According to the National Institute of Mental Health, schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels and behaves. The medical Internet site – WebMD indicates that people with schizophrenia:
a) Hear or sometimes see things that aren’t there (hallucinations);
b) Often believe some things that aren’t true (delusions); and
c) May think that some people are trying to harm them (paranoia).
It’s not uncommon for individuals suffering from schizophrenia to report their belief that God spoke directly to them and instructed them to act in one way or another.
I am not a psychiatrist or even a medical doctor, but I have known several individuals who’ve suffered from schizophrenia and observed their conduct over a sufficiently lengthy period of time to have some idea of how the disorder affects their daily lives. That’s why I feel confident in asserting that many of today’s GOP presidential candidates are suffering from schizophrenia and somebody should seriously consider conducting scientific research to get to the bottom of the question why. Our Nation’s future viability may one day depend on it!
Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum have all reported receiving explicit verbal instructions from God directing them to kill ISIL followers, abortion doctors and women choosing to terminate their pregnancies. Carly Fiorina is more circumspect about the message she received, but given her rabid attacks on the women’s health care provider, Planned Parenthood, it is clear that Fiorina believes she has been divinely instructed to wipe that organization off the map. God supposedly told Ben Carson to axe Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Scott Walker heard a revelation instructing him to go after labor unions, but since Scott dropped out of the presidential race, I’m not sure whether that counts or not.
Other GOP candidates have no problem believing things that aren’t true. Donald Trump thinks the Mexican government, the same government that can’t hold on to their prisoners or protect its citizens from the murderous rampages of drug cartels, is sufficiently organized to efficiently execute a sinister conspiracy to send its criminal element to the United States undetected. He also thinks that Sarah Palin was onto something when she declared last week that President Obama was behind her son’s assault on his girlfriend and PTSD that war-time soldiers contract. Ben Carson thinks climate change is a hoax on the same magnitude of the Apollo moon landing, and he should know because he’s a retired surgeon with an intimate knowledge of meteorology.
All of the GOP presidential hopefuls believe that Hillary and the liberals are out to get them…well, okay, that one is true so you got me there, but really, we don’t wish them any personal harm. We just don’t want them leading our country. Most of the Republican candidates think that Muslims as a whole are trying to destroy America, which is flat-out delusionary thinking, as is the notion that violence in America can be wiped out if we only add more guns to the mix. But, I digress. This is supposed to be about a serious mental health problem among presidential candidates, not guns. Where was I? Oh yes, paranoia. Liberals bent on destroying the fabric of America’s society has become a staple of the Republican presidential candidate’s diet, but that piece of trope couldn’t be further from the truth. We liberals breathe the same air as our more conservative counterparts, drink the same water, eat the same food (albeit in lesser quantities of caviar and foie gras) and have the same desires for health, safety and opportunities for personal and professional advancement. We think educating our children is the key to a better future and we believe that assisting those less fortunate than ourselves not only a noble pursuit, but a moral imperative for a free society. Liberals also believe that the government plays a vital role in providing for the mental health of its citizens, including GOP presidential candidates. God didn’t tell me to write that. I dreamed that up on my own.
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Saturday, January 30, 2016
LOOKING OUT FOR MEN’S HEALTH
Thank God for women like South Carolina Democrat, Mia McLeod, the state representative from Columbia who’s standing guard for men’s health concerns. Her efforts to promote the well-being of men in her state are nothing short of saintly, and I for one will tip my hat for the effort she has undertaken to insure that the male species not only survives, but flourishes sexually.
Why all the glowing accolades? Well, Representative McLeod has taken it upon herself to lead the fight against “priapism,” a malady that Wikipedia defines as “a potentially painful medical condition in which the erect penis does not return to its flaccid state, despite the absence of both physical and psychological stimulation, within four hours.” It’s an unfortunate side-effect of drugs like Cialis and Viagra that treat erectile dysfunction and the men who are unlucky and experience the side-effect of priapism will never get an erection again. If you’re a male, that’s not a pleasant thought. That’s where Mia McLoed enters the picture.
Ms. McLoed has introduced a measure in the South Carolina Legislature to insure than men are fully apprised of the risks of taking erectile dysfunction medication and the drugs’ tragic side effects and are properly educated concerning alternative treatment options, including the benefits of celibacy and other non-sexual lifestyles.
According to Representative McLoed’s proposal, men seeking treatment for erectile dysfunction would have to meet several conditions before having drugs like Viagra and Cialis prescribed, conditions that include, (a) waiting 24-hours before a prescription can be written; (b) submission of a notarized affidavit by a sexual partner attesting to the patient’s erectile dysfunction; (c) undergo an exam by a state-licensed sex therapist to document that the patient’s erectile dysfunction isn’t due solely to psychological factors; and (d) attend three therapy sessions within six months where the benefits of celibacy are discussed.
I imagine there will be critics of Ms. McLeod’s proposal (mostly men, I presume), but similar types of legislation regarding women’s reproductive health issues have breezed through the South Carolina Legislature and only a bunch of moronic hypocrites with legislative erectile dysfunction would prevent McLoed’s proposal from becoming the law of the land. Seriously, how hard could that be?
Why all the glowing accolades? Well, Representative McLeod has taken it upon herself to lead the fight against “priapism,” a malady that Wikipedia defines as “a potentially painful medical condition in which the erect penis does not return to its flaccid state, despite the absence of both physical and psychological stimulation, within four hours.” It’s an unfortunate side-effect of drugs like Cialis and Viagra that treat erectile dysfunction and the men who are unlucky and experience the side-effect of priapism will never get an erection again. If you’re a male, that’s not a pleasant thought. That’s where Mia McLoed enters the picture.
Ms. McLoed has introduced a measure in the South Carolina Legislature to insure than men are fully apprised of the risks of taking erectile dysfunction medication and the drugs’ tragic side effects and are properly educated concerning alternative treatment options, including the benefits of celibacy and other non-sexual lifestyles.
According to Representative McLoed’s proposal, men seeking treatment for erectile dysfunction would have to meet several conditions before having drugs like Viagra and Cialis prescribed, conditions that include, (a) waiting 24-hours before a prescription can be written; (b) submission of a notarized affidavit by a sexual partner attesting to the patient’s erectile dysfunction; (c) undergo an exam by a state-licensed sex therapist to document that the patient’s erectile dysfunction isn’t due solely to psychological factors; and (d) attend three therapy sessions within six months where the benefits of celibacy are discussed.
I imagine there will be critics of Ms. McLeod’s proposal (mostly men, I presume), but similar types of legislation regarding women’s reproductive health issues have breezed through the South Carolina Legislature and only a bunch of moronic hypocrites with legislative erectile dysfunction would prevent McLoed’s proposal from becoming the law of the land. Seriously, how hard could that be?
Friday, January 29, 2016
PERFECTLY TWISTED GOSSIP
This is a brief article about stories that will never appear in print, not because the stories lack redeeming social value, but because there is absolutely no factual basis to them. Still, I think it’s important to routinely stretch one’s own imagination muscles from time to time, and what better way is there to do that than by creating fictitious stories? Some would call that malicious gossip, but gossip never comes with an acknowledgement that the story is patently false, so I think I can dismiss that charge without difficulty. Here are a couple of stories I’d like to see written.
The first would be a salacious piece revealing that Josh Duggar was the “baby daddy” of Bristol Palin’s newest bundle of joy – Sailor Grace. I’ve seen photos of Josh and Bristol’s children and I swear the kids are a slitting image of each other. Obviously, that’s no substitute for DNA testing, but both Josh and Bristol have been known to engage in highly hypocritical sexual behavior after mouthing off about the virtues of abstinence, so there is a definite connection between the two.
The next article I’d like to see is an investigative piece that uncovers the fact that Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini is a cross-dresser. Who knew that under that scruffy gray beard and black turban he wears is the newest diamond-encrusted bodysuit from Victoria’s Secret Angel collection? I realize that nobody wants to get close enough to the Ayatollah to verify the accuracy of that kind of claim, but over the years the Ayatollah has shown an overactive interest in the style trends among Iranian women, so there’s cause to suspect that what’s on under the garb piques his interest, too.
Another juicy piece of journalism would explain how Michelle Obama is making a killing by investing in gun manufacturer stock. The story will claim that days after a school or church shooting occurs, when President Obama speaks out against gun violence or urges gun safety regulations, Michelle allegedly profits from the increase in gun sales and the jump in price of gun manufacturer stock. Everybody knows that a Democratic president is good news to the gun industry, so why shouldn’t the first couple profit from the nonsensical hysteria?
Did you know that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are cousins? Oh yeah, the Trump family tree has a few Russian limbs, that nobody in the clan likes to talk about – as if any family is immune. Just wanted you to know!
The first would be a salacious piece revealing that Josh Duggar was the “baby daddy” of Bristol Palin’s newest bundle of joy – Sailor Grace. I’ve seen photos of Josh and Bristol’s children and I swear the kids are a slitting image of each other. Obviously, that’s no substitute for DNA testing, but both Josh and Bristol have been known to engage in highly hypocritical sexual behavior after mouthing off about the virtues of abstinence, so there is a definite connection between the two.
The next article I’d like to see is an investigative piece that uncovers the fact that Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini is a cross-dresser. Who knew that under that scruffy gray beard and black turban he wears is the newest diamond-encrusted bodysuit from Victoria’s Secret Angel collection? I realize that nobody wants to get close enough to the Ayatollah to verify the accuracy of that kind of claim, but over the years the Ayatollah has shown an overactive interest in the style trends among Iranian women, so there’s cause to suspect that what’s on under the garb piques his interest, too.
Another juicy piece of journalism would explain how Michelle Obama is making a killing by investing in gun manufacturer stock. The story will claim that days after a school or church shooting occurs, when President Obama speaks out against gun violence or urges gun safety regulations, Michelle allegedly profits from the increase in gun sales and the jump in price of gun manufacturer stock. Everybody knows that a Democratic president is good news to the gun industry, so why shouldn’t the first couple profit from the nonsensical hysteria?
Did you know that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are cousins? Oh yeah, the Trump family tree has a few Russian limbs, that nobody in the clan likes to talk about – as if any family is immune. Just wanted you to know!
Thursday, January 28, 2016
NO PLAN FOR INFRASTRUCTURE
When Michigan Governor, Rick Snyder stepped up to the mike yesterday and declared that there’s no immediate plan to replace Flint, Michigan’s corroded lead pipes, despite the fact that toxic lead has been leaching from those pipes into homes and already poisoned thousands of Flint residents, he wasn’t saying anything about infrastructure that the public hasn’t heard before. There’s no real plan at any level of government to repair or replace our aging infrastructure.
Aging American infrastructure isn’t a new problem. It’s been well-documented and publicized. We already know there are over 61,000 structurally deficient bridges in America and 215 million people cross them daily. It’s no secret that 162,000 miles of highway in the United States are in need of resurfacing and/or reconstruction. The number of potholes out there probably reaches several hundred million. It’s been documented that thousands of miles of natural gas and water pipelines in cities and towns are in desperate need of replacement, but everywhere you go, the response is the same – there is no plan to correct the problem.
Why is that? Why can’t the most technologically advanced nation on the planet fix the stuff it relies on most?
The simple answer is money, but the harsher reality is our collective refusal to spend taxpayer dollars on something that benefits more than just ourselves. You see that refusal play out every time a politician summons the courage to propose a tax increase to spend on infrastructure repairs. He or she is immediately vilified as a looter of the public purse and unfit for public service. Last year, when Congressional leaders floated the idea of an increase in the federal gas tax to address our Nation’s crumbling bridges and highways, you would have thought the apocalypse was coming down upon them. Of course, under such withering criticism, not to mention the fear of not being re-elected, Congress kicked the can down the road for others to address, but that’s nothing new. They’ve been doing it for decades and the rest of us are content to keep our heads, and yes our wallets, buried in the sand. That’s why there’s no plan to fix our infrastructure before it collapses.
Okay, maybe that is the plan – watch it fall and see what happens!
Aging American infrastructure isn’t a new problem. It’s been well-documented and publicized. We already know there are over 61,000 structurally deficient bridges in America and 215 million people cross them daily. It’s no secret that 162,000 miles of highway in the United States are in need of resurfacing and/or reconstruction. The number of potholes out there probably reaches several hundred million. It’s been documented that thousands of miles of natural gas and water pipelines in cities and towns are in desperate need of replacement, but everywhere you go, the response is the same – there is no plan to correct the problem.
Why is that? Why can’t the most technologically advanced nation on the planet fix the stuff it relies on most?
The simple answer is money, but the harsher reality is our collective refusal to spend taxpayer dollars on something that benefits more than just ourselves. You see that refusal play out every time a politician summons the courage to propose a tax increase to spend on infrastructure repairs. He or she is immediately vilified as a looter of the public purse and unfit for public service. Last year, when Congressional leaders floated the idea of an increase in the federal gas tax to address our Nation’s crumbling bridges and highways, you would have thought the apocalypse was coming down upon them. Of course, under such withering criticism, not to mention the fear of not being re-elected, Congress kicked the can down the road for others to address, but that’s nothing new. They’ve been doing it for decades and the rest of us are content to keep our heads, and yes our wallets, buried in the sand. That’s why there’s no plan to fix our infrastructure before it collapses.
Okay, maybe that is the plan – watch it fall and see what happens!
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
WCO LIVE: Trump vs. Cruz – The “Brawl in St. Paul”
I am not a fan of professional wrestling, boxing or even the newest version of sanctioned violence – cage fighting, but I have to admit that I’d break down and subscribe to a pay-per-view event featuring a cage match between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, if only just to see which of them starts crying first. Seriously, it would be so worth the money, and I’m sure it would be a hell of a lot more entertaining than the GOP presidential debates have been. It could even be an educational experience, which is setting the bar kind of low given the level of intelligence that the GOP debates have showcased, but folks could finally see, first hand, how the candidate of their choice would react in a time of crisis. I’ll bet such an event would be very illuminating.
The obvious venue for a Trump/Cruz cage match would be St. Paul, Minnesota, because “Brawl in St. Paul” is too catchy a promotional phrase to pass up. Also, there’s the Jesse Ventura / wrestling / Minnesota connection to consider. Being the even-handed kind of guy that Ventura is, he could ref the match and keep both fighters from pulling something dirty, which you know Trump and Cruz would both do without a second thought.
Of course, to make this cage match the kind of match that folks would pay to see, both fighters would have to promise in advance, that whichever candidate looses the fight will withdraw from the GOP presidential sweepstakes; otherwise, there’d be no point watching two over-sized egos going toe-to-toe dressed in gym shorts. [Try erasing that thought from your memory] The Trump/Cruz cage match isn’t the perfect way to select the GOP presidential candidate, but it sure beats what we have now.
The obvious venue for a Trump/Cruz cage match would be St. Paul, Minnesota, because “Brawl in St. Paul” is too catchy a promotional phrase to pass up. Also, there’s the Jesse Ventura / wrestling / Minnesota connection to consider. Being the even-handed kind of guy that Ventura is, he could ref the match and keep both fighters from pulling something dirty, which you know Trump and Cruz would both do without a second thought.
