Houston: we have a man-splaining problem

image credit: memegenerator.net

Until recently, Doug Powers blogged at Michelle Malkin’s blog site. When he posted his final blog on her website a week or two ago, he pointed to his own blog, and since then, I’ve visited him several times a week. He’s irreverent, but I rather like that. He posted the other day on Canada’s Justin Trudeau's moronic response to a question at a townhall:

Questioner: “My question is about volunteering. So, the World Mission Society Church of God is truly growing and changing society through our volunteer work. We have received the Queen’s Award in the UK… [and] have received many awards throughout the whole word; however, unfortunately in Canada, our volunteering as a charitable religious organization is extremely difficult. Extremely. That’s why, in actuality, we cannot do free volunteering to help our neighbors in need as we truly desire. So, that’s why we came here today to ask you, to also look into the policies that religious charitable organizations have in our legislation so that it can also be changed, because maternal love is the love that’s going to change the future of mankind…”

Trudeau: “We like to say peoplekind, not necessarily mankind, because it’s more inclusive.”

Cue: eye rolling.

But the humor that Doug Powers brought to this craziness is why I am posting his commentary below. Cue: belly laugh:

Can you imagine if somebody like this had been in the control room at NASA in 1969?

***

“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

#Beep

“Ok Neil, Um, I’ve got a couple problems with that. Can you climb back up there and come back down instead with maybe ‘one small step for a non-binary hu-person, one similar step for person-kind’? ‘Giant leap’ seems a bit presumptuous, and it could be a little triggering for those with the inability to leap.”

#Beep

“Houston, this is the first manned mission to another celestial body, could we save this discussion for later?”

#Beep

“Manned? Have you not been paying attention, Neil? … Neil?”

#Beep

“Uh, Houston, Buzz, Michael and I have decided to just go ahead and stay up here if it’s ok with you.”

Political correctness is out of control. Doug Powers showed how pathetic it is in this one little sketch.

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Hurricane's silver lining

Restaurants, chefs rally to help feed those affected by Harvey

Photo and caption credit: Houston Chronicle

Don Surber finds the silver linings in Hurricanes:

The people of Houston and elsewhere in Texas showed a cooperation that shamed the politicians. Guys in boats were trolling their neighborhoods searching for people to rescue. . . .

A nation drunk on politics suddenly was watching people struggle to survive four feet of rainfall.

That was sobering.

America changed. Instantly.

His column is here. And I hope he's right.

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Ways to help Hurricane Harvey victims

image credit: crowdrise

The Texas clean-up efforts, especially in the Houston area, are underway, and I found a helpful list of organizations on the Fox 8 Cleveland page that can help Northeast Ohioans help Hurricane Harvey victims.

Many of the efforts are still ongoing (the list was initially published on Aug 29). Note: A lot of the usual relief organizations, including the Red Cross, were requesting cash rather than in-kind donations. We chose the Mira Family Charity, even though they were so overwhelmed with donations that they could not (as of Friday) arrange pick-up of non-perishable food, clothes, etc., so a friend of ours drove the carload of goods to their Payne Ave. drop-off point.

Below are some of the places Fox 8 lists, where you can drop off items to help.

The Catholic Diocese of Cleveland has scheduled a special second collection, the weekend of September 9-10 at all Masses. The funds will be channeled directly to Catholic Charities USA which is on the ground and assisting the flood-ravaged area.

Mario's Barbershop at  7526 Broadview Rd. in  Parma is collecting water, diapers, and non-perishable food.

The City of Stow is helping the Texas Diaper Bank provide much-needed diapers to families. The city will accept donations of diapers or money at Stow City Hall on 3760 Darrow Road.   Stow will also collect at the annual Summer Blast Sept. 2 and 3 at Silver Springs Park. Stow City Council will be taking donations at the council booth.

