The same people who are doing what they are currently doing in NO are the same people who rioted during the Rodney King thing. They are also the same people who looted during andrew and are the same people who set fire to LA and Miami in the 1980's.

Haha, sure, don't even try to be subtle with your racism.

This comment was edited on Jul 1, 17:39.

Well Creston, you tore me apart pretty good there, so I won't bother to reply right now. Maybe later on when I get a few more beers into me. But you put me in my place rather well, I'd say.

I just wrote that out of frustration and anger while sitting upon my high horse perched upon my ivory tower. That disaster sucks and insulting Americans or humans or politicians because of it was not very thoughtful.

Nobody likes this situation and me spouting off a thousand miles away sitting on dry land doesn't help anyone. And, no I haven't donated money or blood. I probably would if I could.

And I apologize to xXBatmanXx as well, I don't really think he's a dick.

I've spent many years living in the US and have many friends and family there. Not in the Gulf, but well. What a disaster.

Peace, out.

This really shows what a sad state america is in, you would never see such things in other first world countries

Has it really been that long since hockey playoffs?

-----
GW: Tashen Boke [R/Me]; Rosti The Ninja [Mo/R]

To me, it just shows the true Colours of Americans. A disaster hits them and they turn into animals fucking each other over and the ones on the outside that may or may not have ever lived through a disaster, blame the ones in it.

That is just an asinine statement.

With the recent power outage of the north east (http://www.globalsecurity.org/eye/blackout_2003.htm) remember this thing?
Where millions upon millions of more people where effected by this; had a fear it was from a terrorist attack. There was very little looting, to my knowledge NO rioting, very little crime. Everybody helped each other.

The situations are quite different, but it clearly defeats this point.

In this case you happen to have people that felt before the hurricane actually hit they where being abandoned by their government, and due to rumors, lies and lack of communication due to the severity of the situation people feel they have been abandoned by their government.

I personally would not feel that way…but a good majority of humans (from every country) in stressful situations act very odd. I have seen (in three different countries) car accidents where one person gets out of the car (and in all cases, the person who caused it) being so pissed they are ready to attack the other person. Stupid. I have been in a grocery store when someone came in with a gun to rob the place. It is only natural to be scared, but in intense situations like that it is important to remain clam and think rational to protect your life, and freak out to relieve emotion tension when you are safe. Everybody else was to "freaked out" they could not even tell the police if it was a white/black/mexican/green man. While the human body and mind is a wonderful machine, it is not perfect. I can give you many more examples of this, from every country in the world.

I was trained to handle life threatening and intense situations; most people are not. Most people are not naturally adept at that situation…most people break now.
Am I making excuses for the people? No. Anybody looting DVD players and DVD’s, video game systems, ect should be punished severely…that is just sick. The people shooting at rescue workers, ect should be shot dead back on site. Every minute they hold rescue workers up can be killing hundreds of other people.
Do I understand how they feel? No. I have never been in a situation like that, and I have also been trained to deal with it physically and emotional to the best of my ability.

Are they to blame for the hurricane? No. Are they to share some of the blame for the current situation? Yes. I have all the sympathy in the world for them; nothing could fully prepare them for this. But, you live below the sea level. You should have basic knowledge and preparations to handle a situation like this. That is like someone living in California on the many faults lines and not having a fucking clue what to due in a earthquake. Or someone living up north and having no freakin clue how to survive or preparations for a sever snow storm. Ignorance and stupidity, by the people in the situation is making their situation worse. This does not mean do not help them, or lose sympathy. Nor would anybody here, in this current moment in time dare say that to anybody down there. It would not help at all, only hurt. However, as people on the side lines, it is perfectly fine and moral to discuss that aspect. That does not diminish the help they need or should get any. Communication is a tool, and by talking about these things it can get people to think.


In fact, to be honest. I am so fucking disappointed with our response so far it is kinda sickening.
Yes the American Red Cross is doing more than it’s fair share, and they should be commended. But other then them (the actual people in the field, not people trying to raise money) I have heard nothing that has impressed me, or at least made me think “alright”.



“That's not a toy! “ –Frylock, “You say that about everything you own. You should own toys. They're fun.” –MasterShake.
This comment was edited on Sep 2, 11:21.

