Digging Up the Roots of Religion

RESEARCHERS, SCHOLARS, ACADEMICIANS have for a long time, and continue today, to search out the origins of the phenomenon among humans which humans call "religion". "Religion" can be defined as: "belief in and worship of a superhuman power or powers, and a God or gods, which are presumed on faith rather than evidence to be the creators of the universe, and of humankind". Humanity's natural curiosity, and survival imperatives, or "instincts" are considered to be the fountainhead of all religiosity. In our necessity to live with each other as social animals, as Aristotle first identified us, we engage in cooperation among our group, and competition with other groups, for resourcess. We pay attention to each other. Those who are best at paying attention to their fellow humans, become best at reading body language, facial expressions, vocal tone, and behavioral subtleties, and use these acquired insights to take advantage of oportunities to increase their personal status within their group, enchancing their chances of survival, and transmiting these traits to their own offspring. The smarter, more quick witted the animal, the more liklely it is to survive long enough to reporduce. Thus homo sapien sapiens becomes, through evolution, an observant, proactive creature, in tune with its environment, responding effectively to it, surviving within it. Human beings see nature and all its varied phenomena in human terms. We "anthropomorphize the universe. Self ware, we seek to imbue our lives and ourselves with meaning, to become "meaningful". This consists of creating a coherent understanding of ourselves and our place in a coherent world, of giving ourselves significance,and of finding a purpose for our existence. These are the primary compenents of meaning for ourselves and our lives. Thus we seek explanations, for everything. Sudden, unpredictable volcanic eruptions or earthquakes are completely beyond our ability to comprehend. We msut therefore find a way to give them coherence, significance, purpose, meaning. Our explanations take the form and shape of oursevlves, human beings living in a world best explained in human terms. Volcanos, earthquakes, and storms, among all other natural phenomena, we give meaning to by anthropomorphizing them, turning them into human beings. Since we cannot actually see them in physical form as human, we separate the mental from the physical, and create the concept of "spirits", intelligence without body. We organize our explanations, and give names to them. Thus arise doctrine, dogma, and sacred law and scripture, books being the best available tools to preserve knowledge and to transmit it to future generations. This arise fomral, organized religions. Thus does the unvierse become a "Christian" universe, or an "Islamic" universe, or thousands of other kinds of universess, all based on whatever particular religion is established among the various groups of people which inhabit different geographical regions, as religion is passed from generaton to generation, as children are indoctrinated into the accepted religion. Science saves the day, by wiping the slate clean, and starting over. As society collects knowledge, the inadequacy of religion as a means of understanding the universe becomes increasingly obvious. Humans, newly aware of their anthropomorphic bias, and the false conclusions derived from it, dehumanize the universe, and objectify it, on its own terms, using observation and measurement rather than anthrophmorphic leaps of faith. This transition, from leaps of faith to observed, measured reality, is occurring now. This transition is not without resistance and pain associated with any fundamental change. First, religion violently resists the encroachment of science upon its formerly exclusive territory. Then, unable to defeat science, it attempts to incorporate and subordinate science into its established cosmic paradigm. But this too is insufficient, and religion continues to lose its grasp, as it continues to appear, for obvious reasons, more and more inadequate to compliment and coexist with science. The final stage is the abandonment, the extinction of dogmatic religion, and the triumph of science, and a more enlightened form of spirituality, devotion to and reverence for nature and its creation. We are now in the process of doing precisely that, but the struggle will continue, for longer than it should, for all dying animals and institutions resist their own death, until finally they breathe their last, and dissolve back into the substance of the universe, whence they came.

Serendipity, Coming Home, Through the Roof

YOU JUST NEVER KNOW. Murphy's Law strikes again. Whatever can happen, will happen. In Naples, Florida, on an ordinary pleasant day, a family home was suddenly, rudely interrupted when a large piece of metal came crashing through the roof,at a very high velocity. Precisely how large the piece was, how fast it traveled, how deep into the abode, whether it penetrated the floor and foundation as well as the roof; these details were not included in what was an incidental time filling last mimute end of the broadcast news item on a National Public Radio hourly news cast. Nor was it mentioned whether the family was home at the time. Of course you hope it wasn't, although one must admit that had they been, the story would have been even "better", assuming no injuries to anyone, which you cannot. What you can assume, however, is that the impact made one helluva big bang, a real big noise, but unless somebody was home to hear it, it didn't. What we do know for sure, since NASA stepped up (not that they had any other choice) and acknowledged the part it played in the adventure, is that it came from a certain orbiting space vehicle, was a certain part of that satellite vehicle, and that it had been deliberately ejected from said orbiting vehicle, for the purpose, presumably, of replacing it with an upgrade. The plan, according to NASA, was for the old discarded piece of junk to simply burn up in the atmosphere, and to leave nothing behind but a nice long streak in the sky, pro tem, after the fashion of an meteor. Only, that didn't happen. Not only did it fail to burn up while in flight, it made it all the way to the ground, to the chagrin of an innocent family, simply minding its own business. Chagrin might well be an accurate descriptor of the current state of mind of NASA, insofar as an organization can achieve states of mind, owing to the fact that the fmaily and its attorney made no mistake about it, they intend to sue the space agency, for damages to the home, for emotional trauma, and, quite likely, for anything else the aforementioned attorney can concoct in all his or her legal expertise and chicanery. Since NASA has already essentially admitted culpability, it seems evident that some sort of out of court settlement will be offered, negotitated, and arrived at. For all we know, this average American family has just hit the proverbial jackpot, and might very well end up happily ensconced in a new, improved, larger, lovely mansion style homestead, replete with manicured lawns, stables, heated salt water swimming pool, tennis court, and numerous other amenities, including, somewhat ironically, a television satellite dish, and one for the internet, to boot. Again, as we have been frequently heretofore, we are reminded of the quirky, serendipitous nature of life, wherein surprises are constant, anything which can indeed happen will happen, in the fullness of time. All it takes it a bit of an unpredicted spin rate, trajectory, and a surprisingly, unexpectedly friction free fall of a metal object which heats up on its mad gravitional rush to the Earth's surface far less extremely than planned by thermodyamic law and physicists, and, well, the rest, as we say, is history. The sort of thing that won't happen agian in a million years. Or will it? The high skies around Earth are full and filling up fast with space debris, as nation after nation redundantly shoots up more rockets and orbiting satellites than you can shake a stick at, to the extent that the international community now recognizes space debris as a definite hazard, to space stations, astronauts, and, we now know, average all American families going about their business in Flordia, bothering nobody. All this shot up stuff inevitably wears out and falls back towards Earth, so, a quick heads up; keep your heads up, and by all means, have your home owner's insurance handy, and the phone number of a good, reliable roofing company.

Explaining the Inexplicable to the Uncomprehending

I'M GETTING GETTER at gospel singing. I should be, its about time, I've been singing in the group for three years. Most of my improvement has to do with knowing the songs. My voice has been fine the whole time, but unaccustomed to gospel songs, which in general I despise. The lady who graciously plays the piano to accompany us has for years been concerned about the disposition of my eternal soul, my not having been "saved" and all. Our one and only theological conversation ended in disaster, as such discussions among people of divergent religious views often do. She was in tears, at my refusal to be saved and my assertive reference to Thomas Paine; I was fit to be tied, at what I perceived to be her fascist refusal to accept the validity of any form of religiosity other than her own, Christianity. Af few weeks ago I started attending church, the same church on a regular basis, the first time I have ever done that. I really like the place, I especially like the laid back minister, an older gentleman even older than I, and I plan to keep going, for how long, I have no idea. This minister, who is actually a retired attorney turned lay minister, came to visit our local senior center the other day. We had lunch together, during which I mentioned that I do not agree with everything Jesus said. He confided that he doesn't either; my kind of minister. When I bragged about his visit to the piano lady, and expressed regret that they had not met, she suggested that I bring him to our gospel singing grooup. I told her that this was a bad idea, that his weak, raspy speaking voice clearly indicates a lack of natural singing talent. She shrugged her shoulders, as if to say that's only my opinion.I suspect that she is conditioned to take anything I say with, as they say, a grain of salt. I sense something unsavory is happening here, a fundamental misunderstanding, one which, if left unchecked or brought openly to the surface rather than ignored, could lead to a further disastrious confrontation. The basis of it is this: despite my three years of gospel singing,depsite my recent regular church attendance, my opinion of all religion, of Christianity in particular, namely, that it serves an important purpose (giving people meaning, comfort, and inspiration), but that is is also primitive, barbaric, and fundamentally false, remains unchanged. May the human species evolve some fine day spiritually and intellectually to a new and higher form of spiritual expression and reverence for creation! Only, the Christian paino lady does not know this. I can almost guaran damn tee you that the information she has received from me aobut my new chuch going has misled her, or that she has misled herself, to assume that her unsaved baritone/bass singer, the one who until recently was in such dire peril of losing his soul to the devil, has now changed his ways, has turned toward Christ, is eitehr saved now or close to being saved, and that all will, in the end, be well with me. She has that look in her eye, that tone in her voice. That, plus my enthusiastic agreement with her when she said the other day that she doesn't know why we don't sing all four verses of "How Great Thou Art." Actually, she knows the reason: we sing three verses of all songs. But I don't think she knows my reasons for loving that song, nor will she ever, nor does she need to.

