Once Upon a Time

Tags

America, editorial, GOP, Politics, right wing religious

Once upon a time there was a bunch of strange aliens who lived on Earth, specifically in a land called America. They kept to themselves because of the way they interpreted a very old collection of writings.

One day, one of their leaders got to talking with a group of men from another group, called Reduplicans, and decided to hitch his group’s wagon to them.

The aliens had very strict ideas of what was moral. They wanted to be elected to make everyone conform to their ideas, but the people of this place called America, didn’t think that a very good idea.

They liked the idea that people should make up their own minds about personal things like what to do with their bodies, and other similar things. So they wouldn’t elect these  moralies aliens.

Then the moralies aliens got an idea. What if they stopped talking about how they were going to force everyone to live as they believed, and instead ran for local offices like the school boards and city councils? They wouldn’t tell any of the voters what their real agenda was, and once elected, they would, as majorities, change the local schools and governments to suit their personal believes.

And lo and behold, they started to have success!

The Reduplican group still tried to curry the favor of these moralies by making lots of promises to promote their beliefs, but mostly all it was was lip service. They had their own not so hidden agenda, and that was to support the richest and prettiest people in the land of America because those aliens (and they were just as much aliens as the moralistic ones) promised to throw crumbs to the Reduplican group, such as trips and fat jobs when they retired from this Washington place.

Well, when in control of things, the Reduplicans did bad things. They sent a lot of people off with guns to kill other people, but a lot of them got killed. The people who did the sending didn’t send their children to these places of course, and the voters got mad. There seemed no reason for this.

While interfering with other places on the blue planet (for that is what it was), they kept giving away all the money to the rich aliens. So much so in fact, that the regular people started to be terribly poor. And they got mad and voted out the Reduplicans.

The Reduplicans were very sad. The richie rich aliens were very mad at this turn of events. They engaged in a long campaign to convince a lot of the working people (some of whom were the moralies aliens, and some who were working class) that the real trouble was with bunches of other people who didn’t look like them. They had skins of “color” being brown, and yellow and black. And some had different ideas they got from different old books.

Anyway, these new cuppers aliens started raising a stink, because they were afraid now. They blamed everything on something called conspiracies, and all manner of people were involved, trying to destroy the land of America.

But these cuppers, some of whom were as I said, the original moralies, were scary themselves, and for the most part, except in small areas of the land of America, they were rejected. And the Reduplicans worried that they would never get their power back.

Then they remembered the trick the original moralies had played. They concentrated on getting elected to local state governments. And once they had secured majorities in the land of America, they started their devious ways.

Although they had campaigned to the people on creating jobs and fixing what ailed the land of America, they turned instead to wasting all the monies of the voters on things like destroying unions, enacting state gun laws that let more of their moralies and working poor carry weapons, making women look at pictures of the fetuses they felt they could not raise, outlawing laws of other places that had never been used in the land of America. Everywhere, their secret membership was busy introducing laws to make it harder for other people who didn’t like them to even vote.

They discovered that if their message wasn’t pleasing to the people of the land, then they would just reduce, by union busting and voter law restrictions measures, the ability of those opposed to them to have a voice. That is what they called “democracy.” For they were strict constructionists of a thing called a Constitution.

Unfortunately, most of the people of the land were busy just keeping their heads above water by this point, and they didn’t have much time to devote to keeping up on things in the land. And they are in very serious trouble, though they don’t know it.

If the good people of the land of America don’t wake up soon, and stand up against these aliens, all of them, then the wonder of the land of America will be lost, and the people will end up being ruled by the richie rich, while their daily lives will be regulated by the moralies. And the great experiment will be over.

THE END

Bigger Brains, Little Sense

Tags

Andrew Cuomo, Carl Paladino, Catholic Church, Catholics for Equality, cookies, divorce, gay rights, geography, Individual Rights, invasion of privacy, new world order, Recipes, right wing religious, teabaggers

It should come as no surprise faithful readers that I think that a goodly portion of humanity is rather worthless debris. It continues to marvel my intellect that a surprising number of questionable humanity can walk and chew gum at the same time. Clearly a good number cannot.

