It is May in Memphis..............

"Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Smoke wafts up from the environs of Tom Lee Park on the banks of the Mississippi River in downtown Memphis. Competitors from all over the country have arrived to prove their prowess in Barbecue over all comers.

For three days in May each year, the best cooks from the Barbecue Contests of the country meet in Memphis to determine the divine swine. This year is no different. Weather has always be either glorious or totally uncooperative, depending on your point of view. Thousand Six is no exception. Today has been a gorgeous day, yet an ominous cloud has cast its shadow across the "Big Muddy" from Arkansas. Locals are praying for a weekend of good weather.

Either way the swine will be divine, the ribs tickled, sauce tasted, and "everything but" will be just fine.

Check out the official site at: http://www.memphisinmay.org/

Tomorrow I will visit the park to sample the offerings on the altar of the barbecue gods. Like football in the South, Barbecue is like a religion; everybody has their own preference and favorite. Don't disparage it, don't fight about it, if you don't like it, find your own and support it!!

Long live Barbecue!!

"The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play." ~ Arnold J. Toynbee

Other fascinating moments in Republican History

"Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit." ~ Edward R. Murrow, journalist (1908-1965)

The 1920s Republican administrations in Washington openly endorsed Mussolini, and with the aid of J. P. Morgan, they helped engineer hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of credits and loans to the Fascist government.

The relationship between Mussolini and the Republicans was so embarrassingly close that President Coolidge’s ambassador to Italy, Richard Washburn Child, helped ghostwrite Il Duce’s “autobiography," surely one of the odder and more (deliberately) forgotten moments in U.S. diplomatic history.

http://www.theorientalist.info/levs.php?location=New%20York&id=26/

"A man might die for honor or kill for arrogance. In broad daylight the terrible vision of sin might strike him down by the tavern well or back of his own corn crib. It was a land of the fiddle and whiskey, sweat and prayer, pride and depravity." ~ Robert Penn Warren

Why is our Preznit so out of touch?

Not only did he not appeal to half of the country the first time, he did not appeal to half of the country the second time, and now he seems utterly clueless when selecting replacements for policy positions within his administration. Clearly he hears voices, but from where? Certainly the Almighty didn't choose Michael Hayden to be the CIA director. Or did he?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12685614/?GT1=8199

"All hat and no cattle" is, I think gone beyond even his base now. The conservatives never were a "real" political co-alition, they were at best, what they try to accuse the liberals of a "hate" group. They "hated" progressive ideas, they "hated" public schools, they "hated" social security, they "hated" medicare, and they "hated" any type of program that was green vs. absolute growth. Why you ask? It was contrary to the way they grew up. Now the pseudo-republicans-conservatives are starting to see the wolves in their right-wing/false-religious sheep's clothing for what it was a means to an end.

The only reason the BASE of the GOP wanted a repeal of inheritance taxes, was because they were the only ones effected by the law. Most pseudo-republicans did not even realize that the "death tax" did not kick in until after an enormous sum. The run of the mill repugs don't get a boost from an elimination of an inheritance tax; just like they don't get a benefit from the "massive" tax cuts the GOP pushed through to satisfy their "base". To be able to get a benefit from the tax cut the GOP got for the "base" you would need to make over $1 million dollars to reap any real benefit. Most of these pseudo-repugs don't make anywhere near that much in a lifetime, much less a year. But they support it!!!

"Rationalization may be defined as self-deception by reasoning." ~ Karen Horney

"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." ~ Leonard Cohen, musician
(1934- )

Let the light in.

Old News

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." ~ H.L. Mencken

On Thursday:
Limbaugh returned to favorite mantra: Terrorists sound like Democrats
http://mediamatters.org/items/200604270016/

On Friday:
Rush Limbaugh Arrested On Drug Charges
http://cbs4.com/local/local_story_118200809.html

After THREE years of avoided admitted guilt, the obnoxious mouth of talk radio, agreed to pay $30,000.00 to the State of Florida for Court Costs and still maintains that he was not guilty of "doctor shopping", yet was in possession of over 2000 pills and numerous prescriptions from various Doctors and pharmacies in the area. He had used employees names and used multiple doctors to obtain painkillers.

Sounds like to me the "Voice of Reason" and "Morals" Has a DRUG problem. Mama would say that is like the pot calling the kettle, you know....

He has for years tried to laud himself over Americans as the "Voice of Reason", well, as it has been said homey don't play that!. Serve the time. If he had been poor, black, Hispanic, or white trash he would still be in jail. Send the Slob back to jail.

"The Texan turned out to be good-natured, generous, and likable. In three days no one could stand him." ~ Joseph Heller, author of "Catch-22" (I wonder if Heller was talking about all hat and no cattle?)

So what's in a name?

"Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads: ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political leaders, compulsive voyagers, ignorant generals; the flotsam and jetsam of historical currents." ~ Martin Gardner

So the Preznit isn't the only Bush in trouble, fancy that?

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-bush28apr28,0,1771601.story?track=tothtml/

Seems as if Heisman Trophy Winner was a little premature on his arrangements for financing and other matters before getting drafted into the pros. Will an investigation of USC follow? Who knows?

Especially since this years QB has been sidelined due to of campus activities, this same week. Come on guys, keep 'em in, keep your head on your shoulders. These rich donors are paying gazillions of $$$'s for your scholarship and the facilities for you to train in to play on Saturdays, preparing for a possible career on Sundays. So don't blow it!!!!

Now on to important stuff. Rove, fifth time, oops. Darn the walls are tumbling down, the sky is falling, the emperor has no clothes, the "Snow" will soon be 'melting' and Cheney is again sleeping in the hallway during the breaks in coverage.

