Tag: All

From an early age we are all taught the pledge of allegiance: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all”. It’s unfortunate that at that early age we are also not taught that some in our society can afford to have more justice than the rest of us. In fact, I guess some could truly buy a Justice.

In the 2010 decision of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the 5-4 ruling by the Supreme Court took the position that campaign contributions are “free speech” and the legal entities known as corporations have rights guaranteed to them under the First Amendment.

In writing the majority opinion, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy declared, “If the First Amendment has any force it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.” Note that twice in that sentence Justice Kennedy used the word citizen. Merriam-Webster defines citizen as: “an inhabitant of a city or town; especially : one entitled to the rights and privileges of a freeman.” So we could conclude that Justice Kennedy was referring to an association of inhabitants in the phrase “associations of citizens”, not the legal entity know as corporations.

I’ve always been taught that for privileges there must be responsibilities. Some of the responsibilities of being a citizen are: obeying the laws, paying taxes, serving jury duty, serve as a witness, register for the draft and to vote. One could argue that voting is both a responsibility and a privilege, and I think most people the world over would think it’s a privilege. In a representative democracy, voting is how we elect the leaders who will watch out for the people’s interests and put the citizens’ interests above all other considerations.

When comparing how a corporation measures up to being a citizen using the responsibilities outlined above, what comparisons can be made?
1. Obeying the laws: While corporations are not setup to specifically break laws, they are setup to take advantage of a different set of laws, and in all cases these laws provide limited liability to the formers of the corporation.
2. Paying taxes: Avoiding taxes is a primary motivator for forming a corporation.
3. Serving jury duty: Have you ever seen a corporation or its representative in a jury pool?
4. Serve as a witness: see number 3.
5. Register for the draft: While multi-national corporations have required that our children go to war to “protect our vital interests abroad”, you’ll never see a corporation or CEO in basic training.
6. To vote: If you count pouring tons of money into campaigns of favorable politicians as voting, then yes. But then you would have the corporation exercising the highest privilege without any of the responsibilities.

Separating money from the election process is probably the most democratic action we could take as a nation. What if the elections were public funded? What if each candidate had a set budget that couldn’t be exceeded? What if each candidate had to gain an increase to their base the old fashion way, by knocking on doors? What if members of Congress didn’t spend 50 percent of their time raising money and instead did the people’s business? What if the election season began September 1 of the election year and ended October 31st? I know I for one would be happier seeing less ads.

This election cycle is supposed to have generated 14 billion dollars in campaign spending. What if public financing reduced that to 1 billion, divided equally to the parties based off of registration? The party with the most registered voters gets the most money. Want more money? Go convince voters that your message is better. Very simple.

I remember a time when rich kids bought their way out of service with a doctor’s note. Now the Supreme Court has given monied interests the ability to avoid all of the responsibilities of citizenship while using their influence to determine the outcome of elections. We as citizens know that the “founders” did not intend this perversion of the Declaration of Independence.

There’s an old saying, “if you lie down with dogs, you’re going to get up with fleas”. Maybe term limits for Justices of the Supreme Court is the answer. It would certainly lessen their exposure to the dogs. More importantly, it will make them more acutely aware that soon they’ll be walking again among the people who expect justice for all.

The weather continues to improve as we recover from a windstorm that left millions without power for days. As we shivered in the dark I reflected on the role of government in preemptively mitigating “disasters”, like burying power lines underground. I also reflected on the inability/desire of government to provide services real time to folks with special needs.

The Republican/No Government Is The Best Government party have come up with a great concept for governing. Pay me to do nothing. Send me to the Capitol and I promise I won’t do anything but cash my check. Now in the Mitch McConnell era, we see that if anybody else tries to do something, he’ll make sure it doesn’t get done. What a fiasco for governing. 

I began wondering where did this line of thinking come from? When did Republicans turn the corner from folks like Teddy Roosevelt and Eisenhower to our current nut jobs?

Turns out, there’s a documentary that parallels the timing of the schism, and the documentary includes one of the major players. The documentary is “Best of Enemies“, and it details the debates between William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal prior to the 1968 elections. William F. Buckley was the founder and editor of the National Review magazine, and from his podium he espoused the ideas that only the elite, of which he was one, should have any say.

