Why exactly do fundamentalists always react to natural disasters by deciding that God is punishing all us cretins that aren't toeing their version of the straight and narrow? Every time a hurricane swings by the east coast we have to listen to Pat Robertson drone on about paying for our sins. Now, the Islamists in Indonesia are blaming the tsunami on a God angry because they are not being good enough Muslims:

"God is angry with Aceh people, because most of them do not do what is written in the Koran and the Hadith," the collected sayings and actions of the prophet Muhammad, explained Cut Bukhaini, 35, an imam. "I hope this will lead all Muslims in Aceh to do what is in the Koran and its teachings. If we do so, God will be merciful and compassionate."

Good grief. Guess that's one way to get folks to the Mosque on Friday. The dumb ones anyway. Here's another gem:

Haji Nawawi, 45, who pulls down his shutters three times a day for prayers, agreed .... "Before the tsunami, all the people were full of bad conduct," he said. "Boys were sitting close to the girls. There was corruption in the government. This was God's punishment."

God's apparent thought process: "Boys sitting close to girls ... clearly unacceptable ... must ... kill ... 150,000"

Good thing my God is a significantly nicer guy than this.

  ¶ 9:38 PM