05/10/2013
04/15/2013
Denying Civil Rights, Personal Freedom, and Personal Dignity Is Homophobic And Selfish.
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Be Careful Of The "Truth" You Hear And Read; Be More Careful Of Who You Trust And Believe.
I grew up in a part of small Black America of the south. During those formative years I overheard a few adult Black men attempt to validate many an argument with a simple statement: "I read it in the book". I assumed they believed that if it were published in a book or written in publications like magazines and newspapers, then it had to be true.
At the time, it didn't occur to me and apparently to some Black men in my little corner of Black America--who were, for the most part, denied education and whose little Black children, like me, were given the second class education that a Jim Crow America provided Black children--that books would be filled with lies. Of course, that fantasy was eradicated even in my little black part of the south by the time the Civil Rights Movement were in full swing.
Today, many years later, a Culture of Lies by authors and especially religious and political pundits still exist. Some magazines and newspaper publications, authors, and pundits lie unabashedly and unnecessarily except for whatever serves their political, racist, and economic agenda--most of which are in vile opposition to the poor, the working class, and the middle class of both white and black America.
Still a gullible public eats it up because the lies and innuendo told them often appeal to their emotions, their, hate, their greed, and their fears. But what can we expect from an American Public where even white children of working class families and white children of middle class families are prevented from a public education that promotes intelligent discussion, legitimate science, the scientific method, discerning debate, critical thinking, a passion for truth, and a morality of truth?
Much of this condition is made worse by a relentless attack on public education, critical thinking, and the demonizing of legitimate science and the scientific method by a vile and greedy conservative faction in America. The apparent irony, though I never should have seen it as such, is that this was ever possible in an American Democracy, at least not to the white middle class and even their white working class sisters and brothers.
Today, many years after I heard those "I read it in the book" comments, given the fact that fewer Americans even read books, magazine journals, and newspapers, and even fewer can find good and accurate journalism, "I read it in the book has been replaced by "I saw it on the internet", "I saw it on TV", and "I heard it on the radio". Unfortunately, the validity and realibility of information received from these three sources are given by too many pundits and poor but sometimes good journalists who are too willing to lie to America for money and for the purpose of promoting political, religious, and economic agenda--which they also do for money and for no other reason.
Fox News is frequently called out for making false and misleading statements to it viewers. They don't care. Rush Limbaugh is as blatant a fabricator of fake outrage and fake "truth" as anyone. And the amount of false rhetoric coming from many pulpits on Sunday mornings is a blight on Christianity and a desecrecration of The Christ whose name they invoke.
All of the above notwithstanding, it is still incumbent upon us to receive as much information from a many sources as we can. But we should do it with a discerning eye, a discerning ear, and the intelligence of a critical thinker--no matter the source.
In other words, be careful of the "truths" you hear and read. But, be more careful of who you trust and who you believe.
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04/12/2013
When Men Write History Do Women Become Second Class Humans?
She raised an interesting question. "About that Garden of Eden story, at the creation of our birthing kind, which would a Rational Intelligent Being create first--one who could give birth or one who could not? But that's what happens when men write all of the acceptable history, especially when that history masquerades as Religion or, worse, masquerades as the word of God."
It is an interesting question, not the same as but not too far astray from "which came first, the chicken or the egg." Of course, if they were seperate events, we likely can never know. But those who regard the Bible as the word of God, "know" that Adam, the man, was created first. They also "know" that God saw that the man was lonely. That God took a rib from the man and created the Woman Eve, a helpmate for the man. "But that's what happens when men write history; everything is about man, man's superiority over women, and women attending to man's needs. Is that an intelligent design?"
The implications are many--some more poignant than others. Here are a few.
1. Without the man, the woman would not exist--no rib, no woman.
2. The woman is less than the man because she was created from a part of him--obviously a part he did not need.
3. God created the woman because the man was lonely and needed a companion and helpmate--not an equal partner, but a companion to help the man and give solace to his loneliness.
4. Without the existence of the woman, there likely would be no sin. For as the story goes, it is the woman who was seduced by a beautiful serpent to disobey God, to eat the forbidden fruit, and to entice the man to do the same.
5. At the introduction of sin in the Garden of Eden, the man and woman realized they were naked, were ashamed of being naked, and covered up themselves.
6. Because they had sinned. God expelled the man and women from the Garden of Eden and denied them the previous gift of eternal life on Earth.
Of course, number 5 may have been a good thing. (Written, tongue firmly planted in cheek) Without the knowledge that they were naked, they may not have realized their sexual differences and the human species would have become extinct because sexual reproduction obviously wasn't in the picture as a part of human Creation.
That last part obviously isn't true. All mortal species have some form of sexual reproduction. But suppose that the male-female dyad necessary for sexual reproduction, per the human design, were not created or evolved concurrently. Which would a Rational Intelligent Being Create first, one who could give birth or one who could not?
It is an interesting question; but not when men write history.
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01/26/2013
Embarrassment Chronology: Psycho - History Of A Small Black God.
They laughed when he fell down, or when his shirt was torn, or when he wore no shoes or socks, or when his haircut was different from the rest. And he was embarrassed. Because He didn't understand why.
They laughed when monosyllabic words became stuttering redundacies. And they said he talked funny. And he was embarrassed. Because he did.
They enjoyed calling him names like skinny, slim, and bony. And they said the wind could blow him over. And he was embarrassed. Because they had said it.
They repeatedly asked him where he came from and laughed when he answered. And they said: "where is that? It must be a very small place". And he was embarrassed. Because it was.
Through it all, he smiled a lot and said hello to strangers because he felt happy. And they ridiculed him and said he was immature and acted like a country boy. And he was embarrassed. Because being a country boy was an embarrassment.
Some people spat and cursed when they saw him. They taunted him and called him names like darky, jungle bunny, and nigger. And sometimes a laughing carload of them would run him off the road and the sandspurs would penetrate his bare feet. And he was embarrassed. Because he was afraid.
Once he dreamed as he slept and the dream made him look back over all the years. And he struggled to wake up. Because the dream was painful. But the dream would not be ignored. Because it was time for truth. He had lived too long with a lie.
And he saw embarrassment for the weight it was. A self defeating, irrlevant feeling. An apology for not wanting to hurt anyone. An apology for being. A rejection of himself. A suicidal ploy designed by fools, politicians, and social manipulators who knew what they were doing. The end result of a human conspiracy that stripped him of his defenses and immobilized his aggression. The consummation of a trick employed by racists who did their best to make him believe that he and people like him were zeros. Nothing.
And the knowledge of his embarrassment chronology made him want to cry. But he was embarrassed. So he became angry instead. And the dream left him. Sleep released him. And he felt strange in the darkness. Because he felt free.
And they laughed when he fell down or when his shirt was torn or when he wore no shoes or socks or when his haircut was different from the rest. So with a stutter he mouthed a very long profanity, even when he was afraid. Because it made him feel free. Because it wasn't an apology. And soon he stopped falling and he wore whatever he liked. And he stopped cutting his hair.
And they laughed when a simple word became a stuttering redundancy. So with a stutter he mouthed the longest profanity the world had ever heard. And he smiled. Because the stuttering stopped. And he wasn't afraid anymore.
And they enjoyed callling him names like skinny, slim, and bony. And they said the wind might blow him away. And he didn't care anymore. Because being skinny neither defined nor negate him. And his flesh grew, filling him out lean and hard. Because he was meant to be beautiful.
And they asked him from whence he came. So he answered quickly. Beat them at asking their silly questions and refused to defer to their laughter. Because from whence he came wasn't important.
And he forgot to smile a lot and replaced the soft lines with hard lines because he had grown hostile and bitter. So people and things avoided him and wouldn't converse with him. Because his words cut deep and made his lips form a cruel smile. So they said he was crazy. And he laughed. Because maybe he was.
And they said his ancesters were black savages, ignorant, lewd, unskilled, lazy, and immoral. And he said bullshit. No more lies. Because he had cloaked himself with the truth. And he held his head up. Because Black was beautiful. And he was Black. Not a darky or a nigger, or even a Negro anymore. Black! And he raised a brown fist. Because the movement had ended , but the fight had just begun.
And they pointed their fingers at a stranger whose complexion was darker, like his. And they laughed when the stranger stumbled in a hate filled place. So he reached out, gave the stranger his hand, and refused to be embarrassed. And he felt good. Because the stranger smiled. And the laughter stopped. Or when it didn't it was forced and fake. Because the trick was over.
And he felt a sense of euphoria. Because he realized the stranger could have cursed him. The laughter could have grown to a crescendo. And he wouldn't hav cared. Because embarrassment was a sickness. And he wasn't sick.
