Give them hope!

I have to admit, I've not posted anything in the last couple of days, because while I've had some ideas...nothing has been quite fully formed. I've been seeing this picture bouncing around on my Facebook the last couple of days.

As I said on at least one of those posts: 

“'When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.”

~Leviticus 19:33-34, New International Version.

Unlike a lot of such things, I eventually got to a post by the guy with the sign himself, with a link to his Facebook, and something in my soul told me to send a message. Well, when that something tells you to do something, you do it. (If you don't know what I'm talking about here, I can't explain it to you.) In any case, it happened that I spoke with the man's husband via Facebook and he relayed the message I'd intended to send. That's good.

I'd like to stress that from what I saw of their respective Facebook pages, I got the sense that they are religious men, Christians, and both are comfortable with looking at things from a perspective I myself learned in Church. Just because a person is gay doesn't mean they can't have that perspective. I've known lots of gay Christians, many of them without question are more conservative or even Fundamentalist than I was.

But here's this dude, holding up a sign to offer comfort to his neighbors. Now I've shared this post separately, and you can find it on my feed if you want. But I'll say it again here; This is how it's done, son. It's like I have said for years, if you can't lead by righteousness, don't lead. If you seek to use Man's law, or manipulation or persuasion...oh yeah, you might make some changes. But, bet your ass that those changes will be gone as soon as you are. Guys like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela...they led by righteousness. Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy...hell I'll even give Ronald Reagan some credit here, and damn it, I'll bet that history will add Barack Obama to that list as well

If you lead by righteousness, the changes that you seek to make will stay in effect after you are long gone. I learned this from my great friend Timothy Wong, who is a Christian, and an African American shaped by the Black Church and with whom I had a great many theological discussions (among many other topics) over about eight years of him riding to work with me. (He's epileptic, and can't drive...and it was cheaper for him to give me a few bucks for gas now and again than to pay to ride the bus every day just to go to work.)

So, I learned...or perhaps re-learned something...from him.

Just as the gentleman with the sign reminds me, and should remind us all, that we are one nation, we don't have a shared culture or language or religion or a thousand years of history. All we have is what we want to be.

Be that guy, please.

Please, compare and contrast the above photo to that of these men:

Is it just me, or does Mitt look like he got caught doing something wrong, and for that matter, like he's pissed off that he has to be there in the first place?

That's what I thought. Don't be those guys.

I'm just sayin' at least the guy with the sign looks like he *Wants* to be present in that space.

I know a lot of people have been a bit down lately, myself included. Maybe it was (oddly enough) the recent death of Fidel Castro that stirred it up in my mind, but something made me think about (given that I've spent a lot of this last election feeling trapped between far-left and far-right, like I'm some person caught in the middle on the Eastern Front in WWII, or something) but I've been thinking about that. I've wondered, what must it have felt like to be a young Russian soldier at Stalingrad, especially when Order No. 227 was given "Not one step back!" A lot of those guys had to be feeling like they were going to die...and a lot of them did.

But they fought back from the brink of defeat, and pushed through and won the ultimate victory, not just the battle but the war. Before it was over, the Hammer and Sickle was raised above the Reichstag in Berlin. How many of those boys at Stalingrad could ever have imagined that?

This is a great many of us right now too, the Resistance, as some are already calling it:

One of my favorite films about this period of history is 'Enemy at the Gates.'

All was lost...but yet it was not...and after that, the Germans never won a major battle again.

Nikita Khrushchev: [addressing a roomful of Soviet political officers] My name... is Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev. I've come to take things in hand here. This city... is not Kursk, nor is it Kiev, nor Minsk. This city... is Stalingrad. *Stalingrad*! This city bears the name of the Boss. It's more than a city, it's a symbol. If the Germans... capture this city... the entire country will collapse. Now... I want our boys to raise their heads. I want them to act like they have *balls*! I want them to stop shitting their pants! That's your job. As political officers... I'm counting on you.

[he looks at one man]

Nikita Khrushchev: You. What's your suggestion?

Sweating Officer: [visibly nervous] Sh-shoot all the other generals who have retreated, and their chiefs of staff, too.

Stammering Officer: [Khrushchev moves down the line to another man] Make some examples. Deport the families of the deserters -

Nikita Khrushchev: [turning away] Yes, that's all been done.

Danilov: [from the back of the room] Give them hope!

[Khrushchev turns around and strides down the line to Danilov]

Danilov: Here, the men's only choice is between German bullets and ours. But there's another way. The way of courage. The way of love of the Motherland. We must publish the army newspaper again. We must tell magnificent stories, stories that extol sacrifice, bravery. We must make them believe in the victory. We must give them hope, pride, a desire to fight. Yes... we need to make examples. But examples to *follow*. What we need...

