HUGH HEWITT is suggesting a day of concerted blogging for hurricane relief efforts. It’s a good idea. How about Thursday, to give people a chance to organize? I’ll link blog posts — and in the meantime, send me suggestions for aid organizations worth mentioning. Put “flood aid” in the subject line.

UPDATE: Reader Loren Rueter emails: “Any foreign governments offering aid?”

None that I’ve heard of. Should we call ’em stingy?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Less snarkily, The Anchoress emails:

Glenn, remember how Amazon put together the Honor System for donations after the Tsunami? Couldn’t something like that be done?

It certainly could. Will it? I guess somebody should ask Jeff Bezos!

WELL, THIS SUCKS: A broken levee means that New Orleans is flooding. Slower and without the fatalities we’d have seen if it had happened during the storm surge, but with similar effects on property and infrastructure. Are the pumps just too big to have backup power?

AN INTERVIEW WITH MILBLOGGER BALDILOCKS: Over at the Pajamas Media site.

IN THE MAIL: Jason Hartley’s Just Another Soldier: A Year on the Ground in Iraq. It looks very interesting and well-written.

THERE’S A NEW FAMILY LAW BLOG as part of Paul Caron’s ever-expanding blog empire.

MICHAEL YOUNG looks at the Harriri investigation and asks what if Syria is found guilty?

Meanwhile, here’s a report of Baathist henchmen being arrested in Lebanon.

IRAQI CONSTITUTION UPDATE: Interesting translation from the Iraqi newspaper Alhayat, reporting widespread support for taking the proposed Iraqi Constitution to a vote.

GRAND ROUNDS is up!

CZECH PRESIDENT VACLAV KLAUS ISSUES A WARNING:

President Klaus spoke last Monday, warning for the new “substitute ideologies of socialism” such as “Europeanism” and “NGOism.” These “isms” are currently threatening Europe. “In the first decade of the 21st century we should not concentrate exclusively on socialism,” he said. . . .

As substitutes of socialism, Václav Klaus cited “environmentalism (with its Earth First, not Freedom First principle), radical humanrightism (based – as de Jasay precisely argues – on not distinguishing rights and rightism), the ideology of ‘civic society’ (or communitarism), which is nothing less than one version of post-Marxist collectivism which wants privileges for organized groups, and in consequence, a refeudalization of society […], multiculturalism, feminism, apolitical technocratism (based on the resentment against politics and politicians), internationalism (and especially its European variant called Europeanism) and a rapidly growing phenomenon I call NGOism.”. . .

He also opposed “excessive government regulation” and “huge subsidies to privileged or protected industries and firms.” He warned that Europe’s social system “must not be wrecked by all imaginable kinds of disincentives, by more than generous welfare payments, by large scale redistribution, by many forms of government paternalism.” Instead, Europe has to “be based on freedom, personal responsibility, individualism, natural caring for others and genuine moral conduct of life.”

Read the whole thing.

GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS:

While scientific literacy has doubled over the past two decades, only 20 to 25 percent of Americans are “scientifically savvy and alert,” he said in an interview. Most of the rest “don’t have a clue.” At a time when science permeates debates on everything from global warming to stem cell research, he said, people’s inability to understand basic scientific concepts undermines their ability to take part in the democratic process. . . .

Dr. Miller’s data reveal some yawning gaps in basic knowledge. American adults in general do not understand what molecules are (other than that they are really small). Fewer than a third can identify DNA as a key to heredity. Only about 10 percent know what radiation is. One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth, an idea science had abandoned by the 17th century.

What do they teach them in schools these days?

AGGREGATED CARBON NANORODS: A new substance that’s harder than diamonds. Get used to stuff like this.

MORE ON BRITISH DENTISTRY, from Chicagoboyz.

IN RESPONSE TO MY EARLIER POST ON THE ACLU, a reader emails:

From your website:
regarding the ACLU — “I’ve worked with them in the past, on the New Orleans rave case for example, and will probably do so again.”

Well, You lost another reader. Just now disappeared from my Bookmarks.

That’s okay — there are plenty of blogs out there, and this guy would clearly be happier somewhere else. Eric Scheie, on the other hand, takes a somewhat more nuanced approach. As, for that matter, does Allen Thorpe.

MEGHAN O’ROURKE criticizes censorious bloggers.

DANIEL DREZNER WRITES ON “HURRICANE PORN:” I think that complaints about that are misplaced with regard to Katrina, which was quite a dreadful storm, and which — on the strength of a last minute shift — just barely escaped being much worse. But the phenomenon in general is quite real and as I mentioned over at GlennReynolds.com yesterday it may also make it harder to get people to evacuate when a storm is really bad.

BILL QUICK ON JUDITH MILLER: “I expect the NYT is quite puzzled as to why there is no groundswell for the ‘plight’ of one of their reporters. Probably the notion that half the country thinks their entire staff should be in jail hasn’t quite sunk in yet.”

That kind of reminds me of Hugh Hewitt’s interview with Tim Rutten.

BRENDAN LOY IS ON HUGH HEWITT right now. He’s also got an impressive collection of photos from New Orleans on his site.

HURRICANE-PHOTOBLOGGING, using a laptop on battery power and a free AOL CD for dialup to bypass dead DSL. (Via Josh Britton).

Rex Hammock has thoughts and links on local emergency blogging. And it’s worth something — I’ve had folks evacuated from the Mississippi Gulf Coast begging me for links to blogs in their area because they can’t get enough news from the regular media. (Via Kaye Trammell).

THE MIAMI HERALD says that the New Orleans city government was slow to learn from Hurricane Andrew.

UPDATE: Michele Catalano says the media folks haven’t learned much, either.

ANOTHER UPDATE: N.Z. Bear notes previous problems in New Orleans. Let’s iron out all the kinks before next time, okay?

KATRINA UPDATE: Calder Lorenz emails:

NowPublic.com is providing a public service for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. We have set up a website that lets people send in photographs of those who go missing during the storm. We are asking others to contribute by posting a link to tool on their sites. Your assistance in this effort is greatly appreciated.

Here’s the link.

THIS WEEK’S CARNIVAL OF THE CAPITALISTS is up!

So is this week’s Carnival of Cordite.

UPDATE: Here’s an especially long and detailed Carnival of the Revolutions, with links to posts on pro-democracy activity in all sorts of countries.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Don’t miss The Blawg Review, a carnival of lawbloggers!

YES, BLOGGING WAS LIGHT: Classes have started here, and I was also having trouble reaching the server until the Hosting Matters folks worked their magic.

DAVID CORN: “Clinton Lied…and Hundreds of Thousands Died.”

No protests to speak of, though.

ANDREW MARCUS, the blog-documentarian I’ve mentioned before, has been in Crawford, Texas and has posted reports, photos, and video of what he saw.

UPDATE: Here’s another report.

THIS WEEK’S CARNIVAL OF PERSONAL FINANCE is up!