Fellow Traveler

Frank Shaeffer is the son of Francis Shaeffer (one of the twentieth centuries' most noted fundamentalist voices) and at one time continued in his father's ministry. He too has rejected the dark side of faith. I've read numerous articles by him and he is quite enlightening. Today at Altnet there is an excerpt from his coming book: Patience With God: Faith for People who don't like Religion (or Athiesm). You can read the entire excerpt here.

These are some quotes that hit my buttons:

Speaking at length about the Left Behind series of books, The words left behind are ironically what the books are about, but not in the way their authors intended. The evangelical/fundamentalists, from their crudest egocentric celebrities to their "intellectuals" touring college campuses trying to make evangelicalism respectable, have been left behind by modernity. They won't change their literalistic anti-science, anti-education, anti-everything superstitions, so now they nurse a deep grievance against "the world." This has led to a profound fear of the "other."

Concerning Dominionism: (I told you these people are scary)

I knew the founders of the dominionist movement -- people like the late Reverend Rousas John Rushdoony, the father of "Christian Reconstructionism" and the modern evangelical/fundamentalist home school movement. Rushdoony (whom I met and talked with several times) believed that interracial marriage, which he referred to as "unequal yoking," should be made illegal. He also opposed "enforced integration," referred to Southern slavery as "benevolent," and said that "some people are by nature slaves." Rushdoony was also a Holocaust denier. And yet his home school materials are a mainstay of the right-wing evangelical home school movement to this day. In Rushdoony's 1973 book, The Institutes of Biblical Law, he says that fundamentalist Christians must "take control of governments and impose strict biblical law" on America and then the world. That would mean the death penalty for "practicing homosexuals."

Perhaps the best quote:

Christian Zionists are yet another reason why I and countless other Christians, including many of the more moderate evangelicals, mainline Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Orthodox are hesitant to be labeled "Christian." Who wants to be confused with some of the most dangerous and stupid people in the world: nuclear-armed, paranoid evangelical/fundamentalist Bible thumpers rooting for Armageddon and worrying in paranoid "official" documents about being forced to become like "the Europeans"? (Just a thought: does that make high-speed rail service a tool of the Devil?)

For What its Worth

The Consumers Union survey of 1,002 adults from Sept. 17 to 20 found that among the ways people have tried to cut back on health care costs:

• 28 percent put off doctors' visits.
• 25 percent have been unable to afford medical bills or medication.
• 22 percent put off medical procedures.
• 20 percent declined medical tests.
• 20 percent skipped filling prescriptions.
• 15 percent took expired medication.
• 15 percent skipped scheduled dosages of prescriptions.

The problems were more prevalent among households with incomes of less than $50,000 , in which about two-thirds said they'd cut back on health care because of costs. Even where income topped $100,000 , however, about one-third made similar decisions.

The insurance lobby, the wingnuts and teabaggers can deny reality all they want, but there are too many people being ruined financially and dying due to the rationing of medical care by insurance companies right now for anyone to take them seriously.

Bottoming Out in Fundamentalism

Sophomore year in high school Bruce and I switched churches. Dad was working graveyard shifts as a security guard and doing his student teaching. Mom took a sabbatical.

We moved our membership to Temple Baptist Church. Curtis Goldman was pastor, and a man I still greatly admire. He was social gospel and fundamentalist to the core, but not the old testament prophet kind. He was actually very open minded. At the time he allowed a hippie class. The church ran twenty to thirty busses every Sunday. At this time a church could pick up a used bus from the schools, use members of the church that were mechanics to fix them up labor free, and pick up kids from all over the city to attend services.

There was a large youth group with lots of good looking girls always a magnate for boys. It was here that Bruce met his best friend, Dave. Bruce was a senior, Dave was a junior and I was sophomore and I kind of tagged along. We'd play tennis taking turns with the winner playing the odd man out. Bruce would beat me, Dave would beat Bruce and I'd beat Dave (or was it the other way around?)

The summer camp that year is one that's burned on my memory to this day. In the barracks after lights out for about thirty minutes or so there would be a little goofing off to tick of the preachers trying to get us quiet. Dennis Elliot pulled out a recorder (straight flute) and started playing. Then next day I asked him about it and he showed it to me. I played clarinet so it intrigued me. When I got back to the city I bought one (they're rather cheap). I'd quit band to concentrate on running. The recorder was an easy way to keep playing an instrument to de-stress. Today I have a wooden soprano and an alto recorder. I haven't played them in some time and I have them hanging on a wall to this day as a reminder of Dennis.

Dennis and David Elliot were twins. On December 23, 1971 they were hit by a drunk driver and Dennis was killed. I've never seen or heard a pastor handle such a tragedy as adeptly as Reverend Goldman. He comforted the grieving family and all those who knew him. When I was in college a woman that we knew well committed suicide. I was home for Spring break the day after her husband found her. We went over to her house to comfort our friends who'd lost their mother. Rev. Goldman was in with their father. He then walked him to the garage where he'd found her hanging as he came home from a trip. It was the first time he'd gone back into the garage. I was at a loss on what to say other than to let our friends know how much we cared about their pain. At the funeral I had no idea what the pastor could say. Rev. Goldman reassured everyone that the woman was definitely saved and that he was certain that when she met Jesus she looked at him and said, "I did wrong didn't I?"

And that Jesus would then say, "Yes you did child, but you're forgiven."

I've never heard such comforting words spoken is such horrible circumstances.

Many years later I played a round of golf with Rev. Goldman. He was just getting his strength back from a round of chemo therapy (and he kicked my ass). It was the first time I ever had to tell him how touching his words were with both Dennis and this lady's funerals.

He's the only fundamentalist preacher I've ever encountered that had a heart. He ministered to his flock, not just acting like an old testament judge.

When Dad started teaching my junior year he decided we'd all move our membership to a Southern Baptist Church, the one closest to where we lived. I didn't want to leave Temple Baptist (since I was rather sweet on a young lady that attended a different high school and knew that we'd never see each other again). Dad was rather insistent so we moved our membership to Del Norte Baptist Church.

Theologically I stayed with literal interpretation and premillennial belief in the end times; mainly because I'd never heard another way to see things.

An Award

Yogi was generous and has awarded me with the Best Blog Award. He's a rather recent addition to my friends list, but is quite welcome and I'm grateful for the award, as well as his interest in buying a copy of Optimus. I'd like to pass this on to Bruce, but Yogi beat me to it.

I'm now supposed to award 15 friends with this award. I'm not sure I have that many loyal blog followers, but here goes.

1. How could I possibly hand out an award like this and not pass it on to my mother? Here's to the woman that no matter what is always on the go.

2. Though she hasn't felt like posting in some time, I do live with her and she reads what I write, so my next award goes to Grinnygranny.

3. So many of my friends seem to be from Oklahoma and Brian at audience of 1 almost makes me want to teach in that state of tornados just to be under his administration. I can't talk him into moving out here. Many of the other bloggers I comment with I met on his blog. he's a special friend. He used to post prolifically, but alas life got in the way: he's now happily married and doesn't post much anymore. I did send him a copy of Optimus when it was first published and he was so gracious to write a review that I've posted on my blog. He more than deserves this award.

4. Another blogger friend that life has interrupted the level of posting is Irina at ignoble experiment. She's just finished taking her bar exam in New York State and is most likely on pins and needles to find out if she passed. Here's wishing her well on her law career and she most definitely deserves this award.

5. Streak is someone I met off of Bruce's blog. He's a fellow Okie and has many good political posts.

6. Yikes is a lobbyist in Washington DC. She has the best political cartoon roundup every Sunday. Always a good visit. Being even more disappointed in Obama's performance so far, she really deserves this award.

