"Ideas have consequences"

is one of the favorite sayings of the right, especially conservatives.

I have been fascinated by this meme since it was spun in the Clinton years by folks like degenerate gambler Bill Bennett.

"Ideas have consequences" is not the meme I grew up with. That would have been actions have consequences. The idea that ideas have consequences seems to indicate that some ideas have consequences just for being thought, but as Bob Dylan famously pointed out, "If my thought dreams could be seen, they'd probably put my head in a guillotine."


What is really true is that ideas that are translated into actions or omissions of actions indeed have consequences.

But I think some folks just think "Don't think that thought! Don't think that thought!"

That's what came into my head in response to Razorskiss' reply here to his post here.

Now this "armchair commentator" - that would be me- (who had good friends endure Bush's mercies in Manhattan after 9/11, and who lost a high school classmate - albeit not a close one -in the Towers AND cleaned up his share of hurricane damage when he lived on Long Island - Gloria was a pain in the butt) says that because of statements he makes like this:

I have people like him in my "Ripostes" section, with a content warning, for a reason. Times like this are why.

...

which is subtitled "Read at your own risk." ...Thoughts are dangerous, you know.

Especially, evidently, if they bring to bear unpleasant facts that clash with one's beliefs.

People like Razorskiss voted for someone who claimed "moral beliefs" who really engaged in cronyism.

We New Yorkers and ex-New Yorkers saw it a mile away in a New York minute.

We tried to warn the rest of you.


But instead of listening (an action) and actively searching out the truth another action, you dared not risk finding out what has clearly led to the loss of great life and property.

And I'm not talking about just George W. Bush here; especially if the Governor and Mayor are culpable.

And we're talking about those who voted for him.

Thus, if Razorskiss dared to find out the truth, he'd have known - it was all over the progressive blogosphere, that the statement he made:

FEMA assists MEMA (or LOHSEP) in emergency *management* operations. They *assist*. They do not take charge, they assist!

is hogwash. FEMA, under law, can take charge. They should have. They failed to. They failed to coordinate.

I've seen enough of my share of bad situations, but this is an embarassment for America, and it is even more embarassing that some folks, who claim to be "religious" cannot dare to examine their conscience.

I feel very bad for all the folks who lost their lives and property in this disaster- everyone- but we've seen Bush regime damage control before, we've seen the ineptness before, we've seen the whitewashing before, and we know where the blame lies.

I wish Razorskiss luck in reconstruction (from his blog he was awfully lucky); unlike Charmaine Neville he didn't lose everything, but was helpling the "least of these" to the best of her ability.