Hamartia, Catastrophe and Catharsis

I have just finished watching Bill Moyers’ interview with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Please, please take the time to see this. If you have any doubts about Wright’s patriotism or anything else, don’t bother trying to make your case until you’ve seen the interview.

Warren Jeffs, Pope Benedict, Osama bin-Laden and Pat Robertson; sounds like I’m setting up a bar-joke, but these guys represent, each in his unique way, the problem of religion in today’s society. Lot to tackle, so I’ll get right to it, starting with Jeffs.

Yesterday’s court fiasco in Texas, where a single judge had to go up against over three-hundred attorneys representing 416 children (damn, think of the logistics!) left many people scratching their heads. And while this was going on, the internet was all aflutter over the Sacred Bed, where the “spiritual de-flowering” took place.

This was Warren Jeffs’ legacy. Jesus told his flock it was not only okay to rape these girls and place them into a spiritual/sexual slave-ship, but it was absolutely essential. The only hope these girls had of ever getting to heaven was by pleasing their “husbands”…

Yesterday, Pope Benny gave one hell of a speech - I believe President Bush rated it “awesome” - and then spent some time praying with a few of the men who had been raped by the Pope’s local representatives years ago. Now, as I was poring through the myriad of statistics of priest-on-preteen sex-abuse, I came across this nugget from Dr. Kathleen McChesney of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops:

“In 2004, at least 1,092 allegations of sexual abuse were made against at least 756 Catholic priests and deacons in the United States. Most of the alleged incidents occurred between 1965 and 1974.”

Interesting, since that same church had kicked Senator John Kerry to the curb because he didn’t want poverty-stricken young girls dying from botched coat-hanger abortions while girls that had enough money could still get rid of unwanted mistakes with impunity…

Next up: Osama bin-Laden. When Ronald Reagan subsidized al-Qaeda to do our dirty work of fighting the commies in Afghanistan, America was on the right side of the Jihad. After Osama’s brother died, not so much…

Well, what the hell is a “Jihad” anyway?

The Qur’an describes Jihad as a system of checks and balances, as a way that Allah set up to “check one people by means of another.” When one person or group transgresses their limits and violates the rights of others, Muslims have the right and the duty to “check” them and bring them back into line. There are several verses of the Qur’an that describe jihad in this manner. One example:

“And did not Allah check one set of people by means of another,
the earth would indeed be full of mischief;
but Allah is full of Bounty to all the worlds”
- Qur’an 2:251

Islam never tolerates unprovoked aggression from its own side; Muslims are commanded in the Qur’an not to begin hostilities, embark on any act of aggression, violate the rights of others, or harm the innocent. So any idea that the cowardly scum that annihilated 3,000 people on 9/11 were doing the will of Allah is bull-crap. They were doing the will of Osama bin-Laden…

Last up: Protein-Pancake King, Pat Robertson. The multimillionaire CEO of the 700 Club, still one of the giants in the Evangelical industry, has caved-in and thrown his support to John McCain. Robertson had little choice, McCain’s the only guy still standing with an R in front of his name. No word yet on if Robertson will spend any of the more than $8,000,000.00 he got from his Liberian gold-mining operation to secure the Senator’s victory. Doesn’t matter though, he’s got plenty of other pockets full of cash, especially thanks to President Bush’s Faith-Based Initiative Scam…

Let us pray?

 - kip

To everything there is a season, a time for all things under the sun. John McCain is an American hero who has served this nation with honor and distinction for decades. Unfortunately, his time has come and gone. I think all but the most ardent Bush admirers now agree McCain should have represented the Republican Party in 2000. But this is 2008; a different time, a different season.

There are those who will vote for McCain no matter what. There are also those who will pull the democratic lever regardless of the circumstances. About 40% of the American electorate votes republican and an equal percentage votes democratic every time, you can take that to the bank. That leaves twenty percent of American voters up for grabs. The way the electoral map plays out, there’s an average of somewhere between eleven to fifteen swing states that might even be considered viable for either side. Every presidential race starts out that close.

