The House of Republicans

There comes a time when you either laugh or cry at the insanity, which we call the House of Republicans. For the past 6 years, the Republicans in the House have been screaming that the ACA, aka Obamacare, must be repealed and replaced or the sky will fall. They are now threatening to sue the President over the employer mandate as a means of stealing healthcare from millions of Americans. True to their word these House Republicans do nothing to make life better for average Americans except act like Henny Penny and squeal about the end of civilization as we know it.

That last statement is not completely true. The House of Republicans has taken many votes and held elaborate committee meetings trying to prove one scandal after another to show the American people how despicable the Democrats are and in particular the current President. The IRS is in trouble for looking at Republican organizations that are claiming tax exemption while playing partisan politics, oh the audacity to question the ethical standards of the House of Republicans.

In particular our friend, Ted Cruz has taken his lies to a new level in that he blames the Democrats for all the obstruction that is taking place in the House of Republicans, which is to say that the Democrats won’t do whatever the Republicans desire in the House of Republicans. It is a shame that Democrats want to think for themselves, and will not knuckle under the bullying tactics of the House of Republicans be it on the mall or the airways or in print.

Of course in the House of Republicans, if you don’t vote to take away insurance from the American people, then, you are obstructing congress. If you don’t want to give tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans and corporations, then, you are obstruction congress. If you want to end the hostilities in Gaza, then, you are not only obstructing congress, but you are aiding Hamas and an anti-Semite. You sad little libertine, you need to be taught proper decorum and deference to the House of Republican’s moral superiority.

Really, what all this means is that if you think of yourself and don’t listen to Rush Limbaugh or watch Sean Hannity, then, you are an obstructionist that is out to destroy all that is good about America. It gets better than this for progressives when you listen to Mark Levin who wants to destroy all who oppose his way of thinking. The irony for me with all these House or Republican ideologues is that they represent the book burning fascists that they claim the progressives embody. It is only ironic in that they are unable to understand how they exemplify that ideology. Sad but true.

In their world view, all liberals are extremists and all they want to do is create a dictatorship, but more to the point the Democrats have a king in the making in Washington DC because he uses planes, helicopters and cars to travel around the country and the world. Why do they always confuse the idea of a Monarchy with a Dictatorship?  I find their missed up metaphors so confusing. Anyway, you have to remember that no Republican President has ever used any of these modern gadgets during their Presidencies, or traveled on vacations or played golf or any of the other things that President Obama has done while living in the White House.

Let’s compare Presidential vacation days. President Bush took over 350 vacation days while in office; President Obama has taken just under 100 days, which means that President Obama must take a little over 250 vacation days in the next 2 years to tie President Bush. Interesting, so, on a yearly basis, President Bush averaged approximately 44 vacation days a year or about 6 weeks. On the other hand, President Obama has taken on average 17 vacation days a year or 2 weeks. Who seems to have been on the job more? It is easy to see if you live in the House of Republicans: President Bush.

As you can see, in The House of Republicans both inside and outside of Washington, history has a strange way of fading away like the fact that President Ronald Reagan in 1982 presided over the largest tax increase in American history, but that fact seems to have been eliminated from the House of Republican History books, or the fact that he used executive orders to circumvent congress. No, he was carrying out the will of the people with those signing orders not acting as a Monarch/Dictator above the law. Only a Democratic President could be acting so recklessly.

If I recall, Ronald Reagan ordered the funding of a secret war in Nicaragua. That little adventure was not against the law and it in no way circumvented the congress. I forget that as a Republican you are allowed to act as a Monarch/Dictator and make your own rules or lie to the American people.

A few years back I remember a president that lied to congress, lied to America and lied to the world about weapons of mass destruction. Those lies have wounded or killed 50,000 Americans. Why wasn’t that President brought up on Articles of Impeachment for lying. Of course, he was a card carrying member of the House of Republicans so he was immune from any such prosecution.

The House of Republicans has a very different set of rules and judgments for likeminded people who carry out immoral actions. They are given honors and held up as examples of how a statesman operates in the modern world: roar loudly and carry a big stick to bludgeon anyone that would dare to question your moral authority. So, we progressives are in for more of the same when it comes to actions against President Obama be it from the House of Republicans or their cronies in the media. Their persecution of President Obama only serves to cover up their unpatriotic deference to their base and not to America as a whole.

Right-wing Talk Radio Throws it Against the Wall to See if it Sticks

The crisis in the Border States is a conspiracy for Russian spies and Middle Eastern terrorists who are secretly crossing the border as American border agents’ attention is focused on Central American children. More tails from the crypt. This is the latest bizarre idea that has been flung out by the right-wing wackadoodles on the Steve Deace show Tuesday evening, June 15, 2014. The guest host didn’t in anyway question the idea; he let it fly across the airways unchallenged.

Whatever is said on right-wing talk radio does not stay on right-wing talk radio. It infects more than who listen, and these heinous lies spread like a virus through their listeners and contaminate all the people those listeners contact. Right-wing talkers are more toxic, then, the bubonic plague because you can kill the rats that carry the infected fleas, but these talking rats are paid millions to spew their disease and spread it unrestrained through their mindless minions and beyond.

The more outrageous their idea the longer the shelf life, e.g. Obama was born in Kenya (still living). This is happening from the local to the national level. Here in Washington State we have a member of the Tea Party who professes to believe that it is the environmentalists that have caused global warming. He blames our current energy crisis on the fact that we are not running multiple nuclear power plants in the state. Based on his logic if those darn environmentalist hadn’t stopped the nuclear revolution greenhouse gases would not be what they are today.  It is good to see that Mr. Cicotte recognizes that there is greenhouse gas pollution.

Unlike Mr. Cicotte, right-wing talkers have been so ostracized by the rest of the world that they are never allowed to speak their peace, yet somehow, they seem to be doing a great job of it on the radio. Living in Seattle the only talkers outside of sports talk shows are right-wingers spinning all kinds of crazy-talk.  My favorite in their latest anti-Obama chorus: President Obama is the reason that the Malaysian airliner was shot down in Crimea.  Of course he was.

This invariably leads to the idea that Iraq is falling apart because we are not still acting as an occupier. It is not the fact that Bush and his minions destroyed the political infrastructure as bad as it was, and replaced it with warring factions that want to kill each other to retain or regain power. No one on the right seems to remember that all occupiers end up being run off by the occupied. Being an occupier is a zero sum game and that is why empires crumble, e.g. The Soviet Union in the 1990’s or maybe Iran in the 1980’s.

In the eyes of the right-wing talkers, there is no need to look at history because none of that matters since we are the greatest country ever, so we will not fall prey to historical precedence. From their point of view, the present problems in Iraq were never caused by our invasion. The present quagmire that is Iraq was brought about due to the fact there is not enough military hardware being used by American men and women.

