The spinmeisters will attack anything and anybody that publishes inconvenient truths, especially if it has any perceived effect on their privileged position, economic welfare and status. To hear the corporate spinmeisters tell it, science and scientists are part of a greedy lie fest where climate change is concerned.
Al Gore made this graphically plain in his latest rebuttal, which you can read about and listen to here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/30/gore-climate-change-deniers_n_940802.html
The very idea that scientists as a whole would propound false information and statistics to enrich themselves is preposterous, but the charge is constantly being made by those with a vested interest in the status quo.
As Al points out, scientists aren't rich individuals. Most of them can live comfortably but they are not able to hire expensive lobbyists to "spin" their self-serving (and supposedly falsified) views. That role falls to the corporate tycoons who have a very real vested interest in things staying just as they are -- and have oodles and boodles of cash lying around. Scientists have to be content with occasionally getting an article published in some peer reviewed and criticized journal few will ever see or even hear about outside the scientific community. Their sharpest critics will be their fellow scientists who will be looking for any inconsistency or skewed fact and ready to pounce on it if they find it.
If I'm going to believe anything, it will be those carefully studied, researched, documented and peer reviewed pronouncements -- not some spinmeistered denial by a pseudoscientist in the pay of and beholden to the corporate establishment.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Sunday, August 28, 2011
IRENE -- THE BIG DISAPPOINTMENT
The prognosticators and religious nuts and the "hype mongers" had another field day. The East Coast was for sure heading for an overwhelming disaster. God was finally going to "get" them. "Them" being anyone of a contrary opinion to that of the minister, prognosticator, etc.
Irene has gone her merry way northeast and will finally rain itself out over the North Atlantic. New York survived just fine. There was some damage, of course, all along its path, but much less than all the doom and gloom prophesied led one to believe was in the offing.
Hurricanes don't take that route very often, but they do once in awhile. When they do, they usually lose a lot of zip by the time they hit those colder waters around New York and New Jersey and the rest of New England.
Surprise!
It was just a "tropical storm" when it finally arrived at the "Big Apple." Lots of rain. Lots of wind. Some storm surge. That certainly causes a lot of problems, but I really think the "snowpocalypse" (it also had to be sensationalized someway for ratings sake) New York experienced last winter was worse. Most people have forgotten it already. At this writing, Irene was responsible for only 18 known deaths. In a path that took it all the way from North Carolina to southern Canada!
Earth and its inhabitants experience weather. Hurricanes and tropical storms, blizzards, droughts, tornados, etc. are all weather. If there's something you don't like about the weather today, just wait a while and it will change.
I spent about a year and a half in Flushing, New York from late 1960 to early 1962. They had a drought while I was there, and I never even experienced one of those famous New York thunderstorms. I did hear about the remnants of a hurricane that happened a few years earlier and made quite an impression on the local gentry. Was "god" upset that I was there and witheld the rain? I really don't think so.
Nor do I think he was mad at the nation as a whole because the mythical guy doesn't exist. There's no one "up there" to get mad. Did you ever take a look at the maps of the cosmos that have been published lately? Take a good look at one. Then, try to define "up there" for me. Over thirteen billion years worth of "up there" in all directions! And, you think earth and the solar system are something great? What's so far been discovered "up there" makes us look like a fly speck on the Great Wall of China!
"God" seems to get judgmental and punishing every so often, the way a lot of superstitious people view it. They'll figure out something they don't like that their "god" is also upset about. Since they created him in their images, it follows that he has to be mad about the same things they're mad about.
Instant explanation for the "disaster!"
Earthquakes and volcanos are also a constant on this earth. Go to any center where there are seismographs and you will see the evidence of hundreds of tremors, some volcanic, most unfelt and unnoticed, taking place all over the earth every day. Earth looks solid and stable but it's constantly in motion and once in awhile those motions get downright noticeable.
Because such "disasters" are intermittent and usually years go by with very little in the way of outstanding events in any local region, the religious nuts and sensationalizers have a field day when the usual norm is breached. They have their moment in the sun and revel that their insane shouting gets noticed and taken seriously -- at least momentarily. The credulous just never seem to learn and will listen again next time around and get all excited all over again.
Hype, hype, hype. There's no end to it.
Irene has gone her merry way northeast and will finally rain itself out over the North Atlantic. New York survived just fine. There was some damage, of course, all along its path, but much less than all the doom and gloom prophesied led one to believe was in the offing.
