I first became aware of Tavis Smiley back in the late 90’s when Bill Maher was doing his show – “Politically Incorrect.” Whenever we see a Black face on televsion that is not in some comedic role, but is present to speak for and represent a Black point of view, I tend to pay attention.
The format of the show was a topical panel discussion, with a diverse group of guest. On the night in question, somehow the subject of African Slavery came up. One of the white male guest made the assertion that Slavery benefited Black people. As you might imagine, the hairs on the back of my neck snapped to attention and I sat up. I wanted Tavis to do one of two things or possibly both! I wanted him to first, knock this comment out of the park. It was like a slow ball pitched right over the center of the plate. “Swing for the fences Tavis!” Second, it would have warmed the cockles of my heart and put a smile on my face if Tavis had jumped from his seat and begun whipping some Ass right on national television!
Neither of those things happened. Instead of dissecting that comment with an insight bred of the experiences of our culture, Tavis chose instead to mug for the camera. He looked shocked as though he could not believe what he’d just heard. Wrong response! I was finished, through, done with Mr. Smiley from that point on.
State of the Black Union
State of the Black Union – Annual symposium put on by Tavis Smiley to discuss issues of concern to Black America.
Mr. Smiley introduced himself to me again, some years later with his “State of the Black Union” project. The reason I watched was because of the guest roster. Mr. Smiley had managed to put together an impressive array of impressive guests from various segments of society who presented their views. It was intelligent, informative and it was well done. I began to soften my view on Mr. Smiley, but he remained on probation.
It was at these annual “State of the Black Union” symposiums that I was exposed to Dr. Cornel West and Dr. Michael Eric Dyson. It was a pleasure to hear Black Ph.Ds articulate the issues and concerns of Black people in America. They made my heart smile. I had no idea whom Alexis de Tocqueville was or what he wrote. However, – as is oft the case – Cornel West quoting from some long dead French philosopher made him sound like a genius! The reality is, he might as well have been quoting the janitor down the hall. But he sounded good.
Cast of the TJMS when Tavis was a contributor
Tavis Smiley connected with Tom Joyner of the Tom Joyner in the Morning Show. Mr. Joyner is probably one of the best known and most listened to Black Radio Personalities. His show is syndicated all across this nation. If you’re Black and you’re driving to work in the morning with your radio on, chances are it’s tuned into the TJMS broadcast. Tavis began appearing as a weekly contributor offering “timely commentary” on the days issues.
Trouble In Paradise
When author Toni Morrison said that Bill Clinton was the “first Black President,” we knew what she was getting at, but evidently some people took her literally. Evidently, Tavis and Cornel West were two such people. I say this because their loyalty to the “Clinton brand” – don’t get me wrong, I first became a millionaire on paper under President Clinton, but George Bush dialed that back a bit – has surpassed all rhyme or reason!
President Bill Clinton
Were the policies of President Clinton beneficial to Black people? Absolutely! However, they were also beneficial to white people. Yes, rich white people got a lot richer under President Clinton. You may recall the “Dotcom Boom?” That wasn’t from a lot of minorities and Black people opening businesses in “Silicon Valley.” Bill Clinton was a good President and one of the reasons Republicans hated him so, was because his policies and the success they brought to the country showed Republican policies to be a lie. The National Debt was on it’s way to being paid off in approximately 15 years and we had surpluses.
Hillary Clinton
Then came George W. Bush and all of that went away. When Hillary Clinton ran for the office of President, she was a known quantity to not just Black people but to a majority of Americans. She was loved by Democrats and hated by many Republicans. A lot of Black people threw their support behind Hillary… up until Barack Obama won Iowa. That changed everything. When Black people saw that white people would actually vote for Barack Obama, many of us pivoted and threw our support behind his historic candidacy.
Breaking Up Is Hard – For Some – To Do
The irony is, it was enlightened white people in a part of this Country where you might least expect to find them – Iowa – that showed the rest of this nation – Black people included – the way! The result was, that those Black leaders who felt that they had inroads into a Clinton presidency, suddenly found themselves starting from square one with everyone else. Some of them did not take this well. Tavis Smiley signalled his unease about this paradigm shift in his comments and weekly commentary on the TJMS broadcasts.
When he hosted his annual “State of the Black Union symposium” that year, he invited then candidate Obama. Candidate Obama opted not to show for clearly strategic reasons. He did offer to send his wife, Michelle Obama. Tavis threw a “hissy-fit” and refused his offer. Those of us who are politically astute, understood that candidate Obama was running to be President of all these United States. He was facing slurs and innuendos designed to make white people feel that he would be just the President of Black people. The optics of his being involved with a symposium which had featured Min. Louis Farrakhan, not once but several times, would not have been helpful.
Cornel West and President Obama during happier times.
Cornel West seemed to understand the political dynamics and he did in fact campaign for and with Senator Obama. His falling out with the President – according to West – was caused because he did not receive tickets to the inaugural celebrations. A slight? An oversight? Who knows? His explanation for the genesis of his dogged criticisms of President Obama stem from him getting his feelings hurt because he wasn’t given tickets! Really? Had he been given tickets, I suppose everything would be just dandy now?
Un-Anointed And Self-Appointed
Tavis Smiley and Cornel West – The New Odd Couple?
We find ourselves today with brothers Smiley and West on a mission to critique any and everything President Obama does. They are struggling desperately to make themselves relevant to the on-going conversation in this nation on race, minority issues and issues specific to the Black community. So determined was Tavis Smiley to make himself the designated “watchdog” of President Obama’s policies, it led to his leaving the Tom Joyner in the Morning Show. The audience wasn’t feeling it and frankly? Tavis was embarrassing himself.
Un-Anointed, Self-Appointed Presidential Watchdog
There is a difference between constructive criticism and criticism that comes from the petty frustration of not having gotten one’s way. The majority of the American people – based on these latest election results – know that President Obama has been doing everything within his power to make things better in these United States for allAmericans. Further we know that he has had to fight an unprecedented Republican opposition, who’s stated objective was to make him a one term President… even if they had to destroy our nation in the process! When President Obama’s policies help poor white people, they help poor Black people too. When out of work white people get jobs, out of work Black people get jobs.
Black Delusion
I have been Black for these past 55 years. I do not recall in my lifetime, ever being invited to, or ever hearing about a secret meeting of Black people wherein we vote on and elect our approved Black leaders and spokesmen. If this has happened, I did not get my invitation. For my white readers, pay close attention. Black people have no official Black spokesmen or leaders… well, that is up until 2008 when we and the rest of these United States elected President Obama. The irony? The only official Black leader and spokesperson happens to be the officially elected leader of these United States. Thus, the leader of Black people, is also the leader of White people.
Any Black person who believes that they are a self-appointed, self-anointed spokesperson for Black people is suffering from a “Black Delusion.” This goes for Cornel West and Tavis Smiley. To show the extreme state of his delusional thinking, Cornel West has now attempted to pick fights with Rev. Al Sharpton, Dr. Micheal Eric Dyson and Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry. Why? Apparently simply because they
Wonder how much this tour cost? Could that money have been better spent actually helping the poor?
are relevant and he is not! Yes, I heard about the Smiley-West “Poverty Tour.” It was cute. They spent God knows how much money touring this country on a bus talking about poverty and endeavoring to Blame President Obama. What did they accomplish? Not much! Both of these men are millionaires. The problem with poverty is, it’s like the weather. Everybody talks about it. Nobody does anything about it. Their time and their message would have been better spent had they opened a series of Smiley-West soup kitchens or homeless shelters. However, that would have actually required an investment. Paying lip service to an issue costs a lot less. Have they become irrelevant? Yes, they have. I suppose they could get a show on Fox News now? There are a lot of irrelevant people over there.
Ask almost anyone in these United States, “what are the top 3 issues facing our nation” and you’ll get pretty much the same answer: Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. What there is little agreement on, is the cause of the problem and the solutions to the problem. Axiomatically, before one can solve a problem, one must define the problem. To define the problem one must understand the problem. It is time to take a hard look at how and why we find ourselves at this point and place in our history.
Greed Is Good – Gordon Gekko – Wall Street
A basic foundation of our Democracy is Capitalism. One of the fundamental premises of Capitalism is that people will do what is in their own selfish interests. Where they work, what they buy, how they vote, the fundamental premise is that people will look out for “number 1” before all others. You raise capital because you have an idea you believe is profitable. I invest in your idea – give you capital – because I’m anticipating a nice – ROI – Return On my Investment. Or, as Gordon Gekko says, it is all about “greed.” I’m greedy to make more money without having to do anything but loan money. You’re willing to go into debt to me and other investors because you’re anticipating all of the money you’ll eventually make.
Government’s Role
The 10th Amendment which recognizes that any powers not specifically enumerated within the United States Constitution, remain within the province of the various States, has as it’s basis the premise that local government being closer to the needs/greed, issues and concerns of the citizen, is much more responsive and reflective of those needs.
It does make a certain amount of sense. Farmers in Iowa are going to have a different set of issues and concerns than bankers in New York. People who work in a Steel Mill in Cleveland are going to have a different set of concerns than peanut farmers in Georgia or cotton growers in Mississippi. The theory is, communities govern themselves much more efficiently than a centrally located federal government. Again we embrace the theory that greed or selfishness with regard to issues works best when it comes to government.
Corporations
Ayn Rand High Priestess of the Virtue of Selfishness. Darling of Paul Ryan and Guru of the Republican philosophy
The problem of course is, when you take the “virtue of selfishness” – thank you Ayn Rand – turn it into a fundamental principle and apply it across the board. Suddenly you have businesses and corporations operating on this exact same premise. To wit: do what is best for the corporation and everything else will take care of it’s self. This requires quite a leap of faith, since there haven’t been any real studies done – at least that I’m aware of – which have actually studied the effect on society of a “me first, damn everyone else, philosophy.”
Corporations exist for two purposes only. The first is to become as profitable as possible. The second is to grow as large as possible. These two objectives may not be what is best for our planet or it’s population. Balance is critical to the health of all living organisms. Make no mistake about it, our planet, this Earth is a living Biosphere. When things get out of balance, whatever it takes, balance will always be restored. One way or another.
Usually the largest cost for any corporation is labor. It is also the one cost over which management of the corporation can exercise the most control. The cost of supplies, raw materials, the building, land etc., are fixed costs. The labor however, can be manipulated relatively easily.
Unions Fight Back
Children Working in a Textile Mill
Collective bargaining – Unions – were created to protect the workers. Before Unions you worked 7 days a week. You had no vacations, no sick days, no benefits, no healthcare. Children could work in factories, mines and scampered along the steel girders of “sky scrapers.” There was the very real danger that going off to work in the morning might be the last time your family, wife and children would see you alive.
You were paid a pittance for your labor and the company owner – usually a “robber baron” – kept all the profits. Unions changed everything. The conditions for the workers improved. Children no longer could work when they were supposed to be in school. Profits were shared with the employees and the “middle class” was born. Prior to Unions, there was little to no upward mobility within our society. If you were not born rich, chances were you were going to die in poverty.
The only people who could afford a higher education were the wealthy. Thus, one could not better one’s self through education. It simply was not available. Remember the “Gold Rushes” in the 1800’s? The only chance you had for upward mobility was to strike it rich. People were willing to endure unbelievable hardships for the opportunity to have financial security. Unfortunately, without the education to go along with it, there were a lot of people who became millionaires but still died penniless. They did not know what to do with their money. They did not understand how to invest it or what to invest it in.
Return of the Robber Barons
“The Strong Takes From the Weak and the Smart Takes From the Strong.”
The “Robber Barons” and their bastard offspring, the modern mega- corporations have not forgotten their “Golden Age.” They are doing everything they can to return to those times of rapacious profits and the labor force is their primary target.
Union Workers On Strike for a Living Wage.
Unions and collective bargaining have always been their arch enemy. Their technique and methodology has been subtle and insidious. The first thing they did was get the government to pass laws to protect workers. This may seem counter intuitive until you realize, by doing this, they’ve been laying the ground work to make the argument that Unions are obsolete. We now have OSHA laws to protect workers in the work place. We’ve got child labor laws to protect children. You get the picture. The next step was to use their media outlets to begin disseminating the idea that Unions were the reason for the high costs of goods and services.
You must never forget, our media is totally corporate owned. The stories you read, programs you watch are controlled, approved and directed by powers and people with agendas you never see, never hear about and do not know exist. As a friend once advised me, “whenever I hear something in the media, I always ask myself, why do they want me to believe this.” I’ve found this to be invaluable advice. Everything that happens, happens for a reason. For every effect, there is a cause. There are no coincidences.
“I will build a car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one — and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God’s great open spaces..” __Henry Ford
Henry Ford
Looking out for and treating workers fairly has always been good for business. Henry Ford realized this and built Ford Motor Company on the principles of paying his workers enough money so that they could afford to purchase the products they were assembling. Thus, he had a built in customer base.
Somewhere along the line, businesses, corporations and industry rejected Henry Ford’s wisdom. It has become “open season” on the American workforce.
Globalization – That New World Order
I was a virgin when I got married for the first time at the tender age of 23. I heard you were supposed to talk and really get to know one another during the courtship phase. To that end, my prospective wife and I talked about anything and everything. From how many children we wanted, to finances – always an important issue – and of course sex. “Oh,” she said, “once we’re married, why you can have it any time and as often as you’d like!” Damn! That sounded good! As those of you who have been married already know… Boy was I in for a surprise!
What was promised, sold and delivered… turned out to be nothing like what I had envisioned. Thus it was with the promises made when it came to the wonders of globalization!
President Nixon greets Chairman Mao
In 1972 when President Richard M. Nixon went to China, all the talk was about how a whole new market was being opened up. There would be billions of Chinese just waiting to buy American products. Our economy would boom trying to keep up with the Chinese demand for American goods and services. So, how’d that turn out? Like my first marriage… not well!
