Dumping Grounds

Unless you have been under a rock, you have heard of the trial that opened in Harrisburg, Pa. this week, concerning school curriculums and whether or not intelligent design has any place in the biology classes of the Dover school district. Currently, the district recommends an alternate textbook that presents the ideas surrounding intelligent design. 11 parents, backed by the ACLU, are suing the Dover School district for presenting â??religious conceptsâ? during class, thereby violating the Constitutional requirement of separation of church and state.

Dover became the first district in the entire nation to require its teachers to question the scientific validity of the theory of evolution and present intelligent design as an alternative. Teachers were required to state that â??The theory [of evolution] is not a fact. Gaps in the theory exist for which there is no evidence, intelligent design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin’s view.â? Teachers were not required to point out that not only is there no evidence that backs intelligent design, but that the idea itself is inherently untestable.

Pennsylvania is not the only place that the debate has been front and center. The Kansas Board of Education is considering changes that would â??encourageâ? the teaching of intelligent design in all Kansas schools. In Washington, the President sparked a firestorm of reaction when he seemed to endorse the teaching of intelligent design in schools, while refusing to state his own beliefs on the matter. However, while Bush was Governor of Texas, he supported the teaching of both the theory of evolution and creationism in Texas schools.

What is Intelligent Design?

So what is all the uproar about? What exactly is the idea of intelligent design? Very simply, it is the idea that the world, and all the living beings in it, is too complex to have arisen through the mechanisms espoused by Darwin, namely mutation, genetic drift, and natural selection. Therefore, life, while millions of years old, has been created and guided by an unseen hand, an unspecified intelligence. The specific nature of this intelligence is unknowable, but the theory is most often espoused by those who believe that the guiding force is the Christian God. The phrase â??intelligent designâ? was first used in this context in 1989 in the creationist textbook Of Pandas and People and was further popularized by Phillip E. Johnson in his 1991 book Darwin on Trial. The concept itself has been around for centuries, and was presented in Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica in the 13th century.

The modern idea of intelligent design is built around three principal concepts: irreducible complexity, specified complexity and that of a fine-tuned universe. Each of these concepts boils down to the basic tenet that it is so terribly unlikely that we exist, that some outside influence must have caused it to happen.

Irreducible complexity was introduced in 1996 by Michael Behe in his book Darwin’s Black Box. He defines it as

â??…a single system which is composed of several well-matched interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning.â?

In effect, he proposes the idea that if there are multiple elements of a complex system that work together (and require each other to operate) that have no use by themselves, there is no mechanism that will cause that entire system to evolve. Among other examples, he cites the immune system as a set of parts which provide no advantage individually, but together give a tremendous benefit. Evolution, he says, cannot provide support for the intermediate pieces, and therefore provides no mechanism for the development of complex systems.

The problem with this argument is that many systems cited in his book as examples of irreducible complexity have been shown, through scientific method, to be reducible after all. As a matter of fact, all three of the biological examples that Behe used in his book, the immune system, blood clotting, and the flagellum, have been shown to be reducible. Beyond that, Niall Shanks and Karl H. Joplin have shown that evolution can produce irreducibly complex mechanisms that satisfy Behe’s decription of irreducable complexity. In their research they have concluded that biological mechanisms develop â??redundant complexityâ? and that Behe greatly overestimated the importance of irreducable complexity because his biological models were far too simple.

Personally, I don’t find it difficult to imagine that a complex system such as an eyeball could be the result of millions of generations of imperfect genetic reproduction (in effect, mistakes) because of natural selection. Those â??mistakesâ? that do not hinder the performance of the organism, and when several â??mistakesâ? align to provide an advantage, those organisms will become more successful, and prolific. Somehow I think that Behe simply underestimates how long life has been on Earth, and how long natural selection has had to operate. No one ever said that evolution was an efficient process.

