bearing blog

bearing blog


bear – ing n 1  the manner in which one comports oneself;  2  the act, power, or time of bringing forth offspring or fruit; 3 a machine part in which another part turns [a journal ~];  4  pl comprehension of one’s position, environment, or situation;   5  the act of moving while supporting the weight of something [the ~ of the cross].

  • What the individual must learn from Katrina.

    Do you have a family disaster plan, one that is appropriate to the kinds of disasters most likely to befall your area?

    We don’t—yet.  But we will, before winter falls on Minnesota this year.

    And one thing is certain:  No part of it will depend on actions, or even on suggestions, by local, state, and federal government.

    There will be no algorithm that says, "Do such and such if the mayor orders an evacuation," or "Do this and that if the governor orders a state of emergency."

    There will be no part of it that assumes that anyone, anyone at all, will come to our rescue. 

    We rely on the government (any level of government) to save us only at our own peril.

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  • From the City of New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, Part 2. Evacuation. Section II. Concept of operations.

    "Transportation will be provided to those persons requiring public transportation from the area."

    h/t Instapundit.

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  • The Astrodome: One giant high school cafeteria?

    Bizarre.  This morning on NPR’s Weekend Edition:  a sociologist tries to explain to Linda Wertheimer, without using the word "segregation," that the relief workers will be intentionally racially segregating the emergency shelters.  I think the link is here.

    She’s going on about how people want to be with their own "cultural group" and how tensions will be lower that way.  This may or may not be true, but what’s interesting to me is the linguistic somersaults she’s putting herself through to avoid saying "we will segregate the shelters."

    If it’s true, as she says, that people will naturally assume a spatial distribution of cultural attributes that minimizes tensions (okay, she didn’t say it that way, but trust me, my way makes a lot more sense than what came out of her mouth), then why not just allow people to find their own spots instead of assigning seats, so to speak?

    Sure, it’s less orderly to install people that way—even if you give general instructions like "try to fill up from the back to the front" and even if you employ "ushers" to guide late arrivals to empty pockets and spots—but if one of your overriding goals is to reduce tension and if one of your theories is that people will reduce tension themselves by picking their own neighbors, then perhaps it’s a reasonable tradeoff.

    It just seems weird to assume that two families will get along okay if they are forced to sleep next to each other, only as long as they are the same race.

    UPDATE.  Welcome Althouse readers.  More on Katrina in my Something Different category.  More on media in, well, Media.

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  • The new stack of library books.

    One of the small changes I made to mark the start of Oscar’s kindergarten year at home:  ending the schoolwork session each day by cuddling together and reading a couple of nonfiction books from the library.  I plan to repeat each one two or three times before they go back.

    Today I picked up nine books to last us through the next two or three weeks.  I got a broad selection, hoping to find out what sort of things interest him.  We have a book on hurricanes; a biography of George Washington; a book about bridges; one about postal workers and how the mail gets around; "Energy Makes Things Happen"; a story about the legend of Johnny Appleseed (what, incidentally, captivates children’s librarians so much about Johnny Appleseed?  There had to be six books about JA in the tiny branch library, and I remember there being a lot in my elementary school library twenty years ago); a book about frogs, and a book about wetlands. 

    Besides all these, we got one called Who Eats What?  Food Chains and Food Webs by Patricia Lauber, part of the "Let’s-Read-And-Find-Out Science Series" (which I find to be reliably interesting and only a little bit oversimplified). I read it to him today.  It must have piqued his interest; a little later he came to me, munching an apple, and wanting crayons and paper to draw a food chain.

    I expected him to draw "boy eats apple," but instead he drew two indistinct blobs, one with an arrow pointing to the other. 

    Tell me about your food chain, I said.

    It shows an antibody eating a germ, he said cheerfully.

    I blame "Let’s-Read-And-Find-Out Science"  Germs Make Me Sick!

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  • Kicking Katrina’s refugees out.

    In Tallahassee:

    Hundreds of refugees from Hurricane Katrina are being evicted from Tallahassee hotels to accommodate fans coming to town for the Miami-Florida State game Monday night.

    "There is absolutely no compassion here whatsoever," Lynne Bernard wrote on a bulletin board on the Web site of The Times-Picayune of New Orleans. "The Hampton Inn in Tallahassee is pretty much throwing us out because of a football game."

    A message left for the manager at the Hampton Inn was not returned, but other hoteliers said there was little they could do to help those who fled homes in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama because they had to honor long-standing reservations for the football weekend.

    At the Courtyard Marriott near the Capitol, evacuees were taking up 15 of the hotel’s 154 rooms on Wednesday. A Quality Inn had several dozen of its 90 rooms occupied by storm refugees.

    "This weekend has been booked for a couple of months," said Antwan Hinkle, the Quality Inn’s front desk manager.

    Hinkle said people who have planned trips for months would not take it well if they were told just days before the game that the hotel could not provide rooms. "We’re going to have a whole bunch of angry people," he said.

