Seriously. I've been thinking about this a lot lately.
I saw a car today with a "bumper" sticker oddly placed in the center of their back windshield that said "Don't blame me… I didn't vote for socialism" with an Obama "O" in socialism. First off, old dude - you're an idiot. Obama is a capitalist, just like you. Second off, so what? Who cares WHO you voted for? Trust me - those of us with a socialist bent who voted for Obama aren't jumping for joy with him right now either. (You know… those of us who were called "fucking retards" by Rahm Emmanuel.)
I would love to see a socialist takeover of health care to the extent that every man, woman and child in America has good, basic heath services. Personally, I think that the private insurance companies would do fine with people who would like MORE than basic health services. Especially if they wised up and started covering things like plastic surgery and Viagra.
But I'd like to go a step further… I'd like to see the government take a hand in housing as well. I think that it's pathetic that the richest nation on earth… a place that would seriously support a man for president who owns so many houses that he had to have a fucking ASSISTANT count them for him… has anyone who is homeless. Again, every man, woman and child in America should have some kind of basic housing. Studio for a single person or a couple with no kids, two bedroom for a couple or person with a child and a three bedroom for a couple or person with a child of each sex. And I'm not talking about the rat and roach infested slums that pass for public housing now. I mean good, basic apartments.
While we're at it, why is anyone in America starving? Why can't we socialize food to the point that everyone is guaranteed enough to eat every day? I'm not talking about steak and lobster here, either. I'm talking about beans and rice and veggies. Seriously, do you think that any American who didn't HAVE to rely on that WOULD? I certainly wouldn't. I like beans and rice and veggies, but I also love pizza and hamburgers and an occasional steak. Who would that hurt?
And hey - while we're actually taking care of Americans here, even if it IS only in fantasy land… why are our oil and energy needs being left up to private greed? I think that household energy needs should be taken care of for people under a certain income level, and that the government should start providing basic, additive-free gasoline at a reduced rate. I'm pretty sure that we could do that pretty easily just from our own oil reserves. So what about the oil companies? First off… who cares? Second off, I think that they'd be fine providing unleaded gas with their magical additives (my car, for instance, gets much better mileage on Shell gas than anything else) and premium gas. Or, if you wanted to base it on income, then a gas card would be issued for… say… $100 worth of gas to all people and families that fall under a certain income level. That should be more than enough to get someone from home to work and/or daycare and back every day.
So let me ask you now… moderate socialist to rabid capitalist… who would these changes hurt? They would make America a better place to live, and all of these industries would still have a place. Granted, oil companies and health insurance companies would no longer be able to book the almost unlimited profits that they've been pocketing for the last decade or two, but again… who cares? As a proponent of a reasonably free market (which may exclude me from being a socialist, now that I think of it) I think that the competition from the government would even make these companies step up their games a little bit. Start offering a little more for a little less to increase their profits. Don't you?
Peace.
Rev. Randal
Friday, February 19, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
How Can I Help?
I attended a first time home buyers seminar last night. One of the other participants and I (as so often happens) got into a discussion about politics. She started saying the same things that so many people do. "The government" this and "the Bush administration" that and "congress" the other thing. I told her the same thing that I tell everyone who falls into that trap… WE ALLOWED. You have to preface all of these statements with "WE ALLOWED", because WE are the government. Remember? We are Barack Obama's boss. We were George W. Bush's boss.
So she ended up by asking what she could do to help improve things, talking about both the state of the economy and the state of the nation. The first response that always comes to my mind when someone asks that is "Fuck if I know" because I feel like I'm doing everything that I think that I can without money, and it seems to be doing little good. Of course, if LOTS of people did these things, maybe it would. So here goes.
I know that I've said it before, and I'll say it again… VOTE VOTE VOTE! And serve jury duty. And research the candidates, damn it. Don't just watch the TV commercials and vote for the richest democrat or republican. Vote a "third" party (although that is a misnomer because there are currently more than 20 political parties in America). Vote for the candidate that best reflects your view. As a matter of fact, I'd say let's kick the republicans and democrats out of office entirely. I think that the two big parties have become so hopeless corrupt that we may not be able to fix them without booting them out of office entirely.
Volunteer. Especially if you're supporting a third party candidate. They need all the help that they can get. I remember years ago I was watching Robert Reich, who worked in the Clinton administration, give a speech. One of the people in the audience said "How can an average Joe like me help John Kerry win the election?" Reich thought for a second, and then said "Give up ten hours of TV time per week to volunteer on the campaign." The audience groaned like he had just run over their collective puppy. He shrugged as if to say "Well, you asked!" Yes, it takes time. So does researching the candidates. You want to change things? DO IT.
