Things to Ponder...

Click for a harsh political cartoon, that makes a good point yet completely misses another. Since the point is clear, I'll address the miss. We lost a whole lot of infrastructure down in the south, especially oil-producing/refining infrastructure. You think gas prices are bad now? Wait until we start running out. Pre-Katrina production exceeded the max at most facilities, and prices were still going up due to the high demand (morons who don't need SUV's but think they're cool, anyone?). Now we've lost a whole lot of our capacity. If we don't take steps to reduce consumption, things will get worse. Fine, I despise Bush. But that is one of his rare USEFUL messages. Think about it: an oil baron asking people to reduce oil consumption. Wow! He might not be as brainless as I thought!

And just because the comments/discussion is interesting, here is a largely atheist response to Katrina. If you get disgusted by the flagrant anti-religious attitudes, keep reading. A moderate steps up to point out that (1)most of the aid is coming from religious organizations (2)the religious nuts tend to be more vocal and stand out, (3)it is possible to be religious without being a lunatic (that may be a separate comment from the first). Having been on both sides of the atheist/god debate at different points in my life, I can relate to most of the comments. At one time, I had an unhealthy helping of antitheism in my system, and many of the comments on that site illustrate my prior attitudes perfectly. What happened to me? Well, I stepped out of the system entirely (I might post more about this on my other blog at some point; it's already gone off-topic here).

Just some final thoughts. There are some (many?) things that the hardcore atheists and antitheists just don't get. They don't understand how people can praise God that they are alive and not condemn Him for the destruction. This tells me that they are too attached to the past. They cannot let go of what has come before and embrace what is now. The past is dead, and the future never comes. Now is all we have. Now, in this moment, people have survived. Now, in this moment, they are being rescued, evacuated, relocated. That is something to be thankful for.