There's a disturbance in the Force in these parts.

As long as Yom Kippur services are going on on Friday night and all day Saturday, however, we will be staying put. As some joker once said of me and mine,"God, if we are truly the Chosen people, why on Earth did you have to choose us?" We're gonna atone, God. Really we are.

Last night, Dan and I were watching some local news, and a report cropped up on the high-tech mapping of the sea floor that was being done in lower Plaquemines parish, which took a direct hit from Katrina a little over two years ago. Seems there is loads of debris still underwater that is clogging up the swamps and posing potential hazards to the hulls of boats trolling those areas. The ultimate irony, however, is that in some of those places where massive amounts of debris have piled up, Mississippi River sediment is also piling up and creating new land. What does this mean? Hellooo, land reclamation!

And our illustrious oaf of a president has yet another reason to veto a bill going through Congress. Why spend money on wetlands restoration and endorse the closure of a waterway that contributes to coastal erosion and acts as a nifty conduit for storm surge when one good, nasty hurricane season can sweep loads of debris into the water and solve the problem right there?

Because it's all God's will, huh?

I think a certain leader of the free world needs to do some atoning himself.

___________________

A march in support of the Jena 6 is going on today. Read more about it here. If you are in need of a geography lesson and a few other things to chew on regarding this whole situation, take a look over here, too.

And before you immediately dismiss the whole thing because of the folks involved in organizing the protest, think about the argument successfully used to put a sixteen-year-old kid in prison: that tennis shoes were accepted as instruments of attempted murder. Things are still seriously wacked when racial tensions are stirred up to this point. Support this march if only to support greater understanding and dialogue between us all, no matter what our differences are.

Update, 10:21 AM: Cliff has more.

Another Update, 10:41 AM: Check the comments at Editor B's:

The three young men who hung nooses from the so called “White Tree” in Jena were CLEARLY guilty of– “simple or aggravated criminal damage to property”, “criminal trespass” AND “institutional vandalism.” ...I am just a law librarian and found this law. Why couldn’t the elected DA do this? More importantly, what possed the man to conveen an all white jury to try a black youth in a very small town with a jury pool already loaded/poisoned by this controversy? What judge in his right mind [who either had a bias themselves or WANTED the case thrown out on appeal] allowed this to happen/presided over this trial?

Yet Another Update, 5:22 PM: Maitri weighs in in a highly eloquent manner.