New at Reason

Julian Sanchez | November 29, 2005

Hurrican Katrina seemed to confirm just about everyone's political preconceptions, but Cathy Young says it's an ill wind that blows no minds.

Comments

|11.29.05 @ 9:58AM|#

Am I the only one who sees nothing wrong with making sure that a Senator continues to live in a flood-prone area?

Phil Collins|11.29.05 @ 9:59AM|#

"Yes, overseas operations have left the National Guard overextended. But commanders insist that their resources are more than adequate to cope with disaster response, and the governors of Mississippi and Louisiana called up only a fraction of the National Guard troops that were available in their states."

This is a non-sequitur. It doesn't prove that rescue efforts were unaffected by the Iraq War. All it says is that the governors made a decision that makes no sense. Why did they call up only a fraction? Did they need helicopters and busses, rather than warm bodies? Were they stupid? Crazy? Spiteful? The only thing this statement proves is that Ms. Yound failed to do her homework and get a credible answer to this glaring question to her readers. And, yes, it remains quite possible that services would be better at home without the fiscal drain of the Iraq War, despite the fact that the Bible Belt remains rich in buck privates.

Final: note: nobody's complaining about Afghanistan, Cathy. That is a strawman.

|11.29.05 @ 10:01AM|#

The handling of the issue of race was, as usual, disappointing. The narrative of the evil white man in his big house scheming to keep down black people is so appealing that it crowds out responsible conversation about how institutionalized racism actually contributed to the disaster.

Of course, Louis Farrakhan has always been pretty good at crowding out responsible conversation about race.

|11.29.05 @ 10:03AM|#

BTW, Louis Farrakhan, Kanye West, and Michael Moore vs. the editor of The American Spectator and Charles Murray on the op-ed page of the NYT?

C'mon.

Rich Ard|11.29.05 @ 10:08AM|#

[threadjack]

Has no-one noticed that Canada's government just got a good, old fashioned bitch-slapping?

[/threadjack]

|11.29.05 @ 10:10AM|#

is it just me, or does the article description blurb on the reason.com front page read: "For too many pundits, left and right, Katrina was just another front in the Cathy Young"?

|11.29.05 @ 10:13AM|#

biologist,

For Cathy Young, Katrina was just another front in the "too many pundits, left and right..."

|11.29.05 @ 10:23AM|#

There really is no such thing as useful & intelligent political narrative any more - it's all disappointing. But I'm sure that Chuck D's employment with Air America will change all that.

|11.29.05 @ 11:01AM|#

Wow, that Cathy Young, she's always on the cutting edge of journalism and opinion pieces, man.

It's, what, almost December now? Not only has the "Katrina was just a vehicle to reaffirm everyone's core beliefs" meme been tossed around for months now, but, it's already been done at Reason.

Up next week: Cathy comes to the unique conclusion that, while the Bush administration might tout the principles of small government, but they're actually big-government proponents.

;->

|11.29.05 @ 11:20AM|#

I just read that the NO Mayor predicts that only half of the pre-flood population will ultimately return to the city.

And this is a bad thing..? People don't want to live in a flood bowl that has a high probability of massively disrupting their lives, if not kill them? Hello McFly! Helllooooooo!

Dan|11.29.05 @ 11:32AM|#

It is interesting that the only black voices who got any press were a leader of an extremist religious sect and a rapper.

Even funnier is that the rapper had to basically hijack a live TV broadcast to express a fairly reasonable opinion that is no doubt shared by a sizable number of people.

|11.29.05 @ 11:46AM|#

Cool. A Pricipia Discordia reference. I'm offically enlightened for the day.

|11.29.05 @ 12:49PM|#

Dan, our media seems to favor black "voices" only when they say something wacky and/or when said voice is famous for some reason or another.

Mr. Nice Guy, don't scare Mayor Nagin like that. What will he do if his tax base is cut in half? Is this guy a poster child for recall or what?

M1EK|11.29.05 @ 1:30PM|#

Man, that Cathy Young never found a limb she wouldn't refrain from stepping out on. What a waste of time.

Wintermute|11.29.05 @ 2:12PM|#

The main human failing about New Orleans is that far too much land was developed for human habitation in flood-prone areas that never should have been. This has caused loss of life and relocation on a large scale many times in the Mississippi Valley, which people down here are more aware of than pundits in other parts of the nation. Even still, levees were built and improved in the river's flood plain, eschewing the long-term benefits of annual flooding in favor of the short-term benefits of year-round habitation and not missing a crop. But levees have always been vulnerable to damage and deliberate destruction and are not as predictable a match for the storm surge of mammoth hurricanes. The tragedy of Katrina was not a racial thing, it was a human thing: building in flood-probe areas. That's a mistake that should not be prolonged. See the map of 1798 New Orleans linked at the bottom of my post:
Re-Think Rebuilding New Orleans

|11.29.05 @ 9:18PM|#

Wintermute,

"Seeing people who refused to evacuate, who caused good people to risk their own lives rescuing them, and who are looting stores for jewelry in the chaos, is interfering with my sympathy"

You're still inviting people to read this crap?

|11.30.05 @ 8:17AM|#

When Cathy Young wields the stilleto she is absolutely awesome.

But when she does her "Hey, look, crazy pundits all around" thing? Not so much.