7. I've mentioned Michael Prescott numerous times. I enjoy reading his mystery novels. His blog always has enlightened though long winded comments. He's really into parapsychology, which I'm kind of so-so on, but lately he's been posting about the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship. His post comparing Polonius in Hamlet to William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, Elizabeth's chief minister was very enlightening.

8. It's a shame that so many of the friends I've enjoyed reading and commenting with seem to be getting a life and have slowed down on blogging. Thurman at Xpatriated Texan isn't as prolific as he used to be, but he was the first blogger I read that made sense on proposing expanding Medicare to the general population, which would be so much better than the bills being debated in Congress right now.

9. Russ is one of the curmudgeons. He has much on his plate right now and many in his shoes would pull the covers over their head and hide. If anyone deserves this award it is him. I salute you Russ for deciding that instead of hiding you'll express yourself by posting even more.

10. Woody is the other local curmudgeon. His language is a bit rough, and in the last post some of it rubbed off on me. (Mom will thoroughly chastise me for that). At first when I started reading him I thought he was just a little too far left for me, but the more I see what he says actually coming to pass I'm starting to lean his way. Hippies forever.

11. Out of the cornfield is a curmudgeon we're looking forward to meeting whenever he can make it down here for a brew or two. He keeps me posted on what's happening in Colorado.

12. Anything Adirondak used to live in NM, but now he's way back east. He's decided that Bruce is at least one Baptist preacher he agrees with, likes to talk cars (he's a salesman), posts great pictures of colorful mountains, has videos of aspiring musicians and is the eternal optimist when it comes to health care. Believe it or not I think he's right.

13. I'm giving this award to Ms Penni posthumously.

14. Auntypesty will get the award whenever she starts posting again.

15. My most loyal reader and commenter is Michael Manning. I can't remember how we stumbled upon each other, but it has been a joy over the years to read his posts from Friday night movies, Steve McQueen Film Festival (coming up by the way). His wonderful work with children stricken with cancer, and others with various illnesses he empathizes with, his interviews with top CEO's of airlines and other fields. He deserves ten of these awards.

Okay, not it's up to you to pass the award along to others that you're friends with.

The Republican Recipe

Albuquerque is 60% registered democrats and about 30% registered republicans with 10% independent. Last night an unknown republican was elected mayor over an eight year incumbent and he'd been mayor previously making a total of 12 years (nonconsecutive) as mayor. How did this happen, and why can a political party that many people think is bankrupt of ideas and support still get people elected?

Here's their recipe:

Step 1: In a back room, preferable smoke filled, choose one person to run for that office. Keep the process hidden so the general public doesn't see the bloodshed.

Step 2: Keep your talking points simple. ie law and order, lower taxes, run government like a business, the usual.

Step 3: Sit back and let the democrats split the vote between two, three or four egomaniacs that no matter what the polls say believe they can be elected.

Step 4: Right before the election throw mud at the leading democratic candidate's character, but don't give them time to respond.

This recipe worked yesterday.

Marty Chavez was running for his third straight term and should have been a shoo in, the Republican only got 43% of the vote. As Mercutio tells Romeo, "T'is a scratch, but t'is enough."

You see Richard Romero was also running for mayor, and he got 21% of the vote, just enough to let the repub get over the 40% mark. If he'd been under it there would have been a run-off that Marty would most likely have won hands down.

Republicans don't have to win elections. The democrats give them away.

How did Bush get elected in 2000 and 2004? Thank Ralph Nader, both times. The republicans even financed his campaign in 2004. Green Party my ass, disgruntled democrat that only had thoughts of himself and fucking the country by giving us Bushco. If he really wanted to serve his country he could have dropped out of both races and endorse Gore and Kerry to swing it their way. Romero could have done the same. But nooooooo their egos wouldn't let them do the right thing. Now for the next four years we're stuck with a mayor that will open the cities coffers up to fat cat business men and the average citizen is going to get a twelve pronged metal suppository.

Definitions

I was thinking while writing the last post that many of those from around the world might not understand what I"m talking about, so I thought I'd explain in my own mindset what those ideas are.

Fundamentalism: You can look up a dictionary definition, but my experience is with Baptist fundamentalism, not Muslim or Hindu or Catholic, though there are similarities. To me a fundamentalist is someone who can only interpret what they hear or read literally. They also think only in the here and now, they have mostly contempt for history, context or other viewpoints. The future is a place of great fear it permeates their lives with dread. Fundamentalists need others to reinforce their point of view which makes them flock together and try to sell their beliefs to others. Everyone must conform to their world view. If they can't convince those that think differently from them to change they change the rules to force non-believers to think like them. This could be changes in churches, denominations and in the general population. It's called the social gospel. Laws against drinking, gambling, illegal drugs, abortion, etc. They insist on legislating their morality.

To me their greatest sin is taking the Lord's name in vain. This commandment isn't only about profanity. It's about claiming that your words and ideas are God's words and ideas. Their literal interpretation of scripture is sacred. The universe was created in a literal six 24 hour days and anyone who thinks otherwise is going to die and go to hell. This obviously means that if anything is taught to the children in biology class our country is going to punished by God. Any natural disaster or terrorist attack automatically becomes the wrath of God. Only a very vain person would believe that anything they think is also what God thinks.

Eschatology or the study of end times:

Premellinnial Dispensationalism: My what a mouthful!

This is the belief that Jesus is coming again. They have an elaborate timeline for "The Second Coming." A) The world is going to become so sinful that God will want to destroy it again (remember Noah and the flood). B) When it gets so bad God can't stand it again Jesus will come in the clouds. The sea and land will give up the dead and the living will join them, where everyone will go right now is not clear, but they will not be present for the horrible things God will do. This is the dispensation or get out of tribulation free card. The meeting with Jesus is called the Rapture (a word not found in the bible). C) There will then be 3 1/2 years of tribulation where a world wide dictator will rise to power (The Beast) and then the last 3 1/2 years will be Great Tribulation where the Anti-Christ will join The Beast and force everyone to have 666 branded or tattooed on their forehead. D) For some inexplicable reason they will then gather a huge army, march to the valley of Meggido in Israel to attack God. Jesus will destroy them and win the battle of Armageddon. Satan, The Beast and Anti-Christ will be locked up for a thousand years. E) Jesus will then set up a thousand year reign here on earth where everyone will learn how to live in sinless perfection. This is the millennium. F) Satan will then be loosed to temp mankind again, nothing is said about what will happen, but it's assumed that man will resist temptation after a thousand years of heavy indoctrination. G) The great white throne judgement. Finally those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book Of Life will go to heaven and all those whose names are not written will be cast into the lake of fire or hell.

Postmillennialism: These are the scary people. They believe that we are already living in Tribulation and that Jesus can't return to set up his millennial reign until the whole world is converted. In order for that to happen they believe that: A) All Jews will convert, but it will take the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem to accomplish this. B) That government leaders will force the unbelieving to convert. C) Government leaders should be preachers who speak for God and pass laws based on the Ten Commandments.

This is also called Dominionism. Glenn Beck sounds absolutely nuts if you don't understand his dominionist motivation. Sarah Palin is a Dominionist. The United States should be the dominion of Jesus where He is King and a theocracy is established. That's why all the music for churches has had a royal message for the last thirty years. Christ is King, The King is Coming, the buzz words are reign, Lord, master, kingdom, majesty, etc. They've been brainwashing the masses that equality is a bad thing. The wingnuts that spit with rage when a democrat is elected president (Clinton or Obama) distrust our constitution and democracy even more because God's will is not being done. Republicans can do no wrong because after all they are anointed by God.

