Our Linda posted a lame FUX NOOZE video of a lame FUX reporter, Mike Tobin, in Madison at the protests. The lame "reporter" actually said after the camera was pointed away from him, he got HIT by a liberal union worker protester, imagine that! The video title says a reporter was ASSAULTED...He said their faces showed such hate, he said they blocked him with their signs and the chanting was so loud "FOX NEWS LIES", they were trying to shut down communication when they blocked his face, FUX NOOZE host, Greg somebody, asked why these protesters had such vitriol for the media... LOL! And while all this was going on all you could see were PEACEFUL, standing calmly around the capitol, protesters.... what a shame for those who only get their news from FUX. It's shameful! Linda goes on to say the protesters were guilty of embracing violence and promoting violence against innocent people! Now come on.... we have seen many, many news clips of the very calm and PEACEFUL protesters, too bad FUX followers don't get to see those...
She said the protesters attempted to stifle free speech and then resorted to physical assault...omg...She said it is FUX who were trying to report the facts, the taxpayers deserve to know both sides of the issue...omg...then she babbles on about collective bargaining...then calls lefties lawless.....
Sorry, the woman amuses me..! If you want an awesome retrospect on Madison and what it was like to spend a day with the protesters then go see my friend Mary, she has a great post up with great video clips!
A question for my bloggy friends in California
and for those who may know.....
Brother Bud was here today, we talked politics and religion like we always do. He said I need to start paying attention to the whole world, mainly the Middle East and Islam, then proceeds to tell me how Muslims have a plan to take over the world and are already here in the US infiltrating our schools, indoctrinating our kids. He says schools in the WHOLE state of California are teaching Islam, even having kids change their name to a Muslim name, etc etc...
So I went to GOOGLE and found this, even tho I'd much rather hear from my California friends!
Rev. Elijah Abraham was born and raised as a Muslim in Iraq, but converted to Christianity when he found that Islam did not answer his most pressing religious questions. He was interviewed for The New American by James Heiser.
Rev. Abraham said this, The educational plan has been underway to indoctrinate our children. Go to an average public school in America and you will see the curriculum is very much advantageous to Islam and has Christianity in a bad light. In January 2002, right after 9/11, the California public schools had a mandate that the fifth, sixth and seventh grades were to practice Islam for two weeks. It took almost a week for the Christian community to bring it to light — Paul Harvey and James Dobson talked about it. California said it wasn't mandatory, that it’s just extracurricular activity, but they did not let it die. In the summer of 2007, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals approved public schools allowing these kids to practice Islam for two weeks. What does this mean? They wear Islamic garb, adopt a Muslim name, memorize verses from the Koran, chant “Allah is great and Mohammed is his prophet," and perform Jihad. The reasoning of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was that our children need to learn about world cultures. But Islam is not a culture. I'm still waiting to see if it will go to the Supreme Court because this is so wrong.
Is this Glenn Beck chalkboard hysteria or is this true??
Brother Bud was here today, we talked politics and religion like we always do. He said I need to start paying attention to the whole world, mainly the Middle East and Islam, then proceeds to tell me how Muslims have a plan to take over the world and are already here in the US infiltrating our schools, indoctrinating our kids. He says schools in the WHOLE state of California are teaching Islam, even having kids change their name to a Muslim name, etc etc...
So I went to GOOGLE and found this, even tho I'd much rather hear from my California friends!
Rev. Elijah Abraham was born and raised as a Muslim in Iraq, but converted to Christianity when he found that Islam did not answer his most pressing religious questions. He was interviewed for The New American by James Heiser.
Rev. Abraham said this, The educational plan has been underway to indoctrinate our children. Go to an average public school in America and you will see the curriculum is very much advantageous to Islam and has Christianity in a bad light. In January 2002, right after 9/11, the California public schools had a mandate that the fifth, sixth and seventh grades were to practice Islam for two weeks. It took almost a week for the Christian community to bring it to light — Paul Harvey and James Dobson talked about it. California said it wasn't mandatory, that it’s just extracurricular activity, but they did not let it die. In the summer of 2007, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals approved public schools allowing these kids to practice Islam for two weeks. What does this mean? They wear Islamic garb, adopt a Muslim name, memorize verses from the Koran, chant “Allah is great and Mohammed is his prophet," and perform Jihad. The reasoning of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was that our children need to learn about world cultures. But Islam is not a culture. I'm still waiting to see if it will go to the Supreme Court because this is so wrong.
Is this Glenn Beck chalkboard hysteria or is this true??
Sunday Podcast
Here is the audio of this morning's sermon at All Saints, KIngs Langley. The gospel reading was Matthew 6:25-24.
Alan Uglow RIP
I have just heard from my Dad today that his cousin, the artist Alan Uglow, died at the end of January. I met Alan when I visited New York first in the early 1990s. As a tribute to him I have copied this obitury from teh Scotsman newspaper available here. There is another one on the New York Times website here.
He died from complications of lung cancer, said his wife, Elena Alexander.
Uglow was what is often called a pinter's painter, respected within the art world's precincts but not well known beyond them.
His intuitive sense of proportion and subtle painterly texture gave his work a clarity that could easily be called classical.
His fields of white, outlined and bisected by tapelike lines of strong colour, or segmented into wide bands or blocks of colour, were indebted to the precision and tactility of Mondrian and the scale and specificity of Minimalism. Alan Uglow was an abstract painter of light-filled geometries whose expansive fields, bordered with notched lines, reflected in part his passion for football.
He died from complications of lung cancer, said his wife, Elena Alexander.
Uglow always played the physical solidity of his efforts against their optical radiance, thickening his stretcher bars so that his paintings protruded farther from the wall, hanging his works close to the ground or even simply leaning them, set on tiny blocks, against a wall.
If his outlined fields brought to mind an abstracted football field, it was not surprising. A longtime fan of Chelsea Football Club, Uglow used a photograph of a regulation coach's bench on the announcement card of his 1995 exhibition at Gimpel Fils Gallery in London.
His 1998 exhibition in Manhattan at the Stark Gallery in Chelsea included an actual bench, finished in blazing white and equipped with a soundtrack of him and a friend reading passages about football by Nabokov, Camus, Pinter and other writers.
Uglow also took photographs and exhibited them. One of his favourite subjects was football stadiums.
Alan Philip Uglow was born in Luton on 19 July, 1941 and began studying art when he was a teenager. He then got a degree in painting and printmaking from the Central School of Art in London in 1962.
Tellingly, his early passions included the spare, attenuated figures of Giacometti.
He moved to New York in 1969 and first displayed his work in 1974 in a group show at the Bykert Gallery, a well known Manhattan redoubt of abstract painting at the time.
His intuitive sense of proportion and subtle painterly texture gave his work a clarity that could easily be called classical.
His fields of white, outlined and bisected by tapelike lines of strong colour, or segmented into wide bands or blocks of colour, were indebted to the precision and tactility of Mondrian and the scale and specificity of Minimalism.
In 1978 he made his solo debut in simultaneous shows at the galleries of Mary Boone (paintings) and Susan Caldwell (drawings) on West Broadway in SoHo.
He had nine subsequent solo shows in New York, most recently at the Stark Gallery in 2002.
Uglow exhibited frequently in Europe, including a large survey of his work at the Museum Haus Esters in Krefeld, Germany, last year.
In the early 1980s Uglow learned the bass guitar and played in a rock band called Hard Labour. The band sometimes accompanied Alexander as she read her poetry.
Besides his wife, who teaches at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Alan Uglow's survivors include ten nieces and nephews.
~~~~~~~~~~
Alan Uglow, artist.
Born: 19 July, 1941, in Luton.
Died: 20 January, 2011, in New York, aged 69.
Alan Uglow was an abstract painter of light-filled geometries whose expansive fields, bordered with notched lines, reflected in part his passion for football.Born: 19 July, 1941, in Luton.
Died: 20 January, 2011, in New York, aged 69.
He died from complications of lung cancer, said his wife, Elena Alexander.
Uglow was what is often called a pinter's painter, respected within the art world's precincts but not well known beyond them.
His intuitive sense of proportion and subtle painterly texture gave his work a clarity that could easily be called classical.
His fields of white, outlined and bisected by tapelike lines of strong colour, or segmented into wide bands or blocks of colour, were indebted to the precision and tactility of Mondrian and the scale and specificity of Minimalism. Alan Uglow was an abstract painter of light-filled geometries whose expansive fields, bordered with notched lines, reflected in part his passion for football.
He died from complications of lung cancer, said his wife, Elena Alexander.
Uglow always played the physical solidity of his efforts against their optical radiance, thickening his stretcher bars so that his paintings protruded farther from the wall, hanging his works close to the ground or even simply leaning them, set on tiny blocks, against a wall.
If his outlined fields brought to mind an abstracted football field, it was not surprising. A longtime fan of Chelsea Football Club, Uglow used a photograph of a regulation coach's bench on the announcement card of his 1995 exhibition at Gimpel Fils Gallery in London.
His 1998 exhibition in Manhattan at the Stark Gallery in Chelsea included an actual bench, finished in blazing white and equipped with a soundtrack of him and a friend reading passages about football by Nabokov, Camus, Pinter and other writers.
Uglow also took photographs and exhibited them. One of his favourite subjects was football stadiums.
Alan Philip Uglow was born in Luton on 19 July, 1941 and began studying art when he was a teenager. He then got a degree in painting and printmaking from the Central School of Art in London in 1962.
Tellingly, his early passions included the spare, attenuated figures of Giacometti.
He moved to New York in 1969 and first displayed his work in 1974 in a group show at the Bykert Gallery, a well known Manhattan redoubt of abstract painting at the time.
His intuitive sense of proportion and subtle painterly texture gave his work a clarity that could easily be called classical.
His fields of white, outlined and bisected by tapelike lines of strong colour, or segmented into wide bands or blocks of colour, were indebted to the precision and tactility of Mondrian and the scale and specificity of Minimalism.
In 1978 he made his solo debut in simultaneous shows at the galleries of Mary Boone (paintings) and Susan Caldwell (drawings) on West Broadway in SoHo.
He had nine subsequent solo shows in New York, most recently at the Stark Gallery in 2002.
Uglow exhibited frequently in Europe, including a large survey of his work at the Museum Haus Esters in Krefeld, Germany, last year.
In the early 1980s Uglow learned the bass guitar and played in a rock band called Hard Labour. The band sometimes accompanied Alexander as she read her poetry.
Besides his wife, who teaches at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Alan Uglow's survivors include ten nieces and nephews.
It depends on how you hear it...
Today’s gospel will mean very different things to people who have jobs, homes, cars and food in plenty, compared with those whose lives have been devastated: 800,000 people in Haiti who have been living in refugee camps for many months; people in Christ Church New Zealand whose lives and livelihoods are gone; people in Libya facing momentous life changes.Today’s gospel might be heard by the well-off audience as an admonishment to keep focused on the things that matter, rather than material wants. But to displaced, damaged people, the message is not so clear or easy.
Jesus is not saying that the basic necessities of human life don’t matter, nor is he saying that theses necessities will magically appear if we believe in him correctly. He is talking to people who have enough, it seems; otherwise his encouragement not to worry would simply be cruel. But what about those who truly don’t have enough? How can they hear good news in today’s gospel?
Though the message is going to be perceived differently by those who have enough and those who do not, the message is really the same: do not spend your time, energy, and heart fretting about this stuff. If you have enough, be thankful, and beware of making an idol of having what you want, rather than merely what you need. If you don’t have enough, it’s not because God doesn’t love you. Jesus is working to disconnect the link that was commonly made in his day: those who please God have plenty; those who have displeased God will suffer.
