A Question of Respect

One of my readers (there might be seven if I am lucky) asked me why I show so little respect for the views of the Creationists and others, who are very sincere in their beliefs.

There is a very simple answer to that question.

I have very little respect for their views, and that is being generous.

I want to make it clear, that I have complete respect for a person's right to believe whatever the hell they want to believe, as long as they don't try to force it on me. I also have the right to think that their belief is a total load of runny kangaroo crap.

I deeply feel that there are some ideas that would be hysterically funny if the media weren't treating them as if they were the greatest thing to come along since penicillin and the polio vaccine.

I mean, Jesus....here is a very sincere looking news person, mike in hand, saying "Mr. Casswhistle Wynngnutt is the spokesperson for the Thousand Pound Rat Awareness Group. Members of the group have reported seeing rats the size of Volkswagens poking their heads out of manhole covers throughout Detroit. He says that these large rodents are lurking in the sewers and in the old salt mines awaiting the right moment to come forth and devour the entire Detroit Lions football team at halftime of their home opener..." The thing that moves this from the 'funny as hell' category, into the OMFG! category, is the simple fact that there are a lot of people who think that because they see it on TV, or hear it from some right-wing gas bag on the radio, that it is true. It moves further into the murky depths of ugliness when the politicians begin to base their views on these cockamamie beliefs...and these people are the ones who make the laws that we all are expected to obey.

When demonstrably crazy beliefs begin to exert influence over our lives in such a way, then maybe we need to start telling ourselves that these beliefs are like the guy who walks into your house party with dog shit on his shoes. The shoes need to be cleaned, or he leaves. If you think that there really aren't television 'news' shows who showcase idiocy, just Google 'Orly Taitz' and listen to her for a few minutes expelling her gospel of 'Obama is a Kenyan' on one of the cable news shows.

I find cranks entertaining as long as they are relatively harmless. When they begin making laws or derailing things that would actually benefit all the citizens, even themselves, then somebody needs to say, "We do not need to devote so much time and validation to ideas that simply deserve neither."

To wrap this screed up, I want to say that simply because someone is sincere in their belief does not entitle them to respect, in spite of the doctrine of political correctness. There were a lot of people in Europe who sincerely believed that the Nazi 'Final Solution' was a good idea. Shall we respect that?

Hell no!

Tim

A Quick Question

This question is important enough to warrant not being surrounded with my usual commentary, for today at least.

Why, in the name of all that is Good and Reasonable, not to mention rational, have we turned into a culture whose media celebrates angry cranks, pinheads, and those with ideas that a constipated gorilla would not wipe his ass on, while actively perpetrating ridicule and mistrust of bright, intelligent, driven people?

Watching the news, reading about the adventures of the creationist crowd and other religious fanatics of all stripes, I am convinced that if overt stupidity were money there would be no recession at all.

I have read pundits saying that people are afraid, that is why they are in the state they are in. If I get scared of something, I do not immediately lose my mind, strap on a gun, scream and begin throwing saddles on dinosaurs. I try to figure out how to handle the situation rationally. Silly me.

Snort.

Tim

OK..I am sure I left my mind around here.....

This will be a melange of things that have crept across my cortex over the past few days.

We have been up to our collective butts in the psychological and physical stresses that come with aging parents. Mary's parents had a bit of health crisis that we had to drive a two hundred mile round trip each day for three straight days to help successfully manage. Her parents combined age is 172, so it kept us busy, to say the least. Sarah Palin, the intellect of the Republican party, would be just durn glad to know there were no 'death panels' involved in all the work we did with the docs, etc. Socialized medicine, that is, Medicare, came through and all is well, at this point.

There were some things going on in the world that I did notice, I just can't remember what they are right now....

Edward Kennedy deserves gratitude for the tremendous amount of legislation he was instrumental in writing and shepherding through the Senate. I am sure the conservative noise machine (think grinding up live chickens in a blender..with due apologies to PETA) will be saying all kinds of crap about him, and his past. Yeah, well, they should also recognize all the adulterous hypocrites that litter their playing field before pointing fingers. I suppose the noise machine will say that the pious adulterers have all been processed through the 'Forgiveness Soul Wash & Tyrant Study Group' on C Street, so that doesn't count. Bottom line...Ted Kennedy helped a lot of people regardless of what the pinheads say.

