Oh my god ...

The horrors of the world have happened, oh, for many, many centuries. I just saw Eddie Izzard perform and he, comedically, made that point ... and that maybe there was no grand "God" pulling the strings. I'm agnostic, so I'm part of that flock, but I think if there is or was a God, he kicked things into play billions of years ago and said, "Right, it's yours now, whatever you want to do ..." Hence, Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, South Korea, Iran, Iraq, Bush I and II, Supreme Court decisions about presidential elections, Colonialism, the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades ... and so on. Now, we have Pat Robertson, who no one should pay attention to, blaming the devastating earthquake in Haiti on the country's pact with the devil. Yes, that makes sense, just like we called 9/11 on ourselves because of godless homosexuality or whatever the scapegoat for the self-righteous Christian right was then. It doesn't matter. The smug bastards proclaim ... and the media reports it as news! All we can do is urge what our friend (in Facebook and real life) Lili Dennison (former manager of the Del Fuegos, many others) urged: Call Pat's 700 Club number 800-759-0700 and make 'em spend a dollar every time they answer. I talked to a "prayer counselor" or whatever they are called, recently. It's a real hoot to get 'em off script and they open the door to prayer and then you ask them to pray for guidance for Pat to become less hateful and xenophobic and all the rest, but they get flustered and it all dissipates. Still, it's fun and you cost 'em a buck. (On my second call of the day they referred me to www.cbn.com for a semi-apologia and backtrack. Right. Go to www.youtube.com and see the video for yourself and judge.) Do it. For a more positive effect, you can contribute through www.clintonfoundation.org/haiti or www.WorldVision.org/HaitiRelief or www.redcross.org. There's surely a bunch more being set up as I type ... My wife and I, we're rounding up spare clothes to be sent down south ... 

And, oh yes, the people who have been saved and their happy happy relatives thanking God. ... Do the math. It's lovely your son/daughter/whoever missed death or dismemberment, but what does that mean that you're thanking God for that? It means, follow the logic, that God let others (less deserving of life?) die horrible, torturous death. Like God - again, suspending disbelief here - is a) real and b) has a vested interest in each and every human being's survival, more so, though, for those who are santimonious and pray to him.

Your relatives survive disaster? Be joyous, but consider the others who didn't and feel their pain, their bad luck. Which is really all it is. Time, place, circumstance. The way a building crumbles or doesn't. God's not really reaching in here and plucking favorites out of the rubble. It's maddening to think any people think he does, that their offspring are among the chosen.