Joe Rahm at Think Progress: Texas Drought Now Far, Far Worse Than When Gov. Rick Perry Issued Proclamation Calling on All Texans to Pray for Rain
The table below the squiggle of power tells the tale. The "3 months ago" line, third from the top, is from 4/12/2011, while Gov. Perry issued his proclamation of prayer for rain on 4/21/2011.
The precise meaning of the various drought levels may be found here. Several different factors are combined to produce the index. The "possible impacts" range from D0:
Going into drought: short-term dryness slowing planting, growth of crops or pastures. Coming out of drought: some lingering water deficits; pastures or crops not fully recovered
to
D5:
Exceptional and widespread crop/pasture losses; shortages of water in reservoirs, streams, and wells creating water emergencies
D2 is the level where the problem moves from farmers to cities and water restrictions are imposed on residential users.
D4 is when you turn on your tap and you may not get anything. Were it not for reservoirs (likely funded at least in part by the burdensome Federal government) the people of Texas would be in the proverbial deep yogurt.
The chart above shows cumulative values reading from right to left; e.g., if the "D4" column reads 71.66 and the D3-D4 column reads 90.97, that implies that D3 alone is 90.97-71.66=19.31. I hereby represent the data in a form perhaps more readable to some Kossacks.
Date |
None |
D0 |
D1 |
D2 |
D3 |
D4
|
Current |
0 |
2.57 |
1.65 |
4.81 |
19.31 |
71.66
|
4/12 |
0 |
2.06 |
11.51 |
25.86 |
50.54 |
10.03
|
It appears that God is dissing Rick Perry quite severely. Maybe there's a lesson of humility being taught? Or maybe the lesson is that Rick Perry
wants to do for many other issues what he's doing here - abdicate responsibility and leave things up to the Almighty. While Rick Perry tries to impose God's will on the rest of us in other areas.
Please Keep Your Comments On Topic
This continued drought is not a theological problem for most believers, BTW; most religious folk believe that God doesn't always answer prayers, or perhaps there are others praying for the drought, e.g.,
Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
James 5:17
I would therefore request that we keep our comments off the theology and focused on the implications for Rick Perry as a potential Presidential candidate, and on the discussion of climate change. You can slam Rick Perry and his peculiar views of God without slamming all Christians / theists, mmmkay? That is, I'd rather not have a pie fight when there's a Republican standing right in front of us with a "kick me" sign taped to his butt.