On Tuesday, September 6th, we posted an article “FEMA: Mac users drop dead – Hurricane Katrina online assistance site is Windows only,” which explained that FEMA’s online aid application for hurricane survivors worked only on Windows PCs with Internet Explorer. At the time, we commented that this was “more short-sighted Windows-only bullshit from the U.S government.”
Many other websites also reported the story and it looks like it has made something of a difference.
FEMA updated their online FAQ on “Monday, 09-Sep-2005” which, of course is impossible, unless you’re part of the government. Maybe that’s why some of these government agencies botched the hurricane relief efforts? The simple lack of a common calendar?
Anyway, FEMA explains that they are now, as of “Monday, 09-Sep-2005” presumably, “in the process of modifying the application so that it will be available to additional browsers.” How long that will take is anybody’s guess, especially since the boys and girls at FEMA seem to have their own totally unique calendar, but we cynically tend to believe support for non-IE browsers will be later rather than sooner. Still, we suppose one can always hope.
Related articles:
Macs need not apply for use on UK Parliament network – September 12, 2005
FEMA: Mac users drop dead – Hurricane Katrina online assistance site is Windows only – September 07, 2005
World Wide Web Consortium objects to US Copyright Office’s Internet Explorer-only browser plan – August 25, 2005
U.S. Copyright Office: Use only the world’s most insecure browser to secure your copyright – August 17, 2005
U.S. Copyright Office: is it okay if our new website only works with Internet Explorer? – August 11, 2005
Referee –
Reference the post ofbove and add…Oprah.
Ah, I see the blame game is now in earnest. Isn’t modern America wonderful?
Liberal scum!!! Nazi Conservative!!! Liberal scum!!! Nazi Conservative!!! Liberal scum!!! Nazi Conservative!!! Liberal scum!!! Nazi Conservative!!! Liberal scum!!! Nazi Conservative!!! Liberal scum!!! Nazi Conservative!!! Liberal scum!!! Nazi Conservative!!! Liberal scum!!! Nazi Conservative!!!
If I were God, I’d be throwing hurricanes at you too…..
</bad taste comment>
Ah, sad little insults. They’re so cute. But, they’re not very interesting.
The unfortunate bipolar nature of your national struggle will be your undoing. On EVERY issue, you choose to see only black and white – while nature sees shades of grey.
Try to understand that the road does not lead left or right, but through the center. And you have to actually carve the road – together.
Let’s get a grip here, people. Though a liberal utopia may look quite similar to socialism and a welfare state, keep in mind that a pure conservative agenda is to eliminate the middle class and restore a very tiny, untouchably wealthy aristocracy.
So, for those of you who want to wish away the liberals and democrats, you middle class supporters of conservative Republicans would also be cast aside to join the mass of peasants.
Hopefully, that’s the balance of our system. — a Democratic watchdog government that polices the business practices of an aristocratic Republican elite in an effort to protect a fastly shrinking middle class.
Besides, there’s plenty of cross-over in liberal vs. conservative beliefs within each of us. It’s not black and white.
I couldn’t have said it better myself
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Atleast, someone is paying attention.
justified — speak for yourself, everything IS black and white; you’re either a volunteer or a slave, there is no middle ground.
Referee — you’re an idiot
Wingsy — you’re heart’s in the right place but the constitution doesn’t say you CAN do or CANNOT do anything, it says what the government CAN or CANNOT do; you have the RIGHT to do ANYTHING that doesn’t tread on others. In the real world, of course, you can only do what your socialist neighbors will allow.
Markus — you’re right about Saxon.
Robert — nice thoughtful editorial
Misc posters mentioning Americans — your brush is too broad; why not denigrate all earthmen while you’re at it, present company excluded.
Wingsy, the 2nd Amendment doesn’t say anything about guns. It says “arms” as in swords and single shot muzzle loading flintlocks, which was all there was at the time. Can’t use it to justify handgun ownership or assault rifles for sure. The NRA is nothing but the lobbying arm of the firearms industry.
