Free Gas For Politicians In California

While the driving public struggles with the brave new world of having to pay $3.50 - $4.00 a gallon for gas there is one segment of the population in California that is not feeling that particular strain these days, politicians. One of the perks of being in the California legislature is that you get unlimited use of a charge card for gasoline at taxpayer expense. It has been estimated that in the first 7 months of this year legislators have spent over $220,000 on gas and have sent the bill to the taxpayers of the state. In addition to the free gas courtesy of the everyday taxpayer they get state issued vehicles which is another perk that is usually unavailable in most other states. The gas cards that they use are not limited to just buying gasoline either. They can be used to purchase all sorts of incidentals such as snacks, drinks, and the like.

Republicans Tear Down U.S. Economy Yet Again

If you have been listening to the news lately then you perhaps have some idea about the new economic crisis that is gripping the U.S. economy and the consequences for the American taxpayer. It is estimated that it will take about 700 Billion dollars to bail out the country's most major financial institutions such as fannie Mae and freddie Mac and lenders like AIG and Washington Mutual and there are likely many more to come. The city of new York has estimated that its economy this year will shrink by more than 1.5 billion dollars forcing yet another property tax increase on a city that it is already almost impossible to live in economically. It is no great shock that this disaster comes at the end of a republican administration. It has happened this way before in history.
In 1987 under President Reagan the stock market went into meltdown and lost nearly a quarter of its value in one day after nearly 7 years of republican freewheeling and deregulation of financial institutions and an orgy of military spending that the country could not really afford. The consequences to the economy lasted for years. It was not until the mid 1990's that there was a turn around and then a boom period under President Clinton.
If you want to go even further back you can go to 1923 when Republican Calvin Coolidge became president upon the death of Warren G. Harding. Under harding the "roaring twenties" were already well under way and so were a good many scandals that gripped his administration. Coolidge continued these policies of deregulation and maintained the usual republican stance of keeping a hands off attitude towards capitalism and wall street and letting them just go unregulated. The stock market crashed only a few months after he left office after refusing to seek another term and it left fellow republican Herbert Hoover holding the bag historically. Hoover got blamed in history for all of it.
Usually after a republican period of excess that leaves the country in a mess there is a democrat that rides to the rescue. In 1932 it was Franklin Roosevelt and his new deal and alphabet soup of new organizations that he created to help get Americans back on their feet. Despite his efforts it took years to recover. The U.S. actually did not recover until the arrival of World War 2 in the 1940's really.
In 1992 Bill Clinton came into power and within about 3 years the "dead" economy that he had inherited from both Reagan and George H.W. Bush was humming again and prospered in the late 1990's. It has been estimated that 23 million new jobs were created under Clinton during his presidency.
Now perhaps the stage is set for another demcratic hero in Barak Obama. He is saying the right things. Things like this country has got to get to a place where it starts taxing the wealthy again in order to get them to carry their fair share of the burden proportionally which under republican administrations they are always avoiding. He has also said that the war in Iraq should end which would save U.S. taxpayers currently about 13 billion dollars a month which is money that could be spent on health care and education back here in our own country among other things. If John McCain is elected he has basically said that he is at heart "A De-regulator" and you can expect policies towards wall street that will look very Bush like and we as a country will then be able to go completely over the cliff. The stage is set for Obama to come in and start to turn this thing around. It will take many years for him to achieve this even if he is elected and begins to impliment policies to do it. In November we will see if the working class Americans in this country are going to be smart enough to overlook the color of his skin and focus on the content of his character and make the right move to save the future of this country both for themselves and their children. It is true what they say that history repeats itself but if people are not paying attention to it then the lessons of history are lost.

