Massive Storm System Spawns Multiple Tornadoes; Kills At Least 202 People

zootie wrote:

At the risk of being seen as callous it's ironic that this "act of God" hit some of the most virulently Red states. I wonder if the tea partiers will continue to spit on Federal public assistance even as the 'socialist' Red Cross digs them out of their homes.

Using a unity-based religion to justify an us-them mentality? Check.

zootie wrote:

She's like that you know. Warm as a summer breeze and cold as a killing frost. Yeah its not fair but who says She's fair. She just IS! We can try to live in harmony with Her and prepare for Her occasional temper tantrums or we can become fossils.

Using the temperament of their deity to apply moral bullshit to a devastating national disaster that has killed many and ruined countless other lives? Check.

zootie wrote:

Just the same I'm glad that those here who lived in the affected area are all right. Blessed Be!

Ass-covering topped off with a cliche from aforementioned religion? Check.

zootie wrote:

I think She just sent a message. I hope we get it. Of course She also sent a message to the Gulf and Japan and they seem to have been tossed. I really don't want to see what happens when She really gets mad and picks up Her cosmic rolling pin.

Ooo, this is a goldmine. Lemme see...

Sexist reference used in the context of a feminist religion? Check.

Opportunistic retroactive statement about the "meaning" of past disasters? Check.

Poorly veiled threat on behalf of their deity? Check.

Meaningless callousness with religion as a justification? Checkity check check.

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maladroit_mooncalf wrote:

zootie wrote:

At the risk of being seen as callous it's ironic that this "act of God" hit some of the most virulently Red states...blahblahblah...

Just...shut up. Seriously.

Spotts1701 wrote:

maladroit_mooncalf wrote:

zootie wrote:

At the risk of being seen as callous it's ironic that this "act of God" hit some of the most virulently Red states...blahblahblah...

Just...shut up. Seriously.

Agreed. Let us not turn a tragedy that does not discriminate into another "us vs. them" slugfest.

neko mata wrote:

maladroit_mooncalf wrote:

zootie wrote:

At the risk of being seen as callous it's ironic that this "act of God" hit some of the most virulently Red states...blahblahblah...

Just...shut up. Seriously.

I second this.

InkWeaver wrote:

Dude. WTF. Gtfo, people fucking died.

Miss Misery wrote:

zootie, that has to be one of the most revolting things I've ever read in my entire life.

You now realize he's a troll that has an avatar that looks suspiciously similar to those JerkCity comics Marvin/SPIGOT used in his avatars. You also realize you're a bunch of fools to fall for this. His Obeezy Rope-A-Dope thread could almost be explained by left wing idiocy combined with college stoner ignorance and painful noobery.

This is pretty fucking blatant. I'm actually concerned that you all are trolling me by pretending to be fooled by a quite obvious troll.

Also, I survived. I'm sure you were all up at night worrying about Mikey (not that anything too serious came through here, just straight line winds, insignificant hail for 45 seconds, and a buttfuck load of rain).

Wait Mikey, where do you live? i could swear you lived in NYC for some reason.

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

You now realize he's a troll that has an avatar that looks suspiciously similar to those JerkCity comics Marvin/SPIGOT used in his avatars. You also realize you're a bunch of fools to fall for this. His Obeezy Rope-A-Dope thread could almost be explained by left wing idiocy combined with college stoner ignorance and painful noobery.

This is pretty fucking blatant. I'm actually concerned that you all are trolling me by pretending to be fooled by a quite obvious troll.

Yeah, here's the thing about that...last night, a city was totaled starting somewhere just over 6 miles from my house. In fact, I'd say the tornado almost literally went over my head before touching down. It was certainly windy enough. So, in view of the time spent hyperventilating and wondering where exactly my family, pets and I were going to take shelter in this flimsy house (or if there'd even still be a flimsy house to try and shelter in), yes, I was slightly inclined to feed what I figured was either a troll or a complete asshole.

