Hidden in Plain Sight

I'm reading The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything by James Martin, SJ,  during my time here on Gabriola Island. I'm finding the books to be inspiring and reminding me that God communicates with us through our everyday experiences. I have the rental house to myself today and I've spent it walking and taking some pictures. Each one represents an encounter, a time when I felt an inward peace. God making me remember that this is a time of rest after such a challenging school year. God chooses to regularly speak to us through events, people, places. Times when we feel joy or even sadness. There seems to be more going on as we encounter joy in the little things. "In such uncommon longings, hidden in plain sight in our lives, does God call us."

I took a walk and I found these flowers, that look like small bells and I'm just fascinated by how they look. I am attracted to them just because I'm in a different place. Have I never bother to notice these flowers in Abbotsford? I don't know. I'm just enjoying them NOW. I used to be frantic about how time passed and could get quite depressed thinking that what is NOW is only a memory soon. Soon I will be home and not able to touch, smell or see these flowers or live this moment. That view of time drove me to depression. I would lose the wonder of the NOW because I knew it would soon be PAST. It's very hard to explain, but I think writers like Martin and others would lead me to realize that the accumulation of joyful times is only adding to my faith in God. Indeed, the sum total of all of these moments are deepening my understanding of God who is always NOW: "I AM".

I was on the deck reading quietly and a deer came quietly through the grass and began nibbling away only a few meters from where I was sitting. I stopped reading and enjoyed the moment and knew God was telling me to just "Be still and know that I am God." It's OK that this will be PAST. It is only adding to my understanding and bringing me closer to Someone who is never PAST. Interestingly, as I am finishing writing this, the whole family came up from the beach right up to the backyard where the one was before. Now it is two adults and one spotted fawn. I wasn't quick enough with the camera, but you'll just have to take my word for it that the trio was there.

Not alone in this after all...

As I've come to the end of another school year, I've realized that I'm not alone in this struggle. As personal issues came more and more overwhelming, I realized that I absolutely had to depend not only on God, but on those that God has placed in my life. I'm in the process of thinking about writing thank you notes to those who helped me throughout the school year. I'm not one to give gifts to so many usually, but so many have supported me in so many ways. I've seen with fresh eyes what it means to be a part of the Body of Christ. The verse I think I'll refer to in each card is Romans 12: 5 ~ "Each part gets its meaning from the whole, not the other way around." (MSG). 

Where I have been...

I doubt if I have very faithful readers, but you'll notice a humongous gap between this post and my last post. It's coming to the end of a very interesting school year and I think I will begin posting again to just sort of work out my thoughts and feelings.

I'm struggling with what to reveal on such a public forum, so I'll keep it simple now to try to get myself started. I had a lot of personal issues to deal with this year that made me realize how important my faith in God was, how important my family is to me and how important it is to have a community around me to get me through the day to day. It's very difficult to admit that you can't do life alone and that you are dependent on others, but I believe this was the big reveal for me in this past year.

I will try to write more regularly because summer is coming and I believe it will be vital for me to reflect in writing some of the thoughts and feelings I have. I will end this short post with the poem/prayer that really helped me through this year. I keep this posted above my desk at school and I've read and reread it many times.

PATIENT TRUST

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

We are quite naturally impatient in everything

to reach the end without delay.

We would like to skip the intermediate stages.

we are impatient of being on the way to something

unknown, something new.

And yet, it is the law of all progress

that it is made by passing through

some stages of instability--

and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;

your ideas mature gradually--let them grow,

let them shape themselves, without undue haste.

Don't try to force them on,

as though you could be today what time,

(that is to say, grace) and circumstances

acting on your own good will

will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit

gradually forming in you will be.

Give our Lord the benefit of believing

that his hand is leading you,

and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself

in suspense and incomplete.

by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ

from Hearts on Fire: Praying with the Jesuits

The Rob Bell Kerfluffle

I'm finding the debate about Rob Bell's new book, Love Wins, to be very interesting and perhaps revealing of a fundamental struggle that is going on in the evangelical church (at least in North America, where the evangelical church is struggling for survival, IMHO. It's thriving and growing in other parts of the world.)

