THE EVIL OF DOGMA

Certainty and dogma. They are the enemies of progress and the favorite tools of oppressors. Give something a prejudicial label and get people to believe in the certainty of that label and reason gets sabotaged and shut down.

I was talking with a new member of our free thought group yesterday and toward the end of our conversation, some comments drifted toward politics. He stated that what he feared was "marxism." That's another hate-filled label guaranteed to shut down constructive thought.

Communism, a perverted version of socialism imposed by Joseph Stalin, was a horrible system, but it was a perversion of the teachings and intent of Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, etc. A sociopath ruthlessly gained control and precipitated a reign of terror and oppression that has enabled champions of unfettered capitalism to demonize every aspect of progressive thinking by simply attaching a prejudicial label to it -- Socialism.

Unfettered socialism, especially in the hands of a sociopath like Stalin, leads to tyranny. So does unfettered capitalism. Both soon become basically the law of the jungle where those in power mercilously devour anyone and everything too weak to resist them.

Unrestrained capitalism is just as bad, or perhaps even worse than, unrestrained socialism. Both lead to a master class which enslaves everyone under the ruling elite.

The most progressive and happiest forward moving nations today are nations like Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, etc. where Capitalism has been blended with sensible aspects of socialism.

In this country, reason has been replaced by prejudicial labeling that shuts down reason and replaces it with mindless dogma. It's the attitude that drives that insane "tea party" bunch of mindless "slogan mongers."

Adopting slogans of certainty is the path to ruin. It leads to mental ossification and a ruinous drive to tear down and destroy every vestige of sanity and benevolence that led our country forward for several decades. Now, we're retrogressing back to the age of the robber barons at breakneck speed.

EVERYBODY DESERVES TEETH

I have a new partial plate sitting on my lower jaw. It looks great! Lost three teeth in the process. They were caps, so no nerves to give trouble. I'm in no pain. I really appreciate being able to keep up my dentition. So many are doomed to go around snaggle toothed here in the so-called "greatest country" on earth.

 

As a state retiree, Phyllis was able to carry on with dental insurance that also covers me.  We still had to apply for credit to do it, but if we pay that off within a year, there's no interest, and we intend to do so.  We did the same thing several years ago when we bought our sleep number bed.

I was talking to my neighbor who has a mouthful of dead roots and a smile that is anything but pretty.  It would take around four thousand bucks to solve everything for him and he can find no one to help.  He has a small veterans dissability pension, some Social Security and Medicare, but in this "greatest of nations (?!!??)," his dental needs are not considered worthy of coverage.  He doesn't know what to do and has been told his problems could even cause cancer.  Too bad.  He's dispensable.  He wasn't out raiding companies like Romney, stealing the workers pension funds, being an oversize asshole hiding behind his mormonism facade while being a total heartless predator.  He worked for a living.  He worked hard.  He also fought for his country.  Some reward he's getting!

That wouldn't be allowed in Denmark or any of those other horrible "socialist" countries. It's a shame that it exists here, but doing something about it might mean one less mansion for some CEO or no corporate jet to fly around the world while pretending to be some fictitious god's gift to mankind (I'm specifically thinking of Herbert Armstrong and his G2 jet, but it applies to other entitled religious assholes and a host of corporate execs).

You've probably guessed that I'm in my usual "spit in their damn eyes" mood. A few days ago, we went to a meeting of the local Democrats to see how we might do some little things to inject a little reason into this screwed up Republican hell hole of a state. The wicked witch of the west surprised the hell out of us by actually championing and signing something recently that showed some compassion for other human beings. I'm happy, but mystified.

I have no illusions about being any kind of big wheel politically. I'm too old, first of all, and I absolutely refuse to be any form of ass kisser. Long ago, I lost my fear of standing up for what I am. If people don't like it, tough. I'll still get my weddings and carpet jobs. Speaking of weddings, my ceremonies are universally loved and complimented. Nobody seems to notice the absence of references to deities, flowery prayers and sanctimonious biblical nonsense.

That's all for now.  If you want to see a steady stream of what I have to say, visit and friend me on Facebook.  I'm on there daily and not a bit shy about telling it the way it is.

GIVE ME A BREAK ALREADY!!!

Shades of McCarthyism and the cold war!

Will the stupidity never end?

Just be a progressive, ala Teddy Rossevelt or FDR, and the idiots on the right will label you a card carrying communist.

On what basis?

On the basis of their own idiotic and warped thinking!

If you don't goose step to their ultra conservative, right-wing tune, prepare to be denounced as the lowest of the low as far as their world-view is concerned. If anything favors the savaged 99% who are not among the privileged rich aristocracy, it's automatically relegated to socialism, and the worst of all socialism -- communism.

