BRANGELINA to the rescue! The recovery of New Orleans is assured !

[TUSooner]

Brad and Angelina have announced they are moving to New Orleans, and they just plopped down $3.5 Million for a cute little walled fortress in the lower French Quarter. Angelina has been slumming it a bit, dropping by some FQ saloons with her closest buds. They even put their kids in a local school (I have a couple of guesses - not a public skule, fer sure). You know, the Jolie-Pitts love 3rd world causes, and I guess they couldn't resist one so close to the USA.

I have 2 minds on the matter:

#1 is the cynical mind: Lots of famous folk set up pieds a terre down here, in the hippest neighborhoods, of course, and usually in houses with the most secluded courtyards. They get to pretend that they are "part of it all" -- even though they only live here for a few months per year, go only to the coolest places, never have to go where they don't want to go (like the DMV), don't have to deal with the "ordinary" everyday stuff we working stiffs deal with, and they can jet away whenever it suits them.
I wonder which one will call the Sewerage & Water Board when water starts squirting up through the sidewalk?

#2 is that they are bringing some good pub to the city, and will certainly be paying a bunch of taxes and stuff, as well as giving and encouraging other support for the place. Plus, their personal security posse will probably increase the overall safety of the neighborhood. Not to mention that they do improve the scenery a bit, being not altogether ugly people.

Famous people generally get by pretty easily down here; the locals either don't care enough to bother them, or they care enough, and are proud enough, to pretend that they don't care. "Leave it alone " and "whatever" apply even to the dazzly rich, I think.

And I really WOULD like to teach Angelina how to eat crawfish. :)

I guess today I'll be positive and go with Mind #2.

[sooner_born_1960]

And I really WOULD like to teach Angelina how to eat crawfish. :)


:eek:

[fadada1]

thank GOD. now i can finally get some sleep!!!

between this and american idol getting 30 million viewers, i can see why the rest of the world loves us.

:rolleyes:

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

I don't know, I was skeptical of Angelina and Brad at first but they are at least walking the walk to an extent. They are actually helping people and they aren't filming it for a tv special, they are just going to these places and helping out.

[OklahomaTuba]

I wish they would move to Baghdad personally.

[OklahomaTuba]

I wonder if Jenny will be moving in with them as well???

http://entimg.msn.com/i/150/Movies/Actors4/JennyShimiz66705400_150x200.jpg

[Widescreen]

If more white celebrities move to NO, at what point does it cease being Chocolate Town?

[Beef]

If more white celebrities move to NO, at what point does it cease being Chocolate Town?
White chocolate!

[Bourbon St Sooner]

Apparently they like hanging out in third world countries.

[King Crimson]

i've been happy to learn that it's pronounced not An-djuh-leena Joe-lee like she was some kind of hillbilly but Ah-zzzha-li-nah Zzzzho-lee....sort of aristocratic like. gotta love em.

[Okieflyer]

It just means the people who lived there before won't be able to afford to live there anymore.

[Bourbon St Sooner]

With the cost of homeowner's insurance, nobody can afford to live here now.

[crawfish]

And I really WOULD like to teach Angelina how to eat crawfish. :)

I love you.

[FaninAma]

Anybody else tired of hearing about New Orleans?

You build a city surrounded by Lake Ponchatraine, the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississipi River with a good portion of the city being under sea level and then when you get flooded out you expect the rest of the country to foot the bill to rebuild the city exactly the same way it was before so it can all happen all over again?

**ck New Orleans and the idiots in the local, state and federal government who are swindling the taxpayers of the country out of billions and billions of dollars.

I hope Brad and his ugly assed whore are in NO for the next hurricane.

[Osce0la]

I love you.
I was wondering if you were ever going to chime in on this one :D

[Bourbon St Sooner]

Anybody else tired of hearing about New Orleans?

You build a city surrounded by Lake Ponchatraine, the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississipi River with a good portion of the city being under sea level and then when you get flooded out you expect the rest of the country to foot the bill to rebuild the city exactly the same way it was before so it can all happen all over again?

**ck New Orleans and the idiots in the local, state and federal government who are swindling the taxpayers of the country out of billions and billions of dollars.

I hope Brad and his ugly assed whore are in NO for the next hurricane.

Are you my insurance agent?

[TUSooner]

Anybody else tired of hearing about New Orleans?

You build a city surrounded by Lake Ponchatraine, the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississipi River with a good portion of the city being under sea level and then when you get flooded out you expect the rest of the country to foot the bill to rebuild the city exactly the same way it was before so it can all happen all over again?

