I spoke far too soon

For the past two days I have been watching the painful images of New Orleans, a city dying. I think this is the first time that an entire big American city has been evacuated and closed. At lunch today, a few people were gathered around one of the big TVs in our office, watching coverage of a supermarket being looted. The camera pulled back and I realized it was the Winn-Dixie on Tchoupitoulas St that I shopped at three years ago with the kids when we last visited Steph.

Then I went over to NOLA.com and read that the looters went from that store over to Sports Authority, where people were trying to steal the guns and ammo. Some people have taken a postal truck and are driving it around with assault weapons. At this point, the food and water is running out. As always, I am disgusted with Bush's lack of response to this incredible crisis - but just to calibrate my reaction (since I'm prone to Bush disgust), I looked at a couple of other sites and found out that it's not just me who can't believe what's going on now. This was posted by Rich Lowry on the National Review site:

I know people are sick of this, but one more e-mail:

A lot of Bush fans are frankly aghast at how tone-deaf the president is at this moment. They just showed clips of New Orleans prisoners sitting in a huge group, some of them handcuffed together with plastic cuffs with flood water lapping at their feet. They have been there for two days. Prisoners have their shirts pulled over their noses because the stench is too overwhelming.

Fox News is the only news crew along a particular stretch of highway downtown. Hundreds of people are standing around, wanting to know where they should go to get water and food. They have not had either for days. Shep Smith showed a 3-year-old boy who was sitting in his mother's lap. He was sick and barely conscious. Dehydrated. Hungry. Not a single authority figure was anywhere around. Shep had to turn his interview with a state police spokeswoman into a plea to her to send help to his location for those poor people.

The scenes I'm seeing on Fox are things you'd think you'd only see in Somalia or Bangladesh. This is the United States of America. We can't get a single truck full of water to these people? We can't get a single helicopter to fly over and drop supplies? A cop car and a military truck roll up from the distance, giving the suffering people hope. Do they stop as the desperate wave? No. They drive through. They can't even stop to tell them where they should go to get any life-saving water or food.

I am starting to feel a mixture of outrage and shame...

Gasoline is reported at $4.99/gallon in Atlanta. Stations in North Carolina and South Carolina are running out of supplies. There are lines growing everywhere. Thousands of people are at mortal risk because the federal response has been so slow in coming. Major levee restoration projects were all but cancelled two years ago because Bush shifted the money to Iraq.

Bush needs to resign. That's all there is too it. It's so hard to watch the country crumbling before your eyes, while the president plays his cute little Presidential Guitar. Congratulations, you're Nero. I'm not even angry, because we could've predicted this before it happened. This is all that he is capable of. Why was he not in Louisiana on Tuesday, taking a helicopter tour with Sen. Landrieu? How would that have been so hard? What the HELL is wrong with him? Is he drugged up? We have never had a president who has not done a single thing right, but Bush only has a couple of years left to claim that title.

New Orleans saved; two more pix

Well, as so often happens, God decided to spare the evil city of New Orleans and instead sent the hurricane after the state that elected the former GOP chairman governor. Go figure.

I have two more pix that I took in Montauk last week. This shows the value of my superior new tripod.

Dusk over the Atlantic Ocean
Bonfire on the beach

I am going to miss New Orleans

I've been there...hmm...four times? It's an odd city, and it's always had the feeling that it's living on borrowed time. That might be part cause of its licentious attitude. The French Quarter is sort of disgusting, and always smells like beer vomit. I don't like seafood, and I don't like 98 degree days. However, once you get 5 minutes outside the touristy areas, you can see some incredibly beautiful old homes. You can also see some of the most depressingly poor areas anywhere (like my 5 AM drive on a foggy Airline Hwy to the airport).

Part of the problem has been that all the towns in the area are built where they shouldn't be, on a flood plain. To preserve them, they've built up levees over the years and pumped water out of the city. This has made things worse, because the levees have prevented silt from being deposited back into the wetlands, which are being eaten away quickly by the Gulf. Areas which used to extend some miles around the river now look like a leaf skeleton after being eaten away by bugs. There's nothing left but the river, the levees, and a street or two on either side. And after this hurricane moves through tomorrow, the whole tip of the state will likely just disappear for good, into the sea. The best-case scenario is this cheerful NOAA warning:

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL.
PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD
FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE
BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A
FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE KILLED.

The two people you meet in hell

East Hampton edition:

1. The guy with horseshoe baldness driving a Boxster. You know, if you put the top back up maybe you wouldn't be LOSING ALL YOUR HAIR.