I guess that makes me a communist, although I've never been acquainted with a known communist and wouldn't even know or want to find out where to start to get in touch with the Communist Party, which is not exactly a monolithic entity here in the USA -- and most of the rest of the world.

My shock, indignation and, thus this blog, resulted from this article I just read: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/11/allen-west-democrats-communist-party_n_1417279.html

Can anybody really be that stupid?

PARALYZED BY FEAR

My daughter called my attention to an ecard that got me thinking. It showed two guys talking. One said: "That was a very well laid out rational point. But, I will still hold to my emotional opinion based on no facts or evidence."

All of us non-theists encounter that attitude constantly, either in person or via print. It's called faith, which Greta Christina has defined as "an irrational attachment to a pre-existing idea regardless of any evidence that contradicts it."

Why would otherwise intelligent and highly capable people cling to such irrationality? Indeed, why did many of us, in our deluded pasts, cling to the same approach?

Pure and simple, it's FEAR. Nearly all human beings are walking bags of fear! Fear is a tremendous motivator, and political and religious "leaders" take full advantage of that fact.

We fear what might happen to us and our health and economic security in this present life, and we especially fear what might happen to us when this life is over. We possess our wonderful awareness that our animal cousins of varying degrees have no inkling about. Our beloved little dogs are aging every day and, without us, they would be up that proverbial creek with no paddle or anything else. Are they aware of their precarious position?

Not in the least. They sometimes show fear and anxiety, but not in the same way or degree as us humans.

We humans are filled with concerns, worries and anxieties. They motivate us every day.

We had occasion to spend some time with a dear friend of my wife early this week. She's in her early sixties and has clawed and worked her way to the position of executive head of the Arizona chapter of a famous and important national organization. Her husband is also a successful man with an important and high paying position with a major company. They're wonderful people and our stay with them was a delightful mini-vacation.

As I look back on the visit, I see that, for all the success and the seeming security of their position, fear looms over their lives, just as it looms over the lives of every other human being.

When Phyllis first became fast, lifelong friends with her, she was a stuggling female "working stiff" and an ardent democrat. Now she's a fanatic Republican and denounces Obama as "that socialist." We basically just listened to her tirades and tried to figure out her reasoning.

Her husband is a non-believer similar to Phyllis and I, but she clings emotionally to the concept of a god and an after-life.

Why?

Fear. She is afraid that what she has striven and sacrificed for will be diminished or taken away by "socialism." She's knows she's going to die one day and desperately wants for that not to be the end of everything. In case there is a "hanging god" judge and a real hell, continuing to at least pay lip service to him protects against that eventuality, or so people hope.

Do I worry about what the future may hold? Of course I do. I wouldn't be human if I didn't. I have the awareness, so I have the concerns.

I've just progressed to the point where I don't have to resort to irrational belief systems for comfort. Instead, I realize that what a former friend said about fifty years ago when I was commenting on my insecurities is a truth. That friend pointed out that even if everything "went south" for me, I would survive because of the social programs then in place to provide for those who were victims to total deprivation, however marginal that survival might be.

Since I realize there is no big "sugar daddy" up there somewhere and there likely is no existence beyond this brief life, I simply do the best I can each and every day, try to take care of myself and my health and keep the big picture in mind as much as I humanly can.

It sure beats being a bundle of corrosive fears and letting those fears tie me up mentally and emotionally.

WARREN BUFFETT -- A BALANCED PATRIOT

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.

YOU AINT SEEN NOTHIN' YET

What's been happening on the domestic scene has kept me glued to MSNBC, The Huffington Post, Keith Olbermann, etc. for interminable days now.  I care about my country and its future.  I am terrified by what I see.

This was all brought more forcefully than ever to my attention by an Alternet article I read this morning:  http://www.alternet.org/story/151837/%24230%2C000_for_a_guard_dog%3A_why_the_wealthy_are_afraid_of_violence_from_below?page=entire

Republicans, and especially that insane "Tea Party" bunch of extremist, mostly religious, idiots, are hell bent on a path that can only lead to violent revolution and the destruction of everything we have built in this nation, especially since 1945.

I'm reminded of Benjamin Franklin's reply to a lady who asked what kind of government he and the other founders had given us.  He replied, "A republic, if you can keep it."

Most republics of the past had not survived more than two or three centuries.  I fear ours is destined for the trash heap, along with the rest. 

You can't imitate monarchist France or czarist Russia by snotilly proclaiming, "Let them eat cake," and survive as a democracy or anything else very long.  Desperate people are going to do desperate things.  History proves that.  But, most people have a "yawner" attitude toward history and don't study it very much.  Those of us who are fascinated by the subject are terrified at what we see.

