Wrong person to ask

"Can I ask you something?" said my friend "K" at Dim Sum today.  Sure, I replied.  "What is the problem with the natives?  What's wrong there?"

OMG!  Where to start?  Not knowing, I simply hung my head in my hands and shook it for a few minutes.  K is a friend from the pool and a bit of an innocent.  Chinese-born and a heads-down research doctor, she is a tad out of it when it comes to the day-to-day bullsh-t that defines Canada.  She also tries to give people the benefit of the doubt and sees the good whenever she can.  (Why she hangs out with me, I have no clue?!)

"We came here 37 years ago from China, when I was 12, and we had no running water or sanitation back in my village," she offered.  "But I don't understand why the natives still live like this in Canada?" 

OMG!  "It's all about money," I explained.  But there's so much of it that doesn't get down to the folks in the reserve slum housing I didn't really know how to break it to her?  I started to spew the numbers -- you know, number of bands, number of natives, number of children in care, number of $$$$ handed out here, there and everywhere -- but this confused her even more.

"So why do they still live in squalor?"  Exactly.  Good question.  We know the answer, of course, but no one ever speaks truth to power.  She went on.  "And what's all this fuss about Gord Downie?  I mean, wasn't he just a singer?"  Out of the mouths of babes. 

All I can do is send her a sampling of my blogs on the natives and Gord to give her a bit of a reality check.  Dear K, wake up!       

Illogical nonsense

The confused Rachel Notley has decreed that the proposed Catholic Sex Ed program for schools in Alberta will never pass.  Really?  For her information, the provincial government has no business telling the Catholic School Board what it can and cannot teach.

It's a Catholic institution -- not the public board -- and if non-Catholics want to direct their taxes there and send their children to these schools because educational outcomes are better, they are at liberty to do so.  And if their kid gets exposed to Catholic dogma about sex ed, so what?!  It's a Catholic institution so guess what?  It teaches the Catholic curriculum -- sex and all.  If you don't like it, don't deliberately send your kid there.

Can you imagine Notley decreeing that private Muslim schools cannot teach Muslim values?  Just feature it!  And by the way, we all know what Muslim schools in parallel societies worldwide are teaching students.  You can bet Sharia Law and separateness are in there with bells on, along with the wearing of the niqab and burka for girls past puberty -- a demeaning practice Notley vigorously supports in the public thoroughfare.  What does she tell herself when she supports a Muslim practice, but won't allow a Catholic one?  I mean, what goes through her mind to justify this oxymoronic stance?

If you are going to dictate teachings in one school, other than a public institution, then you have to do so in all, which means you have to ban all separate schools.  What's next -- book burning?  It's ludicrous. 

And what about Jewish Shuls and Temples?  Will the muddled Notley jump in there too and tell rabbis which end is up in that religion?  Just let her try it.  Growing up, I went to Sunday School to be taught scripture that wasn't part of the Monday to Friday public curriculum.  Will this too be banned?

But never mind all that.  It's always open season on the Catholic Church.     

    

The veil ban

As you can imagine, I am in favour of the ban on the niqab and burkha.  In fact, I think it should apply to all of Canada, but of course it won't because all the so-called feminists are decrying it because....well, I don't really know why? 

Margaret Wente, with whom I seem to share a brain, nails the issue in her column today.  While not as direct as I, she is definitely of the opinion that it is a retrograde step for women to cover their faces.  "It fights integration," she quotes Roksana Nazneen, a Muslim from Bangladesh, who argues that guilt-ridden feminists just don't get it.  "Canadian women do not know what the niqab means and they should not be fighting for the right of women to self-oppress.  And make no mistake, the niqab means that men do not want to hear your voice."

Well, of course it does and I wholeheartedly agree.

Frankly, I think that Canadian women who fight for it are expressing a sort of reverse feminism.  It's as if they are stamping their feet and having a tantrum for the right of women to subjugate themselves.  Really?  People come to Canada to shed these veils of male tyranny and suppression; they have no place in an open, secular society, but women are becoming hysterical about the issue.

I fought in the vanguard of the "women's movement" in the late sixties so I could come out from behind the sexist rocks, in which society had us imprisoned, and be myself.  After university, I was determined to earn my own money so I would never be beholden to a man for my livelihood.  The niqab represents a parallel society and has no place in Canada, according to Angela Merkel and other world leaders.  And as for religious freedom, in Canada it is not an absolute.  We don't tolerate polygamy and "honour killings", so why allow the niqab?  This is not a question of rejection, but rather of Canadians overwhelmingly wanting newcomers to fit in.  The niqab prevents this. 