Don't shop at Walmart. Their low prices and huge profits are the results of screwing the American workforce. Sorry to put it so bluntly, but there it is. And don't buy the "lowest prices" brainwashing. Yes, they have SLIGHTLY lower prices than a company that treats their employees well like, say, Target, but it's pennies on the dollar folks. For instance, in April I'm going to dump Sprint and go with a pre-paid cell plan. Walmart has one for $45 per month with unlimited everything. A little research showed me, though, that Radio Shack has one that's just as good for $50 per month. Guess who gets my business?
Take a look at where your merchandise is coming from. If you can get a Chinese-made piece of shit for $10 and one that's made ANYWHERE ELSE for $11, spend the extra money. If you can get an American-made one for $15, do it! It's worth the extra five bucks to support America's economy.
PAY ATTENTION, DAMNIT! Turn off Fox news and MSNBC and CNN and all of the other corporate media and look into this stuff yourself. Again, it's time, but it's time well spent. For instance, Americans, in my opinion, are not nearly scared or pissed off enough about the recent supreme court decision to allow corporations to spend basically an unlimited amount of money on campaign ads. That's a shortcut to the end of democracy in America.
You know that little check box on your 1040 that says "Do you want to donate $3 to public financing of campaigns"? CHECK IT. It won't cost you anything, and it helps.
That's how.
Peace.
Rev. Randal
So she ended up by asking what she could do to help improve things, talking about both the state of the economy and the state of the nation. The first response that always comes to my mind when someone asks that is "Fuck if I know" because I feel like I'm doing everything that I think that I can without money, and it seems to be doing little good. Of course, if LOTS of people did these things, maybe it would. So here goes.
I know that I've said it before, and I'll say it again… VOTE VOTE VOTE! And serve jury duty. And research the candidates, damn it. Don't just watch the TV commercials and vote for the richest democrat or republican. Vote a "third" party (although that is a misnomer because there are currently more than 20 political parties in America). Vote for the candidate that best reflects your view. As a matter of fact, I'd say let's kick the republicans and democrats out of office entirely. I think that the two big parties have become so hopeless corrupt that we may not be able to fix them without booting them out of office entirely.
Volunteer. Especially if you're supporting a third party candidate. They need all the help that they can get. I remember years ago I was watching Robert Reich, who worked in the Clinton administration, give a speech. One of the people in the audience said "How can an average Joe like me help John Kerry win the election?" Reich thought for a second, and then said "Give up ten hours of TV time per week to volunteer on the campaign." The audience groaned like he had just run over their collective puppy. He shrugged as if to say "Well, you asked!" Yes, it takes time. So does researching the candidates. You want to change things? DO IT.
Don't shop at Walmart. Their low prices and huge profits are the results of screwing the American workforce. Sorry to put it so bluntly, but there it is. And don't buy the "lowest prices" brainwashing. Yes, they have SLIGHTLY lower prices than a company that treats their employees well like, say, Target, but it's pennies on the dollar folks. For instance, in April I'm going to dump Sprint and go with a pre-paid cell plan. Walmart has one for $45 per month with unlimited everything. A little research showed me, though, that Radio Shack has one that's just as good for $50 per month. Guess who gets my business?
Take a look at where your merchandise is coming from. If you can get a Chinese-made piece of shit for $10 and one that's made ANYWHERE ELSE for $11, spend the extra money. If you can get an American-made one for $15, do it! It's worth the extra five bucks to support America's economy.
PAY ATTENTION, DAMNIT! Turn off Fox news and MSNBC and CNN and all of the other corporate media and look into this stuff yourself. Again, it's time, but it's time well spent. For instance, Americans, in my opinion, are not nearly scared or pissed off enough about the recent supreme court decision to allow corporations to spend basically an unlimited amount of money on campaign ads. That's a shortcut to the end of democracy in America.
You know that little check box on your 1040 that says "Do you want to donate $3 to public financing of campaigns"? CHECK IT. It won't cost you anything, and it helps.
That's how.
Peace.
Rev. Randal
Thursday, February 11, 2010
It All Makes Sense Now
I never could figure out why people in the midwest and midsouth spend so much of their time pissed at the federal government. Now that I live down here, I understand. YOU PEOPLE ARE GETTING SCREWED BY YOUR STATES!
