This photo explains the absence of looting in Texas!

CBS' Outcome-Based Journalism

Remember Mark Fuhrman, the detective who gathered evidence at the Simpson/Goldman murder scene? During his trial testimony, he failed to mention several off-duty conversations that had occurred years before with a screenwriter and former date. For failing to disclose the dialogue, Fuhrman was prosecuted and forced out of the LAPD.

I knew Mark back then and his integrity as a police officer was consistently valued by his peers and the diverse communities we served. But cops are only as good as their credibility, which is why officers who violate public confidence are not fit as public servants. So strident are Americans to marginalize bad cops that police agencies often discipline good cops for offenses as subtle as false accusations and unintentional mistakes. As one who served on LA streets for two decades, I believe that officers who deliberately mislead courts deserve our worst condemnation – for their conduct not only threatens the accused, but all Americans.

Responsible journalists also safeguard our democracy by keeping us informed of the events around us. We rely on reporters to help Americans make decisions on everything from the products we buy to candidates we elect.

When police officers and journalists are corrupted by economic, social, or political influences, they marginalize ideological threats that cannot be otherwise stopped by evidence, due process or competent investigation. Corrupt reporters fake stories to control their audience, generate revenue, and fix elections just as bad cops plant evidence to implicate “undesirable elements.” For bad cops and the elite media, their perceived benefit to society is often enough to justify the means. Liberals might call this outcome-based journalism and law enforcement.

Unlike bad cops, however, the elite media defends bad journalists. Can anyone imagine the LAPD telling Americans that Rafael Perez stole drugs, framed innocents, and shot unarmed men because they were guilty anyway? This is essentially what outlets like the New York Times do when they stand by stories proven false or when they kill exculpatory stories about people they don’t like. And while journalists hide behind the First Amendment, they seem to forget that even Voltaire condemned libel.

Journalism’s continued resistance to minimum ethical standards threatens Americans and others inspired by our democracy. Reporters who use questionable information to promote prejudice or ideology deserve the contempt of all Americans.

Justice Breyer's Activist Logic

And while we’re on the subject of judicial activism... George Will wrote about it last week in Mr. Breyer’s Modesty.

As difficult as it is to read, it's important to understand the threat that judicial activism poses to Americans. If social democracts circumvent our will and freedoms through the courts, judges will become mullahs and social democrats their handlers - until the mullahs outgrow their handlers and order fatwas to enforce what's best for society.

Judge Roberts' Litmus Test

The dignity and stability of government… the morals of the people, and every blessing of society depend… upon an upright and skillful administration of justice, that the judicial power ought to be distinct from both the legislative and executive, and independent upon both, that so it may be a check upon both, and both should be checks upon that.

John Adams
Thoughts on Government

***

As we watched Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca) explain her vote against Judge Roberts, she reminded me why I’ve given up on the Democratic Party. Complaining that she couldn’t get a sense of Roberts’ judicial philosophy, she said:

I asked him about end of life decisions – clearly, decisions that are gut-wrenching, difficult, and extremely personal… I also asked him about how he planned to be in touch with “the problems real people have out there?”… His answer failed to recognize the point of the question and the concern about staying in touch with people who have different life experiences…

Senator Feinstein’s abstruse objection was about judicial activism, a philosophy that requires judges to suspend their duty as legal interpreters for roles as independent policy makers or "trustees" on society’s behalf. Feinstein veiled her complaint with emotionalism designed to make us believe that judges should frustrate our vote and laws when voters don't know any better.

Democrats have already ravaged the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, acquitting a guilty president in ways that police officers, court clerks, traffic scofflaws, school administrators, lawyers, and rappers are not. When one class of people use affiliation to acquit guilty members of their class, they give license to others to do the same. Journalists who fake stories to influence elections, cops who demand cash to help speeding motorists, and politicians who accept campaign funds from foreign regimes and government contractors all rationalize that their conduct somehow benefits society. This is doublespeak in its purest form, and those who facilitate this behavior become accessories in the attack of our democracy.