Of course, to make this cage match the kind of match that folks would pay to see, both fighters would have to promise in advance, that whichever candidate looses the fight will withdraw from the GOP presidential sweepstakes; otherwise, there’d be no point watching two over-sized egos going toe-to-toe dressed in gym shorts. [Try erasing that thought from your memory] The Trump/Cruz cage match isn’t the perfect way to select the GOP presidential candidate, but it sure beats what we have now.
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
ROUGH THEM UP OR KILL THEM; MAKES NO DIFFERENCE
I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters, okay. It’s incredible? ~ Donald Trump, GOP presidential candidate at a rally in Sioux City, Iowa
You could say “the Donald” was simply bragging about the loyalty of his political supporters or you could say that Trump was joking about the scratch-your-head success his presidential campaign is enjoying, but anybody with a nose for sniffing out a tyrant will tell you that Trump stinks to high heaven. Only a would-be dictator would boast that he could get away with anything, including murder. If Trump wins the White House, anyone with a political opinion that differs from his ought to think twice about his or her mortality. Think I’m kidding? Think again.
Last month, Trump visited with right-wing commentator Bill O’Reilly in Mesa, Arizona. O’Reilly asked Trump if he was serious about a pledge Trump made earlier at a campaign rally to hunt down and kill the families of terrorists. I suppose O’Reilly figured that Trump would back-off the pledge to kill innocent women and children, but Trump was unmoved and unapologetic. “If you want to get terrorists,” Trump thundered, “you have to take out their families, too.”
At one particular Trump event last month, a protestor from the Black Lives Matter movement showed up to demonstrate against Trump’s trivialization of the racial concerns of black Americans. A group of Trump supporters forcibly removed the protestor from the rally. After the ejection, Trump told the crowd, “Maybe he should have been roughed up!” That’s classic Trump – always looking for somebody to beat-up!
American politics is a rough-and-tumble affair. It’s always been that way, and people come to expect that in the heat of political battle, words that go over the top are sometimes uttered. Decent candidates apologize for their unsavory remarks. The callous ones, like Donald Trump, don’t. In fact, Trump often repeats the same abhorrent declaration over and over again.
Donald Trump has made a career out of bullying and battering people in the business world, so it’s no surprise that he would carry that same attitude over to the political arena. Is that what Americans want – a bully-in-chief?
In a democracy, political candidates cross the line of what is morally acceptable when they start advocating violence against fellow citizens with opposing political opinions. Study any dictator, and you will discover their path to power was littered with similar exhortations and rhetoric. That’s why Donald Trump is such a threat to our democracy and could very well set us on the path to ruin. I hope it doesn’t come to that in America, but if it does, nobody can say we weren’t warned!
You could say “the Donald” was simply bragging about the loyalty of his political supporters or you could say that Trump was joking about the scratch-your-head success his presidential campaign is enjoying, but anybody with a nose for sniffing out a tyrant will tell you that Trump stinks to high heaven. Only a would-be dictator would boast that he could get away with anything, including murder. If Trump wins the White House, anyone with a political opinion that differs from his ought to think twice about his or her mortality. Think I’m kidding? Think again.
Last month, Trump visited with right-wing commentator Bill O’Reilly in Mesa, Arizona. O’Reilly asked Trump if he was serious about a pledge Trump made earlier at a campaign rally to hunt down and kill the families of terrorists. I suppose O’Reilly figured that Trump would back-off the pledge to kill innocent women and children, but Trump was unmoved and unapologetic. “If you want to get terrorists,” Trump thundered, “you have to take out their families, too.”
At one particular Trump event last month, a protestor from the Black Lives Matter movement showed up to demonstrate against Trump’s trivialization of the racial concerns of black Americans. A group of Trump supporters forcibly removed the protestor from the rally. After the ejection, Trump told the crowd, “Maybe he should have been roughed up!” That’s classic Trump – always looking for somebody to beat-up!
American politics is a rough-and-tumble affair. It’s always been that way, and people come to expect that in the heat of political battle, words that go over the top are sometimes uttered. Decent candidates apologize for their unsavory remarks. The callous ones, like Donald Trump, don’t. In fact, Trump often repeats the same abhorrent declaration over and over again.
Donald Trump has made a career out of bullying and battering people in the business world, so it’s no surprise that he would carry that same attitude over to the political arena. Is that what Americans want – a bully-in-chief?
In a democracy, political candidates cross the line of what is morally acceptable when they start advocating violence against fellow citizens with opposing political opinions. Study any dictator, and you will discover their path to power was littered with similar exhortations and rhetoric. That’s why Donald Trump is such a threat to our democracy and could very well set us on the path to ruin. I hope it doesn’t come to that in America, but if it does, nobody can say we weren’t warned!
Monday, January 25, 2016
CHECKMATE
The mufti of madness is at it again in Saudi Arabia. Yes, I’m talking about the same leader of religious clerics that educated Osama bin Laden, helped finance the September 11th hijackers and continue to inspire the sadistic soldiers of ISIL and other peddlers of human depravity. The muftis target this time: the game of Chess, a game that for many in Muslim culture is what Monopoly© is to Americans.
Never mind that the game of Chess came to prominence in 7th Century Persia, now the country of Iran, and spread across the entire Muslim world when Islamists conquered Persia during the middle part of that century. And never mind that over the past 1400 years, millions of Muslims have relaxed over Chess boards while smoking hookahs and sipping tea. For Saudi Arabia’s current Grand Mufti, Abdul Aziz al Sheikh, that history means nothing. The Grand Mufti has issued a fatwa (a Muslim religious edict) declaring the game of Chess to be the work of Satan and off-limits to those faithful to Allah. Just like that, a local peaceful pastime is flushed down the drain.
I have to wonder whether the blood-feud between the Shiites of Iran and the Sunnis of Saudi Arabia had something to do with the Grand Mufti’s sudden fatwa on Chess. After all, since Chess is viewed as coming to prominence out of Persia (Iran), there is a certain religious logic to the Mufti’s decision to label a game coming from Iran as apostate. It’s twisted logic to be sure, but at least it does provide an explanation that seems to make sense. Plus, the Mufti Sheikh is always preaching bloodshed. The game of Chess never draws a drop, so there’s that to consider.
I wonder if there’s a Muslim version of the game Monopoly©. If there is, expect that it will soon be banned, too.
Never mind that the game of Chess came to prominence in 7th Century Persia, now the country of Iran, and spread across the entire Muslim world when Islamists conquered Persia during the middle part of that century. And never mind that over the past 1400 years, millions of Muslims have relaxed over Chess boards while smoking hookahs and sipping tea. For Saudi Arabia’s current Grand Mufti, Abdul Aziz al Sheikh, that history means nothing. The Grand Mufti has issued a fatwa (a Muslim religious edict) declaring the game of Chess to be the work of Satan and off-limits to those faithful to Allah. Just like that, a local peaceful pastime is flushed down the drain.
I have to wonder whether the blood-feud between the Shiites of Iran and the Sunnis of Saudi Arabia had something to do with the Grand Mufti’s sudden fatwa on Chess. After all, since Chess is viewed as coming to prominence out of Persia (Iran), there is a certain religious logic to the Mufti’s decision to label a game coming from Iran as apostate. It’s twisted logic to be sure, but at least it does provide an explanation that seems to make sense. Plus, the Mufti Sheikh is always preaching bloodshed. The game of Chess never draws a drop, so there’s that to consider.
I wonder if there’s a Muslim version of the game Monopoly©. If there is, expect that it will soon be banned, too.
Sunday, January 24, 2016
STUDY CONFIRMS LONG-TERM NEUROLOGICAL RISKS
A team of research specialists at the Fellows Institute of Technology (FIT) released their findings earlier today from a comprehensive study they undertook to examine accumulated brain damage experienced by adult Republican voters after listening to the campaign rhetoric of presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. The study results suggested a strong causal link between the amount of time study participants spent listening to the mentioned candidates and participants exhibiting signs of long-term memory deficit, loss of critical thinking skills and a significant increase in uncontrollably rude and obnoxious verbal outbursts.
The study, which involved magnetic imaging of 250 Republican brains as well as cognitive testing and oral interviews with each subject, provides valuable proof that repeatedly listening to campaign rhetoric of certain Republican candidates carries a substantial risk of suffering long-term neurological damage.
Results of the study will be published in the February 2016 issue of The Journal of Political Psychology and Voter Pandering.
“We commenced the study thinking that Trump and Cruz followers, as a whole, would exhibit lower I.Q. levels and limited rational thinking skills,” said B. Smart Sanders, Ph.D, one of the lead investigators in the study, “but we were shocked to see the sudden onset of long-term neurological defects in participants who had only been subject to Trump/Cruz rhetoric for as little as three hours.”
“You can suffer those ill effects from just watching the debates,” Ivory Towers, Ph.D, an assistant professor at FIT and co-author of the study explained. “I tell all of my students to go to the movies instead. They’ll learn more seeing The Force Awakens for a second time than tuning into the GOP debates.” Most liberal experts and pundits agree.
The study, which involved magnetic imaging of 250 Republican brains as well as cognitive testing and oral interviews with each subject, provides valuable proof that repeatedly listening to campaign rhetoric of certain Republican candidates carries a substantial risk of suffering long-term neurological damage.
Results of the study will be published in the February 2016 issue of The Journal of Political Psychology and Voter Pandering.
“We commenced the study thinking that Trump and Cruz followers, as a whole, would exhibit lower I.Q. levels and limited rational thinking skills,” said B. Smart Sanders, Ph.D, one of the lead investigators in the study, “but we were shocked to see the sudden onset of long-term neurological defects in participants who had only been subject to Trump/Cruz rhetoric for as little as three hours.”
“You can suffer those ill effects from just watching the debates,” Ivory Towers, Ph.D, an assistant professor at FIT and co-author of the study explained. “I tell all of my students to go to the movies instead. They’ll learn more seeing The Force Awakens for a second time than tuning into the GOP debates.” Most liberal experts and pundits agree.
Saturday, January 23, 2016
POVERTY, NOT MORAL DECAY DRIVES ABORTION DECISION
Renee Bracey Sherman authored an article yesterday on Aljazeera America’s website explaining why Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley should discuss and debate the issue of abortion as part of their campaigns. It was a thoughtful article, filed to coincide with the 43rd anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, the case which guaranteed women the right to an abortion, and I’d recommend that everyone read it. The article can be found at http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2016/1/why-democrats-must-debate-abortion.html.
I applaud Ms. Sherman’s logic in writing that the candidates’ views are nuanced and citizens deserve to hear positions on all sides of the abortion issue. Right now, the only voices heard are the loudest and shrillest voices on the right, and all that shouting doesn’t advance the public’s understanding of the issue one iota. It’s time for reasonable voices on the left, hopefully at a much calmer level, to join the conversation.
One of the statistics that Ms. Sherman mentioned in her article is the fact that “two-thirds of the women in the United States who have an abortion are already parenting and live near or below the federal poverty level.” That fact illustrates why abortion in this Nation is primarily a poverty-related decision and not the product of a morally-depraved subset of our population as right-wing politicians and some in the clergy would have folks believe.
It’s easy for people to decry a woman’s decision to have an abortion when their own bellies are full and their primary concern in life is not where the next meal or shelter or dollar will come from. To a woman with children who’s already drowning or near-drowning under poverty’s crushing weight, having another child represents a burden of enormous magnitude that those with betters means often fail to appreciate. That’s why so many women already facing the poverty struggle choose abortion instead.
Abortion’s critics claim that it is a moral decision that our government should prohibit pregnant women from making, but there’s a large measure of hypocrisy in their argument, because they are very often the same critics of government attempts to make child rearing easier on parents. “Don’t give that woman welfare or food stamps,” the critic will complain, “because that will encourage her to pop out child after child,” as if women are merrily going through pregnancy and eighteen years of parenting just to game the system. But then in the next breath, that same welfare critic will decry that poor mother’s decision to terminate her pregnancy. What else can be concluded but that abortion critics who decry welfare are the most callous of them all?
I’d say that is an issue worthy of debate, and like the thesis of Ms. Sherman’s above-referenced article, I hope the Democratic presidential candidates engage in it.
I applaud Ms. Sherman’s logic in writing that the candidates’ views are nuanced and citizens deserve to hear positions on all sides of the abortion issue. Right now, the only voices heard are the loudest and shrillest voices on the right, and all that shouting doesn’t advance the public’s understanding of the issue one iota. It’s time for reasonable voices on the left, hopefully at a much calmer level, to join the conversation.
One of the statistics that Ms. Sherman mentioned in her article is the fact that “two-thirds of the women in the United States who have an abortion are already parenting and live near or below the federal poverty level.” That fact illustrates why abortion in this Nation is primarily a poverty-related decision and not the product of a morally-depraved subset of our population as right-wing politicians and some in the clergy would have folks believe.
It’s easy for people to decry a woman’s decision to have an abortion when their own bellies are full and their primary concern in life is not where the next meal or shelter or dollar will come from. To a woman with children who’s already drowning or near-drowning under poverty’s crushing weight, having another child represents a burden of enormous magnitude that those with betters means often fail to appreciate. That’s why so many women already facing the poverty struggle choose abortion instead.
Abortion’s critics claim that it is a moral decision that our government should prohibit pregnant women from making, but there’s a large measure of hypocrisy in their argument, because they are very often the same critics of government attempts to make child rearing easier on parents. “Don’t give that woman welfare or food stamps,” the critic will complain, “because that will encourage her to pop out child after child,” as if women are merrily going through pregnancy and eighteen years of parenting just to game the system. But then in the next breath, that same welfare critic will decry that poor mother’s decision to terminate her pregnancy. What else can be concluded but that abortion critics who decry welfare are the most callous of them all?
I’d say that is an issue worthy of debate, and like the thesis of Ms. Sherman’s above-referenced article, I hope the Democratic presidential candidates engage in it.
Friday, January 22, 2016
IT’S NOT THE CLOTHING, STUPID
I am not one to spend much time criticizing the press, unless it’s FOX News, and I’m not even sure FOX qualifies as a member of the press – it’s more a propaganda machine than anything – but I have a bone to pick with the media outlets who made a bigger story out of the $695 Bolero jacket that Sarah Palin was wearing when she took the stage in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Wednesday at a Donald Trump for President rally than the words that came spilling out of her mouth! Seriously, what is more important – the fact that Palin made excuses for her son and blamed President Obama for the fact that her son beat the crap out of his girlfriend and menaced the girlfriend with an assault rifle or the fact that Palin’s got money to burn on a glittering piece of cloth? The press as a whole dropped the ball in this instance. Shame on them!
Look, Sarah Palin’s breasts weren’t exposed at the Trump Rally. Her panties weren’t on display for the world to see, and as far as I could tell, the sales tag was not hanging from her jacket. Barring one of those ‘fashion disasters,’ what the former Alaskan governor was wearing should have been a non-issue.
The domestic violence excuses that spilled from Palin’s mouth, however, should have been front page news in every media outlet, but many treated Palin’s horrendous comments as merely a side-issue. Wow – talk about misplaced journalism.
Look, Sarah Palin’s breasts weren’t exposed at the Trump Rally. Her panties weren’t on display for the world to see, and as far as I could tell, the sales tag was not hanging from her jacket. Barring one of those ‘fashion disasters,’ what the former Alaskan governor was wearing should have been a non-issue.
