THE LIES ILLUMINATED

I've been branding Romney and Ryan as liars.  Some people might take issue with that.

Here's a fact saturated article that states much better than I can exactly why they are liars:  http://www.alternet.org/election-2012/10-things-mitt-romney-and-paul-ryan-dont-want-americans-know?page=0%2C1

I hope some people will take the few minutes necessary to read that article.

EXTOL "LOVE" -- PRACTICE "HATE"

If you read the whole account cited in my last blog, you know exactly what I'm referring to.  Theists can wax eloquent about "love" up until the moment someone dares to call into question anything about their "faith."

As soon as that happens, the fangs and claws immediately appear.  All pretense of tolerance or love suddenly disappears in a flurry of denunciation, vitriol and outright hateful violence.  Nothing is deemed off limits to the most extreme of these fascist-minded idealogues.

If one wants to know what the most extreme cases of human-on-human brutality happen to be, all they have to do is check the records of religiously based pogroms and holocausts.  They are myriad and become especially horrific when another ideology -- politics -- enters into the picture.  That's why our national founders were so insistent on separating those two dangerous mindsets.

Modern extremists set on totally controlling their neighbors and the world chafe under that wise separation provision incorporated into our Constitution and seek any and all crafty means of circumventing and nullifying it.  Chief among these efforts is the seeding of the Supreme Court with "conservative" idealogues who will undermine personal liberty with ideological tyranny.

If you don't think you will be hated if you dare to reveal yourself as a non-believer, just go down to Mississippi and Alabama and publicly try to establish a secular or atheist organization.  Just defend the right of a woman to terminate an unwanted pregnancy and see how fast you will be vilified and ostracized, and even murdered if you get too involved in any organization so dedicated.

Humans are good at saying one thing while emotionally practicing another.  Nowhere is this more pronounced than where religious and political ideology becomes involved. 

Ideology turns fanatic humans into murderous monsters!

ELOQUENT STATEMENT TO THEOCRATIC FASCISTS

"A Greek atheist stands up against Christian fascists.  (Click on this link to read the whole account of her experience which could just as easily have happened right here.)

"I wish I could tell them: I am not a lesbian, but even if I were, what would it matter? I have a husband and a child, but even if I didn’t, what would it matter? I’m not Albanian, but even if I was, what would it matter? I’m not a communist, but even if I was, what would it matter? I don’t believe in God, but what does it matter? Some people have a different opinion about God and Christ and the Virgin Mary — what does it matter? You demand respect for your right to believe in God as you like, why don’t you respect others’ rights to believe in a different way, or not to believe at all?"

The quote above was taken from the Pharyngula blog.  It states very succinctly what I have felt for a long time.

The news is filled with vitriolic attacks which sling supposedly negative terminology around like the waste water it resembles.  "Socialist," "communist," "unchristian," etc., etc.  Name calling has become standard stock in trade in politics -- always trying to create prejudices and then using those subtle prejudices to influence and deceive gullible people.

Because I believe the healthiest economies and the best societies are created through a carefully thought out and crafted blend of capitalism and socialism, I can expect to be denounced as a hated socialist or even a communist.  No thought.  No careful analysis.  My carefully thought out world view is summarily dismissed by utilizing mindless prejudice against a phastasmic boogeyman or "boogeyidea."

I can also expect to be hatefully denounced as a "murderer" because I believe a woman should have the right to practice birth control and end a pregnancy if she feels unprepared to follow through with an unwanted and ill-advised pregnancy.

Instead of my atheism being accepted as the result of careful thought, reasoning and research, I am denounced as some monster with no morals who is totally unworthy of acceptance in civilized society.

Our government has been almost totally paralyzed for nearly four years now by a concerted effort by one party to demonize the other party and its champion who just happens to be the lawfully elected and installed President.  They publicly stated that their goal was to make sure he would not be re-elected.  Many people have forgotten that and blame him for his inability to do more to extricate our nation from the financial catastrophe that same obstructionist party brought about.

Let's get real here!  American presidents are not kings!  They can't rule by fiat!  To get things done, they have to have the cooperation of congress! 

Instead of condemning and thinking they might not vote for Obama, they should be congratulating him on the rather outstanding things he has accomplished against all the naysaying, obstructionism and grandstanding he has had to put up with.

Far too many people (and I have to watch myself in this area) act on emotion, not reason.  That is why negative campaign slogans work so well.  Emotion tends to turn the mind off.  Angry people are not thinking people most of the time.  Many a murderer came to that realization after letting his/her emotional anger precipitate a fatal attack on someone that put them in prison for life or sitting on death row.

Emotions are not evil in and of themselves.  However, they must be based on and held in check by careful thought.  The theocratic fascists of the Republican party know they must get people to feel first and think later (or never) if they are going to win in about three weeks.

I'm hoping enough thought can be generated to offset all this mindless sloganeering.

LIES ARE LIES

Robert Gibbs has stated that Mitt Romney's debate statements were "fundamentally dishonest." 

They sure were, but I prefer a much less "nicey nice" approach in terminology.

