[Swiftwater Gazette] Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200, Go Directly To Jail!

[Brad Haslett]

Rik,

Speaking of FEMA camps, we dodged a bullet earlier this week. I chose
to self-insure our property on the coast because insurance is so
expensive since Katrina.  We're 14 miles inland so we don't worry
about flooding, but hurricane and tropical storm induced tornadoes
could rip about $25K worth of new roofing off our buildings.  So far,
so good.

In the infinite wisdom of FEMA, they spent millions on a trailer park
right on the beach where the previous inhabitants had been washed to
sea.  They got lucky.   Even a 3 foot storm surge would have washed
the FEMA trailers away. That problem solved itself anyway. Thousands
of lawsuits have been filed against FEMA for the formaldehyde content
of the trailers (never mind that retired people pay good money for the
smell of fresh formaldehyde) and FEMA will never again buy
travel-trailers as temporary housing.  It is far cheaper to put
everyone displaced by a hurricane on a cruise ship.  Once again I have
to say this, "you can't make shit like this up".  The first cruise
ship I ever sailed on was the Carnival Sensation. It was put into
service after Katrina at a cost per day per person at roughly what I
paid to eat and drink my way from New Orleans to Cozumel and back for
a week. I got to get me one of them gubmint calculators.

As I've told the story before, the MS Housing Authority bought the 7
acres and single-family dwelling next door to our commercial property.
 They either knew we (and they) might be wiped out by the footprint of
the new highway proposed or that was the whole point of the exercise.
Either way, a contractor was walking through our buildings one day
until my brother confronted him.  The contractor said he had the
winning bid to demo the buildings on the site. Gary politely explained
that our property was privately owned and perhaps he needed to review
the bid proposal.  Then Gary contacted the Housing Authority to look
at the bid proposal himself since he seemed to have missed it being
published in the paper (it wasn't).  Short version of a long story -
almost a year has gone by and nothing has been demo'd.  We could do it
in about 20 minutes for about $2K - the equipment needed is less than
100 yds away. Why do I get the impression that the "most bang for the
buck" isn't the highest priority?

Yeah, I can't wait for the gubmint to run health care.

Brad


On 11/11/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> It's gotta' make you wonder ... did they have all this in mind when they
> built all those mysterious FEMA camps that no one seems to have an
> explanation for???
>
> I'm beginning to think, next time everybody goes to Washington, they should
> bring a bigger hammer.
>
> Rik
>
> On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 11:35 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> >From Dear Madame Speaker -
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUkzV8h3Wp0&feature=player_embedded
>>
>> So who pays for health care in prison?
>>
>> Brad
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>
>
>
> --
> Never argue with idiots, they just drag you down to their level then beat
> you with experience.
>