Recall that Jerry Falwell blamed 9/11 on abortionists, gays, pagans, and feminists?

Well, I was wondering how long it would take for some fanatic to invoke God’s punishment as a reason for Katrina’s damage. This time, Columbia Christians for Life say it’s abortion. Repent America differs and blames it on gays.

Hmmm, if this “God of love” and “Saviour” is so intent on punishing America, maybe it’s judgement for our war on Iraq. Just a thought…

This New York Times editorial talks about a draft document circulating at the Interior Department, drafted by Bush political appointtee Paul Hoffman without consultation with the National Park Service, which would make it harder to prove commercial activity presents an “impairment” of the parks’ resources:

Mr. Hoffman’s rewrite would open up nearly every park in the nation to off-road vehicles, snowmobiles and Jet Skis. According to his revision, the use of such vehicles would become one of the parks’ purposes. To accommodate such activities, he redefines impairment to mean an irreversible impact. To prove that an activity is impairing the parks, under Mr. Hoffman’s rules, you would have to prove that it is doing so irreversibly – a very high standard of proof. This would have a genuinely erosive effect on the standards used to protect the national parks.
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There are other issues too. Mr. Hoffman would explicitly allow the sale of religious merchandise, and he removes from the policy document any reference to evolution or evolutionary processes. He does everything possible to strip away a scientific basis for park management. His rules would essentially require park superintendents to subordinate the management of their parks to local and state agendas. He also envisions a much wider range of commercial activity within the parks.