The PETA Billboard: Wow...their advertising mavens are real shitheads. They have run ads in the past few months that would have you believe that being a Vegetarian will have you hooking up with skinny models who rub broccoli on their genitals, and that being a Veg will make you thin. Even my devoutly vegetarian spouse remarked that there a a lot of fat vegetarians around, to which I added that there were also a lot of vegetarians who could not get laid if their little vegetarian lives depended on it. She did agree, albeit with a remark about my irredeemably male take on it. The whole upshot of this crassly stupid billboard, was that it was just that, crass and stupid.

That is about it for today. I am still tired and need to go stretch out somewhere and snore.. loudly.

Tim

The Naughty, Naughty Poor

As I was getting back into real life, post-vacation, I came across a blog, posted by a very conservative, God, Mom, and Rush Limbaugh type. He is very religious, has his own small church, and is a decent sort over coffee.

His blog said that he had been taken aback by a magazine article that talked about the growing rich/poor gap in America, and used the term 'relative deprivation.' It was 'relative deprivation' that got him. He did some biblical research and decided that what 'relative deprivation' really meant was 'covetousness,' which all good Judaeo-Christians know is a SIN.

Gee, that really warmed the cockles (whatever the hell they are) of my heart. The message seems quite clear; "All you members of the quickly growing class of the unemployed, underemployed, fixed income, and generally poorer citizens, who may look at these wealthier citizens and want more for their kids: Stop it! You are filthy sinners, deserving of hell lest you repent and repent fast! Bad, bad people! Because so much of your labor has gone into the pockets of the wealthy, does not mean you can dare to want the value of your work in your pockets! SINNERS! Our Lord, Jesus said that you will always have the poor with you, and since He Is God, who are you, you pitiful souls, to dare to contradict the CEO? "

I could go on, but I think you get my drift. Bullshit is bullshit, even if it is cloaked in the garments of religion.

I would also point out, that the moneychangers Jesus drove from the temple were simply men providing a service to Jews coming from all over the world to worship at the temple, as commanded by their faith. These 'moneychangers' had families they were trying to support, you know, kids to feed, a home to maintain, etc. Jesus, kicked over their tables, scattered their money, and called them thieves. He evidently had little respect for their capitalist endeavor. It wasn't just because they were in the Temple...he called them thieves on top of it. Hmm.

The oligarchs of corprofascism, most of whom are 'Good God-Fearing Christian Men,' according to the current right wing, evangelical apologia, had better take note. If the parousia were to take place today, they may well see that 'knotted cord' in Jesus' hand, as he rolls up his sleeves, and looks their way.

Tim

WTF?????

As I reorganize from my vacation, I saw the story about the people carrying guns at Obama rallies.

I have only one thing to ask: What the hell would have happened if armed protesters had shown up at any of President Bush Jr's. speeches or rallies??? We all know, don't we? Goddamn right we do. I mean the cops hassled ladies wearing the 'wrong' t-shirts for God's sake! Were people afraid that if the Secret Service and police had hassled and removed the armed people, the right wing morons would have been screaming about the death of liberty? Let them spew their toxic fumes, the president must be kept safe, period, end of discussion. I would say the same thing if armed loons had shown up at Bush's rallies. It is a damn sad thing when people have been pushed, by morons in the talk world, into such states of fear and delusion, that carrying things designed to deal death is the most effective way to 'protest'. Now that IS scary!!

After seeing that kind of crap beginning to surface, whipped on by republicans and their drooling media sycophants, it makes me wonder just where the real Spirit of America has gone. I am beginning to see that there is a spectre haunting our America; it is the spectre of a fear driven craziness that can lead a people straight into the arms of dangerous political delusions, where they sacrifice their real freedoms for the false 'freedom' of a security that is neither free nor secure.

I am going to mentally return to the banks of the Hudson near Hyde Park, and let that heal me.

Tim

Resting in Connecticut

It was a long trip, but I spread it over two days, spending the night in a WiFi bereft hotel in Scranton on Wednesday, and arriving safely in Groton yesterday afternoon. Mary and Christy and the kids were about 4 hours behind me, so I visited the USS Nautilus and the Submarine Force Museum which I enjoyed. Historian that I am, I remember when the Nautilus made it's first ever voyage under nuclear power, and yesterday I stood on her deck. That was very cool.

