Wow! By 2012 the fleet will be getting about 5mpg less than the 1987 Geo Metro!!! And it only took 'em thirty years.
You know what I say… I say all these wanton auto manufacturers have encouraged consumer wastefulness while colluding and conspiring, in criminally anti-trust fashion, to restrict and restrain the advancements of technology for the express purpose of artificially inflating profits and true market values for decades. They've laid up huge salaries and pensions for themselves; these "captains of industry;" these suit and tie fellows in the boardrooms who justify their gross incomes by how damned savvy they all think themselves. Meanwhile, these self-declared business savants have failed to take any proactive measures to prevent their utter insolvency or reshape the kind of vehicles they bring to market.
As gas prices climbed and the economy faltered, they continued to design and produce new model Ford F350's, and similarly giant, overpowered vehicles for the average Joe who needs to tow a two-story house up a dirt mountain pass. The only hybrid technology they've chosen to really commit to advertising is that which they placed into a four ton, sixteen passenger, in-headrest LCD/DVD standard, SUV to the maudlin tune of a sum 30mpg "achievement."
You know what I say… I say, you live by the dollar, you die by the dollar. Here's a call to capitalists everywhere: If you really believe in the free market then let these bloated, useless, OPEC-whores rot and die. And by the tenants of your free market ideologies, may hundreds of new, small business, forward thinking, technologically innovative auto makers arise to feed on the corpses of GM and their like. And then, if you still want to hand out hundreds of billions of dollars in public monies to for-profit agencies, you can hand it to these newly home-grown, American garage-based entrepreneurs.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Don't Read This: I Wouldn't
"Having this conversation has made me realize that I am willing to lose ideological battles if I get to fight them on the ground. Throughout our converse I find that I was most satisfied - happy and hopeful even - when I entertained the prospect of seeing a public discourse that pushed a Universal package, even as I presumed the package's utter failure to find approval. Alternately, I find neither hope nor happiness within me for Obama's plan, even presuming its victory.
If anything I feel dread: Knowing that the arguments favoring this plan (get a catchy name for it already, I can't keep calling it "Obama's plan") will quietly duck the quality-of-care issues which lie at the heart of the need for reform - the same issues and arguments that led every other wealthy, industrialized nation in the world to demand the Universal system I long for. I lament that we will soon suffer the spectacle of a public discussion on Health Care that finds the two opposed parties employed in a conspiracy of mutual silence; jointly implying that a Universal plan is not even worth considering - such pure, insolvent folly it must be - by not even discussing it.
Long ago I turned off the television because it was stupid and void of meaning. Four or five months ago I was forced to put down the news because it too became stupid. (stupider) Not just the politicians and the spin-men, but everyone - the whole damned nation - lying and feigning ignorance, gouging their own eyes out so as to push their chosen horse forward sans cumbersome reality to get in the way. Debates where both sides conspired to say little and less about important topics; Two minute talking-points and cue-card responses; A 24-hour media that somehow allowed and enabled it all, as though the candidates' mutual silence was in and of itself an authority to be respected; and worst of all, the people who cheered this disgusting process on, many who actually shed tears of joy for it's outcome.
Mostly I live my life in a ready-state of anger and frustration, where placidity is the odd man out. Unfortunately, I may not be a complete asshole, (though clearly a lone-gunman in the making) because I spend most of my time trying to keep this rage suppressed - tucked away somewhere in my stomach or behind my forehead. I walk around carrying a halo of negativity, mumbling insults to myself about all the stupid shit I see and hear. Unable to force a smile for the average stranger, I can at least keep my hatred for him below an audible volume. It has become so bad, in fact, that I am often found wearing ear plugs, that I might at least lower the volume of what I perceive to be the constant, unrepentant insanity with which I am surrounded. I've even stopped reading some of the personal messages friends and family write to me because I don't want to lose any more of my mind to their varied psychoses; to the little notes which I assume are intended solely to spread negativity and disrupt the onset of serenity.
I tell you these things because I think my frustration finds it's home in hopelessness, and I think my hopelessness has this to blame: How is anyone supposed to have hope for themselves or anyone else when we find no one fighting for what we all know and agree is right; No one to act with honor regardless of the foreseeable outcome; no one willing to stand straight, speak intelligently, and set the standard for good - whether their methods will bring victory or not. Lancelot is dead; his decapitated head displayed atop a pike at the entrance to the kingdom, and I'm expected to have hope?
Hope isn't as intangible a thing as everyone thinks. It can be observed. It can be measured. What's more, it doesn't tend to just come into being on its own: You usually have to make it. And it isn't always the cheapest commodity to produce. There's an equivalent exchange - an original investment - required to manufacture hope.
But that price isn't enabling a win by the sacrifice of ideals or a compromise of integrity like so many seem to think... It's harder than that: It's abiding the ideal. It's sacrificing victory in order to play fair. It's handicapping yourself with the burdens of dignity and morality. It's speaking honestly and intelligently, without stooping to the manipulative tactics employed by the enemies of intellect and truth.
That's what inspires hope: A victor who didn't have to become a demon to open the gates of heaven. Anything less only reminds us that everyone is dirty; No one plays fair; Evil is everywhere and it's the only means of progress. Art is just ratings; Law is just popularity; Government is just politics; Love is just a chemical reaction; and death is the end of us all.
Maybe you believe these things are true... Maybe they are. But if so I've got nothing to hope for and you've no right to ask it of me.
Anyway, It's a choice you get to make. I continue to sit comfortably at the sidelines wearing earplugs, throwing flags at illegal plays."
If anything I feel dread: Knowing that the arguments favoring this plan (get a catchy name for it already, I can't keep calling it "Obama's plan") will quietly duck the quality-of-care issues which lie at the heart of the need for reform - the same issues and arguments that led every other wealthy, industrialized nation in the world to demand the Universal system I long for. I lament that we will soon suffer the spectacle of a public discussion on Health Care that finds the two opposed parties employed in a conspiracy of mutual silence; jointly implying that a Universal plan is not even worth considering - such pure, insolvent folly it must be - by not even discussing it.
