Why are godfearing people so callous towards those in the paths of hurricanes?

And it doesn't seem to matter whether they are Republican or Democrat in this country! Especially at this particular juncture in the political cycle of the presidential election, they are both willing to pray to the invisible man in the sky to make it rain on the other party's parade - no matter who else gets soaked or drowns in the process!! What is with these people?!

First it was James Dobson calling upon his flock to pray for a storm to ruin Obama's rock-star speech in the open stadium in Denver on thursday. That was hardly surprising, though, given how quick Dobson and his ilk are at praying for everything, and crediting god with raining destruction upon what they see as the evils of the world, such as the city of New Orleans, or the Democratic party. What else can one do but laugh it off, especially when no rain fell upon Denver?

But then, Gustav starts building up and bearing upon the Gulf coast, with New Orleans once again in its crosshairs. And what does one see from that lefty gadfly Michael Moore, but this interview, where he too is crediting god with being present and just, by timing this new hurricane's landfall around New Orleans to coincide with the Republican convention being held way upstream along the same Mississippi river in Minnesota!! I couldn't believe he'd actually said what he was saying - nor that he would then share that interview on youtube and his mailing list. How daft do you have to be, or politically blinkered (or worse, self-serving), to not realize when its an appropriate time to be ironic and when it is not? He has his defenders (and I might have been among them, but not this time) who are trying to focus on his ironic intent, and the fact that he immediately backtracked on TV - and I suppose he didn't quite mean it in the same serious way that Dobson was calling upon god to rain on Obama's speech. Moore has subsequently tried to clarify his stance with an "open letter to god" - but again, he can't help but credit god with the hurricane and its timing; and add his own prayer asking that god kill that hurricane in its path before it wreaks further havoc on the gulf coast; and gloat over the fact that the FEMA man charged with the emergency response this time shares Dubya's initial and Moore's own name! He (and his defenders) also point out the fact that he did more in the immediate aftermath of Katrina than Dobson / Falwell (who were crediting god with cleansing New Orleans) or Bush/McCain (who were busy enjoying the latter's birthday cake!). Does that make it ok for him to keep suggesting (even with tongue-in cheek) that Gustav is some sort of retribution for the republicans' poor response after Katrina?

I'm not so sure that this letter lets him off the hook for his own god-bothering insensitivity this time. To those pharyngulites who are ready to accept Moore's irony and mea culpa, I have to ask - why turn a blind eye to Moore's catholicism in this instance, when Stephen Colbert's much more overt irony irritated them so much when directed against atheists? You blamed his being a fairly active catholic then - why go soft on Moore's religiosity? merely because he's directing his "irony" against republicans? where's the consistency - atheists?

Meanwhile Gustav has turned threatening enough for McCain to call for a suspension of most of his party's convention activities on Monday. Good for him, and let's hope the govt. gets its response right this time around! But I'm not praying for that... just watching the hurricane build again with increasing dread...