Loonies come out of the woodwork

[Jack Scribe]

Here are disgusting comments from a far-right wingnut minister concerning homosexuality and the wildfires: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/10/24/185112/29. Jerry Falwell would be proud.

We corrupted, immoral misfits living in California are being punished by God.

 

Jack

[Adrian Michaels]

*sigh* WHY are they always from Wisconsin?

[Bondwriter]

*sigh* WHY are they always from Wisconsin?

They're not ALWAYS from Wisconsin. They sometimes are from Wisconsin. Then sometimes from Minnesota, Iowa or Illinois... No, seriously, there must be this type of individuals in every state. We even have some here.

[dkstories]

We even have some here in California too. Now, just as a counterpoint, I will point out:

 

1. It's Southern California that is burning. Specifically San Diego County, Orange County, Ventura County, San Bernadino County, Imperial County, and of course Riverside County with some parts of Los Angeles County.

2. All the areas burning (even the parts of LA County) are majority REPUBLICAN and some of the most conservative areas of the state. Yes folks, that's right, it's the Republican areas of California that are burning. The liberal areas are free from the flames.

 

So, given this man reasoning that the fires are a wake-up call from God, it looks like God is calling the Republicans to wake up, not the liberals.

[Bondwriter]

The liberal areas are free from the flames.

 

So, given this man reasoning that the fires are a wake-up call from God, it looks like God is calling the Republicans to wake up, not the liberals.

Amen!

 

 

 

(This is, of course, intended as humor. No one should perish based on his beliefs and creeds. Magical thinking obviously would be pleasing in some cases, when imagining the wicked burning in eternal flames, but it's just that, magical thinking.)

[old bob]

As I heard in the swiss news from a correspondent in California, public opinion reacts badly against Bush, the way he goes now, in comparison to how lazy he did 2005 (and also his administration) in case Katrina and the facts that the victims in New Orleans were mostly people without insurances, in contrary to the wealthy people in South California. I heard also that the fight against the flames were much more intensive in areas inhabited by famous actors than in lost areas with less known inhabitants. Even there, as we say in French : "il y a deux poids et mesures", one for the richs, one for the poors ! )I dont want to mix politics here, just my comment to the counterpoint pointed out by DK.

[Graeme]

I wonder what he thought was the reason for the massive bushfires in Australia last year. We don't have any similar legislation in place....

 

There are always people who see the hand of God in any natural disaster and then work out their own reasons for God's actions. Mostly, I ignore them. I have a great deal of trouble in believing that these people have a direct line into knowing God's motives and actions....

[CarlHoliday]

Obviously, he didn't pay any attention to the expert, who puts the blame squarely on those who are clearly at fault.

 

http://people.monstersandcritics.com/news/...rtis_fire_blame

 

And, it's nice to see wacko Christians getting a little air time. Where would they be if they didn't get a little publicity now and then?

 

And, it's nice he can blame the homosexuals when the bill in question was only adding sexual orientation to the list of things schools and school programs can't discriminate against. Why is sexual orientation always assumed to be a homosexual thing? This bill actually added hetrosexuality to the definition of sexual orientation. The fires could, in all likelihood, be God's punishment of those nasty hetrosexuals.

[JamesSavik]

*sigh* WHY are they always from Wisconsin?

 

They're not. Big Daddy Phelps is originally from Meridian Mississippi. He left in the 50s because he was too liberal for local tastes.

[Krista]

Oh goodness... this should be shocking but it's not, I was kind of expecting some sort of religious uproar over another major disaster. I was actually telling Derek, Jason, and Greg this the other day and they were like, "no, wildfires happen in the west all the time." Now I get on here and read about this and I can now show this and say, "I told you so..." not about that though, I have really lost my respect for religion over the years and it's scary that people like this loon only show the ugly side of Faith. It fuels the separation and tension between social groups and that's most unfortunate.

 

 

Krista

[TonyM]

I'm SOOOO sorry about this! The fires are partially my fault. We should have never come to San Diego. Just from our office in Quebec, there were 7 of us of the homosexual persuasion who attended our company's national meetings. I know there were several other homosexuals as well from other parts of the US attending the meeting. We must have upset the delicate balance between straight and gay here in SoCal. I feel absolutely horrible about it.

 

I can't believe these people. Unfortunately, there are a few in my family who may believe some of the crap these fanatics spout. It's one of the reasons I am still not out to any in my family.

[jfalkon]

If fire is used to punish homosexuality then what are tornados punishing? Hyper-religious sadism maybe?

[rknapp]

There's a article out there by tree-huggers who are blaming the fires on Bush. I'm too lazy to find and link it though. Maybe tomorrow.

[colinian]

...I heard also that the fight against the flames were much more intensive in areas inhabited by famous actors than in lost areas with less known inhabitants. Even there, as we say in French : "il y a deux poids et mesures", one for the richs, one for the poors ! )

 

That's not true, whoever reported that wasn't aware of the facts. In the fire in Malibu, which is home to both very rich and normal people, most of the homes destroyed were those of the rich.

 

These fires were not able to be fought on the basis of "we'll save this famous actors house" or "this rich person's house" basis. The winds were 50 miles/hour with gusts up to 100 miles/hour. The fire was spread by cinders being blown from where the fire was burning to homes and businesses and open land in some cases miles from where the fire was burning. It was like there'd be 10 homes burned, and right in the middle of them there'd be a house that was essentially untouched by the firestorm. There were no fire crews in those locations; if they'd been there, they would have been killed by the fire. The flames and heat were too intense to allow access. There are a lot of unburned houses in the middle of a burned-out areas, and it was luck and the way the winds gusted and how the fire moved. In the worst hit areas the fires had to be fought by dropping chemical retardants and water from the air, and less so by normal ground-based fire crews.

 

What's amazing is that through the efforts of the fire crews, the number of homes destroyed in all of the fires is about 1,650. That's a very large number, but when you consider that about 1,000,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes, about 365,000 homes, 1,650 isn't as large a number as what it could have been. Think about the size of these fires this way: he total burned acreage of all of the fires is larger than the size of the city of New York.

 

There were 16 major fires, two of which merged into much larger and harder to fight conflagration. But there were also many smaller fires in addition to those that were named and numbered. Check out the latest L.A. Times map, (as of Wednesday at 8:00 p.m.), at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-10250...5153024.graphic. Note the Witch fire, #14 on the map. It's over 20 miles across and was only 1% contained as of Wednesday evening.

 

Colin