The good news is ... I was wrong

Oh what a prematurely pessimistic asshole I am --

THE SPIRIT of NEW ORLEANS WILL SURVIVE.

Bush & Co backed down, saying, well, ok, no one HAS to leave... we won't force anyone to leave -- we'll just go up and tell them they're going against an order...

I know I said I thought the spirit that has survived all this time was going to be dispersed (and not rebuilt) once the last holdouts were forced out of the city.

OF COURSE and how stupid of me not to have understood --
when you have a chickenshit, craven snivelling, please - don't - hit - me president whose only strength is to follow what the people who bought him told him to do ... and they realize they either back down or shoot survivors,. of course the indomitable ones, the ones who decided to stay, the ones who are like the occult masters who have and guard the POWER, the ones who keep the transmission of spirit alive: the indomitable ones -- they win.

Jean Lafitte is alive and well, Dr. John is alive and well, and since the French Quarter is more or less intact, rebuilding will start from there.

Viva New Orleans!
Viva Daffy Duck!
Viva Professor Longhair!
Viva Dr. John!
Viva Doug Kershaw!
Viva the drug taking, booze sloshing, gender-confusing, Jazz-loving saints of the kitchens, the super tough jambalaya of people who are the true Spirit of New Orleans.

IT WILL CARRY ON.

And I ask your forgiveness for the sin against the holy spirit that is pessimism, the sin of assuming the Dark Power of the Sock Puppet might prevail.