It is true, to escape official religious oppression in England, many brave souls came to this continent. Their goal was to set up a society in which all could practice each of their religions without interference from the government, and also to not interfere with the religions of others. In our society the majority rules, as long as the majority does not step on the rights of the minority.
What I am sure most people want is the return “Christian” prayer to our schools.
What we forget is that we are not all Christian, and even if we were, how would we feel if our child came home and told us he was forced in school to say fifteen “OUR FATHER’S” and twenty “HAIL MARY’S,” both good Christian prayers.
On the other hand if prayer is all that is wanted, how about ten minutes of “ALLAH IS GREAT, AND MUHAMMAD IS HIS PROPHET,” or the kids could set in the floor, legs folded, hands together and “OOOMMMMM” for ten minutes.
Maybe if the teacher is a feminist she just might want to lead the children in “OH! GREAT GODDESS OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, BRING ME INTO THE COMPANY OF THOSE WHO SEEK THE TRUTH, BUT DELIVER ME FROM THOSE WHO THINK THEY HAVE FOUND IT.”
My point here is that there are certain things that are personal, which is why we have locks on our bedrooms and bathrooms. Prayer is personal, each of us who prays does so in our own individual way and to our own God.
I promise to never force your child to say an “OUR FATHER” or a “HAIL MARY” or “ALLAH IS GREAT” or even an “OOOMMMMM.” All I want is for you to not force my children to recite your prayers. Personal prayer belongs in Church or with those who also believe, at home. Christian doctrine dictates that one should do their prayers “MODESTLY” away from others, in a closet.
We all want our children in school to be taught the fundamentals. Religion and morals, I’ll take care of at home and in my church. You certainly don’t want me teaching your children my religion and morals, and I feel the same. The assumption is that we are all Christian, but if you mean Baptist, that leaves out the Lutherans, Catholics, People from the Church of Christ, and Church of God, Church of the Nazerine, not to mention the Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Agnostics, and Atheists.
In other words, most of the World. The Christian Fundamentalists are a minority.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Living a Life That Matters
Ready or not, someday it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, mean spirit and jealousies will finally disappear.
So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won't matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived, at the end.
It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.
So what will matter?
How will the value of your days be measured?
What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built;
not what you got, but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.
What will matter is not what you gave in to but what you stood up for.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, love or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.
What will matter is not your competence, but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.
What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.
Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident.
It's not a matter of circumstance, but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, mean spirit and jealousies will finally disappear.
So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won't matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived, at the end.
It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.
So what will matter?
How will the value of your days be measured?
What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built;
not what you got, but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.
What will matter is not what you gave in to but what you stood up for.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, love or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.
What will matter is not your competence, but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.
What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.
Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident.
It's not a matter of circumstance, but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Moral Leaders?
The outpouring of unseemly and unchristian lies and distortions from the nation's self-proclaimed "Moral Leaders" that appeared in the days before the Nov. elections was truly amazing. I'm no stranger to hardball politics, and as the President of the Board of Trustees of my Church, with my own political opinions, I'd be the last to argue against any one's right to be in the fray. But, I cannot bear to let go unnoticed that many of the candidates who were most closely associated with the Religious Right, those who proclaimed themselves the candidates of the "Values Voters," abandoned the values of honesty and decency in the closing days of their campaigns.
A Few Examples among many:
Ohio Gubernatorial Candidate Kenneth Blackwell, favored by the so-called "Patriot Pastors"- accused his opponent, a decent, humane man who served in Congress and as a United Methodist minister, of supporting sex between adults and children.
Senator Rick Santorum, declared by archconservative leader Paul Weyrich to be the most important senator in America at the recent "Values Voter Summit," accused his opponent, a popular state treasurer, of aiding and abetting terrorism and genocide.
Virginia Senator George Allen, who will forever be known for his ugly mocking of a young person of color to a chuckling, all-white audience, attacked his opponent, a respected author whose military-themed novels have been praised by George Will and John McCain, by calling a few out-of-context quotes, "OBSCENE."
It's not just the politicians, The American Family Association was so desperate to energize conservative Christian voters that it told its members that if Democrats won, they should expect attempts to make "polygamy legal in all 50 states."
In 2000, GOP strategists went to work in South Carolina demeaning John McCain. They orchestrated a malicious campaign of phone calls and fliers whispering about illegitimate mixed-race children, mental instability, and other falsehoods.
George W. Bush, the president who is so eager to wear his "Jesus-Changed" heart on his sleeve, responded to a righteously angry McCain with the dismissive comment, "It's only politics."
Mr.. Bush and Karl Rove aren't the first or the last politicians to adopt an end-justify-the-means approach to winning elections, but there's a glaring disconnect between their proclaimed commitment to truth and biblical values and their willingness to shuck it all aside if it means getting enough votes to hang onto power.
Unfortunately I have already received, so early in the 2010 election process, several delightful email lies about Barack Obama. And, I know there will be more.
Please check out the facts on www.snopes.com and just type in Barack Obama in the search field.
I know this will be the first of many from the "Family Values" side of the aisle. I just never realized that lying was a family value.
Americans are beginning to demand a new direction in politics, a direction that holds up hope instead of fear, the common good instead of divisions, and aims at solving real problems that affect real American families rather than ideology. And that is a politics that is much closer to the good news of the Gospel than anything the so-called "Moral Values" crowd has offered.
A Few Examples among many:
Ohio Gubernatorial Candidate Kenneth Blackwell, favored by the so-called "Patriot Pastors"- accused his opponent, a decent, humane man who served in Congress and as a United Methodist minister, of supporting sex between adults and children.
Senator Rick Santorum, declared by archconservative leader Paul Weyrich to be the most important senator in America at the recent "Values Voter Summit," accused his opponent, a popular state treasurer, of aiding and abetting terrorism and genocide.
Virginia Senator George Allen, who will forever be known for his ugly mocking of a young person of color to a chuckling, all-white audience, attacked his opponent, a respected author whose military-themed novels have been praised by George Will and John McCain, by calling a few out-of-context quotes, "OBSCENE."
It's not just the politicians, The American Family Association was so desperate to energize conservative Christian voters that it told its members that if Democrats won, they should expect attempts to make "polygamy legal in all 50 states."
