Finally

Someone is starting to get it - the birthers don't want to accept anything but their own beliefs!  A news story tonight mentioned something that neither I nor my wife remember, of John McCain's eligibility to run based on his birth on a US base in the Panama Canal zone, a matter quickly put to rest and forgotten.  Now, on to Obama, two years in to his presidency, who continues to be haunted and hounded by the birthers over his supposed birth somewhere other than in the US.  More documentation has been produced than anything McCain produced, including investigations by news media - most of which is owned and controlled by conservative business moguls - and all of the documentation and investigation comes to the conclusion Barak Obama is a natural born American citizen.

But the birthers won't let go, why?  Hints are coming out that this may be racially motivated, and it might be, but, to be honest, the Republicans have shown themselves to be oblivious to facts when it is inconvenient to acknowledge - think of global warming, oil producers gouging the public, most of the nation favoring a woman's right to choice, taxation of the rich.  So, why wouldn't an ultra-conservative wing of the Republicans take that tendency a bit further?  And why wouldn't those who don't want to look beyond their own prejudices continue to hold their own stilted views?

It is important that we acknowledge that there are people in our society who will hold minority views in extremes, and they need to be seen for what they are, watched to avoid belief moving into deadly or even injurious action, as in the Scott Rader killing of a doctor in that doctor's own church on a Sunday morning.

It is equally important that our nation start to move beyond the past, to move beyond a slave-master mentality, to join the global community we "claim" to lead. A president of color is tremendously uplifting to our image in the world, and the birther controversy is belittling to our nation!  We can hope we are much closer to a woman president to further enhance out image in the world.

Think about it!

Franklin Graham is a disgrace!

I grew up listening and admiring the Rev. Billy Graham, but I can only look on is disgust now at what his son is now doing.  Franklin is taking stands and making statements his father would not have dreamed of taking!  He is using innuendo and insinuation to try to promote his POLITICAL views.  Billy, as a minister of the gospel of Christ, avoided taking political stands.  That is a lesson that his own son, Franklin, needs to learn!  He is showing his Republicanism in his public statements - Barak Obama, he infers, is Muslim and just claims to be Christian; Barak Obama may not be a natural born citizen of this country.

Franklin, I was taught to keep my mouth shut on political endorsement way back when I was in seminary in the 70's.  It is a lesson that has been enforced several times since throughout my professional career as a pastor.  You walk perilously close to a line that could cost you the ability to run a non-profit organization as such.  Churches and pastors over the last 30 years have crossed that line, and have lost, rightfully, the right to be non-profit. 

Everyone who listens to this man, remember his father, remember who they both claim to follow, and remember that the gospel never calls for us to insinuate or use innuendo to destroy anyone.  Jesus illustrates in his own life, we are to act honestly toward those with whom we deal.  Franklin needs to shut his mouth and get back to the mantle he took over from his father!

Enough said!

Bribes for God?!

That's right, a pastor in a Elk River, MN church is offering a 3-D television and a Playstation 3 to get people to church.  Really?   Can't you just see Jesus on the hillside, "That's right, folks, come to Saturday's sabbath service, and we'll give you a NEW HOUSE!"  Come on!  Church should be a place people come because they feel loved and accepted, because they want to get closer to God, because they want to be there, NOT because there's a great give-away at the end of the Easter morning service!

Did you ever

Did you ever sit in a room full of very conservative, not very well educated people and wonder where their brains were?  Recently, sitting in the lunch room at work, three or four of my co-workers got going on the whole birther thing - you know, with enough money, you can cover up anything, including having been born in Kenya, and make it to the White House!  I wouldn't trust him for anything!  Trust who, someone asked.  "OBAMA!"  Do you really believe all that birther stuff?  Sure, why not?

OK, I'm sorry, but pull your head out of your a*# and join the real world, you conservative ditzes!  How many times does the President of the United States have to produce the paperwork that declares he is a natural born citizen, just like the Constitution requires to run for President of this country?  This country, where a brain isn't required to vote or open your mouth to show just how dumb and uncaring you happen to be.  Just because the Donald has launched a possible run for the White House on the birther agenda doesn't mean every dip-wad in the country has to show their lack insight and perception!

