Ann Coulter - Warm and Fuzzy

I have taken one for the team. Nearly the supreme sacrifice. I think I should get double points for this. No, triple!

I have listened to all five discs of Ann Coulter's The Church of Liberalism read by the author. I hadn't had the pleasure of reading any of Ms. Coulter's fine work prior to this. I can only say that my initial response to her is that she is the embodiment of the Ultra-Conservative, Vituperative Right-Wing, Bitch Slut From Hell. After some consideration, though, and in all fairness, that might be a bit over the top. I don't believe in hell. I do believe spending around five hours driving about central Indiana listening to her nauseatingly nasal drone is as close to hell as I ever want to get. After each disc ran its course, I just wanted to jump into a vat of Purel and soak for a while. The only fragment of a silver lining behind the dark cloud of her vitriolic prose is that the book on CD is an abridged version of the original. (Hallelujah!)

The ultra-right needed a good liberal basher. Rush Limbaugh just wasn't getting the job done what with his medicinal problems. They needed someone to counter Michael Moore and the mighty Al Franken. Coulter more than fills the bill. She actually may be more adept at the cheap shot than is Moore. She loves to slip them in from the side of her mouth like spittle or drool. She is endlessly condescending and self-righteous.

Now that I have taken my shots (I must admit, it does feel good,) I say this: Setting aside the above mentioned shots and her all encompassing charges, ultimately she mounts some thorough and pretty convincing arguments. It's not a question as to whether I buy them or not (I don't.) She lost credibilitiy with me early on.

But a lot of people have, and will buy into her claims and charges. I haven't the depth of knowledge to counter her debunking of evolution, her denigration of Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plaime, her diatribe against teachers and public education, or her evisceration of what we believe happened at the Scopes trial. Coulter is not stupid. She, at least seemingly, makes thoroughly researched arguments. Are they? I don't know. I certainly hope not.

I am a bit slow in the uptake regarding Coulter. I know she's been out there at her liberal/democrat bashing for some time. There are several web sites and now a few books which attempt to mount counter attacks against her. A few appear to be somewhat successful, most, not so much.

A lot of what I've seen is just more cheap shots. Again, it's fun, but it gets us nowhere. I hope to find some really strong, authoritative, properly researched and substantiated arguments against her.

I find her despicable first due to her divisiveness. Her broad attacks against essentially half of the population of this country - which includes a charge of treason against the entire Democratic party - are just the kind of thing I hate reading or hearing from anyone - from the left or right.

According to Coulter no one professing to be either a liberal or democrat should be allowed to draw breath, let alone serve in any capacity in public office.

Among many blanket charges she makes against all liberals are the following:


That we -
1. Love abortion - want to kill babies as our primary mission
2. Hate science (Yeah, the blond harridin says we hate science. Noell will really like that one.)
3. Love criminals (especially murderers and rapists) - do not want them incarcerated
4. Love terrorists
5. Love Stalin & all communists
6. Hate god (but)
7. Love muslims
8. Lie - always - about everything
9. Love taxes
10. Hate the poor
11. Hate women
12. Hate the elderly
13. Hate freedom



There are others, but you get the idea. We are obviously an evil bunch.


She starts out this book by claiming that liberalism is, as the title would suggest, a religion.


She claims that evolutionists are a cult.

She refers to women who are pro-abortion as "women who have sex with men they don't want to have children with."


She refers to four wives of WTC victims as the "9/11 sluts."



She places the blame for 9/11 wholly in the lap of the Clinton administration. I think she believes that Hillary personally obtained all of the 9/11 terrorists their flight reservations from the infamous White House travel office. She totally absolves the Bush administration from any responsibility. She claims that Clinton was too busy getting off in the Oval Office to be concerned about Osama and his boys.


I do not sit here as an apologist for Bill Clinton. His dalliances with Monica Lewinsky and others remain reprehensible. He damaged both his nation and his presidency. And I do believe that mistakes were made by Mr. Bill and his people regarding terrorist activity both within and beyond our shores. But those mistakes and more were carried forward by Bush and his war mongering cronies. They buried their heads even deeper in the sand. It has been charged repeatedly that even before 9/11, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, etal, were obsessed with going to war against Iraq. The September attacks just provided them the license, as it were, to mix it up with Saddam without an iota of proof that any Iraqis were involved. Dubya had to revenge H Dubya, for goodness sakes.

Second, Ann Coulter is despicable in that, just as with Rush Limbaugh, she is laughing all the way to the bank. While I don't suppose there is any danger of her net worth overtaking "The Donald," she has nevertheless made a great deal of money on the backs of liberals and democrats. She is making hay out of what should be measured and properly considered discourse. We are talking about the welfare of a nation - perhaps, if things go badly, civilization itself.

I find what Coulter and others of her ilk on both sides of the left/right argument are doing is, in effect, making us a more seriously polarized nation in an unstable and dangerous world.

They are playing with fire.

TLS

Christians: They're Everywhere!

When I was young - gosh, it seems like it could have been a whole other century - most people practiced their faith, or lack thereof, quietly. It was considered to be a personal affair. One's religious belief was not a public issue. Generally, the faithful attended church, sent the young ones to Sunday school, went to a few pot luck suppers, but otherwise went on with their lives, doing their jobs, raising their kids, most of whom went to neighborhood public schools, and maintained their households, without making an issue of their particular religious affiliation. Only the fringe - the wackos - jehovah witness, pentecosts, tongue talkers - were likely to be knocking on your door to scam you into joining their flock.

Our next door neighbors until I was around 13 or 14 were Lutherans. We were not. Their son was a year older than I, but we were best friends during most of that time. They were active in their church, but did not at any time make an issue of it with me or my family. After they moved away, their son, Jerry and I drifted apart, but it had little to do with religion. We just moved in different directions with our interests and activities. For instance, Jerry paid attention in class and received As and Bs, became a pharmacist, an executive and community leader. I spent a great deal of time staring out the window and frequently scratching where it itched and received the consequent Ds and Fs, and well, here I am in my basement writing this drivel. A truely qualitative difference.

