Buddha Bubba lives in the real world.  A world where 'politically correct' does not apply.  A world where 'socially responsible' means just that - that we all are responsible for our role in the health and well-being of society.  Especially in New Orleans - The City that Care Forgot which often has to be reminded it should never be "The City that Forgot to Care."   Meanwhile, for a different take on Jazz Fest, click Buddha Bubba's Jazz Fest

The World according to Buddha Bubba is a world where people are judged and rewarded based on the content of their character, not on the color of their money or the tint of their bloodlines.

 Buddha Bubba applied for an occupational license yesterday in the city of Gainesville, Florida.  the license application was done on-line, from new orleans and was competelted within 10 minutes, with questions like ... "...what else can we do to help you.  Meanwhile, a business license applied for five years ago to do business in the city of New Orleans is still not in hand.

Buddha Bubba is...a man who cares deeply
about the real New Orleans,
and the real world.

This column is dedicated to telling
the truth so clearly and
bluntly it might hurt.

 Buddha Bubba was involved in this
transaction.  He has personal knowledge
of what REALLY happened.

The Housing Authority gave away the building to the Arts Council, which is tearing it down.  In the meantime, forgoing the swap offered by Buddha Bubba, the Housing Authority is renting space from a Political Crony. 

...The Housing Authority gave away their equity in exchange for renting space from someone else.  In other words, they received nothing - zip, nada, zero - for that transaction. 

The World According to Buddha Bubba is a world where people are rewarded for the content of their character, not for the color of their money (to paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) or the tint of their bloodlines.   Buddha Bubba is a businessman, entrepreneur, writer, philosopher and, quite accurately, a "liberal conservative" (or is that a "conservative liberal"?). Buddha Bubba has inside information on many issues that  are too often ignored - especially by those who are foolish slaves to the insane misnomer, ‘Politically Correct.’ or by those who ignore what is right in favor of what is convenient or profitable. Buddha Bubba is, in short, a man who cares deeply about the real New Orleans, and the real world. This column is dedicated to telling the truth so clearly and so bluntly it might hurt. But tell the truth he will – each month, with no frills, no hidden agenda and absolutely no ‘filtering’ by the mass media.

America's place in history
12/10/2003

America, as it was , is no more. There is an old expression in the financial world: "the first generation makes the money, the second generation maintains the money and the third generation loses the money".

America is in the third generation. Those who sacrificed and labored in the sweat shops and went on to be the entrepeneurs of greatness in America are dead. We now have the Paris Hilton generation. The Edward Kennedy generation (if you discount the fact that money came from Bootlegging, it is hard earned money).
What I am trying to say, is that we are borrowing away our future. WE don't make anything. We produce nothing but entertainment and we are living from the fat, created by those before us. As we all know, watching the starving children in the Third World on the television, they lose and burn up fat. Then we get sick and die. That is where America is, we just can't read the handwritting on the wall.

Don't you just hate that!
09/06/03

I started to write this article, almost automatically, in politically correct style. I then realized that was exactly my complaint., people, in general, have become full of shit! They don't know right from wrong and honest from not.
Stealing, or attempting it, are common. Lying is alright. Maybe dating has taken over the entire institution of life. "I'm only going to put the head in is a way of life. I promise that I just want a peak in your panties".
Specifically, we make laws to "protect people"; and of course, ass holes "use" them to their advantage. The problem, most generally is that we have Lawyers writing the laws, but that is another diatribe, they make them as complex and ambiguous as they can, so they have work. The second part of this is that people are generally lazy and greedy, hence the income from lotteries, again another story. They are also sheep, who follow, rather than think and act independently.
Consumer laws, specifically credit card rules, are in theory, to protect a little old lady from being screwed by some unscrupulous vendor. In reality, consumers have learned to manipulate those laws and steal from vendors. A merchant has very little rights; and the crud of life, more than 50%, see an easy prey.
I am not going to journal of ways to use those laws, just believe me when I say that I'm not sure that I have seen them all yet, and have logged 16 ways. The point here is that we need to make rule clear, short and concise. You will do this or that, not have 100 loop holes to a rule, no exceptions. I am not much of a lover of rules, but I do follow them.
The other part of this is the old childhood issue of "well they are all doing it". Have some balls. Tell the ass hole that they are WRONG! Stand up and be a human being, rather than a sheep. The issue is that you will be ostrasized, so the fuck what