Controversy Over New Film And Child Rape Scene

A new film opened on friday September 18th in L.A. called "Hounddog" and the controversy that has followed it from its initial premiere at the Sundance film festival opened with it as well. It has been 18 months since it opened at Sundance where it received the cold shoulder from movie distributors and some audiences. The controversy stems from one scene in the film that depicts the rape of a 12 year old girl. The film tells the story of a young girl named Lewellen who one night runs into trouble with a teenage boy and is raped. The story deals with how the young girl copes with what has happened to her and her struggle to overcome it and return to a normal life. The character is played by the young and talented actress Dakota Fanning who has given excellent performances in such films as "War of the Worlds" in which she played Tom Cruise's daughter and "I Am Sam" in which she starred with Sean Penn.
Religious and conservative groups have objected to the use of the 12 year old actress to depict the rape scene and have protested the movie for that reason as well as some other objections. The scene itself is not a very explicit one. it was mostly shot in total darkness and it is mostly the sounds of the victim of the rape shouting at her attacker to "Stop it!" in a loud and horrified tone. Despite this the controversy still continues and now some theater owners are caving in too. There have been to date over 5000 movie theaters that have pulled the film and are no longer showing it due to complaints about the films rape scene.

Mystery Of Stonehenge Possibly Revealed

For decades and in fact even centuries scientists and historians have been debating over what the famous site in England known as Stonehenge was built and used for. The latest theory suggests that it may have possibly been a site dedicated to healing the sick. The site has been dated to about 2300 B.C. and is surrounded by an unusual number of skeletal remains that are dug up from time to time by archeologists who work at the site. The skeletons that are recovered often show signs of having been diseased or physically injured. Two skulls that were recently uncovered scientists believe actually show signs of having had some kind of primitive surgery performed on them. The commonality and consistancy of finding remains that are in that condition has lead researchers to consider that Stonhenge may have been a place for ailing people to go and seek to be cured of their ills.

Beatle Denies Gay Rumors

In the nearly 50 years that the Beatles have been around there have been a million rumors about them. Some true but most were really just a bunch of junk. Here is another junky one. In response to a new biography that has come out claiming that John Lennon was gay Paul MacArtney has been denying it in interviews all over. When asked about whether John Lennon ever hit on him he replied: "John never tried anything."... " I have seen him roaring drunk....and it was always with a female."
Anyone who has studied the Beatles however will be able to tell you about an incident that occured between John and the Beatles Famous manager Brian Epstein who actually was gay. The incident occured early in the Beatles success when they were on tour in the early 1960's. John knew that brian Epstein "fancied" him and he allowed him while in a drunken state to perform an act of fellacio on him. It was Just an experimental thing John later said in a few interviews and in private but that was all there was to that, it was just a one time thing.
It is also important to remember that John fathered two children by two different women in his life so on the surface it does not appear that he was gay in any real way. There are also stories of his having sexual relations with literally hundreds of women while on tour and off. Some of those affairs with some rather famous people like Joan Baez and Maureen Cleave. Cleave was the reporter who John made his famous quote about the Beatles being bigger that Jesus to in 1966. They were apparently having an affair at the time. In addition while John was married to Yoko Ono and living in NYC in the early 1970's he was having an affair with May Pang whom he met while she was working as a receptionist at a record company.

Marijuana Arrests Hit New High In U.S.

The number of people in the United States being arrested for possession of marijuana hit an all time high in 2007 and has continued a trend that has been going on for the last several years. The new record number is 872,627 individuals. In 2006 the number was 829,627. In 2005 it was 786,545. At the current rates there is an American being arrested for marijuana possession every 38 seconds. Marijuana possession accounts for 44% of all drug arrests in the United States. A total of 8 million Americans have been arrested and charged with marijuana possession in the last decade in the U.S. The argument about whether to legalize marijuana possession or at the very least de-criminalize it has been going on for years. Some citizens and even some law enforcement officials have expressed the belief that their time, efforts and limited resources could be better spent going after the more hardcore drug offenders in their communities instead of chasing after people who smoke "Pot" when studies have indicated that those who do so overwhelmingly pose very little or no threat to the general public and are considered low risk to no risk offenders.

