MatthewMaynard.net

Bob Hope, ladies & gentlemen.

Egads. This is the worst natural disaster I’ve seen in my life in the United States. It’s certainly worse than Mt. Saint Helens and the earthquakes in California.

Eager to avoid the blogsin of opining with too little data, I’ve waited until now to post my views on it. That being said, here’s to putting mustard on my foot.

• RFK Jr. is opportunistic, politicizing jerk.
• The loss of oil production & refinement is exactly why we have a Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
• I suppose Pat Robertson is going to open his mouth about how this is judgment for sin. It is, but his ham-fisted comments about assasinating Chavez a week or two ago are still too fresh in everyone’s mind for his words to have any effect.
• Then again, Governor Blanco’s call for prayer is a welcome sight.
  

  Pray for the victims and the rescuers. Please pray that God give us all the physical and spiritual strength to work through this crisis and rebuild.
  Please pray for patience for those anxiously waiting to hear from family members or to get word about their homes. Pray for the safety of our hard-working rescuers and those they are bringing to safety.
  I know, by praying together on Wednesday, that we can pull together and draw strength we need; strength, that only God can give us.

  I know Jen & I are praying.

• Hugh & Glenn are coordinating a blogger relief effort. Pitch in.
• Looter’s booty should be inspected by whatever police are at hand. If it’s food or medicine, they should be let go. If it’s anything else, they should be stopped shot at (though not necessarily hit, at least lethally), like they used to be (sorry, reading that after a few hours and I realize that’s a dumb thing to say, though it would be dumb to roam the streets of N’Orleans without a gun now). In the absence of law, the only two things that can stop a person from doing the immoral are a gun and the person’s conscience. Since they are looting, you can’t rely on the latter.
• If the reports of police looting are true, things are truly more depraved than I thought possible.
• At least it now can’t get worse, flooding-wise. WWL TV is reporting (31Aug, 12:11 PM) that the “Water has become level with the Lake in the city so no more water should flow into the city, except at high tide.” Still, damn.
• I invited my Dad to guest-blog on this, as he’s a mechanical engineer and has a few thoughts on structural engineering works, like levees. In his words this morning, “They’ve got a crack in the dam and no dutch boy with a big enough thumb.” He may or may not post, depending on his ability to figure out these new-fangled computer thingys work schedule.

Tomorrow is the big blog push for relief, coordinated by Hugh & Glenn (or, as I would like to call it, Operation Swamp Fox). Give, please. They’re your brother citizens, and need your help.