Collected Rants

A lot of writers are making the same basic point: we have a failed government that has blithely let a city die, and left thousands of its inhabitants at risk of dying. I'm not going to bother, but here are some:

Steve Gilliard

But the utter lack of imagination here is astounding. The things Special Opeation Command does is quite suited for New Orleans. But no one seemed to realize they could be used en masse. And one of the things they could have done is shore up the police, who are deserting in large numbers. They have just lost their nerve. No food and no communication can do that to you. Special Forces could have provided the professional support needed and aided in rescues. Instead, people are still waiting.

Paul Krugman

I don't think this is a simple tale of incompetence. The reason the military wasn't rushed in to help along the Gulf Coast is, I believe, the same reason nothing was done to stop looting after the fall of Baghdad. Flood control was neglected for the same reason our troops in Iraq didn't get adequate armor.

At a fundamental level, I'd argue, our current leaders just aren't serious about some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they don't like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on preventive measures. And they never, ever ask for shared sacrifice.

Kevin Drum

It took days for this to start happening despite plenty of warning from the weather service and disaster experts and despite the fact that these are the well-understood requirements for almost any large scale disaster. At least, this was all well understood before FEMA got privatized, downsized, and staffed with political hacks. Now all they're left with is pathetic excuses.

And many more...

What he said

Tom Tomorrow

If you live in a major American city, you better pray there's never a terrorist attack of this magnitude. Because this is the best these fuckers can do with several day's notice before the disaster hits and 90% of the city having had time to evacuate beforehand. So unless the terrorists are kind enough to give advance notice, you are well and truly fucked.

Time to hit Costco and lay in a store of canned goods. And thoughts of guns run through my head, although I am the least heat-packing type of person imaginable.

"Government is the enemy until you need a friend."

A Republican said that, believe it or not. E. J. Dionne brought it up today.

OK, it was the kind of republican who could serve as defense secretary under Bill Clinton. Boy, wouldn't it be nice to have that kind of Republican around today? I'm at an age where I could really go for a fiscally-conservative, good-government, chamber of commerce type. As opposed to the incompetent destroyers we have there now.

Leaders

I've had CNN on in the background most of the last few days. Yesterday, there briefly appeared the mayor of San Antonio, Phil Hardberger. He impressed me: with a dignified bearing, he expressed sympathy for the victims of the flood and welcomed them to his city. I'm not sure why but I had a very immediate and positive reaction to this Texas politician, as opposed to a certain other one who serves as preznit.

Bush is a mystery to me. Everything about him screams "small man". His incompetence, not just in real matters (like funding disaster relief) but in the symbolic role of leader. Strumming a guitar while a city is destroyed? He's been compared to Nero, but he doesn't have the stature for that. He's just a boob. But how did such a boob get elected president, twice? Is boobdome really so appealing for such a large swathe of the country? Well, yes, sorry, that's a stupid question.

Oh well, I think his time just passed. It may have taken the destruction of a major American city and the loss of thousands of American lives, but I think people will start to wake up. When even Peggy Noonan starts to question, ever so slightly, the competence of a Republican president, you know something has shifted in the great quivering American collective consciousness.

We are so fucked

Welcome to the third world. Refugees, dead bodies floating down the river, armed gangs controlling large parts a terrifying urban landscape. Ineffectual government devoted mostly to looting the treasury and lining their own pockets. A growing gap between rich and poor. Corrupted elections with farcical leaders.

Wha? What Happened? Blog?

I just wanted to respond to a posting on the Freakonomics blog. and the sticky features of Blogger seem to have led me to creating a blog of my own! That's impressive marketing, or whatever you want to call it. Oh well, let's see how it goes. I've run a blog under this name in the past (using Movable Type) but gave it up when I realized that being profound on a daily basis was beyond me. But I'm willing to be led down the garden path once more, at the end of which lies, not fame, certainly not fortune, but membership in what passes for intellectual community these days.

Outsourcing and levels of analysis

My contribution to a discussion on MaxSpeak entitled (ironically) OUTSOURCING IS GOOD FOR YOU:

I'm puzzled that people have such a hard time with questions like this. Regardless of the details of various economic theories, it's perfectly possible that outsourcing and free trade, like many other large-scale social changes, is a net gain in the aggregate and in the long-term, yet causes much misery to individuals in the short term.

For an analogy, industrialization caused tremendous misery and dislocations, but was on the whole a good thing. Globalization is likely to be the same, although we don't know yet.

It's not surprising that academic economists should take the long-term view and support this process while ordinary individuals put their own self-interest first. Trying to come up with a binary answer to "outsourcing: good or bad" seems incredibly simpleminded to me.

Or as Aleister Crowley put it, "The universe is a practical joke of the general at the expense of the particular."