I also will tell anyone listening, that GPS systems for your car are indispensable. I am sold on them. Since Christy knew the way, she loaned me their GPS, and I am buying one before we leave Groton. Huzzah!

Now I am going back out to enjoy the nice weather and the Atlantic breezes.

Gawking Tourist Moment: When I drove across the Hudson, I was amazed at its' beauty. It is something I want to see more of. I also had the privilege of seeing a Bald Eagle land in a tree along the highway as I putzed along. Just magnificent!

Back to resting.

Tim

On the Road Again....

Tomorrow morning I am off and PT Cruisering for the wilds of Connecticut. Mary and I are helping our daughter-in-law take Cally and Lucy, their obstreperous cat Moxie, and all the stuff that was required for their 6 week stay in Michigan while Adam is deployed. There also has been an accumulation of things for the kids from grandparents, and other sundry relatives. I am leaving a day ahead of time as I can't make the long drives like I used to because of my leg and knee. So, I have an audio book, some good music, and the silence of the drive to enhance the joys of the turnpikes. If I can find a motel with Wi-Fi I'll even blog tomorrow.

That is it for today.

No rants...I am just suffused with the simple profundity of breathing and living.

Tim

Now Here is a Thought...

Today as I was having my usual Tim Horton's Iced Capp and breakfast sandwich I was continuing to read Slavoj Zizek's Violence. I came across an utterly remarkable paragraph which I re-read about 4 times before highlighting it.

He had just quoted the warning of Dostoevsky from The Brothers Karamazov about godless moral nihilism: "If God doesn't exist, then everything is permitted." We hear this a lot, about how God in his various permutations is all that keeps us all from turning into savage animals, yadda-yadda.

Zizek says: "He couldn't have been more wrong: the lesson of today's terrorism is that if there is a God, then everything, even blowing up hundreds of innocent bystanders, is permitted to those who claim to act directly on behalf of God, as instruments of his will, since clearly a direct link to God justifies our violation of any 'merely human' constraints and considerations." (Zizek: Violence; pg 136)

Before any Christians begin their finger pointing toward Islam, I would remind them that their beloved St. Augustine wrote " Love God and do what you will." There is a term for that. It is called 'ethical suspension'; in short, that if one loves God then one can do as one pleases. There is an assumption that in doing what pleases God will always be ethical, which is, of course bullshit. Just ask the victims of the Albigensian crusade, Jew massacres, inquisitions etc. "There is no guarantee, external to your belief in what God really wants you to do. In the absence of any ethical standards external to your belief in and love for God, the danger is always lurking that you will use your love of God as the legitimisation of the most horrible deeds." (Zizek, Ibid: pg 137)

I am still digesting the truth in these statements.

I am going for a Maalox smoothie.

Tim

Let's get Real

I have a little mental zip drive that I call "Do These People Ever Listen to Themselves?" It has a pretty large capacity, I must add. I just downloaded a new one from the Rev. Ray Mummert, made during the controversy in Dover PA, over whether or not to allow the teaching of intelligent design into the schools. Pastor Mummert said: "We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture." I might wish to ask Pastor Mummert, that given that statement, just what segment he represents. This quote is from Charles Pierce's new book, Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free. It is a great read!

The book made me take a good look at some things.

FAITH: Faith is not a fact. I can have something called 'faith', and the only fact involved there is that I have it, not that is contains one grain of truth. Faith should be based on facts, and this brings us to the next thing:

BELIEF: Just believing something without empirical evidence, does not make it true. It only shows that one is choosing to give the weight of provable fact to something that may not have a single provable fact. Hearing some person saying it on TV or the Net does not make a fairy tale true. There will be those who rise right up and yell (given the current state of right wing debate) that there are a 'billion Christians who believe that Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, and he is going to come again and splatter all the people who don't believe." So what? There are a billion Muslims, several hundred million Buddhists and Hindus who don't believe it. Nothing is proven beyond the fact that a lot of people can line up behind their most dearly held delusion. It is when they begin to threaten the people who do not share their 'belief' that it gets dicey.

This brings me to the thing that drives people into the arms of wholesale acceptance of irrational belief.

