Okay, So What’d I Miss?

Tags

1st Amendment, Bulger, children, Election 2012, Entertainment, FBI, GOP, Humor, Media, Michele Bachmann, murder, SCOTUS, video games

So the super Supremes (SCOTUS) has spoken. There shall be no video too violent for the tend eyes of our youth (or utes if you are from Brooklyn).

Having not read the opinion nor examined the basis of said decision, I shall refrain from comment. I am also not a parent, so this factors into my tiny bit of “I really don’t care” attitude. Being a fair facsimile of a human being, however, I am forced to care even though I don’t have a horse in the race.

That all being said, I still have no opinion on the rightness or its opposite of this decision.

What I am confluffled about is how it was treated by the mainstream media, or at least CBS which I was watching last evening.

CBS had occasion to examine this decision. California’s ban on extremely violent video sales to children was  struck down, the Court finding it in violation of the freedom of speech.  

What puzzles me is that CBS kept telling me that they could not show examples of the videos that could be sold to children because they were too violent for TV.

Who is this prohibition aimed at? Surely not children, since the SCOTUS has spoken. Senior citizens? Afraid to cause a coronary to some unsuspecting octogenarian? Prudish religious types? They are offended at virtually everything already including cartoon movies like the Lion King and Chronicles of Narnia. So I’m forced to conclude that excessively violent videos might offend the tender ears and eyes of our pets.

I get that. I’m constantly catching our dogs sneaking in to play Donkey Kong when nobody is looking. I’m sure you have the same problem with yours. But really, shouldn’t CBS just told us to “remove our pets from the room because some of which follows may be graphic?” I mean really.

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The bad news was that Michele Bachmann was in Iowa yesterday, trying to claim us as her own even though she hasn’t lived here in decades. The good news is that the media is determined to fact check the lady on everything, and of course she never fails to please.

After mentioning Iowa some twenty or more times, and how familiar she was with everything Iowan, she talked about how she and John Wayne were both from Waterloo. She was wrong of course, Wayne was born in Winterset, a hundred+ miles away. His parents before he was born, lived for a short time in Waterloo. John Wayne Gacy, serial killer was born in Waterloo however.

And now Michele (dull bulb), thinks that John Quincy Adams was a Founding Father. Michele is still trying to defend her Barton-induced belief that the FF “tirelessly worked against slavery”.

Bachmann remains the lyingest candidate by far among the GOP. And that’s according to Politifact.

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Am I the only one who is bored to tears and generally totally uninterested in the capture of James “Whitey” Bulger? I mean, it’s not like it’s the FBI’s finest moment, though they seem to think it is. And frankly, like other serial killers, and wife killers, husband, and child killers, there are plenty to go around.

Frankly I hate all the media frenzy over the likes of Ms. Anthony and over Scott whateverhisnamewas, who killed his wife. Once in prison, we move on to the next one. Such cases distort the judicial apparatus, exploit people who need no further notoriety, and play to our worst personal sentiments.

Don’t we have anything better to do?

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Don’t miss Political Irony‘s collection of the late-night comics take on the political scene. Always a few gems that bear repeating at the water cooler.

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 What’s on the stove? T-Bones, boiled taters and peas.

Related articles

• John Wayne & John Wayne Gacy Aren’t The Same Guy, Mrs. Bachmann (wzlx.radio.com)
• Michele Bachmann Says, ‘I’m Like John Wayne’ in Hometown of John Wayne Gacy (littlegreenfootballs.com)
• Michele Bachman Tries To Identify With a Serial Killer. (tinfoilhatman45.wordpress.com)
• I Knew Bachmann Would Be a Delight! (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
• Supreme Court Declares Sale of Violent Games to Kids Constitutional (geektyrant.com)

On Whose Hands?

Tags

abortion, activism, George Tiller, moral responsibility, murder, right to choose

                                                                                                             Dr. George Tiller is dead. He was killed by some demented anti-abortionist activitist. Most of the right-to-lifer groups are trying to distance themselves. Not all, but most.

Dr. Tiller did what was and is legal in the United States of America. Agree with him or not, he was practicing medicine, as a fully licensed physician. I’ve been given to understand that Bill O’Reilly took him on as a special “cause” to be stopped.  Well, he’s been stopped, killed by an assassin while ushering in his church as the congregation looked on in horror.

Why do I have something to say about this? I haven’t anything particularly news worthy to say. You can get better up to the moment information from any number of online news sites. But I’m angry, not quite beyond words, as you can see, but enough to set aside a more humorous post to speak my piece here today.

The issue is responsibility. Who is responsible here? The nut case that pulled the trigger? Certainly. But I would suggest that a whole lot of others are morally so as well.

