Obama and the "Grand Bargain"

I was telling people that, whether you voted for Obama for a second term or not, it was not going to do anything. Well, I was wrong.

With a clear Victory just a few weeks in the past, you'd think that President Obama would finally move forward with all those promises once elected. He has followed in the weeks hence that, with the power of the National Defense Authorization Act which he passed earlier this year, he can "...kill anyone in the world, without even probably cause."

And now, he is set to make what is being called the Grand Bargain with the Republican't's (who, btw, lost in large numbers to Democrats [or as the Un-loyal Opposition calls them I'm sure 'Demon-crats']) is about to strike a bargain (for them, not the rest of us) that will cut the very social services that he swore to protect, and, oh yeah, maintain the Rich's insane tax advantages, rendering the Rest of Us [throwing animal 'left overs' from slaughter houses is called "Rendering' of animals] officially high and dry.

Now, with the NDAA at his disposal, he can 'take out' me for criticizing his administration because of the above statement.

I'll say my adieus now...

Hatred, Judgement and Beliefs

I've been in a conundrum lately.

I would really like to step outside of Politics and political discussions, I'd like to leave behind any need to help correct, inform, or otherwise influence Others. I would like to let go of any outcomes of any sort, personal or planetary. But I'm not there yet. I need to evolve further to get to that point. But isn't that the whole point of it?

I've been seeing a lot about "Haters" and other extremely prejudiced individuals, and seeing the direct results of their attitudes manifested in the media. Now I wouldn't mind how someone thinks, except that those of such an extreme mindset (especially those who call themselves hardcore "Born Again Christians") somehow feel the need to convert -- through words, laws and/or violence -- any others who Don't Believe 'as they do.'

What came to me this morning (well, parts have come over the last few years), is the reiteration of Whatever you believe, you Create; "By your actions they shall know you."  And by their actions you can know them.

Homophobic? Probably don't like those nasty urges to look at/be around other men (usually), and so place their fear and hatred safely outside of themselves. They also like to torture others for their crimes against man-hoodity.

I just read tonight however, of one Born Again Man who (on having one of his best friends come out to him as a lesbian) decided after years of hatred of 'homos' to become a 'gay man' for a year (to walk in another man's shoes)/sandals) and had his entire attitude change as a result. He became more tolerant, and reversed his years of discrimination. So change can occur.

“Religious Freedom”

There has been a cry on the Religious Right for some time now that “Christians” are being “persecuted” – both here in the States and around the world. As if this was a recent event, and that it is totally and completely uncalled for and must be stopped.

While true that the early Christians were persecuted (first by the Jews as an heretical outcropping of Judaism), and then later by the Romans (who saw the new religion as subversive to the State of Rome – indeed, the Cross was the Roman form of punishment for Sedition Against Rome), religious persecution of “Christians” has only been on the rise recently, and then mostly in conflict with Islam.

Now “Christians” persecuting those with Other Religious Belief Systems has been around for almost as long as the Christian Religion has. Since the Nicean Council of 364 “A.D.” the newly formalized (and ‘restructured’) Christian Church began prosecuting (and outright murdering in some cases) any who did not believe The One True Faith. This was particularly true for the Jews, who the Church began calling the “Killers of Christ” from an early time, leading up to the Grand Inquisition.  Working to ‘convert’ “heathen” to the Church, many were either force converted (upon pain of death) and then continued their practice in secrecy (the Ladino tradition in Spain), or killed during the ‘conversion’ process. Many of those screaming “Christian Persecution” choose not to remember who was persecuting whom for most of Church history.

 “Religious Freedom” does not mean the Freedom to impose Your Religion on Others. It means just that, the Individuals Freedom to believe in and practice the Religion of their choice. This has not however, been the case in the past, and it is not the desire or implication of those who cry loudest for Their “Religious Freedom.”

"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.

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.

No Super Solutions; just another Super Logjamb

A recent poll of Americans brought out something that by now should be very apparent to even those most resistant to facts and figures (you know who these Amuricans are): Congress' general approval rating has dropped to 9%, lower than the number of people in the country wanting a communist make-over of the government. And since the conservative branch of the Houses of Congress have seen to it that the moderate members of their Party were cut down in the fury of Tea Party madness,  there is no balance beam there to help bring about any stabilizing influence in this equation/rating.

