Musings Early February

Musings feb 8 2012

The Nation’s Katrina Vanderheuvel says, about President Obama’s decision to allow superpacs in his campaign, that though she is reluctant, “There are times when you cannot win with one hand tied behind your back, when you cannot fight fire only with a philosophical opposition to fire.”

Stephen Colbert says, of Obama’s  singing:  Once again, Obama is playing his same old dirty political trick of being irresistibly appealing.  You’ll never see Newt Gingrich stoop that low.

Keith Ellison said: “If we can walk with Obama, we should…if we can’t then we should walk ahead of him.”

Sen DeMint likens the rivalry between the Democrats and Republicans to a football game—argues that when the two teams go out onto the field they have no intention of “cooperating” or “collaborating.”  They do not share the same goals.   So now we understand—it really is their “game plan”.

Romney:  I will put an end to this kind of assault on religion, if I am president of the United States.

Romney apparently objects to the auto industry  “bailout” because it didn’t hurt workers enough.

Romney would “take us back to the good old days,” while at the same time he would “Restore Our Future.”  [How do you restore something that has never been?]    He wants our country to be “the shining city on the hill” that would presumably hold out the hope of freedom and democracy for the world, but he would also have it to be the mightiest military power in the world so that all who look us it would tremble in fear.

Handel, of Komen,  says private organizations have a right to make their own decisions about grants, etc., without being subject to vicious attacks—but after all, people have the right to object to your right to make decisions that we don’t like, to criticize and withdraw support, etc.

Julian Epstein, Democratic strategist, just said that Newt Gingrich is “collapsing of his own weight.”

The Man Who Would Be Pope:  Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum reminds me of no one so much as Brother Jerome, the self-righteous monk of the Brother Cadfael chronicles.

Santorum says: 

·         When you give government power, they will use that power over you.  [much better to give the pope that power]

·         Catholics are told that they have a right to health care, but the health care will be what the government tells you you have to give your people, whether it is against your church or not.

·         Says he will fight for “your voices for freedom in America” [yes, freedom for religion but not freedom for the people]

·         Says his grandparents and parents came to this country for freedom, because they didn’t want a government  telling them what to believe, that we had a first amendment that actually stood for freedom of conscience, and not that we would have a president that would impose his secular values on the people of this country [but they meant that we should submit to a pope, represented perhaps by Santorum himself, telling us what to believe, and imposing his religious values on the people, even though we didn’t elect him]

Rick Santorum says, of gays who glitterbomb him, that they represent “true intolerance.”

Rick Santorum, inveighing against the contraceptive rule, equates that to providing coverage for toothpaste and deodorant.  Previously, he had ridiculed the idea that contraceptives were expensive—they are cheap and insurance shouldn’t have to cover cheap things.  I recall reading recently of a man who died of a tooth infection because he didn’t have $24.00 to get his prescription for antibiotic filled.

Musings January 26-28

Obama helps the economy, increases sales:

·         Sales of Al Green’s songs shot up 490% after the President sang four lines from one of his songs

·         Sales of Gov Jan Brewer’s book “Scorpions for Breakfast” shot up over 150,000%, moving from 250,000 place to #7 on Amazon after the President had a little “dust up” with her, so I guess it pays off to shake your finger in the President’s face.  And she says she felt threatened?

 Walt Kelley, quoted in J.L.H seed catalog:  “Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not; either way, it’s a mighty sobering thought.”

On foreign policy, President Obama is accused of appeasement, and warned that “you don’t negotiate with the enemy.”
On dealing with congress, President Obama could be accused of appeasement, he just  didn’t understand that “you can’t negotiate with the enemy.”     
It may be that the President has learned something:  he would be more successful negotiating with Ahmadinajad than with Mitch McConnell or Eric Cantor.

Nancy Pelosi had better be careful about saying that she knew something that would bring Gingrich down.  Marianne Gingich thought the same thing, and instead, Gingrich took the opportunity to smear the press and accuse Marianne of lying, the audience gave him a standing ovation, and voted for him in the primary.

J. L. Hudson, seedsman and avowed anarchist:  “You’ve got to read between the lies.”

The Republican presidential candidates seem determined to prove that if there is such a thing as intelligent design, some creatures fell off the drawing board at a crucial moment.

Still, there were a couple of light Romney touché moments in the latest debate:

·         Romney seemed unsure when asked about an ad of his in which Gingrich was accused of saying that Spanish was a ghetto language.  When assured that it was his ad, he then turned to Gingrich and said, “Well, did you say it?” and when Gingrich said, “It was taken out of context,” Romney turned back to the audience and quipped, “He said it.”

·         Gingrich assails Romney for his investments in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Romney attempts to explain that away, then turns to Gingrich and points out that he, himself, has investments n Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and Gingrich lamely says, “Right.”

A Gingrich ad, speaking of Romney:  “What kind of man would mislead, distort, and deceive just to win an election?  This man would.”  Snort!  Snicker, snigger!  Good thing I wasn’t drinking coffee when I heard that.

 Wallace Stegner: “ As long as you are going to get old, you might as well get as old as you can.”