Over the last few years it seems that christians have been coming out of the woodwork. I know they've always been around, but they weren't usually so obvious about it. Now, everywhere you go, christians seem to make themselves conspicuous. Most certainly it had pretty much everything to do with the political swing to the right this country has endured over the last 12 years or so - at least since the '94 mid-term elections. There are christian bookstores, christian gift shops, christian restaurants. One such establishment here serves pretty good food, but the piped in music is a constant din of 'happy, upbeat, ain't we wonderful that god is great and loves us all' pop junk. Here in Indy there is a christian appliance repair business, a christian tree trimming business, christian lawyers, dentists and doctors, and a even a christian pawn shop. (or shoppe - if you like.) I'm sure there are many others.

Whenever a commercial building or store front in a strip center comes up vacant, within weeks or perhaps a few months it almost invariably becomes some kind of church. Churches of all sizes and denominations are popping up like mushrooms. And then there are the "mega churches."

Even the hated Hollywood TV moguls buckled under the pressure and paid homage to christians with the unbelievably sappy and even more unbelievably successful Touched By An Angel and its less successful spinoff Promised Land. A plethora of other spiritually based shows hit the air waves over those years and some remain. The premise of Touched was that god sent as many as 5 or 6 angels to put some pathetic bastard's life back on track. It would generally be some upper middle class yuppy type who is having a substance abuse problem, who's marriage is on the rocks and the fellow has lost his right to coach daughter Muffy's soccer team. So all these angels work their slight of hand and, BINGO!, after a proper amount of agonized soul searching while sitting amongst the ashes and gnashing of teeth, Mr. Yup discovers god's grace, and his life achieves heavenly bliss. My problem with the conceit of this show was its having angels so involved with someone's relatively trivial problems while millions of people remain starving and dying all over the world. How many of god's angels are looking out for them? Oh, of course, I'm forgetting, most of those folks aren't christians, are they? Guess they aren't covered by the proper 'holier-than-thou' insurance policy. Tough luck for them. They didn't read the fine print. Programs like Touched By An Angel just add to the absurdity.

The only one of those programs I found palatable was Showtime's Dead Like Me with Mandy Patinkin. At least it had an edge. The main character, Georgia Lass, an 18 year old slacker is struck dead by a toilet seat from a falling Russian space station, and then is drafted into service as a grim reaper. That's pretty good.

And, of course, we were also blessed with Mel Gibson's even handed The Passion of the Christ. Mazel tov!

People of all faiths have come to brandishing it like a badge of honor. In time, if left unabated, they may come to wield it more like a bludgeon.

I do sense a change in the wind. As approval ratings for republicans across the country are plummeting, it seems that public attitudes toward religion are also shifting, if only slightly. A couple of the new network shows I've seen (namely Studio 60 and ER) have openly christian characters who are looney or at least a little ditsy.

Of course christians will be up in arms about such a shift and will continue to point fingers angrily at the liberal media for unseemly attacks on the godly.

I believe, and I assume most non-believers would agree, that religion and a belief in god are the stuff of fantasy. Wishful thinking. A giving over one's earthly humanity in favor of cowing to some mythical, king-like, supposedly all forgiving, yet ultimately vengeful lord, who is going to make things all better for eternity. But you gotta give it up for him completely, or he will drop the dime on you springing open the trap door beneath your feet sending you sprawling headlong into the broiling abyss of hell. You damn well better get it right!

In other words, the derision is earned.

TLS

Tongue talkers???

Letter to a Christian Nation

Hey, I read another book. I'm gettin' downright wormy with this effort.

I recently finished Sam Harris' very little tome Letter to a Christian Nation www.samharris.org/site/book_http://. In around 90 pages Harris more or less distills much of his work in his previous book, The End of Faith.

It is written, as the title suggests, as a letter to American christians; written in earnest, in dismay, in anger and with a sense of urgency. He shares the fear I harbour that between radicals in both the christian and muslim camps, we may well find ourselves hurled headlong into armageddon as their respective god's warriors.

After the publication of The End of Faith, Harris apparently received literally thousands of letters and e-mails, mainly from christians chastising him for his atheism. Many were threatening (god would be proud.) It seems likely that Harris would never have endeavored to write either of these books if he did believe in god.

Beginning with a 'Note to the Reader' Harris states his purpose in writing his second book "is to arm secularists in our society, who believe that religion should be kept out of public policy, against their opponents on the Christian Right." He "set(s) out to demolish the intellectual and moral pretensions of Christianity in its most commited forms." He ends the 'Note' thus: "Imagine the consequences if any significant component of the U.S. government actually believed that the world was about to end and that its ending would be glorious (Harris' italics.) The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes this, purely on the basis of religious dogma, should be considered a moral and intellectual emergency."

Harris begins his "letter" by launching into the bible debunking claims that it portrays a loving, forgiving god citing numerous passages, which expose an overly righteous and vengeful lord of lords who finds no end of transgressions for which death is the only proper punishment, and which he metes out with great regularity. Harris notes a number of instances wherein god and his only begotten son condone slavery and admonish slaves for not being properly servile. The so called "golden rule," which Harris accepts as having merit, but notes that the "rule" is found in its essence in any number of other religious traditions, some far older than judaism or christianity.

I find myself wanting to quote him line by line. But I will curb my enthusiasm. (And keep in mind that I am a quintessentially lazy old fart.) Suffice it to say that throughout the book, Harris debunks much of the bible as a source of moral living and a portrayal of a loving, all forgiving god. He blasts christians for their stand against abortion and any form of contraception, even in areas plagued by HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. He lambasts the Bush administration for its withholding funding to these areas of the world if they even mention contraception or abortion as a viable alternative. Harris finds it maddeningly ironic that it is so often self-proclaimed religious people who fail as humanitarians.

Harris does not spare muslims in lite of their continuing violence against pretty much everybody, even each other. In The End of Faith Harris takes 3 or 4 pages to cite the numerous calls to violence and murder found in the Quran.

As I noted above, "Letter" has an angry feel to it. One can imagine Harris becoming incensed at the tone of the angry and threatening e-mails and letters he received and heatedly proceeding to plunk out this little book in response. But, as I also stated, the book is written with a sense of urgency. Harris is aware and alarmed at the prospect of a world careening toward a conflagration which could literally cost millions of lives, could render significant portions of the world uninhabitable, and set civilization back, perhaps, centuries.

