Stephanie
Miller is talking about Governor Christie.
He’s holding a press conference at eight. He now claims that it was his aid that issued
that “traffic jam” order. If he didn’t
know about it, it’s still incompetence that he would allow an aid that kind of
dreastic latitude of action, and claim, apparently now to know about it for
four months. Knowing how Christie is in
public, I do not anticipate this news press conference going well. Bill Press discussed this, and Gates new
book. Bill’s take on this is less
complex than mine. He just says that
Gates hated Obama and Byden because “they thought they ran the place”, whereas
with President Bush, Bush would just roll over and give Gates anything he
wanted. Welcome to the constitutional
world. Just now Stephanie has a guess,
the Rev Jim Wallace, who is talking about “recovering the common good”, which
is one of those pinko leftist phrases that’s instantly suspect among
Evangelicals. “A nation is judged in its
integrity on how it treats the least fortunate among us”. “Some fundamentalists have been “converted”
to true Christianity by reading the Bible.
Just one thing about Matthew 25.
Even if Jesus regarded the Jewish religious authorities as the lowest
form of scum, and even if they are “the
least” important in Jesus’ eyes, I don’t see how basically having the Roman
General Titus nuking (destroying) the
Temple as an idea to treat “even the least”.
(Something to think about) Of
course when it comes to “Idols” an idol isn’t something like, for instance your
car that you wash on Saturday mornings to keep it clean and neat looking. In the same way I reject the idea of people
who believe in sound Ecology being ‘tree huggers” to the exclusion of human
habitation. On the contrary I guess I’m
basically selfish. I happen to LIKE
trees. They are a creation of God for us
to enjoy in nature. I like the way they
look; I like the way they smell. Jed
Clampet used to have a saying “you done muddied up my creek”. In other words, people don’t relish the idea
of drinking polluted water. We do our
ecological measures, because it makes our world a nicer and more enjoyable
place to live in. Clearly the "common good" is adversely impacted by our vast income inequality, which apparently is worse than it was in the twenties. The very words "equality" and "equal rights" have been put on Trial by the right wing as somehow an advocacy of Socialism. John Boehner can talk about "jobs" but I fail to see how if you say "The government CANNOT (under any circumstances) create Jobs- - you can in virtually in the same breath say "The Senate has rejected our jobs bills", which don't exist, as far as I can see.
People
in politics need to rediscover the Truth that “Selfishness is not a virtue” as
this reverend guy on the Stephanie Miller show reminds us. So if you’re a politician and your phone
rings off the hook, you have to make a decision. Do you just “dial for dollars” all day long,
or do you listen to your actual constituants, who voted for him, as prescribed
by the Constitution. People are being
peddled the falsehood of “If I were just allowed to be more selfish, to let my “God
given greed” a chance to run rampant, then I could succeed and find happiness
like I’ve never known before”. Some people have not the slightest problem, for instance, with these "pump and dump" Wall Street stock schemes, which is not masturbating all over your partner, but all the same, we all feel as though we have been slimed. You hear them all the time on the radio hyping this or that financial instrument, and may even talk about "God's sure fire money code for instant wealth". And
people from the Red states have been sold this line, and they buy into it. The Bible does talk about idols. For instance I referred to Rush Limbaugh
being ‘Married” to fossil fuels. That
is- - in a marriage vow you pledge your undying loyalty to the partner, “forsaking
all others- till death do you part, in sickness and in health, for better for
worse”. This is the depth of Rush
Limbaugh and others’ commitment to things like racism and guns and world wide
pollution. And if people die from
industrial pollution, it’s just a “sacrifice to your god” that as an
afficianato of your god, you will gladly pay.
Perhaps if your own son were gay, or your own son, or father died of
some cancer caused by occupational pollution, just maybe they’d see things
differently. But don’t count on it. There IS no redeeming up side to tea party
positions. No “right” is in any way
being “safeguarded” or preserved.
(Selah) Just think that
apparently there are a majority of Americans who not only OWN a gun, but their
gun is almost their “means of salvation”.
Their guns will protect them from any and all circumstances. They will be willing to sacrifice anything
for their guns, even their moral principles.
This gun thing is such a sacred cow that as in the case of Cattle- - the
whole purpose of Cattle is defeated.
People raise cattle to eat, and to drink their milk. Cattle are not meant to walk around unencumbered
on the streets. In India they are so
messed up, cattle don’t have to obey traffic or sanitation laws, but are
allowed to graze at will from vegetable stands.
