Jobs and Jesus–do they mix?

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit on June 12, 2012 against Voss Electric Company regarding the denial of a supervisory job to an individual who was not religious enough. The EEOC website states “Despite being considered qualified for the position, … Wolfe (the applicant) was denied employment on the basis of his religious beliefs.”

So he was qualified for the job but didn’t have the right religious qualifications for the company. Which raises the question of what would be the right qualifications? To work at Voss Lighting do you have to attend a company approve church? Would that church have to run their mission statement past the management at Voss? What if Voss Lighting aligns themselves with the Southern Baptist and the applicant is a member of a Methodist church? Would that disqualify him? Is there a list at Voss Lighting of approved churches or denominations?

I will admit that Voss Lighting doesn’t hide their religious beliefs. On their website’s mission statement page they say right up front that their Biblical Mission is “ to ‘sell’ our lighting products so that we may ‘tell’ everyone we can about God’s soul-saving, life transforming gospel message as Jesus instructed believers to do.”  I’m curious as to why “sell” and “tell” are in quotes. That’s like the Monty Python sketch where they say something naughty and then “wink wink, nod nod” as if to say you really know what we are getting at, right?

This apparently happened in Tulsa Oklahoma so it doesn’t surprise me about religious overtness that’s there. But this is also a good example of what trouble one can get into when religion and the workplace are involved to this extent. It really makes a mess of this and no one comes out on top. If I sent in a resume to Voss Lighting, they would probably have to handle it with fireproof gloves as if Satan applied for a job. Maybe I will just to see if it lights up at Voss Lighting.

Atheism–magical belief!

I ran across the image to the left recently. I guess this is in response to other banners around that mock the Christian belief of God being pissed so he sends Jesus to live on Earth and Jesus gets killed only to rise from the dead and that some how makes God (the Big Daddy) happy. It all ends with “makes perfect sense.”

Now if you examine the verbiage in this image closely you’ll see that who ever wrote this doesn’t, it seems to me, understand atheism. First of all, atheism is by definition the LACK of belief in a supernatural being or God. Beyond that, atheism doesn’t promote anything. Christians are non-believers when it comes to other gods such as Zeus, Apollo, Allah, etc. Atheists don’t believe in just one more god than them.

But let’s look at what this says - “…there was nothing and nothing happened to nothing and then nothing magically exploded for no reason.” Notice how “magically exploded” is introduced. The writer of this image has to read up on the issue of nothingness in science. For example, Lawrence Krauss explains in his book “A Universe from nothing” that through the known laws of physics we have today, it can be demonstrated that nothing is unstable and that something (i.e. matter) will be created without the need for a supreme being. It isn’t “magical”, it happens!

Further the image says that nothing created “everything and then a bunch of everything magically rearranged itself for no reason.” Notice the word magic again. Once again science has demonstrated how matter evolved over the vast periods of time forming stars, galaxies and eventually life. Nothing magical about it. It’s all explained by the many disciplines of science if one wanted to educate themselves about the topic.

I will concede one thing though. There is no reason for the universe. There is no reason for us. We humans, as does the universe, just happen to be. Why? Who know and who cares? We know we are here now so lets make the best of it as there is nothing beyond our life. Going through life fretting about whether you’re going to heaven or hell is a waste of time. Use the only time you got.

Finally, it’s interesting that “magical” is introduced when most of religion is all about “magic.” They don’t say it’s magic but that’s what they are peddling. Consider the talking snake in the Garden of Eden. Isn’t that magic? Or the fact that the Bible says that God picks up some dirt and breathes on it, and puff there’s Adam. Or in present day where the Catholic Church still clings to “transubstantiation” of the host where a priest says special words and Jesus’ body is now in the wafer. You can’t taste Him but he’s there!

If Christians really thought about their magical beliefs, they’d find it doesn’t make perfect sense. But they won’t think about it and that’s the problem!

“Why Atheists can’t be real Americans”

My Google Alert pointed me to an article at the World Net Daily (WND), a “news” outlet catering to right wing Christian conservatives who would like nothing better than to have America as a white Christian country with all others out.