Specified Complexity is the idea that if something is both specified and complex, it must have arisen through the influence of some intelligent cause. Did that make any sense to you? It didn’t to me, either. The example that the creator, William Dembski, cites, is as follows:

â??A single letter of the alphabet is specified without being complex. A long sentence of random letters is complex without being specified. A Shakespearean sonnet is both complex and specified.â? (Intelligent Design, p. 47)

The problem is that he simply defines anything as terribly unlikely to be CSI (complex specified information). Although he cites an awful lot of mathematics, many scholars argue that his reasoning is fatally flawed. For instance: It is terribly unlikely that I will ever win the lottery. However, it is downright probable that someone will win the lottery. To put this in evolutionary terms… it is terribly unlikely that humans would have evolved. But it is certainly more likely that something would have evolved. Much like the lottery, although any given outcome is extremely improbable, the fact that there are winning numbers happens all the time.

Personally, I do not find the argument of specified complexity compelling in any way whatsoever. It seems to miss the point, at least to me.

The concept of a fine tuned universe is closely related to that of specified complexity, in that it concerns ideas that proponents regard as incredibly unlikely. The idea is that the universe was not likely to have had all the features necessary for life to arise. There has not been much mainstream discussion of this idea, and it clearly the weakest of the three major tenets of intelligent design.

Criticism of this idea is widespread and compelling. Again I cite the lottery example: possibly it is unlikely for a universe to have arisen that allows us, but it is not unlikely that a universe would arise that allows someone. But, even this turns out not to be true, as Stephen Hawking and James Hartle have shown that from the conditions immediately following the Big Bang, there are a number of types of universes that could have formed. The type of universe that we live in will be formed over 90% of the time, however. So maybe the universe that we live in is not a long shot at all. I’m terribly biased, but I am going to believe the calculations of the preeminent physicist of our time before I believe many of the â??scientificâ? conclusions cited above.

If one is going to be a proponent of intelligent design, one has to have some idea as to what the intelligent force behind the creation of life is. As I cited earlier, this idea is commonly put forth by conservative Christians. Of course, there are other ideas: aliens (proposed by the Raelian movement, and some UFO conspiracy buffs), or through panspermia (an idea first proposed around 430 BCE, by Anaxagoras, and later used to explain why all the aliens look alike in Star Trek). Of course, neither of these alternate ideas propose an intelligence capable of creating the fine-tuned universe, nor do they answer the question of â??who made the aliens?â?

I have found it curious that the conservative Christians who back teaching intelligent design in the schools are the same people (usually) who believe in the literal truth of the Bible, and also who absolutely believe in the omnipotence and omniscience of God. Intelligent design is completely incompatible with first and last of these ideas, and is on dubious ground with the idea of omnipotence.

If you are going to back intelligent design, the very first thing you have to do is admit that the creation story in Genesis is not true. Not only is it not literal, it is flat out wrong. Intelligent design absolutely admits that life forms evolve, just that it is the hand of God, and not natural selection, that provides the impetus for change. This is not how Genesis reads. Not even if you try to take Genesis as figurative can you get any idea of evolving life forms from the first chapters of the Bible.

The strange thing is, though, intelligent design seems to imply that the guiding force is not quite sure what they are doing. Species go extinct, it took several tries to make modern man from a prehistoric chimpanzee, and you must admit that something designed the platypus on purpose. (Yeah, that was a little humor… is anyone still reading this far? Trust me, the best stuff is coming up.)

Personally, I have long felt that the idea of an omniscient God didn’t make sense to me… if God knows everything, then he not only knows how to create the universe, but he also knows how every event in the past 14 billion years (and in the next 14 billion) was going to turn out beforehand.

If that is the case, then why did He bother? What is the point if you know exactly how it is going to turn out? A phrase I like to use is: I give God more credit than that. He doesn’t know how things are going to turn out, we’re not predestined. He’s not omniscient. Of course, that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.