What's going on down there is horrible. But it sort of goes to show how well your current administration has dedicated itself to 'homeland security', or terrist (sic) disasters.

Completely unprepared and useless.

Ok smartass, show me ONE country that has dealt WELL with a disaster of this magnitude? Like I've said before, planning for a worst case scenario NEVER happens until such an exact scenario has occured before. Flood in Holland in 1953, no plans. Earthquakes in San Francisco, Nakano (?), several in Turkey. No plans. Fire in Tokyo, long ago, no plans. Caribbean islands get smashed by hurricanes almost annually, and guess what? Every time a REALLY bad one comes along, they're caught flaundering along as well.
(Btw, when I say NO plans, I mean either no plans at all, or plans that are just plain ineffective, as New Orlean's current plan is just ineffective)
Canada didn't really have a plan when the Exxon Valdez broke apart either, did it? Yes, it's a different thing, it wasn't expected ofcourse, but the chances are that something like that COULD happen if you have supertankers going up and down your coastline all the time.
None of the countries around the northsea channel have any plans in place to deal with oil spills (although fortunately, the world's best oil spill cleaners, Smit Tak, are about 30 miles or so away).

THat's HUMAN nature. For some reason, we never plan for the worst until the worst has actually happened.
I'm sure you're having a wonderful great view from up there on your little ivory tower, but you might want to try climbing down every now and then, and realise what you're saying applies to all and saundry equally.

Now, has the rescue effort so far been pretty pathetic, yes it has. Quite frankly, FEMA's / ACE's ideas that a system of levies would stop a CAT 5 hurricane from flooding a city that lies next to the BIGGEST RIVER in the US was ludicrous to begin with. Especially since apparently those levies' pumps weren't working because the power had gone out, and because their backup generators WERE UNDER WATER.
Their entire "flood management" plan apparently never took into account the fact that it means it's UNDER WATER.

And New Orleans has been getting hit by hurricanes since 1727. So it's not as if all of sudden in 2001, FEMA realised "Holy shit, we need to figure out a way to deal with a CAT 5 hurricane there". This has been one of the likeliest things to happen since FEMA was created. So why exactly did it take them until 2001 to finally figure out that they needed a plan for it?

I don't think you can, as it will offend the people that want to dumb-down your school systems

It was a joke, meant to bring some levity in a pretty grim situation.

To me, it just shows the true Colours of Americans. A disaster hits them and they turn into animals fucking each other over and the ones on the outside that may or may not have ever lived through a disaster, blame the ones in it.

Yes yes, it's only Americans that ever loot, or rape, or pillage. Hey guess what, last I checked, CANADA HAD PRISONS TOO! So, peculiarly enough, you seem to be having criminals, same as us.
Criminals will always take advantage of situations such as these. I'm not sure who it was that said it, but "Situations as these always brings out the best AND worst in humanity."

As for the idea that only Americans are capable of this, get off your fucking high horse. Do we need to start looking at Africa, at the middle east, at the far east, for examples of despicable human behavior? Stop trying to pretend you're so much better than the rest of us, moron.

You should be showing sympathy and helping your brothers, instead of sitting back, typing in how those 'fucking old people in the old folks home deserve to die, because they couldn't find a ride', bullshit. Alls you can do is spout off blame over and over again. I'm suprised nobodies suggested filing lawsuits againts the victims yet.

Actually, I've just donated a hundred dollars to the relief fund. It might not be much, but it's really money my wife and I can't even spare right now. How much have you donated, hero? The words "Armchair quarterback" mean anything to you?

I heard last night that over 70 million dollars had already been donated to charities to help out. Yeah man, the US really shows what a disgusting country it is. Go fuck yourself.

I agree that the old people comment was brutal, and I don't agree with it. However, I would assume that even the elderly would have family that could have gotten them out. Again, everyone was WARNED to leave on FRIDAY. They were URGED to leave on Saturday. And yet so many people stayed, and didn't even go to a shelter. They figured they'd "ride it out".
And now they're stuck. Whose fault is that? The government's? Their local government TOLD THEM TO GET THE FUCK OUT. And they refused. Yeah man, personal responsibility is really a non existing concept isn't it?

