Is he really that stupid?

I believe Donald Trump may be a shrewder politician than he appears.  He continually deflects attention away from his serious actions like Gag orders on Federal Agencies or re-instituting the Mexico City Policy in foreign aid, by tweeting very stupid shit about voter fraud, inauguration attendance, or flag burners.  Over and over, his tweets consume the news cycles and social media taking time away from the “real” news. It also allows congressional leaders to spend the news cycles expressing their outrage or confusion about “X” tweet, instead of explaining their actions. 

So from now on, whenever I hear that he said or repeated something stupid, I’m going to look at what’s really happening.

Good Choice, Bad Choice --- Let God Decide

Sex is natural. Often resulting in conception. This is life. And life is full of choices and consequences.

Both of our children were planned, and because of our planning, we were never presented with that monumental dilemma of an unplanned pregnancy.  Had we have, we might have three children -- or the unthinkably, we might not have had our Lauren or even Megan.  The reality of the situation is that an early pregnancy could have resulted in totally different outcome for us.

So when I consider how circumstances could have resulted in such a universally different life for us, I also better appreciate our planning.  At that time we weren’t as young as most.  We were more educated that most.  Maybe that was why we never had to face an unplanned pregnancy, or maybe we were just lucky. Not everyone is so prepared or lucky though.  Sometimes people just aren’t in a position to start a family. Then a pregnancy can be a tragedy.
  

Before I go any further, I need to say, I hate the idea of an abortion, and I also reject the idea that anyone rejoices in the idea of abortion.  It’s physically and mentally strenuous on the woman.  The abortionists and any assistants can’t take pleasure in their work except as a medical service provider.
So if anyone could present a situation where someone likes the idea of an abortion, I think that individual would be dealing with mental illness. Therefore in my logical world, abortion is a choice of last resort. No one is “pro” abortion, except as an alternative to a lesser desired outcome.

In the world I live in though, total strangers believe they are in a position to decide what any woman should do about a pregnancy.  Some of these strangers even think any family planning is abhorrent, often starting with the abolition of sex education and extending through restricting or denying contraception to fertile couples.  Usually these strangers express their divine knowledge of God’s wishes to justify their positions.  I’m personally satisfied with letting God decide who’s overstepped His wishes.  Really as far as I’m concerned the religious arguments are unfounded. God never really talked about abortion except to say life in general is precious --- and except for those children of the Bible who were terminated for pissing Him off.  Anyway I too think life is precious.  Children are precious.  But children are a tremendous responsibility and becoming a parent is not for everyone, at all times.
  

I advocate sex education as a tough love subject. There’s good reasons to advise children to delay sexual activity, but in any case, educated people make better decisions.  And we should give those who are going to be sexually active easy and “free” access to the medically appropriate, contraceptive methods. Only when education and planning fail, does the option of abortion become that choice of last resort.  But even though it’s a viable and legal option, it’s still necessary to address the ugly facts of abortion. Medical procedures in general are ugly with abortion one of the most ugly.  Even uglier though is the suffering of an unwanted, unloved, ignored, or abused child.
   

Politicians feed off opportunities to take the moral high ground, and the abortion debate is a perfect case for them.   But the recent political call to defund Planned Parenthood is a classic political opportunist’s contradiction of proposed purpose to actual consequence.  Because spending of federal government funds on an abortion is already against the law, defunding Planned Parenthood does nothing except take away their ability to provide service like family planning and supplying contraception, thereby forcing more women to face a choice of abortion. To me that’s crazy, but so is politics.  I just wish I could convince others that it is best left up to God to judge the decision of a mother.

Bob Rank
September 2015

Subnote: Around a month after beginning our relationship, Kathi and I visited a Planned Parenthood facility in Long Beach.  I’m ashamed to say I waited in the car, but I’m thankful that Planned Parenthood was available and that Kathi was so wise.

My Perfect Candidate 2016

What I and America needs in the next president.

I want someone who cherishes family values and the right to life.  I’m not like Catholic crazy against birth control, but everyone needs to pay for their own birth control. And my candidate will get rid of that abortion factory Planned Parenthood. God alone should decide who has a baby. So if people want to screw around, then they have to take responsibility for their screwing. 

We need someone who’s willing to protect my rights to privacy as long as it doesn’t involve same sex copulation or anything more kinky than what makes sex exciting. It’s just plain silly to think gays, lesbians and whatever those other initials are, have a God given right to marriage.  I think those freaks just want the government benefits married people get.

