Protection of Wealth

You know, I just love it when there is scientific evidence showing that the rich are, by and large, pricks. Just what kind of dickweeds are the rich? They are very prone to stealing candy from babies, among other things. In fact, when researchers just made people feel comparatively wealthy, people were suddenly way more likely to cheat and lie. Apparently the rich feel entitled to the best so the bastards are in it to win it.

This certainly doesn’t mean all rich people are Mammon worshiping, self-serving, egotistical asshats … but those who are not goat blowers are the exception, not the rule. The people who are both good and rich must have had a rock solid moral center to survive the corrupting influence of wealth.

I believe that a good way to ascertain a person’s morals is to look at their actions. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet give away a shitload to charity. Moreover, they don’t seem to have a revolving door for trophy wives, unlike the stingy twit Donald Trump. Kim and some of her fellow Kardashians were caught keeping 90% of the profits they were collecting “for charity”. Barak Obama gave away 13.6% of his income to charity last year, while Santorum, that holier-than-thou Mammon loving bigot, gave away 1 % of his wealth to good causes.  Easier to try to take away other people’s birth control than it is to give up some of your cash, huh? Your “Christianity” is represented by a dollar sign, Santorum, and I despise you for it.

But I digress.

Why do the rich, as a whole with the exception of a few individuals, feel free to lie or cheat and expect to get away with it? I agree with social scientists who theorize it is because the rich are protected from consequences. The most glaring example is the fact that no banksters have done any jail time for their evil shenanigans. But there are the lesser known facts that demonstrate the cocoon of safety the rich operate inside. For example, when a millionaire stops paying the bank for a mansion, the bank waited six months longer to start foreclosing on him/her as they would a middle-class guy/gal down on their luck. Or lets look at the fact that Paris Hilton gets busted for drugs and stays free, while poor people busted for drugs serve time in our corrupt profit-driven prisons.

I guess this is also why greedy, money-glutted pustules feel free to whine to reporters how much they hate the Occupy Wall Street movement and the 99%, because they don’t see why they should have to pay their fair share. If their entitlements are encroached on by even a fraction, the narcissistic twats go ballistic, and decry how mean everyone is being to them, bless their hearts.

There was a reason Jesus said it was easier to get a camel through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven, and why Paul  proclaimed in his letter to Timothy that the love of money was the root of all evil. Wealthy people’s self absorbed asshatery has been disgusting for a long damn time, and good men have always called them on it.

I rather be middle-class and have to pinch my pennies than play for Team Mammon, y’all.

PS – Although  that arbiter of “truthiness” Faux News reports that Romney gives away almost 14% of his wealth to charity, and don’t mention Santorum at all, they maintain that Obama only gave 1% to charity … not the much larger amount reported by other reputable news sources.

Express to Hell

I think the concept of Hell is thrown around too much. I don’t believe in “eternal” damnation. That’s a long damn time. I think it would be enough to get a firm scolding by the Great Spirit for the piddly little bad shit all do. But I think truly heinous things are punished … seriously. I , personally, think that evil doers have to experience the things they have done to others, repeatedly, until they are more than just sorry they were caught. I think they are punished until their remorse is a greater punishment than that of relieving the horrors from the victim’s end of things. That seems fair. As Pope, I am making it one of the central tenets of the SCNa.

However, if there is an eternal chasm of fiery despair, former Salvadorian Gen. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova is headed there.

He was a graduate from the “School of the Americans” (our despot training center) and our “ally” against the leftist population of El Salvador during the 80’s, and when he “retired as defense minister in 1989, amid praise from United States officials for his performance” he “came to settle in Florida as a legal permanent resident.” But thanks to a law passed in 2003, we can now deport his ass for his war crimes … which we trained him to commit, but we aren’t talking about that in the papers, of course.

Among the many atrocities he authorized or committed himself were the rapes and murders of four nuns, “Sister Dorothy Kazel of the Ursuline Order; Jean Donovan, a lay missionary; Sister Maura Clarke and Sister Ita Ford, both of the Maryknoll Order.”

As well as targeting doctors and clergy that helped the poor, the Salvadorian “Death Squads” routinely murdered babies and children.  The brutal far-right Salvadorian government responsible for these war crimes was supported by Presidents Carter, Reagan, and Bush. Glad to know we can all be bipartisan in favor of malignant fiends, y’all. And by “glad” I mean “puking”.

Come to think on it, I don’t think eternity is too long for these pus-filled bags disguised as humans to burn in Hell. Yep, I’d say infinite agony would be a suitable reward for these vile mockeries of humanity. And any players in foreign power-structures who aided and abetted this shit? They are probably going to be in for a rough time when they go to meet their Maker.

At least I sincerely hope so.

