Howie Luvzus

With stories like this:
Brown disputed levee breach after Katrina, documents show

and

Army
Corps Is Faulted on New Orleans Levees

Please add your own!

Is it any wonder that the Fleur De Lis (our city’s symbol) resembles someone flipping the bird?

Think about it…

According to a recent National Geographic Poll:

Despite the wall-to-wall coverage of the damage from Hurricane Katrina, nearly one-third of young Americans recently polled couldn’t locate Louisiana on a map and nearly half were unable to identify Mississippi.

As a former educator, I feel obligated to show you where Louisiana is. It’s the blue thingy inside the red circle.

I will admit that I’m not really sure what those wierd objects to the left of Texas are. I thought there was a country there or something.

Oh crap! They are islands! They must be Hawaii!

I just read a story by my friend Michael about how AllState has really screwed him. You know, it’s bad enough when bad things happen to you, let alone having someone take advantage of you and kick you while you are down. Pray for Mike and his family. He’s a really good guy and I hate to see him go through this.

New Orleanians continue to suffer. My son told me about a friend of his who “cries a lot” lately. An 18 year old kid who lost everything. It’s really sad. I have been really blessed throughout this whole ordeal. It ticks me off so bad to see others hurt so much. I really have no idea when it will end. It will never be back to normal. I just wish that the hurting would stop soon.

If you want to be even more depressed go to Allstateinsurancesucks.com and read other awful stories.

On a lighter note: The interview went well and I got two free tickets to Jazzfest!

The top pic is a view of the Orelans Parish levee breach during hurricane Katrina. The other pic is a view of the Jefferson Parish levee during that time. As Maxwell Smart used to say (Man I’m old!) “Missed it by that much!” The Times Picayune reported:

Independent forensic engineers say the west floodwall of the 17th Street Canal was starting to fail during Hurricane Katrina when its counterpart on the opposite bank breached, spilling Lake Pontchartrain into much of New Orleans and parts of Old Metairie and Old Jefferson.

In Rising Tide, John Barry pointed out that during times of severe flooding, armed guards were placed on the levees along the Mississippi River to ensure that persons from the other side of the river didn’t make their way across the river and blow the levees to protect their property.

I really don’t think this happened in New Orleans, but my concern is that if some levees are reinforced it may cause others to fail. Like the one behind my house…Oh well.

Another HUGE concern I have is that if the city begins to evacuate at every storm (I will anyway!) I believe that some persons will stay behind to loot! Kind of scary. I’m headed to Lowe’s this weekend so I can make sure I secure my house before I leave.

It’s been over eight months since Katrina hit New Orleans. B has a created a video chronicalling this milestone. Check it out.

My brother is coming into town next week so I’ll give him the tour. It’s still really bad. He’ll be staying in the French Quarter and I want to make sure he doesn’t get the wrong impression about the condition of my town.

Guess the phrase “Nugget forward” will take on a whole new meaning now:

Denver Nugget forward Reggie Evans was fined $10,000 and retroactively assessed a flagrant foul Monday stemming from an incident with Clipper center Chris Kaman in Game 4.

Kaman said he told referees that Evans grabbed his testicles and “pulled hard,” and repeated his account in an interview with an NBA security official.

Evans disputed Kaman’s version with NBA officials and reporters covering the first-round playoff series, insisting he never touched the 7-foot center’s testicles.

See the video here. FYI: Reggie Evans is a career 5 ppg, 8.7 rpg player but he leads the league in testical pulling.

I’ve got an interview Friday morning. It’s not with a college or university though. I’m also sending out resumes to non-profits. I know I’ll make more money than my Xavier job, but the change is a bit scary. I loved teaching. I loved the fact that I was pretty much free to do what I wanted. I actually got paid to read and research how cool is that?

But life goes on. An unemployed theologian. Oh well. I’ll be finishing up the grant soon, so I need to find a job. Hey, I’ve got to look on the bright side, if I get this job I’ll be able to get a new car with A/C and even one of those cool blackberry thingys!

I’ll also have to buy some new clothes. I won’t be able to wear jeans and tennis shoes to work anymore. I’ve gained a lot of weight since Katrina so it won’t be fun to get bigger pants. Must be all the extra beer. I’ve really got to slow down with my calorie intake. Too bad I’m not one of those who losses weight under stress!

Here’s a picture of Bruce Springsteen at Jazzfest taken by my friend Michael. You can read his stirring account here. I wasn’t able to go. Jazzfest is pretty expensive and my friend B wrote a pretty good post about why he isn’t as crazy about Jazzfest as his friends.

I had to work on the big grant all weekend. It wasn’t fun, but I really do think it’s a great project that will help a lot of people. Shirley reminded me that because I’m a contracted grant writer, I get paid for working on weekends. Many people don’t, so I guess I’m really lucky.

I had a great time at the French Quarter Festival so Jazzfest will have to wait another year. There’s so much great music to hear in this town that missing Jazzfest is not a huge deal. Gotta get back to work!

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