The Black Rider

Incidentally, John Stewart hit a high point last night. And actually complimented the media on the job they've been doing on the gulf Coast.

When I was in high school, I remember when my hometown, a suburb of Madison, became large enough to qualify for a yellow blob on the State map , rather than a little black dot. It was a source of bleak pride at the time, but I remember that the threshold is ten thousand residents. I presume, of course, that it is somewhat larger now, but we'll use that number for reference.

What we haven't really heard in the Gulf is any estimate of the dead. I realize it's a difficult thing at this point, but that didn't stop anybody from making estimates and predictions in the Iraq War, did it? It didn't stop Colin Powell from analyzing satellite photos and seeing magical trucks and evil pixies. As far out of whack as those predictions were, they were still flying thick on the ground.

Unless, of course, the numbers are so ghastly that no one wants to be the bearer of THIS bad news, since the first one who admits it is certain to be shot, given Karl Rove's current nuclear CYA mode.

Of course, the mayor of New Orleans has blurted out that it may be up to 10,000 people. Based on little else than his knowledge of the situation in NO and how it's evolved, which is probably better than anybody else at this point.

But who may be better poised to estimate this horror than mortuary professionals?

A division of Homeland Security has mobilized mortuary professionals around the Gulf states to help with the dead, telling them to expect up to 40,000 corpses.

40,000


That is four times the amount of people in my hometown.


Words fail me. Profanity doesn't serve.