# Louis Farrakhan says Levees Were 'Blown Up' **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 19, 2005, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435 "2005-09-19T22:30:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/41 "2005-09-20T03:26:33Z")
> [@](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Farrakhan vs Pat Robertson in a caged death match!! > > Can we throw in some really out there Jew too? Then everybody wins! Man, it’s too bad Irv Rubin’s dead. He would have been the perfect contender for this three-way slugfest. How about Baruch Goldstein? ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/42 "2005-09-20T03:51:24Z")
> [@yBeayf](#): > > Man, it’s too bad Irv Rubin’s dead. He would have been the perfect contender for this three-way slugfest. How about Baruch Goldstein? The question is would Farrakhan and Robertson join forces against Goldstein a la the Even Stevens against Jon Stewart? ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/43 "2005-09-20T03:54:21Z")
“Farrakhan’s a prophet that I think you ought to listen to!” … and then he says something like _this_ and I gotta wonder about Chuck D, too. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/44 "2005-09-20T03:54:33Z")
> [@Wolfian](#): > > Can we throw in some really out there Jew too? Then everybody wins!\* [Goldberg?](http://www.weboshawa.com/wrestling/goldberg/) My moneys’s on him. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/45 "2005-09-20T03:55:45Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > “Farrakhan’s a prophet that I think you ought to listen to!” > > … and then he says something like _this_ and I gotta wonder about Chuck D, too. Yeah. I remember the first time I played my Public Enemy 20th Century Masters disc and stumbled across that line. Really took me out of things. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/46 "2005-09-20T06:31:30Z")
> [@Manda JO](#): > > Not that these rumors are at all credulous, and not that I have a cite, but I’ve always heard busting the levees across the way to relieve the pressure on your own levees is a time-honored tradition. The stories I’ve head about this all involved the Great Mississippi flood of the early 20s, from people whose families lived on the banks for generations. So either it’s an old urban legend revived and retailored, or it has, at some point, happened. Never heard the racially-based varient, though–always the levee breakers were mostly concerned with it being someone else, anyone else! But in this case, all the breaks were on the Lake Ponchartrain side, so they wouldn’t have relieved pressure anywhere else. Not that this would stop Farrakhan from spinning wild theories, of course. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/47 "2005-09-20T06:43:53Z")
One quote from **Random** ’s link: > [@](#): > > A [neighbor of mine] said she heard a loud boom before the water came up. I believe with all my heart [a deliberately set explosion to breach the levee] is exactly what they did. It’s a shame people fuel such nonsense rumours without stopping to think that a levy collapsing under the pressure from millions of tonnes of water might make a pretty loud ‘boom’ all by itself. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/48 "2005-09-20T11:33:14Z")
Let me just throw some deisel on this thing by saying that not too many years back (1997?), rural communities and farms were flooded by an immensely swollen Red River diverted (by man) from more populated Winnipeg… Mind you, I doubt any racism was involved, that being Manitoba. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/49 "2005-09-20T12:16:23Z")
The Main Levee break was in what is actually a middle & upper middle class area. These houses ended up 9 feet deep. My BIL & SIL house had the entire first floor flooded. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/50 "2005-09-20T12:17:43Z")
> [@Harborwolf](#): > > So which step in the catastrophe healing process is the paranoid conspiracy theory? Is it 7 or 8? Step 7. Step 8 is tying a dozen filled sandbags around Farrakhan’s neck, telling him to fix the levees, and then pushing him off into the ocean. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/51 "2005-09-20T12:26:19Z")
> [@yBeayf](#): > > Man, it’s too bad Irv Rubin’s dead. He would have been the perfect contender for this three-way slugfest. How about Baruch Goldstein? Goldstein? He was killed on the spot. You can have Moshe Levinger instead (you can look the name up). I sure as hell don’t want him around anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/52 "2005-09-20T12:33:49Z")
I heard someone say that the tsunami was a result of a deliberate explosion under the ocean’s floor planted by the government. When I asked why anyone would do such a thing, she said it was to devert the negative publicity about Bush and the war. Anything’s possible, but not everything’s plausible. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/53 "2005-09-20T12:35:44Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Step 7. > > Step 8 is tying a dozen filled sandbags around Farrakhan’s neck, telling him to fix the levees, and then pushing him off into the ocean. Would this be regular kind of sandbag or the exploding kind? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/54 "2005-09-20T12:37:32Z")
> [@Tapioca Dextrin](#): > > Would this be regular kind of sandbag or the exploding kind? 😕 The kind with bow ties on them. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/55 "2005-09-20T12:38:15Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > [Goldberg?](http://www.weboshawa.com/wrestling/goldberg/) My moneys’s on him. nah, goldberg works way too stiff, and we know how Robertson hates stiff men. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/56 "2005-09-20T13:03:38Z")
Isn’t Farrakhan one of those who pop up whenever it is a National or Global event to spew nonsense? Y’know what someone needs to invent? A Whack a Mole game with Farrakhan, Swaggart, Roberts and the rest of the loony bin whackjobs heads popping out. I think I’d throw in Michael Jackson too. **WHAM!** Now, that’d be entertainment. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/57 "2005-09-20T13:43:22Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > [URL=http://www.wcnc.com/news/topstories/stories/091205-ad-wcnc-farrakhan.4fb21767.html]I am pitting him for being a self-appointed “black leader” that spews off such idiocies to a national audience. I pit the fools who listen to poverty pimps like Farrakhan, Jackson and Sharpton and are stupid enough to believe them. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/58 "2005-09-20T13:49:35Z")
In reference to Farrakhan, I think Helen Reddy said it best: “It’s so nice to be insane No one asks you to explain…” ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/59 "2005-09-20T14:01:50Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > I pit the fools who listen to poverty pimps like Farrakhan, Jackson and Sharpton and are stupid enough to believe them. Boy I don’t like Sharpton much, but lumping him in with Louis isn’t really fair. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/60 "2005-09-20T14:06:32Z")
I remember hearing several versions of this story (interestingly, where the person telling it lived was where the levies would be blown in an emergency) while living down there. Apparently the real plan was to blow ALL of them if all of these people were right. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435.md?page=4)