Like judicial activism, jury nullification invites jurors to ignore evidence and the law to reach the correct verdict. Proponents often cite Thomas Jefferson’s advocacy as the final word on the subject, which is as irrelevant to constitutionalists as Feinstein would find Jefferson’s views of women, their role in public issues, sex, hygiene, and their right to vote.

Famous nullification cases include the trials of William Penn, John Peter Zenger, and various abolitionists, which proves only that even broken clocks are correct twice a day. But those years were comprised of many minutes; and in its more pervasive form, jury nullification also implied that jurors could convict the innocent when it benefits society. While some might think that convicting cops who follow a mayor’s brutal policies is better than acquitting celebrities who murder or molest, they forget that this same justification was used by white southerners to justify the murder of thousands of blacks (and white sympathizers). Our history demonstrates that there is little recourse when activist jurors and judges do the right thing for society.

Senators Dianne Feinstein, Charles Schumer, Hillary Clinton, and others will show Americans who they are when they vote against Judge Roberts - and their vote should become every American’s litmus test.

School classmates and friends Kristy and Jodie are helping to reunite displaced hurricane victims with family members. The news story got their address wrong – they can be reached at http://wewillfindthem.blogspot.com/

Stuck on Stupid

You can’t see them yet, but you can hear them coming; hundreds of whinnying and clattering horses, snorting and grunting as the helicopter and wranglers harass them toward the Judas horse, the one trained to lead them into captivity. As the herd appears, a cowboy slaps the horse, which bolts through the open gates of the trap. The panicked herd follows, a latch is pulled and the gate slams shut.

In an era when the media still relies on Judas horses to control freed blacks, Lt. General Russel Honore stepped away from the stampede to deliver the mother of all admonishments to a reporter who confused General Honore’s skin color with unquestioned obedience to liberals. The reporter’s subsequent apoplexy came not from personal insult, but from being crippled by the sudden loss of white guilt and black victimization to fake a story. In this one act, General Honore did more for African Americans than the liberal media has done in years.

But who can blame the reporter? In an age when the elite media and liberal politicians still rely on rappers, divas, fake theologians, and faded entertainers to control guilt-ridden white folk and disobedient blacks, more and more dishonest reporters are whining about being held accountable.

But change is inevitable and growth is optional. If the liberal media keeps doing what they’re doing, they’ll keep getting what they’re getting. Those who haven’t learned from the racial Katrina of the 20th century will not be prepared for the Ritas that threaten all Americans tomorrow. To lead us there, we must ignore the Judas horses of the left and follow the men and women who inspire greatness today.

Ruth Ann Daily writes about displaced Katrina victims who frustrated ABC News Reporter Dean Reynolds with praise for President Bush and Texas hospitality. This story isn’t for the mainstream media, Al Jezeera, or other liberal democrats...

New Orleans: Black Snakes & White Spiders

As a lifelong LA resident, I relied on the LA Times to get my news until 1982. I’d joined the LAPD in 1980, and it took me two years before I’d read my last fake anti-conservative anti-LAPD story. When it comes to conservatives, the Ahmanson Family uses the Times much the same way that Michael Moore uses the camera, fabricating or misrepresenting information when the facts aren’t ugly enough. I still don’t subscribe, but get it secondhand from another ex-liberal who does.

In a curious piece called Black Snakes, White Spiders, Leonce Gaiter perpetuates myths that led to the New Orleans debacle while blaming white racism for liberal incompetence to market a fiction novel.

Gaiter: I WAS FASCINATED to watch white reporters and commentators tip-toeing around the taboo word "black" in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. Class, not race, they said, was the reason black people were wading in neck-high water with their belongings on their heads.

Ex-lib: If race was why blacks waded through neck-high water, to what can we assign the whites who waded through? That both waded through suggests class, not race.

Gaiter: Class, not race, they insisted, was why these black people had to live for days in their own feces and urine in a dank hotbox of a stadium — which is akin to insisting that your right leg carried you from point A to point B and ignoring the contribution of your left.

