Titles Are So Pretentious

Tags

Catholic Church, contraception, Election 2012, Mitt Romney, Obama, tea party, teabaggers

‘Kay, this is pretty easy.

1. Within a couple of decades, Merika is gonna be more “colored” than not. More brown, more black, more ABW (anything but white).

2. White dudes have traditionally not had a good record of making nice with people who are OTW (other than white).

3. White dudes figure their “way of life” is in deep poo in the coming years.

4. Solution: gain control of them “others” right now, and force/train/indoctrinate them into “acting” white so we can still live like we “always have.”

5. Wrap all your evil machinations in words like freedom, the Constitution, Founding Fathers, God-given, liberty, free market capitalism,  and call all stuff you don’t like, commie, fascist, socialistic, Islamofascist, European, alien, nanny-state dependence.  Got it?

The Romney Horror Picture Show continues as our boy Willard continues to scoot further and further right in order to be “Mr. Conservative” or as he now calls it “severely Conservative.”

And worst of all, the conversation is not about the economy any more, but about social issues. And Ricky forces Willard to be more homophobic, and more anti-contraceptive with each passing day.

And in one week, the GOP has managed to offend the gay community and women in general.  Not that they haven’t offended before, but they really went out of their way.

Don’t tell them that “it’s the economy stupid,” cause they like to talk about sex a LOT.

That would be Newt, Ricky, Ron and Mitt.

They thought they might make a play for the mentally challenged.

Until somebody pointed out, that such folks probably don’t vote.

But, back stage, they still light to delight in the fantasy that they are super heroes, so they dress up.

They vehemently reject being called cross-dressers however.

Vehemently.

Vehemently. Seriously.

Democrats are serious bummed about one thing though.

The Republicans hold the record for the world’s longest held orgasm.

Yes they do.

It’s called CPAC.

And the crowning moment of ecstasy will be when Miss Sarah speaks. And they all wonder about what could have been. I mean they wonder, when they aren’t otherwise engaged with their “parts” doing stuff under the table with their junk.

I swear it’s true. Ask Ricky. He’s the head of Sex Matters.

Have you noticed that most of the panel discussions about the contraception mandate have been overwhelmingly male?

Are you aware that polling continues to show that women, Catholic or otherwise overwhelmingly favor contraception being part of a health care plan, whether offered in a secular business or one run by a religious organization?

Are you aware that some very savvy women are suggesting that the Obama administration is either incredibly lucky or they are brilliant in putting this forth where we could, (1) have a national conversation about whether a religious organization who receives federal monies under various grants, can deny coverage to the janitors, nurses, and teachers who wish it, and require they spend their own money? (2) declare a solution whereby the religious group is not required to pay for the coverage (3) require the insurance company to “pay” for the coverage when the insurance company is happy to comply because contraception coverage is a zero sum to them, prenatal and other pregnancy related services being vastly more expensive, (4) force the GOP to come out and virtually begin arguing that contraception is not a good thing, thus adding to their anti-women’s health persona, (5) come just in time to push Santorum to the front, thus forcing Romney to defense once again to stave off another challenger, pushing him even farther to the right, and thus setting up a perfect storm of crazy to run against? (6) and finally, proving to the great Independent voter that the GOP has little if any interest in jobs, but prefers to hang out with the tinfoil crew that is their base?

And tell me I shouldn’t  love this election year?

Go ahead, tell me.

And with that, my dear friends, enjoy your weekend.

Related articles

• “Obama Punks the GOP on Contraception.” (althouse.blogspot.com)
• Obama riled up Republicans on contraception, and then delivers a knock-out punch. (tribuneofthepeople.com)
• President Obama Announces New Policy to Improve Access to Contraception (whitehouse.gov)
• CPAC Attendees Learn How to Pick Up Women, Gay Men [Cpac] (gawker.com)
• CPAC First Impressions (thedailybeast.com)

Are We There Yet?

Tags

Barack Obama, Catholic Church, contraception, Election 2012, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Scott Walker, Wisconsin

I didn’t put much credence in this at first. The Contrarian brought it to my attention as an genius evil machination of the Obama administration. But I’ve now read it other places, and well, there could be something to it. At least the timing seems fortuitous.

I mean let’s face it, before Tuesday, it was hard to find a cartoon about Ricky S. He was a non sequitur. He was old “frothy mix”, an extraordinarily rabid right-winger outlier, who like Dr. Paul, was desirous of spreading the message rather than having any grand expectations of getting a nomination.