And he participated in desegregation. Because it was the thing to do. Because that is what the movement had been about. So they pretended to accept him and tried to make him a house nigger. But he refused. so they said he was too sensitive and that he sometimes hurt the feelings of good white people. And he flinched. Because it was sometimes true. But he hurt, too. Because he let them catch him off guard. So he sometimes hurt the feelings of good white people. Because he couldn't afford not to.
And he used his power when he had it. And faked it when he didn't. And learned how to control. So they rebuked him and called him a powermonger. And he was amused. Because a powermonger was nothing. Any body could be one, and often is at one time or another. But he was destined to be more. and they wished they could change him. Because they knew it.
And he watched them with a Mona Lisa smile transformed onto his ugly beautiful face and prepared for the day:
When he would sing.
When he would lead.
When he would play.
But wouldn't plead.
When he would be king.
Or a small black god.
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01/21/2013
Right Wing Conservatives And A Culture Of Lying
Right wing sanctimony aside, America, especially conservative America, revels in a culture of lying. So it came as no surprise that many in the media had a jolly good time excoriating and making fun of Manti Te'o after learning that the Notre Dame's celebrated linebacker's girlfriend he mentioned so often in interviews was not real. Many were disappointed and some were outraged that a football player from a storied football team and a reputable institution of higher education like Notre Dame would "perpetuate a hoax" about having girlfriend who had died.
However, before we continue to heap more insults and disappointment on Notre Dame and on Manti Te'o, America should take a closer look at an American culture of lying that validates lies if they support an influential political group's point of view. Conservative Republicans were adamant during the political campaign that lies told during the campaign were appropriate because the ends justify the means. American apparently hold athletes--especially minority athlete--to a higher standard of truth than it does many other in the public view. We expect them to be role models.
We hold athletes to a higher standard of behavior and truth than we hold political pundits who emit influencing rhetoric to millions daily. We hold athletes to a higher standard of behavior and veracity than we do politician who affect our liberty, education, social conditions, health, and economic welfare.
But what are we telling our children when we celebrate some liars and the lies they tell as if they were true? What are we telling our children when we celebrate a liar as if he were a king without blemishes? We validate that a lie is OK if it promotes a political agenda or religious theology. We validate that a liar can be celebrated as a valued celebrity--indeed become wealthy--if he or she has a large enough audience that embraces their lies.
Children are not stupid. Because of a broken and purposely underfunded public education system, America's children may be lacking in an education that values critical thinking and the social moral values of truth, justice, and equality, but they are not socially stupid. Children know that if it weren't for lies that play into the fears, anger, and hate of his audience--many of their parents among them--Rush Limbaugh would not have a popular radio show. Children know that Fox News routinely lie about everything that is not consistent with a right wing conservative point of view or does not promotes a right wing conservative Republican Party agenda of division, fear, and hate.
So, if America wants its youth to value the truth, America should not value the lie. An America that values the truth would have been outraged when leaders in the Republican party declared that they were not going to let facts get in the way of their political campaign of 2012.
Fox News claims to be fair and balanced. To be sure, we acknowledge that there is nothing unfair about consistently presenting your point of view. However, it is wrong, morally irresponsible, unfair, and decidedly unbalanced when every presentation is based on lies, half-truths, and lies about your lies.
Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and other conservative pundits consistently and repeatedly lie about President Barack Obama. Most of our youth are at least capable of seeing through this culture of lying. What they do with this knowledge is not always predictable. But don't be surprised when it morphs into something that even right wing conservatives would call evil.
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01/09/2013
Why Do Poor Conservatives Defend Selfish Greedy Rich Men?
Some people consider it a pathos of monumental proportions that so many avowed conservatives in the poor working class and working middle class raise their angry voices in defense of "vulnerable" billionaires who have to pay Federal taxes. Others consider it laughable to the point of obscene ridicule that poor men and women who are heads of poor families would so strongly come to the defense of wealthy families who are anything but vulnerable and who, more often than not, couldn't care less about poor conservatives and their poor children.
Little people from the poor, working class and middle class pay a higher federal tax rate than the rich. In fact, the super wealthy revel in the belief that only little people pay federal taxes. I considered it one of the great mysteries of life that the poor in America defends the rich as if their lives depended on it. It's a crooked and poorly defined sense of self. But, upon further consideration, perhaps it is not much of a mystery at all but just one more of the many defects in the deep psychological design of human beings.
With few exceptions, filthy rich men and women, mega-rich or ultra-rich if you prefer, hold poor families and the working class in low esteem. Oh, they may like some poor working class individuals, but generally they have little regard or empathy for the class in which that individual belong. There were white slave owners during slavery in America and white bosses during the Jim Crow era in America who hated niggers but who "loved" an individual slave, maid, or gardner "like family". In general, however, the wealthy neither love, respect, nor have much need for members of the working class class beyond the services they provide.
I am reminded of a newspaper article in which two teenage boys from "rich" families caused an accident racing their hot cars one night on a U.S. highway that traversed the city. They were not injured but their actions killed two "lower class" teenage boys who were driving across the highway in an older car--unaware that the headights they saw in the distance would be upon them so quickly because they were being approached at racing speed.
When some in the city were outraged over the way those two boys were killed, the rich mother of one of the boys allegedly said: "Why is everyone so upset over these two death? These were poor kids!"
The rich have always held comtempt and lorded it over the poor. Even in America the rich have, for the most part, exhibited callous disregard, disdain, and greed towards the poor and the not-so-poor; including what once had been a large and proud white middle class. But too many poor conservatives just don't get it. Neither do many in the white middle class, which grew only when organized labor through the strength of unions began protecting workers from rich men who took advantage of them and their poor children. So how and why does it work?
When asked why they defend the rich and the wealthy's attempt to avoid paying federal taxes, many poor conservatives will proudly and unabashedly reveal that they expect to be rich one day and want their money protected from "the government" and "lazy immigrants, lazy blacks, and lazy liberals wanting handouts", an interesting concept since most of them and their poor kids or members of their poor families are recipients of government assistance. But without the requisite skills, ideas, funding, and drive required to become rich, most will never reach that goal. While the existence of the lottery in the USA will make a small number of Americans "rich" every year, most of those from the poor working class will again be poor and in debt within five years or less.
But the real reason the poor defend the rich is more is more insiduous than that. The poor is generally less educated and more needy. It is what help make most of them poor. And whether they know it or not, most look up to and look to the rich for salvation. Being less educated, and purposely kept that way by the predatory wealthy, the poor have less knowledge and do less critical thinking. Hence, they see fewer options both emotional, social, economical, and intellectual. And they are easily distracted away from the real reasons for their plight with hate, division, fear, superstitution, false moraity, and false science.
Further, without the benefit of critical thinking, which an education that placed value on critical thinking among other intellectual pursuits as well as making a living, they are led to believe that only selfish greedy rich men have their best interest at heart. And they believe it is the rich who will lead them out of their misery. Who wouldn't defend someone who could make them believe those promises--even if it is a lie?
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01/01/2013
What Is It About Black Men That Makes Some White Americans Lose Their Mind?
An inability to engage in rational introspection is a serious personality defect. Consequently, when it comes to race, some white Americans seem to have lost their mind. Before the election, a Texas Republican predicted that if President Barack Obama won a second term, America would erupt in civil war. He didn't expound on who would be fighting who.
Nevertheless, in the days following the re-election of President Barack Obama, white "Christians" all across America were late for choir rehearsals, bible study, prayer meetings, and other church related activities because white christian homeowners were taking part in neighborhood watch meetings in preparation for a race war they expected but, in fact, which only white people could start.
Failure to recognize that kind of behavior as a kind of mass psychotic hysteria is just one more debilitating flaw in the psyche of White America that seemingly prefers national suicide to the acceptance of national diversity.
In fairness, corrupted ancestral histories dating back more than 400 years can make white people believe things about race and race relations that were never true. And it can make white Americans easily forget the atrocities committed by their forefathers that they, even given the uncomfortableness of it all, should not forget. The idea of interracial sex between a black man and a white woman often ended with the lynching of a black man--even if it were the wrong black man and even if the white woman gave consent.
I once said to an elderly Black Man, "getting old is a bitch isn't it?" To which he replied, " No. It's just inconvenient." And so it is with many white Americans. Race, racism, and America's racial history in general and Black Men in particular, are all very inconvenient. Rather than admit it, however,many white Americans simply surrender to their hate, their fears, and their guilt and prepare for a racial war or civil war that only they are likely to start, if in fact it starts at all.
Meanwhile, in the throes of all this mass hysteria, many white Americans keep wondering what went wrong when one of their own went off the deep end and committed mass killings and serial murders of others like them.
Some engage in communal flagellation and beating their moral chest on the loss of humanity. Other stand in a moral blog and claim that acts of mass violence by another white man against his own kind is the result of America penchant for giving up some of its "right" to deny some groups in America their constitutional right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness regardless of their ethnic, sexual, racial, religious, and other personal or group affiliations.
