Tag Archives: politics

Keystone Congress

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I’m not saying President Barack Obama is doing the best job ever of any recent president in office; however, considering what he inherited, he’s done pretty well, and even in his worst moments he’s more competent by far than George W. Bush administratively and in terms of foreign policy. Point is that I have my beefs at times with the Oval Office, even if one might assume from my liberal leanings that I worship at the altar of Obama.

Still, even when I’m not happy at the direction the president is going (or even the Supreme Court in a lot of recent decisions), the bulk of my ill-will is aimed squarely at the U.S. Congress. This is a body (both houses) that has become bloated, inefficient, corrupt, out of touch and deranged to extremes that I never could have imagined when I started voting back around 1986. To give you a taste of how I feel, how about some of these tweets from me over the past few days:

In other celebrity news, Fiscal Cliff and Debt Ceiling are going to have a child out of wedlock and also have a sex video coming out…

There aren’t enough video games these days that allow you to destroy nations or worlds. Time for a new MMPORPG called “U.S. Congress!”

I don’t have faith in U.S. Congress to pass a healthy turd anymore, much less any meaningful or useful legislation, budgets or anything else

31 Dec

Politicians elected to *serve*. Y’all get benefits most can only dream of. I give not 2 fucks if ya have to give up New Year’s & family time

This is a representative democracy; I’m a bit tired of Congress not actually representing most of its constituency while fellating top few %

Do I have this right? …Senate worked late and hard, and the House said, “Fuck y’all; we’re going to sleep & look at your shit in morning”

…nowwwwwwwwww, you might think I’m a bit cynical, jaded, fed-up, disillusioned and maybe even royally pissed off with the cock-up that is our federal legislature. Nothing could be farther from the…oh, wait, you’d be correct.

And yes, I level most of the blame in the past four years (well, 12, really, but we’ll focus on the worst third of that period) to the Republicans and their “We won’t support anything that could be seen as a victory for Obama, even if it’s actually kind of in our favor and even in line with our party’s philosophy” approach to governing. They’ve been whining, childish bastards willing to play games with the economy and people’s lives just to reclaim the White House and deep-throat corporate America and the uber-rich, and it sickens me. However, that said, the Democrats are just about as much in bed with corporate America as the Republicans, they can’t band together to save their lives, and they seem more than a bit aimless these days.

Basically, the U.S. Congress is kind of like the Keystone Cops from those old black-and-white silent films, where they tripped over each other and bungled everything. Only the Keystone Cops still seem to have it together more than our Keystone Congress does.

So, what do we do about it?

I don’t know. But I’ll tell you what. I’ll copy-paste an email forwarded to me by a family friend recently, because maybe it’s a good start for thinking about answers (no, I don’t know who it originates with, and it’s not my work nor have I even edited any part of what’s below):

Subject: Fw: Warren Buffet – please read…takes 1 minute

Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best

quotes about the debt ceiling:

“I could end the deficit in 5 minutes,” he told CNBC. “You just
pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more
than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible
for re-election.

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds)
took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple!
The people demanded it. That was in 1971 – before computers, e-mail,
cell phones, etc.

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took one (1) year
or less to become the law of the land – all because of public pressure.

Warren Buffet is asking each addressee to forward this email to
a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask
each of those to do likewise.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will
have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed
around.

Congressional Reform Act of 2012

1. No Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no
pay when they’re out of office.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social
Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the
Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into
the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the
American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all
Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.
Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and
participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the
American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void
effective 12/31/12. The American people did not make this
contract with Congressmen/women.

Congress made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in
Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers
envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their
term(s), then go home and back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will
only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive
the message. Don’t you think it’s time?

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!

If you agree, pass it on. If not, delete.
You are one of my 20+ – Please keep it going, and thanks

‘Tis the Season…for Hurt Feelings

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I’ve seen a number of people on my Twitter timeline who are lamenting all the political talk and sometimes arguments online as we near the U.S. presidential election in November.

While I understand that they want Twitter to go back to being a fun place, with talk of bacon, sex and cute LOLcat videos, among other things…well, that’s not reasonable. This is a major election, with major problems still happening in the United States and worldwide, and tensions are understandably high.

