When It’s the Left, It’s a “Dangerous Revolution”

Tags

99%er's, Alabama, Herman Cain, immigration, Michelle Obama, Rick Perry, rightwing media, teabaggers, Wall Street, West Virginia

When it was the TeaNutz® it was all about “taking our country back.” It was all about exercising our constitutional rights of assembly and speech. It was all about the Boston Tea Party.

And lest anyone forget, a not insignificant number of the crazies on the right, came to said protests armed with weapons, or suggested that they were fully prepared to come “next time” with rifles to get their way.

How soon they forget.

Now that the left and frankly a whole lot of the middle are beginning to protect the unconscionable profits of Wall Street and the disparity between the 1% and the 99%, well the Right is singing quite a different tune.

Doing their best at first to ignore the whole thing, as the movement has gone on, and the numbers have increased, the Right focuses on the “violence”. Of course there is precious little of any of that, rather there are arrests based on “trespass” violations.

While first laughing at the small numbers, now that the numbers are growing, an increasingly fearful number of right-wing pundits now describe the protestors as “dangerous”. Ann (I’m still somewhat significant to five people) Coulter claims we are seeing the beginnings of a violent revolution. Allen West describes them as “dirty hippies who hate capitalism and freedom.”

In fact revolution seems to be the word of the day. (And it used to have such a good connotation in this country.) Mitt (Oh thank you Chris Christie) Romney calls it “dangerous class warfare.”

I am heartened by the fact that some of the rational folks who study these things, think it may be a thing that will keep growing until it does command the full attention of Washington. As Ezra Klein pointed out, these protestors aren’t college kids, they are college graduates with multiple degrees who can’t get work. They are home owners who worked hard only to have the economy and corporate greed deprive them of first a job and then a home. These folks aren’t going away, because their troubles aren’t going away. 

And it has also been pointed out, that the really major movements in this country have been slow-growing, for people wait, hoping that things will get better for a couple of years before they resort to forcing change upon reluctant politicians who are comfy in their graft-happy world.

We shall see. We shall see.

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In case you didn’t hear, Earl Ray Tomblin, (D-WV) won the governorship over his TeaNutz® candidate and attempts by the GOP to paint this as a referendum on President Obama. The GOP nearly doubled the money spent by the Democrats.

Either it wasn’t a referendum on the President, or it was and we see how much importance the TeaNutz® influence politics on the state-wide scale.

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Best line of the day:

 Rick Perry’s poll numbers drop lower than a snake’s navel in a wagon rut,

That is from Juanita Jean’s. You go girl.

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One thing that is really making me angry. (out of thousands these days) is the utter contemptible manner in which the far right wing-wackers speak of the First Lady.

I mean it gets down to physical descriptions of her anatomy as befits the usual 8-year-old. It is demeaning, simply awful and disgusting. It always comes from white men.

It does not matter what this woman does, be it care about the health of children, or try to maintain some sense of normality in the lives of her children, they vilify and mock her at every turn. (yes we know it’s all about THEIR lack of self-esteem).

And this is just not the common trailer-trash that hangs out at The Blaze. Rush (where are my drugs?) Limpuh, regularly refers to her as “MOOshel”, or “Michelle my BUTT.”

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Speaking of draconian laws. The Alabama laws that were passed and so far upheld targeting “illegals” continues to have unintended consequences. Remember when a bunch of fruit farmers left tons of fruit in their fields because Hispanics failed to show up to work out of fear, and “white people won’t do the jobs?”

Well, there’s more. It turns out that fully 7% of all Hispanics children have failed this year to show up for school, fearing arrest. And that turns into big bucks that the school districts lose in federal funds. Something like 130 million could potentially be lost to the districts.

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Ya gotta love a guy who doesn’t worry about facts. Facts as I often say just get in the way of a good opinion.  And Herman Cain seems to think that’s the best way to speak publicly. Speak from the gut, and well, it works for the base.

In the last couple of days, probably freakin’ freaked out by his unbelievable surge in the polls, Herm has taken to spouting crap that will not help him in the long run.