[he glances quickly at Khrushchev]

Danilov: ... are heroes.

Nikita Khrushchev: [Khrushchev looks around, then leans in closer to Danilov] Do you know any heroes around here?

Danilov: Yes, comrade. I know one.

It may seem a small thing, but thanks, Gary and Justin, ya'll gave me hope today.

Be blessed, guys.

Republican Jesus, now with *More* Guns

I wasn't going to post anything today, due to lack of energy. Then I saw this tweet on Jim Wright's Facebook page. Here's an expanded version of my commentary there, just 'cause this shit pisses me off something fierce.

So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ~John 2:15.

If Jesus was back among us, he probably wouldn't give a shit about Man's Law (and God's law is not the same.) He would rightly call out the Police. Were He to pick up a weapon they might be surprised who He would fire it at, and Joe Walsh would then tweet "Crucify Him!!" which would then be retweeted by all too many of the Republican and Trumpist followers.

Jesus would also automatically understand that December 25th was a Pagan holiday because back in His day that's precisely what it was.

Jesus would call bullshit on Joe Walsh, because that's what Jesus did, and does. If your God isn't calling you out...then you need to make sure you have a real God and not just your own vain imaginings.

...And that's why they'd want to kill Him, Again.

I would like to point something out, right the fuck now. Years ago, when I was a kid and later a teenager, my Grandparents had this neighbor named Mr. Trim, who I never really talked to much until I was older and did work for them with my Grandpa. His wife was the religious one, not him so far as I know. He was a Korean War veteran and GM retiree. But, on the front of first their AMC Eagle, then their white 1992 4-door Chevy Blazer, there was this license plate.

It said "My boss is a Jewish Carpenter."

For anybody who knows anything, that's an obvious reference to Jesus, and His original religion and trade. But that's not the point.

The point is, "MY boss..."

I was raised Christian, I went to Christian schools, I was usually in church multiple times per week as a general rule. I was given to understand that YOU were supposed to be like Jesus, rather than trying to make Jesus be like you. 

Oh yeah, every so often you'd see a picture of Jesus in some group's attire. I spent my early years in Michigan, mostly, with fair amounts of time in Arizona and California, and I've been around the country and around the world a little bit too.

I've seen Jesus painted as a Middle Easterner, I've seen Jesus statues that were in the style of carvings that Pacific Islanders use. Hell I once went to a church in Canada where there was a painting of Jesus in Native American garb on the back wall, and where the service was conducted in the Ojibwe language, with an English translator. Hell, I've been to a Pentecostal church in Jamaica where somebody had drawn a picture of a Black Jesus.

It is natural to want to see oneself in the image of God. The Bible says Mankind is created in His Image. That makes sense.

But, Joe Walsh isn't talking about outward appearances, not at all. Joe is saying things that go directly against what the Word says about the character and the conduct of Jesus. Jesus didn't have much use for Man's Law as the verse I used as a header points out. 

Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. ~Matthew 26:52

Doesn't sound like a guy who'd likely be a gun owner, does it?

Don't get me wrong, Jesus was a carpenter, so in His day that likely made him a powerful man. Jesus was ALSO a Rabbi, which meant that physical strength was paired with a powerful intellect. I've done my share of carpentry work, working with my late grandfather. A lot of my friends and more than one of my Pastors down through the years have also been carpenters. More than one of those had also been a Sailor...and I am here to tell you that Sailors swear a lot. So do a great many Seminary graduates...including Jewish ones. Most Carpenters that I know, living the places I've lived, also deer hunt, a decent number were in the military at some point, Like Jesus with His whip...pretty much every carpenter I've ever known was decent at handling and using a weapon. 

I've no issues with that, or with imagining a modern version of Jesus having a lot of these traits. If not all of them.

However, as somebody who spent most of his life as a Christian, I have all type of issues with appropriating Jesus as the Messiah of modern "Conservatism." (the quotes are there for a reason, there's not one damned thing conservative about most modern right-wingers, let alone the fucking Nazis.) 

Go ahead, get out a Bible or just pull up http://biblehub.com/ and compare the teachings of Jesus Christ with the conduct and platform of the modern Republican Party, let alone Donald Trump. I'll wait, I've got all night. Read it for yourself, particularly the four Gospels, and then tell me what you think, but be prepared to show your work.

Understand this:

The Republican Jesus is Dead, and she was on Medicare and Social Security when she died.

Her name was Ayn Rand, and her own bullshit didn't even work for her.

Don't take my word for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhbE8NDTY0c

The link is to a video done by Chuck Colson in 2011.

Jesus wasn't a conservative, Jesus wasn't a liberal. Jesus was Jesus, and He kept His own counsel on political matters.