In 2000, GOP strategists went to work in South Carolina demeaning John McCain. They orchestrated a malicious campaign of phone calls and fliers whispering about illegitimate mixed-race children, mental instability, and other falsehoods.
George W. Bush, the president who is so eager to wear his "Jesus-Changed" heart on his sleeve, responded to a righteously angry McCain with the dismissive comment, "It's only politics."
Mr.. Bush and Karl Rove aren't the first or the last politicians to adopt an end-justify-the-means approach to winning elections, but there's a glaring disconnect between their proclaimed commitment to truth and biblical values and their willingness to shuck it all aside if it means getting enough votes to hang onto power.
Unfortunately I have already received, so early in the 2010 election process, several delightful email lies about Barack Obama. And, I know there will be more.
Please check out the facts on www.snopes.com and just type in Barack Obama in the search field.
I know this will be the first of many from the "Family Values" side of the aisle. I just never realized that lying was a family value.
Americans are beginning to demand a new direction in politics, a direction that holds up hope instead of fear, the common good instead of divisions, and aims at solving real problems that affect real American families rather than ideology. And that is a politics that is much closer to the good news of the Gospel than anything the so-called "Moral Values" crowd has offered.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
What Some People Believe
SOME PEOPLE REALLY BELIEVE THAT:
Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.
Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.
The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.
A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.
Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.
The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.
If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.
A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then demand their cooperation and money.
Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.
HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.
Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.
A president lying about an extramarital affair is a impeachable offense. A president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.
Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.
The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's driving record is none of our business.
Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness, and you need our prayers for your recovery.
You support states' rights, which means Attorney General John Ashcroft can tell states what local voter initiatives they have the right to adopt.
What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the '80s is irrelevant.
Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.
Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.
The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.
A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.
Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.
The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.
If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.
A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then demand their cooperation and money.
Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.
HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.
Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.
A president lying about an extramarital affair is a impeachable offense. A president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.
Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.
The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's driving record is none of our business.
Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness, and you need our prayers for your recovery.
You support states' rights, which means Attorney General John Ashcroft can tell states what local voter initiatives they have the right to adopt.
What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the '80s is irrelevant.
The Mensa Invitational . . .
Here is the Washington Post's Mensa Invitational, which once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.
The winners are:
1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating.
(The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.)
6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
11. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease.
(This one got extra credit.)
12. Karmageddon: It's when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, and then the Earth explodes, and it's a serious bummer.
13. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
14. Glibido: All talk and no action.
15. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
16. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
17. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
18. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.
==========================================
The Washington Post also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.
The winners are:
1. coffee, n. the person upon whom one coughs.
2. flabbergasted, adj. appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.
3. abdicate, v. to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. esplanade, v. to attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. willy-nilly, adj. impotent.
6. negligent, adj. absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.
7. lymph, v. to walk with a lisp.
The winners are:
1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating.
(The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.)
6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
11. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease.
(This one got extra credit.)
12. Karmageddon: It's when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, and then the Earth explodes, and it's a serious bummer.
13. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
14. Glibido: All talk and no action.
15. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
16. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
17. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
18. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.
==========================================
The Washington Post also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.
The winners are:
1. coffee, n. the person upon whom one coughs.
2. flabbergasted, adj. appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.
3. abdicate, v. to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. esplanade, v. to attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. willy-nilly, adj. impotent.
6. negligent, adj. absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.
7. lymph, v. to walk with a lisp.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Related to Public Option Post:
You might want to check these URLs out by clicking or doing a copy and paste into your address field.
www.online.wsj.com/article/SB124947013703607453.html
www.aflcio.org/issues/healthcare/facts_insurancecompanyprofits.cfm
www.online.wsj.com/article/SB124947013703607453.html
www.aflcio.org/issues/healthcare/facts_insurancecompanyprofits.cfm
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
On The Public Option:
Every poll I've seen recently shows at least 65% want a public option choice and many polls show over 70%. So public opinion is not even close on this issue. With those kinds of numbers, the ONLY reason any politician should be struggling with the issue is because they're either:
(a) in the tank for the insurance industry (GOP);
(b) blue dog Dems who claim to be captive of "swing state" constituencies who will throw them out if they vote for a public option; or
(c) all the above.
But the polls show that, except for industry advocates, the only public support politicians can reasonably cite for opposing a public option is from the Fox News/Limbaugh/Beck/screaming teabagger crowd. And while that group's media profile has been high in recent months, their actual numbers are in reality very low.
I doubt most politicians have ever been faced with a clearer, more dramatic choice between public and private interests with such huge amounts of money at stake. The outcome of this debate literally means life or death for both people without health insurance and the health insurance industry. The insurance companies are currently spending $1.4m every day on advertising and lobbying because they KNOW a serious public option will take many of them out. And the revenues and profits of the companies that survive would be a mere shadow of what they are now. In effect, if a robust public option becomes law, the health insurance industry will draw a Monopoly game card that says "Do not collect $401,152,979,783.00 a year."*
And no, that's not a typo. A cash flow of over four hundred billion dollars a year that the insurance industry is currently enjoying is at risk of slowing to a trickle.
*2007 net revenues from health insurance premiums. And that's just the major players. Source, www.reuters.com
(a) in the tank for the insurance industry (GOP);
(b) blue dog Dems who claim to be captive of "swing state" constituencies who will throw them out if they vote for a public option; or
(c) all the above.
But the polls show that, except for industry advocates, the only public support politicians can reasonably cite for opposing a public option is from the Fox News/Limbaugh/Beck/screaming teabagger crowd. And while that group's media profile has been high in recent months, their actual numbers are in reality very low.
I doubt most politicians have ever been faced with a clearer, more dramatic choice between public and private interests with such huge amounts of money at stake. The outcome of this debate literally means life or death for both people without health insurance and the health insurance industry. The insurance companies are currently spending $1.4m every day on advertising and lobbying because they KNOW a serious public option will take many of them out. And the revenues and profits of the companies that survive would be a mere shadow of what they are now. In effect, if a robust public option becomes law, the health insurance industry will draw a Monopoly game card that says "Do not collect $401,152,979,783.00 a year."*
And no, that's not a typo. A cash flow of over four hundred billion dollars a year that the insurance industry is currently enjoying is at risk of slowing to a trickle.
*2007 net revenues from health insurance premiums. And that's just the major players. Source, www.reuters.com
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Personal Hell
“What in the hell are you afraid of?”
