Slate: Harvey Response Doesn’t Show America at its Best
The good news coming out of Houston is how people of all races and creeds have been coming together to help each other out. There have been some truly heroic rescues and sacrifices. Most of us are rightfully proud when people come together this way.
The bitter progressive leftists at Slate, not so much.
Disaster scientists have repeatedly punctured the myth, perpetuated by Hollywood and the media, that cataclysm awakens our worst selves. Rather, disruptive events loosen our mores just enough to permit new kinds of compassion ….
…
[Their] findings put a frame around the cooperative society that has lately emerged in Houston: It is a beautiful anomaly, a liquid note of silver momentarily liberated from its sheath of rust.
It’s a left-wing thing, if you see people feeling good about something, you have to tell them why they really should be bitter, ashamed, and angry about it… and everything else… all the time… forever.
And I bet that line about “a liquid note of silver momentarily liberated from its sheath of rust” really impressed her sophomore year creative writing class.
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Slate’s owned by the Washington Post which is owned by Jeff Bezos so I’m not surprised that that one of their columnists managed to find a sliver of lead in a field of gold (yeah, I know but then I never took creative writing). If she hadn’t she may well be writing for the Weekend Shopper regaling people about the specials at the local IGA. They say that they are funded by advertising but I have to wonder whether there’s money pushed in by Bezos to keep them going.
Comment by scr_north — August 30, 2017 @ 11:47 am - August 30, 2017
“Holy crap. White people helping black people. People not looting. People coming from far and wide to provide assistance to strangers. We can’t have this. Quick, sombody write some garbage about how people still suck in America.”
Comment by J- — August 30, 2017 @ 12:00 pm - August 30, 2017
Puritanism: Being upset because people besides you are enjoying themselves and trying to make them just as miserable as you.
Comment by Sean L — August 30, 2017 @ 12:08 pm - August 30, 2017
I had to think twice about the point here, since the Slate writer seems to be praising the Harvey response. But can’t do it straight up; the writer has to keep slipping in digs. “Isn’t it a shock how normal Americans would help each other? You’d never think!”
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — August 30, 2017 @ 12:19 pm - August 30, 2017
Since they didn’t get a new Katrina & since President Trump was too busy not distracting from the catastrophe, they’re all very, very bitter Liberals indeed. It’s so bad for them they can’t even attack the Black Liberal Houston Mayor for not evacuating because it just wouldn’t have worked out & – he’s a Liberal – & Black.
They can’t even follow the problems of Congressional Funding for Sandy & use it as a hypocrite bomb because that was so full of pork that it apparently caused a stroke & loss of memory in Christie & King. Else, they actually think all that should have been rubber stamped.
Comment by Hanover — August 30, 2017 @ 12:29 pm - August 30, 2017
CNN’s epic “Harvey exploitation” fail: https://youtu.be/HcozNLYVxd0
(warning for language, and that it is actually sad)
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — August 30, 2017 @ 12:51 pm - August 30, 2017
Did anyone else see Rep. Sheila Lee’s (D-TX) ignorant comments on CNN last night??
Representing Downtown Houston’s predominantly Black (safe Democratic) 18th-District in Houston since 1995, she blamed the flooding in her District on being “…50-feet below sea-level…“. As well as making other foolish accusations and comments that went unchallenged by the CNN host. ….All the while seated in her plush warm and dry (D.C.?) office wearing a yellow rain-slicker. [**snert**]
In 1997, while on a trip to the Mars Pathfinder operations center in California, Jackson Lee confused the planet Mars with Earth’s own moon, asking whether the Pathfinder had succeeded in taking a picture of the flag planted on Mars by Neil Armstrong in 1969.
In 2003 she complained that storm names were too white. “All racial groups should be represented,” she said, and asked officials to “try to be inclusive of African-American names”.
In July 2010 Rep. Lee said: “Today, we have two Vietnams, side by side, North and South, exchanging and working. We may not agree with all that North Vietnam is doing, but they are living in peace. I would look for a better human rights record for North Vietnam, but they are living side by side.”
On Thursday, July 9, 2015, Rep. Lee and others who were engaged in a debate over the Confederate battle flag produced an erroneous reproduction of what they thought was the original flag. The original battle flag contained 13 stars representing each state of the Confederacy as of 1861. The flag that Jackson Lee presented to members of Congress contained 17 stars.
In an October 2016 interview on MSNBC, Jackson mistakenly denounced Wikipedia in place of WikiLeaks.
