Lawrence O’Donnell’s war on Americans

I don’t usually care about what media hacks say about religion, but every once in awhile one finds a case that’s so egregious that it demands comment. I heard the audio here on Al Kresta’s program yesterday, and as far as I can see with a web search, Kresta is the only guy who has picked up on this. Lawrence O’Donnell, on his program The Last Word analyzed the question put to Ohio voters, “How much does it matter to you that a candidate share your religious beliefs?” (1. A great deal; 2. Somewhat; 3 Not much 4. Not at all) He claimed first that in Afghanistan, 100% of the population would have chosen “A great deal”, thus equating those who gave that answer with Islamism. He claimed that in a country which valued the separation of church and state, 100% would choose “not at all”, but in fact only 18% “got it right…THAT’s the American ideal…over 80% of Ohio Republicans registered varying degrees of agreement with the Taliban on this one.”  Then he demonstrated that those who answered “not much” “weren’t good enough”, by changing the question to “voting on racial identity.”  Then he piled on the media for not understanding that the results were “utterly scandalous”, that the media ignored the “religious bigotry” of Ohio voters, and criticized the religious pandering of candidates, implying through a clip from “The West Wing” that it’s “the easiest lie to tell.”

The thing that most shocked me was the utter contempt O’Donnell expressed for something like 40% of the electorate. Granted, virtually none of those people were watching his show; why should they, given that they would be insulted and belittled? MSNBC has become a boutique station for progressives, a bigger slicker Current TV, and they wonder why Fox gets the ratings. Do the media pander to viewers by asking candidates questions about their religion? Sure, if by “pander” you mean “tell viewers what they’re interested in”. TV is a business, not a government educational establishment.

I would have put myself in the “somewhat” category. It’s important to me that a politician fear God. because most don’t fear men too much, and somebody has to keep them in line.  Beyond that, I’m not too persnickety. All things being equal, I’d vote for one of the Catholic candidates…but all things are never equal. Both of those guys are way too eager to use the power of government. In addition, Mr. Gingrich has a history of generating ideas without the foresight to see where they will go (e.g., the individual mandate for healthcare). As for his love life, the only thing I have over Newt is that I never left somebody for somebody else, and I don’t think that cuts much ice with God.  He has presumably repented and been forgiven, and if God can do it, so can I. Mr. Paul received my vote, because I agree with his political philosophy, and he is a man of demonstrated (if imperfect) character, and his Protestantism is sufficient. Mr. Romney is of course a Damned Heretic, but his faith is also sufficient for me, and it’s probably a good thing for religious liberty to have a President whose spiritual ancestors were martyred for their beliefs. As for Mr. Obama, while he has done a minimal Christian public confession, I am not convinced that Jeremiah Wright’s church meets my criteria for religion, and his non-attendence as President leads me to wonder whether God is a factor in his life.

The race thing is even more of a hoot.  I will freely admit that, all things being equal, I am “somewhat” more likely to vote for the white guy.  But there’s that “all things” caveat again. I’d vote in a heartbeat for Walter Williams over Barack Obama, even though genetically the mulatto Obama “looks like me” more. I would have considered a vote for Herman Cain. The problem here is that O’Donnell thinks it’s a problem. Last time out, all things were not equal; many black people and not a few whites voted for Obama because he was black…yet somehow, that’s not racist.  And people vote for candidates for all kinds of stupid reasons, conscious and unconscious: physical looks, the sound of the voice, their spouse. But mostly, people do a pretty good job overall of prioritizing their responses to various aspects of the candidate. If I base .01% of a decision on a candidate on whether he looks like me, am I a racist? Apparently the hicks in Ohio think this is American Idol or something, that they’re going to vote based on what Jayzuss tells them while they’re handling snakes. That doesn’t describe any Republican I know, but then I doubt O’Donnell knows any Republicans. And after this, I doubt there are many Republicans who would want to know him.

Jesus and Facebook agitprop

The text for today’s rant is here:

 

 

This has been floating around Facebook (“The second most popular word beginning with F and ending with K”). The first time I saw it, I was annoyed by its stupidity. Now, by the third time or so, I’m in full-bore pissed. Bumper-sticker-style non-arguments are bad enough; such arguments involving my Lord are beyond the pale. You should be glad I’m not a Muslim.

