The January 23 issue of Time had a picture of 81-year young Warren Buffett on its cover and a five-page article on this astute and patriotic American financier and philanthropist. It's rare and refreshing to find a billionaire who is a liberal and not set on reducing everyone not in his privileged class to the category of a menial serf good for nothing but haughty contempt and grist for the corporate mill.
I've stated before that I deeply respect this man, along with Bill Gates. I hope a few more wealthy people share their attitudes, but I only know about them.
I don't automatically dislike wealthy people. They are just as human as am I, and I've had some horrible attitudes predicated on mostly religious nonsense in my past. I've had to repent of and grow out of those attitudes. I'm sure Warren Buffett has grown during his life also.
Too bad Warren is as old as he is. He'd made a good senator, representative or president. The man sees things clearly and he's fair and sensibly minded. However, he probably wouldn't stand a chance just because he is so sensible and fair. An astounding number of American citizens can't see an inch ahead of their big, self-centered, religiously deceived, dumb noses.
All my life, I've marveled at how so many people despise history. They daydream through history classes and don't bother to deeply reflect back on the past they themselves have experienced. So, today we have the spectacle of people actually condemning the hard fought for and well thought out social programs men like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhauer, John Kennedy, Harry Truman, etc. dedicated their lives to championing.
I hear bullshit such as, "Social Security is broke!"
IT ISN'T!"
Crooked politicians misdirected its funds so tax cuts could be given to the wealthy one percent and corporations. Those funds are guaranteed by government securities that are just as binding as are obligations to China or any other entity. As long as the fiat money system goes on, Social Security is as solvent as anything in this crazy world can be!
The robber barons simply want to leave millions of people holding an empty bag -- just as our ancestors who lived long enough were often left destitute prior the the New Deal. Most people didn't even live to 65 back in those days. Leave it to the idiots who shout "socialism" about anything benefiting the common citizen, and we'll soon be back to those days of short, brutal, poverty filled lives for the average citizen!
If you don't have this issue of time, go find one at the library and read what this honorable and very wise American has to say. And, while you're at it, go online or look up a good history book to get some real history about what has transpired in the history of this nation and the world in the last three quarters century -- unless you happened to be in the educated minority who already knows.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
I'M BANISHED -- ACCORDING TO THIS A-HOLE
Rep. Allen West, a Florida Republican, summed up the prevailing attitude of the Tea Party and other right wing extremists when he stated the following at a Lincoln Day dinner in West Palm Beach:
"We need to let President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and my dear friend the chairman of the Democrat National Committee, we need to let them know that Florida ain't on the table, Take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, take your message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American people somewhere else. You can take it to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America."
Well, Mr. West, I am one of those flaming liberals you hate so much, and I'm going nowhere. This is my country too and you and your ilk are destroying it, along with a sizeable piece of the rest of the world.
Like the robber barons of the past, you and the revitalized robber barons of today don't give a damn about the average American who hasn't been lucky and/or dishonest and conniving enough to manipulate the economic system into becoming millionaires and billionaires while they sit on their ample behinds criminally manipulating the fiat money system to their nefarious benefit.
You would condemn our youth to an uneducated future of slavery to the corporaate elite in company town slums and let them slink off to die homelessly when they got too old and frail to feed the corporate machines. That horrible Social Security (totally solvent by the way) would go glimmering in your wonderful Dickensian hell hole. Anyone not rich could just suffer and die, and that would make a haughty monster like you contented and happy -- as long as you had your pirated wealth.
Not only have you and your Rethuglican buddies savaged the United States of America, you have savaged much of the rest of the world, and especially, Europe.
Europe would have been in far better shape if it wasn’t for the Wall Street banksters, in collusion with the ratings agencies and the defanged regulators, promoting bundled toxic derivatives, that were worthless, as triple A rated.
Banks have always assumed that if anything was available on the market, with a triple A rating and especially if it was American, it was the safest and most reliable investment around. The same banksters insured against loss and took money from the sale of prime crap and money when it was totally worthless. They knew all along how worthless it was to the "sucker,' but that was the key to their getting ubscenely wealthy so they didn't give a damn.
This criminal enterprise brought the entire world’s economic system to its knees. It was helped along by bribed politicians who knew what was happening well in advance of the event. Many of them bet on America failing by buying insurance that it would.
It was one more event in the exploitable cycle of disasters, both manmade and natural, that could be manipulated to cause society to go into panic mode, so the corporations could finalize the overthrow of the principles of democracy, break all resistance of the people, by falsely discrediting and removing their bulwarks such as unions and elections and rights advocates.
You, Mr. West, are either a blind tool of the robber barons or a clueless, hate-filled idiot with no understanding at all.
We liberals aren't going anywhere! We're going to stand up to your lies and hate-filled bombast! We intend to take our nation back out of your evil hands!
"We need to let President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and my dear friend the chairman of the Democrat National Committee, we need to let them know that Florida ain't on the table, Take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, take your message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American people somewhere else. You can take it to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America."
Well, Mr. West, I am one of those flaming liberals you hate so much, and I'm going nowhere. This is my country too and you and your ilk are destroying it, along with a sizeable piece of the rest of the world.
Like the robber barons of the past, you and the revitalized robber barons of today don't give a damn about the average American who hasn't been lucky and/or dishonest and conniving enough to manipulate the economic system into becoming millionaires and billionaires while they sit on their ample behinds criminally manipulating the fiat money system to their nefarious benefit.
