Fear the Fear Mongers

Little, weak minds are swayed by fear. And Texas has a lot of them.

Dan Patrick, the Republican candidate for Lt. Governor, is using fear to bait the voters of Texas.  He claims ISIS is about to invade across out borders and only he can stop them, because only he has the right fortitude to stand up to the wishy-washy Obama administration.

First, this is very typical of rhetoric from a radio talk show host, which is what Patrick is.

Second, it is not true. 

There is no credible threat from ISIS at our southern frontier. None, according to the CIA director who appeared on talk shows last weekend. And if memory serves me correctly, the reason Perry called up troops (without pay by the way) was to stop the flood of children across the Rio Grande. Unless ISIS has been indoctrinating four, five and six year-olds in Central America, I am afraid that Dan Patrick’s announcements are just hot air.

But that is the way Republicans campaign.  FEAR.  They talk to an older, whiter American voter who is afraid to death of change — afraid to death that the government is failing to protect them at every turn.  Ebola is in my neighborhood in Dallas, I don’t blame Obama, but I do blame Presbyterian Hospital for some very poor procedural issues. But my god, read the right wing sites and you would have thought Obama sprayed us with the virus from his own personal drones."He is trying to kill us off."  that was an actual quote from one of the leading voices on the far Right.

FEAR.

FDR said the only thing we have to fear is fear itself…and today we have to fear the radical politicians who practice FEAR MONGEERING as their means to enter public office.

I don’t know much about Mr. Patrick’s opponent in this race, but I do know that she has to be better than this hot air bag.

Contraception. The next battle ground agasint women.

The other day I ran my car through the local dealership to get the oil changed and a wash and wax. Apparently the guy in charge of moving the car from point A to point B changed my radio station, so that when I got back in the car it was on a Spanish station.  I reached over and began to roll the dial when I discovered it was on AM radio. 

AM radio is a vast land of all kind of strange elements.

Am radio has Vietnamese radio, Indian radio (the kind from Bombay not Navajo; although in some places the Navajo might well have their own stations.) there is all sports radio, cooking radio and even children’s radio. As I tuned my radio across the AM dial, I cam across a speaker who was making a very interesting claim.  It went something like this:

“We have defeated the abortion movement in America by making it harder and harder for women on a local level to find access to those services, which would kill the innocent fetus. We have done it step-by-step rather than in large chucks. It many cases it has gone unnoticed.” True enough, you can see their strategy played out across America.  Here in Texas they have done it with a quirky new law that closes abortion centers that are not equipped as an ambulatory surgery center. Most clinical procedures done in oral surgery, dermatological surgery and others are not done to this restrictive a standard.  So why abortions?  To limit women’s access to this service, pure and simple. And as the speaker cheered, “It is working.”

Now here is the truly scary part.  He went on to add, “And now we turn that same strategy onto the elimination of contraceptives in America.”

The bold is my emphasis, but I am sure the speaker on the scratchy AM station would be proud that his words are highlighted. 

So let’s think about this for a moment. As contraception has become more and more readily available for women in the United States, the number of abortions has actually gone down. (Again my emphasis) See the correlation?  So if these people were really trying to wipe out abortions, they would be trying to enlist the aid of contraception in their fight, not diminish its availability.

So the real truth is out now.  Ava Maria and Hobby Lobby, aren’t really after the protection of unborn fetuses.  Neither are the laws past by Rick Perry and  the Christian Right and the Catholic Church. They are after power over women.

If you tell me you are against abortion (except for those in cases of incest and rape where the mother’s like is at risk) then I can accept your position, so long as you also make contraceptives available to the public. When you say, ‘No to contraceptives’, then what you really are saying is that we want to control the women in our society by not allowing them choices in their family planning.

This is a very male-dominated, religious-driven chauvinistic worldview. It reeks of, “we don’t want people to have sex, unless they are going to make children.”  I am sorry…this will never happen.  Not now. Not tomorrow. Not in the year 2525. (Who remembers that song?)

But the battlefield has been laid out before you.  The ultra right religious fanatics want a woman totally under submission of a man and her body under the submission of their rules and regulations. Try studying Sharia Law and not find a very interesting parallel. We are scared to death of the Islamic control filtering into the USA, but it is coming from our own churches and temples.

So the next step in their battle is to turn away from national campaigns to stop contraceptives, and move into local and statewide attempts to limit women’s access to birth control.

Yes you can hear all kinds of very interesting things on AM radio. That day, I heard the future of the fight for women’s rights.

