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How's this for eerie timing?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by deskslave, May 11, 2008.

  1. zebracoy

    zebracoy Guest

    Classic.
     
  2. ralph russo

    ralph russo Member

    50-50?? Hmmmm.
    That is all.
     
  3. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    This thread will not end well, although a few posts have made me chuckle.
     
  4. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    There are a few nutjobs who have tried to tie his environmental policies to global warming which, in turn, caused Katrina to strengthen enough to wipe out New Orleans. Now, since the government was trying to get folks to leave this Oklahoma town that was wiped out, I'm sure there'll be a few that try to either tie him to the tornado the same way -- or just imply that he hates Oklahoma and summoned it. Either way, it's his fault because all of the world's ills are his fault.
    I was trying to be funny. Obviously, I failed miserably. I will now tell myself 10 knock-knock jokes as penance.
     
  5. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    It will take a lot more than the worst efforts of three people to suck worse than George W, clutch.
     
  6. alleyallen

    alleyallen Guest

    The idiocy is on full display, driving this thread into the ground with pointless discussion of the Shrub.

    That being said, this news sucks. Deskslave, on the original post, you mentioned the government paying people to leave. I haven't had a chance to find this story yet, but it's an intriguing concept. What's the deal on it for the uninitiated?
     
  7. Barsuk

    Barsuk Active Member

    As awful as it might sound, a natural disaster might not be such a horrible thing for the people of Picher, Okla., and those who have been there probably understand where I'm coming from. That little town is a sad shithole of a place.

    I'm not a religious man, but I can't help but think that tornado is some higher power's way of telling the people who haven't yet left town that they need to GTFO. Either that or it's George Bush's fault. Not sure which.
     
  8. OJ1414

    OJ1414 Member

    The town is in the Tar Creek Superfund site. Picher is a former mining town with large piles of chat (mining waste) everywhere. The chat is contaminated with heavy metals, including lead. Also contaminants from the mines have destroyed Tar Creek, turning its banks orange and killing anything in the waters.

    Saw one lady from Picher interviewed yesterday who said she would likely get much more from her house from insurance than she would've gotten in a buyout, so the tornado might've helped some people.
     
  9. alleyallen

    alleyallen Guest

    Thanks for the backstory. And I'm starting to see how the disaster ... the human cost aside ... might actually help some people.
     
  10. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    I had to drive from Springfield, Mo. to Wichita, Kan. one time, and I had a day to kill, so I followed the old Route 66 route into northeast Oklahoma.

    I don't know if I drove through Picher or not, but the extreme southeast corner of Kansas and the northeast corner of Oklahoma were among the biggest shithole regions I've ever driven through because of the mining. Those towns can't look much different from when they did in the 30s and they looked it with decaying buildings and industrial blight. It looked like one helluva a bleak existence in those towns.
     
  11. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    You're doing a heckuva job, EPA.
     
  12. Barsuk

    Barsuk Active Member

    If memory serves, historic Route 66 does not pass through Picher or the adjacent shithole of Cardin, but it does go through Baxter Springs, Kan., and Quapaw, Commerce and Miami (pronounced my-am-uh) in NE Oklahoma. All of those towns look like nice, quaint, small towns compared to Picher, Cardin, Okla., and Treece, Kan., which all sort of run together and create one of the saddest, poorest, most disheartening places I've ever seen.

    I grew up just a few miles from there, but it might as well have been a different world.

    Perhaps the saddest thing is that these were once booming towns when the mines were active, but now they're just pathetic. Living as close as I did, I passed through that area often (though as infrequently as possible) and I never grew completely desensitized to the despair. Just an awful place, and words really can't do it justice.

    P.S. Bubbs, you might have also passed through Galena, Kan., another former mining town that is now quite poor and sad ... but it's like a slightly less poor man's Picher. Nothing I've ever seen compares to Picher.
     
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