first, donate if you can.

the political insanity around this is already rearing its head. mr. kennedy may very well be right; frankly, i don't know enough about the science. his timing, though, reeks of "i told you so"--he surely couldn't have appreciated malcom x's "chickens have come home to roost" comment about his uncle. ms. malkin, too, is to an extent correct, and i personally have little patience or sympathy for most looters and think drowning too good for the worst of them, but let's not paint them all w/ the same broad brush; stealing essentials for large corporations is one thing; stealing televisions from peoples' homes is something else entirely. (this, of course, also fails to take into consideration those bitching about the lack of foreign aid.)

and, if possible, for some comic relief, i present the lunatic fringe. scott stevens is an erstwhile weatherman for an nbc affiliate in albany. i say "erstwhile" b/c he left after a kerfuffle over his credentials; i say "weatherman" b/c, unbeknownst to his employers, he never finished his degree in meteorology. the learned, even-minded mr. stevens says

[ivan and katrina] are both very russian sounding names. it has been established that the former soviet union (fsu) developed and boasted of weather modification technology during the 1960's and 70's with deployment against the united states coming in 1976 with the audible arrival of the woodpecker grid. these weather operations continue to this day.

(if you care to hear him in his own voice, click here.)

he's right about ivan--i mean, the name being russian. he is off though on katrina, which is a variant of catriona, itself a gaelic form of katherine. of course, the russians can't be that bright--i mean, apart from their ability to wield influence w/ the world meteorological organization and, yeah, the ability to build hurricane-making machines, they're obviously dumb enough to give these hurricanes russian-sounding names. according to the wmo, the u.s. won't be attacked by a russian-generated hurricane again until 2007, when olga strikes.

let me demonstrate how easily conspiracy theories are made. i think it goes w/o saying that someone will pin this on bush, someone other than rfk jr. and someone who believes bush to be directly implicated. let's start from the beginning:
-on august 13, 1953, eisenhower signs into law a bill that will create a new agency known as the president's advisory committee on weather control.
-in 1960, picking up where that committee left off, the national center for atmospheric research is formed, funded by the national science foundation.
-in summer 2001, what were the major news stories that preceded the 9/11 disaster? shark attacks and a missing girl (chandra levy). and summer 2005?
-but, what's more, what are the other major news stories of this summer? cindy sheehan, the iraq war, and bush's plummeting approval ratings.

so what, the cynic might ask, does the hurricane enable george bush to do? cut-and-run from crawford, leaving camp casey behind. he gets to act presidential, delivering a speech from the rose garden. maybe he goes down to the gulf coast, surveys the area, makes an impromptu speech, hugs a few people, w/ a net result of increasing poll numbers. oh, and he gets to tap our emergency oil reserves, therefore increasing pressure to drill in anwr (or go after more oil-producing countries, like venezuela--who have just offered us oil and aid, incidentally.) what does it do to cindy sheehan? relegates her story to the back page; makes her demands seem petty in comparison to the tragedy people in the affected area are struggling through. the russian name? to throw people off the trail, like poor mr. stevens. who's to blame? karl rove.

see how easy it is? did i mention that you should donate?