Mikey: Actually, I'm pretty sure zootie was being sarcastic (hence the "iron-e-meter") about all the commenters 'round the internet lately saying shit about how God's punishing Japan, etc. Which would still, even if not trolling, be a joke in very poor taste.

edit: Also lol at priorities here. Okay, guys, forget that you're dealing with immense property damages, people put out of their homes, roofs torn off of schools and hospitals leveled! You're possibly feeding one hypothetical troll on the internet!

Jesus. wrote:

Wait Mikey, where do you live? i could swear you lived in NYC for some reason.

It might be because I'm a jackass and a Ranger (the Original Six kind, not the weak ass 60+ years with no World Series kind) and Yankee fan. Also, my dad was from the NYC area.

I live in southern KY, about an hour away from Nashville.

Inky wrote:

Also lol at priorities here. Okay, guys, forget that you're dealing with immense property damages, people put out of their homes, roofs torn off of schools and hospitals leveled! You're possibly feeding one hypothetical troll on the internet!

Well, posting on the internet isn't going to affect THAT mess either way. But only YOU can not bless a troll so obvious with the RAEG that sustains it.

America is now saying that this is their 'tsunami/earthquake' thing.

Good old 'my pain is worse than yours'.

But just before you start going "TROLL", I'm glad that so far, we (and by we I mean WGW) don't seem to have any real casualties although, unfortunately, if we did we wouldn't know because any dead members wouldn't be able to tell us, they'd just 'stop visiting'.

Still, I hope you're all alright.

I see that toilet tsunami hasn't claimed your gargantuan ass yet, Harley.

Spotts1701 wrote:

maladroit_mooncalf wrote:

zootie wrote:

At the risk of being seen as callous it's ironic that this "act of God" hit some of the most virulently Red states...blahblahblah...

Just...shut up. Seriously.

Agreed. Let us not turn a tragedy that does not discriminate into another "us vs. them" slugfest.

A noble sentiment, but unfortunately also one doomed to fall on deaf ears with most people(as Harley's latest post aptly illustrates). We live in an era where it is all too widely accepted as a given that disasters-- whether natural or man-made --are simply opportunities for scoring cheap ideological, cultural, or social points. The idea of people putting aside their differences in times of crisis is becoming as extinct as the passenger pigeon; indeed, I suspect the outpouring of relief aid to Japan will probably be the last time in human history when helping those touched by catastrophe takes precedence over petty personal/national differences.

Hurrah! I illustrated an apt point!

Also, Penguin, what's wrong with my ass being gargantuan? By which I mean, I can't help but notice that the only time you've contributed to this conversation is to insult me.

Does anyone know if they need volunteers?

Natural disasters aren't caused by angry deities, culture wars, or politicians (even if they are full of hot air). Shit happens. Yes, sometimes people do things that make shit worse (or don't do things, in such cases as a lack of maintenance making a disaster worse). However, pointing fingers and going "Ha ha, you deserved it" does nothing to help those in need or correct problems that make disasters worse.

How about we help each other in times of need and work to fix problems that make things worse?

Oh, wait. That would be too logical.

Carry on.

It's over 300 now:

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Chris91 wrote:

Spotts1701 wrote:

maladroit_mooncalf wrote:

zootie wrote:

At the risk of being seen as callous it's ironic that this "act of God" hit some of the most virulently Red states...blahblahblah...

Just...shut up. Seriously.

Agreed. Let us not turn a tragedy that does not discriminate into another "us vs. them" slugfest.

A noble sentiment, but unfortunately also one doomed to fall on deaf ears with most people(as Harley's latest post aptly illustrates). We live in an era where it is all too widely accepted as a given that disasters-- whether natural or man-made --are simply opportunities for scoring cheap ideological, cultural, or social points. The idea of people putting aside their differences in times of crisis is becoming as extinct as the passenger pigeon;

Chris, post like this all the time.

Chris91 wrote:

Spotts1701 wrote:

maladroit_mooncalf wrote:

zootie wrote:

At the risk of being seen as callous it's ironic that this "act of God" hit some of the most virulently Red states...blahblahblah...

