. I was kind of taken aback but when you look at the ads now you can buy a PC from Dell for about three hundred dollars.

Think about how far PC's have declined in price while packing in more features. I bought a PC 5 years ago for $2700 that was state of art at the time - we still use it here at my house running Windows 98 (a different story is how little PC's have improved in terms of the operating system despite the billions that Gates has made - that machine is just fine for everything we do with it). A 300 dollar PC isn't state of the art, but it is far better than the one I bought 5 years ago. It has more RAM, a faster processor, a better video card (even if it is integrated on the chip set), it comes with a built in Ethernet card, etc...

How does Dell make money? For one thing, a Dell PC is a veritable smorgasbord of come ons and embedded programs. When you boot it up, about a million icons show up in your start up group for every kind of program under the sun. I think that Dell is really making its money as a stalking horse for all of these programs rather than the hardware (how much can you make on $300, anyways?). These tools generally are a pain in the rear and slow your machine to a crawl. A lot of technies I know, the first thing they do when they buy a new PC is WIPE THE HARD DRIVE CLEAN and re-install Windows from scratch, along with the programs they own.

Think about this - where is the value in this chain? A blank PC is what you get after you wipe the drive - so they are really adding negative value after all. A lot of the time they don't send you the CD's with windows on it so you need to have them, along with office and whatever other programs you need.

Everyone sells programs to stop viruses, to stop spyware, to limit spam, and firewalls for your PC. There is more money to be made on protecting your PC than there is selling you the PC! Plus none of these are really tested together, and when you install everything and then start deleting them your system starts to get more and more hosed up, until you have to reinstall windows again and start over....

Another dimension of all this is TIME! I can't tell you how many hours I have spent on tuning old PC's and laptops for myself and friends, and I am not very good at it (my friend Brian put my Shuttle together which was a huge help). I always said that if you really don't like someone, give them an old PC. This gets back to my original point of this (meandering) post - what is a PC worth? The answer is... not much.

Of course, this doesn't take into account how hard it is to transfer everything from one PC to another, and to set up all the software, favorites, keys, etc... that are needed to get it working again.

The world would probably be much better off if all the old PC's were sent to a landfill and everyone started over. People's time has to be worth something, after all, and at 300 dollars why even bother keeping the old junker working?

Can't someone figure out a better answer. Oh, I guess maybe APPLE did a long time ago...

Culture

A lot of ink and plenty of pixels have been spilled over what happened in New Orleans as far as the total breakdown of civilized society goes. I think no one said it better than Bill Whittle over here in his essay called "Tribes". It is a long read, but I think I can sum it up for you if you don't have time to read it. Basically, Whittle points out that it isn't a race thing, it is a culture thing. He and the people who he associates with simply would not act in the manner that the people did in the Superdome and the Convention Center. I agree.

That essay ties in neatly with a brewing controversy here in Wisconsin. First, background.

The gun deer hunting season in Wisconsin runs approximately 10 days every year around Thanksgiving. It is truly a big deal for many men and women and families. Vacations are usually taken and many people go to small cabins or tiny towns in rural Wisconsin to try to bag the big one. This tradition has been handed down through generations and remains very popular to this day. Last year around Hayward six people were shot dead and two were wounded by a Hmong man named Chai Vang. You can get some more background on the story here. Two men who survived the shootout say that the Hmong man did the shooting after he was questioned about being on private property. I don't intend to cast guilt or innocence on anyone (although I have my opinion) but would like to pursue a different angle on the story. This angle has to do with the difference in cultures between folks who live in Madison and those who live in rural northern Wisconsin. Back to the Vang trial in a moment.

As a child my parents would shuffle me off to my grandparents house in Birchwood, Wisconsin (population 350) for several weeks every summer. They were good times. I did a lot of fishing, hiking and working around my grandparents' house and also spent some time at the farm they used to work. I also got to eat a LOT of good German food, but I digress. The main thing I took from all of this time I spent in Birchwood was that I learned about people and culture. I didn't even know it at the time. I was just a 9 year old boy having fun.

The culture of small towns seems to be universal. It is a culture of helping and knowing. What do I mean by knowing? Well, everyone knows each other. Where they live, what kind of car they drive, who they are dating, and more. It isn't better or worse than anywhere else, just different. People share the food they raise in their gardens. Young men do work for senior citizens for next to nothing. It is just how these small towns operate. It is a different culture than in a larger city. Compare this to where I live, Madison. I know my neighbors on the block and that is pretty much it. How odd it would be to see a young man donating his time to help an old lady clear her sidewalk of leaves or snow. Compare this to a city like Chicago where so many people don't even know the people on their block. Again, not better or worse, just different.

The Vang trial will still take place in Sawyer county which is where the crime happened. The jury pool, however, was selected from Dane county, which is where I live and includes the ultra liberal city of Madison. To get Vang a fair jury would have been difficult indeed in Sawyer county - that county has a total population of 17,000 people. Dane county has a population of 453,480 people. Big difference.

The family members of the deceased hunters are worried that the jury pool here in Dane County will be tainted because we will not understand the "culture" of northern Wisconsin. They have a good point! Money quotes:

"They are not as rural, and their culture and their lifestyle is quite different from ours up here in the north," said Renee Gralewicz, an ethnic studies instructor at the Rice Lake campus of the University of Wisconsin. "So we might have some people who really don't understand the culture of hunting and the etiquette and the ethics and how all of that plays out on the jury."

