I think even helping Katrina relief is stupid. You build/bought a house on the gulf coast. What did you expect? That would be like me sueing the Gov. because I didn't turn on my heat, and it gets cold in MN.
Its a little excessive but i can understand the victims who are STILL living in trailer homes and some are homeless. The government is spending money on a wrong things. At the end of the last (07) year government spend $315 billion. Half of that would be enough to rebuild new Orleans. just a perspective for you. Its almost 20miles tall btw.
And we wonder why the world community laughs at us... This type of mentality makes me ashamed to call myself American.
You do realize that the 315 billion is what it takes to run the entire country, what would you shut down in order to rebuild New Orleans? Also realize that the areas you do take money from are going to affect millions of jobs, people and families on a larger scale than Katrina. What's the point in creating a larger economic disaster and damaging our infrastructure? Also, it takes time to do this, and it would take much longer than one year to rebuild everything. Your train of thought (however well intentioned) has some serious problems with the track. The people on the Gulf Coast know that they live in a hurricane danger zone. If they haven't figured that out then we need to start revamping the school systems down there. I almost took a job with an offshore diving company based out of New Iberia, LA out of dive school, but decided against it. A large part of that was based on hurricanes, as they were something I didn't really want to look forward to on an annual basis. New Orleans is probably the most poorly located city in the US. This wasn't an unforseen danger or occurrence. They knew what the risks were. You don't see these kind of lawsuits coming out of Florida residents after hurricanes.
and you DO realize that you can sue anyone for anything, its the suits that actually get settled or close a trial that count. which is none of this crap. these kinds of stories get propagated by the news in the same way that a man bites dog story comes up. "Can you believe what that idiot did? haw haw" I think this is one of the furthest things from despicable in the eyes of the rest of the world that america is involved in. Still its ridiculous but hardly newsworthy. i can go our right now and sue the army for a gajillion million billion dollars because a soldier did something i disagreed with and guess what? Its just going to end up costing me money.
Thats the thing, the government should have fixed the levies long time ago. I am not saying that it is smart to go and fix everything right now. I would actually say its not smart at all to do it. But they need to find a place for all those people who are homeless now and have not been helped. I think it is ridiculous that government is spending so much money on that stupid and worthless war, where instead that money should be going somewhere else. Like education and fixing aging bridges like the one on 35W. The worst thing is that there is no way the troops can be pulled out of Iraq right now, because it will totally ruin it and will make US look like complete idiots. Tax money is going into a very wrong place.
it basically comes from the mentality that we don't have to do work anymore... we can all just scam off someone else and get rich quick.. Mcdonalds coffee was hot = millions I fell on some ice in front of your store durring an ice storm = millions I understand (we amputated the wrong limb, we pulled the plug when we shouldn't have, i'm sorry that our drunk driver who operated that truck ran over your house) but when your pissed off because your house got trashed.... in a hurricane.... THAT is what home owners insurance is for... and if you don't cover that when your looking into a home in THAT area... well go suck a turd. and stop trying to make kajillions off other people to make a point because your mad the gov. didn't put some extra sand bags on your freaken street.
I agree, but the absolute preposterous nature of the suit implies a lack of concern for conducting oneself like an intelligent person. The world thinks we're sue-crazy, and we are. Even for a lost fight, such as this one. It re-affirms the stereotype that we don't have any self-accountability, referring to points already made.
Yes, but in order to actually LIVE you can't just expect everything to be handed to you. That is the major difference between people of America in the past, and the people who are here today. Our society is a culture of laziness. If this sort of thing had happened (which I am sure it did) 100 years ago, the people who were affected would count their losses, bury their dead, and move on - albiet a bit smarter about where they chose to live. They would make sure that it didn't happen again. Instead, in our time, a lot of people decided they didn't have the money to move on (which they probably didn't) and stayed, now they are complaining that nobody helped them. If you're a govt' entity, ruled by the laws of money (specifically, how much you have to spend) you can't - CAN'T help everyone that is affected. It's just physically impossible, as money does not grow on trees. I'm not saying these people need to grow the f up and move on with their lives (maybe I am, heh) but they may have had a better chance of rebuilding if they had packed up what they could have and moved elsewhere right away. I feel no pity for those who refuse to help themselves - because in extremes, the human body always finds a way to survive.
What do you mean "right now"? We have a foothold in the middle east via our base(s) in Iraq. How likely is the US military to give those up? Not effing likely. there will ALWAYS be troops in Iraq.
Do it like people do it in Russia. Go beat the crap out of some one dont sue them. Or plant a bomb in their car or a house. I am being sarcastic here. I do think US is sue crazy, but its better to have law take care of things than guns and such.
Taras, I agree, but the law IS another form of a gun, just a gun built of words. It is still "fired" by people. If you get what I mean ..
**** all of them if they want to complain. If they are still living in those trailers and are going to complain, too ****ing bad. They should be thankful that they are getting assistance in the first place. It's not like this hurricane took away their abilities to find jobs and go out and get back on their feet. Lazy pieces of ****, imho.
this is the case often used in studies about the public's perception of litigation. One publicized personal injury suit from some idiot does not mean this kind of thing happens every day or every case is heard by a responsible jurist. It DOES get lots of publicity though and does more to shape the perceptions of people about the legal system. Then demagogues are free to seize upon these moments and relentlessly flog them as examples of an entire broken system. I'm not saying the system is by any means perfect but if you know anything about statistics of litigation you would understand that just because a lot of people sue for stupid things and because occasionally one of them gets a payout form it that is well publicized doesn't mean that this is the rule of what normally occurs.
