Do you get what you pay for?

Here's a little cartoon by Clifford Berryman from 90 years ago. You no doubt recognize the personifications of the USA's pair of ruling parties. "Borah" refers to William Borah of Idaho. It seems he was an intelligent fellow of honest principles who somehow wound up in the U.S. Senate -- sounds implausible, but statistical anomalies do happen once in a while. Well, Borah did a study of how elections were bought and sold and the attendant corruption. As the cartoon shows, those two animal headed deities that run this country weren't able to get their minds around the notion there was anything wrong in that.

We're winding down a 6 Billion Dollar political campaign here in the USA - I hope we all got our money's worth.

Sandy & Katrina

The effects of Hurricane Sandy have of course been on my mind. I've not been sure what to say about it - of course, sympathy for those affected, and various striking similarities and striking differences compared with what the central Gulf Coast experienced in 2005.

All too familiar are the images of masses of flood totaled automobiles, flooded homes and businesses, worse effected neighborhoods totally smashed to rubble, more intact neighborhoods without electricity, blocks of buildings burned down. MREs, very long lines for gasoline when there was any at all.

No shortage of differences, big and small.

Some post-Katrina tips don't seem relevant here, like if your fridge had anything in it when you evacuated, after 40 days without power in hot summer heat, don't think of trying to open it, just tape the door shut and haul it to the curb (and use it as a billboard to write your frustrations on).

Greater New York didn't have a Federal anti-flood system that was supposed to prevent the worst of the damage but experienced at slew of catastrophic failures when put to the test.

Going through a major disaster is damn unpleasant and a long term inconvenience no matter what the circumstances. But getting water, food, and basic survival supplies to those in need, as opposed to not doing so even when there was capability to do so, makes a huge difference. There used to be a bipartisan consensus on this. I hope there will be again henceforth.

Here's what Paul Krugman says in the New York Times:

"Sandy Versus Katrina" by Paul Krugman, New York Times

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