The WND, sometime referred to as Wing Nut Daily, is the brain child of Joseph Farah who has a less than stellar record in the newspaper business. Anyway he writes that he agrees with something the good Pastor John Hagee, senior pastor of San Antonio’s Cornerstone Church, said recently.

Pastor Hagee - “This nation was not built for atheists or by atheists. It was built by Christian people who believed in the Word of God. To the atheists watching this telecast, if our belief in God offends you, move. There are planes leaving every hour on the hour, going every place on planet earth. Get on one, we don’t want you and we won’t miss you, I promise you.”

Farah writes that he agrees with Hagee saying further “Atheists can’t be real Americans in the truest sense of the word ...”

Referring to the founding fathers and others at that time, he says they “were Christians who believed in the One True God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They weren’t referring to any other god. They rejected Allah. They rejected paganism in all its forms. They rejected atheism.

America was thus founded as a Judeo-Christian nation, tolerant of other views, but with the understanding that only a moral people governing themselves to the best of their ability under God’s eternal laws were capable of maintaining the liberty established uniquely under this covenant.

Likewise, at the end of the day, anyone who doesn’t believe in the Creator God of our founders is, at best, enjoying the blessings established by that national creed without acceptance of it.

There’s an old saying: “America: Love it or leave it.”

Interestingly he goes on to quote Thomas Jefferson, one of the most free thinking founder and the writer of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson didn’t believe in the kind of God Farah or Hagee talk about. Jefferson was a Deist who believed in a God that plays no role in the daily lives of individuals. In fact many of the founding fathers were Deists. Jefferson didn’t think Jesus was anything special. Jefferson went to great pains to separate church and state, not wanting any religious involvement in government. Jefferson would be appalled at what is happening in America today.

Farah conveniently forgets that Madison said specifically in the Treaty of Tripoli that America was NOT a Christian country.

Of course Farah and Hagee and their kind want the U.S. to be just white Christians everywhere. They’ll want to get rid of the blacks, the Jews, definitely the Muslims, the Buddhists, the Hindis, the Atheists and for good measure throw out the gays too! Can you image if that was to take place how long it would be until one Christian faction starts fighting another Christian faction. You’ve seen how nice sectarian wars can be when we “liberated” Iraq. Maybe Sunnis or Shiites could be brought in as consultants? Think about it.

Is marriage about sex?

All this fuss about Obama saying that he doesn’t have an issue with gay marriage had me thinking about the real issue of marriage. It seems that the religious right are hung up about same sex couples getting it on in the bedroom or where ever else they copulate! But since most couples, straight or gay, have sex before tying the knot and really don’t give a shit about having a marriage certificate before they join their sex organs, where does that leave the issue of sex in marriage? In other words, what really is the purpose of getting married in the first place?

To me, it has been always about the legal benefits and recognition from the government one gets when one is married versus being a single person. From tax benefits, to death benefits, to inheritance rights, legal rights in a court of law, marriage is about what you do as a two person entity in the eyes of the law.

So how about if the gays declared that they will NOT have sex when they marry, would that satisfy the religious nut cases? Probably not but the point about gay marriage should be about treating all persons who want to enter into a marriage contract the same whether they are a heterosexual couple or a homosexual couple. It shouldn’t make any difference about what they do sexually. It’s about their legal standing.

If marriage is restricted to just heterosexual couples, then we create a two class system where one group (straights) enjoy rights that another group (gays) don’t have. The foundation of this country is about equality. That’s why slavery was abolished and why blacks pressed for many, many years for equal treatment under the law. That’s why women fought and won the right to vote and are still fighting to be treated equally in the workplace.

But I know that the Pat Robertson’s of the world will trot out their Bible and quote some insane verse saying that God doesn’t approve of gay sex. My response to God is, find something else to do like stop wars, disease, famine, earthquakes, etc. I’m sure God could find something else to occupy his time.