But He asks His followers to follow His ways.

...And more than a few Republicans are on record saying they prefer Trump to Jesus.

Jesus Christ asks us to die to Self, to sell all we have and give the money to the poor, and pick up our Cross and follow Him.

We can't even get Trump to sell all he has that he may obey the Constitution before he assumes the most powerful political office in the world. 

Do you really want to take anything these Republicans are saying about Jesus seriously?

I know I don't. They'd call my [understanding of] Jesus a Terrorist.

If the real Jesus showed up, He could preach His Message right out of the Bible as written in it In the King James Version...and the right-wingers would shout "Crucify Him!" in the streets.

Isaiah 53King James Version (KJV)

53 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Can you really imagine *That* guy carrying a gun? Can you?

'Cause I can't.

...And something in my brain asks "Why would God need a gun?"

If you're not asking that...you should be.

...And if you have a problem with that statement then I have no problem calling YOU part of the problem.

If your understanding of God doesn't call bullshit on your bullshit, get a new one. Don't comfort me, tell me the Truth.

That's what I was taught. We are but travelers here.

Where we go in the next world depends on our actions in This life.

You can pick up your cross and follow Jesus, or you can pick up your gun and follow Joe Walsh.

But you ain't gonna end up in the same place either way. One of these things is not like the other one.

...

...And that, right there, is the Truth.

Requiem for El Jefe.

"History Will Absolve Me" ~Fidel Castro

Last night, Fidel Castro died. As I have said several times since I heard of it (Which was just before midnight as I was checking my phone walking into work...less than half an hour and a half after his death at 22:29 Hours) I feel like I just witnessed the end of a Geologic era. Logically, we all had to see it coming. Dude was 90 years old, after all. Still, I was pretty shocked. I figured that motherfucker might outlive ME.

The people of Cuba, I imagine, are mourning and preparing for his funeral and all that. I've heard that Cuban exiles in South Florida are celebrating and dancing in the streets. From my perspective as a complete and total outsider to the situation, I'd say both responses are equally valid. See, that's the thing with History...you don't just get to consider your view. Castro replaced Fulgencio Batista, your basic right-wing authoritarian shithead Banana Republic dictator, who was a very unjust ruler for pretty much any Cuban who wasn't a wealthy landowner. Fidel, of course, stood up for the little guy but, being a Leftist authoritarian shithead of a Communist dictator...well, he went on to commit his own injustices. I can damned well see both sides of the argument here, because unlike in American politics as they currently stand...both sides have a point. One thing that all agree on, though, is that Fidel made his mark on the world in a pretty big way.

Three words: Cuban Missile Crisis. That alone left a mark, for fuck's sake.

But the real story starts before that...a decade or so, in point of fact.

Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, and their little band of revolutionaries stood up to the United States of America and its capitalistic interests in Latin America when we damned well needed to be stood up to. I think the average American simply does not think about the crushing poverty, disease, government corruption, and rampant repression that was part of the deal for human beings in Latin America (and in Africa, in fact, in much of the world outside of First World nations) in the 1950's and 1960's when all this stuff was going on. Even today, many poor Americans have a lot compared to poor people (or even middle-class people) in other countries. If you want to understand how somebody like Fidel Castro can be a hero to so many people...you have to understand that. Hell, if you want to understand our own problems, up to and including income inequality which drives so many other political and social problems, you have to understand it. If you think human beings in Bolivia, or Chile, or Cuba, or Peru are any damned different from human beings in the United States...you have another thing coming.

I've always found Che Guevara to be a fascinating figure. For those who don't know, he was an Argentine revolutionary, a Doctor who found his real calling as an insurgent fighter and soldier, a hell of a diplomat and leader...who was an absolute beast as part of a team but who could really suck when left to his own devices, an anti-government revolutionary who became a government official, a crusader for justice who often perpetrated injustices. The contradictions with this dude are endless...

In 1950-1951, Che took time off from medical school to go on a couple of road trips, the second with a friend (Alberto Granado) on his motorcycle...as (naturally) chronicled in Che's book, the Motorcycle Diaries. In that book (which I read when I was in college) Che describes being shocked at the poor working conditions of Chilean copper miners, and his encounter with a persecuted Communist couple in the cold night of the Atacama Desert of Chile...and they were so destitute that they did not even have a blanket to keep warm. Che also wrote about the crushing poverty of rural Peruvian tenant farmers, and the camaraderie of the lepers in the San Pablo leper colony...who he spent several weeks providing medical care to as a volunteer, that being the nominal purpose of the trip in the first place. This is the rest of the world, as it once was. Not just what it was...but what some people want it to go back to.