Right on queue, Rachel Notley and Kathleen Wynne immediately jumped up and denounced the ban because they have no clue what it really means.  It is not an attempt to dictate what women can wear.  It might be a good idea for Wynne and Notley to sit down with female scholars of the Quran.  They would soon learn it is not prescribed garb in the Muslim religion in any way, shape or form.  The debates between Muslim women on both sides of the issue always end with the young "feminists" falling back on their one-note, freedom-of-dress argument, while the mature scholars tell them they are sadly uninformed.

But what a bonanza for lawyers!  So, sit back and enjoy the looming mess.  

   

Why did it take so many seasons?

...to cancel the ridiculous "Scandal" series?  I made the mistake of watching the first couple of seasons on Netflix, but as it started to get more and more fantastic and farfetched, I kept watching just to see how much more ridiculous it could possibly get.

And boy, is it ridiculous!  It just gets ludicrous and I have to ask myself how Shonda Rhimes got away with it for so long!?!?  She is the creator of this embarrassing and mortifying show about keeping power in Washington and the Oval Office at any and all costs.  But who was the casting director????  The guy playing the president, Tony Goldwyn -- gee, wonder how he got the part? -- is a weak pussy.  Here are a few other preposterous characters:

Olivia Pope -- desperately hysterical and absurd;
Susan...something or other -- the VP, played by an overweight dummie who could not possibly be a VP in reality;
The auditor general -- having an affair with the VP! 
The chief of staff -- a gay guy who thinks he can make it to the presidency!
The president's ex-wife -- a giddy freak becomes president! 
The Director of the FBI -- now here's the capper!  A young, black, female disco-Queen type.  Feature it!  Just feature it!  FBI director!!

Ms. Rhimes is black and black music and characters are everywhere.  So over-the-top and obviously an over-compensation for.....whatever Ms. Rhimes has experienced in her own personal background. 
The plot is beggars belief.  I am now watching just to see how much more ludicrous it can possibly get!  Don't bother -- unless you need a dose of 'Monty Python'.  Now, that interpretation works.   
  

Two shameless "industries"

Cancer is one, native issues another.  Sorry, but firstly no one actually wants to cure cancer because millions of people, thousands of companies, corporations and charities -- not to mention billions of dollars -- are at stake in keeping cancer humming along and thriving.

And the more researchers discover about cancer, the more they conclude that no one can actually cure it because there are so many thousands of varieties and mutants.  Find a key to one type and another jumps to the fore.  People used to die before they got cancer; now we all live to greet it on our way out. 

Sorry to all who genuinely, honestly and earnestly "run for the cure", but there isn't going to be one.  That's just the way it is.

Native issues are another shameless industry, which preys upon the most vulnerable and gullible to extract obscene amounts of money from ill-informed and unwitting victims whose cases are taken up by unscrupulous lawyers.  That's not me talking, that's Doug Racine, of the Aboriginal Law Group in Saskatoon, who has written a nine-page letter to the Law Society of Saskatchewan revealing the facts and figures behind many unprincipled lawyers who handle the claims of residential schools "victims". 

According to Racine, the average payout per claimant was $91,753, of which 15%, or $13,756, went to the lawyers who processed the claim.  Problem is, most lawyers argued the case was "inordinately complex", so whacked another 15% up front, making their average take for two-and-one-half days of their time 30% of the take.  Sadly, that's what Racine's research has shown.  Are we surprised?

When I research and write a blog such as this, no one ever "likes" it on facebook and I wonder why?  I guess everyone's drunk the Trudeau/Bellegarde Cool Aid. But  I don't post material that is not backed by facts and figures before I render my opinion, which must grate on those who support the native industry to the back teeth -- regardless of reality.  Actually, I was surprised The Globe and Mail carried this story on its front page this morning?  Maybe a few journalists are starting to smell rats.  If so, that's a good thing because the government and our naïf PM remain in the dark, helping none and exploiting all.  Money won't cure this national disgrace.  Only chucking the Indian Affairs Act and getting people off the reserve will.

Those poor creatures I walked around yesterday in Calgary?  They're off the reserve and have gone through their $66,497, judging by the shape they were in.  But they do not have the skills to cope in the city and certainly won't acquire them in a remote reserve. 
           