Next time an F3 tornado comes roaring at my house, I'm just gonna ride it out, arms crossed, and keep chanting that "the government has to come save me".
What the fuck ever.

It really makes you look like a bunch of self serving assholes. It's just frustrating. I feel for your kin and I don't even live in your country. It's like you lost your humanity on the way somewhere. Sad.

Keep banging that drum kid, BANG IT HARDER DAMMIT!

I tend to think that Blues News is a 'pulse' on America

Which shows how terribly informed you are. Most forumites are actually not even FROM America, so how is this a pulse ON America? FYI, several of the people who are saying "Shoot the looters on sight" are from EUROPE.
Where's your brilliant theory now?


I'm not sure, but did *anyone* here actually care about those people?

Yeah, it's not as if several of us haven't already donated money, and haven't given blood, etc. It's not as if two days ago, we didn't have several dozen posts of people wishing all the best to the victims, saying prayers for them (which I do daily, whether or not you believe that it has any effect is not the point, at the least it'll have the exact same effect as you saying that your heart goes out to all in the Gulf.) etc.

I feel awful for all the people caught up in this. I can't imagine what it's like to have to be evacuated from your home, and seeing the devastation on TV, and wondering if all your stuff is still going to be there, whether you have a place to live, whether your family is still alive.
I also feel awful for the people still caught in the Superdome. They don't deserve this.

But there were also people who CHOSE to stay, and NOT go to a shelter. A post earlier was made of a guy who tried to get out in his truck AFTER the city was already flooding, and he complained that he couldn't get through.

How exactly is it NOT that guy's own fault that he DIDN'T leave?

How is it not people's OWN fault that they're now stuck on their rooftops, waiting for the coast guard to come save them? Btw, I guarantee you that within a year, several of those exact same idiots will sue the GOVERNMENT for not "coming to their rescue earlier". Yeah, we REALLY need to feel sorry for those people, because they're so stupid.

Last time a potential tornado came at my apartment, my wife and I gathered up our pets and got the FUCK OUT (since I have no shelter in my apartment, it's wood, top floor, we'd be killed if even an F1 hits). And we had a grand total of about 30 minutes warning.
These people had a WEEK'S warning that the fucker was coming, were TOLD to evacuate for THREE DAYS and STILL didn't get the fuck out.

And as for the looters (and AGAIN, I'm talking about people that loot tvs, dvd players etc. I have no problem with people taking food, water and dry clothes), why WOULD we have sympathy for them? Or for those fuckers who are going around SHOOTING at rescue helicopters? Or for those cops who are currently LOOTING THEMSELVES?
Fucking shoot them. If you have sympathy for that kind of scum, well bravo. I suggest you create a sign and picket your local government that laws should be abolished and we should all just live in glorious anarchy.

Creston


Edit : Also, as I believe I said before on this thread or another, we have a great team just standing by, waiting for the go-ahead. They're called DART and are waiting for your politicians to get their shit together.

The DART guys are great, and I'm sure that as soon as we figure out where we can use them, we'll ask for them.

Btw, to iterate, over two dozen countries have now offered aid, so kudos to all of those. As stated yesterday, we probably won't NEED it, but it's nice to offer.

This comment was edited on Sep 2, 09:55.

Seen any gaming news lately?
Anyone?
Bueller?
Bueller?
Mr. Smart?
Mr. Carmack?
Anyone?

No, but you fuckers let me down. I tried to start a conversation about one of the greatest TV shows of all time, the classic Twilight Zone. But you are all just posing nerds apparently. Nerd chic…losers!

HAY! I said I saw it! The episode was awesome. And the show is still a great show to catch (if you can) in your area. I watch it every chance I get. (Which reminds me.....must search Blockbuster for it. Think they have the whole series?)

/edit: Wow, it is going to take me a while to que up all 40 volumes of The Twilight Zone!

What sucks is that they aren't in episode order. WTF?! - nm, I am a dumbass, picked th wrong editions.

Batman... Batman... Can somebody tell me what kind of a world we live in, where a man dressed up as a BAT gets all of my press?
This comment was edited on Sep 2, 09:15.