Sleeping With The Enemy
Young woman in a Chinese sweatshop assembling Nike shoes
To be fair, it has turned out pretty well for the “neo-Robber Barons” of today. We began to get our first intimations of what was going on back in the early 80’s. Some of you will remember? There were a series of news stories that exposed the working conditions in 3rd World countries where some of our popular athletic shoes were being manufactured. Nike was heavily criticized for their practice of manufacturing and assembling shoes for sale and distribution here in America, that were made in 3rd World “sweatshops.”
A popular Nike shoe
The new model was make it there and sell it here. Because of their extensive marketing campaigns we did not seem to mind that their $80 – $150 dollar shoes only cost about $5 dollars to make and were being manufactured by – in some cases – children working 14 hour days for $50 cents an hour. Nike shoes became a fashion statement and we just had to have them.
Other companies took notice. If you could manufacture your product in a part of the world without minimum wage laws, without having to pay for benefit packages such as healthcare, payroll taxes, social security etc. what a deal! The steady exodus of jobs began.
Why Congressional Bills Are Written By Lawyers
Believe it or not, short, simple contracts are often the hardest to break.
If you’ve ever looked at a piece of congressional legislation, I’m sure you found it long, wordy, hard to read and even more difficult to understand. This of course is by design. It accomplishes several things. The first of course is the insertion of loopholes. Lawyers and our courts would be out of business if laws and contracts were written in plain English. There would be no dispute over our intent. If you and I wrote up a contract saying, “You were going to paint my house for $1,200 and I was going to supply the paint.” We sign and date it and it’s an enforceable contract. It could easily be written on a napkin.
IRS Tax Code
When you have a bill that’s 500 pages or more long, you’d best believe there’s plenty of chicanery buried in that bill. Who’s responsible? Lobbyist are. This is what they get paid big bucks to do. Our tax code is an excellent example. It would take you longer to read all the way through it than it would take you to read your King James version of your Bible… twice! What’s worse? It’s much more difficult to understand. Buried within our tax code are such gems as:
A Foreign Tax Credit.
Companies pay taxes on their profits to foreign nations, usually at a reduced rate because of tax incentives given them by that nation to open a manufacturing plant there. Then they get a deduction from the IRS for foreign taxes paid.
Reinvestment In The Foreign Location.
The American company has the option, or loophole as some have called it, to reinvest the profits made in the foreign country back into the foreign location. If the profits are never transferred to the company in the United States, the company is not required to pay taxes on those profits. These profits are used to expand overseas operations and remain not taxable by the IRS. The IRS calls this money, “Unrepatriated Earnings”, and the total of unrepatriated earnings reaches well into the $600 billion range.
Savings On Payroll Taxes
For many corporations in the United States payroll expense represents half of their total expenses every year. Overseas companies do not have the employer contributions, unemployment taxes and the minimum wages that contribute to the large expenditure that it is in this country. Coupled with the literally thousands of people in other nations for whom a $7.00 per hour job would be a windfall, many companies see these tax benefits as more than making up for the negative publicity and the constant campaign against outsourcing.
Hitting The Snooze Button
The alarm clock has been ringing and the American people are starting to wake up! As the “Middle Class” sees it’s self decline, along with a shrinking job market, they’re becoming concerned. They should be! If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve noticed sleeping potion has been delivered through our media. The first concoction was a dose of “the American worker is not competitive on the World Market.” This was back during our trade war with Japan.
Rising Sun Movie Poster
The movie “Rising Sun” (1993) starring Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes, based on a book by Michael Crichton, was a fictional account of the very real business philosophy of Japanese corporations. They were in essence dumping products onto our markets to gain market share. It wasn’t until our Government began fighting back that things evened out. The Japanese wanted to sell their cars in our market. Thus we demanded that they not only open their markets for the sell of American made and manufactured cars, but that they build manufacturing plants here in America and employ American workers.
There was some hemming and hawing at first, but things got better for both countries when the doctrines of fairness and fair trade were introduced into the equation. Nevertheless, at first the excuse for the imbalance in trade was to blame the American worker for not being as competitive and competent as his Japanese counterpart.
Blame It On Mexico
The next dose of sleeping potion has been to place the blame for the loss of American jobs, on illegal immigrants. The party line is, they’re sneaking across our southern border at night to steal our good American jobs.
Undocumented Migrant Workers
It is not that I wonder whether or not there is intelligent life in the Universe. I wonder if there is intelligent life right here in these United States! I really have to take my hat off to the corporate propaganda machine that has silly “Red Necks” screaming about building a fence across our entire southern border and staying up all night with night vision goggles and walkie-talkies trying to catch Pedro. Waste your time on any and everything except, rounding up and arresting corporate CEO’s who hire and employ undocumented workers. It’s lunacy. It’s like watching someone try to go up the “down escalator.” After you’ve had a good laugh, you really should take them by the hand and lead them around to the up “escalator.”
Scene from the Untouchables starring Costner and Connery.
It is like that scene in the movie “The Untouchables” starring Kevin Costner. I’m referring to the scene where Sean Connery’s character is giving him the “how far are you prepared to go speech?” Everybody knew where the booze was. The problem was that the money had corrupted, government, law enforcement and the courts. Sort of sounds like what we’ve got going on today doesn’t it?
They know where all the factories, meat packing plants and farms employing undocumented workers are. The problem is, our prices are now based on exploiting the cheap – though invaluable – labor these workers provide. The equation is simple. The lower the labor cost the higher the profits. The more profitable the company the larger the compensation package for the CEO.
Stop and think! When is the last time you or someone you know, filled out an application to pick fruit on a farm? When is the last time you or someone you know filled out an application to work in a meat packing plant? How about cleaning an office building at night? It is all smoke and mirrors. A shell game. It is based on misdirection. Focus on the undocumented workers simply trying to make enough to get by. Pay no attention to the owners of the corporations!
Outsourcing
One China is Enough
The average annual salary of an American middle class worker is right in the neighborhood of $48,000 dollars. The average annual salary of a Chinese middle class worker is less than $7,000 dollars U.S. See the problem? There is no way that the American worker can compete with a Chinese worker. To do so America would have to become like China. I don’t think this is what we want. Truth be told, it’s not what “big business” wants either. Why? Because people making $7,000 a year cannot afford the products they must sell to remain profitable.
Sensata Made over $450 million in profit during their 4th quarter. It wasn’t enough and the plant is being moved from Illinois to China.
Outsourcing will ultimately bring down American corporations. Outsourcing is like heroine being injected into the veins of corporate America. It may feel euphoric at first, but eventually there is going to be a fatal overdose. As more and more Americans lose their jobs to outsourcing, the American market will contract and there will be no one able to purchase those new iPads, SmartPhones, automobiles or new homes. Families will be unable to send their children to college. Indeed it becomes pointless to obtain a college education when there will be no jobs guaranteeing you can pay back your “student loans.”
Colleges and Universities will begin to fail and we will no longer produce the people necessary to maintain our society. Doctors, teachers, engineers, scientists, computer programmers, the people who have designed and invented American society and culture will vanish.
The Future Of The Path We’re On
Damage from Hurricane Katrina
Those post-apocalyptic movies we’ve all seen about a dystopian future will become prophetic. It is already happening around us right now. Hurricane Katrina devastated our Gulf Coast. That was seven years ago and we still haven’t fully recovered and rebuilt. What’s worse, the hi-tech preventive measures that need to be put in place, have not been because we simply cannot afford it. When your philosophy is to shrink government to the size you can drown it in a bathtub, you discover that nature and the oceans may drown you first.
A dystopian future is a great setting for a movie… but not in real life. This is how Hurricane Sandy left a portion of New Jersey. Can we rebuild?
Now we see that New York is equally at risk. Hurricane Sandy dealt a devastating blow to an area of the Country that has basked in the delusion that they were largely immune from the types of storms that hit the Gulf Coast . We need “Storm Surge Barriers” similar to the ones in Amsterdam. These types of projects require significant government expenditures. Where does the government get it’s revenue? From taxes, both corporate and personal.
They’ve got Storm Surge Barriers in Amsterdam. Why can’t we build them here? Oh, right! That might involve raising taxes…
When corporations outsource jobs to China and other places, American workers lose their jobs. If they’re not working, they’re not paying income taxes. When corporations take advantage of loopholes in the tax system, when rich people are not paying their fair share, we do not have the revenue stream to repair and rebuild after a natural disaster.
Let’s say you live in Wyoming or somewhere and you feel that hurricanes are the least of your worries, where is your money invested? Where is your pension fund? What stocks are held in your mutual fund and or annuities? You may not live on the Atlantic seaboard or on the Gulf Coast, but believe me, you took a sizeable hit along with everyone else. We’re all in this together and yes, you’re affected too.
Outsourcing Our Way To Poverty
Small Business Owners are affected when their customer base becomes unemployed. We’re ALL in this together.
You may feel relatively secure because you are self-employed or own your own business. What you need to understand is, in order for you to survive, you need a customer base. When people in your community are out of work, your business takes a hit. Think about this the next time a factory closes and ships it’s jobs overseas.
You just lost a percentage of your customer base. Yes, outsourcing affects you. When people have to make those hard decisions with regard to rent/mortgage, food, clothing and transportation, there is no money left to patronize your “ice cream parlor,” car wash, or whatever your business is. You need to be concerned and you need to not only support those workers who’ve lost their jobs due to outsourcing. You need to become an activist.
Greed
Is this fair?
Let’s go back to where we began. Believe it or not, it actually is in your own selfish best interest to look out for your fellow man. The better he does, the better you can do. The more he achieves, the more you can achieve. I’m not talking about those CEO’s who are raping the profits from their companies and giving their employees the down elevator shaft. They’re not putting their money back into the community any ways. This is why painting them as the “job creators” is such nonsense. If I give $100,000 dollars to a poor person, that person is going to spend it to buy goods and services. If I give that same $100,000 to a millionaire, they’re going to tuck it away with all their other 100’s of thousands of dollars and it will not be circulated back into the economy.
The people who will spend that money – the poor and middle class – are the ones patronizing your business and creating demand for your products or services. It is thatdemand that causes businesses to have to hire more people and that is what creates jobs!
Do me a favor, the next time one of your Republican associates starts reciting his silly talking points and mentions “illegal immigration” as a huge problem, ask him how many American jobs Mexicans have outsourced to China? Enjoy the ensuing silence.
Faced with how a real President responds to a national crisis, Republicans are running around with their hair on fire! One is forced to ask, are they really that unpatriotic? Or is it that their hatred for our first Black President is greater than their love for country or their concern for the welfare of their fellow American citizens?
A Tale Of Two Storms
Woman picks through the rubble of her home after Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina and it’s aftermath is still fresh in our collective psyches. For the first time in our modern technological history, a portion of our nation took on the optics of a 3rd world nation. We seemed powerless to help our fellow citizens and this impotence was hammered home day after day, night after night by our 24 hour news coverage.
Hurricane Katrina Victims signalling for help
We watched as the people of New Orleans – those fortunate enough to make it to their roofs – stood on their roofs, some waving t-shirts, other’s spelling out the word “help” with whatever debris they could get their hands on, all begging for rescue. News helicopters unequipped to be any more than a photographer’s platform, filmed the horror with the unblinking eye of the camera… and we watched. We saw men, women and children endure what none of us could possibly imagine ever happening in the United States of America.
We pride ourselves on coming to the aid of other nations to bring relief and rescue. Suddenly it appeared that we, the worlds last remaining “Super Power,” needed aid. It was a blow to our pride, self-esteem and wounded our delusion of independent self-reliance. The notion of “American Exceptionalism,” was laid bare for the myth that it is.
Michael D. Brown – Head of FEMA under George W. Bush
When Katrina hit, Michael D. Brown – an appointee of G.W. Bush – was the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA. This was a curious appointment because Brown had absolutely no experience in emergency management of any sort! He was a lawyer and a radio personality. The only management responsibility on his résumé was his time as commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association. Bush might as well have made him “Surgeon General.” He was just as qualified for that position.
To his credit, following the Katrina débâcle a video tape emerged showing Michael Brown warning George Bush that Katrina “might be the big one.”
Unfortunately, being able to perceive that the light at the end of the tunnel might be a train, doesn’t necessarily mean you know the way out of the tunnel. In short, from my perspective, Michael Brown did the best he could, he was just in over his head.
George Bush in his pick-up truck on his ranch in Crawford, TX. Secret Service wouldn’t let him drive it on the streets.
George Bush had been vacationing at his ranch in Crawford, TX. On the Monday the storm hit, he was attending a ceremony in California. He did not return to Washington until Wednesday following the storm and did not visit New Orleans until that Friday. It was 5 days before he arrived on the scene of what he called “our worst natural disaster in history.”
Unusable FEMA Trailers – Contaminated with toxic levels of formaldehyde.
FEMA under the Bush administration had given a no bid contract to Bechtel. They were to provide trailers to be used to house victims of major disasters until they could return to their homes. The problem was these trailers had toxic levels of formaldehyde. The people who were moved into them became ill. Of course law suits were filed. Needless to say, this gave FEMA a “black-eye” in the view of the public.
To sum things up, the government’s handling of Katrina was worse than a Chinese fire drill. People died who could have been rescued. The perception that the government was ineffective and more hindrance than solution, was reinforced in the minds of many.
When Hurricane Sandy struck we all, I included, expected the government response to be similar. No, I did not think it would be anywhere near as bad as it was under the Bush administration. Cronyism and incompetence simply oozed from the pores of the Bush administration. However the differences in the responses between the Obama administration and the Bush administration have been stunning!
Craig Fugate – Head of FEMA under President Obama
The first notable difference is, when it came time to select a Head of FEMA, President Obama hired the director of Emergency Management from the State of Florida, Craig Fugate. Why? Florida is in the line of fire 6 months out of the year during Hurricane season. Florida gets hit frequently. Thus when he hired Craig Fugate, he was hiring someone with actual experience in crisis management and disaster mitigation. Yes, competence makes a difference.
In the aftermath of Sandy, in the words of Dawn Zimmer, the Mayor of Hoboken, NJ, “I put out a call for help and within 90 minutes, FEMA and the National Guard were here.” The other difference? The day after the storm, President Obama was on the scene, viewing the damage, finding out what was needed and giving physical and emotional comfort to those who’d lost everything. George Bush? 5 days. President Obama? Next day. There is a difference.