Well, times change, and the desire to find ANYBODY GOD, JUST ANYBODY BUT MITT, has led us to Ricky. And, if you believe that Obama and his team are seriously brilliant, the contraception “issue” was dragged forth at precisely the right moment to give Ricky a platform to spew his crazy religious mantras and light a match under the mostly apathetic crazy Right.

And thus: upset the Romney apple cart once more.

Now I don’t know if that is true, or even plausible, but it sure was convenient wasn’t it? Now the two, stand poised to speak to CPAC that joyful religious/reactionary love fest being held in Washington D.C. Romney, as we know, enters with fear and loathing, for these are not his people. This is not a case of “I know my sheep and they know me.” On the other hand, Ricky enters the convention coming near to walking on water. Two more different approaches could not be found.

And you can hear the love across the conservative air waves. The pundits, pretending to be fair all the while they are not, talk about how Ricky is just being Ricky, the tried and true, never-changing, beacon of C O N S E R V A T I S M. From David Brooks to Peggy Noonan to RushiePushie, they are all looking adoringly at the new “favorite son”.

Ya just gotta wonder. How does Mitt stand it? Being so despised by so many. It’s not hatred, it’s just YUCK. It’s that creepy crawly feeling of revulsion when you hear the name, when you see the dopey pasted on grin, when you see him stand with hand on hip, trying to look casual, when you are sure that he has a butt plug lodged tightly up his ass at all times as some sort of penance for God knows what. Mitt may just not make it folks. Money is still favoring him, but heck, Ricky has dealt a pretty nasty blow with virtually none.

¶

There is a rather long but very well done analysis of Obama and his Presidency to-date from James Fallows. He’s got some decent credibility and the piece is largely devoid of partisanship. I saw him interviewed last night, and I was impressed. He points out Obama’s strengths and weaknesses, I think fairly. You may not agree with all he says, and I didn’t, but I also thought it was well done.

¶

Wisconsin voters can feel secure that when they vote to boot out Walker this year, they are making a sound decision. As most of you have no doubt heard, the banks are paying out several billions of bucks in wrongful foreclosures. The monies are going to the states, as the result of the actions of 48 State’s Attorney’s General actions. Well, dear old hard-heart, is taking 25 million of their settlement (of a 140 million total) and applying it to the state budget deficit rather than give it to the afflicted homeowners.

I guess he figures it will be a better argument to claim he’s “balanced the budget” instead of helping out homeowners.

He’s a turd. I bet him and Karl float around in the same toilet.

¶

Well, it’s harsh, but I’ll say it. I agree. Under the LobsterScope points out that the moral outrage of the Roman Catholic Church is a fine diversion from its perennial moral deficit–the child abuse problem that won’t go away. The reason it won’t go away? Because the Church continues to try to sweep it under the rug as best it can, although the lump in the rug is so damn big, everybody notices. (My rant). And they talk about the immorality of contraception!

And while we are at it, where is their moral outrage when African women contract AIDs because they are not allowed to use condoms and their infected husbands turn a deaf ear to their pleas for continence. (My rant ended).

¶

Ricky, giddy with new-found appeal, is as anyone would know, already steppin’ in it. He’s so far said we are on the road to the apocalypse, compared the Obama-led America to France heading to the guillotine, suggested that Obama would force the Roman Catholic Church to hire women priests, reminded us that global warming is a hoax, suggested that Obama has a “wink, wink, nod, nod” relationship with Iran’s nuclear desires in return for getting some oil, claims that the recession was caused by high gas prices, and now suggests that women shouldn’t be in combat because of “other types of emotions.”

Oh yeah, bring on the Rickster! Heck Obama can stay home and play hoops.

Related articles

• Enough Of The Fake Outrage Over Contraception (angrydd.wordpress.com)

What This World Needs is a Good Shirley Temple

Tags

"Mittens" Romney, Barney Frank, Constitution, corporate America, economy, environment, Eric Cantor, Humor, Judeo-Christianity, Newt Gingrich, Occupy Wall Street, wacko media

Hey it worked in the 30’s. Or so they tell me. I have no personal knowledge. I’m not that old. I refer to those old reels of celluloid to inform me.

Back in the 30’s this country, like today, was reeling from pessimism. The economy sucked and people had lost faith. So, those great minds in the country told Hollywood to get on board, and make lots of feel-good movies.

