Archives for February 2012 | The Local Christian Town Hall Magazine

Get Out Of Afghanistan Now!

February 27, 2012 By Verian Leave a Comment

Though I did not write the line myself, nor do pretend to be that profound, I do believe that there is a limit to turning the other cheek or applying the seventy times seven rule of forgiveness.

That limit applies to Afghanistan and their ins on the US military and its civilian workers that have helped rid them of the Taliban,e helped stop the senseless acid attacks, rapes and murders on Afghan.

Our soldiers and civilian workers are at higher risk now in Afghanistan, with the poisoning of food and water being the current threat.

Indeed, Qurans were burnt and I do believe they were burnt inadvertently, or at the very worst, by some person whose actions did not reflect the values of the US military. And even as this may have been a mistake on the part of the burners, President Obama, in the capacity of leader of the United States of America and leader of the free world, apologized to the religion and the country of Afghanistan, on behalf of those who made that error.

But, apparently, the civility of an apology is too “Western” and those who have taken offense to this mistake, feel that murder, pillaging and plunder is reasonable retaliation for the destruction of those Qurans.

I know that if bibles were burnt, intentionally or unintentionally by any Muslim in this country, not one American would have retaliated in this barbaric manner, in defense of doctrine that purportedly represents peace and a way to live a life that is productive and caring for our fellow man.

I have absolutely nothing against the Muslim faith but will say, unequivocally, that there is no religious desecration, real or perceived, that warrants the taking of human life. That was the premise of the discussion. However I do feel that it should be done more expeditiously than not; placing diplomatic discourse on the back burner since these Afghns are ready to KILL Americans for their Qurans.

It is clearthat the Afghans are provoking America. Their random killing of our soldiers and citizens is tantamount to a declaration of war. Their aim is to show that they could attack the American military at will, despite it beingthe behemoth that rid them of the Taliban. We do not need to stand fast in the face of these taunts. We have already spliiled too much American blood and expended too much American cash , in this land of inherent corruption.

The time has come for the President to take a stand and he has to do so more expeditiously than not, placing diplomatic discourse on the back burner. He has to evacuate every American out of Afghanistan. There is really no reasoning with a people who are willing to take lives in retaliation for published doctrine and the American life should not be that scarifice.

Dear Rick, I Am A Snob

February 26, 2012 By Verian 1 Comment

Santorum, let’s stipulate this.

The merits of a college education have already been debated and established. It has nothing to do with being snobbish or elitist, but has all to do with how this country’s social pyramid has been constructed.

Now, let’s look at you. You, know, though it’s hard to believe, I think you actually have a college education. Why did you go, Sir? Was it because you wanted to be come as snob? And no, that’s not a rhetorical question. It’s just one that you should be able to answer honestly; especially because this is your latest springboard to the hearts of the electorate.

And what’s this loose but baiting reference to President Obama’s push for college education as him wanting to create Americans in his image? Is that your subtle inference that you are a practicing Catholic and feel that the creation in any image is reserved for God? Is it your pointed implication that President Obama is skirting the reverence of Catholicism and more so, Christianity?

What’s wrong with you Sir? By no stretch of even an impaired imagination am I Conservative but I was rooting for you mainly because I thought you were less disingenuous than Mitt and more principled than Newt. And even when compared to Ron, I gave you the edge because Ron’s politics are more appropriate for case studies, than for practical living.

But of late you have become so rabidly Republican; saying anything you think would give you that edge when examined by your base. Is this your aspiration, Santorum, to appeal to the questionable mentality of an extreme group of voters? Don’t you have ambition, Sir, to try to attract voters who may not be so Democratic anymore?

Elementary, Santorum, elementary. If one wants to be POTUS then one has to know that to appeal only to people who are preoccupied with the nation’s sex life, who have a sick compulsion to legislate the probing of the female anatomy and who are too uninformed to realize that the price of gas is a combination of the politics and economics of those who demand and those who supply, is a formula for a serious butt kicking at the polls. To repeatedly promise to bring gas prices to a specific dollar amount, without taking a realistic look at who controls the Straits of Hormuz, is basically misleading the people you want to vote for you.
Even we, the people, know that the rise in price has nothing to do with President Obama’s tenure. Even we know that the stuff that rambunctious politicians like you are starting with the unstable Ahmadinejad, causes the reduction in the flow of oil to our country and even we know when the supply is reduced comparative to demand, then prices go up.

