Today is the day set aside for celebrating the birthday of Jesus Christ. While almost none in the 21st Century have true consensus that this day is the real day of his birth, it's a tradition that one day should rightly be set aside for the celebration. Think of it like thoroughbred racehorses. They all have an official the actual day of their birth. Yet, every young girl whose ever owned and ridden a horse, no matter its breeding, will tell you the date and time of birth, to the second, if they know it.
Somewhere along the line, we lost the real date of Jesus Christ's birth. It doesn't matter.
You see, the Gospel of John puts it elegantly and well. In the beginning was the Word, which refers to Jesus, and so we all now know that before he was born on earth, he was. He is. He will always be.
The Queen delivered her annual Christmas speech, and is also spending the holiday with her expanding family while Prince Philip recovers from his own health problems. The Queen's message concludes with the recognition that Christ brought to earth the greatest gift of all. Forgiveness.
So many religions concentrate on what we must do in order to reach out to a Higher Being. Christianity is about what God has done and what God does to reach out to us.
Forgiveness.
That's it. The greatest gift. We receive it and we give it.
Forgiveness is the greatest gift of Christmas. It is the freely given, priceless gift of God to us, and of all of us to eachother. It cannot fit into a box, nor can it be contained in structures as huge as football stadiums or cathedrals. It is smaller than anything we can imagine, as it has no physical size at all. It is impossible to contain it once it is given, and can inspire great things. It is a foundation that can support peace.
And so, on this Christmas Day, let us give eachother a gift we cannot purchase with all the gold in the world. Let us freely hand this gift, one to another, group to group, city to city, nation to nation.
Just as our sins, once forgiven are as far removed as East from West (which when you think about it, is a place that can never be found, despite North turning to South if you travel far enough), let us remove whatever has caused a need for forgiveness. Let us remove those memories as far as East is from the West.
For this day, and all future days that might, possibly be the real birthday of Christ, let's practice forgiveness. After all, if you are in the mood to celebrate Jesus' birth on this day, then being ready to at least celebrate with the gift that has no price every other day of the year. Just in case.
You never know.
Happy Christmas! May Peace and Forgiveness overwhelm you all with joy.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
We All Do It, Did It, Voted For It or Consented To It
Not in my name, they didn't.
You might want to comfort yourself with that thought. Yet, the truth is, they really did do it, we consented to it, and it was done in our name.
Not in my name, is reduced to a noble thought that is absolutely of no use whatsoever. The deed has been done. That vote back in 2001 began it in earnest, followed by other votes on other bills, each eating more away than the last one. It's been like Pack-Man devouring bits and bytes on a screen, only this version is literally dissolving the Constitution like sulfuric acid dissolves the vellum it was written on. We don't need the archives any longer. Shut down that display at the Library of Congress, empty the cases. Remove the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. From Patriot Acts to the recent NDAA, it's been a well planned, devastatingly effective murder and dismantling of the very fabric of what is America.
They are dead, dissolved and damaged beyond repair.
We did it. Ourselves. With malice aforethought.
It was murder most foul.
The real pity is, we don't need Sherlock Holmes to show us when or where this murder happened. It was right there on the TeeVee Machine. It was promised in political flyers. We guaranteed it by demanding more and more 'action' from our dissolute representatives in Washington, with every step pushing us ever downward, literally off the cliff.
Those that seek curtailment of liberty in the vain hope of increased security will get neither. We got it. We wanted neither, and that's what we have. Speakers of English will recognize that "neither" is not a thing to be held close, loved, or bragged about. It is nihilistic. It is nothing. No thing.
Funeral services were not held for the death of liberty and the guardian of that liberty that we once called the Bill of Rights. Specifically, when we suspended the Fourth and Sixth Amendments, we kissed liberty goodbye. But, we would be safer from the terrorists.
Remember, you are 1000 times more likely to perish in an auto accident, be bumped off by your spouse, or die of peanut stuck in your airway than you are to die of terrorism. Except perhaps when the terrorist is a law enforcement type, "just following orders."
Remember when Habeas Corpus, which has never legally been suspended since the founding of the government was done away with in the Warner Act that funded the military excursions in Iraq and Afghanistan? That suspension was not complete, so just last week, they gave it another whack and this time, as effectively as the Valentine's Day Massacre boys whacked eachother in Gangster Chicago, the death blow was voted on, nearly unanimously, just last week. President Hope and Change, after promising never to sign such draconian and unconstitutional laws, and even promising to veto this recent atrocity, had a change of heart. He committed real change.
He changed the Constitution from living to flatline, promising a signature that will make all those oath taking, protectors of the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic, absolutely giddy with their success.
They did protect the Constitution indeed. The thing is, we don't know what constitution they promised to protect and defend, because the one that was adopted in 1787 has been totally destroyed. Perhaps DHS or TSA has a "secret" constitution that only government insiders know about, and that only benefits the insiders, no matter what is going on in the rest of the country. After all, how else could these upper echelon, power mad, oligarchs remain in control to teh point where almost half of Americans are in poverty, and the top 40 of the "top of the heap" control half the wealth of the bottom 150,000,000.
Let that sink in. Money is power. The top 40 individuals/families, the top of the top One Percent, control HALF the wealth, or an amount equal to the bottom half of the American populace.
And now, if we gather to protest this fact, we could be labeled as "terrorists" because the simple discourteous action of protesting the inequality of this nation is enough to get you labeled a destroyer of the great and the good. Once labeled a terrorist, it's indefinite detention, as in forever, based on secret testimony, secret evidence, and secret proceedings. It's enough to make a Gulag Commissar, or Gestapo Commandant blush.
With envy.
I suppose there ought to be a funeral service. Unfortunately, silence from the Presstitutes and Mainstream Lamestream Media, has meant most Americans are totally, possibly blissfully unaware of the evil that has been done to us in our own name. If there is a funeral, the time and location to be announced at some future date. If such a gathering would be allowed at all.
After all, we now need a permit to gather, hold a sign, make a statement, or express an independent thought. The trick is to get that permit from the very people that swore to uphold the Constitution they just murdered. Plus, no one wants to be thrown into indefinite detention before a holiday, so it will be even more difficult to avoid arrest, tasers, rubber bullets, sound wave weapons, shackles, pepper spray, or disappearance if, upon gathering together, we call out the evil that has just been forced upon us.
An aside...with all this Constitution killing, there's been a run on tissues to mop up the tears of those who are aware of this travesty. Which will, indeed, benefit the top of the top again. At least that sort of economic activity shows conscience, empathy and legitimate sorrow for what we have lost.
Sigh...
You might want to comfort yourself with that thought. Yet, the truth is, they really did do it, we consented to it, and it was done in our name.
Not in my name, is reduced to a noble thought that is absolutely of no use whatsoever. The deed has been done. That vote back in 2001 began it in earnest, followed by other votes on other bills, each eating more away than the last one. It's been like Pack-Man devouring bits and bytes on a screen, only this version is literally dissolving the Constitution like sulfuric acid dissolves the vellum it was written on. We don't need the archives any longer. Shut down that display at the Library of Congress, empty the cases. Remove the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. From Patriot Acts to the recent NDAA, it's been a well planned, devastatingly effective murder and dismantling of the very fabric of what is America.
They are dead, dissolved and damaged beyond repair.
We did it. Ourselves. With malice aforethought.
It was murder most foul.
The real pity is, we don't need Sherlock Holmes to show us when or where this murder happened. It was right there on the TeeVee Machine. It was promised in political flyers. We guaranteed it by demanding more and more 'action' from our dissolute representatives in Washington, with every step pushing us ever downward, literally off the cliff.
Those that seek curtailment of liberty in the vain hope of increased security will get neither. We got it. We wanted neither, and that's what we have. Speakers of English will recognize that "neither" is not a thing to be held close, loved, or bragged about. It is nihilistic. It is nothing. No thing.
Funeral services were not held for the death of liberty and the guardian of that liberty that we once called the Bill of Rights. Specifically, when we suspended the Fourth and Sixth Amendments, we kissed liberty goodbye. But, we would be safer from the terrorists.
Remember, you are 1000 times more likely to perish in an auto accident, be bumped off by your spouse, or die of peanut stuck in your airway than you are to die of terrorism. Except perhaps when the terrorist is a law enforcement type, "just following orders."