“Faithless interfere with believers’ rights”

Above was the banner for a letter to the editor in my local paper recently. The writer said bluntly, “Oh ye of little faith, mind your own business.” The writer went on to say that “every tradition we grew up with is slowly being taken away from us.” Oh what a shame, if only it were true.

The fact of the matter is that believers can still believe and practice their silliness just as they did before. Masses and services are still being conducted every week and the churches still have their stupid signs out front quoting this or that inane scripture. They still can bitch every Christmas time that there is a “war on Christmas” and that “Jesus is the reason for the season.” They can still rake in all the tax free cash they want, allowing the more successful ministers to buy mansions and jets. Never understood why God needs so much money.

Ministers can still preach about the love of the Christian religion unless you are a homosexual then, according the Pastor Charles Worley of Maiden, North Carolina, you’ll be headed for a compound with the rest of your fellow sicko’s where you’ll die because you can’t reproduce. The good Pastor has single handedly taken care of that little gay problem!

Finally the writer says that “the faithless interfere with and infringe on our rights and beliefs.” So if you want to believe in some space Daddy who was pissed with his humans at one time but when his “son” was killed and supposedly came back to life, then that made every OK, go ahead. But don’t get pissed at me because I won’t buy that silly story. Or if you believe that the human race was started by a couple some 6 to 8 thousand years ago, that’s fine but don’t teach that story in public school under the guise of science. It aint!

The bottom line is that the religious nuts like the writer of this letter like to play the victim card. Any little thing that ruffles their feathers and they cry “VICTIM!” Please, no one is doing anything to victimize you! For comparison, ask any black man what it was like a 150 years ago in the good old U.S. of A. They were more than just victims.

Romney spouting BS

The mantra for this upcoming election is don’t believe anything Romney says. We already know that he will say anything to anyone just to get them to vote for him. Now most politicians will skew facts to their favor but Romney has brought that practice to a new level.

Case in point is his latest speech (propaganda?) given in Des Moines, Iowa. AP’s Tom Raum posted in the Huffington Post a good critique of some of the facts that Romney got wrong. Here’s one -

“ROMNEY: "I will lead us out of this debt and spending inferno. We will stop borrowing unfathomable sums of money we can't even imagine, from foreign countries we'll never even visit. I will bring us together to put out the fire."

THE FACTS: Romney's tax and spending plans don't support his vow to dampen the debt fire. He proposes to cut taxes and expand the armed forces, putting yet more stress on the budget, and his promise to slash domestic spending isn't backed by the big specifics. Romney's tax plan would cut the top income tax rate to 28 percent from 35 percent and other rates by 20 percent each. He says he'd broaden the tax base and eliminate many deductions in the process, but details are missing.”

A study by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget concluded earlier this year that Romney's plans would not make a dent in deficits, and could worsen them considerably. That study was done before Romney upped his tax cuts, inviting even deeper debt.

Romney has been saying that he understands the economy (like none of us dummies don’t know a thing) and he can fix it. Gee we must be such dunces! Now to be fair Romney has some knowledge of the economy, namely how to get the most money into his pockets by squeezing the crap out of companies that Bain Capital bought and then dumping. His job creation was to employ more CPAs to keep track of his assets.

Romney continues to play towards his fat cat wealthy friends, ignoring the reality of the economy and spouts simplistic plans that won’t work. The reality of a Romney Presidency is that he will do more harm than good.

Raum also said – “A study by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget concluded earlier this year that Romney's plans would not make a dent in deficits, and could worsen them considerably. That study was done before Romney upped his tax cuts, inviting even deeper debt.”

All his talking demonstrates that he doesn’t have any understanding of the American economy. It’s easy to say things that sounds nice, but doing it is another story. Please think about it.

Obama–Gay Marriage OK

So the political right is up in a frappin’ tizzy over the fact that President Obama finally said he did have a not problem with gay marriage. The loonies said that Obama has now declared “war on marriage” and it will open the door to the decline of heterosexual marriages. So the question is, “How are those straight marriages doing”?