Some interesting things about this debate are that it began to get ferocious before the book was even released and many of the same things are being said by lots of people who I don't believe have read the book. I haven't read the book, either, but I'm writing about the debate about the book, so I thought it would be good to get down my pre-reading impressions first. (I did buy it. It's on my rather large "To Read in Future" pile.)

The National Post gives an interesting overview of the debate. The whole argument of the book is summed up by Bell's account of seeing a note taped to a Gandi quote that was part of a display at his church: "Reality check: he's in hell." Bell's honest questions are where the debate begins:

Within the national post interview, an evangelical writer (who I've never heard of - Jimmy Spencer - I can't help but wonder from what he says how long he will be considered "evangelical") says this about Bell:

Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther said Christians had the right to read the Bible for themselves and define it for themselves. What you’re seeing in Rob is the use of the same motif. I don’t know if Rob Bell is a new Martin Luther, but at the time of the Reformation Martin Luther wasn’t Martin Luther.

There is an erosion that has taken place within evangelical communities today and Rob Bell strikes at the heart of that divide between whether you think God is inclusive or exclusive.

The worst thing you can be accused of in many evangelical settings today is to be called a "universalist." I've heard it a few times in the recent past as a "you don't want to go there" aside in conversations with other Christians. However, I must say that I would rather be accused of being a universalist, than be accused of being the most contemptible of religious types: "fundamentalist."

Another thing I noticed from the article was an incredibly ignorant statement by someone at Christianity Today, which makes me realize why I no longer subscribe to this magazine:

For Mark Galli, senior managing editor of Christianity Today, what concerns him about Love Wins is what he calls Rob Bell’s failure to behave like a real pastor.

He leaves readers with more questions because he hasn’t really done his job as a teacher, which is what a minister is supposed to be. Instead, he has become a provocateur.

You walk away thinking this is what Rob Bell teaches, not what the Bible teaches.

This is incredibly naive for two different reasons: Jesus did not answer all questions - he told stories. He didn't even explain what most of his parables meant and left his disciples confused more often than not. Also, a quality of a good teacher is someone who always leaves his students with more questions than answers. A very exasperated grade 3 student once blurted out to me: "Can't you ever give us a straight answer?" Well, no, I can't because I'm a teacher and I'm trying to be a good one.

Do you know what Mark Galli is describing as a good teacher? A fundamentalist. I hate that word and that way of thinking.

If anything does lead to hell, the fundamentalist way of thinking (no matter what religion) does.
Update: Here's an interesting article about the history behind the rejection of hell and universalism. Long story short: Bell's not the first to say these things and be rejected by the church.

Comic Sans is evil, apparently

I've been enjoying April Fools day as much as I ever do. It's great having the day off from teaching (it's the last day of Spring Break.)  Teaching on April Fools day is sometimes an awful thing.  Once I had kids dump water all over my chair (it's not plastic, but cushioned) and say "April Fools!".  I wasn't thrilled at the idea of not having a proper desk chair for the few days it took to completely air dry out.  Then there was the time that they replaced all the water in my water bottle with white vinegar.  Fun times. (Note the use of a period.)

Now our dear friends at Google have this April Fools joke where you begin to type the word "Helvetica" into the search bar and it automatically switches to the much hated font Comic Sans.  Now, it was only recently that I discovered how much Comic Sans is hated by the wider world. Being in an elementary school, I tend to run into Comic Sans quite a bit.  I wasn't sure why until I ran into this article from The New Republic, which says that actual research went into this.  It turns out that Comic Sans is "the most popular of the four fonts the researchers tested on children."
There is actually a website: bancomicsans.com which is, well, pretty self-explanatory. And here's another article on it from the UK: "Why does everyone hate Comic Sans so much?" Comic Sans was invented by Microsoft (Shake fists at them!) to help the no longer used "Microsoft Bob" be more kid friendly as it would explain to the kids how to use Microsoft. Those were the 90s, when kids still didn't know much about word processing, I guess. Interesting quote from that article by a graphic designer:

Comic Sans just isn't designed well. It was never made to be printed and yet it is everywhere I look. Hardly a day goes by when I don't see it in an inappropriate setting. I would just appeal to people to be more thoughtful. When I get an invitation to the funeral of a friend and it is written in Comic Sans, I just find that thoughtless. It is an epidemic.