Regarding: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
A bunch of gunning toting idiots and gangsters IS NOT a well regulated militia.
A well regulated militia by definition would be an organized body of trained and discerning men and women capable of defending and maintaining said free state from a tyrannical government and/or from mob rule.
And this decree stipulates that said mititia is officially recognized by the state.
YOU as an individual do NOT have the right to bear arms. YOU as a citizen ‘Of The People’ have a right to be a member and maintainer of a well regulated militia. You duty is to the preservation of a free state, not in protecting you from a bogeyman who MAY come an steal your big screen TV.
It’s subtle, but it is different.
misanthrope,
Thank you for your Reader Feedback reviews. But I have to ask, do you have a point to make?
No point – just wanted in on the fun.
mw-federal – you can’t make this stuff up.
While entertaining momentarily, name-calling doesn’t present a very interesting argument. And certainly, it offers no solutions to ANY of life’s problems.
However, your ‘Predator or Prey’ mentality leads eventually to your extinction. There will always be a faster gun, huh? Someone that WILL screw you at your highest moment.
The ‘Get Rich Or Die Trying’ ideal, insures that too many do. And too many become Collateral Damage in your battle to conquer your inferiority.
Reality is a bitch,
You are 100% correct.
Referee.
Isn’t it time for your line-up. You know, to get your welfare hand-out.
Well, now. Ron really is a good boy if you get to know him. I guess he always did have trouble getting along with the other children. And, I’ll admit, he was never the brightest bulb on the tree — debate wasn’t his strong suit. Still, he’s a trooper. If it weren’t for that bedwetting habit of his, he might just get himself a nice girl and settle down.
Referee,
Because I see the state of man as volunteer or slave, black or white, doesn’t translate into “Predator” or “Prey” – there will always be predators but their number will only be as high as the population of prey will sustain – this is a law of nature. And disarming people turns them into easy prey. Being strong enough to resist a predator doesn’t make you a predator yourself.
Katrina is allowing for a land grab by the Elites,.. the right wing is bankrupting the government, to say ‘see it doesn’t work’ b.s., did you know there is oil under N.O.? Bush screwed things up on purpose to kill and steal.
Why make infantile assumptions that I collect welfare?
You bring nothing to the discussion, and promote more purile disintegration of any chance of a reasoned discussion.
Is it not possible to state your concerns, and offer reasonable solutions? Are all folks that don’t ‘see things your way’, welfare bums?
Not all folks that use excuses to not go actually do work, are poor. You’ve obviously don’t seem too chafed by the reality of Corporate Welfare?
You choose to only see the ‘poor’ layabout. I see both. I see the middle class breaking their FSCKING backs to ‘support’ both versions of the ‘needy’.
I would actually welcome comments other than any further immature outbursts.
ron sent his mother to Welfare camp but she failed the test. She was too thin.
[there will always be predators but their number will only be as high as the population of prey will sustain – this is a law of nature.]
Aren’t humans above nature?
[And disarming people turns them into easy prey.]
You of course mean: A well regulated militia — an organized body of trained and discerning men and women capable of defending and maintaining said free state from a tyrannical government and/or from mob rule.
[Being strong enough to resist a predator doesn’t make you a predator yourself.]
Of course not. But then you know that I never said that.
I just think, as a collective – we the citizenry should protect ourselves from predators – private or governmental.
It seems to hold more ‘authority’ if ‘we’ do this. Then, I am not a man alone to protect my own home, if WE won’t let predators succeed in preying on any ONE.
Get it?
Referee:
Hurricane Katrina was one of the most destructive and expensive tropical cyclones ever to hit the United States. The hurricane’s storm surge caused several breaches in the levees protecting New Orleans from inundation by Lake Ponchartrain. The subsequent flooding of most of New Orleans resulted in catastrophic flood damage, many deaths, and a massive evacuation effort.
