Brothers and Sisters, Can You Spare a Dime for New Orleans?

And the people in Mississippi and Alabama, too?

Even though some ignorant morons claim that the hurricane is a plague from God to punish the immoral Crescent City, and other idiots say global warming is to blame, I really don't wanna hear it.

Is New Orleans decadent? Hell yeah! I loved it for that reason alone, and it didn't corrupt my Christian soul.

Did God punish it for being that way? Explain why there were so many innocent victims in the city itself who lived perfectly moral lives and now have nothing. I thought that Mississippi and Alabama were part of the Bible Belt, so the hurricane should have spared them by that logic. It didn't.

Personally, I don't think God is that cruel.

If you want to believe in a vengeful God who punishes the innocent along with the guilty, hey.....have at it. You probably still think that AIDS is punishment on homosexual men, ignoring the fact that hemophiliacs and little babies who were born to drug addicts got the disease, too.

If you believe any of that, you make me sick.

Just thought I'd share.

As for the global warming crowd.....tell me just why the planet has to stay the same damn temperature forever? I mean, up until the late 1800's we were in a mini-Ice Age. Even better...remember Al Gore's speech on global warming in New York.....in the middle of a blizzard? The planet has been heating up and cooling down in cycles long before the first humanoids padded around on terra firma.

Let's just cut the crap right here. Some things are just weird twists of fate. I learned that when I was 25. I lost my father and uncle in the same week in September, and then my godmother right before Thanksgiving. What were the odds of that happening?

Shit happens, people.

And when it comes in a deluge, we gotta help clean it up.

These are your fellow human beings going through a devastating loss. When we speak about losing "everything", we usually are talking about some financial catastrophe. This is far worse.

Imagine not having any shelter, not being able to find drinking water, and only having the clothes on your back. What once was your house is under 20 feet of water, or has been scattered all over the county. Imagine losing the people you love, the very people who would help you find solace, and the very real possibility that you may never find a body to bury.

That's why I'm asking you to check out one of the charities on FEMA's list, the Humane Society's Disaster Fund, or Catholic Charities and give a donation.

I've been making a little money on the side writing freelance articles about travel destinations that will be posted on a website sometime next year. Weirdly enough, I wrote some articles on New Orleans about a week ago. I'm going to donate that money to the Humane Society, and the money I'm getting for the articles this week on Vancouver will go to the Salvation Army. It's not much, but it's more than some of the victims have right now.

Shake out those piggy banks and check the sofa cushions. Look under the car seat, if you dare.

Go get yourself some good karma and help out people in need.

Thatisall.