Misunderstanding Trump

       He's number 1.....He's number 1.....He's number 1

          Poor, poor misunderstood Donald Trump. Here he is trying to steer the country back onto the right path after what he calls the failure of the Obama presidency, and everyone is instead distracted by his perceived verbal gaffs. It’s hampering his shot at the White House where he says he’ll ‘Make America Great Again’. Incidentally, that motto was plagiarized from Ronald Reagan who used “Let’s Make America Great Again” in the 1980s. Trump says he came up with the phrase on his own and that it has nothing to do with Reagan’s. But does anyone pay attention to his making America great…again? No. All people want to do is misquote him or knowingly misrepresent what he implied. He speaks his mind off-the-cuff-like, and then the media puts its own spin on it to make him look like a first-class jerk. That’s because what was recorded and what we heard was simply a misunderstanding of what he said. In other words, it’s our fault, not his.

        For example:

In a Sept. 2015 Rolling Stone interview, Trump is quoted saying about rival GOP candidate Carly Fiorina: "Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?" He claims he wasn’t talking about her looks, “I'm talking about persona," he corrected everyone. And we can believe him. When he uses the word ‘face’ twice, it’s simply our not realizing he meant a theatrical mask.

 At the Republican debate in August 2015, after moderator Megyn Kelly asked him about the sexist comments he’s made, such as calling some women "fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals," Trump retaliated later by saying she had "blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her, wherever…" He claims he meant her nose. Obviously. “Wherever…” always means nose. He even added the caveat "Only a deviant would think anything else" while also tossing in that Megyn was a “bimbo”. He wouldn’t stoop to saying anything sexist that might refer to her menstruation cycle, or compare woman to dogs, pigs, slobs…or bimbos. We can believe him because it was clearly a misunderstanding of where ‘wherever’ was located.

 Earlier this year, Trump retweeted — and then deleted — a tweet that said, "If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?” He said it was a staffer’s fault. It wasn’t him that tweeted it, even though it was just like his other comments. “Satisfy” wasn’t referencing anything sexual, it was simply misunderstood.

Trump says he loves bimbos...er, broads...that is, babes...you know, sex objects.

Trump consistently insults, belittles, and stereotypes women, having disparaged Sarah Jessica Parker, Katy Perry, Rosie O'Donnell, Cher, Bette Midler, Angelina Jolie, even Ivana when he was still married to her. He is quoted as saying women are essentially aesthetically-pleasing objects, that sexual assault in the military is totally expected, that women need to rely on sex appeal, and that women fawn over him because he’s rich and powerful. But those don’t really reveal his thinking on women. People are just misunderstanding the context of his comments.

The draft dodger and the POW

 Even people he has no quarrel with, like Senator John McCain, are Trump targets. “He’s not a war hero.” Trump snarled in an interview last July in Iowa with Republican pollster Frank Luntz. When called out several times on TV for it, Trump claimed he didn’t say it, then tried to backpedal by saying that he said McCain “WAS a war hero, but nobody wants to play that part” [of the interview]. He thinks the recording will exonerate him, where he clearly says McCain “wasn’t a war hero…Okay, he’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured, okay?” When he mocks a former prisoner of war, claiming he wasn’t a war hero because his aircraft was shot down over Hanoi and McCain could not avoid being caught by North Vietnamese forces because he broke both arms and one leg in the ensuing crash…that that actually counts as him saying McCain IS a war hero. His perspective was simply misunderstood.

Mexicans are drug runners, criminals and rapists, breast feeders are horrible people, free trade is terrible (except when he does it), the Chinese can be beaten only by him, it’s just stupid people who care about him previously filing for bankruptcy, that his pregnant wife Melania had become “a monster” (which he said was a positive statement about her), and that he got a draft deferment during the Vietnam War because he had a bone spur in his foot. When politely asked which foot, he stammered and then said “You’ll look it up in the records, it’s in the records.” He just couldn't remember, even with a 50/50 chance of getting it right.

Yes, Jesus loves lying, self-centered, sexist, thrice-married, white billionaires

 As The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart once asked about Trump “What the f*%k is wrong with him?” It’s a question that's being asked every day; because that’s at least the frequency the current GOP front runner makes a bombastic statement. The downside is he gets away with it. His supporters love the comments. They eat it up and demand more…and their numbers are growing. He is never held accountable for saying some of the most pig-headed, narrow-minded, and politically-damaging things as he runs for the highest office in the land. He’s just misunderstood. How clear does he have to say things, about bimbos and others, to be understood?

However, there IS one bimbo who is squarely in Trump’s corner… 

Of course...makes total sense!

If we end up with a President Trump, get ready for the rest of the world to wonder “Are the Americans just completely insane?” Below is already how the world sees candidate Trump, and it’s only going to get worse.

