Really? – 8/29/14 – GOP vs Women, its a saga; Ebola creates a problem; Democrats have a problem; Gays – WWJD?

Really? – 8/29/14 – GOP vs Women, its a saga; Ebola creates a problem; Democrats have a problem; Gays – WWJD?

The Gun Debate Is Too Important to Be Left to Children.

The Gun Debate Is Too Important to Be Left to Children.

You Won’t Spot Most Patriots – They Generally Don’t Wear Flag Pins.

You Won’t Spot Most Patriots – They Generally Don’t Wear Flag Pins.

Really? 8.24.14 – A Capricious God; Politicos Enshrined; Perry, the “Ugly Gringo”; ISIS Would do Better to Recruit Serial Killers.

Really? 8.24.14 – A Capricious God; Politicos Enshrined; Perry, the “Ugly Gringo”; ISIS Would do Better to Recruit Serial Killers.

The Liberian Ebola Conspiracy Theorists are Rank Amateurs Compared to Our Loonies

“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”  ― Marcus Aurelius,  ‘Meditations’.

There is wild speculation is West Africa over the causes of the Ebola outbreak and the role played by the Liberian government in the epidemic. Speculation so wacky it hardly seems credible that people could believe it.

This will come as no surprise to westerners complacent in their rational superiority, who will greet the news with a “duh, of course” paternalism by those who see Africans as ovine children caught in the cross-fire between the greed of their governments and rebels doing God’s work (who have their own avaricious lusts).

But it isn’t the superstitious mob that sees a conspiracy behind the Ebola affair, that nugget is making the rounds of the educated classes. The uneducated are less interested in machinations at the seat of power. They have pursued the millennia old explanation for catastrophe – that it is the work of an angry God, pissed off at some moral failing in the population.

So what are these wacky theories? One belief is that Ebola doesn’t even exist. It is in fact a fiction propagated by government officials eager to see the spigots of international aid cranked wide open. To add credence to the fiction. the government is supposedly poisoning wells around the capital, Monrovia

While this seems incredible, it does jibe with the history of western money in West Africa. It is well known that a lot of foreign aid does end up in the dear leaders’ Swiss bank accounts.

Over 2,000 years old and trafficking in infectious diseases.

More off the wall is the Queen of Sheba cabal. According to this theory she was invited by the government to bring Ebola to the country for the same reasons the government invented the epidemic – foreign funds. It is unclear who this Queen is. But no one has actually met her. It is like every urban legend – validated by a friend of a friend.

Most Americans will look askance at this ridiculousness. But should we be so superior? Is there nothing like this in the US? Of course there is. We are a country in love with absurdities. Not just at the fringes, but right to the top of the political heap.

Take evolution. The majority of GOP presidential candidates reject it. The US has won more Nobel Prizes than any other country – easily. Yet conservative politicians insist science is a matter of opinion. They are more likely to believe that a personal God created everything in its present form. And that a bronze-age book of collected shepherds’ tales has validity as a science text. And further, they want to inculcate the youth of America in this nonsense. It’s child abuse.

But ignoring science is something the GOP does well. Every cold snap in Duluth is greeted with guffaws from climate-change deniers. “Put your head out the window. Where’s your global-warming now?” they derisively sneer. They are proud they don’t know the difference between weather and climate. And are comfortable ignoring unprecedented heat-waves in other countries. (Because other countries don’t exist unless we invade them or they are going bankrupt due to “socialist” policies.)

Let’s revisit religion. What’s the intellectual difference between a fundamentalist Muslim and a fundamentalist Christian? It’s a trick question. There isn’t any. Both reject any evidence that doesn’t comport with their world view. It is only the religiously deluded that believe America was created as a Christian nation. Or that the Middle East is Allah’s paradise on Earth. I am not so familiar with Middle East, but the Constitution clearly demands the US be agnostic among faiths.

So far, no Nobel award for the chemtrail promoters.

Then there are the American “Queen of Sheba” believers. The type of folks who believe in “chemtrails” and that the United Nations is conspiring to confiscate American guns and rewrite our zoning laws. And that believe the President is a Muslim, a Kenyan, and a socialist.

