tsunami perspective

George W. Bush's second inaugural will cost $40 million .. more than the initial offer of aid ($35 million) to the Indian Ocean tsunami survivors. This is what a Compassionate Conservative Regime is all about.

As bad as this tragedy is, I can't help but have mixed feelings about our charity. As of yesterday, here's a partial list of donations by country:

$47M 810M Australia
$674M Germany
$500M Japan
$ 35M 350M USA
$ 95M Britain
$ 76M Sweden
$ 68M Spain
$ 60M China
$ 57M France
$ 33M Canada
...
$ 10M Qatar (*)
$ 10M Saudi Arabia (*)
...
$ 2M Kuwait (*)
$ 2M United Arab Emirates (*)
$ 1M Turkey (*)

* Islamic

To put that into perspective: The contributions from all Islamic countries combined is smaller than that of Canada (whose population is smaller than California).

The Managed News says the Muslim percentages in the area are: Indonesia 88%; India 12%; Sri Lanka 7%. The majority religion in India is Hindu, while in Sri Lanka it's Buddhist.

I didn't spot a line item for Osama bin Laden's contribution. I suspect he's too busy preparing biotoxins or explosives to be bothered with 150,000 dead neighbors (50 times the number he killed on 9/11).