Hurricanes and the Japanese Mafia

I was listening to a talk show in my car yesterday and heard this story about how the Japanese Mafia was causing all the hurricanes that have hit our country. The guy had left his job as weather man for a large TV network and was now researching this phenomena full time.

He tells this story that back in Stalin's time and the old USSR, they wanted to build a weapon to counter the nuclear arsenal the US had. Their scientists, according to this reporter, were assigned the task of altering the weather on a small scale and then to build it where it could alter weather around the world.

He did not sound like the kooks we usually hear spouting something as ridiculous as this may sound. He said Russia now had this research facility solely for this purpose and the Japanese Mafia had gone there, learned the technology, and purchased this capability. Is this sounding more and more ridiculous as you read on? It does to me.

But the network gave him some 15 to 20 minutes of airtime to sell his theory. He told how they could do this and how his job as a meteorologist gave him insight as to how the weather patterns were changing like never before. He went back to storms of several years ago and how they followed essentially straight lines or made 360 turns clockwise and counterclockwise where he had never seen this ever before.

He now believes Katrina and Rita, or their paths, were altered by this technology guided by this Japanese group wanting to get even with us after we dropped two atom bombs on their country in WWII. I can only watch the weather man now and see where they are aiming the next storm!!

Hurricane Rita

I am wondering how the preparation for Rita would have been had it not been for Katrina? I am sure everyone knew they would be under the microscope and would be featured on FOX, MSNBC, and CNN if they dropped the ball. FEMA was there in force in the perimeter of the expected path of the storm but thinking back there was ONE glaring difference between New Orleans and Texas.

New Orleans is below sea level and surrounded by dikes designed to withstand F3 hurricanes and their accompaning surge. The hurricane hit Texas and part of Louisana but even under the worse conditions, the water would recede back into the Gulf of Mexico once the storm was over. Not so in New Orleans.

Sure we could have done a better job, but let us not criticise the first responders. I was in the CG and have been a fire fighter and we were the first guys and gals there pulling people off rooves and dropping supplies. The diffence between the two storms is New Orleans was literally surrounded by a lake of water and the primary responders had to stay out of Katrina's way so they would not be victims.

Texas was lucky compared to Louisana and gained much by what happen a month ago in Louisana. The government, FEMA, everyone all learned from Katrina. It is still bad in Texas in lots of towns but now New Orleans is flooded again by the sea coming over the makeshift levee repairs. I have more thoughts on this but time is off the essense....News at 11:00!

Spinout

I have observed more Interstate accidents lately than I would care to. I was coming home from my mom's a day or two back and was following a two door Honda Civic with a young lady at the wheel. It had just begun to rain here and it had not rained since Katrina back in August.

When it has not rained, oils from leaking crankcases, transmissions, and diesel fuel now coat the interstate with a deadly film. I have the advantage of years of professional driving and know this where most young drivers have no idea about this very dangerous film on all the roads. The car in front of me turned on her right turn indicators and she started into the northbound ramp leading to I459 from I20.

I was slowing, letting the cars transmission slow my car into this anticipated turn. The first thing I noticed ahead of me was her brake lights coming on as she entered the on ramp. The Honda's rear wheels lost traction and the car began to spin, turning around 1 1/2 times, coming to rest in the grass off to my right.

I stopped as did the car behind me and both of us went to help the driver of the car still sitting behind the wheel of the car. She was maybe 17 or 18 and not hurt but shaken from this experience. She was lucky as the rear wheels ended about 2 feet from the concrete drainage ditch that borders the on ramp. I got her out of the car and the lady behind me got behind the wheel of the Honda Civic and with it's front wheel drive, it came out of the grass and onto the ramp on the edge of the on ramp.

The car was covered with grass and debris but otherwise unhurt. I talked to the young lady, and told her what I thought happened and she was have her dad check the tires and told me she wish someone had told her about these road conditions when it has not rained for a time. She was real lucky and hugged both of us for stopping and helping her. The other lady and I talked a minute or two, then we too headed up onto I459 and home. Just call her LUCKY!/Jeff

My Black Silk Sports Jacket

You are asking what if Jeff finding interesting about this subject? I would not be writing this log if there was not an unusual twist. I start off this by telling you I was shopping, shopping on Overstock.com. I needed to replace a dark gray sports jacket that had served it's time.

The black silk jacket was a Bill Blass jacket, and about $75.00 delivered. I looked on the same page and there were gray slacks, each my size, just asking me to put them in the basket. I ask Karen about a 'silk' jacket as I had never owned one before and did not know how it would hold up or if it needed special care. Karen said "go ahead, and if it is not what you want you can always send it back". So much for the prologue of how I came by this outfit.

I wore the outfit to SS and Church last week and it looked nice with a black tie with a red matrix design in the pattern. I even got one compliment from one of my SS members when we shook hands and he felt the softness of the fabric. So the jacket stood the first test OK.

Zeigler pays for my membership in the Executive Sales Club here in Birmingham and they have monthly luncheons at 'The Club' in Homewood. Food and/or perishable warehouses are featured each month and mine was this past week. I met two other sales managers in Birmingham at the Birmingham office and we all rode together to the luncheon.

