Free Will links

Jon sent me a pair of links to articles posted at Free Will blog, which I think are quite interesting. The first one dovetails nicely with yesterday's link to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's latest gaffe:

Yeah, that's pretty much how New Orleans was before the hurricane, too, so I guess we're getting back to normal, but back to the crazy talk: Uh, did Nagin say he's having fantasy chats with Martin Luther King Jr. and that God is punishing black people for gang violence?

Oh, since Howard Dean, the elections are just going to get better and better from here on out.

By better, I mean in the sense of their comedic value.

The second Free Will post has a go at people who've converted to Islam for particularly lame reasons:

These people are so profoundly stunted, in so many ways, that they had to find a religion to tell them what to do, rather than one that agreed with what they already believed. Quit smoking, help the poor, don't cheat people, talk to God, spend time with your family, don't shit where you eat or God will be angry with you. [. . .]

This is a veritable profile in the kind of folks who usually end up locked in a mansion waiting for a comet. If they have to be told that God wants them to spend time with their children, maybe they need that kind of master-slave relationship with God, and good for them if they're happy that way, but "most people" would prefer that they kindly step the hell off.