If only it were that easy. Of course, there are those in our culture who spout off after every natural disaster or act of violence, claiming that they know what specific sin is being punished. Even in these last few days a website published a view that the earthquake in New Zealand was God’s punishment for the NZ Government’s liberal attitude to sexuality.
It certainly would simplify matters to be able to draw a straight line between a list of do’s and don’ts and the corresponding benefits or punishments. For example, if you steal, there will be a tornado; if you welcome gay people, there will be an earthquake.
It seems that Jesus is encouraging his followers to look beyond that kind of straight-line thinking that attaches virtue to success and vice to failure. He is making a claim that God’s desire for us is that we all have enough, rather than using some complex calculus to determine precisely how blessed or cursed we will be. “No one can serve two masters,” he says. We have to decide what our priorities and values are, and if we’re going to follow Jesus, then those priorities and values are probably not best focused on ourselves. Jesus is saying, “Look beyond the boundaries of yourself.”
In this light, the situation in Haiti, Christ Church, or Tripoli doesn’t get magically better, nor does the person in desperate circumstances automatically understand this as good news. But it does sound like encouragement not to let dire straits reduce us all to complete selfishness. If we are sitting at the top of the comfort scale, we should not be worrying about getting more, but about how to share what we have. If we sit at the bottom of that scale, we should not regard that as permission to lie, cheat, and steal our way to comfort.
But more than a moral admonishment, this message claims God’s care for everything God has made: people, lilies, the birds, you and me. While we have ample evidence that God doesn’t prevent disaster, Jesus assures us that God is deeply concerned with the lives God has created. In other words, we are not alone, no matter how bad things seem. And no matter how good things seem, we didn’t get there on our own. No matter how bad things seem, God’s heart bleeds with ours.
The Sermon on the Mount, of which today’s gospel is part, is not only subversive to the values of the Roman empire, it’s a mandate for those who want to follow Jesus. There is a lot of bad stuff going on in the world; this was true in Jesus’ century, just as it’s true in ours. Jesus’ teaching in the face of all that is wrong with the world is consistent: have faith, and do something about the bad stuff by doing all the good stuff you can, for the values that underlie the Kingdom differ from those in life lived in the world as we know it.
Being good stewards of what we’re given is important work. But in light of Jesus’ message today, it seems that an additional criterion for good stewardship should be in place. The question must be asked, “How are we serving the kingdom of God?” Is the way we use our resources really revealing Kingdom values? Is there any connection between what we want and what God might be telling us to do and be?
What Jesus proclaims, to refugees in Haiti, those struggling in New Zealand, peaceful revolutionists across the world, and us comfortable people alike, is that the kingdom of God is at hand. Grace and mercy are available to all. For those of us who already have much, it may well be that God’s grace and mercy come through us on their way to those who are in the deepest need. What an awesome responsibility that is. And what an amazing joy – to be a conduit for the care and love of God for God’s people and God’s world. Even Solomon in all his glory didn’t shine as brightly as those who share and give and work for the kingdom of God. Will we shine or be lacklustre? Time to speak and act, putting worry to one side, and be co-workers with God, anchored in the values of the kingdom God is ushering in.
Lord God, we live in disturbing days:
across the world, prices rise, debts increase, banks collapse,
jobs are taken away, and fragile security is under threat.
Loving God, meet us in our fear and hear our prayer:
be a tower of strength amidst the shifting sands,
and a light in the darkness;
help us receive your gift of peace,
and fix our hearts where true joys are to be found,
in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The "Biblical" Man...
"Where ya gonna live?...The best thing you can do is buy a home. From an investment standpoint, from a tax standpoint, from a security standpoint, particularly you single guys..." -Mark Driscoll 18 Oct 2008
And Jesus said to him, "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." -Luke 9:58 NASB
I have long hesitated to this blog. This is mostly because I try not be totally negative. It's also because the podcast that motivates this blogs annoyed me. There was so much fail in it that I didn't know where to start. Then again, I might just be being hissy. I digress a bit.
Anyway, it was very strange when Christianity Today included Mark Driscoll in their list of hipster, cutting edge, pastors. Every time I listen to the guy, he sounds like a stick-in-the-mud conservative. Nowhere was this more evident that his Biblical Man Sermon. This teaching starts with a few verses from proverbs, and then continues with practical advice for about an hour. This "Biblical" teaching is so deeply seated in cultural assumptions, self-help wisdom, and patron-saints of middle class that it raises the question: what does "Biblical" even mean?
When I ask that question, it is not for you to think it is a joke. This is serious. What do you think of when you attach the word "Biblical" to a term? What synonyms would you use? How do you define that adjective as you understand it? Maybe you would agree that it means something like "from the Bible" or maybe "in adherence to the Bible"? Whatever it means when said in the evangelical vernacular, I think we can all agree that it recognizes the Bible in some sense because of its very spelling.
In listening to this sermon, it is hard to understand how Driscoll can mean Biblical in that sense. Now, the sermon is not bad rhetorically. It is sprinkled with stimulating, engaging, questions. The problem is with the answers. The idea is that we need to set goals, and make plans to achieve those goals. We need to think about what lives we want in the future and "reverse engineer" it so that we will arrive. For instance, in planning our lives we must understand what is urgent and important. We must get the job and own the home. We must also make a list of appliances, furniture, and other such things that we will have in our home. In that home we must also be prepared to add equity and value to it so we can buy a bigger home, so as to make our wife and children happy. Sound good?
The problem with all of this is that it it is not "from the Bible." The first chunk of advice seems to come from an amalgamation of books like Rich Dad Poor Dad
, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
, and probably a dozen other books of the same genre. He even cited Stephan Covey at the end of the sermon, who by the way, is a Mormon! The other huge chunk are anecdotes of Driscoll's own success. It probably does not count as bragging, but Mark Driscoll did not write an Epistle. So do not think this is biblical.Now, understandably, some might think that I'm endorsing laziness, sloth, or perpetuated adolescence. You might be thinking, "so you don't think setting goals is good? Do you believe that developing plans is bad? Setting yourself up to build wealth or provide for yourself and others is evil?" To all this I answer an emphatic, "no of course not." I think a books like 7 Habits or Getting Things Done, are great reads. Rich Dad/Poor Dad gave me a lot to think about. Of course all these things are good, but they are not biblical.
So why bother writing this blog? Well, because it is important -for Christians- to know where their values come from because God might challenge them. Some of the things we hold as Biblical might not be so Biblical after all. Take the whole home-ownership issue. Does owning a home, building equity in the home, and buying a better home make you a Biblical man? Is it a necessary goal for the Biblical man? Well, interestingly enough I know lots of men in the Bible who had no homes. Most of the patriarchs were nomads, and Jesus as cited above, warned those who sought to follow him that "the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." (Let's not forget that he was born in a stable.)
It seems that Jesus is not a Biblical man. Furthermore, he seems to caution would-be disciples that if the follow him, they may not have homes either! I can imagine that many missionary families understand what this means. So what about the denizens of Seattle?
But maybe I am being harsh? It wasn't as if Driscoll didn't use some distinctive Christian topics in his sermon. Driscoll did, after all, talk about God as a gracious God. He also encouraged men to "walk with God" in this sermon. Yes he did. God is so gracious, that he might get you into the home of dreams (complete with white picket fence!). "Walking with God" means prayerfully setting up your plans. If you think this is hyperbole, listen to the sermon yourself.
It seems so blindingly obvious that the pervading culture, not an exegesis of scripture, is what is authoritative here. It leads to the bizarre conclusion in which Jesus wouldn't live up to Driscoll's standards. I am not the first blogger to notice this either. If hipster Christianity is the liberal-arts student, who smokes clove cigarettes while reading "the Imitation of Christ" at an indie coffee shop, than Mark Driscoll is the transparent poser wearing his high-school letterman jacket over a Radiohead t-shirt. According to Christianity Today, the Christian hipsters want a faith that distinguishable from the values of suburbs. They probably need to look outside of Mars Hill.
So what does the word "Biblical [man]" mean? As far as I can tell, it is nothing more than a synonym for "upright middle class [man]" or "socially and fiscally, conservative [man]" or maybe just simply "right." It is nothing here than a staple phrase for the American Civic Religion. And you know what? Let's go for it. I am not against the nuclear family, setting goals, or steadily building financial success. There's nothing wrong with finding the right career and being nice to your neighbors. I wish that all guys reading this would pick up 7 Habits and all those other great books to enhance their relationships, careers, and share such guidance with others. We can all be on the suburban band wagon and our kids can play little league together.
But when we do, let's drop the pretense. Let's remember that the civic religion is nothing more than that. Let's discard the illusions that it is "from the Bible" and remember it has but a thin connection to the Christian faith.
Thanks for reading, and your comments are always welcome here.
Oceansize - Commemorative 9/11 T-Shirt (Frames Live)
Having heard of the ending of this amazing band today, as a testament to them...
Would you like to hear from President Obama?
Do you remember this Barack Obama in Madison, thanking the people for their votes, thanking them for standing with him, for supporting him...And in 2007, do you remember when Barack Obama promised this? Do you think he should go to Wisconsin? What about Illinois? Should he go and talk to the 14 state senators, give them some encouraging words? How about some encouragement to the protestors? This story is exploding all across the country, your country Mr. President. These are your people Mr. President, please say more than those few words you said last week. We want to hear more from you, please....
Who will speak for the little guy?
Thank You Huffington Posts' Sally Kohn for this.....
What's happening in Wisconsin isn't about budget deficits or government spending or even public employee benefits. It's class war, wherein the big business, conservative Right tries to pit working class Americans against one another so that the super-rich cancontinue to pilfer our private and public coffers for their own boundless gain. Here are the facts you need to know -- and spread:
1. 60% of Wisconsin's largest corporations pay ZERO taxes
According to the Institute for Wisconsin's Future, in 2007 60% of corporations in Wisconsin with over $100 million in annual revenues paid zero taxes. None. Zip. Zilch.
2. Raisingcorporate taxes in Wisconsin to the national average would generate $1 BILLION in revenue
By comparison, Gov. Walker's union busting bill will "save" a measly $350 million (that is, if you consider lowering the income and security of a core group of tax-paying workers "saving" money...).
3. Cutting taxes on corporations and the rich created state budget crises.
States do not have a spending problem. They have a revenue problem. The recession caused all tax receipts to be lower, but government revenue was artificially suppressed long-before by tax cuts for the big business and the rich pushed through at both thefederal and state levels. But with Wall Street tycoons still raking in big bonuses while the rest of us stagger and suffer, anger against big business might reach a boiling point... unless private sector workers can be pitted against public sector workers in a "blame government" charade to diffuse anger from the rightful target.
4. Gov. Walker and the attack on unions are paid for by anti-government Koch brothers
David and Charles Koch, scions of the second largest private corporation in the United States, know how to get a good deal for their dollar. Do you really think the brothers who fund the anti-government, pro-big business Tea Party really give a damn about Wisconsin's deficit? They are using Wisconsin in their larger play to destroy all unions, further strip all workers of benefits and decent wages, and increase power and profit for a very few, very large corporations like their own. The Koch brothers are among Gov. Walker's top political contributors.
It's so plain to see, so easy to understand!! Why are the rightie, teabagger, conservative, democrat haters, so blind??