As a footnote to all of this, the other night I had a meal with a friend who is a devout something or other. I don’t care to mention his religion for it will only give them free publicity, but needless to say, he is a radical about this idea.  He is so frothing at the mouth that when the discussion came up that the restrictions placed on abortion clinics would actually endanger women’s health he actually said, “Who cares about the women? We are saving babies.”

I asked him what if a woman is raped or there is a case of incest…he waved me off.  “Doesn’t matter. God’s will.”  That’s what the Arabs say when they behead a westerner. “God’s will.”

What if the woman’s life is in danger or there is a horrible deformity with the fetus that could cause still birth?  Again…God’s will.

So when people tell me that ISIS is a threat to our freedoms and liberties and the American way of life, I also remember we have a sect of religious freaks here in America that are doing the same thing. Instead of swords, machine guns and bombs, they are using the state courts and legislatures to craft their cunning little exploits.

So what comes after contraception? White, male landowners are the only ones who get to vote?  Or an end to public education?  I guess I’ll have to keep my radio tuned to the AM dial. At least there, they are upfront with their strategy.

I plead with you. I beg you. I implore you….give, give, give.

I have received countless letters begging for money from each political party. Perhaps it is because I have in the past supported both sides with contribution to individual candidates with whom I agree and like.

But the sheer volume of mail and email that is crossing my desk and computer screen is unbelievable.  And both sides are screaming the same thing.  THE OTHER SIDE IS OUTSENDING US.  THEY ARE GOING TO BEAT US IN NOVEMEMBER.  GIVE. GIVE. GIVE. OR AMERICA WILL FALL. 

I suppose this means the parties are running out of resources at an alarming rate because the races are so very tight. In Texas there is a real fight for the governor’s mansion as well as the Lt Governor’s seat at the head of the legislature. Even local district races are close.  And when races are close both sides pour money into them.  Win at all costs. 

In a recently poll, I saw that Wendy Davis had closed the margin to a very tight gap with her challenge to reining Attorney General of Texas, Greg Abbott.  And that is good. Because the two couldn’t be further apart on issues.  Finally the Democrats and Republicans have candidates (and both are quite articulate) able to identify and proclaim differences in their stances that are meaningful to voters. So don’t give me the old saw there is no difference in the two parties.  There is a world of difference between the Democratic Party and the GOP of today.  Huge differences.

The democrats represent the notion that every man and every woman are important and need a voice in today’s society. The Republican believe every corporation needs a voice in the government.  It really is quite that simple.

In Kentucky the polls are close for the U.S. Senate race between lifetime right-winger Mitch McConnell and his Democratic opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes. This time last year, Old Mitch was a shoe-in for returning his turtle scowl to D.C. But  Grimes came along and sang the right notes to the right song and the numbers say she is actually in the lead in this close dance.  And that has cash pouring into the state.  This from USA Today:

            LOUISVILLE — In May about 40 executives of the Wall Street investment firm          Blackstone wrote checks totaling more than $170,000 for the re-election     campaign of Kentucky Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell.
            And in late June, more than 100 trial lawyers with the firm Morgan & Morgan          gave at least   $106,000 to the campaign of McConnell's Democratic       opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, at a fundraiser near Orlando.
            Money is pouring into Kentucky from across the country in what some           experts predict will be the most expensive election in U.S. history for a U.S.        Senate seat.

The article calls out that Grimes gets more money from in-state than does Mitch.  Part of this is the fact that he has worked the NY-TX-CA fund raising circuit. It was like when Hillary was running for Senate in New York and she came to South Texas, a typically strong Democratic fund raising area, to get an infusion of cash for her charge to D.C.  I didn’t like that, either.  Who do Mitch and Hillary represent?  Who will Grimes represent?  If most of their funds come from outside the state to whom are they beholding?

 Not sure how I feel about all this cash from all over rolling into a state for political purposes. I like the money that is earmarked against McConnell, but even that doesn’t feel right when you consider it comes from other states. But then again, the argument may be made that the office of a U.S. Senator is more national than local when one considers the influence he or she wields in D.C. on all kinds of matters.

More from the USAToday article:

            A (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal analysis of $37 million in identified    contributions supporting the two candidates so far in the race shows about 85% has come from out of state.

(bold my addition.)

So, money from New York, Texas and California, as well as PAC’s in D.C. is actually at war in the Commonwealth. Not right.  Citizen’s United needs to be overturned. (But that is for another article on another day. Perhaps the entire Supreme Court needs to be overturned…but again another topic for another day.)

With all of this spend-to-win mentality, the pleas and promises are flowing like beer after a Baylor Football victory: quietly in the background, but still at a great quantity.  In the time it has taken me to draft today’s blog, my email has gone off a dozen times from both the left and the right pleading that I open my American Express card and donate, donate, donate.