Rummy and Rice, no not a new dish from Emeril's but from the Neocon Nueve Cocina visited (unannounced) Iraqmire this week, to not so rave reviews.

Gasoline prices went up almost as fast as the profits of the Oil Companies and the salaries of their executives. And I thought to get screwed you had to go to the Watergate Hotel in Washington with "duke" cunningham and other, yet unnamed associates.

"The greatest enemy of knowledge isn't the ignorance of knowledge but the illusion of it." ~ Stephen Hawking

"I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe - I believe what I believe is right." ~ George W. Bush

Usual Suspects, Faux Press Secretary

"Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit." ~ Edward R. Murrow

It has been "leaked" that a Fox News anchor may become the Presidential Press Secretary, well at least now he will get paid for doing the job he has been doing for the last several years. You know like letting a Fox in the Whitehouse, oh they already had that thing going on. We must just be like Alice in Wonderland and ignore the jabberwocky, once it begins. This will be an interesting change of events if any.

Gather all of the names, put them into one big pile and pull out a likely suspect, that seems to be the way the Creative Inferance Agency does things now days. At least in the case of the supposed "leaker" of information last week. Now it seems, she was just up for retirement and they did not want to pay it, sounds kind of conservative to me, how about you?


"The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer." ~ Edward R. Murrow

Las Vegas Line: Bush Drops-Gas Prices Rise!

"The stories that made up America and the stories that America made up." ~ Robert Wuhl

What had happened was the decider made a deal with the devil, no that was with the religious right, no the oil companies, darn I can't keep this straight anymore. Well he was supposed to stay up in the polls and the price of gas was to stabilize, but as Zero Mostel once said, "a funny thing happened on the way to the forum". Things got on a turntable and someone put the plug in backward or hardwired the device wrong, 'cause its spinning out of control.

The Oil Exec's are getting fatter, our wallets are getting thinner, and the oil in the middle east is NOT paying for the WAHR ON TERA, like we were told. Well with oil approaching $80 per barrel, I guess the oil has a chance of eventually paying for the war, but only if the exec's stop getting the platinum parachutes when they retire or leave to take a consulting job with Haliburton/KBR. Or maybe they can get a job as a HR specialist for Wally-World, since they work so hard at pleasing their employees.

Conservatives, republicans, libertarians, and populists never have worked well together because they really don't believe in the same things. They were just confused into thinking they could get along for a few years. Good Ole boys never will understand that they didn't come from 'merica to begin with, they were brought here on a ship either as an indentured servant or as personnel chattel of some conservative aristocrat. Democracy is not for the faint of heart, it takes daily involvement, exercising of the brain; and not listening to some spouting neo-republican-conservative-xenophobe-drug addict that cannot maintain a monogamous relationship of any kind due to personality defects.

"Permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence." ~ Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what." ~ Harper Lee

As long as there are tests there wil be prayer in school.

"Every year education gets more expensive, but ignorance costs even more." ~ Sam Ewing

Why are we arguing about "public prayer" in school and "public prayer" in public, when the scripture says in Jesus own words:

But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father secretly. Then your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you.href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/nlt_full_copyright.html" linkindex="17" target="_blank">New Living Translation © 1996 Tyndale Charitable Trust

The only ones that will pray in school will be the desperate, the needful, or the truly faithful. And the faithful that pray, their voice will be heard, whether it is silent or aloud. So what is the diff'? We have made this and flag waving part of some kind of religious symbol, neither are Biblical.

The words public prayer don't occur together in the KJV of the Bible nor do the words school prayer occur together in the KJV either. (Search courtesy of www.blueletterbible.org/ )

The only reference to praying in public in the Bible is in a worship service with other believers; to do otherwise is to degrade it, to lessen its effectiveness.

Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.New Living Translation © 1996 Tyndale Charitable Trust

"If you're looking for the key to the universe I've got some good news and some bad news. The bad news: there is no key to the universe. The good news: it was never locked." ~ Anon

"I'm the decider, and I decide what's best."

"It is fashionable stupidity to regard everything one cannot explain as a fraud." ~ Carl Jung, psychoanalyst

Don't we wish we all could say that? No not really. I was reading an interesting article written by a Southern Baptist Minister, yes a Southern Baptist Minister in the Anniston Star by the way of Sojourners.net, here's the link:
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=news.display_article&mode=s&NewsID=5345/

He compares today's conservative's especially the ones in the framework of Grover Norquist and the like as nothing but selfish babies (my words). Their obsession with small government, no taxes, self serving and actually an atheistic world view. He is relating an article written by Susan Pace Hamill, a University of Alabama law professor, recently in the Virginia Law Review.

This thinking makes the individual the center of the universe, which is totally contrary to the Gospel, which our "decider in chief" claims to answer to regularly. Well being a true believer, I've come to essentially doubt any sincerity from the oval orifice. Our Preznit's statements of the last few weeks may show loyalty, yet to some trained eyes they show desperation while holding onto the only things he still can control. But there are still only so many rats on a sinking ship...

I'm reminded of a game we played as children, holding up our fingers as we slowly sank below the surface of the water; each time taking one additional finger down as we sank an additional time until we pretended to drown in the pool. As for the administration the buoys are leaving the pool, the lead weights are being attached, the anchor has been tossed overboard, the S.S. Scooter has broadcast its message, the Generals have displayed there disapproval, the Frigate Fitzgerald is closing in and Cutter Cheney is already headed down; so its just a matter of time. THEN AGAIN MAYBE HE WILL DECIDE WHAT'S BEST.