In his mind, Buckley thought he was in favor of democracy, he just didn’t see how letting every one having an equal say was good for the country. Buckley also was not in favor of “big government”, and he despised programs that benefited the general population. He was a smart guy, well educated, and spoke with a patrician, condescending tone that I’m sure was cultivated to make him appear to be all knowing.

Condemned by his own words, I’ll give you a Buckley quote on integration in the South and the struggle we were having: “The central question that emerges—and it is not a parliamentary question or a question that is answered by merely consulting a catalog of the rights of American citizens, born Equal—is whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not predominate numerically? The sobering answer is Yes—the White community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race.”  

Ok, so now we know how the elite feel about preserving their place in a Democracy. Speaking for the common man is Gore Vidal.

Vidal is equally educated and extremely erudite. The fact that Vidal can claim more “roots” in the elitist area of society than his nemesis, Buckley, gives rise to the idea that Vidal came to liberalism as an intellectual process. Vidal was also a prolific writer. He wrote a great many histories of American figures, as well as eye opening fiction.

While he was a progressive, and ran for office as a Democrat, he was very realistic about the American political system, as he asserts here, “There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party . . . and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt – until recently . . . and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties.”

Not exactly a yellow dog Democrat, but still well left of where Buckley operated.

The classic debates between Buckley and Vidal were hosted by ABC and are studies in intellectual mayhem. If either contestant had been capable of exploding his opponent’s brain by power of thought, they would have done it. The fact that the debates ended in Buckley calling Vidal a “queer” and threatening physical violence, points out the intensity of the feelings between them. It also points out the winner of the debates. “When you lose your temper, you’ve lost the argument”, as the old saying goes.

For an immediate increase in IQ, and an insight in to how Buckley convinced politicians, starting with Reagan, that government was the problem, not the solution, check out “The Best of Enemies“. You might have to watch it twice to catch it all. Having a dictionary close at hand is a good idea too.

What will life be like after the election? News agencies, comedians, journalists, bloggers, et. al, will have to find something other than report on what the Donald said or did that day. I hope, I pray. Please dear Lord.

It’s hard to attribute the quote “any publicity is good publicity”, but the Donald is busily disproving it. Oscar Wilde said, “There is only one thing worse than being talked about and that is NOT being talked about.”  I’m pretty sure that the Donald has lived his life believing the sentiments behind the quote.

The general public is now confronted with news that the Donald raped a woman, defamed her when confronted with the accusation and then decided to have the American taxpayer pay for his defense. The judge has just ruled that the Donald was not acting in his presidential capacity when he slandered the woman and that the case should go ahead. I wonder if the defense “she’s not my type” will stand up to the DNA evidence provided by the victim.

Like the Access Hollywood video tape, it is the “seeing is believing”, that allows the viewer an insight into the deepest and darkest Donald. The tape reveals the Donald’s attempts to woo a married woman while he himself was married. The admission of attempted adultery is almost as shocking as finding out that “if you’re a star”, you don’t have to shake hands with women, you can be much, much more intimate on your first encounter. Things are very very different in Trump World.

“Nobody respects women more than I do”, “No one has done more for black people than I have“, hyperbole, hyperbole, hyperbole. After four years of the exhausting exaggeration of his “accomplishments” and the minimizing of his failures (225,000 dead due to the mishandling of the Covid19 virus), the Donald expects the American people to continue to follow along like lemmings. The Donald and his surrogates are hitting the campaign trail hard clarifying to the public that what the Donald meant to say was not what he said and that what he did was someone else’s fault. Just give him 4, 8, 12 more years, he promises to get it right.

As exhausting as the Donald is for us, can you imagine how he is perceived by the rest of the world? Can you imagine negotiating a peace treaty with the Donald? When the Donald says “ceasefire” he really meant to say “thermonuclear war”. It would certainly be hard for the Donald’s surrogates to clear that one up. How can anyone ignore the difference between what comes out of the Donald’s mouth and what he supposedly was thinking? When did Aphasia/dementia become a qualification for being President?

Since many of the Donald’s most ardent supporters are of the evangelical bent, I’d like to relay a scenario that I feel very closely defines the Donald’s current situation. Two Corinthians walk into a bar, the first looks at the second and says, “Do you remember Matthew 26:52: ‘Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword’?”