From time to time I conclude that this proves that God is busier than I think, and only has time to do a drive by old planet Earth every few millennium or so, taking note that shockingly we still haven’t blown ourselves to smithereens yet.

I make light, but the subject is most serious. A young man, aged 18, took his own life after learning that two fellow students at Rutgers had web cast his room and had broadcast him having a sexual encounter with another male student. The students, both also 18, are being charged with the tame sounding “invasion of privacy,” apparently the only charge that will fit this 21st century crime.

One can wax for pages on how stupid one must be to know that such a thing is utterly wrong. I mean really don’t we expect more of a ten-year-old than this? I have zero sympathy for the two, and hope that they receive more public vilification than any court can hand out. I am not prepared to hear one word of, “we never for a moment thought it would lead to this,” kinda crap.

Nothing more to say on this one, it’s too despicable for words.

***

I wrote a piece on dissent in the Catholic Church which can be found at my other site, Walking in the Shadows. You might find it interesting even if you are not a believer, nor a Catholic. It discusses the responsibility of dissenters to speak truth as they see it. Concomitant to that, I learned that a new Catholic organization has been formed. NCR reports that Catholics for Equality will work for marriage equality, and other issues of importance to the LGBT community.  CFE is founded by Father Joseph Palacios and others. Fr. Palacios points out that while 52% of all Americans support gay relationships, 62% of Catholics do.

***

On a light note: don’t try this at home. This is only for experts. Sit in a comfortable chair. Now raise your right leg and twirl your foot in a clockwise direction. Now raise your right hand and draw the number six in the air. See what has happened to your foot. Now keep doing it until you got it right. Your skeleton will be removed when you have been missed by someone.

***

A new and kinda fun blog is called: How to Become a Better You in 365 Days. It has a lot of different aspects, such as good old advice about growth and personality, some excellent recipes, and quotes of the day. Worth a look-see at least. Inspirational, and fun at the same time.

***

Ree over at Pioneer Woman has a really really decadent cookie recipe that features oatmeal, M & M’s, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, pecans and Rice Krispies. Ya know you wanna try ’em. There are 3,722 pictures, so if you just want the recipe, it’s down at the bottom of the post all nice and neat for ya.

***

Mafia Don, turned Teabagger, Carl Paladino, threatened a reporter who wanted proof of Paladino’s claim that his opponent, Andrew Cuomo had cheated on his wife. (Paladino finally admitted to his wife, that he had fathered ten years before, a daughter by another woman.) The Godfather would be proud. Paladino called out the reporter: “I’ll take you out, buddy.”

***

Don’t get me wrong here. I am in no way in favor of overly strict religious laws against divorce. They don’t prevent divorce and they  seem to encourage rather transparent attempts to call it something else–such as an annulment. However, RightWingWatch does have a point when it complains that the right-wing wackos are into every aspect of our sexual lives, always condemning,yet curiously, they are silent on divorce. And I would be the first to admit, that the bible does speak fairly directly on the issue. You’d think that there might be more bible banging about divorce. How come there isn’t? Read the post and see. I think I agree.

***

I’ve long believed that nation-states and their silly borders, are just that, silly. I’ve predicted their demise. (well, I predicted it to myself at least, and that does count!) Finally, somebody agrees with me! New Geography to be specific. In an article about the “New World Order” (here come the apocalyptic doomsdayers ala Jack Van Impe!), they find that race, ethnicity, religion and culture are the main drives today around which we are forming. It’s a most interesting look at how the world divides up along new parameters.

***

In our quest to understand the beastie that is Teabaggerism, we offer you a great piece by Kevin Drum over at MotherJones. Not only does it help us define who they are, but it links up to some very valuable articles that further flesh out our understanding. I think this is worth your time. It’s only three pages, and the links, I’ve yet to investigate myself.