Hurricanes don't take that route very often, but they do once in awhile. When they do, they usually lose a lot of zip by the time they hit those colder waters around New York and New Jersey and the rest of New England.
Surprise!
It was just a "tropical storm" when it finally arrived at the "Big Apple." Lots of rain. Lots of wind. Some storm surge. That certainly causes a lot of problems, but I really think the "snowpocalypse" (it also had to be sensationalized someway for ratings sake) New York experienced last winter was worse. Most people have forgotten it already. At this writing, Irene was responsible for only 18 known deaths. In a path that took it all the way from North Carolina to southern Canada!
Earth and its inhabitants experience weather. Hurricanes and tropical storms, blizzards, droughts, tornados, etc. are all weather. If there's something you don't like about the weather today, just wait a while and it will change.
I spent about a year and a half in Flushing, New York from late 1960 to early 1962. They had a drought while I was there, and I never even experienced one of those famous New York thunderstorms. I did hear about the remnants of a hurricane that happened a few years earlier and made quite an impression on the local gentry. Was "god" upset that I was there and witheld the rain? I really don't think so.
Nor do I think he was mad at the nation as a whole because the mythical guy doesn't exist. There's no one "up there" to get mad. Did you ever take a look at the maps of the cosmos that have been published lately? Take a good look at one. Then, try to define "up there" for me. Over thirteen billion years worth of "up there" in all directions! And, you think earth and the solar system are something great? What's so far been discovered "up there" makes us look like a fly speck on the Great Wall of China!
"God" seems to get judgmental and punishing every so often, the way a lot of superstitious people view it. They'll figure out something they don't like that their "god" is also upset about. Since they created him in their images, it follows that he has to be mad about the same things they're mad about.
Instant explanation for the "disaster!"
Earthquakes and volcanos are also a constant on this earth. Go to any center where there are seismographs and you will see the evidence of hundreds of tremors, some volcanic, most unfelt and unnoticed, taking place all over the earth every day. Earth looks solid and stable but it's constantly in motion and once in awhile those motions get downright noticeable.
Because such "disasters" are intermittent and usually years go by with very little in the way of outstanding events in any local region, the religious nuts and sensationalizers have a field day when the usual norm is breached. They have their moment in the sun and revel that their insane shouting gets noticed and taken seriously -- at least momentarily. The credulous just never seem to learn and will listen again next time around and get all excited all over again.
Hype, hype, hype. There's no end to it.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
NEW SITE
Just this weekend, I became aware, through Greta Christina's blog, that there is a new and very promising website out.
I am very excited about it and have already taken steps to join in. Check it out: http://www.weareatheism.com/
I am very excited about it and have already taken steps to join in. Check it out: http://www.weareatheism.com/
Saturday, August 20, 2011
THE ETERNAL CON JOB
I have to admit that I feel a bit discouraged this evening. I look at the world around me and at all the lies and deceptions, the con games and the crass using of human beings for the agrandizement of those in ultimate power, and I tend to despair.
I look at the political sphere and I see an ignoramus like Perry proclaiming that God explains why we are here, and the blind ignorant masses cheer his ignorant stupidity. Properly trained theologians know better. They know what a contrived mass of pishtwaddle the Bible and the Christian God is. They just don't let the masses who ultimately pay their generous salaries know what they know. They soothe their consciences by any number of psychological machinations to convince themselves that their deception is for the good of the people. The few who publish the facts don't get much press and their books and articles are given no front page prominence.
The masters of Banking and Wall Street and the corporate lords know they are taking everybody for a "ride." They just don't care. They're chuckling all the way to the bank! The masses who are suffering and will suffer are just unfortunate collateral damage
The fact that we are destroying our planet through runaway climate change and bringing on a greater extinction than has been seen for millions of years is denied and pooh poohed. If billions of people die, too bad. We're over-populated anyway. So what if multitudes of species die off. We'll figure out how to adjust. Keep those profits high and our taxes minuscule.
I could go on, but much of it would be redundant to what I've said in other blog entries. I'm just going to get ready for bed. Maybe I'll feel better in the morning. I doubt it.