Here in blue Massachusetts, gay marriage has been legal since 2004 and the effect on straight marriages has been… well nothing! Here we are almost eight years since gay marriages started and straights are still getting hitched and divorced like they did before. All the talk of the demise of marriage hasn’t occurred and we had expected it not to have any affect on straight marriages.

Of course one of our resident far right loonies, Rick Santorum, recently had this to say regarding gay marriage and his sorta buddy Mitt Romney - "Hopefully Governor Romney will continue to stand tall for his position on this issue and understand how detrimental it would be for society for it to have this [marriage thing] changed.”

I guess it’s been pretty “detrimental” for us here in Massachusetts. Curiously, has anyone seen any problems?

My view is that heterosexual marriages are one of the last bastions of privilege that the white, mostly male Christians have that they can raise a stink about. They seem to think that if gays get married then they’ll intrude on their territory (what ever that it) and have privileges that only the straights had regarding marriage.

If they are very worried about marriages, why don’t they work on making sure that their heterosexual marriages work instead of bashing a very small minority of people. What’s the saying about don’t go throwing rocks in a glass house? Looks like 50% of the windows are blown out. Think about it.

Education in America

Take a good close look at the picture to the left. It’s nice to know that our students are getting a good education at those fine Christian schools in Georgia. Who needs the U.S. government to tell schools how to educate kids? Coach McDaniels can teach them kids to be right smart! At least they spelled God right. Or is it Dog?

Is Belief Bad?

I’ve been thinking about faith and belief lately. At the outset I would like to say that as far as I’m concern, faith and belief are one and the same. In my Catholic school days, the nuns would say that in order to have faith you must believe. And in order to believe you must have faith. Two views of the same coin or circular reasoning?

The faith and belief that’s promoted today by many religions tend to be talked about in terms that could lead one to think that faith and belief are “things”. In fact I heard one preacher try to make the point that somehow faith had substance.

Faith is supposedly something that comes into you as a gift when you pray a lot or attend church a lot. C.S. Lewis made the point in “Mere Christianity” that you couldn’t reason Christianity out so the best way to have faith is the pray and convince yourself through repetition that it’s true. I prefer to see faith as a mind concept or process that can supplant normal reasoning.

In the Catholic Encyclopedia, belief is defined -”that state of the mind by which it assents to propositions, not by reason of their intrinsic evidence, but because of authority.”  To me the crucial items in the definition are “not by reason” and “because of authority.” So when you believe something you abandon reason and you assent or accept belief because of some authority, either human or written.

The problem with that is that you relinquish your normal reasoning process to then just accepting what someone tells you “because of authority”. You now abandon looking at the evidence and no longer question assumptions. Now you are susceptible to anything because you have no external basis to judge validity. If you believe that illness can be cured just by praying, then you may die sooner than if you sought medical help. So belief can be a real life or death issue.

It’s amazing to me to hear how much preachers continually push the notion to “just have faith” and everything will be just dandy. From an evolutionary point of view, belief can be a life saving thing for example if the tall grass is rustling, and you believe it’s because a lion is walking through there, it might save your life. But then again it might just be that the wind is moving the grass. So if you are right or wrong in your belief doesn’t matter because you are still alive to tell about it. But if you are rational and say that it was just the wind and a lion was truly there, then you no longer get to pass on your genes because you are a lions’ lunch.

But as we have gain knowledge through science about how the world works we may need to abandon some beliefs. Infrared technology can now tell us whether or not the lion is in the tall grass. We no longer have to rely on faith. But to hold onto to faith when science and evidence tell you other wise, can have profound consequences.

Take the belief that prayer works or you can pray away a disease. If a child is sick and the parents refuse to take the child to the doctors and rely on prayer instead, then the child is in great danger. Or if you are out of work and you have the belief or faith that God will find you a job with out you looking for one, you may end up on the street.

Or if your belief is that the Bible has the truth about how people came to be on this earth and insist on Creationism or Intelligent Design be taught in pubic schools instead of evolution, then our whole country is put at risk.