You would condemn our youth to an uneducated future of slavery to the corporaate elite in company town slums and let them slink off to die homelessly when they got too old and frail to feed the corporate machines. That horrible Social Security (totally solvent by the way) would go glimmering in your wonderful Dickensian hell hole. Anyone not rich could just suffer and die, and that would make a haughty monster like you contented and happy -- as long as you had your pirated wealth.
Not only have you and your Rethuglican buddies savaged the United States of America, you have savaged much of the rest of the world, and especially, Europe.
Europe would have been in far better shape if it wasn’t for the Wall Street banksters, in collusion with the ratings agencies and the defanged regulators, promoting bundled toxic derivatives, that were worthless, as triple A rated.
Banks have always assumed that if anything was available on the market, with a triple A rating and especially if it was American, it was the safest and most reliable investment around. The same banksters insured against loss and took money from the sale of prime crap and money when it was totally worthless. They knew all along how worthless it was to the "sucker,' but that was the key to their getting ubscenely wealthy so they didn't give a damn.
This criminal enterprise brought the entire world’s economic system to its knees. It was helped along by bribed politicians who knew what was happening well in advance of the event. Many of them bet on America failing by buying insurance that it would.
It was one more event in the exploitable cycle of disasters, both manmade and natural, that could be manipulated to cause society to go into panic mode, so the corporations could finalize the overthrow of the principles of democracy, break all resistance of the people, by falsely discrediting and removing their bulwarks such as unions and elections and rights advocates.
You, Mr. West, are either a blind tool of the robber barons or a clueless, hate-filled idiot with no understanding at all.
We liberals aren't going anywhere! We're going to stand up to your lies and hate-filled bombast! We intend to take our nation back out of your evil hands!
Thursday, January 26, 2012
ANNIVERSARY TIME!
Tomorrow is a milestone for me! It marks the first birthday of this blog!
I got off to a halting start and sometimes had to publish things I had written and posted on another site. Lately, I seem to have hit my stride. I even published two blogs yesterday. It's gotten easier with time and practice.
More enjoyable too! I absolutely love blogging. Writing my own blogs and commenting on the blogs others write keeps boredom out of my retiree life.
I remember how boring and tedious life became for my father. He was an old retired North Dakota rancher who tried to alleviate the tedium of his life by making crafts out of wood and trying to sell them to people who didn't want to pay enough to cover the materials, let alone the time and work involved. One of his beautiful ship clocks hangs above this desk before which I sit.
Toward the end, he just gave up on the whole thing and sat in a chair day after day, along with my mother, gazing at the changeless walls of my sister's living room and the bedroom they shared. Once in awhile, we or someone else took a little of the boredom away by visiting or my sister and brother-in-law took them for a drive somewhere. Neither of them got their cataracts corrected, so they couldn't even enjoy reading, one of my mother's favorite activities. She couldn't crochet or embroider anymore either. Thanks to modern surgery, I see like I did 50 years ago even though I have to use reading glasses for close up sight.
I don't know what awaits me in my future, but if I have to end my days in anywhere near that condition, I hope I'll be able to get my hands on the right pills to take a handful of and end it all. Self-inflicted suffering and martyrdom makes no sense to me, and if it was OK for an Israelite king to fall on his sword to keep from being captured and humiliated, don't give me any religious crap about how evil it would be for me to do basically the same thing. Of course, if I were in the military and fell on a grenade to save my buddies, I'd be praised as a hero. Just as dead by own design, though.
I've had a lot to say about the insanities I see, and I have a lot more to say. I know only a handful of people ever see my gems of what I like to regard as a bit of wisdom. I can only do what I can do. but it gives a purpose to my life.
I'm writing this tonight because tomorrow I'm getting up early for another of my favorite activities -- going to garage, yard and estate sales. I'll be on my own tomorrow. Phyllis' adopted Yavapai Apache son is coming up from Phoenix on the casino bus from Sun City to get his tribal per capita check at tribal headquarters and spend a few hours with her at the casino, then back to Sun City. I stay away because I'm a "downer" at the casino. She sets a budget and often wins -- if I'm not around. She's sure to lose if I am. She can give Mike my regards.
I hope you'll keep visiting my blog and that others will start. Thanks for following it to all who do.
I got off to a halting start and sometimes had to publish things I had written and posted on another site. Lately, I seem to have hit my stride. I even published two blogs yesterday. It's gotten easier with time and practice.
More enjoyable too! I absolutely love blogging. Writing my own blogs and commenting on the blogs others write keeps boredom out of my retiree life.
I remember how boring and tedious life became for my father. He was an old retired North Dakota rancher who tried to alleviate the tedium of his life by making crafts out of wood and trying to sell them to people who didn't want to pay enough to cover the materials, let alone the time and work involved. One of his beautiful ship clocks hangs above this desk before which I sit.
Toward the end, he just gave up on the whole thing and sat in a chair day after day, along with my mother, gazing at the changeless walls of my sister's living room and the bedroom they shared. Once in awhile, we or someone else took a little of the boredom away by visiting or my sister and brother-in-law took them for a drive somewhere. Neither of them got their cataracts corrected, so they couldn't even enjoy reading, one of my mother's favorite activities. She couldn't crochet or embroider anymore either. Thanks to modern surgery, I see like I did 50 years ago even though I have to use reading glasses for close up sight.
