The Varmint

That's what I call my daughter; The Varmint. When her mother was pregnant I thought it unseemly to call the fetus "it." After all she wasn't a brick, tree, or other inanimate object. I took to calling the fetus "critter." After my lovely daughter Hannah Elizabeth made her way into this world of man her true nature became evident and as time went by she became known as The Varmint.
She started kindergarten this year and I love to go to her school and watch her during recess when she's running around outside. If you're a glass is half empty sort of person you'd say that she's bossy. If you're the half full person you might say that she is a natural leader. She has a little posse that she runs around the playground playing this and that kid game. As a father more biased than NPR I see a pre-school Patton leading around her armored divisions. She even has a little boy who is a friend. As she points out to me; "He's not my boyfriend!" She can spell his name, takes her naps next to him, and knows that he has blue eyes "...like mine." Someday a real boyfriend will steal her away but for now I won't worry. Much.

New Orleans and thereabouts

I've held out as long as possible. Thank goodness I did. What a waste of time anything I could have said about the Hurricane Katrina disaster would have been. Property damage was extreme. Loss of life was large though not as bad as that boob Nagin predicted. Forget the Foot Locker; federal disaster relief money is coming. Let the REAL looting begin!
Every level of government failed the people of New Orleans. It seems like everyone wants to find someone (else) to blame for the problems and there's more than enough to go around. I'll never forget the reporter asking the homeland security dude about exactly whose heads were going to roll. He must have repeated that thought six times; '...whose heads are going to roll?" The question was asked during the peak of the crisis when actual non-metaphorical heads really were rolling. Quite sensible I think. And if your dad is in the hospital and he's had a heart attack you should have your lawyer interrupt the doctor performing CPR to take depositions too.
For better or worse its both too late and too early to start the real investigation into what went wrong. No mistake, a real investigation should be done, responsibility fixed, flawed procedures uncovered, and criminal behavior prosecuted mercilessly. Getting large-scale disaster response is just too important to get bogged down in trying to make Nagin, Blanco, and Bush look as bad as possible. If we let the autopsy on this whole sordid event turn into a chance to grind our respective axes then nothing will really get fixed.
If fixing the problem isn't the most important consideration then we'll end up with some sort of Disaster Dare Program. It makes legislators feel good and lets them tell the voters that they did something but in reality makes absolutely no difference.