Some of the people posting this are Christians, or at least claimed they were the last time I checked in. And using the image of Christ to sell something (like socialism) is a pretty clear 2nd Commandment violation. In this case, it’s literally “taking the Name in vain”, because nobody is going to be persuaded. Really, if you want to sin that flagrantly in public, why don’t you just put up nekkid pictures of yourselves? They’d be more fun, and you wouldn’t embarrass yourself any less.

Now, I don’t necessarily have a problem with using the teaching of Jesus in defense of socialism. I know some people of good conscience who make Biblical arguments. They’re wrong, but they’re working from the proper source; we should all be asking “What would Jesus do?” in regard to all human action, which emphatically includes governance. The only problem with that is that it’s theocracy…at least that’s what it’s called when the Right does it. Apparently there’s a difference between enforced charity and enforced chastity that transcends r,s, and t. You don’t get to pick which things are sins; that’s what got us here originally. So if you’re going to argue for wealth redistribution on the basis of Jesus feeding the multitudes, you have to argue for Sunday store closings on the basis of Jesus keeping the Sabbath, if you’re intellectually honest, and not just using Jesus as your personal Ron Popeil.

Only “one of these things is not like the other”; the feeding of the 5000 is not like socialism. Let’s take a look at John 6. In verse 2 we see that “a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased.” Now, if these guys actually were the diseased, they wouldn’t have been able to follow him that far, so these guys didn’t start out being there for the bennies; they saw the miracles, and believed, and were there seeking enlightenment. Passover was near (this is of symbolic more than practical import, I think; folks are soon going to have the ultimate Passover sacrifice explained to them). These folks need to eat. And money is not going to solve the problem; it’s way too big for the available funds (sort of like now). There’s a kid with some barley bread and a couple of small fish. His mom probably said, “you aren’t going to go wandering off to check out this prophet guy without packing a lunch.” Now, the passage is unclear about why we know that. Maybe the disciples polled the crowd. Or maybe the kid just came up and said, “My mom always overpacks; I could share this stuff.” Kids do that, a lot more easily than adults sometimes. There’s nothing to suggest they took the kid’s food by force. And surely somebody else must have had some pita or goat jerky or something. But if they did, Jesus wasn’t working with it, which further suggests that this was a voluntary offering, and the others were holding out.

So Jesus multiplies the food thousands of times, so much that there are more leftovers than what He started with. He is producing what He is distributing; it is His, because He is the source of all supply. When people see this, they want to make Him king. Vote for the guy who will give us free food. Now we have something which actually resembles socialism. And Jesus isn’t having it; he heads for the hills. When the crowd finally finds Him, He points out that they’re following Him because He’s a meal ticket, rather for the right reason, which is that He is the Son of God. They’re starting to feel entitled, as the followers of Christ, the folks involved with “the next big thing.” And Jesus proceeds to stop them from thinking with their stomachs, by turning their stomachs, by literally telling them to “eat Me”. And they leave, because the dude is just too weird.

Now, how would this have played out were this actual socialism? They would have collected everyone’s food, even the hidden stash of pita and goat jerky; Rocky and the boys might have to rough people up a little, but they’d get it done. They’d have distributed it “equitably”, meaning that the disciples would get more, since they were the ones doing the actual work of getting food to the people. And even if the Keynesian multiplier effect exists, it doesn’t multiply thousandfold. So everyone would get one bite, and still be hungry. And there wouldn’t be leftovers for the next day, so they’d still be starving.

Now, it’s clear that the 5000 weren’t necessarily grateful or worthy proletarians. They just want the free cheese. Jesus reminds them of the manna (which Israel grumbled about too), and wants them to go to the next level for spiritual nourishment. That’s OK though. We all want the free food, because we sense there was a time when it was always free, and when man did not have to earn bread by the sweat of his brow.  That time will come again, under King Jesus. The folks arguing for socialism now won’t want to participate, because that would be a literal theocracy. That’s fine; God doesn’t force you to go to Heaven, or anywhere else, and you’ll finally be able to escape God’s Grace. But you can’t make Heaven be here, under your terms, because you aren’t God, you can’t repeal the laws of economics, and you can’t produce food by praying… even monks have to work. If you do feel the need to play God, leave my God out of it, ‘mkay?