And speaking of government benefits.  It’s time we really get tough on letting people just get a free ride.  Like I heard about a woman who drives a Mercedes Benz to the welfare office, and that just really pisses me off.

The perfect candidate will finally cut off benefits to all those freeloaders, so that we can bring the debt and deficit down without cutting defense related spending. I heard a guy on TV complain that the U.S. spends more on defense than the combined amount of the next top ten military spending nations in the world. Well so what? If that’s what it takes, then that’s what it takes.  We need to make sure we can protect our national interest and liberate countries with swift action so we can get those missions accomplished fast. I’d rather be poor than forced to pray to Allah.

There’s someone out there who cherishes our country and its natural beauty enough to courageously ignore those lying science guys who are always claiming we could be harming our own environment.  I flew over America once, and it’s really big. I can’t believe we could be hurting something so big with a light bulb or a little exhaust. And my candidate won’t waste any of my precious taxes on alternative energy sources so long as there’s plenty of oil and coal.

 

I want someone who is willing to restrict immigration to people who want to fit into my community. Certainly, not any non-English speakers or atheists or Muslims, or … Let’s just make it easy and limit immigration to Christians, preferably Protestants. Okay, maybe a few Jews if they are Israeli or holocaust survivors.

The right man will implement sufficient measures to ensure not even one person will be able cast a ballot without proper identification to prove he is who he says. Maybe he could have everybody take a test to prove they believe in the right things.  And speaking of IDs, this Man will ensure that I will NEVER need to carry a National Identification Card, because then the Government would know too much about me like where I live or vote. 

The next candidate will not spy on me except where it's good for America. Nor will he condone any international action that might shine an unfavorable light on my America, like torturing or starting stupid wars we can’t win.   Back door, black ops are okay just so long as we don’t get caught.

And I naturally want the Candidate to support my right to bear arms.  I want to be encouraged to openly carry any weapon capable of protecting my family against all threats real or imagined and not limiting the amount or type of ammunition.  I don’t want any run of the mill armor stopping me from stopping any threat --- dead in its tracks.

My candidate will also be dedicated to making government smaller.  For one thing, he will get rid of the IRS, EPA, and Department of education.  The IRS has shown they can’t be trusted, and the EPA has strangled business with all their environmental rules making it impossible for me to get the good job like my Daddy had at the paper mill.  And why is the federal government getting involved in a local issue like education.  I don’t like the government deciding what’s best for my kid. That’s a concern that should be left to parents, teachers and locally elected school boards.  We know what our kids need --- and more importantly don’t need like evolution and climate warming indoctrination.

I wouldn’t mind my candidate proposing a National Law requiring all children to recite the Pledge of Allegiance daily.  I think it’s the only way to guarantee that our schools are producing patriots. And while we’re at it, I don’t think we need to spend much time teaching about American history that didn’t work out too well – like Vietnam, slavery, support for dictatorships, etc.  I think that’s something else that should be left for parents to teach their kids.  Oh yea, and while we’re at it we need to make it a felony to deface an American flag.  And if we all wore red on Friday, we’d be able to tell who the real patriots are, but that shouldn’t be a law.  Just good advice to people who want to get along.

It’s real important that my candidate respects the US Constitution.  I want him to try and get rid of those radical organizations that are always hating on American values like the ACLU.  And if one of those old Supreme Court justices dies I want him to nominate and fight for a justice that thinks just like us.  Heck I wouldn’t mind if all them women were replaced.  They just don’t seem to think like a man does. Maybe my candidate can figure out a way to make that happen with an executive order or something.

In conclusion I want a President like the ones we used to have that kept America safe and made sure everyone had a good job and plenty to eat and didn't try to butt into my life except when I needed help.  Is that really too much to ask?

NOTE: I wanted to get the above posted on my blog before the next round of presidential candidates got started, but with Ted Cruz’s announcement yesterday, I didn’t quite make it.  And while Ted has talked to some of my concerns, I don’t think he will be my favorite candidate --- maybe a VP, though.

OMG

The three great unknowns for humanity are: where did we come from, why are we here, and what is to become of us? Religion has all the answers; we are here because God put us here, so we could revere Him, and end up in heaven or hell depending on our degree of commitment to Him.

