"Should Bible Classes be allowed in public schools?"

This was posted by the novelist Anne Rice on her Facebook Page asking for opinions. This below is my response (expanded, of course).

Ms. Rice I'm sorry, but there's a very great distance between what this Governor is advocating (proselytizing Bible 'studies') and what you're advocating (the history of and discerning what/where/how the 'Bible' has influenced 'Western civilization'). This State Official is advocating the opinions of the most radically Reich in her state to influence any and all students about Das Book (which is really all "The Bible" means since for centuries it was the ONLY Book that was allowed to be 'read' [mostly taught, since only the most powerful could even read]).

This would be simple indoctrination and not anything approaching 'study' at all. This is not Constitutionally valid and therefore should not even be considered and should be struck down with all speed (if possible) by the Supreme Court (not that that's going to happen).

From the article in question: Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has signed into law a bill that allows the establishing of elective classes that focus on the Bible and its influence on western civilization.
Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/ariz-governor-signs-bill-to-allow-bible-classes-in-public-schools-73485/#2Rmb6bAVQOzeFMpi.99

"A teacher who instructs a course offered under this section in its [blogger emphasis added] appropriate historical context and in good faith shall be immune from civil liability and disciplinary action," reads the bill.

Ah, and here's the rub. "...in good faith..." There are so many small points of darkness in this potential 'teaching' that boggle the imagination. In bringing in this seemingly benign 'educational opportunity' a gaping hole is being introduced into the Constitutional fabric of the nation. Born-agains are shouting about 'Christian pursecution' while striving to back-door their particular brand of 'Christianity' into the Law of the land.

Never mind that most of the students who would be subject to whatever material that such a 'course' might bring are already 'of The Faith.'  So why can't they receive such information from their Church? Because that is not the intent of this 'bill.'

The insidiousness of this 'bill' would be the means of opening similar 'legislation' in other states. It would be a seemingly innocuous teaching of 'history' to any and all who 'wished to partake.' For now. 

For those of  us whose ideas and beliefs are different from those of the Far Reich, now is the time to speak out against this 'legal means' of 'teaching about "The Bible." ' I am not opposed to the ideas of The Man who they (think they) believe in, but I do oppose any means of further indoctrination in a country that is increasingly non-Christian. Even for those of us who consider ourselves "Christian" (and I count myself [in a qualified way] among those believers), this seems like a non-issue. But I assure you, it isn't.

"Damn I'm rich! $$$$"

This was the post of someone I know on Facebook regarding a web site he went to on the relative wealth of most Americans. I know it was meant to show that We The People aren't really doing so badly compared to the rest of the world. I also know it was meant to engender gratitude for what We have. But it still is a gross over-simplification of what the real issues are (and to the conspiratorial mind-set, perhaps is meant to calm and mollify those of us in the 99% of this country).  

But the real issue is in all of this, that however much We Americans have (once again, at least in the 99%) more than the rest of the world, poverty is relative. If you only make a dollar a day and subsistence is $1.25, that's much better than making $6 an hour when you actually need $8 to truly survive. These sites and 'meters' don't take into consideration a great many things. For an increasing many in this country, they are skewing more towards Third (and Forth) World living every day. 

Americans need to simplify their lives for the most part. And they can do with a lot less in the material realm than they think they can. Americans have been led into thinking that they Need To Have so much, because... well, because They're Americans, dammit! The Country has been marketed into excessive material to prove how well We Are as a country (and to feed the 1% 's insatiable need to OWN EVERYTHING). Americans are now as a People being forced to cut back their expectations because those said expectations were not anywhere approaching reason (that's why most Americans are up to the tops of their increasingly disappearing hairlines in DEBT [called the "Sweet Spot" by the Credito-Industrial Complex]).

But that said, the incidence of homelessness is increasing exponentially in this country. I for instance was homeless for almost three years (living on the couches of friends, etc. with no money coming in). And I had these resources to keep me from the worst of it. According to this sites scale, I'm filthily wealthy -- and believe me, that ain't the case.