These right-wingers have learned nothing from our past behaviors, so they want to act as if our military might will be able to solve any and all problems that arise. These right-wing talkers want us all to remember that the use of military action is doing so well in all corners of the globe such as Egypt, Syria, Chechnya, Crimea, Southern Sudan, Iraq and Afghanistan to name a few.

While these right-wingers scream about how the world is falling apart and that President Obama is sitting on his hands, they have no alternative plans. They offer no policy ideas except, “Send in more troops”. Well, it is an election year, so you don’t want to put yourself out there with ideas; it is always better to scream and shout about of the evil that is in the world and how the president is taking no action, then, to actually have a plan to put on the table.

Darrell Issa has the right idea: make up a phony crisis, spend hundreds of millions of tax payers’ dollars, then, vote against unemployment benefits for hard working Americans that have fallen on tough times. Maybe his diversionary tactics will work, and the American people will vote against their own best interests, thus, sending the Republicans on to victory in November. Go right-wing talkers may your contrived crises be heard around the country and bring prosperity to all. 

Right-Wing Political Evangelicals Find Their Jihad In 2014

What I find so interesting about right-wing, Republican, Christian conservatives is how they like to throw out the term dogma when talking about progressives. When one talks about dogma, you must remember that the idea behind this word is that it is a set of beliefs that religions hold to be true. In America today, the only religion that is trying to trump changing social conventions is Evangelical Christianity with its need for all to genuflect and bow down to their values and vision of the world be it hawking a new war, attacking people’s sexual orientation or demanding that women give up the right to determine what happens to their bodies.

As a society, this idea (dogma) is contradictory to what progressives believe in that they are looking to break away from a religious doctrine in dealing with the present social and political problems. Whereas, our conservative, right-wing Republicans want to use religious dogma to govern modern culture in that they scream that their religious beliefs must supersede all other thoughts as to what should be considered as true and decent.

Take the Hobby Lobby ruling by SCOTUS; in this instance, the religious right is celebrating the fact that they won and are able to impose their values on people that do not hold those tenets to be true. This situation is dogma at its most fundamental, and in no way, defeats a progressive ideology in so much as it imposes religious principles above the established civil and social code of our country. The irony in this situation is that the intolerance associated with sharia laws is being actualized by the Supreme Court and imposed on an unwilling society with this religious based ruling.

Of course there is nothing new in this type of behavior by the Supreme Court or the religious right as they have over the years used their brand of dogma to attack progressives, liberals or anyone that will not kowtow to their belief systems. As a child, I witnessed the use of religion to justify the separate but equal doctrine that was based on the Plessy v. Ferguson case in that the court’s majority “…contended that the law separated the two races as a matter of public policy.” Of course this was overturned in 1954 with the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, but the damage was done and is still being felt all over America.

As Americans we are facing renewed attacks on our freedom in the name of religious intolerance and being called out by the right-wing, conservative Evangelical Christians who see it as their duty to try and impose retroactive beliefs that are no longer seen as mainstream, but represent age old bigoted tactics used to bludgeon your enemy. These are all signs of a religious revival set in motion by men and women bent on proving their morality and righteousness by denying others the same.

For them this is a holy war, and there can be only one victor and that victor must not be anyone that could be labeled a liberal, progressive or a Republican that does not validate their ideology and principles by following their strict moral compass. Jack Schwartz writes eloquently on this exact point in his piece for the Daily Beast, “The Tea Party Isn’t A Political Movement It’s A Religious One”.

For these religious fanatics, blood must be spilled both metaphorically and literally for them to see victory. The sad news in all of this is that politicians that hold no deep religious belief system, but want to gain power through this process have attached themselves to this movement and have formed groups that want to use violence as a means of political pressure and change. This is what is most disturbing about this religious movement in that it can and has morphed into violent responses as in forcing women to be probed by a doctor prior to an abortion..

Helping to foment hate and distrust are right-wing radio talkers who casually add fuel to the fire by attacking any and everyone that refuses to follow their political and religious positions as stated on air. They beat the drum of suspicion, xenophobia, and intolerance. While they act like the victims, they attack calling for liberals and progressives to be disemboweled, thus, trying to turn our democracy into a theocracy in which they control political ideas through religious intimidation.

They base their positions on their misguided interpretations of the Constitution in that they say, “What would the founders do in this situation?" They have decided that they and only they have the correct insight into the way the founders (in other words white, Anglo-Saxon men) of this country thought and would interpret moral, religious and legal issues facing America today, therefore, these conservative Christians like to throw out words like dogma when explaining any idea that does not fit neatly into their rigid view of conformity.

That is the rub for America.  Will the minority determine what is to happen to the majority? It is a woeful fact that too many Americans are disengaged in the political process, thus, giving rise to a small but vocal group that has set out to reverse America's course. They see the acceptance of homosexuality through marriage equality and abortion as personal and religious affronts, and they are ready to fight their own jihad in the name of their god to stop the madness no matter what it takes, just ask Bruce Bradly in Iowa or Mary Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky they each have a story to tell.

Absolutism: The Tea Party Theology

It looks like all over the country the American people are not buying what the Tea Party has to sell. Senator Cruz and Sarah Palin are losers once again, and they are mad as hell about this fact. These Tea Partiers are flailing about against the Republicans, Democrats and anyone else that refuses to follow their party line of absolutism.

Absolutism is at the core of the Tea Party which has loosely based itself on the idea of Puritanism. This theory has political as well as religious implications such as the ideas that truth and morality are absolute and not conditional upon human perception. And, if you refuse to follow these precepts, then, you are immoral or worst amoral.  Of course you will not be able to understand these absolutes unless you unquestioningly but into the Tea Party point of view.

This political and religious belief system leaves no room to question the authorities be they religious or political. You must follow what they say and prescribe or you will be punished if not in this life in the next. These concepts are why these Tea Party and religious radicals have such a hard time understanding the idea of freewill or the idea that morality can and will change as society evolves and changes.

At the heart of the Tea Party’s animus today, is marriage equality. These religious terrorists are livid about the idea that marriage is between one man and one woman, moreover, that marriage is all about reproduction of the species. For them, marriage is not about love and caring and companionship, but about deciding who is allowed to love (publically) and forcing the rest of society to accept their view of marriage. Tangled in this web of loathing is the idea that being homosexual is a lifestyle choice that must be changed or these amoral people will suffer in the fires of hell.

Their hostility for ideas that they cannot control does not stop there. The thought that a woman can choose an abortion or that she has the right to control what happens to her body by using birth control or refusing sexual advances is outrageous and has led some of these religious terrorists to murder in the name of God. It demonstrates the dishonest nature of the religious right and their corresponding Tea Party minions that are willing to carry out these heinous acts.

