Pathetic

Remember the underwhelming response to Hurricane Katrina and how we wondered how it could have happened when there was so much advance warning? There is a congressional committee investigating what happened then to figure out who is to blame. I don't see a lot of sense in that kind of thing. I think the focus should be on what went wrong so we can avoid those mistakes in the future, not "who did it, who did it?" (the Captain's voice from Mr. Roberts, demanding to know who through his stupid palm tree into the water).

The finger-pointing began not too long after the storm. It's Governor Blanco's fault. It's President Bush's fault. It's Michael Chertoff's fault. It's the Corps of Engineers fault. It's the fault of every congress that cut the budget for strengthening the levees.

At this point, I don't care whose fault it is. New Orleans is sinking. It won't withstand another Hurricane 4 or 5 because the repairs to the levees are only going to return them to the pre-Katrina level of withstanding a Category 3. What's going to be done about that? As usual, probably nothing--pathetic!

Read the whole article about records Governor Blanco turned over to the congressional committee here.

Musings on Movies

"It's not the years, it's the mileage."
~~Raiders of the Lost Ark

What are your favorite "classic" movies? (You may define the term classic however you wish.) Why do you consider them classic?

To me, a movie is classic if it is such a great film it will be watchable and relevant to viewers no matter how many years have gone by. My picks:

It's A Wonderful Life
Casablanca
Psycho
Grapes of Wrath
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Godfather
Forrest Gump
Harvey
Lord of the Rings
Star Wars


There's a whole lot more I'd consider classic but that's the first 10 I thought of.