Nation's Police have a New Crime Fighting Tool

Checkmate, evil-doers!

Note this date because we’re now the recipients of the full protective muscle of the nation’s law enforcement officers. Police cars across this great land are being equipped with a new, more powerful, potentially overwhelming crime-fighting device.

It can't help but make police work easier because it's so revolutionary.

 It’s such a simple concept; inexpensive to produce (we can even use the ‘Made in China’ version), easy to adapt to any vehicle, available in a multitude of colors and styles, instantly noticeable and immediately effective. It’s a wonder this hasn’t been standard equipment on all law enforcement vehicles since men and women began wearing badges. This new ‘weapon’ is guaranteed to help police, and that’s according to high government officials, politicians, numerous sheriffs, police captains, priests, and mullahs across the nation.

We can now redirect our police armored divisions to stopping illegal immigrants instead. 

This simple, new weapon will traumatize criminals, law-breakers and scofflaws, causing them to turn from their illegal activity and flee any time they see a law enforcement vehicle armed this way. No longer will any alleyway or tunnel be too dark to investigate. No longer will outlaws ‘outgun’ police. No longer will gangs of thugs be able to control a street, let alone an entire municipality. The proponents of this method allude that it will stop offensive conduct cold. 

And it has a tremendous upside too because those people the police claim to protect and serve will be instilled with delight, relief and a strengthening of their belief whenever they see these newly equipped vehicles.

“It’s worked so well in other countries, it’s just difficult to believe we didn’t do this years ago” said one deputy who asked to remain anonymous due to his undercover work. "It only took ten seconds to install."

Let the word go forth…

...is the new aid in helping to take a bite outta crime.

Just kidding. 

Here’s what they're actually equipping their cars with…

Nothing says "Trust in God" like wearing a handgun, Taser, mace, baton, knife, handcuffs and body camera.

I feel safer already

Thank God we have these Moral Guardians

                   At least this time he diddled someone to whom he wasn't related 

As if molesting his sisters and another family friend wasn’t enough. As if getting an intervention in 2002 by mom and dad Michelle and Jim Bob, and a stern talking to by the law enforcement friend who’s now behind bars for child porn wouldn't calm his libido. While he was harping about the evils of abortion, homosexuality, and fornication of any sort, (except male and female, married one time only, to each other)…it turns out Josh Duggar has something in common with people like Bill Cosby…PUDDING! Pudding his dick where it didn’t belong. This time he can’t claim it was youthful indiscretion. He’s been recently cheating on his wife of nearly seven years and enjoying porno on the side as well. What a great daddy and husband. What an exemplar role model. What a surprise that calling on God and Jesus didn’t prevent his sexual indiscretion, especially since family members knew he was warped over 12 years ago.

        The Christian right is nothing but a constellation of hypocrites making a mockery of everything they claim to uphold biblically. A random sample: Ted Haggard’s constant screaming about the evils of drugs and homosexuality right up to the weekend before he got caught doing both…Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol, pregnant out of wedlock again, this time after earning over $262,000 from The Candies Foundation, an abstinence only group, Pentecostal John Brock of Bell County, Kentucky who followed the words of Mark 16:18, “…will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all,” then died after being bitten by said snake…and mega-church pastor Zachery Tims, who preached the prosperity gospel and then abused his prosperity on a lethal dose of coke and heroin. But the newest star is super-Christian, GOP photo-favorite, and Family Research Council judge-jury-and executioner Josh Duggar admitting he had an Ashley Madison affair website account, and to porking someone other than his wife. Poor Anna won’t be allowed to divorce this scumbag regardless of where his willie has been. But I do hope she uses some of that 19 Kids and Counting money for an STD test.

                                 "Family"...a word to display on a shelf at home.

        And how does the religious right explain away these kinds of acts? Like this: “Satan knows that by instigating a scandal with an evangelical Christian leader, he can have a powerful impact. Just as King David’s adultery with Bathsheba and arranged murder of Uriah caused great damage to David’s family and the entire nation of Israel, so has many a church or ministry been damaged or destroyed by the moral failure of its leader. Many Christians have had their faith weakened as a result of seeing a leader fall. Non-Christians use the failure of “Christian” leaders as a reason to reject Christianity. Satan and his demons know this, and therefore direct more of their attacks against those in leadership roles. The Bible warns us all, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

                                      "You're f*cking gonna blame ME???"

As the old joke goes, what's worse than having an imaginary friend? Having an imaginary enemy. See, the devil made them do it…they aren’t responsible for their reprehensible behavior…it’s the influence of the supernatural. I’m going to use that excuse if I get pulled over for any reason by the cops, or am audited by the IRS. I’m sure it will work for me just like it does for evangelicals to explain their peccadilloes. 