So, you need to suck it up until probably February, when maybe post-inauguration people will calm down a little.

Sure, I say this in part because many of my tweets have been politically oriented. I’ve also balanced that with more general snark and humor, so I’m not exactly on a soap box all the time. But, frankly, what did you expect? This is social media. Twitter still tends to be more fun than Facebook, which seems to be getting increasingly infested with bitter, shallow people who just want to fight…but it’s still a place to talk.

And politics is a valid and important point of discussion. People are understandably concerned about a party on one side that doesn’t seem to have clear solutions to the problems we’re facing (or are working on the problems too slowly) and on the other side a party that’s given up on honor and just makes stuff up now and passes it off as facts then gets mad when fact-checkers dare to call them on it.

This isn’t a recipe for positive change. People are worried, and on both sides they feel this election is pivotal for America’s future.

Are relationships going to be ruined by this?

Yes.

Are some fun times going to become awkward as humor is interrupted by policy talk?

Yes.

But that happened over drinks with co-workers and dinner with the relatives long before social media existed.

Twitter and all the rest are not your havens from the real world. They are places to communicate.

If you don’t like what’s being said, move on to the next tweet. You’ll find the sex and bacon before long, I’m sure.

Never seeing the extremist in one’s self

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It’s the debate and campaigning run-up to the 2012 election, so naturally you can expect more political and social ramblings from me around here, like…oh…talking about how batshit insane so many of the GOP presidential hopefuls are.

As I watch Barack Obama not really initiate much change in “politics as usual” nor really advance an even remotely progressive agenda (not that I want to see all left-wing changes, though), and consider how much he is called a totalitarian or socialist or extremist by the right-wing and all who heartily support the Tea Party and the Libertarians…well, I can’t help but laugh. Obama is about as moderate as they come, with some leftward leanings, much like George W. Bush is probably a moderate with rightward leanings (what a shame he was also kind of an idiot, and let right-wing nutjob Dick Cheney and other people on the right call so many shots, thus plunging his entire two-term administration into right-wing madness).

I mean, I almost wish a left-wing, controlling nut would rise to the presidency just so that the conservatives could see what a truly extreme liberal is. Or even a more restrained left-winger, so they could contrast and compare with our last two Democratic presidents, who were very much moderate.

Problem is these days is that the Democrats are fractured (as usual), can’t agree (as usual), can’t stand united and strong in the face of “looking bad” (as usual) and negotiate with the right so that everything they do ends up being somewhere slightly to the right of moderate anyway (as usual). At the same time, the Republicans are being driven by a relatively small but highly vocal group of people who think that helping others, preventing corporations from exploiting people and being smart about how we use natural resources are somehow evil and destroy freedom.

There really aren’t very many true liberals with any political power right now. Not enough to drive any kind of agenda, and that’s in part because they don’t get the big bucks that conservatives and moderates get from special interests. But there are a significant number of hard-core conservatives with a lot of opinions and no regard for facts, science or logic who are well-funded and can get heard and heeded quite a bit.

So, naturally, most of my ire will be aimed at the right wing. Not because I’m some radical, liberal, America-hating person (though I’ve been accused of such, merely for the sin of considering both sides and generally taking a fairly middle of the road approach with slightly leftward leanings), but because extremists scare me.

What’s most scary is that extremists don’t tend to see themselves as extreme, which always confuses me.

You see, the conservatives complain about “radical Islam” (which I put in quotes not because it doesn’t exist…because it does…but because right-wingers apply it to every damn Muslim in the world unfairly) and they often point out how such people are quick to choose violence, won’t negotiate and oppress others. Then those very same conservatives talk about how we need to solve so many of our problems with violence, they won’t ever compromise or negotiate any point, and they stamp all over people’s human rights and dignity.

Fact is, if you only advance the aims of the liberals or the conservatives, you are extreme. Period. The idea that the nation’s problems can be solved by applying all the philosophies and ideas at one end of the ideological spectrum is madness. You cannot solve complex problems with a one-size-fits-all approach.