I don't know what awaits me in my future, but if I have to end my days in anywhere near that condition, I hope I'll be able to get my hands on the right pills to take a handful of and end it all. Self-inflicted suffering and martyrdom makes no sense to me, and if it was OK for an Israelite king to fall on his sword to keep from being captured and humiliated, don't give me any religious crap about how evil it would be for me to do basically the same thing. Of course, if I were in the military and fell on a grenade to save my buddies, I'd be praised as a hero. Just as dead by own design, though.
I've had a lot to say about the insanities I see, and I have a lot more to say. I know only a handful of people ever see my gems of what I like to regard as a bit of wisdom. I can only do what I can do. but it gives a purpose to my life.
I'm writing this tonight because tomorrow I'm getting up early for another of my favorite activities -- going to garage, yard and estate sales. I'll be on my own tomorrow. Phyllis' adopted Yavapai Apache son is coming up from Phoenix on the casino bus from Sun City to get his tribal per capita check at tribal headquarters and spend a few hours with her at the casino, then back to Sun City. I stay away because I'm a "downer" at the casino. She sets a budget and often wins -- if I'm not around. She's sure to lose if I am. She can give Mike my regards.
I hope you'll keep visiting my blog and that others will start. Thanks for following it to all who do.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
DARK SIDE -- IT EXISTS
I'm somewhat of a science fiction buff. I watch reruns of Star Trek and love Star Wars episodes.
I know much of the "science" is unrealistic and probably far from what could be reality. Nevertheless, there are great truths and principles to be found in much of the fantasy, and we humans need to dream of what maybe could be so we can perhaps discover or attain it. (After all, high tail finned cars of the 50s were designed by people who had been Batman followers in their youth.) It can also open our eyes to things which we need to be on guard against.
This is especially true of the "dark side" espoused by Star Wars.
I have lived long enough and experienced life thoroughly enough to know there is a definite dark side to this world. There really are plotters and power mad schemers like the "emperor." I see their scheming faces and hear their deceptive lies every day on my TV. They are dead set on deceiving and enslaving me -- AND YOU!
Some of them have no idea what they are up to. That's the character of deception. They are totally convinced that they are the good guys or gals and what they are up to is for the ultimate good of all. Their minds are so warped by religious and cultural lies and certainties that they feel totally justified in plotting to take away our freedoms under the guise of defending them and destroy what equality might now exist.
Make no mistake. There is real power in the dark side -- especially when it masquerades as the light. When that masquerade is based on a concocted god and a fictional, made-up book of myths that people fanatically cling to in spite of all evidence to the contrary, which god and book has extensive swaths of the nation under blind, fanatical deception, the situation gets grave rather quickly.
We have our own Taliban to worry about!
I spent years caught up in a religion which basically operated on the principle that the "truth" was what it told you was the truth. (All religions I'm familiar with have basically that same approach.)
The founder of that religion even stated publicly that democracy was not god's form of government and would not exist in the kingdom of god. He was convinced (or at least claimed to be convinced) that he was going to be a big wheel in that kingdom and promised us we would also. In my youthful ignorance and naivete, I fell for it -- for a while. Mormons fall for the nonsense that they are going to be gods with their own proprietary planet to rule over. Oy Vay! If that were true, there would be hells throughout the universe!
That experience has made me very suspicious of dogmatic pronouncements by anyone. I no longer assume someone's motives are good just because they claim they are. The quickest way to make me immediately distrustful is for someone to say, "Trust me."
No, thank you! Before I trust, I'm going to verify.
And, since I've already verified that gods are a figment of human imagination and ignorant superstition and the Bible is a fictitious travesty, don't even contemplate wasting your time and breath (or keyboard) trying to proseletize and argue with me. If you're a prisoner of that dark side, kindly pass me by with a wide margin to spare and go enjoy your dark slavery. Some people do seem to love being slaves and second class to those who are confident they are their superiors.
It's almost time for the evening news. I'm steeling myself to hear more dark side BS from the likes of Boehner, Santorum, Gingrich, Romney, etc., etc.
Oh, barf!
I know much of the "science" is unrealistic and probably far from what could be reality. Nevertheless, there are great truths and principles to be found in much of the fantasy, and we humans need to dream of what maybe could be so we can perhaps discover or attain it. (After all, high tail finned cars of the 50s were designed by people who had been Batman followers in their youth.) It can also open our eyes to things which we need to be on guard against.
This is especially true of the "dark side" espoused by Star Wars.
I have lived long enough and experienced life thoroughly enough to know there is a definite dark side to this world. There really are plotters and power mad schemers like the "emperor." I see their scheming faces and hear their deceptive lies every day on my TV. They are dead set on deceiving and enslaving me -- AND YOU!
Some of them have no idea what they are up to. That's the character of deception. They are totally convinced that they are the good guys or gals and what they are up to is for the ultimate good of all. Their minds are so warped by religious and cultural lies and certainties that they feel totally justified in plotting to take away our freedoms under the guise of defending them and destroy what equality might now exist.
Make no mistake. There is real power in the dark side -- especially when it masquerades as the light. When that masquerade is based on a concocted god and a fictional, made-up book of myths that people fanatically cling to in spite of all evidence to the contrary, which god and book has extensive swaths of the nation under blind, fanatical deception, the situation gets grave rather quickly.
We have our own Taliban to worry about!
I spent years caught up in a religion which basically operated on the principle that the "truth" was what it told you was the truth. (All religions I'm familiar with have basically that same approach.)