The domestic violence excuses that spilled from Palin’s mouth, however, should have been front page news in every media outlet, but many treated Palin’s horrendous comments as merely a side-issue. Wow – talk about misplaced journalism.
Thursday, January 21, 2016
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND THE PALINS WHO EXCUSE IT
I thought I had heard everything crazy there was to be heard in the current presidential campaign, but then former GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin took to the stage in Tulsa, Oklahoma yesterday at a Donald Trump for President rally and dropped another whopper – President Obama was at fault for the beating Palin’s twenty-six year old son, Track put on his girlfriend on Monday.
If you haven’t heard the news, Track Palin was arrested and charged with assault, interfering with the report of domestic violence and possession of a firearm while intoxicated after he punched his girlfriend in the face, kicked her in the knee and menaced her with his AR-15 assault rifle. Track Palin is an Army veteran, with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan under his belt, so when Track decided to “put-a-hurting” on somebody much smaller and diminutive than him, the result was not going to be pretty. Monday’s battering of his girlfriend wasn’t either.
If you thought the story couldn’t get any worse, you’d be wrong!
As I mentioned earlier, Track’s mom, Sarah Palin decided to enter the fray, blaming Track’s physically and mentally abusive, and yes, criminal behavior on none other than the President of the United States, Barack Obama. She told the crowd of Trump supporters in Tulsa that her son’s violent behavior was the direct result of a President who, according to her narrative, doesn’t appreciate our Nation’s combat troops. Yeah, you read that right. Barack Obama is the reason Track Palin beat up his girlfriend. Could domestic violence excuses get any crazier?
According to the National Coalition against Domestic Violence, a woman gets beaten every nine seconds in the United States. Three women will be murdered by a current or former male partner here every day. Over 4.7 million women are beaten in some manner by intimate partners every year. These are just United States statistics. The numbers world-wide are staggering. Seventy percent of women around the globe will experience physical and/or sexual abuse by an intimate partner during their lifetimes. According to Sarah Palin, all that violence can be laid at the feet of Barack Obama.
Is it any wonder that the violence continues unabated? Can we truly expect people to open their eyes to the immense scope of domestic violence and the suffering it inflicts when people with notoriety such as Palin make such outlandish excuses? I doubt it. Until people like Palin stop placing the blame for domestic violence on anybody but the abuser, the beatings and rapes and murders will go on forever.
If you haven’t heard the news, Track Palin was arrested and charged with assault, interfering with the report of domestic violence and possession of a firearm while intoxicated after he punched his girlfriend in the face, kicked her in the knee and menaced her with his AR-15 assault rifle. Track Palin is an Army veteran, with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan under his belt, so when Track decided to “put-a-hurting” on somebody much smaller and diminutive than him, the result was not going to be pretty. Monday’s battering of his girlfriend wasn’t either.
If you thought the story couldn’t get any worse, you’d be wrong!
As I mentioned earlier, Track’s mom, Sarah Palin decided to enter the fray, blaming Track’s physically and mentally abusive, and yes, criminal behavior on none other than the President of the United States, Barack Obama. She told the crowd of Trump supporters in Tulsa that her son’s violent behavior was the direct result of a President who, according to her narrative, doesn’t appreciate our Nation’s combat troops. Yeah, you read that right. Barack Obama is the reason Track Palin beat up his girlfriend. Could domestic violence excuses get any crazier?
According to the National Coalition against Domestic Violence, a woman gets beaten every nine seconds in the United States. Three women will be murdered by a current or former male partner here every day. Over 4.7 million women are beaten in some manner by intimate partners every year. These are just United States statistics. The numbers world-wide are staggering. Seventy percent of women around the globe will experience physical and/or sexual abuse by an intimate partner during their lifetimes. According to Sarah Palin, all that violence can be laid at the feet of Barack Obama.
Is it any wonder that the violence continues unabated? Can we truly expect people to open their eyes to the immense scope of domestic violence and the suffering it inflicts when people with notoriety such as Palin make such outlandish excuses? I doubt it. Until people like Palin stop placing the blame for domestic violence on anybody but the abuser, the beatings and rapes and murders will go on forever.
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
IS BERNIE THE MAN FOR CATS AND DOGS?
Dear Bernie…
I have been observing your presidential campaign with a mixture of curiosity and questioning, and as a lifelong Democrat and unapologetic liberal I haven’t made up my mind who I’ll be voting for when the Pennsylvania primary rolls around. I am, however, fully committed to supporting whichever candidate emerges from our party primary and will do so to the best of my capacity.
It is my belief that there is a substantial constituency that is being ignored in this year’s presidential campaign; one that includes voters across the political spectrum and one which I think you could reach if you were willing to make proposals for their benefit. The constituency I refer to is pet owners.
Every year during tax season, millions of federal filers quip that it would be nice if they could deduct the cost of keeping their family pet. It’s a comment I hear from every dog or cat owner who has me prepare their return. Wouldn’t it be nice if a presidential candidate like you championed a $100 tax credit for anyone who adopted a dog or cat from an approved animal abuse shelter, plus an additional $100 tax credit for individuals and families that own a dog or cat?
I recognize that, at first glance, such a proposal may sound trite in comparison to the plethora of more pressing issues facing our Nation, but I think that a large part of your appeal is the connection you’ve been able to establish with ordinary folks. They believe you understand and appreciate their concerns. The same could be said of pet owners, especially if you were viewed as a candidate who championed the benefit of pet ownership and indicated a desire to advance legislation to help defray the cost of that ownership, albeit with a rather modest tax credit.
Studies have shown that pet ownership lengthens life expectancy, has a positive impact on overall geriatric health and increases the period of time that senior citizens are able to remain living in their own homes. Those benefits represent a substantial financial savings to the public purse, and better still, are widely accepted for producing those benefits. I would contend that a relatively modest pet owner tax credit would be received with the same positive approval as spending money for meals-on-wheels does. All such a proposal needs is the right advocate.
A loyal liberal,
Steve
p.s. My son, Noah says hello! He’s a big Bernie fan.
I have been observing your presidential campaign with a mixture of curiosity and questioning, and as a lifelong Democrat and unapologetic liberal I haven’t made up my mind who I’ll be voting for when the Pennsylvania primary rolls around. I am, however, fully committed to supporting whichever candidate emerges from our party primary and will do so to the best of my capacity.
It is my belief that there is a substantial constituency that is being ignored in this year’s presidential campaign; one that includes voters across the political spectrum and one which I think you could reach if you were willing to make proposals for their benefit. The constituency I refer to is pet owners.
Every year during tax season, millions of federal filers quip that it would be nice if they could deduct the cost of keeping their family pet. It’s a comment I hear from every dog or cat owner who has me prepare their return. Wouldn’t it be nice if a presidential candidate like you championed a $100 tax credit for anyone who adopted a dog or cat from an approved animal abuse shelter, plus an additional $100 tax credit for individuals and families that own a dog or cat?
I recognize that, at first glance, such a proposal may sound trite in comparison to the plethora of more pressing issues facing our Nation, but I think that a large part of your appeal is the connection you’ve been able to establish with ordinary folks. They believe you understand and appreciate their concerns. The same could be said of pet owners, especially if you were viewed as a candidate who championed the benefit of pet ownership and indicated a desire to advance legislation to help defray the cost of that ownership, albeit with a rather modest tax credit.
Studies have shown that pet ownership lengthens life expectancy, has a positive impact on overall geriatric health and increases the period of time that senior citizens are able to remain living in their own homes. Those benefits represent a substantial financial savings to the public purse, and better still, are widely accepted for producing those benefits. I would contend that a relatively modest pet owner tax credit would be received with the same positive approval as spending money for meals-on-wheels does. All such a proposal needs is the right advocate.
A loyal liberal,
Steve
p.s. My son, Noah says hello! He’s a big Bernie fan.
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
COUNT ME OUT IN 2016
Fellow countrymen! Fellow countrywomen! Fellow country bumpkins! At this time I would like to announce that I shall not be seeking the office of President of the United States in 2016! After much soul-searching, I’ve decided that the last thing I want to do is spend the next eleven months raising a couple of hundred million dollars in campaign contributions in order to land a job that pays four hundred thousand dollars a year. The financial numbers just don’t add up.
I’ve engaged upon an extensive self-evaluation and concluded that there are enough personal flaws in me to keep a therapist busy for the next three hundred years. I don’t need an opposition party spending millions to broadcast my shortcomings over national television and radio. Furthermore, the overabundant supply of skeletons in my closet would likely overshadow any reasonable discussion of the merits of my platform.
To be truthful, I hold at least one view on a wide range of issues that would probably alienate almost the entire population. As a result my chances of actually being elected are probably somewhere less than zero.
Forget the fancy position papers. Toss political correctness to the wind. Here’s what I think and why I couldn’t be elected!
Gun violence in this country is not going to stop until we enact sensible gun-control legislation. If it means rewriting the second amendment to curtail the right of individuals to own firearms, so be it! That ought to shoot my chance of corralling the N.R.A. vote!
I view Farm subsidies as nothing more than farm welfare. If the prevailing attitude in this Nation is that individuals should make it one their own without government assistance, what makes farmers think they are any different? It strikes me as a bit hypocritical for the farm belt folk to complain about government spending on social programs for the poor yet clamor loudly for government farm support. I’d advocate the elimination of all farm subsidies and the agricultural vote would wilt in the fields. The same goes for corporate welfare and the business vote.
On the issue of abortion, I’m pro-choice. It’s not that I think abortion is a good thing. In fact, I think the opposite is true, but I don’t think the government should involve itself in a woman’s reproductive decisions. Plus, adding a million women each year to our prison population isn’t economically beneficial or wise. I think proper reproductive education and making contraceptives available to everyone is a safer, less expensive and far more effective way to reduce the number of abortions in America. That should eliminate the Catholic vote!
And while I’m on the subject of Catholics, I guess I ought to weigh in on the priest sexual abuse scandal. If I were in charge I’d tell the Catholic Church to enact a zero-tolerance past, present and future policy immediately or face having churches and funds seized on federal racketeering charges for supporting illegal activities. To me, priests who sexually terrorize children are no different than foreign terrorists. The people or institutions that enable and protect priests ought to expect the same treatment as people or institutions that aid and harbor foreign terrorists. That eliminates the Bishops’ vote.
On the foreign policy front, I think Israeli settlements in the West bank should be vacated immediately—I didn’t say dismantled. My reasons are part legal and part strategic. The land upon which West bank settlements have been built was not part of the country of Israel the United Nations created in 1948 and allowing Israeli citizens to annex that territory is illegal. The United States cannot support an ally’s flagrant violation of international law that prohibits one country’s annexation of another by force. On the strategic front, what better way to put the Palestinian population on the road to recovery than by providing them with the infrastructure of Israeli settlements? There goes the Jewish vote!
I also believe that Palestinians should start concentrating on producing something other than suicide bombers and smoke and give up the notion of returning to land in Israel proper. Palestinian parents ought to teach something other than hatred of Israelis and provide their children with positive activities. I’ve never met a well-adjusted person who spent their entire childhood throwing stones at soldiers, dodging bullets and idolizing suicide bombers. If Palestinians want their kids to experience peace, they’re going to have to start teaching it at home. That would blow my chances with Palestinian voters!
I believe that black lives matter and that institutional racism must be address in all its latent forms and eradicated from the social fabric of our society. I also believe that African Americans share responsibility for promoting racial harmony and respect for persons of all colors. Blacks hating whites is just as damaging as whites hating blacks. I’d probably lose the black vote before I could sing “Amen”.
When it comes to immigration, I favor amnesty for all who have already made it into the United States and have remained law-abiding and who can demonstrate making a contribution to the advancement of our society. However, I also favor the building of a wall around the State of Texas (not just along the Texas/Mexico border) to prevent individuals living in that state from infecting the rest of this Nation with whatever Ebola-like virus caused voters in Texas to elect Ted Cruz to public office. That eliminates my chance of carrying Texas.
I also favor the revival of a hearty federal inheritance tax. If an heir moans because he or she only inherits six million dollars instead of ten, I’d tell them to go get a real job and try living for a month on a minimum wage salary. There goes the rich heir vote.
Finally, in case I missed anyone, please be advised that I would raise taxes on everyone to fully support military personnel. In my view, if citizens expect members of our armed forces to put their lives on the line if necessary to defend this Nation, then citizens have a corresponding duty to open their wallets in support of soldiers during their service and veterans and their families after they come home. That would pretty much alienate me from the no new taxes crowd.
In closing, I’d just like to thank all my would-be supporters for turning out today to hear me speak…Where is everybody?
I’ve engaged upon an extensive self-evaluation and concluded that there are enough personal flaws in me to keep a therapist busy for the next three hundred years. I don’t need an opposition party spending millions to broadcast my shortcomings over national television and radio. Furthermore, the overabundant supply of skeletons in my closet would likely overshadow any reasonable discussion of the merits of my platform.
To be truthful, I hold at least one view on a wide range of issues that would probably alienate almost the entire population. As a result my chances of actually being elected are probably somewhere less than zero.
Forget the fancy position papers. Toss political correctness to the wind. Here’s what I think and why I couldn’t be elected!
Gun violence in this country is not going to stop until we enact sensible gun-control legislation. If it means rewriting the second amendment to curtail the right of individuals to own firearms, so be it! That ought to shoot my chance of corralling the N.R.A. vote!
I view Farm subsidies as nothing more than farm welfare. If the prevailing attitude in this Nation is that individuals should make it one their own without government assistance, what makes farmers think they are any different? It strikes me as a bit hypocritical for the farm belt folk to complain about government spending on social programs for the poor yet clamor loudly for government farm support. I’d advocate the elimination of all farm subsidies and the agricultural vote would wilt in the fields. The same goes for corporate welfare and the business vote.
On the issue of abortion, I’m pro-choice. It’s not that I think abortion is a good thing. In fact, I think the opposite is true, but I don’t think the government should involve itself in a woman’s reproductive decisions. Plus, adding a million women each year to our prison population isn’t economically beneficial or wise. I think proper reproductive education and making contraceptives available to everyone is a safer, less expensive and far more effective way to reduce the number of abortions in America. That should eliminate the Catholic vote!
And while I’m on the subject of Catholics, I guess I ought to weigh in on the priest sexual abuse scandal. If I were in charge I’d tell the Catholic Church to enact a zero-tolerance past, present and future policy immediately or face having churches and funds seized on federal racketeering charges for supporting illegal activities. To me, priests who sexually terrorize children are no different than foreign terrorists. The people or institutions that enable and protect priests ought to expect the same treatment as people or institutions that aid and harbor foreign terrorists. That eliminates the Bishops’ vote.
On the foreign policy front, I think Israeli settlements in the West bank should be vacated immediately—I didn’t say dismantled. My reasons are part legal and part strategic. The land upon which West bank settlements have been built was not part of the country of Israel the United Nations created in 1948 and allowing Israeli citizens to annex that territory is illegal. The United States cannot support an ally’s flagrant violation of international law that prohibits one country’s annexation of another by force. On the strategic front, what better way to put the Palestinian population on the road to recovery than by providing them with the infrastructure of Israeli settlements? There goes the Jewish vote!
