Tax but no tax

I watched the Bill Maher show the other day and one of his guests was a Republican congressman, believe it or not. The conversation got around taxing the rich more and changing the capital gains tax rate. The Congressman defended the idea that taxing the rich would cost jobs and implied that by letting the rich keep more of their money, more jobs would be created.

I guess on the surface it may sound OK except there is no way to prove it. The idea is that if wealthy individuals with lots of money in stocks and mutual funds get to keep more of the gains they then will somehow put that money into more stocks and mutual funds and thereby, it is alleged, create more opportunities for jobs.

For example Mitt Romney, in 2010, earned $21.6 million on his investments. This was both in capital gains and dividends. This was taxed at the 15% tax rate versus a top rate of 35%. So does that extra money that Romney now saves and gets to keep, go back and help create jobs? Certainly he is investing in various companies and mutual funds and that makes more money available to those companies but there is no way of knowing if those companies will create jobs, or just pay of debt, or plow it back into R&D, or put into cash for later. If the money Romney saved went to Uncle Sam, which Republicans don’t want, where would it go? Maybe help pay down our debt, or fund social programs (don’t say that!), or put it in a pot to be given to Congress to dole around the country on pet projects. Heard of earmarks?

This is another example of how Republicans love to seize on an issue and milk it for all it’s worth. It sounds good if you only hear 10 seconds of what they say and Republicans figure that’s all the attention span Americans have for many issues. Maybe they’re right! Think about it.

President Obama will be vindicated

Just a quick post to link to Frank Schaeffer’s blog and his recent post with the above title. It’s good look at what the President has done and why he should be given credit for it. The link to Frank’s blog is www.frank-schaeffer.blogspot.com.

Here’s a sample of what Frank says -

Given what was on his plate when he took office and the fact that we're successfully struggling out of both recession and 2 war -- and succeeding -- President Obama is one of the best of the American presidents already. His second term will consolidate that verdict and bodes greatness as his legacy.

I strongly suggestion that his post get a wide circulation.

Questions answered, Answers questioned

The cartoon at left that was in our paper this past Saturday and had me saying, “Huh?” But it also got me to think a little more about what the little guy has on his shirt.

It is true that science has questions that may never be answered. But that’s the beauty of science! As long as there are questions that need to be answered, science will continue to probe, test, and learn. Knowledge is what it’s all about!

To think that science will have all the answers all the time is to fool ourselves. Science continually updates and correct it’s self. That doesn’t make it bad or wrong.That’s the way it should work. We would like to have pat answers to most things but that will never happen. One minute coffee is bad for you and the next it’s good. That’s because we are continually learning. And just because science doesn’t get it just quite right at times is no reason to toss it all out. The consequences could be deadly as in the anti-vaccination movement recently that was promoted by people that didn’t know what the hell they were talking about.

In this very technological and complex age, where we need a sound understanding of science, we are drifting back to the Middle Ages where the churches were looked to for answers. Remember there was a reason that time was called the Dark Ages.

The second line on the shirt about religion having answers that may never be questioned is true. Religion continually claims to have “the truth” and tries to provide answers about how life came to be and how the heavens move, for example. Those answers from the church turned out be ultimately wrong as one Galileo Galilei could attest.

You see the push for answers that shouldn’t be questioned in the Intelligent Design movement. No amount of evidence will move them off their high horse of ID. All this science stuff about evolution to them is nonsense despite the 150 years of solid evidence around the world. One shouldn’t question the Bible because it’s inerrant!

I still don’t know exactly what the cartoon is trying to say but maybe it is that we must always question and no answer is so sacred it shouldn’t be questioned. Remember science books are always updated and revised. The Bible isn’t. Think about it.

No good Democrats–not one!

I was flipping through the AM dial the other day in my car and heard what appeared to be a promo for a talk radio station. The bit I caught went something like “There are no good Democrats – not one!” When I heard that I thought, OK this guy has a definite agenda and I’m assuming he must be a rabid Republican. So I put him into the junk pile of the rabid right.

It started me thinking, what constitutes a good Democrat or for that matter a good Republican? I could tell that this person didn’t have much love for any Democrat, good or bad. But what about his opinion of Republicans? Would he claim that all Republicans, by default, are good?

But looking at this a little more deeply, his comment was a reflection of what is going on in America and that is the deep polarization of the political and cultural landscape. Call me naive but long ago, Democrats and Republicans fought and traded insults, but now the discourse has gone beyond politics. Republicans, I assume, are white, Christian, rich and want power. Democrats are white liberals, mostly rich, many Christian, and push for more government spending. Or so the general trend goes.

What concerns me however, is that now it’s an “either or situation.” Either you’re with us (white, Christian, capitalist, etc.) or you’re against us (liberal, no good leach, non-believer, etc.) and we (the good ones) are coming after you! Also the GOP Right, and their Tea Party cohorts, have promoted a “just believe anything we say and don’t think” environment. To hear the drivel that comes out of many of the politicians and radio and TV people is frightening. You have to wonder if any of them have any grasp of reality. Obama is to blame for everything wrong all over the world, they spout, and the GOP darling of the moment will fix everything INSTANTLY.

I think the American electorate is setting itself for a big disappointment if Obama is replaced. By demonizing Obama to the extent it does, the far right is setting themselves up to be very, very disappointed. I don’t have time here to go into why Romney has no clue how to fix things but suffice it to say that Americans will be depressed for a long time by the person replacing Obama, if that happens. It’s like being told that the gala tonight will be the greatest thing since sliced bread only to find that no one arranged for food, forgot the tents as it is still raining, and the band consists of three teenagers who can only strum their cheap guitars. Oops, my bad! Think about it.

Atheist? – then you have nothing to live for.

I have read and heard it said that if you don’t believe in God than you have nothing to live for. You might as well kill yourself. They (those loving Christians) also throw in that Atheists have no moral compass without a supernatural Daddy to show them the way. If you’re an Atheist you must be an evil person!

It’s always bothered me that Christianity's main emphasis is that we human are bad from the get go and unless we bow down and confess to the  big guy in the sky that we believe he exists and we want forgiveness for being born, we will suffer the most unimaginable punishment ever conceived and for eternity to boot! The song “Amazing Grace” say it all -  “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me....” “A Wretch like me”, that says it. God created wretches.

It’s been part of the 2,000 year old plan of Christianity, to make sure the scum we call humans know they are crap and that we (priests, ministers, etc.) will save them and give them a reward. But only after they die! Talk about having nothing to live for!

Paula Kirby, in a January 18, 2012 Washington Post blog entry on faith, wrote a article entitled “How do atheists find meaning in life?” In it she says -

“We atheists find purpose in the world as it is, and in our real lives; we see living beings as valuable in their own right, deserving of our concern and compassion simply because they share our capacity for pain and pleasure. It is hard to imagine a position less moral, less conducive to empathy, than this inherently warped and uncharitable view of humanity proposed by Christianity.”

I think that sums it up for me. Think about it.

Republicans and Christianity

I came across an interesting blog posting at  www.futuroticacomics.blogspot.com/, a blog by Benjamin Cain. Fair warning, the blog is part of his erotic take on the Futurama cartoon series. Definitely not for the under 18 crowd.