Demanding that every thought birthed in the brain of the Donald has the right to be shared with the world via Twitter has the equal balance that every foul up, screw up, misdeed also has to be shared. Those that live by the sword shall die by the sword as it says in the scripture.

I’m looking forward to a president that doesn’t see the Ten Commandments as a “things to do” list. Vote early!

Once upon a time there was a movie about an under size Catholic boy who wanted nothing more than to fulfill his dream of playing football for Notre Dame. Though he lacked the size, the athletic prowess and even the grades, he pursued his goal with dogged determination. Finally in the last game of his college career, he is allowed to play in a game because his teammates want to honor his sacrifice and bravery in achieving his goal. That was the movie Rudy, hard working, determined, ethical and self sacrificing. Then there’s Rudy Giuliani.

Much like Gollum of Lord of the Rings fame, Rudy Giuliani slinks onto our television screen hissing his profound love and admiration for his “precious”, Donald Trump. It makes one want to Windex the TV screen after Giuliani finishes his interview. The slime coming through the airwaves is that thick. I’ve yet to figure out a way to “unhear” his vitriol.

In Giuliani’s most recent round of TV fame, he is caught on tape by that great imposter Borat attempting to “tuck in his shirt”. Giuliani is seen in the film clip lying on his back in bed with his hand clearly in his pants. The occasion for this inappropriate behavior is his belief that he is being interviewed by a fifteen year old. I expect he will trot out the line “we are all sinners” that he used to excuse the Donald’s tape that revealed to the world the Donald’s profound “respect” for women. Looks like Giuliani has the same level of respect for women as the Donald and Jeffrey Epstein.

Giuliani is three times married, though a “practicing” Catholic. At one point in his first marriage he even had his wife and mistress living in the same house. I guess that was to show his fiscal responsibility to his new Republican mentors. Of course the fact that his first marriage was to his second cousin could have been a shout out to the Donald’s most loyal followers.

Giuliani started out as a Democrat, but migrated to becoming a Republican as the power shifted in Washington. Ever the toady, ever currying favor, even his own mother denounced his ideological shift, “He only became a Republican after he began to get all these jobs from them. He’s definitely not a conservative Republican. He thinks he is, but he isn’t. He still feels very sorry for the poor.” Of course Giuliani might be lying to his Mamma too.

Marketing himself as “America’s Mayor” and never failing to drag 9-11 into the conversation, Giuliani has attempted to run unsuccessfully for assorted offices, including the Presidency. There are reams of information detailing Giuliani’s failures with regard to 9-11 and its cleanup. Let’s just say he wasn’t on the side of the first responders or the victims.

Now we come to the point in Giuliani’s career where he has become chief apologist/explainer double naught spy for the Donald. I can only assume that the post of Attorney General (after Billy Barr has been dismissed) has been promised to Rudy for the continual wading through the septic tank of the Donald’s life.

While enduring yet another explanation from Giuliani of why he and the Donald should be forgiven for their trespasses; why we should ignore the Donald’s and Rudy’s words and try to divine what they were actually thinking, or God forbid, what the Donald or Rudy felt in their hearts? I am continually baffled by the Trumpinista’s ability to overlook the explicit sexism promoted by the Trump camp. It seems that all middle age white men should be forgiven their transgressions, even sexual assault. It’s God’s plan, right?

At a time when crazy QAnon cannibalistic pedophile rings are being promoted amongst the Trump camp, why are these followers ignoring all of the smoke coming from the Trump camp? Trump, Epstein, Rudy? More importantly, Trump has had four years and the full weight of America’s might to crush this fantasy ring, what’s caused the delay? Too busy curing Covid?

Again, I am at a loss as to why the media is not forcing the Trump campaign more aggressively on the issue. Certainly the Giuliani piece of the puzzle poses a big enough target for the talking heads to attack without having to confront the Donald directly.

Maybe like the movie Rudy, the media admires Giuliani’s plucky spirit too much to discuss his shortcomings. /s

This will be over soon, and with luck it will be at least four more years before Giuliani slithers out from under his rock and hits the airwaves again. I am hopeful that it will be more like 10-20 years.

Eleven more days to go.

As I observed Stone Mountain the other day in all of its controversial glory, it led me to muse on other things made of granite. I’m thinking about some of the legislators in this great land of ours. The question becomes should I apply the granite analogy to their hearts, or their heads, being made of stone? I think I’ll go with both.