"There is also an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents... The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government, and provisions should be made to prevent its ascendancy." ~ Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect and author (1743-1826)

Something I've been wondering....

"Logic is the art of going wrong with confidence." ~ Morris Kline

While listening to the talking heads this week, I again wondered "What is America's love affair with Ronald Reagan"? So being an old fart, that remembers his movies, tv show and his governship of CA (my aunt was a teacher in SoCal during his disastrous terms); I remember his anecdotes, speeches, policies, etc.: And I DON'T GET IT!

He told false stories to back up his policies, does this sound familiar? He skated on Iran-Contra and all of those involved are analysts on Faux news. I don't have anything against Ollie North, but a criminal is a criminal, whether he sells dope or guns to the contras.

Read here from a very conservative source:
Sometimes, Reagan’s retentive memory – important for an actor – gave his handlers trouble. Evidently lacking the capacity for reasoned thought, Reagan’s mind is filled with anecdotes, most of them dead wrong, that he has soaked up over the years in the course of reading Reader’s Digest or at idle conversation. Once an anecdote enters Reagan’s noodle, it is set in concrete and impossible to correct or dislodge. (Consider, for example, the famous story about the "Chicago welfare queen": all wrong, but Reagan carried on regardless.)

And then:
In the early years of Reagan rule, the press busily checked out Reagan’s beloved anecdotes, and found that almost every one of them was full of holes. But Reagan never veered from his course. Why? God knows there are plenty of correct stories about welfare cheats that he could have clasped to his bosom; why stick to false ones? Evidently, the reason is that Reagan cares little about reality; he lives in his own Hollywood fantasy world, a world of myth, a world in which it is always Morning in America, a world where The Flag is always flying, but where Welfare Cheats mar the contentment of the Land of Oz. So who cares if the actual story is wrong? Let it stand, like a Hollywood story, as a surrogate for the welfare cheats whom everyone knows do exist.

And even more:
The degree to which Reagan is out of touch with reality was best demonstrated in his concentration camp story. This was not simply a slip of the tongue, a Bushian confusion of December with September. When the Premier of Israel visited Reagan at the White House, the President went on and on for three quarters of an hour explaining why he was pro-Jewish: it was because, being in the Signal Corps in World War II, he visited Buchenwald shortly after the Nazi defeat and helped to take films of that camp. Reagan repeated this story the following day to an Israeli ambassador. But the truth was 180-degrees different; Reagan was not in Europe; he never saw a concentration camp; he spent the entire war in the safety of Hollywood, making films for the armed forces.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard60.html/

Does this all sound familiar of someone making up facts?

The GADFLY says:
What made this loyalty so remarkable was the willingness to ignore Reagan's history and record. Moderate Republicans didn't mind his hard-right ideology. Libertarian Republicans forgave the fact that the government grew bigger on his watch than under any other president since World War II. Religious Republicans had no problem with the fact that he almost never attended church. Family-values conservatives averted their eyes from the fact that he was divorced and estranged from his own children. Anti-tax Republicans forgot that he raised taxes.
But it is apparent that conservatives are simply more prone to hero-worship, finding leaders whom they can hail as near-saints.
http://gadflyer.com/articles/?ArticleID=128/

Reagan was a member of the screen actors guild (SAG) in 1947, but to continue working and front for McCarthyism he switched from being a democrat to a republican. This sounds like he was covering his..... He refused to support the actors McCarthy questioned, since he was afraid of being branded a COMMIE himself!
Well you know what I mean. This info comes from below.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAreagan.htm/

"Republicans were indifferent to the poor". ~ David Kuo, White House deputy director for faith-based initiatives

Another day in America..

We get late broadcasts of the Charlie Rose PBS shows from the Memphis (TN) affiliate, so today I saw the Good Friday broadcast with Guest Host: JON MEACHAM, Managing Editor, Newsweek; GARRY WILLS, Author, "What Jesus Meant"and KEVIN PHILLIPS, Author, "American Theocracy". Meacham is a Chattanooga, TN native now living with the infidels his latest book is American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation. So needless to say I was very interested in this particular conversation.

Wills and Phillips both have in their past both been extreme right wing politically and Meacham, while trying to appear aloof, tended to lean that way also, yet each has seemed to have been on their own independent spiritual journey of enlightenment.

Wills has discovered that the right has missed the point of the gospel of Jesus, while focusing on the destruction and punishment of the Old Testament Scripture and ignoring the love, acceptance and assistance of the New Testament.

Phillips so too discovered that his brand of "main street" (Nixonion) Republicanism of conservative spending and separation of Church and State had been bastardized by the New-right into a sort of theocracy, that is doomed to fail, since their are far too many citizens to control with near sighted ideas and false science.

Meacham disturbed many of the new conservative right, when he paused to state that American Politics has used religion, but not held with it. That moral principles and values are not necessarily bound to a religious government, maybe in spite of it.

All three came to the conclusion that even though there is a movement to push creationism on the educational system of our nation, the present form is bunk. The Genesis story is allegorical in that the world is round, it never was flat. So when God created the first day, it was longer than the days as we now know them. Twenty four hours then, is twenty four hours now. Through God anything is possible, yet He does'nt expect us to believe in nonsense, either.

"There are people so addicted to exaggeration that they can’t tell the truth without lying." ~ Henry Wheeler Shaw (sound like this quote could have been said this week)

"It is by acts and not by ideas that people live." ~ Anatole France

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My Apology to Jimmy Buffett...