I look at the political sphere and I see an ignoramus like Perry proclaiming that God explains why we are here, and the blind ignorant masses cheer his ignorant stupidity. Properly trained theologians know better. They know what a contrived mass of pishtwaddle the Bible and the Christian God is. They just don't let the masses who ultimately pay their generous salaries know what they know. They soothe their consciences by any number of psychological machinations to convince themselves that their deception is for the good of the people. The few who publish the facts don't get much press and their books and articles are given no front page prominence.
The masters of Banking and Wall Street and the corporate lords know they are taking everybody for a "ride." They just don't care. They're chuckling all the way to the bank! The masses who are suffering and will suffer are just unfortunate collateral damage
The fact that we are destroying our planet through runaway climate change and bringing on a greater extinction than has been seen for millions of years is denied and pooh poohed. If billions of people die, too bad. We're over-populated anyway. So what if multitudes of species die off. We'll figure out how to adjust. Keep those profits high and our taxes minuscule.
I could go on, but much of it would be redundant to what I've said in other blog entries. I'm just going to get ready for bed. Maybe I'll feel better in the morning. I doubt it.
Friday, August 19, 2011
TRICKY, TRICKY BLACK BOY
I have to hand it to Obama. I've been very disappointed with him over his seeming weakness and what appeared to be total surrender to the opposition.
Yes, I'd like to see more confrontation and fight, and I'm still hoping to see it. It has to come if he's not going to be a one-term president and this nation isn't going to be even more savaged than it now is by ending up in total Rethuglican/Tea Party control.
My wife, who is quite the analyst, pointed out something this morning. She remembered an old episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, in which a colored lady got one up on conniving Raymond and labeled him a "tricky, tricky white boy."
She pointed out how Obama is very craftily outflanking his opposition on the immigration issue, giving much of the "dream act" benefits through legal executive action and winning points with Hispanic voters in the process. He did some crafty maneuvering on the don't ask don't tell front as well. She said it made her feel like saying, "Oh, you tricky, tricky black boy."
I may be more confrontational in my approach, but Obama isn't just lying down and letting his enemies roll over him. He has a few "tricks" up his sleeve, and I'm sure that's driving the enemy nuts.
Yes, I'd like to see more confrontation and fight, and I'm still hoping to see it. It has to come if he's not going to be a one-term president and this nation isn't going to be even more savaged than it now is by ending up in total Rethuglican/Tea Party control.
My wife, who is quite the analyst, pointed out something this morning. She remembered an old episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, in which a colored lady got one up on conniving Raymond and labeled him a "tricky, tricky white boy."
She pointed out how Obama is very craftily outflanking his opposition on the immigration issue, giving much of the "dream act" benefits through legal executive action and winning points with Hispanic voters in the process. He did some crafty maneuvering on the don't ask don't tell front as well. She said it made her feel like saying, "Oh, you tricky, tricky black boy."
I may be more confrontational in my approach, but Obama isn't just lying down and letting his enemies roll over him. He has a few "tricks" up his sleeve, and I'm sure that's driving the enemy nuts.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
WHAT DOES THE TEA PARTY "SPIKE" THEIR TEA WITH?
Never, since I abandoned Armstrongism have I heard so much insane nonsense coming out of human mouths as I have heard since the founding of the "Tea Party!" A few of my one-time friends and fellow cultists are now staunch members of that bewildering aberration. They just can't get away from extreme approaches and simplistic (read godly) thinking.
I know they're not smoking marijuana. There's nothing "mellow" about them. Too angry. Too extreme. Too know-it-all dogmatic. Not at all tolerant of anything else but their extremist dogmatism.
So, maybe they're putting something in their tea. Could it be mushrooms or LSD?
Something is causing them to be wackier than Tasmanian Devils in a bee's nest.
I guess it's just the same old thing that afflicts the Republicans in general but carried to an extreme. They want that "Old-time Religion" and all the other old-time Dickensian crap that goes with it.
Down with Social Security! Down with Medicare! Down with anything that made America great for a few, now endangered, decades!
Up with the aristocracy and the robber barons! Up with self-agrandizment and self-centeredness!
Down with public schools -- they teach "evulooshin!" Down with any sense of public concern and welfare or helping hands for those who are poor and weak! If they aint rich, it's their fault. But, we're gonna make sure our kids git a good private, or (gasp), home schooled education and know how to properly kiss the asses of all the Bible thumping Jesus pushers.
Ah!
That's the answer!
THEY'RE HIGH ON RELIGIOUS CRAP!