Church Of England To Apologize To Charles Darwin

In an unusual move by the Church of England, or any other church for that matter, they are going to apologize to Charles Darwin for their initial reaction to his famous theory of evolution that he proposed in his famous book nearly 150 years ago. The apology will be written by Rev. Dr. Malcolm Brown who is church director of public affairs. In Darwin's Book "On The Origin of Speices" he proposed that life on this planet was the result of a process of evolving over time which was a contradiction of the churches preaching that life was instantly created by a higher being or "God" totally evolved from the start. Darwin also proposed that human beings were in fact genetically related to "lesser Life forms" such as apes and monkeys which the church and other creationists not only objected to but were offended by. Over time as scientists have studied Darwin's theories they have further gained acceptance as more than likely to have been accurate and are now considered valid. The church in the beginning condemned Darwin for his theories as flying in the face of the teachings of the church. He was villified in some circles and continues to be among Christian conservatives to this day for his studies and his conclusions.

Teacher Who Lost Her Job Over Porn Past

Kind of an interesting scandal took place a little while ago in the town of Paducah, Kentucky. Some of the students who attended Reidland High School one night were watching an adult video and they noticed that one of the actresses in the film looked alot like their science teacher from school. The gossip began to go around and it eventually came to the attention of the superintendent. It was confirmed that the actress in the film was in Fact Tericka Dye who was a science teacher at Reidland High. She was immediately suspended and banned from school property.
Back in 1995, at the age of 23, after her first tour in the army, Tericka Dye began a career as a porn star and starred in the first of a series of adult films under the stage name Rikki Andersin. She starred in such titles as "Major Slut," "tight Ass," and "In Thru The Out Door 7."After her brief stint she left adult films and re-enlisted in the army and was given the opportunity to attend college on the G.I. bill. She graduated at the top of her class and discovered that she excelled in science. After her second tour as an MP in the army she applied to become a teacher at several High Schools. In 2004 she landed the job of science teacher at Reidland High and began her time there until she was fired.
During her time as a porn star some of the films that she was involved in were pretty extreme. Some of her sex scenes involved her being penetrated by two men at the same time both vaginally and anally while performing oral sex on a third. In one of her films Titled "Anal Cravings #25" she is in fact featured on the front cover of the box while being penetrated during anal sex. On another box cover titled "Ass Whores #12" she is shown being penetrated by two men at the same time while being held upside down.
The officials at the High School said that they had no choice but to suspend her and not renew her teaching contract after her porn career past came to light because it would be just too much of a distraction to the student body and would hinder the learning process at the school.

Ford Wont Sell New 65 MPG Car In U.S. Market

In 2009 The Ford Motor Company is set to come out with a new car called the Ford Fiesta Econetic. It is a new modern, sleek looking car that will be capable of seating 5 comfortably. At 65 miles per gallon it will be the most fuel efficient car out there yet. Ford is planning to sell the car only in Europe and will not introduce it to the U.S. Market. The problem according to Ford is that the car runs on diesel fuel and they have a fear that the U.S. market will not go for a diesel burning car. In the U.S. diesel has a reputation of being a dirty burning fuel. it is usually associated with big giant dirty tractor trailers running down the highway spewing out all that black soot into the air. The technology known as "clean diesel" which has been utilized in the production of this car has largely eliminated that problem. Clean diesel cars are often even less polluting than cars that run on gas. It is the outdated image of diesel in the U.S. as an old and dirty technology however that Ford thinks will stand in the way of the Fiesta selling well stateside. In Europe there is no such obstacle. The Europeans are aware of the clean burning nature of the newest diesel technology and have embraced it and the fuel efficiency that goes with it. In Europe currently 50% of all the new vehicles sold run on clean diesel technology. In the U.S. it is less than 3%.

