No Photos, No Music, Just Ranting, Sorry

On Monday, April 12, the Missoula City Council will discuss the proposed anti-discrimination bill and many people on both sides of the issue will show to state their views.

I don't know what it is like to be gay, but I know what it is like to be bullied. It began when I started school, because I was one of the smallest kids in the school, and I wore thick glasses, a rarity in those days among grade-schoolers. "Hey, 4-eyes!" was the signal I was about to get my ass kicked. In middle school, came "Chuck you Farley," another signal I was about to get my ass kicked. Calling me Chuck still puts me in fight or flight mode.

For years I ran from bullies, until I learned that didn't work. Pop said he always just whipped the shit out of bullies, but he had a twin brother to back him up. However, he still insisted I stand my ground and fight back. My track skills atrophied, and I took more beatings. I began to berserk a bit and cause more damage to my attackers than it was worth and then during the four years of high school, I grew 10 inches and gained 48 pounds.

The first time I was called a queer in high school, it was being used synonymously with nerd, and I didn't know the already accepted urban meaning. Strange and odd I had in aces, and that was the dictionary definition at the time. I have been called queer many times since then, because I like to converse with friends, and quite frankly...well, some of them are queer.

It wasn't always so. I had a friend come out in college, and for some time I shunned him, as did many others. I'm not sure exactly where the tipping point occurred, but I recognized his being my friend as more important than his sexual orientation. He never represented any threat to me. That was in Eugene. Later, whenever I passed through San Francisco, he and his partner always had a place for me to stay. We hit a place called the Cabaret one night and had some serious fun.

Bullies have been with us, since human history began, and they have been mirrored in nature forever by the larger stealing food from the smaller. They try to appear powerful by terrorizing those smaller and weaker than themselves. Since they fear any they perceive as different than themselves, they are always looking for excuses to attack others. Carefully created propaganda can have bullies bellowing in herds. Look around this country, and you will see the process in action. Our last national administration was made up mostly of bullies, and the media is still full of them.

Back to today's issue of equal rights for all people no matter their sexual orientation. A bunch of Bible thumpers are yelling abomination, and shouting they have a right to discriminate and god is on their side, yadda, yadda, blah, blah. The dictionary meaning for discriminate is "to recognize a distinction." We're not talking about discrimination here; we're talking about prejudice: "preconceived opinion which is not based on reason or experience." In short--ignorance.

Personally, I don't care what consenting adults do with each other, as long as they don't force others to participate. I have big problems with the snake handlers in the south and the traumas they inflict upon their children. Those assholes shouldn't be allowed to have children. Meanwhile, homosexuals have no more tendency to prey on others than heterosexuals, but the Bible thumpers don't want them adopting or teaching children. Speaking of Bible thumpers, dare we bring up how the world's largest religious bureaucracy is lumbering around hiding and defending the sexual predations their minions have practiced for centuries?!

Sinead O'Connor was so right about the pope on SNL, and the catholics came out of the woodwork to harass her everywhere she went.

That pious dress-wearing man condemns other men who wear dresses. That strikes me as hypocrisy. In fact, just thinking about that whole mess angers me too much, and I must change the subject.

The Dalai Lama is coming. This guy is the real deal. He has a firm spiritual base, is still learning, is willing to admit his mistakes, looks for dialog and is a true agent of peace. May all the powers that be bless him and this visitation.

I took time out to read the comics. Some of the oldies in constant circulation start to finish include Bloom County, Boondocks and Calvin and Hobbes. My selection varies as some come and go, and others change, but I'm serious about finding laughs every day (seems almost an oxymoron). I linked the home site for the biggest batch of titles I know to Facebook. I'm going to restore the comics links on this blog, too, but not right now.

