The Pope - feted, worshiped, idolized, carried around in a golden throne and the center of attention wherever he goes?
I'd like to know just one thing any of those arrogant fancy-dressed, beringed, bishops has ever done to deserve praise.
The Catholic church has been from its very inception, a vile institution, responsible for millions of murders. Starting with the evil tradition of "cleansing" heresy with fire and torture, to the crusades, pograms, witch-burnings, and forced conversions of the conquered peoples of the Americas, the history of Catholic priests is a tragic story of violence and cruelty. The Catholic church was complicit in the Holocaust. They bleed millions of dollars from the poorest of the poor, and use the money to gild their churches, and dress themselves in silks and velvet.
In the USA, we have a long tradition, enshrined in our very Constitution, of freedom from forced religion.
Why do the pedophile bishops think they deserve any right to influence our laws? And why do we let them get away with it?
Catholic individuals are some of the finest people in the world. But the church as an institution needs to go away for ever.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Sunday, March 10, 2013
There is no freedom
When a person is not recognized as the owner of his or her body, slavery exists. When a woman has no rights to control her reproduction, she is a slave.
It's that simple.
It's that simple.
Republican whiners
The current meme on the talking head shows this morning is that President Obama needs to do a better job of reaching out to Republicans in Congress.
I don't understand. Why is it his job to beg them to do their jobs? Aren't they supposed to run the country, make laws, regulate commerce, etc? His job is to enforce the laws. They need to step up to the plate and earn their pay for a change.
Stop whining y'all and get some damn work done already!!
I don't understand. Why is it his job to beg them to do their jobs? Aren't they supposed to run the country, make laws, regulate commerce, etc? His job is to enforce the laws. They need to step up to the plate and earn their pay for a change.
Stop whining y'all and get some damn work done already!!
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Right-wing politicians are like hourly workers pretending to be bosses
There was an organizational psychologist ( Elliot Jacques) born in the early years of the twentieth century who came up with an idea he called the time span of discretion. He observed that more complex jobs within an organization require thinking and planning in longer time frames. Hourly workers need to plan only for the next task on the list, the next order on the chart, or the next part on the assembly line. Managers need to plan and organize by days and weeks. CEO's and owners need to plan for the long term, for growth and development over the course of years.
An organization is healthy with good prospects when there is a match between each person's responsibility and his/her ability to think along the appropriate time span.
The problem with right-wing conservatives, the so-called Tea Party politicians, is that they are like hourly workers in manager positions. They think in terms of short-term answers to long-term problems.
Do we need more and more energy every year to fuel our economy? Their answer is to exploit the same fossil fuels that are becoming scarcer and harder to extract every year.
Is the excess carbon emitted by these fuels causing climate change? Their answer is to cover their eyes and ears so they don't have to deal with it.
Reducing taxes makes people feel good in the short-term but creates problems in the long term when essential services are cut. Eliminating government regulations may seem like a fast way to create a business-friendly economy, but in the long run consumers learn to distrust businesses that gain an advantage by cutting corners.
The problems we are dealing with in the Middle East are a direct result of short-term thinking by President Reagan. When he came to the White House. practically the first thing he did was eliminate funding for alternative energy research. He pulled the solar panels off the White House roof.
We could have been energy independent by now. We could have been almost entirely weaned from our fossil fuel addiction.
We could be well on our way to reducing CO2 emissions and stabilizing climate change.
What kind of problems are the TeaPartiers creating now for our children? Fracking is guaranteed to pollute our groundwater for many generations to come. Cutting regulations is guaranteed to encourage unethical practices, dangerous short-cuts, and lack of trust. Cutting taxes for the wealthy is creating a vast inequality that threatens the very fabric of our social structure.
We don't need these small minded petty hacks in government. We need visionaries who can look to the future and take some heat defending the basic principles our forefathers died for. We need people who can anticipate future problems and provide solutions that are sustainable. We need people who understand that no man is an island, that ultimately we all thrive or suffer together.
Too bad the political game is rigged against those kind of people.
An organization is healthy with good prospects when there is a match between each person's responsibility and his/her ability to think along the appropriate time span.
The problem with right-wing conservatives, the so-called Tea Party politicians, is that they are like hourly workers in manager positions. They think in terms of short-term answers to long-term problems.
Do we need more and more energy every year to fuel our economy? Their answer is to exploit the same fossil fuels that are becoming scarcer and harder to extract every year.
Is the excess carbon emitted by these fuels causing climate change? Their answer is to cover their eyes and ears so they don't have to deal with it.