I know they're not smoking marijuana. There's nothing "mellow" about them. Too angry. Too extreme. Too know-it-all dogmatic. Not at all tolerant of anything else but their extremist dogmatism.
So, maybe they're putting something in their tea. Could it be mushrooms or LSD?
Something is causing them to be wackier than Tasmanian Devils in a bee's nest.
I guess it's just the same old thing that afflicts the Republicans in general but carried to an extreme. They want that "Old-time Religion" and all the other old-time Dickensian crap that goes with it.
Down with Social Security! Down with Medicare! Down with anything that made America great for a few, now endangered, decades!
Up with the aristocracy and the robber barons! Up with self-agrandizment and self-centeredness!
Down with public schools -- they teach "evulooshin!" Down with any sense of public concern and welfare or helping hands for those who are poor and weak! If they aint rich, it's their fault. But, we're gonna make sure our kids git a good private, or (gasp), home schooled education and know how to properly kiss the asses of all the Bible thumping Jesus pushers.
Ah!
That's the answer!
THEY'RE HIGH ON RELIGIOUS CRAP!
Monday, August 15, 2011
WARREN BUFFETT -- A REAL AMERICAN PATRIOT
I have a great deal of admiration and respect for Warren Buffett. He's a very rich man and he's a real patriotic American who tells the truth. That's rare among the wealthy of today and practically unknown to their powerful cohorts in politics.
I don't begrudge anyone wealth if they earn it honestly. Warren always has from the time he took savings from his youthful paper route and bought a farm. He doesn't look upon his wealth as something that makes him special and privileged. Read up on him and you will find that he lives a simple life and doesn't put on airs.
He created quite a stir today with an op-ed in the New York Times. It's summarized here: http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/15/news/economy/buffett_tax_jobs/. I'm sure it will be available rather widely soon.
He recognizes the fact that the rich in America are being coddled and given breaks no one else is given. I've been pointing that out for quite some time, and it's refreshing to know that there is one simple, honorable and truthful rich man who is willing to risk the wrath of his peers to tell it like it is.
Hurray for you, Warren! You're a good man!.
I don't begrudge anyone wealth if they earn it honestly. Warren always has from the time he took savings from his youthful paper route and bought a farm. He doesn't look upon his wealth as something that makes him special and privileged. Read up on him and you will find that he lives a simple life and doesn't put on airs.
He created quite a stir today with an op-ed in the New York Times. It's summarized here: http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/15/news/economy/buffett_tax_jobs/. I'm sure it will be available rather widely soon.
He recognizes the fact that the rich in America are being coddled and given breaks no one else is given. I've been pointing that out for quite some time, and it's refreshing to know that there is one simple, honorable and truthful rich man who is willing to risk the wrath of his peers to tell it like it is.
Hurray for you, Warren! You're a good man!.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
GO, GORE
Some of my self-righteous, once-upon-a-time friends don't like my plain speaking when I get upset with the crap religionists, the Tea Party and other ultra-conservatives shovel our way.
One chided me for "naughty language." I retorted by challenging him to sue me.
When we are subjected to outright lies by sanctimonious deceivers with an agenda to confuse and obfuscate, there is a time to call them out and drop the nicey nice facade they like to put forth.
Every conman is nicey nice! That's how they worm their way in and breeze by your defenses!
Al Gore got riled up and outspoken at the Aspen Institute last Thursday. Hear it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SfWdDP5v_A
The "rant" was labeled humorous on You Tube. No, it isn't! It's much too serious a subject to be called "humorous!"
It was "plain speaking!"
It's time to call out and thoroughly expose all these pseudo-everythings. They're everwhere! They're in climate science. They're in Paleontolgy (creationists). They're in economics. Anywhere you find the corrosive influence of any rabid religionists and ultra-conservatives, you are going to find pseudo-somethings with their insidious lies and misinformation!
Bullshit is bullshit. It's time to label it for the crap it is and be plain and unapologizing for doing so.
Hats off to you, Al.
Keep it up!
One chided me for "naughty language." I retorted by challenging him to sue me.
When we are subjected to outright lies by sanctimonious deceivers with an agenda to confuse and obfuscate, there is a time to call them out and drop the nicey nice facade they like to put forth.
Every conman is nicey nice! That's how they worm their way in and breeze by your defenses!
