IT'S RIGHT THERE IF YOU DARE TO LOOK

Warning rant ahead. And it probably won't be the only one this week. So, if you don't want to be offended it's probably better if you leave now. 

Having actually managed to read the book of Joshua without either throwing up or having to take too many showers I realized that Phil Robertson is on solid Biblical ground. At least if  you're a sadist, a psychopath or a sociopath. Just change the names of the attackers and the victims in his little anti atheist rant and fill in the names of the ethnic groups that were destroyed (or partially) destroyed in the Hebrew quest to claim the "promised" land.

A Canaanite family, Midianite, Amelakite. Whatever. They were Other. They were standing in the way of Hebrew destiny. Anyone who has read a description of what happens when a city or fortress is sacked will know that no mercy is shown. And if you believe it's God's will then showing mercy would actually be a sin. 

I forget (mercifully) the name and the link to a blog by an author who supported Hebrew genocide. And made the following disclaimer along the lines of "they knew the Hebrews were coming and would have gotten out of the way so the death toll probably wasn't that bad." 

The contortions believers go through to excuse the absolute worst their sacred books have to offer is beyond belief. 

You are already living in the so called promised land. You may not own the land. The kings own the land. The priests own the land. But, your family had farmed, grazed worked this land for years, generations even. Your people are buried there or their ashes were scattered there. Your gods and goddesses have, in your eyes, blessed the land. You here of a group of invaders who claim that their God, who you're never heard of, has promised your land to them!. Are you going to run or are you going to fight? And fight like hell. 

Sorry folks this tree has some bad roots and no amount of yes buts, or we don't believe that anymore or any other excuse that we can come up with is going to change that. Especially when a vocal and hate filled minority can use those stories as an excuse to continue their hating. 

PLUCK THE DUCK 2

This is a blog entry from a Patheos site, Slacktivist.  Anyone who has read the history of the Crusades or the Inquisition knows the horrors that so called Christians can inflict on those they consider to be infidels, heretics, Other. So it would appear that being a believer is no protection for those considered to be the enemy, the Other.

In fact when this interesting set of facts is publicized the contortions the fundies put themselves through to hang on their denial would be moderately amusing if the outcome wasn't so damn terrifying.

TIME TO PLUCK THE DUCK

Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty is at it again. Normally I wouldn't pollute my site with the rantings of the this sorry excuse for human being who claims to be a Christian. "By their fruits you shall know them." Well these apples are rotten. 

I will not put a shot on this page, everybody knows what this fake looks like. What bearing do the beliefs of potential victims have to do with what a couple of sick bastards choose to do? And the fundies wonder why Christianity as we know it is probably dying and should, frankly. Let it crash and burn. Maybe we can build something new from the ashes. To be honest I'm tired of apologizing, excusing, ignoring the fact that main stream Christianity is flawed, has been flawed from the beginning. The seeds of this poison were planted centuries ago and damned if I know how to pull the weeds as long as so called human beings like this keep spreading this poison. 

JUST CHANGE A FEW WORDS

here and there and the song still works more than forty years later. The Viet Nam Song from the group Country Joe & Fish. We're still in a jam, Iran almost rhymes with Viet Nam and we've got a whole host of neo cons and cons who never met a war they didn't like, as long as they don't have to fight, who are beating the war drums again.

Remember how Iraqi oil was going to pay for the last one and our troops were going to be met by cheering Iraqis throwing rose petals? Must have happened in another reality.

The Viet Nam Song from the album I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag.

Well, come on all of you, big strong men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again.
He's got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in Vietnam
So put down your books and pick up a gun,
We're gonna have a whole lotta fun.

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

Come on Wall Street, don't be slow,
Why man, this is war au-go-go
There's plenty good money to be made
By supplying the Army with the tools of its trade,
But just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb,
They drop it on the Viet Cong.

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

Well, come on generals, let's move fast;
Your big chance has come at last.
Now you can go out and get those reds
'Cause the only good commie is the one that's dead
And you know that peace can only be won
When we've blown 'em all to kingdom come.

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

Come on mothers throughout the land,
Pack your boys off to Vietnam.
Come on fathers, and don't hesitate
To send your sons off before it's too late.
And you can be the first ones in your block
To have your boy come home in a box.

And it's one, two, three
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

NO MORE ENDLESS WARS

Another totally devastating essay from Jim Wright over at Stonekettle Station,  Anybody out there care to imagine what the world would look like now if the US and the rest of the world had managed to control our oil addiction back in the seventies.

Imagine a world where the Saudi's didn't have and endless supply of money to finance their view of the Islam. Imagine a world where we could live with the power supplied by the sun, wind and tides instead of plotting the next war to keep the oil flowing. Imagine a world where fresh water is used for drinking and SENSIBLE irrigation not being filled with chemicals and pumped into the ground so that we can keep those big ass 27  mpg pickups moving.

Imagine rethinking our land use so that we're eating food grown in the next county; not trucked or shipped in from half a continent or half a world away. Imagine savoring those seasonal wonders fresh asparagus or Oregon strawberries or the best peaces during the time they're in season and then waiting in anticipation for the next season.

Imagine a world where we create crops that can be poisoned and survive. MAYBE most gmo crops are safe to eat, but what it takes to get them to our dinner tables is killing us and the land and creatures that depend on the crops that can't survive being poisoned for their survival.

As usual I started out in one direction, the blog too control and here we are.

AND THEY'LL KNOW THAT WE ARE CHRISTIANS

I found this on the net in the comment section of this story, I'm going to keep browsing for the writer and the title. So far no luck. Author is Anza Summer.

We are one in our hatred, we are favored by the Lord,
We are one in our hatred, we are favored by our Lord,
And we pray our supremacy will one day be restored.

Refrain

And they’ll know we are Christians by our greed, pride and hate,
Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our hate.

We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand,
We’ll kill all non-believers, we will take all their lands,
And together we’ll spread the news that God is in our land.

Refrain

We will persecute the infidels, we’ll make war side by side
We will hate who God hates, we will kill them side by side,
And we’ll guard each one’s wealth and extoll each one’s pride.

Refrain

All praise to our riches, wealth is God’s love on display,
And all praise to Christ Jesus, who only says what we say
And all praise to the Spirit, our enemies will pay.

Refrain

SOFTWARE AND POLITICS

So far Family Tree maker, Starry Night 4.1, Britannica and one other program whose name escapes me at the moment have made the transition to the new machine. I replaced Street Atlas because the original was for Mac and frankly I think I bought it ten years ago anyway. I'm replacing Photoshop Elements, again because it was a very old program, version 2, I believe and they're all the way up to I think 13 or 14. Anyway I used to to work with almost all my pictures on the old Mac and I'm hoping that this one will let me access them.

The digital downloads are all good to go. Thirty five MM's from photo disks are iffy. Heck if I haven't missed them by now...And I have the original photos anyway. I'm in the market for a printer that includes a scanner, preferably capable of creating photo quality prints. We have a butt load of school pictures for the nephews. It might be fun to create some collage collections.

Anyway it beats politics. Good Lord the Tea Party Republicans can't even get along with their own party. Maybe we should run the federal government like a business. How many business owners can you think of would hire potential employees whose main goal is torpedoing his/her business? Because I believe this is just exactly what these sorry excuses of the south ends of north bound jackasses are trying to do, and too few of my fellow miserable excuses for citizens realize this.

THIS IS PERSECUTION?

Quote is from Jim Wright at the Stonekettle blog. Personally I can't stand Joel Osteen. Inherited daddy's church. Never even went to seminary. Rakes in the bucks. At least he isn't as batshit crazy as some of them.

GETTING USED TO THE NEW MACHINE.

Well, I pulled everything relevant off the old Mac. Don't know why I bothered with some of it. The programs I used were so old this computer simply doesn't recognize them. I ordered a new version of Photoshop and maybe that will help. Also, it's what I'm working with and is great for working with pictures.

I'm not quite sure which program I used when I did this, but back in the early thirties my great grand dad wrote some poems. I don't know if he did more, but these are the ones one of my cousins typed up. I transcribed them, formatted them and printed sets off for Roberta and Colleen. Anyway, thank heaven the final versions survived. I don't really care about the other material although I'll go through it and see what can be salvaged.

Windows 7 came, not with works, but a program set called LibreOffice which is a basic version without Outlook. It seems fairly useful. Some things are in places I''m not used to, especially for the spreadsheet program, but I can work with that. Damned if I'm going to buy ANOTHER version of office at whatever they're charging a pop these days. I don't think Libre comes with the color palette that Appleworks did but Elements will take care of that problem.

Four of my old programs work fairly well on this machine. Family Tree Maker, the National Geographic collection, Britannnica and Starry Night version 4.1. I've tried installing Deep Space Explorer. Twice. Gives the new machine a bad case of indigestion, so too bad about that. I think I'll survive. Was looking at printers on Amazon just too see what's out there. Damn, they are cheap, relatively speaking.

Know what's really weird? This keyboard comes with a number pad, which means that the alpha keyboard is off center. It's like I have to learn how to type all over again. LOL

FAREWELL FRANKENPUTER

That was the ironic nickname I gave the old IMac blueberry after it had to have a new hard drive installed and I was idiot enough to let them split it. Classic on one side OS10 on the other. Promptly turned my flatbed scanner into a great big doorstop.

I used the mac in parallel with my PC laptop for several years.The mac had the printer and frankly did a better job with graphics. That lasted until the modem finally crapped out but the slower processor was having a harder and harder time dealing with the increasing speeds and sophistication of the net anyway.

Anyway the late, great Acer crapped out last week, and back I went to the little computer store on Mohawk. While I was getting used to Windows 7 (and the jury is still out) I happened to ask if they knew where old equipment can be taken for recycling. Turns out they will take them. Between mom's walker and the garden cart I was able to get everything out in one trip. There's still a bag of cords etc. to take out. That corner looks really, really empty right now. Mom and I are both going "craft corner!!!!!, yes!"

Yes, yes, yes. Bring out all the goodies and put them where we can use them.

STUPIDITY OR TREASON?

Freshman senator Tom Cotton from the (not so) great state of Arkansas pens an open letter to the Iranians pointing out that any agreement short of a treaty might not survive after the president leaves office. Turns out a pro Israel right wing PAC has contributed a million dollars to the senator. Of course the one has nothing to do with the other.

When the shit storm hit the 'pubs tried to pass the letter off as "cheeky humor" and isn't it too bad that the administration doesn't have a sense of humor. I wouldn't worry about the administration I haven't noticed a sense of humor hanging out in the neighbor hood of Iran since the revolution kicked out the shah back when Carter was president. Guys if you have to tell me it was a joke, it probably wasn't funny.

John McCain claims he really didn't know what he was signing when he added his name because "he signs a lot of letters." Here's a suggestion for the honorable senator from Arizona. When you find yourself in a hole put down the shovel and climb out of the hole.

It's been policy since 1793 when George Washington explained the facts of life to an upstart French pipsqueak of a diplomat by the name of Edmund Genet that the president speaks for the country and his efforts to undermine America's policy of neutrality towards both England and France was NOT appreciated. His official instructions were to negotiate either a loan or some repayment of the loans France made during the revolution.. He exceeded his instructions by trying to undermine Washington's policy of neutrality and outfit privateers. His actions ignited a firestorm and our government demanded his recall. Realizing that his diplomatic failures would probably mean a date with Madame Guillotine the erstwhile diplomat married the daughter of New York's  governor George Clinton, stayed on this side of the pond and lived to a ripe old age.

Ignorance of the law might be an excuse in some courtrooms but ignorance of both history and the constitution is unforgiveable in anyone who presumes to be part of the government of this or any country

And a note to the letter writing forty seven. Come next year approximately one third of you will be up for re election. You are all assuming that you will be taking your oath to preserve, protect and defend the constitution come 2017 and be around to try to undermine any agreement the administration makes with Iran this year.

I've been working on a bio of John Marshall. The chapter on the efforts of the Virginia ratifying convention to ratify the constitution was enlightening to say the least. There was a vocal minority who supported states rights with the federal government as weak as possible. I look at what is happening now and wonder if what we're seeing isn't stupidity and ambition but deliberate attempts to commit a slow motion overthrow of the federal government.

Be careful what you wish for knuckledraggers you may get it. And you probably won't like it when it happens.

MASTERS OF WAR

Well, there's been plenty going on while I was computer challenged. The prize has to go to the forty seven Republican senators who signed an open letter to Iran about the administration's nuclear negotiations. To those who are trying to portray the letter as "cheeky humor" it's my experience that if you have to explain the joke it isn't very funny.

So here's a piece by Bob Dylan. Horribly appropriate. How I wish it wasn't

"Masters Of War" by Bob Dylan

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks.

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly.

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain.

You fasten all the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion'
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud.

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins.

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
That even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do.

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul.

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand over your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead.

THE MOST DANGEROUS ROGUE NATION

This article on The Daily Kos is well worth the read. Even if it will take awhile because the author has links up the wazoo. It's a deadly dissection of US foreign policy for the last thirty or forty years. Although you'll probably have to stop every so often to keep from tossing your computer against the wall.

F'ing hypocrites.

On another subject. There was a letter in the paper yesterday from one of our local TPr's Get the government out of this. Get the government out of that. Get government out of our churches. Why certainly, my dear. Of course your church will be first in line to give up all those lovely tax exemptions you've enjoyed for so long. I swear the conservative mind must resemble a flow chart only without all those little arrows.

There are days when I would love to gather up every Torah, Bible, Koran; have world's biggest wienie roast and try to forget that the Abrahamic religions ever existed. The Romans under the likes of Julius Caesar were brutal conquerors but I don't believe anyone claimed that "Jupiter told us to do this." And where possible they just added your Gods to the pantheon. Couldn't understand the Druids so that didn't work out so well.