        I don’t give a damn how many times Josh claims he is “the biggest hypocrite ever” in order to atone for cheating on his wife. We already know that! Repeating it doesn't change the outcome. He is guilty of far more than just your garden-variety hypocrisy. He built a career on being a morally superior blowhard. "God is righteous and is going to judge all of us unless we abandon sin and immorality" as defined by him, his sanctimonious parents, and the Family Research Council. He is the epitome of why Christianity, and all religions, should be treated like the Black Plague. It does not lead to a more virtuous life. It’s a license to sin. In Christianity, if you get caught, claim the blood of Jesus has cleansed you and go right back to sinning. Jesus paid the bill so enjoy the fact that you can get away with anything and everything.

        All that prayer and strengthening of faith Michelle and Jim Bob claimed they did for Josh after he admitted to molesting his sisters didn’t do shit for Josh. It just created a smarmier and sneakier shit.

                   Josh Duggar indicates how much respect he has for "family values"

          In my opinion though, Josh can redeem himself this way: he should return every dime he earned as the spokesman for the Family Research Council. He didn’t measure up to any of the crap he was espousing so he should not keep the rewards of promoting what he wasn’t willing to practice. He should be forced to wear a scarlet “A” on his forehead the rest of his life. Plus, he should submit to having an inch of his penis chopped off for every crack he’s slipped it into other than Anna’s. Fair enough, Josh?  

Religious poison in Israel - The attack on the Gay Pride parade

Boy, do I miss Christopher Hitchens. I have read his book “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” seven times. Each time I gain greater insight into what he was telling the world. He did not suffer any religion quietly, tacitly or gladly, challenging all of us to see how and why it’s become a threat to the world, and continues to be the source of unadulterated hatred wherever it is found.

He would be having a field day with the latest news out of Israel.

Dateline Jerusalem July 30, 2015 – “An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man who had recently been released from prison after serving 10 years for stabbing participants in the annual Gay Pride Parade here in 2005 struck again Thursday, stabbing and wounding six marchers in this year’s parade, according to the police.

Yishai Schlissel 2015

After slashing and stabbing the six, the assailant, Yishai Schlissel, was pinned to the ground and arrested by police officers who were stationed along the route. Emergency services said two of the victims are in serious condition.

Yishai Schlissel 2005

In 2005, Schlissel told police that he was planning “to kill in the name of God” and that “such abomination cannot exist in Israel.” He was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 12 years in prison. During that attack, police said that Schlissel dodged in between marchers, stabbing at random until he was pinned down by the police. The Israeli news media reported that he was released from prison three weeks ago.

If anything proves religion poisons everything, you can’t do much better than this. Schlissel stabs three people 10 years ago because in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, the Talmud condemns sex between males with death. Three weeks after his release from serving a ten year prison sentence for the first crime, he does it again, only this time he wounds twice as many, with two still in serious condition as of this writing. Is anyone surprised an “ultra-orthodox” believer thinks he has the right to act as god’s executioner?

There isn't any.

“Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.” Christopher Hitchens quoted that line so often he will eventually be given credit for the saying even though its originator is Dr. Steven Weinberg. Mr. Schlissel used his orthodox religious beliefs, which have been promoted as a profound good, to do something purely evil, yet he thinks he acted in the best interest of god. That’s an excuse any killer could use as justification for their action.

Every religion's God seems to love the sight of spilled blood.

This kind of religious poison isn’t anything new for Israel. Who can forget Dr. Baruch Goldstein who managed to gun down 29 Muslim worshippers and injure 125 others in the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre near Hebron on February 25, 1994 before being beaten to death by survivors? Yet even given the horror of that slaughter, at Goldstein's funeral, Rabbi Yaacov Perrin used it as an opportunity to claim one million Arabs are "not worth a Jewish fingernail". And what is it that separates Jews from Arabs? The belief that a god gave each side Palestine, all of it. Each sees the other as illegal occupiers. The poison of their religions will continue to kill thousands of people for the foreseeable future unless we finally realize that all religions…all of them…are man-made fairy tales and deserve no further attention, promotion, or endorsement in our societies. The sooner they are gone, the better off humankind will be.  

