One of the truly frightening things would be the materialization of the The Black-Robed Regiment as described and espoused by Glenn Beck, the newly self-created televangelist. As I (probably) wasted part of my life listening to his speeches at his "divine rally" in Washington, DC, last Saturday, as captured by CSPAN, and as I watched him call forth similar lunatics who practice "religion" of all kinds (Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant, etc.) and who stood arm in arm on the stage in the solidarity of an awe-inspiring shared delusion of grandeur, I was momentarily stunned by the prospect of his success as a megalomaniac wishing to impact politics (and, thus, all of life as we know it) in this country by constructing a right-wing, exclusionary theocracy.
From the wrong-headed fundamentalist belief that this constitutional democracy (republic) was founded as a Christian nation all the way to the unwavering desire to absolutely control women's reproductive freedom, the mission of these Beckheads has not only become one of disbanding government (except when it suits them) but instituting political mechanisms that deny the nonbeliever an equal stake in determining one's own life path. Only white, conservative, right-wing, exclusionary christianity is acceptable. All of the rest of us are infidels. And they talk about fearing totalitarianism derived from social justice and "socialism." The mind boggles.
Here is a quote from a Web site called "Truth in History-where the word of God is not bound," an evangelistic outreach of Kingdom Treasure Ministries.
"The black-robed regiment of the Revolutionary Period were men of God who spoke out concerning the issues of the day. The name was given to a name of pastors, especially in colonial America, that were very instrumental in America winning their independence. The reason why they were called Black-Robed regiment is because every Sunday they would mount their pulpits wearing their long black clerical robes; that’s how preachers would preach in that day. They would get in their pulpits wearing these long black robes, and they would preach the Word of God without fear or favor. These men of God would get in their pulpits and they would basically tell people what or who they should and should not vote for because they understood that in order to have a great government then you must have great citizens. The way that you have great citizens is by having great people that are rooted in the foundation of the Word of God. Week after week after week, they expounded upon the principles of the proper role of government, the proper role of individuals, all underneath the kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ."
Just the above paragraph should scare the bejeebers out of anyone with a functioning brain. Beck, a convert to Mormonism from Catholicism, is attempting to knit together the Tea Party, a "libertarian" bunch since they claim to want little or no government (to which I say "Move to Somalia...there is no government there."), the right-wing lunatic fringe, the conservative Republicans, and the evangelicals. He has about 2,000 so-called evangelical "leaders" in his corner right now. These "leaders" range from Jerry Falwell, Jr., to John Hagee. There are millions of sheep who follow Glenn Beck, Jerry Falwell, Jr., John Hagee, and every other nutjob evangelical.
Russell Moore, dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote on his blog the day after the Beck "Restoring Honor" rally: “It’s sad to see so many Christians confusing Mormon politics or American nationalism with the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
It's not only sad; it's freakin' scary.
What do they want? Duh. Most of the sheep can't even articulate what they want. They are loosely in agreement that they want low/no taxes, a big military (and thus a big expenditure), teeny-tiny government, all abortions made illegal (even when pregnancies result from rape and incest), anti-gay legislation, no socialism of any kind (except for their own Social Security and Medicare), no gun regulations, and a return to the yesterday of "honor" (slavery, no voting rights for women, no civil rights, plus the ability to secede from the union, etc.).
When do they want it? NOW! They are hysterical because their agenda and their "leaders" are currently out of power, and they can't stand it. This is a godless nation that needs SAVING and RESTORING. They want to "take our country back." Yes. Back to the Dark Ages.
When you see (estimates vary) anywhere from 100,000 to 500,000 people (Michele Bachmann says it was over a million, and we know we can believe Michele about everything) gather in WDC on a hot day, you can also believe these people, and many more like them, will vote in the upcoming midterm election and in 2012. They are slobbering for a Beck-Palin ticket.