But the answer is very simple, America. All you have to do is turn off the lights and look into the mirror. What you will see are the demons that got you into this quandry. White supremist groups still make some white men lose their mind over the idea of liberals allowing interracial sex between Niggers and white women.
The likes of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, among others, have made white people angry with and scared of, among other things, interracial sex, Hispanics, LGBTs, women, and their own government. And they rail against the liberals they believed allowed it to happen.
But the moment white people really have to be afraid of their own government, then our democracy is lost. And our loss of democracy will have had its genesis with too many white men and women who chose to deny and ignore the constitution of the United States of America and the constitutional rights of American citizens who are not like them or who they otherwise do not like.
So you can let conservative pundits continue to convince you to go out and buy guns in mass numbers in preparation for the race war, or the civil war if you like, that only white people in mass numbers can start. But remember, if you fight the government of The United States Of America, you will be crushed. A national power that can initiate and sustain wars on many fronts on foreign soil can certainly sustain itself long enough to crush the wrath of a few mad white militia on American soil.
So, go buy your guns, if you must. Rant and rave to your heart's content. Say Nigger as many times as it takes to solace the stupefying madness in your head. But let go of the civil war bit. It is bad for America. But it will be worse for you.
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12/29/2012
Angry White Men Should Stop Trusting The Source of Their Discontent
The working title for this post: "What do white men have to be angry about?" was rendered obsolete when I admitted that poor, working class, and middle class white men have plenty about which to be fearful and angry. Unfortunately , for many of them, their anger is not directed at the source of their discontent.
After the 2012 political campaign, Republicans and conservative pundits were nonplus in their reactions to the belief that they had not created enough "angry white men." But it was not because they did not try. Rush Limbaugh has gotten wealthy creating angry white men and angry white women.
The pundits at Fox News are almost as good at doing the same thing. But they have to work much harder at it because we can see their faces. And evidently, many of the conservative pundits at Fox News are inclined to lie without conviction and say things they intellectually and morally know are not true. That kind of dissonance eventually takes a toll on even the most highly paid messengers of false and fake news, talking points, and commentary.
But money trumps everything, including truth and genuine morality. So, true to their calling, Republicans in state and federal government along with their conservative confederates on television and radio, rather than offer intelligent discourse, ideas, and solutions, instead used lies, false morality, and divisive talking points to create fear and anger in conservative white men and white women. They stuck to this premise in the belief that an angry white conservative base of scared and angry white men and women was large enough to swing the tide toward conservative chaos.
It almost worked. Many angry white conservatives directed their fear and anger towards the "government", minorities, illegal immigrants, LGBTs, Barack Obama, liberals, democrats, women, affordable health care, the poor, senior citizens, non-christians, medicare, jobless benefits, social security recipients, and a host of other groups--many of which angry white men and white women were themselves members and recipients of benefits.
But other angry white men and women saw through this audacious bid by Republicans and their conservative cohorts to direct anger and mistrust of the white middle class away from the power behind their discontent. They realized that their anger was misdirected and they needed to stop listening to and trusting the divisive sources of their discontent. The logic is very simple if one doesn't let hate and other unbridled debilitating emotions get in the way.
I. Wealthy white men, the infamous 1%, control most of what has political and economic power in America. They have done everything in their power to keep wealth and power in the hands of a few white men--even to the point of not letting the truth nor the Constitution of The United States of America get in the way. It is a very small society. Ninety-nine percent (99%) of white men--poor, working class, middle class, fringe groups, and white men making less than $250,000 and more-- are not members and are not invited. Indeed they are made to suffer because they don't belong. Neverthess they are still perpetually and relenlessly prodded and convinced to be angry at everyone but powerful white men who do not respect them or like them and refuse to tell them that they no longer have skills that they need or can't find cheaper in other countries.
II. Other angry white men realized that they have a right to be angry but were able to direct the souce of their anger towards the manipulative source of their discontent. They became angry at wealthy white business men, the super rich often are wealthy greedy CEOs, and wealthy conservative Republican politicians who, from a long list of other atrocities:
1. Destroyed American business and corporations and sent jobs to china and other places overseas.
2. Fought to deny Americans affordable health care.
3. Denied their mothers, wives, and daughters equal pay for the same work as men.
4. Voted against the Violence Against Women Act and sought to deny their wives, mothers, and daughters the right to get an abortion for any reason, including violent rape.
5. Blocked bills that would have provided jobs for veterans and other working class and middle class American workers to help rebuild and strengthen America's infrastructure.
6. Worked to destroy unions and orgainzed labor that protects American Workers, especially the white middle class.
Yes, men and women of the white middle class and the white working class have a lot about which they should be angry. But they should be fearful and less trusting of right wing conservative pundits and congressional members, most of whom are on the Republican side of the aisle who spit out divisive talking points and offer no cogent plans or intelligent discourse to move America forward. Nor do they offer any contributions to a diverse America whose every citizen only want to exercise their constitutional right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
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11/24/2012
Is The Political Soul Of America One Of Hope And Change Or Doom And Gloom?
The power to triumph over adversity is an innate gift to every person and by extension to every group and nation. On the surface, this may appear to be a well-meaning but cruel lie. Adversity and, for some, diversity can feel overpowering.
Many young couples express doubt about the sanity of conceiving children in a world that appears destined for suicidal destruction. Others, all but ignoring the foolishness of most of their outlandish options, express doubt about living in a nation where so many diverse opinions are in conflict with their own and so many diverse people are in conflict with their image of themselves and of the America they call their own.
We frequently feel surrounded by chaos, lies, the incompetence and the treachery of those seeking office and holding power in decision-making positions that affect our lives. Even though rhetoric abounds suggesting that humankind is moving inexorably towards an international embrace of democracy and peace, we still live under the threat of nuclear holocaust. Secular and religious leaders are still willing to lie to, steal from, and abuse the nation they purport to want to lead, serve, and protect.
Even if men spared Earth a nuclear holocaust, many of us live in fear of economic failure, of terrorism, and the threat of social violence bordering on anarchy--sometimes from the very voices that claim to be the most patriotic and staunch supporters of democracy.
The political, military, and police actions of a country's political factions are often a nation's greatest peril. Because of political actions and political and religious rhetoric, life for the many who desire opportunity and equality for all is a relentless assault against our sensibilities. It is for these reasons that we affirm the revitalizing and energizing power of hope and change and prefer it to the debilitating destruction of doom and gloom.
In every individual soul and in the soul of every nation are two important forces. One is intrinsic, a gift from Creation. The other is learned, and more often than not, is a gift from someone who assumed responsibility for us when we were young. For the soul of a young nation that formed The United States of America, that responsibility was assumed by the brave intelligent men who framed our Constitution and our Declaration of Independence.
Sometimes, however, the powerful force that rescue us from the harbingers of doom and gloom can simply be a gift to yourself, or in the national sense, a gift to ourselves.
The first force is the resilient power of self preservation. The latter force is the resilient power nurtured by intelligence, discipline, perseverance, hope, and an aversion to lies and deceit. The power of self-preservation is a gift from our creator. Discipline, hope, perseverance, and an intelligent aversion to lies and deceit is an essential part of every person and every nation's ability to learn, to adapt, to grow, and to ward off the evils of arrogance, delusion, division, hate, and the messengers of doom and gloom.
Disappointment in personal and political expectations that causes a person and any parts of a nation to live lives smoldering in fear, arrogance, anger, and hate creates within our bodies and within the soul of our national psyche an environment that sustains fertile ground for many of the maladies that result in diseases, debilitation, giving up, and of being without meaningful direction.
But the human brain has a very powerful feature that helps us to maintain a healthy happiness. It will accept positive thoughts as perceptive solutions to problems and will use those positive inputs to alleviate the pain of stress, and the stress of diversity and adversity.
When the forces of truth, hope, discipline, perseverance, and self preservation are in us, the power to overcome adversity and the stress of diversity is an inherent part of a powerful and happy nation. For the sanity and sanctity of these United States of America it is important that Americans keep hope alive and well.
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11/08/2012
Can We Unite The United States Of America For America's Sake?
Late Tuesday night I tweeted "Congratulations to Mitt Romney for a gracious and patriotic concession speech." Later I was reminded that generally every losing presidential candidate gives a gracious patriotic concession speech. Al Gore, John Kerry, and John McCain, before Mitt Romney, gave America the same kind of concession speech. And even though the tenor of his short speech was not congruent with the Mitt Romney we saw most often during the presidential campaign, it was still a good move on his part and much better than the bitter retort to the American people's re-election of President Barack Obama that he could have given.
We can hope that Mr Romney's farewell to the 2012 presidential campaign is a step towards compromise and the unification of America's leaders on both sides of the political aisle. Unification for the benefit of America, no matter how difficult and unseeming that is, is a needed commodity in the legislative and executive branches in both federal and state government.
