It Didn't Take Long

Well, it didn't take long for Westboro Baptist to fix blame for the Oklahoma tornado.  Yes, folks, it's the fault of Jason Collins, the first openly gay basketball player in the NBA.  I do hope Jason catches on with another team next season just to piss of WB.  Of course, Westboro may not get the chance to stew over the career of Jason Collins.  Sad fact, Jason Collins is nearing the end of his playing days.  He spent this season sitting on the bench, and at his age, that usually means  unemployment is on the horizon.  Of course, it's only a matter of time until there is an openly gay, 25 year old starter with a good decade of  playing time in his future.

Meanwhile, CNN reporter Wolf Blitzer did the whole, don't you just thank god you've survived this terrible cataclysm thing with a woman he was interviewing.  "Actually, I'm an atheist." she replied.  Get used to it folks.  Latest polling is that 20% of us do not believe in a deity,  and among those under thirty, it's more like 30% with no religious affiliation.  Of course, that may mean they're free thinkers.  For those unfamiliar with the term, free thinker refers to a nineteenth century movement of atheists, agnostics, and those who believed, but rejected the idea of organised religion.  Abraham Lincoln, as an example, was a believer who never joined a church.  And let's not forget the openly atheistic, Robert Ingersoll.

Which brings me to all those survivors of the tornado who thank god for sparing their lives.  I've always wondered why such people don't make the obvious connection.  If god chose to spare their lives, doesn't that mean he chose to kill others.  Just asking.

Tom the Oakie

Well, I've got to hand it to Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn.  In past natural disasters, he has insisted that any aid be tied to offseting budget cuts.  Needless to say, people in states like Florida, New York, and New Jersey, all of which have seen some pretty severe hurricanes in the past few years were not happy to have disaster aid challenged by Oklahoma Tom.  But, he is consistent.  Good old Tom is making the same demand now that his own state has been hit hard.  I'm amazed that Oklahoma doesn't require tornado shelters at their public schools.

Oklahoma

At the risk of being seen as insensitive, I've got to ask a couple of obvious questions about today's mega tornado in Oklahoma.

1.  Conservatives are constantly going on about how human caused climate change is a hoax.  There are a lot of very conservative people in Oklahoma.  What are they saying now?  Climate scientists have been warning about more, large, super storms on the great plains, and those predictions are coming true.

2.  Many conservative, evangelical Christians have made a connection between Hurricane Sandy and gays in New York.  Their strange reasoning is that God  let loose his wrath on the sinful metropolis.  There are a lot of conservative, evangelical Christians in Oklahoma.  Do they think that God is punishing Oklahoma, and if so, why?

3.  And speaking of Hurricane Sandy, Oklahoma senators James Inhofe and Tom Coburn worked to slash disaster relief to New York and New Jersey.  When FEMA was running out of money, both senators opposed adding more money to the FEMA budget.  Will they oppose disaster relief for Moore, Oklahoma?

I'm just asking.

Our Friend the Bankster

Is Maya Angeleou broke?  Why else would she be doing those terrible commercials for Union Bank.  When someone talks about how banks work to do the right thing, it's just a reminder that banks don't do the right thing.

Fire!

How many times do I have to make this point?  The Santa Monica Mountains burn.  There are major fires in the mountains every few years, and Los Angeles and Ventura counties have to spend millions of dollars defending the homes of the wealthy.  It does not make any sense to allow development in the Santa Monicas.  It's time to preserve them as open space, preferably as California's tenth national park.