2. The guy driving a big black Escalade...with a peace sticker on it. A PEACE sticker. Here's a tool who buys the biggest, most aggressive passenger vehicle on the road today. I have NEVER seen an Escalade not make some dumb-ass maneuver due to low visibility or just not giving a crap about smaller cars. They get about 12 feet to the gallon. We're at war to ensure a supply of oil from the Middle East. And this guy is going on about PEACE? We're DYING in Iraq to feed your grotesque half-car/half-truck abomination. Peace THIS, ahole.

This was, of course, all set off by the woman in big floppy straw hat, talking too loudly into her cell phone at the Amagansett IGA while flipping through the People Magazine that features that ahole Britney's pregnancy pix. Who. Cares.

Montauk photos

I took a couple of photos at Rita's Stables today. She runs an ad every year in one of those Montauk mini-papers, and she has three calves at her petting zoo that she'd like to feature. Two of them were cuddled up together, and I had to lead the third one over.

A guy brought his family to the petting area, saw my camera, pointed at the lens hood, and asked what it was for. I looked over and saw him wearing a Canon EOS DSLR around his neck. I explained to him what a lens hood is and what it does, and wondered if he's ever going to move beyond the kit lens.

Tonight I went out to try and catch some of the sunset light over Hither Hills. There's this one big dune, sand on one side and grass on the other, that I always liked. I was hoping that it would get a nice orange cast from the sunset, but it was not to be. Nevertheless, I did get two nice images out of the trip.

Dune at dusk
Blue dune

Septic

The downstairs toilet in Montauk won't flush. The basement is always wet. When I run the dishwasher, the toilet blubs. I call the plumber.

He comes in, takes one look, and says "how old is your septic system?" Uh oh. That's the first thing you never want to hear. We go outside and he shows me an escape valve pipe. The waste pipe has a vent on it. Every time I've plunged the toilet, it's just caused the water and stuff to be shoved out the vent and into our little side yard area. There's toilet paper hanging off the vent. Everything's nasty.

The plumber starts poking around for the septic tank and finds it in the front yard. He digs it up. It's clogged. He looks at the tank and says that it holds about 40 gallons. Never saw one that small before. I ask him if it needs to be flushed. He says that it's only 40 gallons, so it doesn't matter. Then he starts rootering it from the tank end. He pulls stuff out. More and more stuff. Tons of stuff. He calls out to me that people shouldn't flush feminine protection. I told him that I can guarantee that it wasn't me. Then he asks me to flush all the toilets.

Everything starts moving again as the pipe belches forth the last of its clogs, into the miniature tank. All clear. Since it hasn't rained out here in five weeks, the dirt covering the tank doesn't look much different from the rest of the lawn.

Then the mowing service comes and mows our inch-high field of brown straw for the week so they can charge us $40.

Even the SPORTS columns...

...are sick of Bush.

But nobody wants to hear about his impressive pulse rate and body-fat
percentages when American boys and girls are dying overseas, and when lawmakers
start throwing around the dreaded V-word — Vietnam — in the daily dialogue on
Iraq.

. . .

Bush didn't need to keep his Tour-de-Farce date with Armstrong even if
Cindy Sheehan had left "Camp Casey," named for her fallen son, to be with her
ailing mother. No president refusing to spend an hour with the parent of a dead
soldier should spend a day basking in the glow of a cycling champ.

Bush has consoled many families in mourning, but that truth was lost in the
ranch dust kicked up during a wartime period of R&R that would even make his
father blush. The president emerged in Salt Lake City on Monday to defend his
policy in Iraq and to remind his countrymen about the horrors of 9/11.

Back in 2001, weeks after the terrorist attacks, Bush struck a far more
credible pose on Roger Clemens' mound. Now that Yankee Stadium chant has faded.
The president has lost his fastball.

Photo alert!

I've been experimenting with low-light photography a bit, and found that the noise on a D70 hampers it just a bit. I've also had a bit of a problem with proper focus, making some things look a bit fuzzy. (Although that might also just be my eyes, or the fact that this summer has been coated with a sheet of haze.)

I also have a tripod problem. I bought this Promaster 6400 a while ago, and it's turning out to be less than suitable for long exposures or heavy equipment. It's actually a video panning tripod with a handle sticking out, which is great for video but useless for still photography. It is also weak in one direction, so when I mount a heavy 70-200 lens (or even the camera with a kit lens), it will sometimes slowly slide on one axis. I'm looking for a suitable photography tripod now.

Five of my recent photos are below. As always, I can provide a full-sized archival-quality print for any intereste...oh, whatever. I took the wires photo as a long exposure test and thought the outcome was interesting. 30 second exposure at f/5.6, ISO 200 as the moon went in and out of some drifting clouds.