    I’m speechless.

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  • Who is feeding the babies?

    Some of the babies who fled Katrina, or who are trapped in New Orleans, are being breastfed by their mothers.  The rest need formula—premixed formula, because the water is questionable.

    Are the formula companies helping?

    Abbott Labs (makers of Similac, Pediasure, and Pedialyte) has stepped up to the plate, according to a Wednesday press release:

    Abbott has pledged $2 million in cash donations and an initial $2 million in nutritional and medical products to help victims of this disaster. The nutritional products, which are already being distributed to those in need, were rapidly shipped to affected areas in response to initial requests from aid organizations yesterday soon after the disaster struck.

    Wal-Mart is a major distributor of infant formula (manufactured by Wyeth, among other companies).  They are helping too:

    Wal-Mart will establish mini-Wal-Mart stores in areas impacted by the hurricane.  Items such as clothing, diapers, baby wipes, food, formula, toothbrushes, bedding and water will be given out free of charge to those with a demonstrated need.

    No statement yet from Nestle USA, makers of Good Start (1-800-225-2270). 

    [UPDATE: A call Friday morning was answered with standard boilerplate ("Nestle works with all state and local agencies," etc.) and no specific ways they are helping now were mentioned.]

    No statement yet from Mead Johnson, makers of Enfamil (1-800-429-5000).

    [UPDATE:  As of Saturday, still nothing from Nestle or Mead Johnson.]

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  • One thought about economic impact, over coffee.

    Mark has been to New Orleans exactly once.  His first employer (let us call it Giant Conglomerate Number One) sent him there to visit their coffee plant, just outside the city.  That coffee plant—GC1’s only U. S. coffee plant, and we’re talking a company that makes a lot of coffee—was abandoned during Katrina, not even a skeleton crew stayed on.  It will be a while before it is going again.

    Will coffee prices rise?  I asked, not really serious about it.

    That’s a real possibility, he said. New Orleans imports and warehouses all the nation’s coffee, he told me.  And went on to explain that it was a sort of coffee customs center, something about all the papery husks having to come off the coffee beans before they entered the United States, and "almost all of it" coming in through N. O. 

    It turns out that it’s not actually all the coffee.  The best clue I could find was this article from 2002, which seems to say that coffee comes in through four U. S. ports (New Orleans, New York, Miami and Houston) and that in 2002, New Orleans received 27 percent of U. S. coffee imports.  New York imports more and warehouses more.  So it’s not the cataclysm that my usually knowledgeable husband claimed it was.

    Still, that’s a lot of coffee processing, a lot of warehoused coffee, a lot of coffee importation infrastructure under the water.

    Why am I bringing this up?  Because this is just one industry.  It is maybe a little early to think about the economic impact of Katrina, since people are still in grave peril.  But multiply this by all the commodities and other materials that pass through the New Orleans port, by all the companies that have a facility in the affected area of the Gulf Coast—the country is going to be reeling from this.

    UPDATE.  A sobering analysis here.  H/T Jay Tea at Wizbang, where blogger Paul is safely evacuated but has a long road to recovery.

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  • Katrina-blogging.

    Thursday, Sept 1 is the concerted day of blogging for Hurricane Katrina relief.  Details here at TTLB.

    Donate today.  I recommend Catholic Charities USA.  Very easy online donation, immediate tax receipt, and CCUSA has a strong presence in the New Orleans area.

    (If Catholic Charities isn’t your bag, Instapundit has a roundup of links for donations, and the good professor promises to keep bumping it to the top of his main site.)

    Blogger WizBang issued a call to action for bloggers.  If you know something about disaster relief—anything—and that knowledge can help other people, get blogging and comboxing about it.  He’s got a good list to start you thinking about how you might help.

    Technorati flood aid tag. 

    Click  here and scroll down for a list of bloggers posting from/near/about the affected region.

    Craig’s List – New Orleans is filling up with offers — from people from around the nation— of free housing for Katrina refugees.  Got a place?  List it there.  The quickest way to ease this suffering is for people to open up their homes to the suddenly-homeless.

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  • Cool new technology saves girl from drowning.

    Check out the lifesaving technology featured in this story from the UK:

    The system was fitted to the Bangor pool in March 2003 at a cost of £65,000 and involves eight overhead and four underwater cameras.

    The Poseidon technology can detect movement, trajectory and texture of underwater objects. It then compares images to a database of thousands of examples of swimmers in trouble.

    If it finds a match, it alerts lifeguards using a pager message which also displays a diagram showing the location of the stricken swimmer.

    The story details the rescue of a ten-year-old girl in North Wales.

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  • Katrina relief.

    It only took me 90 seconds to make a donation, earmarked for Hurricane Katrina relief, to Catholic Charities USA.  And I got my tax receipt by e-mail.

    Donate today. 

    (If Catholic Charities isn’t your bag, Instapundit has a roundup of links for donations, and the good professor promises to keep bumping it to the top of his main site.)

