Schwarzenegger handles fire, doesn’t get burned

California’s Guy-in-Charge showed up at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium, and declared, “The people are happy. They have everything here.” This Associated Press story about the aftermath of the California wildfires isn’t the first to draw comparisons with Hurricane Katrina–we have bands, buffets and massage therapists; New Orleans got . One difference few seem to note: If California were a nation, it’d rank No. 6 in the world. New Orleans is in a state called Louisiana, one of the poorest in the U.S., and its political leaders, while not movie stars, are so corrupt as to deserve movies–movies we make in California. So money is good, and maybe money easily fathers the appearance of such virtues as pluck, optimism and a willingness to party in the face of a roaring fire. Time and chance, fire and flood, happeneth to rich and poor alike (somewhere in Ecclesiastes), but all in all it’s better to be rich.

Tags: california wildfires, hurricane katrina, Kanye West, New Orleans, poverty, Schwarzenegger, wealth