“I ain’t afraid of nuttin’!”
“I’ll bet you’re afraid of the Devil.”
“I don’t believe in the devil. In fact, I’m not afraid of anything in this life. I’m not afraid of you, the devil, or God, or anything, not even death.”
Those were the words of a very young and very naive boy. As he drove home, there appeared above the dashboard, a small hairy spider. It crawled down his windshield very slowly. At first he thought it was on the outside, but then he remembered that he was going 55MPH and that it would have blown off. He looked closely, and realized that in fact it was on the inside. He could feel the hair on his arm stiffen and come to attention as goose bumps sprang up their full length. The spider came to rest behind the steering wheel, right in front of him, and just below his vision of the road. He divided his attention between the road and the spider, about 70% to the road and 30% to the black hairy spider with some small, lighter markings on its legs and body. It crawled around for a while on top of the dash and finally went under some papers that were lying on top of the dash. NOW HE DID NOT KNOW WHERE THE DAMNED THING WAS! The percentages were now 50/50. The road was 50%, and where he thought the spider was, 50%. He looked around the papers on the dash, then at the road, then back at the road, then the dash again. It wasn’t anywhere to be found, and moving the papers around didn’t seem to help. Where in the hell was it? Now, his attention was divided 30% on the road and 70% on the unknown whereabouts of a very small spider. Every once in a while he could catch the reflection of the spider on the inside of the windshield as it ran from underneath one paper to underneath another.
Within a very short period, his time was divided 10% on the road and 90% to the threat of the disappeared arachnid. As the unattended highway disappeared beneath the car, and the vanished spider demanded more attention, it became apparent that driving was totally impossible and he pulled to the side of the road and stopped. He then carefully pulled the papers off the dashboard until he found the spider and took out his anger on the conniving little bastard. He climbed back into the car and drove away wiping the sweat off his forehead with a napkin from the dash. Who says that there is no Hell on earth?
We all know that we have our own phobias. That irrational and persistent fear or dread of SOMETHING. Whether you are claustrophobic, acrophobic, agoraphobic, or arachniphobic or even if your fear is not an irrational one, you have a type of Hell, right here on Earth.
Some of us have more than one irrational fear and some of our fears are more along the lines of immense dislikes, or heavy discomforts, or bad irritations. Whatever your personal Hell or Hells are it is important that they are acknowledged before your Hell or Hells really do make life a “HELL ON EARTH.”
“I ain’t afraid of nuttin’!”
“I’ll bet you’re afraid of the Devil.”
“I don’t believe in the devil. In fact, I’m not afraid of anything in this life. I’m not afraid of you, the devil, or God, or anything, not even death.”
Those were the words of a very young and very naive boy. As he drove home, there appeared above the dashboard, a small hairy spider. It crawled down his windshield very slowly. At first he thought it was on the outside, but then he remembered that he was going 55MPH and that it would have blown off. He looked closely, and realized that in fact it was on the inside. He could feel the hair on his arm stiffen and come to attention as goose bumps sprang up their full length. The spider came to rest behind the steering wheel, right in front of him, and just below his vision of the road. He divided his attention between the road and the spider, about 70% to the road and 30% to the black hairy spider with some small, lighter markings on its legs and body. It crawled around for a while on top of the dash and finally went under some papers that were lying on top of the dash. NOW HE DID NOT KNOW WHERE THE DAMNED THING WAS! The percentages were now 50/50. The road was 50%, and where he thought the spider was, 50%. He looked around the papers on the dash, then at the road, then back at the road, then the dash again. It wasn’t anywhere to be found, and moving the papers around didn’t seem to help. Where in the hell was it? Now, his attention was divided 30% on the road and 70% on the unknown whereabouts of a very small spider. Every once in a while he could catch the reflection of the spider on the inside of the windshield as it ran from underneath one paper to underneath another.
Within a very short period, his time was divided 10% on the road and 90% to the threat of the disappeared arachnid. As the unattended highway disappeared beneath the car, and the vanished spider demanded more attention, it became apparent that driving was totally impossible and he pulled to the side of the road and stopped. He then carefully pulled the papers off the dashboard until he found the spider and took out his anger on the conniving little bastard. He climbed back into the car and drove away wiping the sweat off his forehead with a napkin from the dash. Who says that there is no Hell on earth?
We all know that we have our own phobias. That irrational and persistent fear or dread of SOMETHING. Whether you are claustrophobic, acrophobic, agoraphobic, or arachniphobic or even if your fear is not an irrational one, you have a type of Hell, right here on Earth.
Some of us have more than one irrational fear and some of our fears are more along the lines of immense dislikes, or heavy discomforts, or bad irritations. Whatever your personal Hell or Hells are it is important that they are acknowledged before your Hell or Hells really do make life a “HELL ON EARTH.”
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
The Environment, War and Peace . . .
There are no WARS on Mars. There are no WARS on Venus. There are no WARS in the Antarctic or the Arctic. There are no WARS in Tierra del Fuego or Greenland. WHY?
Being socially concerned about what is going on around me, and about that which is to be done to me I receive a lot of ill-directed flak from friends and associates. My concern is with YOUR ENVIRONMENT, (of course, with your kind permission, I’ll use it too). My socially concerned friends tell me that I care more for trees than for people. They want to know why I don’t work for peace instead of ferns, flowers, and trees. The answer is simple. I am very basic in my needs and desires.
How I wish that there would never be another WAR. Peace forever, everyone loves everyone. One the other hand, I have read history, when one group has the power or thinks they have the power, they become aggressive. A “BULLY” syndrome. They MUST dominate! They MUST show that they cannot be dominated! The problem is temptation. Some can handle it, but those people are far too few. No mater how moralistic or ethical, the best people in the world can be had, by temptation. Now, fully realizing the fact that people in general are not likely to change in human nature, and that we as workers for the future must be gratified as soon as possible in order to take the next step forward, we must work for something more immediately rewarding.
The environment is worth a fight, without a habitat (environment) there is no place to live. Not the spotted owl, not the red cockaded woodpecker, not the snail darter, not you, not I. All life ceases! You and I, all animals, all plants, everything! If one should want peace, that is the way to get it. Like I have already said, “There is no war in Tierra del Fuego.” Where there are no people, there is no WAR. Apparently the environment is the key, no environment, no people; no people, no WAR.
