New Aristocracy

Greetings fellow bloggers and other miscreants ...

I firmly believe that we have managed to recreate the aristocracy of Europe. And in our usual fashion we've done it bigger and faster.

It took France (in conjunction with Austria, Prussia and all those other little places) about 1000 years to produce Marie Antoinette and her peers.

It took U.S. about 200 years to produce gwb and his.

Way to go.





Yes, I know that this photo is a fakery. I also know that Marie Antoinette probably never said, "Let them eat cake." ... It's the sentiment that's the thing. She was so out of touch with the people of France (and Austria for that matter) that it could credibly be said of her. And gwb is that out of touch with his people.

If you click on the link embedded in the gwb above, you'll find a post that is far more eloquent than I could ever be about how this person wishes gwb had responded to the crisis of Katrina as a person. As someone with feeling and a heart; as the rest of us did.

The real problem with gwb is not what the government did or didn't do. What FEMA did or didn't do, but it's that he wasn't with the rest of us gnashing his teeth and crying out to the God he claims to believe in over the pain of the death and destruction that was the Gulf Coast and particularly in New Orleans. He was too busy cracking jokes about parties and drinking; a latter day version of "Let them eat cake."

And that's what is so very wrong with his response to Katrina. It has nothing to do with speed, or the lack thereof. It has everything to do with compassion ... or the lack thereof.