Hmong hunters have complained of harassment from white hunters, some of whom point to a different hunting culture as the root of the problem. Many residents in Rice Lake, which is 230 miles northwest of Madison and has a population of 8,300, dispute the claim that racial tensions have been high in the area. Larry Jarvela, 60, the mayor of Rice Lake, said he thought people from the city, especially non-hunters, might have a hard time understanding the context of the incidents and hunting culture.

Well, they have a good point. If you were to put a UW professor on that jury pool, odds are that he or she would have no clue how or why the people in the northwoods live like they do. There are many gun haters here in town and the whole city government isn't even Democratic - they are from the Progressive Party which is just to the right of Mao. But Dane county is about 35% rural by my estimate. People in say, Sun Prairie or Cottage Grove or Black Earth will definitely understand the hunting culture and the culture of small towns.

As Bill Whittle's essay describes, people are from different tribes - and the tribal associations that different people have color their world views. I think, in the end, politics will win this case for the prosecution. The Attorney General for the State of Wisconsin, Peg Lautenschlager, has taken the case herself. Don't think for a second that she would not know of the culture difference. This case has gotten a ton of media attention and if Lautenschlager were to lose the case, it would be curtains for her as her career was already on the brink from her drunken driving conviction a year ago.

New Orleans, Part Huit - We The People

Now that most of the hand wringing is over, it is time to drain New Orleans and rebuild it. I am not necessarily in favor of rebuilding it the way it was. We need to take a look at this whole area and make some hard choices as to what is "rebuildable" and what is not feasible in the long term. Remember, it is MY money, coming from Wisconsin that is going to be sent down there - I want it done right!

Alas, that is too much to ask of any of our elected officials. It is not politically correct anymore for them to follow the basic principles set forth by our Founding Fathers in that beautiful document, the Constitution. I always carry a copy of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence with me wherever I go. I suggest next time you order from Amazon you put a copy in with your book - it is a handy small size.

I probably read both of these amazing documents at least ten times a year. Times like these where you see thousands of people die, get displaced, and preyed upon make me want to go back to a simpler time, a time when the Constitution was the real law of the land rather than the United States Code, the massive volume of laws and rules that we now have to live by.

Imagine, if you will, that a disaster of this magnitude happened in 1807. What would have been the results? Well, first, I think a higher proportion of people would have died. No one would have known that the storm is coming and therefore no-one would have evacuated. But what of the aftermath? Do you really think that general anarchy would have been the rule of the day like in New Orleans? Or do you think martial law would have been instantly declared and that folks would have been helping each other survive like in Mississippi?

The Preamble of the Constitution says a little, but says a lot. It is basically an introduction to the Constitution telling "the people" what the Constitution is for.

We The People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

This is all I want. I want government to uphold my property rights (Justice), keep the peace (Tranquility), defend the homeland (common defense), and provide SOME services for disadvantaged (general Welfare). See, I am not a heartless thug - I believe it is OK for the government to help mentally retarded and physically handicapped people. I think that would be covered under the general Welfare - but not putting people ON welfare that can work! My how the times have changed the meaning of the term welfare.

But I digress. I don't see anywhere in the Constitution any mention of "if you live in a part of the country below sea level, we will subsidize your way of life by giving you money to rebuild your flood prone house every time it is knocked down and we will do it by organizing a huge bureaucratic nightmare called FEMA that is so top heavy it can't even get employees qualified enough to know the difference between Charleston, West Virginia and Charleston, South Carolina".

This country needs another Reagan and badly. We need someone that will emphasize individual responsibility and protect our rights as listed in the Constitution. Will it happen? Can it happen with our current atmosphere in Washington DC? I think not.

So the finger pointing about the New Orleans debacle will continue. Both sides will blame the other. I find it comical that the Governor of Louisiana and the Mayor of New Orleans can't have enough guts to just step forward and say "I am to blame". Because they are. The feds arrived a bit late (I say one day), but not bad. The FEDS evacuated that whole place in less than a week. The sides are all sniping at each other and all the while the Senate just passed an emergency bill sending $10 billion to that cesspool to rebuild it. Great. Same people in charge of another $10b?!!? How do you think that will end? Just like always in New Orleans. Graft, fraud, deceit, awarding of non-bid contracts.

I think I have made it pretty clear that it is very "unconstitutional" for an agency like FEMA to confiscate my money and send it to another region of the country. That is, if we actually gave a damn about what The Constitution said.

MORE: Like I said, graft, fraud, deceit.

Fast Ferry Movie

Recently Dan put up an interesting post on the high speed ferry across Lake Michigan. He took a movie and I put it up on the web for him. Here it is.

Sorry it took so long I had some technical problems that I had to work out on my side...

The Most Important Individuals Since 1500

I didn't realize it at the time but I when I was writing the blog post about depression and achievement I was 1/2 way through putting together a list of the most important individuals since 1500 AD. Why 1500 AD? From my perspective that is when the Reformation / Renaissance began and it begins modern history.

How do you choose who the most important people are? From my perspective the way you do it is to pick people that significantly changed history, and it "stuck". By that I mean there is a course to history that generally works itself out - empires are founded, and they fall. Religions rise and fall, and philosophies (communism, socialism, fascism, etc...) rise and fall. However, there were some key people, that without their intervention, the course of history would have turned out significantly different.