This morning I listened to my Gov. Chris Christie on Morning Joe talk about unions in NJ. He ALMOST had me believing his bull but I had a second cup of coffee and came to my senses. This effort to abolish unions and silence the middleclass worker is un-American. Who will protect the factory worker, the teachers, the janitors, the police and firefighter who puts his life on the line every day? The big corporations who republican governors can thank for their elections surely don't want unions in this country backing democrats, so this is how they begin the process of killing the democratic party, kill off the organizations who put dems in office.
Now let me say this, I do believe union workers should contribute to their healthcare costs, they should contribute more to their pensions, but they should not have their voices silenced.
Did I ever tell you my husbands story? He worked for a small town company that grew to be a world wide manufacturer of flooring, Mannington. He was a welder/millwright and worked for this company just like his grandfather before him. He was there for 15 years. This company claimed to care about their workers but was not gonna let any union come in and poison the minds of their workers. One night myhusband was called to work at 2 am. He went in, performed his job and even stayed all night and his shift the next day. After not receiving the over time pay he deserved he started asking questions. When he was repeatedly told he would not get that pay he did not back down and was subsequently fired for insubordination. When he went to his friend the boss, the plant founders son, he begged for his job back but was given no mercy. You talk about humiliation, it's hard for me to even write about it... Anyway myhusbamd was accused of trying to form a union or something to that effect, and it wasn't true but when he told his story to the Labor Relations board they immediately took the case. He won I guess you could say, but it was a tiny settlement, he should have taken the bastards to court! So, if the plant had a union representing the workers rights, he would still be there today and retiring in a few yrs. This is just one of the reasons we have unions, without them the MIDDLE CLASS HARD WORKER gets shit on by the big guy every fuckin time!
Thanks for listening...
What's happening in Wisconsin isn't about budget deficits or government spending or even public employee benefits. It's class war, wherein the big business, conservative Right tries to pit working class Americans against one another so that the super-rich can
1. 60% of Wisconsin's largest corporations pay ZERO taxes
According to the Institute for Wisconsin's Future, in 2007 60% of corporations in Wisconsin with over $100 million in annual revenues paid zero taxes. None. Zip. Zilch.
2. Raising
By comparison, Gov. Walker's union busting bill will "save" a measly $350 million (that is, if you consider lowering the income and security of a core group of tax-paying workers "saving" money...).
3. Cutting taxes on corporations and the rich created state budget crises.
States do not have a spending problem. They have a revenue problem. The recession caused all tax receipts to be lower, but government revenue was artificially suppressed long-before by tax cuts for the big business and the rich pushed through at both the
4. Gov. Walker and the attack on unions are paid for by anti-government Koch brothers
David and Charles Koch, scions of the second largest private corporation in the United States, know how to get a good deal for their dollar. Do you really think the brothers who fund the anti-government, pro-big business Tea Party really give a damn about Wisconsin's deficit? They are using Wisconsin in their larger play to destroy all unions, further strip all workers of benefits and decent wages, and increase power and profit for a very few, very large corporations like their own. The Koch brothers are among Gov. Walker's top political contributors.
It's so plain to see, so easy to understand!! Why are the rightie, teabagger, conservative, democrat haters, so blind??
This morning I listened to my Gov. Chris Christie on Morning Joe talk about unions in NJ. He ALMOST had me believing his bull but I had a second cup of coffee and came to my senses. This effort to abolish unions and silence the middleclass worker is un-American. Who will protect the factory worker, the teachers, the janitors, the police and firefighter who puts his life on the line every day? The big corporations who republican governors can thank for their elections surely don't want unions in this country backing democrats, so this is how they begin the process of killing the democratic party, kill off the organizations who put dems in office.
Now let me say this, I do believe union workers should contribute to their healthcare costs, they should contribute more to their pensions, but they should not have their voices silenced.
Did I ever tell you my husbands story? He worked for a small town company that grew to be a world wide manufacturer of flooring, Mannington. He was a welder/millwright and worked for this company just like his grandfather before him. He was there for 15 years. This company claimed to care about their workers but was not gonna let any union come in and poison the minds of their workers. One night myhusband was called to work at 2 am. He went in, performed his job and even stayed all night and his shift the next day. After not receiving the over time pay he deserved he started asking questions. When he was repeatedly told he would not get that pay he did not back down and was subsequently fired for insubordination. When he went to his friend the boss, the plant founders son, he begged for his job back but was given no mercy. You talk about humiliation, it's hard for me to even write about it... Anyway myhusbamd was accused of trying to form a union or something to that effect, and it wasn't true but when he told his story to the Labor Relations board they immediately took the case. He won I guess you could say, but it was a tiny settlement, he should have taken the bastards to court! So, if the plant had a union representing the workers rights, he would still be there today and retiring in a few yrs. This is just one of the reasons we have unions, without them the MIDDLE CLASS HARD WORKER gets shit on by the big guy every fuckin time!
Thanks for listening...
The Word as a Wordle
This week's Wordle is of the Gospel reading for Sunday from Matthew 6:24-34.Jesus asks us to get our lives in proportion and to focus on the things that really matter...
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? Matthew 6 v25-27
Throughout our everyday lives we are urged to want more; our society places great store on material possessions. It suggests that the car that we drive, the brands of clothes that we wear, the mobile phone that we use all define us in some way. It is easy to be lulled into believing this, and losing sight of our true value as a unique, loved child of God.
It is easy to focus on what we want, rather than what we have, and to focus on the material rather than the other ways in which our lives are blessed. However hard life seems, we have things we can be thankful for.
Action: Spend some time writing down some things that you are thankful for. Spend some time giving thanks to God for his blessings to you.
Pause for reflection: As well as being thankful, we need to acknowledge our anxieties. What money worries do you have? Share those with God in prayer.
You may find the following prayer helpful :
Lord God, we live in disturbing days:
across the world, prices rise, debts increase, banks collapse,
jobs are taken away, and fragile security is under threat.
Loving God, meet us in our fear and hear our prayer:
be a tower of strength amidst the shifting sands,
and a light in the darkness;
help us receive your gift of peace,
and fix our hearts where true joys are to be found,
in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Wednesday Podcast - Polycarp
Folks, here is the homily that I preached this morning as we remembered Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna and Martyr:Honoured as one of the first Christian martyrs, Polycarp had been Bishop of Smyrna on the Adriatic coast of Asia Minor for over forty years when the persecution of Christians began. He was arrested and given the option to renounce his faith and so save his life. His response was: "I have been Christ's servant for eighty-six years and he has done me no harm. Can I now blaspheme my King and my Saviour?" He was immediately burnt at the stake. His remains were gathered together and buried outside the city; thus began the practice of celebrating the eucharist over his burial place on the anniversary of his death, a practice which also grew over the martyrs' tombs in the Roman catacombs. Polycarp died in the year 155.
Almighty God,
who gave to your servant Polycarp
boldness to confess the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ
before the rulers of this world
and courage to die for his faith:
grant that we also may be ready
to give an answer for the faith that is in us
and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
One like the Son of Man said to me, "To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of the first and the last, who was dead and came to life: 'I know your affliction and your poverty, even though you are rich. I know the slander on the part of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Beware, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have affliction. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Whoever conquers will not be harmed by the second death.'"
This is the word of the Lord. Revelation 2. 8-11
Jesus said to his disciples, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples."This is the gospel of Christ. John 15. 1-8
What does Hitler have in common with this union busting in Wisconsin and the spread across our great nation?
As you can easily see by my postings lately, I am totally obsessed by this union busting story coming out of Wisconsin.... so today I found on FB a new one for ya. I saw Leslie had joined into the conversation on this article from the awesome informative site News Junkie Post. Tons of great info on the protests. And the truth, so go read!
On May 2nd, 1933, the day after Labor day, Nazi groups occupied union halls and labor leaders were arrested. Trade Unions were outlawed by Adolf Hitler, while collective bargaining and the right to strike was abolished. This was the beginning of a consolidation of power by the fascist regime which systematically wiped out all opposition groups, starting with unions, liberals, socialists, and communists using Himmler’s state police.
Fast forward to America today, particularly Wisconsin. Governor Walker and the Republican/Tea Party members of the state legislature are attempting to pass a bill that would not only severely punish public unions (with exception for the police, fire, and state trooper unions that supported his campaign), but it would effectively end 50 years to the right of these workers to collectively bargain.
First of all, assaulting the rights of workers to collectively bargain has absolutely nothing to do with any immediate budgetary issues. It does however have everything to do with ending one of the basic rights of labor to organize. Please read the rest....
Now tell me folks, what has President Obama done in the past 2 years that looks anything like a dictatorship? Those who have turned their backs on Obama and criticize his every move better wake up to what the Rightwing wants to do to America. If you think I'm off base talking about Hitler and the Republicans in the same sentence then you better get yourselves educated on unions and Wisconsin.
I GOOGLED fascist republicans and found this...Hub pages
RogerGriffin, arguably the most prominent fascist historian, has a solutionwhich succeeds where everyone else has failed, defining the concept ofa fascist minimum of "paligenetic ultra-nationalist populism".Paligenetic means rebirth: Griffin is talking about a far-right partywhich exudes iconography suggesting the nation arise like a phoenixfrom the ashes.
Althoughthe definition is not widely known outside of the historical community,it is the only definition which can sum up fascism in less than acouple of paragraphs, much less three words, and has gained widespreadacceptance amongst scholars.
Ithought for some time that this would eliminate the possibility of theRepublican party being fascist. Its visual iconography is not remotelypaligenetic. Mostly, you think of Republicans, and you think of oldrich guys in suits. Throughout its history it has been a party of thecentre right, not remotely fascist in nature.
But,this ignores the significant and growing influence on the party of influential groups such as evangelical churches, the Tea Party. The individual, like George Bush, who describeshimself as born-again, is literally expressing his belief inpaligenesis. Not of nationhood, though the nationalism of theRepublican party is not in doubt, but of his soul. This suggests thepossibility of a peculiarly American form of fascism, and onepotentially more virulent than the ones we know of from the thirtiesand forties, as it has a spiritual, cult-like component. Only thefollowers of Codreanu in Romania, whose beliefs made Hitler seemmild-mannered, developed a form of fascism that perverse.
Additionally,the neo-con influence on the party provides additional definingcharacteristics of fascism. It has turned a moderate, isolationistpatriotic party into an aggressive interventionist ultra-nationalistone, ready to invade other nations on purely territorial grounds.
Whenassessing the influence of these outside groupings, you have toconsider how fascism would most likely emerge in America, if in fact,emerge it did. It wouldn't be possible for a radical third party toemerge and win office, the constitution has many specific provisionswhich make that almost impossible. In the most probable scenario,radical groupings would infect the body of a major political party,probably (though not necessarily) the Republicans, establish an elitewith major influence over the president out of all proportion withtheir popularity. This is what has happened.
Whenit comes to historical parallels,it becomes much simpler to makecomparisons. It is not difficult to see the similarities between theReichstag fire that brought Hitler to power in Germany, through the subsequent Enabling Act, and 9/11 and thePatriot Act. Both were convenient if probably genuine acts of terrorismby menacing powers which led to authoritarian pieces of legislationsuperficially designed to eliminate an external threat which reducedcivil freedoms at home. In fact, the Nazi's had much morejustification-revolution had already occurred in Russia, and the RedArmy stood ready to attack at any moment. The threat posed by Bin Ladenis inconsequential by comparison.
Itis not difficult to see comparisons between the rise to power of themodern Republican party and the Nazis, both in quasi-legal coup d'etatswhere a minority of the electorate returned each respectiveorganization.