That FEMA operates death camps. That 9/11 was a government or Jewish project. That Sandy Hook was a false flag operation. That JFK’s assassination was a mob hit, the Cubans, the Russians or Martians, for all I know. That FDR was forewarned about Pearl Harbor. Or that the moon landings were faked.

At the end of the day the Liberians seem comparatively sane.

The Ferguson Affair is no Reason to Abolish the EPA.

“If men were angels no government would be necessary” – James Madison

The Ferguson PD deployed armored vehicles and heavily armed, camouflaged officers to counter the protests over the Michael Brown killing. Libertarians are leaping on that overreaction to decry a government grown too large; too authoritarian; too fascist. Their solution? Dispense with the whole apparatus; sweep it away; drown it in a bathtub. But that is to throw the baby out with the bathwater .

An out of control police force is no reason to deep-six the EPA.

There is no doubt that, on the large scale, the NSA overreach – and small, the militarization of local police departments – government has been feeling its oats. All – except those who enjoy being spied on and brow-beaten by the brown-shirted bully boys – agree that these vile incursions on individual rights are despicable. But that should not be a rallying call to disband the EPA – nor any of the other agencies that protect the citizens from the depredations of corporate America.

Libertarians jump the shark when they conflate government oppression of the citizen with government regulation of business. Nobody wants the government to interfere with the individual’s pursuit of happiness. But there is much to recommend some entity preventing big business from peeing in everyone’s swimming pool (speaking metaphorically).

And what should the nature of this entity be? Libertarians tell us that the “free market’ will police itself. That “bad actors” will be weeded out. It is a utopian delusion – refuted by reality. Companies behave badly – time and time again – not because there is too much regulation, but because there is bad regulation. It is the same as saying that because “bleeding” and leeches didn’t cure disease, we should get rid of medicine.

Love Canal – a libertarian’s vacation paradise.

The need for something to rein in industry is overwhelming. In 1969 the Cuyahoga river in Ohio caught fire. In 1978 Love Canal was evacuated. In 1983 the Hudson River was declared a superfund site after being PCBed into submission. And that hardly scratches the surface of corporate environmental indifference.

Relying on the free market to police itself is like relying on an infant to keep his high chair clean. We need the EPA. And if it behaves in ways offensive to the individual then it needs to be improved not discarded.

It isn’t just the polluters who skate over decency. Money makes sinners of so many. Drug addicts are excoriated for there lack of moral fiber. Substance abuse is poo poo’ed as a disease and sneered at as a moral failing. But the addiction to profit seems to have abscised whatever moral fiber financiers may have brought to the party. Even to call them financiers is to give them a status beyond their exaltation.

Wearing an expensive suit doesn’t make you an upright man. Pimps and drug barons have style and flash but are scorned as society’s leeches. How is a hedge fund manager or any other get rich quick huckster any different? Capitalists who invest in new factories contribute to the economy – and make money, why not? But the masters of the universe use exotic, impenetrable financial instruments to create wealth – seemingly out of thin air – but not to contribute to economic growth.

If these self regarding, money mavens treat the economy as a casino they should expect to be regulated if they anticipate the general public backstopping their adventurism.

Business has bought itself a pack of poodles in Congress – and spends millions to convince the gullible to keep reelecting them. It is sad irony that the wide-eyed were convinced to enslave themselves to corporate rapacity by plutocrats selling them the idea that corporate regulation is fascism. It is one thing to wear chains. It is another to willingly don them.

Ferguson Isn’t 1776 – But There Are Some Common Themes.

“You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.” ― Booker T. Washington

America celebrates its birth as a triumph of the oppressed over their oppressors. But when the oppressed in America revolt today, the establishment sniffs. I suppose that when you are the children of revolutionaries, you celebrate those revolutionaries. But when you are the establishment, you support the establishment. Besides, the revolutionaries in Ferguson don’t look like the establishment.

Michael Brown – he was off to college.

Some of those citizens have actively protested the killing of a black unarmed teenager by a white cop. Some of those protestors have rioted and perhaps even looted. The authorities have leapt all over that to paint the crowd as a criminal mob. Which plays into white America’s suspicion that blacks are closer to the jungle than other races – and therefore allows the self-righteous to elide over the very real discrimination which may have contributed to the death of Michael Brown.