One of the candidates suggested that Ron Paul, because of his age, should produce his medical records.  Ron Paul offered to challenge any of the candidates to a 25-mile bike ride.  He says they better be careful or he may accuse them of age discrimination.
My favorite sweatshirt logo, which I got when I turned 70: Over what hill? Where? When? I don’t remember any hill.

Outraged at their outrage

I am “appalled” that voters can be persuaded to vote for a candidate who engages in a “destructive, vicious, negative” attack on a moderator in a debate and, by extension, on all media.  It is “despicable” that Gingrich and his ilk have done much to make it “harder to govern this country,” given their continual attacks on President Obama.  And “harder to attract decent people to run for public office,” of whom, I suppose, Gingrich is a prime example.  [Okay, you may have noticed that those words in quotes are the ones used by Gingrich in his unwarranted attack on John King.]

So there they are on stage, four of them now, three of them “decent people” who have been married 43 years, 54 years, 21 years, to their first wives, with a total of 17 children among them, exemplars of family values.  And there is Gingrich, married three times in 50 years and a serial adulterer.  Divorcing each wife after she was diagnosed with serious illness.  And there those four men stand, on stage, in noble debate, before a sanctimonious, family-values, DOMA-supporting audience, who cheer Gingrich wildly for his defense of his blatantly adulterous life, (as they did in a previous debate when he "put Juan Williams in his place") and go on to vote for him in the primary over those other three “decent people.”

Go figure.

God and the Candidates

Some of the Republican candidates for U. S. President—Bachman, Perry, and Santorum come to mind—would have it that they prayed, and that God told them He wanted them to run for president.    Each seems to have taken that to mean that God wanted h/h to be king president.  But clearly they can’t all be right.    Did they consider that perhaps He wanted them to run in order to add some levity to the race?  Or because He wanted to see millions of dollars wasted?    Or because He wanted to keep people guessing as to who His real candidate was?  Or were some of them mistaken?  Or were some praying to the wrong god?*  
Because we know He does pick the president, does He not?   As in 2000, when the race in Florida wasn’t going the way He intended, He just told His judges to appoint George W Bush, and they did.  Funny, though, one wonders if He is against Democracy—if not, He would have let the democratic process take its course; He would have trusted the election to reflect the will of the American people.  If He is really so in control, why couldn’t He have just turned a few more minds to vote the ‘right’ way, to reflect his will?   
Anyway, why should God care who rules a given nation?  And does he?  Some nations have kings, ruling by the “divine right of kings,” as do England and North Korea.  Some have dictators, benevolent or malign, but very, very rich, as have been some of our very own presidents.   And some of our own presidents have acted as though they thought they were ruling by “divine right,” sometimes referred to as “mandate,” or “political capital.”
There is, of course, precedent for judges to select a nation’s ruler.  Consider the story in the book of Samuel.  About 3200 years ago, the Israelites, who had been governed for generations by judges, had started agitating to have a king.  Other nations had kings, why shouldn’t they?  (They seem to have been worried that one of Samuel’s sons would rule when he died, and his sons had “turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.”  Hmmm…we don’t know anyone like that, do we?)  Samuel, the old, wise, current judge, said, “no, no, no…” but they said “yes, yes, yes…”  So Samuel  went to God with their request and God said, “Tell them I say no, no, no…and also show them just what a king would do to them” and so Samuel did, and he warned them:  “This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you:  He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.  And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.  And he will take your daughters to be confectionaires, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.  And he will take your fields and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.  And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers and to his servants.  And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.  He will take the tenth of your sheep:  and ye shall be his servants.  And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day.”  (I Samuel 8:11-18, the lofty King James version)  But again the people cried to have a king, that they might be like other nations, and that the king might judge them, and fight their battles.  So Samuel returned to God, and this time God shrugged his shoulders and said, “Oh, well, what the…” or words to that effect, “Let them have their king, I will even pick one out for them.”  So Samuel promised the people they could have their king, and told them to return home.  And God chose a very tall and comely young man by the name of Saul, and Samuel anointed him, with oil, to be king, and we all know how that turned out.  Or if you don’t, read the rest of the Book of Samuel for yourself, or google him.   (Now it is not recorded whether George W Bush was anointed with oil by one of the judges, although we do know that John Ashcroft,  Bush’s Attorney General  and later aspirant to the presidency, anointed himself, with vegetable oil.  Didn’t help though.)
Perhaps instead of thinking of themselves as chosen by God, they should think of how they should live as president if they should happen to achieve that goal, however that is done.  “What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”  (Micah 6:8)  “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.”  (II Timothy 2:5)
[An aside, but not unpertinent.  Just watched Countdown on Current tv, David Shuster hosting, and he interviewed a comedian, Jamie Filstein, about the phenomenon of Tim Tebow, the Xtian football player, and displayed a poll that showed  54% of  Republicans think God helps Tebow and helps the Broncos to win.   You can catch it here http://current.com/shows/countdown/   Pretty funny and true.
*Do you suppose that Jesus is circumventing His Father in this political event?  Consider, He was the one who chased money-changers out of the temple, he is the one who said it would be difficult for rich men to get to Heaven, now he must be very disturbed  about the devastation wrought by the financial class, and, despairing of the Democrats ever taking on that issue, manipulated this whole Republican campaign in order to get them, in the person of Gingrich and aided by Perry, to expose the whole rotten system.  Do you think?