I used to use Comic Sans, but I did end up switching to other fonts for my everyday fonts because I just got tired of it very quickly.  I usually use Tahoma as the default font.  I know others in my school who prefer Arial, which I like also.

So for my last day of Spring Break, I've used my time searching out all the Comic Sans hatred and tried to get Rachel Maddow to trend on Twitter (#maddow) - It's her birthday and...oh, nevermind...
I don't really have such a visceral hatred of Comic Sans, though. I just find it mildly irritating due to its overuse.  Now when it comes to Times New Roman - I can get a little violent.  So, watch it.

My Favorite iPhone Apps

Just for anyone who might be interested -

1) Twitter - I like the basic Twitter app - it does everything I feel it needs to do. Although I would love it if it had a "retweet old school" option like I do with the Chrome browser. (UPDATE: I just noticed that it does allow you to quote tweets with an newer update I got automatically. The annoying thing now is, it puts quote marks around the whole thing and you can't delete the quote marks to make a nice, clean RT.)

2) Merriam-Webster's Dictionary - I only discovered this one recently. You can do a voice search and it has an audio clip for each word. Ever wonder how a word you've only seen written actually should sound? This app solves that issue. It also has a "word of the day" button which is cool, too.

3) Youversion's Bible app is brilliant. You have online access to most Bible versions in many different languages. You can also download many of those to your phone to use when outbid wireless range, like when I'm at church. I can quickly view the same reference in NIV, NLT, The Message, KJV, etc. (UPDATE: The latest update has so improved the function of this app. I'm wondering if it will always be free, now. It's worth paying for, though.)

4) Google - voice search on Google. I use this at school a lot.

5) Weather Eye - This is the Weather Network's app - I find it more useful than the iPhone's default weather app.  Canadians are really "into" the weather, so the Canadian Weather Network's app being way cool should not be a surpise.

6) Google Translate - Speak into the phone.  It instantly translates what you say into most any language you can think of.  Most language have an audio button.  Press it and you hear it spoken in that language! My only beef: Yiddish doesn't have an audio button.  I really want to hear that one!

7) Canpages - The Canadian Yellow pages with audio recognition.  Speak whatever business you want and it gives you all the contact information you need.  Press the phone number and you're calling them.  It also has white pages, but you have to type the person's name in.

8) Flixster - Great for local movie showtimes.  Now I always know what's playing close by and when.  This is put out by Rotten Tomatoes, so you get all the reviews linked to the movie you're wondering about, too.

9) IMBD - Another movie app (I love movies).  This has all the info you can get from the IMBD website, including the top 250, info on actors, directors, etc.

10) Cowbell! - I put this here because I actually do use this in the classroom to get the kids' attention sometimes and I just couldn't leave the list at 9.

I'll leave the list at that so far.  There's a bunch of others that I use, but the above are ones that I've downloaded and use quite frequently.

All of the above apps, by the way, have one thing in common: They're free apps!  I'm really amazed by the high quality of even free apps, although that whole "I swear I'll only stick to free apps" resolution when I first got the phone really didn't work out.  It's just soooo hard when the Apple people put apps for their store right on the phone!

President Obama is a Christian (Get Over It!)

I'm amazed how many people have a hard time believing that Obama is a Christian.  First of all, I counter: How do we know ANYONE is a "real Christian"?  I mean, if you do understand the Bible at all, then you know that only God really knows who is real.  Jesus said, "Why do you call me good? Only God is truly good." (Mark 10:18)  Or how about Jesus' rebuke that not everyone who calls him "Lord" will be acknowledged by him as a follower. (Matthew 7:22)

Secondly: Please consider that the word "Christian" has almost as many as different definitions as there are people who claim to be "Christian." I reject the notion that Christian must imply "Conservative Evangelical American," which is the hidden message that hides behind many of the diatribes against President Obama.