Such as:

• He doesn’t believe that homosexuality is not a choice. Show him the science that says it isn’t and he might change his mind. Um, Herm, it’s all around ya dude, but yeah, you gotta play to your peeps the whitey homophobes.
• Today Herm said that “although I have no evidence” he thinks the whole Wall Street protest thing is something orchestrated to prop up the President. And then he had the audacity to say this:

Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself! […] It is not someone’s fault if they succeeded, it is someone’s fault if they failed.

I guess that kind of stuff plays well somewhere, but me thinks its to a very tiny little place this side of Insanesville.

 

It’s Not About the How Your Carburator is Doing!

Tags

GOP, Herman Cain, Humor, Media, Middle East, Military, MSM, Obama, physics, quantum mechanics, racism, Syria, teabaggers, terrorism, Wall Street

Take quantum mechanics. What does that conjure up? Thoughts of grease-monkeys working on very tiny cars?

Actually, it’s pretty heady stuff. It deals with that portion of physics that deals with tiny particles and their wave-particle actions. (Remember that light particles (photons) are both particle and wave packets.

Well, the thing about quantum mechanics is that is works perfectly in ordering the world and making new things work out right. It is impossible to understand it however, since it is full of paradoxes. Objects are in more than one place at one time. They are “changed” by the very act of looking at them. They are not what they are until they are actually measured, and normal speed of light calculations don’t seem to apply.

Now I know it’s Saturday and there are lots of things to do, but surely one of the most important might be to go read the article and learn even more exciting things about things too small to be seen.

For instance: we might understand wavefunction collapse if only we understood how gravity played into it, thus we need to marry quantum theory and general relativity. Now, I know you are excited by that!

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There is a must read over at the Nation which is got the blogosphere all alight. I heard it mentioned on MSNBC this morning and ran into it over at wearespectablenegroes just now. By the way, read Chauncey de Vega’s fine piece as well about liberal racism. It’s much-needed thinking for the progressives.

Melissa Harris-Perry has written the piece at the Nation entitled Black President, Double Standard: Why White Liberals are Abandoning Obama.

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What if they gave a protest march and nobody came?

Well, not exactly. You see, THOUSANDS have been protesting across the nation against banks and other finance reforms. And guess what? the MSM has almost entirely ignored the whole thing.

A bunch of women were pepper sprayed in NYC and unless you watch Olbermann or the Daily Show, or Colbert, you probably didn’t know.

And the media is one vast left-wing conspiracy ain’t it Foxy Noise?

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Is it just me or have people like the morning morons on Foxy and Hannity, and Rush, just not worth the effort of sophisticated bloggers and readers any more? I mean aren’t they really the fodder for the newbies? One expects utter nonsense from their mouths ALL the time, and what’s the point?

It’s a bit like quoting Michele any more. She’s beyond stupid. She’s beyond beyond, being beyond. The don’t count. Who cares?

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How do you feel about the latest US assassination? Al Awlaqi and two other high-ranking Al Qaeda operatives (Al Awlaqi and another were American citizens) were killed in Yemen the other day by a predator drone.

I really feel uncomfortable about all this. Juan Cole has a good piece on it at Informed Comment. Go see what you think.

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This from the Salon and their weekly Tweet contest, using the above hash #weekinatweet. Who knows, you may win next weeks!

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Do you continue, as I do, to be astounded and so amazed at the willingness of the Syrian people to stand up to a bully dictator? They go out every day and lay their lives on the line in the name of freedom and democracy.

It’s fallen by the wayside of the MSM for the most part now, but the courage exhibited by these people is something we need to remember every day.

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Oh, Michele said some more stupid things about abolishing food safety regulations. And Perry said some more stupid things about the intel on Al Awlaqi “probably came from Gitmo” without any evidence that it did. And Herman or “Herb” as our gal Sarah calls him, still thinks that the win in the Florida straw poll were votes for him and not votes against Perry and Romney.

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Oh and this is good to know. Pat Buchanan assures us all that Herman Cain was correct in saying the African-Americans were “brainwashed” into voting Democratic all these years. White man says Black man is correct in saying other Blacks are stupid. Well, now that’s some endorsement isn’t it. Mr. House Negro Cain, must be so pleased. Buchanan also referred to liberalism as the “plantation”.

