The Rich Man and Lazarus.

Luke 16:19-31New International Version (NIV)

The Rich Man and Lazarus

19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received evil things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family,28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

I keep seeing this thing about this Trump Supporter saying he'd believe Trump over Jesus. I keep thinking; "Are you fucking kidding me?"

My thinking is that when both Trump and this dude are wandering around hell or the Underworld or whatever, together, then maybe they can both put their two empty heads together and figure out where they both went wrong.

What this dude (who is apparently some kind of small business owner) specifically said was:

“If Jesus Christ gets down off the cross and told me Trump is with Russia, I would tell him, 'Hold on a second. I need to check with the president if it's true.’”

Now hang on, did you see what I just saw? "If Jesus Christ gets down off the cross..."

Hold on. Let me see if I remember how this goes "We believe in one Savior, who died, rose from the dead and is coming again" (For the record, that's a line from the official doctrines of the Baptist church I once belonged to.) In other words, according to pretty much every Christian affirmation or doctrine or whatever that I have ever heard...Jesus, the risen Lord and Savior, is by definition NOT still on the Cross. But then I guess if one doesn't believe Jesus actually rose from the dead...or accepts the man-centered, Christ-less Christianity-for-Man's-approval that is taught in many churches today, or subscribes to the Prosperity Gospel or Young Earth Creationism...belief that Donald Trump is one's real Lord and Savior might somehow follow.

I laid all this out for a co-worker at work last night, and explained the whole situation. His response? "Well, then that guy's going to hell." For the record this dude is a socialist-leaning liberal who (so far as I know) isn't religious in the least. Yet he's capable of figuring out the perfectly obvious (from a Christian perspective) so why are so many Christians so (willfully) deluded?

What happened to Conservatives, that liberals now seem to be the ones who are (in reality) more in tune with the doctrines and teachings of Christianity?

Well...to throw something out there that Roland Martin brought up on his show yesterday (My roommate was watching his show via DVR when I was typing yesterday's blog post) his theory is that White Privilege is now at war with morality. That follows, if you understand that the true genesis of the modern Religious Right was in opposition to Brown vs. Board of Education, resistance to desegregation, and the founding of "Christian" private schools...often called "Segregation Academies" throughout the South.

Also, if somebody is badly taught, misguided or stupid enough to believe that Jesus was white (or that Christianity is somehow the "tribal religion" of white people) in spite of all the obvious evidence to the contrary...and they don't exercise their god-given capability and right to seek the Truth on their own...then they deserve whatever they get, full stop.

Listen here: Cults, false prophets and false teaching destroy people's lives. As far as I'm concerned this right-wing shit turned into a cult years ago. It's not even close to about Jesus, or morality. It's about power, pure and simple.

But always remember, there's always going to be a Power greater than you and greater than any power that Man can come up with, and whatever power and wealth you have in this life may well count against you in the next.

...And if you trust in Donald Trump more than you trust in God? You're a damned fool and I'll gladly tell you so to your face and cite chapter and verse of Scripture to back it up.

The Truth is what it is, whatever one's interpretation of the God of Abraham, whether you're talking any of the myriad kinds of Christianity, or Judaism, or Islam...or even offshoots like Mormonism or Rastafari...the Truth doesn't change that much between them. The truth is that the story of the rich man and Lazarus was a common tale in Middle Eastern mythology in ancient times.

The truth is that most religions teach some variation of the theme that the powerful will be brought low and the powerless will be raised up.

The Truth is, look around, look at how these Trump Supporters are acting.

Do you really think even someone rising from the dead, or whatever, would dissuade these people from their cult-like worship of Donald Trump?

I'm a former member of the End Times Prophecy Movement, I stopped believing in that kind of thing years ago.

As far as at least some of it, in particular the teachings about the AntiChrist and the false religion of the Beast as described in Revelation goes, though, I may have to reevaluate that position if this garbage keeps up.

Fucking Seriously? (Part 2)

And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. ~Revelation 9:20-21

I haven't said much about the Roy Moore Scandal...in which so far as I've heard at least eight women have accused Roy Moore of various acts from simply creeping on them and stalker-like behavior all the way up to sexual abuse, molestation and attempted rape. The victims were aged 14 to 16 at the time, and Roy Moore was in his 30's. That's called Statutory Rape. Evidently, everyone from a large percentage of Alabama Republican Party staff to some of their voters, all the way up to Evangelical and Fundamentalist Pastors seem to find this acceptable. It's been almost a couple weeks now since this dropped, and the scandal is still going, and not only that but it appears to be getting worse. 