Itis not difficult to see how the skillful use of propaganda has beenused to pacify each people with selective truth-telling, paranoidnightmare, and appeals to shallow jingoism.
Itis not difficult to see the comparisons between the Keynesianmilitarism of German Nazism and the big state spending of theRepublicans on the US military machine.
Noris it difficult to see how a succession of atrocities were hidden,uncovered and then papered over with a shallow veneer ofjustification, then subsequently ignored by an indifferent people.Fortunately, the scale of atrocities committed by the US and the Nazi'sare not of the same order. But it was not till long after WWII that thehorrors of the gas chambers were widely known. It is a good idea to bevigilant against the possibility.
Onthe most simple level, the Republicans are now seen by almost everyoneoutside the organization as the party of torture, the party ofoffensive military action, the party that opposes civil rights, eventhe party of concentration camps. These are not American values. Theseare not the practices of civilized, democratic peoples anywhere in theworld. They are things we associate with authoritarianism, and, byimplication, fascism.
On May 2nd, 1933, the day after Labor day, Nazi groups occupied union halls and labor leaders were arrested. Trade Unions were outlawed by Adolf Hitler, while collective bargaining and the right to strike was abolished. This was the beginning of a consolidation of power by the fascist regime which systematically wiped out all opposition groups, starting with unions, liberals, socialists, and communists using Himmler’s state police.
Fast forward to America today, particularly Wisconsin. Governor Walker and the Republican/Tea Party members of the state legislature are attempting to pass a bill that would not only severely punish public unions (with exception for the police, fire, and state trooper unions that supported his campaign), but it would effectively end 50 years to the right of these workers to collectively bargain.
Collective bargaining is a process of voluntary negotiations between employers and trade unions aimed at reaching agreements which regulate working conditions. Collective agreements usually set out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety, overtime, grievance mechanisms and rights to participate in workplace or company affairs. -wiki
First of all, assaulting the rights of workers to collectively bargain has absolutely nothing to do with any immediate budgetary issues. It does however have everything to do with ending one of the basic rights of labor to organize. Please read the rest....
Now tell me folks, what has President Obama done in the past 2 years that looks anything like a dictatorship? Those who have turned their backs on Obama and criticize his every move better wake up to what the Rightwing wants to do to America. If you think I'm off base talking about Hitler and the Republicans in the same sentence then you better get yourselves educated on unions and Wisconsin.
I GOOGLED fascist republicans and found this...Hub pages
Are Republicans Fascist?
RogerGriffin, arguably the most prominent fascist historian, has a solutionwhich succeeds where everyone else has failed, defining the concept ofa fascist minimum of "paligenetic ultra-nationalist populism".Paligenetic means rebirth: Griffin is talking about a far-right partywhich exudes iconography suggesting the nation arise like a phoenixfrom the ashes.
Althoughthe definition is not widely known outside of the historical community,it is the only definition which can sum up fascism in less than acouple of paragraphs, much less three words, and has gained widespreadacceptance amongst scholars.
Ithought for some time that this would eliminate the possibility of theRepublican party being fascist. Its visual iconography is not remotelypaligenetic. Mostly, you think of Republicans, and you think of oldrich guys in suits. Throughout its history it has been a party of thecentre right, not remotely fascist in nature.
But,this ignores the significant and growing influence on the party of influential groups such as evangelical churches, the Tea Party. The individual, like George Bush, who describeshimself as born-again, is literally expressing his belief inpaligenesis. Not of nationhood, though the nationalism of theRepublican party is not in doubt, but of his soul. This suggests thepossibility of a peculiarly American form of fascism, and onepotentially more virulent than the ones we know of from the thirtiesand forties, as it has a spiritual, cult-like component. Only thefollowers of Codreanu in Romania, whose beliefs made Hitler seemmild-mannered, developed a form of fascism that perverse.
Additionally,the neo-con influence on the party provides additional definingcharacteristics of fascism. It has turned a moderate, isolationistpatriotic party into an aggressive interventionist ultra-nationalistone, ready to invade other nations on purely territorial grounds.
Whenassessing the influence of these outside groupings, you have toconsider how fascism would most likely emerge in America, if in fact,emerge it did. It wouldn't be possible for a radical third party toemerge and win office, the constitution has many specific provisionswhich make that almost impossible. In the most probable scenario,radical groupings would infect the body of a major political party,probably (though not necessarily) the Republicans, establish an elitewith major influence over the president out of all proportion withtheir popularity. This is what has happened.
Whenit comes to historical parallels,it becomes much simpler to makecomparisons. It is not difficult to see the similarities between theReichstag fire that brought Hitler to power in Germany, through the subsequent Enabling Act, and 9/11 and thePatriot Act. Both were convenient if probably genuine acts of terrorismby menacing powers which led to authoritarian pieces of legislationsuperficially designed to eliminate an external threat which reducedcivil freedoms at home. In fact, the Nazi's had much morejustification-revolution had already occurred in Russia, and the RedArmy stood ready to attack at any moment. The threat posed by Bin Ladenis inconsequential by comparison.
Itis not difficult to see comparisons between the rise to power of themodern Republican party and the Nazis, both in quasi-legal coup d'etatswhere a minority of the electorate returned each respectiveorganization.
Itis not difficult to see how the skillful use of propaganda has beenused to pacify each people with selective truth-telling, paranoidnightmare, and appeals to shallow jingoism.
Itis not difficult to see the comparisons between the Keynesianmilitarism of German Nazism and the big state spending of theRepublicans on the US military machine.
Noris it difficult to see how a succession of atrocities were hidden,uncovered and then papered over with a shallow veneer ofjustification, then subsequently ignored by an indifferent people.Fortunately, the scale of atrocities committed by the US and the Nazi'sare not of the same order. But it was not till long after WWII that thehorrors of the gas chambers were widely known. It is a good idea to bevigilant against the possibility.
Onthe most simple level, the Republicans are now seen by almost everyoneoutside the organization as the party of torture, the party ofoffensive military action, the party that opposes civil rights, eventhe party of concentration camps. These are not American values. Theseare not the practices of civilized, democratic peoples anywhere in theworld. They are things we associate with authoritarianism, and, byimplication, fascism.
Oh you can bet this is a battle we MUST win!
With each passing day it becomes clearer and clearer. As the protest grows larger by the day, as Gov. Walker turns his back on negotiations because the concessions don't go "all the way" for him and his cronies, it's all coming together, the light is shining on the conservative Koch brothers takeover of America and the quashing of the middle class. How ironic, Beck and his fuckin' chalkboard, his Nazi symbols, his communist rhetoric, It's HIM, it's HIS PARTY that is trying to bring down America, NOT the Liberals you stupid conservatives! You blind followers of assholes like Beck, like the teabagging governors you elected because you thought they cared about America! What a fuckin' joke you are, you are being had, it's all right before your eyes but you are too blind to see it!
This Alternet article by Robert Reich says it all in plain English....
The Republican strategy is to split the vast middle and working class - pitting unionized workers against non-unionized, public-sector workers against non-public, older workers within sight ofMedicare and Social Security against younger workers who don't believe these programs will be there for them, and the poor against the working middle class.
This is a three part strategy by the rethuglicans. It's starting in Wisconsin and will be country wide before you can blink....
Part one..The Battle over the Federal Budget,
The President has already fallen into the trap by calling for budget cuts in programs the poor and working class depend on - assistance with home heating, community services, college loans , and the like.
Part two..The Assault on Public Employees,
Wisconsin's Republican governor Scott Walker and his GOP legislature are seeking to end almost all union rights for teachers. Ohio's Republican governor John Kasich is pushing a similar plan in Ohio through a Republican-dominated legislature. New Jersey's Republican governor Chris Christie is attempting the same, telling a conservative conference Wednesday, "I'm attacking the leadership of the union because they're greedy, and they're selfish and they're self-interested."
Part three...The Distortion of the Constitution,
The third part of the Republican strategy is being played out in the Supreme Court. It has politicized the Court more than at any time in recent memory.
This assault doesn't have to happen. It's not written in stone. Will patriotic Americans cower to the evilness coming from the conservative right or will we fight? The good people of Wisconsin are fighting and that should give us hope. You better get prepared to take a stand when it comes to your state, if you have a Rethuglican governor like I do you can bet it's coming! Look what the country did in '08, we have the numbers, we can win this battle! Please read the article by Reich...
This Alternet article by Robert Reich says it all in plain English....
The Republican strategy is to split the vast middle and working class - pitting unionized workers against non-unionized, public-sector workers against non-public, older workers within sight of
This is a three part strategy by the rethuglicans. It's starting in Wisconsin and will be country wide before you can blink....
Part one..The Battle over the Federal Budget,
The President has already fallen into the trap by calling for budget cuts in programs the poor and working class depend on - assistance with home heating, community services,
Part two..The Assault on Public Employees,
Wisconsin's Republican governor Scott Walker and his GOP legislature are seeking to end almost all union rights for teachers. Ohio's Republican governor John Kasich is pushing a similar plan in Ohio through a Republican-dominated legislature. New Jersey's Republican governor Chris Christie is attempting the same, telling a conservative conference Wednesday, "I'm attacking the leadership of the union because they're greedy, and they're selfish and they're self-interested."
Part three...The Distortion of the Constitution,
The third part of the Republican strategy is being played out in the Supreme Court. It has politicized the Court more than at any time in recent memory.
This assault doesn't have to happen. It's not written in stone. Will patriotic Americans cower to the evilness coming from the conservative right or will we fight? The good people of Wisconsin are fighting and that should give us hope. You better get prepared to take a stand when it comes to your state, if you have a Rethuglican governor like I do you can bet it's coming! Look what the country did in '08, we have the numbers, we can win this battle! Please read the article by Reich...
Sunday Podcast
I am going to start making my Sunday sermons available for a limited period of time as audio downloads (MP3 format.)
The player below should enable you to listen to the MP3 audio.
You should be able to dowload the audio of this Sunday's sermon (20/2/11) based on Matthew 5:38-48 here
Perhaps some of you could give it a whirl and let me know if it works?
Living the Love of God
Uwe Holmer with Margot and Erich Honecker.
Eight times the Ministry of Education in East Germany said no to Uwe Holmer's children when they tried to enroll at the university in East Berlin. The Ministry of Education didn't usually give reasons for its rejection of applications for enrollment. But in this case the reason wasn't hard to guess. Uwe Holmer, the father of the eight applicants, was a Lutheran pastor at Lobetal, a suburb of East Berlin. For 26 years the Ministry of Education was headed by Margot Honecker, wife of East Germany's premier, Erich Honecker....
Then when the Berlin wall cracked, Honecker and his wife were unceremoniously dismissed from office. Under indictment for criminal activities the Honeckers were evicted from their luxurious palace, suddenly finding themselves friendless, without resources, and with no place to go. No one wanted to identify with them.
Enter Uwe Holmer. Remembering the words of Jesus, 'If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also,' Holmer extended an invitation to the Honeckers to stay with his family in the parsonage. His charity was not shared by the rest of the country. Hate mail poured in. Some members of his own church threatened to leave. Pastor Holmer defended his actions in a letter to the newspaper. "In Lobetal," he wrote, "there is a sculpture of Jesus inviting people to himself and crying out, 'Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' We have been commanded by our Lord Jesus to follow him and to receive all those who are weary and heavy laden, in spirit and in body, but especially the homeless. What Jesus asked his disciples to do is equally binding on us."
