My Mythos or Yours?

Okay boys and girls, sit down around the fire and I will tell you some really tall tales that are sure to amuse and thrill you. Comfy? Good, let's get going!

Here's a dandy little tale about how a young man in the early 1800's prayed to Big Happy Sky Man for a sign on which direction his faith should go. BHSM appeared to the man in a Pillar of Light and told him that all the churches were BAD and that he needed to start a brand new one that would teach people the true ways of the BHSM. A decade later, the BHSM even sent down some solid gold plates with all the teachings the young man would need to write his own extension of the Holy Writ.

Now our second little story takes place...Oh about 2000 or so years before that. A young, unwed mother announces that she is pregnant. She tells everyone that she was visited by an agent of the Big Happy Sky Man who told her that she was going to bear the son of BHSM who would then go on to fix all the things that had gone wrong with mainstream religion and she would bear the child while still remaining a pure, untouched virgin.

Wow, aren't those two of the craziest stories you ever heard? It's hard to tell which one is more preposterous? Thank the BHSM that no one actually believes these crazy stories except maybe some crazy cultists!

Okay, silliness aside, I am sure everyone recognizes the "origin" tales of the Mormon Faith and Christianity. I promise all of you that I am not mocking either faith or its beliefs but was using the "tall tale" style to shore up a point I am about to make.

http://news.yahoo.com/perry-camp-anti-mormon-message-011400919.html

Now I don't like Mitt Romney. Course any regular readers will know I am not too fond of the current crop of GOP candidates except Paul and I gotta admit Cain's getting my attention too. I personally feel that electing Romney would be one of the largest mistakes we have made in awhile. However this focus on his religion (and its not just this election) is a non-issue. The horse being beaten isn't just dead, it is dust.

Since America doesn't have an official National Religion (Thank God!) there are no requirements that a candidate be Christian, Jewish, Mormon or even Muslim. A person can follow his or her religious beliefs and still have a chance at being elected. So this focus on the fact that Romney is a Mormon has absolutely no bearing on his qualifications for President.

Now on to the second part of this rant. David Lane, a conservative Christian power broker and one of Perry's strongest supporters, calls Mormonism a "cult." He considers them to be non-Christians. I really don't know. I don't really have enough background in religion to say Yay or Nay. I do know this though, at one time or another, every single religion in the world was probably considered a cult including Christianity.

Anytime any new faith starts going against or even just adding to the old ones, the Old Wise Guys in charge brand it a cult. Matter of fact, I bet if you were to poll the majority of people in the world, they'd define "cult" as any religion other than their own. It is all a matter of perspective.

So base your choices on skills, records or even how well the candidate spins a lie, but ignore the people that preach against someone simply because their faith is different. Heck, I am looking forward to the first Druid running for president. Let's put a real "tree hugger" into office!

Random thoughts and Confuzlements

These are just some random things that have occurred to me over the past few days. There is no real depth to them and they aren't really meant to spark any sort of debate or controversy, just things that I thought of that made me go Hmmm.

The Reboobicans are starting (finally) to trot out their plans for what they will do to fix the country's ills if they are elected. The two main touts in all of them are trash the EPA's ability to protect the environment and keep toxic substances out of our food and water and Expanded Oil Exploration. Now I will ignore the first one because I have no evidence that reducing the EPAs powers will harm us or the environment. However, this idea that allowing encouraging Oil Companies to drill and drill and drill will help our economy is laughable. Big Oil already has hundreds if not thousands of already drilled wells sitting in the oceans, but do not use them. Even if new Exploration would create a few thousand new jobs, there will be no oil boom to brighten our economic future.

