Insomniac ponderings

The natural disaster in New Orleans is dreadful, but the magnitude is not unprecedented and other cities have come back from such-- eg, Chicago after the Great Fire and San Francisco after the Great Quake of '06. The human disaster may be another matter; this remains to be seen.

Hungry people breaking into a grocery store are desperate Scavengers and I have sympathy for them. People who see a disaster as a chance to enrich themselves at the expence of others are Looters for whom I do not.

From accounts I heard, there was at least one attempt, in the case of the Uptown Wal-Mart I believe, to commendeer and distribute goods as a Society. Police opened up the store to get food and supplies for the neighborhood. That the situation got out of hand shows that the logistics were poorly planned, but IMO the intention was completely appropriate, and there should have been much more of this.

Faced with disasters, the majority of people are willing to work together if they get the message that this is something affecting all of us and we all need to help each other.

Better yet

Read what Matt McIrvin says.

Caring deeply

vyoma asks, "How can ShrubCo be so unemotional, so cold and distant and aloof?"

The Bush administration has been diverting levee and pump funds into the Halburton War in Iraq, which is also where much of the Gulf Coast's National Guard is.

New Orleans voted 78% for the other guy last election. Bush's smirks no doubt betray his sense of justification at further confirmation that God is With Him. I imagine it was only Rove's insistance that it would be bad PR that kept the Emperor from publically doing a happy victory jig at the city's destruction.

Mayor Nagan tells Federal Goverment to "get off your asses"

Hizzhonor tells it like it is:

"I don't want to see anybody do anymore goddamn press conferences. Don't do another press conference until the resources are in this city."

CNN transcript: http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/nagin.transcript/index.html

( what the hell, mirrored behind the LJ cut. Pass this on to your congressman. )