No wonder you're suspicious of government! But the problem is that it's not the federales that are doing it to you. You need to take action against your state government.
I come from Washington state, which is the bluest of the "blue" states. Several times in Washington, greedy politicians have tried to institute a grocery tax, and it always went down in flames. Here there's a 4% grocery tax. So on a hundred dollars worth of meat and potatoes and mac and cheese and flour and sugar, you pay a four dollar tax! Taxing necessities is absolutely insane!
Also, in Washington, there is no state income tax. Here, there is.
I've also discovered that there are almost no consumer protections in place here against bill collectors, credit card companies and loan companies. If you default on a bill, all of the power is given to the collectors.
Right now, I consider my residence a temporary situation, although because of the situation, I'm not rushing it. But you can bet that if I'm still here in two years, I'm going to start fighting the moronic amount of taxes that I have to pay to live here. In the meantime, I encourage you guys to FIGHT BACK! Abandon the tea parties and all of this other noise about the feds and concentrate on fixing your state governments first. Take back some of your power!
Peace.
Rev. Randal
No wonder you're suspicious of government! But the problem is that it's not the federales that are doing it to you. You need to take action against your state government.
I come from Washington state, which is the bluest of the "blue" states. Several times in Washington, greedy politicians have tried to institute a grocery tax, and it always went down in flames. Here there's a 4% grocery tax. So on a hundred dollars worth of meat and potatoes and mac and cheese and flour and sugar, you pay a four dollar tax! Taxing necessities is absolutely insane!
Also, in Washington, there is no state income tax. Here, there is.
I've also discovered that there are almost no consumer protections in place here against bill collectors, credit card companies and loan companies. If you default on a bill, all of the power is given to the collectors.
Right now, I consider my residence a temporary situation, although because of the situation, I'm not rushing it. But you can bet that if I'm still here in two years, I'm going to start fighting the moronic amount of taxes that I have to pay to live here. In the meantime, I encourage you guys to FIGHT BACK! Abandon the tea parties and all of this other noise about the feds and concentrate on fixing your state governments first. Take back some of your power!
Peace.
Rev. Randal
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The Root of All Evil
Money is the bane of my existence and has been for a long time. I sometimes believe that the reason that I'm living this particular life at this particular time is to learn to understand money. If that's the case, then I feel like I'm doomed to repeat it… because I just ain't getting it.
I wrote a while back about how I struggle with the whole time/money thing. I honestly can't figure out how middle class people manage to find both the time to do the things that they want AND time to make the money to do them. It's a puzzle.
In the meantime, I can't help but wonder… am I the only person pissed off at CEO's in this country? Really? We don’t seem to mind too much that these guys will have a hundred of us making ten dollars an hour fired as a "cost-cutting" measure so that they don't have to give up their solid gold, Cristal-filled toilet. Our economy is being screwed by these guys, but them and their shills, the republican party, have us so brainwashed that if we say anything about it we feel guilty of "class warfare".
Class warfare? You bet. But we didn't declare it - they did. We just have to fight back.
I mean right now what we've got is less class warfare - since they aren't taking any casualties - and more class genocide. The middle class and the poor are being wiped out, and we… the members of these classes… are doing nothing to stop it.
I was watching one of my favorite TV shows, House, the other day and something in it really struck a chord with me. Doctor Lisa Cuddy, was fighting to get a higher reimbursement rate for her hospital from an insurance company. She stormed in on the CEO eating lunch somewhere and made her case. Later, one of the characters commented to her that the CEO could be fired for malfeasance, but his termination package would be more than most of us make in our lifetimes.
Look, I'm not advocating that no one should be rich. Hell, I aspire to richness myself if I can ever get my damned books published or screenplays produced. What I advocate is that if these people's riches come at the cost of your job or my job or some little Chinese girl making ten dollars per day to work in a dangerous sweatshop, then they shouldn't be allowed to do it, God damn it!
Last year's health care debacle is the perfect example. How many of us feel that it's okay for one person to profit from the misery of another? A few? No one? Not more than a handful, I bet. And yet we've allowed these people to bully us into believing that if we don't allow the CEO's of insurance companies to do exactly that then we are not really Americans.
How stupid and backward is that? We're cutting our own throats, smiling all the while, so that these people can drink our blood.