Ahh, ain’t it grand when the racists try to steal the language? This little ditty was posted at the Blaze. So maybe I’ll take a look and see if we can do a little Nincompoop post on this bit of trash.

Blaze is all up into this report cuz you know Cain is their main black man.

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What’s on the Stove? Spaghetti with Bolognese sauce, garlic bread and salad. Eat your heart out. The recipe will be posted on What’s on the Stove? later today I suspect or tomorrow at the latest.

Related articles

• Jesse Jackson to Herman Cain: ‘Don’t Let My People Go’ (thewesternexperience.com)
• WATCH: Pat Buchanan Makes His Own Shocking Comment About Black Voters (huffingtonpost.com)
• Jackson blasts ‘plantation’ comments (politico.com)
• Herman Cain 2012: The Secret Behind Presidential Contender’s Momentum (huffingtonpost.com)

What’s Up? 07/05/10

Tags

Al Qaeda, America, Amerigo Vesppuci, BP, coleslaw, Condiments, corn salsa, government, neuroscience, Obama, oil companies, psychology, psychopaths, Salads, terrorism, vegetables, Wall Street, willpower

Oh it was a scrumptious July 4! The Contrarian, bless his dear heart, taped both the semi and finals of Wimbledon, and we watched it on Friday and Sunday nights. My hero won!

Well, as you know, I have several, but pound for pound, if I could transpose Johnny Depp’s head onto Rafa’s body, I’d be in some kinda heaven. Not that Rafa or Johnny have to complain about their opposite features, but together, I don’t think a woman could live without swooning.

A beautiful two matches, and a chance to hear a little from an old favorite, Bjorn Borg as well. On the the Open where Rafa will have a tougher time with the speed of those cement like courts.

I would have liked a Federer-Nadal final cuz I always like to see Neanderthal boy lose, to my sexy Spaniard.

Well, okay, digging head from the clouds and returning to the mundane world of reality. Sigh…

Yesterday we have grilled steaks and pasta salad. The crowning glory was a corn salsa I threw together. It was simply divine. I’ll give you the basics:

Corn Salsa

the corn from 3 ears, cut off and sauteed in some olive oil until charred a bit

Throw in a bowl and add:

1 jalapeno, finely diced (or other hot pepper as you like)

1 rib of celery finally chopped

1/2 cup finely chopped red pepper

1/2 cup red onion (or scallions if you prefer)

1/4 cup chopped Italian flat leave parsley or cilantro as you like

juice of one lime

salt and pepper

Drizzle of olive oil to coat

Mix and eat. Great at room temperature.

(feel free to substitute other veggies like carrots, zucchini, radishes, whatever)

 

It would be best if you not miss out on Vodka’s take on the news. I  promise you, it’s always unique. Strip clubs seem to be taking a beating on many fronts (and backs). BP refused their claim of lost wages due to loss of customers along the Gulf coast. And then there is Michael Steele’s attempt to woo GOP’ers into contributions by showing them some free jiggles. It’s a tough economy so it seems.

Speaking of limes, I thought you might like this refreshing new take on coleslaw, which can get soooo mundane sometimes. It’s all cilantro-y and chili peppery and, sounds perfect for those summer grilling adventures. Easy side to make with some real inventiveness. Thanks to Epicurious!

Okay, so this is long, and depressing, but frankly, my little cutsie blurbs do not lead to your being critically informed. This post does. The link was broken so I’ve sent you to the main site, and go to Government Isn’t the Problem, by Evert Cilliers (aka Adam Ash), dated today. Read it, all of it.

Perhaps no brain is as fascinating to me as the sociopath or psychopath as they used to be called. Neuroscientist Jim Fallon, has been looking at them from a genetic point of view. This is the third of three parts and the other two can be accessed though links part way through part 3. A really interesting look. Are we victims of people who have no choice?

Think you know how America got it’s name? Maybe you do, and maybe you don’t. Follow the link and find out.

We are all victims of our urges. None of us are successful all of the time in invoking will power to subdue them. Scientific American gives us so real advice on how we might do better, whether it be avoiding chocolate to excess, beer, or shoes.

