BurningbirdThe Missouri State Attorney General has filed suit against the holder of web sites such as katrinafamilies.com for not disclosing that the person, Frank Weltner, is a known white supremacist.
In fact, you may remember Weltner from another site he owns: jewwatch.com.
He is not typical of Missouri, but we sure seem to attract them here. It is a good warning, though, to be careful about who you give money to. Since I didn’t have a category that fit this person, I created a new one: scuzzbucket.
Everyone should have a Jan Sundberg.
A nice bit of normalcy did rear it’s head — I’ve had my annual, “F**k you!” from Jan Sundberg. Ever since I first published my four-part articles on the giant squid and cryptozoology and mentioned his rather, shall we say, ‘dubious’ adventures, I’ve had an email once a year, regular as clock work with barely coherent English telling me to go to hell. Or worse.
A bit of humor with this year’s email: he signed it Frida and made it sound like a supporter of his was sending it. Too bad no one ever told him that his name is in the ‘reply-to’ section of the email.
This is a nice break: do a search engine lookup on Jan Sundberg and then sit back and enjoy the results. Just be aware that not all Jan Sundbergs are alike.
I love the cryptozoologists — they are never boring.
It seemed a bit cooler this evening. When the roommate got home with the car, I hauled my butt down to Powder to go for a walk. The air quality is so bad that it appeared as smudges against the sky, with only a bit of true cloud showing through — touched with red gold from a burnt orange blaze of sun in the sky.
At the park, two mothers with their four new babies were frisking about — I wonder how many generations I’ve seen now?
You could smell the green of the trees, and they almost filtered out the acrid sting of the air. I have become more aware of smell lately; when coming back from Branson a century or two ago, I could actually smell rain while driving along with the window down. I remember my nose going into the air as I sniffed the scent, like a bear or a dog. A few minutes later, it started to rain. It was a great smell.
I visited both libraries on the way home from the park and made a good haul on books — my first Clive Cussler, and a couple of history books as well as an old and familiar Anne McCaffrey. When heading back to my car from the city library, I looked up in the sky at the crescent moon, colored rust-gold. Instead of one moon, though, there were two: the original and a faint replica in front of it. Somehow the thick air had created a light shadow of the moon against the dark sky. Is this a premonition? What does a double crescent moon mean?
At home I unloaded groceries from the store and stepped out to pick up my books from the car when a yellow truck with blinking white and yellow lights started coming down our street, spraying all the trees and bushes for mosquitoes. I ducked back inside to avoid the dousing, only venturing out again when the mist had settled.
If I can see a double moon, I have to wonder at the wisdom of shooting yet more toxins into the air. I hadn’t heard anything about an outbreak of West Nile. After I grabbed the books, I did what all good internet children do–came inside and searched on St. Louis and West Nile. I found one suspected death and one confirmed West Nile illness in the last month in the St. Louis area. I wonder, though, how many more people were affected by breathing air thick enough to bounce the image of the moon back at itself?
Danny Ayers has the start of a great RDF 101 titled RDF, Bottom Up, with promises of more to come.
I’ve been working on something similarly named, but quite different in tone for some time now. Just so’s you know, when I every finally get around to putting this online, I didn’t steal the name from Danny. But then, by the time I finally get around to publishing it, it will probably be the next decade and you’ll have forgotten.
I am actually very fond of the online site for the local newspaper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I’ve found over time that the site tends to provide a more balanced viewpoint on issues than not. And usually covers news with a strong sense of humanity. I think this is a mark of home town newspapers.
Anyway, I’ve just read several very interesting articles related to Katrina I wanted to point out.
A division of the Missouri national Guard has been assigned to New Orleans for a month, beginning with escorting folks to their homes in a parish that isn’t flooded, to pick up what belongings they can. While there, they got a surprise:
About noon Sunday, east of Baton Rouge, the Missouri National Guard soldiers saw a familiar sight: At least seven buses emblazoned with a big, blue “M” were westbound on Interstate 10, heading toward Baton Rouge. The buses were packed with people and accompanied by a police escort and several church vans. Metro sent the buses to New Orleans on Friday to assist with the evacuation.
Another story discusses the intercom system at the Astrodome and gives a glimpse into life at this shelter. Included also is a discussion of the work of Technology for All.
This article discusses how local, state, and federal governments have been ignoring a report that came out of the 1993 floods. Though this would not have stopped the flooding, if the report had been adhered to, the damage would have been much less. What is the good of having experts give advice if elected officials refuse to act on said advice.
The paper ran a poll asking people what they thought of the federal government’s handling of Katrina. The following is a screenshot of the reactions of this solidly red state. Solidly red in the last election that is.
Sylvester Brown, my favorite columnist, had some pithy, sharp words for those who focused on the ‘race’ issue and looting:
No, I’m not up in arms about the recent charges of the media’s “racial insensitivity.” The accusations rise from two photos circulating on the Web showing people wading through waist-deep water carrying groceries. The caption under the black person describes him as “looting,” while another describes a white couple “finding bread and soda.”
I don’t give a rat’s patooty about “looters” – black or white. As we discuss the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, “looting” should be far, far down America’s list of concerns.
I was knocked for a loop after reading Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s warning to the “hoodlums” in her state. National Guardsmen had arrived, she boasted. Their M-16s are “locked and loaded.” They know how to kill; they are more than willing to kill, and they will kill, she told reporters.
Excuse me. “More than willing?” Oh yeah, Blanco, that’s just what New Orleans needs – more dead bodies floating up and down the streets.
Brown made me rethink my earlier opinion of Nagin. Perhaps I haven’t given Nagin the slack he deserves, considering he’s only been mayor less than two years. But a mandatory evacuation only 20 hours before the storm hit–he doesn’t deserve medals for his actions.
Here’s another perspective on stories about hotel people being evacuated before those at the Superdome. A St. Louis lawyer and his wife and several guests from two hotels paid 45.00 each for tickets on buses leaving the city. However, when the buses arrived, they were confiscated for the Superdome evacuation effort. As easy as people could get in and out of the city, why did it take so long to evacuate the people?
Anyway, I thought you might find a St. Louis perspective on the events to be interesting. Missouri is one of the states that is opening up shelters for those currently in Texas, as well as schools, and colleges for students who can’t attend Gulf state colleges.
Then there’s the Texas privileged perspective. (Thanks to Dori.)
I hadn’t noticed but St. Louis Today has a weblog. Just started August 31st. It’s based in WordPress.