The fire alarm

As I have mentioned before, Spock is in pre-preschool at the YMCA. There are 7 other little kids in the class besides her. 5 of the kids have moms who are clearly members of the white middle-class. Two of the kids have moms who are people of color, a Mexican-American and a Pilipino-American.  Then there is me. I look all white and middle-class but I am really a hillbilly. It is a very different mindset than the culturally ascribed “norm”.

The fire alarm threw into relief the difference between “us” and “them” last Friday.

Around 9:30 AM alarms started blaring throughout the YMCA. Now, I don’t dick around about fire alarms. I assume they are warning of a real fire until it is proven differently. Thus, I hurtled into Spock’s class to help evacuate the kiddies. Right behind me were the two moms of color. I don’t know what facial expression I was wearing, but the moms and teachers had looks of Grim Determination, so I assume I was also similarly Grim of visage. Clearly we were all under the assumption of “this is not a drill”.

The teachers already had the class 90% of the way out (It was less than 30 seconds. I was impressed.) and didn’t need much help, but they got it anyway. The moms of color formed a ‘herding perimeter’ to make sure no small children strayed away from safety and I, realizing it was freaking cold out and that the teachers had (wisely, because you do NOT hesitate in a fire) been unable to get coats on the kids, grabbed the coats up in a mighty armful and followed the class out. We didn’t even finish putting everyone’s coat on outside before a member of the YMCA staff came out to tell the teachers that it was a false alarm. A Butterfly (the 4 yr old group) had pulled the fire alarm.

All the children were brought back in. Class resumed with no problem. Snack was passed out.

The moms of color, whom I know as Maria’s Mom and John’s Mom because I only have room for one set of identifiers in my head and can remember the monikers of the youngsters but not their parents names, stood in the vending machine alcove and chatted. They are really nice, and we talked about how scared we all were when we heard the alarm.

That’s when I realized the mainstream moms had continued their exercising and had just assumed it was a false alarm and no need to worry. I have no doubt those women love their kids. They are all very attentive, talk about their kids, and the children are all clearly being lavished with everything they need. But the moms all felt safe in assuming the best. It didn’t occur to them to react as though there might be real danger.

Me and Maria’s Mom and John’s Mom did not assume the best. We assumed the worst. I think it is because moms who have experienced poverty, or who are just one generation out of it, know kids are safest when you have a Mad-Eye Moody level of constant vigilance.  We know, really KNOW, that bad things can happen to kids. We have no assumptions that our children are safe unless we have acted to make them safe. Furthermore, we just don’t assume that the power-structure will automatically make sure our kids are alright. Not that we had any conscious doubts about the willingness of the teachers to keep the kids safe … it’s just that we don’t trust anyone in an authority position, on a visceral level, until we’ve seen them do something to help out our children.  If we are physically near, we will actively intervene for our kids, just in case.

Lilo and Stitch have already been diagnosed with OCD and anxiety disorder … and I wonder if my hillbilly parenting is making it worse for them? I do harp on the fact they should ALWAYS look for cars moving in parking lots, that they should NEVER get near the street, that they should NEVER go with a stranger even if he or she says they are sent by Mommy, and a slew of other things. God knows my mother’s paranoia, which she learned from her mother, has influenced my conceptualization of “good” parenting.

Oh well, it could be worse. I could be a “Tiger Mother”.

HIVES

Okay, I was going to tell about the fire alarm being triggered at the YMCA, but I really am going to have to put that off until Monday. Today I want to whine/gripe/bitch/freak out about something else.

My precious, precious little Stitch is covered in hives again. There is no way she ingested any coconut milk. It is SOMETHING in my house that is triggering her hives, but I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what it …

Holy Shit. I was just talking about this to a friend (I am at the YMCA typing this on my laptop) when I realized there IS something new … I started using a new laundry booster that is the Earth Mother version of Oxyclean. Biokleen makes it and I use Biokleen detergent so I didn’t think about it as “new”. Especially since Stitch didn’t break out last Saturday until after she had eaten the stuff with coconut milk. But it may be a combo-thingy reaction. You know, X + Y = hives when X or Y alone don’t.

But what did she eat today (she had raisins and panda puffs for breakfast) that she didn’t eat yesterday? Yesterday she ate both of those things … and not in small amounts either. If it is the new biokleen in her clothes, why didn’t that break her out yesterday? Why would it not cause hives until late in the day Saturday? Did it just take a while to “set in”? Apparently you can have a mild reaction that takes a while to show from the first contact, but then it can get worse during subsequent exposures. What is the connection between last Saturday’s hives and today’s? Biokleen booster is the only thing I can think of. Come to think on it, the booster was not used until this last week, so if she wore clothes washed just prior, that would explain why she had no symptoms those days!

And it may be WEEKS before we can get an appointment with a pediatric allergist, dammit.

