Category Archives: Religion

Three Amigos Of Corrupt Politics. (An Unholy Alliance.)

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In college, Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed were young Republican leaders who became known as the Three Amigos.  Following graduation, they continued their relationship.  Abramoff, of course, became the notorious lobbyist for several Native American tribes and was later imprisoned for bribery.  Norquist founded the American Taxpayers League which famously asks Republican congressmen and senators to sign a “No New Taxes” pledge.  And Ralph Reed was largely responsible for the Republican Party’s embrace of evangelical Christians and all of their “values” issues.

According to a recent episode of Moyers & Company, Abramoff illegally channeled funds from the Choctaw tribe to help fund both of Norquist’s and Reed’s efforts.  The Choctaw were not told how the funds were to be used.  It appears they simply thought the money was needed to influence legislation which would benefit their casinos.

Instead, it would seem that it merely lined the pockets of the other “Amigos.”

Fast forward to today.  Abramoff has been released from prison and is attempting to rebuild his life.  Norquist is still holding sway over Republican congressmen and senators, having paid no penalty at all.  And the disgraced Reed has formed a new evangelical organization called the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a SuperPac whose funders are cloaked in secrecy.

One wonders if Reed has reformed, or if the new organization is just another cash cow which allows him to reap great financial benefits.  After all, it’s easy to pull the wool over the eyes of the faithful.  They’re predsiposed to accept those who ask for forgiveness.  That gives the unscrupulous a license to do practically anything, no matter how despicable.

Obviously, people like Ralph Reed understand this.

The Corporatization Of America.

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Teapublicans are fond of calling President Obama a socialist, a communist or worse.  Of course, there is absolutely no evidence to substantiate their claims.

Most likely, the reason for their accusations is to distract voters from recognizing what’s really happening to their country.  Over the past 40 years, Teapublican policies have given virtually all of the political power to large, multi-national corporations as well as the very wealthy and the very powerful. They’ve accomplished this through the systematic use of propaganda.

Following more than a decade of acccusations that mainstream media was liberally-biased, they were able to repeal the Fairness Doctrine in 1987.  Within 20 years of the repeal, 91 percent of talk radio was conservative blather, giving them a large megaphone with which to peddle their ideas.

In the 1980s, Republican-appointed bureaucrats (along with a few Democrats) approved an unprecedented number of mergers and acquisitions in defiance of monopoly laws.  It was done under the guise of globalization; to better prepare American corporations to compete with European and Japanese businesses.  As part of this globalization, multi-national corporations were permitted (actually incentified) to ship manufacturing jobs overseas in order to cut labor costs and crush labor unions.

The Free Trade Act, intended to make it easier to export our products, instead made it even easier to export our jobs.  It also allowed our subsidized agri-businesses to dump cheap corn into Mexico and Central America, displacing tens of thousands of small farmers.

When Americans began to recognize the full impact of jobs being sent overseas, Teapublicans created straw dogs.  Prior to elections, they proposed so-called “values” legislation banning abortions, banning gay marriage, and denouncing so-called attacks on Christianity in order to distract voters.  They blamed our economic problems on immigrants, unions, “entitlements,” government employees, teachers and first responders to keep voters from focusing on the real issues.

Conservative Supreme Court justices ruled that money equals free speech, and that corporations should enjoy the same rights as individuals.  Of course, these rulings allow multi-nationals to spend as much as they want to elect officials who will be most favorable to their issues.

To keep President Obama from meddling with their grand corporate plan, Teapublican legislatures passed a variety of strict voter ID laws to disenfranchise many of those most likely to vote for Obama.  Now they’re crying “Class Warfare” and “Redistribution of Wealth!”

Will they continue to get away with this corporate takeover?  Or will the majority of Americans finally recognize what’s happening and take our country back?

The Church Of Hate.

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If, upon reading that headline, you don’t immediately think of the Westboro Baptist Church, you simply haven’t been paying attention.  For the few who don’t know, the Westboro House of Hate is the group that pickets military funerals with signs that read “God Hates Fags,” “God Hates All Nations,” and “God Hates Fag Enablers.”

One can only ask, how the Hell would they know?  If there is a God, He certainly wouldn’t speak to the Westboro haters – at least not in any civil way.

This is a group that will picket anything they dislike or don’t understand, which means they’re picketing almost all of the time.  Not only do they picket virtually every military funeral because they’re angry that the Pentagon allows gays in the military.  They have picketed Catholic churches, Methodist churches, newspapers, political gatherings…even other Baptist churches.  And, after writing this, they may even picket me.

Even after President Obama signed a bill prohibiting Westboro members from picketing within 300 feet of a military funeral, the group responded by saying “there’s prime real estate at 301 feet.”