I also believe that Palestinians should start concentrating on producing something other than suicide bombers and smoke and give up the notion of returning to land in Israel proper. Palestinian parents ought to teach something other than hatred of Israelis and provide their children with positive activities. I’ve never met a well-adjusted person who spent their entire childhood throwing stones at soldiers, dodging bullets and idolizing suicide bombers. If Palestinians want their kids to experience peace, they’re going to have to start teaching it at home. That would blow my chances with Palestinian voters!
I believe that black lives matter and that institutional racism must be address in all its latent forms and eradicated from the social fabric of our society. I also believe that African Americans share responsibility for promoting racial harmony and respect for persons of all colors. Blacks hating whites is just as damaging as whites hating blacks. I’d probably lose the black vote before I could sing “Amen”.
When it comes to immigration, I favor amnesty for all who have already made it into the United States and have remained law-abiding and who can demonstrate making a contribution to the advancement of our society. However, I also favor the building of a wall around the State of Texas (not just along the Texas/Mexico border) to prevent individuals living in that state from infecting the rest of this Nation with whatever Ebola-like virus caused voters in Texas to elect Ted Cruz to public office. That eliminates my chance of carrying Texas.
I also favor the revival of a hearty federal inheritance tax. If an heir moans because he or she only inherits six million dollars instead of ten, I’d tell them to go get a real job and try living for a month on a minimum wage salary. There goes the rich heir vote.
Finally, in case I missed anyone, please be advised that I would raise taxes on everyone to fully support military personnel. In my view, if citizens expect members of our armed forces to put their lives on the line if necessary to defend this Nation, then citizens have a corresponding duty to open their wallets in support of soldiers during their service and veterans and their families after they come home. That would pretty much alienate me from the no new taxes crowd.
In closing, I’d just like to thank all my would-be supporters for turning out today to hear me speak…Where is everybody?
Monday, January 18, 2016
BOX TOP$ FOR EDUCATION
Early last week, I was sitting at a stoplight when a blue recycling bin on the curb next to my car caught my attention. The bin was one of fifteen to twenty similar bins set out by the residents in that block for collection, and it was overflowing with cardboard cereal boxes and other recyclable material. I’m a big fan of recycling, and it pleased me that most of the recycling bins were filled to the brim, but the bin that originally caught my attention contained things that had no business in a recycling bin, or even a trash can for that matter. What were they? Box Top$ for Education!
For those of you who aren’t familiar with what I’m referring to, Box Top$ for Education are small postage-sized coupons that are located on the packaging of a vast array of supermarket products, the most notable being General Mills cereals, Betty Crocker baking products and Ziploc items. Scott brand products and Progresso soups carry them, too. To the purchasers of those items, the Box Top$ for Education coupons might appear worthless, but to a school – public, charter or parochial, those coupons are worth ten cents apiece. Campbell soups have Labels for Education labels on their products. Those labels are worth ten cents, too.
Do you intentionally throw out money in the trash? I know I don’t, but every time one of those Box Top$ for Education coupons or Education labels gets tossed out on the curb, that’s exactly what somebody is doing. If that somebody is you, listen up. Find a spot in that junk drawer in your kitchen and start saving those Box Top$ for Education and Labels for Education coupons. When you accumulate a pile, find a neighbor kid who’s in school and have him or her take the coupons to the school office. The bag I sent to school last week contained forty dollars worth of coupons. In the interest of full disclosure, that included coupons others gave me, but the local schools still get forty dollars that otherwise could have gone out with the trash.
At first glance, Box Top$ for Education might seem like a poor topic for a progressive blog, but here’s the thing. If we want our children to learn to be conserve resources and raise their social consciousness, we’ve got to start out with the little things, because small stuff heaped on small stuff eventually becomes a mountain. Every week, hundreds groan in editorial columns around the country that school taxes are too high and the cost of education is too expensive. Whenever I read stuff like that, I wonder how many dimes are discarded in that writer’s recycling bin that could have gone to a school instead.
Many parents of baby boomers lived through the Great Depression. Conserving resources became embedded in their bones. Average folks born in later years had an easier upbringing, and unfortunately, the need to scrimp and save slowly fell by the wayside. In the wake of our Nations’ recent recession, it’s become clear that a renewed focus on conserving fiscal resources is a necessity. It’s also clear that properly educating our children is an expensive proposition. If we want to achieve both, we’ve got to begin with the small stuff, and not tossing out dimes in the trash seems like a good place to start.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with what I’m referring to, Box Top$ for Education are small postage-sized coupons that are located on the packaging of a vast array of supermarket products, the most notable being General Mills cereals, Betty Crocker baking products and Ziploc items. Scott brand products and Progresso soups carry them, too. To the purchasers of those items, the Box Top$ for Education coupons might appear worthless, but to a school – public, charter or parochial, those coupons are worth ten cents apiece. Campbell soups have Labels for Education labels on their products. Those labels are worth ten cents, too.
Do you intentionally throw out money in the trash? I know I don’t, but every time one of those Box Top$ for Education coupons or Education labels gets tossed out on the curb, that’s exactly what somebody is doing. If that somebody is you, listen up. Find a spot in that junk drawer in your kitchen and start saving those Box Top$ for Education and Labels for Education coupons. When you accumulate a pile, find a neighbor kid who’s in school and have him or her take the coupons to the school office. The bag I sent to school last week contained forty dollars worth of coupons. In the interest of full disclosure, that included coupons others gave me, but the local schools still get forty dollars that otherwise could have gone out with the trash.
At first glance, Box Top$ for Education might seem like a poor topic for a progressive blog, but here’s the thing. If we want our children to learn to be conserve resources and raise their social consciousness, we’ve got to start out with the little things, because small stuff heaped on small stuff eventually becomes a mountain. Every week, hundreds groan in editorial columns around the country that school taxes are too high and the cost of education is too expensive. Whenever I read stuff like that, I wonder how many dimes are discarded in that writer’s recycling bin that could have gone to a school instead.
Many parents of baby boomers lived through the Great Depression. Conserving resources became embedded in their bones. Average folks born in later years had an easier upbringing, and unfortunately, the need to scrimp and save slowly fell by the wayside. In the wake of our Nations’ recent recession, it’s become clear that a renewed focus on conserving fiscal resources is a necessity. It’s also clear that properly educating our children is an expensive proposition. If we want to achieve both, we’ve got to begin with the small stuff, and not tossing out dimes in the trash seems like a good place to start.
Sunday, January 17, 2016
EVIL EMPIRE DOWNSIZING
Oh, my gosh! Did you hear the news? Walmart is downsizing, as in shuttering the doors of two hundred and sixty-nine so-called under-performing locations. Of course, I’m suspicious. When it comes to Walmart, I’m always suspicious. I wonder how many of those stores harbored union sympathizers, or worse – wage and hour whistle blowers? Is there a minimum wage avoidance angle I haven’t considered? Like I said, I’m suspicious.
None of the closing stores are in Pennsylvania, mind you – that’s where I live – but its shocking news nonetheless. What if I wanted to drive down to the Port Covington Drive Walmart in Baltimore for crew socks at 2:45 in the morning? Nobody would be sitting at the door to greet me. The place would be dark; with only a few mangled shopping carts left in the parking lot to serve as evidence of a bygone empire. I wonder whether burnt-out shells of delivery trucks will be found out back, just like Imperial Cruisers were trashed in the desert sand in the latest Star Wars movie – The Force Awakens. Here’s a tip. Don’t waste your money looking for another Walmart. Go see the movie instead.
“We don’t take these closings lightly,” Doug McMillon, the president and CEO of Walmart told the world as part of the “Evil Empire’s” press announcement, his voice dripping with sympathy ordinarily reserved for Ewoks and rebel scum. Doug is the Darth Vader of Walmart, minus some of the traditional powers of the Dark Side reserved for a Sith Lord, but he can eliminate thousands of employees with the stroke of a pen, and even the real Darth Vadar wasn’t that powerful. Oh sure, he had the Death Star, but in the end the Death Star got blown apart, thanks in part to poor construction and design by the labor force. Apparently, their laborers weren’t union-trained.
Still, there’s a tinge of sadness that accompanies the Walmart news. Think about all those blue-haired greeters who will suddenly find themselves in the unemployment line. It’s tough for the seventies crowd to find a job, especially when their arthritis in the knee is flaring. Would-be employers are always wondering about their stamina, or whether they’ll show up for work on time, like they’ve got anything else to do! Still, many seniors have to work. They need the extra income for food and medicine, because…well…let’s face it, the richest one percent isn’t interested in shelling out a few more tax dollars to support senior entitlement programs. You know how those seniors are, always sitting around and complaining about the weather and their knees.
The Walmart press release says that 16,000 employees will be impacted by the closings, but many will be offered positions at nearby locations. That sounds nice on the surface, but with the current glut of baby-boomers on the market, you got to figure the writing is on the wall for grandma. When Walmart lays her off, that’s pretty much the end of her work history. No offense, grandma. It’s just business!
None of the closing stores are in Pennsylvania, mind you – that’s where I live – but its shocking news nonetheless. What if I wanted to drive down to the Port Covington Drive Walmart in Baltimore for crew socks at 2:45 in the morning? Nobody would be sitting at the door to greet me. The place would be dark; with only a few mangled shopping carts left in the parking lot to serve as evidence of a bygone empire. I wonder whether burnt-out shells of delivery trucks will be found out back, just like Imperial Cruisers were trashed in the desert sand in the latest Star Wars movie – The Force Awakens. Here’s a tip. Don’t waste your money looking for another Walmart. Go see the movie instead.
“We don’t take these closings lightly,” Doug McMillon, the president and CEO of Walmart told the world as part of the “Evil Empire’s” press announcement, his voice dripping with sympathy ordinarily reserved for Ewoks and rebel scum. Doug is the Darth Vader of Walmart, minus some of the traditional powers of the Dark Side reserved for a Sith Lord, but he can eliminate thousands of employees with the stroke of a pen, and even the real Darth Vadar wasn’t that powerful. Oh sure, he had the Death Star, but in the end the Death Star got blown apart, thanks in part to poor construction and design by the labor force. Apparently, their laborers weren’t union-trained.
Still, there’s a tinge of sadness that accompanies the Walmart news. Think about all those blue-haired greeters who will suddenly find themselves in the unemployment line. It’s tough for the seventies crowd to find a job, especially when their arthritis in the knee is flaring. Would-be employers are always wondering about their stamina, or whether they’ll show up for work on time, like they’ve got anything else to do! Still, many seniors have to work. They need the extra income for food and medicine, because…well…let’s face it, the richest one percent isn’t interested in shelling out a few more tax dollars to support senior entitlement programs. You know how those seniors are, always sitting around and complaining about the weather and their knees.
The Walmart press release says that 16,000 employees will be impacted by the closings, but many will be offered positions at nearby locations. That sounds nice on the surface, but with the current glut of baby-boomers on the market, you got to figure the writing is on the wall for grandma. When Walmart lays her off, that’s pretty much the end of her work history. No offense, grandma. It’s just business!
Saturday, January 16, 2016
THE LAND OF NO LAWYER
You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have a right to an attorney, and to have that attorney present during questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you free of charge.
Those are the standard Miranda warnings, the rights and guarantees all individuals have pursuant to the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution. In a 1966 case before the United States Supreme Court known as Miranda vs. Arizona, the Court ruled that before an individual in police custody can be questioned by the police, that individual has to be advised by the police that he or she had the above-referenced rights. Any evidence provided or statements made by an individual in the absence of Miranda warnings are inadmissible in a court of law.
The right to an attorney mentioned in the standard Miranda warnings is part of a set of guarantees set forth in the Sixth Amendment, which includes the following language, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to…have the assistance of counsel for his defense.” In 1963, in the case of Gideon vs. Wainwright, the United Stated State Supreme Court ruled that all indigent defendants charged with a felony have the right to have an attorney appointed to represent them, free of charge, and paid for by the state that seeks to prosecute them.
Since the Supreme Court’s Gideon decision, as it has come to be known, every state and territory under the jurisdiction of the United States has provided what are known as public defenders (free lawyers) to indigent defendants to comply with the above-stated requirements of the Sixth Amendment, except one – the state of Louisiana. That’s because the Louisiana Legislature, controlled by fiscally conservative Republicans I might add, has decided not to provide sufficient funding for the public defender’s office in New Orleans where an overwhelming majority of the state’s criminal cases are handled. The result is that hundred, perhaps thousands of indigent defendants charged with felonies are imprisoned without the opportunity to have their detention challenged by an attorney. To rectify this injustice, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in federal court the other day against the State of Louisiana and its Legislature.
It’s popular amongst a certain crowd (most notably law-and-order Republicans with their hands on the public purse strings) to condemn the notion of appropriating taxpayer dollars to guarantee that an accused has access to the rights guaranteed by our Federal Constitution, unless it’s a fellow Republican politician in the dock, but there is no higher responsibility for a Legislature than doing everything in their power to uphold Constitutional rights. Clearly, the Louisiana Legislature has thumbed its nose at the Sixth Amendment long enough and the federal courts will intervene to force compliance with its guarantees. No man or woman should be above the law, and you can add a Legislature to that list as well.
Those are the standard Miranda warnings, the rights and guarantees all individuals have pursuant to the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution. In a 1966 case before the United States Supreme Court known as Miranda vs. Arizona, the Court ruled that before an individual in police custody can be questioned by the police, that individual has to be advised by the police that he or she had the above-referenced rights. Any evidence provided or statements made by an individual in the absence of Miranda warnings are inadmissible in a court of law.
The right to an attorney mentioned in the standard Miranda warnings is part of a set of guarantees set forth in the Sixth Amendment, which includes the following language, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to…have the assistance of counsel for his defense.” In 1963, in the case of Gideon vs. Wainwright, the United Stated State Supreme Court ruled that all indigent defendants charged with a felony have the right to have an attorney appointed to represent them, free of charge, and paid for by the state that seeks to prosecute them.
Since the Supreme Court’s Gideon decision, as it has come to be known, every state and territory under the jurisdiction of the United States has provided what are known as public defenders (free lawyers) to indigent defendants to comply with the above-stated requirements of the Sixth Amendment, except one – the state of Louisiana. That’s because the Louisiana Legislature, controlled by fiscally conservative Republicans I might add, has decided not to provide sufficient funding for the public defender’s office in New Orleans where an overwhelming majority of the state’s criminal cases are handled. The result is that hundred, perhaps thousands of indigent defendants charged with felonies are imprisoned without the opportunity to have their detention challenged by an attorney. To rectify this injustice, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in federal court the other day against the State of Louisiana and its Legislature.
It’s popular amongst a certain crowd (most notably law-and-order Republicans with their hands on the public purse strings) to condemn the notion of appropriating taxpayer dollars to guarantee that an accused has access to the rights guaranteed by our Federal Constitution, unless it’s a fellow Republican politician in the dock, but there is no higher responsibility for a Legislature than doing everything in their power to uphold Constitutional rights. Clearly, the Louisiana Legislature has thumbed its nose at the Sixth Amendment long enough and the federal courts will intervene to force compliance with its guarantees. No man or woman should be above the law, and you can add a Legislature to that list as well.
