Maybe it's just me, but it seems as if a whole bunch of people are turning hurricane Katrina into the beginning of the Apocalypse. As though flooding and people in need and a rather more-sluggish-than-we-could-wish response time to the emergency is something unusual. Just because it hasn't happened in *this* country in a while, we upgrade it to the level of Sign of the End Times. Or maybe it's the gas shortage that's freaking people out.

...Which, come to think of it, is provoking some odd reactions in itself. I can't seem to turn my head without reading or hearing or seeing something on how America Is On the Brink of some gas-related crisis. Am I just clueless or something? 'Cuz it doesn't seem to me that if gas really were in such short supply, we'd be the only country dealing with it. And is the gas going to simply vaporize out of the pumps, leaving the entire nation to come to a sputtering, gasless halt? I'd think if a gas shortage really were in the immediate future, we'd have time to arrange contingency plans to keep panic down and our society running smoothly, albeit not as swiftly. Am I wrong?

If so, at least I can provide a laugh: ( How very British of me! )

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