Anyone who believes that such a war would be glorious has no idea what it would be like to live with the reality of violent death and destruction in our own backyards. (Admittedly, I don't either, but I don't find the prospect alluring.) Other than the attacks on Pearl Harbor and of course those on 9/11, those of us living in the US and Canada have never experienced war on our home front.(I know, we here in the US had our Civil War, but unless I'm mistaken, none of us were alive back then.) If I believed in a god, I'd say we were blessed. But those days could be coming to an end. Millions of people in other parts of the world live day to day with the constant threat of death by any number of means - shooting, various and sundry finely honed torture techniques, beheading, and a myriad of things that go boom. We can't imagine that. I can't imagine that. The stakes are high. Perhaps the highest.

Give either or both of Sam Harris' books a read. You'll be disturbed you did.


TLS

I Knew It!

Well, I didn't exactly know it, but I have suspected it for some time. What? you might ask.

In earlier posts I have commented on the alliance of right wing politicos with fundamentalist christians. I have asked on a couple of occasions, Just who was using whom? Well if you happened to watch this evening's 60 Minutes you might have found an answer.

David Kuo, a fundamentalist christian, who had been hired to head up the White House faith based initiatives program, has written a "tell all" book about his experience, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction."His experience did not turn out as he expected.

Kuo recounts how, once ensconsed, White House politicos openly regarded evangelicals as "nuts" and "goofy." He claims that 'people in the White House political affairs office referred to Pat Robertson as "insane" (I would agree with that one, by the way,) Jerry Falwell as "ridiculous" and that James Dobson "had to be controlled." They referred to evangelicals as wackos.

Ah, such is the stuff of betrayal.

Kuo claims that while Bush publically promissed to provide around eight billion dollars for faith based programs for the poor, only about sixty million had been spent after 2 years - less than 1% of the amount promissed. Kuo goes on to claim that the republicans politicized or otherwise used religious issues in various ways to bolster their position.

Noooo! Say it isn't so! Republicans failing the poor? Nawww!

The White House response is that Kuo's claims are "ridiculous" and that he is obviously politically naive.

That may be. But the entire scenario Kuo describes upholds my early suspicions that the republican wooing of the christian right was an elaborate ploy to get their votes. They used hot button issues - abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research and so on to galvanize the evangelicals against the supposed godless democrats. It worked.

But Kuo paints a compelling picture of an administration that got what it wanted, using fundamentalists to gain and maintain their hold on the White House and Congress, only to effectively distance themselves after the votes were counted. Kuo states that Bush and others in his administration have repeatedly made impassioned speeches and other public statements in support of christian issues, but when it came time to pay the piper, more often than not, they looked the other way.

Why am I not surprised? How can people believe that the likes of Dick Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld are devoted to a christian agenda? They are two of the most cynical, reactionary politicians alive. Bush is no more than their dupe, their prop. Apparently, so too were the christians.

Now that the mid-term elections loom large, and things are not going so well for republicans in several key congressional races, many of the rep campaigns are relying on the same old issues of gay marriage, flag burning and abortion hoping to once again hypnotize christians into mindlessly punching republican chads on election day. Hopefully, enough of those people will realize that they are not truly being served by the party most allied with and answerable to big corporate interests, that perhaps religious issues should not be an integral part of American political discourse.

We should also keep in mind that dozens of Americans and countless others are dying every week in Iraq and Afghanistan, that the situation in Iraq is devolving into a chaotic civil war which we are powerless to control. There is no honorable way out. To "cut and run" may not be honorable or dignified, but it might save American lives. How many more of our young people will have to die in the effort to save face? We got our butts kicked out of Viet Nam, and the same is apt to happen in Iraq. It is likely that the Iraqis and Afghans will continue to kill each other for a long time to come whether we "stay the course" or not. In the meantime North Korea has lit a fuse which we are in no position politically or militarily to snuff out.

Christians should think twice before going along for the ride.

TLS

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Bang, Bang

The recent rash of shootings in schools across the country mark yet another victory for the NRA and righteous gun owners throughout the land. It's comforting to know while it's unfortunate a number of young people got their faces blown off, that at least no tree hugging liberal son of a bitch prevented any of those mis-understood good old boys from their god given right to have and own any and all the guns their little pea pickin' hearts desired. There is afterall, a price to be paid for liberty. We can't let the lives of a few rug rats or panty waste teachers or some faggot principals interfere with our mandate to build up our arsenals.

God, says in Rutabaga 9:14 that his army of born again true believers must be armed to the teeth so as to be ready to march with jesus in that final glorious battle against the minions of the devil. Otherwise, most all of us is good folk who wouldn't hurt nary a fly unless need be.

A loyal apologist adds:

THAT'S RIGHT! AND I'LL SHOOT THE FIRST SUMBITCH THAT SAYS DIFFERNT!!!

TLS

News and Notes

First, The News (both good and bad.)

As I have noted in prior posts my old knees have created havoc with my life. I was told by the good folks at the local VA hospital that I needed surgery on my right knee owing to a torn miniscus. They also told me that they had a lengthy waiting list, and it could take upwards of 18 months before I reached the top.

Happily, I got a call a week or so ago from the office of a local orthopedic surgeon that the VA had contacted them, and I was to come in to arrange for a diagnosis and treatment. The VA has arranged for outside physicians to accept some of their patients in need of orthopedic surgery. I made an appointment and went to the clinic last Thursday. That's the good news.

After the doctor looked over my x-rays and my MRI he determined that my miniscus is more or less shredded, some of it missing, and much of my articulate cartilage has worn away. I have moderately advanced osteo-arthritis in both knees and the miniscus in my right knee is a mess. At the very least, I need an arthroscope on the right knee to clean up the miniscus. The doctor also feels that I will eventually need to have both knees replaced owing to the arthritis that will likely continue to progress. That sucks.

