Tag Archives: progressive

Oregon – 1 step forward & 2 steps back

Oregon is considering adding 2 items to the ballot this year.  1 is to allow non-heterosexual couples to marry, and the other is to allow bakers, florists, caterers, or any other business to discriminate against them under religious exemptions, in effect by stating that since their religious beliefs forbid gay & lesbian marriage, then they shouldn’t be forced to do business with them due to their religious beliefs.

If I were a retailer, couldn’t I use the same law to say that I don’t want gays & lesbians in my business?  If I were a developer or landlord, couldn’t I keep them out of my properties & neighborhoods?  And could a doctor refuse to treat them if they need emergency medical services?  What about keeping slaves, since the Bible, and therefore their religion condones slavery?  Acceptance of slavery is all over the Old Testaments & appears more than once in the New Testament as well.

If slavery is an antiquated Biblical idea that we’ve overcome, how about our negativity & discrimination toward gays & lesbians?

We can’t make laws to require everyone to come together as one in our society & care at least as much for each other as we do ourselves.  Besides being a hippie Utopian dream, we raise our young to be warlike, animalistic, reptilian-brained creatures who seem to have no compassion for anything but their own needs & desires, and we look at those ideas as being non-rewarding socialism unless we give it of our own volition in dribs & drabs of charity to make ourselves feel good, but we shouldn’t be making laws that continue to separate us from each other using standards applied unequally to segments within our society.  That is the definition of discrimination in a nutshell.

It’s hard to believe that in 2014, we’re still fighting that battle.  Besides, I’ve always said that gays & lesbians have the right to get married & be as miserable as the rest of us married people.

The 3 Commandments

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Forget the 10 Commandments — George Carlin has already downsized those to 2 anyway.  Here’s the 3 Commandments we Americans should adhere to — all Americans should have:

#1) Access to adequate & free medical care, regardless of income level.  Sure, those with money will have access to faster & better care, but that’s capitalism.

#2) Adequate & safe minimum free housing, if they can’t afford it.  Not slums, but decent accommodations.

#3) Free adequate & nutritious food, should they not be able to afford it.  Nobody in America should be starving or malnourished, but it’s happening.

I’m not saying they should live like kings, but they should have safe & adequate medical care, housing & food free of charge to some degree.

If they’re sheltered & working, whether in a rusty trailer, an old apartment, a suburban home or a mansion, they should have access to free basic medical care paid for by our government.  No, it might not performed by the greatest specialists in the world, but it’s adequate medical care & they should be able to get what they need, including any medicine or surgical procedure in a timely manner.

If they NEED shelter, whether working or not, they should have free (if unemployed) or low-cost access (if employed) to at least an apartment or trailer that provides the minimum adequate shelter for their family size, i.e., 2 people per bedroom & 3 people per bath.  I’m not talking about a high-rise condo or a home in your neighborhood (NIMBY, you know), but safe & adequate shelter somewhere, paid for by our government via our taxes, and also subsidized by deleting unnecessary government programs & other political “pork” projects that serve to help no one but the rich & privileged, who don’t need our help at all.  I’ve been a long-time advocate for a bipartisan government agency that is given a mandate to delete a certain portion of Federal spending each year.

If they don’t have food, they should have access to getting free meals when needed.  I’m not saying steak & or a premium vegan menu, just adequate nutritious hot meals 3 times a day.

Why?  Because we’re all in the same boat.  We’re all human, and we’re all Americans.  We all have compassion in our minds, but we seem to oppress it as much as possible.  “Hmmm”, as The Church Lady might have once said: What would Jesus do?

How do we pay for all this?  Simple — downsize the overblown military starting first with their ridiculous defense spending (we have more military spending than the next 10 kazillion countries combined) & their overblown worldwide presence (we don’t need air bases in many of these places we have them, including many in America); cut out all the “political pork” programs we subsidize annually (mostly hidden inside of bills that have nothing to do with them); heavily raise taxes on the wealthy & on corporations & remove their tax breaks that limit that tax; nail the large estates (I say that’s those over $2 million) with a hefty estate tax & disallow all the breaks they use to get out of it; levy a small flat minimum tax on all religions (I know — separation of church & state, but I can dream, can’t I?); eliminate the subsidies & expenditures we make for people & programs that obviously don’t need it (we have a National Helium Reserve that’s costed us billions that they’ve been trying to delete for appx 20 years now with no luck); and eliminate all those gov’t agencies that employ people with overblown salaries who do pretty much next to nothing but live off the gov’t teat, the same teat they don’t want the poor to partake upon.  And a final salvo the GOP-ers will like — pay the Earned Income Credit in 12 monthly checks instead of a big check they simply blow once a year — look at all the interest the gov’t will make floating it for a year.

