THE CONSPIRACY TO FOG THE REAL PROBLEM

O.K., let’s file this one under …

THE CONSPIRACY TO FOG THE REAL PROBLEM

The weather is on the mind of almost everyone today, and Jeff and I are no different than any one else. 

Well, meybe we are a bit different than some of our neighbors, who are downstairs at the Korean delis, waiting on long lines, to buy dozens of bottles of water. 

This is, of course, New York City folks, the city that never sleeps.

I spent yesterday running around all over that very city getting shots of people talking about what they were doing to brace for the impact of the Hurricane. 

Some New Yorkers were given to high drama, others were given to deep cynicism. 

Sometimes those statements refer to what happens in this very apartment.

New York City hasn't had to deal with a Hurricane like this one is predicted to be like since the l938.  I've seen the archival video from that storm, and it wasn't pretty.  That was before Hurricanes were given names.  That started in 1950.

But our building stood through that un-named Hurricane of 1938, and stood through Hurricane Bob, and survived Hurricane Gloria, and several other Hurricanes with names which I've been acquainted while I've been down at NY1 over the past view days, so I'm confident our apartment will still be here on Monday morning, and my laptop will still be dry.  I can even walk to NY1 to be able to get stories of people who claim it was all “A tempest in a teapot” or how it the city just was not prepared to keep them safe from the eye of the storm.

I've long believed the old Mark Twain adage that "everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it."

Enter Jeff, on a well-timed commercial break:

Jeff:  You do know that Hurricane Katrina wasn't an accident?

I avoided saying, "No, it was a Hurricane", because saying that just didn't seem funny in the face of the aftermath of what happened to the city of New Orleans.

According to Jeff, the Russian KGB has been testing weather control technology and is using it against American cities.

Now, conspiracy theories about the weather are very attractive. The weather is constantly changing and, at the moment, beyond the control, except in regard to long term global warming.  It's very attractive to imagine that it's a man-made event and within the control of mad scientists.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Mad Scientist-

And Jeff is right.  Man can certainly alter local weather.  The Fog that engulfed London from the 17th to the 20th centuries, proves that fact, it was caused by human pollution.

The Best Time For Conspirators To Come Out And Play-

But the ability to create and target Hurricanes? 

Global warming aside, my logical brain cannot even embrace any scenario in which this could be possible by any sort of modern, or soon-to-be-developed technology.  It seems much more in the domain of super-hero-or science fiction movies.

And, face it, if the KGB wanted to destroy and American city, there are some ways currently available to do so, without stirring up the atmosphere and the ocean.

But, Jeff’s statement also fails on the fact that New Orleans was not devastated by Hurricane Katrina.  It was washed out when levees that had been constructed over the past three centuries to keep back the waters broke in the wake of Hurricane flooding.

Man Made And Monstrous-

Local and federal officials knew that the levees weren't good enough if a Hurricane higher than Category 3 ever hit the city.  But these officials allowed people to keep draining the wetlands that had naturally protected New Orleans from storms and to keep building homes and businesses below sea level. 

Severe flooding had occurred the last time New Orleans was hit by a hurricane in 1965.

So, in a way, a conspiracy theory like targeted Hurricanes, avoids the real, actual likely conspiracy, of government officials choosing to pocket much needed funds to improve infrastructure, or seeking to find ways to address the real problems, while upgrading local, substandard infrastructure,

So, Jeff, instead of creating bogies like the KGB, perhaps the focus should be on the real problem, and whether it's dishonesty or incompetence, or both, and protect humanity with better infrastructure.

I'll let you know if I'm right about our local infrastructure after we say "Good Night Irene".

Man Made Monster?-

Until then, keep safe.