Al Gore got riled up and outspoken at the Aspen Institute last Thursday. Hear it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SfWdDP5v_A
The "rant" was labeled humorous on You Tube. No, it isn't! It's much too serious a subject to be called "humorous!"
It was "plain speaking!"
It's time to call out and thoroughly expose all these pseudo-everythings. They're everwhere! They're in climate science. They're in Paleontolgy (creationists). They're in economics. Anywhere you find the corrosive influence of any rabid religionists and ultra-conservatives, you are going to find pseudo-somethings with their insidious lies and misinformation!
Bullshit is bullshit. It's time to label it for the crap it is and be plain and unapologizing for doing so.
Hats off to you, Al.
Keep it up!
Saturday, August 6, 2011
EVERYTHING ENDS SOMETIME
Telling the truth as you see it sometimes costs a person. My recent blog in which I labeled the Tea Party for the ignorant, religious and fascist minded thugs they are just cost me one of my last friends from the past. He labels me the fascist, along with Obama, etc.
I know this old friend is not knowingly fascist. He doesn't have a mean bone in his body.
However, he is caught up in the Tea Party from its inception, in creationism and is absolutely dedicated to Christianity -- now, mainstream instead of Armstrongist. There is no penetrating that armor without a non-existent intellectual anti-tank rocket.
Of course, what I say is automatically dismissed as lies. He says I'm no longer the man he loved as a dear friend for about 60 years. That's for sure true.
Gone is my youthful naivete and gullibility. It is replaced by stone cold reasoning power that came by a hard route. I no longer stand in awe before a fictional god and his totally fictional supposed scriptures. I care not what any god supposedly says through some ecstatic, over-impressed-with-him-or-herself revelator. Paul, the originator of Christianity, is to me a mentally deranged con-artist.
So, I bid farewell to this longtime friend and fellow traveler. I wished him well in what remains of his life. He's several years older than I, so I'll probably be around longer. I did ask him to give my regards to the various members of the Elohim if he can locate them in this vast evolutionary creation.
I know this old friend is not knowingly fascist. He doesn't have a mean bone in his body.
However, he is caught up in the Tea Party from its inception, in creationism and is absolutely dedicated to Christianity -- now, mainstream instead of Armstrongist. There is no penetrating that armor without a non-existent intellectual anti-tank rocket.
Of course, what I say is automatically dismissed as lies. He says I'm no longer the man he loved as a dear friend for about 60 years. That's for sure true.
Gone is my youthful naivete and gullibility. It is replaced by stone cold reasoning power that came by a hard route. I no longer stand in awe before a fictional god and his totally fictional supposed scriptures. I care not what any god supposedly says through some ecstatic, over-impressed-with-him-or-herself revelator. Paul, the originator of Christianity, is to me a mentally deranged con-artist.
So, I bid farewell to this longtime friend and fellow traveler. I wished him well in what remains of his life. He's several years older than I, so I'll probably be around longer. I did ask him to give my regards to the various members of the Elohim if he can locate them in this vast evolutionary creation.
WHY POLITICS MATTERS
Why am I spending time talking about politics and economics when the subject of this blog is agnostic atheism? Am I getting off subject?
In a simple one-word answer, NO!
In twenty-first century America, politics is religion and religion is politics. They are so intertwined that it is virtually impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins.
The Tea Party branch of Republicanism is especially intertwined with religion. Bachmann, for example, got her advanced (?) education at an ultraconservative religious school that is far more pernicious than Ambassador College ever was.
You really cannot be a tea partiest, and to a lesser extent, a Republican without passing a religious "litmus test." Only in the Democratic or Libertarian party, or as an Independent, can a non-religous person find a true haven. That's why the Democratic party's support throughout the "Bible Belt" is so low. Voting Democratic is seen as being unchristian.
Religion has taken over and corrupted politics in this country, and it's hard for me to understand why. We once were the most progressive country in the world. Now, we are mired in superstition and faith-based nonsense and fast becoming the laughing stock of the enlightened Western world.
There is no real separation of church and state in the US today. Ronald Reagan started it off and the Bushes continued it with their insidious "faith based" preaching.
In a simple one-word answer, NO!
In twenty-first century America, politics is religion and religion is politics. They are so intertwined that it is virtually impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins.
The Tea Party branch of Republicanism is especially intertwined with religion. Bachmann, for example, got her advanced (?) education at an ultraconservative religious school that is far more pernicious than Ambassador College ever was.
