From Where I Sit

There is no joke about super PACs

2012-01-13T08:29:00.001-06:00

Stephen Colbert showed how easy it is transfer power of a super PAC, and how ambiguous written laws are easily manipulated.

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Making fun of Religion

2012-01-03T04:34:00.003-06:00

I know Christopher Hitchens passing away is old news, but I saw The Onion had a headline "Fumbling, Inarticulate Obituary Writer Somehow Losing Debate to Christopher Hitchens."

I can't say that I always agreed with Christopher Hitchens, but I thought he was one of the most gifted atheist to ever grace the world. Even when diagnosed with cancer he stood his ground and held strong to his beliefs that their isn't a God. He realized his lifestyle and family history had more to do with his disease, and it wasn't God punishing him.

Religion is a sensitive subject, and the something that is hard to debate because of bias. It is hard to point out that the Christian Bible really was written many years after Jesus died and didn't say a lot of negative things about Romans. Can you recall Jesus saying anything truly negative about Roman Culture?

Christopher Hitchens didn't believe there was a God, he challenged religious bias.

Let us look at one good christian bias, and let us say you are a Protestant, I picked that because I was raised Protestant, and you say the Catholic Church prays to Mary and they are worshiping her by doing that. Is that totally true and will the Catholic be punished for such a gaffe? A Protestant would tell you that Catholics pray to Mary and are thus guilty of worshiping Mary. But doesn't that question have more to do with religious dogma over Bible accuracy, because aren't both sides guilty of taking the Bible out of context to preach their beliefs. Jesus said to pray to God, because the Lord's Prayer doesn't say "Our Jesus, who art in Heaven, but Protestants pray to Jesus that he might intercede for them. So didn't Jesus' followers also pray to Jesus after he died, and aren't they the ones the command us to pray to Jesus? So are they guilty of praying to the wrong way? If you read Jesus's commands you can see how religious bias can influence opinion on what is true and what is false about prayer.

What about Christians that view Christopher Hitchens as a sinner for not believing in God? The Bible tells us (Mathew 7:1-2) “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." It seems this passage isn't preached enough.

Mr. Hitchens was a gifted writer, and was gifted in the art of making you think about your beliefs. He challenged his reader to questions their beliefs. Why would someone believe that is evil to challenge one's beliefs? If we all challenged our beliefs we probably wouldn't hand our money over to religious leaders because we believe what they tell us about tithing. Is Pope Benedict XVI a humble and poor servant of the Lord, or a rich man because people give money to the Roman Catholic Church? Is your local pastor struggling to make ends meet? He might if he has college debt, but most pastors make good salaries that are subsidies by people that believe they have to give a percentage of their working wages to church leaders. Can you find the passage in the Bible that says you have to tithe your "working wages," and doesn't tithing pertain to the Old Testament law that died with Jesus? Saint Paul said he made his living from working, not from preaching--he was a wise man.

Christopher Hitchens was an atheist, and a good citizen of the world. You didn't hear about him taking money from donors and building air conditioned dog houses, you didn't hear him taking money donations and spending it on hookers, you didn't hear him preaching the homosexuality is a deadly sin and then having a homosexual affair.

No, Christopher Hitchens didn't do any of the above things, but he had to the fortitude to challenge the way we think about religion. His voice died with his body, but his written words will live on in the books and essays he wrote. He was just one man, but he left something special.

The Misuse of Literature

2012-01-02T15:56:00.000-06:00

Oh, how easy it is use literature to make any point you want. A good example is a rich man by the name of David Limbaugh, the lawyer brother of Rush Limbaugh, who used "1984" to make his point that the Democrats are the modern version of Oscienia.

"!984" can be used to push the narrative of fear by the Republican Party against their foes the Democratic Party, but it is interesting to see the parallels between "1984" the modern day Republican Party.

The Republican Party is no fool when it comes to the Ministry of Love and a little thing called the Patriot Act--Big Brother is watching you, because you might be a terrorist if you don't think the same way Republicans think.

Republicans used fear to make us believe that deficits will kill jobs, but didn't mind deficits when Ronald Reagan was president. How many jobs were lost because of Reagan deficits? If you listen to Sean Hannity, you would believe his rewriting of Ronald Reagan to be the greatest job creator in the world, because Reagan cut taxes.

