Coincidence?
Ms NOLA observes that a couple of Southern women novelists - Donna Tartt, Valerie Martin - have published agonized commentary Katrina's aftermath in the British press. Why should that be? They may be having a harder time finding a pulpit here, where the press is still loath to abrade the Administration and eager to appear to the public as helpful and cooperative. Ms Martin's essay concludes very bleakly:
Only the mad libertines who cling to power as if for dear life can fail to see, in the belching fire and smoke that blacken the skies over the Dantesque scenes of suffering in New Orleans, that our nation is not more secure, but over-extended, desperate, and more vulnerable every day to the fury of the coming storm.
Michael D Brown surprised me by resigning his post at FEMA three days after being relieved of his "Gulf Coast duties." I thought it would take a little longer, to distance the two moves and thus dampen their impact.
And now, in Los Angeles, a major power failure. Let's cross our fingers and hope it's short.