Another Tainted Food Scandal Hitting China

It is beginning to get almost as common as a sunrise. You wake up and you start hearing about the latest scandal in China involving some manufacturer of something using a chemical they know is harmful and they cant use but doing it anyway because its cheaper than using the real thing and taking their eyes off the fact that they are going to kill people and not caring about that. The latest scandal involves 22 companies that produce food products such as milk, yogurt, and baby food. Over 6000 children have become sick and needed hospitalization and so far 3 have died in China after consuming milk that was contaminated with a substance called Melamine which is actually a type of plastic compound. Under some tests Melamine will actually show up as protein and investigators suspect that the reason it was used by the manufacturers was to make their product appear to have more nutrition than it actually does.

Civilian Deaths In Afganistan Down This Year

It seems that the United States military is finally starting to get the message about how counter productive it is to kill innocent civilians in Afganistan and has begun taking a little bit more care when it comes to dropping those bombs on targets where it suspects the enemy is hiding out. In 2007 both U.S. and Nato air strikes accounted for the deaths of 319 civilians in Afganistan. That was a number that is three times higher than the year before. This loss of innocent life was having negative effects on the people of Afganistan in terms of how they viewed the Americans and their war effort in their country. In an attempt to avoid any further negative backlash the military this year has taken steps to be a little more cautious and not so freewheeling with the collateral damage that it inflicts on the country. This year as of mid september the number of civilians killed is down to 119 so far. It is still more than in 2006 but it is a reversal of the upward trend that was seen in 2007.

Catholic Priest Arrested For Dealing Drugs

The Holy Roman Catholic Church has long had its problems with priests that have engaged in behavior that has been less than perfect. We are all well aware of the many scandals over the years and there are likely more to come. Well here is another one. On September 10th Police in Illinois arrested Reverend Christopher Hayden who is 33 years old and charged him with posession and distribution of cocaine after searching his home and finding more than 3 grams of coke and various other drug paraphernalia. The police accused him of dealing cocaine both out of his home and from the church rectory located on the campus of the University of Illinois. He has pleaded not guilty in court and has been suspended by the Catholic diocese of Peoria.

Automaker Plans New Car That Runs On Air

We all know that the use of oil and gas to run our cars is a luxury that the planet will soon no longer allow us to afford. In an attempt to get us off of that track there is a new york based automaker that is planning to build a new car that will run on compressed air instead of gas and will be capable of getting the equivalent of over 100 miles to the gallon. Zero Pollution Motors is the name of the company and the type of car that they have planned will look not unlike the Mini Cooper. They believe the technology will work fine for a small car but not as well for a larger sized one such as an SUV. The engine will work exactly like the steam engine of a locomotive only that instead of steam it would be compressed air that moves the pistons. They are estimating that they will have the first one built by about 2010 and that the cost wil be about $18,000. The compressed air that you will need to run the car will be free and will be pumped into the tanks by an on board compressor that will be built into the design of the car.

Civilian Casualties In War Have Grown Over Time

In the 20th century war underwent a revolution. It was technological mostly and the effect of this change was that increasingly in war it was civillians that ended up doing most of the dying whereas before it was mostly soldiers. It is estimated that during World War 1 the total number of civilians killed during the conflict represented about 10% of the total who died. By World War 2 just twenty years later the total of civilians killed was estimated to be about 50% of those who died in that conflict. During the Vietnam War 70% of the people killed in the war were civilians. In the current War In Iraq that total is now estimated to be about 90%.
The reason for this change as mentioned before is technological. In conflicts like World war 1 the fighting usually was between soldiers and soldiers alone for the most part. You had to get pretty close to your enemy and engage them in a much more personal manner than in the later conflicts although this even during World war 1 was beginning to change.
By the time World war 2 began to rage the enemies in the conflict had fully developed Air Forces which allowed for the ability to bomb entire parts of cities and wipe out civilian populations in just hours in some cases by the thousands. This ability and reality continued into the Vietnam War later in the century and now in the War in Iraq. As war progressed during the 20th century technology made it possible for an army to no longer need to "see the whites of their eyes" when it came to their enemies. You could simply launch missiles at them from hundreds of miles away and just "fire and forget" and in the process take a good many innocent civilians out of this life. The pentagon has a nice, clean, antiseptic phrase for it, "collateral damage." That phrase is usually double speak for "innocent dead civilians."

