Alabama is in the midst of an awful drought, so Gov. Bob Riley (R) has decided to, well, just take a look.
With the state’s weather forecasters not delivering much-needed rain, Gov. Bob Riley on Thursday turned to a higher power. The governor issued a proclamation calling for a week of prayer for rain, beginning Saturday.
Riley encouraged Alabamians to pray “individually and in their houses of worship.”
“Throughout our history, Alabamians have turned in prayer to God to humbly ask for his blessings and to hold us steady during times of difficulty,” Riley said. “This drought is without question a time of great difficulty.”
Roger McNeil, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Birmingham, was asked if he believes prayer can make it rain. McNeil declined to say.
Given Alabama’s general approach to such matters, that was probably a good idea.
No Trackbacks To “Praying for rain“
Maybe they should start throwing a few virgins into their majestic Alabama volcanos.
“I must please the Pickard!
I must please the Pickard!
I must please the Pickard!”
-TNG ;)
RAIN DANCE!
RAIN DANCE!
RAIN DANCE!
Frist!!
Maybe he will get the same treatment TX and KS are getting.
What could it hurt?
Let them pray themselves all the way back to the dark ages.
If the Confederacy had succeeded in breaking off back in the 1860s, I wonder if they’d be a third-world country by now?
This is why my wife & I have to get the hell out of the South…
Stupidity is a birthright and ignorance is rewarded with jobs for those not qualified for them…
I saw the comment about virgins above….let me tell you…down here in “God’s country”…a girl that’s a virgin after 13 is as rare as a Southern con-servative voting for their own best interest…(translation, as likely as Bush & Cheney are to apologize to the Iraqi people)
Its not an exaggeration…take a field trip…see the stupidity that flows down here…and then thank your lucky stars you don’t have to live with it every day…
Carakav…the south is already well on its way to becoming a 3rd world country…it already is in terms of brain drains an uninformed, illiterate populace….
The answer’s simpler than prayer. Legalize gay marriage. If the Robertsons and Falwells of the world are corrected, than Alabama should be immediately inundated by hurricanes and more rain than they’ll know what to do with.
This is called a 911 prayer by some people I hang with. Whatever happened to the line “thy will be done?”
IMO, telling your Higher Power what needs to be done is pretty arrogant.
I’m in Alabama right now. It’s raining. Go figure.
The issue isn’t whether or not prayer works, but the fact that the governor is sanctioning a particular religion and promoting a specific religious tradition.
Speaking of Alabama:
“A battle in the culture wars could soon be fought in Saint Mary parish. According to published reports, the parish council Wednesday night approved a motion authorizing the posting of the Ten Commandments in the parish courthouse.
Councilman Michael Domingue introduced the motion, apparently inspired by the case of former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, who was removed from the bench over a Ten Commandment monument.”
http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=6725577
Coincidentally, American Mensa will be holding its annual convention in Birmingham, Alabama July 4-8. I won’t be attending. I haven’t the range of congenial irony to stomach the place.
right wing hater @ 7:
RWH
don’t forget where all of our favorite nuts and fascists come from either:
rick “brought a fetus home to cuddle!” santorum- pennsylvania (my favorite)
george bush and family- connecticut
donald rumsfeld- chicago
the prince of darkness, richard perle- NY
paul wolfowitz- NY
william the bloody kristol- NY
dick cheney- nebraska/wyoming
mitt romney- massachusetts
john mccain- arizona
brownback- kansas
samuel alito- new jersey
john roberts- new york
john bolton- maryland
karl rove- colorado/nevada
Bill O’reilly- another nutjob from NY
Sean Hannity- well whaddya know? NY scores another one
Ann Coulter- born in New “can’t get enough of the crazy baby” York City, raised in Connecticut
Rush Limbaugh- missouri
jeebus sed to play where people need you most, back when his disciples asked him why he hung with the tax collectors and some other evil elements…the south needs you rwh. but i guess, so does the rest of this nutball-a-plenty country.
well…if it doesn’t rain, then i guess they just didn’t pray hard enough.
The bible does say that the Lord stores up rain in the heavens for when it is needed.
