Jindal puts Ideology before Facts (Yet Again)

When I first moved down here to New Orleans I went through culture shock on many levels.  I came from places where there was no viable private education because public education is so excellent that private schools are reserved for the hyper-religious or the hyper-rich with hyper-idiot children.  I was used to good roads.  I can’t tell you how many tires I’ve lost to the roads down here.  I was used to low crime and nearly zero drug-related crime. I was also used to cities with corporate headquarters (Minneapolis, Kansas City, and Omaha) where I could make a nice living consulting.   I’ve come to love it down here although I still realize we’re very third world compared to the rest of the country(at this writing anyway).  I’ve just learned to relax and go with it.

Louisiana has always depended on the kindness of other states since the fall of the Oil and Gas industry in the 1980s.  It has been highly dependent on the rest of the country and the world since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the bottom and richest part of the state.  One of my displaced friends got a US government supplied  FEMA trailer on campus.  He got his dishes, pots and pans and linens from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  We’ve relied heavily on outside help since that awful day in August, 2005.

I know several economists here in the state that follow the local economy closely and I know we’ve had some real tough times.  Fortunately, we still have two major news organization that are committed to following our recovery and they send reporters down here to do substantive stories as well as the usual “let’s traipse around the ninth ward and see what’s happening”  pieces. This generally keeps the light on the problems.   Our governor also attracts attention as a potential leader of the Republican Party.  I’ve written about him frequently because I’d frankly like to have him some place where he cannot do so much damage to folks with his inability to separate right wing dogma and religious zealotry with governance.  (I’m thinking Spaceship, co-pilot Rush,  and Mars.)

Of course you’ve seen Bobby (Peyush) Jindal on TV now.  You can see he talks very fast and often in ways that really don’t make sense.  He’s got a very interesting background and is known for being intelligent and well-educated.  He never lets that get in the way of his governing Louisiana, however.   You can read more on that from a December post of mine here.

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