The founder of that religion even stated publicly that democracy was not god's form of government and would not exist in the kingdom of god. He was convinced (or at least claimed to be convinced) that he was going to be a big wheel in that kingdom and promised us we would also. In my youthful ignorance and naivete, I fell for it -- for a while. Mormons fall for the nonsense that they are going to be gods with their own proprietary planet to rule over. Oy Vay! If that were true, there would be hells throughout the universe!
That experience has made me very suspicious of dogmatic pronouncements by anyone. I no longer assume someone's motives are good just because they claim they are. The quickest way to make me immediately distrustful is for someone to say, "Trust me."
No, thank you! Before I trust, I'm going to verify.
And, since I've already verified that gods are a figment of human imagination and ignorant superstition and the Bible is a fictitious travesty, don't even contemplate wasting your time and breath (or keyboard) trying to proseletize and argue with me. If you're a prisoner of that dark side, kindly pass me by with a wide margin to spare and go enjoy your dark slavery. Some people do seem to love being slaves and second class to those who are confident they are their superiors.
It's almost time for the evening news. I'm steeling myself to hear more dark side BS from the likes of Boehner, Santorum, Gingrich, Romney, etc., etc.
Oh, barf!
AMERICA REALLY IS "BACK!"
I woke up this morning and, as is my custom, went immediately to the computer and Huffington Post. A momentous headline greeted me. See it here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/25/raid-in-somalia_n_1230062.html
Last night, President Obama proclaimed that America was back. He didn't go into the details he could have and crow about the operation that was officially announced just a few minutes after his outstanding address. I think he knew that would seem like grandstanding and was better handled another way -- in the midst of Rethug bombast trying to belittle his State of the Union address.
It was a classic "Oh, shit!" moment for the Rethug apologists and liars.
I grew up on slogans like, "Millions for defense. Not one cent for tribute." It really irks me to see us "negotiate" with terrorists and/or bullies.
Thanks to Seal Team 6, those who wish to lay their hands on or massacre American citizens have to think multiple times before attempting to do so. President Obama and the US military has made it abundantly clear that, if they follow through, we are going to come calling when they least expect and we're going to be in a very bad mood.
Congratulations, Mr. President! Well done, Seal Team 6!
Last night, President Obama proclaimed that America was back. He didn't go into the details he could have and crow about the operation that was officially announced just a few minutes after his outstanding address. I think he knew that would seem like grandstanding and was better handled another way -- in the midst of Rethug bombast trying to belittle his State of the Union address.
It was a classic "Oh, shit!" moment for the Rethug apologists and liars.
I grew up on slogans like, "Millions for defense. Not one cent for tribute." It really irks me to see us "negotiate" with terrorists and/or bullies.
Thanks to Seal Team 6, those who wish to lay their hands on or massacre American citizens have to think multiple times before attempting to do so. President Obama and the US military has made it abundantly clear that, if they follow through, we are going to come calling when they least expect and we're going to be in a very bad mood.
Congratulations, Mr. President! Well done, Seal Team 6!
Sunday, January 22, 2012
HITCHENS WAS ONE OF A KIND
It will be a long time, if ever again, that the likes of Christopher Hitchens will come along.
There are many of us who think the same way and can come up with some real zingers while we sit in front of the keyboard with plenty of time to think. But, when it comes to instant recall and sharpness of memory required in debate, we all, as far as I can see, fall short of Hitch. Nobody could stymie him and leave him speachless or hemming and hawing while he searched for the right answer. It was a hair trigger thing with him.
The only one I can think of who comes close is P. Z. Myers and his constant flood of information and deep thought on Pharyngula. Greta Christina does well also. I haven't heard either of them in debate. They might do just as well or close. One can only hope.
We have lost a great voice, and I for one, feel the loss deeply. At least, through marvelous modern technology, his voice and writings live on. Death has not silenced this exceptional voice of reason and clarity of thought.
There are many of us who think the same way and can come up with some real zingers while we sit in front of the keyboard with plenty of time to think. But, when it comes to instant recall and sharpness of memory required in debate, we all, as far as I can see, fall short of Hitch. Nobody could stymie him and leave him speachless or hemming and hawing while he searched for the right answer. It was a hair trigger thing with him.
The only one I can think of who comes close is P. Z. Myers and his constant flood of information and deep thought on Pharyngula. Greta Christina does well also. I haven't heard either of them in debate. They might do just as well or close. One can only hope.
We have lost a great voice, and I for one, feel the loss deeply. At least, through marvelous modern technology, his voice and writings live on. Death has not silenced this exceptional voice of reason and clarity of thought.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
SEEMS TO BE WORKING
A lot of websites I normally log onto are not readily available, in some cases not at all available, today as a protest against the obvious power grab some unsavory interests are trying to make under the usual strategem of false pretenses and deceptive slogans intended to mask their real intentions.
I added my voice to the protests and it seems to be working. It looks like the bills are going nowhere and won't have to be vetoed by our president to stop the power grab and the unacceptable censorship that would follow and which would totally destroy the main tool of the free thought movement.
Don't expect the efforts to silence reason to cease. We must continue to be on guard and ready to rush to the attack as soon as the next subterfuge shows its beastly head.
I added my voice to the protests and it seems to be working. It looks like the bills are going nowhere and won't have to be vetoed by our president to stop the power grab and the unacceptable censorship that would follow and which would totally destroy the main tool of the free thought movement.