What the fuck? I'm sorry, but I was taught that sex outside of marriage was wrong (though I've never been all that good at abiding by that.) I was also taught that those kind of relationships should be age-appropriate, and I've never had any interest in younger girls because I'm not a creeper, an immature motherfucker or a religious nut.

(As a case in point, why in the FUCK is a grown-ass man signing high-school yearbooks? Much less creeping on teenage girls at the mall to the point where he gets banned from the goddamned mall? If you support this guy, go ahead and answer me that. Show your work about why this dude shouldn't be on a sex offender registry at this point!)

Of course, the logic of people trying to justify this shit...and all this other crazy shit going on, not least Republican tax bills and support for Trump is starting to sound like Atlas Shrugged meets Letters to Penthouse. Some of these damned Trump Supporters apparently worship Trump more than they believe in Jesus.

Yes, if you follow the links you'll see that I've linked to RedState articles not once, but twice. There's a reason for that. I used to be a Conservative, and this kind of crap is NOT what I was taught. 

I have a lot more to say on this, which in the coming days, I'll probably expound on. But just think about this comment here by Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention. 

The Republican Party has become the party of Moral Relativism, Pedophilia, and ridiculous Tax Cuts for the wealthy (but your taxes and mine WILL go up) and don't you forget it.

Vote the sons of bitches out next year, so we'll still have enough left of a country that we can pick up the pieces.

I'm tired of this crap.

Fucking Seriously? (Part 1)

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.

Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he's a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,

Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me. ~Johnny Cash, The Man In Black.

So, I saw last night that Country singer Neal McCoy has released a new song called "Take a knee, my ass" (I won't take a knee.) Per the article that I read, he seems to recognize that there's some reason, or some validity to why African American athletes are taking a knee when the national anthem is played. He just doesn't approve of how they're doing the protest.

So, in other words, something something gazpacho White Privilege! More of the same old "I don't know and I don't care what your issues actually are, but the fact that you're taking a stand where I can see it makes me uncomfortable, please stop it" type of milquetoast half-ass racist (but they'll get offended if you call them racists) bullshit.

No, seriously, this motherfucker should just record a track of himself singing "Doo Dah" and call it the fuck even, at least then he'd be being honest.

This song isn't art, it's politics and dog-whistle racism for profit.

If anybody wonders why I (an old-school Country music fan from Way back, I grew up on Johnny Cash, John Denver and Kenny Rogers, to the point where I still might get a random song by any of the three stuck in my head over 30 years later) have such a rabid, seething hatred of modern Country music...look no further than this fucking guy.

I started to lose interest in about 2002-2003 or so, when Toby Keith's music started to get all political in the post-9/11 era. I'd previously liked him, and I'll admit that even after "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" (The Angry American) he did have a couple of good songs. But that's when Country really started to lose me. Of course the fact that my ex-wife was a rabid Country music fan didn't help much.

Now, I think that politics and social issues and spiritual topics are as valid of a subject for art and music as anything else...and music absolutely is a valid way to vent anger and stress. An old roommate of mine, Kellie (who I also worked with) would routinely come home from work extremely enraged about something and blast her music (often, yes, Country) for a couple of hours to calm down.

But see, I've been around for a long time and as somebody who's mucked around with art and writing on occasion and who, as a gamer, makes and acts out characters and writes plots and stories to serve as background for the games I run...I have this thing about "Quality matters" and for that matter, context and the character of the artist can play a big part, too. That's another reason Toby Keith turned me off...because like a lot of conservative artists he hopped on the anti-Obama gravy train and while he did get off it a few times, he always got right back on as soon as an opportunity presented itself.

I'm not a fan of politically partisan art. Any fair-minded person, much less a person whose job description involves creativity and trying to understand the human condition (for a profit or otherwise) ought to damned well be able to criticize their own side when it's needed.

Another thing the article mentioned about Neal McCoy that struck me as odd, was that he has said the Pledge of Allegiance live on social media tor 677 consecutive days. Who does shit like that? McCoy also mentioned that he's performed for US troops in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.