Bombing of abortion clinics, killing doctors are disgusting and immoral acts, but they pale in comparison to the political treachery that is taking place in state legislatures across the country. These white men pretend that they are trying to protect women’s health by making it nearly impossible for women to have health screenings by forcing clinics and doctors to meet regulatory standards that they know will shut down the majority of women’s health clinics that do significantly more than abortions in that they carry out important health screening and contraception distribution to low and middle income families. The irony is that these legislators pretend to believe in less regulations for American businesses unless of course said businesses do not follow their moral directives.

All of these issues revolve around moral imperatives and the absolutism that so profoundly dominates their perspective of how Americans should behave. When you are as intractable and rigid as these political operatives, there is no reason to compromise and share power or ideas or opinions because concessions are impossible.

In the world of the Tea Party absolutists, strength can only be seen by unflinchingly clinging to your strict autocracy at all costs even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary as in the case of Karl Rove questioning the outcome of the last Presidential election on national television and left holding the bag.

The foundations of this country have demanded compromise. If it was not for George Washington and his ability to broker an agreement between opposing factions, our present day Constitution may not exist, thus, we may never have existed as the country we are today. If President Lincoln had not stood his ground against inflexible tyranny and fought for the equality we presently enjoy, we may not be the country that we are today. And, if we do not stand up to the tyranny of the Tea Party, there is no telling where we are headed as a country.

That last statement is completely erroneous in that it is clear as to what kind of country we will become if we allow corporate America to buy elections; we will transform from a Representative Democracy to a Technocratic Oligarchy in which our elected officials will only serve their corporate sponsors due to the rigidity of an electorate that does not understand or appreciate the fact that absolutism is what hundreds of thousands of American soldiers have sacrificed their lives and wellbeing for over 200 years.

Puritanical Dogma and the Tea Party

It is intriguing that the far right Tea Partiers believe that the idea of Puritanism is based on freedom and tolerance. They have decided again to rewrite history for their own prurient reasons, which can only be guessed, but self-interest, power and control are at the top of the list.

For the Tea Party, puritanism equals freedom and tolerance unless of course you don’t believe the way these modern day Puritans believe. In fact, in many ways, the father of the entire movement was Oliver Cromwell who they seem to model themselves after. His belief in freedom and tolerance was decided different then what most Americans today would view as such.

It is time to give Steve Deace and the Tea Partiers a history lesson, because they seem to have forgotten the ideas that drove puritanism to our shores. Mr. Cromwell set the tone for puritanism in that he went to Ireland to decimate the Catholics. By the time he was done in Ireland, Cromwell had made sure that only 10% of the land was owned by Catholics who made up 80% of the population. There was not much tolerance on his mind as he annihilated the Irish Catholics as the 1 percent today tries to crush the middle class.

Moreover, in 1647, he banned Christmas and other religious holidays, declaring them to be pagan festivals as well as theater. In this way, he fits right into the wheelhouse of the religious right and their Tea Party apologists who want to ban everything from abortions to the Dream Act because these actions play into their own self-interest and   from their perspective serves to highlight how they are victims in America today.

Furthermore, immigration reform and the thought that other immigrants want to come to America because of the safety and opportunities that present themselves in our society and cannot be found in their countries of origin is an abomination. While many of these people are forced flee their own countries due to economic and social ills, the Tea Parties response is, “TOO BAD”. From their perspective, immigrants in the past have never fled to our shores (can you say Ireland?). None of these right-winger families came to America illegally seeking their fortune or safety from oppressive regimes. The irony of this situation completely escapes these modern day Puritans.

From the Tea Party’s perspective, we need to put up a no trespassing sign and a lock on the gate of our southern border. Too bad there is no way to do this or the Tea Party Republicans would have a solution to the border issues. More to the point, the most important parts of Puritanism were piety, obeying religious rules as the Puritans determined. What exactly does that mean? Love thy neighbor as you would thyself unless they speak a different language, have a different skin color or a different idea as to how to solve America’s problems.

Modern Puritanical ideology is not about freedom and tolerance. It is about power and control and how to dominate social mores. They like to couch their ideas in terms of doing God’s will. I am fully aware that early Puritan ministers like Jonathon Edwards preached that God is angry with man because of our sinful ways. I wonder if hating undocumented workers and their children is sinful? These religious zealots want the rest of society to believe that they know what must be done to curry God’s favor and through these actions America will thrive.

To help of the rest of society to understand their positions, these modern day Puritans point fingers at what they see as society’s ills. Bobby Jindal’s speech at the Faith and Freedom rally is a perfect example of finger pointing.  He “…accused President Barack Obama and other Democrats of waging wars against religious liberty and education…” Where was his proof? Just saying these words does not make them true or accurate. Where was his solution? He had none. He wanted to stir up the pot of dissatisfaction because it serves his purpose of aligning with his base. There is no leadership present in those words, only self-interest.

He is the same governor of Louisiana that refused federal dollars to expand Medicaid insurance to the poorest Louisianans. Where in the New Testament does Jesus refuse to help the poor and the sick and the downtrodden? I must have missed that idea in my religious upbringing. I hope my Puritan freedom loving believers can show me where this occurred.

Be aware, the Puritan idea of freedom is on the march again, and it is anything but freedom. It is a dogma that allows no dissension (just ask the women put to death as witches in Salem, Massachusetts). It is a doctrine that dictates absolute truths that only they through their worship of God know to be true. Moreover, it reinforces the idea of intolerance for anyone or anything that contradicts their belief system.

Republican Amnesia

Amnesia is a great state to live if you are a right-winger. When you are in this state, you never have to remember what happened in the past and you get to make up anything that you like to take its place. You get to blame the Democrats for the state of affairs in Iraq and Afghanistan. You get to rant about the end of the world as we know it, and how ISIS is going destroy the America we love. This is the perfect storm to gin up political outrage. Without Muslim terrorists you could never say I told you so.

Iraq is a great example of the Republican state of amnesia. Iraq is imploding much like Bosnia did in the 1990’s. A brutal dictator was vanquished in each and in his place warring factions went after each other and all their grudges and hatreds that had been bottled up for years overflowed in massive and destructive violence. Once again Pandora was allowed out of the box.

The difference between Bosnia and Iraq is that the Iraqi extremist not only want to kill each other, but they want to go after the heathens better known as the United States of America. The Bosnians had no global plans; they only wanted to act locally, and that is what they did quite successfully.

My right-wing friends seem to have forgotten the lessons of Bosnia and its impact on its neighbors when they decided to invade a stable if not grotesquely ruthless Iraq. They did not think that the Iraqi extremists hatred for the west and what we stand for such as freedom (if we think that you deserve it) or independence (only if you do it our way) was such a good thing since we had put such a vicious dictator in power to protect America’s interests in the middle east and attack our sworn enemy: Iran.

These same right-wingers don’t like to let facts get in the way of their rants against Democrats. Let’s look at some facts: the Republicans were in power when 3,000 people died in the World Trade Center, a Republican President landed on an aircraft carrier and said mission accomplished as 4,500 American soldiers died in Iraq and Afghanistan, but none of this should get in the way of their present attacks on Democrats.

