Friday, November 3, 2023

Christian political power

A poem this morning brought back to me the thoughts that have been shaking my mind like a 4.0 earthquake lately. Wailing fathers holding bloody kids amid the rubble of the house where they once found love and rest. I walk into my living room after a good night's sleep. The light on the timer has come on. The coffee pot is gurgling away according to its programming. My coffee is hot and ready. How do I deserve this and they deserve that?

The worst part of this... the war in the "Holy" Land... is that Christians seem to think it's a good thing. It portends the "End Times" to their deceived minds. "Senator" Tommy Tuberville thinks he's doing God's will, trying to force the military to make its members obey Alabama's abortion laws. He has the political power to hold up 400 top brass promotions, crippling our military's ability to respond to international crises.

But where did his political power come from? From God? After Jesus was baptized, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, he was led into the wilderness where Satan came to him and tempted him.

"You must be hungry. Why don't you turn these stones into bread so you can eat?" said Satan.

"No," said Jesus. "Man doesn't live by just bread, but by the Word of God." Strike one.

So Satan flew him up to the highest pinnacle of the Temple and said, "Jump! God has said the angels will catch you."

"No," said Jesus. "You must not tempt the Lord your God." Strike two.

Finally Satan took Jesus to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world. "I can give you political power over all the world if you but bow down and worship me," said Satan.

"Get away from me, Satan!" said Jesus. "It is written in the Scriptures, You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve!" Strike three, bub. You're outa there!

So when Satan offered Jesus political power, he turned him down. Apparently Sen Tuberville and the white Christian nationalist Republicans didn't. It's not God they're serving. It's Satan.

Sunday, October 29, 2023

Gaza, Ukraine, Maine, Acapulco and Formula 1

Alan Alda once said, as his character Hawkeye in M*A*S*H:

Hawkeye: War isn't Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.

Father Mulcahy: How do you figure, Hawkeye?

Hawkeye: Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell?

Father Mulcahy: Sinners, I believe.

Hawkeye: Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them - little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.

So I watch the videos of the destruction in Gaza, in Ukraine, in Maine, in Acapulco. ALL of those catastrophes, including the so-called "acts of God" like hurricanes, can be prevented by humans taking positive action. But we don't. We say, "They are killing us, so we have to kill them." We say, "Everyone, including psychopaths, has a right to own a gun designed to kill scores of people in a handful of seconds." We say, "Climate change is a hoax. Just more woke nonsense."

Maybe this is all God's will. If it is, then human beings have no right to continue.

Have you seen the videos of the destruction in Gaza? Bleeding kids? Dead kids? Have you heard the "Brass" in the Israeli military, the Minister of Defense? "We are fighting human animals." Even President Biden is refusing to urge Israel to obey the so-called "Laws of War". Specifically, to avoid causing civilian casualties. Yes, Hamas is evil, but Palestinian children, cripples, and old ladies are not. The UN passed a resolution to pause the bombing, but the US voted against it.

There's a Formula 1 race today. In Mexico City, a few hundred miles from where Hurricane Otis killed 27 people (maybe more now). It was a tropical storm and then 24 hours later it was a Category 5 hurricane hitting Acapulco. It could only become that strong that quickly because humans are heating the oceans with their carbon emissions. How can I sit and watch 20 rich guys burn fuel and dump carbon into the atmosphere while they race at 200 mph around in circles and go nowhere?

 

Friday, October 27, 2023

The Problem Is With The Human Heart

I tuned in the other day (has it been 2 or 3 days ago now?) to watch some political news and all I got on any channel was the mass shooting in the safest state in the country, Maine. For three days (or two? -- seems like weeks!) there's been nothing but rehashing of the same reporters at the same scenes, and interviews with survivors and loved ones. But the right wing is right: gun laws won't stop this shit. But the right wing is still responsible for it because they are the ones who've been mongering the hatred.

The new House Speaker is a radical evangelical christianist and his take on the problem is that it is in the human heart. But he's so loving and kind he would never condemn anyone. Unless of course they were gay, married to someone of their own sex, had an abortion, changed their sexual identity, or were an atheist or a Muslim or a Hindu or a pagan or a Black or a Jew. Those people, in his estimation, are equivalent to folks who have sex with their dogs.

It's a problem with the human heart, all right. It's the "I'm right, and you're wrong" syndrome and their answer is: believe my way or go to Hell.

We can vote those guys out, though. And if nobody gets out their guns to enforce a change in the electoral count, we'll have a Democratic House, Senate, and President next year. You think that problem with the human heart will accept a loss? They haven't yet accepted their last 3 losses: 2018, 2020, and 2022.

I'm reading Rachel Maddow's new book, Prequel. I'm learning a lot about the mood in this country during the run-up to World War II. The Germans had people here in the USA who were on Hitler's side and wanted us to stay out of Europe's war. "Europe for Europeans; America for Americans." There has been no change in the bigotry, racism, misogyny, antisemitism, homophobia, islamophobia, and xenophobia in the last 100 years. Hell, in the last million years. We, as humans, have always hated our neighbors. It's that "human heart" thing.

So, I will turn off the teevy and work on my "semi-autobiographical historical novel". My human heart will enjoy that a lot more.

Thursday, October 26, 2023

No Control Of Guns

There is only one reason why Republicans refuse to support any kind of gun control. It's not because they are such supporters of the Constitution. They were willing, and attempted, to overthrow the Constitution on January 6, 2021. No, they want no restrictions on guns because they can't win a majority of the hearts and minds of the American people, and they will need those military-style guns to take control by force.