Just...shut up. Seriously.

Agreed. Let us not turn a tragedy that does not discriminate into another "us vs. them" slugfest.

A noble sentiment, but unfortunately also one doomed to fall on deaf ears with most people(as Harley's latest post aptly illustrates). We live in an era where it is all too widely accepted as a given that disasters-- whether natural or man-made --are simply opportunities for scoring cheap ideological, cultural, or social points. The idea of people putting aside their differences in times of crisis is becoming as extinct as the passenger pigeon; indeed, I suspect the outpouring of relief aid to Japan will probably be the last time in human history when helping those touched by catastrophe takes precedence over petty personal/national differences.

It's not quite the same with man-made disasters, though. It's not really fair to lump them together with the natural disasters.

In man-made disasters it becomes this laboured event where everyone who points fingers at the entities/politicians/corporations responsible and says we need to enact laws/policies/procedures/awareness programs to prevent the problem from recurring suddenly all get cast as the ultimate bad-guys who aren't being cooperative and bipartisan and loving their fellow human beings like they're supposed to.

It's entirely possible to love other people, donate the maximum amount of money and time to victims, and still have a discussion about how something was totally fucked up and needs to be improved to prevent future disasters.

Wanting to have discussions like that is not "hating the victims" or stirring shit. In fact, it's quite closely related to loving the victims because you don't want to make a lot more victims.

If you're going to apply exactly the same reasoning to man-made disasters, then I guess you think Ai Weiwei is just an IRL troll who should have just shut up and played nice with the government and not tried to expose the governmental corruption that resulted in far more deaths of children than would have otherwise happened?

Didn't Ai Weiwei do his art thing on children killed in an earthquake? That... is not a man-made disaster.

Where in that statement did you see, "People shouldn't talk about government response or they are just trolls." There is a huge difference between scoring cheap points and discussing how best to respond to/prevent further disaster.

OH WAIT! I see. You're Concern Trolling. Poorly. Sorry, carry on.

rae wrote:

Didn't Ai Weiwei do his art thing on children killed in an earthquake? That... is not a man-made disaster.

How cute! I see you have a total inability to google! Carry on making an ass of yourself then!

rae wrote:

Where in that statement did you see, "People shouldn't talk about government response or they are just trolls." There is a huge difference between scoring cheap points and discussing how best to respond to/prevent further disaster.

OH WAIT! I see. You're Concern Trolling. Poorly. Sorry, carry on.

Chris91 wrote:

We live in an era where it is all too widely accepted as a given that disasters-- whether natural or man-made --are simply opportunities for scoring cheap ideological, cultural, or social points.

man-made

man-made

Look to the hand corner of your post. You will see this amazing little button called 'edit.' Use it, rather than double posting.

I did google him, to make certain I was thinking of the correct artist, and found references only to his work after the earthquake. By all means, link me to something else.

Quote :

He was particularly focused at exposing an alleged corruption scandal in the construction of Sichuan schools that collapsed during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

Earthquakes are generally not man-made. Nor does this in any way change the point you did not address:

rae wrote:

There is a huge difference between scoring cheap points and discussing how best to respond to/prevent further disaster.

Human error can make natural disasters worse--like not maintaining the levies around New Orleans, in the case of Hurricane Katrina, or persisting in building with fragile materials like brick and adobe, in the case of about one and a half centuries of California's earthquake-heavy history.

If it's a case of greed or corruption being a large factor in making disasters worse, then by all means, find out who's responsible and make them fix it (or pay for it). Building codes being ignored? Telling people that of course it's perfectly safe to live at the base of a dam in earthquake country? Politicians refusing to vote safety codes into law in order to please their rich donors? Yes, all of those can cause natural disasters to become much, much worse.

What doesn't help is pointing fingers and saying things like:

God is punishing you.
I told you there was no God to answer your prayers.
It's your own fault you believed that slick sales pitch and those official looking papers.

And other things.

