Amen… we need to vote them out.
Bill Maher — Worst Responder
Amen… we need to vote them out.
Zombie Apocalypse and Silver Linings
In my somewhat long and very circuitous life I have lived through several natural disasters, economic, spiritual and emotional crises. The current one of COVID-19 feels different on so many levels. With natural disasters and to some extent with economic crises there is something physical to grasp onto, something to see. Especially with natural crises, there is often something physical you can do. Our physicality in this crisis is limited to sheltering in place. With a natural disaster you generally have a timeline. You have an expectation Continue reading “Zombie Apocalypse and Silver Linings”
Exponential Threat and other short videos…
Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #4,230
yeah I know you did not ask!
Am I the only that finds it ironic that Republicans across the nation and in Washington, the PRO-LIFE party, are willing to sacrifice 1,000s of lives in their attempt to maintain the economic health of the US of A.
I suppose that most of those will be senior citizens makes it alright. And these are the same folks that have been pushing the person-hood of unborn fetuses. A living, breathing person with a network of friends and families is expendable, and the other is not…until they are born.
The other irony in all this is that the religious right has embraced the Republican Party and Donald Trump with both arms and gone “all in” on their bet. The Christianity I learned about was a religion of compassion and caring. That concepts seems to have gone missing from both Trump and the Religious Right.
Open Letter to My Children and Grandchildren
Dear children, grandchildren and other assorted beings younger than I:
I am requesting that you start addressing me, in person, and in your correspondence (text??) as “Dear Disposable One“.
It will do two things.
First it will ease the transitional phase of my absence from this world of woes to whatever supposed metaphysical state exists thereafter.
Secondly, it will show your support of Donald J. Trump and the GOP as they “restart” the economy. I am sure the $1000.00 or so you spend on my cremation will be a big help, especially after a long and costly hospitalization paid for with your tax dollars.
Thanking you in advance for doing your part.
With much love,
The soon to be dearly departed.
Heather Booth: The most influential women you never heard of…
Heather has been married to my wife’s cousin for over 40 years. I met Paul and Heather at a Booth family reunion a few years back. I will have to admit I was a little overwhelmed with all the new people I was meeting for the first time. I do remember how proud my wife was of her two cousins.
The film is only an hour long, but details the incredible life of activism of this driven woman. Perhaps someday we will have a society that respects and supports all of us. Until then we need people like Heather Booth to fight the Dark Side.
The film is available on two sites that I know of:
HEATHER BOOTH: CHANGING THE WORLD from Women Make Movies on Vimeo.
And if you are impatient like us and cannot wait more than 2 days for a package and have Amazon Prime it is available there too.
Short Video of the Timeline of Trump’s Lies about Coronavirus
May God save us, said the agnostic…
Ten Commandments for Politicians – Revisited
Ten Commandments for Politicians
Nearly a dozen years I started working on a ten commands for politicians. At that time I came up seven, and I had hoped someone would have helped me round the list out. But I am truly “The Little Known Blogger”. So now I am revisiting that list, especially in light of the corrupt administration driving this nation into 3rd world status.
- First, do ye no harm
- The majority rules, not the dollars
- Ye live in a glass house, act accordingly
- Thou shall avoid in all ways the trough of the lobbyist
- If it looks like pork, if it oinks like pork, if it sizzles like pork, vote ye not on it
- Remember ye that Squealor was not right, “All animals ARE equal, but some and no animals are more equal than others.” This includes politicians, government officials, politically connected business people, and wealthy donors.
- Usufruct – Remember ye that we are but Stewards for those that come after us, as those who came before were Stewards for us.
- Take ye responsibility for thine actions, good or bad. Acknowledge thy mistakes, and better yet, learn from thy mistakes.
- Govern ye by facts, not dogma or “gut instincts”.
- Be thou a leader for all the people, not just thy party or thy supporters. There is but one life boat. We all need to be rowing together.
Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #5,119
yeah I know you did not ask!
In the middle of a global health crisis, in the middle of a pandemic, we are also having a crisis of leadership…no matter what Fox News and the MAGAs say.
For the most part the leadership in this country at all levels of government are politicians. A few cities and counties will employ professional managers, but they always report up to a politician.
So what are the qualifications to become a politician and by default a leader. Very little. You have to have an ability to run your mouth, act like you know what the solution is, and perhaps have a little charisma. I can think of very few other fields of endeavor in our society that require so little of their practitioners.
Then on the other hand I think of the Winston Churchill quote:
‘Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…’
But I do think we should be electing folks to lead us that can do more than talk, obfuscate, and line their own pockets. I am not sure how you would implement some sort of basic screening but there must be a way. High on my list would a sanity test and a test of empathy.
We deserve better.
Coronavirus, are we overreacting?
I worked in Information Technology for 30 years. I was actually on call December 31, 1999. Remember Y2K? Lots of folks felt like there had been a tremendous overreaction to this potential problem. What most people did not see was the 3 years before the change from 1999 to 2000. There was an immense amount of work that went on changing the date routines of uncountable computer programs on mainframe systems. This is when Indian programmers first started coming to this country in large numbers, to work on the Y2K issue. The work was done, and there were very few glitches across the computer world. People then had the luxury of making fun of the whole Y2K phenomenon.
What I am trying to figure out is, are we overreacting to the coronavirus pandemic? The truth is we will not really know until Continue reading “Coronavirus, are we overreacting?”