Russians?

Before I start my morning rant I want to say my thoughts and prayers go out to those effected by hurricane Katrina and I'm happy to hear the friends I have there and their families are all ok.

Ok.

Earlier this morning at work, I'm listening to Coast to Coast AM with George Noory as usual. He starts his program off with news of Katrina and introduced his guest for the night, Scott Stevens, who is a weatherman for a TV station in Idaho.

Good. Some talk about the hurricane from a meteorological perspective. I've always been fascinated by violent weather so this aught to be good.

The interview starts off good, but then he gets a bit out there. His hypothesis is a good one, but I really can't believe that storm was man-made.

That's what he's saying. Someone formed Katrina and 'steered' it towards New Orleans on purpose to destroy the oil refineries. That someone is those nasty, evil Russians...

Russians? Sounds like a plot from James Bond to me.

Go here to read about it:

http://www.weatherwars.info/Katrina.htm

It gets better. He goes on to say that an unknown "puff" of dry air from Texas came in at the last moment to nudge Katrina further east, sparing The Big Easy from a direct hit from a Category 5 hurricane. Where this unexpected puff of air came from is baffling the weather guys. He supposes that this air was made by the Good Guys (us). But the Russians creating the hurricane?

So now the Superpowers can change the weather? If that's the case why don't they make every day 80 F, low humidity and sunny?

New Orleans might have been spared the full force of Katrina, but when the levees broke it left the city submerged under up to twenty feet of water, effectively destroying the city as surely as if someone had popped a nuke on Bourbon St.

The conservative estimates this morning are about 50 Billion dollars in damages, and in my opinion it probably won't even be economically viable to rebuild. I wouldn't doubt it will rise into the trillions of dollars after all is said and done.

One thing they did bring up this morning though was that not one word or offer of help came from any other nation, now two days after the storm.

Kofi Annan from his throne in the UN did have this to say:

"I see even rich nations can have disasters."

Gee thanks, asshole.

How come every time there's a natural disaster somewhere in the world, the US is the first one in to help with sleeves rolled up...

But let one thing happen here and where is all of our "friends"?

Last December, twentyfour hours after the Tsunami hit, George Bush pledged 400 million dollars in assistance and was called "Cheap" by other nations. And that 400 million was 300 million more than other European countries offered, combined.

within days of that disaster, US Navy ships were off the coast rendering medical assistance, flying in water and other sundries. Today are there any French or British warships in the Gulf of Mexico helping out?

Nope. And I really don't expect to see them either.

We'll survive this. We always have. But maybe I think that next time a Tsunami hits Japan, or some earthquake devastates some city in Brazil, Or a dam breaks in China killing thousands we should just sit that one out.

Copyright 2005 Thomas J Wolfenden