Funny thing happened on the way back to blogging

The RSP was slated to return the weekend of 8/26, but weekend distractions culminating with Hurricane Katrina preparation, and subsequent blackouts, computer repair, and real world catch up, pushed it back until today. But here I am back at the table, and yes the plate is full.

On Disasters, Looting, Racism, and Relief

Whenever there is a cataclysmic event such a terrorist attack, natural disaster, or a breast exposed at a Superbowl halftime show , it is the 'job' of the national media to take the pulse of the nation and exploit..err explain any chasm that exist along our social fault lines. And nothing gets the juices going and revs up the demons that lie below, quite like inner city looting footage. With waters rising and and unrescued victims clinging to their last breaths, the cable newsers and level headed talk radio righties decided to shift the focus. Instead of concentrating on the nascent relief efforts , the Ritas and Tuckers of the world thought the best use of their tele-journalism allotment would be the ad nauseum looping of the Wal-Mart looting footage. Instead of spurring the Feds to come in and secure New Orleans, partisan yackers were debating whether ordinary citizens should be allowed the 'shoot to kill' option if confronted by suspect dark denizens of the welfare state. This tact had the effect however of suspending the national resolve, and creating the subliminal question as to whether or not the citizens of the Big Easy actually deserved prompt rescuing. Sure New Orleans is a great party town, but don't Alabama and Mississippi have Republican governors. This delay to many, may eventually prove as fatal as the storm proper, when the (pardon me) post mortem of Katrina is written.