You really cannot be a tea partiest, and to a lesser extent, a Republican without passing a religious "litmus test." Only in the Democratic or Libertarian party, or as an Independent, can a non-religous person find a true haven. That's why the Democratic party's support throughout the "Bible Belt" is so low. Voting Democratic is seen as being unchristian.
Religion has taken over and corrupted politics in this country, and it's hard for me to understand why. We once were the most progressive country in the world. Now, we are mired in superstition and faith-based nonsense and fast becoming the laughing stock of the enlightened Western world.
There is no real separation of church and state in the US today. Ronald Reagan started it off and the Bushes continued it with their insidious "faith based" preaching.
Friday, August 5, 2011
UNBALANCE IN OVERDRIVE
The reason why the US is in economic trouble was made clear by an article I just read: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/04/irs-incomes_n_918458.html
This article reveals the fact that more than 1,400 certified millionaires (that's people who make -- I refuse to say "earned" -- more than one million dollars) paid no income tax at all in 2009. Many of those millionaires sat in a plush chair before a computer screen and used any number of devious schemes to move fiat money around, contributing absolutely nothing tangible to the national welfare and producing the economic crisis they then contrived to be bailed out of to the tune of multiple billions that were added to the national debt.
Nice "job" if you can contrive to get it.
For several decades now, those at the economic apex have been lobbying to make this grossly imbalanced and unfair scenario a reality. Meanwhile, the rest of us have been picking up their share of the tax burden. They have a headlock on the economy and things can only get worse.
How long will the average American be hoodwinked into accepting and voting for this farce. Just as long as they are stupid enough to fall for the BS being shoveled their way by the Rethugs and the "Tea Party."
The stupidity of the average American seems to know no bounds.
This article reveals the fact that more than 1,400 certified millionaires (that's people who make -- I refuse to say "earned" -- more than one million dollars) paid no income tax at all in 2009. Many of those millionaires sat in a plush chair before a computer screen and used any number of devious schemes to move fiat money around, contributing absolutely nothing tangible to the national welfare and producing the economic crisis they then contrived to be bailed out of to the tune of multiple billions that were added to the national debt.
Nice "job" if you can contrive to get it.
For several decades now, those at the economic apex have been lobbying to make this grossly imbalanced and unfair scenario a reality. Meanwhile, the rest of us have been picking up their share of the tax burden. They have a headlock on the economy and things can only get worse.
How long will the average American be hoodwinked into accepting and voting for this farce. Just as long as they are stupid enough to fall for the BS being shoveled their way by the Rethugs and the "Tea Party."
The stupidity of the average American seems to know no bounds.
Monday, August 1, 2011
MORE ON STUPIDITY
Few are alive who remember the Great Depression. I was only five years old when Hitler marched into Poland and set us on the course out of it. Being on a farm, we usually had food, but I remember being hungry a few times when the cupboard got a bit spare. Refrigerators were something in the post-war future.
Roosevelt tried hard to get us out of the Depression, but he was sabotaged by near-sighted Rethugs in 1937 and there was a second dip. We probably never would have recovered if we hadn't had to fight for our very existence in World War II. Desperation shut the mouths of the stupid rethugs.
Everything boomed. America's industrial might came to the fore and we emerged from the war as a much richer nation. Luckily, there were progressive minded people in Congress and the White House who could see the need for the GI Bill and expanded infrastructure. Even a Republican like Dwight Eisenhauer saw the need for our wonderful interstate highway system which is now being neglected and going to hell in the proverbial handbasket. (I remember that he had a problem deciding whether he was a Republican or a Democrat. I still wonder why he chose as he did.) Johnson brought in rural electrification. Kennedy ramrodded the space program. Etc. Etc.
Yes, it took some borrowing -- which has since been paid off because the presidents and congresses recognized the need to levy compensatory taxes to pay for it all. Customers paid off rural electrification. There were still plenty of millionaires, even billionaires, and the wealth thus created is inestimable. At the same time, ordinary citizens enjoyed an economy in which they could found and grow their own businesses and prosper. Yes, they griped about the tax burden. That's only natural.
The point is that the borrowing and taxing created the greatest economy the world had ever seen and put us on top of the world. We could have stayed there.