What frustrates me with Obama’s presidency isn’t that he isn’t liberal enough. What bugs me is (1) he has been willing to give too much away to the right wing, with no consideration for the people who elected him wanting some leftward shifts after eight years of Bush and (2) that the Republican Party will absolutely not work with even the most moderate and sometimes right-leaning policies the president puts forth because they would rather the country burn than to let him advance any successful agenda or earn a second term. Granted, that second one isn’t Obama’s fault, but it’s still a frustration related to his term thus far in office.

If your views are held to by only around half the population (or less), and you try to enforce them for the whole population without any kind of adjustment or balance, you are an extremist.

If you only look out for the rights of workers, and never consider the value of capitalism and allowing it some room, you are extremist. If you think corporations should never be accountable for their bad decisions because they’re “too big to fail” and you think they should be allowed to treat workers and the environment however they will, you are extremist.

If you think that in a nation of agnostics, atheists, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Wiccans, Buddhists (and many more) that you should be able to apply Christian value to all and do it through the force of law, you are extremist. If you think it is your duty to erase religion or marginalize it in such a diverse society, you are also extremist.

If you think no criminal ever deserves harsh punishment, you are extremist, as are those who think that anyone put in prison deserves to be there and perhaps die there, even when evidence comes to light that suggests the contrary.

Seeing only the black and white and choosing one color or the other is extremist. There is almost no decision worth making in society that doesn’t involve a whole lot of gray and require compromise to be fair. If you don’t agree with that, guess what? You’re an extremist.

And you should have no place in public policy-making.

Two Years of Hell to Pay?

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…maybe even more years than that.

I think this bit of commentary is telling, not simply because of the horrific outcomes it predicts (which are entirely likely), but because even I…a person who is left-leaning and largely votes Democratic…didn’t know some of this stuff (like, oh, the fact the budget deficit that the Republicans were bitching about was actually less than George W. Bush’s budget deficit).

As has become usual, the Democrats manage to get stuff done for the American people, and fail to effectively tell them they did it. Instead, they let the right-wing set the media agenda and stir the American populace into a frenzy over GOP and Tea Party fantasies that have little to do with reality.

After two years of being in the minority and managing to grind much of the political process to a slow crawl, now the GOP is set to bring it to a dead halt in a mission of destruction. And right now, they have the support of many working-class/middle-class/poor Americans who haven’t yet clued into the fact that the only thing they’ve accomplished in the mid-term elections is to make everything worse.

Beginning with their own well-being, their own future, their own livelihoods.

We’re so screwed. I hope Bob Cesca is wrong in that commentary I linked to above. I really do. But after two years of saying “no” to President Obama even on issues the GOP supported in the recent past, does anyone with any kind of critical thinking believe they are going to be level-headed NOW?

A looming zombie apocalypse a la “The Walking Dead” would almost be a relief at this point, given the specter of an America with a bunch of ass-hats holding the majority in the House and wreaking havoc simply because they hate the President…and for no good reason.

And if the GOP manages to turn our slow economic recovery into a decline by trying to bring back the policies that caused the economic meltdown in the first place, who do you think they’ll blame?

Yeah, the black guy. And all those “socialists” and “fascists” (aka, just about anyone who’s a Democrat)

God help us all.

Double Talk from Elephants

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While at a community event recently…a carnival-style event recently, really…I was enjoying a bean supper with my family.

OK, enjoying is a bit extreme. The beans needed some seasoning, half of the hot dogs (which were all sliced up) were something pale and anemic and more tasteless than mild bratwurst, the bread was white bread that made Wonder Bread look gourmet, and…I’m sorry, I digress.

Anyway, there is a candidate for Senate who is working his way through the crowd, glad-handing and trying to drum up voter support.

Cool. More power to him.

But as he approaches one guy, the potential voter asks, as he shakes the politician’s hand, “What party are you?”

“Republican,” Mr. I-Want-To-Be-Senator responds happily.

“Well, I won’t hold it against you,” Potential-Voter-Man replies amiably.

“You know,” says Mr. I-Want-To-Be-Senator, adopting a professorial tone of knowledge, wisdom and authority, “my opponent isn’t really a Democrat. She’s a Progressive.”