All is not gloom and doom. Elizabeth Kaeton has a doozy of a post on Queen Liz’s latest letter to us in Merika. Seems, our revolution has been revoked, and we are back in. Be grateful that I gave you a toy to play with. This will not happen often, since I’m about serious business here most days.

And that is enough for now. Have a great day. It’s crappy rain here, and for the foreseeable future into infinity. Iowa is startin’ to be a real drag. House smells like wet fur. I’m tempted to make them all stay out anyway. I need to nap.

It’s TinFoil Time Again!

Tags

Barack Obama, bible, church, conservatives, CPAC, economy, faith, filthy rich, gay rights, God, GOP, greed, homophobia, Jesus, Joe the Plumber, John Bolton, Michael Steele, religion, right wing, Wall Street

Okay, so, it’s Friday, and the end of another week. I’m in the process of making Arroz con Pollo for dinner. It’s a bit detailed and fussy, but we are looking forward to it. I’ll tell you how it turned out and give you a recipe if it’s really good.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, here’s the fabulous finds I made today. Hope you find something of interest:

Drop by The Wild Reed, and read his take on homophobia in the hip-hop industry.  While I’m a bit too old for the scene myself, Michael shows how bashing gays seems to be quite prevalent in the genre, and guess what? lots of them folks is secretly gay. But of course you knew that.

It’s a fascinating look at the world of machismo turned upside down. I think you will like it. And we all need to keep informed don’t we?

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Tim at Straight-Friendly has a lovely reflection on getting closer to God. That is the point of Lent in some sense isn’t it? His analogy that he learned form his mother ( a most wise woman for sure) makes the point directly and clearly. Tim’s work is always worth reading, but some are little  masterpieces. Don’t miss this one!

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Ya gotta laugh. They don’t get it. They just don’t get it. Like I said yesterday, the filthy rich DON’T GET IT. Watergate Summer reports that Bank of America head honcho, Ken Lewis, arrived in Washington to answer for the bonuses paid with our money, in you guessed it—HIS PERSONAL JET. Yep, uhuh. I say make ’em walk the plank, get in the stocks, and hoist their hinny to the seat in the dunk tank.

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The gift that keeps on giving, is, well giving again. Appearing at the CPAC meeting, Joe Wurzelbacher, AKA “The Plumber” is telling us that he would slap and probably shoot a few congress folks if he were there. And glory be, reporters have no business in war zones, uh reporting. What Joe was doing in Israel a few weeks ago, well, I guess we can probably all agree, that was NOT reporting.

I can only bet that McCain and Palin are so very proud of their offspring. He’s turning out to be a wonderful spokesperson for the Rethugs. Yes, keep it coming Joe. We have those mid-terms to look forward to in 2012.

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Speaking of CPAC, I swear you cannot make this stuff up. We have all been watching the strange duck Michael Steele has been turning into with all his hip hop references and the party being “off the hook.” Well, it’s spreading. CPAC moderator Michelle Bachmann got to introduce the new GOP head, and the Minnesota Rep, did so in fine style: “You be da man! You be da man!” I means really, this is getting embarrassing. Do the wingnuts now in control of the Rethugs actually think they will get black and young votes this way? I mean seriously? I mean, oh, hell, it’s too funny. I hope they keep this up. This is like watching episodes of  “world’s worst wrecks.” Popcorn anyone?

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All roads seem to lead to the CPAC meeting today folks. I can’t help it, they are just generating the fun these days. John Bolton, in the top ten running for world’s biggest idiot, gave his speech to the wonk heads of the GOP. In it, he talked about a nuclear explosion via terrorism coming to of all places Chicago. He got wild applause.

These are some sick puppies. All one can do is shake one’s head and remember that this is the price of freedom. We gotta let sludge like this have microphones.

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Tip of the day: The louder the GOP squeals, the better job Obama is doing. The decibel level has reached the painful point, and I can only conclude that things are going well.

Long term prediction: If there is recovery in the economy that is in any way tangible by the end of the year, Obama can do about anything he wants. Voters will put pressure on Congress to vote through his legislative agenda.