Friday, January 15, 2016
THE BALLS OF TED CRUZ
Sonny Weaver Jr. is a fictional character in the 2014 movie Draft Day. He’s the general manager of a team in the National Football League - the Cleveland Browns. One of Sonny’s responsibilities is making the decision on who to select on draft day from among the hundreds of college football players who have declared their intent to enter the NFL’s draft. Sonny’s team acquires the very first pick in the draft, and much of the movie revolves around Sonny’s decision on who to select. Sonny likes a player named Vontae Mack, but once his team acquires the first pick in the draft, he is suddenly in a position to acquire the much-hyped quarterback, Bo Callahan. At that point, Sonny tasks the team’s security director who is also a detective to find out as much as he can about Bo Callahan’s character.
The detective later returns and tells Sonny a story he’s heard about Bo. A general manager (GM) of another football team that was considering drafting Bo sent Bo a playbook to read with a one-hundred dollar bill taped to the last page of the playbook. During a subsequent interview, when the GM asks Bo whether he’s read the playbook or not, Bo says he did but doesn’t mention finding the hundred-dollar bill, so the general manager knows he lied about reading the playbook. At that point, the GM confronts Bo about the hundred-dollar bill and Bo replies, “Oh yeah, good one guys. Good one,” sticking with the story that he’d read the playbook, but just forgot about the money.
“He’s the only guy who lied about reading the playbook,” the detective tells Sonny Weaver Jr., “and then had the balls to lie about the lie.”
I was thinking about that movie clip yesterday after reading a New York Times investigative article that revealed that GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz had secured a million-dollar ($1,000,000) loan from Goldman Sachs in 2012 to help finance his campaign to become a U.S. Senator for Texas. Cruz failed to disclose that loan on campaign finance reports that are required by law to be filed with the Federal Election Commission. When confronted with the evidence of his failure, Cruz responded by saying that his failure to report the loan was an “inadvertent oversight,” as if owing somebody a million bucks is one of those things a person is likely to forget when filling out a federal election document that asks if you owe anybody money, and if so, to who and how much.
If a person pulls that crap when trying to get a bank loan, that’s called bank fraud; if they mail that form it’s also mail fraud, and if they electronically file that form, that’s wire fraud. Hundreds of guys are currently sitting in federal prisons for committing those same offenses, and most of them claimed “inadvertent oversight,” too. Perhaps their mistake was not running for president.
The irony of Cruz’ loan is that his wife worked for Goldman Sachs, one of Wall Street’s largest banks and venture capital firms, and Cruz campaigned on a populist platform decrying Wall Street’s back-room deals between big-money interests that played a central role in causing the Great Recession of 2008. It sure wouldn’t have looked good to Texas voters during his campaign if it was discovered that Cruz made his own back-room deal with Wall Street – talk about hypocrisy - so Cruz “inadvertently” omitted mention of the million dollar loan on his federal election disclosure form.
Now, Cruz lies about the lie with his claim of inadvertent oversight. All I can say is that the guy has some set of balls!
The detective later returns and tells Sonny a story he’s heard about Bo. A general manager (GM) of another football team that was considering drafting Bo sent Bo a playbook to read with a one-hundred dollar bill taped to the last page of the playbook. During a subsequent interview, when the GM asks Bo whether he’s read the playbook or not, Bo says he did but doesn’t mention finding the hundred-dollar bill, so the general manager knows he lied about reading the playbook. At that point, the GM confronts Bo about the hundred-dollar bill and Bo replies, “Oh yeah, good one guys. Good one,” sticking with the story that he’d read the playbook, but just forgot about the money.
“He’s the only guy who lied about reading the playbook,” the detective tells Sonny Weaver Jr., “and then had the balls to lie about the lie.”
I was thinking about that movie clip yesterday after reading a New York Times investigative article that revealed that GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz had secured a million-dollar ($1,000,000) loan from Goldman Sachs in 2012 to help finance his campaign to become a U.S. Senator for Texas. Cruz failed to disclose that loan on campaign finance reports that are required by law to be filed with the Federal Election Commission. When confronted with the evidence of his failure, Cruz responded by saying that his failure to report the loan was an “inadvertent oversight,” as if owing somebody a million bucks is one of those things a person is likely to forget when filling out a federal election document that asks if you owe anybody money, and if so, to who and how much.
If a person pulls that crap when trying to get a bank loan, that’s called bank fraud; if they mail that form it’s also mail fraud, and if they electronically file that form, that’s wire fraud. Hundreds of guys are currently sitting in federal prisons for committing those same offenses, and most of them claimed “inadvertent oversight,” too. Perhaps their mistake was not running for president.
The irony of Cruz’ loan is that his wife worked for Goldman Sachs, one of Wall Street’s largest banks and venture capital firms, and Cruz campaigned on a populist platform decrying Wall Street’s back-room deals between big-money interests that played a central role in causing the Great Recession of 2008. It sure wouldn’t have looked good to Texas voters during his campaign if it was discovered that Cruz made his own back-room deal with Wall Street – talk about hypocrisy - so Cruz “inadvertently” omitted mention of the million dollar loan on his federal election disclosure form.
Now, Cruz lies about the lie with his claim of inadvertent oversight. All I can say is that the guy has some set of balls!
Thursday, January 14, 2016
“EL CHAPO” LIVING THE DREAM…IN A DUMP
If you haven’t seen the NBC News clip about the place where Mexico’s most famous fugitive, the notorious drug kingpin, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, was captured last week by soldiers from the Mexican Navy, you ought to take a gander at its website and feast your eyes on the sumptuous surroundings that drug money will buy south of the border.
When I first heard that “El Chapo” was captured by the Mexican Navy, I figured he was probably motoring around the Pacific Ocean off the coast in a luxurious yacht with a few kilos of cocaine on board. I was wrong. “El Chapo” was holed-up in a condo with a few of his posse and enough Tex-Mex take-out to last a month or two. You should check out the website.
Okay, I’ll spare you the effort. The place where “El Chapo” was found hiding was a dump. I mean it – an absolute dump. The condo wouldn’t have qualified for Section 8 housing here in America, and it appeared that the maid hadn’t cleaned since Reagan occupied the White House. The condo itself was just a step above an inner-city crack house, but that’s not saying much. You’d think that the richest drug dealer in Mexico could afford a half-way decent safe house, but I suppose with Mexico’s entire military on his tail and a price on his head, it was probably tough to find a trustworthy realtor.
There’s something very gratifying about seeing a super-wealthy guy like “El Chapo,” who was personally responsible for the deaths of hundreds, maybe thousands of people in the U.S. and Mexico, being reduced to living in a place of such squalor that even a respectable mouse wouldn’t have touched it. What will be even more gratifying, however, is when "El Chapo" is reduced to spending the rest of his life in a nine by thirteen foot cell. Maybe then folks will start calling him “El Cheapo,” because that’s just about all he’ll be able to afford.
When I first heard that “El Chapo” was captured by the Mexican Navy, I figured he was probably motoring around the Pacific Ocean off the coast in a luxurious yacht with a few kilos of cocaine on board. I was wrong. “El Chapo” was holed-up in a condo with a few of his posse and enough Tex-Mex take-out to last a month or two. You should check out the website.
Okay, I’ll spare you the effort. The place where “El Chapo” was found hiding was a dump. I mean it – an absolute dump. The condo wouldn’t have qualified for Section 8 housing here in America, and it appeared that the maid hadn’t cleaned since Reagan occupied the White House. The condo itself was just a step above an inner-city crack house, but that’s not saying much. You’d think that the richest drug dealer in Mexico could afford a half-way decent safe house, but I suppose with Mexico’s entire military on his tail and a price on his head, it was probably tough to find a trustworthy realtor.
There’s something very gratifying about seeing a super-wealthy guy like “El Chapo,” who was personally responsible for the deaths of hundreds, maybe thousands of people in the U.S. and Mexico, being reduced to living in a place of such squalor that even a respectable mouse wouldn’t have touched it. What will be even more gratifying, however, is when "El Chapo" is reduced to spending the rest of his life in a nine by thirteen foot cell. Maybe then folks will start calling him “El Cheapo,” because that’s just about all he’ll be able to afford.
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
WHERE IS ALLEN D. CORS WHEN THE CORONER CALLS?
Where is Allen D. Cors when the Lumberton, North Carolina coroner comes a calling, especially when the call is to collect a three-year-olds corpse, the product of a self-inflicted gunshot wound when the kid discovers a loaded 9-millimeter handgun at his father’s store?
Mr. Cors is the current president of the National Rifle Association (NRA), and it has become somewhat of a macabre tradition in this country that anytime a firearm tragedy occurs, the NRA president or one of its spokespersons jumps up on the nearest soapbox and starts spouting off with the same worn-out message that more guns, not less, are needed to curb the endless stream of violent deaths – usually about thirty thousand a year in America – that come from the end of a gun. Isn’t it strange that Cors and his cohorts are never at the scene of a heart-wrenching death, handing grieving family members and friends a souvenir firearm as a memento of their loved-ones passing? If the idea sounds repugnant, that’s because it is, just as it is unspeakably cruel and heartless for members of the Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kansas to show up at a soldier’s funeral and shout hate messages at the soldier’s grieving family.
The NRA and the Westboro Baptist bunch are entitled to their opinions and their ideology, but both are masters at ignoring the pain and suffering their cause inflicts on the lives of ordinary folks who go about their business every day, and just want to be left alone without worrying about whether a stray bullet will hit them or not. Compassion is not rocket science, but you do have to want to make it a part of your character, and neither Cors nor the NRA has demonstrated any desire to move in that direction.
There’s a reason why police and emergency medical personnel, as a whole, are always advocating for sensible gun regulations. They see, first hand, the blood and the carnage and the raw outpouring of grief that flows from the families of gunshot victims like molten lava from the mouth of a volcano. The fire burns their souls, and no amount of water will quench their pain. Only a person without compassion could witness such an event and not hear the cries for sensible change, but Cors and his ilk never show up at the scene to witness the horrors their work propagates. I’d like to think that’s due to fear, or maybe the possibility of having to confront the true costs in terms of human misery of their endeavors, but I just can’t shake the feeling that it’s nothing more than callous indifference, the way Nazi soldiers stood by and watched millions of Jew heading to the ovens. It’s the only thing that makes sense.
On the other hand, maybe it is good thing that Cors and his followers are always absent from the scene. The last thing that people in pain should have to endure is another display of human callousness, and it really doesn’t matter whether the person being callous is holding a gun or not.
Mr. Cors is the current president of the National Rifle Association (NRA), and it has become somewhat of a macabre tradition in this country that anytime a firearm tragedy occurs, the NRA president or one of its spokespersons jumps up on the nearest soapbox and starts spouting off with the same worn-out message that more guns, not less, are needed to curb the endless stream of violent deaths – usually about thirty thousand a year in America – that come from the end of a gun. Isn’t it strange that Cors and his cohorts are never at the scene of a heart-wrenching death, handing grieving family members and friends a souvenir firearm as a memento of their loved-ones passing? If the idea sounds repugnant, that’s because it is, just as it is unspeakably cruel and heartless for members of the Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kansas to show up at a soldier’s funeral and shout hate messages at the soldier’s grieving family.
The NRA and the Westboro Baptist bunch are entitled to their opinions and their ideology, but both are masters at ignoring the pain and suffering their cause inflicts on the lives of ordinary folks who go about their business every day, and just want to be left alone without worrying about whether a stray bullet will hit them or not. Compassion is not rocket science, but you do have to want to make it a part of your character, and neither Cors nor the NRA has demonstrated any desire to move in that direction.
There’s a reason why police and emergency medical personnel, as a whole, are always advocating for sensible gun regulations. They see, first hand, the blood and the carnage and the raw outpouring of grief that flows from the families of gunshot victims like molten lava from the mouth of a volcano. The fire burns their souls, and no amount of water will quench their pain. Only a person without compassion could witness such an event and not hear the cries for sensible change, but Cors and his ilk never show up at the scene to witness the horrors their work propagates. I’d like to think that’s due to fear, or maybe the possibility of having to confront the true costs in terms of human misery of their endeavors, but I just can’t shake the feeling that it’s nothing more than callous indifference, the way Nazi soldiers stood by and watched millions of Jew heading to the ovens. It’s the only thing that makes sense.
On the other hand, maybe it is good thing that Cors and his followers are always absent from the scene. The last thing that people in pain should have to endure is another display of human callousness, and it really doesn’t matter whether the person being callous is holding a gun or not.
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
THE STATE OF OUR DIS-UNION
My fellow Americans, it gives me no pleasure to acknowledge that the state of our union is cracked and divided, wounded and festering, dysfunctional and chaotic. We have trashed and discarded many of the principles that have made this Nation great – compassion, intellect, fairness and a recognition of individual dignity and worth in favor of the narcissistic pursuit of money and power. We have abandoned the noble goals of pursuing life, liberty and happiness for everyone in favor of securing those bounties exclusively for ourselves. In the process, we have fractured the fabric of our society to such a point that the United States of America is just a name, because America is no longer united. You can “boo” if you like, but remember while doing so that you are booing the man or woman in the mirror.
Albert Schweitzer, the Nobel Prize winning theologian, philosopher, physician and accomplished church organist, famously noted that “the purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.”
Unfortunately, here in America, a land blessed by God with abundant natural resources and a boundless sea of human ingenuity, we’ve corrupted life’s noble purpose of serving our fellow man to one dedicated solely to serving ourselves instead. It’s a sad state to be in, but one of our own making. The poor and outcast are no longer pitied for their suffering; they are despised, scorned, ridiculed and unfairly stamped with a mark of shame that labels them as lazy, ignorant leeches sucking at the public’s teat. Is it any wonder that against such a withering attack on human dignity, broken communities and broken families and broken individuals would sink into the lowest depths of human despair? Jesus would say, “Open your eyes to the suffering that surrounds you,” but for far too many Americans, such words are repugnant and revolting. This is why America fails and we are no longer united.
And then, there are aliens…not the Martians or creatures from a distant galaxy, but the poor, tired, huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, tempest tossed as they seek the sight of our Statue of Liberty’s golden door, those same aliens about which Exodus so eloquently commands, “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.” Or what about Leviticus, which millions of Americans are so quick to quote – “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” I mention those passages because you cannot pick up a newspaper without reading that Trump says that immigrants from our southern neighbors are all rapists and criminals, and that Cruz and other politicians are complaining that refugees, millions of which are women and children fleeing the ravages of war and starvation, represent a grave danger to the American way of life and should be turned away without mercy. This is why America fails and we are no longer united.
And what has happened to American intellect and our wealth of human knowledge? Sadly, it has fallen in value to the lowest common denominator known as ignorance. We champion ignorance. We really do. Take the term, “Ivory Tower,” for instance. Did you know that it originated in the Old Testament’s Song of Solomon? It was used to connote noble purity. Today, it is best known as a derogatory term describing individuals pursuing higher education as being foolish and disconnected from the realities of the world in which we live. It’s like mocking anyone who wants to go farther than seventh grade. The ancient Greek philosopher, Diogenes once claimed that, “The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.” “Hogwash,” we reply as a Nation, and often using a harsher sentiment whenever out tax dollars are asked to support the teaching of our neighbor’s children. And then when we do decide to open our wallets, we insist on teaching a sanitized version of American history, a stilted and incomplete analysis of our human bodies, a censored rendering of American literature and culture, and a review of the principles of science and nature that sounds more like an Aesop’s fable than a method of rigorous testing and examination. This is why America fails and we are no longer united.
