More Idiocy from the Right

OK, so Warren Buffet says tax millionaires, and in the current economic situation that only makes sense, but the Republicans are fighting Obama's plans to tax the wealthy - why, because that's tapping their financial base!  Even the wealthy understand, whether they like it or not, that they are getting a free ride in an economy that is killing the middle-class, but the Republicans can't see it.  Why am I not surprised, given what has transpired for the last 12 years?  Bush put us in this mess, Obama hasn't necessarily improved it, but he's tried - what have the Right done to help?  Gridlock and block every attempt to move forward -- yes, that's the party I want leading our country into the future, sure.  You had better be able to see the oozing sarcasm dripping off and oozing out of that line, my friends!!

And all the Right can do, while the President is trying to start the employment growth we need, is try to upstage him with more of the help the rich, so it will trickle down to the poor --- we learned that didn't work when Reagan tried it!  Get real, people, stop voting on the basis of catch phrases and nice sounding rhetoric.  Start looking at who is REALLY trying to help this country and start supporting the President as he tries to help!!

Disappointments

I have had several disappointments lately, starting with the knowledge the President and the Democrats had the chance to face down the Republicans and the Tea Party using the 14th Ammendment to end the debt ceiling crisis.  Yes, I understand the President's desire to work with both sides of the aisle, but it's time to wake up and realize the other side doesn't WANT to work with him on anything - and progressives are starting to become disillusioned with the direction things are going.

My second disappointment is the misinformation that is still floating around in the community about what is, has and could happen because of the deal struck, and the downgrading of the nation's credit rating.  Sadly, too many are willing to let talking mutton heads like Limbaugh figure out their understanding of what's happening.  I NEVER found Limbaugh to be anything but a rude, arrogant SOB who was more willing to fuel the fires of hatred than to try to actually make the country better.

My delight in the President and congressional leaders finally lifting DADT in the military has been dampened by hearing current enlistees talk about the violence and disruption they anticipate as the number of gays increases - have they not listened to people who served with gays in combat situations that noted there was no disruption of morale, that the gay members performed their duties admirably and well in keeping with mililtary protocol?  When we will pull our collective heads out of the sand and realize gays and been among us all the time, and didn't do all the horrible things religious bigots keep telling us they will?

I've also had to transfer employment due to the financial crunch the country is caught in, and saw my pay drop yet again!  From a corporation that is reporting sizeable profits, but continues to try to push out full time workers in favor of part-timers that don't get benefits.  The business community needs to take off their own rose-colored glasses and smell the coffee, or this country could be in for another wave of union organizing and strikes that will really open a can of worms we don't need.

These are indeed tough times!  May we all wake up, and start to work together for the betterment of all humankind!  That is the ONLY way we are going to stop some of this nastiness that is so prevalent in government anymore!

Score One for the Good Guys

Well, Mr. Murdock, I guess the vast conspiracy caught up with you, huh?

Yes, sir, that bastion of conservative media moguls is caught up in a scandal that closed one newspaper, and has besmirched that name of that fine "gentleman" of the media moguls.  Such honest and caring concern that they hacked the cell phone of a dead young girl, bribed officers of the law -- generally acted like scumbags to sell papers -- really caring, right!?!?!

Yes, sir, score one for the good guys!

Hurray!

The legislators of NY deserve a huge amount of credit for doing the right thing - passing the Marriage Equality legislation put before them!  It's love we are talking about here, not the government's right to snoop in your bedroom!  Perhaps more states will stop playing the ages old game of let's stick our heads in the sand and pretend nothing has changed in many centuries!  It's about time people wake up and pay attention to science and start living in the 21st Century!

Sad! Surprise?

It's is, as my son said, sad, SAD that a man robbed a bank of one dollar, just so he'd be arrested and sent to jail, where he could get needed medical treatment he couldn't afford on his own -- in the "greatest" nation on earth?  Really?  Yes, my son, it is indeed SAD!

Are any of you progressives really surprised that Republicans pulled out of budget negotiations and started blaming Democrats?  Really?  That was as predictable as the sun rising in the morning.  But I think it will backfire on them again!  I'm hearing more and more people complain about the approach they are taking to control the country.  I've been surprised before, but I think this one is going down like the last time the Republicans tried this tactic.