In fairness, the establishment was also horrified by the shenanigans of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, the protests against the WTO, and even the violent celebrations following major professional sports victories – generally much whiter affairs. But in these cases the miscreants could be dismissed as young, unwashed and liberal.

The establishment likes to contrast this active expression of frustration with the politesse of the Tea Party’s marches. Two thoughts. One, the Tea Party is old – how did these geezers act when young?  Two, talking about being young, did none of these old foggies ever burn a draft card or a bra. If not, what a wasted youth.

In our romantic view of the American Revolution much is made of the relative strength of the two sides. The overmatched colonists were up against the best equipped, best trained fighting force on the planet. The very fact that we were the underdog added legitimacy to our protest – “lack of might is right”, if you will.

This is not the army in the Middle East. It is the police force in Ferguson, Mo.

There is no comparison in toto between the Ferguson protesters and the revolutionaries of 1776. But there are some common themes. The protesters in Ferguson have molotov cocktails and reportedly shotguns. Facing them are a well equipped paramilitary force. The days of the cop on the beat swinging a billy-club are gone. Today’s police sit snug in armored vehicles – toting high-powered rifles, flash-bangs, tear-gas and a cornucopia of small arms and non-lethal weaponry.

They authorities behind this army have the same jaundiced view of the protesters as the English poobahs did of the American revolutionaries. But both sets of oppressed had real grievances. To be black in America is to be assumed guilty. Blacks smoke pot at the same rate as whites, but are arrested, convicted and jailed at a greater rate, Black drivers are more likely to be pulled over and ticketed. And unarmed black teenagers are more likely to be shot and killed.

White apologists harumph that there is more crime in black neighborhoods; that as a result it only makes sense to have more police presence. But it isn’t the quantity of policing that is the issue, it’s the quality. Any purse snatcher should be pursued and arrested, but no one should be detained on the suspicion they might be a purse snatcher.

The Constitution, and ethos of America, forbid a “Minority Report” world. But too often black youth are profiled – and treated – as criminals, before any evidence of crime is uncovered.

This lack of empathy by the authorities is exacerbated by the different make-up of the police and the community. Ferguson is 67% black. But its 53-person police force was reported to have only three black cops. That contention was scorned by the Ferguson police chief, who pointed out there were actually 5 black, 1 Hispanic, and 2 pacific-islander officers – in other words the police aren’t a dismal 6% minority, but a less than stellar 15%.

The pride of the chief’s contention shows his tone-deafness. As does his claim that he got along with neighborhood groups – while adding, “Unfortunately, an undertow (of racial unrest) has bubbled to the surface. Race relations is the top priority right now.” Too bad it wasn’t before.

Black Americans shouldn’t be given special treatment, but they should be treated the same as white Americans; given the same opportunities; and treated with the same respect.

Really? – 8.12.14 – Another dead, unarmed black teenager; Irony never takes a vacation; The 1st amendment – topless; The curse of ignorance

Really? – 8.12.14 – Another dead, unarmed black teenager; Irony never takes a vacation; The 1st amendment – topless; The curse of ignorance

There are Many Problems – But Few Crises.

There is a lot of stuff hitting the fan. And when stuff hits the fan the media – and the political punditocracy – love to throw the label “crisis” around. But does every brouhaha deserve the label “crisis”? Let’s  review.

First, closest to home, is the migration of unaccompanied minors from Central America to the US. This is decidedly not a crisis. It’s a problem. maybe even a big problem. Why should it be called a crisis? If there is one thing the US does well it is immigration. There are over 300 million of us who are immigrants or descendants of immigrants.

There are 12 million so called “illegal immigrants” in the US – how an extra tens of thousands of kids makes a difference is unexplained.

Ebola is deliciously scary. And if you are  victim then it is damn serious for you. The same could be said for shark attacks and plane crashes. But so far the number of dead is less than 1000 – or less than half the number of Palestinians who have died in the latest Israeli/Hamas strife. The resources dedicated to the suppression of ebola are extensive and the effected West African countries seem to have taken measures to combat the spread of the disease. It isn’t a crisis.

