Someone "predicted" that New Orleans would flood, huh? Well there's an astute observation. I think the best way to get accurate "predictions" would be to stone those prophets whose every prediction did not come to pass within the stated timeframe. That would weed out the false prophets from the true. They start these rumors and only surface to take credit if they actually come to pass. If they are proven wrong (which they are most of the time), they are never around to take responsibility for the cost of fear mongering.

It will be interesting to see where algore is ten years from now when the Earth is supposed to be ablaze or drowned, or whatever blather he is currently spouting. What a pathetic politician/retard he is.

To the respondents who say that because I live on an 18 foot ridge near the coast of Virginia, I will soon have waterfront property I say "THE SKY IS FALLING, THE SKY IS FALLING, THE SKY IS FALLING!!! Buck, buck, bucAAAAAWWK"

Poco

Give me a break. This article is a joke. How 'bout we just leave the polls unmanned, and whoever wants can just walk up, vote as many time in a row as they want and leave? This is the pathetic trash that drives reasonable people away from the democrat party.

Poco

This is news? How long an article (or how many) was written about the supreme racist Ray Nagin? New Orleans is going to be a chocolate town? What are we going to do about all these mexicans? He, like so many other sickos, (Marion Barry, Coleman Young, etc.) got reelected. The list of real racist remarks by leftists and democrats goes on and on, yet Salon decides to write about this?

Puhhhleeeeez!

And besides, anyone with half a brain understands that Allen was calling him a "ca ca head", i.e. poop-head. Has it really been that long since ca ca didn't mean poop, or is that slang purely regional? I grew up in Detroit, and everyone there knew that's what it meant when I was a kid.

It was a sophomoric reference at worst. This is hardly worth reporting on.

Poco

P.S. I am not a republican. All politicians are terminally ill with a disease called politics.

The last time I flew, I was selected for a special security check. It was time consuming, expensive, and a waste of both time and money. Answer this question several times before you resort to the lowest common denominator, and call me a racist bigot: When was the last time you read about a Caucasian male, 50's, travelling with his wife and children blowing up an airplane? When was the last time you read about a Mexican male, 50's travelling with his wife and kids blowing up an airplane? When was the last time you read about an African American male, 50's travelling with his wife and kids blowing up an airplane.

When was the last time you read of an Arabic male 19-35, Muslim, travelling alone or with other Arabic males, 19-35, Muslim, blowing up an airplane....

If your life depended on choosing one or the other... If you would be held solely accountable for the safety of your family based on choosing one or the other, which would you choose?

Humans survive, in part, based on their ability to stereotype. When you see a snake you become cautious. Why? because you are a snake bigot? No. Because you have learned that snakes can be dangerous. More dangerous than say, kittens.

Why are we now disregarding what is known and what has been proven to help us survive? The answer is political correctness. The dumbing-down of the human race (particularly Americans).

Prepare to bow down and pay ever more to terrorists and criminals. Let's hope it is not too late when we have had enough, and bring about common sense change

Poco

"To me, that's what it means to be spiritual -- what makes your spine tingle. It's what gives you a sense of awe and wonder and transcendence. It doesn't matter to me if you call it God or the cosmos." There is his religious reference. They all have one. His god: "electric meat", the cosmos, blah, blah, blah.

Wow, what does that do to the concepts of right, wrong, good, bad, truth, lie, love, hate? All of these words are meaningless, and as one chunk of electric meat to another, you can't possibly hope to tell me I'm wrong. There is no such thing as wrong, meat-bag. If all we are is "electric meat" your protestation to me hacking your head off and taking your stuff means... ? I'm an amoeba, you're an amoeba. Just a fancy one.

All humans are religious in one form or another. It is unavoidable.

"That tendency toward superstitious magical thinking is just built into our nature." Chance "builds" nothing. The author contradicts himself.

Poco

You mean, like in the Harriet Miers case? Get a grip, stop fantasizing. The people that don't question their politicians, are the ones that elect Ray Nagin, Marion Barry, Bill Clinton, and Algore. Now would those be conservatives or liberals, hmmmmmmmm?

Poco

"Am I to understand that if every Afterlife-believing theist were suddenly convinced that their God or Gods didn't exist, the world would be consumed in an orgy of murder, rapine, and depravity?"

Over time, yes. Our laws are based on a moral model. The less religious people become the more narrow that model becomes. A short time ago abortion was illegal, and homosexuality considered deviant behavior, thereby being illegal also. But notice, as our country becomes more secular minded, that abortion is legal, and so too, homosexual behavior. We can find no basis upon which to restrict either. If all of the higher authority believing people are convinced that they are wrong, there will be no basis for restricting another human in any way. It's happened before.

Poco