Anybody agree?

Surprise, surprise!

Mitt Romney can't tell the truth as he runs for the White House!  Looking at news this morning, there is an article entitled, "FACT CHECK: Romney miscasts economy in GOP debut."  What a surprise!  The GOP hasn't been able to tell the truth about the economy or their plans to fix it - just keep repeating the same broken record they have for years, and still some people buy it?!

Time to wake up, people!

Why is it . . .

that the Right can make outrageous comments about people and no one blinks, but when one on the few who speak loudly and powerfully for the Left does so, it's a big deal and there is either a suspension or a firing in the offing?

First, Olbermann, now Ed Schultz.  Come on, people!  Just listen to Rush or Glen for a while, and figure out that while we don't need to stoop to their level, occasionally something slips out in the heat of the moment - make an apology and go on, for crying out loud!

Think about it!

Another spoof . . .

Here we go again!  Another "expert" whose figured the end of the world, this one for the second time, and, for the second time, was wrong.  Two points make me angry and sad!

First people won't even take the time to read the Bible to see what it says, or to learn enough to understand it -- simple, really, because Jesus said straight-forward that ONLY God KNOWS when.  Not that you can find a mystery code, or numbers will reveal -- ONLY GOD KNOWS!  Simple!!

Second, people were making money off people's fears about events they don't understand, but hope they are on the right side of -- as in, I hope I wake up in heaven when this is over!  It would be so much easier on us all, if people would simple do a little reading and thinking for themselves, instead of depending on the crackpots of the world to sort it all out for them.

Think!  It's why God gave you brain!

On the faith front . . .

Well, here goes another "biblical scholar" who missed one crucial little piece of information while predicting the end of the world - that Jesus said only God know when the end will come.  I don't know how many of these nut-jobs over my lifetime have come out and duped people gullible enough to follow along.

Perhaps the one I was most upset with was the radio evangelist who told his followers to sell everything they had, give away all but what they would need to travel to a mountain outside of Phoenix, Arizona - where he conveniently lived - where Jesus was returning, and he would meet them.  Several did exactly that, but, not surprisingly, the leader did not!  My thought was that the courts should have stepped in, stripped him of his homes, his fancy cars, and his bank account, then divided it up among the followers who actually followed his advice.  Instead, they got to start over from scratch, while he simply started gaining new followers. 

On a related topic, someone sent through a Facebook post about the so-called Free items on there - and asking people to re-post if they cared enough about their friends -- my concern is that those gullible enough to fall for it will do so whether we re-post or not.  Just as people have followed the crazies that keep predicting the end of the world "with certainty," but against the word of the one who is supposed to come again at the end of the world; people will continue to look for the free, the easy way out, the too-good-to-be-true.

My hope is that people will start to engage their brains, do a little research before jumping on the band wagon, consider that oft-repeated advise that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true!

Think about it, and resolve to think more and more often!

Blame the Immigrants . . .

I agree with the MSNBC host who said immigration is only frightening, if you don't know our history as a nation; if you do, immigration is an open door to new energy, new hope for our country.  Last night, a co-worker quoted a couple of "analysts" who in part blamed the current fiscal mess on "all the Mexicans" who have come into the country over the last several decades - now, why is it that it is only now a problem? 

I pointed out that it seems more likely our over-infatuation with capitalism is finally biting us in the backside!  We've taken it to every country we could, touted its greatness, and are now finding that we don't like it biting us!  Corporations are finding that cheaper labor overseas means higher profits at home.  Other nations are finding that they can turn the tables on us, and we are indebted to some of these to significant levels.  All because of that wonderful system that is also giving us ridiculously high gas prices, cars  that are priced higher than my parents bought their four-bedroom-ranch home in CA for and have to be paid off in 20% of the time they had. 

Welcome to the world we helped create, my fellow global citizens!  Wake up, and smell the coffee, roses or whatever!  We are as much or more to blame than people who came here looking for the dream we pursue as well.  It's been our number one export and now reality bites.

Let's open up, see the reality of these new citizens, and start joining the rest of the world in that great global community - instead of building our walls higher, thicker and wider.  Maybe that will help us recapture some of our lost leadership role, put us more in touch with everyone else, and really help the world!