Instead, I am going to stay on the sidelines. My money is resting and waiting for the 2016 run for the White House. I don’t have a horse in that race yet. I have already given to the candidates I wish to see win in this mid-term election. And I am not giving any more.

And no, Mitch didn’t get one red cent from me. But then again, neither did Alison.

Unless we change the laws about campaign finance in this country, I might have to rethink this retirement thing.  It is getting too expensive fending off the Cock (sic) Brothers and their buddies.

There is too much money floating around the campaigns today.

France has the right idea.  Six weeks of campaigning for all offices. And the top offices are limited in their spending. That’s it.  Ready, set, go. There is only so much media you can buy in six weeks, and with limited and controlled funds, only so many hands in your pockets once you win.

The excessive money flow into elections has to come to a screeching halt.  Now. Mitch McConnell doesn’t like this. And neither does Greg Abbott or most Republicans who have deep, deep PAC pockets from which to draw funds.  But let them lose this election and watch them clamor for campaign reform. It always happens. 

I say, may the best party win.  Not the best funded party. I want the one with the best ideas for America. And you can’t buy creative thinking with your PAC money. It actually takes brainpower.

My new book comes out today.
The story of a tainted food supply
and a corrupt government. Sound familiar?

God be damned, it is time to end religious fanaticism.

The problems with ISIS and the rest of the Mideast is all about fanatical religion. And we've got our share of it here at home, too.

The next time someone tells you Islam is a religion of peace, remind them of this:

Quran (3:151) - "Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers, for that they joined companions with Allah, for which He had sent no authority".

And then add that in Christianity and Judaism, there are similar edicts:

Deuteronomy ³:  ^“Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. ¹⁴ Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; ¹⁵ for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land.”

Here is some more from the bible about God’s view of getting along with each other.  This too, is from Deuteronomy. “and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.”

Religion has a lot of killing and destroying on both sides. And even more so, about intolerance towards those who are different than you. Maybe religion itself is the evil.  Maybe that is why it so big in this world.  Its very foothold is at the dark side of mankind.  Remember, religion is big business. Huge business. And nothing works up a crowd like killing and destruction of one’s enemies.

The Koran teaches equally hate-filled notions such as, "Those who make war against God and his apostle . . . shall be put to death or crucified" (Koran 5.33).

So it seems there is very little ground for the “true” believers of either side to stand to work out solutions.

Thank God for the non-believers.  I know that sounds rather ironic, but it is true.

To be fare to both sides in this eternal argument, there is more than enough blame from both sects’ scriptures to seduce folk into believing just about anything. A fine study of this can be found in the 2009 Boston.com article by Phillip Jenkins “Dark Passages.” I would urge you to visit it and read it.  (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/03/08/dark_passages/?page=full)

The great fear factor people find in religious intolerance is that it is fierce.  Strong enough to create radicals on each side: radicals that would kill and torture in order to uplift their image of their god (smaller case on purpose).  To die for one’s religion is one thing, but to kill and maim for it is quite an honor, for with those actions come sainthood. The Catholic Church is full of saints who lead armies against the infidels in the Mideast during the Crusades. The more one killed, the higher the calling from Rome one received.

Today there is a fierce reaction from “Christians” over the actions of radical Islamics. And, one can say vice versa. The more we interfere with their cultures, the more hatred they spew back at us, all in the name of Big Old Bad ass Allah. And carpet bombing doesn’t seem to help in the long run, nor does invasion. So, the key issue is how do moderates on both sides reach a common ground without letting the religious few destroy the entire world.  Secular rule is a key here.  Keep the church and the mosque out of the game.

Recently the Dallas Morning News ran a letter where by the writer stated that the conflict in the Mideast is not a religious conflict. I beg to differ.  It is totally religious.  Totally about “my beliefs” over yours. It is about an ancient and very narrow interpretation of the scriptures. (Both sides are wantonly guilty of this.) Even with Islam itself, the two main branches are now so at odds with each other that they would just as soon kill their fellow Muslims then look at them. Why? Religious intolerance.  My way of the hi-way.

This is why religion, of any kind, cannot have a foothold in the government. Secularism is the answer. Shia Law in Mideastern countries or the Rebirth of Puritanical Law in U.S. government must be halted. It is bad medicine for what ails us.

It is not my goal here to tell folks that they can’t believe in their flavor of the God Myth.  They are welcome to.

But keep it out of the halls of lawmakers and courts.  It has no business there. The founding fathers were at best Deist.  Some were even less than that.  What they believed in their heart of hearts was that all men are created equal and that everyone should have a chance to live his or her life in happiness and peace, without the interference of a state religion with guidelines for what we should believe or pray to. We should return to that adamantly.

