Why Should We Care About What Happens in Texas?

CNN did what?  CNN had on Tony Perkins to give the “Christian” perspective on the Supreme Court’s decision on the Defense of Marriage Act.  CNN producers obviously haven’t a clue about Christianity or the religious right.  And that cluelessness probably applies to Judaism and Islam as well.

According to an article in The Huffington Post, 8/18/2011, Why The Mainstream Media are Clueless About The Religious Right, a “2007 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, among white self-identified evangelicals, 62 percent told Pew in 2006 that they believe the Bible to be the literal word of God”.  According to the article, more than one-quarter of the U.S. population identify as evangelicals.

OK.  But that means that three-quarters of the U.S. population do not identify as evangelicals.  Which, I believe, is why the circus in the Texas Legislature this past week had so many thousands of Americans staying up until all hours of the night glued to their television screens.  This wasn’t just about abortion.  It was about a fringe fundamentalist movement known as Dominionism, which says Christians should rule the world.  According to Wikipedia, which generally is not an accurate source but in this case is pretty good, defines Dominionism as follows: 

“Dominion Theology is a grouping of theological systems^[2] with the common belief that the law of God, as codified in the Bible, should exclusively govern society, to the exclusion of secular law, a view also known as theonomy. The most prominent modern formulation of Dominion Theology is Christian Reconstructionism, founded by R. J. Rushdoony in the 1970s. Reconstructionists themselves use the word dominionism to refer to their belief that Christians alone should control civil government, conducting it according to Biblical law.” 

The reason this definition is important is because Rick Perry, according to an article on Reader Supported News, 8/13/11, by Forrest Wilder, The Texas Observer, titled Rick Perry’s Army of God, is a member, or at least an adherent of this movement.  The following is from the article:

“On September 28, 2009, at 1:40 p.m., God’s messengers visited Rick Perry.

On this day, the Lord’s messengers arrived in the form of two Texas pastors, Tom Schlueter of Arlington and Bob Long of San Marcos, who called on Perry in the governor’s office inside the state Capitol.  Schlueter and Long both oversee small congregations, but they are more than just pastors.  They consider themselves modern-day apostles and prophets, blessed with the same gifts as Old Testament prophets or New Testament apostles.

The pastors told Perry of God’s grand plan for Texas.  A chain of powerful prophecies had proclaimed that Texas was ‘The Prophet State,’ anointed by God to lead the United States into revival and Godly government.  And the governor would have a special role.”

What makes this all the more frightening for both women and people of color are some of the extreme views of the founder of Dominionism, R.J. Rushdoony.  An article in The Daily Beast by Michelle Goldberg, A Christian Plot for Domination?, 8/14/2011, stated:  “Rushdoony pioneered the Christian homeschooling movement, as well as the revisionist history, ubiquitous on the religious right, that paints the U.S. as a Christian nation founded on biblical principles.  He consistently defended Southern slavery and contrasted it with the greater evils of socialism: ‘The law here is humane and also unsentimental,’ he wrote. ‘It recognizes that some people are by nature slaves and will always be so … Socialism, on the contrary, tries to give the slave all the advantages of his security together with the benefits of freedom, and in the process, destroys both the free and the enslaved.”

I can’t help but correlate this belief with what happened in so many Republican states, and with the decision of the Supreme Court this past Tuesday in reference to the Voting Rights Act, restricting the ability, and thus the rights, of people who tend to vote Democratic.  This would include women and people of color in the main, although young and old are included.  Within two hours after the Supreme Court decision was announced, Texas’ Rick Perry announced that Texas would proceed with its restrictive voter ID law.  Since Democrats mainly do not subscribe to the tenets of the religious right, then their votes must be restricted as much as possible because Democrats are not only preventing the establishment of a “Christian Nation”, but they are promoting the equality of women and people of color.

The sadness, in my mind, is that any member of the more mainstream Christian churches, including my own Catholic Church’s more conservative Bishops, have given in to this extremism.  And in President Barack Obama they have an even worse horror than Bill Clinton.  Not only a Democrat in the Presidency, but a black one, who by their standards, ought not to be eating the soup in the White House dining room, but should be serving it.  And the women should only be in the kitchen cooking it.  Barefoot and pregnant.

Shame on CNN.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blinking Lights

So, yesterday I sat down at this computer to write my weekly blog.  I stared at the screen for a while, trying to decide what to write about.  The non-scandals of the IRS targeting right-wing organizations; the one just simply named Benghazi?  The silly one that is rising again like the mythical Phoenix about where President Obama was born?  After staring for some time, I decided to play computer Solitaire to try to find out what would surface with enough vehemence to write about.  Nada.  Zilch.  Total blank.  I finally gave up and just played Solitaire.

I generally get up in the middle of the night, and if I don’t creep out to the kitchen, so I don’t wake up Bill, and snack on something I can’t get back to sleep.  Last night was no different.  As I silently made my way into a darkened kitchen, I noticed the kitchen blinking at me.  At least that is the way it seemed.  Since I am highly allergic to house dust, we have one of those little robot vacuums to keep the dust down on our wood floors.  It came with these little “virtual walls” that one puts down by a doorway, the little robot gets near its green blinking eye and doesn’t go through.  Even when the robot isn’t roboting the little green eye keeps blinking.