The Republicans left a mess in the Middle East and expect the Democrats to clean it up all the while pretending that there was nothing wrong with the actions that tore Iraq apart and opened the way for al-Qaida to set up training centers that were once housed in Afghanistan. Bully for the right-wingers. They are like the neighbor kid that comes to your house and helps destroy your son’s or daughter’s room then leaves the mess for someone else to clean up.

More than that. Each time the Democrats take care of business in regards to al-Qaida, the Republicans poo-poo it. They act as if the killing of Osama bin Laden was no big deal; this is after a Republican president said that the man who organized the deaths of 3,000 people on 9/11 was not important enough to apprehend, then, this same President went off on a foreign adventure in Iraq that more than ten years later is still in shambles.

These same right-wingers pretended it was not essential to kill Anwar al-Awlaki an American setting himself up to be the next bin Laden. Or acknowledge the significance of the latest capture of the organizer of the Benghazi attacks, Abu Ahmed Khattala. It is more vital to spend millions of dollars to see that there is no hidden conspiracy in regards to the Benghazi attacks.

It is the Republicans’ need to live in a state of amnesia and bring along fellow amnesiacs that is most frightening. As the world gets more complicated, these right-wingers think that we can go back to a time when America could flex its muscles and the rest of the world would flinch. This is no longer the case, however, this won’t stop them from using present and past events to gin up political indignation without having a solution outside of putting more American troops at risk.

Republicans keep pretending that your simplistic and childish world views will save us, and I’ll pretend that you don’t love Muslim terrorists because you believe they will provide the cover needed so that you can take control of this country. Muslim terrorists just what the Republican doctor ordered for the 2014 election cycle.

Gun Right Extremists

I love right-wing talkers like Mike Gallagher who profess to be outraged by alleged second amendment issues, first amendment issues and are ready to begin impeachment proceedings against President Obama. They scream scandal at the drop of the hat. Of course, this is all for ratings and to get the crazies out and behaving as if their hair is on fire. I have no idea if Mike Gallagher really believes what he spouts on the radio, but it would be rather disingenuous if he didn’t.

The idea that any of the amendments to the constitution do not have limitations is absolutely absurd. There are limits on all our freedoms. If, as a public school teacher, I began to espouse my religious beliefs and tried to recruit students to whatever religion I was selling I would be terminated. If, as a public school teacher, I went on a racist tear I would be terminated.  If as a public school teacher, I brought a gun to school to demonstrate my second amendment rights I would be terminated. These are realistic limits to constitutionally guaranteed American rights.

It is a false precept to believe that because some idea is in the constitution that it goes unfettered as these phony Second Amendment apologists would have America believe. The crux of all their arguments is that their freedoms no matter the topic are being restricted and that is un-American. What is un-American are these right-wing groups trying to force their opinions on the rest of society.

The guns rights group are a fantastic example of taking the Second Amendment to the extreme in that they feel it is their right to press their position on the rest of us. I would hate to be a cop in today’s world. These jackalopes feel that they are entitled to unencumbered restrictions as to where and when they can carry their gun. They will also be the first to cry foul when one of their ilk is shot and killed in a confrontation with the police because they were carrying their weapon and refused to follow the requests of the authorities.

The idea that any and everyone can walk around with a loaded weapon is completely idiotic. This is the type of behavior that works in failed states such as Somalia or Syria not the United States of America. There is no need to brandish a weapon in public. I am all for gun safety classes and shooting competitions and firing ranges, but when citizens openly carry guns, bad things happen.

I guess the right-wing pundits like Mike Gallagher have forgotten about the retired police officer that decided to shoot a movie theatre patron because said patron was being too loud. No weapon on the shooter’s person and one man is alive and the other is not in jail, but why should logic dictate behavior be it on the radio or on the streets.

Yes, there are restrictions to gun ownership as there should be. The constitution does not say that you can carry your gun on your person when and wherever you travel unless of course you are a police officer or federal agent. Maybe we should allow open carry on airplanes?

The second amendment does say, “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” What state or federally mandated militia are these people representing? Who are they protecting?

Of course, I forget. These modern day citizen soldiers are protecting me from those left-wing extremists known heretofore as progressives or Democrats who are out to subjugate the masses, and will not only take all their guns away, but also take away their hard earned money, and will give it to those ne'er-do-wells that are sucking the life out of our country: BIG BUSINESS.

Sergeant Bergdahl

In the world of politics, Sergeant Bergdahl’s release has become the right-wing’s latest red herring. With a son who was a former army ranger that served in Afghanistan, I asked him how he felt about the release of Bergdahl. Unequivocally, he said, “We leave no one behind.” There were no if or buts in his statement.

We went on to discuss other issues with the release. What if he was a deserter? Or a douche-bag? He told me that none of that mattered. He was an Army soldier and we, as a country, needed to do whatever was necessary to bring him home. All the other issues were subterfuge.

He let me know that there were men in his unit that were left stateside when he deployed to Afghanistan because they were deemed to be unfit or were seen as a detriment to the unit in a combat zone. If Sergeant Bergdahl was seen as such a bad soldier, why was he in Afghanistan? Who did not do the proper vetting prior to his deployment? Was it his direct commander? The head of his unit? As I understand it, there are channels to take care of problems like this.

Once in country, why did no one take the steps needed to prevent Sergeant Bergdahl from walking off his post? Were there no signs that problems were on the horizon? Someone needs to get to the bottom of that question. Did his aberrant behavior pop up out of nowhere? Where is the written documentation to back up the claims in his unit? Or, was it a sergeant or lieutenant or captain or someone even higher in the chain of command that dropped the ball and didn’t address the problem of Sergeant Bergdahl?

I am dumbfounded by the way others in his unit talk about Sergeant Bergdahl.  Where is their responsibility in all this? Why did they not take action to see that this young man was pulled back? This issue goes much deeper than anyone seems to be looking? However, it is much easier to blame Sargent Bergdahl than see where the system failed.

Many of the men that have spoken out against Sergeant Bergdahl said that they signed essentially gag orders. Why? What is the Army trying to cover-up? Why is Sergeant Bergdahl being made the scapegoat? He is at fault for walking off his post, but there is a hell of a lot not being talked about as it relates to this case.

But for right-wing pundit and politicians, it is easier to point fingers than to search for the truth. In this they can try to gain political points in lieu of seeking the truth behind the story. Six servicemen dead in the hunt for him makes for great headlines. Unlike Army drop the ball and knew Sergeant Bergdahl mental state was deteriorating, but left him in the rotation.

In the world of right-wing punditry, he is a coward, deserter; a man who so shamed the uniform he wore that we should have left him behind to rot for the rest of his life. These talkers have become judge, jury and executioner. Where is their honor? They have none. But it does not stop there.

