Is Katrina The Straw That will

[rsmith6621]

Break the USA back???????....Is this the final straw that will throw the USA economy into a final death tailspin???

Do you think Bush has been on the REDLINE to China asking for another loan?

[donheld]

1. It's quite possible

:scared:

[rodeodance]

2. there have been so many things that i thought would be the back

bracker that i have lost count.

[Tace]

3. My Wife Reminded Me Of The Same Thing Tonight...

that this is simply the latest back-breaker. And I tried to explain that this is a very serious matter.

Almost nobody cares about anything except how much gas costs at the pump. Well, get ready bungheads, because you're about to have your minds, and wallets, blown.

[Digit]

4. * is holding the thread which unravels our entire country

This is it.

[wli]

5. The USA has been broken, now it's utterly destroyed.

There is no coming back from this.

[Kenroy]

6. It will have a huge effect...

but it's not all negative.

The money spent will go (mostly) to Americans who will spend that money. Many laborers, roofers, construction workers, etc. will find some pretty good employment in the short term.

But it will cost a lot of money, no doubt - but the money doesn't go into a hole. It goes into the economy.

[The Traveler]

7. No, but it's gonna hurt.

I love New Orleans. I would have lived there, but the heat and humidity were a bit much for me ... saying a lot given that I am from Atlanta. But there it was, ever ready when I needed it ... America's final bastion of innocent hedonism, of a little bit of sleaze mingled with a generous helping of elegance seaoned with salt of the earth people who were mildly corrupt, massively hospitable, and completely dedicated to loving life.

It was a place to celebrate. (Have I just, with that double entendre, uttered an epitaph? For it was a place to go to find a celebration, and a place worthy of celebration in its own right. No. It is not an epitaph. These people have strength.)

But now it is a dying place, cut off from succor. People do strange things when civilization fails them, as it has now. Survival instincts kick in and abstract concepts like "property rights" become absurdities. Food, water, tools for survival ... the need for these things presses on the brain. Why not take them from that drowning store? Oh. Yes. Some of that happened before the levee broke. Hehe. You think New Orleaners dull witted? They knew they were in deep, deep shit ... knew the likelihood of that happening ... knew they were suddenly transported for a time beyond the embrace and constraints of civilization. I'm sure some of it was the act of common thieves taking advantage of the state of things ... but more common, I think, the act of people sensing their own desperation.

The irony. Concerns about looting when the items being looted can do no good locked in stores but might, just might help when out in the flooded streets. Concerns about looting when that valuable property is about to be submerged, possibly forever, beneath the dark waters.

Property rights. Property has no rights. A father has the right to seize whatever is necessary to save his children under these circumstances. Anyone who thinks otherwise should be slam dunked into the arena with these people, and see if they can under those circumstances cling to their sterile abstractions. "Judge not, lest ye be judged."

All our Federal resources ... FEMA, the military (that portion that is still here), private citizens of courage and good will must needs be focused on one thing and one thing only ... coming salvage for our people in New Orleans and other shattered places. To go and get them and return them to the embrace of civilization. To help them bury their dead, to help them rebuild their lives.

Economically, we have taken a hit ... but we will recover. It will take more than this to take us down. But ... we can be certain that more is on the way. Welcome to the wild, wacky world of climate change ... it has only just begun, really ... and this may not be related at all to the real phenomena. Perhaps it is best thought of as a sneak preview. In any case, now, more than ever, as a people we need to cling together.