A biblical parallel:

Luke 13:2-5 (ESV)
And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? [3] No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. [4] Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? [5] No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

I don’t see a parallel between that Gospel passage and the event yesterday in Philadelphia. What Jesus is saying is that the death suffered by the people in the crash of that tower was not a special punishment for special sin, but the universal fate that, in one form or another, awaits all of us unless we repent. By contrast, the incident yesterday was a much deserved symbolic comeupance against people who have been engaged in a specific wrong, and who were honoring one of the chief wrongdoers.

Here’s an e-mail from a friend expanding on the meaning of the accident at the Phildelphia Constitution Center:

“I am devastated. What with the Supreme Court decisions, and the article a day or two ago in the New York Times on the continued harassment of the Boy Scouts, not just by gay groups, but by local governments, by businesses, and so forth, I am just in turmoil about our society.

“However, it was a delicious little thing that at a celebration of the Constitution in Philadelphia on Independence Day, yesterday, at which O’CONNOR WAS BEING GIVEN AN AWARD FOR HER GREAT SERVICE TO OUR FOUNDING PRINCIPLES (HA), apparently the FRAME of some mural that had been created for the celebration and was being unveiled nearly fell on her STUPID HEAD and did actually fall on the STUPID LOCAL FUNCTIONARIES WHO CHOSE HER FOR THE AWARD (no real injuries so we can enjoy it), and so FATE ITSELF SYMBOLIZED WHAT SHE HAS ACTUALLY DONE to the Constitution that she was being, regrettably, honored for upholding (double HA). Or perhaps the spirit of the FRAMErs had been roused to register their view of what she has done and how she has obviated and overriden the principles that cost them so much to enact.

“I’m seeing it as the beginning of the tide that will rise against her and her ilk.”

Years ago I read a good book about the 1787 Constitutional convention by Catherine Drinker Bowen called “Miracle at Philadelphia.” Yesterday we had the “Accident at Philadelphia.” Just as the first showed God’s extraordinary favor on this land, can we not say that the second signals (to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear) his withdrawal of that favor, unless we repent?

I think Mr. Auster is on point. The evidences of God’s blessing were so numerous and profound as to require blinders not to see them.

My favorite of such accounts concern the several narrow escapes of General Washington. The best of these in my opinion is his rallying the troops at the Battle of Monmouth, after Gen. Charles Lee had thrown the first detachment in disarray by his insubordination and stupidity. General Washington went out in the middle of fighting. So much musket smoke generated that for a while he disappeared. American officers covered their faces so as to see the Commander-in-Chief fall.

When the smoke cleared he was seen still on his great steed urging the troops onward, whereupon the British were driven off.

And who here hasn’t heard of that incident in the French and Indian War? with horses shot out from under him, and afterward several bullets lodged in his COAT!

Yesterday’s accident may indeed be a sign of God’s increasing disfavor. If so, I’m sure it’s a pittance compared with what’s to come if we do not repent.

While I share other posters’ delight at Empress Sandra’s discomfiture (and I was pleased to hear evidence, through her open-mic comment, of physical cowardice), I am not sure this incident is God speaking.

Look at punishments He visited on those who forsook Him in the Old Testament; look at some of the punishments Our Lord promises the unrepentant in the New. To derive a solid sense that God was sending us a warning, I’m afraid The Swing Vote would have had to be killed outright - probably along with some of her S.Ct. colleagues who rule from the Left and the mushy middle. I am certain God does not look with favor on almost anything that official America does (including the official Christianity and Judaism that purport to speak in His name), but we will fall far further before He steps in. HRS

Still, God might tailor his interventions to the audience. In more serious times he might have written fiery crosses in the sky. Today he might find the equivalent of pie-throwing more suitable.