When they come marching in...

Hey, at least they are not the "Ain'ts" anymore!

Long Time Comin'...

I really do think that I am more than a little overdue on commenting on the New Orleans fiasco considering it is my home state. Could I say any more than this? I think not. Except to post an amazing essay written by Reverend Jesse Lee Patterson. I would like a give a little 'what, what shout-out' to James Thayer for the funny pic and my mom Cathy Merchant for the essay. Enjoy.





Say a hurricane is about to destroy the city you live in. Two questions:

What would you do?

What would you do if you were black?

Sadly, the two questions don’t have the same answer.

To the first: Most of us would take our families out of that city quickly to protect then from danger. The, able-bodied men would return to help others in need, as wives and others cared for children, elderly, infirm and the like.

For better or worse, Hurricane Katrina has told us the answer to the second question. If you’re black and a hurricane is about to destroy your city, you’ll probably wait for the government to save you.

This was not always the case. Prior to 40 years ago, such a pathetic performance by the black community in a time of crises would have been inconceivable. The first response would have come from black men. They would take care of their families, bring them to safety, and then help the rest of the community. Then local government would come in.

No longer. When 75 percent of New Orleans residents had left the city, it was primarily immoral, Welfare-pampered blacks that stayed behind and waited for the government to bail them out. This, as we know, did not turn out good results.

Enter Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan. Jackson and Farrakhan laid blame on “racist” President Bush. Farrakhan actually proposed the idea that the government blew up a levee so as to kill blacks and save whites. The two demanded massive governmental spending to rebuild New Orleans, above and beyond the federal government’s proposed $60 billion. Not only that, these two were positioning themselves as gatekeepers to supervise the dispersion of funds. Perfect: Two of the most dishonest elite blacks in America “overseeing” billions of dollars. I wonder where that money will end up.

O course, if these two men were really serious about laying blame on government, they should blame the local one. Responsibility to perform legally and practically fell first in the mayor of New Orleans. We are now all familiar with Mayor Ray Nagin the black Democrat who likes to yell at President Bush for failing to do Nagin’s job. The facts, unfortunately, do not support Nagin’s wailing. As the Washington Times puts it, “recent reports show [Nagin] failed to follow through on his own city’s emergency-response plan, which acknowledged that thousands of the city’s poorest residents would have no way to evacuate the city.”

One wonders how there was “no way” for these people to evacuate the city. We have photographic evidence telling us otherwise. You’ve probably seen it by now the photo showing 200 parked buses, unused and underwater. How much planning does it require to put people on a bus and leave town, Mayor Nagin?

Instead of doing the obvious, Mayor Nagin (with no positive contribution from Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco, the other major leader vested with responsibility to address the hurricane disaster) loaded remaining New Orleanians into the Superdome and the city’s convention center. We know how that plan turned out.

About five years ago, in a debate before the National Association of Black Journalists, I stated that if whites were to just leave the United States and let the blacks run the country, they would turn America into a ghetto within 10 years. The audience, shall we say, disagreed with me strongly. Now I have to disagree with me. I gave the blacks too much credit. It took a mere three days for blacks to turn the Superdome and the convention center into ghettos, rampant with theft, rape and murder.

President Bush is not to blame for the rampant immorality of blacks. Had New Orleans’ black community taken action, most would have been out of harm’s way. But most were too lazy, immoral and trifling to do anything productive for themselves. All Americans must tell blacks this truth. It was black’s moral poverty not their material poverty that cost them dearly in New Orleans. Farrakhan, Jackson, and other race hustlers are stirring up hatred and applauding moral corruption. New Orleans, to the extent it is to be rebuilt, should be remade into a dependency-free, morally strong city where corruption is opposed and success is applauded. Blacks are obligated to help themselves and not to depend on the government to care for them. We are all obligated to tell them so.

The Rev. Jesse Lee Patterson is founder and president of BOND, the Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny, and author of “Scam: How the Black Leadership Exploits Black America.

Thayer Logic

I am sitting with my oldest best friend James Thayer who just made an interesting observation. FSU beat UCLA, UCLA beat USC, USC beat Michigan. Do you see where this is going? By this logic FSU should be ranked at least #3 in the final rankings!! I agree with him 100%. Of course, if the BCS used my personal rankings system (and I have lobbied them repeatedly to my dismay) there would only be one rank: #1. And surprisingly, FSU would dominate this ranking until the extinction of mankind. That is just my humble opinion.

No luck except bad luck.

You have to be kidding me. For those of you who have not noticed, I am something of an FSU fan. I also started a new job back in June working with two U of F grads who happen to be big football fans. I started this job in the same calender year that consisted not only of FSU's worst season in my lifetime (except 1976), but more importantly the same year that those Gator hacks win the National Championship. As I previously stated: "You have got to be kidding me!" My life has been a living hell for the last four days. Only eight and a half months until football season.

GO NOLES!

Okay. Update.

Well the holidays are over. FSU kicked the crap out of UCLA. I got the flu the day after Christmas. The eight hour drive from Louisiana took twelve hours in the worst weather imaginable. FSU kicked the crap out of UCLA. Oh wait, I think I mentioned that once before. I received the first two seasons of "Frasier" (one of my favorite television shows) on DVD. We had a great visit but we were glad to get home and back into the groove.

Oh, before I go, one last thing...

GO BUCKEYE'S!!!!

Hello

I apologize for my lengthy hiatus, I have been out of town and then sick. I have much to blog about so stay tuned.