Amillennialism: This interpretation has as its basis the premise that Daniel and Revelations need to be interpreted by historical context. What did it say to the people who read it two thousand years ago? This interpretation also takes into account that the books are apocalypses or allegorical in nature and need to be interpreted symbolically instead of literally. I'll relate my acceptance of this interpretation in future posts.

Descent into fundamentalism

Installment 3 on church.

When we moved back to Albuquerque from Farmington Mom was working for an insurance agent and met a snake oil salesman that pastored a church. He dangled the bait that the church needed an associate pastor and he was interested in Dad. That's when we started going to Fellowship Baptist Church, which was independent, not affiliated with the SBC. There were three such Albuquerque churches loosely linked to the Baptist Bible Colleges set up by Jay Frank Norris in the 1930 when he split with the SBC.

Almost half the families at the church were there because Brother Blue had promised them a shot at associate pastor. This was a very narrow minded group of people. They had this long list of no-no's. No dancing, smoking, drinking, mixed bathing (males and females in the same swimming pool), no card playing, dominoes, the list goes on and on.

Brother Blue would spend ten minutes or more with the congregation's head down after the sermon pressuring everyone to come down to the altar and pray. At my impressionable age it was affective. The man walked back and forth across the stage banging on the podium ranting and raving like the incarnation of Jonathan Edwards preaching Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

We were there Sunday mornings and evenings as well as Wednesday prayer service. There wasn't much prayer to the prayer service it was another opportunity for a sermon.

Not everything about the three years we were members of this church was bad. We started singing in the choir. I was already playing the clarinet, but choir taught me to sing bass not just drop an octave lower than the melody. My first love I met at this church. It was puppy love, but very real to the puppy. She moved half way across the country and I was heartbroken.

For three summers Bruce and I attended the summer camp on the east side of Sandia Mountain. They were very intense experiences. Bruce related his surrendering to preach one summer at this camp. The next summer there was a series of morning lessons brought by Curtis Goldman, the pastor of Temple Baptist Church in Albuquerque. He related the biographies of Adiniram Judson, David Livingstone and William Carey. Three early missionaries and the impact of their lives on India, Burma and Africa. At age fifteen I surrendered to the mission field.

Bruce also relates how most of the end times beliefs were based on the notes in the Schofield Bible, but we were also getting literature in the mail from Ambassador College out of Riverside California. A group headed by Herbert W. Armstrong and then taken over by his son Garner Ted Armstrong. The literature was free (but most people sent money anyway). There was a monthly magazine entitled The World Tomorrow and various tracts. The one tract I remember was 1975 In Prophesy. I read it in 1967 at age 14. It was illustrated with all the bad things that were going to happen to all those left behind (hence the title of Tim LeHaye's series of books) after the rapture and going through Tribulation and Great Tribulation. I easily calculated that the world was going to come to an end when I would only be 22. Though I would be one of those raptured in "the twinkling of an eye" I still felt cheated and wondered why this had to happen in my lifetime.

To my parents credit they always taught Bruce and me to take what Herbie and Brother Blue said with a grain of salt, this world view filled me with a huge sense of dread. Add to the fact that Vietnam was in its escalation phase with a daily body count on the evening news, the civil rights riots and the six day war in the Middle East all going on, there was plenty to dread. My 8th grade year I made a few friends at school that pressured me into smoking. I never lit up a cigarette without feeling God's eyes looking down in sorrow. There was never any joy in smoking. We got caught smoking and I was suspended for three days. Mom made me read Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan during those three days. I was relieved that this gave me a good reason to stop smoking and I've never lit up since. Had I continued to smoke I would never have earned a track scholarship which paid for my college education.

Bruce was given a Sunday school class of 5th grade boys to teach and I approached Brother Blue about teaching too. He gave me 3rd grade boys. I started with three students and by the end of the school year had nine and all nine made professions of faith that year. This added to our time spent at church as we also had to go out on Thursday visitation.

Bruce crossed swords with Brother Blue over the issues he discussed on his blog. I had my class taken away as well. It would take too much space to go into all of the things that happened at this church so suffice it to say when Brother Blue took our classes away we stopped attending that church. Bruce recounts this as his beginning steps to leaving fundamentalism. I was never that enthralled with it. It was much too restrictive for my taste. If there was a dance at school I went and did not feel like I was sinning. I never considered alcohol to be a sin, only drinking in excess. I've always had a pretty innate sense of understanding the spirit of the law and fundamentalism is all about the letter of the law.

I accepted premellinialism concerning the end times (eschatology), but only because I hadn't been exposed to opposing interpretations. In high school Hal Linday came out with his book The Late Great Planet Earth. He extended Herbie's deadline for mankind to 1988 -- a generation (40 years) after the founding of Israel. I still felt cheated that the end time was coming so soon.

Rejoining the SBC will be installment 4.

Curmudgeon roundup

Fellow curmudgeon Russ took a trip to D.C. and is now back. He's had some interesting posts since his return.

Woody has an interesting post about the sale of electronic voting machines.

Cornfield has a chart showing the human cost of Afghanistan over eight years and counting.

Michael Manning has a series of posts for National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. I greatly applaud all the energy and effort he has put into getting this message out and putting on a concert benefit to help out children.

Catching up

Mom's home. She's going to have a time recovering, but she is glad to be out of medical care and dependent on nurses to dispense her pain medication (usually thirty minutes or more late).

I had a pleasant round of golf today, my buddies I usually play with on Sunday mornings are taking a few weeks off for medical reasons so I did an afternoon round. It's definitely different at that time of day over early in the morning.

Now for my continuing saga of church.

We moved to Farmington, NM and lived there for six months. I was in fifth grade. While in Farmington we attended Calvary Baptist Church. I don't have much to say about the church. Instead we jump ahead to when I'm in college at Wayland. I was a member of FBC Plainview my freshman year when another student joined the church and they announced she was from Calvary Baptist Church in Farmington. I introduced myself to her and she let me know her father was paster (not the same pastor as when we were members). Her name was Pat as mine and her last name started with a P as well. We became good friends, even dated a time or two and she was always willing to type up my term papers as I was a horrible typist on old manual typewriters where you had to stop and correct mistakes with liquid white out. I do love computers with automatic spell checkers.

Getting back to the story: She married our junior year and I married the first time that year after the school year was over. We had classes together as seniors and she was great with child. I used to kid her that she had an unfair advantage as the class was in stadium seats without a solid platform to write on and she had a built in shelf. Because our names were so similar other students kept getting us confused in the chess tournaments. We started calling each other twin and it kind of stuck. We still call each other twin. Spiritual twins so to speak.

After graduation our first marriages didn't last. I missed our ten year class reunion as auntypesty was born a couple of weeks before that years' homecoming. At our twenty year reunion I ran into a mutual friend who let me know what was happening in her life at that time and it wasn't good. When we (grinnygranny goes with me to these things) went to the thirtieth anniversary (my how does time fly) a few years back the mutual friend gave me Pat's e-mail address. I e-mailed her and sent her a copy of Optimus. She started e-mailing me back. She'd changed her name to Anne Littlewolf, and is becoming a well known artist in her part of Colorado. She let me know she'd written and illustrated a children's book. I told her to come down and go with me to Southwest writers, which she did. It was nice getting together again and catching upon old times. Her book is really good, but that market is really hard to break into. She brought me one of her paintings as a gift, it's the one with the golden aspens. The header picture and the others are some of her fantastic art.

