The Brutal Gallic Summer of August, 2003
Master CraftsMon - Aired Monday, November 28, 2005 at about 11pm CST
Let me tell you a story or a scenario or whatever. Let's assume that here in East Texas, we had a heat emergency. What I mean is that the temperature crept up from 100 to 130 over a three week period. Let me tell you what I think would happen.
First the United Way would start collecting and distributing fans for the old folks. They do that almost every year anyway. As it crept up past 115, neighbor would call to neighbor say something like, "Hey! Miss Effie, why don't you come on over to my place for a while. Just during the day... For a while... I know you're independent, but I'd hate to see you hurt." The churches would start worrying about their members and there would be action to open the worship areas for people without air conditioning. The emergency management teams would be assessing whether to open the schools. The old folks homes would be making sure their air conditioning was working well. When the temperature crept past 120, the emergency management teams would have to activate their plans and the schools and public buildings would have to be opened for those people who didn't have air conditioning. The church vans would be sent out and there'd be a knock at the door of some stubborn old person and the minister would say, "Miss Effie, Nadine her is coming in to help you pack something. We won't take no for an answer. If something were to happen to you, the whole church would be shamed." If Governor Rick Perry were in Montreal doing something on NAFTA, he'd have to come home. Hell, he'd have to drive, if he couldn't get an airplane. Either that or not come back at all, because his political career would be over particularly if someone had died. St. Joseph's would call everyone back from vacation and you better believe the doctors and nurses would have to show up or be fired. If anyone died in an old folks home from the heat, the State would have to close them down or the newspapers would never stop screaming. Those that did die would get a proper funeral and people would dedicate themselves to making sure it didn't happen again... This has never happened, but that's how I see it unfolding If you're from these parts, your reaction to the scenario I have outlined is, "Yeah, so what?"
Now let's look at what happened during the Brutal Gallic Summer of August, 2003. France had a heat emergency. France goes on vacation in August. The hospitals were understaffed and no one was willing to come back from vacation to help. No one could force them to come back, because their contracts were ironclad. Individual care givers were not willing to come back to help the old folks they were caring for. Neighbor did not call out to neighbor to ask whether they were okay. France doesn't have a very active religious community. Almost all the old folks homes were run by the government. The old folks homes did not have air conditioning. French President Jacque Chirac was in Montreal and refused to come back to supervise. When the heat emergency was over, about 15000 people had died. People on vacation did not come back to bury their dead relatives. They left them on ice in state owned facilities and came back to bury them when it was convenient for them.. In some cases, no one came to claim the bodies, because they did not want to bear the cost of burying their dead. As far as I can tell no one accepted blame and nothing has been done to make sure it does not happen again. Life went on as if nothing had happened.
I ask you, which place would you want to live in?
France and Texas are about the same size on the map. Population wise, Texas has about 2/3's the population of France. What would have been the reaction had 10000 Texans died in a heat emergency in 2003? I believe that there would still be articles being written about it in 2005. In France... business as usual.
By my standards this is what you always get when you have too much reliance on the government to take care of you. Again, I draw your attention to New Orleans. All levels of government failed in an emergency and people died. Not as many as was feared, but one is too many. This is why I cannot support the idea of universal health care, nor reliance on government to do much of anything. Sooner or later there would be a major emergency and we would have a huge die off.
I know, it is a major jump from a heat emergency to universal health care, but that is how I see it. In Bryan, Texas, we have St. Josephs Hospital. I believe that were St. Josephs moved to Europe, it would be one of the best hospitals on that continent. We hear paens to how great health care in Europe is. Forget it. Their tech base is dying. Their hospitals would NEVER pass a medical audit from the State of Texas. When the government takes over, bureaucrats start setting priorities.
Ah, well, this is how I feel. These are the conclusions I have reached based on the Brutal Gallic Summer. I would welcome your comments and questions.
Oh, Brutal Gallic Summer is a joke on the French. The French papers were filled in 2001 about the Brutal Afghan Winter and how our warriors would be killed by the frost and... oh, all manner of things. It was going to be a quagmire. We shouldn't even try. It took us three months to handle Afghanistan. The sophisticates in France were wrong.
They had the gall to criticize us about Katrina, yet they cannot even take care of their old people in an emergency. Johnah Goldberg is correct in popularizing the phrase: The French are Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys. I welcome your thoughts on this as well.