This is how it is with the gun lobby.
Yes there is a “common good’ in “feeling safe”. We agree we want that. But these people are as reluctant to “tamper”
with the gun laws as for instance a Moslem would never burn a copy of the
Koran. The right to stroke and fondle
your guns is so sacrosanct, that all other considerations fall by the
wayside. So mentally ill people can get
guns without questions. People with
violence against their spouses or violence against police or those with felony
records, have this “right” to unencumbered access to an assault weapon. Just
as to a fundamentalist there can be “no such thing” as “too much religion” to
these people there can never be “too many guns”. To them the idea that “there are too many
guns out in public” to them is an inconceivable, even blasphamus notion. One more thing. This idea of marbelization or “voting with
our feet” to use the old Radio Free Europe expression, of people congregating to
portions of the country that are politically friendly to their own views- - is
a principle I thought we pretty much rejected after the Civil War and that we
were now “One Nation” (perhaps or perhaps not “under God”) But now, as in the old Dylan song about “Emit
Till slipped through his Southern Door” it’s like entering a different country
traveling to a Red state.
I
would briefly like to address this idea of “Organized Religion”, which is a
saying Neil of KFI is so fond of. I have
no problem with “organization” per se, as an extension of logical
thinking. But I submit this is not at
all the kind of “organization’ Neil is talking about. Have you ever heard terms such as “middle man”
or more to the point “Pontiff” or people whom God “must go through first” in
order to give you a blessing.
(Selah) And I’m not wholly averse
to the idea of “Churchianity”. Indeed
one thing about the Mormon Church is that it is a set of principles that people
agree to abide by and believe in in common.
But this isn’t how it is with Protestent Churches nowadays. They primarily are church of, and by, and for
the Pastors. I’d like to give you the
example etched indelibly into my mind from the Jim Jones movie. This is where Jim Jones filled the church
with druggies and prostitutes and other unsavory types. And the deacon board of this Baptist church
got pissed and fired the pastor, Jim Jones.
This is because, and it’s particularly of note with people like Gene
Scott, the people are loyal not to “The Faith” but to the Pastor
personally. He is the head hancho and
calls the shots. Yet even in my own
church where I grew up- - in Harry Green’s class we learned that the twelve elected
church Elders were called “Ruling Elders” and that the pastor was referred to
as a “Teaching elder”. Their job was an
adjunct or prompter of our Faith, NOT
the Object it it. (Selah) It would be like a bunch of us fellows went
golfing at a golf course. And we would hire
one or more caddys to carry our Golf Bags.
We would be the Players, and the caddy would be a hireling, to do a
specific job, and if he no longer functioned in that capacity satisfactorally,
we would let him go and hire another.
(Selah) Someone who says “Yes
sure you can be a Hollywood celebrity and live in your sin and depravity- - as
long as you are loyal to Me, and not to put too fine of a point on it- - “Make
Me You God”. No, no. So the people in that Church of Jim Jones
weren’t really converted from their prostitution and drug addiction. Again Cult leaders throughout the world are
known for their womanizing, and often sexual abuse, as well as drug
addiction. But these Pastors resort to a
paraphrase of President Nixon (whose birthday it is today), “Well, if the
Pastor does it- - than it is not against the law”. Some are saying “OK, I get it now”.
Some
people think that religion itself can be an idol. Others use the saying, “Some tradition is
like a bad egg. It’s better to break it
than keep it”. How can congress and the
Supreme Court dare to invoke God in a prayer, and continue to do the things
they do. Certainly they would say “We do
it in the name of religion”. Form has
taken primacy over substance, which the Bible teaches against. As such even a Christian should be a little
sick when he sees the overt tributes to “religion” around the nation’s capitol,
but as Jesus himself would say, “These people are like whitewashed graves. They are clean and neat – and even downright “Awe
Inspiring” what we see - -on the outside, but are full of dead men’s bones”. Of course the term “religion” itself is
rarely used in the Bible. James and
Hebrews along with 2nd Peter and Jude are almost third century
documents, and nobody even vaguely believes any of these Books are “Apostolic”. James uses the term “religion” in an awkware
manner saying it’s to “Help and minister to our fellow man, and to keep
ourselves unspotted from the World. We
of course use the term “Cosmos” when we speak of Federation matters. But here on this Planet - - for most of us- -
this tea party congress runs our “World” as we know it - - and is a major
determining factor what kind of year 2014 will be, and which the rest of the
planet is spared.
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