• Martin Luther - as I noted in the previous post the genius Martin Luther broke with the Vatican and invented high German as a language. It is true that the hold of Rome over the provinces was going to fall at some point and nationalism was rising, but it was his particular genius to create a reformed church as well as bring it into a format that was understandable to the layman
• George Washington - by refusing to make himself King and standing by the principles of democracy, George Washington changed the course of history. While Britain has long been a democracy, it is overlaid with the royals and so their course is hard for other nations to follow (enlightened royalty is rare indeed). However, the US created a blueprint for democracy that could be followed, although it obviously had flaws (that landed in the lap of the next person, below)
• Abraham Lincoln - Lincoln led a horrendous war to hold the union together and abolish slavery, that compromise that almost fatally ruined the US democracy. He was a magnificent orator and man of incredible strengths - he was able to hold the North together and win bitter elections, as well as lead the military and find commanders like Grant and Sherman who could finally push the war to its conclusion. And at the end of the war he advocated reconciliation, which was sadly cut short by his assassination. It is more than likely that without his towering strength the US might have been cut in two or the Europeans would have meddled in the conflict, leading to unforeseen conclusions. Democracies of continuing strength are terribly rare - look at Europe and South America for comparison
• Winston Churchill - the indomitable Winston Churchill was a genius and a man of ferocious temperament, as well as being an all-time orator at the level of Lincoln. When he returned in 1940 a message went out to the Royal Navy "Winston is Back" that is a classic along the lines of "Nuts" as a response to the German surrender entreaty at the battle of the Bulge in 1944-5. Mr. Churchill was struck by a cab when visiting NYC in the 1930's and I shudder to think of how the world may have turned out without him. Without his indomitable leadership Britain likely would have negotiated a peace with Hitler, leaving him master of the continent, and taking the world down an unknown (and likely horrible) course. Who knows if Hitler, after negotiating with England, might have continued his alliance with Stalin, and split the known world between them?
• Norman Borlaug - after WW2 the population exploded in Asia and starvation was soon to follow, as it always had. But Norman Borlaug intervened and created and led the "Green Revolution", saving perhaps a BILLION lives. The green revolution allowed the food supply to keep up with the population growth and avoid famine (except for areas where poor government allowed it to happen, of course). He is poorly known but that is incredibly unfortunate - Bono and the rest of the Live Aid crew could learn from him, for now he advocates bio-engineered food to feed the poor, while Europe would rather let everyone starve and label them "Frankenfood". Here is a great article about Norman Borlaug, but you need to subscribe to the Atlantic Monthly, something I strongly recommend anyways :)
• Margaret Thatcher - In the 70's England was in decline with the rest of Europe, stumbling down the rat-hole of socialism with crippling union strikes, high taxes, and myriad other blocks against capitalism. Margaret Thatcher stood up to the unions and pushed the reforms that have made Great Britain great again - when you go to London you see a thriving financial capital, full of people from around the world. Unemployment is way down and Britain is a destination of choice for the wealthy who need to escape punitive taxation in their home company. It didn't have to be this way - they could have turned out insular like France or fractured like Italy - but thanks to the reforms that Margaret Thatcher set in motion Britain created their own history. The fact that she was a strong woman also set a precedent that is very valuable in our world, as well
• Deng Xiaoping - purged three times by the Communists, Deng survived and set in motion the reforms (first in the countryside, then in the cities) that loosened the chains on the Chinese people and led to an immense increase in wealth for them and the world. The overseas Chinese always proved to be formidable capitalists (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and in the US) but now they were freed within their own country. China still has horrendous problems and is not a free country but the changes that he pushed made lives better for hundreds of millions of people and everyone acknowledges China's impact on the world. He changed China by setting free capitalism on a massive scale and turned the course of history

Note that Hitler, Stalin and Napoleon aren't on the list - they all created empires that rose and fell but other than the deaths that they piled up the world is back to where it started, with Russia surrounded by enemies and falling back on authoritarianism, an enfeebled Germany, and an insular France. Mao put the country back together but it wasn't really falling apart - for the most part China was ethnically homogeneous - but he accomplished little else and committed massive atrocities.

Nelson Mandela actually isn't far from making the list - everywhere else in Africa when the whites were pushed from power they were expelled or made to feel so unwelcome that they left on a massive scale - and if he can create a multi-racial society there (even one with big problems) that would be a beacon of hope for Africa and the world as a whole. As a long political prisoner he had an axe to grind if he chose to do it, but he instead did his best to move forward peacefully. His biggest mistake was turning over the country to Mbeki, whose lunatic beliefs that HIV doesn't cause AIDS led to the unnecessary death of millions of his countrymen (note that South Africa, unlike most of the rest of Africa, had a health infrastructure that COULD have blunted the disease, but he chose to do nothing).

Sharon of Israel might yet make this list if he succeeds in pulling out of the indefensible areas of the West Bank and holds the Israeli state together. Of all the military successes in history, Israel is one of the most amazing, since it is surrounded by hostile enemies bent on its destruction. Eventually all of the other military states lost out when they took on their immediate enemies and were outnumbered, but Israel has been able to hold on, breaking the tide of history.

Ghandi would seem like a good choice for a list like this to the relatively informed reader, but in fact India is still very much a work in progress, riven with tremendous ethnic strife and on the knife edge of catastrophe with Pakistan, all of which fell out of the bad border drawing in 1948 and their inability to resolve the outcomes of that partition. All that being said, if India's growth continues and they are able to work things out with Pakistan on Kashmir, whomever does that for India would be on the short list for greatness due to the immense impact of the soon-to-be most populous country in the world.