We understand the desire of every political party to better position itself for the next election. But if members of the conservative right, the teaparty, and the Republican party really love America, they must suspend the rhetoric that divides the American people into fighting camps.
We cannot spend the next four years the same way we spent the last four years. House majority leaders cannot persist in the battle-cry of the last four years that "We want Obama to fail even if it means America fails." That kind of rhetoric and philosophical positioning reeks of sedition and treason. Congressional leaders in the Senate and in the House of Representatives can't behave like seditionists and obstructionists and still call themselves true patriots who love America and believe in the American Dream.
As a Black child growing up in the south, my friend Craig remembers adults in his community repeating the adage that "the white man can't keep us down in the ditch without staying down there too." It's a lesson that should not be lost on America.
Americans who are true patriots know that:
1. A divided United States of America is not a united America. And an America that is divided and incapable of compromise is not a strong America and cannot be a strong America.
2. The American people must have hope. Spreading doom and gloom has no value for a healthy America. No one can be happy in an America filled with doom and gloom and without hope for a better tomorrow for themselves and their children.
3. Creating jobs, bringing outsourced jobs back to the United States of America, along with the re-emergence of a proud and strong middle class are necessary for a healthy strong America.
4. Every citizen and corporation must pay their fair share of taxes because an America that cannot adequately fund itself is not a strong America but a weak America.
5. A legislative body dedicated to doing what is best for America willl not operate on a "my way or no way" agenda. Compromise is essential if our nation is to survive. But, reaching across the aisle is a two-way street.
Hopefully the America of 2012 - 2016 is a strong America of true patriots. To be otherwise is suicidal and uncivilized.
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10/30/2012
Do Republicans Think Women Deserve Abuse and Need To Be controlled?
Women who vote for Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and other Republicans will get what they deserve and it isn't pretty. But this isn't my view, it is theirs. What do Republicans think women deserve? Here are a few examples.
1. Both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have said that if elected, they will get rid of Planned Parenthood. This would leave million of women in America without comprehensive preventative health services such as mammograms for cancer screening along with other sexual health and reproductive health care services.
2. Ryan voted against The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act designed to insure that women received the same pay as men for the same work.
3. Paul Ryan Opposes Abortion even in cases of rape and incest. Ryan has voted 59 times against a woman's right to choose and would rather let a woman die than allow her to have an abortion.
4. Paul Ryan is against the health care law that require insurance companies to cover birth control. Additionally, Ryan would criminalize some forms of birth control.
5. Can't have children naturally? Paul Ryan says that's too bad because he would outlaw in vitro fertilization.
6. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan wants to see Roe v. Wade overturned and Ryan supports penalties for doctors who perform abortions even in the case of rape.
Unfortunately, the deeper you get into the Republican Party the more vile the asssault and war on women become.
1. On the same day that Mitt romney released a television ad endorsing Richard Mourdock, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate declared that preganancy as a result of rape was a "gift from God".
2. The Republican governor of New Mexico requested that the state should require women seeking childcare assistance to prove that they were "forcibly raped".
3.Republican Todd Akins said in an interview that in cases of "legitimate rape" that a women does not become pregnant because women's bodies have the ability to "shut the whole thing down" and prevent pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape." Sharon Barnes a local Republican committewoman defended Akins and said that if a woman becomes pregnant due to "legitimate rape", then "God has blessed this person with a life that should not be taken". Perhaps, she, too, thinks pregnancy by rape is a 'gift from God'.
4. Republican Steve King from Iowa is against birth control and said that "preventing babies from being born is not medicine-- that's not..that's not constructive to our culture and our civilization".
5. New Hampshire Governor Ovide Lamontagne claims he doesn't understand the concept of reproductive rights, "...Whatever those are. "
6. The Senate passed the Violence Against Women Act, but 31 Republican Senators voted against it. Only two Republicans supported the Violence Against women Act.
7. Republican Joe Walsh, Illinois showed complete disdain for disabled Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth when he said "What else has she done? Female, wounded Veteran...ehh."
The list of misogynistic attacks on women by conservatives in the Republican Party's seemingly supports violence against women. Surely a war on women is prolific behavior by Republican politicians and includes, among other abominations, comparing women to farm animals. The idea of women voting for conservative Republicans with attitudes about women that reeks of misogyny is nothing short of mind boggling. However, women should rest assured that if women vote to keep these kind of conservatives politicians in office, they have assurance that the Republican Party will see that "you people" get what you deserve.
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10/10/2012
America Has Never Gotten Over Its Super Nigger Or Unqualified Blacks Syndrome
Some will object to the use of the word Nigger in the title of this post but it is there for two reasons. First, its use is germane to this piece and its conclusions about some views of Barack Obama's performance as President of the United States of America. Secondly, it ignores the pretense that the word isn't prolific in conservations all over America.
My friend Craig was a Negro Child of the 40s and 50s and a Black Product of the 60s and 70s. He did not grow up an angry kid; desegregation made him that way. How? All his young life he had been taught that white people were very smart and that black people had to work extra hard and be super smart black boys and girsl just to compete with even the worse of them. And so he, like a lot of other Negroes, watched with awe and admiration as a few "First Negroes" emerged and were given the chance to compete against superb white talent and white mediocrity. And it motivated many young blacks of his generation to excel at something even if it meant that, because of racism, they might never got a chance to show it.
Of course, the reality of a young intelligent black mind observing the behavior and speech of white people in a small southern town, debunked much of what he had been taught about the intellligence of white people. But the approaching world of desegregation in politics, business, public schools, colleges, and universities loomed before him ready to expose what he had been taught were his inherent black weaknesses. So he approached desegregation with some degree of apprehension about his abilities to compete with the educated people of the "superior race".
But desegregation lifted the cloak of apprehension that had been created by a lie and replaced it with anger. He acknowledge that he met many smart white people. And even admits that some were smarter and more accomplish than he. Of course he had met black people who fit that same description. That wasn't what made him angry. What made him angry was "The Lie". He met too many white professionals, some in important positions, who "were not as smart as (him); "and some who were outright dumb."
And yet he was forced to either accept the fact that even though he was acknowledged as being a "bright young man" by his white superiors and and that he got his training and degrees from the same universities his white counterpart got their degrees, for some reason they wanted him to participate in a "special program for Blacks" if he wanted to move up in the organization.
It was an insult he could not accept. And so he watched whites with less abilities and talent be promoted. And he watched and listened to the media rants about unqualified blacks being promoted under Affirmative Action, however true some of that was. Promoting "unqualified blacks" under the guise of affirmative action was a transparent ploy that, "every competent black person who was passed over could readily see". Hiring "unqualified blacks" was being used by some racist administrators to guarantee failure. It allowed them to say with conviction: "See, affirmative action is a failure. We told you, they couldn't do the job" and by transfer cast the same label on every other black person, whether guilty or not.
So even though Craig had lived most of his life hearing over and over the ludicrous notion that blacks were not qualified to be policemen, firemen, coaches, quarterbacks, bus drivers, airline pilots, teachers of white children, and university students, among other ludicrous notions. There was a flaw in the system. The flaw was the Super Nigger; niggers so talented that even racists couldn't ignore or deny them.
They might not let them live in their neighborhoods or join their clubs, but they would acknowledge their skill set and even accept them if they lived up to expectations and didn't disappoint. But sometimes the bar was set too high for these Super Niggers. They couldn't be just as good as their white counter-parts; they had to be better. And that part of Craig's childhood lessons rang true anyway.
Such is the situation in which President Barack Obama finds himself. When he became president, Mr Obama was expected to be a miracle worker, a Magic Negro, or, if you will, a Super Nigger. Even with die-hard conservative Republicans in the House and Senate actively engaged in obstructionist behavior because they wanted "Obama to fail, even if it means America fails", many Americans who claimed they liked President Obama were disappointed that he did not perform the miracles of a true Super Nigger.
While the countdown on his accomplishments began with the first "100 days" of his presidency, President Obama was expected within 2 or 3 years to dig America out of a hole that it took a Republican administration eight years to create. No president white or black, Republican or Democrat, even with a cooperative congress, could have accomplished that. Expecting him to do it with an obstructionist congress rife with rhetoric, policies and stonewalling behavior bodering on sedition and treason is ludicrous. Still, in spite of all that, Mr Obama has accomplished a lot. But he isn't judged on what he did, he is judged on what conservative obstructionists did not permit him to do. Such is the fate of a Super Nigger.
And the ire of thinking Americans will be worse than Craig's if America decides to put back in the White House the obstructionists who got us into this mess in the first place.
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09/29/2012
What Do The Afghans And The Republican Party Have In Common?
What do the Afghans and the Republican Party have in Common? Both are populated by misogynists actively engaged in a war on women. The tactics, intensity, and outcomes are different, of course, but the intent is the same--to suppress the rights of all women to be protected from controlling and predatory men, to take from women the right to be in control of their own bodies, and to deny women the right to equal pay for the same work as men.
