Today, three days after the Aceh tsunami slammed across the Pacific Rim, the official death toll has reached 80,000 and continues to rise as rescue teams reach more remote areas.

President George Bush, reacting to charges that the world's wealthiest countries were being "stingy," pledged $35 million in support.

According to Jane's Defence, that's just under the price of two Apache gunship helicopters.

Links for disaster relief organizations:
* http://www.lonelyplanet.com/tsunami/
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1139932.stm
* http://www.medair.org/en_portal/features.php?news_id=87
* Donate to the American Red Cross through Amazon.com

Footnote added 30 Dec:

American-based multinational corporations have already outdone the government's initial pledge, with Pfizer alone matching the initial $35 million pledge. Other big names include Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Cisco Systems, Motorola, and Microsoft. Time-Warner has set up a matching fund for employees who donate to the relief effort (so if you work for them, chip in and let your boss know).

The President now says the U.S. pledge is "only the beginning of our help," and promises to coordinate a coalition of nations to, uh, rebuild the shattered countries. Perhaps he was embarrassed when Spain, the country that dropped out of that other coalition, offered almost double America's tsunami support by pledging $68 million in aid.

This is an excerpt from Mr. Choojitarom's latest seasonal offering. It follows the tradition of An American Santa, excerpted elsewhere on this site.

> EBEN
> Well, here I am, sound asleep at my thrifty
> multi-purpose cooperative farm
> and empowerment center in my fair trade organic
> hemp sleeping cap I bought
> at Bonaroo.
>
> A.J. AYER
> Ebeneezer, Ebeneezer...
>
> EBEN
> Who’s there?
>
> A.J. AYER
> It is I, the ghost of Alfred Jules Ayer. As a
> logical positivist, I denied
> the existence of an afterlife. Now, after my
> death, am condemned to walk the
> earth.
>
> EBEN
> If you’re walking the earth, in what sense are
> you dead?
>
> A.J. AYER
> I am a ghost
>
> EBEN
> There’s no such thing as ghosts. The original
> Scooby-Doo made this clear.
> Either I am hallucinating, having a dream or
> you are just a person who has
> broken into my house and “talksss likeee
> thisssss”

>
> A.J. AYER
> Well, that’s an excellent point. Well taken. I
> commend your clear rational
> critique of misleading and confused
> superstition. Let’s say I am the specter
> of Humanlight past.
>
> EBEN
> Specter, ghost -listen, is Frege there with
> you?
>
> A.J. AYER
> No, no, a specter in the the sense of “there is
> a specter haunting Europe.
> The specter of communism”, a historical specter
> in the sense of the
> collective effects of the unintended
> consequences of human action over time.
>
> EBEN
> So you’re supposed to be some sort of
> trans-historical phenomenon that is
> some how also historically bound and materially
> constituted...
>
> A.J. AYER
> You’re having a dream, a crazy, crazy dream
>
> EBEN
> Alright, alright, what is it you want to show
> me?
>
> A.J. AYER
> Well, what makes you think I’m here to show you
> anything? This is a crazy
> dream. Anything could happen. We could just
> start kissing and stuff.
>
> EBEN
> I don’t think so
>
> A.J. AYER
> I mean, it could be what you really want, I
> mean, it’s your dream, right?
>
> EBEN
> Yes, and that’s not going to happen.
>
> A.J. AYER
> It could be a really sexy dream
>
> EBEN
> Would you roll the clip, or whatever.
>
> A.J. AYER
> [Spooky voice] Sexxxyy hottt dreeaam [Eben
> gives Cratchit a look]...Ahem
> ...we’re going back, back, back to the early
> days of humanism, where brave
> thinkers struggled to let shine the human light
> of reason against the
> darkness of religious dogma, superstition and
> prejudice to the very first
> Humanlight....
>
> GALILEO
> Merry Humanlight, Rene Descartes!
>
> RENÉ DESCARTES
> Merry Humanlight, Galileo Gallilei!
>
> GALILEO
> What’s this?
>
> RENÉ DESCARTES
> It is a little something I made for you. It is
> a little sweater and on it it
> says that the possibility exists that events of
> the natural world might be
> the product of natural causal laws and not
> created moment to moment by
> divine intervention.
>
> GALILEO
> It’s so beautiful and rational. And bold!
>
> RENÉ DESCARTES
> Yes, you can wear it inside out. On the
> outside, it says that this is only a
> hypothesis and that in reality a benevolent God
> who is Catholic, male and
> white is the immediate cause of all things.
>
> GALILEO
> Why Descartes, you sly old dog! I could kiss
> you!
>
> RENÉ DESCARTES
> No, don’t, the Inquisition will burn us.
>