Monthly Archives: April 2023

A Few Things

I am not a baby killer. Regardless of whether a fetus is or is not a person I don’t think abortion is the best option for any child bearing person.. But, I don’t have the right, or duty, or ability to judge a person for the actions they take with their own body. I can’t demand their spiritual condemnation. That judgement is God’s and God’s alone. I believe when people legislate morality it’s dangerous, especially when it involves an individual’s personal decisions.

Those who favor banning books, or banning teachers from teaching things that give people valuable lessons, even they are are controversial should remember that someone els might benefit from reading or hearing about it. it infringes on their freedom. Banning such teaching is bullying. Implying that anyone is less human than you are is an offense against God. It violates the patriotic American idea that all people are created equal. Their desire to withhold truths from their children comes from the fear that those children might learn about something they don’t like. These deniers are afraid their children don’t have the common sense to know that learning about controversial things isn’t going to make them turn against their parents. In essence they are discriminating against their own children.. They do not trust their children to be clear thinking individuals. They don’t seem to have faith in human love or compassion. This is perhaps because they have difficulty with loving and empathizing themselves.

Yes, by themselves, guns do not and cannot kill people. And yes, people do kill people. This is not a good defense of people with guns. People with guns kill people much, much easier and efficiently than people without guns. None other than that famously woke Supreme Court Justice, Antonin Scalia, in his decision for the Heller vs. Washington D.C. ruling, stated that second amendment rights are not unlimited. He said a citizen can’t carry just any gum for just any purpose. Certain guns and how they are used can be regulated. We are reminded that freedom does not mean everyone has the liberty to do whatever they want to whoever they want.. Violating the liberty of another person who is exercising their liberty to use their freedoms is a crime.

At the leadership level Republicans and Democrats are less different than they and the media would have us believe. Both parties are heavily influenced by corporations. Republicans answer to corporations who are more interested in profit than people. They continue to follow economic principles that have little to do with ‘promoting the general welfare’ of the people. Democrats answer to corporations who use a more generous economic approach to create loyalty among their followers. They feel that appealing to the needs and desires of the average American will bring greater profits in the long term by establishing loyal customers. The Republican party makes its followers happy with secret appeals to their racial and white supremacist ideas,. These appeals are less secret now than in the past. The democrats appeal to their base by talking about doing good things but not doing a lot about it. Both sides accuse the other of doing bad things they do themselves.

Both sides try to keep the public distracted from the real issues of the time by talking a lot about issues that aren’t as important as they sound like which bathroom transgender people can (or can’t) use or demanding that their state representative be on their side on absolutely every issue. They use both social and mainstream media to tell people how bad the other party is and send out lots of emails and letters asking for more money than we have to give.

Republicans continue to try to keep people at each others throats by telling one group of people they are better than another group Or they tell a different group of people that the Democrats don’t care about them as much as another group. Because they are afraid there will soon be more Democrats than Republicans they want everybody fighting everyone else so they don’t see that the Republicans don’t have much of a plan for government. Democrats appeal to the decency of people. They feel this is the way to convince them to stop voting for Republicans against their self interests. The Republican message has backfired a little because they are losing suburbs to progressives who can now better afford to move there. These folks have become annoyed by what they think are stupid culture battles and the failure of government services under Republican rule. Democrats keep losing votes from voters who used to be loyal such as Blacks and Hispanics. Republicans tell them the Democrats only care about them when they need their votes. They appeal to their conservative religious and cultural values.

Most of us know that America is really run by a small group of super rich peopleThey work hard to control our voting habits. When Republicans are elected the wealthy few allow them to make lots of right wing laws and policies. People get tired of the weaknesses of right wing rule and eventually we elect Democrats. Then the same thing happens, the Democrats do too many liberal things and we elect the Republicans again. We go back and forth and back and forth a. This gives us the illusion that our vote counts but it is really the super rich that are controlling things.

I want to continue on something I talked about earlier. Many Americans confuse freedom and liberty and think they mean the same thing. This is not true. Freedoms are given to us by the constitution. They apply to everyone equally and are limited for everyone equally. Everybody has freedom of speech but no one can yell fire in a crowed theater for example. Liberty, on the other hand, is individual. Each person has the liberty to live their lives however they wish. Liberty is granted to every person because they are alive. Liberty come from God or whatever power greater than you that you recognize.