The Republican Party would angrily and vigorously deny this assertion, but the facts contract any denial or disbelief. For example, what Men in Congress, men who represent all American women and who are opposed to the repression of women, would vote against the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2011? Well, to be sure, 31 Republican men in the Senate voted against the Violence Against Women Act.
The Senate passed the Violence Against Women Act, but these 31 Republican men voted against it. John Barrasso (R-WY), Roy Blount (R-MO), John Boozman (R-AR), Richard Burr (R-NC), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Thad Cochran (R-MS), John Corryn (R-TX), Jim DeMint (R-SC), Mike Enzi (R-WY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Orin Hatch (R-UT), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Mike Johanns (R-NE), Rob Johnson (R-WI), John Kyle (R-AZ), Mike Lee
(R-UT), Dick Luger (R-IN), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Rand Paul (R-KY), Jim Risch (R-ID), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Richard Shelby (R-AL), Jim Thune (R-SD), Pat Toomey (R-PA) Roger Wicker (R-MS). Take a close look at the state these 31 Senators represent, with few exceptions, what do they have in common?
All of these Republican Senators claim to have a reason for voting against the Violence Against Women Act. Marco Rubio, Senator from the State of Florida, apparently hating non-sexual assault and battery more than he hates rape, claims he voted against the Violence Against Women Act because it diverts money earmarked for domestic violence to a fund dealing with sexual assault. How Absurd! Does Mr Rubio really want us to believe that rape is not a violent act against women? Does Marco Rubio believe that rape is not violence against women. This line of reasoning reeks of the absurd. And this from a man the Republican Party considers to be one of their shining examples and bright future.
There are many more examples of the GOP war on women, too many to offer here, but available in many other places. Most examples are individual acts and statements made by Republican leaders--which by the way are not gaffe but true sentiments and beliefs of the persons making them. But here is one that comes from the party itself.
The Republican Party Platform, written for all to see, contains this line: "Congress--the Senate through its ratifying power and the House through its appropriating power--shall reject agreements whose long-range impact on the American family is ominous or unclear. These include the U.N. Convention on Women's Rights (and) the convention on the rights of the Child." (Italics, Mine).
Seriously, how can women's rights and the rights of children have an ominous or ulnclear effect on the American family? Surely the Republican Party isn't suggesting that the American family is a patriarcial unit and any attempt to protect women's rights and the rights of their children would be ominous for the patriarch and his control over His family. Or could they?
Is this the America that women want for themselves and their children? Say it isn't so.
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09/26/2012
Lottery Games And The Republican Party are Bad For America But The Lottery Is Better
Lottery Games and the Republican Party are bad for the United States of America. But at least with the lottery you have an equal shot of winning. And for that reason, we say that the lottery is better. It doesn't matter whether you are black or white, rich or poor, Christian, Jew or Muslim, democrat or republican, liberal or right wing conservative, sophisticated urbanite or trailer park redneck; the odds are the same for everyone. Not so with the Republican Party.
Here's the up side of the lottery. The odds of winning PowerBall, the national lottery, is 175, 223,510 to 1--that's 175+ Million to one. But when the jockpot increases, someone eventually wins. The reason for it is fairly simple. When the jackpot is large, more people play, increasing the chance that someone will choose the lucky number. For example, if 40 Million people play an average of 5 plays on PowerBall, that's a total of 200 million plays, thereby increasing the chance of one of the selection being one of the 175 million possibilities.
The down side of the lottery is that in this immediate gratification and get rich quick culture of reality television and the lottery, where even people with no talent can receive fame and money, winning the lottery has become the economic plan of too many people. And that is not good for America. Still, when someone in this group wins the lottery, bad decisions notwithstanding, that money is quickly put back into the economy; and that is good for America.
We are still looking for the upside of the Republican Party for 99% of America. The middleclass has been especially decimated by their policies and their tactics. Sure they talk a good game, but how can you hear what they say when what they are keeps ringing in your ear. Mitt Romney, for example , gives us a lots of glitzly platitudes He says: "I believe in American. I believe in the American Dream. I aim to restore the promise of America." But it's nothing but nice sounding noise. What does it mean? Marco Rubio, Senator from the state of Florida, says he wants to save Social Security for his 81 year old mother, because she depends on it. But what about you, your mother, and your children? Rubio, says it must change and be different for you.
Romney-Ryan is running on a GOP platform which claims that they want to make government smaller--except for when it comes to controlling women's sexual health, what women do with their bodies, who can marry, and with whom consenting adults can have sexual relationships in the privacy of their own homes. The GOP is for smaller government only when it comes to government regulations that protect the American public from abuses of all kinds by all kinds of corporations and industries. In the past two year, the Republican led House of Representatives have voted over 100 times to subsidize the oil and gas industry. During that same period they sought to weaken government agencies that protect the environment, protect public health, and provide safety restrictions. The GOP and Romney-Ryan wants you to believe in an America that, under their leadership, doesn't exist for the Average American. Lest you don't consider yourself an average american, remember that Mitt Romney says that the middleclass are people who make at least $250,000 per year.
Does Romney-Ryan and the Republican Party really aim to restore the promise of America? The view from here is no. Their words are hollow and obvious fabrications. With The Lottery, average Americans have an equal shot at winning. With the Republican Party, average americans have No Shot at winning. Consider the area of jobs and the economy.
1. The GOP filibustered a bill (S. 3816) to stop tax breaks for corporations and companies that sent jobs overseas to China and other nations--thereby keeping more jobs in the United States of America.
2. As head of the investment company, Bain Capital, Mitt Romney laid off thousands of American workers and sent jobs to China.
3. The GOP filibustered the Rebuild America Jobs Act which would have put two to three million Americans back to work.
4. The GOP filibustered a bill to put thousands of public school teachers, police, and firefighters back to work.
5. Republicans filibustered the Paycheck Fairness Act which would allow women to be paid the same salary as men for doing the same work.
Is this the behavior of a party that believes in America? If you believe it is, and vote to keep Republicans in office, you better hope you win the lottery. You're going to need it.
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08/31/2012
Conservative GOP Politics: The Audacity of Greed, Obstruction, Lies, Division, and Incivility.
What nation can survive as a democracy if its ruling party and its people do not believe it must manifest and take pleasure in a national morality based on civility and justice and an affirmation of the human right to liberty, personal freedom, personal dignity, and the healthy pursuit of happiness for all its citizens?
A political party that shows a propensity for lies, obstruction, and an immorality that disdains civil rights, voting rights, personal dignity, and the pursuit of a healthy happiness for every citizens, is an unrelenting threat to the survival of the democracy we call America and should not be leading America. The bitter fruits of pain, anger, and fear produced by divisive rhetoric penetrates the protective walls of the American Spirit and the American Dream and corrupts American's Survival Psyche so much that it makes the people focus on a false internal enemy. One wonders how a thinking America can reward rudeness, lies, acts of sedition and violations of voting rights and other civil liberties of both evil and benign but greedy intent and still call itself one nation under God.
No justification under God can validate most of the wrong foisted on the American people by Republicans on the conservative right. Nevertheless, many of their minions will recite passages from the Christian bible to justify behavior that surely must offend The Christ they claim is their Lord and Savior even if they are not convinced that it offends our Creator God. In doing so, they conveniently ignore the fact that the Bible is replete with moral code--and in some cases absent moral code--that do not justify the repressive behaviors to which they subscribe.
In Isaiah 10: the prophet warns: "Woe to those who enact evil stautes, And those who constantly record unjust decision, So as to deprive the needy of justice, and rob the poor of my people of their rights. In Proverbs 6: 16 - 19: "There are six things which the Lord hates, Yes seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood. A heart that devise wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, And one who spread strife among brothers".
A moral civilized America does not support the proponents of hate, lies, and division who invoke the name of God, morality, patriotism, the dignity of family values, and honor as they trample on the rights and personal dignity of other Americans. One simply cannot call oneself a moral civilized child of God if their behavior is antagonistic to integrity, honor, civility and truth.
The Apostle Paul in Romans 1: 28 - 32 proclaimed God response to such wide-spread behavior: "And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventers of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinances of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same thing, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them".
Unfortunately, if you do not recognize the party that does this, it likely that God has already given you over to depraved minds.
Every American Citizen who loves America and the democracy for which it stands, owe it to themselve and to their children to believe that all Americans deserve the right to freedom justice, and the inalienable rights given all people by our Creator God. In doing so, you must guard against repetitive voices that try to convince you that it is all right to enact evil statues and record unjust decisions to deprive God's other people of their human rights merely because they satisfy some perverted addiction to greed, power, and the need to exercise despotic control over the lives of ordinary citizens.
