Monthly Archives: September 2005

Who Is Really to Blame for Katrina?

This entry was posted in Government Religion on by

This Alabama state senator has the answer:

Hurricane Katrina and other storms that battered the Gulf Coast were God’s judgment of sin, according to state Sen. Hank Erwin, R-Montevallo.
“New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast have always been known for gambling, sin and wickedness,” Erwin wrote this week in a column he distributes to news outlets. “It is the kind of behavior that ultimately brings the judgment of God.”
After touring Gulfport and Biloxi, Miss., and Bayou La Batre, Erwin said he was awed and humbled by the power of the storm. But he wasn’t surprised.
“Warnings year after year by godly evangelists and preachers went unheeded. So why were we surprised when finally the hand of judgment fell?” Erwin wrote. “Sadly, innocents suffered along with the guilty. Sin always brings suffering to good people as well as the bad.”

In case you doubt erwin’s credentials there is this:

Twinkle Andress, executive director of the Alabama Republican Party, said she had not seen Erwin’s column. But she praised his performance as a senator.
“Obviously, I think Hank Erwin is a great senator and been a real leader,” she said.

According to the article erwin is in fine company: al-Qaida, Pat Robertson and Louis Farrakhan have expressed similar views.

Setting A Fine Example

This entry was posted in bush on by

Headlines from todays news:

First (R): Bush urges U.S. to conserve gas

President Bush called on Americans on Monday to conserve fuel and cut non-essential car trips….

Second (R): Bush Gets Close-Up Look at Rita’s Damage

President Bush flew over the largely obliterated Louisiana town of Cameron and circled an offshore oil rig in his first up-close look at the devastation that Hurricane Rita brought to the Gulf Coast’s oil producing and refining communities.

What could be more non-essential than a bush fly-over?

It’s A Revenue Generator

This entry was posted in Constitution Drug Laws Federal Government Law Enforcement Libertarianism Sex on by

I’d like to think that the us senate respects the people and the constitution enough to toss out crap like the house recently passed on to it but, heck, it is the us senate so we will probably get to see this go all the way to the supreme court before we hopefully are rid of at least some of the more noxious provisions.
Radley in discussing some of representative pence’s (r-ind) additons to the Child Safety Act of 2005 also notes the following:

It gets worse. The bill’s enforcement provisions empower law enforcement with the power to seize the assets of violators, proving that there really is a graveyard of stupid ideas deep in the bowels of the U.S. Capitol Building that Congressmen return to when they’re out of stuff to legislate. Because asset forfeiture has worked so well with the drug war. Idiots.

Actually asset forfeiture has worked very well in the drug wars. See, assest forfeiture is not about stopping some type of alleged criminal activity. Rather, it is about adding another revenue source for government agencies. And they don’t have to call it extortion taxation.
Via Brian Doss at Catallarchy.