The only possible interpretation of intelligent design (and I really hate to put it under the same umbrella) that I find compelling (and as a matter of fact, I probably regard as more likely than any other possibility) is the so called Clockmaker hypothesis. The idea is that the universe itself, and all the laws of physics that case it to work, were created by God (very possibly in the Big Bang itself) and then He stepped back to see what would happen. Life arose on Earth (and possibly other places) because of the way the universe was created, but not through the specific action of God. I have no problem with this idea, although I regard it as completely an article of faith, and schools should only concern themselves with the universe as it was created, and not the idea of who or how it was created.

One other idea that unquestionably deserves recognition here is the idea of â??Flying Spaghetti Monsterism (FSM).â? FSM is the creation of Bobby Henderson, who wrote a letter in June 2005 to the Kansas Board of Education in â??supportâ? of intelligent design being taught in the schools.

Mr. Henderson asks that Kansas also require the teaching of â??otherâ? theories of intelligent design, including FSM, as practiced by â??Pastafarians.â? The tenets of his â??religionâ? are as follows:

• The universe was created by an invisible and undetectable Flying Spaghetti Monster.
• All evidence pointing to evolutionary mechanisms operating in the world was placed there by the Flying Spaghetti monster.
• No amount of science can disprove the Flying Spaghetti monster, as he continues to guide the universe (and alter test results) with â??His Noodly Appendage.â?
• All instruction as to the FSM theory of intelligent design must be done while wearing full pirate regalia, as â??He becomes angry if we don’t.â?
• Global warming is caused by the decline in the number of pirates worldwide.
• There is documentation of the creation of the universe. Specifically, there is a written account (drawing) showing the FSM, a tree covered mountain, and a midgit [sic].

While many people find the FSM movement simply hilarious, it is very important to remember… there is exactly the same amount (and type) of evidence supporting FSM-ism as there is intelligent design guided by the Christian God.

My point being that is is a matter of faith, not science, and as such, does not belong in a school curriculum.

faith - n. Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

There is no material evidence for FSM, just as there is no material evidence for intelligent design. The guiding force is unknowable, invisible, and undetectable. It is, therefore, a matter of faith.

For those few of you still reading (this is the first blog entry I have ever written that I outlined beforehand, and consequently, I am fairly certain it is my longest entry ever) you may be wondering why I care? First of all, I have no children, so I’m not concerned about what they might be exposed to in the schools. Second of all, as I have already discussed, I am a Christian, and have no problem with the idea of a Creator. (Just to be clear, though, I have huge problems with the idea that the Creator then became a guiding force in the day to day operation of the universe.)

I care because I feel that this public debate is indicative of a larger issue in our society. An issue that has subtlely creeped into our daily lives, into our government, and into our schools. An issue that, believe it or not, at the very forefront of the possible adoption of a constitution in Iraq.

The idea that America is creeping ever closer to a fundamentalist government, of exactly the type we would like to prevent in Iraq. Can you imagine a non-Christian getting elected President? I can’t. Do you think that even 15 years ago the idea of an American President endorsing the idea of teaching fundamentalist Christian ideas instead of Darwin in science class would have been met with such… apathy? I don’t. Current public opinion is swinging toward support for tighter integration of Christian faith and our government.

Even as a Christian, this terrifies me.

Please explain to me how a fundamentalist Muslim government is bad, and a fundamentalist Christian government is good.

• Fundamentalist Muslim law is bad, because it opresses women and denies them basic rights. (Fundamentalist Christian government oppresses homosexuals and denies them basic rights, but that’s ok.)
• Fundamentalist Muslim governments fund terrorism, which kills thousands of Americans (Fundamentalist Christian governments fund invasions, which kill hundreds of thousands of Afghans and Iraqis)
• Fundamentalist Muslim governments oppress minority denominations, and kill them if they continue to insist upon representation (The minorities counter attack, further escalating hostilities) (Oh, wait… Christian governments do the same thing)

I’ll be fair. It’s been 120 years since Mormons and mainstream Protestant Christians have killed each other in cold blood. But it did happen. How is that different that the Shiite and Sunni muslims killing each other in Iraq?