Ex-lib: Mayor Nagin invited blacks and whites to a stadium that was not prepared as per New Orleans Emergency Preparedness Plan. If the whites and blacks were the right leg, the local and state government was the left (no pun intended).

Gaiter: The reaction of whites toward blacks has been a lifelong study for me. Though black, I have spent 95% of my life around whites. White schools, white neighborhoods, white workplaces, white friends.

Ex-lib: An army brat, Gaiter was raised on military bases throughout the US and Europe.

Gaiter: I was raised during the '60s, and my New Orleans-bred parents insisted on living in the best neighborhoods with the best schools. They got out of the South to make that possible, and if a white Northern school or neighborhood was hostile, so be it. It was the price they, and I, would have to pay.

Ex-lib: Based upon Leonce’s blog and other information, I suspect he’s gay. Homosexuality is not relevant, unless one is writes about intolerance on a military base and blames it on racism. Numerous requests to Gaiter’s email account remain unanswered.

Gaiter: Some of you are ready to wag your finger in black America's face and say, "See! His family could do it. What's your excuse?" But my mother was a brilliant woman, and my father possessed a Herculean will that allowed him to escape a poor, fatherless family of 15 children in a racist dung-hole of a Louisiana town and make a comfortable, decidedly middle-class life for himself and his family in an aggressively hostile military…

Ex-lib: Was it racism that made the Army “aggressively hostile,” or Gaiter’s sexual orientation? That gays felt oppressed in the military during the 1960s and 1970s is not a surprise.

Gaiter: And he did it without currying white favor by betraying or abandoning the black men and women with whom he served.

Ex-lib: I suspect that Colin Powell and thousands of other black military leaders might question Gaiter's implication that blacks succeed in the military by catering to whites and abandoning or betraying other blacks.

Gaiter: Do you possess the brains and will to overcome so much and go so far? If not, put that finger away.

Ex-lib: Liberal condescension…

Gaiter: Being raised in a sometimes hostile white world has taught me that we are all racists. Our little post-monkey brains (evolutionarily speaking) are suspicious of that which is unlike us, and to such we are more likely to assign nefarious motives and intentions. A recent Science magazine article describes research suggesting that fear informs the attitudes between ethnic groups in part because negative associations stick more easily and relentlessly to faces that don't look like ours. When researchers paired faces with frightening images, white participants acquired more persistent conditioned fears in response to pictures of black faces than to pictures of white faces, and blacks did the same thing with white faces. This fear response leads to avoidance, which prevents us from knowing people who aren't like us and makes them a blank slate for projections that justify our fears.

Ex-lib: Gaiter cites this report that conditioned fears of things like snakes and spiders leads to avoidance, which is a similar response to persons not of the same race. While the study was intended to better understand intergroup violence, Gaiter misstates the evidence to suggest racism.

Gaiter: To me, this seems a simple recitation of the obvious. However, many Americans have a deep national investment in our myth of unassailable moral rectitude. Our history and founding myths insist on a superior sense of justice as our birthright, our national raison d'etre.

Ex-lib: Roughly one-third of our nation supported slavery in 1776. Had Congress not excluded Thomas Jefferson’s condemnation of slavery, America might not have secured the sovereignty necessary to end slavery in America and around the world.

Gaiter: Black Americans have more license to admit our wariness and mistrust of whites. Whites cannot admit their mistrust without summoning their forebears brutal enslavement of Africans.

Ex-lib: Like most Americans, my forebears fought to end slavery. I spent more than half of my life fighting injustice and racism. That I should feel guilty about slavery is like asking blacks to feel guilty about OJ Simpson. That some people use guilt to coerce whites into further monetary or social concessions (like affirmative action) is not surprising.

Gaiter: You can't feign moral rectitude as you simultaneously acknowledge the bestial inhumanity that lurks in our American history. Many Americans look at black men and women and see an unwelcome reminder. TVs filled with scenes of black despair call forth the holds of slave ships, and so we spend days pretending that we don't notice the race of those hungry, grieving, angry, exhausted people.

