Mortaine’s Blog

I made breakfast.

Eggs and bagels. Eggs on bagels.

Egg #1: the yolk broke, so I scrambled it. While cooking it, I noticed a very “non-egg burning” smell in the air. I thought perhaps something had fallen on the element in the toaster. I eventually realized, as I was holding the leather-wrapped handle of my Calphalon pan, that it was the leather wrap that was burning ever so slightly at the edge. Whoops.

Egg #2: fried inside the hole in the bagel. Came out perfectly.

Drank milk with breakfast.

Immediately got a headache, however. I can’t tell if this is a coffee headache (damn John for taking the coffee supplies!) or if it’s some kind of reaction to something (wine? sleep? Cat hair? Eggs? Who knows?)

Then I came online, checked email, read LJ, read UFie, and wanted to get a gun and fly to the South and start shooting the rapists’ cocks off. Maybe that’s why my headache hasn’t left. Anyway, here is my knee-jerk revised definitions:

Finder: You stole milk, bread, soda pop, water, in a city that has nine feet of water in the streets.
Looter: You stole a television in a city that has no electricity.
Gouger: You own a fuel company. Period. No excuse for what we’re being charged out here for fuel that does not need to go through the South’s pipeline or Iraq’s oil fields.
You Deserve to Die: People who rape other people in the midst of chaos and inside a crowded “shelter.” What the fuck is WRONG with you?!?!? This is a perfect example of mob justice not working– the guy who stood up for the woman was shot. The rapist– got away. I think the military should have orders to shoot to kill rapists, but then they might have to take a serious look at how they themselves treat rape in the military and as a war crime.
Asshole: Politicians who fly over the disaster area and make empty promises about aid.
Delusional: People who still defend them.
Generous: People who give money to relief efforts after actually checking to be sure the organizations are legitimate and will actually help. People who give space in their homes to refugees. People who give blood (not necessarily because the blood is going to help people there, but because it’s always good to give blood if you can!)
Hero: People who stand in front of the sick, the weak, and the elderly, even though they themselves have nothing, and say “You will not harm this person.” People who put the sick, the weak, the elderly onto the bus, even though it means they won’t get out today. Old people trapped in attics who say to rescuers “they have babies next door– help them and come get me tomorrow.” Refugees who turn around and start helping rescuers because they know there are people who are even worse off than they are. Reporters who yell at politicians for flying over the disaster area and making empty promises. People who come in from other parts of the nation to stand there and actually help people, hand out supplies, protect them from the gangs. The kid who stole a school bus and drove it and a busload of people from NO to Houston, even though he had never driven a bus before.
Martyr: People who were shot by the military because they were trying to flag down help and (we hope) the military personell didn’t know. The guy who tried to stop a rape in progress and was shot for his trouble.*

I honestly don’t know what to call the military personell who are preventing people from leaving the city right now, though a few choice words come to mind. I don’t care if you’re following orders: It’s not human to force people to return to hell.

I think I will walk down to the coffee shop and get a latte, then over to the video store for the last DVD of Dead Like Me.

*I don’t know if he was shot by military, police, or gangs. However, that he was shot while trying to stop a rape in progress certainly tells me something about how effectively order is being restored in the area.
Edit: From the BBC: He was killed by military when he ran out to flag them down for help.

I have a lot of words for them, but the one that comes to mind first is “betrayal.”