Empty Lots

I honestly don’t see how we can’t be looking at a situation in which folks are just not allowed to rebuild in certain spots. Just think of it this way. Which event do you think various government folks thought was more likely–a thousand year flood or the Wolf Creek Dam failing?

Of course, it’s no guarantee that just because we saw the more extraordinary event, that we’ll see the dam fail. But, as Samantha pointed out to me last week, a lot of the water from the flood went right where the Wolf Creek Dam failure maps predicted it would go. If you can look at a PDF, check this out. Some of the houses in blue have flooded before. They flooded during the flood, and they will flood if the Wolf Creek dam goes. I’m not making an argument about whether folks should be allowed to rebuild where they are, lord knows I’m not qualified to make that decision, nor would I want to.

I’m just saying, it wouldn’t surprise me if folks were not allowed to rebuild in places like this–where it is known to flood, proven to flood, and homes are destroyed. Why let folks rebuild where we know they’d be affected should the more likely disaster not be diverted?

And that’s going to be really, really hard on people.

Anyway, here are the Wolf Creek Maps, if you feel like breaking your heart in this way, today.

What’s Up with the Orange Cat?!

I'm no Old Norse scholar, but it occurs to me that, if Odin had a giant housecat, we could have inadvertently figured out why Sleipnir appeard to have eight legs.

In the old days, the cats would have nothing to do with the dog, but times have changed. This morning, the poor dog was just trying to innocently go outside, pee, and come back inside, but the orange cat decided, I guess, that the dog needed a bodyguard, so the cat basically attached himself to her side and, no matter how slow or fast the dog tried to go, the cat was right next to her.

Poor dog just wanted to squat, but you know her knees are bad, so the cat pushing on her while she was trying to pee kept meaning she’d have to shift or topple over.

And she just kept giving me this sad, “what the hell is happening to me?” look.

And what could I say? I didn’t know.

Gary Odom Points Out the Uncomfortable

So, the State Republicans have proposed a balanced budget based on the assumption that Federal level Democrats are going to push through more money that our Federal level Republicans have vowed to vote against.

I repeat–the State Republicans can only balance the state budget without raising taxes if they have Federal money.

The very federal money a certain State Republican, in office right now, is running for governor on “booting” out of Tennessee.

Hilarious.

Odom is great here–“It is a ‘terrible program’ until you use the proceeds from the program to balance the budget.”