I'm taking shelter in the lounge!!!

[RummyTheDummy]

After reading the 5,000th NOLA will have to be bulldozed, DU armchair FEMA/structural analyst post today I need a fucking break and/or a stiff drink or bong load.

[knowbody0]

1. choose the sweet leaf

[Catch22Dem]

2. hahaha

I missed the post you're talking about, but I gotta admit it sounds like it was funny (circumstances not withstanding)

[RummyTheDummy]

5. There's a million of them (almost literally)

Suddenly EVERYONE in GD with a key board and way too much spare time on their hands is an expert on everything from mold damage to homes to levees. And anyone who attempts to inject even a shred of optimism into any thread is immediately labeled a dullard or a let them eat cake-er.

[WeRQ4U]

7. Isn't that the truth. It's doomsday bulldozing or bust. No optimism.

I posted this picture of a community that I lived in that experienced a devestating flood. It was supposed to instill something uplifting.

The thread was quickly hijacked into a "Bush is the Devil" thread with depressing photos to boot.

You just can't win. So I stopped going over there.

[RummyTheDummy]

9. I'm done for awhile....maybe a couple of weeks

GD is a place where optimism and hope is generally frowned upon anyway. Let them wallow in other people's misery. I'm taking a break. And I thought the days after the Nov. '04 elections were bad in GD. This makes that look like freakin Oktoberfest.

Like your pic by the way. Hope, indeed.

[tigereye]

21. yes, I agree, it's very bad

but there is always hope - negativism and despair don't really help.

[KitchenWitch]

3. I have put GD on ignore today!

Relax in the Lounge!

:hug:

[bridgit]

4. woohoo, RummyTheDummy'z n'da how'z...

:woohoo: :kick: :patriot:

[lildreamer316]

6. Yep. Time for a HPHBP re-read session.

Now that I've gotten over the initial shock of the ending; gonna go entertain my brain again.......

[no name no slogan]

8. If those armchair experts REALLY wanted to help

they'd be on the phone with the "know-nothings" at FEMA, or on the next bus to NOLA.

It really makes you wonder how much "wasted" brainpower there really is on the interwebs. Maybe not as much as we think.

[bridgit]

19. why do you hate america?

[no name no slogan]

20. !.!.!

:rofl:

America-- love it or leave it

:hi:

[RoyGBiv]

10. Normally not a GD basher ...

But, today, I have to agree.

And it's not even the lack of optimism. The sheer ignorance of numerous opinions and assertions being presented as though they were some sort of revealed wisdom is frustrating at best. I actually saw a suggestion that the condition of NO is worse than Hiroshima after we dropped a nuclear bomb on it. I mean, COME ON!

You can't address it. People who weren't directly affected by this are hysterical right now for some reason. You can't argue with the guy walking down the street with a placard that says "The end of the world is nigh!"

I am generally distrustful of both FEMA and the Red Cross, but given what I've seen around here today, I'm actually glad someone with at least some idea of what needs to be done is in charge.

[RummyTheDummy]

12. Hysterical is dead on Roy

These are people you DO NOT want in your fox hole in a time of crisis. It's panic addiction. They're over there tearing the mayor of NO apart because he told Aaron Brown he wasn't feeling "overwhelmed". Could it be that instead, he's actually showing a little leadership? Yesterday and today he was a hero over there. Go figure.

[Catch22Dem]

13. Seriously?

Well, I saw one that said Katrina was one of the two biggest events in American history (9/11 being the other) Makes me wonder about the significance of the Civil War, the Revolutionary War, Lincoln's assassination, Kennedy's assassination, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, et al.

[RummyTheDummy]

14. Not to mention a little thing called WWII

Perspective is something that has gone out the window in GD.

[Catch22Dem]

15. WWII? What's that?

Never heard of it? Oh well, must not have been important. Man, don't you know we just had a hurricane? Sheesh, where are your priorities?

For the record, those affected by the hurricane should not mistake my criticism of the lack of sensibility of some of my fellow DUers as a marginalization of their strife.

I lived through more than one Cat.5 typhoon when I was stationed in Okinawa. Wanna know the difference? Everything was made of concrete. It was ugly as shit, but we'd just sit around and play games inside our concrete homes while the winds topped 175mph outside.

[RoyGBiv]

17. Seriously ...

Rummy mentioning the experts on mold made me think of it. Someone mentioned mold could be toxic, which is true enough, but then someone else ran with it and started talking about the problem of clean-up, suggesting that cleaning up Hiroshima, a destroyed and irradiated city, wasn't as hard as this was going to be.

I'd *tried* to forget someone actually said that, and more than one agreed with it.

With regard to your wonderings, I have the same thought. It's the face of presentism. Over half a million soldiers, a significant percentage of the population at the time and a number that does not include civilians, died in the Civil War. But whatever happens today is worse.

Funny, too. I was playing a game, of all things, and one of the characters in it went on a rant against the main character talking about how every generation thinks that the events of their lives are somehow more dramatic, more influential, ultimately more important than anything that happened before or will ever happen again.

The proverbial disclaimer: I know this is a huge, horrible thing, and I don't mean to minimize it. I'm just tired of the hysteria already, particularly from people not affected directly; it's not helpful in the least. I finally was able to discover the fate of all the people I know in the areas affected, and they are okay, but for several hours, my own panic level increased. The one I was actually able to talk to told me they don't need panic. They need water and food.

[tigereye]

22. yes

it's not as if no one has ever had to clean up after a flood or natural disaster before, even one on this scale. It's nasty, it's gross, it's time consuming. But it can be done.

[RPM]

11. dont bother

its tough here today too

[Catch22Dem]

16. Here in the lounge? Really?

Shit, I just need to quit for the night then.

[Dave Reynolds]

18. Haystack!

Pile up the bowl, and fire it up!