An Open Letter to All Republicans From a Former Religious Right Activist

The letter is at this link.


I have limited myself to the conclusions for brevity. Read the longer message in the link above.

Conclusion
The Republican problem is a systemic disparagement of government,community, faith in our institutions, family, God's creation and themitigating institutions that put a check on something any partyaligned with a religious movement should know all about: sin. Greed is not the only problem. Human weakness and stupidity (i.e., "sin") is the problem! And the genius of the American system is supposedly thatwe have a ystem of checks and balances to mitigate our fallen state. You have destroyed those checks and balances.

Bush felt no guilt about promoting completely unqualified people to high posts entirely on the basis of social, ideological or political connections. I'll take that a step further: I don't think Bush ever wanted the government to work. You Republicans hate our government as bitterly as our terrorist enemies do. You have been trying to deconstruct it. Since the government is seen as the enemy of freedom by you, if it doesn't work so much the better!

We have met the enemy and he is us! When Islamists tried to destroy our country by flying planes into the Pentagon and the World Trade Towers, we rightly called them terrorists. When the Republicans in the Congress and the White House set about destroying our country, our standing in the world, our military and our economy, but much more effectively, you called them statesmen. It is time for all Americans
-- including all you who are patriotic Republicans -- to sweep away these putrid earth-consuming, family killing, government bashing "me" worshipping individualistic fools--that or to watch our country be swept away by them. We can't afford eight more years of this willful ignorance. Obama in 2008!

Frank Schaeffer is the author of CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (OrAlmost All) Of It Back.

Please, be attentive, be intelligent, be reasonable, be responsible.

You have no business to believe me.

I ask you to believe nothing that you cannot verify for yourself. . .

If you have not a critical mind, your visit here is useless.

G.I. Gurdjieff

Don't mind the gap.

I have been on other projects and learning what is going on in competing online venues. Let's resume with what I have read today.

Here is a good one:

Oil: the Lifeblood of Small-Town America

This excellent post brings to our attention that small town America was disrupted in the last century by the loss of its railroads and the emergence of highways and cheap petroleum. Now, the dislocations in the petroleum industry threaten to cause new disruptions in the remnants of that small town existence.

I grew up in a small town in central Kentucky. I lived on the edge of town, on the main highway that connected the commercial interests in my town with the distributors in the industrial center 60 miles away. I spent a good deal of my summer days lounging in a tree, reading and noting the trucks that went by that supplied my town. That commerce was fueled by 25 cent gasoline and diesel. When I was very young, I went to the train depot every night with my father to pick up the Red Flash Edition (final) of the evening newspaper. I watched the coal powered locomotives disappear and be replaced by diesel electrics. I rode those trains to the industrial center occasionally. Then the passenger service ended and finally the local freight service disappeared after I left for military service. Gasoline remained cheap and the cars and trucks doubled in number. By the mid-60s, it was near a sacramental requirement that ones automobile be a muscle car and burn gasoline at prodigious rates in the energetic consumption of tires turned into white smoke.


I had been out of the country for most of the 60s and I was treated to mild culture shock on my return.

Other things I have read today.

God and Evolution

Coming Soon: Nontrepreneur Nation

Please, be attentive, be intelligent, be reasonable, be responsible.

"You have no business to believe me.

I ask you to believe nothing that you cannot verify for yourself. . .

If you have not a critical mind, your visit here is useless."

G.I. Gurdjieff

CNN.com users react to Kennedy backing Obama

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/29/kennedy.reax/?iref=hpmostpop

There has been a lot of negative reaction to this by those in all camps. I am a Democrat in all its ways. I have seen the Democrats be the motive force for the outcomes for change and movement in this country that has affected the many and not the few. For all their faults, the extended Kennedy family has been in the forefront of breaking down barriers in the civic process. I see this endorsement
as a way to skip the last breath of the current generation of political activity that has gone on unbroken through Bill Clinton, a man I admire and GW Bush, a man I have profound differences with. The Kennedies, in a stroke, have struck at the root of politics as usual.

Obama has not had time to accrete beholdens and encumberances that will continue with Hillary. I admire her as a leader and as a capable human being. I see that her run against the Neos is one of "good neo"Hillary and bad neo, Bush remnant.

Obama will be a break in the status-quo. He will be a new factor for the competing political action groups to approach and to turn their way.

I am looking forward to the possibility of hearing not Hail to the Chief but rather, The World Turned Upside Down. It was played at Yorktown when the American Insurgent Forces received the British sword of surrender.