Boston skyline
CITGO sign, Boston

Gin Beach, Montauk
Gin Beach log
Wires at night, Montauk

Montauk dew

I'm in Montauk right now. Everything is covered with a thin layer of dew/fog/haze. It's seemed foggier than normal here this year. Yesterday was hot and the skies were clear. Upon reaching Napeague, I could see a thick gray layer of fog in the distance, hovering maybe 50 feet over the ground. By the time I got to Montauk, everything was enveloped. Then it cleared up. Then it returned. The rising sun turned from pale orange ball to nothing as it actually burned the fog back into the sky.

In other news, I discovered last night that a full moon measures about 246x246 pixels, when photographed with a Nikon D70 and a 200mm lens. Keep that in mind as you take pictures of the moon with a Nikon D7 and a 200mm lens.

Intelligent design

It's amazing watching politicians jumping on the anti-science bandwagon just to get a couple of votes.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Echoing similar comments from President Bush, Senate
Majority Leader Bill Frist said "intelligent design" should be taught in public
schools alongside evolution.

Frist, R-Tenn., spoke to a Rotary Club meeting Friday and told reporters
afterward that students need to be exposed to different ideas, including
intelligent design.

"I think today a pluralistic society should have access to a broad range of
fact, of science, including faith," Frist said.

Frist, a doctor who graduated from Harvard Medical School, said exposing
children to both evolution and intelligent design "doesn't force any particular
theory on anyone. I think in a pluralistic society that is the fairest way to go
about education and training people for the future."

Frist is right. Students need to be exposed to different ideas, and pesky "facts" shouldn't get in the way of science. So I think that Cynicor Design Theory should be taught in public schools. Hundreds of years ago, space consisted of nothing but six gigantic, floating yellow anuses. The evidence isn't all there, but the creator anuses basically crapped out what we now know as the universe.

This theory has several benefits. First, it explains all the unanswerable questions left by evolutionary theory. How did it all start, anyway? It was the yellow anuses! How did certain complex structures first form? Anuses. Second, the theory cannot be disproven. Third, it has every bit as much scientific backing as intelligent design.

The best way to train people for the future is to ignore scientific "facts" and the search for knowledge, and just attribute everything we don't currently understand to divine creation. By yellow anuses.

Remember - evolution is ONLY A THEORY. Just like molecules and gravity are still only theories.

A night broken by sirens

Last night I was relaxing in my big, comfy easy chair shortly after 9 PM when the night was broken by nearby sirens. You could tell that something bad had gone down. I heard multiple ambulances and fire trucks, and they kept going for quite a while. They got quieter, then louder again, a sign that they were taking someone to Southside Hospital. I figured that I'd find out this morning what had happened.

Well, it turns out that some drunken idiot slammed his boat into another under the Robert Moses Causeway in the Great South Bay. He killed a 12-year-old girl from Deer Park and injured the rest of her family. Last night, were all hearing the sounds of a girl and her family being destroyed by a drunk.

UPDATE (8/19): The story has changed. Cops announced that the boat driver had a zero blood alcohol reading, albeit in a test taken four hours after the accident. So I'll just shut up now.

Comment feature

Chris Sells can't figure out the comment feature on this blog. (Hint: It's down there where it says "1 comments.")

Butter

Oh, almost forgot to mention this earlier. I picked up some butter at 7-Eleven. They didn't have any of the good kind, unsalted, so I had to go with salted. They also didn't have the good brands, Breakstone or Land O' Lakes, so I had to go with Hotel Bar. And I misread that - it turned out to be Motel Bar butter, which is a lot like regular Hotel Bar but with a low-tar cigarette concealed within each stick.

7-Eleven stop

Our local 7-Eleven (also known simply as "7-11") features delicacies from many lands. As I was walking in today, I noticed a big-ass new poster they have hanging out front. "Jalapeno and cheese things!" it cried out, along with a smaller starburst: "NO MEAT!"

7-Eleven has a unique selling proposition as is. You can buy a multitude of hot foods, but they all have to be hot dog-shaped. Their food display consists of two hot dog roller machines. You've always been able to get hot dogs, of course, and rolled-up tacos, and even cheeseburgers shaped like hot dogs. But now, if you're a health-conscious shopper, you can even get a delicious vegetarian-friendly treat! It's on the roller, soaking up 23 years, 4 months, and 11 days worth of hot dog juice. Grab one today. Oh, thank heaven!

An Army Of Fun

At the Bay Shore train station last Friday, an Army recruiter leafletted all the cars in the lot. We all got some recruiting info and a great Army Of One bumper sticker!

