Go read::

So that’s the way it is in America on September 1, 2005: one of the nation’s major urban centers is plunged into the dark ages, tens of thousands are suffering, the government is paralyzed, and some large portion of the country (who knows how large?) is bonkers, vindictive, delusional, or gloating. God Bless America…since He hasn’t blessed the victims.

And also this [and downstream links]:

“It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay,” Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana told the Times-Picayune in June of last year. “Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.”

And also this from PZ Myers.

And also almost everything posted here:

“Look at the reporters who are “incensed” by the rampant looting. Look at the smugness from those distant from the situation who chastise the dumb southerners for not evacuating when they had the chance. It blows their minds how many idiots stayed to wait it out. It makes them shake their heads and make “tsk-tsk” noises into their shiny microphones.

Well, fuck the lot of them.”

Brad DeLong has collected a wide-ranging list of important facts to remember in the coming weeks.

Food and water is being delivered, we are told. It just may not be to people who are thirsty or hungry. Maybe it’s going to a warehouse somewhere.

The real nature of the Culture of Life, summed up well here.

And finally, do not neglect this important resource, from which the subtitle of this post comes.