Why does the SPLC foster hatred of Christian minorities? I sincerely believe that the SPLC does not foster hatred of Christian minorities — or anyone for that matter.

I hope you eventually take the time to sit down and let the dizziness subside. It appears to be clouding your mind.

Everyone gets thrown into the lake of flames!

CoralSea, apparently the World Meterological Association heard you and granted your wish because Enrique is on the list for Pacific hurricanes – also for for 2015. Of course, no one other than meterologists really pays too much attention to Pacific hurricanes since they tend to head west where there is nothing much to hit.

So one year could have both a Hurricane Erika and a Hurricane Enrique – its even possible that the same storm could be both.

According to the always fun Social Security Administration baby name popularity index (the over time search is what I find to be the most interesting) – http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/#ht=2

you can see that there actually was a slight increase in ranking for the name Katrina in 2005 and 2006 but it fell off the cliff afterwards not even making the top 1000 in 2011.

Weird that the year of the hurricane and the year afterwards it actually went up in popularity.

About which more I shall not say.

Even my mother, who is a very strong Christian, but who detests Pat Robertson, but also is a life-long Republican, was chuckling evilly about the irony of Isaac menacing the RNC.

I so hope that it doesn’t hit New Orleans (although we now know that if it does, it is aadila’s fault — what DID you do, my dear?) I also hope that Aron’s cigar places and favorite brewery are spared — and that they get a commercial boost from the infusion of people visiting Tampa for the RNC.

As for Erika — I understand that the name Katrina has fallen into disuse a bit since, well, Katrina. I know that I had a friend that was going to be having a daughter around that time (though up here, in Illinois), and prior to the storm, was thinking of calling her “Katrina.” After the hurricane, they opted for “Ophelia.” Happily, she is an agile child, so no one calls her “Oaf” for short! (That was her husband’s — the baby’s father’s — initial reaction. He was still pushing for “Katrina” until his mother told him that the name “Katrina” would just burden the poor little thing.)

Yes — it is always embarrassing to have your name associated with some sort of serious disaster. Actually, I think in terms of the “E” storms, something called “Enrique” would be a better name than Erika for a really ferocious storm. Not that you aren’t ferocious, but “Hurricane Enrique” sounds a lot more terrifying.

The FRC was called out numerous times before they were ever listed as a “hate” group for spreading vicious falsehoods that basically demonized LGBT persons, who are already a risk of being physically attacked or otherwise discriminated against. Numerous groups have debunked the fake data they peddle — but they still do it. That is why SPLC considers them a “hate” group. They can believe anything they want, but willfully spreading falsehoods that stir up passions against another class of people is anything but Christian.

Ahhhhhh…..!

Expect Pat Robertson – and the Pat Robertson lites of Fox News to say that the combined power of the Republicans prayers turned the Hurricane to the Godless City of New Orleans because of Voodoo or Mardi Gras or Jazz or Lil Wayne or whatever (Unspoken but understood to the racists – blacks. Unspoken but understood to the Jack T. Chick crowd – Catholics!)

CoralSea, it is most definitely a dubious honor to have a hurricane with your name. In any case, a future Hurricane Erika could cause suffiicient death and destructiveness to be retired and still not be close to being the worst namesake hurricane in my family – I have a cousin named http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/TC.....atrina.pdf

I believe one of my Youtube commenter friends put it best, regarding Isaac:

‘God hate the GOP.’

Hee hee!

(That being said, I really, really, REALLY hope that the hurricane doesn’t destroy Tampa. I’m a cigar collector, and Tampa is known as Cigar City, due to that city historically being the center of the American cigar industry. Also, I have a whole bunch of friends who live down there. And don’t even get me started on Cigar City Brewery. YUMMM!!!)

Uhm… Sorry for the long parenthetical comment there. My coffee just kicked in. Wheee!

Whoops.

Now Isaac is causing trouble again for the Republicans. RNC chair Ken Jones said that he will turn to FEMA for help. FEMA!!! “Isaac” by the way is a Hebrew name that means “He will laugh”.

Oh dear, how droll.

Kiwiwriter, aadila, Aron, Reynardine — thanks for the nice birthday wishes!

Sorry I couldn’t say it earlier!

But unfortunately, I can imagine that Pat Robertson will soon be saying that God caused the hurricane to go past Tampa to bless the Republicans. Of course, if the hurricane does hit the Republicans, I suspect it will be attivbuted to them nominating Mitt Romney who after all as a Mormon is a member of a Satanic cult according to a very large percentage of the Republican base (that btw is why I believe that Obama will actually win by a large margin). Or they will follow Rush Limbaugh’s lead and claim that President Obama can control the weather Either that or the preachers for profit will say nothing. I don’t recall Pat Robertson saying anything about Isabel or Irene..

BTW, in 2015 watch out for Hurricane Erika – great name choice :)

I hope you get all the adorable little fishies you deserve :)

Reynardine — I know a lot of people with late August birthdays for some reason. In fact, once when I was working as a technical editor at a publishing company (back when the IBM Selectric was all the rage!) out of the 9 members of the editorial staff, 8 had late August, early September birthdays (and the guy who didn’t wasn’t a very good editor). This, of course, made us all Virgos, who are known to be picky and perfectionistic, which is something one wants in an editor. I am not into astrology (nor were my editorial team partners), but we always thought it was quite the coincidence!

Erika — Yes, I am just evil enough to be rooting for Isaac to turn into a hurricane and at least give the Republicans a scare (although I would rather that it not cause any real damage or hurt anyone). I understand that they are moving Romney’s acceptance speech from Wednesday to Monday in case things do take a turn for the worst. They (meaning the GOP) may be able to commit heinous acts of voter suppression, but Mother Nature can certainly dampen their convention! I guess it’s one of those, “what goes around, comes around” things.

Rush Liimbaugh, however, thinks Obama created Hurricane Isaac and sent it to Tampa just to spite Republicans.

those of us who live along or near the coast are not fond of the idea of the sea level rising. More and more powerful hurricanes from global warming aren’t exactly a joy either

Speaking of hurricanes, did anyone hear about how the Republicans are worried about the possibility of a hurricane hitting during their convention? I guess either they do not believe that Pat Robertson is actually able to redirect hurricanes with prayer* or they know that God is not likely to be happy at the “rob from the poor, give to the rich” policies they are promoting.

* Pat Robertson really claimed that he can pray hurricanes away from striking Virginia Beach. Of course, more rational observers would note that due to the prevailing currents and the fact that the North Carolina coast sticks out so much that hurricanes almost never have direct strikes in Virginia. Others would also note that it was you know, kind of greedy to pray that his house would be safe and then ignore the fact that the hurricane caused massive amounts of death and destruction elsewhere. I think he blamed that on liberals, homosexuals, and loose women (possibly Satan and voodoo as well). Since we all know that you can tell there are no homosexuals or loose women in Virginia Beach due to its close proximinty to the world’s largest naval base and a major port since sailors are well known to not like sex (hi Joseph!).

Sorry — It’s my birthday and I couldn’t resist!