That being said his latest posting is an essay on how the Christian church, particularly the Catholic church, strayed from the teaching of Jesus and got essentially in bed with secular and political powers of the day. The post is entitled “Christian Chutzpah: Why Christianity is the Worst Religion.” He raises some interesting points but what caught my attention was this little gem -

“The most familiar case of Christianity as a handmaiden of secular powers is the American conservative’s brand of the religion, which very obviously bears not the slightest resemblance to anything that Jesus would have welcomed. From the warmongering to the fetishes for guns, violent sporting events, and Ken and Barbie doll-like nuclear families; and from the greed for money and material goods to the seamless union between religious and Machiavellian schemes in the Republican party, conservative “Christianity” in the US is a farcical charade, a preposterous amalgamation of opposites that brings shame to all its informed participants.”

A farcical charade says it all. If you look at the current crop of GOP candidates for President and watch how they throw around their religious beliefs, trying to snare the evangelical vote, it could make you sick. As one who is not religious in the least, I really don’t care what they say on religion as long as it doesn’t translate into laws and actions that exclude the non-Christians (i.e. Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Atheists, etc.). Well that’s not entirely true. I don’t want them also to push any agenda that is primarily based on a religious belief, i.e. the abortion issue. That being said, it is laughable how the GOP as a whole, pretends to be so religious, salivating for the evangelical vote, when at the same time spouting things that would have Jesus spinning in his grave. Yeah he died and didn’t get up - get over it!

America is portrayed as a very religious country when in fact it is really a country of those who use the religious lexicon for things that the Christian religion itself, from the time of Jesus, didn’t stand for. When you look at how Jesus was portrayed in the Gospels, he was “a radical socialist and ascetic” who wasn’t really concerned about secular power or waging war or causing social uprising. Todays’ Republicans are hell bent on war, capitalism, and world domination with touches of religious side dressing to appease their in-group.

The GOP is now creating a new Christianity that is unlike any that exists today. The problem is that the “other Christianities” will have problems with this GOP Christianity in the long run and in-fighting will continue for decades. I hope one can stand on the side lines and not be hurt by it. Think about it.

Boring Muslims

A thought occurred to me after hearing about the rant the Florida Family Association  (FFA – not to be confused with the Future Farmers of America) put out about the TLC program depicting American Muslims going about their boring lives. What’s their beef? Well apparently the FFA complained that the program didn’t show the whole story about Muslims. The story didn’t mention things like Sharia law and the fact that Muslims are by default terrorists. I guess any story about Muslims has to include those who like to wear dynamite as a vest.

How about if TLC ran a story about those boring Christians, who go to work each day and don’t spout diatribes about gay marriage or rant about the fact that poor Christian children can’t pray in public schools? Would that be OK with the Florida Family Association? Or does the show have to show the Westboro Baptist Church folks who like to protest military funerals with signs like “God hates Fags” or other such nonsense? After all, a show just showing nice Christians doesn’t depict ALL Christians especially the ones like Florida Family Association who seem to have a boner when it comes to gay folks.

You can toss off the FFA as another nutty Christian group but the sad part is that many companies who had advertised on the TLC show caved into FFA and withdrew their ads. Let’s not offend those poor Christians who can’t even get the Governor of Rhode Island to call the “Holiday Tree” a “Christmas Tree.”  Talk about political correctness! Think about it.

Out of the mouth’s of babes

Or as Art Linkletter said – “Kids say the darndest things.”

If you haven’t seen the little video of Michelle Bachmann at a book signing gig in South Carolina, it is priceless. Up walks little 8 year old Elijah with his gay mom and says very quietly to Bachmann, “My mommy’s gay, but she doesn’t need fixing.” Slam dunk!

Bachmann was, needless to say, stunned and only uttered “Bye bye".”

It seems to me that the Right loves to speak in absolutes without any consideration for subtleties of life. You may not like gay sex but people come in all shades and flavors and there is no “one size fits all".” Even kids know that.

Way to go Elijah!

“Think twice!’

From “The Huffington Post” website dated 11/10/2011 -

Herman Cain lawyer Lin Wood, who spoke at a Tuesday press conference defending the Republican presidential candidate against allegations of sexual harassment, said others should "think twice" before making accusations, in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"I'm not here to scare anyone off," said the high-profile Atlanta lawyer, referring to the prospect of new accusers. "[However] they should think twice anyway." He added that the campaign had not thought about bringing legal action against the women, at least for now.

Think about this for a minute. In essence the lawyer was saying to any woman that may have been sexually harassed by Cain in the past to “think twice” about going public with the allegation. He is saying that he would bring all the power he could muster in the legal process to make it a living hell for anyone accusing Cain of sexual harassment.

This is a male power trip of the worse kind.

See also Rachel Maddow at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/

Personhood

Just a quick note about the recent vote in Mississippi about defining a person at conception. This is a bad idea on so many levels. It puts all women into legal trouble no matter what they do. Birth control could be banned. Forget in vitro fertilization. And so many other issues.

Luckily it was voted down but it may come back someplace else. Theocracy is creeping into our government at every level. It’s getting scary.

But the scariest part is that the Republicans who talk about less government in people’s lives are promoting via their Evangelical friends the most intrusive thing a government can do. That is to dictate the bodily function of every woman in the US. And by extension men too. They not only want to get into your bedroom, they want to get into your body!

The more this goes on the more I am scared for our country.

Questions that can’t be answered.

There are two questions that have plagued mankind since the dawn human existence. The first is “What is the purpose of life?” And the second is “Do these jeans make me look fat?”

Come to think about it maybe the first question is easier to answer.

Yeah for death!

The past couple of GOP “debates” had some moments that makes one think, “What the hell’s going on here?” The first moment was when Rick Perry was asked about the 234 people that were executed while he’s in office. The audience applauded! In the second “debate” Ron Paul was asked a hypothetical question regarding a person who didn’t have health insurance and would be left to die. The audience cheered. Huh?

I find this all a bit strange from a party that doggedly promotes the right to life position on abortion but doesn’t seem to have a problem with killing criminals or letting the uninsured die. I guess it OK as long as you aren’t one of the ones dying. Protect the unborn but knock off the murderer or terminally ill!

To me it really coming down to the haves and the have not’s. And this is a dangerous thing for our country. If you have health insurance (hopefully cheap insurance) who cares about those that don’t? And those who commit a capital crime, put a bullet in their head! They deserve it.

It’s also like the Catholic church’s stand on contraception. They let people die of AIDS but God and the church doesn’t want you to put on a condom because that’s interfering with the natural process of making a baby. That’s a sin! This from a religion that promotes the sanctity of life? Does any of this make sense? Think about it.

I believe it, don’t question it!

Recently Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller fame, appeared on CNN with Piers Morgan. The interview started with Piers telling Jillette that he was upset with him for saying that, essentially, anyone who believes in God is wrong. So, Piers, what’s wrong with that?

