American's have a fetish on low taxes ... and what a price we pay:
Our infrastructure is crumbling.
Our health care system sucks.
Higher education costs are skyrocketing.
Public schools are dying on the vine.
Right ... but I'll be darned if I'll pay more in taxes.
I enjoy driving on lousy roads.
I like to pay astronomical deductibles, and if I can't afford medical care, well I'll just get sick, and then die, but, by gum and by golly, no more taxes.
I love it when youth are saddled with education debt; serves 'em right for getting so uppity.
I can hardly wait to send America's children to private schools, homeschools and charter schools. Enough of this public education stuff; sounds communist to me anyway. And in public schools they teach science, and that's contrary to gawd's word.
I love it when the rich take it all.
You bet.
They know what they're doing.
They're gawd's anointed.
So,
Let's cut health care all over the place.
Cut Social Security, too; what the heck, get rid of it.
Get rid of Medicare, too.
And all the stuff that supports the poor, the underserving, the illegals and all those other kinds of people who talk strange and wear clothes different than my all-American caps and jeans.
It's just socialism, and that means taxes, and that means I don't want it.
Showing posts with label ignorance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ignorance. Show all posts
Saturday, November 2, 2019
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Prohibition Zeal ...
The misplaced zeal of prohibition.
Yes, booze was killing millions.
Caught in the hell of their factories.
In the slime of the slums.
Without hope and without light.
Booze becomes, then, or now, some relief.
Who can blame anyone wanting a little R & R?
So, the pious and the well-meaning.
Smashed the barrels and passed the 24th Amendment.
And we all know how that worked.
A boon to the crooked, it was.
While the rich still had their booze and speak-easies.
I guess the nation needed to try it out.
But what a dismal failure it was.
Because the real issues were poverty.
Child labor.
The cruelty of the rich.
The wantonness of Wall Street.
Desperation for millions caught in the cogs of "progress."
This whole anti-abortion thing strikes me as pious palaver.
Misplaced energy and misguided thinking.
The issue isn't abortion.
It's a thousand other things that weaken families.
Victimizes women and young girls.
The macho men who can't keep their pants zipped.
And the pathetic preachers who label it all, "God's will."
Piety of this sort isn't piety at all.
It's just ignorance, fear and misogyny.
The ancient anxiety of men.
To keep women penned and pregnant.
I don't know.
Looks like we're headed in all the wrong directions.
With a brute in the WH.
And sex-fixated conservatives, hands in the pockets.
I hope it doesn't endure.
It won't.
This kind of stuff always falters and fails.
But not without doing its horrible work.
Yes, booze was killing millions.
Caught in the hell of their factories.
In the slime of the slums.
Without hope and without light.
Booze becomes, then, or now, some relief.
Who can blame anyone wanting a little R & R?
So, the pious and the well-meaning.
Smashed the barrels and passed the 24th Amendment.
And we all know how that worked.
A boon to the crooked, it was.
While the rich still had their booze and speak-easies.
I guess the nation needed to try it out.
But what a dismal failure it was.
Because the real issues were poverty.
Child labor.
The cruelty of the rich.
The wantonness of Wall Street.
Desperation for millions caught in the cogs of "progress."
This whole anti-abortion thing strikes me as pious palaver.
Misplaced energy and misguided thinking.
The issue isn't abortion.
It's a thousand other things that weaken families.
Victimizes women and young girls.
The macho men who can't keep their pants zipped.
And the pathetic preachers who label it all, "God's will."
Piety of this sort isn't piety at all.
It's just ignorance, fear and misogyny.
The ancient anxiety of men.
To keep women penned and pregnant.
I don't know.
Looks like we're headed in all the wrong directions.
With a brute in the WH.
And sex-fixated conservatives, hands in the pockets.
I hope it doesn't endure.
It won't.
This kind of stuff always falters and fails.
But not without doing its horrible work.
Wednesday, September 5, 2018
The Greatest Threat
Never, since the days of the Civil War, have we faced an internal threat the magnitude of which we presently have on our hands.
The monster in the White House would more than happily take away our freedoms, our democracy, our educational means, our social supports, our right to think and choose and make decisions.
Sadly, there are three groups, two of which use the third, to feather their own interests. Because of those interests, the first two groups despise democracy; the third is gripped by fearful ignorance, rendering the third group easily manipulated by the first two.
The rich know he'll give them what they want: all the money, and the rich in turn will give him power.
The evangelicals know he'll give them a SCOTUS to reverse Roe v. Wade and support anti-gay laws, and they in turn will support him.
The dispirited and the defeated white working class has been lead to believe he'll give them what they want: White Supremacy, and they in turn, as needed, will take up arms for him.
For reasons known but to God, the GOP, at large, has sold its soul to the monster in the White House, aiding and abetting the greatest threat to America since the Civil War.
The monster in the White House would more than happily take away our freedoms, our democracy, our educational means, our social supports, our right to think and choose and make decisions.
Sadly, there are three groups, two of which use the third, to feather their own interests. Because of those interests, the first two groups despise democracy; the third is gripped by fearful ignorance, rendering the third group easily manipulated by the first two.
The rich know he'll give them what they want: all the money, and the rich in turn will give him power.
The evangelicals know he'll give them a SCOTUS to reverse Roe v. Wade and support anti-gay laws, and they in turn will support him.
The dispirited and the defeated white working class has been lead to believe he'll give them what they want: White Supremacy, and they in turn, as needed, will take up arms for him.
For reasons known but to God, the GOP, at large, has sold its soul to the monster in the White House, aiding and abetting the greatest threat to America since the Civil War.
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Cause and Effect
It's utterly disingenuous to condemn the results without, at the same time, and above all, looking at the causes.
That's no different than giving a pain pill for a swollen foot rather than finding and removing the splinter.
Cause and effect.
Concerned about the effect?
Damnit, address the cause.
But let's not do that.
The effect is all about you!!!!
You and your behavior.
Your bad ways.
The cause, on the other hand.
Might just be about me.
My behavior.
My bad ways.
Oh oh, let's not go there.
Let me condemn the effects.
While ignoring the cause.
It's much easier that way for me.
I sleep better in my ignorance.
Don't you?
Unless my ignorance is cause.
And you suffer the effect.
Of what I have caused.
Oh, let's not go there.
I'd be a lot happier.
Okay?
That's no different than giving a pain pill for a swollen foot rather than finding and removing the splinter.
Cause and effect.
Concerned about the effect?
Damnit, address the cause.
But let's not do that.
The effect is all about you!!!!
You and your behavior.
Your bad ways.
The cause, on the other hand.
Might just be about me.
My behavior.
My bad ways.
Oh oh, let's not go there.
Let me condemn the effects.
While ignoring the cause.
It's much easier that way for me.
I sleep better in my ignorance.
Don't you?
Unless my ignorance is cause.
And you suffer the effect.
Of what I have caused.
Oh, let's not go there.
I'd be a lot happier.
Okay?
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Snake-Handling, God's Will and the GOP
Early 70s.
West Virginia ... Camp Creek ... Joe Turner - the Jesus Only Church, and snake-handling.
A young man, in one of two Presbyterian Churches I pastored, hunted and bagged rattlers for them on occasion, and told me of a time when he had a full sack lying on the floor of his home - he kicked and poked it around, then brought it to the church, and when the time came to "prove your faith" with snakes, the snakes were so angry, they bit everyone!
Snake-handling to prove faith is a fascinating folk practice with a decided "political" flavor.
In a nutshell, if you're bit and die, and they loved you, then it was simply the Lord's time to call you home.
If they didn't like you, you died because you didn't have enough faith.
Either way, whatever happened, there was a "reason" for it that allowed the snake-handling worldview to remain intact. Nothing could sway the faith of the faithful. Whatever happened - oh well, they had a way of incorporating it into their worldview.
Such are the diehard Republicans who confessed to the world the power and the glory of their god who would sweep Romney/Ryan into office!
A god who would cleanse the nation of Roe v Wade, do away with terrible communist unions, put a lid on uppity women and people of color, rid our schools of evolution, do something about all those free-loading illegals and plunge us into the glories of religious war against all those dadgum Muslims!
Well, it didn't quite turn out that way.
It seems that America, rather decisively, said No!
So, here's the deal.
These folks prayed for god to intervene and save America. They believed it was doing to happen.
It didn't.
Now what?
Well, this is clearly of the devil.
It can't be god's will.
Or, it might be god's judgment on a godless nation.
What they cannot accept is that it might simply be god's answer to their prayers, to intervene on behalf of the nation, for the sake of the future, for what is right and good.
Oh no. None of that.
Obama is a socialist, and worse than that, a man of color who likes gays. He isn't even an American.
In reality, there is no change looming on the horizon for those who handle snakes. Whatever happens, their worldview goes on, unchallenged, unchanged.
They're angry at the devil, that's for sure, for spoiling their plans, and angry at the godless people around them who choose the ways of wickedness.
This backwood's ignorance has been brewing for 200 years, ever since the Cane Ridge Revival of 1801, through the Scopes Trial of 1925, Billy Graham in a Los Angeles tent, 1949 - and so on. With Graham, it emerged from the woods of America and soon took center stage.
What with megachurches and TV (fundamentalism was a phenomenon waiting for TV), it blew across the American landscape like a hurricane. Add to that private schools and home-schooling, and for the last 50 years, along with Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan, a virulent form of christianity, a pro-capital, America-first, brand of faith, a faith full of hatred and violent images, an anti-science faith, has been shaping faith and culture for millions of Americans.
It will take a long time to root this out of the American mindset. It will retreat, and we'll see many of the megachurches close their doors and sell their campuses to community colleges, so that real learning might occur in those buildings mostly built on ignorance, fear and unrelenting pride.
Yet, this kind of junk is always part of human DNA - call it original sin, if you will, but in some form or other, it will re-emerge, ready to take on the demons of the world, offering a brand of faith, "bigger, better, brighter" than others, and willing to lead this nation, or other nations, into insanity once again.
Like those snake-handlers in West Virginia, nothing can sway their faith. Whatever happens, they have a reason for it, a reason that leaves their crazy faith intact!
A young man, in one of two Presbyterian Churches I pastored, hunted and bagged rattlers for them on occasion, and told me of a time when he had a full sack lying on the floor of his home - he kicked and poked it around, then brought it to the church, and when the time came to "prove your faith" with snakes, the snakes were so angry, they bit everyone!
Snake-handling to prove faith is a fascinating folk practice with a decided "political" flavor.
In a nutshell, if you're bit and die, and they loved you, then it was simply the Lord's time to call you home.
If they didn't like you, you died because you didn't have enough faith.
Either way, whatever happened, there was a "reason" for it that allowed the snake-handling worldview to remain intact. Nothing could sway the faith of the faithful. Whatever happened - oh well, they had a way of incorporating it into their worldview.
Such are the diehard Republicans who confessed to the world the power and the glory of their god who would sweep Romney/Ryan into office!
A god who would cleanse the nation of Roe v Wade, do away with terrible communist unions, put a lid on uppity women and people of color, rid our schools of evolution, do something about all those free-loading illegals and plunge us into the glories of religious war against all those dadgum Muslims!
Well, it didn't quite turn out that way.
It seems that America, rather decisively, said No!
So, here's the deal.
These folks prayed for god to intervene and save America. They believed it was doing to happen.
It didn't.
Now what?
Well, this is clearly of the devil.
It can't be god's will.
Or, it might be god's judgment on a godless nation.
What they cannot accept is that it might simply be god's answer to their prayers, to intervene on behalf of the nation, for the sake of the future, for what is right and good.
Oh no. None of that.
Obama is a socialist, and worse than that, a man of color who likes gays. He isn't even an American.
In reality, there is no change looming on the horizon for those who handle snakes. Whatever happens, their worldview goes on, unchallenged, unchanged.
They're angry at the devil, that's for sure, for spoiling their plans, and angry at the godless people around them who choose the ways of wickedness.
This backwood's ignorance has been brewing for 200 years, ever since the Cane Ridge Revival of 1801, through the Scopes Trial of 1925, Billy Graham in a Los Angeles tent, 1949 - and so on. With Graham, it emerged from the woods of America and soon took center stage.
What with megachurches and TV (fundamentalism was a phenomenon waiting for TV), it blew across the American landscape like a hurricane. Add to that private schools and home-schooling, and for the last 50 years, along with Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan, a virulent form of christianity, a pro-capital, America-first, brand of faith, a faith full of hatred and violent images, an anti-science faith, has been shaping faith and culture for millions of Americans.
It will take a long time to root this out of the American mindset. It will retreat, and we'll see many of the megachurches close their doors and sell their campuses to community colleges, so that real learning might occur in those buildings mostly built on ignorance, fear and unrelenting pride.
Yet, this kind of junk is always part of human DNA - call it original sin, if you will, but in some form or other, it will re-emerge, ready to take on the demons of the world, offering a brand of faith, "bigger, better, brighter" than others, and willing to lead this nation, or other nations, into insanity once again.
Like those snake-handlers in West Virginia, nothing can sway their faith. Whatever happens, they have a reason for it, a reason that leaves their crazy faith intact!
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