Long ago I turned off the television because it was stupid and void of meaning. Four or five months ago I was forced to put down the news because it too became stupid. (stupider) Not just the politicians and the spin-men, but everyone - the whole damned nation - lying and feigning ignorance, gouging their own eyes out so as to push their chosen horse forward sans cumbersome reality to get in the way. Debates where both sides conspired to say little and less about important topics; Two minute talking-points and cue-card responses; A 24-hour media that somehow allowed and enabled it all, as though the candidates' mutual silence was in and of itself an authority to be respected; and worst of all, the people who cheered this disgusting process on, many who actually shed tears of joy for it's outcome.
Mostly I live my life in a ready-state of anger and frustration, where placidity is the odd man out. Unfortunately, I may not be a complete asshole, (though clearly a lone-gunman in the making) because I spend most of my time trying to keep this rage suppressed - tucked away somewhere in my stomach or behind my forehead. I walk around carrying a halo of negativity, mumbling insults to myself about all the stupid shit I see and hear. Unable to force a smile for the average stranger, I can at least keep my hatred for him below an audible volume. It has become so bad, in fact, that I am often found wearing ear plugs, that I might at least lower the volume of what I perceive to be the constant, unrepentant insanity with which I am surrounded. I've even stopped reading some of the personal messages friends and family write to me because I don't want to lose any more of my mind to their varied psychoses; to the little notes which I assume are intended solely to spread negativity and disrupt the onset of serenity.
I tell you these things because I think my frustration finds it's home in hopelessness, and I think my hopelessness has this to blame: How is anyone supposed to have hope for themselves or anyone else when we find no one fighting for what we all know and agree is right; No one to act with honor regardless of the foreseeable outcome; no one willing to stand straight, speak intelligently, and set the standard for good - whether their methods will bring victory or not. Lancelot is dead; his decapitated head displayed atop a pike at the entrance to the kingdom, and I'm expected to have hope?
Hope isn't as intangible a thing as everyone thinks. It can be observed. It can be measured. What's more, it doesn't tend to just come into being on its own: You usually have to make it. And it isn't always the cheapest commodity to produce. There's an equivalent exchange - an original investment - required to manufacture hope.
But that price isn't enabling a win by the sacrifice of ideals or a compromise of integrity like so many seem to think... It's harder than that: It's abiding the ideal. It's sacrificing victory in order to play fair. It's handicapping yourself with the burdens of dignity and morality. It's speaking honestly and intelligently, without stooping to the manipulative tactics employed by the enemies of intellect and truth.
That's what inspires hope: A victor who didn't have to become a demon to open the gates of heaven. Anything less only reminds us that everyone is dirty; No one plays fair; Evil is everywhere and it's the only means of progress. Art is just ratings; Law is just popularity; Government is just politics; Love is just a chemical reaction; and death is the end of us all.
Maybe you believe these things are true... Maybe they are. But if so I've got nothing to hope for and you've no right to ask it of me.
Anyway, It's a choice you get to make. I continue to sit comfortably at the sidelines wearing earplugs, throwing flags at illegal plays."
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
I was Assaulted by Voting Officials
I Didn’t Vote
November 4th, 2008
by Roy William Tousignant Jr.
I just returned from my voting precinct: Precinct number 006 at ‘St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church and School’ in Waterford Township, Michigan. I stood in line, I presented the proper credentials, I was issued one voting ballot, and I filled it out. I did not vote.
When I received my ballot I became aware that the Presidential and Vice Presidential tickets had been merged into a single unified ticket. If I had wanted to vote Obama, for example, I would have been forced to vote Biden as well. While this is a horrible policy that strips voters of their right to choose who they feel is most qualified for the number one and number two positions of their federal government, the merger of these offices in and of itself was not the crucible issue before me.
I had come to my polling-place intending to vote for Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates that had not made it onto the Michigan ballot: Gloria La Riva for President and Eugene Puryear for Vice President. These are the candidates of The Party for Socialism and Liberation, and as a small, mostly-marginalized political party, the names of these candidates were not listed among the options before me. So, when I approached the voting booth – my ballot in hand – I meant to write-in these candidates names; whom I felt best represented my interests and desires for the nation at large.
In these politically nepotistic and insular times it seems that a majority of the populace cannot understand why anyone would vote off-ticket. These unnamed, third-party candidates have no real chance of being elected, after all. So why not choose one of the mainstream candidates who, at least, represent the better of the options we are presented with?
There are two primary reasons that I decided to vote for Gloria La Riva. First, I wanted to encourage the party she represents. It is supremely important – in a Democracy – that we support those groups which rise to champion our beliefs on the national stage. If I cast my vote for some other party, Gloria La Riva and The Party for Socialism and Liberation would never know that I support them. They would never know that I am grateful for their efforts and wish them to continue doing the hard work of carrying my hopes and aspirations onto the public stage.
Second, I want it on the record… I want the state to recognize, even if only by a meaningless act of bureaucracy, that the options I have been presented with by this system do not represent me; that I, and those sharing my beliefs, have been marginalized by a system that drawls on endlessly about ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom,’ but falls short when presenting meaningful options.
For these reasons I stood in that voting booth, looking at my ballot in wonder thinking, “How am I supposed to vote my combined, Presidential and Vice Presidential, ticket when there’s only enough room in the right-in box for one name?”
Not sure how to proceed, I finished filling out the rest of my choices and I approached the man supervising the tallying machine. I began to say, “I think I need a new ballot. I’m trying to write-in my choice for presidential candidate and…”when he interrupted me.
“You can’t write-in a Presidential choice. You have to pick from what’s listed.”
I stared at him with what must have been a supremely dumbfounded expression. After a long silence I reeled in my hanging jaw and managed to squeeze out a sarcastic “Democracy, huh?”