Turning Points, the Y factor
6/25/2003
Our lives are daily Ys, or turning points; some greater than others. Today was one of those for me. As the reader may or may not know, Buddha Bubba has been a publisher for some years of some really avant guard titles. He has given first time authors a break and published their work. One of those people has stabbed the Bubba through the heart and killed the publishing effort.
Yesterday was the last day of that business because of the end of a 4 years court battle which the Bubba lost, because he trusted those around him.
Let's just go on from there and ask the question, what happens when those who are the Good guys keep losing battles to the Bad guys?
We go on. We keep open the thought that this was a singular event in the spin of the planet; that people are really good at heart and that bad things will not come from doing good. I have been killed before and risen to higher effort for good, and I will not stop now. The bad guys eventually get theirs, even for those of us who not believe in Heaven and Hell.
The Y factor must not turn you to the Dark Side, for though lesser homo-sapiens prevail. Do not be diverted from the path of good by the easy path of revenge or pay-back.

It pays to be slime 06/13/2003

I read today that Bill Clinton made 9.5 million dollars last year (400,000 at a time) on the rubber chicken circuit. There are 2 major things wrong here; that a man who has abused power going all the way back to his earliest days in Hot Springs (Buddha Bubba lived there and is the same age as the Great Slime-ball, and has first hand knowledge of what he speaks) till the present, can garner that kind of following, and that there are people who will pay to hear his out right LIES. Our society has all the wrong values.

A-rod, or whatever his name is, makes 250,000,000 million dollars to play baseball; we have whit-less celebrities steering public opinion, criminals doing speaking engagements for big money, and those scientists who create cancer drugs live in a  marginalized economy, we are really fucked up!
It also goes to show that you cannot take Trailer Trash and make him president.

FOR YOUR OWN GOOD
Why does the government at every level want to "take care of me"? I am not a child!
In a personally responsible world, everyone must make an effort to be vigilant of being treated like a child. If is for "your best interests" then we must question WHY. We must be responsible for own own best interests.

Example: Buddha Bubba is stuck on the issue of metal detectors and personal searches at airports, not just the new ones, but going back to the days when planes were being hijacked to Cuba. I believe that is better to be taken to a Totalitarian country, and I have been to Cuba in 2003, than to freely give away my constitution rights, one at a time in the name of "security".

Example: seat belt laws have been created solely at the behest of the Insurance underwriters, bookworms who have no life but to examine "pure" numbers, with no peek behind the reasons for the numbers. Seat belt laws are "for own on good". If I choose not to wear one and I die, that is no ones business but mine, not the Nazi, who can now stop me "for my own good" and ticket me for not wearing a seat belt.

Example: I rode a motorcycle for more than 20 years.  Helmets laws are created to protect people who are rebels by nature, except the Rolex bikers who don't have a clue. A "real" biker just simply isn't going to wear a helmet, but "for their own protection" they, by law, must wear helmets.

A Lesson on Doing Business in New Orleans

Buddha Bubba applied for an occupational license in Gainesville, Florida yesterday. Buddha Bubba applied for occupational license in New Orleans in 1995.

The license in Gainesville was done on-line, from New Orleans, and was completed in ten minutes, with questions like: "...what else can we do help you?" Thus the license to do business and pay taxes Gainesville is complete and the City of Gainesville will soon begin collecting revenues from the business operation

Contrast this with doing business in New Orleans. In January, after a five-year struggle to get an out-dated, illogical ordinance changed, Buddha Bubba had a professional license applicant file for a license. Not only does Buddha Bubba not have a license at this time, there are still complications to be "worked out". The City of New Orleans could have been collecting tax revenue for five years. Instead, amazingly, they ignored their fiduciary responsibility and lost five years worth of revenues they otherwise would have been collecting. Multiply this case by hundreds of others, and its not hard to see why New Orleans can’t find the money to pave our streets, fix our schools, or give even modest raises to rank-and-file city workers. But isn’t it incredible that the City always finds a way to give fat raises to upper level city executives?