In this morning’s Gospel reading, in this section of what some call the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus calls us to what may seem an impossible task - to love our neighbours, to pray for our persecutors and, in so doing, to become more like our heavenly father.
1. Love Your Enemies. The love that God commands of us is love so great that it even embraces our enemies. When Jesus said he must have startled his audience, for he was saying something that probably had never been said so succinctly, so positively, and so forcefully before. We naturally love people or things which are beautiful. The love of which Jesus speaks here, however, and which is most spoken of in the New Testament, is agape. It is the love that seeks and works to meet another’s highest welfare. This kind of love is the love that God is and shows us, and expects of us.
God’s love sees all the hatefulness and all the wickedness of the enemy yet desires to free them from his hate, to do them the highest good, to rescue them from them sin, and save their soul. Our “enemies,” of course, do not always come in life–threatening forms. Often they are people who are simply mean, impatient, judgmental, self–righteous, spiteful. God commands us to love them. Whether a conflict is with our spouse, our children or parents, our friends or a devious business opponent or spiteful neighbour, our attitude toward them must be one of love. Others say retaliate. Jesus says reconcile. Jesus commands us to love our enemies. How can we do that when we don’t want to?
2. Pray for Your Persecutors. Charles Spurgeon said, “Prayer is the forerunner of mercy. ” When we start to pray for someone you don't get on with, God begins to answer your prayer by changing our attitude toward them. We must love them because of who they are—sinners in need of God’s forgiveness and grace, just as we were and do. We must pray for them that they will, as we have done, seek His forgiveness and grace. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the pastor who suffered and eventually was killed in Nazi Germany, wrote of this teaching of Jesus, “This is the supreme demand. Through the medium of prayer we go to our enemy, stand by his side, and plead for him to God. For if we pray for them, we are taking their distress and poverty, their guilt and perdition upon ourselves and pleading to God for them.” Love our enemies and pray for them. Why? Because God’s desire for us is thirdly,
3. Become Like Jesus. To love our enemies and to pray for our persecutors shows that we are children of our Father who is in heaven. Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” The heart of all that Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount—in fact, the heart of all that He teaches—is contained in these words. “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” God’s will is nothing less than that we become like him and love like Him. But what does that mean?
If I say I love my wife, you can see evidence that I do by the way that I support her, the way that I care for her, the way that I react to her and so on for she is worth loving!
What of our enemies though? Are they worth loving? Enemies usually stand against us, oppose us, hamper our hopes and dreams and sometimes endanger us. Yet Jesus asks us to love even these because God does.
We can only love even those we find unloveable and pray for them, when we consciously, daily, willingly, lay aside our reputation, lay aside our rights, lay aside our self-righteousness, lay aside our pride, and lay aside a version of Christian faith that is all too often so heavenly so as to be of no earthly use, and instead stand with Uwe Holmer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Martin Luther KIng jnr., Maxamillian Kolbe, Gordon Wilson, Desmond Tutu and countless others known and unknown to us, and trust Jesus Christ to give us His love and enable us to live His love for all, friend, neighbour, enemy. Amen
This is far from over....
Beck has been saying a revolution is coming to America and blames liberals. Well Beck, what inside info do you have cuz it looks like your dream may come true! You don't have to live in Wisconsin to be angered by the goings on of their teabagger Governor Walker. Thanks to Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz the story behind the protesting is coming to light. This is serious people, pay attention because your state could be next..
Alternet...
The fact is, Walker is carrying out the wishes of his corporate master, David Koch, who calls the tune these days for Wisconsin Republicans. Walker is just one among many Wisconsin Republicans supported by Koch Industries -- run by David Koch and his brother, Charles -- and Americans For Prosperity, the astroturf group founded and funded by David Koch. The Koch brothers are hell-bent on destroying the labor movement once and for all.
All you rethuglicans in the country who believe the will of the people put teabaggers in all those governorships last year, think again. The protesting that will come out of those states where their GOP leaders are trying to destroy the unions because they believe it will bring down the Democratic Party are in for a rude awakening. If Glenn beck thinks liberals will take to the streets you ain't seen nothin' yet! No evil Koch is gonna turn our country over to the rightwing extremists!
Get ready Wisconsin here come the crazies!!
Tea partiers are arranging for buses to the state Capitol, with the help of a local talk radio host. They're promising a massive counter-demonstration to all those angry teachers. And this effort is being spearheaded by the conservative group American Majority, which has been
training activists to become candidates at the state level.
Alternet...
The fact is, Walker is carrying out the wishes of his corporate master, David Koch, who calls the tune these days for Wisconsin Republicans. Walker is just one among many Wisconsin Republicans supported by Koch Industries -- run by David Koch and his brother, Charles -- and Americans For Prosperity, the astroturf group founded and funded by David Koch. The Koch brothers are hell-bent on destroying the labor movement once and for all.
All you rethuglicans in the country who believe the will of the people put teabaggers in all those governorships last year, think again. The protesting that will come out of those states where their GOP leaders are trying to destroy the unions because they believe it will bring down the Democratic Party are in for a rude awakening. If Glenn beck thinks liberals will take to the streets you ain't seen nothin' yet! No evil Koch is gonna turn our country over to the rightwing extremists!
Get ready Wisconsin here come the crazies!!
Tea partiers are arranging for buses to the state Capitol, with the help of a local talk radio host. They're promising a massive counter-demonstration to all those angry teachers. And this effort is being spearheaded by the conservative group American Majority, which has been
American Majority has set up an "I Stand With Scott Walker Rally" Facebook page to spread the word, and by 1 o'clock Friday, 1100 people had replied and said they were planning to descend on Madison. And if they and others do flock to the state capital, Madison could well become a media circus. Conservative provocateur Andrew Breitbart will be headlining the tea party rally, along with Gateway Pundit blogger Jim Hoft, who recently scoffed at the Egyptian pro-democracy uprising. (Hoft also blamed CBS News reporter Lara Logan's "liberal belief system" for her sexual assault in Egypt.) Recently added: potential GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain. And there may also be a cameo appearance by Joe "The Plumber" Wurtzelbacher, who tweeted Friday morning that he was headed to Madison to "do some interviews."
STAND STRONG LIBERALS!!!
Podcasting
I bought and MP3 recorder recently and I am going to be experimenting recording sermons on it and uploading them to my blog. If any other Mac users can give me some tips and hints (use GarageBand, not to use it, how to feed my blog, etc).
Please click on the Podcast tab above to listen to the new content, which at the moment is an experiment.
Check back on Sunday night hopefully for my first full attempt!
The Overtone Quartet - "Treachery"
This is marvellous... They are Chris Potter, Jason Moran, Dave Holland and Eric Harland and they are playing at Ronnie Scott's on 30th April. Bring it on!
Wisconsin protests!
Republicans hate poor and needy people, unemployed people, those who collect some sort of government assistance, BUT they also hate hard working people, union people. Those that make a good living wage so they don't need government help. They go to work every day, they are teachers, cops, firefighters, nurses, cafeteria workers, etc, etc, Where is the reasoning in this wingnuttery?
Thank God the good people of Wisconsin are protesting, they are uniting in protest of their governor, Rightwing pigmonger Scott Walker. This piece of crap governor is cooking the books so he can claim a budget crisis. This guy is a fraud and a liar!
Walker claims thereis a $137 million deficit -- it is not because of a drop inrevenues or increases in the cost of state employee contracts,benefits or pensions. It is because Walker and his allies pushedthrough $140 million in new spending for special-interest groups inJanuary. If the Legislature were simply to rescind Walker’s newspending schemes -- or delay their implementation until they areoffset by fresh revenues -- the “crisis” would not exist.
The Fiscal Bureau memo -- which readers can access at http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lfb/Misc/2011_01_31Vos&Darling.pdf-- makes it clear that Walker did not inherit a budget thatrequired a repair bill.
In a Wednesday op-ed, the Capitol Times of Madison picked up on this theme.
This just posted on TPMDC...
The weather in Wisconsin is cold this time of year -- but the budget fight is only getting hotter. Following a walkout by the state Senate Democrats, depriving Republicans of the three-fifths majority needed to pass the budget and its controversial anti-public union provisions, the NBC affiliate in Madison now reports that sources say the Dems have left the state entirely. (Democrats with backbone!!)
This comes after the state Senate majority leader said that the State Patrol could be called in to round up the Dems. However, leaving for another state would presumably place the legislators beyond the state's jurisdiction. (Fun fact: The state Senate leader and the Assembly Speaker are brothers -- and the new head of the State Patrol is their father.)
Democratic Minority Leader Mark Miller released a statement on behalf of all Democrats urging Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans to listen to opponents of the measure and seek a compromise. His statement did not address where Democrats were or when they planned to return.
Bill opponents in the Senate gallery cheered when Senate President Mike Ellis announced that there were not enough senators present to proceed.
This is an on going event, minute by minute... events courtesy of TPM, Yahoo news,
My cousin Jeanette wrote this for me, she lives in Wisconsin......
I was in Madison on Tuesday and the similarity with what was happening there, and what I had just witnessed on TV in Egypt was striking. Thirteen thousand people marched on the Capital, filling the Capitol Building and chanting "Kill This Bill" and spilling out into the square. Teachers and Public Employees are under attack with a bill that Governor Walker has proposed which would dismantle their collective bargaining rights. The so called Repair Bill is being driven through (and will probably be voted on today) under the guise that it will help the state budget's bottom line. But this is not about the budget! This is about union busting! You can almost see Scott Walker smacking his lips! Nothing would make him happier than to see Wisconsin, a leader in Progressive politics for the last century, become a Right to Work State. By pitting worker against worker, he and the Republicans are trying to make villains out of public employees because they have a union which has survived during this recession, while one by one, unions in the private sector have fallen by the wayside. Workers have suffered in the last 30 years while companies have moved, first to the South where unions were weak or nonexistent and then out of the country.
This is class warfare! An injury to one is an injury to all!
I'll be back with updates!
Thank God the good people of Wisconsin are protesting, they are uniting in protest of their governor, Rightwing pigmonger Scott Walker. This piece of crap governor is cooking the books so he can claim a budget crisis. This guy is a fraud and a liar!
Walker claims thereis a $137 million deficit -- it is not because of a drop inrevenues or increases in the cost of state employee contracts,benefits or pensions. It is because Walker and his allies pushedthrough $140 million in new spending for special-interest groups inJanuary. If the Legislature were simply to rescind Walker’s newspending schemes -- or delay their implementation until they areoffset by fresh revenues -- the “crisis” would not exist.
The Fiscal Bureau memo -- which readers can access at http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lfb/Misc/2011_01_31Vos&Darling.pdf-- makes it clear that Walker did not inherit a budget thatrequired a repair bill.
In a Wednesday op-ed, the Capitol Times of Madison picked up on this theme.
In its Jan. 31 memo to legislators on the condition of the state's budget, the Fiscal Bureau determined that the state will end the year with a balance of $121.4 million.To the extent that there is an imbalance -- Walker claims there is a $137 million deficit -- it is not because of a drop in revenues or increases in the cost of state employee contracts, benefits or pensions. It is because Walker and his allies pushed through $140 million in new spending for special-interest groups in January.
This just posted on TPMDC...
The weather in Wisconsin is cold this time of year -- but the budget fight is only getting hotter. Following a walkout by the state Senate Democrats, depriving Republicans of the three-fifths majority needed to pass the budget and its controversial anti-public union provisions, the NBC affiliate in Madison now reports that sources say the Dems have left the state entirely. (Democrats with backbone!!)