He started to fumble out an excuse. “Well, if your candidates really wanted to be on the ticket then they needed to register with the state in advance. They’ve had all this time to register...”
“And that would cost them several thousands of dollars per state they registered in, right?” I fired angrily toward the lanky, unsympathetic man before me.
He shrugged his shoulders, and I told him I needed a few minutes to decide what I was going to do.
I had read up on Michigan’s election procedures in the weeks approaching November 4th, anticipating that there would be some oddities voting off-ticket. In retrospect, I’m sure I read something, somewhere that told me I couldn’t write-in candidates who weren’t pre-registered with the state. I must have just filtered it out in disbelief. I suppose I couldn’t accept - until confronted with it face to face - that my state and my nation would deny me the right of making my own voice heard until or unless they’ve collected a pound of flesh from a specific candidate.
Dumbfounded as ever I stood there, leaned against the wall as other voters passed by happily turning in their ballots; gleefully participating in Democracy. What was I going to do? I could, of course, just request a new ballot and only vote for the other positions and proposals that I had intended to. Or I could take a moment and choose a President from one of those ‘better of two evils’ I’ve heard so much about. But there was another option wrestling with these seemingly more sensible choices for supremacy deep inside my brain: Don’t vote.
Here I stood, disenfranchised by a system that only allows the people to exercise any real authority over the make up and function of their government once every two years. They hadn’t allowed me to vote for the candidate I wanted. They had removed me of the option to separate my Presidential choice from my Vice Presidential choice. And as a supporter of run-off voting, campaign finance reform, and ‘none of the above’ ballot options, I had walked in to this voting precinct carrying a ten-pound bag full of reasons to find this whole process illegitimate from the get-go.
It took me a good couple of minutes to settle on a choice and my heart pounded fast and heavy in my chest as I did it. But in the end I summoned myself against the fear and intimidation I felt from these state-pollsters and turned again to this lanky man, who placed himself between me and my democracy. And before the line of waiting voters, loudly and clearly I spoke.
“I think I’ve decided not to participate in a system that doesn’t want to hear what I have to say.”
And I tore my ballot in half.
If you can believe it, the lanky, man along with another voting official, rushed to my sides, grabbed me by each arm, and attempted to restrain me from tearing up the smaller voter-registration form that is submitted with the ballot. I managed, nonetheless to destroy it.
These men who had volunteered their time in order to enable the functions of a democratic state, actually tried to physically deny me even of my right to protest my own disenfranchisement. In the process of attempting to cast my vote I was technically assaulted by election officials.
Before today I couldn’t have imagined that this would be my voting experience. I couldn’t have dreamed that I would count myself among those who have been meaningfully removed of their rights to vote, and to vote for whom they wish. In the land of the free and the home of the brave I find that I have been denied my liberty by an institution too timid to let sound my voice.
Happy Election Day. Here’s hoping your voting experience does not mimic mine.
November 4th, 2008
by Roy William Tousignant Jr.
I just returned from my voting precinct: Precinct number 006 at ‘St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church and School’ in Waterford Township, Michigan. I stood in line, I presented the proper credentials, I was issued one voting ballot, and I filled it out. I did not vote.
When I received my ballot I became aware that the Presidential and Vice Presidential tickets had been merged into a single unified ticket. If I had wanted to vote Obama, for example, I would have been forced to vote Biden as well. While this is a horrible policy that strips voters of their right to choose who they feel is most qualified for the number one and number two positions of their federal government, the merger of these offices in and of itself was not the crucible issue before me.
I had come to my polling-place intending to vote for Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates that had not made it onto the Michigan ballot: Gloria La Riva for President and Eugene Puryear for Vice President. These are the candidates of The Party for Socialism and Liberation, and as a small, mostly-marginalized political party, the names of these candidates were not listed among the options before me. So, when I approached the voting booth – my ballot in hand – I meant to write-in these candidates names; whom I felt best represented my interests and desires for the nation at large.
In these politically nepotistic and insular times it seems that a majority of the populace cannot understand why anyone would vote off-ticket. These unnamed, third-party candidates have no real chance of being elected, after all. So why not choose one of the mainstream candidates who, at least, represent the better of the options we are presented with?
There are two primary reasons that I decided to vote for Gloria La Riva. First, I wanted to encourage the party she represents. It is supremely important – in a Democracy – that we support those groups which rise to champion our beliefs on the national stage. If I cast my vote for some other party, Gloria La Riva and The Party for Socialism and Liberation would never know that I support them. They would never know that I am grateful for their efforts and wish them to continue doing the hard work of carrying my hopes and aspirations onto the public stage.
Second, I want it on the record… I want the state to recognize, even if only by a meaningless act of bureaucracy, that the options I have been presented with by this system do not represent me; that I, and those sharing my beliefs, have been marginalized by a system that drawls on endlessly about ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom,’ but falls short when presenting meaningful options.
For these reasons I stood in that voting booth, looking at my ballot in wonder thinking, “How am I supposed to vote my combined, Presidential and Vice Presidential, ticket when there’s only enough room in the right-in box for one name?”
Not sure how to proceed, I finished filling out the rest of my choices and I approached the man supervising the tallying machine. I began to say, “I think I need a new ballot. I’m trying to write-in my choice for presidential candidate and…”when he interrupted me.
“You can’t write-in a Presidential choice. You have to pick from what’s listed.”
I stared at him with what must have been a supremely dumbfounded expression. After a long silence I reeled in my hanging jaw and managed to squeeze out a sarcastic “Democracy, huh?”
He started to fumble out an excuse. “Well, if your candidates really wanted to be on the ticket then they needed to register with the state in advance. They’ve had all this time to register...”
“And that would cost them several thousands of dollars per state they registered in, right?” I fired angrily toward the lanky, unsympathetic man before me.
He shrugged his shoulders, and I told him I needed a few minutes to decide what I was going to do.