Thirdly: Listen to the President's recounting of his own past at the recent National Prayer Breakfast (below).  No, he did not grow up in a "Christian" home, but he became a Christian through conversion later in life.  So, he actually chose Christianity deliberately, not as some default position inherited via his family background.  Isn't this, then, an indication of someone who is actually the kind of Christian that the "born again" Christians are bragging about on Sundays?  I find it hard to believe that Evangelicals would have an issue with this testimony if were uttered by anyone else in their church on any given Sunday.

Lastly: Keep in mind something that I heard a musician say on the Drew Marshall Show : "When the word "Christian" is applied to anything other than a person, it's just a marketing strategy."  (I completely forgot who the person was - apologies to whomever.  I also am not sure of the exact quote.)  The question that I want to leave readers with, then is:  When you hear the word "Christian" being used, ask yourself "What are they selling?"  Now I'm not trying to imply, like the New Atheists, that all that is being "sold" is evil, but I will say it's important to keep in mind that ancient warning: "Buyer beware."

Shake up at MSNBC? *YAWN*

I got into msnbc for a while and watched the line up: Hardball, The Ed Show, Countdown and Rachel Maddow show. After a while (yeah, I'm slow), I realized that the first three shows were just repeating the same talking points based on the current news cycle. Nothing new that couldn't be figured out reading the headlines in the NY Times in 5 minutes. The only exception to this is Rachel Maddow.

Rachel Maddow does not follow whatever the current talking point playbook is. She actually investigates something and attempts to discover the truth at the core of it. Sort of like 60 Minutes can do on its best nights. Except, Ms. Maddow does it 5 nights a week with humor and with something that is almost completely absent from most newscasts: a sense of cautious optimism. She actually is not going to go down the path of "Something I disagree with happened and I'm going to milk it as some kind of megadisaster for the USA."

Now Keith Olbermann, unsuprisingly, has been fired or let go or whatever So? He was just another part of the angry line up. Nothing really unique in his show, except for the Oddball sequence. Kind of a calmer Ed Schultz, although a bit more rational than that. Now they're going to give the angry Young Turk, Cenk Uygur, his own show. He's part of the screamers from the left who are more anti- than pro-Obama. If Obama smiles at a conservative, it's considered a major loss to some of these screamers. Also, MSNBC is a TV business and the ratings are more important than politics or reality or whatever.

Some of the lefties I follow on Twitter are up in arms about this whole Olbermann thing. I don't see the problem. Shows get cancelled all the time and hosts replaced. It's about ratings and making money in the Fox dominated world of cable news. It's just another TV show. In fact, if he gets a gig eventually almost ANYWHERE else, he'll get more exposure and higher ratings. The thing I'm more annoyed about is how so many don't give Rachel Maddow a chance BECAUSE she's on msnbc and people assume she's just as angry and repetitive as an Ed Schultz or Olbermann.

Here's hoping Rachel Maddow gets "let go" and ends up somewhere else with a larger audience.

I just discovered...

I can actually blog with my iPhone! This is my first post with the phone, so I hope you all can forgive the shortness of the post. I'm getting a bit faster typing with one finger, though. I'm amazed at how easy it is to use the touchscreen keyboard on this thing! Now does this mean lots more short posts? Only time will tell!

Music in the 21st Century

I was just at the library and they had a bin of CDs that they were selling 2 for $2 and I bought an oldie, but a goodie: "Ella and Basie" put out by Verve records. No hesitation in buying them and if you're reading this wondering who Ella an Basie are, you're probably in the wrong blog.

Anyway, I was listening to this CD on the way home and I suddenly realized how rare it is for my daughters to hear the same music that I hear. We have individualized music so much, that when one person listens to something, the whole family isn't automatically hearing it, too.

Growing up, I heard my parents' music often. To this day I associate Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash with my father. I hear any kind of pop music from the '50s, especially Jerry Lee Lewis and the Coasters, and I think of my mother.

I wonder if my kids will think of any kind of music and think of me. We're always listening with headphones on, in our own private world now.