And think for a second about this financial mess that we've been in for a couple of years. Guess who it's a financial mess for? Us. Why? Because some rich CEO would rather close stores and lay off employees than to take a personal pay cut from 1.4 billion dollars per year to only 1 billion. That's bullshit.
Sorry, I can't bless us with peace at the end of this one. All that I can say, is that if they want it, they should have it, but it's up to US to give it to them.
War.
Rev. Randal
I wrote a while back about how I struggle with the whole time/money thing. I honestly can't figure out how middle class people manage to find both the time to do the things that they want AND time to make the money to do them. It's a puzzle.
In the meantime, I can't help but wonder… am I the only person pissed off at CEO's in this country? Really? We don’t seem to mind too much that these guys will have a hundred of us making ten dollars an hour fired as a "cost-cutting" measure so that they don't have to give up their solid gold, Cristal-filled toilet. Our economy is being screwed by these guys, but them and their shills, the republican party, have us so brainwashed that if we say anything about it we feel guilty of "class warfare".
Class warfare? You bet. But we didn't declare it - they did. We just have to fight back.
I mean right now what we've got is less class warfare - since they aren't taking any casualties - and more class genocide. The middle class and the poor are being wiped out, and we… the members of these classes… are doing nothing to stop it.
I was watching one of my favorite TV shows, House, the other day and something in it really struck a chord with me. Doctor Lisa Cuddy, was fighting to get a higher reimbursement rate for her hospital from an insurance company. She stormed in on the CEO eating lunch somewhere and made her case. Later, one of the characters commented to her that the CEO could be fired for malfeasance, but his termination package would be more than most of us make in our lifetimes.
Look, I'm not advocating that no one should be rich. Hell, I aspire to richness myself if I can ever get my damned books published or screenplays produced. What I advocate is that if these people's riches come at the cost of your job or my job or some little Chinese girl making ten dollars per day to work in a dangerous sweatshop, then they shouldn't be allowed to do it, God damn it!
Last year's health care debacle is the perfect example. How many of us feel that it's okay for one person to profit from the misery of another? A few? No one? Not more than a handful, I bet. And yet we've allowed these people to bully us into believing that if we don't allow the CEO's of insurance companies to do exactly that then we are not really Americans.
How stupid and backward is that? We're cutting our own throats, smiling all the while, so that these people can drink our blood.
And think for a second about this financial mess that we've been in for a couple of years. Guess who it's a financial mess for? Us. Why? Because some rich CEO would rather close stores and lay off employees than to take a personal pay cut from 1.4 billion dollars per year to only 1 billion. That's bullshit.
Sorry, I can't bless us with peace at the end of this one. All that I can say, is that if they want it, they should have it, but it's up to US to give it to them.
War.
Rev. Randal
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Three Little Words
THREE LITTLE WORDS
Here's a little game that you can play with yourself in this world of self-help... come up with three words to describe you. The essential you. The unvarying, basic you. Three little words. Not phrases, just words.
Okay, got 'em? Don't think too hard about them, just make them the first three words that come to your mind.
Mine are now... and have been for years... intelligent, kind and funny.
Now, look at those words. The first thing to check for is this... are they all positive words? Because the way that you define yourself is the way that you will be. You will work hard to make that a reality. When I asked a former girlfriend of mine to do this once, one of the words that she used was “addicted”. Last I heard, she had kicked drugs, so I wonder if she still feels that that describes her. So if you define yourself by a negative phrase, you will do whatever you can to live up to that definition.
So do yourself a favor. Make them positive words, and make sure that they don't just describe you today. Make sure that they describe you as you are in your unwavering soul.
Okay, got the three now?
Now take a look at those three words, and see if any of them are going to change. For instance, one lady that I knew used the word “mom”. Well, that's terrific... as long as you have a baby or a child. Once your kids grow up, the definition of mom should change dramatically. You'll always be a mother, but the idea of “mom” should change in your child's vocabulary from meaning (roughly) “God” to a being much more distant... much less necessary to his or her day to day existence. So what happens to mom then? Whatever part of her life was dedicated to being “mom” is now... well, I hate to sound negative about it... but a void. And the women who still try to remain a day-to-day part of their adult son or daughter's existence tend to become nuisances to their child. Mom, if you do your job right when the kids are little, then they will no longer rely on you in the same way when they are big.
I know that all of that sounds harsh, but it's really not. And I'm not just picking on moms here, either. The same goes for dads, it just happens that my example was a mom. As a parent, you have one job and that is to raise your child into a responsible adult. Then let them go off and be a responsible adult, while you go on to whatever is next in your life.
