Politics

So Palin continues to deride those areas and individuals who don’t vote Republican in the election, that they’re really anti-American. They’re traitors to their country, and they don’t really love god, the flag, or apple pie.

I was reading over a post by a blogger who was extolling how Palin will ride to the rescue in 2012. Why this soccer mom – the idea of a muggle deciding to get involved in politics is a nice idea, even up to the state legislature level – getting any real consideration. All she can do is evade answers to any real questions. She’s uneducated, uninformed, and dangerously so backwater that I wonder how she allows herself out of the house (her mentality is shades of women supposed to be barefoot and pregnant).

I suppose what pisses me off most about this election more than most is that the Republican’s only option is to come from a platform of fear. If you don’t vote for us, you’re a trator. If you don’t vote for us, you’re killing our children by encouraging terrorists to bomb the US. The lists goes on.

Big city people have an infinitely better sense of the bigger picture than yokels from backwater hamlets. But it’s just those small town, small minded people who are still clinging on to the idea that those WMDs are still out there in Iraq. All they know is their own backyard and care about the next PTA meeting. There’s nothing wrong with living in a small town, but really, don’t pretend to know about (or care about) things that go on in the world that happen beyond the county lines. Palin’s a great one to push for the new bake sale, but she has no business being on a national (let alone international) stage.

What the fuck? Are people in this country really so dim that they think Palin’s a good idea? The notion that she might be one heartbeat away from the Presidency is mortifying. Granted she’s the MILF next door, but she’s simply not that bright or informed. And being someone who can’t make up her mind unless God tells her to, that’s even more scary.

Here’s another of her latest commentaries:

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who has accused Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama of "palling around with terrorists," has refused to call people who bomb abortion clinics by the same name.

When asked Thursday night by NBC television presenter Brian Williams whether an abortion clinic bomber was a terrorist, Palin heaved a sigh and, at first, circumvented the question.

"There’s no question that Bill Ayers by his own admittance was one who sought to destroy our US Capitol and our Pentagon. That is a domestic terrorist," Palin said, referring to a 1960s leftist who founded a radical violent gang dubbed the "Weathermen" — and who years later supported Obama’s first run for public office in the state of Illinois.

"Now, others who would want to engage in harming innocent Americans or facilities that it would be unacceptable to… I don’t know if you’re gonna use the word ‘terrorist’ there," the ardently pro-life running mate of John McCain said.

Early this month, after the New York Times ran an article highlighting the ties between Obama and Ayers, Palin told a campaign rally in Colorado that Obama "sees America it seems as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."

Attacks on doctors who practice abortion and on family planning clinics in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s left several people dead and scores wounded.

Eric Rudolph, the extreme right winger who planted a bomb at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, which killed one person, was sentenced three years ago to two life terms in jail for an abortion clinic bombing in Alabama in which a policeman was killed.

I’m not a fan of fanatics of any persuasion. Rather by definition a fanatic can no longer thing for themselves but is only fully driven by their abject and blind faith in their world-view (most notably in instances of religion).

I got another of Fred’s spam email’s, and this one was a diatribe of Obama’s comments that America was a nation of many religions and not just one (talking about Christians, Jews, Muslims, etc). This email actually took exception to the statement. How bloody ignorant does one have to be to not at least see the comment as one of fact. You might not like the idea, but I’d really not realized how much the counter-reformation was still alive and well in the xenophobic kneejerks that happens when people realize that there’s not just followers of the Jesus Cult making up the citizens of the USA. Rather by definition Christians are all just lapsed Jews anyway, but that’s a theological joke, so let’s move on.

Now don’t think that I’m not annoyed by the fact that all the religions can have their festivals and events, but have a large Christian event and people will get all bent out of shape. Christians should entirely be able to celebrate their holidays (enough with this getting twitchy whenever there’s a christmas pagaent or carols). I sword to never associate with any ACLU after their roughshod attacks on my hometown’s christmas program. Nothing like seeing a 50 year old tradition vanish on a whim. But while I support those, I would also say that if the community wanted a kwanzaa event, or beltane, or whichever, they had an equal right. And the size and attendance to each will be proportional to it’s pervasiveness in the community. But they should all be able to have their time. It only serves to enrich the community as a whole.

Militant Muslims, like militant Christians are equally types of terrorists. Each speaks about wiping the other off the map before the other guy can do it to them. They interpret the Bible and Koran each as giving them full leave to kill the infidels. While most plain thinkers reading either book will walk away with messages of “be nice to each other”.

Someone like Palin is one of those who scares me with the idea that people can still honestly believe that the world is a few thousand years old, that the bible is absolute literal and infallible truth. That in a thousand years we are still a few lines of rhetoric away from another Crusade in the Holy Land. 