For scientists, other than Borlaug, it is hard to point to a SINGLE individual that substantially changed the world, with discoveries that wouldn't have otherwise been made in the near term, with the possible exception of Einstein. His theory of relativity is beautiful and I am not enough of an expert to speak with authority, but I think it would have been a long time before someone came up with all of these elements of his theory. He also impacted the world with his letter to Roosevelt on the atom bomb, but likely we would have found it anyways (at some point, but probably not soon enough to end WW2 and save 1 million US casualties from Operation Olympic). He is probably on the edge of this list, I don't know.

Don't like my choices? Pick your own :)

Depression and Achievement (of the towering sort)

Tonight I watched a movie called "Luther" about the life of Martin Luther. Without getting into a religious discussion, clearly the man was a genius. In addition to being a brilliant theologian and leading to the reformation, he basically invented German (or contributed massively to its evolution) by translating the New Testament into German.

Also noted in the movie was that he was a profoundly depressed individual. He often battled depression and he is quoted as saying he could barely get out of bed. I have read other books on Luther and they corroborate (I wouldn't get all of my news from a movie :) ).

In the new issue of the Atlantic Monthly there is an article about another towering individual, Abraham Lincoln, in my opinion tied for Washington as our best president ever and probably up as the greatest man of the 19th century, who also battled depression throughout his life. In this article they even mention taking sharp objects out of the room and he clearly loved a poem about suicide and made other pretty obvious comments indications that he had serious difficulties.

A third individual that I would put up with these 2 in terms of vast intellect, bravery and original thinking would be Winston Churchill. In this movie about "the wilderness years" (which I highly recommend) after WW1 and before he was named Prime Minister after WW2 broke out the movie focused to some degree on his depression, which he battled throughout his life. One of his doctor's prescriptions was for him to build a wall (literally) which he did on his estate, which seemed like a good and constructive idea. At a blog like this we expect that the average reader would know the achievements of Winston Churchill, but suffice it to say that without him I am convinced that Britain would have negotiated peace with the Nazis and the whole world would have gone through a bitter and unpleasant turn; in 1940-1 Britain stood alone against the Nazis and even after the USA and Russia entered the war Churchill provided a key moral compass in the battle against fascism.

I don't know if this is a trend but clearly 3 of the top 10 most important people in the last thousand years battled profound depression. Obviously this must have not only have been a curse for them, but some sort of clarity of vision, for they achieved greatness. Something to think about...

Dan Adds: Using the term "moral compass" is key here. All three of these men among others in the history of freedom were religious people. Their way of looking at life through a religious based prism led to them doing what they thought was "right". I am no Bible thumper, but a solid base in Christian philosophy is what steers me and others that I associate with through life knowing what is "right and wrong". For more I highly recommend this series on audio disc by J. Rufus Fears.

New Orleans, Part Sept

I have already noted the lack of stories coming from Mississippi in regards to looting or general anarchy. We have already seen what happened in New Orleans. Here is a very interesting blogpost from Chrenkoff that I think sums up what I said a few blogposts ago quite well.

Mississippi versus Louisiana

One of Chrenkoff readers reflects on different responses to the Katrina devastation throughout the South:

I read Gov. Blanco's (D-LA) statement too with some weird bemusement. Free tip - contrast the Louisiana situation with the one next door in Mississippi - Gov. Barbour (R-MS). What's been lost in all the blather over New Orleans is that it was really Mississippi that took the big hit. The buildings in New Orleans are still standing; the Gulf Coast of Mississippi basically has been scrubbed, like God took out a pencil eraser and just erased it. (Up in the northern hemisphere, since storms spin counterclockwise, the worst part of a hurricane is the "right-front" quadrant - because the wind is going with the momentum of the storm's movement, plus the wind pushes the storm surge along. The center hit basically at the MS/LA state line, so MS was on the bad side.) I really don't like to find fault at times like this, but one thing that was missing was a quick recognition that in such a situation the potential for civil collapse is nearly 100%.

Once the weather settles, you need to immediately declare marshal law and send in the MPs. That's basically what Haley Barbour did in Mississippi - there were a few early problems but very quickly the MPs were patrolling what was left of Biloxi and Gulfport and keeping a lid on things. Back on Tuesday when I put on the news and we all saw Kathleen Blanco bursting into tears, I knew that was the wrong message and would bring trouble. Louisiana and New Orleans basically have those touchy-feely, "I'm okay, you're okay" soft-leftie types in charge. Their education took a few days and has been expensive. So I hope you're Watching Mississippi.

Highly recommended - we may have found our next President out of this (you heard it here first). Amidst all the hyperventilating that's going on, it's actually a good time for a civics lesson, particularly watching the competence of the people in Mississippi and the gross incompetence of almost all concerned in Louisiana. Who was responsible for what?- The mayor of NO has been a good hyperventilator, but one thing became obvious quickly. NO is below sea level and it was inevitable that someday the worst was going to happen. NO didn't even take the worse possible hit (MS did), but it was clear that no one in NO had ever planned for The Worst. Last weekend, the mayor said, "Everyone get out of town." It's obvious that lots of people weren't able to just load up the car and go - folks with no transportation like that, the incapacitated, patients in hospitals, etc. There was no plan to really evacuate the city, and it's the local officials (over decades) who were responsible for that.- Why wasn't the National Guard called out sooner to maintain order? Responsibility with each state's National Guard contingent in situations like this (where they operate within state boundaries) is the responsibility of each state's governor. To put it bluntly, the responsibility for calling out the NG in LA rested with the governor. If it didn't happen on time, that's HER failing.