However, the selfish, short-sighted rich and powerful can't stand for the average citizen to have a fair shake. They have always chafed at Roosevelt's folly. Only their children deserve a top quality education that guarantees them a chance at a high paying job and a decent retirement. It's the lower classes' fault that they don't advance by pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. They all too often have the attitude so condemned by the Apostle James, as mentioned in my previous blog.
Wake up America. You're being sent back to the age of the robber barons on a greased slide and being lied to every step of the way. Quit voting for your sworn enemies who snicker under their uplifted noses as you fall for their BS.
The Rethugs are your enemies!
Always have been!
Always will be!
Roosevelt tried hard to get us out of the Depression, but he was sabotaged by near-sighted Rethugs in 1937 and there was a second dip. We probably never would have recovered if we hadn't had to fight for our very existence in World War II. Desperation shut the mouths of the stupid rethugs.
Everything boomed. America's industrial might came to the fore and we emerged from the war as a much richer nation. Luckily, there were progressive minded people in Congress and the White House who could see the need for the GI Bill and expanded infrastructure. Even a Republican like Dwight Eisenhauer saw the need for our wonderful interstate highway system which is now being neglected and going to hell in the proverbial handbasket. (I remember that he had a problem deciding whether he was a Republican or a Democrat. I still wonder why he chose as he did.) Johnson brought in rural electrification. Kennedy ramrodded the space program. Etc. Etc.
Yes, it took some borrowing -- which has since been paid off because the presidents and congresses recognized the need to levy compensatory taxes to pay for it all. Customers paid off rural electrification. There were still plenty of millionaires, even billionaires, and the wealth thus created is inestimable. At the same time, ordinary citizens enjoyed an economy in which they could found and grow their own businesses and prosper. Yes, they griped about the tax burden. That's only natural.
The point is that the borrowing and taxing created the greatest economy the world had ever seen and put us on top of the world. We could have stayed there.
However, the selfish, short-sighted rich and powerful can't stand for the average citizen to have a fair shake. They have always chafed at Roosevelt's folly. Only their children deserve a top quality education that guarantees them a chance at a high paying job and a decent retirement. It's the lower classes' fault that they don't advance by pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. They all too often have the attitude so condemned by the Apostle James, as mentioned in my previous blog.
Wake up America. You're being sent back to the age of the robber barons on a greased slide and being lied to every step of the way. Quit voting for your sworn enemies who snicker under their uplifted noses as you fall for their BS.
The Rethugs are your enemies!
Always have been!
Always will be!
USA--THE REGRESSIVE RELIGIOUSLY CONTROLLED STUPID NATION
The leading article on the Huffinton Post this morning headlined desperate American college and university students prostituting themselves to rich "sugar daddies" in a desperate attempt to pay their college debts and living expenses: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/29/seeking-arrangement-college-students_n_913373.html. I was so disgusted and horrified by page one that I had to take a break.
I am outraged and filled with shame that such a condition can exist in twenty-first century America.
Meanwhile, the Tea Party may still hold the nation hostage to their insane demands and may plummet us into a financial abyss worse than the one idiots like Boehner were already contemplating.
We led the world for about forty years after WWII. We no longer lead the world -- in anything -- except individual and corporate greed and military adventurism. From leading the world in democracy, technology and humanitarianism, we have descended to the status of "bully on the block." Do it our way, or we'll kick the "shit" out of you is our not so subtle message.
The rich and privileged are also intent on kicking the "shit" out of, and in actuality, enslaving anyone who is not in their elitist class. They claim, at least most of them, to be ardent followers of the mythical Galilean carpenter. They are very selective in what aspects of his teachings they follow. They conveniently overlook that they claim to worship a man who said: "a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven."
I'm surprised there isn't a movement afoot in the Tea Party to have the book of James expunged from the Bible. Let me quote a little of it:
"Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you....Ye have reaped treasure together for the last days....the hire of the laborurers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth...ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter."
I didn't read, "Greed is good," anywhere in there.
Sounds like a perfect description of our corporate-dominated Wall Street and Banking society. If what I am seeing on the news doesn't qualify as a wanton "slaughter" of everyone and everthing that made this the greatest nation on earth, then I am totally blind.
Oh, how pious Bachmann is as she spouts her hate filled vitriol based on the same kind of religious hypocrisy Herbert Armstrong, the disgusting, ravenous old hypocrite, used to spout. She, nor any other tea partiest or Republican gives a fucking damn about the welfare of the United States of America, the nation that once put a man on the moon and now has to hitch rides to the space station on Russian rockets. We should hang our heads in shame!
