What Rain?!?!?

This year's theme was "Poking Fun At Politics," and the krewes did a great job of rubbing it in their faces! Who cares about the rain, flamingos can swim, can't they? A good time was had by all!

WTF you got against pink?

A group of about eight Spanish Town Mardi Gras Parade enthusiasts gathered at midnight Wednesday to paint a crosswalk at Spanish Town Road and Seventh Street pink, the color of the parade’s mascot, the pink flamingo. No one was ticketed for the event.

Read the article at The Advocate

Those DPW guys were out there the very next day repainting that crosswalk! Why does it take them 6 months to start fixing a pothole? LOL!!!

Spanish Town Mardi Gras

The clock is ticking until Mardi Gras, which is next Tuesday, Feb. 28, but that doesn’t mean things are slowing down. In fact, Baton Rouge’s biggest and most colorful parade, Spanish Town, promises (as usual) to feature plenty of outrageous and just plain tasteless floats when it takes to the streets Saturday, Feb. 25, at noon.

Ahhh … Spanish Town … the krewe that in recent years brought us themes like “25 Flockin’ Years” and “Flamingos Gone Wild.” This year, Spanish Town guarantees to poke fun at the politics surrounding Hurricane Katrina.

Read the article at The Advocate

Despite the fact that it will probably be raining, this is going to be a great parade... possibly the biggest Spanish Town parade ever! Check out the official Spanish Town Mardi Gras website

Be sure to stop by the Dupre's Cajun Cooking food booth at the corner of Fourth and Main, in the Hibernia parking lot, for some authentic cajun jambalaya, smoked turkey legs, cold drinks and other refreshments.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Poking Fun at Politics

Looks like the fun has already started! The parades roll on in The Big Easy... as they should!

Get the scoop on all of the New Orleans Mardi Gras action

NAACP Rears Its Ugly Head Again

Members of the NAACP held a protest Wednesday afternoon outside of the Baton Rouge Metro Council chambers. The organization wants a federal investigation into Friday’s shooting death of a black businessman.

George Temple, 24, was shot and killed by a citizen while he was fighting with a Baton Rouge Police officer. Officer Brian Harrison had pulled Temple over and wrote him a ticket for cutting off a funeral procession.

”You want to have the right conclusion, and you want to act upon the right information, and so I would hope that people would be willing to let those of us who are involved in any process who have a certain responsibility to do it correctly. Let us do it correctly, and there will be the correct outcome,” District Attorney Doug Moreau said.

Read the article at The Advocate

Check out the original story.

The guy attacked a police officer! The officer was yelling for help. The man was wrestling the officer for his gun. The citizen gave the “victim” repeated warnings to get off the officer. Why in God’s name does there need to be a federal investigation? Is it because the “victim” was black and the shooter was white? Is there a federal investigation every time some hood kills a white person? Of course not! You hear about blacks shooting people every day on the news, but as soon as a black guy gets shot by a white guy, the idiots are protesting for a federal investigation. What is wrong with you people? I’m sick of hearing blacks complain about racism, they’re the ones who are racist!

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not a racist... I have many black friends who are fine, upstanding citizens. None of them were down at the Metro Council protesting, or fighting with police officers, or shooting people... they’re at work taking care of their responsibilities like the rest of us.

Armed Citizen Saves the Day!

Baton Rouge Police officer Brian Harrison pulled 24-year-old George Temple over after he cut off a funeral procession. After Harrison pulled Temple over and wrote him a ticket, the two began to fight. Temple got the best of the officer and was on top of him, and Harrison called for help.

Perry Stephens came to Harrison's aid and shot and killed Temple.

EBRSO's investigation concluded that shots were fired from two guns during the incident.

Harrison fired three shots, hitting Temple once in the stomach.

Stephens ordered Temple to get off the officer. When he didn't, Stevens fired four shots from his own gun into Temple's chest and then one into his head.

Stephens did have a concealed handgun permit. Investigators also said Temple had an arrest record with violent offenses.

Read the first article or the second article at The Advocate

This just goes to show that if every citizen were armed, it would drastically cut down on violent crime in America. What criminal would dare resist an officer when they know there could be a citizen like Perry Stephens nearby? Temple was going to kill that officer... Mr. Stephens just saved us some space in our jail and kept one officer on the street. Nice shooting, Perry!!!