The carpetbagging Rep. Lee graduated from Yale, with a JD from Univ of VA. Her husband Elwyn Lee now holds a dual position of Vice Chancellor and Vice President for Student Affairs of the University of Houston System and the University of Houston, respectively.
Texas is in the best of hands…
Comment by Ted B. (Charging Rhino) — August 30, 2017 @ 12:57 pm - August 30, 2017
Ted, I am having trouble booking a vacation to North Vietnam. Can you give me some pointers?
Comment by TnnsNe1 — August 30, 2017 @ 1:29 pm - August 30, 2017
And Rep. Lee also proposed a bill to blackmail states to repeal their Stand Your Ground laws. States that did not comply would lose federal aid. She said it was “because of what happened to Trayvon,” although the defense attorney and the prosecutor both said that Stand Your Ground law had nothing to do with that case.
Comment by Tom — August 30, 2017 @ 3:04 pm - August 30, 2017
Sounds like they (the leftists at Slate) have the same infection as a lot of Christians: Guilt-mongering!
Comment by Larry — August 30, 2017 @ 3:40 pm - August 30, 2017
Things are not going as nicely as reported
Shot at and over run volunteers #HBD @voxday
“If this is really just the beginning, then it’s hard to imagine how bad things might be in Houston by the end of this week.”
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/shot-at-and-overrun-volunteer-rescue-workers-have-been-attacked-in-houston_08292017
Comment by Steve — August 30, 2017 @ 3:44 pm - August 30, 2017
3rd world problems- when an leftist area waits until the first day of a Hurricane rain to open up the dams that are near bursting instead of at first warning.
Comment by Steve — August 30, 2017 @ 3:46 pm - August 30, 2017
Ted B. (#7) and TnnsNe1 (#8): On a Vietnam tangent. I went to a Memorial Day Parade in DC about a dozen years ago. One of the groups was carrying a flag that seemed familiar from the past–it was the South Vietnam flag. Several members of the group were carrying signs saying “Thank You”. I thought that was classy despite the way the dems and lefties in the US ran out on them and caused untold misery to that poor country.
Comment by TheQuietMan — August 30, 2017 @ 5:03 pm - August 30, 2017
while most people down in texas are trying to help anyone that needs help the “women’s march” liberals will let you donate to help anyone but white victims of hurricane harvey
Comment by salg — August 30, 2017 @ 9:03 pm - August 30, 2017
For historical perspective, instead of comparing this catastrophic event to other hurricanes it is instructive to compare it the the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 for scale and it’s eventual impact on American history and National development. The Great Flood ultimately cost the US economy nearly $1-trillion-dollars in today’s money.
From the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to the Gulf of Mexico water flooded more than 70,000 square kilometres (27,000 sq mi) of land, and left more than 700,000 people homeless. By May 1927, the Mississippi River below Memphis, Tennessee, reached a width of 60 mi (100 km).
Comment by Ted B. (Charging Rhino) — August 30, 2017 @ 10:33 pm - August 30, 2017
Not accurate. Slate and The Washington Post were together owned by the Graham family after Microsoft divested their media holdings, including Slate. They later sold WaPo to Mr Bezos (not Amazon.com, as is widely believed), but retained Slate and their other media holdings which they hadn’t already divested. Philosophically, there may not be much difference, but the ownership is distinctly separate. Whatever money is keeping Slate alive, it isn’t coming from Mr Bezos or Amazon.
Comment by RSG — August 31, 2017 @ 5:32 am - August 31, 2017
POLITICO had a fascinating profile of SJL a couple of years ago. It’s worth looking up. She has one of the highest staff turnovers of any Member of Congress and routinely makes Hillary Clinton’s legendary treatment of staffers look like that of a kindly grandmother. There’s an anecdote about her office having a birthday party for someone and borrowing a knife to cut a cake from a neighboring congressional office. When requested to remember to return the knife, the borrowing staffer laughed and said “Don’t worry, we wouldn’t ever have a knife in the office when the Congresswoman is around!” She is truly unhinged and probably couldn’t pass a mental health evaluation as required by some government/military jobs.
Comment by RSG — August 31, 2017 @ 5:43 am - August 31, 2017
Did you hear about this spat between Ted Cruz and Pig Christie? They sound like two bitter lovers.
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/08/30/ted-cruz-chris-christie-desperate-stay-in-news-harvey-comments/23191337/
Comment by Pawfurbehr — August 31, 2017 @ 6:08 am - August 31, 2017
Where do I sign up to be a “disaster scientist”?
Comment by Rick554 — September 2, 2017 @ 9:25 am - September 2, 2017