All Christians blindly following the neo-con agenda need to read the sermon on the mount and other teachings by the man they call Lord, before the conservatives chop everything out of the Bible they consider too liberal. Look at what Jesus said not what every jump-on-the-bandwagon scam artist through the centuries said. Don't look to current religious leaders for your answers, because they are full of shit, and they've sold out to the dark side. Those frauds haven't changed since Jesus' time when he compared them to tombs whitewashed outside but full of rotten meat and dead men's bones.

Yes, I'm talking about the pope again, and the Christian Coalition, Pat Robertson, Hagee, Dobson, and all those self-righteous fakers. They appear to be sheep only to lead the sheep, and are wolves. That's bad imagery, because I like wolves.

Back to the dunderheads who will be at the meeting shouting against equal rights for everyone. I'm not sure I have time to waste on such ignorance, but I should be there for my friends on the other side...

Life presents another dilemma.

I didn't even turn my computer on all day yesterday. I'm thinking of making that a regular ritual. Now, I've blown my pipes clean with a rant and can get on with other things today. I sat down to rant about the war, Obama, Democrats, Republicans, etc., but this is the 21st century, and it is way past time to allow all humans equal rights, with, of course, the exceptions for those wishing to harm others.

Equal Rights 4 Everyone

Jesus was a Socialist; McCain is a Warmonger

Going beyond describing Democrats as "tax and spend," and liberals as Satan worshipers, the McCain camp has labeled Obama a Socialist, and Fox has trumpeted the news. So many of the people supporting the McCain/Palin ticket claim to be Christians. How can they ignore how the GOP has completely sold out to anti-Christian values? The current administration is up to their eyeballs in lies, greed and destruction.

There are a ton of videos online about McCain voters being terrified because Obama is an AMT (arab, muslim terrorist). What the fuck!

Where do they get that shit? OK, I know one place, in addition to GOP rallies, FOX (faux) News. I watched it regularly, because I liked to hear both sides of arguments, and, at first, O'Reilly seemed to be a crusty old independent, as I consider myself to be. Then I realized he's a lying sack of shit. Every time some one accuses Fox of being slanted to the right, the network claims to host more liberals than conservatives. That's just another falsehood, as the count goes four to one the other way. Fox employs the biggest liars in American media, except for Rush Limbaugh. That asshole is the biggest of all, but O'Really and Hannity are both in the top five.

How can intelligent people watch or listen to all that crap and believe it? I have to tell you it is blowing my mind. Have they been completely brain-washed, or are they brain dead?

I must confess I voted for McCain once. It was in the Arkansas primary of 2000. At that time, I still thought he lived up to the "maverick" label. He had won the New Hampshire primary and was looking good. Nobody liked that smug little prick from Texas, but then a funny thing happened in the South. Most people don't realize "THEY" swift-boated McCain, before they swift-boated Kerry. During the debate about flying the Confederate flag in public, a whisper campaign began about McCain fathering a black child. It was one of many lies used to make W the candidate, similar to those which helped him win re-election.

After W took office, and the "Maverick" began to kiss ass and comply to party wishes, I looked the other way. Now, he's trying to distance himself from this corrupt administration, after voting with them, as they trashed the constitution and lied their way around the world. He claims to be an economy saver, but he voted for the deregulation that caused the current mess and profited from it.

I was considering voting Nader (again), but then I chickened out, when McCain chose Palin. Some of you have seen me around town, with my "Worst President Ever" t-shirt, and there's a photo in a previous post on this blog. McCain could make that obsolete in no time, and Palin, as his successor, could drop W to third. It's a sobering thought.

McCain doesn't think we have enough war in the world. He's made it very plain he would be willing to start more. Suggesting we might bomb Iran was beyond stupid, and his bellicose stance towards Russia is alarming. Tortured as a POW, in Vietnam, he said he would never support torture and then reversed himself completely. Torture is only one of many crimes he has supported with his vote.