Ex-lib: More guilt…

Gaiter: A conservative tide has worked hard to strengthen the denial of our American crime — to convince Americans that our record of race hatred is either black Americans' fault or our hysterical imaginings. Some conservatives promote the idea of colorblindness, which is akin to eyelessness as a cure for urban blight. Suggesting that you can deny what is before your eyes — insisting that you have the will and power to ignore both it and its vast historical implications — is breathtaking hubris.

Ex-lib: Gaiter redefines hubris by blaming liberal municipal incompetence on conservative white racism. Since the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Americans have spent more than a TRILLION dollars (twelve zeros), handed out free business loans and enforced decades of anti-white workplace and college quotas (that Gaiter used) to correct our past.

Gaiter: To many, blacks aren't so much citizens as threats to the majority's sense of self. In the wake of Katrina, a headline in the Economist blared "America's Shame," rubbing salt in our punctured sense of righteousness. Pundits insisted that race, not class, was the source of that shame. But history is a living thing. It didn't disappear in 1964. In New Orleans, in particular, race and class have been conjoined twins for centuries.

Ex-lib: Just as Arafat kept used propaganda and poverty to control Palestinians, liberal politicians (including many blacks) have carried out policies and rhetoric designed the keep their base intact – punctuated by others who exploit opportunities for personal gain (like struggling book sales).

Gaiter: The 9th Ward is flood- and poverty-prone — low-lying and low in the city's class structure. It's no coincidence that its people are among the city's blackest. This is where they were forced to live, and this is the only place many feel they have the right to live, anchored there by a "can't-have" hopelessness implanted in generations born to shackles.

Ex-lib: Katrina decimated black AND white neighborhoods in an area half the size of the United Kingdom. Gaiter ignores affected white areas because it undermines his argument.

Gaiter: White people see these people standing on rooftops, pleading for help, and attach all sorts of ugly associations. That's natural — but acceptable only if they recognize it as an expression of our inescapably flawed history and humanity. Own the shame, America. It is as much a part of you as your triumphs and glories. Own it, and you might take action.

Ex-lib: Beyond a trillion dollars and liberal policy, what action does he recommend? Maybe he'll tell us when he markets his next novel. ***

Other essays on New Orleans are here, here, and here. I also recommend this article.

Ben Stein published a coherent essay on Hurricane Katrina titled Get Off His Back.
It’s well worth the read…

New Orleans:Admiral Mullen's Impressions

For those who think aid to New Orleans is being withheld for any reason, please review this recent email from Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Mullen and his impression of the Navy’s response. The efforts and amazing sacrifice of our sailors should make all Americans proud:

-----Original Message-----
From: Mullen, Michael G ADM
Sent: Monday, September 12, 2005 16:14
Subject: Gulf Coast Visit

Admirals,

I made a day trip to the Gulf Coast this weekend to visit with and thank our Sailors for the extraordinary work they are doing in the recovery and relief effort. I spent time in at the Seabee base in Gulfport, NSA New Orleans and NAS/JRB New Orleans, as well as aboard HARRY S TRUMAN, BATAAN, TORTUGA and IWO JIMA.

It was at once both a grim and an incredibly uplifting experience.

Some of my impressions:

First, the pictures on TV don't even begin to do justice to the scope of the devastation. I saw whole neighborhoods completely obliterated; the only evidence they ever existed at all being the faint outline of cement blocks that once formed the foundations of houses.

I saw massive casino barges in Biloxi thrown hundreds of yards inland, wooded areas so shredded they looked from the air like a spilled box of toothpicks, and much of New Orleans still a tepid, festering lake. There were very few people on the streets that weren't military or emergency workers.

Comparing it to a war zone is not at all a stretch.

Things are starting to turn around. The JTF has really taken shape, becoming more efficient and more organized every day. Communications across the region have improved dramatically. Dewatering efforts are proceeding ahead of the projected pace. And currently rescue teams are finding fewer and fewer people in need of immediate help.

