A particularly scary aspect of this is that many of these troops spent time in Afghanistan and/or Iraq. They may be all too ready to shoot first and ask questions later of suspicious looking “hoodlums.”
Playing Devil’s Advocate, however, NO is in chaos, quite a few residents are armed and dangerous, and there have been no few instances of lootings, muggings, rapes, and murders. It’s a risky place to be.
According to this news story, even at the Superdome two children were reportedly raped.
Excerpt:
‘National disgrace’
As US Congress was in the process of passing a $14 billion plan for emergency disaster relief, the head of New Orleans’s emergency operations, Terry Ebbert, called the response effort “a national disgrace”.
Mr Ebert said the Federal Emergency Management Agency had been in the city for three days “yet there is no command and control”.
“We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims but we can’t bail out the city of New Orleans,” he said.
Knowing the problems of statist central planning in theory does not compare to seeing it unfold in real life. Check out the link above for a moving example of what happens under statist central planning.
A word on military and military-related acronyms:
SNAFU: Situation Normal All F**ked Up
CF: Charlie Foxtrot, or Clusterf**k, which is about equivalent to SNAFU
FUMTU: F**ked Up More Than Usual
FUBAR: F**ked Up Beyond ALL Recognition
(I used to know more like these, but I’ve forgotten them.)
It is telling when a phrase like SNAFU becomes part of the culture of the bureaucratic military. I’d say the government’s handling of this natural disaster qualifies as FUBAR.
Oh, and it bears repeating again and again that the situation in New Orleans is not, I repeat, is not anarchy. It is sheer chaos. Anarchy does not equal chaos. Anarchy simply means no rulers or no State. It does not, in and of itself, mean no rule of law.
This just in via email from the LSU Chancellor, and former NASA Chief, Sean O’Keefe. (Hey, that rhymes.)
There have been confirmed reports of civil unrest in the Baton Rouge area this morning. These incidents appear to be confined to specific areas in the downtown Baton Rouge area and specific locations around the community. At this time, local law enforcement are reported to have the situation contained. To insure safety, we have instructed that all buildings on campus be locked and we ask that occupants remain indoors. We are confident in the security procedures of LSU Public Safety and these actions will permit their timely response to any incidents that may occur on our campus.
And his policy recommendation?
This is a trying time for all of us in the affected areas and beyond. Our efforts now center on safety and recovery. We are primarily concerned with the safety and well being of the LSU community and we urge that safe choices be made. For those on campus who would feel more secure in their homes, we urge that you leave campus in an orderly fashion. Please be aware that these incidents of unrest in the community make travel an unknown risk at this time. Permitting time for the law enforcement personnel to work through these challenges will likely improve the security outlook in the near term.
Above all else, think through the choices being considered to assure
your safety.
David Heinrich, whom I met at Mises University 2005, has links to Michael Barnett’s blog of live events in New Orleans, complete with pictures and a live webcam feed. Check it out.
Update (11:15 am): Barnett’s livejournal blog has even been noticed by The Register in the UK. Check it out.
I don’t have cable so I can’t confirm this, but it seems that Fox News coverage of the disaster is markedly different from other news sources. Fox News is painting a rosy picture, whereas all evidence is to the contrary. We all know Fox News has a marked (neo)conservative bias. If this person’s observation is accurate, then that bias is being clearly shown now in support of the current administration. We wouldn’t want the People to think Bush and his croney’s, and the LA and New Orleans governments, are typically (or more than typically!) manifesting statist incompetence to protect and serve! Even the other major news media outlets are not necessarily reliable news outlets. Be sure to balance what you hear on tv and in the newspapers with a healthy dose of reality from Barnett’s blog and related unfiltered sources.
Update (11:42 am): Barnett’s blog has a link on BBC now! Check it out. (Look on the right sidebar of links.
Update (4:31 pm): Barnett’s blog has also been noticed by DailyKos. Check it out.
Update (5:24 pm): Barnett’s blog has now been featured on Wired News. Check it out.