The Globe also ran a lengthy obituary of Michael Pitfield, former Clerk of the Privy Council, and the guy in charge when the word "metis" was added to the Canadian Constitution Act of 1982.  Anticipating big trouble down the road, many experts holding the pen challenged the word, but alas it went through.  So now we're stuck.  Good work everyone.      

Things have definitely moved on

"It was too baby-ish, Grandma," said grandson yesterday after the Fred Penner concert to which his other grannie and I had taken him at the Jack Singer Centre. 

Whoa!  The kid's five, OK almost six, but I thought he would get something out of it?  "Is it over?" he said after every number, fidgeting around and bumping up and down in his folding seat.  "Can we go to your house and watch a movie now, grandma?"  His three-year-old sister got more out of it, but not much.  "I have to go pee," she predictably announced after assuring me she didn't have to go before we took our seats.  Such are the joys of taking kids to concerts, where that genre of entertainment has obviously gone the way of the dodo bird.  . 

Granted, Penner is about a hundred years old and his nursery rhymes are obsolete, but I thought they would enjoy it.  (Just googled him and he is only 70, but looks much older thanks to the ugly, white beard he now sports.  Man, if I look that old, shoot me.)  The hand games and sing-alongs went over, but I think I was the only one in the audience who knew the words to "Ugly Duckling", one I learned in the fifties.  I grew up watching "Howdy Doody", but it was all so long ago when times were so much more innocent.  When I started singing along to 'Duckling', grandson looked at me in wonderment, as if I had lost my mind, or crawled out of some prehistoric cave.

The people who were really into it were the parents who had grown up to Penner in the eighties.  They were cheering and clapping and waving their arms with gay abandon, as they recalled their own pre-handheld-device childhoods, when Fred, Mister Rogers, Mr. Dress-up and The Friendly Giant reigned supreme.

The walk through downtown Calgary from the car to the venue and back was an eye-opener for me, as well as our sheltered grands, as we picked our way past desperate street people (sadly, mainly natives).  I pulled my sleeves down to try and hide my jewellery because I was at once fearful someone would rip the gold off my arm, and a bit ashamed of my well-to-do accoutrements in the face of such desperation. 

But the main point was an outing with The Two Grannies -- a first for us.  She is such a lovely, spirited woman, it's a treat for just the two of us to share a few laughs.  Here we are, post-concert.

(One of my dear mother's jackets, which I kept.  Still honour her by wearing some of her clothes.)

 

 

 

From Bad to Worse

What can I say about these two?  Sorry examples of their gender, in my view.  Kim Campbell, PM for an embarrassing 10 minutes and Rachel Notley, a current embarrassment.  Neither performed and here they were in Calgary last week at a conference entitled "Equal Voice -- Elect More Women". 

Really?  Why?  Just because they're women?  How dumb.  You would think Campbell would hide at home, after her dismal performance as PM.  And Notley!  She has totally ruined Alberta's economy with her carbon tax fiasco and her inability to get pipelines approved. 

Before Denis Coderre  cancelled the Pipeline East project, Notley should have got off her a-- and enlisted Brad Wall in a PR media offensive in Montreal, meeting publically with Coderre, holding press conferences and going on talk shows to point out how Alberta holds  -- or rather held -- Canada together financially.  She should have talked transfer payments, she should have talked about foreign oil, she should have talked about how pipelines are far safer than rail -- Lac Megantic anyone?  But she sat in Edmonton and did nothing.  Had I been advising her, as I did executives of DuPont and IBM when I worked for those companies, that's exactly what I would have told her.  She should have taken the initiative and embarrassed Coderre with numbers and facts.

But shamelessly she didn't.  She let Coderre set the agenda.  Pathetic.   

So here's Rachel, looking like a thrilled, giggling school girl on her first date with the irrelevant has-been Kim --  a couple of women who should never have been elected to anything:



   

The Mess Canada is in

Well, Naheed Nenshi was re-elected mayor of Calgary -- much to the despair of many, including me.  Initially, his arrogance caused voters to jump to Bill Smith -- a money guy who would not utter a word of policy or whisper a promise.  But so desperate were Calgarians to rid ourselves of the odious Nenshi that we were prepared to hold our noses and vote for anyone but.

