then she appeared

Baha! A funny! Make GW Bush say naughty or stupid things! It won't be the first time!

My very favorite part of Bush's SOTU speech Tuesday was the bit about human-animal hybrids.

"A hopeful society has institutions of science and medicine that do not cut ethical corners, and that recognize the matchless value of every life. Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research: human cloning in all its forms, creating or implanting embryos for experiments, creating human-animal hybrids, and buying, selling, or patenting human embryos. Human life is a gift from our Creator -- and that gift should never be discarded, devalued or put up for sale."

I must have ranted about that particular paragraph for an hour. I mean, does that come up often?

And now we have t-shirts! Once in a while, people come through. Wish I'd thought of it.

I still find some things hard to fathom -- and I've been mystified by them all week. I'm trying to think about this stuff in an orderly fashion but I keep getting stuck on bits, like a scratch on a record:
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OK, I can't even follow my own advice about stopping. It's a brand-new day and I'm back on the trail.

Whoo-hoo! This is an amazing letter.

I think this is my favorite bit: "Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It’s accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.

How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks."

I love live TV and living on the East Coast...may they get rid of the several second delay!

Heard about this at work today, didn't see it live. So awesome! Go Kanye! Some honesty on television...

So apparently the fire marshall at the Astrodome has declared it full. Sorry for the ridiculously long bus ride, but there's no room at the inn. Good luck now!

And Michael Brown has been added to my ever-increasing list of villains today, under a special category of "where the fuck have you been all week, pal?"

Unspeakable. Lying, stupid, clueless, thoughtless, and uncaring. That's who *I* want in charge of FEMA, yep! How come if everyone is focusing on saving lives so many lives are still being lost?!

No, it's much more important that we stop the property loss! Get those looters! How DARE they steal from supermarkets? Or steal clothing? FOR SHAME! Shoot 'em! Shoot 'em all! Quick!

Three days of watching reports from New Orleans and Gulfport, and I'm starting to feel completely overwhelmed with the tragedy. I keep hearing about how this is our tsunami, but we're not a third world country! This didn't come upon us suddenly -- there was plenty of warning! Why did so many have to die?!

I heard a report on NPR about how New Orleans has always had a fatalistic side to it, knowing that it was only a matter of time before they'd end up underwater. And I had certainly heard that often enough before this whole storm. So if that was the case, why didn't they have a better evacuation plan in place? One that would have enough places for people to go, and would have ways for the housebound or infirm to actually GET to these places?

I tried to find a few local government websites on Gulfport and they're just...gone. Much like some sites were gone after 9/11. The local New Orleans paper is not producing actual printed copies, just online editions. They're moving all the Superdome people to the Astrodome (which makes for an interesting story to tell, but not something I'd want to be able to claim!) in Houston. It's all so sad.

Can someone please tell me why people leave their animals behind when they evacuate?!

And hey, thank god the president cut short his vacation by two whole days to take care of this. Those people should feel better already.