Women In The Army Face Threats From Both Sides

You would think that it would be hard enough to be a soldier in a war zone who has to worry about the enemy striking but if you are a woman in the military you also have to worry about your fellow male soldiers and what they might do as well. Deparmant of Defense Statistics indicate that in the military currently 1 out of every 3 women has either been the victim of a rape or attempted rape or some other kind of assault by a fellow male soldier. 2 out of 3 have reported receiving unwanted or uninvited sexual behavior while in the military. In one recent year D.O.D. figures indicated that 9% of the women serving in the marines had been raped, 8% of the women in the army, 6% in the navy, and 4% in the air Force.
If you are a female victim of such an assault it may not be worth reporting it either according to the stats. In one recent year figures indicated that 95% of the men who were accused of rape in the military were found not guilty.

Solar Powered Rotating Skyscrapers Coming Soon

Usually the big deal when a new tall building is being built is how tall its going to be but in the case of the "Dynamic Tower" it wont be height but its uniqueness that will make it stand out. An italian artchitect named David Fisher has designed an 80 story skyscraper with floors that will be able to rotate individually and be solar powered. Each floor will be able to rotate on its own based on which direction the resident of that particular floor would like his apartment to be facing thereby changing the view from out of the window. Each floor of the building is going to be pre-fabricated off site. The only part of the structure that is going to be built on site is the center of the building. That is going to be the rod or tube that is going to provide the strength of the building. Each pre-fabricated floor will be designed with a hole in the center and when it arrives on site will be simply lifted over the center rod and lowered down onto it. Once in place it will be able to rotate like a merry-go-round on its axis. All 80 floors will be able to face in different directions or be lined up to face in the same direction at once. There are plans to build two of them so far. One in Dubai and one in Moscow. They are planning to begin building in ernest this fall and are thinking that they can have both buildings complete by 2010.

Large Piece Of Arctic Ice Shelf Breaks Away

Scientists and climatologists initially predicted that the effects of global warming were not going to seriously cause problems for the planet until about the year 2030. More recently they revised that prediction and now say it may be as early as 2012. Perhaps they will need to revise that date even further with the latest developments in the Arctic. In early August of this year a huge chunk of ice about the size of manhattan island broke off from a section of the Arctic ice sheet known as the Markham Ice Shelf in the northern Arctic Ocean. That particular piece of the ice shelf is estimated by scientists to have been intact for about 4500 years. The 19 square mile piece that has broken off is now adrift in the Arctic Ocean.

Famous Actor Sues Over Movie Role Royalties

Actor Tommy Lee Jones has decided to sue Paramount Pictures and the Producers of The Film "No Country for Old Men" for $10 Million dollars. Jones claims that he was promised "significant box office bonuses" for participating in the film based on the success that the movie had. He starred in the film as sherriff Ed Tom Bell in the successful 2007 box office hit. It earned $160 million dollars and was also a critical success garnering four oscars including one for best picture. The 61 year old Jones has declined to comment thru his publicist on the matter and the case is pending.