They are incensed that five Taliban leaders were released. Were we to imprison them in perpetuity? Exactly how are they going to harm Americans? They are not going to harm anyone in this country. In fact, they may lead us to people serving in al-Qaida. Once out of Qatar, they may rejoin the fight to retake control of Afghanistan, but they are never going to be a threat to us here in America. This fear-mongering is a stratagem to gain political points as to who is best at protecting us from our enemies and their answers remain the Republicans.

These five men in no way will do anything outside of Afghanistan, but they can lead us to people that want to do us harm here and across the world. When President Obama says that we have eyes on these five men, he means that we have their DNA, voice recognition, finger prints, and facial recognition. They can go nowhere without us. The hope being that people in al-Qaida will want to interview them and we will gain new information.

 

Why they will never harm us is the fact that these five men will never be accepted into al-Qaida because they do not in any way have the skill sets that al Qaida requires such as language skills, computer skills, and financial skills to name a few, everything that is needed to operate outside of Afghanistan.

Finally, this exchange was a smart move because it saved an American life. It is not the first nor will it be the last time that America negotiates with terrorists. Lest we forget that Ronald Reagan negotiated with Iranian terrorists to bring home hostages in 1980, and in that case, he traded arms for Americans. When a Republican negotiates with the enemy, then, he is a hero, end of story.

 

Welcome home Sergeant Bergdahl. You have come back to a place where many on the right want to make an example of you. It seems as if we have learned nothing from Vietnam. Political gamesmanship is much more important than saving an American soldier even if it is from himself.

 

The Tea Party’s Cries of Intolerance

Self-righteous condemnation is the cornerstone of the Tea Party and all right-wing talkers and politicians. These groups see their right for free speech being taken away by the government and liberal media. All right, they don’t really see their free speech being taken away. Through hyperbole, they pretend that they no longer have the rights and freedoms that the rest of society enjoys.

In their world, these wackadoodles shout and cry and demand their time to be heard. They act as if they are misunderstood and that all their positions need to be followed at all costs because they and only they know what is best for America.

That last statement is ironic as these right-wing hooligans genuflect about issues like the VA scandal, however, when asked to expand funding for the VA, 41 Republican Senators voted down Bernie Sanders’ bill to do just that in the weeks prior to the Arizona outrage. Hypocrisy rules the beltway. You Tea Party loyalist can't cry the VA is failing veterans when you refuse to put money into the system that is forced to deal with veterans that are returning from 12 years of war.

In the Tea Party world, all the problems are caused by the Democrats, thus, they and their fellow Republicans have no responsibility to any problems that we face. Unemployment=Democratic issue; healthcare=Democratic issue; the VA=Democratic issue. It must be great when you are never responsible for anything that goes on in America. Please keep shouting about how poorly you are treated and how the world is against you.

The best part of all this is the obscene amount of money being thrown about to prove how mistreated and misunderstood Tea Party candidates and pundits are these days. Sara Palin has made a career out of being a loser. How many people keep getting paid millions of dollars to keep losing? I guess that Karl Rove would fit into that category.

But, I must get back to the topic at hand: how the Tea Party is being marginalized and silenced by the democratically led government. Oh, the Democrats run the federal government? Isn’t the House of Representatives is controlled by the Republicans? You would never know it by the chest beating and cries of agony from all this right-wing pundits and like-minded politicians.

However, at the heart of all these alligator tears, is the issue of compromise. We have now lost all the WWII veterans in congress. This is a sad day for America. The one ideal that all these men and women held as sacred was the idea of compromise. They sacrificed so much for their country that these politicians were able to reach common ground because of their common experiences. They may have had different views as to how to solve problems, but they were able to overcome these differences because the country came first. This is no longer the case.

Today’s Tea Party politicians and pundits can rail about the demise of America, but they are unable to acknowledge that compromise is at the heart of democracy. Nondemocratic countries may see us as being weak and the Tea Party may shout until they are blue in the face, but it is conciliation that has created the nation that we are today. Democracy is a messy affair, and all the bellowing in the world will not change that fact. The idea that the top can dictate to the rest of society is absurd, which is the way that the Tea Party is proposing America to be run.

In their world, it is a corporate oligarchy that will decide what happens to Americans be it healthcare, the minimum wage or who can marry who. What I fear is corporate America taking over the halls of government in such a way that the American worker is left further in the dust and whose rights will be whittled away to nothing.

None of these Tea Party elitists give a damn about average Americans. They are looking out for their own self-interest. The Kohl brothers, Bill Kristal or Charles Krauthammer don’t give a hill of beans about anything but their needs. The same goes for Boeing, GE or GM. The bottom dollar is all that matters.

Just remember, as the Tea Party leaders’ latest cries of intolerance reaches a crescendo in the next few months, they are out for themselves and not the American people. They have never lost their freedom of speech. This idea is merely a tool to fool those of you who have fallen in line with their phony machinations; good luck to you as they saddle you with the yoke of servitude and condemnation.

Tea Party Fear Mongering

Fear mongering by the ultra-tea-party-conservatives is seen as their recipe for success. I find it fascinating that conservative talkers are only able to use fear when talking about America. They are unable or unwilling to see anything positive when it comes to what is taking place on our shores.

If all you listened to is Tea Party radio, you would think that America as we know it was gone; that the zombie apocalypse had taken place, and it was every man, woman and child fighting for themselves. Long live America as the saying goes. The red, white and blue will not be the same until the tentacles of government are out of our lives; unless, the right sees the moral imperative to stick their tentacles into everyone’s business be it the bedroom or uterus.

For this right-wingers government has a place in both of those aforementioned cases, but on the other hand it needs to get rid of taxes on businesses and stop trying to regulate them to death. Businesses can be trusted to do the right thing, but individuals cannot. The right’s need to find a boogey man is well placed in history. They are the party of how awful the world is when they are not in control of the White House.

The fact that Osama bin Laden is dead cannot be celebrated as a victory for America because a Democrat was in the White House at the time of his capture and death. The fact that the Dow Jones is soaring at its highest peak in history cannot be celebrated because a Democrat is residing in the White House. These are only two of a multitude of examples of how the self-serving needs of right leaning politicians and pundits are more important than the needs of America.

You Tea Partiers keep pretending that you don’t love government because that is a lie. You love government when it serves your purposes. When it doesn’t, you have no use for government. This is irony at its best. All Americans should be proud of the accomplishments of our government and the people that serve. But, in this day and age it is impossible to make that happen. There is too much malice and distrust.

What makes Tea Party radio so compelling is the fact that on nearly every broadcast the sky is falling. America as we know it is on life support, and if you do not believe and act in accordance with their right-wing views, then, you are adding to the problem. Science takes a backseat to phony fabrications of doubt such as because I say it ain’t true, then, of course whenever a scientist says something I don’t agree or it does not fit into my world view it is a lie.

Or, if an economist says that the Affordable Care Act is saving money, that economist is a hopeless liar because their world view does not match up with mine. In fact, anyone that disagrees with the Tea Party is a lying son-of-a-bitch. There is no way to argue with this type of logic. “I am right and you are wrong because I say so."