And this drilling for oil in the US, Santorum and this mess about Canadian oil for Keystone pipeline going to our worst enemy because of President Obama’s failure to do the best for the American people. Doesn’t it bother you, Sir, that there is a very high probability that there is a serious environmental risk to the nation you want to protect and the people you want to serve, from the tar sands that this Keystone pipeline could produce? Oh no. My mistake, Santorum. To you, polluted water tables and decimated wild life in our country is phony theology where man worships the earth he was made to take dominion over. Drill the oil. Pollute the earth. That’s our God given right. After all, it’s a perk of dominion and God will understand when we so wantonly kill His people and damage His creation.

Look Rick, I like you and everything, especially because it is difficult to like Mitt, whose waxen look and robotic sentiments are more akin to Madame Tussaud’s than to our nation that is looking for real, workable answers to our economic woes. I like you, too, when I think of Newt because he has become the desperate candidate who has visions of transferring our foreclosure problem to occupation in the galaxy. Ron is cool, but though I am with him on reducing some government programs, I do want laws in place and government oversight to look into the bigotry and racism that he has already demonstrated that he is capable of perpetuating, in his remarks addressing blacks and welfare checks.

You know what Rick? Call me snob or whatever you want but this whole Republican campaign makes me very grateful that I was snobbish enough to get a college education and as a byproduct, become “created” in the image of President Obama. The whole college thing does a few things for me, too, not the least of which is that I am equipped enough to make an educated analysis of the nonsense partisan politics that you are pushing as a national plan.

I am glad that I had the opportunity to be ‘created” in Obama’s image because right now, Rick, your image ain’t so hot.

Bomb Iran ?

February 24, 2012 By Verian Leave a Comment

When all of the clever innuendo and militant fervor of these GOP presidential debates fade away, we still have a job to do. With Afghans killing our troops in the wake of the inadvertent destruction of Qurans, we have to look beyond the mushroom cloud politics of the Republican Right Wing and determine whether the leader of the free world should be a warlock or a person who is sensitive to the religions and cultures of the remainder of the world. We have to be sure,too, that our leader is cognizant and respectful of policies of bodies like the UN and G8 which help to contain errant leaders by threats of military invasion after consensus

GOP presidential hopefuls (Paul excluded) have been inciting their base. Ahmadinejad, the unpredictable, has given them ample opportunity to use their Nazi metaphors and liken him to Hitler and Mussolini whose ambitions were to conquer the world. Santorum has actually invoked caliphate, Kruschev and Soviet Union and has been joined by Romney in making very ominous insinuations that Iran’s mission for nuclear apocalypse is just a button away.

And all this is being done to stir up, amongst the electorate, some hyper anxiety for America’s “only ally in the region, Israel”.

I dare speculate that if this “ally” were an occupied country and had suffered the loss of Torahs by means that could be considered desecrating, their reaction would not have been one of absolution. After all, this is the “ally” that stormed a peaceful Gaza aid flotilla in 2010 and killed innocent volunteers for transporting food and medicine to people these “allies” call their enemies.

But, enough intelligent speculation.

Despite our economic demise and our loss of thousands of military personnel since the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, Santorum and Romney have made a jack-booted pledge to take our flailing country to war to show the world, that America is supreme, while Gingrich is calling for more covert action in that part of the world; all at the expense of American lives and dollars.

And while they were demonstrating their poor judgment and suspect leadership, President Obama was issuing an apology to the people of Afghanistan on behalf of the US military and deflecting GOP calls for US invasion of Syria.

The challenge these days for any president of America is to match his patriotism with his country’s coffers and have enough insight and strategic intelligence to avoid the rhetoric of pre-emption aggressive intervention.

We are not asking for our leaders to be hawks. Neither are we asking for them to raise doves nor retreat to a stance of pious inaction.

All we are asking is for them to remember that the current deficit exists largely because of a better -wrong –early- than- right- late Right Wing Bush/Cheney notion and that the men and women that they so readily send to war are hardly ever any of their relatives.

Far Out… On The Edge… GOP Campaign

February 22, 2012 By Verian 3 Comments

Now that Santorum has found the right alchemy between righteous indignation and conservative social issues and has become the de facto candidate for catholic values along the campaign trail, it won’t hurt to reintroduce Tea Party bait to add some flavor to the already ascetic GOP campaign.