Highest Paid Yakity -Yaks On TV

The old saying goes that talk is cheap but not if you are one of the following people on this list. Forbes magazine has put out a list of the highest paid personalities on TV. All the names will likely be familiar to you. Below listed are the top five and how much money they in fact raked in for talking their heads off on TV as estimated by Forbes for the year starting in June of 07 and ending in June of 08:

1. Oprah Winfrey----------------275 million
2. Howard Stern ---------------- 70 million
3. David Letterman ------------ 45 million
4. Judy Sheindlin (Judge Judy) 45 million
5. Phil McGraw (DR. Phil) ------40 million

Teen Suicides Spike In U.S. In Last Few Years

Suicides among teenagers in the U.S. have been stedily declining since the mid 1990's but in the last few years there has been a spike according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). In 1996 the CDC recorded that the rate of teen suicides in the U.S. (young Americans between age 10-19) was about 5.5 per 100,000 people. By 1998 it had dropped to 5.2 per 100,000. By 2000 it had fallen to 4.7 per 100,000. By 2003 it dropped to 4.1 per 100,000. In 2004 there was a sharp rise recorded and the rate increased to nearly 4.8 per 100,000. By 2005 it had fallen slightly to 4.5 per 100,000.
The CDC believes that some of the factors for this rise may have to do with a link between anti depressants and teen suicides. They also believe that it may be due to an increase in alcohol consumption among teens and the easy access that many teens have to guns. What the CDC did not mention at all is the possiblility that The war in Iraq may have had something to do with it. 2004 was the first full year that the U.S. was involved in the war in Iraq. All the news out of Baghdad about how the war was going that year was bad and depressing. It may not have been a coincidence that a spike in teen suicides occured that same year. As many adult parents of teens know they can be overly emotional about matters both large and small and therefore more seriously effected by bad news than others in the population who are older, wiser, and more emotionally mature. I merely throw out this thought to cogitate as a possibility and an additional factor to the reasons cited by the CDC for the sharp rise in teen suicides in 2004.

World's Latest Tallest Building Now Rising In Dubai

If you think that you might know where the world's tallest building is you may in fact know where it is for the time being but if you blink twice the name and the place changes these days it seems. There has been a building boom going on in the world over the last ten years or so and everywhere there is a new building going up that seems determined to become the world's tallest. This time around it is happening in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. it's called the Burj Tower and it has not even been completed but it already is tall enough to be the world's newest tallest structure. No one is sure yet how tall it will finally be, the people constructing the building are holding that fact close to their vests, but already it is measured at 694 meters. In other words the thing is already one half of a mile high. If you have ever seen it you know that it dwarfs all the other "skyscrapers" that are around it by far. It is so tall that from a distance it actually looks like it is the only building in the area. The other buildings around it tend to blend into insignificance to one's eye.
But things being the way they are these days no one is betting that the Burj Tower will hold on to it's new title for long. There are plans on the drawing board in jeddah, Saudi Arabia to build a tower that they are planning to call "The Mile High Tower." If it is possible to build a tower that high and the plans are ever executed it will dwarf even the Burj tower by plenty. They are planning to get going with it next year.

Sony Recalls 450,000 Laptops Due To Burn Hazard

On september 4th The Sony Corporation of japan announced that it is recalling nearly 450,000 of its Vaio-Tz series laptops worldwide in a recall that is mandatory in Japan and so far for the rest of the world is voluntary. The laptop models effected are the Vaio-Tz series 100, 200, 300, and 2000 that were manufactured between May of 2007 and July of 2008. The problem with the laptops is that they have a tendency to overheat and this may cause a burn hazard for the user. There have been 15 reports in the United States of vaio laptops overheating and 1 reported injury to a consumer who was described as suffering "light burns" to his person. Worldwide there have been some 200 such reports with 7 people being injured in a similiar way. The Sony corporation has offered to make repairs to the effected products for free. If you are the owner of one of these laptops Sony has advised that you stop using the unit immediately and contact their company in order that they can arrange for an inspection of your laptop and then repair it.

Extreme Makeover Rebuilt House In Foreclosure

If you have ever seen the Show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition then you know that behind the efforts of the show is a well intentioned motive to help people who in most cases through no fault of their own find themselves in distress with regard to their housing situation. Sometimes the best intentions dont always turn out for the best however.
In 2005 the show took on its biggest project up to that time. It renovated the largest home it had ever done for the Harper family who lived in Georgia. It took a total of 1800 volunteers only six days to tear down the old structure which had a series of problems, not the least of which was that the sewage system used to back up into the home, and replace it with a new, modern updated mini mansion basically.
Ater the home was completed the Harpers decided to take out a loan for $450,000 using the house as collateral in order to finance a new constuction company that they wanted to start. The company failed and the loan came due and the Harpers could not make the payments that were owed. The house went into forclosure and was auctioned off on August 5th.

