White Looters in Iowa (Mike S. Adams)

Townhall.com ^ | June 23, 2008 | Mike S. Adams

[EveningStar]

During the week after Father’s Day, I received a number of interesting emails from readers asking me to write about the dearth of looting after the recent floods in Iowa. Specifically, they wanted me to write about the reason there was so much more looting in New Orleans after Katrina hit the “Chocolate City” in 2005. Of course, the problem involves so much more than race – a factor most people are thinking about, even if they won’t admit it...

[deport]

Do we have a new rule, now, that says we have to excerpt Townhall pieces so poorly that we can’t get the gist of the article without having to go to the original link?

I have no idea, from this thread, what in the H-E-double hockeysticks you are talking about.

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Probably not worth the read if it’s not worth the effort to be posted in its entirety barring any excerpt rule requirement....... Happening a lot on FR today.

[EveningStar]

Probably not worth the read if it’s not worth the effort to be posted in its entirety

Your remark makes no sense. I'm perfectly capable of posting complete articles. It requires no "effort." It's easy. However, I've always preferred to excerpt unless a site grants explicit and clear permission to copy entire articles. I'm just playing it safe.

[EveningStar]

It’s not a great title. Misleading. Provocative in the bad sense.

[texas booster]

There is plenty of crime in rural areas, we all know that. Between meth heads and rustlers there is plenty of blame to go around.

Still, there seems to be a serious disconnect in the reporting from NO verses Iowa regarding borrowing items for long terms. The press has not done any favors to Middle America in a long time and I don't expect them to start now.

Thanks for teaching, and continue to hope for the best from our youngsters. We really seem to be devolving as a society when it comes to our young.

[alecqss]

[Ok, I give it to you that NO has 4 times larger population, but the notion that in 120+K city is “a tightly knit community” is ludicrous. ]

You obviously are not from the midwest.

Yes, I'm not from the Midwest. However, it seems that you misunderstood my post.

I responded to a poster who was explaining away the difference between NOLA looting and Cedar Rapids orderly behavior on the grounds that New Orleans is a large city that is not tightly knit [like supposedly Cedar Rapids]. If Rapids was "a large city", its citizenry, as it appears for poster's reasoning to go, would loot all the same.

Notwithstanding the nonsense, I merely pointed out that calling Rapids with 120,000 people "tightly knit" is wacky.

You seem to take it - being not tightly knit - in a disparaging way. You did describe the bravery and compassion of people in the Midwest. Kudos to them! Especially considering that they DO NOT know each other personally.

[Migraine]

In the Soviet Union, was stealing from someone rich considered wrong?

Answer: in the Soviet Union, absolutely EVERYONE was on the take. It was utterly amoral.

[Migraine]

In the Soviet Union, was stealing from someone rich considered wrong?

I would if I had any desire to.

[Migraine]

I don't think so. Looting has never been tied to race, just class and character. If there was a nation wide disaster we'd certainly see our share of looters of all races.

I have been posing the question for 30 years. Only in the last 3-4 years have I seen such wanton disregard, in small town, rural America, for "other people's" rights. I think the times are changing, and the direction of change is toward amorality, or nihilism. But, of course, you are entitled to disagree. Bless you.

[EveningStar]

I think the times are changing, and the direction of change is toward amorality, or nihilism.

Since you put it that way, I agree with you.

[Migraine]

You can post a comment at the site, if you wish.

Ooops! This is the comment I wanted to comment on to this effect: "I would, if I had any desire to". Sorry.

[EveningStar]

Sokay :)

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

Maybe another factor is that people have been free to leave the affected portions of Iowa. The bridges were closed by police and residents weren't allowed to leave New Orleans. If I were imprisoned in a city, I'd probably loot too. It's not like Wal Marts were open for business -- you still need to eat during a natural disaster.

I distinctly remember fat black police officers being followed by the news cameras as they filled shopping carts with loot. What the depraved culture of New Orleans is lacking was not food and beer.

[glorgau]

In the Soviet Union, was stealing from someone rich considered wrong?

There were no rich people. They were all comrades working for the greater socialist good. You must seriously need some "re-education" in the dialectic.

See this site for pointers.

[hinckley buzzard]

You obviously are not from the midwest.

Bump. I was going to guess that alecqss has never been to Iowa...

[grellis]

I disagree. My city's pop is 116K, and the drop from under 120K was very recent (last five years). We had two days of strong storms here recently, including a tornado. Lots of folks without power, but nobody without a neighbor to help them out, nobody. Not one incident of looting. Regular citizens took turns watching over blocks without power.

I'm a very regular dame. Over the last ten years, I have kind of kept to myself--not totally out of the social loop, but I keep a lot more time for myself and my family than I used to. Even so, I can probably still walk into any supermarket, mall, bar, church of any denomination, library, union hall, school, you name it--I'll know at least one person by name. Usually more. I'll bet the very same can be said for just about anyone who has lived here for more than two or three years.

It's hard to get away with a crime when the chances are somebody will know you, and that's a pretty big deterrant.

[hinckley buzzard]

Yes, you got it. All 40 million American blacks thinks it's ok to steal and that's what "black culture" says

Forget "steal." What of the OJ jury and numerous polls thereafter; The Black reaction to Tawana Brawley; the Black reaction to the DukeLax case; The high proportion of Blacks who agree with Jeremiah Wright (as measured by polls over the years) and have for a long time, regarding AIDS, government drug-pushing, etc.

The cold hard fact is that a significant proportion (not all of course) of American Black people live not just in a different world but in a different reality than you do; and the rest have assimilated.

[donna]

Yeah, I know. No middle class - only the proletariat. I was just being subtle, LOL.

So, those kids in an American classroom could be right if they are liberal - there is nothing wrong with looting.

[dbacks]

You are way off base and seem to be unable to understand that people in a town of 100,000 can be close knit. I lived in Sioux City and venture a guess that my family knew or knew of over 25% of the locals. My late B-I-L knew more than that as a contractor and Mason. You are really naive!

My dad passed in 1956 but I venture to say he knew 80% of the men in the area, and most of their families. We would go the Sioux City Soos baseball games and he would spend the entire game talking with friends. At Christmas time, he would receive dozens of bottles of booze from Christian and Jewish business friends. BTW, I don't think he ever made more than $4000 in his life. Hardly a business Icon, just a lowly truck salesman during and post WWII.

[nonliberal]

Just the opposite in Mason City. Friends and neighbors were helping each other clear their stuff out. No looting, no murders, even with no water for almost four days.

[festus]

That sounds an awful lot like *working*.