Category: Red Flag

Head for the bunkers

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WTF – Trump – May God have mercy on our souls

“A man can smile and smile and be a villain. Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain.” ~~ from Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”  ~~ Albert Einstein

I was a military brat, and I was raised Southern Baptist.  As such, to a small extent, my foundation was God and Country.  Having always been around military bases growing up and seen more than a few military ceremonies of one ilk or another, it was not uncommon for me to get goose bumps when I heard The Star Spangled Banner or God Bless America.

Twenty five years or so ago I made the “mistake” of rereading the whole Bible.  When, as an adult, you read the Bible closely it does not stand up.  So I started studying other religions which caused me to look at my own religion with the same critical eye.  I detailed this in a previous blog article, Rev. Joe Stumbles.  The long and the short of it, I lost one of my weak pillars, that of God.  My religious faith evaporated.  I became a born-again agnostic.

That still left a faith in Country.  This had become weakened over Continue reading “WTF – Trump – May God have mercy on our souls”

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I Had to Walk Away

I had just got done golfing Friday and went into the club house to get my post round trumpBudweiser. On the TV, the news was blowing up with latest Donald Trump atrocity.  Which one?  They one where he got caught on tape bragging about assaulting women sexually.

The gentleman behind the counter was a fellow my age.  We have had several nice conversations together.  They are however, generally of the innocuous nature of small talk involving cars, golf or the Cardinals.

After watching the TV for a couple minutes I made the comment, Continue reading “I Had to Walk Away”

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2016 – Not the Time To Vote For A 3rd Party Presidential Candidate

There is a pretty good argument to be made that the reason George W. Bush defeated Al Gore in 2000 is due the votes the Ralph Nader garnered.  Undoubtedly most of those votes would have gone for Gore. Also undoubtedly a Gore presidency would have been head and shoulders above the cluster that was the Bush Presidency.  The world and our country would have been in a much better place than what has been left to us by Bush-Cheney disaster.

I understand folk’s disenchantment with both the major parties, Democrats and Republicans.  I do not know if it is still common, but in years past in some states when you registered to vote you had to declare party affiliation.  I usually registered as an independent which in many ways disenfranchised me. Continue reading “2016 – Not the Time To Vote For A 3rd Party Presidential Candidate”

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Mr. Blunt — You have blood on your hands

bloody handI recently contacted both of the Senators from Missouri and my Congresswoman, Ann Wagner.

The reason for my contact was to support President Obama in his push to institute some sanity in gun regulation and control by executive action. This dysfunctional Congress is unable and unwilling to address this important issue. Meanwhile 30,000 Americans a year continue to Continue reading “Mr. Blunt — You have blood on your hands”

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought # 7,416

yeah I know you did not ask!

By any definition of the word terrorism that I can think of, drive-by shootings fit into the category of terrorism. So why are we not mobilizing against this internal terrorism? Sadly, the answer that I can come with involves race and class.

There is not a lot being reported on this, but one study I did find cited the following statistics from 2006:

“During the six-month period covered in this report, 549 drive-by shooting incidents were reported in the news media as identified by Google, claiming 156 lives and injuring 465 individuals.” 1

Earlier in the document the authors made the statement that they believed drive-by shootings to be vastly under reported.

  1. Drive-By America from Violence Policy Center
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The Little Blue Book by George Lakoff and Elisabeth Wehling

The Little Blue BookThe main point of this book is that words matter. And the words that we debate with have been chosen by the conservatives to the detriment of progressive causes.

Someone recently posted on Facebook a quote by Robert A. Heinlein that sums up our current political situation nicely:

“You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic.”

The authors phrased it thusly: Continue reading “The Little Blue Book by George Lakoff and Elisabeth Wehling”

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Islamphobia

My Jewish wife has expressed to me that every time she sees an islamicphobic posting Facebook she feels like she has been kicked in the teeth. She sees islamphobia as just a different flavor of anti-Semitism.  It is same swallow from the larger cup of racism and intolerance. “Why cannot everyone just remember the Golden Rule,” she said.

From Islam:
“No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.”

From Judaism:
“What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman. This is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.” ~~ Talmud, Shabbat 3id

From Christianity:
“All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.” ~~ Matthew 7:12

“And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.” ~~ Luke 6:31