New Orleans Disguised As Monty Python?

I can't help but recall, when I think of all the ridiculous things that have occurred and are occurring in New Orleans at the hand of Hurricane Katrina, a particular scene from a wonderful movie (how I absolutely love British humour!), Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Witness the Tale of Sir Launcelot, as the Father speaks to his son, Herbert:

FATHER: "Listen, lad. I've built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. The king said I was daft to build a castle in a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. An' that's what your gonna get, lad -- the strongest castle in these islands."

The media would have you believe that Nero (Bush) fiddled whilst Rome burned. Actually, Mayor Ray Nagin fiddled whilst his city tanked. Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco actively decided not to declare an emergency for days. Nagin, in the real world, couldn't manage his way up into any average Walmart or Hooters. FEMA operates according to strict guidelines. As does the National Guard. You have to ASK for them. That's how it operates.

Sure, fine, President Bush in the guise of FEMA made some mitsakes.

But he didn't let acres of perfectly valuable yellow buses languish, unused and ignored, flooded and filled with the excrement of septic waters whilst the poorest of the poor cried for help -- his people, in his city. And oh -- you did know that Mayor Nagin has a new house -- in the city of Dallas? Huh. Imagine that.

President Bush, however, in another ridiculous effort to throw money at a problem and ignore reality and societal issues, said essentially that he'll do whatever it takes to resurrect New Orleans.

Oh come on, folks. Do we learn absolutely nothing from history? It fell down already. It burned, sank into the swamp, got rebuilt, and then sank into the swamp once again.

Billions and billions of dollars. And like a good American, I contributed absolutely nothing to Hurricane Katrina relief funds. I should have? To essentially the most corrupt state, in a corrupt town, with a corrupt mayor and a corrupt police force? Please. You wound me.

Perhaps it's actually time to evaluate our actions and, say, move New Orleans another 10 or 20 miles north of its current location. Or at least to something minimally resembling what's known as Higher Ground.

Mayor Nagin invited people to come back into the city when it still had no infrastructure. No hospitals, no real sewer, power, phone lines, no guaranteed emergency response system. Again -- how stupid can you be? As Gen. Honore said: "Don't get stuck on stupid." And Nagin is, once more, stuck on stupid.

Check this out: (AP) NEW ORLEANS Mayor C. Ray Nagin hopes to attract tourists and their cash back to his ravaged city with an "out-of-the-box" plan to install Las Vegas-style gambling in the city's biggest hotels.

Don't even get me started on the Bush spending trends. I'll address that another time, when my BP isn't 210/190.

And then there's terrorism -- and New York, and the Oklahoma suicide bomber, and Al Queda threats, the Asia earthquake,

How do we ever stay sane?

But wait; there's more. . .