America is Israel's "Crack Dealer"

Thomas Friedman's Essay re: Israel and Palestine

I was nodding my head so vigorously I just about got a cramp reading the above essay.  The USA needs to just stop with the aid to Israel, the constant attempts at negotiations and let them deal with it on their own:

Oil is to Saudi Arabia what unconditional American aid and affection are to Israel — and what unconditional Arab and European aid and affection are to the Palestinians: a hallucinogenic drug that enables them each to think they can defy the laws of history, geography and demography. It is long past time that we stop being their crack dealers. At a time of nearly 10 percent unemployment in America, we have the Israelis and the Palestinians sitting over there with their arms folded, waiting for more U.S. assurances or money to persuade them to do what is manifestly in their own interest: negotiate a two-state deal. Shame on them, and shame us. You can’t want peace more than the parties themselves, and that is exactly where America is today. The people running Israel and Palestine have other priorities. It is time we left them alone to pursue them — and to live with the consequences

Friedman then goes on to illustrate that the aid that is flowing to Israel could be better used for assisting the many US communities that are having to cut back on basics, such as fire departments and education. We need to realize that we are in a co-dependent kind of relationship with Israel and the aid that we're constantly supplying them with is only lengthening the process.

I'm reminded of a Start Trek episode where Kirk & Co. discover that the war two planets have been fighting for centuries has been fought by computers. The computers do war games and determine the number of casualties. The people are then selected by the computers to go to disintegration chambers. There is no damage to buildings and no famine or any of that ugly stuff that makes war disagreeable.

Kirk destroys the disintegration chambers and asserts that they have to deal with the ugliness of war or negotiate on their own to stop the killing.

This is basically what Friedman is arguing in this essay: We need to just simply stop and let them deal with the ugliness of war or realize they need to negotiate honestly with each other, knowing that compromise will need to occur. If they want US mediators without conditions, then fine, but stop the aid.

Friedman's conclusion:

It’s all a fraud. America must get out of the way so Israelis and Palestinians can see clearly, without any obstructions, what reckless choices their leaders are making. Make no mistake, I am for the most active U.S. mediation effort possible to promote peace, but the initiative has to come from them. The Middle East only puts a smile on your face when it starts with them.

Twitter as Newspaper for 21st Century

I'm now a die-hard Twitter fan, after previously dissing it.  I think sometimes, I get impatient with the new "newness" of something.  I guess that comes with being 45 and a bit of an old grump about change.

Anyway, now I am regularly calling Twitter my "21st century newspaper" to those who wonder what on earth I'm doing with it.  I read the tweets every morning with my coffee and click on the links that I'm interested in, much like scanning the headlines in the newspaper.

I feel like I'm getting a good sense of the world, rather than just the US, by subscribing to tweets from Al Jazeera English, BBC and various Canadian outlets.  It also saves on the time it would take jumping from site to site.

I don't really care who follows and doesn't follow me - I don't find that Twitter always makes for a good chat with someone unless you both happen to be tweeting at the exact same moment.  Replies can often get buried, but I've noticed that I pick up on them a lot faster when I use my iPhone for Twitter.

Anyway, I'm tweeting a lot now and those silly little random thoughts are going out on Twitter rather than on the blog.   For my twitter page, simply click on the link on the right of this article.

Imago Dei

I've begun teaching a grade 4 class here and I was talking one time with them about the concept of what it means to be created in the image of God. All of the kids, except for one, insisted that the idea of image was a physical one: that God had a real body. The one child who disagreed kept repeating, "No, God is a spirit!" Finally, I did weigh in that the one child was the one who had the idea and that the imago dei, or image of God, was not about the physical.

Now, we look at children and understand that developmentally, they go through stages of thinking and believing from the concrete to the more abstract. The idea of imago dei as a literal, physical concept is almost impossible for children to shake until they acheive a certain level.

It has occured to me recently that fundamentalist Christians who take umbrage with the concept that we have evolved at all are, in a sense, stuck at the level of thinking that imago dei is a physical idea. They struggle with, as I have in the past, the idea that we are just a few ticks off, genetically speaking, from the chimpanzee. The concept that we are mammals is uncomfortable for a fundamentalist and my idea here is that, in some unconscious way, they can't get over the idea that imago dei is physical is some way.