So, yes. I am relatively well off. I now have enough money to eat, and to pay my (adjusted due to disability) rent. I don't have a car still (in LA, that's sacrilege!). And here it is, yet another holiday, and I didn't have enough 'spare cash' to do anything besides go to a pot-luck party later today. In the meantime, I'm 'working' (writing). I hope someday soon to at least have a car to go for a (small luxury) scenic drive for a holiday. Perhaps soon, I'll have even more available funds to do even more.

But right here, right now, I'm grateful for what I have. I wish everyone else that gratitude as well. 

And I also wish that the World some day comes into more of an equitable equal distribution of quality of life. We're not there yet though. Don't let the truly Wealthy mollify you into believing that this is 'all right' (cause it ain't).

Why 'Non-Christians' are persecuting (so-called) 'Christians'

[This was written on my facebook page in response to a video of some 'Christian' Preacher indoctrinating four- and five-year olds in how to 'refute evolution.' (I can no longer find the Post I reacted to.)]

First point: if you ask a Jew (who most of these so-called "Christians" say they believe are their direct religious 'ancestors') about the stories in the "Old Testament," they will tell you that they're mishnah -- allegories -- just like "Jesus" (Third Point) used to teach. They are not meant to be history, but lessons. These "Christians" teach however contrary to that point, that "every word in the Bible is true." Nonsense.

Second Point: Christianity (Roman Catholicism) is a mishmash of the original Judaic Tradition 'paganized' first by "Saint Paul" (a 'converted' Jew proselytizing to the early Greek followers), then The Romans (Jesus is a mishmash of Messianic Judaism and the patron god of soldiers we now know as Mars), and then all of the other religions that it sought to convert the followers of ("Mother Mary" being the Goddess transverted into a Virgin). Even the name "Jehovah" comes from the Babylonian Exile and the Babylonian god "Jah" (or "Yod") whose consort ironically was the goddess Astarte [the fertility goddess], or Oestre [from whence the name Easter came]-- or Esther, the goddess mother of Judaism).

Third Point: if you walked the streets of Yerushalem (The City of Peace) and you saw this wandering Jew we now know as "Jesus" and you called him that, he wouldn't even turn around. His name was Yeshua bar Yosef. The name of Jesus is a conversion from the Geek name Yesu (or "Ieose") Christos, and eventually into Jesus the Christ, "Jesus The Anointed One". Not Jesus Christ. Christ was not his last name (only a modern  invention, last names).

Forth Point: it does you no good to argue 'logic' with these people. It does no good to argue that science (even theory) relies on 'proof.' It does no good even to point to physical evidence ('Satan planted those bones there to turn you away from Jesus!'). Never mind that they get into cars. trains and planes that ride on those 'lies of Satan' (scientific principles) every day.  Science is still 'lying' to us.

This is indoctrination on the worst level, and terming it 'child abuse' barely covers it. These children can barely read, and yet they're already being molded to proselytize and spout 'rote' instead of right. You can't argue with a sick mind.

Letter to Modern (Villainous) King John: Jaime Dimon, JP Morgan

History repeats itself ever and again, tyrants come and go by name, but the injury to Others remains the same. Here is a letter I edited and added to (italics meaning my addition to their suggested text) from a boilerplate letter by Roots Action America as part of an email campaign to one of Wall Streets Villains... I mean, Corporate Raiders. Ahem.

"It was 797 years ago this week that King John was confronted and forced to share power and wealth, forced to concede rights to others through the Magna Carta.
Yes, that was me. I did that. And I'm back. 
You and your villainous fellow Wall Street rable who call yourselves royalty have pushed The People too far this time. Yet again.

You will not be shot at, nor will you be hung for treason (at least, not yet), but you will be rightfully taxed for all that you and your fellow Robber Traders have fattened yourselves at the expense of the Common Man. While you sit behind your computer screens making millions each day (unrigthfully with Other Peoples Money to which you have no conscience to plunder), I'm going to tax you 50 cents on every $100 you trade.
I can raise $350 billion with which to save lives. and redress the wrongs that you and your cohorts have so willfully created through your short sighted and ill-gained dealings. I'll invest in healthcare, jobs, education, and other basic needs, while you and your court won't even notice the missing bags of gold.
Wall Street has laid waste the economy, and the People were forced to bail you out at knife point. And yet you demanded more.