On January 19, 2012 Catholic leadership asked their Catholic candidates, Newt and Rick to “…stop perpetuating ugly racial stereotypes on the campaign trail apparently repulsed by references like Newt’s “food stamp president” and Rick not wanting to make “blacks life better by giving them somebody else’s money.” To this the Catholic church declared “racism is an intrinsic evil”http://www.faithinpubliclife.org/newsroom/press/catholic-leaders-challenge-gingrich-and-santorum-on-divisive-rhetoric-around-race-and-poverty/

Though this call to social dignity and respect for fellow Americans was made, it did not come before far right Christians hopped on the bandwagon of racial invectives and pointed another socio religious assault on President Obama’s religion, nationality and legitimacy.

Franklin Graham, who is Graham in name only and not through the effusion of the grace and political finesse of his father, wasted no time. He has now authored the ‘Islamic bloodline’ theory, citing some manufactured idiocy that makes a person Muslim by ascription and not by acceptance of the faith. And from his blinded viewpoint, by virtue of this ascription, President Obama’s legitimacy as president, Christian and American can be challenged.

Though Graham’s own religion dictates that one could only be Christian by accepting Christ, he is so contemptuous of the religion of others, that he refuses to acknowledge the same acceptance principle applies to the Muslim faith, as well. Hence, his idiotic declaration, undermining the efficacy of the Christianity he espouses.

Then there is Rick, who, not to be out done, has successfully introduced “phony theology” into the Conservative campaign lexicon vernacular, invoking the President’s years of fellowship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright to deflect the crass, sexist, misogynist comments of his super pac back bone, Foster Freiss, who, in one fell swoop, confirmed that the far right GOP still sees women as ‘gals’ and ascended aspirin into the category of controlled substance.

The bottom line here is that, after trashing President Obama’s efforts to revive our improving economy, none of the GOP candidates could offer a comparatively viable fix that could work quicker and yield better results.

They have no viable plan to rebuild the nation’s middle class, offer comprehensive healthcare to all, restore manufacturing jobs, save crumbling infrastructure, reduce global warming, reduce reliance on foreign fuels.

So, they will retreat to their default position and claim that the nation needs more of a more of a moral fix than an economic plan.

And from this position, with musket, fife and drum, this GOP with no political agenda, will march us back to times medieval, where the economy revolved around the blacksmith’s efficiency to mass produce foolproof chastity belts, which catered to the ego of powerful, sex fixated men, not unlike current GOP leaders and its aspiring candidates.

Only then will they feel relevant.

Mitty From The Block

February 16, 2012 By Verian Leave a Comment

As Mitt Romney stumps awkwardly to appeal to yet another home state, Michigan, one can’t help but smell his desperation as he tries to appeal to an electorate that is slowly slipping from his grasp.

With the faux nostalgia that only Mitt could invoke, he spoke with veneered conviction of the county fairs that he enjoyed and even appeared to have some reverie of the counties that he had once traversed.

And then who could have guessed it, Mitt identified a few long lost class mates in the staged crowd; class mates who apparently went to Mitt’s prep school but who did not fare as well as he did in post prep school years.

Mitt even asked if any old girlfriends were in the house – you know, since Anne was not there (that old stud, wink wink).

The whole show was like campaigning in burlesque with Mitt making a flailing attempt to be Mitty from the block.

As the polls continue to show that he is losing his home state advantage to Rick Santorum, Mitt is about ready to pull a rabbit out of a hat to save face in a State he calls his home.

He is aware that a loss at home could uproot his chances of going forward as a viable candidate he will do all things humanly possible to realize the dream of being America’s CEO.

Ambition is the infirmity of noble minds but Mitt will not say he is nobel or even that he has ambition. He’ll just say it’s personal.

And we’ll smile at another borrowed line by candidate Romney.

Picketing Whitney’s Funeral – Not Smart Phelps!!

February 15, 2012 By Verian 8 Comments

Word is the congregation of Westboro Baptist Church headed by Zealot Fred Phelps is planning to picket the Whitney Houston funeral, on the way to picketing New Jersey’s legislature for passing the same sex marriage act.

According to Margie Phelps, younger zealot and communications director of this alleged church, there are grand plans for a defamation frenzy as evidenced in her celebratory Tweet ”Yay! 2 pickets in NJ-Whitney Houston funeral & [legislature].”

For those who are not familiar with this self –proclaimed man of God, he is a classic case study for any psychoanalyst who is looking for a live dissertation. Phelps relentlessly attacks homosexuals, which may suggest that he has repressed homosexual tendencies. He attacks funerals of dead warriors who have defended this nation and Phelps against external threats, which may suggest he is hiding his cowardice and fear of battle. He attacks funerals of people like Elizabeth Edwards because she gave birth after losing her son and according to Phelps that was God’s way of telling her to stop bearing children which suggests that Phelps is schizophrenic and hears voices. And it doesn’t help that Fred is a disbarred lawyer and has a daughter who is a lawyer herself but may be heading for the legacy of disbarment because of her persistent unprofessional conduct.

