Learning From History

John Boehner thought the GOP could control the Tea Party.

John Boehner lost his job.

Paul Ryan thinks the GOP can control Trump.

I think we all know where this is going...

Gag Me

Apparently, Cheeto and his sleazy wife attended a Christmas Eve service at a church in Florida...to a standing ovation by other church-goers (seriously???)  The Trumps' well-publicized lame bid to appear devout evidently impressed  his faithful.  A woman on a comment thread on a friend's Facebook post had this to say:

Yes it was great to see the Prez elect at their church and going to communion on Christmas Eve. Refreshing since BO doesn't go to church at all...... there's hope for Christians yet!! 

 And...

DJT has a church that he attends when in PB. NYC I am not sure. BO and fam have gone 3x year and only on 1 Christmas in 2011. "Too busy" says Michelle...

Another commenter countered:  

actions speak louder than words. Barack had no affairs while married, has only one wife, no grabbing pussy, no denigrating a war hero, no stirring up hatred . Though somehow the man who talked about starting a nuclear arms race on Christmas is more Christian than Obama. OK

To which Ms Trump Apologist replied:

yes actions do speak .... agree. Little bit too much drama in your comments .... there was no " grabbing" and no starting of any nuclear war...... calm down and chill. I am not judging his marital history... that has nothing to do with being Prez. He's been married over 10 years and has a son and family he adores. I respect that. We need change so let's see where it goes.

This is how they think.  This is how they view everything Trump does through an adoring haze, and everything Obama has tried to do for the last 8 years through the veil of shit smeared by the likes of right-wing hate radio, Faux News and congressional Republicans, to name a few.

I. Can't. Stand. It. 

For what it's worth, here is MY response to this...person (what words could adequately capture the degree of delusion from which she suffers????)

I'm sure there are aspects of Trump that are deserving of respect or praise, but being a role model of a practicing Christian is not one of them. If you want to stand behind Trump, you are free to do so, but stand behind him for what he IS, not what you wish he was.

Also...if you are personally a church-attending Christian, it can't have esaped your notice that there are those who faithfully attend church on Sundays, and then live the rest of their lives as if they had never heard of Christ or his message. Whether or not a person attends a weekly religious service is in no way an indication of what is in a person's heart, and I'm pretty sure you know that.

Shouting down a sewer hole, I know.  But sometimes, you just...have to. 


 

Opinion #7--Hunting Animals Is Not A Sport

I've often mentioned how vexed I am by not-so-distant reports of shotguns  destroying my morning reverie on my "coffee deck" from October to March.  I'll make this short: people who find pleasure or satisfaction from killing other living beings for sport have, at the very least, a screw loose.  At worst, they are violent, self-centered and sadistic.  How can it possibly be enjoyable to violently deprive another being of life? 

I understand that our factory-farm food chain is hopelessly compromised.  We should be very afraid of how the animals we eat are treated and cared for, how they lived and how they died, before they end up on our dinner plates. The conditions under which the animals we eat "live" are, in most cases, abhorrent.   So, on the surface, hunting and killing one's own meat makes nutritional and spiritual sense:  At least game taken in the wild have had a chance to HAVE a life before it was forfeit for the benefit of someone higher up on the food chain. 

But there is a great deal of difference between hunting for food and killing for sport; consuming the animal you slaughtered for the fun of it does not magically legitimize the murderous game.  Living beings are not targets, and should not be treated as such.  Taking a life--any life--is serious and solemn business, and should be done with great care and reverence.  Excuse me if I don't believe that every **pop-pop** I hear in the morning is representative of a sincere and respectful taking of a life in order to put food on a table that would otherwise have little or none. 

Hunting.  Can't get my head around it, and am not a fan.  Period. 

What To Do

Now that any misplaced hopes we had in the electoral college saving us from doom have been summarily dashed, we're sneaking up on a bit of debate about what to do about the Trump presidency.  Saw a link to this essay in the comment thread of a friend's Facebook post, and it's good enough to post here.  Couldn't figure out how to embed it, so here's the link:

What to Do About Trump?  The Same Thing My Grandfather Did in the 1930's

Pay particular attention to the author's third and final point.  He has an incisive understanding of the foibles of "smart" people--for example, IMO, the Democrats who sabotaged their own candidate and so offered up unmistakable aid to the "enemy."

Too, I remember a saying from back in the 80's and 90's--a warning against being so open minded that your brain falls out.  I think we "smart" progressives are too often afflicted by that malady, as well.  And when the stakes are as high as they will be beginning January 20, 2017, we cannot afford to be brainless.   

Seasonal Realities

Saw this strip in the Register Guard on Sunday.  This guy (Greg Evans) nailed it!



Anoy-Yu, China!  THAT's where they make all this stuff.  LOL! 

Seriously, though...I've noticed that so many people are not putting up lights anymore.  Could it be that they are made like such C.R.A.P. that it's not worth the effort, not to mention the expense?  Maybe we've all shelled out $100 or $200 too much on cute light sculptures that crap out two weeks after you put them out, and we're just fed up.

As for me...just give me the good old C9's.  At least the whole *&%$ string (or, more annoying, HALF of it) doesn't go out when one light burns out. 

Opinions #6 The Heaven/Hell Debate

Over the past couple of decades, I personally have moved from Pentecostal Christianity to agnosticism to...what would one call what I now embrace?  Personal divinity?  Inclusive connection to the Spirit of Creation?   Whatever label I slap on it, it's definitely "spirituality" rather than "religion."  Actually, I'm reluctant to name my connection to the Almighty.  Calling it something means attempting to distill it to an essence to which others can relate...and it's a short leap from there to recruitment.  I don't necessarily want or need to share my spirituality with anyone else.  In my mind, one's connection to the Divine is, or should be, unique and personal.   

When one is taught from infancy that God is in heaven, the devil is in hell, and Jesus came down to save us from sin and keep us out of that hell...well, that stuff sticks like superglue.  It took a good decade for me to finally shed the last vestiges of the religious traditions into which I was born.  For many years, as my spirituality changed and grew in different directions, I waited for that lightning bolt to shoot out of the sky and smite me for my unbelief.  Eventually, I figured out that--logically--the Creator of the Universe would not act in that manner.  Creation is so vast and varied that the Entity responsible for calling it into being would not possibly be so small and demanding and humanly petty that it would ordain and honor only one way for humankind to connect to and communicate with it.  That simply did not make any sense.

So I have no bone to pick with anyone who attempts sincere communion with the Almighty through "mainstream" religion.  I personally know and respect many Christians...and Jews,  Muslims and Hindus.  It is not for me to tell any person that their path to connection with the Almighty is wrong.  What IS wrong is that mainstream religion is often perverted by the violent and the greedy and the power hungry.  Religion can so easily be used as a tool to dominate and control large populations of people.  And so it is.

When I hear people talking about heaven and hell, I just...shrug.   Surely there are dark spiritual forces afoot in the universe, as there are forces of light. It's not that I disbelieve there is evil at work in the world.  It just seems to emanate mostly from the human race.  People.  People who think they can shirk personal responsibility for their evil acts by claiming "The devil made me do it."   Mankind, unfortunately, is too easily attracted to the darkness.  But, Hell?  A place where those who did evil in their human incarnation go to burn in eternal fire? Hm.  Nope.  Just don't buy it.

And when it comes to Heaven...I can't buy that, either.  We are all so caught up in being human, we think it's the apex.  The ultimate.  What we are and always want to be, for eternity.  So we've imagined this place we'll go when we die, and we'll be joyously reunited with everyone we loved who left their earthly bodies previous to our own exit. 

But I believe human spirits are slivers of the Spirit of Creation, and when they leave their broken shells of clay behind, they are reunited with that great creative force...to be shaped and reshaped, over and over again.  We're sent out by the Creator to a new incarnation, possibly as another earthly animal or person or plant, possibly to another planet or galaxy...  The concept is too huge for us to wrap our heads around, so we invented Heaven--the eternal banquet where we sit and feast with all the nice people we ever knew in our lives.  Isn't that just too small  a finish to have been conceived by the Creator of the Universe?  (And just as an aside, this concept of the "Rainbow Bridge," where all the beloved companion animals with whom we shared our lives reunite with us, presumably to be our pets forever in heaven... Why would a spirit want to be forever bonded to another as a pet?  Why not hope that when your beloved companion leaves its used-up earthly body, it is free to return to the Spirit and be renewed as something beautiful and wonderful and most likely beyond your comprehension?

To see me walking down the street, it would probably never occur that I don't believe--and am perfectly comfortable not believing--in the everyday religious assumptions by which so many of my fellow citizens are held captive.  Two hundred years ago, I would have been labeled a witch and burned at the stake.   

New King? WTF!!?!?

I keep trying to put this Trump thing on the back burner...but it just keeps jumping back in my face.

Saw this on Facebook today.  What sane comment can one possibly make about the insanity of this Priebus/Cheeto overreach?

Merry Fucking Christmas.

Opinion #5--If We Aren't Supposed to Eat Animals...

I've expressed this sentiment before, but it bears repeating.  It's sort of in the same vein as two of my previously expressed opinions, those having to do with the food choices of fear-ridden, fad-driven American public.

The whole "I don't eat anything with a face" is just...bunk.  Human beings are omnivores.  Our bodies are designed to utilize nutrition from many sources--animal, vegetable and mineral.  We eat animals.  We just...do.

I love animals.  I feel a deep spiritual connection to them...I don't think of them as having been put on this earth for man to dominate, or to use for any purpose we desire any time we want.  To me, the other members of the animal kingdom were put here by the Creator for purposes every bit as "important" as human beings. 

But the animal kingdom offers many examples of animals that eat other animals.  Predator/prey is a fact of life on earth, ordained by the Creator...part of the natural order of things.  Do we hate hawks because they prey on the pretty little birds in the garden?  Do we despise lions because they bring down lovely swift gazelles and zebras?  Do we get angry at orcas for killing seals?  No.  We may (unjustifiably) think that the ways some animals procure their food is cruel, or gruesome, or sad.  But the animals are simply following the instructions that the Creator set forth for them. 

Only human beings have the audacity to second-guess the Almighty and declare our natural diet morally unacceptable.

If you feel like giving up meat, if you decide that the thing for you to do is walk that difficult walk of trying to replace animal protein in your diet with crazy combinations of legumes and grains, knock yourself out.  I'll simply point out that if it was the "right" and "natural" thing to do, it wouldn't be so complicated. 

It's not like I consume three pounds of red meat a week,  or base my diet upon mass quantities of bacon, or even chicken.  And, let's face it, having a diet too heavy in animal protein is an economic challenge these days.  But if I choose to enjoy a burger or a pork chop now and then, and consume a fair quantity of poultry (because that's what I can afford) I am not going to be haunted by one ounce of guilt.  I'm pretty secure in the knowledge that the Creator is okay with the concept of food chains and that the guys at the top consume the guys lower down, since that was how the Creator set things up.    

        

Merry Christmas Eve 2016

The gang, and a few extras.  Par-ty!

 

Opinion #4--"Franken Foods."

Obviously, there are not enough things out there to be afraid of.  We have to invest time and fortunes into making up more.

Too bad we can't have back the resources that were sunk into the Y2k scare.  With the money, time and emotional energy expended in that pop-culture melt-down, maybe we could have defeated Cheeto. 

Or the media-created fuss over ebola two years ago--Americans did not give a rat's ass about ebola until the media chose to intimate that it was on its way to our shores and we were going to begin dying by the millions.  Or the similar paranoia circulated about the damn flu every winter since Big Pharma created the flu virus.  I saw a headline on NPR yesterday--on N flippin' P. R.--about a veterinarian catching a strain of bird flu from infected cats at an animal shelter.  Drag people by the eyeballs into this story, only to report that the person suffered only mild symptoms and recovered fully.  The obvious question is why did this NON-story rate reporting in the first place?  Pure, unadulterated click-bait, to be sure. 

My point is, just because the media hype something and then social media picks it up and runs with it, does not mean it is an actual or credible threat.  One of the most offensive examples of this is the fear of genetically altered foods--the good old GMO's.

I will be the first to declare that the American people need to become more aware of what it is they're putting in their mouths.  Our food chain has become hopelessly poisoned by bad factory-farm processes, excesses of chemical ingredients, and Madison Avenue's penchant for presenting the foods that are the least healthy for us as the most attractive. 

We eat crap--even poison-- in this society.  But the poison is not created through genetic modification, and changing the genetic make-up of a food product has never  been proven to create foods that will make people sick.  Humans have been toying with the genetic make-up of crops practically since we passed out of the hunter/gatherer stage and started putting edible things in the ground near our dwellings on purpose, tending them and harvesting them at our own will.  Gregor Mendel, the father of modern genetics, lived 150 years ago.  So the concept of genetic modification of food crops is not new.   

When "breeding" of food crops took years and many growth cycles, we didn't bat a eyelash at it.  But now that it can be done almost instantaneously in a test tube, we freak out that genetic modification is "not natural" and "not what God--or the Creator or whatever fate-controlling entity you worship--intended"; and that we will be punished by being sickened and dying from these things we have dared to create.  Hogwash.

Don't get me wrong...there's plenty to fear from the likes of Monsanto and Dow and other chemical companies that have taken control of our food production.  But we have to get it right...we have to know exactly what it is we should be afraid of.  Sure... let's wring our hands over what genetically-modified crops may be doing to us.  But not because of how the genes may have been messed with.  Because of the fact that they can now spray entire fields of our food with chemicals that will not kill the corn, only the weeds.  The jury is still out on the effects that consuming those chemicals will have on humans, over time.  I'm pretty sure that research has not even been done. 

And while you're speculating that genetically altered wheat may be the reason so many people seem to have developed a sensitivity to gluten, consider the fact it's accepted practice that entire fields of wheat are sprayed with herbicide before harvest, because the plants actually have to die before the wheat is harvested, and yield is maximized by making sure all the plants are dead at the same time (left to nature, plants mature and die at different rates.)  So our daily bread has likely contained a daily dose of Round-up for decades.

There is caution, and there is panic.  There is informed concern, and there is pop-culture fear-mongering.  Unfortunately, American society is most prone to be too lazy to accept the former, while blindly embracing the latter.   I, for one, am not too keen on being afraid of something simply because it's "too complicated" for me to understand.  That's a cop-out, and one that could ultimately be very, very bad for us indeed.