A Real President
I’ve heard some make the claim that the President does nothing other than show up for “photo-ops.” The explicit implication – I know, borders on an oxymoron – is that the President is using a tragedy for political gain. While there is little doubt this has happened in the past, with President Obama this is clearly not the case. Sometimes it requires an “Act of God,” to cause people to realize what is truly important.
President Obama meets with Governor Christie in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy
Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey has been an outspoken supporter of Mitt Romney and an ardent, vociferous, bombastic critic of the President. When Hurricane Sandy devastated New Jersey, that was his “come to Jesus” moment. Partisan politics went out the window and Governor Christie found himself in the awkward position of needing the help of the President of the United States for the people of New Jersey. When your home gets blown away, you don’t give a damn which party the person helping you belongs to. You’re just happy someone is extending you a helping hand.
President Obama Comforts Female Victim of Hurricane Sandy
Having a real President show up clearly means a lot in a time of despair. It clearly meant a lot to the people who’d lost everything. When President Obama took that woman in his arms and told her that everything was going to be alright and that our government was going to help her put her life back together, it carried the weight of a President who means what he says and says what he means.
Say what you will about President Obama, there’s one thing that is beyond dispute, whatever he says he will do, he does. He said he would defeat Al-Qaeda, he’s done that. When the question was asked in the primary debates, if he would go into Pakistan to get Bin Laden if he had actionable intelligence, he said he would and he did. He said he would pass healthcare reform, he did that. So when he tells a grieving lady that everything is going to be alright and that the government was going to be with her every step of he way, she tends to believe it and takes hope from it.
Aircraft Carrier turning
What can a real President do? First of all, he can cut through government “red tape” like a hot knife through butter. President Obama gave instructions that he didn’t want any hold ups or impediments to government aid. He can do a lot more. This is what I believe stunned Governor Christie. When the issue came up of helicopters coming in to bring supplies and assist in search and rescue missions, the problem was where to land them. President Obama picked up the phone and ordered 3 aircraft carriers to station themselves off the coast of New York and New Jersey, to act as mobile bases for the helicopters that would be needed.
C-130 being loaded
Getting the power back on? We’re Americans. When one State is in need, all of the United States pitch in to help. States all around the nation began rolling crews, equipment and trucks toward our Atlantic seaboard. California sent crews. When President Obama heard they were driving all the way from California to New Jersey and New York, he told them to divert to an airport where he would have C-130 military transports waiting to pick them up, trucks and all. This is what a real President can do. I’m damn glad we’ve got one.
As I write this, we are in the middle of an unfolding natural disaster the likes of which most have never seen. A few hours ago, “Hurricane Sandy” made landfall off the coast of New Jersey. To give you some perspective on the size of this storm, it would take a jet liner 2 hours to fly from one end to the other. As is our custom, some have named it “Frankenstorm.” It is a monster of a storm to be sure. Ironically, this type of storm is predicted and fits perfectly within the oft denied “Global Warming” model of climate scientists. Thus far there are 8.2 million power customers without power.
This is the only light some people have right now.
New York is flooded. Public transportation has been suspended and the Subway’s have been shut down due to the tunnels being full of salt water. Wall Street was closed today and will be closed tomorrow as well. The American marketplace, the engine of our economic system has been suspended while we all listen to a sermon from “Mother Nature.” All our technology, ingenuity and current “know-how,” has been placed in it’s proper perspective by a power greater than ours.
Power Company Truck – Ice Storm
Every State in the path of this monster is experiencing power outages and devastation from high winds and flooding caused by driving rains. It gets worse. A dip in the Jet Stream has allowed a blast of Arctic air from Canada to come down to join the party. Where the moisture meets the cold, you have extremely heavy snowfall and ice formations. Because this storm has hit at a time when leaves are still on the trees, we’re now looking at even more devastation from trees icing up and limbs breaking. The limbs falling on power lines is bound to increase the number of power outages exponentially.
Power Outage and it’s growing
It would be folly at this point to attempt to project the extent of the devastation we’re facing. Thus far at least 48 people are reported as casualties of this storm with more reports coming in. We do know that a hospital’s generators failed. As yet we have no idea what ramifications this may have caused. We are being reminded in the most fundamental way of how truly fragile our technology based society actually is. You turn on the faucet without ever considering that somewhere there is a pump driven by an electric motor, pumping that water into your home. If the power goes down at the pumping station, nothing but a distressing gurgle will flow from your faucet.
Modern Refrigerator
We no longer have “ice boxes,” what we have are refrigerator/freezers. Unlike our ancestors who had to spend a good portion of each day, either hunting, gathering or harvesting what they were going to eat each day, we now avail ourselves of supermarkets and grocery stores and buy food for the week. We store it safely in our refrigerators freeing up the hours in our days to pursue careers and other endeavours. When the power goes out, the clock starts ticking and that food we counted on is at risk of being lost. When the power goes out, the most disturbing thing is the absolute silence. You live each day surrounded by that 60Hz hum. You’ve become so accustomed to it, You don’t even notice it. That soft background hum is like the soundtrack to our lives. When it’s gone, the silence is deafening.
The Myth Of Self-Sufficiency
Dave Canterbury of the Pathfinder School. He’s no fool! He teaches survival but it’s a business. He gets paid to teach people how to rough it.
Most evenings, I listen to a radio program called, “Coast to Coast with George Noory.” The show covers a wide range of topics with an ever growing number of guests. There are a few guests who have become “regulars.” Depending on the news du jour, there may be a segment with a guest who’s written a book or has a website dealing with the particular hot topic of the day. Needless to say, tonight there were several guest who are into self-reliance and preparedness.
Survival Lean-to Shelter made from brush. If it comes down to this, you’ve got a lot of problems.
Back in the early 90’s I wrote a piece for a Usenet news group on being a survivalist. It was entitled, “The Realities of Being a Survivalist. (Getting Past the Bug-Out Mentality.)” Much to my surprise it is still around and referred to from time to time. It was written around the time the movie “Red Dawn” was in a lot of people’s minds. Many people had the mindset, that in the event of TEOTWAWKI – The End Of The World As We Know It – the thing to do was grab your “Bug Out Bag,” your guns and head for the hills. Live off the land, hunt and forage for food and survive like a hero from a Mad Max movie.
Sounds exciting, but it’s not very realistic. The gist of my article pointed out many of the fallacies of that type of thinking. For one, I’m not at all interested in running around in the woods with a bunch of other armed people all hunting for that same damn deer. My suggestion was to make your own home your survival retreat. Yes, I preached self-reliance. Food stores, water, a backup generator, certainly the ability to protect yourself and your family, with the added admonition of giving some thought to where you were living and relocate now to a safer, more strategic location. You probably wouldn’t want to be in the heart of a metropolis in the event of a crisis. We’re seeing some of the problems with this unfolding right now.
Desperately Needed Food Supplies
There are a lot of people in New York. In a day or so, they’re going to need access to food and fresh water. With transportation shut down and limited, bringing supplies to that many people is going to present a problem the likes of which may rival or surpass the problems caused by Hurricane Katrina. One thing in favor of the denizens of New York, the administration of President Obama is much more competent than that of George Bush. Nevertheless, it may be weeks or even months before New York and the rest of our eastern seaboard is back to normal.
Nobody ever thinks about toilet paper. How much do you have stored up?
Yes, self-sufficiency is good. Having supplies on hand is a great idea and everybody ought to have enough on hand to last at least 72 hours without assistance. A week or two would be even better. However, let’s be realistic. We cannot maintain our quality of life on our own. “No man is an island.” Even if you have a generator, eventually it is going to run out of gas. With the power out, if you can make it to a gas station, those pumps will not be working. How much food can you store? Toilet paper? How long can you stay or would you want to stay if you could not flush your toilets? Is it winter? How long do you think it will take for your apartment or home to reach the same temperature as it is outside? Is it summer? How long can you go without air conditioning? Excessive heat can be just as dangerous as freezing cold.
Ayn Rand High Priestess of the Virtue of Selfishness. Darling of Paul Ryan and Guru of the Republican philosophy
The Republican ideology of the virtue of selfishness begins to fall short when faced with the reality of the survival of a society. For years now the Republican mantra has been, “Government is the problem.” They’re right! Bad government is the problem. They fail to make this distinction. There is a reason human beings invented government. We exist today and have achieved what we’ve been able to achieve, even with all the setbacks and missteps, because we learned that working together in a coordinated fashion increased our chances for survival.
It was a hard and rugged life out on the frontier. There was nothing glamorous about it.
Species who’s survival strategy focused purely on distinct individual achievement are no longer here. They’ve gone extinct. Wolves hunt in packs, whales swim in pods, fish swim in schools, bees, ants and other insects have hives and colonies. The coordinated efforts of a group increases efficiency and effectiveness. In our recent history, early 1800’s, the era of the self-reliant outdoors-man, frontiersman, the average lifespan was just 40 years old. Think about that for a moment. You reached 40 years of age and died of the natural cause of old age. Why? Life was hard. It was brutal. It was dangerous. Your caloric intake was low. You suffered from malnutrition. You died.
The things we enjoy today and take for granted come to us because we’ve learned to work together much more efficiently than at any other time in our recorded history. We have become a society of specialists. We make the education of all our children mandatory. Not just the aristocrats or plutocrats. Allour children. Why? Because genius and innovation are not the exclusive province of the privileged and wealthy. We develop all minds both male and female.
We realize that you cannot be a productive, contributing member or society if you’re tethered to your home, armed to the teeth to repel thieves, robbers and invaders. Thus, we have professional police officers and if need be a military. You do not have to rely on folk medicine and remedies handed down by your family traditions. We have hospitals, emergency care facilities and emergency response personnel. They are specifically trained to quickly and efficiently respond to all medical emergencies.
Gas main exploding in a residential neighborhood.
Should some disaster strike, or your home or business catch fire, we have professional firemen and first responders. In times past, should your home or business catch fire, or some natural disaster befall you, you were largely on your own. To be sure, some of your neighbors may have come to help after they saw to their own needs, but professionals with equipment they were not! Because of our combined efforts – coordinated by Government – to care for and meet the needs of everyone in our society, we have experienced progress heretofore unknown in recorded human history.
Climate Change Anyone?
Notice a trend?
The Lunacy in the way the Republicans and the so called conservative movement, have dealt with the issue of “Global Warming” has been simply appalling. They have treated this issue as though the planet is sick and you can go shop for a doctor until you find one that will give you the opinion you want to hear. Scientist after scientist has sounded the warning. “We’re in serious trouble if we don’t do something now.” “We’re nearly at the tipping point.” I’m sure you’ve probably heard all the warnings. They haven’t exactly been keeping things a secret. The prescription has not been that severe. Reduce our use of fossil fuels. Invest in more wind and solar. Incorporate hydro-electric wherever possible. Develop wave powered tidal generators. Increase batter efficiency. Increase fuel efficiency standards in automobiles to bridge us over.
What the Republicans did was turn to their own scientist – most on the payrolls of the energy industry – who say, “Global Warming” needs to be studied more. Or, “we’re not sure how much of this is caused by man.” Really? You’re kidding me right? It’s like that commercial that says, “4 out of 5 dentist agree…” and they turn to that 5th dentist for advice. We simply cannot afford this.Too much is at stake. Remember the GOP convention where they were chanting “Drill Baby Drill” as though it were some Buddhist Mantra? I want you to hold that in your mind and hear it as you look at the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy.
Two huge lies. The first is, that the global supply of oil determines your price at the pump. The price per barrel is set by oil speculators who are trading oil futures like Day Traders trade “penny stocks” on the Stock Market. It’s pump and dump. They don’t give a damn about consumers, they’re in for he quick kill and you pay for their profits.
Coming to a National Park Near You?
Lie number two: We can drill our way to lower energy costs. The United States has a little over 2% of the World’s proven oil reserves. We consume roughly 20% of the World’s oil. Do you see a problem? I do. Simply put, if we were at peak capacity we’re not able to produce as much oil as we consume. It’s like being behind on your mortgage and coming up with the brilliant idea that going through you couch cushions looking for change, will solve your problems. The humor is muted by the tragic reality. You’re going to lose your home. If you were lamenting to me that you were facing foreclosure and I asked you if you’d checked your couch cushions for change, I’m pretty certain you’d have to suppress an impulse to bust me in my eye. Hell! I wouldn’t blame you if you did! I have the same impulse whenever I see or hear a Republican talking about “drill baby drill.”
The reality is, our planet is heating up. How many “100 year storms” have we had in the past decade? They’re coming almost every two years now aren’t they? Coincidence? I don’t think so. To those who lamely try to make the argument that “Man” is not involved, look at it this way. If you were coming down a mountain and you tapped your brakes and they went all the way to the floorboard, what would you do? Would you throw your hands in the air and say, “oh well, there’s nothing I can do. Might as well floor it and go out in a blaze of glory?” Or would you down shift and try the emergency brake? Would you look for a place to drag your car along the side of the mountain to slow and stop it?
The Republican Lie
Republicans have as one of their confessions of faith, “Government is the problem.” “We want Government so small you can drown it in a bathtub.” What about now? When disasters strike like Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Katrina, Mt. St. Helens erupts, Earthquakes, God forbid, Yellowstone’s super Caldera lets loose, you’re going to want Government there with all the resources necessary to return our lives to some semblance of normalcy. this is why we pay taxes. This is why whom we elect is so critically important!Everybody complains about taxes… until their home is under 6′ of water or on fire. When your child gets lost in a National Park while you’re out on a picnic, you couldn’t afford the cost of the search and rescue effort that the government – we the tax payers – will mount to reunite you with your child.
Irony – It’s a Bitch isn’t it?
If your home is on fire, you don’t want the fire department to show up with a clipboard and ask you, “will this be cash, check or charge?” Same thing if you were having a heart attack. These things we take for granted, are the very services that cause people to want to live in our country. No matter whom you are. No matter what you’ve done. If you’re in trouble, society will come together to save your life and help you get back on your feet. We call it “Our Social Contract.” It is what makes us Americans. There is a cost associated with this contract and we cover this cost by paying taxes.