Religious faithful have no problems with these answers.  Others doubt some or all that religion has to offer … the agnostic to the atheist.  I don’t consider myself an atheist, because I don’t deny the existence of God.  However, I certainly don’t feel the need to believe in someone else’s ideas of a God where that belief is not only unsupported by any concrete evidence, but defies logic as well.

I like God, the Creator.  It’s nice to have someone to talk to, beseech, and ask for advice. I do all these things with my God.  But the one thing I’m not going to do is to believe that my God is better than anyone else’s, and I see no reason to believe that any other belief is better than mine. In short, I find all formal religious dogma lacking.  I won’t believe that God is going to favor me just because of something I do like attending a church service. There's certainly no evidence that he favors those who do.  Oh ya, the favors come in the after life, and isn't that a convenient sales tool.

So if I’m not an atheist and not religious, then what am I.  An agnostic yes, but the title I like best is scientist.  I don’t believe without some logical justification.  Give me evidence or at least a reasonable hypothesis, before expecting me to follow. In other words, I guess I’m willing to risk eternal damnation for independence of thought. Which is not to say my God won’t hold me responsible for my actions. It’s just that He doesn’t demand unquestioning allegiance and is willing to respect my self determination to do what’s right.

I know the term scientist is not popular with many religious faithful.  Scientist are often denigrated as a class of intellectual elites.  I respect scientists for the same reason.  Scientist are the ones that have put forth the effort to demystify nature.  They have rules and procedures and systems of review that question their ideas.  On the other hand, religions have elite, spiritually intellectual spokesmen who promote supernatural events to justify their ideas all the while discouraging inquiry.

In addition to being easier to understand (because you’re not expected to) religion has capabilities that transcend being just an explanation of nature. First off religions promote the comfort of community. That pleasure of being around like minded people with a common purpose: that purpose being the promotion of a common belief in their special relationship with God.  I’d call that a self-perpetuating purpose. Those wacky scientist have discovered the  how the faithful can enter emotional states that can be exceedingly pleasurable, and not surprisingly, addictive. Obviously there are degrees of pleasure among the believers, but even as a non-believer, I've experienced awe from the grandeur, pomp, and ceremony of the many churches I've visited.  Yet I think religions wrongly use these emotional highs to convince their followers that they are being rewarded for their unquestioning faith.  It’s also easy to look at some religions and say there must be something really special going on because of the sacrifices of their faithful: fasting of Ramadan, snake handling oops, denying self of modern medicine. But these sacrifices actually just demonstrate the communal goal of exceptional-ism for the group with the added promise of redemption for the individual's efforts. Religion is self perpetuating.

I’m not saying that religion hasn’t helped anyone.  Many people have used religion to turn otherwise misdirected lives around.  However no one could question that science hasn’t also been beneficial. What should be obvious is that both have been used by evil doers to accomplish evil deeds and good people to accomplish good. To me it seems that the questioning aspect of science permits less manipulation than the unquestioning obedience of religion.

Equally obvious is why science has a difficult time competing with religion.  For many people science is just too hard and unrewarding a way to find meaning in life.   I don’t really wonder why religion feels so compelled to deny a scientific discovery like evolution.  Religion teaches that Mankind is God’s perfect product.   And while religion could embrace the logic and evidence of evolution as the method of creation, it won’t.  That would just be another concession to science that maybe humanity isn’t all that special because science has shown that evolution is ongoing and, how can that be? Religion has argued that God is perfect, and so should His greatest creation, us, is perfect, and needn’t … wouldn’t change? 

Denial of the science of evolution, is one of my most basic disagreement with the fundamental Christian who believe natural abilities like eyesight are too complex to have developed through the trial and error inherent in evolution. Yet they do this without answering, if the Creator designed eyes, who created the Creator? Wouldn't He have to be infinitely more complex than any of His creations? Apparently, faith renders those answer unnecessary -- for the faithful.

 I believe that religion will someday have to concede evolution as the tool of creation, just like it eventually gave up on the belief of Earth as a center of the Universe. Maybe that will be when life is discovered elsewhere in the Universe, although even that discovery might be faithfully answered with a dismissive “God works in mysterious ways” argument.

“So, oh my God, what should I do?”

            Sincerely, Bob

 “Not much My son.  Just keep doing what you’re doing, and hope the misguided don’t screw things up in My name, too much longer.

            Your Buddy, G

Judicial Profiteering

A year ago Kathi got a ticket for running a red-light in a confusing intersection that cost us over $400 in fines.  Our conversation went something like, "What a fucking rip-off!"
  