I guess Piers was looking for a free pass on the God question. He was saying essentially that his belief in a supreme being is sacrosanct and anyone who dares to question this belief is a nasty person. But why is belief in a non-material super being and an after life which is not yet proven, non-questionable?

Penn was right in saying that we should be able to question any belief, even a non-belief in God. Everything is on the table. The minute you put one subject off limits, you start to build walls to communications.

Christianity has had 2,000 years to present it’s case. And there are a growing number who don’t buy it. Sure there are those that grow up in a Christian family in the Bible belt that claim to believe all the stuff. But for those who take the time to dig into the Christian religion find that it doesn’t stand up to the light of day. The more you question the more Christianity falls apart.

Those that profess belief in the Christian religion,  like ministers who have a vested interest in it’s survival, don’t want it questioned lest the faithful end up having doubts about Christianity. Even the Bible says that a believer shouldn’t have doubts and if they do they should default to just believing. In other words if it doesn’t make sense and can’t stand up to scrutiny, believe it anyway!

It’s been said that the best case for atheism is the Bible. Think about it.

All alone in the night.

The above is from the opening dialog in the Babylon 5 sci-fi series. I think it is appropriate for the picture at left.

This picture was taken by the Juno spacecraft on it’s way to Jupiter. During the testing of the spacecraft, the controllers turned the cameras back towards Earth and shot the picture. The spacecraft is 6 million miles away. The bright dot on the left is Earth and the duller dot on the right is the moon.

When you think about it, all that we know, all that we are, and all that we will be is on the little bright dot in the night. There is no place for us to go. We are insignificant in the solar system, in the galaxy and the universe. If we screw it up on Earth, the universe won’t care. We are truly all alone in the night.

Seriously, think about it!

It’s a sad state of affairs.

Looking at the current crop of GOP candidates for president, one has to ask the question “Is this the best they got?”

The cartoon to the left is not far from an accurate picture of the candidates. I think that the idea amongst them is that the more they can sound off the wall the more they’ll get attention. It’s like the current crop of “stupid” movies that seem to keep coming out. The more one can be seen as “stupid” the more people buy tickets.

With all the vitriol that seems to come out from the GOP against Obama, one would expect someone from those ranks to emerge that could clearly and succinctly present a case against him. But all we get are sound bites and broad statements about how America is going to hell in a hand basket and “name your candidate” will get things right in short order. It’s one thing to say that you’ll create jobs and get the economy moving but it’s another to articulate how you’ll do it. The devil is in the details.

Not picture in the cartoon is the 8th dwarf, Rick Perry. Just recently he fired a shot across the bow by saying how he’ll change the Constitution with things like banning all abortions, making marriage for only straight folks and having appointed Senators. Now that last one is a hoot. Why not just get rid of Congress and have one person run everything. I can think of a few countries where they have that. I wonder how they are doing? Think of Syria, Iran, North Korea, just to name a few.

The fact of the matter is that this economic crisis we are in is not just with us alone. It’s global. And there is no quick fix. Just like global warming. We can’t just shut off all carbon dioxide tomorrow and expect the global temperatures to suddenly drop. What’s in place today on the economic front took a long time to rear it’s head and it will take a long time to undo what has been done. None of the GOP dwarfs will be able to fix it regardless of what they say. They don’t even understand the problem.

In fact if they can’t even agree on something like evolution with 150 years of solid, world wide evidence, how can they begin to tackle the economy? Think about it.

Rick Perry–George Bush Ver. 2.0

Is it my imagination but does Rick Perry seem like a redo of George Bush? Consider the obvious. Both are/were governors of Texas, both flew in the military and both seem to be very, very Christian. Oh, and both have a disconnect between their brain and mouth. Consider Rick Perry’s comments about the Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke calling his actions “treasonous.” Pretty heady stuff!

Of course he is loving all the attention he is getting by his recent entry into the presidential fray. His comments have garnered more attention than Bachmann (happy birthday to Elvis on the anniversary of his death no less) or Mitt Romney making corporations into people.

The far right wing loves this but it will be interesting to see how he fares down the line. Hopefully the media will start to question his job creation hype in Texas which turns out not to be that great when you consider that most of the jobs created were low wage, menial jobs. And if you loose your job in Texas don’t expect a lot of state help. When you compare the unemployment rates in Massachusetts, New York and Texas, they are not all that different. Massachusetts may not have as much oil or gas as Texas but try and grow corn in Texas this year.

So Governor Perry, prepare next Sundays’ sermon. You seem pretty good at preaching to the choir. Think about it.

Not Guilty but not innocent

Just a comment on this Casey Anthony thing.

We have to remember that the jury’s function is to take just what is presented to them in court and make a judgment as to the guilt or innocence of the accused. They do that by looking at only the evidence and coming to a conclusion.

I didn’t follow this whole Casey Anthony trial closely but I did read enough to see that the prosecution did not present a clear case pointing to Casey as the one who caused Caylee’s death. That is not to say that Casey did or did not have anything to do with her death.

Casey may have caught a break by not being found guilty in Caylee’s death but Casey will be paying dearly for this the rest of her life. She has no assets, no money and is saddled with enormous legal bills. There are court judgments against her and she will most likely have to move someplace else. She is subject to more legal proceedings against her. Again she will have to live with this the rest of her life.

The jury system worked as it should. The prosecution didn’t have a good case. As one who sat on a jury you go by what’s presented to you and you make the best decision you can. The public may not like the decision but they didn’t have to make it, the jury did!

“My God doesn’t act that way”

The above was the headline in an article in our local paper referring to a minister conducting a service after the tornadoes that struck Massachusetts on June 1, 2011. He went on to say that his God is a god of love, caring and compassion. This is like a plane crash in which everyone was killed save one person who declared “God saved me!” One has to ask why didn’t God prevent the plane from crashing in the first place or asking why didn’t God prevent the tornadoes in the first place. Doesn’t He care?

These declarations are typical of people with a religious bent who tend to see only what supports their beliefs. It's call selective justification. It’s like saying that you believe there are a lot of Ford Mustangs on the road and you support that belief by noting every Mustang you see without ever noticing the total number of cars you see. If the total car population was accounted for then the belief of many Ford Mustangs fails. We remember the hits and forget the misses. It’s just the way we are wired.

Also it just maybe a guttural thing. When faced with a disaster like a tornado we need some thing to hang on to and even though we deep down know it doesn’t make sense, we appeal to an Almighty.

It’s curious but not surprising that the concept of God is different to different people. I remember in school the nuns who said that the Old Testament described a wrathful God while the New Testament describes a loving God. So it’s not surprising to hear a preacher saying “My God doesn’t act that way.” I guess God can be molded how ever someone wants Him to be. Remember God was made in mans’ image not the other way around. Think about it.

Middle school conversation

Some time ago, Sarah Palin jabbed the press by making reference to the “lame stream media.” It was her was of saying the “main stream media” is out of touch with the “real America'”, where ever that is.

But more than the catty retort which Sarah is prone to spout, it points to how the conversation of the political right is more like what one would hear in middle school -- self-centered, childish and uninformed. It reminds me of those morning coffee shop groups (mainly old dudes) sitting around telling each other the way the world should run and “those idiots” don’t know what they are doing. “Those idiots” tend to be anyone else except themselves.