“What of fairness,” you ask? “It’s gone,” I reply. Fairness is being just, it’s impartial, it’s honorable, tolerable, even pleasing. Fairness is the opposite of discrimination and social exclusion. It is recognizing inequality in all its insidious forms and making a concerted effort to rectify the situation. Unfortunately, all the virtue that lies within the principle that Americans use to call fair play has been cast aside with all the pomp and circumstance of manure on a dung heap. This Nation’s justice system is bogged-down with systematic prejudice, but a majority of Americans are more concerned these days with the right of court clerks and bakery shop owners to discriminate against their customers.
There was a time in America when fairness meant that people who worked hard were entitled to a living wage for the fruits of his or her labor, but tens of millions of Americans…let me repeat that, tens of millions of Americans are working a forty-hour week and aren’t being paid enough to raise their heads above the poverty line. And then when the working poor start clamoring for a raise in the minimum wage, the captains of industry and investment cry foul, along with the politicians they bankroll, and claim they cannot afford to pay the bill. Never mind that the top one percent of Americans controls a staggering forty-three percent of America’s wealth. This is why America fails and we are no longer united.
I wish I could say that America stands as a beacon of truth, but I’ve seen enough television commercials and political ads to know that, paraphrasing the words of Jack Nicholson’s character in ‘A Few Good Men,’ Americans can’t handle the truth. That’s why we keep deluding ourselves with such notions as “reducing taxes on the rich creates jobs,” “poor people are lazy,” “people who go to church are the virtuous ones,” “money in politics doesn’t corrupt,” “intelligent design is good science,” “climate change is not our fault,” “more guns are the answer to violence” and “people who don’t think and act like we do have no value.” Yes, those are the notions of a seventh grade intellect, but hey, at least they’re not living in an ivory tower.
The recognition of individual dignity and human worth used to be considered a virtue, but in America it’s not any more. My beliefs trump your beliefs, or your beliefs trump mine, depending on who holds the reins of power at any given moment. Compromise has become a dirty word, not because we’re incapable of achieving it, but because inherent in the concept is a recognition that other people’s beliefs have value, too. That doesn’t work in today’s America where getting one’s own way is valued more than the collective aspirations of our entire society. This is why America fails and we are no longer united.
The First Amendment to our United States Constitution guarantees every individual the freedom to practice the religion of their choosing, or no religion for that matter, and religious tolerance has strengthened the fabric of our society over the course of our Nation’s two-hundred and forty year history. Sadly, that fabric is rapidly unraveling under pressure from large sects of Christianity in this nation that have no tolerance for or appreciation of the religious beliefs of others. Religion is supposed to be uplifting and inspirational to help us build a better world, and improve the lives of our neighbors in the process, but far too often in this Country religion is wielded like a battering ram destroying the lives and limbs of all who stand in its way. If I sound cynical, it’s because I am. Moral purity was never meant to trump the necessity of being kind to one’s neighbor, but you’d never know it by tuning into Sunday morning radio or the self-identified righteous who foul our public discourse with the stench of their hypocrisy. There’s a reason Christ hung out with the poor and the ostracized, and it had little do with their need to be saved. It turned out that they were the genuine folk, the people who could look their neighbor in the eye, understand his or her predicament, display true compassion, and with little material wealth to share, reach out a helping hand. That is not America’s religion, and that is why America fails and we are no longer united.
Many of you are wondering whether all is lost in America, and my answer is a resounding, “No!” There are millions of people in this Nation who are still guided by the hand of empathy and compassion. Millions more appreciate the intrinsic value of education beyond the number of dollars it adds to one’s wallet. Others understand the need for universal justice, the kind guided by fair play and available to all who seek its protection. There are many people in America dedicated to seeking truth, wherever it is found, and in whatever form it takes, and who are willing to speak that truth, no matter the opposition or consequences. And there are many who, in the deep recesses of their hearts, want the courage to hear the truth, if only we could find a way to empower them. They represent my hope.
I remember the idealism of my youth, and I’ve witnessed how years of human misery, and broken dreams, and the resulting distrust can chip away at the veneer of all that is good and possible in this Nation. I still nurse a candle of hope, however, because in the words of the English poet, Joseph Addison, “Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.”
Albert Schweitzer, the Nobel Prize winning theologian, philosopher, physician and accomplished church organist, famously noted that “the purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.”
Unfortunately, here in America, a land blessed by God with abundant natural resources and a boundless sea of human ingenuity, we’ve corrupted life’s noble purpose of serving our fellow man to one dedicated solely to serving ourselves instead. It’s a sad state to be in, but one of our own making. The poor and outcast are no longer pitied for their suffering; they are despised, scorned, ridiculed and unfairly stamped with a mark of shame that labels them as lazy, ignorant leeches sucking at the public’s teat. Is it any wonder that against such a withering attack on human dignity, broken communities and broken families and broken individuals would sink into the lowest depths of human despair? Jesus would say, “Open your eyes to the suffering that surrounds you,” but for far too many Americans, such words are repugnant and revolting. This is why America fails and we are no longer united.
And then, there are aliens…not the Martians or creatures from a distant galaxy, but the poor, tired, huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, tempest tossed as they seek the sight of our Statue of Liberty’s golden door, those same aliens about which Exodus so eloquently commands, “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.” Or what about Leviticus, which millions of Americans are so quick to quote – “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” I mention those passages because you cannot pick up a newspaper without reading that Trump says that immigrants from our southern neighbors are all rapists and criminals, and that Cruz and other politicians are complaining that refugees, millions of which are women and children fleeing the ravages of war and starvation, represent a grave danger to the American way of life and should be turned away without mercy. This is why America fails and we are no longer united.
And what has happened to American intellect and our wealth of human knowledge? Sadly, it has fallen in value to the lowest common denominator known as ignorance. We champion ignorance. We really do. Take the term, “Ivory Tower,” for instance. Did you know that it originated in the Old Testament’s Song of Solomon? It was used to connote noble purity. Today, it is best known as a derogatory term describing individuals pursuing higher education as being foolish and disconnected from the realities of the world in which we live. It’s like mocking anyone who wants to go farther than seventh grade. The ancient Greek philosopher, Diogenes once claimed that, “The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.” “Hogwash,” we reply as a Nation, and often using a harsher sentiment whenever out tax dollars are asked to support the teaching of our neighbor’s children. And then when we do decide to open our wallets, we insist on teaching a sanitized version of American history, a stilted and incomplete analysis of our human bodies, a censored rendering of American literature and culture, and a review of the principles of science and nature that sounds more like an Aesop’s fable than a method of rigorous testing and examination. This is why America fails and we are no longer united.
“What of fairness,” you ask? “It’s gone,” I reply. Fairness is being just, it’s impartial, it’s honorable, tolerable, even pleasing. Fairness is the opposite of discrimination and social exclusion. It is recognizing inequality in all its insidious forms and making a concerted effort to rectify the situation. Unfortunately, all the virtue that lies within the principle that Americans use to call fair play has been cast aside with all the pomp and circumstance of manure on a dung heap. This Nation’s justice system is bogged-down with systematic prejudice, but a majority of Americans are more concerned these days with the right of court clerks and bakery shop owners to discriminate against their customers.
There was a time in America when fairness meant that people who worked hard were entitled to a living wage for the fruits of his or her labor, but tens of millions of Americans…let me repeat that, tens of millions of Americans are working a forty-hour week and aren’t being paid enough to raise their heads above the poverty line. And then when the working poor start clamoring for a raise in the minimum wage, the captains of industry and investment cry foul, along with the politicians they bankroll, and claim they cannot afford to pay the bill. Never mind that the top one percent of Americans controls a staggering forty-three percent of America’s wealth. This is why America fails and we are no longer united.
I wish I could say that America stands as a beacon of truth, but I’ve seen enough television commercials and political ads to know that, paraphrasing the words of Jack Nicholson’s character in ‘A Few Good Men,’ Americans can’t handle the truth. That’s why we keep deluding ourselves with such notions as “reducing taxes on the rich creates jobs,” “poor people are lazy,” “people who go to church are the virtuous ones,” “money in politics doesn’t corrupt,” “intelligent design is good science,” “climate change is not our fault,” “more guns are the answer to violence” and “people who don’t think and act like we do have no value.” Yes, those are the notions of a seventh grade intellect, but hey, at least they’re not living in an ivory tower.
The recognition of individual dignity and human worth used to be considered a virtue, but in America it’s not any more. My beliefs trump your beliefs, or your beliefs trump mine, depending on who holds the reins of power at any given moment. Compromise has become a dirty word, not because we’re incapable of achieving it, but because inherent in the concept is a recognition that other people’s beliefs have value, too. That doesn’t work in today’s America where getting one’s own way is valued more than the collective aspirations of our entire society. This is why America fails and we are no longer united.
The First Amendment to our United States Constitution guarantees every individual the freedom to practice the religion of their choosing, or no religion for that matter, and religious tolerance has strengthened the fabric of our society over the course of our Nation’s two-hundred and forty year history. Sadly, that fabric is rapidly unraveling under pressure from large sects of Christianity in this nation that have no tolerance for or appreciation of the religious beliefs of others. Religion is supposed to be uplifting and inspirational to help us build a better world, and improve the lives of our neighbors in the process, but far too often in this Country religion is wielded like a battering ram destroying the lives and limbs of all who stand in its way. If I sound cynical, it’s because I am. Moral purity was never meant to trump the necessity of being kind to one’s neighbor, but you’d never know it by tuning into Sunday morning radio or the self-identified righteous who foul our public discourse with the stench of their hypocrisy. There’s a reason Christ hung out with the poor and the ostracized, and it had little do with their need to be saved. It turned out that they were the genuine folk, the people who could look their neighbor in the eye, understand his or her predicament, display true compassion, and with little material wealth to share, reach out a helping hand. That is not America’s religion, and that is why America fails and we are no longer united.
Many of you are wondering whether all is lost in America, and my answer is a resounding, “No!” There are millions of people in this Nation who are still guided by the hand of empathy and compassion. Millions more appreciate the intrinsic value of education beyond the number of dollars it adds to one’s wallet. Others understand the need for universal justice, the kind guided by fair play and available to all who seek its protection. There are many people in America dedicated to seeking truth, wherever it is found, and in whatever form it takes, and who are willing to speak that truth, no matter the opposition or consequences. And there are many who, in the deep recesses of their hearts, want the courage to hear the truth, if only we could find a way to empower them. They represent my hope.
I remember the idealism of my youth, and I’ve witnessed how years of human misery, and broken dreams, and the resulting distrust can chip away at the veneer of all that is good and possible in this Nation. I still nurse a candle of hope, however, because in the words of the English poet, Joseph Addison, “Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.”
Monday, January 11, 2016
TRUMP PRAISES THE TYRANTS
I’m not sure why this is so, but GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump has a thing for tyrants, and by that I don’t mean in a good way. On December 18th of last year, Trump praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that he admired Putin for running Russia as an efficient leader who garnered highly favorable ratings from the Russian people. Just the other day, Trump praised North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-un’s leadership skills saying that Kim deserved recognition for being ruthlessly efficient in getting rid of his political foes. “And you’ve got to give him credit,” Trump gushed, “How many young guys — he was like 26 or 25 when his father died — take over these tough generals and all of a sudden, you know, it’s pretty amazing when you think of it.” And of course, there’s Trump praise for Hitler to consider. Last year, the Trump Party Facebook page showed a picture of “The Donald” with the slogan borrowed from Adolph Hitler: “As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have a duty to be a fighter for truth and justice.”
I think it was Charles Caleb Colton who said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If that’s the case, then Trump is doing his best impression of a megalomaniac and the question Republicans should be asking is whether they truly want this kind of man running America. I know I don’t, but hey, I’m a liberal and I’m really not into praising brutal dictators for their actions.
When Trump says he’s going to build a wall along our southern border and force Mexico to pay for it, and he’s going to bomb the Middle East back into the Stone Age, and he’s going to bust down doors to round up aliens living in this country, and he’s going to force Muslims to register with the government, those are not the words of a man interested in a democratic form of government with the rule of law as its underlying principle. Those are the words of a would-be dictator who’s determined to have his own way, or else, and that “else” includes bloodshed for anyone and everyone who stands in his path.
I think it was Charles Caleb Colton who said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If that’s the case, then Trump is doing his best impression of a megalomaniac and the question Republicans should be asking is whether they truly want this kind of man running America. I know I don’t, but hey, I’m a liberal and I’m really not into praising brutal dictators for their actions.
When Trump says he’s going to build a wall along our southern border and force Mexico to pay for it, and he’s going to bomb the Middle East back into the Stone Age, and he’s going to bust down doors to round up aliens living in this country, and he’s going to force Muslims to register with the government, those are not the words of a man interested in a democratic form of government with the rule of law as its underlying principle. Those are the words of a would-be dictator who’s determined to have his own way, or else, and that “else” includes bloodshed for anyone and everyone who stands in his path.
Sunday, January 10, 2016
DYING BY THE GUN AT LIBERTY U
“Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” ~Jesus of Nazareth
For centuries, scholars and theologians have debated the meaning behind Jesus’ statement to one of his companions who drew a sword and cut off a man’s ear when Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane. Did Jesus mean that his followers should refuse to take up arms or go to war, or was he simply telling one companion that now was not the time for violent resistance? The earliest Christian communities placed their faith in the former interpretation, but following the creation of the Holy Roman Empire in 313 A.D. by the Roman Emperor Constantine, Christ’s admonition has been steadily downgraded in status to that of a feel-good platitude with little application in a war-ravaged world. So far as the 21st Century is concerned, it seems like only the Amish find it relevant.
Last month, Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, a self-proclaimed Christian University in Lynchburg, Virginia, amended its school policy to permit the carrying of concealed firearms on campus, including while in class, in student dorms and during church services. According to a statement issued by President Falwell to the press, the university's change in policy occurred at the behest of a significant number of students. Nine hundred and fifty of them have since secured permits to carry weapons on campus. That could make Liberty University the most heavily armed campus in America!
To be honest, I didn’t know that Liberty University was such a hotbed of criminal activity that the students attending that institution felt the need to protect themselves with firearms. It just goes to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover. Still, I would have thought that Divine protection or a well-trained campus police force was sufficient to handle any problems that might arise, but I guess I misjudged the power of Divine protection or the availability of good security personnel in the mountains of Virginia.
Years ago, my son attended the Virginia School of the Arts in Lynchburg and he didn’t experience any problems with violence on his campus, but admittedly that was a secular school without a high concentration of Christian students itching for a gunfight. Oh, there were plenty of Christians attending V.S.A., but they were singing and dancing and doing the kinds of things that artsy Christian students do. They just didn’t pack heat while doing so.
