You didn't hear about this on the news, did you?

Katrina survivors are building the USS New York, a USMC amphibian assault ship, using the steel from the wreckage of the World Trade Center. Two sister ships, the USS Arlington (where the Penatgon is) and the USS Sommerset (the county in Pennsylvania where Flight 93 crashed) are also planned.

As reported by the Times (UK):

Warship built out of Twin Towers wreckage
BY TOM BALDWIN

In a shipyard in New Orleans, survivors of one disaster are building a monument to another


The USS New York is being built in New Orleans using steel from the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre (PAIGE EATON)

IN A city still emerging from the floods of Hurricane Katrina, a ship has begun to rise from the ashes of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Bringing together America’s two great calamities of the 21st century, the USS New York is being built in New Orleans with 24 tonnes of steel taken from the collapsed World Trade Centre.

There is no shortage of scrap metal in New Orleans these days, but the girders taken from Ground Zero have been treated with a reverence usually accorded to religious relics. After a brief ceremony in 2003, about seven tonnes of steel were melted down and poured into a cast to make the bow section of the ship’s hull.

Some shipworkers say the hairs stood up on the backs of their necks the first time they touched it. Others have postponed their retirement so they can be part of the project.

One worker, Tony Quaglino, said: “I was going to go in October 2004 after 40 years here, but I put it off when I found out I could be working on New York. This is sacred and it makes me very proud.” Glen Clement, a paint superintendent, said: “Nobody passes by that bow section without knocking on it. Everybody knows what it is made from and what it’s about.”

The ship is being built by Northrop Grumman on the banks of the Mississippi. It should be ready to join the US Navy in 2007.

Later vessels in its class will include USS Arlington — named after the section of the Pentagon that was also hit by an airliner on September 11 — and USS Somerset, in memory of United Flight 93, which crashed in a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, on the same day as passengers struggled with al-Qaeda hijackers.
Mr Clement said it would be fitting if USS New York’s first mission was to capture Osama bin Laden. He said: “They hit us first, but out of a tragedy a good thing has come, in that we’re building a ship which can help take those people out.”

The $1 billion vessel is one of a new generation of amphibious assault ships capable of landing a 700-strong Marines assault force on a coastline almost anywhere without the need for a port.

Woody Oge, Northrop Grumman’s director of operations in New Orleans, was keen to play down suggestions that the ship might be used to spearhead invasions.

He pointed out that LPD vessels had been used as much for humanitarian assistance as for war. One such ship, USS Boxer, was dispatched to help to deal with the aftermath of Katrina.

Although the hurricane smashed its way through the shipyard last summer, the half-completed New York survived intact. The same cannot be said for the homes of some of its builders. About 200 are still living at the shipyard in the hastily set up “Camp Katrina”.
They include Earl Jones. More than eight months after Katrina, he does not know if his home in the Lower Ninth ward will be rebuilt. “The insurance company won’t even talk to us,” he said. “We’re having to hire lawyers to chase ’em. I don’t like this, but I don’t want to be out of work.”

Mr Jones’s wife was evacuated to Baton Rouge and is seriously ill with breast cancer and pneumonia. He said: “She ain’t handling very well me being away all the time.”

Katrina and 9/11 are two disasters that continue to produce very different responses from America. Mr Jones does not want his old home enshrined in a $1 billion fighting machine, but a small cheque from the insurance firm might help.

FORCE OF LIBERTY

- USS New York, USS Arlington and USS Somerset will be part of a nine-vessel fleet of new amphibious transport ships

- Length: 208.5m (684ft) — more than twice as long as the Statue of Liberty

- Beam: 31.9m (105ft); weight: 24,900 tonnes; speed: 22 knots

- Equipment: helicopters, landing craft, amphibious vehicles, missile launchers

- Crew: more than 1,000, comprising 361 ship’s company plus 699 marines

A Beginner's Guide to Blogging

The PBS website (no, not that one, the other one!) has posted a primer on blogging that provides a concise startup guide to hosting, posting and roasting on the Internet.

There are TONS of hosting sites available, all vary by degrees as much as cell phone service, pick yer poison. This one is Blogspot (aka Blogger), but there is also HostingMatters, JournalSpace and many others you can google and search for yourself.

It Beats Working

I just finished reading "Why Isn't Socialism Dead?" by Lee Harris over at Tech Central Station Daily. A bit of a read, but worth it in my view.

The article speaks to what could be described similarly to Dianetics almost as a "religion without divinity", in that the reason Socialism doesn't die in spite of many catastrophic failures is due to the hope engendered by its core myth:

"[T]he revolutionary socialist's life is transformed because he accepts the myth that one day socialism will triumph, and justice for all will prevail."

"The myth of socialism is a useful illusion that turns ordinary men into comrades and revolutionaries united in a common struggle -- a band of brothers, so to speak."

The well-known reasons for the failure of Socialism are not addressed, except in passing:

"The Nazis regarded themselves as genuine revolutionaries, and they call themselves revolutionaries, just as they always referred to their take-over of the German state as their revolution: for the Nazi, their revolution, and not the Bolshevik revolution, represented true socialism -- national socialism."

And the conclusion is that like the promise of immediate gratification in Protestantism from spiritual satisfaction on Earth vs. the Catholic promise of redemption in the afterlife, that:

"[U]ntil capitalism can come up with a transformative myth of its own, it may well be that many men will prefer to find their myths in the same place they found them in the first part of the twentieth century -- the myth of revolutionary socialism."

Libertarianism is a poor model for organizing the masses and Capitalism is not the promise of an easy life that Socialism is. Marx believed that because Socialism was the natural out-growth of Capitalism, revolution was unnecessary. But the myth of Hope for Justice under Socialism seems much more of a lure than the hope for prosperity under Capitalism.

The May Day Riots at MacArthur Park, Los Angeles

Peaceful my ass. Rioters collected at MacArthur Park and as darkness fell began to cause damage and loot. Police moved in to break up the crowd and were attacked.

Be sure to click on the links in the right pane for more videos.

According to Lou Dobbs, the organizers of this march were from ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), the organizing arm of the World Workers Party (WWP) aka, the American Communist Party.

These demonstrations are not about 'amnesty', but about recruiting for socialism. Look around and find me any signs that point to the root cause of the Hispanic diaspora that say, "¡Fijemos México!" (Let's fix Mexico).

I think a good solid movement for the Mexican diaspora would be to instill in them the idea that civil rights are inherent in people, and they CAN take them home with them would do wonders to solve the problems. "Bring your Civil Rights Home with you!"