But those of the Far Right of the political spectrum seem to still be blaming the Democrats for this decline. Why is it so hard for them to realize and acknowledge that the less advantaged of the Country need to be paying less than Those Who Can most afford it to pay their fair share of taxes to do so. They have the battle cry of They Need to Compromise with Us, when the whole idea of compromise is that both sides give up something and that the process not just be a unilateral sided one.

And the idea of a flat tax being resurrected by the Republican Party hopefuls will only further redistribute the burden once again to Those Who Can't Afford It. Most of the "solutions" that Conservative produce and heavily promote, only serve to entrench the status quo of the 1%, and further entrench the 99% in an ever increasing spiral of poverty. Going back to 1950's solutions is not a solution.

I would say to those of the extreme Conservative end of the political spectrum that if they don't want to see the Occupy Wall Street movement flooding into the streets of Middle America, I would highly suggest that they start to find solutions that actually represent compromise, and to right this economic Titannic before the Iceberg of public outcry extends even to those who are now loyal to the agenda of the Far Right which this Committee so obviously embodied.

And I would also say to the Conservative Wing of the 99%; wait till your job is taken away, and you find out which Far Eastern County it's been shipped to. Perhaps that might be a wake-up call to them. Then they might finally understand what the Occupy Movement is all about.

And then again, probably not. 'Don't confuse me with the facts! I know what's right!'

The Time is now to enact Real Change -- before...

The Battle Against Public Broadcasting

Sarah Palin said while discussing the issue on Fox News: "NPR, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, all those kind of 'frivolous' [quotes and bold bloggers editing] things that government shouldn't be in the business of funding with tax dollars — those should all be on the chopping block as we talk about the $14-trillion debt that we're going to hand to our kids and our grandkids ... Yes, those are the type of things that for more than one reason need to be cut."

Yes. Those are the types of things that need to be cut. Like the influence of the Billionaire Kock Brothers who are behind the Tea Party and all their Minions. Like the fact that Corporate America owns America, and the intellectual giants of the Tea Party someone think that if the Billionaires are spared from paying taxes, eventually they will be too. (Or more ridiculously yet, that when They, the [Tea party] People become million- and billionaires, then they won't have to pay taxes.) Other People (the Liberals, the 'Coloreds' and everybody else but Them) will take care of paying the way for "Loyal Americans." This is the heartless and souless beliefs of the so-called "Legacy" People: i.e. the "Original Americans" meaning White Landowning Gentry.

Yes, the Far Right believes that Everybody Else (but Them) should pay taxes so they don't have too.

So, taking away NPR/PBS is about not funding "frivolous things." Right?

No. it's about trying to make NPR defunct so that the "frivolous" broadband radio and television blocks currently 'misused' by Public Broadcasting can then be bought up and used for 'usefull' purposes: like andditional channels for FOX News and other Right Wing Media Outlets.

It's about castrating investigation into the highjacking of democracy by the Billionaires, deleting any 'unnecessary' investigation of Right Wing activities, and last but not least, "fair and balanc[e]"ing the rest of the news waves for Right Americans.

Hold on to your freedoms, because they are about to be annulled.

Step Right Up! Getcher Politician! Unlimited Time Offer!

This is sort of The Devils Bargain, part two, wherein Corporate America is Old Scratch getting Politicians to sell their souls (hey, wait! is that a contradiction?). Will Politicians in this new age of chicanery start acknowledging their Corporate Overlords with "brought to you by..." messages at the end of their ads? Or how about wearing proudly the logos of their Corporate Sponsors on their jackets, like the NASCAR's do?

Why not? As long as they're going to be bought and sold to the highest bidder, they might as well be proud of it. After all, NASCAR drivers are. Do they really think that the (left leaning) public interest groups (probably next on the Corporate Supreme Court  hit list no doubt) won't be able to find out?

And now it seems that the Conflict of Interest with "The Supremes" grows deeper. Justice Thomas'  wife has been a paid "consultant" to the Heritage Foundation and other Right Wing groups that are behind the Buying and Selling of America.

Now the Members of the Supreme Court are supposed to be above reproach. They are also supposed to recuse themselves when cases come before the Court in which they have a vested interest: such as Virginia Thomas receiving payment from, and helping to found another, organization (or two) with which the Court is in active litigation involving said organization.

