Saturday, July 08, 2017

SOME ‘CONSERVATIVES’ MAKE ME PUKE

Heaven forbid if taxpayer funds are spent to protect people and their property from hurricanes

My recent article “Will the Houston-Galveston Area Ever Get the Protection of the Ike Dike?” on Big Jolly Politics generated a number of comments, every one of which opposed building the Ike Dike with taxpayer funds. (BJP June 29. BGB June 30.)

As good ‘conservatives’ they oppose the expenditure of any taxpayer funds to bail out people who are living in storm surge-prone areas where they should not be living in the first place.

Rather than spending ‘their’ money on the Ike Dike, they suggest the people at risk purchase flood insurance which, by the way is largely subsidized with taxpayer funds.

While flood insurance – which by the way I’ve had since it was first offered – may replace a home, it cannot replace personal irreplaceable items lost in a storm surge. Of much more importance is the fact that flood insurance will not restore the lives lost. In their opposition to the Ike Dike, those guys either do not understand that, or else they don’t give a rat’s ass about people losing their lives when it is their fault for living where they shouldn’t be living in the first place..

One BJP reader suggested I move to the Woodlands, a trendy development north of Houston where home are priced way beyond what I could afford on my retirement savings. And what about the poor? They sure as hell cannot afford to live in the Woodlands.

Another BJP reader accused me of expecting the government to protect or indemnify me against fire, tornado, earthquake, giant sinkhole or any disaster that may occur. Of course I don’t expect that. There is no protection against earthquakes and unless there is a timely warning and you have a storm cellar, there is no protection against tornados either. But protective measures like the Ike Dam can be taken against hurricanes.

When a hurricane approaches, people in storm surge areas are told to evacuate. The government provides buses to evacuate those who do not have cars and those who are infirm. What!? They are using taxpayer funds to do that … we can’t have that! Those people should never have been living there. Fuck ’em!

Many people like myself are not going to go through another evacuation where they are stuck for hours in snail-crawling traffic. We’d rather stay home and take our chances even if it kills us.

Once the hurricane has passed, fire departments and the National Guard are used to rescue those that have survived but are stranded by the floodwaters. What!? They are using taxpayer funds to do that … we can’t have that! Those people should never have been living there. Fuck ’em!

I’m sure most conservatives are not as heartless as the ones that do not want any taxpayer funds spent for protection from hurricanes. Unlike the wealthy with their beachfront properties, the overwhelming majority of people residing in a storm surge area did not realize that’s where they were moving into. Nevertheless, some conservatives say fuck ’em!

Some ‘conservatives’ make me puke. Fuck ’em!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"Can't we all just get along?" Rodney King

To understand how our brain deals with conflict, consider a simple emotional model. In this model, conflict starts with some problem. The problem is serious enough to cause anxiety, reflected in a feeling of insecurity. When anxiety or insecurity is first experienced, we have a choice between reactivity and reflection. If we do not make a choice, our default mode is to be reactive.