Psychoanalyzing Trumpers

IT REMAINS MIND BLOWING. It never seems to change, The illness will not heal. Still, after all this time, roughly two thirds of registered Republicans insist that the 2020 election was stolen,and that the ensuing Trumpian insurrection was justified. To put it eloquently, what in the holy hell is wrong with these people? The seemingly logical premise that either they actually believe this nonsense or they do not believe it and are "faking it" doesn't seem to lead anywhere. That they have brainwashed themselves,like UFO abductees, or that they are refusing to awaken from a strange dream, like UFO abductees, somehow seems to be a starting point, at least one might think that it could be a beginning of understanding, but, alas, ultimately, becomes one that leads...nowhere. Mass criminal insanity, after the fashion of Trump himself! That's got to be it! Bearing in mind that a large portion of the American people have been abducted by aliens, and that a large percentage of Americans believe that vaccinations are harmful, and that a large percentage of Americans embrace one form of idiotic, demonstrably insane nonsense or another, and maybe, just maybe, you can conclude by writing it off to the water supply, or to some inherent hallucinatory characteristic of the culture, or, to... something...Trumpers are trapped. Its too late for them to get out now. They're in too deep. To renounce Trump at this point is to admit that he has fooled them all, for years. It is no easy thing to admit to having been duped, to having been played for the fool. As Carl Sagan cogently pointed out, people who have been hoodwinked become comfortable with the hoodwinking, and refuse to abandon it So why bother trying to dislodge them from their place of hoodwinked comfort.The great carnival barker has them unalterably enthralled, entranced,no less so than the itinerant treaveling salvation show preacher dispenisng truth, old time religion, and Brother Love's Elixor of Life, with the gospel singers singing their lungs out in the background.The heat is getting to us all. Trump leads by two percentage points in Pennsylvania. Biden is being blamed for the local heat and crime wave. Nothing has improved in Philadelphia in four years, including the price of gas and eggs, and its all Biden's fault. Biden has had four years to stop or reduce crime in Philly, and he hasn't done a damned thing about it. Bring back Trump.He'll put all criminals behind bars, except himslf. Well, and then, they have made their bed, these MAGAts,and now they are lying in it, an all that is left to us is to gently tuck them in, say grace,and turn out the light. Dear friend, we tell them, I now, finally, understand why you so ardently support Trump, despite everything, Birds of a feather. Folks of like mind and moral character gather together in groups, like church. Every day, dear friend, you remind me more and more of Donald Trump. Your moral character, your intellectual make up, your intelligence level, your style of communication, your honesty and integrity, all just like the man you want leading your country. Donald Trump is precisely the sort of person, the actual person, you so strongly strive to be. And guess what? You have succeeded. You have succeeded in fashioning yourself into the very essence of Donald Trump, especially his moral character, his intellect, the whole, as we say, ball of wax, What a stable genius you are. Enjoy!

Stating and Displaying the Obvious, and the Petty

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS is among the most iconic, cherished documents in human history, possibly for the very reason which makes them more appealing to people of modest intellectual discernment but far less profound and useful than many other supposedly sacred but less publicized sets of guidelines. They derive from the "Code of Hammurabi", the first known such list of regulations and restirictions, whose origins are in Mesopotamia,the geographic origin of western civilization itself. The harshness, the crude simplicity, the rigidity, the obvious needlessness of restatement nature is apparant in both law codes. The first four comandments are easily, arguably nothing more than the petulant exclamations of a petty, tyrannical, insecure deity, the "Word" of a primitive, barbaric God. I am the only God. Do not worship any other gods, fabricated, invented,imaginary or otherwise. Do not create art. Keep sacred the day I, your all powerful creater, stopped creating to take a rest. Is the Almighty one true God really concerned about potential competition from a god which does not exist? Is the one true, exant god of the universe, all powerful and all knowing, concerned about the existence of less omnipotent entities who might be mistaken for gods? The final six commandments are nothing but common sense, common sense which is evident, inherently, to anyone who lives in a group of people, paleolthic or neolithic,but especially neolithic, in which material possessions and proprietary rights take on added signifigance, because of their accumulation and acquired value. In human groupings, people insist on keeping what belongs to them, and insist on an understanding among all group members that stealing from others is forbidden. What parent since the advent of animal life on this planet has not clearly indicated to his or her children that the kids had damned well better honor and obey their parents? Again, a statement of the long obvious. Such a commonly understood law allows us all to sleep at night, and to leave our goods unguarded, though behind locked doors,during daylight houre when we are away from home, working, working to obtain the means by which to obtain...more material goods, espeially food, clothing, and shelter. Surely such an already long deeply engraved understanding within us all needs not extra attention or public display. Again, its mere common sense. Thou shalt not kill. Another statement of the obvious, another law we already knew and have long known. This law elevates us, albeit barely, above the rest of the animal kingdom, and makes us, in a certain sense, "cililized". Much more worthy of public display are the nine beatitudes from the Sermon On the Mount, which give us more advanced, enlightened, and far less common wisdom. More worthy, and thus, less qualified, by American standards. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the meek. These beautiful beatitudes are so surpassingly beautiful that they are more remindful of more enlightened easetern philosophical traditions than of harsh, primitive, barbaric western religious ones. But how long will we wait unitl "blessed are the peacemakers" or blessed are the meek" or "blessed are the merciful" appear on public monuments to political and military leaders in these United States of Aggression? On the walls of the Pentagon, perhaps? Doubtful. As for public school walls, harsh instructions are deemed far more effective in keeping kids obedient than instructions advising peacemaking, humility, and mercy. You can imagine a misbehaving student, about to be disciplined, pointing to the word "merciful" just above the standardized encircling alphabet. But, make room, make room! More on their merry way. There are no fewer than seventy five commandments in the Islamic religion, and no fewer than six hundred and thirteen in the Judaic code. Our public school walls are going to be very, very crowded with words.

Heading Towards the Edge

SINCE 2022, the amount of carbon dioxide pumped into the Earth's atmosphere by human industrial activity has increased by about one point five percent. Before and during the Covid 19 pandemic, there had been a leveling off of carbon emissions, as a great upsurge in sustainable clean energy production helped in slowing the rate of atmosphereic carbon accumulation. The great economic shutdown associated with the pandemic contributed to a lessening of carbon pollution. The air quality over major cities worldwide got cleaner, birdsong was heard where it hadn't been heard in decades, and visibilitiy in major metropolitan areas noticeably improved. Then, the pandemic receded from a volcanic avalanche of death to a dull roar, still unacceptable, but accepted by a world culture hell bent of materialistic industrial production resumption. Production came roaring back, with a vengeance, as the engines of prosperity came roaring back to life, refilling corporate bank accounts, restocking retail store shelves, and, almost as an after thought, resuming the catastrophic level of added atmospheric carbon. Pent up consumer demand was rewarded with a renewal of manufacturing, production, and distribution. Everyone seemed happy, except the Earth herself. The exact percentage of carbon in the atmoshpere was recently measured at four hundred and twenty five point nine parts per million, and climbing. Four hundred and fifty parts per million is considered the point of no return, afer which catastrophic climate change will have gone over the edge, slipped off into irreversible oblivion. At the current rate of increase, that level will have been reached and passed by the middle of this century. Perhaps the strangest aspect of all this is how meekly and uncomplainingly we the human species is spriraling downward towards its own extinction, and the extinction of all life on Earth. Almost as if in a dream, as if the horrible nightmare we are inflicting upon ourselves is precisely that; a nightmare, unreal, from which we will soon awaken, and thus need have no concern about. We are dreaming our way straight into self inflicted extinction, effectively, mass suicide. This rapid increase in carbon accumulation comes at the precise time when we humans should be going in exactly the opposite direction, phasing out fossil fuel use, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, converting to an all solar all wind driven energy economy, to prevent the worst possible effects of climate change. The climate change which is inevitable, baked into the system by our previous decades of unrestrained economic growth, is now beginning to have its impact full force on our daily weather and overall climate. Extreme weather patterns and events are happening on a daily basis. Torrential flooding downpours of unrelenting rain fall. Extreme heat waves at times during the year when the climate should be more temporate. The violent storms with which we are becoming increasingly familiar, to which we have become accustomed, become inured. We see all this all around us, but choose to do almost nothing, instead of cooperating globally in a drastic, sustained program of changing our habits. We are simply too addicted to our disastrous way of life, and, for all appearances, will continue as we always have before, content to enjoy our own lives of hedonistic denial as we pass on the ultimate final disaster to our descendants, straight into our, and their collective graves.

Attending Church, Why?

THE TWO LADIES and I often have lunch together at the senior center. About once a week or so,whenever the menus suits them. They are picky. We share our contempt for Donald Trump, sufficient to cement any friendship. Once or twice, we have attended church together. At our most recent luncheon I mentioned that I have been attending church lately, at a small place I recently became aware of, that I really like it, and that I intend to become a regular attendee. The lady mentioned something about my having changed, perhaps having been "saved". Perhaps she has always presumed a Christian faith on my part, incorrectly. I responded by assuring her that no such thing has happened to me, that I am as contemptuous of the Chrstian religion as ever, for the same reasons. She seemed surprised. Like a true pedestrian intellect, she blurted: "but if you are not a Christian, why are you going to church, why regularly rather than just as a visitor, why describe it as your having found "a home"? Her lack of understanidng amazed me, but didn't really surprise me, nor did her intrusive question. But, on the whole, I considered her nosy question understandable. Permit me to introduce you to a concept which to you might be a novelty,I said. I like to call it "open mindedness". I am well aware that my personal point of view is not the only viewpoint in the world, that I live in a world of cultural and intellectual diversity. Much of the message inherent in the Christian religion I find uplifting, inspiring, noble, sublime. I happen to like the minister at my new church, I like the messages he provides, and I benefit by attending. I would in fact be perfectly amenable to attending religious services of any religion on the planet, any of the thousands of extant religions, including, for instance, Islam. I am certain that I could learn much from any of them, that I will indeed learn a great deal from attending my chruch of choice, and, after all, isn't learning ultimately what we are here for? At some point in the conversation she infomred me that many people at the senior enter think that I am an athiest. I responded that I happen to be a "pantheist", and when she looked perplexed, and awkwardly tried to repeat the word "pantheist", I suggested that she look the word up. I doubt she will bother to look it up. It seems beyond the scope of her interests, and, perhaps, capabilities. I further informed her that those supposed "Christians" who have the misconception that I am an athiest I consider to be barbarians, especially if they seek salvation through the torturing to death of a good man, and wish to wash away their sins with blood. She called me a "know it all". I responded that I was offended at this intended insult. In her urgent desire to get even, she shot back that she was offended at my description of her religious beliefs as "barbaric". Well, she might be stong enough to endure being included in an insult with two billion other people. Or, her ego may force her to bear the entire burden of the perceived insult. Her choice, not mine. When she mentioned that she "didn't mind' The Ten Commandments being placed on the walls of schools, I refrained from reminding her about the constitutional seperation of church and state. Why bother? But I really should not regard her intended insult of me as an actual insult, intentional though it was, for verily, compared to her, I am indeed a "know it all", and would be perfectly willing to have lunch with her again, assuming her willingness to be further educated, which I most assuredly cannot.