Don't expect the efforts to silence reason to cease. We must continue to be on guard and ready to rush to the attack as soon as the next subterfuge shows its beastly head.
Monday, January 16, 2012
WORLD CHANGERS
Every generation has a few of what I refer to as "World Changers."
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and a number of others in that generation were in that category. Every generation has had them. I don't subscribe to the old saw that "they don't make 'em like that anymore."
Yes, they do.
It's just that they are often unrecognized as the world changers they are until later. During their lifetimes, they are often the centers of controversy and turmoil and not recognized as the dynamic leaders and game changers they really are. Sometimes, they are only truly recognized after martyrdom.
I am writing this blog on a day that honors one of those martyred world changers -- January 16 -- Martin Luther King Day.
It wasn't until today that I read the entire context of King's "I Have a Dream" speach. I had heard excerpts of it, but have to confess that I never took the time to look up and read the entire speach. Find it here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/16/i-have-a-dream-speech-text-martin-luther-king-jr_n_1207734.html.
It was like hearing the strains of a rousing march tune! What an orator! King could take ordinary words and fill them with emotional drama and power that only a master of oratory could rise to! It takes a lot of emotion and clarity of thought to accomplish the feat. One has to be totally dedicated.
It may seem strange that I have so much regard for Martin Luther King. After all, I am a dedicated anti-theist atheist. By contrast, he was a dedicated Christian minister.
King died at the age of 39. When I was that age, I was also totally dedicated to a cultic form of Christianity. Perhaps he would still be as dedicated if he had lived as long as have I. Who can know? Where we end up in life philosophy and dedication depends a great deal on what we experience and what we learn over time.
What I have learned and experienced in the interim has led me to just as much of a dedicated goal as King had. I, too, have a dream.
I dream of a day when the human race is not divided by the blind dogmas of militant religions. Of a time when reason and scientific and historical facts form the basis of personal and international human decisions. I just as vehemently and passionately hope that my descendants will be people of reasoned good will toward their fellow humans, respectful of others because of their inherent right as fellow humans to be loved and respected and given equal opportunity to happiness and prosperity.
I dream of a human race released from the shackles of myth and superstition. A world in which ignorant, superstitious parents don't home school their innocent, bright-eyed children to condemn them to a lifetime of fanatic dedication to the same mythological nonsense that has warped their own minds.
I dream of our colonizing space, spreading throughout the galaxy and developing technologies that will make what we have today look like the stone age artifacts we gaze at in museums -- terraforming planets, intervening to prevent celestial disasters, evolving to potentials we can only speculate and dream about.
It is ignorance, selfishness, greed and faith inspired hate that stands in the way. It has always stood in the way. It burned the great library of Alexandria and took most of the accumulated knowledge of the ancient world away in those flames.
The same forces now threaten the progress we have made in the last few centuries with a holocaust that could extinguish us from the universe -- a universe that beckons and waits for us to grow up and turn sane.
What a tragedy it would be for ignorance and blindness to again wipe out the hard won gains mankind has made -- all for the slacking of the thirst some have for ultimate power over other of their fellow humans -- dictating what and how they will think, what they will be forced to say they believe on the pain of torture and/or death.
I waver between optimism and pessimism. What I see in the world has much in it that discourages, yet, I still hope. It is the "only game in town," as far as I can see.
I will continue to promote and work for "the dream."
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and a number of others in that generation were in that category. Every generation has had them. I don't subscribe to the old saw that "they don't make 'em like that anymore."
Yes, they do.
It's just that they are often unrecognized as the world changers they are until later. During their lifetimes, they are often the centers of controversy and turmoil and not recognized as the dynamic leaders and game changers they really are. Sometimes, they are only truly recognized after martyrdom.
I am writing this blog on a day that honors one of those martyred world changers -- January 16 -- Martin Luther King Day.
It wasn't until today that I read the entire context of King's "I Have a Dream" speach. I had heard excerpts of it, but have to confess that I never took the time to look up and read the entire speach. Find it here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/16/i-have-a-dream-speech-text-martin-luther-king-jr_n_1207734.html.
It was like hearing the strains of a rousing march tune! What an orator! King could take ordinary words and fill them with emotional drama and power that only a master of oratory could rise to! It takes a lot of emotion and clarity of thought to accomplish the feat. One has to be totally dedicated.
It may seem strange that I have so much regard for Martin Luther King. After all, I am a dedicated anti-theist atheist. By contrast, he was a dedicated Christian minister.
King died at the age of 39. When I was that age, I was also totally dedicated to a cultic form of Christianity. Perhaps he would still be as dedicated if he had lived as long as have I. Who can know? Where we end up in life philosophy and dedication depends a great deal on what we experience and what we learn over time.
What I have learned and experienced in the interim has led me to just as much of a dedicated goal as King had. I, too, have a dream.
I dream of a day when the human race is not divided by the blind dogmas of militant religions. Of a time when reason and scientific and historical facts form the basis of personal and international human decisions. I just as vehemently and passionately hope that my descendants will be people of reasoned good will toward their fellow humans, respectful of others because of their inherent right as fellow humans to be loved and respected and given equal opportunity to happiness and prosperity.
I dream of a human race released from the shackles of myth and superstition. A world in which ignorant, superstitious parents don't home school their innocent, bright-eyed children to condemn them to a lifetime of fanatic dedication to the same mythological nonsense that has warped their own minds.