The point of government is not simply to tax, by whatever name it is called, but to regulate, for the common good. In New Orleans, special interest groups are more important than the common good of the citizens. The greater the sway of people of influence, the less need for competition or openness of the regulations of business. Small powerful groups can influence, to the detriment of the majority, the outcome of everything from sewerage rates to the way that utility rates are distributed or property taxes are collected, as it may affect their narrow needs.

The city gets less revenue but the business of influence pays top dollar to maintain their influence. Not surprisingly, the tax base shrinks as the political leaders get fat at the expense of the citizens. So much for the responsible altruism of government.

The last time I checked, the words Free Enterprise was actually supposed to mean something – the free exercise of private initiative with as little government intrusion as possible. That cannot happen when the co-dependence of government and special interests of specific industries continue their incestuous money cycle. Why, for example, does it take tax credits, special bonds issues and outright gifts to private enterprise to make private projects happen?

The Continental Can Company is a prime example. The principals in this venture are genuine good guys. They have done great things to, for and with the city of New Orleans, and for that Buddha Bubba is proud of them. For the most part, they have built their projects the old-fashioned way, with smart management and marketing. Why, then, is it necessary for the City of New Orleans, the state of Louisiana and the Federal government to invest in the rehabilitation of the property?

The government has created a situation where a private company cannot do anything without the assistance of the certain people in government, not government itself. Why isn’t possible to apply for a license to do business and have a reasonable expectation that government stay out of it?

Why should any tax money be spent to help a private developer make money, when there is a concerted effort to thwart the efforts of his rivals, and other businesses, and restraining them from operation? Is it ethical to tax one unreasonably and pay the other to do business?

The new Jazzland theme park in New Orleans East is another example of project in which a select few in government awarded special privileges and funding to a small group of cronies in the private sector. The proposed Automobile Racetrack in New Orleans East also fits that pattern.

Why is there more public money, government money (which in case anyone has forgotten is yours and mine) than private, (the people who will profit from using our money) in these projects?

The answer is simple: Government, as envisioned by our founding fathers, was to be adversarial in its creation and then unanimous in its execution.

The people of New Orleans have become insular and complacent, so we get what they ask for - bad government that represents a select few. Most people just shake their heads and walk away. Buddha Bubba can't do that anymore. He left New Orleans twice before, to live in New York and Washington DC for almost ten years. But he does not intend to give up on New Orleans again. It is now time to stand and be heard.

Buddha Bubba asks the hard questions. He welcomes discussion about solutions.

e-mail him at wayne@wonderfulwayne.com .

In which Buddha Bubba, dismayed and horrified at the imminent destruction of the venerable landmark building on Lee Circle, observes:

"This series of acts by our government is like giving away your house to someone who wants to tear it down and then paying rent to someone else, just because you're too foolish to know any better."

Buddha Bubba was involved in this transaction. He has personal knowledge of what REALLY happened. In 1997, the Housing Authority of New Orleans was looking for a new location. In the opinion of those who maintain the building, it was a disaster area.

They hired consultants to find a suitable location, one of which was a large office building owned by Buddha Bubba. Buddha Bubba cherished the Bradford building as both a profit center and as a building that was part of the historic fabric of the city.

Buddha Bubba made an offer to the Housing Authority, which was countered by 30-page-reinvent-the-wheel offer to purchase, written by lawyers looking to make money on what is an off-the-shelf standardized document recognized by the state of Louisiana.

In Buddha Bubba's original offer there was a property swap and some cash, with the Bradford building traded for a modern, 110,000 square foot office building.

Buddha Bubba's plans for the Bradford Building, which had the approval of HDLC, was to convert the Bradford building into a hotel and restaurant.

Here's what happened instead:

The Housing Authority gave away the building to the Arts Council, which is tearing it down.  In the meantime, forgoing the swap offered by Buddha Bubba, the Housing Authority is renting space from a crony of the Mayor.  And worse:  The city gets nothing of any real value in return.

For what it's worth, the offer from Buddha Bubba would have allowed the city to own a 50,000 square foot building.  In actuality, the Housing Authority gave away their equity in exchange for renting space from someone else. In other words, they received nothing - zip, nada, zero - for that transaction.

I guess that's government at its best - if you happen to be a friend of people in high places, that is."
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