In January of 2009 Governor Bobby Jindahl of Louisiana mocked a federal proposal that would fund research on volcano monitoring. Two months later the Mount Redoubt volcano in Alaska erupted, blowing an ash and steam plume 15,000 feet into the atmosphere but doing avoiding major damage because it's in a remote part of Alaska (and that's really saying something). But then, just over a year later, volcano Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland erupted, causing the largest disruption to European air travel in history. It slowed down after a week but now, two weeks later, it looks like it may be getting ready to go again. The cost to airlines ran into the billions of dollars and it wrought havoc on air travel for hundreds of thousands of people.
All through the 2008 Presidential campaign John McCain, Sarah Palin and the rest of the leaders of the GOP mindlessly chanted "Drill, Baby, Drill" at every opportunity. Less than 18 months later an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana collapsed, killing 11 workers and for the last two weeks has been dumping over 200,000 gallons of oil into the delicate Gulf waters every day, with the possibility of the flow increasing by a factor of 10 before it can be cut off at the source in 3-4 months. A week later another Gulf of Mexico oil rig collapsed but, fortunately isn't spewing oil. Yet.
That same campaign saw discussions of clean coal, a misnomer if there ever was one, and in April of 2010 the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia exploded, killing 29 workers in the worst mine disaster in three decades.
There have been other such disasters including mine collapses in China and the devastating earthquakes in Chile, Haiti and southeast Asia but those I've mentioned seem remarkably pointed at the USA and it's not like God would suspend his normal world-wide activities even while majoring in one country.
If you're looking for signs from God these couldn't be more obvious. But I can hear the replies now: a year or two is a long time between events. Is it? Isn't even a century as but a blink of God's all-seeing eye? Why cause a disaster right away without the proper planning when you can wait an instant and get it just right?
Maybe God is trying to teach the Democrats a lesson, you say? After all, President Obama is a Democrat. But He is going after distinctly Republican targets. If he wanted to spank the Liberals wouldn't he be better off knocking over a couple of windmills instead of oil rigs? Bankrupting Whole Foods rather than GM? Collapsing Ed Begley's ecohouse not a coal mine? Allowing a terrorist to complete his goal rather than giving them all a chronic case of the incompetent stupids? The list goes on.
Fortunately I don't believe in such things, but if you believe in a do-it-yourself, over-achiever God the signs are all around you and they're crystal clear. Your God is telling you something. And if you're still supporting the GOP you're not listening. How do you think that makes Him feel?
Still looking forward to that afterlife?
That would be absurd.
Amen!
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