The right constantly likes to dumb down of some of the issues to snappy sayings and sound bites. One only has to listen to Sarah or Michelle Bachmann or any Tea Party person to get the drift of what I’m saying. And it’s shameful. And it’s harming us.

We live in a very complex world and there are no simple answers anymore. Take the recent ABC News piece on Afghanistan titled “Are We Winning?” You would think that would be a very simple question to answer but in fact it’s not. Gone of the days of the enemy hoisting the white flag and the surrender ceremonies on a battle ship. The new enemy doesn’t wear a uniform and doesn’t represent a country. They are bands of criminals with weapons and motive to inflict harm to anyone they think should feel their wrath. They are not organized and not really lead by any one leader. So, truth be told, there is no “winning” against them. All you can realistically do is to minimize their impact and keep up constant pressure to push them to the margins.

And take the economy. It’s going to be the number on topic for the election and the truth is there is no quick fix. To think that anyone can come into the White House and make everything fine and dandy is only deluding ourselves. I know people out of work want a job NOW but it won’t happen NIOW. To trot out an old phrase “it’s a new paradigm.” We’ve entered a new world in which our economy is tied to other economies and that won’t changed. We need to have real conversations about what needs to be done and how we can prosper given this new environment. And making more goods in the USA is not the answer.

This new conversation needs a public educated enough to understand what’s facing us and our politicians need to set an example of that conversation. Having a talk like middle school girls in the hall way talking about someone who Tweeted so-and-so won’t cut it. We need to be adult about this. Think about it.

How Mitt? How?

Our former governor, Mitt “I’ll tell you anything” Romney, announced his candidacy for President. Woo woo!

Ole Mitt was spouting off his plan to create jobs, lower taxes and bash the hell out of anyone getting in his way. He was putting out the same drivel one hears from all those “business people”, i.e. Donald Trump, who claim to know how to create jobs. Well, running a company and running a government are two different things. For one thing a company CEO generally has the authority to do as he/she pleases. While a President has to deal with our wonderful Congress which may or may not do what he/she wants.

I’ve never understood how voters think that just because a person ran a company, they could run the US Government the same way. It’s like saying “I can drive a car, so I can fly a plane.” As a flight instructor I can tell you they are two different animals.

With Mitt’s past history on the campaign trail, you’ll know he’ll say anything to get votes. Politicians distort things as a matter of course but Mitt raises it to a new level. While in Massachusetts (most of the time) he raised business taxes by $140 million in one year with measures branded “loophole closures” while still claiming he wasn’t raising taxes. Romney also raised revenue from higher fees and fines, a tax by another name, while still claiming that there was no need to raise taxes.

But the one thing that voters should listen for is how Mitt will do what he’s says he’ll do. Politicians are long on promises but short of specifics. Besides if anyone think that Mitt or anyone like him will make American all better two days after taking office, they are in for a rude awaking. I think that one of the reasons that many, particularly on the right, have issues with Obama is that they expected instant cures to the problems we have. The current economic crises is unlike anything we have experienced, save the Great Depression.

My fear is that someone like Mitt will sell the American public a bill of goods and we’ll still have all the long term issues that we can’t seem to get the courage to solve. Besides if Mitt get’s to the White House (hope not) he’ll bring in a bunch of right wing nuts which will make things worse not better. Think about it.

The Last Comic Standing

Bill Press (www.billpress.com) had a column entitled “You’d have to be stupid to run against Obama.” Well the stupid keep trying.

Looking at the current crop of Republicans who are falling all over themselves by sort of running and then not running, it brings to mind the reality show of some time ago called “The Last Comic Standing.”

The list of possible GOP standard bearers who are not running is growing longer by the minute. George Pataki, Rudy Giuliani (maybe in now? who knows?), Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry, and Jeb Bush all said no. Haley Barbour made noises then dropped out. Donald Trump drummed up attention (for his reality show more than anything else) and then dropped out. Mike Huckabee is making more money at Fox so he said no. And now the latest favorite, Mitch Daniels said no.

So who do we have left? Well Mitt (“I sorta was Governor of Massachusetts”) Romney is still making sure he looks good for the cameras. The health care law he helped get enacted in Massachusetts will dog him but Mitt will do one of his famous flip-flops and explain it away. Maybe!

Don’t forget former Governor Tim Pawlenty, who said on CNN  - “If any doofus can go to Washington and maintain the status quo. And that's what we've got in the White House and the Congress in terms of the attitude about their willingness to tackle these issues.” I thought the 2010 election sent in a bunch of radicals that were going to shake things up in Washington. I guess maybe the Tea Party people sent in a bunch of doofuses (or is it doofi?).

Then there is the Paris Hilton of politics, Sarah Palin, riding her macho hog in Washington, posing for pictures and spouting a bunch of stuff that sounds good but really means nothing – if you can understand her at all. And of course Michelle Bachmann, the Tea Party favorite who can’t keep her American history straight. I heard that the press at some point egged the two of them by floating the idea of a Palin/Bachmann ticket. That, God forbid if it ever happened, would be a sequel to “Legally Blonde” movie retitled “Legally Brunette times Two.”

What is amazing to me is that for all the apparent fervor against Obama from the Political Right, you would think there would be no shortage of people falling all over each other and willing to take him on. After all he is, according to the wing nuts, leading America down to ruin by “taxing and spending.” Meanwhile the GOP in Congress can’t get their act together to pass anything meaningful.

I go back to what Bill Press said, “You’d have to be stupid to run against Obama.” Maybe the GOP will eventually find someone stupid enough to run. Think about it.

Jesus returns --- sort of!

Harold Camping of Family Radio, a California-based religious broadcasting network, has announced that Jesus will return on May 21, 2011 to judge the world and start the rapture. Yeah!

Well not according to some other Christians. I guess Harold hasn’t got it right according to some people like www.jesus-is-savior.com/Wolves/harold_camping.htm where they said that Harold “has aired Mormon advertisements”, perish the thought! Or that Harold claims that the Holy Spirit is no longer working in the church. How Harold came to know that is a mystery. Don’t you just love it when one Christian group points fingers at another Christian group? Who’s go it right?

Also floating on the web are advertisements about pet care for pets “left behind” when those good Christians get raptured up to heaven. For as little as $35 per pet you can be assured that Fido or Whiskers get’s taken care of while you enjoy your heavenly paradise with 72 virgins – woops that’s another mythology! If I wasn’t such an honest person I would start up a business like that but knowing that these folks won’t really depart this planet, they may end up starting to demand their money back. But then I could let it sit in the bank making fabulous interest in the mean time.

Anyway according to www.huffingtonpost.com Harold Camping has done this before. He previously predicted that the Rapture would occur in mid-September 1994 and, surprise, it didn’t. You would think that once you blew a prediction you would be more cautious about doing it again. But these types get caught up in their own delusion and no amount of reality will persuade them to change. It’s like the UFOers who still claim that we’ve been visited by aliens. No amount of shooting down their claims will stop them from believing.

