Transterrestrial Musings  


Amazon Honor System Click Here to Pay

Space
Alan Boyle (MSNBC)
Space Politics (Jeff Foust)
Space Transport News (Clark Lindsey)
NASA Watch
NASA Space Flight
Hobby Space
A Voyage To Arcturus (Jay Manifold)
Dispatches From The Final Frontier (Michael Belfiore)
Personal Spaceflight (Jeff Foust)
Mars Blog
The Flame Trench (Florida Today)
Space Cynic
Rocket Forge (Michael Mealing)
COTS Watch (Michael Mealing)
Curmudgeon's Corner (Mark Whittington)
Selenian Boondocks
Tales of the Heliosphere
Out Of The Cradle
Space For Commerce (Brian Dunbar)
True Anomaly
Kevin Parkin
The Speculist (Phil Bowermaster)
Spacecraft (Chris Hall)
Space Pragmatism (Dan Schrimpsher)
Eternal Golden Braid (Fred Kiesche)
Carried Away (Dan Schmelzer)
Laughing Wolf (C. Blake Powers)
Chair Force Engineer (Air Force Procurement)
Spacearium
Saturn Follies
JesusPhreaks (Scott Bell)
Journoblogs
The Ombudsgod
Cut On The Bias (Susanna Cornett)
Joanne Jacobs


Site designed by


Powered by
Movable Type
Biting Commentary about Infinity, and Beyond!

« Looks Like It Needs A Little Lube | Main | More Law Enforcement Stupidity »

A Tale Of Two Cities

Considering it's a "shall-issue" state, I'm thinking there's going to be a lot less looting in Texas than there was in New Orleans. Assuming that both hurricanes are equally destructive, this provides an opportunity for a controlled social experiment.

Posted by Rand Simberg at September 22, 2005 02:07 PM
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.transterrestrial.com/mt-diagnostics.cgi/4291

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference this post from Transterrestrial Musings.
Houston, Load Your Guns
Excerpt: Rand Simberg at Transterrestrial Musings writes: Considering it's a "shall-issue" state, I'm thinking there's going to be a lot less looting in Texas than there was in New Orleans. Assuming that both hurricanes are equally destructive, this provides...
Weblog: nospeedbumps.com
Tracked: September 22, 2005 08:57 PM
Social Experiment
Excerpt: Glenn Reynolds thinks this sort of gun nuttery is worthwhile commentary. Yeah, concealed handguns is the only significantly different attribute between the cities....
Weblog: Southpaw
Tracked: September 22, 2005 10:10 PM
A Refresher Course
Excerpt: On what a Controlled Social Experiment is. Though he is specifically talking about firearms and looting, this could never be looked at as a controlled experiment from any point of view at all.
Weblog: Lies and Statistics
Tracked: September 23, 2005 07:56 AM
(Always hoping for a last minute reprieve)
Excerpt: While I enjoy ridiculing crackpots who won't shut up about ridiculous hurricane theories, I am really worried about Hurricane Rita. Yet I can do no more I can do to stop it than I could stop Hurricane Katrina. Comic relief...
Weblog: Classical Values
Tracked: September 23, 2005 04:13 PM
(Always hoping for a last minute reprieve)
Excerpt: While I enjoy ridiculing crackpots who won't shut up about ridiculous hurricane theories, I am really worried about Hurricane Rita. Yet I can do no more to stop it than I could to stop Hurricane Katrina. Comic relief directed against...
Weblog: Classical Values
Tracked: September 23, 2005 04:16 PM
Comments

Give me a break. Ever hear of "hindsight"?

Of course Texas is going to learn from the mistakes of New Orleans. Just as New Orleans would have learned from the mistakes of Texas had the order of the hurricanes been reversed.

Posted by Downtown Lad at September 22, 2005 03:36 PM

That's the stupidist thing I've ever heard. It would take years to describe the number of differences between the two situations that has nothing to do with gun laws.

Posted by ThinkBeforeYouWrite at September 22, 2005 03:37 PM

I think the better experiment was LA vs. MS, although much of MS was flattened, so there wasn't much to loot.

Posted by Kevin at September 22, 2005 03:39 PM

Although I support the right to bear arms the above commenters are correct. You'd be comparing apples to oranges here...but I think you weren't being completely serious so I'll forgive.

Posted by Carolynn at September 22, 2005 03:41 PM

Nothing at all. Just like the fact that the most anti-gun cities in America happen to also be the most dangerous, and primarily to minorities. More dangerous in fact than the whole country of Iraq. Hmmmmmm.

Posted by Dacotti at September 22, 2005 03:41 PM

It would take years to describe the number of differences between the two situations that has nothing to do with racism.

But that doesn't play to the racial identity audience and their MSM husslers, does it?

Posted by mikem at September 22, 2005 03:43 PM

The Guard and the army alreadyh in Texas cities WELL before storm hits--of course things will be differentg. Bush did NOT call out the militia as he might have under the constituion, which, if you are not familiar with this part of it, see the New Yorker piece (this week) in Talk of the Town.

Posted by fred lapides at September 22, 2005 03:47 PM

Didn't take long for the mostly-looney Left to butt in. They've ignored the numerous articles in the Houston Chronicle that mention what happens to miscreants in Houston. I've been to both cities several times, and I feel much safer in Houston, despite it's much larger size and (presumably) greater number of poor minorities.

Posted by professoredwards at September 22, 2005 03:56 PM

Come on now, everyone knows that in Texas we just do it bigger! When we loot, we do it Enron-sized!! What's a few tvs when you steal millions??

Posted by David at September 22, 2005 04:16 PM

Thanks, but no thanks, Fred. I'll consult the Constitution directly.