             Religions are not peaceful. They are mind control, even the pacifist ones. You surrender your free will to an ancient belief. And if that belief has an ancient book full of fairy tales, fake history, and mythical accounts that vilify another group of people, any "ultra-orthodox" interpretation of those passages will lead the reader to insist god meant for that group to be exterminated. Last week’s attack on a peaceful parade shows that Judaism is just as guilty as Christianity or Islam in warping a person’s behavior. 
           The problem with any religion is that the people who believe those myths want everyone to believe or abide by their myths too, and will go to any lengths to make that happen. The parade marchers, who were doing no harm to anyone, were assaulted with the intent to murder because years ago a parent or rabbi convinced Mr. Schlissel that some gobbledy-gook they read was god claiming He didn’t like those people, and since god wasn’t there to stab them himself, well….then it was up to Mr. Schlissel. For that reason, Mr. Schlissel should never see the outside of a prison cell again.

The Confederacy and the Cross

Living in Florida, I see Confederate flags all the time; in places where they offer to take “Old Time” photographs, in novelty stores along any major highway, faux battle sites, on beach towels, bikinis, race cars, and goofy license plates. I have no idea if those places are run or operated by racists. Maybe its because I considered the South the losers that I considered the Confederate-promoting items as simply something to sell at a profit, like a pair of shoes, so it is kept on hand for commercial, not bigoted, reasons. But that is derived from my ignorant white-centric view of the flag.

Still, I always wondered why they wanted to actually fly the Confederate Battle flag, like the huge one near Tampa at the intersection of I-4 and I-75. The war is over, the South lost, Lee surrendered, the Confederacy no longer exists, so what is it supposed to represent? No one flies a South Vietnamese flag anymore. We don’t fly the British flag from the colonial period, and you don’t see the flag of Mussolini’s Italy on flagpoles anywhere. So why fly the flag of the defeated side from a distant war? I suspect the recent attraction to flying the flag of the Lost Cause has to do with our current president, or rather, his skin color. Nothing satisfies some people like jabbing Obama and other like-minded people in the eye with the symbol of the slavery issue in a war that split the Union for four years. The flag's supporters always say "...but the Confederate Battle flag is not about hate, it’s about heritage". Really?

 Look at all that heritage on display.                    

Neo-Nazis, skinheads, the KKK, and other White Supremacist groups also fly the United States flag because you have to broaden your appeal to the people who live in states other than former Confederate ones. But the most frequent flag used for the past half century, with virtually no complaints from white Southerners, is the Confederate Battle flag, not the actual flag of the Confederate States of America; the Battle Flag. With whom are they in a shooting match? Defenders claim that just because somebody misuses the Battle Flag doesn't mean it represents anything bad. Alright, then what part did the bigots and racists get wrong?
       I understand why there was the call to remove the Confederate Battle Flag from in front of the capitol building in Columbia, South Carolina, and from the Mississippi flag. Walmart stopped carrying anything with the flag on it and many other stores have followed suit. Naturally, this will create quite a black market for sale of the flag. But those who have demanded its removal, or fought any display of it, seem to imagine the flag’s disappearance will signal the end of racism. As the band Aerosmith sings…“Dream On”. It won’t happen because the attitude is not based on the flag. The flag is a symptom, not the cause

                    Not much has changed in the state of Texas either

Ignorant, under-educated, narrow-minded bigots will not let go of their hate, and they hate a lot. For starters: liberals, moderates, gays, democrats, Yankees, carpet-baggers, the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center, long hairs, Prius owners, Jews, Catholics, Muslims, Mexican’s, Native Americans (who were here before the bigot's ancestors arrived) and, of course, blacks. You see, blacks were freed by damned Yankees after the war and the people of the former Confederacy were forced, FORCED, to live in equality, side by side with them rather than owning them like animals and keeping them penned up in shacks and barns like…well, like cows, pigs and chickens. This ain’t right. Blacks used to be property and now they’re free…To live next to us…And use the same roads, buildings, water, and food, even breathe the same air! Hell, it’s like we now have to live in harmony with free-range farm animals. Damn them fuckin’ Yankees!

      When idiots lack understanding, comprehension is often found in firepower.

 The Battle flag’s presence across the south has been a simmering issue for over 50 years but the recent impetus to remove it stems from Dylann Roof killing nine people in cold blood this past June at a Charleston, SC church. Some people claim that since Roof was shown holding the Confederate Battle flag, it had a hand in inciting his hostility toward blacks, and that makes it's all the more reason to banish it. But he is also shown in shorts, t-shirt, and sunglasses. Are these any more indicative of a racist? No. Racism is a learned response from reading racist material, and from hearing about how and why one group is superior to another. Where might that have happened?

