I've never been impressed with New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, but I did not know he was this batty. From the Washington Post:
[Nagin] said "God is mad at America" and "is sending hurricane after hurricane" because He disapproves of the United States invading Iraq "under false pretenses."
I agree with basically all of this, excluding all the parts about God and hurricanes.
Seriously, though: It's not at all amusing to learn that Ray Nagin thinks in an alarmingly Robertsonian vein (albeit with a leftwing twist). Robertson has considerable influence but is not in a political leadership position. Nagin, by contrast, has to help figure out how to protect New Orleans from hurricanes, a task that will not be made easier by the belief that they're God's punishment.
A few weeks ago, I was outraged at Nagin when he falsely declared that "there's no science" to support building back the levees beyond Cat 3 strength. At the time I explained why this was wrong scientifically, but maybe I was taking the wrong approach. What I should have been asking is, is there any religion to support better protections for New Orleans? I would certainly hope that there is.
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Quackery knows no partisan or ideological lines -- although I wonder if one side has more of the quacks, or if those quacks just having bigger microphones to spew their views, thanks to their corporate sponsors.
I thought nearly the same thing. Here we all sit decrying what Robertson says, and Nagin goes out and makes the same one-on-one contact with God. Now we can't just say 'silly pat' because Nagin is doing it too. Sigh.
There is some small solace in how quickly and completely Nagin retracted his statements.
Leftwing twist? I hardly expected anything better from a Repiglican in Democratic clothing. Nagin was a mid-level Cox Communications flunky. Like Scamway and Sinclair Broadcasting, you don't rise to even mid-level flunky unless you drink the RNC Kool-Aid. Nagin contributed to Bush-Cheney 2K and it took some arm twisting to get Nagin to endorse Kerry-Edwards. For some odd reason, Nagin's labor on the Repig plantation never has received the attention it deserves. If it did, more people wouldn't be surprised by his Pat Robertson style statement.