The Navy's contribution to this success has been critical. I don't need to tell you that. We've been there since practically before the storm made landfall -- BATAAN chased it in weathering 12-14 foot seas and began flying SAR missions within hours of the storm's departure -- and we are still there making a difference.

Joe Kilkenny is doing a bang-up job as the JFMCC. He's got a plan, and he is executing it with great effectiveness.

The Seabees are repairing infrastructure and clearing debris at such a pace they have actually inspired local citizens to feel more optimistic about the future.

Sailors from TORTUGA are going door-to-door looking for and rescuing the house-bound. Helicopter aircrews from TRUMAN and BATAAN are still delivering food and water and other basic necessities. SHREVEPORT Sailors are cleaning up the St. Bernard Parish Courthouse. In fact, just about all our ships pierside are housing and feeding and caring for people in need. Then there's IWO JIMA, who put up POTUS overnight on Sun. Pierside at the Riverwalk, IWO has become a command center, hospital, airport, hotel and restaurant all rolled into one.

I ran into VADM Thad Allen in the p-way. Thad, as you may know, is the senior federal officer on scene, running the whole show. He said, "Mike, you should consider renaming this ship The City of New Orleans." That says it all.

I couldn't help but sneak a smile, having just given a speech up in Newport about the power of naval forces to win hearts and minds by serving as "cities at sea." I used our contributions to the international effort in the wake of last December's tsunami as my prime example in that speech. How little did I realize we'd be doing that sort of work on our own soil so soon.

It just goes to show you how very unpredictable this world really is. But, as I made sure to tell the Sailors I talked to, it also goes to show you how very flexible and adaptable naval forces really are.

If you want a picture of the future of sea basing, consider the image of BATAAN, a Mexican amphibious ship and a Dutch frigate anchored offshore sending boatloads of supplies to the beach ... or HST anchored not far off and the only things flying off her flight deck are helicopters ... or Mexican and U.S. Sailors, side by side, combing the beach and clearing debris ... or a JTF -- with significant civil and non-governmental agencies represented -- headquartered aboard a U.S. Navy ship, led by a two-star Army general reporting to a three-star admiral in the Coast Guard, who is also headquartered aboard that same ship.

Perhaps the most moving thing I did Saturday was visit with a group of ombudsmen in Gulfport. Many of them had lost everything. They were hurting, barely getting by on their own, and yet here they were at the FFSC looking for ways to help other Navy families. You could see the desperation and the hope on their faces, hear it in their cracking voices. Tough on the heart, to be sure, and yet somehow good for it at the same time. I was humbled just to be in the room with them. You want to talk about courage? These ladies had it to spare.

There are, we estimate, about 10,000 Sailors affected by the hurricane in some form or fashion. There may be more. I pledged to those ombudsmen our Navy's full support in getting them and the families they represent back up on their feet. We have a lot of work to do to return their lives to some sense of normalcy, but we need to make it the highest of priorities. It is most certainly mine I can assure you. And I know I can rely on your support.

Again, truly an unforgettable day. In the face of unspeakable disaster and suffering, our Sailors have stood tall and helped provide relief to thousands. They are not alone, of course. It's a total team effort, involving city, state and other federal agencies, not to mention our sister services, allies and relief organizations. But they have accorded themselves well as part of that team and reflected nothing but the very best back on each and every one of the rest of us.

At NAS New Orleans I came across a bunch of Seabees working feverishly on the wooden platform for what was going to be a temporary dining facility. It was a contract job, but the contractor was having problems rounding up the necessary manpower and resources. The Seabees didn't ask permission, didn't wait for orders. They simply rolled up their sleeves and went to work.

"Hey, they needed help," one said. "And we know how to do this stuff."

We do, indeed, know how to do this stuff, and we are doing it exceptionally well. Standing amongst them, I was never more proud to call myself an American Sailor.