Just a thought

My mother is still in rehab from her knee replacement surgery. Almost all of her income she generates from her pension as a school secretary goes to pay for health insurance. If my father hadn't left her his pension she would be in serious trouble. This is with Medicare.

Within all the smoke screen over health care reform, the one point I haven't heard made by either side this one: Even if there is a public plan, or they make Medicare available to all, the insurance companies will then offer a plan that covers what the government doesn't.

The insurance companies are saying that if there is a public plan or Medicare is extended to everyone then they'd go out of business. That's sheer nonsense. They stand to lose a lot of money with any health reform bill, which is a good thing for the taxpayers of this country since they are like ticks drinking up the life blood of this country and contributing little back for what they take in.

Inconceivable

Sung to the tune "Unforgettable"

Inconceivable that our country would stray so far...

Inconceivable that people could be so blind...

I was thinking today about all the things over the past years I thought would never happen and did:

• That Bush would be elected twice.
• That we'd be fighting two unwinnable and needless wars at the same time for over eight years.
• That Wall Street could melt down due to lack of government oversight and a year later nothing has changed.
• That people still listen to Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck.
• That the American Patriot act would be passed at all, and then renewed and is up for renewal again.
• That the gulf coast area of this country is still in shambles this many years after Katrina (when Florida the year before Katrina was hit by five hurricanes and there wasn't any problem helping them rebuild).
• That America would resort to torture, and that Baptists would be the ones who support it.
• That we still have people incarcerated in Guantanimo.
• That an intellectual African-American could be elected president.
• That there are still people who doubt Obama was born in Hawaii.
• That there are people who think No Child Left Behind improved education.
• That we are still dependent on foreign oil.
• That people still believer climate change is a hoax.
• That the one post I wrote that still gets the most hits is I've Been Fooled. That was about The Princess Bride. Which gave me the picture and thrust of this post.

Concerns

With Mom in rehab and all the news filled with the health care debate I thought I'd put my two cents worth in again.

70% of doctors want a public health plan.They are tired of fighting for their money with bureaucrats. Over 70% of the public want a public plan. 20% of the people have been whipped up into a frenzy because they think illegal immigrants would be getting these benefits. Which they already are on Medicaide. The AARP wants a public plan. If everyone goes broke paying for private health care, if businesses go under because they can't make a profit due to high premiums then no one is paying into the Medicare system for them. Right now the poor have a government health plan, the elderly have a government health plan. Both of those plans spend 3% on administrative costs. The working and middle class are the only ones without a government health plan (unless you work for the government and have their plan) They are the ones paying through the nose for health insurance. Private insurance companies spend 20% on admin costs, mostly to deny coverage or delay payments as long as possible. A public option would require everyone to pay into the system which is a burden only on 20-30 year old men. Women have medical expenses the minute they go on birth control. At age 40 and up men start having dental, vision and health issues that need being covered.
Last year the U.S. had 700,000 medical related bankruptcies. Canada, England, Germany, France, Italy, Japan all of them had zero (0) bankruptcies due to health costs since they have universal health care.
Obviously the private insurance companies want to stay defective slot machines that never pay off. The New York Times three days ago had an article about Wall Street wanting to cash in on those with terminal illnesses. If you have a life insurance policy and are diagnosed as terminal you can cash in your policy at 40 cents on the dollar. If you have a million dollar policy they'll pay you 400 grand, pay the premiums until you die (hopefully very soon) and they reap 600 thousand dollars. The only thing that would ruin this new gravy train would be 1) people get cured and don't die 2) we get decent health care and those who have terminal illness don't have to cash in their policies to pay medical bills.

This hit home for my family as my sister was one of those forced to cash in her life insurance early, thus depriving her husband and daughter the 60% they sacrificed that would help them go on with their lives now she's gone.
The only thing that will get good paying jobs back in this country is affordable health care.

__________________

Mom's Recovery

Mom's out of the hospital and into a rehab center. She's fighting with the nurses over pain medication, when she gets better the posts on her blog will be very interesting.

Waiting, waiting and waiting

Mom had knee replacement surgery this morning. We have been here since six this morning. Around noon the nurse here in the waiting room told me they'd move her out of recovery in about twenty minutes. It's now 3:30 and they haven't moved her to a room. She having trouble keeping her oxygen level up if she falls asleep, what I've been told, they won't let me in with her. I've used up my computer battery twice. The waiting room doesn't have any electrical outlets by the chairs. I am getting some quality editing time on my novel-in-progress.

Memories of Faith

A few posts ago I was hypercritical of a local mega church. Bruce has been doing a series of posts on his departure from fundamentalism. If you haven't read his posts, they are well worth your time. Michael Prescott (no relation) has a lengthy passage from Anna Karenina detailing Tolstoy's epiphany concerning faith.

This got me thinking about my own personal walk and that a series of posts on this would be better than ranting and raving on other things.

Earliest remembrances

I grew up in church. I have fleeting memories of churches in Pueblo, Co where we lived until age nine. The first real impact a church had on me was at Sandia Baptist Church here in Albuquerque when I was ten. This is the churches fiftieth anniversary year and for many of those years it had a decided impact on our family. Hey Bruce and I met our wives at this church, if that's not a decided impact nothing is.

What I remember about this church was Wednesday night services. The church had old army barracks (long since replaced) one of them held the kitchen and dining area, and as most SBC churches at that time before the midweek prayer meeting they served a meal, everyone came, paid a small amount and sat down at long tables for a pleasant breaking of bread. It was warm, friendly, there were lots of kids my age to eat with as the grownups left us alone for their own conversations. Not many churches have Wednesday prayer meeting anymore, and even fewer have a kitchen and serve meals. So much of the soul of the church departed when this practice ended. Those dinner tables is where the friendships that last a lifetime were born.

The first Sunday School teacher I remember was Bob May. I was in a class of about ten boys my age and instead of lecturing us, this very soft spoken and patient man would let each of us read a few verses of the lesson out of our Bibles. He would then make a few pertinent points about the lesson and the class would be over. Mr. May's daughter-in-law works with Grinnygranny, and when I made application to APS they called me in rejecting my application saying that my references weren't "professional." I was beginning to become quite agitated when I saw Bob May walk through the office. He was the chief financial officer for APS, and his presence struck utter terror in any administrator who spent a penny the wrong way. I waved at him, said hi. He waved back and walked into the other office. I then told the lady he would be a reference for me. I was hired.

You have no idea how small the Baptist community is here.

Bruce and I made our professions of faith here and were baptized together. I remember that I didn't hold my breath long enough as the pastor dunked me and I came up coughing.

At this time we started making trips to Glorieta. Mom went up for a meeting. Bruce and I had a few hours on the grass outside the chappel. We took up our baseball gloves and played catch, and a number of other things to occupy our time. When Mom came out and we drove home it wasn't until we got out of the car that I discovered I'd left my glove in Glorieta. A devastating experience for a ten year old. The other visit to Glorieta at this time was a once in a lifetime spectacular. Unfortunately I was too young to appreciate it. All the choirs in the state practiced for months to perform the entire Handel's Messiah. The soloists performed the same concert at Ridgecrest NC (the other SBC encampment). The place was packed. We were way in the back and could barely see the stage. The booklet we were given had the words of the songs so you could follow along, but I was bored stiff. The only high light was that in the middle of the performance the booklet had the Hallelujah Chorus with the notes so the entire audience could sing along. I enjoyed that. The second half (which to this day I've never heard or seen performed again) took forever. There was real heartbreak as we spread Penni's ashes in the prayer gardens this past summer in Glorieta, but my heart also breaks for a place so special for most of my life that has become a shadow of its former self. The SBC has all but abandoned this encampment. Oklahoma and Texas have build competing camps and they made up most of the campers.

