I Won't Attack Your Religion

I won't attack your religion, unless you attack me with your religion.

These words came to me after a discussion about someone who attacked a Salvation Army bell ringer at a Wal-Mart in Phoenix because she said "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."  I said there was nothing Christian about what the attacker did.  That brought an over-sensitive (in my opinion) response from an extended family member who acted as if I was attacking her Christianity.

This is an attitude that, unfortunately, is all too familiar to me.  Way too many professed Christians have the attitude that if you do not let their religion dominate all aspects of society, somehow you are persecuting them.  For the most part in my life, I have played "get along to go along" and remained silent.  I am changing that attitude, speaking up against the traditional domineering practiced by those who claim to profess Christ's love.

Another phrase comes to mind that I've found on social media: Instead of keeping Christ in Christmas, how about keeping Christ in Christian.

David Simon on the "Horror Show" of Two Americas

I have always believed in the inherent goodness of the free market, in the need to be skeptical of excessive governmental control of the economy (and all other aspects, by extension).  Real life has intruded into the black-and-white views I had during my years as a Reagan Republican.  The excesses of the tea party movement serve as a bold underline of what could happen without an adequate government presence in society.

The Wire's creator David Simon gave an address which is excerpted in the link below and appeared in the Guardian.  Simon is skeptical of Marxism, as I certainly am, but the following passage shows his view that Marx got it right on how unfettered capitalism can be destructive: "I'm not a Marxist in the sense that I don't think Marxism has a very specific clinical answer to what ails us economically. I think Marx was a much better diagnostician than he was a clinician. . . . [H]e was really sharp about what goes wrong when capital wins unequivocally, when it gets everything it asks for."

Simon argues that the blooming of our middle class came because neither those with capital nor those with labor won all their arguments.  He also argues that profit is the wrong metric by which to measure our economy's health.  I include this link to keep and study his reasoning.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/08/david-simon-capitalism-marx-two-americas-wire

The debt crisis deserves a serious respons - The Washington Post

While I feel the Great Recession economy has gotten pushed to the back burner and the austerity crowd has shrieked "austerity!" over and over, the Washington Post editorial board has pointed out the sharp growth of U.S. debt as a percentage of GDP with no clear motivation by either political party to address it.  While the parties quibble over a CR that will fund the government for 10 weeks (Obamacare! Shutdown!), the debt has risen from 39% of GDP in 2008 to 73% in 2013.  That should give any serious person pause, particularly in our seemingly rudderless federal government.

The debt crisis deserves a serious respons - The Washington Post

Adapting from Youthful Absolutes

My old editor at the Amplifier in Bowling Green, Kentucky paid me the honor of quoting me in a social media discussion she was having.  She reminded the fellow of my words to him in an earlier discussion about the fallacy of seeing the world in black and white.  I said:

"I'm old enough and have enough life experience to know that the conservatism of my youth does not explain the world sufficiently or answer all of life's problems. I've had to grow and adapt, and I've had to shed youthful absolutes. I don't like the damned shades of gray instead of black and white, but such is living in the real world."

Six Types of Nonbelievers

This is a subject I've never thought of, but the CNN article linked below is a thought-provoking look at the different types of atheists and agnostics identified by a UT-Chattanooga study.  They vary from active atheists to agnostics who wholly embrace uncertainty to non-believers who never think in terms of religion/nonreligion at all.  It's a good little read, and as the study says they may find many more types as more study is made.

Where am I?  At this time, somewhere between seeker-agnostic, intellectual agnostic, and anti-theist.

Behold, the six types of atheists – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs

From a Social Media Conversation

A quote from myself in the midst of a Facebook conversation on how the ugly brand of social conservatism blames protestors for their supposed anti-social conduct and continues to brand "takers" with a scarlet T ... using the Texas SB5 anti-abortion bill drama as a backdrop:

Believing that people should bend over without complaint while they're being screwed -- and that they are somehow immoral people if they fight back -- is part and parcel of a supercilious conservatism that wishes to force the genie of the '60s back into the bottle.

The Hijacking of the Pledge of Allegiance

This article in Slate by David Greenberg is an informative overview of how the Pledge of Allegiance was fundamentally changed in the 1950s from its secular nature to, in President Eisenhower's words, "the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty."  Against a backdrop of the communist menace, a movement materialized that swept aside the Founding Fathers' intent not to institutionalize religion in government.  By 1954, Congress fell over themselves to insert "under God" in the Pledge.  1955 saw the insertion of "In God We Trust" on all paper money, and the same four words replaced E Pluribus Unum as the national motto in 1956.  The current rush to theocracy among way too many on the political right had its seeds sown in the 1950s where "under God" was stuck into the Pledge to oppose what communism stood for -- not because communism was totalitarian, but because it was atheist.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history_lesson/2002/06/the_pledge_of_allegiance.single.html

Majority Ruled

I don't think I've seen a better, more thorough analysis of why the will of a majority of Americans does not get expressed into law than E. J. Dionne's column linked below.  About 9 out of 10 of us favor universal background checks for gun purchases, and nearly two-thirds of Americans think job creation should be Washington's top priority.  Yet neither seems to be a priority among lawmakers, and Dionne's analysis shows how this has come to be.  For instance, Dionne explains how senators that represent only 11 percent of the nation's population can stop any bill from even being considered in the U. S. Senate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ej-dionne-the-end-of-majority-rule/2013/04/07/74d8a6d6-9e30-11e2-9a79-eb5280c81c63_story.html

Castles In The Air

For most of my life, I've gotten used to people make observations (some in amusement, some in annoyance) that I was lost in thought, off in my own little world, or daydreaming.  My mind tends to always be busy -- sometimes spinning in place like a hamster in a wheel, but busy.  In addition to everyday stuff and everyday cares, I'm thinking ahead to musical goals, setlists, and writing ideas.  I may obsess over something I want to achieve and turn it over repeatedly in the mind.

A post I came across on Google Plus referred to a blog on creativity by Dustin W. Stout, a specific entry titled Stop Dreaming and Start Creating (link below).  It starts with "Creative people have a tendency to be dreamers. We can get lost for hours letting our brains drift off into endless possibilities. Sometimes though, we can become lost in the dream and forget to ever take action."

Hello. That hit me where I live.

Some creative people overindulge in dreaming.  Dustin likened it to going to the top of a skyscraper and looking at the tremendous view, each vista a presentation of endless possibilities.  I experience at times the sense of being overwhelmed by the infinite choices - which do I choose and make finite?  Other times I indulge my all-too-highly developed skills of procrastination, fearing my first step in any direction will be a wrong one.

Dustin Stout's view is it's okay to go up to the ledge of creativity and dream.  Where it becomes unhealthy is when one doesn't go on and act: "When you don't take action it’s like the onset of creative obesity. You begin to get bogged down by ideas seeing none of them come to fruition."

For years I've had a plaque hanging on the wall of this quote by Henry David Thoreau: "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."  Thoreau and Stout are saying the same thing.  Creation requires dreaming, and we must allow ourselves to soar into the clouds without feeling we are slothful.  But sooner or later, we must come back to the ground and act to make the dreams tangible.

http://dustn.tv/stop-dreaming-start-creating/

The Unheard Voice of Average Gun Owners

My brother directed me to this Wall Street Journal article that I wish everyone, especially the extremes on each side of the gun debate, would thoughtfully read.  Entitled "Why Our Gun Debate is Off Target," Dan Baum writes from the perspective of a gun enthusiast with a concealed carry permit who is also a self-described liberal Democrat.  Baum castigates the "angry extremism" of the NRA and the insults to "gun culture" from the far left.

If we heard from rank-and-file gun owners like the ones Baum talked to, there would be a lot more understanding of the affinity the nation's 100 million gun owners have for guns - their history, workmanship, and the confidence-building effect of mastering them.

Baum stated that while gun owners dismiss the political left simply because of their "tribal antipathy to guns," gun owners have a lot to answer for in gun violence.  I like how he boiled the argument down: "[B]oth sides of our "gun debate" can think no further than what government might do. Gun controllers call for more restrictive laws, gun guys gnash their teeth over same. Meanwhile, the single step that I believe would save the most lives wouldn't involve government at all."  That step is to require guns and/or ammunition to be locked and/or separated.  Baum described the safe he keeps his handgun in under his bed that pops it up toaster-style with a three-digit code.  "Many gun guys use such safes," Baum said. "They just don't want to be told to use them."

The additional measure that would make gun control laws unneeded, Baum said, is for gun owners to "make unsafe gun behavior socially unacceptable, just as it has become unthinkable, among most Americans, to smoke inside another person's house or to make lascivious comments about underage girls."  Baum suggests gun culture would change if, say, owners would not go shooting with others who don't secure their guns in their home or if they refused to patronize businesses who sold guns but not safes: "Little by little, shooters and gun stores would get the message, and the problem of unsecured guns—the main source of gun tragedy—would wither away"


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324162304578304000178156938.html?mod=WSJ_myyahoo_module

Gun Regulation and Fears of Confiscation

I feel the need to address the overreaction and just plain nonsense coming from the Second Amendment's more frenetic defenders.  There is a hysteria coming from the most strident advocates who refuse to recognize any limitation on the right to keep and bear arms and overemphasize the Second Amendment as a check on governmental tyranny.

I do not subscribe to the "slippery slope" argument that any regulation will end in gun confiscation. Prohibitions of machine guns began in 1934 with the National Firearms Act, and the Feds have yet to see fit to confiscate my pistol.  I strongly believe that no citizen needs or has a right to military style weapons.  Heller v. District of Columbia established in 2008 that the Second Amendment has limits; Justice Antonin Scalia, hardly a liberal, wrote for the majority "Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose."

President Obama's recent executive orders on background checks and the call to ban assault weapons and high capacity clips are common sense measures that do not nullify the Second Amendment.  Most Americans and even most NRA members support universal background checks to purchase a firearm.  It's time we move beyond simplistic arguments fueled by NRA leaders and borderline seditious demands for assault weapons.  A robust right to keep and bear arms can be regulated without being infringed.