Schröder: Perspective

After Gerhard Schröder's remarks - scolding the US for not embracing the smothering balm of Mother Government, blaming that attitude for the havoc of Hurricane Katrina - commenter Chriss notes something I'd missed completely:

Horrific hurricane strikes the Gulf Coast and, while more people died than could have or should have, the toll is (I think) less than 2,000 people. A heat wave (a heat wave, mind you, not a tornado, flood, hurricane or earthquake but a freakin' heat wave) hits Europe and 35,000 people die, nearly 15,000 in France... mostly because people couldn't be bothered to interrupt their precious vacations.

Smack. That'll leave a mark.

They also have a lot of trouble with cold waves, as I recall; a few winters back, didn't most of the Continent suffer horribly from what amounted to the kind of snowstorm that most of the US would have shaken off with ease?

Schröder and Chirac seem oddly silent about these disasters; perhaps they only count when there's a Republican to bash on?

Posted by Mitch at October 13, 2005 12:11 PM | TrackBack