Selah
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08/17/2012
Can Christians Ignore The Afflictions Shared By Predatory Politicians And Other Tormentors of God's Children?
For most people, attempts at a Resolution of Being results in the acceptance of any religious, political, or philosophical doctrine, or a combination thereof that offers them enough rhetoric that they are comfortably clothed in their perception of the world in which they find themselves and their place in it.
Those who choose the religious route are comfortable in their beliefs that their religious beliefs offers an accurate description of the behaviors God requires for His generosity and goodwill. Often, however, they are comfortable in their understanding of what God demands them not to do to avoid God's Wrath.
Whether this group travels the theological road to rewards or the theological road away from punishment or the circular winding road to and from both, they seek substantial relief from the worries, fears, and pain the ubiquitous harsh realities our terrestrial mortality inflicts on us. Even when the rules they follow are so stringent or self-effacing that habitual devotion to them inflicts as much stress and pain as the stress and pain they seek to escape, it is easier to cling to the promise than it is to consider the other side.
When this community of believers encounter intemittent doubt or come up against some failed logic, they resort to faith--believing in that which they can neither prove nor deny. But membership in this kinship can also suffer the anxiety of mortal being even as they retreat to the protective chamber of their faith.
Intellectual and emotional dissonance borne out of unpleasant encounters with life and fraught with a succession of repressed disappointment in God can perforate the walls of their protecive chamber of faith and allow openings for the piercing light of reality and doubt. When their faith is compromised by that light it causes them to suffer emotions that nurture a sorrowful Resolution of Parasitic Being borne of guilt and a desire for pity and compassion. Or it predators nurtured by a Resolution of Predatory Being based on a strong unrelenting desire for feelings of strength, power, and superiority that hides the weakness they feel.
For a smaller group of flawed or damaged individuals--whether they are rich or poor, educated or school dropouts, church members or not--attempts at a Resolution of Being is a string of moral failures or moral weaknesses whose principle harvest is a pain that transcend their mortal presence and is buried deep within the immortal soul that defines them.
They flounder in the depths of a repressed pain becaused they have no intellectual certainty of behaviors God requires of them, and they have no faith to sustain them. Many in this group are very critical of all religion or are critical only of religions that are not their own, decrying and deriding the proliferation of vying and conflicting dogma raised in the different names of the same God of Creation.
Nevertheless, almost to a person, they remain fervent in their belief in the reality of a one true God. But they live with overwhelming anxiety because of their failure to know intimately the God in whom they believe. Left to their own devices, they sink in a confluence of spiritual disharmony and behavioral discord , frequently emiting silent pleas or angry demands for God to make them sure of His existence.
Their unspoken: "I know there is a God, but where is He?", characterizes their frustrations. When the silent frustrations turn into silent rage, the unspoken lament: "I know there is a God, but where is He", becomes an unspoken anguished cry closely akin to the recognizable: "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"
Feeling abandoned by God and betrayed by man they become predators of humankind. Their failed attempt at a Resolution of Being becomes nothing more than a Resolution of Predatory Being borne of anger and hate--resulting in behavior that is at best passive-aggressive or at worse, unbridled rage against their perception of the source of their anxiety or their contempt.
Members of this predatory fellowship of rage and contempt may attempt to return pain to God by inflicting punishment on those who claim Him. Or they attempt to receive absolution from their painful rage or scornful contempt by inflicting pain and punishment on those who do not claim Him or those who do not claim Him "properly".
More often than not, however, they simply choose to show contempt and inflict pain and punishment on those who ignore them or who do not buy into their contempt, their anger, and their hate. Inflicting fear, pain, and control over other people, sometimes with the promise of giving them something much better, makes them feel powerful, godlike, and vindicated--for a while. Then they must do it all over again.
Murderers, rapist, and other predators of the people--including tyrants, architects of war and genocide, politicians who steal from the people's treasury, and politicians who seek to deny any group of people the right to personal dignity, financial security, and the pursuit of a healthy happiness--are all conflicted products of a failed Resolution of Being.
They have rejected all resolutions of the Communal-I-Am. They have failed every test in the attempted resolutions of the Personal-I-am. When failure to have freedom from the anxiety of mortality cohabits with an ill-defined or distorted self, the mix is an elixer for the Pain of Mortal Being and the Fear of Eternal Being. And it is fertile ground for the madness that makes men do the evil men do.
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07/24/2012
Which Does God support More: Evolution or Wealth, and the Sin of Abominable Greed?
"It was an epiphany for me when I realized that God allows me to enjoy the fruits of my labor and the accumulation of wealth. But the caveat is that I must not succumb to the seduction of unrepentant greed and instead must take pleasure in helping deserving talent, and making reasonable and painless contributions to the functioning welfare of the unfortunate needy and the blameless poor among us. But I feel that too many of the rich and powerful in America want the divide between rich and poor to grows larger even at the expense of a once large and proud white middleclass."
The concept of work without reward is an anathema to the evolution of our species. We are born with natural ambition. And in the evolution of our species some possess more of it than others. Still, whatever may be the intensity of our ambition and the quality of our expertise, we expect rewards for the successful completion of our tasks.
Clearly our Symbiotic God of Creation understand this as demonstrated by His willlingness to share a symbiotic relationship with Him. So what problem does Creation have with human becoming rich or extremely wealthy? According to the the impressions we receive, He has none. Creation expects us to enjoy the fruits of our labor and even allows without prejudice any one of us to become abundantly wealthy in the process.
Human ambition is a Creation-Based evolutionary attribute; unrepentant greed is not. Unrepentant greed is an abomination to our Symbiotic God. God allows us a healthy attainment of wealth without prejudice because God needs assistance from the fortunate to help the unfortunate among the common people.
Creation's experimental Earth being what it, the economic and physical life of our kind could never be inherently fair and equal for the physical life of every soul. And even though God cares for every deserving soul in it's physical tenure on Earth, our creator as a rule does not physically intervene in our lives. Consequently, He requires the assistance of the fortunate among us to help deserving talent and to provide aid to the unfortunate needy and the blameless poor among us.
Unfortuately, too many on the conserative right are very content, indeed obsessed with, hoarding abundant wealth beyond what more than countless generations could ever efficiently use. They engage in the denial of humanitarian service and the hoarding of wealth as if the only purpose of being is to create a powerful dynasty of small decadent groups of affluent and predatory users of the masses and self-indulgent abusers of the weak and disenfranchised to accrue more wealth, power, and control.
This drive to hoard wealth and deny access to affordable services is further defined by the drive to create a growing divide between the wealthy and the poor, even if it means destroying what once was a crowning achievement of America--a successful American middle class.
But what is the purpose of being super wealthy and politically powerful if you can't flaunt it? And what proves it more than a conservative fringe that uses lies and emotional but illogical rhetoric to convince people--who should be smart enough to know better--that welfare and economic perks for the wealthy (even when it doesn't benefit them) is a higher goal than supporting the pursuit of happiness and a reasonable standard of living for ordinary citizens?
Where is the profit in all of that when all that you and yours can purchase and use can only buy pleasure and things, the power to abuse and control, but cannot buy the safety and sanity of a healthy moral happiness? More importantly, where is the profit in all that when your inevitable death is the advent of an eternal lonely hell simply because you chose to hoard and not share your gifts?
And even though you may not believe you are an etenal soul, it doesn't mean you are not. And even though you may not believe in the eternal hell of a sorrowful solitary existence for the soul that defines you, it does not mean it does not await you.
The wisdom and morality of the idea that we can enjoy the fruits of our labor but not succumb to the seduction of unrepentant greed is not restricted to the incredibly wealthy. It applies to all of us. All of us can make painless contribution to assist where we can. This does not mean we have to give to everyone who asks nor whenever anyone asks. Where when and how you give is your personal decision. but give and share you must if you want to share Symbiotic Intimacy and receive the gift of Symbiotic Grace.
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07/11/2012
Have Right Wing Conservative Republicans Mastered the Use of The Lie?
The Lie has a powerful hold on the human psyche. Right wing pundits and Conservative Republicans seem to prefer it to the truth. Only a child whose morality is not yet tainted by the human embrace of the lie and its fear of truth can say loud enough to be heard that the king wears no clothes. And many adults will repeatedly admonish that child to be quiet until the child understands that he or she is not entitled to tell the truth simply because he or she observes it and knows it.
When GOP conservatives and right wing political pundits and media icons speak an outrageous and obvious lie about President Barack Obama as if it were true, none in that group are embarrassed by it. Nor will any attempt to refute it.
Members of repressive groups refuse to reject out loud what is patently false. They may whisper it to a confidant, but not before looking around to make sure no else can hear--unless their intent is to be rude. And if rudeness is the intent, refuting the truth serves us much better than refuting the lie.
