Give the Devil the Benefit.

Roper: So now you'd give the Devil benefit of law!
More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper: I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you — where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast — man's laws, not God's — and if you cut them down — and you're just the man to do it — d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake. 

 -Robert Bolt, A man For All Seasons-

One of the reasons - perhaps the reason, I no longer support so many of the causes I did as a younger and more innocent man is that they so often succeed in making things worse.  Civil Rights, Feminism, and so many other causes fundamental to liberty, equality and fraternity have been corrupted and have adopted the furious fundamentalism they seem to oppose.  It's as though a lifetime of being a liberal was for naught when I hear feminists declare that an accusation of rape is so likely to be true that no burden of proof is needed for conviction. The righteousness of the cause, whether it's fighting racism or advocating for public safety, is often enough to quell the qualms of the critic concerned about what we have left when we are all perfectly safe but need constantly to prove our innocence.  Let the innocent hang as long as no guilty man shall go free.

The righteousness of the cause. I used to contribute to a gun control forum in the early days of the internet. I left because of bogus figures like the 4400 children allegedly killed by guns in a week. I couldn't pry it from their cold fingers. It's only a small example of the intransigent extremism saturating the moral market.  Is it really true that no man accumulates wealth without taking it away from someone else?  It's not worth questioning that indefensible assertion, the Bernie Boys will stomp you with your Bernie Boots after breaking your shop windows.

It's not just the liberals of course. Often it's the zealotry of prosecutors and law enforcement putting liberty at risk for the sake of getting after the devil.  Take the disturbing case of Philadelphia police sergeant Francis Rawls, suspected of possessing child pornography.  His computer was found to be running Freenet, which can be used for the purpose, and there were indications of certain illicit searches. Probable cause? yes, but the proof?  The illegal images, if there are any, are encrypted on his hard drive and to be short, he's being kept under lock and key until he agrees to forfeit his constitutional right to due process and against being forced to self-incriminate.  Damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't and we don't care about the 5th amendment because we have to protect the children or the 4th because we're afraid of drugs and terrorists.

It's the constitution, boys, not a roll of Charmin.  It's a cornerstone of our claim to be a just society, a government of laws and not of moral crusaders.

I wonder how ling it will be before I put my passport where my mouth is and get the hell out of this miserable country while I still can.

Brown Shirts for Bernie

By now I'm used to the trolls. I've been blogging for a long time but of late the most viciously personal ad hominem has come, not from the Republican Right but from the Bernie Boys. I blocked someone on another venue yesterday after I mentioned to a Bernie Bully that by hoping that a candidate Clinton would fail and thus cause the nation to fail, he was taking words out of Rush Limbaugh's prayer book.

I don't think I've seen such ugly invective since I graduated from Middle school and believe me, I've read some nasty stuff in my years on-line. I am lucky, says he, that he doesn't have my address or he would kill me.

Sanders Supporters Prepared to fight, I read this morning.  Indeed they are. You can almost hear the sound of a Munich Bierstube echoing with the sound of stomping jackboots and Bernie's Brownshirts yelling Seig Heil !

Yes, they're ready to fight, because it's not about convincing the public that Big Brother B has a rational plan to address what ails us or a rational view of a complex world coupled with the ability of any president to do all those revolutionary things without an actual revolution.  It's about the fight, the struggle, the Jihad, the Kampf, the Crusade. It's about how irredeemably evil the other side is.

It's all about the urge to fight, the narcissistic lack of introspection.  Just close your eyes and fly right into the enemy battleship called "Wall Street" because, as Barry Goldwater supporters used to shout: "In your heart you know he's right." "The bankers are destroying our country" and where have we heard that one before? Sieg Heil indeed.

It's not about qualifications or experience or even about the possibility or even the legality of putting all that pie up into the sky, it's about BERNIE! St Bernie of the beer hall, leader of the Sanderistas - a Che Guevara for El Norte, the Donald Trump of the Democrats.

It Ain't Me!

So Trumpty Dumpty says it wasn't him on the phone posing as a spokesman. He says his tax returns are nobody's business either.

I hear his campaign is coming out with a song:

It ain't me, it ain't me, no, ain't my voice that's on the phone
It ain't me, it ain't me boys, blowin' on my own horn.

Some folks are born silver spoon in hand,
Lord, don't they help themselves, at all.
But when the taxman comes to the door,
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale.

It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no millionaire's son, no.
It ain't me, it ain't me; I ain't no fortunate one, no.