Ever hear the phrase,”all roads lead to Rome?” There is a reason for that expression. The Romans knew that to build and maintain an empire, they needed to be able to quickly move and supply their armies to any location within their empire. Thus they built roads. These roads made marching easier and faster. They made it possible for wagons with supplies to accompany their armies. People spend a lot of time talking about the Roman phalanx, armament and use of the short sword to explain their military success. True their tactics and use of equipment played a large part, however the most important part in my opinion were the roads they built that increased their logistic efficiency and made it possible for reinforcements to quickly arrive on the scene of a conflict.
Collapse of a bridge in Minneapolis in 2007
At one time, we knew this. At least we acted as though we did. We spared no expense to connect our country, first with rail lines and with the invention of the automobile, our interstate highway system. Our roads made commerce possible and caused towns and cities to spring up and grow along these thoroughfares. Power lines, roads, rail systems, bridges all these things make up parts of our infrastructure. If we do not maintain them, they will crumble and fail. It always costs more to rebuild something than it does to maintain it. Don’t like paying taxes? Think about this the next time you’re crossing a bridge. Saving money can be expensive.
When Katrina struck, the Levees broke.
How expensive? Hurricane Katrina really wasn’t all that bad by the time it came ashore. It had greatly weakened. The problem was the levees. They knew there was a problem with the levees and in fact money had been set aside to address this problem. However, instead of that money going to fix the levees, because of decreased revenue caused by cutting taxes, that money went to take care of other things. A levee is sort of like a parachute. You can fly 1,000 times and never need one. However, when you do, you need it to work. Again, infrastructure like those Roman roads, gets ignored until it crumbles or is no longer there.
Privatizing Profits, Socializing Costs
David Cay Johnston – Author of “The Fine Print.”
In his book “The Fine Print,” David Cay Johnston lays out how we’ve arrived at our sorry state of affairs. We have deified the private sector to the point we damn near worship corporations as gods. We have allowed such aphorisms as, “the business of America is business,” or “what’s good for business is good for America,” to filter into our collective psyche. We accept these pronouncements as divine truth. We do not question them or actually analyze them. Perhaps we should. First of all, the government of the United States is not nor should it be considered a business. When the Constitution speaks about “promoting general welfare,” it is not talking about corporations or business interests. It is talking about the welfare of the citizens. Quite often what is best for corporations is terrible for citizens.
To paraphrase Sherlock Holmes, “the game is afoot!” It has been afoot for quite awhile now. Step one in the game plan? Promote the idea that taxes are bad and that they’re too high. This part is easy. When you tell people they’re paying too much, who is going to disagree? Everybody has been convinced that paying more for something than you have to is a sign of a mental defect.
Step two in the game plan? Convince the State that the “private sector” can provide the same services cheaper and more efficiently. Has anyone ever studied this leap of faith? Yet, because you’ve got the citizens up in arms over paying taxes, this suddenly looks like an attractive alternative. Utilities which used to be owned by the commonwealth have been turned over to private companies. Of course, they’re going to need some assistance and incentives in the way of tax abatements, but hey! It’s off the State’s books. Did you catch that? “tax abatements?” What that means is these companies won’t be paying State income taxes. Thus, the revenue of the State has just been decreased. The State also has lost control over vital parts of our infrastructure.
Here’s what this means. One of the reasons Hurricane Sandy has caused over 8 million people to be without power, is because, power lines have been knocked down by the high winds of the storm. There is a really simple solution to this. Bury the damn lines!Because power companies are now privatized, they’re not interested in incurring the cost of burying the power lines. What’s in it for them? If they cannot justify the cost – translation: make a profitburying the lines – it’s not going to happen. Had the power lines been underground where they should be, our power grid would have been largely unaffected by Hurricane Sandy.
Isn’t it interesting that Mitt Romney wants to get rid of FEMA?Right now when people’s lives and the restoration of their property hangs in the balance with FEMA standing between them and total unrecoverable loss, Governor Romney wants to get rid of FEMA. Hear him in his own words.
Just as he showed abysmal judgement when it came to – in his words – “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt!” Drawing from the same arid well of wisdom, he has prescribed doing away with FEMA. I don’t know how to say this any other way… but the man is a dangerous idiot!
Hurricane Sandy Destroys Republican Ideology
I am not a religious man, but it seems that some form of divine intervention may have occurred. “October Surprise?” This one may have come from higher up than we’d like to consider. For the past four years, Republicans have been trying to paint President Obama as divisive, partisan and refusing to work with Republicans. The reason they’ve been so successful in selling this nonsense is that their base only watches FAUX News. In point of fact, President Obama has alienated his own progressive base by reaching out to Republicans.
The Affordable Care Act called “Obama Care,” went before the U.S. Supreme Court over one issue. That issue was “the individual mandate.” The “individual mandate” was a Republican idea. Republicans have added “poison pills” to Bills and proposed them. When President Obama has said, “okay, we’ll do it your way,” they then turn and vote against the very Bills they’ve written and proposed.
President Obama with an extremely grateful Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey
The devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy has made it necessary for Republican ideologues such as New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to have to put aside partisan politics and seek Federal Aid from the President of these United States. Right about now, Chris Christie is damn glad that Barack Hussein Obama is the President of these United States. He has been effusive in his praise of our President. One can only imagine how things might have been had the Republicans acted like grown-ups from day one and participated in governing instead of collecting tax payer checks for doing nothing?
The Monk, Monastery, Basket and Rope
A traveller visiting an ancient monastery was surprised to discover that the only access was by an elevator up the side of the cliff in a basket pulled up by a rope. As he rode up he noticed that the rope was frayed. He turned to the old Monk and asked how often they replaced the rope? The Monk replied, “each time it breaks.” This describes the way we currently handle business.
Rather than raise taxes and spend the money maintaining, repairing and improving our infrastructure, we will wait until it breaks. Had the levees in New Orleans been fixed and maintained as they should have been, the flooding from Katrina would have been minimal. The loss of life would have been greatly decreased. If our power lines were buried underground as they should be, we’d have very few power outages.
Had the Republicans extended their hands in a willingness to work with our President, instead of coming to him in their time of need, imagine what things would be like today.
Radical Republican Views May Stab Romney and the GOP in the Back
by Benjamin T. Moore, Jr.
It is interesting to note, in all my years of watching the news, never before has the subject of rape been so thoroughly discussed… and in such a disturbing manner. One of the most troubling aspects of this discussion has been the association of a rape with some sort of divine plan. Although rape is discussed within the context of the abortion debate, nevertheless the degree to which those in the “Pro-Life” movement trivialize it should give any thinking female of the species, much cause to pause.
Rape
It’s a work of FICTION! Don’t get it twisted
Contrary to the apparent opinion of some Republican males, rape is not some variation of a scene from “Fifty Shades of Grey.” There is no romance. There is no acquiescence. Ironically, it is the total abrogation of a woman’s choice and freewill. Whether the method be through the intimidation of violence, brute physical force, the application of an intoxicant or any other means, rape is not consensual sex and there is always a victim.
Try telling her, “Oh and by the way, you’re pregnant and you have to carry the baby to term.”
Rape has nothing to do with the BDSM games some adults engage in. Those are games between consenting adults. Note the consentpart. Rape is not about sex. It is about power, control and domination. It is often as brutal as it is insidious. Women who are raped often take years to recover if they ever recover. It takes something from them that can never be returned. It reshapes whom they are and often is devastating to their current and future relationships with men. Thus, the men is their lives, partners and future partners also become the victims of their rape. The physical wounds may heal with time, but the wounds to a woman’s psyche may fester like a hidden cancer for years. Some find their lives irreparably altered. Some become chemically dependent. Others end their lives.
When Republicans trivialize rape by calling it “just another means of conception,” they display a callous disregard for women, equal to, if not greater than the rapist’s. When they attempt to inject their twisted theology into the matter by bastardizing religious dogma, it rises to the level of blasphemy! The very notion that because something happened, God must have intended it has been used to justify nearly every atrocity since the inception of Christianity.
Using this logic, if someone backs a moving van up to your home while you’re on vacation and robs you of everything you own, fret not! God must have intended it. Why have a legal system? Why punish criminals? After all, they can only do what God intends.
Guilt By Association
Needless to say, the Romney campaign has found it difficult to split the baby so to speak when it comes to maintaining support from the radical “Pro-Life” wing of their base, while appealing to potential female voters. The problem? It is a Sisyphean task to convince right thinking people that a woman who has already suffered a rape, ought be forced to carry the baby of her rapist to term. I suspect that proponents of this lunacy are merely paying lip service to a vacuous ideal because the chances of such a cascading series of tragedies becoming a reality for them is vanishingly small.
Almost all of those promoting this nonsense are male. Most of them are of an age where they’re children are either grown and married or soon will be. They bask in the illusion of security provided by their privilege, which has no relationship to the reality the rest of us must contend with. Of course, this is stunningly consistent with those born into money chiding the rest of us for our lack of industriousness. If we just work harder, sacrifice more, apply ourselves more astutely, we too can achieve just a portion of what they were born with. Personally I have no problem with the rich, wealthy and the privileged. What I have a problem with is them offering commentary on a reality none of them have experienced.
Where do men get the notion that their opinions on what women do with their own bodies, are worthy of consideration? As a man I have no idea what it is like to feel my body adapt, adjust and shift to accommodate a budding human life. All I can do is plant the seed. The important part of the process of human reproduction is the sole province of the woman. I am comfortable abiding by her wisdom and judgement.
Todd Akin Senate hopeful from Missouri
Thus, when we hear such nonsense from the likes of Missouri Senate hopeful, Todd Akin, that in cases of legitimaterape, the female body has ways of shutting down and preventing conception, I can only stare with slack jawed amazement. How on earth did he graduate from high school, let alone college without even a rudimentary understanding of human biology and the reproductive process? He could not have sounded any more ignorant had he said, “in such cases, the Stork simply refuses to deliver the baby!” Surely some college or university wants their diploma back?
Roger Rivard Wisconsin Legislator
This moral hemorrhaging didn’t end with Todd Akin. Enter Roger Rivard. Close friend of Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan. This fellow has quite an interesting take on rape. In his own words, “some girls rape easy.” Although, taken in context his words are not an admonition to rape, nevertheless they display a mindset that trivializes rape and begins with the premise that women will cry rape when none actually occurred. Does this ever happen? Certainly. Just as people falsely claim to have been robbed or in the case of students, “the dog ate my homework.” People lie. Yet, when someone picks up their phone and dials “911,” the operator on the other end does not and must not question the veracity of the caller. If you say you’re having chest pains, the “911” operator doesn’t speculate that you may have eaten something that disagreed with you and suggest an antacid. The ambulance is sent immediately.
Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan
In point of fact, this entire rape problem goes all the way to the top of the Romney – Ryan ticket. Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan also believes that rape is “just another method of conception.” If you’re beginning to see a pattern here, you’re right! What is it about the Republican party that allows the trivialization of such a heinous crime to be acceptable? They pitch more of a fit over rich people being asked to pay 4% more on their taxes, than they do over an innocent woman being raped!
The Straw that broke the Camel’s back?
The straw that just may have broken the Camel’s Back is Senate hopeful from Indiana, Republican Richard Mourdock. Not only did he trivialize rape as just another means of conception, he injected God into the equation! Yes, should you get raped and get pregnant, take heart! God intended for it to happen! When pressed on the idiocy of his comments and the suggestion that God intends rape, he did backtrack slightly… and in the process made things worse! “God didn’t intend the rape… but since it happened, why not take advantage of things and throw in a pregnancy!
Here again is one of the reasons for my Agnosticism. I can hardly think of a higher insult to the divine than to make the “Almighty God” a party to the crime of rape! The fact that God hasn’t dusted off that whole smiting business he made much use of in the Old Testament causes me to have my doubts. Surely if there ever were a need for a good old fashioned smiting, this would be it.
Indiana Senate hopeful Richard Mourdock
As it turns out, these comments by Richard Mourdock may just be that bridge too far. It may turn out that by endorsing Indiana’s Richard – “I love to inflict my opinions on others” – Mourdock, Mitt Romney may have allowed the Senate hopeful from Indiana to not only stab him in the back, but the entire GOP. Let’s hope so! Women? Are you paying attention? They also say you can’t rape the willing. Do not be a willing participant in your rape. There’s too much at stake. Hold these fools accountable. The abortion debate is really a “Myth-Direction.” This is about what it’s always been about. Control. Absolute, dictatorial control. Or as Richard Mourdock says, “inflicting his opinions” on you! Vote wisely. Friends don’t let friends vote Republican.
trea·son (trzn)
n.
1. Violation of allegiance toward one’s country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one’s country by waging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies.
2. A betrayal of trust or confidence.
It has been said that a Democracy will only last as long as it takes the citizenry to figure out they can vote themselves money out of the treasury. I would like to add my corollary to this: A Republic will only last as long as it takes the Plutocrats to figure out a way to buy the Democratically elected Representatives. This pretty much sums up where we are today. But how did we get here? It was not always this way. While a thorough examination of the history of this nation is beyond the scope of this article, there are some milestones, some key indicators that show an America that might have been had we not allowed the greed of a few to seduce us from the path of progress.
The Bankers
You can see how much of the world lives in poverty, merely by looking at the lights.
What is the biggest concern in the world today? Food? Medical care? Access to technology? Education? Clean water? All these things are vitally important to be sure, but none of them are within reach without access to energy. Energy makes modern life possible. When our Earth is viewed from Space at night, you can tell where the wealth, industry and technology centers are merely by looking at the portions which are lit up. You can tell where poverty is by noting the darkness. Imagine what this planet would look like, where we’d be if people everywhere had access to abundant free energy. It almost happened.
