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To: Journalists Everywhere From: Me Let's either a.) stop talking about "looting," or b.) at least note that there are probably significant numbers of citizens right now who are scrambling for food and water. Looting is bad. But looting is...

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?

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....

Educator working on Nobel Peace Prize nomination for McGovern+

Of note in this morning's Argus LeaderLoser:

A Florida professor is trying to get politicians, scholars and others to write letters that will help him with the paperwork to nominate former Sen. George McGovern for the Nobel Peace Prize. "He had always been one of my heroes," Robert Watson, a political science professor at Florida Atlantic University, said of McGovern, a three-term senator from South Dakota who was the Democratic Party's 1972 presidential nominee. "I can't think of a more compelling or deserving public figure for the causes of peace and alleviating world hunger than George McGovern."

The article continues with the expression of more such sentiments. The only question that occurs to the Chief is WHAT DID HE ACCOMPLISH? Anything specific at all? Anything except opposing Nixon and the Viet-nam war?

As far as that is concerned, even if the anti-war activism of the day was influential in causing the US to abandon aid to South Viet-nam, thereby enabling the Commie victory (thus ending the war), the "peace" that resulted in South Viet-nam, and even more so, Cambodia, had a greater resemblence to Auschwitz in terms of death than it did to anything most rational people would consider to be true peace....unless...it's just OK for Communists to do this sort of thing, since they're on the political left.

Nobel Peace Prize? The Chief would hope not...but given the state of Euro moonbats these days, it just might fly, especially if they use it as a means of jabbing the current GOP administration as resembling (in their minds) the dreaded Nixon.

Letter to Editor in today's Rapid City Journal:Open invitationThis is an open invitation to all of those people who wrote opinion letters blaming Sen. Thune for Ellsworth's possible closure. I invite all of you to take the time again to...

On the scent of Africa's landmines

Here's a great use for the large rodents. Abundant, and expendible, they're also cheaper than other candidates for this task, such as dogs and lawyers.

...scientists have shown that rats can be trained to be a safe, fast, reliable and cheap method of locating mines of all kinds, according to this month's issue of BBC Wildlife, published today.

You just KNOW that PETA won't be happy about this!

F.E.T.E.

Many would like you to believe that George Bush and our Congress were content with throwing the city of New Orleans to the wolves by cutting funding for flood control. Or maybe Congress was just listening to the New York...

I'm tremendously touched by the donations I've received so far for our local Sheriff's Relief Fund, a venture that aims to get a truckload of supplies delivered to Mississippi for distribution to local law enforcement/fire/EMT folks. (Click the link for...

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