The next year we moved away from that part of town and joined another church. We would becomes members of this church numerous times over the years and the people we met and became friends with are still a part of our lives.

Work weekend

Grinnygranny had Friday off and with today off as well we decided to do something we've put off for fifteen years. When we bought our house it came with the most gawdawful brown patterned wall paper in the foyer and hallway. Friday Grinnygranny, Auntypesty and C pulled it all off, not an easy job. Saturday we painted the walls with primer. Yesterday Grinnygranny rested, E & C went to the wine tasting in Bernalillo, Autypesty went to church and I golfed with my buddies. Today we're applying light blue paint to the walls and painting all the doorways white. It's quite a job, but it looks so much lighter and brighter than before.

I hope others are having a pleasant labor day. Our staycation is turning into quite a bit of work.

MRWBS 2

Hat tip to Yikes. They're so good I had to post them here too.

Rchard Reeves has a column with some interesting statistics concerning health care. This is the one tht caught my eye.

In a joint study by Harvard Medical School and Harvard Law School of the number of bankruptcies attributed to medical bills each year, the United States' total was approximately 700,000. The French total was zero. The Italian total was zero. The German total was zero. The Japanese total was zero. The Canadian total was zero

For those not good at word problems, thats:

U.S. 700,000 bankruptcies due to heath costs

France 0

Italy 0

Germany 0

Japan 0

Canada 0

How much healthier would our economy be, how much more spending power would the average American have, how many more jobs would be created with this extra spending power, if Congress only had a brain?

MRWBS

More Right Wing Bullshit.

I'm a graduate of Wayland Baptist College and attended for one year Southwester Baptist Theological Seminary. What I remember from my religion and theology classes was it seemed every class had one or more students that always tried to pin the professor down as to what their personal belief was on the given topic. See there's been two thousand years of theologians trying to make a name for themselves by advancing a different interpretation for every verse of scripture in the Bible. On certain topics there can be a dozen or more points of view. The text and professors would explain the interpretation and then give its strengths and weaknesses. What the professors would not do is tell you which one of the interpretations they thought was the right one or their personal belief. There are two very good educational reasons for this. 1) The professor being the authority figure would exert undue influence on the students, which leads to point #2 It's the students' responsibility to judge from the pros and cons and figure it out on their own. I remember Dr. Bishop spending sometimes half the class arguing with students that were so frustrated because he wouldn't be pinned down. You could see those students get all huffy, "How dare he not tell us how to think."

Theology is not like Math where 2 + 2 = 4.

Sadly since 1978 education has been replaced at Southern Baptist Seminaries by brain washing. There is only one official way to interpret the Bible. The fundamentalist view which they beat over everyone's head with the buzz word inerrant. "The Bible is inerrant." Which means they and their interpretation is inerrant. All the other interpretations are never mentioned.

Now I'm sure many of my hippie political blogger friends are scratching their heads and wondering what the hell I'm rambling on about. I've said this in preamble to what I read a few days ago by Cal Thomas.

Cal Thomas is on our local Op/Ed page. If I ever want my blood pressure to go through the roof I just have to read his column. Most of the time he is so stupid it's not worth the time and effort to refute his errors, myths, and down right lies. This one struck a chord.

He was defending right wing colleges and professors who fail any students that don't regurgitate exactly what they've been told is true.

He said that if liberal colleges and liberal professors fail students for not answering the way they want them to, then conservative colleges and professors should be able to do the same.

Beyond the obvious that two wrongs don't make a right. Liberal colleges and professors don't fail conservative students for answering a different way. Cal Thomas was PROJECTING the conservative thought process onto what they consider to be liberal practices. As I've pointed out education doesn't give a party line. Education (what they consider to be liberal) embraces and accepts multiple interpretations and thought. Education wants you to think and figure things out for yourself. If students still thing the world if flat or the sun revolves around the earth, then they might find that their beliefs will get them a wrong answer on a science test. In the humanities if an opinion is asked there are no wrong answers, you're graded on your ability to defend your answer. Somehow an answer, "Jerry Falwell said so," isn't very convincing.

Which leads to another column I read in Alternet by Max Blumenthal. He mentions a little remembered letter by President Eisenhower where he warns that the greatest threat to democracy was an electorate who was too eager to follow an authority figure who tells them how to think instead of thinking for themselves.

He (Eisenhower) explained to Biggs that Hoffer “points out that dictatorial systems make one contribution to their people which leads them to tend to support such systems — freedom from the necessity of informing themselves and making up their own minds concerning these tremendous complex and difficult questions.” The authoritarian follower, Eisenhower suggested, desired nothing more than insulation from the pressures of a free society.

Erica Jong had an article in the Huffpo with an interesting take on the health care smack down. She explained that her husband was a divorce lawyer and that it's always the crazy partner, the one who's unreasonable and does all the screaming and fussing that gets what they want. The reasonable partner gets screwed. She equates all the crazy things happening at the town hall meetings that represent only a fraction of the general population, but that they are the ones being heard will most likely keep us from getting the type of health reform we need.

Maybe it's time to take the debate away from the demagogues and start thinking and acting for ourselves.

A Good Laugh

WKRP in Cincinnati: Thanksgiving Turkey Bomb! @ Yahoo! Video

The funniest sitcom episode of all time.

Mega Religion

We went to a church today here on the west side. It started as an extension of the huge mega church in town across the river. We've been to the mother church many times over the years (usually for conferences that were hosted there) so we were naturally curious about this one.
Even though its not in the name this is a Baptist church.

We were the only ones that brought a Bible. They weren't needed. Grinnygranny admonished me to keep an open mind as we sat down in the fairly plush chairs.

Here's what my open mind noticed:

The picture at left is the cover of their order of worship. It was also plastered all over the walls. It is the focus of the series of the pastor's sermons. When I saw this I reminded this was one of the churches that showed the video Bush: God's Warrior. I also equate this with the crazies taking guns where Obama shows up to speak. Those who would applaud a gunman murdering a doctor in a church because what he does offends their religious beliefs. The symbolism of militancy is overt not subliminal. It brought to mind Barry Sadler's book Casca: The Samurai. Casca sees monks wearing swords. He thinks to himself that of all the centuries he'd lived that whenever religion picks up arms the world is in a pile of shit.

Another observation is that everything this chuch does is packaged like either a television show or movie.

• The sanctuary is a television studio. No vaulted ceiling giving the impression that the people's thoughts should focus on heaven. It has bare black beams with exposed ducting, lights, spot lights, cameras, projectors. The side walls are covered with speakers. When I saw the stage, the band set up, large screens on both sides of the front, curtains; I expected to see Ed MacMahon step out and say "Heeerrrrreeee'ssss Johnny." Before the service began there was a voice and video asking everyone to turn off their cell phones, just like in a movie theater.


• The music worship was a pep rally. The singers on stage all had the Lawrence Welk smiles, raised hands, clapping. I was surprised they didn't have cheerleader outfits. There were the typical praise choruses brainwashing the faithful in the divine right of kings. (I've posted before on my disdain the last thirty years on the music services). The only difference I found here over almost all other churches and even at the New Baptist Covenant we attended earlier this month was in the level of ability. I give the song leader and musicians credit. They are good. I looked around at those in the congregation during the song service. Only about twenty percent raised their hands and about half were moving their mouths to sing along. Even the song service has become entertainment instead of a particapatory experience. Main reason for this is that all you see is the words. You have to see the notes in order to know how to sing the song. (Sorry pet peeve)


• When the senior pastor (looked to be in his early thirties) came on stage he sat in a chair with a table to hold his notes. He wore blue jeans with a gray dress shirt over a white t-shirt. I noticed people dressed in shorts, t-shirts, flip flops, like they were going to the mall or more exactly to see a movie.


• During the sermon he stopped for a video clip of man-on-the-street interviews about friendship. Later to make a point he used another clip from the T.V. show Old Christine and at another jucture there was a clip showing all the people who attended the church because one person asked someone and then they asked someone etc. It ended by lining up the different people as an example of what one person could accomplish.


• It was a basic fundamentalist sermon. The kiss (keep it simple stupid) principle. Preach salvation and guilt the already saved for not asking all those they know to come to church. It seems that's all a christian is required to do is ask everyone they meet to come to church. The emphasis was on the people to "save" the lost. No mention that this is the Holy Spirit's job.


• What I didn't expect: 1. No invitation. If you want to make a decision there is a card in the order of worship to fill out and leave in the boxes as you leave. I guess they don't want people coming down and messing up their fancy media equipment. That and the fact that they need to get this overflow crowd out the door and the next one seated in fifteen minutes. (Wow just like the movie theaters) 2. No offering. That's what the boxes on the way out are for. Interesting concept. Evidently plenty of people are apprecative and give generously this way.


• We noticed on the way out that all services are available on I-tunes. No media stone left unturned.

Church has always been about entertainment. For much of history it was about the only form of entertainment the average person had to break up their work week. The last century brought cheap entertainment to the masses. Movies, television, radios, lp's 45's, tapes, CD's and now MP3 players, Ipods, PC's (the flood continues) fought with church for the attention of the masses. Some embraced the new medium. Billy Graham brought the local church service to the world with his telecasts. Radio and televangelists quickly found out there was gold in them thar little old ladies until the shopping networks cut into their profits. In the last fifty years church attendance has been way down and this seems to be one response. If you can't beat 'em -- join 'em. If anyone can find a way to add a video game to the sermon I'm sure they'll include that too.

Russian History

Back in the day, I took a class in Russian history. I did a paper on the evolution of revolutionary action starting with the Decembrist revolt in 1825 up to the Communist take over in 1917. I had to read the paper to the class. On the night before having to read a paper full of Russian names I spent hours practicing their pronunciation. When the reading the paper I was doing about as best I could unitl I got to the Loris-Melikov document which was to be russia's first constitution guaranteening freedom of speach and press. The minister responsible for buring the document up and seeing to it that such freedoms were not allowed was Konstantine Pobedonetsev, a cousin of the Tsar or Czar (I prefer the latter spelling, but the former has become the official spelling). When I got to his name for the life of me I could not pronounce it. Scott Horton today posted this painting on his No Comment blog bringing back memories of over thirty years. This is what he says about the painting:


Ilya Repin prepared this study of Konstantin Pobedonostsev for one of his great pre-revolutionary works, the State Council. Pobedonostsev was the very definition of archconservative of the late Romanov era, a lawyer and Oberprokurator of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. Podedonostsev could be understood as the James Dobson of his age. He pushed the excommunication of Tolstoy for his “radical” views about Christianity, he denounced Western thought of his age as “dangerous” and “nihilistic” and particularly condemned Darwin. He detested the idea of democracy as rule by a “vulgar crowd,” and he despised and railed against legal reforms like the introduction of trial by jury and the introduction of press freedom. Many have seen in him the very model of Dostoevsky’s cardinal-inquisitor. That may be so, but in fact Pobedonostsev and Dostoevsky were good friends and correspondents. Very fittingly, Repin presents him as a man lacking eyes and dominated by his uniform.

Team Justice

Scott Horton provided a link to Team Justice fighting for the prosecution of the Torture Team. Click here to see their baseball cards of all those that need to be tried, prosecuted and incarcerated for the most despicable chapter in American history. Let's keep the pressure up for justice so that this doesn't happen again. If nothing else public opinion and ridicule will make the thugs either dem or rep think twice before going down this road again.

Back To Work

The dust has settled a little bit in the last two weeks. The new schedule has everyone confused. Since we've had a new schedule for the last five years that's pretty much business as usual.

A funny thing happened at our in-service meeting last Friday. The former ass principle where I teach who is now the district curriculum coordinator was trying to explain the new program where every teacher in the district will now have to post their lesson plans on-line. The she gave the name of the program then explained that last year it was called something else and the year before it was called something else and so on and so forth. There was a collective groan from all the social studies teachers present. This lady then stops what she's saying and asks what the problem is. She got an ear full. Good God how many times do we spin our wheels shoveling the same old bullshit under a new name!

Naturally this got me to thinking. What's the best example of teaching I've ever come across?

Hands down Sun Tzu's in his book The Art Of War.

To paraphrase:

The King of Wu asked Sun Tzu if he could train women to be soldiers. As a test he had a hundred of his concubines taken into the courtyard. Sun Tzu set them up in groups of 25 with one of the concubines as leader of each group. He then explained the commands of right face and left face. When he ordered them to perform this simple command they broke out into laughter. Sun Tzu then explained that if the troops do not understand the orders it's the commander's fault for not being clear enough. He explained the drill again and gave the command. Again they broke out into laughter. This time he explained that if the commands were clear and understood, but the troops did not obey it was the fault of their leaders. He ordered the four concubines in charge of each group to be beheaded. The King of Wu then send down word for Sun Tzu not to harm his concubines. Sun Tzu then replied that once he'd been given a job to accomplish there were certain orders he could not follow and be successful. The concubines were beheaded and from that point on when he gave orders to the four groups they performed them flawlessly. The King of Wu then sent the concubines back to the women's quarters upon which Sun Tzu said the King wasn't really serious about his troops.

This was about 500BC and I'm not, let me repeat NOT speaking up in favor of beheading students, but the same logic of instruction applies.

1. Discipline requires consequences. The drill was just a game to the concubines until they saw what would happen if they didn't take it seriously. Major problem in education: there are no consequences for the students. Instead they are trying to make test scores reflect on the teachers. This is just plain stupid. Stop social promotion in the lower grades. Make employers hire only students with a 2.0 or higher gpa or graduates, do away with the GED as a short cut for a diploma. Make the diploma mean something and let there be consequences for dropping out or skating by with straight D's. If a student doesn't want to come to class, is constantly late,obey the teacher, do any work, is more interested in listening to music or talking or texting on the cell phone, start fights, call other students names... They should be removed from class for the rest of the semester or year and if that holds up their graduation one or two years so be it. It's a consequence for actions they could have chosen not to do. Once students start seeing the consequences in action the majority of them will straighten up and take their education seriously. Instead of making teachers "teach to the test" if students knew that they would not go on to the next level of instruction in math, science, history, English, etc unless they showed competency on the standardized test guess what their scores would improve dramatically, because it would mean something to them. Right now everyone is held accountable for test scores except the students. And they wonder why the scores keep getting lower and lower.

2. In order for there to be consequences the instructor needs to be supported. If Sun Tzu had obeyed the King's command nothing would have been accomplished. The concubines would have known that the threat of execution was just intended to scare them, but wouldn't be followed through. From that point on they would have ignored him knowing that he didn't have the full backing of the King. There's not much Ellen Bernstein the union president here says that I agree with, but a couple of days ago a study came out that showed 30% of new teachers leave the profession in the first two years and 50% leave by the fifth year. Ellen told the news reporters it wasn't lack of pay, but lack of support that drives teachers out. I said upon hearing her words: "Right On!"

The students know that if their parents complain about what the teacher assigned, grades assessed or that we talked to them the wrong way in class the school's administration sides with them over the teacher most of the time. If the administration does side with the teacher then the courts cut us off at the knees. John Rosemond writes a column about child rearing which is carried by the local newspaper. He wrote an article about public schools a few years ago that was spot on. He said that when it comes to public schools and the courts they can't win. If they try to enforce their discipline the courts rule in favor of the parents. If a child is harmed by other students because there's no discipline the school loses on that suit too. They've put all public schools into a no-win situation.

What Sun Tzu explained to the King of Wu is that there can be no responsibility without authority.

Mad Men

I discovered AMC's Mad Men last season. Now there's a site where you can make an avatar in the show's setting.

Here is a comment I made in response to Michael Manning's: I thought it would apply here as well.

Mad Men is nothing like True Blood and some of the other premium channel programs, which is what makes it so special. You don't have to display bare breasts, use obscenities every other word and see how much blood and gore to show in order to tell a good story.

Time to take action on health care

Before I raise my blood pressure over the health care debate I want to point out an exceptional post by Michael Prescott. After reading his post on the book You Can Be Happy No Matter What I ordered the book from Amazon. It cost me one penny + $3.99 S&H. Read Michael's review of it and the comments. He has some of the most faithful readers that make for some great discussions in the comments. You may be interested as well.

Russ at anything adirondack posted his take on Obama's mentioning that the public option might be off the table. I hope he's right. A public option similar to Medicare is at least acceptable to me, but I feel like we're getting the cheapest hunk of junk on the lot instead of the deluxe model which would be a singe payer system.

Look, I sell cars for a living and there is a technique used throughout the car sales industry called, "go out there and take the car away from them", and it works.

You have a customer who is not sure if she/he has made their best deal asking for more and and unsure of exactly what to do, buy or walk. They just spent maybe an hour and a half selecting, driving, having the trade appraised,negotiating over the trade and trying to lower price of the new car, and are growing tired of the process. So they make one last ridiculous offer to test the waters and get the sales manager to, "fish or cut bait".

The salesperson goes to the sales manager and presents some ridiculous offer that gets laughed at and is told to go back to his desk and say...

"Maybe we should move to a less expensive car to lower the purchase price."

The customer only has two choices. Weigh going back out onto the lot and selecting and driving another car or staying focused on the original car.

So they leave the air conditioned showroom and walk out onto the lot and pick out their second choice and drive it, listen to the sales pitch all over again, and all the time thinking about the more expensive model that meets their needs and has now how increased in value compared to the cheaper model.

Original choice of car wins 80% of the time.

Works more often than not.

What Barack is doing is the same thing. We as voters picked the one with power windows and door locks, cruise control, Navigation System, all wheel drive,leather heated seats and the most powerful motor.

So we as voter have invested much time and effort in acquiring this ________________? [pick a car company ] car and and now he as the best evah salesman he is is taking it away and wants us to go back out onto the lot and select and think about an alternative model.

Frankly I'm sticking with my first choice. Somehow he'll find the money [votes] to pay for it.

Fellow curmudgeon, Russ, at private buffoon is into tilting at windmills. There is something about Bruce and I that we can't pass up a chance to be Don Quiote. I'm going to join him in the jousting. He's written a letter to the president and wants others to copy it and mail it in. I know snail mail may be old fashioned, but just maybe if he got buried in letters instead of e-mail which is so easily deleted more attention would be paid. I'm mailing one in. I think its worth the cost of a postage stamp. Sending one to Jeff Bingamon might help too.

It's time to remind Obama you ride the horse that brung 'ya.

Dear President Obama:

In 2008, disillusioned by eight years of W's misrule, we fell under your spell. You gave us hope, and we responded with enthusiasm and energy. You promised "Change We Can Believe In" and "Change We Need". We believed you.

While your quest for bipartisan solutions is noble, it is not realistic in the current political climate. Your Republican opponents - the so-called "loyal opposition" - in the House and Senate have no interest in supporting any legislation you propose. Their votes on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the Stimulus Bill) proved that; even though you'd made an effort to water down the bill to bring Republicans into the fold.

Don't now abandon the centerpiece of health reform legislation - the "public option" - in a futile search for a bipartisan solution. Again - such a quest is futile. Like the unicorn and the Holy Grail, bipartisan solutions are mythical in today's political environment.

Instead, it's time for you to do your very best LBJ impersonation: take recalcitrant Democratic Senators aside and twist their arms. Face it, if LBJ had attempted to appease his Congressional opponents regarding the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, you would likely NOT be President today!

Another historical analogy comes to mind: Neville Chamberlain declaring "peace in our time" following the Munich Conference with Hitler. As Paul Krugman recently noted, your opponents cannot be appeased! They will never vote for meaningful reform of healthcare coverage, no matter what concessions you offer. Don't come before the cameras waving a neutered healthcare reform bill and declaring, "Bipartisanship in our time!"

Now is the time to stand firm and twist Democratic arms to achieve meaningful, historical reform of our national healthcare so-called 'system'. It is NOT the time to cave to Republican demands in the pursuit of a mythical beast.

If you do not stand firm and twist a few arms, you may discover that we who enthusiastically supported your candidacy in 2008 are no longer with you in 2012.

Sincerely,

Time to Rant

To finish up on my thoughts concerning Mark Rudd's book.

• He seemed to be one of the leaders of the SDS and Weathermen, but only followed someone else's ideas. Every major decision which led to them becoming criminals and having to hide from the law -- including the decision to go underground -- came from someone else. He only agreed with them.
• The demonstrators didn't mind getting arrested as long as Mom and Dad put up the bail money.
• All protesting did for him was to make a dean's list top student from Columbia live for seven years like a high school drop-out.
• It was interesting that when he went underground, getting married and starting a family, leaving behind the life of sex, drugs and rock n roll his perspective changed.

This is from Thurman Heart at Xpatriated Texan:

We’re talking, after all, about Max Baucus of Montana, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Susan Collins of Maine, Mike Enzi of Wyoming, and Chuck Grassley of Iowa. Collectively those six states contain about 2.74 percent of the population, less than New Jersey, or about one fifth the population of California.

Now look at the ratings for these Senators on abortion (from On the Issues):
Baucus – rated 100% by NARAL and 0% by NRLC
Conrad – rated 43% by NARAL and 25% by NRLC
Bingaman – rated 100% by NARAL and 0% by NRLC
Collins – rated 83% by NARAL and 0% by NRLC
Enzi – rated 0% by NARAL and 100% by NRLC
Grassley – rated 0% by NARAL and 100% by NRLC

This is the “Gang of Six” (everyone has to be a “Gang of…” nowadays) that will, supposedly, hold the swing votes on what bill passes the Senate. Two members have a perfect anti-abortion voting record. What chances are there that abortion will be covered? None.

I wasn't aware that Bingamon was a part of this. All the articles I've read talked about them by group. I will be letting him know my displeasure at his stance on health care and reproductive rights.

For an even better stance on the health care issue check out fellow curmudgeon Private Buffoon he does wax eloquent at times.

Underground Review

On the trip I had time to read David Rudd's book Underground. It brought back many memories of my high school and the divisions that existed, though nothing on the scale that Rudd and the students at Columbia had. He was very thorough in detailing all the events that led up to the seizure of numerous buildings and staging a sit-in for six days, his trip to Cuba, the dominance of Communism in the student movement, what led to their turning violent and eventually going underground. In his opening he says that their actions so alienated the general public that they might as well have been employed by the FBI. He has much better hind sight that others writing books about that time. Most of the book dealt with his time hiding from arrest. Seven years of being afraid that at any moment he would be arrested. The different places they had to move to, different jobs, trying to raise a family, the change in politics that allowed him to resurface. It was interesting.

One passage caught my attention. While hiding out in Santa Fe in 1971-2 he mentions that students in Albuquerque closed down I-25 by the University and he was encouraged by those in Santa Fe to come down and join in and how hard it was not to be a part of this.

I remember those days very well. The Friday before district track meet was the JROTC dining out and ball on Kirkland AFB. My date was the daughter of a police captain, the police captain that Bruce was under at the time. Driving up to the gate we were told that there were rumors students were planning a protest in front the the base, and if that happened the gates would be locked for the night. I could just see all the deep shit I would have been in had this come to pass. Fortunately they didn't protest. I got the fine upstanding young lady back to her very overprotective Mormon father and had a good nights sleep before a very important couple of races.

 I qualified in the mile for the state track meet and that week we were allowed to practice at UNM's track. The sports complex for UNM is well south of the campus. My high school is in the northern part of the city (why it's called Del Norte).  I didn't have a last period class and got on the freeway to drive to the track a little earlier than the rest of the team. I got to Lomas, which is where the police stopped traffic and had to drive east to San Mateo then south Gibson, west to University and north to Stadium where the complex is located. When I got to the track I talked the grounds keeper into letting me use the field house phone to call the activities director so he could give the heads up to the rest of the team not to go the freeway. As far as I was concerned those assholes accomplished absolutely nothing and merely caused a big mess.

My conclusions on the book will be in the next post as I have a department meeting in a few minutes.

Back to work

Here's some pictures of what happened the night before we drove into Milford Nebraska to visit Grinnygranny's Mom.

This is the tree directly in front of Rose's apartment. There was tree damage like this and worse in a 70 mile radius. We saw a truck that a tree had fallen on and one house where a limb landed on the roof. One of the neighbors said the wind was twisting the trees like a rope, but it stayed high and there wasn't much property damage. Crops were flattened closer to Lincoln, but none were affected around Milford. Fortunately the limb that broke off went the other direction and Rose's medication knocks her out at night (she's also rather hard of hearing). The storm hit around 3 or 4 in the morning so she didn't know what happened until she woke up.

Bob (Grinnygranny's brother) showed up with a chain saw a little after we got there and started cutting away at this and two other trees that had fallen limbs in the complex. I helped move the cut limbs to the street. Most of it was stacked up and waiting for the city to collect for the chipper in about four hours. The bigger pieces were hauled away by a guy with an ATV. Two of the largest pieces had to wait until the next day as the chain on the chain saw got dull. Bob had to buy a new chain and have the old one sharpened. That night he was worried that he wouldn't be able to buy a new chain. By noon the next day all was clear except half of the tree was missing. They'll have to cut it down as there's too much damage to leave it. I figured hauling all those tree limbs was as good a work out as a round of golf. We'd taken our clubs, but the golf course was closed while they cleaned up their downed trees.

• Bruce has videos up at his blog from the meeting we were at last week. Check out Jimmy Carter's speech and some of the other speakers that were there. He also has links to the many news articles about the two days of meetings.
• Mom has a good post on getting to meet the former president at her blog.
• Grinnygranny, Auntypesty and I enjoyed the meetings and services, but that's as much as I want to say about it right now.
• Today I was back in the classroom. It's starting off rather different this year. Usually we work one day of registration, have a day or two of in-service and then the students are in class. Today I had to be in the classroom, but I don't work registration until tomorrow. So I had the full day to set up my room. I'll have a half day in my room tomorrow after working registration in the morning. Friday is the usual start-the-new-year-off in-service. Monday is a newly negotiated teacher work day to be in our rooms and Tuesday and Wednesday we have two days of being lectured to in-services. The legislature mandated in-services be held before the school year so we don't have them within the semesters. Classes don't start until next Thursday. Two and a half days to get the room ready. I'm ready after one. Still in previous years we had all of about an hour to organize things before the kids hit the desks.

Almost Home

Will be back to me own wonderful bed tomorrow. We got tired of playing with the big rigs and thier rolling road blocks and stopped for the evening. Spent the last two nights in a really swanky hotel, so swanky they wanted fifteen bucks a night for wi-fi. I have much to say about the reading Rudd's book, the trip and the convention, so I'll have much to say the next few days before it's time to head back to the salt mines.

On the road

I forgot to mention that Thursday night Russ and Woody and I met for a drink and had a fine time. If there are more bloggers in the area they are welcome to come to our monthy curmudgeon meeting.

We're in Kansas Toto. On our way to visit Grinnygranny's family. Then we're dropping down to meet Mom and Bruce at the New Baptist Covenant convention in Norman, OK. The Windstar may be over eleven years old and has beau coup miles on it, but it does drive nice on the highway still.

I'll be out of touch for a few days. Everyone have a good one till then.

Dad is rolling in his grave

At Southwest Writers today the speaker was Mark Rudd. A long time teacher at Albuquerque's community college TVI now CNM. In the late 60's he was in the Weather Underground as part of the anti-war movement and spent a number of years running from the law. I bought his book. Agreed with most of what he said today. When we had our little chat while he was signing the book we didn't have much to discuss as I wasn't a marijuana smoking, wild eyed, hippie from the Sixties. I did try to get him to join the gaggle with me telling him that those Eastern transplanted Republicans I golf with need another good rabble rouser to shake them up, but he doesn't golf.

I was in junior high at the time and remember little about the Weathermen other than what the news reported when I really wasn't paying much attention. Dad was an ex-marine going to UNM on the GI bill and do remember him fussing about the SDS on campus and that he thought they should all be sent to Siberia.

My freshman year in college was the last year of the draft and I didn't know that year if I'd be called up or not. I was 76 out of the pingball machine and they drafted to 75. If any emergency came up they'd draft to 100. Fortunately no emergency arose and I gladly spent my time running cross-country and track all over Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

In high school the anti-war movement were a bunch of egg head hippies and I was a jock. There was a bit of animosity between groups. They resented all the attention the athletes got and were constantly submitting petitions to cut all inter-school athletic competition and divert the money wasted on such frivolous pursuits to academics. They also protested our Air Force ROTC, which I was in as well. (Small aside, two years of JROTC taught me the last thing I ever wanted to do was be in the military.)

Going to a small Baptist college 40 miles from the nearest known sin once we were out of Southeast Asia in classes we discussed what went wrong in a rather detached way. A number of students were vets and in one class I remember a vet saying that the whole time he was there most of the Vietnamese were just simple farmers that wanted to grow their rice, take it to market and be left alone from both sides. Kind of a universal sentiment throughout all history.

I didn't really get a sense of what the anti-war movement was about until I came back from exile (the five years I was in Texas going to college and seminary). I came across Harlan Ellison's The Glass Teat and The Other Glass Teat. It was a bit late, but I finally understood what they were protesting against.

What I appreciated most from his talk was that he understands how what he was trying to accomplish was good, but he went about it the wrong way.

When covering both the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement in world history and U. S. history I try to impress on my students that both movements were successful until they turned violent. When they were non-violent much was accomplished, but the tragedy of Martin Luther King Jr's assassination was that it marked the ending of effective non-violent change and the resulting riots, and disruptive demonstrations turned the American public against them. I haven't had time to read his book yet, but I get the sense he understands this much more deeply than I do from my ivory tower.