School Supply Drive

The Acadiana Outreach Center, along with Pippin McGee, KLFY TV10, and Big 102.1 are hosting a school supply drive now through next Tuesday.

Collection locations are:
* Pippin McGee on Ambassador (next to Posado's and across the street from Charley G's)
* KLFY TV 10 on Eraste Landry
* Acadiana Outreach Center (125 S. Buchanan Street)

All supplies collected will be distributed to needy families in the community. Please help support a worthwhile cause and pick up an extra pack of paper while you're out. Click here to see a complete list of supplies needed.

Thanks!
jill :)

Makes My Dang Head Spin

Wouldn't it be awesome if you were BP, to find cheap labor to do the most toxic work of cleaning the crude oil of the beaches of Louisiana? And even better, what if you could easily buy those worker's silence as to what they are seeing and experiencing out there cleaning. Let's go for the trifecta, add the good ol'racial component, and say we could get a workforce of predominantly African-American workers, who BP can get for dirt cheap, and won't speak to the press. Where could they find such a pool of workers? Well, look no further than Louisiana's awesome privatized prison system. In fact, BP gets a nice tax write off for hiring prison labor!

Abe Louise Young, writes this article for the Nation, that details the situation described above. Holy cow, some of this article reads like it was taken from the script for Cool Hand Luke...can this really be 2010?

Photo by quinn.anya

The Downs At The Moon Tonight

This should be a really good show! Rotary Downs from New Orleans and The Picardy Birds from here in Lafayette both rocking out at the Blue Moon Saloon. Go get your indie-rock on. Weekend is here right about........now!

SWEETS

I have been remiss is giving kudos to one of Lafayette's rising stars Kody Chamberlain. He's an artist, writer and one prolific dude. His latest work SWEETS was featured in this article by Patrick Strange and Leo Mcgovern in Good, the New Orleans issue. From the article:

The recently published NYPD Blue-meets-Seven crime drama Sweets—created by Louisiana native Kody Chamberlain—attempts to use New Orleans’s staggering murder rate for its fictive advantage. Set in late August, 2005, as the hurricane looms, Sweets follows Detective Curt Delatte as he chases down a serial killer who leaves pralines as his calling cards. Adding somber insult to fatal injury, Delatte’s wife has just left him after their daughter was killed in a brazen hit-and-run. Murder and civic chaos abound, and the surrounding violence only heightens the sense of impending doom as the storm swirls towards the city. “Like it or not, the murder rate gives the city a sharp edge,” Chamberlain says, “which adds weight to any story set in New Orleans." Of course, complicating the case is the encroaching hurricane and the uncertainty of the evacuation—a facet of Sweets that may hit New Orleanians a bit too close to home. But hurricanes, like crime, are a fact of life for those who live in the city. “Every time a major storm enters the Gulf, everyone feels the stress, and that can have a major impact on a character, which, in turn, makes for good stories,” says Chamberlain. As for Delatte, his stress is channeled into hunting a killer. “What if the killer evacuates?” Chamberlain asks, assuming the voice of his protagonist. “What if evidence is destroyed? What if Delatte can’t handle the real-world pressure? Surely New Orleanians would root for Delatte...”

Also, check out Chamberlain's blog In No Particular Order for updates and reviews of SWEETS. He seems to always be working, moving....try and catch up will ya?

World Gone Wrong

I'll admit it...I'm a bit naive to the ways of the business world. I mean, I get the concept of free enterprise, and profit, and I'm all for that. But in my limited view, those concepts work for the greater good of society when they are practiced within the limitations of shared ethical standards. That's cool right? Just common decency...and I'm not even talking about laws or regulations, I'm talking about the basic assumption of honesty that allows us to conduct the transactions of daily life with a modicum of assurance that the parties involved aren't trying to screw each other. Well....that shit ain't really working so good at the moment.

Case in point: Science and Business. Scientists are the smart guys and gals, the eggheads, the ones who collect and interpret the data. If they lie about their findings, society is put at risk. Fairly simple. However, sometimes their findings don't land within the profit margins of the business folks...and the squeezing begins. That's cool. Squeezing the facts can result in getting the absolute most of a situation, allowing folks to make money and other folks to receive goods and services....and the world goes round. But what if a company, lets say BP, calculates that it's in its best interest to ignore science, or control science or just flat out lie, obstruct, and obscure the collection of data. And further, what if the company then attempts to silence scientists with contracts that prevent them from reporting their findings for years. Oh man, then you got the makings for some ethical violations there...on both sides. And yet, this is exactly what is being alleged in this article by Ben Raines in the Press-Register of Mobile, AL.

BP PLC attempted to hire the entire marine sciences department at one Alabama university, according to scientists involved in discussions with the company's lawyers. The university declined because of confidentiality restrictions that the company sought on any research.The Press-Register obtained a copy of a contract offered to scientists by BP. It prohibits the scientists from publishing their research, sharing it with other scientists or speaking about the data that they collect for at least the next three years.

Now, the scientists at the University of South Alabama declined the offers on ...get this...ethical grounds. Not so much for LSU, University of Southern Mississippi, and Texas A&M. And there's more about Bobby Jindal's sand berm folly, but I've done that to death on here. It blows my mind how cynical these folks are, and how stupid they assume we are.

Photo by Crowolf

Thanks for the tip in Wayne!