I had read up on Michigan’s election procedures in the weeks approaching November 4th, anticipating that there would be some oddities voting off-ticket. In retrospect, I’m sure I read something, somewhere that told me I couldn’t write-in candidates who weren’t pre-registered with the state. I must have just filtered it out in disbelief. I suppose I couldn’t accept - until confronted with it face to face - that my state and my nation would deny me the right of making my own voice heard until or unless they’ve collected a pound of flesh from a specific candidate.
Dumbfounded as ever I stood there, leaned against the wall as other voters passed by happily turning in their ballots; gleefully participating in Democracy. What was I going to do? I could, of course, just request a new ballot and only vote for the other positions and proposals that I had intended to. Or I could take a moment and choose a President from one of those ‘better of two evils’ I’ve heard so much about. But there was another option wrestling with these seemingly more sensible choices for supremacy deep inside my brain: Don’t vote.
Here I stood, disenfranchised by a system that only allows the people to exercise any real authority over the make up and function of their government once every two years. They hadn’t allowed me to vote for the candidate I wanted. They had removed me of the option to separate my Presidential choice from my Vice Presidential choice. And as a supporter of run-off voting, campaign finance reform, and ‘none of the above’ ballot options, I had walked in to this voting precinct carrying a ten-pound bag full of reasons to find this whole process illegitimate from the get-go.
It took me a good couple of minutes to settle on a choice and my heart pounded fast and heavy in my chest as I did it. But in the end I summoned myself against the fear and intimidation I felt from these state-pollsters and turned again to this lanky man, who placed himself between me and my democracy. And before the line of waiting voters, loudly and clearly I spoke.
“I think I’ve decided not to participate in a system that doesn’t want to hear what I have to say.”
And I tore my ballot in half.
If you can believe it, the lanky, man along with another voting official, rushed to my sides, grabbed me by each arm, and attempted to restrain me from tearing up the smaller voter-registration form that is submitted with the ballot. I managed, nonetheless to destroy it.
These men who had volunteered their time in order to enable the functions of a democratic state, actually tried to physically deny me even of my right to protest my own disenfranchisement. In the process of attempting to cast my vote I was technically assaulted by election officials.
Before today I couldn’t have imagined that this would be my voting experience. I couldn’t have dreamed that I would count myself among those who have been meaningfully removed of their rights to vote, and to vote for whom they wish. In the land of the free and the home of the brave I find that I have been denied my liberty by an institution too timid to let sound my voice.
Happy Election Day. Here’s hoping your voting experience does not mimic mine.
Monday, November 3, 2008
A Call to Christians: Ye that Work Iniquity
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, [...] For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matthew 6:19-21
Jesus wasn't preaching just to hear the echoes of his own voice, nor certainly to benefit his health. He didn't teach the rejection of the 'goods and sundries' world as a metaphor for something else. He wanted you to cast off your corporeal roots; to grow beyond the boundaries of the seed in which your spirit rests and learn to live a life of greater things.
'You cannot serve both God and Mammon,' Jesus tells us. (Mammon is the love of money.) But how do you resolve these teachings of the man you hail as Lord with the way you have lived your lives. How can you be called Christians while employed by men whose agendas bow in service to that same evil, Mammon. Don't these men require you to shed at least a bit of your humanity in order to generate their profit? Don't they measure you in terms of assets and of liabilities? Don't you have to be dishonest when you push their products? Don't you have to turn a cold, dispassionate shoulder when a client calls unable to pay a bill? Don't you have to think more often of money than you do of man? How can you serve Mammon’s servants and still heed the teachings of your Lord?
In the gospels Jesus is asked of a wealthy young man, 'I have kept the commandments - what more shall I do to be right in the eyes of the Lord?’ And Jesus replies, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me."
No one takes that literally anymore, do they? They mostly don’t even bother to take it figuratively. They rationalize it. They turn it into a message meant only for a certain person or a certain class of person; a message for the rich - and even then, only for the super-rich. So few ever recognize how much they have; after all, there’s always someone who has more. They blind themselves to the disparities between the quality, comforts, and conveniences of their own lives and the lives of the poor and marginalized among us.
Two thousand years later no one sees fit to live as Jesus, John the Baptist, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, James, Thomas, Paul, Simon, Philip, and even Judas did. No one takes seriously those teachings which require them to abandon their life-long collections of soul-less inanimate objects. No, at the end of the story of the rich young man he turns his back on Jesus' words and walks away…
Just as you have, "Christians."
Despite Jesus' many calls to abandon the things and mortal concerns of this world, today I look across what claims to be an eighty-percent Christian nation, and what do I find parked in your driveways? New-lease vehicles, motorcycles, ATVs, RVs, boats, jet-ski's, and riding lawn-mowers; In-console navigation, in-headrest video display, satellite radio, remote starters, leather-upholstered seat warmers, sub-woofers, and drink-cooling center-console cup holders. I see in-ground swimming pools, pool tables, golf clubs, ski boots, barbeques, antiques, souvenirs, beanie babies, coin collections, and porcelain figurines. I see savings accounts and savings bonds, 401k's and IRAs, nest-eggs and stock portfolios... For a people who talk about charity you sure have buried a lot of your master’s ‘talents’ in the sand. I see car insurance, life insurance, home insurance, dental insurance, disaster insurance... For a people who talk about 'faith' you sure have a lot of insurance, backing you up. I see two-story homes, finished basements, central air conditioning, sofas and recliners, feather-top mattresses, and microwave ovens; Hi-def flat-screen televisions, DVD, Blu-Ray, Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound… Cell phones, home computers, laser printers, high speed internet, digital cable, satellite television, iPods, iPhones, and hand-held, voice activated, video game consoles. I swear, if you people put any treasure up in heaven at all it's only 'cause you ran out of space down here!
So tell me, who have you been living for? What godly ends have you pursued by racking up these purchases; by collecting all these wordly delights; by stacking up this tower of bills and debt? How many homeless could’ve been sheltered… How many naked, clothed… How many sick, cared for… How many hungry, fed with the means you have collectively squandered in defiance of the man you profess to be your savior?