What might the conversation have been between the woman who served me my burger at McDonald's today and her husband?  Possibly something like, "We are fucked! Ruined!"

For that same offense: $400 is a nuisance for us, but over a week's pay for them. We obviously paid our ticket, but they would probably pay their rent instead.

Kathi and I  have a "WTF" kind of story. They have the fear of arrest hanging over them, because their ticket went to warrant with a doubling of the fine: now two weeks pay. If stopped again, she could be incarcerated for the outstanding warrants, easily losing her current job as a no-show: jeopardizing future employability. Plus there could be continuing additional fees charged: court cost, probationary administration fees, and even room and board charges while in jail.

On the surface, I might applaud the courts making offenders pay court and jail  expenses.  But when these payments are sometimes four times the original penalty, then these fees are simply profiteering by the courts through extortion of those least able to pay. 

This is the situation where I live.  Is it the same in your home town? Is judicial profiteering justice?

And who might the other husband in this scenario be: a poor black man, an illegal alien, a newlywed, a recently discharged veteran, or... there but for the grace of God go I?  

Answer: any of the above.

Obama Scare

The Republican led congress has voted 40 times to repeal Obamacare.  How many bills have they passed that would fix their perceived deficiencies of Obamacare? None. Why?

It’s my opinion that the Republican Party in picking Obamacare as the reason only they should be allowed to govern, has beaten the drums of doom so loudly they are scared to death their predictions will not materialize. They’ve painted themselves into a corner with their worst scenario being nothing too terrible happening. 

There’s going to be some problems in implementing the Obamacare (The Affordable Care Act), and especially so in the states where republican majority governments have refused to comply with the law’s covenants and are expected to continue stonewalling implementation.  But the proof in the pudding will be in the states that have complied.  Assuming a successful implementation, California, with a large population of under insured and a cooperative legislature should be the proof in what could have been in the resistant states.

Should California’s implementation be deemed a failure, I’ll be the fool.  However if California’s cooperation proves relatively painless transition, then the doomsayers will have egg on their faces. But I wonder if those I know, who have subscribed to the republican rhetoric, will have the courage to admit their error.

The one thing I’m sure of it is that we haven’t heard the last word from the ObamaScare folks--- they just have too much to lose to give Obamacare a chance.

Bob -- August 24, 2013

Vote for the Lesser of ...

Dated Monday, Nov 5, 2012

I’ve spent the last four years defending Obama not because he was so good, but because he wasn’t so bad. It’s easy for a candidate to make promises, so I don’t pay much attention to those. And obviously, neither of the current candidates could be is as bad as his opponent depicts. 

 

I'll concede one point to Romney. Things aren’t great in America. But despite his promises, there's little evidence that he will fix anything that time itself wouldn't fix. Recessions come and recessions go with the worst recessions going slower.  So to say there a problem is stating the obvious and promising a fix is wishful thinking.  However if he wins, I wish him luck.

 

Anyway, I’m going to vote for the candidate I think will do the least harm, and because I don’t think either candidate really has the power or ability to fix the economy, I'm going to stick with the devil I know.

 

What I'm absolutely sure of is that politics in America is broken, and until we get the outside money out of the election process there is no hope of a fix.  When even a moral man has to subjugate his principles just to get elected, too often he won't.  Then we are left with the individuals with lesser principles.  

 

When I look at the big changes in the election process of recent, I'm struck with the Citizens United case that allows individuals and corporations and (yes) unions to contribute enormous sums of money to political entities without the need to even disclose their identity.  What chance is there for honesty in politics when the ability to get elected lies more in the publicity campaign than in the man.

 

The Supreme Court's decision on Citizens United was split along the lines of the party of the president responsible for the justices appointment with the conservatives in the majority. It doesn't look like either candidate is going to break the deadlock in the congress, so the best hope for the next candidate is to maintain a balance in the Supreme Court. 

 

With four of the justices in their 70's (two appointed by Regan and two by Clinton) there's a good chance that at least one new justice will be appointed in the next four years. The current balance is 5 to 4 with a conservative majority and the Chief position.  I think a liberal (Obama) appointment will do the least harm to the court and the nation. 

 

That's why I'm voting for Obama, tomorrow. Besides, I think he's the better of the two evils, and I'd sure like to show all those assholes that made up all that stupid shit about Obama, his policies, and actions --- that cheaters never  prosper.