Le Pauvre Barack

Have you noticed that whenever President Obama tries to do something to promote bi-partisanship it blows up in his face??

He changed the emphasis from the Iraq war to the war in Afghanistan, correcting the error of W in fighting Islamic extremism. The left howled about his continuance of hostilities in the Middle East; the right complained he wasn't trying to "win."

He attempted to let the representatives and senators we elected reform health care and got such a hash of it that he had to personally force the question. Result---partial reform of the health insurance industry and not a hell of a lot else.

Finally, he caved to the "drill, baby, drill" proponents and allowed off-shore drilling. Be thankful you are not a fish in the Gulf of Mexico or the Mississippi Delta!!! Total catastrophe, makes the Exxon Valdiz spill look like a kindergarten play.

Maybe someday soon, the idealist and post-racial president will understand his true power, pursue his agenda of change, and we will all be better off---------------

For What It's Worth

This post is about that Arizona law again. Here are a few links commenting on the new anti-brown people law. Yes, they are not from Fox News or some right wing website but they are well written and thought out so I'd recommend them to you:

Arizona Burning from The Nation An editorial appearing in today's edition

Desert Derangement Syndrome from the New York Times Another opinion

Civil Rights Lessons from China from The Atlantic's James Fallows who spent the last couple of years reporting from the PRC.

I like Arizona. I tease my wife that when I retire I will lose my teeth, grow my hair long. sport a scruffy beard, and get a job as one of the gunfighters who prowl the streets of Tombstone. I really want to ride a mule to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and camp on the less commercialized "North Rim." Sounds like a helluva good idea for our 30th wedding anniversary.

But the powers that be in the G C state have ended these dreams----no way will I bring my chihuahuas without papers to such a locale!!!

Stephen Stills had it right all those years ago:

"Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away
We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down."

For What It's Worth Buffalo Springfield

Even with 10% plus unemployment, I don't see a lot of "Americans" lining up for those agricultural jobs in the fields...............

Both Sides Now

"Bows and Flows of Angel Hair

And Ice Cream Castles in the Air

And Feathered Canyons Everywhere

I've looked at Clouds that Way"

---Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell

Dubya got trashed by his own party for trying to pass immigration reform--John McCain (R-AZ) was one of the prime movers for this reform. The present representatives of the people in WaWa, District of Corruption, refuse to move on immigration reform. John McCain, 2010 version, blames the Obama administration for Arizona's new " got your papers?" law targeting immigrants even thought profiling is still illegal(?!?!?!?). Lindsey Graham, R-SC and also a former proponent of immigration reform, now links any progress on this issue to the financial reform bill congress is also working on. Gotta wonder about these guys we elected who can't work on two critical issues at the same time. Gotta wonder how many sides of the same issue any one senator can be---------"Both Sides Now" may not be enough.............

It's criminal that this law passed and equally criminal that rather than solving the problem of immigration at the federal level, which is where it should be addressed, this issue and the immoral law it has engendered has become a political football and a game of finger-pointing is the best our high-priced senators and representatives, both Democrats and Republicans, can do!!!

Music

My daughter recently had a facebook post( "Escape Club's "I'll be there" stops me in my tracks whatever I may be doing and I could cry in a second. What is your favorite, meaningful song like that?") about a song that was very meaningful to her. Our friend fabpeng is doing a music series on his blog. So, not to be left out, here's a few songs with some special meaning for us-----from some raunch by the Stones to the wonderful images of John Prine and our favorite version of the national anthem from Woodstock Sunday AM----------even the Bob Marley song that helped inspire the name of this blog..............

Hope you enjoy them as much as we do.............

"Right"-eous & Christian?????

Lately I've rediscovered an author that had a great effect on me in college, lo those many years ago. I saw a couple of references in articles I'd read, probably in The Atlantic, and I proceeded to find some of his writings. I refer to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit (!?!?!?) theologian and a paleontologist who was on the team that classified Peking Man. One of his quotes appears on the header of this blog.