Mississippi got hammered much worse than Louisiana but is barely in the news because the leadership has been much more competent. Ms. Blanco is clearly way out of her league in this situation. This was a good reminder that LA has for decades been our worst managed and most corrupt state. I briefly caught a bit of the News
Hour last night, and David Brooks pointed that out; he also pointed out something that's pretty obvious - for the most part, the South has been booming for the past 25 or so years. The major cities went from backwater jokes to leading cities - Atlanta, Raleigh, Dallas, all of Florida, etc. The "hole in the map" in all of this has been Louisiana - it's like the last 25 or 30 years of southern growth have passed it right by. Get away from the gussified tourist areas and NO is a pretty awful city.He also asked why we were so good at quick response halfway around the world in Banda Aceh while we seemed so unable to handle something right in the country. That's actually pretty obvious to me.

Indonesia was a piece of cake because there was no bureaucracy out there - "What have we got over near there?" "The USS Lincoln battlegroup." "Send 'em in and let the Navy people on site to run the show." Inside this country, you have multiple interlocking bureaucracies that just don't know what to do on their own, let alone when they try to interact.When I worked for IBM, the bureaucracy in the headquarters region in lower NY was so bad that the people "running" (sic?) the company even admitted that they couldn't manage it. The company's successes came from intentionally putting activities far away from there to keep the "system" from "managing" things. When IBM wanted to build its first PC, they set the project up in Florida to keep it far away from the HQ mess. The site I worked at was far enough away (eventually NOT far enough though) away to be able to get things done without interference.

Those award-winning IBM laptops? That was all done in Japan, to keep it REALLY far away from HQ. The most effective response to NO probably would have been to just turn the project over to the Navy immediately and tell everyone else to leave them alone. But of course that wouldn't happen because then all those bureaucracies would be forced to admit that they are much worse than useless when the crunch comes. It makes my point quite well, I think.

New Orleans, Part Six

I find this article in the Washington Post incredibly interesting.
The money quote:

Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday. The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.

Well, the blame game has begun. This does not look good for the locals and the state authorities. I have said before that it seems to me that there was really no kind of real plan in place to help the people once the disaster hit. I have been reading a lot about the disaster and what the actual pecking order is to be in a disaster and it is becoming apparent to me that the feds are the LAST ones that are supposed to be showing up. I still say that they showed up a day late.

There were basically no first responders. Corruption and unbelievably high crime rates reared their ugly heads in a big way in the big easy.

A positive story about Katrina

I used to live down in Houston. The city is very close to New Orleans. I think that they really feel for the Big Easy, since the hurricane could just as easily hav mauled them.

Here is a link to a story about the survivors in Houston. Volunteers turned out from everywhere to help the refugees. According to this story there were 4 doctors for every patient at the Astrodome at one point.

We need some good news...

It's a Football Thing - You Wouldn't Understand

I am happy the weekend is finally here. I have definitely had more than my share of death and destruction for the week.

It's a holiday weekend, and the first weekend of college football. Here in Madison the city is packed with tailgaters and I will tell you right now, very few party as hearty as the Badger fans.

So football today with maybe a few beers and some bar-b-que and it looks like the weather will be perfect for my century ride tomorrow around the rolling hills of Spring Green. Ah, autumn, my favorite time of year. The only thing I don't like about autumn is that winter isn't far behind. Oh well, enjoy the colors and cool weather while they are here. Two weeks before the sweet tailgate at the opener at Soldier Field. Hey - I don't call it the "Great Midwest" for nothing!

Need to count our blessings

As we look at the devastation from Katrina, we need to count our blessings in the USA. The average person (who doesn't know much about history) doesn't realize it, but disasters of this magnitude whether from war or nature are unfortunately all too common, just not here.

In WW2 many major cities were reduced to rubble. Allied bombing pretty much leveled Germany, and Japan too. The battles in the East leveled Warsaw and heavily damaged many of the other cities such as Budapest. In old "Prussia", which is now Kaliningrad, the Russians pretty much leveled everything (on purpose) so that the Germans would never rise again, and even now it is a weird lawless semi-abandoned state. In the Pacific Manila was heavily damaged, and many areas of China, too.

Paris was spared major physical damage through a German general who disobeyed Hitler's orders to destroy the city, and Rome / Vatican City also escaped major physical damage. Some areas of Europe weren't fought over that much, due to vagaries of geography, such as the Czech Republic and the Netherlands (not in 1944-5, at least).

Don't forget that England was heavily damaged during WW2 and took years to recover. They weren't "on their knees" after WW2 like the defeated Axis but their economy was pretty well tapped out.

From natural disasters, Tangshan, in China, a city of 1 million people, was basically leveled by an 8.0 earthquake in 1976. Various earthquakes have hit central America, including one that hit heavily populated Mexico City in 1985. Don't forget about the earthquake in Japan, and they call Tokyo "The City Waiting to Die" (look it up).

From war, Chechnya and especially Grozny were basically leveled during the various wars in which the Russians, in total disregard of civilian rights, pounded the civilians with heavy artillery. I don't want this blog to degenerate into a rant, but I can't even imagine the outrage that would rise up against the US if we used even 1% of the Russian tactics that they use in their own brutal internal wars.

