I mean, some people have never heard your music.
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?"
Rush Limbaugh is going to be deeply saddened, he's a big Celine Dion fan.
I used to like her too, but now, I'm done with her. She should take her Francophone behind back to French Canada.
It is a filthy city, you are right about that. And I grew up in NYC, so imagine how dirty it was if it bothered me!
I'm sure your statements seem obvious to most people. But they're actually the most pernicious, evil, wrong-headed ever made.
Human history is one of continual conflict. Do you really believe that people on the "other" side think of themselves as evil? That they share your views and interpretations? That they believe they're wearing the black hat and you the white one?
Disputes about good and evil are the basis of politics, philosophy, economics, social organization. You couldn't be more wrong.
From the incoherence of his statement, Kayne West looks like his mind is gone. It is unlikely that he will ever be able to realize the truth of the matter.
Can I go to her house?
The line of thought you're ridiculing is straight out of Sowell's "Ethnic America", and is obvious common sense observation.
Looters loot for the loot
Of course they do! Did I or anyone else say otherwise? What Dion said was that at least some of these people probably had never touched wealth before and never would again.
The underlying socioeconomic conditions is who's fault?
Nobody's...or God's. It's part of the march of history. Peoples conquer or get conquered and that has consequences.
Larry, actually you are more to blame since you push the race baiting and sel-vicimization that keeps the lower class from emancipating themselves.
Maybe I'm not being clear. Sorry. I'm trying a new line of thought and am not very good at it.
Those left in New Orleans are the lowest 20% of society and those looting, raping, and murdering are the lowest of the lowest. And they're operating under conditions that would try any man. In any competition there are losers. Not everyone can "emancipate" himself. When you push people too hard bad things happen.
Race is a factor. That can't be denied. My usual line of thought has been that this sort of bad behavior has been demonstrated by no other group in the face of natural disaster. The Japanese in Kobe, whites at Homestead, Asians in the face of the tsunami, etc - all behaved much better. But it's been pointed out to me that disaster exacerbated ethnic hatreds and conflictrs in Sri Lanka. So maybe I was wrong. And how important, how typical is this bad behavior of "race relations"? Is it in any way typical of New Orleans blacks? Of those 100,000 stranded in New Orleans how many behaved badly and how badly?
What about leadership failures? Who failed and how? Nagin has been criticized for not loading people on available buses and just driving them out of town - even if they had no place to stay. A bold move which would have left him open to severe criticism had things not gotten so bad. A failure of vision some say. But Bush is on record as saying no one expected the levees to fail - complete crap. And he didn't drop down into the crowd the way he did after 911. So there's plenty of blame to spread around.
Yep. Too bad the ones treating them like dogs are the Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons of the world.
I act out of self-interest and on my best conceptions. I fight hard for what I believe in, for the kind of world I want. So do my enemies.
The poster I was responding to claimed distinguishing right from wrong was easy for human beings. That makes all my enemies stupid or inhuman. Obvious bullshit. Therefore the poster was wrong...just as you are.
Take your PC garbage "nobody has the right truths" off of FR.
Idiot.
Putting it another way. We're arguing about right and wrong and disagree. Therefore one of us is stupid, evil, or inhuman. I say it's you.
The Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons can be wrong too.
I hope this wakes Celine up to the fact that ordinary people come to see her concerts in Las Vegas, and some may have business in the NOLA area.
Sharpton, Jackson et al ARE wrong. They've done far more to oppress their race in the last 15 years than any white person.
Funny, she doesn't say the same thing when people steal her music. Of course no self respecting looter would be caught dead stealing one of her CDs from the Wal-Mart.
I mean, some people have never heard your music.
Many blacks have behaved badly. Agreed.
Many blacks haven't taken advantage of available opportunities. Agreed.
Many of their leaders are race hustlers and opportunists. Agreed.
Many blacks have behaved badly. Agreed.
Many blacks haven't taken advantage of available opportunities. Agreed.
Many of their leaders are race hustlers and opportunists. Agreed.
That's what it has to do with the current thread.
If dogs are treated badly they act badly. One must protect oneself from them...but can still have some understanding of, and compassion for, them.
I pointed out that their own "leaders" are much more likely to do so than anyone else.
Retraining is not easy. Especially so in an unfriendly environment. Their leaders come out of the same environment and, quite naturally, bear some scars and some resentments. It's an unfortunate truth that when power changes hands the new possessors of imperium are no improvement.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.