Rubbish, part 1 of ... (De andere kijk)

While right-wingers are donating money to alleviate the human and material toll of the disaster, left-wingers (and, or should I say, including our national media) are putting the blame on president Bush. This post shows the contrast (hat tip: Dog of Flanders).

Over the years, I have seen a lot of rubbish from our media, and since I have discovered the blogosphere, my awareness of that fact only seems to have grown, but somehow they still manage to get my blood boiling. Why don't I just turn off the radio or the television? Why don't I just stop reading newspapers? A life of ignorant isolation would be so much better for my temper. But it is inherent to man that he seeks to explore, to understand, so I guess I will have to live my fate to the end.

I wanted to give you a taste of the quotes I heard or read the past few days, but I seem to have made a minor philosophical digression. But here we go:

- Thank God (or anyone else for that matter) that not Atlanta or Houston, but New Orleans has been flooded by Katrina. New Orleans is considered by many to be the most European city of the US. "That city, it is not America", exclaims Axl Peleman in Gazet Van Antwerpen. So I guess it is okay now for Europeans to donate money without burdening your conscience too much.

- A reader of the same newspaper, replying to another reader who dared to ask what the difference is between Katrina and the tsunami and what is preventing an action of solidarity now, essentially says that the difference between both disasters is that the Americans used to be rich, when they lost everything, which is bad, while the Thais, Indonesians etc. used to be poor, when they lost the little everything they had, which is véry bad. Remains the fact that both groups of victims have nothing now, which is always bad.

- Rik Winkel, US correspondent of Flemish newspaper De Tijd, while quoting Peggy Noonan, a columnist of the WSJ "who usually supports president Bush", only uses the quotes that fit into his Bush-bashing story. Check it out for yourselves what Noonan also wrote.

- Finally, Chrenkoff gives a ranking of the most ridiculous quotes of the past few days. You definitely don't want to miss this post about the un-missing Louisiana National Guard, who is supposed to be dying in Iraq.

Get prepared for a few more days and weeks full of similar stuff.