State-Induced Chaos Is Not Anarchy

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sat, 03 Sep 2005 12:00:00 GMT
But let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure...

For self is a sea
boundless and measureless.
Say not, "I have found the truth,"
But rather, " I have found a truth."
Say not,
"I have found the path of the soul,"
Say rather, "I have met the soul
walking on my path."
For the soul walks upon all paths.
The soul walks not upon a line,
Neither does it grow like a reed.
The soul unfolds itself,
Like a lotus of countless petals

-- Kahlil Gibran

From clairefiles:

"If the primates that we came from had known that someday politicians would come out of the gene pool, they would have stayed up in the trees and written evolution off as a bad idea." -- Capt. John Sheridan (Babylon 5)

From jomama:

"The theory seems to be that as long as a man is a failure he is one of God's children, but that as soon as he succeeds he is taken over by the Devil." -- H. L. Mencken
and:
"Avoid crowds and other non-profit organizations." -- jomama

From enemyofthestate:

"Anarchy doesn't force people to abandon their homes and businesses. Nor does it compel them to surrender their weapons before imprisoning them in 'untenable' emergency shelters, as Nanny Kate herself characterized them."-- Becky Akers

From kaba:

"The essence of constitutionalism in a democracy is not merely to shape and condition the nature of majorities, but also to stipulate that certain things are impermissible, no matter how large and fervent a majority might want them." -- George Will

# CNN - Mayor of New Orleans - Ray Nagin is angry at the federal response to the disaster in New Orleans. Includes radio interview and transcript. I had to use Internet Explorer to get the media to play. [clairefiles]

You know, God is lookin' down on all this, and if they're not doin' everything in their power to save people, they are going to pay the price.

# Tom Knapp - When it absolutely, positively must be screwed up overnight ... call the government. Angry words about the "authorities" in New Orleans wasting men on stopping people salvaging abandoned goods instead of getting people out of the area. He recommends giving money to private charities who are actually helping. If the feds wants to help, they should authorize a 200% tax credit for all such donations. [sunni]

The people grabbing food, clothing and other necessities of survival from store shelves in New Orleans aren't "looters." They're salvaging abandoned goods which will be nothing more than garbage if they aren't taken and used right now. Apparently Mayor Nagin and Governor Babineaux are more intent on preventing this kind of survival activity than they are on helping get people out of the situation that is giving rise to this kind of behavior.

# Mark Fischetti at Scientific American - Drowning New Orleans - an unheeded warning from October of 2001. [warblogging]

A major hurricane could swamp New Orleans under 20 feet of water, killing thousands. Human activities along the Mississippi River have dramatically increased the risk, and now only massive reengineering of southeastern Louisiana can save the city

# Nicki Felenzer - Leaving tonight - Nicki is "deploying to Louisiana in support of efforts to help the victims of the hurricane." Godspeed, darlin'. [nicki]

# Bob Wallace at The Price of Liberty - Gun Control Equals Murder - even a .22 derringer could have saved two teenage girls who were raped and thrown off the Chain of Rocks bridge. [price]

In the last ten years I have yet to find anyone who can come up with a reason for gun control.

I'm still waiting.

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