Didn't Jesus - the son of man - promise you, on his Father's honor, that your needs would be provided? Didn't he tell you not to worry for what you shall eat, what you shall drink, or wherewithal you shall be clothed? Didn’t he say, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.” If you truly had this faith, we would not find you in midst a forty hour work week; we would not find you contracted and salaried, and doing the bidding of other men: Other men for whom you have no love whose work means nothing to you; whose work doth oft repulse you.
I hear your excuses. “I've got to put food on the table.” “I've got to put a roof over our heads.” But your God has told you otherwise. Didn't Jesus teach you to take no thought even for your very life. Didn't he say “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Or are you just not willing to risk it? …Better to keep one foot in the door, just in case the divine creator of the heavens and the Earth can’t make good on His word, right?
“But I’ve got children. I’ve got to provide for my family,” you bellow. And Jesus Christ answers you, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.”
Oh ye hypocrites; Ye faithless and perverse generation. You have turned Christianity into a shelter for your guilty consciences; into a support group for functioning addicts - none of whom bear any intent of curbing their abuse. You have nailed Jesus to the cross once more, but this time you've tried to pin his message up as well.
You don't want a relationship with God, you want someone to justify your lack of a relationship with God. You want someone to tell you that praying before you eat, going to church once a week, and voting against stem-cell research runs the full gambit of communion with the Lord. You need a way to feel okay with your debauched lives of earthly compromise; a means with which to justify those two-thirds of the Earth's populace – your brothers and sisters in God – who suffer economic enslavement and die before their time so you might drape yourself in the decadence of a culture that never fails to remind you how much more remains to be bought; to be possessed. You don't want Christ's teachings. You want a religion that will absolve and forgive you the sin of knowing better while doing worse. And to that end you have stolen the name of Christianity. You have made it a shallow thing: a place to come in times of drought, to be ignored in plenty.
Despite yourselves, you speak to us of devils, anti-christs, and the end of days. You warn us of the prophecies of Daniel and John; of the false prophets foretold, who in the name of the Lord will speak heresies - leading men out of the light and into places of darkness and destruction. You speak as if these times are already upon us; as though these forces move amongst us even now. But I have heard your warnings all too well and I heed them now by asking, ‘Just who are you, Christian?’
Who are you, who in the name of Jesus Christ lead men to settle for a paycheck and a prayer? Who are you who, in the Lord’s name, live lives of slothful excess as your brothers toil and die. Who and what are you, if not the anti-christ of whom you warn we must be wary?
“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Matthew 7:22-23
Jesus wasn't preaching just to hear the echoes of his own voice, nor certainly to benefit his health. He didn't teach the rejection of the 'goods and sundries' world as a metaphor for something else. He wanted you to cast off your corporeal roots; to grow beyond the boundaries of the seed in which your spirit rests and learn to live a life of greater things.
'You cannot serve both God and Mammon,' Jesus tells us. (Mammon is the love of money.) But how do you resolve these teachings of the man you hail as Lord with the way you have lived your lives. How can you be called Christians while employed by men whose agendas bow in service to that same evil, Mammon. Don't these men require you to shed at least a bit of your humanity in order to generate their profit? Don't they measure you in terms of assets and of liabilities? Don't you have to be dishonest when you push their products? Don't you have to turn a cold, dispassionate shoulder when a client calls unable to pay a bill? Don't you have to think more often of money than you do of man? How can you serve Mammon’s servants and still heed the teachings of your Lord?
In the gospels Jesus is asked of a wealthy young man, 'I have kept the commandments - what more shall I do to be right in the eyes of the Lord?’ And Jesus replies, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me."
No one takes that literally anymore, do they? They mostly don’t even bother to take it figuratively. They rationalize it. They turn it into a message meant only for a certain person or a certain class of person; a message for the rich - and even then, only for the super-rich. So few ever recognize how much they have; after all, there’s always someone who has more. They blind themselves to the disparities between the quality, comforts, and conveniences of their own lives and the lives of the poor and marginalized among us.
Two thousand years later no one sees fit to live as Jesus, John the Baptist, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, James, Thomas, Paul, Simon, Philip, and even Judas did. No one takes seriously those teachings which require them to abandon their life-long collections of soul-less inanimate objects. No, at the end of the story of the rich young man he turns his back on Jesus' words and walks away…
Just as you have, "Christians."
Despite Jesus' many calls to abandon the things and mortal concerns of this world, today I look across what claims to be an eighty-percent Christian nation, and what do I find parked in your driveways? New-lease vehicles, motorcycles, ATVs, RVs, boats, jet-ski's, and riding lawn-mowers; In-console navigation, in-headrest video display, satellite radio, remote starters, leather-upholstered seat warmers, sub-woofers, and drink-cooling center-console cup holders. I see in-ground swimming pools, pool tables, golf clubs, ski boots, barbeques, antiques, souvenirs, beanie babies, coin collections, and porcelain figurines. I see savings accounts and savings bonds, 401k's and IRAs, nest-eggs and stock portfolios... For a people who talk about charity you sure have buried a lot of your master’s ‘talents’ in the sand. I see car insurance, life insurance, home insurance, dental insurance, disaster insurance... For a people who talk about 'faith' you sure have a lot of insurance, backing you up. I see two-story homes, finished basements, central air conditioning, sofas and recliners, feather-top mattresses, and microwave ovens; Hi-def flat-screen televisions, DVD, Blu-Ray, Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound… Cell phones, home computers, laser printers, high speed internet, digital cable, satellite television, iPods, iPhones, and hand-held, voice activated, video game consoles. I swear, if you people put any treasure up in heaven at all it's only 'cause you ran out of space down here!
So tell me, who have you been living for? What godly ends have you pursued by racking up these purchases; by collecting all these wordly delights; by stacking up this tower of bills and debt? How many homeless could’ve been sheltered… How many naked, clothed… How many sick, cared for… How many hungry, fed with the means you have collectively squandered in defiance of the man you profess to be your savior?
