Meanwhile, back here in hell...

No Rita damage for us, except for a day without electricity. Downed limbs, some minor wind damage, no casualties, and of course, up here in the hills, no flooding.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

73-year-old Grandmother Falsely Arrested For Looting In New Orleans
http://arizona.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/30691.php

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/16/AR2005091600215.html

Vatican Hinders Hunt For War Criminal
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9407155/

http://worldcrimes.com/

FBI Forms Anti-Porn Squad
"I guess this means that we've won the war on terror..."
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/21/MNGRSER4141.DTL

http://www.dummocrats.com/links/view_comments.php?thread_id=34795

In the face of 11 adopted/foster children being tortured/starved/caged in Cleveland, Adoption Experts Cite Screening Limits...
http://www.zwire.com/site/tab1.cfm?newsid=15221644&BRD=2700&PAG=740&dept_id=226967&rfi=6

Florida Couple Arrested For Torturing & Starving Five Of Their Seven Adopted Children
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/02/04/family.torture/

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050915/NEWS/509150412/1004

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?tl=1&display=rednews/2005/09/14/build/nation/88-adopted-kids.inc

Blues/Country/Jazz/Funk Legend Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown Dies 9/10/05 At Age 81
http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/11/gatemouthbrown.obit.ap/

http://www.gatemouth.com/

(Some of the best Jazz Fest memories I have are of watching Gatemouth in action. This old man was so cool, it just rose up off of him in waves... or it could've been the smoke from that pipe that he packed with something that the entire audience KNEW wasn't tobacco... as the NOPD down front watched and laughed along with the rest of us, Gatemouth offered them all a hit, too... His house in Slidell, LA was destoyed by Katrina, and since he'd already been battling lung cancer and heart disease, I guess losing his longtime home was the last straw... One time, about five years ago, some convict broke out of jail and ran to the North Shore, and actually broke into Gatemouth's house while Gatemouth was home. Instead of shooting the guy as would've been most people's first response, Gatemouth sat him down, got him stoned, and talked to him until the cops showed up. He was that kind of a man.)

More Katrina-related stuff to come... Just not right yet.