And that’s the real issue here. Religious people are taught to believe something despite the evidence and the more you try to rationalize them out of it the more entrenched they become. If you read most apologists, they basically say that Christianity doesn’t make sense but believe it anyway.

I like the quote attributed to the TV program “House” that says something like “if you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people.” Think about it.

Government, go away–well, wait a minute!

Wiley Miller does a great comic strip called “Non Sequitur.” His Sunday May 15, 2011 comic hit the nail on the head about all those government regulations that the GOP and folks like Sarah Palin hate. Search for Wiley Miller and you’ll find the comic I’m referring to. The striking panel was in the middle where the man stops to read a sign that says “safety from the oppression of socialist, nanny-state regulation zone.” The next panel shows the man about to walk into two lanes of traffic! Who needs regulations?

This comic reminded me of our ever “in-your-face” Sarah because she likes to bash any government interference in our daily lives. She got on Michelle Obama’s case about the First Lady encouraging kids not to eat so much fattening food and, perish the thought, get some exercise! Sarah reminded her followers that our government should not be in the business of telling parents what to feed their kids. If Mommy and Daddy want junior to eat Big Macs every day and end up fat, then that’s their right Sarah shouts!

Then one ever to talk out both sides of her mouth, Sarah back in June of 2010 after the BP oil spill, as reported by Bob Cesca on the Huffington Post blog, wanted government involvement in big business, the oil business no less!

Sarah Palin is in favor of the federal government planting its gigantic boot on the throats of energy companies. She put it in writing. Not only that but she even proposed that our socialist, anti-capitalist, wealth-redistributing president call her on the phone so she can describe to him specifically how to impose all kinds of big government regulations against BP and others.

So I guess Sarah hates the government telling parents what to feed kids but at the same time she wants to regulate big oil business. Well that’s this week. Next week Sarah will be against oil drilling regulations and Twinkies as well, maybe. And people still think about her as a good candidate for President? Think about it.

Donald the Trumpeter

I haven’t written a blog for several months because everything has been so good with the world that I couldn’t find a topic to write about. Oh I guess I forgot about the brutal winter in the Northeast, the earthquake and tsunami and resulting nuclear crisis, the tornados in the South and other little things like that. Then Donald, the male Sarah Palin, pops onto the scene. Now he’s something to write about!

I had thought this “birther” thing had been resolved a long time ago but here comes Donald Duck Trump pontificating that he finds it interesting that Obama won’t show his long form birth certificate. Then lo and behold Obama says here it is! Does that settle it for the Donald. No! He has to have his “experts” (who ever they are) look at it closely as if Obama fudged something on it.

This whole “birther” thing smelled funny from the beginning. I know that some people will hold onto a myth forever and that no amount of evidence will change their mind. Just look at the 911 Truthers. They still claim that the WTC towers were brought down by the government and not by two jets flying into them. Delusional people can not be rationally talked out of their delusion.

Then I saw the web site www.thegrio.com in which Goldie Taylor wrote an excellent column where she relates the story of her Great Great Grandfather being jailed after he couldn’t produce his “papers.” She made an excellent point that racism is alive and well in America and folks like pompous Donald needn’t be given a platform to spout his BS. In the 21st century we found a new way to force a black man to “show us his papers.”

I personally don’t give the Donald any chance of becoming a real candidate for the Presidency but at the same time the press should curtail giving him air time. If this is the kind of crap the Right is tromping out in hopes of gaining the White House, then we are all in trouble. Think about it.

The Tucson Tragedy

It’s been several weeks since the shootings in Tucson so I think we can try to calmly examine some of the things surrounding this event.

No one, in my opinion, can make sense of this event except to say that only some mentally unbalanced person could have caused this violence. At the same time I think it is appropriate to ask how close is any one of us to committing something like this? How much pushing via harsh rhetoric and a toxic political tone would be needed to get some other Jared Loughner to do something similar? How many of those gun loving and government hating right wingers are just close enough to that edge to gun down some other politician? Probably more than we care to think of.

At the same time the speech by Obama on Wednesday after the shooting in Tucson was spot on in it’s tone and words. I was blown away by, first of all, the reception Obama got from the audience and the continued applause through out the speech. I was expecting something very somber and muted but instead we got a rally of sorts to come together and honor those that died and celebrate their lives and the people that took part in helping others. My sense was that this audience had enough of the talk of the right and the Tea Party, at least for the moment.

Soon after the shooting there was a lot of talk in the media of the connection between the rhetoric of the past two years and the shootings. For once I had to agree with Glenn Beck and others in saying that the shooting was the sole doing of a “nut job.” The linkage between the “don’t retreat, reload” talk leading up to last falls election and the shooting really had no basis in fact, at least in this instance.

But at the same time is it OK to continue to speak in terms of “don’t retreat, reload” and expect that no one in America would be embolden to take matters into their own hands? Talk like that has a cumulative effect and it’s only a matter of time when someone feels justified to do what Jared Loughner did.

So maybe there wasn’t any real connection between the shootings and the toxic talk of the past two years. But our world is different that any other time. There are lots more of us and we have virtually instant communications. The internet has opened up a whole new world of information, good and bad, that can possibly help push someone to the edge of violence. Dialing back the tone of things wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Maybe taking time to think about how we talk to each other deserves some pause for thought. Think about it.

Zapping Zicam

This is just a little thing but it bugs me. Recently on TV I saw a commercial for Zicam. You know that homeopathic “medicine” that you take at the first sign of a cold and it supposedly shortens the length of your cold. What struck me in all this was how do you know it worked?

I’m sure many have heard the old saying about what to do when you have a cold. If you treat it with all kinds of meds you’ll get over it in seven days. If you do nothing you’ll get over it in a week. In other words the cold has to run it’s course and your will body fight it and eventually eliminate it from your system. The meds one takes really don’t do anything to get rid of the cold. The meds only help reduce the effects of the symptoms and your body does the rest.

Additionally there are thousands of cold viruses around and everyone reacts differently to a cold. So there is no way of knowing how long any particular cold virus you get will affect you. You could get over it quickly one time and the next cold may take longer for you get over. You just never know.

So why spend money on something that really won’t do anything? Well people want quick fixes. And if someone markets something that enough people think will help them get over a cold, then they’ll buy into it. It’s like the magnetic bracelets. There is no real proof they do anything but people plunk down good money on them. It really points out how gullible we all are and how we lack the brains just to ask questions about something we are buying. Think about it.

Huck Finn and Thomas Jefferson

You may have heard about the controversy regarding removal of the n-word from Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” It seems that NewSouth Books, based in Montgomery Alabama, wanted to replace “hurtful epithets” like nigger and injun with “less offensive words” like slave and native American. In other words we are no longer permitted by NewSouth Books to read Mark Twains’ original and now have to settle for something more politically correct. Don’t want to hurt our sensibilities.

This called to mind the story from last March about the Texas Board of Education (a bastion of stupidity if there ever was one) dropping Thomas Jefferson from a world history section of a school textbook devoted to great thinkers. According to David Knowles citing Texas Freedom Network “the board had chosen to embrace religious teachings over those of Jefferson, the man who coined the phrase ‘separation between church and state.’” I guess the Texas Board of Education didn’t like the religion of Jefferson who was decidedly not the Christian of Texas.