I have lived more than 60 years never having spent a night in a hospital (excepting, I presume, at birth.) I still have my tonsils, my appendix, all my appendages for that matter, and most of my teeth. The prospect of the scope doesn't overly concern me. It's likely that I will only be down for a few days at most, perhaps only a couple if all goes well. But knee replacements put you down for weeks, months even. I can't do that as long as I'm working, and I can't see myself retiring anytime in the next 10 years or so unless we hit the Lotto or some such.

I do have the possibility of taking cortizone injections that can ease the pain temporarily. There has been some recent experimental work on injections of a medium which may foster cartilage regrowth, but access to that is very limited and likely years away until it could be widely available, and that's only if it works.

I am taking a Glucosamine/Chondroitin compound, which supposedly encourages new cartilage growth, but the jury is still out on whether it's doing any good. Some recent studies have claimed that it has no detectible positive effects. The surgeon seems to believe that it may be of some help.

All of this is rather depressing. I had started walking in earnest, and as my devoted readers (either or both of you) may know, I walked in the Indy Mini Marathon last spring. Actually, that is likely how I chewed up my miniscus. But I had gotten into a groove of sorts, and I had really come to enjoy distance walking. Unless things change drastically for the better, I will likely not be able to continue strolling about the neighborhood.

I know this is not tragic or earth shaking. I guess it is just a part of moving toward my "golden years." I just hope I don't have to hobble my way into the sunset.

Notes: I find it difficult to fathom with what disdain the Bush administration holds the American people. How cynical can people be? With just a couple of months till the mid-term elections, and a number of congressional republicans in hot water, Bush and his boys bring a dozen or so captured terrorists from various of the secret prisons the CIA maintains around the world to the Guantanamo internment camp (Gitmo) announcing that they are to stand trial for their crimes.

Of course several months ago, when the media made public the allegations that these CIA prisons (or whatever they are) were out there, Bush, etal denied their existence. Now, since it seems that they might make some political hay out of them, they own up. They really hate us. All of us. Political power is their only real concern. What other rabbits might they pull out of their hats? Lower gas prices?

Is Osama dead? We can only wish, I suppose. It seems unlikely that we will ever know. It is just as unlikely that we will ever find him if he still draws breath. In the larger scheme of things, it doesn't really matter. Osama is probably no more than a figurehead with nominal ability to direct any terrorist operations. Dead, he becomes a martyr, giving his minions heart to go win one for the Gipper. The terrorist movement has taken on a life of its own apart from Osama and company, thanks be to our invasion of Iraq. It bolsters terrorist recruitment efforts far better than any "Osama Wants You" posters could accomplish.

Watched a DVD of the film "Capote" last nite. Rather depressing, but an excellent movie.

Stay happy campers.

TLS

Good Job Pope!

What do you suppose he was thinking? Did he imagine no one in the muslim world would hear of it? Did he believe that his being infallible would forestall any adverse responses?

Way to go popey. Real good! Quoting one of your predecessors regarding the great one - mohammed - was a great idea.

Or not.

What is it in the nature of so many religious and political leaders that they feel they are either immune to scrutiny or do they simply relish the opportunity to stick a finger in someone's eye? Did the pope sleep through the cartoon debacle? Or is he just a dumb old holy see?

On the other hand muslims can be such boors. Whenever anyone so much as looks at a muslim crosseyed, they fill the streets, burn whoever the offending party may be in effigy - or for real in some cases - pillage some churches, cut off a few heads, stone a nun or two. Once again, using my favorite phrase; What a load of crap! What a bunch of pea brains! Allah, you lord over an unruly bunch. Can't you manage some kind of control over your charges? Don't they have jobs to do? Children to tend? Homes to manage? Isn't there anything better for them to do than hit the streets chanting "Death to America!, Death to Israel!, Death to Jews!, Death to Christians!, Death to penile enlargement spam!?

I believe I visited this issue in an earlier post in reference to the aforementioned mohammed cartoon mess. While the pope should have used at least a modicum of discretion in his remarks, the over-the-top response that invariably follows any actual or perceived insult or slight against muslims by anyone - especially anyone from the west - is, at the least, tiresome. Violence is virtually always the first response.

There will doubtless be other occurences of people making statements and charges against muslims and islam. Get over yourselves. You are not special. None of us is any better than the rest of us. We are all subject to criticism. If you are sentient beings, as I believe you are, you are certainly free to return the criticism; to make your own statements and charges. But leave your scimitars and your RPGs at home. Death and destruction need not be the consequence.

TLS

Countdown

If you didn't happen to see or hear of this, click on the following link to MSNBC's Keith Olbermann's commentary from his Countdown program on the 9/11 anniversary: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/#060911b. Click on "Launch" for the actual video. The text of it is in the middle of the page.

It's a good listen if you have around 9 minutes. Well worth the time.

TLS

Shameless Promotion

In a bit of shameless familial promotion I am promoting the newly published work of my nephew. Brent Shannon is the author of The Cut of His Coat: Men, Dress, and Consumer Culture in Britain 1860-1914. http://www.ohioswallow.com/bookinfo.php?book_id=0821417029. For all of you folks who are in to late 19th & early 20th century British culture, this is a MUST read. A post Victorian page turner.

ALSO: Check out a new collection of short stories by Karen Russell, St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised by Wolves. http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=70463 Karen is a friend and former classmate of my younger son. Two of the stories were published in the New Yorker. She is the real deal. Give it a read. (This Karen Russell is not the one who is also former Boston Celtic's center Bill Russell's daughter.)

Happiness is a warm doughnut.

TLS

9/11

I imagine that there have been thousands of posts related to 9/11 written today. I have watched some of the TV coverage recounting the events of that day and coverage of the 5 year observances. The feelings it all brings back are still surprisingly raw. The images of the Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the field in rural Pennsylvania still evoke fear, anger and an overwhelming sadness.

We are left wondering, not if, but when and where the other shoe will drop. There is an over-arching fatalistic resignation which hangs over this nation that we will be hit again perhaps much harder than we were 5 years ago. Some kind of WMD comes to mind. Of course the hope is that we will forestall such an eventuality, but the specter remains.

