February 23, 2011

Brothers And Sisters

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To the Tea People:


One of your group said during the last election cycle that you wanted your country back. The problem is it’s not just your country, it’s our country too. The labor movement is part of our history, your history. The reason you have weekends is because of unions, the 40 hr work week is because of unions, workman’s comp, health care benefits, overtime pay, “safe as possible” working conditions, to name but a few. Workers were beaten and killed by those who didn’t earn their money, but got rich by rigging the system to have it pour into their coffers by design, deception and cronyism.


The Tea Party is now a part of our history as well. At present the best view of the Tea Party from history’s perspective is that you are seen as a sell-out group of meat puppets with the collective hand of the ultra rich (via the Fox Players) up your collective ass, pulling your strings and having you speak someone else’s mind; the mind of the heartless, soulless greed monger.


Why?!


Why do you take the side of those who are trying to end your freedoms and rob you of your citizenship by taking away your only real voice? You see what the corporate interest is doing to your brothers and sisters in the unions in Wisconsin…YES, YOUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS. They are not your enemies as the Fox Players are desperately trying to get you to think. The Fox Players live in fear that you will realize you have much more in common with unions and labor than with the ultra rich, who get “creeped out” when you are in their presence. To them, you are dullards and goons that they manipulate to do their bidding. But if the Fox Players can get you to hate us, then your ass is theirs automatically, because it is your voice, as well as ours, that is under siege in Madison right now. But for some reason you are on the side of your own oppressors.


I implore you to realize that the people you are worshipping at Fox are politicians too, and you will only be well served if you rake them over the same coals and in the same way you do the liberal politicians. We welcome your concern, they will not. If you try to rake the republican politicians over the coals, you will find them pulling every old trick on you that they pull on us; they will attempt to ostracize you, vilify you, alienate you, vandalize you, curse at you, and hate you…and you know this is true because you are helping the greed mongers do all that to us right now. The thing is we don’t care anymore because we realize that if we are ruled by a plutocracy, we become slaves. You have to realize that this includes you. The plutocrats have no intention of befriending you. They will tell you whatever they have to because they need you as “muscle” against your own. When they’re done with you, however, you will have no voice whatsoever in the affairs of your own life. They will not give one insignificant damn that you were faithful to their cause.


Eventually, your boss will inform you that “times are tough” (still) and your wages are going to be cut in half and your benefits have been cancelled altogether, while he plans yet another vacation in Cancun. Then who are you going to turn to…Glen Beck? [Sorry, he’s vacationing in Cancun with some business guy.] Not only will they tread on you, my friends, they will relieve themselves on you in the process. Remember, these are the major league greedy we’re talking about here; they only take, they do not give.


The fact that you hate us so much for standing against blind corporate greed must make even you wonder what side of good and evil you’re on. What kind of world do you think you are going to live in if we do become a plutocracy? Please don’t answer this with a Fox Players sound bite. Really, when your wages get deeply cut, and you have to sell you home and move into a “workers camp” because it’s the only thing you can afford…and your wife is dying and your child is sick so you have to sell your guns and tools, etc, to cover the down payment on your health care services, and you can’t afford to own a truck or a car or a skateboard for that matter, and there’s no public transportation either, and your diet is limited to starch and fat…who, then, are you going to be able to turn to for help? If you say, “each other”, then you are a unionizing, anti-American, socialist bastard…right, or no hey? Because the word picture I just painted comes from the struggle that labor had to endure to get what rights we have now.


You, the Tea Party, are the “muscle” of corporate greed. Without you they are powerless. If you really want to make history, I mean really make history, side with us on this one...and watch Glen Beck’s career melt, and Limbaugh’s kingdom crumble. You will then hear them ostracize you, vilify you, alienate you, vandalize you, curse at you, and hate you…. But like all abusers, they will “forgive” you for acting without their permission and against their will because they have to. They might make millions, but not without you. In terms of real contributions to humanity, however, you people are worth much more than those two pant loads will ever be. You make stuff or make stuff happen, or both. Those two are instrumental in spreading hatred and derision among our neighbors and friends to benefit the ultra greedy.


Pundits are totally dependant on their followers for their longevity. All I can ask is that you make sure those you follow are taking you somewhere you want to go.