Pharisees to the right, Pharisees on the right, Pharisees say they are the right, Pharisees claim they are the only ones that are right, Pharisees were mistaken then and Jesus said it. I believe it. And they are mistaken now. They are so caught up in turning religion into a structure and rote mechanism of non-devotional experience and self-help feel good manuals by Osteam's Press.

But Salvation is a personal experience with God, not some extra-curricular activity planned to keep you busy and away from the temptation of the "world". God wants his "saints" in the world, but seperated from it, as examples.

Tom Delay is a Pharisee. Bill Frist is a Pharisee. Jerry Fallwell is a Pharisee. Pat Robertson is a Pharisee. Ralph Reed is a Pharisee. Roy Moore is a Pharisee.

I just read a review about a new book about Huey P. Long of LouisianA, it discusses his populist appeal, even though he grew up privileged. He promised lots of change to get elected, yet once elected to the Senate, his plans proved to be detail-thin, without statistics to back them up. He became obsessed with power, using the state police in LA to provide services and enforce deals or retribution. Stop me if any of this sounds vaguely familiar...

"A perfect democracy can come close to looking like a dictatorship; a democracy in which the people are so satisfied they have no complaint." ~ Huey Long


Luke 7:37 A certain immoral woman heard he was there and brought a beautiful jar* filled with expensive perfume.
Luke 7:38 Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.
Luke 7:39 When the Pharisee who was the host saw what was happening and who the woman was, he said to himself, "This proves that Jesus is no prophet. If God had really sent him, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She's a sinner!" (New Living Translation )

Jesus went on to explain that the Pharisee's motives, morals and values are all out of skew. Just like today. I am a Sinner not a Pharisee, how about you?

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GOOD FRIDAY!

"We are not free, separate, and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way." ~ Thomas Mann

Ironic. That I would be cooking a pork shoulder and ribs today, huh? Well not really if you dig deep into New Testament scripture, the Law being fulfilled, replaces all of those dietary codes. Good for us. Because Southerners could not live with out our Barbeque.

I was also, pondering this thought, most of my evangelical compadres would really have a hard time with the Biblical Jesus, since he was Jewish. And Liberal. Would he be a "New York Jew" or an "Elistist California Jew" or a "Zionist Jew"?

You know the Bible/Torah mentions being liberal many times and conservative only in a negative sense. Which is totally opposite the meaning today's conservatives apply to it.

Sorry! the word conserve doesn't occur in the KJV. Sorry! the word conservative doesn't occur in the KJV. Liberal occurs 6 times in 4 verses. (search courtesy of www.BlueLetterBible.org/)

Isa 32:5 The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said [to be] bountiful. KJV or in plain English:
( The foolish person will no longer be called generous, Nor the miser said to be bountiful; New King James Version © 1982 Thomas Nelson )

"Little things affect little minds." ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Tomorrow is Good Friday

"Food for the body is not enough. There must be food for the soul." ~ Dorothy Day
If the weather continues to be nice, tomorrow will be a meat smoking day. Early the fire will start, heating the smoker to a nice temperature, before the meat goes on the fire. Depending on the prices at the stores I will be smoking a shoulder, ribs and chicken for the kids. We will be going to a Redbirds game on Saturday night, so they better get their act together before then. What can be better than Barbeque and baseball in the South?

So tomorrow as the smoke rises and the smell of hickory drifts around the house I'll just imagine the taste of the things to come.

"Every man has a right to be conceited until he is successful." ~ Benjamin Disraeli

"Toil, says the proverb, is the sire of fame." ~ Euripides, Greek tragedian

NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency may have read this email without warning, warrant, or notice. They may do this without any judicial or legislative oversight. You have no recourse or protection save to call for the impeachment of the current President.

The breeze is out of the South...

The weather is getting a little warmer and the senses are starting to draw me to the outdoors. I can almost smell the meat smoking on the grill and the hickory burning slowly. Spring and Summer yield an air temperature that allows us to cook out doors with much greater ease.

The fires do not have to be kept as hot to maintain internal temperature. Thank goodness.

We will soon be smoking meat....

"Welcome to Dixie. Please leave everything as you found it." ~ from a note left to the defense attorney in John Grisham’s The Chamber

"One of the sublimest things in the world is plain truth." ~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Why did the weather do what it did?

"The stench of corruption [from the White House] has grown so foul, that even the talking heads at Fox are finding it hard to fumigate their evening broadcast." ~ Jean Carnahan

"Fight for your opinions, but do not believe that they contain the whole truth, or the only truth." ~ Charles A. Dana

Sometimes we are so caught up in our own struggles we tend to forget the misfortunes of others. These past few weeks, the states of TN, AR, MO and parts of numerous other sections of other states have been struck with the force of violent storms dropping out of the sky.

Where are the talking heads now, speaking about the wrath of an omnipotent God and his disgust with the people that inhabit the vile areas around Marmaduke, AR and Gallatin, TN. It is because the self righteous find it much easier to raise alarm at big city problems, than the meth labs in trailers in rural southern communities and the abuse families suffer at the hands of overwork and alcohol. Racing on Sunday keeps as many people away from church as does ineffectual witnessing.

Nothing against the most popular sport in modern America, but beer, tight t-shirts, speed, loud engines and even louder mouth fans are not the evangelical's best friend. So why did all the open land in TX and OK burn, also? Same reasons that the hurricanes hit the gulf coast, maybe.

But more likely it is because they have had fewer years of constant rainfall in the last several than you could count and the policies of most conservatives don't plan for water conservation, only money conservation for the wealthy. Again the moral and ethics of Christians are in conflict with the policies of the politically conservative agenda and they stick with "Johnny two note" on only anti-abortion and the marriage amendment; when there are so many other issues that need their attention.