FEAR: The one fact that no one can argue is that we die. This earthly life will end. Nobody..and I mean nobody gets out alive. This basic truth can seem to render life meaningless, and this is intolerable to many, so as soon as man began to think beyond survival, man began to concoct stories to offset that last great unknown. The Egyptians thought they had it covered with the rites for the dead and mummification. Well, museums are full of those people, still dead and looking pretty much worse for the wear. Jesus told followers that some of them would not taste death until they saw "The Son of Man returning in glory." OK...that was in 33 CE, and all those people are dead, and Jesus is still a no-show. Theology has a term for this little hiccup in the accuracy department. It is called "The Delayed Parousia". Maybe they should call it "Ooops!"

The Buddha pointed out that all suffering is caused by clinging to a belief that something just has to be unchangeable, and therefore, one must hang on to that, regardless of how ridiculous it makes the the requisite system needed to sustain the belief seem. If a person just accepts that everything changes, and that everyone dies, two facts that all our senses and experience tell us are true, regardless how badly we may want to deny it, then the life we have becomes infinitely more precious.

I am now going to enjoy some sun and the summer wind, and I do not have to believe that Adam rode a triceratops, in order to do that.

Tim

Wheelin'

Today I took delivery of my new vehicle.

A hot Topaz 9000 wheelchair.

I am excited! This has re-opened some slowly closing vistas. I can get around the house just fine, except the stairs can have their moments, but nothing insurmountable. I can walk into a restaurant, into the pharmacy to get something, and most of the big retail outlets have Amigos to zip around in. The 'rub' came when it involved walking a distance, like evening walks with Mary, visiting a museum or aquarium, or walking around downtown Ann Arbor on a Friday or Saturday night. These had become very problematic. Now, I am not the kind of a man who thinks that his wife can just adjust, because he can't or won't admit that there are some bio mechanical issues he has to make allowances for. With a nice vacation coming up, I said to myself, "This will not be messed up by me being unable to get around!"

To make a long story short, I talked to my doc yesterday, and today the Topaz 9000 arrived. It is a rental through the U of M health systems, as when I lose more weight, I am going to get a new knee. So, it will be temporary, hopefully. At least that is what I am working toward. I am quite happy, now Mary and I can go for an evening st/roll (good pun, huh?) and do some more fun things.

I had over heard an older man talking to his son, at my doctor's office. The old gent was vehemently arguing about not wanting a wheelchair. "It just means I'm getting old, goddamit! No!" His son said "Dad, you're 82!" This elicited a snort, and his dad said "I'll sit on my ass in the house all day before I get in a wheelchair!" This feeling, and various permutations of it abound in the land of "Never admit to looking (and often acting) your age." Face lifts, ass lifts and tucks, several kinds of suction, botox injections, hair dyes, and so on, are the things used to convince oneself they you are not undergoing any type of aging. It can get rather funny at times. As I was shopping today in our local Meijer's, there was this lady ahead of me in the aisle, probably about my age, but really trying not to look it. I putzed up on the Amigo and stopped behind her cart. She was in front of it getting something, and seeing me she straightened up and said "I'll be right out of your way." "No problem" says I. Then I noticed a look of horror on her face. "Huh?" I thought, and I followed her gaze, from my face to her shopping cart. I almost burst out laughing. Since I was seated, my eye level was exactly at the level of the little kids seat in the cart where we all put small items when the kids no longer fill the seat. In her cart was a big can of Metamucil, a big box of glycerin suppositories, and some 'personal lubricant'. The very fact that I might have seen these things and come to the conclusion she was having some pretty normal effects of aging, seemed to be bothering her. In spite of internal laughter, I didn't bat an eyelash.
She really moved along.

We all get old. It is no big deal, if we just move into it, because nothing will stop it until we die. That is a fact.

So, me and the Topaz 9000 are getting ready for a few adventures. Rock and Roll!!!!

Tim

I Was Just Thinking...

It has been a busy day, out and about, so I have only this reflection for the day.

Jesus needed footnotes.

When he said "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." (Luke 6:31) He really needed to footnote that one.

Christian apologists say this rendering of the universal 'Golden Rule' by Jesus is far superior to all the other renderings of other faiths because it is a 'positive commandment'. It does not say what not to do, but what to do. That makes the need for a bit of explanation by Jesus a must, and it also shows a remarkable lack of insight for an omniscient 'God'.