Naturally, as I eavesdrop on all this, you can imagine the startled gasp in my head. You mean that the woman I was leaning toward voting for isn’t a Democrat? She’s secretly a Progressive?

Dear God help us. Thank you for sending this honest Bible-loving family man who apparently has all the answers to the U.S. recovering fiscally (which no doubt involves heavy military funding and slashing all social services).

I mean, his line about his opponent pissed me off more than any other double-talk, means-nothing piece of drivel I’ve heard in a long time.

What is a Progressive, anyway?

Typically these days, it’s a certain flavor of liberal.

Am I supposed to be surprised that a Democrat might trend toward liberal ideology?

And yet, Mr. I-Want-To-Be-Senator has in the tone of his voice a note of warning. She’s a sneak. A traitor. A liar. She’s not what she claims to be.

I mean, if there were actually an active Progressive Party and you were telling me that she was really a member of that, and riding on the coattails of the Dems, I might give you some credit. Much like someone if someone were to theoretically tell me that Mr. I-Want-To-Be-Senator was really a Libertarian or Tea Party member and not a Republican.

But as near as I can tell in the United States, there hasn’t been an organized  political party called the Progressive Party since the 1940s, and of the three versions of the Progressive Party that have existed since the nation was founded, at least one of them was an offshoot from a schism in the Republican Party.

It’s the kind of double-talk that I’m finding tiresome among many Republicans, most particularly the hard-core conservative ones, who seem to like to plant labels on people that all seem to be code for “un-American.” As if the only true Americans are those who go to a Christian church, vote Republican across the board, cheer when abortion doctors are murdered and are in line waiting to date Sarah Palin should her husband suddenly drop dead (the men, at least).

Dear God, my Democratic candidate for Senate is a Progressive. Shocking.

Next thing you’ll tell me is that she isn’t really a woman…she’s a feminist.

Obama, Christian Love & Teabag Insanity

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First, as a fairly liberal/progressive Democrat, let me say one thing to everyone out there who’s losing his or her frickin’ sanity over President Barack Obama, healthcare reform, or anything else related to Democrats:

Shut up and deal with it.

I’m not saying you can’t disagree or debate, but enough with threatening to kill the sitting president, claiming that he’s instituting Socialism, and all that other bullshit.

Since I became a relatively politically aware human being, and as the son of a devout anti-abortion, Catholic, Union-card carrying electrician (who also votes Democrat like me), I have had to suffer through the depredations of Ronald Reagan, Bush #1 and Bush #2 (I was too young during the Ford and Carter years to really grasp enough politics to care).

That’s 20 damn years I’ve suffered Republicans. The best years for our nation economically happened under Clinton, who could have stood to be a little less moderate at times and a little more left leaning, but at least he mostly got things right in terms of being a human and treating the citizenry who weren’t rich with some kind of compassion.

That’s 20 years of Republican rule I’ve lived under, and 8 years of Democratic rule. It’s time for you right-wing, conservative, war-mongering, wealth-chasing, poor-bashing, bigoted asses who pine for the days of Ronnie and Dubya to sit down and take a long, deep breath.

You’ve had plenty of time, and mostly, all you’ve done is cut the legs out from under the poor and working class, cut loose the mentally ill on the public, raped the school system, sent American jobs overseas, and rewarded corporations for screwing over their employees.

You’ve had 20 years of my politically aware life. You owe me at least another 7 years, if not 11, to make up for it before you get your shot again.

I didn’t scream at Reagan or either Bush. I didn’t threaten them. I bided my time and suffered and sweated, and now it’s my damned time.

Get it?

The nation doesn’t belong to Republicans. It belongs to Americans. But too many Americans handed it over like it was the GOP’s playground alone.

Take a rest, calm down, and tend to your homes, and let the sitting administration do its job, just like I let three of the last four do theirs to my detriment.

Second thing I want to say:

When did we lose (or rather, YOU lose, and I’m still speaking to the rapid GOP supporters, especially those whom they most screw over…the working class Republicans, who must be the most masochistic group of people on Earth) the ability to have polite discourse? When did it become appropriate to call for militias to take D.C. back for the people? Or to put a bullet in Obama’s head? Had any Democrat, liberal or other left-leaning group or individual done that during the GOP administrations, you’d be calling for their blood and calling them un-American and unpatriotic.