Michele Bachmann, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Mark Levine, Michael Savage, Michael Steele, and "Fraud News" are filling up the vacuum caused in this country by Everyman's Ignorance. Glenn Beck is the self-promoting (oh, he is getting rich off this Elmer Gantry scheme, for sure) guru, the Savior, the huckster that makes it all seem possible now. The Republican Party is fractured. In order to win in the upcoming election and in 2012, they need Glenn and his Coalition of Sheep to make the change.
It's all about Power and Money. Theirs. Not yours. Never yours. Kiss your ass goodbye if these lunatics regain the Presidency and control of Congress. Your freedoms will disappear. If you thought Bush was craptacular, you ain't seen nothing until the "religious right" assume the throne.
I have always said, since I was a little kid, that I feared religion more than communism. I'm stickin' to that story. It doesn't take much reading of history to see how dangerous "religion" is. What would Jesus say to all this? I am waiting for the day when Jesus returns and tells all the "Christians" to Shut the Fuck Up.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Old People Get Paranoid
I swear that the older people get, the more paranoid they become. I'm not sure if this is simply a matter of brain chemistry gone bugfuck, medication overload, faulty nutrition, spiritual bankruptcy, fear of death, contrariness, just desserts, revenge, or some other factors that I am too unimaginative to categorize. A case in point is my elderly neighbor. She used to be very friendly and chatty, but for the past two months she has stopped talking to me and snubs me whenever we are both in the same outdoor space. This morning, she left a voicemail for me accusing me of putting my trash bag on her property. Of course, I had done no such thing, but she thought I did. Why she thought that I cannot fathom. It's paranoia, I think.
I have a friend whose mother is in her mid-90s, and the stories I hear also lead me to believe that this elderly woman is becoming more paranoid the longer she lives. I'm not saying there isn't enough to be paranoid about in this world. As the saying goes, just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
My dad was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and I think that was a misdiagnosis, but it's instructive all the same. His paranoid delusion that someone was going to sue him and take away his farm and all he had worked for because he was involved in an accident on the county road that ran past our homestead was the tipping point for him. He was on the road at dusk with two horses pulling a seeder, and a car going much too fast ran into the back of the seeder because my dad apparently didn't have a reflective triangle on the back of the machinery. That part was his fault, of course, but the driver of the car was also to blame for not having his automobile under control. After that accident, my dad went into a whirlwind of paranoia, and all he could think about or obsess about was the fact that this man was going to sue him and render him penniless and homeless. That never happened, of course, because no real damage was done in the accident, except to my father's sanity. He spent several years after that in a state-owned mental hospital, underwent 50 electroshock "treatments," and never recovered his equanimity.
As I said before, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you. Whatever was out to get him, got him. I am only sorry that it was all inside the walls of his skull. If he could have just let go of the paranoid thought, he might have lived and been happy.
I hope my crazy neighbor can get help for her paranoia before it kills her too.
I have a friend whose mother is in her mid-90s, and the stories I hear also lead me to believe that this elderly woman is becoming more paranoid the longer she lives. I'm not saying there isn't enough to be paranoid about in this world. As the saying goes, just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
My dad was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and I think that was a misdiagnosis, but it's instructive all the same. His paranoid delusion that someone was going to sue him and take away his farm and all he had worked for because he was involved in an accident on the county road that ran past our homestead was the tipping point for him. He was on the road at dusk with two horses pulling a seeder, and a car going much too fast ran into the back of the seeder because my dad apparently didn't have a reflective triangle on the back of the machinery. That part was his fault, of course, but the driver of the car was also to blame for not having his automobile under control. After that accident, my dad went into a whirlwind of paranoia, and all he could think about or obsess about was the fact that this man was going to sue him and render him penniless and homeless. That never happened, of course, because no real damage was done in the accident, except to my father's sanity. He spent several years after that in a state-owned mental hospital, underwent 50 electroshock "treatments," and never recovered his equanimity.
As I said before, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you. Whatever was out to get him, got him. I am only sorry that it was all inside the walls of his skull. If he could have just let go of the paranoid thought, he might have lived and been happy.
