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Carried Away

This WaPo coverage of looting in the wake of Hurricane Katrina has more than a little sympathy, rationalization, and justification for much of the looting going on.

...as we are also learning from the post-Katrina chaos, what we think of as looting may be more complicated than it seems.

No, it's NOT complicated, moonbat. Stealing stuff, is stealing stuff. And most of the stuff being taken is NOT survival supplies!

Benigno E. Aguirre of the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware has been watching and reading about looters in Louisiana. "It may look from the outside as if they are stealing or breaking the law," says Aguirre, "when in fact some of them are trying to survive."

Yep - it DOES look that way, maybe because what's happening IS bad. If some ARE trying to survive, this isn't the prevailing behavior. For instance when a Wal-Mart was invaded by the latter-day barbarians, the guns, and electronics were the FIRST targets of opportunity, followed by other consumer items. The food, and (non-alcoholic) beverages were largely ignored. Yep, survival is insured by a new plasma HD TV!

On the other hand, he says, some of the thieves are garden-variety crooks. "There is always a very small number of people that are predisposed to crime, and they see a disaster as an opportunity to act." There are the disenfranchised who jump at the chance to get even with those who have more stuff than they do. "Disasters can become opportunity for class warfare, and that kind of appropriation of other people's property should be prosecuted," he says.

"Class warfare"? Sounds like our academician has been imbibing wisdom from the fountain of Marx. At least he concedes that they should be prosecuted, thanks be for small favors.

Many may be people taking drastic measures required by drastic times. And some, he says, are the in-an-emergency equivalent of hunters/gatherers, foraging for food, fresh water, medicine, matches, batteries, everyday essentials that are just not available. Not at home, not at shelters.

Again, the Wal-Mart case (as well as others) would be a counter-indication of the validity of this statement.

The images are played on TV over and over: Windows are smashed. Huge dudes muscle into an abandoned store and hustle out with stolen TVs and boomboxes. Women hoist unwieldy packs of diapers and cartons of baby formula. Run-amok hooligans snatch up jewelry and electronic gizmos. Other things are stolen: shopping carts of soda pops and snack foods, clothing, bicycles. There are survivors, scavengers and criminal looters, and it's hard to tell the difference.

No, the distinction is too fine. If someone breaks in to get some bottled water, or food to survive, the Chief would say OK. ANYTHING else - including "scavengers" are thieves. That's it. Comprende?

The freaks from Stormfront, a neo-Nazi cabal, are heading to Crawford to join in the fun. More from Crawford: One thing about it, Cindy doesn't need to hire a PR mouthpiece. The AP is doing a fine enough job....

From Rush Limbaugh: RUSH: This is dicey. It's like I say: law and order in New Orleans is a code word for racism. You don't talk about law and order because you'll have people like Jesse Jackson on your case....

Kevin McCullough has an interesting column about God and the so-called liberals. Here is the introduction:Liberals hate God. They don't want to believe in Him. And they are at a complete loss when events unfold like that of Hurricane Katrina....

I can't even begin to touch the quality of blogging that others are providing, so I'm trusting that you're reading it. As I look over the Times-Picayune site, I can't seem to quite get my head around the devastation that's...

Having open comments on a blog is a lot like sitting out on your porch. Sometimes a friendly neighbor stops by for a chat, and sometimes the moonbats are drawn to the light. I enjoy the moonbats. In fact, without...

This piece by David Ignatius supports the argument in my last post.This should be the Democrats' moment: The Bush administration is caught in an increasingly unpopular war; its plan to revamp Social Security is fading into oblivion; its deputy chief...

Regarding John Thune and Ellsworth I used a quarterback analogy. The quarterback gets too much blame when the team loses and too much credit when the team wins. I guess the same goes for presidents. Bush is getting more blame...

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