Trophy

And here you were losing faith in America.  Apparently the auction house now offering George Zimmerman's cheap little Kel-Tec has reversed its decision not to offer it on their auction site.  Of course I have to ask, despite all the outrage, shouldn't Georgie get rid of all his guns ASAP?

But we don't want him to get rich, do we, even though if he did have some money the Martin family might be able to sue for it, but the man was only expecting a few thousand dollars.  As of now, the bidding has gone up to $65 million.  No, that's not a typo.

But here's the funny part, As I write this, the high bid belongs to "racist McShootFace" whom I suspect not to be sincere.  It could be that the whole thing will fall apart and UnitedGunGroup.com might rue their decision to stand up for George's right to sell his property legally. Unless some patriot like Ted Nugent steps up with a legitimate $66 million to own some "piece of American History" of course.  Personally I would love to have a piece of American history like Zimmerman's mummified head, but my otherwise tolerant wife would, I'm afraid, balk at hanging that over the fireplace.

Will I be bidding?  You'll have to check at the auction site because I'm not going to say and if you do see a Capt. Fogg there, it's not me. That goes for Donald J. Drumphscheisser or Humpty D. Trumpty.  I disavow all knowledge of them.

I am duty bound however to point out to the perennially hysterical:  if you buy a gun on the Internet or on GUN.TV they cannot ship it to you.  It has to be shipped to a Federally licensed gun dealer who must go through the legal process of checks and waiting periods and in person. The cause of sensible gun control is not furthered by not telling the truth or denying it when it falls on you.

Update

This morning's Philadelphia Enquirer in an article about the auction tells us that George Zimmerman was acquitted because of Florida's "Stand Your Ground" statutes, which typically, of most discussion on the subject of guns in America, isn't true.  Such is the urge to make the scary guns go away no fact need interfere.

Frankly I'm so disgusted by activists of all stripes who indulge in "anything goes" arguments I'm done with it all.

Humpty Trumpty Built a Great Wall

"But now the big banks are back in the party, pushing for Hillary Clinton to beat Donald Trump."  

Writes Bill Moyers and if you're like most people, seeking signs and marshaling facts to back up your emotionally derived and factless delusions, you'll read that as evidence  that she will be controlled by that nebulous straw man "wall street."   

Didn't really work all the other times financial interests contributed to other candidates, and of course no matter how much some brokerage house gave her, we don't know how much they gave to others, do we?  And of course the only reason people heavily involved in managing the wealth of nations would contribute is because she's a patsy, right?  It's not that highly informed and educated people don't believe Trumptastic Mister Shortfingers is going to make America Great like it was in 1862 or 1929. It's Wall Street.  It's Capitalism and we all know how crooked that is until anyone mentions Socialism.

That's the news in America -- a farrago of fallacy being served even by those presumably smart enough to tell shit from shoe polish selling it to others who think it's shampoo.

Trump is trustworthy because he's rich and Hillary must be a crook because she's rich.  How do we understand this?  Better ask Beyonce because Prince is dead and all the while we hear them pissing themselves lest God suddenly return to kill us all because some former dude walks into the lady's room. I mean that's never happened before without at least a plague of toads ensuing.

Look, Democracy in America doesn't have a chance. It's failing fast because America is the last stronghold of stupid. We've used miraculous information technology to create and maintain ignorance, feed delusion, dress up fake arguments as news and make everyone incoherently outraged on demand.  Hot and cold running Fox and that old slime religion every Sunday.  What a great country and soon to be greater, or whiter if you prefer when we round up and deport 11 million people, establish a State religion and close other houses of worship.  Great again, like when the Conquistadors were here and the Indian hunters and slave drivers and we all had good solid Anglo names like Drumph.

FREE SPEECH, HATE SPEECH, AND THE CHOICES WE MAKE

By (O)CT(O)PUS

Our country is unique in practicing the most liberal form of free speech in the world. Yet, the right to free speech is by no means absolute. With freedom comes responsibility. Civil and criminal laws govern our conduct. The right to free speech does not include fraud, imminent incitement, perjury, theft of intellectual property, sedition, slander, smut, or breaches of national security.

European nations guarantee free speech with a few notable exceptions. Invasions of privacy, hate speech against ethnic or racial minorities, any infringement of human rights, or Holocaust denial … these are prohibited and punishable by law.

In America, bigots may denigrate any nationality or minority group with impunity. Holocaust denial - no matter how repugnant - is legal. There is no statutory right to privacy in our Constitution.