At the center of this conflict are resources (mainly oil) and a myriad of cultural differences. But the single issue galvanizing the jihadists into action is religious fervor. Again, my being an athiest makes all of this seem so agonizingly ludicrous. We are a long way from escaping the clutches of religion. If humanity happens to survive, it will likely take hundreds, perhaps thousands of years before that may happen. Meanwhile, religious zealots of every ilk are actively, even giddily promoting conflagration in the belief that it will be the realization of the predictions of Revelations and the expectations of the raptiles which are more or less in accord with the ultimate designs of radical jihadist muslims. They are all itching for a fight.

Osama and his adherents are moral morons. Despite their calculations, their patience, their dedication, their determination, they are at the core, eminently stupid men. Knuckle dragging stupid! Whatever success they may realize from their efforts, ultimately they will be faced with the reality that there is no god - no allah - revealing itself urging them to fight to the death for its honor. There will just be the destruction, the horror and death. There will be no winner.

Similarly stupid men (and women) are also to be found in this country. They would have us run headlong to Armageddon for the glory of their god.

News Flash!! There is no god to give a rat's ass about any of this!

Should these men and women succeed, the result will be exactly as noted above. There will be no winner. Jesus will not appear on a white steed with flowing mane, sword clenched between his pearly whites to lead the "born again" armies against the islamic hoards. There will just be destruction, horror and death.

It is all so incredibly and tragically stupid.

TLS

Get a load of this!

An ad for this film was (or perhaps still is) on my blog from Google. Check it out if you want to see something disturbing: http://www.jesuscampthemovie.com/ Click on "Videos" at the top right of the home page.

I really hate this. These kids are being brainwashed. There is no other word for it.

Summer camp at Hooter Hills was never like this.

TLS

What do I look like?

Someone asked amongst a series of comments on another blog site just what I looked like, or more precisely, how would I describe myself physically. As with many bloggers I prefer to maintain a certain amount of anonymity. I'm sure homeland security has no idea how to find me. I move with the shadows, don't you know.

But let's see.

Take the tall, lean, rugged look of say, Tom Selleck, add the suave self-assurance of a younger Sean Connery as Bond - James Bond, all this melded gently with the boyish good looks of Brad Pitt. Then think of the phrase: In your dreams, Bucko!

Harkening once again to revered Hollywood legends think of a combination of the haughty sophistication of John Candy, the come-hither stare and bon vivant charm of Danny DeVito put together with the classic profile of the chubby little bespeckled Hungarian, S.Z. "Cuddles" Sakall, who, back in the 1930s and 40s, giggled a lot and almost always played some guy named Felix. (See Christmas in Connecticut.)

The latter description is more apt. As you might know, I have published a couple of photos of myself in previous posts.(Here's an opportunity for you to bask in the learned glory of my archives.) One, taken on Galveston beach probably sometime during the summer of 1967 at which time I was, if memory serves, badly hung over and engaged in wiping someone's puke out of the front seat of my car. The other, more contemporary shot of yours truly is in the guise of one C. Kringle. While the real me doesn't sport so much hair as the "K" man, what hair I do have is more akin to dirty beach sand with a smattering of soot. The effect is one of a pervasive "grayness."

Pretty attractive, huh? Also, I am usually quick in pointing out to people that the rather large middle section that I am now sporting actually used to be my chest, but that gravity being what it is, I have succumed to its relentless downward force. Always the victim.

I am determined to take self-deprecation to an art, hopefully well beyond that of Woody Allen.
I realize I've set a pretty high standard, but I think I'm just inept enough to pull it off.

TLS

Oh, Just One More Thing

Something else that I forgot about last nite. This is also something I'm stealing from Zoe.

The Garden of Eden. If Eden was so great, if it was supposed to be paradise on earth, what the devil was the serpent doing there? God couldn't keep it out? What a load of crap. Zoe nailed it. How could either Adam or Eve know about the devil? How could they have known about anything? Did god educate them? Or did they learn from the serpent?

Why would any god create sentient beings only to set them up as it were by exposing them to evil without any prior warning? Were they just supposed to intuit right and wrong? Why create naturally curious beings who can reason and make judgements, then condemn them as sinners and expel them from the Garden, simply for using their natural "god given" abilities? What kind of a creep is this god?

If human parents did something similar to their children, the kids would likely be removed from the home and their parents arrested for abuse. Humans have a superior sense of right and wrong and justice than the gods depicted in the bible, the talmud or the koran. These respective gods are supposedly all powerful but are also jealous, demanding and supremely spiteful. And why would an omnipotent god need people to carry out his vengeance?

As I noted in my last post the god of the old testament was want to wipe out any number of people at a single stroke as punishment for the merest of infractions. We, at least, attempt to match the punishment to the crime.

What's up with god, anyhow?

Take the 7 plagues he inflicted on the Egyptians. What was that all about? If god is omnipotent and omniscient why did he take such ineffectual actions? Given his omniscience, god had to know that the Egyptians would not buckle under the pressure of the first 6 plagues. Presumably, god could have done something much more effective from the get go. This has the feel of a god who gets his jollies by watching people suffer. Were the Egyptians all that bad? Were they any worse than dozens of other oppressive civilizations throughout human history? I'd say NOT!

I guess I could go on ad nauseam. I know I have in the past. But I'll stifle myself. After all, I've made it obvious that I have no particular ideas of my own. I just usurp them from others. At least I gave them proper credit.

Apropos of nothing:

I've decided to let my eyebrows grow out. I was going to stop at, say some narley Bob Knights, but now I think I may go all the way to the penultimate and do Andy Rooneys. What do you all think?

TLS

What are ya gonna do?

A comment I received on my last post, and a news item brought to my attention by Zoe in her latest post on A Complicated Salvation made me sit up and blink.

The comment noted a very brief passage in the bible, specifically in 2nd Kings 2:24 & 25 which notes that as Elisha is making his way to Beth -el he is accosted by a group of boistrous children who chide him about his being bald. For this, Elisha turned back to them, cursed them in the name of the lord who then obligingly sent two (she) bears out of the woods who then kills 42 of those evil children. Serves em right, by god! All this happens in the space of 2 verses.

