I was looking for the nation's noisiest and most disgusting religious bigots to declare that the tornado that swept Moore, Oklahoma, clean was the work of a righteously angry deity, the way Pat Robertson and Bryan Fischer did when Sandy flooded that den of iniquity New York.
But no. Not a peep out of either of those pus-filled charlatans, so far as I can find with the help of Mr. Google or Rightwing Watch.
Why is that?
Could it be that Oklahoma is the home of the 900-foot Jesus and a lot of pharaisaical Christians ? And one brave atheist.
Truly, the Moore tornadoes are the gift that keeps on giving to RtO. Never has one event so neatly skewered so many of the people RtO detests.
Hypocritical, money-grubbing preachers? Check
Hypocritical, money-grubbing Republican senators? Check
Hysterical climate alarmists? Check
Anti-regulating, small government Tea Party nuts? Check
Of course, it doesn't take am F5 tornado to knock down their houses of cards, but I couldn't have written a better script to expose the fallacies of the right wing.
Turns out, the Moore storm was not the first to hit the town. It wasn't even the first F5.
F5 tornadoes are slightly more numerous than Category 5 hurricanes, but there are only a few each year, spread over a vast range from Ontario to the Gulf Coast. For 2 to hit the same 10-square-mile spot in less than 15 years is remarkable (and to miss all the trailer parks still more remarkable), but Moore can claim to be the heart of Tornado Alley -- apparently it gets about 2 tornadoes every 3 years.
You may have heard somewhere that true blue rightwing Americans take responsibility for their own affairs and don't need any meddling bureaucrats to tell or even encourage them to look after themselves. So naturally, most Moore-ites had tornado shelters or safe rooms, and the buildings put up with grudgingly given tax dollars were both built to take a punch and provided with safe places for the children?
Of course not. Dollars are way more valuable than children in Moore. You can always make more babies.
But perhaps they are now having second, third or fourth thoughts? No.
Moore, Oklahoma, could obviously easily have afforded to protect its children. Moore is rich. No trailer parks.
But at least the Moore-ites intend to pull themselves back up by their own bootstraps without any meddling from the hated national gubmint? Well, no, of course not.
First, I'm glad you find that death and destruction are a "gift that keeps on giving". Way to go with grabbing the moral high ground and all that.
ReplyDeleteBut more importantly, you have the order backwards. IF and WHEN we're able to get the government to stop sucking the life out us, THEN we'll have the resources to be able to take care of ourselves again. We just don't have the energy to both be squished under the hand of oppressive government and be able to recover without getting at least a little tiny bit back.
It's a freakin' upscale suburb. They could afford it, The mayor thought so but he was voted down by people who think dollars are more valuable than little kids.
ReplyDeleteDollars are kids. My wife and I have been so drained by taxes that we were unable to afford a 3rd child. So now we get to consider the millions of lives that the government has prevented.
ReplyDeleteI know that I was glad to be born, even if I had been later killed by a tornado or anything else for that matter. Everybody dies, some people never live.
Moore isn't some rural slum. There are plenty of those in Oklahoma. But Moore is a low-tax haven for city folk from Oklahoma City.
ReplyDeleteThey could have spent the money they saved by not living in OKC on their children's lives, but dollars rule.
I thought markets were all about priorities.
Harry wrote: "It's a freakin' upscale suburb. They could afford it""
ReplyDeleteThose two things are often mutually exclusive. I live in an upscale(ish) suburb. To be able to afford to live there uses up pretty much all of our money.
It's true that I could afford more if I moved to a slum, but I think my family benefits from a nice(ish) house, and piano lessons, an occasional nice(ish) vacation, etc.
You apparently think that moving to a slum and then putting every last dollar we have access to into safety is the correct and only choice and that the government should ram that choice down our throats, but guess what, my family disagrees completely. We are willing to accepts risk, even some risk of death, to live a nicer lifestyle.
Maybe YOU are, but the Go-Moore-ites are not. They expect you to pay for their bad choice.
ReplyDelete