Beliefs can be comforting but they can be dangerous. We really need to recognize that.

Romney’s the man! Ugh!

Can you hear the over whelming enthusiasm for Mitt (I’ll say anything) Romney as the GOP’s nominee? If you haven’t heard it that’s because it’s almost non existent. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, is Romney the best the Republican’s got to go up against Obama? Come on guys, you had almost three and half years to put forth your best guy and this is what you came up with?

Not only does Romney lie like no body’s business, he changes himself to suit the group he is addressing at the moment. Case in point, his recent pandering speech to the NRA, that group that get’s a hard-on just thinking about a Colt 45. Eliot Spitzer had some good comments over at Slate.com. Here’s just a part of what he says -

Romney also argues that our personal freedom is under assault, and cites the Affordable Care Act, of course. Here is a small story not widely enough known: Mary Brown, who went to court to challenge the bill and whose name was on the litigation that made it all the way to the Supreme Court, claimed at the time she filed the suit, through her attorneys, that she “doesn’t have insurance. She doesn’t want to pay for it. And she doesn’t want the government to tell her she has to have it.” Mary Brown and her husband went bankrupt, leaving behind many debts, including $4,500 in medical bills. She will not pay those bills, but we taxpayers will.

So the question to Mr. Romney is why am I , as a taxpayer, forced to pay for Mary’s medical bill just because she didn’t want to pay it. You know what, maybe I should refuse to pay my Medicare monthly payment. The damn government is forcing me to pay for something I don’t want and I want everyone else to pay instead of me.

The good thing about Mitt is that you never know which way he’ll go on an issue. And that’s the bad thing too. But more than that is that if he make’s it to the White House, the far right nut jobs will pull him over to there side like Darth Vader manipulated The Force. Who’s the GOP’s Darth Vader? Think Grover Norquist. Scares the crap out of me and it should scare the crap out out of you. Think about it.

Liar, liar, pants on fire!

We know that politicians lie, but Mitt Romney is bringing it to a new level. Not only does he flip and flop with the wind, he out and out lies. Of course Obama made the recession worse and made it longer, Mitt says. Wrong! Of course Obamacare added to the debt. Wrong!

He’s been called out on his lying before. As an example, January 24, 2012 from Dan Amira at The Daily Beast -

From a Republican debate in Florida -

Mitt Romney said ….“We’re headed to a Greece- type collapse, and [Obama] adds another trillion on top for Obamacare and for his stimulus plan that didn’t create private-sector jobs.”

Literally everything in this sentence is false. The United States is not headed toward a Greek-style collapse. Obamacare didn't add to the debt; according to the CBO, it's lowering the debt by $230 billion through 2021. And the stimulus created millions of jobs. Aside from that, though, it's a fine sentence.

The thing we have to be careful in the general election is that his lies, said often enough, are believed by enough people to derail the re-election of Obama. Is the American voter is smart enough to see through Romney’s lies? Maybe I just answered my own question.

Greatest enemy that faith has….

You’ve seen the pictures of church signs on the internet. Many are boring, some are funny, and some are idiotic (OK, maybe most are idiotic). Recently I’ve seen a presentation where the presenter showed a slide of church signs that read “Reason is the greatest enemy faith has”. I thought that would make a good bumper sticker. But also I though, that’s right!

C.S. Lewis in his “Mere Christianity” talked about how you really can’t reason Christianity and the best way to be a Christian, according to Lewis, is to just convince yourself that Christianity is true despite the fact that it doesn’t make any reasonable sense. His method was simply to think every day, “this is true” over and over and over. So at the end you give in from exhaustion.

It’s no wonder to me that the statement that reason is the greatest enemy of faith says it all. If you have ever tried to reason with a Christian, you know you can present all kinds of very reasoned arguments that are rock solid only to have the person say “that may be true but I still believe”. It’s the old saw “The bible says it, I believe it, and that’s it”.

So it’s a waste of time to try to reason with a ardent Christian. Our only hope is with those that already have some sort of doubt about their faith and let them find the facts themselves. Reason to hope?

