Paul Allen's Other Yacht

This morning's entry on Blog for America is Paul Allen's Other Yacht by Paul Loeb. I recognize Paul's name from several excellent articles by him that I have read--especially The Impossible Will Take a Little While: Hope in a Time of Fear, which was written right after the insanely disappointing 2004 election.

Here is a bit of today's entry on Blog for America:

In the wake of the New Orleans disaster, I thought of an article I read about Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's other yacht. The 300-foot Tatoosh carries a 30-person crew, two helicopters, a swimming pool, a spa, a private movie theater, six other surface boats (including a separate 54-foot racing yacht and two Hobie catamarans) and a submarine. Reading about the Tatoosh and a third yacht just slightly smaller made me wonder about Allen's yacht of choice. Did it have two swimming pools? Four helicopters? Twelve other on-board boats? And what was Allen doing with two yachts, when he could only ride on one at a time?

Read the rest here.

Various quick comments before I head out--check out Demetrius' shadow blog version of the Cheers theme in the comments here, Howard Dean's interview with Wolf Blitzer here, and continued discussions about "the race card" here and here.

UPDATE: Since we've got a grand total of zero comments here, I'm going to go ahead and add to this entry rather than starting a new one. I thought people might like to check out this Kos diary with more details about President Al Gore's rescue efforts:

AP reports it: Gore airlifted 270 patients and residents Saturday/Sunday

Al Gore helped airlift some 270 Katrina evacuees on two private charters from New Orleans, acting at the urging of a doctor who saved the life of the former vice president's son.

Usher publicly distances himself from Kanye West's remarks

"I wasn't mad at Kanye's statement - that's his opinion - but it's obviously not the opportunity or the time to poke fun or appoint blame.

"This is an opportunity where we all need to come together - musicians, actors, politicians - and help the (American) Gulf region."

The kid's got a future in politics, don't you think?

Some links that may be useful...the first comes from the American Academy of Pediatrics:
Resources to Help Cope with Natural and Other Disasters

And the second is the American Psychological Association's page about Natural Disasters.