This raises the question about how much revisionism must take place and who decides how to write history. We all know, for example, that any history of the western world is decidedly euro-centric, white washing all the gory things those Europeans did in colonizing the Americas. It’s glossed over about how the Europeans literally committed genocide in America. Or how whites used blacks to build wealth in the south to the point of going to war in defense of slavery.

Not only are we seeing the beginnings of a white wash of history, we are also seeing the “Christianizing” of America. The Christian view is all sweetness and love, unless you are not Christian then watch out. See how many nice things they say about Muslims or Atheists. Think of how much of a good thing it was that the missionaries came over to “spread the gospel” to the savages. Where are those converted Christians today? Living hand to mouth on lands that no white person wants.

I think history should be told as accurately as possible so that those that come after us understand how things were back then, good and bad. To paraphrase the old saying, unless we learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. Think about it.

Religion and Sex

On this last day of 2010, thoughts turn to… sex! Why not? With all the attention through out the year to the various sex-o-pades of celebrities and of course the on-going sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, one can not escape all the attention that sex and religion garnered.

I’ve heard it said elsewhere that religion is very concerned about what you do when you are naked. It seems sometimes that religion, especially Christianity, is overly preoccupied with people’s sex lives. Anyone who grew up in the Catholic religion will attest to how much guilt is put upon kids if they dare to even think about sex. I could never understand how priests could sit in the confessionals listening to various teenagers “confess” their intimate thoughts and actions regarding sex and not have some stirrings' in their loins.

The Catholic Church still insists that sex should only be between a married man and woman (who’s been paying attention to that?) and don’t get them started on homosexuality! Just recently the Pope opened a door, so to speak, on the use of condoms. I was surprised by all the attention it got. But the bottom line is, who cares? As long as the sex abuse scandal continues to unfold, the public will continue to engage in sex in their own way, straight or gay and not care what some old dude in white says.

With the foregoing in mind, a recent post in Frank Schaeffer’s blog (www.frank-schaeffer.blogspot.com) caught my attention recently -

In the light (or should I say "dark") of the Republican's stand against repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" we need to understand the wider context of the fight that pits human rights against the conservative Christians who have taken over the Republican Party.

If there is one thing all Christians should have learned by now it's that we -- of all people -- should never, ever cast aspersions on anyone else's sex life!

When it comes to pointing the finger over sexual "sin" the worldwide Christian community -- from the halls of the Vatican, to some Evangelical conservative "home church" established in somebody's basement two minutes ago -- is in the morally compromised position of a sometime violent habitual rapist criticizing a shoplifter for stealing a candy bar.

We're not talking about "a few bad apples," but the whole edifice of religion top to bottom.

So we have the churches, Catholic and Protestant, pontificating about how people should conduct their sex lives while not presenting a very good example. I think it’s time to put religion in the closet of bad ideas for a time and tend to more pressing problems, like ending wars, creating jobs and preserving our environment. Think about it.

Science versus the ark

Two stories recently aired on ABC World News that illustrated how much education in  America is in trouble. The first story was about how American students ranked with the rest of the world in reading, math and science. China beat the pants off us! The second story was about the cofounder of the Creation Museum in Kentucky wanting to build a full size replica of “The Ark”, as in Noah’s Ark! The debate was about using government funds to support a private, religious undertaking.

First to the Ark story. The $150 million theme park will be called the Ark Encounter. The center piece of the park will be, supposedly, a full size replica of Noah’s Ark. Mark Looy, the developer, was quoted as saying “We think the ark and the account of Noah’s flood,… can actually speak volumes today about our culture.” What it says about our culture is that we still cling to ancient myths and still believe they actually happened!

But the real issue is Kentucky’s Governor Steve Beshar willingness to give $40 Million in tax breaks to the developer, touting “job creation.” Naturally there are those that oppose it citing the separation of church and state. In this case the state is seen as promoting through tax breaks one religion, namely Christianity. I wonder if the Governor would give the same tax breaks to Muslims who want to build an Islamic cultural center in Kentucky or Jews who wanted to build a theme park based on the Temple of Solomon. That probably wouldn’t see the light of day.

The second story was about how China and other countries are ahead of us in math, science and reading. Particularly in science where a majority of Americans believe that humans came from two folks in the Middle East about 6000 years ago and the Intelligent Design folks trying to actively discredit or downplay evolution.

It amazes me that in this very technological time that we live in where we are so dependent on the latest wiz-bang cell phone, we still cling to the myth of creationism. More alarming is that in some segment of America, school textbook are being rewritten so that the more Christian view is promoted while evolution in given a once over. All you have to do is read reports showing that high school students are having to get remedial classes before really starting college. What are we teaching our kids?

In other countries classes are in session longer during the day, the school year is longer and everyone is focused on education including the parents. Amazing! Maybe parents here need to get off Twitter and pay attention to what their children are being taught. Think about it!

Atheist Ministers

A recent TV segment on ABC World News about ministers who become atheists while continuing to lead their flock raised an interesting point about bible study. Specifically one minister was quoted as saying “Reading the Bible is what led me not to believe in God.”

I never attended Bible study as I was raised Catholic and Catholics, for the most part, don’t read the bible. Catholics leave it to the priests and bishops to tell the flock what all that gibberish in the Bible is all about. If we read anything it was Catechism which is defined as “the Church's official manual of popular instruction.” So the faithful doesn’t have to bother their little brain with reading the Bible.

So when I did finally get to read the Bible for myself, I was amazed by all the gobbligook in it. I won’t get into all the violence and mayhem that the Bible goes on and on about. Or the numerous things you can’t do or if you do do God will whack the crap out of you. Or the begats and begats, ad nauseam. What really struck me, among other things, was the sheer repetition of many stories and the inconsistencies in a lot of stories. No sense in going into that here but sufficed it to say reading the bible tends to open one’s eyes if one is willing just read it as it is rather than have a bias initially that all in the bible is true and inerrant.

Which brings me to my point and that is that most Christians tend to isolate themselves with their religion, listen mainly to ministers and teachers and don’t go beyond that. Pastors usually admonish their flock about listening to dissenting people and/or opinions. The message usually is that you shouldn’t listen to those that don’t believe as they might sow the seeds of doubt in you!

In my own case I remember the nuns telling us not to think too much about the “mysteries” of Catholicism and just to believe. They would tell us the the mystery of three gods in one that is really only one god, sort of, and you must just believed it. Thinking about the Trinity might make your head hurt.

So here you have some pastors who “dared” to question the Bible, and probably read dissenting opinions and slowly came to the conclusion that it just didn’t make sense. The problem they are left with is that the only training they have is as ministers. They see no job prospect for themselves. But, I contend, if they really want a job they can hawk things like magnetic bracelets or dowsing rods or elixirs for cures. After all, their training is all about convincing people to buy into things that are just myths! Think about it.