"Hey, Elisha, anything interesting happen during your trip to Beth -el?"

"Naw. Well, there were those kids who made fun of me because of my hair loss.:

"No! How could they?"

I don't think they'll be doing that again, though."

"Kids today."

"Yeah."

"Praise the lord!"

It's little tidbits like this, that unless you are really familiar with the "good book," will just slip by the casual reader. According to some other sources, there are many such horrific happenings either done directly by god or with god ordering his earthly minions to carry out his bidding. Much of this happens in the old testament, but not all.

The item that Zoe mentions relates to a Sunday school teacher in Watertown, NY who was summarily dismissed from her position by the church elders and supported by the minister of the First Baptist Church owing to a passage (again, just 2 brief verses) found in 1st Timothy 2:11 & 12 which states: Let the women learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence."

Again, in and of itself, it may be only an isolated incident of stupidity on the part of overbearing, self-righteous men, but it also may well be symptomatic of the main stream churches attempting to stem the tide of their parishioners who have been leaving for the stricter, generally more fundamentalist mega churches.

On a related note, I see that good old Katherine Harris of "hanging chad" fame, now a congressional candidate for her Florida district recently stated that the notion of the separation of church and state is a lie put forth by evil liberals in their efforts to undermine the church.

First of all, that is just bullshit. The idea of separation came from statements made by a number of our founding fathers including Jefferson and Adams, and such references can be found in the Federalist papers.

But, I would say here, that even if no such statements had been made by those venerable men, so what? They did not live in today's world. There's was a much smaller, much more provincial, insular and much less cosmopolitan world, not that far removed from the heyday of the early puritans. We have learned a great deal about the differences amongst world cultures than was known or understood in the 1780s.

Even so, they did see the wisdom of establishing and maintaining a separation of the workings of government and the various churches which had established themselves throughout the colonies. They recognized the likelihood of conflict should one church be given special dispensation while others were not. Instead, each sect was allowed to go about their business more or less unfettered by the state, but allowing none to be given special recognition or access over any others with regard to matters of state. It may well have been one of the more brilliant moves made by those hard working gentlemen in the heat of Philadelphia summers.

Now, there are those who would rent that separation assunder to promote their own religious agenda to the status of a state sanctioned theocracy. Do we really want an American Taliban government?

Also, briefly: Kudos to the federal judge in Detroit who knocked down the administration's unfettered eavesdropping. Of course there are conservatives stating that this is another example of liberal judges running amok. However, I see it as the proper application of constitutionally prescribed "checks and balances" which was another stroke of genius by our founding fathers.

TLS

Temporal Vs Spiritual

Jazzy Cat and I have been bantering back and forth about a variety of issues pertaining to religion, god, morality, conservative and liberal politics, and so on for the last several months. For the most part it has been an earnest and generally amicable debate.

The ultimate problem is that we are essentially speaking different languages, or to put it another way, our focus is on wholly different things. My concern is temporal - the here and now - life on this world. Jazzy is focussed on the next life. His view is that our life here is simply a precursor, an opportunity to qualify for eternal life in heaven. Failure means eternal hell. One must stay on one's toes.

I, on the other hand, believe that this life is all we get. There is nothing beyond.

Consequently, it is difficult, if not impossible to come to a consensus. This lack of consensus concerns more than the two of us. Christians, especially fundamentalist, pentecostal, evangelical and charasmatic, born again christians and true believers of other faiths more or less share Jazzy's view that our worldly existence is important only as it pertains to one's achieving entry into eternal bliss. Therefore, their take on the proper manner in which to live is perceived through a different prism as it were. They are playing one game. Secularists are playing another. Only rarely do the twain meet.

As it happens I stumbled upon the following definition of an atheist, if you will, from the American Atheist web site:

An Atheist loves himself and his fellow man instead of a god. An Atheist accepts that heaven is something for which we should work now – here on earth – for all men together to enjoy. An Atheist accepts that he can get no help through prayer, but that he must find in himself the inner conviction and strength to meet life, to grapple with it, to subdue it and to enjoy it. An Atheist accepts that only in a knowledge of himself and a knowledge of his fellow man can he find the understanding that will help to a life of fulfillment."

Ergo the difference in perspective.

People who were the original impetus for this blogging effort, the raptiles, are wholly focussed on the hereafter which they believe is coming soon to a theatre near you. Beyond that, they are not concerned with any coming attractions. It is difficult to get their attention. They are so preoccupied with being swept away to paradise that they can't be bothered by earthly matters.
While the raptiles make up a relatively small percentage of the born again, all believe as I noted at the beginning, that one should focus his or her efforts toward the next life, not this one. Their concern is with gaining the favor of god. Consequently , they define morality and proper behaviour narrowly primarily via interpretations of the christian bible or other supposedly "holy" books.

While I am sure most people would agree, whether they believe in a god or not, that enmeshed in the often difficult to decipher texts of these works are the bases of a generally sound morality - that rules for properly ethical behaviour can be found within their pages. However, such can be found in other, secular writings as well, both ancient and current, without all the otherworldly rigamarole, and the humbling of oneself before some higher power.

The problem I have with religious based morality, is that it ultimately falls short in dealing with the here and now. In the end, religious morality lacks true compassion for human suffering. Suffering is often looked upon by true believers as either just penalty for sin, and/or as say, with Lot, a means to finding one's way to god. "Let them suffer. It's good for their souls." That was pretty much the justification for the slaughter that came with the Spanish Inquisition and the dunkings and burnings of supposed witches at Salem.

It is not an accident that most fundamental christians are conservative republicans. Most share the puritan ethic of self-denial, intolerance and stern judgement of other's behaviour. (As to the latter, I don't know where "judge not lest ye be judged" fits in.) The notion of "compassionate conservatives" is, in my view, a contradiction of terms. Compassion is essentially contrary to the conservative world view. "One must pull one's self up by one's bootstraps." Unfortunately, millions of people have no boots, let alone straps on which to pull.

TLS

Syriana

My wife and I watched the DVD of the film Syriana last evening. As I had heard, it is a rather convoluted and hard to follow story. But, to me at least, there was one rather glaring message to be taken from it: The world of big oil, big politics, greed, war, etc., are all intertwined and very dangerous.