Thursday, April 6, 2023

Thoughts on Guns

 It was Sam Colt, inventor of the first handheld gun that could be fired rapidly without needing to be reloaded after every shot, who may have first called a gun an equalizer. He did this in the early 1800s.

Ronald Reagan, writing for the September 1975 issue of Guns and Ammo, said: "The gun has been called the great equalizer, meaning that a small person with a gun is equal to a large person, but it is a great equalizer in another way, too. It ensures that the people are the equal of their government whenever that government forgets that it is servant and not master of the governed. ... I believe that the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms must not be infringed if liberty in America is to survive."

This is why the Republican minority in this country wants to keep their assault rifles. Because if they lose an election, even though they've gone to extraordinary lengths to keep Democrats from voting or from seeing their votes count as much as Republicans do, they can equalize their power with their guns. The Second Amendment guarantees minority rule and must stand if liberty is to survive.

But for liberty to survive that way, democracy must die. Unless, of course, Democrats acquire as many guns as Republicans.

Monday, December 7, 2020

Climate Change Is A Children's Issue

The older generations, having lived through the Great Depression, World War II,  the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and Watergate, look down from their great heights of wisdom gained from the School of Hard Knocks and see climate change as just another thing to live through.  Dennis Miller, a former Exxon employee and supporter of Donald Trump lives in North Carolina.  "The climate has always changed and what's the bad part of it getting a bit warmer?  I like warm days," he says. 

The younger generations, however, consider any existential threat alarming, but Miller believes they have been misled, especially in thinking that humans can do anything about it, up or down.  Miller's granddaughter, Gemma Gutierrez has a sense of despair and outrage over global heating being met with indifference and dismissal by her elders. 

Kids not yet able to vote feel powerless, but they demonstrate in the streets and on social media to make their voices heard.  Some, like Greta Thunberg, find they can make their voices heard all the way to the United Nations.  And then they turn 18 and vote!  Youth voter turnout was 10% higher in this election.  And 61% voted for Biden.

Now Biden has to deliver on his climate promise.  The Sunrise Movement, a progressive climate group led by young people, want to see if Biden will hold to his word that climate change is his number one issue.  Biden's popularity among 18-29 year-olds 6 months ago was abysmal, but his stance on climate changed all that. 

Climate change is not something happening in the future.  It's happening now and is well underway.  Children are already being harmed.  As wildfires sweep across the land in ever greater size, intensity, number and duration, children's lungs are filling with smoke.  It matters where a child lives.  California's Central Valley, with some of the state's most polluted air, was particularly hard hit by record-breaking wildfire smoke.

It also matters what color and how rich a child is.  Can a family afford an air purifier?  Can they afford air conditioning?  With windows open, smoke comes into the house, and kids breath it all day and all night.  Smoke, particulate matter pollution, damages children's lungs.  It causes asthma and compromised immune systems.  The effects of air pollution caused by wildfires, which are in turn exacerbated by changes in climate, give kids an impending sense of doom.  They wonder if they will live to see the future.

But even kids that can avoid air pollution by staying indoors with air purifiers and air conditioning are affected adversely.  Mental health is affected too.  As we all know after this year of covid-inspired "sheltering" in place, a normal human, child or adult, goes stir crazy. 

It is no wonder that people of child-bearing age are becoming more and more likely to forego having children.  600 people aged 27 to 45, in a recent study, were considering the direction of the climate in their reproductive choices.  They fear any child brought into this world will have to survive what could be apocalyptic conditions.

The older generations are walking on.  The younger generations are waking up.  Under new management, climate change can be slowed, stopped, reversed, before there's no place on Earth left where humans can live.

References:
The Guardian, "Climate crisis breaks open generational rifts in US families"
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/02/climate-crisis-differences-old-and-young-families
The Guardian, "A youth group helped Biden win. Now they want him to fix climate crisis" 
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/16/joe-biden-climate-crisis-ennvironment-energy
New York Times, "Wildfire smoke harming children
" https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/26/climate/california-smoke-children-health.html
The Guardian, "Climate ‘apocalypse’ fears stopping people having children" https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/27/climate-apocalypse-fears-stopping-people-having-children-study



Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Where Do We Go From Here?

 I stepped out of the shower this morning and looked at my body in the mirror.  Not very exciting, but that's okay.  We humans are animals that have to eat and poop and make babies.  Well, we don't have to make babies, but we carry the equipment to do that, and half of us carry the equipment to feed babies, with us all the time, 24-7.  Isn't that interesting?  The thing that makes us not animals is the way we can have thoughts and communicate those thoughts via finger movements to paper (or stone or a computer screen) in front of us, via sound waves across a table or over the back fence, and via electromagnetic waves across continents and worlds.

So where do we go from here?  The last four years have seen so many monkey wrenches thrown into the mechanics of civilization, that we may never recover.  It looks like Trump will leave office, though I'm not betting on that outcome yet, but he will not go quietly.  And he has hoards of followers who love him for his hatred of all things un-White.  And his feigned hatred of all things unchristian.  I say "feigned" because he actually hates Christians too, but he doesn't let that be known.

He has done monstrous damage to our society by getting us to hate each other, mistrust each other, suspect each other.  We have found his fear, the source of all his anger and hatred, to be highly contagious.  And our fear of each other triggers anger, violence, and murder.  Literally, all the way to murder.

May God help us.  Except he won't.  We haven't made him powerful enough.  He will die with the human race.

Maybe we can go somewhere better from here.