I hear people say that the founding fathers wanted a Christian nation.  Not true.  It is never written about in our national papers.  In fact, many feared the church and its wealth and power. In America, they saw the opportunity for a land for freedom…free thinkers who could believe as they saw fit without persecution.

The entire world could do well to adopt that character.  But before we stand and act, remember, it is not our job to force that down others’ throats. That is what has gotten us into the shape we are in, in the Islamic world as it is. Our boots on the ground has not won us friends, but has radicalized our enemies and grown their numbers of supporters and troops.

What this world needs now, is the moderate voices everywhere to arise and say ‘that’s it.’  No more religious fanaticism running our lives. We demand the rule of law as passed down by men and women elected from at large, not translated from ancient scripts we call the Bible or the Koran.

The problem in the Mideast is all about religion. Don’t kid yourself. Your God versus their God. And it is about time it stops.

Omaha. Omaha. Hut. Hut.

Football is a violent sport. (Basketball is catching up fast, but more on that another day...) I played football.  Had a knee operation because of it.  But today the game is far rougher...today's athletes are bigger, stronger, faster and better trained at hitting and hurting.

There is a mentality in the NFL (and some colleges) to "waste your opponent at all cost." Knock them out of the game. Get rid of them. Football is about hard knocks and hard hits. Brutal hits.  And the people who have been paid to play it are our modern day gladiators.

It is not your grandfather's game. Hell, it's not even the game I played.

The game moves at speed I can't even image.  It is played by players who are huge.  They are beyond strong, they are mountains. They are, as one TV sportscaster called them, "freaks."And now more and more of these "freaks" are also becoming criminals.  Some of this is due to the fact that a lot of colleges have gone into the inner city to recruit street kids to come and play for the ole alma mater. ESPN ran a documentary about the problems some college coaches were having in building the "team" concept because of rival gang members on their squads. Really? And you expected something different because they weren't wearing the Hoods or Bloods colors but rather the Blue and White or Orange and White of your school? And when these guys have served their four years at State U, they move on the big paying jobs of the NFL.  But with them comes all their street habits. Killers. Rapists. Abusers. DUI'ers...the list goes on. Hell in Dallas we even have an owner who in under investigation for sexual harassment. And he wants to add a man convicted of manslaughter back onto the team. The Cowboys should change thier name to the Outlaws.

So here is the deal. You want to change football.  You don't do it in courts.  You don't do it protesting outside the stadium. To change the game, you must tune out.

Turn the TV off.  Quit buying paraphernalia of your favorite team. Quit supporting their functions. In short, turn in your fan credentials. Now if ten people do this, the NFL will not notice.  But if ten thousand do it, they will begin to look around.  Ten million...and you will change the system.  And not from the NFL...but from the networks that fund them.

If football is too violent for you, if the people playing it are too ugly and too sleazy, then pick up the remote and switch the channel. It is one sure vote against what is going on.

The other night I tried to watch Monday Night Football on ESPN. But every other sentence was about this player or that player and the crimes they had committed. When the players introduce themselves and tell what college they are from, I think they instead should have their arrest record up. I got sick and tired of watching this horseshit, so I switched to PBS and watched the Roosevelts.

Try this. Next weekend, don't watch a single NFL game.  No Cowboys. No Eagles. No Giants or 49's or whomever your team of choice may be.  Just turn the set to something else.  Or better yet, turn it off and read a book. (Go to Lulu.com and buy one of mine and we will be on the way to solving more than one problem in America. LOL).
 
I watch very little baseball anymore.  The drug scandal ruined me on it.  (That and the fact that the guy running the Texas Rangers is a nincompoop and has totally ruined the team with silly ass trades.)

Change the sport. Walk away from it. If enough of you do this, they will notice.

Food supply in trouble

I read yesterday about a movement on by scientists and nutritionists concerning the food chain in the United States.  They were concerned at how quickly it was being tainted with chemicals that were and are being used as pesticides and antibiotics with little or no oversight by the FDA.

One was quotes as saying. "Unless we get this under control, our entire food system could be tainted.  And we are just not sure what the outcome of these chemicals will be."

EU countries have already taken measures to secure their food chain against GMO's and in-grown pesticides. France, Belgium, Poland, Germany and the Netherlands to name a few have refused grains and feed stocks from America, becuase they can not be sure the grains and feeds are free from the chemicals that scientists are most worried about.

I say this to give as background for my new novel coming out October 1, 2014: The Perfect Food.