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The weekend friends will be thin. I’m off to a six hour Lenten retreat at Church tomorrow, and of course the usual stuff on Sunday with an extra meeting on the church library added. I’ll post a little something if I have time. Enjoy, and welcome that Spring!

Has Anyone Seen My Truffle?

Tags

Barack Obama, economy, GOP, John McCain, Tim Geithner, Wall Street

From Time Magazine

Okay, so call me naive, stupid, or wildly lost in the clouds. But this shit is starting to get really scary. And worse yet, I’m not feeling very secure that anybody knows what is going on or what to do about it.

The President’s financial guru, Tim Geithner, reputed to be the answer to everyone’s prayers, laid a big fat egg yesterday according to just about everyone.

Sadly, the President seems to talk more of fear than hope. Even I have to admit that.

The Republicans whom you might have thought would be cowering in the corner, hoping people would not remember that for the past bazillion years, minus two they have been in firm charge of the economy, and would thus nod furiously at any bill the Democrats put forth, and vote for it, are strutting around like shit don’t land on them.

Trek around the insane world of public online forums, and people who have zero expertise on anything and even less than zero on matters economic, claim the whole thing is the evil machinations of Barney Franks, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid. Worse, they claim that the dearly departed big brain Bush warned that this would happen “years” ago but nobody listened.

Rush Limbaugh is now the king of Republican land, where his every twitch is listened to with bated breath by his followers who are all on a smoke break from their highly intellectual jobs as insurance adjusters.

I think I’ve fallen into a black hole and am doomed to listen to John Boehner for all eternity. Obama has got this all wrong, has he never heard of tax breaks for the rich? That’s what is needed. And jobs, not work you fool. Don’t you know the difference? McCain rants on, though where he gets the nerve, I don’t know, and Lindsay Graham continues to peek out of John’s ass with his sign, “You should have voted for him!”

It’s all too much to bear, so after spending forty-five minutes reading one depressing  post after another, I’ve come to realize that I’m in a loop that can only be broken from utter frivolity. So do yourself a favor and stop reading this crap, and visit all these wonderful sites:

Garrison Keillor tells us how the “used to be famous” are faring and what they might be up to these days.

From Crooks and Liars, watch the video of Stephen Colbert’s “The Loyal Opposition” –saw it last night and it’s a hoot.

Drop by Yahoo News and read all about Stump the new Best in Show from the Westminster Dog show last night. He’s a cutie!

Drag yourself to DistributorCapNY and get a great Cheesecake recipe, guaranteed to get rid of the blues.

The news out of Australian sucks as you undoubtedly know, but this pic is sure to as the post says, grow a little heart in ya! From Dlisted.

Go visit Randal’s blog. Because, he’s smarter than I am by a mile. I seldom understand his posts. I enjoy them anyway, and so will you.

Or go over and get some inspiration at Five String Guitar. You know you need it, and I promise you’ll feel better after you read David’s thoughts.

That should keep ya busy for a while, and keep your mind off the ugly news. If you run across my earth planet anywhere, let me know. This black hole is stretching my brain to the max and I don’t see a truffle in sight!

Who Wins in You Today?

Tags

John Lewis, Kristen Davis, racism, Wall Street

Watching the news any day presents you with one of the true anomalies of the instant communication world in which we now live.  The extremes  of human behavior are exhibited all too quickly before our eyes.

It got me to wondering. Do alien races scattered throughout the universe also have extremes living among them? I mean did ET have an evil ET living on his home planet?

You wouldn’t think that such would be the case would you? I mean, any reasonable look at humanity might suggest that just the opposite might be likely. We all have the same basic needs and desires in life. We all seem to intuitively (grace given?) understand basic right and wrong. Yet, our behavior has such a broad range of evil to supreme good, it is hard to fathom at times.

When we look at science fiction, we can say that we are all over the map on the this. Some shows and movies have started from the premise that an entire planet is just plain evil. If you watched early episodes of Star Trek, the Klingons were thought to be evil and warlike in a fairly complete way. On the other hand, the episode “Let that be Your Last Battlefield” posed the situation of a planet torn by two sides, each considering the other evil, while their side was benign.