Political speech removes many constraints imposed by civil law. Appeals to prejudice. Character assassination. Deception. Defamation. Racism. The derogation of women and disabled persons. Bombast and vulgarity have become standard operating procedure. In America of 2016, political discourse has devolved into a contest of madmen for the primacy of the sewer where no smear goes to waste.

Cyberspace is the most lawless place of all. Anonymous trolls will commandeer online discussions. Scammers will spam your email box with cons and malware. Hackers seek ways to steal your identity. Bullies have driven vulnerable teenagers to suicide. Everywhere in Cyberspace, there are predators and stalkers, sadists and sociopaths.

Years ago, Kathy Sierra, a popular author of computer books, was forced to cancel all public appearances after a group of men — calling themselves the “Mean Kids” — threatened her with gang rape, violence, and death.

Last month, Illma Gore, a Los Angeles based artist, received thousands of death threats after her controversial portrait of Donald Trump went viral on the Internet. Last week, she was ambushed and savagely beaten by an unknown assailant.

Last month, Marcus Owens, an honor student at the University of Iowa, was assaulted by three white men yelling racial epithets. He sustained multiple injuries including deep gashes, broken teeth, and a damaged eye socket. 

Intimidation is not free speech when minorities, women, and other targeted groups are menaced in their homes and forced to live in fear. Negative stereotypes create toxic environments that compromise the rights, opportunities, and freedom of innocent people.

In every community, there are unhinged hotheads hooked on adrenaline who will lash out in anger, often without provocation. Taunts and threats serve only one purpose: To manipulate and dominate those whom they hate and condemn them to silence. Here is a point to keep in mind: Any threat of assault is tantamount to real assault — and the province of law enforcement.

No community is immune to controversy. In Florida last month, students from Vero Beach High School distributed a racist flier with a Confederate flag. The Indian River County School Board rejected calls to ban the flag and amend the School Code of Conduct. “We can’t legislate morality,” claimed Superintendent Mark Rendell.

Yes, we can. Rendell and the Board used bad faith arguments to kick the perennial can down the road. Thousands of years of human history — from Hammurabi and Moses to the present — teach this lesson: Codes and commandments are the oldest forms of behavioral modification.

How can a symbol of racial hatred and persecution engender a positive and safe learning experience? It can’t. After the murder of nine parishioners in Charleston last year, the South Carolina legislature voted overwhelmingly to remove the Confederate flag from state grounds. In contrast, local officials chose moral cowardice and fiduciary incompetence. 

With each passing year, we drive all standards of civility and honesty further into a savage wilderness. We equate freedom with excess and excess with freedom. We covet freedom but spurn responsibility. Reckless rhetoric and sleazy soundbites are the signature traits of self-styled demagogues who abuse the institutions of democracy and undermine democracy itself.  

As parents, citizens, and voters, we have a mutually shared responsibility to raise the standards of public discourse. We can start by making better choices.

Child Donald to the Dark Tower Came*

MY 1 first thought was, he lied in every word 

 That hoary cripple, with malicious eye

 Askance to watch the working of his lie

 On mine, and mouth scarce able to afford

 Suppression of the glee, that purs’d and scor’d

 Its edge, at one more victim gain’d thereby.

It's remarkable how the "crooked Clinton" meme has survived the many failed and incredibly expensive attempts to pin some crime on them, but then the funds behind the defamation are nearly limitless and untraceable. From Whitewater to Benghazi, I can't think of any more vicious and relentless program of defamation that wasn't the product of a religion.  Perhaps we should see the Republican party as a sort of religious entity, looking at the way people give their faith and trust to it despite an unbroken progression of broken promises and prophecies and prognostications that never come true.

Of course crooked Donald has picked up the stained and sticky baton and refers to the former Secretary of State as "Crooked Hillary" as though the title Crooked Trump couldn't serve as the title of his biography, real estate scams, infidelities, fake colleges and all.  It's apparent though that the question of honesty is of concern to the dumb bastards that support this circus clown manque with a smile as sincere as that other criminal clown, John Wayne Gacy.

I listened to a dinner conversation between two rather wealthy, self-made millionaire types recently. The consensus was that Trump was "beginning to make sense" and he seemed the more trustworthy of the choices as he was rich enough to finance his own campaign and would not be beholden to anyone if elected.  Neither would Vladimir Putin or El Chapo Guzman for that matter, but I didn't suggest it, choosing to keep my temper and my dinner behind clenched teeth. Of course if there was any beginning here it was that he may beginning to read speeches written by others rather than rambling like a bad drunk in an empty bar; raving about how China is "raping" us by buying Treasury bonds.