I’ve just finished reading a book, “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson. The book is about the criminal justice system here in the Land of the Free.

“Just Mercy” details Mr. Stevenson’s work for the last few decades in trying to acquire justice for the disadvantaged, specifically folks on death row. Mr. Stevenson’s conclusion of what we should be doing as a people is right up front in the title. If we, and our elected representatives had a policy of applying just one of “The Beatitudes” in our justice system, we wouldn’t find our selves in this god-awful mess. “The Beatitude” that I’m speaking of is, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy”. In the country that has the most people incarcerated of anywhere on Earth, if we can’t be merciful with everyone, can we at least be merciful with our children?

I don’t know where the cart got off the track with juvenile offenders in this country, but we seem to be unique in the world in declaring children as adults to receive punishment. It says a lot about us as a society when we deny children the privileges afforded those who have gained majority, but we punish them like they are adults. I’m talking about privileges like driving, drinking, marrying, voting, making a will, bringing suit, making a contract, keeping their medical history private. It seems like if we can sentence a child to life in prison, or worse yet, death, that they should at least be able to vote against the SOBs making the law.

It took a Supreme Court ruling in 2005 to prevent children who committed their crime while under the age of eighteen from being put to death. At the time of the decision there were 71 people convicted for crimes they committed as children sitting on death row awaiting execution. Prior to the Supreme Court’s decision in 2005, children who had committed crimes as young as 10, have been put to death. As proof of our collective bloodlust and need to extract vengeance, between 1976 and 2005, 22 people have been put to death for crimes that they committed while they were under the age of majority.

If the irony is lost on you that a child that lacks the necessary reasoning skills to be able to join our armed forces without their parents consent, can be judged as competent when the state wants to punish them, I just don’t know what to say. There are a multitude of factors that have played into our descent into this abyss, race being the dominant factor. It seems that “all white” juries have no problem writing off a black life in the interest of expediency. Since January of 2000, there have been nine executions of offenders who were children at the time of their crime. Six of the nine executed were black. It’s hard to explain a 66% execution rate for a group of people who comprise about 13% of the population.

I know that most people would like to conveniently say, “they wouldn’t have been there if they hadn’t done something”. I’m not advocating that those who commit crimes shouldn’t be punished. I’m saying that our punishment should be merciful. Particularly when we are punishing the most fragile members of our society, our children and our mentally challenged. I mean, good God, we already offer every leniency for Wall Street criminals, seems like we could extend those practices a little further out into the mainstream.

“Just Mercy”, read it or watch the movie version on HBO. It will break your heart, and enrage you.

The Vice Presidential debates were last night, and yes, I watched the whole thing. I particularly enjoy the wrap-up show with Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace and Joy Reid. It’s good for me to see if their jaws dropped at the same things that caused me to go slack jaw.

Kamala Harris had been given the opportunity to show her qualifications for being president, if the occasion ever arose, and she did a great job. Mike Pence, the whitest white man in America, was given the role of deflector in chief, and he did a superb job.

Listening to the talking heads, and reading some reviews in blogs, it appears that most pundits want to give high points to Pence for his calm demeanor. Some did point out that Pence was so calm that the fly stuck to his head never left. What’s up with that?

As a former high school debater, I don’t recall calm demeanor being one of the points we were scored on. Since my memory fades, I did look up the things judges look for in a debate and found this list: 

• Factual accuracy.

• Assertions are not arguments.

• Impact.

• Reasonableness.

• Actually address your opponent’s points.

• Don’t go over time.

Ok, we can ignore going over time because these are professional politicians, not well disciplined school children, but the rest of the points should still apply. I don’t see calm demeanor listed, not even “looks presidential”, or, “I wish he was our candidate”.

For ninety minutes Mike Pence attempted to defend Donald Trump’s racist, xenophobic, misogynistic failed policies. Explaining away 210,000 dead Americans due to their non-policy Covid response with “it could have been worse”, just doesn’t get it. It was almost like Pence was deaf, but you knew he wasn’t because he answered the moderator’s questions with attacks on Biden, not Trump solutions.

If the debates were designed for us to get to know the candidates better personally, I think they succeeded. I think we saw Kamala Harris’s humor, humanity and sense of fairness. Particularly when they discussed Rowe vs. Wade. Kamala was adamant that a woman’s right to choose what happened to her body was up to that woman individually. Kamala explained in detail to the audience that it is an overreach by the government to allow the party in charge to dictate to women whether or not they should give birth.