Mira Family Charity - Operation Help Houston is holding a stuff the truck campaign Wednesday, August 30 through Friday, September 1. All donations can be drop off at Tenable Protective Services 2423 Payne Avenue. Cleveland Ohio 44114. Between 7am and 6 pm thru September 1st. If you need items picked up, call (216) 401-5148. [Note: Pretty sure this organization is scheduling a second Stuff-the-Truck next week. Give them a call.]

Middleburg Heights businesses (Sips & Such, Euphoria Vapor and M of Hope) have organized a drive for the following non-profit organizations in Texas: Houston Food Bank, The Texas Diaper Bank, Austin Pets Alive, SPCA of Texas. Drop off is at 7535 Pearl Road in  Middleburg Heights Wednesday through Saturday from 7 am - 9 pm. Click here to see a list of items they need.

The list at Fox 8’s page has more giving opportunities. The webpage suggests checking back for updates.

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A Tea Party Salute to the Cajun Navy!

The Cajun Navy comes to the rescue in Houston. Below are extracts from an article by Sally Jenkins at the WaPo (hat tip American Thinker):

At a time such as this, you want the guys who can still thread a line when their hands are wet and cold. They’re descending on Houston in their fleets of flat-bottomed aluminum boats, the sport fishermen and duck hunters outnumbering the government rescuers by the hundreds, their skiffs sitting low in the floodwaters with their human catch in the back, clutching plastic-wrapped possessions.

The country is suddenly grateful for this “Cajun Navy,” for their know-how, for the fact that they can read a submerged log in the water, and haul their boats over tree stumps and levees and launch them from freeway junctions. There are no regulators to check their fishing licenses or whether they have a fire extinguisher and life preservers on board, which they don’t. They’re used to maneuvering through the cypress of Caddo Lake or the hydrilla and coontail of the Atchafalaya, where the water might be four feet or it might rise to 18, and the stinking bog is called “coffee grinds” because of the way boots sink in it. Spending hours in monsoon rains doesn’t bother them, because they know ducks don’t just show up on a plate, and they’ve learned what most of us haven’t, that dry comfort is not the only thing worth seeking.

. . .

They speak an oddly poetic language, of spinnerbait and jigs, chatterbait and Texas rigs, of palomar knots and turls. They have suspended their pursuit of bass and black crappies, blue gills and redfish, crawfish and panfish, to motor through subdivisions, shirtless in the rain. You can’t help but be struck by just how much they know how to do — and how much your citified self doesn’t. Trim a rocking boat, tie a secure knot, navigate the corduroying displaced water, and interpret the faint dull colors in the mist-heavy clouds.

Buster Stoker, 21, is a heavy equipment operator for R&R Construction in Sulphur, La., and spends the rest of his time in his 17-foot aluminum Pro Drive marsh boat, fishing for alligator-gar in the heat of summer and chasing fowl through water-thickets in the winter.

“The best day on the water is every day on the water,” he said.

He and several other construction colleagues met in the company parking lot Monday morning at 5 a.m., loaded up with gas and supplies, and headed toward Houston. They launched their little fleet of 14 craft from the intersection of Highway 90 and 526, and over the next several hours they pulled hundreds of people out of their flooded homes in subdivisions, hauling them aboard like gasping bass.

. . .

This Cajun Navy is a nebulous, informal thing. It has no real corps or officers. It’s “an intensely informal and unorganized operation,” says Academy Award-winning filmmaker Allan Durand, a Lafayette, La., native., who did a documentary on the “Cajun Navy” volunteer-boats following Katrina.

. . .

The same groups have by now acquired deep experience in storm-aid and are growing thanks to social media. They were critical in helping Baton Rouge residents during historic flooding there a year ago, when federal help wasn’t forthcoming. It’s a movement basically founded on the realization that large government agencies aren’t quick-moving.

According to Honore, they have become utterly essential.

“The first-responders aren’t big enough to do this,” he said. “You might have a police force of 3,000, and maybe 200 know how to handle a boat.”

Full story is here.

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