Looking Out For False Prophets

BEWARE OF FALSE PROPHETS exhorted the brightly colored boxed up message, a rhapsody in orange. Facebook cannon fodder, of course.The reference was to Trump, of course, and to his evident and obvious status as a sort of twisted cult icon of a twisted cult,poised halfway between Jesus Christ and Satan, closer in proximity to which ever one personally supposes, depending on whom you ask, along strict party lines. This meme theme of Trump being a false prophet with false profits,an orange icon disguising a blood red Satan, is the meme the left, of the seemingly slim majority of Americans who despise Trump. On the right, where extreme religious fanaticism marries far right wing extremism, and sanity never gains a footholed, the idea is one hundred and eighty degrees around the bend, over the hills and far away. A book, apparently real, sums it, up, and is also being promoted on the promoter of all promoters, Facebook Almighty, The title is "Christrump": The Persecution of a Man", or some such delusionally misleading implication. Someone asked, sensibly "doesn't that title say 'Christ rump?". Well,it does, but leave it to its author and likely readers to not notice. Truth is, I'd be willing to take a look at it, but only in private, secretly. I can't vouch for how far I'd get before I started throwing things. I couldn't ressit jumping into the middle of it all, as is often the case. I never learn. I typed in: "Beware of convicted felons who pursue successful political careers". As always I thought I had summed up the situation perfectly. Someone else didn't. From time to time, in the fullness of time, a lost Trump conservative, perhaps with directional skills impeded by zealous evangelical religious intoxication, stumbles into the room, makes a bit of gratuitous trouble, utters something typically false and inane, then scampers off, back beneath his presumed rock of origin. This happened in this instance. First, he accused me,and those of similar points of view, of being in a coma, and stated that if we came out of it, we would realze certain inalienable truths, which he proceeded to articulate. Then he states, without apparent equivocation or tongue in cheek, that under no circumstances was or is Donald J. Trump a "politician". For a fleeting moment I thought to ask precisely what he thought a person who runs for the American presidency by actively stumping on the campaign trail, exhorting folks to vote for him, accusing others of stealing elections, and arranging and orchestrating a violent attemspt to overthrow the American government, should be called, if not a "politician". I decided not to bother. The Trumper, not content to stop at a single blatant prevarication, went on to explain that in countries all over the world people in power lock up their political rivals. I knew where this was going, and wanted to point out that we the American people are gifted by the Almighty (I thought thar would appeal to him) the good fortune to live in a great country where that sort of thing never happens, that instead we dispense justice according to due procees,for everyone, with equal justice under law, with noboy being above the law. But again, I didnt bother. Instead I typed in: "I hope you don't emerge from yours (coma), for if you do, you might try to stage another violent insurrection. Granted, I could possibly have done better, but, all in all, once again, I think I got to the crux of the matter.

Saying Hey To Willie, From A Distance

ROME WAS NEITHER BUILT NOR DID IT FALL in a day. It did not simply fall, and vanish. Rather, it declined and evolved into another form of civilization by gradual degrees, over time. Today it still exists, in the form of the Italian nation state, which in its modern form only emerged from its existence as a collection of feudal kingdoms, like Germany, late in the nineteenth century. Not only are people immortal, made so by the effects of their actions, as Goethe astutely said, but so are nations and civilizations. Nor did the instituion of African-American slavery simply vanish on June nineteenth, 1865, when a Union warship landed at Galveston,Texas, liberaed the remaining formally enslaved African-Americans,and proclaimed to them that Abraham Lincoln had long since issued the "Emancipation Proclamation", formally ending formal slavery in these United States. Slavery did not simply vanish on that single day. Rahter, it evolved into another form, it still exists and is still evolving. Reconstruction ended twelve years later, in 1877, and the reenslavement of the former slaves proceeded, under different names. It has been called "segregation", "apartheid", discrimination, and "redlining" among other ingominious desingations. Willie Mays was born in the deep deeply segregated south in 1931, and was immediately enslaved, for all intents and purposes,by a culture which regarded him, by law, custom, and societal attitude, as sub human,second class, inferior. Second class,inferior, only on account of his skin color, having nothing to do with either the content of his character or the quality of his talents and attributes. He was relegated to separation in schoorooms, restrooms, at water fountains, hotels, restaurants, and in private homes, early in life, and throughout his long distinguished life. Enslaved by his own ountry, by the strict limitations of opportunity and acces imposed upon him and his fellow African-Americans by the dominant white culture, and its core American value; racism. Willie was not a crusading activist for racial justice like Jackie Robinson. He prefered to lead by example,to show the world what anyone can accomplish, given enough talent, and enough opportunity. Had Willie Mays been green, red, or purple, any baseball team in the world would have written his name on the line up card. Leo Durocher said the same thing about Jackie Robinson, when he suggested his willingness to trade any of Jackie's white Dodger teammates who preferred not to take the field along side a black man. Like Jackie before him, Willie Mays took the insults, the segregation, the discrimination, and the death threat with good grace and calm and without loud complaint, setting a perfect example for Martin Luther King. And like Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King, and all the other African-Amercans who have ever lived in these disunited States of America with its core value of racism, Willie Mays labored under the oppression of cultural ensalvement, the enslavnent of spending his entire life in a culture and a country which diminshed his true worth only because of the color of his skn, choosing to overlook or downplay his character and talents. Willie Mays was a thoughtful, intelligent man, who understood every aspect of the game of baseball,and who would have made an excellent major league manager or general manager. But only because of the color of his skin he never had a chance. Again,enslavement, by a society blinded by color. And anyone who labors under the illusion that any of this has fundamentally changed in the modern year of twenty twenty four, had better take another look, assuming that such willfully blind people are even capable of honest self examination in the first place.

Say Hey Willie, Juneteenth, and the Reinvention of Slavery

I HAD INTENDED to write an essay about Willie Mays, and one about Juneteenth and the end of slavery. Now, upon further reflection,I find it tempting to combine the three topics into one hoped for succinct essay, three birds with one stone, so to speak. The end result may be considerably other that anything I had planned. When a friend mentioned that slavery was horrible, stating the obvious, and that the end of slavery was something indeed to celebrate, I responded that argubaly slavery never ended, but was merely reinvented in less formal forms, and that the reinvention continues to this day. Nothing that has happened in the last few minutes has changed this personal opinion, nothing that happens over the next few decades is likely to either. I pointed out in the course of the ensuing "discussion" that slaves were valuable property, were generally well enough if sparsely, spartanly fed, and that the beatings,whippings, and rapes were indeed real,but that conditions varied widely from plantation to plantation, and that only a tiny fraction of the white southern population owned more than one or two slaves,and that those same slaves tended to be spared harsh treatment, and indeed often integrated into the family, quite by accident, an accident of human nature in which familiarity breeds contempt, but also, at times, love, especially when both parties are not equal in power and status, after the fashion of dog and master. I futher asserted that the treatment of African-Americans scarcely improved post slavery, and indeed,in many cases, worsened. Being free has its limits when one has no land, no property, no job, no money, no home, and too little to eat. The corrupt bargain of 1877 elevated Rutherford B. Hayes to the presidency, and condemned the former slaves to a life of misery. Slaves, if little else, at least had homes, food, work, a purpose in society, if only as chattel property. Arguably, Their condition post slavery, after the end of reconstruction, was equal in terms of sheer deprivation if not worse than what they had endured while enslaved. To a large and very important extent, objections to slavery are purely, properly moral, when compared to conditions experienced by freed slaves in America ever since, which are quite real, and objectionable on both moral and practical terms. We continue to reinvent slavery, and give it new names. Now we are banning mention in American public schools of enduring systemic racism in the United States, which, as someone congently pointed out, is in itself a perfect example of systemic racism. Next thing I know, I'm being accused of failing to adequately condemn formal slavery. I had rather condemn the four hundred and five years of the African-American experience, than single out two hundred and forty six years of formal slavery for special, righteous condemnation. Yes, slavery was and is horrible, wherever, whenever. Lettuce so stipulate. But instead of dwelling on it and acting like by condemning it was have somehow solved and moved beyond the fundamental problems associated with it which plague us in our world today, extending it into our own times like residual historical stench and limiting any hope of actual racial equality to rhetoric unsupported by substantive facts, its time to stipulate the horror of slavery, to move on, and to talk about ourselves, and our refusal to let go, of formal slavery, and change our focus to the enduring informal slavery. Condemning slavery is all well and good, but using it as an excuse to self congratulate ourselves on progress which esixts in self congratulatory flowery rehetoric, but not so much in the real world, defeats the very purpose of opposing, eliminating,and condemning formal slavery.