If the ultra greedy win in Madison, democracy in the United States will be in name only.


“This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco, this ain’t no foolin’ around.”
[“Life During Wartime”, Stop Making Sense, Talking Heads.]


On the cathedral door:

I hope you didn’t unpack yet, Scotty, because you aren’t staying. Look what just came in:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/21/947947/-The-Koch-Brothers-End-Game-in-Wisconsin


and more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/22/wisconsin-pension-fund-among-healthiest-us_n_826709.html

et plus. . .

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/22/wisconsin.budget/index.html?hpt=T1#

Oh boy...

http://budget.wispolitics.com/2011/02/excerpts-from-walkers-call-with-david.html

...this one was a surprise...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/24/shep-smith-wisconsin-figh_n_827547.html

And this is simply fantastic:

http://slatest.slate.com/id/2285906


Recall Gov. Scott Walker! He prefers to serve out-of-state billionaires rather than the people of Wisconsin.

Strip Scott Walker of his Wisconsin citizenship. He is oblivious to the history of the people who make this state Wisconsin. He is using the office of Governor of Wisconsin as a launching point for his national political desires. He is not here to serve and protect the people of this state.

Strip Scott Walker of any labor rights or benefits. As he rejects the history of labor in this state, he shall then live without those protections for which people of Wisconsin fought and died.

Cut Scott Walker’s salary to the average teacher’s pay, then cut that by 9% because “times are tough”...He doesn’t receive any health plan because that was made possible by unions, so we don’t have to worry about that. No overtime pay, no workman’s comp (though he might get a hernia carrying those billionaires around on his back), no weekends, no vacation…oh yeah, he has to pay for his elderly parents care now too. (“Dip into your savings?” No, no you don’t have any savings. You’re living that rich teacher’s life now.) We will take the old Scott Walker’s savings and buy health insurance for those “freeloading” children of the poor….

Let us, also, make absolutely certain he understands that there is not a damn thing he can do about it. He will not be allowed to have any bargaining rights.

We should also check and see if the phrase “Superbus Phallum” appears anywhere on his coat of arms.

Pledge to recall Scott Walker:

http://www.unitedwisconsin.com/




"We were talking about the love that's gone so cold... 
and the people who gain the world and lose their soul..."







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February 16, 2011

My Belief Is Your Reality

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Whenever we claim that something is true, we have had to somehow come to that conclusion. That conclusion is based on a logical construction derived from our thoughts, experiences, knowledge base, et al. Before we commit to a position or an action of any kind, we have in effect arrived at a conclusion that indicates that position or action. The conclusion yields a picture that is clear and cohesive, if done correctly. If not done correctly, at best we stop evolving and at worst we head toward chaos.


If you’ve been kind enough to have been reading this blog, I have been attempting to “shown you mine”, as it were, in terms of how I think. It’s not a matter of being the best at it, I just enjoy being able to create states of mind out of our sea of cause and effect that might yield any real situational awareness and/or direction this tumble through space might be packing. To get one’s “license” to be a professional thinker, one has to demonstrate the ability to challenge one’s own positions, beliefs, etc, and have a real desire to only get high off the truth. Indeed a hard drug to find, but it might end up that the search for it is how one gets high off it.

Great fun for me is reaching into the unknown with wisdom we have collectively accrued during our evolution so far. Logical, constructive thought based on demonstrable proof - not beliefs - has yielded everything from building our homes, offices, hospitals, etc, to being able to leave Chicago and be in Paris seven hours later. Logical thought has also given us the exploration of space, medicines and cures, liberty and justice, all of this and more from clear thinking and dedicated thinkers.

Some people, however, are not very good at this thinking business. One way this can occur is if a person is not stimulated to do so as a child, or left alone to be raised by the television, or flat out brainwashed. When emotional energy is stirred, people in this situation have developed no real way to understand the confusion, the increased level of energy and how to keep it together. They find themselves slipping into the easiest of the emotional patterns which is almost always anger, or it’s inverse, fear. When things are calm again, they return to living vicariously through their favorite television characters.

