I wrote a post on Monday...

...that was not about my lawn mower. Instead, it was about -- among other things -- our lack of control over events that are beyond our control: 

In ancient times, when there was a flood or some other natural disaster, people probably thought they had brought it on themselves by their bad behavior, i. e., the gods were punishing them. Can you imagine anyone thinking that way today? 

This morning, I read in Dana Milbank's column in the Washington Post: 

Last year, Rep. Michele Bachmann, then a Republican presidential candidate, said that the East Coast earthquake and Hurricane Irene — another “I” storm, but not an Old Testament one — were attempts by God "to get the attention of the politicians." In remarks later termed a “joke,” she said: "It's time for an act of God and we're getting it." 

The influential conservative broadcaster Glenn Beck said last year that the Japanese earthquake and tsunami were God’s "message being sent" to that country. A year earlier, Christian broadcaster and former GOP presidential candidate Pat Robertson tied the Haitian earthquake to that country’s "pact to the devil." 

Previously, Robertson had argued that Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for abortion, while the Rev. John Hagee said the storm was God’s way of punishing homosexuality. The late Jerry Falwell thought that God allowed the Sept. 11 attacks as retribution for feminists and the ACLU.