This comes after the state Senate majority leader said that the State Patrol could be called in to round up the Dems. However, leaving for another state would presumably place the legislators beyond the state's jurisdiction. (Fun fact: The state Senate leader and the Assembly Speaker are brothers -- and the new head of the State Patrol is their father.)
Democratic Minority Leader Mark Miller released a statement on behalf of all Democrats urging Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans to listen to opponents of the measure and seek a compromise. His statement did not address where Democrats were or when they planned to return.
Bill opponents in the Senate gallery cheered when Senate President Mike Ellis announced that there were not enough senators present to proceed.
This is an on going event, minute by minute... events courtesy of TPM, Yahoo news,
My cousin Jeanette wrote this for me, she lives in Wisconsin......
I was in Madison on Tuesday and the similarity with what was happening there, and what I had just witnessed on TV in Egypt was striking. Thirteen thousand people marched on the Capital, filling the Capitol Building and chanting "Kill This Bill" and spilling out into the square. Teachers and Public Employees are under attack with a bill that Governor Walker has proposed which would dismantle their collective bargaining rights. The so called Repair Bill is being driven through (and will probably be voted on today) under the guise that it will help the state budget's bottom line. But this is not about the budget! This is about union busting! You can almost see Scott Walker smacking his lips! Nothing would make him happier than to see Wisconsin, a leader in Progressive politics for the last century, become a Right to Work State. By pitting worker against worker, he and the Republicans are trying to make villains out of public employees because they have a union which has survived during this recession, while one by one, unions in the private sector have fallen by the wayside. Workers have suffered in the last 30 years while companies have moved, first to the South where unions were weak or nonexistent and then out of the country.
This is class warfare! An injury to one is an injury to all!
I'll be back with updates!
My thoughts on the dating question.
In my previous blog, I asked everyone for their opinion on a question that I heard on the The Boundless Podcast. The question came from one woman, asking another woman on a show hosted by a woman on whether or not it was "correct" to initiate contact with a man she was interested in on eHarmony.
Thank you again, espeically Nicole and Brandi, for your responses to the question.
Here's how I would answer it: The purpose of eHarmony is to make getting into relationships really easy. Why would you want to make it more difficult? The answer is 'women need to let the men lead.' Does letting the man lead mean doing nothing? This may seem like hyperbole, but I have to wonder this: if a woman is unwilling to make contact due to 'we need to let the men lead' will she be able to reciprocate interest later? Can she respond in a way that is conducive to relationship building once mutual attraction is out the open?
I know this may seem counter-intuitive to many Christian woman/girls, but if you don't show interest in a guy that guy will assume that you are not interested in him. Let me repeat that: if you don't show interest in a guy that guy will assume that you are not interested in him.
It seems so strange that FOF, Boundless, and other segments of Evangelicalism want to so harshly split gender roles. Men are supposed to 100% dominate, assertive, and pursuit-driven. Women are expected to be 100% submissive, passive, and receptive. Yet scientifically everybody knows that testosterone and estrogen are present in both genders. Philosophically, most schools of thought (especially eastern) will say that there is a "feminine" nature and a "masculine" nature and that all humans are mixture of both. Even the Bible ascribes both masculine and feminine traits to God. It seems so obvious that while we might expect behavioral tendencies for each gender, we shouldn't expect some black and white, either/or, divide.
More broadly, I simply don't understand the purpose of such moral quandaries when it comes to dating. Is it not missing the forest for the trees? If the goal of Christian dating is to get into a committed, healthy, relationship, than maybe we shouldn't be so fixated on little rules. What if the rules are in conflict with the stated goal? It is if we want two streams of water to flow down a hill and meet together. So we decide to add several dams, ditches, and other obstructions to make sure they do so the biblical way.
I hope that any evangelical woman on eHarmony would consider talking to ...guys... when they have questions about how to interact with men on eHarmony because that seems the better place to look. (This of course assumes that male/female friendships are not against the laws of evangelicalism.)
I will close with one final thought. My honorary sister commented that if women can lead the church, than they can click the eHarmony thingy. I would like to add that if women can host a podcast, endorsed by a large parachurch/webzine, which has influence over many, many, young evangelicals, than they can click the eHarmony thingy.
Thank you again, espeically Nicole and Brandi, for your responses to the question.
Here's how I would answer it: The purpose of eHarmony is to make getting into relationships really easy. Why would you want to make it more difficult? The answer is 'women need to let the men lead.' Does letting the man lead mean doing nothing? This may seem like hyperbole, but I have to wonder this: if a woman is unwilling to make contact due to 'we need to let the men lead' will she be able to reciprocate interest later? Can she respond in a way that is conducive to relationship building once mutual attraction is out the open?
I know this may seem counter-intuitive to many Christian woman/girls, but if you don't show interest in a guy that guy will assume that you are not interested in him. Let me repeat that: if you don't show interest in a guy that guy will assume that you are not interested in him.
It seems so strange that FOF, Boundless, and other segments of Evangelicalism want to so harshly split gender roles. Men are supposed to 100% dominate, assertive, and pursuit-driven. Women are expected to be 100% submissive, passive, and receptive. Yet scientifically everybody knows that testosterone and estrogen are present in both genders. Philosophically, most schools of thought (especially eastern) will say that there is a "feminine" nature and a "masculine" nature and that all humans are mixture of both. Even the Bible ascribes both masculine and feminine traits to God. It seems so obvious that while we might expect behavioral tendencies for each gender, we shouldn't expect some black and white, either/or, divide.
More broadly, I simply don't understand the purpose of such moral quandaries when it comes to dating. Is it not missing the forest for the trees? If the goal of Christian dating is to get into a committed, healthy, relationship, than maybe we shouldn't be so fixated on little rules. What if the rules are in conflict with the stated goal? It is if we want two streams of water to flow down a hill and meet together. So we decide to add several dams, ditches, and other obstructions to make sure they do so the biblical way.
I hope that any evangelical woman on eHarmony would consider talking to ...guys... when they have questions about how to interact with men on eHarmony because that seems the better place to look. (This of course assumes that male/female friendships are not against the laws of evangelicalism.)
I will close with one final thought. My honorary sister commented that if women can lead the church, than they can click the eHarmony thingy. I would like to add that if women can host a podcast, endorsed by a large parachurch/webzine, which has influence over many, many, young evangelicals, than they can click the eHarmony thingy.
Justin Bieber calls America evil because of our screwed up healthcare system...
Canadians love Americas' politics, they find us amusing and our political figures far more interesting than their own. So I wonder, do they understand what our wingnuts want to do to this country? Do Canadians watch in horror as the wingnut party tries to destroy America, their beloved neighbor? To our Canadian friends our politicians seem amusing, and even downright crazy, but the rightwingers are absolutely serious in their desire to destroy us all.
Here is the difference in the parties, and remember some say the two parties are one in the same, this is not true....
While most of the world has been focusing their attention on the Middle East, we here in America are fighting over the budget. The House will be voting this week on a Republican bill, called a “continuing resolution” or CR, to cut $100 billion from President Barack Obama’s funding request for programs for the remaining seven months of this fiscal year. Don’t confuse the battle over the CR with that other battle which the House is going to be waging in the coming weeks over Obama’s spending request for fiscal year 2012, which begins on Oct. 1.
In this battle there's been over 400 amendments offered in the House, if the Rethuglican amendments are enacted this is what they would do...
– Eliminate the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the Special Envoy for Climate Change, the Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, the NOAA Climate Service, the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E, National Science Foundation K-12 funding
– Block US funding for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Global Environment Facility
– Suspend enforcement of fisheries laws and construction and conservation acquisition programs of the National Parks and Department of the Interior
– Block rules for toxic cement plant pollution, hazardous coal ash, industrial boiler pollution, water quality, climate change pollution, climate change adaptation, energy-efficient lighting, mountaintop removal, atrazine, and water conservation..
The existing language in the budget bill is already designed to deny global warming, slash and burn public health and green jobs, but the amendments would take even more radical steps to reward polluters who are killing our children’s future.
Most of the Republican amendments are budget neutral, not lowering the deficit one cent. Several defund effective jobs programs that cost only a few million dollars. The goal of these amendments is not fiscal responsibility or jobs creation, but polluter protection, even though the pollution is poisoning babies and causing the elderly to suffer.
Since taking the House there has not been a single bill for job creation by the Rethuglicans, did we really think they would concentrate their efforts on jobs? Hell NO, Boehner said if his partys' spending cuts lead to job losses then so be it.... What amazing arrogance! Scott Lilly of the Center for American Progress calculated that the cuts - a net of $59 billion in the last half of fiscal 2011 - would lead to the loss of 650,000 government jobs, and the indirect loss of 325,000 more jobs as fewer government workers travel and buy things. That's nearly 1 million jobs - possibly enough to tip the economy back into recession. This is music to the GOPPERS ears! They want the unemployment numbers to stay high because they believe it will help them win the election in 2012. But they have not come forth with a candidate who could actually beat Pres. Obama, what a joke. For the good of the country GOP, put the people FIRST for once in your party's lifetime!
NOW, the Democrats, I should say the progressive fighting Democrats in our party, have proposed amendments to eliminate billions of dollars that go to Big Oil subsidies. Congressman Ed Markey put forth an amendment that would close a loophole that allows oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico without paying ANY ROYALTIES! This bill will end the tax breaks, close the loophole and save the taxpayers 51 billion! The rethugs hate this bill, but Markey promises there will be a vote. He told Chris Matthews tonight..."I’m telling you what, we will have the vote sometime in the next 24 hours, and then I will have the list of names and you will know who believes the oil industry, while they’re reporting record profits still believe that they need American taxpayers money as they’re cutting the programs for the poorest people in our society. Free lunches for the oil industry they say? okay. Free lunch for grandma. uh-uh. that’s an extravagance the federal government cannot afford. We’re going to have a vote on that in the next 24 hours."
The debate is moving toward a standoff. Republicans are hell bent on passing legislation by the end of this week, 61 billion in cuts, that's their magic number. The White House says President Obama would veto such a bill.
"I think it is important to make sure that we don't try to make a series of symbolic cuts this year that could endanger the recovery," Obama told a news conference.
"We've got to be careful ... Let's use a scalpel; let's not use a machete," he said.
From what I've seen from President Obama he is standing strong against the GOP. I believe he will veto their ridiculous do nothing cuts. Give credit where credit is due. President Obama is not stupid, he knows what America needs to survive. He has a plan for America in the next 6 years and it's not what the wingnuts are saying...
Read more on the cuts proposed by the GOP from Congressman John Conyers
Here is the difference in the parties, and remember some say the two parties are one in the same, this is not true....
While most of the world has been focusing their attention on the Middle East, we here in America are fighting over the budget. The House will be voting this week on a Republican bill, called a “continuing resolution” or CR, to cut $100 billion from President Barack Obama’s funding request for programs for the remaining seven months of this fiscal year. Don’t confuse the battle over the CR with that other battle which the House is going to be waging in the coming weeks over Obama’s spending request for fiscal year 2012, which begins on Oct. 1.
In this battle there's been over 400 amendments offered in the House, if the Rethuglican amendments are enacted this is what they would do...
– Eliminate the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the Special Envoy for Climate Change, the Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, the NOAA Climate Service, the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E, National Science Foundation K-12 funding
– Block US funding for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Global Environment Facility
– Suspend enforcement of fisheries laws and construction and conservation acquisition programs of the National Parks and Department of the Interior
– Block rules for toxic cement plant pollution, hazardous coal ash, industrial boiler pollution, water quality, climate change pollution, climate change adaptation, energy-efficient lighting, mountaintop removal, atrazine, and water conservation..