I get the fact that our Second Amendment has become the golden calf of American conservatives, but I figured that a university that calls itself a citadel of Christian thought and values would have had the moral strength to avoid falling under a metal firearm’s godless spell. I guess I was wrong. Apparently, nobody there realizes that all who draw the gun will die by the gun. Don’t quote me. Quote Jesus!
For centuries, scholars and theologians have debated the meaning behind Jesus’ statement to one of his companions who drew a sword and cut off a man’s ear when Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane. Did Jesus mean that his followers should refuse to take up arms or go to war, or was he simply telling one companion that now was not the time for violent resistance? The earliest Christian communities placed their faith in the former interpretation, but following the creation of the Holy Roman Empire in 313 A.D. by the Roman Emperor Constantine, Christ’s admonition has been steadily downgraded in status to that of a feel-good platitude with little application in a war-ravaged world. So far as the 21st Century is concerned, it seems like only the Amish find it relevant.
Last month, Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, a self-proclaimed Christian University in Lynchburg, Virginia, amended its school policy to permit the carrying of concealed firearms on campus, including while in class, in student dorms and during church services. According to a statement issued by President Falwell to the press, the university's change in policy occurred at the behest of a significant number of students. Nine hundred and fifty of them have since secured permits to carry weapons on campus. That could make Liberty University the most heavily armed campus in America!
To be honest, I didn’t know that Liberty University was such a hotbed of criminal activity that the students attending that institution felt the need to protect themselves with firearms. It just goes to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover. Still, I would have thought that Divine protection or a well-trained campus police force was sufficient to handle any problems that might arise, but I guess I misjudged the power of Divine protection or the availability of good security personnel in the mountains of Virginia.
Years ago, my son attended the Virginia School of the Arts in Lynchburg and he didn’t experience any problems with violence on his campus, but admittedly that was a secular school without a high concentration of Christian students itching for a gunfight. Oh, there were plenty of Christians attending V.S.A., but they were singing and dancing and doing the kinds of things that artsy Christian students do. They just didn’t pack heat while doing so.
I get the fact that our Second Amendment has become the golden calf of American conservatives, but I figured that a university that calls itself a citadel of Christian thought and values would have had the moral strength to avoid falling under a metal firearm’s godless spell. I guess I was wrong. Apparently, nobody there realizes that all who draw the gun will die by the gun. Don’t quote me. Quote Jesus!
Saturday, January 9, 2016
JUDGE MOORE BACK IN ACTION
He’s back! No, I’m not talking about Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the drug lord that seamen from the Mexican Navy recaptured and sent back to the Antiplano prison where he escaped from last summer. I’m talking about Roy Moore, the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, who was suspended from the court in 2003, then removed from office later that year for failing to abide by federal court orders, then re-elected to the court in 2012 by the good citizenry of Alabama who apparently approve of the notion of having a Supreme Court justice who shows no respect for the rule of law. You’d think that a judge who’d been given another chance would act differently the second time around, but when it comes to Roy Moore, you’d be wrong – dead wrong!
Roy Moore is the guy who owned (he still might) a 5300-pound granite monument of the Ten Commandments that he placed at the state judicial building in Montgomery, Alabama and refused to remove when directed to do so by federal courts. Many in Alabama regard Judge Moore as a folk hero and a messenger from God, but to those with respect for the constitutional rule of law in a democratic society, Moore is nothing more that a self-serving demagogue with an over-inflated sense of ego. Unfortunately he is still the top state court judge in Alabama and he still loves to throw his weight around.
Moore’s current shenanigans centers around one of his favorite political and religious targets: gay couples. Despite last June’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the legal right of gay couples to marry, Judge Moore issued an order this past Wednesday directing probate judges in Alabama not to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, a clear violation of federal court orders and binding court decisions to the contrary. Now, probate judges around his state are left in a quandary as to which court’s directives they must follow – the United States Supreme Court or Judge Roy Moore. Once again, Moore has set himself above the rule of law, and to what end? Motions and lawsuits challenging his order will surely follow. Alabama taxpayers will end up wasting millions defending Moore’s pointless crusade and eventually gay couples will be allowed to marry there again.
Judge Moore claims that he is following the rulings of a higher power. That’s baloney!
Notwithstanding his own inflated ego, Judge Roy Moore is not a messenger from God. He is simply a state court judge who swore an oath to defend the United States Constitution. If he cannot honor that oath he should resign, but you and I know that’s not going to happen. With any luck, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary will remove Roy Moore from the Supreme Court bench again and give the rule of law a temporary respite from the antics of its highest judge. I say “temporary” because you know that Judge Moore would make it back to the Alabama Supreme Court again. He always does.
Roy Moore is the guy who owned (he still might) a 5300-pound granite monument of the Ten Commandments that he placed at the state judicial building in Montgomery, Alabama and refused to remove when directed to do so by federal courts. Many in Alabama regard Judge Moore as a folk hero and a messenger from God, but to those with respect for the constitutional rule of law in a democratic society, Moore is nothing more that a self-serving demagogue with an over-inflated sense of ego. Unfortunately he is still the top state court judge in Alabama and he still loves to throw his weight around.
Moore’s current shenanigans centers around one of his favorite political and religious targets: gay couples. Despite last June’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the legal right of gay couples to marry, Judge Moore issued an order this past Wednesday directing probate judges in Alabama not to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, a clear violation of federal court orders and binding court decisions to the contrary. Now, probate judges around his state are left in a quandary as to which court’s directives they must follow – the United States Supreme Court or Judge Roy Moore. Once again, Moore has set himself above the rule of law, and to what end? Motions and lawsuits challenging his order will surely follow. Alabama taxpayers will end up wasting millions defending Moore’s pointless crusade and eventually gay couples will be allowed to marry there again.
Judge Moore claims that he is following the rulings of a higher power. That’s baloney!
Notwithstanding his own inflated ego, Judge Roy Moore is not a messenger from God. He is simply a state court judge who swore an oath to defend the United States Constitution. If he cannot honor that oath he should resign, but you and I know that’s not going to happen. With any luck, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary will remove Roy Moore from the Supreme Court bench again and give the rule of law a temporary respite from the antics of its highest judge. I say “temporary” because you know that Judge Moore would make it back to the Alabama Supreme Court again. He always does.
Friday, January 8, 2016
SOUND BITES FROM THE LEFT
"I'd like to say that Donald Trump is the most outrageous and unqualified person ever to run for president. But really, that's not fair to Ted Cruz."
~Martin O’Malley, Democratic Presidential Candidate and former Governor of Maryland
"Cruz actually says that the answer to gun violence is more guns. Senator, the answer to cancer is not more cancer, the answer to poverty is not more poverty, and the answer to gun violence isn’t more guns."
~Martin O’Malley, criticizing Senator Ted Cruz’ position of gun control
“If you can’t afford to take care of your veterans, then don’t go to war!”
~Bernie Sanders, Democratic Presidential Candidate and former Senator from Vermont
“They talk about class warfare – the fact of the matter is there has been class warfare for the last thirty years. It’s a handful of billionaires taking on the entire middle class and working class of this country. And the result is you now have in America the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth and the worst inequality in America since 1928. How could anybody defend the top 400 richest people in this country owning more wealth than the bottom half of America, 150 million people?”
~Bernie Sanders, responding to the charge that liberals in America are engaging in class warfare.
“Dignity does not come from avenging insults, especially from violence that can never be justified. It comes from taking responsibility and advancing our common humanity.”
~Hillary Clinton, Democratic Presidential Candidate and former Senator from New York
“Extremism thrives amid ignorance and anger, intimidation and cowardice.”
~Hillary Clinton
“Let’s continue to stand up for those who are vulnerable to being left out or marginalized.”
~Hillary Clinton
“We, the people, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom that only asks what’s in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who dies in their defense.”
~Barak Obama, President of the United States of America
~Martin O’Malley, Democratic Presidential Candidate and former Governor of Maryland
"Cruz actually says that the answer to gun violence is more guns. Senator, the answer to cancer is not more cancer, the answer to poverty is not more poverty, and the answer to gun violence isn’t more guns."
~Martin O’Malley, criticizing Senator Ted Cruz’ position of gun control
“If you can’t afford to take care of your veterans, then don’t go to war!”
~Bernie Sanders, Democratic Presidential Candidate and former Senator from Vermont
“They talk about class warfare – the fact of the matter is there has been class warfare for the last thirty years. It’s a handful of billionaires taking on the entire middle class and working class of this country. And the result is you now have in America the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth and the worst inequality in America since 1928. How could anybody defend the top 400 richest people in this country owning more wealth than the bottom half of America, 150 million people?”
~Bernie Sanders, responding to the charge that liberals in America are engaging in class warfare.
“Dignity does not come from avenging insults, especially from violence that can never be justified. It comes from taking responsibility and advancing our common humanity.”
~Hillary Clinton, Democratic Presidential Candidate and former Senator from New York
“Extremism thrives amid ignorance and anger, intimidation and cowardice.”
~Hillary Clinton
“Let’s continue to stand up for those who are vulnerable to being left out or marginalized.”
~Hillary Clinton
“We, the people, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom that only asks what’s in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who dies in their defense.”
~Barak Obama, President of the United States of America
Thursday, January 7, 2016
LIE BIG OR GO HOME
North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-Un has taken a page from G.O.P. presidential candidate and front-runner, Donald Trump’s bloviating playbook by announcing to the world that his regime has successfully tested a Hydrogen bomb. Nuclear experts around the globe, however, are uniformly saying that all the evidence points to the North Korean Dictator’s claim as being a big fat lie, but you have to give Kim Jong-Un style points for recognizing that in today’s climate, the bigger the lie, the more likely the claim will gain traction somewhere. Just ask Donald Trump!
Of course, this is North Korea that we’re talking about, where an estimated twenty-five million citizens accept any word that comes from their dictator’s mouth as gospel truth - under pain of imprisonment, torture or death I should add, but odds are there are thousands of terrorists and militants worldwide who are instantly convinced of the accuracy of Kim Jong-Un’s claim. After all, ignorance is bliss, and what could be more salacious for a crowd of blood-thirsty terrorists than the notion of unleashing a hydrogen bomb upon their enemies?
Recognizing the propaganda value that reports of a successful hydrogen bomb test would produce for Kim Jong-Un’s regime back home, it’s still a bit troubling to consider that the North Korean leader would be stupid enough to think that the rest of the technologically-advanced nuclear world would be hoodwinked by his grandiose announcement, but stranger things have happened, and when it comes to the North Korean leader’s proclivity for bloviating, nothing appears beyond the pale.
Of course, this is North Korea that we’re talking about, where an estimated twenty-five million citizens accept any word that comes from their dictator’s mouth as gospel truth - under pain of imprisonment, torture or death I should add, but odds are there are thousands of terrorists and militants worldwide who are instantly convinced of the accuracy of Kim Jong-Un’s claim. After all, ignorance is bliss, and what could be more salacious for a crowd of blood-thirsty terrorists than the notion of unleashing a hydrogen bomb upon their enemies?
Recognizing the propaganda value that reports of a successful hydrogen bomb test would produce for Kim Jong-Un’s regime back home, it’s still a bit troubling to consider that the North Korean leader would be stupid enough to think that the rest of the technologically-advanced nuclear world would be hoodwinked by his grandiose announcement, but stranger things have happened, and when it comes to the North Korean leader’s proclivity for bloviating, nothing appears beyond the pale.
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
GUNS, GUNS AND MORE GUNS
Gun violence has gotten completely out of control in America, but as long as folks continue to flock to the altar of the National Rifle Association and worship the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms as if it’s ordained by the Almighty, innocents will continue to be slaughtered by the thousands while the rest of the society keeps busy cleaning up the carnage. It’s high time we repeal the Second Amendment, and if the wing nuts with weapons decide they want their guns pried from their cold, dead fingers – so be it. Once the smoke clears, Americans will be far safer walking the streets than they are now and tens of thousands of would-be gun death victims will live to see another day.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating for the complete elimination of firearms, though I dare say Americans would be a million times safer if that were the case given the current number of firearms possessed exceeding the number of citizens living here. What I suggest instead is a replacement of the Second Amendment with one that affords our elected leaders the power to reasonably regulate the who, what, where, when and how of deadly weapon ownership.
Not having reasonable regulations and restrictions in place to control life-threatening firearms borders on lunacy. Heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines and hundreds of other dangerous controlled substances are either completely banned or tightly regulated, because they pose of substantial risk of death to a person using them. You cannot drive a car unless you’ve passed a driver’s test and prove financial responsibility by purchasing vehicle insurance, because operating a car is an inherently dangerous activity that threatens the safety of everyone in the vicinity. Guns and ammunitions, on the other hand, can be purchased like gum in a candy store. That, my friends, is the height of stupidity, except we have the Second Amendment that guarantees such stupidity, which is why I contend the Second Amendment should be repealed and replaced.
Critics of gun control cite personal protection of life and property as the chief reason why they oppose even reasonable gun regulations, but the fallacy of that argument is that owning and carrying a gun doesn’t automatically make one safer. People who believe that notion should watch the video of Officer Lynn Anderson, a fully-trained and fully-armed veteran of the Northern York County Regional Police Department getting shot at by a driver he pulled over for a simple traffic violation on November 22nd of last year. Officer Anderson’s life was not spared by the sidearm in his holster. It was saved by the reflex of his training and the fortunate fact that his would-be killer (Trev Bowies Jackson) was a lousy shot.
It seems to me that if people want to own a gun for hunting or self-defense, they ought to be required to take a test demonstrating proficiency in firearm safety, secure a firearm ownership license and provide insurance to cover the cost of any damage they cause. Let the insurance market bear the risk of loss instead of innocent children playing on the sidewalks.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating for the complete elimination of firearms, though I dare say Americans would be a million times safer if that were the case given the current number of firearms possessed exceeding the number of citizens living here. What I suggest instead is a replacement of the Second Amendment with one that affords our elected leaders the power to reasonably regulate the who, what, where, when and how of deadly weapon ownership.
Not having reasonable regulations and restrictions in place to control life-threatening firearms borders on lunacy. Heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines and hundreds of other dangerous controlled substances are either completely banned or tightly regulated, because they pose of substantial risk of death to a person using them. You cannot drive a car unless you’ve passed a driver’s test and prove financial responsibility by purchasing vehicle insurance, because operating a car is an inherently dangerous activity that threatens the safety of everyone in the vicinity. Guns and ammunitions, on the other hand, can be purchased like gum in a candy store. That, my friends, is the height of stupidity, except we have the Second Amendment that guarantees such stupidity, which is why I contend the Second Amendment should be repealed and replaced.
Critics of gun control cite personal protection of life and property as the chief reason why they oppose even reasonable gun regulations, but the fallacy of that argument is that owning and carrying a gun doesn’t automatically make one safer. People who believe that notion should watch the video of Officer Lynn Anderson, a fully-trained and fully-armed veteran of the Northern York County Regional Police Department getting shot at by a driver he pulled over for a simple traffic violation on November 22nd of last year. Officer Anderson’s life was not spared by the sidearm in his holster. It was saved by the reflex of his training and the fortunate fact that his would-be killer (Trev Bowies Jackson) was a lousy shot.
