Microsoft Blows Out Of The City

We here in New Orleans still have a big problem getting into and out of the city by air. With a population in the city 60% below what it was before Hurricane Katrina hit , the airlines have only come back to about a 55% service level. There just aren't many flights in and out of the city, and very few flights to or from New Orleans are direct ones. The impact is devastating to the city in regard to tourism and conventions.
For example, Microsoft just today announced it has canceled three conferences of about 30,000 international and U.S. delegates that were scheduled before the storm to be held next year. Ha! It's a dagger to the heart of a city by one of the world's lest human friendly, and most business friendly companies. Microsoft said it canceled the conventions because it was "difficult " to find flights into and out of the city. What it meant is that there are few direct flights, and that Microsoft doesn't like being diverted to a second city stop before landing in the city. They canceled because it was not convenient.
This is a microcosm of how the world feels about and treats dying New Orleans. We not only get little help in rebuilding, we get no understanding or sympathy. Business will let us die before being inconvenienced. And true, I expect no less from a corporation like Microsoft, but it still creates more negative waves toward tourists and conventions. Conventions are starting to cancel here and they are the lifeblood of the main business of New Orleans- tourism.
Because of the dilapidated areas of the city, the high crime rate and drug infestation by illegal immigrants and the return of local drug dealers to the city, and the lack of direct airline flights to and from the city, conventions are leaving us in droves. Too competitor cities are acting like vultures hovering over the carcass of New Orleans as they ruthlessly lure away meetings that have been scheduled for the city. The city itself seems to spend all its time just on trying to keep what was booked and none on attracting more conventions to New Orleans.
And what did Microsoft say to the media when they announced they canceled? "We're looking forward to returning to New Orleans when airline service has returned to its original level." Ha! that's like telling a starving man, "I look forward to feeding you after you have starved to death." The media frequently reports domestic violence by a men against a women, but rarely the almost as often female violence that happens to men. Today I have a classic case of the latter to tell you. It happened in Laconia, New Hampshire the other day when a wife chased her Husband around the house with Ax.
Police said a couple were arguing about their unhappy marriage when the wife grabbed an ax and charged at her husband, chasing him around the house. The ax is considered a collector's item and is used for display, but investigators said it has a very sharp blade and is capable of causing serious injury or death. Linda "Ax" Masse, 50, defended herself in court Monday and called the ax "a toy". (Wow! I know sex toys are great for marriages, but an ax as a marriage toy??? )"I didn't threaten him or to kill him or anything," she said.
Investigators said that the couple had been drinking, and Masse's husband told her that he wanted to leave her. The argument then became violent, police said. Police said that while chasing her husband, Masse destroyed several things inside their home, including a glass door and his car. Her husband ran to a neighbor's house, where he locked the door and called police. Ah...the joys of connubial bliss with the weaker sex.