Dale's Dalily Dalies

is no longer a functioning blog. I'm just sick and tired of being sick and tired and frustrated about the media and politics so I just quit.
Goodbye
Have a nice day
and may George Bush and Dick Cheney go to hell!

Lessons taught by a dumbdown media

I found this on another blog and I think it bears repeating (credit to HUNTER)

Things I have learned during this campaign season:

In a race that includes a former First Lady of the United States and a multimillionaire Republican senator rumored to share up to eight residences with his wife, the black guy from Chicago is unforgivably elitist.

Racism in America is caused primarily by black Chicago preachers.

The guy who keeps getting confused over the relationship between Iraq, Iran, and al Qaeda is the foreign policy expert.

The guy who goes to campaign stops on his wife's private jet aircraft is the most down-to-earth.

The guy who changed his stance on tax cuts, Roe v. Wade, immigration, gun control, the confederate flag, torture, public financing, and his own anti-earmark rhetoric is the "straight talker".

People in the heartland don't like it when you call them bitter, but they do like it when you explain to them that they're too dumb to understand issues more important than whether or not they like to be called bitter.

Arugula is the measure of a man.

Bowling is the measure of a man.

Orange juice is the measure of a man.

Flag pins are the measure of a man.

Success in Iraq consists of any reduction in violence, except when violence increases that's good too.

A recession is only a recession if you call it one.

Bill Kristol, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Karl Rove, Maureen Dowd, David Brooks, David Broder, Charles Krauthammer and Bob Novak are all intensely interested in giving advice to the Democratic candidates because they just want to be helpful.

There are people in this world dumb enough to believe every one of these things.

MY own thoughts: Aren't we so lucky that we can learn so much about what the candidates stand for by just turning on the TV. NOT!!

We do not torture,

so say George(the lying bastard) Bush. It's just beyond me how anyone can take the word of this lying s.o.b. And yet now we are to believe that he should be trusted to continue to determine our future as a nation for the next nine months. When, if ever, will he ever be held accountable for any of his actions? Jeremiah Wright, an honest man and a great preacher had it exactly right when he said "God Damn the United States" because he was talking about the nations leaders who have have so often lied and misled us into shameful actions. He was not talking about the American people who would not commit such depraved acts if they had a choice. Of course the corporate controlled media will always go along with voice of the powerful over the voice of the powerless. I say "God Damn George Bush!"

According to the "political experts" on TV...

... it's all over for Obama unless he apologizes for being too black and for not being black enough and for being Barack and for being Barry and for beating Hillary in all those states and for not beating Hillary in those other states and for raising more money than either of the other people who are running for President and for raising too much money and for being too much of a Democrat and for not being enough of a Democrat and for being too much of a liberal and for not being enough of a liberal and for wanting to court Republicans and for not wanting to court Republicans and for talking about religion too much and for not talking about religion enough and for talking about religion in the wrong way and for being charming because its really just being slick and for being a great speaker because speeches are just words and for speaking too often and for not speaking often enough and for talking about race too much and for not talking about race enough and for talking about race in the wrong way and for talking about Reagan and for not talking about Reagan and for being just like JFK and for not being enough like JFK and for not being able to convince the superdelegates and for having the support of so many superdelegates and for being a fighter and for not fighting enough and for winning Texas and for losing Texas and for voting YES on some legislation and for voting NO on some legislation and for voting PRESENT on some legislation and for taking his name off the ballot in Michigan and for not keeping his name on the ballot in Michigan and for inspiring so many young voters and for inspiring too many young voters and for having so much African American support and for having too much African American support and for not having enough white support and for having the support of the wrong whites and for not having enough hispanic support and for having support for the wrong hispanics and for having a strong wife and for having black children and for not having white children and for not having hispanic children and for not having alien children and for wanting to talk with foreign leaders and for not wanting to talk to foreign leaders and for going to church, but the wrong church and for having a muslim father, unless he wasn't a muslim father, but maybe he should've been a muslim father and for not having enough experience and for having too much experience, but not the right kind of experience, and for once starting that joke that he didn't know the punchline to and for eating the last double glazed chocolate donut and for pressing the UP button when he really had to go DOWN and for forgetting to log off his Myspace account on a public computer and for smoking and for stopping smoking and for playing basketball well, but not bowling so well and for having the gall to actually have a shot at being the next President of the United States of America!
Aren't we so lucky to have so many "experts"?

It's not that I haven't tought about it

but it's been too long since I've written anything here.
I'm still wrapped up in all the politics -- and I'm beginning to wonder why. It is tempting to just shut it all off and join the majority who thinks it doens't matter. I've been a supporter of John Edwards but after just three weeks of primarys and caucauses it's pretty clear he isn't going to be our next president but of the two remaining possibilities I'll take Obama -- and I think he will win the nomination.
Sitting here trying to come up with something but not much comes to mind. I have a cold and don't really feel like doing much of anything. Snowing outside and though it's kind of pretty it is depressing to think of my drive to Lonerock (25 miles) at 6:30 tomorrow morning. Probably a good possibility they will call school off if it snows much more tonight.

