Gun Free Zone

It is finally over but the complains of over-hype which are well founded. Irene became the North East Hanging Chad moment and then some.

1. Weather Experts apparently are not. The amount of gloom and doom predicted by experts for NY made you think the soul of Bin Laden was riding Irene. Anybody who has spent any time cleaning up after a hurricane knows that they feed on the hot waters of the ocean and they start losing potency once they hit shallow coasts and dry land. We were expecting a helluva more damage to North Carolina than NY and we were not in the wrong.
2. Media is composed by a bunch of morons but we knew this already. The amount of Non-information passed along to potential Hurricane victims was amazing. I saw much better advice being sent via Tweeter than from any talking head and after the first five minutes the “Evacuate now or you all gonna die!” meme got old in a hurry.  We did have the pleasure of meeting the new generation of Morons Standing Outside In Bad Weather Making It Look Like Death Was Upon Them But Risking Their Lives To Bring You The Latest.
3. Dumbest preparation for a Disaster: NYC inhabitants buying takeout from restaurants for several days of post hurricane sustenance. This one came close second.
4. Two Presidential Candidate are no more. Both Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Christie pretty much can kiss their chances with voters in Hurricane-prone areas. Screaming to people to forbidding candles to threaten with arrest if you did not evacuate and to be more shrilly than the TV talking heads made many of us say “Are you kidding me? Go flock yourself!”  We do not respond kindly to those who want to get in our houses before, during and after hurricanes. Stay up north.
5. Apparently some people need to learn by suffering. One wonders how many of the evacuated will go through that joy of human concentration again and wonder if they were better off staying home in a house not apt to weather a real hurricane. And those who stayed behind and “weathered” a bit of rain and now act like they survived the Mayan Doomsday prediction with a six-pack, a box of Ding Dongs and a NY attitude realize they are not mentally prepared for a real Hurricane or any other natural disaster that come their way. These are the same people that were freaking out of their designer socks from a little earthquake day before.
6. Flyover Country is still Flyover Country and ignored (Again the Media and add the Feds). So, other than NYC and New Jersey and by what you saw in the news and the worry of our “Federal Family“, How many other states were hit by Irene? I thought so. Guess what, we still will have to see our taxes spent on those unprepared locations. Some Soho are gallery is gonna get federal funding to replace their flooring in time for their next Wine and Bullshit Finger Painting exhibition next month.

There is some other stuff, but this will do. We have three months left in this particular hurricane season. If you don’t mind, I’ll go check the National Weather Service Tropical Weather Page for any incoming bad boys. Well looky here! Tropical Depression Twelve is leaving Africa as we speak! Let the Hype Begin!

[lisp] How come Ted Nugent is sooooo insensitive. [/lisp]

Here is the full interview:

CSGV is freaking about Uncle Ted telling it like it should be told: Raw. Of course some Laddites will only see the caption provided by the Supreme Deranged and avoid the full message of Ted’s interview. The other Laddites will put their bongs and syringes away, get their IPods, play “Smell like Teen Spirit” and blame the NRA for Kurt’s death.

Somebody with dubious taste thought I belong in The Gun Blog Black List 🙂

Thanks!

Sorry Sebastian & Bitter, but it is payback for the chad thing and whenever them Northerners laugh at the sight of us wearing jackets if the temperature drops under 60 degrees.

Getting used to Hurricanes is not easy, but doable and eventually you develop a sense for them. It is not bravado when you hear a South Floridian commenting he would not bother to put up the shutters unless the hurricane goes over 80 mph but experience and also the fact we have a much stringent building code, specially Miami-Dade County. We know what our abodes will take and what we shoud do.

Lots of lessons were learned after Hurricane Andrew and amazingly, a nice balance between government and populace has been achieved for emergencies like this. People have learned that they are the first responsible for their own safety during a hurricane and nobody else. This helps local government to concentrate resources where needed the most and not running around trying to satisfy everybody.

One example is safety. Even though it is not advertised, no self-respecting South Floridian faces a hurricane without the proper amount of firepower. Having every other house with somebody ready and willing to lay some fire on looters makes for very peaceful after-hurricane living. Police then can concentrate in patrolling the few commercial areas that owners themselves are not guarding. In 2005, Katrina and Wilma did their dirty deeds on us, yet you will be very hard pressed to find anything that resembles looting on the news. I saw on TV about a case in downtown Miami where looters broke into a store and got promptly arrested by PD; and I did hear assorted tales of miscreants trying to do their deeds only to run away leaving a brown trail behind them because the home owner offered visual and aural dissuasion in the form of both long and hand guns.

I think I felt the proudest when three days after Wilma, there was a news crew from somewhere up north at a FEMA resource center in some big parking lot. This center had water, food and ice for free to anybody who wanted it. One idiotic woman was loudly complaining about the government not helping as she was stacking MREs and water into her jalopy of car. A guy waiting behind her got pissed and asked her where had she been for the past 2 weeks because that was pretty much the time we have been keeping track of Wilma. She finally relented and drove away to give a chance to the people behind her. Everybody else just wanted one thing: Ice. Nobody wanted water or food and all said the same “We are good. Give it to somebody who might need it. We need the ice to keep some stuff cold.”

The news crew packed and went home after that. There was no “suffering” so they could not sell.

Damn it! I was proud.

PS: We do throw great Hurricane Parties. You have not lived till you find yourself sipping your favorite spirit while watching the rotating inside of the eye of a hurricane….outside your house.

PS2: We don’t have trouble with basement flooding. We don’t have basements. Water table is usually 3 feet below surface.

Last night, an AM radio station in South Florida was transmitting the direct feed of a news station in Manhattan. I want to say it was FM 100.9 all news but I can’t pin a website for it. Initially I have to say I was amused at the amount and loudness of hysterics about a hurricane that it had not hit yet. One reporter sent home called totally frazzled because there were two (2) trees knocked down on the particular highway he was driving and was warning how he could lose a tire if he rode over them (Huh? Down here we drive around them.)

The Newscaster were taking calls in between interviews with authorities and assorted End Of The World advice. One particular caller had already lost electrical power and was getting her light out of a candle. The words that came out of the mouth of the female newscaster floored me:

The Mayor doe not like candles!

Are you frigging kidding me? His Highness Bloomer The First does not like candles? What gigantic level of stupidity and servile attitude! Does thye Mayor actually think that NY people are so stupid that they cannot properly manipulate and conquer the use of a candle?

Thank God Bloomberg is the Mayor up there and not anywhere in South Florida. Would he dare making such a statement down here would immediately create a Foxtrot Yankee response and so loud he would think an 9.0 earthquake just erupted.

New York version of hurricane proofing a car. I don’t think shrink wrapping is not a good defense againt flying debris and falling trees. It is way up there with putting a duct tape ‘X’ on a window.