Thinking makes you loose faith, duh!

This guy, Santorum, is too good to be true. As an example of what right wing thinking (or lack of) is all about, he keeps giving one gem after another. On a Sunday morning interview of CBS he said - “I understand why Barack Obama wants to send every kid to college, because of their indoctrination mills, absolutely … The indoctrination that is going on at the university level is a harm to our country.”  He went on to further claim that 62% of students that go to college loose their faith. Ouch!

Well, the 62% number looks like it came from a 2006 survey by Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government which found that 62% of college REPUBLICANS said “religion was loosing its influence on American life.” That very different than what Santorum was saying about the 62% of students in general loosing faith.

But stop and think about that statement for a moment. If it were true or even mostly true, what does that indicate? It indicates to me that once students leave the confines' of Mom and Dad they find a wider world that raises questions that their faith can’t answer. That’s part of being educated, Rick! If you want to insure those kids don’t get “corrupted” by the wider world, then keep them at home and see how they do.

When the world is surpassing us in science, math, and other areas,  yo-yos like Rick would rather have a bunch of pious Christian dummies out in the work force rather than smart, possibly liberal leaning unbelievers. Good plan Rick! Think about it.

Thomas Jefferson must be really pissed!

If you haven’t heard the latest crap from Virginia, Jefferson’s home state, then get ready. It seems in order to make it as difficult as possible in Virginia for a woman to get an abortion, the republican legislature passed a bill that, among other things, required women to undergo a “transvaginal  ultrasound” procedure, without their consent or the consent of doctors. In other words to really harass women the state wants to stick a probe up their vagina to see… what?

The abortion issue aside, what galls me is that the republicans scream to high heaven to get the government out of their daily affairs but yet don’t seem to have any problem with the government looking into vaginas. This is state sponsored RAPE! And why all this is happening? It’s the religious right who wants to interject full blown Christianity into our government. They want to create a theocracy, full stop. They seemed to think this is what the country needs but they conveniently forget to ask the Jews, the Muslims, the Hindus, the Atheists (who cares about them?), and others. What is important is that they get their way, damn everyone else.

There was a reason that Thomas Jefferson wanted this wall of separation between church and state. He saw how having church authorities meddling in government affairs made a mess of things and didn’t want that here in America. I’m afraid we are going backwards towards the dark ages. Tom, I’m with you. I’m pissed!

“But no religious test”

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

The United States Constitution, Article VI, paragraph 3. Emphasis added.

The GOP is famous for beating up on Obama for “shredding the constitution”. Meanwhile the current crop of GOP candidates tout their own religiosity to make sure they pass the religion test with the far right faithful.

Despite what the constitution says, there is a religious test that presidential candidates must pass if they are Republican. You hear them talk about their beliefs and their faith, yelling about whether or not another candidate is a “true Christian’ (what ever that is) or they are the better Christian for the job. Franklin Graham, heir to the Billy Graham empire, hints that Obama is Christian in name only. Of course Romney, being Mormon, might not be a Christian although Franklin didn’t say it directly and I’m sure he’s not happy with Romney’s Mormonism.

Then Rick Santorum talks about Obama and say that he doesn’t think Obama has the correct theology. It’s not the theology of the Bible, Santorum says. Begs the question of what is the correct theology? Maybe there is one but as an atheist I’m sure there isn’t any. To paraphrase sci-fi writer Robert Heinlein “Theology is like looking for a black cat in a cellar at midnight that isn’t there”.

But the main point is that we need to get religion out of politics, it is toxic and it will only cause more problems than it will solve. If you haven’t heard the old joke about when three Baptists get together, one will form a new church. So which candidate has the right religion? Also you already know that “real Americans” don’t trust those “Muslims” because they are ALL terrorists and not Christian. Then there are the Jews. It goes on and on.

Also in the Constitution is this little item... “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”. Congress isn’t establishing a religion but the GOP certainly wants to! Think about it.

