'Cause now when christians sit with Pagans, only pumpkin pies are burning - Dar Williams, The Christians and The Pagans
The War on Christmas Continues...
In 2009, christianity suffered so much that even Rick Warren had to beg for money, most likely because jesus was going to descend and kill him if he didn't get a quick influx of cash. However, with everyone caught in Rick Warren's shameless use of Religion to make himself wealthy an under reported story from Vernon Hills, IL (just North of the City) finds the poor poor church being persecuted. From the Chicago Tribune:
When the Rev. Michael Garanzini, Loyola University Chicago's president, needed $15 million for a new classroom building, he turned to John Cuneo Jr., the Lake County businessman whose prominent family had a history of supporting the Catholic university.
Cuneo had something grander in mind. He suggested giving the university the historic Cuneo Museum and Gardens in Vernon Hills, including the mansion's art and furnishings, an adjacent 50 acres, and funds for upkeep of the property. The gift from Cuneo, his wife, Herta, and the Cuneo Foundation, estimated at about $50 million, is the largest in the school's history.
The Church wanted $15 million but got an estate deeded to them worth $50 million. But, the christians in this land have convinced themselves they are under attack and suffering biblical (ha ha) persecution.
Anyone recall when a Secular Humanist Organization was granted an estate worth millions?
But, christianity in America is under siege. Many false christians in this country use the less skeptical piety of their fellow believers to advance themselves and their personal beliefs. Trumpeting the way by lying and peals of false piety is Fox News with nightly segments designed to hijack religion for their use.
The Punk Ass Bitch Republicans and their Fox News cheerleaders co-opted christianity to use it as a wedge. Because the entire REMFpublican platform is to convince their vegetative supporters that even though the Republican Party hates America, wants to destroy the Constitution, prays for successful Terrorist Attacks and uses the deaths of Americans to advance and enrich themselves all Fox has to say is so and so Republican is a christian.
The damn Chicago Cubs failed again and will not win the World Series. Most likely, the damn Cubs will never win the Series...
I spend to much damn time listening to Sports Talk Radio. I spend to much time watching baseball on TV. I need to become a grumpy White Sox fan or icky Cardinals fan or {shudder} Soul Sealing Hell Spawned Yankees fan. Or I need to more powerfully divest myself of Sports "Fever".
After two straight winning season in 2007 and 2008 the Cubs as a team choked both time in the Playoffs. While Lou Piniella is a good manager over the long hard slog of a 162 game baseball season and he's done a nice job of utilizing and maximizing his bench players potential; The short 5 game first round playoff series is too dicey and often one bad game or a couple hot players can take it over and crush the hopes and dreams of little Cubbie fans worldwide. Now, it's not totally Piniella's fault as the idea of playing 162 games and then having your Championship chances ruined by a "mere" 3 losses is bad planning by the MLB.
But, it's all based on the drive for more games and more revenue and if the Baseball Cartel could figure out a way to add more games and keep Fenway, Wrigley and Yankee Home Run Stadium open year round they would but Chicago winters, especially lately, aren't too conducive for that prospect. That's enough of Money Ball and wistful lamentations for Baseball purity.
The 2009 Cubs failed as an organization. Several players did very well, Derek Lee especially. But several decisions and baseball incidents caused the team to collapse.
The first and worst move was the acquisition of known malcontent Milton Bradley. Bradley appears to be a not nice person who finds ways to blame everyone but himself for his extensive history of problems. The Cubs ostensibly claimed they acquired Bradley to be a left-handed run producing hitter. Bradley does not drive in a large amount of runs and was not what the Cubs needed. So Bradley was what his history advertised and not what the Cubs declared... To make room for Bradley's forced signing the Cubs traded Mark DeRosa.
DeRosa has always been considered a role-player but if his last 4 seasons are taken alone his numbers show him to be an everyday player, who will produce a .285 average, 15-20 home runs, score and drive in 80+ runs. DeRosa was widely acknowledged as a good influence, clubhouse leader and showed a willingness to play a variety of positions for the Cubs during his two seasons with the team. Each of those attributes turned out to be exactly what the Cubs needed and missed in 2009.
The Cubs made the risky decision to enter the season with no backup for talented but slightly injury prone 3rd Baseman Aramis Ramirez and it turned out to probably be the worst cost-benefit analysis of the season. Ramirez got hurt and missed significant time during the season (DeRosa could have filled in at 3rd) but with DeRosa gone and when Ramirez went on the Disbaled List, the Cubs moved Mike Fontenot from 2nd Base to 3rd. Fontenot was to be given the shot to be the everyday 2nd baseman and he might have been okay this year if he also did not have to worry about playing everyday at the hot corner. The added pressure along with being a regular everyday player hampered his ability to adjust at the plate and kept Fontenot in an extended hitting slump.
Incredibly talented Carlos Zambrano again exploded into full blown Big Z meltdown mode in his underwhelming season. Zambrano is such a gifted baseball player he's got Nuke Laloosh's pitching power with the hitting ability of Crash Davis, unfortunately as Costner alluded to in Bull Durham Zambrano's apparently also got Laloosh's "5 cent head".