This really shows what a sad state america is in, you would never see such things in other first world countries. USA really needs to stop telling everyone else how to run their countries and focus on cleaning up there own backyard.

Oh PUHLEEZE.

Creston

Now, as for the price of gas going up ALREADY in Europe, that's just price gouging by the gas stations. There is absolutely no NEED for that price to go up yet, but hey, a quick buck is a quick buck, right? They're just as bad as the fucking looters.
You're acting like Service Station owners are some monster corporation. With the exception of Shell almost all service stations in the US are franchises owned by sole proprietors, I don't know for certain about Europe but I'd imagine it's the same. These small service stations really don't make that huge of an amount of money, a really strong one might make 50k a year.

I admit, I was wrong on that one. It's the gas WHOLESALERS that are gouging prices, not the actual gas stations. The gas station that's on the corner of the street where I live was closed, out of gas, but I saw the owner in there. Since I always get gas there, I went over to talk to him, see what was up.

He was very honest with me, that he simply couldn't afford to buy gas at the prices all his suppliers were charging (one even wanted $3.50 a gallon, which meant he would have had to sell it for around 3.79 a gallon). So he said, rather than jack his price up by almost a dollar, he'd just close his pumps until some sanity and decency returned to the wholesalers.

Obviously this won't be true for every gas station out there (I saw six bucks a gallon on TV last night, which IS price gouging), but in most cases it's the wholesalers that are jacking prices up.

Btw, Oklahoma's Attorney General took a FIRM stance against price gouging yesterday. He came on to inform us that the difference between gouging and price fixing was that gouging was a single station doing it, and price fixing was that they were all doing it. And with that he left.
Wow, way to take a stance there, buddy!
And for that matter, price FIXING has been going on for as long as there have been oil companies...

Creston

Seen any gaming news lately?
Anyone?
Bueller?
Bueller?
Mr. Smart?
Mr. Carmack?
Anyone?

Hahahah!! Gaming news? Why would we discuss gaming news on a GAMING NEWS website?

Oh, wait- I know! EA sucks!!! Hmmm... not sure that's news...

Crap, I guess we'll just have to listen continue to listen to Halsy's paranoia and hysteria...

Cheers to ScottishMartialarts for suggesting something better than the "Us VS Them", "I'm Right, You're Wrong", "We're Good, You're Evil" "Jesus loves US but he says YOU suck" impasse in U.S. political discourse today.

I'm on the left side of the fence, but recognize that both sides are equally guilty of the same self-serving games & B.S. Just read the posts on this site to see what the ultimate results of THAT approach is: nothing's accomplished, and both parties ultimately look like morons.

Time for liberals and conservatives to grow up and find ways to work through differences. Simply reinforcing one's own beliefs and flaming opponents is a dead end.

Halsy, I started out with a point by point response to your post but the more I started thinking about how to respond the more I realized it isn't worth my time. In your eyes American Politics is entirely black and white, liberalism and Democrats are the infalliable force for all that is good while conservatism and Republicans are a conspiracy of plutocrats out to fuck everyone else. How can anyone argue with that?

You always make a big deal about how you have a political science degree. Well I'm working on mine and based on my own experience I seriously have to wonder if you got anything of value out of that college education you're so quick to remind everyone of. You always suggest that if everyone studied politics they'd know how evil conservatism is, that an education in political science is just ammunition to use against the right.

First off, the ammunition analogy cuts both ways: unless you're willing to ignore large amounts of information, (American) Liberalism, just like Conservatism, doesn't have a spotless record.

More important than that however is that being educated in poli sci isn't just about having "ammunition". Poli Sci helps you understand the framework, the rules of the game if you will, that politics occurs in. So that when there is a political event you can analyze it, not from a position of ignorance, but from a position of context. Imagine trying to interpret baseball statistics with out knowledge of how baseball is played, it's just not going to happen.

The most context you're willing to give is republicans=evil and democrats=good. Where do you have room for thought in such a world?

Something one of my Political Science professors said really changed my outlook on American Politics: "If you can accept the idea that most politicians are genuinely working to make this country a better place, and analyze politics in light of that idea, you'll find that many of the policies that once seemed so odious now seem like legitimate alternatives. You might still disagree with the policy but at least you can understand the other sides position."