This shows how desperate the recruitment effort has become. Think about the demographics of the cars parked at Bay Shore. You have 1. People with jobs in the city, and 2. people who've left their cars for weekend vacations on Fire Island. These are just about the least likely citizens to suddenly say "Damn, I gotta get over to Iraq now!" They either disagree with the war, or they're chickenhawks. Either way, this has to be one of the lowest-return sites they could find.

In the future, might I suggest the Wal-Mart parking lot in Hauppauge? It's where people shop when they're too lame/stupid to drive down the street to Target or Costco. You might have some results there. Yeah, sorry I'm picking on Wal-Mart. They're crap.

Working backwards

I have been backfilling here with entries that I used to maintain on my own site. That got to be kind of a hassle, so I gave it up. This is easier anyway.

I'm good through October 2003, and I've got about four months left to add. Woo. Hoo.

Edina, the poem

As one of Julian's summer assignments, he wrote a poem about Edina, our 11-year-old beagle. Normally I wouldn't republish it, but it was too well-done not to.

Edina

Old dog you are
just sitting there,
I thought beagles are
for hunting hare?
And yet there is a
certain look about you
that is so very fair.
Breathing heavily,
you are, as if you
have swallowed
several rocks,
But then; lo a burst of
stamina and you are
rivaling normal dogs
in your bi-weekly
walks.
You are hardly one
who is a center of
attention, but then
some pity and you are
a convention.
Cushing’s disease
pollutes your interior,
But it doesn’t make
any more inferior.
And to think through
all this…
we were going to get
a foxhound.

Something new to hate: Blog spam!

I posted a comment on a Bud Lite ad from my cell this afternoon. Within minutes, it had two pieces of blog spam on it:

At 4:28 PM, Anonymous said...
Awesome Blog! I added you to my bookmarks. Feel free to check out my blog on making money from home anytime!

At 4:39 PM, Anonymous said...
I love your blog! You did an excellent job! I have a blog on nintendo revolution reviews if you would like to come and comment on it!

Jackass. Go blog yourself.

Worst Bud Lite ad yet

I hate the HOT SUMMER ads in the subway every year, and this year's entry annoys me more than normal. Smoooove!

BoA punts

Got a note back from Bank of America. Paraphrased, they said "We don't have anything to do with checks. Take it up with Clarke American."

World's Smallest Political Quiz!

1. Which of the two words below do you find offensive, and which do you find riotously funny?

a. Democraps
b. Repuglicans

Restating the question

Thank you for your reply. I am aware of the choices I have when ordering checks. Upon visiting the Clarke American site, I can choose the Endless Grace series, which features Biblical quotes like "The Lord is my shepherd...." The Cherubs series features Christian angel paintings. My original question, however, is whether in addition to these Christian-themed checks, whether you offer Jewish, Moslem, or atheist-themed checks to your customers. If not, I'm curious as to why these aren't available. Thanks again!

Josh

Bank of America replies

Yesterday, I wrote to BoA to ask them why they had Christian-themed checks, but nothing for Jews, Moslems, or atheists. They were kind enough to reply today by hitting the "form letter" button:

Dear Joshua Trupin,

Thank you for your inquiry dated 8/5/05 regarding our selection of checks for order.

You have choices when it comes to ordering checks. You can choose the same checks as your previous order or change your order, including the quantity, style, bindings, and address. To begin, please follow the steps below:

- Click on the Customer Service tab
- Choose Reorder checks and deposit slips
- Select the appropriate account from the drop down arrow
- Click on Go.

Deposit slips for checking accounts can also be ordered by clicking on Accessories, then on Deposit Tickets.

You may visit http://www.clarkeamerican.com/ to view the designs of checks that we offer, and then contact us to order your preferences.

If we may be of further assistance, please contact us again by e-mail. Thank you for choosing Bank of America.

Sincerely,

Ryan Rosal
Bank of America

Did you know? You can pay all your bills in minutes with Online Banking with free, unlimited Bill Pay. Sign in to Online Banking and click on the Bill Pay and e-Bills tab to get started paying bills
today.

The evolution of checking accounts

I have just sent this note to Bank of America. No response yet.

When I recently opened a secondary checking account at BoA, I was offered a wide selection of check designs, including many religious/spiritual checks. I did not, however, see any non-Christian designs: Jewish, Moslem, or atheist (Darwin fish, etc) checks available. Do you offer these designs or is your supply limited to Christian checks?

Creationism in schools

Bush stated yesterday that schools should teach creationism alongside evolution. Great idea! And while we're at it, medical schools should teach that humans are filled with taffy. In history class, we could all learn about how the Egyptian pyramids were built by Jack Russell puppies.

"Gee, I just can't understand why America is falling behind the world in science education!" And then when more Americans lose technical jobs to offshore providers, we can all react to our lessened economic standing by moving to the right and voting for more destruction of science.