At the same time, Fidel was a lawyer who was running for office, nominated to represent Havana's poorest districts. He lost, but then founded his own political movement, which eventually attacked the Cuban Army's Moncada Barracks outside of Santiago De Cuba. They lost the resulting battle and Fidel and his troops were rounded up, arrested and put on trial. The trial embarrassed the Army, and ultimately out of 122 defendants, all but 55 were acquitted and of those none would serve their full prison sentences. The quote at the beginning of this essay, is the title of the speech he gave at his trial.

They would go on to fight a war together, defeating the Cuban military and forcing Batista from power, and they would institute land reforms, nationwide literacy programs and various other projects. They would also consolidate power and kill a lot of people. Of course, there's the Cuban Missile Crisis, that was scary according to my Grandfathers. But, Among other things, well after Che's death in Bolivia in 1967, Fidel would send troops to Angola to fight against the efforts of the Apartheid government of South Africa to secure part of Angola as a buffer state to protect South Africa and Namibia from the hostile and mostly (with the exception of Botswana and always-on-the-ropes ally Rhodesia, which was busy losing its own war) Marxist-Aligned Front Line States. Yes, under Castro, Cuba fought against Apartheid. I can (and did, even as a young person in a moderately conservative family) agree with that course of action. It's not just that, though, that tells me the man and his nation are and were worthy of respect. Cuba today has one of the best National Health Service programs in the world. In point of fact the Cubans were instrumental in helping to deal with the West African Ebola outbreak in 2014.

I don't give a damn if you agree with all that, I don't, but I have to admit that Fidel Castro got a lot of shit done. There's a lot more than the list above. Please don't take my word for it, look this stuff up for yourself, that's how we grow as people.

Now, here's where the rubber meets the road. It's like I said when I saw Donald Trump's tweet of “Fidel Castro is dead!” (And yes, he really tweeted this. I went on Twitter and looked.) I had to stop and think and of course Trump represents every single thing about Capitalism that Fidel Castro opposed. As for me, I'm no socialist, hell I'm not even a straight-up liberal and I see this festival of envy, greed, hate, ridiculousness and vulgarity that our capitalistic system has become...and I don't like it, either. Like I said, Donald Trump wouldn't be worthy to hold Fidel's hat while he took a piss.

Income inequality, injustice, Lack of education, lack of employment opportunity, lack of health care, Opiate epidemics, poverty, racism, willful ignorance...and worst of all, indifference on the part of our fellow man...are just as much problems now as they were in the 1950's. Their program may have often sucked, but at least guys like Che Guevara and Fidel Castro stood up and tried to do something...and at least at first, they did so out of a sense of justice. Much has been made of Evangelicals and poor white folks supporting Trump for whatever reasons, racism has a lot to do with it but so does lack of decent jobs and decent health care. Bolivian Catholics prayed for Fidel when his health began to fail, too. They did it for the exact same reason that white Americans backed Trump. Whether he went about it the right way or the wrong way he gave them hope. People who have good lives don't vote for guys like Trump. People who have good lives don't pick up a rifle and line up on the side of guys like Fidel Castro, either. Am I saying that one is right and the other is wrong? No I'm not...not at all. I just think...honestly...that White Americans are going about it the wrong way. Classical/Traditional conservatism is dead, apparently Fascism is a real thing again...and if Trump isn't in on it, well it's safe to say that one hell of a lot of his followers are. Maybe in another ten or twelve or twenty years, we'll have Communists instead. Wouldn't that be ironic? I'm an old-school classical conservative and a Democrat...yet I look like a freaking Leftist nut compared to these alt-right Nazis. Fuck, if that's what we gotta deal with, I'll accept the label of "Comrade" I have weapons and I know how to shoot...

How far-fetched is it, really?

I mean, Fuck, Bernie Sanders damned near won the Democratic nomination. Bernie was around then, Bernie knew about this stuff from the evening news, rather than the history books. Bernie is an actual Socialist. Think about that for a second, will you? We should all, each and every last one of us, look around, pay attention, not just to the revolutionaries of the past but the ones of our present...the DAPL protesters, for one, bear watching. Learn the history, it doesn't always repeat itself, but it often speaks in rhyme. Learn the history and act upon the lessons it teaches us, and as always...FIGHT! 

Maybe history will absolve us, too.

A personal request:

"When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten and the last stream poisoned, you will realize that you cannot eat money." 

~Cree Indian Prophecy

A couple of friends of mine are going to Standing Rock.

Chip in, if you can.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1852637308314957&id=100007061176730&substory_index=0

And the Lord saith unto Richard; "The fuck is even wrong with you, man?"