RWH
don’t forget where all of our favorite nuts and fascists come from either:
rick “brought a fetus home to cuddle!” santorum- pennsylvania (my favorite)
george bush and family- connecticut
donald rumsfeld- chicago- etc…
but you see, all the level 5 mowroon god-boys and girls worship these evil ant overlords. That makes the yankee neo cno hucksters the smart ones for figuring out how to pull the strings of the good old boy hicks third world populace in training.
Whatever turns them on.
The one who operates on their own emotions while their opponent operates on advanced Nazi political science is doomed to failure.
bill t @ 18:
the only difference in the 28%ers in the south and those up north is the accent, and the only difference between their unabashed xenophobia and that on the left is that they hate those from abroad, while “we” hate those south of the mason dixon.
angry young man: Funniest thing I’ve read all morning!
Bill t: Sad… crazy… but oddly… true.
And the problem with this is … what exactly? Though not religious myself, I do not see any harm in acknowledging the faiths most Americans do subscribe to. In fact, this makes good sense from several points of view. It gives people who believe a sense of engagement rather than total powerlessness. Thereby, it may forestall some trouble-making. And it’s good politics in a state with many believers who will feel somewhat validated in their faith and its relevance. Unless you are speaking from the pov of what best might promote atheism, I do not see why this is worthy of criticism. In fact, I would say the snideness here reflects rather poorly on the author.
Them Alabamians are so silly. Don’t they know they have to find an indian chief to do a rain dance. Come on people, it’s 2007.
Been getting a fair amount of rain here in Mississippi and as far as I know our fat-head gub’ner didn’t issue any proclamations. Probably because he’s too busy protecting his buddies in the tobacky industry (non-wacky division).
My only experience with the SOUTH was driving through Tennessee.
It seemed that every male was dressed in a cut-off t-shirt, baseball
cap and goatee ala LARRY THE FAKE CABLE GUY (see here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VROn7ZvVoW8)
My definition of REDNECK is…Don’t know nothin’, don’t WANNA know nothin’
and damn PROUD OF IT.
Fuck the South.
Brendan @ 23:
Yep.
If this doesn’t work, try praying for brains.
There is an old Russian proverb: “Pray to God, fine; but keep rowing to shore!”
there is a thought here that the prayer is an appeal to a higher power for rain not to an organized religion that is asking for money in return for opening up the heavens. personally, i don’t feel there is anything wrong with appealing to God when all else seems to have failed. i haven’t given up on that belief and the false evangelicals are not a part of my belief system. so please, no more poking fun, there are still plenty of progressives who harbor a belief in a higher power and in reality that doesn’t have to be explained to anyone other than self. i’m not a religious fanatic, just one who believes that a higher power exists. if that makes me a nut case, then so be it.
Scott @ 26:
if your experience with the south is that limited, perhaps then it is you who don’t know nuthin and don’t wanna know nuthin and damn proud of it. you sound every bit as prejudiced as a redneck wearing a white sheet.
i would say “Fuck yourself” in response to your last line, but i wouldn’t want to get deleted.
Well, they prayed too hard in Kansas. Another levee broke and flooded an oil refinery and there is oil in all that water.
The corporate media is wall to wall coverage, playing the fear card in England.
Wildfires in Utah, they did not pray hard enough.
Geez.
Alabama is due for a total eclipse of the sun in August; I guess the frightened bumpkins will rend their garments and sacrifice their livestock till the shadows pass.
God, maybe this one person one vote thing isn’t the best idea after all.
Well..
I am about as athiest as you can get and I am praying for rain here in South Coastal Maine right now. It is VERY dry.
Perhaps lighteneing up might help a bit? This is not really an issue is it?
really, though, don’t you think that god already knows it hasn’t rained in alabama for a while? what kind of omniscient being is he, anyway? i mean, is the prayer thing kind of like spelling out SOS on the beach with rocks and yelling “look over here! OVER HERE!!!” or is it more that he knows, but is too stuck up to do anything about it until people get down on their knees and beg for water … water … water …
i’d never treat my children that way. i might make them ask for christmas presents and hold them to some kind of course of behaviour before handing out the dosh, but water? that seems a little … extreme.
