FORGET FAMILY VALUES: FOCUS ON HUMAN VALUES

…the Bleacherman has entered the stadium…

Can you believe that the Pope, the world’s defender and number one promoter of the doctrines of compassion, love and equality, has ordered the formal reprimand of Catholic nuns for spending too much time on addressing the issues of poverty and social justice and not enough time on abortion and gay marriage?

Holy Jesus Christ!  Say it ain’t so.

Now I am not a Christian but from the little I know about the theology of Christianity, the issues of poverty and social justice are as close to the core of its teaching as the concerns over abortion and gay marriage.  So I have to ask:  How can the Vatican, the defender of doctrine, condemn those for following the basic tenants of their religion?  Is this what our world has become?  Has religion taken on a new more politically charged focus than it should?  How in the name of decency can the Vatican abandon critical efforts to ease the suffering of its flock?  Has God gone blind and deaf and sold his soul to those who seek political advantage over religious needs?

I offer Matthew 5:43-45: “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”

Are you listening right wing talk radio?  You claim the pedestal of religion but you know nothing of the religion that you wear on your lapel next to the American flag.

I believe that the time has come for us to talk less about family values and spend much more time talking about the totality of protecting and promoting basic human values.  We need to stop cataloguing, categorizing and ultimately excluding people because they do not come out of some Orwellian cookie-cutter, one size fits all life style social engineering machine.   We have for whatever perverse reason invented this picture of the perfect nuclear family.  We have established this narrow, restricted definition of a household that by default condemns and criticizes those that voluntarily or driven by an adverse set of circumstances live a different life style.

We need to stop inventing and promoting as fact the concept of something being “perfect.”   Perfect is a subjective assessment and the term should be avoided whether applying it to theological doctrine, political philosophy or the makeup of a family structure. A family can be defined in many different ways and composed of many different components and does not have to reflect a household where there is a white daddy who is the self-proclaimed master of the universe, a white mommy who is subservient to her husband and lives to serve, bear and raise the two perfectly behaved children and tend to the quintessential family dog named Spots who is often caged on top of the family station wagon and driven down the expressway at high speeds.

I’m sorry Rick Santorum but you need to take your perfect nuclear family and find some abandoned missile silo and take up residence there.  How dare you challenge and condemn those who choose to live a different life style. Who in the hell are you to make such judgment?  Who are you to day what is right and wrong?  Didn’t YOUR God reserve that right for himself?

You and your kind are an embarrassment to the religion you say you support.  Take Wisconsin State Senator Glenn Grothman, the Assistant Majority Leader and a close ally of GOP Governor Scott Walker, who has introduced a bill that would require the State of Wisconsin to officially deem single parenthood to be a “contributor” to child abuse and neglect and to put the same into statutory laws of the state.  Yes, being a single parent contributes to child abuse like two parent families never do.

The time has come to stop defining marriage in terms of a specific religious or social doctrine.  The time has come to stop promoting family values and expand the calling to human values that are inalienable to all of mankind regardless of marital status or family structure.  The time has come to stop demanding that we co-opt and sign in on one specific set of religious values.

Do you really think that Jesus, be he of human flesh or a product of divine spirit, would accept the rationale that poverty and social justice should be ignored in favor of concentrating solely on the issues of abortion and gay marriage.

When did any of you goody-two-shoes have a conversation with God who gave you the right to establish such priorities.  The Pope needs to take a good hard look at his own vanity and stick to promoting a God that is just, fair and far reaching.  He needs to work to end all evils; not those that make good political and partisan theater. He needs to stop ignoring child abuse in his houses of God.

Human values must be our focus.

…the Bleacherman has left the stadium not praising the Lord today….

THE TIME HAS COME TO SEND HOME THE CLOWNS…LET ROMNEY WIN

…the Bleacherman has entered the stadium…          

For readers of this blog, it should come as no surprise to you when I say that I am a Democrat and have no real vested interest in who the Republicans select as their Presidential candidate.  Sure it would be easy for me to say that a choice of Gingrich or Paul would do wonders in helping re-elect President Obama but again, elections are about choice.

