Don't Confuse Them with Facts, Their Minds Are Made Up

A little more than half of Galveston area residents have decided to hunker down and wait out Hurricane Ike rather than evacuate, in spite of warnings that they "could face certain death..." (Wait a minute: they either could face death or they face certain death, but how "could" they "face certain death?" Oh, well, in cases like these I guess syntax is the first thing to go out the window.)

We won't even talk about the millions in taxpayer dollars that it'll cost to rescue even a small percentage of these diehards, if they need rescuing. I wonder how many of these people are Republicans?

This is a helicopter rescuing a stranded motorist who suddenly found herself and her two dogs in Galveston Bay.

Did I mention that Galveston is an island?

Here's Ike from space. This storm is said to be far bigger than Katrina.

And here's a surf's-up scene at the Galveston waterfront.

Ike is supposed to make landfall around midnight, according to the most recent news report. I would think waiting out a storm would be scary enough in the daytime, but in the middle of the night it doesn't bear thinking about. I saw one news reporter imploring the children of families who are staying put, to try to talk their folks into evacuating.

"Look, Dad, I don't feel comfortable with staying here..."

"Son, we don't want to go out there. The traffic would be murder! Why don't y'all have some Kool-Aid."