Well enuf! Have a good one!

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• Cheating Carl Paladino Accuses Andrew Cuomo of Cheating on His Wife [Polidicks] (gawker.com)

S’more People I’d Like to Send to Antares

Tags

Bill Kristol, Charles Colson, Evangelism, fundamentalism, Iraq, Kirk Cameron, neo-con, right wing religious, Sarah Palin

Billy (The Man!) Kristol is just one of those guys you can define just by looking at his face. A few sentences from his mouth, and you are sure.

Billy was born in 1952 to educated parents, his father being managing editor of Commentary and his mother an English Lit scholar. Born in NYC he was preppy all the way. In other words, Billy was born the good life.

His dad, an old progressive, disillusioned, became the major founder of the neo-conservative movement. Billy, ever, his Dad’s boy, attended Harvard and soon was deeply enmeshed in politics of the Republican kind.

With a few others, he started the Weekly Standard,  holy grail of  neo-con thought.  Murdoch financed it. Nice to have everyone in the same bed doncha think?

It appears that Billy was instrumental in killing the Clinton health care initiative and well, one could argue that Billy got heady with power. He self-claims that he alone was the main creator of the Iraq war, and ain’t that something to be proud of?

He claims almost sole credit for promoting the “surge” in Iraq. Kristol, ever the war monger wanted to join in the Lebanese war in 2006, and mused that it might be an excellent time to “take out” Iran’s nuclear capability as well. “The Man” is a full-blown believer in American Exceptionalism, meaning that America is somehow entitled to rule the world.

There is an overriding smugness about Kristol, a looking-down-the-nose kind of superiority. One could wonder mightily whether he is really the result of an unholy tryst between his mom Gertrude and one Dick (The Dick) Cheney, but alas that is pure speculation. Both biological oddities (they call themselves men) have that air about them that most of the rest of us stink in comparison to their heavenly brilliance.

Of course, riding on his own self-importance, Billy pushed hard for John McCain to choose the Moose woman as his running mate. True to his immense ego, Kristol no doubt saw a pathetic-star-struck wannabe and thought he could meld and mold her into a perfect mouthpiece.

But the Sarah has turned out quite different. Her advice to Christine (hands off my private parts) O’Donnell, to not be handled by the professional handlers, is clearly what has happened vis-a-vis Kristol. She has not been amenable to being groomed into the perfect neo-con Barbie.

Kristol of course, smirks and chuckles about Sarah’s independence, but clearly he and others are concerned about her “mavericky” behavior. O’Donnell’s surprising victory in Delaware, have all but destroyed any hopes that the GOP can capture the Senate.

We have little doubt that Kristol has had more than a few phone calls that start out with “Why in the hell can’t you control that woman!” No doubt such attacks recall the long years of youth when Billy was without doubt the subject of much taunting as the sissy boy nerd. Much of what passes for his “expertise” today is merely payback for all those playground assaults.

Suffice it to say, if I ran into Kirk Cameron, I’d be inclined to pipe up with: “What stupid vat did you fall into?”

You remember Kirk, cute teen TV kid, Mike Seaver on Growing Pains?  Uhuh, yep, that’s the one. with Alan Thicke.

Today? Why, he’s a full-blown evangelical minister. He now stars in Left Behind movies although his post Growing Pains career was fairly successful.

Kirk became a born-again while still filming GP, and was, if one believes Wikipedia, often heard to demand that anything “racy” by stripped from the show. He married his GP girlfriend, Chelsea,  and apparently will not “kiss” another woman in film shooting because it would violate his vows.

Normally I don’t give a hoot if someone professes and practices born-again Christianity. I do draw the line when they have an ability, as Cameron does to reach the masses. Then I sit up and watch. And watching, in this case, will hurt your brain.

Cameron espouses all the usual crap of the right-wing–creationism instead of evolution, and with few qualms about altering Darwin to suit his purposes. He and his partner Ray Comfort then distribute the altered versions free on college campuses.

