Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Katrina and the Waves

"You saw the live coverage, now the aftermath..."

Fox News has definitely been the place for continuing Hurricane coverage these past few days. Last night they welcomed Professor Jack Chambless (see The Moral Case for Capitalism), exactly the kind of slightly deranged and insensitive white-collar ideologue that likes to make a home on this channel.

Chambless reckons that it would be "unconstitutional" for the Federal Government to offer charity to people living in low lying areas along America's storm prone coastlines. In the past, he argued, middle income folk took up residence in places like Florida and New Orleans at their own (insurance) risk, but now they just sit there waiting for taxpayers' dollars every time they get their asses whipped by some natural calamity. And if Washington keeps picking up the tab, there's no incentive for these people to relocate, he concluded.

"Well, that's a point of view we don't often hear espoused" the anchorman told him, before moving to some more footage of wrecked building and submerged cars.

Given the choice, most Louisiana residents at the time of the drafting of the US Constitution would no doubt have chosen to relocate back to West Africa.

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