Hear it and read the lyrics here.
http://www.contemplator.com/england/worldtur.html

God Save the USA

Lantern Bearer
Peter Lee Sapp's Grandson
He fell at Nashville in blue

Please, be attentive, be intelligent, be reasonable, be responsible.

You have no business to believe me.

I ask you to believe nothing that you cannot verify for yourself. . .

If you have not a critical mind, your visit here is useless.

G.I. Gurdjieff

Busnies as Usual

I have just come across a concept that seems to have been hidden in plain sight. It is called "snowballing". Any process that accretes some quality or quantity to a base is like rolling a ball of snow across other snow to make the ball bigger.

That concept has come to be applied to consumer spending. It is noticeable in mortgage lending, consumer debt and automobile financing rollovers. At first it may have been a convenience to a person who was in a period of reduced income but had positive prospects for being able to realize greater income later. It is now applied with abandon and is business as usual for here-to-fore lending institutions that required the application of savings or reserves from the borrower to pay down so me debt or to forgo more debt.

With automobile debt, there seems to be a significant bubble of debt that is being accreted whenever the value of a used vehicle does not support a reasonable total payoff from one vehicle to another. The remnant debt is rolled into the new financing for the new vehicle. It is called being upside down in a contract.

I have now seen two news stories that describe such situations in auto loans. The resulting situation for the subjects in the story is that the debt has become unmanageable and the resulting penalties are predatory as regards the lending institution.

I am now shopping for a replacement vehicle. I have an SUV that is now 8 years old and it is in need of major repairs. Fortunately it is paid off. The repairs, however, are such that the cost of such exceeds the value of the vehicle even repaired. The materials and parts are available from suppliers but the labor to install them and to make to the adjustments for their operation is now off the page. This is as a result of the accretion of taxes, fees and insurance that municipalities have slipped into business liscening. The business owner must recover those expenses from his customers. The result is that the life of a once repairable product is reduced because the cost exceeds the value.

I shopped at a dealership that posts all its cars with a "no haggle" price. It is not until one enters the office of the business closer that the true price of the vehicle is known. I have walked out of two closing offices on this go 'round. At one time the dealer prep, tax, license and tranfer fees were listed on the vehicle. They now come in the closing documents. This is where the haggling begins. Once the financing closer gets through, the bargain or reasonably priced vehicle becomes a "snowball". I have found that the old simple interest contract of just 8 years ago has now become a complicated scheme of acccretion that makes the difference between owning a vehicle and being owned by it. the addons and the interest can reach 30% over the life of the financing. I ended a lease on another vehicle a couple of years ago. The contract had been loaded and the close out of the vehicle caused me to return the vehicle and to withhold the end of contract cost that had been creatively worked in to a snowball. I let that go to small claims and when my copy of the contract did not match the hidden contract of the financing agent, the claims were thrown out.


"To live outside the law, you must be honest."
Bob Dylan
Absolutely Sweet Marie

The snowball of real estate took its pounding. There is some talk among analyst that the complications of auto financing now festering will break out soon.

Anything that does not contribute to an orderly society will sooner or later find itself in reproach.

Please, be attentive, be intelligent, be reasonable, be responsible.

You have no business to believe me.

I ask you to believe nothing that you cannot verify for yourself. . .

If you have not a critical mind, your visit here is useless.

G.I. Gurdjieff

Tighter Gun Control?

US passes tighter gun control law

The US Congress has approved the first major gun control law since 1994, improving background checks on buyers.

The bill was prompted by the deaths of 32 people at Virginia Tech University in April, when a mentally ill student used two guns he had been able to buy.

The law clarifies what mental health records must be included in checks and gives funds to states to help automate the processing of records.

It has been widely welcomed but critics say it will do "more harm than good".

Continue news story here -

This is something that cuts both ways. There is an obvious gap in
the head-space spark gap of some human beings. In my region, we have had several gruesome murders over the past month. The weapon of choice was a firearm for the many. Gasoline and a match was the second . All the perpetrators had access to fire arms in the face of some giant red flags. There have been thwarted firearms incidents in several high schools. The level of stupidity has been monumental. The level of outrage is just missing among the rabid defenders of unlimited access to guns.

I grew up with unlimited access to firearms and ammunition. There were still gun incidents in the community but none seemed to rise to the level of those are now being seen.

I believe that firearms familiarization and training should be more institutionalized than it is. Ability and respect for the power of the weapon seems to be more effective than the glorification of the "cold dead hand" method sought by the NRA. Something is missing.

I looked at what training is available in the State of Florida that is provided by the NRA. It seems that there is no institutional training, there is only for profit training. Check here.