Nikola Tesla and Wardenclyffe Tower
In 1903 Nikola Tesla was finishing up work on his “Wardenclyffe Tower.” It was built with the backing of financier J.P. Morgan. Yes, the same J.P. Morgan now associated with the J.P.Morgan/Chase name. It was nearing completion when Mr. Morgan learned that it would transmit electrical power for free through the air. Upon learning this, he was stunned. He immediately withdrew his backing causing the project to halt just prior to completion. Why did he do this? As it turns out, J.P. Morgan was heavily invested in copper and had anticipated making a fortune off of the copper wiring needed to bring electricity into each and every home and business. Had Nikola Tesla’s project come on line, Morgan’s profit stream would have vanished like a light fog on a windy day.
J.P. Morgan
We were that close! Imagine a world with no power outages. A world where electricity was free. A world where power could be brought to every hamlet and village without the need to run wiring. Power to run pumps for water. Power to run your electric vehicle with no need for a battery. Power to run factories and food processing plants. Think of how much cleaner the air would be. Mountains and hilltops that have been strip mined for coal would still be in their pristine condition. Streams that were defiled by slag and run off from the mining process would be clear and clean. There never would have been a BP oil spill because we wouldn’t need oil except for the production of some polymers. Our demands for that could be easily filled by the oil wells we already have.
The banking houses were not finished with us by a long shot. There has been a war for primacy which has been going on between banking houses for maybe 1,000’s of years. It started in the “Old World” and moved here. Just as with the Hollywood serials we grew up with, Banking Houses have been having showdowns and shoot-outs with the American economy caught in the crossfire. Make no mistake, this game is about global domination and in the words of the Highlander, “there can be only one.”
Think of the movie Underworld. The movie about a war between Vampires and Lycans. Society was blissfully unaware – as sheep often are – of the battles raging all around them. Though unstated in the movie, the ultimate prize was to have the human population as a prey item all to themselves. The banking houses like packs of Werewolves were battling between themselves using full automatic weapons and hand grenades. It occurred to some of them that in their fight for supremacy, the very people who’s harvested money made their profits possible were being destroyed. The “Great Depression” was symptomatic of this.
Run on the American Union Bank during the Great Depression
Stock manipulation, insider trading, leaking of false information caused bank stocks to plummet and the blood letting was fierce. J.P. Morgan and others were behind this. In the process people lost everything. So vicious were these internecine banking wars, people were rapidly losing confidence in the entire banking system. The only purpose for banking – particularly at that time – was the assumption that it was safer to store your money at a bank than under your mattress at home. It was being proven in the most poignant way possible that this was simply not the case. If people began taking their money out of banks, the entire banking system would collapse and none of the Banking Houses would make any money. In fact, like a virus this realization could spread to Europe and the global game for world domination could come crashing down. Something had to be done and it had to be done quickly.
The Not So Federal Reserve
Just as smart farmers practice crop rotation and soil conservation, the Banking Industry needed a set of rules and guidelines to protect the crop of human sheep they depended upon for economic sustenance . Think about how bad things must have been for natural rivals, foes and in some cases outright enemies, to come together and put in place rules and regulations limiting to what extent they could “gut” the American people.
J.P. Morgan family’s Jekyll Island Resort
In 1910 a group of high ranking banking cartel members met on Jekyll Island – a resort island off the coast of Georgia owned by J.P. Morgan – to draft the plans for a “Central Bank” that would serve to regulate how much blood letting banks could do and protect the crop of American sheep so desperately needed for their profits to continue. Although there were several fully owned, bought and paid for Congressmen present, the Federal Reserve law was crafted and written in it’s entirety by the Banking Houses. It was a law for the Bankers, of the Bankers and by the Bankers. The U.$. citizens were being sold into slavery. The dollar sign actually stands for the “slave behind bars.” Fitting.
President Kennedy
Think about it this way. If I owe you a sum of money… but the only money you will accept in payment is money I have to borrow from you, will I ever be able to pay off my debt? This is the Federal Reserve System in a nutshell. Back when the national debt was only $400 million dollars – owed to the Federal Reserve – President John Fitzgerald Kennedy realized the scam being perpetrated on the American people. On June 4, 1963 he issued Executive Order 11110.This order brought the printing of money back under the Federal Government. These dollars printed became known as “Red T-Notes” or “Red Treasury Bills” instead of the “Green Treasury Seal” you’re so accustomed to seeing, the seals on these bills were printed in “red.” President Kennedy paid off our national debt and America was debt free. 5 months later he was dead. One of the first acts by President Lyndon Baines Johnson was
Red Treasury Bill issued under President Kennedy. Did it cost him his life?
to put us back under the Federal Reserve. Coincidence? Only if you believe in the “accidental theory of history.” To my Republican friends, that’s right, the only time in living memory when the entire national debt was paid off was under a Democratic President. I suspect it cost him his life.
Treason
The Banking Houses are by no means the only villains we’ve had to contend with. Wealthy Industrialist, owners of some of the largest corporations of their time, were supplying and supporting the NAZI war machine at the same time our boys were fighting and dying to stem the tide of Nazism and liberate Europe. Below is a partial list of some of the companies and industrialist that supported Hitler and supplied the Nazi war machine with much needed goods and services.
J.P. Morgan
Rockefeller
Henry Ford
Prescott Bush (Grandfather of President G.W. Bush)
General Electric Company
Standard Oil
National City Bank
Chase Manhattan Bank
Kuhn Loeb and Company
General Motors
Ford Motors
DuPont
Warburg Manhattan Bank
Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH)
International Business Machines (IBM)
These are but a few of the companies and industrialist who put profits above American lives. Did they have to wring the American blood from those dollars before stacking them in their vaults? Isn’t it comforting to know that these things are no longer happening today? Or are they?
Same Game With Players Added
First it was just the Banking Houses playing for total Global domination. The Game hasn’t changed. The goal is still the same. All we’ve done is added more players. No matter how it goes. No matter whom wins, for you the end objective remains the same. Your destiny is to be a totally controlled slave. Your only reason for existence will be to benefit and power their wealth. Nothing more. Nothing less. Here is the hard truth put in a way that is easy to understand.
All one need do is look around. What you see happening is not happening by random chance. It is not the chaos principle rolling the cosmic dice. What you see is the result of planning and scheming. When you’re not a part of the plan, chances are better than average, the plan doesn’t benefit you!
Grazing Our Way to the Slaughterhouse
The Judas Goat leading sheep into the Slaughterhouse
Anyone who’s ever taken “Economics 101,” was taught three seminal principles. The first is that the self-regulating “Invisible Hand of the Market” is the best, most efficient way to run an economy. The second is “Supply and Demand.” As supply goes up, demand goes down and vice versa. According to your instructor this is what causes the fluctuations in price. The third principle is what is known as the “Guns vs. Butter Paradigm.” The more you spend of your Gross Domestic Product on “guns” – hard items, infrastructure what have you – the less of your GDP you can spend on “Butter” – the luxury items – such as entertainment, ball games, nights out to the cinema or more relevantly, PBS, Sesame Street and Big Bird.
It makes sense. It is easy to understand. It can be regurgitated on demand for tests… and it’s all a total fantasy! I can prove it to you right now. Consider the price of gas. Republicans will tell you that gas is so high because President Obama won’t let Big Oil drill in our National Parks and other precious federal lands. Yet, when you look at the actual facts – something Republicans run from like they’re the plague – Oil production is at an all time high. Thus the supply from the United
Note the wild fluctuations in gas prices? They’ve got nothing to do with oil production.
States – which by the way only controls 20% of the worlds oil reserves – is higher than what it was under the Bush Administration. If the price of gas had anything to do with the supply of oil from the United States, our gas prices should be hovering around $1.40 per gallon. One myth down. Two to go.
The Not So Invisible Hand Of The Market
What about the “Invisible Hand of the Market?” The problem with this myth goes to the definition of “Free Market.” Take the Stock Market. Is the Stock Market free? Of course it isn’t. To be free everybody would have to have equal information. Equal ignorance and equal opportunity to buy and sell. You only make a profit in the stock market one of two ways. You have the luck of the Irish – not that the Irish have ever been particularly lucky – or you know something your fellow traders do not yet know. For example. A buddy of mine calls me up and gives me a stock tip. A company he’s working for is about to bring a new widget to the market. Their stock is about to “spike” up significantly. I call my broker and buy 5,000 shares. Sure enough, within a month I’ve tripled my initial investment. Is this the Free Market at work? Of course not. He could have just as easily told me that he’d gotten word that the profit and loss statements due to be released were going to show a loss for the quarter and that I should sell.
Stock Market Analyst – Jim Cramer of Mad Money
They’re not even bashful about things any longer. They pay analyst huge sums of money to predict what a stock is likely to do. Investors live by those reports. It never occurs to them, these analyst might be getting a check under the table to upgrade or downgrade a stock to benefit the bottom line of some huge corporation. Is the Market free? Of course not! If I know something you don’t know then I have an advantage. When it comes to money there is nothing some people and corporations will not do to gain an advantage. Am I saying they are all corrupt? No, of course not. However, how do you know which ones are and which ones are not?
What happens if I use my gun to take your butter?
The “Guns vs. Butter” paradigm is probably the most easy to see through. Sure it makes sense in the civilized confines of the economics classroom. It’s an excellent exercise in erudition to juggle the numbers, plug them into spreadsheets and watch the colorful graphs and projections tumble across your screen. The real world is quite a bit different however. What happens if I simply spend allmy GDP on guns, then come and take your butter? This worked for Russia and led to the formation and consolidation of the Soviet Union. It worked for Hitler and brought us WWII. In point of fact, this is exactly how many countries in the real world work. All that stuff they taught you in school is just a fantasy. It gives you just the background trivia you need to become a trainable drone for the corporate machine.
TREASON! How America was Bought, Stolen and Sold!
In my perfect world, all those who worship at the altar of capitalism would be rounded up and put into an institution for the criminally insane. Sound harsh? Perhaps. However, when we look at some of the things that have been done to the American people in the name of Capitalism and the free market I think my response is actually rather mild.
Hey Waiter! There’s a Fly in my mashed potatoes!
In truth when one examines American corporations and their history, one might be looking at a book review for “Angels and Demons.” There have been some corporations that have been very beneficial to these United States and whom were essential for it’s growth and development. However, if I set before you a steaming bowl of mashed potatoes with a large pat of butter melting in a pond on top… and you look down and notice a large green housefly swimming in that butter, what do you see? All those nice fluffy mashed potatoes? Or that hideous housefly? Suppose I told you to just eat around the fly, would you? Perhaps if you merely fished the fly out? Would the potatoes be all better now? Somehow I get the feeling that the entire bowl of mashed potatoes would have to go.
So it is for me when I look at some of the horrific things corporations have done to the American people and the American Economy. It is not my purpose to give an exhaustive list, but I will hit a few highlights or perhaps we should call them “low-lights?”
ENRON a Tragedy in 2 Parts
ENRON Logo
Remember Enron? This mega-corporation nearly cornered the American Energy Market. Be it electrical, gas or oil, Enron had it’s fingers all in it. Things got so good for them, they began creating the demand to justify raising their prices by creating “rolling brown-outs” on the west coast during the height of the summer heat. These brown-outs were artificially induced. They caused auto-accidents and people died!
The first part of this tragedy is what was done to the entire west coast of our nation. The traffic accidents, people who died because ambulances couldn’t reach them in time or couldn’t get them to the hospital in time, What price would you place on those lives? What if it were a family member? Your grandmother suffering in the heat of an apartment or nursing home with no power. The only reason? To artificially inflate the price that a vastly overvalued stock was being traded at, and to artificially inflate the cost of energy. Had a foreign nation done this, we would have considered it an act of war. However because it was an American corporation, we bowed at the altar of Capitalism.
What Enron did in California and up the West Coast was the “bridge too far” that brought about their ultimate ruin. Market analyst were already noticing anomalies with their stock price. They began digging a little deeper. Once you come on the radar, people notice and start to investigate. The house of cards was starting to crumble. This response by then CEO of Enron, Ken Lay, to columnist, Paul Krugman on Mr. Krugman’s New York Times column pointing out that Enron was the quintessential example of why we need more regulation, Mr. Lay said the following:
“The broader goal of [Krugman’s] latest attack on Enron appears to be to discredit the free-market system, a system that entrusts people to make choices and enjoy the fruits of their labor, skill, intellect and heart. He would apparently rely on a system of monopolies controlled or sponsored by government to make choices for people. We disagree, finding ourselves less trusting of the integrity and good faith of such institutions and their leaders. The example Mr. Krugman cites of “financialization” run amok (the electricity market in California) is the product of exactly his kind of system, with active government intervention at every step. Indeed, the only winners in the California fiasco were the government-owned utilities of Los Angeles, the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. The disaster that squandered the wealth of California was born of regulation by the few, not by markets of the many.”
Here is a company who’s accounting practices were so corrupt they brought down Arthur Anderson one of the largest and most reputable accounting firms in the nation. They were hiding money in dummy companies all around the globe, they were transferring losses from Enron to other dummy companies and it all came crashing down when they attracted intense scrutiny because of their criminal conduct in managing the power and dealing with their customers on the west coast.
This brings us to part 2 of the tragedy. Many people had an awful lot of Enron stock in their portfolios and pension plans. A whole lot of people lost their shirts. If you had an IRA or a Pension plan back then, you probably took a hit as well. Although you may have never even considered buying Enron stock, the mutual funds that pensions and IRA’s invest in often have holdings investors are not aware of. One pension fund in Florida lost over $300 million when Enron’s stock dropped to $1. If you’re in your 20’s and just starting out, no big deal. However if you were close to retirement, that type of loss to a pension fund would be devastating.
Outsourcing
Uncle Sam in a Chinese work shop
There’s nothing quite like buying a brand new American Flag, reading the tag only to discover it was made in China! Here are a few facts. The average median income here in America is right around $48k per year. The average median income in China is around $6,700 per year. There is no way we can compete with those labor rates nor should we.
When an American worker makes $48k, out of that money comes taxes which support our schools, roads, infrastructure, police and fire departments, hospitals etc. Also, out of that $48k groceries are purchased which help the American farmer. Products are purchased at shopping malls which help other businesses. Cars are bought and maintained and the money that is paid to the American worker is circulated all throughout our economy benefiting all of us.