So why should Barack win over the Senator from Arizona? If you’ll allow, please picture some kids merrily gallivanting around a playground. There’re two kids on the see-saw… See ’em over there? One’s wearing a red jacket; the other little tot has a blue one.

For eight years, the kid with the red jacket has been on top. He’s given tax breaks to the rich, started two wars, spat on the Constitution, and the kid especially likes playing Godzilla, stomping houses to the ground so folks have no place to live; and stomping on their dreams so they have no place to hope.

When the child in blue gets to breathe the rarified air, tax breaks will go back to the middle class, one war will end so we can fight the other one, the Constitution will be patched together again, and we’ll be able to start rebuilding our homes and our dreams.

In the best of all possible worlds we’d have a government that follows the advice of St. Paul - moderation in all things. But since we live in the real world, a back-and-forth cycle is the best we can hope for.

 - kip

Left, right, center - it didn’t matter; every single political pundit on TV labeled Barack Obama’s comments from a closed-door fundraiser in San Francisco the same: elitist. No need to copy-and-paste his words here, everyone on the planet knows what he said.

Hillary Clinton, who spent eight years sipping morning coffee in the White House, thinks Barack was looking down on small-town voters. The former First Lady who has, with her husband at her side, amassed a fortune of over one hundred and nine million dollars says Obama, an African-American raised by a single mom whose first real-life experience was being an organizer for displaced workers on the south side of Chicago, is out of touch.

For his part, John McCain is keeping silent - he damn well better, he needs the votes of those bitter gun-toting 700 Club members this fall. Voters who are up to their eyeballs in economic woes have little reason to vote for a Bush third term other than because John Hagee tells them to.

One last note on this matter. I have yet to hear one person say that Barack was wrong. In fact, several talking-heads have retorted, “Yeah, he’s right, but he shouldn’t have said it.”

What kind of world would we be living in if politicians started telling the truth?

 - kip

I’m sorry; I just can’t take it any more. The way the Christian Conservatives are spinning this election cycle, you’d think the Clintons were power-hungry maniacs and that Barack Obama was one of the guys who steered the planes into the World Trade Center on September 11th. For now, let me tackle the Emboldened Right’s attacks on our former Commander-in-Chief.

Has Bill flubbed a couple of times during this year-long war for the nomination? Yep. Of course, so has everyone else, and remember, he’s not even running. Last time he stumped for himself was in 1996. Yet the neocons can’t get enough of mashing his face into the ground on a daily; no, hourly; no, per-minute basis. Why should the ex-President be so twisted-up about this election?

For eight years he drove the classic red white and blue Corvette, tuned it up personally, and slathered it with Simoniz once a week. He gave the keys to George W. Bush in 2001 and said, “Please, take care of my baby.”

Since then, we’ve had 9/11, the suspension of our Constitutional rights, the sanctioning of torture, the subversion of the Justice Department, the Department of Defense bankrolling GOP-run private companies, the surrendering of our economy to the Chinese, the surrendering of our standing in the international community to al-Qaeda, and the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq.

Clinton had no strategic move to play when the Supreme Court overruled the will of the people in 2000. This year, he has a chance to redeem himself, the Democratic Party, and the United States of America. It’s a pretty damn tall order; that’s why every night he’s been up till three o’clock in the morning…

 - kip

The number of cancelled flights by American Airlines due to faulty wiring in their MD-80 series planes is fast approaching the 2,500 mark. So, of course, the news mavens sent their best and brightest to interview disgruntled passengers who’ve been waiting for hours, sometimes even days, to catch the next flight out of town. One woman who seemed quite distressed that she and her two adorable little tikes were losing precious vacation time struck me. It was more important to her to get where she was going than to stay alive.

And so it is, apparently, with the Republican Party.

The McCain-Rice ticket seems, by all accounts, to be a done-deal. The neocons call it “the GOP’s Dream Ticket”.

