Sadly, No!

Things are not good in the Gulf Coast area, but:

After touring the destruction by air, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said it is not of case of homes being severely damaged, “they’re simply not there. … I can only imagine that this is what Hiroshima looked like 60 years ago.

Except for the number of dead bodies and stuff:

The nuclear weapon Little Boy, which killed an estimated 80,000 civilians and heavily damaged the city, was the second such device to be detonated, and the first ever used in military action.

Or:

By 1950, another 230,000 Japanese had died from injuries or radiation.

Hiroshima.

The entries and (equally) comments at Metroblogging have the best up-to-date reports on New Orleans.

The broadcast media has been using old footage and routinizing the disaster to fit the template of a standard Florida-style hurricane story. But it seems much worse than that: The city is effectively in chaos, with no end in sight. The best media source is the Times-Picayune, the entire staff of which is now ‘at large’ (the paper is in temporary offices, publishing only its online edition).

But the scarcity of hard information from New Orleans is startling. Most residents have left the city, and there are few channels of communication open for those who have stayed, but if anyone has a good source to post in comments, I’ll bump it up pronto to the main page.

Added: These folks are putting together photographic flood maps using Google Earth. The downside, as with many such techie projects (I grabbed the link from BoingBoing) is that you need to be set up with existing trendware to view the files — in this case Google Earth, which is, to put it mildly, a resource-intensive program.

Added (thanks, Scaramouche!): http://lifegoesoff.blogspot.com/, http://nokatrina.blogspot.com/
Both have good links to NOLA media and breaking information. 

Free Opera for everybody.

I’ve only been away for three days, but in that time, Renew America posted a ton of extra-kooky columns. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do, so let’s start with R.A.’s hottest new columnist, Tom Kovach!

Since Tom’s the new kid on the block, he’s trying extra hard to show that he belongs in the same class as wingnut heavyweights like Kaye Grogan and Justin Darr. And to prove his worthiness, he’s written this super-zany column about the minimum wage:

Minimum wage: “new deal” vs. “square deal”

Tom Kovach
August 30, 2005

The political Left is at it again. There are new rumblings ? mostly from Democrats, with their Socialist allies ? about raising the minimum wage. They claim that American workers are “economically oppressed,” and need relief from those greedy capitalists. You know, the ones that pay the taxes that the Left likes to spend on midnight basketball, and other “strategies.”)

Ah yes. We all know how crushing the tax burden on the rich has become. (Seriously, hiding your money in overseas shelters is hard work!)
Read the rest of this entry »

Last I saw Dan, he was running a recording studio in the storefront that later became his raw-food restaurant, Quintessence, on E. 10th St. — he was living with Debbie of the False Prophets in a loft above what’s now the dining room. Chicken John was also living there, or crashing, or keeping his stuff in the basement (or something), and I was playing bass with John’s band-at-the-time, Letch Patrol. We’d record in what’s now (I think) Quintessence’s kitchen, while Dan and Debbie argued upstairs about all the weirdos who were always hanging around the place.

Right, ‘Letch Patrol’ — ‘food in the raw.’ Puns springing up like hollyhocks. See, you turn around and suddenly people are on the cover of the NY Post. There are like, what, a couple hundred residents of downtown Manhattan? Because it’s just the same people over and over.

(Pic & clip stolen from the doughty Steve Gilliard.)

Restaurant boss in raw – tipsters

Is he subway flasher?

BY TRACY CONNOR and ALISON GENDAR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Cops want to question a Manhattan restaurant owner after getting numerous tips that he’s the subway flasher caught in the act by camera phone, police sources said last night.

Nearly two dozen people have phoned the Daily News and the NYPD to say they believe Dan Hoyt, co-owner of raw-food eateries called Quintessence, is the man whose photo appeared on the cover of Saturday’s paper.

Investigators contacted Hoyt by phone and asked him to come in for an interview, NYPD sources said. No arrests have been made.

Hoyt did not return The News’ calls, and his business partner and ex-wife, Tolentin Chan, said, “It’s not proven yet.”

She said whoever the flasher is, he needs counseling.