Let me tell you a story or a scenario or whatever. Let's assume that here in East Texas, we had a heat emergency. What I mean is that the temperature crept up from 100 to 130 over a three week period. Let me tell you what I think would happen.
First the United Way would start collecting and distributing fans for the old folks. They do that almost every year anyway. As it crept up past 115, neighbor would call to neighbor say something like, "Hey! Miss Effie, why don't you come on over to my place for a while. Just during the day... For a while... I know you're independent, but I'd hate to see you hurt." The churches would start worrying about their members and there would be action to open the worship areas for people without air conditioning. The emergency management teams would be assessing whether to open the schools. The old folks homes would be making sure their air conditioning was working well. When the temperature crept past 120, the emergency management teams would have to activate their plans and the schools and public buildings would have to be opened for those people who didn't have air conditioning. The church vans would be sent out and there'd be a knock at the door of some stubborn old person and the minister would say, "Miss Effie, Nadine her is coming in to help you pack something. We won't take no for an answer. If something were to happen to you, the whole church would be shamed." If Governor Rick Perry were in Montreal doing something on NAFTA, he'd have to come home. Hell, he'd have to drive, if he couldn't get an airplane. Either that or not come back at all, because his political career would be over particularly if someone had died. St. Joseph's would call everyone back from vacation and you better believe the doctors and nurses would have to show up or be fired. If anyone died in an old folks home from the heat, the State would have to close them down or the newspapers would never stop screaming. Those that did die would get a proper funeral and people would dedicate themselves to making sure it didn't happen again... This has never happened, but that's how I see it unfolding If you're from these parts, your reaction to the scenario I have outlined is, "Yeah, so what?"
Now let's look at what happened during the Brutal Gallic Summer of August, 2003. France had a heat emergency. France goes on vacation in August. The hospitals were understaffed and no one was willing to come back from vacation to help. No one could force them to come back, because their contracts were ironclad. Individual care givers were not willing to come back to help the old folks they were caring for. Neighbor did not call out to neighbor to ask whether they were okay. France doesn't have a very active religious community. Almost all the old folks homes were run by the government. The old folks homes did not have air conditioning. French President Jacque Chirac was in Montreal and refused to come back to supervise. When the heat emergency was over, about 15000 people had died. People on vacation did not come back to bury their dead relatives. They left them on ice in state owned facilities and came back to bury them when it was convenient for them.. In some cases, no one came to claim the bodies, because they did not want to bear the cost of burying their dead. As far as I can tell no one accepted blame and nothing has been done to make sure it does not happen again. Life went on as if nothing had happened.
I ask you, which place would you want to live in?
France and Texas are about the same size on the map. Population wise, Texas has about 2/3's the population of France. What would have been the reaction had 10000 Texans died in a heat emergency in 2003? I believe that there would still be articles being written about it in 2005. In France... business as usual.
By my standards this is what you always get when you have too much reliance on the government to take care of you. Again, I draw your attention to New Orleans. All levels of government failed in an emergency and people died. Not as many as was feared, but one is too many. This is why I cannot support the idea of universal health care, nor reliance on government to do much of anything. Sooner or later there would be a major emergency and we would have a huge die off.
I know, it is a major jump from a heat emergency to universal health care, but that is how I see it. In Bryan, Texas, we have St. Josephs Hospital. I believe that were St. Josephs moved to Europe, it would be one of the best hospitals on that continent. We hear paens to how great health care in Europe is. Forget it. Their tech base is dying. Their hospitals would NEVER pass a medical audit from the State of Texas. When the government takes over, bureaucrats start setting priorities.
Ah, well, this is how I feel. These are the conclusions I have reached based on the Brutal Gallic Summer. I would welcome your comments and questions.
Oh, Brutal Gallic Summer is a joke on the French. The French papers were filled in 2001 about the Brutal Afghan Winter and how our warriors would be killed by the frost and... oh, all manner of things. It was going to be a quagmire. We shouldn't even try. It took us three months to handle Afghanistan. The sophisticates in France were wrong.
They had the gall to criticize us about Katrina, yet they cannot even take care of their old people in an emergency. Johnah Goldberg is correct in popularizing the phrase: The French are Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys. I welcome your thoughts on this as well.
posted by aRandomTexan at
10:53 AM
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