And they did. And Shirley saved America.  We just need another Shirley is all. Simple.

♦

Having saved the world before noon, let us move on. Did you know that back in the 20’s and 30’s that corporate Amerika fought Child Labor laws tooth and nail? Did you know that the first act passed by Congress, the Keating-Owens Act, was struck down by the US Supreme Court as a constitutional infringement on a child’s right to contract his or her own labor?

Do rational people believe that anything has changed in Corporacracy? The GOP continues to blame the economic woes of the country on “regulation” of business by Democrats. They assure us that our Corporate benefactors will “do the right” thing when it comes to safe working conditions, safe products, and otherwise fair business practices.

How low does your IQ have to be to believe that? Does anyone remember the company town? Does anyone remember the Triangle Shirtwaist fire? Does anyone remember GM strikers being attacked and beaten by corporate goons?

Yeah, I sure believe that the Koch brothers are lookin’ out for me. Sure I do.

♦

Just how clearly does our Constitution follow the commandments of the Christian faith? Beeryblog has a post you better darn read if you want to know. It’s an eye-opener.

♦

Don’t know if you heard or not, but Gingrich called for the arrest, trial and imprisonment of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd as the ” real perpetrators” of the economic collapse in this country. When the moderators suggested that that was said tongue-in-cheek- surely, Newt the Toot, doubled down and assured everyone that he meant every word of it.

Barney Frank responded with this:

“I wish I knew that he was willing to listen to my advice, I would have given him some: I would have told him not to impeach Clinton, I would have told his successors not to go to war with Iraq, and I would have told DeLay not to go on the dance show. He’s been having a bad year, you know — this self-styled intellectual leader of the free world struggling to stay ahead of Michele Bachmann in the polls is unsettling him so he talks even sillier than he sometimes does.”

H/T to Joe.My.God

♦

The nutz on the right continue to not know what the willies to do about the Occupy Wall Street phenom. Eric (everybody’s nerdish little brother) Cantor has gone from calling them “mobs” to folks who are folks who are “justifiably frustrated.” Read how Cantor tries to backtrack and still manage to tell everyone how different this group is from his beloved (let me kiss your feet) TeaNutz®.

As the movement grows across the country, the GOP is rethinking its initial condemnation of “all those dirty hippies” and “anarchists” who are out to “divide our country” and “pit Americans against Americans”. It’s a fun thing to watch I gotta admit.

And Herm, I would be guessin’, ain’t going anywhere near the “mobs” with his “stop whining and get a job” routine.

♦

If you need another primer on the economy, Robert Reich has that for you in seven lies about the economy that are being pushed by the Right. 

♦

A couple of nice finds at Political Irony. The first is a Democratic website where you can go and watch Mitt (somebody called me Mittens and I thought that was cute) Romney flippin’ and floppin’ on a huge number of issues. All out of his own mouth. Go here for that.

Or go here for late night humor.

♦

There’s two guys chasing after one brain-cell award: Beck interviewing Hank Williams Jr. on his being fired from ESPN for being just plain too stupid to exist. Of course you get that Blaze, so no link is required. You would not want to read it after all.

♦

Did you know that erasers have magical properties? Well they do. Whatever they erase, ceases to exist. At least on planet TEX-ASS. You see, for years TEXAS has contracted with Houston Advanced Research Center to report on the state of Galveston Bay. And they did so this year. And the water levels are rising, and the scientists said it was important proof of climate change and human causation.

References to the rising water and projections of future rising were simply erased by Rick’s boys and girls who don’t care for that kinda stuff. It’s all a left-wing hoax didn’t ya know?

♦

I’m living in a land somewhere west of Andromeda this day. I awoke to a husband who out-of-the-blue and for no-definable-reason, offered to cook dinner. I had a roast out defrosting and he said, “save it until tomorrow, I’ll go down and get the liver and fix that. I know you don’t like to cook liver.”

I immediately began looking around for MY husband. But I’m thinkin’ I may keep this imposter around, at least until after that liver is cooked. I do love me some liver ‘n onions on occasion.

 

Related articles

• Barney Frank Rips Newt Gingrich for Suggesting He Should be Jailed (towleroad.com)

Your Guess is as Good as Mine

Tags

1st Amendment, GOP, Iowa, Libya, no-fly zone, nuclear energy, Randy Forbes, religion, teabuggers

I admit to being conflicted about nuclear energy. I prefer solar and wind energy, thank you very much. I recognize that nuclear is an alternative to the dirty energies of oil and coal.

I’m not ready to jump on the bandwagon that some are shouting from, that the Japanese have bungled their management of their reactors. I don’t know enough to make that judgment.

It would seem at first glance that a place where three tectonic plates intersect would not be a good place to build a reactor, but I’ve also heard that the area was considered “safe”.

In any event, certain folks in this country are pretty vocal that we should put the brakes on any further nuclear plant building until a “thorough study has been conducted.” Local TV here in Iowa is wont to tell us that the same GE design is present in our Palo reactor which is pretty close to where we live.

Politicians are good at this kind of stuff. Acting all “concerned for the public welfare” in times of “crisis.” That brought us such wonderful things as “freedom fries” and two extra months of daylight savings time, a move that saved not one tablespoon of oil as far as I know.

So I’m suspicious that all this talk of new studies and delay comes from  those who have some interest in oil and coal production. I have that suspicion.

I realize that nuclear energy can be dangerous. We have seen the evidence of that from Three Mile Island to Chernobyl and now in Japan. Yet, space travel is dangerous and we have the bodies to prove that. Crossing the Atlantic in small wooden ships was dangerous and many perished in that attempt. People died attempting to reach the North pole. People die in mining accidents (many of which are no doubt preventable), riding horses, and I am sure some poor soul died from sneezing.

Discovery and living both have their risks. As long as we do the best we can to do things safely, I’m not ready to pull the plug of nuclear energy because of an accident. What it should do, is lead us to make sure our existing plants are as safe as we can make them. That could also be considered “job creation”.  If you wish to read more of the technical side of the argument, go here. The article deals with our latest technology.

♦

The No-fly zone has begun with France taking the lead, claiming that their aircraft are in the air over Libya now. Qaddafi is predictably acting crazy, claiming he will die before surrendering. I guess my position is now that they must strike quickly and hard, and put an end to this. Otherwise Qaddafi will do as much murdering as he possibly can.

My reason for wanting this over quickly, is that atrocities are occurring in Yemen and in Bahrain, and very little is being said about it. These were peaceful demonstrations and the powers that be have decided to end them. The US is fairly quiet about the entire thing, other than to “abhor the violence.”

♦

We try to keep you aware here of bills introduced in state and federal legislatures. Here’s another phenomenal waste of time and taxpayer money. It seems that one Randy Forbes (R-VA) and teabugger backed, has introduced a bill that HAS MADE IT THROUGH THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE FOR GOD’S SAKE, that would make it mandatory that all public buildings, public high schools, and political institutions, carry the words “In God we Trust” on the building. Crazy Randy also wanted the Congress to declare that the bible was the inerrant word of God.

This is where taxpayer money goes folks. Sigh. Anyone for nominating Crazy Randy to hand chisel all the signs for the entire country? Keep him busy and out of RATIONAL people’s hair?

♦

It’s been spring here in the meadow since March 1, since we like to divide the seasons properly. A sure sign is the sound of birds twittering a lot. It’s blessed music to my ears. It makes me smile. I hope you have some spring-like weather where you are. I’m starting to look around to see if some bulbs are starting to pop out. And the trees are getting red on the furthest extensions of the branches, and soon the buds will appear. *Smile.*

Related Articles

• Five myths about nuclear energy (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• What does Japan’s disaster mean for the global nuclear industry? (cnn.com)

An Anomalous Day

Tags

America, editorial, fundamentalist, hatred, right wing, satire

It’s an odd day. Or so it seems to me. Mostly it must be me. For I can point to no thing that is different in the passing of the night.

The oil is still gushing, though at a slower rate perhaps. For now. At least.

The sun is shining, brightly, strongly, and warmly. Not too warm, not too humid. Just right. The garden is blooming and busting forth in exuberant excitement. Or at least it seems so when I gaze out.

The mosquitos are hungry, and that fact keeps me more indoors than I would like to be.

Yet, everywhere I look, hatred seems bursting forth as well. From the gulf coast, and that is certainly to be expected. Thousands are losing their livelihood, their beautiful beaches and fishing grounds. Animals and birds and fish and amphibians, with no voice of their own, just live as best they can, or die.  Somehow, it seems okay to hate a company. May BP bankrupt itself and never be in a position to wreak such havoc upon humanity and mother earth again.