But I believe that this country is desperately in need of a political discourse that addresses issues that focus on important matters such as the economy, foreign policy and fiscal management.  Right now, the Republican circus has migrated to an outer ring of entertainment where the dialogue is just plain ridiculous and repulsive.  Santorum continues to rant about his belief that the Freedom of Religion guaranteed Americans means that he has the right to impose his religious theology on those not wanting such enlightenment.  Gingrich rants about $2.50 a gallon gasoline as if Presidential policies and drilling on steroids is going to change the capital market structure where pricing is not a reflection of supply and demand but rather fueled and manipulated by speculation and Wall Street greed.

To be fair, I must also note the Gingrich’s comments on establishing a moon base to appeal for votes from Florida coast Republican voters was nothing short of whoring for support.  The very thought of it is so unreasonable and far-fetched, one must question how far will Newt will go to appeal for votes.  He is a smart and educated man (you cannot take that away from him) but the political gymnastics being offered makes more sense on a trapeze then in a real political debate.

Ron Paul’s libertarian perspectives, although compromised here and there by tough-choice politics, is red meat to a large number of people but in no way does it reflect what a majority of Americans believe in.

Romney, if one can decide what day it is and therefore comment on what his policy of the moment is, offers the same as the others although he is better at masking all the artificial sweeteners that he is throwing into the recipe in order to appeal to the conservative right. But with Romney, there is at least a realistic chance that he will migrate back from the extreme and position himself to where he and President Obama can debate real issues and promote viable policies to address those issues.

Everyone has said for a long time that this election is about jobs or the lack thereof but when was the last time you heard one of the Republican clowns actually spend some time talking about the details of his economic plan.  And I mean details; not the one line talking point memo response that seems to placate the populous and bored pundits who only have five minutes to ask questions before the ubiquitous commercial break or introduction of the next pundit in line to provide expert commentary.

Every election year I hear the left and the right demand a change to our tax code and every year special interests kill any meaningful revision to what everyone claims is a disaster in motion.  Every election year I hear how we are going to end the deficit and downsize government but in the end, no one can accomplish such a task because a major downsizing of government spending will deflate the economy and invite the second coming of a depression.

Everyone in politics is a master at talking the talk but not walking the walk but it is imperative that we begin talking about real and meaningful issues rather than focusing on nonsense like contraceptives, the War on God, moon bases, cheap gas, a return to the Gold Standard and abolishing the income tax.

We face real issues and we need real people to debate these issues.  So the time has come to once and for all to send the clowns home.

I accurately predicted Romney’s three point win in Michigan and I am not going that far out on the limb when I say that Romney will at least equal or surpass that mark in Ohio in beating Santorum. Romney will also easily win Virginia, Massachusetts, Vermont and Idaho.

Unfortunately, Santorum will win Tennessee and Oklahoma and Newt will win Georgia.  I say unfortunately because I fear that such hollow and almost irrelevant victories will give Santorum and Gingrich reason (false hope) to go on and continue the march to madness and deny this country the debate it needs to hear.

Of course, when someone like Donald Trump calls someone like George Will a “totally overrated fool,” then one only sighs in frustration as a continuum of clowns keep making the Republican Party look like an insane asylum where the inmates, in a desire to escape, wind up shooting each other to death.

Now I don’t agree philosophically with George Will (although I do give him credit for being a Chicago Cub fan) but calling him anything but smart and an overrated pundit only goes to show tht the ego of the clown does not make people laugh.  It makes them want to go out and just cry.

So we can only hope that Tuesday brings an end to this circus.  Trump will never shut up and never stop being the know-it-all-pompous ass but at least he will have less to pontificate on.

…the Bleacherman has left the stadium…

RELIGION IN AMERICA: A WAR ON NON-BELIEVERS

…the Bleacherman has entered the stadium…

The President’s recent edict – and subsequent backtracking – on the issue of a woman’s access to contraception brought to the surface the very real fact that here in America religion and a more secular leaning society are at war with each other.  Although historically such conflict is nothing new; organized religion has always sought to force its doctrines on non-believers.  Throughout our country’s relatively brief history, the majority religious-leaning element of our society has always and forcefully declared that America is a Christian nation.  This element has worked very hard to insure that the name of God finds its way into everyday life.  It adorns public buildings, courthouse walls and even takes center stage on our currency.  We pledge allegiance to our Nation under this God, this – by mandate – Christian God.

