Mother Nature She Be Pissed

Wow, we're getting some sort of message, but I don't know if anyone is hearing it.

The most violent season of hurricanes ever. Earthquakes and brushfires in California. Two feet of snow in Colorado -- EAST of the Rockies. A massive earthquake in Pakistan. Mudslides in Central America. The Tsunami last December. Unending rain and flooding here in the Northeast. And the impending avian flu pandemic, which according to the US Secretary of Health & Human services, is pretty much a fait accompli. (Can you say The Stand? Maybe Stephen King knew something before the rest of us, or maybe he was just given his dark vision to foreshadow the future? Go back and re-read The Dead Zone. Then look me in the eye and tell me, "George Bush is NOT Greg Stillson." If I hear voices from my drain saying, "We all float down here," then I'll know for sure.)

I don't know if the writing on the wall could be any clearer.

Mother Nature's waaaaaaay pissed off. And she's showing it. She is throwing the clothes out the windows and dashing the dishes to the kitchen floor and all but setting us on fire in our beds, and we just don't seem to get it. We've plundered and raped and pillaged and strip-mined and deforested and polluted as if it's infinite. We have been terrible stewards.

She's gearing up for something big....think about it. Personally, I believe that MN gives herself periodic enemas. She concocts something particularly diabolical to dispose of a lot of souls in efficient periods of time. Think Black Plague. Think Flu Epidemic of 1918. Think AIDS in Africa.

These huge natural events that are killing thousands and hundreds of thousands -- well, maybe they're a housecleaning of sorts?

Maybe we should start paying attention? But then again, as long as we have our SUV's and cable TV, who gives a fuck, right? I got mine, screw everyone else. (The GOP should put that on bumper stickers).

Then again, maybe the message is simple: Take care of each other. After the earthquake in Pakistan this weekend, their longtime enemy India sent aid and supplies -- I saw the containers being loaded into planes with labels on them "To the people of Pakistan, from the people of India." Now, these are folks who have been at war at least three times over the Kashmir region (where the quake took place), setting aside their differences to HELP EACH OTHER. The president of Pakistan graciously and publicly accepted the assistance of his longtime enemy, India.

I couldn't help but compare and contrast to Georgie-Boy's response to Fidel Castro's offer of assistance after Hurricane Katrina. Communism doesn't work, blah, blah, blah -- all that Communism is bad stuff, I can get behind that. However, one can't overlook the fact that a) Cuba has the most efficient and effective hurricane evacuation system in the world -- they have to, since they sit in the path of most every storm bound for Florida and/or the Gulf; and b) for some reason or another, Cuba has lots and lots of highly-trained doctors (not to mention a literacy rate that puts us to shame). So Castro offered to send some of his highly trained medics, field hospitals and 83 tons of medical supplies to the US to assist after Katrina. I saw a photo on Yahoo News of a roomful of Cuban doctors, with their bags packed, waiting for the word to come directly to New Orleans. The White House response? Well, I quote Scott McClelland here:

“When it comes to Cuba,” said McClellan, “we have one message for Fidel Castro: He needs to offer the people of Cuba their freedom.”

God, it brings a tear to my eye, a patriotic swelling that during a national catastrophe the White House is so clearsighted that not only do they remember to put old Cold War grudges before actually helping our own people, they are able to do it in the context of their "Freedom is on the march" bloviating. I can just hear that Lee Greenwood song rising in the background as I hold my NASCAR cap over my heart, "I'm proud to be an AmeriCAN..."

And a Cuban doctor's response?

“Let’s get going,” she said. “This is not political. This is a humanitarian emergency. People are dying and they need our help.”

Hmmm. So India and Pakistan are able to put aside their differences to aid the earthquake victims, and the US tells Cuba to talk to the hand. Who understands the meaning of the word "humanitarian" better?

The Bush government is so fucked up that it makes my hair hurt.

I have to comment on Karl Rove in another post. My shoes are wet, my hair is wet, the hem of my skirt is wet, and my mascara is pretty much gone.