Lord, Can We Please Have a Break Now?

Jesus. I haven't even had time to write all the many words of stupidity or wisdom I was planning to following Hurricane Katrina about its aftermath and its larger meaning for our country before God comes in for a second pass.

This time, a pass at the space near Houston and Beaumont, Texas being made by a lovely (not) lady named Rita. Adding insult to injury, just in case Louisiana and Mississippi and didn't get enough the last time, Ms. Rita also plans to bat her eyes at them as she heads out to her date with Texas, sending tropical storm warnings to both states while saving what looks like her Category 4 knockout dress for her ultimate landfall destination.

In just 24 days, we are seeing two reality checks, in the form of uncontrollable unbridled rains, winds and water - a natural fury that our government has made clear it cannot stand up to, let alone clean up after (given that decomposing bodies are still rotting in the street in New Orleans.) Just 24 days - when previously, Category 4 storms to hit the United States had averaged decades apart.

In light of this, any wingnut or rightwing nonthinker that still wishes to insist that the increased intensity of storms in Atlantic Ocean has nothing at all to do with global warming trends may feel free to do so. But I ask that if they are going to pontificate, they do so in Houston, Texas, where we have numerous friends who are trapped, despite trying valiantly to heed the mandatory evacuation order issued yesterday, even leaving before the order in 2 cases only to have to turn back after they'd spent hours trying to move out at more than a snail's pace, to no avail. Trapped, and although they are speaking with the obligatory Texas "Bring it On" attitudes and insisting they will be fine, afraid.

And to think that hurricane season does not end until November 30........

Lord, please help Houston, Beaumont, and anywhere else that has the misfortune of coming to face with Rita. As of yesterday, when she held the position of the third most intense hurricane ever recorded, Ms. Rita made clear that Katrina was just her pre-adolescent baby sister. Believe me, we get the point - it is Your weather. Your oceans. Your storms. And our hubris, because we allowed ourselves as a country to become complacent about our own helplessness in the face of it all by building our metropolises without regard for the destructive power of inevitable nature and pretending our lifestyle could have no possible impact on it all. Let alone the impact of two devastating Category 4 hurricanes in a single season.