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Done teaching Chad Schuldt entry level public policy, how about we work on recent history. Chad asks some questions about Bosnia and Clinton. I will take them in reverse order. Q: How many international allies did we alienate going into...

Kathryn (I Refuse to Call Her "K-Lo") Lopez at The Corner: An e-mail: "Is it possible that the whole Ellsworth AFB thing was a set-up from the start ? intended to make John Thune look like Superman? He?s a much...

Ghost of Gen. Patton Speaks Out on Terror War

This Flash has some things to think about, and tends to reinforce the Chief's posting here. Check it out. H/T to Barking Moonbat Early Warning System for this one.

John Roberts will be up for Chief Justice. This was a move widely expected in the last 24 hours. Todd Zywixki over at Volokh wonders what the status of Sandra Day O'Connor is. It's a good question....

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....

DARPA's 'Star Wars'-style Laser Cannon

Laser cannon. The words evoke immediate visions of the space war scenes in Star Wars. As it turns out the US is starting to build this new way to do it to them before they get a chance to do it to us. The Darpa program is called the High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System (HELLADS).

No muss, no fuss. Direct application of lethal energy to the target with no need for ammunition. Nice.

If you have an interest in other sorts of advanced projects, the DARPA TTO site (use the PROGRAMS link) describes some of the sorts of things that are coming down the chute. SciFi comes to life - our tax dollars at work, and worth every cent!

[This post has been bumped to appear on the top of the page, all day today. Scroll down for new posts.] Time for a Hurricane Katrina blogburst. Instapundit wants a post recommending relief efforts to donate to, and here are...

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?

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