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou were cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: ~Revelation 3:15-17

So this afternoon (Yesterday now, as this was written on breaks at work and edited when I got home) Mo, my roommate, was watching News One Now on TV One as he often does. The host of the show,..which is a news show geared toward the Black community...Rowland Martin, had Alt-Right Nazi Richard Spencer on the show to interview him. For the record, Richard Spencer looks like the mutant love-child of Trey Gowdy and Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase's character from the Vacation movies) with a shitty Civvie high-and-tight haircut.

Also, he looks like a dude I wouldn't buy a used car from, but I digress.

I have to admit this was the first time I'd ever actually heard the man speak aside from the speeches he gave in Washington D.C. last weekend. I have to confess I was pretty shocked that anybody ever thought this nebbish of a man, who seemed to stumble through answering any questions regarding his beliefs when put on the spot, man-to-man, actually amounted to anything.

After a few minutes of watching this dude stumble through trying to deny that he was a White Supremacist and shit, and repeatedly claiming that Slavery was a "Disaster," (If so, then what exactly was all this racist shit ever about?) I was ready to walk away, me and Mo were laughing at this asshole.

Then Rowland Martin asked him a question, straight up "Are you a Christian?"

I stopped like I'd hit an invisible wall, hard. Rowland Martin is a Christian and vocally so, I've been watching his show since I've lived here, and I moved here in May of 2015.

Spencer's answer? "I'm a cultural Christian." (?!?!?!?!?!)

My thought process: Fucking SERIOUSLY? (!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

See, here's the thing: I was raised in the Church. To call someone a cultural Christian is basically to say that they are a person who goes to church because it's what people in their culture do, and they don't REALLY believe in Jesus.

This is, all too often, a way of de-legitimizing the Christianity of others (particularly when said of Catholics by Protestants.) In other words, it's NOT a label anybody who knows what they're talking about or who knows church culture or knows anything about American Christianity would actually claim. It's basically a very backbiting, backhanded insult to call somebody a "Cultural Christian."

I repeat: No one who knows what that label means will claim it.

Rowland's next question was even more direct: "Are you Saved?"

Spencer's answer? "I have been." (????)

I imagine Jesus, the Jewish carpenter and itinerant Rabbi from Galilee, somewhere on the Other Side watching this like: "What the FUCK is even WRONG with this guy?"

According to what I was taught, you're either saved or you're not. No middle of the road, no half-measures, you either accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior who died for your sins or you don't. Thus, you're either cold or you're hot...because if you're Lukewarm, He is going to spit you out. Yet, automatically, Spencer equivocates.

...And that makes him weak.

All this followed by more mumbling, stumbling, and various excuses. This guy literally sounds like he's making excuses for his bullshit beliefs. Hey, we're the polite Nazis...at least to your face.
Lifelong student of WWII history that I am, I can't imagine members of the Waffen-SS, captured by the Soviets and put on some radio program by the party to be interviewed and confess their sins against the State at gunpoint, sitting there making excuses.

If you're going to be a flaming ridiculous shithead, at least have the guts to fucking own it.

But he can't, can he, because then he's just another Nazi and most of us know what the proper thing to do with Nazis is, don't we? For pretty much all of my life until this last week or so, the only good Nazis were dead ones.

But, here you have this dissembling coward, this Fascistic Mr, Rogers, dancing around any direct question of what he is...because he is afraid, because he is a Deceiver, because he is a manipulator. That's all he's got...manipulation.

Damned few people, especially anybody with any decency or intelligence, want to be a fucking Nazi.

But that's what he is...and he's afraid to own it or say so to your face. Oh sure, he'll pose doing the Sig Heil two-step, drink in hand, with his buddies (who seem to include bisexual Asian porn star Tila Tequila, apparently) and he'll shout "Heil the people, Heil Victory!" in front of a crowd of like-minded young punk-ass motherfuckers, most of whom are a felony conviction or two away from providing non-consensual sexual services to actual Aryan Brotherhood gang members in Federal prisons, by the look of them.

Richard Spencer is afraid to own what he is, in front of people like you and me, and he has to pretend there is such a thing as a reasonable Nazi, because on some level he knows he's morally wrong, unsaved, and afraid to die. He knows that death or reform of one's nature is the only acceptable end for Nazis. He's afraid of death because like anybody else in Western Civilization...he knows at least the basics of what the Holy Books say:

This is what the Word says on these matters:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. ~Galatians 3:28

The teachings of our Muslim brothers and sisters say thus...

O people, We have created you male and female and made you nations and tribes that you may know one another. Verily, the most noble of you to Allah is the most righteous of you. Verily, Allah is knowing and aware.

Surat Al-Hujurat 49:13

We have certainly honored the children of Adam and carried them on the land and sea and provided for them of the good things and preferred them over much of what We have created, with definite preference.

Surat Al-Isra 17:70

...And on some level this dude knows God is watching. See, Richard Spencer thinks he's right and God...or at least his version of it...is with him. Why else would he try to call white people the "Children of the Sun" and say we are a race of conquerors? It's not just you and me he's trying to fool...this motherfucker is trying to lie to God.

That's some balls, there, I'll give him that much. Motherfucker.

But strong delusions do that to people. I was taught we were children of the Son...of God, that is. And of the Father, and of the Holy Spirit.

Not that flaming ball of plasma in the center of our Solar System...but the Creator. Not the Created.

Now, here's the thing: For those who believe in and practice Righteousness and truth...whether they be Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, Sikh or whatever...there's your opening. There's your shot at dealing with this thing. The Truth of the divine conversation, as you understand it, is the weapon your hands and your heart may wield most effectively...and if used properly it can destroy any delusion or illusion. People like Mohandas K. Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela knew this...and used it well. 

Now pick it up and fight. Wield the light of Truth, and the sword of the spirit, to paraphrase what the Bible says, put on whatever armor your God gives you...or none at all but your own resolute conviction...and stop putting up with this bullshit.

You might not get anywhere with these Nazi assholes, but you can help prevent them from spreading their bullshit beliefs. YOU can show that you...we...humanity in general is better than that...and this guy's beliefs are nothing but a hologram of his own creation.

People like Richard Spencer thrive in the darkness, like cockroaches. Always remember, darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Let your light shine, be active, blog, get involved, protest, volunteer...and when...not if but when...the time comes...FIGHT! Do it, and do it until you die. We have to keep at it and we have to keep at it until justice rains down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream!

Amos 5:24(King James Version)

But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

#Top20

Nationalist Idiots Can Kiss My Ass.

So, a friend of mine posted an article about some alt-right/White Supremacist asshole asking the questions "Are Jews people" and "Are the media soulless Golems created by the Jews?" live on CNN.

Now, as far as I'm concerned something like that is so wrong that if you have to ask the question then you fail at humanity and should be shot in the face, immediately, with a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun so that if somebody wants to understand your thought process...they should have to scrape your gray matter off the back wall and look at it under a microscope.

I grew up hearing stories about World War II from my grandfathers who served in it, and from my Great Uncles, and from their friends. One of my Grandfathers was a Naval Aviator and the other was US Army Air Force aircrew on B-29's in the latter stages of the war. Most of my Great Uncles served also, and a couple of 'em didn't come back. I grew up reading books about that war, about the Germans and their skillful use of Blitzkrieg tactics, and the organized, industrialized murder of six million Jews by the Nazis, and about the fanatical savagery of the Japanese in the Pacific theater...and about how the Allies battled back slowly, wresting victory from the jaws of defeat. It was a close run thing in a great many places...and the after-effects are still being felt throughout the world today.

All told, around 73,000,000 people died, that's just an estimate, but it's what Wikipedia came up with for a figure so I'm going to go with that.

Needless to say, it should be obvious that Nationalist Idiots asking questions like "Are Jews People?" Is going to piss me off beyond all logical reason, because it is simply NOT a reasonable question to ask if this or that other group of HUMAN BEINGS are "People." It's not a reasonable question, it's not a reasonable thought. If you bring up that kind of bullshit around me, it will not be treated in a reasonable fashion but this idea...and you...will be treated with all the complete and utter contempt and hatred such a question and those who would think if valid fucking deserve to be treated with, and that is a goddamned fact.

So, enter self-described Nationalist Idiot Caleb Court, the kind of punk ass who (judging from what was on his Facebook page) thinks it's funny to antagonize gas station clerks who have to work on Thanksgiving, who thinks Trump will be a boon to the rap music industry, and who thinks me having what I see as a completely normal and human reaction to an utterly unreasonable question like "Are Jews people" is intolerant and then proceeds to lecture me about my "intolerance."

Intolerance, of fucking Nazis. Think about that for a second. Never mind, don't bother.

Who the FUCK thinks anyone has to be tolerant of fucking Nazis?

Think about the fact that right here in the United States of America, we have people who are either so open-minded, that evidently their goddamned brains fell out their heads...or so stupid and ignorant of history that taking a stab at repeating the actions of the losing side in a global conflict that killed 73 million fucking people sounds like a good idea.

Either way, we have apparently either utterly failed to teach the young or we have lost our soul as a nation.

Here's the thing, snowflake, I don't have to tolerate this kind of bullshit. I was raised by people who served in the dark and dangerous corners of the world fighting against it, If our country goes down that road...there is a good chance that we will all die...and take one hell of a lot of the rest of the world with us.

So yeah, you can kiss my ass,

...And so can your friends Jake Loree and Trevor what-the-fuck's-his-name.

Unreasonable bullshit like whether other human beings are people is not up for debate, and does not deserve to be treated in a reasonable fashion, period.

...And I have no fear.

I saw this on Jim Wright's Facebook page, and it made me think of something else:

How my mind went from coffee cups to movies, I don't know, but it did. I just know I'm getting sick of these assholes who seem to think they want to go out and fight everybody. They won, or perhaps I should say they "Won" ... And then nothing changed, or at least not much...

...And they're still full of hate.

This was it...this right here...a scene from the 1989 film "Glory" about the 54th Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteers, starring Denzel Washington, Matthew Broderick and Morgan Freeman.

I fucking LOVE that movie, and I have ever since I saw it in 1990 in my American History class in Onaway, Michigan. The film was distributed to schools for free to increase awareness and as a commemoration of Black History Month:

One of the main reasons I hate racism as much as I do...is that I had a Government teacher and a couple of history teachers in high school (conservatives AND Republicans, every last one of 'em) who passionately hated racism and passed that on to most of their students. My, how things have changed...and not in good ways.

[Private Searles and Private Trip are about to fight when Sgt. Major Rawlins steps in]

Trip: Get your hands off me, gravedigger!

Rawlins: Goddamn it! Does the whole world gotta stomp on your face?

Trip: Nigger, you better get your hands off me!

Rawlins: Ain't no niggers around here, you hear me?

Trip: Oh, I see. So the white man give you a couple of stripes, next thing you hollerin' and orderin' everybody around, like you the massa himself! Nigger, you ain't nothin' but the white man's dog! 

[Rawlins slaps him.]

Rawlins: And what are you? So full of hate you have to fight everybody because you've been whipped and chased by hounds? 

Well, that might not be living, but it sure as hell ain't dying. And dying's what these white boys been doin' for going on three years now, dying by the thousands! Dying for you, fool! I know, 'cuz I dug the graves. 

And all the time I'm diggin' I keep askin' myself, "When, O Lord, when is it gonna be our time?" Gonna come a time when we all gonna have to ante up and kick in like men. LIKE MEN! You watch who you callin' nigger. If there's any niggers round here, it's YOU! Smart-mouthed, stupid-ass, swamp-runnin' nigger. And if you ain't careful, that's all you ever gonna be."

Replace the N-word with "Angry, fearful white man" and there you have it.

...You want to know how we beat this Trump thing? We ante up and kick in, and we damned well get as many people as possible to vote in 2018 and 2020. If there's one good thing about it...it's put everything out in the open. We as a nation can't continue in denial of our own bullshit at this point. How do we deal with people who are SO full of hate that they want to go out and fight everybody?

Fight back, we have to, to stop this shit...but like Sgt. Rawlins, we conduct ourselves in such a way that we keep the moral high ground. We have to be better than that, we have to be smarter than that. We have to make America think again, and we HAVE to be willing to deal out a good hard slap across the face, figuratively or otherwise, if that's what it takes.

No, it's not easy...but that's the hand we've been dealt. I for one am tired of this half-ass victory dance bullshit already. Yeah, Trump won...and he can't even find anybody wants to work for him or run a transition team. Trump won...but YOU ain't Trump. Hell, Trump looks like he's in over his head and scared out of his mind.

Maybe that realization will keep him from doing too many stupid things, I hope so.

There's just one thing I keep wondering:

How did conservatism get from "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" to "TRUMP! ORDER #25!?" 

THAT, of all things, is what we're up against. Ante up and kick in, be the adult in the room. Work, for the night is coming.

...And don't give up, because our ancestors...physical and spiritual alike, didn't give up either.

You know what my favorite scene from that movie is? The campfire scene. Google it, if you've not seen the movie. I promise you won't be disappointed.

• 
  
• Pvt. Jupiter Sharts: [praying aloud] Tomorrow we goes into battle. So Lordy, let me fight with the rifle in one hand and the Good Book in the other. So that if I may die at the muzzle of the rifle... die on water, or on land, I may know that you blessed Jesus almighty are with me... and I have no fear.

He had a black-belt in power naps...

...For those days when you have a lot of good ideas, but you just don't want to get out of bed.

...Even when you've fallen out of bed.

...No, Seriously, Human, I'm sleeping.

Some things are not done in the better places...

James 1:26 New International Version (NIV)

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.

I started out as a Baptist, as I've said before, and I was a conservative. Oh yes, I was. Not on every issue of course, as a teenager I was not allowed to leave the house without condoms. But then that was part and parcel of constantly having it hammered into my brain that I needed a thousand dollars a month just to live as an adult, and I shouldn't have any kids until I could afford to support them, and I should pay my bills, etc. etc. etc. So, conservatism in my family wasn't all about politics or rama rama ding ding religious crap. It was about paying your bills and eating your vegetables and gun safety and making damned well sure you knew what you were doing before you did something because that's what conservatives DO. It was also about history and science and theology, it was about seeking after the answer to “What is truth?” Not just knowing what you believed, but why you believed it...and then acting in accordance with those beliefs.

Honestly, I was taught that God would not accept anything less. It is not enough to Believe because one is told to believe in God, in Jesus, or in one's Church community. One has to know what they're doing and do it because they want to.

By the time I was old enough to start school my family attended a (Northern) Baptist church, and when I started school it was the Church school associated with that church, Highland Hills Baptist church in Highland, Michigan...and of course, Highland Hills Baptist School. The school itself was located within sight of the mobile home park I lived in with my parents, down the hill and across a field.

In moving several times after my Dad died, I attended several different churches, also switched denominations a couple of times (first Lutheran, then Catholic, then an independent Baptist church.) All the churches I attended, every single one, frowned upon if not outright forbade the use of profanity. To this day, I do not associate the excessive use of foul language with a person being an observant Christian. It simply does not compute. Oh, Christians swear of course...even occasionally in an official capacity I have heard such. But...usually when a person who is a devout Christian (of any denomination, by the way) swears it's either damned well been fired for effect, an indicator of great distress, or a show of anger which (in my experience anyway) is rarely misdirected. Life has since shown me that observant Buddhists, Jews and Muslims are much the same. Profanity is not something I associate with Believers. Now, of course, there's also those cultural Christians and the nominally-religious of other faiths who might swear all the time, or there are those (whatever level of their devoutness) who serve in the military or work in occupations that are conducive to foul language and there is nothing wrong with that. As long as it's for a purpose, I don't have a problem with whatever someone does. (Most of the time) It's not for me to say.

I've been known to swear like a Sailor myself on occasion, and that too, is something I learned from my Grandfather, He was a Navy retiree. I could tell you about the time we were working on installing a new floor in the home of a lady who was a Jehovah's Witness, back when those “easy to install” tongue-and-groove wood floors were new and gimmicky...and we accidentally taught the lady's new young African Gray Parrot to curse...but that is another (and very funny) story.

All that said, It's not my place to judge what anyone does or say anything about it at all. That's another aspect of the conservatism that I was taught...Mind Your Own Business. Don't judge others, it is not on you to police the Universe. One of the customers my Grandpa had in his landscaping/lawn care/odd jobs business in the late 1980's and early 1990's was a gay man who was dying of AIDS. We didn't care that he was gay, we cared that his grass got cut, his snow got plowed and the check his Mama sent us every month cleared the bank.

Now, all that said, I want you to look at the picture posted at the beginning of this article and I want you to think about it. The person claims to be Catholic; When I was first learning about the Word as a young boy in the Baptist school I always got told to check everything! Check everything that somebody says against the Bible, against facts, against history, and against their own conduct.

Why? Because that is how you don't fall for Deceivers and Ear-tickling False Prophets.

In any church that I ever attended, a person who pulled up with their vehicle all decked out with flags and profanity and a homophobic slur would either have been asked, or more often outright told, to leave. I was always taught that when you go to a church (or for that matter, a Mosque or a Temple or indeed any religious house of worship or holy place) it's not Your House. Conduct oneself with reverence and sobriety, step softly, be serious (Somewhat of an exemption on that one for Praise and Worship in Evangelical and Pentecostal churches I've attended a time or two, but it usually holds.) One simply does not show up to Church acting like that, dressing like that, or for that matter driving a vehicle that says such things painted on the side. It's not all about you, when you're there, you know? As I was taught, such things present a bad witness for Christ. As a Baptist, I was taught to avoid even the appearance of evil. Even though I'm not a Baptist or even anything more than the most Agnostic sort of Christian, that is still what I was taught and it's ingrained in me.

Or, to put it another way; As my Grandpa Thompson also used to say “Some things are not done in the better places.”

Didn't matter where it was, it was a very bad idea to argue with him if he said that. My Grandpa didn't have time or tolerance for bullshit, and his background demanded he not suffer fools gladly. As far as I'm concerned, the rest of us shouldn't, either.

It should go without saying, that a Christian person shouldn't put stuff like that on their car. Just as the Church is not Your house it's not Your Earth either. You as a Believer represent Jesus to the eyes of the unbelievers, act accordingly.

...And maybe it's just me, but "Stronger Together" and "United We Stand" seem to be pretty Biblical concepts, just as a rule.