The Mayor of New Orleans is now gearing up with a new idea, more legalized Gambling to boost the economy. It isn'’t as though we, in the US, don'’t already have a booming gambling city that is another potential catastrophic disaster zone. Las Vegas is a ticking bomb and the rest of the country will be forced to pick up the pieces when the Hoover Dam needs to be replaced or Lake Mead is drained dry.

Now we should rebuild giant hotels on '‘Canal Street'’ in New Orleans? Let me guess is it near the canals that broke during the hurricane? That makes about as much sense, as rebuilding all of those washed away homes on swampland. Then, when another hurricane knocks down a bunch of big hotels, owned by foreign companies, we can pick up the insurance tab for them too. The Mayor of New Orleans should just accept the fact that his kingdom is smaller than it was and concentrate on fixing what is fixable.

The estimated forty billion ($40,000,000,000) dollars that has been reported to be needed for the rebuilding of the city, represents $26,650 for every one of the 1.5 million people affected by the storm… The average income in this part of PA is ($9,700 a year) well below the national poverty level and you can buy a home her for $10,000 - $20,000. Not a palace, but a serviceable dwelling with reasonable accommodations. If they gave that money to the people, they could relocate and boost the economy in the rest of the country instead of draining it away into a below sea level swamp.

There was another earthquake yesterday and the avian flu is headed this way. Shouldn'’t that tell us that there are more pressing global issues than creating another ‘'Gambling Mecca'’ within an already decadent and ridiculously located city? Let the people that were displaced by the hurricane be relocated into places where it is proven to be safe to live and let New Orleans return to its former status as a sleepy Mississippi River port town, whose workers commute.