September 3, 2011

Happy Labor Day weekend, take the day off...



8 comments:

calencoriel said...

While I'll admit the HappleTea comic was hilarious, I'd like to submit the following to suggest that Hurricane Irene was nothing to laugh at:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/frightening-hurricane-irene-destruction-photos

PHSChemGuy said...

My first instinct was to scream "Photoshopped", but those are pretty impressive.

calencoriel said...

Highway 12 is gone! There is no way to the Outerbanks...people on Cape Hatteras can not get to the mainland by car. The governor of North Carolina is seriously scrambling to figure out a way to build a passable road in a week...

Irene was nothing to laugh at. I'm just hoping Lee drops a ton of rain on Texas in the upcoming week

PHSChemGuy said...

People who live in areas prone to flooding don't get as much sympathy from me when it floods. if you want the river view, you get the flooding. Don't call for help when it comes.

People who live on the oceanfront don't get as much sympathy from me when the ocean does something to them. If you want to ocean view, you accept the storms. Don't complain when they come.

You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and there you have...the facts of life...the facts of life.

calencoriel said...

So...no help? No federal aid? Tough cookies, you live near the ocean and the ocean likes to hurricane it up every once and a while?

And when the tornado tears apart West chester, you won't take housing at the local red cross shelter?

You're an amazingly priviledged person to not ever need anything, sir.

PHSChemGuy said...

Okay, let's start with two extremes.

Richie Rich builds a $4 million home on the beach front where seven hurricanes have come through and caused massive destruction in the past three decades. He doesn't buy insurance and, in fact, starts every morning by screaming off of his deck (made of rare and endangered Amazonian rain forest wood) for the ocean to "bring it the frick' on!"

Richie deserves no government or charity help if/when the next hurricane comes through and erases his monument to hubris from the face of the Earth. Maybe he deserves some charity from his friends/neighbors to take him in and ensure that he doesn't die or isn't forced to live on the wiped out property, but he sure as heck doesn't deserve any financial help to rebuild his home.

On the other end, a poor family has a one-room shed on the slopes of Mount St Helens in the winter of 1979-80. They live day to day, scrounging food from the forest and saving up so that someday they can buy a fork and not have to eat their roots and leaves with their hands. They can't afford a bigger home. Can't afford to move anywhere. Can't afford insurance. And they have no reasonable expectation to have the mountain erupt in the next couple of months.

These people deserve help and charity in about any amount we can manage.

The people who were affected by Irene were somewhere in between, of course, but I tend to think that when a road leading to an island that is prone to being hit by hurricanes is washed out, I'm leaning toward saying 'told ya so'.

I get that the people are scrambling. I get that the governor is trying to help. I get that the situation sucks.

But it was predictable and as such, a reasonable cost associated with where those people live.

calencoriel said...

It was still a bigger deal than the comic is making it out to be. There was more damage done than just adolescents growing attention spans and reading entire books...

btw - anyone else reading this exchange or should chemguy and i just have an actual conversation?

PHSChemGuy said...

As always, just you and me, chicka.