Didn't Jesus - the son of man - promise you, on his Father's honor, that your needs would be provided? Didn't he tell you not to worry for what you shall eat, what you shall drink, or wherewithal you shall be clothed? Didn’t he say, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.” If you truly had this faith, we would not find you in midst a forty hour work week; we would not find you contracted and salaried, and doing the bidding of other men: Other men for whom you have no love whose work means nothing to you; whose work doth oft repulse you.
I hear your excuses. “I've got to put food on the table.” “I've got to put a roof over our heads.” But your God has told you otherwise. Didn't Jesus teach you to take no thought even for your very life. Didn't he say “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Or are you just not willing to risk it? …Better to keep one foot in the door, just in case the divine creator of the heavens and the Earth can’t make good on His word, right?
“But I’ve got children. I’ve got to provide for my family,” you bellow. And Jesus Christ answers you, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.”
Oh ye hypocrites; Ye faithless and perverse generation. You have turned Christianity into a shelter for your guilty consciences; into a support group for functioning addicts - none of whom bear any intent of curbing their abuse. You have nailed Jesus to the cross once more, but this time you've tried to pin his message up as well.
You don't want a relationship with God, you want someone to justify your lack of a relationship with God. You want someone to tell you that praying before you eat, going to church once a week, and voting against stem-cell research runs the full gambit of communion with the Lord. You need a way to feel okay with your debauched lives of earthly compromise; a means with which to justify those two-thirds of the Earth's populace – your brothers and sisters in God – who suffer economic enslavement and die before their time so you might drape yourself in the decadence of a culture that never fails to remind you how much more remains to be bought; to be possessed. You don't want Christ's teachings. You want a religion that will absolve and forgive you the sin of knowing better while doing worse. And to that end you have stolen the name of Christianity. You have made it a shallow thing: a place to come in times of drought, to be ignored in plenty.
Despite yourselves, you speak to us of devils, anti-christs, and the end of days. You warn us of the prophecies of Daniel and John; of the false prophets foretold, who in the name of the Lord will speak heresies - leading men out of the light and into places of darkness and destruction. You speak as if these times are already upon us; as though these forces move amongst us even now. But I have heard your warnings all too well and I heed them now by asking, ‘Just who are you, Christian?’
Who are you, who in the name of Jesus Christ lead men to settle for a paycheck and a prayer? Who are you who, in the Lord’s name, live lives of slothful excess as your brothers toil and die. Who and what are you, if not the anti-christ of whom you warn we must be wary?
“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Matthew 7:22-23
Friday, October 24, 2008
To Wit, Socialism
Long ago I posted and subscribed to a blog thread entitled "When is it Time for Revolution?" I still get emails when people post comments to that thread and they have not ceased to add commentary in the thirteen months it has existed. The most recent comment that showed up in my inbox went something like this:
My reply follows:
I couldn't help responding to Rob's anti-socialist statements. I discover, when I check my pockets, that I am, at end, a full-blown socialist. So I take offense to this forgone conclusion we've been spoon-fed since kindergarten; That socialism = bad.
Capitalism cannot survive indefinitely. Well, that's actually incorrect; Capitalism can survive, but if it does everyone else has to go. Technology and automation have made running a 12 acre farm a one man job. One guy gets on the tractor and the tractor does the work; work it used to take a dozen or more farm hands days and weeks to complete. Technology and automation have taken millions of laborers off the assembly lines and out of the factories, and replaced them with robotics. Shop floors that used to bustle with hundreds of 401k holding, vacation time-accruing, sweat and blood of the American economy, full-time employees are now the industrial equivalent of ghost towns. The warm flesh of their erstwhile work force replaced by cold machinery. The only human ambassadors to the, otherwise vacant, mill and forge are there for 'Quality Control.' A lone, underpaid, under valued, under-represented worker sits at the mouth of a mechanized monstrosity - the marvel of modern science - staring at products rolling off the end of the line. He alone is still necessary, so he alone collects a paycheck.
How - I have to ask - do you propose capitalism will carry us forward, when all it has done since the invention of the cotton gin, is over-produce, centralize power, and put people out of work? How will capitalism not push your precious middle class into my precious lower class, and then push both of those classes into poverty; and then push the hundreds of millions of newly poor and homeless into Thunderdome?
This thread is called "When is it time for Revolution?" and a growing majority of the respondents agree: it is long-since-passed the time for revolution. Still, here we are, unable even to entertain a revolutionary thought; Unable to pull ourselves from the safe, embracing status quos which serve the very evils we seek to escape. We find ourselves rehashing the same capitalist dogma that empowers the cultural dehumanization which has led us to this point; which has led some of you to consider destruction, death, and civil war as a means of political and economic change. How blind are we? How ignorant to cradle and defend these dying institutions even as they poison and destroy us?
Socialism does not have to be the absolutely uniform redistribution of wealth. It doesn't have to be the government mandated homogeny you think of when you hear the word. It doesn't have to be soup-lines and food-tickets. It doesn't have to be any of the things that scare you. We are not slaves to the ideas of other men and so we can make American socialism whatever we want… whatever we need it to be. The only rule we must conform to in order to be called a socialist state, is to put human life above the dollar; to put the good of people before the good of institutions. All else will fall into place.
That's the only ticket I can vote for: http://www.pslweb.org/...
"[...]we're about to elect the most left-leaning,liberal senator, to combine him with a congress that has the lowest approval rating of ALL TIME,and with a very left-leaning liberal senate to have all 3 phases of the US Gov't run by democrats, as they begin their push to move the USA as far left as they can get us, as liberal as they can make us, and another step closer to socialism and eventually communism.
time to wake up, electing Obama is going to be a very,very bad thing for this country..Mccain isn't great either, but at least then we'll have a system of checks and balances in place to thwart off Nancy Pelosi and the liberals..
otherwise, we're in serious trouble."