Someone, or something, called last night and didn’t leave a message, which is OK, except that the telephone little white eye was blinking to let me know we had missed a call.  OK, no problem.  That could wait until the morning.  But the very best blinking of all was the rat zapper on the sink.  Our cat, Big Mo, had brought in a live mouse, probably to play with, and the mouse had gotten away from him.  Bill had seen the mouse dash across the sink, so put our little rat zapper up on the sink with a french fry in it.  The mouse had gone in and was instantly electrocuted, triggering the blinking red eye.  (A mouse on the sink, of course, for me is a great big no-no, requiring everything to be wiped down with bleach, or thrown in the washing machine with bleach, but not in the middle of the night!  That done this morning.)  All of those blinking eyes with notices got me to thinking about our federal government.  Yeah, I know, but then I do make connections between various ideas.

What we really need is a system of colored blinking tiny lights, or eyes, to identify issues in Washington, C.C. in order of importance.  A little green eye to let us know we don’t even want to go there for any one of a number of reasons perhaps, but best to just stay away because we don’t have enough information to make a decision, or because there is no need to think about it.  After that we need a little white blinking eye for those issues that require attention because they could be of importance, like an important missed phone call, but just not right now.  These can wait for a more propitious time. 

A red blinking eye, however, would indicate that, My God!!  Congress actually accomplished something!!!  This blinking red light would require immediate action on our part to determine what that something was, and whether we should simply be disgusted, as we were this week with the House of Representatives taking a useless vote on abortion, or cheering that President Obama nominated James Comey as the new FBI Director.  Comey has a really good resume, and should be something we can cheer about.  We would hope the little red eye continues to blink that the Senate confirms Comey’s nomination.  Or, the blinking red eye could just mean that there is a dead something that needs to be thrown into the incinerator before we scrub everything down with bleach.

I look forward to what bright ideas my kitchen can bring me tonight at what I fondly refer to as my 2:00 AM feeding.

Thoughts On Three Great Great-Granddaughters

We just spent a couple of days with three of our great grandkids.  The youngest is still too young to go camping, so she had to stay home.  Two of the three that came are girls.  Their mother was adopted into our family, so I feel that I can brag about them without being too ego driven!  These two little girls are extremely bright.  The eldest, at 11, is at the top of everything she is in at her school.  The honors orchestra, gymnastics, honor classes.  You name it, she is right up there.  The younger girl will be four this Fall, but is as sharp as her older sister.  Our little boy is no slouch, but this blog isn’t about what he will have to face in the future.

If the conservatives in this country take control of the Federal government, they will do what they are doing in too many state houses around the country.  I’m going to start with the ridiculous statement made by the Governor of Mississippi, Phil Bryant, that the problem with the educational system in this country is that too many women are working outside the home.  He ignores completely that a great many women are working outside the home because the family needs their paycheck to be financially viable.  And why is this paycheck needed?  Because the majority of state and federal legislators are men, and because of the decisions they have made, the latest being sequestration, the economy of this country is in such a lousy state that women have to work even if they may not want to.  But, take the easy way out and blame the problems on the women.

The other thing I am concerned about when I watch these beautiful young girls is all of the anti-women votes that the conservatives are casting regarding the restrictions on abortion rights.  As I have said before, I am very much opposed to abortion, but I am also a realist.  I know that women will have abortions, laws or not.  Roe v Wade was decided in the first place because women were dying from botched home abortions, or from infections caused by back-alley abortion providers who definitely weren’t using sterile instruments.  Instead of spending time and effort determining what women need to help them choose not to have an abortion, these conservative men (and a few women as well) choose simply to use the law to prevent women from having safe abortions.  These conservatives apparently think all women are all alike and passing universal laws against abortions will take care of the problem.  Nothing is further from the truth.  Each woman is as unique as each man, and any decision as profound and personal as abortion can only be made by the woman, her doctor, and one would hope, the sperm provider.  Perhaps a member of the clergy would be involved as well, but other than that, legislators should stay out of that decision.

We have had some legislators who want to pass laws requiring women who have had a miscarriage to report that to the local law enforcement authorities for an investigation, presumably to have some man determine whether the woman did not have an abortion.  Not only is that a stupid thought, but if the bills actually passed it would prevent many women from going to a doctor for the pregnancy in case they might have a miscarriage.  If no one but the woman knew about the pregnancy, she would not have to report the miscarriage. 

But recently all of this uproar over the federal government and its spying programs tick me off as well.  We have journalists, pundits, and legislators all either supporting the spying on the basis of safety from terrorists, or decrying the violation of the Fourth Amendment which guarantees “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated,…”.  It actually was this 4^th Amendment on which Roe v Wade was based, and that is that a woman has the right to make decisions regarding her person.  So here we have people upset and frantic over the government doing what corporations have been doing for years but not giving two hoots to hades about what these state legislators are doing to women.

Do you want to talk about an invasion of privacy?  OK, talk about requiring, for any reason, a woman to have to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound.  Now you want to talk about an invasion of privacy, I can’t think of anything to equal that!! 

It is my opinion that these conservatives who are in such an uproar over abortion that they are requiring all sorts of unwanted invasions of privacy for women are simply frantic over women having sex.  If they didn’t have sex, they wouldn’t need to have an abortion.  But since they did have sex (wanted or forced makes no difference), we will see to it they have to make reparation for that.  All of this God-talk about God’s plan is to make babies is just so much smoke and mirrors to cover up this horror of women’s sexuality.  What concerns me as well is that it is abortion and birth control now that the legislators want to control for women, but what else can they come up with in the future?  Controlling women’s access to an education?  Right to work?

I wish these conservatives would just grow up and face reality.  Women are just as important as men, and can make just as valid decisions about their own lives as men can make about theirs.  And that is what I want for my three great great-granddaughters. 

Repeal the Patriot Act!

For several years I have avoided using my credit card for general shopping after I read that some if not all corporations compile the information, not only of all sorts of personal data required to obtain the credit card in the first place, but the information as to what I purchased. Although I certainly didn’t purchase any suspicious items, I personally resented my privacy being invaded in such a manner.

Consequently I find the whoop-de-do over the intelligence services collecting phone number data, but not listening to the actual content of the phone calls or listing the name of the caller, as a tad curious.  Any request to access the phone information from an individual must go through the FISA court, just as getting a warrant from a judge to search your home or possessions is required.  The law enforcement agency must prove sufficient probable cause to the judge in order to obtain the warrant.  The same applies to the FISA court to get a warrant to find out the name of the person whose telephone number is suspect.

And I have no problem with intelligence agencies reviewing the internet sites wherein people post personal data or anything else that they really shouldn’t, such as any criminal activity.  If someone is dumb enough to post this stuff, they need to have their postings reviewed!

I do have a problem, sort of, with collecting people’s Google, or other search site questions.  Because of this blog I have searched for all sorts of information which could be “linked” together to prove almost anything, I suppose.  And I have a major problem with the fact that these surveillance programs have been classified.  The information that is obtained probably should be classified for several reasons, but the system itself should be as transparent as is possible.  As an example, why should having to go to the FISA court to get a warrant be included in the classified information?  This certainly doesn’t pose a problem anywhere.  There are probably many other facts in this system that could be declassified.

My greatest problem with this emphasis on the need for surveillance to “save” us from a terror attack is that in the past 15 years, there have been only about 5,000 deaths from Al Qaeda-type terrorist attacks in the United States.  Just since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, there have been about 5,000 gun deaths in the United States.  My question is why aren’t the intelligence agencies as hysterical over the gun deaths as we are over a terrorist attack?  If gun control remains the same as it is now, think of the number of gun deaths there will be in 15 years.  In any case, the people who die from a terrorist attack or from gun violence are just as dead.

In my opinion this whole terrorist scare started with The Patriot Act.  I didn’t like it when it was passed, I haven’t liked it during the time it has been in existence, and I sincerely wish that Congress would repeal it.  And after that repeal, all of our domestic surveillance efforts should receive a thorough review, not only by Congress, but by Constitutional lawyers from some of our major Universities from both the West and East coasts. 

So, my new mantra is:  Repeal The Patriot Act!

 

Whoopee!!

This blog is late this week for a very gratifying reason!

Our granddaughter, adopted into our family at the age of 11, graduated from CSUStanislaus this week end.  Family traveled to Modesto, CA, for her graduation, and had an absolutely marvelous time with her, her two daughters, her sister and her two children, and, of course, our daughter and her husband.  It is a tribute to not only our granddaughter for her hard work, because she wanted to do as much as possible herself, but to our daughter and her husband, that they encouraged her and gave her the support she needed.

Stanislaus State is in the San Joaquin Valley, near to Stockton and the Bay area.  The graduation ceremony, itself, was also very gratifying.  The young man who gave the student speech was informed, articulate, had a good sense of humor, but was also imbued with a sense of social justice.  The President asked all of the graduates who were the first in their family to graduate from college to stand up, and nearly half of them stood up.  He also commended those students who were single parents, but who had worked, raised their children and still made it.

As I was reading over the program of events for the ceremony, what struck me was the wide variety of ethnic names listed.  One occasionally ran across an Anglo-Saxon name.  Our granddaughter graduated with a degree in Business, but under the Political Science department, once again the names were predominately ethnic.  Two were Anglo Saxon out of maybe 25-30 names.  I only hope these students enter the political arena.  They are desperately needed.

Both my husband and I had the same reaction.  When we graduated some 55 years ago, the names were just the opposite.  There was occasionally an ethnic name, and these were generally foreign students who had come to the US to get an education, but most names were Northern European.

One of the comments made during the ceremony was that with the wide variety of students with different cultural backgrounds, the campus had become a location where all of these students could share their backgrounds, and make lasting friends with students from different cultural backgrounds that would last for many, many years.

All of this made me really proud of what we have accomplished in California.  It used to be said, “As California goes, so goes the nation”.  I devoutly hope so.  It will only be to the benefit of our country as a whole.  Whoopee!!!