A Question for Wayne LaPierre

Mr. LaPierre,

Based on the fact that you called for armed guards in all classrooms in the country as well as the creation of a national database of people with mental health problems, are you going to jump-start the effort and release the names and contact information of all of the members of the NRA, starting with your own?

I ask this in all sincerity because I am fairly certain that only a megalomaniacal sociopath would stage a national press conference which began with an announcement that no questions would be permitted and consisted entirely of a litany of non-negotiable demands directed toward the Congress of the United States of America.

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Definitions:

megalomania |ˌmegəlōˈmānēə|nounobsession with the exercise of power, esp. in the domination of others.• delusion about one's own power or importance (typically as a symptom of manic or paranoiddisorder).DERIVATIVESmegalomanic |-ˈmanik| adjective
sociopath |ˈsōsēōˌpaθnouna  person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behaviorand a lack of conscience.
DERIVATIVESsociopathic |ˌsōsēōˈpaθik| adjectivesociopathy |ˌsōsēˈäpəθē| noun

Good News!

Self-serving, self-righteous, self-proclaimed "christian" (the lower case "c" is deliberate) leaders like Mike Huckabee and James Dobson are pulling the oldest scam in the good book. They are pedaling idolatry just as those who crafted the golden calf did when Moses went mountain climbing.

They and their followers eagerly tell anyone gullible enough to listen that their god (also deliberate lower case) is more powerful than yours. And they contend that the Bible gives them the authority to justify and promote racism, homophobia, war, and torture.

Even more astonishing is the fact that they spread their message of hatred and fear of "the other" while claiming to follow the teachings of an itinerant carpenter, who condemned nobody but instead told sinners that their sins were forgiven - unconditionally.

Then, of course, they ask for money to further the cause of "christian love."

This week Huckabee and Dobson said that those who died in Newtown, Connecticut brought it on themselves by pissing off God.

For the good of our nation these men need to be called out as the hypocrites they are whenever they open their hatred-spewing mouths.

Thank you, Pastor John Pavlovitz for doing just that in your December 18 message:

Mike Huckabee, James Dobson, and A Pastor’s Apology.

I am a Christian. I am a pastor. I am a father. As all three of these things, I apologize to the world (and to the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting), for Mike Huckabee and James Dobson. This week...

Click here or on the title above to read Pastor Pavlovitz's article.

Give me an R! (or not)

Today's Deep Cover comic captures the essence of what the Republicans have learned from  the results of the November 6 election.

Link to source

Having spent over thirty years framing every political issue with carefully crafted rhetoric to mask a socially regressive agenda, and successfully bamboozling a great deal of the voting public in the process, the leaders of the Republican party have themselves fallen victim to the ruse.

They appear to have swallowed the poisonous, FOX-Limbaugh Kool-Aid and now believe that altering their rhetoric is all they must do to become relevant in national elections once again.

At the national level, this is good news for those who prefer progressive policies to hide-bound tradition. Unfortunately, gerrymandered districts will continue to ensure the election of politicians who are by-and-large social troglodytes for years to come.

Tea & Synchrony

A recent Facebook discussion about the attack on unions currently being waged in Michigan brought to mind the sequence of events portrayed in Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel, It Can't Happen Here.

I recommend getting a copy and reading it. (I'm a retired English teacher. Giving homework assignments is second nature to me.)

You will be amazed at just how much Buzz Windrip's populist movement in the novel resembles that of the Tea Party with which America has flirted for the past five years.

The parallels in tactics are striking - especially the penchant for hate-and-fear-mongering while simultaneously and self-righteously wrapped in the flag and brandishing the Bible as a weapon.

The good news is that it is not 1935, and life has not imitated art. The plans of those who would have us believe that all our problems would disappear if we "took America back" to the days of slavery, child labor, robber-baron industrialism, and unrestrained militarism have come a cropper, and America is a better place for it.

The American voting public has been wise enough to avoid going over the "über-patriot-religionism cliff," electing Barack Obama as President of The United States not once, but twice despite the Tea Party's well-funded attempts to frame him as a foreign, Muslim, communist, socialist, baby-killing, gun-hating, "N-word."

"It Can't Happen Here" can be purchased for around $10, or you can download a .pdf copy by clicking  this link: Download the novel.

Structural Geology 101 - The Fiscal Cliff

This relatively-new formation is composed primarily of of rocks-heads impervious to reality, cemented together by pledges to an unelected political hack, and resting on a substrate of rigid ideology.

Nick Anderson, December 2, 2012

Link to source.