Please Give.

As I write this, I'm waiting for the Salvation Army's secure server page to load so that I can donate toward disaster relief. I'm taking the slow loading as a good sign that their servers are overloaded by other people doing what I'm attempting. For reasons I won't get into, I'm not a big fan of the Red Cross (as always, YMMV) so I want to give to organizations that I believe are trustworthy and will use the money well. The Salvation Army seems to me a good one, but by all means pick your own. They are myriad.

(Whoops! Server timed out. Gotta try again...)

If you've been near a radio or TV or on the web in the last couple of days, I know you know that tens of thousands of families are now homeless, jobless, and quite probably possess only that which they can physically carry. These aren't people in some third-world country on the other side of the planet, these are our fellow citizens (who probably dug into their own pockets for the victims of the tsunami just a few months ago.) These people need our help. They've got next to nothing. Anything helps. There's a couple hundred million of us. No need to give 'till it hurts.

Just give 'till it twinges a bit.

(Server timed out again. Guess I'll try the old-fashioned way. I'll use the telephone.)

UPDATE: Phone lines were overloaded, too. Finally got through via internet.

UPDATE, 9/1: James Lileks today:

FEMA’s list of charities is here. Note anything about what sort of organizations are doing the hard work? I keep looking for the Objectivist Mutual Aid Society, but it never pops up.

Of course not. The free market is supposed to take care of all that. The root of all evil is altruism, you know. See what I mean about James's sense of humor?