Preface: I was raised in the protestant church and every member of my immediate family (including my wife) is very involved in the Christian church. My brother works as a youth director at a large, well-marketed church.
I have nothing against christians (or muslims) but the idea that so many people believe in a personal god confounds me. The confidence game that is the organized christian church makes the deliberate swindles of mammon, pale in comparison. The “hook” is so well honed that an estmated 70 million people in the US alone describe themselves as “born again”.
I have no issue with the good that the church(es) can do, my gripe is that so many people can’t seem to step back and recognize the ruse.
Johnny gets pinched stealing a coat from Walmart so he doesn’t freeze to death on the street.
He is immediately locked-up, ultimately given 18 months in jail.
Bernie steals $50 billion, admits it. Posts bail by securing assets that he probably bought with the stolen money and ……. he’s still walking the streets of Manhattan (although admittedly not after 7PM or before 9AM).
I get it?
This is about more than the title suggests.“Two Cheers for Rod Blagojevich”
The foundation of the idea that pre-emptive war is a good idea was born, in part, through the resurgence of the Evangelical movement in conjunction with, and certainly abetting, the neo-conservative crescendo. No small bit of irony in the idea that I thank God these people seem to have been beaten back politically — but only because they elected an idiot who screwed things up so badly… but I digress.
Here is an early 70’s quote from the reverend Jerry Fallwell, “A political leader, as a minister of god, is a revenger to execute wrath upon those who do evil. Our government has the right to use it’s armaments to bring wrath upon those who would do evil ….”
I guess loving thy neighbor, turning the other cheek and God’s love for all fell a bit by the wayside.
By the way, conservative (no pun intended) estimates of the number of Evangelicals in the US is about 22% — this is over 66 million people. I don’t know if love is the answer; But I suspect education certainly might be.
You can really see the difference between an iPhone camera and my Nikon (pics below). But I guess that’s the way it is supposed to be.
I am infatuated with this area, interesting and fun to explore, Here are some pictures from yesterday - dodging the rain.
I am setting up a full web-page at the old tech-nomadic.com url. Will let you know when it is up.
Meanwhile, unlike this guy, have a dry day.
I have been away for awhile. At least away from blogging. Not because there has been a dearth of things to write about but I for some reason have been reluctant to write. An article in the NYT this morning got my attention.
US sales of advanced weaponry abroad has skyrocketed in the last couple of years. There seems no end to the stupidity of the Bush Administration. In the text of the article is a comment from a defense dept spokesman something to the effect that we, “Are not gunrunners” but that these sales are a necessity to ensure “order in the world”. This is insane.
The Tao rightly says that, “weapons are instruments of fear”.
This makes my country probably the most massive purveyor of fear that the world has ever seen. So disappointed, ashamed, angry and feeling lost. What can a man do to stop this?
