Tag: politics

It’s Christmas, and, Well, We’re Still Fighting

Posted on by D. L. Keur

It’s Christmas–a holiday Christians use to celebrate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth (who was actually born sometime in October, btw), Jesus of Nazareth whose teachings inspired the founding of the Christian faith…for good, but mostly resulting in evil. 

Christmas is celebrated by non-Christians, as well–Yuletide and the Solstice…or just an excuse to celebrate, remember friends and family, and to enjoy a feeling of goodwill and peace.

But, guess what? In Christams 2009, what are we doing? Well, in the U.S., we’re still fighting–Republicans versus Democrats, liberals versus neoconservatives, and all of them pissed off at moderates and independents who don’t hold their “party” lines.  And, around the world, we’re in wars, wars, and wars.  We’re standing by while people, animals, and Earth itself continues to suffer harm by mankind’s UNKIND hands–cruelty, hardship, misery, decimation…. 

I’m sick of humans.  Yes, really.  As a species, despite supposedly being “civilized” and blessed with (repeat, SUPPOSEDLY) superior intelligence, it is WE–humans–who blight the planet with our greed, our fear, and our oh-so-primitive “us versus them” tribalism.  We are the most violent, most vile, of creatures, yet, simultaneously, we exhibit the ability to rise above that and be the kindest, most caring.  Unfortunately, in this our 21st century of counting our existence in the West, we seem to be a civilization devolving back into a hate/war society of intolerance…and have been since the turn of the Millennium.  (Thanks, G.W.B./Cheney, fuckers both.)

Hope?  Hope is a Christmas theme.  I’m losing it.  I can’t see us ever getting clear of our fear, greed, and unhealthy lusts.  Still, Christmas IS the one time of year in the West when, for just a moment, for just a day, SOMETIMES, anyway, the world knows PEACE.  This is especially evident at the stroke of midnight between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, worldwide. 

So tonight I will celebrate that one precious moment of PEACE that happens only now, thanks to a man born long ago in a land far, far away.

Thank you, Jesus.  That’s one small piece of good that came about because of a religion founded in your name, though most everything else that’s come about because of Christianity (along with most everything that’s come about because of Judism and Islam, all brother/sister religions that lead back to the seed of Abraham) only perpetuates more evil upon the planet.

Be still, Humans.  It’s Christmas Eve.  A breath of stillness, a moment of peace….

The Frightening Far Right Agenda (Palin & now McCain, too)

Posted on by D. L. Keur

Have you ever looked into the agenda of the far right?  Imagine a country (ours) settled by people who were escaping religious persecution and political intolerance now ruled by people who practice intolerance and ideological persecution.  And not only do they practice ideological persecution, they hold it as their duty as good Christians to their god.

Palin is a Pentecost.  That’s an extreme Baptist sect.  One could also define them as a cult.  They do “alligator dancing” in the aisles of their churches “when the Spirit moves them”; they “speak in Tongues” (garbled gab of no meaning effusing from their mouths, often accompanied by foam).  And what do they advocate?  They, as my ex-brother-in-law so pointedly informed me, are commanded by their god to kill anyone (“pick up a gun and shoot you” to quote) who isn’t part of their congregation…which means anyone not a Pentecost, though I believe they’ll hold their fire against other Baptists, Assembly of God, and similar extreme “right” denominations.  So that means everyone from atheists and agnostics, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Taoists, Wiccans, and Jews to Lutherans, Presbyterians, Quakers, Catholics, Mennonites, Mormons, Methodists…any Christian or non-Christian believer and unbeliever will be open gaime, gleefully terminated when and if they run them down and get them in their gun sights.  That’s scary to think of.

“Oh, no,” say the “rationalists.” The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights guarantees us freedom of religion.  That won’t happen.”

I remember the “freedom of religion” argument brought up before, and the response?  “‘Freedom of religion’ doesn’t mean ‘freedom from religion'” the religious right screamed back.  And what does that twist mean to them?  It means, yes, you have the right to believe or not believe as you choose, BUT they have a right to inflict whatever damage upon you and yours they choose, their religion delivering (the from religion part) the verdict of pain, harm, and, if mob mentality, Pat Robertson (a Southern Baptist), and the religious rightwing cronies have their way, death, preferably by stoning.  Stoning, by the way, is a very painful, horrible way to die…but, then, these folks enjoy inflicting pain on others, believe in it as their right, because, according to them, you, the “mis-believer” or unbeliever, are possessed by (of) the devil, and it’s the devil they perceive themselves to be stoning.

But, let’s get back to this U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights for a moment.  Do I need to remind everyone of our right to habeas corpus (…until G W Bush abnegated it, that is), of our right to privacy, of our right against unlawful search and seizure and all the rest?  Did that stop Bush, Cheney, Rove, and the entire Bush administration?  Nope.  It sure didn’t.  And they got away with it, with the (stupid) American people and (stupid) Congress, including the (treasonous) Supreme Court who planted Bush in the White House, giving them the green light to do it.

Palin is a Pentecostal Christian who believes that her god has given her this opportunity to set America “right.”  Beware.  AND, in choosing Palin as his vice-presidential nominee, John McCain has aligned himself with that Pentecostal-saturated agenda.  Their version of America is to DICTATE how you believe, to dictate your choices of body, mind, soul, and spirit, and, should you be found guilty in their eyes of being less than “righteous,” they will eradicate you.  That’s Palin’s and, by choosing her as his vice-president, John McCain’s agenda for America and its citizens.