December 2007 Archives
...because he's testing Movable Type 4.0 templates...
I wonder if DWI enforcement is still off the NOPD radar. It's certainly not for the JPSO, but this study would have looked at Orleans Parish stats:
We looked at annual death rates due to alcoholic liver disease, as well as who's headed there by regularly downing five or more drinks in a sitting (CDC). Next, we factored in drunk-driving arrests (FBI) and the percentage of fatal accidents involving intoxicated motorists (U.S. Department of Transportation). Then, after tallying the MADD report card of state efforts to cut down on excessive drinking, we had our ranking and, for the state of Colorado, an invitation to AA.The list below ranks the cities from most dangerously drunk to least dangerously drunk.
Most Dangerously Drunk
100. Denver, CO F
99. Anchorage, AK F
98. Colorado Springs, CO F
97. Omaha, NE F
96. Fargo, ND F
95. San Antonio, TX F
...
...
...
Least Dangerously Drunk10. Jersey City, NJ B+
9. Richmond, VA B+
8. New York, NY B+
7. Little Rock, AR A-
6. Salt lake City, UT A-
5. Yonkers, NY A-
4. Jackson, MS A
3. Buffalo, NY A
2. Miami, FL A
1. Durham, NC A+
Baton Rouge was 15, a B+. But then, LSU students can usually walk/stagger home rather than drive.
good news is always welcome on Mondays:
Since March 2007 we have partnered with the New York District Council of Carpenters in leading teams of volunteers to New Orleans. Highly skilled union carpenters work side by side with NOFD firefighters and volunteers from all walks of life to complete firehouse makeovers.
(h/t Charlotte)
When they had to sell t-shirts at the starbucks on Vets to raise money for NOFD, I was well and truly depressed. This is good news.
Landover Baptist weighs in on Pullman as only they can...
Matt McBride wrote a great diary on dKos today, discussing his audit of demolitions since the storm.
Of the various efforts being undertaken to rebuild New Orleans, few are as vocal as activists opposing the demolition of public housing projects. Their passion is strong, and their cause just. I wrote about my problems with this movement yesterday. I'm a firm believer in the notion that you can't bring back people who live in poverty to New Orleans at this stage in the city's reconstruction. It's easy for folks who have homes, jobs, health insurance, and schools for their children to advocate a course of action that will almost certainly have no direct impact on their lives, even if that course of action worsens the quality of life for those directly impacted.
It makes more sense to restore the governmental services necessary to lift those living in poverty to a living-wage level.
Easier said than done, of course. City government is still a mess, two years post-storm. State government hasn't been much more help, with its focus on home owners (Road Home Program). The involvement of state government in New Orleans' return is going to be even worse with the election of an unsympathetic ultra-conservative as governor.
Somebody must take ownership of New Orleans, accept the situation we have here, and work with us to make it better. There are three people in a position to do something about New Orleans, assuming we can hang on until January 20, 2009. Those three people are the leading Democratic candidates for President.
Taking them in order of their current popularity, let's look at whether or not they will step up and take ownership of New Orleans.
Hillary Clinton - If you go to www.hillary.com, there's a button for "Issues" that drops down a number of choices:
- Strengthing the Middle Class
- Providing Affordable and Accessible Health Care
- Promoting Energy Independence and Fighting Global Warming
- Fulfilling Our Promises to Veterans
- Supporting Parents and Caring for Children
- Restoring America's Standing in the World
- A Champion for Women
- Comprehensive Government Reform
- Strengthening Our Democracy
- Reforming Our Immigration System
- An Innovation Agenda
Hmm...worthy topics all. Why no mention of New Orleans, or the Gulf Coast in general? Have the consultants advising Sen. Clinton told her to blow us off? After all, Mississippi and Alabama were too red for her to be bothered with pre-storm, and Louisiana is viewed as turning redder post-storm. Certainly one could argue that some of these meta-topics listed above can include support of New Orleans, but not seeing the re-building of a city destroyed by a federal flood and ignored by uncaring Republicans would be on the radar. No doubt Bill Clinton would be more concerned with the future of New Orleans. Perhaps some of you Hillary supporters can clarify this seeming lack of interest in New Orleans.
Barack Obama - Sen. Obama's got one of those neat "Issuse" buttons, too:
- Strengthening America Overseas
- Plan to End the Iraq War
- Creating a Healthcare System that Works
- Fighting Poverty
- Environment
- Energy
- Technology and Innovation for a New Generation
- Fulfilling Our Covenant with Seniors
- Improving Our Schools
- Immigration and the Border
- Protecting the Right to Vote
- Honoring Our Veterans
- Cleaning Up Washington's Culture of Corruption
- Strengthening Families and Communities
- Reconciling Faith and Politics
Nice list. Maybe if I didn't get a food of water in my house and things here were going smoothly, I'd look at this and see a candidate who could improve things. What I see from this is someone who is talking in generalities when a 300-year old city dies. Oh yeah, and those public housing residents who are about to have their apartments demolished? They're 99% African-American.