The past couple of days, I’ve been engaged in a conversation with a gentleman on a forum, about fanaticism. He’s been defending both himself and another who are utterly rude and viciously mean to posters who don’t agree with them. It’s their “way” of “defending” the church.

I pointed out a truth to him. That in the past couple of months, three people have indicated so much disgust with the behavior of a couple of people there, that they were seriously thinking of changing their minds. In two cases, people had come to the forum to investigate Catholicism, thinking they might want to join. They were becoming convinced that if this was representative of that faith, they wanted no part of it. Another had converted to Catholicism two years ago, but was so distressed at the manner and method of some individuals, that they were considering returning to their earlier faith traditions.

One can argue of course, that people within a church shouldn’t be the prime motivator to one’s decisions like this. But the truth is they often are. In all three cases, I counseled the individuals to spend time in a local parish, talk to RCIA people and priests. I said that I doubted that they would find such people in most Catholic churches. I rather thought most priests would agree that such behavior was wrong and not supported by the institutional church.

As to the gentleman in question, I asked, would you want to be responsible for causing someone to leave your faith? He of course responded that that wasn’t his fault, their faith was weak if that’s all it took. He said categorically he wouldn’t change one single thing about how he “defended” the faith.

I have written here of my experience with a co-worker who committed suicide. We had never gotten along. No one had any idea this person was on the verge of suicide. It was hard to figure out why it had happened. I learned a lesson that I have tried to keep in the fore front of my mind when I encounter difficult people. And that is simply that I don’t want to be the final straw in someone’s life. I don’t want to be the “that’s enough, I’m ending this life,” person in anyone’s life.

I no doubt don’t do as well as I should or as I would like. But when I see evidence that someone is unbalanced, I back off. The trouble is, as I said of my coworker, there is not always evidence.

Those who are against allowing women the right to make decisions about their own bodies are entitled to their opinion. It is a severely difficult issue, and honestly no one is in favor of abortion. We all wish desperately that other answers can be found. Some of us, in the end, feel we have no right to invade this very private place and dictate to any woman how her body will be used, and how her life will be altered.

So I am not laying the blame for Dr. Tiller’s death on all those who are against Roe v. Wade.  No, I reserve that place for all those who rant with increasing violent rhetoric, calling those who perform abortions “murderers,” and those who support them, the same. I reserve that place for those who show vulgar ugly pictures of fetuses, and practice the “in your face” kind of demonstration. Who scream at nurses and workers, who vilify and torment women trying to enter clinics. Who invoke their personal belief that God is going to punish and send to hell all such persons.

They have, with systematic legal knowledge spewed forth their hatred and their venom upon the public, knowing that some of that public is unstable and mentally deranged. Those folks will take that righteous indignation and turn it into a personal challenge to act for God, and become the crusader who exacts God’s justice when the government fails to act to “do what is right.”

These activists will claim they didn’t personally counsel any such violence, but in fact they did. It is  legally called,  having the “reasonable belief” that one’s actions and words would cause the actual result. Were those results in fact reasonable foreseeable?  

All the pundits, right and left, who try to whip up the “base” on any number of issues are taking this risk. The risk that others, who are out of control emotionally, will misconstrue the remarks and think they are being told that the truly righteous must act. And act they will, and act they do. That is what is so damning about an O’Reilly and a Hannity and a Limbaugh, and a list of others that is frighteningly long.

This is madness. And I stand and point my finger and say SHAME. It is you, you self-righteous puffed up arrogant, self-styled morality definer who will stand before God and weep, “I had no idea, Lord, I had no idea. I thought I was doing your will.”

Leave God to God. He’s had a good deal more experience with being God. Try to work on taking that damned plank out of your own eye.

What is Wrong with Texas?

Tags

2nd Amendment, creationism, Darwin, death penalty, Discovery Institute, education, environment, evolution, murder, science, Texas

Okay, before we get started, I am not bashing Texans! At least not most of ’em, or at least a good many of ’em, or at least two who are presently residing there, Jan from “Yearning for God,” and BE otherwise known as “Border Explorer,” living there until it’s warm enough to return to Iowa.

Okay, so don’t throw stuff!

But seriously what in the hell is wrong with ya’ll?

The Contrarian and I plan to leave Iowa one day, exactly when I can draw SS . That is in a few years, which is okay, since hopefully that will give some time for my 401K to return to something more than the $3.32 it’s presently worth.

We want to re-retire some place warm, where owning a snow shovel would be say a “conversation” piece instead of a necessity. We have other basic requirements, like it can’t be about to fall off into the ocean–that eliminates California. It can’t be subject to being blown into Massachusetts. That eliminates Florida and most of the gulf states.