I am sure that some of you reading this think that I am over-reacting, but the first amendment reads, in part:

â??Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereofâ?

and I feel that the endorsement of faith-based ideas in the schools is certainly the first step to the establishment of an official religion. Maybe not a huge step, but it is a step nonetheless. Once any piece of the Bill of Rights is breached, all of the others are on shaky ground.

Parents who feel strongly that they want their children to receive religious instruction in their school have a perfectly viable option: private school. Or home schooling. Those that cannot afford private school have every moment outside school from the time their children wake up until they go to bed at night for spiritual instruction. That is what being a parent is all about. Be involved. Don’t ever forget that the most influential person, the most important teacher, in your child’s life, is you.

If you bothered to read this far, post a comment. Moreso than anything I have written in a long time, this topic warrants a debate. I’m interested in what you think. Liz, I know you are busy, so you are exempted

Note: I struggled for a while with whether or not to write this. While I will take on sex, drugs (ok, I have not taken on drugs) and religion, I wasn’t sure I wanted to write about anything racially charged. Because, you see, racism is in the eye of the beholder. Anything that someone chooses to see as racism, they can. I think Jesse Jackson is a racist. He sees skin color behind every issue that does not go his way. Yet, many African Americans see him as a role model.

I don’t think that this article is racist, but simply because I say that some folks get the most Katrina coverage because they are doing the least to help themselves, I’m sure I will be called a racist pig, and worse. Frankly, when I decided to write this anyway, I decided I didn’t care. Call me whatever you want. Many people, black and white, rich and poor, have been destroyed by the disaster, and no one is getting as much attention from the government or charitable organizations as they want. But the folks who are going to get back on their feet the quickest, the ones that will be earning a living the most quickly, are going to be the ones that quit waiting for a government handout first, and start work fixing their own lives.

I know everyone is familiar with the â??storyâ? of Katrina by now. Slow response, accusations of racism, completely unchecked crime in the shelters. General incompetence and stupidity all around (both on the government’s part and the residents’).

But there’s other pieces of this story that don’t get told as much, mainly because it would not sell as well. (â??What,â? you say, â??don’t you think the media seeks to cover all sides of a story, fairly and completely?â?) Uh… no. They cover what sells commercials. The more sensationalistic the better. Stranded black residents screaming and crying that they were abandoned by the government gets people watching. Affluent, self-motivated white people picking up their lives and moving on quietly doesn’t. There’s no hook. There’s no emotion.

(Let’s be clear here, I am not saying that black folks are not self motivated. I’m not saying that white folks cannot be whiners. Both are certainly true. But the picture that the media has been trying to present does not support that view. Both the presentation of the people, and the presentation of their attitude, has been very monochrome.)

Very, very few stories have been about people, standing in lines for their benefits, only to be turned away empty handed (with absolutely no aid at all) because they are â??homeownersâ?. I put that in quotes because no one in New Orleans is a homeowner any longer. They may own a pile of rubble, mold and rotted wood, but not a home.

Very few stories are about the fact that homeless, shelterless and hungry people going to collect their aid checks from the Red cross get… $365. Seriously now, how long could you live on $365? That’s not for an individual, that’s for a household. And that’s from the Red Cross, not the government.

As you may have figured out by now, I heard from my friend Marie yesterday. Thanks to everyone who asked me about her. She’s not â??hungry, cold or wetâ? so in the global scheme of things, she’s ok.

But she’s white, works for a living, and has not been crying on camera. Therefore, she does not seem to be getting a lot of help. Sh’es going to to pack every single thing she owns in the whole world (a few clothes, purchased with her $365, and an air mattress) in a Honda, and she’s coming to Dallas. Get an apartment, get a job, and start over.

