Friday, September 09, 2005

The Ten Thousand Things Rise and Fall

 
Dymphna wrote yesterday about the likely inflation of Katrina’s death toll by the MSM and Louisiana’s political leaders. So far she (and the Guardian) are being borne out by events:
     NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- Authorities said their systematic sweep of New Orleans to get voluntary evacuees out was nearly complete, and far fewer bodies than expected or feared were found during the operation.
Estimates of the death toll have ranged up to 10,000.
Our leaders would do well to heed the Tao Te Ching:

Therefore the sage goes about doing nothing, teaching no-talking.
The ten thousand things rise and fall without cease,
Creating, yet not.
Working, yet not taking credit.
Work is done, then forgotten.
Therefore it lasts forever.

11 comments:

Dymphna said...

Did you look that up or did you already have it memorized?


PS The word verification for this one is my fave so far: "obezuck."

Baron Bodissey said...

I had enough of it memorized so that I could google it in less than 20 seconds. Just like Faustus.

AST said...

Like I emailed Instapundit, the image of bloated corpses choking the streets is become the favorite metaphor of the Bush-haters. It would give me some satisfaction if it turns out to be as irresponsible as everything else they've been writing.

Baron Bodissey said...

AST -- ditto for me. I'm reserving judgment for now, but it looks like Nagin and the others were being very alarmist. And to what purpose? I don't understand the political benefits...

Wild Bill said...

If they readily print and televise these images of Nawlins, then what was the difference between these and images of 9-11 ?? Why were they so forbidden on 9-11, when now it is not just acceptable, but encouraged ?? Dont think it may be because there may be some possibility that Bush may get the blame, do you ?? Rush gave the media and the libs a pretty good bitch-slap over this today on his program.. Must be really gettin desperate at the news channels cause they sure are gettin disgusting in their coverage.. To me, news reporters have about as much credibility as a used car salesman anymore..

Rick Ballard said...

Baron,

I used the 10,000 number based on Bobby Jindal's "confirmation" of Nagin's initial babble over at Simon's blog. I'm beginning to feel fairly silly for paying attention to utterances by politicians. I'm really old enough to know better.

What are we to make of the response if the actual number is +-2K and fifty per cent of the dead turn out to have chosen to die in place? 2K dead from a hurricane that spread devastation over 90K square miles really doesn't seem an unreasonable number. Assuming 2M inhabitants (a low assumption) the survival rate would be on the order of 99.999%

It's pretty tough to make the case for systemic failure with that kind of survival rate. Not that the Dem/MSM misinformation machine will hesitake to try.

PS I've heard of couples IM'ing each other in the same house but this is the first instance I've seen of a couple communicating via blog comments.

Baron Bodissey said...

Rick -- when I'm working Dymphna and I are 70 miles apart (all work week). She's online most of the time, and we have a dialup, so I can't call her. Does she read her email? Well, sometimes...

So comment conversations are very handy. There are more like it in the Neighborhood of God if you're interested!

Dymphna said...

Oh, yeah? Kids in the dorm at the colllege the Baron's Boy attends im each other in the same room.

...otoh, I never realized how weird it must look when the Baron and I comment like that.

Dymphna said...

Wild Bill--

Kill your TV. Very satisfying. Shun NPR. Even better.

Get some books on tape.

Rick Ballard said...

I don't think it's weird at all, just hadn't seen (or perhaps, took notice) before.

I checked out the population statistics on the MSA's for NO, Biloxi and Mobile. NO, approximately 1.4M, Biloxi 400K, Mobile 500K. I'm still interested in what a "successful" survival rate might be.

What will the MSM say if, in retrospect, the death toll is amazingly low? If 99.999% of those in the path of the storm survive, will it be accepted as conclusive proof that idiocy is a primary requirement for employment in the MSM?

Baron Bodissey said...

Idiocy is NOT a requirement, but it helps. The requirement is knee-jerk leftist political opinions.