Soory Tay my Druid quota for the week was already filled on Tuesday. Better luck next time.

On people shooting at rescue workers. I don't recall why they were shooting, but as of this morning at 6:30 emergency personel had stopped evacuating people from the superdome. Someone had shot at the national guard/ army helicopter. so when the army left the medics did not feel safe and also left. They wern't going to return until the crowds had calmed down (I'm not sure who was supposed to calm them down...). I havn't heard much of anything since.

hmmmm, half price you say

The Druid on the south side has 50% off EVERYTHING tonight (Thursday) after 9 pm. I suggest you meet us there and eat and drink (alcoholic or otherwise) as much as you possibly can. It'll cost you next to nothing.

but is human activity necessarily unnatural?

WHY AREN'T MORE rescue workers being shot? come on, this is just another example of human beings interveining and disrupting a NATURAL phenomenon. NATURE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO TAKE IT'S COURSE WITHOUT HUMAN DISRUPTION!

Homeland Security Director:

"The critical thing was to get people out of there before the disaster," he said on NBC's Today program. "Some people chose not to obey that order. That was a mistake on their part."

One man tried to escape yesterday by leaping over a barricade and racing toward the streets. The man was desperate, National Guard Sgt. Caleb Wells said. Everything he was able to bring to the Superdome had been stolen. His house likely has been destroyed, his relatives killed.

"We had to chase him down," Wells said. "He said he just wanted to get out, to go somewhere. We took him to the terrace and said: 'Look.' "

Below, floodwaters were continuing to rise, submerging cars.

"He didn't realize how bad things are out there," Wells said. "He just broke down. He started bawling. We took him back inside."

House Speaker Dennis Hastert dropped a bombshell on flood-ravaged New Orleans on Thursday by suggesting that it isn’t sensible to rebuild the city.

"It doesn't make sense to me," Hastert told the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago in editions published today. "And it's a question that certainly we should ask."

The notion that we should "abandon" New Orleans is the same misguided logic of people who say we should "just nuke Iraq" or that we should just "print more money" or any other comedian-style "boy, aren't you stupid for not thinking of something so obvious" which wasn't thought because it's actually, well, impossible. To throw away a million lives because it might be too hard to plan accordingly and respond appropriately is probably the biggest insult to the history of American ingenuity.

Any person or company exploiting the situation should be immediately identified and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. This includes looters. No justification for taking TV sets. That should get you a harsh prison term.

[Par: I'd like to step in here and point out that taking TV sets would indeed be looting. In the case of food, there are complications of desperation and necessity that make labelling looters difficult. (I refer you to the story of Fat Tony, the guy stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family, and the theft of a truck full of cigarettes.)]

Every American should immediately cut back gasoline and oil consumption right now. Don't drive unless you have to. Watch the thermostats in your house.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman (search) should inform American oil companies not to profiteer. In fact, I think their profits should be cut back by 20 percent to spare America's pain. Any oil company that does not voluntarily comply with that should be exposed.

President Bush should ask OPEC to drop the price of oil $15 a barrel tomorrow. It costs OPEC about $4 a barrel to produce and market the crude. They're getting $70 a barrel on the open market. Do the math. This is a gouge.

And finally, Americans should help the Red Cross and other legitimate charitable organizations as we did in the tsunami disaster. Also, one more thing. Hotel owners in the South should make vacancies known to the authorities and not price gouge. After all, we're not OPEC here.

so, I have a friend who (thankfully) evacuated from the Big Easy before Katrina hit, and she had some interesting things to say that I thought were worth sharing. It's amazing how poverty affects things... it really can be seen with who's left behind in the remains of the city. Anyway, from my friend Leila:

"I feel so bad for the people who have to stay (aka anybody who isnt well-off and/or white)." . . . "I met so many people today along the road who would start crying as they told me about what or who they were leaving behind, and it was sureal and tragic. Or just the plain shock and disbelief on their faces as they started to comprehend inevitable things happening and trying to hold to their faith in their religion and country (which we are all wondering why the lovely military isnt hauling ass to evacuate people in New Orleans just yet? Maybe cuz they figure the people left behind dont really count politically...hmmm!). And watching the news a few minutes ago and seeing how they are putting everyone else in the Superdome, and knowing how that might turn out, well lets just say Im past the point of really qualifying my emotions on that front. But then again, and Im kinda wishing this with all my might, the storm may turn and all may be well."

I am really curious here. Why exactly is it that rescue workers are getting shot at?

HOLYSHIT is this a serious club fuckin' BANGER!! if you dig LCD Soundsystem, and Bollywood cinema, this is the anthem for you! i was probably born to this song, yo!

Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar - "Disco '82"


also check out this tiny freakin' house: