Look At That Again

Tags

anarchism, capitalism, Chris Christie, GOP, ideology, Politics, teabaggers, Wing nuts

Perhaps it’s the new year, and my intent to be a kinder gentler pundit. (Did you see how I slid in that word pundit, raising myself to the realm of Rachel and Ed and Lawrence? Well, you can’t blame an old girl for trying.

Anyway.

Gee that begs the question why my favorite form of prose is the stream of consciousness, just writing down whatever flops out of my over-active mind. Does it read as easily as it trips through my neurons?

ANYWAY.

It may be the nicer me that I’ve conjured from the depths of my often described cold-dead heart (by those who despise the things I say), but I’m not sure.

Not sure about what you ask?’

Why, that Chris Christie is seeming to start to thaw my rather unfavorable image that I have henceforth had of him.

I know, I know. You will say, “why sure, Sherry, he’s raggin’ on the GOP. What’s not to like?”

And I will say, “Yeah, I do enjoy that to be sure.”

But it seems more than that.

I get these flashes when I am watching him, that in some ways, he is EXACTLY what we need. He is just bombastic enough to get people’s attention. And he at least gets it that some things are NOT political, or shouldn’t be. And he’s not afraid to rant at his own party when they are politicizing that which shouldn’t be.

As opposed to John of Orange who is so afraid of his crazy caucus that he cancelled a vote on disaster relief that is already LONG OVERDUE, because he was scared that his idiot faction would vote against it, because they are inclined to only do with comes naturally, which is ACT STUPID.

Which is not to say that Chris Christie still espouses all the dumb Republican philosophies that I find both repugnant to economic stability and to common decency as regards the average Jane. But he at least realizes that the federal government has SOME purpose and disaster relief is sure one of them, as opposed to the Norquistian element which wants to just turn over the keys to the Capital to Stanley Morgan and Mobil Oil.

Which is to say, that you can’t get everything in one package, and Christie being a mighty big package, you are gonna get a lotta bad with some good. But when the good that he might bring is exactly the sort of thing that might move this desperately ineffective and “taking up oxygen for no good reason” Congress, well, it might be the bad tasting medicine we need.

I mean the man is not stark raving mad, and quite frankly, any Republican who can be so defined, is now someone to be embraced as at least a fellow human being. The rest of the GOP is so in the cesspool of crazy as to not be salvageable. I mean they ARE crazy. They are not posers nor grifters, they are simply top-spinning MAD. They cannot be allowed to continue to gin up the gaggle of gun-totin’ jackasses out there who have been bunkered and arsenalled up ready to re-enact Bunker Hill with live ammo.

So maybe I’m being seduced by his rhetoric. Maybe he is just saying the right things that will make his approval ratings soar and will position him for a run in 2016, even though the Right Wing glue sniffers hate his guts for being their latest version of RINO. I dunno. Maybe I’m coming down with the flu. Or maybe rabies. Or maybe I’m being practical.

Now I’m an ideologue of the first order. I don’t like practical politics, I simply endure it. I do. I make the best of what is at hand. I have enough time in the business of political watching that I know that you never get what you want, you get hopefully a tad more than 50% of it. And you live to fight another day.

But I’m still an ideologue who is quickly giving up on the idea of capitalism as a viable future way to conduct economic matters. I’m in short, becoming an anarchist, as best as I now understand the term. I don’t believe there is a way to regulate business to a degree that it doesn’t game the system eventually and control the government. As it does now. And thus we find ourselves in a mess where the people’s voices are being ignored in favor of whatever suits business.

But that’s another story.

One best left to another day, when I might know a bit more about what I’m talking about.

But this Christie thing. Well, I’m in pondering mode.

Tell me, have I lost my mind, or is there something to my madness?

Related articles

• Mr. Christie, you’d make a good third party (thefutureamerican.wordpress.com)
• Sorry, East Coast Republicans, but this is your party too (salon.com)
• Chris Christie Officially Becomes a Democrat (weeklyworldnews.com)
• Gov. Chris Christie Throws Boehner Under the Bus, Backs Over Him Repeatedly (pjmedia.com)
• Peter King may be leaving the GOP because of failure to vote on Sandy aid bill or something; Update: Christie rips Boehner, House GOP at presser (hotair.com)
• Christie hammers Boehner by name for Sandy funding delay (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
• Damn You Congress For Making Gov. Christie Look Utterly Logical and Completely Admirable (blogs.villagevoice.com)

Know Thy Enemy

Tags

Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, capitalism, economics, free-market economy, GOP, government, Objectivism, Paul Ryan, philosophy, Rand Paul

I’ve been reading Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand’s epic novel that has become the spiritual guide for the likes of Rand Paul and Paul Ryan. They, so we understand, have made it required reading for their staffs.

I’m only about half way through (it’s over 1,000 pages), and I can already tell that anyone who thinks this is some kind of model of how to run a country is, well, not exactly playing with a full deck.

Ayn Rand was an immigrant from Russia, and pretty much that’s all you need to know. Her thinking is utterly shaped by her hatred of Communism and those who brought it upon the earth–the intellectual elites in the form of “progressives.”

Her heroes in the book are all brilliant industrialists, those who work because they  see the only virtue as being the quest to create. It is the purpose of existence.

Juxtaposed against them are the progressives, those who teach and those who are not capable of creating. They pursue as their virtue love of humanity and the need to help one’s brother.

Where it all goes horribly wrong is in the extrapolations. The good guys are perfectly good and the bad guys are perfectly bad. It gets down to even sex. For the good guys sex is a million fireworks going off at once as to perfect people unite in creative glory. For the bad guys, sex is that dirty little animal drive reserved for faceless men and women in back alleys.

In a nutshell, Rand creates draws out the pitfalls of the nanny society to such absurd extensions and the glories of unbridled capitalism to inhuman heights, that they ultimately are laughable. That anyone could take this as a serious likelihood worldwide, is indeed quite juvenile in their thinking. Indeed, they are incapable of anything resembling critical thought.

The fact that most philosophers have rejected her theories of “objectivism” relying on utter reason as the basis for all knowledge, and her belief that only a pure laissez-faire capitalism can protect individual rights, hasn’t stopped those who champion her cause. Of course it is a rather convenient excuse for corporate greed. And surely she would have nodded at Gecko’s shout: “Greed is good.” She promoted selfishness a proper and “good” thing after all.

Ironically, she was very much against religion of any kind, finding it failed the “reason” test. I say ironic because today her most ardent supporters are the know-nothing TeaNutz®. A healthy percentage of them are also ultra right-wing Christianists who wish in the end to form a theocratic state modeled after their strange interpretation of the bible. Ayn would have shuddered and be repulsed by such notions. Given that the average TeaNutz® imbiber has neither read Rand nor has a clue of anything she wrote, this is pretty understandable. You can imagine that the GOP elite is not rushing to inform them either.

She would have whole-heartedly endorsed the idea of calling industrialists as “job creators” since she found workers as parasites, necessary ones to be sure. Among her friends and presumably fellow travelers is one Alan Greenspan. Other admirers are Mark Cuban, owner of the Mavericks and John P. Mackey, owner of Whole Foods.

It is not hard to extrapolate from her portrayal of the wealthy as the true “victims” of society to the idea that it is a near-religious sin to think of taxing these superior folk. That is essentially the Republican mantra. After all, they are the fountainhead (pun intended) of the successful state.

I have to admit that I am enjoying the read. I love tomes (I read Aztec for god’s sake!), and this one is about par for the course, wildly boring in spots, full of soapbox rhetoric that passes as “conversation” and a plot that is fairly obvious. I am about half way through and long ago “guessed” the outcome. Still, the characters are interesting and like I said, I like these kinds things. (I’ve also read War and Peace TWICE.)

Still, reading the book or even reading a Wikipedia bio on Rand explains a good deal of what would otherwise be inexplicable regarding the GOP. What is amusing most of all is that the silly TeaNutz® continue to have no clue. It is quite clear that the GOP elite neither cares nor is interested in pursuing the social aspects of the trailer-livin’ right. They are prepared to give lip service and that only. Rand was in favor of abortion rights, she had an open marriage, and she as I said, had no use for religion whatsoever.

 Much of the “shadow” GOP feels the same. This is simply about money, and making sure that money goes to the right place and thus power is retained where it should be. The little folks are just to be patted on the head, thrown a crumb or two once in a while, and assured that “efforts are being made” to effect a moral government based on the bible. To the degree that a number of them feel that this is “ordained” by their unique interpretation of the bible, that is well, gravy.

I don’t say read the book. You may not have the fortitude to sign up for that long a haul, but do at least familiarize yourself with its basic outline and the life of its writer. And do pay a bit closer attention to those who promote this science fiction as “where we are headed” if a certain black man continues to guide the ship of state.

Related articles

• Articles of Faith: Did Ayn Rand and Austerity Politics Kill Compassionate Conservatism? (swampland.time.com)
• The Ayn Rand-Satan Connection Revealed! (reason.com)
• Rand Paul Agrees With Mitt Romney: “All Of Us Are Corporations” (alan.com)
• Ayn Rand and the GOP vs. Jesus (tinyfrog.wordpress.com)
• Atlas Shrugged (gabriellapinto.wordpress.com)
• The Dark Side Of Ayn Rand (lukeford.net)

Emasculation Was Not My Intent

Tags

astronomy, biblicists, capitalism, Catholicism, dining, food, fundamentalism, galaxy, John McCain, Karl Marx, males, testosterone, universe, Vatican, voters, YEC

I didn’t know what to make of this at first. Studies show that men who voted for McCain saw their testosterone levels fall when they found out he lost.

I feel, as you might expect, some responsibility for this. After all, I spent several months last year dragging out all the dirt on this dishonorable human being, assuring all that he was the worst possible candidate for president. And that woman (God how I hate that Sarah is of my sex), only added to the bonfire of reasons to vote for Obama.

It seems that my blogging rhetoric has worked to sissify, feminize, or otherwise reduce the beer swilling, rump scratching tendencies of some American males. I literally turned them into wusses when they realized that a sane and articulate human being was headed for the White House.

Of course, I don’t take all the credit. I’ll give some to Daily Kos, Huff Po, and all the other liberal bloggers, as well as due credit to Keith Olbermann, and that woman of the day, Rachel Maddow. But I do take some.

Okay, so my impact was statistically minuscule, less than the diameter of an atom. But still, I am in the company of those that did? Com’ on–please validate me!

Which makes it all the more remarkable that McCain still has a public forum at all. And he does, even though, as is pointed out, he really is a cipher these days. He holds no important committee chairmanships, has no legislation of note, has very little in the way of any constituency at all, and he is still pretty much hated by the loud-mouth swill that purports to speak for the Rethugs these days.

That public forum is the Sunday news shows, where McCain is called upon time and time again to give his two cents worth on various topics of which he is ill-prepared to pontificate upon. In other words, he was a dud and continues to be one when it comes to intellectual prowess on any subject except perhaps himself and his glorious history with the Vietnamese.

***

This next head scratcher comes from the Vatican. It seems that Karl Marx has been quoted by the Vatican as having some rather good criticisms of capitalism on balance. He is being re-appraised as are people like Galileo, Charles Darwin and others. All, initially slammed as too frightening in their approach, and thus anti-biblical, are now being embraced as the Church enters into a more mature understanding of itself, God and the Church.

Course Catholics see this as nothing more than not throwing out the baby with the bath water, something all intelligent beings do.

Here, the Vatican, like many other groups, are trying to reconcile the normal defense of capitalism with the alienation and strong income disparity that has resulted worldwide between the titans of industry and the vast majority of the rest of the world’s people.

Still these reassessments are coming fast. Only last year Galileo was resurrected as being accurate in his claims about the earth revolving around the sun, and only last February did the Vatican categorically declare that Darwin and ensuing evolutionary theory are not in the least incompatible with faith.

None of this will sit well, (the matters relating to Marx at least) with the extreme right wing of the Roman Church, which steadfastly has little or no interest in social concerns for the masses, seeing  government solutions as “socialistic” in orientation.  They prefer, like many on the extreme right to let “private” charity make its usual small dent in the problem, and at least salve the consciences of the faithful in their efforts to do the “good works” demanded for personal salvation.

***

Which takes us to the bible. You missed the connection? Well, no matter, travel forward. Madpriest has an excellent little rant on the far right and it’s penchant for dissembling into fantasy as it clings to what it wants to believe in the face of objective reality staring it in the face. Yes folks, I’m not the only one who finds the biblicist illogic maddening in the extreme and exceptionally self-serving and blinders created.

He says in part:

“People who believe that the Bible is totally the word of God. . . are deluding themselves and, as members of many minorities over the centuries will testify, this can lead to injustice and the infliction of pain on others (the exact opposite of what we are called to do in the teaching of Jesus Christ).”

That is the message here. It’s not that anybody cares what bilge anyone wants to believe, it what they do with that information that makes the difference. And the biblicists do work to harm society at large in their quest to protect their personal needs theology. It causes really harm and pain, and exactly the opposite of what God and Jesus intend.

***

Segueing perfectly this time, The furthest and youngest galaxy cluster has been announced as found by NASA. It is some 10.2 billion light years away, meaning the light we see now, originated from the system 10.2 billion years ago. Bad news for the YEC’ers.

Scientists don’t expect to find more, since this about stretches the limit time wise when sufficient time exists to pull these clusters together. If more are found, then scientists will be back at the drawing board rethinking things no doubt.

Observatories from around the world joined together in making this discovery and confirming it.

***

Which leads to food. Well of course it does. Science means thinking and thinking makes me hungry. This should be obvious.

I know, I know, you’ve read all the bilge above just to get to the good stuff, and here it is.

What are the 10 worst dining trends of the 21st century to date?

Oh you must have your own list, but in case you don’t–not being part of the intellectual effete arrogancy of the left,  so much maligned by the intellectual effete of the right, then do read on. Sure to be the topic of choice at the next cocktail party. And appletinis are SOOOO not in this year folks.

First on the list of has beens and never should have beens:

10: The bloomin’ onion  (aww shucks there goes the Super Bowl fare)

   9: Molecular gastronomy (your guess is as good as mine.)

   8: The $40 entree (I thought Applebee’s “two for twenty” was just about right)

   7:  The communal table (thought this happened only at church)

    6:  Proudly obnoxious fast food (read really really calorie and fat laden)

    5:  Knee jerk online reviews (sounds like a lot of whining to me)

    4:  Foam (did somebody forget to wash the soap off the pans?)

    3:  The menu as book (too much information makes us squeamish)

    2:  The chef as media whore (If you are talkin’ you ain’t cookin’)

     1:  Deconstruction (separating your peas from your taters)

Feel free to add your own ideas. I personally think that the chef at the Chinese Wok at the grocery store should use better containers to house the entrees. They leak all over the paper bag and are a mess when I am spooning them into the containers for reheating for dinner.  Just my number one peeve. I don’t mind the deconstruction of my rice from my entree however. I like to mix them myself.