What if one is a masochist? What if one is into kinky sex? What if one is a body hating ascetic? What are they going to do unto others, so that the same will be done unto them? One could see that this could lead to all kinds of odd happenings.

Just a thought.
Tim

Imagine....

Dostoevsky writes, in The Brothers Karamazov, "If God doesn't exist, then everything is permitted."

In Imagine, John Lennon says "Imagine no religion..."

Both these thoughts deal with how man might behave if we suddenly, somehow were given absolutely incontrovertible proof that God has been nothing more than the projection of the human superego ( with a huge dollop of Id thrown in ), and our own fears surrounding the seeming meaninglessness of a life that ends in extinction. There is the fidest view ( those who believe, as Aquinas did that faith must always trump reason and experience ) that since we are all in the grip of the pseudo-scriptural idea of 'Original Sin', without God to act as a brake, humans would just run wild and have wars, crime, untrammelled sex, out of control greed and oppression of the poor, the have-nots by the haves, exploitation of our resources to enrich the very few at the cost of the welfare of the many...hey! Wait a minute.....hmmmm.

Moving right along, then there is the materialist/realist view that, while humans do have inclinations to prosper themselves at the expense of others, there is also a natural instinct to care for other members of the social order, because when everyone has a share in the 'goodies' the reason to exploit and oppress drops accordingly. Good is not done to suck up to the Big Imaginary Friend, but because it is there to be done. If you fall, I help you up, not because BIF is 'watching', but simply because you have fallen. I help others, not because they are the 'image and likeness' of BIF, but because they need it. I don't hit upon a 'hot' lady because I am afraid that BIF will make my testicles bloat to the size of beach balls as I drag them around some hell in the next life. I don't do it, because I am still crazy about my vegetarian conscience/best friend/wife, Mary. There are a lot more things like this I could say, but I think my point is clear.

I am a theist. I believe there is a God. As such, this God cannot be limited by our concepts which are always colored by our desires. I need no reward for the good things I do, and I am humane enough to be ashamed when I act like an asshole.

I also feel that it is not moral to try and give the force of law to religious belief simply to deal with insecurities and doubts, as if by forcing others to believe, one can somehow be less doubtful about their belief system, not that I am talking about the right wing factions of any religion out there....like the followers of one such group that sent me a hysterical warning about the evils of the health care reform, which must be defeated, according to their view, because we are not real (insert denomination of choice here) if we don't act against the reform. Hmm, am I then to assume that the health of the multi-billion dollar insurance corporate giants is more important than relieving the suffering and cares of millions of uninsured or under-insured families. Maybe that is a new dogma that I am not aware of at this point.

That is enough for one day.
Tim

OK...That was Fun....

I awakened at 3:30 this morning with my GI tract in major rebellion against my antibiotics. OK, there are a helluva lot of other things I would rather do than tend to that sort of thing. 'Nuff said.

I received an e-mail from Josh, my son in Tennessee, with a great clip in it. It sort of puts the latest idiocy from the "I really, really need to get a life" crowd, the so-called 'birthers', in perspective. It features their leader, Orly Taitz. Check it out on yesterdays, Huffington Post. What a meltdown. Imagine someone giving a chihuahua about 15 amphetamines. It wasn't pretty.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/03/orly-taitz-melts-down-on_n_250441.html

Then I saw this: http://http//www.associatedcontent.com/article/1995500/citigroup_considers_100_million_dollar.html?cat=3

OK...there go the bowels again....it seemed to be the only rational response when reading about a nine figure bonus for one of the people critically responsible for the gas prices going past four dollars a gallon last year and the resultant implosion of the US auto industry. As if that were not vile enough, his company is part of Citigroup, who got a multi billion dollar dollop of bailout funds.

What the hell is wrong with that picture??

The corpro/statists and their little lap doggies in the political system were actually making small whines of justification.

Well, golly, I am sure that all those people who are unemployed, wondering just how they are going to make it, and provide for their loved ones, will be really comforted to know that the great capitalist/free enterprise system is working just fine. I would go and listen to a bunch of politicians and talking heads, all of who have the very best medical insurance, telling us how we don't need health care reform, but I realized I have no Immodium left. I think I'll just go and find a website on the creative use of nasal mucous. At least there there is an honesty rare in much of the corporate dominated media.