The off season abandonments of Felix Pie, Casey McGehee, and Jason Marquis contributed to the sad bad 2009 season.
And Non-Cub Alfonso Soriano continued his slow decline into baseball agedness. The Cubs have 6 years and $100 Million USC left of his .250 hitting Designated Hitter fielding ability left.
Fortunately for Cubs Fans the season's withering won't be seared into their psyche like 1969 or 1984 or 2003 or 2008...
And I don't need your civil war It feeds the rich while it buries the poor ~ Guns N' Roses, Civil War
The Republican Party talks a big game about being the Moral, America Defending Free Market Capitalists but it's a huge put on to win votes. Republicans are Immoral, Chicken Hawk, Big Government, Corporate Socialists... Republicans have embraced everything they say they are against.
And many Americans continue to vote for and support the Republican Party who have whipped them into a state of uncivil discourse and use their displaced rage. Of course, some of those people call themselves Conservatives or Anarcho-Libertarian Free Staters but if you voted for Bush and Cheney and consistently tell yourself 'I have to vote for the Republican to cancel out that Loony Left Coast Liberals America Hating Vote' then you are a Republican.
The Republican Party doesn't care why you vote for them just as long as you do. In order to win your vote, they will lie about any and everything. They will claim superior morality, fervent religiosity, hyper patriotism, and Big Brass War Gonads. They claim to have all those attributes even when it's been shown they lack them.
The Republicans claimed to be the Super-Patriots who won World War III over the Soviet Union under President Reagan. So, let us suppose a person born in the Soviet Union denounced Ronald Reagan as a "massive fraud" unfit for command and then declared any who disagreed with that assessment to be Traitors. A Soviet! A Commie, A foot soldier of Nikita Kruschev denouncing the President and what does the Republican Party do? It's as if Republican Jean Schmidt is in bed with Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev in their criticism of an American President as Schmidt secretly whispers in the ears of her rabid supporters she agrees with Commies and is against the President of the United States. Jean Schmidt and the Republican Party are Commie Lovers!
The Republicans have enshrined a Soviet, Orly Taitz, as the Speaker of the Holy Word! A Soviet! The Republicans the Party of Ronald Reagan, Defeater of the Evil Empire are now in league with a Soviet woman who was formally rebuked and chastised by an American Judge.
The Strongest Pro War Proponents in the Republican Party are without a doubt the ones who had no intention of serving in the military themselves. When it came to fighting overseas and the prospect of strapping on, being shipped overseas and putting rounds down range Chicken Hawk Republicans have time after time shown they would rather not "Defend America" and let someone else fight.
Republican criminal Tom DeLay complained 'ethnic minorities had already filled all the slots' when he tried to enlist for Vietnam. Dick Cheney received 6 deferments from service during Vietnam, he had other priorities. Dick Cheney who gave interviews in 1994, when Bill Clinton was President, saying a long occupation of Baghdad and Iraq was a bad idea and not worth the casualties then belittled the Democrats for not defending America from Iraq during the 1990's. (Watch the video below).
The Republican Party is the Party of Superior Morality. Just ask any Republican. High Ranking members of the moral Republican Party denounced and Impeached Bill Clinton a Democrat. While the impeachment of Bill Clinton was occurring Leading Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was busy leaving his dying MS stricken wife for a new woman, who would become his third wife. This wasn't a new move by Gingrich who became an adulterer back in the 1970's and continued his entire time in Washington DC.
First term Republican Senator David Vitter, fresh from the backwaters of Louisiana, apparently brought too much country gentry with him when he entered the swamp of Washington DC because as soon as he got to the big city he began frequenting the type of "fast" women I'm sure his mother warned him about and his Campaign manager assured his deluded voters he was staunchly against.
The rabid infidelity of the Republican Party could then possibly be attributed to the morass of loose women available in Washington DC but...
On Father's Day Republican Governor Mark Sanford hiked the AT (Appalachian Trail)... in Argentina with a tan lined beauty. Of course, the AT isn't in Argentina and the beauty wasn't the mother of his children or his wife.
Disgusting Republican Mark Foley hit on underage pages. That is Male underage pages.
Republican Senator Larry Craig propositioned a male Police Officer in a bathroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Bush and The Republican Party voted to expand Medicare, a purely Socialist Enterprise, while they controlled the Presidency and the Congress. Now that Obama is seeking to Reform Helath Care they are waving the Bloody Red shirt of Socialism in front of their enraged supporters. But, don't expect the Republicans in Government to decline their Socialized Health Care, the access to is the only reason Dick Cheney is still alive, because if he did not have Socialized Medicine Dick Cheney would be dead, after having been denied all Health Care coverage for having a pre-existing heart condition. Of course, Republicans wouldn't dare vote against Medicare because then the old people who have been duped their entire lives into supporting the evil Republican Party would see the party cares more for profit than people.