Working for the environment is very basic in nature. It is easier to get people to clean up their own house than to clean up everyone else’s house. One must start where one is most effective. With the environment, every little thing you do is effective; recycling, planting a tree, saving a tree, saving a group of trees, or a forest, proclaiming a wilderness. It all starts small, but grows. The reward is immediate, and gratifying. But most important, something gets done.
Do I love trees more than people ?. . . NO! But, it’s easier to work with trees. You don’t have to put up with their bullshit, and you really can get something accomplished.
If one really wants peace, forsake the environment. You’ll get peace fast. But there is a sacrifice to make. Consider it . . . you might find that you love trees too.
Being socially concerned about what is going on around me, and about that which is to be done to me I receive a lot of ill-directed flak from friends and associates. My concern is with YOUR ENVIRONMENT, (of course, with your kind permission, I’ll use it too). My socially concerned friends tell me that I care more for trees than for people. They want to know why I don’t work for peace instead of ferns, flowers, and trees. The answer is simple. I am very basic in my needs and desires.
How I wish that there would never be another WAR. Peace forever, everyone loves everyone. One the other hand, I have read history, when one group has the power or thinks they have the power, they become aggressive. A “BULLY” syndrome. They MUST dominate! They MUST show that they cannot be dominated! The problem is temptation. Some can handle it, but those people are far too few. No mater how moralistic or ethical, the best people in the world can be had, by temptation. Now, fully realizing the fact that people in general are not likely to change in human nature, and that we as workers for the future must be gratified as soon as possible in order to take the next step forward, we must work for something more immediately rewarding.
The environment is worth a fight, without a habitat (environment) there is no place to live. Not the spotted owl, not the red cockaded woodpecker, not the snail darter, not you, not I. All life ceases! You and I, all animals, all plants, everything! If one should want peace, that is the way to get it. Like I have already said, “There is no war in Tierra del Fuego.” Where there are no people, there is no WAR. Apparently the environment is the key, no environment, no people; no people, no WAR.
Working for the environment is very basic in nature. It is easier to get people to clean up their own house than to clean up everyone else’s house. One must start where one is most effective. With the environment, every little thing you do is effective; recycling, planting a tree, saving a tree, saving a group of trees, or a forest, proclaiming a wilderness. It all starts small, but grows. The reward is immediate, and gratifying. But most important, something gets done.
Do I love trees more than people ?. . . NO! But, it’s easier to work with trees. You don’t have to put up with their bullshit, and you really can get something accomplished.
If one really wants peace, forsake the environment. You’ll get peace fast. But there is a sacrifice to make. Consider it . . . you might find that you love trees too.
Monday, October 5, 2009
A REASONABLE MORALITY; Situation Ethics
(I've rewritten this three times and it is still too long. But, it is what it is and I can't get it any shorter without messing with the logic and meaning, Sorry!)
TWO THINGS SHOULD BECOME CLEAR AS WE PROCEED:
1. That situation ethics are not exactly new, either in method or in content.
2. That as a method, its roots lay securely, even if not conventionally, in the classical tradition of Western Christian morals.
During the Republican National Convention in Dallas, in the middle 80"s, one of my “Moderate” Republican friends said, “I and my father and grandfather before me, and their fathers, have always been straight-ticket Republicans.”
“Ah,” I said, “I take it that means you will vote for President Reagan.”
“No,” my friend said, “there are times when a man has to push his principles aside and do the right thing.” There is no way I can put into this essay, a better definition of situation ethics. My Republican friend is the Hero of this piece.
In N. Richard Nash’s “THE RAINMAKER,” a morally outraged brother of a lonely, spinster girl threatens to shoot the sympathetic Rainmaker because he makes love to her in the barn at midnight. The Rainmaker’s intention is to restore her sense of womanliness and her hopes for marriage and children. Her father, a wise old rancher, grabs the pistol away from his son, saying, “Son, you’re so full of what’s right you can’t see what’s good.”
Situation Ethics is based on “LOVE.” Now, there are so many meanings and definitions of “LOVE” that there is a temptation to drop the word altogether in ethical discourse. Christians want to use only the “AGAPE,” and this is not what is meant. The word LOVE is too rich to through away ruthlessly.
There are only three alternative routes or approaches to follow in making moral decisions. They are:
1. The legalistic
2. The antinomian (unprincipled approach)
3. The situational
Just as legalism triumphed among the Jews after the exile, so in spite of Jesus’ and Paul’s revolt against it, it has managed to dominate Christianity constantly from the very early days. As we shall be seeing, in many real-life situations legalism demonstrates what Henry Miller, in a shrewd phrase, calls “The immorality of morality.”
1. LEGALISM
With this approach, one enters into every decision making situation encumbered with a whole apparatus of prefabricated rules and regulations. Not the spirit but the letter of the law reigns. Solutions are preset, and you can look them up in a book (Rules, The Bible, The Torah). Statutory and code law inevitably piles up, ruling upon ruling, because the complications of life and the claims of mercy and compassion combine and accumulate and elaborate system of exceptions and compromise, in the form of rules for breaking the rules! It leads to that tricky now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t business of interpretation that the rabbis called “PILPUL”–a hairsplitting and logic-chopping study of the letter of the law. Any web thus woven sooner or later chokes its weavers. With Catholics it has taken the form of a fairly ingenious moral theology that, as its twists and involutions have increased, resort more and more to a CASUISTRY that appears to evade the very LAWS of right and wrong laid down in its textbooks and manuals. (CASUISTRY=the solving of cases of right and wrong by applying principals of ethic, and deciding how far circumstances alter the case, usually used to evade the law)
When visiting my lawyer in Dallas one day, we went into the conference room/law library. The walls were lined with law books, about six feet high and about fifty feet around the room. I told him that I was amazed at how many laws we had. He told me that the laws were up front, six foot high and ten foot across. The rest were the exceptions to those laws.
Protestantism has rarely constructed such intricate codes and systems of law, but what it has gained by its simplicity it has lost through its rigidity, its puritanical insistence on moral rules. They have lost touch with the headaches and heartbreaks of life. How else can one explain burning at the stake in the Middle Ages for homosexuals? Even today imprisonment up the sixty years is the penalty in one state for those who were actually consenting adults, without seduction or public disorder. This is really unavoidable whenever law instead of LOVE is put first. The puritan type is a well-known example of it. But even if the legalist is truly sorry that the law requires unloving or disastrous decisions, he still cries, “Do what is right even if the sky falls down.” He is the man Mark Twain called, “. . . a good man in the worst sense of the word.”
