Local News

Some news from New Orleans today as my city continues to flounder in it's attempt to recover. The 'For Sale' signs are so common now that it seems that one of every five homes is on the market for sale. The result is prices have fallen drastically as owners desperately compete with each other to sell their homes and must slash prices to reach the few buyers out there. Too, insurance prices have gotten so expensive many potential buyers can not afford them and are not able to buy. My newspaper today reported one woman had her home insurance renewal rate go from about $1500 per year to almost $7000. She can't afford the insurance and is now trying to sell her house and move out of the area. But who can afford or wants to buy here?
Last week my insurance company raised my hurricane deductible by 150%, meaning that the insurance company will only pay for storm damages above $13,000. Too, instead of lowering my rates because of the increase in deductible, the insurance company continues to raise my premiums. So the cost of housing for me here (and for everyone else) is so expensive that even trying to sell it is futile. In effect, we are stuck here or we sell at a huge loss.
In another bit of home news, Angelina and Brad have gone from their New Orleans home. Both have been shooting movies in other places and they have taken their daughter (Madison) out of a local school and placed her in one in Los Angeles. I think they will return to the mansion they bought from time to time, but have moved on now that the publicity value of living in the ruined city of New Orleans is declining.
Also, news reports say that levees in my parish have been neglected and are too short, making them vulnerable to a big storm. Predictions are that massing flooding could occur again because of that. Hehe Maybe flood waters will be what finally shuts me up and gives you peace from my stupid E mails. Glub, glub, glub. So much from my world today...
A jobless Indian devotee to Hinduism may have transformed himself into the "ideal husband" the other day after he was admitted to hospital subsequent to cutting off his tongue and offering it to a Hindu goddess. Doctors stitched the wound but said the man, identified as Suresh Kumar, 24, may not be able to speak again. The incident took place on Tuesday evening when Kumar visited a temple dedicated to Hindu goddess Kali on the outskirts of Jammu, the winter capital of Indian Kashmir. Inside the temple, he cut his tongue off with a knife and gave it to the priest to offer it to the deity. He was immediately rushed to hospital.
“I am a true disciple of the goddess and it is my firm belief which has given me the strength to offer my tongue to her,” he wrote on a piece of paper when reporters visited him in hospital. Hmmmmmm, mutilation as a way of showing faith. Maybe we can get George Bush to convert to Hinduism.