Anything progressive has been demonized as "socialism" and systematically resisted and destroyed and the common everyday American has been savaged by destructive cutbacks and preferential to the rich taxation and deregulation to the point where nothing but despair looms on the horizon. 

Gone is our technological greatness and our vibrant middle class.  It has been replaced by a class of the super rich riding rough shod over the masses, living in their multiple mansions in multiple exclusive and opulent areas of the world and jetting off in their private jets any time they feel the urge to have lunch in Paris or New Orleans paid for by their over twenty percent pay hikes in already obscene compensation last year alone while millions of others wonder where they'll find the money to pay the mortgage and put food on the table -- not to mention how they can fill the gas tank to look for that non-existent job that won't pay the bills if they do miraculously find one.

The "Tea Party" is nothing more than a collection of fascist minded, ignorant, "amen" shouting extremists, educated often, like Bachmann, at extreme religious schools that make the old Ambassador College look intellectual.  They literally don't care that their nation is standing on the edge of an abyss that leads to nothing more than overwhelming catastrophe.  Mainstream Republicans aren't much better, but some of them still have a semblance of a brain left.

Dare I still have some hope?  I'd like to be optimistic.  That's becoming harder and harder.

OUR NEW DICKENSIAN WORLD

It's April 10, 2011. I talked to my son, Gene, this morning. He's in the same occupation that supported both of us so well for so long. He's a carpet technician who had to move from Prescott, Arizona to Houston over two years ago just to have any work at all, after losing his home and 401K. (He's 48. So much for his retirement security!) He had to go to work for an installation company that services Home Depot.

He was hired for wages less than what we charged customers when we worked together 15 and 20 years ago. (You know what inflation has done since then!) He told me that his compensation has been cut again and that the $40 trip charge he was getting for long distances has been cut to $15. I don't know what is being put on his table for meals – I'm afraid to ask. Retirement? That's a joke!

Yea, for capitalism. You're seeing the glories of a “trickle-down” economy. The cliches we all bought are now the buzzards coming home to roost. Capitalism and uncontrolled free enterprise are running their predictable course. There's an article on Huffington Post this morning about soaring executive pay and record corporate profits: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/business/10comp.html?_r=2&ref=business

Every destructive weapon imaginable is being zeroed in on the middle and laboring classes. Unions are being savaged and destroyed. Every legal safeguard that protected people from unfairness is being attacked and obliterated. Regulation is demonized. We are becoming a carbon copy of the society that existed in Dickensian England and Czarist Russia, as well as in the age of the American “robber barons.” We seem determined to return to poor houses, company stores and pestilence ridden slums where the common people are expendable fodder for corporate machines.

As far as I can see, the “American dream” has become the “American nightmare.” It certainly is for my son and his family. It's even worse for many others.

We still have it pretty good. My wife and I both have Social Security coming in and my wife gets a moderate state retirement check every month. I do a few small carpet service jobs and an occasional wedding ceremony, and we manage to survive. Don't count on that being the case for my son or anyone else of his generation, if the aristocrats of today have their way. They have the famous “Let them eat cake” snotty attitude (think Boehner here).

Socialism is almost universally badmouthed in this country, and most of the badmouthers don't have a clue what they are talking about. Their ignorance is appalling.

Total socialism has never worked. The fate of Communist Russia vouches for that fact.

What people don't realize is that total capitalism is just as bad, or worse than, total socialism. Both lead to a super rich ruling class that lords it over everyone else. Communism was really just state run capitalism dreamed up by Stalin, not by Lenin. Both, in their ultimate form, lead to feudalism. You see it every time you enter one of these giant corporate run franchises. Over the whole thing sits the corporate “Lords” raking off enormous profits from the “vassals” in the local operations supervising armies of clone-like “serfs” running around in their dopey little uniforms, lucky to be paid “minimum wage.”

I'm not dumb enough to believe that all that has happened has happened by accident. It's been carefully planned by the faceless super wealthy overlords who have been working tirelessly behind the scenes ever since they engineered the election of “trickle down” Reagan with his “voodoo economics,” the haughty elitist who wouldn't think of “demeaning” his office by taking off his coat and getting down to business in his exalted oval office. He was a great “acting” president. He was guided, like the clueless puppet he was, into giving us the original savings and loan crisis. That was just step one in the steady parade of maneuvers that have never ceased and have brought one society changing (and destroying) crisis after another, all intended to accomplish the same goal.

Anyone with a modicum of intelligence should be able to figure out what the real goal is.

SLAVERY! A FEUDAL, AND LIKELY THEOCRATIC, AMERICA!

Nothing, absolutely nothing, controls a population as well as a theocracy.

Wake up, my fellow Americans! Quit being led around by the nose and swallowing every stupid story you are fed!