This asshole calls Obama elitist for being well-educated, well-read and well-informed, while he, himself, owns more property than he can count. He calls Obama a socialist for wanting to move some of the tax burden back to the rich. The Reagan revolution began the wholesale looting of the government to enrich corporations and their already rich owners and bosses. Tax cuts were among the shouted slogans (memes), but they only applied to the rich. Claiming they were going to shrink government, they began to systematically cut every public service they could, while increasing expenses for weapons and financing wars supplied by their corporate cronies.

The last good Republican president, Ike, warned about the military-industrial complex. Contemporary Republicans have completely sold out to it. They've developed one of the most effective propaganda campaigns in history. So many Christians think those crooks support Christian values.

Wake up! Smell the napalm!

Christians should read their Bibles without listening to a bunch of rich, greedy preachers telling them what the book means. They should start with the Sermon on the Mount, because it is the heart sutra of Christianity. Expand from there through all of Jesus' words, paying close attention to the parables. What a storyteller the man was, and his stories had deep, eternal meaning. He promoted peace, love and charity, not profit-making and war.

I personally don't believe in an all-powerful, all-knowing being who created everything, in six days, and told the Hebrews to kill every man, woman and child who blocked their migration to the promised land. If it was true, Jesus made it plain those days were over.

We are entering the season when Christians celebrate the birth of their savior and his life story. It is a story worth repeating with timeless meaning. Christ, he was born in a barn! He was apprenticed and raised a poor working man. When he began to speak publicly, he spoke to and for the poor. He offended the rich and powerful, by exposing their hypocrisy, and they had him put to death.

That's a different biography than W has, for example. Let's start with his silver-spoon birth, quickly move through his spoiled childhood and his cruelty to animals and humans, and emphasize his rich daddy and his rich daddy's friends. They gave him everything, got him into Yale, kept him out of Vietnam, helped him buy companies, bailed him out when those companies failed, put him in the Texas governor's mansion, made him their figure-head and bought him the White House. I must admit, I was prejudiced from the beginning against him because he belonged to so many peer groups I despised, including spoiled rich kids and drunken frat rats

Let us consider the government, which oversaw Jesus' execution. Occupying legions of the Roman Empire held power and Herod's puppet government followed their orders. Jesus could be born in similar circumstances today, in Iraq. We, of course, are the occupying force. Our W resembles, not only the king with no clothes, but the fiddling Roman emperor, Nero.

Voting their values has a host of people serving the rich as drones, workers and cannon fodder. Still they claim to follow the poor, compassionate man, whom the government executed, as a terrorist, 2000 years ago.

We are Empire! And, reading the Bible clearly shows empires always fall.

History does indeed repeat, and it is time to stop the merry-go-round.

I'm Pissed Again

And there is a fireplug to piss on, but what is it doing there?

And what am I pissed about this time? A little news crept through my screening system about McNut trying to blame the Democrats for the economic melt-down, while claiming it isn't really that bad, after voting for the neo-cons deregulation agenda for years. That pisses me off. They demand a "free" market, which means let them make all the money they can at everyone else's expense. They want everything deregulated and controlled by the "free" market. "Free market" is a meme, just as "democracy" is. Does everybody know what memes are? They are advanced advertising, mental viruses spreading with a false image plastered over a hideous reality. The people throwing these memes around are greedy enough to bring the whole system down. When they do, they hide their spoils and try to blame someone else for the situation.

While we're on the subject of hypocrites, I want to consider the disparity between what Christ taught and what Christians now believe. Jesus lost his temper when he discovered the money-changers in the temple. It is pretty plain people who sold religion for a profit and sought earthly wealth and power, while claiming to be holy were not his chosen people. The Bible said a few things about charity. It didn't say to cut charity to the bone, in order to get richer, quicker. Chogyam Trungpa wrote a book entitled "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, in which he discussed this problem in detail.

That's a couple of piss-offs for today, and I must be on my way. I can always add more here, or anywhere else on the blog. It's a basic that going to a blog and reading left-to-right, down the page reverses time as it goes from now to back then. With links, revisions and updates, it becomes more tangled.

Wishing all long life, health and happiness.

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