"Republicans were indifferent to the poor". ~ David Kuo, White House deputy director for faith-based initiatives for the George W. Bush administration

"Logic is the art of going wrong with confidence." ~ Morris Kline

Who would have thought it...Bush told Libby Leak it!

"We have met the enemy, and he is us." ~ Pogo Possum

Word is the Preznit told "Scooter" to leak facts about V. Plame being a CIA covert agent to certain MSM columnists to "out" her since her hubby was an outspoken critic of the administration and its War at any cost policies. Go figure! Some how most of the progressive Americans could have predicted this months ago, yet we would have been called anti-American, anti-war on terror (and just what is that now?), anti-business (which means pro-people), but definitely not a "ditto-head", thank God.

America is so much more than Delays and Rushes and Bushes and Cheneys, but obviously we have lost our moral compass, since the ones telling us that we have lost it are the ones with all of the ethical problems. They must know how to spot moral and ethical degradation, huh?

"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Most leaders work in the superficial 20 percent of organizational dynamics and think it's 100 percent." ~ Brent Filson

Chris Matthews...True Colors

During his interview with disgraced Tom Delay, during which he probably didn't know the camera was still rolling, Chris Matthews gave us special insight into his true nature and frame of mind. He is definitely in the wrong position at this time in his career, especially since his brother is running for office under the GOP banner.

The comments he made about Ms. Clinton were scandalous.

"When people have no other tyrant, their own public opinion becomes one." ~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton

I never have understood Republicans.

"Republicans were indifferent to the poor". ~ David Kuo, White House deputy director for faith-based initiatives

For many years, growing up it puzzled me why my mother's brothers and my father's brothers always voted republican, it took an epiphany and George W. Bush to clear it up. They love liars and love to believe them. They emulate them and support them and believe every word that spews from their mouths.

While complaining about taxes, they were always the first to sign up for government benefits. All veterans, they utilized the benefits that democrats fought for to gain them, while complaining about paying for them. None of them could afford private schooling, yet would vociferously complain about public schooling, while never participating in helping their childrens school. One uncle damned federal assistance projects while taking thousands from Uncle Sam for crop rotation and fallow ground projects, also for crop insurance provided by the federal government.

His son still does not discern where the programs come from and the fact that most of the votes against it are from the people he votes for when he votes. They want good schools and roads, but do not understand it takes taxes to build schools and roads among other things.

The only thing this current generation understands in monetary gain. The mega business trends, mega churches, mega bytes; all for what? Growth is not the end. The process is only a part of the path, we must remain humble and revere the person.

"Man's obsession to add to his wealth and honor is the chief source of his misery." ~ Moses Maimonides (born Moses Ben Maimon)

I hear a lot of buzz about moral compass.....

"The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues." ~ Rene Descartes

Especially loudest from the people who have no idea what either a compass or morality is, the buzz is almost intolerable. The US of A is trying to base its moral compass on a bunch of self-righteous, clueless politicians and evangelical ministers. Neither of which know what to base true morality on. They speak a slightly good game, but totally miss the whole point when it comes to serving the needy and meeting the scriptural basis of their claims.

As Jim Wallis so eloquently points out, since when did Christianity become a belief of the "rich, greedy, war hungry, people hating"?

"Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together." ~ Eugene Ionesco

"The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others." ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Unfortunately for the neo-cons and most of the current pro-business, pro-libertarian evangelicals they have torn several pages out of the only instruction book, that requires NO ALTERATION.

GODSPEED for now!!

Card out, Bolten In...SO?

Bush made a big deal today, finally accepting the three week old resignation of COS Card, just as the news hit about collusion between the stooges in office and Britian's government were hiting the media.

It is increasingly disturbing that the media is owned by fewer and fewer companies. That is really a liberal happening, yeah. Consolidation, elimination, fewer jobs, controlled output, boy that sounds really democratic doesn't it?

We must remain vigilant in the struggle to retain our freedoms.

"With foxes we must play the fox." ~ Dr. Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732

"The healthy man does not torture others - generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers." ~ Carl Jung

Job was a very strong man.....

While in Florida, Friday March 24, 2006, in a speech Cheney said. "And with that sorry record, the leaders of the Democratic Party have decided to run on the theme of competence. If they're competent to fight this war, then I ought to be singing on 'American Idol.' "

You know with his experience in warfare why doesn't he get his but over to Iraq and prove what a really effective shot he is with a weapon. Instead of turning his attention on earning several million more bucks for his cronies and his interest held in "trust"?

Not only is our supreme court appointed president inept, we have to deal with a man of these comprimsed values to make statements like this in defense of an unjust war that he lured us into. When he hasn't the intestinal fortitude to fight in one himself.

How can our military leaders believe this man? I guess they like the perks too much?

"Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim." ~ George Santayana, Spanish philosopher and writer

When do we know when to change directions?

"’Push’ will get a person almost everywhere - except through the door marked ‘pull.’" ~ Author unknown

Why is it we are in a cesspool and do not know how to get out? We as humans should know that we are certain to encounter discouragement from time to time, yet we are in a quagmire of indecision in these days. Our country's leader has taken us down a road we certainly should not have taken. Our military wants to remain loyal, without losing face, their patriotism is commendable, but blind. While they eat their Haliburton supplied meals, from Haliburton supplied tents, out of Haliburton supplied trucks provided from a no-bid contract (because no one else was capable). No ONE Capable! Does this sound like a patriotic American statement from the decision makers of our great nation? They chose Haliburton/KBR because of who they were, not because of the low bid. Wake UP!