Motivated conjecture seems to trump all in our dumpster-diving political discussion. Flimsy attempts at character assassination easily  outweigh a sterling career while a character good enough at self-incrimination to make smearing him redundant, raves on unquestioned. Am I being overly cynical by observing that when facts or logic or any acknowledgement of reality enters into political discourse it's only as a gilded frame for our infantile and usually baseless prejudices?

What else should he be set for, with his staff?
What, save to waylay with his lies, ensnare
All travellers who might find him posted there,
And ask the road? I guess’d what skull-like laugh
Would break, what crutch ’gin write my epitaph
For pastime in the dusty thoroughfare,

* With apologies to Robert Browning

Can I Get a Witness?

One of the contributing factors in the difficulty (I almost wrote impossibility) of  that "discussion" about race in America we're constantly told we need to have is that victims in America have tended to set themselves above advice or criticism  and thereby gain the right to direct any conversation in it's course or conclusions. "for are we not victims and are not our critics all evil?"  I'm sure that by this sentence the gavel is already descending on the verdict that I'm a racist,  But enough of that, lets talk specifics.

I read in the Daily Kos just now that African American poet Crystal Valentine was deeply offended by Megyn Kelly's assertion that Jesus was a white man. Now any statements about Jesus  need to be qualified as to whether we're talking about Jesus of Nazareth, the failed Jewish revolutionary or Jesus Christ of myth.  Obviously Megyn and Crystal are engaged in equivocation, or more specifically, the fallacy of equivocation.  Those are two different characters.  Those who come to Jesus through Sunday school or through Christian education are talking about  someone either half god or entirely god or even, like Gilgamesh of Uruk, one third divine. He was a man of peace come to mysteriously erase inherited sin that without him could never otherwise be erased.  He died and was resurrected, although the family of myths diverges in the details.

There's absolutely no historical evidence for this Jesus so perhaps one can call him Chinese or a Swede or African with equal authority.  If I were part of that "conversation" I might have pointed out that the Jesus that might actually have been wasn't Celtic or blond, he was a Jew without any physical feature we know of to distinguish him from other Jewish men at the time.

It is this mythological Jesus Ms. Valentine refers to when she says:

“How can she says Jesus was a white man when he died the blackest way possible? With his hands up, with his mother watching."

The answer is easy and history gives weight to her statement, all the poetry and passion, all the sound and fury notwithstanding. It's just as valid and more so to say he died in the most Jewish way possible. In fact the notion that only descendants of American slaves have ever been persecuted and oppressed and no one elses experience can be referenced or compared  is a bit obnoxious. Jewish lives matter.

So I'm sorry, all poetic references to the child saint of Ferguson notwithstanding, Jesus was a Jew from the Northern Kingdom and likely from a tiny hamlet called Nazareth and came to Jerusalem to oust the Romans and their collaborators with divine help.but we really can't be sure.  He may be fictional, he may be a composite of the many rebels seeking God's help by purifying the people.  His ethnic background is not irrelevant, it's essential and the image of him as a persecuted ex American slave is poetic license with no power to influence objective views of history.  Jesus the man belongs to the Jews, Jesus the Savior is anyone's because we make him up as we go along, whether or not you call myth as a witness, and by doing so se forfeit the right to claim that he was or was not anything at all.   

Fear and Loathing in The Ladies Room

Are these the best or worst of times?  Probably the answer is yes, but I have to argue that they are the craziest of times.  Is it a symptom of this  national insanity that any organization with the word Liberty or Freedom or Patriot in the title is mostly about extremist politics?  Of course I have an example:  it's the Liberty Counsel * which of course has nothing to do with Liberty and  advocates for special powers and legal exemptions for evangelical Christians.  Now, when you really think about it, it really isn't about Christianity as that family of religions usually likes to be defined, but about restricting personal liberty when it comes to matters of sex or gender or whatever language is approved by other organizations that aren't about what they're calling themselves.  No, the Liberty Counsel is about restricting personal liberty and substituting a rigid code of behavior derived from. . . well from them actually.

So it's no surprise to read that the president of this august body, one Anita Staver is raving about bringing a gun into the public restrooms at Target.  Target, guns, ha ha ha.   And although in just about any State there's no law against doing that if you have a carry permit, Target has a 'no guns' policy in their stores, so Mrs. Liberty here is openly ignoring the Liberty of Target and private property rights in general and possibly engaging in Armed Trespass in particular.   Of course the Target Crapper Patrol would have to see that gun as well as they would have to see the gonads of  an alleged gender bender and neither is likely to happen as things stand in toilets everywhere.  There's never been a problem except in the evil minds of  the New Inquisition.