THEY WERE LIES!  MITT ROMNEY IS A LIAR!

Barack should have challenged them as such during the debate, and I hope he will do so in the coming debates instead of letting himself be bowled over by the confusing, totally lying change of approach Mitt used.

The whole damn Republican party has become a bastion of lies and liars!!  The "big lie" is their stock in trade!

We've become a nation of put the gloves on and be nice water downers.  Plain speaking is judged "uncouth" in most circles, so we use euphemisms like "fundamentally dishonest" when "lie" would be much more accurate and hard hitting.

Lies are lies, dammit.

Let's speak clearly.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN, REPUBLICAN?

There is no such thing as a Republican party anymore.  It's a total misnomer for what is in fact the American Fascist party. 

I just heard on MSNBC from Rachel Maddow that even though the courts had disallowed the Pennsylvania photo voter ID law, official Pennsylvania state websites still published the draconian rules that struck down law mandated until she and MSNBC called them on it and forced them to change what their website was stating.  They were still trying to intimidate non-republican voters into not exercising their constitutional rights.

I don't care who likes my saying it.  The Republican party ceased to exist a long time ago and has been replaced by a theocratic fascist party which has comandeered the name "Republican."  Their stock in trade is lies, obfuscation and strong arm oppression. 

Romney and Ryan are the fuhrers of that party and just as dedicated to the big lie and oppression as any European fascist ever was. 

NOT A GOOD DAY

I watched the debate last night.  It was a terrible experience.  I don't like debates to begin with.  They're nothing but big arguments that crafty con artists make hay with.

Last night was no exception.  Romney was his usual Mormon, Bain Capital lying chameleon conman self who walked all over "too nice" Jim Lehrer and Obama seemed taken aback and unable to command his masterful speaking skills and knowledge of the facts to his advantage.

I can only hope that future debates will find Barack much more ready to outflank the lies and carefully crafted misinformation and false statistics in a more dynamic fashion.  He has to quit being "Mr. nice guy."  Romney is not "nice."  He's a savage, blood thirsty predator and has to be dealt with accordingly. 

Barack needs to study general Patton who had the instinct to go for the throat and "Let the goddamn enemy worry about his flanks."

DEATH -- COPING IS INDIVIDUAL

She's my friend, but I've never met her in person.  I follow her blog and admire her character and her ability as a writer.

Greta Christina just lost her father with whom she had not been very close.  Nevertheless, his death has plunged her into intense grief which she narrates on her blog, through which we, her friends, try to help with our comments.  I just posted this one.

"Don’t know if I’m normal or abnormal, but I didn’t go through intense grief when either of my parents died. I expected it. They both had lived into their mid and late nineties and life was not treating them well. It was more of a relief than grief. Of course, I miss them being here. Yet, not an overwhelming feeling of loss.

My uncle died after a long life which was ended by lukemia. The doctors tried to keep him alive with blood transfusions, but he was so miserable he just begged “let me go.” They did. He went. He’s gone. The world goes on.

One day, I’ll go. Some will grieve, but I hope not too deeply because I’ll be better off without the life that is becoming more of a struggle and disappointment every day. I’m a shadow of the man I was just a short time ago.

So, don’t worry about your feelings. Let them play out and do what you have to do to cope in your own individual way. Your feelings and reactions are just you. There’s no right or wrong about them. We, of all people, should not feel guilty about how we feel. After all, no one has any right to pass judgment on how we feel or how we cope. It’s really none of their business."

That's exactly how I feel on the subject.  This concept of having to do certain things and feel certain ways so others, and especially some sky fairy "god," will approve of us is just plain nonsense. 

I really don't know oftentimes why I think and feel the way I do.  Why can I put things like my youngest son abandoning the family and not communicating with any of us for over 5 years now in the back of my mind without it tying me up in emotional knots?  It just doesn't.  Does that make me a hard-hearted, uncaring person? 

I don't think so. 

I'm just pragmatic and analytical enough to know there is nothing I can do at the moment to change the situation and it would be a waste of time and emotional energy to let it consume me.  I think he will eventually come down off whatever "high horse" he is riding and seek to resume contact with me and his brother and sisters.  I've tried to locate him.  I even sent a letter to an old address, but he's no longer there.  I can't afford to hire an investigator to locate him.  So, I've concluded that I just have to wait it out and not worry about what anyone else might think about the situation. 

I don't, and won't, let it consume me.  I'm not going to tear myself apart emotionally worrying about what I could have perhaps done better to avoid the situation. 

Guilt parties are not for me.  They are another tool theists use to keep people feeling guilty and unworthy so they have to grovel before an imaginary god, and it always involves them bowing and scraping -- especially paying -- through those theists as "god's" representatives.  The catholics have that one down to perfection, but protestants are pretty damn good at it too.

How I react to life and it's problems and events is just me.  It reflects the sum total of what I have experienced and learned, along with the tendencies I inherited through the crapshoot of genetics. 

I am who I am. 

I think what I think. 

I feel what I feel.

That's just going to have to be good enough.

Anybody who wants to judge it can just go take a hike.