Dry out your brains!

Well, the sun is out again, not sure how long this will last. Hopefully long enough that the brains of the suffering victims will dry out.

I find it a tragedy and nothing to joke about that 10 people lost their lives in a mudslide in La Conchita. It's a tragedy that people lost their homes. It is, however, a burr in my panties that this foreseeable tragedy is now being blamed on people who were smart enough to not live in an unstable area.

You see, this is not the first mudslide to cause loss in that exact neighborhood. Ten years ago, well within memory's time, there was another devestating mudslide that destroyed homes and lives. The county recognized at this time that this particular hill was not compatible with life and demanded that residents sign a waiver acknowledging this before they moved back in and rebuilt. The county put up a retaining wall at a great deal of expense and wished them luck.

In spite of this, the victims today seem to forget all the warnings they were given and now blame the county for not telling them there was a danger to their persons and property. What the fuck? But it's not just a matter of their stupidity resulting in death and destruction. No, now we're asked to foot the bill.

There are those who say that's fallacy, that they are the ones who pay in the form of higher premiums and fees levied on their property. Bullshit. If that was the case, our governor would not be lured into the stupid precedent of offering loans to people who knowingly put themselves at risk. Ventura County would not have had their resources stripped thin in rescue efforts and would not have had to put their emergency workers in danger. No, it comes back to us, to me and my pocketbook, and while that's open in a heartbeat for those who suffer poor fortune, those who bring it upon themselves deserve to foot their own bill, especially when they blame others for not physically removing them from risk. It's called personal responsibility, people, like eating fast food and getting fat or smoking and getting cancer. In this case they played Russian roulette with Mother Earth and she won.

Turning tragedy into fuming fuckheadedness, however, is accomplished by the Governator's pledge to help the survivors rebuild. In the same fucking place! What, two times isn't enough for these Darwinian rebels to learn? Our state is still in debt to an extent greater than most nations in the world, Arnold, and you're going to set up the precedent for people living in known danger areas to get a free ride on their risk?!

I've shaken my head in disbelief for years as I watched local development boom. Riverside and the surrounding communities had been built in a specific pattern to avoid the high flood/fire risk areas such as Mockingbird Canyon and Box Springs. Now, thanks to the same people who ripped out most of our orange groves in favor of cookie cutter planned communities, these areas known for four foot deep rivers and rushing firestorms every decade or two are full of half-million dollar homes inhabited by innocent imports who don't even know the disaster history of the land under their feet. I don't know why they're permitted to build in these areas when you can't build on known faultlines. After all, wildfires, floods, and mudslides are by far bigger factors in the damage and fatality toll in California from natural disaster than earthquakes.

Still, there is a difference between those who are put in danger by unscrupulous developers and those who rebuild in a place that's not an if for disaster, it's a when. I didn't choose to live there and I wouldn't, no matter how beautiful it is. I shouldn't have to pay for their foolish choices and neither should the rest of California.