The Bush Theocracy

If you are still unsure that we just spent eight years living in a theocracy, these briefing covers from Donald Rumsfeld to Bush and a few select others should leave no doubt. When Bush called his personal war a "crusade", it wasn't a misstatement, it was him speaking literally. These "Worldwide Intelligence Updates" are captioned with Bible quotes (despite being a Christian, Rumsfeld sticks mainly with the Old Testament for his quotes, see my last post.)

Among the quotes used are:

• Isaiah 6:8 "Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me." Of course, Ayatollah Bush did not send himself, except for photo ops, he sent American troops to die in his place.
• Psalm 139:9-10 "If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. O LORD" This superimposed on an image of a plane launching from a carrier. (Apparently the actual quote wasn't good enough so Rummy had to patch on "O LORD".)
• Ephesians 6:13 "Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."
  

The capture, and eventual execution by a puppet government, of Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with "regime change", he was using the military for a hit. The cover from April of 2003 shows an image of Saddam Hussein with the quote from 1 Peter, "For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men." Notice that the quote doesn't say that you should send in the army to snuff the ignorant men, but that "by doing good" you will silence them, but hey, that part must have just been metaphorical (Christian-speak for "a verse I don't like" or "a verse that is obviously wrong".)

Notice how strict constructionists care much less about the sanctity of the constitution when they can use their power to try and silence the infidel.

Christians and torture

"But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." Mathew 5:39

This is certainly the first time I have posted a Bible verse on this venue, and I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the next one, but it seemed appropriate in light of the results of a recent Pew Survey.

You can read the full details on the site, but to sum it up, the more often a person attended church, the more likely that person was to support using torture against terror suspects. I cannot say that I am surprised by the results, as my own anecdotal experience would certainly say the same, but I like to think that the Midwest is an aberration. Apparently not.

Admittedly, this particular verse is ignored by Christians so much that they don't even try to create bizarre apologetic twists for it, they just pretend that it does not exist, like Matrix fans and the purported sequels.

I know that I haven't read the Bible as much as some, but my memories of Christ's teaching tend to revolve more around loving thy enemies and caring for the poor. How have Christians come to the point where they translate those teachings into "Torture the infidel" and "Unabated Capitalism uber alles" (with a soupçon of "Don't let gays marry" thrown in for good measure)?

Not WWJD, but WSJHD

That is, What Should Jesus Have Done:

Another loss in the gaming community

Just over a year after the death of Gary Gygax, we have now lost Dave Arneson as well. I never had the opportunity to meet Dave, as I did Gary, but it is sad to see that the two who created Dungeons & Dragons, and so revolutionized gaming, have both passed on, far too early.

Audiobook updates

I have reformatted and updated my audiobook page. Numerous short stories, a completed book and several in progress works are listed.

I have also started a podcast of Victorian Penny Dreadfuls. It is starting with the orginial Sweeney Todd story, String of Pearls.

I welcome any comments on my readings, or on material.

A Bishop's Hypocrisy

Bishop D'Arcy has chosen not to attend the University of Notre Dame’s graduation ceremony, where President Obama is scheduled to deliver the commencement speech and receive an honorary degree. “President Obama has recently reaffirmed, and has now placed in public policy, his long-stated unwillingness to hold human life as sacred,” said D’Arcy, head of the Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, in a written statement.

"Hold human life as sacred"?? What a crock. Bishop D'Arcy feels that Obama is unworthy to share a stage with because Obama has not taken enough steps to oppose abortion and has removed the strictures and restrictions from government of funding stem cell research. Of course for the Catholic Church, unborn (or preborn as they now try to spin things) life is sacred, much more sacred, of course, than actual functioning human beings.

D'Arcy has no problem continuing to be a part, and an important part of a Church that protected and enabled child-molesting priests for who knows how long. A Church that is willing to publish and promote outright lies because they would rather have AIDS remain an epidemic in Africa than have someone break the Eleventh Commandment "Thou shalt not cover thy winky with a rubber thingie". A Church that will not sanction abortions in cases of ectopic pregnancy, when there is no chance of a viable fetus and every chance of serious, possibly fatal, complications to the woman. This is the Church that excommunicated the doctor and mother of an 80 pound nine-year-old child who aborted the twins she was carrying as a result of being raped by her stepfather. Obviously, for the Church, the lives of actual living breathing people, especially female people, are not worth much, but a fetus, not that is a life that must be held sacred!

D'Arcy has published no criticisms of the Pope re-instatement of a Holocaust denier as a Bishop. To be fair, once the criticism got loud enough, his Popeness did say that the guy should, eventually, maybe, renounce his claims. . . But no hurry!

This comes as no shock to many women, who realize that the Church has rarely considered them more than breeding sources for future Catholics and sources of evil temptation to us weak, weak men who fall for their wiles. After all, St. Paul warned us about them, and we all know that the Church, as well as their Ptotestant brethren, are followers of Paul's teachings far more than Jesus's. That Jesus guy had a bunch of crazy ideas about loving thy enemy and helping the poor, and where is the profit in that crap?

Halfway between star dust and worm food

Turning forty made me feel old. I was not depressed about it or anything, but I wasn't "young" anymore and, with two kids not yet in their teens, having time of my own seemed amazingly far away. I would be fifty, five-o, before the rugrats would be out of the house. In my wallowing in self-pity moments, that seemed like Matlock watching and bland food time.

As I have approached, and finally caught, that previously bemoaned milepost, and I find myself almost gleeful. One kid is graduating from college in a few months, the other will start college a few months after that. My parenting duties have altered considerably. While they are not eliminated by any means, nor will they ever be, they no longer have to be the first thought on awakening and the last thought ion the evening.

I am healthy, if not in particularly good shape. My digestive system has not become a troublesome issue, it is still able to handle the most of the experiences that my taste buds decide to give it, whether it be spicy jambalaya or a pilgrimage to White Castle. I haven't tried to find out if it can still handle half a quart of scotch in a sitting, but I also haven't felt the desire to try it for a number of years. I am quite willing to attribute that to a modicum of wisdom gained, rather than of an ability lost.

Jill and I have, for a while now, had more time to spend together, just the two of us. I look forward to this excitedly, Jill with a bit more trepidation :) For the first time in over twenty years, our evenings and our weekends require us to fill rather than being a laundry list of "what is going on this weekend?" It will take us some practice to get the hang of this new found personal space. We are out of practice at this whole "free time" thing. But even if it is merely spending an evening together on the sofa watching someone murdered politely in some quaint English village, it is great to be able to do it.

I look forward to spending more time on hobbies, be it gaming, World of Warcraft or recording for Librivox (which I have started recently and am enjoying very much, but then I always liked the sound of my own voice!)

So today will be spent on black cakes and canes with turn signals but, for me, it is a day I have been looking forward to!