Because that’s what responsible Americans do. When things don’t go the right way, they work to fix them. She didn’t own a house. There won’t be any insurance settlement. There likely won’t be any government aid, because by the time they get around to it, she’ll have a job. Anyone have any doubt that will disqualify her? I don’t. And that is the problem that I have with our welfare system. It systematically rewards those who do nothing to improve their situation. And penalizes those who do.

My last two weeks have not been all that great. Personally, professionally, it didn’t matter. September of 2005 is not destined to end up on my list of â??Best Months Ever.â?

Most things that could have gone wrong, did. If anyone could have interpreted something the wrong way, they did.

I’m tired of bitching about it. I’ve always said that if this turned into a ARTG-Blog (Angst-ridden teenage girl), I’d stop writing it. I am none of the above. (Angst ridden, teenage, or female).

So here’s some good stuff, instead:

• Got satellite radio over the weekend, and put in some snazzy inputs into the Jeep for that and my iPod. I have figured out a BETTER way to do some of the stuff I have done, so I’ll post pics when I get that completed. But it looks pretty cool.

• With just a little elbow grease, I managed to set my Mac up to work as a Tivo-like unit for XM radio, and have it record shows I might want to listen to that might happen in the middle of the night. I think this might get pretty heavy usage on the Old time Radio channel, as they do carry most of my favorites, and the sound quality is better than many of my recordings.

• Training for my dogs is going well, and undoing the damage done by Man’s Best Friend is difficult, but not impossible. I think I have a strategy for eliminating jumping on people… we’ll see. (The whole Man’s Best Friend rant was something I just didn’t have the energy to write. Suffice it to say, never take your dog there, and keep your money safely in your pocket. You and your dog will be happier that way.)

• I went to take pictures of a friend’s son’s football game on Saturday. I think they turned out well. Maybe I’ll have to consider doing this more often. I’ve been invited to two more football games this weekend, and I know I need the practice. You can see them at Jets Football.

• An update for those of you who have asked… I at least got through to Marie’s voice mail for the first time this weekend. I know that this pretty much means nothing, but at least I felt better that I was able to leave a message. I’ll post an update if I actually hear from her.

By the way, the links below are actually affiliate links to the iTunes Music Store. If you are planning to go and buy a song, and you are not an affiliate yourself… click one of those links to get there. If you buy a tune, I think they give me a nickel. Or something. You do not have to buy the tune I have linked. Any tune works.

For those of you who ignore my right hand nav, be sure to check out the current â??Spam Subject Line of the Dayâ?

Maybe the best one I have ever received.

And yes, even with all that crap, my filter still caught it.

When I remove it from the bar, I’ll add it here to make sure that beast is NEVER lost.

One of the problems with keeping this website is that it has become a bit too popular for it’s own good. I can’t just pop off a good rant without virtually everyone knowing exactly who I am talking about.

I have known people who posted pretty personal rants about their family, their friends, and whoever else pissed them off. I don’t feel comfortable doing that, and quite honestly, there are too many people at my work that read this little pile of crap I produce. On top of that, there are plenty of people at my work who have absolutely no sense of humor at all. It gets especially bad when I know for a fact that my boss has this site bookmarked. (Although I am pretty sure she never looks at it) She’s not the one I’m complaining about anyway.

So, suffice it to say this week didn’t get off to a good start. And some people who are REALLY coasting at the moment figure that if they complain about me loudly enough, no one will notice that they are not actually doing anything worthwhile. << stuff deleted to help me maintain my employment>>

If this is someone’s idea of motivation, I’d hate to see what they do for a reprimand.

If I were capable of posting a proper rant without getting in trouble for it, I would probably tell them to go straight to hell. But I can’t. So I wont.

I’m probably overreacting because my weekend was fairly lousy, too. I’ll live.

Go Falcons. The Eagles suck. I’m going to go make myself a drink.

Let me get this straight…

• Theoretically, I have bragging rights over OU fans, because my school could whip up on TCU. (And beyond that, SMU could physically whip TCU, and run the ball down their defenses’ throat, something OU and Adrian Peterson could not do.)
• However, Baylor fans have bragging rights over me.
• The Cowboys get credited with a victory despite the fact that the Chargers lost the game much more than the Cowboys won it. (Ok, Ok, they deserve credit for taking advantage of San Diego mistakes, I’m glad they won)
• Not only is Joe Theismann still getting paid for his drivel on television, next year he is getting a promotion?!?!
• Somehow, someway the New Orleans Saints kept their head on straight enough to defeat the (Super Bowl favorite) Carolina Panthers… in Carolina.
• Not only did the Miami Dolphins win, they scored more points than many analysts expected that they would score in the first month of the season.
• Returning to a topic I have visited before, I installed a new real-time log analysis tool, and again I am surprised at the number of people who read this stuff, especially those of you that I have NO IDEA who you are. (Turns out I have a couple of past articles that attract a LOT of search engine attention)
• I have probably watched two Peyton Manning football games ever. Both were against the Baltimore Ravens, and I thought he looked timid and confused both times. I guess someday I will have to watch him tear someone up to be impressed. (Update: in the 8 minutes since I typed that… he’s thrown 2 touchdown passes. I’m not terribly impressed yet, but I’m getting there.)
• Since I am pretty obviously typing this while sitting in front of the television, I have to admit, even if this makes me a bad person… the Children’s Miracle Network commercial where the hispanic girl talks about balloons not only being for kids just whips my ass to no end.

Case I

â??I donâ??t think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon, that they would try to use an airplane as a missile.â?

– National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice

and yet…

â??Well, it is correct that the United States intelligence community had a great deal of intelligence suggesting that the terrorists, back since 1994, had plans, discussed plans, to use airplanes as weapons, loaded with fuel, loaded with bombs, loaded with explosives. The Algerians had a plan in â??94 to fly a plane into the Eiffel Tower. The Bojinka plot in â??95 discussed flying an explosive-laden small plane into CIA headquarters. Certainly CIA was well aware of that.â?

– 9/11 commission member Richard Ben-Veniste, during the appearances by two witnesses, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and former FBI Director Louis Freeh

Case II

â??I don’t remember whether that was on thereâ?

– Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, when asked whether insurgency appeared on a list [of about 15 things that could go terribly, terribly wrong in Iraq] that he gave to Vice President Cheney

and yet:

â??A U.S. intelligence report before the Iraq war warned that an American invasion could lead to rogue elements fighting the new Iraqi government and U.S. forces, sources familiar with the report said on Tuesday.â?

– Reuters news report from September 28, 2004 [regrettably, I was unable to find a copy of the original intelligence report]

Case III

â??I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.â?

– President George W. Bush (to be fair, Bill Clinton has said words to the same effect)

and yet:

â??A major hurricane could decimate the region… it’s just a matter of time.â?

â??The scene has been played out in computer models and emergency operations simulations… the levees would trap any water that gets inside - by breach, overtopping or torrential downpour in a catastrophic stormâ?

â??Thousands will drown while trapped in homes or cars by rising water. Others will be washed away or crushed by debris. Survivors will end up trapped on roofs, in buildings or on high ground surrounded by water, with no means of escape and little food or fresh water, perhaps for several days.â?

– All from a special report that appeared in the New Orleans Times Picayune, June 24, 2002

and this:

â??In the event of a slow-moving Category 4 or Category 5 hurricane (with winds up to or exceeding 155 miles per hour), it’s possible that only those crow’s nests would remain above the water level. Such a storm, plowing over the lake, could generate a 20-foot surge that would easily overwhelm the levees of New Orleans, which only protect against a hybrid Category 2 or Category 3 storm (with winds up to about 110 miles per hour and a storm surge up to 12 feet). Soon the geographical â?bowlâ?? of the Crescent City would fill up with the waters of the lake, leaving those unable to evacuate with little option but to cluster on rooftops — terrain they would have to share with hungry rats, fire ants, nutria, snakes, and perhaps alligators. The water itself would become a festering stew of sewage, gasoline, refinery chemicals, and debris.â?