It seems to me that if people want to own a gun for hunting or self-defense, they ought to be required to take a test demonstrating proficiency in firearm safety, secure a firearm ownership license and provide insurance to cover the cost of any damage they cause. Let the insurance market bear the risk of loss instead of innocent children playing on the sidewalks.
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
THE ARK SET SAIL WITHOUT HIM
Every time I see Bill Cosby’s face, followed by an article describing alleged instances of sexual assault, including the recent criminal charges lodged against him, I want to ask him a seemingly outrageous question: How long can you tread imprisonment?
I know this is not a laughing matter, but just once I’d like to see his face confront the irony of his most famous one-liner being used to pillory him, because the joke is no longer funny and the comedian who made it famous is no longer the god of laughter. I’m not amused by Cosby’s fall from grace, because the trail of that fall is littered with the anguish of dozens of sexually assaulted victims, but I am happy that the veil of secrecy under which he operated has been lifted and his actions have been laid bare for everyone to see, including his once adoring fans.
Whatever the outcome of Bill Cosby’s current criminal charges, one thing is crystal clear – the Ark has sailed without him, and successfully treading water is not an option.
I know this is not a laughing matter, but just once I’d like to see his face confront the irony of his most famous one-liner being used to pillory him, because the joke is no longer funny and the comedian who made it famous is no longer the god of laughter. I’m not amused by Cosby’s fall from grace, because the trail of that fall is littered with the anguish of dozens of sexually assaulted victims, but I am happy that the veil of secrecy under which he operated has been lifted and his actions have been laid bare for everyone to see, including his once adoring fans.
Whatever the outcome of Bill Cosby’s current criminal charges, one thing is crystal clear – the Ark has sailed without him, and successfully treading water is not an option.
Monday, January 4, 2016
GET OFF MY PROPERTY
The Bundy bandits are at it again, this time in Oregon where a group of militiamen, including Ammon Bundy, the son of outlaw rancher Cliven Bundy, have commandeered a federal building - the park headquarters at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The militiamen initially held a rally in Burns, Oregon to protest the imprisonment of two rancher arsonists who intentionally set fires that scorched federally-owned grazing land, but the protest rally was apparently not sufficient to suit their goal, so they hijacked the park headquarters building at the wildlife refuge to attract more notoriety. The militiamen got the notoriety they were seeking. Now it’s time for federal authorities to clear out the headquarters and toss those militiamen’s butts in jail.
Why? Well, for starters, that land belongs to me…and you…and the three hundred and fifty million other Americans who have delegated to our federal government the responsibility of managing federally-owned lands for the benefit of all our citizenry. The Bundy bandits are attempting an armed takeover of those lands without paying for the right to use them. That makes them trespassers and terrorists, not patriots. Don’t think for one second that those same ranchers wouldn’t use their shotguns and assault rifles if any of us tried to graze our cattle on their private lands, and they’d be the first to claim they were justified in using force to protect their own property rights.
We have property rights to federally-owned lands, too, and our collective right to the fruits of those lands takes precedent over the right of any one or handful of individuals to use the land to the exclusion of others. The Bundy bandits are trespassers who demand, at the end of the barrel of a gun, to graze their cattle on federally-owned land, free of charge, but I’ll be damned if they’re going to force me to hand over my citizenship right to a share of the grazing fees just because a pack of gun-toting cowboys think their rights outweigh mine. The last thing America needs is another Ruby Ridge or Waco fiasco, but the Bundy bandits and their militia followers are just another ISIS-like terrorist group, and they should be treated accordingly.
Why? Well, for starters, that land belongs to me…and you…and the three hundred and fifty million other Americans who have delegated to our federal government the responsibility of managing federally-owned lands for the benefit of all our citizenry. The Bundy bandits are attempting an armed takeover of those lands without paying for the right to use them. That makes them trespassers and terrorists, not patriots. Don’t think for one second that those same ranchers wouldn’t use their shotguns and assault rifles if any of us tried to graze our cattle on their private lands, and they’d be the first to claim they were justified in using force to protect their own property rights.
We have property rights to federally-owned lands, too, and our collective right to the fruits of those lands takes precedent over the right of any one or handful of individuals to use the land to the exclusion of others. The Bundy bandits are trespassers who demand, at the end of the barrel of a gun, to graze their cattle on federally-owned land, free of charge, but I’ll be damned if they’re going to force me to hand over my citizenship right to a share of the grazing fees just because a pack of gun-toting cowboys think their rights outweigh mine. The last thing America needs is another Ruby Ridge or Waco fiasco, but the Bundy bandits and their militia followers are just another ISIS-like terrorist group, and they should be treated accordingly.
Sunday, January 3, 2016
THE WAY TO PEACE IS THROUGH CHARITY
“Overcoming indifference and winning peace…involves a real struggle, a spiritual battle that takes place in our hearts, for the enemy of peace is not only war, but also indifference, that makes us think only of ourselves and creates barriers, suspicions, fears and closure. Let us begin to open our hearts to the needs of our neighbor.” ~ Pope Francis, speaking to thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square on January 1, 2016.
Dear Pope Francis…
You are speaking to the choir here, Your Eminence, but I have to warn you that such talk in America is somewhat akin to high treason and sounds suspiciously like calling for wealth redistribution. In this Nation, conservatives have declared such talk sinful and an abomination against God. Now, I realize that in the Catholic faith, you are considered God’s representative here on Earth, but here in America you are going to have to take a backseat to FOX News commentators and our Republican presidential candidates. It’s just the way things are, and don’t even think of trying to outshout Donald Trump. You don’t have a prayer!
Given your background, Your Holiness, I can understand why you’d have an affinity for the poor and the oppressed, as did Christ, and that you’d want to do everything in your power to help them. That’s a laudable objective and I admire you for having it, but I must be frank here. If you continue pushing this “help the poor” agenda that you appear to be fixated on, your polling numbers are going to drop and the Sunday morning collection plate is going to suffer – big time! That’s because Americans hate being told what to do with our money, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s you, God, the government or one of our Democratic presidential candidates doing the telling.
Can I give you a little advice, Your Eminence? Stick to the freebies! No, I’m not talking about coupons or the blue light specials at K-Mart. I’m talking about the kind of issues that don’t cost a dime, like gay-bashing, denouncing abortions and the War on Christmas. Conservatives in America go ape over those issues, because there is no cost to the pocketbook involved. Helping the poor, well, that’s another matter. When you talk about food stamps and housing vouchers and day-care assistance and the mother-of-all do good programs, Obamacare, you’re talking about taxpayer dollars being used to help the poor and that’s worse than just about any mortal sin you could think of. I say “just about,” because some of your Bishops here in America say that voting for Democrats is a mortal sin, too. Personally, I think they’re full of shit, but that’s just my humble opinion.
Do you remember that New Testament passage (Mark 10:17-22) where the guy asked Jesus what he should do to attain eternal life and Jesus responded, “Go, sell whatever you have and give it to the poor?” Well, that’s a misprint! Ted Cruz said so.
An Admirer,
Steve
Dear Pope Francis…
You are speaking to the choir here, Your Eminence, but I have to warn you that such talk in America is somewhat akin to high treason and sounds suspiciously like calling for wealth redistribution. In this Nation, conservatives have declared such talk sinful and an abomination against God. Now, I realize that in the Catholic faith, you are considered God’s representative here on Earth, but here in America you are going to have to take a backseat to FOX News commentators and our Republican presidential candidates. It’s just the way things are, and don’t even think of trying to outshout Donald Trump. You don’t have a prayer!
Given your background, Your Holiness, I can understand why you’d have an affinity for the poor and the oppressed, as did Christ, and that you’d want to do everything in your power to help them. That’s a laudable objective and I admire you for having it, but I must be frank here. If you continue pushing this “help the poor” agenda that you appear to be fixated on, your polling numbers are going to drop and the Sunday morning collection plate is going to suffer – big time! That’s because Americans hate being told what to do with our money, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s you, God, the government or one of our Democratic presidential candidates doing the telling.
Can I give you a little advice, Your Eminence? Stick to the freebies! No, I’m not talking about coupons or the blue light specials at K-Mart. I’m talking about the kind of issues that don’t cost a dime, like gay-bashing, denouncing abortions and the War on Christmas. Conservatives in America go ape over those issues, because there is no cost to the pocketbook involved. Helping the poor, well, that’s another matter. When you talk about food stamps and housing vouchers and day-care assistance and the mother-of-all do good programs, Obamacare, you’re talking about taxpayer dollars being used to help the poor and that’s worse than just about any mortal sin you could think of. I say “just about,” because some of your Bishops here in America say that voting for Democrats is a mortal sin, too. Personally, I think they’re full of shit, but that’s just my humble opinion.
Do you remember that New Testament passage (Mark 10:17-22) where the guy asked Jesus what he should do to attain eternal life and Jesus responded, “Go, sell whatever you have and give it to the poor?” Well, that’s a misprint! Ted Cruz said so.
An Admirer,
Steve
Saturday, January 2, 2016
OFFENDING THE OFFENDED
“You did not offend me with your Obama comment. I didn't vote for that lying piece of crap in the white house. I am not a racist. I am just not stupid. He got elected because he got the black vote. Typically in our country blacks are not educated and there is a lot of black on black crime. You can imagine they were jumping out of their skins to have the first black president, so they all came out and voted and that is how Obama got elected. I sure as hell didn't vote for him.”~ anonymous
The above quote was part of an email exchange between two third parties that found its way into my mailbox recently as part of a political chain letter that a Tea Party follower I know sent to everyone on his list serve. The racist content in the email was troubling enough, but it’s also disturbing that such bigotry has found a welcoming home among a large captive audience here in America. Judging by the number of similar emails that get sent to my inbox, a lot of folks think it is okay to distribute such garbage. It’s no wonder that mean and degrading stereotypes regarding people of color flourish in this country, and I want to go on record as saying “Shame on you!” to the writer of the above-referenced email. You are indeed a racist and stupid to boot!
Blacks did not elect President Obama. Women, educated people and a broad coalition of black, Hispanic, Asian and other non-white voters did. In the 2012 presidential election, Barak Obama received 64% of the vote from people who had some form of high school education; Romney received 35% of that vote. Obama received 49% to Romney’s 48% of the vote from people with some form of college education. Among voters with postgraduate education, Obama took 55% of the vote compared to Romney’s 42 percent. While Obama garnered 93% of the African-American vote, he also acquired a majority of votes in other minority groups – Hispanic (71%), Asian (73%) and other non-white voters (58%). Women of all racial categories chose Obama over Romney by a margin of 55 to 44 percent. While the black population’s vote certainly helped Obama win his election, it was women and educated voters that formed largest block of Obama’s winning coalition.
On the issue of black on black crime, let’s not ignore the similarly damning numbers for white on white crime. According to the 2012-2013 National Crime Victimization Survey released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 62.2 percent of violent crimes committed against black victims were committed by black assailants. During that same time period, 56.0 percent of violent crimes committed against white victims were committed by white assailants. If black on black crime numbers casts a shadow on America’s black population as a whole, then the same shadow sullies our white population, too.
Finally, there’s the state of black education in America to consider. The email writer’s claim that blacks in America are typically uneducated ignores the millions of African-Americans who graduate from high school and college every year and enter the workforce as valuable contributors to the betterment of our society. I could point out that America has a black President, a black Supreme Court justice and that close to 200 African-Americans have served in Congress over the years, but I doubt the email writer would see those as evidence of African-American educational accomplishment. No, what the email writer is really suggesting is that blacks are stupid by race, a belief originally perpetuated to justify the slave trade. Sadly, that belief has continued to find fertile ground among racists in America, even today. While it’s true that the achievements of African-Americans students as a whole trail their white counterparts, it’s also equally true that African-American students as a whole lack the same quality of educational opportunity that their white counterparts enjoy. It’s patently unfair to prevent a group of students from moving forward and them blame them when they fail to do so.
Now who’s the lying piece of crap?
The above quote was part of an email exchange between two third parties that found its way into my mailbox recently as part of a political chain letter that a Tea Party follower I know sent to everyone on his list serve. The racist content in the email was troubling enough, but it’s also disturbing that such bigotry has found a welcoming home among a large captive audience here in America. Judging by the number of similar emails that get sent to my inbox, a lot of folks think it is okay to distribute such garbage. It’s no wonder that mean and degrading stereotypes regarding people of color flourish in this country, and I want to go on record as saying “Shame on you!” to the writer of the above-referenced email. You are indeed a racist and stupid to boot!
Blacks did not elect President Obama. Women, educated people and a broad coalition of black, Hispanic, Asian and other non-white voters did. In the 2012 presidential election, Barak Obama received 64% of the vote from people who had some form of high school education; Romney received 35% of that vote. Obama received 49% to Romney’s 48% of the vote from people with some form of college education. Among voters with postgraduate education, Obama took 55% of the vote compared to Romney’s 42 percent. While Obama garnered 93% of the African-American vote, he also acquired a majority of votes in other minority groups – Hispanic (71%), Asian (73%) and other non-white voters (58%). Women of all racial categories chose Obama over Romney by a margin of 55 to 44 percent. While the black population’s vote certainly helped Obama win his election, it was women and educated voters that formed largest block of Obama’s winning coalition.
On the issue of black on black crime, let’s not ignore the similarly damning numbers for white on white crime. According to the 2012-2013 National Crime Victimization Survey released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 62.2 percent of violent crimes committed against black victims were committed by black assailants. During that same time period, 56.0 percent of violent crimes committed against white victims were committed by white assailants. If black on black crime numbers casts a shadow on America’s black population as a whole, then the same shadow sullies our white population, too.
Finally, there’s the state of black education in America to consider. The email writer’s claim that blacks in America are typically uneducated ignores the millions of African-Americans who graduate from high school and college every year and enter the workforce as valuable contributors to the betterment of our society. I could point out that America has a black President, a black Supreme Court justice and that close to 200 African-Americans have served in Congress over the years, but I doubt the email writer would see those as evidence of African-American educational accomplishment. No, what the email writer is really suggesting is that blacks are stupid by race, a belief originally perpetuated to justify the slave trade. Sadly, that belief has continued to find fertile ground among racists in America, even today. While it’s true that the achievements of African-Americans students as a whole trail their white counterparts, it’s also equally true that African-American students as a whole lack the same quality of educational opportunity that their white counterparts enjoy. It’s patently unfair to prevent a group of students from moving forward and them blame them when they fail to do so.
Now who’s the lying piece of crap?
Friday, January 1, 2016
HAPPY NEW YEAR - 2016
Welcome to 2016, the year of the politically ignorant, the racially bigoted, the religiously zealous and the militarily ravenous hungry for blood. We are embarking on a 366 day (leap year) journey to January 1, 2017, though sadly we do so with weary eyes, heavy hearts and our hope for mankind’s redemption sorely in doubt.
Many of us are normally optimistic folks, but it seems as if the number of people who want to tear this world apart, for one reason or another, far outnumber those who want to build it up. Can the mayhem that was 2015 somehow be reversed? We shall see!
Many of us are normally optimistic folks, but it seems as if the number of people who want to tear this world apart, for one reason or another, far outnumber those who want to build it up. Can the mayhem that was 2015 somehow be reversed? We shall see!
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