I for one am very proud of the Occupy Wall Street movement and the fact that it is going global this weekend tells me a lot about just how peeved off people are. Even if it accomplishes nothing dramatic in the long run, it shows that Americans are finally reaching a very nasty breaking point. Now, with that said, I would like to point out the difference between a Protest and a Mob (as one Republican called them) is adherence to the laws of the land. The OWS members were recently informed that they would have to vacate the Privately owned park they have been using so that it could be cleaned and when they returned they would have to follow the rules of the park and the laws of the city. (No tents, no sleeping on benches etc.) Now this park is PRIVATELY owned and most of the regulations cited are CITY and STATE laws, but the protestors have vowed to stand their ground "linked arm and arm" to prevent Police from doing their jobs. Sorry folks but that's breaking the law. If you do that, you are only proving the naysayers are right.
(As a side note, the powers that be have temporarily stopped the park cleaning in order to avoid a riot.)

Final thought. Does anyone else find it annoying and so very pathetic that both political parties are doing the same darned thing? Example: Obama introduced his Jobs bill which he knew damned well would never pass the Reboobicans. Heck even some of his own people bailed on it. He knew it would never pass, but pushed it through anyway. So needless to say it died an ignominious death quickly. Now the Reboobicans are putting out their own such bill that anyone in their right mind (Leaves out politicians doesn't it?) can see will never sail past the Damnocrats. Neither side is even vaguely interested in actually accomplishing anything before the 2012 elections, just in looking good and making the other side look bad.

Now this is nothing normal. Hells, its the way politics is played, but this is not the time for it. Our country is rapidly approaching the event horizon of a massive black hole. We have to act now, not next year or the year after or we will lose everything. The time for oneupmanship and games is way past. The fact that our "leaders" cannot see that or if they see it choose to ignore it truly confuzzles me.

Anyway, Like I said in the beginning, these are just random thoughts and confuzzlements that I pondered this week. If they have made you think, swell. If they have confused you, Sorry. If they have peeved you off in anyway? Well, that is just the way things go.

Let them eat Cake (Preferably Devil's Food)

Back in Septemberish, I wrote a blog that talked about all the revolutions going on over in the Middle East and what it would be like if and when these types of events started happening here. Needless to say, I got a lot of emails from people saying that it could never happen here, that this is America! Some people used extremely offensive language to try to make their points. (As an aside to one person, you know who you are. I am pretty sure that the human body is incapable of doing what you suggested even with decades of yoga and massive surgery, but I do applaud your creativity. I may steal the idea for a future novel.)

Well all I can to these naysayers and doubting types is this:
http://news.yahoo.com/wall-street-protest-expected-widen-071005045.html
There are dozens of more articles running around the InterWebz covering this and similar protests occurring all over the country. These people are sick and tired of all the BS being thrown at them by the Damnocrats, Reboobicans, Tea Beggars, Liarberals, Dodderates, and CONservatives (Sorry haven't come up with a clever nickname for Conservatives yet, any suggestions that can be put in a family blog are welcome). Now they are trying to let their voices be heard and make a difference.

"Now hold on a minute," you might say. "These protests are peaceful, not violent like the ones in the ME." To this, I reply "The vast majority of the protests over there were peaceful until the ruling powers escalated the situation with violence." (There I am glad we had this conversation.) Anyone with any sense knows that starting an armed rebellion against an entrenched force is difficult and even more difficult to win. Plus it lets the Standing Government paint you as evil. Only when you are the underdog fighting just to be heard do you get sympathy from the world. Well, here in the US the underdogs are barking.

Right now the protests (for a nation the size of the US) are small. The aforementioned article says that perhaps 2000 are expected at the next big protest and a mere 700 were involved in the whole Brooklyn Bridge thing. (Another side note here. The organizer that thought it was a clever idea to hold a massive march across the bridge during the height of rush hour was either a clever SOB or nuts. Even if the march hadn't proceeded to block traffic, this was an idea doomed to problems.) But lets look at some of the numbers: Unemployed Americans 14 Million, Americans living in Poverty 46.2 Million, 500,000+ homes facing foreclosure. That is an awful lot of fuel for a really big bonfire.

