Scuzzbucket of the Week

Robert Thorson, supposedly a Professor of Geology at the University of Connecticut.

I say "supposedly" because in this article, "Politics Aside, New Orleans is a Lost Cause", published in the Hartford Courant, he states .... I just wish that one of the Democratic contenders had been forthright, calling the Katrina tragedy a natural disaster...My plan has only one point. That we not spend another dime on U.S. properties below sea level - and use that money instead to help sea-level refugees find safer homes elsewhere.


What a maroon.

NOLA bloggers Ashley Morris , Pistolette and geologist Maitri among others have penned responses to this scuzzbucket.

Pistolette wrote No wonder most people in New Orleans want France to buy us back. With compatriots like you, who needs jihadis?

Ashley mused is painfully obvious is that Mr Thorson is evidently not aware that most of the city of New Orleans is above sea level. Far above. Farther than many points in Hartford, Connecticut.

Mr Thorson is suggesting that New Orleans be abandoned for all the wrong reasons. The reasons he should be most ashamed of are bad research and bad science on his part.

Maitri closes her response with
but this is a matter of life and death for New Orleans, not an intellectual plaything or the next topic for a journal paper. That America and the rest of the world understand what went on here before, during and after Katrina and the Flood is crucial. Heaven forbid that something similar should occur in Bridgeport, New Haven or Niantic, or even Hartford for that matter. In such a circumstance, it is critical that local residents and onlookers appreciate the difference between natural and unnatural, unavoidable and unjust. It is vitally important that educators and students, especially of geology, learn from this horror and use the proper information and tools to make sure it never happens again. This would be the best tribute to the 1300 New Orleanians who lost their lives in a most unnatural way.


Varg over at The Chicory considers this "professor" and enemy of the state, along with Rep. Dennis Hastert
(Enemy to the Peoples and Cultures of New Orleans and South Louisiana) and Slate's Jack Shafer who wrote Don't Refloat, the case against rebuilding the sunken city of New Orleans back in September 2005.