Posted on 09/04/2005 8:55:02 PM PDT by wagglebee
International singing star Celine Dion has little problem with the large amount of looting taking place in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, and she's slamming the U.S. government for its perceived slow response to Katrina's impact.
"You know, some people are stealing and they're making a big deal out of it," Dion said on CNN's "Larry King Live," as she said she'd donate $1 million toward relief.
"Oh, they're stealing 20 pair of jeans or they're stealing television sets. Who cares? They're not going to go too far with it. Maybe those people are so poor, some of the people who do that they're so poor they've never touched anything in their lives. Let them touch those things for once."
Dion, an celebrity from Canada who now lives and performs in Las Vegas, took a double swipe at U.S. war policy while criticizing the recovery effort.
"How come it's so easy to send planes in another country to kill everyone in a second, to destroy lives?"
"I open the television, there's people still there waiting to be rescued and for me it's not acceptable. I know there's reasons for it. I'm sorry to say I'm being rude but I don't want to hear those reasons."
Fellow singer Harry Connick Jr., who hails from New Orleans, and was able to make it into the hard-hit region last week, said he was horrified by the number of bodies, including an old woman in a chair at the city's convention center.
Connick also told King a friend commandeered an abandoned city bus to help evacuate refugees.
"And I'm thinking, if [she] can get on a bus and drive a bus out with sick people, you know, well, we can't get a barge to park back up on the Mississippi behind the convention center and get these people out?"
The Bush administration was also accused of racism on national TV during a celebrity relief effort on NBC.
"George Bush doesn't care about black people!" exclaimed rapper Kayne West.
West continued:
I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, "They're looting." You see a white family, it says, "They're looking for food." And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help – with the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way – and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!
Meanwhile, actor Sean Penn made his own personal attempt to aid those in New Orleans, but the small boat he was piloting to launch a rescue attempt sprang a leak.
The 45-year-old Oscar winner had planned on rescuing stranded children, but an Agence France-Presse report indicates he apparently forgot to plug a hole in the vessel's bottom, which took on water within seconds of its launch.
Asked about his goal in the soaked city, Penn replied: "Whatever I can do to help."
But with the boat loaded with members of his entourage, including his personal photographer, one bystander taunted: "How are you going to get any people in that thing?"
OFTEN no impovement.
Another "mind" lost to Bush hatred.
Hey Celine, you've got a nice big house with a big yard! Why don't you take in, let's think now, 5 families, feed and cloth them for 6 months! Do your part Celine, you stupid jerk!
She's the one doing the judging. There are good people trying to help the best they can, and all she can do is emote and critcize.
Yeah. She's wrong too.
As soon as I saw "would", I started looking for "but...". ;-)
So what is the purpose of your comments anyway? Trying to start a flame war succinctly? Trying to stir up reasonable doubt? What?
He likes to somewhat agree with FReepers, then in the next breath he'll make a vague comment disagreeing with FReepers.
It's the old bait-and-switch tactic, and people shouldn't fall for it. Liberal Larry is nothing more than a troll disguised as a moderate Democrat.
ROFLOL!!
I thought I made that clear. A conversation with a friend caused me to question some fundamentals I'd taken for granted. I thought I'd test that new line of thought, see whether it held up to criticism. It did.
Your the kind of guy who discourages reasonable people...immune to anything except tribal affinity.
What makes you think that someone with my screenname ever was or would be a conservative? When have I said I was? I'm here because I find the conservative viewpoint interesting, and because I think anyone who claims an interest in politics must understand it.
And, since I have an open mind and am intelligent, I get as will as give. I wouldn't have stayed if I didn't.
Let them loot her home.
I wasn't talking about human history. I was talking about New Orleans.
Look, the two problems you liberals have is 1)you possess this notion that you're so much smarter than everyone else and 2)you have little or no common sense and logic. I'm about to prove your statements are wrong. But you won't know it...and you won't know it for the reasons I just stated.