Needless to say, the sales departments of many companies now have some nice looking young ladies. I am getting ahead of my story. Since this was my warehouse, it was mine to introduce my friends with me to the various VPs and managers at AG. I was pleased with that day as you know sometimes when you are on the firing line, your mind tends to go blank at the worse of times. Today was the exception.

The bottom line is a tall blond young lady with a Kraft name tag on her blouse. The luncheon has about 30 minutes of smoozing before where you get to see some of the people you only see once in a blue moon. I noticed this young lady and spoke to her during this interum. When it was time to find you seat I followed her and pulled her chair out for her as any southern gentleman would do.

The bottom line is she thanked me and ran her hand down the arm of the black silk sport jacket. She turned and only one word...."Nice" followed by a big smile. If you think there is more to this you have to just let you imagination run. We talked after the luncheon and she won one of the $25.00 door prizes. The friends I was sitting with smiled a knowing smile...."Nice"

The Good Side of the Crescent City

I spent 9 days in New Orleans with my family and we had a ball. I got to see and do things that are great memories. We checked into the hotel and had always heard of the beignets and hot black coffee and chicory. We ask the clerk and we went just off Jackson Square and waited in line for a table to try this treat! Wow! They don't ask what you want, you each soon get a hot cup of coffee and cream and a plate of these wonderful little tasty donuts. They melt in your mouth and the taste is really indescribable.

I think over the 9 days there, we began almost every day with this treat along with other New Orleanians. It was maybe a degree or so safer back 20 years ago before the drug culture was so very bad.

All along the iron fence at Jackson Square are would be artists willing to do charcoals or pastels for you for a small fee. I have the two of me and kids and their mother hanging in the hall. It cost more to have them framed than what we had to pay the artist to do them?

We did the tourist thing but soon found the haunts of the wonderful people there and got off the beaten track and ate Creole cooking, fish and gumbo, and yes even crayfish. They were so wonderful to our kids and brought them special plates and bibs with little servings of all these wonderful treats. You have to get out of downtown New Orleans to do this and it is worth it. One of the restaurants was just off the street car that goes by the Tulane Campus. It was just a white clapboard house and no sign! You had to know the house number to find it.

The clerk at the hotel put us on this one described above and that is was family owned and operated and you would be served by the owners kids. There were only 6 or 8 tables in the restaurant with red and white checkerboard table clothes. The table cloths and napkins were all in red and white checkerboard and most interesting. The owners came over and talked to our kids during our dinner and brought each of us an un-ordered dessert, his treat! Again wow!

We visited the above restaurant two or three times while there and they recommended another like restaurant only a block or two away. Suggesting another restaurant? They did and wanted us to have the true New Orleans experience. Both the restaurants were small and family owned and the food was different but excellent at both.

The Al Hurt experience was the standout in my memory. We got a baby sitter and went to his club and the big man walked out the door directly behind my chair. I held my hand up as the spotlight came on and a huge hand shook Jeff's hand! We were treated to almost 2 hours of beautiful jazz music with solos by each of his band. Words, my words, are not sufficient to describe this. It is a feeling, a shiver up your spine, and the sound reverberation in your ear. Thanks Al for my true New Orleans experience!

Over 4,000 Sex Offenders in New Orleans?

I was watching the news on CNN last night before going to bed and there was this program called 360. The focus of the news article was on registered sex offenders in New Orleans and where were they? They don't know where they are!

When the storm loomed on the horizon, N.O. emptied the jails and literally turned the scum of the earth on the poor, and yes, black, displaced Americans. Is it no wonder a sector of the population acted the way they did when herded into the Superdome and Convention Center.

I watched as they made some analysis of who came or attempted to come to the rescue of these mostly black, poor displaced Americans. They were mostly white Americans and how were they greeted? Gunshots! Looting!

How or why should we have expected anything different when a large sector of these people had been released from jails and turned on the innocents in the Queen City with no restaints or fear of retribution.

Granted help should have come sooner! Mayor Nagin should have bussed most of these people out of N.O. But unfortunately, this plan was only on paper. He made no provisions for drivers of the scores of buses available. I like President Bush taking the blame. The first thought was FDR's motto, "The Buck Stops Here!"

I just wish all the locals from N.O. and the Governor acted like the mayors and governers of Mississippi and Alabama. They took control immediately and they were in the thick of things from the get go! Let the chips fall where they may, but responsiblity begins are the lowest level up. The mind set of blaming Washington is just plain wrong!

My motto is "Make a decision and act on it". It is easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission. But that is Me.

41,22,39,34

If you are reading the title to my post this morning, I must now tell you what the numbers mean. Fox, CNN, MSNBC, and CNNHeadline. If you are following the news from the Gulf Coast and Katrina, these are my channels here in Birmingham where I get stressed out!

Stressed out? I think it is the type of person I am and how much of this news I have absorbed over the last 2 weeks. I realized this almost addiction to the news right now was having a detrimental affect on my feeling of well being. I will share one thing with you, my reader, Karen and I talked about this and what we could do to help these now called 'Displaced Americans'? We decided money was the fastest quickest way to help. We gave the same amount to the Red Cross and the Salvation Army as they were the first responders and really the first 'boots on the ground'.