I dream of our colonizing space, spreading throughout the galaxy and developing technologies that will make what we have today look like the stone age artifacts we gaze at in museums -- terraforming planets, intervening to prevent celestial disasters, evolving to potentials we can only speculate and dream about.
It is ignorance, selfishness, greed and faith inspired hate that stands in the way. It has always stood in the way. It burned the great library of Alexandria and took most of the accumulated knowledge of the ancient world away in those flames.
The same forces now threaten the progress we have made in the last few centuries with a holocaust that could extinguish us from the universe -- a universe that beckons and waits for us to grow up and turn sane.
What a tragedy it would be for ignorance and blindness to again wipe out the hard won gains mankind has made -- all for the slacking of the thirst some have for ultimate power over other of their fellow humans -- dictating what and how they will think, what they will be forced to say they believe on the pain of torture and/or death.
I waver between optimism and pessimism. What I see in the world has much in it that discourages, yet, I still hope. It is the "only game in town," as far as I can see.
I will continue to promote and work for "the dream."
Sunday, January 15, 2012
MORE THAN AN ATHEIST
Yes, I am an atheist. I do not recognize the existence of a god or any higher power. In that, I am in the good company of patriots like Thomas Paine and many of the other rationalist founders of this country who were sons of the Enlightenment.
But, I am more than just a quiet, rather passive non-believer. I have found most atheists fall into that category and never forcefully "come out" to family or the world at large. Often there are good and practical reasons to be reticent about doing so. I was in that category for a short -- very short -- time. Then, I decided that approach was not for me. It was "Full speed ahead! Damn the torpedoes!"
I became, and intend to remain, a dedicated ANTI-THEIST!
What's the difference?
The difference is that anti-theists are not content to be hidden in some corner or to be relegated to a closet. We don't care if those who are accustomed to having their way with the world denounce or persecute us and call us every vile name they can think of. Our message to them is that their ascendancy is going to come to an end and we are going to be instrumental in bringing that end about.
They can denounce and threaten us however they choose. We will not be intimidated. We will not be silenced.
Ever since desperate Constantine convened that council at Nicacea and saddled the Western world with his hodge podge of mostly mithraic syncretic religion and then enforced it with Roman military might, Christianity in myriad manifestations has run roughshod over occidental society. For centuries, its book of fiction doomed multiple generations to stultifying ignorance. The renaissance mollified and challenged their dominance. The Enlightenment dealt it heavy blows, as has modern science (which it hates with a purple passion) and led to the establishment of an American republic officially free from religious domination.
That was a bitter pill for theists to swallow. They have never ceased to chafe under the limitations placed upon them by the Constitution.
By every stratagem and subterfuge available to them, they have sought to subvert that great document unceasingly. It has been such a pervasive campaign that one ex-president has publicly stated that an atheist cannot be a good citizen "because this is one nation under god."
If he weren't so abysmally ignorant, he would know that that unconstitutional addition to the pledge of allegiance was not added until about sixty years ago. Our founding fathers would have tossed it into the nearest waste basket!
Fanatical religion has never ceased to assault and seek to undo the freedoms our founding fathers took such great pains to bequeath to us. They have been on their zealous quest to undo and circumvent those precepts ever since their establishment, resorting to such ridiculous slogans as "faith based."
Not just the old, traditional Catholic and Protestant organizations. A plethora of new, and just as illusory and ridiculous cults and superstitions soon came on the scene. Many of them have become very widespread and powerful. They are just as, and in some cases even more so, dedicated to surreptitiously gaining control over the thinking and lives of the general population of this country!
It wasn't very long after our nation's founding that a deranged con-artist by the name of Joseph Smith came along and set up the travesty of Mormonism that has now become so mainstream that we have a viable presidential candidate from that organization whose holy book is so stupid as to be laughable even as a work of science fiction.
In the mid-eighteenth Century, the Millerites and their prophetic debacle came along. Like all extremes, they didn't go away when their prognostications were proved false. From their ranks emerged another deranged "leader" who probably suffered from partial-complex seizures (http://www.ellenwhiteexposed.com/egw79.htm) spouting prophecies and inane garbage and set up what is today known as The Seventh-Day Adventists. That led to The Church of God Seventh-Day, The Branch Davidians, Herbert Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God and an inestimable and growing number of COGs and ridiculous cults.
The Western world, and particularly the supposedly rationalist U.S.A., is awash in religion! I couldn't even begin to cover the "wooo, wooo" out there! Like "Scientology!"
As an anti-theist, I refuse to just sit here on my little lot in Cottonwood, Arizona and blow it all off. I have very few years left now, but while I still draw the breath of life, I will never cease to "cry aloud" the anti-theist message.
Every time I encounter a new book, a new article, a new website, a new blog, etc., trumpeting the anti-theist message, I want to shout for joy!
I will continue to seek out others of like mind and meet with them, just like those founding fathers gathered in taverns and lodges to sow and cultivate the seeds of freedom and rationality.
Back off Theists! You've had your nefarious run! A several centuries run of ignorance, deception and tyranny!
The truth will be proclaimed!
You will not stop us!
But, I am more than just a quiet, rather passive non-believer. I have found most atheists fall into that category and never forcefully "come out" to family or the world at large. Often there are good and practical reasons to be reticent about doing so. I was in that category for a short -- very short -- time. Then, I decided that approach was not for me. It was "Full speed ahead! Damn the torpedoes!"