It's clear to me now that you are unwilling to try to understand the other sides position. That requires a radical rethinking of the political world view you are comfortable with, which is clearly more than anyone can ask.

I can understand having an occasionally irrational attachment to one particular ideology, I catch myself doing that from time to time. What I don't understand is a complete unwillingness to try to understand the other sides position. Effective diplomacy can't happen without that understanding and neither can democratic politics.

Also, as I believe I said before on this thread or another, we have a great team just standing by, waiting for the go-ahead. They're called DART and are waiting for your politicians to get their shit together.

They just happen to be specialised in Huricanes, but I suppose that puts us in the 'hippy-asshole boat', because we want to help. Whatever

DART: Disaster relief : Canada's rapid-response team

The Disaster Assistance Response Team – about 200 Canadian Forces soldiers – is designed to fly into disaster areas around the world to provide drinking water and medical treatment until long-term aid arrives.


DART medical staff treated about 7,500 patients in the Honduras, after a hurricane ripped through in October 1998. (DND Photo)
The military created DART in 1996 because of its experience in Rwanda two years earlier, when international relief organizations arrived too late to save thousands of people from a cholera epidemic.

That convinced the federal government it needed to be able to respond more quickly.......

More Here...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/cdnmilitary/dart.html

Wish you well.

What's going on down there is horrible. But it sort of goes to show how well your current administration has dedicated itself to 'homeland security', or terrist (sic) disasters.

Completely unprepared and useless.

To those that have been complaining that 'no other countries are helping', the Canadian DART team (Disaster Assistance Response Team) has been waiting at Vancouver airport for a call. They are trained for this kind of thing.

Anyways. Perhaps the terrorists should just go suicide-bomb the living quarters of the big oil companies. It would make sense and I doubt many people would bitch about it. Heck, they might even earn brownie points.

Edit : Btw, why do we keep giving Hurricanes such friendly names? I have a cousin called Katrina, for fuck's sake. Can we please start giving hurricanes names like Satan, Cthulhu, Lucifer, Baphomet and such? Besides, it sounds more ominous too. "Hurricane Lucifer is bearing down on NO, city evacuated!"

I don't think you can, as it will offend the people that want to dumb-down your school systems.

I've been in the unfortunate position of having guns pointed at me threateningly on three separate occasions in my lifetime:

So have I, twice in Canada and once in California. All drug/criminal related. Not a great feeling. Enough said.

After reading these forums it seems that many want to blame it on people and their 'own stupidity' for staying in that zone. Bitching at the looters, bitching at anarchy and the government in one sentence.

To me, it just shows the true Colours of Americans. A disaster hits them and they turn into animals fucking each other over and the ones on the outside that may or may not have ever lived through a disaster, blame the ones in it.

You should be showing sympathy and helping your brothers, instead of sitting back, typing in how those 'fucking old people in the old folks home deserve to die, because they couldn't find a ride', bullshit. Alls you can do is spout off blame over and over again. I'm suprised nobodies suggested filing lawsuits againts the victims yet.

It really makes you look like a bunch of self serving assholes. It's just frustrating. I feel for your kin and I don't even live in your country. It's like you lost your humanity on the way somewhere. Sad.

I'd have hoped that Americans would come together to protect their own, but I just see a lot of blame, politics and self-serving bullshit. Like I said. Your true colors shine through quite effectivley. No wonder the planet despises you.

Moonbender Wrote:

You people show a disrespect for life that is, quite frankly, chilling.

I agree. I guess most people didn't understand the line. In that it wasn't about all of your, 'talking about who is to blame, shit', but how clinically you discuss this and put blame upon people, WHILE THEY ARE DROWNING AND STARVING. I doubt many of you'll get it.

Some of you are very cold people. Cold indeed.

"We have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are getting beaten.
"So all of you non-violent hippie types, what is your solution now? Let them continue?
You must meet force with force, not flowers.

Where did hippies come into it? You're happy that assholes are burning and looting and killing people just so you can call a 'long-haired' person a hippy? Fuck are you a miserable cunt. I'm hoping for martial law, like now. You want to make a point as your fellow americans are murdered. What a cunt you are. xXBatmanXx. What an incredible dick.