But, so much for the preamble. These people are thinking that they could head into Newark New Jersey to protest at Whitney’s funeral. What the protest will be predicated upon is anyone’s guess but I will state unequivocally that the response Phelps and his church could anticipate is a beat- down certain.

Maybe Phelps is thinking that Newark is akin to any city he knows in Kansas and maybe he is thinking that because he was once a civil right lawyer he will be received favorably in a city that is largely black and mourning one of its black heroes who has left their ranks way too soon.

Just in case Fred has been reading the traveller’s guide from some airport kiosk an does not really know the belly of the city he plans to take his tribe and picket lines to, let me suggest that he looks at some headlines like “Teen killed, 12 others injured in Newark shootings Three separate shooting incidents claim victims in NJ’s largest city,” “In wake of police layoffs, Newark murder rate soars as violent crime increases”, “Newark police officials say overall crime was up six percent in 2011, with a total of 90 murders. That’s four more than the year before”.

These are not snippets that Phelps will read in any traveler’s brochure. These are the headlines of a social crisis in one of the densest cities in the nation that is plagued by unemployment and shattered dreams. And if he still needs further reference, he could visit this site for any clarification of statistics that he may need: www.newarknj.areaconnect.com/crime1.htm

If Phelps knows God like he says he does then he should start praying before he gets to Newark. For, though God may be pissed at Phelps, in His wrath he remembers mercy. And if when he starts to pray his tongue cleaves to the roof of his mouth, then he could call on Chris Christie who may be accommodating and lend him the New Jersey contingent of the National Guard to escort him safely back to Topeka Kansas, if only because he came to support the Conservative Christie and protest the rights of people to marry.

The Pill vs.Viagra – Catholic Rationale

February 14, 2012 By Verian Leave a Comment

Apparently there is some logic to the Catholic Church’s conscience battle over the use of contraception.

According to the analysis from the pulpit of the local St. Paul’s last Sunday, using Viagra is for the moral good. The holy analysis was that the use of contraceptives is for the intentional prevention of the creation of life while the use of Viagra helps the male overcome the pathological condition that would prevent him from causing his wife to be impregnated. Strengthening a good (using Viagra to help impregnation) is quite different and certainly more desirable than destroying a good (conception). Of course there was some gratuitous injections of how sex should be conjugal and not for recreational purposes.

Then ‘Father’ arrived at the thesis of his sermon. He called into contention President Obama’s audacity to order that Catholics violate their collective religious conscience by being forced to purchase contraceptives in a land where religious freedom “ranks first in the Bill of Rights”.

Then he went one step past Cardinal Doolan’s “violation of conscience” and submitted what he thought was the intellectually superior argument. The paraphrased version is that Liberals and Progressives and those who do not have a relationship with his God keep pushing the argument for contraceptives to be an item covered by health insurance because it is no different to Viagra. Well… long dramatic pause…

According to Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary, the definition of “medicine” is: “any substance or substances used in treating disease or illness; medicament; remedy.” Viagra is designed to remedy a dysfunction/disease of the human body (erectile dysfunction); therefore, it is legitimately described as “medicine.” Conversely, “the Pill” is actually designed to stop the body from functioning normally and healthily; therefore, it is not legitimately described as “medicine.”

Epiphanous oos and ahs erupted from the congregation who were now gnashing at the teeth by the very mention of the labels Liberal and Progressive.

Then, in ‘Father’s’ infinite wisdom, he concluded that Viagra is used to remedy a dysfunction of the male body. The pill is used to prevent the male body from doing its function.

The church erupted in applause. Then there was the benediction and then everyone shook hands and left.

As they left I wondered how many of the women in that congregation comprised the 98% of Catholic women who use contraceptives. I wondered how many of them actually got ‘Father’s' subliminal message of the biological superiority of the male body and its function to ‘procreate’; a woman’s choice not withstanding.

And then I wondered how many of the Catholic Priests who molest our children are prescribed this medicine to assist their pathological dysfunction.

Father’s argument may be that priests cannot get that prescription becasue they do not have wives.

Father may be right but Catholic priests do have a solidly documented track record of molestation of both sexes and fathering children with their parishoners.