I became, and intend to remain, a dedicated ANTI-THEIST!
What's the difference?
The difference is that anti-theists are not content to be hidden in some corner or to be relegated to a closet. We don't care if those who are accustomed to having their way with the world denounce or persecute us and call us every vile name they can think of. Our message to them is that their ascendancy is going to come to an end and we are going to be instrumental in bringing that end about.
They can denounce and threaten us however they choose. We will not be intimidated. We will not be silenced.
Ever since desperate Constantine convened that council at Nicacea and saddled the Western world with his hodge podge of mostly mithraic syncretic religion and then enforced it with Roman military might, Christianity in myriad manifestations has run roughshod over occidental society. For centuries, its book of fiction doomed multiple generations to stultifying ignorance. The renaissance mollified and challenged their dominance. The Enlightenment dealt it heavy blows, as has modern science (which it hates with a purple passion) and led to the establishment of an American republic officially free from religious domination.
That was a bitter pill for theists to swallow. They have never ceased to chafe under the limitations placed upon them by the Constitution.
By every stratagem and subterfuge available to them, they have sought to subvert that great document unceasingly. It has been such a pervasive campaign that one ex-president has publicly stated that an atheist cannot be a good citizen "because this is one nation under god."
If he weren't so abysmally ignorant, he would know that that unconstitutional addition to the pledge of allegiance was not added until about sixty years ago. Our founding fathers would have tossed it into the nearest waste basket!
Fanatical religion has never ceased to assault and seek to undo the freedoms our founding fathers took such great pains to bequeath to us. They have been on their zealous quest to undo and circumvent those precepts ever since their establishment, resorting to such ridiculous slogans as "faith based."
Not just the old, traditional Catholic and Protestant organizations. A plethora of new, and just as illusory and ridiculous cults and superstitions soon came on the scene. Many of them have become very widespread and powerful. They are just as, and in some cases even more so, dedicated to surreptitiously gaining control over the thinking and lives of the general population of this country!
It wasn't very long after our nation's founding that a deranged con-artist by the name of Joseph Smith came along and set up the travesty of Mormonism that has now become so mainstream that we have a viable presidential candidate from that organization whose holy book is so stupid as to be laughable even as a work of science fiction.
In the mid-eighteenth Century, the Millerites and their prophetic debacle came along. Like all extremes, they didn't go away when their prognostications were proved false. From their ranks emerged another deranged "leader" who probably suffered from partial-complex seizures (http://www.ellenwhiteexposed.com/egw79.htm) spouting prophecies and inane garbage and set up what is today known as The Seventh-Day Adventists. That led to The Church of God Seventh-Day, The Branch Davidians, Herbert Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God and an inestimable and growing number of COGs and ridiculous cults.
The Western world, and particularly the supposedly rationalist U.S.A., is awash in religion! I couldn't even begin to cover the "wooo, wooo" out there! Like "Scientology!"
As an anti-theist, I refuse to just sit here on my little lot in Cottonwood, Arizona and blow it all off. I have very few years left now, but while I still draw the breath of life, I will never cease to "cry aloud" the anti-theist message.
Every time I encounter a new book, a new article, a new website, a new blog, etc., trumpeting the anti-theist message, I want to shout for joy!
I will continue to seek out others of like mind and meet with them, just like those founding fathers gathered in taverns and lodges to sow and cultivate the seeds of freedom and rationality.
Back off Theists! You've had your nefarious run! A several centuries run of ignorance, deception and tyranny!
The truth will be proclaimed!
You will not stop us!
Thursday, January 12, 2012
THE MOTTO I LIVE BY
It's nearly forty years now since my former well-ordered life fell apart around me. All the comfortable beliefs I had deluded myself into believing suddenly lost their certainty. I was confused and shaken.
As I have stated before, I originally hung onto the certainty of my basic religious faith. I still thought the Bible was true, Jesus really was my savior and I was part of the "body of Christ." All that is now ancient history as far as my current life and mental attitude is concrned.
Today, during discussion at our new free thinkers group in Sedona, I hearkened back to a slogan I soon came up with and which has guided me inexorably to where I am today as a free thinking humanist atheist and anti-theist. I have expressed it in various ways over the years, but basically it comes down to the fact that I will always dare to "think the 'unthinkable,' speak (or write) the 'unspeakable,' conclude the 'impossible'." I could add other "ables," but that pretty well covers it.
I have been rewarded with clarity of thought and the peace of knowing I am the master of my own destiny. There's no "god" looking over my shoulder and taking notes of my every thought and action. Looming death, whatever its reality may be, holds no terrors for me. There is no fear of being "lost" and condemned to some ghastly chamber of horrors. Nor do I look forward to being that "heavenly pomeranian" I mention in my last blog. Day to day existence is a joyous experience of ever increasing knowledge and awareness.
No subject is sacred and off limits to my determination not to let any sacred cows go unchallenged. I know it infuriates many people for me to take that approach. How dare I? That's their problem. They don't have to read what I write or listen to what I say when I have the opportunity. I'm still going to write and speak up. And, I'm going to do so every chance I get.
As I have stated before, I originally hung onto the certainty of my basic religious faith. I still thought the Bible was true, Jesus really was my savior and I was part of the "body of Christ." All that is now ancient history as far as my current life and mental attitude is concrned.
