The Pot Calling The Kettle Black

I Beseech You, in the Bowels of Christ...

2012-02-11T15:42:00.003-06:00

Mars Hill pastor Mark Driscoll faces backlash over church discipline case. - Slate Magazine

This article was brought to my attention by a member of our Sunday School class. We are a free-spirited group of freethinkers just trying to keep it between the ditches. I read it and the related articles with interest because I often naively believe that "Cave-Man Christianity" of this stripe cannot possibly exist any more.

Briefly, a member of Mark Driscoll's Mars Hill Church, who we will call "Andrew," strayed sexually, admitted he did so, and was then subjected to a completely subjective and seemingly unorganized series of rehabilitative measures that guaranteed nothing except the establishment of the "us and Them" that characterizes all belief systems. The details are banal, if not boring. Confession is good for the soul and provides masturbatory material for the church elders sitting in judgement. Anyway, the shunned Andrew finally got tired and left the church, who nevertheless pursued him, continuing to harass him for his sinfulness (get a load of the letter they sent him).

There is nothing new in Mark Driscoll's method or brand of churching. The idea of "church discipline" is as old as tradition. Where Medieval Catholics tortured dissenters, New World Protestants burned them at the stake (having learned that from the Catholics first). Hester Prynne's treatment was slightly more civilized and Catholic's clothed their modern version in Canon Law. But today, in the 21st Century, there is not only a choice of what church to attend, but the choice to not attend at all. While in parochial school, I, on more than one occasion, was punished by kneeling on rice, holding a stack of Missals (forget the Bible). Needless to say, I decided never to take such "discipline" seriously again.

Reading of "Andrew's" plight, I wondered why it took him so long to "worship with his feet." This is one of the curious behaviors I have witnessed since attending the mainstream Protestant church I attend after having grown up Roman Catholic. If members so much as dislike a given pastor or group of people at one church, they will simply attend another. The beauty of this is we are all free to do this. I will admit it took me until adulthood to realize that I, too had this freedom and I have exercised it widely since then.

I personally believe that if Mark Driscoll's ministry is as it has been portrayed, it is repugnant. That he has a following of 5,000 does not surprise me in the least. There will always be those to lead with a message of certainty and superiority. It remains up to us whether we accept that or not. Not only that, but it is Driscoll's very right to preach and conduct his church as he sees fit. He will always have a following. Like Christian blogger Matthew Paul Turner, I am saddened that a tradition as rich as that surrounding Jesus is so misguidedly presented. But I can simply write off such misguidedness as one of delusion by one more tin-horn country preacher shining the same old superstition to high gleam. Like the poor, they will always be with us, a banging gong, a clanging cymbal making a lot of noise in the name of Jesus.

But I do not have to buy into any of it...and neither do you.

Standing at the Edge of Ignorance...

2012-02-04T20:02:00.002-06:00

The Book From Which Our Literature Springs by Robert Pogue Harrison | The New York Review of Books

The New York Review of Books is a great publication for summing up the contemporary writing of timely subject. This particular article decrys the ceaseless slide toward a Post-Christian world, or more particularly a world where the Christian bible, specifically, the King James Bible, is no longer read, even in religious climes.

Now wait just one goddamn minute! Is this the same Michael Bailey who is always dogging the evangelical right in America and taking his precious "Mother Church" (Roman Catholic) to task?

One in the same.

The issue here is two-fold. As expressed in the above article, the bulk of Western Literature has at its center the King James Bible, which, with the corpus of William Shakespeare, is considered the pinnacle of writing and thought. The second side to all of this is the loss of true scholarship regarding the Bible, and religion in general, by organized (and disorganized) religion. The United States is thought to be one of the most "religious" countries in the First World. But what does this mean in light of the fact that non-believers know more about Christianity and it tenets than the sacred professed. This makes me wonder what the non-doubting many are thinking and on what suppositions they are acting.

Stephen Prothero sharply points out in his book Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know - and Doesn't, that the American Christian knows as little about its own religion as it does about other religions. This is an irony that simply cannot be allowed to continue, but is most likely to do so. This ignorance leads to an unwarranted feeling of superiority that is most unbecoming of those who consider themselves Christians. Christianity itself is not the problem (and I suspect that Our Savior would be happy to hear that). It is the literal interpretation of said Christianity that is the problem. This position is the most unimaginative and least considerate of philosophical thought.

I have no quarrel with Christianity, only with its most ardent accepted. Christianity needs a rehabilitation, one hinted at in Marcus Borg's excellent Speaking Christian: Why Christian Words have Lost Their Meaning and Power - and How They Can Be Restored. This rote consideration of a tradition as rich and varied as Christianity smacks of the same narrow-mindedness that ruled the world of the book and movie The Help. We are better than this.

A Reflection - The Help (Touchstone, 2011)

2012-02-04T19:18:00.002-06:00

The Help
Tate Taylor, Director
Touchstone
2011

Gallup Politics: Mississippi Rates as the Most Conservative U.S. State

It is impossible to read that Mississippi is the most politically conservative state and watch the recent Tate Taylor film, The Help without wondering if the more things change, the more they remain the same. Were Mississippi to have its way, a genteel antebellum existence would be had today, as if there were never a Civil War or Civil Rights movement. I lived in the Mississippi Delta for the greater part of the 1980s and witnessed institutional racism making our own in Arkansas not look so bad (how naive I was). The experience changed the way I look at everything.

I love the South. It is the most creatively fertile region of the United States, kind of what Ireland has been to England: that headstrong and wrong-headed genius child given to fits of great creative passion and seizures of the deepest moral depravity and failure. Like the Apostle Paul, the South would be a great mouthpiece for itself if it weren't for her history. That knowledge, that guilt, is what tempers the character of the thinking Southerner, and we should never be very far from it lest we believe we are the gods we think. We are all Hamlet suffering at the hands of memory.

I found The Help a very hard movie to watch. I was a child about the age of the child in the film cared for by Viola Davis' Aibileen Clark and my then middle-class family had an African-American maid (though, in the period vernacular, referred to her as the "colored") at about the same time. She lived in what was then considered downtown Little Rock. Here name was Joetta and I loved her. My mom did too. She was full of that grand African-American Christian spirituality that has continued to teach white America the proper way to pray.

To what little credit we have, I never heard my parents speak as the well-healed character's did in the Faulknarian decay of 1960s Jackson, Mississippi did in the movie, though I experienced that in the 1980s during my sojourn there. My mother's family was German Catholic and were always more informed by the true spirit of Jesus than many of the more prominent Protestants, who tended to look down on both Blacks and Catholics. They were as egalitarian as the day is long.

My father and his family came from circuit riding Methodists, abolitionists during the War Between the States. Steadfast and tolerant, my dad thought it was our responsibility to take care of all, but he never said so in so may words. It was his actions that expressed this. While it was certainly contrived by Hollywood to have this effect, they nevertheless succeeded. It saddens me today as it informs me that Jim Crow was the flaw of the land, especially in the Third World Country of Mississippi.

I watched the film pass through the history of Medgar Evers and his assassination, recalling that his convicted killer Byron De La Beckwith was tried in Batesville, Mississippi in 1994, justice delayed. Batesville was just one of those Mississippi peckerwood crossroads between Clarksdale and Oxford or Como and Jackson. You become part of a place once you take it for granted. The Kennedy assassination came next and the movie ended before Johnson's Civil Rights Act of 1964.

On every anniversary of the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, my father would ask why "that must be dredged up again." My answer was we Americans have a pathetically short memory, perhaps it is a character flaw of all human beings. Judging by the history during my brief lifetime, we have learned little. We all must learn to treat it gentle...

Mencken was Right...

2012-01-28T19:46:00.000-06:00

The missing link | Cover Stories | Arkansas news, politics, opinion, restaurants, music, movies and art

H. L. Mencken, the iconoclastic columnist for the Baltimore Sun papers, mocked Arkansas mercilessly in the 1930s. "Only on the records of lynchings and open-air baptisms is the state near the top," he wrote. Mencken described Arkansas as "the worst American state" and wondered "why so many of its farmers are miserable, exploited, chronically half-starved share-croppers without reserves and without hope." The state senate responded by passing resolutions calling for Mencken to be deported from the United States. The Arkansas chapter of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan was not so diplomatic; it denounced Mencken as a "moral pervert."

Be that as it may. I used to take refuge in the perceived fact that Kansas and Texas were filled with the most backward and bigoted, but know...I have met the enemy and they are we. The word "evolution" may not be spoken in Arkansas classrooms. This is amazing to me. I have taken it long for granted that this backward thinking was on its last legs. I have been living on another planet. We have nothing to be proud of, least of all any intellect. Rightfully, we are considered a bunch of ignorant hillbillies.

Cooler Heads...Maybe Not...

2012-01-24T10:21:00.002-06:00

PRUDEN: Newt Gingrich and the 'moral thing' - Washington Times

Just when I am getting used to that burnt almond taste in Newt Gingrich's Kool-Aid, Arkansan Wes Pruden teaches class on why it is prudent to sit and wait:

Politicians can’t any longer talk about “moral character” without sounding like a stuffy Baptist deacon or a stiff Presbyterian elder. “Moral character” is no longer important in a presidential campaign, even to many conservatives and evangelicals. If it is important anymore, it is only as a talking point.

This, of course is not what Pruden wishes, but it is the way it is. No one makes more noise, wrings more hands, bends more ears, while offending the maximum number of people, than those two breast-beaters railing against the night in support of "traditional values." That train left the station 50 years ago and derailed during the Summer of Love, never having found the track again. In a seizure of extremely good writing, Pruden chides the Right of "settling:"

You can’t blame the slippery Newt for thinking that ["When he gets power he believes the rules do not apply to him.”]. But you can blame public inattention to the evidence of who he is. On election night in South Carolina the interlocutor for a CNN-TV focus group asked a young woman, identified as an evangelical Christian, why she supports Newt. She replied earnestly that it was important to have someone speak up “for morality.” Many conservatives have so despaired of finding someone who will return with interest the media mockery of the standards and values that served us for so long that they’re willing to cheer a four-flusher’s shameless hypocrisy as the tribute that vice pays to virtue. (my emphasis) Newt’s a clever pol who understands that newspaper and television reporters and columnists are fat, easy and inviting targets.

Have we, the voters, been lulled into a belief that this is the best we can expect, and thus, will be the best we'll ever have? The sad answer is probably so. What can change this? Right now, nothing. Our major political parties have offered us exactly nothing...Nothing, with the exception of a bit of entertainment on the earnest Republican side that is usually reserved for the hapless Democrats during their National Convention. It is going to be a beautiful dog fight among the remaining Republicans between now and August in Tampa Bay. But I am not looking for things to clear up for the Republicans any more than they ever did for the Democrats. Virtue mus be had elsewhere.

A Liberal-Conservative Primer Disguised as a Book Review

2012-01-13T09:56:00.002-06:00

Republicans for Revolution by Mark Lilla | The New York Review of Books

Critics sometimes like to use book reviews as springboards for larger educational exercises. That is exactly what Mark Lilla in his review of Corey Robin's The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin (Oxford University Press, 2011). Lilla, a journalist and a historian of ideas at Columbia University, goes to great pains to inform where words like "conservative" and "liberal" came from, how their use has change since coinage and where they stand today in this fractious political climate. Lilla is pretty Ivory Tower, but does distill a complex subject into its bare essentials.

He sums up his mini-history with his indictment of the current Conservative Philosophy:

People who know what kind of new world they want to create through revolution are trouble enough; those who only know what they want to destroy are a curse. When I read the new reactionaries or hear them speak I’m reminded of Leo Naphta, the consumptive furloughed Jesuit in Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain, who prowls the corridors of a Swiss sanatorium, raging against the modern Enlightenment and looking for disciples. What infuriates Naphta is that history cannot be reversed, so he dreams of revenge against it. He speaks of a coming apocalypse, a period of cruelty and cleansing, after which man’s original ignorance will return and new forms of authority will be established. Mann did not model Naphta on Edmund Burke or Chateaubriand or Bismarck or any other figure on the traditional European right. He modeled him on George Lukács, the Hungarian Communist philosopher and onetime commissar who loathed liberals and conservatives alike. A man for our time.

This is the most pernicious of philosophies, the same one embraced by the growing numbers of religious and secular apocalyptic thinkers wringing their hands in eschatologic ecstasy, panting for the end.

Republican Critical Mass...

2012-01-08T19:47:00.001-06:00

Occasionally, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette will publish a thoughtful editorial on Sundays. Here are some excerpts from Sunday, January 8, 2011, regarding, ostensibly, Dr. Ron Paul and his Republican presidential bid, but the editors address other aspects of the Republican temperament that have existed since Lincoln to the oath of office.

Once again the party’s rank and uneven file, individualists all, have to choose between taking refuge in some nice quiet corner where they can confirm each other’s pet theories, or venturing out in the real world where compromises must be made if anything else is to be.In modern times, the best diagnosis, and always relevant prescription for the Republican dilemma, came from a rumpled old ex-Communist named Whittaker Chambers. (Ex-Communists make the best champions of freedom, for they know the enemy intimately, having been one.) He knew his new party well, and understood its traditional dilemma, a choice as old as the uneasy union between idealistic abolitionists and crafty businessmen who had formed the party in the first place.

An old party man, Whittaker Chambers knew this one would have to adapt or die. Or as he put it in a letter to a feisty young whippersnapper at the time named William F. Buckley Jr. shortly after the Republicans had been swept aside in another midterm election, this one in 1958:“If the Republican Party cannot get some grip of the actual world we live in, and from it generalize and actively promote a program that means something to masses of people-why, somebody else will. There will be nothing to argue. The voters will simply vote Republicans into singularity. The Republican Party will become like one of those dark little shops which apparently never sell anything. If, for any reason, you go in, you find, at the back, an old man, fingering for his own pleasure, some oddments of cloth. Nobody wants to buy them, which is fine because the old man is not really interested in selling. He just likes to hold and to feel....”

ONCE AGAIN the Republican Party must choose between its two competing wings and worldviews-or find an exceptional leader, a Reagan or Eisenhower, who can somehow bring them together for the greater good. Republicans tend to find themselves regularly divided ideologically, Democrats geographically. Which is why the battle of ideas in American politics tends to be played out at Republican national conventions, while regional and ethnic divisions are worked out, or not, at Democratic ones.

The Republicans have no Ronald Reagan no matter how hard Newt Gingrich tries to sew himself to the gipper's coattails. And Eisenhower? Hell, no one is even close. For that matter, the Democrats have no leadership like they need, and I mean LBJ. Sure he was a son-of-a-bitch, but he could get things done and the likes of Harry Reid will always pale in comparison of that lion of the Senate. But all things remaining equal, there is not a Republican who can beat President Obama.

For all of the vitriol and hyperbole expended on the evil of the Obama administration, none of the six remaining candidates have any more vision that the President, who I fault only for having too ambitious an agenda, the same as the Clintons almost a generation ago. The Republicans will continue to waste their time espousing their Christian beliefs, an element that has no place in government, neglecting the electorate wholesale. If the Republicans are to save us from the evil of President Obama, they are choosing the most curious and ineffective way to do it.

Let's understand, the last four years have been a bit underwhelming and I am wide open to other alternatives. As a Reagan Democrat, I am just not seeing any.

God, Christmas, and Gary Huckabee...

2011-12-06T08:30:00.001-06:00

The Holiday Season is an unforgiving one. It begins in insinuate itself in late August when school begins following summer recess. It gains full traction in early October, when Halloween becomes the rage, a trend recently attenuated by one emerging for the much bigger payday of Christmas. Thanksgiving has now become an afterthought, that quiet middle child with the sturdy constitution and clear purpose that remains densely quiet, a teachable moment as a monolith of silent expectation.

The pornographically commercial assault that are the "holidays" are discouraging as are the disparate reactions to the "Holidays" versus "Christmas." I don't know if it is age or experience (it certainly is not wisdom), but I am finally asking myself, "When is enough...enough?" I don't know much; but I do know this:

I. God

I am a terrible atheist and an even worse agnostic. I have always had belief in some kind of something bigger than me. Informed by the Roman Catholicism in which I was raised, I always called that something God (and yes, that is with a capital G). Whenever I pray, I pray to this Something. I have never been much on intercessory prayer, though I like the idea of the Saints. It is a slippery slope, this whole God thing, one that can grow complex quickly if we flawed humans are allowed to think about it too much or for two long.

Fully distilled, I think of God as being that thing to which we are grateful. I draw a delineation between thanksgiving, which is being thankful among humans. Gratitude is that feeling of thanksgiving reserved for God and God alone. God exists to be the recipient of our gratitude for those things we have received for which we did nothing. Grace, if you will, and we are surrounded by such fortune. I refuse to believe that we humans are all there is. As much as I appreciate Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, I feel they miss a richness in blanket disbelief.

II. Christmas

I completely suck as a Christian. I am a Christian as I really had little choice at birth being baptized and then raised in the Catholic Church. Being human, and ultimately, lazy, I have remained Christian, albeit often a reluctant one. What passes for "mainstream" Christianity, that flavor today that is so amply publicized through faith-sponsored media, is not what I think that hick Nazarene preacher promoted so long ago. I also suspect that He would not be wild about how he has been portrayed nor who has been carrying his sign between his exit from the cave and today.

If we were to strip all of the "theology" away from the story, those words of "The Dear and Glorious Physician" would still ring strongly of the arrival of that which will "make all things new:"

¹ Now it came to pass in those days, there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be enrolled.
² This was the first enrolment made when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
³ And all went to enrol themselves, every one to his own city.
⁴ And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David;
⁵ to enrol himself with Mary, who was betrothed to him, being great with child.
⁶ And it came to pass, while they were there, the days were fulfilled that she should be delivered.
⁷ And she brought forth her firstborn son; and she wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
⁸ And there were shepherds in the same country abiding in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock.
⁹ And an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
¹⁰ And the angel said unto them, Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people:
¹¹ for there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.
¹² And this is the sign unto you: Ye shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.

Whatever else this is, it is a message of Peace, and therefore, Hope...and for this, gratitude.

III. Gary Huckabee

I had not kept up with Gary after school, seeing him only once twelve years ago at the funeral of a professor we both had and loved. He was that same old Gary: animated, wise-cracking, confident. In early November of this year, Gary experienced an inability to speak. Alarmed, this led to doctors, blood tests, scans and shadows betraying the presence of things terminal. Gary's prognosis was a jarring thirty days. In reality, his diagnosis was one Wednesday and his passing the Friday Next. Gary Huckabee was a classmate of mine in Pharmacy School. He was from Texarkana, had a broad, easy smile, and a fun-loving sense of humor. I say "was" because Gary recently passed away.

Eddie Goode, Michael Bailey, and
Gary Huckabee , 1982

Gary's funeral service was held at the Jacksonville Second Baptist Church. I attended with my very best friends from school, several whom I had not seen since graduation. That did not seem to matter. Intervening years, successes and failures all gave way to picking up where we all left off so long before. The service was thoughtful. Because Gary knew he would die, he had his picture made with all of his family members, these pictures shown during the service. There were four eulogists who, with their words, made the Character that was Gary Huckabee come alive for me. I recalled that big personality like it was 1982 and we were reclining at the Apothecary Lounge, the Hillcrest house Garry shared with several other friends while we were in school.

We all have characters in our lives, those personalities that delight, frustrate, surprise, and disappoint. But no matter what these characters do, they cannot be forgotten, nor what little piece of themselves they leave with you. They are to be grateful for. Merry Christmas, Gary. Wherever you are...

Putting an Important Face on the Uninsured...

2011-10-18T10:14:00.001-05:00

Jim O’Neal, Living Blues founder, ill and uninsured

Music Critic and Jazz Journalist Association President Howard Mandel brings both an important issue and important person to our attention in this brief article from his blog Jazz Beyond Jazz. Jim and Amy O'Neal were fixtures in the Oxford, Mississippi area when I was attending graduate school there in the 1980s. I remember both well. It was a heady time when the likes of Willie Morris, Larry Brown, Barry Hannah, Dick Waterman could been seen at The Gin, The Hoka, Ireland's, or Syd and Harry's on any given night, kind of a crazy Southern Gothic version of Paris in the time of the Impressionists.

The O'Neals followed their bliss, spreading the the message of the blues. Their's was a necessary uniting cultural role that back in the day could be managed without worrying about the more venal things like health insurance. Today, Jim O'Neal suffers from a life-threatening disease and has no insurance. The uncharitable will claim that is his own fault, reasoning that had he been a conventional, contributing member of American Society, he would have been responsible enough to maintain health insurance. What Jim O'Neal contributed to American Culture is far more than Bank of America, Citibank, and Lehman Brothers ever did. O'Neal held up a mirror for us to look into to see both ourselves and others.

My father often told me that he failed to see where everyone deserved to have health coverage. I thought that odd with "...the meek shall inherit the earth..." and whatnot. I don't think deserving has anything to do with the discussion. It is our obligation to take care of one another. There will always be poor (One wiser than me said this), there will always be reticence, there will always be greed and mean spiritedness. And there will always be those who will rise above this to do what is right. the time to rise is now.

Gimme That Old Time Religion...

2011-10-10T14:40:00.000-05:00

Who’s afraid of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism? - The Washington Post

Texas Governor Rick Perry played the faith card, the silly bastard. The superstitious nature that lies at the American religious core remains as potent as ever though, if one were to believe Michael Gerson's position, an ever dwindling one, and that, of course, is a very good thing. Yet there has always been a Christian constituency firmly encamped in the MSDS ("My Shit Don't Stink") area. Only the demographics have changed. In the 20th Century, the MSDS Christian constituency was of an East Coast WASPy variety and the bad guys to them were the Roman Catholics (the single largest single Christian denomination in the United States, funny how that was (24% of Christians - The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life). I wonder what they were afraid of? "Some mute, inglorious Milton..." or their very own "...Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood."

Today, this MSDS Christian monolith is occupied by something called Evangelical Protestants (at 26% according to Pew), not to be confused with Mainline Protestants (16%, the MSDS Christians of the first half of 20th Century). The Evangelical Protestants have appealed to their constituency with a return to theblackcatwalkingunderaladderopeninganumbrellaindoorswhileshatteringamirror philosophy that has woven together every escatologic paradigm into their version of an all-you-can-eat-Chinese-buffett "End Times" theology. Why do you think they love Israel so much? Do you think this group gives a tinker's damn about Israel outside of trying to achieve the Revelatory number of Jews converted to bring about "End Times?" Religious tolerance my ass.

Let's look a some of Gerson's remarks from his Washington Post article:

Yet Romney’s faith should not matter. Presidents are elected for their policy views, leadership skills and character, not their soteriology. Such theological convictions about salvation may be infinitely important, but they are politically irrelevant.

No kidding. Nothing could be further from the point.

Among conservatives, however, this opposition is more likely to fade than build. No primary opponent of Romney’s can exploit these sentiments, at least in an overt way. When Mike Huckabee tried during the last election, he was forced to make a very public apology. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is America’s fourth-largest denomination; Mormons are one of the nation’s strongest conservative voting blocks. A serious Republican candidate simply can’t run an anti-Mormon campaign.

Huckabee's fatal assumption (the same one Evalngelicals make everyday) was the same as 19th missionaries trying to baptize the natives in the water where the crocodiles live: one of arrogant ignorance or ignorant arrogance, take your pick.

Since their political reemergence in the 1970s, conservative evangelicals have lived with a tension. They hold tightly to their theological convictions. But there isn’t a conservative evangelical majority in America.

And this is a good thing.

This mathematical reality is what led Jerry Falwell to associate politically with Pentecostals and Catholics, as well as with Jews and Mormons. Such ecumenism has been an unexpected contribution of the religious right. In a democracy, the desire for influence tends to overwhelm theological differences.

And, Dear God, is that not the point?

And, if all of this is true, why this this the single nosiest political groups, "banging gongs and clanging cymbals?" It seems that there is a huge waste of effort over an initial fart in the wind at the beginning of a campaign cycle over just who is the most authentic Christian. I applaud Mr. Romney's cool head, the same one one John Kennedy had 50 years ago. Rick Perry, by playing the faith card, has aligned himself with another notable Texas son, Lawrence Russell Brewer, a precious Texan it killed him to execute.

The Beauty of Black Ops...

2011-09-30T18:07:00.001-05:00

Anwar al-Aulaqi, U.S.-born cleric linked to al-Qaeda, killed in Yemen - The Washington Post

First, let's understand a couple of things. One, the United States hasn't been one of the "Good Guys" since after World War II. Two, when President Gerald Ford signed Executive Order 11905 "No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination," he was probably the only one who intended to follow it. When President Jimmy Carter followed with 12036, he was just being naive and when President Ronald Reagan signed Executive Order 12333, he crossed his fingers.

Today, President Obama is doing exactly what every swinging-dick Neo-Conservative would be doing, eliminating enemies of the United States, and he is being blamed for it. Did the United States assassinate Osama bin-Laden? Absolutely. The only thing that surprises me is that the Navy Seals responsible did not kill everyone present. That is what we would have done in Vietnam. We cannot have it both ways: the elimination of enemies and then the outcry against...the elimination of our enemies.

The issue is not that the United States assassinates enemies, we do, so everyone get off of your high horse. The issue is the Government does too much talking about it. Covert Operations were always intended to be that...covert. It is that impolite behavior that no one wants to acknowledge that is, nevertheless, necessary in the political climate the United States has been largely instrumental in bringing about. It is a dirty job, wet work.

I in no way advocate war. But, more so, I do not advocate the magical thinking that the United States is that blue-boy savior making all things right without harm...grow up.

Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones...

2011-09-29T12:50:00.001-05:00

...But, At Least I Am Not A Moron.

N.C. Gov. Perdue's remark strikes nerve with GOP pundits - Politics Wires - MiamiHerald.com

Okay. I call bullshit! Our elected officials and their respective mouthpieces are behaving like that fat kind in the school yard tattling because someone said "fart." Beg pardon, "The hypercaloric child responsibly informing the adults that he overheard someone say flatus."

This behavior has its origins in that most communist of affectations: Political Correctness. finger pointing, soto voce, "You said booger and that makes you a racist."

Enough!

I hope that all of our politicos grow up and a pair and get over themselves. I am no longer simply fearful of the suspected lack of intellect of some of the politically active folks this election season; I am fearful of all of them. The lot of them take themselves too seriously and if they stopped to look in the mirror, they would laugh...

In the Larger Context...

2011-09-25T14:26:00.001-05:00

Addiction as Disease, Addiction as Metaphor. Dirk Hanson Guests | Binge Inking

If reality television has done nothing else, it has blurred the line between chemical dependency and compulsive behavior disorders. Where A&E's Intervention and Relapse and TLC's Addicted deal necessarily with substance abuse/chemical dependency, Hoarding and Obsessed (A&E) and Hoarding: Buried Alive and My Strange Addiction (TLC) deal with things that look mighty close to classical addiction but lack the substance or chemical components.

The conditions depicted in all of these reality shows do bear some striking similarities: loss of control, minimization, denial, self-centeredness, negative consequences. It has become quite chic to call aberrant behaviors (hyper sexuality, pedophilia, kleptomania, and a host of obsessive-compulsive disorders "addictions."

Dirk Hanson's provocative article at Binge Inking touches on this blurred line, finally stating that it will be the neuroscience that will reveal how closely related chemical and non-chemical compulsive behavioral disorders are related.

Penny-Wise and Pound Foolish...

2011-09-25T13:33:00.001-05:00

Obama Administration Set to Ban Asthma Inhalers Over Environmental Concerns | The Weekly Standard

This action by the Administration, EPA and FDA makes as much sense, and indeed does as much good as the State of Arkansas' decision to make pseudoephedrine available by prescription only. Both represent intrusive and expensive ways for the Government to look like they are doing something about something they can do nothing about. The major methamphetamine production went south (to Mexico) long ago where the laboratories are better and better precursors (DL-ephedrine, phenylacetone) are readily available; they are not in Garland or Lonoke Counties. The amount of chlorofluorocarbons in asthma inhalers is non-existent when compared to other sources of ozone-depleting chemicals.

To put this in perspective, let's say that there is a "hazardous" chemical noted in the environment. The Government will spend a a trillion dollars eliminating 99.9% and later decide to spend another trillion dollars eliminating the remaining 0.9%. This is neither cost effective or realistic, rather, it is foolish. This is an example of how I do not want my money spent.

Miles and Miles of Texas...

2011-09-18T21:48:00.001-05:00

Governor Rick Perry and President George W. Bush
In a land full of swinging dicks, here are the two biggest

Love in the Time of Alzheimer's....

2011-09-16T15:00:00.001-05:00

ὑποκριτά ἔκβαλε πρῶτον ἐκ τοῦ ὀφθαλμοῦ σοῦ τὴν δοκόν, καὶ τότε διαβλέψεις ἐκβαλεῖν τὸκάρφος ἐκ τοῦ ὀφθαλμοῦ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σου.

The Reverend Pat Robertson's suggestion to the spouse of and caregiver to an Alzheimer's Disease (AD) patient that it would be acceptable to divorce the afflicted spouse given they have the proper custodial care so that the caretaker "...can get on with their life" is so beautifully outrageous that once the media furor returns to a simmer, a more important and timely topic will properly emerge: what it means to be an Alzheimer's Disease caregiver.

Originally identified as a disease by German psychiatrist and neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer in 1906, AD did fully become an obscenity until the 1970s when more sophisticated diagnostic methods were developed and the neuroscience of the condition was better understood. In 1969, I knew something was bad wrong with my maternal grandfather, when in the space of two years was reduced to a dying infant after 70 years of being a sturdy and vibrant German-American...something bad wrong, we just didn't have a name for it. That had all changed by 1989, when such a collection of symptoms was officially christened by the medical community as "Dementia of the Alzheimer's Type" and applied, in those words, to my mother.

Up until that time, I had always considered terminal cancer to the worst of all possible diseases, so much so that I made it a specialty in Pharmacy School and a large element of subsequent pharmacy practice. The relentless pain and indiscriminate gastrointestinal symptoms made cancer and its treatment the pinnacle of suffering. How naive.

AD, often called "The Long Goodbye" since the diagnosis of President Ronald Reagan with the disease in August 1994, is so perfect a disease that it exists as a metaphor or allegory for the complete loss of self. The AD-uninitiated do not simply have the least idea of what this means, they have no idea what AD is about. It was my college roommate, whose mother had been in a nursing home many years with AD, who stomped on my foot by telling me "you've no idea what you're talking about." A veterinarian, I had brought my mother, just diagnosed with AD, to his office with her cat. I was moaning about how hard things were. He made sure that I knew that (1) my mother was not bad with the disease and (2) not to worry because things would get bad...very bad. I allowed my friend's words to hurt my feelings, but soon enough I would gain a clarity afforded to few.

In the years where my mother would have been considered "early to middle" AD, I developed my deepest and most lasting relationship with her and my father. I lived at home with them during this period and believe that this was the most fulfilled I ever filled. In the midst of this terrible disease, my mother would still say and do things that were absolutely priceless, like calling her sister to tell her I was on a first-name basis with Pope John Paul II or that she had just spoken with her parents, to which I responded, "when you see Mom and Dad Fox again, let them know I need to talk with them." I learned to go with the flow. That is all one can do as a caregiver...that and realize, "it is not about you."

Step One of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous states:

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.

Man, I could never understand either the first of second clause of that statement: the powerless part or the unmanageable part. I just could not get it...until one day when I was getting ready to leave the house at a time when my mother could still stay by herself, and I was writing her a note. Her short-term memory was already shot and I often had to repeat myself. I figured that all I had to do was leave detailed enough instructions and she would be okay for the short time I should be gone. I wrote a masterpiece. It was a full page long, written in my best exact printing. As I finished the note, I had that greatest of all Roman Catholic constructs, an epiphany. I realized that not matter how much I wrote, how specific or detailed I was, that my mother was not even going to understand what she read, much less remember it. In that moment, I learned both powerlessness and unmanageability....I was completely powerless over my mother's disease and unmanageable because I thought that through vigilance, I could manage her disease. When I came to accept and admit my powerlessness, I was indeed set free and allowed to enjoy what time my mother and I had left rather than be occupied with constantly trying to correct her and her faulty recollections.

In a few short years what my old college roommate told be came about, turning in to hanging-on-for-dear-life. I shared my mother's care with my twin sister and father, a tag-team approach, to be sure, but that is what it took. We made all of the promises that we would keep her home and never put her in an extended care facility, intentions that were as earnest as they were impossible to keep. From the perspective of both being a caregiver and the healthcare system, we kept my mother home a year longer than was sensible. My mothers care, in the last years of her life at home were spirit-breaking to my sister, father and me. My mother's care broke me in half and it was not until long after her funeral that I was able to tell one of my beast friends that the end of my mother's life was the most horrible experience I had ever had (and I had had some pretty bad ones). And therein lies the rub, I would have had it no other way and listening to Rev. Robertson's suggestion that it would somehow be allowable for a caregiver spouse to divorce his/her afflicted partner sounds so antithetical to me.

AD is so perfect an affliction that it makes those suffering from it to forget who he or she is. Let me rephrase that. The AD patient will reach a point where they no longer recognize themselves. That is the purloin of the perfect thief. The sufferer is robbed of everything, their very self. Rev. Robertson at lease got that right. The part about divorce rewrites 500 years of Protestant theological thinking (if there is such a thing). It is in this realm of suffering that Roman Catholicism has it right, suffering is the manna offered back to God as sacrifice. The experience of suffering is the sacrifice (I finally understood that, too). While, as a human, I always thought that "Catholic" suffering was overrated, it can be viewed in no other way lest one wishes to lose their mind. That is how profound the effect of AD is on the care-giving family member. But there is something sacred about it and Reverend Robertson, in his obvious senility, forgot this.

To all AD caregivers: the job you have could never have been prepared for, you are hardly prepared for it but you will manage. Please take care of yourself and seek out the help you will need. AD is way bigger than you are.

Louis Armstrong - University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 05/04/1954

2011-09-04T14:53:00.001-05:00

Louis Armstrong

University of North Carolina, 05/04/1954

Chapel Hill, NC

The Midnight Cafe

Sometimes one must go back to the source, or better yet have the source come a little closer to you. Louis Armstrong made his first recordings in 1923 with Joe "King" Oliver and his band. In 1925, Armstrong recorded the first great jazz evolution in his "Hot Fives and Sevens." He would go on to transform solo instrument improvisation and jazz vocals in ways that remain vital today. In 1954, Armstrong was an elder statesman of jazz, an ambassador of good will. These vivid soundboard recordings from his appearance at the University of North Carolina in May, 1954 show Armstrong at the top of his performing form. If one can only hear one selection here, listen to "Tin Roof Blues," it will show you from where we all come.

American Theocracy Revisited - NYTimes.com

2011-08-29T20:09:00.000-05:00

American Theocracy Revisited - NYTimes.com

"...many liberal and secular Americans came to regard religious conservatives not merely as their political opponents, but as a kind of existential threat. The religious right, they decided, wasn’t a normal political movement. Rather, it was an essentially illiberal force, bent on gradually replacing our secular republic with what Kevin Phillips’s 2006 best seller dubbed an 'American Theocracy.'”

Guilty as charged. This is exactly how I think and feel regarding the Religious Right. Having said that, I am certainly a Christian, if reluctantly, and I agree with author Ross Douthat's four points. It is too easy for the opponents of anything to be qualitatively guilty of what they oppose. Douthat's comments are the most evenly balanced recently written.

An Open Memo to Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky...

2011-08-22T15:25:00.000-05:00

WM3 Defense Attorney: How Deal Happened - KATV Channel 7 - The Spirit of Arkansas:

Memo from the desk of C. Michael Bailey

To: Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky
From: C. Michael Bailey
Regarding: The Final Installment to the Paradise Lost Trilogy

Hi Guys. Now that we have reached an endgame of sorts to the plight of the so-called "West Memphis Three," it seems proper that you make Paradise Lost: The Child Murders in Robin Hood Hills (HBO, 1996) and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (HBO, 2000) a full trilogy with a jaunty third installment entitled say, Paradise Regained (after a Fashion). I appreciated your keen ability to savage the character of poor, white Mississippi Delta Arkansans, whether they were protagonists or antagonists in this story of Southern Culture on the Skids.

I would like to suggest, if I may, that you refocus your cultural savagery specifically on the Arkansas Judicial System that managed to convict three innocent, but convenient, marginalized teenagers, keep them in prison approaching 20 years only to abruptly release them in an Alford plea deal where the three plead guilty to the crime, reserving the right to claim innocence, while admitting that the State had enough evidence to have convicted them. In the cultural vernacular, that is about as satisfying as french-kissing one's sister.

The prosecution swallowed this entire scenario whole because of their justified fear of the impending retrial which, more than likely would have resulted in acquittal of the three, followed by their individual civil suits against the State, all of which, more than likely would have been successful. If anyone deserves savaging, it is the judicial structure that allowed this to happen.

Or, you could wait until certain private concerns follow the DNA evidence to its ultimate conclusion, thereby requesting a pardon for the three. While not exactly proper exoneration, it may the the best we can expect from a jake-leg delta judiciary. It is your choice and I am sure it will be a fine conclusion to a pornographic injustice that will remain as such because of the lack of identifying the actual guilty parties.

Rough God Goes Riding: Something Less than Justice for the West Memphis 3

2011-08-19T15:53:00.000-05:00

The West Memphis Three Get Some Kind of Justice

The West Memphis Three were permitted to plead guilty to murder in exchange for time served; ending a long long-running legal battle that had raised questions about DNA and witnesses. The plea agreement is called an Alford Plea, named for Henry Alford, defendant in the United States Supreme Court case North Carolina v. Alford (1970). The result here was the three entered an Alford plea of guilty, enabling them to claim their innocence while admitting having been found guilty in a trial.

Prosecutor Scott Ellington said it would be "practically impossible after 18 years to put on a proper trial in this case. I believe this case is closed, and there are no other individuals involved."

That translates into something roughly stated, "if the three were granted a new trial in 2012, chances were too great that, in light of the new DNA evidence, the three would be acquitted, in which case the three could then sue the State in civil court (and likely win) and the judicial process in the Arkansas Delta would be exposed, internationally through a less than sympathetic media as the feckless, superstitious hayseeds they are, scaring an ignorant population (read that "jury of your peers") with tales of witches and black cats, broken mirrors and open umbrellas." What Ellington says is that this agreement closes the case with no consideration of alternate theories of guilt.

How convenient. Apparently, the prosecution saw the writing on the wall when DNA testing and new physical evidence was presented between 2007 and 2010 coupled with the November 4, 2010 Arkansas Supreme Court ruling ordering lower court judge David Burnett to consider whether newly-analyzed DNA evidence might exonerate three men convicted in the 1993 murders and the replacement of Burnett with Circuit Judge David Laser in December 2010, that they wished to avoid, at all costs, a new trial receiving national and international coverage. After the two HBO documentaries, Paradise Lost and Paradise Lost 2, where the entire Arkansas Delta was savaged by the producers, the prosecutors knew that that savaging would only pale in comparison with the one resulting from an acquittal and subsequent civil trial. In short, they are cowards.

Like the recent Casey Anthony verdicts, some element of justice was had here, but it was about as satisfying as a dirt sandwich...to all the parties involved

"The Blood-dimmed Tide..."

2011-08-11T21:30:00.002-05:00

Rick Perry, Secessionist Governor

Why Rick Perry is headed to the White House - CNN.com

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;The best lack all conviction, while the worstAre full of passionate intensity.

William Butler Yeats wrote these word in the wake of World War I. Does this sound familiar?

The best lack all conviction, while the worstAre full of passionate intensity.

Does this ring a bell?

It is a perfect American Storm. I thought the 2008 election had the potential of being a game changer, and in many ways, it was. In the grossest and widest swath of the political/cultural brush, 2008 demonstrated that American Society had finally begun to emerge from the post-Jim Crow/Civil Rights Act of 1964 era and elected an African-American president. This had to happen sometime for America, in its largest global context, to be taken seriously instead of laughed at every time the U.S. chides some Third-World country on "human rights." In the election of 2008, there were piles and piles of passionate intensity. In no way did this passionate intensity translate into anything resembling prosperity...and prosperity is what drives United States elections.

With no prosperity, the only way to gain a political foothold is to promise prosperity. And even that will not be enough to secure election. A broader appeal must be made. In order for a Republican to win the presidency in 2012, the candidate will need to pull these disparate groups beneath his or her tent:

The Republican Fringe - call them "far right reactionaries," "right-wing evangelicals," "The Tea Party," or as they are properly lumped together in James C. Moore's CNN Opinion article, the Teavangelicals. While (hopefully) a small group, they are the most vocal. They must be under the tent to attract attention, if nothing else. They are the Right's unpredictable and obnoxious idiot child who cannot and will not be ignored.
The Republican Mainstream - these are the John Boehner/Mitch McConnell Republicans, the guys who have been the problem with the Republican Party since Reagan and who will continue to be as feckless and ineffectual as they always have been.
The Republican/Democratic Moderates - these are Yeat's best lacking all conviction, the sensible thinkers and doers who would rather compromise than fight, whose chest feathers never ruffle and whose table manners are always acceptable. Let's frame them more specifically this way: liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats. This is the group that was slaughtered in the bloodbath of of the 2010 midterm elections. This is also statistically, the largest political group and it will be because of this group how 2012 election will be decided...as it always is.

So, with the Republican field established early, how does Texas governor Rick Perry think, coming in to the mix at this relatively late date (453 days before the election, as of 08-11-2011), think he is going to pull this off? Easy. He will do so by securing a majority of these groups. He has already started by attending the 30,000 circle jerk in Houston where Perry did everything but say, "I am a Christian...and not a Morman one." It is simple, those voters who make up the Teavangelicals will, in the end, vote for a "real Christian" against a Mormon any day:

"We think a them Mormons as bein' in kind of a cult," one of the Houston rally attendees told me. "I couldn't vote for one a them when we got a real Christian like Governor Perry runnin'."

A cheeky paraphrase to be sure, but, at least at this alter of the election, the choice will come down to good old American religious prejudice. It was only a mere 50 years ago that unique brand of American Christian, the WASP, looked at John F. Kennedy as if he had three eyes because of his Catholicism.

No, Perry sewed up the right-wing evangelicals, taking them away from Michelle Bachmann from the get go. Pathetic Midwesterner Bachmann will be left doing nothing but saying stupid things the minute Perry opens that Rio Grande mouth of his, liberating that burlap-panty rhetoric in that Texas-gold twang guaranteed to make even the most devout Teavangelic moist in the knickers.

The Republican mainstream will vote for Perry because they think they have to to defeat the great Satan Obama. Since they have never had a thought, much less an original one (creativity and imagination are not Republican strong points), they can only latch one to whoever or whatever bears the GOP moniker.

That leaves the silent majority, that fluid interface of common sense that exist between the two parties, who, because of their moderate demeanor, are a fickle lot. The all important conservative Democrats, the Reagan Democrats of 1980, will have to be gained in order to win. He will appeal to their fiscal conservatism and the conservative Democrats, in turn, will hold their nose to Perry's evangelical bluster. If this number is large enough. Perry will be the next president.

What about President Obama?

Find that split screen video, in real-time, of the President's comments on the S&P downgrade and the DOW dropping 600 points. It's the economy, stupid.

Not Just and American Problem...

2011-08-08T16:11:00.000-05:00

The world runs out of options - Telegraph

I have stopped taken seriously what the American media reports, choosing rather to consider them propaganda with a prescribed end result in mind. Out of frustration, I have turned to the foreign media, specifically the British, for my news. We can take for instance this article from The Telegraph. The credit downgrade of the United States is not simply (or only) an American problem, it is a global problem:

Standard & Poor's downgrade of the United States to AA+ is a detail in this greater drama, albeit of poignant symbolism.

S&P should have acted six years ago when the rot was setting in. To do so now is fatuous.The US Treasury is right to disregard the verdict and keep risk weightings unchanged to avoid a cascade of forced debt sales. Note how quickly Japan, Korea, France, and even Russia, have closed ranks behind Washington.

As for China's bluster, it is chutzpah and self-delusion. We all agree that the US needs to "cure its addiction to debts", but so will China soon.

China buys US debt in order to recycle $200bn a quarter in foreign reserves, hold down the yuan, and continue its mercantilist export strategy. If China had not distorted world trade in this fashion, the US would not be in such a mess.

That is refreshing. I tend to be a bit hard on United States spending and, therefore, suspicious of even-handed treatment like this. But I do think it disingenuous of S&P to wag its finger, defending its decision to downgrade the United State's credit-worthiness, when their own house was hardly in order during the Wall Street meltdown in 2008. They obviously found creditworthy institutions in much more dire straights than the U.S.. Hell, they supported Enron to the bitter end.

Having said all of that, the United States has an economic house in crisis and must make and effort to correct the situation. The biggest message in downgrading U.S. creditworthiness is one to the Executive and Legislative branches, particularly the latter. These grading agencies are plainly saying they have no faith in Congress or Congresses ability to simply begin to fix the problem, let alone do so in a definitive manner.

We are all in the same pickle.

The Neo-Conservative Wet Dream...

2011-08-07T11:15:00.000-05:00

"My hair is more perfect than
that goat herder Benny Hinn's"

Texas Governor Rick Perry will cloud the already murky field of Republican presidential candidates further next month, when he throws his hat into the ring. This is what many mainstream Republicans have been waiting for, the remainder of the candidate field being found lacking. Perry is set to out-evangelical even Michelle Bachman and stands to more fully unite traditional Neo-Conservatives and the Evangelical Right into what could be an impressive theocratic juggernaut. Thomas Jefferson, of course, has already soiled his knee-pants over this and John Adams just shakes his head.

Pick out your mega-church and bid goodbye to common sense and progress.

Put in Their Place and Faulted for Being There...

2011-08-01T11:44:00.000-05:00

An Open Letter To The Democratic Party: I Hate You

A delightful rant provided me by another disgruntled left-of-center, Eric Rathman. It is hard to say who I have less regard for, the Tea Party or the Far Left. I have often wondered why the Political Moderates (who have to be a majority) never can get the fire in their belly to lead. It is because they are the only ones competent to clean of the mess made by the more extreme of both parties. Get rid of an obsession with God on the right and the belief that everyone can be saved on the left and we might begin to think more sensibly.

Sunglasses at Night...

2011-07-29T09:20:00.001-05:00

The Cook Report: A Laughingstock - Charlie Cook - NationalJournal.com

I am fairly well convinced I know nothing about politics and that, if I were prudent, I would quit commenting on them. But, of course, ignorance never stopped me before. So, forget politics for a minute and let's focus on human nature. Human nature is a creature of inertia. If at rest, it stays there and if in motion, it tends to seek rest in response to negative system input (friction). Human nature is such that for any change to occur, great pain and consequences must first be experienced before human nature is stimulated to an escape velocity to change something. Charlie Cook predicts:

Sadly, my view is that it will probably take a significant stock-market plunge of 500 or 1,000 points in the Dow Jones industrial average, perhaps triggered by a bond-ratings downgrade, to focus minds and cut through the political posturing. The stock and bond markets, neurotic and skittish under the best of circumstances, have been remarkably patient, looking the other way and quietly assuming that everything will work out. They may reach the end of their patience any day. Even a modest deal on deficit reduction and a short-term increase in the debt ceiling may not bring enough confidence to the markets.

At this point, because of the ruling classes incompetence, we are going to suffer. I have no idea what or how much suffering. I no longer know who to trust. The Bush Administration told me there were weapons of mass destruction in Iran. Both parties and the Federal Reserve told me that Wall Street had to be bailed out or we would have another depression (having had parents who were adults in the Great Depression always had a deep effect on me). Now I am being told by everyone, including that beaked-face Timothy Geithner, that the sky is calling and will crush us if the United States defaults on its fiscal responsibilities. I heard yesterday, that the American debt is simply a Chinese rounding error.

As a friend told me: it will be exciting to watch....for a minute.

High-jinks on Sutpen's Hundred...

2011-07-27T13:12:00.001-05:00

School district won’t allow black valedictorian, lawsuit alleges | Around the Web | eSchoolNews.com

I once thought that the Southeastern corner of Oklahoma as America's biggest mistake. The I knew it was Kansas and the Kansas State Board of Education.

But I was wrong.

The biggest mistake in America is Southeastern Arkansas, where the crackers in the crotch of the Arkansas Delta of McGehee were reluctant to properly solely award the McGehee Secondary School valedictory to Kimberly Wimberly, who achieved the undisputed highest GPA in her class. Instead, the school insisted that Miss Wimberly, who is is African-American, share the award with a white student with a lesser grade point. Miss Wimberly's mother appropriately filed a federal discrimination complaint, detailing,

"...that after her daughter had been told she would be valedictorian, the mother heard "in the copy room that same day, other school personnel expressed concern that Wimberly's status as valedictorian might cause a 'big mess.'"

That is gutless, even for the pathetic Arkansas Delta.

The State dissolved the Pulaski County Special School Board earlier this summer because of their fiscal malfeasance. The same should be done for the McGehee School Board on the basis of their moral, ethical, and human rights malfeasance, which are much more fundamental than the simple fiscal. This behavior makes me ashamed to be an Arkansan, an identification I otherwise am proud of in addition to my being a Southerner. But with that pride comes a responsibility and the McGehee School District is not meeting theirs.

A Shitty Game of Chicken

2011-07-25T12:25:00.001-05:00

Two sides craft debt plans as deadline nears - Washington Times

Economically, we are in the muddy ditch with the four-wheeler on top of us.

This is just one scenario:

The President wants a long ranging debt deal, meaning one that extends beyond the 2012 Presidential Election. He has said as much...and, of course he does. He wishes to avoid the smell of these discussions happening all over again just prior to the election. Secondarily, the President wants a deal that raises taxes, particularly on wealthier Americans and corporations (which will be necessary, but will more likely be watered down to increased taxes on the Middle and Lower Classes, as it always has been) with modest spending cuts, none to Medicare and Social Security. Incidently, this is the most feasible and practical interim solution.

On the Republican side, Rep. John Boehner and Sen. Mitch McConnell want nothing more than have the debt ceiling issue come up again about next September, torpedoing the President's re-election chances. They want all spending reductions with no new taxes. I like the former but do not believe we can not have the latter. the Tea Party wants to throw the baby out with the bathwater because they are short-sighted like that. This is all politics and not a one of them Democrats, Republicans or any one else cares one iota for America. This is the most shameless group of leaders in my lifetime. Hell, I want Nixon back, at least you knew what to expect.

As an aside, Sen. Harry Reid's "blink" to accept spending cuts with no new revenue is probably the most sensible thing suggested in this crazy game of chicken. If economic catastrophe were to happen, as chicken little Timothy Geithner asserts, he recognizes that everyone's job are in jeopardy, including Capitol Hill.

Congress: please surprise me and do something for America rather than yourselves.

So Many Things Wrong on So Many Levels...

2011-07-22T13:52:00.000-05:00

Gargling With History

It is not often we are presented with a pop culture artifact that can manage to insult more sensibilities than this wedding picture of two Japanese lovebirds. The erstwhile bride is dressed traditionally if not a bit archaically.

The groom?

Well, the groom is clad in the dress black uniform of a German SS-Strumsfuhrer (Storm Leader). Where to begin? I don't know; draw your own conclusions. The those crazy Japanese youth! They have always wanted to be Western...this is simply further evidence.

Hangnail Time in the Whorehouse...

2011-07-21T16:34:00.000-05:00

Michele Bachmann faces more migraine questions - POLITICO

Admittedly, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann makes it a challenge to narrow a discussion enough to be favorable to her. Within the confines of decency in both political discourse and media reportage, it is shameful that any discussion of Bachmann's alleged migraine headaches is taking place at all, much less questioning her ability to lead. So base, sophomoric, and sexist is this political and intelligence rhetoric, I am ashamed to both be the member of a political party, a member of the media, and defending Rep. Bachmann. Oh the humanity...

Jaycee Dugard and the "Authorities"

2011-07-17T09:22:00.001-05:00

Dugard Kidnapping Suspect Told FBI He's Cured Himself ABC News

Law Enforcement could not find Jaycee Dugard, missing for 18 years without an engraved invitation of the Kidnapper

I couldn't find much to be unhappy about recently in the news until I saw part of Diane Sawyer's interview with Jaycee Dugard which had a clip of local and state authorities announcing that they had found the kidnapped woman, now 29-years old, after she was made to live in a tent in the backyard of a known and monitored sex offender...for 18 years. The only offender in this announcement were the authorities themselves for taking any credit for finding Dugard. Had Phillip Craig Garrido not become delusional enough to do the equivalent of sending authorities an engraved invitation, Dugard would still be there.

Excuses are rampant, but there are none. Law enforcement get a pair of "Irish Sunglasses" for their meager and anemic efforts.

McConnell outlines new proposal on debt ceiling - The Washington Post

2011-07-13T09:38:00.000-05:00

McConnell outlines new proposal on debt ceiling - The Washington Post

The proposal would transform the political dynamics of the debate, placing the entire burden for raising the $14.3 trillion debt limit on Obama. Republican lawmakers would be spared from voting to raise the limit and could shift their campaign for unprecedented spending cuts to the congressional appropriations process, where the risk of stalemate is shutting down the government instead of capsizing the U.S. economy. However, they would lose the approaching deadline as leverage to pursue their cost-cutting agenda.

Silly gutlessness, this is the heart of the mainstream Republican Party. If the faces of Republican Leadership are Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) we are in trouble. Is it any wonder that we have a Tea Party Faction at odds with the traditional party (not that they have anything to offer either). Is it any wonder that the American people are wanting for effective leadership? We have had little in my lifetime. Senator McConnell's suggestion here is beyond cynical, it is laughable and one would hope that it would realize his worst fears, necessary Republican responsibility in something unpopular. You were elected to lead, so lead! Goddamnit!

The Democratic Leadership? They are more pathetic than the Republicans. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) is no Lyndon Johnson, and, dear God, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) no Tip O'Neill. The Democratic Leadership is as tepid and attractive as warm beer and milk, with less of an ability to benefit anyone but themselves. While these geniuses scratch their collective backsides, Rome begins to smoke.

What is the mystery here? Spending will have to be cut and taxes raised. There is no other way. It will be unpleasant for everyone...let's get on with it.

"The Way You Hold Your Bat...."

2011-07-09T20:16:00.000-05:00

Derek Jeter of Yankees gets hit 3,000 with home run at Stadium - NYPOST.com

The way you wear your hat,
The way you sip your tea,
The mem'ry of all that --
No, no! They can't take that away from me!

Political pundit George Will opined during the then pristine home run race of 1998 that America as a country was never healthier than when she turned her attention to baseball. In the year 2011, America has little to crow about. But for just an afternoon, we can savor and take pride in Derek Jeter's accomplishment, noting his passing of a baseball milestone, 3,000 career hits.

As slow as baseball is as a spectator sport and as statistics laden as it is the human manifestation of accomplishment still can manage to rear its head in the simplest of ways. Jeter went 5 for 5, hitting the the winning home run as his 3,000th hit. The only other Yankee to hit 3,000 was Wade Boggs, who also homered on his 3,000th hit.

We are all just little boys, dreaming big dreams - thinking big thoughts.

In Discipline and Honesty There is Freedom...

2011-07-09T09:18:00.001-05:00

"Intake Sneak Premiere" ( Ep. 501 ) from Celebrity Rehab 5 | Full Episode | VH1.com June27, 2011

The popular VH1 reality show Celebrity Rehab premiered its Season 5 lineup Sunday, June 26, 2011 (9:00 PM Eastern, 8:00 PM Central). Producer and head A&D profession Dr. Drew Pinsky has solidified his dramatic approach to "reality television" by dispensing with reality altogether. Pinsky finds himself wanting so badly for "celebrity" patients that he is having to find them in more and more unlikely places, while subtly changing the definition of what a celebrity actually is.

Let's review the Season 5 lineup:

Amy Fisher - notoriety (or infamy) = celebrity. I suppose that it should be celebrity enough that she was the teenage mistress of a greaser with a name lifted from a '70s pornography loop.

Bai Ling - who? And acting insane buys one only Abilify. Oh, "I am allergic to alcohol, but drink any way." The ethno-phamacological phenomenum of alcohol-induced facial flushing among the Asian community is not an allergy. Drink on.

Dwight Gooden - and Darryl Strawberry have be stepped on more times that Tijuana black tar on a summer Sunday.

Jeremy Jackson - rule number one in A&D treatment: all junkies lie. Lyle Alzado died a steroid-related death having used a tenth of what Jackson claims.

Jessica Kiper - who? Does appearing on a reality television show really qualify one as a celebrity. Bit parts and a Wikipedia entry qualify for little.

Michael Lohan - Pinsky's ace-in-the-hole for not landing his daughter or Charlie Sheen. Lohan is as contrived as I Know Who Killed Me Academy Award blurbs.

Sean Young - obviously had nothing else to do and has behaved as such. She longs for being elegantly wasted and she is no Mich Jagger.

Steven Adler - Pinsky failed to convince Mike Star or Jeff Conaway to return.

Jennifer Gimenez - no A&D professional is so fragile to effect PTSD because a pussy like Steven Adler slammed the door on them. It is truly a profession where the ill-natured stay out of the hot kitchen.

Drew Pinsky - the tan, fit, closely-cropped face of West Coast A&D treatment with an empathy so perfected he could debrief Peter after the third cock crowed...lending new meaning to "the end justifies the means." His ends.

Unpopular Positions: Drive-Time Class Rock Radio

2011-07-07T09:24:00.000-05:00

The Morning is for Quiet...

The morning drive to work is challenging enough without the James Gang blaring "Funk #49" at 7:40 AM. Such noise disrupts the muses better left to a Vivaldi or Bach soundtrack. Hell, even Haydn would be okay. But Classic Rock? For definition, Classic Rock is that made between 1965 and 1975. In radio programming it usually means 20 years prior. The 1980s and '90s is not Classic Rock. The 1980s was overproduced, bloated, spoiled power ballads by carefully moussed, androgynous ladyboys vamping a blues pentonic poorly.

But, I digress. As good as Classic Rock is, it is not suitable for the drive to work. It is better heard on the way home, a power-shot to get you through the rest of the evening. Jazz (and, therefore, the blues) is not suitable for the drive to work. It requires to much of one's RAM to process. Well-chewed and partially digested music is much better for warm up. Something, not necessarily quiet (though the quieter the better). That music that purtubates the the brains calm centers needing a caress to awaken them, like the tubes in an old 1964 Fender Vibro Champ, is best. Yes, something old and bold.

The Prosecution Rests...

2011-07-05T14:21:00.001-05:00

Casey Anthony Verdict at Nancy Grace - CNN.com

The prosecution takes another one to the groin.

In spite of the countless hours of impressive and well-considered analysis by the well-preserved former prosecutor Nancy Grace over the past two years, Casey Anthony was convicted of being a typical frightened young person with an unhealthy attention-seeking modus operandi. Based on years of publicity that pounded Anthony's allegedly obvious guilt (in spite of only the presence of circumstantial evidence...read that as.. "a complete absence of any direct evidence"), a jury of her peers acquitted Anthony of all counts pertaining to her having caused the death of her then-2-year old daughter Caylee in June 2008.

The only way to digest such a verdict is to recall what the jury was asked to do at the beginning of the trial, to use the concept of reasonable doubt when assigning guilty or not guilty to Anthony regarding the various charges brought against her. Within the narrow confines of what they were asked, the jury found enough reasonable doubt (derived directly from the lack of direct evidence linking Anthony to her daughter's death) to acquit her of those related charges. What turned out to be beyond reasonable doubt was that Anthony lied to authorities.

Where this leaves us Romans and we file from the Colosseum after a completely unsatisfying attempt to sate our blood lust at Anthony's (the Christian thrown to the lions in our metaphor) mixed verdict. Also left out there was the truth. What really happened to Caylee Anthony? Rotting in a flooded grave for two months is hardly a fitting conclusion to the story. Neither was the savaging of this family. Now comes idle speculation that will never be taken seriously because of the metaphysical state of the crime scene. Was JFK killed by a conspiracy? Don't know. Is JFK dead? Undoubtedly.

President Obama's Media Doom...

2011-06-30T15:58:00.000-05:00

Mark Halperin suspended over Obama remark on Morning Joe (video) - Tim Mak - POLITICO.com

This headline looks innocuous enough, save for the fact that MSNBC pundit and time Magazine Editor-at-Large Mark Halperin called the United States Chief Executive a "dick." To Halperin's hopeful credit he gave he what he called "an absolute apology" and not a "pro forma apology." His only problem is he is going to get a pro forma ass-kicking from every shill in the administration as he should. Even the normally mild-mannered White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, got mad and called Halperin's boss to complain, ensuring that the old format of "shit always rolls downhill" remains alive and well.

It has got to be a bad day when our Democratic President can't catch a break on MSNBC. Hell, no one on FOXNEWS would have ever considered speaking of the President in such frank terms. They would rather clothe their rhetoric in archaic Nazi-fascist terms that no longer mean anything since Glenn Beck depleted the rhetorical reserves. How much fun would it have been if Sean Hannity, in a fit of uncharacteristic conscience, said that George W. Bush acted like "kind of a dick," when quivering about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq." But it would never have happened. The Republican's rarely talk out of school, and those who do, are never heard from again.

Thank you Mark Halperin for raising the level of dialogue in the media...it was sorely needed...

Soak with Gasoline...Light on Fire...

2011-06-29T21:53:00.000-05:00

North Korea to Head U.N. Conference on Disarmament | The Weekly Standard

How can it be our great fortune that North Korea be in the news, on two different fronts, in a single day. First, the North Korean Women's soccer team was defeated by the United States because the North Korean's were struck by lightening. Now, in a seizure of procedure, the United Nations has appointed North Korea to head the U.N. Conference on Disarmament.

If there were ever a "WTF" moment, it is this one.

I have always thought that Woodrow Wilson's "League of Nations," later to become the United Nations was a noble idea. But like many ideas, it was administered by human beings on human beings, and such a format is typically doomed to failure by its competing agendas and mandates, if not a naive desire for "fair play."

North Korea was given given this charge because it was the next country, alphabetically, to be assigned such a responsibility. Rules are Rules. So rather than marginalize North Korea and its tin-pot tyrant Kim-Jung Il, as the rest of the world has, the U.N. has elected to christen the rogue country with the responsibility of addressing nuclear disarmament, when said rogue country has been doing the exact opposite...and bragging about it...for the past 20 years. This misguided policy validates the sick and limping North Korean ideologues, who, are right now wetting their pants at the prospect of a world stage from which to disseminate their superior way of life. This is the definition of irony, scathing, corrosive, fulminating irony. If it were an infection, we would all be dead.

The U.N. probably believes that North Korea is the exact right choice to head this meeting, because it may make the North Korean leaders realize the error of their ways. Instead, North Korea will emerge from China's rectum like a noisome wind, thumbing its nose at the First World at the expense of the American Taxpayer, who provides 22% of the U.N.'s working budget. North Korea is beyond the mantra, "live, and let live."

Repeat A Lie Enough...

2011-06-29T11:20:00.000-05:00

Kim-Jung Il - North Korea's "Dear Dipshit"

North Korea blame loss to U.S. on players getting struck by lightning - Dirty Tackle - World Soccer Blog - Yahoo! Sports

Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes true to the ignorant, stupid, and superstitious. This is the beauty of North Korea in the world culture of the 21st Century. Never mind that this method of propaganda is well known and easily recognized, when one's population is starving to death, truth can never be less of a point, and I doubt that the average North Korean (if there is one) gives the slightest damn about soccer, much less the superiority of North Korea's "advanced civilization."

But this propaganda has also proven useful in United States politics. We need only consider the entire story of 9/11, weapons-of-mass-destruction, Iraq, the Taliban, al-Qaeda, to see this in action. The Republicans have been stalwarts of this method of pounding home a propagandistic method. And this is what has made their methods superior to those of the Democrats, who tend to muddle their propaganda with inaccuracies, thus sabotaging their message. The circumstances surrounding the assassination of Osama bin Laden is a grand example. Had the Republicans been responsible, the "powers-that-be would have assembled, decided on a story, told the story and stuck too it. And that has been effective for them. Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann's mangling of American Revolutionary history followed by their necessary adherence to their spoken inaccuracies make little difference to their adoring audiences (the same, said, "ignorant, stupid, and superstitious" mentioned above).

But I digress...

North Korea serves a very important role in geo-politics. The North Korean government is obviously delusional, believing their own propaganda (not taking heed to the old saw that , "one never smoke the same dope one sells), when the reality is that North Korea is merely tolerated by its neighbors. They are that socially dyslexic, ADD, child who is safely tucked away in the crotch of China, flaring up from time to time with its adolescent attention-seeking behavior. Should North Korea ever escalate things, or, God forbid, detonate an nuclear device in, say, Japan, they would cease to exist, regardless of what China or Russian might opine. Iran might well consider this scenario also.

North Korea illustrates the complete failure of Communism as a social construct, revealing that Communism is only fascism in blue collar. Take away the North Korean Army, such as it is, shaved heads or not, and you have Dark Ages Europe.

A Far Left-Wing Pipe Dream...

2011-06-18T20:32:00.001-05:00

Obama slammed at liberal conference - Washington Times

The poor, pathetic Far Left. They have nothing to complain about outside of a perceived political correctness gaff on the part of the President. They are behaving as the Tea Party Republicans did in the 2010 elections: attacking anything other than their uncompromising position. That will get you nothing. Now the Democrats are set to purge the party of moderates leaving nothing but the lunatic fringe. I have no use for either the Far Left of Far Right. I don't suppose that 2000 years of recorded history even begins to show these extremist morons the futility of their respective quests.

All has already been tried: both left- and right-wing authoritarianism, religious extremism (how has that been working for you, Third World?), and everything in-between. And so the far-left wing branch of the Democratic party worries about the President calling a congresswoman "cute." Grow up Left Wing, you've blown it every time you have gotten close to anything like making progress.

The New Sackcloth and Ashes...

2011-06-15T16:57:00.000-05:00

PRUDEN: Weiner's refuge in the Age of Therapy - Washington Times

"It's not about you...It's about what happened to you."

Such was (and is) the mantra of most compulsive disorder (any disorder characterized by the loss of control over any behavior: alcoholism, drug addiction, sex addiction, food addiction, pederasty, over concern for baby kittens and an unhealthy crush on the Easter Bunny) therapy centered on trying to explain to the afflicted why they have behaved in such bizarre and depraved ways as a means to find the road and begin the long journey toward recovery. During the 1980s, this scenario was developed and perfected at the expense of a yet naive health insurance industry. Said industry was properly fleeced in the 1990s by what can only be described as the panacea of redemption offered by therapeutic intervention. Commit a particularly egregious social or political faux pas and all is forgive if the key operative only seeks help for his or her incredibly bad judgement and choices.

Such a place is where New York Representative Anthony D. Weiner finds himself, seeking redemptive therapy for...for what? Behaving like my 17-year old son's peers swapping less-than-appropriate photographs on smart phones and internet social networking sites? Is there a disorder characterized by such behavior? No, Behavior like this is typically taken care of in Darwinian fashion with society issuing the consequences. The honorable Mr. Weiner behaves as if he has not realized exactly how dead he is in the water. He also fails to grasp that he has committed the gravest political sin - he embarrassed his political party. That makes he as radioactive as the men's room below the melted Fukushima nuclear cores. Democrats cannot make him leave; he has done nothing illegal. Like Pruden says in this article, the Republicans will be the last people to demand Weiner's resignation. America has almost forgotten about Florida Representative Mark Foley, New York Representative Chris Lee, Indiana Representative Mark Souder and New York Representative Eric Massa (I think there is a trend in New York politics). The Democrats hope against hope that Weiner will "fall on his sword." How appropriate a metaphor. It is probably the farthest thing from his mind.

Weiner's problem is all the therapy in the world will not restore a reputation. Only time will and that is not a certainty. The issue is not whether I forgive him his trespasses, I do. But I do not take him too seriously and few others will do so either. It is hard to get that smell off your shoes once you have stepped in it..

My Dangerous Thoughts...

2011-06-07T21:49:00.001-05:00

Mexican war on drugs reaches new low as drug gangs hang rival members from city-centre bridges | Mail Online

I have almost decided that I have no business writing political or cultural commentary. I am unsure I have anything to add to the other billion voices that drown out any meaningful messages conveyed in this electronic environment. But, then again, that has never stopped me.

Perhaps I can summon the humility to express two different types of outrage: one toward the pantywaist media and the other toward what President Obama termed "we lesser angels." I am disgusted to be a human being.

First, this Mail article carries the caution of graphic pictorial content, and then, as if in a sudden fit of Victorian primness, the paper blurs out the operating ends of the picture: the faces of hanged men and one foot (apparently) remove as if they were bare breasts and genitalia. The perpetrators are rival Mexican narconistas sending a message.

First, all of these photos and those worse than these can easily be found on the Internet. Depiction of violence and torture, if franchised, would replace pornography as the vice of choice in cyberland. Post a video of a person being tortured (sans any sexual connotation) and the sweaty, noisome masses will pull up their pants and watch with rapt attention. Have that unfortunate person perish as a result of that torture and standard missionary-position pornography would be completely out of business. Lesser Angels? We are nothing other than frothing dogs. If the media is to do its job, it should do so in an unexpurgated manner.

Second, it would be too easy to call the people doing this to other people animals and even easier to blame them for being Mexican. So short is our memory that Caucasian Americans were doing this same this as recently as 1998, when James Byrd, Jr., an African-American, was drug behind a pickup truck for two miles, to death, his body coming apart, by the upstanding Jasper, TX residents Shawn Berry, Lawrence Brewer, and John King, all white. Lesser Angels?

God humors us with thoughts of Heaven when in truth, not the best of us deserve it. And we waste so much time on right-to-life, abortion, and euthanasia....all for nothing. Judging from what I see, Christ will need to die a few more times to redeem us. That is the sun shining out of my backside today.

Chernobyl Cubed...

2011-06-07T16:34:00.000-05:00

3 nuclear reactors melted down after quake, Japan confirms - CNN.com

Japan in 2011 proves no more reliable or intelligent than the Russians, who proved themselves the heir to the "Polish Joke" crown, forever known now at the "Russian Joke" after Chernobyl went tits up on April 26, 1986.

"How many light bulbs does the typical Russian need to light their house?
None... they all glow in the dark..."

Chernobyl did not affect America any more than Fukushima Daiichi will, making all the sky-is-falling media coverage silly. However, Chernobyl left a mess...a BIG mess. I suspect that the Japanese tragedy will leave an even bigger one. The curious thing is that there are no radiation morbidity and mortality estimates coming out of Japan. Why keep the secret...?

Who Will Not Get the Republican Nomination in 2012...

2011-06-06T11:03:00.000-05:00

Handicapping the field, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Sunday June 5, 2011

Dr. Bradley Gitz on Sarah Palin:

No one compares in terms of riling up the crowds and attracting publicity, but half of the electorate wouldn’t vote for the “Mamma Grizzly” (the dumbest political term ever?) even if she were running against Charlie Sheen. Pitchfork populism is not a basis for governance and in the end only reinforces the anti-intellectualism that is the soft underbelly of the Republican Party. The Democratic Party’s ideal scenario is that the Republicans are stupid enough to nominate her. It would be LBJ versus Goldwater all over again, with the same result.

LBJ versus Goldwater is a far cry from Carter versus Reagan.

Howard Dean: Sarah Palin could beat Obama in 2012

2011-06-05T09:15:00.000-05:00

Howard Dean warns Democrats Sarah Palin could beat Obama in 2012 - TheHill.com

Dean says his fellow Democrats should beware of inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom that Obama would crush Palin in a general-election contest next year.

"inside-the-beltway conventional wisdom" = smoking the same dope one is selling.

The only thing saving President Obama right now are the silly ad hominem approached the declared Republican candidates have taken in their pre-pre-election rhetoric. They say nothing of what the Republicans have to offer, because, what the Republicans have to offer is exactly ZERO, which is only slightly more than what the Democrats are offering.

Democrats suffer from poorly expressed ideas and the Republicans suffer from no ideas, leaving us with Elliot's "handful of dust."

The Reason (Excuse) That Cannot Live Forever....

2011-05-26T13:23:00.000-05:00

Racism to blame for Obama's problems, key Democrat says | McClatchy

I have a dream.

That dream is that the mere accusation of racism will no longer give political traction to those using such reasoning to color opponents not guilty of such just to overcome unpopular ideas and positions. Voice opposition to affirmative action, you're accused of being racist and sexist. Criticize Israel for anything, you're labelled antisemitic. It's no longer the "race card,." that is far too specific for the politically correct to use efficiently, it is now the "intolerance card" which is swiftly be transformed into the "hate card."

Does intolerance no longer exist? That is a naive question. Like Jesus' poor, intolerance will always exist, if for no other reason that to give us an example of what we should encourage our children not to follow. But the constant use of the accusation as a means of controlling disagreement and opposition will cheapen the argument in the same way it has done for the "if you do that, you will go to hell" reasoning. Too much crying wolf does not ensure speedy service.

While intolerance certainly exists, it lacked the prevalence of my youth in the 1960s, if my child's generation is any indication. One would hope that when the last of Baby Boom Generation is finally gone, there will be a greater population than ever before prepared to just "get along."

The Only Viable Republican Candidate Already Left the Building...

2011-05-25T09:06:00.001-05:00

Daniels Decides Against Presidential Run - WSJ.com

...and it was not Gov Mitch Daniels. It was Gov. Mike Huckabee who announced last week, with all the fanfare of LeBron James announcing he was going to Miami, that he would not seek the 2012 Republican Presidential Nomination. I am thinking that he should have sat on his hands a bit longer and allowed this first stream of Republican hopefuls cannibalize themselves and then looked at who was left, because, judging from the vantage point of May 23, 2010, some 19 months before the election, the field of Republican presidential hopefuls looks a bit, well, anemic.

Only Huckabee could appeal to traditional Republicans and Tea Party members. Mitt Romney? He will not get the time of day from the Tea Party and/or the Evangelical crowd because of his Mormonism...and do not believe for one minute that that type of religious prejudice no longer exists in America...a rose by any other name.

A Temporary Problem...

2011-05-21T20:57:00.000-05:00

Priest sex abuse scandal was temporary problem, study finds - The Washington Post

The largest study ever done on youth sexual abuse by Catholic clergy concludes that the scandal that became public in 2002 was a temporary problem caused by poorly trained seminarians, bishops who focused too little on victims and a permissive culture in the 1960s and 1970s that saw an increase in divorce, marijuana experimentation and robbery.

Oh bullshit!

This rationalization is akin to saying, "the Devil made me do it." "...bishops who focused too little on victims." No, I suspect that the bishops were trying to protect their corpulent posteriors and had not trouble doing it in the period before the "permissive culture in the 1960s and 1970s." The '60s and '70s were no different than any other time. Vice is Vice and has always been around, just as sexual abuse has. The problem here, as it always has been, is the clergy not "walking the walk." More specifically, the middle management of the Mother Church (specifically bishops and Archbishops). While the buck certainly may appropriately stop with the pope, the pope is nevertheless afforded what Admiral John Poindexter in the Iran-Contra trials called "plausible deniability."

The Catholic Church has done nothing but muddy the water by insinuating that is deviant behavior was related to homosexuality (and it is no secret that homosexuality was rampant in seminaries in the '60s and '70s, according to friends of mine who attended seminary). Homosexuality had nothing to do with this scandal. Priests sexually abusing children and teens did. But even the sexual abuse is not the core problem the Catholic Church has. It is a culture of stonewalling, scapegoating, and responsibility shifting that would have made Richard Nixon proud. It is not the crime, it is the cover-up of the crime with the permission for the crime to go on. The patriarchal attitude of the Catholic Church has not served it well.

I love the Catholic Church as an institution. It is just a shitty thing that the human beings (the clergy) running it insist on screwing it up. The poor fallible human beings cannot walk the walk. As Christians were should simply not expect the any more of the clergy. I have heard too much from Catholics and Protestants alike, that the clergy should be held to a higher standard. I one does hold them so, then one will be sorely disappointed.

If I have learned one thing about the value of religion, any religion, it is that it has helped provide humanity just enough civilization that we no longer shit in caves and eat one another. It is the community that makes up the church at the ground level where any promises of religion are realized and kept. It is not because of the clergy or ecclesiastical hierarchy. They are just the hired help.

Finally! The Republicans Have Become Democrats...

2011-05-15T20:07:00.000-05:00

AP-GfK Poll: Republicans shrug at GOP's 2012 field | Deseret News

The Republican Proletariat sniffed the collective hind-ends of the 2012 Republican presidential hopefuls and turned up their noses. With Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee giving up his high school slutty tease act and bowing out of the 2012 Republican presidential race, the field narrows to a group that is about as exciting as no-fat yogurt.

Huckabee was the best chance for the Republicans in 2012. Period. Now we will be treated to what the Democrats typically do, consume one another in the primaries leaving the blandest last standing.

I am not saying that Obama will be re-elected. I will never put failure past the Democrats. They can screw up the best situations. What is different is the Republican field has never looked so weak and silly and have finally outdone the Democrats at being Will Rogers' "no organized party."

Already Been Tried...Unsuccessfully...

2011-05-13T14:00:00.000-05:00

Osama bin Laden dead: Blackout during raid on bin Laden compound - Telegraph

Okay.

The issue here is not the right or wrong of Usama bin Laden's death. He was killed like the mad dog he was and while a rabid dog is to be pitied, it still must die. The problem here is the administration's public relations message regarding the events surrounding bin Laden's death. Had they put forth a single story and stuck to it (as the Republicans would have, understand: the truth has nothing to do with this scenario) they would have avoided all of this. Now, CIA Director Leon Panetta asks us to believe there was a 25-minute black-out of activities during the pivotal part of the bin Laden mission.

I am 53-years old. I recall a State Official (President Richard Nixon) claiming that 18 and 1/2 minutes of Oval Office recordings on September 29, 1973, was inadvertently erased by Nixon's personal secretary Rose Mary Woods. Come on, Director Panetta, how stoopid do you think we are?

You Can't Make This Up...And Thats a Good Thing...

2011-05-10T16:26:00.000-05:00

Ahmadinejad allies charged with sorcery | World news | The Guardian

It would be insanely easy and the filthiest, most vile and depraved pleasure to make fun of the theo-idiocratic madness running modern day Iran. Words like "sorcery," "magicians, " and "genies" smack of the latest Harry Potter movie or child's cartoon from the '70s. This would be roaringly funny if not for the fact that such charges have led to public burnings in less civilized countries, in this century.

This stink arises from Ahmadinejad playing bungabunga with his chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who is much in favor of minimizing the power of religious clerics in Iranian politics (a famous idea if you were to ask me). In this shameless power grab, Iran's religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, calls upon some silly antiquation evoking witches and warlocks, black cats, magic spells, the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and Santa Clause, as well as, Ronald Reagan, G. Gordan Liddy and Oliver North to discredit his President and the president's chief of staff. This is tantamount to someone reasoning that there will never be another great flood, "because the Bible Tells me so."

The Irrelevance of Professional Sports: Los Angeles Lakers Swept in 4 by The Dallas Mavericks

2011-05-10T12:21:00.000-05:00

Andrew Bynum as a POS

NBA Playoffs 2011: L.A. Lakers End Season with Classless and Shameful Quarter - Bleacher Report

The only reason to have watched game 4 in the NBA playoff series between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks would have been the same reason to watch the Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in the last two months to see which of the four reactors would breach its concrete enclosure first and leak an elephant's foot of corium lava the basement floor. In the final quarter of the Mavericks' sweep of the once almighty Lakers, Lamar Odom and two minutes later Andrew Bynum committed two flagrant fouls and were ejected from the game.

Now, that's what I'm talkin' 'bout!

Odom and Bynum (and Ron Artest in game 2) prove my Elvis Presely Law of Being Rich with No Guidence: no matter how much money one throws at the classless, they remain classless, only on a larger scale. Could these players have emulated the more professional Kobe Bryant, Derek Fischer, or Pau Gasol? No, because they have neither grown into such players or been coached to that point. Phil Jackson, this is a sad end to your career. Perhaps you should consider the Knicks. If you can bring them fully back to life, you will be the undisputed king of basketball.

Oh Yeah? You and Whose Money...

2011-05-05T15:23:00.000-05:00

My Way News - Pakistan warns America not to stage any more raids

I am generally not given to nationalistic flagwaving,

BUT:

Perhaps a bigger causality of last week's assassination of Usama bin Laden is the damn anyone should give about Pakistan, their sovereignty, or their glass feeling about being left out of the operation. Pakistan has given the United States exactly zero reasons to trust them. Rhetoric like, "disastrous consequences" should the United States stage a similar operation in Pakistan again, is laughable and foolish. When the geo-political algebra is calculated and all the numbers are crunched, Pakistan will still need the United States more than the United States needs them.

Feeling Strongly Both Ways...Usama bin Laden

2011-05-05T11:04:00.001-05:00

10 ways Barack Obama botched the aftermath of the masterful operation to kill Osama bin Laden The Telegraph

In Utopia, everyone loves one another and values each other equally, respecting a right to life and liberty…however the reality is about as hard as passing a yen shee baby after a violent and depraved opium dream. The turd Usama bin Laden left in the world’s oatmeal was much to big to ignore and let bygones be bygones. Something was going to have to happen and I’ll wager the majority of Americans did not care what.

And I still believe that the circumstances surrounding the death of bin Laden, however mangled by the White House's junior high school press corps, make much less difference when compared to the fact that he is dead. I do not agree with The Telegraph that this should have been a simple capture and detain mission (that bin Laden was killed unarmed doesn't make me lose sleep). Had we capture bin Laden alive he would have been sucked into a judicial confusion that would not have yielded political result near soon enough for the president to take advantage of them. Also, bin Laden would have continued to use the world as his stage with his central office in the United States rather than some non-descript compound passing for a Pakistani mansion.

But what we should expect is better propaganda from the government propaganda machine. Unbelievably, President Obama's press hacks have turned an historically tragic, but necessary, event into a carnival sideshow with their indiscreet and and poorly chosen methods of informing the public. As a result, instead of appearing Presidential, he appears as an adolescent boy telling a friend in the boys room at school he got to second base with Imogene Tooeasy after the football game when in reality, he didn't even kiss her. Call a spade, a spade...the United States assassinated Usama bin Laden with prejudice regardless of President Gerald Ford's Executive Order Number 11905:

5(g) Prohibition on Assassination. No employee of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination.

Couching this action as anything else insults the American People.

The Only Role Pakistan Played was the Idiot Child Kept in the Attic...

2011-05-04T10:54:00.002-05:00

U.S. seeks answers whether Pakistan aided bin Laden - Yahoo! News

The most poorly handled public relations element in the whole Death of Usama bin Laden was what part, if any Pakistan played. In the beginning, it was not clear that Pakistan officials even knew that this American operation was being conducted on their sovereign soil, although media efforts were made to muddle the water with plausible Pakistani participation. CIA-head Leon Panetta opined that Pakistan was either "involved or incompetent." Not a great declaration of confidence. However, Pakistani officials were not hesitant to state that they had no idea that the most hunted man in the world was in effect hiding in their bathroom. Diplomatically, Panetta doubted Pakistan's veracity.

Verifying that Pakistan was not notified of the American operation, Panetta reasoned that “any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardize the mission...Even a very weak government with a weak intelligence service would have known who was living in that house in such a location” and he did not want to risk the Pakistani's alerting bin Laden to the operation. Is this justifiable? Certainly, the Pakistani Government and intelligence infrastructure have bounteously proven to be both corrupt and incompetent, in short, not to me trusted. This is not a question of what politeness protocal be followed in what Pakistan was and was not told. Pakistan behaved as necessary: they sat quietly and intelligently still. It is perhaps the most intelligent thing they did.

Nope. The bunch of goat-herders that make-up the majority of Pakistan and Afghanistan may indeed be the remnant of an ancient and noble people, but as far as civilization goes, they still shit in caves as their ancestors did thousands of years ago.

Between a Rock and A Hard Place...

2011-04-11T09:04:00.001-05:00

Exclusive - Speaker Boehner on Budget Negotiations: 'No Daylight Between Tea Party and Me' - George Stephanopoulos' Bottom Line

Speaker-of-the-House John Boehner celebrates Ohio's progressive sodomy laws.

Save the Alligator Tears...

2011-04-07T12:44:00.000-05:00

Why the Death of Celebrity Rehab Veteran Mike Starr Makes Laughing at Charlie Sheen Hard -- Vulture

Chris Norris, in his insightful Vulture article on the death of former Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr, distilled to its very essence, the relationship between the media and living and dead public train wrecks like Starr and Charlie Sheen and the sequelae of such relationships :

There’s no use, or even merit, in chiding tabloid shows, gossip sites, pundits, T-shirt-makers, and everyone else drinking from the gushing tap of found comedy that Charlie Sheen's providing, for now. But if we start to feel a bit like we're laughing at a quadriplegic’s attempt to go down stairs, that’s understandable. Sheen’s main appeal as folk hero and rock star probably rests on his loud, lively resistance to the warm, enveloping hug of Oprah. His new fans are as sick as he is of the dopey rhetoric and tidy recovery arc of pop culture’s addiction narrative. But as Mike Starr has shown, the reality behind this reality narrative is usually a much longer, downward arc, with few twists and turns, and a very predictable ending...

...that is, all too often, opaque to viewers. Chemical dependency is a dirty science with more failures than successes, but no viewer would know that from the emetically disgorged flood of shows devoted to addiction specifically and compulsive disorders in general.

Norris received a number of comments to his post, including:

Wow... I haven't read anything this horrible since Rolling Stone's 1996 interview with Layne Staley. This is just ridiculous. I would imagine Mike's family wouldn't be too happy to hear what you have to say about him. Why don't you just let him rest in peace? He had a hard enough life as it is. Maybe if everyone just shuts up about Charlie Sheen, he'll find something else to do. It's called "feeding the fire". Ugh. I am just disgusted by this entire article.

To answer the question, because Starr (and Sheen) was a public person who derived a living being such. Like Staley, Starr suffered within "pop culture’s addiction narrative" in a very public way. Staley, Starr and, certainly Sheen all bear a degree of responsibility. The romantic age of the junkie genius dying young, leaving mountains of mediocre magnetic tape to later be heralded as brilliant died with Kurt Cobain. Norris notes,

Decades ago, Starr would have been a former rock star who died a rock star. But today, he’s a low, single-note counterpoint to the merry melodies of Charlie Sheen, his passing marked not by candlelight vigils or teary radio-show call-ins, but those cursory, dot-dot-dash micro-eulogies of the multitasker, tweets. “R.I.P. Mike Starr!! Such a sad day!” “Drugs and alcohol aren’t a joke.” And from Dr. Drew Pinsky, Celebrity Rehab’s creator, host, and chief medical officer: “Devastating to hear of Mike Starr succumbing to his illness. So very sad. Our prayers are with his family.” XOXO

Pinsky would have done well to take advantage of the situation and prefaced his remarks with, "Chemical Dependency is a disease that kills and kills more often than not." Starr was just the latest casualty. That would have elevated the "pop culture’s addiction narrative" to a new level of discussion.

It’s That Barn Door Problem Again...

2011-04-04T16:32:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday, March 29, 2011, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published an editorial in favor of HB 1032, a bill passed by the House of Representatives during the 88th Arkansas General Assembly paving the way for the Bible to be taught in the state’s public schools, “...where it should have been taught as an integral part of our literature, history and thought.” The editorial begins by culturally equating the Bible with Shakespeare, the two being recognised, “...as twin pillars of not just English Literature but Western Civilization. Wherever the English-speaking peoples went, these books would go, for they were compact storehouses of wisdom, strength and beauty.”

Let’s forget about Shakespeare, early in this argument, as he is merely a straw man bending in the wind of political discourse. And let’s accept as a given that the collection of antiquities we call the Bible has had the most pervasive and far reaching consequences in what we call “Western Civilization.” It is a heritage sewn into the very historic fabric of our being. Denying this, as many left-leaning thinkers do, does not make it so. On the contrary, not acknowledging this basic historical premise is not simple ignorance, it is the blackest propaganda, smacking of Stalinist Russia and Maoist China.

Undoubtedly, The Bible should be taught in public school: as a living artifact of history, a literary coelacanthe whose poignant and often violent evolution mimics our own civilization’s growing pains. The history of the Bible, from the first oral recounting uttered by ancient Sumarians in the crotch of the Tigris-Euphrates to St. Jerome’s translation into Latin, to Constantine’s legitimization of Christianity, to Martin Luther’s bone-to-pick with Roman Catholicism to King James I convening of the Hampton Court Conference in 1604 to address problems detected by the Puritans in earlier English translations, is a heady story indeed, full of drama and intrigue too depraved to have been fiction.

By all means, teach the Bible in public school, but do not dare present it without addressing the scholarship and assembly, the bickering and back-stabbing, that went into its production all the way to the New International Version fully published in 1978. Highlight the differences that exist between the Latin Vulgate, the New American Bible resulting from the Second Vatican Council, and the New Revised Standard Version. Subject Scripture to the very same literary criticism and scrutiny heaped upon that straw-man Shakespeare to whom the Democrat-Gazette Editors so quickly marry The Bible in their editorial.

The sponsors of HB 1032 claim that their bill allows Arkansas school districts to, “teach the Bible unafraid” [and in the Bill’s language], without “religious doctrine or sectarian interpretation,” the courses designed not to “disparage or encourage commitment to a set or religious beliefs,” the authors concluding, “...but to acquaint students with the very basis of Western Civilisation itself.” As pointed out in a more recent Letter to the Editor regarding this topic, this is not exactly true. that “foundation” has much more to do with Greece and Rome than Nazareth and Galilee. I am not saying to not teach the Bible’s historic value, but teach it with a surrounding perspective. Contrary to popular superstition, the Bible did not evolve in a vacuum.

In teaching the Bible, its stories can be presented in very cogent and compelling discussions dealing with standard archetypes that emerge, such as, a comparison of Moses on Mt. Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments and a divine mandate to lead “the chosen” with that of the Mississippi Delta Blues musician Robert Johnson selling his soul to the Devil at the crossroads for otherworldly talent.   Both are equally valid archetypes having more in common than not within a discussion of comparative literature. Both possess the compelling mystique of faith in the face of reason. It is a thread that passes through tradition, culture and history.

HB 1032’s sponsors claim that our entire spoken and written discourse has suffered because of a Biblical illiteracy. They mourn the relative anonymity of Biblical allusions, “...that were once every Americans’ rightful inheritance.”   This illiteracy is not limited to the Bible. Recently a contestant on a collage edition of the game show Jeopardy! could not name the novel introduced by the line, “Call me Ishmael” (betraying not only an ignorance of American Literature but of history in general and biblical allusion specifically). So biblical ignorance is nothing special when the ignorance is pervasive. That barn door was closed after all of Noah’s brood got out.

Nevertheless, HB 1032’s sponsors make a compelling case for bringing the Bible back into public education.

But queering this entire argument, the editorial closes with,

“Let the Bible ring out in our class rooms, and as it says on the Liberty Bell, ‘proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitant thereof.’ (Leviticus 25:10). Let this be a Jubilee Year for education in Arkansas.”

This smacks of anything other than “teaching without religious doctrine or sectarian interpretation...” that would not, “...disparage or encourage commitment to a set of religious beliefs.”   The closing sentiment to the Democrat-Gazette’s heartfelt editorial only greases the slippery slope toward theocratic thought and demegogery, quickly animating the theme Jonathan Edwards’ famous “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in a way Edwards never foresaw:

“Their foot shall slide in due time.” (Deuteronomy 32:35)

This article was originally published at Blogcritics.org.

The First Casualty...

2011-03-23T15:28:00.000-05:00

Libya war: Germans pull forces out of NATO as Libyan coalition falls apart | Mail Online

Warning: I am reconsidering my position on the international community intervening on potential genocide in a particular country in light of NATO's gutless dithering in Libya and an emerging Al-qaeda connection with the Libyan rebels.

The current situation in Libya is complicated by the fact that President Ronald Reagan's United States attacked Libya in 1986 in response to several Libyan-backed bombings culminating in the 1986 Berlin Discotheque Bombing. At that time, air strikes were ordered on Colonel Mommar Gaddafi's fortified compound, when he, at the time, was also not a target. Gaddafi was notified of the air strike plan by Malta's then-prime minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, allowing the despot and his family to escape to safety. In the same way that a cerebral hemorrhage that does not kill its elderly victim is a failure, so was this mission, ostensibly. Gaddafi lived to rule another 35 years relatively unmolested by the West. The United States has never met a dictator it did not like, so the Reagan Administration called everything even and let bygones by bygone.

Break to today and the United States again finds itself dealing with a problem that could have been taken care of a long time ago. This situation is tantamount to George Herbert Walker Bush not allowing General Norman Schwarzkopf to march on Bagdad and capture or kill Saddam Hussein as a coda to Desert Storm. In that case, President George Walker Bush took it upon himself to correct his father's mistake by falsely placing and invading Iraq under the umbrella of "the War on Terror" attached to 9/11. The only thing to be said for President Bush, the younger is that his Iraq invasion plans were way better thought out than President Barak Obama's knee-jerk collection of fisherman to help defend the Libyan rebels from the rightful wrath of their country's sitting leader. Civil war is civil war, we had one and I suspect that Libya can have one of their own.

The argument that the international community enter this conflict to prevent genocide is a laudable one, if that in fact is what would happen. The United States and International community have no leg to stand on talking of preventing genocide as the killing in the Sudan has entered the history books. No one can claim they did not know what was going on, as was done by the feckless German population following World War II and as late as the Killing Fields in Cambodia. The Sudan had nothing to offer the United States and thus the United States sat on its thumbs. So, let's all admit that this is about oil, $4.00-a-gallon gas Stateside and the impending slaughter of the 2012 election cycle and get on with it.

President Obama's determined effort to build a coalition with a UN sanction to spank Libya has show the United States reluctant to act. The president got his UN sanction, was promised support that now appears to be falling apart. Meanwhile, the Government spends my retirement money trying to effect...what? Secretary of Defense Robert gates bristles at the British suggestion that Gaddafi is a target for assassination. Secretary Gates, who are you trying to kid? If we are not there to effect governmental change, AKA removing the ruling regime, then what are we doing?

And, ultimately, who are we trying to save? The Libyan Rebels? We know nothing about these people and if they are either as reliable or cooperative as the goat herders we have been dealing with in Afghanistan or they are all-the-way-in-bed-with-Al-qaeda-in-a-daisy-chain, we are in trouble. The 3:00 AM call to the President was made and he had had too many Red Bulls. But we are in knee-deep now and what are we to do. It is too late to follow that sage advice of President Harry Truman, that one never "...kick a fresh turd on a hot day." No, we are going to walk around with that smell for sometime. We just as well finish the job lest we deal with this fallout in another 30 years.

President Obama vows that, "No ground troops, no matter what happens." He's got that goddamn right, there aren't any left.

Politically-Correct Twain

2011-03-22T13:54:00.000-05:00

It was a well-meaning and sensitive Mark Twain scholar Alan Gribben, working with NewSouth Books, who prepared slightly sanitized versions of Mark Twain’s touchstone novels, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” substituting the word “slave” for the word “nigger” (or, the “N-word” for those so inclined). Supporting his actions, Gribben told the Associated Press, “It's such a shame that one word should be a barrier between a marvelous reading experience and a lot of readers.” The editing job was not too hard, NewSouth simply changed the 219 instances of the offensive word to something more acceptable.

In a “60 Minutes” interview, Randall Williams, co-owner and editor of NewSouth Books, clarified the position, responding to the presence of the pejorative, “ If you can have the discussion and you're comfortable havin' the discussion, have it. Have it with it in there. But if you're not comfortable with that, then here's an alternative for you to use. And I would argue to you that it's still powerful.” While that is powerful and compelling reasoning, it nevertheless retains a certain element of historic revision.

Mark Twain was hardly silent on the matter, writing in 1888, “the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter,” later extrapolating the difference as, “the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” It is both impossible and unfair to hold Mark Twain’s masterpieces responsible for an offense, by today’s standards, 125 years after the fact. No service is done in any quarter by editing an established text to make it more “palatable” or “acceptable” to a contemporary audience.

Is “nigger” a bad word? Absolutely. Odious, unacceptable, vile, vain, profane all describe the word and its connotations. I do not permit it said by my family and confront friends and acquaintances when they say it. Its use by both blacks and whites is unnecessary. I see this as a matter of simple respect and courtesy. Today, at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st Century, the word “nigger” has no place in social discourse (as its use is patently antisocial). Having said that, I also believe that altering antique texts to conform to modern qualms is as odious, unacceptable, vile, vain, and profane as the word itself. Such smacks of the famous picture of Josef Stalin and water commissar Nikolai Yerzof. After Yerzof had fallen from Stalin’s favor, he was arrested and shot and all photographs of Yerzof and Stalin were cleansed of Yerzof’s image, leaving both an inaccurate version of history and the sinister message that no one is safe.

NewSouth’s efforts to “improve” the readability of Twain’s books is also a matter of Noah closing the Arc door after, not only the cow, but every other animal, got out. Hip Hop culture and Rap Music exposes orders of magnitude more individuals to the word “nigger” than Twain’s books ever have or will. So, while Alan Gribben’s wrings his hands about the word being a barrier to “a marvelous reading experience,” he inevitably throws the baby out with the bathwater, cheapening American Literature in the bargain. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” are history. A bad history in some elements, but history just the same. Removing one word from a book will not change that, opening the door to even less acceptable historic revision.

This article was originally published at Blogcritics.org.

A Bit of Clarification...

2011-03-14T10:31:00.000-05:00

Obama, Kenya and Natalie Portman: Is Huckabee Letting 2012 Slip Away?

There is a bit of confusion over the media sins of former Arkansas Governor and Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee. He is well within his First Amendment Rights to criticize actress Natalie Portman for her pregnancy out of wedlock and the possible message that sends to America's youth. To him this is relevant and timely. I support Mr. Huckabee's right to make these statements. I also support Mr. Huckabee's right to to talk directly out of his ass regarding President Obama being reared in Kenya (a statement that is not true and has been proven so). If that was not enough, Mr. Huckabee tried to save himself from this gaffe by forwarding another misconception, namely that the President had not grown up in Kenya, but in Indonesia, which is only partially true.

The beauty of this is the poverty of reality of these statements and how they lack credibility really makes no difference to the choir to whom Huckabee preaches. This includes those who continue to doubt The President's US citizenship while believing in the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, and the Easter Bunny. What Huckabee continues to do is the equivalent of asking someone, "Do you still beat your wife" or "Are you still addicted to heroin." All Rev. Huckabee is doing is planting the mustard seed. The frustration that the Political Left feels regarding these misappropriation of fact will remain unabated. That is because there will always be the deliberately un-informed, those people who will believe only what they wish.

Why is this. The 2010 Election cycle did one thing, decimated the already dwindling moderate voices in congress, leaving a highly polarized collection of Left Wing twigs and berries and Right Wing Theologues and never the two shall meet. Little can be done about the current cycle of American Politics. It will progress, like an extended spasm of colic, until the obvious is expelled and the political arena is populated again by something resembling sanity.

Palin-Huckabee or Huckabee-Palin?

Some Dark Thoughts on the News Media...

2011-03-11T13:59:00.002-06:00

I had a interesting political conversation with some new friends the other night that made me think about how seriously we take our various domestic news outlets and how desperately necessary it is that we don't. One individual revealed that they watched four to five hours of political commentary a day on Fox News. When queried if they watch any other outlets, they replied, "not a chance, too liberal, look at MSNBC." When I briefly mentioned Pat Buchanan and George Will as popular conservative commentators, they had no idea who I was talking about, only Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.. short political memory, no depth.

Indeed.

This brief exchange touched on the two news outlets that have revolutionized both news "reportage" and entertainment.

Fox News and MSMBC represent the same phenomena of propaganda machines clothed as unbiased news reporters (just ask them!). They both slipped in the back door while the Big Three were having a circle jerk, pushing credibility values of the surrounding neighborhood into the crapper.

How did this happen? The Political Right Wing (PRW - forget Republican and Democrat, these are just names, not ideologies - this is the same reasoning that gives Tea Party Activists the plausible deniability that they are actually sub-educated Republicans with extreme superstitious beliefs) finally got tired of complaining about a liberal bias in the media and decided to create their own conservatively biased outlet. Since the existing media was indeed liberally biased, the homeostatic equivalent of what we all considered "normal," the new Right Wing-oriented reaction to it was an over-reaction, resulting in Fox News.

Fox New is populated with schoolyard bullies and blond anchorwomen and commentators as proud of their store-bought décolletage (in the modern vernacular) as they are of their law degrees. The Political Left Wing (PLW) then reacted in kind by assimilating the feckless MSNBC, placing sportscaster-turned-pundit Keith Obermann conspicuously in prime-time to eruditely attack the Right from a position of impunity.

People watching one or the other of these networks exclusively for their political news are something other than politically well-rounded. Instead, they are a rabid herd of hogs, infused with the demon their own personal Jesus infected them with running toward the edge of the cliff. These self-proclaimed "political experts" possess the critical ability of a train wreck falling down the stairs of a house on fire: all heat and no light.

So, where is well-balanced and unbiased political reportage to be found? No where in the United States. Yes, Virginia, you have heard me correctly. Every news outlet in the country has an agenda and that agenda does not serve your, the listener's, well being. Nope, we are on our own. Even NPR finally revealed their tawdry, prejudiced side, even after their unjustified firing of Juan Williams. Media purveyors of political correctness should note that simply calling a person a racist will not silence them into submission any longer, thanks be to God, Amen.

No, one must seek news outside the United States. I suggest the BBC or Spiegel Online. It will give you an idea what our allies think of us because, unlike America, they are not smoking the grass we are selling.

Church and State and the Fine Art of Dodging the Bullet....

2011-03-10T15:46:00.004-06:00

ComPost - Newt Gingrich's patriotic urges (The Washington Post)

"There's no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate."

This is the rationalization that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich gave when addressing a marital infidelity he was involved in at about the same time he was taking President Bill Clinton to task for the same behavior. He continued:

"What I can tell you is that when I did things that were wrong, I wasn't trapped in situation ethics, I was doing things that were wrong, and yet, I was doing them..."

Gingrich went on to say that he sought God's forgiveness... "Not God's understanding, but God's forgiveness."

Gingrich converted from Baptist to Roman Catholicism, his third wife Callista Bisek's faith, in 2009. Gingrich and Bisek hand an affair that ended Gingrich's marriage to his second wife, Ginther that continued during the Bill Clinton - Monica Lewinsky scandal.

All of this in light of a possible 2012 run for the White House. Gingrich was addressing his past behavior in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network in an undisguised effort to court Evangelical Christian support, support without which he has no real chance of election.

The greatest writer of fiction could not draft a plot richer in irony that this. First is his excuse for infidelity. there have only been two lamer excuses in history:

The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

and

So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”

Yes, Newt Gingrich gave an excuse for bad behavior so lame that it is biblical in scope. It also recalls an apology Pat Roberson made on behalf of John F. Kennedy, regarding the President's whore-mongering, dismissing this behavior as an excess of sex hormones because of the President's Cushing's Syndrome.

I just wish I had a provocative and compelling rationalizations for my bad behavior and clerics of the Pat Robertson's ilk to defend me. I'm left with no other recourse than to say, "It is what it is."

And, politically speaking, what was Gingrich thinking when he converted to Roman Catholicism? Regardless of how politically (correct) polite we all have become the Evangelical Right, where ever they claim to spring from theologically, have as little use for Roman Catholics as their Puritan antecedents did. Forget Black-White racism for a minute, the schism within Christianity remains a grand playground for prejudice. Call a club, a club.

However, if we were to give ourselves over to complete cynicism, Gingrich might have made a positive spiritual move. Let us consider this one single statistic: for the first time in history there is no Protestants on the Supreme Court. Couple that with the fact fact that, in the 222 year of the high court's existence, there have been only 13 Roman Catholic justices...and six of them are presently sitting there. For all of the bellyaching that the Evangelical Right does about liberal Supreme Court Justices, they collectively cannot gain representation. The best that can be achieved is the Catholic brand of conservatism.

Is religion an issue. Yes and no, depending how naive one is.

"There's no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate."

If patriotism caused Gingrich to be unfaithful to his wife, I am frighted at what evangelical zeal will do. I encourage everyone to read Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.

However, I do detect a possible trend. Once the current influx of Tea Party conservatives are revealed to be human by their human weaknesses, e.g. an anti-gay representative caught with his rent boy consort or a war-on-drugs senator high discovered gibbering, high on methamphetamine, they will have the possible political out of converting to Roman Catholicism and seeking the endless loam of "God's Forgiveness."

Feeling Strongly Both Ways...

2011-03-03T10:36:00.000-06:00

Why The Supreme Court Ruled For Westboro - TIME

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Our Democratic system, Constitution and Amendments, and Bill of Rights are not perfect instruments, regardless of what Strict Constructionists claim. No better place can this be illustrated than in the recent Supreme Court decision handed down in Albert Snyder vs. The Westboro Baptist Church. Ruling 8-1 in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church's constitutional right to picket public events like the funeral of Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder, Chief Justice John Robert's supports previous First Amendment cases, saying that speech on public issues:

"...cannot be restricted simply because it is upsetting or arouses contempt...While these messages may fall short of refined social or political commentary, the issues they highlight — the political and moral conduct of the United States and its citizens, the fate of our nation, homosexuality in the military, and scandals involving the Catholic clergy — are matters of public import."

In light of any kind of interpretation of the First Amendment, we must accept this as an accurate treatment.

In an absolutely delightful dissent, Associate Justice Samuel Alito, who believes that Corporal Snyder's father, Albert Snyder should not be viewed as a public figure, counters:

"Our profound national commitment to free and open debate is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case...Mr. Snyder wanted what is surely the right of any parent who experiences such an incalculable loss: to bury his son in peace,...But respondents, members of the Westboro Baptist Church, deprived him of that elementary right."

I fully agree with Justice Alito. Decency was the first casualty in this case. I am also uplifted that such a conservative voice on the court were to disagree with the majority. The court might be a vibrant, living body after all.

I a beautiful fit of political posturing Sarah Palin criticized the High Court's decision, tweeting:

“Common sense &; decency absent as wacko ‘church’ allowed hate msgs spewed@ soldiers' funerals but we can't invoke God's name in public square...”

Palin, of course, ignores the establishment of religion clause as it has been decided and affirmed since its creation. As a populist sound-bite, this will serve Palin well as it depicts her as a commonsense just-right-of-center political entity. But, she has every right to say this as defined in the free speech clause above.

To me, this is a very basic matter of "Sticks and Stones." Just because the Westboro Baptist Church wishes to spread their misguided, miscreant word does not make what they propose so, though, I am sure they do not see it that way.

What this group does is reprehensible and the message they purvey is as antithetical to the teachings of that Nazarene Country Preacher they claim to be so fond of as can be possible. But that six-word clause, "prohibiting...abridging the freedom of speech" give them every right to do as they do as it does me when I propose that The Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas witch-hunting, black-cat-cross-my-path-superstitious, group of MSDS* Christians are barking mad.

This all begs the question, "Is nothing sacred?"

In a word, No.

Decency died with the advent of mass communications and that genie can never be put back into the bottle. Entropy is a one-way event into disorder and we are naive to believe that we can legislate polite behavior (simply consider the graphic failure of political correctness). Collective governing of non-illegal bad behavior can never work, shifting the responsibility of action to the appropriate entity, the individual. Pro-act and act, not react.

_________________________
* MSDS - "My Shit Don't Stink"

...in the bowels of Christ...

2011-02-23T14:32:00.000-06:00

Superstition and Witch Huntery are Alive and Well

This little bit of wisdom was shared with me by a grade- and high school friend of mine on Facebook. It made me consider many things that have been floating around in my head, like the place of the Old Testament in Christianity, the Ten Commandments, the Christian Third Commandment, the Greatest Commandment, the exclusivity of the Pharisees and the inclusivity of Jesus, all through the prism of Post-modernity in the current time being swiftly considered the "Post-Christian Period."

Modern Christians using the Old Testament in support of bigoted and prejudicial positions is perfectly antithetical to the teachings of Christ in the New Testament. White Supremacists have long used the Old Testament to justify their ethnic and religious prejudices such as Eustace Mullins in his viciously anti-semitic and anti-black book Curse of Canaan (Revelation Books, 1987). Likewise, and more overtly, homosexuality is targeted for discrimination on biblical grounds, promoters citing the old Mosaic Law laid out in Leviticus 18:22 (New American Standard Version - I reference this translation because the peckerwood variety of Christian Scholars spewing this garbage never knew a goddamn thing about translation).

That seems plain enough, but such a pronouncement sets up an immediate establishment of classes, with one class considered "good" and the second considered "bad." Two separates, one acceptable and the other not. it seems this is done when there is no apparent tangible reason to do so. Love is love, regardless of the sex of either participants. My question is who is harmed by homosexual love? This question is intended to go far beyond the banal and prurient interest in the sexual act and its "intent" to the heart of, "If I love my wife, who do I harm?"

Secondly, the establishment of different classes for the purpose of one discriminating against the other is against all of Christ's teachings. Like it or not, Conservatives, Jesus was about Egalitarianism, everyone being the same, regardless of behavior, race, creed, eye color or a preference for gin instead of vodka martinis. That New Testament fact cannot be denied, for if it is, then The Sermon on the Mount rings hallow and Christ's pronouncement in Revelation 21:1-5 rings as a lie.

So, using Scripture, and by extension, God as a justification for discrimination, I started thinking about the Christian Third Commandment (from Exodus 20:7):

You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

and Deuteronomy 5:11:

You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

Now, according to my Baltimore Catechism, taking the Lord's name in vain meant by that interpretation, not saying "Goddamnit." I was reared in a Roman Catholic household, where I learned, by example, that, not only was the use of "Goddamnit" permissible, it was appropriate for nearly every occasion calling for the expression of angst and/or emphasis, exempli gratia (from the Jerry Zucker film Ghost (Paramount, 1990)):

Oh Goddamnit...don't take the Lord's name in vain.

But, I digress.

I prefer to think what God was telling Moses on Mount Sinai, while the latter pissed his pants and dropped the goddamn rock he was writing on, breaking it, was that God was not that crazy about His people misusing his name in the sense that they would use what God had said as a justification to, oh, I don't know, discriminate against a group of people. If there is sin, might this misrepresentation be a greater one than me saying, "...goddamnit, go close the door; were you born in a barn?" (of course, in the case of Jesus...).

In the New Testament, Jesus made it very clear what he thought was important. His Greatest Commandment was simply laid out in Matthew 26:33-40:

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"And He said to him, "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.'"This is the great and foremost commandment."The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'
On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

This is not simply a distillation of the teachings of the Law and the Prophets, it is their full realization and manifestation. If the Old Testament is anything, it is the narrative of how God produced a community out of the entropic chaos of the ancient Middle East. I am not saying that it is not applicable; it is simply not what we ended up with in Jesus Christ.

The calm rationalization of the wing-nut with the bad hair in this video is a dangerous sign of paranoid tendencies that can turn dark quickly. If we must pray, let it be for love and enlightenment. There is plenty of room under the tent for everyone.

And on the Seventh Day, God had a Martini...

2011-02-19T00:14:00.000-06:00

Arkansas Lightning – Brandon's Spirits - Rock Town Distillery

Okay, I am pretty sure this shit is lethal.

I Want The Arkansas State Legislature to Waste More Time and Money...

2011-02-17T14:56:00.000-06:00

Arkansas still known as the "Natural State" | The Associated Press | News | Washington Examiner

Why David Sanders did not remain content with appearing on the PBS program Arkansas Week, instead feeling compelled to run for the Arkansas General Assembly, winning, only to introduce the safe though lame legislation to change the State nickname back to "The Land of Opportunity" is beyond me. This political act is as wasteful as this paragraph's first sentence is ill-conceived and torturous.

"The Ledge," in the common parlance of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, is the harbinger of bad decisions, misapplied convictions, sanctimony, and blow-hardedness. Most distressing is that this suggested legislation was actually discussed before being dismissed as "confusing." Governor Mike Beebe dismissed the legislation, reasoning that the State had more important business to tend to. Amen.

News Flash: Someone Hates the President of the United States...

2011-02-07T13:57:00.001-06:00

Bill O’Reilly to President Obama: people hate you (video) - National The View | Examiner.com

How naive can Bill O'Reilly be telling President Obama (or any United States President, for that matter) that people hate him? The naivety is not based in the brutality of the question; it lies in O'Reilly's seemingly complete ignorance of what goes along with, "...just another lonely day in the Oval Office."

Every president has had his detractors, some urbane and some vehement. Does President Obama have the market cornered on people disliking him. No president in my lifetime has enjoyed uniform appeal from the electorate. O'Reilly's question can only be couched in the supposition that the Right Wing pays exactly zero attention to its detractors. The result of such hubris was the 2008 election.

At the same time, President Obama can expect the same treatment by the electorate that President Jimmy Carter was treated to in 1980 by Ronald Reagan. The Democrats are equally bad about being blind the writing on the wall because of political hubris. And considering the velocity with which political seasons speed by today and the momentum with which they do so, I suspect that President Obama's bid for a second term will be a wasted effort. If there were a time for a Democratic challenger, it is now.

Anti-Gay Fast Food Chain Controversy Ignores Crucial Taste Issue

2011-02-01T09:22:00.000-06:00

Anti-Gay Fast Food Chain Controversy Ignores Crucial Taste Issue Gawker

The issue of Chick-Fil-A donating food to the anti-gay, pro-marriage Pennsylvania Family Institute prompting outrage and retribution from the LGBT wing is a simple one. Chick-Fil-A has the right to provide services to whom ever they want and the LGBT community, and anyone else for that matter, can choose to rail against and boycott Chick-Fil-A for whatever reason they wish. That is the beauty of living in America. Have a look at Egypt and its neighbors right now to see what happens when this rather simple situation of freedom is not true.

As narrow-minded and pin-headed as Chick-Fil-A's alleged anti-gay position is, it is still that company's right to do as they please and see fit. In turn, it is the obligation, no, the mandate of those who disagree to exercise their right to disagree in any peaceful way they choose.

This is a slow process. The generation spawning this uninformed prejudice will eventually die away and there will be that many less unenlightened individuals replaced with more enlightened ones.

My the Government Save Us...from Ourselves...

2011-01-25T10:24:00.000-06:00

Arkansas Pedestrians Could Be Banned From Wearing Headphones Near Streets - latimes.com

In an effort to reduce the risk of living to as low a percentage as possible, The 88th Arkansas General Assembly is addressing the menace of...pedestrians wearing headphones. I used to think the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette was too hard on Arkansas State politicians, but no longer. Tending to do more harm than good on a yearly basis (since the Assembly began meeting yearly), the Assembly chooses to devote its time to regulating behavior for our own good.

Somehow Government, mainly to the left, believe, that through legislation, all risk in life can be reduced to nothing...and they are willing to mandate whatever amount of money is necessary to achieve that risk reduction. Never mind that experiencing a violent crime in Arkansas is more likely than being hit my a car while listening to headphone. Defy nature its responsibility for natural selection and more people sponsoring more inane bills in Assembly there will be.

A Death In The Family...

2011-01-22T15:19:00.000-06:00

What kind of God would create a reality where one's family, and everyone one loves, is eventually taken from him or her? No, this question is not near as advanced as, "Why do bad thing happen to good people?" We are not even out of the starting gate on this one. Why must we humans eventually be deprived of our loved ones because of simple nature. I am not remotely in acceptance of the scheme of things. And do you know what the real kicker is? God does not care. He (or she) holds all of those cards, forcing us mere humans to simply accept the circumstances ("We came to accept that we were powerless"). That is what "Israel" means, "Struggle with God."

The issue is not that I want to live forever (that would be really crazy, and who would want to, anyway - "If Heaven is so great, did Jesus do Lazarus any favors raising him from the dead?). No, the issue is I want to have my parents, my brother Norm-Boy, my Uncle Johnny, My Uncle Fred, My Aunt Irene, Uncle Gene and Aunt Helen, Mom and Dad Fox, my Aunt Lily, my Uncle Frankie, Aunt Susan Dickson, my wife's Gran, Uncle Shell, Aunt Jute, and her Paps...I want all of these people, whether I met them of not, until the day that I no longer think or be. I am really dissatisfied with this system of life and death.

Though, I am not so sure that God is responsible, at lease for my feelings. I suspect that is why the crafty devil created Nostalgia. His sense of humor and sense of irony are well established. But God is not a jokster. No, God is a pragmatic realist. The beauty of the spiritual system we all work under is that, no matter what we believe, we will all live, most likely, no more than 100 years and then....what then?

I have delivered three eulogies, and in all three I have said, "I sure hope that there is a Heaven, because I cannot bear thinking that I will not see my parents (or entire) family again."

"Do dogs go to Heaven?" Please, before all humans...

I Feel Strongly Both Ways...

2011-01-17T16:05:00.000-06:00

New Zodiac Sign Dates: Earth Rotation Changes Horoscope Signs - TIME NewsFeed

It is not that the Zodiac plays a big part in my life (it doesn't), but I had gotten pretty used to being a Libra. I compared the descriptions "Libra in a Nutshell" and what is apparently my new sign "Virgo in a Nutshell" from the website, Zodiac Signs Astrology:

Libra in a Nutshell:

Libras are the diplomat of the zodiac. They are able to put themselves in other's shoes and see things through another person's point of view. They are the ones that always want to make things right and have balance and harmony in their life, their surroundings and the lives of the people close to them. They have captivating charm, elegant taste and they are easy to like due to their eager-to-please, easygoing nature. In return for a Libra's amazing ability to be a good listener, sooth and calm people, they expect admiration. Libras will gather a group of people, everyone will become friends then the Libra will be in the center of the group. They like the attention and the admiration for the people that they have brought together. Libras are very intelligent, they often hide this inside their easygoing exterior. They express their intelligence through creativity, most are involved in some sort of artistic or creative pursuit. Many people overlook just how intelligent a Libra actually is. When others see a Libras wide range of interests and hobbies, their intelligence and creativity is more then obvious. Libras love variety and different situations. They welcome change. Libras love luxury. They will spend lots of money and surround themselves with beautiful things and they seem to be constantly fussing over their appearance. They love anything upscale and classy. Libras work hard to please others, this they do an others find them incredibly captivating.

Now, compare to:

Virgo in a Nutshell:

Virgo exists in the mind, everything is inside. To the world, Virgo presents a calm and collected exterior but on the inside, nervous uncontrolled intensity in the mind, trying to figure things out, how to improve everything, analyzing and thinking. Virgo can tire itself out without even moving! Virgo has a constant drive to improve and perfect, this can lead to extreme pickiness and finickiest. They are pure, their motives are honest never malicious and they want to accomplish something.

I am pretty sure which of these describe me. If the above were possibly true, then I have never met a Virgo nor want to be one. Keep your hands off my Libra!

The Four Most Important Men of the Last 50 years of the 20th Century...

2011-01-17T14:03:00.001-06:00

Once, while practicing pharmacy in Vardaman, Mississippi, I was asked by a high school senior working at the store, who I thought were the most important political public figures of my lifetime. I told him.

President Lyndon Baines Johnson - When a political personality transcends all that came before it, it deserves to be known by its initials. Had I been born earlier, I would have included FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) in the place of LBJ. Johnson was Roosevelt's spiritual extension, the New Deal President of my Mother's generation touching me in mine through the master of The Great Society. President Barack Obama stood to be the further extension of The New Deal, but was thwarted by an overly ambitious Democratically-controlled congress that lack the leadership of an LBJ. Johnson understood realpolitik better than Nixon on a local level and displayed a pragmatism, often ruthless, that is to be admired. Johnson could be viewed as the Richard Wagner of American Politics: he was a terrible man: conniving, insincere, self-serving, ambitious, but when the end justified the means, Johnson produced and if he had done nothing by sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964, his place in history would still be assured.

President Mikhail Gorbachev - Conventional wisdom elects that President Ronald Reagan upped the ante of the Cold War so high that the USSR could no longer afford it. The fall of Communism in Russia could never have happened without the help of the Communist Leadership. Gorachev, pragmatic as Johnson, was the originator of policies employing Perestroika and Glasnost, both words of freedom and friendship entering the American vernacular forever after his presidency. Gorachev, along with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and Canadian President Brian Mulroney, became close friends with President Ronald Reagan. These friendships were lastly manifest with taped comments made by all during President Reagan's funeral in 2004. Wittingly or unwittingly, the friendly Georgian with a port wine stain of China on his bald dome, started the ball rolling that dissolved the Eastern Bloc and the world has been better for it.

Karol Józef Wojtyła, Pope John Paul II - In my life there have been five Pontiffs of the Roman Catholic Church. The longest serving and farthest reaching was the poet-play-write-priest Karol Józef Wojtyła who would become the first Polish Pope on my 20th birthday, October 16, 1978. His Holiness was on hand for both the end of World War II and the fall of Communism, a mighty warrior firmly re-establishing the importance of both the Catholic Church and the Papacy in world affairs. An audience was sought with His Holiness by all world leaders, but it was his twilight meeting with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in January 1998 that is often remembered as two 20th Century lions meeting in mutual respect, the two sharing much in common: parochial schooling, intellectuals, both exceptional athletes. The Holy Father was a Marian Mystic, praying to the "Black Madonna" of Czestochowa in his small chapel off the Pontiff's bedroom. So committed to the Blessed Virgin, he established "The Luminous Mysteries" of the Holy Rosary. If that is not a "Price of Peace" nothing is.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - No figure has been closer to the American Experience and, indeed, the Southern Experience in the 20th Century than Rev. Martin Luther King. His Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 was as protested and decried as Jimmy Carter's in 2002, Al Gore's in 2007 and Barack Obama's in 2009. It is not that Dr. King was in good, controversial company with these men, it is the converse. All controversial figures since justify and are justified by King's presence as a Peace Prize Recipient. The United States is a World Leader often at the expense of others. Some call this Manifest Destiny. But these lofty proclamations are often made in the face of the collateral damage done, among others, the Native- and African-Americans. Dr. King transcended our violent nature to appeal to the "Lesser Angels" Barack Obama spoke of in his Inaugural Address and his recent response to the attempted assassination of Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords. Dr. King belongs to us all, whether we like it or not.

Are any of these men perfect. Hardly. But the quest for the perfect person is an idle mission of delusion. The best we can hope for are flashes of perfection, like a light's reflection off a diamond, from the imperfect people whose actions can be called great. These are four of them to be celebrated this Martin Luther King Day, 2011.

That kid in Mississippi? He didn't agree with me.

The Importance of the Tea Party to American Democracy... Slouching Toward Bethlehem

2011-01-13T15:26:00.000-06:00

America's two-party political system has stagnated since entering the era of presidential primary elections and leaving the era of brokered conventions. The status quo is roughly: an incumbent president serves his term and is followed by his vice president as that party's nominee. Often this results in a shift in the balance of power to the other party. Since the 1980s: Reagan served two terms, was followed by his vice president George H.W. Bush in 1988 for a term, then Bill Clinton served two terms, his vice president Al Gore securing the Democratic Nomination but losing to George W. Bush in the controversial contest of 2000.

Bush served for two terms and Bush vice president Dick Cheney was in no shape to run for president, so the Republican party had a bit of a row putting up Sen. John McCain, bringing on Gov. Sarah Palin and his running mate against up-an-comer Barack Obama and Joe Biden. By all accounts, the 2008 election was the most exciting and important since the election of John Kennedy in 1960 (an election echoed in the 2000 election because of controversy and accusations of election tampering - yes, Virginia, we have that in America).

The absence of a strong third party in the United States has made american politics boring, predictable, and, most important, recalcitrantly corrupt. It is now only who has the most money from the most suspect sources to mount the most expensive campaign that seems to make a viable presidential candidate. Couple that with the fact that Democrats have never been as integrated a party as the Republicans and one can see why the latter has been in office the lions share of the last 50 years and not necessarily to the benefit of the country. Not that the Democrats ever had the market cornered on helping America.

The emergence of the Tea Party within the Republican Party is the best thing to happen to the Republican Party and American democracy since Teddy Roosevelt ran as a Bull Moose in 1912. Against all odds and Karl Rove, a grassroots movement coalesces and integrates itself into the American conservative psyche in less than five years. The Republican party has been resistant to such splintering, while the Democrats have made an art form of it (recall Will Rogers' old saw on the Democrats).

Rejecting the waste and fraud of the Bush White House and the Democrats in general, the Tea Party arises as a new, even more conservative political movement, one that has rid itself of all moderate thought, leaving a viable fringe. By "viable fringe" I mean that on any other day in any other year Tea party members would be dismissed as a teaming mass of superstition, paranoia, and questionable tolerance. Instead, they position themselves in the catbird seat approaching the 2012 elections. The mid-term elections sent a clear message to both Democrats and mainstream Republicans: the Tea Party is here...and with bells on.

Our two-party system has been kidnapped by the lunatic fringe of each party. The result was the slaughter of countless moderates on both sides of the isle in congress. When you eliminate the middle you are left with no compromise, only conflict and window dressing, Yeats' "The Second Coming" realized:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

1919

Get Used to Saying "Madame President"...and I Don't mean Hilary...

2011-01-12T12:51:00.000-06:00

Analysis: Sarah Palin's use of 'blood libel' sparks new controversy

Forget the "blood libel" allusion; no one listening to that phrase understand it or its historical context. Sarah Palin employed better writers to help her prepare her response to the Giffords' assassination attempt, writers more attuned to the realpolitik of Palin's political situation. The once bumbling rube from the Great Northwest has been transformed, ala Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle, into a completely measured and sensible sounding spokesman for herself. Sure the lady doth protest too much, but she did so with greater clarity and eloquence that two years ago, when every time she opened her mouth was a disaster.

My point being there are few who consider Sarah Palin a viable candidate for the Republican Nomination in 2012. I think there is nothing further from the truth. As Palin's message becomes homogenized by practice and the guidance of her handlers, she will emerge from the mire as sounding refined, if not completely sensible. If she indeed considers a run for the White House, her product placement has been wise. Her TLC reality show, Sarah Palin's Alaska and her recent book, America by Heart : Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag, have her well-placed in the market place, giving her much needed name recognition and exposure. Mike Huckabee is doing the same thing with his FoxNews show and his books.

Democrats and mainstream Republicans must realize that their political enemies are not each other but the newly emerging Tea Party. While the Tea Party Republicans are the best thing to happen to the Republican Party as a whole since Lincoln, they do represent a malignant conservatism fixed in their WASPy Puritan posturing and wild West mentality. It is great that America is a tent big enough to house all.

We are set up for a humdinger of a 2012 election season (yes, it has started). How cool would it be if President Obama were challenged in the Democratic Primary by the likes of a Hilary Clinton (who has said she would not run) and Palin/Huckabee challenging any mainstream Republican for the GOP nomination. What this would be... is good for American Democracy.

"Came to Believe We Were Powerless:" The Westboro Baptist Church

2011-01-11T18:13:00.001-06:00

Westboro Baptist Church: Gabrielle Giffords an "Arrogant Pinhead;" 9-Year-Old Victim "Going to Hell" -- and More Idiocy From Clan of Kooks - Phoenix News - Valley Fever

I don't even know where to start: with the story or its vehicle. The Phoenix Newtimes Blog, Valley Fever is refreshingly irreverent and entertaining. the blog's coverage of the Westboro Baptist Church's participation in the funerals of the nine-year old girl and Federal Judge John Roll, murdered by Jared Loughner at a Tucson Safeway, are informative. Quoting Shirley Phelps-Roper (daughter of the Reverand Fred Phelps, pastor of Westboro Baptist Church) regarding Gabrielle Giffords and her attempted assassin Loughner:

Phelps-Roper describes Giffords as an "arrogant pinhead who surrounds herself with fags and baby killers."

As for the alleged shooter, 22-year-old Jared Loughner, Phelps-Roper considers him a "tool of God" used to rid the earth of the "rotten rebels."

"God sent the shooter -- that guy's bat-shit crazy -- but God sent him," she says.

An informed Christian appraisal to be sure. I wonder what it says for God's judgement, though I am sure ms. Phelps-Roper would certainly have a justification and rationalization for this however precariously Biblically founded.

Review Of Juan Williams' Firing Done; NPR News Exec Resigns : The Two-Way : NPR

2011-01-11T13:16:00.000-06:00

Review Of Juan Williams' Firing Done; NPR News Exec Resigns : The Two-Way : NPR

"As NPR's David Folkenflik reports for our newscast, after Williams' dismissal "conservatives blasted NPR, and Fox News' most prominent opinion hosts made a cause of it. Republican lawmakers threatened to cut federal funding for public broadcasters."

Turnabout is fair play. Perhaps not NPR but certainly MSNBC would have dished the same meal on FoxNews had the reverse occurred. MSNBC and FoxNews are the strange bedfellows handling the entertainment end of politics. they are both equally culpable in their poor reputations. NPR sullies its name with this unfortunate turn of events.

PR Foul #1: Once You've Stepped in It, Don't Say You Can't Smell Anything...

2011-01-09T21:06:00.000-06:00

Sarah Palin Aide Rebecca Mansour: Our Crosshairs Map Had Nothing To Do With Violence Or Guns. Huffington Post

A disclaimer: The Huffington Post is little better than MSNBC or FoxNews as a media outlet providing well-balanced news coverage. But when a public figure attempts sophistry of such a radioactive nature, they deserve what's coming to them.

"Surveyor's symbols" my country backside! Palin would have been better off having her minions simply say that her pro-Tea Party campaign was a bad decision than to say it had nothing to do with targets. The metaphor is clear and no American is going to mistake a weapons target for a "surveyor's symbol." That is the worst kind of dis-ingeniousness.

I certainly do not think that the Tea Party candidates intended anything as dramatic as the assassination attempt of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. But the Tea Party does have a population they wish to appeal to, and they did so with a keen precision on their demographics.

That said, the Tea Party's potently presented pro-Second Amendment position (and I have not problem with that, a big change from my past position on guns) makes Rebecca Manour's comments ring as silly, if not stupid and insulting.

All I ask of both the Left and the Right is that they not urinate on me, and then tell me to get an umbrella because I am getting wet.

Hoarders: Season Three - Episode 19: Hanna

2011-01-07T09:53:00.000-06:00

Hoarders - Video - AE TV - Hoarders: Hanna

AE Network's Hoarders (2009-present) was a direct outgrowth of the "documentary" series Obsession (2009-present), which itself was the bastard child of Intervention (2005-present). Since the premier of Intervention, reality television series focusing on psychological pathologies have reproduced like rats (the subject of the series final episode this season). The producers have become very savvy in their construction of the show's abbreviated seasons by reserving the most controversial episodes for the season's end.

AE has also assimilated cultural cues from Jerry Springer, Steve Wilkos and Maury Povich, who have achieved urban legend status by barely clothing their respective freak shows as human interest train wrecks falling down stairs by including "professional counselors" who meet with show participants after the festivities in the arena. This nod at legitimacy is echoed by AE with the inclusion of Dr. Robin Zazio as one of the earnest therapists contracted to "help" compulsive hoarders.

Another nice touch of legitimacy is the presence of "certified" professional organizers, who enter the process chirping about the afflicted being in control of what of their hoarding goes and what stays (which is the same as asking the garden variety opiate addict to choose between codeine, morphine, or propoxyphene because they are coked to the gills on speedballs).

It is a surprise then, with so much therapeutic firepower, that each episode of Hoarders begins, progresses, and ends the same way:

Ms. Farquar has been accumulating plastic Walmart sacks for the past 25 years. Every room of her 4,000 square-foot house is filled, floor to ceiling, with these sacks. All of her belongings are buried in these sacks and Ms. Farquar has taken to living in a 15-foot teardrop trailer on the corner of her property. At the time of filming, Ms. Farquar has just reported her third dog, fourth cat and second child missing to the appropriate authorities. They are all believed to be somewhere in the house.
A brief bio of Ms. Farquar reveals that she was the first child of seven borne to the elder Mr. and Mrs. Motes. The "typical" first child, Ms. Farquar is an over-achiever who married beneath herself, leading to the traumatic event in her life that spurred her hoarding: her husband, Mr. Farquar, noisily broke wind in High Church on Sunday Morning in 1963 and Ms. Farquar was so embarrassed, she never recovered, taking to hoarding Walmart sacks.
Ms.Farquar's missing persons (and animals) reports came to the attention of Homeland Security, who believe she is actually harboring a domestic terrorist cell in her home. Her only hope is to rid her house of Walmart sacks, showing HS that there is no threat. Ms. Farquar agrees to ask for professional help. Enter Jamaica Lambrusco, PhD., psychotherapist specializing is traumatized women hoarding Walmart sacks and some nameless, bright-and-shiny organizer with sunlight pouring from his backside.
A straight clean up job, the bright and shiny organizer is dispatched and cleaners are brought in to remove the Walmart sacks. Ms. Farquar grows anxious as the sacks are removed, rationalizing that the sacks are now the only things holding the house up and without them, the house will collapse, killing those within. She further retards progress by demanding to look in every sack for lost coupons and receipts.
Ms. Farquar denies. Ms. Farquar cries. Ms Farquar yells. Ms. Farquar bargains. Ms. Farquar never gets within a light year of acceptance. Meanwhile, workers clear the entry hall finding one of the missing cats, a missing child's shoe, Captain Ahab's peg leg, the Arc of the Covenant, sans the Ten Commandments, the Holy Grail, the Spear of Destiny, and Jimmy Hoffa.
The show ends with Ms. Farquar picking up removed Walmart sacks and Captain Ahab's peg leg and returning them to the house.

This is how every episode of Hoarder's unfolds.

But the end of Season Three introduces new methods of attracting watchers. Enter the Jerry Springer method. Show Producers, trolling through backwater areas of the Midwest with a two-dollar bill find the perfect inhabitants with which to expose and magnify every social stereotype possible, creating a stark juxtaposition between the perfectly quaffed therapist and the nonthreatening organizers.

This method was pioneered by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky in their documentaries, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (Home Box Office, 2996) and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (Home Box Office, 2000). These films documented the 1993 murders of three 8-year old boys in the poor Arkansas Delta and the subsequent trial. All of the involved inhabited that marginal state of lower-middle class/poverty that clings to the Delta like a bad smell. Berlinger and Sinofsky take great delight in depicting both victims and alleged victimizers as hopeless rubes caught in the vicious cycle of under-achievement and social stagnation. No one escapes this wrath.

Likewise, the producers of Hoarders, must have wet their pants with delight in finding one hapless Hanna hailing from Vienna, Illinois. While the name Vienna conjures visions of Mozart, Beethoven, and 18th Century European life, in Illinois it only recalls squat Armour aluminium cans containing wieners and potted. meat.

Our protagonist, Hanna is an elderly woman relegated to living in an unheated trailer filled with chickens confined to small cages, living and eating in their feces, many of them sick. Hanna, deep in her "disease" sees no problem and claims all of her animals are perfectly healthy, including the pregnant goat with hobbling on a lame leg, near death. If there were ever a metaphor for Hanna's life, it is this sick goat.

Hanna's young and toothless daughter is interviewed, describing the mess that is Hanna's trailer. She is one of Hanna's 19 children, most of whom were removed from Hanna's care by the State. the show progresses as they all do. Dr. Robin Zazio arrives, perfectly quaffed with highlighted hair, offering the viewer a jarring comparison between the educated and affluent and the ignorant and dirt-poor. Zazio observes dispassionately the squalor in which Hanna lives, in that therapist-bag-of-tricks way that infuriates the therapeutically initiated who understand that Zazio's truthful reaction should be a squeal of "MOTHERFUCKER! ARE YOUR NUTS?

Hanna proceeds to allow no one to help the sick animals, exclaiming that whenever outsiders focus attention on her situations, things start going bad. This is Hanna echoing her forefathers' sentiment regarding revenue agents discovering their hidden moonshine stills.

At one point Hanna calls her toothless daughter at work and she arrives angry and defensive at her mother's home. Several more of Hanna's children show up, beginning to fight among themselves. The children have all admitted to having been abused and that legacy is patently obvious to the viewer. Zazio continues to calmly describe Hanna's state of mind and her motivations, obviously having no clue that they are.

Hanna's story illustrates that some things are well beyond fixing and whose fates are influenced by nothing save for social Darwinian evolution. And the AE producers smile all the way to the bank while Robin Zazio, repairs to her office to pat Ambien-addicted housewives on the hand because they collect Walmart sacks.

Make Straight in the Desert, A Highway...

2010-12-24T17:03:00.051-06:00

My Dream: No more Methodist Church | Tennesseans Watching Federal and State Government

Margaret Atwood's dystopic novel The Handmaid's Tale (McClelland and Stewart, 1985), describes a world view well captured in the Wikipedia entry for the book:

The Handmaid's Tale is set in the near future in the Republic of Gilead, a country formed within the borders of what was formerly the United States of America. It was founded by a racist, male chauvinist, nativist, theocratic-organized military coup as an ideologically-driven response to the pervasive ecological, physical and social degradation of the country. Beginning with a staged terrorist attack (blamed on Islamic extremist terrorists) that kills the President, a movement calling itself the "Sons of Jacob" launched a revolution, ousted Congress, and suspended the U.S. Constitution under the pretext of restoring order. Taking advantage of electronic banking, they were quickly able to freeze the assets of all women and other "undesirables" in the country, stripping their rights away. The new theocratic military dictatorship, styled "The Republic of Gilead", moved quickly to consolidate its power and reorganize society along a new militarized, hierarchical, compulsorily-Christian regime of Old Testament-inspired social and religious orthodoxy among its newly-created social classes.

The movie based on the book, depicted a civil war between Roman Catholic and Baptist factions: two brands of Christianity fighting one another. Hard to believe? Read Tea Party activist Judson Phillips' blog regarding his desire for the Methodist Church's demise and tell me that a religious civil war in the United States is beyond possibility.

Here is the new geopolitical religious schism, one borne of selfishness and hatred that is directly contrary to the teachings of that country Nazarene preacher allegedly so popular with Tea Party believers. Can it be that this Christ is so different from the Christ I know? The answer is surely.

Phillips takes the Methodist's to task for the display of a sign outside the United Methodist Building in Washington DC, encouraging Congress to pass the "DREAM" Act. The "DREAM" Act is the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act. The word that scares Phillips here is "Alien."

The Methodist Church has always been an inclusive body and that it would support the "DREAM" Act is no surprise. Phillips rhetorically asks, "Say, where are the liberal complaints on the separation of church and state?" That little bit of tampon fluff deserves no service since the Supreme Court decided Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, No. 08-205. Even more curious is Phillips ignoring the real elephant in the living room on the immigration issue, the Roman Catholic Church. But, then again, the Tea Party needs that antiabortion block in their tent (as Roman Catholics represent cs. 26% of practicing Christians and the Methodists only 5%).

Phillips whips up a mouthful of horse hockey, saying:

Reading the Methodist social justice manifesto is like reading a socialist wish list. They want amnesty, they want “economic justice”, they opposed “global climate change” (earth to the Methodists, man isn’t doing it), fighting global poverty (here is another hint, most poverty is caused by a lack of freedom and lack of a free enterprise system). Not shockingly, the Methodists side with the Islamists against Israel, and of course oppose America in Iraq.

This is tired failed Bush Doctrine, poorly conceived and executed. These arguments were supposed to have died with that administration but are kept alive by the black-cat-crossed-my-path bunch who believe that if one tells an untruth enough times it will become true. The continued attempt at justifying the lie of Iraqi involvement in Al-Qaeda has gotten old and revival of this falsehood accomplishes nothing.

Phillips Christmas wish here lacks "Love's Pure Light."

Christmas Greetings to My Friends and Family....

2010-12-24T13:33:00.003-06:00

Merry Christmas

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht ("Silent Night, Holy Night") is a popular Austrian Carol. Its words were scripted by the Roman Catholic Father Joseph Mohr (1792-1848) and its melody composed by Franz Xaver Gruber (1787-1863). The song's first performance took place on December 24, 1818 in Nikolaus-Kirche (Church of St. Nicholas) in Oberndorf, Austria. "Silent Night" made its way to the Americas in 1859, when Episcopal Bishop John Freeman Young (1820-1885) translated the carol into the English version most sung today.

Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972) was born in New Orleans during Jim Crow, lived in a three-room house with 13 people and a dog. Victorian Austria and the Jim Crow South are about has far from one another as can be imagined except for the fact that they intersect in the person of Mahalia Jackson in 1962 for her television special "Mahalia Jackson Sings." And how did this cultural collision fare?

The difference between aptitude and talent is that one is an inclination to practice to improve and the other a fully formed force of nature. One is mortal and the other Divine. What Mahalia Jackson brought to the musical table was a fully-realized talent so untrained and thoroughly organic that it existed with a strength and natural energy of its own. What she brings to this old Austrian carol is not just a confidence, but an authority that only something greater than us can fully imagine.

What Mahalia Jackson manifests is akin to an ancient comet, passing through time picking up cultural essences like some sacred dust, mixing those essences with a weary world of experience and returning it to us as a gift, something like grace. The Divine allows that is this talent is so grand and good that it inspires a recognition powerfully captured in the Victorian French era carol "Cantique de Noël," perfectly rendered by the singer:

Fall on your knees

O hear the Angel's voices

O night Divine

Hope and Gratitude are our reaction to this exposure to the Divine. Those special feelings reserved only for that which is greater than ourselves.

It is not merely "Happy Holidays." It is Merry Christmas, the birth of That which will make all things new...for these words are faithful and true.

Finally...

2010-12-19T09:13:00.000-06:00

Obama thanks supporters for repeal of military gay ban - The Oval: Tracking the Obama presidency USA Today

When a conservative megaphone like Paul Greenberg and The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette says that the ban on Gays in the military is hopelessly outdated and narrow-minded, then one knows it has to be. Finally, the United States Senate has acted in the interest of all American people. They have finally gotten something right, thanks and no thanks to Senator Mark Pryor who held out until this year. Glad that you joined us, Senator.

Modern Fun in Practical Theology...

2010-12-18T22:44:00.001-06:00

One of my earliest critical thoughts of my Roman Catholic faith was that it was so complicated. As I got older, I found the German reformers no less complicated and the non-denominational Evangelicals down right ignorant. I t was not until I read Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas (Bantam, 2003) that I realized a workable theology. Near the beginning of the book Odd Thomas introduces us to the philosophy of his poker-playing maternal grandmother, Pearl Sugars:

"Granny Sugars believed in bargaining with God. She called Him "that old rug merchant."

Before every poker game, she promised God to spread His holy word or to share her good fortune with orphans in return for a few unbeatable hands. Throughout her life, winnings from card games remained a significant source of income.

Being a hard-drinking woman with numerous interests in addition to poker, Granny Sugars didn't always spend as much time spreading God's word as she promised him she would. She believed that God expected to be conned more often than not and that he would be a good sport about it.

You can con God and get away with it, Granny said, if you do so with charm and wit. If you live your life with imagination and verve, God will play along just to see what outrageously entertaining thing you'll do next.

He'll also cut you some slack if your astonishingly stupid in an amusing fashion. Granny claimed that this explains why uncountable millions of breathtakingly stupid people get along just fine in life.

Of course, in the process, you must never do harm to others in any serious way, or you'll cease to amuse Him. Then payment comes due for the promises you didn't keep..."

Now, that is a useful theology. God certainly has a sense of humor. He gave humans free will and what could be funnier than that. Evidence of Its wickedness is manifested in that many people become both near-sighted and farsighted in old age, and that's a real shitter. God never improved on the poor engineering of the knee or the hopeless shortness of the female urethra, laughing every time an ACL is torn or a UTI is develops. Because of these things, I suspect God does cut us some slack and appreciates our boundless loam of ingenuity.

Surreality Television...

2010-12-16T08:13:00.000-06:00

ComPost - Sarah Palin's Alaska minus Kate Gosselin -- America, Real and Surreal Washington Post Blog

The ubiquity of reality television has reached critical mass. There are so many reality shows that they have begun to intersect in delightful and not so delightful ways. Most recently, The Learning Channel crossed uber-pro-creator Kate Gosselin with Tea Party Every-woman Sarah Palin beneath the guise of two mothers returning to nature with their children.

One need no more proof thats Sarah Palin's Alaska is simply one long political ad in preparation for her 2012 presidential bid than to watch last night's episode "Palin and Gosselin Camp Out." Finely crafty irony and thoughtfully applied Theater of the Absurd make this episode of Palin's reality show the most entertaining reality TV since Michael Skupin (geez, the clod has his own website) fell into the fire during season 2 of Survivor.

Palin draws an embarrassingly contrived juxtaposition with Kate Gosselin, one that could not be more stark had Palin showed dirt beneath her carefully quaffed fingernails. The Tea Party, those disgruntled members of the Republican Party who want to take to their Schooners and head West (except there is no more West) will love Palin's rough and tumble, premenopausal, shotgun shooting ex-beauty queen presence. Kate Gosselin...not so much.

Wanting It Both Ways at the Edges...

2010-12-13T10:05:00.000-06:00

Tax deal angers right as well as left Washington Post

Beautiful. The far Left Cadre criticizes the President for caving on extending Bush era tax cuts on wealthy Americans and the far Right Cadre criticizing the President for extracting an extension of unemployment benefits.

The President should be both proud and satisfied as this was most likely the best Tax Bill he was to realize from this most fractious and disparate Congress. What we Americans can expect is more of this same behavior with much less positive results. The political center is gone and will remain so until the Newt Gingrich's "militant moderates" grow a pair, tempering politics with a much needed pragmatism.

It is madness to expect tax cuts without a cut in spending to have any kind of a positive effect.

It is Simple...

2010-12-11T17:58:00.000-06:00

Why is the Westboro Baptist Church picketing Elizabeth Edwards' funeral? - Who are these people? - CSMonitor.com

It is simple. This is not my Christianity. No, not now and not in a million years. If the choice were abide by the teaching of the Westboro Baptist Church or not be a "Christian," I would choose the latter. Gratefully, I do not have to make that choice, instead, in some small manner, finding my way to what the real Christ is. All I know is this ain't it.

Of Tampon Lint and Paper Clips...

2010-12-08T09:29:00.000-06:00

Nelson v. Game and Fish: 'Ego orgy' | Arkansas Blog

What is so important about the Arkansas Opossum Police that they:

Possess a political classification placing them outside the purview of the popularly elected state government,
Have an FOI policy so detailed that it specifically seeks to protect the Arkansas Opossum Police from revealing embarrassing information about itself (I should like that for my self!),
Have a top-heavy bureaucratic triumvirate to run a state commission that is largely self important and, to my mind, an in efficient waste of time,
Must employ a public relations firm to sophistically spin an image contrary to item 3.

And Sheffield Nelson's bone to pick is his unhappiness that the commission rescinded one of his proclamations (a fall Turkey Hunting Season) when Nelson acted as commissioner? Max Brantley rightly pointed out that Nelson may be renewing his aspirations for the governor's mansion next State cycle. This makes Nelson's apparent Quixotic role ring hallow.

Nelson's intentions have a whiff of truth but smell like something else altogether...and this, in no way, forgives the Arkansas Opossum Police their country hubris.

'Don't ask, don't tell' report: Little risk to allowing gays to serve openly

2010-11-30T16:00:00.000-06:00

'Don't ask, don't tell' report: Little risk to allowing gays to serve openly
The Washington Post

The United States Department of Defense have concluded in their recently issued "Report of the Comprehensive Review of the Issues Associated with a Repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" what every other First World Country in the World knows: that homosexuals serving openly in the armed services poses to risk to said armed forces. Not that the United States would take anyone's word for it, instead opting to spend more tax dollars investigating something already completely apparent, something that pisses this fiscal conservative oh so off. Well, Jethro, aught from aught is still aught and will be aught 100 years from now.

The Sum of All Fears, 2012...

2010-11-26T20:11:00.000-06:00

The Fix - Sarah Palin's Mike Huckabee problem The Washington Post, Friday, November 26, 2010

“Who is this that darkens counsel
By words without knowledge?

Here is the writing on the wall:

But while Romney and Gingrich have pretty broad support, the base of support for Huckabee and Palin is readily apparent, and for both of them, it starts with born-again evangelicals. The two of them combine for 46 percent of that vote, compared to just 26 percent for Gingrich and Romney. Palin and Huckabee are also the top two vote-getters among women and people without college degrees.

Oh Boy...

Choose your Christian church now, while you can...Muslims need not apply.

A Thought on Gratitude...

2010-11-25T08:11:00.002-06:00

Gratitude is not some cyber bon mot appended at the end of a text message. It is a very specific genera of the more general virtue that is thanksgiving: an appreciation for something, tangible or intangible received. Specifically, Gratitude is that thanksgiving reserved for the Divine. As such, it functions as both an acknowledgement and justification of the Divine. Gratitude is Humanity's recognizing something greater than itself, acknowledging the essence of Grace as a gift neither deserved or requested. Gratitude is thankfulness for the slippery certainty that is faith in all of its meanings.

St. Jerome coaxed this "slippery certainty" from the original Greek of John The Divine, written on Patmos at the close of the First Century:

et nox ultra non erit et non egebunt lumine lucernae neque lumine solis quoniam Dominus Deus inluminat illos et regnabunt in saecula saeculorum

There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Traditional Republicans Squirm on a Nail...

2010-11-24T11:36:00.000-06:00

Richard Cohen - Attack on Michelle Obama shows Palin's ignorance of history : Washington Post

When Michelle Obama said, during the 2008 campaign, "For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback," I thought what a refreshing bit of candor for a political figure. When she was immediately attacked by the right, I was dismayed at the sheer ignorance of the great white way and their mock indignation. One of the first to pile on was Cindy McCain, who said, "I have and always will be proud of my country."

That Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain are both women is about where the similarity ends. The two countries they speak of are exactly that, two countries. There is no way that Cindy McCain's "Country" and Michelle Obama's "Country can be the same considering the difference is each womans' perspective. Growing up white and affluent and African-American in the United States cannot be equated in any way and critics of the First Lady reveal a profound historical amnesia.

By my estimation, every African American (or Native American) citizen has plenty not to be proud about their "Country." Both have been given the shitty end of the stick so many times that they cannot help but feel that way and are justified to. White America not acknowledging this is tantamount to those cretins who deny the Holocaust. What was done cannot be undone and neither can it be denied. There is no point in trying because there will always be someone to remind us.

North Korea's Death Wish...

2010-11-23T11:33:00.000-06:00

North Korean dictator-in-waiting linked to deadly artillery attack

North Korea delights in shoving their pudgy little fingers (or I should say Kim Jong Un's pudgy little fingers, as the rest of the country is stick thin from starvation in support of the dictator-in-waiting's baby fatness) in the eyes of the surrounding counties and the United States. North Korea even understands that while it exists at the pleasure of the World, the World has become too civilized to take any meaningful action against them, even when provoked.

But this is not the 1950s and North Korea does not enjoy the same support from Russia or China it once did. In fact, North Korea is mostly treated like the spoiled child it is. Russia and China will eventually finally tire of North Korea, introducing, as they do, some noxious element into the population, a population cut off from the rest of the world making them dangerously isolated and the ideal target for the introduction of some noxious element that will decimate the already marginalized population as well as the erstwhile leadership.

Not a pretty thought, admittedly, but one that is a very real possibility. War in the region, would cost the region much money it wishes not to spend. The capito-communism of China will sneer at the loss of capital and Russia, well Russia, that bunch on dullards will want to show they are still spies...

Closing The Barn Door after the Cow Got Out...

2010-11-21T17:20:00.000-06:00

Condoms and the Catholic church: a short history | World news | The Guardian

"The Roman Catholic Church, however, has found itself wriggling on a particularly dogmatic hook over the last 42 years, stuck with a doctrine that many of its adherents, certainly in western countries, simply ignore. A 2002 US survey found 96% of sexually active Catholic women had used birth control."

...and that does not even detail the number of teenage boys purchasing condoms and bothering to use them.

The makers of Trojans, Ramses, and Glad fold-and-tuck sandwich bags must be breathing a sigh of relief since the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI has reasoned that

"an exceptional situation in which the exercise of sexuality represents a real risk to the lives of others. In this case, the pope does not morally justify the exercise of disordered sexuality, but believes that the use of condoms to reduce the risk of infection is a 'first step on the road to a more human sexuality', rather than not to use it and risking the lives of others."

There is more ink being spilled about the Holy Father's intellectual flatus than the fact that no one is paying attention anyway, certainly no Western Catholics. As usual, this is so much window dressing that will amount to nothing. The Pope's handlers will leak out examples of "exceptional situation"s in the coming weeks, thereby clarifying nothing. Instead, we will have a picture of a comically narrow application of the Pontiff's words to the effect condoms will only be allowed in cases where a man wishes to consort with a sheep to protect the sheep.

Make a real change...

Better Living Through Chemistry...

2010-11-20T08:06:00.000-06:00

Painkiller is pulled off market at FDA's request Washington Post

Propoxyphene was developed in the early 1950s by American pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. It is a cousin of methadone, loperamide and diphenoxylate. It was one of the most widely used narcotic analgetics for the past 50 years. The benefit of that experience is that a definitive amount of safety data has been assembled, enough to finally remove it from the market.

Addiction liability, the nagging problem of all opiates is not the reason. The FDA (and the European Union years earlier) accumulated enough data to show a positive correlation between propoxyphene use and cardiac arrhythmias. This is not a bad thing. At best, propoxyphene was an accepted alternative to codeine, neither being superior as analgetics and both possessing rather serious "personality" problems.

No, the fact is that better analgetics have been developed since 1950 in the same way that barbiturates and non-barbiturate sedative hypnotics have been replaced by benzodiazepines and cyclopyrrolones. And better drugs will be developed.

Pearls before Swine...

2010-11-18T09:19:00.000-06:00

Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Delays Considering $40,000 Media Consultant - ArkansasBusiness.com

God knows that the Arkansas G&FC desperately needs competent public relations representation after the junta's recent attempted sedition, but no money should be allotted for such.

The Arkansas Opossum Police should rebuild their reputation the old fashioned way, quietly and by doing the right thing.

She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain, When She Comes...

2010-11-17T20:16:00.001-06:00

Palin Says She Could Beat Obama in 2012 Presidential Election - Bloomberg

The Democrats got nothin' and mainstream Republicans got nothin. Yes, this Deliverance transplant to Alaska is going to be your next President.

This Is Only The Beginning...

2010-11-17T15:00:00.001-06:00

"Dancing with the Stars" Rage: Bristol Palin's Routine Makes Wis. Man Shoot TV, Say Police - Crimesider - CBS News

With former Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol rounding out the top of the ABC reality television show Dancing With The Stars and the elder Palin's own TLC reality show Sarah Palin's Alaska, the future is clear and we all should be ready for it:

Sarah Palin's White House

Yes, this is our future and it will be brought to you by all of the silly and inane media programming of "reality television" (which is actually neither reality or television except that it does pretty well describe the shame of electing public officials in the united states, all image and no substance). Because those avid viewers of such programming will reflect their collective IQs by making it so, once again mistaking notoriety for gravitas.