The Lighter Side Of Cataclysms

Amid the debate over how much foreign aid should be given to the Pacific nations hit by the recent tsunami and over Jeb Bush's superhero tidal-wave-stopping powers, the two most sensible reactions to news of the disaster have gone mostly under the radar. Perhaps in response to a typically dithering, "Woe is me" thread at The Corner instigated by that lamb of God, John Derbyshire, about the theodicical problem of living in a world that includes God and tsunamis, that other lamb of God, the Westboro Baptist Church, put out the following press release (via Wonkette):

How many tsunami-dead Swedes are fags and dykes? vacationing on their fat expendable incomes without kids to bother and spend money on.

Maybe the tsunami was God's way of letting the faggots know that it's a sin to be Swedish.

Meanwhile, Josh Marshall caught the following spectacular bit of posturing moral nihilism from the Ayn Rand Institute:

US aid to disaster victims is wrong, though private charity "may be entirely proper, especially considering that most of those affected by this tragedy are suffering through no fault of their own." (emphasis added)

Which of the victims, Josh (and I) would like to know, were affected by this tragedy through fault of their own? Since this is ARI, we can presume that the childless Swede fag-dykes didn't deserve death. Maybe those Indonesians who irrationally lived near the coastline brought the tsunami on themselves. (More thoughts on Ayn Rand here.)

As long as Cornerite idiocy is up for discussion, I've got to reserve a comment or two for Jonah Goldberg, who, to the surprise of many, has outdone himself. Jonah's one and only Christmas wish is for the "total destruction of France." Not France the country mind you; France "the idea." There stands National Review's golden boy in all his bovine glory, laughing so hard at his own (half-)wittiness that it'll be days before he realizes he soiled himself.