Today, during discussion at our new free thinkers group in Sedona, I hearkened back to a slogan I soon came up with and which has guided me inexorably to where I am today as a free thinking humanist atheist and anti-theist. I have expressed it in various ways over the years, but basically it comes down to the fact that I will always dare to "think the 'unthinkable,' speak (or write) the 'unspeakable,' conclude the 'impossible'." I could add other "ables," but that pretty well covers it.
I have been rewarded with clarity of thought and the peace of knowing I am the master of my own destiny. There's no "god" looking over my shoulder and taking notes of my every thought and action. Looming death, whatever its reality may be, holds no terrors for me. There is no fear of being "lost" and condemned to some ghastly chamber of horrors. Nor do I look forward to being that "heavenly pomeranian" I mention in my last blog. Day to day existence is a joyous experience of ever increasing knowledge and awareness.
No subject is sacred and off limits to my determination not to let any sacred cows go unchallenged. I know it infuriates many people for me to take that approach. How dare I? That's their problem. They don't have to read what I write or listen to what I say when I have the opportunity. I'm still going to write and speak up. And, I'm going to do so every chance I get.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
NARCISSISM ON THE ULTIMATE LEVEL
We were sitting in our easy chairs a while ago watching TV. Our two Pomeranian male dogs immediately took up their customary stances of gazing adoringly and demandingly into our eyes, then vaulting into our laps with all their demanding worshipfulness.
This is OK for a few moments, but it gets old rather quickly, especially when one wants to concentrate on the TV. Instead of lying down between my legs and leaving me in peace, Trouble, the oldest one and constantly alpha male-striving one, kept trying to force his way into my face where he could dog kiss me and demand my total attention. It got so annoying that I put the foot rest down and moved forward to force him back on the floor where he could engage in his “worship” from a distance.
It struck me how similar the situation was to the average person's concept of their relationship with their all-powerful, all-knowing, all-everything fantasy god.
Think about it for a moment! What does the Bible human narcissists created picture as the kind of god they confidently state sits on that heavenly throne?
THE ULTIMATE SUPREME DIVINE NARCISSIST!
He's surrounded by worshipful sycophants who do nothing but praise him day and night and cast their crowns at his feet – FOR ALL ETERNITY! Many Christians think that is the kind of thing they are going to do for all eternity! They're breathlessly anticipating it!
Maybe our dogs get satisfaction from doing that occasionally when the opportunity presents itself. They're very intelligent creatures, but their awareness and creative needs are rather limited. They don't even know, I'm pretty sure, that their existence is finite. They just know about right now and the fact that their every need and requirement is supplied by Phyllis and me. You might say that we are their gods. We certainly get worshiped.
All the Abrahamic religions have basically the same concept. They are convinced that everything good they receive is attributable to their god. (They like to convince themselves that the bad is due to the “other guy.” But, they're clearly not too sure about that.) Their god is in control. But, like a dog, they have to hound and beg him to make sure he pays attention to their needs and desires or doesn't carelessly allow some horrible thing to transpire.
So, they pray. Most prayer can be characterized as hounding a “god” who is so inept that he doesn't know how to run things without their implorings and remindings. They're absolutely convinced that if they have faith enough, they can change their perfect, all-knowing, but woefully incompetent, god's mind.
Religions were drempt up and primarily set up by human narcissists. They were dead set on being in charge and looked upon as final authorities. They demanded the groveling worship of the populace, and since all gods are created in the image of their originators, the gods they created of course had to be pictured basking in the same kind of groveling subservience. Many of them can never seem to get enough ass-kissing to satisfy their narcissistic neediness. Herbert Armstrong, Roderick Meredith, etc. come to mind. The world is full of them.
We see the same mental sickness at work in politically religious nations like North Korea. The supreme leaders become human gods, and living in such societies would make the fiction of hell look like a summer camp.
So would the average person's concept of heaven, if you carry it to its logical reality.
If I, a mere human, get impatient with a dog's hounding worshipfulness in just a few minutes, what would a super being such as people are convinced their god is feel after millenniums of fawning, bowing, praising, casting of crowns, etc., etc., add the proverbial nauseum.
Even if someone had the marvelous singing voice of a Carusso or Mario Lanza, belting out "How Great Thou Art" would get tedious and boring after just a little while, and even a Kim Jong Anything would soon be ready to scream "Enough, already!" But, apparently heaven is set up to have the needle stuck on the record forever.
And, I'm supposed to look forward to this kind of eternal ass-kissing? I do like to compliment people when they deserve it, but I don't follow them around or sit before them for an eternity doing so. No sane being, omni-something or not, would want me to.
So, if you feel you've lost something if you no longer look forward to that kind of eternity, think again. Think long and hard. Do you really want to be a heavenly pomeranian or poodle gazing into the face of the ultimate narcissist?
For an eternity, yet?
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
HOOOORAYYYY!!!
Once in awhile there's a bit of good news! I just learned that the number one crazo on the Rethug lineup -- Michele Bachmann -- finally saw the handwriting on the wall and threw in the towel. Let's hope the next craziest in line, Perry, has the same good sense.
Not that the rest of the ultra right wing nuts aren't just about as crazy as she; she was just the craziest of the lot. At least the collection of targets is now a little less for thinking people to concentrate on defeating.
Not that the rest of the ultra right wing nuts aren't just about as crazy as she; she was just the craziest of the lot. At least the collection of targets is now a little less for thinking people to concentrate on defeating.
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