Blame game

http://news.yahoo.com/congress-may-try-blocking-cuts-debt-panel-fails-084414921.html

Well, it should come as no surprise to anyone that the Super Committee has failed (So far, technically they still have a day or so) to reach any sort of budget agreement to prevent the automatic budget cuts from kicking in. Now, in fairness, I believe that there have been honest attempts from both parties to reach some sort of understanding, but because of both sides "my way or no way" no real agreement ever had a chance. Damnocrats refused to touch their sacred cow of support programs and Reboobicans refused to offer any sort of real Tax Increases. (Again I have to give the Reboobicans some props, they did offer up a couple of proposals that would have offered some tax increases, but since these amounted to increasing the taxes on middle and lower class peoples while giving the wealthier Americans even more tax breaks, they never really had a chance of passing.)

But believe it or not, my ire isn't really aimed at the Super Noncommittals. They pretty much did exactly what I was expecting them to do, nothing. No, my ire/amusement (oftentimes the same thing with me) is aimed at Congress/House members who are already making moves to block the activation of the automatic budget cuts that are supposed to go into effect if the Committee can't reach some sort of agreement.

For those who don't know, the Automatic Budget Cuts were supposed to be so awful and destructive that no one in their right minds would want them to kick in so the Committee members would be forced to work together to prevent them. However, being typical politicks, no one could so now "disaster" is on the horizon. And once again our esteemed peeps in Washington are working hard as they can. Not to prevent the problem but to ignore the problem or at least postpone it.

Amazingly enough, the President and the Leaders of the various branches have declared that they will not work towards blocking the cuts. The President has even declared that he will veto any attempts to block it. Now how long this lasts once the public starts screaming is anyone's guess, but right now they are talking a good fight.

Now for the record, I am not a "tax the rich to pay for everything" or a "Cut the programs that help the poor and needy" person. I believe that there has to be a happy medium where both sides are served. (I also believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny too but that's another story entirely.) Yes, in a properly balanced budget, the rich will have to pay their share of taxes instead of hiding behind multi-billion dollar shelters and tax laws. In that same vein, all of these support programs that so many people assume to be their right have to be reined back too. Programs like Social Security and Medicare were never designed to be people's main source of income or support. Welfare was never meant to be a life time income. As much as it bugs a lot of people, even Unemployment was never meant to keep paying you money till you found a job no matter how long it takes.

I'm no financial expert and Gods know I am not expert on the US government and how it works. I am fairly intelligent and read to damn much for my own good. Everything I express in my columns and books is my opinion nothing more. Most of the time I try to make my opinion as well informed as possible and other times I just say how I feel. Today, I feel disgusted with our government even though I knew this was coming. I feel angry that even in the face of catastrophe, our elected officials can't reach some sort of agreement, even if its a bad one. I am angry and all I can do is sit back and watch the blame game start up. (which I have to admit will be at least moderately amusing.)

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?

My revolution or yours?

A most excellent blog by my brother in all but blood has got me thinking. (Don't worry, it won't last) In http://porkbrainsandmilkgravy.blogspot.com/2011/09/and-swimming-down.html he talks about fear mongering and food which of course got me thinking of revolutions. Lot of that going around right now and it seems like a sexy subject to dribble on about for awhile.

The past year, we have had many major revolutions where powers that be who have run things for decades and seemed unbeatable have been flung from their thrones. We have watched as our politicians and pundits have praised these revolutions and welcomed the fledgling governments into the "Family of Democracy." All this flag raising and such has got me wondering, "What happens when it happens here?"

Conditions in the US are rapidly deteriorating to the point where we could easily find ourselves in a revolutionary state of mind. Job loss is at record highs, homelessness is right up there too and poverty is rampant. All of our politicians (Damnocrats Reboobicans and Tea Beggars) talk the good fight about improving conditions, but that is all they are doing. (The recent Debt Limit talks prove that.) There is a rapidly growing underclass that is getting more and more angry. If this isn't grounds for a revolution, then it is damned close.

Which, in my usual round about way, brings me back to "What happens when it happens here?" America has a long history of fighting what we believe to be the righteous cause...as long as it is our cause or one that benefits us. However, when the tables are turned, it is all out war.