We ain’t into rafting for survival, so most of the coastal areas are a nope. Global warming will mean the coastlines will be under water, and so far we haven’t seen any nice condo’s ala Twenty Leagues Under the Sea.

But our final requirement, is that the state can’t be downright, unarguably, certifiably, CRAZY. And that brings up Texas. Well, maybe Alaska too, but it’s too cold there for consideration anyhow.

Being SANE people, we tend to not want to have blood on our hands via the state we live in, so we rather object to the idea of state sponsored murder, aka “execution.” No place in Amerika is more prone to pulling the level or pushing the plunger than Texas is. Everybody knows that.

I mean do you guys run a lottery for the right to do the deed? Is it broadcast on closed circuit or pay per view?

I can’t figure it out, why one state is so down right blood thirsty. I mean its not as if your state coppers and prosecutors haven’t been caught fiddling with evidence. Last time I heard, a number of folks were being released because there was no frickin’ reliability as to the evidence used to put ’em in the slammer. (Other states of course have had the same problem, but they ain’t killing folks either much.)

Anyway, there are plenty of papers and studies all showing that it is a lousy deterent, there is just too much room for error, and it falls disproportionately on the poor and ethnically non-white population. That should give reason to pause. Obviously it doesn’t seem to bother a majority of Texans cuz, as I said, they keep on keepin’ on.

I guess it stands to reason that said state would place a premium on toting shootin’ irons as well. Although, if you think murder is worth murdering for, one might come to the opposite conclusion.

We understand that Texans have a pretty liberal right to carry concealed weapons, and even more so if you sport a holster and show the world you’re a manly man or womanly woman. I guess they also passed a law that said that you could carry your sweet six shooter to work as well. There was a provisio that an employer could object and bar that idea, worrying as he/she might about workplace massacres.

I think they have TV in Texas, so they should have heard about those things happening around the country, wherein some “disgruntled” employee or ex travels to said workplace with arsenal in hand and shoots up the place, leaving a lot of bodies to bury before offing his (almost always male) self. Pity of course that the suicide couldn’t be first instead of last.

At least, it seems somewhat sane that employers could object and keep people from toting to work. But alas, we hear that is about to fall, and the whole dang bunch of ya can bring your AK-47 to work. More fun, no doubt than bringing your daughter to work.

I have no idea what the age requirement is. For all I know, little Johnny in Bush Elementary can bring his easy to operate 25 calibur automatic to show ‘n tell.

But this takes the cake. Texans have been flirting around with creationism and intelligent design lately, and the scientific community–every sane person outside the state lines–has been trying to convince Texans that science is more reliable in the work place than voodoo religious metaphysics. (The experiments tend to have actual results that can be verified and all.)

Thus, children–those short folks who will one day work in labs trying to create things–need to learn real science, and not religion in their science classes. And well, it seems that Texans have decided uhuh, nope, nada, not for us. They want to remain true to God as they have defined him.

The Texas Board of Education, in its infinite wisdom  stupidity (let’s call it as it is) did vote to disallow outright creationism to be taught, but then by amendment, added most of the objected to material back in by allowing students to “analyze and evaluate scientific explanations concerning the complexity of the cell, phrasing that rings of intelligent design arguments.”

Anti-evolutionist Don McLeroy, a dentist and chair of the Texas State Board of Education, testified at Friday’s hearing: “I disagree with these experts. Someone has got to stand up to experts.”

Yes, by all means, let dentists decide. And, when it comes to getting your car fixed, you can take it to my hairdresser.

Students, via their  now brain dead teachers, are allowed to evaluate global warming as to it’s truth, and get this, different theories about the age of the universe are now open to debate, since the standard age of the universe at 14 billion years will be removed.

The real kicker here is all this will require changes in textbooks to reflect this new state of “everything is up in the air scientifically” attitude. Since Texas is such a big market, this puts the onus on publishers to either publish separately for Texas, a huge cost, or to distribute “watered” down science to other states as well.

The problem increases if other states object, and mainstream publishers just decide to cut Texas out. That leaves Texan children the unfortunate option of getting their science from places like the Discovery Institute, that bastion of scientific crackpotism, which was set up to promote “intelligent design” in the first place.

Movement is also at hand to pass an “education” freedom act which would allow students to espouse bizarre scientific theories and not be penalized by a teacher who is teaching legitimate science. Such has already passed in that other enlightened state, Louisiana.

All of which means that there won’t be any Peytons moving to Texas any time soon.  My suggestion is this: I figure all the nuts in Texas can safely be shoved together in about 1/100th of the state. You pick the place, and then confine them. Let them call themself the STATE of DENIAL. All they need is a bible, a syringe, and guns, and they should be happy!