Today, a Christian “LITERALIST” thinks an adulterer more wicked than a politician who takes bribes, although the latter probably does a thousand times more harm. That is what Bertrand Russell said in, “WHY I AM NOT A CHRISTIAN.” Most literal churches hold that it is better for the Sun and Moon to drop from heaven, for the earth to fail, and for all the many millions who are upon it to die of starvation in extreme agony . . . than that one soul should commit one single venial sin.
CAN YOU SEE THIS HAPPENING IN OUR FAIR TOWN?
A Mrs. X is convicted of impairing the morals of her minor daughter. She had tried to teach the child chastity but at thirteen the girl bore the first of three unwanted, neglected babies. Her mother then had said, “If you persist in acting this way, at least be sure the boy wears something!” On this evidence she was convicted and sentenced. The combined forces of “SECULAR” law and legalistic puritanism had tried to prevent loving help to the girl, her bastard victims, and the social agencies trying to help her. Situation ethics would have praised that woman; it would not have pilloried her.
2. ANTINOMIANISM
Over against legalism, as a sort of polar opposite, we can put antinomianism. This is the approach with which one enters into the decision making situation armed with no principles or maxims whatsoever, to say nothing of rules. In every “EXISTENTIAL MOMENT” or “UNIQUE” situation, it declares, one must rely upon the situation of “ITSELF,” to provide its ethical solution.
Antinomianism means, “AGAINST LAW,” and is at issue in I Corinthians 6:12-20. One form is “LIBERTINISM=the belief that by grace and by the new life in Christ and salvation by faith, laws or rules no longer apply to Christians.” Their ultimate happy fate is now assured, and it matters no more what they do. Anything, and I mean anything goes. Thus the warning in I Peter 2:16, “Live as free men, yet without using freedom as a pretext for evil, but live as servants of God.” This license led by inevitable reaction to an increase of legalism, especially in sex ethics, under which Christians still suffer today. The other form of antinomianism, was a Gnostic claim to special, esoteric knowledge. They would just know what was right when they needed to know. While legalists are preoccupied with law and its stipulations, the Gnostics are so flatly opposed to law--even in principle–that their moral decisions are random, unpredictable, erratic, and quite anomalous. They cast out the Torah, but because their decisions are not bounded by LOVE, the baby goes with the bath water!
3. SITUATIONISM
Situationism is between legalism and antinomianism, or unprincipledness. The situationist enters into every decision making situation fully armed with the ethical maxims of community and heritage, and he treats them with respect. Just the same he is prepared in any situation to compromise them or set them aside in each situation if LOVE seems better served by doing so. Situation ethics goes part of the way with natural law, by accepting reason as the instrument of moral judgment. The situationist follows a moral law or violates it according to LOVE’S need.
The situationist never says, “Almsgiving is a good thing, Period!” If help to an indigent only pauperizes and degrades him, the situationist refuses a handout and finds some other way. A legalist might say that even if he tells a man escaped from an insane asylum where his intended victim is, and he finds and murders him, at least only one sin has been committed (murder), and not two (lying as well)! The error of the legalist consists of deducing particular laws from a universal law. Just as though all could be arranged beforehand . . . LOVE, however, is free from all this predefinition. What acts are right may depend on circumstances. We are only obligated to tell the truth if the situation calls for it; if a murderer asks us his victim’s whereabouts, our duty might be to lie. The situationist must make certain that they understand the total situation before making a decision. What is needed is, “FAITH, HOPE, AND CLARITY.”
Rules are, “PUNT ON FOURTH DOWN,” or “TAKE A PITCH WHEN THE COUNT IS THREE BALLS.” These rules are part of the wise player’s know-how, and distinguish him from a novice. But they are not unbreakable. The situational factors are so primary that we may even say “circumstances alter rules and principles.” It is “Casuistry”(case-based) in a constructive and non pejorative sense of the word. A man who makes the law his standard, is obligated to perform all its precepts, because breaking a commandment is breaking the law. He who lives by LOVE is not judged on that basis, but by a standard infinitely higher and at the same time more attainable. LOVE is for people, not for principles. Situation Ethics can be called “PRINCIPLED RELATIVISM.” Edmond Cahn said, “Every case is like every other case, and no two cases are alike.” Situationists cannot give to any principle less than LOVE, more than tentative consideration.
Situation ethics has been branded by some theologians as EXISTENTIAL, and it became synonymous with SITUATIONAL. Many academies and seminaries banned it as a “NEW MORALITY.” Therefore, in determining a choice and a line of judgment, you must decide if you are going to use the LAW ETHIC or the LOVE ETHIC.
EXAMPLE
A patient in a state mental hospital raped a fellow patient, an unmarried girl, ill with a radical schizophrenic psychosis. The victim’s father, learning what had happened, charged the hospital with culpable negligence and requested that an abortion to end the unwanted pregnancy be performed at once. The staff and administrators of the hospital refused to do so, on the grounds that the criminal law forbids all abortions except “THERAPEUTIC” ones when the mother’s life is at stake–because the moral law, it is supposed, holds that any interference with an embryo after fertilization is murder.
The legalists would say NO ABORTION. Their position is that killing is absolutely wrong, inherently evil. The Catholics go far beyond even the rigid legalism of the criminal law, absolutizing their prohibition of abortion ABSOLUTELY, by denying all exceptions and calling even therapeutic abortions, wrong. To the legalist, the life of the mother is in the hand of God, but the life of the child is arbitrarily extinguished. The question whether the life of the mother or the life of the child is of greater value can hardly be a matter for human decision. The situationist might reason that it is not killing because there is no person or human life in an embryo at an early stage of pregnancy, or even if it were killing, it would not be murder because it is self-defense against, in this case, not one but two aggressors. First there is the rapist, who being insane was morally and legally innocent, and then there is the “INNOCENT” embryo which is continuing the ravisher’s original aggression! Even self-defense legalism would have allowed the girl to kill her attacker, no matter that he was innocent in the forum on conscience because of his madness. The embryo is no more innocent, no less an aggressor or unwelcome invader!
Is not the most LOVING thing possible, to terminate the pregnancy?
