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I have been taking heat for the post that points out the lack of International aid to the US for the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. Here is one email:In light of your unbelievably ignorant and ridiculous post US on...

From Pat Buchanan: Katrina has exposed the limits of federal power and the absence of a serious set of national priorities. In New Orleans, those who relied on government ? the New Orleans police, the mayor, Gov. Blanco, FEMA ?...

Labor Day weekend is always a busy one for me. Saturday was my birthday, so I usually take an extra day off and make it a four day bonanza of non-work. So needless to say, I'm not going to spend...

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?

There isn't always a reason

There is a very well-written and articulate posting on the by Julie Neidlinger on the Lone Prairie blog up in North Dakota concerning the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

As the saying goes, she has reason in her comments, which the Chief thinks is right on the mark. It's worth a look, so check it out.

H/T to SD Politics on this one.

This from Robert Scheer, the LATimes version Paul Krugman. Instead of the much-celebrated American can-do machine that promises to bring freedom and prosperity to less fortunate people abroad, we have seen a callous official incompetence that puts even Third World...

Dead bodies are floating in the streets, the entire city is mostly submerged, looters are running amok, inmates have taken hostages at a local jail, and they're evacuating the Superdome (a site where there have been, what, three deaths now?)....

From Rush Limbaugh: Congress is going to do all this investigating but they're not going to look at themselves. No spending could occur unless they vote on it, no priorities can be determined without Congress making them. All anybody else...

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