This leaves the country with nowhere to go; it puts all efforts to move the economy forward at a standstill. It means that fear mongering by both sides of the aisle is the only political cudgel available and each side is ready to use it to beat their constituents and each other.

Until the fear mongering is stopped, there will be no forward progress politically, which is what the Tea Party wants. They are like the little boy that takes his ball and runs home when he cannot win the game. In this game of chicken, they have the power. They feel enfranchised by their ability to say, “My way of the highway”.

They feel no need to compromise their values and belief systems because this would be completely contrary to what they stand for. The only political recourse they possess is fear mongering and hope that enough people will jump overboard and swim to a Tea Party lifeboat where their independent thinking will be beaten out of them before they are allowed to crawl to safety.

Remember all you Tea Partiers, be careful what you wish because it may become true. You sure didn’t like it when the IRS put a little heat on your deceptive nonprofit status. What is good for the goose is good for the gander unless you are a member of the Tea Party and, then, everyone else’s motives must be scrutinized and vilified because they do not think like us so they are the enemy and must suffer as such until they see the light and fall in line.

Intolerance: Thy Name is Tea Party

Intolerance takes on many forms from the comments of Donald Sterling to ultra-right-wing talking heads of the Tea Party spouting off about the lack of freedom in America. You may say, “How is complaining and whining about the lack of freedom intolerance?” It is intolerance in that their constant diatribe is a completely erroneous and baseless lie used to attack anyone or view that does not fit into their blueprint of their world order.

These people will not tolerate any dissensions in the ranks at any level. They will beat the drums against anyone that they feel will not carry out their agenda in lock-step with their philosophical underpinnings. This is the definition of intolerance. Moreover, they love to attack liberals or progressives and label them as socialists and do not consider this as intolerant speech.

These people that they like to identify as such usually fit under one tent branded with a capital D. The hated Democrats were the enemy that all true conservatives could rail and rally against. They represented the evil empire of knowledge and acceptance, which believed that people no matter their color, religion or sexual orientation were welcome to join just as they were. This group was an easy target for the ultra-conservatives who saw themselves as knights on white horses out to save the world from all the evil that came from these despicable creatures.

The world was right when the lines of good and evil were so clearly demarcated, however, something changed in the water once the Tea Party rolled onto the scene. Clear and traditional boundaries between political parties and ideologies suddenly evaporated. Those called traditional or moderate Republicans are now the target of ultra-conservatives. They are seen as traitors to the cause of freedom, liberty and Christianity because they see the value in the idea of compromise.

For the Tea Party, any and every one that refuses to follow their lead is the enemy. These fanatical followers of narrow-minded policies are unable to see that freedom and democracy are based on the tradition of compromise.  Compromise is as hated a word as socialist, liberal, progressive and moderate Republican.

If it wasn’t for George Washington and his ability to broker a deal, there would be no constitution and we would be living under the Articles of Confederation, which nearly destroyed what we understand to be the United States of America. These new right-wing, Tea Party blatherers would have one believe that any dissention that is not initiated by them is un-American.

But, it is more than that. Whenever you question these ultra-conservatives’ motives, you are now infringing on their freedom, but when they are attacking progressive philosophies, they are exorcising their God given freedoms. For them, freedom is a one-way street in which they are in sole possession of the right-of-way, and the rest of society better get the hell off the road or be run over in the process.

It is the arrogance of this position and their talking points that I find so infuriating. They see themselves as the only ones that know what is going on in the world, and the rest of us need to bow down to their intellectual superiority. No matter which side of the aisle you fall, you must subvert your views to theirs or be attacked mercilessly.

What they fail to understand is the power of dialogue and how it has been used and is being used to foster the growth of the democratic principle known as: cooperation. George Washington so believed in this principal that he forsook the idea of political parties and saw them as the bane of our republic. He believed that they would lead the country into the kind of impasse that is transpiring today.

For the ultra-right-wing, Tea Party conservatives there is no concession possible in politics. This concept is as foreign and distasteful to them as water is to cats. They will do any and everything in their power not to concede a position or idea no matter the costs. It is time to end their reign of terror over the American people and vote them out of office, moreover, demonstrate through the power of the polls and grassroots organizations that money does not determine the fate of America and we will not stand for their brand of intolerance.

Right-wing Tool: Steve Deace

What does it mean not to think straight? Does it mean that you are gay? Of course it doesn’t mean that. Is it a bad joke or just a play on words? As Americans we are no longer supposed to make jokes like that because we are being insensitive to racial, ethnic or gender groups. PC does not only mean Politically Correct it means that you can't say anything about anyone unless they are a white male. It is open season for white men. Just ask Steve Deace.

For white men like Steve Deace it is hard to understand how jokes and comments can be offensive. They have been doing them for so long that they don’t even think about them as they come tumbling out of their mouths, “Asians can't drive.” Or, “Of course he’s smart, he’s Asian. Or, “There they go again, playing the race card.” Or, “If you’re gonna come to this country, speak English.” Or, “Why can't they act like a man; come on Nancy, butch it up.”

To those white men, especially a conservative, white man, like Steve Deace those are all true statements and everyone knows they are true. White men know that everyone else is thinking the same thing, but they are too afraid to say anything. It’s time for white men everywhere to stand up and be counted just like Steve who stands up for all conservative, white men no matter their religious upbringing or sexual orientation.

He tells it like it is. His stance on homosexuality is ground breaking. “All these people who say they are gay really are gay, but this is a choice that they are making, and it is a choice that is going to send them to hell, so if they are really worried about their place in eternity, they need to make different choices or burn for their sins.

Wow, that is revolutionary and so insightful. He is a conservative, white man’s white man. He goes on to attack American abortions doctors and Planned Parenthood as the murders that they are, but there is something more to this than meets the eye. These murders are the funding backbone of the Democratic Party if Deace is to be believed.

These Democrats are more than anti-white man. They are anti-fetus. Moreover, they are financially benefitting from all the abortions in America. Can you believe it? Everyone not just white men need to hear this and understand the implications. All you people of color are really under attack from the Democrats and not the Republicans through this destruction of human life.

In Steve Deace’s world, here is how the liberal world works. He stated on his radio show that there are 4,000 abortions in America every day of the week, and that each abortion cost $500, therefore, abortionists, i.e., the Democratic Party makes 2 million dollars a day killing innocent babies. Furthermore, if you multiply this number by 365 days a year because abortion clinics do not take days off for weekends or holidays, these clinics in the killing business make 730 million dollars a year to put into the coffers of the Democratic Party.

Those are some amazing statistics. As a white man, I am shocked by what is going on in Steve Deace’s head. Where did he get his statistics? How does he know that Planned Parenthood who he implies only performs abortions and are using the monies from these procedures to finance the Democratic Party? If he is pro-business why is he against this organization’s ability to make money? Oh, they are making it the wrong way. Just as gays and blacks and non-Christians and illegal immigrants are ruining America for true Americans like him, his wife and their children. 