People here were trying to take supplies to MS, NO, and Gulf Shores but soon realized the roads were out, the intrastructure was down and there was no distribution center (then) to see that these much needed supplies got to where it most needed. Karen and I talked about this and each of us have worked with both of these agencies and the have the volunteer manpower to get the job done and what you give, very, very little is administrative cost.

I was watching one night late and they showed a group from Foley, Al who were in New Orleans and cooking for the first responders. They started out serving 600 meals a day but word got out and they are now serving over 6,000 meals a day. These are guys and gals that decided rather than cooking to raise funds for their little league teams, they would try to get to NO and cook for these first responders. That same night, they got a phone call from "Cher",,,remember Sonny and Cher. She was so impressed with what these young adults were doing, she wanted to 'pay' for all the food they needed. She said she was looking for a way to make a difference and when she saw these soldiers and police officers and other first responders getting their first hot meal, she knew this would make a difference!

It was great to hear something last night about personal contributions. The people like you and I have now given over $100 Million for the agencies helping these displaced Americans. This is not corporate or countries or governments giving, this is "YOU AND ME"! That is amazing to me. And this is not enough by a long shot.

If you are not moved to help these people, you need to check you pulse. If you can spend $50.00 to eat out at a nice restaurant, you can send $50.00 to the charity of your choice. There are a number of faith based charities that give 100% of what you contribute directly to the cause you indicate. I know my church has administrative cost met, and if you write a separate check to the be sent to the Red Cross or whoever, they get the full amount. NO Administrative cost in doing this.

I have now limited myself to how much of this I can now watch. Now today with memories of 9/11 piled on top of Katrina, I will watch a little then put in a DVD that requires no thinking on my part. I call these movies my 'no brainers'!

I should be dressing for SS and Church right now but Ms Karen is a little under the weather with bronchitis and running low grade fever and just feeling ickey. She saw the doctor Thursday and she has Rx and cough medicine and is now beginning to feel just a little better. So signing off for right now and ask everyone to keep all the displaced Americans and now the 9/11 survivors in your collective prayers. Until later...Jeff

Don't Blame The Government

Unless you are an expert on relief, don't critize the government. When a disaster is as big as many countries can you understand the complexity of getting food, water and relief to an area so large.

How big is the disaster area. It is as large as the entire United Kingdom, made up of England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. It is almost as large as the entire state of California and larger than Kansas. When you are part of the relief effort you find the intrastructure, interstates, highways, and most government agencies are now gone.

Did you know hotels in Birmingham, Atlanta, Montgomery, Jackson, and other cities are filled with the 80% of the population that were told to leave the Gulf area. The civic centers in Birmingham and other surrounding metropolitan areas are filled with people who sought shelter from Katrina. The news media has spent little time interviewing the 80% that left and soon will be like the one's we see taken out by bus or helicopter, will need help in finding jobs, homes, and apartments. Some of the large churches here in Birmingham have campus domitories and they too now are filled with people from the Gulf area.

The ability of the military to get help into an area this large is a stategic nightmare. I served in the CG at Corpus Cristi, Tx and on a CG Cutter Unimac, and assisted people who had accidents with water craft and accidents on shore. But we were limited the what we could do based on our personel and supplies immediately available. We assisted people after a storm once and found we exhausted our supplies almost immediately. Plus, our mission to protect the country could not be compromised. That said, I have seen some of what the services are running into right now.

Supply Chain. The perimeter military can help with available supplies immediately but you cannot overextend yourself until you have a supply chain established.
National Guard. These are people just like you and me and when Katrina hit they were civilians doing their jobs and taking care of their families. You can activate the guard but it takes time to get all your unit to the center. Then it is getting your mission established with calls going out to establish your resupply chain. This takes time.

Coast Guard. The units out of Texas and Arkansas were there immediately but gasoline and fuel were a main concern. The helo's have about 4 to 4.5 hours of fuel on board and that time includes traveling to the disaster area and fuel to get back to where fuel and power is available. That limits the time on station to less than 3 hours. They can bring gas tanks by air to the perimeter of the damage area and/or tankers to refuel the helos by air. But coordinating this takes time.

Help One, Help All. We fly into an area and practice a triage of helping the worse cases first. This is difficult with no phones, no radios, no ground information, only what we can see from 100's of feet in the air. We cannot fly into 'mobs' like at the Super Dome as we can't help 'all'. It is hard to pick and choose but the first responders are and were CG helo's and that is all we could do.

I apologize for rambling with my thoughts this morning but can you remember how long it took to prepare for 'Iraqi Freedom'? It tooks weeks and months of planning and someone spoke each morning to tell us how things were progressing. This could not and did not happen in NO, Biloxi, or anywhere on the Gulf. We are fed by the talking heads on the netword and cable networks who do not understand nor do they want to understand how the military was limited at the beginning of this effort to save 'all' the people. If you read this, I hope there was a seed of truth to help you understand what is going on...jeff