Catholic Outrage – Elmer Gantry Politics

February 7, 2012 By Verian 1 Comment

Now that were back to talking abortion in this election year and using the woman’s body to define whose political views are more moral and humane, let’s pretend for a minute that the outrage we hear from the Catholic body is not intended to label our President Godless and anti Christian and is not intended to reverse the 55% Catholic votes he secured in the 2008 election.

Instead, let’s pretend that this is all about preserving the First Amendment Right of Catholics who are somehow equating the right of an individual to receive an abortion or abortion-related medicine as an assault on the collective religious conscience of the US Catholic body.

There is a little déjà vu here. In 2010 after a figurative steer down between the Church and Conservative Legislators, President Obama gave the public a diluted Universal Health Care Bill which he called a Public Option. This was his compromise to the same group of Catholics and Conservative legislators who are currently accusing him of imposing government on their religious beliefs.

Ironically, it is this group of politicians and religious men who promote the politics of healthcare as a privilege and not a basic citizen’s right while they promote the exportation of gratis health care to nations around the world at the expense of the 99% tax payers who pay income taxes of 28% or more.

For them, taking care of the needy they choose is good Christianity and it makes them feel that they have exercised the Good Samaritan tenet. This is nothing more than Elmer Gantry church poltics. With them choosing the needy they want to serve they are containing costs. For if the same exported care were given here, care givers and institutions would have to charge that same unrealistic, exorbitant, usurious rate it that forces so many into bankruptcy, in order to protect the dividend payouts to these Churches and Conservative legislators who buy their stock. By exporting it, their dividends remain protected by their tax write off loop holes.

During the 2010 political grandstanding against Health Care Reform Bill, 60 leaders of religious orders along with some 60,000 nuns joined with the Catholic Health Association to support the Obama Bill. These nuns were the ones in the trenches who saw both the fiscal and humane carnage that resulted from getting medical attention when it was way too late. Their endorsement of the Public Option was truly done in the spirit of Good Samaritan principles.

Now,with general elections a few months away, shifty politicians are pandering and are appealing to the faulty moral compasses of those who feel that death which occurs because we refuse to be Good Samaritans is not as morally bereft as death which occurs when a fetus is aborted when a woman exercises her right to choose, via her Constitutional 14^th Amendment Right.

This whole thing reeks of hypocrisy. By refusing to support any government movement towards universal health care – the Good Samaritan principle – the church is separating itself from State. By wanting to deny women the choice of receiving abortions or any medicine associated with abortions, the Church is injecting itself into the affairs of State.

To keep this in context, let us say that the current Catholic outrage is exponentially pharisaical.

Flip! Flop! Trump!

February 2, 2012 By Verian Leave a Comment

He’s done it again.

Donald Trump is in the spot light once again.

No it’s not for one of his failed business ventures, like his latest BP 750 mil golf resort failure in Aberdeen Scotland.

It is actually for another failure; that of keeping his word to endorse Newt Gingrich who shamelessly prostituted himself for political gain when he worshipped at the Shrine of Trump in December 2011.

That Donald flip flopped again is no surprise. Quite frankly it reads like a typical Trump tactic to keep his name relevant in the political arena. Indeed he has said that he would make a run for the office of President to save this dear land of his that is in the hands of a man who is foreign, whose birth and academic certificates are suspect and whose business savvy is nonexistent – though he has filed for bankruptcy thrice.

Now Trump, who clearly is afraid of what may come out were he to run for the office of US President, has decided to flip on his decision to snob Romney who neither worshipped at the Shrine of Trump nor accepted an invitation to participate in a Trump-mediated political debate.

To this flip, we could add his flop on endorsing Gingrich, his flop on moving from pro-choice to anti-abortion, his flop on moving from higher taxes for the rich to being a stoic anti tax advocate, guy, his flop from universal health care to campaigning against “Obamacare”. And in his book, Think Big & Kick Ass in Business and Life Trump was on the flipping side of praising President Obama for his astute vision as the country’s leader right before he flopped and sided with Orly Taitz of Tea Party Birther renown.

Now, in keeping with the histrionic disorder that seems to be Trump’s pathos, he has commanded the spotlight again by flipping on Newt and flopping on Mitt.

In a few short hours the lights will turn off and no one will be focusing on Trump.

At this time we could expect to hear that Trump will announce that he has withdrawn his endorsement of Mitt; especially after he would have been sorely whipped by ultra Right Wing types like Limbaugh and Coulter of the party he longs to identify with.