Who else but Republicans and the Tea Party can make us believe that teachers are socialist bent on benefiting from organized labor practices. Yes, labor unions are socialist because they seek to protect employees from labor practices that harm the employees. Teachers aren't overworked. Teachers are overpaid for part-time work. Teacher only work more hours than Congressmen and Congresswoman that don't even work fewer hours in a year. Unless, you count asking for donations as hours worked.

The Republican Party used the Ministry of Peace to start a perpetual "War on Terrorism" that really has no clear enemy now that the main target Osama bin Laden is dead. We are still at war with someone, and the United States Congress just passed legislation that allows the president to use indefinite detention.

We dare not forget how the Republican Party used the Ministry of Truth to change how we get our news. The Republican Party would love us to believe that Democrats are filling our colleges with professors that teach only socialist ideas, but they just happen to forget to mention how Rupert Murdoch owns a large chunk of the media, a large enough chunk of the media to push his conservative propaganda. Rupert Murdoch owns major newspapers, television networks, and a book publish company. He owns just enough media to help push an agenda that is so biased that even the liberal media is drooling over how easy it is for Mr. Murdoch to control the masses.

Don't forget how well versed Mr. Murdoch is when it comes to doublespeak--"unbiased" and "fair and balanced" are slogans used by Fox News.If you say something enough, you just might believe it.

What about the popularity of talk radio? These programs are very popular at pushing an agenda that is anti-working class, but it is so full of doublespeak that the listener goes away angry or upset with the system. These programs play on our fears, and exploit them with a skill that would make Joesph Goebbels blush.

How about the Ministry of Plenty, did the Republican Party ever use it? Republicans like to use the term class warfare to make it seem crazy to think rich people should pay taxes. Poor people don't pay taxes, or so the argument is made, but every working person pays taxes, and it is almost impossible to work and not pay some kind of taxes. Everyone that buys gasoline or anything that has a sales tax on it pays taxes. Unless you are homeless and own nothing, then you probably don't pay taxes.

Yes, it is easy to make it sound like someone has more than you, but the whole point of capitalism is to make you desire more than you need. It is real easy to lie and say the rich pay an unfair share of the tax burden, but these major accounting firms in the United States don't cater to the lowest bidder. These accounting firms make their money find loopholes for major corporations and rich clients, not so they pay more taxes, but so they don't pay their fair share of taxes. Imagine if everyone could afford to hire these major accounting firms to do their taxes.

What is the truth? It is hard to believe that George Orwell would like both political parties in the United States. Both parties listen to the rich, and hand crumbs to the working class.

Jon Bon Jovi Not Dead; Fans of Good Music Sad!

2011-12-20T10:15:00.003-06:00

New Jersey, NJ--Jon Bon Jovi isn't dead. He is still alive and planning on releasing a new greatest hits album this spring.

"I felt this great sense of relief when I heard Jon Bon Jovi was dead. I really thought his death would mean really talented musician would start to get noticed. This sense of relief soon turned to despair when I heard it was all a hoax--that is what I get for getting my news from Facebook." James Hetfield of Metallica said on his Facebook page.

Some fans of good music started Facebook pages and Twitter accounts to help spread the word that they wanted Jon Bon Jovi to do music fans a favor and go away.

"Remember when Jon Bon Jovi said iTunes was bad for music and musicians weren't getting their fair share of the money. . It turns out iTunes was good for musicians and good for the music industry. It seems Jon makes predictions like he makes music." Jim Nabors said on his website.

Jon Bon Jovi did use his personal website to taunt fans of good music by posting pictures of himself signing and having a good time.

"I just want people to know that I am not dead." Jon Bon Jovi said.

Jon Bon Jovi might not be dead, but there remains hope that he will stop recording music.

Sticking your foot in your mouth

2011-12-16T15:16:00.002-06:00

I have the habit of sticking my foot in my mouth, not that I have the actual flexibility to do that, but I have occasionally stuck my foot in my mouth.

There was this one time in band camp...Actually, there was this time in college that I remember feeling that I might have to crawl out of the room. I happened to get a nice lecture from one of my classmates in my creative writing class because she was also the professor's assistant, so that meant she was in charge of showing up for class on time. My professor did not like getting to class on time because she was the Poet Laurette of the state and couldn't be bothered because she was busy doing other things. Anyway, this classmate was in charge of handing out assignments and reading all the stories.

I wrote this beautiful short story about something I don't remember, but the story had a character that didn't like the Wisconsin Department of Resources. I remember the character because at the time I was also doing a research paper on Chronic Wasting Disease, so I managed to slip some of that information into my short story.

