Furibundum

No matter how the head persons at Royal Caribbean might try to legitimize this, it is just way too out of line for defending. That's my opinion, anyway. Here's the deal. Only sixty miles from the absolute destruction and carnage on account of last week's earthquake, Royal Caribbean's luxury liners are still queued up for letting their guests get their party on at the Labadee Beach resort in Haiti. Cutting loose and enjoying such watersports like jet skiing and parasailing, grooving on barbecues and shopping sprees, rum cocktails brought directly hammockside, and never minding not so far away the bulldozed mass graves, buildings brought to dust, the dying without food or water, the buried alive... One passenger said he was sickened by it all. "I just can't see myself sunning on the beach, playing in the water, eating a barbecue, and enjoying a cocktail while there are tens of thousands of dead people being piled up on the streets, with the survivors stunn...

[ Update Jan 15: Fixed links to support planting a tree for Haiti ] In the wake of the devastation left behind after the earthquake hit Haiti on Monday, there have been the usual calls for donations that follow any catastrophe. Seemingly dozens of disaster relief groups are pleading for contributions to help the survivors and the country get better. Of course, do your study on whichever aid organization you might be inclined to chip in to support; sadly these worst of times inevitably bring out the scammers in hordes. The New York Times has an extensive list here of agencies you might consider. This is clearly no time to be cheap, I know that. Unfortunately many of us are dealing with personal situations right now that preclude being able to give like we once could have, and it is frustrating. However, excepting the most dire of cases, there is something that most of us poor can still do to help Haiti. Maybe not for the short term. But what the blow of this earthquake has managed to...