Most of us want to avoid public declaration of uncomfortable truths in group to which we belong that are opposed to that truth. More importantly, too many of us seem to prefer the lie to the truth. Rush Limbaugh's minions are testament to that.
Some unchallenged lies are so blatantly false, one wonders if the human preference for the lie is the major flaw in the psychological design of our species and an insurmountable barrier to the survival of our species. Questions about the validity and reality of truth that support ordinary people, who make up more than 99% of our species, are always brought into question by the forces whose agenda is to perpetuate the will of the super wealthy and the politically powerful and in some scenarios to perpetuate the will of evil.
Few dare to question the lie in the presence of repressive peer pressure for fear of being vilified and ostracized. Evil strikes back when it is exposed, but the truth has no force beyond its intrinsic self.
Truth, unlike the lie, has no ugly head to raise in order to give an aura of power on the face of those who speak it and to strike terror in the minds of those who hear it. Truth does not rebel in anger and vengeance when it is exposed. Truth has no fear of exposure or challenge.
The lie, however, is a ubiquitous masquerader. It masquerades first as your friend. Then falsely and glamorously dressed up as that which it despises--the truth--you soon become its trusted servant. Eventually, seduced by its deceit and false promises, you become its jubilant and compliant slave, celebrating the lie and all its false glory.
And America is all the worse for what and who you believe--lies and liars whose only goal is to divide and conquer so that the 99% is its poorer and needy servants who will bend to their will because they have no choice or effectively see no other choice.
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Can Men and Women Trust Politicians Who Use Politics and Religion to Control Women?
Women who depend on men and on women who defer to men for their definition of self are not only not properly defined , they are also used and abused. This kind of deference to men has no value for women who want a world where they and their daughters can decide for themselves who they are, what they want to be, and what they do with their bodies.
And if that means that more women need to become more assertive and less deferential to politicians and religious leaders to make that happen, then more women should become more assertive and less deferential to those groups to make this a better America for themselves and their daughters.
But if any woman let politicians, pundits, and religious leaders convince her that any woman who demands equality in pay and the right to be in control of her person, her body, and her sexual health is not worthy of protection or respect, then that woman has given up the fight to make this a better place for herself, her sisters, and their daughters.
This kind of acquiescence to repressive socialization through politics and religion makes women and girls weak and enable men and boys to dominate and control their emotions and definitions of self.
To be sure, the irony does not escape me that I am a man telling women what they should do. but I believe that men who love women, respect women, and live without the need to control women should speak out. And while this post is directed to women, it's message is not restricted to women,but also to all the men who love women for all the non-sexual ways that men love women.
In this political season, with its mass of divisive issues, every American has a responsibility for helping America decide in what direction the United States of America will take in its treatment of women. We submit the following statements as reminders of what lies ahead of us and behind us.
1. A man's need to feel superior tdoesn't begin and end with other ethnic groups and lower economic groups. It begins with the women in his own group.
2. Men who constantly refer to women as sluts and whores will never love you as much as you would like him to. Nor does he deserve to be the father of your daughters.
3. God never commanded women to be submissive to men. Paul, in his letter that was first sent to the church in Ephesus said: "Wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife...Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything." In that same letter, however, Paul also said: "Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart as to Christ." Both these have been oft quoted by religious men for reasons which should be obvious. Doesn't make them right.
4. A South Carolina senator suggested that Fetuses are victims. Women who have been sexually assaulted are not.
5. To be sure, even your white grandmothers and great grandmothers had to fight to make beating them illegal. But today the GOP worked to weaken the violence against women act and even expressed a willingness to tolerate some domentic abuse.
6. Any woman who feels morally right to deny other women control over their bodies and sexual health care do so because they think the horrors that require it will never happen to them.
7. Christian women should remember that Jesus Christ did not wage a war on women, abuse women, hate women, or deny them their rights because he deemed himself morally superior.
8. Your white grandmothers and great grandmothers had to fight to get the right to vote. Today you have to fight to get affordable health care.
9. Whether you admit it or not, there is a war on women in these United States of America. And anyone who thinks that the conservative right can continue its assault on women and America remain a great nation is delusional.
10. 75% of civilians killed in war are women and children.
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06/22/2012
10 False Beliefs Held by Many Conservative on the Christian Right that Are Brutal For America
If, as Christians proclaim, God is Love and Jesus christ is His son, then many conservatives on the christian right who praise God and profess to love God and The Christ are in deep trouble. What follows are 10 de facto beliefs held by too many proud and arrogant Christian Conservatives on the political right that are abominations to their proclaimed Lord and Savior and brutally bad for America.
1. You have a right to discriminate against, punish, or deny service and civil rights to anyone who doesn't share your religious beliefs or share your moral values. Even when the behavior of these "sinners", as you like to call them, don't affect you directly or anyone else personally, you feel you have a moral obligation to persecute others in the name of God and religion.
2. Everything written in the Bible is the true word of God and should be quoted any time you need to justify any anti-christian behavior. If everything written in the Bible were true there wouldn't be so many contradictions in it. Besides, do you really believe God Commanded Joshua to strike down the walls of Jericho and to "utterly destroy" every man, woman, child, and thing within its gates except for its gold, silver, brass, and iron and the family of Rahab the "harlot" who betrayed the people of her city by hiding spies?
3. God hates only the people you hate. And God loves only the people who are members of the group with whom you identify and who share your political religious rants. Really??
4. God commands you to pass and support laws that deprive people you don't like or trust of their personal rights, liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness because you do not condone whatever you think is "wrong" with them. In fact, there is a bible verse that warns against just that. "Woe to those who enact evil statues, And to those who constantly record unjust decisions, So as to deprive the needy of justice, And rob the poor of my people of their rights." ISAIAH 10: 1-2.
5. You have not benefitted from the wisdom and intelligence of liberals and liberal thinkers. Don't forget that Jesus was a liberal who loved women and the poor of his people and hated unjust laws, greed, hypocrisy, and persecution of the weak and disinfranchised.
6. Believing in Evolution means you don't believe in God. Really? God created the world in six days and stopped? If God is a Creator God could He still be creating? Can evolution be part of God's Creative Process? Let's hope so, because man is so inherently flawed in his spritual, emotional, and intellectual design that if an evolutionary process cannot make us better, God will have to destroy our species and start over.
7. You can honor God and Jesus Christ with your lips and hate your fellow human beings. No you cannot. Waving your hands in the air and repeatedly praising the name of Jesus does not make you a Christian. Remember the words of Jesus in Mark 7: 6-9. "And He said to them, Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written.This people Honors Me with Their lips, but their Heart Is Far away from me. but in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrine the precepts of men. Neglecting the commandments of God you hold onto the tradition of men."
8. When it is done in His Name, God will forgive stupidity, arrogance, war, rape, oppression of women, oppression of the poor, and the persecution of those who are different and of those you call sinners. No He will not. That behavior is an abomination to the Lord Our God. God has enough power to destroy sinners at any time if that were his wont. He doesn't need puny humans to serve as assassins to persecute and punish those you think He hates.
9. You are standing on high moral ground when you deny women the right to sexual health care and the right to make personal choices about their own bodies. And you are standing on high moral ground and when you deny LGBT their civil rights. To the contrary, you are standing in an immoral bog.
10. God intended men to dominate women and commanded wives to be submissive to their husbands. No. Paul did that. God is not so enamored with the male of our species that he put women here for our personal use and pleasure. That was a lie perpetuated by men for reasons which should be obvious to women by now.
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05/02/2012
No Biological Excuse for Bullys & Rapists
Sexual Predators,rapists, a lack of civility, boorish behavior, rudeness, bombastic pontification, and wild aggression is likely caused by three things--none of which are caused by the male hormone...None of which are desirable...A Lack of Intelligence, A Lack Of Critical Thinking, and/or A Lack Of Discipline.
But some would have us believe that war, rape, and male aggression is caused by the "presence of sin" and that sin is at the root of all our social ills.
Some even suggest that liberal minded thinkers (who are possessed with the intelligence and the grace to be civil to all people regardless of their sexual, religious, or ethnic orientation) is the root cause of our social problems. Pat Robertson blames the Boston Marathon Bombings on acceptance of liberals and the gay community. There is no biological reason for making that statement. What thinking man would ever make that statement?
Some men believe they have a biological right and are entitled to the sexual services of some woman, any woman, whenever they desire it. Really? What are we? Animals. Yes, of course we are. But supposedly we are thinking animals, at least at a level we believe to be superior to all other animals.
Some men believe they have a right to anything they want, even if they have to steal it or take it by force. Your land, your money, your woman, your self-respect, your right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But, even lower animals kill only for what they need--food and especially when their young are threatened. If humans operated on biological instincts we would do the same. But we don't.
So men who have brawn but lack intelligence and the ability to be rational for the good of humankind; and men who are immoral because they are greedy and are not critical thinkers; and men who lack discipline are the root cause of most of our social problems. There are no biological excuses for the evil men do--especially to women and to the living planet we call Earth.
