These are definitely the least pleasant of times. After the TV is turned off and my aide leaves. As I lay in bed a silence grips the house with such a completeness as to seem in itself almost audible.

I tried to watch the Republican convention on CSPAN, just to hear voices. But thirty seconds was enough to convince me that I'd rather suffer the silence than listen to their crap.

Gustav seems to have spared New Orleans. Still, I heard someone on NPR remark that this does not prove the city is prepared for another Katrina. It only shows the city was ready for Gustav.