Category: Politics

What has happened to this country…

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Flags, Deflection, Guns, Rationalization

In order to confederate battle flagget through life we all have certain psychological defense mechanisms that we use more or less depending on the person and the situation. A very common one is rationalization which is defined as:

‘Rationalization is the cognitive distortion of “the facts” to make an event or an impulse less threatening. We do it often enough on a fairly conscious level when we provide ourselves with excuses. But for many people, with sensitive egos, making excuses comes so easy that they never are truly aware of it. In other words, many of us are quite prepared to believe our lies.’ 1

When psychologists talk of defense mechanisms, they are typically speaking of the individual. However, humans practice defense mechanisms as a group. While there are many areas that we practice rationalization, a frequent one in the United States is gun violence. Whether the killing is en masse or an individual, we continually hear comments Continue reading “Flags, Deflection, Guns, Rationalization”

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Unions Are About Fairness

unionNicholas Kristof recently wrote an editorial, The Cost of a Decline in Unions

On the whole I believe unions to be a necessary component of our capitalistic system. The individual worker has very little power in dealing with large businesses or large government entities. When they do have power it is when there is a tight labor market, but those seldom seem to last very long.

It is always dangerous to generalize from one’s personal experience to make points about larger issues, but here I go. I have seen union membership be required when the union did little for the worker. They were in place, gathered their dues, and that was about it. At the other end I have seen unions so intent on justifying their existence that they frequently went to the extremes. They did not realize that sometimes good is good enough. There is, of course, a MLK holiday. The union for the outfit I worked for in Memphis managed to wrangle another holiday, the day of MLK’s assassination. It always struck me that they filed all too many grievances, and generally tried to maintain an attitude of the union versus management. Frequently what seems to happen with unions in place is an overly structured workplace.   The company and the worker lose some ability to do the work creatively. In the past the union managed to create jobs that were perhaps unnecessary. I had a roommate in Rhode Island who was a union fireman. His workday consisted of going in at 11 p.m., Continue reading “Unions Are About Fairness”

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Madder Than a Baptist Finding His Favorite Liquor Store Closed

GUNI really surprised myself as how quickly I went from wandering around REI Christmas shopping to madder than a Baptist finding his favorite liquor store closed.

The REI here is St. Louis is in one of the richest parts of town. The parking lot is full of Beamers, Mercedes and Teslas in addition to the expected Subabrus, Toyotas and Hondas. We were walking towards the front of the store to check out. Robin never noticed him, but there was a young man, perhaps in his late twenties, walking around with a 45 strapped to his waist. He was obviously not store security. He did not look like a plains clothes police office in his Australian outback hat. I had to turn around and walk towards the back of the store as my impulse was to walk up to him and say, “Unless you are carrying a badge, you are one stupid mother f***er.

I do not want to live in a society where people can walk around with lethal weapons strapped to their bodies. I consider concealed carry laws an atrocity beyond words. I have lived 63 years and I can think of only one situation where I might have wanted a gun. Instead I turned around and confronted the man verbally which was enough. It is insane to have to worry about accidentally triggering some mental case with a gun tucked away somewhere on their body. If I verbally abuse you, flip you off, or cut you off in traffic it is more insanity to have to worry about a weapon.

My personal opinion is that anyone that is willing to carry a weapon, openly or otherwise, in a situation where the need for it approaches an infinitesimal small percentage is not sane enough to carry a weapon.

 

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought # 1,394

yeah I know you did not ask!

What about next time Congress has some “must pass” legislation, instead of slipping a rider that benefits only the fats cats and decreases our democracy, we tact on riders to benefit all of us.  Perhaps something to reform the student loan program, and make college affordable; perhaps something that will help bring good jobs back to America;  perhaps legislation to bring our infrastructure into the 21st century; perhaps a realistic minimum wage; perhaps a tax code change to decrease the wealth gap; I could go on an on, but you get the idea.

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These Are The Most Controversial Illustrations You Will See This Year

Follow the link below.  Some of the pictures may offend some…so if you choose to click be nice to me.

These Are The Most Controversial Illustrations You Will See This Year

 

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Elizabeth Warren’s Speech on Citibank

Red, Blue, Purple, Green… whatever the color of your political cloak this is a must watch speech by Elizabeth Warren

 

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Conspiracy Theory — Not the Movie

Dick Cheney Speaks At The American Enterprise InstituteI 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”