    UPDATE.  Blogger WizBang issues a call to action for bloggers.  If you know something about disaster relief—anything—and that knowledge can help other people, get blogging and comboxing about it.  He’s got a good list to start you thinking about how you might help.

    UPDATE.  Tomorrow is the concerted day of blogging for Katrina relief.  Details here at TTLB.  I’ll do my tiny little part!  This post will repeat tomorrow.

    UPDATE.  Technorati flood aid tag. 

    UPDATE.  Click here and scroll down for a list of bloggers posting from/near/about the affected region.

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  • Theological bumper stickers.

    Tom has the list over at Father McKenzie.  A selection:

    CATHOLIC SALVIFIC THEOLOGY: IT’S STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS

    DISPENSATIONALISM WAS FINE WHILE IT LASTED

    FUNDAMENTALISM: A VALID OPTION FOR YOU AMONG THE WORLD’S GREAT LIVING RELIGIONS?

    ME – A SEDEVACANTIST? IS THE POPE CATHOLIC?

    and my personal favorite,

    WHO ARE YOU TO TELL ME TO QUESTION AUTHORITY?

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  • A desecration.

    In Lynn, Massachusetts, just north of Boston, the Eucharist has been stolen:

    "It is gravely sacrilegious," said [Rev. James] Gaudreau, after learning that the thieves made off with communion hosts. "We believe (the hosts) are the body and blood of Christ," Gaudreau said.

    The hosts were locked inside the tabernacle located on the first floor of the church…

        Gaudreau, piecing together a trail of broken wood, said that the thief … punched a hole through a wooden cross located on a door to a small room behind the alter. Although valuable gold chalices are kept in a cabinet in the room, only the keys to the tabernacle were removed.

    Gaudreau found the keys lying on the altar at the base of the tabernacle Wednesday. The hosts were the only items missing from the church.

    A visibly disturbed Gaudreau said he would not speculate as to why only the hosts were stolen, but added, "I have ideas."

    Indeed.  There are exactly four reasons why someone might steal the Host from a church:

    1. merely as a form of vandalism—wanton destruction
    2. to hold it for ransom
    3. to send a message
    4. in order to abuse it or desecrate it (this includes consuming it)

    Vandalism?  Nothing else was damaged.   

    Ransom?  Not likely, but the idea has probably occured to folks in the wake of last year’s eBay incident, in which some devout Catholics bid hundreds of dollars for a single blessed Host in an attempt to secure it and protect it from desecration by some other bidder.  (eBay has since added Eucharistic hosts to their list of banned items.) 

    A message?  Perhaps.  What would it be?  I know what is most important to you, and I hereby demonstrate my contempt for it?  Or you have denied me this thing, but I shall take it from you by force? 

    The last possibility is desecration or abuse.  This desecration is evidently not to be a public desecration.  This is a hidden, secret one.  The difference matters.

    Were this a public desecration, we might conclude that the perpetrator believes the Host is nothing more than a bit of bread with a lot of kooky superstitious associations attached to it, useful (precisely because of those associations) for making a political statement.  Such desecration would be similar to burning a flag.  This kind of desecration of the Eucharist has happened before.  For example, ACT UP New York boasts this incident on its website:

    December 10, 1989: ACT UP and WHAM! (Women’s Health Action and Mobilization) co-sponsor our first "Stop the Church" demonstration. 4,500 protesters gather outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral [in New York City] to decry the Church’s opposition to safer sex education, violent homophobia, and attempts to block access to safe and legal abortions. 111 people are arrested. The news media choose to focus on, and distort, a single Catholic demonstrator’s personal protest involving a communion wafer.

    That’s a public desecration-as-protest (in case you’re wondering, it involved spitting it on the ground).   Quite probably the demonstrator does not believe that the Host is special in any real way.  All that is necessary is for him to be aware that it is special to someone else.

    A private desecration, on the other hand, is meaningless as protest.  A person who obtains a host for a secret desecration believes it has power, believes that the desecration accomplishes something.  Who knows what that is?  Maybe he (or she), believes it is God, like we do.   Maybe he wishes to hold God in his hands and crush him, knowing it is not likely that a wafer will fight back.  Maybe he fears it is God and hates that fear, intends to prove to himself that it is only bread.  Maybe he is trying to purge his mind of irrational beliefs, and thinks that by desecrating a host he can finally rid himself of its power over him.  Maybe he thinks, in his own twisted superstition, that performing certain actions upon, or in the presence of, a blessed Host will help him obtain what he wants. 

    I don’t know.  All of these sound crazy to me.  But why risk jail, break and enter, to steal something that is to you only a bit of stale bread?

    Bettnet (h/t) wonders why this isn’t classified as a hate crime, instead of petty larceny.  I dislike any sort of legislation that smacks of thoughtcrime—let theft be theft, let assault be assault—but theft of an object whose worth is only in its holiness certainly seems to fit the definition.

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