The NRA, with a budget of $50 million (not that much), manages to turn its asinine views (fit for the clinically paranoid) into the law of the land.

If people who give to the United Way truly cared about the poor, shouldn't they direct their money and effort toward lobbying the government and pressuring candidates for political office to build a safety net, instead?

And to those who will argue that after Katrina it's impossible to put one's faith in the government, I say: Are you willing to call your nation a banana republic and leave it at that? (Which is what you're doing by giving up on your government on account of Katrina.)