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Today's arraignment: A 22-year-old man accused of impregnating then marrying a 14-year-old girl pleaded not guilty Tuesday to raping her. Matthew Koso was arraigned in Richardson County District Court, where he is charged with first-degree sexual assault, punishable by up...

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?

Chief Justice Rehnquist dies of cancer

This is not a major surprise, since Justice Rehnquist's health problems had been known for some time.

Now there are two open seats on the court, with the new court term opening in October, it looks like the fireworks over SCOTUS appointments will really fire up now in the Senate. Donk filibuster(s)? Could be. Attempted Borking of nominees? The Chief would count on it - Donks are Donks, all their leadership knows any more is mind-numbing DUmmie rhetoric and tactics.

Another point: according to the Donks' logic on Judge Roberts replacing Justice O'COnnor, they CLAIMED that they wanted to see someone of similar ideological bent to maintian the current alignment of the court. Now that Rehnquist, a conservative has passed on, will they be willing to cheerfully accept a conservative replacement, to maintain that same balance? Hmmmm?

The Chief is willing to quess there's as much chance of this as there was for Billy Graham to be named Pope.

Looks like a new blog by someone connected to South Dakota....

Top federal officials left out of loop

State and local officials did not inform top federal officials early on of the deaths and lack of food among hurricane victims in the Superdome or convention center, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday. Mr. Chertoff said neither he nor Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown was told of the deteriorating situation in New Orleans until Thursday night.

"This is clearly something that was disturbing. It was disturbing to me when I learned about it, which came as a surprise. You know, the very day that this emerged in the press, I was on a video conference with all the officials, including state and local officials. And nobody, none of the state and local officials or anybody else was talking about a convention center," Mr. Chertoff told CNN.

Why should this be a big surprise? The NOLA emergency plans called for using city transit and school buses to help with evacuation. On the occasion however, the city left the buses to get flooded, while people were stranded without transportation. Not much the Feds had to do with THAT! A better evacuation would have avoided many of the rescue problems that were all too present.

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....

TigerHawk examines yesterday's award winning moonbat artwork in detail. The "art" hits several lows that are difficult for the rational mind to fathom. [Via LGF]...

Only one of the world's biggest hacks could possibly dump hurricane Katrina in George Bush's lap. RFJ Jr. steps up. Second place goes to fellow HuffPo clown Russell Shaw, who ponders that if Carter had beat Reagan, would N.O. have...

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