Pointless Talk

Katrina has been catastrophic. Go to Instapundit to see a list of charities to help people get back on their feet. That's a good idea.

There have also been a lot of bad ideas. For instance, some people can't wait to play the blame game. There'll be plenty of time for that later, and who knows, maybe we'll even have some perspective.

Meanwhile, Bill O'Reilly in his Talking Points memo has an idea. He suggests that the oil companies, who are making huge money, lower costs at the pump by returning 20% of their profits. Sounds great. Gas does cost too much, after all, so lets have the corporations and their stockholders do something about it. (You'd think at least one of them would do it anyway, since that would give them such a huge competitive advantage--I guess they haven't figured that out yet.)

And you know, my rent is pretty high. Let's have my landlord lower the price (assuming he's making a profit--we don't want to hurt anyone). I'm not saying I'm in as bad a shape as those out in New Orleans, but a lot of others and I could still be doing a lot better.

And I still have to spend plenty on food. Let's take 20% of the profits they're making on groceries and have them cut prices--it sure would help out millions of families on a tight budget.

And let's make sure that people like Mr. O'Reilly give back 20% of everything they make over a million a year--a lot of poor people could sure use that extra money, and certainly the O'Reillys of the world would survive.

And when the price of gas does go back down, or even better, we find an alternative energy source, let's remember how these corporations lowered prices, and then we will all voluntarily pay more to keep them in business.