Steve Deace also likes to preach that the liberals and the left are intolerant. How can that be? He is on the radio spouting forth his religious based intolerance five days a week. Where is the intolerance that is negatively impacting his life and work? I guess fake indignation pays well.

I am glad to be an American. I am glad that people like Steve Deace are allowed to preach their hate speech. It sickens me to hear it, but they have the right to say it. The rest of us also have the right to change the channel, boycott the radio station and demonstrate against the intolerance inherent in self-serving pronouncements and their messengers.

Good luck to Steve Deace and the rest of his flock. Much like Westboro Baptist Church, his brand of intolerance will fade into the background and become noise that the tolerant will champion no matter how ugly his speech.

Common Core or Standardized Mediocrity

What is the most fundamental relationship in the universe? If you ask a theoretical physicist, you will get one answer, and if you ask a humanist philosopher, you will get another. Neither will have any bearing on your daily life.  What is the point of either of these positions? There is no point. It only means that we are not want of food, shelter or security.  We are safe and secure enough that as a civilization we can spent our time contemplating pointless abstract concepts.

If you are hungry or homeless, you will not be able to consider any of this theoretical garbage. You will be worrying where your next meal is coming or where you are going to sleep that night. When your basic needs are not being met, then, all is lost except the essentials necessary for survival. Too often this is the situation for many of my students who are deemed less than competent when measured on state standardized tests.

Too often they are too busy struggling with basic needs to worry about how to analyze Edgar Allen Poe or which culture inquiry should be used when reading Amy Tan. Furthermore, Medieval British Literature review has no connection to their world, thus, relevancy is lost as well as a class full of young, vibrant minds. As an educator the Common Core is not the answer for everyone. The idea that one size fits all is absurd.

The federal and state‘s idea that Common Core aligned with Smarter Balance will solve the problems plaguing our schools are completing erroneous. These theoreticians and politicians have no understanding as to the elemental flaw in their thinking. Instead of attacking the central issue (basic needs not being met), they are pretending to solve a problem that does not exist as they imagined.

The changes that are being forced on public schools are destroying intellectual creativity, flexibility and initiative, thus, limiting the possibilities for future generations. If the point of all this reform is to create a permanent underclass damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. However, if we are to help the next generation to succeed, this is exactly the wrong way to confront the problem.

Standardization creates mediocrity and this is where testing institutions and politicians are pushing public schools. If you work in a private school or a charter school, none of this homogeny is required as part of your curriculum. Innovative ideas are desired in these institutions while the same kind of ideas are given lip service in public school where teachers are forced to teach larger and larger classes while being told to raise test scores or else. All of this in lieu of inventive thinking beyond a testing box.

Public school teachers’ jobs are on the line if their students do not demonstrate measurable, consistent growth, on standardized tests, furthermore, if this happens, these same educators are deemed ineffective because they were unable to inspire those youngsters under their supervision to outperform the targets set by their state, district, school and department when filling in the blanks. This has nothing to do with thinking on your feet or thinking abstractly. It has everything to do with filling in the correct blank because everyone knows that life is black and white and that there is only one right answer.

The thought of learning for the sake of learning no longer fits in this new schema because students need to be focused on the endgame just as their teachers are required to do in this latest educational paradigm. In this new world order, students are considered to be weak of mind if they are seen as daydreamers or have no clear plans as they head off into the world following high school graduation.

The idea of finding yourself without an authority figure giving you and your future a stamp of approval is absurd in today’s public school culture. Educators of all ilk be it public or private stand as godlike figures pointing their charges in the correct direction. If you are the good student that knuckles under to the powers that be, then, your future will blossom as the lotus does, begging to be plucked and place upon the mantle to be admired until it is no longer viable.

In many ways, educationally, we are now on the path to become more Chinese than the Chinese in that we now demand lockstep in our public schools by adopting common core curriculum and tying monies for financially strapped school districts. The federal government’s use of money to lure states and school districts to adopt this curriculum is akin to blackmail.

If you are for the standardization of education, mediocrity, uninspired teaching, then, this standards based curriculum is all you can ask and more. Katy bar the doors because there will be a feeding frenzy as states stampede to the front of the line with no idea why they are doing it except that there is money to be pocketed.

Republican Death Knoll

What I find most frightening about the Republican Party is not the lies that they tell, but the insidious way they are destroying the party from within. They seem to be engaged in an incestuous relationship, and believe that this is the way to win back the Senate and the White House through alienating hard working Americans that do not fit their idea of what it is to be American.

The alleged mainstream wing of the Republican Party encourages, no begs for the most despicable fringe elements to be recognized, and will allow them to say the most outrageous things so that they can massage these outliers and bust their poll numbers in state and local elections. The majority of the country is disgusted by these hateful, local displays egged on by federally elected officials through their acts of indifference and insolence. Check You Tube and watch as Tennessee Republicans representatives agree with some of the most egregiously false and divisive statements made at public meetings.

This is the way that the fringe works. They make the most shameful comments and their shrill voices bring them attention and momentary adulation, but in the end it leaves their candidate sitting on the sideline looking for a new job. These strident voices leave the vast majority of Americans shaking their heads and thinking that these people need to be on the Maury Povich Show where their behavior can be viewed by a contemptuous audience ready for blood.

Therefore, one by one serious, thoughtful and reasonable Republicans are being forced out of their party such as Charlie Crist in Florida and being replace with the likes of the Ted Cruzes of the world. This is a destructive event for democracy. For democracy to work in America, we need to have two strong parties whose ideas may be different, but they are able to work together to reach comprise for the betterment of the country.

Demagoguery by our Republican brethren has taken on a life of its own in that these alleged leaders makes use of popular prejudices, false claims and promises in order to gain power for the sake of power and not the common good of Americans. Make an internet search and see how leaders from Mitch McConnell to Rand Paul make up facts to exploit fear in their constituents as a means of keeping or gaining leverage in their upcoming political fights.

The newest inner party fight is over inequality and in this case rhetoric and not action is at the forefront of the Republican stance, however, they cannot even get on the same page and are fighting each other as much as they are fighting the Democrats. This demonstrates the heart of the Republican problem: their inability to work together. If they are unable to work together, how can Americans expect them to work with the Democrats to solve our nation’s problems?

It is this Republican on Republican infighting that is tearing the party apart. This new extremism can be seen in Michigan. How can Democrats and Republicans work with anyone whose first words out of her mouth are to attack people for their sexual orientation, and say they should be thrown out of the Republican Party as a woman in Michigan did in her speech to be elected to the state RNC? This demonstrates callous, insensitivity and bigotry that are at the heart of the NEW Republican Party.