Yes, there are a lot of wackos out there.  So what makes the Westboro House of Lunatics unique?  What sets them apart from other asylum escapees is that you help pay for their activities.  That’s right.  As a “church” the Westboro Home for the Mentally Disturbed pays no taxes.  No property taxes.  No income taxes on donations.  No taxes on investments.

Where’s Jim Jones and his vat of Kool-Aid when you need him?

To learn about another wacko group, check out my book The Teapublican Book of Lies available at Amazon.com and other on-line bookstores.

GOP Platform Full Of Hate, Fear And Greed.

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Under the new GOP platform, every fetus will be protected or avenged, and women’s reproductive systems will be controlled by the people who know best…male politicians and churches.

Under the GOP, our borders will be secure.  Those foolhardy enough to cross will be shot or imprisoned.  And Latinos will never be without papers.

Under the GOP, the military will be made more powerful to protect “American interests.”  So our corporations will be free to extract resources and money from anywhere on the planet.

Under the GOP, billions of dollars for Social Security and Medicare will be liberated from the evil government’s control to earn profits for corporations.  The power to decide who lives and dies will be returned to those who know best – large insurance companies and PhRMA.

Under the GOP, the wealthy will pay fewer taxes.  Corporations will pay no taxes.  And the rest of us will have to work harder and longer to make up for it.

Under the GOP, there will be no Environmental Protection Agency and no Endangered Species Act.  Nothing to interfere with the profiteering of Big Oil.

Under the GOP, the “sanctity” of marriage will be protected from “sinners” such as gays and lesbians.

Under the GOP, people of color will have their right to vote protected.  But only if they have proper ID and are willing to stand in long lines.

Under the GOP, the deficit will be reduced at the expense of the poor.  There will be no Medicaid.  No public education.  No food stamps.  No unemployment insurance.  No welfare.  Charity is only for churches, and today’s evangelicals are only interested in your soul and your fetuses.

If elected to control the White House and Congress, the Guardians Of Privilege vow to “Restore America” – to the 18th century.  And if you think I’m exaggerating, you definitely haven’t been paying attention.

Poorly Disguised Racism.

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Ever since Barack Obama was elected president, conservative white people have decried his lack of patriotism.  They say he is a socialist.  They say he was born in Kenya.  They say he is a Muslim.  They say he does not believe in American values and American exceptionalism.

Considering that his policies reflect those of former President Clinton and, in many cases, former President Bush, one may only conclude that the reason conservatives feel this way is that he is black.

There are other signs of growing racism in politics and the media.

Fox News Channel has recently questioned the patriotism of a US Olympic gold medalist for not wearing a flag-themed uniform during her performances.  (Nevermind that several decades ago it was considered unpatriotic to wear clothing mimicking the American flag.)  And, although few of the US athletes have worn clothing of red, white and blue, only one athlete was singled out…Gabby Douglas, the first African-American to win the all-around in Olympic gymnastics competition.

Coincidence?  I think not.

It’s no more coincidence than the fact that the mass killings in Wisconsin have received relatively little press compared to those in Colorado, Arizona, Texas and West Virginia.  Could that be because the victims in Wisconsin were Sikh immigrants from India and other parts of south Asia?

America’s Epidemic Of Head-Up-The-Butt Disease.

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There are many things we know that are detrimental to our society, but for a variety of reasons (mostly political) we refuse to correct them.

For example, we know that it’s dangerous to text while driving, but many do it anyway.  We know that many military contractors have been found guilty of defrauding the government, yet we continue to reward them with multi-billion dollar contracts. We know that abstinence-only programs do not help prevent teen pregnancies, but we cut funding for sex education and easy access to contraceptives.  We also know that early education programs greatly improve a child’s future, yet many are trying to defund them.

Similarly, the world’s scientists have warned us of the dangers of climate change caused by man.  Still, we refuse to address the problems even when experiencing extreme weather.  And we know that mass killings are made possible by unrestricted access to military-style, semi-automatic weapons.

All of these issues could be fixed.  It only takes a will to do so.  Yet we continue to listen to those who profit from these problems. 

We accept the oil industry’s arguments that lessening our dependence on renewable energies will be costly and result in lost jobs.  We accept the absurd notion of “clean” coal being marketed by the coal industry.  And we accept the fear-based arguments of gun manufacturers and the National Rifle Association that “Guns don’t kill people.  People kill people.”  That may be true, but semi-automatic weapons with large-capacity magazines make it much easier.

When’s the last time you read about a mass killing committed by a lunatic carrying a single-shot rifle or a 6-shot revolver?

