I haven't had much to say about the hurricane, partly because I've been in a shitstorm of my own at work recently (which I'm sure you'll hear about soon), but mainly because even I have a hard time being funny about something like that. I don't possess the comic genius that the people who write for The Onion have. I found their commentary on the whole racism finding/looting issue to be particularly amusing, although it was all good stuff.

Speaking of the racism in the media thing, I found the response to that kind of irritating. Not that there isn't validity in what was being said, because there certainly was. That's just a microcosm of a bigger picture, though, the bigger picture being that this is a county with a lot of racism in its veins. I mean, shit, it took nearly 200 years for the "land of the free" to get to the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s, and it was only 40 or so years ago that this took place. Furthermore, once we went through that, a lot of people just declared "we're good" and now we refuse to really deal with it. So, the microcosms are a problem, and need to be handled. But reacting in a typical liberal manner by getting all hot under the collar over the smaller points but not the bigger picture isn't too helpful. Actually, what's not helpful is sitting around and blogging about it, instead of doing something. Sitting around and bitching never got anything done. Sure, it's fun and makes you feel all smart and shit, but it's useless. Deeds not words. And yes, before you start in, my entire life is about sitting around and bitching. But if I've said it once, I've said it a million times: I am not an example for anyone to be following. I'm putting you on notice, world: STOP BEING LIKE ME. Do as I say, not as I do.

One of the only things I had to say was about Michael Moore's useless "open letter" to Bush, in which he stretched things to try and blame Bush for the hurricane itself. Although, yes, you can definitely blame Bush for a good deal of the aftermath, Bush doesn't control the weather and we had big hurricanes before Bush and his "environmental policy" as I pointed out in the guestbook (speaking of which, a big thanks to Nikki for being the first person in nearly a month to make a comment there that wasn't a complete fucking retard, i.e. Markus or KoldKadavr). Moore has come out with more commentary, and this is much, much better. George W. Bush is such a shitty fucking president that you don't need to stretch things to find fault in him and his actions. All you need to do is just lay shit out, calmly and rationally, and maybe it might have some kind of useful impact. Moore is in a position where he's well-known and well-connected enough that he could get some real shit done instead of just ranting and raving. Granted, he's got a reputation to overcome, but he's in about as good a position as anyone on the left.

Speaking of Bush, I like what Kanye West had to say about Bush on an NBC telethon for Katrina relief: "George Bush doesn't care about black people." That's simple, succinct, and true. George Bush doesn't care about black people and a lot of other people, unless of course if they're campaign donors or a photo op (and even then, of course, he just cares about their money or how they can help him look better). It sucks to have to go to the race card, but if that was a bunch of white people down there, you can bet things would be a bit different.

Speaking of the people down there, what the fuck is wrong with a lot of the people who stuck around, other than they're idiots? Look, I know that there were probably a lot of people who genuinely didn't have the means to get out of there, and I'm not coming down on them. But I've been reading about the people who they are still working to convince to get out of New Orleans. Incompetent FEMA director Michael Brown commented that the people down there are partially responsible for their fate, and when it comes to the stubborn fuckers who just plain wouldn't leave, he's right (but that's about where it ends for getting behind Brown unless if you're going to sodomize him). The people who refused to leave, and who continue to refuse, are making a difficult situation even worse for everyone else involved.

Dennis Hastert made some comments on rebuilding New Orleans, and although who knows what that cocksucker was really getting at, he's on the right track. Whose goddamn idea was it to build a major city below sea level? I know hindsight is 20/20, but man, was that ever a dumb goddamn idea. Okay, sure, had the levees been kept up and furthermore upgraded to handle category 4 and 5 storms, maybe that would have prevented this. Maybe; there's no real way of knowing. But yeah, the levee system combined with geography was just a disaster waiting to happen.

Speaking of disasters, this country is the most unfuckingprepared place on earth to handle shit that comes our way. 9/11, this... Jesus. And again, you can put a lot of the blame on Bush. But there's plenty of blame to go around over many years as well. And 'ya know, a lot of the rest of the world, Osama or otherwise, has gotta be laughing and salivating over this. The self-anointed greatest country on earth, and we are in a constant state of reacting as opposed to acting and preventing.

Michael Chertoff, head of Homeland Security, has been in the news quite a but since he's ostensibly in charge of things in, I dunno, some way or other. Seeing that guy has always kinda bothered me. Something just looks.... wrong with him. I couldn't pin my finger on it, though, until just the other day: he looks like a man dying of AIDS. Sorry to have to go there, but that's what I thought, and I felt the need to share it with you. Besides, it's been over the requisite 22.3 years or whatever, so we can make jokes about AIDS.

Note to CNN: if you're going to post a story involving naked teenage girls that in the end is very, very depressing, for god's sake, make sure those girls are hot. Take a picture of someone else's kids if you have to. But give me something when I'm reading an article that depressing. There's no journalistic integrity anywhere these days, so fucking get on it.

I have to hand it to Shaq Attack. We already know that he's hard-core, joining forces with the police to hunt pedophiles, but now he's working, actually working, to help Katrina victims. No jokes here, that's just impressive.

Okay, that's about it for now. I could go on and on about what a disgrace the initial response was, and how badly we fucked up both before, during, and after the hurricane, but it's all been said a million times everywhere else, and furthermore it's all pretty obvious. I know that hasn't stopped me before, but I'm just not in the mood. And in the end, it's just not funny. Again, unless, of course, if you're The Onion.