Woody Cavenaugh

Remember back when Katrina was poised to hit New Orleans and the ultra conservative christian fundy types were saying that Katrina was the hand of god smiting the evil in New Orleans. (There were certainly other examples of this, many I read on Greensboro101.) I guess before I take the next step I need to drop my disclaimer. I enjoy reading the ultra conservative bloggers I find on Greensboro101. There is no wisdom in spending your days only reading the people you agree with. Best of all, if I don't have enough information about a topic I can learn enough from the ultra conservatives that I can take a strong opposing stance and still be hotly disagreed with by the ultra liberals. Plus left or right, nut jobs are entertaining and educational. I find that in social situations I have really enjoyed the company of the extreme left and right, and there is always plenty of good conversation to go around.

Now back to topic. I would like to get a little exercise. For the sake of this blog entry, lets make the assumption that the statement "Katrina was the hand of God..." is true. Its a really controversial statement but just play along with me here. Everyone who reads this knows that they either read that idea recently, or stated it themselves.

My take on this is if this were true than the rest of the sentence we heard "...smiting the great bastion of sin which is New Orleans" is false. Did it really punish the pervayers of sin and vice? Nope, they left the city and put their insurance agents on speed dial. The people punished were the poor and or elderly folks who could not flee the city. The strip club owners and other "organized sin" types lose a little short term business but they profit in the end as they use emanate domain to take the land where the poor people used to rent tiny appartments and put in casino's and even larger strip clubs which have smaller casino's inside where inside you can find tiny strip clubs. So the "organized sin", groups are rewarded for the collateral damage which was the impoverished masses.

What was the target then? Well the city got flooded, poor people lost what little they had, many lost their lives, the organized sinners profited, the oil pipelines got damaged, some refineries got tossed, we lost a few oil platforms.

Now the hand of god through Rita is getting ready to smite Texas. (Remember we are accepting for the sake of argument that hurricanes are the hand of god.) I haven't read anything about Texas being a wretched hive of scum and villainy. (Political jokes asside) So what are they standing to lose? Homes, businesses, a few lives, and the island of Galvaston come to mind. Oh yeah, and 1/4 of all US oil refining capacity.

If we are going to accept that these storms are the almighty's bitchslap to the wicked, then it looks like the man upstairs is ticked off at United States oil production. Now why would that be?

Maybe it has to do with the US breaking that whole "thou shalt not kill" thing over in Iraq or the everpopular turn the other cheek thing that Jesus was fond of. It could have to do with avarice over the oil in the middle east. It could be the oil itself, though the ultra conservatives would argue that it was put there specifically for us to use and it will never run out thank the lord.

Swish it around in your head for a while like Listerine.
But don't forget to spit.