Prophecy

let me again remind you of a pertinant fact. i live in south florida.hurricane andrew demolished alot of the miami-dade and broward counties, specifically trailer parks and sub-standard housing. the damage from andrew was comparitively bad in relation to other hurricanes we have had here due largely to our poor codes and regulations at the time, and lack of enforcement. we've fixed that, now.florida is a strange state. we are built largely on reclaimed swamp-land, which means that retention ponds, ditches, and canals are everywhere. we are basically flood-proof, because if we aren't, we'd already be underwater without the need for a hurricane. most houses (post-andrew) are constructed out of solid concrete, with reinforced roofs, beams tied down. a fair percentage of people even have permanent window-protection. we all more or less know the drill -- we just swarm for food the day before. perhaps this is not something to brag about, but we literally shrug off the smaller ones. sometimes, we even throw parties.now, i'll admit, a category five like andrew (or even a four, like frances) is pretty terrifying. but we sure take them alot better than, say, nola. that was a disaster. we had andrew cleaned up within a year. frances and jeanne took a little longer -- things were still kinda messed up when wilma hit more than a year later. but the only reminder of frances, jeanne, or wilma are vague memories of our street having more shade. andrew is pretty long forgotten.not a very clear-cut message, if you ask me. certainly not a biblical disaster. so it wasn't andrew, it was some other hurricane?look, i know you won't get this logic, but everyone else pay attention. this year was the first year that i can ever remember that we did not have a named hurricane hit the eastern seaboard. some years, we have 5 or 6. last year, we had so many they had the go into the never-before-used greek system.the last two years, we've had to cancel several weeks of school to accomodate for nasty weather. if you do anything in august here, there's a high probability of it being interrupted by a hurricane. it's just a fact that we live with. so the fact that something happened on the same day as a hurricane is of complete insignificance.heck, i can't even beginning to tell you how many important things have been scheduled for the day hurricanes have hit. tests, assignment -- i even missed a concert i'd been waiting for for six years because wilma. was that a message from god? or an unfortunate coincidence? there were extensive peace talks all throughout 91-93. surprise, some of those inbetween dates were in august 92. wow. i believe i speak for everyone in south florida when i say that if this is all god's got, we are not impressed. there are a few things more terrifying than a category five heading straight for you -- but the god that can flood the entire planet on a whim has surely got all of those things up his sleeve. if god wanted to solve the israeli-palestinian conflict, he could, instantly. he could take down the palestinians without batting a figurative eyelash. the verse you start with is from nahum, which is about god taking down the assyrian empire, who controlled some exceedingly large percentage of the known world at the time. he could destroy us without a second thought, nevermind palestine. and you think a hurricane is all he's got?please.

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it simply can't be coincidence!

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oh, oh, i know what it was!

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you know what was actually more dangerous than the hurricanes?the week without electricity that follows them every time now. no a/c, no refidgeration for insulin = dead old people. lots of spoiled food, electricutions, and people generally doing stupid things because they go stir-crazy with nothing to do. nights are hot and sweaty and start at 7pm, and all showers are frigid. it's nasty.anyways, i have some pictures somewhere of my neighbours down the street. since the houses were so hot, everyone came outside and did whatever they could. lots of people chipped in with chainsaws to clear debris and stuff like that. but these kids down the street were sitting in their garage, drinking tequila straight from the bottle, and body-boarding on a skateboard down into the giant puddle at the end of their driveway. yeah, it's all "GOD. IS. PISSED." and then... nothing. where's the apocalypse? i tell you, about four days into the post-frances duldrums, i would have gladly welcomed it. then jeanne came, and it was "ok god, really, can you just kill me now?"

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yeah, it's not how fast they are, but how slowly they move. the only reason frances was as bad as it was an hour north of here is because it just sat there and churned. standing up in a hurricane is one thing. standing up in a hurricane for 12 hours is another. oof.i don't want to even imagine. actually, by the time we got wilma last year, we were pretty much psyched-up and prepared for the week -- and then not only did she bring in a cold front to help us out, but we got our power back pretty quickly. yeah. when i was in high school, we had about a half dozen consecutive years where every hurricane's projected path was literally aimed right at our particular city on the east coast of fl. it got to the point where the ones that weren't projected right at us would make us worry, because all the ones that were missed.some by a long shot. i recall once when a hurricane was supposed to hit us, and ended up hitting up near new york (might have been a tropical storm at the time). it was amusing to turn on mtv, and see what was supposed to be our bad weather behind carson daly. i think the only hurricane that has ever affected a politican was katrina, and that was only through public opinion and shame.

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no no, george bush is a shame.

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q. are the samaritans allowed there?the ethiopian jews? the christians? the muslims that live peacefully within the borders of israel-proper? does god punish israel for allowing such outsiders in the holy city?remember, perr capita, there are more christians in america than there are jews in israel. alot of other people there too. and i'm not even talking about palestine at all.

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