The pictures and news accounts coming out of New Orleans and Gulfport are mind-boggling, prompting one of those head-shaking moments in life that leave me speechless.

Before you get the idea I'm talking about the utter devastation and misery wreaked by Hurricane Katrina, think again. I'm talking about my reaction to the looters who turned a national disaster into a free shopping trip.

Given the magnitude of the situation - a disaster like many of have never witnessed - I have a simple solution for the looting problem.

Shoot 'em. Shoot 'em on sight.

And before you tell me that some of these people were only trying to get food, let me point out that scores of others were pulling off the broad daylight heists hauling off microwave ovens, shopping carts full of tennis shoes and jeans and the one essential for hurricane survival: beer. One lady didn't just bother to steal a few dresses off a rack ¦ she stole the entire rack and was video-taped pushing it down the street through three feet of water.

Perhaps a sign of the times we live in came in the comments from an individual identified as Mike Franklin, who lives in New Orleans. Talking to an Associated Press reporter, Franklin offered an explanation, albeit skewed, about the reason some people loot.

"To be honest with you, people who are oppressed all their lives, man, it's an opportunity to get back at society," Franklin said.

I have doubts if Franklin can spell the words "crutch" or "entitlement" but he sure has the "somebody-owes-me" concept mastered.

And of course what would a national disaster be without somebody trying to politicize the tragedy.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who in recent years has gone from being a concerned environmentalist to a chain-yourself-to-a-tree environmentalist, is blaming the United States in general and President Bush and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour in particular, for Hurricane Katrina. Kennedy and others are saying that the hurricane is the result of global warming and since Bush and Barbour both opposed the Kyoto treaty that this disaster is their fault.

I've written in this column repeatedly and I will say it again: For every scientific document that's produced about the perils of global warming there's another scientific document saying global warming is nothing but ¦ pardon the phrase ¦ a lot of hot air.

I recently read a reprint of an article that appeared in Newsweek more than 30 years ago that quoted scientists who believed that the Earth was cooling at a rapid rate. Given that scientific mumbo-jumbo, I wonder how Kennedy and Crew would explain Hurricane Camille - a 1969 Category 5 hurricane that hit nearly the exact same location as Hurricane Katrina?

Is it bravado, stupidity or a combination of both that prompt people to "ride out" a Category 5 hurricane?

Emergency officials all along the Gulf Coast started issuing warnings more than 48 hours before Hurricane Katrina actually reached landfall, yet some people - people with the means and the transportation - decided to stay put.

I understand that some people didn't have the means to travel and others have physical disabilities, but I have been amazed at those who lived right on the gulf in wood-framed dwellings who decided to stay. In one news report a group of people, estimated at 30, decided to have a party at an apartment complex within spitting distance of the gulf. The only thing left of the building or the partiers is a slab of concrete.

Many years ago a popular commercial had the catch-phrase, "it's not nice to fool Mother Nature." After hearing some of the tragic stories about those who defied the reports to flee, I think it's fair to say that it's also "not very smart to fool WITH Mother Nature."

The scope of the devastation caused by Katrina has provided footage that most of us have never witnessed before, however the most amazing thing I've witnessed so far are the daring rooftop rescues. Can you imagine the skill involved in maneuvering a helicopter through downed tree limbs and power lines to lower a Coast Guard officer attached to a steel cable onto a rooftop to assist in the rescue of individuals who are stranded?

In another lifetime I worked in a profession where I occasionally drew the task of working from a basket attached to a crane at heights probably no higher than 50 feet off the ground. It was a job I detested and to tell the truth one that made me more than a little squeamish. As I watched a recent rescue in New Orleans with two small, helpless children being pulled from a rooftop I could feel the palms of my hands start to sweat. Can you imagine the memories those poor, defenseless children will have?

We hear a lot these days about sports stars being "heroes" and "role models" to our younger generation. Instead of that nonsense the talented and courageous individuals taking part in these life-saving rescues should be held up to our children as an example of what a real-life hero looks like.

Jim Muir's column appears each Tuesday and Thursday. He can be reached at writeon1@shawneelink.net or (618) 625-2006.@shawneelink.net or (618) 625-2006.