MOGADISHU, LOUISIANA

What happens now and then, is the joke becomes reality.

JunkYardBlog has been doing an outstanding job WRT the edgy parts of the N.O.-vs-itself story.

In a bit of his post, he coins "Mogadishu, Louisiana."

The fact is the dependence culture, the drug culture and the criminal culture are combining in New Orleans, which should probably be renamed Mogadishu, and are swirling into a perfect storm of chaos. The weather didn't cause this chaos--people are causing it right now by their behavior. Now if you're a law-abiding citizen facing the prospect of home invasion by these gangs and you have no means of getting help from outside, your only rational choice is to arm yourself however you can. Which means now the law abiding will turn to looting to get guns and ammunition, supposing there's any left in the city to be had. And even the law abiding will begin to shoot strangers on sight, if they believe strangers pose any kind of threat.

This is the cycle of violence: Let lawlessness get out of control even for a short time, and soon everyone's caught up in it.

Lo and behold, Rep. Peter King and Jonah Goldberg are having the same thoughts. With stories like this, how can you not?

Hey, no one likes some nice over-the-top hyperbole better than me, but out of left field, look what comes out of senior leadership.

“This place is going to look like Little Somalia,” Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard’s Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana Superdome. “We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.”

You can't make this stuff up.

Hat tip a few folks I have lost the links to. My bust.