Be patriotic, and respect your damn president. At least half the nation disagrees with you right now, probably more than that, and you need to sit your asses down until you can debate sensibly.

Especially you Bible thumpers (and I love me some Jesus too, mind you). Even if you think Obama is persecuting you, Jesus told us to love those who persecute us, and he never advocated armed rebellion against sitting governments. Nor did he call for killing anyone. Jesus would be ashamed of every damn Teabag Party/teabagger out there.

That is all.

Time to Fight, My Brother

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Now, I’ve been one of those people who feared that if Barack Obama spoke what he really felt sometimes during the primaries and up to now, people would be turned off by the unfair image that he is “an angry Negro” instead of someone rightly sticking up for himself. That has now ended. And here is my “open letter” to Obama (and to those of you who are undecided in the upcoming election) on that matter.

It’s gotten really dirty in this presidential campaign now, and Sen. Obama, it is time for you to fight. My brother in Christ, you need to take off the hat you wear in polite company and put on a riot helmet. You need to take of the kidskin gloves and put on some brass knuckles. Take off those loafers and put on some ass-kicking Doc Marten boots.

It’s time to do battle.

And if a commercial that has imagery suggesting you’re at worst, a pedophile, and at best, someone who wants little kids to know the ins and outs of sexual intercourse—neither of which is true, of course, but images that might stick with people on the fence about you—if a commercial like that can’t get you to start speaking out about this shit, from your own mouth (and not just from your campaign people), I don’t know what can. You backed a bill to help little kids recognize when they are being approached by sexual predators, and your opponents are turning it on its head to say you want to literally teach little kids about sex. Much of America is too lazy to sort out lies from truth. If you don’t respond, and forcibly, the lies will gain power and be perceived as truth. There are still people who believe the lie that you are Muslim, my brother. Don’t ever forget that.

(For more background about the video above, read this at Huffington Post.)

Senator, you have the nomination now, and the Republicans have never fought fair. You won’t win over too many people at this point who are nervous about the idea of a Black man in the White House. Anyone who already thinks you’re an angry Negro will continue to think that; it’s time to sort out who among the undecided is ignorant enough to believe that. It’s time to show those who are on the fence that you not only know how to speak and think but also how to fight. And let the chips fall where they may.

It was only a couple days ago that I posted one of my drive-by scripture items, on Romans chapter 12, verses 18-21, which goes like this:

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

We are past the point at which you can live at peace with your opponents, because they have now decided to fight dirty. You don’t need to stoop to their level and sling mud, but there are plenty of lies they’ve told about things they’ve done that you can rightly call them out on. You also need to respond to their lies about you so that people won’t take your silence the way people take a “no comment” remark on the news (most people assume guilt when they hear that, you know). You don’t need to return evil for evil, Senator. You just need to start hitting back when someone swings at you. You can fight back with dignity, but for God’s sake, fight back.

I know you aren’t a pansy-ass wimp, Senator. I know you know how to fight. But you need to show that now. You can be mature, you can be above the fray, but every hit you take with silence makes you look bad. In the boxing ring, if you can take hits and not fall down, it can show your toughness, but in an election, people can’t see inside you to know you’re still standing emotionally and spiritually.

Senator, you might want to read this, which says a lot of the same things that I just have. Those of us who support you know that you’re the better choice, you and Joe Biden, than are John McCain and Sarah Palin, who will continue to run this country into the ground because they lack scruples, new ideas or a willingness to do the right thing. But there are many who are undecided, and the more you hold back your desire to fight back, the more of them start leaning toward McCain-Palin.

If you won’t fight for yourself, fight for the rest of us. I’d rather you go down swinging. You can fight a clean fight, but damn it, fight already.

Where Are Sarah’s Pastors? by Miz Pink

5 Replies

Mini Pink #3 has moved several of my internal organs so out of place and seems to be sitting right on top of all of them at the moment, with the exception of my heart and lung which he or she is jamming his/her fists into right now. I’m uncomfortable, I feel fat (because I am right now)…and I don’t feel at all like I’m glowing, no matter what Sir Pink or the rest of the fam tell me.

So, let’s make this quick.

Why the heck does Fox News get to run clips of Barack Obama’s former pastor over and over again to make both of them look crazy, then all the other news media start talking about “Is the pastor a liability?” “Does this mean Obama has anger against America?” and other crap, and a whole cycle begins that results in Barack having to reject the man who headed up the church he spent 20 years attending…and yet…

Sarah Palin has several wacky pastors and ex-pastors, who’ve said things like our action in Iraq is God’s war and who apparently like to speak in tongues a lot, and not only doesn’t Fox News say crap about it (I didn’t expect them to) but I don’t hear too many other media folks talking about it.

Wow! The black dude isn’t allowed to have ties to any religious figures with colorful opinions. But the white chick is. Oh, and still no mention in the mainstream media about John McCain’s various crazy/homophobic/sexist/racist pastors and spiritual advisors either.

Hmmmm…no double standard there, right? Anyhoo, Deke has more to say on the election stuff today maybe and probably several other times between now and November.

*Sigh* A guy with lots of unspent anger and questionable judgement and a religiously extreme mommy dearest from the arctic tundra. And a pretty decent chance that enough morons will band together to vote them into office. Lovely. Sir Pink…oh honey…are our passports up to date?

What really separates us

6 Replies

*Sigh* Well, the Spirit moved me to find some images that might potentially be useful for running with my next post on speaking in tongues…but sadly, once again, I have been moved in a direction other than writing that post today.

Today, I want to get us clear of what I think is one of the most ignorant comments about any religion, Christianity included: Religion is responsible for most of the atrocities that have ever been committed.

You get a lot of variations on this theme. People say that religion has precipitated more wars than anything else. That abuses in society have often been justified with religion. Or they say that religion does more to divide us than to bring us together.

While this sounds really cathartic to say, especially if you’re an atheist or an agnostic who really, really dislikes organized religion (and hey, I have my own beefs with a lot of churches and denominations)…it really isn’t true.

Religion isn’t the problem.

People are the problem.

If we were to remove religion from the picture, do you seriously think we’d all just get along? That’s a very Pollyanna-ish and naive view of the world and of human nature. Sure, a lot of wars were waged around religious issues. But do you think the believers en masse wanted to go fight other religious believers? No, it was the people in charge, the leaders of society, who made that choice. And most of the time, the motivations are not to glorify God (or a god or goddess) but rather to achieve their own ends.

Power. Influence. Hoping to impress God for selfish reasons. Money. Land. Love. Lust.

Those are the motivators. Not religion.

Religion divides us no more than do race or culture. Eliminating religion won’t eliminate racism. People can use religious text (often out of context) to justify their racism, but they don’t feel racism because of their religious beliefs. Feelings of cultural or political superiority can be justified or bolstered with religion, but they don’t come from a religious source. They come from pride. From arrogance. From pettiness.

I would argue that democracy and capitalism have both been using as rallying cries for a lot of abuses against individuals, nations and the planet. For that matter, communist beliefs (being both political and economic) have been used the same way.

Six million Jews were slaughtered in the Holocaust not because of religion (not even over them practicing a religion that wasn’t in favor) but because they were scapegoats for an economic downturn and because Hitler thought his people were genetically superior.

The Crusades were not about lifting up God or even fighting for him, but about forming or expanding or maintaining power and/or empires. The Inquisition was not about religion but about control.

People can and will twist any philosophy, economic system or political movement when they think it is necessary to achieve their own agenda—whether it’s a personal agenda, societal agenda or both. Blaming religion for any ills of the world is wrong.

It’s a form of discrimination and a diseased form of elitism that is every bit as bad as that spouted by any pompous ass who waves around a cross or crescent or six-pointed star. Because you can just as easily replace that religious symbol with a flag.

(Miz Pink, where are you? I think I need you to post something soon so that I will get out of here for a day or so and finally finish talking about speaking in tongues…)