Serrated Prose

Ah, the Tea Party never ceases to entertain, if nothing else. It's like a political reality show in its bald-faced righteousness, vague passions about imprecise words, and shameless contradictions. The kooks on the other side of the aisle are just as entertaining, but for now, I'm commenting on the latest clown to enter the political circus -- Christine O'Donnell. The Tea Part is decentralized, which makes it less of the Tea Party and more of a Teflon Party. Whenever some Tea Party candidate turns out to be kookier than they expect, the hot-beverage party can shrug its collective shoulders and say "We didn't do it." Christine O'Donnell is going to be one of those candidates. Politically correct folks might call her "polarizing," but in fact, she's just a fool. A fool without sufficient sense to understand what everyone is laughing at. The witchcraft thing, which I won't recount since it's been all over the news, is small potatoes.

What kind of mess do we make with monotheism? I ask that question because I don't think many people give it much thought. One god is easy, I suppose; you only have one name to remember, anyway. But he's lonely and there's that sticky subject of where one lone god came from. But aside from that, when we create a single god to hang our fears on, he ends up being a lunatic. He has to. We can't blame the lonely god for needing to be angry, loving, jealous, petty, expansive, omniscient, lacking foresight, piteous, and pitiable. He has no choice. We made him that way. Consider Yahweh. Job is regarded by scholars as the oldest book in the Bible... and what do we get in the book of Job? Some very interesting stuff, with hints of polytheism. God is the book, having a conversation with Satan; it's an amiable conversation between beings that are far beyond human understanding. Satan makes a friendly wager with God and they proceed to torture some wealthy, pious man to see if

Pretty poetic title, huh? Well, it's all I could think of in this off-the-cuff free-writing exercise of mine. But it ties in with the thoughts going through my mind. Sorry if it's not so hot, but we all have our limitations. I just finished watching the 50's version of  On The Beach . If you don't know what it's about, I'll summarize: The world sank into a sudden nuclear conflict and now a massive radiation cloud is swirling around the globe, eventually killing all those who weren't killed in the initial blasts. There's no explanation for the nuclear exchange. The only survivors are people living in Australia, but only surviving for so long. The cloud is coming. It's relentless, unstoppable. I find something charming and wonderful about a film like this -- mostly, because it would a bitch to make now. It was a movie with a grim ending. At the risk of spoiling the ending of a sixty-year-old movie -- no one survives. In fact, most folks choose gove

We're currently in the throes of yet another battle for the word "marriage." Here's the legal definition from www.lectlaw.com: A contract made in due form of law, by which a free man and a free woman reciprocally engage to live with each other during their joint lives, in the union which ought io exist between husband and wife. By the terms freeman and freewoman in this definition are meant, not only that they are free and not slaves, but also that they are clear of all bars to a lawful marriage. This is by no means inclusive of all states in the union, but it's enough for the folks on the right to latch onto and say "Look, it says 'man' and 'woman'!" Well, yes it does. But let's also consider that for congressional representation, slaves only counted for three-fifths of their total population -- not to mention that slavery was legal. Women also weren't allowed to vote. That went on for an embarrassingly long time. The afore

There's a bunch of hoopla about this anti-illegal immigrant law in Arizona ( law to in effect Thursday ). The Left protests it as an over-reaching of constitutional powers granted to the police and the Right champions it as a step in the direction of "common sense law." Normally, I despise the phrase "common sense," because sense is anything but common. It was common sense at one time to stone adulteresses and to make virgin women marry the men who rape them because they're now "soiled." Oh, wait, that's still "common sense" in a few remaining cultures in the world -- so, it's even a better example of how bizarre "common sense" can be. But in this case, the Arizona case, I agree with the law. Americans are hurting for jobs; our economy is tanking. And in spite of what the Conservatives want everyone to believe, America is pretty much not the "best" at anything in the world, anymore. Except obesity. We're

The answer to the title should be clear to most folks with some gray matter between their ears: Racism knows no color. It's everywhere -- that's why it has such power in the political arena. Notice the following story:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_black_racism You're racist. I'm racist. We all "jump to conclusions" based on all kinds of superficial nonsense such as hair length, body odor (perfume or funky stank), clothing, accents, vocabulary strength, physical fitness, and yes, skin color or cultural heritage. The best we can do is suppress these ridiculous primitive prejudices and not let them seep into our pre-frontal cortex. These prejudices exist simply as a defense against different or strange folks outside of our own tribe; their ways and speech make us suspicious and frightened.... Well, at least it did when we were living in caves and slaughtering animals with rocks and sticks. Now, there's little place for that kind of primitive thinking. P

Oh, the horror. The pain. The humilation. The bad food. How will Lindsay survive? The press wants to know because they think everyone else wants to know. I'm reticent to write anything about this fool, but the latest media frenzy so rife with the stink of human shortcomings, I can't help it. This morning, a lawyer on the Today show listed the problems Lindsay Lohan will have in jail -- the isolation, the confinement, the humiliation, and the food. The food. Really, he said that. Now, I can't blame this guy for being out of touch with reality; he's a lawyer. I won't print his name because people might think he's a little bit stupid... and maybe he is. But he's not the focus, here. Lindsay Lohan goes to jail today. She'll most likely server out a fraction of her sentence (the judge thinks maybe 20 days). I'm betting she'll serve about 12. She already has deals lined up for over a million dollars from whomever gets the first interview with her. How

I'm going to make a brief post regarding the mosque proposed to be built near the ruins of the Trade Center. Keep in mind, if you don't already know, I'm all for the elimination of religion in politics. The last thing we need is to invite the mainstream schizophrenia of religion into our politicians, who already have a problem staying focused. We don't need a personalized, subjective invisible friend whispering in their ears. It's hard enough to get their attention. Anyway, there's a proposal to build a mosque near the ruins of the Towers. Whoever stands up for this is a fool. No, really. I mean you. The problem with being a fool is it's damn near impossible to realize it. To quote Louis DePalma (Taxi) when talking to Tony Banta, "I wish you were smarter, so you'd know how dumb you are." If you're in favor of the mosque at Ground Zero, congratulations. You're part of the population that is desperate need of being just a wee bit smarter

OK, here's one that shouldn't be lost in the miasma of the Internet: http:// www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100718/OUTDOORS/7180315 Read it, or at least skim it. After you have, come back here. I'll wait. Got it? Segway mountain hiking. Have any of you seen WALL-E ? If not, part of the premise is that humans have left the Earth because we've poisoned the planet beyond use. We've left behind robots to make it habitable and plan to return within a decade or two (my memory is fuzzy on the details). But the humans stay away for hundreds of years because they're having too much fun being pampered by their machines. As expected, humans balloon into gigantic proportions, unable to walk or even realize there's a world beyond their VR headsets. They spend all their time on social networks being fed (and presumably, cleaned) by robots. It starts with the Segway. Not in the movie -- in reality. Some whiny person out there might claim that the Segway

Just yesterday, I read one of the many posts on the Internet asking the useless and old question: Is God (or Jesus) a Republican or Democrat? Let's set aside that this is a nonsensical question, just for a moment. And by the way, I'm American, so the question will be addressed as such. Other countries certainly have different problems with religion in politics, but I'm not equipped to address the world's problems. We know that both sides of the aisle claim God connections. They all go to church, claim to read the Bible or have read or have gone to Bible study groups. The question I have is why this is necessary in America. It's a rhetorical question; the answer is clear. Humans are pack animals, that's how we survive. We hang around with people who have like-minded ideas, so we don't feel insecure. For instance, atheism probably will never catch on in the American political arena because most of the faithful feel slightly afraid of what an atheist really thi