The Perfect Food is here, John Crawley’s 14th novel and it is no diet book.

Thousands of Americans are dying from an unknown, unseen killer.  Young, old, active, sedentary, north, south, east and west, they are succumbing to a disorder that has scientists and doctors baffled.  Then a whistle blower at a huge chemical company lets loose a memo that brings the problem into perfect focus and an administration down to its knees.  America’s food has been poisoned.  And the men responsible for it are two of the wealthiest men in the country.  So powerful are they, that their immunity has been all but sealed by Congress through years of payoffs and slush funds. They even have their tentacles deep inside the White House.

It takes the audacity of reporter, Scott Keen, to delve inside the twisted tale to bring light to the darkness. To give a country a glimmer of hope while facing this dreaded disorder.

Look for The Perfect Food at Lulu.com and your favorite ebook retailer October 1. And watch what you eat.

 

How wrong can five “smart” men be?

 Randy Carlson is a long time friend of mine. He just happens to be a lawyer and a devout Southern Baptist. He may even be a deacon, but I’m not sure about that. His views on Constitutional law and on the Bible —as the inspired word of God —overlap mine about one, one-hundredth of the time. But we have remained friends despite his ignorance. (He will laugh out loud when he reads that.)

After reading yesterday’s blog, Randy wrote me a personal note.  At first I didn’t even want to open it, knowing I was going to be scolded for being such a leftist and radical. But I was surprised.  Randy not only agreed with me, he went beyond my own sentiments about the Hobby Lobby case.

I wish I had written this.

            “We have come to a point in our society where everyone’s little bitty inkling of what they think to be true, supersedes reality. It started a long time ago on the left, but I must say, and it pains me so to do, that as it grew into a cause for the Christian Right, it has taken on a fervor unlike anything I have ever seen.

            Regardless of what is true, what is right and what is based on science and fact, the Right has come up with a system of belief that if it (whatever it is) goes against ‘my FAITH’, then it is wrong and must be destroyed.

            That includes long held values of fair play, equal rights and liberty and justice for all. That obsession to Faith also now stands up against the Law of the Land itself.

            God help America at this time.

            Why do I say that?  Because our most high court, the Supreme Court, who should know better, has bent to the Right and made this argument a political issue inside a court of law — the highest court of law at that. It should not be a political issue, it is a legal issue, a constitutional issue, an issue of long-standing principle: An issue of rights. And those rights should be considered as facts given to and received from the Constitution of the United States: NOT THE BIBLE. I fear instead, the arguments have come from right-wing zealots and Christian do-gooders who have undone centuries of progressive law and advancement in the USA.

            When my personal faith trumps the law of the land we are in trouble.  When it is a corporation trumping it is down right scary.

            As you (John) wrote yesterday, that is, in deed, a slippery slope. But we are on it. And I fear it. As an officer of the court and one who stands before the bar on a daily basis, I fear it to no end. As a born again Christian, I fear it even more.  I fear the ultimate backlash that awaits us on the other side of this issue.

            I trust in God. I trust in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But I am sworn to uphold the laws of this land. And religion cannot be allowed to trump them. When they do, we have sunk to a form of Sharia Law; and under such, all freedoms are subject to the will and whim of a few “enlightened ones” whose faith is placed on a pedestal above all others.

            I fear the door the Supreme Court has opened, has let loose on our land a poison we have tried, since the founding of the Union, to keep at bay: that poison is religion running our state. 

            As strange as this may sound, God help us.”

Another attorney buddy of mine, Brad Echols penned: “One more step along the path of corporations having more rights than people.”

Under this court that is what is happening. It is so true it hurts.

Brad and I tend to view the world very similarly. And like I have said, Randy and I over the years have disagreed more often than we have agreed. But on this ruling, by this politicized court, we have come to a common ground.

This case was never about contraception.  After all, Hobby Lobby already provided insurance before the AHA, which provided contraception. And their retirement program invests deeply in companies who manufacture contraceptive drugs and devices. So their “life-value” argument is filled with problems and logic holes that five members of the Supreme Court failed to consider. Facts that dispute their statements of “faith.”

No. This court case was launched to usurp logic and law with the “word of God.” And that, as my friend Randy and I agree on, is very, very dangerous.

     

P.S.
      
The lawyers keep weighing in William Price, Jr. said this:

"The Supreme Court depresses me. How can they rule that Corporations have "religious rights?" or that restricting Corporations' ability to donate to political campaigns is an infringement on the Corporation's freedom of speech?
Show me a corporation that bleeds in a war and maybe I will change my mind."

            
American are you listening? The court may have spoken but I think the people are about the speak real loudly.