Today's Hoot!

James Taranto:

The New York Times today began charging for online access to its op-ed and other columnists. Seems to us, though, that the Times Co. is missing out on a gold mine by allowing free access to the Boston Globe's letters to the editor, which are far more entertaining than Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd. Here's Aline Kaplan of Sudbury, weighing in yesterday:

Conservative friends have been sending me long, detailed e-mails about the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. They are all designed to place the blame on New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, while exonerating President Bush. These electronic messages have certainly been impressive and revealed previously unknown facts. After reading them, I acknowledge the timelines of what happened, when and who knew what, and when and who signed what and when. My friends are right that state and local government were the first lines of defense--and they failed. This represents a systemic failure of government at all levels.

While their details are valid and their points well made, these are merely the facts.

Today, Jeffrey J. Cymrot of Boston urges surrender:

Though valiant, the president's determination to restore a destroyed city and to rebuild a flood protection system ''stronger than it has ever been" contains within it an arrogance reminiscent of the pharaohs and the kings of antiquity. I consider it unfortunate that occupants of what has become an imperial presidency issue statements such as this, and the citizenry blithely accepts them as ordinary expressions of Pax Americana. I have begun to wonder where this hubris will end.

The gods are angry, and we must appease them!

Hot dang! I knew it was time to break out the virgins!