“There should be a support center to support these men to find what is the cause of their action instead of …putting them in jail,” she said.

Hoyt and Chan co-own two restaurants, one on E. 10th St. in the East Village and the other on Amsterdam Ave., and are well known in the raw food movement, which calls for serving uncooked food.

Hey, I just moved into a new apartment and am still unpacking shite. Be back with a super-special post tomorrow.

UPDATE: OK, I’m back for a bit. I forgot to mention that I found the perfect job for Ben Shapiro:

LUDZIDZINI ROYAL VILLAGE, Swaziland – More than 50,000 bare-breasted virgins vied to become the King of Swaziland?s 13th wife on Monday…

C’mon, Ben, what do those lame-asses have that you don’t? Now fly to Swaziland and show the king them boobies! Look, you’d even be paying tribute to the symbol of the Republican Party:

Wielding machetes and singing tributes to the king and queen mother, also known as the Great She-Elephant, the girls danced around the royal stadium in the hope of catching the eye of the 37-year-old monarch.

Shake it, Ben, shake it!

Nothing makes Opinion Journal crazier than The Flat Tax (Crazy Jesus Lady is a close second.) John Fund writes:

After being mired in stagnation for years, in 2001 Russia implemented a flat tax of 13% for individuals, along with a 15% rate for most business income. The economy grew 7.3% last year, thanks in part to underground activity going legitimate, more than doubling revenues from income taxes.

Luckily for John Fund, not a lot of people follow the Russian economy that closely. Sadly for John Fund, Google does:

Economic growth in Russia is estimated to have been around 6-7 per cent in 2000. […] The high price of commodities on the global market and the devaluation of the rouble after the 1998 crisis have particularly supported strong economic growth in Russia. Export has increased as a result of devaluation. Likewise, the price of imported goods has increased. For this reason, industries to replace imports have been developed in several sectors.

The traitorous French add (PDF🙂

The positive effects of the 1998 devaluation of the rouble (domestic output partially replaced imports)
and the surge in oil prices since 1999, accompanied by the steady rise in export volumes, are widely acknowledged
as the drivers of Russia’s economic turnaround after the 1988 crisis.

Let’s make this a slam dunk, ok?

The economy rebounded in 1999 and 2000, buoyed by the competitive boost from the weak ruble and a surging trade surplus fueled by rising world oil prices.

Speaking of slam dunks, we’ll let the CIA wrap this one up:

Russia ended 2004 with its sixth straight year of growth, averaging 6.5% annually since the financial crisis of 1998. […] Economic growth slowed down in the second half of 2004 and the Russian government forecasts growth of only 4.5% to 6.2% for 2005. Oil, natural gas, metals, and timber account for more than 80% of exports, leaving the country vulnerable to swings in world prices.

John Fund also throws in:

Greece is likely to introduce a 25% single rate for both corporate and personal income next month.

Given that the US pretty much has an effective federal tax rate of 25%, John should be pretty happy. [Ooh, a Sadly, No! classic.]

Apparently, yes! Responding to their hate mail bage, The Rant writes:

I really enjoy this revival of smugness over WMD. This is the only ammunition you short- sighted I told you so nags have in your arsenal.

Bonus: We defy anyone, and that includes Dr. BLT, to make sense of this:

Just as dwelling in the recent past is endemic among the less than literate, looking into the future any farther than whether the barmaid will be back from the head soon enough to fix you another Pink Squirrel is the outside limit of foresight. Planning for the future, like maybe drinking that Squirrel in front of you a little slower to prevent the anxiety of an empty glass, is not in your skill set. Review what was found in Iraq and remember that you big mouth counterfeit altruists are the hypocrites. You have brushed aside the suffering of entire nation so you can continue wagging your finger saying I told you so, ignoring world history and refusing to have the balls to look into the future.

W
T
F
?

We’re certainly not working on a mash-up Flash video for Dr. BLT‘s new song, The Folks at Sadly, No!

Not Toots Hibbert of the Maytals

Because no one likes homosexuals more than John Derbyshire.

So we say: Go Brian! (It’s must see TV.)

Warning: Contains a naked George Bush and homosexuals. Hooray!