Protecting New Orleans - Popular Science Ideas

By now you know that engineers had long predicted the cataclysmic flooding that struck New Orleans. But what you might not realize is that Katrina—a category-4 cyclone when it made landfall in Louisiana on August 29—was not the worst-case scenario. That would be a direct hit from a category-5 hurricane, which would send a storm surge over the city’s levees and submerge New Orleans in minutes. Anyone who had ignored evacuation orders would drown.

New Orleans needs more protection than levees alone can offer. But in Louisiana, a comprehensive flood-control program had been repeatedly rebuffed—by environmentalists who fretted over the effects on ecosystems, by fishermen who feared for their livelihood, by engineers dead-locked over competing proposals, and by administrators who dismissed the plans as too expensive.

Katrina changed everything. All ideas—no matter how costly or far-fetched—are back on the table. In the end, officials might opt for a Band-Aid approach. They shouldn’t. Relying solely on patched-up old levees is like asking the U.S. Border Patrol to fend off a full-scale military invasion.

Read the article or buy the February 2006 issue of Popular Science Magazine for more photos and artwork

The biggest reason for New Orleans’ weakness to storm surge is the erosion of the coastal wetlands. This erosion is natural, but has been drastically accelerated by man made shipping channels, canals and levees. The channels and canals breach the natural coastal barrier and allow saltwater to seep into the freshwater marshes, killing the plant life that is such a vital shield for the city. The levees prevent the sediment deposits from reaching vital areas, which is why New Orleans is sinking. There has to be a way to protect the city and revitalize the coastal wetlands at the same time.

I like the ideas Popular Science has come up with, for the most part. One question I have is regarding the “subterranean plumbing,” how do you plan on installing this system? Have you ever tried to dig a hole in New Orleans? Seriously, dig a hole just to install a basketball goal, there is water at the bottom of that shallow hole... that’s why no one is buried in the ground here, all in above-ground tombs.

Of course, one has to ask, “Where is all of this money going to come from?”

In 2002, NOLA produced a Special Report regarding the vulnerabilities and worst case scenarios that New Orleans faces. This article is loaded down with graphs, illustrations, and photos. Check it out!

One more thing, check out the above photo... do you think that satellite dish would still be there in a Category 5 Storm?

The Inheritance Cycle

Eragon Cover Art

Eldest Cover Art

I recently read books one and two of The Inheritance Trilogy, titled Eragon and Eldest, respectively. Book three will be out sometime in the future, release date unknown. Like the Harry Potter Series, these novels are written for young adults, but really can be enjoyed by readers of all ages. Christopher Paolini has really done a fantastic job of bringing Alagaesia to life. I guess that's why his first novel, Eragon, was a New York Times Bestseller when he was age 19. Even more impressive, that same novel will be a movie, to be released December 2006, titled Eragon.

UPDATE (2008): Book Three official releases date is September 20, 2008 - titled Brisingr

American Indian Projects

My boy and I are working on a couple of Cub Scout projects about Native Americans. We've both learned some interesting facts about the Indians who lived in the Southeast Region of the United States.

Each Den is assigned a region of the U.S. and is to decorate their table for the Blue and Gold Banquet competition. So far, each boy in our Den has made his own Seminole Patchwork place mat. My son and I have built a frame, out of cured bamboo, of a Seminole Chickee to use as the table's centerpiece. The boys will all help attach the thatched roof at the Den meeting tonight and it will be finished.

The individual project is for each boy to make a poster and a two-paragraph report on the southeastern tribe that he picked from the hat. My boy got the Choctaw tribe, so we'll be researching and printing out photos from the Internet this weekend.

I'll post some photos when everything's finished.

Update: Photos posted

Things to do...

It really sucks when you have SO MUCH TO DO that there's no time to do it all... not to mention, no time to do anything fun. Wait a minute, what am I doing?!?!? I'm wasting time, gotta go!

The DaVinci Code

I recently read The DaVinci Code, by Dan Brown. What an excellent book!!! Definately one worth buying for your personal library, though I recommend the Illustrated Version. After you have read the book, be sure to check out the Random House website for some interesting code-breaking activities.

Here's an interesting article that "sets the facts straight" regarding some of the things that Brown claims in his novel. I'm not sure what's true or not, but it is all very fascinating!

Of course, what great book would be complete without a movie? So, The DaVinci Code, the movie releases May, 2006... we can only hope that it lives up to its namesake.

Overall, I am very impressed by the storyline and the history surrounding it... Dan Brown is an excellent author and I will definately check out some of his other works.