TWO THINGS SHOULD BECOME CLEAR AS WE PROCEED:
1. That situation ethics are not exactly new, either in method or in content.
2. That as a method, its roots lay securely, even if not conventionally, in the classical tradition of Western Christian morals.
During the Republican National Convention in Dallas, in the middle 80"s, one of my “Moderate” Republican friends said, “I and my father and grandfather before me, and their fathers, have always been straight-ticket Republicans.”
“Ah,” I said, “I take it that means you will vote for President Reagan.”
“No,” my friend said, “there are times when a man has to push his principles aside and do the right thing.” There is no way I can put into this essay, a better definition of situation ethics. My Republican friend is the Hero of this piece.
In N. Richard Nash’s “THE RAINMAKER,” a morally outraged brother of a lonely, spinster girl threatens to shoot the sympathetic Rainmaker because he makes love to her in the barn at midnight. The Rainmaker’s intention is to restore her sense of womanliness and her hopes for marriage and children. Her father, a wise old rancher, grabs the pistol away from his son, saying, “Son, you’re so full of what’s right you can’t see what’s good.”
Situation Ethics is based on “LOVE.” Now, there are so many meanings and definitions of “LOVE” that there is a temptation to drop the word altogether in ethical discourse. Christians want to use only the “AGAPE,” and this is not what is meant. The word LOVE is too rich to through away ruthlessly.
There are only three alternative routes or approaches to follow in making moral decisions. They are:
1. The legalistic
2. The antinomian (unprincipled approach)
3. The situational
Just as legalism triumphed among the Jews after the exile, so in spite of Jesus’ and Paul’s revolt against it, it has managed to dominate Christianity constantly from the very early days. As we shall be seeing, in many real-life situations legalism demonstrates what Henry Miller, in a shrewd phrase, calls “The immorality of morality.”
1. LEGALISM
With this approach, one enters into every decision making situation encumbered with a whole apparatus of prefabricated rules and regulations. Not the spirit but the letter of the law reigns. Solutions are preset, and you can look them up in a book (Rules, The Bible, The Torah). Statutory and code law inevitably piles up, ruling upon ruling, because the complications of life and the claims of mercy and compassion combine and accumulate and elaborate system of exceptions and compromise, in the form of rules for breaking the rules! It leads to that tricky now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t business of interpretation that the rabbis called “PILPUL”–a hairsplitting and logic-chopping study of the letter of the law. Any web thus woven sooner or later chokes its weavers. With Catholics it has taken the form of a fairly ingenious moral theology that, as its twists and involutions have increased, resort more and more to a CASUISTRY that appears to evade the very LAWS of right and wrong laid down in its textbooks and manuals. (CASUISTRY=the solving of cases of right and wrong by applying principals of ethic, and deciding how far circumstances alter the case, usually used to evade the law)
When visiting my lawyer in Dallas one day, we went into the conference room/law library. The walls were lined with law books, about six feet high and about fifty feet around the room. I told him that I was amazed at how many laws we had. He told me that the laws were up front, six foot high and ten foot across. The rest were the exceptions to those laws.
Protestantism has rarely constructed such intricate codes and systems of law, but what it has gained by its simplicity it has lost through its rigidity, its puritanical insistence on moral rules. They have lost touch with the headaches and heartbreaks of life. How else can one explain burning at the stake in the Middle Ages for homosexuals? Even today imprisonment up the sixty years is the penalty in one state for those who were actually consenting adults, without seduction or public disorder. This is really unavoidable whenever law instead of LOVE is put first. The puritan type is a well-known example of it. But even if the legalist is truly sorry that the law requires unloving or disastrous decisions, he still cries, “Do what is right even if the sky falls down.” He is the man Mark Twain called, “. . . a good man in the worst sense of the word.”
Today, a Christian “LITERALIST” thinks an adulterer more wicked than a politician who takes bribes, although the latter probably does a thousand times more harm. That is what Bertrand Russell said in, “WHY I AM NOT A CHRISTIAN.” Most literal churches hold that it is better for the Sun and Moon to drop from heaven, for the earth to fail, and for all the many millions who are upon it to die of starvation in extreme agony . . . than that one soul should commit one single venial sin.
CAN YOU SEE THIS HAPPENING IN OUR FAIR TOWN?
A Mrs. X is convicted of impairing the morals of her minor daughter. She had tried to teach the child chastity but at thirteen the girl bore the first of three unwanted, neglected babies. Her mother then had said, “If you persist in acting this way, at least be sure the boy wears something!” On this evidence she was convicted and sentenced. The combined forces of “SECULAR” law and legalistic puritanism had tried to prevent loving help to the girl, her bastard victims, and the social agencies trying to help her. Situation ethics would have praised that woman; it would not have pilloried her.
2. ANTINOMIANISM
Over against legalism, as a sort of polar opposite, we can put antinomianism. This is the approach with which one enters into the decision making situation armed with no principles or maxims whatsoever, to say nothing of rules. In every “EXISTENTIAL MOMENT” or “UNIQUE” situation, it declares, one must rely upon the situation of “ITSELF,” to provide its ethical solution.
Antinomianism means, “AGAINST LAW,” and is at issue in I Corinthians 6:12-20. One form is “LIBERTINISM=the belief that by grace and by the new life in Christ and salvation by faith, laws or rules no longer apply to Christians.” Their ultimate happy fate is now assured, and it matters no more what they do. Anything, and I mean anything goes. Thus the warning in I Peter 2:16, “Live as free men, yet without using freedom as a pretext for evil, but live as servants of God.” This license led by inevitable reaction to an increase of legalism, especially in sex ethics, under which Christians still suffer today. The other form of antinomianism, was a Gnostic claim to special, esoteric knowledge. They would just know what was right when they needed to know. While legalists are preoccupied with law and its stipulations, the Gnostics are so flatly opposed to law--even in principle–that their moral decisions are random, unpredictable, erratic, and quite anomalous. They cast out the Torah, but because their decisions are not bounded by LOVE, the baby goes with the bath water!
3. SITUATIONISM
Situationism is between legalism and antinomianism, or unprincipledness. The situationist enters into every decision making situation fully armed with the ethical maxims of community and heritage, and he treats them with respect. Just the same he is prepared in any situation to compromise them or set them aside in each situation if LOVE seems better served by doing so. Situation ethics goes part of the way with natural law, by accepting reason as the instrument of moral judgment. The situationist follows a moral law or violates it according to LOVE’S need.