Time to get out them snake handlers!
Weather forecast for Birmingham, AL
Seems to be working. Maybe you guys should try praying for a Bush impeachment.
Well, they prayed too hard in Kansas. Another levee broke and flooded an oil refinery and there is oil in all that water.
god is angry with us for discriminating against gay people and killing so many iraqis. oh, and for stinking up the planet he gave us.
I have no problem with praying at all but I do have a problem with leaders who’s only answer to a problem is to just sit on their butts and say something like “Lets all pray so God can fix it!”. That will do wonders for every ones spirituality but may not put food on the table or crops for people to sell for who knows how long. God also gave everyone a brain. That Gov. should use his and come up with some solutions because they could be facing this situation again but next time it could much worse.
pinhead @ 31:
Seriously. Sure, not many people are bright in the South, but many of them are not cross burning klansmen either. Its just that those who are bigots tend to go all out with their hatred.
Blue Buddha @ 40:
Its just that those who are bigots tend to go all out with their hatred.
a rose by any other name, blue buddha…
and vote GOP!
Seriously, can we export some of our rain here to you?
Gonna be a long dry summer for Alabamy!
Prayer seems to help believing people who are ill - but purely through the “placebo effect”. Don’t think the weather will respond in like fashion.
To have a governor suggest this just shows how theocratic this poor country has become.
I was born and raised in the south. Good thing I don’t get offended by stereotyping. :)
pinhead @ 41:
don’t know how i messed that comment up, but as for “not many” being bright here in the south- well it’s not our fault all the ivy league schools were built up north. ;)
Shit all you had to do was ask.
It’s not just that the South is full of trailer-livin’, tobacco-chewin’, barefootin’, UFO-seein’, cousin-fuckin’, god-fearin’ rednecks, it’s just that they’re the ones who get all the time in the national news. I know, I’m part of the news media down here in the South and when we do something stupid and get on the national news (and we do stupid REAL well down here), the national types only want to interview the boneheads. Just try to point them in the direction of an intelligent person and they look at you like a dog being shown card tricks.
isn’t praying just telling God what He already knows? I don’t see the point!
I just moved into a new house in Auburn, AL, and found the Auburn-Opelika News on my lawn. I opened it to the front page and saw “Governor says ‘Pray for Rain.’” I don’t think we’ll be getting a subscription.
Ironically, we had five inches of rain yesterday, so all the jesus freaks are going to be thanking dog for that right now.
Of course, this same governor probably also panders to the beliefs of most of his constituents that global warming is a lib’rul plot to destroy Our Great Way of Life. When in fact it’s the most likely reason for the drought.
Quite frankly, I am appalled that the governor of Alabama would call on people to pray for relief from the dought. What’s even more sad is that the governor of Georgia has done the same thing.
I guess it makes sense if your idea of “God” is that of a meddling, capricious deity who treats human beings they way that a spoiled 5-year-old treats an anthill. The assumption then is that God is withholding rain from certain places and drowning other places with too much rain so that people will stop and pay attention to him. I’d think that the Master of the Universe would have better things to do with his time, but that’s just me I guess.
Why not DO SOMETHING about the drought instead of bothing God about it? (God helps those who help themselves, no?) Ever heard of cloud seeding? What about searching for more natural sources of water? Drilled any new wells?
And to those who write off the entire South because of a few rednecks they’ve met, let me say this: how would you like to be judged by the standard of the rudest New Yorker you’ve ever met? Like the rest of the country, the South is full of a variety of people. In fact, many people who live in urban areas such as Atlanta are from the North! Yes, the South has more than its full measure of mouthbreathing rednecks who run from knowledge the way most people run to avoid rain, but we’re not all like that. So, put a check on the “fuck the South” meme. There are plenty of crazies all over the United States. Ever been to Idaho or Montana?
How ’bout dancing? Would that work?
Everybody dance! Come on!
“Work it to the left side, now into the right
Light up this party, lay it out tonite and
Ugga bugga, ugga bugga.”
[NOTHING? DRAT!]