Getting a bit carried away?

Those roaring, splashing, gurgling sounds you hear are the giant diesel engines in New Orleans pumping not just water but a grisly mix of lead, benzene, and fecal bacteria up a few feet into Lake Pontchartrain. The lake's beaches were to be opened to the public next summer. But all that is off, of course. Instead of bathing suits, look for three-piece business suits, worn by class-action lawyers.

All of which may or may not have been figured into the current estimates that Hurricane Katrina's final invoice will exceed $100 billion, making it-by a factor of three or four-the worst natural disaster ever inflicted on the United States. But no one really has the foggiest idea what the real cost will be. The imponderables, like lawsuits, are way too unwieldy.

That, in turn, calls to mind Jesus' words in Luke 14:28, where He warns about the folly of taking on a project without counting the cost. I think Jesus didn't mean just to count, but to analyze, to weigh, and to evaluate. And especially so when you're talking about spending $100 billion.

Keep in mind that $100 billion is one-eighteenth of the federal government's whole operating budget this year. It is what we have been spending each year on the entire Iraqi war effort. It is roughly twice as much as America spends each year to operate all its colleges and universities. It is more than the total passenger revenue of all the major airlines in the United States. This year. It is a staggeringly huge amount of money.

"Don't come to Washington this week," a friend called to warn me a few days ago. "It's a madhouse. Everybody's trying to be the first in line to send your money to Louisiana and Mississippi. The pork barrels are spinning like I've never seen before."

So at the risk of sounding like a September spoilsport, or like Scrooge coming three months before Christmas, let me raise a few "counting the cost" questions:

None of those incidents diminishes the reality or scope of the suffering that has occurred. But the solutions that are needed are far more complex and nuanced than those glibly provided by opportunistic politicians and media folks. Be wary when either of them starts scaring you with reports of 10,000 corpses, and when you hear them filling their endless hours with stories of homeless pets. Have they both gotten a little too frantic for a story?

Whoa. Slow down. Ask questions. Count the cost.