The existing language in the budget bill is already designed to deny global warming, slash and burn public health and green jobs, but the amendments would take even more radical steps to reward polluters who are killing our children’s future.
Most of the Republican amendments are budget neutral, not lowering the deficit one cent. Several defund effective jobs programs that cost only a few million dollars. The goal of these amendments is not fiscal responsibility or jobs creation, but polluter protection, even though the pollution is poisoning babies and causing the elderly to suffer.
Since taking the House there has not been a single bill for job creation by the Rethuglicans, did we really think they would concentrate their efforts on jobs? Hell NO, Boehner said if his partys' spending cuts lead to job losses then so be it.... What amazing arrogance! Scott Lilly of the Center for American Progress calculated that the cuts - a net of $59 billion in the last half of fiscal 2011 - would lead to the loss of 650,000 government jobs, and the indirect loss of 325,000 more jobs as fewer government workers travel and buy things. That's nearly 1 million jobs - possibly enough to tip the economy back into recession. This is music to the GOPPERS ears! They want the unemployment numbers to stay high because they believe it will help them win the election in 2012. But they have not come forth with a candidate who could actually beat Pres. Obama, what a joke. For the good of the country GOP, put the people FIRST for once in your party's lifetime!
NOW, the Democrats, I should say the progressive fighting Democrats in our party, have proposed amendments to eliminate billions of dollars that go to Big Oil subsidies. Congressman Ed Markey put forth an amendment that would close a loophole that allows oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico without paying ANY ROYALTIES! This bill will end the tax breaks, close the loophole and save the taxpayers 51 billion! The rethugs hate this bill, but Markey promises there will be a vote. He told Chris Matthews tonight..."I’m telling you what, we will have the vote sometime in the next 24 hours, and then I will have the list of names and you will know who believes the oil industry, while they’re reporting record profits still believe that they need American taxpayers money as they’re cutting the programs for the poorest people in our society. Free lunches for the oil industry they say? okay. Free lunch for grandma. uh-uh. that’s an extravagance the federal government cannot afford. We’re going to have a vote on that in the next 24 hours."
Democrats have amendments which will reduce the deficit, restore LIHEAP (low income home energy assistance program) and NIH (national institutes of health)funding, amendments to defend America from global warming pollution, and for research and development into green energy programs.
President Obama wants to invest in high speed rail and energy efficiency, he wants to put more money into education and infrastructure, but NO, that is spending and it really doesn't matter what type of spending, the GOP wants NO spending...well except for tax cuts and wars....The debate is moving toward a standoff. Republicans are hell bent on passing legislation by the end of this week, 61 billion in cuts, that's their magic number. The White House says President Obama would veto such a bill.
"I think it is important to make sure that we don't try to make a series of symbolic cuts this year that could endanger the recovery," Obama told a news conference.
"We've got to be careful ... Let's use a scalpel; let's not use a machete," he said.
From what I've seen from President Obama he is standing strong against the GOP. I believe he will veto their ridiculous do nothing cuts. Give credit where credit is due. President Obama is not stupid, he knows what America needs to survive. He has a plan for America in the next 6 years and it's not what the wingnuts are saying...
Read more on the cuts proposed by the GOP from Congressman John Conyers
Egypt....Israel......
My brother (you all know Bud) sent me this in an email. He said yesterday he will study the Bible to see if the Egypt revolution has been prophesied and is another sign of "End Times". I'm no where near an expert on Egypt or Israel but some of my readers might find this interesting. RZ at reality zone has a post up on Israel which you should also read. Thanks!
 |
Egypt: Is it the People's Fault?
Adar 4, 5771, 08 February 11 04:05
by by Daniel Greenfield(Israelnationalnews.com) A thousand talking heads and neo-conservative experts on the region assure us that a bright future stretches out before Egypt like a magic carpet. "Democracy," "Freedom", "Representative Government" are the buzzwords that trickle wetly out of their printers. All cynicism is disdained and skepticism swept into the dustbin. History is being made here. But the tricky thing about history is that it isn't a point on a map, but a continuous wave. Like the tide, history is made and remade over and over again, formed and repeated, washed and beached on the shores of time.
Mubarak is the problem, we are told. And he certainly is their problem. The pesky 82 year old air force officer standing in the way of their dreams of a new Egypt. If not for him, Egypt would be a liberal model for the region. Just like Gaza, Lebanon and Iraq. But is it the dictator or the people who are the problem? The protesters are unified by a desire to push out Mubarak. But what do they actually stand for, besides open elections.
59 percent of Egyptians want democracy and 95 percent want Islam to play a large part in politics. (As Egypt has approximately 5 percent of Christians that means 100 percent of Muslims want Islam to play a large part in politics.) 84 percent believe apostates should face the death penalty.
That is what Egyptian democracy will look like. A unanimous majority that wants an Islamic state and a bare majority that wants democracy. Which one do you think will win out? A democratic majority of the country supports murdering people in the name of Islam. Mubarak's government does not execute apostates or adulterers. But a democratic Egypt will. Why? Because it's the will of the people.
The liberal cheerleaders shaking their pom poms for Egyptian democracy don't seem to grasp that the outcome could be anything other than positive. It's an article of faith for them that freedom leads to freedom. That open elections give rise to human rights. That the problem can only be the dictator, not the people. Never the people. That is their ideology and they will stick to it.
Ever since World War II, we have been working off the "Hitler Paradigm". The "Hitler Paradigm" says that there are no bad nations, only bad governments. The people themselves are perfectly fine, but occasionally a tiny minority of extremists size power. This allows the liberally minded to reconcile the need for occasional wars with their faith in mankind. Instead of fighting wars against nations, they fight wars to liberate nations from their despotic regimes. And ever since we have been fighting these "Wars of Liberation."
We fought to free Korea and Vietnam from Communism, but we lacked one basic thing. Ground level support from the people we were fighting to protect. Today South Koreans like Kim Jong Il more than they like us. We fought to free the tyrants of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia from Saddam Hussein. As a reward, they financed the terrorists who have been killing us ever since. We fought to free Iraq from Saddam, and the entire country imploded into armed camps.
Our "Victory in Iraq" came about because we cut a deal with the Baathists against the Shiites and Al Qaeda, essentially restoring a broken version of Saddam's old status quo. We fought to liberate Afghanistan, and now we find ourselves allied with some Muslim warlords who abuse women and rape little boys-- against the other Muslim warlords who abuse women and rape little boys.
Handing out democracy like candy does not fix existing cultural problems. It does not end bigotry, free women or stop murder in the name of Allah. Open elections are only as good as the people participating in them. And the 84 percent of Egyptians who want to murder apostates have issues that democracy will not solve. The problem with Egypt is not Mubarak-- but the Egyptians.
Let's take another example. In Jordan, the next target on the freedom tour, King Hussein passed a bill to criminalize the honor killings of women. And their democratically elected parliament voted 60 to 25 to strike the bill down. It took them only 3 minutes. That's what democracy would mean for the Jordanian girls murdered by their husbands, brothers and fathers. The right of the people and their duly elected representatives to legalize the murder of women.
The Hitler Paradigm says that all you have to do is take away the dictator and his staffers to usher in democracy, freedom and mutual amity. But what if the dictator is not the problem, but the symptom of a larger cultural problem?
Take the Cold War. We defeated Communism without a massive war. The Berlin Wall came down. Democracy came to Russia. Except here we are back to square one. The situation in the region has been reset back to before WW2, with a chaotic Eastern Europe and a predatory Russia. Economic liberalization and even the end of Communism did not change the underlying pattern. Despite a brief period of democracy, Russia reverted to a totalitarian regime with designs on the rest of the region.
And that should have shocked no one, because it is exactly what happened after the fall of the Czars culminating in the Bolshevik takeover. All the reforms and liberalization did not give the average Russian what he wanted most-- stability, order and a strong nation.
Freedom is culturally determined. It is not the same thing as democracy. Nor is democracy as ubiquitous and universal as its advocates would like us to believe. Like all forms of power, it can only be exercised by those who are ready for it. Much of the world is not ready for it, no more than 12th century Europe was ready for the Constitution. Given the power to choose, they will choose tyranny. They will choose the known over the unknown, the stable over the unstable, and order over freedom.
A society with a social hierarchy embedded in its culture will preserve that hierarchy even with democratic elections Such elections will not give women freedom or rights to religious minorities or freedom of expression to unpopular views. These are things which stem from legal guarantees such as the Constitution, they do not arise out of the natural course of open elections. And the pundits who are busy pretending that this is how it works in the columns of every major newspaper are playing the fool.
The United States has freedom due primarily to its culture. Those freedoms were an outgrowth of the rights of Englishmen and the Enlightenment. They cannot be exported to another country-- without also exporting the cultural assumptions that produced them.
Egypt's period of greatest liberalization was under British rule. Since then its cosmopolitan nightspots have been torched and it has drifted closer to Islamization. Even Egypt's current level of human rights under Mubarak is above that of most of its neighbors. And the reason for that is Mubarak's ties to America. The more democratic Egypt becomes, the more its civil rights will diminish. Its rulers will see social issues as an easy way to compromise with the Muslim Brotherhood. As Egypt's cultural ties to the West diminish, so will its freedoms.
The Islamists understand this far better than the neo-conservatives. That is why they campaign so ruthlessly against Western culture. They understand that it is cultural assumptions that dictate behavior, more than any law. While we try to export institutions to the Muslim world, they export Muslim culture to us. And they have had far more luck changing us, than we have had changing them. Institutions are shaped by culture, but cultures are not shaped by institutions. Export every aspect of American government to Egypt, and it will run along Egyptian lines, not American ones. And within a year, Egypt's government will run the same way it does today. Only the window dressing will be different.
Mubarak is one of the last of the Janissaries, the Western trained army officers who seized power across the Arab world in order to implement some twisted semblance of a modern system of government. When the army's grip on power fails, then Egypt will fall even further. The loss of power by the Turkish military meant a descent into Islamism and terrorism. It will mean the same thing in Egypt.
A people who do not believe in the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness will not be free no matter how many times they go to the polls. You can place voting booths outside every home and run elections every week, and it will still do no good. Freedom may be the birthright of every man, woman and child on earth-- but it cannot be theirs until they claim it. As long as they believe in the right of the majority to oppress the minority, in the value of order over liberty, and the supremacy of the mosque over any and all civil and legal rights-- then they will never be free. Never. Their elections will either give rise to chaos or tyranny. That is how it is in the Middle East. That is how it will always be until they claim their birthright by closing the Koran and opening their minds.
Mubarak is the problem, we are told. And he certainly is their problem. The pesky 82 year old air force officer standing in the way of their dreams of a new Egypt. If not for him, Egypt would be a liberal model for the region. Just like Gaza, Lebanon and Iraq. But is it the dictator or the people who are the problem? The protesters are unified by a desire to push out Mubarak. But what do they actually stand for, besides open elections.
59 percent of Egyptians want democracy and 95 percent want Islam to play a large part in politics. (As Egypt has approximately 5 percent of Christians that means 100 percent of Muslims want Islam to play a large part in politics.) 84 percent believe apostates should face the death penalty.
That is what Egyptian democracy will look like. A unanimous majority that wants an Islamic state and a bare majority that wants democracy. Which one do you think will win out? A democratic majority of the country supports murdering people in the name of Islam. Mubarak's government does not execute apostates or adulterers. But a democratic Egypt will. Why? Because it's the will of the people.