It makes me sad to read this series from a New Orleans newspaper, written in 2002, that basically describes the whole calamatous situation that New Orleans finds itself in today.

Here in Chicago, we aren't far from the New Madrid earthquake fault line, where an earthquake in 1811 was so powerful it changed the geography of the Mississippi river (a BIG river, by the way). The area was not heavily populated then but this would obviously be a different issue today. We need to keep on hoping that it doesn't happen here....

New Orleans, Part Cinq

Well, the feds, it seems, are finally on it. Today the media reports that buses, military vehicles and choppers with food and water are arriving, taking people out on the return trip.

I have read a LOT and written a lot about this situation and with the benefit of a bit of hindsight want to look at the situation as is.

*The Feds. In a previous post I was hard on the feds and Bush for not getting in there quicker. I think that was a bit premature. The feds are usually the last ones in. It wasn't really the feds' fault that the whole city of New Orleans had basically no plan in place for this disaster. Nor could the feds expect that the state of Louisiana would be so inept. The feds cannot mobilize in five minutes. When they saw that the city and state could do NOTHING, the feds mobilized. I will not make excuses for them, though. My call is that they were late by one full day. It should have been noted that the city was descending into chaos much sooner. I still stand by my recommendation that there needs to be a flood czar and a command center with absolute authority.

*Mass corruption. Both the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana are to blame for many of the problems. I am sure that if I dug around for say, five minutes in the archives of the budgets of the US Government, that over the last 20 years there would be literally billions of dollars squandered (read: stolen) by local and state authorities on studies, levees and plans that were never implemented.

*The racial component. Many black leaders and others are starting to make this into a black and white fight. Remember, the population of New Orleans is 65% black. The mayor is black. All of the council members are black. The state representatives are black. See corruption note above. Racial story over.

*Looting. There should have been a policy of shooting all looters that were not taking essentials. Some of these people simply don't deserve to exist. What are you doing stealing a diamond in this crisis? The rescue workers were shot at, along with cops. The situation should have been locked down and the only way to do that is with heavy firepower. I know I repeat myself, but if you don't own a firearm and know how to use it, you are rolling the dice. The governor in Mississippi gave shoot to kill orders to the cops there immediately. Heard any looting stories from there lately?

*Personal responsibility. I have seen boatloads of pictures from all around the city. Worst among them must be the convention center and the Superdome. It is simply unbelievable to me that those people would actually sit there and let themselves die. If I was there with my family, I would get the heck out of there as fast as possible. It must have been apparent to all that the situation was deteriorating rapidly. I don't understand why all of the people sitting there cannot take some individual responsibility, band together, work with each other and LEAVE. Is it possible that all of the people who are not leaving are just following instructions because that is all they know? If you were born in a welfare family and were taught to rely on the government to subsidize your groceries and rent, why would you have any personal motivation to help yourself? Is it not possible that a culture that has been so dependent for so long on the government to exist is now just doing what they know? All of my life I have seen my family work very hard and take personal responsibility for everything they have done. If you have no work ethic or respect for yourself or others, the next logical step in this type of situation is to take advantage of the weak and vulnerable when the opportunity arises. When you live a life of chaos with no perspective of right and wrong and a disaster presents itself, you will continue living your reckless life, just with the comforting feeling that you will not get arrested. I will not blame all of the lawless people for their actions. When children are raised in chaos with no structure, love or parents, you get people that have no proper perspective on life as most of us know it. Should those who are committing mayhem be shot? Undoubtedly. Is it really their fault? I don't think so. In fact I feel sorry for them since I was fortunate enough to be raised in a loving home with loving parents and structure.

Now I hear that the feds have everyone locked IN. Oh my word. The fate of these people is in the hands of the federal government. The government can't even run a railroad for goodness sakes. Good luck to them. Hope all that escape alive have learned a lesson. Don't underestimate yourself. Don't count on others to help you. Especially the government.

New Orleans, Part Quatre

As the reports of the desperate situation in New Orleans continue to pour in, it is apparent that everyone down there is, for all intents and purposes, on their own. Cops are turning in their badges and some of the National Guardsmen are resigning as well. I always like to think about what I would do in this type of situation. It is a good mental exercise just in case a disaster should strike the area I live in.

First, having a family, I would have left before the hurricane began. No question. But if I were single, I may have stayed. Let's just assume that I did stay - what would I do?

Well, first, NOT go to the Superdome or any other place that the government says to. In fact, I would probably go the other way. I know that hindsight is 20/20, but this would have been my strategy from the get-go.

If I made it through the storm, I would start walking immediately with a backpack full of supplies, a fist full of cash and a shotgun with lots of ammo. There are advantages to being in shape. One of the main reasons I lost weight about two years ago was that I knew that someday I may have to walk from my work to where my family was located. I work about 12 miles from my house - that hike would be a snap for me if I needed to do it. And yes, I have weapons both at work and home. Just think, the average human walks somewhere in the range of two to three miles per hour. That is a pretty leisurely pace. If you started beating feet out of New Orleans after the hurricane, at that pace you could make it to Baton Rouge in approximately 25 hours or so of walking. That would be incredibly easy to do over the span of two days. There is help in Baton Rouge, then you would be home free. Of course, this is not possible if you are obese, or maybe a diabetic without meds, or elderly or an infant. But for the sake of discussion, lets just assume that it is just me, a healthy middle aged male. Not only would I start walking, I would keep walking, probably 200 miles or so. You could do it!

