New Orleans would be fine if it weren't for all those people in the way.

But why oh why doesn't anyone report the good news from New Orleans?



As seen here:

Avedon Carol has been trying to find out who originally said this:

"Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice."

Whoever it was, they were right. If you were sitting on the roof of your New Orleans house last week waiting to drown, you probably weren't wondering whether the Bush administration was acting out of incompetence or malice or a heady combination of both.

Farther away from the destruction, though, it's hard not to ask: idiots? evil? evil idiots?

In any case, it's good to remember that this is a conundrum that has arisen throughout the ages in many countries. For instance, here's George Orwell, writing more than sixty years ago:

It is still very uncertain what plan they acted on... and they may have had no clear plan at all. Whether the British ruling class are wicked or merely stupid is one of the most difficult questions of our time.

Fuckers.