Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Geography lessons

When Michael Chertoff referred to "the city of Louisiana," that was a verbal slip. Stupid and it made him sound callous, but a verbal slip nonetheless.

Here is ignorance on a grander scale. At least he's funny:
Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said the administration is "getting a bad rap" for the emergency response.

"This is the largest disaster in the history of the United States, over an area twice the size of Europe," Stevens said. "People have to understand this is a big, big problem."

The Associated Press later excised the remark from its story.

UPDATE: And then there's this bit of fun:

A South Carolina health official said his colleagues scrambled Tuesday when FEMA gave only a half-hour notice to prepare for the arrival of a plane carrying as many as 180 evacuees to Charleston.

But the plane, instead, landed in Charleston, West Virginia, 400 miles away.

2 comments:

Flop said...

What the Main Stream Media doesn't want you to know is that Ted Stevens actually meant Europe, the band known for "The Final Countdown," not Europe, the continent known for being some 4 million square miles.

Flop said...

According to a hasty google search, other things which are about twice the size of Europe


_ The area of the planet covered by tropical rainforests, circa 1800.
_ Antarctica, but only when it's icebound in winter.
_ The target market for The Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation.
_ Boreal forests in the northern hemisphere.
_ Canada ... and its evil twin.
_ A dozen Alaskas or so.