This is yet another way that fundamentalist thinking is really a betrayal of the core doctrines of Christianity.

The Truth is Not Always Easy to Discover

I read that there will be renewed Peace Talks between Israel and Palestine. Before I could get my hopes up, the pundits started saying that it will fail. I thought they were just being negative, which is partially true, but then I read an Op-Ed in the New York Times which got me thinking:

Hamas, the I.R.A. and Us

I highly recommend reading it in its entirety, but the basic point is that when we consider what finally worked in the negotiations in Ireland, we realize that it happened when everyone was allowed to come to the table:

Mr. Mitchell’s comparison is misleading at best. Success in the Irish talks was the result not just of determination and time, but also a very different United States approach to diplomacy.

The conflict in Northern Ireland had been intractable for decades. Unionists backed by the British government saw any political compromise with Irish nationalists as a danger, one that would lead to a united Ireland in which a Catholic majority would dominate minority Protestant unionists. The British government also refused to deal with the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, despite its significant electoral mandate, because of its close ties to the Irish Republican Army, which had carried out violent acts in the United Kingdom.

A parallel can be seen with the American refusal to speak to the Palestinian party Hamas, which decisively won elections in the West Bank and Gaza in 2006. Asked what role Hamas would have in the renewed talks, Mr. Mitchell answered with one word: “None.” No serious analyst believes that peace can be made between Palestinians and Israelis without Hamas on board, any more than could have been the case in Northern Ireland without Sinn Fein and the I.R.A.

So there can be no peace unless Hamas is allowed to come to the table without the preconditions that hard right wing Israeli government wants to set on them. The preconditions basically ask Hamas to not be Hamas.

I recall that the difference between a "privateer" and a "pirate" in history depends on which side you were on. If you were favoring England, then French "privateers" are seen as "pirates", for example. Finding the truth in historical events is difficult, which is why history can be so fascinating.

This brings up the question: Is Hamas actually as much of a terrorist's party as our pro-Israeli press tends to paint it? Is Israel any less guilty of "terrorist acts"? Are we just viewing it through a Zionist lens?

Keep in mind that having Hamas come to the table doesn't mean everyone approves of everything Hamas has done. It also doesn't mean we should just blindly assume Israel, or the US for that matter, has always done the "right" thing. The I.R.A. weren't a bunch of boy scouts, either.

Why Conservatives Can't Be Allowed to Govern

Read this diary at Daily Kos first

That diary I have linked above gives the reason the mainstream media has failed the American public so miserably in the past few decades. It has allowed the fanatical rantings of pundits from the far right (Yes, I'm looking directly at you, Faux News) to become the main points of "debate" in the media. This is false, wrong debate based on false equivalencies, such as the idiotic debate between "creation science" and "evolution" - There are no points of contention. If you want to look at things from a scientific perspective, you go with Evolution. If you want ultimate answers to the meaning of life, you'll have to go with religion or philosophy.

Bill Maher, with whom I disagree quite a bit on some things obviously, had a great segment recently (NSFW language alert!) in which he asserted that we have too many false debates. There are no two perfectly defined sides to every issue or event in the news. We need to stop pretending that people like the birthers have a real point. We need to stop pretending that the truth is up for debate and can be discovered only through proper polling. Case in point, most people seem to be under the delusion that the Arizona immigration law is a good idea. It's not. It WILL lead to racial profiling and the detention of US citizens. There is no debate needed. The truth needs to be told, no matter what the public thinks. The media is supposed to inform the public, not reassure the public that everything they believe is really OK. In this way, the public actually has the ability to decide based on the truth, not based on distortions of interpretations or "misrememberings."

