A new spin on the Iraq situation
Aug 28th, 2005 by Jason
The Rev. Fred Phelps, founder of Westboro Baptist in Kansas, contends that American soldiers are being killed in Iraq as vengeance from God for protecting a country that harbors gays. The church, which is not affiliated with a larger denomination, is made up mostly of Phelps’ children, grandchildren and in-laws.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Over?!? 
Since New Orleans missed “the big one”, do you think it’s because all that debauchery is actually OK after all?
This is really rotten of me, but I was kinda hoping that Lake Whatchacallit would really flood the heck out of New Orleans. Not that I want to see anyone get killed, but from what I hear, the place needs to be flushed anyways.
Dear God, please let us be blessed in the end for not thinking insane, idiotic, and ignorant thoughts like that. Amen.
I guess you got your wish. The levee didn’t hold, and the water level is rising, it’s rapidly becoming Lake New Orleans.
There’s been a prision riot, they’ve declared marshall law, and the looting is everywhere.
Norm, one of my employees, is from New Orleans. The last he heard from his brother, he was on his way to Galveston on Saturday. . . He also has no idea what happened to his Mom or his Grandma, who also still live there - or they did.
oh sure, blame it on the rump rangers…….
I blame it on wishful thinking, and the fact that if there’s going to be cat-5 hurricaines, they have to go somewhere, and everybody thinks someone else will be the lucky winner.
You can find articles - dating back at least a couple of years, where the ‘leaders’ of the area were in agreement - a 3+ hurricaine hitting the area would be catastrophic. They had ideas about what they could do to mitigate the impact, but those things cost $$$, and, so they say, most of the money that might have been used to shore up the levees went to the war.
So, we can blame it on Usama.
FWIW, I was only hoping for some cool flooding, not headlines like:
‘Thousands dead’ in New Orleans
Carol, I hope it works out for your employee and his family.
An update - So far, Norm’s brother has turned up, and he ‘moved’ from texas to Baton Rouge, where he’s going to work from. He’s now going to start collecting bodies. I think we’ll start to see real counts soon.
As far as Norm’s Mom & Grandma, still no word. Hopefully, once his brother gets to New Orleans, he’ll be able to see if he can find out where she ended up. Lots of people are ‘lost’ in various towns and cities, and unable to communicate with their families, so I think we can still hope for the best, and that they’ll contact Norm as soon as they can.
Another update. Norm’s brother’s house in New Orleans had only minor damage, and he’s back to work - stacking bodies in refrigerated trailers. He expects thousands of dead. They’re removing some teeth, and taking finger prints to aid in later identification of the dead.
Norm’s Mom & Grandma were still missing as of yesterday.
Michael has emailed a link to the clip of Norm being interviewed on the news here.
Here’s the link to Norm’s interview for anyone else who might want to see it.
I can’t even imagine how frustrating it would be to not know the whereabouts of family members, or even if they were still alive.
Not that anyone is reading, I’m sure, but Norm’s Grandma has turned up in a hospital in Texas. She’s pretty sick, but some of her family is there with her.
Norm’s mom called today - she’s been through the wringer - stranded in her house, it flooded over 8 feet high, so had to swim to a better spot, was rescued by a flat boat who left her at the no-food no-water I-10 spot, and she left there under threat of being shot by a trooper. !! She had left her car on ‘high ground’ at a shopping mall, so she found her way there. Here she gets ‘fuzzy’ on the details - she knows she drove to Oklahoma, ended up in the hospital, and now is in a shelter, but she doesn’t know what day what happened, and she really doesn’t remember driving there. She’s still in shock over it all.
She’s lost everything, except her wallet and her car. She’s hoping to leave the shelter in a few days, and drive to Portland.
With things as they are, I guess that’s considered a happy ending?!
How’s Norm doing?