AFTER HUBRIS COMES NEMESIS

Bachman and company strike again.  There is something seriously twisted about someone who can contemplate the destruction of this world and everything in it and believe its a good thing.

"ormer Rep. Michele Bachmann is very excited that the world may be coming to an end. Iran may be getting the bomb, and gay people are getting married these days, and all of this is wonderful news because it means Israel is going to be destroyed and there will be wars and plagues and famines and that means Jesus is going to come back to fly all the bestest Bachmann-approving-of Christians into heaven while her enemies get left to rot in whatever post-nuclear wasteland comes next. You think we are making this up. We are not making this up."

Leaving out Iran possibly getting the bomb and nuking Israel. Followed five minutes later by Iran's future as a slag heap and a sea of glass. Her other reasons Obama and gay marriage. 

Let me get this straight. Wars, intolerance, bigotry. Slavery, wreaking the environment on a global scale. Our so called wars against subversion that left thousands of civilians dead, tortured and displace All of this and Jesus hasn't returned, But He is going to return, destroy the world as we know it because Americans elected an African American president and a few gays want to marry the people they love God is going to destroy world, The sinners along with the fish, the birds, the whales the wolves, the redwoods. One, there is absolutely nothing in scripture that supports this belief,but that never stopped the fundies before. 

And second, and worst. The absolute arrogance that whatever happens in the US is going to take down the rest of the world. The ancient Greeks had a word for that. Hubris. And after hubris comes the take down.. Nemesis 

STICK TO THE SPIRITUAL AND LEAVE THE SCIENCE TO US

Pope France must be intensely frustrating for the Koch Brothers and their allies. He can't be bought. (presumably) He isn't beholden to them for his election. Near as I can tell he's still living in the same hostelry since his election. He's in office for life unless he pulls a Benedict. And he didn't ask their advice before he came out on the side of climate change.

In what has to be a prime example of American "exceptionalism" the Heartland Institute, a conservative/libertarian think tank is seeking an audience so some of their scientists can explain the facts of climate change and convince the Pope to shut up.

After all his realm is the spiritual. What does he know about science? I mean it's not like the Vatican doesn't have a scientist or two stashed in the store rooms. Heck, the church even has it's very own astronomer, A Jesuit with degrees up the pipe who probably spends more time in Arizona than Italy. Better telescopes and less pollution these days.

For me this is the kicker. If you believe that Creation is sacred, no matter how you arrived at that belief then protecting the only home we have is very much a spiritual calling.

If all else fails the bought and paid for shills for the fossil fuel industry are ready to play the poverty card. Cutting down on fossil fuel production with raise energy costs and the poor will suffer. I've noticed that the one percent only worry about the "suffering" of the poor when it's going to cost them money. II haven't noticed any worry about suffering of the poor when the IMF and World Monetary Fund insist that countries needing to refinance their debts are forced to shred their social safety nets and privatize everything in sight.

The former CEO of Nestle certainly didn't show any sympathy for the poor when he claimed that human beings have no right to access to clean water. That one made me so mad I could spit. If he and those like him had their way every drop of water that falls from the sky would belong to a corporation and we'd have to pay through the nose for access.

As usual I started out heading in one direction and the blog high jacked the process and here I am.

It will be fascinating to watch this play out. Fox News has already released the attack dogs earlier this year.  How dare the Pope have opinions that conflict with the desires of the US one percent.

RESPECT

This little excerpt comes from a much longer entry from 2007 over at Stone Kettle Station. It's the story of one Warrant officer on one ship on December 7, 1941. The ship was the battleship Nevada. The only ship to get underway that blazing morning. And they had to beach her rather than risk her being sunk and blocking the channel into the harbor.

"Those men went when ordered - and this is the point of the whole story. Those men were not stupid, they were Sailors, trained fighting men, and they knew what Hill was ordering them to do. They knew that they would most likely not survive it. And they went anyway.

When that moment comes, men will not follow you because you're a big, mean, tough son of a bitch. They will not follow you because they fear you. They will not follow you because you're better educated, or older, or more experienced. They will not follow you because you out rank them. They will not follow you because you're their friend or father figure or because they love you. And they damned sure won't follow you for freedom and democracy or other high ideals. No, Sailors, Marines, Soldiers, Airmen will follow your orders in that moment, they will give up their lives on your command, for one reason, and one reason only - respect.

Respect cannot be bought, it cannot be forced, it cannot be bargained for - it must be earned. It must be earned each and every day, by every action, by every word, because when that moment comes it is far, far too late. You'll have seconds at most, and either you are that person men will follow into battle, or you're not. It's that simple."

Thank you Jim. you've said better than I ever could what I believe about leadership. Maybe because you've been there and I haven't. The whole crew supposedly running for the Republican nomination just don't get it. They haven't earned the respect they are asking for and they never will. They shift with circumstance and the audience in front of them. Most of them could talk for half and hour and say absolutely nothing. And frankly it scares the hell out me to think that any of them could get withing a thousand miles of the oval office. 

PLEASE GET OUT OF MY FACE

Right subject, but wrong stories

I was surprised not to find a single article or reference to Easter or the resurrection of Jesus on the front page of Easter Sunday’s Register Guard.

While I don’t expect the newspaper to be a Sunday School newsletter, I do expect major news topics to be addressed.

Easter acknowledges a historically factual event that 80 percent of American adults celebrate, with nearly 51 percent of those attending church.

What was ironic and amazing was that the two articles dominating the front page that morning, about resurrecting Civic Stadium, spoke of the key concepts of Easter.

The title of the lead article, “Civic lesson: How volunteers breathed life into saving Civic Stadium,” had the same concept celebrated on Easter. The headline would instead have read: “Spiritual lesson: How Jesus breathed life into saving spiritually dead people.”

The second article, “Restoration efforts start at the top” was a truth to which Christians shout “Amen.” Without God sending Jesus to die on the cross and be resurrected three days later there’s no restoration possible in our relationship with God.

Perhaps next Easter the same topics can be addressed — restoration and breathing new life into that which was in ruin.

However, instead of the story being about a building, make it a report about people’s spiritual restoration as they share their conversion from being spiritually blind to seeing, from being spiritually lost to being found, and from being spiritually dead to being alive.

That’s not just news, it’s the good news of Easter.

This letter was in the local paper this morning. I left out the author's name,, but I will not that the writer hales from Junction City about twenty miles to the north of Eugene.

This is a prime example of the in your face tactics currently being used by the fundies. It isn't enough that they're free to practice their version of Christianity. Oh, no. They insist that everyone else take notice too.

The author's statistics seem to assume that all Christians follow the same path and also seems to ignore that while fifty one percent of Americans claim to attend church regularly that means that forty nine percent DON”T. Including little ol' me. One, because these days it's hard to get around. Two. I've never felt inside four walls what I feel outside. Just doesn't work for me.

And, to top it off, we don't all follow the same calendar. Two weeks ago was Easter in the Western church. Last Sunday was Easter in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. To be honest I'm not sure how it works, but I believe it has something to do with which version of the calendar used.

Over the weeks leading up to Easter the paper offered several two page spreads highlighting where services would be held. Whether it was public service or paid I don't know and frankly I don't really care.

And to be honest I don't remember the guard ever doing a front page story on Easter. There might have been a time or two when sunrise services were called on account of snow or something. The Guard is an independent newspaper. Believe it or not it's still owned by the Bates family, not some conglomerate. They do try to be fair and cover regional news. They're a tad conservative for my taste but that's just me.

Bottom line to the author of the letter. This is a regional paper trying to serve the majority of local citizens. Easter is important to you? Fine. It means something to me too. Probably not the same thing, but I don't expect the local news to cater to me. And you shouldn't either. 

BLIND OBEDIENCE

Thelatest in the long line of nutcase pastors. And there's a reason I included the shot of smiley the potential torturer on my page. Anyway below is the comment I put on the link on FB.

Why stop with gays? What about adulterers, lobster and pork eaters, people who wear poly cotton blends. The list is endless and all you've got is fear, hatred and the apparent desire to torture people to death. They do the stoning thing in Iran and some African countries, They're careful to pick out stones that won't cause immediate death. So it's a slow death by battering. What are these people? Closet sadists? In serious need of an empathy transplant? Or a prime example of what Hannah Arendt called the banality of evil when she wrote about Adolph Eichmann and the dangers of blind obedience?

Too bad we don't have time machine so we can send these folks back to Middle Ages. That seems to be when they want to live,

There was more and I almost put the whole thing in the FB status but pulled back because here is where I got seriously weirded out. The Universe insists on doing this every so often.

I'm looking at the above picture and suddenly, superimposed over their faces, were grinning skulls. OooooKaaay. Folks, unless clam chowder with tea and crackers is an hallucinogen the universe was definitely in a kick ass mood.  And a definite warning. These folks are as much into blind obedience as any fascist camp guard or party apparatchik. 

FINDING A CANDIDATE WHITE ENOUGH

Well the NRA is holding their convention this weekend. NRA wingnut spokeman Wayne LePierre is of the opinion that it's past time to take the White House back for the white man. Trouble is, Wayne ol' buddy ol' pal, who is white enough for you?

Cruz and Rubio are Latino. Santorum is Italian American, Jindal is Indian American. Carly Fiorina has that fatal second X chromosome, besides she ran the Bell Labs and HP into the ground Don't think her business experience is going to get her anywhere. At the moment that leaves Rand Paul who has been doing his best to shoot himself in both feet and ANOTHER Bush.

 And the last person we need anywhere near the go codes is another Bush.

To top it off Rubio, Jindal and Santorum are Catholics. You don't have to dig very deep on the net to be reminded that many evangelicals don't even believe that Catholics are Christians.

And I have never seen a bunch of idiots more willing to go to war. And less likely to volunteer to fight in one. What a disastrous group of wanna be's. So Wayne? Who is white enough for you?

WHICH SINFUL LIFESTYLE?

Found this on a blog over on the Patheos website. Makes you stop and think.

Problem is that folks can pretty much tell that they're dealing with a same sex couple. It's a bit harder to discover if someone is divorced, a liar etc. just by looking at them. You'd have to ask questions and that just might get you punched in the nose on top of being told to mind your own damn business. LOL

IT'S NOT QUITE THE SAME

Frankly I don't know how this so called Christian found out which bakeries were owned by gays and which ones weren't. The story does say that at least one was in Ireland, which isn't exactly the US, now is it?

For the me the big difference is this. Couples wanting a cake for their wedding just wanted a cake not an editorial page. This individual deliberately wanted to order a cake with a written message that presumably didn't gibe with the beliefs of the shop owners.

To be honest I'm not quite sure how this works. We're guaranteed free speech in the public arena but is it the same for a private business? Usually if you're too obnoxious in somebodies store or shop they'll ask you to leave. That said, there's no need for the folks running the bakeries to be insulting, threatening or anything like that. It's not only rude it doesn't help your cause.

It's a mystery and I wish I had an answer.

IT'S HARD TO CHOOSE BETWEEN ALL THE BS

I didn't fall off the face of the earth. It's just hard to choose between all the outright BS, lies and basic crap that's flying around.

The latest from Huffington Post. It really is too bad that liars pants don't literally catch on fire or that noses don't get longer every time a lie is told. Mike Huckabee would really be a sight to behold. Gays don't "hate" America. They just want to be treated like everyone else. 

Although Ted Crazy, sorry Cruz is winning hands down this week. I'm not sure which is worse. That he lies out of both sides of his mouth, At the same time. Or that he seems to believe that we won' t notice. And his dad is even crazier.

Although Tom Cotton is in the running. What are you guys complaining about they kill gays in ______ fill in the name of the current country du jour. Iran, Uganda, take your pick. 

Honestly I'm getting pretty fed up with with immigrants and their first generation offspring telling the rest of us how we've gotten it all wrong. I'm sure I'm not the only one who needs both hands and an occasional toe to add up the generations various members of the family have been here. Depending on when the original immigrant arrived and how young folks got married the highest is eleven generations including me. The lowest is five thanks to great, great, great grandma Margaret Clinton getting off the boat from Ireland in 1850. Haven't been able to go back further. Her dad was listed as Mack or Mick Clinton on the passenger list. I'm not sure if that was his name or a nickname because he was Irish. So  naturally his name was Mick. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.