After all, isn’t all of this what Jesus would do?  Funny how the right-wing chooses which of Jesus’ teachings to adhere to.  Of course, that assumes he really existed in the first place.  If he did, how come The Jerusalem Times (of that day) had all kinds of contemporary news reports & special editorials about all the other figures of history in that time, yet nothing about Jesus until 40 years after he allegedly died?  That’s a whole other blog entry.

The real beavers of the recent Congressional dam

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As the world knows know, the GOP-ers & the Dems are duking it out on Capitol Hill as we speak.  The GOP-ers don’t like it that in March, 2010, over 3 years ago, Congress passed the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act, and made it the law of the land just as many other laws have been passed, like Civil Rights laws.  Imagine the Republicans trying to hold up gov’t funding to stop that already-passed & signed law.

They’re currently trying to grind the government to a halt (which they’ve succeeded in doing for the most part already) and are willing to once again take a chance at not only causing a default of our nation’s debt (theoretically possible, but actually unlikely, as the president could step in & order payment of the debt by citing previous case law and/or legislation), but surely may cause its credit rating to soften once again, which happened the last time they put a stranglehold on government with their strong-arm tactics.  Turns out that the majority doesn’t rule — all it takes is a minority of a few motivated politicians to change the world.

Just in case you were wondering who to blame for the roadblock, here’s your smoking gun, straight out of a Texas babe’s mouth . . .

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, the man who’s wanting to be the next George Bush, has recently said the following, and I quote:

Cruz: “We (read: Republicans in Congress & their idiotic supporters of this action) should look for 3 things — #1: We should look for some significant structural plan to reduce government spending.  #2: We should avoid new taxes.  And #3: We should look for ways to mitigate the harms from ‘Obamacare,’ ” He also said that the debt ceiling issue is the “best leverage the Congress has to rein in the executive.”

It’s an attempt to turn back a law agreed upon by a majority of both houses of Congress & signed by the President into law just a little over 3 years ago, a law which mainly helps Americans who have no insurance & can’t get it (“uninsurable” is what they call sick people) or who can’t afford it, and hurts those who have to provide the insurance (i.e., it greatly affects the bottom line of these rich & greedy insurance companies).

What’s amazing is that GOP-ers (both the politicians & their fanatics) actually believe (or at least act like) it’s going to affect them, but it really doesn’t affect much of anyone who has employer-based or gov’t-based insurance, and at last count, that was 80% of Americans.  If it does affect you, it’s simply because you have crummy insurance or your employer and/or your insurance company is using this as a (pardon the pun) lame excuse to raise your premiums, which they all did.

It’s really nothing more than a wedge the “White People of America Who Are Asses” are using to continually divide us socially & politically.

As The Rev Charles once said, Luke is — not from New Jersey

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Let’s start this with something the far right can understand and appreciate — biblical scripture — Luke 9:51-56: “Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before His face.  And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him.  But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.  And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?’  But He turned and rebuked them, and said, ‘You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.  For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.’  And they went to another village.”

What this says to me is liking or hating anyone simply based upon their beliefs, race, or being different in any manner that they cannot change is prejudicial & wrong — end of discussion.  I know that religious beliefs can be changed, but that doesn’t mean they should be changed simply because they don’t agree with yours.  Heck, in my opinion, the fact that you embrace religion at all is a negative to me, but I respect your right to be ignorant as long & deeply as you want.

The biggest problem I have with the far right is that they believe their religious beliefs & their use of them for personal/financial gain & human segregation is beyond reproach, including the use of them to align groups of people against each other socially & professionally. This type of behavior is just a stone’s throw from radical Muslims who kill people whenever their religion is “blasphemed” in their eyes, or Hitler Youth for that matter — the Jews of yesterday are the social/political critics & “deviants” of today.

Intolerance seems to be the theme in many religions & politics, which tends to go against the intent of the founders of them, like Jesus, who would surely abhor the bashing of those who don’t believe the same as he did.  This is a (surely fictional) being who helped the poor, walked among the lepers, and threw out the moneychangers, all ideas that today’s Christians & Republicans don’t embrace, which is the true meaning of the work “ironic” if you ask me.

I understand that people are passionate about their religious beliefs, but I’m not, and I don’t like the level of intolerance they invoke when confronted by people like me who do not believe as they do, labeling me as a hatemonger when I point out the fact that religion is simply unproven theory and that I have no respect for the idea of it.  I don’t hate them; I simply have no respect for their ideology.

I find it hard to discuss anything rationally or intelligently with most people on the far right, especially those who consider themselves highly religious. I don’t agree with speech that demeans a person or a particular group simply according to their race, religious choice (or lack thereof), sexual orientation, or nationality without regard for any other issue thereof, nor do I support any group of people or any person who holds those views, and I don’t believe (the fictional character of) Jesus would have either. People have been using certain archaic notions written in the Bible for centuries to justify their hate for various groups and it will probably never end.