When that American worker’s job is outsourced to China, yes he’s in a world of hurt, but the reality is, all of us are hurt. Yet, many continue to graze like dumb sheep. The wolves grab one of their brethren and their position is, “well, at least it wasn’t me. He/She must have done something wrong.” This is a recipe for ultimate disaster. One by one the sheep are picked off until they finally get around to you. You are on the menu and they will get to you eventually.
Let’s say you’re retired and living happily on your pension and Social Security. The Social Security fund is set up on the premise that people who are currently working and paying their Social Security are funding the program for you. As more and more jobs are transferred out of the country, the Social Security fund will shrink. This is true for Medicare as well. No matter where you are, where you live, you are affected by factories closing and those jobs being sent to other countries. Even if you’re self-employed, you’re affected.
The Real Reason Jobs are outsourced.
The only way to compete with China is for us to become China. One China is enough. We do not want to lower our lifestyle to that of the people of China. You wouldn’t want to live here if we did. Thus when they talk about the American worker not being as competitive on the world market as the Chinese worker, understand what they’re really saying. What they’re saying is they don’t want to pay American wages period.
Sensata is a company in Freeport, IL. In the 4th quarter of 2011 they had a net revenue of $453.4 million dollars. This was up 16.9% from the 4th quarter of 2010. They were acquired by Bain Capital – Mitt Romney’s Company – and Bain decided that they could greatly increase their profits by moving operations to China. How much profit is enough? Do we sit quietly by while the wolves pick those employees off one by one? At what point do we rise up and say enough is enough? With each job shipped overseas we move one step closer to becoming a 3rd World Nation.
Corporate Misdirection
Make no mistake, the corporate objective is no different than the big banking houses. They too are playing a zero sum game for total global domination as well. If you’ve ever watched Survivor on CBS, this should be familiar to you. In the beginning of the game alliances are formed. People work together to eliminate other people in the group. The problem is, there can only be one winner. Thus you know at some point in the game, treachery will ensue. Someone is going to get stabbed in the back. I suppose some find this entertaining which is why the show is still on.
Right now corporations and industrialist are working together. They’re working to break up the Labor Unions that made the “Middle Class” possible. They’re working together to buy congressmen and by extension they’re stacking the courts, getting rid of regulations and slowly their noose is tightening around the necks of the American people. They’ve been working on their plan for years now. There has been a steady stream of propaganda that goes out over the talk radio networks they own, vilifying Labor Unions. Drip, drip, drip it’s been going on for years now. Most people have a dim view of Labor Unions. They forget that Labor Unions are the reason they only have to work 40 hr. weeks. Labor Unions are the reason that kids aren’t working in factories. It was Labor Unions that forced corporations to profit share with their employees. Labor Unions are the reason you have health care. Paid vacations? Labor Unions. Yet, many people now believe that Labor Unions have outlived their usefulness.
She’s angry about the wrong things.
Corporations spend copious sums of money lobbying and advertising. It’s all about control and if you think they’re not spending equal amounts of money to frame and shape the debate and conversation, you’re naive. The “Tea Party” is an excellent example of this. TEA Party = Taxed Enough Already Party. Most of these people aren’t even paying taxes to speak of. They’re out fighting against the very revenue stream that benefits them and will help them make it into the Middle Class or remain there if they’re borderline Middle Class.
A tax is a fee for services provided by the government. If your issue is all about how much you’re paying, shouldn’t you be focusing on the corporations that are gouging you at the gas pump, grocery store, interest rates and all those other things we purchase everyday? We can elect our public officials. We cannot elect those corporate board members who make the polices that really gouge our pocketbooks. The only agency that can protect us from them, is our government.
I’m not going to tell you that government is our saviour because it’s not. However, government is not our enemy. It is there to protect and serve the people and we do have control over our government through our vote. The large corporation that’s charging you usurious interest rates? The only advocate you have against them is government. This is why they’re trying to use you to hamstring government by putting the people they’ve already bought into power.
This is a zero sum game. The wolves are hungry and you’re on the menu. It has always been about the control and enslavement of the world. Unless you’re sitting in a spaceship with some sort of a warp drive, you don’t have a lot of options. We outnumber them. This is why one of their main techniques has been “divide and conquer.” Black against White against Latino. Man against woman, pseudo-rich against the poor. It’s all a game but it’s played “for keeps.”
TREASON! How America was Bought, Stolen and Sold
Think about the contrived “undocumented worker” problem. Why is everyone up in arms about shutting down our borders? It is an expensive, wild goose chase that won’t be effectve. Undocumented workers come here to work. If they really wanted to stop them from coming, there would be no need to play hide and go seek along the border. All you’d have to do is start arresting CEO’s and business owners who hire people who are here illegally. It is simple and cost effective and it would solve the problem with in a month, two months at the most.
The truth of the matter is, this is yet another case of corporate misdirection. They’ve got you looking at the border for the people who they’ve got working in their back rooms and factories. They’re telling you that the reason your pay check is so low is because of the people they’re hiring illegally. Instead of picketing these businesses and demanding the arrest of these employers, we’ll get shirt tail militias to sit in lawn chairs watching the border.
We complain about how bad things are and make noises about our jobs being shipped overseas and then go shop at Wal-Mart where most of their inventory comes from China. We have the power to choose. We should use it wisely. Don’t bank with banks who don’t have your best interests or this nation’s interest at heart. Don’t buy things not made in America. Don’t elect politicians who are owned by corporate America and for God’s sake! Do not vote Republican. At some point in the future? Maybe. However, right now, the Republicans have been co-opted by corporate interests that are antithetical to what is best for this nation.
I don’t want to live in a 3rd world nation. If I did, I could move to one. I like children having good schools. I like teachers to make a decent living. I like fire fighters, police and medical responders to be well paid. I like having our roads cleared in the winter and potholes filled in the spring. I think Social Security and Medicare are just fine the way they are. I believe we owe the young men and women who serve in our military a job when they get back and the peace of mind knowing that their families are well fed, cared for and bills paid while they’re gone. Gosh darnit! I want the pilots who are flying the plane paid well enough that they’re not distracted by thoughts of making ends meet while they’ve got my life in their hands at 30,000 feet. I’m not interested in a race to the bottom. I want us to race to the top. How do we do all this? The first step is you’ve got to wake up.
First let me say by way of disclaimer, I am a devout Agnostic. You might say, “then you have no dog in this fight?” In one sense, that would be true. However although I do not subscribe to any system of belief, I live in a country where those in government not only do subscribe to systems of belief, but invite us to form opinions regarding their integrity and fitness for office based on their particular brand of faith. Since we are invited to use their professions of faith as a measuring stick for their fitness to lead us, it is only fair that we oblige them and examine, not only their beliefs, but how ardently they adhere to those beliefs. Likewise when people with the title of Evangelist share their faith with us, it is not beyond the pale to observe and examine their actions to determine if they actually believe in what they’re selling.
When Racism Trumps Christian Faith
Strange Bed Fellows Indeed
This past week “Evangelist to the Presidents,” Billy Graham and the heir to his ministry, Franklin Graham sat down with Governor Willard Mitt Romney. Mr. Romney is running for the office of President of these United States, so on the surface there is nothing strange or unusual about their meeting. Indeed the 93 year old Rev. Graham has met with every President since Eisenhower. What is unusual is what happened following that meeting.
On Rev. Graham’s website at that time there was a list of religious groups he considered to be “cults.” Mormonism was on that list along with Jehovah’s Witnesses, The Church of Scientology and others. Following that meeting, Mormonism was removed from that list. Why? What happened? What changed? When things seem unusual, it is often best to dig a little deeper. First, we need to take a step back and get a perspective on some things.
Moses Brings Down the Ten Commandments
Christianity has been a “no compromise” religion. If you trace it back through it’s roots in Judaism, the Christian God wrecked genocide on groups of people who did not believe in or worship him. The Old Testament of the Bible is rife with wars of aggression being waged against people for whom there was precious little mentioned in the way of provocation. You must remember, if you believe the whole “10 Commandments” thing with Moses, a mountain and God, the “10 Commandments” were given to the Jews, not the rest of the world. Thus, to punish people for not living up to a law they were never given in the first place, seems a bit peculiar does it not?
The Walls of Jericho Coming Down
It would be sort of like driving through a town in your shiny black truck, being stopped by the police, pulled out of your truck and then summarily shot! Why? Because driving a black colored vehicle is a crime punishable by immediate death in the town you’re driving through. Might have been nice to have known that before hand wouldn’t it? Remember the famous battle of Jericho? You know? Probably heard about it in Sunday School? People marched, trumpets blew, walls came crashing down, slaughter ensued… What did those people ever do to deserve what happened to them? If we’re going by the Biblical accounts, not a thing.
The Crusades
Saladin
Fast forward in time to the “Middle Ages.” You have the Crusades. If you drill down an actually analyze the issues, Saladin the Muslim Sultan of Egypt and Syria was an admirable person. He had no problem with Christian pilgrims coming to the “Holy Lands.” The problem was, the Roman Catholic Church simply could not abide the fact that Jerusalem was being controlled and run by people who were not Christian. Never mind the fact that the sites they considered holy were not being defiled but were equally revered by the Muslims. They had to go to war. Thousands of innocent people – civilians if you please – lost their lives for no good purpose. The wounds inflicted during the “Crusades” still haunt us today and influence the relationship between Islam and the West. Why all the bloodshed? Muslims believed differently than Christians. Same God. Same patriarchs but a different spin on things. Christians, Jews and Muslims all claim to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Odd that with so much in common, they simply cannot get along.
Thirty Years War
European Involvement in Thirty Years War
Fast forward again to the “Pre-Colonial” period. One of the longest lasting and most destructive wars in recorded history was what is known as the “Thirty Years War.” This was a war between Catholics and Protestants. It involved most of Europe at one time or another. Again, same God, same basic beliefs, but because one group had a different spin on things, they had to go to war and people had to die. The cost in lives and resources was tremendous.
Indeed, all the denominations we have today, your Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, Lutheran, all of them Protestants, could be said to have had their genesis in the “Thirty Years War.” It was this war that helped to solidify the lines as it were and the differences between these groups. The question I continually ask is, “how can all these people, reading from the same book, the “Holy Bible,” all come away with something different?
Mormonism
[KJV] Galatians 1:8
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
No, these are not really them. This is an artists depiction of what they might have looked like had they actually existed.
Mormonism in the grand scheme of things is a brand new man made religion with little to no basis in reality. It lacks the historical context that the other religions point to. Other religions regardless of how they interpret the archaeological data, at least have archaeological data they can point to. Mormonism does not. Those “Golden Tablets” supposedly delivered to Joseph Smith by the “Angel Moroni?” Well, supposedly they were taken back to heaven. Thus, they don’t exist. Even before they were magically transported back to heaven, you couldn’t see them if you were not a truebeliever. I don’t mean they wouldn’t let you see them. I mean you could be looking directly into the box they were supposed to by lying in. Only those who trulybelieved could see them. A delusion induced hallucination by any other name.
Mythical Battle Between the Lamanites and the Nephites
There is no archaeological evidence for any of the supposed battles claimed to have occurred between the “Lamanites and the Nephites.” No weapons, arrowheads, swords, shields all the things that we find from the sites of battles many thousands of years more remote in their historical context. What’s worse is, the science of DNA disproves the seminal Mormon claim that the Native Americans are actually descendants of lost tribes of Jews. Of course, Joseph Smith didn’t know about DNA or the science of genetics when he was making up his religion. Who did back at that time? He had absolutely no idea that a time would come when with just a simple cheek swab, we could pinpoint a person’s ancestry to almost any point on the globe. Not only that, but using DNA you can pull out all the different ethnic contributions that make up who you are.
We know that this never happened
The bottom line? The Native Americans are in no way, nor have they ever been related to Semitic people. Thus, they’re not some lost tribe of Jews. Of course, one never asks, how exactly do you lose a tribe of people? Has this put the lie to Mormonism? Of course not! Some people simply do not want to be confused with facts. When it comes to Judaism, Christianity and to some extent Islam, much of their lore is simply uncheckable. Can we prove that Abraham existed? No we cannot. We also cannot prove that he did not exist. Science and archaeological evidence strongly suggests it is all a myth, however the events occurred so far back in time that we can never be absolutely certain as to what happened.
Tom Green – Mormon Polygamist with his five wives
Unfortunately for Mormonism, this is not the case. We actually have the records of Joseph Smith’s run-ins with the law on fraud charges. We have records of how he actually died in a gun battle trying to escape from being lynched in jail. We have records of his numerous infidelities with the wives of other men. How surprising that the religion he founds has as one of it’s primary tenets of faith, polygamy. In fact to become a God with your very own planet to rule, you had to take many wives. The more the merrier as they say.
Irreconcilable Differences
The differences between Mormonism and orthodox Christian teachings, is simply staggering. Put another way, wars have been fought and thousands of people have died over disputes in theology that look specious by comparison. Christians teach that Jesus is the only begotten son of God.Mormons teachthat not only did God have other sons, Jesus and Lucifer are in fact brothers. Thus all humanity is caught up in a family dispute over a difference of opinions.
Poor Joseph, God would have been a hard act to follow.
Christianity teaches that God is a spirit and those who worship him, worship him in spirit and in truth. Mormonism teaches that God has a physical body with which he enjoys endless celestial sex with his numerous wives. Christianity teaches that Jesus was born of the “Virgin Mary” who conceived through a move of the “Holy Spirit.” Mormonism teaches that God – Elohim – came down in a physical body and had sex with Mary. Of course, if she were a virgin, she wouldn’t have been after that.
Had Joseph Smith been around during the Inquisition his theology would have received a warm reception.
The most staggering problem with Mormonism and in essence, what ought to be the deal breaker for even serious consideration as a religion is this fundamental error in logic. According to Mormonism, Elohim was born a human being to as yet unknown, unnamed parents who were of course gods. Elohim was elevated to God status following his death because of his adherence to the teachings of Mormonism.Did you catch that? How could Elohim the supposed creator of this Universe and this planet have followed the teachings of Mormonism when Joseph Smith had not been born and of course had yet to invent Mormonism? You say it was given to him by the angel Moroni? Where did Moroni get it? The whole scam… er, schemefalls apart with the application of a few very simple questions. Had Joseph Smith lived during the time of the Inquisition – damn shame he didn’t – he would have been summarily burned at the stake.