Sadly, this backfired because when ethnic voters, who vote as a block (as black Americans did for Obama), noticed their boy slipping badly, they all came out in droves and the ego-on-a-skateboard squeaked in.  People were shocked and disappointed, but did this humble His Worship?  Not on your life.  When interviewed by Don Martin on CTV the very next day about the voting system fiasco that resulted in insufficient ballots and hour-long lineups at many polling stations, he claimed no responsibility and actually added that people should be happy they were actually able to vote at all.  Afterall, he pointed out, in many countries people die trying to vote.  OMG!  So, we should all be grateful we at least lived through voting day?  Hey, this is not South Africa or some other corrupt country, this is Canada and the process was a manually-run disaster.

Basically, the vote divided among those who wanted a new arena (Bill Smith's gang) and those who wanted to keep an ethnic mayor, but weren't sure about an arena because the incumbent didn't really come clean about his position (Nenshi's bunch).  I fell into the camp who couldn't vote for either, so threw away my vote on the decent Andre Chabot, who finished a far distant third.   

So it's "let them eat cake" and back to the trough!  In other words, business as usual for the mayor.
______________________________________

The other mess is the Morneau/Trudeau tax reform debacle and Morneau's "villa-gate".  It appears both Trudeau and his sidekick were wearing Hans Christian Andersen's 1837 suits of "The Emperor's New Clothes" and had no idea the serfs would see through their scheme.  Duh?!  They also ignored Abraham Lincoln's lesson that, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time."

Neither is fit to govern and neither has any political instincts about what the "great unwashed" are thinking on Main Street.  Just ask poor old Bev Oda, who had to resign over a $16 glass of orange juice.  Up with that Canadians will not put. 

The only thing to do is to fire Morneau, or ask him to resign.  Blaming the inept Ethnics Commissioner (and remind me to ask why exactly we need one, if politicians claim to be unimpeachable.  Oh ya, they're not) cannot fly and she cannot possibly asked to resign at this point.  In fact, no government can ever fire an ethics commissioner -- even if the guy/gal is starkers.

But Morneau will neither be fired, nor resign and thus the media will continue to hound the issue, enabling Trudeau to confirm he has neither guts, nor leadership.

And let's talk about Gerald Butts' role in this.  Butts, the PM's right-hand -- or should I say left-footed -- chief of staff -- is the guy who pulls the twisted and snapping strings on Trudeau.  He's also the guy who guided disgraced ex-Ontario Premier Dalton McGinty's political missil right into the ground.  Unfortunately, the premier took the province with him.  You can thank Butts for your hydro rates because he was the guy advising the wretched and doomed McGinty to close nuclear power plants and champion wind.  Insanity reigned there.  And to think Harvard hired McGinty as a professor!  Remind me never to go there.
______________________________________

One last thing:  When did the word "challenge" start replacing "problem"?  I have a real "problem" when anyone says, "Our challenge there is.....", when they really mean, "Our problem there is....."  If you look both up in the Oxford Dictionary they are not synonyms, but it must be PC to use "challenge" in case anyone is offended being called a "problem".

OMG.

A little perspective, plueeeese

I always thought Tony Clement delusional, but he confirmed it today by calling for a state funeral for Gord Downey.  OMG!  I mean, I loved a lot of the guy's music and feel terrible for his family and friends obviously grieving, but an official state funeral?  Let's get a grip here.

Sadly, judging by the infantile and vacuous Trudeau's public weeping and gnashing of teeth on the airwaves this morning, the Tragically Hip frontman will probably get one!  From what he blubbered on about Canada's being less of a country without Gord in it, we must be a pretty weak country.  I mean, Downie was a talented guy beloved by his fans, but he was not an official Canadian figure.  Sorry, but it would be an insult to the likes of fellow Kingstonian Sir John A to accord Gord the same honour and have him lie in state in The Senate.  OMG again.

As a matter of fact, I have a good friend who has the same brain cancer.  Knowing her well, I will grieve if she dies before I, but I didn't know Downey personally, so am not grieving.  And we still have his music which will live on.  If they don't know me, anyone reading this will think me harsh, but I am talking about the appropriateness of a state funeral, not the man himself, who I didn't know. 

Remember how the world went crazy when John Lennon said The Beatles were more popular than Jesus, accusing the former of sacrilege?  Well things have certainly changed because it appears Gord was way more popular than Jesus, yet no one bats an eye.     