It looks like Stitch is going to be, like my mom, plagued with allergies. They are both already allergic to latex. They both spend all year with a stuffy nose and post-nasal drip. Allergies have caused mom untold misery for as long as I can remember. I really, really don’t WANT my little Stitch to have to suffer the same thing.

The pediatrician, whom I love, has told us to go ahead and start Stitch on an elimination diet, to see if there is a food that is aggravating her sinusitis. We are starting with milk, since so much of Stitch’s diet is dairy. Apparently you can “develop” an allergy to foods you have been eating for years. That doesn’t even include possible sensitivities, which are different from allergies but can be just as much a pain in the ass health-wise.

MEEP.

Send good thoughts my little girl’s way, okay? Because hives and allergies suck something awful.

PS – I picked her up from school as soon as the YMCA Inchworms let out (10:15 AM) and zoomed her home where she is now in clothes free of booster. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Bravery

Have you ever read a story about such courage you were moved to tears?

Well, I cried when I read about a woman named Cantate, who is a teacher and caretaker at Nkoaranga orphanage in rural Tanzania. There were seven babies, all under 9 months in age, in the nursery of the orphanage when it caught fire one night. Cantate saved every single baby. Every one. Even though she got seriously injured. Two babies were hurt, but they lived. They lived because this one woman rescued them from a fire in spite of the fact she was in danger of burning to death in the attempt.

It is, due to a lack of electricity, really dark in rural Tanzania at night, so she had only the light of the flame to guide her. There is limited access to modern medicine, so if she got burned there was a very good chance that she would die in lingering agony of the wounds. The infants were not her children, yet she was as brave as any bear defending her cubs. Those helpless babies needed her to save them and BY GOD she DID.

SEAL team 6 would be impressed with this woman’s balls.

One of my brothers is a firefighter, so I’ve read up a little on fires. Fires are apparently terrifying on a visceral level. Every instinct we have says to run and to run fast. Cantate was probably scared out of her mind when confronted with an inferno, like any human should/would be. But her love for those orphaned babies was stronger and more powerful than fear. There are not words to describe the level of my admiration for her selfless heroism.

She makes me proud to be the same species.

Moreover, hers is by no means the only story of tremendous courage shown by those who operate orphanages. This stuff restores my faith in humanity.

As Pope of the Syncretic Church of Non-asshats I bestow upon them my blessing, although giving them sainthood would be redundant. I will also keep all those who defend children from harm in my prayers. Feel free to join me. You atheists can think warm and fuzzy thoughts about them. That’ll be fine.

Now, go forth and be amazed at what the best of humanity is capable of.

 

PS – The was, ironically, a fire alarm today at the YMCA where Spock is in Inchworms. Everything is fine, and I’ll tell y’all about it Monday.

Just how fragile are their husbands’ egos??

The Duggars work my nerves a bit. I , personally, don’t see how 19 kids can possibly get enough parental attention and don’t think that everyone having that many kids is ecological sustainable. Sure, the Bible tells us to go forth and multiply … but we did that. Seriously, there are 7 BILLION humans. We are good to go now.

There is also their bullshit that women are inherently, by orders of God Almighty, lesser than men and meant to subordinate to their husbands and fathers.

Um, no.

Here is an example of some of the valuable advice Michelle Duggar gives as the secret to a happy marriage.

1. A husband needs a wife who respects him as a man: This one states that a woman destroys her husband’s manliness by “being financially independent; Love is killed by self-sufficiency.”
2. A husband needs a wife who accepts him as a leader and believes in his God-given responsibilities
3. A husband needs a wife who will continue to develop inward and outward beauty: Your hairstyle, for example, can show “obedience vs. defiance” and “personal discipline vs. inconsistency,” among many other things.
4. A husband needs a wife who can lovingly appeal to him when he is going beyond his limitations and wisely respond to those who question his ideas, goals, or motives: “Ask your husband to tell you when you have a resistant spirit; ask forgiveness whenever you do.”
5. A husband needs quality time to be alone with himself and with the Lord.
6. A husband needs a wife who is grateful for all he has done and all he is doing: “Expect nothing and be genuinely grateful for each little evidence of your husband’s love.”
7. A husband needs a wife who will be praised by other people for her character and her good works.

All I can think is “Jesus, how delicate is the masculinity of far-right ultra-religious men? Seriously, they can be unmanned by their wife having a job, or an opinion, or who says no to sex when she doesn’t WANT to have sex, or has ‘defiant’ hair (WTF is defiant hair?) , or a wife who doesn’t dress up to please him every single damn day, or expects him to be a good husband instead of humbly hoping that he is one (but puts up with his shit even if he’s an asshat).