He’s recently finished a film called Monumental which “documents God’s action in America.” He supports Glenn Becks efforts, but questions his Mormonism. (I just love that sort of thing don’t you?)

He voices the usual enemies list: secular humanists, radical atheists, socialism, and one can assume that he is nix to abortion rights and gay rights as well.

Nexxxt!

Chuckie (Hatchet Man) Colson is another of your evangelical types, having discovered the true faith sometime as he contemplated prison or had plenty of time to think while there.

There are only so many resurrection careers available to the ex-con and this is one of them, not that I question the conversion of Chuck. I surely don’t.

It seems that he has been admirable in putting most of his money into his ministry, contrary to many of his evangelical buddies.

As part of the inner circle in the dark Nixon administration, he identified himself as “ruthless” and was known for heavy-handed tactics. He authored the infamous “enemies list” at the White House. He of course is most famous for being a member of CREEP and imprisoned for his cover-up attempts of the Watergate scandal.

He has been active in his prison ministry but of course began to dabble in politics again, bringing, with others,  a “just-war” excuse to then President Bush, to justify the attack upon Iraq. He is a vocal opponent of abortion rights and same-sex marriage. As of late, he has claimed that he will no longer use the term “same-sex marriage” or “gay marriage”  because as he says, “there is no such thing.” Yep, problem solved, just define it out of existence.

PS: Dear Antareans: Should you have sentient beings on your planet, please feel free to divert this garbage scow to a more suitable barren planet. Your friend, Earthing Sherry of the species Homo Sapien Sapien

Related Articles

• David Isenberg: William Kristol: Dulce Bellum Inexpertis (huffingtonpost.com)
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• Video: Clinton’s religious/human rights views upset Chuck Colson (alt headline: ‘Good work, Secty. Clinton!’) (pinkbananaworld.com)
• Marriage and the Battle for Language (dakotavoice.com)

Holding Down the Fort–Sanity Preserved

Tags

air traffic control, Congress, FAA, gay rights, GOP, Killer Whales, marine biology, right wing religious, stoning, Ten commandments, Zoology

Everyone on planet Earth has heard or read the story of the Orca who apparently inadvertently killed its trainer. Well, the American Family Association, well known right wing Christian loonie tunes organization, has done itself proud once again.

Their solution to the sad affair? Stone the whale! Yep, biblically that’s what it says to do you know. Logistics are yet to be worked out, as to exactly how one can accomplish this effectively, and well, most of us will have to check our storage facilities to see if we have have the right size rocks, but no matter. It’s the right thing to do. God wants the whale dead. Any peon can see that. I mean it was all her fault that she was captured and imprisoned and made to sing for her supper. Her fault that she can’t disassociate her genetic inclinations from the selfish needs of public entertainment!

Will somebody do me a favor and inform these bozos that they need to call themselves something other than Christian? How bout, Followers of Crazy Dude in the Sky? I’m so tired of being held in association with these clowns by all the atheists in Merika.

***

Tip Time! For us poor heteros whose gaydar is not that great–we have a help. The one who squawks the loudest is most assuredly the closeted gay blade.

Proof? Well, one California State Senator, Roy Ashburn, is the latest in a long line of public deniers but private doers of the nasty. Seems the homophobic Mr. Ashburn, was recently pulled over for DUI, after having just left a “notoriously” gay bar.

Said driver, who had an unnamed “male” in the passenger seat, was quite contrite of course, hoping that his friends, family and supporters would see fit to “understand.”

This is getting to be a thing with Republicans it seems, as well as the right wing religious among ’em. Dudes, please, uncloset thyself and stop this self-flagellation. Like me and Christianity, you need your own name–Uptight Rethugs Who Get Hot over Penises. Just sayin’ ya know.

***

Sadly, what more need be said about this? It’s so close to being true as to make a grown man weep, and a grown woman swear. Or vice versa.