Facing Up To Facebook

CRAZY THING IS, after all these years, all the misadventures, I'm still up and running, ready to rock n roll. Twenty five years ago, on AOL, in the era of the not so immortal chat room, I positioned myself as an observer, there only to write a book all about it, a book which never got written. In the intervening quarter century,I wrote and published no fewer than five thousand four hundred and two pages of incisive non fiction on this website, with many more, knock on wood, to come. (I'm aiming for ten thousand total one page essays before I pass). Fifty four hundred is enough for eighteen three hundred page books of essays, so, no complaints. But,so far, no seminal monograph. But that may change. Now, my research for a future book centers around the messages I receive daily on Facebook,and their what to me is nothing other than bizarre content. I never message anybody, but boy, do I get some doozies, great fodder for a future book, methinks, for a guy who doesn't even have a profile per se, nor a selfie with which to grace it. That, although basically all I do on Facebook is share pictures of cute kittens, pretty flowers, and scenic scenes, throw in a few unpleasant comments on posts unfavorable to one of America's more controversial former presidents, and post advertising promoting this website. And, for all that, despite the apparent innocence of my Facebook activity, I get repeated warnings about violating "community standards", as if I'm selling child pornography. On occasion, they give me a one hour sit on the bench, which I judiciously use to drink coffee, catch up on email, twiddle my thumbs, and grin sardoncially. Evidently, community standards do not sanction cute kittens and pretty flowers. My impression is that other Facebook folks are similarly confused. Why bother reading the incoherent jumbled "explanations" provided by the Facebook God? Have the algorrythms gone insane? Has the great Zuck himself lost his Harvardian mind? The best scam message this morning, so far,(but its still early), came from a dude with the usual greeting. The "Hi Bob how are you hope you are well where are you from can I see your pic?" sort. Standard stuff. I prompted with "I am well in Arkansas why are you messaging me?". To the point, please. The point, believe it or not, was that the gentleman was soon receiving one point five million dollars in pay, in cash, from his former employer, a company of some sort. I, and only I, it seemed, could help him, could do him a favor, by receiving it, presumably at the doorstep of my lovely ranch style suburban home deep in rural Arkansas. Red flag, flying high. One quick caveat. He asked me if I would be good enough to not steal any of it, which I thought was fair. I would get my cut, he assured me. That was nice to hear. I like doing favors for good, honest folks, but a little gratuity goes a long way towards "sweetening the Pot", as it were. By this time I had long since typed in my usual disclamier, the one about where I, as a purely precautionary measure, record all offers I receive on Facebook, and send them to law enforcement, for the pros to look over, to weed out the potential scams. I'm sure you have nothing to worry about, I cheerfully offered. Keep talking, I told him. Seemingly unfazed, he kept talking. Usually they shut right the hell up, smartly. An oblivious or interpid few of them, seemingly enjoying living on the edge, this one included, pretended to be umoved by my mention of law enforcement. Pretended. Dollars to donuts he was moved. The pleas suddenly became plaintive, almost pitiful. "I guess you're not ready for this". No shit,Sherlock?", as we say. He had the basic courtesty to type in "bye" just before he vanished, just before I blocked him. I must confess I am half tempted to unblock his stupid scamming ass and play with him a little more, but I don't want to get greedy, and, in any event, I have a veritable multitudinous plethora of forthcoming scams to deal with, as its still early, mostly from young, very attractive ladies (they always send pics, and ask for mine) who just cannnot wait to "hook up" with a 69 year old retired history professor, if only they can borrow the gas money it takes to get all the way to Arkansas. Those are by far the most fun, fodder for my still unwritten book, a seminal monograph. no doubt.

Sharing The Wealth and Explaining Socialism, Through Baseball

WE WERE HANGING OUT, relaxing before we began our weekly gospel singing. It was going to be a light turnout, I knew I would have to sing loud. No problem, can do. Someone asked me what I had been doing during the past week, and I was ready. "I spent four days in Kansas City, watching my beloved Yankees take two out of three from a very good Royals team", said I, and, during the day, I spent most of my time roaming around the Nelson Art Gallery, taking it all in". Fired up, I chose not to stop talking. "Its really amazing what a good ballclub three hundred million dollars will buy you", I flippantly intoned. Actually, the Yankees have the third highest payroll in baseball, ranking behind the Dodgers and their crosstown rivals, the lowly Mets. I went on to give a few more facts: The New York Yankees have an estimated street (market) value of about seven point five billion dollars, annnual revenues of nearly one billion, and the slightly more than three hundred dollar payroll.(I can never resist the temptation to show off my knowledge, of anything.) Nobody knew what to say, of course. Gospel singers don't usually make good baseball fans. Then, the farmer in overalls spoke up, at least willing to give it a whirl; "Seems like there's just too much money in the world", said he...I could have responded to that in almost any of a number of different ways, from sarastic, to agreement. The ostensibly ridiculous observation wasn't as ridiculous as it sounded, so I decided to give it the limited respect it deserved. A perfect opportunity to inject a little democratic socialism into the fray, I thought, feeling a slight burst of adrenalin. Well, actually, said I, the problem isn't so much the amount of money or wealth in the world, its the way in which its distributed. In this country, for instance, far less than one perent of the population owns and control more than one fourth of all the wealth in America, and that leaves many people at the bottom ofthe economic pyramid without enough disposable income or personal wealth to actually have an impact on the economy by driving up demand, and thus stimulating production, and increasing aggregate wealth throughout society. Also, the eight richest billionaires in the world have a combined wealth equal to the bottom half of all the people on the planet, which has the same effect, of stagnating consumer spending, and economic growth. Straight out of Joesph Stiglitz (The Price of Inequality), whom I almost mentioned and recommended, but didn't. There was no need. I had explained the essence of the benefits of widely distributed wealth in a capitalistic economy so cogently, so lucidly, in a single sentence,that every gospel singing farmer at the table knew exactly what I was talking about, and they all agreed with me. This, in a deep down in the south red state where Trump gets forty percent, whether or not he happens to be in prison, and the words "Democrat, "socialist", and "cultural diversity " are synonimous with the word "satan", notwithstanding the willing participation of these rural folk in socialist programs like Social Security, Medicare, and farm and agricultural subsidies. They get around this inconvenient bit of hypocrisy by proclaiming loudly, albeit falsely, that such government programs are not actual socialism, but instead, just plain, good common sense, "progress", as one old coot of a conservative religious fanatic put it. But I have finally found the method. If you want to explain to people that not only are they already living in a socialist country, but that they really do embrace socialism, whether they know and accept it or not, all you have to do is mention a few baseball player salaries, and you're on your way around the bases, heading for home.

Eating Shit, And Dying, For Trump

THE FACEBOOK POST made no bones, was quite explicit. It said,roughly: "I am not part of the 'tolerant left'. I am part of the 'eat shit and die you treasonous bastards' left". This person had reached the end of his or her rope, tired of talking, tired of trying to compromise and understand. Being accepting of LGBTQ people, illegal immigrants, racial, ethnic, and religious differences and diversity, is all well and good,indeed, hallmarks of proressive ideology. But, enough is enough. One reaches the end of one's rope, one runs out of patience when confronted with unrlenting, unreasoning evil by the same people,inessantly. This "eat shit and die" approach resonated with me because I reached this point long ago, perhaps even as early as the day when the "Access Hollywood" tape came out in early october, 2016,and I thought and assumed, quite reaaonably,that this vulgar display of salacious insensitivity by a reprobate bragging about being a sexual predator would mark the end of the political career of Don the Con Trump. And indeed it almost did, but didn't. The Republican National Committee tried to tell Trump to hit the highway, but backed down like squirming cowards when he said, simply; "make me". The rest, as they say, is history. And now, here we are, on the verge of reelecting a convicted criminal, a repeatedly proven low life criminal scoundrel back to the White House, for another chaotic, senseless term in office, after years and years of glaring proof that he, Donald Trump, may be the least qualified person on the planet to occupy political office or a job of any sort. He could shoot somebody on fifth avenue in cold blood in broad daylight, and they wouldn't care, said the icon of insanity in one of his rare moments of honesty and lucidity. They would only approve of him and admire him all the more, for his willingness to "get things done". To hide their hatred of LGBTQ people, to disguise their racism, they pretend that inflation is still a horrible problem, when in fact it is receding, in full retreat, declining to very acceptable levels. They pretend that the disorganized,chaotic immigration at the border is out of control only because of Biden, when in fact it is Trump who guaranteed that it would remain out of control, by ordering his puppet Republican members of Congress to walk away from a strong bipartisan immigration bill, written by Republicans, which would have taken huge steps to rememdy the problem, and would have been signed by President Biden, if only the little Hilter Trump would have pulled his puppet strings sanely, would have put country above politics, and permitted it. Under Trump the economy crashed, largely do to his insane policies concerning Covid 19. Under Biden the economy has come roaring back to life, largely because of his legislative initiatives. Trump's treasonous, traitorous election lie his supporters ignore, or embrace. His violent, well planned violent mob insurrection to try to overthrow the government and isntall Trump illegally in power they consider justified. Try to talk to and reason with Trump supporters, for instance, by pointing out to them that there are many politicians available who hold conservative values who happen to not be criminally insane, and all they do is stare blankly, or change the subject, or start reciting lies about Biden and his policies, or become angry, and spew the same babbling meaningless gibberish as Trump, as if having been schooled by him in the art of communicating incoherently. So why bother? Why bother trying to establish rappor with people who make themselves unapproachable by design and intent.Thay must be defeated at the ballot box,or, in the joyful event of their election defeat,in the streets. Meanwhile, I know exactly what they can have for dinner, and exactly what they can do immediately thereafter.

Attending Church

Sunday, June 16, 2024, I attended church, at a small,rustic,ancient brick building deep in the Ozark wooded hills. The church has been in existence for nearly two hundred years, but the congregation has never been smaller than now. I am told that thirty years ago their were usually about thirty or forty people in attendance, and that one hundred years ago the number of congregants was about one hundred. Today there were nine, incuding me. Testament to the decline and death fof the Christian faith, in rural America, and throughout the United States and the western hemishere. Western civilization, it would seem, is growing up, abandoning its ancient superstitions, if only gradually. I love going to this little church, having gone now several times in the past few weeks,and I fully intend to make it a habit. This, despite my firmly held lifelong conviction that the Christian religion is a barbaric, primitive,idiotic religion, badly in need of extinction, and that the world will be better off after it has died,which it surely will over the next few centuries, if not sooner. Why then, might a normal run of the mill intellect ask me, do I attend church, given my feelings aobut the Cgristian faith? To these less than brilliant "intellects" I offer the following response:permit me to introduce you to what is apparently a novel concept to you; that of "open mindedness". I have my opinions, as other do. Mine are no better or worse than any others. My personal opinions, however, may or may not reflect provable, demonstrable "reality", just like those of other people. So, maybe I'm wrong, dead wrong, going straight to hell wrong, and maybe the Christian religion, of all the thousands of religions on planet Earth, is true. Not only that, but maybe the Christian religion is the one true religion throughout the Milky Way galaxy, and throughout the inconceivably huge universe, which consists of trillions of galaxies, untold mega trillions of stars and planets. And, if there is indeed life on other planets, which seems increasingly highly probable, indeed almsot a certainty, maybe Jesus Christ goes from planet to planet being crucified over and over again, trillions of times, to save all the intelligent species in the cosmos, by dying for their sins. I highly doubt it, but maybe so, and maybe I am wrong. (If he does, does he ever get tired of it?) Maybe Jesus Christ was and is the one true son of God, maybe he died for my sins and everybody else's sins, and maybe, just mabye, one must accept HIM as their personal Lord and Savior to enter into the kingdom of heaven after death, and live eternally in what would seem to me a very pleasant but ultimately quite boring heavenly home. Communion, the symbolic consuming of the flesh and blood of Christ, what Geroge Washington called "symbolic cannibalism"(he attended church, but never took communion) is not only proper, perhaps, but absolutely essential to any legitimate church service. Maybe. Who knows? I certainly don't, and I strongly suspect that nobody else does either. Mark Twain said it best, as he said many things best."The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that mine is also". Well said, Sam. It seems to me that the Christian religion is one of many primitive forms of attempts that small, ignorant little primates use trying to comprehend and deal with reality, and that it is entirely Oudated, anachronistic, in need if discarding, in favor of modern science. But, maybe I am wrong. And, in any event, going to church is a nice experience, good messages are given by the pleasant minister, its a good way to participate in a community activity, and, to boot,they make good coffee and have good donuts before and after the very pleasant service. Also, I rather enjoy group singing, even if the songs are idiotic, to me.

Saving Animals, Healing Ourselves, And Why

SOMEONE WAS SPECULATING on why people who try to save animals try to save animals. I took his meaning to be mainly a reference to stray and feral cats, and homeless dogs, but assumed that his musings could apply to any and all animals, sick, injured, hungry, in obvious need of any sort of assistance. It was a topic of personal interest to me, since I am among the large fraternity of tryers. My intended targets of salvation are stray and feral cats, of whom I have several currently, and, over the years, have had many. Eventually they all died; my grief is ameliorated somewhat by the fact that, well, at least I tried. And although I can never be certain, I can at least tell myself that, if nothing else, I gave love to a beautiful being who otherwise would perhaps have lived a life unloved. Even in this I can never be sure. All I can do is try, and leave it at that. He first conjectured that we try because perhaps we are trying to heal ourselves from all the times when we ourselves needed help, and it never came. He went on to speculate that perhaps we are trying to compensate for all the times we tried to save people, and failed, finally realizing that people cannot be saved by others, but can only save themselves. His final idea was that perhaps we try to save animals simply because we realize that they are eminently worth saving, or,if nothing else, worth the attempt. We try, and sometimes, we fail. Like prayer, sometimes the answer is "no". On the surface it may seem is if the final speculation as to motive is the only one applicable and necessary. Maybe so. We try because it is worth trying. But the first two, concerning healing ourselves through healing animals, somehow resonates with me, and, I might be so bold as to surmise, others as well. Perhpas is is true that we at least partly try to save animals as a means of trying to save ourselves, from emotional pain, or perhaps even from a life of meaningless unproductive futility. Distinctly I recall nearly fifty years ago I was taking a long walk,as I tended to do as a teenager and young adult, and came across an injured bird, lying on the ground, unable to fly. I raced home, got a cardboard box, raced back to the bird which had not moved, gently placed the struggling creature in the box, and went home. As I started to leave, a lady who happened to be watching, told me that she thought I was "a good boy" for trying to save the injured bird. "I'll see what I can do", I said, lamely. Suddenly I felt a great, unrelenting burden of responsibility. I also realized, although I was reluctant to admit it,to admit to myself that I had no idea in the world what I could possibly do to help the poor little bird, and I was quite well aware that indeed there was nothing I could do but keep it out of further danger,by guarding it, and hoping it would heal itself. Deep down, I knew that it couldn't, and sure enough, it died very soon thereafter. I gave it a private burial in my mother's yard, shed a tear or two,and went on with my life, knowing that I had, if nothing else, tried. It was small comfort. Until this essay I have never mentioned the incident to anyone, nor thought much about it. Now, fifty years later, I mention it to anybody and everybody. Perhaps all these years I have been ashamed of my impotence, my powerlessness, my inability to do anything meaniningful. Now, with the return of the memory, the memory of my grief returns, and I feel it all over again. Well, maybe by writing this essay I have, in some small way, healed myself. Again, a tear or two, fitty years too late. Maybe by acknowledging once again my limitations, I have grown. Maybe the lady, who is perhaps herself now dead, spent the rest of her life thinking about the incident occasionally, and choosing to believe for her own comfort that the nice boy actually helped heal the bird, and that it flew once again. At the end of our days, it may be that we can only say about ourselves what I would like to have engraved on my urn of ashes: I tried.

Dispelling Misconceptions, Religiously

MANY IF NOT MOST Americans are "burdened" by the misconception that the United States was founded on "Christian" principles,as a "Christian" nation, by founders (men) who were themselves "Christians". This is partly a result of wishful thinking and the projection of personal values, hopes and beliefs upon history. It is largely because throughout American history what has been taught in American public schools is not so much "history",as "hagiography", biased history written to glorify, glamorize, and sanitize a country's history by a country's educational system. This tends to occur in all countries; hagiography. Human nature, if you will. The USA, a majorty Christian country, prefers to think of itself in Christian terms, believing that this is preferable. Perhaps it is (it isn't), although even this is a dubious assumption. It is, however, decidedly untrue. The United States was founded on scientific, politically "enlightend" Lockian principles, intended to be a country with strict separation of church and state, with religious freedom, tolerance, and diversity. A secular democratic republic. "The United States is no more a Christian nation than an Islamic nation", wrote John Adams in 1798. "The purpose of seperation of church and state is to keep from these shores forever the ceaseless strife which has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries" wrote Madison. The first amendment, perhaps written too vaguely and briefly, embodies, codifies this "wall of seperation" as Jefferson and Madison described it. Jefferson, in his letters, which he wrongly assumed would be destroyed rather than preserved as valuable historical documents, made his attitude about the Christian religion perfectly clear in private correspondence. He described it as "our modern superstition". Further,he wrote: "The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter". Perhaps the most fundamentel article of faith underpinning the Christian faith, torn to shreds by Thomas Jefferson, privately. His prediction has not yet come to pass widely in society, a fact which would possibly greatly surprise the scientific minded Jefferson, two hundred years after his death. But stay tuned. Science continues its inexorable march forward into the future, the wheels of reason and sense are turning, grinding ever on, and Christianity is losing its traditional iron grip upon the hearts and minds of American and indeed human civilization, albeit seemingly slowly. As for Jefferson, he himself was a confirmed "deist", embracing the ideal of God as a genius spirit creator above and beyond any human invented religion, who made the universe, and allows it to operate unimpeded, according to natural laws. Jefferson called himslef "a primitive Christian", meaning that he, like nearly everyone, embraced the wisdom and beauty embodied in the teachings of Jesus, but rejected the supernatural aspects of the faith, upon which the religion is so heavily predicated, as superstitious nonsense. He evenwent so far as to take a pair of scissors, and while president, cut the Holy Bible into confetti,and to reassemble it according to his own preferences, leaving out the superstition, leaving in the beauty and wisdom. The "Jefferson Bible" can be found in any good university library. "Deism: was the philosphy of the day among late eigtheenth century intellectualls, and Jefferson was one among many our America'a founers who embraced it. Deists, are among us today,cohabitating the Earth with the other approximately 4,200 superstition based religions with their various and sundry gods, along with atheists, agnostics, and assorted other spiritually oriented belief systems. God bless them all! Their very exstence is the tangible manifestation of the intentions of America's founders, and a lasting and fitting tribute to their genius, openmindedness, and brilliance.

Praying

I PRAY. Even though I am not religious, embrace no formal, organized religion, and in fact generally have contempt for all religion, I pray. Why? Maybe it works. In fact,it does work,demonstrably. Like religion itself, it gives comfort and inspiration, demonstrably positive, efficacious attributes. Someone noticed that famed scientist Neils Bohr had a horseshoe hanging on the wall of his office, pointing upward, an invitation to capture good luck. Asked why a solid, serious scientist would have this lucky talisman on full display, and whether Dr. Bohr truly believed in this superstition, the famed scientist replied: "Of course not, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't work". This perfectly matches my attitude about prayer. Whether or not it has any tangible benefit, it does for me, inspiration and comfort, so, I pray. The only thing I do when I pray is give thanks..to..whatever, whomever. I give thanks to what I call "God", and what Einstein called "the old eternal genius who built the world", and "the ancient one", and "the infinitely superior spirit which is revealed in what little we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality". The Spinozan diety of Einstein and me, gluing the universe together, giving comfort and inspiration. As far as I am concerned I have lived and do live a happy, fulfilling life, and I am immensely grateful to the universe which has made it all possible. As you might expect, many intense, serious studies have been done on prayer, by very well ecucated researchrs of all acaademic disciplines,from mathematicians, philosiphers, and poets, to sociologists, psychlogists, physicists, and neural scientists. Any human activity as profoundly fundamental to human existence cannot avoid sustained sctutiny for long. The main result, reached repeatedly, is that the chances of a prayer, any prayer, being answered in the affirmative are identical to the laws or random probability. Prayer is a roll of the dice. God, strictly obeying the laws of nature, of quantum mechanics. To me, that makes perfect sense. I never ask my God for anything, or very rearely do. (A tight Yankees baseball game late in the pennant race can arouse me to make a rare exception.) I reason thus: why ask God for something, for anything, or try to control or influence God's behavior? Does God not already know, long before my weak and meager prayer, exactly what I deserve, what I will and won't receive, what will happen to me, why, and what he himself will do? How can I possibly change any of that? I have never heard a good argument to the contrary. Famed atheist intellectual Christopher Hitchens made an interesting observation. He wrote: "The man who prays thinks God has arranged things incorrectly, but that he can instruct God how to put them right". My thoughts exactly. To me, the "Lord's prayer" is nothing other than an orchestrated way of giving orders to God (give us this day our daily bread,etc.) The ritual prayer begins with a sort of pandering supplication to the Almighty, and ends with orders and demands, from us, to Him. Maybe Jim Morrison said it best, when he screams in a song: "You cannot petition the lord!" Certainly,that doesn't stop us from trying. I'll keep praying, just to say thank you, and leave it at that, without asking for anything, without trying to change God's behavior, or giving any orders to God. For my part, its the best I can do, and the only thing that really works, at least for me.

Restocking Bump Stocks

AL CAPONE is back in town, or could be, very soon. Machine guns, which the six clueless conservative members of the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) refuse to call "machine guns" are now legal across America's fruited plain, except in the twelve reasonably enlightened states which ban them. Our potential salvation from more mass murders is the fact that this horrible ruling by the nation's highest, most deluded court does indeed not prevent all fifty nifty disunited states from eventually banning the awful devices, although it is, one must admit, very difficult to imagine this happening in the many states dominated by gun loving conservative second amendment extremists. This highlights once again our desperate need for a new and improved American constitution wth a new and better, more clearly written second amendment, one which does more than allow muzzle loading muskets to be owned by members of a militia only. In decision after dicision the SCOTUS, with no fewer than two probable sex offending and no fewer than one upside down American flag flying right wing ideologues attempting to impose a hateful far right agenda on America from the bench, continues to judicially, injudiciously so impose. When a bump stock, a fairly recent invention from some dude's Frankensteinian basement laboraotry, is in action, the trigger actually moves repeatedly and quite rapidly, alhtough without human assistance. In a machine gun, this does not happen,the trigger stays still while the bullets spew at a rate of nearly one thousand per minute. Bumpstocking sends the lead flying at very early the same rate, but that seemingly salient fact is of no importance to the six right wing reprobates who infest our nation's highest, seemingly most stoned court. To them, the trigger action is the thing. Not the firepower nor the rate at which bullets come streaming out of the gun barrel towards their intended hapless victims, but...the precise trigger action. A thin dubious distinction, to say the least. Utter, outright insanity, to say the most. Again, conservative SCOTUS lunacy, sheer and unadulterated. Only the three progressive justices had the sense and sanity to point out that if it walks and talks and shoots bullets like a duck, it is for all intents and purposes a bullet shooting duck. Even the entirely benighted Trump administration was able to scrape up enough temporary sanity to ban bump stocks. Go figure, as we say. With bated breath we await the response of the Republican Christ-like icon for president, Don the Con. Will he condmen the reversal of his policy, as he always does? Will he take the plunge,and support, for the first time ever,an override of something he did? Or will he, as he often oes when confronted with tricky circumsances, retreat to his exclusive fun house fantasy land, and babble incoherently about boats, batteries, bullets, windmills, and his own inability to understand wind? As we like to say: "stay tuned", if you can stand to. You might have to expose yourself to hordes of criminal gangsters at Trump mob rallies wearing obscene messages on T shirts to hear what the criminally insane former president has to say, if you can wait that long, which won't be long enough. Meanwhile, let the carnage begin.

Dispelling Nonsense With Science

GALILEO GALILEI invented the telescope, which he called his "optick tube" at about the ame time that Hans Lippershey invented it further north in the Netherlands. Another one of those Darwin-Wallace, Newtwon-Leibnitz situations. Simultaneous inventors, splitting credit. When its time for an idea to come to fruition, its time, it seems. The men who got most of the credit for evolutionary theory, for calculus, and for the telescope were the ones who talked the most about their respective inventions and discoveries, early and often. Publicity matters. "I betook myself to observations of the heavenly bodies, and beheld the moon as if it were scarce two semi diameters of the Earth distant", he famously wrote. He bragged a bit too, making damned sure that everybody knew that nobody before him had ever done what he was doing, which was, as far as we can determine, true. But as we all learn one way or another, when one talks too much, one usually gets into trouble. Galileo learned the hard way. Being in Italy, he was an easy stone's throw away target for the super dogmatic seventeenth century Catholic church, and they came down on him hard, for having the blasphemous audacity to assert that the Earth is not the center of the universe, and that, cogito, ergo sum, the Holy bible was, how dared he say, wrong. His trial and house arrest are, as we say, history, the rest of the story. Legend has it that as he walked out of his inquisistion, he uttered, not quite beneath his breath, "I still know what I saw". Maybe his extended stay at home was extended further for that departing wisecrack. That remains unclear. What is clear is that he was never given an opportunity to prove to all concrned that his tiny weak litle optick tube actually worked; noboody was willing to have a look through see, nobody wanted to have their eyes bewitched by some devil may care devil. What Galileo did actually write was: "I do not feel obligated to believe that the same God who endows us with sense, intellect, and reason has intended us to forego their use." And that, as they say, says it all. Like most profound remarks made by great people, this one holds up today, always, and forever. It shouldn't apply today. It should be outdated, a relic of a benighted past. But, alas, it isn't. Its continuing applicability is testament (no pun intended) to our continuing early twenty first century languishing in darkness, when an invitation to see the light of reality is staring us straight in our confused faces, glaringly. At the precise time, or well beyond the precise time in human history and advancement of knowledge when science and reason should have long since asserted themselves, taken hold in the human mind, and dispelled superstition and religious nonsensical dogma, alas, it has not. Far from it. Instead, relgious nonsensical doctrine and dogma and superstitious nonsense seem almost to hold the human heart and mind almost as captive as ever. Almost, but not quite, for verily, religion is releasing its iron grip on humanity and the human intellect, if only grudgingly, only painfully slowly. Like lava spreading and cooling as it flows outward from the volcano, the enlightening power of science is creeping ever slowely but still perceptably into our sleepy, slowly awakening minds. Lord willing and the creek don't rise, may the creep continue, unabated, with all due haste.

Doing the Crazy, On, and On...

I JUST COMPLETED a swing through Kanas City,of Count Basie fame, where I saw my beloved New York Yankees take three of four from a very good team,the Kansas City Royals. Only a blown save in the ninth of game four preventd a clean sweep. Its a tradition I've been maintaining for sixty years; hop up to K.C. to see the Bronx Bombers. Impresseive,what a good ball club three hundred million dollars will buy. Impresssive,and crazy, from my perspective. Next up on the crazy to do "bucket list" (I hate that much overused expression), the Rolling stones, in the Las Vegas of the Ozarks, Branson, Mmissouri. Impressive, what a billion dollars worth of eighty year old musicians can do to remove a few hundred dollars from the pockets of a senior citizen latter day hippie, or two. Musicians never retire. Frank Sinatra sang his way into his eighties, until the self described "saloon singer" finally met his match with vertigo and gravity by falling off a bar stool or two, while completely sober. Mick Jagger stays in shape by running in place before he hits the stage, staying away from drugs, and by never sitting down, on or off stage. How Keith Ricahrds gets it done is among the greatest mysteries of science and insanity in all of recorded, and unrecorded history. Maybe its the whole body blood transfusions in Switzerland, maybe the cigarette perpetually dangling from snarling lips while hitting his licks. Whatever, it works. There is no law against a famous musician padding hiw podket book and ego until he or she drops. Nor evidently, is there any law, even though there ought to be, against digging big hole in what should have remained a bucolic Ozark mountain hill side and filing it back in with concrete, steel,plastic,and bleachers for the adoring fans of strolling bones. But the question, as it always is when dealing with human affairs, aka capitalism and entertainment,is: where do we draw the line? Exactly what are our limits? How much fun can we possibly have, and survive the adrenalin rush to tell about it? How many bucolic hill sides, how many billions of dollars, how many eighty year old slowed but not stopped rock icons does it take to satiate our bottomless appetites for escape? When we reach the point where we all agreee, with fingers crosssed behind our broad butts, that the Stones are "better than ever", have we approached our limit of fantasy and denial? Speaking of fantasy, denial, and ancient old age, Donald J.Trump, yes, THAT Donald J.Trump, turns seventy eight today. Add politicains to the list of never say retire profesionals. We are thus given a choice between two fossils for the next president of these dis United States. The "winner" will govern for the next generation, which should be governing for itself. As Jefferson warned, we do not want to be governed by our ancestors. Or do we? Seemingly we do, just as we seemingly want to be entertained by them. We cling to our outdated constitution, we cling to our political leaders who should be long since put out to pasture, and we cling, tenaciously, to entertainers who are, quite bluntly,no longer in their prime, despite our fervant desires and pretenses to the contrary Nostalgia is over rated. We pay big bucks to see rock stars who barely exist in the present, who exist essentially in the past, in our fondest memories. Retirement, with dignity and grace, is vastly under rated. Why not give it a try, Mick, Keith, Donald, Joe, et al, et al, et al.....I did. It works great!

Defining Jazz

LOUIS ARMSTRONG said that if you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know. I decided to ask anyway, because I didn't know, and, in truth, still don't. I asked my father, who was a jazz lover and passable keyboard and drum man. What he said was: "American music". To me that seemed a bit,shall we say,vague. Louis Armstrong narrowed it down a bit, suggesting that jazz should be defined as "negro music". If we turn up the political correctness a bit, we get "African-American" music, and perhaps sastify both my father and Louis Armstrong, bless their swingin' hearts, may they rest in peace. One thing I do know about jazz,something that if my father and Louis Arstrong knew they had the restraint to never mention,is that the word "jazz" in its African language, maybe Swahili, means "to have sexual intercourse". A verb, as in, to get down and do the dirty thang. Namely,the "eff word". In sixth grade, I had the temertiy to suggest in music class that rock n roll was a form of jazz,and was immediately shot down by my very attractive young single music teacher, upon whom I had a crush, and who assured me that I was dead wrong. I thought I would soon be a little of both. I survived, good grade and all, perhaps because I played a mean trumpet in the grade school band. The hot young music teacher went on to mention Duke Ellington and Count Basie, and my curiosity was piqued by the fact that a couple of black guys could simultaneously reign as members of the European nobility and play boogie woogie at the Hammond keyboard. I got that misconception corrected too. Among African-Americans, a little grandioise nick naming helps dispell second class citizen status bestowed automatically by American racist society, the birthright of dark skin pigmentation. Louis, Count, and Duke never got together much, never performed together. They all three knew that each one individually took up all the air in the room. They each needed their space, their stage. They respected one another from a distance. Instead, they joined temporary forces with the likes of Sinatra, Benny Goodman, a vertiable who's who list of music celebrities. Sinatra hated racism, and hung out with Sammy D. But never together, these three incons of modern American African-American music, jazz culture, American culture. They changed America. Upper middle class ladies, whose only contact with black folks was at the country club where the ladies enjoyed clean toilets, and the very sight of black men would motivate the ladies to quickly cross to the other side of the street to avoid eye contact with those darkies, instead went home after brunch at the club, kicked off their high falutin' high heels, and put Louis, Duke, or Count on the vinyl hi fi, and shook it a bit, strictly in private, hubbies at the office. Louis wore his big heart on his sleeve, and smoked marijuana, which he called "gage", twice daily, until its criminalization in 1933 forced him to give it up; supposedly. Duke was all aristocrat,with a plethora of paranoid superstitions,and Count was all Kansas City, and addicted to gambling, which kept him perpetually broke, and working. Like most poweful men of their era, they married early and often, and had more affairs than marriages. They snuck in and out of back door kitchens to and from their concerts. Ten thousand honkies would file out, exhausted, and in the parking lot, a well dressed gentleman would hand Duke, Count, or Louis his car keys, expecting valet service. Colored restaurants, colored restrooms, colored drinking fountains, for all three. Precisely what did this marvelous trio do for America, to change America? President Eisenhower had no intention of sending the national guard to Little Rock, until Louuis Armstrong called him "gutless". Then,Ike sent in the troops. America fell in love with negro music, remains in love to this day, and always shall remain therein. The racism that has always plagued and characterized freedom's land has ameliorated somewhat, but not as much as we honkies like to pretend, like to think. What Count, Duke, and Louis did more than anything else, was to show us exactly how idiotic and unjustified our lingering racism is, by showing us how to make good music out of suffering. As if we need to be shown.

A Hollow Faith, Keeping Us In Line

CAN YOU IMAGINE a religious faith so hollow that its adherants staunchly, relentlessly struggle to force formal,organized prayer into America's public schools, despite the obvious unonstitutionality of it, while resisitng efforts by the governemnt to provide funding for free lunches for children of poor families? And, to make matters worse, all the while thinking that they are following the desires and intentions of Jesus? Imagination isn't needed. One only needs to examine the agenda of the Republican party, as promulgated by its most dominant base,the white evangelical Christian conservative community. Opposition to increased government funding for public school free lunch programs, support for the insidious insinuation of organized Christian prayer into civic, secular public schools. The form of Christian doctrine without the substance. Christian prayer, but nothing, no provision for prayer for any other religious tradition. To include prayer in public education is nothing than a form of Christian grooming, blatant Christian indoctrination, and clearly violates the sacred constitutional principle of seperation of church and state, as reinforced by the Surpreme Court ruling in 1962, which removed such prayer. Grooming, of the Christian kind, no less than gay or LGBTQ "grooming",(a form of grooming which is pure fiction, an invention of the sordid, salacious sexual suppression of the Christian conservative mind.) Another phenomenon demonstating conservative Christian hollowness and hypocrisy stands out. All across America's fruited plain, conservative Christians are falling all over themselves forcing "The Ten Commandments" onto the walls of public school classrooms, enacting legislation in conservatives states and communities to that effect. The same for courtrooms and other public places, such as on monoliths on the well groomed lawns of state Capitol buildings. Moses,not Jesus. However, you never about nor see the results of any attempt by this same community to place upon walls and monuments anything from the "Sermon On the Mount" or from the beatitudes, or from the other peaceful, beautiful teachings of Christ? The most direct, most profound, most seminal, most enduring, meaningful teachings of Jesus Christ himself, ommited from the public square and schools. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth?" Never seen, never heard. "Blessed are the peacemakers?" No way. Or what about" go thy way, and sell whatsoever thou hast, and give unto the poor?" Not in evidence. Never. The Lord's prayer is likewise missing. One can scarcely if at all imagine "forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who tresspass against us" engraved in stone or wood on the walls of American court houses, and,indeed, you don't see it there. Instead, you see the stark, authoritarian, harsh, negative Ten Commandments,compelling us in an ominous threatening manner, with threatening understones, keeping us in line, like sheep,rather than inspiring us as sentient, benevolent, loving human beings. But, of course, keeping us all in line, like passive sheep, is, after all, among the most important functions of highly structured, highly organized religion, is it not?

Hunting, Hounding Hunter Biden

HUNTER BIDEN IS A HERO, for one simple reason; he had a terrible, serious disease,a self inflicted disease, and he had the courage and integrity to stand up to it, fight it, and, apparently defeat it, although it is commonly believed within the medical community that one never totally conquers an addiction, one merely manages it and keeps it at bay, one hopes, for the rest of one's life. So it is with all drug addictions; alcohol, heroin, and caffeine. Anyone with a drug addiction is a medical patient,or potential should be medical patient, and shouldn't be regarded as a criminal, but rather, as a person with a serious medical problem, a disease. Perhaps the enlightened day will come when society as a whole realizes and understands this vital distinction. Biden was indeed guilty of attempting to purchase a firearm illegally, by lying about his drug addiction.The purchase of firearms should be closely regulated; allowing drug addicts to purchase them would be a serious mistake. What Hunter Biden deserves is probation, with community service,a prohibition against his ever again owning a firearm, and most important of all, sustained medical attention and drug treatment therapy. Prison time would be irrelevant,counter productive, harmful to society, in that a potentially productive reformed citizen would be prohibited from being productive, and instead would be consigend to unproductive incarceraton at public expense. Hunter Biden at this point is perfectly positioned to become an exellent counselor against drug use and addiction; if anybody knows about the perils and pitfalls and roads to recovery, from drug addiction, surely it is he. Former criminals, reformed criminals, make the best criminal counselors. What Hunter Biden and his father, President Joe Biden will instead receive, are already receiving from America's reprehensible conservative evangelical Christian Trump supporting community, is ridicule, condemnation, sanctimonious lecturing. What he should recieve from these alleged but fake Christians is admiration and congratulations, support, well wishes and help, but they are utterly incapable of rendering these things,utterly incapable of compassion, understanding, and forgiveness,the very virtues they so falsely, hypocritically espouse. This,all because the victim of a terrible disease and poor judgment is the son of their hated enemy, president Biden. One can imagine the total difference in their reaction if the victim, for instance, happened to be a child of their criminal felonious icon cult leader,Donald J.Trump. In that case, they would doubtless ignore the situation, and accuse the media of attacking Trump through his diseased child, even if the media downplayed the situation, just as it has magnified and constantly talked about Hunter Biden's difficulties. Accusations would be made that Trummp was under attack, that the drug abuse and addiction was being misrepresented,and that the poor unfortunate child of Trump was being abused by an uncaring biased media and by hateful liberal Democrats. The justice system is rigged against Trump, but effective in dealing with Hunter Biden. Whereas Hunter Biden is taking responsibility for his behavior, and his father is refusing to pardon him, Trump denies all his criminality, and his supporters cry foul, while Trump promises revenge on the justice system, and promises to pardon himself if he can. A stark difference indeed. Just like almost every public affair in America is being distorted, abused, lied about and used for perceived political advantage by the far right extremist community, no matter what the circumstance, never underestimate the ability of conservative evangelical Trump supporters to find the best way of injecting their vile hateful ideology into every possible situation.

Inventing the Bad Ass Jesus

PEOPLE WHO PAY ATTENTION to recent trends in American culture, especially policical trends, can not help but notice that the white evangelical community has come to play an outsized role in American culture and politics. This, despite its relatively small numbers: less than twenty percent of the general population self identifies as "white evangelical Christian", and the number is decreasing. And yet this is precisely the demographic which is widely given credit for spearheading Donald Trump's political career,for electing him to the presidency. The accuarcy of this assessment is revealed by the fact that more than eighty percent of the white evangelical community supported Trump in 2016, and the same percentage still supports him, despite everything. A fascinating new study: "Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted A Faith and Fractured A Nation" provides a much needed, sweeping revisionist overview of the white evangelical movement over the last seventy five years, and explains much about the phenomenon, politically, culturally, religiously. Kristin Kobes Du Mez, the author, is a profesor of history at Calvin University, and a renowned scholar of modern American religious and cultural history, who has written mainly about women's issues for the Washingtion Post, as well as various Christian publications. She dispells the commonly held notion that white evangelicals support Trump out of any "practical" considerations, and instead posits the notion that their support is predicated primarily upon the reality that indeed Trump is the very embodiment of their most deeply held ideals and aspirations. The Jesus of the New Testament gospels has been cast to the side, and a new, more virulent, more masculine version has taken his place. Contemporary popular American culture is central in shaping the reformed image of Jesus. The new and improved all American Jesus Christ, tough guy bad ass conquering warrior for God,virtue,purity,and the bad ass American way. Christian movies, books, merchandise, and music play a vital part in the promulgation the new image as virule, masculine, featuring a patriarchal family framework, ardently opposed to the LGBTQ community, suspicious of movements such as "Me Too", and "Black Lives Matter", and strongly opposed to immigration into the United Stats by brown and black skinned people which, according to Donald Trump, are "poisoning the blood" of America from, as he put it, coming from "shit hole" countries. Conservative Christian icons such as Ronald Reagan, Mel Gibson, the "Duck Dynasty" clan, stand at the forefront of the conservative Christian culture, with the duke hiself, Marion Morris, aka John Wayne, taking center stage. The author ties all this together, clearly showing how the new born again bad ass Jesus has corrupted and divided the Christian faith in America along ideological lines, and has similarly fractured the entire nation, primarily politically,along similar lines. The Republican party has bought in, and has become the white conservative Christian party, epitomized by Trump, its icon con in chief. It is now an organization which would be utterly unrecognizable to Billy Graham and Barry Goldwater, and indeed to Ronald Reagan himself. Lord willing and the creek don't rise, there will come a time, not soon emough, when it and the movement it embodies are utterly unrecognizable, indeed unkown, to the American people.

Christianity, Waging War

NOT ONLY IS THERE NO "WAR" against Christianity being waged by imiginary satanic liberal secular conspiratorial forces in these United States of Animosity, there is in fact precisely the opposite; a war being waged by Christianity against secular civic society, against science, and against all the other approximately seven hundred and fifty organized religions in the U.S.A. It is a war which has reared its ugly head on several occasions throughout American history, most notably in the 1740s and 1840s, the first and second great religious revivals. Then down the gauntlet was thrown again, around 1980, when the "moral majority", which was famously neither,rose up like a cobra preparing to strike, and smote secular America, science, and common sense. None of these protractd wars waged by the forces of the diabolical biblical god have been successful in accomplishing their objectives; the conversion of the USA into a monolithic Christian nation, with a dominant Christian culture,the precise opposite type of country intended by its founders, as the founders themselves clearly indicated. The current assault on modernity will succeed no better than the other two, thank God. With each forthcoming generation, Christianity is less pupular, as science ad reality start to sink in. Within the next generation the percentage of Americans who self identify as "religious" will have sunk to below fifty percent. By the end of this century, this sinkage will have been complete, the anachronistic Christian monster will lie dormant a the bottom of teh trash bin of history just as surely as the Titanic lies forever still and silent at the bottom of the cold North Sea. The prime promulgators of the current attack of faith over reason are themselves listing, damaged,sinking ships, rudderless, senseless, constrained to anger, violence, and weird symbols which they carry into battle at venues like teh insurrection at the Captiol on January 6, 2021. Their leadershp is corrupt, criminal,and criminally insane, like swarming summer flies maddenedd by the summer heat. They have sealed their doom by selecting the greatest criminally insane criminal leader possible; Donald J; Trump, of multiple felony fame, the instigator of a failed revolution against the United States, stemming from his bizarre, failed attempt to steal the presidency and take over the country violently. Whether or not Trump becomes president in 2025, and installs the Christian natinalist terrorists in power, the whole sordid edifice will crumble, the ship will sink, only somewhat slower. The Speaker of the House flies an American flag upside down, like Supreme Court Justice Alito, in open support of Trump's criminal insurrection. In conservative states, misguided Christian zealots are forcing into law legislation stealing money from public education to fund Christian indoctrination in private schools. Trump,laughably, sells bibles with the American flag and his own craven graven image upon the brown leather cover. The signs are alarming as well as laughable, and, on the surface, seem to indicate a groundswell of impending success. But the structure is hollow, eaten out from within, opposed and hated by the saner American majority. It will inevitably sink and rot on the ocean bottom, while America and the world move on, into a brighter,saner,scientific future, relegating this bizzare episode of religious fanatasicm to where it properly belongs, forgotten. insanity and fanaticism to where it properly belongs,forgotten.

Being Petty, Floating Dung Across the Border, Mooning

NORTH KOREA generously made a contribution to South Korea's recycling and fertilization programs recently. Generously, thoughtfully, the isolated rogue "republic" sent more than one thousand large balloons floating southward over its arch enemy brother nation, all filled with garbage of sundry sorts, and manure. Considering the dire economic circumstances in which the communist nation has been mired for decades, it is a wonder that they can afford to turn lose of its trash and bullshit so freely, "gifting" its sworn ideological enemy with enough recyclable material and fertilizer to nourish acres of farm land, and enough metals and plastic to recycle into fine finished,consumer products to sell on the open capitalistic market... The rigid attitudes concerning the evils of personal proprrty and profit seeking no doubt precluded the rigid share and share alike ideologues from factoring this into the equation. Maybe they'll rethink the situation,and demand their bullshit and trash be returned, under threat of nuclear holocaust. Perhaps if they fire a few missiles into the sea of Japan, the point will be made; we want our bullshit back! No less petty,and every bit as vengeful and imbued with the spirit of payback instant karma, the free market south returned the favor by turning up the sound on its rock concert caliber sound amplification system, and intensified its program of shouting pro profit propaganda into the winds out of the south, trying to convince, as always, the poor impoverished baby starving communists just exactly how wealthy everyone is down south, and just exactly how the miscreant misguided commies might convert, atone, and catch up, by joining the material wealth, freedom, liberty, and corporate hegemmony party. A better idea might be to alternate between Barry Manilow albums and maybe a bit of Iron Maiden or Syd Vicious and the Sex Pistols, just to give the commies a taste of the other side of the coin, to let them know that whereas the free market and Adam Smith corporate capitalism is indeed and remains forever the answer,it does, alas have a few rough edges. An ounce of truth mixed in with capitalistic propaganda never hurt anybody,and makes the company line a bit more believable. The broader question concerns human nature, and the rest of us. Fondly I recall my childhood in the nineteen sixties, an my preoccupation with current events and the news. I recall that during a particularly tense diplomatic period between the Soviet Union (Russia) and Mao Tse Tung's China, (the two were enemies in those days) Russian and Chinese troops amassed along the two superpower's common border, and, refraining from firing actual shots, instead showing their true feelings, maturity and moral charachter by one and all pulling down their pants, turning their backs on the enemy,and "mooning" each other. I was ten or eleven at the time, and my mind raced. Ever the precocious kid, several thoughts occurred to me. Among them: is that the way adults behave? Is this the world into which I am growing up? Is this what mother means when she gets into one of her moods, and accuses somebody of "showing their ass"? Well, sixty years later, I am not sure whether I have improved upon the conclusions I arrived at in the mid nineteen sixties. Some things you learn well enough in childhood to last a lifetime, and require no augmentation. And, in any event, I am reasonably, indeed entirely convinced that I knew the answers to these salient inuiries no later than within a few mintues after the Russian and Chinene soldiers pulled down their pants and blew farts at each other across the troubled border, so very long ago.

The Preventing Of Religious Indoctrination as Punishment

RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION occurs when one is prevented, by law or threat of violence or other forms of retribution, from expressing one's own religious beliefs, of from freely practicing one's own religion, not whan one is prevented, by law, social circumstances, or other forms of retribution, from imposing one's religious beliefs on others, contray to the preferences of others. Nothing, no thought or concept more relevant concerning the state of religious culture in the United States, and perhaps around the world, has ever been articulated. Over the last few decades, especially in the late twentieth century and on up until the present day, we have been told, again and again, to the point of redundant exhaustion,that there is an ongoing "war" against the Christian religion in these United States of Animosity. And of coruse, this is a complete lie, a clever but not sufficiently clever appeal to the elite preferred status of victimhood, a status so often sought by those unable to impose their personal agendas upon society and the culture, entirely because of the expressed preferences of both. It is a lie no less insidiously perfidious and pernicious than the even more oft promulgated lie that there is but one true religious faith, and that that faith is the Christian faith. In the late nineteen seventies and early nineteen eighties the great late twentieth century born again moral majority Christian upsurge revival begins, and spreads like cancer or crab grass through American culture. Like previous such urgent upsurges in religion in the mid eighteenth and mid nineteenth centuries in the United States, this one surges, spreads, and boils, but, mercifully, at length, cools and subsides, and all is well again. But debris remains, lies scattered in heaps across the darkened landscape...Time passes,and new generations are born into the great American fun house, generations more able than ever to avoid religious indoctrination of the sort so sadly, so unfairly imposed upon all previous generations. The generation X, the millennials are lsss indoctrinated, less religious by brainwashing than any of those who have gone before, notably the infamous "baby boomers". By the time the third millennium was a decade old, the percentage of Americans who self identified as "Christian" had plummeted dramatically, to the point where it was approaching fifty percent, and declining. The decline continues, as western civilization secularizes, amid the irresistably compelling influence of proven, empirical science, and the reality it reveals, which is entirely contrary to all religious dogma. Thus began the panic among the religious zealot community, and the appeal to victimhood, and the false claim that there exists a "war" on Christianity, escalating in intensity, as ever larger throngs of disenchanted formerly Christian votaries streamed out of the churches all across America's fruited plain. And this is where matters now stand. As it becomes increasingly difficult for zealous religious fanatics to impose their beliefs on others by shoving them down the throats of their victims, all the more virulently and pathetically the religious fascists cry foul. Contrary to their absured lies, there is no war on Christianity, there are no impediments to Christians freely expressing their misguided beliefs. There never has been. There is in reality an encroaching age of reason, in which we the people are breaking free from forced religious indoctrination, casting off the chains of dogmatic religious fascism, and breathing with joy the fresh pure air of freedom from said indoctrination. The frsh air feels good, and those who have long imposed their vile doctrines upon us with impunity, but can no longer so easily do so, have chosen to dwell in the comfortable fantasy that it is they who are the victims, rather than the newly disempowered tyrants that they actually are.