Did I just hear the toaster pop?

Apparently Righthaven is burnt toast; not only has their business and legal model failed spectacularly, but MediaNews Group isn’t reupping their contract. Spread some Schadenfreud marmelade on it, pour some tea, and wait for the funeral.

An observation on the Heights Observer

On my last trip to the bank, I picked up a copy of the Heights Observer, which reports doings in the quaint suburb of Cleveland Heights (that’s http://www.heightsobserver.ORG, thankyouverymuch; nothing commercial here). And doings there are, given that the Heights is just up the hill from University Circle, so the best and brightest live there, not only from convenience, but to avoid the insane government of Cleveland proper and establish their own insane government. And quaint it is. given that they’ve declared themselves a Nuclear-Free City, as if anyone benign would build a reactor there (land is too expensive) or anyone malign would be deterred from exploding a nuclear device by such a law. Politically, the place stands slightly to the right of Berkeley CA.

Anyway. in this week’s issue there is a report by Catherine Podojil on a viewing of Josh Fox’s film Gasland, which is apparently to the anti-fracking movement as Reefer Madness is to the anti-drug movement. (See here, or here, or here.). I say “report” instead of “free campaign ad”, because I’m sure Podojil considers herself a citizen journalist and I wouldn’t want to hurt her feelings. But some of the flavor can be captured by this quote: “the process is the gas and oil industry’s latest attempt to extract more money from the earth.” Now, I have never known a well to produce Federal Reserve Notes, or even specie; they produce oil and gas, which are values that are traded for other values through the medium of money (and which Podojil herself surely trades money for). I doubt very seriously that Podojil would write that an organic farmer “extracts money from the earth’, though even considering the inputs necessary, the industry of agriculture is equally extractive, with miles of roots sucking money from the ground (see what I just did there?). Apparently money is a bad thing, and perhaps Podojil should abjure it; I understand there are still grates free downtown.

Unlike the nuclear movement, the local opposition to fracking is not academic; miraculously, there are still gas wells in Cleveland Heights (Some on the Oakwood property, subject of a more sympathetic public movement). The nation won’t go into energy-starvation from the lack of hydrocarbons from Cleveland Heights.  but those who own the mineral rights might rightly have an opinion. Likewise, my problem with the Oakwood development (which, as a development, is totally stupid, and will either fail spectacularly and/or cause failure elsewhere) is that the folks making the waves don’t own the land, and yet think they have a say. But that’s business as usual in the former Republic of America.

The vendetta against Elmo

Barbara Boxer says that Republicans have a vendetta against Elmo. So tell me, how much stuff does Sesame Street merchandise? How much money is involved?  You trying to tell me that Elmo can’t stand on his own two feet? That I have to pay for his dust-mite-ridden ass to appear on the TV?

Boxer said that the cost of four hours of the Iraq war would be enough to keep PBS funded — and the popular fire-red children’s character on the air.

Or we could take it out of food stamps or unemployment. Either way, I’m cool with it. So let’s do all four.

Target

I said it, because I can.

The wonders of technology

Now that we have broadband, I decided to take the plunge and get a Grace Solo wi-fi radio. No, I didn’t need it. But there’s no real estate on my desk for decent computer speakers, loading web pages is a PITA, and we wanted something that Rusty could also use.  So we went out last night, to Aldi and then to Sears, where the unit was unexpectedly $10 off, and then out to eat.