**ck New Orleans and the idiots in the local, state and federal government who are swindling the taxpayers of the country out of billions and billions of dollars.

I hope Brad and his ugly assed whore are in NO for the next hurricane.
Nobody made you click on this thread, Mister Rogers.
But since you're here:
I'm tired of the same old lame, trite, simplistic, patronizing, ignorant, small-minded, wrong-headed, mean-spirited crap from people who really don't know diddly f#ck-all about this place. Did I leave anything out?

[Widescreen]

I love you.
So you're OK with TU teaching her how? :eek:

[sooner_born_1960]

Did I leave anything out?
Just...
I want FaninAma brought right here, with a big ribbon on his head, and I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-***, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey **** he is. Hallelujah. Holy ****. Where's the Tylenol?

[TUSooner]

Just...
I want FaninAma brought right here, with a big ribbon on his head, and I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-***, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey **** he is. Hallelujah. Holy ****. Where's the Tylenol?

mmmmmm, nah
:)

[TexasSooner01]

I would just like all of the Hurricane Evacuees to move back, or for the City of Houston to send them back. Thats all. :O

[FaninAma]

TU, New Orleans was a **** hole before it was wiped out (with crooked politicians and a crooked police force). So it's no suprise that the billions of dollars in relief aren't getting to the victims.And it's no suprise that the crime rates of the cities that accepted a lot of NO refugess went through the roof. And it's one thing to be stupid and pay the consequences once but it's beyond retarded to do the same thing all over again.

If you and the rest of your Cajun crackers want NO rebuilt do it with your own damned money or the money the insurance companies owe you. Oh that's right....most of the people and businesses in NO probably didn't have flood insurance.

I wonder why the hell insurance companies would be reluctant to insure a city built below sea level located next to 3 large bodies of water? :rolleyes:

Be as ****ed of as you want to be about what I posted. It doesn't change my, and a lot of other's, opinions about the stupidity, thievery and waste that is going into the rebuilding of NO.

If you don't like my opinion don't read it. But if you and other posters are going to get personal then blow it out of your ***.

[Jerk]

I still don't understand why Brad dumped Jeniffer for that french tatood skank.

[sooner_born_1960]

mmmmmm, nah
:)
Wanna reconsider?

[C&CDean]

TU, New Orleans was a **** hole before it was wiped out (with crooked politicians and a crooked police force). So it's no suprise that the billions of dollars in relief aren't getting to the victims.And it's no suprise that the crime rates of the cities that accepted a lot of NO refugess went through the roof. And it's one thing to be stupid and pay the consequences once but it's beyond retarded to do the same thing all over again.

If you and the rest of your Cajun crackers want NO rebuilt do it with your own damned money or the money the insurance companies owe you. Oh that's right....most of the people and businesses in NO probably didn't have flood insurance.

I wonder why the hell insurance companies would be reluctant to insure a city built below sea level located next to 3 large bodies of water? :rolleyes:

Be as ****ed of as you want to be about what I posted. It doesn't change my, and a lot of other's, opinions about the stupidity, thievery and waste that is going into the rebuilding of NO.

If you don't like my opinion don't read it. But if you and other posters are going to get personal then blow it out of your ***.

Settle down big boy. TU is alright, he's just frazzled.

Here's my take on the NO deal as it "progresses."

NO/good folks is the same dealio as AQ/muslims. Yes, there's good muslims (or so I've heard) and yes, there's good NOlites (or so I've heard). The problem is WTF do you do when all you see/hear/experience is the rotten ones? The good people like Bourbon, TU, etc. are getting tired of defending their city - and the rest of the country is getting tired of dealing with NO bull****. NOites and the media think the resurgence of the Saints is a groovy thing. I think it blows. It just covers up the steaming, rancid pile of caca that's going on down there.

Rebuilding NO is the most futile thing I believe the human race has ever attempted. It's gonna be back under water again, just like it was before it was ever built. I think I know who to blame though. The galdamn French.

[TUSooner]

TU, New Orleans was a **** hole before it was wiped out (with crooked politicians and a crooked police force). So it's no suprise that the billions of dollars in relief aren't getting to the victims.And it's no suprise that the crime rates of the cities that accepted a lot of NO refugess went through the roof. And it's one thing to be stupid and pay the consequences once but it's beyond retarded to do the same thing all over again.

If you and the rest of your Cajun crackers want NO rebuilt do it with your own damned money or the money the insurance companies owe you. Oh that's right....most of the people and businesses in NO probably didn't have flood insurance.