None of us want to be seen as stupid, or to be criticized or otherwise alienated from our society, but before we learn how to think, we have already been taught to “fit in” with the rest of the clan. Some of us really try to fit in and believe what other people tell us to believe, especially about God because “I certainly don’t know anything but what my society tells me about God”. It doesn’t dawn on us that our society doesn’t know any more than we do…but there’s free money to be had if people think someone does know, so they perpetuate their personal myth for personal gain. Eventually, however, a few of us can’t do it anymore. After all, we are talking about God here. We no longer fear being ostracized because to stick around is to spend your free time arguing over interpretations that were disproved long ago, so one tends to stay out of the fray, and the spotlight, lest the peace is to be disturbed.

Now and again, however, I hear concepts that are not thought through and conclusions that are being drawn that don’t involve the ones concluding at all, but are conclusions that others will be forced to follow. Some of the most notable of these indeed come from those who are attempting to use our societal indoctrination to convince us that they speak for God. Even though we don’t really know much of anything about the universe or life or anything else, there are always people who claim to speak for God. They don’t. They never have. They never will. But speak they do.

When these people speak, the fun ride that I call “thinking” becomes this propaganda tool; lifeless and static. Dictums, void of verve, dedicated to controlling thought to reach a specific conclusion - a major tenet of behaviorism. These are generated by people who are not seeking wisdom. They are attempting to use thought to control society to serve the desires of a few as they attempt to create a “reality’ of their own design and then have the audacity to call it God’s plan.

Alas, we find ourselves dealing with this aberration again. A politician in the United States advances that there is to be no abortion permitted in this free society…even in the case of incestuous rape. It is argued that God has a plan for all that He creates and we have no place in challenging God’s plan.

Here’s my problem with this:

If one would like to argue that God has a plan for all that He creates, then you are saying that God would create a man and create in this man the capacity and will to rape his daughter. God then would create a girl who is to have her life dedicated to the psychological horror of her father raping her, being forced by her government to carry that pregnancy to term with her hopes, dreams and desires for her own life of no consequence whatsoever. Not the rights of the child born, only the rights of the fetus.

It doesn’t matter what any of us think abortion is because it’s not our call. It’s the woman’s call. The pregnancy is happening inside her body and thus under her jurisdiction. I know this disappoints the control freaks amongst us who like to dress their greed for power as God’s will, but as it states quite clearly in the Declaration of Independence, “eat it” (abridged version). And if anyone thinks she would be getting away with anything, tell me where’s she going to go? Don’t some of you believe that everyone will be held accountable for their actions on Judgment Day? Then you should take faith in your own beliefs, or is there a “lack of substance” problem with that?

There is also the question of why God would use incestuous rape as a conduit of His will in the first place, what with the “all-loving” accolades and such. I mean the Dude that gave us the Immaculate Conception is going to give us incestuous rape too? Is He covering the spread or what? In other words, why would God need to bring a child into the world in this fashion? I am extremely hard pressed to find any lesson in this act worthy of an all-loving God. However, every rapist in the world will be thrilled at the news. They will all have to be released on the grounds that they were executing God’s will.

Add to that the fact that Satan doesn’t come up in this rationalization at all. Usually the “go-to guy” when it comes to deplorable acts, Stinky doesn’t even show up on the radar with this one. Doesn’t that seem a bit odd? Of course now that someone mentioned it, amendments to their argument will be showing up very soon, I’m sure.

Then there’s the question of God allowing this act to go down at all. I mean all Lot’s wife did was the natural act of turning to see what was happening behind her and God turned her into a pillar of salt. If one argues that God commanded that no one look back and because she disobeyed she became a condiment, well, guess what, raping your daughter is considerably worse…but no salt statue of dad…hmmm.

It seems that there’s two ways to go from here: Either there is no way to determine a difference between God and Satan, or these people don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. [Hint: It’s the latter]

If someone argues that “God works in mysterious ways”, remind him/her it’s their bullshit that works in mysterious ways, not God…remember God is supposedly the Ordering Principle of the Universe, the One who put order into chaos…just so He could mess with your head?

It is so easy for these people to speak for God. One just has to think of something that sounds like everyone in the target audience would applaud, express that view and wait for the applause…isn’t that right, Sharron?



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