It turns out that this girl's grandfather and father worked for the DNR and her grandfather was actually in charge of an area that had a high population of deer with Chronic Wasting Disease.

She laid into me about my story and my poor protrayal of the DNR. She told me I didn't know anything. And the wonderful person she was, she did this in front of the whole class, not in private. I guess she want people to think that I was attacking her because I was attacking a governmental body that her family worked for and might have been in charge of allowing Chronic Wasting Disease into the state of Wisconsin.

I just gave her sarcastic smile, because everyone in the class was paying attention to her tell me about why I was wrong about what I wrote.

She was so kind that she didn't even allow me the chance to argue my point. Since, I had researched the subject and had no personal attachment to the DNR. In my head I had argued my point brilliantly because I pointed out the flaws in her rant. She was more about making her argument personal and using logic wasn't a skill she wanted to explore at that moment. She was mad.

When she finished, I felt like crawling out of the class because this young woman was upset, and she was upset because someone in a college setting had the nerve to add opinion to a short story. We never did talk about my story in group discussion, because my professor wasn't one for following her own syllabus, and I am glad that we didn't discuss the story. The professor's assistant was in my group.

Just a little side note about the professor's assistant, it turns out this assistant picked up the professor's bad habits and she never showed up for class the last two months of the semester. She didn't return the professor's phone calls or e-mails, and she didn't return all the stories she collected from the class. My class had to make new copies of their stories and turn them in, if we wanted a grade on them.As a fan of Seinfeld, I pictured my classmate hold my short story in her hand and mumbling something about me as the shot faded to the credits and theme music of Seinfeld.

News Briefs

2011-12-15T23:07:00.000-06:00

Charlotte the deer was saved by a last minute reprieve from Governor Scott Walker. His hope is to show that Wisconsin DNR isn't just a criminal organization, but an organization that can use common sense when forced to do it because people in other states think they are a bunch of assholes. "I don't think this story is a good example how the DNR has too much power, but I do think people shouldn't be so hard on the DNR for trying to stop something they brought into the state." Scott Walker was commenting on how the Wisconsin DNR knew about chronic wasting disease in deer brought into the state in the early 1980s but didn't do anything about it.

Mitt Romney calls the Roman Catholic Church a crazy cult because they drink Jesus' blood and pray to dead people. "This quirky church believes in drinking blood of their dead Lord, and they also believe praying to dead people will lead to their prayers getting answered sooner than praying directly to God." Mitt Romney said before the Iowa debate tonight.

Congress was able to work out their difference and come up with a spending bill that screws both the poor and the middle class that can't afford to lobby members of Congress. "I think it is a beautiful plan that really doesn't help the people that aren't job creators." John Boehner said.

Pope Still Waiting

2011-12-14T15:41:00.001-06:00

Purgatory--Pope John Paul II is still waiting for another miracle to push him into sainthood.

"I was a good pope. I beat myself, and belonged to secret groups, and those groups were highlighted in that wonderful novel by Dan Browne, oh, what was it called, The Da Vinci Code. Yes, I loved to sleep on the floor and beat myself for all those horrible sins I commited. If you were a child during my reign as pope, you know the sins I am talking about.

"Do all my sins mean I don't deserve to be a saint? I think they mean I should be a saint. The better the christian that more temptation leaped on them, and sure I allowed my thirst for power to prevent me from doing the right thing, but I don't answer to humans, only to God, and that is why I was the pope and you weren't." John Paul II told reporters in purgatory.

John Paul II opened up about the hoax of him doing any miracles to a person he never touched.

"This nun prays to me and I heal her, alright. I never read in the Bible that popes heal, but who am I to argue with Roman Catholic doctrine.

"I was really shocked when that annal retentive German had me dug up and beatified, I am not going to complain. I need to get out of here, and quick. I hear the Devil is looking for people that helped commit great crimes on humanity, and I am worried.

"Why am I worried, one of the greatest popes to ever grace the pages of Time magazine? Oh, no reason. Just me kidding around. Was that Satan I saw over there, nope, it was just Ronald Reagan taking his daily horseback ride through purgatory. I swear from a distance Reagan and Satan sure look alike.

"Anyway, where was I, oh, I was talking about how I thought I was going to be in heaven by now, but something seems to be holding up the process. I believe it is that annal retentive German that isn't pray for me anymore. Now that he is in power, he is Mister Big Shot, and doesn't have time to pray for me." Pope John Paul II added, but didn't finish his thought because the real Satan appeared.