I wonder why the hell insurance companies would be reluctant to insure a city built below sea level located next to 3 large bodies of water? :rolleyes:

Be as ****ed of as you want to be about what I posted. It doesn't change my, and a lot of other's, opinions about the stupidity, thievery and waste that is going into the rebuilding of NO.

If you don't like my opinion don't read it. But if you and other posters are going to get personal then blow it out of your ***.

You just plain don't know enough to make your blanket condemnation of an entire city. But I remember who I'm dealing with, so I'll taking your irate comments for what they are worth.

[TexasSooner01]

Yeah....what Dean Said!


:D

[TUSooner]

Settle down big boy. TU is alright, he's just frazzled.

Here's my take on the NO deal as it "progresses."

NO/good folks is the same dealio as AQ/muslims. Yes, there's good muslims (or so I've heard) and yes, there's good NOlites (or so I've heard). The problem is WTF do you do when all you see/hear/experience is the rotten ones? The good people like Bourbon, TU, etc. are getting tired of defending their city - and the rest of the country is getting tired of dealing with NO bull****. NOites and the media think the resurgence of the Saints is a groovy thing. I think it blows. It just covers up the steaming, rancid pile of caca that's going on down there.

Rebuilding NO is the most futile thing I believe the human race has ever attempted. It's gonna be back under water again, just like it was before it was ever built. I think I know who to blame though. The galdamn French.

Thanks, Dean. I appreciate that... I think. ;)
But Dean knows I'm not blind to NO's faults, and he knows where I'm coming from. It's sorta like this: I can make jokes and criticize my family, because I know them, and care for them. But when somebody outside my family starts talking, he better watch out. It don't mean my sister's an angel, but you still better be careful what you say about her, at least in front of me.

I've lived here long enough to know that there ARE some good things about the place. Trouble is, you can't see 'em from TV news bites and all that simplified mass media crap, and especially from bitching people with political hatchets to sharpen. So I DO get kinda bowed up when people who don't know what I know decide from watching TV & stuff that it's all the victims' fault and that my city ain't worth a crap and ought to given back the Houmas. (Them's injuns.) That seems, to be polite, a bit narrow minded toward one's fellow Americans. It's good to remember that things are generally more complicated than the simplest view.

[FaninAma]

Here's an article from Scientific American dated Oct 2001. It's pretty prophetic. Add to that the fact that there has been no significant change in the way the levee system is being reconstructed or any new tougher rebuilding codes and the city once again will be a disaster waiting to happen.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00060286-CB58-1315-8B5883414B7F0000

And its even more irritating when airheads like these celebreties join the PC circus in an idiotic effort to ressurect a tribute to human stupidity and folly.

[OklahomaTuba]

Well, it just seems some more visionary and thoughtfulness should go into the rebuilding of the city, instead of just doing what has been done before.

I really think they should consider not rebuilding the areas that got flooded, and instead worked to restore the land to its natural state. What would be wrong with that? You get to be environmental and ****, save a lot of lives in the long run, and hopefully restore much of NOLA into a much nicer town.

Just frustrating that NOLA didn't take this chance to make a positive change, and instead is just staying on the same course of before.

[TUSooner]

FaninAma and OklahomaTuba: Lots of people down here are saying a lot of the same things you are saying - just from the other side of the levee, so to speak.

[Ike]

Well, it just seems some more visionary and thoughtfulness should go into the rebuilding of the city, instead of just doing what has been done before.

I really think they should consider not rebuilding the areas that got flooded, and instead worked to restore the land to its natural state. What would be wrong with that? You get to be environmental and ****, save a lot of lives in the long run, and hopefully restore much of NOLA into a much nicer town.

Just frustrating that NOLA didn't take this chance to make a positive change, and instead is just staying on the same course of before.
HOLY CRAP I AGREE WITH TUBA! ;)
seriously though...I absolutely agree with this sentiment....the problem is that this would probably require way more funding than most people will want to stomach.
Not that it can't be done though.

[frankensooner]

I think I figured it out, someone tried to pledge a frat at Tulane...am I warm? ;)

[C&CDean]

I like TU's resolve. I'll play any sucker.....

In all seriousness, my advice to NO folks is to cut bait and run. Not just because you're trying to rebuild a city dead-center in the middle of the swirly where God flushes his toilet, more than that, because of the "leadership." Nagin? Yes, I know the good people of NO didn't vote him in, but if a ******-railgun like him gets voted in who wants to stay where the people who voted him in live?