According to protocol, "Canadian state funerals are reserved for governors general, prime ministers, cabinet ministers and other official eminent Canadians.  Conducted with ceremonial, military and religious elements incorporated, State Funerals are executed by the governor general to provide a dignified manner for the Canadian people to mourn."  By the way, I noticed when interviewed by CTV last evening, Clement didn't again call for a "state funeral"; someone must have dragged his knuckles off the ground and rapped them. And by the way, do three sitting MPs not have better things to do than sit in Centre Block and cry about what huge fans they were for the duration of an entire interview?

Opening that can of worms means we'll have to have one for Saint Neil Young, Bruce Cockburn, Gord Lightfoot, Ian and Sylvia, Bryan Adams, Ann Murray, Rita McNeil, Burton Cummings and every other singer who apparently "defined" Canada.  But what about Guy Lombardo, a guy whose music carried Canadians through WW II?  Didn't have one for him.  No because back then Canadians had respect for authentic tradition and decorum.

And speaking of our vets, every Remembrance Day our hapless PM spends most of his time grinning and taking selfies, instead of honouring the fallen.  Yet he cries about a rock star.  He is clearly unfit to govern.       

Every radio station is playing The Hip's music and call-in shows everywhere are jammed with people weeping and recalling their greatest memories of Gord -- mostly drunken parties at cottages, from what I can gather.

It's all bizarre. 

Just shut up. Please

Watching CBC this morning and Natasha Fatah is so annoying.  When asking a question, she delivers a long op-ed piece of her own while the columnists I really want to listen to sit and wait for her mouth to stop moving.  Please!  We don't care what you think -- or at least I don't.

Another blabber mouth even more irritating is that crashing bore Evan Solomon on CTV.  Gawd!  He is so full of himself it's breathtaking.  I was delighted when CBC fired him, but CTV picked him up so we cannot rid ourselves of his mug and yap on the screen.  And don't even get me started on Heather Hiscox! 

The guy who does it best, in my opinion, is Don Martin on 'Power Play'.  He has an excellent format and keeps his questions to the actual question itself, rather than blab for two minutes before he permits his guests to answer.  He has great people on, such as Stephanie Levitz, John Ivison, John Ibbitson, JD Bellavance, Kadie O'Malley and Susan Delacourt, among others.  Happily we get very informed stuff from them.

To the rest of them, remember why you're there. 

Insanity reigns

So, now a school board in Toronto -- of course -- has banned the word "chief" in occupational titles.  How completely insane and bonkers!!??  And it was the decision of a woman, unfortunately, who thought the term derogatory to natives, so has forbade its use.  Why are we our own ludicrous worst enemies?? 

OMG!  What an insult to natives to think they would find a homonym for a word they use offensive.  Reminds me of when "man" was banned.  B sarcastically suggested in a meeting in the PCO no less that henceforth "chairman" should be changed to "chairperson", "Germany" to "Gerpersony" and "manhole" cover to "personhole" cover.  "Chairperson" was actually adopted, although I preferred "chairman" or "chair", but the others thankfully have not appeared.  Yet.  Stay tuned!

People have gone insane with political correctness!

And to top it off, another school board in Toronto has issued a directive that Halloween costumes must be politically correct.  The official didn't say "politically correct", but that's what it amounts to when no costume can depict a visible minority, fake terrorist or any other specific group.  Great!  Kids will now be going out on Halloween dressed as.....themselves.

How pathetic.

And what have I been banging on about the woeful state of the Missing Women's Inquiry?  How pointless it all is.  Yet another commissioner has resigned amid chaos.  But will Carolyn Bennett pull Marion Bullard?  Not on your life.  The whole thing is a pointless, useless and expensive mess -- a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing.

More insanity emerged when an immigration lawyer -- what else -- voiced loud objections to a questionnaire illegal immigrants sneaking into Canada are asked to fill out.  Imagine!  Some of the questions pertain to religion and whether the criminal entrants belong to any specific group, or would object to working for a woman.  Apparently, it's all anti-Muslim.  The whole thing is dumb because no one is going to admit to anything anyway, but the questionnaire has been pulled so G-d knows who's slinking across the border.

Oh Canada!   

You know what I'm going to say

I'm talking about the $750 million settlement given the natives in the "sixties scoop" boondoggle.  I probably don't need to bother writing about it because you know I find it appalling. 

