Ray Nagin is insane

Remember Ray Nagin? New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin? For a picture of him with President Bush, see here. For more on his response to Hurricane Katrina, see here and here.

Well, he may or may not have deserved blame for what went wrong in his city after Katrina -- and I think he deserved some of the blame -- but now... well, he seems to have lost his mind:

Mayor Ray Nagin suggested Monday that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and other storms were a sign that "God is mad at America" and at black communities, too, for tearing themselves apart with violence and political infighting.

"Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it's destroyed and put stress on this country," Nagin, who is black, said as he and other city leaders marked Martin Luther King Day.

"Surely he doesn't approve of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also. We're not taking care of ourselves."

Nagin also promised that New Orleans will be a "chocolate" city again. Many of the city's black neighborhoods were heavily damaged by Katrina.

"It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans -- the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans," the mayor said. "This city will be a majority African American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans."

Okay, he makes a couple of acceptable points ("being in Iraq under false pretenses," "time for us to rebuild New Orleans"), and maybe, just maybe, black America isn't taking care of itself properly, but: "God is mad at America"? God punished America? New Orleans should be "chocolate"?

Ray Nagin... meet Pat Robertson, who is also insane. The two of you have a lot in common. (And that's not a compliment.)

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For a view from the right, see my friend Sister Toldjah.