This behavior shows how narrow and restrictive the Republican Party has become, moreover, within their legislative districts, this conduct is seen as admirable. Whenever you find people that believe the way you do, you can say and do anything that matches their disposition. Conversely, if you want to expand your prospects, you must go beyond your comfort zone to seek consensus with others that may or may not believe the way you do.  This seems so obvious, but to nearsighted politicians like the Tea Party Republicans this idea is kryptonite.

This is the heart of the problem for the Republicans. They are at a crossroads that will determine their fate on the national level, but if they cave in to the demands of ignorance and hate, their destiny is sealed for decades to come. The death knoll for the Republican Party is beginning to ring. Will there be anyone that is willing stand up against this vile bigotry to set this once proud party back on track as a viable alternative to the Democrats? I think not; like the Whig Party, they too will fade into oblivion.

Cutting Through the White Noise

Opinions are like assholes everyone has one or knows one that wants to broadcast their white noise in streaming Digital Dolby Technicolor. The white noise has become so loud lately that it drowns out all the other white noise so you hear nothing.

In this digital age, we all know how to filter through the white noise to find those stories and events that are important to us, and in less than a blink of an eye send them off into the nether regions of the internets so that all our friends on Facebook or our followers on twitter or instagram or Pinterest or where ever we think that the most people will see that important story reside so that they will agree with us as to its importance.

For this to happen, we have to be introduced to said story, and that is where our internet providers or cable companies come in as they decide what to filter and what to send to us, the masses, via the independent messaging systems formally called: the news.  It might be yahoo news or msn news or NBC news or Fox news or any of the thousands of other sources for digital information. It matters not because once you hit on that link, you can go anywhere that they want you to go.

They cut through the white noise using their filter. And, once you are in their filter, they decide all content. All you have to do is sit down and click. You get to watch or read or listen to whatever information is provided and prioritized for you. This includes the advertisements that are picked for your viewing pleasure.

There is no thinking. It has all been done for you. No wonder our country is at such odds with each other. At no time in history have no few controlled the content for so many. And, it has never been easier to find likeminded individuals to rally around.

As good sheep, we go along for the ride. There is pleasure and pain in being directed to think and feel a certain way. It takes away the pressure of having to do real research and look for facts on our own. We can find the filters that we like and use them to find the answers that we are looking for to prove the theories that we hold so dear.

In this way, we are always right. We do not have to spend any time worrying about counter-arguments or different points of view because they are no longer in our field of vision. They are the white noise that is so irritating and obnoxious. They have no value as they hold contrary ideas to ours, thus, are not relevant to our world view.

Ask the Republican Party how this myopic vision worked in the 2012 Presidential Election. Let’s just say that they fell flat on their face. This fact in no way has stopped the Republicans from relying on this constrained, dogmatic perception as they seek their future political fortunes. In fact, it has only doubled their efforts to insulate themselves from outside criticisms.

Beyond politics, what I see from individuals to large groups are people looking for well-suited ideas to reassure them that they are on the righteous path to Elysium. Many want to to justify their belief systems in a vain attempt to live out their virtuous anger or say, “I told you so”. As childish as that may sound.

Many of you may think that I have some nerve to attack the digital world and all the members of it. It seems to be rather presumptuous for anyone to speak for the huddled masses. Too bad. It is all too obvious even to the casual observer. Start looking through the blogosphere, and see if I am telling the truth on some level.

This may all be true, but it is much too simplistic and primitive. I agree and only wish that I was smart enough to parlay these ideas into a research position in some think-tank and spout them out to a larger more cantankerous audience and see the sparks fly.

So, keep checking out all the people that agree with you, thus, justifying your position on any issue that matters. You will always be able to validate what you think and why you are always correct. This corroboration is extremely important in this age of cooperation and consensus building. Remember, you must cut through the white noise at all cost. It is your opinion that matters.

Time Shifts

There is a tenuous relationship between the here and now. We like to think that we live in the here and now, but that is an illusion just as the idea that there is a clear chronological time continuum that leads our lives in a straight line from beginning to end. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Logic would dictate that time is linear and maybe your watch supports that perception, but time has a mind of its own and leads us humans in any but a straight line. How often have you fallen asleep in a car and when you awake you are completely disoriented because of the distance traveled and the hours that you passed in your unconscious state? It is consciousness that dictates our connection with time. Ask anyone that has come out of a coma. Their link with time completed dissolved during that state of altered consciousness.

We all experience a lost sense of the time construct when we fall asleep. Time becomes meaningless during those hours of nocturnal rest.  These time shifts can be easily induced without falling asleep as in surgery or cannabis ingestion. What about when you are trapped on a plane or a classroom, maybe it is that meeting where time slows and you begin dreaming of the soft sands and warm waters of the Bahamas. You have just experience a time shift.

These are only momentary interruptions in what many see as a straight line of time. Too often we in the western world are ruled by chronology. We fight against time and try to put it in a little box and tie it up in a pretty little bow. But, when we open that box, time has played a number on us. It has left us in the dust, and we wonder where the time has gone. That is one little joke that time plays on us humans who do everything in their power to measure time and try to make it conform to our belief systems.

All you have to do is ask the Mayan’s about their measurements of time or the Afghans when 2014 is coming; maybe, the ancient Chinese would give us a better understanding of time and its influence on culture, or not. Everything we do in this country is predicated on the idea that time moves in a straight line. We are slaves to time as we define it. It all starts with that alarm clock that regulates daily habits. It drives how we educate children and dictates when we can and cannot work.

We try to control time with technology. We come up with time saving devices. There is no way to save time at least not yet. It is not like our artificial creation that we call money. You cannot put time away and use it at a later date though many of us would like to do that. Time marches on to its own drummer and we are along for the ride.

We have other odd dealings with time. Many people do not want to experience what we call the ravages of time. Many want to pretend that they not only can stop time, but they can reverse time. I don’t know how it all started, but we have created doctors who sculpt the human flesh to look as it did in days gone past.

It in no way looks as if you have lost 20 years. It looks more like your skin has been stretched too tight over a drum. That is neither here or there, it creates an illusion that time has stopped, and in the best case scenarios has been reversed. We only see what we want to see.

This technology does nothing to stop the degradation of cells. It is meant to create the illusion of youth. Aging is seen by some as giving into time. These procedures may make one a wrinkleless corpse, but it will no way change the landscape of cellular structure. Whatever time you have on this earth, enjoy it anyway you choose even if it means some sort of pulling and tucking.

Remember time goes beyond the spinning earth and slithers into black holes whose gravitational pull may be greater or lesser than we can hypothesis as well as their impact on the universe as a whole. If the universe came from nothing, then we have nothing to lose.

On the other hand, time is a man-made construct designed to make sense of limited days that this reality affords us. Put your time to good use or don’t. It is all up to you. You are the captain of your ship and get to sail it as you wish. But, when your time comes to an end, I hope that you have filled the minutes and hours and days and nights with memories that bring you a smile at the end of your time.