“Compelling Catholics”

There was this letter to the editor in today’s paper under the banner “Obama’s contempt for religion evident”. The writer complained that Obama and his supporters “have a contempt for religion, morality and the U.S. Constitution”. But the kicker  comment was this… “the government is compelling Catholics to violate their consciences or to suffer the consequences”.

Compelling Catholics? This whole issue is so stupid! As it has been in the past, health insurance companies help pay for contraception IF the insured wants it. The folks that want to COMPEL Catholics are those guys in funny hats in Rome. And how well has that worked? Not well at all. As been mentioned before, 98% of Catholic women ignore the church’s edict on contraception. No one in government is forcing anyone to get or use contraception.

Why aren’t the bishops up in arms with the pharmacies or grocery store that have condoms on their shelves? Is the pharmacy compelling men to use the condom? If a married Catholic man uses a condom when he has sex with his wife, who is to blame?

I’m upset that when these issues come to light, it seems that men are the ones who seem to want to dictate things. Sean Hannity had a “panel” to discuss this issue. The “panel” was made up of priests, bishops, rabbis and others and all were men. No women! A recent congressional panel was called on this issue and all the witnesses were men! No women! WTF?

The republicans don’t seem to get that most people don’t really care about this issue. What they care about is the economy and jobs. If you are out of work and don’t have health insurance, who cares about the pill or the condom? They are using this issue to try and beat up on Obama. They figure eventually they’ll find something that will stick. It ain’t this! Think about it.

Wrong theology–which one?

Rick Santorum, the current darling of the Right, was quoted as saying that “Obama’s agenda was ‘about some phony ideal, some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible, a different theology,’ he added. He went on the Sunday news circuit to back pedal somewhat and said while Obama believes ‘man is here to serve the Earth,’ he [Santorum] believes ‘Earth is not the objective. Man is the objective.”’

He goes on to say, “I was talking about the radical environmentalists. This idea that man is here to serve the Earth as opposed to husband its resources and be good stewards of the Earth. I think that is a phony ideal.”

He’s going back somewhat to the 19th century idea of “manifest destiny” and some other religious views that don’t concern themselves with what happens to the planet. He seems to side with those who know that Jesus will come back soon and rescue us all, so who cares about the Earth now?

At the same time he acknowledges that Obama is a Christian and he seems to be OK with that. However he forgets that many Protestants look upon Catholics (such as Santorum) and say that they are not true Christians with their allegiance to the Pope and Mary and saints, etc. To some Baptists, an Atheist is better than a Catholic.

This is what happens when you start involving religion in politics. I remember when John Kennedy had to address his Catholic faith. He gave a speech in which he said that basically his faith was a private matter and that as president he wouldn’t let the church dictate his actions. It was a different time then. I don’t think Nixon would have helped his campaign if he jumped on Kennedy’s religion like Santorum brings up Obama’s religion. But today, thanks to the nutters on the right, a person’s religion is a big thing. In fact if seems now you have to pass a religious test to get elected, despite what the constitution say about that. Look at the 2008 election where Obama and McCain had to go to Rick Warren (amongst other things they had to do) to get his blessing on their religiousness.

We are on a dangerous road now where religion plays such a large role in politics. We have essentially a state religion (Christianity) and every politician is judge against it. Is there anyway we can get Thomas Jefferson back to helps reinforce the wall between church and state? Seems like there is a hole you could drive a truck through.

My God! Can you believers be any more crazy?

In our local Sunday paper were three letters to the editor under the banner “Religious freedoms are being assaulted”. One letter claimed that the president and others were “attacking our constitutionally protected right of religious freedom.” The writer goes on to complain that “we have been told that religious organizations would be required to provide abortions, contraceptive and sterilization services.”

Another writer said that Obama “is disregarding the most basic tenet of the First Amendment – free exercise  of religion.” Yet another writer screams “The Obama administration’s assault on the free exercise of religion…. is an abomination.” It is interesting that all the writers were men.