Regards,

Mike

Under the heading of When will my Hollywood neighbors stop pretending to be real people? Sean Penn demonstrates what happens when actors venture beyond dress-up and make-believe. Case in point:

New Orleans (Sep 4): Instead of hiding in a trailer for his big scene, Penn dropped his rescue boat into the water, forgetting all about the little rubber stopper in the hull. It this one heroic act, Sean’s boat not only becomes Katrina’s latest casualty, but establishes himself as the iconic figure of local and state disaster response.

It's unclear whether Penn will complete the picture by blaming President Bush for sinking his boat, esteem, and persona…

Once Upon a Time

As children, we like fairy tales because they caution us in terms easily understood. Even before kindergarten, we learned that good homes are not made of straw, grandmothers don’t have fangs, and we should never trust alligators, snakes, or wolves. Of the fairy tales we’re most familiar with, the common threads warn us of bad risks.

Once upon a time there was a couple who lived in a large castle in the bayou. Ray was handsome and Kathy was the most beautiful lady in the kingdom. Both were very popular, for they were known to host the wildest parties in the land. Their favor was in such demand that the locals made Ray their mayor and Kathy their governor.

One night during another long party, a storm came and several leaks began to drip through the roof onto the dance floor. As Kathy placed several pots under the dripping water, Ray asked a few of his friends what they thought was happening.

Ray’s contractor-friend told him that the neglected roof was only one of his problems, and that the termite-eaten walls were rotting from years of exposure to moisture. Ray’s architect-friend agreed, saying that the home’s collapse was inevitable. Many of their guests had overheard the warning; and while some of them left the party immediately, others dismissed the contractor and architect as alarmists who probably had some bias against Ray, Kathy, and wild parties.

Ray’s DJ and bartenders agreed with the guests, saying the party was just getting started. As long as Kathy kept the pots coming, everyone could party through the night.

Ray drew close to Kathy’s ear:

“How long can you keep the pots coming?” he whispered.

“We have many pots, but what about the walls and roof?” she whispered back. “What should we do?”

Ray and Kathy considered their dilemma for several minutes. If they shut down the party and told everyone to leave early, their friends would view them with less favor. But if they kept this one last party going, everyone would be happy and Ray and Kathy would still be loved by their friends. They decided to do nothing. After all, nothing really bad had ever happened to them before, so why should they worry now? They could always look into it when the rain cleared in the morning.

As they partied into the night, the storm got darker and more violent. Without warning, the roof was suddenly torn from walls that buckled in a deafening crash. The guests were immediately soaked and injured from the water and falling debris. Hair and make-up dripped like wax, staining dresses that now appeared vacuum-wrapped, while horrified escorts puffed anxiously on wet cigars.

“How could you do this to us!” demanded the angry guests. “We were having such a good time."

“How could you let this happen?”

Ray and Kathy were startled and embarrassed.

“Well,” said Ray after a moment, “The stupid carpenter never came by to inspect my awnings and the roofer never told me our roof needed repair. And if the termite man had inspected my walls last Tuesday, I would’ve replaced them before the party. It’s their fault!

As the hosts insulted their guests’ intelligence, many left in silence. Those too dim to dismiss Ray’s childish logic hung around to console their hosts. When Oprah, Geraldo, and the news vans arrived to investigate, no one was left except the hosts and their dimmest guests – who blamed the roofer, carpenter, and termite man for the disaster. After all, they asked, those workmen had never let other homes fall apart in storms. What else but bias could have driven them to neglect Ray and Kathy? The editorials echoed the interviews, trying to make everyone in the land believe that the workmen were at fault.

The immorality of the story is that Ray, Kathy, and the media are still outraged. They want everyone in the land to believe that OJ was framed, Bill loves Hillary, and the carpenter, roofer, and termite man were so negligent that we should rebuild their house for them. What troubles me most is what they mean by we, for I’m not sure I want to invest in anything associated with Ray or Kathy. They weren’t that concerned about their last home.

Brantley Smith is the father of a US Marine. His letter to Cindy Sheehan is worth reading.