The Free Market is the Great Equalizer say the Republicans. Without US Government interference the prices for everything in the US would be lower. Now this is a tricky one for me because I am for protecting American Companies from overseas ones but what the Republican Party is fighting to do, using the power of Government, is to protect the profits of those companies. The Republican Party fights against the individuals who actually work for these companies. This is why the Republicans will fight to keep drugs from American Companies the only legal ones, they charge higher prices than in Canada for the chemically same drug. This is why the Republican Party fought against the American Auto Workers and for the Foreign owned Auto Companies in Alabama, the workers are not allowed to unionize. The Republicans even support Foreign Companies over American workers.
Keeping Americans wages down is a by product of the number overarching one goal of the Republican Party supporting Corporate profits over people. This is why the Republican Party supports companies like Wal*Mart in shipping manufacturing jobs overseas where labor prices and practices are still inhumane. Republicans love it when people are worked to death for Corporate Profits.
This is why they ignored the southern border and allowed millions of illegal immigrants to stream into the US from Mexico and Central America. Those illegal immigrants can't vote against the Republicans but they sure can undercut wages for American workers and steal American jobs. When was the last time you saw a non-Hispanic working for a Lawn Maintenance Company?
So, the Republicans know all they have to do is tell you they hate Socialism, love morality and will protect America and you'll vote for them, even when they openly work against everything they claim the support...
Update: Do I need to add in the section on Republican Party claims of Fiscal Responsibilty and Bush and Republican Spending Sprees? The $5 Trillion USC for War, the Bank Bailout, the 2007-2008 Crash which destroyed the last 10-15 years worth of Wealth gained by the American people?
Got a Gun
Fact I got Two
That's Okay Man 'cause I love Guns - Glorified G, Pearl Jam
Guns are tools. However, they are tools with the specific function of the projection of deadly force.
2009 has been a year of lament due to gun violence. Besides the common run-of-the-mill accepted gun violence and deaths, the ones were the reader shrugs his shoulders and goes ho-hum another day / another 6 shot at a gang members funeral. There have been spectacular episodes of gun murder as when the typical shooter "a quiet non-violent man who kept to himself" walked into a New York state Immigration center in April and proceeded to murder 13 people before killing himself.
It's hard enough for Police and the Court systems to stay on top of restricting gun access to those who have documented crimes as a recent August incident when a Chicago man shot his wife to death before taking his own life after a Domestic Dispute had been charged with a DB and had an OOP filed against him in 2006.
And then you add on the nearly impossible to predict incidents when some catalyst starts a reaction which results in the slaying of 3 women and the wounding of 9 others while they were in a fucking yoga class by the aforementioned typical shooter, a quiet man who kept to himself, but whose warped and frustrated mind built up edifices of anger, which exploded into a murderous rage. He Ran Amuck and because of the tools he acquired 3 innocent people lost their lives.
Unfortunately, the Toxic Right has been augmenting the gun violence by stoking the fears of deranged and disturbed people with ObamaHitler is coming for your guns. This directly led to the ambush and murder of 3 Pittsburgh police officers at the hands of a Right Wing Extremist Terrorist. Who was specifically acting upon the idea that Police Officers as Obama Government officials were coming to take his guns, under the Obama Gun Ban.
There have been other Right Wing Extremist terror attacks this year, using guns, the murder of Doctor George Tiller and the attack on the Holocaust Museum.
Now, the Toxic Right and elected Republican Congressmen are encouraging people to show up armed to Obama's Town Halls. Why? Why are those who stoked and feed the flames of irrational fears with daily rhetoric about the encroaching Brownshirted ACORN-Nazi-Liberal-Islamo-Marxist-Fascist-Communist Dictatorship, encouraging people to bring guns to Presidential Rallies? And why did they not express the same fervent encouragement for Code Pink or Anti-War protesters to come packing to to Bush or Cheney Rally Round the Flag We Need More War speeches? (There's that nasty old time function again! Rights and patriotism change when a non-Republican is in office. Threatening gun violence is now what Real Americans do!)
I don't know what to do about Gun violence. I have no magic panaceas. But, the violence is reaching levels where it has to be debated. Distressingly the pro-gun argument techniques oft times devolve into: Ahem! Second Amendment. QED. So therefore, and as such as. Because shut up. Also.
It's been made worse as the bureaucratic system to control and ensure guns don't end up in the wrong hands has been shown to be lacking. It's not laziness or corruption which causes inefficiencies in a bureaucratic system, it's just not possible to apply general rules to cover all specifics and to have 100% efficiency when dealing with such a large number of people.
Americans do not want to live in a society with this Sword of Damocles (Barrel of Right Wingers) hanging over our heads. Of being gunned down at school, at a yoga center, at a funeral. Of being mistaken for throwing gang signs when speaking with a hearing disabled person, of being killed by your abusive spouse or of finding oneself at the end of a Birthers AR-15.
But, the empty and corrupt Hollow Men, the Glenn Becks who cavalierly suggest it's Time to Get a Gun when bewailing the Democratic Party are pointing the weapon at that which they want to destroy and easing the fingers of the deranged Protesters on the trigger...