Something that is demonstrably true: Conservatives will drive the economy into the ground with run away spending if they are allowed to govern. This is not a debate:

The Deficit You're Freaking Out About is Bush's Fault

There is also another chart that demonstrates how the US under President Obama is actually on the road to recovery - this is also known as the "bikini graph," which just makes Rachel Maddow blush:

Both charts together directly contradict the narrative being pushed by the massive conservative media machine that the economy is in some kind of nose dive. No, the economy WAS in a nose dive under Bush and Obama pulled the plane out of the nose dive just like James Bond did at the beginning of Goldeneye. Furthermore, what was happening under Bush is exactly what results in the free wheeling, unregulated economy that conservatives are always screaming for.

Please, please educate yourself on what the economy has gone through in reality before voting in November.

Michael Campbell: Biggest Village Idiot North of Crawford, TX

There's a talk radio station that I often listen to here in BC, CKNW. It consists of all local hosts with a variety of backgrounds, so I do like the balance that exists.

One commentator who I cannot stand is Michael Campbell. He's actually the brother of the current Premier of BC, Gordon Campbell, which is scary. Michael Campbell talks about money and economic issues and is constantly repeating key neo-conservative talking points such as "welfare state" and "don't tax the rich or businesses" or, the biggest tell: "big government." He also likes to talk contemptously of the fools who don't agree with him. He says that economics is simple and easy to understand and other such naive crap that it astounds me that he's tolerated as a economic commentator here. He loves to dwell on the failures of the Greek economy, which he honestly believes is due to too many "entitlements."

Now, I don't know much about economics, I admit that, but I do have this blog to ramble. So ramble I shall! Also, I do know a bit about current events and the state of the US economy.

What part of the near total collapse of the US economy does Michael Campbell NOT understand? The US was the result of 30 years of government deregulation and unfunded tax cuts which were directed mainly at the rich. All the talk of give the rich and big business big tax breaks to create jobs was complete and utter nonsense. Give the rich a tax break - they invest it! Give big business a tax break - they give bonuses to the rich guys and shareholders rake in more big bucks.

Where was the middle class in all this? Bearing the burden for the rich and the big businesses. The US is the ultimate experiment in free (mind boggingly free, i.e. Gulf of Mexico) market. The Reagan experiment of "trickle down" economics has been demonstrated, over and over again since Obama entered office that this unfettered economy is a disaster.

Also, Campbell's simple-minded philosophy doesn't take into account the one important factor: human nature. Specifically, it does not take human greed into account. Give big businesses more money? They keep it. Give the rich tax breaks? They spend it on themselves. Campbell probably thinks that the business will actually hire more people or pass savings on to their customers. Nope - that's not what has happened in the US and it will not happen anywhere else. Any economic philosophy that ignores human greed will lead to economic ruin for the majority of people.

We've learned the end result of Michael Campell's economic philosophy:

Any questions?

Why We Need Separation of Church and State

This video of the beginning of the Anti-Historical Texas State Board of Education demostrates why the founding fathers wanted this separation.  This "prayer" is full of lies and historical untruths regarding the USA:



I'm actually appalled that a governmental body like this is allowed to open in prayer at all.  At one point in the past, having a little opening prayer was non-partisan, but this prayer is so obviously skewed and demonstrates the warped agenda of the Anti-Christian "Christian" Right that this kind of thing needs to be banned completely.  Just like the Day of Prayer has been hijacked by the religio-political interests of the Dobsonites, the idea of prayer during any goverment event needs to questioned and, perhaps, eliminated.

Sigh...OK...I give up - I REALLY want an iPhone!

I know, I know. Apple is a cult and people who have Macs and iPhones just jabber endlessly on and on about how wonderful life is now that they have this thing that is just perfect and never has any problems. Steve Jobs is an icon on their dashboard and they kiss it like a...well, whatever that thing that Orthodox Jews have by their doors.

I just totally, sinfully COVET this thing called an iPhone. I haven't had any cellphone in my life yet, but I just want to go all the way and get a really good smartphone. I also hate the idea of a tiny keyboard ala Blackberry. I love the idea of a touchscreen.

I'm totally behind the "App" idea, too. And to top it off, I just read this friday fun article at Daily Kos and I'm even more into the coveting idea. It even works as an emergency flashlight, for cryin' out loud. This is like the swiss army knife of cell phones.