– The American Prospect, May 2005

The floods in New Orleans following the deluge of hurricane Katrina, I think, are of a scope that few of us can imagine. They are certainly not as devastating as the tsunami in Indian Ocean was, but that is a little like saying that World War I was not all that bad, because World War II was worse.

Make no mistake, this is among the 10 biggest tragedies in American History. While the body count will likely not reach the levels of September 17, 1862 (the Civil War battle at Antietam), there is a very good chance it will surpass other dark days in American history such as December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001.

The desperation and behavior of the people left in New Orleans is something that I, like most Americans, assumed we would never see on our own shores in our lifetime. Riots for food, street gangs armed with pipes in broad daylight, and the looting of hospitals are only some of the bright spots in todays news reports. I certainly never thought that I would see an American city so devastated that they left dead bodies in the street, for lack of anything better to do with them.

And elsewhere in the country, equally despicable sniping and partisan bickering has begun. Already the articles are appearing declaring that New Orleans was a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah, destroyed because of its catering to the gay community.

Elsewhere… an article is getting very wide blog coverage that the devastation was needlessly severe, due to budget cuts in levee maintenance to fund the war in Iraq.

I am quite confident that the self-righteous writers of the first article have a special spot reserved for them in the afterlife, probably right next to the fire, where it’s extra warm.

The problem with the second article is that it is probably right. After its establishment in 1995, the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project (SELA) provided levee repair and maintenance, as well as the construction of pumping stations. However, beginning in 2003, major budget cuts devastated SELA projects. It has been well documented that the money formerly used for flood control in SE Louisiana was being redirected to the conflict in Iraq, and the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security.

Allow me to editorialize for a moment: What could possibly be more within the domain of the Department of Homeland Security than building a great big wall between approximately 1 million people and two bodies of water (Lake Pontchartrain to the North, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south… not to mention a minor waterway called the Mississippi River that runs through the city)? But apparently Michael Chertoff didn’t see it that way. Neither did Tom Ridge before him. I can only assume that they were busy coming up with new colors to scare people with.

They did not have the money to repair levees that needed it in 2004. They didn’t have it in 2005, either. How much is it going to cost the U.S. Government to recover from this disaster? I’m certainly no expert, but the $250 million that would have allowed the Army Corps of Engineers to fund all of the SELA projects is beginning to look like a bargain.

Slate.com just the other day featured an article about President Bush, handicapping his chances for becoming the most unpopular President in history. Given the above story, let’s just say he went from dark horse to strong contender (see the entry for August 29, among others).

Before I get a new reputation as a screaming liberal (especially with my recent thoughts on Iraq), let me turn hard hearted conservative for a moment…

• All of these people KNEW that they lived in a city below sea level.
• All of these people KNEW that the levees were in danger of failing (the Times-Picauyne had covered the story no less than 9 times)

And yet they stayed. I’m not a complete jerk, I do think the government should help these people, with all the resources (which, admittedly, have seemed slow to arrive) they have at their disposal.

But funds for rebuilding? In my opinion, only on one condition. If the rebuilding plans place the new structure above sea level. If that means New Orleans becomes a ghost town, so be it.

The government does not have an obligation to assist people to put themselves back in the same dangerous situation that they were in before this disaster. In a situation such as this, the government should help people improve their lot in life, not stick them back in the flood plain that got them into this mess in the first place. Help them move. Help them to live somewhere safer. Because, whether we like it or not, this will happen again.

In my earlier entry, I bemoaned the fact that a couple of teenage boys had no idea of the difference between Texas Stadium and the Astrodome.

Last night, on NPR (in a report from the BBC), some reporter who I did not catch his name reported that between 8,000 and 9,000 people were still stranded in the New Orleans Astrodome, despite the fact that it had been seriously damaged in Hurricane Katrina.

/sigh