random photos

A dumpster lies in the marsh off Carr Drive in Slidell (3-9-2007)



A heron looks for lunch at the Northlake Nature Center in Mandeville. (3-9-2007)



A new house goes up on Bayou Liberty Road (3-9-2007)



The bulkhead construction at the Bayou Liberty Marina is progressing

Why in the world.......

For all of you people out there who question why in the world would anyone want to live in New Orleans, read Dambala's post and the comments.

"sick of hearing about New Orleans!"

Scout Prime has answers to all of those folks across the country that are "against" rebuilding New Orleans

Thanks, Scout!

Books in need of a school

Got this in my email tonite:

Dear Judy,
My class (1st. grade) is collecting books to send to an elementary school that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina. We would like to contact a school that is really in need of books for their library or simply classroom teachers that lost their materials.
I am unfamiliar with the area, so I am not sure of the names of the local schools. I keep tring to search the web, but I am not very lucky. I have e-mailed a couple of principals and receive little or no response.
It is very important that we donate to a school that is in real need. My students have worked very hard. They have collected their bonus points all year from our book orders and have purchased the entire set of Junie B. Jones books.
Our project is called Operation Storybook. They even have a motto: Storybooks across the miles. Storybooks for every child. If this goes well I hope to make it a yearly project.
Thank you for your quick response. I hope that you will be able to help us.

Barbara Sovereign
1st. Grade
Barnard Elementary School
Tecumseh, Okla.

Fresh Scuzzbuckets of the Week

No shortage of scumbags lately, is there?

From today's TP:
Three St. Pat's float riders are arrested
They're accused of hurling beads, insult at black man at parade
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
By Michelle Hunter
Three white riders in the Metairie St. Patrick's Day parade were pulled from a float and arrested Sunday after they were accused of hurling packs of beads and a racial slur at an African-American in the crowd, hitting him and others -- including a baby -- in the head, according to a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office arrest report.

Brandon Burke, 19, and Thomas Doussan, 18, both of Metairie, and Colby Painter, 19, of Kenner, were each booked with three counts of aggravated battery, according to Col. John Fortunato, spokesman for the Sheriff's Office.

Injured were a 27-year-old black man who had swelling around the middle of his face, an 11-year-old white boy whose face was visibly reddened, a 25-year-old white woman who had bruising and swelling around her left eye, and an infant whose injuries were not available Monday, according to Fortunato.

Allegedly, the 27 year old threw a beer can into the float when he didn't get a stuffed animal for his daughter.

What a bunch of idiots.

Katrina Pictoral Essay

Photographic Realities dot com put together a pictoral essay in September 2005 from the 9th Ward, Irish Bayou, Waveland, Biloxi & Gulport.

Worth the visit.

the i-rack

glumbert.com - The Apple iRack

Power Access Culture

Dambala ponders How realistic is the notion of secession?........ I can envision hundreds of shrimp boats forming an armada in the Mississippi to block all traffic up and down stream. Although we couldn't really stage a Boston Tea Party....dumping oil and coal into the Mississippi probably isn't a good idea. The blockade is possible though....call it "The Pirogue Armada".....we could run steel cables across the river and back it up with shrimp boats and pirogues.



It's a great read.

Katrina Pictures

An excellent series of full panoramic photos of the Katrina disaster made by photographer Edward Fink shortly after Katrina from a helicopter 700 feet in the air. This site now includes photography showing the recovery in the Gulf Coast area.

The series was first seen on the Washington Post website and his website bigeyeinthesky.com, which has the whole series, is linked here. The photos were shot several weeks after Katrina before any debris was removed.

Scuzzbuckets of the week

State farm CEO gets 82% raise after posting "a record profit" in 2006.
Greedy Bastards.



Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ed Rust Jr. earned $11.66 million in 2006, including a base salary of $1.77 million and results-based bonus of $9.89 million, spokesman Dick Luedke said Friday. Rust made $6.4 million in 2005 and $5.5 million in 2004.

Call me what you want, but after seeing what insurance companies like State Farm have done to residents of the Gulf Coast after these people had experienced loss of everything makes me feel like spitting at them.
These bastards try every trick in the book to avoid paying claims after gladly taking premiums for decades. They decide to completely
stop offering coverage to whole swaths of land because of post-Katrina claims.

And they've been doing it for years.