You liberals insist on having it both ways. First you say looting and other criminal behavior is wrong but you understand why they're doing it. Then you say (using your "dogs" analogy) they don't know it's wrong. They're just products of their environment. However, Liberals have long claimed that, due to racism, prisons and jails have a disproportionate number of black prisoners. So what we have, using your thought process (and I use the term loosely) is this: Some blacks behave in a criminal manner, they don't know it's wrong but it doesn't matter because most of them that are in prison are there because America is racist. Brilliance. Sheer brilliance. And the fact that you would even consider this remotely an intellectually honest argument is hilarious. But, that's why we laugh at you guys so much. You're funny.
Do you really believe that people on the "other" side think of themselves as evil?
Criminals may not think of themselves as "evil". But most of them do know their activity is criminal.
That they share your views and interpretations?
They don't.
That they believe they're wearing the black hat and you the white one?
Irrelevant. What is relevant is that a socity has a rule of law and citizens must live under it or take "legal" steps to change it. What criminals--black, white, green or purple--think from a philosophical or sociological perspective is meaningless. And that's assuming they were capable of thinking in those terms in the first place.
Disputes about good and evil are the basis of politics, philosophy, economics, social organization. You couldn't be more wrong.
Ahhh, the great and powerful liberallarry has spoken. Well, I've got a news flash for ya, pal. Part of being an elitist is not knowing you are one. But you telling me I couldn't be more wrong tells me I'm right. Thanks.
BTW, just so we don't lose track. I responded to a statement you attributed to a friend of yours regarding Irish immigrants. You likened them (and blacks) to dogs. Had a conservative done the same thing you and your liberal buddies would have been all over it. So you've proven that another part of being a liberal elitist is hypocrisy. Of course, you don't think it's hypocritical but how could you? You're an elitist.
I am very poor compared to her. In fact, I am probably relatively much poorer compared to her than the people in NO are compared to me. Therefore, I should be able to loot her house. Do you think she could send a bus to pick me up in case I don't have a car that day?
Translation: I'm a pretentious dope.
I'm about to prove your statements are wrong. But you won't know it...and you won't know it for the reasons I just stated.
Translation: I'm such a pretentious dope who I won't be able to understand your arguments.
Boy, that's a great start.:) Why do you bother to continue?
You liberals insist on having it both ways.
I'm not a liberal. I'm an independent mind. I'd be a follower of TR is he was alive. But he's long dead and I have to find my own way.
(and I use the term loosely)
Gee, that's just what I think of your thought processes.
Let's assume that I actually held the positions you accuse me of holding and had to defend them. I say that looting and other criminal behavior is wrong. But I would never say that blacks who are behaving in a criminal manner don't know its wrong. Rather they don't think its wrong in the context in which they live. Specifically, what's wrong with taking TVs and other electronics? Most of that stuff will have to be written off anyway. Or do you think owners will be able to sell it as new given that it's been unattended in a muggy flood zone for weeks or months. Meanwhile the poor who are stranded in that area can sell it for a few bucks and live. Or they might say that the entire society is criminal and exhibits the typical favoritism of conquerors. I can't make any sense of your argument about blacks in prison so I can't respond to it.
Criminals may not think of themselves as "evil". But most of them do know their activity is criminal.
They know it's illegal but not necessarily immoral. Many of them think their actions can be justified and that the legal system itself is immoral.
Irrelevant. What is relevant is that a socity has a rule of law and citizens must live under it or take "legal" steps to change it
If everyone thought like you we'd still be British citizens. But you, no doubt, think that's irrelevant too...and that black criminals in New Orleans are not in any way like those who founded the Republic.
Ahhh, the great and powerful liberallarry has spoken. Well, I've got a news flash for ya, pal. Part of being an elitist is not knowing you are one
I know I'm an elitist. I'm not apologetic about it. It doesn't automatically make me wrong. Try using argument instead of ad-hominems.
You likened them (and blacks) to dogs. Had a conservative done the same thing you and your liberal buddies would have been all over it
True about "my liberal buddies". But I'm an elitist and not a liberal and I don't have to answer for the stupidities of political correctness. And "likening" them to dogs is not at all the same thing as calling them monkeys or subhuman. I said they were treated like dogs and people who are so treated for any period of time often end up behaving like dogs. That applies to any people- black, white, yellow, it doesn't matter.
She can afford to take it on the chin.
You could have fooled me.
Easily. I've been playing with you for most of this thread.
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