After completing his first semester of college, my 17-year-old son leaves for Marine Corps boot camp tomorrow. I’m proud of his decision, and unafraid.

New Orleans: Let's Blame George Bush

“Aren’t you being a little rough on the residents, Clark?”

A friend had read my comments on New Orleans and thought that my idea to turn the city into a jungle cruise theme park was harsh. I disagreed.

I live in Hollywood, where earthquakes, fires and intergalactic reptiles threaten residents throughout the year. After discussing the risks with family and friends, all of us have decided to stay despite the dangers. If my neighborhood shakes or burns down tomorrow, I’m not going to blame Hillary.

Although retired from law enforcement, I’m still involved with our neighborhood council. Local officials and first-responders regularly meet residents to answer questions and learn how to prepare for disasters. I do what the experts tell me and keep a barrel full of supplies so that my family can comfortably survive for a week while waiting for government assistance.

Our window for escape from fire is twenty minutes.

Mayor Ray Nagin and Governor Kathleen Blanco had FOUR DAYS.

Despite years of advanced warning from various preparedness organizations and free access to numerous publications and reports throughout the Louisiana Public Library system; as well as repeated mandatory warnings and a plan to evacuate, 300,000 of New Orleans’ biggest and easiest residents decided to stay home. For those without transportation who wanted to leave, Mayor Nagin had plenty of school buses to implement his order.

And like the drunken hillbillies who blame the school principal for their pregnant daughter’s illiteracy, Ray, Kathy, and the left wing chorus have the gall to blame George Bush for not bailing them out from their incompetence fast enough.

I feel great sadness for the losses endured by those who heeded or tried to comply with Mayor Ray’s last-minute order. I’m also angered by stories of criminals who preyed on residents when they were most vulnerable. In the end, however, the residents of New Orleans got the politicians they voted for, and anyone who wants to blame someone else for their own laziness or stupidity gets no sympathy from me.

Kudos to Robert Tracinski and The Intellectual Activist for calling the New Orleans disaster what it is – a little rain that exposes the failure of the welfare state. Americans need not fear the earthquakes, tornados, and floods as much as how and why we respond to social issues the way we do. Americans must also learn to dismiss liberal democrats like Mayor Nagin when they represent rape, murder, and looting as insurrections rooted in someone else’s failure.

New Orleans: Where Laid Back is Laid Bare

Although The Big Easy has branded jazz houses, boats, and airplanes since 1900, it was columnist Betty Guillaud of the Times-Picayune who is most credited for making New Orleans’ nickname a household word. In response to the I Love New York hype of the 1970s, Guillaud compared The Big Apple to The Big Easy, where she described everything as slower, simpler, and easy-going.

Like many tourists, I was drawn to the careless fantasy that was New Orleans, reveling in the booze, food, and jazz without a second thought for tomorrow. But tomorrow always came, and once the throbbing haze of Pat O’Brien’s finally subsided, I thankfully returned to my family, career, and responsibilities.

The problem with binge fantasies is that the devil eventually shows up like a back alley loan shark to collect his fee. For some it’s monetary, while others are crippled by something akin to metal pipe across the knees. For New Orleans, the devil came in the form of Katrina, who in her own big easy form, pirouetted lazily across the Caribbean and Florida to a city where today’s troubles could always wait for tomorrow. Striking an area the size of Great Britain, Katrina displaced or drowned a population long overdue for a cold shower.

Predictably, the dysfunctional Louisiana leadership (elected by corruption and people too lazy to vote) blamed everyone else. While liberals and the media blamed racism and George Bush for the disaster, the illiterate gangs they coddled for decades were raping, ransacking, and murdering survivors as they awakened to reality.

For the first time since the Civil War, New Orleans has become one of America’s most important national landmarks: A place where procrastination was finally ravaged by reality. With their FEMA and insurance settlements, survivors should decide whether to build elsewhere, or drown.

To me, New Orleans offers more to humanity as a national park and wildlife refuge. Their evolution is long overdue.