Thirty-eight-thousand people are going to be handed between $25,000 and $50,000 each simply for having been taken away from unfit parents and raised by others who cared.  If you do the math, that means that 76,000 mothers and fathers were deemed unfit to care for their own children.  If you do more math, it means that extended family and kin -- let's say only three per parent -- were also deemed unfit.  That's a  whopping 228,000 relatives judged unfit to take these children into their culture and care!

228,000 for a population of fewer than a million back then.  That's a quarter of the entire group.  Absolutely outrageous.  And the public weeping and wailing as they are handed their cheques is unconscionable.

But G-d help anyone who dares ask why these children had to be taken into care in the first place.  G-d help them!

And what did native leaders say?  "It's a start." 

As an adopted child, I was also "scooped" from my culture and raised by better parents.  I thank G-d every day that I was not reared by the white-trash, townie gang in Kingston from which I came.  Had I not been "scooped", I would have been raised in a boarding house by people on welfare.

Every single Canadian is being held hostage by the natives whose rapacious grasp for cash never ends.  Please G-d, let's not give Trudeau another disastrous term. Along with the "no pipelines" mess, Canada is being effed by this clown.      

 

Cro-magnon man

Denis Coderre.  That's what he is.  A throw-back and a disgrace to the federation of Canada.  He is claiming victory, now that the energy east pipeline has been cancelled.  He'd rather refine oil from Venezuela and Saudi Arabia than from another province in his own country.

Oh, I forgot, every francophone is actually a separatist and not a Canadian.

Alberta has been effed big-time.  The National Energy Board is out of control and has widened its mandate to outrageous proportions.  And let's not forget the enviros and natives who sabotage Canada at every turn.  Non-native Canadians who attend smudging, sweet-grass and sweat lodge ceremonies are as sorely misguided as the natives themselves.  Canada is still a primitive country, relying on water, oil and wood, yet natives and tree-huggers will not allow its resources to get to market.

Are they crazy?!

Yes.

Shame, shame.

Hmmmm, wonder if Denis Coderre ever uses petroleum products??  You betcha.

 

Is it just me?

Or did anyone else notice how inappropriate the new GG, Julie Payette, looked at her installation?  That hair!?  She is 53 years old, yet still sports a frizz hairdo from the sixties -- grey roots and all.  I don't get it??  And that male outfit?  What was that all about??  She looked like the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod.  The representative of our Head of State, Queen Elizabeth II, she looks like she just hitchhiked out of Woodstock. 

The other misstep was her speech.  Last time I checked, Canada had two official languages:  French and English.  She opened with "Indian" (not sure which of the 600 tribal languages she mouthed), but it was not appropriate.  The rest of the time she then spoke mostly in French.

Ah, Separatism.  Alive and thriving in every francophone. 

Oh dear, reminded me of a dinner I attended at Rideau Hall when Michaelle Jean's French/France husband took the stage and lambasted all of us after a few pops.  In French.  Let's get a grip here.  Wonder what poor Elizabeth thought of her representative when Payette visited Balmoral a couple of weeks ago.  Yikes!

I shudder.       

A "For Sale" sign

That's what I'd put on my front lawn if I had been flooded out in Houston because Houston is -- and always has been -- a flood plain.  It's 15 vulnerable metres above sea level; Calgary is 1,049.  Do the math, fifty- to 100-year flood events will now be happening every five to 10, thanks to melting sea ice and glaciers -- the case with all coastal cities in North America.  Even Toronto is not immune, witness the flooded islands this past Spring. 

"Houston has been wet since birth," says an article in 'Bloomberg Week'.  The Brazos River prairie, just outside town, was an endless swamp paved over by Houston as it grew and grew.  With nowhere to go, water now has no choice but to flood, a fact that is not going to change.  According to this article, Houston (and Texas in general) has one of America's most relaxed approaches to building codes and other protections.  The motto there is "build first, ask questions later". 

It's all about money and stupido (see "Two Words" blog, August 19th).  As for flood insurance?  It's a joke, with adjustors granting peanuts to those making claims.  Homebuilders' associations violently oppose increased regulation and codes so they can continue to make money with gay abandon and the city endorses it because of the tax revenues development generates.

It's a win-win for them and a lose-lose for home owners who will eventually face another major flood.  Don't worry about renovating and re-building because it won't matter what colour you paint your new kitchen, everyone knows it will flood again.  So unless you plan to re-make your wet bed and lie in it again, stick a "For Sale" sign on your lawn and move to higher ground.  How about Austin?  Lovely place.