The main backers of most of the Far Right and their actions (from the Tea Party to "Citizens United" are two oil baron brothers, the Kock (pronounce Cook) brothers, who BTW are funding a Billionaires Retreat on how to finish taking over the country this weekend in Palm Springs. Both Justices Scalia and Thomas have spoken at these retreats in the past  Considering that the Koch brothers created "Citizens United," that is so clearly a Conflict 0f Interest that the whole "Citizens United" case would be thrown out -- except in this case, the Supreme Court is the last place a case goes in this country. Oh, well, so much for democracy.

So, Fart Proudly*, I say! Step right up (or is that Step Right up?) and stand proud for who you represent. The American People? Hell, no. Only the disembodied Corporate ones (you know? the ones recognized by Law as living forever?) however. No need to acknowledge those "Little People" ever again. They don't count, anyway.

[* The title of an essay by Benjamin Franklin.  "Fart Proudly, because you're an American." (When once that name, American, actually meant something.]

They Say...

In a recent set of editorials in the LA Times on the events in Tucson, one said that there was no connection between the Right Wing and the killer, Jared Loughner. The author also went on to say that there was no connection between the various Bird Deaths that have been taking place around the world and anything of apocalyptic content.

The other one said that just because Sarah Palin put various members of the Opposition Party in cross hairs, it had nothing really to do with the killings either. That if that were the case, then all the Media depicting killing, whether films or games, would have produced a rash of other killings. We wouldn't want to start censoring Hollywood, would we?

The idea of Connections, that certain events do not necessarily have any connection with actual events, is getting thinner. Just simply because One can't see connections, doesn't mean that they aren't there.

And connecting Sarah Palin with her propaganda of putting real humans in the cross hairs of rifle sites, and entertainment (however bloody), is not approriate. Yes, they have the same connotations, but one is real and the other imagination; they can both 'inspire' the mentally unbalanced to acts that have real world consequences, but the rhetoric of Palin and the Far Right is not falling on deaf ears, but eager ones.

The second editorialist would not want to go towards implicating FOX News and all of the other Far Right Pundits in his call for potential censorship, but he was obviously only going after That Other Side of Politics, claiming 'bigotry' and 'hypocracy' on the Left. "Fair and Balanced" my--

Second Amendment Wrongs

Once again a sick act of monstrous proportions has happened by a member of the hard right wing of the "Republican" Party. Someone has taken his version of 'The Law' into his own hands, feeling fully justified from his mentally skewed  perspective that Might makes Right, and he was Right. Now a number of members of the other party and several innocent bystanders are dead.

He sited (apparently) the Ad from Sarah Palin's political action committee (called SARAHpac) that has a hit list of those of members of Congress they want to 'take out' with targets on the various states where these 'hits' are supposed to take place. They (the Right Wing) will say that Palin's illustration had nothing to do with the actions committed on Saturday.

But it's sickly ridiculous that the Far Right site their freedom of speech to say whatever they want (even to the point of incitement to murder), and then move to curtail anyone else's who doesn't believe as they do. This has now reached its peak in this outright incitement of its most "Incitement to Riot" is the political equivalent of shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater (the furthest extent of Freedom of Speech allowed in our society).

They who shout the loudest of their Second Amendment Right to Bear Arms, are usually the ones using those arms to exact the 'vengeance of the Lord' or just out to make their mark on society. Those who champion this 'right' are usually the first ones to use those "constitutionally protected" weapons on others.

No amount of apologies or condolences by Palin and her Ultra-Right Wing ilk over the next few days will bring back the lives of the 9 year-old and the others killed on Saturday. No amount of justification can be used, for this act and those surely to follow (copycats portraying themselves as "patriots"). And no amount of spinning this into left wing conspiracy theater on the TV and radio shows of the Neo-Con and just plain Con wing of the nuthouse party, will be able to erase the blood stain on the Republican Party (the God Offal Party). 

Sarah Palin and all the others (hear me, FOX?) who spout this crackpot form of 'free speech' should all be held as coconspirators to murder, as well as incitement to murder, both of which are 'assesory before the fact ' in Capital murder cases.  They can justify these acts as "righteous vengeance of the Lord" all they want. But murder is still murder, no matter what the cause.

"It's Time to Take a Stand," says the ad. I say that for Palin and her kind, it's time to take The Stand and answer for her crime.