SOCIALISM -- THE GREAT BOOGEYMAN

To label something “Socialism” has become a knee-jerk reaction ultra-conservatives like to use as a convenient put down to any progressive idea or program. Bill Maher triggered some new thoughts on the subject with his “New Rule” comment this weekend:

“New Rule: With the Super Bowl only a week away, Americans must realize what makes NFL football so great: socialism. That's right, for all the F-15 flyovers and flag waving, football is our most successful sport because the NFL takes money from the rich teams and gives it to the poor teams....Green Bay, Wisconsin has a population of 100,000. Yet this sleepy little town...has just as much of a chance of making it to the Super Bowl as the New York Jets...It's no surprise that some 100 million Americans will watch the Super Bowl next week....The World Series is like Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. You have to be a rich bitch just to play. The Super Bowl is like Tila Tequila. Anyone can get in...they literally share the wealth, through salary caps and revenue sharing - TV is their biggest source of revenue, and they put all of it in a big commie pot and split it 32 ways. Because they don't want anyone to fall too far behind. That's why the team that wins the Super Bowl picks last in the next draft. Or what the Republicans would call 'punishing success.'"

Total socialism has never been a good idea. Neither is demonizing, under the pejorative label of “socialism,” everything that seeks to level the playing field and see that a society doesn't become a class regimented arena in which a privileged few sit at the lavish pinnacle and grind the masses into a poverty ridden mass of the hopeless and downtrodden in never ending debt to company stores, etc.

The only legitimate way to do things is the conservative way, according to most Republicans. By conservative, they mean the “old way,” how America was before all this “New Deal” crap came on the scene.

If we really want to be totally conservative, let's go back to a monarchy, what we had before the American Revolution. Nothing is more “conservative” than that. In fact, that's what most Christians look forward to as they breathlessly await Jesus' return as a conquering “king.”

Whether we like to admit it or not, that's exactly where we have been headed ever since elitist-minded Ronald Reagan ascended to the White House and began to push for what George H. W. Bush at first called “voodoo economics.”

We progressed at leaps and bounds all through the fifties, sixties and seventies. We became the economic powerhouse of the world.

The new “conservative” tack brought us the savings and loan crisis under Reagan, but that didn't wake people up to where we were headed.

Steadily, step by step, regulations were not just modified and improved to bring more fairness and strengthen the economy; they were wiped out. The legalized criminals on Wall Street and in the banking system were given free reign to economically rape the nation and as much of the rest of the world as they could. If anyone objected, they were demonized as “socialists.” You heard catch phrases such as “greed is good.”

I recently watched the movie, “Wall Street – Money never sleeps.” It was a real eye opener. I recommend it.

Taxes weren't just cut back to keep the rates from being confiscatory. For the short time that they were cut back to more moderate but still responsible levels, the economy boomed. They were then rolled back so far that we had to borrow trillions against the future just to keep from defaulting on fiscal responsibilities and fund our international military ventures.

Any person who funded their household or business in such a manner would be considered an irresponsible idiot headed for bankruptcy and foreclosure!

The Chinese, under Mao, tried to build a totally socialist economy. It didn't work out too well. They have been steadily learning the lesson and brought in more and more capitalist principles, with the result that they are rapidly advancing to the position of a dominant super power. They haven't, at least not yet, swung to the opposite extreme like the US has.

The moderate approach is almost always the best course to take. The course we are taking now is far from moderate and is steadily eroding all the progress our nation made in the twentieth century. We are back to a mindset which is rapidly returning us to the days of the “robber barons.”

One of my great, great uncles was in that elite group at the turn of the century. He had invented the first Automatic paper folding machine, and, already wealthy and successful in the newspaper industry, founded the Dexter Printing Machine Company. He became a multi-millionaire, and, as in the case of many rich Americans of the time, hobnobbed with the rich and famous of the world and one of his daughters married into Spanish royalty. The last I saw of that company name was on a massive web printing machine at Ambassador College which sported the conglomerate name, Dexter Goss Miehle.

I remember how Herbert Armstrong hated labor unions and looked down on anyone who was not part of the exalted upper crust in the college and church (or anywhere else, really). He was always a total elitist, although he put on a front that hid it from most people in his early days. Nothing pleased him more than to hobnob with the rich and powerful, a total slap in the face to the common church membership and to the principles put forth in the epistle of James.

We have a lot of Herbert Armstrongs sitting in exalted seats in Washington today. They will not rest until they have succeeded in wiping out all the social gains so hard fought for and won in the last century.

Socialism in moderation makes sense and never hurt anyone. It leads to fairness and progress. In fact, it's a very Christian way of thinking and acting. Read your Bible again.

Try Acts 4 and 5 for a starter. Then, the epistle of James.