It’s a different matter entirely to not like an idea that is detachable from a person vs not liking that a person is gay, or black, or some other condition that they can’t & shouldn’t change.

The part of Tim Tebow will be played tonight by Satan

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Tim Tebow is a loser and always has been a has-been. He’s the epitome of the Christian Right-Wingers whose holier-than-thou attitude is nothing more than wolf’s suit made of sheep’s wool.  The only reason people didn’t notice in college is because mediocrity can survive there, but once you get into the NFL with the adults, it’s a whole different game with different rules, as the Pat Sullivans and Ryan Leafs & Todd Marinovichs of the world found out, just like little Timmy found out.

If the guy was really a team player like he claims to be, he’d work on assuming a different role on the field, maybe as a gadget player, a slotback/pass option player, a tight end, whatever it takes to makes the squad & contribute positively, which he said he would do when he joined the Pats, but he says he only wants to play the 1 position he can’t play well — QB.  The guy is delusional — the rest of the league has already figured him out rather quickly & he was one of the worst passers ever, and the stats don’t lie.

He’s not nearly as good at fooling the NFL at QB as he is at fooling the religious right & snagging $50,000+ per speaking engagement. He invented “tebowing” as a marketing ploy — the guy is actually Satan in disguise — Tim is the character in the movie “The Dead Zone” who tries to become President & ends humanity by pushing the button while everyone’s drinking his Jim Jones-brand of Kool-Aid, but Christopher Walken (played by Nick Saban in this cerebral script treatment of mine) steps in & says “screw you, Tim Tebow, and Roll Tide, you MF-er”, and then Tim’s on the cover of TIME holding up a baby as a shield. That’s the real Tebow, and “only time will tell” as the band ASIA once sang decades ago.

What gets me is that the Jacksonville Jaguars owner isn’t smart enough to realize that hiring Tebow at QB couldn’t make things any worse than they already are for them (4-12 in 2013), and the attendance & resulting merch sales would go sky-high.

If Tebow is #2 on Olbermann’s World’s Worst list any night, then Shahid Khan, the stupid owner of the Jags, is #1 every night.

Gay sir-uh, sir-uhhhhhhhhhhh

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As of 2010, appx 2.3 million Americans are either active military (appx 1.45 million) or in the reserves (appx 850,000), and it’s been estimated by various reputable sources that the number of people in America who are members of the LGBT community are appx 4% (12 million people), so assuming that the military typically doesn’t attract the LGBT community, and assuming maybe only 1 in 100 of LGBT persons want to be soldiers (20,000), on the low side of this equation, there are appx 20,000 US soldiers who are either gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

Of course, that’s strictly conjecture on my part, as nobody has a clue what the true numbers are, but there’s at least 1, and she’s an Army General (Brig. Gen. Tammy S. Smith), and if you support the troops, you should support ALL of them as long as they are doing the rightful, legal thing as Americans & soldiers, so since being LGBT soldier is not a crime (anymore), if you support ALL the troops, you should be supporting soldiers who are LGBT.

Most people don’t think about these things — they prefer to think in terms of “black & white” and ignore what they can’t get their arms around intellectually, but since the world is filled with shades of gray, looking for black & white answers in our world is a faulty premise, logically speaking.

So expand your mind and imagine the possibilities.  If you believe there is a God, certainly since He (or She) gave us a mind to think with, surely He/She hoped we’d use it every now and then to see how ignorant we are.

Politics preys on the weak

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Politics should not be about increasing the wealth & power of only certain individuals or segments of our population who clearly don’t need its help, including special-interest groups.  It should be about ideals that bring society together on a just & fair plane with a better societal direction & working to rectify problems, achieve goals & maintain a fair societal balance rather than separating us into unequal divisions fueled by hate, greed & egotistical values.

Our people should be taken care of in all their basic needs as needed, such as adequate safe housing that has access to proper infrastructure such as sanitary sewer/septic systems, public water & electricity, free & proper health care, treatment for mental issues & addictive disorders and given basic food if they cannot afford it. However, this help should be temporary and only as-needed, and those “in the system” need to be trained & educated to get out of it quickly, and failure to do so should land them in a minimum-security “educational prison” until they learn a trade they can use to earn a living. Many homeless are so simply of their own choosing/doing, and many people getting welfare refuse to improve themselves to try & get off it.

Unlike animals, our human minds are naturally geared toward compassion, reason & rationalization in a zero-sum game rather than being polar opposites fighting for survival — instead, we are taught to hate those who are different & see things differently & we despise the weak & less-fortunate in our society.

We do that because we’ve been taught to win at all costs & punish those who don’t make the grade for whatever reason, and that’s what will cost us as a society at some point — we’re paying for it now by worshiping people who have no business being idolized simply because our society looks upon them as strong, beautiful, or some other appealing yet superficial trait.

Until we can treat all of our citizens with respect, and until all our citizens work to earn that respect, we will be doomed to mediocrity.