No Laughing Matter

(Boston Globe) Katrina’s real name

Scientists have shown there is a direct correlation between global warming and the number and intensity of tropical storms. This year, we are up to K and August is just ending.

Please contact the Red Cross to help. They need money, blood, and volunteers–you can work locally to free up workers who can travel to the affected areas. Again the url of the Red Cross is http://www.redcross.org.

Being Homeless Is Unpatriotic–After All, You Can’t Be A Good Consumer

(AP) Terrorists May Case Scene As Homeless

(AP) Online Thesaurus Pulls Listing for ‘Arab’

Once again, the marginalized of society have been demonized in the paranoia so lovingly fostered by those who gain power from fear. However, an etymological note–homeless beggars were called street arabs, not as a pejorative against Arabs, but as a kind of simile. Because the poor have to clothe themselves in worn out clothing and will, especially in winter, wind multiple layers of scrap cloth around their bodies since they cannot afford to buy coats. The effect struck some people in the 18th/19th centuries as bearing a resemblance to Arab costume and the name stuck. I believe Kipfer is mistaken in referring it to a nomadic “wandering” through the streets–the visual is a much simpler and more direct idea.

New Orleans was spared a direct hit by Katrina, but the devastation in the Gulf is horrendous. Millions still face the recovering from the storm and dealing with its damage…our sympathy and prayers for all those who have suffered from the onslaught of Nature’s wrath…

Gimme That Ol’ Time Religion…

(AP) Pat Robertson Says He Was Misinterpreted

Pat would rather see the robber barons back in Venezuela…wonder how much he holds in oil stocks?