My reply follows:
I couldn't help responding to Rob's anti-socialist statements. I discover, when I check my pockets, that I am, at end, a full-blown socialist. So I take offense to this forgone conclusion we've been spoon-fed since kindergarten; That socialism = bad.
Capitalism cannot survive indefinitely. Well, that's actually incorrect; Capitalism can survive, but if it does everyone else has to go. Technology and automation have made running a 12 acre farm a one man job. One guy gets on the tractor and the tractor does the work; work it used to take a dozen or more farm hands days and weeks to complete. Technology and automation have taken millions of laborers off the assembly lines and out of the factories, and replaced them with robotics. Shop floors that used to bustle with hundreds of 401k holding, vacation time-accruing, sweat and blood of the American economy, full-time employees are now the industrial equivalent of ghost towns. The warm flesh of their erstwhile work force replaced by cold machinery. The only human ambassadors to the, otherwise vacant, mill and forge are there for 'Quality Control.' A lone, underpaid, under valued, under-represented worker sits at the mouth of a mechanized monstrosity - the marvel of modern science - staring at products rolling off the end of the line. He alone is still necessary, so he alone collects a paycheck.
How - I have to ask - do you propose capitalism will carry us forward, when all it has done since the invention of the cotton gin, is over-produce, centralize power, and put people out of work? How will capitalism not push your precious middle class into my precious lower class, and then push both of those classes into poverty; and then push the hundreds of millions of newly poor and homeless into Thunderdome?
This thread is called "When is it time for Revolution?" and a growing majority of the respondents agree: it is long-since-passed the time for revolution. Still, here we are, unable even to entertain a revolutionary thought; Unable to pull ourselves from the safe, embracing status quos which serve the very evils we seek to escape. We find ourselves rehashing the same capitalist dogma that empowers the cultural dehumanization which has led us to this point; which has led some of you to consider destruction, death, and civil war as a means of political and economic change. How blind are we? How ignorant to cradle and defend these dying institutions even as they poison and destroy us?
Socialism does not have to be the absolutely uniform redistribution of wealth. It doesn't have to be the government mandated homogeny you think of when you hear the word. It doesn't have to be soup-lines and food-tickets. It doesn't have to be any of the things that scare you. We are not slaves to the ideas of other men and so we can make American socialism whatever we want… whatever we need it to be. The only rule we must conform to in order to be called a socialist state, is to put human life above the dollar; to put the good of people before the good of institutions. All else will fall into place.
That's the only ticket I can vote for: http://www.pslweb.org/...
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Qot[SLoT] 'Widget' - Custom Quotes in Blogger
I've been building a collection of random, off-beat quotations ever since I first sold my soul to Rupert Murdoch and begrudgingly erected a MySpace page. So when I started toying around with Blogger, of course I just had to create a 'widget' (or at least a widget-ish, widgety, widget-like, javascript dealio) that would display my quote collection, one at a time, in the side panel.
First I went searching for pre-existing 'Quote of the Day'-style blogger widgets, but quickly found they were all javascript implementations that demanded either an off-site text file containing the list of quotes, or a hard-coded, in-line version of the same. Neither of these fit my fancy. The first one, after all, would require the author to have a web account somewhere where they could host the file containing the quotes. The second meant hand-coding every quote into a javascript array which - if, like me, you mean to keep adding to your quote collection over time - certainly seems an ugly implementation and a hassle on all fronts. Finally, neither of these solutions provided a reasonable means of displaying the whole collection of quotes at any one time; A feature I felt was sorely lacking.
So I present to you my horrific creation, born of hubris gone awry:
Qot[SLoT]
Quote(s) of the [Some Length of Time]
Instead of pulling its list of quotes from a server-side text file or an in-line javascript array, the QotSlot looks to a post on your Blogger site to generate the content. The idea is: You create a new post on blogger containing all the quotations you want displayed. Once the QotSlot widget is in place and properly configured, each time someone visits your page, QotSlot will fetch the content of that new post you made, parse the data into an array of individual quotations, select one at random, and write it to the page.
Instructions
1.) Create a New Post on your Blogger account and copy and paste your list of quotes into the 'Compose' field. How you layout your quotes in the post is important to how QotSlot will determine where one quote ends and the next one begins. In the default configuration, QotSLoT looks for all quotes to be seperated by two line breaks. For example:
2.) Once the source page is setup you'll need to add the gadget to your site's layout. To add the Qot[SLoT] widget, go to Layout -> Page Elements and click 'Add a Gadget.' From the gadget list, select and add an 'HTML \ Javascript' gadget. Copy and paste the QotSlot code into the 'Content' section of the gadget.
3.) Now locate the 'USER CONFIGURED VARIABLES' section of the code you just pasted and change the 'quotesPage' variable to the address of the blog entry containing your quotes.
4.) The other variable here is the 'numBreaks' variable. 'numBreaks' tells QotSlot how many xml line breaks(<br />) to expect between quotes. If your quotes, themselves, contain grouped line breaks, then you may need to increase the numBreaks value so QotSlot doesn't cut them in half. Bear in mind, of course, that if you tell QotSlot to expect more line breaks - for example three line breaks - between quotes, then your list of quotes will have to reflect that, and each quote will need to be seperated from the next by three breaks (two empty lines) in the body of the post.
5.) Johnny Five is alive.
Things to know
QotSlot will not display quotes when you are viewing your page through one of Blogger's preview windows. Instead it will display the text, "Qot[SLoT] is either loading the quote or being viewed in preview mode." This is by design.
If, at any time, you think the Qot[SLoT] isn't working, the most likely culprit is simply that you came to your page from a part of the Blogger editing console. When you are viewing the live version of your site the 'preview text' should only display momentarily while QotSlot retreives the data from your list of quotes.
That's all I've got for now. Leave me a comment if you're using it, if you encounter an error, or if you update the code.
First I went searching for pre-existing 'Quote of the Day'-style blogger widgets, but quickly found they were all javascript implementations that demanded either an off-site text file containing the list of quotes, or a hard-coded, in-line version of the same. Neither of these fit my fancy. The first one, after all, would require the author to have a web account somewhere where they could host the file containing the quotes. The second meant hand-coding every quote into a javascript array which - if, like me, you mean to keep adding to your quote collection over time - certainly seems an ugly implementation and a hassle on all fronts. Finally, neither of these solutions provided a reasonable means of displaying the whole collection of quotes at any one time; A feature I felt was sorely lacking.
So I present to you my horrific creation, born of hubris gone awry:
Quote(s) of the [Some Length of Time]
<div id="QOTSLOT">Okay, honestly the name Qot[SLoT] is slightly misleading since, in its unaltered state, the widget just randomly selects a quote to display on each page request. So, in that regard it's more of a 'Quote of the Page Request' widget. But, you know what, it's my widget and I'll name it as I please, damn you!
<script type="text/javascript">
/*
Qot[SLoT] - 'Quote(s) of the [Some Length of Time]'
This code scraped together by Roy Tousignant.
Origin: Tuesday, October 21st, 2008.
Last Update: Wednesday, October 28th, 2008.
Stole some code from: www.w3schools.org
I HATE JAVASCRIPT.
*/
// -------------USER CONFIGURED VARIABLES-------------
var quotesPage =
"http://sortbyz.blogspot.com/2008/10/quotes-of-some-length-of-time.html";
var numBreaks = 2;
// ---------------------------------------------------
var xmlhttp;
function loadXMLDoc(url) {
xmlhttp=null;
if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
// code for Firefox, Opera, IE7, etc.
xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
}
else if (window.ActiveXObject) {
// code for IE6, IE5
xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
if (xmlhttp!=null) {
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=state_Change;
xmlhttp.open("GET",url,true);
xmlhttp.send(null);
}
else {
document.getElementById('QOTSLOT').innerHTML="Your browser does not support
XMLHTTP.<br>This application cannot run.";
}
}
function state_Change() {
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4) { // 4 = "loaded"
if (xmlhttp.status==200) { // 200 = "OK"
var quotes = parseData(xmlhttp.responseText);
var ran = Math.floor(Math.random() * quotes.length);
document.getElementById('QOTSLOT').innerHTML=quotes[ran];
}
else {
document.getElementById('QOTSLOT').innerHTML="Problem retrieving data:" +
xmlhttp.statusText;
}
}
}
function parseData(dataIn) {
var listStart = String.fromCharCode(60)+"div class='post-body entry-content'>";
var listEnd = String.fromCharCode(60)+"div style='clear: both;'>";
var quoteSeperator = String.fromCharCode(60)+"br />";
for(i=1; i!=numBreaks; i++) {
quoteSeperator+=quoteSeperator;
}
var startPos = dataIn.lastIndexOf(listStart) + listStart.length;
var endPos = dataIn.lastIndexOf(listEnd);
var content = dataIn.slice(startPos, endPos);
var quotesArray = content.split(quoteSeperator);
return(quotesArray);
}
loadXMLDoc(quotesPage);
</script>
<i>
Qot[SLoT] is either loading the quote or being viewed in preview mode.
</i>
</div>
<div id="QOTSLOT-footer" style="text-align:right;">
<script type="text/javascript">
var str = "view all"
document.write(str.link(quotesPage));
</script>
</div>
Instead of pulling its list of quotes from a server-side text file or an in-line javascript array, the QotSlot looks to a post on your Blogger site to generate the content. The idea is: You create a new post on blogger containing all the quotations you want displayed. Once the QotSlot widget is in place and properly configured, each time someone visits your page, QotSlot will fetch the content of that new post you made, parse the data into an array of individual quotations, select one at random, and write it to the page.
Instructions
1.) Create a New Post on your Blogger account and copy and paste your list of quotes into the 'Compose' field. How you layout your quotes in the post is important to how QotSlot will determine where one quote ends and the next one begins. In the default configuration, QotSLoT looks for all quotes to be seperated by two line breaks. For example:
For another example, you can look at the page containing my list of quotes posted here."This is my first quote. If I hit enter twice..."
"That produces two line breaks, resulting in one empty line between quotes."
2.) Once the source page is setup you'll need to add the gadget to your site's layout. To add the Qot[SLoT] widget, go to Layout -> Page Elements and click 'Add a Gadget.' From the gadget list, select and add an 'HTML \ Javascript' gadget. Copy and paste the QotSlot code into the 'Content' section of the gadget.
3.) Now locate the 'USER CONFIGURED VARIABLES' section of the code you just pasted and change the 'quotesPage' variable to the address of the blog entry containing your quotes.
4.) The other variable here is the 'numBreaks' variable. 'numBreaks' tells QotSlot how many xml line breaks(<br />) to expect between quotes. If your quotes, themselves, contain grouped line breaks, then you may need to increase the numBreaks value so QotSlot doesn't cut them in half. Bear in mind, of course, that if you tell QotSlot to expect more line breaks - for example three line breaks - between quotes, then your list of quotes will have to reflect that, and each quote will need to be seperated from the next by three breaks (two empty lines) in the body of the post.
5.) Johnny Five is alive.
Things to know
QotSlot will not display quotes when you are viewing your page through one of Blogger's preview windows. Instead it will display the text, "Qot[SLoT] is either loading the quote or being viewed in preview mode." This is by design.
If, at any time, you think the Qot[SLoT] isn't working, the most likely culprit is simply that you came to your page from a part of the Blogger editing console. When you are viewing the live version of your site the 'preview text' should only display momentarily while QotSlot retreives the data from your list of quotes.
That's all I've got for now. Leave me a comment if you're using it, if you encounter an error, or if you update the code.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Quotes of the [Some length of Time]
The page you are looking for has moved to
http://tvopiate.blogspot.com/2010/10/quotations-anonymous.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)