"God gives us the ingredients for our daily bread, but he expects us to do the baking." ~ Author unknown

What ever happened to Logic?

My sisters and I have in the past gathered around many a holiday table, be it Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Mother's Day or the most sacred of all an Auburn Football Game, discussing the role of humans in today's world. The question that always comes up is: What happen to LOGIC?

In years gone by people prided themselves in making "Logical" decisions. People revered others that were "Logical". Spending millions of dollars testing students to see if they have increased their abilities, without increasing the pay of the teachers to do so, is not "Logical". Spending tax dollars to hire a media mouthpiece to prance around the country touting the benefits of this unproven program, all while receiving under the table payments from the department of education is not "Logical", it is unethical.

Logic and Ethics are very closely related, yet the extreme right has lost its moral compass and figures that we no longer can see it "Logically". When a government is guided by a group of thugs and nonsensical bullies as it is today, "Logic" is thrown out the window, just as the baby is with the bath water.

A war fought on false reasons, more for money than for real safety, achieving less, is still under way as I write this. And it is not "Logical".

"The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it." ~ Brendan Behan

"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." ~ Walter Bagehot

NOTICE:
Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency may have read this blog without warning, warrant, or notice. They may do this without any judicial or legislative oversight. You have no recourse or protection save to call for the impeachment of the current President.

Will we ever learn?

"The belief that youth is the happiest time of life is founded on a fallacy. The happiest people are those who think the most interesting thoughts. Those who decide to use leisure as a means of mental development, who love good music, good books, good pictures, good company, good conversation, are the happiest people in the world. And they are not only happy in themselves; they are the cause of happiness in others." ~ William Lyon Phelps

I surrender to the idea that Americans are truly as lazy as once thought by most of the world. We continue to rest on our collective laurels, while the powers that are take away our freedoms in the name of freedom. Awkward as it sounds, the liberation of our Nation is not up to republicanist, nor democracist, but the true freedom loving Americans among us that refuse to take it any more.

We must demand ethics in governance and the operation of government, no matter who is in power. The troughs must be emptied and the feeding frenzy stopped before WE starve. The special interest groups, disguised as business development, need to be disemboweled from the feeding tubes of the taxpayers. We can no longer support KBR's and Haliburton's and Enron's of this country while letting the ports be sold to foreign interests.

WAKE UP!

Complacent-do we even know what it means?

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist." ~ Dom Helder Camara

I have noticed that so many of my acquaintances don't care about anything outside their immediate sphere of touch. Notice I did not use the word influence. Why, because as citizens we use less and less influence in our sphere, because we are selfish. That is why the conservatives think they won the culture war on the mind of America, because the spiritual mind of America does care about others. However, true conservatives are selfish, self-serving, hoarding, my-way or the highway kind of people. Unfortunately evangelicals have fallen in with this belief in a prosperous type of America, following the teachings of latter-day Reverend Ike's like Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, Crefol Dollar, Joyce Meyer and Jan and Paul Crouch of TBN. They all sell the give to me and God will bless you theme. Neglecting the time worn camel through the eye of the needle comparison to a rich man getting into heaven is beyond them. They both privately and publicly rundown mainstream Christians that follow a more traditional, less affluent path to salvation. God never promised riches on earth, only rewards in heaven.

I chuckled to myself last evening at our interim pastor as he mentioned an experience with a woman that felt that she had always been called to be a missionary in Africa. But once she was there she asked, do I have to work with black people? This is so typical of this type of christian, they do not understand realistic sacrifice, especially their place in the real world.

"Do Justice, Love Kindness, Walk humbly with your God." ~ Micah 6:8

Christians BEWARE!!

And you think they have the same values that evangelical Christians do? Think! Use the brain God gave you; really understand what is going on.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11548419/?GT1=7756
Polygamist judge forced off bench in Utah
Man flouting state polygamy law has three wives, 32 children

Associated Press Updated: 4:47 p.m. ET Feb. 24, 2006

SALT LAKE CITY - A small-town judge with three wives was ordered removed from the bench by the Utah Supreme Court on Friday.

The court unanimously agreed with the findings of the state’s Judicial Conduct Commission, which recommended the removal of Judge Walter Steed for violating the state’s bigamy law.

Steed has served for 25 years on the Justice Court in the polygamist community of Hildale in southern Utah, where he ruled on such matters as drunken driving and domestic violence cases.

A year ago, the commission issued an order seeking Steed’s removal from the bench, after a 14-month investigation determined Steed was a polygamist and had violated Utah’s bigamy law.

Bigamy is a third-degree felony in Utah punishable by up to five years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines.

“Judge Steed’s relationship with his three plural wives for more than 20 years clearly runs afoul of the prohibition,” the ruling said. “When the law is violated or ignored by those charged by society with the fair and impartial enforcement of the law, the stability of our society is placed at undue risk.”

The initial complaint against Steed was filed with the commission in November 2003 by Tapestry Against Polygamy, a group founded by former polygamous women who help others leave the secretive religious colonies.

Three wives, 32 kids
Steed legally married his first wife in 1965, according to court documents. The second and third wives were married — or “sealed” as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints refers to it — to him in religious ceremonies in 1975 and 1985. The three women are sisters.

Steed has 32 children by the three women, according to court documents.

A receptionist at the Judicial Conduct Commission said neither the commission nor its attorney on the case, Colin Winchester, would comment.

Attorneys for Steed scheduled a news conference for later Friday.

In the court’s November hearing, justices focused their questions on two issues: whether Steed’s conduct impugns the judicial office and whether he should be removed from the bench if he has not been criminally tried and convicted of bigamy.

