Badtux the Snarky Penguin

In a time of chimpanzees, I was a penguin.

Religious fundamentalists are motivated by the sneaking suspicion that someone, somewhere, is having fun -- and that this must be stopped.

Monday, October 17, 2005

Ut-oh...

My supply of hot sauce has been disrupted... Baumer Foods, Inc., the makers of Crystal Extra-Hot, are (were) based in New Orleans. Gah! Luckily, I did a web search and found their new home page (the cox.net page of one of their managers) which states that they've scrounged up enough equipment to get back up and running in Metairie, and are starting their first new batch of hot sauce this week (yippee!!!!).

My other source of fundamental subsistence supplies, Community Coffee, was affected in that one of their warehouses of unprocessed coffee beans spoiled after unloading in New Orleans because of the loss of power at the warehouse. But they're still in business -- just 50 cents per pound more expensive in order to pay for the loss. Sigh.

BTW, there is a humanitarian disaster going on in slow motion as we speak. The state is bankrupt, most cities and towns are bankrupt, 50% of Louisiana now qualifies for Medicaid but there is no money to pay for it, 50% of Louisiana now qualifies for food stamps but there is no money to pay for it... there are going to be a lot of very hungry and sick people in Louisiana within the near future, as the resources currently being funneled in from outside via the Red Cross et. al. disappear as other disasters take the headlines. I laughingly joked, prior to the hurricane, that Louisiana was a third-world nation. Now I'm not so sure it's going to be a joke... there is going to be a *lot* of people living in the rubble of their former homes as they get kicked out of shelters and hotels and relatives' homes. It's going to be a 3rd world scene like one we haven't seen in this nation for over 70 years, with dirty, malnourished, sick children and their families living in tarp-covered rubble.

I already mentioned how the Western Roman Empire collapsed after its emperors grew tired of the mundane task of maintaining the infrastructure and pursued pure power for the sake of power. By the end of the Empire, what had been the greatest city in Europe, a city of over a million people, was a crumbling ruin with maybe 100,000 people sheltering in the rubble. But the ruin of Rome was preceded by the ruin of outlying areas of the Empire. In the American Empire, it appears that 1/50th of the Empire has now been reduced to ruins by looting and weather... how much, then, until the remainder falls?

- Badtux the Depressed Penguin

Posted by: BadTux / 10/17/2005 02:23:00 PM

Comments:

By the time the fundies and neocons are finished, America WILL be a Third World country. They're dismantling the entire infrastructure of our civil society and aggressively encouraging a pre-Enlightenment mentality and lack of education.

I can easily see the Right turning America into another Brazil or Colombia, where the rich live under heavy guard and the poor are left to fend for themselves under total anarchy. Ever see "City of God" or "Our Lady of the Assassins"? That's what the fundies would like to see us become.
# posted by drumwolf : 17/10/05 9:15 PM

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More to follow, after I finish cursing SOB chickenhawks and get my breath back...

"Keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce." -- Molly Ivins, 1944-2007

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."

-- Plato

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