Those that promote the merger of God and Government quote the Declaration of Independence which opines that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum emphasizes that our rights of life and liberty are endowed by our Creator, which is considered a God rather than an implosion of a mixture of gases, elements and molecules rushing to fill some void or vacuum.  He further believes that Government has no right to interfere with God given rights which should be acknowledged and worshipped at all levels of our society.

What Mr. Santorum and a host of other republican leaders forget to add in their commentary supporting a God dominated society is that the Declaration of Independence continues its narrative with the affirmation that for society to secure these Creator provided rights, they must establish governments which are instituted among men and must derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.

And here lies one of the major problems of merging religion and government.  Who exactly is the governed?  Is the governed a society as a whole where compromise is essential in order to insure a common and genuine, all-encompassing consent or is the governed a transitory, migratory and ever changing political majority that once voted into power, regardless of the fact that the actual margin of majority is merely a percentage point or two of the total voting constituency, can force its theology on the minority?

To many, the above conundrum does not exist.  They see democracy as a case study of majority has the power to rule even if that majority is of the slimmest possible number.  To them the margin of majority – even if it is one vote – is it and of itself considered a mandate.  For proof of such ideology just think about Governor Walker of Wisconsin and his actions after being elected by a very small margin of the vote.   He assumed that he was given a license to govern by the consent of the people of his state and went off and began a campaign to dismantle unions.  To a large number of people this action far exceeded his mandate to govern and the genesis of a recall movement ensued.

We as a nation need to understand that we are a diverse people with different and sometimes dissimilar views on political, social and religious agendas.  To refer to us as a Christian nation just because the majority of our founding fathers were men of a Christian God not only reflects stupid reasoning and misguided and self-serving logic, but creates a social order that alienates and estranges all those who are not believers of the founding fathers’ Christian God.

We need to recognize that our diversity is our strength.  We need to recognize that Freedom of Religion also provides freedom to choose not only what religion to adopt but how and when to adhere to the dogma of our own beliefs.

By necessity, because religion has no real means of adapting itself to the twentieth-first century, dogma has become more or less a convenient store where believers can go up and down the aisles and pick and choose what is important to them and center their theological focus on those dictates that make sense for them living in a modern society.

For example, the commandment against adultery seems to have lost its luster.  It is now not so much considered a sin as an aberration of behavior that can be corrected by the utterance of an “I’m sorry” and some mea culpa contrition humbling oneself for a few days.

God commands that we shall not bear false witness on our neighbors but tell that to those that fill the airwaves with hatred and lies.  Take for example Fox news analyst Cal Thomas who had this to say about MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow: “I think she’s the best argument in favor of her parents using contraception.”  Now saying that shows a lot of class; doesn’t it?  It shows a man who defends religion yet has no idea what being Godly really means.  It reflects the hypocrisy that has infected this country like a plague.

We are indeed a country at war with ourselves.  And nothing good or positive can come from this conflict.  In our current political environment we never talk of compromise, we talk of war.  We talk of shutdowns; we talk of victory as if the vanquished was a group of terrorists huddled on one of our beaches somewhere.

Freedom of Religion means that we have the freedom to worship God, any God, as we wish.  It also gives Americans the right NOT to worship or believe in God.  It gives Americans the right not to have a morality forced down their throat like an unwanted medicine.  The rights given to us by a creator, as Rick Santorum loves to remind us, were articulated in the Declaration of Independence and not the Constitution.

It should be emphasized that the word God or Creator does not appear in the Constitution. This lack of reference does not mean that the Framers were not spiritual people. What this very deliberate omission reflects is the opinion that government should not involve itself in matters of religion.

