All out for Uncle Sam

I fell into a virtual library of old Broadcasting yearbooks, and I never surfaced.

Well, OK . . . I just now surfaced.

Anyway, in the 1943 yearbook, I stumbled upon this ad for my hometown radio station, WJBO. In 1943, 'JBO was the only hometown radio station in Baton Rouge.

I NOTE that the WJBO ad touts all the war industry to be found in Red Stick -- much of it involving the petrochemical industry. I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that without Baton Rouge and its refineries and chemical plants, the United States may well have lost World War II.

I likewise note with irony as I contemplate the tepid and feckless federal response to the Gulf oil spill -- and the devastatingly incompetent response to Katrina before that -- that Uncle Sam seems less than anxious to repay what he owes the people of Louisiana.

They should have known better than to rely on the kindness of relatives. It's a "root, hog or die" kind of world now, and Louisiana can't even root for all the crude oil all over everything.