Friday’s decision did not address the trial-and-conviction issue. It only said that the illegal behavior is something Steed acknowledged and that he “has given every indication that he intends to continue his ‘plural marriage’ arrangement.”

Plural marriage holdouts
Plural marriage was an original tenet of the mainline Mormon church, but the faith abandoned the practice in 1890. About 30,000 polygamists, who split from the main church into various fundamentalist sects, are believed to be living in Utah, the Southwest, Mexico and Canada.

Justice Court judges are appointed to four-year terms by city councils or county commissions to handle class B and C misdemeanor infractions, charges with penalties that don’t exceed up to six months in jail or $1,000 in fines.

Judges are not required to have any legal education or training prior to appointment. A truck driver by trade, Steed was paid a few hundred dollars monthly for serving in the part-time position.

What do we understand?

"My problem is I say what I'm thinking before I think what I'm saying." ~ Dr. Laurence J. Peter

We understand little these days, other than what is near to us. Worldly distractions continue to pile up at our doors and windows trying to get inside to influence our minds. Constant onslaught cannot be avoided, it may however be evaded. Not by ducking and running, not by scrambling to hide, but boldly standing by our principles.
Situations that normally cause distress are handled with grace and compassion for all involved. Morality is not just rhetoric and words spoken to incite or illicit a response; it is how we daily live our lives. How people really perceive us. Actions do really speak louder than words. If we live this way daily it is done without thinking it becomes our nature.

"Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task." ~ William James

"A man does not have to be an angel in order to be saint." ~ Albert Schweitzer

"Never trust a person who’s always critical, and always distrust a person who’s never critical." ~ Dr. Mardy Grothe

Time to Think?

These past few months, I have been able to watch the unfolding and dis-assembly of the Bush administration before my eyes on national television and in the media. Whether it be electronic media or written in the pages of our newspapers, blogs, or online news control has slipped into cronyism.

Richard Reeves said on Charlie Rose the other night that his respect for Reagan had changed since he died. Mainly because he did a few things well, but only those things. He did not know people's names, he did not have a wide scope, he had a very narrow focus. He was easily distracted. Not because of his age, he did not care to be concerned for anything that did not interest him.

That is probably why the majority of Americans now like him so; he was simple minded. Easy to distract, he would have loved Fox News and its tabloid style. Compare the irony of Fox News and its perceived morals to Fox Network Televison's purely trash television offerings, he would have loved that also.

I have noticed the Reaganites are the best examples of polar opposites in one individual that you can find. One of my best friends is one of them: He boasts of his morals and stiffs his ex-wife on child support. He condemns abortion as illegal acts, yet uses many truly illegal drugs and alcohol. He lambastes liberals for supporting socialized medicine, then leaves the country to receive social medicine in Germany as an ex-pat. He spends all day listening to Neil Boortz for social commentary and Bill O'Reilly for sexual advice.

But it is easy to see why he and the masses were attracted to Reagan and now to Bush, simpletons are like magnets, they attract each other. They actually believe some day that they will earn enough in their job to become one of the upper 5%. They just don't get it that the harder they work the more they have to earn to become a 5%'er. They are under some kind of assumption that 5% starts at $40,000 per year. Boy are they in for a surprise.

"The problem with being sure that God is on your side is that you can't change your mind, because God sure isn't going to change His." ~ Roger Ebert, film-critic (1942- )

"Let people think they govern, and they will be governed." ~ William Penn

"I'm not smart. I try to observe. Millions saw the apple fall but Newton was the one who asked why." ~ Bernard Mannes Baruch

So you wonder why W can't save your money?

I love the folks at truthout.org. They don't care who they piss off. Word is now that another reason we are in such debt is that the sadministration is spending so much telling us why we have it so good! Go figure.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022206D.shtml

And just when things in the domain of W the little start to slow down, he screws up and peeves both sides of the aisle by saying that the Dubai based company will control up to six (6) US ports. Which strangely enough he has connections to through his staff. Even boasting about no VETOES!!!.

TAKE AMERICA BACK!

Mary Matalin should have done her research.

This morning Mary Matalin was on the Today Show defending her "vice" president to some semi-tough questions from the ever perky Katie Couric. Katie was probing and Mary Matalin had a difficult time answering the questions posed in the short interview. Ms. Matalin should have read some of the news reports from this past weekend to get her story straight. She did not have her facts congruent with the facts poised by the White House, the VEEP's office and the neo-con talking heads. She kept referring to the "fact" that Ms. Armstrong was an "eye witness" to the accident, when she herself, said on Sunday that when she saw the security detail running toward the area where the "VEEP" and Mr. Whittington were hunting, she knew something was wrong.
Mary, Mary, you are so contrary. It is a good thing James is so forgiving. He must have a great sense of humor. Well he is Southern and a Cajun.

"Half the truth is often a great lie." ~ Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790)

Cheney is Responsible...well damn.

As my friend William would say. Even though he has been decidedly silent on this issue. No surprose there. He seems to listen to Neil Boortz, Rush Limbaugh and Faux News 24/7. And what's more he believes it all. He thinks Thomas Sowell is a God and "W" was the original cherry tree chopping president.

He is one of those "silent majority types" that thinks eventually he will own everything he touches. He has a very negative attitude about everything except wealth. What is so ironic about William is that he lectures me about my morals, yet he uses drugs, has been divorced, skipped the country to avoid paying child support, moved to Germany to get free health care and votes republican; because he doesn't want anyone to have those kind of benefits here.

