Hurricane Katrina seems to have triggered a lot of deep revelations to everyone. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these deep revelations consisted of . . . reaffirming exactly what they had previously believed. A certain stripe of conservative has learned that poor people are animals who can't be trusted to behave. Passionate Democrats have learned that the main responsibility for disaster planning rests with President Bush, who should be impeached. And European leftists have apparently learned, to their vast dismay, that America is a cruel and gluttonous place, building our so-called economy on cheap oil and the shattered lives of workingmen, whom we kill when they become inconvenient.

As everyone knows, I had hoped that people's attempts to use Katrina to prove that they were right all along would wait until the victims were laid to rest. This suggestion has been roundly ignored by all those who feel that their accusations will have more punch if they are made in the face of the nation's shock and horror.