So what is that?
This is why I would personally recommend against using something basically transient like “mom” or “dad” or “accountant” in your description. There's no preparation for that to change. And if you decide to, be prepared for that part of your description to become null after a while, and realize that SOMETHING else will fill it. Either you'll be prepared for that and it'll be something good, or you won't... and it WON'T necessarily be something good.
So... do you now have your three words? Your three little words that describe the infinite, unalterable you?
Now think about which one of those words is the most important in your life.
For me, it is the word “kind”. If I am not kind above all else, then the other two descriptors simply don't matter. I am not saying that I am kind every time that I act. I am saying that I try to be. I have been told by people that I have not been kind to them. When this happens, I do not make excuses and I do not shuff it off. These are the times that wear on my conscience.
So think about whichever of these words is the most important. When you visualize these three little words, which one is it that is printed in neon, in all capital letters with fireworks going off around it? Now, check and make sure that this word represents something that you WANT to be dominant in your life. For instance, if the word is RUNNER, what happens if you lose a limb? What happens if arthritis sets in? What happens, in short, if something comes up that makes you no longer a runner?
In summation, these words fall into three catagories… have, do and are. You may lose what you have. What you do may change. What you are… ah, that doesn't change.
Back to the idea of negative words here, someone may argue that what they ARE is a loser. I would disagree. I would say that what they are DOING is being a loser. And what you do may change.
Peace.
Rev. Randal
Here's a little game that you can play with yourself in this world of self-help... come up with three words to describe you. The essential you. The unvarying, basic you. Three little words. Not phrases, just words.
Okay, got 'em? Don't think too hard about them, just make them the first three words that come to your mind.
Mine are now... and have been for years... intelligent, kind and funny.
Now, look at those words. The first thing to check for is this... are they all positive words? Because the way that you define yourself is the way that you will be. You will work hard to make that a reality. When I asked a former girlfriend of mine to do this once, one of the words that she used was “addicted”. Last I heard, she had kicked drugs, so I wonder if she still feels that that describes her. So if you define yourself by a negative phrase, you will do whatever you can to live up to that definition.
So do yourself a favor. Make them positive words, and make sure that they don't just describe you today. Make sure that they describe you as you are in your unwavering soul.
Okay, got the three now?
Now take a look at those three words, and see if any of them are going to change. For instance, one lady that I knew used the word “mom”. Well, that's terrific... as long as you have a baby or a child. Once your kids grow up, the definition of mom should change dramatically. You'll always be a mother, but the idea of “mom” should change in your child's vocabulary from meaning (roughly) “God” to a being much more distant... much less necessary to his or her day to day existence. So what happens to mom then? Whatever part of her life was dedicated to being “mom” is now... well, I hate to sound negative about it... but a void. And the women who still try to remain a day-to-day part of their adult son or daughter's existence tend to become nuisances to their child. Mom, if you do your job right when the kids are little, then they will no longer rely on you in the same way when they are big.
I know that all of that sounds harsh, but it's really not. And I'm not just picking on moms here, either. The same goes for dads, it just happens that my example was a mom. As a parent, you have one job and that is to raise your child into a responsible adult. Then let them go off and be a responsible adult, while you go on to whatever is next in your life.
So what is that?
This is why I would personally recommend against using something basically transient like “mom” or “dad” or “accountant” in your description. There's no preparation for that to change. And if you decide to, be prepared for that part of your description to become null after a while, and realize that SOMETHING else will fill it. Either you'll be prepared for that and it'll be something good, or you won't... and it WON'T necessarily be something good.
So... do you now have your three words? Your three little words that describe the infinite, unalterable you?
Now think about which one of those words is the most important in your life.
For me, it is the word “kind”. If I am not kind above all else, then the other two descriptors simply don't matter. I am not saying that I am kind every time that I act. I am saying that I try to be. I have been told by people that I have not been kind to them. When this happens, I do not make excuses and I do not shuff it off. These are the times that wear on my conscience.
So think about whichever of these words is the most important. When you visualize these three little words, which one is it that is printed in neon, in all capital letters with fireworks going off around it? Now, check and make sure that this word represents something that you WANT to be dominant in your life. For instance, if the word is RUNNER, what happens if you lose a limb? What happens if arthritis sets in? What happens, in short, if something comes up that makes you no longer a runner?