OK, so I am annoyed. At least Orly Taitz was funny.

Tim

Monday Musings

I have had a reasonably quiet Monday thus far.

My daily routine included doing our shopping, a duty that has fallen into my lap with all the subtlety of a crazed beagle. Fortunately, it is a duty I actually like as I have done shopping for my family mostly on my own since 1962, when I was 17. Now, due to the vicissitudes of fate and the arthritic genes in my DNA, I have to use the Amigo with the shopping basket to get around the big stores, most of which seem to be the size of Central Park in New York City.

Now, some of the little buggies move about as fast as I can walk on my painful knee/ankle days. That is always a treat as everyone passes you. I once heard a child tell her mom that the 'little scooter looks older than the old guy (yours truly) driving it'. I just smiled thinking of the squirrel scene in Willie Wonka'. Today I got the fast one. I mean the little sucker really whips along. That was fun. Most of the other shoppers are really pretty nice about it too, offering to get something off a shelf for me and the like. It just is nice to see there are times when the social identifiers of class, race, gender and whose Big Imaginary Friend is the best, fall away with a pleasant 'let me grab that for you.'

The best moment came when an old gent pulled up beside me in another Amigo. I smiled, and he grinned and said "Wanna drag?" It was a good moment of shared humor, in the frozen food aisle.

So my Monday has been quiet, one of those days when the gentle boredom of 'not much going on' is the perfect thing.

It is even a gift at times.

Tim

Sunday, Sunday...

It is a beautiful day in what has been an exceptional summer in Michigan. The humidity is low and the temps are in the mid 70's with a glorious wind. On days like this I have no need to set in an officially sanctioned edifice to thank God for the wonderful planet we have been left to tend and care for. That vision tends to get a bit skewed by the corporo-capitalist system that sees only commodity and cash, not trees and grasses and mountains. But I digress...

I am getting off track. I try to keep my political side in tight rein on Sunday. When it gets too obstreperous, I threaten it with being made to watch Fox News for five hours. It quickly retreats to a corner of my intellect and sets down mumbling something about that being the equivalent of waterboarding one's rational mind.

So, without further ado I am going to return to what Sunday is really all about as far as I am concerned, being giddily grateful to the Divine Heart in all things, and breathing the fresh air. Today it also involves doing battle with our incredibly feisty Wisteria, which thinks it can totally envelop our front side garden.

Be Well and Be Grateful
Tim

Why Bother?

One of my friends asked me why I bother to write a blog. I can very easily tell you why I bother writing what I do. There are several very good reasons. Two of the reasons are running around the house having the kind of fun that only a three year old and a one and a half year old can have. Another reason is living in Tennessee working for the Navy. Another is living with her hubby in town, another is somewhere under the Atlantic on his submarine, of which he is the chief engineering officer, while two more reasons are pursuing the little ones: their Mom and their vegetarian/artist Grandmother (of whom I have written). Great reasons to my way of thinking.

I want the best for all our kids, their spouses and the grand kids. That does not make me unusual in the least. Maybe I worry about it more than most because there are a lot of people who seem not to want them, and all the other wives, kids, grand kids, and extended families we all care about, to have the chances, freedoms, or life we have had.

There are fundamentalists who want to turn this country into an oppressive theocracy where freedom is a stranger, and their delusions are given force of law. Here I do not speak only of the radical Islamists, who have the same desires for America. Read the new book The Family by Jeff Sharlet for more information on this aspect of things. I'll have more to say on this sort of thing as this blog develops.

So, I give voice to my worries and join the mass of other bloggers who share their thoughts and feelings, ideas and ideals for whomever might care to read them. We bloggers of all stripes may be what keeps the forces that would take away our freedoms at bay!

A final note for the day, on the dangers of grandparenting. As I was waiting for Cally, our oldest granddaughter to hop out of her car seat, I said, looking at the assembly of books and toys on the floor where she had dropped them during our trip to see Mary's folks, "Wow, got a lot of crap on the floor there kiddo." She said 'That's not a lotsa crap." Christy (their mom) said "Cally learned a new word!"

Oops.

Oh well, at least I didn't say...well you know.
Tim