As I have noted, US involvement in Iraq has much less to do with Saddam Hussein, nation building, or the spreading of democracy, than it does with oil. Oil is the resource of the day. Countries all over the world are pretty much willing to do anything to get it, the US included. (At one point in history, briefly, the resource of choice was tulip bulbs. But that's another story.) Bush and the rest are simply lying when they deny that oil is our primary interest in Iraq and much of the rest of the oil producing middle east. It is in the interest of the Bushes, who have long been heavily involved with the oil industry, and many others to maintain a huge demand for oil in this country. Their interest in developing new fuel resources and systems is only proportional to how much they can make out of it. The only way oil will be displaced as the fuel of choice will be when the powers that be are in a position to dominate and control whatever that resource may be.

The great majority of humanity has little or no control over how government and business are run throughout the world. Such power remains with the very few. The Bushes, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etal, are at the center of this power structure. Radical muslims and others are seeking a new paradigm. They wish to displace the US - and the west in general - as the ultimate brokers of world power and wealth. The Chinese are waiting in the wings to make a similar move. I personally don't believe that it is necessary for the US to be at the center of power, but at what price will we lose it? Is there any means by which such power and resources can be redistributed and equitably shared throughout the world without major conflagration?

We continue to ignore the lessons of history. Now that the US stands alone as the world's only so called "super-power," we also stand as the largest and most vulnerable target of all others who want to ascend the hill and knock our smug asses off of it. If we don't achieve some level of humility and stop flaunting our supposed superiority in this world, we will find ourselves being bodily thrown from the top of the hill and into the abyss just as happened with the Romans, the Spanish, the Hapsburgs, the Ottomans, and the English among others. They all believed they were exceptional, the chosen of god. When you are at the top, there is nowhere to go but down.

Instead of insisting upon standing alone on the perilous and narrow apex through our military might, we should endeavor to broaden the plateau and invite others to join us. Or perhaps a more apt image is that of the US voluntarily stepping off the mount to join the masses. It may be the only way in which this country might survive - for a bit longer, at least.

All things change. The US is a relatively young country which rose rapidly to the top of the heap. We could fall even quicker and much harder unless we use our current advantage taking the lead in an effort to level the playing field rather than setting ourselves upon an even higher and more unstable perch.

There are those who contend there just are not enough resources to go around. But when something like 2% of the people throughout the world control well over 98% of the world's wealth and resources, that becomes a rather difficult pill to swallow. As long as there are "have nots," the "haves" will always live in peril. Unless people stop promoting narrowly defined agendas - religion, nationalism, race, etc., we are doomed to living in a divisive, deadly competitive world which will always keep the larger proportion of its people trapped in lives of desparation. And now, many such people have 21st century weaponry to use against their perceived oppressers.

Is this the best legacy we can leave our children? All the crap that people of my generation spewed about regarding "peace and love" has disappeared and/or degenerated into the same old greed and lust for power that we supposedly found so objectionable in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Some young people today are taking up the same message , but a great majority are pretty much hypnotized by technology - video games, lap tops, picture phones, text messaging, IPods, etc. I am a believer in the great potential that technology has to offer, but we need to stop being mesmerized by it, and believing technology is the ultimate goal - the end in itself. Technology is simply a means to achieve more, to make life better for everyone. Not just for somebody who has the means to accumulate the most toys.

If a greater number of young people had gotten off of their dead asses and voted as they could have in 2004, GW would have likely been a one term wonder just as his father was. Instead, we are doomed to listen to his dyslexic, inane blather for another 2 plus years. The boredom with which many people in this country - young and old - view politics, voting, etc., may well get us all killed. As it is, we have lost over 2000 of our young men and women and countless thousands of others have died because GW just had to avenge his father's honor, and save the world from Saddam and those dastardly weapons of mass destruction. What a croc. You believe that crap at your own peril.

TLS

Quick Trip to Florida

My wife and I just completed a rather whirlwind trip to Florida and back late Thursday nite. We left Monday around 3:00PM and arrived in Atlanta around 4:00AM. It shouldn't have taken quite that long, but we got caught in the traffic back up from hell between Lexington and Knoxville on I75. A fatal accident between 2 semis (we were told) resulted in the complete closure of the southbound lanes from around noon to after 11:00PM. we were routed onto a 2 lane highway, Route 25, for about 30 miles which was bumper to bumper the entire way. We lost about 3 hours on that little excursion. My wife asked a cashier at a small gas station if there wasn't another way to go, if there weren't some "side street" as she put it. The cashier responded saying, "Honey, Route 25 is the side street." It was the pits. We had also experienced a back up in Cincy as we arrived there during rush hour, and another long wait in Knoxville due to overnight construction.

We hit the sack immediately in Atlanta, but were up around 9:00AM and on the road by 10:00 or so. The remainder of the trip was more or less uneventful except having to run the gauntlet of numerous construction zones.

We arrived at our destination at around 3:00PM. My son is starting grad school. The trip was made to facilitate his move from Chicago. The place is a university town. It has no other apparent reason for being.
A few weeks ago, my son rented an apartment, sight unseen, on-line. He proudly stated that his building is on the register of historical buildings in the area. I noted to him that just means the building is old.

We did most of the typical "parents dropping their kids off at college" things such as getting odds and ends of furniture, stocking up at the grocery, etc. Oddly, we never set foot on the campus. We drove around it, but never on it.

We made dozens of trips up and back down the one flight of rickety steps to his 3 room flat - it does have a nice, almost level, veranda across the front of the building - to deposit his worldly goods. We had dinner at a little place my son is thinking might wind up being his favorite haunt (While in Chicago he loved a little place on Clark St. called Kopi,) and after a look at some maps and a bitter sweet farewell, my wife and I hit the road in the rented Ford stretch van, now relieved of the load it carried during the trip down just after 9:00PM Wednesday evening. Again, we made for Atlanta where we arrived at precisely 3:00AM. We hit the road around 10:00AM Thursday morning. We stopped a few miles north at a Cracker Barrel for breakfast and then toodled north for about a half hour. My wife noted that she would like to stop for a restroom break, and that she would take the wheel for a while which I welcomed. We re-entered I75 and drove again for about a half hour only to discover that we were once again in Atlanta. Oops!