So, typically it seems, we are of two minds here. And I am not sure why this is.

It hit me dead in the face this morning. As you may guess I start my day with GMA. I’ve mentioned them several times over the past few months, so I assume you figured that out. Not for the high level of rhetoric do I watch. It is particularly because it serves me soft news and laughter and lots of fluffy stuff. It’s how I need to start the day. MSNBC, FOX, or CNN would be too harsh that early.  I ‘d have offed myself in protest by now, assuming no planet could survive such dismal news.

I chuckled a bit at the first, and shook my head. What more would you expect?

This story originated last year in April or so, but has got new legs given the financial debacle that is our economy. It seems that the Madam, Kristin Davis who is pictured here on her way to court, has some customers that are a bit more interesting today than they were last year.

Ms. Davis who ran a “high class” call girl business pled guilty to the usual tax issues that one associates with such a business and served a few months in the slammer. At that time, all were a titter about her client list, but of course the names that were of interest were politicians and celebrities.

The story returns to the public with a twist. It seems that among the thousands of names on her list were a huge number of corporate biggies from, you guessed it, Wall Street. Included were any number of financial wizards who are employed or were employed by all those now infamous financial houses that have fallen into the cesspool of mismanagement.

It seems that perhaps one reason this is so, is that it is clear now that said heat seeking missiles were paying for their nights of fun with corporate funds. Yes, you got that right. Ms. Davis ran her little house of whores under the name “Davis Investments” and the financial wiz heads were paying her in company expense funds. The poor shmucks down in accounting never thought that so innocent a receipt was for doing the nasty on the company dime.

Kristen is in the news again, mostly because she offered the list of her clients to the NY Prosectors office, and they were singularly uninterested in pursuing this wrongdoing on the part of Wall Street. Now, that was not tax payer money, of course, but still, it reminds us all of the culture of greed and entitlement that was so rampant in the business. No doubt that had a huge effect on the ensuing implosion of the US economy, and more specifically the credit market.

Once again, we are faced with unspeakable greed. The royalty of Rome and Versailles would have been jealous,  or proud as the case may be,  of how our men on Wall Street have lived the life of entitlement. I say men, knowing that a woman or two no doubt did the same, but this does seem to be a male issue doesn’t it? Once again we see the worst that the human genetic free for all can produce don’t we?

Following that story, was one that touches the heart and gives hope again to the spirit.

Here Erwin Wilson meets with Representative John Lewis. Mr. Wilson had assaulted and severely beaten Congressman Lewis many years ago when Lewis was working in the south to eradicate among other things, a white-only waiting room.

Wilson talked openly of how he and his friends assaulted many blacks in those years. Although not raised as a racist, he became one, he thinks through peer pressure. He remained one for years. Age, Mr. Wilson is 72, may have played some part in his conversion, as well as the election of Barack Obama, and his faith. All came together finally and caused him to seek out Mr. Lewis and apologize formally for his behavior.

This speaks to many issues of course. It gives hope to all of us that the human mind, conditioned by years of hate, can change and reform. Love can overcome evil and hatred in the world. The fear of judgment can actually cause people to rise to a higher level.

Still, I am caught in the apex of the violent and pointed juxtaposition of these two stories. They are not unique as I alluded to. Instant communication simply makes them easier to find. In truth, such stories are out there every single day awaiting our discovery.

What in us gives us the ability to be so kind and loving and so cruel and unthinking, so altruistic and at the same time so deeply self involved? What is it that allows people who destroy and thumb their nose at the world to sleep at night given the specter of people around the globe who give all from their want?

The lesson, I suspect to be learned, is that we are not witnesses  to two wildly divergent “types.” We are witnesses, I would argue,  to two parts of ourselves. We are all, equally able to be both, or either. There are a thousand and ten reasons why one succumbs to self idolatry and another does not. But, just because one has fallen,doesn’t mean that  one can’t redeem oneself in an instant. And the saint is but a second away from disgrace.

If that doesn’t cause you to fall to your knees in prayer, I don’t know what will. We are all just two people, and God willing, the good wins out among most of us most of the time. At least that’s the way it seems to me.