We should have had a base on the Moon by now! We should be tooling up to put men on Mars! What an economy that would have spawned! Instead, we promise the disgustingly filthy rich that they can keep on economically -- and literally -- raping everybody with total impudence.
We had a budget surplus before George Bush entered the White House. He and the other Republican idiots couldn't wait to cut already ridiculously low taxes and borrow money to pay for their military adventurism and their gifts to already rich, but politically supportive, buddies. No need to worry about those lazy peons out there who either had to give up on college or mortgage their futures (and then prostitute themselves to those rich, disgusting bastards who precipitated the situation).
And, we cluck our self-righteous tongues over the postitution in places like Thailand!
It's natural and human to want to pay out as little as possible in taxes. I fully admit that the welfare state got a bit out of control at one time. It certainly needed fixing, but it shouldn't have been totally gutted! And, concern for the future welfare of common citizens totally abolished!
There is a need and a place for proper investment in the future. That investment has been stolen and raped away by those who want to bask in hedonistic luxury while using anyone under them in any degrading way they choose.
We no longer are the undisputed superpower of the world. Soon Brazil, China and a host of others will ascend to the place we once occupied, and the wall street bankers who only know how to manipulate fiat money aren't going to do a damn thing to stop it.
I am outraged and filled with shame that such a condition can exist in twenty-first century America.
Meanwhile, the Tea Party may still hold the nation hostage to their insane demands and may plummet us into a financial abyss worse than the one idiots like Boehner were already contemplating.
We led the world for about forty years after WWII. We no longer lead the world -- in anything -- except individual and corporate greed and military adventurism. From leading the world in democracy, technology and humanitarianism, we have descended to the status of "bully on the block." Do it our way, or we'll kick the "shit" out of you is our not so subtle message.
The rich and privileged are also intent on kicking the "shit" out of, and in actuality, enslaving anyone who is not in their elitist class. They claim, at least most of them, to be ardent followers of the mythical Galilean carpenter. They are very selective in what aspects of his teachings they follow. They conveniently overlook that they claim to worship a man who said: "a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven."
I'm surprised there isn't a movement afoot in the Tea Party to have the book of James expunged from the Bible. Let me quote a little of it:
"Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you....Ye have reaped treasure together for the last days....the hire of the laborurers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth...ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter."
I didn't read, "Greed is good," anywhere in there.
Sounds like a perfect description of our corporate-dominated Wall Street and Banking society. If what I am seeing on the news doesn't qualify as a wanton "slaughter" of everyone and everthing that made this the greatest nation on earth, then I am totally blind.
Oh, how pious Bachmann is as she spouts her hate filled vitriol based on the same kind of religious hypocrisy Herbert Armstrong, the disgusting, ravenous old hypocrite, used to spout. She, nor any other tea partiest or Republican gives a fucking damn about the welfare of the United States of America, the nation that once put a man on the moon and now has to hitch rides to the space station on Russian rockets. We should hang our heads in shame!
We should have had a base on the Moon by now! We should be tooling up to put men on Mars! What an economy that would have spawned! Instead, we promise the disgustingly filthy rich that they can keep on economically -- and literally -- raping everybody with total impudence.
We had a budget surplus before George Bush entered the White House. He and the other Republican idiots couldn't wait to cut already ridiculously low taxes and borrow money to pay for their military adventurism and their gifts to already rich, but politically supportive, buddies. No need to worry about those lazy peons out there who either had to give up on college or mortgage their futures (and then prostitute themselves to those rich, disgusting bastards who precipitated the situation).
And, we cluck our self-righteous tongues over the postitution in places like Thailand!
It's natural and human to want to pay out as little as possible in taxes. I fully admit that the welfare state got a bit out of control at one time. It certainly needed fixing, but it shouldn't have been totally gutted! And, concern for the future welfare of common citizens totally abolished!
There is a need and a place for proper investment in the future. That investment has been stolen and raped away by those who want to bask in hedonistic luxury while using anyone under them in any degrading way they choose.
We no longer are the undisputed superpower of the world. Soon Brazil, China and a host of others will ascend to the place we once occupied, and the wall street bankers who only know how to manipulate fiat money aren't going to do a damn thing to stop it.
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