What follows is an article from the Huffington Post. It’s still scary how this woman is fawned over by a wide swath of the country. Someone who truly believes in the God’s Holy war in the Middle East. Bush slipped when he used the word Crusade, she would say it and think she means it. The very woman who just last week called Henry Kissinger “nieve” when it comes to foreign policy? The same woman who had no idea of the relevance of Alaska’s proximity to Russia. Anyway, here’s the article:

Three months before she was thrust into the national political spotlight, Gov. Sarah Palin was asked to handle a much smaller task: addressing the graduating class of commission students at her one-time church, Wasilla Assembly of God.

Her speech in June provides as much insight into her policy leanings as anything uncovered since she was asked to be John McCain’s running mate.

Speaking before the Pentecostal church, Palin painted the current war in Iraq as a messianic affair in which the United States could act out the will of the Lord.

“Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God,” she exhorted the congregants. “That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan.”

Religion, however, was not strictly a thread in Palin’s foreign policy. It was part of her energy proposals as well. Just prior to discussing Iraq, Alaska’s governor asked the audience to pray for another matter — a $30 billion national gas pipeline project that she wanted built in the state. “I think God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that,” she said.

Palin’s address, much of which was spent reflecting on the work of the church in which she grew up and was baptized, underscores the notion that her world view is deeply impacted by religion. In turn, her remarks raise important questions: mainly, what is Palin’s faith and how exactly has it influenced her policies?

A review of recorded sermons by Ed Kalnins, the senior pastor of Wasilla Assembly of God since 1999, offers a provocative and, for some, eyebrow-raising sketch of Palin’s longtime spiritual home.

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The church runs a number of ministries providing help to poor neighborhoods, care for children in need, and general community services. But Pastor Kalnins has also preached that critics of President Bush will be banished to hell; questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted to heaven; charged that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq were part of a war “contending for your faith;” and said that Jesus “operated from that position of war mode.”

It is impossible to determine how much Wasilla Assembly of God has shaped Palin’s thinking. She was baptized there at the age of 12 and attended the church for most of her adult life. When Palin was inaugurated as governor, the founding pastor of the church delivered the invocation. In 2002, Palin moved her family to a nondenominational church, but she continues to worship at a related Assembly of God church in Juneau.

Moreover, she “has maintained a friendship with Wasilla Assembly of God and has attended various conferences and special meetings here,” Kalnins’ office said in a statement. “As for her personal beliefs,” the statement added, “Governor Palin is well able to speak for herself on those issues.”

Clearly, however, Palin views the church as the source of an important, if sometimes politically explosive, message. “Having grown up here, and having little kids grow up here also, this is such a special, special place,” she told the congregation in June. “What comes from this church I think has great destiny.”

And if the political storm over Barack Obama’s former pastor Jeremiah Wright is any indication, Palin may face some political fallout over the more controversial teachings of Wasilla Assembly of God.

If the church had a political alignment, it would almost surely be conservative. In his sermons, Kalnins did not hide his affections for certain national politicians.

During the 2004 election season, he praised President Bush’s performance during a debate with Sen. John Kerry, then offered a not-so-subtle message about his personal candidate preferences. “I’m not going tell you who to vote for, but if you vote for this particular person, I question your salvation. I’m sorry.” Kalnins added: “If every Christian will vote righteously, it would be a landslide every time.”

Months after hinting at possible damnation for Kerry supporters, Kalnins bristled at the treatment President Bush was receiving over the federal government’s handling of Hurricane Katrina. “I hate criticisms towards the President,” he said, “because it’s like criticisms towards the pastor — it’s almost like, it’s not going to get you anywhere, you know, except for hell. That’s what it’ll get you.”

Much of his support for the current administration has come in the realm of foreign affairs. Kalnins has preached that the 9/11 attacks and the invasion of Iraq were part of a “world war” over the Christian faith, one in which Jesus Christ had called upon believers to be willing to sacrifice their lives.

What you see in a terrorist — that’s called the invisible enemy. There has always been an invisible enemy. What you see in Iraq, basically, is a manifestation of what’s going on in this unseen world called the spirit world. … We need to think like Jesus thinks. We are in a time and a season of war, and we need to think like that. We need to develop that instinct. We need to develop as believers the instinct that we are at war, and that war is contending for your faith. … Jesus called us to die. You’re worried about getting hurt? He’s called us to die. Listen, you know we can’t even follow him unless you are willing to give up your life. … I believe that Jesus himself operated from that position of war mode. Everyone say “war mode.” Now you say, wait a minute Ed, he’s like the good shepherd, he’s loving all the time and he’s kind all the time. Oh yes he is — but I also believe that he had a part of his thoughts that knew that he was in a war.

As for his former congregant and current vice presidential candidate, Kalnins has asserted that Palin’s election as governor was the result of a “prophetic call” by another pastor at the church who prayed for her victory. “[He made] a prophetic declaration and then unfolds the kingdom of God, you know.”