For a very long time, Americans have been content to listen to their elected officials. They accepted that even if times were hard, that they could and would get better if America just let the Politicks do their job. Well, We did let them and things are simply getting worse and worse. While the Parasites in Washington keep playing their little games, a growing number of Americans are getting fed up. They are tired of the lies, BS and game playing. They are ready for a change and if Washington won't change, I have a hunch a very powerful force will change it.

I believe in our nation. Hells, I believe in our government but unless our representatives take off their blinders and actually start working together, things are going to get ugly. You can only push even the weakest person so far before they start fighting back and if we aren't very careful, other countries are going to start reporting about Our Revolution.

The times they are a changin'

(Not 100% sure that this blog doesn't violate my "No political punditry before the elections" vow, but hey if I lied it fits the theme of the blog.)

I am about to share a well kept and very dark secret with you all. It may shock you so small children and those with weak constitutions (Hey that's a pun!) should leave the room. Go ahead, I'll wait. (Hums the Banana Boat song) Okay everyone clear that needs to be? Good, cause here comes the bombshell.

Politicians Lie!

Yep there it is, out in the open for everyone to finally see. Probably going to have hit squads coming after me for revealing that secret, but it was worth it to get the truth out. Hope you folks can live with the truth.

Now, most of you who read my blogs (all three of you) are prolly expecting me to start some long, cranky rant against peoples named Bachmann or Perry or (God help us) Gnewt and usually with that sort of lead in you'd be right, but not today. Today, I am talking about all the Politicks and a great difficulty that these poor souls are facing in the modern era.

Not that long ago, these men and women could lie to their hearts content. They could and often did change their stories and promises from one town to another telling each group exactly what they wanted to hear and then changing things around for the next one. They could lie about their military service, public service and even their funeral service with impunity and generally get away with it. Most people had no way of checking and, especially in smaller towns, people only read the local paper. The Ticks could spin webs of pure fancy and no one would know.

Now enter the modern, electronic, instant access world where three year old kids can surf the web and find stuff. Where everyone carries a cell phone that doubles as a video camera. Where anyone with any interest can type a candidate's name in a search engine and find out if he really did lead the charge in the decisive battle of "insert impressive sounding battle here." A world where even the smallest town in Small Town America is wired into the world around them.

Suddenly the Obamas, Perrys and Romneys of the world are faced with a scary world that they really don't seem to understand. The old saw of saying one thing then saying another three days later just doesn't seem to work any more. They can't (Well okay they can and do) deny they said something in Moosehill, Az that made them look like liars or idiots because someone in the crowd has already posted the video they took on Youtube.

If they wrote a politically embarrassing book, they can't take back the words they said in it even though the vast majority of America has not read it because the News Programs prattle on about it 24/7 every time the Politick speaks. If a place they stayed at has an racially insulting name, they can't avoid it because someone has snapped a photo of it and posted it on FB. (Honest I am not picking on Perry this time, I promise!)

Politicks are doing their best to become more and more savvy about the modern information age, but let's face it most of them (Like me) were born well before all of this techno stuff really caught on so they still use the age old tactics of their forebears and expect it to work. Sure, some of them hire "experts" to help them deal with the Tweeters and...Twitters...Woofers? out there, but most of them are just about as old as the candidates so mistakes keep happening.

(As a side note here, let me say during all of my research for this, I really only found one of the current crop of politicals that is actually efficiently using the modern mediums and seems to be keeping his stories straight and consistent. The funny thing is he's like the oldest of the crop, Ron Paul. Something funny about that.)

So unless the Politicks catch on and start getting things straight, I don't think we are going to stop seeing someone preaching about what a good man they are while we are reading about how they served divorce papers on their wife while she was in the hospital with cancer. We are probably going to have to wait till the younger generations get older and start running to see any sort of effective use. Course by then, people will probably be using their virtual reality electro-esp head bands to check out all the lies being told. Which beggars the question, can Politicians ever catch up?