When Racism Trumps Christian Faith
“In the face of a common foe, traditional enemies will unite.”
So what on earth could have bridged the gap between Christianity and Mormonism? Who could have brought these two diametrically opposed theologies together? Who is the “unite-er and not the divider?” Who on this planet has the power to upend 2,000 years of Christian beliefs? Beliefs held so strongly that people have been willing to die for them? Whom could possibly do this?
President Barack Hussein Obama 44th President of the United States
There is but one man on this planet with the power to perform such a miracle. His name? President Barack Hussein Obama. Yes, his very presence, his very existence has caused racist white people so much distraught that possibly for the first time in recorded history, they’ve stopped fighting one another over the basis of their theological differences and have come together in unity to fight against the very thought of our first Black President having a second term in office. This phenomenon is one that should be studied for years to come. It should be of interest to political science students and theologians as well. When you look back over recorded history and realize how many wars have been fought and blood spilt over such minor issues as to whether or not one group had their baptismal formula correct or whether or not one needed to be fully immersed in water or simply have water poured over one’s head.
“I am not at all bothered by the fact that Mitt Romney is a Mormon.”
The history of religion has been fraught with one war after the other over what a disinterested 3rd party would consider minor points of doctrine. After all, they all read from the same book, believe in the same God, who cares what comes first in a worship service? This is what makes these current events so damn miraculous! The differences between Mormon theology and Christian theology are not at all small. They’re huge! So, when Franklin Graham says he’s not at all bothered by the fact that Mitt Romney is a Mormon, there must be something else, some power working behind the scenes that can warp the very fabric of theological reality.
Racism
Racism has always been a part of Christianity
Our first clue to this mystery probably has to do with the fact that in spite of the fact that President Obama spent over 20 years in a Christian church, was baptized, there, married there, had his daughters Christened there, a portion of this nation still believes him to be a Muslim. In point of fact, there would be nothingwrong with him being a Muslim, but why do they insist on making him something he is not?
Islam is considered by many white people to be a religion for dark skinned people. Thus if they’re already racist, it carries a connotation when mentioned.
Islam is considered to be a religion for and of dark skinned people. When you say the word Muslim, in many white people’s minds, the word “Black” is inserted in front of it. Thus, Muslim becomes “Black Muslim.” The reality is, people of allraces practice the Islamic faith. However, to know this, you’d actually have to study a bit and become familiar with what Islam is. There are approximately 1.6 billion Muslims in the world today. You would think with that many people practicing a system of belief, you might want to know a little about what it is they believe.
Christian pilgrims participating in a group baptismal ritual in the river Jordan. Of course they’re white people, but as with Muslims, they could have well been any race of people.
There are a little over 2 billion Christians in the world. The difference in those numbers is actually negligible in the grand scheme of things. When you have a billion people on the planet who think anythingis important, it might be a good idea to become familiar with it. It is not so much what we say, not so much what people hear, the important things is what happens in their minds when they’re processing our words. Just as Islam is considered to be a religion practiced by dark skinned people, so too is Christianity considered to be the religion of white people. If I say to you, “he’s a good Christian man” when describing someone to you whom you’ve never met, what image pops into your mind? What race of person are you seeing? By the same token, if I were to describe someone as a good practicing Muslim, what image pops into your head? What is the race of the person you’re imagining?
Mormonism
Mormon Missionaries
The same is particularly true for Mormonism. If I told you to pick the Mormon out of a crowd, you would begin looking for a white person. Believe it or not, there are Black Mormons, nevertheless when you think of Mormons you do not consider Black people as being Mormon. The perception of a Mormon is a white male with no facial hair, wearing a white shirt, black slacks and a neck tie. If we were going to go all in on the stereotype, you’d be looking for a bicycle nearby. This is the image many people have of Mormons. At some point you were presented with it, probably can’t remember when or where and it’s been reinforced over time. Thus when you hear the word Mormons, that memory is automatically triggered.
Mormon Sister Wives
Of course there is the other popular image and that is of a group of women – “sister wives” – all with their hair similarly arranged, uncut, wearing shapeless, straight dresses that could easily be made at home. These are images which automatically come to mind whenever we’re presented with certain triggers. Is this true? Is this factual? It doesn’t matter. We operate from our perceptions. Racism flows from our perceptions. Our perceptions is where latent and often overt racism resides.
When Franklin Graham opines that President Obama may secretly be a Muslim, on what does he base his opinion? President Obama is rather fond of beer. Muslims like Mormons abstain from alcoholic beverages. President Obama is married to only one woman and has only been married to one woman. Many Muslims around the world just as do many Mormons, practice polygamy. President Obama believes the same gospel Franklin’s father has been preaching for over 63 years. Mitt Romney does not. Yet we now find these two as the strangest of bed fellows. Why?
It is clear that racial hatred long buried and obscured by the façade of Christianity has revealed it’s self at last. For your racial hatred to be so strong it will allow you to embrace with open arms what heretofore on your own website you called a cult. It must be strong indeed. Let’s be clear. Prior to this unholy alliance, had you asked either of the Grahams if there would be any Mormons in heaven, without hesitation they would of told you unequivocally no!Further they would have told you that anyone teaching the false gospel of Mormonism was leading people straight to hell and imperilling their immortal souls. If this is suddenly no longer true, then perhaps we ought to question the entire gospel the Grahams have been preaching all these years. Were they only in it for the money?
If you want to know what Mormons believe and teach, watch the following video presentation prepared by ex-Mormons based on their own documentation. If after watching this you conclude that people who sincerely believe the Christian message as outlined in the Bible, can embrace Mormonism as just another branch or denomination of the Christian faith, then all bets are off and we need to dispense with the Bible because it’s become meaningless psycho-babble.
There is more than one way to “Rope-A-Dope.” Sometimes you do it by giving him enough rope to hang himself. Tonight We saw Mitt Romney, tie his own noose, place it over his own head, tighten it and take a flying leap into oblivion. Mitt, we hardly knew ya… No really! How can you know a man, who can reverse himself 3 times in the course of one sentence? In tonight’s debate, it finally caught up to Mr. Romney and just between you, me and the doorpost? I don’t think Mitt was very happy. It was a long night on Long Island at Hofstra University for Mitt Romney.
First Debate Revisited
One of the conversations I had repeatedly following the first debate was to reassure concerned Democrats regarding President Obama’s apparent lack luster performance. First I have always maintained that President Obama has been playing Chess while the Republicans were playing Checkers.
If you want to catch an Eel, you first have to put sand on your hands. Mitt Romney has been one slippery Eel. The genius of Mitt Romney’s campaign has been their ability to get so far without ever having to commit to anything! President Obama had to first make get Mitt to take an actual position. Heretofore, Romney has in essence been blowing smoke on all the issues. In a conversation following the previous debate, I asked the person with whom I was talking, “you just listened to Mitt Romney for an hour and a half, can you tell me even one position Mitt has?” After a moment of thought, he admitted that he could not. That has been the problem.
Getting a straight answer on Mitt’s policies is like trying to enter a rapidly spinning revolving door.
Getting to Mitt is like trying to enter a rapidly spinning revolving door. Attack his tax plan, the plan he’s been running on for the past year and a half, Mitt says, “that’s not my plan!” He smugly points out, “he has only suggested what he mightdo.” The real plan will be put together with a congress that is as yet unelected. Look at it this way, If you went to see your doctor about a problem and the doctor told you that you needed an operation, wouldn’t you want to know the details? If the doctor told you he was going to cut you open and figure things out once he took a look, I suspect you’d get up and go looking for a second and third opinions.
Mitt has actually gotten a lot of mileage by not taking an actual position on any of the issues. It makes it extremely easy for him to tailor his message dependent upon which group he’s talking to. Before you can knock him down, you’ve got to get the real Mitt to actually stand up!
Style Points
Debate Moderator Candy Crowley
It would be fair to say that the debate moderators have grown weary of Mitt Romney’s tactic of taking control of the debates. He got away with it during the Republican Primaries and had a great measure of success in his first outing against the lamentable Jim Lehrer. He comes off as a whiner. He complains about the order, who’s turn it is to speak… except when he wants to rebut a point that went against him. Then of course, “he must be allowed to respond.” Actually? No Mitt, you don’t get to explain it all away when you get caught in a lie. In my opinion, debate moderator Candy Crowley did an excellent job of containing Mitt’s antics.
Mitt, lying is not patriotic
President Obama had to walk the proverbial tight rope. Let us call a spade a spade. We live in a racist country. White people fear “the angry Black man.” His delivery had to be pitch perfect. He had to push back and cut Mitt’s throat with a smile firmly fixed on his face. He did just that. The difference between this debate and the last debate? President Obama called Mitt on each and every lie. Mitt simply didn’t know what to do. He began speaking condescendingly to Candy Crowley, he even went so far as to heckle the President in the middle of one of his answers. The American people saw Mitt unravel right before their eyes.
On The Substance
There were many topics covered I’ll give you a few of the highlights. Mitt Romney attempted to make points on oil production. His complaint was that the President’s administration has taken away oil drilling rights on public lands. Personally? I’m not real enthusiastic about oil derricks popping up in our National Parks, Nevertheless, this was yet another lie Mitt got caught in. In fact, it came back to bite him in the ass.
Coming to a National Park Near You?
Yes, the Obama administration has removed drilling rights. These rights were bought up and being sat on for years and not being used. Oil companies were in essence just squatting on our public lands. What the Obama administration did was take those drilling rights and re-let them out to companies who were willing to actually use them now. That of course is fundamentally different than the impression Mitt Romney was trying to portray.
Mitt Romney attempted to get some mileage by comparing the cost of gas today to the price it was when President Obama first took office. There were a couple of lies contained within this poison pill. First, if you buy into the supply and demand model of pricing, you would have to agree that the greater the supply, the less the demand, the lower the price. As it turns out, our oil production is at an all time high. Our demand is actually down. Yet, the price at the pump is high. The dirty little secret is, oil is considered a global commodity. The oil we produce here in the United States, goes directly onto the global market where it is mixed into the global supply. Since we only have 20% of the known global oil reserves, we simply cannot pump enough oil to have much of an effect on oil and gas prices.
President Obama turned the tables on Romney by pointing out that when gas prices were at $1.86 per gallon, our economy was in full meltdown. He then pointed out, that we could in fact get back to those prices simply by following Mitt Romney’s policies back to an economic collapse. The audience nearly cheered!
One of the other topics which I thought extremely important concerned “Women’s Issues.” President Obama pointed to his record on “Women’s Issue.” The first bill he signed after being elected to office was the “Lilly Ledbetter Act.” He pointed out how his”Affordable Care Act” covers women’s health care issues. He addressed the Republican plan to de-fund Planned Parenthood.
Really Mitt? You asked for a binder full of women?
Mitt Romney’s response was to tell some story from his days as Governor of Massachusetts. According to Mitt, he noticed the dearth of women represented in his cabinet and asked them to bring him a binder full of qualified prospective females to add to his cabinet. This rang hollow to me. Mitt is asking us to believe that he made it all the way to the Governor’s office before it occurred to him he ought to have female representation on his cabinet? A person who deals from whom they really are, has no need to worry about optics. Be who you are and the optics will take care of themselves.
The Libyan Incident
This issue may have been the end of Mitt Romney’s hopes at winning this election. Before the facts were in Mitt leapt out front to criticize the President’s administration. Before the bodies had been recovered. Mitt Romney was using this tragedy for political gain. On this night, he ran head long into a “hay maker” from the President.
The President’s Personal Punching Bag
Mitt Romney thought he was about to deliver a political kill shot. His criticism has been that the Administration was – for reasons unknown – trying to cover-up an act of terror against an American embassy which cost the life of an Ambassador and 3 military service personnel. Unfortunately for Mitt, he got “fact checked” right in the middle of the debate by not only the President but by the debate moderator. As it turns out there is video tape of the President of the United States, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton beside him, in the “Rose Garden” calling what happened… “An Act of Terror.” Caught in a lie and embarrassed on national television with 65 million people watching. Poor Mitt. The President turned Mitt into his personal punching bag.
Things were already going down hill, but it was like the brake lines were suddenly cut. Mitt never recovered from this blunder. It was a telling moment. We got to see not only his character but the risk of having someone in charge who does not take the time to research an issue and know what he’s talking about before taking a position.
Immigration
This was yet another issue that hit Mitt right between the eyes. During the Republican Primaries, vowing not to sign the “Dream Act” may have garnered some points, but this is the General Election. Mitt tried to lie away his “Self-Deportation” comments, but the President held his feet to the fire. Mitt tried to distance himself from his statement that “Arizona’s Papers Please Law” should become the model for the nation. Mitt tried to explain that he only supported the “E-Verify” portion for employers. President Obama pointed out that Mitt’s advisor on immigration issues is the same person who wrote the “entire” Arizona bill. Mitt had nothing to say. Latinos are neither stupid nor naive. They do vote.
Conclusion
In the last debate, I gave President Obama the win on substance and Mitt Romney the win on style. The problem is, you really can’t lie your way to a win. That’s not debating. This debate was like night and day. President Obama called Mitt on each and every lie and pushed back hard. He tied Mitt to his positions and then used him like a punching bag. You could tell Mitt was getting frustrated because he kept appealing to the Moderator. I really expected him to say at any minute, “Candy save me!!!” No help was forthcoming.
You could tell who won at the end of the debate, by observing the dynamics of the crowd, the pundits in the spin room and how long they hung around. Mitt was up and out as soon as possible. President Obama stayed around to take pictures with fans, sign autographs and greet the public. Mitt gathered what was left of his dignity and limped off the field of combat.
In case you missed it? Here’s the complete debate for your viewing pleasure.
Ebers Papyrus. Ancient Egyptian Medical Text on how to induce abortions.