The liberal cheerleaders shaking their pom poms for Egyptian democracy don't seem to grasp that the outcome could be anything other than positive. It's an article of faith for them that freedom leads to freedom. That open elections give rise to human rights. That the problem can only be the dictator, not the people. Never the people. That is their ideology and they will stick to it.
Ever since World War II, we have been working off the "Hitler Paradigm". The "Hitler Paradigm" says that there are no bad nations, only bad governments. The people themselves are perfectly fine, but occasionally a tiny minority of extremists size power. This allows the liberally minded to reconcile the need for occasional wars with their faith in mankind. Instead of fighting wars against nations, they fight wars to liberate nations from their despotic regimes. And ever since we have been fighting these "Wars of Liberation."
We fought to free Korea and Vietnam from Communism, but we lacked one basic thing. Ground level support from the people we were fighting to protect. Today South Koreans like Kim Jong Il more than they like us. We fought to free the tyrants of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia from Saddam Hussein. As a reward, they financed the terrorists who have been killing us ever since. We fought to free Iraq from Saddam, and the entire country imploded into armed camps.
Our "Victory in Iraq" came about because we cut a deal with the Baathists against the Shiites and Al Qaeda, essentially restoring a broken version of Saddam's old status quo. We fought to liberate Afghanistan, and now we find ourselves allied with some Muslim warlords who abuse women and rape little boys-- against the other Muslim warlords who abuse women and rape little boys.
Handing out democracy like candy does not fix existing cultural problems. It does not end bigotry, free women or stop murder in the name of Allah. Open elections are only as good as the people participating in them. And the 84 percent of Egyptians who want to murder apostates have issues that democracy will not solve. The problem with Egypt is not Mubarak-- but the Egyptians.
Let's take another example. In Jordan, the next target on the freedom tour, King Hussein passed a bill to criminalize the honor killings of women. And their democratically elected parliament voted 60 to 25 to strike the bill down. It took them only 3 minutes. That's what democracy would mean for the Jordanian girls murdered by their husbands, brothers and fathers. The right of the people and their duly elected representatives to legalize the murder of women.
The Hitler Paradigm says that all you have to do is take away the dictator and his staffers to usher in democracy, freedom and mutual amity. But what if the dictator is not the problem, but the symptom of a larger cultural problem?
Take the Cold War. We defeated Communism without a massive war. The Berlin Wall came down. Democracy came to Russia. Except here we are back to square one. The situation in the region has been reset back to before WW2, with a chaotic Eastern Europe and a predatory Russia. Economic liberalization and even the end of Communism did not change the underlying pattern. Despite a brief period of democracy, Russia reverted to a totalitarian regime with designs on the rest of the region.
And that should have shocked no one, because it is exactly what happened after the fall of the Czars culminating in the Bolshevik takeover. All the reforms and liberalization did not give the average Russian what he wanted most-- stability, order and a strong nation.
Freedom is culturally determined. It is not the same thing as democracy. Nor is democracy as ubiquitous and universal as its advocates would like us to believe. Like all forms of power, it can only be exercised by those who are ready for it. Much of the world is not ready for it, no more than 12th century Europe was ready for the Constitution. Given the power to choose, they will choose tyranny. They will choose the known over the unknown, the stable over the unstable, and order over freedom.
A society with a social hierarchy embedded in its culture will preserve that hierarchy even with democratic elections Such elections will not give women freedom or rights to religious minorities or freedom of expression to unpopular views. These are things which stem from legal guarantees such as the Constitution, they do not arise out of the natural course of open elections. And the pundits who are busy pretending that this is how it works in the columns of every major newspaper are playing the fool.
The United States has freedom due primarily to its culture. Those freedoms were an outgrowth of the rights of Englishmen and the Enlightenment. They cannot be exported to another country-- without also exporting the cultural assumptions that produced them.
Egypt's period of greatest liberalization was under British rule. Since then its cosmopolitan nightspots have been torched and it has drifted closer to Islamization. Even Egypt's current level of human rights under Mubarak is above that of most of its neighbors. And the reason for that is Mubarak's ties to America. The more democratic Egypt becomes, the more its civil rights will diminish. Its rulers will see social issues as an easy way to compromise with the Muslim Brotherhood. As Egypt's cultural ties to the West diminish, so will its freedoms.
The Islamists understand this far better than the neo-conservatives. That is why they campaign so ruthlessly against Western culture. They understand that it is cultural assumptions that dictate behavior, more than any law. While we try to export institutions to the Muslim world, they export Muslim culture to us. And they have had far more luck changing us, than we have had changing them. Institutions are shaped by culture, but cultures are not shaped by institutions. Export every aspect of American government to Egypt, and it will run along Egyptian lines, not American ones. And within a year, Egypt's government will run the same way it does today. Only the window dressing will be different.
Mubarak is one of the last of the Janissaries, the Western trained army officers who seized power across the Arab world in order to implement some twisted semblance of a modern system of government. When the army's grip on power fails, then Egypt will fall even further. The loss of power by the Turkish military meant a descent into Islamism and terrorism. It will mean the same thing in Egypt.
A people who do not believe in the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness will not be free no matter how many times they go to the polls. You can place voting booths outside every home and run elections every week, and it will still do no good. Freedom may be the birthright of every man, woman and child on earth-- but it cannot be theirs until they claim it. As long as they believe in the right of the majority to oppress the minority, in the value of order over liberty, and the supremacy of the mosque over any and all civil and legal rights-- then they will never be free. Never. Their elections will either give rise to chaos or tyranny. That is how it is in the Middle East. That is how it will always be until they claim their birthright by closing the Koran and opening their minds.
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The Word as a Wordle
Leviticus 19.1-2,9-18
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God.
You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another. 12And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the Lord.
You shall not defraud your neighbour; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a labourer until morning. 14You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling-block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
You shall not render an unjust judgement; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbour. 16You shall not go around as a slanderer* among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood* of your neighbour: I am the Lord.
You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbour, or you will incur guilt yourself. 18You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord.
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As I read the reading from Leviticus and then at the wordle, it became clear that the heart of the reading was about 2 relationships - between God and people and people and people.. Hope to tease this out more in the next few days...
Spiritual Indigestion
I am not really a fan of sweets, never have been. I like a few varieties and like to eat them very very occasionally, but I guess that’s just me. One day, when I was in my early teens I went out for the day with a friend of mine. We went in to town and then to the cinema. Now he was a big sweet fan, and pretty much from the moment of leaving the house he was tucking into minstrels, sherbert lemons, jelly babies et etc etc. Having trawled around town checking out the local record shops, we got to the cinema for the film we were due to see. Popcorn, fizzy drinks and more sweets and chocolate were purchased with hard earned pocket money and we settled down to watch and to munch.
As the film went on, I began to feel more and more unwell. By the time I got to bed that night I had chronic stomach ache, a racing pulse and I generally felt terrible. My parents were worried, to be honest, so was I. It was only at bed time, as I complained about how I felt, that my mum asked me what I had eaten over the course of the day and out came the al a carte menu of sugary treats. Ah, said my mum, that’ll be it... She disappeared and reappeared with a fizzing glass of liver salts. I discovered I was not dying, but suffering from chronic indigestion and was it any wonder?
In a way, we’re all a bit Woolworths aren’t we? We like our sweets, we like to pick and mix some of the key aspects of our life. We call it individuality, we say that these choices define who we are as people and they help us to stand out from the crowd whether that’s music, fashion, politics or whatever.
The same is true of religion. I wish I had a pound for every time I heard someone say “I believe in God but I don’t come to church” or some such. We like the idea of faith in God, the idea of a relationship with Him, but we don’t want the responsability. We like God but don’t want Him messing with us or our lives. We believe we can believe in God but we can pick and mix if we wish to live His way or not, a sort of a la carte Christianity that fits our lifestyle or the lifestyle of our friendship circle or culture, where the Ten Commandments have become Ten Moral suggestions - like by laws that get changed. Friends, this is not a new way to think. Jesus encounters it in this morning’s Gospel reading and it only leads to spiritual indigestion.
In Jesus day, a good, religious, God fearing person, would do all they could to keep the law of Moses and even the interpretation of those laws by rabbis which were held in high regard. The Pharisees almost made a profession of strict law keeping. They felt that if everyone would strictly observe religious law, the world would be a better place. And as true as that sentiment might be -- it simply didn't work! Jesus, on more than one occasion, as in this morning’s reading, pointed out that the law keepers of his day usually missed the point of God's law.
Last week Jesus began teaching us from the brown muddy plain about a new holiness using salt and light as images - calling us to preserve the good in the world around us, to add flavour and seasoning and to allow that in our lives to shine out and impact the world around us This morning He talks about many different aspects of this new personal holiness, but he begins with three reinterpretations of the the OT Law, four commandments of a new morality, of a new personal holiness that would have left those Pharisees standing speechless! And if we listen closely, they will leave us speechless. Listen:
1. "Call someone a fool and you'll go to hell!" 2. "If you look at a woman with lust in your heart, you've committed adultery... you would be better off to rip out your eye!" 3. "The ancients allowed people to divorce -- I say, NO DIVORCE!" 4. "Don't take any oaths -- you shouldn't have to -- if you love God, your word is good!"
"Is he serious?" No doubt they wondered. I can relate -- can't you? What's your reaction to Jesus' words? I have to confess that I share in some of the "jaw dropping" that must have taken place that day. But, just in case people began to look for "wiggle room", Jesus drove home the last nail. "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." These verses in today's Gospel only make sense to me including a verse left out of today's Gospel reading - verse 48 about the call to perfection.
This is what God wants from us - perfection. Nothing like aiming high eh Lord? And yet what Jesus asks of us is not about taking a bit of this or a bit of that, or watering stuff down, but keeping focussed on a healthy spiritual diet based on the love and forgiveness of God.
Perhaps the words of Paul in the epistle reading can help. Here's a rephrasing of what he said to the Corinthian church. "I couldn't really talk to you in spiritual terms because you are so focussed on the things of Earth. You are so hooked into this world that you don't 'get it' when it comes to spiritual things. We can talk all we want, but only God can really bring about spiritual growth."
In order to aim for Godly perfection, to go for spiritual growth, to avoid spiritual indigestion we will need to be open to the fullness of the love of God in our lives, to know His forgiveness for us and of us.
Wait now! Don't let that slip by too quickly. Are you aware of the depth of God's love for you? Have you allowed the fullness of the love of Christ to penetrate your life? To know His forgiveness through His death and resurrection?
It is only the deep love and grace of God that can give us the power to see the world and the people in our lives with God’s eyes. To know that the keeping of these spiritual imperatives will be hard, But... It is the love of God that, in His timing, brings healing and forgiveness to the mess we so often make of our lives -- and allows us to let the perfect love of God come into and through our lives for others.
To be perfect -- as God is perfect, is not so much a matter of keeping the law of God as it is embracing and being embraced by the love of God. It's about being inspired by Jesus’ forgiveness and love, his Spirit lives inside of us so that we live a righteous and holy life. The generous forgiveness of God lives inside of us; the love of Jesus lives inside of us; therefore we want to live and strive for a lives of righteousness, of right relationships with all people around us. And in those right relationships, we find the personal holiness of God. Jesus aims high and so must we. Once you have embraced the love of God you can let it go -- to others. Amen.
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This is a version of what I preached today - 13/02/11
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