Now, lets see what has happened in New Orleans. I have seen pictures of thousands of people sitting around in "staging areas" (I now call them corpse collection areas) waiting for the government to evacuate them to god knows where. Nothing is happening. No one is in charge, yet these people, many of whom don't understand the fact that they can do something on their own, are going to die.

About the anarchy. Me with my shotgun would be relatively safe hoofing it out of New Orleans, but many are not armed and they are meat. Think about all of the junkies and alcoholics that were in the projects in New Orleans. No one wants to talk about it, but New Orleans has historically had one of the worst crime rates in the entire nation. Who knows how many meth, crack and heroin addicts had to go cold turkey instantly. These people must be going nuts and that is definitely adding fuel to the fire.

Arm yourself. Have a disaster plan. Get in shape. If you don't you are just putting your life in the hands of the government. If you do so after seeing the performance of the government in this disaster, you are gambling.

UPDATE: Will Collier provides an excellent elegy here.

New Orleans, Part Trois

Everyone knows that New Orleans and surrounding areas have turned into chaos. Don't believe it's chaos? Read this email received from Will Collier of Vodkapundit:

Talked to a friend of mine who is down there in the middle
of it. Body count will be high.

So far the masses are doing well, but it is starting to come undone. Low deliveries of water, food, etc. Water quality will diminish rapidly as the particle count of human waste, chemicals, etc. mounts. There is no water flow. The city is a bathtub. You do the math.

Fed is dropping the ball on basic necessities such as water, portolets, you name it. Woefully unprepared and nobody seems to be in charge or have the gumption to get it done.

Louisiana politicians should be absolutely raising hell right now. Lots of people including yours truly have volunteered to bring (including food, generators, food, etc., to be self sufficient for a week or so) the most important thing which is a boat but have been told NO under no uncertain terms.

"My" town is under water, people are in critical condition, and I have skill sets and assets - including a boat which will come out of the hole in 14 incles of water - and we are being denied the opportunity to help. And quite frankly, that REALLY PISSES ME OFF.

Military is stepping up and bringing considerable skills and assets to the table. Had they been listened to earlier, lots of logistical issues would have been resolved. IOW's, the bureaucrats are getting moved to the sidelines but "turf issues" are not going quietly into the night. That sucks. Gangs running around and a bunch of those guys are fixing to get killed. The cops have been given a "take no prisoners" mandate. If the guy who fired on the chopper this a.m. gets ID'd, he'll probably not be arrested. You may read anything but leniency into that comment.

Looters taking food and water are being ignored and rightfully so. A couple of store owners have basically gone in and opened the doors and said "get it all" for foodstuffs. One guy was standing there with his kids and guns giving his store away. Tremendous compassion among some, but then there are the 2%'ers.Biggest behavior problems are among those who are going cold turkey and there are quite a few. Cops figure that is going to get worse and with it
the associated problems. Folks, it will take a decade to fix New Orleans and the Mississippi coast. Devastation there is just horrendous. Just got in touch finally with a friend who lives on the Pearl River just above highway 98. He is at elevation +14 and had 6' of water in his house.

Many areas with water will recede naturally, but quite a bit of New Orleans will be un-inhabitable for up to six months. Key will be getting power restored and the pumps going. BUT, most if not all of the pump station power centers will have to be replaced/rewired first so basically N.O. will be pumped out with whatever they can bring in. The logistical challenges of this are just mind boggling.

Comments on the mayor - doing all he can given the fact that he has an administration and bureaucracy (sp) that is 95% useless and the power to do ANYTHING is coming from the state
and feds and they can't get their doodoo together. My take and that from those close is that the guy is doing a great job all things considered.Imagine trying to resolve the 9-11 mess if NYC was under six feet of water, all comms were out, the interstates were flooded and the majority of the infrastructure more or less completely out of commission.
Prayers and support will be needed for all.

Clearly, this is a cluster-fuck and the feds can't seem to take charge and fix it. President Bush is eventually going to take flak for this and he should. FEMA and the other agencies have no control. Well, if I had to, I could fix it. In a previous post I stated that I question the wisdom in rebuilding the area and giving incentives to people to live there. However, there are good people there dying and they are important to me. People are important, buildings are not. If I had to, here is what "President Dan" could and would do to try to fix it:

1) I would appoint one and only one "point man" with a staff to plan all rescue efforts. A command center for him would be immediately set up in Baton Rouge or Lafayette, LA. This person - we could call him the "flood czar" - would have absolute authority and would be a hard ass Marine Colonel or General. He would head efforts of the Army, Navy, Coast Guard and Marines. I make the whole area a "military district" and they are now in charge. No national guard, no state cops, ARMED SERVICES. If the flood czar says do it, you do it or get arrested. Someone has to be put in charge, and NOW.

2) Immediately fix the levees using the Army. No more excuses. I don't care if we have to drop a thousand refrigerators in there, plug it. Then get power to those pumps and pump that damn water out. While this is going on, I would immediately authrorize any and all folks that want to help out with their private boats and weapons to do so. All available boats, buses and other trucks will be used to get the victims out of there and into and area where they can get water.

3) Anyone causing chaos is immediately shot. No questions. Anyone questioning any armed services personnel is shot if they don't comply.

How hard is this? Can you believe our country, the greatest on earth is stuck in gridlock? The agencies were not prepared, and the huge bureaucracies are stuck in reverse. We should all be ashamed of this terrible performance.