                                  One thing leads to another

 Many won’t like this aspect of the racism rampant in this country, but it is because of the Bible…a book that, at its core, is an explanation about why one group of people is exalted over all others. The Biblical god claims the “Jews are his chosen people”. When only a select few are glorified as “God’s favorites”, a two-tiered system is automatically generated where one is considered superior while the others are inferior. This is exactly what this biblical standard has fostered.
       The bible also shames blacks because Ham (the father of Canaan and the original ‘black’ according to many bible interpreters) saw his drunken father Noah sleeping naked in a tent. How stupid is it to condemn an entire race because of a fable? The bible specifically endorses slavery in Exodus 21. Jesus never condemns the practice either, and even describes how and when slaves are to be beaten. The bible was the justification for slavery being established and maintained in the U.S. and other “Christian” countries. It was the Southerners' justification for the preservation of slavery when Northerners had abandoned the practice as the North became more industrialized. Frequently, the bible is held up as the reason for the abolitionist movement, but it was really in spite of the bible. Quakers led much of the charge and did not use scripture for their reasoning. It was because they believed human beings should not own other human beings...to hell with what the bible stated.

       But the men who wrote the Confederate constitution did not see it that way. They explicitly wrote in the document that they recognized the Christian God (since 99% of Southerners were Christian) with the phrase “invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God”. Article IV, Section 3(3) specifies holding blacks against their will in perpetuity with “the institution of negro slavery as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected by Congress.” Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens made it crystal clear that the Confederates considered the white race superior when on March 21, 1861 in a speech in Savannah, Georgia, he said “With us, all of the white race, however high or low, rich or poor, are equal in the eye of the law. Not so with the negro. Subordination is his place. He, by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system.” Notice the mention of Canaan from the bible as justification. 
       The roots of Western slavery stem from the bible, the roots of the Confederacy stem from the bible, and the roots of racism are found in the very same book. Is it any wonder the Confederates chose a cross to be on their battle flag?

Education no good - me fix with Jesus

I had high hopes that the educational standards in the U.S. were improving. Our students have ranked in the low 20s and 30s compared to many other civilized countries, and efforts had recently been introduced to expand and upgrade our science and math skills across the country.

Then I read in the newspaper, and found it confirmed on the state’s official websites, that we’re not improving our student’s skills, we’re allowing more classrooms to promote proselytizing.

The next time you go to the doctor’s office or schedule surgery, you might want to check the diploma on the wall. If it indicates the doctor obtained his medical degree in the state of Louisiana or Idaho, you’d best look for another provider or you’re putting your life in the hands of a quack.

Do you want your doctor or surgeon trained to treat leprosy by combining cedar wood, hyssop, scarlet and a living bird, dipped in the blood of a dead bird, and then sprinkled over the victim seven times? In 2,500 years, there has never been a single verifiable case of this method ever working. Yet it is precisely what the Bible prescribes for “cleansing” (which in the biblical sense means healing) in Leviticus 14:40-57.

                         On the left is a cure, on the right is illiteracy.

If a snake bites you, would you go to a health care professional who simply pointed to a brass snake up on a pole and told you if you gaze on it, you’ll live; nothing else is required as it says in Numbers 21:9? What does it say about any physician who believes serpents and donkeys talk, polar bears and penguins walked all the way from either pole to the Middle East to get into an ark, or that a rapist should marry his victim? What if the doctor claims arthritis is caused by jealousy, fear, shame, confusion or sadness per passages in Proverbs or Psalms, that eating shellfish is an abomination worthy of death, that demons cause mental illness and the plague, or that witches and wizards actually exist and use magic and sorcery to cast spells as it states in Leviticus 19:31 or Deuteronomy 18:10? This is what the bible teaches, and it is this that the students will learn from those ‘science’ classes…sorry, pseudo-science classes.

                                    The mysterious ways of biblical medicine

The Louisiana House Education Committee voted to keep a 1981 creationism law on the books despite a Supreme Court ruling that found it to be unconstitutional…so Louisiana public schools can and do use the Book of Genesis in high school science classes. Yes, science classes. The creationism law, officially known as the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA), was actually a cynical and clever attempt to introduce religious beliefs as scientific theory, in contravention of the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause. The state’s Republican governor Bobby Jindal says that public school students should be taught creationism and intelligent design in addition to evolution, as long as it’s “the best science.” In an interview on NBC, Jindal said: “Bottom line, we want our kids to be exposed to the best facts. Let’s teach them about the big bang theory…and about evolution – I’ve got no problem if a school board says we want to teach our kids about creationism, that some people have these beliefs as well. Let’s teach them about ‘intelligent design.’” He doesn’t mention if the kids should also learn what the Qur’an, the Bhagavad Gita, and Native American cultures say about the beginning of the universe and life. Their theories are just as valid as the Bible's.

                  Republicans have proven to be elephant’s asses for a long time

On June 11, 2015, from the Idaho Republican party came this: Therefore be it resolved, that the Idaho County Central Committee encourages the Idaho legislature to draft and support a bill stating that the Bible is expressly permitted to be used in Idaho public schools for reference purposes to further the study of…government, law, philosophy, ethics, astronomy, biology, geology, world geography, archaeology, sociology, and other topics of study where an understanding of the Bible may be useful or relevant. Republican Governor ‘Butch’ Otter has no problem with the passage of such a bill.

So it appears the U.S. will fall further and further behind the industrialized world in every area of science, especially given how many students are now home-schooled using the fundamentalist Christian-based Advanced Training Institute curriculum. That’s the program Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar of TLC's discredited "19 Kids and Counting" use. It’s worth noting that none of the Duggar’s children have been accepted at any full-time university or college. The dumbing down of America, about like you see in the movie Idiocracy, is unfortunately coming true.

On the plus side, my kids and grand-kids won't have to worry about competition for jobs or university spots from anyone growing up in Louisiana or Idaho, or has a Christian home-school education. However, when employers start routinely rejecting graduates of those state's public schools or the home schooled, do you think Governor Jindal, Governor Otter, or right-wing fundamentalist parents will take any blame because evangelical jerks hijacked the education these kids need to operate in the 21st Century? The Chinese aren't going to wait for us to catch up with them. 

Quetzalcoatl worked in mysterious ways - The Fall of the Duggars

Quetzalcoatl helped me because of a failure on my part. I couldn't. I just couldn't, no matter how hard I tried….produce even a single tear for Josh Duggar…or Jim Bob, Michelle and most of the ‘19 Kids and Counting’ siblings who seemingly were bred just to see how often Jim Bob and Michelle could have procreative sex. What sorrow I can spare is for the (at least) five girls who were molested by Josh over the course of two years and got the bum’s rush on justice. The Duggar parents have little to say about them, and apparently offered them virtually no solace after what their son did to them. It’s all about how “hurt” Jim Bob and Michelle are over the public’s reaction to Josh violating the girls twelve years ago. Since over a decade has passed (only because the Duggars did jack shit about it) we should let it go, and let them get on with their lives. Who cares what the girls experienced or how it affected their lives? According to Jim Bob’s interpretation of the Bible, the little girls should just keep their mouths shut, suck it up, accept blame for their immodesty (even while asleep), and continue working toward the ultimate goal of being an under-educated sperm repository capable of producing as many babies as one man, time and fate allow…education, career and equality be damned. Whatever you do girls, don’t aim high.

Bubble-headed bleach blond Megyn Kelly of Fox News will ‘interview’ them this Wednesday night and ask hard-hitting questions like “How do you cope with the meanies who make fun of your beliefs”?

And remember these Josh-endorsing clowns when it comes time to vote

It’s amazing how many people rushed to Josh’s, Jim Bob and Michelle’s defense. "Leave them alone, they say...he was just a kid...it happened 12 years ago...the family handled it in the best way...the Lord has forgiven him...there was never any need to involve law enforcement." They claim the attack on Josh is because he’s a Christian. One female writer white-washed the whole episode with “Josh was a creepy 14 year old boy. What he did was gross but it was taken care of by the people involved and everyone has moved on....12 years ago no less. I don't understand why we are calling him a child molester when he was a kid at the time, and he confessed and apologized!! There is a huge difference between what Josh Duggar did and what molesters and rapists do. Everyone here would probably be mortified if they had a light shining on their own nasty little secrets. People need to get a life.” I wonder what secrets that writer is still hiding. She thinks that what Josh did to his sisters was simply ‘gross’ and is different from what other molesters do. How does she know? What’s the criterion for determining real, (as opposed to juvenile) exploratory molestation? But according to her, it’s our fault. We didn't choose the right kind of life. We don’t have the high profile morality of the Duggars; therefore, we don’t have the right to comment on Josh avoiding justice for sexually molesting the girls. Besides, he apologized and God has forgiven him, although no one explains how they are certain of that. (I have to come clean about my own brushes with law enforcement at this point. Three times since 1970; I have been stopped for speeding violations, one for going 14 miles an hour over the posted speed limit.) If I confess to god that I am an imperfect human being, will god just forgive me too, without any belief in Jesus or a holy spirit, absolving me of all sin and making me whole in the process?

            You know things for the Duggars are completely messed up when even June Shannon of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo fame sounds like the voice of reason when she weighs in with "I read that the Duggar family said this happening with their son brought them closer to God and each other. So they're saying it's OK to have family touch time? Hell no."

I'm beginning to think that when the Duggars say they got closer to God, what they meant was G.O.D...Good Old Denial.

Here’s the problem…if you or I had done what Josh admitted to, and it was discovered, a lot worse would have happened to us…like immediate retribution, juvenile home if not prison time, severe fines, sexual predator identification, DCS case worker visits on a weekly basis until we reached 18, social stigmatization, and more. But because the Duggars have a popular TV show, and are under the protective umbrella of “terribly-persecuted and misunderstood” fundamentalist Christianity, what they allowed to go unchecked and virtually unpunished in their household is seen as nobody’s business. The innocent girls involved got no sympathy or counseling for Josh violating them. It has been reported that they were given a one sheet sexual abuse counseling exercise to complete, basically blaming them, and that’s it. That’s the limit of what Jim Bob and Michelle did for their daughters.

                         Would you trust your kid to his care?

For Josh…ooooh, the severity of the punishment! He was sent to an acquaintance to do some home remodeling work for a summer, and then given a stern ‘talking to’ by a family friend in law enforcement who knew a thing or two about sexual exploitation…because he is currently serving 56 years on child pornography charges. And yet, Christian defenders think that was enough. Josh learned his lesson and we who disagree should get a life, get off Josh’s back, and allow him to resume using his TV fame to bash LGBTs because they are a threat to children, push for the elimination of birth control, stop all abortions no matter the circumstances, promote abstinence only sex education, and cramming his brand of Christian values down everyone’s throat. When a Christian says they get their morals from the bible or from God…what they mean is that God encourages this stuff, like the Genesis account of Lot and his daughters after they fled Sodom and Gomorrah. The nut never falls far from the tree. The Duggars are just being true Christians.

                      Sometimes sacrifices must be made

            Now comes the confession…I couldn't resist. I really couldn't. See, when I recently saw Josh promote his toxic strain of Christianity, and read about how Michelle Duggar had lent her voice for a robo-call across Arkansas to defeat a transgender proposal…I prayed and I got my wish. What I did was offer a supplication to the ancient Mesoamerican god Quetzalcoatl that he would exact revenge on the Duggars, starting with that smug piece of human trash Josh…and darned if the ol’ feathered serpent-god didn't come through. Normally Quetzalcoatl requires a fresh, bloody heart as a token of faith, but he was appeased by tearing the heart out of the Duggars instead, Sweet justice that finally brought a tear to my eye, and proved that prayer does work…well, sometimes.

Jeb is as Dumb as Dubya - Why we don't need ANOTHER Bush!

            To paraphrase the old “pants/fat” joke…does the last name make him look like an idiot?

“I am asked sometimes whether I would ever allow my decisions in government to be influenced by my Christian faith. The simple and safe reply is no, never, of course not.”

The words of presidential hopeful Jeb Bush while giving the commencement address Saturday, May 9, 2015 at Liberty University, you know, the center of higher (that means Christian) learning started by Jerry Falwell. (Everyone remembers how tolerant, open-minded, and non-prejudicial Rev. Falwell was.) I am sure every student there breathed a sigh of relief that for once a candidate of Jeb’s stature wouldn’t be using the office of the presidency to expand his religious convictions, like, say, his brother George W. did. But when you read further, it’s obvious that’s exactly what Jeb would do.

                     The Senator made this statement in 1964. It has come to pass.

           

               The Bush article appeared in May 10^th newspapers across the nation and was entitled “Religious Freedom Defended at Liberty”. The problem is the title is incorrect, unless the word “freedom” has been flipped to mean the right to practice bigotry and intolerance.

              Expounding on what he views as an absolute religious right, he said “…as usual, the present [Obama] administration is supporting the use of coercive federal power. What should be easy calls, in favor of religious freedom, have instead become an aggressive stance against it. Somebody here is being small-minded and intolerant, and it sure isn’t the nuns, ministers, and laymen and women who ask only to live and practice their faith. Federal authorities are demanding obedience, in complete disregard of religious conscience – and in a free society, the answer [to obedience] is, ‘No.’”

                                Jeb looking confused, a typical Bush trait.

              Let me distill his gobbledygook so it’s clear what he meant. Business owners of faith want to discriminate against consumers based on a narrow-minded religious belief; and those who oppose that discrimination are being the “small-minded and intolerant” ones. The nuns, ministers, laymen and women living and practicing their faith should be allowed to use the power of law to continue their bigotry…because that’s what their holy book demands of them. We cannot allow that discrimination to be curtailed because without it, they cease to be true christians.”

             As usual, the clergy are allowed to select which parts of their holy books they’ll wield against the people they don’t like. Leviticus 11:9-12 states shellfish are an abomination but no church I know of demands government action against Red Lobster. And even though Leviticus 11:6-8 says don’t touch the skin of a dead pig, I have yet to hear, read, or see any person of faith ordering an end to American football games. But Jeb Bush wants to safeguard the religious bigotry of those who can’t abide gay marriage or the use of birth control. And he's considered the moderate GOP candidate.

             What is it about projection that is so appealing to politicians? Jeb wants to use the power of government so that people practicing their faith can continue to discriminate; not to use that power to grant all people the same rights. When it comes to religious bigotry, they deny there is any discrimination and instead claim it is those who are being discriminated against that are being small-minded and intolerant. Jeb drools over the ready-to-use accessibility of projecting religious discrimination. It’s the political version of "I know you are but what am I?".            

           Why should the government allow any loopholes for religious intolerance? Bigotry is bigotry whether it’s dressed up in the language of faith or not.

Bigots request the Supreme Court grant them continued discriminatory rights against gays

The fundamentalists just won’t give it up.

In a landmark 2003 decision, the US Supreme Court declared gay sex was not a crime. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the Court’s opinion that “moral disapproval is not a valid justification for discriminatory laws that demean gay couples."

Justice Antonin Scalia, in his dissent, predicted that eliminating moral disapproval as a rightful basis for a law would allow same-sex marriage. He only had to wait a few months when in May 2004; Massachusetts became the first state to declare gay couples had a right to marry. That set in motion state-by-state challenges to laws limiting marriage to a man and a woman. Many members of state legislatures still believed gay sex was a crime, therefore, gays shouldn't be allowed to marry and legitimize it, but they couldn't come right out and say that.

This created a legal black hole as lawyers defending anti-gay marriage laws scrambled to find a rational basis to continue discrimination that did not rely on “tradition”, or on the religious view that homosexuality was a sin. Initial efforts led them to suggest it was a procreation issue: Opposite-sex couples should marry because they could have children, even accidentally, and the state wanted them to wed. Ergo, it could legally limit marriage to heterosexual couples only...for the sake of the children, of course.

By 2015, Michigan had twisted Justice Kennedy's 2003 opinion about discriminatory laws by saying that they don't want to let gay people marry because getting married would demean gay people. Demeaning heterosexual couples via marriage, though, was not a problem.

 In Kentucky, they felt that their marriage ban wasn't discriminatory, since LGBTs are free to get married, as long as it’s straight-married. No, not a whiff of discrimination in that. What if we reversed it? Straights could wed anyone so long as it was only someone of the same sex.

Ohio wants to maintain its marriage ban out of concern for the people who voted for it...sort of like “Sorry folks, our ignorant voters were told by their preachers that this has to stay on the books or God’ll do really awful things to them, and they’re just filled with fear.”

Tennessee is fixated on sex….i.e. penises and vaginas. They are meant for each other and no other orifices are to be considered, except as gateways to hell. See, they use the bible to claim anything else is unnatural…as if a talking serpent is.

    A naturally occurring talking serpent charms Adam and Eve who seem equipped with something un-natural given their supposed 'origin'.

In the current case before the Supreme Court, the state of Michigan has denied a marriage license to two women who are raising four foster kids abandoned by their natural mothers. The women, who are both nurses, were allowed to adopt the children, but only as individuals, not as a couple. When asked why these women should be barred from marrying, Michigan Solicitor General John Bursch insisted the decision had nothing to do with disapproval of their lifestyle; that being gay was not the problem."Oh, gosh, no,” he said, “the state doesn't care about sexual orientation. We're not drawing distinctions based on the identity, the orientation or the choices of anyone. It's not meant to exclude." Clarifying the state’s position, Bursch said “The state's concern is that allowing the women to marry would have an effect on the rest of society. It would "de-link the idea that we're binding children with their biological mom and dad."

See the difference?                                                  

If not, let me re-interpret Mr. Bursch’s bloviating: “Oh gosh no, allowing the women to marry would have a detrimental effect on society because it would hamper our narrow-minded religious bigotry and discrimination because our holy book, written about 2 thousand years ago, before anyone had an understanding of human desire and human biology, made a claim that homosexuality was bad, (but never says why it’s bad) and therefore a sin, punishable by death. Moral disapproval is valid justification to maintain prejudiced and intolerant laws aimed solely at gay couples because the state of Michigan doesn’t want the children “de-linked” from the biological father and mother (the only ones who should be granted marriage rights), and have them “linked-up” with non-biological parents who are of the same sex.” Does Mr. Bursch actually think the four kids should be bound to the mothers and fathers that abandoned them, and not instead be linked with the two women who have loved them and raised them since? How would the women getting married "de-link" the kids from their biological parents? How does that work?
When two people of consenting age love each other, even if they are the same sex, why should it matter to anyone other than the two people involved if they get married?

I personally think the state's position should be bending over and touching their toes...while every LGBT boot in the state is screaming up from behind to land a well-aimed kick.

The Supreme Court is expected to issue its decision before its term ends in June. So, if you’re in a committed gay relationship now, plan on a June wedding.