A brief history of abortion
Believe it or not, abortion is not new. It has been around for thousands of years. It was practiced in ancient Rome and the earliest reference comes from ancient Egypt. For those who’s views are informed by their religious faith, particularly the Christian faith, this is something to think about. Jesus would have of been familiar with the practice of abortions, yet he is not recorded as saying anything about it. As a matter of fact, Abortions do not even merit an honorable mention in the Bible.
We often believe that abortion is the result of modern medical advancement. Nothing could be further from the truth. Surprisingly enough, unwanted pregnancies have been occurring since people first began to make babies. Not long afterwards, they began discovering how to terminate those pregnancies. The irony is, some of the methods practiced in “Ancient Egypt” and other places, employed the exact same approach used today. They used certain plant based suppositories to cause a hormonal reaction which would end the pregnancy.
When does life begin?
When life begins is largely dependent on the person answering the question.
The answer to this question depends on one’s subjective point of view. Does life begin at conception? Does it begin when the brain becomes active in the fetus? Does it begin when the baby takes it’s first breath? Does life begin before conception? Some people believe we live many lives. It might even be prudent to ask, “what exactly is human life?” The answer to this question truly depends upon the person being asked and the person asking the question. It could be argued in a variety of ways, with each position able to defend their points of view.
The problem is, it really comes down to the belief of the person asking the question and doing the answering. From the perspective of the Christian Bible, it is interesting to note, Adam did not become a “living soul” until he took his first breath from God. He was fully formed – presumably an adult – with all his limbs, organs, vital system etc., but he was not alive until the moment of that first breath. Thus, based on that passage in the Bible, I could sustain the argument that life does not begin until the moment a baby takes its first breath. I’m sure many will find this unsatisfactory because it goes against what they’ve been led to believe.
Of course, one could also use the Bible to argue that life begins before conception.
[KJV] Jeremiah 1:5
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations
Note the the part about being known before being formed in the womb. This could support those who believe that we live many lives. To be known, one must exist. Actually there are numerous Biblical passages which suggest reincarnation and multiple lifetimes. However, dealing with that topic is for another day. It does raise an interesting question. To wit: If one is known prior to coming here and God is intimately involved in whom comes here and why, does it seem logical that God would send someone into a body that was going to be aborted? It is a question of faith, and it is worthy of thoughtful contemplation.
Abortions in the Bible
The Holy Bible
While the Bible does not mention abortion by name or seem to take issue with people practicing abortions, oddly enough there are passages in which either God causes an unnatural termination of pregnancy or authorizes a ritual to accomplish much the same thing. In the book of Hosea a curse is placed upon Ephraim. A part of that curse involves God causing miscarriages. This is without a doubt the ending of a pregnancy unnaturally. An abortion by any other name… except that the abortion provider in this case is God.
There are numerous passages where God demands the murder of pregnant women. If you murder the pregnant mother, you’re effectively aborting the fetus as well. Thus this notion of God being against abortions is actually unsustainable when one actually examines the Bible. Those who identify as Christian and oppose abortion for religious reasons, clearly have not read their Bibles.
Hypocrisy that knows no bounds
“Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget and I’ll tell you what you value.” __Joe Biden
Enjoy it while it lasts
It is high time someone called the “Pro-Life” movement on their blatant hypocrisy. Some of the same people who are out picketing Abortion Clinics will leave that protest, head cross town and join up with a TEA Party rally. Some of the same people protesting abortions, on the basis of being “Pro-Life,” believe in and support the “Death Penalty.” Where were they when we invaded Iraq? This sovereign nation had nothingto do with the attacks on September 11, 2001. They did not have any “Weapons of Mass Destruction.” Hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, men, women and children lost their lives, where were these “Pro-Life” protesters?
Notice the difference between the Red and Blue States?
Life is more than just conception. It is more than just giving birth. It is providing shelter for your child, food, clothing, medical care, education, all those things Republicans are hell bent on cutting. They know the words, but they don’t know the music. They speak the “Pro-Life” language, but when you look at their actual policies, their words ring hollow.
Pro-Life? I do not think it means what you think it means.
The same people who are marching under the “Pro-Life” banner are some of the same people who are in the TEA Party. They complain about taxes they aren’t even paying. These are the same TEA Party Republicans who want to cut funding for education, want to do away with the “Affordable Care Act” which gives health care to millions of children who did not have it before. These are the same people who are against school teachers being given a raise. These are the same people who will vote for a candidate who has as much as promised a war with Iran if he’s elected. Yet they claim to be “Pro-Life.”
This shows what they value and it’s not Pro-Life
Make no mistake. Although resources are always limited and choices have to be made, when you vote to give $4 billion dollars in subsidies to the most profitable corporations on this planet – the Oil Industry – while at the same time cutting spending for “Head Start,” “School Lunch Programs,” “Pell Grants,” “Education,” “Health Care” and a host of other programs that provide quality of life and opportunity, don’t pretend to be “Pro-Life.” As Joe Biden says, “don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget and I’ll tell youwhat you value.”
The harsh realities of an Abortion decision
Surgical Suite – Most people tend to avoid these if at all possible
I am puzzled by those who have convinced themselves that getting an abortion is the equivalent – if not easier – of going to their dentist for a teeth cleaning. An abortion is an invasive medical procedure. It’s an operation. I know of few people if any who look forward to being operated on. You can die from an abortion and people have died. An abortion is not a woman’s first choice. There is a recovery period following an abortion. Complications, both physical and psychological are common.
It can and does happen
Consider your average 14 year old. Remember when you were 14? You had all the answers didn’t you? You were as good as grown, just waiting for the rest of the world to catch up with your epiphany. Yet, at 14 years of age, if your parents had put you out of their home, they would have been charged with child neglect. The State won’t give you a driver’s license because at 14? They know you don’t have good judgement. At 14, you may have thought you knew everything you needed to know. Yet, going to school was still mandatory. Even if you were industrious and got a job, your parents have to sign off on it. During the school year your employer, by law had to limit your hours.
At 14 you cannot vote, you cannot buy liquor, you cannot smoke and you cannot enter into a legally binding contract. The State understands this and protects the 14 year old from his or herself. Unfortunately, at 14 you can get pregnant. Rarely does a 14 year old get pregnant by following her parent’s instructions or advice. It was because of her lack of judgement that she got pregnant. A 14 year old doesn’t have the requisite judgement to drive, vote, end their educational career or work a full time job, but suddenly we’re going to pretend that she’s got the judgement to become a mother? This is insanity on a whole new level.
If she carries the baby to term now what? She cannot get a job because she cannot drop out of school. If she lives in poverty, her parent(s) may both be working. Which of them should quit their job to stay at home and care for their grandchild? They cannot afford child care costs and the cost for infant care is even higher. Currently? There are programs in place to offer some assistance. However, Republicans are going after those programs hammer and tong to dismantle and de-fund them. Many of these Republicans fly under the “Pro-Life” moniker. But are they?
What about giving the child up for adoption? That is a shotgun solution usually put forth by people whom have no idea what they’re talking about. First of all, it’s not that easy. It’s not that cut and dried. Even if it were, by the time that 14 year old carries her child to term, holds her baby just one time, there’s no letting go. It’s that whole judgement thing again. Guess what! The same courts who in their infinite wisdom have determined that a 14 year old cannot drive, vote, smoke, drop out of school, or drink beer… those same courts will suddenly determine that this same 14 year old who is too young to enter into a legally binding contract, has the right to keep her baby. Not only is she now condemned to poverty, but her child is as well. The thing about poverty? It becomes an endlessly repeating cycle. Children raising children. Like the sign over the gate to Hell, “Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here.”
Often the pressures of parenting at such an early age cause young parents to become abusive. Thus we now add abuse to the poverty stew. Abuse begets abuse and often a child born under such conditions winds up in jail, a ward of the State or worse.
Understanding the statistics
At some point in the Abortion debate, the subject of acceptable exemptions comes up. Usually those who are moderate agree that Abortions should be available in cases of rape, incest or to protect the health of the mother. A disturbing trend has developed of late. Now, certain people are even discounting these as legitimate reasons to perform abortions.
Most rapes are never reported
According to The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, 1% of abortions are due to rape or incest and 6% involve the health of the mother. There is a problem with that first statistic. Rape is one of the most under reported crimes there is. This comes from the Department of Justice and FBI studies. Out of 100 rapes only 46 are ever reported. 54% go unreported. There are many reasons for this. Oft times the rapist is someone the victim knows. It may be the boyfriend of her mother, it may be a brother-in-law and uncle or cousin. The fear of what would happen to family relationships should the victim go public is often enough to keep the victim silent.
This is the dirty little secret that resides in the dark, dank fetid corners of our culture. We do not want to talk about it. We pretend that if we do not acknowledge it, it will cease to exist. Question: If most women don’t report their rapes to the police, what are the odds they’re going to report it to the doctor performing the abortion? Would the doctor be required to report it? If a 16 or 17 year old gets raped by say her mother’s boyfriend, most will never tell their mother what really happened. They’re not going to tell the police and should they get pregnant, they’re not going to tell the doctor. Thus that 1% figure is an error. What should it actually be? I have no idea and I’m not sure anyone can accurately determine the true figure. All we know is that it is higher. Rape by it’s very nature is not a planned sexual encounter. I don’t think a rapist acting on the spur of the moment, stops to put on a condom. Thus because the sex is unprotected, there is a much higher chance of an unwanted pregnancy occurring.
Ramifications of reversing Rowe v. Wade
Reversing Rowe isnot going to end abortions. Abortions have been going on since the time of the Ancient Egyptians. They will continue. What will happen is, they will go underground. No laws or regulations. No one to prevent late term abortions from occurring. No licensing agency. Think about it like the war on drugs. We all know how well that’s turned out.
“The morning after pill”
In fact, there would be an immediate black market created for the RU-486 pills. If you cannot keep cocaine, meth or an assortment of other narcotics off our streets and – dirty little secret – out of our prisons, do you think you’ll have better success with RU-486? Once that market is created, all sorts of people will rush in to fill that void. Some will produce fakes, others, lacking the technology or quality control will be pushing pills that are dangerous and in some cases deadly. Not a problem for you? Actually it may be. As parents, try as we might, we often do not know when our children become sexually active. Should a pregnancy occur, what might a daughter do to keep from disappointing her parents?
Something else to consider, what if a woman has a legitimate miscarriage? A woman discovers herself to be pregnant. The pregnancy is unplanned and she’s dealing with the ramifications of bringing a new life into this world. She begins seeing her doctor for pre-natal care. She shares her reservations with her doctor. So he knows she’s having some anxiety. One day while she’s at work, she begins having cramps. She runs to the bathroom and miscarries into the toilet. Does that toilet now become a crime scene?
Could this become a crime scene?
With Abortions becoming illegal it would also be illegal for her to have taken RU-486 or some other abortion inducing compound. If she’d taken something to cause a miscarriage, under the law she would have committed feticide. Would she be required to try and recover the fetal mass for analysis? Should she call the police so their crime team can come and recover the evidence? When she returns to her doctor, he’s going to know she’s no longer pregnant, will he be required to report her? Would this have a chilling effect on women seeking pre-natal care? These are things that must be considered.
Picking a place to be
Paying lip service to being “Pro-Life” does not make one “Pro-Life.” To be “Pro-Life” you must be supportive of all the systems that make life possible. Pre-natal care, post-natal care, health care for the child and the mother, nutritional support such as WIC programs, early learning, “Head Start” and other programs which aid parents and children, must be supported.
When you cut public assistance programs, you’re not just cutting adults, you’re also cutting the children that depend on those adults. When you do not support “A Living Wage” for people at the low end of the income scale, you’re not supporting the children they are responsible for.
Various contraceptive methods
When you refuse to support access to contraception for women or sex education in the schools, you’re increasing the number of unwanted pregnancies. Abstinence? Works great… right up until it doesn’t. When it comes to sex, we’re like a person with a carbohydrate addiction in a bakery. Eventually we’re going to eat something sweet. We are hard wired for sex from millions of years of evolution. The survival of our species depends on it.
“Agent Smith: I’d like to share a revelation that I’ve had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species, and I realised that humans are not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment; but you humans do not. Instead you multiply, and multiply, until every resource is consumed. The only way for you to survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern… a virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer on this planet, you are a plague, and we… are the cure.”
We’re so good at it, we now have over 300 million living here in the United States and over 7 billion populating the entire planet. We are in the middle of a population explosion. The global population is growing exponentially. The resources on our planet are not. We have seen what happens in nature when a population of creatures becomes unbalanced. Their population explodes until they consume all available resources and then they die slowly, painfully from disease and starvation.
Farmers inspecting their withered crops
The reality is, we’re already beginning to see the signs of this happening to us already. When you see those commercials at night showing you starving and impoverished children, they live in places where the populations grew beyond the resources required to sustain them. Could anything like that happen here? What makes you think it couldn’t? This past year we had one of the worst and widest droughts since the “dust bowl” of the 30’s. It hit in our main agricultural belts. We will not fully understand the impact of this drought until this spring. It will take that long for whatever crops we were able to harvest to be turned into the staples we rely on for sustenance.
“Let them eat cake.” __Marie Antoinette
We no longer understand our relationship with the land. We go to grocery stores and super markets without ever stopping to ask “where does that produce come from?” We are living out the “let them eat cake” mentality that caused Marie Antoinette to lose her head. Her inability to realize that her people were starving was no doubt exacerbated by the largess she enjoyed. Her pantry was full. The supermarkets and grocery stores have become our pantries. It won’t hit home for us until we go to the store and find those shelves bare. What will we do?
Every choice, every decision carries consequences. If you want to decrease the number of abortions, but you object to providing access to contraceptions and sex education, you’re not “Pro-Life.” If you want to decrease the number of abortions but you’re against having your tax dollars go to support the programs and agencies that provide support and make it possible for struggling people to care for their children, you’re not “Pro-Life.” If you’re not concerned about planetary resources, preserving our environment and repairing our fragile ecosystems, you’re not “Pro-Life.”
If your concern for human life begins at conception and ends at birth, you’re not “Pro-Life,” you’re Pro-Fetus and that is something entirely different. Don’t get it twisted.
by Benjamin T. Moore, Jr.