When asked the same question about the proposed justice tipping the scales in the Supreme Court to overturning Roe vs. Wade, Pence delivered a rambling monologue on Trump’s greatest hits. While governor of Indiana Pence signed into law legislation that imposed restrictions on a woman’s ability to seek an abortion, including in cases where the child would be born with a disability. He also signed into law a provision allowing businesses the right to refuse service to gays, on religious grounds. His record speaks for itself, it should be exposed more by the media.

We could talk for hours about the constant bullying, lying, discourtesy, and lack of being willing to be held to account for their failed policies, but that’s really the media’s job right? The fact that Pence wasn’t experiencing a ‘Roid rage like Trump during his debate should not be applauded.

I hope to God that the media gets over the idea that slapping lipstick on a pig makes the pig more attractive. This is a race that doesn’t need to be close, not if we are who we say we are. This country has children locked in cages, food banks running out of food, depression level unemployment and a good portion of our citizens concerned with immediate foreclosure or eviction. Is there any reason to try to make a horse race of this election?

There is the argument that if the Donald gets a second term the media’s job will be greatly simplified. They’ll just read the news supplied by the ministry of information. No need for reporters, analysts, fact checkers, heck, probably won’t even need multiple networks. I pray that the media realize they have a stake in this election too, and soon. Please don’t fail the American public like you did last time.

There are so many times in this election cycle that it feels like we have stepped through the looking glass, and that normal actions and reactions don’t occur.

One such event occurred recently when Attorney General William Barr decided to take a New York libel case against the Donald away from the Donald’s personal lawyers and handed it to Federal attorneys to defend.

The New York Times writes:

“The White House asked the Justice Department to replace President Trump’s private lawyers to defend against a woman’s accusations that he defamed her last year in denying her claim that he sexually assaulted her a quarter-century ago, Attorney General William P. Barr said on Wednesday. “The Justice Department’s intervention in the lawsuit means that taxpayer money will be used to defend the president, and it threatens the continued viability of the case of the plaintiff, the author E. Jean Carroll.”

If you haven’t been following the case, Ms. Carroll wrote about being raped by Donald Trump in an article in The Cut. I’ll leave the gory details for the reader to suss out. As with the twenty, thirty, forty other rape allegations against the Donald, the Donald denied the charge. In fact, Trump issued a statement saying that Carroll was “trying to sell a new book – that should indicate her motivation. It should be sold in the fiction section.”

The Donald further added, “Ms. Carroll & New York Magazine: No pictures? No surveillance? No video? No reports? No sales attendants around?? I would like to thank Bergdorf Goodman for confirming they have no video footage of any such incident, because it never happened.” 

One would hope that his years spent as an Attorney General for G. H. W. Bush would have given Billy boy some sense of the Attorney General’s role in giving the appearance of fair, equal justice to the American people. Of course suggesting to “Poppy” that he should pardon all of the Iran-Contra criminals so they would not be inclined to testify against Poppy might have been a sign.

After firing Jeff Sessions the Donald didn’t have to look too hard to find his Roy Cohn, as evil a human being as ever walked. Apparently Billy Barr sent a letter to the Donald, along with constant appearances on Faux News to audition for the gig. Imagine the Donald’s joy at finding a previously Senate approved A.G. with a proven record of sidetracking justice, who was pleading for the honor to be the Donald’s fixer.

One would think rape and sexual abuse would fit under a different category in Billy Boy’s brain though. Good old boy connections, and seeing that the “right” people are not inconvenienced too much by the laws imposed on the populace is his strong suit. What would make Billy boy jump lanes to defend the Donald in something as innocuous as another rape allegation? Turns out there is DNA in this case and Ms. Carroll has preserved the garment that allegedly contains the Donald’s seed.

The case had proceeded in state court to the point where the judge had compelled the Donald to give a DNA sample for comparison. I know we are all asking ourselves how the sample was collected if the Donald wasn’t caught on video tape doing whatever it was that he was doing. Particularly if the Donald declared that Ms. Carroll “wasn’t his type”.