We were up until nearly midnight playing.  Once the unit is set up, it’s actually very easy to use. Finding all the best stations can be difficult, as they’re dependent on Grace’s Reciva technology. I did get WFMT set up as a feed, but not yet WCLV. A few of the stations on the Grace website turned out to be live365 stations, which apparently require a subscription rather than the free sign-up. Oh well…it’s not like there’s a dearth of things to listen to. Last night, after the Polish folk, Rusty suggested we check out Africa. Uganda was OK, but of the 5 channels in Zimbabwe, the only one we could get was playing American country music.  On Polka Legacy, we stumbled upon some New Years festivities from 1955/56, when Rusty was 6 weeks old and I was in utero. We had the Beck show on WTAM, and R. became terminally annoyed with Mike Trivisonno (not a hard thing I’ll admit). So I fixed it by getting a Columbus station instead. Right now she’s listening to a Native American station…which is starting to make me glad I’ll be leaving for Mass soon.

Anyway, there’ll be lots of good listening for 2011; I hope you have a good one!

“I was listening to – forgive the expression – an NPR reporter”

Apparently Ms. Deathmountain had a conniption when she realized that, in doing her reporterly duty by calling a spade a spade, she was going to have to use the “c-word” (and no, not the one that gives normal women conniptions).

People talk about this “war on Christmas”. It’s not a war; if it were, there’d be fighting back, and casualties on both sides.  It’s not a war; it’s an edit. The term slowly and thoughtlessly leaves our vocabulary. Much of everyday speech is a parroting back of what we hear. We tend not to speak the same big words that we use when writing, because nobody else does. We pick up a little of the accent when speaking with somebody who speaks accented English. And mindlessly, even if we’re Christians, we say “happy holidays”, because that’s what anyone else says, anymore. The only difference with Totenberg’s crowd is that they think the words are important enough to give offense, and to apologize for. Most of us don’t care even that much.

Y’all want to fight a war for Christmas? Quit wishing people “Merry Christmas” when it’s not December 25. Wish them “Happy Advent”. That’s what it is, and they need to be reminded. If God is going to come to earth, they’d better be ready — especially when it happens again. If they don’t have a concept of Advent (and even many Christians don’t), they’ll have to think about it, which is a Good Thing. If they take Advent seriously, they will take Christmas seriously. Afterwards, you can use “Happy Christmastide” for the Twelve Days. Yes, there are other times to remember in there, but “Happy St. Stephen’s Day” or “Happy Holy Innocents” or “Happy Bris of Jesus Holy Name” is too much too soon, and might tend to harsh their seasonal mellow. Being hit the day after with gift returns at your retail job and being hit with rocks until you die are not exactly the same thing.

And to all of you, happy Holy Days and a merry Christ Mass. (though what Mass isn’t a Christ Mass?)

Assange moves to London safe house

…or big house, or something.

The WikiLeaks fight is basically pathetic. Cut off the domain name? Use the numbers. Somehow block the numbers? Get a new domain under a different name. Cut off the Paypal account, cancel the Mastercard service? Use something else. It’s like ACORN; destroy the brand, and the same cockroaches will start something else. These folks aren’t sheep; strike the shepherd, and they’ll raise up a new one. There’s basically no way to keep information off the Net without destroying the Net. And it’s a little late for that now. Bradley Manning? Rosenberg him. But there’s not a lot that can legally be done about Assange.

And why is the press using the word “rape” to describe the etiquette violation Assange is wanted for in Sweden? We know what rape is, which is why when we discuss 16-does-15, we call it “statutory rape” — like “open marriage”, the modifier is an admission that the noun doesn’t really apply. They’re filling out minds with violent scenes, with guns to the head and ripped clothes, and that’s not what happened at all. It’s the same mentality that calls the tax structure of the last decade “the Bush tax cuts” instead of “repeal of the Clinton tax hikes”, as if there is some normal and sacred level of taxation. Yes, it was stupid for Assange to fall for the trap. As Don Juan Matus might have said (but didn’t), “A warrior keeps it in his pants.” But it’s not rape just because the little head did the thinking.

Better late than never

I see that the Washington Post has finally decided to find some sources in the Justice Department and confirm what the dextrosphere already knew: that white people have no voting rights in Eric Holder’s America. I guess that makes it official, and believable.

I suppose that tomorrow, NPR’s one Black civil rights expert will explain how this fits in with historical notions of civil rights. Oh, wait…