Rita image

Fantastic, high-res satellite image of Hurricane Rita.

nameserver oops

Oops. I forgot that I had specifically registered jeffab.org as being a specific IP address so that I could run my own nameserver. So when the IP changed, the primary nameservers for .org domains were still pointing to the old one. Fixed that. Worked immediately. That took way too long to figure out.

The dangers of anecdotal interviews

Now that the actual hurricane is past, and everyone is saturated with information on the event, news outlets (corporate and independent) have turned to interviews with “the common man” to relate the Average Joe’s expert and informed opinion on FEMA operations, National Guard activations, Navy domestic response protocol, evacuation and aid effencies, the rights of evacuees (can I use “evacuees”, Mr. Jackson… Or is that also a product of my latent racist tendencies waiting to manifest itself on the english language?), and exactly who’s fault it is.

The problem is (as anyone who has worked in a public service job knows) is that people, either intentionally or not, simply make stuff up. I’m not saying that people do it maliciously, but they do tend to relay hearsay as fact, and recount fifth-person information as first-hand knowledge. Beyond that is the simple fact that many of the refugees (hah! I said it!) are homeless to begin with. A very large percentage of homeless people suffer from mental diseases and disabilities that causes their perception of reality to be significantly different from the one that you or I may experience. I have personally seen many people suffering from delusions and hallucinations who can be absolutely convincing when they communicate their version of events… probably due to the fact that they absolutely believe them to be true.

So the lesson is: Take those reports of “I talked to this victim, who told me that…” with a 10-lb grain of salt, and just a dab of lithium.

Culture of dependency

It didn’t happen on September 11th, 2001. It didn’t happen in August 2002, when the entire northeast had no power for three days. But all our pride in our “model” civilization started falling down around us two days ago in New Orleans, less than twenty-four hours after the passing of Hurrican Katrina. Mobbing, looting, hoarding, assault of aid workers… sounds like stories about those third world countries that we look down our noses at even while providing aid. Well it would appear that nothing about our society makes us immune from the basest of those human instincts. So much for self-sacrifice and helping one’s neighbor. I can’t stand to watch the news reports any more… not because of the disaster, but because every victim that gets inverviewed is screaming about how the government, military, or relief teams haven’t done enough, haven’t given enough. There seems to be a complete disconnect by most of these people as to the nature of an “emergency”.

In an emergency, you don’t get to be comfortable. You don’t get to decide how events play out. And you don’t get to make demands.

It absolutely floored me that the first day that people were sheltered in the Superdome, reporters were talking about how most people didn’t have TV or radio!… Except those that brought them along!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? First that’s it’s a problem that you don’t have your tv, but that some people actually packed them along? Unbelievable.

But back to the original thread. I am not unmoved by the tragedy, but I can’t help but think that this is a result of major, debilitating dependency on the government and social services to provide things for someone’s life. Now, people simply can’t comprehend how it is that a government of seemingly unlimited resources can’t provide for them in a time of crisis. So rather than working the problem, they enhance and multiply it.

I actually agree with Bush on this one. Zero tolerance. Wartime rules of engagement should apply here, not peacetime domestic police agency rules. Armed gangs should be dealt handled with deadly force. Looters of jewelry, electronics, banks, and luxury stores should be shot. And assault of aid workers should be absolutely not tolerated.

I realize that this is all speaking from a perspective well removed from the situation, but I can’t help but believe that those who would use force to take advantage of a distaster situation for their own benefit should be met with overwhelming force. For all the criticism we make of the Iraqis for taking responsibility for their own security, our own citizens have completely failed to do the same.

I would really like to see a story on the small towns in the surrounding areas. I want to know how they are dealing with the disaster. I need to see a place where neighbors are helping neighbors, and people are digging themselves out of the destruction and beginning to rebuild. I need to know that in the worst situations, there are still individuals who rise from the ruins as heros, and people who give what they can rather than taking what they can.