Example: We (the country not the individuals) decided that Great Britain was being mean and unfair so we decided to kick them out of our sandbox. We yelled that we had rights and that no one had the right to infringe upon those rights. Skip forward a few years (Okay more than a few), a group of these same Americans decided that their rights were being infringed upon and their way of life was threatened by what they felt was an oppressive government, so they decided to do the same thing. What did the US Government do? Well, it is a little thing called the Civil War.

(Side note here: I am in no way supporting the horrors that occurred on both sides during the Civil War I am just using this as an example.)

So now with things slowly going to Hell without even a handbasket, what happens when the "revolution against an oppressive government" is here?" Well, you can bet that the same people that are currently praising the people of Libya et al will be screaming for the federal troops to put down the uprising. They'll be doing the same thing as Kadaffy did, blaming "foreign instigators" and "alien agents" for the rebellion. No one is going to admit that their failed policies and disdain for their fellows brought it about.

If the political hacks can get off their asses and work together, this problem can be fixed. Hells, with a little bit of hard work and sacrifice, it can prolly be fixed fairly quickly. Now history shows that the odds of that happening are somewhere between Slim and None. So that brings us full circle (Oblong?) to my original question. "What happens when it happens here?"

Okay before I get started on the actual rant, let's study a little history first. The Poem, The Defense of Fort McHenry was penned by Francis Scott Key in September of 1814 while he viewed the British Attack on Fort McHenry. When the handbills for the poem were published, the song To Anacreon In Heaven (A British Drinking song BTW) was suggested as the tune to be played if the verses were sung. This poem would become known as the Star Spangled Banner. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson ordered that it should become the National Anthem played by the military and naval services, but it wasn't until March 3rd, 1931 that it was officially designated as the National Anthem by act of Congress.

"America the Beautiful" is an American patriotic song. The lyrics were written by Katharine Lee Bates and the music composed by church organist and choirmaster Samuel A. Ward. Bates originally wrote the words as a poem, Pikes Peak, first published in the Fourth of July edition of the church periodical The Congregationalist in 1895. At that time, the poem was titled America for publication.

Ward had originally written the music, Materna, for the 19th century hymn O Mother dear, Jerusalem in 1882. Ward's music combined with the Bates poem was first published in 1910 and titled America the Beautiful. The song is one of the most beloved and popular of the many American patriotic songs.[1] From time to time it has been proposed as a replacement for The Star-Spangled Banner as the National Anthem, including television sign-offs.

Everyone caught up? Excellent, now on with the rant!

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Indiana-college-not-playing-the-national-anthem-?urn=ncaab-wp4428

As the article says, Goshen College in Northern Indiana has opted not to play the Star Spangled Banner at their sporting events. They feel that the very militaristic air of the song (Bombs bursting, rockets red glare etc) does not set well with the pacifistic beliefs of the Mennonite faith. Instead they have decided to play America the Beautiful. Needless to say, this has sparked all kinds of heated discussions.

The general air of the rants directed at this decision are that Goshen is somehow being unAmerican by refusing to play SSB. Lots of "Well, that is the way it has always been" and "they have to" comments are floating around. Instead of supporting and praising these people for sticking to their beliefs and still trying to show their patriotism, people are considering them to the bad guys.

Now folks, I'd understand the rage if Goshen was playing the Russian National Anthem or even if they were refusing to play anything at all, but that's not what is happening here. They have chosen one highly patriotic song (As noted above, one that has been many times considered to replace the SSB) over another. Just because the one they chose isn't the same as the one everyone else uses doesn't mean they are doing anything wrong.

There is no law or even hard set rule that states the SSB or any sort of music has to be played at public events (Non-military). It's a tradition and a tradition that is less than a hundred years old so it hasn't always been a tradition. Hells there are people alive today who were around before the tradition started.

Goshen is just doing its best to fit both sides of a coin together. We should applaud them for doing this, not rage against them. I love the SSB (Even with that particularly hard note towards the end) and still feel my heart fill with pride every time I hear it. I also love the song America the Beautiful and feel that it also is a fitting tribute to this great country. "Let each person celebrate this great nation in a manner that befits their beliefs and cultures."