On the flip side of the ledger is Sunni vs Shiite civil war. ISIS is a crisis. The conflict has cast the survival of Iraq and Syria in doubt. Thousands are being killed – many more will be. Entire religious sects are being eradicated. The ISIS fighters believe they are doing God’s work and as such can not be reasoned with.

At some point there will be an end to the massacres. The Cultural Revolution in China petered out. Stalins purges and the further oppression of the Soviet citizens finally collapsed with the Soviet Union. Although Putin is keeping that ball rolling. But that will take decades – if not centuries.

Which brings us to Ukraine – and Georgia, Belarus, and the other old Soviet Republics. Are they teetering into crisis? Hardly. The Soviet Union’s economy was vast. Russia’s economy is the size of Italy’s. Russia has nuclear weapons – but they aren’t going to use them.

And Russia has gas and oil  - which the Europeans need. However, the Russians are now pivoting to China. But that is a path fraught with danger for the Russians. Europeans will be forced to adapt to a new energy source and the Chinese will go from strength to strength threatening Russia’s future viability. Which is unfortunate for them – but not a crisis for us.

Back to the USA. The true crisis in America is not – as we have seen – the kids on the Southern border. Nor is it the terrorist threats from radical, terroristic, islamofascism. It is the increasing inequality of wealth, the lack of economic mobility and the disastrous decline in the education of our youth.

But more on that another day.

Really? – 8.8.14 – Another Rand Paul fail; Anti-gay marriage bigots divorced from reality; Conservatives loving big b̶r̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ government; Ebola x2.

Really? – 8.8.14 – Another Rand Paul fail; Anti-gay marriage bigots divorced from reality; Conservatives loving big b̶r̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ government; Ebola x2.

The Impeachment Follies

The Impeachment Follies

Really? 8.3.14 – Abortion Follies; Bigotry; Perry Lies; & the GOP Love Affair with Corporations

Really? 8.3.14 – Abortion Follies; Bigotry; Perry Lies; & the GOP Love Affair with Corporations

Does God Love You?

A local church proudly announced on its billboard.

“God loves you

He always has

He always will.”

 

This is no doubt comforting. And satisfactory if you don’t over-think it – or think about it at all. But cursory consideration shows that the statement is absurd. Two claims are made here. One by implication – there is such a thing as “God”. And one by assertion – He loves you.

Let’s, for the sake of argument, stipulate that God exists and take a run at the claim that He loves you. It is hard to see where the evidence exists for this. If a father were to act as God does in the Old Testament he would be found guilty of child abuse. His sentence would be long.

In the New Testament, God’s reviews are more favorable. But his main booster is his Son. And as previously mentioned the father is so demanding and sadistic, his son’s testimony should be taken with a grain of salt. In all likelihood this poor bugger was so beaten up he would say anything to stop the pain.

Not that it did him much good, as his Father thought it a jolly idea to have him nailed up to suffer a revolting death.

When the dust has settled on that, the Bible promises such extraordinary tribulations on everyone who doesn’t dots the ‘i’s and cross the ‘t’s just so, it verges on torture porn.

Then let us contemplate human existence. There are some good bits. Sex, love and children are winners. As are a good meal and a nice bottle of Chianti. Good books, basking on the beach and the Grand Canyon can all be put in the plus column.

But the big negative is the capricious nature of life. It’s all going swimmingly until your 10 year-old daughter  is killed by a drunk driver or cancer. Even your arrival is a coin toss. Will you be swaddled in the finest cottons, attended to by the palace retinue? Or dropped in a field by a starving mother, gleaning a meager existence?

If you even make it. Perhaps 1/3 of us – and according to God’s most fanatical, we are an ‘us’ from conception – do not make it from fertilization to birth. Leaving God as nature’s most prolific abortionist.

At best He can be said to be from the “spare the rod, spoil the child” and “this will hurt me more than it will hurt you” school of thought. But the facts paint the Divine as an unmitigated shit.

Luckily, a complete lack of evidence suggests our stipulation – that God exists – is premature.