Red, Blue, Purple, Green… whatever the color of your political cloak this is a must watch speech by Elizabeth Warren
Conspiracy Theory — Not the Movie
I was recently taken to task for a previous blog posting, Opinion Bombs. The precise section that was objectionable to the commenter was:
“I feel like there is some unknown force driving wedges between the various factions of our country and of the world. I’m not a big believer in conspiracy theories, but it feels like the “powers that be” want to keep the little folk bickering among themselves. It is the magician’s sleight of the hand. Distract the masses with these wedges and the powers can go on with whatever it is they want to do.”
Specifically, the commenter found my use of “conspiracy theory” problematic. Perhaps I used the word incorrectly. Conspiracy is defined as – “a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.” A conspiracy theory is defined as – “a belief that some covert but influential organization is responsible for a circumstance or event.” The operative difference is “belief”.
What I was referring to as conspiracy theories is no longer very covert, Continue reading “Conspiracy Theory — Not the Movie”
Opinion Bombs
I have friends of color. I have a couple black friends with ties to Ferguson. I have white friends. I have friends, who are conservatives and others that are liberals. When I say friends I mean real and/or Facebook. To
all of the above I could substitute the word friend with relatives. I mention this because in my Facebook feeds I get multiple opinions on the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases. What has struck me most strongly is that there seems to be a strong dichotomy that is tending to break down along lines of color and position on the political spectrum. People are not so much discussing the situation as throwing opinion bombs at each other.
There was one posting on the Michael Brown case with a lot of reinforcing comments to the posters opinion of Michael Brown being a criminal. What struck me so vividly was the way the posters and commenters saw blacks. They were definitely “others”. They were a group separate from them, and something to be feared. Last time I looked we were all humans and we all bleed red.
I’m not the first to notice this phenomenon, that we do not discuss issues anymore. Continue reading “Opinion Bombs”
Food for Thought — Michelle Alexander’s Speech on Race and Violence
Please Don’t Vote – A Message From The Republican Party
ObamaCare for Dummies
This is a very NON-PARTISAN explanation of the Affordable Care Act aka ObamaCare. It strikes me that a large number of folks are opposed to ObamaCare and actually have little or no understanding of what it really is.
One issue I hear a lot is that folks are afraid that they will be taxed to subsidize freeloaders. IMHO this is happening already in two ways. The first would be excessive corporate profits. There is a reason insurance executives can be paid those huge salaries and bonuses. Secondly, when poor folks have no other health care option but to show up at an emergency room we are taxed for by the cost be shifted into other arenas of the hospital and passed on to paying patients.
Health resources are limited which means they need to be triaged. The question becomes do you want the government triaging your health care or a for profit corporation. Seniors seem to love the governments Medicare program. Native Americans seem to find Indian Health Care more than acceptable. My personal issue with ObamaCare is that is leaves too much in the private sector, but I realize it was probably the best that could be done at the time.
At least invest the 15 minutes or so in a very well done video before you absolutely decide one way or the other about ObamaCare. Far too many of us many political decisions along partisan lines without all the information. Far too many of our politicians do not speak to the issue, but work on our fears. Educating yourself is at least a start in the right direction.
Jon Stewart weighs in on the Bill Maher and Ben Affleck flap
Humanity Will Always Live in Chaos as Long as Organized Religion Persists
He absolutely read my mind:
“Organized religion is the worst thing that’s ever happened to human kind.
All organized religion does is provide a tool for those in power to manipulate millions to act against their own self interests. Which is exactly what you see in Christianity and Islam. People in power, using religion, to get people to act like absolute fools. People living their lives under the control of religious rules that are derived by some human’s interpretation of something they read in a book.”
I do not have a problem with faith, just how it has be kidnapped by the power structure. I perfectly okay if you want to dance naked around a 10 foot statue of G.I. Joe. But please to not hand me a glass of your Kool-Ade or force me to dance.
Ben Affleck, Sam Harris, Bill Maher and Islam
I really did not know a lot about Ben Affleck before this, but after watching this episode of Bill Maher I lost a lot of respect for him. He did what a lot of folks seem to do on these types of shows, rather than reason and debate, he was loud and obnoxious in an attempt to make a point.
I am secular and I have a hard time with most religions, but Islam in particular (at least as portrayed by our media). The main reason being is the few Muslims I know personally seem like good and reasonable people. They seem to love and believe their faith as much as any Baptist from Oklahoma. In an attempt to understand the religion that is so much in the news these days I have read a couple books about Islam. At the core Islam seems full of love, care and kindness for fellow humans. I know that the Islam religion as practiced early was very tolerant of other religions. The Islam that seems to predominate today is one of the fundamentalist ilk that does not seem to very tolerant of some very basic human rights. It seems like separation of church and state is a goal to avoid. The religion I see on the news is not tolerant of different points of views. It appears to me that much of strife in the world currently comes from the Muslim arena.
The message that Christ preached was full of love, caring and kindness also. Something seems to happen when religions move pass this “Golden Rule” core. The history of all the Abrahamic religions is not pretty. It is one of strife, conquering, destruction, intolerance and murder all the way to genocide. The history of the Catholic Church is very troubling.
My basic point of view is that life is tough, so whatever gets you through the day is fine with me as long as you don’t want me to drink your Kool-Aid. I try to be tolerant of religion, but some days I just want to scream. I really do believe that the world would be a far better place if all religions would go away. I also realize that humans have a spiritual need. I just wish there was something else besides the bloody, intolerant Abrahamic religions to fill this need for the 2 or 3 billion individuals that follow these religions.
Oh well. Here is the video. It does not even include the worse of Ben Affleck’s rants.
John Stewart Nails It Again
Just as a point of reference, I missed this episode of The Daily Show. A friend of mine who is a Vietnam War veteran sent me this link.
Rev. Joe’s Random Thought # 1,234
…yeah I know you did not ask!
Definition of a politician: An individual who spends inordinately large sums of money to get elected to a job for which they are not qualified. Should they achieve this dubious goal the likelihood is that they will live up to the expectations of incompetence and/or corruption.