That and some very heavy rain around Bowling Green, KY were the only particularly notable events during the return trip. We did have the pleasure of driving around Chattanoga, TN in late-afternoon. I had been through there several years ago, but had no particular memory of it. It is truly beautiful country. The view of the low mountains surrounding the town was enhanced by recurring and huge bolts of lightning - a precurser I suppose of the storms we were to experience later. We later figured out that we managed to average around $100 per day for gasoline.

We walked in our back door at around 10:30 last nite. Needless to say, we were beat. We spent a good part of today just kind of walking around in a zombie-like haze.

Another thing about the south I had forgotten: The power of Kudzu. Kudzu may well conquer the world before and more completely than any good old christians, muslims or the Chinese. It looks a good deal like topiary, but I think acts as more of a shroud, as I presume it tends to kill its hosts over time.

Oh, yeah. The south is hot! And Florida has reptiles of all sizes.

Anyhow, we helped set our younger son off on his new, and perhaps, life defining adventure. All three of us are trepidatious about how it will go for him over the next couple of years. I think he hated to see us go, almost as much as we hated leaving him there. We had taken a small battery powered black & white TV with us, and for a while Wednesday evening, Jo and I sat on his veranda and watched a rerun of one of the ubiquitous "Law and Order" episodes. Later, on the phone Chris said that he wished we were still sitting out there watching TV while he started to put the next chapter of his life together.

TLS

Knees

Just a bit of an update. As I reported here a while back, I had an MRI on my knee. A few days ago I was told that I had a couple of tears in the meniscus - the cartilage which cushions the impact between the upper and lower leg bones at the knee. It will require arthroscopy to clean up and/or repair the damage. Unfortunately, the VA is backed up more than a year for such procedures. Meanwhile, all I can do is use a brace and take pills.

Overall, I have been happy with the care I've received at the VA, but this is disappointing. I suppose I can manage it, but it will make the next several months a bit of a drag. They also determined that I have osteo-arthritis in both knees which complicates matters. Not much can be done for that.

Another issue which I believe is a problem with the VA is that of helping their patients with weight loss. I imagine that at least 60% to 70% of all those who use the VA - especially us older folks - are overweight. I was told that I should lose weight to reduce the strain on my knees. I know this to be true, but all the VA has to offer is a small pamphlet with an illustration of the food pyramid. Aging vets, many who have missing or crippled arms & legs, or are otherwise enduring the lingering effects of war wounds, both physical and emotional, are also fighting a battle with their waistlines. It's a tough fight.

The VA should at least attempt to put some kind of weight loss and/or fitness program together in connection with other care to help these people fight the battle of the bulge. Afterall, the military spends millions of dollars and weeks during training to make recruits fit enough to kill for this country. They could at least try to give them an opportunity to get back to some semblance of health and fitness. Maybe some of these vets could live longer. Or, maybe the VA doesn't really want them to live longer. Who knows?

TLS

Hitting the Road

Tomorrow, probably sometime before noon, we will be hitting the road to Florida. My wife and I are helping once again to move one of our children. This will be, according to my wife's reckoning, move #19 that we have assisted with. There have been one or two we missed. My son is to begin graduate school in one of Florida's bastians of higher learning later this month. He has to get there a bit early as he will be not only learning, but teaching as well.

As with most such things we find ourselves doing this on a shoestring. As the two cars we own are a bit long in the tooth, we decided that driving either of them over a thousand miles pulling a trailer in the heat of summer would be risky at best. Renting a one way truck and flying back seemed, at first, a good option. However, the cost was going to be rather dear. We opted to rent an extended, 14 passenger van - removing 3 of the seats - that we will load to capacity, drive it down, unload, and drive it back, leaving our son to figure out where to put everything.

My wife and I can't dawdle as, when we are gone, our business is shut down. Any trip beyond an occasional week-end jaunt costs us both the actual cost of the trip plus the cost of any business we miss while gone.

We plan to drive to somewhere in Georgia - perhaps Valdosta - on Monday, stay the night and tool into our destination sometime Tuesday afternoon. We will stay the night and then hit the road back sometime on Wednesday, pulling back into Indy sometime on Thursday. We hope to pick up some business on Friday and/or Saturday.

Fortunately, my wife enjoys driving on the open road - in daylite anyhow. She actually drives faster than I do. But, we are accustomed to making the drive between Indy and Chicago - about 3 &1/2 to 4 hours. The trip to Florida amounts to somewhere around 15 to 16 hours of actual driving. This will doubtless take a toll on our aging minds and bodies.

We had the pleasure of having both of our sons home at the same time for about 10 days or so. Our older son, as noted prior, lives in Germany. He had a small break before he starts a 2 year gig at a small opera house north of Berlin later this month. We hadn't seen him since early January when we made a trip over there. Prior to that visit, we hadn't seen him for about a year. As an aside - he will be moving himself - without our assistance.

We enjoy our kids immensely. Having both of them home together is now a rare treat. Sending them back off to their respective lives gets tougher each time. Now our younger son will be significantly further away. His living in Chicago has been good. Over the last several years we made several trips to the Windy City which we usually enjoyed- the sometimes inclimate weather and often snarled traffic notwithstanding. The sites, the food, the culture. Chicago is a great town.

Our son will have to go through culture shock living in a small, semi-tropical community with little in the way of cultural outlets. He is used to having access to the Lyric Opera, The Chicago Symphony, Ravinia, the various museums, the plethora of ethnic and varietal neighborhoods, the big city night life, and so on.
He will now be living in a relatively small, southern town which is dominated by the school. I assume the school itself will offer some diversions, but it will still be a different ball game.

After my wife and I return, we will once again take up our day to day lives. We enjoy each other, and usually have things to do beyond the business to keep things interesting. But our lives will be diminished in some kind of ratio proportional to the number of miles separating us from our children.

TLS

As to the photo: More kids. All crawling around my basement. There's two sets of twins. Kinda scary if you ask me.