Bristol Palin–Mediocrity Exalted

I have nothing against Bristol Palin and I don’t really care about this “Dancing with the stars” program. It’s all fluff and a way to entertain the masses. But this “controversy” about how Bristol stayed so long in the competition despite being, according the “those” who know, a mediocre dancer illustrates how we as a society have our priorities mixed up. Instead of having the “best” rise to the top, we promote those who, for what ever reason, are lackluster.

Jason Gershman, a mathematician from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who studied some of the telephone voting patterns, said he believed Bristol Palin's support was largely political, given that it appeared she got more votes during the weeks that Sarah was in the studio audience. He said he sensed a backlash brewing against Palin by fans who thought the best dancer should win, and they coalesced around Grey, who kept winning perfect scores from the judges despite fighting through injury.

"If her name was Bristol Smith or Bristol Jones, she would not be on the show or she would not have gotten this far," he said. "She went from being a bad dancer to a mediocre dancer. But she was not the best dancer." Reported by David Bauder,
The Associated Press, found on www.troyrecord.com, 11/24/2010

This Bristol Palin thing is an illustration of how we, as a society, raise stupidity and mediocrity up to levels not justified and don’t bother with things that really deserve our attention like science and people that excel in science, just to name one area. Why is it that piss poor athletes like some football and baseball players who are not that good to begin with command such huge salaries while educators who are trying to raise the terrible educational level of our young people don’t get wages that they deserve? Our priories are out of whack.

We have a very smart man currently in the White House but he is constantly slammed by Bristol’s mother who is a few, no many, cards short of a full deck and she is adored by millions. Why is that?

We’re all terrorists now!

I’m here to say that Al Qaeda has won! We are now all considered terrorists when we buy a ticket to fly on a commercial airline. It’s now the default. You’re a terrorists until the  government, in the guise of a TSA flunky, says you’re not.

This recent attention to the new airport screening started with pilots complaining about having to go through body scans over and over every time they go to the airport to fly passengers to their destinations. The TSA responded if they didn’t want to go through the body scan they can submit to pat downs. I can not tell how that’s not a very comforting sight to see your airline pilot being patted down before he gets on YOUR plane. Thank God the TSA has determined that he’s not a terrorist! Whew!

Then the other night was a piece on TV about this TSA body scan and pat down security. In part of this particular piece was a video showing a three year old girl screaming at the top of her lungs “don’t touch me!” as the TSA guard tried to pat her down. Come on folks! Is it necessary to traumatize a little girl just because some idiot from the Middle East tried to blow up his under wear? Realistically, is a three year old girl an agent of Al Qaeda?

On a recent trip I watched how TSA tried to search a frail old lady in a wheelchair to make sure she wasn’t a bomber. She could hardly stand up to go through the metal detector. She didn’t fit the trademarks of a terrorists but the TSA was hell-bent on making sure this woman didn’t have any bomb making material. None-the-less, I’m sure that Al Qaeda is now recruiting little old ladies for their next attack in addition to three year old girls.

Why are we  doing this? To keep America safe! We are continuing to spend time, resources, and gobs of money to catch those terrorists. “They”, who ever “they” are, point out that the terrorists are still trying to blow up planes. They tell us that terrorists keep coming up with new and improved ways to try to blow up planes. And our wonderful government needs to stay one step ahead of them to protect us. Hence all this pat down stuff and the new high tech body scans. So what happens when the terrorists come up with some other way to blow up a plane? What new and denigrating way can the TSA develop to search us before we board that flight?

I propose that the next time you go to the airport to fly, when you get to the security line you take off all your clothes and walk through naked. That way they can just check you visually to see you are not carrying any bombs and then your can dress up and go on your merry way. No pat downs, no body scans. Think how much time and money we will save!

A couple of days after the election and the loonies are coming out of the woodwork. The latest insanity is the story about President Obama’s trip to Asia that is supposedly costing 200 million dollars a day. The bad part of all this is that loonies like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are using this to bash Obama which doesn’t surprise me. And of course Rep. Michelle Bachmann from Minnesota can’t think of anything else to talk about to Anderson Cooper of CNN but this story.

One look at this and anyone with some intelligence will see the $200 million figure doesn’t make sense when it it costs $190 million a day for the war in Afghanistan. Why would the Navy divert 34 warships to protect the president? We do have people to protect the president and they do trips like this all the time.

But what is most upsetting is that our Congress people, the ones that will fix our economy in the next two years, are jumping on this like stink on shit. I shiver to think that Bachmann will get on some committee directing funds here and there and she doesn’t have the brains to check out this Asia trip story before she opens her mouth?

This is scary folks.

Tomorrow is election day and it looks like it’s going to be interesting. We might end up changing the change. It’s not paradise with the new guy we brought in in 2008, so let’s bring in the good ole’ boys!

First thing, I predict that even with a big change in Congress things won’t change anytime soon. Since the Republicans were such gracious players these past two years, I expect to Democrats to be just as nasty. A little tit for tat. Even if enough “Tea Party” people get elected, there is still enough entrenched BS in Congress that will stymie any grand ideas the tea partiers might have.

The big hot button in the election has been taxes. We’re taxed too much and we’re spending too much. So pretty much every politician is spouting the “cut taxes” drivel. And Americans want to hear that because nobody likes paying taxes. Which brings me to the 60 Minutes piece last night with Dave Stockton, Ronald Reagan’s budget director. He made the radical statement that cutting taxes won’t solve the problems we are facing. In fact he is proposing that ALL the Bush taxes cut expire meaning that we all pay more in taxes. Perish the thought!

If you rationally think about it for a moment, he might have something there. How can we run a government on less revenue and expect the government to do what we want it to do, like national defense, social security, Medicare, fight terrorists, etc? The old saw is brought out all the time about putting more money in the pockets of consumers that helps prime the engines of growth. Well, since many more people since the great depression are out of work, they can’t spend because they don’t have anything. So how is that helping to prime the pumps?

He did mention something that I’ve suspected for a long time and that is that the top 5% of Americans in income hold over 40 trillion dollars in wealth. The other 95% has somewhat less… a lot less. Just imagine if we were to tax them just 1% more how much that could help our situation. I know that smack of socialism but continuing like we are now is not working.

Talking about raising taxes is deadly to politicians, but maybe the new GOP and Tea Partiers will have the courage to do the unthinkable. I doubt it.

“Abracadabra, everything’s perfect”

I was really surprised when I saw an article in my local paper quoting a retired plant worker saying “Obama’s been in office two years and he’s being blamed for not saying, ‘Abracadabra, everything’s perfect.’” It’s gratifying to hear someone with a more reasonable view of things.

It seems to me we are prone to forget what took place years ago that got us into this mess and how we expect quick fixes. Understandably we are focused on the short term and tend not to look at the long view. For those who are out of work and can’t find a job or who lost their house because they lost their job and can’t pay the mortgage, I can understand that position. But we have to keep reminding ourselves that if it took a long time to get us into this mess, it will take a long time to recover.

