I've been irked by people who feel it necessary to make jokes about either Katrina and the Waves or Led Zeppelin about this hurricane hitting New Orleans. Well, guess what. The levee did break, Lake Pontchartrain is flowing to the sea, the pumps are failing, 80% of the city is flooded as much as 20 feet, people are drowning in their own homes and there are reports of bodies floating down the streets. Big buildings are burning, overpasses are collapsing, hospitals and shelters are having people choplifted off the roofs. Let's stop the jokes, this is fucking devastation.

As penance for the jokes, let's reach in our pockets and give to the Red Cross until it aches.

Update: I'm almost certainly overreacting here and I'm sure no one is taking this lightly, as I implied. It's upsetting stuff, you know? I was shocked to go to bed with the damage better than predicted, and then awake to find the city slowly getting scoured into the Gulf of Mexico. Sorry, I'm simmering down now.