Interesting stuff

[ThongMagnet]

THINK ABOUT THIS FOR A MOMENT.
Denver Post:
This text is from a county emergency manager out in the central part of Colorado after todays snowstorm.
WEATHER BULLETIN
Up here, in the Northern Plains, we just recovered from a Historic event--- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.
FYI:
George Bush did not come.
FEMA did nothing.
No one howled for the government.
No one blamed the government.
No one even uttered an expletive on TV .
Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.
Our Mayor did not blame Bush or anyone else.
Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else, either.
CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit - or report on this category 5 snowstorm. Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.
No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.
No one looted.
Nobody - I mean Nobody demanded the government do something.
Nobody expected the government to do anything, either.
No Larry King, No Bill O'Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera.
No Shaun Penn, No Bar bara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.
Nope, we just melted the snow for water.
Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.
The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny.
Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families.
Families took in the stranded people - total strangers.
We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.
We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die".
We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks.
Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.
"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world's social problems evaporate."
It does seem that way, at least to me.

[HALLETT BOY]

Too funny, right on !

[Kesttrall]

Errrmm...well, this is very nice, I mean that Denver is so self sufficient and all. They should be proud of that. I know I would be very proud of being in a bad situation that I got myself out of.
But this post implies that the author considers the white folks of Denver to be better than the no so white folks of New Orleans. I mean, Denver's population is divided into 51.9% White, 11.1% Black, and New Orleans is 67.25% African American, 28.05% White. I think people have to be taught to be self sufficient. There's that whole welfare thing where they kinda give the fish over instead of teaching one to catch the fish. Years of that can kinda break down your self sufficient edge, especially when, IF you make any money, they cut your allotment back severely, so you really can't get ahead when you're on government assistance. It's kinda designed to suppress success, in my humble opinion. But, that's just the way I was raised.
Still, 44 inches is a LOT of snow. But it's a damn site easier to light your stove or fireplace when it's snowed, than when you're under 6 feet of water. I don't think anyone that wasn't an engineer thought the levees in New Orleans would give way and cause so much trouble.
Although, they certainly were a LOT warmer in New Orleans, and surely didn't need fireplaces. It was warm enough for diseases to flourish. There were a lot of bacteria lurking about in the waters of New Orleans. And, your stores of food are probably not as wet when there's snow rather than flood. Wet food isn't very good. And if your power goes out you could always put your food in the snow on the deck (like us Michiganians do during winter power outages). We here in Michigan don't worry so much about grocery losses in a winter power outage, like we do in the summer. O I HATE it when I have a freezer full of food and the power goes out in summer. grrrrr!
And since the per capita income in Denver is $45,957, when you compare that to the per capita income of New Orleans (which is $17,258) I mean most everybody in Denver probably has a snowmobile, right? You'd almost have to have one in any rural area of the Northern tier or Rocky States. So, if you ran out of groceries I guess you could use the snowmobile to get more. Well, a snowmobile wouldn't work too well under water. Although, I did see pictures of a lot of people floating on pieces of wood in New Orleans. I guess they could have walked in the flood water if they were tall enough, but the bodies of people and animals floating in it would have made that kinda gross. Ewww, that would have grossed ME out!
And, certainly, while the snow piles up around your property, it can be isolating and frightening. I know I despise feeling isolated during Michigan's meager snowstorms. But, you can light your fireplace up, or turn on your stove and huddle up to keep warm, have food that has kept dry in your house because it's not full of water and sewer overflow. Still, it might have been nice to eat a wet sandwich lunch on a hot, sunny roof in New Orleans after Hurrican Katrina. I don't know I haven't been to either Denver or New Orleans.
There was only one reported death during the blizzard in Denver, of course that doesn't mean there won't be more in the end. New Orleans final death count was 964 as of 10/05, but it seems like I heard they had found more bodies there while cleaning up this summer. I guess there were about 4500 cattle killed in Colorado, though. That's only a fraction of the some 300.000 cattle raised there, according to the Denver Post. And, besides, the ranchers will make back the money lost on those cattle by hiking our beef prices this year. But, I do feel sorry for the cows there, it must have been sad to hear them lowing for food or to be helped out of 3 feet of snow and nobody could get to them.
And, BTW, If Denver WANTS Jackson and Sharpton to visit them I think they'll come, but they don't really have a constituency in Denver, do they?
As for celebrity visitors like Striesand or whoever, I'm sure they're going to come to Colorado this year because the skiing in Colorado will be AWESOME . I'm not sure if the beaches are clean enough yet in New Orleans to swim, I mean, that yucky e.coli and all. Are there any 'beaches' in New Orleans. They have that ugly oil rig stuff there. I remember seeing huge chemical fires after the hurricane in the canals. The Streetcars are running though!
While I am proud of Denver's self sufficient handling of their horrible and devastating blizzard this year, I think to compare it (at least to IMPLY it's comparison) to the devastation of New Orleans is like comparing apples to atom bombs.
But, thanks for the insight.

[Sand Dawg]

thongmagnet..you make a great point.