Now I and those whom you have plundered say No More. It's time for a Robin Hood Tax, a financial transactions tax, a little bit of modern justice, and a siege against misappropriate dealings and scurilous activities..
I'm coming. And this time, I have a million faces not just a small faithful band of brothers.

Sincerely,
Robin Hood

(formerly known as Robert, Earl of Locksley)

Plastic, Profit and 'Progressive Nonsense!' oh, my.

[The below was written as a(n expanded) response to a story on NPR (and a comment from a Conservative critic railing against "Progressives" and their/my agenda against 'Free Enterprise and the American Way'), regarding the banning of Bottled Water containers movement that is growing on college campus'. <http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/02/12/146692656/battling-the-bottle-students-and-industry-face-off-over-water>. ]

Ah, "Conservatives!' Things like 'conserving the ecosphere' don't appear in their agendas. 'Conserving' profit, however, always does. 'Saving American Jobs' always does too, while these same 'Conservatives' either help to/ or are directly related to shipping 'American Jobs' to Third World countries, and the China they were so rabidly against (until it became a 'hugely profitable market.'

They don't want to ban plastic bottles, and where I live in Santa Monica, Ca., rail against the banning of plastic bags. 'Outrage!' they say. 'People should be able to buy whatever they want to!' they cry (when it effects their same bottom line about not beiing able to sell another kind f plastic -- most of which ends up either in the trash, or worse yet, gets ejected as soon as it gets out of the store ('I gotta right to it. I pay for it.' Yes, you do. All of us do.)

Which leads us to the Pacific Plastic Gyre. As big now as the state of Alaska (imagine that) and still growing, it is quickly polishing off the Pacific and its ability to recycle air, as well as, yes, ending up in the seafood you eat (which I haven't now  since sixteen -- Oh, the 'Conservative' horror! I've been a vegetarian since then). This, along with the killing of the Gulf of Mexico from, first the runoff from the Mississippi and the factory farming all along its length, to the BP oil spill (which seen from space in NASA photos whose trail of death is shown to be reaching almost to the Yucatan Peninsula and Belize).

That profit eclipses ecology comes as no surprise, but the depth of the self-serving-ness of these 'Conservatives' for some reason always does.

Time for a Real Change

On this New Years Day I was going through my email 'drafts' in hotmail, when I came across this. Especially now as we are already deep in the "dialogue" and the compostable rhetoric, this Amendment needs to be brought out and be brought about.

Please email/post it widely. It's time for a Real Change in this Country. Doncha think?

--The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified. Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc.

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.

Forward this [email] post to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women. Congressmen/women made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours need to serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

8. Any congressman resigning due to unlawful acts receives NO benefits.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people, it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S.) to receive the message. Maybe it is time.

The Nuclear Fallout of the American Dream

Did you watch "60 Minutes" last Sunday night when they showed abandoned houses in Cincinnati, OH, being torn down because so many of them were 'under water' mortgage-wise? The majority of entire neighborhoods, evicted and demolished; while the banks that created these implosions go on business as usual, unscathed by these decisions that they made in the name of Corporate Greed and Profit.

The Occupy Movement was accused of being fuzzy on their demands re: this whole political/economic mess. But what was shown on TV were clear scenes of detonations of the American Dream dieing a rather somnalent, but ultimately violent death. Whole Communities have been laid waste, and yet the Banks that created the circumstances for this wholesale destruction remain unharmed and un-indicted in their responsibility.

How many more Cities need to die quick deaths before the mess of this nonsense is rectified and brought to some kind of justice? How many people need to be evicted, their houses going vacant and up for the Crony Bidders of the Banks that orchestrated this fallout? Some Communities might as well have had a nuclear bomb dropped for all the livability and sustainability that remains in them.

It's time to find a way to Indict the New Un-Indicted Conspirators, and take down the System that is obviously so corrupt that it can't even police itself.