During the disaster, I was struck by an interview with an evacuee who wondered what would happen to the home she had worked 40 years to buy, now that it was under water. Here she was, doing the American dream thing, becoming a bona fide member of the Ownership Society.

When I thought about her question again this morning, I placed her plight right next to the rumors I'm reading that the insurance companies will treat all claims in the Gulf as flood-related and thereby exonerate themselves of any liability. If that's the case, I dare say she won't have the capital to finance a rebuilding. Then all she'll have left is the devalued price of her property and she'll be ripe for the carpetbaggers' pickings.