And, get used to it, folks, because if Obama runs again, barring something major going wrong, he will win against the current crop of GOP wannabes!  I personally hope he does run again, despite the number of unfulfilled promises, because he shows the world that we are serious about all the freedom crap we try to sell them, all the equality stuff we keep preaching and try to avoid.  And I hope a reasonable and sane woman runs after him and wins!  Of course, if Michelle Bachmann or Sarah Palin run, I'm really hoping they come off as stupid and insipid as they have in the past and present!

Michelle Bachmann is an embarrassment to the state of Minnesota, just like Sarah Palin is to Alaska!  There are better women to represent both states, women who would show just how intelligent and thoughtful the people of those great states truly are - of course, not all of them are!  And we all know many who aren't.

Perhaps, one of these days, intelligence will be dispensed without regard to empty-headed fools, and the old saying about hearing that they were handing out brains, and thinking they said trains so X didn't get any, will fall into disuse!  One can only hope!

A Cartoonist Gets It Right!

So, at work last night, I decided to get the educational materials going - reading the comics from Sunday's paper.  That, of course is a joke.  Well, mostly, because there in Doonesbury was the Donald, and I have to say the caricature was right on, as was the attitude.  In the comic, Trump is talking about his run for president, that he has not yet announced.  The radio host points out the Donald's highlighted lead in the polls is because there isn't any of the GOP heavyweights around.  The host also points out that the Donald probably has this surge because he is "one of the best known celebrities," to which Trump responds, "One of, one of?  Who's bigger?"

I've seen actors try to make the move from acting to politics, some successfully, most NOT.  I lived in California when Ronald Reagan became governor, and based on his efforts in the state, I voted for him the first time he ran for President.  But, by the end of his first term, with the deficit burgeoning, I had lost all the starry-eyed wonder.  Trump doesn't even have that experience!  He THINKS running a successful empire and becoming one of the wealthiest men around makes him qualified to run the country - not even close, Donald!

If this country does the unthinkable, and elects the Donald, I think we will be in for a horrible and devastating term, and only one!  By that time, he will have been shown to be unable to work within the tri-point governing system we have.  Both parties will eat him alive.

So, chuckle at the comic, but remember that politics is not business - even on the Donald's scale.  Think before you vote, and think carefully, realistically and responsibly!

Double Stamdard?

Here we go again!  The Republicans that raised the debt ceiling SIX times for "Dub-yah" are now arguing adamantly against such a move when Obama is the one in the White House.  They are again pushing to make the middle class care the rich, who aren't paying their share of the tax burden of this country.  Boehner argues for and gets what he realistically wants in the stop-gap measure, then turns into the mad-bulldog politician that will NOT accept anything except the death knell of his opponents!  Eric Cantor, who was part of that Republican debt ceiling raising, now argues that any such move would destroy this country, and must be avoided AT ALL COST - does that mean he's willing to give up a lion's share of his political "wages" and his independent wealth to help this nation?  Ryan proposes what would be another big move away from a capitalist society to a feudal society with the landed (rich) nobility and a serf-servant class that subsists on the leavings of the rich.

Republicans argue that we are a nation on the verge of collapse - have they looked at China and others that are also in a debt crisis?  Have they looked closely at what is happening in Europe?  It appears to this angry progressive that the financial scene of the world is in trouble, with corporations taking the reins from government - ushering in what science fiction has postulated for decades.  It's time for a reality check!  Yes, we need to balance the budget; yes, we need to get spending under control; NO, we don't need to turn over control of the country to multi-national corporations!

Please, people, use your brains to actually think about this bally-hoo, and note carefully the facts of the shifting sands of political argument.  Please start holding all elected officials accountable for representing US!

Think about it!

