Thursday, September 01, 2005

Hurricane Post

I don't know what I can post on the hurricane without sounding trite. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour compared it to Hiroshima - and it's tough to argue with him. It's tough to find anything good amid all the destruction, but I just wanted to point out a couple of things that may be signs that everything will eventually be alright again...

Hugo Chavez put aside his anti-American rhetoric for the time being and offered fuel, food, aid workers, and all kinds of useful stuff for the hurricane victims. He was the first foreign leader to do so. Since then, China's Hu Jintao and the Saudis have joined in (even though China just got hit by a typhoon, which is like a hurricane, only smaller and in the Pacific).

Even though 80% of the city is underwater, as of yesterday, beer and gumbo were still being served in the French Quarter.

Texas is opening its public schools to hurricane victims, and universities are trying to figure out how to house displaced Tulane, UNO, and other students.

So my heart goes out to the families of all those killed by the hurricane, as well as all those killed in the stampede in Baghdad that claimed some 900 lives.

On an unrelated note, applause to the lady who quit the FDA over its blatantly political refusal to approve the emergency contraceptive pill. Guess she's frustrated that the FDA seems content to keep that abortion rate in the stratosphere. Seriously, can this pill be any more dangerous than Vioxx?

North Carolina has a lottery now, despite the fact that 26 senators were opposed and 24 were in favor. How did this happen? Senate Majority Leader Marc Basnight cheated. One opponent was on his honeymoon, and another had a staph infection in his leg. Basnight held the vote anyway, and the lieutenant governor cast the deciding vote. So North Carolinians can thank bacteria like staph and Basnight for the lottery. I would have preferred a fair fight, but that's just me.

And Mike points out that Art Garfunkel has been arrested for marijuana possession. I guess upstate New York doesn't have enough real crime to fight. (It is amusing that he was arrested in Woodstock, though.)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Reminds me of Frances McDormand in Almost Famous.

"Look at their eyes... they're on the pot." (probably misquoted)

Ben said...

It seems that 10 law students from Loyola and Tulane are now coming to Duke for at least a semester. They start Monday.

I might be hosting one of them. Unlikely since I'm not sure I have the space, but Kenny and I are going to talk about it.

Mike said...

Supposedly a large number of undergrad and graduate students are going to begin taking classes at Rice and UH, free of charge.