OK...Whatever, dude. This guy is just trying to make a buck off rednecks and their Christian Nationalist sentiment.

I'm just sayin' if this guy is so patriotic, instead of praying on street corners to be seen by men, he ought to strap up and enlist. Funny how that tends to work with these Patriotic Musical Patriots of American Patriotism. It's funny to me just how many of these Nationalist dick bags, despite or maybe even because of their fake militarism, have never spent a single day in uniform nor ever done much of anything for anybody but themselves.

I'd like to contrast this with Johnny Cash, whose actual military service as a code-breaker in the United States Air Force (stationed at Landsberg Air Base, Germany) was actually a step up to his later career...being that he was part of a band that was composed of Airmen from the base, named the Landsberg Barbarians.

It should also be noted that Johnny Cash performed several free concerts for inmates at various prisons, most famously Folsom and San Quentin in California and Osteraker prison in Sweden. Albums were cut from each, true, but Cash's activism and support for prisoner's rights was very real.

He also supported Native American rights and lent his talents to the recording of an AIDS benefit album.

While we're at it, one of the reasons I always liked John Denver was his support and putting his money and time where his mouth was in service to environmental causes...and it should be noted that I was a conservative at the time.

It's worth noting that both men had issues with substance abuse, both had the sense to get help and took the lumps that resulted.

These guys supported the causes that they did...and believed in the things they did...because it was right and because it was a reflection of who they were, not because it was popular. People listened because good art and good music speaks to the souls of people. People listened because the message resonated...and it has endured because it was true.

As opposed to our political situation, where a year on, Trumpism hasn't endured in any meaningful way and doesn't resonate much anymore except with fools and racists...and Trump's big talk has been replaced by Congressional Republicans clearly calling the shots, except they can't.

Not worth a shit, anyway.

Good artists, like good athletes, leaders, and whatever...make you want to follow them because of their character and their skills. They don't do what the crowd wants, they do what they do and people who support it either turn up or they don't, but people tend to be drawn to them. Respect is earned, by every action, every day.

If anybody wonders why I knew who Colin Kaepernick was and had to look up Neal McCoy, that's your answer: Respect.

As recent events show, it only takes one screw-up for that respect to be lost, right, Senator Franken?

Remember that and remember, too, how people on his own side of the political fence responded. A clear majority of liberals think he should resign, and to his credit he's taking the consequences like a man.

But he shouldn't have sexually harassed that lady in the first place, and he knows it. Maybe he'll get through this, maybe he'll resign, I don't know. For myself I think the important thing is that the way the Democrats and liberals are handling it is almost a polar opposite from the way the Republicans are handling the Roy Moore scandal.

Just like I can't respect what Country music has turned into by going with the crowd too much, I can't respect what the Republican party has turned into, either.

There will be more on this later.

Iniquity.

As the name of my blog implies, I have ferrets. In point of fact, I have thirty of them, of which fourteen are either owner-surrenders, re-homed, or rescue ferrets.

In fact, the ferrets are out, prancing or prowling around my room, or sleeping, as the crew has been out for a good couple of hours now.

Right now my youngest, Aela the Huntress (named after the Skyrim character) is busy attacking my shoe. She's a spunky little ball of energy, a Sable Mitt Sprite with red eyes, a white throat patch and a little white Blaze mark on the top of her head...although she can hear, and is in fact extremely vocal herself. Baby ferrets relate to the world through their mouth, they bite, nip, chew on things, try to eat them. It's what they do, same as a puppy or kitten or most other baby Carnivores for that matter.

Still awake and prowling around is Freya, my Black Roan Mitt Sprite, whose fur has gotten lighter so she's more of a grayish white than the deep silver she once was...though her tail is mostly black and she's retained the silver around her face. She's one of my cage-climbers, and one of the more dominant females.

Joey, one of my Blaze Gibs and an owner-surrender ferret, is digging madly at the blanket that's rolled up under the door to keep ferrets from escaping. It's an olive drab wool blanket, originally of Air Force issue and extremely sturdy. It's still got a hole in it that the ferrets put there so I have to fold it right or they'll dig the hole more. Joey was a bit unsocialized when I first got him just over a year ago, but he's become much more social and made friends...though he still fights with a couple of the other males (Cinnamon Gibs Malik Daoud and Maximus, #AllCinnamonsAreAssholes) regularly, he's become much more social in the last year.

Speaking of, Maximus...who right now is a big fat lump of winter weight, gray starting to mix in with the lighter brown that's the dominant color in his coat (he'll be four next spring) just crawled up in my lap to demand that I rub his ears. He was my first ferret.

There's a pile of ferrets...all older ones who live in the same Ferret Nation Double cage...right by my feet.

All things considered, this is a normal afternoon here.

What I saw trending on Facebook this morning though, was definitely not normal.

Tuesday Night, Ivana Clifford, age 26, of Manchester NH, put one of her roommate's three ferrets in the oven and basically cooked it to death...she said because she was angry and she accused her roommate of stealing from her. Her roommate said that that was not true and that the damn bitch did this because the ferret nipped at her heels. (Spoiler: That's something that ferrets DO. It's Mustelid for "Come on, let's play.") The damn bitch is in jail for lack of a $10,000 CASH bond, and requests to move her to one of the area hospitals for psychological evaluation have been denied, so such will have to be performed at the jail.

Good, as far as I'm concerned she should be under the jail, not in it. As far as I'm concerned, she too should perish screaming in darkness and fire. As I have said many times, I used to be a Christian. This fact instilled in me a belief in justice and a tendency to think that "An eye for an eye" should still apply in certain cases.

This is one of them.

If you wonder why I have 30 ferrets, it's because I want to protect as many of them as I possibly can from assholes like that lady.

If somebody did something like that to one of my ferrets, or indeed to any animal and I caught them and was unable to save it...they'd be the next one going in the oven.

And damn the consequences.

What in the hell is wrong with our country that we have people who basically commit first-degree murder of pets for no goddamned reason?

What is wrong with us that cruelty, extremism, greed, mass murder, racism and all sorts of other things that most people will tell you to your face that they think are wrong...are running so rampant these days?

I'm extremely disgusted with humanity today.

And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. ~Matthew 24:12

Spoiler: It doesn't seem to be the Black people or the brown people or gay people or the Jews or the Liberals or the Muslims that the iniquity is coming from.

Listen, America, if we keep putting up with liars and murderers and nuts and those who encourage the same...we're going to get insanity, lies and murder, every single fucking time.

We need to do better. As far as I'm concerned, creating a society where it doesn't occur to people to put live ferrets in ovens or to kill or maim any animal in such a horrible fashion should be a pretty damned low bar to set.

What the fuck is even wrong with people?

We Bite Stupid People.

So, the results of last night's off-year election are in, and Republicans got soundly thrashed. No, not really, let me rephrase that. I mean they got beat up like Sam Jackson's character in Coming to America. Not only did Ralph Northam win in Virginia (and the state also has its first Latina and first Transgender legislators) but Chris Christie got eaten alive faster than a fat guy trying to run from a horde of Zombies by Murphy in New Jersey.

Oh, and speaking of New Jersey, Ravi Bhalla became the first Sikh mayor in the state's history having been elected mayor of Hoboken.

Now, I think that's pretty damned impressive. Sikhs are some bad ass motherfuckers. No less of a conservative hero than Winston S. Churchill spoke admiringly of the Sikh soldiers who fought for the British in World War I and World War II. They charged into battle wearing Turbans, rather than helmets, and oh yes, they died by the thousands. In so doing they helped to forge modern South Asia and its place in the world. Now that's courage. The moral code of the Sikhs demands abstinence from sexual immorality and substances that addle the mind, courage, fidelity, good conduct, honesty, truthfulness, and also resistance to tyranny in all its forms. Sikhs are Monotheists, although they believe in reincarnation and some other traditional beliefs of their country and they reject the (often oppressive, historically) caste system of Hinduism. The Sikhs are a defensive warrior culture, living as they often did in an environment where they might need to form up an army real quick. The distinctive trappings of their religion...the bears and uncut hair of the men, the turbans and daggers or swords...and they also wear special shorts and carry a comb...all have particular significance. This is referred to as the "Five K's" and in effect, along with the name "Singh" which means "Tiger" (either as a middle name or a surname) served as a sort of uniform for baptized Sikh men in ages past.

To this day Sikhs, much like Native Americans or Pacific Islanders who serve in the United States Armed Forces in a larger percentage than their share of the population, have an outsize presence in the Indian military.

But they, and their fierce mentality and theologically-driven tendency to stand for justice are present in all walks of life. They're people, the descendants of a proud warrior culture but...like so many others who can make such a claim...Apaches, Afrikaners, Japanese, Lakota, Maori, Zulus, you name it...they're as diverse as any other group and other accomplishments often outshine the ferocity for which they were once primarily known.

I ran into a Sikh dude at work last week, just a normal looking young dude, probably a college student. His beard, turban and what looked to be Indian ethnicity aside, he fit right in with the mix of Americans and international students in the crowd he was with. Just a bunch of young guys (and a few girls) out for a night at the casino. I was on my way to go take my break. I nodded politely at him, he returned the gesture. I smiled once I'd passed by. Social and cultural change, yo. We might as well get used to it.

In the last apartments I lived in I had a lot of Indian neighbors...college students mostly...and they seemed, one and all, to be people. The guys would sometimes play Cricket or Rugby, which I thought was pretty cool. Most of those neighbors...the ones who ever showed any evidence of faith...were Hindu or Muslim. Before last week, the only times I'd met Sikhs were in Canada. I know Sikhs are present in other places that I've been. I'd just never had any interactions with them anywhere else.

Broaden your mind, meet new people, stay engaged in the processes of life.

But some people are stupid, like this lady that I ran into on Twitter this morning. I'm...well, I have to say that this level of stupidity and lack of connection to one's own history is...quite impressive, actually. I'm serious, if there's one thing that I've learned about nuts and racists down through the years it's that they usually are like little kids and can't WAIT to show you how nuts they are. It's like they think they're going to get a prize or something. Well, congratulations, lady. You get to be the star of the show.

See...it's not just that I knew a little about Frank Sinatra, it's that I knew quite a bit. Our music industry literally owes a big part of how it does business to that guy. I knew that. He played to the "Bobby Soxers" as the pop-culture teenage girls of the era were known, as a demographic because they were an untapped market. Nobody had done that before. We wouldn't have people like Justin Timberlake, Mark Wahlberg, or for that matter Michael Jackson or at least, they'd never have made it to the level that they did without Frank Sinatra. Who also, while we're at it, was one of the first big crossovers from singing to acting. It's that I knew who he associated with and what their own histories were. Frank Sinatra came of age when there was still much racism directed against Italians, and his ties to mafia figures were more than once used in an effort to derail his career. Thus he was always passionately against racism and became an advocate for Civil Rights at a time when there weren't very many white people openly supporting the rights of people of color. One of Frank Sinatra's "Rat Pack" running buddies and best friends was Sammy Davis Jr. Now, Sammy Davis Jr. was an African American actor, singer and stage performer in a time when that...and being in the military, which he also was during WWII, serving as part of an integrated entertainment troop...were two of the only ways you could get a fair shot if you were a black person. But oh yes, before and during his career Sammy Davis Jr. faced racism.

In the 1950's and early 1960's Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. were largely responsible for integrating the casinos and hotels of Las Vegas, forcing hotels to hire African American staff. Both Davis and Sinatra supported the Civil Rights movement and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Now, by the standards of today's purity testing movements, neither man would probably be considered either a liberal or a conservative...although both were Democrats, Sinatra would become a Republican later on, and support Ronald Reagan in much the same way as he had John F. Kennedy...though he never gave up his passionate civil rights advocacy. As both a Democrat and a Republican, Sinatra supported and raised money for Israel, a cause near and dear to the heart of most Conservatives. Davis was an avid gun collector and trick shot, and he would perform on a USO tour in Vietnam at the request of Richard Nixon.

...And hey, I didn't have to look any of that up.

I feel like I can confidently say that if he were around, Frank Sinatra wouldn't have been bothered in the least by Hoboken's new Sikh mayor. Hell, I think either he or Sammy would have had much respect for Danica Roem, Virginia's new transgender legislator, once they found out that she could play an electric guitar pretty well. See, common ground and common interests give people a real reason to get along and at least try to work together.

Learn your history, and you too can avoid embarrassing yourself by getting basic facts wrong.