John Edwards - Sen. Edwards has an entire page of proposals to deal with New Orleans:
- Addressing the nursing shortage and supporting the proposed biomedical corridor
- Providing new resources to make the city's streets safe
- Fully funding the "Road Home"
- Putting someone in charge
- Appointing a Special Gulf Coast Inspector General
- Passing "Brownie's Law," so agencies like FEMA get the job done.
So, we've got two candidates who make no mention of New Orleans and a third who actually talks about fully funding Road Home.
At least Edwards and his consultants aren't suffering from "Katrina Fatigue."
I challenege every Clinton and Obama supporter to ask those in your campaign organizations, what is your candidate's position on New Orleans?
I know where my candidate stands.
I'm also confident that things would not be as screwed up right now here if "Vice President Edwards" was running right now rather than former-Senator Edwards.
Hurst family coping, Mt. Olivet Cemetery on Norman Mayer Drive in Gentilly. Mt. Olivet is a relatively new cemetery, opened in 1922. It's a historically-black cemetery on the Gentilly Ridge.
While at first glance, this coping doesn't appear to be significant (well, not to anyone but the Hurst family, of course), if you look at the stone at the foot of the coping, you'll see the interesting part. The "Hurst" name is laid out in the same sort of tiles used by the city for street names in the 1930s. Walking around Mt. Olivet, there were a number of other tombs and copings using these letter tiles.
Replicas of these tiles, both real and virtual, are extremely popular. Chuck Taggart uses this style for his logo for The Gumbo Pages. The Krewe of Muses made up carnival beads with "MUSES" tiles. The only time I've seen them used in a cemetery is in Mt. Olivet. Given that it's a black cemetery, I'm wondering where the connection is between the cemetery tiles and the street-name tiles.
The center headstone is the type the government provided for veterans who were interred in non-military cemeteries. It's very common in New Orleans cemeteries to see these headstones mounted on the side of a tomb, to commerate the service of a family member. In the case of families with less means, these stones often become the primary headstone. You'll also find a number of the rounded-top markers used in military cemeteries attached to local tombs or copings as well. These indicate family members who were originally buried in a military cemetery, often overseas, then brought home to rest permanently.
a Kossack was wondering if I could suggest some places where people could buy New Orleans stuff, thereby helping boost the New Orleans economy. I've come up with a few ideas:
Cafe du Monde - http://shop.cafedumonde.html - full line of CDM products, coffee, beignet mix, mugs, stuff.
Pat O'Brien's - http://www.patobriens.com/giftshopcatalog.html - hurricane mix, other drinks, glassware, stuff.
Abita Brewing Company - http://www.abita.com/abitastore/mall/shop_home.asp - lots of neat stuff
Mignon Faget - http://www.mignonfaget.com - fine jewelry
Tabasco - http://countrystore.tabasco.com/ - arguable just how "New Orleans" Tabasco stuff is, but you get the idea.
Audubon Nature Institute - http://www.auduboninstitute.org/site/PageServer?pagename=eShops - Zoo-logo stuff
New Orleans Street Railway Association - http://www.nosra.org - buy one of our streetcar shirts!
ProCreations - http://www.art4now.com/store/default.asp - Official JazzFest merchandise, including posters
This is a start, but as you can see, it's all big companies. The more I think about it, the more I realized that I don't buy little New Orleans-themed things on line. I don't know which companies on the Internets are legit and which aren't. If you guys have any recommendations, please let me know, so we can get a good list together.
...because this is so wrong. The death penalty rarely works in our system of justice, but some people really should be put down like mad dogs:
A 33-year-old North Carolina man has been sentenced to 110 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he terrorized more than 100 underage girls by hacking into MySpace accounts and extorting nude pictures from them.Ivory Dickerson, a civil engineer, received the maximum sentence on three counts of manufacturing child pornography, two counts of unlawful computer intrusion and one count for possession of child pornography. Members of the FBI's Innocent Images Task Force uncovered a cache of child porn dating back to 1998, including videos of Dickerson with young girls in which he boasted of drinking and having sexual encounters with them, according to court documents.
Ugh. The article mentions that the FBI believe that Dickerson didn't act alone, and I agree. If he's got the social engineering skills to get kids to send him naked pics, my guess is that he's got an accomplice with the computer skills to hack computers. It's rare that a person has both skill sets.
And they should put down the accomplice(s) as well when they catch up to them.
...although I'm more inclined to eat a baked potato than I am to order fries:
Women who eat crisps or chips every day may double their chances of ovarian or womb cancer, say scientists.The fears surround acrylamides, chemicals produced when you fry, grill or roast a wide range of foods.
The experts say avoid overcooking fried foods to limit the intake of acrylamides. I'm good with that--never been a big fan of burnt food.
