It turns out Ray Nagin is completely off his rocker, at least according to his new book:
“And after several rounds of going back and forth, our unwelcome visitors got the message that we were not going to allow them to take over or gain access to my room to plant bugging devices.†[…]
“I thought to myself, ‘I’m a dead man! I have just publicly denounced the governor, U.S. Senators, FEMA and the president of the United States,’†he writes. “I started wondering if during the night I would be visited by specially trained CIA agents. Could they secretly shoot me with a miniature, slow-acting poison dart? […]
Nagin admits he also suffered pangs of paranoia on the Monday after the storm, when he visited the USS Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault ship that docked near the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and served as a base of federal operations.
There, he was escorted to an infirmary where two medical staffers “had orders to examine me and give me shots.â€â€œI was still a little paranoid and again started imagining a secret CIA plot where in six months I would be gone,†he writes. “After thinking for a minute, I said to them, ‘Okay, you can give me shots, but I want you to do the same for my two security guys.’
“My thinking was it would have been easier to spin that stress ultimately took me out, but it would be much harder to explain all three of us suddenly dying mysteriously,†writes Nagin, who said during Wednesday’s briefing that his sense of suspicion abated shortly after his visit to the ship.
And this is before he goes into the conspiracy to rid New Orleans of black people. Now I understand why this guy doesn’t trust anyone with firearms. It’s projection. He probably doesn’t trust himself, and assumes everyone else is as much a loon as he is. He has good judgement for himself. I’m not sure Ray Nagin is the kind of guy I want having a gun either, let alone running a city.
Isn’t it amazing how off balance so many of our opponents are? At least he was kind enough to document his delusions for posterity.
Trying to establish insanity defenses so they’ll never be executed for treason and countless civil rights violations resulting in murders, rapes, maimings?
Awww. Who wouldn’t want to do security for Nagin after that tidbit. Sounds like a sweety who’s genuinely concerned for the welfare of his employees.
I knew he was batshit crazy even before his “chocolate city” remarks.
-however-
I don’t think it’s too over the top to worry about the feds planting bugs. Especially if you have something to hide. Just ask John Street about that….
Markie Marxist sez: “Mayor Nagin sounds like an eminently reasonable and sensible man.”
Hmmmm…. Paranoia is a side effect of which recreational drug?
Holy cow! No wonder publishers wouldn’t touch his book and Nagin had to resort to self-publishing!
Didn’t this idiot ever see Absolute Power? The Secret Service does all the president’s hits, not the CIA. Sheesh…
I remember hearing the audio from Nagin’s press conferences, and he talks exactly like the stapler guy from the movie Office Space. In the book, does he mention the CIA trying to steal his stapler?
His fears weren’t unreasonable. His only experience with power was Louisiana, after all.
The sad part…..
He was the better choice when he got re-elected.
The first thing that went through my mind when I read what Nagin said was the dictum that it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.
Do we still have insane asylums in this country? and why isn’t he in one?
Just Damn!
The good news is, he’s no longer mayor. The bad news is, he’s now a disaster consultant.
“Don’t do what I did. That will be $25,000.”
A “disaster consultant”?
Well, if you want to turn a “problem” into a “disaster”, Ray Nagin is the guy for you!
Many years ago I contradicted a Colorado state senator’s rambling assertions she made earlier in a committee meeting and said politely to her: “Senator, you are wrong saying that sons will shoot their mothers if I they are issued concealed carry permits. I would like to get one but I love my mother and I would never shoot her.â€
It was after the meeting and the anti-gunners won, anyway. The room was quiet and there were only a few people left.
She turned to me, poked her finger at my chest and started screaming: “You would shoot your mother! You would shoot your wife! You would shoot your sister!â€
It was that most bizarre thing I’ve ever experienced with a politician.
It’s not just the New Orleans mayor. There are many mentally unstable people in the anti-gun crowd and they clearly know a thing or two about themselves. I think it explains some of the rabid and seemingly illogical opposition to gun ownership. It’s actually quite logical to them and it became clear to me once I understood who they are.
“writes Nagin, who said during Wednesday’s briefing that his sense of suspicion abated shortly after his visit to the ship.”
I’m guessing the ‘shots’ included anti-psychotic and anti-anxiety medicines.
We should cut the guy some slack – paranoia is a natural response to figuring out that the people who elected you ought to blame YOU for the visit from the charlie foxtrot fairy.