If there's a problem to be fixed, fix it. Yes, some people will whine that you're just being uncooperative, or mean, or destroying jobs, etc., etc. etc. Saving lives and assuring a reasonable chance of getting through a disaster unscathed (or less scathed) is what's important. Sometimes bad things happen and there's nothing that can be done, but when something can be done--do it.

EDIT: *high-five Lady Anne*


Rae, there has to be a definition of what is scoring cheap points and what IS pointing out better ways to avoid disaster.

There is strong evidence that climate change, deforestation, soil erosion, etc all increase the frequency of natural disasters and make them worse as well. Now, one can point the finger at corporations, and in turn point that finger at the right-wing who endorse corporate practices, or we could figure out ways to make flash floods less likely and less dangerous.

Floods are going to happen, yes, but there is still a human element in them. I'm not talking about chemical plants blowing up because of poor safety regulations here.

Part of natural disasters have a man-made element to them, even if it is "Let's build all these shitty houses with no disaster capability in an area known for tornadoes"

Natural? Man-made? Probably both. It still sucks and still needs to be addressed.

Sakurelf - I agree, and it's not always easy to tell which is which. However, when someone is screaming, "HURR REPUBLICANS/DEMOCRATS THIS IS THEIR FAULT!11!" then it really isn't hard to call it, just as it isn't hard to call it a cheap shot when Pat Robertson claimed that Haiti made a deal with the devil. We do need to take steps to ensure structures -- be they levies or buildings -- are up to code. I don't believe that blaming god(s) and 'UR PARTY SUX' are ever going to be useful or helpful to anyone, except as an opportunity for scoring, as Chris said, cheap ideological, cultural, or social points, and many of them are glaringly obvious.

I'm specifically protesting Notanoni use of Ai Weiwei; I think that he is a bad example because an earthquake is not man-made. It was made worse by human fuckery, but the disaster itself is natural. If xe was discussing protesting elements that led to far worse destruction during a natural disaster, Ai Weiwei would be a perfect example, as would a metric fuckton of artists based in and around New Orleans. Does anyone know of domr good artists protesting man-made disasters? I know back in the day there was some great art protesting the Exon Valdez spill, and Chernobyl, but if there's any about the gulf spill, I've missed it and want to see it.

rae wrote:

Does anyone know of domr good artists protesting man-made disasters? I know back in the day there was some great art protesting the Exon Valdez spill, and Chernobyl, but if there's any about the gulf spill, I've missed it and want to see it.

Mmm, I know there was one guy who did some "take a bad thing and make something good from it"art from Katrina, but I'm not aware of much political art.

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There's a ton of documentaries on the subject, though.

Chris91 wrote:

Spotts1701 wrote:

maladroit_mooncalf wrote:

zootie wrote:

At the risk of being seen as callous it's ironic that this "act of God" hit some of the most virulently Red states...blahblahblah...

Just...shut up. Seriously.

Agreed. Let us not turn a tragedy that does not discriminate into another "us vs. them" slugfest.

A noble sentiment, but unfortunately also one doomed to fall on deaf ears with most people(as Harley's latest post aptly illustrates). We live in an era where it is all too widely accepted as a given that disasters-- whether natural or man-made --are simply opportunities for scoring cheap ideological, cultural, or social points. The idea of people putting aside their differences in times of crisis is becoming as extinct as the passenger pigeon; indeed, I suspect the outpouring of relief aid to Japan will probably be the last time in human history when helping those touched by catastrophe takes precedence over petty personal/national differences.

Ahahaha holy shit chris made the only good post in this thread

The problem is that now we've got two disasters on our hands. We've got all the shit going down in Japan, with people frantically trying to determine just how bad the nuclear plant thing is, and now we've got America, waving its arms and shouting, "Look at me! Look at all the tornadoes!"

And the problem is that both require help and nobody is quite sure who needs it more.

Then there's the usual man-made disasters and by that I mean Lybia really has got some problems now, but how can we help those poor people as well?

There's so much going wrong right now, that nobody knows where to start fixing it.