Screw the iPad, I wanna iPhone.

Democratic Triumph in Maine!!

Well, I hope that's what this means. Otherwise it means the first step into fascist-ville courtesy of the teabaggers.

The idiot teabaggers of Maine have released a platform that would open the floodgates to a theocratic nightmare (The comments in brackets are from "Bill in Portland Maine," author at the daily kos link) :

Reassert the principle that "Freedom of Religion" does not mean "freedom from religion".
[What part of "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" do you not understand?]

We recognize the sanctity of life, which includes the unborn.
[But later they say in their platform that "Healthcare is not a right" but a "service." I'm confyoozed. I guess if you're gonna be born you better come out rich.]

Discard political correctness, make public the declaration of war (Jihad), made against the US on 23 Feb 1998, and fight the war against the United States by radical Islam to win.
[And we will only accept their unconditional surrender on the deck of a battleship!]

Espouse and follow the principle: It is immoral to steal the property rightfully earned by one person, and give it to another who has no claim or right to its benefits.
[Translation: Gimme back my lawnmower, Herb!]

[The] government takeover of healthcare is not only unconstitutional, but detrimental to the entire healthcare system. Only market based solutions will solve the problems.
[Yes, the insurance industry has done such a STELLAR job solving the problems. Although, to be fair, they did solve the problem of how to increase profits by finding new and exciting ways to deny coverage to sick people.]

Defeat Cap and Trade, investigate collusion between government and industry in the global warming myth, and prosecute any illegal collusion.
[No comment---pretty much speaks for the whole document.]

Seal the border and protect US citizens along the border and everywhere, as is the prime directive of the Federal Government.
[Yes, but which border, Mr. Spock? Which...border...must...be sealed? Mexico? Canada? So...many...borders and we're just one...small...starship! Lost! In a nebula of...uncertainty and...confusion.]

Cut spending, balance the budget, and institute a plan for paying down debt. Proclaim that generational debt shifting is immoral and unconscionable and will not be tolerated!
[Disclaimer: Except when Republicans are in the majority, in which case such generational debt shifting will be relabeled "freedom investing."]

Restore a vigorous grounding in the history and precepts of liberty, freedom, and the constitution to the educational process. As Thomas Jefferson said, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
[Ahem---that pot-smoking liberal hack Jefferson was written out of the history books, remember? You'll need to find a more suitable quote by St. Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin or Ayn Rand. With sloppiness like this, how can we be expected to take the Maine GOP seriously?]

And then, for their grand finale, a swan dive into a Dixie cup of cuckoo:

Repeal and prohibit any participation in efforts to create a one world government.
[Twitch Twitch]

How unrealistic can a platform be? This further demonstrates how completely out of touch this tea party movement actually is with political (and constitutional) reality.

The big question that everyone should really have is: Why are the Republicans even listening to these idiots?

Persecution? Spare me....

I can't understand why Franklin Graham has gone so off the rails. I do have a lot of respect for his father, but his son is making the move toward mixing politics with religion. His father, Billy Graham, did not specifically endorse political positions and avoided policy talk in his preaching. He understood what the primary gospel message was, but Franklin is buying into this radical right wingnuttery by going down the Faux News victimhood argument.

In the interview given to wingnut Newsmax he says that his "disinvintation" to the Pentagon is some kind of affront to his freedom of religion. It's not. He's giving the interview and talking on Faux News about how he's so picked on. He's free.

However, his comments about Muslims are a relevant issue. How are we going to make any kind of peace with Muslim nations by excluding them, marginalizing them and calling them evil? Even if you want to preach the gospel to Muslims, you don't begin the conversation by saying their beliefs are evil.

Graham has also probably raised the risk factor for those Christian missionaries who are trying to work with the Muslim people in a manner that is not based on the hate that he is employing. As Bush's war on Iraq increased the amount of terrorist attacks in the world, so will Graham's hateful rhetoric increase the actual persecution of Christians.

Obama needs to make peace with Muslim countries. Didn't Jesus say "blessed are the peacemakers"? Compare Graham's talk with Obama's and tell me - who is actually doing what Jesus would do?