He just doesn't want to pay for any one else to have the same benefits he wants. He doesn't believe in abortion, yet has paid for more than one for girlfriends in trouble. He lectures me about how I have let down society because I don't have the moral convictions he has.

He probably hasn't been into a church, except for a funeral, since I was in his wedding back in 1981. I am not only a regular attender, but involved in many aspects on my local church. No, I am not guilty, I am just fed up with his repugnant attitude. The holier than thou thing has gotten old. We must take back the faith.

"Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right." ~ Isaac Asimov

"If you are sure you understand everything that is going on, you are hopelessly confused." ~ Walter Mondale

This could be too easy....

"If you are sure you understand everything that is going on, you are hopelessly confused." ~ Walter Mondale

After this weekend's shooting of Attorney Whittington by NincomVEEP, it could be very easy to make jokes about the plight of the injured lawyer and the aforementioned VEEP, but folks this is serious business.

Not only did he shoot someone, he did it without being legally licensed to hunt in the State of Texas. If that was to happen to a normal, ordinary, regular, plain, non-influential person not of color, he probably would have been arrested and stiffly FINED!! ON THE SPOT!! Obviously, not surprisingly, the vice president does get special treatment. But come on.

For a man that could not find time to pick up a gun when it mattered during the Vietnam war, he finds time to pick one up just after getting out of the hospital after a Heart Attack. But if can't tell the difference between his hunting companion and a quail, it is probably a very good thing for all of our Veterans of the Vietnam era that he did not serve. He may have mistaken them for a dove or for that matter a VC.

I grew up hunting quail, and the noise of hunting from a "car" limits the number of coveys to a minimum. Also, hunting in the afternoon is for the, well, lazy. And without dogs, pointless. He may be able to sniff out an oil deal or another KBR/Haliburton contract, but I doubt he would be able to find a downed bird.

So, let us say if they really started hunting in the morning....maybe this happened long before we were told it did. That just goes to motive, as with everything else this administration is involved in, damage control first; then a smattering of the possible truth.

"The problem with being sure that God is on your side is that you can't change your mind, because God sure isn't going to change His." ~ Roger Ebert, film-critic (1942- )

Today the WORD is INSINCERITY!

"This is slavery, not to speak one's thought." ~ Euripides

Notice insincerity has creeped into our President at a more alarming rate. He cannot tell the truth!

Witnessing GWB telling another one almost made me sick. My heart goes out to all of those honorable men and women that have fought in this conflict under this lying liar. He honestly believes that if he tells a tale loud enough and long enough the rats will believe. I heard this morning on a radio show two talking heads praising him for his "honesty" regarding the information about the "supposed attack" on the Liberty/Library/what ever the real name of the tower is... and they have actually bought it, again. They sounded like Forest Gump when he was asked about going to Washington, AGAIN! Obviously they have ostrich-like habits and have kept their heads under ground for the last five years and not listened to the truth. But that reminds me of something I read today, there are three sides to every issue: your side, my side, and the truth.

So, Scooter is going to sell out Cheney, um, no honor among neo-cons. Well what did Dick expect, Scanlon and Jack are naming names and opening books on everyone else, including the White House. Time will tell. Could Jack's tell all be why Haley Barbour decided to stay at home in MS for '06-'08? He was a lobbyist before the locals elected him to the statehouse in Jackson. Most Mississippians you ask do not have a clue that his campaign was financed by lobbying for exporting jobs out of the USA. They just know the "good ole' boy" image he portrayed when he came home. I guess politics are local, since the locals don't really pay attention to what is going on anywhere else.

"Impudence is the worst of all human diseases." ~ Euripides

I Finally Figured It Out!!

For years I've thought that not only America, but the world was advancing in intelligence.

I have been proven not only wrong, but completely mistaken about how far we as civilization have advanced. We cannot get along with other countries because of religion, culture or cartoons. We cannot get along within our country because of religion and other beliefs.
It truly is easy to see why this group of Americans so fervently follow our president and are enamored with him. They either feel superior to him, or at least his equal. A necessary feeling for those of sub-standard education levels is to decry others. Since they lack real confidence to face people eye to eye. Always using torment and derision to poke and prod those that they cannot match equally on an intellectual level. Being propped up by think tanks and talking heads of talk radio, to do their thinking for them. It is impossible for them to think for themselves for it would give them a severe headaches. Abusing their wives and children verbally, their pets physically and themselves mentally, they disguise their fears in homophobia, muslimphobia, liberalmania, religiousity, alcholism, racism, facism, false conservatism, mis-placed libertarianism, anti-taxation, and wrestling. More often than not they push either themselves or their children to achieve beyond their abilities and ages in sports.
A gap has grown between the reasonable and the unreasonable. Unfortunately, the unreasonable do not recognize who they are. Joking at others expense, poking, proding, defaming, and laughing. All this while proclaiming to be servants of the One True God, surely he has turned aside from them in their scoffing. They are but bullies and deserve not his respect, nor ours.

"The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please; we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations." ~ Edmund Burke

"If in the last few years you haven't discarded a major opinion or acquired a new one, check your pulse. You may be dead." ~ Frank Gelett Burgess

When all the laughter dies in sorrow

And the tears have risen to a flood

When all the wars have found a cause

In human wisdom and in blood

Do you think they'll cry in sadness

Do you think the eye will blink

Do you think they'll curse the madness

Do you even think they'll think

When all the great galactic systems

Sigh to a frozen halt in space

Do you think there will be some remnant

Of beauty of the human race

Do you think there will be a vestige

Or a sniffle or a cosmic tear

Do you think a greater thinking thing

Will give a damn that man was here

Kendrew Lascelles