This is typical of many religious zealots. Take something that “appears” to go against something they cherish and they go off the deep end declaring that their religious freedoms are crumbling. First of all nothing has really changed. Similar mandates for contraceptives were already in place in 28 states and no one said anything. Then Obama actually gave them an out by declaring that religious employers wouldn’t have to pay additional premiums to cover contraception. What zealots, or at least the ones writing letters to editors, don’t realize is that 98% of catholic women already use contraceptives, going against Catholic dogma. And that’s the real complaint from the guys in funny hats. It’s about maintaining power and control where ever they can. They can’t admit that the majority of women (and many men) don’t pay attention to guys in funny hats.

I’m so sick of religious nuts screaming to high heaven that they are being assaulted by the government and others (like Atheists) while they enjoy such massive power in this country. You can see that in the current crop of GOP nutters proudly showcasing their religious credentials at every opportunity. Let someone try to run for office who proudly declares that they are an Atheist and see what happens. You’d do better off declaring that you are gay than saying you are an unbeliever.

As someone who went through 12 years of Catholic education, or beat down as I like to call it, I know how much power the Catholic church likes to wield. This whole issue from the beginning was not about health insurance providers or the government providing contraception to women. It was about power and how much the Catholic church could flex their muscle in the body politic. (See the blog entry by Adam Lee over at www.bigthink.com/ideas/42414.) All religion is about power, pure and simple. Think about it.

Happy Birthday Mr. Darwin

Today is Charles Darwin’s birthday. Born in 1809, Charles Darwin explored the world and came to the conclusion that life on earth was not created by some big daddy in the sky as he was taught to believe. He explored and saw the evidence which he termed “Natural Selection”. He did not really “discover” evolution as that was already evident.

One must remember that if Charles Darwin didn’t put forth his ideas of natural selection some one else would have. There was no stopping the push to understand the world as it is versus what the church said it was. A 150 years after he published his “Origins of Species”, it still remains one of the most influential books ever created. Too bad those idiots who promote Intelligent Design never read it.

I’ll leave you with this quote from Mr. Darwin. When you read this quote think of the current crop of Republican candidates."Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science"

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Again, Happy Birthday Charlie!

By the way Happy Birthday to Abe Lincoln. He’s claimed these days by the Republicans but Abe wouldn’t like what’s happened today with the GOP.

Men in funny hats mess with vaginas, again!

This whole issue that the GOP is so up in arms about is so, so, so stupid. They claim that the president is now stepping over the line when it comes to religious freedom by requiring health providers cover contraceptives. He’s over stepped the bounds of the constitution, they shout! Chill out guys.

As Rachel Maddow so succinctly put it recently, 98% of Catholic women already use contraceptives which is, and has been, against Catholic teaching for decades. And currently 28 states have laws on the books that require health insurance providers to cover contraceptives, even in Catholic universities and hospitals. That’s required today! And it’s been that way for some time!

So why is the GOP making such an issue of this? Well that’s how they roll. Any little thing that they think they can use to bash the crap out of Obama, they then hype it up as much as possible and get as much air time as they can. They ramp up their hyperbole machine, get their friends like the Catholic bishops to spout drivel, find a forum like CPAC to make the evening news, and then step back and watch the carnage they’ve created. Maddow also showed that the GOP was for this years ago but only now to they have an issue with it. Why now? Well I think they know they are in trouble with main stream Americans and want to get a lot of face time with the good evangelical conservatives to show how they fight for their causes. Boo-yah!

But my real concern is that making exceptions for religious reasons is a dangerous precept. I’m sure we’ve heard about the occasional pharmacists that refuses to dispense contraceptives because it’s against his/her religious beliefs. To me if a person studies to become a pharmacist, then they know right up front that there will be things that they will have to do that MAY go against their beliefs. If a person does all that training and becomes a pharmacist, then do the job! It’s like Rachel Maddow said about an Amish person applying for a bus drivers job and get’s it, then only to quit because Amish aren’t supposed to drive machines. Find a job that doesn’t offend your precious beliefs.

I’m really tired of all this religious stuff being shoved into my face. Dare I say that I pray religion goes away? Soon! Think about it.

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.