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04/24/2012
Fools Rush in Where Wise Men Never Go
Right Wing Conservative Politicians and pundits have known for some time now that you could tell a Trusting Base any thing. EVEN A LIE. And if you said it enough-- EVEN A LIE-- You could fool them and They would rush to believe it. And also believe THE BIG LIE... That they are actual members of rich group who control their minds and their lives...Proudly and Mindlessly reciting every mantra of Right wing conservative pundits and the right wing Republican Party Line. But they can't go to the party. Not enough money and not enough common sense to know better. Even when their base makes up most of the 47% the latest Republican presidential candidate rejected, some of the rejected still voted for him.
One wonders how much longer ordinary Americans can survive under this culture of lies manipulation. Too many conservatives are such slaves to their corrupted memory and corrupt history that they deny themselves the opportunity to see the other side. They are afraid of being too liberal.
Unfortunately, an inability to hear anything except the lies being preached to you only make you capable of hearing and believing lies. The creator and messenger of lies tell you lies they want to make you angry, scared, delusional, and dependent. They do this because their only motivation is to control you and take advantage of you. And if the intent of their lies and scare tactics is to control you and take advantage of you, then controlling you and taking advantage of you is what they will do.
Nothing is more delusional nor more sad that a man who believes that one who lies to him really cares for him, respects him, and wants only what is best for him.
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04/15/2012
Don't Call Women Names. It's Not Funny. It's Not Clever.
Some men are quick to call a woman overweight and unattractive, with or without a basis for saying it. Some jerks are even prone to using "fat" and "ugly", as if it were a "cute", clever, or funny thing to say. And I've met few overweight jerks who behaved as if they thought they were fat or ugly. But I've met many an overweight slob of a man who thought he was entitled to the company of a smart, attractive, secure woman--With or without the funds or the intellect to afford her.
Secure men, smart men, attractive men, and men who love their mothers don't call women names.
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04/13/2012
Jobs, Freedom & Family Values Should Be More Than Talking Points
Be wary of politicians who run for office on the promises of less government, family values, truth, honor, morality, more jobs, integrity, and freedom. They should not be preaching rhetoric and bombarding the public with tallking points that only serve to deprive women of their right to Sexual Health Care and the right to control what happens to their own bodies. And they should not be proposing and passing legislation, in chambers they control, that create more government for the purpose of depriving average citizens of their money, their right to affordable health care, and the freedom to enjoy life's sensual pleasures, and the pursuit of happiness and well-being.
Family values for most Americans means more than some vague morality which every moralist politician pretends to understand but never fully define. Families value many things. Families values well-funded public schools. Families value low cost educational loans so their children can get an education without being buried under life-long debt. Families value affordable health care and the existence of the social security that has served America so well since its birth.
Men with families should support values that protect their mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters from intrusion upon their bodies by politicians who have no right to say what women should do with and to their bodies. Family values include the protection of your mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters from predatory men find excusable excuses for violence, rape, and the war against women by predatory men. Family values means that your mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters are protected from lower salaries, impediments to promotion, and harrassment from predatory men in the workplace.
A nation that cannot fund itself is a nation in trouble. So a politician that support family values does not produce budgets and policies that steal from the the working class and middles class so that wealthy families don't have to pay taxes.
Wake up America. Family Values is not a magic expression which means a politician wants what is best for your family merely because he repeats that expression. Politicians such as we have seen on the conservative right do not support family values. If they did, they would not support budgets and legislation that:
1. Block bills to aid small businesses.
2. Block jobs bills.
3. Intrude upon what husbands and wives as well as other relationships do in their bedroooms.
4. Lower taxes for the wealthy and increase them on the woking class and middle class.
5.Deny you and your family the benefits of affordable health care.
6. Strip medicare and create a voucher system that only benefit corporations but harm your mothers, fathers, grandparents, and ultimately you and your children. Wake up America! It is way past time to get beyond the BS politicians who feed you with emotional rhertoric which have no meaning for them excpet for what it compels you to do.
If you support family values, then support politicians that support your family
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04/11/2012
Supporting Political & Social Predators is At Best a ZeroSum Game
Selling your soul to the devil may have its upside. He will at least keep his part of the "bargain". But selling your soul to right wing authoritarian and oppressive politicians, Big business without social responsibility who exist solely for profit at the expenses of the people,religious demagogues, and moral dictators who demand that YOU stop having and/or enjoying sex and other human pleasures, has NO redeeming value for YOU--Unless you enjoyed being USED, lied to, Duped, Controlled, and Deprived of your endowed rights to the pursuit of moral happiness and your rights to spiritual, and physical pleasures that harm no one. Be careful when you consider what you will repeat and with whom you bargain and support.
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04/10/2012
Can Men of God Justify War, Rape, Slavery & Murder?
To realize that some men who justify rape in the time of war, slavery for any reason, pre-emptive war for economic reasons,and the murder of an unarmed child by an armed predator, supposedly, also believe in God provokes too many difficult questions and suppositions. Including, but not limited to: Either God made a really bad decision when He created the male of our species. Or God is unlike anything close to the loving God we want Him to be. Or the force of evil is more powerful in too many places in the psyche of men than is the force of God.
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04/09/2012
The People's Rights to Justice
Woe to those who enact evil statues, And to those who constantly record unjust decisions, So as to deprive the needy of justice, And rob the poor of my people of their rights. In order that widows may be their spoil. And that they may plunder the orphans. Isaiah :10th Chapter,1-2 Verses.
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04/04/2012
Jerks Are Just Men With Flawed Logic
Why is it that jerks never quite get the concept of politeness? In their arrogance they think you're simply Deferring to their strength and manliness. Even when their strength and manliness are harvested from the group in which they can be a powerless member or a non-functioning appendage--Their Race, Their Ethnic Group, Their Political Affiliation, Their Truck, Their Gun, Their SUV. Their Job.
They don't understand that the motivation for being polite isn't a sign of weakness, but a sign of Intelligence and Civility.
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Celebrate Mom On Mother's Day Without Supporting Sexist Hate Radio
Rush Limbaugh is not very kind to women, including your mother. But you probably have received numerous advertisement suggesting Mother's Day gifts from businesses that advertise on the Rush Limbaugh show. How does any thinking son or daughter of good conscience believe they can celebrate their mom on Mother's Day by supporting sponsors who support a vulgar man who slimes and bashes women, including their own mother?
Any man who thinks their own mom or the mother of his children hasn't been included in some of Rush's vulgar rants against women, simply hasn't been paying attention. The analogy is that of a Black American male whose white friend denigrates "nigger" men and "nigger" women, but believes he is excluded because his white friend makes him believe he is different and not like those other "niggers" for which he has so much hate and disdain. And the "nigger women" he denigrates does not include his mother, wife, or daughter. Really?
A quick look at just a few of Rushes greatest mysogyny hits reveal these sexist, vulgar, and hate-filled gems.
1. Some of Limbaugh's favorite names for women include: feminazis, sexretary, infobabe, nags, sluts and prostitutes.
2. Rush intones that an educated independent woman is a whore.
3. Rush believes women are Nazis if they have jobs.
4. He calls women sluts and prostitutes if they implore the necessity and use of birth control pills.
5. He compared the look of a 13 year old girl to a dog. Suppose she was your mother's granddaughter.
6. He mocked Michael J. Fox for Parkinson's disease. Suppose he was your mother's son.
7. Rush thought it was funny and joked about a woman being raped by an intruder while she was sleeping.
8. Made vulgar jokes about Muslim women and "sexual" fruits and vegetables like cucumbers, carrots, zucchini, and bananas.
9. Went into a raging rant over the cost of welfare for the 6-year old daughter of Amanda Berry, the young lady who was abducted, repeatedly raped, and held captive for ten years in Cleveland, Ohio.
10. Called the First Lady Of The United States fat. How trim and fit is your mother or the mother of your children?
11. Made pressure cooker jokes after the Boston Marathon bombing, where women and little girls were among those who were hurt and killed.
Many sponsors are deserting Rush Limbaugh and radio stations that place their ads on his radio show. 48 of 50 top advertisers have asked not to be aired on the Rush Limbaugh show. More than 80% of Cumulus Advertisers demand a "No Rush Limbaugh" order clause. America is getting tired of this style of hate radio including the vulgar swill and ill will towards women.
On this Mother's Day and the weeks following Mother's Day, celebrate your mother and yourself if you are a woman by not supporting businesses that sponsor sexism, mysogyny, violence against women, vulgarity towards women, and violation of human rights. Don't pay someone to call your mothers, wives, and daughters a nag, a whore, a slut, or a nazi. Your mothers, wives, and daughters deserves better.
Bennie Wiley on 05/10/2013 | Permalink
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