Really? Two candidates who have absolutely no clue about what to do with our crumbling economy is the best partnership the republicans can come up with? It wouldn’t have anything at all to do with the fact that Condoleezza is an African-American woman, would it?

Of course not. So, let’s evaluate her qualifications. She’s never held or even run for, for that matter, political office. No problem, I’m sure she passes the “judgment threshold”, right? Well, the three-thousand who died as a direct result of her bungling ineffectiveness as National Security Advisor during her July 10, 2001 meeting with CIA Director Tenet and Counterterrorism Chief Cofer Black aren’t singing her praises.

That’s old news, the neocons would respond. Look what she’s done since then! Ummm, that would be, next to nothing. As Secretary of State, her job is to formulate and implement policy. Her formulation abilities are restricted to saying “Yes, sir” to President Bush no matter what lunacy he dreams up. As to her managerial skills as head of the State Department? Lifers who have no particular political agenda unanimously agree she is the worst - absolutely worst - department head they’ve ever seen.

If the election was held today, McCain and Rice would be our next President and Vice President. Do you really want to fly on that plane?

 - kip

We’ve learned nothing new from General Petraeus or Ambassador Crocker, and the Pa. primary is still two weeks away. So while there’s a lull in the action, let me get a few things off my chest. These revelations may be hard to swallow, but someone has to step up to the plate and speak the truth.

First, all three Presidential hopefuls will appear, via tape, on American Idol’s Idol Gives Back extravaganza. What a freakin’ crock. Rupert Murdoch has turned a flashy updated version of Star Search into the biggest money-making machine of all time. With low production costs, the live-format show draws more viewers than the Super Bowl. The marginally-talented “stars” are given contracts by Murdoch owned record labels, and their hits are played on Murdoch owned radio stations and other media formats. Profits, profits, and more profits. They damn well better give SOMETHING back to the world for hijacking our culture.

Next on the list is Tina Fey. She’ll be appearing on Sunday night’s autism special hosted by Jon Stewart. It’s a shame; I was really looking forward to watching it, now I’ll have to find something else to do. Fey, who would make a perfect poster-child for any group that is pro-choice - for the planet would be so much better off had her mom never given birth to the devil-child; is constantly grabbing the media spotlight. Who the hell cares what this utterly devoid of talent bitch has to say? If she died tomorrow, there would be such rejoicing worldwide that I’m sure we’d instantaneously have peace in the Middle East.

Finally, we come to America Ferrera; the phenomenally talented star of ABC TV’s Ugly Betty and staunch supporter of Hillary Clinton. Now, everyone knows Barack is my man, but what was the deal with MSNBC snubbing America in their coverage of the California debate? The camera was frozen on her for what seemed like an eternity as she sat there proudly wearing a Hillary button. Yet her name was never even mentioned by any of MSNBC’s pundits when they listed the stars that were present at the event. Could the snub have had anything to do with the fact that her show toppled NBC’s once-mighty “must see TV” powerhouse Thursday night primetime lineup? What do they plan on doing if America works out the deal she wants so badly and hosts a live Thanksgiving USO show for the troops in Iraq?

Okay, I promise to get back to my forte, politics, as soon as possible. And thanks for letting me vent, just a little…

 - kip

One reason it’s so difficult to have a meaningful discussion of the problems we face as a nation is that inflammatory rhetoric has so distorted the basic terminology we use that nothing makes sense anymore. Since I’m intelligence-challenged, I’ve asked my good friend Merriam Webster to help me on this one. Lot to cover here, so I’ll get right to it.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke recently gave us a dire warning; that being, if things keep going the way they’re going we might be headed towards a recession.

Really? A poll just came out that said 81% of Americans aren’t too thrilled with the present state of the economy. Of course, Conservative Christians say we’re just in a typical down-cycle; nothing to worry about here. My friend Merriam says recession is “a period of reduced economic activity”.