But the question isn't the legality but the alleged necessity of doing so, now that Target has made it their policy to allow transgendered people to use the loo of choice.  Yes, I know, there has never been a problem with that. Department store washrooms during business hours are not a dangerous place and  transgendered  or androgynous or even scary people with tattoos  have always used them and you never noticed. I'd worry more about Christ-Crazy gonad obsessed old women with guns and a heart full of hate.

No this grandstand play is about nothing other than a power play by Christo-Nazis who oppose equal rights under the law for people they choose to hate for religious reasons. They have gone to court to protect the right of pubic employees to get paid for a job they refuse to do because of their  twisted religion.  No, It's a threat of armed violence designed to create an atmosphere of fear and face it, Target has as much right to say who uses their toilets as they do to call the cops on old quick draw Staver, and Rupaul has the same right to keep and bear arms as anybody else.

So let me say this about that as Nixon used to say:  I just may begin to frequent the liberty Council and the other organizations it controls: **

• Luke 18:27 Foundation, Inc.
• Liberty Counsel Action, Inc.
• Liberty Counsel Action
• Freedom Federation, Inc.
• Liberty Action PAC, Inc.
• Salt and Light Council

And when I do, I'm going to carry a concealed weapon or two.  And why not?  You're all about Liberty aren't you? That's right Anita, I'm coming soon to a crapper near you and  no telling what I might be wearing or bearing.


* Listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.

** Also affiliated with Liberty University Law School, which was founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Liberty Counsel.

Study This!

Seek, and ye shall find, it says in the Gospels, much to the cynical amusement of those looking for things they never seem to attain, or acquire. If it's freedom you're seeking, your not going to find it if the Gospel Growlers can help it. Freedom is dangerous and so is Democracy and we have studies to show it.

I'm sure Utah Governor Gary Herbert is going to find what  he's seeking in the studies he's using taxpayer money to fund: studies to prove that pornography is a public health hazard which creates a "toxic environment." Of course it's all an attempt to preach religion from the Governor's office and nothing more.  But it's good to know that there is, at last, some notice of toxic environments in Utah, even if  he's not actually talking about the environment we call air or water or land or even  a toxin that actually poisons anything or any one.  No, those nebulous but harmful effects need to be created, hence the study.  We need to start studying  pornography keeping in mind that it's bad, very bad: it's

"a public health hazard leading to a broad spectrum of individual and public health impacts and societal harms."

It reminds me of Richard Nixon's studies of Marijuana intended to back up the bogus claims used to criminalize it.  When the studies showed no harm to the stuff, he fired the researchers.  But this isn't a medical or scientific study and it assumes the conclusion that grows out of the toxic environment we call religion.  Truth by assertion is unassailable. Support by evidence produced by fake studies is simply window dressing. When it comes to research; those "studies" we always hear about find  only what he who pays for them is seeking.  These studies tend to be the building blocks of marketing if not also the bricks paving the road to hell. You pays yer money and you gets your study, complete with an actor in a lab coat and a clipboard. If it's freedom you're seeking, your not going to find it if the Gospel Growlers can help it.

I have to wonder if the public health "impacts"  they most assuredly will find will be restricted to Utah, since they don't seem to appear in places where pornography is everywhere and I wonder if the "impact" of  rampant abuse of women and young girls that is ignored or tolerated or swept under the rug in Utah will come under review here.  I suppose it won't yet we can be sure there will be "links" to all sorts of  health risks even if we have to invent consequences to be linked to. Something will be needed if the study bothers to examine countries whe

After all we can start with the premise that "pornography is rape" thanks to extremists of another stripe and after that the only hard part is not to talk about old Mormon men with harems of little girls and other forms of Latter Day female slavery in Utah and elsewhere.

But I don't want to blame it all on Mormons.  The GOP has been straightjacket-worthy for decades, ignoring the real problems threatening our health and well-being, our freedom and survival, in favor of ranting about dirty pictures.  The Tampa GOP convention in 2012 was quite obsessive on getting "tough" about pornography and I'm sure we can remember Ken Starr from previous campaigns attempting to criminalize even medical terminology concerned with sex on the internet.  It's the Republican disease as much as a Christian disease but of course today there isn't enough difference to make it seem constitutional.

I might suggest that Evangelicals, religious fanatics of all sorts and the Republican Party are the real public health hazards: obfuscating public health programs, opposing individual liberty, thwarting science and supporting the oppression of  "gentiles."

Isn't it funny - and by funny I mean tragic - that as a free country we encourage things that have no place in a free country?