Category: Rev. Joe Dirt’s Ramblings

The unsolicited, unreasoned, uninformed, unapologetic opinions of Rev. Joe Dirt

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The Quiet Coup

 Author of the article, The Quiet Coup, is is Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund.

Here is a quote from the opening of the artilce:

“The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government-a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time.”

Scary stuff.

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Something to chew on…

 Scary truth about drugs and religion in the home

 Quoted from “Sexual Abuse in Christian Homes and Churches” by Carolyn Holderread Heggen:

A disturbing fact continues to surface in sex abuse research. The first best predictor of abuse is alcohol or drug addiction in the father. But the second best predictor is conservative religiosity, accompanied by parental belief in traditional male-female roles. This means that if you want to know which children are most likely to be sexually abused by their father, the second most significant clue is whether or not the parents belong to a conservative religious group with traditional role beliefs and rigid sexual attitudes. (Brown and Bohn, 1989; Finkelhor, 1986; Fortune, 1983; Goldstein et al, 1973; Van Leeuwen, 1990)

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What is up with that?

 Here is my premise:

Mankind is busy destroying the ecosystem to a point that it may drastically affect our quality of life. It will probably also cause untold suffering and deaths in the next 30, 40 or 50 years if we do not change our course of action.

I think we can agree that there are numerous societies and countries across the world that are pretty screwed up. I am not going to except the USA as I believe that we are a society based on capitalism. The heart of capitalism is greed, one of the worse human traits.

The well being of individuals are based on environmental and societal conditions.

My question:

To me the above implies that any God does not care for the world or societies at large. Continue reading “What is up with that?”

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Obama the Utopian

I describe myself as a Utopian.  I have a friend who when I said that would laugh and tell me I was being unrealistic.

I am a Utopian, not because I believe we will ever achieve Utopia, but because unless you aim high you will not achieve high.

It is obvious to me that Obama believes this principle.  He is a fellow Utopian.

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Must read article – “Why We Must Fix Our Prisons”

Senator Jim Webb wrote an article for Parade Magazine Why We Must Fix Our Prisons  Click link to read full story.

Some quotes from the article:

“With so many of our citizens in prison compared with the rest of the world, there are only two possibilities: Either we are home to the most evil people on earth or we are doing something different–and vastly counterproductive. Obviously, the answer is the latter. “ Continue reading “Must read article – “Why We Must Fix Our Prisons””

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To my email buddies/correspondents:

Anyone who knows me even slightly knows that I like to argue and talk politics.  They also know that I am somewhere to the left on the political spectrum.

I am probably not as near open minded about listening to other opinions as I fancy myself.  Nevertheless that is my goal.

I’ve been known from time to time pass on emails, editorials, jokes, Continue reading “To my email buddies/correspondents:”

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HP Pay Cuts – an unfair act of economic opportunism and greed.

Here is a link to a blog entry on DamianSanders.net.  It is somewhat long, but is an interesting case study in what is so wrong with this country (world?) that has been hijacked by corporate greed.

HP Pay Cuts – an unfair act of economic opportunism and greed.

I’ve been having a bit of a discussion about what is evil (See the article on Epicurus’  old questions).

It is obscene for the executives of these corporations to make the money they do.  Continue reading “HP Pay Cuts – an unfair act of economic opportunism and greed.”

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Would this treaty be signed today?

From the book, Doubt:  A History, by Jennifer Michael Hecht:

As second president of the United States, Adams signed into law the Treaty of Tripoli (1797), which declares that “the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion” and is in no way an enemy to Muslims.  On this basis “it is declared…that no pretext arising from religious opinion shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”  Further, “The United States is not a Christian nation any more than it is a Jewish or a Mohammedan nation.”  It was carried unanimously by the Senate.

I just have a hard time believing that a treaty containing such language would be passed at all today, let alone unanimously!

I could even see the Okie delegation storming out in protest.

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Epicurus’ old questions

Since we are being sophomoric here, and pondering some of the old questions here is one. 

The monotheistic problem of evil is often summarized as a trilemma cited in David Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (book 10):

“Epicurus’ old questions are yet unanswered. Is he [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? then is he impotent. Is he able, but not willing? then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing? whence then is evil?“

Note on April 8, 2009

Apparently it is going to remain unanswered.