Bahr On Olberman Tonight

Len Bahr, Ph.D., founding editor of LaCoastPost is scheduled to appear on MSNBC this evening at 7:00 PM CDT on Countdown with Keith Olberman to discuss the use of sand berms to save marshes from oil.
Here is an article by Dr. Bahr that appears in LaCoastPost. And here is a segment of the article:

In terms of specific criticisms, I have predicted that the berms will: (1) squander limited sand resources; (2) increase the depth and reduce the friction of the bottom profile; (3) increase the erosive power of tidal exchange; (4) steal dollars from and interest in less dramatic but more effective measures; (5) exacerbate the ongoing tension and lack of cooperation between federal and state agencies; (6) inject political overtones in what should be objective technical discussions; (7) jeopardize the credibility of the overall mission to protect and restore the Mississippi River delta; and (8) – most telling – fail to actually reduce the risk of oiling local marshes.

Thanks for the heads up Paul.

Time Machine

Here's what happened to Brazil's fisheries after only 350,000 gallons of oil spilled 10 years ago. That's only a quarter of what has been glug, glug, glugging in the gulf for the past three months. And this report was filed by Al Jeezera, not any of the major media here. Kinda ironic. Thanks Tim!

His Name Is Drew...Not Dan

What the hell? Of all the names this reporter could have been given from Cajun country, he screws up Drew? In spite of that, the main point is Drew Landry has more courage than just about anyone I know, and talent too! Check out this story from the Huffington Post.

Ahh..These Are The Good Kind Of Clowns

Not today folks. I'm not gonna waste time getting angry about the cynical political pandering our elected officials shovel out to us today. There's stuff out there from the usual suspects. And if the new cap on the broke oil well works...that would be great. But until then, I'm gonna look towards New Orleans for something nice to listen to. It's Tuesday, and it's boiling hot in Louisiana.

Man, This Is Sad

The State We're In

OK, so, I start each day casting my proverbial net out into the interwebs looking for Louisiana stories. I don't always like what comes in, and they aren't all keepers, but rarely are the stories boring. Makes me wonder if all states in the union are like this...do Iowa searches bring up stories of jail houses locking up suicidal prisoners in something called a "squirrel cage" and force them to wear shorty-shorts with the words "hot stuff" on the back? We apparently do.

Would a search of ....I dunno...let's say New Hampshire include stories of an elementary school that uses handcuffs and shackles on it's students, and I'm talking students under the age of 7? Well, maybe...but we got that.

And I'm guessing this story of Governor Jindal signing into law a bill that allows guns in church and another law that mandates ultra sound tests on all women getting abortions, with no exception for cases of rape (so much for getting government out of our lives) will be the envy of our fellow southern conservative states. Suck it Alabama, we got there first.

But I feel confident that not too many other places would be ranked in the top 10 music cities in the country (OK, by definition at least 9 others would) like Lafayette did. Nice little mention of the Blue Moon Saloon in there too.

Should I stop wondering here and end on a positive note? Huh? And ignore the man arrested in a Louisiana Wal-Mart for masturbating while looking at a small boy? I mean, he was in the electronics department....does that count as higher learning?

P.S. oil glug.

Sweet Relief

Ah man...when it sucks...like it does now....here's one guy who got it right.
Weekend starts right after a brief cultural history lesson. Shut up and let Clifton play!

Tar Balls For $200 Alex

If I ever hear the words "tar ball" again, I'm just gonna spit. That's all any media can cover in Louisiana this summer, and with obvious good reason. Much like the stare down I give my oatmeal in the morning, it's been battle of wills between me and the balls this summer. Who's gonna blink? The thing is, there seems to be way more of them than there are of me. Just yesterday they were found in Lake Pontchartrain, and Galveston.

Add to that the slow-motion quality of the glug..well 21st century folks aren't equipped to be able to pay attention this long, and now we're losing interest. Here's a bunch of graphs that tell you that.

Oh yeah, and Baton Rouge...it's the second ranked metropolis in the country..for AIDS. Really? I mean, with all due respect, it's not even that fun a place to hang out. But there are four prisons in the area, and we've allowed our prison system to degrade in to giant incubators of the HIV virus. Don't be jealous New Orleans, you're in third place.
So, let's recap: tar balls, oatmeal, ADHD, and AIDS....hell let's throw in whore monger since he's been slinking around town lately. Good morning Acadiana!

Photo by BPAmerica

And Yet Again

I know some folks like to watch the live cop chases on TV. But my favorite is the fake cop. Maybe it's because I've worked so many part-time jobs with guys who wanted to be cops, but failed to make it for some reason. They still really want that uniform though, and I guess some of them, like the guy in this story, won't let the dream die. Now, this could have been a very bad scene, particularly for the woman he illegally pulled over, so it's nothing to laugh about. Except maybe the fact that he recorded it all with his dashboard cam....that's kinda funny. And the part where his girlfriend hands him the phone to speak with the real police, and the speed with which he surrenders...all kinda funny. Cautionary tale: Kids...or adults...don't try this at home.

Here are some other fake cop guys we've posted on, here, here, and here.

Music

Sometimes, when, there's nothing that can be done....that's when music can help. It can't plug the hole, can't stop the glug, glug, glug, but it can help us get through this crap. It doesn't matter what kind of music. Go find something that does it for you, and put it on. This is for the spirit, and spirit is what we're need to be strong. They talk about this oil killing our culture, but that's not true. It may kill the fish, but our community and our culture is still here. Weekend starts now.