You've fought the good fight. You've defended your fair city. Your city, however, has terminal cancer and continuing the fight is just throwing good money after bad.

[Widescreen]

Heaven forbid that NO spend some more money to do it right and save lives and future rebuilding efforts instead of just doing it the same. Or they could just chop some of the graft out of their budget and pay for it that way. ;)

[TexasSooner01]

Here's what ya do.....Get all the good folk in NO and move to Houston, then we can gather all the NO bad folk that were transplanted here and send them back. Let the bad folk rebuild the city.

[jk the sooner fan]

i like broad brushes

fwiw, i read an article that brangelina just really likes the city of NO....whether thats true or not, who knows......and regardless of their motivations, SHE is HEAVILY involved in donating millions to charities.......thats never a bad thing, whether she's doing it for the spotlight or for her own reasons.....because the people on the other end are getting something from a non government entity that has MUCH to share

i'm not critical of them....its a free country, they are free to live where they choose

[FaninAma]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/03/AR2007010301593.html?referrer=reddit
TU, the reason I have such a bad opinion of New Orleans, it's politicians and the efforts to rebuild the city is because it's just another example of all levels of government forcing others to pick up the tab for repeated bad decisions of individuals and groups in our society.

We all make poor decisions but it is frustrating that the taxpayers are forced to pay the costs of repeated bad decisions by people and segments of society who refuse to learn form their bad decisions....from the single mother who has multiple kids that have to be supported with medical, housing and food subsidies to the corporate boardroom where overpaid CEO's repeatedly make poor business decisions that are paid for by bailouts and tax subsidies from the middle class.

Helping people from NO relocate and otherwise get on with their lives? No problem. Stuffing money down a rathole where much of it is stolen by dirty contractors and politicians and the money that does somehow manage to get to the intended victims is used to rebuild in the same areas that were flooded before just isn't a good idea, IMO.

That is why when I fork over about $50,000+ a year in federal, state and local taxes I tend to get ****ed off when I see it squandered foolishly.

NO is getting 62.5 Billion dollars from the feds. That's 62.5 billion that could be spent in a lot of better ways, IMO.

[sooner_born_1960]

Thanks, Dean. I appreciate that... I think. ;)
But Dean knows I'm not blind to NO's faults, and he knows where I'm coming from. It's sorta like this: I can make jokes and criticize my family, because I know them, and care for them. But when somebody outside my family starts talking, he better watch out. It don't mean my sister's an angel, but you still better be careful what you say about her, at least in front of me.

I've lived here long enough to know that there ARE some good things about the place. Trouble is, you can't see 'em from TV news bites and all that simplified mass media crap, and especially from bitching people with political hatchets to sharpen. So I DO get kinda bowed up when people who don't know what I know decide from watching TV & stuff that it's all the victims' fault and that my city ain't worth a crap and ought to given back the Houmas. (Them's injuns.) That seems, to be polite, a bit narrow minded toward one's fellow Americans. It's good to remember that things are generally more complicated than the simplest view.
Is she hawt? ;)

[TUSooner]

Is she hawt? ;)
Neg spek on the way!

:D

[crawfish]

Is she hawt? ;)

Smokin'.

Although I admit, I had no idea Angelina was TUSooner's sister.

[BajaOklahoma]

You guys are missing the important stuff.
Since they are gonna be your neighbors:
Have you been invited for tea?
Have your daughters offered to babysit yet?

[TUSooner]

You guys are missing the important stuff.
Since they are gonna be your neighbors:
Have you been invited for tea?
Have your daughters offered to babysit yet?

The closest I got was that they were showing some interest in the house of one of my daughter's good friends on St Charles Ave. I was going to accidentally be there when they came to look at the house, but they never did, :rolleyes:

[Viking Kitten]

Some relatives of mine have a house on Tybee Island in Georgia. Their property value jumped 100 percent when Sandra Bullock bought the house across the lane from theirs.

So I'm thinkin' celebrities moving in the neighborhood are good business, unless you accidentally run over a paparazzo or something.

[picasso]

Billy Bob's sloppy seconds.

[BeetDigger]

Remember when Jen and Brad were going to Israel to solve the problems with the Palestinians? Oh yeah, that lasted until they got sober. Brad probably figures this is much easier to do. "What, I only have to buy a house and declare that I am here trying to be part of the solution? In!"

[TUSooner]

Some relatives of mine have a house on Tybee Island in Georgia. Their property value jumped 100 percent when Sandra Bullock bought the house across the lane from theirs.

