Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

The sinking feeling in New Orleans

Eugene Robinson:

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What could be going through the minds of people who survive an almost biblical tragedy, find themselves in a hellscape of the dead and the dispossessed, and promptly decide to go looting? Obviously not much: Stealing a rack of fancy clothes when there's no place to wear them or a television when there's no electricity does not suggest a lot of deep, subtle forethought.

That I have to watch black people emerging from half-flooded stores with armloads of expensive sneakers is heartbreaking. Yes, I could come up with caveats. I could point out that these outrages are being perpetrated by a small minority. I could make a case that the looting has been overplayed, and I could point out that all that inventory was bound to be written off as lost anyway. But it's still heartbreaking -- and the fact that looters also emptied pharmacies and gun stores is downright frightening.

I won't make excuses, because while these idiots are taking the five-finger discount on luxury goods, they are occupying the attention of police and guardsmen who ought to be out looking for victims -- poor, black victims -- still stuck on roofs or in attics. But I do want to understand how people could live in a city all their lives and have so little sense of civic responsibility, how "we're all in the same boat" can be so completely obliterated by "I'm getting mine."

He makes a good point.