***

Chicken Little was racing around the Network Outlets yesterday, all in the usual tither over the what happened at JFK the other day. Seems an air traffic controller brought his kid to work and fed him a few lines that the kid was allowed to issue to departing flights. The pilots seemed to enjoy the kid’s efforts.

Not so the FAA and other properly “appalled” types. I mean, mainstream media just loves a story like this. It takes up half of their day, all with NO work involved. I mean I was near to getting the vapors, just realizing how close we came to utter catastrophe in the skies over Merika.

I’m for stoning the man. I guess we can’t be looking for our military generals to bringing their kids to work anytime soon heh? I mean, how ’bout letting the kids push the big red button on one of those bunker buster bombs? Or maybe zeroing in for the coup ‘d etat  on one of those Al Qaeda higher ups? Would we still be squealing this loud?

Yeah, so it was not the smartest thing in the world to do, but really do you seriously think it’s more dangerous than the untold shenanigans that probably go on in those places every day? Boozing and drugs and lack of sleep, and going to take a leak at a crucial moment? I doubt it.

***

This last is simply delicious. Being a thinking Christian, I’m among those that can poke a certain amount of fun at religion in general. You see, we have faith, which we UNDERSTAND is not proof, and perhaps not even remotely close to the truth of things. So we figure God doesn’t mind a little fun which may in the end not even be at his expense at all.

Enter one Christopher Hutchins, bain of the right wing religious nuttery. Mr. Hutchins has re-written, and/or questioned the present day usage of the so-called Ten Commandments.

It appears in Vanity Fair, and that in itself is endorsement enough, since nobody dishes the gossip better in the entire world.

So do take a look. Much like (only in degree mind you) William F. Buckley, you may disagree vigorously with Mr. Hutchins, but you can admire his utterly snappy style of saying it. I sure did.

And if you find Mr. Hutchins words offensive, well we can resort to stoning of course.

***

And just to finish things off, the Contrarian advises that this clear statement of truth should set all the PETA loving, vegetarian touters to shame.

If God had a wanted us to be vegetarians (which according to the bible literalists, he did for a short time at least, before we screwed it all up with the apple and all that chit), he would not have made animals out of meat!

So there ya go. You have your arguments. So head out troops and spread the truth among the land  of  trailer livin’, NASCAR fumin’, bible thumpin’  heathens of Merika. And that be USA and that’s spelled with U and well U know what that means!

A Different Perspective

Tags

bigotry, Fox News, fundamentalism, Neo-cons, political theory, psychology, right wing religious

This post is part confession, part retraction, and a little bit of retooling.

I’m still not quite sure myself, but I’m convinced that yesterday’s post was not one of my best. A little too much rant, too little thought.

It became a topic in my household during the evening, and was expounded upon as the evening went on. The Contrarian read yesterday’s post and had some thoughts. His thoughts were that I was a bit too harsh, and elitist in my words. He saw things from a different perspective. He is right.

It only goes to remind me that we do see the world through our own lens, and we are not always the best judge of objectivity. Indeed, the most objective conclusion usually comes from a fair listening to all sides, or at least more than one. I plead guilty of not doing that. And moreover, not sitting down and really thinking it through, since if I had, I might well have seen the Contrarian’s position with more ease.

I certainly plead guilty to being deeply concerned (perhaps obsessed?) with fundamentalism as a danger to our society. I admit that, and frankly, I don’t back off that much. Fundamentalism is not a religious tenet, though once it was. Today, it is a state of mind, and it transcends religions. It permeates, especially in this country, Christianity, but is also the danger in Judaism that drives the “dig in one’s heels” approach that counsels no negotiations with the Palestinians. It is, as we know, the arm of Islam that continues to wreck havoc around the world.

It’s basis is a worldview that is essential to one’s phychological well being, and it brooks no alternative nor differing point of view. Everyone else is wrong, everyone else is an obstruction, an IT that must be overcome. No ecumenism, no tolerance, no compromise. When two of these groups lock horns, ugliness is coming. Many see the world now poised for the next war–Christianity vs Islam. That is the danger.

