seawolf77's Comments (681)

“"Who sold this pile of cow dung?"

The economics of Milton Friedman [what we use in the US] do work, for the super-rich. That is why they are continuously supported even when it is evident they don't work for the people.

That is why you cant' break their "faith" even in the midst of disaster, b/c it is working out well for them.

Whereas countries and economies that have followed Keynes are more stable now, and those that have implemented Keynsian stimulus plans are recovering.”

“Thank you all knowing keeper of the liberal agenda. I was wondering where that was kept.”

“Retired general, Anthony Zinni, says that the Iraq War was planned as soon as Bush One ordered the withdrawal of troops from the first Gulf War. In the eyes of the military leaders - whom we all know work for the oil companies - Bush One was a weak leader. 9/11 was just a way to make the American people fear Muslims so much, we'd allow the Bush administration to do anything they wanted, regardless of cost.

Google Operation Northwoods.”

“Thanks to our leaders and their bad decisions with no foresight whatsoever! And to thank them we keep voting for the same old crooks, who are only interested in their own pocket as it is obvious to see but some people still cannot see it. We are doomed.”

“Somehow, the City has been protected from the River for over 100 years. Those levees seem to work very well. Every year, the River places much higher loads for a much greater duration that Katrina did once. The River rises 12-15 feet or more and remains there for weeks. Katrina rose half that much only for hours.

The levees that failed held in previous storms. It was only after the Corps "improved" them that most failed.

St. Bernard Parish built a levee about 6 feet high along the back of Arabi and Chalmette. It was meant only to divide the improved land from the swamp. Runoff is pumped to that swamp and the levee prevents that water from returning to the improved land. When the Corps' much higher levee failed - washed away - the storm surge overtopped St. Bernard Parish's levee. When the surge subsided, the St. Bernard levee remained in place.

It is possible to build levees that can protect New Orleans.”

“All New Orleanians, with half a brain, well understand that eventually a storm will deliver a storm surge that will overtop levees and flood the city to some extent. That fear is why 90% of us evacuated prior to the arrival of Katrina. However, seawolf, did you know that our outfall canal levee failures occurred while storm surge was still well below the tops of the floodwalls? Why? They failed because negligent engineers specified floodwall supporting steel sheetpiles be only about a third of the length that would have been required to prevent the breaches. That is not an excusable engineering mistake - not even close, as you imply. The US Army Corps of Engineers, as well as the entire Civil Engineering industry, which the USACE controls, needs to be investigated and reformed to ensure they don't make such elementary mistakes in the rebuilding of New Orleans' flood protection system. I fear they are still making similar mistakes at a cost of many billions of dollars - much of which is a local cost share - that is not fair to the public - we the people. Personally, I rebuilt my Corps flooded home way above the 2005 flood line.”

“Seawolf, it sounds like you are not a geotechnical (mud) engineer. Levee-building is often on peat (mud) and is not rocket science. New Orleans can cheaply and easily be protected against 1,000 year storms which is perfectly adequate, but for some reason Congress has approved only 100 year protection. Furthermore, the only reason New Orleans' levees are federal is because Congress made it law 45 years ago, after Hurricane Betsy.”

“seawolf77, named for a Noble Warrior, so that is how I will approach your vision.
I see a misunderstanding of the efforts to look to Dutch Engineering as applicable domino for domino to New Orleans. The point of our future survivability depends on adopting the Dutch Model of Living With Water, rather than simply beside or against it, that when the water comes we know how to move it around, pump and turn the sponge so to speak.
Given New Orleans elevation, 10 feet sea level rise is doable, esp with Coastal Restoration. On the one hand we have the Reality of Heavy Weather, on the other we have Engineering and on the back hand we have Survival where Failure is not an option.
The effort to study the Dutch is rooted in Both and defined by the last.
What we have now with the US Army Corps of Engineers is based more on Water Industry Infrastructure needs than on honest National Engineering Priorities.
While the former Failed most poignantly on 8/29/05, we still have yet to deal with the latter.

I hope I'm addressing this well, as I hope to move the discussion past the misnomer that we are copycatting the Dutch Way, and onto the idea of more Adaptable Engineering. We do not have this with the Corps, they are running status que.
We must move our nation back from an Engineering Pathos to our famous American Engineering Ethos.
Thank you,
Editilla from'da back hand path”

“Babylon 5.”

“Seawolf77,

I would say of all the shows I've watched over the years, "Six Feed Under" had the most incredible, compelling and mind -blowing series finale I have ever seen. Alan Ball created the show and is now doing "True Blood". The guy is brilliant.”

“The Bob Newhart Show... Six Feet Under...”

“M*A*S*H”

“A fighter and no passage of anything. That is what usually happens, fight hard so that idiots think you are trying to accomplish something, but never actually get the votes to pass it. So you don't have to actually govern you can survive blaming the opposition. Bill Clinton was a master of that. Me, I come to win.”

“can we tax stup idity? I hope you have lots of money...you would need it.”

“In other words. You want to control behavior. All insurance charges more for certain diseases or maladies. Your ideas are ridiculous.”

“"her"??
Are you inferring that Lieberman, Nelson, all the Blue Dogs, Boehner etc., and all the Republicans are old women?
Yes there are some females in Congress who deserve condemnation for throwing their ailing and aged voters under their bus, but compared to the total number of men?

Do we now refer to all Congress persons as Congresswoman?”