Wading through The Inevitable

Statistically, this had to happen. Now, levees are failing and the city of New Orleans is vanishing under the rising waters. It is difficult to get the mind around the sheer scale of the destruction. I've seen some less than thinking people compare this to September 11. September 11 was two buildings, and part of another. This is thousands and thousands of buildings, perhaps, when all is said and done, an entire major American city. Sure you can compare death tols, but it is absurd.

At any rate, I suppose such comparisons are a feeble attempt to put this into some sort of perspective.

I can't really get my mind around it.

One thing, amidst the sensational media coverage that comes to mind: Why so much focus on looting? People are dead, more will die, and many remain to be rescued. Businesses are insured, or ought to be. They can write off their entire inventories as a loss and be reimbursed. Cops are wasting their time chasing people stealing armfuls of Pampers, snack foods, and drinks. Why, oh why is anyone trying to stop them, and why is the media beating the drum of "widespread looting?" It's inane, and irrelevant.

The Politics Of Stupidity

I'm glad I don't have kids, who will enter a public school system being taken over by zealous, anti-science, anti-thinking religious barbarians, to be taught the bible in science class. In school boards and state legislatures across the country proponents of the redressed Creationist "philosophy" (now slickly termed Intelligent Design) are framing the debate as a need to teach the "controversy" surrounding the theory of evolution and natural selection. That controversy is wholly contrived by those who wish to teach it. Imagine for a moment that science classes started teaching that homosexuality is genetically driven behavior. These same nuts who want to subvert rational thinking would throw themselves beneath the wheels of school buses the world over.

Which proves my point...

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Bone Dry

In April 2001 I wrote an article about the dwindling supply of water in the Great American Desert. The focus of the article was the city of Las Vegas, Nevada, a desert fantasy oasis of bright lights, limitless possibilities, and an abundance of water. Vegas is truly in the middle of the desert. Drive a few miles beyond the edges of it's sprawl and the air suddenly goes skin-wrinkling dry, no longer sprinkled with the water of a thousand fountains. Drive a few more miles and you come upon Hoover Dam, which stands astride the Colorado River.

The Colorado is the primary source of water for Las Vegas, and the city has now reached the limits of Nevada's allotment. Officials at the city and state level have known for years this day would come, and they have been preparing. All of the outdoor fountains in Las Vegas have been turned off, and the rest of the city is under strict rationing.

Just kidding.

Las Vegas, instead of generating and enforcing strict regulations on the use of precious water, has gone hunting for more to satisfy it's insatiable demand. It proposes to pump water out of the ground in Nevada and western Utah and transport it via pipeline more than 500 miles to Las Vegas. The local people living above that water, which nurtures their crops and keeps their patch of desert from completely blowing away, are protesting.

It will do no good. There is too much money at stake, too much political pressure being applied to stop this. The Bureau Of Land Management and US Geological Survey will likely confirm Vegas' contention that there is more than enough water for the city to suck 25,000 acre-feet (enough water to cover that acreage to a depth of one foot) per year out of the ground. And in a few years, when Vegas continues to expand and it's appetite for water grows sharper, it will reach out further, deeper, to slake it's thirst. Eventually, it will suck all the remaining water out of the western United States, dry up, wither and blow away.

And there will be no water left, not a drop.

Presidentus Ignoramus

If ignorance is bliss, we should all be the Shrub. From an interview with some Texas print reporters:

On Intelligent Design

Ron Hutcheson writes for Knight Ridder Newspapers: "President Bush waded into the debate over evolution and 'intelligent design' Monday, saying schools should teach both theories on the creation and complexity of life. . .

"Scientists concede that evolution doesn't answer every question about the creation of life, but most consider intelligent design an attempt to inject religion into science courses.

"Bush compared the current debate to earlier disputes over 'creationism,' a related view that adheres more closely to biblical explanations. As governor of Texas, Bush said students should be exposed to both creationism and evolution.

"On Monday the president said he favors the same approach for intelligent design 'so people can understand what the debate is about.' "

Hutcheson writes that Bush "didn't seem eager to talk about the topic."

Here, in fact, is the entire exchange, prompted by Hutcheson's question:

"Q I wanted to ask you about the -- what seems to be a growing debate over evolution versus intelligent design. What are your personal views on that, and do you think both should be taught in public schools?

"THE PRESIDENT: I think -- as I said, harking back to my days as my governor . . . Then, I said that, first of all, that decision should be made to local school districts, but I felt like both sides ought to be properly taught.

"Q Both sides should be properly taught?

"THE PRESIDENT: Yes, people -- so people can understand what the debate is about.

"Q So the answer accepts the validity of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution?

"THE PRESIDENT: I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought, and I'm not suggesting -- you're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, and the answer is yes."