So I'm thinkin' celebrities moving in the neighborhood are good business, unless you accidentally run over a paparazzo or something.

In a sobering moment (when a almost agree with FaninAma's cynical assessment of the "recovery" ;) ) I realize that increased property values in the Quarter are not the most helpful thing. Bob Herbert wrote some depressing columns about the desperate need for low income housing to replace the stuff that got destroyed. Maybe B & A should have built themselves a little cottage in the 9th Ward to see if they could spur some action there. :rolleyes:

[TUSooner]

Remember when Jen and Brad were going to Israel to solve the problems with the Palestinians? Oh yeah, that lasted until they got sober. Brad probably figures this is much easier to do. "What, I only have to buy a house and declare that I am here trying to be part of the solution? In!"

Aw, **** it all and just pass me the orb.

[royalfan5]

One thing to remember about New Orleans is that the port is very essential. No matter what happens Cargill, Bunge, et al will spend the money neccessary to maintain the port and export/import terminals there. The nation needs a New Orleans of some sort.

[sooneron]

Billy Bob's sloppy seconds.
This needed to be said!

[Octavian]

Anyone ever seen the movie The Beach?


It's about all these hippies living together communally on an island......all of 'em are self absorbed pleasure-seekers who want to do little more than indulge in hedonism all day, every day.

Well, there's a part where a couple of 'em suffer a shark attack. One dies immediately but one survives.

The survivor, though, doesn't really recover. He just lies around in the sunny paradise in agony....He cries out in pain through the better part of each day.

No matter what leisurely or action-packed activity of joy they have planned for that day or week, he's there....howling out in misery.

Soon, the rest of the camp begins to hate him. He's ruining their fun.


He won't get better....but he won't die. The main character makes a point that "it's the lingering around in between that really ****es people off"....or something like that.


And that's New Orleans. She won't get better....but she won't go away.


She can't go away....as was just said, we need her as a vital port. But, it doesn't seem like it's gonna get any better.....not one bit.....


Most of the rest of the country is like the pleasure-seekers....it's moved on....the shark attack is over for everyone else. Sad.... but it's history and we don't want someone laying around and ruining the ride

Insert Iraqi Comparison


The same old howls day in and day out don't carry the same weight they did a year ago....it just ****es everyone off.


And for the *good* folks in New Orleans, that's rough.



Or something like that.

[picasso]

think about it. the so-called best looking guy in the biz is married to a chick who used to get haunched by Billy Bob f'ing Thornton.

[BigRedJed]

I'm with Pic. She's a skank. And a not especially attractive skank, at that. Seriously.

[BigRedJed]

You know, "skank" is a great word. I'm going to try to remember to use it more frequently in the future.

[FaninAma]

http://www.slate.com/id/2125810/

[VeeJay]

Anybody else tired of hearing about New Orleans?

**ck New Orleans

Why do you hate Al Hirt?

[VeeJay]

Some people have just given up on the city and that is too bad..

http://static.flickr.com/37/78730398_eea7d61619_m.jpg

[picasso]

Some people have just given up on the city and that is too bad..

http://static.flickr.com/37/78730398_eea7d61619_m.jpg
Jimmy Houston?

[Frozen Sooner]

TU, New Orleans was a **** hole before it was wiped out (with crooked politicians and a crooked police force). So it's no suprise that the billions of dollars in relief aren't getting to the victims.And it's no suprise that the crime rates of the cities that accepted a lot of NO refugess went through the roof. And it's one thing to be stupid and pay the consequences once but it's beyond retarded to do the same thing all over again.

If you and the rest of your Cajun crackers want NO rebuilt do it with your own damned money or the money the insurance companies owe you. Oh that's right....most of the people and businesses in NO probably didn't have flood insurance.

I wonder why the hell insurance companies would be reluctant to insure a city built below sea level located next to 3 large bodies of water? :rolleyes:

Be as ****ed of as you want to be about what I posted. It doesn't change my, and a lot of other's, opinions about the stupidity, thievery and waste that is going into the rebuilding of NO.

If you don't like my opinion don't read it. But if you and other posters are going to get personal then blow it out of your ***.

FYI-

NO insurance company writes flood insurance. All flood insurance in the United States is handled by the federal government. It can be resold, but nobody offers it on their own underwriting. The Feds will insure anyone who applies and pays the premium. That's why they do it and not the private companies-otherwise people in Iowa, the Gulf Coast, etc. would never get coverage. Private insurers are all starting to drop earthquake and wind.