Now that my power has been restored I can get back to full-fledged blogging and respond to John Kennedy’s response to my recent post on libertarian strategies. That could be delayed a bit due to the out of town wedding I am attending soon. Until then, Micha Ghertner of Catallarchy posted a quote from John’s earlier post, prompting a debate. I tend to agree with Micha’s comment here. I also agree with Chris Sciabarra’s August 28th, 8:30 PM comment here.
Well, Saj and I came out of the hurricane all right, as did most of Baton Rouge I think. All we got was some really strong wind and some rain…not even much in the way of flooding. The last minute easterly turn of Katrina helped, but even if that had not happened I don’t think we would have been hit too hard as Baton Rouge is about 60 miles northwest of New Orleans. We don’t have electricity or internet access at home. The damned power went out right when I was booting my computer up this morning at around 8:45 am!!! (I’m in my LSU office right now. LSU has its own generator.) All or nearly all of Baton Rouge is without power. We do have running water though. No telling when the power will be restored. Class resumes on Wednesday, but I’ll probably check in again tomorrow. My thoughts go out to those not as fortunate as we.
Update (8/30): Well, we’re still without power, although much of Baton Rouge seems to have power restored. It’s just rotten bad luck for us, because all of the houses, condos, and apartment complexes around us have already had their power restored for at least a day. Something about our feeder lines being messed up. With luck, our power will be restored before we go to bed tonight or before long tomorrow. Our apartment manager said that Entergy was supposed to be on it. We’ll see. I can’t help but wonder what would be the case right now if we had a fully free market in energy production and service. At any rate, we can’t complain much. Aside from some minor leaking during the hurricane, and a loss of electricity for a few days, we came out all right. On a related, academic note, LSU has thrice extended the number of days classes would be cancelled. At first, before the hurricane, classes were only to be cancelled on Monday, then it was pushed back to Tuesday. In the aftermath, LSU has extended class cancellation to this Wednesday and now classes will not resume until Tuesday, September 6th. So it looks like we’ll be getting a decidedly extended vacation of sorts. This will give me some more time to work on my Latin, my book review, and perhaps one of my working papers. On Friday, I head back to Lake Charles to visit the family and attend a friend’s wedding; I’m one of his groomsmen.
Update (8/31): Our electricity was restored sometime this afternoon. Things have largely returned to normal, at least for us. Gas prices are already starting to go up due to increased scarcity and demand. Fill up now.
I live in Baton Rouge and it looks like Hurricane Katrina is heading right for us. We could lose power or internet access, for a day or a week, so I may not be blogging for a while. See you on the other side!
Update (9:31 pm): Vodkapundit has some information on Katrina, the damage she could cause, and past hurricanes that hit my neck of the woods as well as some discussion among his readers. New Orleans will be hard hit unless this thing turns, but hopefully Baton Rouge (being farther inland and a little to the northwest) won’t receive too much damage. As I type we haven’t had much more than some rain so far.
Update (12:10 am): The weather is pretty calm here in Baton Rouge right now. The calm before the storm, so to speak. If Katrina moves along her predicted path, Baton Rouge will be swept by her western, weaker side. I got the following info off of Accuweather.com:
The second landfall for Katrina is expected in southeastern Louisiana around 7 a.m. CT Monday with the worst wind conditions in New Orleans from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Winds will reach 100 mph sustained with gusts to 120 mph but flooding will cause the greatest amount of death and destruction. Wind and flooding will pose the greatest concerns as far east as the Florida/Alabama border. The greatest destruction will cut a 60 mile wide swath across southeastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi.
Katrina will spawn tornadoes across Alabama and eastern Mississippi. The threat from damaging wind gusts, flooding rains and tornadoes will spread northward through Tennessee, Kentucky and into the Midwest early this week.
The winds throughout the South will be strong enough to down not only trees and power lines. In the major destruction zone, structures will fail and collapse and make missiles out of objects that are not tied down. The storm surge will reach as high as 25 feet at landfall.
I’m off to bed soon. More in the morning if I still have power and internet access.