Now I am not very religious. If asked, I usually respond R.C.L. (Roman Catholic Lapsed). So how do I reconcile having this Jesuit as an influence? Well, Teilhard is logical. He's a scientist. While he tends to a Christian interpretation of phenomena, he maintains his analytical bent. His works aren't filled with "God" but rather man's search for the "Unity." I might take some issue with his assertion that mankind is the apogee of evolution but I do agree with his idea of continued mental and spiritual evolution to join the noosphere.

Where we presently reside is very ostentatiously "Christian." There is an evangelical mega-church just a few blocks north of us and a Baptist mega-church four blocks to the south. Most of the citizens in this city are self-avowed Christians. "God bless" is almost as dominant a form of greeting as "hello" or "good-bye." The former mayor had an "important" conference on a constitutional issue recently---President Obama's speech to school children. This is "Nobama" land, for sure. Why he's a socialist!!!

And why are these Christians so afraid of socialism? Likely because they have forgotten to read the New Testament. This is "eye for an eye" and "homosexuality is abomination" land. Right out of Leviticus and the Books of the Old Testament. We don't hear about "turn[ing] the other cheek", "let he who is without sin cast the first stone", or "love thy neighbor as thyself". Much less the sharing of food and lodging in the Christian community described in Acts or the Epistles of St. Paul. I guess I'm saying I don't see a lot of Christianity being practiced by today's Christians.

God doesn't have a flowing white beard---that's an anthropomorphism, endowing human traits on the deity to make him "understandable" to humankind. The problem is we've overdone this. I can accept a deity as the entity that fired off the Big Bang, the energy that started the universe spinning and expanding. But I cannot accept racism and discrimination being excused as Christians following their Master. These people are following the Jewish faith with the "vengeful God" and the Pharisees. As I recall, these same were cast out of the Temple and the Messiah was to bring a new order---"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light."

Maybe our God-fearing "right"-eous people need to revisit the teachings of the Christ. Start with the Sermon on the Mount. And how socialistic is it to multiply loaves and fishes so the poor might have a meal? Thanks, I'll stick with Teilhard and his more realistic view of the Unity.

BANG

"There are several versions of the text of the Second Amendment, each with slight capitalization and punctuation differences, found in the official documents surrounding the adoption of the Bill of Rights.^[4] One such version was passed by the Congress, which reads:^[5]

“

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

”

Another version is found in the copies distributed to the states, and then ratified by them, which had this capitalization and punctuation:^[6]

“	A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Wikipedia

Now, the last week has had a Second Amendment rally and the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. One might think the two events were umbilically connected. We find it sad that on the issue of gun control no-one will move to the middle ground.

There is nothing wrong with firearms. My father had a rifle and taught us to shoot it, "hunting" crows at the town dump. I wish I'd learned to hunt---I love venison, elk, and moose meat. However I don't think these meats would be quite so tasty if one had to pick shell fragments from an automatic weapon out of the carcasses before butchering........

Automatic weapons were invented for one purpose---warfare. Machine guns and automatic repeating weapons are used by the military----soldiers tasked to defend their country. They have no business in the hands of children, drug dealers, or ordinary citizens. Just think about the Mexican drug wars currently being contested---the US is the marketplace, ergo the profit center for the cartels. It also serves as the source for their weaponry because of our lack of control over the purchase of automatic weapons. What a grisly balance of trade---import the drugs, export the guns!!! The case could be made that Mexico's travails are the fault of the US!!!!

And no matter how I read the two versions of the Second Amendment I cannot see any justification in them for the sale to the public of automatic weapons. I know the NRA interpretation is that any restriction on gun ownership is an infringement and the liberal freaks say the Amendment applies only to militia being armed. Somewhere in the middle is the answer---automatic weapons for the militia (which at the time of the framing of the Constitution was the equivalent of the present day National Guard, not the "militia" groups so en vogue along the border and among the ultra-right secessionists) and guns that are suitable for hunting or sport-shooting for the masses. This won't end the black market in AK-47s and Kalashnikovs but it might lessen their availability a bit more than the lack of regulation presently in practice. And the NRA people and hunters can still have their "right to bear arms." As long as we stop short of arming the bears............or should we????