Of course, the NRA argues that there will be less violence when everyone is armed.  But if you take your head out of your nether regions, you’ll discover the obvious flaws in that argument.  Do you have to carry a weapon with you at all times?  In church?  In school?  In the swimming pool?

So come on, America, stop limiting your view to your inner colons.  Pull your heads out of your butts and start examining the world around you.

Poll: At Least 17% Of Americans Are Nitwits.

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A new poll conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Life has found that 17 percent of Americans believe President Obama is Muslim.  Of course, that’s not true.  The President is Christian.  Indeed, many of the same people who want to believe he’s Muslim were originally outraged at statements made by his Chicago Christian pastor.

But that’s not the extent of the lunacy on the right. 

According to a Public Policy Polling survey in March of this year, 37 percent of Americans believe the President was not born in the U.S.  Yet another 21 percent are unsure. (They must have forgotten Hawaii achieved statehood in 1959.)

However, given the other wrong-headed beliefs of the right, none of this should come as any real surprise. After all, these are people who reject education and science.  Many think the Earth is just 6,000 years old and that dinosaurs are a myth invented to test the faith of Christians.

These are people who fail to see a connection between the easy availability of military-style assault weapons and mass killings.  The same people who think that giving ever-increasing tax breaks to the filthy rich will somehow help their own financial circumstances.  People who think defaulting on US debts will benefit our economy.

Obviously, they cannot be educated and informed.  They refuse to listen to anyone but their own equally deluded brethern.  Yet their vote counts the same as yours and mine.

Do you still believe in America exceptionalism?

Let’s Help Texas Secede.

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On several occasions, Texas Gov. Rick Perry suggested that the Republic of Texas might secede from the United States.  He meant it as a threat, but after first ridiculing the idea, I’ve come to embrace it.

Let’s consider the benefits.

If Texas, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee (Yes, I know this isn’t all of the original Confederacy, but the others have better embraced their statehood.) were allowed to secede, the level of education in the US would improve overnight.  At the same time, the number of impoverished would plummet.  We would also improve the United States’ international rankings with regard to incarceration and capital punishment.

Moreover, the US would dramatically reduce the number of assault rifles and handguns within its borders.  We would rid ourselves of the evangelical crackpots on the Texas school board responsible for rewriting textbooks to whitewash history.  We would improve the percentage of our population with health insurance. And since most of the Tea Party crackpots in Congress come from the former Confederacy, the level of political discourse would likely improve.

I know this plan seems radical, but I think it best.  Many of the former Confederate states have long been openly hostile to the federal government, even threatening to “exercise their 2nd Amendment rights.”  In Arizona, there are legislative bills calling for state sovereignty of national parks and all federal lands.  And many of these states have refused to accept the legitimacy of the Affordable Care Act despite a Supreme Court ruling.

For the states that do secede, they finally could have the theocratic government they seem to so desire.  They could completely ignore science.  They would no longer have to accept the billions in federal money that have been thrust upon them to provide food and medicine for their poor.  And unless they continue their hostility to foreign visitors, they could replace Mexico and Jamaica as warm weather destinations for US tourists.

Of course, the plan is not without downsides.  We would have to move many of our military bases to Union states.  Football could suffer without Texas and Florida athletes, but since we already embrace foreign nationals for basketball and baseball, we could make accommodation for football players.  We would lose much of the domestic oil production and refineries, but all of that oil and gas is sold on world markets, anyway.  And since I live in Arizona, I’d have to sell my home at a loss in order to move back to the US.

Nevertheless, I encourage you to give my plan serious thought.  If you do, I’m confident you’ll see that the many benefits outweigh the negatives.

The Teapublican Book of Lies.

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You know those things Teapublicans present as facts that just never quite make sense?  The ones that are repeated day after day on Fox News Channel and right wing radio?  The conservative ideas that have been tried and failed, but keep coming back?

I’ve taken 50 of those so-called “facts,” researched them, and presented my findings in a new book:  The Teapublican Book of Lies.  It’s a sort of handbook for debates with your conservative friends and family members.

Pardon the shameless self-promotion, but you can buy the book from Amazon.

In The Words Of A Founding Father…

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For those who demand that the US pass a so-called “Defense of Marriage Act” banning gay and lesbian marriage; For those who demand that the government intervene in the relationship between a woman and her doctor for fear that she might take a contraceptive or consider an abortion; For those who demand that the US be declared a Christian nation; For those who demand that our schools teach Chrisitian values to students; For those who believe that a failure to follow the commandments of the Bible will result in the collapse of our nation, consider this:

In Notes on the State of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson outlined his views which led to the separation of church and state: “The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit.  We are answerable for them to our God. The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others.  But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god.  It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. … Reason and free enquiry are the only effectual agents against error.”