very, very tiredChapter Eight has been coming much more slowly than expected. In part, that's because it's simply a difficult, complicated chapter. In part, it's Hurricane Katrina. I'd hoped to have the chapter finished yesterday. Now I'm hoping I'll be done late on Saturday — unless I have to go to Birmingham, in which case it will likely be Monday or Tuesday.
What next. I swear, my head's so turned around this morning. I wanted to say thanks to everyone who e-mailed yesterday regarding
docbrite. I'm still trying to reach her, as are faustfatale and tjcrowley. I wish she could see the concern and support from her readers — it might come as some sort of consolation and comfort. So, thank you all. Also, thanks to those who've written to say that they're sorry I won't be at Dragon*Con this year. I have promised that I will be back next year, and Nar'eth will be, too.Clearly, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is taking his own sweet time putting his noodly smack down on a lot of crazy Xtian mofos. Specifically, all the shitwits still stuck in the stone age who think that the paths of hurricanes are determined by some sort of weird magnetic relationship between naughty people and the temper tantrums of imaginary superbeings. To wit, I quote Michael Marcavage, director of a whole bunch of crazy Xtian mofos who call themselves Repent America:
Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city. From 'Girls Gone Wild' to 'Southern Decadence,' New Orleans was a city that had its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin. From the devastation may a city full of righteousness emerge, We must help and pray for those ravaged by this disaster, but let us not forget that the citizens of New Orleans tolerated and welcomed the wickedness in their city for so long. May this act of God cause us all to think about what we tolerate in our city limits, and bring us trembling before the throne of Almighty God.
Yeah, so from this I learn two things: a) both fundamentalist Xtians and Islamic insurgents believe that the destruction of New Orleans was a judgmental act of God (they agree so often, I don't see what all the fighting's about); b) boobies and butt sex determine where Category Five hurricanes make landfall, when levees break, and how high flood waters will rise. And here I wasted all that time on climatology, meteorology, hydrodynamics, etc. and etc. All I had to do was hearken the good words of the Right Reverand Marcavage...
Oh, and while you're at the Repent America website, be sure to take they're convenient and educational "Are You Good Enough to Go to Heaven" quiz. Guess how I scored?
It's pretty easy to joke about idiot fundamentalists, no matter how scary they might actually be. But I'm feeling a little sicker about the Bush Administration having cut funds that would have gone towards levee improvements. Oh, and all this absurd "commentary" from the talking heads on CNN and MSNBC about the NOLA police turning a blind eye to "law and order," because they're not shooting "looters" for taking food and clothing from abandoned, flooded businesses. I agree that those assholes stealing televisions in a town that isn't going to have electricity for months need a little firmer grasp on current events. But does anyone really think that the goods on those Wal-Mart shelves will ever again be available for sale? Whatever isn't taken will wind up in a landfill somewhere when the bulldozers and clean-up crews are done. People need to be evacuated, not arrested for stealing shoes and water.
A relevant quote and salient questions from
tagplazen:So who are the real lawbreakers? The people that are looting stores, or the people that sold off wetlands to developers? The people that need food and water, or the people that diverted all of the funds for flood control into a false war with false pretenses and falsified documentation?