The situationist never says, “Almsgiving is a good thing, Period!” If help to an indigent only pauperizes and degrades him, the situationist refuses a handout and finds some other way. A legalist might say that even if he tells a man escaped from an insane asylum where his intended victim is, and he finds and murders him, at least only one sin has been committed (murder), and not two (lying as well)! The error of the legalist consists of deducing particular laws from a universal law. Just as though all could be arranged beforehand . . . LOVE, however, is free from all this predefinition. What acts are right may depend on circumstances. We are only obligated to tell the truth if the situation calls for it; if a murderer asks us his victim’s whereabouts, our duty might be to lie. The situationist must make certain that they understand the total situation before making a decision. What is needed is, “FAITH, HOPE, AND CLARITY.”
Rules are, “PUNT ON FOURTH DOWN,” or “TAKE A PITCH WHEN THE COUNT IS THREE BALLS.” These rules are part of the wise player’s know-how, and distinguish him from a novice. But they are not unbreakable. The situational factors are so primary that we may even say “circumstances alter rules and principles.” It is “Casuistry”(case-based) in a constructive and non pejorative sense of the word. A man who makes the law his standard, is obligated to perform all its precepts, because breaking a commandment is breaking the law. He who lives by LOVE is not judged on that basis, but by a standard infinitely higher and at the same time more attainable. LOVE is for people, not for principles. Situation Ethics can be called “PRINCIPLED RELATIVISM.” Edmond Cahn said, “Every case is like every other case, and no two cases are alike.” Situationists cannot give to any principle less than LOVE, more than tentative consideration.
Situation ethics has been branded by some theologians as EXISTENTIAL, and it became synonymous with SITUATIONAL. Many academies and seminaries banned it as a “NEW MORALITY.” Therefore, in determining a choice and a line of judgment, you must decide if you are going to use the LAW ETHIC or the LOVE ETHIC.
EXAMPLE
A patient in a state mental hospital raped a fellow patient, an unmarried girl, ill with a radical schizophrenic psychosis. The victim’s father, learning what had happened, charged the hospital with culpable negligence and requested that an abortion to end the unwanted pregnancy be performed at once. The staff and administrators of the hospital refused to do so, on the grounds that the criminal law forbids all abortions except “THERAPEUTIC” ones when the mother’s life is at stake–because the moral law, it is supposed, holds that any interference with an embryo after fertilization is murder.
The legalists would say NO ABORTION. Their position is that killing is absolutely wrong, inherently evil. The Catholics go far beyond even the rigid legalism of the criminal law, absolutizing their prohibition of abortion ABSOLUTELY, by denying all exceptions and calling even therapeutic abortions, wrong. To the legalist, the life of the mother is in the hand of God, but the life of the child is arbitrarily extinguished. The question whether the life of the mother or the life of the child is of greater value can hardly be a matter for human decision. The situationist might reason that it is not killing because there is no person or human life in an embryo at an early stage of pregnancy, or even if it were killing, it would not be murder because it is self-defense against, in this case, not one but two aggressors. First there is the rapist, who being insane was morally and legally innocent, and then there is the “INNOCENT” embryo which is continuing the ravisher’s original aggression! Even self-defense legalism would have allowed the girl to kill her attacker, no matter that he was innocent in the forum on conscience because of his madness. The embryo is no more innocent, no less an aggressor or unwelcome invader!
Is not the most LOVING thing possible, to terminate the pregnancy?
Sunday, October 4, 2009
To The Full Moon;
Oh, Bright Orb,
Goddess of ebon time,
Dominatrix of the mighty tides;
The Laws of Nature have, once again, brought you full cycle to completion, and start.
The Forces of Nature have guided your return through another dark adventure with the Universe.
Those who cherish your return, salute with celebration and reverence.
Those who quest for knowledge of your power, receive your light with joy and wonder.
We, like you, belong to the Powers and Forces of Nature and like you, know our existence is limited.
We, like you, follow those Forces and yield to those Powers and know they are our leaders.
May your journey be flawless and may we meet once again to join together in celebration and reverence for all that has gone and all that is to come.
May my journey be as calculated and determined as our Mistress above.
Goddess of ebon time,
Dominatrix of the mighty tides;
The Laws of Nature have, once again, brought you full cycle to completion, and start.
The Forces of Nature have guided your return through another dark adventure with the Universe.
Those who cherish your return, salute with celebration and reverence.
Those who quest for knowledge of your power, receive your light with joy and wonder.
We, like you, belong to the Powers and Forces of Nature and like you, know our existence is limited.
We, like you, follow those Forces and yield to those Powers and know they are our leaders.
May your journey be flawless and may we meet once again to join together in celebration and reverence for all that has gone and all that is to come.
May my journey be as calculated and determined as our Mistress above.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Back in 1995 Hillary Clinton goes in for her yearly checkup. When she's finished, she asks the gynecologist how things look. He says things looks fine and that she is in great shape, but she's pregnant!
She tells the doctor "no way," but he says that she's most definitely a month pregnant. She storms out of the office, goes to the receptionist's desk, takes the phone and calls the White House. When the operator answers she says that it's Hillary and that she needs to talk to Bill right away.
They ring the oval office, Bill answers, and Hillary says: "I can't believe it! I'm pregnant! You got me pregnant!!"
The President remains silent. Again, Hillary screams, "I'M PREGNANT! YOU IDIOT! YOU GOT ME PREGNANT!!"
Finally Bill asks, "Who is this???"
She tells the doctor "no way," but he says that she's most definitely a month pregnant. She storms out of the office, goes to the receptionist's desk, takes the phone and calls the White House. When the operator answers she says that it's Hillary and that she needs to talk to Bill right away.
They ring the oval office, Bill answers, and Hillary says: "I can't believe it! I'm pregnant! You got me pregnant!!"
The President remains silent. Again, Hillary screams, "I'M PREGNANT! YOU IDIOT! YOU GOT ME PREGNANT!!"
Finally Bill asks, "Who is this???"
What Some Women Think . . .