New Orleans, Part Deux

Well, I just dropped some money off at the Salvation Army for hurricane relief. Carl brings attention to this worthy agency in his last post. I remember when 911 happened they were one of the few that rushed right to the scene and helped everyone and anyone around. They helped normal Joes, rescue workers, whomever needed it. No overhead, no cushy offices or vacations for the officers of the Army. No bullshit, just help. I guarantee they will do the same in Louisiana and Mississippi when they get mobilized.

But when can they get mobilized? We now have a complete and total breakdown of all services and people are roaming the streets like animals. I mentioned before this thing started that I hope to hell that the people who make it are armed. Now, those who have guns rule the streets. Big surprise. The Salvation Army and others cannot get in there to help those in need until the security situation is fixed. This total and complete breakdown says a lot about our "first responders".

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever that citizens of this country should not be allowed to help and NOW. Instead, the solution is to keep everyone out of the area entirely. Don't you think that folks in Mississippi and Louisiana (and from everywhere else) want to help? Of course they do! Of course I do! But we can't get in. Because the feds and everyone else has the aid locked OUT. First responders my ass, let us help!!! We have guns, water, food and whatever else they need if they would just let us get it there.

I have said this a million times on this blog - in the case of a natural disaster or dirty nuke or whatever, YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN. THE GOVERNMENT WILL NOT HELP YOU. Every family should have a disaster plan, complete with some canned food, water, and at least one gun with a person that knows how to use it.

(Dan steps down off of soapbox)

After the mess is cleaned up, the bodies are counted and order is restored, we have to take a serious look at any areas on the coasts or that exist artificially. That is to say, under sea level. Hurricanes have ravaged Florida and the Southeast US forever. But there has been no incentive for people to move. After Hurricane Andrew, insurance carriers decided that they didn't want to insure people who live in these hurricane zones anymore. The federal government told them too bad, you have to do it. This is unbelievable. If we, meaning the feds with our tax money, keep bailing out these areas every time a big storm moves through the incentive is totally bass ackwards.

People will keep moving right back in with the comfortable feeling that others will keep subsidizing their way of life. We need to tell everyone down there that there is a very good chance that sometime in their life a serious storm will come by and flatten their house - too bad, so sad. I don't see boatloads of money from down south flowing to the northern states when we have tornadoes or bad snowstorms. Why shouldn't they subsidize our salt expenditures every winter? Same thing.

No one feels worse than me about this mess. My wife and I eloped to New Orleans 10 years ago and have so many good memories there. We are betting the church we got married in is gone. I have friends that have lost their entire businesses and homes. But we need to help them get back on their feet. This time. The last time.

UPDATE: A great post over at Chicago Boyz that echoes my sentiments. The money quote: Well, I was going to put a money quote in here, but the whole damn post is "money". Here it is.

An SUV and a Gun
Shannon Love
Looking at the pictures coming from Louisiana and Mississippi it occurs to me that maybe now some people in the blue costal enclaves and in Europe might get an inkling why America red staters like their SUVs and guns.

The conditions in the costal areas hit by Katrina are bad but are not unprecedented. The American mid-West has the most variable and extreme weather of ANY region on earth. This is no exagerration. The lowest and fastest drops in barometric pressure ever recorded occurred over the Great Lakes. 95% of the tornados that occur over land happen in North America and the vast majority of those occur in the mid-West. The weather systems that spawn tornados create a lot damage and dangerous conditions over vast areas and they are very common. In the winter, blizzards and ice storms strike all the way down into Texas.

I can personally attest that it far better to be in a large vehicle like an SUV with good clearance when caught out in such a storm. A mini-van catches the wind and bogs in the water much faster. Fallen tree branches stop cars. A person might only need an SUV's protection a few times a year but when you need it, you really need it. When a big disaster does occur like a Hurricane, a blizzard or widespread flooding, SUVs and pickup trucks are often the only functioning means of transportation in the area. Urban vehicles like sedans and mini-vans can't move safely.

The loss of top-down civil order is also not terribly uncommon. The response of authorities after hurricane Andrew was notoriously slow. Citizens organized themselves to provide protection from criminals, looters and to direct traffic. They used their personal weapons to do so. It is not uncommon to have law enforcement effectively paralyzed over several counties or even entire states following severe weather. An armed citizenry helps maintain law and order in crises both large and small. The physical environment shapes the people who live in it and strongly influences the choices they make. People who don't have experience with that environment descend into hopeless parochialism when trying to understand the choices made by the people who do.

An SUV might be nothing but a status affectation in Manhattan but in storm plagued mid-West it is far more practical. Personal weapons might seem useless to a European who is never outside the protection of a (hopefully) benevolent state but an America mid-Westerner cannot always rely on the state for protection. People in the current disaster zone, especially those in rural areas, who have an SUV and a gun are much better off than those that don't. Even those who don't will benefit from the transportation and protection that their more fortunate neighbors can provide. Giving as many people as possible the ability to move and protect themselves is the best possible protection in the event of widespread disaster.

John Carolan was sitting on his porch in the thick, humid darkness just before midnight Tuesday when three or four young men, one with a knife and another with a machete, stopped in front of his fence and pointed to the generator humming in the front yard, he said. One said, "We want that generator," he recalled.
"I fired a couple of rounds over their heads with a .357 Magnum,"
Mr. Carolan recounted Wednesday. "They scattered."He smiled and added,
"You've heard of law west of the Pecos. This is law west of Canal Street."