As Rita heads toward the Gulf coast as a Category 4 storm, both the Washington Post (“Experts Say Faulty Levees Caused Much of Flooding”) and the New York Times (“Design Shortcomings Seen in New Orleans Flood Walls”) run stories today that blame the levee breaches in New Orleans on design faults, with the Post reporting that Louisiana’s top hurricane experts have rejected the official explanations for the floodwall collapses that
September 2005
September 20, 2005
From the cold, dead hand of my Soft-Mouthed Sally “life-like” blow up doll
From the Washington Post, “Recruits Sought for Porn Squad”: The FBI is joining the Bush administration’s War on Porn. And it’s looking for a few good agents. Early last month, the bureau’s Washington Field Office began recruiting for a new anti-obscenity squad. Attached to the job posting was a July 29 Electronic Communication from FBI headquarters to all 56 field offices, describing the initiative as “one of the top priorities”
September 20, 2005
PETA-tition
From wwltv, New Orleans: Animal rights group PETA has written to state Attorney General Charles Foti asking that LSU officials be charged with cruelty for abandoning 8,000 animals in the university’s labs in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, according to a spokesperson for the group. State law defines cruelty for abandoning as “completely forsaking and deserting an animal previously under the custody or possession of a person without making reasonable
September 20, 2005
The swirly cone of Allah and the Flight 93 Memorial, redux
My earlier post on the real-world implications of linguistic notions of interpretation raised some interesting questions, which I’ll attempt to address in short order as a way to move the conversation to a more manageable thread. Quickly: The Piss Christ, which some of you have offered as an example of a hypothetical wherein the piece is offensive regardless of the artist’s intent to offend, is an inapt example, I think—first,
September 20, 2005
Grieving Mom Cindy Sheehan and 70s Kung-fu expert and counterculture icon Billy Jack discuss strategies for twenty-first century anti-war activism while ostensibly maintaining their commitments to fighting global terrorism, 6
“My White House vigil is coming up, Billy. And this time I’ll be joined by Katrina survivors. Because in Bush’s America we are all victims—from those of us who’ve lost a child to the Presdident’s illegal war to those of us who’ve lost, like, a mattress, to Bush’s illegal hurricane. Which is why it’s time for us to stand up and be counted: to show the media, Congress, and this
September 20, 2005
Another Tequila Sunrise
A couple weeks old, this piece on the Minuteman project by the Weekly Standard’s Matt Labash is nevertheless worth highlighting. From “North of the Border”: IF GUYS LIKE CHRIS SIMCOX seem a bit tightly wound about our border being in crisis, it’s because he lives there, and it is. This he demonstrates by taking me out one night on patrol in the Huachuca Mountains and San Pedro River Valley. With
September 20, 2005
red pills found behind the sofa cushions, prolepsis 10
In the patrician worldview of sea monkey royalty, each piece of leftover pizza or cold, tinfoil-wrapped Asada chicken is a refrigerated tribute owed the Sea Monkey King, his presumptousness a fair trade, I figure, for the colorful, malt liquor-fueled tales he spins of deep sea intrigue—vivid, rambling stories that invariably end with a couple of decapitated manatees and a trio of mermaids engaged in shimmering acts of nasty, flippered gratification.
September 19, 2005
Nagin suspends re-entry into the City of New Orleans; asks Algiers to prepare to evacuate by Wednesday
The Washingon Post yesterday noted a potential standoff between the feds and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin over the Mayor’s overtures about allowing evacuees back into New Orleans and its environs immediately—a standoff that has for the time being been avoided in the wake of Nagin’s Monday afternoon press conference (just now completed). Citing worries over tropical storm Rita, Nagin announced the suspension of re-entry into New Orleans and called
September 19, 2005
“A poem on the occasion of International Talk Like a Pirate Day”
for E.C. Segar Though he wasn’t really a pirate per se, the old man who panhandled in front of the Safeway would let me rub his hook for pocket change and a can of creamed spinach.*
September 19, 2005
“N. Korea Pledges to Drop Nuclear Program”
From the AP: North Korea agreed Monday to stop building nuclear weapons and allow international inspections in exchange for energy aid, economic cooperation and security assurances, a breakthrough that marked a first step toward disarmament after two years of six-nation talks. The chief U.S. envoy to the talks praised the development as a “win-win situation” and “good agreement for all of us.” But he promptly urged Pyongyang to make good