Stuff Which is True and Not at All Funny

Stuff which appears all true, and quite horrible:

• Sickening Beyond Belief. Here’s just a small bit:
  

  In the midst of administering chest compressions to a dying woman several days after Hurricane Katrina struck, Dr. Mark N. Perlmutter was ordered to stop by a federal official because he wasn’t registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

  “I begged him to let me continue,” said Perlmutter, who left his home and practice as an orthopedic surgeon in Pennsylvania to come to Louisiana and volunteer to care for hurricane victims. “People were dying, and I was the only doctor on the tarmac (at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport) where scores of nonresponsive patients lay on stretchers. Two patients died in front of me.

• The follow-up posting detailing other examples of the deadly refusal of assistance.
• Meanwhile FEMA still can’t get its act together.

PS. Here comes Tropical Storm Rita, soon to be Hurricane Rita. See the details via the University of Miami’s cool Google hack that plots hurricane track observations and predicted path. (Note that in this case the track is a little misleading, maybe, as it is quite possible the center will reform farther north during the next 36 hours. That is, right here. Although the real hurricane force may not grow until it hits the Gulf.)