I hope my crazy neighbor can get help for her paranoia before it kills her too.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Time is a River
What's the difference between UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) and GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), you ask? Maybe you don't ask, but it's a story worth telling anyway. It never hurts to know these things, does it? Curiosity is good for the human soul. One of the criticisms leveled against George W. Bush is that he is incurious. I believe that incuriosity leads to ignorance. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but I think the cat had a hot time poking into everything just the same. That's why cats are so, like, unable to be coerced into anything. They are too smart to be coerced and/or co-opted.
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is a term originally referring to mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. Strictly speaking, UTC is an atomic time scale which only approximates GMT with a tolerance of 0.9 second. It is also used to refer to Universal Time (UT) which is a standard astronomical concept used in many technical fields and is referred to as Zulu time.
Why do we observe these precise time methodologies? Because without precise time, a whole bunch of stuff in this world (that we take for granted and never think about) would not work, and that would make us crazy. Or lost. Or dead. Or all three. Or worse.
UTC is the time system used for many Internet and World Wide Web standards. In particular, the Network Time Protocol is designed to synchronize the clocks of many computers over the Internet (usually to that of a known accurate atomic clock) and, thus, uses UTC.
Those who transmit on the amateur radio bands often log the time of their radio contacts in UTC, as transmissions can go worldwide on some frequencies. In the past, the FCC required all amateur radio operators in the United States to log their radio conversations. International broadcasters such as the BBC World Service also use UTC when publishing their schedules and announcing times during broadcasts.
UTC is also the time system used in aviation. Weather forecastings, flight plans, air-traffic control clearances, and maps all use UTC (colloquially referred to as "Zulu Time") to avoid confusion about time zones and daylight saving time.
If we didn't have precise time, how would we know when to turn on the next football game? Case closed.
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is a term originally referring to mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. Strictly speaking, UTC is an atomic time scale which only approximates GMT with a tolerance of 0.9 second. It is also used to refer to Universal Time (UT) which is a standard astronomical concept used in many technical fields and is referred to as Zulu time.
Why do we observe these precise time methodologies? Because without precise time, a whole bunch of stuff in this world (that we take for granted and never think about) would not work, and that would make us crazy. Or lost. Or dead. Or all three. Or worse.
UTC is the time system used for many Internet and World Wide Web standards. In particular, the Network Time Protocol is designed to synchronize the clocks of many computers over the Internet (usually to that of a known accurate atomic clock) and, thus, uses UTC.
Those who transmit on the amateur radio bands often log the time of their radio contacts in UTC, as transmissions can go worldwide on some frequencies. In the past, the FCC required all amateur radio operators in the United States to log their radio conversations. International broadcasters such as the BBC World Service also use UTC when publishing their schedules and announcing times during broadcasts.
UTC is also the time system used in aviation. Weather forecastings, flight plans, air-traffic control clearances, and maps all use UTC (colloquially referred to as "Zulu Time") to avoid confusion about time zones and daylight saving time.
If we didn't have precise time, how would we know when to turn on the next football game? Case closed.
World Clock
This clock shows UTC time (Coordinated Universal Time). The time in South Africa is UTC+2. Hence, add 2 hours to UTC (shown on this clock) to get the time in South Africa---in case you are watching the World Cup (which, if you're not, you otter bee).
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Bambi lives
These little angels were seen on Seabrook Island, South Carolina, one evening in late June 2010.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
The Boxer
Everyone has heard the original recording of the song "The Boxer" written in 1968 by Paul Simon and performed by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. It was an instant classic and remains an enduring classic. Last night on American Idol, contestant Lee DeWyze did his version of the song, and it gave me goosebumps for a couple of reasons: first, Lee changed up the melody somewhat and put some high notes in it that were not originally in the song; second, the song itself is enough to stir anyone with a beating heart and a soul that is full of "divine discontent and longing," as Kenneth Grahame penned in the first chapter of "The Wind in the Willows" in 1908. This book is definitely worth re-reading (or reading if you have never done so), and this song is definitely worth revisiting.