We are still, in the southwest, trying to make political hay off the backs of brown skins. Yes, we need a coherent policy, and we need enforcement of it, and we need a rational relationship with Mexico where all can agree. But it’s not hard to see that so much of this is not about “security,” it’s about greed, and fear and hatred.

Statistics say that crime has not increased in the border towns. Two mayors sit side by side, and are asked, “Is crime a problem in your town.” The Latina mayor replies, “no,” and the white male mayor replies with an energetic “yes!” Something else is afoot here, something dark and mean and ugly.

In Massachusetts, a would-be governor chastises the answers of the incumbent, who preaches tolerance of Muslims and respect for their holy day of Friday. The would-be uses the words of the day, “terrorism” and  radical Islam. Politics drives the drivel again. Play on the fears, play on the hate.

And, my mind creates this dialog:

Why, we had reason to hate the black man, but in the end,  it was simply not allowed. Even my Daddy  went from the N word to “black” but he could pronounce it with all the venom that ever attached to nigger. All too many years when we had to nod and be polite, while inwardly we seethed.  Only pretending to change.That’s what them liberals did!

Boy, take a deep breath, fill your lungs with it. It’s like napalm in the morning, that hatred, swelling your breast with America at its best. I can hate the brown and the darker brown, and maybe even some  of those Asians still, and secretly still the African, because there is good reason to!

And I can hate Obama because he is a socialist commie jihadist in disguise. Mr. Hussein! And it’s not because he is black and makes me feel small. No, he is all those things. I watch the news. Fox says he is, and more, and why I’m just being a good old Merikan aren’t I? Preserving the constitution for my kids and their kids and such?

Give me Sarah, who speaks my kinda patriotism, wrapping it in the flag where it belongs.  It was Christians like us who built this damn place after all. Who are these lazy  colored, these  wetbacks, these ragheads? Sure they come now and want a piece of the pie. Who wouldn’t? But I built it, me and my daddy and his daddy.

We never had no need of no fancy school, no fancy degrees. None was needed to pour concrete or dig ore. None needed to rivet on that bumper or drive that bus. And we did just fine. We paid our taxes, won us a couple of wars against the great evils Germany and Japan.

Don’t tell me I don’t know my history. I know all I need to know.  This country was built on Godly principles and we’d all be better off if more kids prayed in school. It was built on blood and sweat, and we took what we needed where we needed it from. Survival of the fittest don’t they say that?

Only damn thing that Darwin guy got right. The rest, pure atheist crap. And I’m glad they fired that teacher in Fort Dodge. Imagine teaching in a Catholic school and not believing in God? That’s what’s become of our country. She’s probably a damned lesbian to boot. They are always recruiting you know. That’s their agenda.

I gotta hang on to what is mine, doncha see that? And I’m not gonna pay for the rest of them lazy bastards (excuse my french). Let them take care of themselves, go back where they came from.

Can’t a man sit on his damn porch at night with a beer and not have to worry about losin’ his job? It’s all because of THEM.

Do I go to church? Well, heck, I would, if I had the time, but after five days in that plant, doin’ the same thing hour after hour, hell, all I want is to come home, have a hot dinner, put my feet up and watch Law and Order. I would  go, but on Sunday, well it’s the only time I got to be with my family you see?

Where are they today? Oh, the missus is visiting her sister next town over and Tommy is over at his girl’s house and the two little ones are down the street with the neighbor kids. But I pray, I tell you. I surely do. Like I pray that there’s still another beer in the fridge, and I pray that Cubs win today.  And I surely pray for a HD TV for my birthday!

Hate? I don’t hate anyone. I just tell it like it is.

You Got It All Wrong

Tags

Amendments, checks and balances, citizenship, Constititution, democracy, federalism, freedom, government, liberty, theocracy, tyranny

It has been my considered opinion for many years, that democracy requires a certain political maturity to pull off. I came to that conclusion as we wasted so many thousands of lives in Vietnam, all in pursuit of exporting democracy.

The neo-cons cannot “get” this. So we have continued to go about the business of “nation building” over the years, with little success.

Texas is busily trying to rewrite history to suit its collective religious notions. So out goes Jefferson as part of the Enlightenment, and out goes the Enlightenment in favor of “other ideas.” Caesar Chavez is dropped. What is in, is that the Founding Fathers were all Christians and their purpose was to establish the “City of God.”

Bunk, but what can you do against such mindsets? In fact, our Founding Fathers, (FF) knew quite a bit about government and had a pretty clear idea of what they did not want. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That is one of the truest phrases ever spoken.

Democracy comes after all the other forms have been tried. I’m not sure if we ever gave Aristotle’s “philosopher king” much of a chance, but then such persons are mighty hard to come by. So we ended up with a strange seemingly unworkable structure that was based on the premise of “trust no one.” We established three branches, and were careful to give no one branch too much power, and plenty of veto power over the others. (Yes, before you start, I know the difference between democracy and federalism–we can treat them the same for this analysis.)

Yet, even then, we knew it was risky. Complicity still paced along the horizon. I mean the in’s in Washington could agree that at least they WERE the powerful rulers and could AGREE to at least protect themselves against the great hordes of ordinary citizenry. And of course that is pretty much what has happened today. Almost nobody in Washington gives a hoot about the American “people.” Remaining in their little fiefdom is the point today.

I contend that the FF actually saw this as a possibility and that the Amendments to the Constitution were really the last ditch defense against the return of tyranny. Seen in this way, we can I submit make a better choice as to how to break apart this log jam of inaction on crucial social issues we find today.

Freedoms of speech, assemble, and press insure that citizens can gather, discuss, organize and plan the ouster of those who are not doing the public good. No jail for dissidents. Freedom of religion is a direct response to the legitimacy that a “national” church can lend to a corrupt regime, and the tit for tat forced legitimacy of a particular faith interpretation. (Look to Latin America as a perfect example of a tyrannical government working hand in hand with a church to keep the status quo alive and well.)

Seen in this light the right to bear arms has zero to do with people having the right to amass personal arsenals. Rather it has to do with the fact that the people, thwarted by a government who enlists its personal army to defeat dissidents, don’t have to show up with pitchforks and shovels to war against tanks and machine guns. It is our final and most dangerous alternative to a government run amok.

Such an alternative is usually not necessary when trial rights, peers, and so forth are protected constitutionally. We can’t be jailed for opposing our government. We used to think we couldn’t be tortured into telling on ourselves (now open to wonder). We realized the importance here of liberty from tyranny, devoting half of our amendments to protecting the opposition.

None of this sounds very like the idea of creating a City of God. It seems more a sober reflection of how dangerous power is, and that we must remain ever vigilant to its excesses. Those who try to pervert the amendments into something else, either singularly or in groups are dangerous and must be watched carefully. Those who would suspend them even temporarily, even for “security’s” sake, must be opposed.

Texas is so appallingly wrong. It already has about the worst record in terms of graduating kids in the country. It has avoided what 48 other states have agreed is proper–minimum national standards of learning–and it’s increasingly at the beck and call of religious bigots who are determined to establish what the FF abhorred–a theocracy. Sadly, no doubt it will prevail at least within its borders and continue to turn out ill-educated backward and bigoted new adults ready to enter the voting booth.

Patrick Kennedy went ballistic the other day calling up the national media to stop its insane laziness and start to focus on real news. He was utterly right. If the press cannot or will not do it’s job, then it is up to us. It’s up to you. And me. Or we can kiss this find experiment goodbye.

Just what I’m thinkin’ about today.

Me Prefer Living in Cave

Tags

anti-intellectualism, Benjamin Franklin, Christianity, evolution, founding fathers, fundamentalism, science, scientific method, Steven Waldman, Susan Jacoby, Thomas Jefferson

Frankly, I must admit that I have trouble understanding the American penchant for being suspicious of science. One would think just the opposite.

As recipient of most of the world’s greatest advances in all aspects of scientific endeavor you would think we would hold it in higher esteem. After all, the rest of the world at one time at least, came here to learn and then copy our discoveries and technological advances.

This came to mind yesterday as I was watching something or other, and the interviewee remarked that rather than worshipping sports heroes and actresses, we should be toasting our scientists who continue to pursue advances in science which ultimately bring us such delights as Iphones, computers, electric cars, and cures for disease. I have to agree, yet what he asks is not likely to happen.

A year or so ago, I reviewed Susan Jacoby’s book, The Age of American Unreason. In it, she details the anti-intellectualism that has been part of this country for many years. It did not of course start out that way, for we were blessed with great intellectual minds in Jefferson, Franklin, Paine, and a number of our other Founding Fathers.

In part she argues, that we left scientific pursuits aside for a bit, as we forged a new nation, and then got it up and running. We allowed, for the time being, scientific research to remain a European “thing.” Later on, came the Second Great Awakening, and the resultant or continuing fundamentalist bent to our religious heritage continued. This looked down upon science as a secular danger which was undermining proper and older interpretations of scripture.

It probably was of no great help that in the early 20th century, with the advent of Darwinian evolutionary theory, some intellectuals from our powerhouse eastern schools decided that social concerns could be laid at the foot of evolution, and that we could systematically study and test out social theories in much the same way that we could study the interior design of an atom of carbon.

While America did a fine job of teaching the reading, writing, and cyphering skills necessary to modern consumer economics, it also molded young minds to be both patriotic and “good citizens.” The latter meant voting and not committing crimes against the public good. Beyond that, it failed, and failed big time. As the world became more and more complicated and as knowledge exploded in every direction, schools remained mired in the basics.

Soon, the average person, who felt well educated through his high school studies, was unable to understand much of what was going on in the arena of science. And inability to understand, I think, breeds suspicion. And then, as I said, scientific discovery began to give the appearance of negating long held religious notions.

Today the religious right continues to assail us with “facts” that our founding fathers were “Christian” and that they bedrocked the federal government on “Judeo-Christian” principles. And frankly, that is not too far from true. In reading and reviewing Steven Waldman’s acclaimed book,  Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America, we do in fact learn that most of our leaders of the time were believers. This is of course natural, since most people were.

However, that does not go nearly far enough. They were also intellectuals for the most part, and most had been well educated. Furthermore, they were men of the Enlightenment, a time when secular explanations were replacing primitive religious ideas for explaining more and more of the natural world. Two in particular were, in some sense, scientists themselves. Franklin and Jefferson were both tinkerers and both invented a number of things during their lives.

As to religion, we discovered that the very act of living in “church states” before the revolution, taught some leaders of the dangers of maintaining a religious state alongside a political one. Those experiences convinced them that there needed to be a clear demarcation between the secular and the spiritual plane. Monroe wrote about this extensively, and it was he who pushed hardest to separate church from state.

This all leads to the weirdness whereby fundamentalists hang onto the Founding members of our country when it comes to their Christian origins, and somehow forget that these same men were both intellectuals and sometimes scientists themselves.

It all leads to the real weirdness whereby fundamentalists decry the “Satanic” origins of some science (any and all that they interpret to conflict with their biblical beliefs), all the while enjoying to the max all kinds of science that enhances their lives.

Science is good when it produces cars, electricity, telephones, computers, tv’s, radios, airplanes, cures for disease, cheaper food, microwaves, vacuum cleaners,  and so forth. It is somehow bad when it produces evolutionary biology, archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, geology, astronomy, and a host of other discoveries that they see as divorced not only from their personal lives, but in some conflict with the bible.

 Of course, many of these discoveries do indeed transcend both sides. Many of the advances in medicine today are the result of genetic advances. The genome project and other such work lends itself to new approaches in medicine, while at the same time lending major support to evolutionary themes. Somehow the fundies ignore this fact.

Humans have, it seems, a great capacity for compartmentalizing. We are good at ignoring conflicts. We can hold disparate ideas in our minds at the same time. We are masters at not investigating our own conclusions to take then to their logical end. We avoid again and again that we are talking out of both sides of our mouths.

Scientists, with their rigorous peer-reviewed manner, do a good deal to keep us honest. And perhaps that’s the real rub. We don’t like being reminded that we can exist quite happily in dissonance, believing diametrically opposing things at the same time. While science is not a thing to be worshipped for itself, it provides us, so far at least, with the best way of discovering truth through its methodology.

Science is the culmination of our curiosity, our “fix it” mentality, and our integrity. The latter may not be a noble addition so much as a recognition that if we don’t do science with a certain amount of honesty and integrity, then we are apt to find ourselves falling out of the sky in our newly created air machine.

We should be idolizing those men and women who spend their lives seeking to know. It is upon their shoulders that we all climb up the ladder of advancement as a species. Until we come upon a better way of doing “civilization” like it or not, science will be the way. Or, frankly, we won’t be climbing upward, at all, but falling into a new “dark age” of subsisting in the world. 

***reviews of the two books noted above can be located under “book reviews” in the categories section of the sidebar.