The issue with individual liberty is that there will always be conflicts when two people’s liberties clash. Conflicts of liberty are what most of our laws are about, civil and criminal. For example, the second amendment gives every American that follows the law the freedom to bear a firearm. The first amendment gives everyone the freedom to say whatever they want unless that speech would threaten someone else. But the person with the gun is not at liberty to shoot the speaker just because they don’t like what they are saying. Society determines how conflicts of liberty are to be judged. We do this by democratically electing representatives who debate and make laws about our conflicts. We have courts that decide who has the law on their side in a conflict. W have courts that decide whether the constitution agrees with a law or it doesn’t. Freedom doesn’t allow anyone to do whatever they want when and wherever they want. And liberty is only an inalienable right when it does not interfere with another’s liberty. These words are tossed about much too loosely.

There will be more tidbits of opinion coming soon.

Trash or Trash Talk?

While today there is plenty of attention is being focused on DJT’s arraignment and its political implications I feel the kerfuffle surrounding the NCAA women’s basketball championship has and will have more cultural significance. Angel Reese, outstanding woman’s basketball player for the LSU Tigers, 2023 champions, has been, often mercilessly, attacked for making demeaning and hurtful gestures and using foul language directed at superstar Caitlin Clark of the Iowa Hawkeyes. There is also evidence of Clark making the same gesture toward Reese but she seems to be facing less vitriol than Angel. Angel is Black, Caitlin is White and they are both women; women who have recently been thrust into the national spotlight.

Since Sunday’s championship game, there have been more tweets, quotes, and opinions voiced about this than Carter has pills. There are claims of racism and sexism, accusations, and defenses, from more angles than has a geodesic dome. Even flamboyant and controversial LSU coach Kim Mulkey is being criticized for her sartorial audacity. I say let the woman represent. But seriously, there is great sociocultural import here and it is not pretty. 

The primary issues that anger me and should anger you are not the ‘ism’ charges themselves or even the over the top coach’s outfits. Nor are they the trash talk and actions themselves. It is the hypocrisy of this commentary and the fact that in an evolved civilized world all of this should never have happened.

Trash talk has happened in basketball almost since Naismith set up the first peach baskets. In forums like the NBA, it can and often does get particularly graphic and vicious. Yet if you examine players who have been identified as the worst trash-talkers you find a who’s who of all-time great players. Universally accepted as the worst offender was Larry Bird whose episodes will his biggest rival, Magic Johnson, were considered either epic and legendary, or vile and obscene, depending on your point of view. Another player at the top of the list was Michael Jordan, widely considered basketball’s GOAT. These are two of the greatest players in the history of the game and rather than being reviled as crass and unsportsmanlike they are revered, even worshiped, as role models and heroes who saved the game and brought it to the height of popularity and profitability it enjoys today.

My point is the hypocrisy here is astounding. When cultural icons, wealthy men both white and black do this it is shrugged off as ‘part of the game’. When two young women student athletes, one white and one black, do virtually the same thing, the Twittersphere goes viral with flame wars and attacks unbecoming alleged adults. Yes, it is racism. Yes, it is sexism. But we are nearly one-quarter of the way through the 21st century. When in god’s name are we going to work through these infantile, unhealthy, foolish, cruel, uncivilized, wicked, and psychically wasteful cancers of sexism and racism? This should not be happening. This is supposed to be an advanced human culture, not toddlers screaming “I hate you” to anyone within listening distance. I continue to be appalled at the damaging stubborn stagnation of this conflict of willful obstinance. Yet there is only inertia present when the outrage fades and society is supposed to be doing the dirty work of real change

I might not have another 25 years. Will I ever see the day when the public response to such an event is a simple ‘Did you see those two players trash talking. Not very good role models” with no mention of gender or race? And when the only lesson for the players is learning that their actions on the national stage are more consequential than when they were in a high school gym and not on national TV. This should have been just another 3rd page sports section event and not a bloviated something that should never have been. A minor blip on that day’s Sportscenter.

The racism and sexism of this event are sinful examples of a mainstream tragedy of moral failure; grossly vestigial and much, much, much, much overdue for amputation from America’s spiritual body.