Remember when Habeas Corpus, which has never legally been suspended since the founding of the government was done away with in the Warner Act that funded the military excursions in Iraq and Afghanistan? That suspension was not complete, so just last week, they gave it another whack and this time, as effectively as the Valentine's Day Massacre boys whacked eachother in Gangster Chicago, the death blow was voted on, nearly unanimously, just last week. President Hope and Change, after promising never to sign such draconian and unconstitutional laws, and even promising to veto this recent atrocity, had a change of heart. He committed real change.
He changed the Constitution from living to flatline, promising a signature that will make all those oath taking, protectors of the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic, absolutely giddy with their success.
They did protect the Constitution indeed. The thing is, we don't know what constitution they promised to protect and defend, because the one that was adopted in 1787 has been totally destroyed. Perhaps DHS or TSA has a "secret" constitution that only government insiders know about, and that only benefits the insiders, no matter what is going on in the rest of the country. After all, how else could these upper echelon, power mad, oligarchs remain in control to teh point where almost half of Americans are in poverty, and the top 40 of the "top of the heap" control half the wealth of the bottom 150,000,000.
Let that sink in. Money is power. The top 40 individuals/families, the top of the top One Percent, control HALF the wealth, or an amount equal to the bottom half of the American populace.
And now, if we gather to protest this fact, we could be labeled as "terrorists" because the simple discourteous action of protesting the inequality of this nation is enough to get you labeled a destroyer of the great and the good. Once labeled a terrorist, it's indefinite detention, as in forever, based on secret testimony, secret evidence, and secret proceedings. It's enough to make a Gulag Commissar, or Gestapo Commandant blush.
With envy.
I suppose there ought to be a funeral service. Unfortunately, silence from the Presstitutes and Mainstream Lamestream Media, has meant most Americans are totally, possibly blissfully unaware of the evil that has been done to us in our own name. If there is a funeral, the time and location to be announced at some future date. If such a gathering would be allowed at all.
After all, we now need a permit to gather, hold a sign, make a statement, or express an independent thought. The trick is to get that permit from the very people that swore to uphold the Constitution they just murdered. Plus, no one wants to be thrown into indefinite detention before a holiday, so it will be even more difficult to avoid arrest, tasers, rubber bullets, sound wave weapons, shackles, pepper spray, or disappearance if, upon gathering together, we call out the evil that has just been forced upon us.
An aside...with all this Constitution killing, there's been a run on tissues to mop up the tears of those who are aware of this travesty. Which will, indeed, benefit the top of the top again. At least that sort of economic activity shows conscience, empathy and legitimate sorrow for what we have lost.
Sigh...
Thursday, December 15, 2011
The House did WHAT???
I guess the idea of fiscal management is all Greek to them. In fact, the House is running up debt faster than the Federal Reserve can print the money, or even finance the interest payments by loaning us at interest (which we don't need to pay if we used Article I powers to issue it).
We have passed a budget that includes $Billions, make that BILLION$$$ for more of our overseas entanglements, more of our policing the world, more of our protecting the oil companies, and more nation building.
You can find an article about it here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/15/house-representatives-passes-defence-bill
We are looking at $662 Billion for defense, which is a necessary thing for protecting our nation, but not at the levels we are paying.
We just "moved out of Iraq." We are leaving an embassy that is larger than the Vatican, and the Vatican is a country all in its own right. Yes, the Vatican has a defense program. It's the guys in the multi-colored britches, known as the baddest boys in the Swiss version of Marines, and known as the Swiss Guards. They are a formidable force, and not to be taken lightly, armaments and uniform included.
In addition to the Vatican sized embassy, we are leaving 17,000 contractors, known in earlier times as mercenaries (think of the Hessians in the Revolutionary War), and they do not come cheap. They are the guys that get $90 for a bag of laundry, $25.00 for a can of Coke, and salaries that are quadruple what our own armed forces are paid. And what our armed forces are paid is not enough.
We need fewer mercenaries and more self-reliance on our own Defense Department resources.
We also need to stop spending more than the rest of the world combined. We are broke. Totally. We can't even dip into the oath office level of thinking on Capitol Hill and find a way to issue no interest money to buy what the armed forces need from American companies that create jobs. We simply cannot do this, because we don't have the political will to take the tough stance and do what is right.
Ask the representatives you have in Washington these questions.
Are thebribes, campaign contributions, so valuable that you will trample on,violate, ignore the oath of office that requires you to attend at least to Article I of the Constitution?
Is a job that pays less than half a million so valuable to your financial future that you will continue on a path that is obviously directed at destroying the economy of the US, and the World, based on results of the past 25 years?
Do you really think that holding a job with less than a 10 percent approval rating (when lawyers are more approved than Congress), is so important that you will enrich your own self as your constituents starve or are rendered homeless? Or, do you work for the Corporation, and only for the Corporations, perhaps doing your bit for Banksters thrown in to make your real constituents obvious?
Remember Congress, we the People are your real constituents. We are sick to death of spending huge sums for corporations that take our jobs overseas, and a banking system intent on bringing back Weimar style inflation. We are sick of foreign entanglements, and paying for mercenaries. We are sick of corporations, existing only on paper, having more life in them than we can afford for ourselves. The time is coming for investigations, to get information formally showing who you really work for. It's time to work for us, because the record so far indicates you aren't working for us, the people that really vote. Change that effective and recent will be viewed favorably after investigations commence.
We have passed a budget that includes $Billions, make that BILLION$$$ for more of our overseas entanglements, more of our policing the world, more of our protecting the oil companies, and more nation building.
You can find an article about it here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/15/house-representatives-passes-defence-bill
We are looking at $662 Billion for defense, which is a necessary thing for protecting our nation, but not at the levels we are paying.
We just "moved out of Iraq." We are leaving an embassy that is larger than the Vatican, and the Vatican is a country all in its own right. Yes, the Vatican has a defense program. It's the guys in the multi-colored britches, known as the baddest boys in the Swiss version of Marines, and known as the Swiss Guards. They are a formidable force, and not to be taken lightly, armaments and uniform included.
In addition to the Vatican sized embassy, we are leaving 17,000 contractors, known in earlier times as mercenaries (think of the Hessians in the Revolutionary War), and they do not come cheap. They are the guys that get $90 for a bag of laundry, $25.00 for a can of Coke, and salaries that are quadruple what our own armed forces are paid. And what our armed forces are paid is not enough.
We need fewer mercenaries and more self-reliance on our own Defense Department resources.
We also need to stop spending more than the rest of the world combined. We are broke. Totally. We can't even dip into the oath office level of thinking on Capitol Hill and find a way to issue no interest money to buy what the armed forces need from American companies that create jobs. We simply cannot do this, because we don't have the political will to take the tough stance and do what is right.
Ask the representatives you have in Washington these questions.
Are the
Is a job that pays less than half a million so valuable to your financial future that you will continue on a path that is obviously directed at destroying the economy of the US, and the World, based on results of the past 25 years?
Do you really think that holding a job with less than a 10 percent approval rating (when lawyers are more approved than Congress), is so important that you will enrich your own self as your constituents starve or are rendered homeless? Or, do you work for the Corporation, and only for the Corporations, perhaps doing your bit for Banksters thrown in to make your real constituents obvious?
Remember Congress, we the People are your real constituents. We are sick to death of spending huge sums for corporations that take our jobs overseas, and a banking system intent on bringing back Weimar style inflation. We are sick of foreign entanglements, and paying for mercenaries. We are sick of corporations, existing only on paper, having more life in them than we can afford for ourselves. The time is coming for investigations, to get information formally showing who you really work for. It's time to work for us, because the record so far indicates you aren't working for us, the people that really vote. Change that effective and recent will be viewed favorably after investigations commence.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
David Needs Slingshot, as do we all.
Sometimes you have to speak truth to power. Sometimes before you speak truth to power, you announce the speech. Sometimes, when people want to hear the speech about truth and power, they ask you to travel long distances and advertise the event. Sometimes the Power part of the equation gets nervous, does one of those anticipatory arrest things, and really toss the spanner, mucking things up, and all before a single word is spoken. It's called prophylactic protection of the public from nasty concepts such as preservation of one group's rights in the vast patchwork of humanity.
Apparently, promotion of a particular group can get you arrested in Germany. Promotion of the rights of this group, to their historic, cultural and religious background, celebrated with symbols, gatherings, writings, exchange of ideas, is all very dangerous in today's culture of correctness. This means, one group apparently is no longer "correct".
Still, when speaking truth to power, it also helps that the media, the town crier, the internet bloviators, and whatever passes for Nooz, actually have a record of admissions that all prior statements, while good for circulation figures, are not even close to the concept of truth. Speaking truth to power always is best done when you start from a position of truth. Truth today should demand clear statements of biography, speeches and writings. If those are directed at or about the group that is no longer "correct" you can get arrested for it, pilloried for it, and denigrated without cause for it. In other words, the lie today is Ruler, the Truth a pale semblance of its former Kingship.
Such is the case of Dr. David Duke, an historian, supporter of human rights, outspoken advocate of cultural preservation. Dr. Duke, our David, went into the Coliseum, also known as Cologne, Germany, to speak about his views that the culture of the European, white, Christian peoples is getting the short shrift in today's endless campaigns of political correctness. It's his opinion. He's entitled to it. 'Nuff said. Move along. Nothing to see here.
Except, that's not what happened. Dr. Duke got arrested. His speech was supposedly cancelled, although some brave soul had a copy so everyone that got to the hall heard the contents, but not the proper, from the source, delivery. Dr. Duke was simply going to make a speech about the current dismal state of affairs in teh age of correctness that gets the rights of one group all wrong.
Unfortunately, the media seems to cotton onto Dr. Duke's former, as in no longer a member, membership in a Klan organization and won't let that tidbit go. Dr. Duke is not now in the Klan. Then again, Angela Merkl is not in the Communist Party any longer, but she was for a long time a Communist. Interestingly, she is not introduced as "member, albeit likely formerly, of the Communist Party. How many of us belonged to groups we'd rather forget than admit? Be honest, because someone knows if you're lying. Count me into that group, as I have belonged to some groups I'd rather never admit associating with, and I'm not naming names here either.
All that Dr. Duke wanted to convey is the message that protecting the heritage, customs, symbols and history of the European, and those of European origin, is important. Those are the people that came from Europe, bringing Christianity, along with the customs of their country of origin, and are now found mostly in North America, as well as their home countries of Europe. These are the formerly correct, but now disparaged, majority group of the US, who are discouraged from celebrating with Merry Christmas, public square displays of Creches, and gatherings where foods of the 'home' country are celebrated with similar customs also being part of the festivities.
Sure, a generation ago, White people were sometimes, even often in cases, racist. These days, White people cannot have a part of the public square for a Christmas tree, nor can they greet one another with Merry Christmas. We are so intimidated, we don’t even flinch when we’re told we can no longer greet another with Happy Easter, except inside the church building itself.
Now, I am as against racism, discrimination or someone telling me who I must be nice to when I don't feel particularly like being told in the first place. However, I am also bone weary of the insipid "Happy Holidays" foisted on Christians when the expression works just as well for the Fourth of July, or Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving. I don't want the thought police telling me what I can and cannot say in a supposedly free society.
December for Christians is Merry Christmas. It's Happy Christmas. It is the holiday that celebrates the birth of my Lord. After all, Holiday didn't get born in a stable and Holiday didn't upset the Powers that Were back then, resulting in a tortured murder and resurrection that gives meaning to the entire Christmas season in the first place. But, I digress.
The problem with Dr. Duke is that he went into the land of political correctness run well and truly into a whole different zeitgeist run amok, and tried to speak his mind. Using facts. Facts he had unearthed through talking with historians, reading historians, and dropping a few, not so well liked minds. Bishop Williamson could tell the same story. Dr. Duke's mind, which if you take what is said by and about him, has been pretty open. He repeatedly says and writes that every culture has a right and a duty, to preserve and celebrate its history. (The italics is my surmise of what Dr. Duke says and writes.) These are not the views of a monster supremacist, which Dr. Duke is not. Not for decades. Not at all.
He's likely not so happy about his own youthful decisions regarding organizational alliances, because they tend to catapult all that supremacist, propaganda type language. Like most of us, when we realize our membership somewhere is not a hot idea, we are stuck without that big eraser to remove stupid actions of youth from the ‘permanent record.’ He is also consistent over the last decades at least, with the ideals of truth in history, not just that story that best pleases the victors. (Apologies to Napolean.) The big Kahuna of history that The Powers That Are The Real Powers want to remain untouched is the whole issue of who's controlling what for what ends, and to who's benefit. Cui Bene?
Why is it that there is only one religious group that cannot celebrate its own BIG Winter Holiday, using the culturally correct symbols of Creche and Merry Christmas greeting, when 85 percent of us claim that Christian heritage? Why is it that promoting cultural events of import to people of easy sunburning skin, have to be 'amended' in order to be 'acceptable' to Culture Cops? Why is it that even in communities where not a single non-Christian is graduating from the local high school still cannot vote to have a brief non-denominational prayer blessing the newly graduated? Why is a Creche banned but a Menorah blessed? Why can children celebrate Kwanzaa, but not learn about Pentecost (for Christians and for Jews, as both have the same holiday with different focus, but still...) Yes, I do know Kwanzaa is a secular holiday.
Why is the cross around my neck banned when I am wearing it as a sign of my own faith? What exactly is so upsetting to anyone about a simple Christian symbol? (I promised I wouldn't get into how radical Christ really is. That's for another day.) Why is it that my own WASP culture seemingly the target of all this suppression? It appears pretty clearly that Dr. Duke needs us all to pull out the metaphorical slingshot and let a well aimed shot go against these political correctness police and put them out of business.
I know that I am not the most likely person to defend Dr. Duke. I am a Yankee, and Northerners are not too fond of many things Southern. I came of age in the era of Political Correctness. I actually thought it was a good thing, until I read the "Mene Mene tekhel ...", not of Daniel, but of my own heritage being ignored in favor of 'Anything But My Heritage."
As much as I might try, I cannot get past one truth. Dr. Duke is right. I am a White Christian female and I am bone weary of political correctness. My Christianity informs my love for all my fellow humans, and yet I can easily be called a racist for wanting to celebrate my own Christian holidays with people from the lands of my ancestors. My Scottish grandmother taught me about feast days and fast days, and the importance of prayer and love for all in all aspects of life. Mum taught me that Christmas and Easter are not just holidays but signposts on the path to guide us all from birth to death. Today, in the 21st Century, Christianity is the bastard child no one wants to admit belongs at the table where humans share all feasts.
The truth is, I read about a hundred writings of Dr. Duke, including his books. I do my homework. His speech is reasoned, well supported, documented as appropriate, and measured. He is not a supremacist in any sense of the word. He si not a radical. Dr. Duke espouses the support of all groups in celebrating their own customs, culture and holidays. He favors the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday and the celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birthday. Every people should celebrate their own culture. It is part of what makes us who we are as a diverse people. Just as it is not right to exclude all but a certain group, it is wrong to exclude any single group from its or their celebrations. Yet, today celebrating or publicly displaying a German Christmas tree or a Palestinian Creche, saying Merry Christmas, or wanting to preserve a display of the Ten Commandments is banned on the false premise that these are promotions of a particular religion. Saying Merry Christmas is First Amendment speech. The Ten Commandments, no matter what the Supremes in DC say, is a foundation of our legal culture. A Christmas Creche is a symbol of the historic birth of Jesus Christ, an event we acknowledge every time we write the year 2011, as it is 2011 AD, Anno Domini. Yet all of this for Christians is no longer encouraged or even allowed.
Why is this? Why is celebrating Christ, Christmas, Lent and Advent such a bad idea for Christians that still make up the majority of Americans? Why does it seem a concerted plan is in effect to make Christians a really invisible part of the fabric of society?
Yes. There it is. I said it. We all need the proverbial slingshot to strike down these idiotic thought police and controllers of the public square that hound out my own people. My own clan cannot gather in most cities to celebrate our own clan holidays, the celebrations of my own tribe, if you will.
Dr. Duke is correct in this. The Caucasians are getting restless, or should be. The Christians are getting restless, or should be. The European settlers that came to the US are getting restless, or should be. We want to celebrate our holidays, in our own parks, with all the trimmings that are closely associated with our own group. White people are also an ethnic group, despite having been told that ethnic for a blonde Swede means someone with brown hair and different religion than we experienced in our own churches as children.
This is how I see the issue. We, members of the now almost former majority of people in the US, are now constrained to avoid talk that is dangerous in the public square. Christian holidays celebrated in ethnic mode for us is obviously dangerous. Were this not so, we'd see blazing signs of Merry Christmas over the Creche right at the side of City Hall in many communities.
We are unable to celebrate Christmas and Easter in the schools and public places we hold dear. If a graduate wants to say a little prayer to bless the proceedings where those stunning sheepskins are passed out, well bless them. Even if a public school is the soon to be alma mater, and the class knows none will be offended, that is. Etiquette means you don’t hurt the feelings of others, but laws ought not control this. If White people want to celebrate European history, or want to eat ebel skeevers, hot-cross-buns during Lent, or Easter Eggs decorated beyond all good taste, well bless them also. (Ebel Skeevers are little doughnut like delights originating in Scandinavian countries, and one of the few non-white foods from the area, unlike potatoes, cod, cauliflower, on white china, jokingly known as Norwegian colorfully haute cuisine.) Pass the latkes, bagels, and requisite schemar, for the other guys too.
It has nothing to do with the segregation or whites only, of prior decades. It has to do with wanting to keep my own valuable heritage, including Christmas trees to light the park. It has to do with wanting Easter dresses, not Spring frocks. It is that recently uncomfortable intersection of Christian holidays and White heritage. We can do this even as we light candles at the Creche, then turn and light Kwanzaa candles. At the same time, our pale faces want to gather together to celebrate our Swedish antecedents, or our German roots. And we don't want the ACLU telling us we can't.
I've heard the speech Dr. Duke gave in the Czech Republic. I've heard the speech that Dr. Duke was to give in Germany. There was nothing in it that warranted his arrest. That is, nothing except the danger to those that want people of one specific ethnic type to forgo their own heritage and move away from the deeply held beliefs that Christianity as celebrated by Christians for millenia in our European homelands, where now it is dangerous to speak of such seditious beliefs. What is so frightening about White People celebrating their own White heritage? If it is good for all groups of whatever ethnic heritage, to celebrate their history, traditions and religious background, then it must be equally good for Caucasians, Christians, and what was formerly disdainfully referred to as the Majority, also to celebrate.
We don't make a swath of humanity cognizant of its heritage by banning that group from the public square. All we need to do is ensure that all groups are allowed to celebrate their heritage. When Christmas comes around, that heritage includes celebration of He who offers riches to all, and whose birth is the reason we celebrate Christmas in the first place.
As for Dr. Duke, his image has been highly burnished, albeit falsely, by a controlled press, constantly repeating his long ago group memberships making him little more than a racist cracker, not the PhD holder, well spoken, well researched, clear thinking, and soft spoken person he truly is. His books put the lie to the now outdated unreality that is our press made image of him. For that, we all need a slingshot to let the hot air out of the thought balloons, that form our caricature of Dr. Duke. Remember, if you have changed opinions over the years, you too could be saddled with a life long fondness for Tiddly Winks or the beloved mullet, to say nothing of being tarred with the racist label for insulting some group or other, even in jest.
We also need to deflate those caricature balloons for most figures whose reputation depends on information that might be more than 5 years old. People change, and societies change. Now that the easily sunburned parts of society have opened all sorts of doors, and Christians have meekly turned the other cheek as our Creches and Crosses disappear from hilltops and parks, it is time to reclaim that which we are too close to losing. Most urgently, we cannot remain silent in this thought police arrest of Dr. Duke over in Germany.
What is next? Should we voluntarily start signing up for 'reeducation' centers? Should we preemptively surrender our First Amendment rights? I realize that Dr. Duke was arrested in Germany, and yet they do have a thing called comity, which means Dr. Duke's First Amendment rights traveled with him tucked inside his passport. Shame on Germany for his arrest. Shame on us all for silence in the face of this massive miscarriage of and justice.
If you think I am wrong, well thank you for your opinion. Before you conclude that I am wrong, think on this. What would you do if your bio were so slanted in public that it didn't reflect your present stance on issues? What would you want to have done if you were arrested for your thoughts? What would you do for your brother or sister in the same circumstances?
Well, umm indeed.
Apparently, promotion of a particular group can get you arrested in Germany. Promotion of the rights of this group, to their historic, cultural and religious background, celebrated with symbols, gatherings, writings, exchange of ideas, is all very dangerous in today's culture of correctness. This means, one group apparently is no longer "correct".
Still, when speaking truth to power, it also helps that the media, the town crier, the internet bloviators, and whatever passes for Nooz, actually have a record of admissions that all prior statements, while good for circulation figures, are not even close to the concept of truth. Speaking truth to power always is best done when you start from a position of truth. Truth today should demand clear statements of biography, speeches and writings. If those are directed at or about the group that is no longer "correct" you can get arrested for it, pilloried for it, and denigrated without cause for it. In other words, the lie today is Ruler, the Truth a pale semblance of its former Kingship.
Such is the case of Dr. David Duke, an historian, supporter of human rights, outspoken advocate of cultural preservation. Dr. Duke, our David, went into the Coliseum, also known as Cologne, Germany, to speak about his views that the culture of the European, white, Christian peoples is getting the short shrift in today's endless campaigns of political correctness. It's his opinion. He's entitled to it. 'Nuff said. Move along. Nothing to see here.
Except, that's not what happened. Dr. Duke got arrested. His speech was supposedly cancelled, although some brave soul had a copy so everyone that got to the hall heard the contents, but not the proper, from the source, delivery. Dr. Duke was simply going to make a speech about the current dismal state of affairs in teh age of correctness that gets the rights of one group all wrong.
Unfortunately, the media seems to cotton onto Dr. Duke's former, as in no longer a member, membership in a Klan organization and won't let that tidbit go. Dr. Duke is not now in the Klan. Then again, Angela Merkl is not in the Communist Party any longer, but she was for a long time a Communist. Interestingly, she is not introduced as "member, albeit likely formerly, of the Communist Party. How many of us belonged to groups we'd rather forget than admit? Be honest, because someone knows if you're lying. Count me into that group, as I have belonged to some groups I'd rather never admit associating with, and I'm not naming names here either.
All that Dr. Duke wanted to convey is the message that protecting the heritage, customs, symbols and history of the European, and those of European origin, is important. Those are the people that came from Europe, bringing Christianity, along with the customs of their country of origin, and are now found mostly in North America, as well as their home countries of Europe. These are the formerly correct, but now disparaged, majority group of the US, who are discouraged from celebrating with Merry Christmas, public square displays of Creches, and gatherings where foods of the 'home' country are celebrated with similar customs also being part of the festivities.
Sure, a generation ago, White people were sometimes, even often in cases, racist. These days, White people cannot have a part of the public square for a Christmas tree, nor can they greet one another with Merry Christmas. We are so intimidated, we don’t even flinch when we’re told we can no longer greet another with Happy Easter, except inside the church building itself.
Now, I am as against racism, discrimination or someone telling me who I must be nice to when I don't feel particularly like being told in the first place. However, I am also bone weary of the insipid "Happy Holidays" foisted on Christians when the expression works just as well for the Fourth of July, or Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving. I don't want the thought police telling me what I can and cannot say in a supposedly free society.
December for Christians is Merry Christmas. It's Happy Christmas. It is the holiday that celebrates the birth of my Lord. After all, Holiday didn't get born in a stable and Holiday didn't upset the Powers that Were back then, resulting in a tortured murder and resurrection that gives meaning to the entire Christmas season in the first place. But, I digress.
The problem with Dr. Duke is that he went into the land of political correctness run well and truly into a whole different zeitgeist run amok, and tried to speak his mind. Using facts. Facts he had unearthed through talking with historians, reading historians, and dropping a few, not so well liked minds. Bishop Williamson could tell the same story. Dr. Duke's mind, which if you take what is said by and about him, has been pretty open. He repeatedly says and writes that every culture has a right and a duty, to preserve and celebrate its history. (The italics is my surmise of what Dr. Duke says and writes.) These are not the views of a monster supremacist, which Dr. Duke is not. Not for decades. Not at all.
He's likely not so happy about his own youthful decisions regarding organizational alliances, because they tend to catapult all that supremacist, propaganda type language. Like most of us, when we realize our membership somewhere is not a hot idea, we are stuck without that big eraser to remove stupid actions of youth from the ‘permanent record.’ He is also consistent over the last decades at least, with the ideals of truth in history, not just that story that best pleases the victors. (Apologies to Napolean.) The big Kahuna of history that The Powers That Are The Real Powers want to remain untouched is the whole issue of who's controlling what for what ends, and to who's benefit. Cui Bene?
Why is it that there is only one religious group that cannot celebrate its own BIG Winter Holiday, using the culturally correct symbols of Creche and Merry Christmas greeting, when 85 percent of us claim that Christian heritage? Why is it that promoting cultural events of import to people of easy sunburning skin, have to be 'amended' in order to be 'acceptable' to Culture Cops? Why is it that even in communities where not a single non-Christian is graduating from the local high school still cannot vote to have a brief non-denominational prayer blessing the newly graduated? Why is a Creche banned but a Menorah blessed? Why can children celebrate Kwanzaa, but not learn about Pentecost (for Christians and for Jews, as both have the same holiday with different focus, but still...) Yes, I do know Kwanzaa is a secular holiday.
Why is the cross around my neck banned when I am wearing it as a sign of my own faith? What exactly is so upsetting to anyone about a simple Christian symbol? (I promised I wouldn't get into how radical Christ really is. That's for another day.) Why is it that my own WASP culture seemingly the target of all this suppression? It appears pretty clearly that Dr. Duke needs us all to pull out the metaphorical slingshot and let a well aimed shot go against these political correctness police and put them out of business.
I know that I am not the most likely person to defend Dr. Duke. I am a Yankee, and Northerners are not too fond of many things Southern. I came of age in the era of Political Correctness. I actually thought it was a good thing, until I read the "Mene Mene tekhel ...", not of Daniel, but of my own heritage being ignored in favor of 'Anything But My Heritage."
As much as I might try, I cannot get past one truth. Dr. Duke is right. I am a White Christian female and I am bone weary of political correctness. My Christianity informs my love for all my fellow humans, and yet I can easily be called a racist for wanting to celebrate my own Christian holidays with people from the lands of my ancestors. My Scottish grandmother taught me about feast days and fast days, and the importance of prayer and love for all in all aspects of life. Mum taught me that Christmas and Easter are not just holidays but signposts on the path to guide us all from birth to death. Today, in the 21st Century, Christianity is the bastard child no one wants to admit belongs at the table where humans share all feasts.
The truth is, I read about a hundred writings of Dr. Duke, including his books. I do my homework. His speech is reasoned, well supported, documented as appropriate, and measured. He is not a supremacist in any sense of the word. He si not a radical. Dr. Duke espouses the support of all groups in celebrating their own customs, culture and holidays. He favors the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday and the celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birthday. Every people should celebrate their own culture. It is part of what makes us who we are as a diverse people. Just as it is not right to exclude all but a certain group, it is wrong to exclude any single group from its or their celebrations. Yet, today celebrating or publicly displaying a German Christmas tree or a Palestinian Creche, saying Merry Christmas, or wanting to preserve a display of the Ten Commandments is banned on the false premise that these are promotions of a particular religion. Saying Merry Christmas is First Amendment speech. The Ten Commandments, no matter what the Supremes in DC say, is a foundation of our legal culture. A Christmas Creche is a symbol of the historic birth of Jesus Christ, an event we acknowledge every time we write the year 2011, as it is 2011 AD, Anno Domini. Yet all of this for Christians is no longer encouraged or even allowed.
Why is this? Why is celebrating Christ, Christmas, Lent and Advent such a bad idea for Christians that still make up the majority of Americans? Why does it seem a concerted plan is in effect to make Christians a really invisible part of the fabric of society?
Yes. There it is. I said it. We all need the proverbial slingshot to strike down these idiotic thought police and controllers of the public square that hound out my own people. My own clan cannot gather in most cities to celebrate our own clan holidays, the celebrations of my own tribe, if you will.
Dr. Duke is correct in this. The Caucasians are getting restless, or should be. The Christians are getting restless, or should be. The European settlers that came to the US are getting restless, or should be. We want to celebrate our holidays, in our own parks, with all the trimmings that are closely associated with our own group. White people are also an ethnic group, despite having been told that ethnic for a blonde Swede means someone with brown hair and different religion than we experienced in our own churches as children.
This is how I see the issue. We, members of the now almost former majority of people in the US, are now constrained to avoid talk that is dangerous in the public square. Christian holidays celebrated in ethnic mode for us is obviously dangerous. Were this not so, we'd see blazing signs of Merry Christmas over the Creche right at the side of City Hall in many communities.
We are unable to celebrate Christmas and Easter in the schools and public places we hold dear. If a graduate wants to say a little prayer to bless the proceedings where those stunning sheepskins are passed out, well bless them. Even if a public school is the soon to be alma mater, and the class knows none will be offended, that is. Etiquette means you don’t hurt the feelings of others, but laws ought not control this. If White people want to celebrate European history, or want to eat ebel skeevers, hot-cross-buns during Lent, or Easter Eggs decorated beyond all good taste, well bless them also. (Ebel Skeevers are little doughnut like delights originating in Scandinavian countries, and one of the few non-white foods from the area, unlike potatoes, cod, cauliflower, on white china, jokingly known as Norwegian colorfully haute cuisine.) Pass the latkes, bagels, and requisite schemar, for the other guys too.
It has nothing to do with the segregation or whites only, of prior decades. It has to do with wanting to keep my own valuable heritage, including Christmas trees to light the park. It has to do with wanting Easter dresses, not Spring frocks. It is that recently uncomfortable intersection of Christian holidays and White heritage. We can do this even as we light candles at the Creche, then turn and light Kwanzaa candles. At the same time, our pale faces want to gather together to celebrate our Swedish antecedents, or our German roots. And we don't want the ACLU telling us we can't.
I've heard the speech Dr. Duke gave in the Czech Republic. I've heard the speech that Dr. Duke was to give in Germany. There was nothing in it that warranted his arrest. That is, nothing except the danger to those that want people of one specific ethnic type to forgo their own heritage and move away from the deeply held beliefs that Christianity as celebrated by Christians for millenia in our European homelands, where now it is dangerous to speak of such seditious beliefs. What is so frightening about White People celebrating their own White heritage? If it is good for all groups of whatever ethnic heritage, to celebrate their history, traditions and religious background, then it must be equally good for Caucasians, Christians, and what was formerly disdainfully referred to as the Majority, also to celebrate.
We don't make a swath of humanity cognizant of its heritage by banning that group from the public square. All we need to do is ensure that all groups are allowed to celebrate their heritage. When Christmas comes around, that heritage includes celebration of He who offers riches to all, and whose birth is the reason we celebrate Christmas in the first place.
As for Dr. Duke, his image has been highly burnished, albeit falsely, by a controlled press, constantly repeating his long ago group memberships making him little more than a racist cracker, not the PhD holder, well spoken, well researched, clear thinking, and soft spoken person he truly is. His books put the lie to the now outdated unreality that is our press made image of him. For that, we all need a slingshot to let the hot air out of the thought balloons, that form our caricature of Dr. Duke. Remember, if you have changed opinions over the years, you too could be saddled with a life long fondness for Tiddly Winks or the beloved mullet, to say nothing of being tarred with the racist label for insulting some group or other, even in jest.
We also need to deflate those caricature balloons for most figures whose reputation depends on information that might be more than 5 years old. People change, and societies change. Now that the easily sunburned parts of society have opened all sorts of doors, and Christians have meekly turned the other cheek as our Creches and Crosses disappear from hilltops and parks, it is time to reclaim that which we are too close to losing. Most urgently, we cannot remain silent in this thought police arrest of Dr. Duke over in Germany.
What is next? Should we voluntarily start signing up for 'reeducation' centers? Should we preemptively surrender our First Amendment rights? I realize that Dr. Duke was arrested in Germany, and yet they do have a thing called comity, which means Dr. Duke's First Amendment rights traveled with him tucked inside his passport. Shame on Germany for his arrest. Shame on us all for silence in the face of this massive miscarriage of and justice.
If you think I am wrong, well thank you for your opinion. Before you conclude that I am wrong, think on this. What would you do if your bio were so slanted in public that it didn't reflect your present stance on issues? What would you want to have done if you were arrested for your thoughts? What would you do for your brother or sister in the same circumstances?
Well, umm indeed.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Mayans Were Kidding, End of World Was Error. Sorry about that--Not.
"But of course, dahling. There never was an end of the world plot, a calendar, or even prediction. Nevah! I tell you, all those simpletons. Get rid of the white robed, white bearded guy with that tattered sign, he's cluttering the footpath." The voice was husky, low and sensual. It emerged somewhere between feather boa and an astounding amount of silk charmeuse, draped over a chaise lounge, just enough in the weak sunlight to make her silvery curls glow like moonlight over the Mediterranean.
She actually said it as "foooot-paahthhh".
But that was Crazy Aunt Eleanor. I love Crazy Aunt Eleanor. No relation to Crazy Uncle Franklin, and still not found in any White House gallery. But she should be. She's the original American free spirit, which is fun, and not too dangerous. Except when her ideas cut one down to size. Or, when she discusses fake patriots.
She reads Reuters, and my friends often still read Huffington Post. So, here's the link...http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/07/mayans-never-predicted-world-to-end_n_1126033.html
Crazy Aunt aside, all the hoopla was just because they ran out of calculations. Sort of the Millenia's old version of the battery died in the calculator. And, boy oh boy, did we fall for that one.
Now, we aren't too sure about the unknown planet, or the asteroid, or even the possiblity of many and sundry sattellites crashing in and setting off WWIII, while cooler heads try to show its space junk, not the crazy --- (insert name of country here)---. Make sure Al Haig isn't creeping about, trying to wrest control of the White House from whatever occupant might be napping at the time. While you're at it, keep the button hungry fingers away from the football. Not the Super Bowl one, but the one that should be next to the leader of what remains of the free world, and which leader is not an alum of Goldman Sachs.
In the meantime, relish in this. We have been granted time. We have been given hope and time enough to rid ourselves of technocrats intent on keeping the Fascism alive. After all, the Nazi's didn't lose WWII, they just moved, one paper clip at a time, to a new venue. We have governments so entangled with bankers and corporate leaders that the two have become one, and the Fascia at the Rostrum of the House is naught but a cruel, demonstrative joke. I'm still looking for the name of the guy that thought Fascia were a good idea right there in the Well. It's been our downfall ever since.
Well, that and the bankers that own the government.
And, as you're enjoying the meantime, have a martooni, shaken not stirred. It makes a weaker drink, but you have more of them in the course of an evening without getting so drunk that you confuse the balding septuagenarian for James Bond.
Spice up the meantime, that extra time you've gained. Get yourself onto a letter writing campaign, and demand that we the People get our fair share of our government working for us, and not for the politicians, of the politicians, and with the corporatists. Demand the Technocrats in Europe give the people honest elections. Demand our leaders stop criticizing others, like Russia, and fix our own stolen election syndrome.
Demand of all political parties, that they put up the very best people, not the most monied, not the most made, not the most controllable by the corporatists. Do we really think that our nation has had the very best leaders over the past 50 years? Really?
Get rid of those that are riding on the coattails of leaders who blithely proclaim that "if the American people knew what the Bush family had done to the US, we'd be run out of town on a rail." That was George HW Bush to Sarah McClendon. There are several quotes, but that is the one I remember best.
Finally, as you are relishing in the longer meantime you now have, go out and get yourself going on a project that might take more than a year to complete. Like college. Like learning the piano. Like learning how to draw. Really. Then hug a kid, and think of this. I can give a prayer of thanks, for the time, the gift of time. The world is not ending. I can plant a tree, love a child and enjoy the faith that only if I do all the things needed to make this a better world will having the world hang on beyond 2012, will that extra time mean anything at all.
She actually said it as "foooot-paahthhh".
But that was Crazy Aunt Eleanor. I love Crazy Aunt Eleanor. No relation to Crazy Uncle Franklin, and still not found in any White House gallery. But she should be. She's the original American free spirit, which is fun, and not too dangerous. Except when her ideas cut one down to size. Or, when she discusses fake patriots.
She reads Reuters, and my friends often still read Huffington Post. So, here's the link...http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/07/mayans-never-predicted-world-to-end_n_1126033.html
Crazy Aunt aside, all the hoopla was just because they ran out of calculations. Sort of the Millenia's old version of the battery died in the calculator. And, boy oh boy, did we fall for that one.
Now, we aren't too sure about the unknown planet, or the asteroid, or even the possiblity of many and sundry sattellites crashing in and setting off WWIII, while cooler heads try to show its space junk, not the crazy --- (insert name of country here)---. Make sure Al Haig isn't creeping about, trying to wrest control of the White House from whatever occupant might be napping at the time. While you're at it, keep the button hungry fingers away from the football. Not the Super Bowl one, but the one that should be next to the leader of what remains of the free world, and which leader is not an alum of Goldman Sachs.
In the meantime, relish in this. We have been granted time. We have been given hope and time enough to rid ourselves of technocrats intent on keeping the Fascism alive. After all, the Nazi's didn't lose WWII, they just moved, one paper clip at a time, to a new venue. We have governments so entangled with bankers and corporate leaders that the two have become one, and the Fascia at the Rostrum of the House is naught but a cruel, demonstrative joke. I'm still looking for the name of the guy that thought Fascia were a good idea right there in the Well. It's been our downfall ever since.
Well, that and the bankers that own the government.
And, as you're enjoying the meantime, have a martooni, shaken not stirred. It makes a weaker drink, but you have more of them in the course of an evening without getting so drunk that you confuse the balding septuagenarian for James Bond.
Spice up the meantime, that extra time you've gained. Get yourself onto a letter writing campaign, and demand that we the People get our fair share of our government working for us, and not for the politicians, of the politicians, and with the corporatists. Demand the Technocrats in Europe give the people honest elections. Demand our leaders stop criticizing others, like Russia, and fix our own stolen election syndrome.
Demand of all political parties, that they put up the very best people, not the most monied, not the most made, not the most controllable by the corporatists. Do we really think that our nation has had the very best leaders over the past 50 years? Really?
Get rid of those that are riding on the coattails of leaders who blithely proclaim that "if the American people knew what the Bush family had done to the US, we'd be run out of town on a rail." That was George HW Bush to Sarah McClendon. There are several quotes, but that is the one I remember best.
Finally, as you are relishing in the longer meantime you now have, go out and get yourself going on a project that might take more than a year to complete. Like college. Like learning the piano. Like learning how to draw. Really. Then hug a kid, and think of this. I can give a prayer of thanks, for the time, the gift of time. The world is not ending. I can plant a tree, love a child and enjoy the faith that only if I do all the things needed to make this a better world will having the world hang on beyond 2012, will that extra time mean anything at all.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Why hasn't anyone asked this question?
When, back in those nearly dark ages of long, long ago--when we were all either a lot younger or a lot less jaded, and the money seemed endless just as the stuff to spend money on seemed to be so necessary, there was lots of talk about American Exceptionalism. We can spend, we can spend, we can spend. And we did.
Yet we didn't ask one good question.
Then, administrations came and went. Republicans such as Reagan preached and speeched on and on about 'small government' and 'conservative' values. Democrats such as Clinton made the same speeches and balanced the budget. For a few months.
Even before that recent history, there were clouds in the whole budget issue. The biggest was never noticed. The question was never asked.
We went to war against a tactic, based upon an attack never adequately investigated, killing or maiming millions.
We bailed out the brightest guys in the room. We spent money on a program that Hank Paulson wrote on a piece of legal paper, striking a 'big number' because he knew he needed a lot of money to shift fast and $700 Billion seemed to be a nice figure.
We never asked the question.
We bemoaned 'entitlements' for grandma, education costs for kids, law enforcement toys for police that now look like Darth Vader's Raiders. Money, money, money.
We sent $8 Billion to other countries. Or was that $8 Trillion?* (I know, a B(m)illion here a B(m)illion there, pretty soon you're talking real money -- thanks Ike for the image.)
And, we never asked.
We shifted dollars from column A to column B so that Too Big to Fail wouldn't, well, fail. Again, no question.
Now, we hear that if we honor the promises made to people that paid good hard earned money into things, like pensions and Social Security, which is funded by those payments into Social Security, that Social Security won't have our own money available to pay us back on the money we put in in the first place. And, still the silence is deafening.
Here's the question.
Why didn't anyone ask where the money was coming from to bail out this, fund that war, prop up that banking industry filled with Too Big to Fail? And if it was taken from the accounts funded by workers, why aren't the people that shifted the money rotting in jail for stealing from one trust account to fund a speculative venture like propping up Too Big To Fail?
And, while we're at it, why are we fighting so many wars when no one is attacking us at home? Why don't we stay at home and take care of ourselves for a change? It's less expensive, and would bring a lot more peace to so many countries? Like our own.
But, when all those 'conservatives' were hailing their 'conservative' credentials, spouting off about small government as government doubled in size, just in this Century, why didn't anyone ask how we were going to pay for it, and if we were going to take away the contracted benefits we paid for, why aren't we getting a bailout for us. The taxpayers. The FICA funders. Get the money for the banks from the banks. they have lots of it, because they are too big to fail, and that means they have money. Leave the pittance for the little guys alone, and stop telling us you've stolen it, or plan to do so. Enough.
If we're going to fight wars, how about one against the tactic known as robbery?
Inquiring minds, and all that.
__________________
* http://rt.com/usa/news/fed-trillion-reserve-bailout-401/
As for size of government, budgets balancing and all that, a simple tour of the Google will bring up more links than you'll ever want to review. Honest.
Yet we didn't ask one good question.
Then, administrations came and went. Republicans such as Reagan preached and speeched on and on about 'small government' and 'conservative' values. Democrats such as Clinton made the same speeches and balanced the budget. For a few months.
Even before that recent history, there were clouds in the whole budget issue. The biggest was never noticed. The question was never asked.
We went to war against a tactic, based upon an attack never adequately investigated, killing or maiming millions.
We bailed out the brightest guys in the room. We spent money on a program that Hank Paulson wrote on a piece of legal paper, striking a 'big number' because he knew he needed a lot of money to shift fast and $700 Billion seemed to be a nice figure.
We never asked the question.
We bemoaned 'entitlements' for grandma, education costs for kids, law enforcement toys for police that now look like Darth Vader's Raiders. Money, money, money.
We sent $8 Billion to other countries. Or was that $8 Trillion?* (I know, a B(m)illion here a B(m)illion there, pretty soon you're talking real money -- thanks Ike for the image.)
And, we never asked.
We shifted dollars from column A to column B so that Too Big to Fail wouldn't, well, fail. Again, no question.
Now, we hear that if we honor the promises made to people that paid good hard earned money into things, like pensions and Social Security, which is funded by those payments into Social Security, that Social Security won't have our own money available to pay us back on the money we put in in the first place. And, still the silence is deafening.
Here's the question.
Why didn't anyone ask where the money was coming from to bail out this, fund that war, prop up that banking industry filled with Too Big to Fail? And if it was taken from the accounts funded by workers, why aren't the people that shifted the money rotting in jail for stealing from one trust account to fund a speculative venture like propping up Too Big To Fail?
And, while we're at it, why are we fighting so many wars when no one is attacking us at home? Why don't we stay at home and take care of ourselves for a change? It's less expensive, and would bring a lot more peace to so many countries? Like our own.
But, when all those 'conservatives' were hailing their 'conservative' credentials, spouting off about small government as government doubled in size, just in this Century, why didn't anyone ask how we were going to pay for it, and if we were going to take away the contracted benefits we paid for, why aren't we getting a bailout for us. The taxpayers. The FICA funders. Get the money for the banks from the banks. they have lots of it, because they are too big to fail, and that means they have money. Leave the pittance for the little guys alone, and stop telling us you've stolen it, or plan to do so. Enough.
If we're going to fight wars, how about one against the tactic known as robbery?
Inquiring minds, and all that.
__________________
* http://rt.com/usa/news/fed-trillion-reserve-bailout-401/
As for size of government, budgets balancing and all that, a simple tour of the Google will bring up more links than you'll ever want to review. Honest.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Thanks, I did come to my senses. Finally.
Well, I did actually come to my senses months ago. I decided that it would be fun, after being banned from a blog, to get back onto that same blog, and see how far things could be pushed before the envelope contents spilled out and all was made public. I didn't get banned the second time. I quit. Dusted the metaphorical sandals and walked.
But, not before I had my say. (Stay tuned, it's a doozey.)
It started when I saw a post referenced on Rense.com to Fellowship of the Minds, and decided to post there. I thought, these could be an interesting group, and I might get a few of the thinking ones thinking that people, no matter what their bank account, or profession, really can get along. Conservatives and Liberals can talk. At least, if they are willing to listen to both sides of an issue, and bright people of many persuasions often listen to both sides. I sensed hope.
The first time I left, I was banned, kicked off for demanding that the laws of the US apply to all persons and entities in the US, and for thinking that when a spendthrift tries to call himself a conservative while running up the national debt to several times that of all predecessors combined, while doubling the size of government, using cronies to put up a mercenary army that we pay 3X what we pay US soldiers, he ought not be called a conservative.
The second and most recent reason for my leaving was that OWS protesters are not allowed to be upset at a miscarriage. Of justice or a baby.
You see, the edge was reached when, in a thread concerning whether or not a miscarriage happened in Seattle, thanks to police brutality, the comments were running to the "she asked for it" mode of condemnation for OWS protestors. Apparently, if you are a protestor with OWS, you are all of the following, in no particular order: mentally ill, unemployed, unemployable, intent upon public defecation, lower life form such as worm, rat, snake, etc., witless, violent, rapist, criminal, unthinking, and you get the general idea.
The "I want list" of OWS protestors has been pretty fuzzy. They have also been accused of being the spawn of Soros or Satan (Choose one please.) Those injured because of police actions deserved arrest or possibly public hanging. Their First Amendment rights have not been violated by orchestrated raids in up to 18 cities at the same time, evidence notwithstanding, nor have they any right to protest because capitalism is working so well, don't you know? Actually, if the 1% are so good at creating good jobs, they have shown a decades long rotten record of their employment enhancing prowess.
According to the new commerce of conversation we are having, OWS is just filthy poor people, and the rich should never pay the same percentage rate as poor folk do in taxes. The rich, in the best world, should not pay more, or preferably they should pay NO taxes, because somewhere in the back of the minds of those condemning OWS, we will all be the Uber Rich, and we all know how much we hate paying high taxes. But, if the Uber Rich paid a more fair share, the bill for the rest of us would not need to be so high. And, after all, our taxes just barely cover the debt service, so if we want to build our way out of this $15 Trillion hole, we need to fill it fast with money, and the top 1% are the only folk with the gold.
When police violence started up in earnest, against all and sundry, just like police violence has happened in Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain -- where the violence is condemned as a very, very BAAAAAAD situation. Violence against people seeking fairness in government is condemned by Americans, but suddenly when it's OWS getting maced, well, that's just fine and dandy. I developed instant mental whiplash. So what if that pesky First Amendment has been suspended for the majority so long as the corporations in charge of government get to run their business, their fellow business's business, and the government. Let the bankers run everything. It's worked just fine (not) for the past century. A little tear gas just builds character. We don't need to be concerned, nope. Not at all.
Violence is expected when you gather to protest anything. Yikes! I was now in real enemy territory. I posted relatively few comments, sometimes being snarky to test the waters, and then it got too bad for even little old me to keep up the charade. After all, this was unpaid labor done as my own little experiment. I knew the outcome, I just wanted to be on the inside of the experience.
The story is this. A young woman was pregnant, got pepper sprayed, and miscarried. The police are investigating. She attended what was a peaceful protest and got tear gassed, or pepper sprayed, or even hit by a police officer. She was injured because she was there. Not someplace else, but there, and she brought children with her, inside here abdomen. She was condemned for complaining. She was dismissed for endangerment of her children.
She went to a park that should have looked like the Seurat painting, and got sprayed with noxious chemicals. Think of this pic from the Nov. 24, Daily Mail:
Seurat got surreal in Seattle. It was the vehemence of the responses, and the fact that police violence is okay if you're just an OWS protester. And then, there was this one response that really tor it for me, and the one following it:
"If she was so concerned about her (alleged) pregnancy ... especially with Twins, why did she place herself in a situation that might jeopardize her pregnancy?
One twin is "allegedly" aborted in September from (alleged) police brutality, and she goes at it again, and aborts the remaining fetus in a miscarriage.
If not true, Fox is a menace to society ... and herself." and,
"Exactly XXXXXX, why expose yourself to pepper spray or other dangers? Someone mentioned something else these OWS protestors are obviously mostly liberal. So they probably are pro-abortion. So this isn't actually a baby yet, it's just a fetus, right? But now she's the victim and so is her baby."
Right. Check. Call the Fire Department, 'cuz my very breath was made of fire. I was A. N. G. R. Y. I stopped, had a glass of water, and I'll fill you in on what I did next. After that, I quit the blog. And this is why I had to stop pretending I could any longer speak civilly with these folk.
According to the Fellowship of the Minds, if you go to a demonstration, you are asking for truncheons, night stick hits, pepper spray, tasers, and rubber bullets to be used on your person or your friends. And yes, I will post the reply that was insistent that, despite all the violent activity, your First Amendment Rights are sacred in the eyes of the police, and at FOTM.
Now, I don't know what the Seattle investigation will show. Was there a miscarriage or not? I don't know. I do know that attending a public meeting in a public square is not an open invitation to be brutalized and battered by anyone, in uniform or out. And I know that no matter what, you don't criticize a young woman who is looking ahead to burying her miscarried child. You don't tell her that the consequences forced upon her are okay, because it might have been okay for her to have an abortion, so miscarriage is just sort of an uncontrolled abortion, right? (Try not to gag. It's difficult.) You also don't tell a woman mourning her lost child that it was her fault for showing up to the park in the first place.
I'm also pretty sure from religion classes, that being liberal does not mean that the mother of a miscarried child is saying, well it could have been an abortion...ho hum...tomorrow is another day.
As in, La-di-frickin'-da. I think not.
I'll supply more information on my time as an underground blogger. The funny thing is, I am actually a real financial conservative. Honest. I hold many conservative ideas, including views on education (the old classical learning model), small government that is effective regarding safety, financial oversight, commerce, tariffs, and governing with, not over, the states. I also believe in human rights, the Bill of Rights, and the right to be in charge of one's self. I believe people have the right to opportunity, based upon merit, not free passes based on connections and that sort of stuff. I like secure borders. I literally pine for truth, in all things. If there is a screw up, we should admit it and fix it.
I believe that preemptive anything, founded on a lie, is really bad. I don't believe that because one has the initial "R" after one's name, is not the same as an imprimatur, sealed by God, that you are of course a good Christian, and I don't believe that any religious group has the ownership of the public square. Let me say Happy Christmas, and you can say whatever you want.
Just don't try to tell me the First Amendment and safety in public gatherings is only approved for the few, the well heeled, the botoxed. And don't, no matter what, ever tell me that the life of a liberal's child is worth less than your own son/daughter of a conservative. In that lies madness. For the record, I hung on as long as possible, hoping to change a mind or even a few thoughts while I was there. St. Michael is their "mascot" and I know his head is bowed in weeping for what has been done in his name.
Stay tuned, there's oh so much more.
But, not before I had my say. (Stay tuned, it's a doozey.)
It started when I saw a post referenced on Rense.com to Fellowship of the Minds, and decided to post there. I thought, these could be an interesting group, and I might get a few of the thinking ones thinking that people, no matter what their bank account, or profession, really can get along. Conservatives and Liberals can talk. At least, if they are willing to listen to both sides of an issue, and bright people of many persuasions often listen to both sides. I sensed hope.
The first time I left, I was banned, kicked off for demanding that the laws of the US apply to all persons and entities in the US, and for thinking that when a spendthrift tries to call himself a conservative while running up the national debt to several times that of all predecessors combined, while doubling the size of government, using cronies to put up a mercenary army that we pay 3X what we pay US soldiers, he ought not be called a conservative.
The second and most recent reason for my leaving was that OWS protesters are not allowed to be upset at a miscarriage. Of justice or a baby.
You see, the edge was reached when, in a thread concerning whether or not a miscarriage happened in Seattle, thanks to police brutality, the comments were running to the "she asked for it" mode of condemnation for OWS protestors. Apparently, if you are a protestor with OWS, you are all of the following, in no particular order: mentally ill, unemployed, unemployable, intent upon public defecation, lower life form such as worm, rat, snake, etc., witless, violent, rapist, criminal, unthinking, and you get the general idea.
The "I want list" of OWS protestors has been pretty fuzzy. They have also been accused of being the spawn of Soros or Satan (Choose one please.) Those injured because of police actions deserved arrest or possibly public hanging. Their First Amendment rights have not been violated by orchestrated raids in up to 18 cities at the same time, evidence notwithstanding, nor have they any right to protest because capitalism is working so well, don't you know? Actually, if the 1% are so good at creating good jobs, they have shown a decades long rotten record of their employment enhancing prowess.
According to the new commerce of conversation we are having, OWS is just filthy poor people, and the rich should never pay the same percentage rate as poor folk do in taxes. The rich, in the best world, should not pay more, or preferably they should pay NO taxes, because somewhere in the back of the minds of those condemning OWS, we will all be the Uber Rich, and we all know how much we hate paying high taxes. But, if the Uber Rich paid a more fair share, the bill for the rest of us would not need to be so high. And, after all, our taxes just barely cover the debt service, so if we want to build our way out of this $15 Trillion hole, we need to fill it fast with money, and the top 1% are the only folk with the gold.
When police violence started up in earnest, against all and sundry, just like police violence has happened in Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain -- where the violence is condemned as a very, very BAAAAAAD situation. Violence against people seeking fairness in government is condemned by Americans, but suddenly when it's OWS getting maced, well, that's just fine and dandy. I developed instant mental whiplash. So what if that pesky First Amendment has been suspended for the majority so long as the corporations in charge of government get to run their business, their fellow business's business, and the government. Let the bankers run everything. It's worked just fine (not) for the past century. A little tear gas just builds character. We don't need to be concerned, nope. Not at all.
Violence is expected when you gather to protest anything. Yikes! I was now in real enemy territory. I posted relatively few comments, sometimes being snarky to test the waters, and then it got too bad for even little old me to keep up the charade. After all, this was unpaid labor done as my own little experiment. I knew the outcome, I just wanted to be on the inside of the experience.
The story is this. A young woman was pregnant, got pepper sprayed, and miscarried. The police are investigating. She attended what was a peaceful protest and got tear gassed, or pepper sprayed, or even hit by a police officer. She was injured because she was there. Not someplace else, but there, and she brought children with her, inside here abdomen. She was condemned for complaining. She was dismissed for endangerment of her children.
She went to a park that should have looked like the Seurat painting, and got sprayed with noxious chemicals. Think of this pic from the Nov. 24, Daily Mail:
Seurat got surreal in Seattle. It was the vehemence of the responses, and the fact that police violence is okay if you're just an OWS protester. And then, there was this one response that really tor it for me, and the one following it:
"If she was so concerned about her (alleged) pregnancy ... especially with Twins, why did she place herself in a situation that might jeopardize her pregnancy?
One twin is "allegedly" aborted in September from (alleged) police brutality, and she goes at it again, and aborts the remaining fetus in a miscarriage.
If not true, Fox is a menace to society ... and herself." and,
"Exactly XXXXXX, why expose yourself to pepper spray or other dangers? Someone mentioned something else these OWS protestors are obviously mostly liberal. So they probably are pro-abortion. So this isn't actually a baby yet, it's just a fetus, right? But now she's the victim and so is her baby."
Right. Check. Call the Fire Department, 'cuz my very breath was made of fire. I was A. N. G. R. Y. I stopped, had a glass of water, and I'll fill you in on what I did next. After that, I quit the blog. And this is why I had to stop pretending I could any longer speak civilly with these folk.
According to the Fellowship of the Minds, if you go to a demonstration, you are asking for truncheons, night stick hits, pepper spray, tasers, and rubber bullets to be used on your person or your friends. And yes, I will post the reply that was insistent that, despite all the violent activity, your First Amendment Rights are sacred in the eyes of the police, and at FOTM.
Now, I don't know what the Seattle investigation will show. Was there a miscarriage or not? I don't know. I do know that attending a public meeting in a public square is not an open invitation to be brutalized and battered by anyone, in uniform or out. And I know that no matter what, you don't criticize a young woman who is looking ahead to burying her miscarried child. You don't tell her that the consequences forced upon her are okay, because it might have been okay for her to have an abortion, so miscarriage is just sort of an uncontrolled abortion, right? (Try not to gag. It's difficult.) You also don't tell a woman mourning her lost child that it was her fault for showing up to the park in the first place.
I'm also pretty sure from religion classes, that being liberal does not mean that the mother of a miscarried child is saying, well it could have been an abortion...ho hum...tomorrow is another day.
As in, La-di-frickin'-da. I think not.
I'll supply more information on my time as an underground blogger. The funny thing is, I am actually a real financial conservative. Honest. I hold many conservative ideas, including views on education (the old classical learning model), small government that is effective regarding safety, financial oversight, commerce, tariffs, and governing with, not over, the states. I also believe in human rights, the Bill of Rights, and the right to be in charge of one's self. I believe people have the right to opportunity, based upon merit, not free passes based on connections and that sort of stuff. I like secure borders. I literally pine for truth, in all things. If there is a screw up, we should admit it and fix it.
I believe that preemptive anything, founded on a lie, is really bad. I don't believe that because one has the initial "R" after one's name, is not the same as an imprimatur, sealed by God, that you are of course a good Christian, and I don't believe that any religious group has the ownership of the public square. Let me say Happy Christmas, and you can say whatever you want.
Just don't try to tell me the First Amendment and safety in public gatherings is only approved for the few, the well heeled, the botoxed. And don't, no matter what, ever tell me that the life of a liberal's child is worth less than your own son/daughter of a conservative. In that lies madness. For the record, I hung on as long as possible, hoping to change a mind or even a few thoughts while I was there. St. Michael is their "mascot" and I know his head is bowed in weeping for what has been done in his name.
Stay tuned, there's oh so much more.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)