Reducing taxes makes people feel good in the short-term but creates problems in the long term when essential services are cut. Eliminating government regulations may seem like a fast way to create a business-friendly economy, but in the long run consumers learn to distrust businesses that gain an advantage by cutting corners.
The problems we are dealing with in the Middle East are a direct result of short-term thinking by President Reagan. When he came to the White House. practically the first thing he did was eliminate funding for alternative energy research. He pulled the solar panels off the White House roof.
We could have been energy independent by now. We could have been almost entirely weaned from our fossil fuel addiction.
We could be well on our way to reducing CO2 emissions and stabilizing climate change.
What kind of problems are the TeaPartiers creating now for our children? Fracking is guaranteed to pollute our groundwater for many generations to come. Cutting regulations is guaranteed to encourage unethical practices, dangerous short-cuts, and lack of trust. Cutting taxes for the wealthy is creating a vast inequality that threatens the very fabric of our social structure.
We don't need these small minded petty hacks in government. We need visionaries who can look to the future and take some heat defending the basic principles our forefathers died for. We need people who can anticipate future problems and provide solutions that are sustainable. We need people who understand that no man is an island, that ultimately we all thrive or suffer together.
Too bad the political game is rigged against those kind of people.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Is voting a racial entitlement?
Anton Scalia, one of the worst Supreme Court Justices, just after Clarence Thomas, has given his opinion that the Voting Rights Act reflects racial entitlement, what ever that means. The Voting Rights Act simply requires that changes to voting procedures in certain regions with a history of discrimination be approved by the Federal Government.
Is the right to vote in a fair election a racial entitlement?
Is the right to vote in a fair election a racial entitlement?
When a man has so many houses...
I was sickened and disgusted watching John McCain on the news talk show this morning. He was all about blaming the so-called sequester on President Obama and spouting on about NO TAXES!!! No mention of the seniors who depend on Social Security, food stamps, government programs for heating, or other vital services being cut. No mention of health care needs being cut. No mention of all those people out of work with no money coming in.
A man who has more houses than he can count, should be a little more tactful about other people's needs. He used to have some credibility. It appears his bitterness about his resounding loss in 2008 has made him more obtuse and stubborn.
A man who has more houses than he can count, should be a little more tactful about other people's needs. He used to have some credibility. It appears his bitterness about his resounding loss in 2008 has made him more obtuse and stubborn.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Guns don't kill people?
Of course guns kill people. That's what they are made for. Who in the world is stupid enough to believe that guns don't kill people? The rest of the meme is that people kill people, which is supposed to lead us to assume that guns are harmless little toys and it's no use trying to restrict or regulate them.
Isn't it obvious that guns in the hands of people are really efficient killing machines? Isn't it obvious that crazy people can do a whole lot more damage, death, and destruction with guns than without them? What could Adam Lanza have done without his weapons in hand? I wonder how many war hawks in 2003 would have said that "nuclear weapons don't kill people, people kill people" before we invaded Iraq.
According to the NRA the way to solve the problem of crazy people with too many guns is make more guns available.
The NRA spokesmen are not crazy, appearances to the contrary. The NRA are lobbyists for the gun manufacturers. They want to sell more guns. That's how they get money and power.
The crazy people are the suckers who buy their bullshit. Studies show that simply repeating bullshit often enough to make it sound familiar will persuade many people that it is true. Even if it's patently crazy.
"THE WORLD ENDS THIS WEEK! GIVE ME ALL YOUR MONEY!" Say it often enough and some poor fool will fork over his life savings.
Guns don't kill people! We need more guns to not kill people and protect us from people who are killing us with guns! Crazy talk. I can't believe how many of my friends believe that shit.
Isn't it obvious that guns in the hands of people are really efficient killing machines? Isn't it obvious that crazy people can do a whole lot more damage, death, and destruction with guns than without them? What could Adam Lanza have done without his weapons in hand? I wonder how many war hawks in 2003 would have said that "nuclear weapons don't kill people, people kill people" before we invaded Iraq.
According to the NRA the way to solve the problem of crazy people with too many guns is make more guns available.
The NRA spokesmen are not crazy, appearances to the contrary. The NRA are lobbyists for the gun manufacturers. They want to sell more guns. That's how they get money and power.
The crazy people are the suckers who buy their bullshit. Studies show that simply repeating bullshit often enough to make it sound familiar will persuade many people that it is true. Even if it's patently crazy.
"THE WORLD ENDS THIS WEEK! GIVE ME ALL YOUR MONEY!" Say it often enough and some poor fool will fork over his life savings.
Guns don't kill people! We need more guns to not kill people and protect us from people who are killing us with guns! Crazy talk. I can't believe how many of my friends believe that shit.
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