Sweet Babou is an excellent husband and I don’t do any of that crap. I just love him, as my life partner. I mean, I try to be a good person, but if I do something that qualifies as  “good works” then I am doing it because it is the right thing to do, not to make the other guys think Sweet Babou has trained me well. I expect him to be a good husband, just like I expect myself to be a good wife. He supports my equality, and doesn’t feel ‘threatened’ if I have defiant hair or a freaking opinion that differs from his. His love is not such a shallow puddle that it will dry up because I don’t do the full hair and makeup routine.

I can only suppose that his manliness is much more manly than that of Jim Duggar’s, since he doesn’t need me to be a follower in order for him in order to feel like he is a man.

But apparently my views in this matter just mark me out as  Godless and evil bitch, according to “Christians” who know the true meaning of marriage. Like, for instance, this comment on the original article about Michelle Duggar’s wifely admonishments:

ninekids9 says:

February 20, 2012 at 1:10 pm

Well, you can always tell the difference betweeen someone who is a Christian and someone who isn’t. The most critical are those who completely misunderstand Micehelle’s message because you wouldn’t know if you have never been to a class where it is expained to you. Did it say anywhwere in her statement that she was to be a doormat for her husband? I think not.. do you want to empower your husband with confidence? Do you want to look your best for him? Do you want him to know how important he is to you? That you care that he is providing for you and your children? I too am a provider.. we as women, mother’s and wife’s are. But I actually bring money in at home and on the side and still feel as she does. We are equally important!!!! We are a team!! He’s the man of the house, why not treat him as such? Half (or more)of marriages these days fall apart because we are tearing the men down so far they have no where else to go but out the front door. I will tell you this, if you don’t love your husband, there is someone else out there that gladly will… Would you rather try success as Kate and her 8? She was a horrible wife and it reflected in her show..I cringed everytime I saw her speak to Jon and look where they are now. Bless Michelle, their marriage and I will tell you what, I LOVE… LOVE my husband and if you do to then there is nothing wrong with you uplifting him, loving him and looking your best for him, AMEN!

Yeah, ninekids9, you seem to have a problem grasping the difference between loving your husband and wanting him to be happy versus treating him the way Michelle recommends you treat the “man of the house”.  You see, there is nothing that says “we are equal” and “we are a team” in acknowledging your husband as your “leader” and “asking forgiveness for your resistant spirit”. You are confusing being nice to the man you love with the kind of meek subservience Duggar is CLEARLY advocating. Or do you really “expect nothing” from your “leader” and think that makes you equals? Moreover, your insistence that women who don’t call their husband their “leader” and think that it is demeaning for women to have a submissive spirit are not possibly Christians is garbage. I am a hard core feminist and I teach Sunday School. So bite me, you self-righteous twit. (Not a Christian sentiment, but unlike ninekids9, who is the arbiter of all things Christ, my religious practices fall short of perfection.) As for Kate and Jon, if my husband was a cheating slacker I would probably be “mean” to him and divorce him too. 

I really love my Sweet Babou. I try to be good to him and make him happy. But he doesn’t need me to be meek or docile in order to be happy, because he is man enough to want an equal for his wife. A man who needs to be my “leader” in order to feel manly is simply not someone I could respect enough to marry.

Michelle Duggar must have lower standards.

WTF? Why aren’t they in prison?

I was just reading that something like 84% of home foreclosures in San Francisco were done fraudulently. Yes. Eighty-four Fokking Percent. That means that for every 100 families that lost their homes to foreclosure, 84 of them were lied to and tricked and deceived by banksters. And almost 1/2 of the foreclosures were done by lenders who did not even legally own the mortgage.

But no one is being punished for this. How is shit like this NOT theft by deception? How are the banks NOT big ol’ bulling con-artists from Hell? If an individual pulled a scam like this, his ass would be in an orange jump suit. So why are banks immune from prosecution?

Seriously, why are none of the banks, or bankers, in serious legal trouble for their robo-signing and fictitious paperwork? Is there no one to prosecute? Are you telling me not one CEO knew? Not one VP? There are no paper trails whatsoever? Because I call bullshit on that.

Jeeze Louise, what ever happened to liberty and JUSTICE for all? How is getting away with theft justice?

Could it be that the massive amounts of contributions to political parties and individual politicians by the banking industry has made the asshats defrauding people out of their homes safe from the consequences of those actions? It does give one furiously to think.

There is some song and dance going on assuring We The People that banks are are at least going to have to pay a big settlement for their skanky behavior, but I will believe it when I see it. However, I do believe that the stealth bailout of Big Banks is happening all over the place. Obama, who I will be voting for in November because he is the least nightmarish option, certainly isn’t getting anything done.

I signed a petition at change.org, but it feels like I am pissing in the ocean to warm it up … it’s not really enough.

Mammon is winning. It irks me.