Now that is the interesting point. The tragedy didn't occur because the levies failed. For God-knows-how-long those levies worked just fine. Probably even survived a few hurricanes otherwise. However, once the mother hurricane comes through and stresses them beyond their threshold, they broke. That's why it's called a natural disaster, and such is the risk of existence. The whole city was built below sea-level RIGHT ON THE SEA!!! If one cannot asses this as a risk of life and home, then they probably dropped out of school or just didn't care. Also, this: is an excellent point.
Thats what i am saying. It is very unlikely that the troops will ever leave Iraq and i guess its fine there still US troops in Japan and Germany, but thats a different situation. I just think that the strategy that US is using in Iraq is just not working. A lot of people in Iraq just live to bomb someone. But there are a lot of people there that want to have better lives. However most of the people in Iraq have never seen i life like we have here or even close to it. To be honest i dont even know where all that money goes that US spends on Iraq. After watching "Iraq for Sale" i dont even know what to think now. But yeah the thread was about Katrina not Iraq. Sorry for taking this off topic guys.
ahh, it kinda did. Lots of business moved out if they could and other just went broke cause everything is F-up now. You say they should move out somewhere else then? Well, not everyone have enough money just to pick their stuff up and leave. The levies were too weak and everyone knew that. Natural disasters are unexpected but i am sure with our technological abilities the government could have used the computer simulation or what ever they use to figure out how much will those levies hold and make them stronger. How about the case that there was not help send to Louisiana for days after the hurricane? Because all the troops that are "National Guard" were sent over seas?
So what you're saying is that if our troops stay they'll make it better? Kinda defeats your argument that we shouldn't be there. No one ever said that the war was going to be easy. And who are we actually fighting in Iraq? Islamic extremists who are going across the border from neighboring countries to fight. And have you noticed that ever since the troop surge started working the news reports on it less and less? It's also become less of an issue in the political races because we're making more and more progress. Have you ever actually talked to a soldier or Marine who's been on the ground over there? I've gotten to talk to several, and they've all said that we are doing the right thing over there and that we're making progress. They've also said that the news over here puts a different spin on things. I didn't realize that fighting Islamic insurgents over there so they can't come over here was "stupid and worthless". Ask any person who lost a loved one on 9/11 how stupid and worthless it is. Or any parent who lost a child in the Beslan school massacre how stupid and worthless it is to fight terrorists. You seem to have this simplistic view of things that if we just stop spending money on one thing that we can just magically start putting money into other things and it will all get better. Where are we supposed to put the homeless people? You seem to have this figured out. Once again, it takes time to rebuild AN ENTIRE CITY. It's going to be several years before the New Orleans area even approaches what it used to be. Do you realize how many THOUSANDS of houses there are that have to be torn down and rebuilt? They are going to be basically starting over in most of the residential areas. But hey, if we just throw money at it then it'll get better, right? Edit: I just saw your last post. You must not be paying much attention to the news lately. The troop surge in Iraq is working and there has been a marked decrease in attacks and insurgent activity. But our guys aren't doing the right thing according to you. So, in addition to being an economic whiz you're also a military strategist. What should we be doing? Also, the people doing the bombing aren't Iraqis for the most part, they're (and we just covered this) foreign extremists who are trying to destabilize the region. At least get some of your arguments based in facts.
I totally disagree with you. But there is no way you will understand what i say and i will most likely not agree with what you are saying. This is because you look at one side of this war and i look at the other. You think its all working out well and all and u have proof of it from talking to Marines and troopers there and maybe watching conservative TV channels. I listen ever day to MPR and read news papers that are not conservative-republican. So i have a different perspective on this WHOLE ISLAMIC jihad and ISLAMIC terrorism. Beslan was one big show that was a cost of oil in Chechnja. Russia his been in a war with Chechnja for 10+ years now and on russian tv they dont even talk about it anymore because Putin does not want russian people to know what going in there. Another thing is that more we fight those "islamic terrorists" stronger they get. And BTW Brian, i am by no means trying to offend you. This is strictly political talk nothing personal and your political views are fair like mine and anyone elses.
Jesus, do you even know what you're talking about? The state of LA was told that it would take at least 72 hours for FEMA to be mobilized. The failure was at the state level, by the time the state asked for Federal help it was already too late. The State delayed calling for the help, and they delayed evacuations. You want to blame anyone? Blame Katherine Blanco and Ray Nagin. But it's too easy to blame the Feds, right? It takes time to mobilize that many people and resources. It's not like you can wave a magic wand and suddenly you have thousands of rescue workers standing by. Not to mention the fact that there were rescue workers and rescue helicopters being shot at that affected rescue operations. Many areas of the city had to be retaken by National Guard and police units. Mobility was also affected by the fact that most of the city was still flooded, so you either needed boats or helicopters. Neither of them grows on trees. Plus you have to find a place for all of your rescue people to live and base out of, and they need supplies. Please, come up with a good argument based in fact and real life rather than your little happy world.
I think it's silly that you talk about how brian gets all of his "wrong" information from "conservative television" yet you bring in an article from one of the most left wing newspapers in the UK. Does this make it valid? Just a thought
I am just putting this out. I am more liberal that conservative. The thing is that we are here and were are just people and we dont know any of the real truth about anything. I dont trust any government, but i do know that US government is better than Russian thats for sure.