Even Palin expressed surprise at that pastor’s advocacy for her candidacy. “He was praying over me,” she said in June. “He’s praying, ‘Lord make a way, Lord make a way…’ And I’m thinking, this guy’s really bold, he doesn’t even know what I’m gonna do, he doesn’t know what my plans are, and he’s praying not, ‘Oh Lord, if it be your will may she become governor,’ or whatever. No, he just prayed for it. He said, ‘Lord, make a way, and let her do this next step.’ And that’s exactly what happened. So, again, very very powerful coming from this church.”

In his sermons, Pastor Kalnins has also expressed beliefs that, while not directly political, lie outside of mainstream Christian thought.

He preaches repeatedly about the “end times” or “last days,” an apocalyptic prophesy held by a small but vocal group of Christian leaders. During his appearance with Palin in June, he declared, “I believe Alaska is one of the refuge states in the last days, and hundreds of thousands of people are going to come to the state to seek refuge and the church has to be ready to minister to them.”

He also claims to have received direct “words of knowledge” from God, providing him information about past events in other people’s lives. During one sermon, he described being paired with a complete stranger during a golf outing. “I said, I’m a minister from Alaska and I want you to know that your wife left you — you know that your wife left you and that the Lord is gonna defend you in a very short time, and it wasn’t your fault. And the man drops his clubs, he literally was about to tee off and he dropped his clubs, and he says, ‘Who the blank are you?’ And I says, ‘well, I’m a minister.’ He says, ‘how do you know about my life? What do you know?’ And I started giving him more of the word of knowledge to his life and he was freaked out.”

Kalnins has, of course, preached on a bevy of topics ranging from humility to “overcoming bitterness.” But the more controversial remarks reported above were not out of the norm, appearing in numerous sermons spanning the four years of available recordings.

As for Palin, her views on these topics is more opaque. In the wake of the controversy over Jeremiah Wright, a debate has raged about whether political figures should be held responsible for the comments of their religious guiders. Clearly, however, Kalnins, like many national conservative religious leaders, sees Alaska’s governor as one of his own. “Gov. Sarah Palin is the real deal,” he told his church this past summer. “You know, some people put on a show…but she’s the real deal.”

A while ago I’d stumbled across a reference to a book written by some woman (if anyone can find it, please post the link), that was a diatribe on what she felt was a great cancer in American society – and that was that some adults were not acting like adults. Here’s an excerpt from another blog on the subject of teachers who had facebook/myspace accounts who evidentially had lives:

“I thought that this quote summed up the point of the article very well. These adults did not take their positions or age seriously. In our society, the point of growing up has not been pushed to a later date. This point in life just seems to have just disappeared. There is no longer an age when young adults are expected to begin acting like full-fledged adults.”

I’m still working on figuring out the problem. Now granted, if teachers are posting out porn videos, that’s one thing, but in the simple scheme of things with the modern connected age, people have begun to sort out that you can be a functional adult (with a productive day job, home, family), but you can actually still have a life.

Thinking back to the “adults” I knew of when I was growing up – they tended to be relatives or friends of the family. How often did they ever get together to do something? Or do anything for that matter that wasn’t something utterly inane like fishing. Now there’s nothing wrong with fishing, but if you do it as a solitary outing, every weekend, for decades, it’s a tad much. They had few friends overall, it seemed to always be superficial, and a rather lonely life.

The geeks and nerds of the late 70s to today started a trend in that when they got out of college. They didn’t stop having their friends, their hobbies, or anything else for that matter. This didn’t mean that they suddenly became dysfunctional, only that they could still enjoy life rather than simply have their best aspirations be that they would have a satisfying life.

Especially conservatives seem to have the notion that having fun is a sin on some level. That it’s improper and unseemly. Bugger that. So you can go out to the Opening Gala all in black tails and prim. They haven’t fully embraced the idea that there’s a higher level of being able to do that, then a month later go to burning man, then be back home to weekly movie and gaming nights along with western martial arts.

Ironically there’s also plenty of postings and articles about how children are growing up too fast with too much information at their fingertips. Childhood as the 20th century came to know it, was a relative aberration in child development over history. Now we can begin to look towards children knowing more, and adults playing more. Neither is particularly a bad thing, as it allows a person to be more balanced and developed as a whole. Rather than only having one or two areas of any insight whatsoever.

Notice that when you go to the annual Halloween stores that appear out of thin air each year – what’s the balance anymore between childrens costumes and costumes and stuff for grown ups. When I was growing up the holiday was pretty much an all-kids affair except for parties at the frat houses. Now it’s as much or more for adults to come together and have a party.

If anything the new predilections give adults more of a chance to NOT be solitary, but rather to be part of a number of social circles and activity groups rather than being left alone by themselves night after night. 

I’ll post more on this later, but I’d been meaning to get a start on this sooner rather than later before I forgot about it again.