Up jumps Billy Barr to the rescue. He has now taken the burden off of the Donald for his legal fees and can insure that the Donald will receive the justice that is entitled under the unitary executive theory. Think about this for a second. We, the American taxpayers, are paying for the defense of our President’s rape charges.

As a feminist, I have long wondered how long the defenders of the Donald would allow the Donald to hold their genitalia before calling foul. Who knows, maybe Billy boy would feel honored by the attention from a “star”. Maybe Barr would perceive the interchange as just one more time he would have to prostitute himself to be able to sit at the table of power.

I tend to think that the “alpha male” gene would take over pretty quickly and Barr would extricate himself from the Donald’s grasp. Otherwise someone might accuse Billy boy of being, God forbid, a homosexual.

It’s hard work being a toady.

I’m sure that there are pockets of people throughout our great land who are drooling over the performance of Donald Trump last night in the debate.

When I use the phrase drooling, it is not in a complimentary way. It is meant literally that the people who still support the Donald after last night’s display have to have lost all control of their bodily functions. I would presume that their mental capabilities had been destroyed long ago, or they would not have been Trump supporters in the first place.

To still support the Donald after last night conjures images from the movie “Bedlam”. Like the insane people committed to the asylum, the Donald continues to rage on despite having anything coherent to say. The inability to control his actions or to maintain any degree of civility also speaks loudly of his mental state.

He is like the crazed bull in the pasture, just waiting for his next opportunity to charge. It is not hard to imagine that the Donald would call in his Proud Boys to destroy ballot boxes or voting machines to “correct” the vote count. To the Donald, cheating is as instinctive as the bull swatting at a fly with his tail. Like the bull in the china shop, the Donald lacks the awareness, the intellect to find a way out of a tight situation until he has destroyed everything around him.

While the audience waited for Biden to have a “senior moment”, fall asleep, or fall off of the stage, Biden performed like the statesman he is. Although Biden did throw in a few pejoratives, “clown”,”liar”, “racist”, he did a remarkable job of not being baited into a spitting match with the Donald. Personally I was ready to result to fisticuffs in the first five minutes. In my primordial mind there’s a limited amount of civility and courtesy that must be shown before the Hulk comes out. Thankfully Biden is a more evolved species than I.

What did we learn from this debacle? The Donald is a man in ill health. Debate can rage as to whether his physical health or mental health is in greater decline, but there is no question he doesn’t look good. Tooting up a load of Jr’s Peruvian Marching Powder before coming on stage probably didn’t help his self control issues. Maybe it was just the Adderall that insiders say he chews like Tic Tacs. Either way, “completely out of control” is not a good look on a sitting president.

We learned that Joe Biden will not launch the nuclear arsenal the first time some leader calls him a name, or even insults his family. Some might call that weak (see second paragraph) but I prefer a leader that considers my family before committing to a policy. I also prefer a leader that tells me how he will raise the country up together, not just his personal fortunes.

The choice is very clearly defined. Four more years of going from bad to worse or the rebuilding of our democracy. Four more years of tension and chaos or four years of healing. Four more years of destroying the foundations of government or the strengthening of all of the institutions we depend on, education, health care, unbiased courts and voting.

The most repeated quote from John F. Kennedy is, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” The most important thing we can do for our country now is to vote. Find a way, make a plan, go in person if the absentee ballot fails you. Stand in line and stare down the Proud Boys sent to deny you your rights. Future generations will not forgive you if you don’t.

The first debate is in the books, and the Donald is a LOSER, bigly.

Fall has always been my favorite time of year. The weather plays a part, but football is the main reason I can’t wait for the turning of the leaves. I guess I better qualify my statement, I mean college football. I’ve lost my taste for the pros; being a Falcons fan will do that to you. The current ownership of the Falcons has left me following the Patriots, which I know is weird. I do follow my Georgia Bulldogs. I’m happy that there’s a Bulldog on the Patriots now so I can justify my interest. I’d hate to be thought of as one of those guys who just picks the best team as his favorite.

It is funny that what was once an obsession for me from the 60’s through 2000’s has become a “passing interest”. I can say that the avarice shown in this time of Covid 19 has turned me off, but that’s not the only thing.

