Looting v. Survival

  This is a tough call. Stories about the earthquake and tsunami in Chile have repeatedly referred to "looters" breaking into stores to get food and other supplies. Of course, some of them are going for less-essential items, like electronics. But what's the line on doing what you need to feed your family and stealing? UPDATED: Donald McNeil, ex-copy editor and now reporter at The New York Times, examines the moral ambiguity of looting.

 That's why this story is so scary. First, we all recall stories about the people of New Orleans being blocked from crossing through other communities after Hurricane Katrina. Now this sheriff is training and arming citizens to thwart terrorists, but explicitly mentions protecting food supplies. So al-Qaeda might try to clean out the yogurt aisle? Or all the regular folks going to have to starve while the incredibly heavily armed citizens chosen by the sheriff are taken care of?  And it's called Operation Exodus, as in, you know, one group of people flees from one place for safety in another.