[50sDad]

As a straight, caucasian, up-tight Midwesterner, I have never gotten the lure of NO, nor understood the whole Marti Gras thing. Sooooooo, you have a celebration of sin in full Golden Calf proportions to make up for swearing off dounughts for forty days? Voodoo? The thin veneer of civilization planted in a flood-plain swamp, which, when outside funding drys up, overnight goes from this supposedly artisian utopia to Night of The Living Dead? And because I live a normal life and work for a living, my taxes are supposed to pay for repairing the infrastructure, not of my home town, but of a city which insists on being planted where a city shouldn't survive?

Suppose my neighbor built his home in the path of a old railroad. Trains don't come by often, but sooner or later, BAM! A train goes through his living room, destroying everything. The insurance company says, "hey, fire and earthquate, sure, but we TOLD you a train runs through there!" They're not paying. So my neighbor comes to me and says, "be a sport and build me a new house." I might get a hundred people together to volunteer their time out of Christian charity; I could try to convince Sears to give them beautiful new appliances, I possibly would give of my own pocket to see that they were in out of the cold. But you know, I definitely wouldn't be such an idiot as to help them rebuild the house right on the same railroad tracks.

[50sDad]

And for that matter, why would I prop up Nagin, a racist? If I said, “Cincinnati is a vanilla city, and it should be more so! Whites forever!” do you think the MSM would hang me twisting in the wind?

[Broker]

Very Very well said. The swampy character of New Orleans fits.. It is now a fully exposed evil swamp; a very sick place. This contagion will evermore tax us with an infinite appetite.

[NordP]

EXCELLENT post

- I guess it just must be my MN "foundation" that makes me agree with you completely!

[badbass]

when outside funding drys up, overnight goes from this supposedly artisian utopia to Night of The Living Dead

LOL, you've summed up New Orleans very well! I've been there a few times and this is exactly what I observed. It's a shame, because it IS a really pretty and charming place.