None of the shooters or gun concealers and flashers in recent incidents seem to have been on anybodies "heads-up" list. They all had perfectly legal guns or perfectly illegal guns. None seem to have had access to firearms training. Most were children of broken homes, failed educational attainment and histories that would block their participation even in military training.

I am a supporter of the prevention of invasion of privacy from the top
of government down. I am a supporter of people knowing what is going
on around them at the family, clan and village level. The worst cases
have arisen in situations where some family member, extended family
member or fellow village person knew of some aberrant behavior of the
eventual shooters. They knew that the person had firearms. They
chose however to admit to, ". . . didn't want to get in their
business." The outcome was tragic.

The story continues.

Lantern Bearer

Please, be attentive, be intelligent, be reasonable, be responsible.

You have no business to believe me.

I ask you to believe nothing that you cannot verify for yourself. . .

If you have not a critical mind, your visit here is useless.

G.I. Gurdjieff

What Makes A "Good" Christmas?

Ben Stein Says It's Not What is Under Your Tree But What's In Your Heart

Some of the best Christmases I have had have been in places where people know very little about Western Christmas. I have experienced the time without the hustle and bustle of getting everything just right in a commercial way. I have had very good "Season of Joy" without being reminded from every media source that the reason of the Holiday is spending.

We tend to forget that there is a Spirit that we celebrate. That Spirit is best expressed in people around the world in the ways of their native culture. In the US, our celebratory theme is a direct lift from Pagan practices of Roman and Teutonic antiquity. Now, some may consider that a slap in the face of conventionality, but to me it serves to remind us that humans have been seeking and celebrating the coming of the Infinite for a long time.

I read a particularly biased blast at Kwanza this past week. I had to respond in a pointed comment that the Entity which is the object of the season was first honored and celebrated in Asia and Africa before it was relayed to Anglos and Teutons. The most ancient traditions relate that the first visitors to the events were Wisemen, Kings of Knowledge from the East and that one of their number was a black African.

I also viewed a presentation called Nativity: The Art and Spirit of the Crèche. That theme is reproducible across a wide swath of cultural expression. It can be very anatomically correct or it can be very impressionistic. It is an expression of diversity and simplicity in a world of seeming empire and rigid dominion for-your-own-good. It is the very antithesis of the dominion of the Temple, of the City of Rome, and the terror of the conventional thought.

The season as expressed by the Crèche is the lesson. It is not parochial or sectarian. It is ancient and universal. It is a lesson of acceptance and perseverance in the face of seeming dominion (enrolling in the census) , persecution (killing of newborns) and lack (being born in a place where animals are quartered).

I have been accused of being too grumpy and not a good participant in the season. I find that my joy is within and needs no promiscuous displays of convention to fuel that joy.

Go! Be joyful!

I AM

Lantern Bearer

Please, be attentive, be intelligent, be reasonable, be responsible.

You have no business to believe me.

I ask you to believe nothing that you cannot verify for yourself. . .

If you have not a critical mind, your visit here is useless.

G.I. Gurdjieff

Greetings of the Season

I am a vendor of the unorthodox and usual. I respect your methods of piety and observance. I am however quite in tuned to this. Give it a listen.

Here are the lyrics.

The Rebel Jesus

as performed by Jackson Browne
on The Chieftans, The Bells of Dublin

All the streets are filled with laughter and light
And the music of the season
And the merchants' windows are all bright
With the faces of the children
And the families hurrying to their homes
As the sky darkens and freezes
Will be gathering around the hearths and tables
Giving thanks for God's graces
And the birth of the rebel Jesus


Well they call him by 'the Prince of Peace'
And they call him by 'the Savior'
And they pray to him upon the seas
And in every bold endeavor
And they fill his churches with their pride and gold
As their faith in him increases
But they've turned the nature that I worship in
From a temple to a robber's den
In the words of the rebel Jesus


We guard our world with locks and gun
And we guard our fine possessions
And once a year when Christmas comes
We give to our relations
And perhaps we give a little to the poor
If the generosity should seize us
But if any one of us should interfere
In the business of why there are poor
They get the same as the rebel Jesus


But pardon me if I have seemed
To take the tone of judgement
For I've no wish to come between
This day and your enjoyment
In a life of hardship and of earthly toil
We have need for anything that frees us
So I bid you pleasure And I bid you cheer
From a heathen and a pagan
On the side of the rebel Jesus

I bid you good cheer no matter how you celebrate.

I AM

Lantern Bearer

Please, be attentive, be intelligent, be reasonable, be responsible.

You have no business to believe me.

I ask you to believe nothing that you cannot verify for yourself. . .

If you have not a critical mind, your visit here is useless.

G.I. Gurdjieff