A caller to the Laura Ingraham Show (KNUS-AM, Denver, Co., 31 August 2005), discussing the disaster in the wake of Katrina, asks why other countries never help us when we have disasters, when we are frequently helping other nations with theirs. The answer is quite simple. We comprise a small fraction of the world's population and we consume the largest fraction of the world's resources. With these resources we cause global warming, which creates all those natural disasters. When it happens to them we ought to help them because it is our fault anyway; we cause those disasters to happen to them. When it happens to us, we're on our own, since it's our way of life coming home to haunt us; we deserve it. Or, other nations simply don't have the resources to help us because we have them all. How was it Ward Churchill put it? Oh, yes: Chickens come home to roost--or something like that. (See, e.g., Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., For They That Sow the Wind Shall Reap the Whirlwind,HuffingtonPost, 29 August 2005 [accessed 31 August 2005].)

Well, that's probably what they tell themselves, anyway. You know, to ease their consciences. (See, e.g., Patrick Goodenough, German Minister Links Katrina to Global Warming, Bush Policies, CNSNews.com,
31 August 2005 [accessed 31 August 2005].) Of course, no one who actually knows anything about weather cycles, especially hurricane cycles, could say such things (see, e.g., Lindsey Sherrill, 14 named storms predicted, The Atmore Advance, 9 June 2004, which includes this interesting sentence: "According to...estimates, the south Alabama area is more than 100 years overdue for a Category 4 or 5 storm." [accessed 31 August 2005], emphasis mine). But politicians these can't be expected actually to know anything about much--except, apparently, how to get and use power. And their mouths.

It's just like a leftist, isn't it? To kick a rightist when he's down. (This pussilanimous behavior is one of the reasons that leftist intellectuals are, rightly (so to speak), some of the first people to be liquidated after successful Marxist military coups. When you're done with the butter, you no longer need the container.) This sort of whimpy behavior is one of the reasons I...uh...left the Left--that and a growing conviction that (1) there might be a God, and (2) it might be wrong to take one guy's money just because he has it and give it to another guy just because he doesn't (while keeping a pretty sizeable portion for the distributor's self, of course).

P.S. I have heard that Japan has offered to open up its petroleum reserves to help us out here. But I have been unable to confirm the rumor. (If so: Thank you, Japan, for the offer.)