My view of fundamentalism leads me to great anger, and intemperance at times. I freely relinquish friendship at this point, because I find it intolerable not to be able to find any tolerance from fundamentalists. Enough said. It leads me at times to belittle, taunt, and otherwise excoriate people who take this extreme position, especially those that have married their biblical fundamentalism, with right wing bizarro politics, with anti-intellectualism in the guise of a repudiation of science and human advances in culture and learning.

This tripartite system is illogical and does extreme violence to the bible, and thus by implication to the message. It makes mockery of our mission as Christians, to do our best to improve the life of all persons and to carry out our responsibilities as brother’s keeper and steward of the planet.

The problem is, as the Contrarian pointed out so clearly to me, is that I am beating the wrong group.

One of the things I have learned about my husband over the years, is that he has unfailing patience and kindness to children and animals. He is utterly impatient with almost every other aspect of life. He hurries everything else. Yet, when it comes to kids and pets or other wildlife, he is soft, gentle, infinitely patient, infinitely forgiving and so forth.

I’ve asked him why. He tells me that it is because they are not adults and not human. Thus much less is expected of them. He doesn’t expect a child to be an adult, so doesn’t expect them to act in life as adults. They will be irrational, silly, impatient, and so forth, and it is irrational to get angry at them being their age. Similarly, animals are not human, and we cannot expect them to not act stupidly, and without regard to their safety or ours at times.

He says, I have expected way to much from people whom one should not expect so much from. The guy who listens to Rush and Sean and Glenn, hasn’t had the luxury of a top notch education, or perhaps anything much past high school. He has had to work hard every day just to make a go of it. He doesn’t have time for reading a lot of books, nor to watch a lot of high brow educational shows. He’s told by the Fox types that he is right to blame anyone but himself. He learns its right to blame African Americans for lots of stuff that’s wrong (they are the highest number of inmates after all in our prisons), and he’s subtly informed that he should avoid saying that out loud, but believing it is okay. And sadly, the list of who to blame becomes inexhaustible, including immigrants, Muslims, Asians, socialists, communists, gays, liberated women, the Left in general, liberal churches, virtually anyone who the neo-con can dream up that they can direct the ire of the religious right and working class at.

The people to blame are not those who have been so taken advantage of and so horribly co-opted to do the devil’s work. The blame resides with the conservative elites, the neo-cons like Billy Krystal and Billy O’Reilly, and Demint, and Bachmann, and all those who have had benefit of all the elite educations.

These are the folks who are playing pied piper to the children of the bowling alleys of America. They are the ones who for personal profit or ideological advantage, say the things these folks long to hear and want to believe, if only to make themselves feel equal in a decidely unequal world.

They do it deliberately, manipulating fears. And we all have plenty to fear. We fear how we will end up in our old age. We fear being unable to give our kids the kind of life we felt we enjoyed. We fear not being able to have our medical needs met. We fear annialation by those who think very differently than we do. And they push every button, assuring us our fears are legitimate, and that all would be well if we just returned to a set of moral precepts they assign to the Christian religion.

Moreover, we are gently led down the road to believe that “tough love” is required. We are re-inforced that “love the sinner, hate the sin, is legitimate and for the good of the sinner. It’s nothing but blatant bigotry of course, and masks nothing but fear and resentment, but that is not what we are told. We are told to admonish, to force by legislation if necessary, rules and laws that will make God proud. This they say, but of course this they do not do.

No, they are at least as bad as any Democrat when it comes to personal shortcomings. Those of us on the Left remain astounded that this doesn’t sink in, and cause a dissaffection. But it does not, rather it evidences that Satan is alive and working even harder than ever.

I have no answer, but the Contrarian was right. The one so abused is not the one to rail at, it’s the person who so coldly and with so much calculation is using the little guy to support a hidden agenda, that in the end will fall as hard on him as on the Left. I apologize.