Click on the hot link below to hear Lee DeWyze do justice to this well-written lyric.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exbIO39VlZ8
The only other notable person to record "The Boxer" was Alison Krauss who sang it with her band in a Paul Simon tribute done in 2007. This is also classic Alison Krauss (with her unparalleled, magnificent band Union Station) before she went nuts going off the ranch with Robert Plant and singing all kinds of atonal modern stuff. I hope she comes back to herself and her bluegrass roots because she is an incomparable bluegrass writer and musician, and she knows how to put together one of the best string bands in the universe. I know God is proud of AKUS.
Click on the hot link below to get down and mellow with the AKUS version of "The Boxer." What a wonderful tribute to Paul Simon, and what a soulful gift to the rest of us. Thank you to Alison Krauss, her indomitable Union Station band, and to Lee DeWyze for reminding me of a song I've never forgotten but haven't heard for far too long.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Lwx9F81Zs
Emmylou Harris also admirably sang "The Boxer" at a concert in Stuttgart in 1994. She is accompanied by the not-shabby Nash Ramblers in the video below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNMBI9dutlM&feature=related
And, finally, here are the lyrics for your meditation. Try not to cry. I dare you.
I am just a poor boy, though my story's seldom told.
I have squandered my resistance,
For a pocketful of mumbles, such are promises.
All lies and jest.
Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.
When I left my home and my family I was no more than a boy,
In the company of strangers,
In the quiet of the railway station, runnin' scared.
Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters,
Where the ragged people go.
Lookin' for the places, only they would know.
Lie-la-lie ...
Asking only workman's wages I come lookin' for a job,
But I get no offers,
Just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue.
I do declare there were times when I was so lonesome,
I took some comfort there.
La, la, la, la, la, la, la.
(Instrumental break)
Lie-la-lie ...
And I’m laying out my winter clothes, and wishing I was gone, goin’ home
Where the New York City winters aren’t bleedin’ me, leadin’ me goin' home.
In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade,
And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down
Or cut him 'til he cried out in his anger and his shame,
"I am leaving, I am leaving."
But the fighter still remains.
Lie-la-lie ...
Click on the hot link below to hear Lee DeWyze do justice to this well-written lyric.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exbIO39VlZ8
The only other notable person to record "The Boxer" was Alison Krauss who sang it with her band in a Paul Simon tribute done in 2007. This is also classic Alison Krauss (with her unparalleled, magnificent band Union Station) before she went nuts going off the ranch with Robert Plant and singing all kinds of atonal modern stuff. I hope she comes back to herself and her bluegrass roots because she is an incomparable bluegrass writer and musician, and she knows how to put together one of the best string bands in the universe. I know God is proud of AKUS.
Click on the hot link below to get down and mellow with the AKUS version of "The Boxer." What a wonderful tribute to Paul Simon, and what a soulful gift to the rest of us. Thank you to Alison Krauss, her indomitable Union Station band, and to Lee DeWyze for reminding me of a song I've never forgotten but haven't heard for far too long.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Lwx9F81Zs
Emmylou Harris also admirably sang "The Boxer" at a concert in Stuttgart in 1994. She is accompanied by the not-shabby Nash Ramblers in the video below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNMBI9dutlM&feature=related
And, finally, here are the lyrics for your meditation. Try not to cry. I dare you.
I am just a poor boy, though my story's seldom told.
I have squandered my resistance,
For a pocketful of mumbles, such are promises.
All lies and jest.
Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.
When I left my home and my family I was no more than a boy,
In the company of strangers,
In the quiet of the railway station, runnin' scared.
Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters,
Where the ragged people go.
Lookin' for the places, only they would know.
Lie-la-lie ...
Asking only workman's wages I come lookin' for a job,
But I get no offers,
Just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue.
I do declare there were times when I was so lonesome,
I took some comfort there.
La, la, la, la, la, la, la.
(Instrumental break)
Lie-la-lie ...
And I’m laying out my winter clothes, and wishing I was gone, goin’ home
Where the New York City winters aren’t bleedin’ me, leadin’ me goin' home.
In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade,
And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down
Or cut him 'til he cried out in his anger and his shame,
"I am leaving, I am leaving."
But the fighter still remains.
Lie-la-lie ...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)