Everyone on the planet has seen the 30-second loop of Rev. Wright decrying the injustices borne by the downtrodden. The Christian Conservatives refer to Jeremiah’s call for equality as “racist”. What does my friend say? Racism is “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race”.

President Bush has blustered repeatedly that “America does not torture.” Heck, we even have a manual that tells us what’s considered torture and what isn’t. Unfortunately, the Conservative Christians who are in charge of such matters can’t even decide if water-boarding is torture or just rough-swimming. Merriam, what say you? Torture is “the infliction of intense pain to punish, coerce, or afford sadistic pleasure”.

Remember the flack NBC got by the Conservative Christians when they referred to the conflagration in Iraq as a civil war? You know, the Bush/McCain quagmire over there where American forces are trying to keep peace between the Sunnis and the Shias? My friend tells me that civil war is “a war between opposing groups of citizens of the same country”.

Lastly, who the hell does Bush/McCain consider our enemy to be? Over a million times we‘ve heard the colloquialism “the War on Terror”. Okay, who are the terrorists? The Conservative Christians seem to be pointing their fingers at lots of folks. Exactly who is it that we need to shoot? According to Merriam, a terrorist is “one that inspires intense fear”.

Well, I hope that clears things up a bit. Maybe now we can have an intelligent dialogue on the real issues we face. Then again, maybe I’m being too optimistic. I mean, we still don’t know what the definition of “is” is.

 - kip

“We’ve come a long way, but there’s still a long way to go.” How many times have you heard that one?

Let’s think about it. April 4, 1968 to April 4, 2008. I mean, there is a general sense of progress, but can you think of specifics?

We’ve gone from the Johnson/Nixon war in Vietnam to the Bush/McCain war in Iraq. We’ve gone from school-busing to No Child Left behind. There’s been the Million Man March and there’s been Katrina. There’s been Nelson Mandela, Colin Powell and Clarence Thomas. O.J. and Rodney King. Oprah, Denzel, Halle Berry, Michael, Tiger and the Williams sisters. We’ve gone from Hank Aaron to Barry Bonds. We’ve gone from Roots to BET; from Motown to Hip-Hop. We’ve gone from the politics of George Wallace to the politics of Barack Obama.

I could go on and on, and I will, in quiet contemplation. I invite you to do the same.

 - kip

Pat Buchanan says the Black community should be grateful for all the White community has done for them.

I really want to put this behind me, but the right-wing bloggers just won’t let it go. It’s been weeks since the upper-crust conservatives blew a gasket over Rev. Wright’s call for justice. Please, remember the lesson these Evangelicals are taught is that poverty is a result of spiritual failure.

It’s the African-American community’s own fault that they’re disproportionately at the lower end of the economic scale.

It’s the African-American community’s own fault that they’re disproportionately at the higher end of the incarceration scale.

It’s the African-American community’s own fault that their kids are disproportionately more “left behind” in our No Child Left Behind education system.

The white-wing, I’m sorry, right-wing bloggers applaud Pat Buchanan’s observation that White America lead Blacks to Christianity, so the slave trade was really a good thing. I’m no Biblical scholar, so for all I know, he might be right. Let me think about it for a second.

Christianity says that God allowed Adam to sin because He wanted man to love Him of his own free-will. God created Adam higher than the angels by bestowing upon man the will to choose to obey Him or not. Then, God had to let His Son die to redeem man from the sin they committed as a result of that free-will.

So whites journeyed to Africa and hunted down free, happy people and captured them, and locked them in the bowels of slave ships as they journeyed to the New World, and forced them against their will to serve their white overlords by toiling in the fields…

Wait a minute, wasn’t that supposed to be Adam’s punishment for eating a piece of fruit?

Okay, I guess Rev. Buchanan was right. If the Whites never robbed their African captives of their free-will, Blacks would never have learned just how valuable free-will was; valuable enough for God to send His only begotten Son to die.

 - kip