My sister emailed a link to me today to an article at WorldNetDaily by Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson entitled "Moral poverty cost blacks in New Orleans". An excerpt follows:

“

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

Say a hurricane is about to destroy the city you live in.

Two questions:

1. What would you do?
2. What would you do if you were black?

Sadly, the two questions don't have the same answer.

”

While Rev. Peterson may have *some* valid points, his assessment seems harsh. You can read the article in its entirety here.

After having read the above article, I noticed the headlines of other stories being served there and couldn't decide whether to be horrified or amused.

A sampling of headlines and excerpts follows:

"Senator: God judging U.S. with disastrous hurricanes -- Alabama Republican cites culture of 'gambling, sin and wickedness'"

An Alabama state senator says the reason why the Gulf Coast is suffering from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita is because God is judging Americans in that region for sinful behavior.

"NASA chief confesses: Space shuttle 'mistake' -- Nearly all last 30 years 'was not the right path'"

In a stunning admission, NASA chief Michael Griffin says America's space shuttle program and the International Space Station have been mistakes.

"Radical Hindus attack missionaries -- Follows 3-day siege on compound by mob of 800"

Hindu fundamentalists attacked a Christian missionary compound in India, severely injuring several people.

"Porn exposed on Farah today: Sex industry grows exponentially, but who is buying it up?"

The advent of the Internet has made it effortless to access pornography, and the business of sex has grown exponentially, generating close to $1 billion per year, with projections nearing $7 billion in the next three years. But who is viewing and paying for it all? The answer may surprise you.

Before going further, there are a few facts about myself I'd like to provide:

• I'm neither a conservative, nor a liberal.
• I believe space exploration is one of the *most* important of human endeavors.
• I'm neither a Hindu, nor a Christian.
• I am against violence, and I'm not so sure I'm a great fan of "The Mission".
• I don't like porn at all, but don't see why people shouldn't have access to all the porn they like, with the obvious (or typical) exceptions, which I won't go into right now.

First of all, I really don't understand the concept of natural disaster as the wage of sin. Don't people realize how random and unpredictable a hurricane is? The greater likelihood is that events such as these are attributable to the hand of God spinning a roulette wheel, than to the doling out of divine retribution.

Secondly, I hear our astronauts are a little upset that their dedication for the past thirty years to the space program was all a mistake, instead of for the advancement of the human race, as they had once believed. Hell... I would be, too.

Third... okay, I've never in my life heard of a radical Hindu attacking Christians, although it could be because I don't keep up with the news as well as I should, but the whole idea seems incongruent. I think of a generally peace-loving, non-violent group of people when the word "Hindu" is mentioned, and I've known many Hindus who have moved here from India, which has perpetuated this notion I have about them. I really take exception to the fact that this particular article is under the heading "Faith Under Fire". Is Hinduism not also a type of "Faith"? If the missionaries there are anything like the Jehovah's Witnesses here, well... I might get angry, too.

And last... "Porn Exposed..."? Cute and misleading name for this article. It's a teaser (pun intended) for an upcoming radio talk show segment which, it appears, will focus much more on "exposing" the general demographic of the American porn market. I have this picture in my mind of a clean-cut guy tuning into Mr. Farah's radio show tonight while, simultaneously, downloading bondage avis from Hogtied.com.

And something really weird kept happening earlier today while I was loading the pages where the stories I've been discussing are located... I kept getting prompts to download an executable file that had, as part of its name, the *f* word. It happened quite a few times, then finally stopped. I couldn't determine if the web site was under attack, or if I was, so use caution.

tag(s): New Orleans, hurricanes, WorldNetDaily, news, bizarre