Republican Two-Step

It always amazes me that Republicans can talk about saving the country from the deficit, when it's their policies and actions that put us here.  Oh, yes, I'll agree that Democrats have been involved by not making some decisions earlier, but think about this - twice Democrats have gotten into the White House and gotten this country into sound financial footing, only to have to let a Republican back in, and away we go again.  Only now, we use the same speeches to try to turn this all around - on the backs of the middle class, or should we start calling the middle class serfs again.

I listened to Morning Joe today, and heard one guest mention that, yet again, the Republicans will give additional tax cuts to those who really don't need any further help, because they're getting all the breaks now, while the middle class will have to suck it up and try to survive.  Let me tell you, I'd love to put some of those nice Republicans in our situation and see how they'd take to having to choose between housing or a celebratory meal to honor a birthday or anniversary, to choose between gas to get to work, or to go see your grandchildren.  Yes, that might truly be instructional for them! 

All the talk about Social Security and Medicare, all the talk of repealing the President's Medical reform - just another way to stick it to the middle class once again!  Mika had it right - this would be a lot easier to take if the rich old boys were paying their way just like the rest of us -- but they aren't, and I don't really expect that things will change enough that they will.  Unless our President takes up his campaign promise and goes after taxes on those same top dogs that are killing us to line their pockets.  I have no problem with someone making money - more power to them, just pay your portion of the bills as well, and stop taking away from those below you in order to get more!

Republican Spin

I listened to a Republican congressman speak on the budget issue this morning, and while he tried hard avoid pointing fingers, he essentially said that if the budget doesn't happen, it's the President and Democrats that will kill it, because the Republican-dominated House has set the standard that must happen.  Then he went on to announce, in so many words, that if Planned Parenthood wasn't cut out of the budget process, it wouldn't happen.  He then uttered that Republican fighting phrase, "The American people delivered a pretty clear message to Washington, D.C. in the last election." 

Hm, perhaps, congressman, perhaps, but what's to say you really heard that message?  I listen to you and your colleagues speak of the Republican plan to cut a huge portion of the budget, but I don't hear you, individually or collectively speaking about ending tax breaks to the wealthiest of our citizens, or to the corporations that feed off this country's middle class, while making sure their executives get huge bonuses for unsafe and downright disastrous safety and environmental practices.  Let's hear the full message, shall we? 

Republicans and Democrats need to hear the message, that Americans want the rich to pay taxes just like the working class people, that corporations need to share the burden since they insist on and get breaks from the government, that health care and social security are issues deeply valued by the people, and that we want RESPONSIBLE leadership out of our elected leaders!

Listen up, Capital Hill!

Arrogant, Unfeeling, Bigot . . .

The man I'll only call Terry Jones, because he doesn't deserve the honorific Rev. or Pastor, is an arrogant, unfeeling, bigoted embarrassment to the Christ's name and movement!  He dares to compare himself to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., saying he's ahead of his time.  How dare he besmirch the name of the good R. or the teachings of "his" master!  How dare he!

He burns another faith's holy book "to make a point," and has no concern for the innocents  that have been injured or killed by the radical elements of that faith group, not even realizing how similar that radical element truly is to his own position!  Indeed, I would say that Terry might want to go give and take lessons from them about how to incite hatred, violence and suffering in the name of one's "religious" views.

The true Christian (little Christ) is one who seeks to respect, love and serve the people around them, even while trying to teaching a better way to relate not only to people, but to God and the creation.  Just take a look at the life and teaching of the Master, or the life of his disciples after that first Easter - people who taught, healed, served -- not who prodded, incited and ridiculed so that their opponents decided to riot and hurt or kill others because of their own activities.  Did any of them suffer martyrdom?  Yes.  Will Terry?  Let's hope not!  He doesn't deserve it!

Wake up, Mister Jones, you aren't another Martin Luther King, Jr., nor another Jesus.  You, my sad "friend" are more like Simon who tried to buy the power of the Spirit for personal gain and fame.

Think about it, and don't let this maniac ruin the name of our Master and Teacher!