Yesterday I goofed off while not sitting in front of my computer. I accomplished what I planned on doing in the morning and then spent part of the afternoon with Hubby watching TV. We had been watching a couple of programs on CNBC when he switched to The Weather Channel just in time to see the first scenes from Reading, Kansas and Joplin, Missouri.
The devastation is beyond anything I can grasp. These events are just something that don't happen here, so I have nothing with which to measure it against. We get tornadoes, but they're only of the weakest strength. Nothing, absolutely nothing to compare with what happened yesterday. While I am not given to Doomsday theories, I have to ask myself why there have been so many of these catastrophic events this year?
While watching the first two programs on CNBC, I was reminded that there is a world of people out there that I neither understand nor care to meet. People who are motivated by greed and will use every means at their disposal to make themselves wealthier. It seems that the sheer volume of their numbers is on the rise.
The two programs we watched were "American Greed" which exposes con artists and their schemes. Yesterday they featured a Ponzi scheme operated during the 1990's by a religious group called Greater Ministries International. Church members nationwide invested their life savings and in some cases mortgaged their homes to invest in diamond mines in Africa. People who were interviewed for that program, men and women of retirement age who asked themselves if this didn't sound too good to be true, and then they mortgaged their lives to invest.
The second program was "Divorce Wars" which featured the divorces of the rich. Apparently when it comes to amicable division of the marital property, the wealthy don't seem to have any concept of the word amicable. Of the 6 people that were involved in these divorce wars, the only one I had any sympathy for was the woman who received a mere $750,000 from her husband who was a multi-millionaire. The reason that I do have sympathy for her is that he committed fraud to keep her from getting anything that he didn't want to part with. It took her 15 years to find the evidence to prove it, but she ended up with a $10 million settlement.
Of course, since I don't grasp why anyone would be that greedy, I was thinking about both programs when we changed the channel and saw the damage wrought by a tornado. I'm sure there has to be an explanation for why we're experiencing so many natural disasters. I'm very sure that no matter how hard I try, I won't be able to find that explanation any more than I can find an explanation for why so many are so greedy. I do know one thing. When one is very saddened by the state of our society, when one sees the greed and lack of compassion prevalent today, it would be very easy for that person to believe that these natural events are harbingers of approaching Armaggedon.
Do I believe that? No, not really. I admit to a brief passing thought along that line when we changed the channel yesterday. Then I had a good laugh at myself.
Well, I goofed off yesterday AT the computer, at least for 1/2 day. I would respectively request you send some of those rich divorced women my way so that they may keep me in the style to which I'm accustomed. I'm sure my wife won't mind if I promise to do all the housework.
ReplyDelete:-)
More extreme weather I heard was related to earth warming, oceans warming, La Nina or El Nino, etc.
Skinny,
ReplyDeleteWhat you heard is correct.
People who have it all hang on to everything by hook or by crook, and people who didn't have anything to spare watched tornadoes blow what they did have away.
ReplyDeleteWow.... I don't know if I could weigh 15 years of my life to 10 million... of course, I never have and most likely never will experience even a quarter of that kind of lifestyle so... who am I to ponder such.
ReplyDeleteI don't know; the world and human kind is what it is. And choices that we make, well... lets just hope that at the time they are the best they can be. :)
Cheers!
Sherry:
ReplyDeleteThere is no Armageddon in our future. A scientific explanation offered by meteorologists accounts for the recent increase in tornadoes in the United States.
For a tornado to form, cold air must sit above warm, moist air, and the wind needs to go in different directions at different heights, creating shear forces. One thing that brings those things together is a strong jet stream, especially if it comes from the west or southwest, over the Rockies.
That is exactly what has been happening. The jet stream has dipped south over the southwestern US, sending strings of storms over the Southern states for weeks on end. Such a sustained pattern happens only two or three times a century.
I am, at the moment one of the 10 thousand or so Bloggers who are locked out of our blogs. Seems they have a bug or something. I will be back to answer your comments when, or should I say IF they get it fixed.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, I'm going to go read blogs I can't comment on. Bummer! LOL
YAY! I'm ba-a-a-ck!
ReplyDeleteSkinny,
ReplyDeleteI think you're wife might require more than just you doing the housework. Like at least half of what you acquire? LOL
I did the in front of the computer goofing off the week before this past Sunday. It was fun.
I know what causes tornadoes. Was just having fun exploring ideas I don't believe in. It can give an insight into how others draw their conclusions sometimes.
Hey Sarge,
ReplyDeleteYour comment problem and my inability to sign in was being caused by the same Blogger problem. You should be OK now.
Slick,
ReplyDeleteThat "by crook" seems to be more like it. I spent an hour sitting here with my mouth wide open in shock.
Mac,
ReplyDeleteI figure it this way. I'm responsible for the choices I make in life and all I can do is hope I'm not making them from selfishness.
The world will turn and the weather will change. I just hope it stops soon. Those poor people!
Whit,
ReplyDeleteYou're spoiling my fun with facts. GEEZE!
Sometimes exploring ideas that aren't mine gives me an insight into how people come up with these strange ideas.
I was reading somewhere that there are scientists that say this Earth will cease to exist in something like 7 billion years. That, plus the latest Rapture baloney, plus the tornadoes AND all those really greedy people led to this post. Isn't my mind truly "wunnerful"? LOL