If the Dalai Lama . . .

can say it, I guess I need to add my own  thoughts.  Revenge seems something so strongly innate that we humans are unable to grow out of our need for it.  Someone doesn't something we find horribly wrong, or even horribly embarrassing, and we want revenge.  In the case of bin Osama, yes, I found September 11, 2001 a day that will live in infamy, even more so than Pearl Harbor.  Yet, in truth, both were acts of war, an inhuman and horrible activity we, again, seem unable to grow beyond.

I'm saddened by the vengefully, gleefully raised voices around me, gloating over, or questioning the truth of claims Osama is dead.  I'm saddened that we continue to engage in war, that we cannot get beyond the "us versus them" mentality that sets us up for this type of horror.

I truly pray we may begin to grow into our full potential, ending war, finding ways to honor our dead and bring a healthier climate to our world.  And, like that spiritual leader who is currently country-less, I understand the death, and the reaction.  I am still saddened, as I was saddened at the deaths of thousands of world citizens - not just Americans that died in the World Trade Center or the Pentagon, or the plane that went down in Pennsylvania.  I'm saddened by any death, because it ends of life, and, in some cases, ends the possibility that someone one may learn, may change, may be able to say, "I'm truly sorry for the harm I've done."

May God grant us true and real growth into the image in which we were made.

Peace!

Here we go again!

Once again, state and federal legislators want to tell WOMEN what they can and cannot do with their own bodies!  Tell me, when was the last time you heard of a state legislature that wanted to tell MEN when they HAD to get or that they could NOT get a vasectomy?  Never!  Why?  Most of those legislators are men, living in a hazy and very unrealistic past - idealized, in fact, beyond reality for their own nefarious reasons.  The reason lies in the specific beliefs of one specific segment of the religious community.

The legalized medical procedure is one step along the path that ancient wise women and medicine women practiced - coming up with potions that would abort unwanted pregnancies.  Women down through time have had reasons not to carry fetuses to full term, and they have always found those who would help them.  Only in our more modern time did this practice take the deadly turn it did back in the 50-70's.  News stories abounded of women found dead in dumpsters, because of botched back alley abortions performed in non-sterile and often dangerous manners - such as sticking a straightened out coat hanger into a woman in order to kill the fetus and cause and miscarriage.  When society revolted against this and legalized the procedure, the radical fringe modified their theology to make it not only acceptable, but even virtuous to kill providers, their staffs, their guards and some of their client-patients.

The latest of these was the murderer who walked into a Wichita, Kansas church on a Sunday morning, pulled a gun and shot Dr. George Tiller, an abortion provider already targeted unsuccessfully, though he was shot in both arms by a woman who also belongs to that radical fringe.

It is my belief, that until we in America can move to the point where freedom of speech and freedom of religion are not freedom to make your own laws, we will continue to vacillate one issues like abortion, birth control, sex education and true appreciation of the religious similarities and differences of various religious systems.  When we can get to a point where we appreciate other faith stances for their uniqueness, their similarities and their contributions to societies, we will be able to offer to everyone various religious beliefs and allow them to find the system that works for them.  And we will understand, as I was told in my youth, your freedom of speech or religion ends where my nose (life) begins.  We already recognize this in connection to racial bias, but seem completely unwilling to hold that true in other areas of life - such ass a woman's right to control her own body and what happens to it. 

Some will argue this doesn't apply to the abortion argument, because it takes two to make a baby.  Well, then why do we still allow men to impregnate women against their will, then walk away from the responsibility?  Why do we still punish the rape victim, even more than the "convicted" rapist is, because of the stigma attached to them?  Why do men legislate what happens to women, but no one legislates what men can and cannot do to their bodies?  Why do we perpetuate a myth that all those aborted fetuses would be adopted by people who want them? 

I know, from past experience, that last IS NOT true!  We have thousands if not millions of children who are available for adoption, and never get adopted - because they aren't cute cuddly babies without health problems. Give the beautiful baby dark skin, a mental or physical challenge such as deafness, cleft pallet, Downs Syndrome - ooh, NO, we don't want that one!  Ah, you see?  Not everyone one is truly desired!  Myth busted!!

Think about it?  No, we've done enough thinking!  It's  time to set this one to bed for good!  A woman is as much in control of her body as a man is his - and we set ourselves against God's own love when we deny it.

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!