I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb...and I also know that I'm not blonde. Dolly Parton
You see a lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy. Erica Jong
I want to have children, but my friends scare me. One of my friends told me she was in labor for 36 hours. I don't even want to do anything that feels GOOD for 36 hours. Rita Rudner
I figure that if the children are alive when I get home, I've done my job.Roseanne
My husband and I are either going to buy a dog or have a child. We can't decide to ruin our carpet or ruin our lives. Rita Rudner
I was on a date recently, and the guy took me horse back riding. That was kind of fun, until we ran out of quarters. Susie Loucks
This guy says, "I'm perfect for you, 'cause I'm a cross between a macho and a sensitive man." I said, "Oh, a gay trucker?" Judy Tenuta
He tricked me into marrying him. He told me he was pregnant. Carol Leifer
I've been on so many blind dates, I should get a free dog. Wendy Liebman
Never lend your car to anyone to whom you have given birth. Erma Bombeck
If high heels were so wonderful, men would be wearing them. Sue Grafton
I'm not going to vacuum 'til Sears makes one you can ride on. Roseanne
I would love to speak a foreign language, but I can't. So I grew hair undermy arms instead. Sue Kolinsky
I look just like the girls next door... if you happen to live next door to an amusement park. Dolly Parton
I found out why cats drink out of the toilet. My mother told me it's because it's cold in there. And I'm like: How did my mother know THAT? Wendy Liebman
I think-therefore I'm single. Lizz Winstead
"When women are depressed they either eat or go shopping. Men invade another country." Elayne Boosler
You see a lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy. Erica Jong
I want to have children, but my friends scare me. One of my friends told me she was in labor for 36 hours. I don't even want to do anything that feels GOOD for 36 hours. Rita Rudner
I figure that if the children are alive when I get home, I've done my job.Roseanne
My husband and I are either going to buy a dog or have a child. We can't decide to ruin our carpet or ruin our lives. Rita Rudner
I was on a date recently, and the guy took me horse back riding. That was kind of fun, until we ran out of quarters. Susie Loucks
This guy says, "I'm perfect for you, 'cause I'm a cross between a macho and a sensitive man." I said, "Oh, a gay trucker?" Judy Tenuta
He tricked me into marrying him. He told me he was pregnant. Carol Leifer
I've been on so many blind dates, I should get a free dog. Wendy Liebman
Never lend your car to anyone to whom you have given birth. Erma Bombeck
If high heels were so wonderful, men would be wearing them. Sue Grafton
I'm not going to vacuum 'til Sears makes one you can ride on. Roseanne
I would love to speak a foreign language, but I can't. So I grew hair undermy arms instead. Sue Kolinsky
I look just like the girls next door... if you happen to live next door to an amusement park. Dolly Parton
I found out why cats drink out of the toilet. My mother told me it's because it's cold in there. And I'm like: How did my mother know THAT? Wendy Liebman
I think-therefore I'm single. Lizz Winstead
"When women are depressed they either eat or go shopping. Men invade another country." Elayne Boosler
Thursday, October 1, 2009
The Government Can't Do Anything Right!
Here's a little essay (author unknown to me) to send to conservative friends who like to repeat the popular right wing talking point that public health insurance is "socialist" and that "the government can't do anything right"...
This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by socialist electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US Department of Energy. I then took a shower in the socialist clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the socialist radio to one of the FCC regulated channels to hear what the socialist National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like using socialist satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of socialist US Department of Agriculture inspected food and taking the socialist drugs which have been determined as safe by the Food and Drug Administration.
At the appropriate time, as kept accurate by the socialist National Institute of Standards and Technology and the US Naval Observatory, I get into my socialist National Highway Traffic Safety Administration approved automobile and set out to work on the socialist roads build by the socialist local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the socialist Environmental Protection Agency, using socialist legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve Bank. On the way out the door, I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the socialist US Postal Service and drop the kids off at the socialist public school.
If I get lost, I can use my socialist GPS navigation technology developed by the United States Department of Defense and made available to the public in 1996 by President Bill Clinton who issued a policy directive declaring socialist GPS to be a dual-use military/civilian system to be managed as a national socialist asset.
After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the socialist workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the socialist USDA, I drive my socialist NHTSA car back home on the socialist DOT roads, to my house which has not burned down in my absence because of the socialist state and local building codes and socialist fire marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the socialist local police department.
I then get on my computer and use the socialist Internet which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration and browse the socialist World Wide Web using my graphical web browser, both made possible by Al Gore's socialist High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991.
I then post on freerepublic.com and fox news forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right.
This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by socialist electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US Department of Energy. I then took a shower in the socialist clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the socialist radio to one of the FCC regulated channels to hear what the socialist National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like using socialist satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of socialist US Department of Agriculture inspected food and taking the socialist drugs which have been determined as safe by the Food and Drug Administration.
At the appropriate time, as kept accurate by the socialist National Institute of Standards and Technology and the US Naval Observatory, I get into my socialist National Highway Traffic Safety Administration approved automobile and set out to work on the socialist roads build by the socialist local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the socialist Environmental Protection Agency, using socialist legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve Bank. On the way out the door, I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the socialist US Postal Service and drop the kids off at the socialist public school.
If I get lost, I can use my socialist GPS navigation technology developed by the United States Department of Defense and made available to the public in 1996 by President Bill Clinton who issued a policy directive declaring socialist GPS to be a dual-use military/civilian system to be managed as a national socialist asset.
After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the socialist workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the socialist USDA, I drive my socialist NHTSA car back home on the socialist DOT roads, to my house which has not burned down in my absence because of the socialist state and local building codes and socialist fire marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the socialist local police department.
I then get on my computer and use the socialist Internet which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration and browse the socialist World Wide Web using my graphical web browser, both made possible by Al Gore's socialist High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991.
I then post on freerepublic.com and fox news forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right.
Good Ideas for Living Life Well . . .
1. Take into account that great love and great achievement involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three “R’s”:
Respect for Self,
Respect for others and
Responsibility for your own actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. In disagreements, deal only with the current situation, don’t bring up the past.
12. Share your knowledge, it’s an excellent way to achieve immortality.
13. Be gentle with the Earth.
14. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
15. Judge your success by what was given up in order to get it.
16. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three “R’s”:
Respect for Self,
Respect for others and
Responsibility for your own actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. In disagreements, deal only with the current situation, don’t bring up the past.
12. Share your knowledge, it’s an excellent way to achieve immortality.
13. Be gentle with the Earth.
14. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
15. Judge your success by what was given up in order to get it.
16. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.
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