LET ME TELL YOU . . .

I remain a Christian, because I don't know a better, more reasonable, or more convincing way, and because I believe I have been given the grace to see some truth here that might otherwise look crazy on some levels. And pissed off as I often am these days by the pharisaical self-righteousness of atheist fundamentalists, I have to say I detect in some of them a rage against the God they claim not to believe in.

But I can tell you I share this rage. I can give you the theologically correct line that God is perfect and without sin (and I believe this) but I am still angry at Him. I have been having some very persistent problems lately, and they are not even that bad compared to what a lot of people have. I am deeply frustrated.

So what gives? Why does God let the world remained fucked up? Why are we still waiting for the Second Coming? No one really has an answer to this do they?

Fuck it all. Fuck it all. What can you trust God for? What if you ask for bread and get a scorpion? I suppose you just keep waiting. the idea seems to be that you are not to put God to the test. Whatever.

I don't think I would ever be capable of becoming an atheist. But I could very bitterly turn against God.

And does He love us UNCONDITIONALLY or not? And of what does this love consist? What do we GET from it (and I do not care if that sounds mercenary)? And can we therefor give up worrying about the afterlife?

When your life is fucked up, is this God's punishment? Judgement? Is it your cross to bear as Jesus bore his, and can you feel you are serving God in your suffering? Is there honour in your suffering?

I hate this life. I truly hate it. I am not at all sucidal, nor without hope. But sometimes I hate this world and want to shit all over it.

HAVE YOU HEARD OF TONY CAMPOLO?

I did years ago, but didn't pay a lot of attention. Well, recently I've been checking out a lot of YouTubes featuring him. I don't agree with everything he says, but I agree with a lot. I like his solid, loving, earthy Christianity. This is a man who is both compassionate and no-nonsense. Actually, he even reminds me a little of Don Rickles. Check out this Youtube of him talking about consumer culture. Though he doesn't mention the Occupy movement here, I think what he says here is eminently relevant to it. You may think it odd that a self-described pornographer and cultural bolshevik such as myself would admire an Evangelical and self-described "conservative," but there are a lot of strange overlappings in the world that people miss.

And this is one reason why I have grown to hate that climate one sees on the net that pits religious people against secular ones and sees one party as all good and the other as all evil (or idiotic). But that's another story.

U.S. WEALTH DISTRIBUTION

For more such charts, graphs, etc. on U.S. wealth and income distribution, see BUSINESS INSIDER.


http://www.businessinsider.com/new-charts-about-inequality-2011-11?op=1

ON ALL THE MARK SCHATZGERS OF THE WORLD

Forgive me, those opposed to OWS, for being so vulgar as to have to make a rather obvious point. I'll get to it in a moment.

Now, every society has at least one or two very stupid ideas that even otherwise intelligent people often believe, for whatever reason. In earlier days it may have been the divine right theory of kings, or that people couldn't handle any measure of democracy, or that one race had a right to own another.

In our present age, we entertain some very stupid ideas about rich people. In other ages people were stupid about priests or aristocrats, but ours is stupid about the capitalist bourgeoisie.

Now you may have heard about the recent flap over Governor Rick Perry of Texas mistaking a fictional satirical character ("Jeremy, 38") for an actual Occupy protestor in Toronto. Jeremy is a creation of anti-Occupy satirist Mark Schatzger, and here is what Schatzger (via Jeremy) had to say:

“It’s weird protesting on Bay Street. You get there at 9 a.m. and the rich bankers who you want to hurl insults at and change their worldview have been at work for two hours already. And then when it's time to go, they're still there. I guess that's why they call them the one per cent. I mean, who wants to work those kinds of hours? That's the power of greed.” – Jeremy, 38

Now you can see what Schatzger is getting at. It's designed to play on those old deeply anchored puppet strings of guilt and shame those of us who are not millionaires have woven into us from an early age. Not that we are ashamed of not being millionaires, necessarily, but we are deeply ashamed to question (wait for it . . .) their right to all that money.

That's right. You don't question what a millionaire did for his money -- whether he actually earned it or not. But of course, the reason why we are so programmed into not asking such a question is very real: the truth about the rich is very embarrassing to them -- so embarrassing that many of them, even, do not want to know it about themselves. They have some very tenacious delusions about themselves, that is for sure. And their egos defend these delusions with the ferocity of a drowning man whose life preserver is being stolen.

Oh the righteousness of the indignant ego! Oh the beleaguered rights and reputations of bankers!

Never underestimate just how much of the mumbo-jumbo people are fooled and intimidated into accepting is just sheer bluff. It's really quite astonishing. An even half way honest person will every day of her life feel like the little child in the famous "Emperor's New Clothes" fairytale who can see the Emperor is indeed naked. Will she have the self-confidence, the moxie to say, "dude, your dick is flapping in the breeze. Put some fucking clothes on." Or will she cower and not trust her own eyes and assume the Emperor (or Mark Schatzger, or the class he toadies to) really is wearing something, despite the evidence of her own eyes?


In Canada, the top 1% owns about one third of the property. It's even worse in the U.S. Now tell me, you defenders of the rich, please, and this brings me to the vulgar and obvious point I started saying I simply must make: show me your evidence that 1% of Canada does approximately one third of all the work. Does this enquiry not simply flatten all claims to the "justice" of the 1% owning so much? They would not only have to be the hardest working people in the country, they would have to outstrip the average Canadian many, MANY times in industriousness.

Ah, but I'm sure there is some rationalization. But we don't hear it so much, do we, because the challenge to the "right" of the rich to so much wealth is so seldom made in the first place.

Until now.

BTW: How did Mark Schatzger get his job? Did he put in long hours? Take big risks? Well, whatever he DID do, I can tell you what he DIDN'T do once he got that job: think. It is possible, for all I know, that Mark Schatzger busted his ass to get his job, but one thing is for sure: he doesn't bust his ass doing it.

THE DAYS OF THEIR POWER ARE NUMBERED

I AM GETTING ANGRY

Okay, I started writing this post a couple of days ago and had to stop because I thought I might to too far.

So now I've cooled down a little.

But I am still pissed off about the increasing strong-arm tactics used by the police. Check this out with regard to recent activity in Denver, but you can find more easily enough.

I wonder what is going on in the hearts of these cops. Is it some inner, tragic conflict between following orders and being human, or is this all in a day's work for them?

Maybe they should try to put being men and women before being instruments of the corporate owned state. They have a duty to take from us the temptation to see them as things, as subhumans, as objects without souls.

Or is it possible that that is the strategy?

MILITARY BRAVERY

As a person who has taken a great interest in military history over the years, I have noticed that a multitude of sins will be forgiven a soldier -- even one who willingly fights for an evil cause -- as long as he fights bravely.

But bravery, of itself, it nothing. It's what you do with it and why that counts.