The obsession for new stadiums by the team owners has left me cold. The idea that you could take a twenty year old building and blow it up to salve the ego of a rich guy, seems so wrong  to me. It just seems to me that you could have a cage match with Jerry Jones and Arthur Blank to determine the “greatest owner”, or whatever they want the title to be, and leave the public out of it. Taking tax funds that should go to rebuilding our cities’ infrastructures and padding the NFL owner’s coffers with them is so wrong. Only one franchise, Green Bay, has managed to keep their team out of the hands of a self interested individual. Go Pack!

The NFL is a massive industry, spending billions of dollars to capture the interest of what they hope will someday be a world wide market. Games are now being played in Europe to try to get a foothold for a worldwide viewership. Is there a chance that the NFL could be cannibalized like back in the old days of the AFL, or the USFL, to establish a European Football League? Not bloody likely, as the Brits say.

Soccer, or “football” as they call it in the rest of the world, is the dominant sport for billions worldwide. Soccer fans are passionate beyond belief, and they are everywhere. Drop a soccer ball in Timbuktu or Shangri La and the kids will know what to do with it. Most importantly, all of them will participate, not just the biggest and fastest.

Bigger and faster is what will bring about the end of football as we know it. Profits over player safety has always been the rule. Anyone who has ever been told to “shake it off” knows what I mean. The long term effects of two bodies colliding at thirty miles an hour will bring about the end of college football. Once the college farm system has been curtailed, the NFL will become arena football with a World Wide Wrestling vibe.

Why am I predicting such a dour outcome for America’s favorite sport? The average lifespan of an NFL player is 58. Think about that. The average lifespan of your everyday couch potato is 76, but he will outlive the finely tuned NFL athlete by 18 years. Seems atypical, doesn’t it? Hundreds of miles run, millions of pounds lifted, gallons of sweat poured out pursuing your passion and dead before you can collect Social Security.

Obviously changing the rules is in order, and in fact, is ongoing. What’s not clear is if we will go from football to rugby, or eventually soccer? Football without the violent impacts is rugby, so maybe that’s the answer for those of us who are not baseball fans.

I don’t look forward to life without college football, but I do see the day coming. I won’t miss the Falcons one bit.

A lot of life’s biggest decisions are narrowed down for us. Take religion for example. As much as every zealot would like to scream in your face that they are serving the one true religion, ordained by the only, one true God, their choice of beliefs was narrowed by geography.

The map below, located on the PBS LearningMedia page, shows very clearly how the colors/religions are clumped together. Studying a world map of religions broken down by geographic area confirms that religion is pretty much a function of who got there first.

Judaism, the original religion, doesn’t show up on the map until you pinpoint Israel. Why has the world’s oldest religion not fared better in terms of growth and popularity? Well, you have to be born into that club, and to their credit, they don’t hold membership drives or send out missionaries. Judaism is a very exclusive club that is selective in its membership.

Looking at the map allows one to speculate that if the Crusades had gone the other way, and the Muslims had defeated the Christians, the map would look very different. One can’t help but wonder if there could have been a singular point in a battle that swayed the war and the course of religious history. Was there some small unnoticed event that resulted in changing the temperament of the world for generations? Something arcane like in the poem by Benjamin Franklin?

Would the Muslim conquered European countries of the 1500s have sent explorers to look for New Worlds to conquer and proselytize? If so, would the Muslim explorers have felt the need to decimate the native peoples and their religions like the descendants of the Christian Europeans did? One wonders.

It’s kind of interesting that the Asian countries have heard the pitch from the Muslims and the Christians and seem to be happy to remain Buddhists and Hindus. Christianity and Islam have made inroads, but the religion of choice remains the one that got there first. Hinduism is believed to have started in India around 5500 BCE. Buddhism started spreading from what is modern day Pakistan about 300 BCE. Both are still the dominant religion in their area.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that nearly 72% of Americans live in or close to the city where they grew up. 65% of the population in the U.S. identifies as Christian. Based on the fact that the majority of people continue to live in their hometowns, it’s likely that a follower is not only a Christian but a member of the same church their parents attended. If you were brought up in the Full Gospel Original Church of God, it’s likely that you’re still a member.

I appreciate the fact that with most people religion is baked in. What I don’t appreciate is the idea that someone presumes their experience is unique and that their message demands to be heard. A person’s inner dialogue, with whatever power they believe in, is personal. Because I don’t believe what you believe doesn’t mean I didn’t hear your message.

I heard it, I just rejected it.