The hurricane also caused extensive damage to the coastal regions of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Recent estimates have placed the death toll in the thousands, and the damage higher than Hurricane Andrew as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history (estimates run higher than $100 billion). Over a million people were displaced — a humanitarian crisis on a scale unseen in the U.S. since the Great Depression.
You ask: Aren’t humans above nature?
I’m thinking not.
[Aren’t humans above nature?]
No.
[You of course mean: A well regulated militia — an organized body of trained and discerning men and women capable of defending and maintaining said free state from a tyrannical government and/or from mob rule.]
That has never been the definition of militia and, of course, you know that is not what I meant. The constitution is a straw man argument. The constitution is not the people’s law – it’s the government’s law. And as you can see, they don’t obey it.
[Being strong enough to resist a predator doesn’t make you a predator yourself.
Of course not. But then you know that I never said that.]
You implied there were only two conditions.
[I just think, as a collective – we the citizenry should protect ourselves from predators – private or governmental.]
The only thing socialism has done for us is make it impossible to protect ourselves from the government.
[It seems to hold more ‘authority’ if ‘we’ do this. Then, I am not a man alone to protect my own home, if WE won’t let predators succeed in preying on any ONE.
Get it?]
Yeah, I get it, you’re a socialist and think the ‘authority’ of two people is greater than the ‘authority’ of one. The flaw in this reasoning is self-evident. Authority to defend oneself flows from the individual right to life. There is no ‘group’ right to life. Socialists like to think that there is concept of ‘greater good’ – this is their way of sacrificing the minority to the pleasure of the majority. The highest authority is the individual – any sacrificing to be done is up to him. And you ARE a man alone in your home when the wolf comes to the door.
Actually, I’m a Centrist. I’m certain that you find this even more distasteful than if I were a Liberal.
My natural inclination is to bring BALANCE. I view, comprehend, then act accordingly. Anyway, all the best solutions are in the middle —somewhere.
BTW, read your Constitution. The first bloody words are: WE the people. It doesn’t say I the dictator. Or I the Strong. Or I the most desperate to succeed.
No one is free, unless everyone is free.
“…..but we cynically tend to believe support for non-IE browsers will be later rather than sooner.”
you should judge FEMA response in a historical context, in relation to past responses, like the hurricanes.
FEMA’s top person, Mr Brown, didn’t know 20,000 people were stranded at the convention center in New Orleans, although it had been on tv news for 24 hrs. so it might take them a while to learn about safari, opera, etc.
but lets not judge them too harshly. surely if we can give the a break when lives are a stake, we can do the same with browsers.
Well Brown is gone, Bush is overseeing the investigation that should be great, and I can see the blame game going on, what fun.
Well something a little different. The FEMA web site will hopefully change. And the world is chipping in a few resources to give the Americans a helping hand. I hope you dont’ bite it much.
Nigeria ($1 million), China ($5 million and specialists), Japan ($200,000 and resources), India ($5 million and medicine), Singapore (helicopters), South Korea (upcoming pledge), Afghanistan ($100,000 impressive for such a poor country), Sri Lanka ($25,000), Taiwan ($3 million), Canada (naval ships, supplies and people), Cuba (1,100 doctors), Mexico ($ 1 million, people, medicine, equipment), Venezuela (fuel, humanitarian aid), Australia ($10 million), France (helicopters and other equipment, the french city of Orleans is organizing a benefit jazz concert, Germany (medical and transportation, oil), Italy (equipment), the Netherlands (dike specialists, equipment), Spain (oil), Sweden (water purification equipment), Qatar ($100 million), Iran (humanitarian aid), Sri Lanka ($25,000 impressive considering the effects of the Tsunami). Britain and Russia are also poised to offer aid. This list of countries and support is only a small sample of over 100 countries that have offered help and pledges.