There was a lot of euphoria when Obama took office. Our choice in the presidential election was, at least to me, clear. With Obama the mood in the country was that he would quickly change things around for the better. But because the economic problem was so deep and pervasive, the actions he took didn’t seem to fix things a fast as we wanted. Houses are still being foreclosed, people can’t find jobs and the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

A recent article by Rick Newman, of US News and World Report, reported that corporations and investors are doing better under Obama but the undereducated and low-income Americans are doing worst. With the GOP poised to take over the House and possibly the Senate, the gap between the rich an poor will only widen.

So now anger seems to be the word of the day. We will elect a bunch of right leaning newbies who will fix things now! Well, don’t be surprised if things don’t get any better soon. I predict chaos will run rampant. Maybe, just maybe, this will improve Obama’s bid for reelection in 2012. Who knows?

I’m soooooo angry!

Angry. That’s the word you hear a lot about these days. The public is angry over…. well you name it. We’re angry over taxes. Anybody been happy about taxes? We’re angry about spending… except for what we each can get from our government, like social security, medicare, farm subsidies, etc. We’re angry about debt… except for all the individual debt we’ve accumulated over the years. We”re angry at politicians… all those selfish politicians we keep electing to send Washington money back to our towns.

I remember my days as a Corporate Computer Service Manager. No company likes to have their computer systems go down so invariably I’d hear from a lot of angry customers. Well after they ranted and raved for a while I’d say “Now what can we do to fix this problem?” One could understand the anger one might have when computers don’t work and how they impact a company’s business. But being angry doesn’t really solve the problem. Calm investigation and action solves the problem.

The media keeps saying the Americans are angry. Well yes, the present economic situation doesn’t make anyone happy. But if you step back for a moment and look at things rationally (how many Americans look at things rationally?), you’ll see there wasn’t just one thing that caused all this. There were many factors taking place over many years that brought us to this situation. Changing out some idiots in Congress for other idiots really won’t solve things. It will take whole scale changes in how we operate, how we innovate and how we address problems. We’d like to have someone say “this was the cause” but in truth there is no one cause. And it wasn’t Obama. It’s all kinds of things.

So after this election, and I’ll go out on the limb and say that the GOP will take over the house, we need to calm down and really figure out what needs to be done to fix things. We need to restore some sanity in this country. And I’m sure that the new crop of politicians we’ll elect will do that! Don’t hold your breath.

I’m right, despite the facts!

An article in the Boston Globe caught my attention the other day. It was written by Joe Keohane back on July 11, 2010, and his point was that, contrary to what one might think, an informed citizenry is not necessarily better than one that isn’t. In other words facts don’t play as much a role in citizens voting for the best candidates or helping citizens decide on complex issues. Keohane says “we often base our opinions on our beliefs, which can have an uneasy relationship with facts.” In other words cognitive dissonance.

Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson made the case for cognitive dissonance in their book “Mistakes were made (but not by me).” Basically cognitive dissonance is the state of mind where logic and facts dictate one thing but an internal bias says something else. Hence there is an internal conflict or dissonance.  An example would be a person who smokes “knows” that smoking is bad for them but justifies their smoking by probably deluding themselves into thinking that they can get away with it and not get lung cancer. This is over and above the addiction issue.

Another example was with George Bush and his decision to invade Iraq. This issue was highlighted in the book by Tavris and Aronson. Bush was convinced that invading Iraq was the right thing to do because Saddam had WMD’s that needed to be taken out. Later after the invasion, and it was shown that no WMD’s existed, Bush just couldn’t admit he was wrong. In the book, Bush is quoted as saying in 2006, “I’ve never been more convinced that the decisions I made are the right decisions.” In other words, even after being shown that WMD’s were not in Iraq, Bush had a case of cognitive dissonance about WMD’s. No WMD’s but we were right in bombing the crap out of Iraq!

In the Keohane article he pointed out that many misinformed people often have the strongest political opinions. Remember the brouhaha over the so called “death panels” when Obama’s health care bill was being debated in Congress? Many stuck by the notion that the government was going to dictate who would live or die if this bill passed. It wasn’t true but the “death panel” story lived on.

I personally know of people who are so convinced of their political views and no amount of logic or facts can change their view of things. What can you do about people like that? Probably not much except to express what you think and present facts and hope that some of it sinks in. Or else we all sink!

Atheists know religion

In a recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, atheists and agnostics scored highest when asked 32 questions about religion. I’m not surprised. I’ve heard it said that to get into a church you just have to believe but you will be asked to leave if you have knowledge or smarts.

This goes along with what I’ve seen with your ordinary Christian. They tend not to examine their religion too closely for fear of discovering something that might shake their faith. Although many participate in Bible studies I don’t think they study the Bible like a non-believer does. They typically study the Bible to find support for it and discard anything that poses a problem. Many, many books have been written on the problems in the Bible and when you read these books you find them filled with perverted and twisted linguistic logic.

To give an example how Christians can twist the Bible I heard pastor on a Christian radio station (yes, I do listen to them) try to explain Rev. 3:11, “Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” The pastor focused on the word “quickly” saying that the writer used the word “quickly” to mean sudden or explosive versus “quickly” meaning soon. Elsewhere in the Bible “quickly” was used to mean soon as in “get here quickly.”

His point, I guess, was to dispel the notion that Jesus would come back soon. Instead he was building a case for Jesus coming back with a “boom” and some time in the future. In essence he perverted the word to get over a difficulty in the Bible.

But anyways back to the Pew Forum survey, it may not have been fair to ask Christians about other religions as they are focused on their own Christianity. Atheists, on the other hand, tend to examine many religions along with Christianity to see if any of them make sense. In the process Atheists come up to speed on religions more than your average Evangelical in the Bible belt of the US. I wouldn't read too much into this survey but at the same time if you can get an evangelical to really study the Bible, you may end up sowing the seeds of doubt. Whoa, wouldn’t that be a kicker!

Carving up America

Something very disturbing is happening to America. There are two Americas, one is conservative and the other is every thing else.

I tend not to say that the other America is liberal because I don’t really think the liberal bent is that persuasive despite what the right might say. Oh to be sure there are those areas of the country that are liberal like Massachusetts, but I think that the parts of the country that are not conservative are, to some extent, standing on the sidelines watching what is going on. And what is going on is disturbing.

The conservative America is increasingly becoming more hyper biased fueled in part by the right wing extremists. By that I mean that what ever bias the conservative right has, it gets hyped up by far the right nut cases and then the media picks up on it and it goes into hyper drive.

Look at the BS over the Islamic Cultural Center in NYC. Notice I didn’t say Mosque. Some right wing nutters whipped up fellow nutters to make this whole issue a case of Christian America against the Muslims. Normally I would say fine, you Christians go battle it out with the Muslims and let me know when it’s over. But since we are fighting a faction of Islam in Iraq and Afghanistan, does it make sense that we polarize the situation any more than it already is?

Also the dumbness of the stuff the far right puts out is beyond comprehension. Never mind what the facts are, the right has their views and damn anyone else. As in the case of the Islamic Cultural Center, the opposition was whipped up by Pamela Geller, a right wing blogger. One visit to her web site is enough to show you that facts don’t mean anything.

Trying to talk sensibly to them is a waste of time. All they like to do is shout and at the end of the day, nothing is accomplished. Sounds like the GOP to me!