PS Is anyone else a little bothered about Blue talking about his dogs for the past two days?

At least we have some levety here. That made me laugh. After reading seven pages of self serving Crap.

I'm rather amazed. I tend to think that Blues News is a 'pulse' on America, with people from all walks of life and parts of the world. Most perhaps a little more educated on average. But all I've seen here is a bunch of blame and excuses and political tirades. I'm not sure, but did *anyone* here actually care about those people? No.

It's very sad and pathetic. Perhaps it's true, America really has gone down the shitter. Think of NO as your drain, and you're all slowly spiralling down into it.

Not to knock the lurkers and compassionate people here, but this thread really shows what some of us are made of.

PS. I don't think your 'Intelligent Design' classes are going to help pull you out of this brain-drain slump either. Y'all seem to be quite on the road to that without its help. Good luck.


My heart goes out to all in the Gulf.

This comment was edited on Sep 2, 00:30.

And at the time Congress pretty unanimously believed that that was a worthwhile war. That Barbara Boxer would vote for a Bush Oil War doesn't sound very likely to me, unless of course she and the other Democrat Senators that voted for the war resolution legitimately believed there was a WMD threat.

Based on LIES! What are not getting about that? It's not fucking rocket science. Bush lied. Plain and simple, and if you can't grasp that extremely simple fact you have zero business discussing politics at all. Why do you Bush sheeple go to the most absurd lengths to defend this criminal in spite of the mountains of evidence against him? I simply have to believe you just don't know how irrational you really are.

So what your advocating then is the end of the Republican perspective in the democratic process. Shit why stop there, why not ensure that the only voice heard in the democratic process is Halsy's voice? After all you clearly know what's best for us.

And what does their CRIMINAL behaviour have to do with being a republican? Last time I checked, Bush and all the rest of the neocons are nothing but RINOs. I'd welcome some REAL republicans into the GOP once more. You, on the other hand clearly don't understand what republican's are supposed to stand for.

What, that they make it more profitable for businesses to do business in the US? Businesses generate wealth, maybe not as evenly as would be ideal, but commerce is the main source of wealth in a society.

And the economy - for all concerned - ALWAYS, and I mean without fail, ALWAYS does better under the democrat. The stock market performs better, the economy is healthier, jobs are more abundant, poverty is reduced. Society as a whole always does better under the democrats.

The pro-business platform of the Republican party isn't so that the rich can get richer

Yes, it is. You have no clue what the hell you're talking about. From subsidies to tax cuts for the rich. EVERYTHING they do is geared to making the rich richer and the poor poorer - including eliminating the middle class. These are people who yearn for the bad ol' days of the Robber Barons. And if you can't see their every action lends creedence to that, you shouldn't be talking at all.

Yet, one more example of the Greed Oil and Plunder party in action...

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/072705T.shtml


"Well...here's to feelin' good all the time!"
- Kramer

Please don't feed the Halsy... he belongs on DU along with the rest of the nutjobs saying shit like where's the evidence people were shooting at helicopters

There is a rumor at CNN that troops are arriving in the area and they have orders to shoot to kill.

I have had a ball playing Blue Shift. The puzzles were just hard enough to have to try a couple of times and then figure them out. I loved the part where you had to use the big machine gun. I have played that over and over.

I did think the way you had to get the HD pack was kind of goofy but it did work in the end.

And I am looking forward to the DOOM movie. If any one cares, any one at all...

Seen any gaming news lately?
Anyone?
Bueller?
Bueller?
Mr. Smart?
Mr. Carmack?
Anyone?

No, but you fuckers let me down. I tried to start a conversation about one of the greatest TV shows of all time, the classic Twilight Zone. But you are all just posing nerds apparently. Nerd chic…losers!


“That's not a toy! “ –Frylock, “You say that about everything you own. You should own toys. They're fun.” –MasterShake.

Seen any gaming news lately?
Anyone?
Bueller?
Bueller?
Mr. Smart?
Mr. Carmack?
Anyone?

Batman... Batman... Can somebody tell me what kind of a world we live in, where a man dressed up as a BAT gets all of my press?