V.P. Nominee Sarah Palin's Teen Troubles

Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin has been having her troubles this last week with the revalations about her teen daughter Bristol's pregnancy and the awkward situation it has put her in at the worst possible time. it is even more awkward when you consider some of her positions with regard to the subject of teens and sex. She is against state funded sex education of any kind. She has in the past advocated abstinence for teens and continues to do so. She is also strongly anti-abortion.
The father of Bristol's unborn child is even a more interesting character when you take a closer look at him. He had a myspace page up until about two days ago where in which he talked about himself and his likes and dislikes. The page has been taken down probably by the McCain campaign handlers for fear of having to deal with any more embarassment. On the obscenity laiden page Levi Johnston described himself proudly as a "redneck" who likes to go "Shooting and chillin" and ride dirt bikes. He sees himself as a little bit of a tough guy. One of the lines on his myspace page went ..." If you fuck with me i'll kick your ass".... He also said that he was in a relationship but that he did not want kids.
The Palin family has announced that Levi and Bristol are going to be married. Now the baby is due in December of this year so i am actually wondering if the marriage between these two love birds is going to take place before or after the presidential election.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin Rings False Alarm

If you spent the last few days before hurricane Gustav made land listening to New orleans mayor Ray Nagin you would have thought that the world was coming to an end. He spent the whole last week talking about how Gustav was the biggest threat in the history of the universe. He said that Hurricane Gustav was ..."The mother of all Hurricanes"... and that if you lived in New Orleans ..."You had to get your butt outta town and start heading north out of the city"... and that if you were a tourist visiting the city ..."it was time for you to go"... and get out of town so you could save yourself.
Well Gustav made land on monday morning september 1st at about noon. It did not hit the city directly it was about 40 miles to the east which resulted in only a glancing blow to the city and minimal damage. Within hours it had shrunk to a category 1 hurricane which means that the most it was going to do by then was just rattle the trees a little bit and not much more.
Mayor Ray Nagin, who is if you listen to him closely enough one of the country's most entertaining speakers without really meaning to be, has since said that if he had to do it all over again he would play it exactly the same way and over sell the threat of the hurricane in order to get people to evacuate and leave the city. Well here is the problem with that. If you cry chicken enough times people are just going to stop listening to you. He went on and on about what a threat gustav was and in the end it turned out to be almost nothing. Estimates are that about 2 million people evacuated Louisiana in the last week because of the warnings from officials. How is Nagin going to hope to get people to respond to him the next time if they feel that this time around they were lied to about the extent of the threat? I understand that Nagin's heart was in the right place but he has to understand that people dont like to be mislead by their government officials and that when they are they get angry about it and they dont respond in the future at all. Credibility is important when one speaks and Nagin's took a hit this week. It's not his own fault but people are the way they are and if they see that you were not right about something they are going to hold it against you the next time around its just that simple.
The other thing about it is that we cant get into a habit of evcauating entire sections of the east coast of the country every time a hurricane threatens and forms in the atlantic ocean. You have to understand that about 95% of the time a hurricane is going to be what they usually are. They are going to be a threat but not a catastrophic threat. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was an anomoly. Most hurricanes are not that kind of a catastrophy. They will do some damage and kill some people ( in Gustav's case 8 people died) but they wont make the city look like it got hit by an atom bomb. The best thing to do is just board up your windows or tape up your windows and hunker down, pray and hope for the best. Life is full of threats and this is just another one of them. You have to just go through it and hope it all goes all right in the end. Usually it does for the most part.