In summation, these words fall into three catagories… have, do and are. You may lose what you have. What you do may change. What you are… ah, that doesn't change.
Back to the idea of negative words here, someone may argue that what they ARE is a loser. I would disagree. I would say that what they are DOING is being a loser. And what you do may change.
Peace.
Rev. Randal
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Love it Or Leave It
I heard it again today from one of these limited intellect so-called “conservatives” when we discussing the rightness or wrongness of America continuing to support Israel.
“If you don't love America, why don't you just use the mechanisms that the founders set up to go somewhere else?”
In other words, “Love it, or leave it.”
I have some problems with this argument.
The first is that it is so arrogant. It assumes that your stance is absolutely, unquestionably right, while mine is absolutely, unquestionably wrong. Yours is absolutely correct, world without end, amen. The problem is that we are all just people, doing our best to muddle through this experiment called “capitalistic democracy”.
I mean, if I WANTED to, I think that I could make a pretty strong argument that MY view is right, based on what the founders wanted, by reminding this person that George Washington... kind of THE founder... counseled that America should retain trade ties with every nation and political ties with none. And the parts of our relationship with Israel that aren't religious are political.
(PS – a quick note to my Jewish friends... if you're a big fan of America's support of Israel, you should know that the only reason that it's there is because the religious nuts believe that Jesus can't return until you rebuild the temple at Israel. After that, according to them, you can and WILL go to Hell.)
My second problem with this is that it indicates a weak argument. It says to me “I don't have an argument strong enough to logically rebut what you're saying, so instead, I just want you to go away so that I won't have to be confronted with your argument anymore.” If I close my eyes, the scary thing will go away in other words.
My final problem with this is that it is an absolute conversation stopper. Of COURSE I love America. America, to me, is a rich and complex structure that can evolve and change over time without weakening what it is. So, for instance, if the religious nuts ever DO let go of our government, and we're able to figure out a different way to proceed with Israel that won't cost us billions of our treasure every year and poison the minds and hearts of half the planet against us, that won't end America. Or if we reign in capitalism a little bit to... say... make health care available for everyone instead of allowing people to profit from the misfortunes and sickness of others, that won't end America.
What I love about America is that this guy is free to make an argument in favor our continuing to support Israel and I can make an argument against it. Nothing that either of us says will change America's policy, but we might each be able to influence the way that the other thinks of it.
That is, as long as neither one of us puts forward a stopper like “Love it or leave it”.
Peace.
Rev. Randal
“If you don't love America, why don't you just use the mechanisms that the founders set up to go somewhere else?”
In other words, “Love it, or leave it.”
I have some problems with this argument.
The first is that it is so arrogant. It assumes that your stance is absolutely, unquestionably right, while mine is absolutely, unquestionably wrong. Yours is absolutely correct, world without end, amen. The problem is that we are all just people, doing our best to muddle through this experiment called “capitalistic democracy”.
I mean, if I WANTED to, I think that I could make a pretty strong argument that MY view is right, based on what the founders wanted, by reminding this person that George Washington... kind of THE founder... counseled that America should retain trade ties with every nation and political ties with none. And the parts of our relationship with Israel that aren't religious are political.
(PS – a quick note to my Jewish friends... if you're a big fan of America's support of Israel, you should know that the only reason that it's there is because the religious nuts believe that Jesus can't return until you rebuild the temple at Israel. After that, according to them, you can and WILL go to Hell.)
My second problem with this is that it indicates a weak argument. It says to me “I don't have an argument strong enough to logically rebut what you're saying, so instead, I just want you to go away so that I won't have to be confronted with your argument anymore.” If I close my eyes, the scary thing will go away in other words.
My final problem with this is that it is an absolute conversation stopper. Of COURSE I love America. America, to me, is a rich and complex structure that can evolve and change over time without weakening what it is. So, for instance, if the religious nuts ever DO let go of our government, and we're able to figure out a different way to proceed with Israel that won't cost us billions of our treasure every year and poison the minds and hearts of half the planet against us, that won't end America. Or if we reign in capitalism a little bit to... say... make health care available for everyone instead of allowing people to profit from the misfortunes and sickness of others, that won't end America.
What I love about America is that this guy is free to make an argument in favor our continuing to support Israel and I can make an argument against it. Nothing that either of us says will change America's policy, but we might each be able to influence the way that the other thinks of it.
That is, as long as neither one of us puts forward a stopper like “Love it or leave it”.
Peace.
Rev. Randal
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