Just look at the circus in Washington when a panel of experts appeared before Congress to talk about contraception for women and not one of the experts was a woman.  Is Representative Issa for real?  Or is he trying to force his male dominated religious beliefs on all women? So to Rick Santorum and all those that want to make this country a Christian Nation; please, respect me and my freedom of religion and keep your doctrines and morality to yourself.

And to the Mormons who insist of baptizing victims of the Holocaust.  Stay the fuck out of my religion.

…The Bleacherman has left the stadium…

 

 

 

 

DURING GOP DEBATE A BULL FIGHT BROKE OUT

…the Bleacherman has entered the stadium…

…I watched the bull fight disguised as a political debate last night and was not shocked but was very uncomfortable to watch the crowd cheer for the death -the slow and painful death- of the bull.  In this case, the bull is the principles, moralities and very integrity of our Country.

…Over and over again, the crowd cheered as one candidate after another opined positions that would lead us to war, economic ruin and to a culture to where the misfortunate were seen as outcasts.  The only thing that was missing in the dialogue was overt support for establishing leper colonies where the poor can be isolated, force feed and punished for not being rich.

…How dare Newt Gingrich complain about the salaries received by New York school system janitors.  Don’t they have a right to make a decent living?  Or should they, because of the position that they hold, be kept poor and economically punished for not being able to become a history professor who goes out and charges $1.5million dollars for giving a history lesson.  How dare him?  And what did the crowd do?  They cheered.  They cheered the death of the bull.  They cheered the thought of keeping black, poor children at the bottom leg of the economic ladder.  How disgusting.

…Most of the candidates called for more and intense confrontation with Iran; none of them offering any substance to offset the possibility of a long, protracted, costly and deadly war.  Question:  if we have to fight another war shouldn’t we have a tax to pay for it?  Shouldn’t we initiate a draft so all our children, the rich and the poor, serve their country as well?

…So tell me, if a non-violent criminal offender serves his or her time, fulfills all obligations of probation and parole, then why shouldn’t they have their right to vote reinstated?  Doesn’t Rick Santorum’s God teach us all about forgiveness?  Hasn’t Newt asked God to forgive him for his marital transgressions?  So are we or are we not a Christian Nation or does the call for such restoration of God come with a whole bunch of asterisks, disclaimers and very, very fine print?

…I also question Romney’s claim to be a fiscal conservative.  If he is against debt then why did he use debt – leveraged buy outs – to make millions?  Isn’t this a contradiction of sorts?  If private equity firms can use debt then why can’t the United States Government use debt to leverage its role in stimulating the economy?

…If Newt is so concerned about Obama being the food stamp President, what alternative could he offer?  The missing fact in Newt’s logic is that when the President took office the country was in the midst of a Republican created recession and millions of Americans were out of work.  As a consequence, Americans of all colors, creeds and religions now rely on food stamps.  So what would Newt have done if he were President?  Let people starve?  Let white people starve?

…Does Rick Perry have Turkey and Iran confused?  I’m not quite sure what the Texas Governor was getting at and what he was talking about but – please – this primary has to be his last hurrah.

…And one further thought:  Calls for super pacs disappearance is pure bullshit…see if this outrage continues in September and October…

…the Bleacherman has left the stadium…

QUICK NOTE TO RICK SANTORUM

…the Bleacherman races into the stadium…mad as hell…

So Rick Santorum, who advocates for a smaller, less intrusive Federal Government says that government on the state level should have the right to outlaw birth control and sodomy.  Are you kidding me?  Why stop there?  Let’s outlaw oral sex or any sexual act not conducted in the missionary position.

Hey Rick, this is America where Freedom should be central in every nuance of our society.  So do me a favor, keep your God damn religious belief out of my life.  You have no right to tell me if I should use birth control or have anal sex.  You have no right.  Don’t force me to accept your God and your religion.  That is not what America is all about.

All this legislated God and acceptable behavior is very scary.  The time for push back has come.  Government, on any level, must not legislate my personal conduct when it comes to my interpretation of what family values I choose to adopt in the sanctuary of my place of worship and my home.  Such discussion should be something between me and my God.  Not Rick Santorum’s view of God.

…the Bleacherman has left the stadium in fear of 2013…