At my neighborhood bar tonight, we're watching Rita and the plane...

[bamademo]

...someone said "What's next, locust?". I said "Yes, as long as that smirking monkey is in office." Everyone agreed he was the AntiChrist. This is in Alabama. And I just watched a "Misleader" ad on CNN. He's done. :evilgrin:

[NMDemDist2]

1. sweet! good to hear n/t

[sasha031]

3. America is waking up

[NNadir]

2. No kidding? In Alabama?

[Clark2008]

4. Well, they were in a bar.

No fundies there. :evilgrin:

[Clark2008]

7. Which reminds me of a joke.

There are three absolutes in religion:

1. Jewish people deny that Jesus Christ has walked the earth.
2. Muslim people deny that Jesus was the Son of God.
And,
3. Southern Baptists deny making eye contact with their fellow parishoners in the liquor store on Saturday night.

[obxhead]

12. Thats not always the case

When I find them there they tend to be the most outspoken ones.

[hatrack]

6. Hey NNadir! Has your mouth been hanging open today?

Mine sure as hell has, thanks to Rita. From TS to Cat 5 in 27 hours. I have never seen anything like this in my life.

[NNadir]

10. It is unbelievable. It is terrifying.

We knew that things like this might happen - we more or less expected it - but man, now that's actually going on, it still somehow is a shock.

[hatrack]

14. Yeah, it's not as though it's been unexpected - go back to 1988

That's when James Hansen went to Capitol Hill to tell the Honorable Members about the new climate information he thought they needed to know . . .
But I had to stop and ask myself a question - what if this is the new normal? What if we have one of these making landfall at something approaching this force every couple of years now? What if supercanes boiling up in a matter of a day or two is the new paradigm?

If we're talking about the Atlantic or Gulf coasts absorbing one of these every few years, there's no way the economy could take the strain. We're talking a couple of hundred billion dollars every few years. One or two more hits like this in the next year or two would wreak absolute havoc with the oil infrastructure, given that it took the oil companies the best part of a year to recover from Ivan in 2004. Now, twice the damage in less than a month, and I'm damned if anyone can say how they're going to come out of this one.

More fundmentally, what does this do to the people who, for better or worse, inhabit these coasts in the tens of millions? Do we finance a replay of Canute vs. the tide with hundreds of billions more in taxpayer money, or do we tell them that they're on their own? If they leave, where do they go?

And what would this new model do to our government and Constitution? What if the new normal becomes government by fiat via emergency services and increasingly militarized government at federal, state and local levels?

Somebody at work said that it felt like the end of the world. And I said (at the risk of sounding like a bad script come to life), "No, it's not the end. This is beginning."

[NNadir]

15. I wish I had even an idea how to answer your questions, but I don't.

We have to also consider that this matter is not confined to hurricanes. We are losing glaciers on which billions of people depend for water. Entire river systems will be irrevocably destroyed. Droughts will allow precious farm land to blow away like beach sand. Ancient forests will be destablized with increasingly mobile parasites.

Would that it were only a question of coastal regions.

Somehow I think that taxpayer money will be worthless in the end, if it isn't already.

I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think I am.

[hatrack]

5. Now THAT is good news!!!

Thanks for the post, and drink one for me! :toast:

[txindy]

8. Oh, my. That sounds like a sure sign of Junior's impending retirement

Junior has been declared the Anti-Christ by everyone in a bar in Alabama?
Oh, yeah, he's toast. His base isn't walking away from him, they're RUNNING.

[Frances]

11. Was the bar in Bham?

I seem to remember that is your hometown.

[bamademo]

13. Huntsville, Al...Home of Defense Industry

Check out Kaffeklastch if you're ever here. There's a lot of liberals here and not just at this bar. It's in downtown Huntsville which is a very charming and happening place.

[devilgrrl]

9. Oh, you have no idea how good that is to hear.

Go Alabama!!!!! :bounce: