Michael Brown was murdered by a racist cop. In defense of the cops actions it was pointed out that Michael Brown was involved in a robbery where he stole a cigar worth less than 5 bucks. This was supposed to make us understand how dangerous Michael was and urge us to sympathize with his killer. He was obviously a thug.
Jameis Winston is a football player at FSU. He stole crab legs, valued by some as around 80$, from a Publix in Tallahassee while leading the Seminoles to a possible (at the time) BCS Championship game appearance. FSU people (from maybe the most racist state in the country) urged us to have sympathy for the kid. They decried those wanting a suspension as over reacting to a minor infraction.
The "You wanna ruin this kids life over an 80$ mistake???" cry from the FSU faithful was deafening. Winston had already been charged with a sexual assault prior to this incident, but he was a Heisman candidate bringing in millions to the good ole boys in the Florida panhandle.
Learn to throw a tight spiral little black boys.
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Friday, August 8, 2014
I'll Definitely Need a Shower
Continuing on my non economics posts I do something I never thought Id do; read an Ann Coulter column and find MUCH to agree with! I try to avoid reading Ann since she rarely does real analysis. She simply peruses a situation, finds the inevitable easy target of her ire, snarkily points out to us how this situation was only caused because the world inhabited by the subject has become too liberal and thus was completely avoidable with the right ideology. You are encouraged to have zero empathy for the left wing poisoned rube, just contempt or at best exasperation. "That idiot should have known!!" is the unstated opinion. Throw in a little godless "evil" and you have the Ann Coulter recipe for a critique column.
I decided to read her because while at work last night (I can blame it on the fatigue we health care workers feel from time to time near the end of a long call) a coworker brought up Ebola and suggested to all that we read Anns take on the issue. Knowing how this guy rolls and Anns modus operandi I initially thought "Yeah right! That will be the LAST person I read on this" but my curiosity got the best of me. I read the column this morning.
I can honestly say that Ann and I were very close to having similar views on a couple things. That either makes her more intelligent than I thought ........ or myself much dumber, likely the latter. I think the focus of her criticism is valid, I just think she blames the wrong things for it.
I want to reprint her column and interject my comments where I think she goes off the rails. My comments will be in bold;
EBOLA DOC'S CONDITION DOWNGRADED TO IDIOTIC
"I wonder how the Ebola doctor feels now that his humanitarian trip has cost a Christian charity much more than any services he rendered.
What was the point?
There's little danger of an Ebola plague breaking loose from the treatment of these two Americans at the Emory University Hospital. But why do we have to deal with this at all?
Why did Dr. Brantly have to go to Africa? The very first "risk factor" listed by the Mayo Clinic for Ebola -- an incurable disease with a 90 percent fatality rate -- is: "Travel to Africa."
Can't anyone serve Christ in America anymore?
If he had provided health care for the uninsured editors, writers, videographers and pundits in Gotham and managed to open one set of eyes, he would have done more good than marinating himself in medieval diseases of the Third World.
I have to finish with a disagreement and agreement They are not aces at sacrifice. Most American Christians are sacrificing nothing. They are hands down THE wealthiest demographic on the planet.... and I am part of them. We think we are sacrificing when we pay our taxes and bitch about the guy in the trailer "having some skin in the game". His entire body is in the game. We put a toe or an elbow and claim we have given up everything
But yes we should very annoyed at Christian narcissism........ look in the mirror Ann and you'll find some.
I decided to read her because while at work last night (I can blame it on the fatigue we health care workers feel from time to time near the end of a long call) a coworker brought up Ebola and suggested to all that we read Anns take on the issue. Knowing how this guy rolls and Anns modus operandi I initially thought "Yeah right! That will be the LAST person I read on this" but my curiosity got the best of me. I read the column this morning.
I can honestly say that Ann and I were very close to having similar views on a couple things. That either makes her more intelligent than I thought ........ or myself much dumber, likely the latter. I think the focus of her criticism is valid, I just think she blames the wrong things for it.
I want to reprint her column and interject my comments where I think she goes off the rails. My comments will be in bold;
EBOLA DOC'S CONDITION DOWNGRADED TO IDIOTIC
"I wonder how the Ebola doctor feels now that his humanitarian trip has cost a Christian charity much more than any services he rendered.
What was the point?
Whatever good Dr. Kent Brantly did in Liberia has now been overwhelmed by the more than $2 million already paid by the Christian charities Samaritan's Purse and SIM USA just to fly him and his nurse home in separate Gulfstream jets, specially equipped with medical tents, and to care for them at one of America's premier hospitals. (This trip may be the first real-world demonstration of the economics of Obamacare.)
So you start off by trying to make the guy feel guilty for doing something his "faith" is telling him is the right thing to do. Thing is its not just HIS faith. The overwhelming majority of people think that physicians going to third world countries in efforts to improve living conditions with very simple acts (we aren't talking about doing complicated heart or brain surgery) is one of THE most selfless and honorable things to do. The ONLY way you can reduce it to some absurdity is by bringing in some financial cost element, which was incomplete btw because you made no attempt to put a number to what his efforts may have been worth. Of course there is no way to value the work those people do which is why we don't have private funding of it, they can't figure their "profit margins". So just rattle off a number with 6 zeros after it and declare it an automatic loss. And a mention of Obamacare within the first 100 words!! Good job Brownie! Hook em early and and get the cheap laughs Ann!
There's little danger of an Ebola plague breaking loose from the treatment of these two Americans at the Emory University Hospital. But why do we have to deal with this at all?
Why did Dr. Brantly have to go to Africa? The very first "risk factor" listed by the Mayo Clinic for Ebola -- an incurable disease with a 90 percent fatality rate -- is: "Travel to Africa."
Can't anyone serve Christ in America anymore?
These are actually all valid points. Thank you for at least not buying into the hysteria of an Ebola plague outbreak. As a member of a Baptist church that does international missions (as well as local) I think we send way too many rosy cheeked and pollyannaish people off to these foreign lands with little clue how much danger we are sending them to. As someone who has been to a couple places and been around a missional church I have a different take as to the source of this trend though.
Within Southern Baptist faith you have the SBC (conservative) and CBF (less conservative).
The churches have money (and our tax laws really encourage church goers to give.... not bad in and of itself) and like to spend it on big things like trips to Africa, India, Romania.....
The youth get all amped up and its a working vacation/summer trip complete with T shirts and local missions are secondary, they do not have the wow factor. The SBC has a huge international presence and much of its work is in simply trying to find converts. The international poor are less savvy than the American poor so they can be rounded up, have huge revivals where many get converted and the trip is a success. Its hard to do that here, because 1) many of our needy are already part of a church and don't want to hear your conversion speech or 2) they were part of a church and now reject religion (especially from privileged white kids) for good reason
No -- because we're doing just fine. America, the most powerful, influential nation on Earth, is merely in a pitched battle for its soul.
About 15,000 people are murdered in the U.S. every year. More than 38,000 die of drug overdoses, half of them from prescription drugs. More than 40 percent of babies are born out of wedlock. Despite the runaway success of "midnight basketball," a healthy chunk of those children go on to murder other children, rape grandmothers, bury little girls alive -- and then eat a sandwich. A power-mad president has thrown approximately 10 percent of all Americans off their health insurance -- the rest of you to come! All our elite cultural institutions laugh at virginity and celebrate promiscuity.
So no, there's nothing for a Christian to do here.
No -- because we're doing just fine. America, the most powerful, influential nation on Earth, is merely in a pitched battle for its soul.
About 15,000 people are murdered in the U.S. every year. More than 38,000 die of drug overdoses, half of them from prescription drugs. More than 40 percent of babies are born out of wedlock. Despite the runaway success of "midnight basketball," a healthy chunk of those children go on to murder other children, rape grandmothers, bury little girls alive -- and then eat a sandwich. A power-mad president has thrown approximately 10 percent of all Americans off their health insurance -- the rest of you to come! All our elite cultural institutions laugh at virginity and celebrate promiscuity.
So no, there's nothing for a Christian to do here.
Wrong! There is plenty to do.... they just don't want to do it since its not as sexy and being a true ambassador for Christ is really hard work. You don't get the converts every day. You don't get to chalk up a win every time you go to meet some recently homeless person where they are, instead of where you would like them to be. See, modern conservative Christians are capitalists in mindset and its killing Christs work. They make the investments in Africa, Asia East Europe where there aren't many Christians and can offer a little something for two weeks to these people, get them to say "Yes, I take Jesus Christ as my lord and savior" and leave, feeling like they got big returns on their investment. Here, they go to a place where the needy are and they might get slapped if they try and get them to recite something as they get their favor, so they don't make the investment. The only return they seek is a pledge by a desperate person. Of course American poor aren't as desperate as those other places (which really chaps the ass of Coulterites) thanks to many of our New Deal and Great Society programs.
If Dr. Brantly had practiced at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles and turned one single Hollywood power-broker to Christ, he would have done more good for the entire world than anything he could accomplish in a century spent in Liberia. Ebola kills only the body; the virus of spiritual bankruptcy and moral decadence spread by so many Hollywood movies infects the world.
If Dr. Brantly had practiced at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles and turned one single Hollywood power-broker to Christ, he would have done more good for the entire world than anything he could accomplish in a century spent in Liberia. Ebola kills only the body; the virus of spiritual bankruptcy and moral decadence spread by so many Hollywood movies infects the world.
If he had provided health care for the uninsured editors, writers, videographers and pundits in Gotham and managed to open one set of eyes, he would have done more good than marinating himself in medieval diseases of the Third World.
Ahhhh, so its the rich that need conversion!! On this I would heartily agree Ann but remember who is the party of the rich. Its not just Hollywood that needs saving, banks, energy company CEOs and health insurance behemoths could use a dose of Christ as well. I wonder why you don't include any of them?
And.... Im curious Ann, what good is converting a power broker form Hollywood to Christ? Is it so they will produce more movies like "God is Not Dead" that use the absolute worst traits of various atheists and roll them into one villain "professor" at a liberal university.
BTW, what is a medieval disease and why is it less worthy of study than some modern one like human induced MRSA or VRE?
Of course, if Brantly had evangelized in New York City or Los Angeles, The New York Times would get upset and accuse him of anti-Semitism, until he swore -- as the pope did -- that you don't have to be a Christian to go to heaven. Evangelize in Liberia, and the Times' Nicholas Kristof will be totally impressed.
Which explains why American Christians go on "mission trips" to disease-ridden cesspools. They're tired of fighting the culture war in the U.S., tired of being called homophobes, racists, sexists and bigots. So they slink off to Third World countries, away from American culture to do good works, forgetting that the first rule of life on a riverbank is that any good that one attempts downstream is quickly overtaken by what happens upstream.
Actually Ann your "explanation" is pretty pathetic. How can conservative Christians be tired of fighting a culture war THEY invented!? Its not the left that makes these issues a ballot initiative. If your tired of being called racist, homophobic, bigoted and sexist maybe you could clue your guys into trying to actually talk about something other than how to deport millions of immigrants, how to keep women from using contraception, that gay is a communicable disease and the "unAmericanism" of the president. We all know the code Ann.... just saying unAmerican doesn't change what is driving you nuts..... taking orders from a black guy!
America is the most consequential nation on Earth, and in desperate need of God at the moment. If America falls, it will be a thousand years of darkness for the entire planet.
Not only that, but it's our country. Your country is like your family. We're supposed to take care of our own first. The same Bible that commands us to "go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel" also says: "For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, 'You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.'"
Of course, if Brantly had evangelized in New York City or Los Angeles, The New York Times would get upset and accuse him of anti-Semitism, until he swore -- as the pope did -- that you don't have to be a Christian to go to heaven. Evangelize in Liberia, and the Times' Nicholas Kristof will be totally impressed.
Which explains why American Christians go on "mission trips" to disease-ridden cesspools. They're tired of fighting the culture war in the U.S., tired of being called homophobes, racists, sexists and bigots. So they slink off to Third World countries, away from American culture to do good works, forgetting that the first rule of life on a riverbank is that any good that one attempts downstream is quickly overtaken by what happens upstream.
Actually Ann your "explanation" is pretty pathetic. How can conservative Christians be tired of fighting a culture war THEY invented!? Its not the left that makes these issues a ballot initiative. If your tired of being called racist, homophobic, bigoted and sexist maybe you could clue your guys into trying to actually talk about something other than how to deport millions of immigrants, how to keep women from using contraception, that gay is a communicable disease and the "unAmericanism" of the president. We all know the code Ann.... just saying unAmerican doesn't change what is driving you nuts..... taking orders from a black guy!
America is the most consequential nation on Earth, and in desperate need of God at the moment. If America falls, it will be a thousand years of darkness for the entire planet.
Not only that, but it's our country. Your country is like your family. We're supposed to take care of our own first. The same Bible that commands us to "go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel" also says: "For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, 'You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.'"
To your last sentence Ill just add ... "Only if they admit to Christ as their lord and savior"
Right there in Texas, near where Dr. Brantly left his wife and children to fly to Liberia and get Ebola, is one of the poorest counties in the nation, Zavala County -- where he wouldn't have risked making his wife a widow and his children fatherless.
But serving the needy in some deadbeat town in Texas wouldn't have been "heroic." We wouldn't hear all the superlatives about Dr. Brantly's "unusual drive to help the less fortunate" or his membership in the "Gold Humanism Honor Society." Leaving his family behind in Texas to help the poor 6,000 miles away -- that's the ticket.
Right there in Texas, near where Dr. Brantly left his wife and children to fly to Liberia and get Ebola, is one of the poorest counties in the nation, Zavala County -- where he wouldn't have risked making his wife a widow and his children fatherless.
But serving the needy in some deadbeat town in Texas wouldn't have been "heroic." We wouldn't hear all the superlatives about Dr. Brantly's "unusual drive to help the less fortunate" or his membership in the "Gold Humanism Honor Society." Leaving his family behind in Texas to help the poor 6,000 miles away -- that's the ticket.
You are right, I made a similar point earlier. Glad we can agree.
Today's Christians are aces at sacrifice, amazing at serving others, but strangely timid for people who have been given eternal life. They need to buck up, serve their own country, and remind themselves every day of Christ's words: "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you."
There may be no reason for panic about the Ebola doctor, but there is reason for annoyance at Christian narcissism.
Today's Christians are aces at sacrifice, amazing at serving others, but strangely timid for people who have been given eternal life. They need to buck up, serve their own country, and remind themselves every day of Christ's words: "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you."
There may be no reason for panic about the Ebola doctor, but there is reason for annoyance at Christian narcissism.
I have to finish with a disagreement and agreement They are not aces at sacrifice. Most American Christians are sacrificing nothing. They are hands down THE wealthiest demographic on the planet.... and I am part of them. We think we are sacrificing when we pay our taxes and bitch about the guy in the trailer "having some skin in the game". His entire body is in the game. We put a toe or an elbow and claim we have given up everything
But yes we should very annoyed at Christian narcissism........ look in the mirror Ann and you'll find some.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Something Besides Economics?
Having been preoccupied with economics and monetary matters for the better part of four years now, I am going to post on something I actually intended to say a lot about when I first imagined my blog....... religion. My interest in religion is mostly in how bad a job most religion does in actually helping people with their big questions in life.
Religion has become just another sports team for people to blindly support and defend. Few actually think about what any of their "sacred" texts say and how they may have been edited over the years to say what they say. The assumptions of all religions are that their baseline facts are the right ones to start with, not the other guys'. Religions all operate with a "model" in mind and their recommendations follow from there. As I finish these first two paragraphs I am struck by how I could just as easily substitute the word economics or economists for religion and not have to change any other words. Its all a belief system and Ive grown weary of economists and HOW they go about defending their belief systems. They are not seeking truth, they just want to win. Many Pastors and Priests are the same way.
In an Alternet article, http://www.alternet.org/belief/how-non-believers-can-counter-annoying-religious-dogma-life-without-god-meaningless, the author makes a very interesting statement;
"I don't have a sacred text, or beliefs that I wish to place beyond challenge or mockery. None of my positions are beyond argument. I will change them, if persuaded. My dislike of dogma and my respect (as opposed to "respect") for rational debate doesn't make me weak. Indeed, I hold that the very contingency of my positions are at the core of their ethical force. If you can't point to a line in a book, or the dictates of a religious hierarchy to justify your opinions, then you have to own them yourself. You are fully responsible, and that is, in its own way, as radical and disruptive as submitting to the will of the divine."
The part about owning your own statements and not hiding them behind some line in a text word of some dead "authority" is an important one I think. I hear too many "Christians" say and do reprehensible things and then try and dismiss themselves from responsibility by saying "Its not me saying this, its Revelations 2:16 5-9" As if to add, "... just take it up with that dead author if you don't like it."
I cannot call myself atheist, I am more of a comfortable agnostic. I have no wish to be certain one way or the other. I know there will be no proof either way in my lifetime.... or ever. "Proof" comes from humans....... fallible humans, so we will never prove or disprove a God. I like having these questions to ask, I just despise the way most people want to actually discuss their answers. I will be happy moving in many directions on this issue as my life unfolds. When I see most of the staged debates between atheists and Christians however, I do find myself siding with the atheists most of the time. I just think too many Christians, humans for that matter, are really uncomfortable with uncertainty and end making all kinds of ridiculous systems to convince themselves there is something that they can be certain about that isn't death or taxes.
I know and have met some of the best people around at my church or surrounding church activities. There are many religiously motivated authors or speakers I get great joy in reading or hearing. Religion has motivated many people to do outstanding things but as an institution I think religion is a negative force. It is not uniting people it is reinforcing divisions.
Wow, I guess I did end up talking about economics after all.
Religion has become just another sports team for people to blindly support and defend. Few actually think about what any of their "sacred" texts say and how they may have been edited over the years to say what they say. The assumptions of all religions are that their baseline facts are the right ones to start with, not the other guys'. Religions all operate with a "model" in mind and their recommendations follow from there. As I finish these first two paragraphs I am struck by how I could just as easily substitute the word economics or economists for religion and not have to change any other words. Its all a belief system and Ive grown weary of economists and HOW they go about defending their belief systems. They are not seeking truth, they just want to win. Many Pastors and Priests are the same way.
In an Alternet article, http://www.alternet.org/belief/how-non-believers-can-counter-annoying-religious-dogma-life-without-god-meaningless, the author makes a very interesting statement;
"I don't have a sacred text, or beliefs that I wish to place beyond challenge or mockery. None of my positions are beyond argument. I will change them, if persuaded. My dislike of dogma and my respect (as opposed to "respect") for rational debate doesn't make me weak. Indeed, I hold that the very contingency of my positions are at the core of their ethical force. If you can't point to a line in a book, or the dictates of a religious hierarchy to justify your opinions, then you have to own them yourself. You are fully responsible, and that is, in its own way, as radical and disruptive as submitting to the will of the divine."
The part about owning your own statements and not hiding them behind some line in a text word of some dead "authority" is an important one I think. I hear too many "Christians" say and do reprehensible things and then try and dismiss themselves from responsibility by saying "Its not me saying this, its Revelations 2:16 5-9" As if to add, "... just take it up with that dead author if you don't like it."
I cannot call myself atheist, I am more of a comfortable agnostic. I have no wish to be certain one way or the other. I know there will be no proof either way in my lifetime.... or ever. "Proof" comes from humans....... fallible humans, so we will never prove or disprove a God. I like having these questions to ask, I just despise the way most people want to actually discuss their answers. I will be happy moving in many directions on this issue as my life unfolds. When I see most of the staged debates between atheists and Christians however, I do find myself siding with the atheists most of the time. I just think too many Christians, humans for that matter, are really uncomfortable with uncertainty and end making all kinds of ridiculous systems to convince themselves there is something that they can be certain about that isn't death or taxes.
I know and have met some of the best people around at my church or surrounding church activities. There are many religiously motivated authors or speakers I get great joy in reading or hearing. Religion has motivated many people to do outstanding things but as an institution I think religion is a negative force. It is not uniting people it is reinforcing divisions.
Wow, I guess I did end up talking about economics after all.
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