Many of us don't need the world explained to us by liberal arts majors, writers and 'journalists.' Same goes for having the Constitution 'interpreted' by the New Yorker.

Posted by Cosmo at September 22, 2005 04:33 PM

P.S. I'll add lawyers, pundits, politicians and political operatives to the list of uneccessary filters.

Posted by Cosmo at September 22, 2005 04:43 PM

LA's a shall-issue state: http://www.packing.org/state/louisiana/ In fact, my VA permit is good there. All the states on the Gulf Coast are shall-issue. You have to go all the way up the Atlantic to MD before you hit a non-shall issue state.

I gotta say, it would be an interesting comparison if it were a valid comparison. (Of course, you couldn't control for hindsight, even if you somehow (in a universe where this could happen) had direct hits on Dallas and DC)

Posted by NateG at September 22, 2005 04:45 PM

"Of course Texas is going to learn from the mistakes of New Orleans. Just as New Orleans would have learned from the mistakes of Texas had the order of the hurricanes been reversed."

Ummm, no, I doubt New Orleans would have. They apparently didn't learn from Florida and the myriad of large scale hurricanes like Andrew did to them.

They didn't learn from several studies telling them anything bigger than a Cat 3 was going to be a disaster of near Biblical proportions.

And before anyone gets their neck hair up...Avoyelles native here. I lost family in that storm.

That being said I agree the comparison is weak. Texas planning and execution in emergencies has been superior to Louisiana's for years.

Posted by Faith+1 at September 22, 2005 04:50 PM

Gun laws are about the same in both states. The experiment will be how Blacks respond to lawlessness versus Hispanics.

Posted by Trashman at September 22, 2005 05:02 PM

That being said I agree the comparison is weak. Texas planning and execution in emergencies has been superior to Louisiana's for years.

Compare today's horror trafffic jam on I-290 westbound to the very sucesseful contraflow evacuation of New Orleans and rethink that statement.

Also, as noted above, Houston has already been well looted.

Posted by Duncan Young at September 22, 2005 05:07 PM

Who needs a controlled social experiment? Three hundred years of North American history tells you that NOLA is the most corrupt and illmanaged city on the continent (slightly "ahead" of Montreal... perhaps there is a pattern here?).

That... compared to Houston, one of the most dynamic and successful cities in America which, by the way, has produce two out of the last three American presidents.

Ever wonder why the oil industry is headquartered in Houston and all the oil rigs are spitting distance from NOLA? Because it doesn't take a greased palm to make things happen in Houston.

As a former Louisiana congressman Billy Tozin said even before the flood, "Half of Lousiana is under water and the other half is under indictment!"

Posted by Jake at September 22, 2005 06:20 PM

Lots of before-the-fact damage control going on here, methinks!

Posted by Crusty at September 22, 2005 06:31 PM

How long will it be after the impact that the race pimps complain of the preponderance of whites being rescued by the feds?

About 5 minutes.

Posted by leonidas at September 22, 2005 06:43 PM

Houston is a vibrant city that actually produces mineral wealth, goods and services. New Orleans is or was a rundown city that depended on tourists getting drunk and robbed by thieves or police.

Posted by Banjo at September 22, 2005 06:46 PM

Duncan and David- as long as ya'll are being all snarky about Enron, would you mind offering up your opinions on all the federal money that got sent NOLA's way in the last few years that doesn't seem to have been used on levee work?

No comments? No surprise. Take a good look in the mirror, guys. You'll see perfect examples of "part of the problem, not the solution" there.

Posted by Mitchell at September 22, 2005 08:40 PM

Duncan,
That very successful evac that ignored hospitals, nursing homes and the very poor. Yeah, it went swimmingly well. 4,000,000 people live in the Houston area plus a couple hundred thousand Katrina victims. Just a few more people than New Orleans. You know what the difference in pictures of the evacuations was? There were BUSES in the Houston picture. BTW, the hurricane hasn't made landfall yet so Houston will have a very successful evac that INCLUDES hospitals, nursing homes and the very poor.

Posted by Bill Maron at September 22, 2005 10:11 PM

Mitchell,
Are you arguing for stronger role for direct federal control and oversight of federal spending? If so, I completely agree with you - that LA is not a posterchild for good procurement policy is no surprise to anyone.

Bill,
I hope you are right. But the fact remains that NOLA cleared out +80% of its population, along basically one highway, with no AMTRAK or air traffic in about 36 hours. The buses leaving Houston might in fact be contributing to the snarl.

It maybe better to evacuate as many as you can, and shelter the remaining population - so long as you get the supplies in promptly afterward. If the roads are still clogged with traffic when the hurricane hits, you have a catastrophe on your hands.

Posted by Duncan Young at September 22, 2005 11:21 PM

Duncan -- people are getting out EARLY. Nagin and Blanco waited until 24 hours. So far we've seen about 48 hours prior evac; a little less but landfall is predicted at Fri Eve.

Moving a lot of people out is the only defense against massive hurricanes that flood out areas. There is NO defense against storm surge. Other than not being there.

Which means massive logistics and so on. Early evac is the only solution. Geography is also crucial. Only a few highways out means choke points.

Posted by Jim Rockford at September 22, 2005 11:31 PM

Quote from Duncan Young: "The buses leaving Houston might in fact be contributing to the snarl."

The buses only become a problem when they explode.

Posted by Josh Reiter at September 23, 2005 08:37 AM

I would be shocked if the politicians in Houston tried to confiscate firearms. If they did, I would expect to see some law enforcement actually disobey and I would not be suprised if a few gun owners physically resisted.

Posted by J. Random American at September 23, 2005 03:42 PM


Post a comment
Name:


Email Address:


URL:


Comments: