The Logic of the Anti-Abortion Group

The logic of the anti-abortion group is unassailable.

It simply says: Abortion is murder.

Never a choice for anyone.
Never a medical necessity.
Never for rape or incest.
Never ever anything but murder.
MURDER OF CHILDREN.
M U R D E R.
M U R D E R.
Period.

All pregnancy (including rape and incest) is the will of God, and, thus, to ever prevent full-term delivery, is a contravention of God's will.

And a nation that allows abortion is guilty of the grossest of sins, and can never enjoy the favor of God.

So, while I might support abortion rights, and I do, I would never question the right of someone opposed to abortion ... they are free, in my world at least, to practice their pro-birth stance.

But I am not free in their world to choose abortion, or to support the right of a woman to choose.

Given it's logic, there is no way in heaven or hell that they could ever allow anyone ever the choice of abortion.

To do so would be to the condemn the person to everlasting hell, by allowing them to commit sin, a sin of the grossest kind.

Those, then, who support abortion rights are themselves guilty of aiding and abetting murder.

MURDER ... COLD-BLOODED MURDER!

Thus, in order to protect people from going to hell and to save this nation from the judgment of God, there can never be, must never be, will never be, one legal abortion. The very notion of making it "legal" flies in the face of their faith, their logic, their image of this nation, their patriotism, their prayers, their social and personal convictions.

And for some in this camp, the punishments for such a crime ought to match the crime, as they see it - at the very least, prison; while some even espouse capital punishment, especially for providers of abortion, or, as they believe, the murder of children.

There is no room here for negotiating, and certainly no room for allowing anyone the choice.

There must never again be another legal abortion in this nation, and every effort must be made to prevent the illegal ones, as well.

This kind of logic is unassailable.

A Letter to Some Friends ...

I awoke in the middle night with my stomach clenched … 

I kept thinking about the latest effort in Texas - the Supreme Court there has agreed to hear a case against benefits for gay spouses. Perhaps the Texas Supreme Court will put it to rest, but my fear is simply this: Nullification, the theme-song of the South … if it’s Federal Law, we’re not bound to uphold it.

I can’t help but see all of this as a million steps backward.

They despise all things related to the freedom and rights of LGBTQ persons … and a whole lot of other people, along with voting rights. Sadly, the Republicans were smarter than the Dems and for 40 years, the GOP has been building a base in the states - state houses and governorships, leading to gerrymandering …. which leads to the control of the US house. They did it right, and now we reap the bitter fruits of their strategy. And it’s going to take a long time for the Dems to regain all of this lost ground. And it’s more than conceivable, I fear, that with SCOTUS appointments, we could see the undoing of Roe v. Wade.

And all of this has been supported in evangelical churches, megachurches, Liberty University and other such “educational” institutions, and religious radio and TV … as Joseph Goebbels said: “It would not have been possible for us to take power or to use it in the ways we have without the radio.”

For me, this is evil … the deconstruction of the welfare of the people for the sake of the few, driven by dark ideologies … whether it be the religious elite guarding the Temple and it’s big business of selling animals for slaughter and sacrifice, the moneychangers and the Temple Taxes and the Plutocratic Roman Empire working together to suppress the people and ultimately to arrest and condemn a public threat, namely Jesus … or similar forces these days.

Anyway, just some Saturday morning ramblings … my daughter is going to the Women’s March here in LA … I have friends in Washington … gonna turn on TV and watch them do God’s work on behalf of justice and peace (real peace, not the rotten peace of compromise or suppression).

Argh.

With love and hope, affection and attitude,

Tom

When SS Doesn't Work

The GOP Conmen are doing to Social Security what they've already done, in large part, to American Public Education - impoverish it.

And then shout at the top of their itty bitty lungs, "Social Security is bankrupting America. And besides that, it won't work much longer."

After beating their "We're so poor" drum, they'll offer in place of SS a shoddy investment plan which will:

1) Always benefit those who own the instruments of investment.
2) Benefit even some of the investors.
3) Leaving most of America all the poorer.

America, you're being duped.

And most pitiable of all, the Evangelicals, who've not only been duped, but have convinced themselves that the con game is God's will.

America's Warrior Class

We have a warrior class in America. 1) In part, because it's in our DNA, and some have it in spades. 2) Southern Culture has curried a notion of honor found in war. 3) Large segments of the Christian Church have exchanged the Prince of Peace for the Dogs of War. 4) Accentuated now by the lack of a draft, and sustained by walls of secrecy and distance from the day-to-day experience of society. 5) Perhaps even aided and abetted by video games. 6) That for many a young woman or man, the military life is an escape from poverty, a means of education, and, for some, a pathway to citizenship. Poverty is a function of maintaining a recruitment pool.

Given all of this, I get the feeling that some in America are spoiling for war, and have done so for some time now.

In reading about WW1, the war that should never have been, the nations involved had talked tough for so long, had rattled sabers and spoken of honor, had even sought peace, until everyone was exhausted, and going to war was the easiest option of all. Having teetered on the edge for so long, it was now easier just to fall off.

There is a portion of any given society which loves war - "the smell of napalm in the morning." They talk tough, they speak endlessly of national and personal honor, they believe in might, they long for the adventure, they believe that violence is always a viable solution for peace.

Given the right conditions, if such people assume responsibility for a nation, the prospects of war increase significantly. And, sadly, all across Europe, when the drums of war were pounding, there was found the Christian Church prompting the soldiers with thoughts of heavenly glory and the will of god, confusing the Father of Glory with the glorious Fatherland.

Telling lies seems to be in season.

The city of Santa Anna is drawing up a proposal to become a sanctuary city.

An opponent of the proposal said:
"We know that most illegals are criminals who come here to exploit the United States."

This is a lie.
We all know it.
Stats make it clear.
The evidenced is in.

Hats off to Santa Anna and other sanctuary cities.
Hats off to people who tell the truth.
Who embrace kindness and mercy and intelligence and reason.
Folks who see the world in the light of reality and facts.

And boo bad to the man or woman who tells the lie.
And double boo bad to those who believe them.
Because the lies coincide with fear and suspicion.
And let's face it, the lies also correspond to prejudice.

Are there criminals amongst the illegals?
Sure.
But not most, hardly any.
So, no more lies on this point.

Folks come here to work.
To find life for their families.
To find a future.
To live a dream.

Let's support them.
Let's help them.
Let love be the norm.
Not the lie.

Let the truth be told.
And let the truth set us free.
Free from the lies.
And free to be responsible human beings.

Voting for My Granddaughter

My granddaughter will be four tomorrow.
Election Day.

So I’ll cast my vote on her behalf.
And maybe just maybe, 
I can give her a good world.

Wherein:

Her gender is welcomed and celebrated, without question.
Her salary will be equal to what others make in all regards.
Her color won’t be a question.

Universal Health Care will be hers.
Along with all her choices for health care.
And adequate social safety nets in place for the unforeseen.

Where global warming is seriously considered.
Where scientists are respected.
Where knowledge is honored.

Just a few things
For which I am voting, on a mighty important day:
My granddaughter’s birthday, and the day of our Election.

So, now ya’ know.
How I’ll cast my vote.
All the way, for my granddaughter.

And for the women of the world.
And for all the girls and all the children.
A President who’ll make a better world for all of them.

And lest there be a question.
Let there be no doubt … for me, and for America:
Welcome - to a leader; welcome Madame President!

Immigrants, Talent, Future

Reading a novel about Berlin, 1939, and the shadow of hatred darkening the landscape of the nation, draping everyone in a curtain of fear and suspicion, with the doors and windows of life slowly closing on the Jew, and being locked.

The author, Jane Thynne, The Pursuit of Pearls, captures the insanity of it all - the plodding, determined, logical, reasonable insanity of the Nazis to refine the race and purify the nation, ridding themselves of anyone and everything that stained their collective sense of racial greatness.

It occurred to me, while reading, all the lost talent ... not that life and people is all about talent, as if human beings were simply a commodity to be traded upon.

But talent it is of which I'm thinking - the artist and the poet, the physician and the philosopher, the seamstress and the jeweler, the chef and the athlete, the writer and the musician, the comedian and the architect, and so much more - all of it lost to the ages, because of some insane desire to protect the nation from impurity.

In the hideous gas chambers of Hitler's regime, what inestimable treasure was lost - the children who once knew laughter, the families and the Sunday afternoon outing at the park, the books that now would never be written, the songs never sung, the ideas never born, the love never given and received.

I think of our times now, and those who so "reasonably" fear the "immigrant" - that catchall phrase that gathers up all the anger and fear of a nation undergoing tremendous demographic change, because of the Statue of Liberty guarding the New York Harbor. Welcome, it says, welcome to a land of hope and opportunity, a land wherein all have a chance to achieve their best intentions and realize their abilities to make this a better world.

And now, some would take millions of people and send them packing. These red-faced, pinch-eyed, politicians would gladly break up families, condemning children to endless terror and their parents to untold sorrow.

Who are these politicians that speak so harshly, and sound, at least to their eager fans, so reasonable, so logical, so patriotic?

And what will be our loss, if I may put it in computable terms?

The books that remain to be written ... the science that remains to be enlarged ... the thoughts and talents of millions that will enrich our nation, flavor our culture, energize our economy, adding depth and delight to our future.

These mean-spirited politicians drag out statistics to prove that our immigrants are terrible people, and there are those who are more than happy to denounce the immigrant as a job-stealer, a rapist, and a drug-dealer.

Sounds to me too much like Nazi Germany - the vilification of the Jew, the Gypsy and the Slav - all of them, and more, undesirable.

Well, what's gained in all of this?

As the Nazis found in the rubble of Berlin, nothing is gained, and the losses are unimaginably huge.

Those who would live in nation with windows and doors sealed shut will soon run out of fresh air, and lo and behold will quickly discover that all the "bad" things imagined or real about the immigrant are painfully present in those ensconced in their version of racial purity and national pride. That which they fear in the "other," is present within their own soul and mind, and thus there will never be peace, within or without.

And the loss is unimaginable.