To hell with it -- will write more next time.
OWHN

Small Town Theology

George Bush is a disaster that has already happened! I had to say that before I could get to my subject for today.
When some people discover that I am a retired Navy enlisted person they are surprised to learn that I am also a liberal (though I am beginning to prefer the term 'progressive') both politically and theologically (again though most people I know don't really understand the use of a word like "theologically"). When many, if not most, Americans think of a people who act out of a faith or belief they think of fundamentalist or evangelical Christians (and in the minds of most Americans those terms are synonamous). But I don't fit into those molds in either case.
Today I want to explore, while I am writing, a basic theological difference between my own understanding of Christianity and that of all fundamentalist and just about all "mainline" Christians, hereafter referred to as "Feel Good Christians", accept without question.
It is said and often repeated without question that the "family" is the basic foundation on which all societies, including Christianity, is built.
I think that is a misreading of the fundamental message of Jesus Christ.
Let me explain. I live in a small town of about 800 people. It's a good place to live, a good place to raise children, but it's far from being unique. Like so many other small towns, villages and neighborhoods it's often described by people who live here as like being a "family," or better said, "an extended family." I can almost, but not quite, go along with the image of being an extended family. I much prefer the term "community."
Family, and even extended family, conjures up an image of personal contact that may bring a warm fuzzy feeling but that not what Jesus was preaching. I see works of comfort, healing and respect not as quest for good feelings but as a way to fulfillment, of living in the way we are created to be.
I have come to understand that Fundamentalist's and Feel Good Christian's focus on the family (pun intended) are for two very different reasons. For Fundy's the reason is to exert more power and control over individual's, i.e. specific roles for men and women, leaders and followers, etc.. For Feel Gooder's it's more privatized, less public responsibility and involvment,i.e. just be nice and hope everything falls in line.
I am convinced Jesus was speaking and acting against both of those mind sets. He was, is, saying that God is not a Santa Claus whose rewards are earned by observing all the laws or conversly by just being nice. God's desire, he says, is that all people be cared for and respected regardless of what family, nation, tribe, they come from or even what they believe.
For me family has become an abstract, almost meaningless term when it comes to the true meaning of life as a Christian. People can live without a family but they cannot survive without community. I don't have to love someone to care for them. I don't have to agree with someone to provide for them, or want them to provide for me when I am in need.
That is why I like living in this small town. We do things for one another even when we may not like one another because that is what we have to do in order to survive. That is what Jesus was talking about.
The good news is that because we know in our hearts that we need one another in order to continue to live here, we find that we will do stuff we might otherwise not do if we could avoid it. We know we can't avoid one another, and that is a choice we make so we can live here. It's called community -- not family. And a good thing about it is that, for the most part, we find we really do like each other.
And finally, when we can take that lesson to heart, we will discover that our community is not limited to one small geographic location, it is across all boundaries ever thought up by human beings.
Let me close with an idea that came to me this morning, World Communion Sunday, in church. In the sermon about the meaning of communion, our pastor said "Communion is not just an ideal." I agree completely, but it also made me think of another Christian concept, "Peace is not just another ideal." And neither is community!
It is what it is!

Peace be with you my friend!

Have you ever known anyone ...

who always seems to "fail forward"? (I used to think a friend of mine was the one who came up with a statement like that but later learned it's been around awhile.)
BG is is one of those types. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is another. Indeed there are a lot of those types in the Bush Administration.
The only problem is that BG failed forward all the way into the Oval Office. As I have previously written Bg didn't, and doesn't, fail forward all by himself, he had to have a lot of help. The final shove into the Presidency was provided by the Supreme Court. In what an overwhelming majority of Constutional scholars say was the worst Courst decision since Dred Scott, by a 5 to 4 vote, they handed the Presidency to the least prepared, least competent, least deserving, most corrupt, most devisive and laziest person ever to serve in that office. He is often ridiculed for not being very smart but someone who knows him pretty well said his problem is not that he's dumb, it's that he's ignorant. He is intellectually lazy. He doesn't want to learn anything because he thinks he already knows the answer. He reminds me of the rich school yard smartass bully (which his classmates said he was) who surround himself with syncophants. No one really likes him but he sees himself as their leader.
He never has to worry about his mistakes because he doesn't acknowledge them someone else is always around to pay for them, even with their lives.
In BG's world, everything is great. Only the real world suffers.

Someday things will change -- and the losers will be winners! And that's all we can hope for. That's the end of the story of BG -- to this point.

OWHN