The madness of faith

by M. Stewart
The religious madness that has touched off mob violence and revenge murders continues in Afghanistan, and all of it centers on the burning of some copies of the Koran at a NATO military base.

The Obama administration has apologized for the "mistake," leading tough-talking, irresponsible Republican candidates to condemn the apology. The predictable, knee-jerk reaction from Republicans is just another indication of how far from the reality of governing these people actually are.

To me, it doesn't matter what the religion is. When people use violence and murder to express their faith, the fundamental problem of religion is showcased. Clearly Islam is a faith that leads to wide-spread militancy. It is perhaps the worst example in our time of what happens when church and state become one.

The Christian world has a long history of religious violence, but it was the United States that ushered in a new way of thinking about religion and politics that has kept wide-spread religious violence at bay for a long time. Unfortunately, the Christian right in America is constantly attempting to unravel the progress of the past 200 years by forcing faith into politics. So far, cooler heads have prevailed, but we must always remain vigilant. Religious madness can explode anytime.

But our problem now is Muslim extremists. They are everywhere in the Muslim world--including the United States--and keeping these lunatics from murdering the innocent in one of their crazy revenge schemes is the defining mission of our time.

How Islam (or any religion) can attract free people with access to education is beyond me. If nothing else, it speaks to a deep-seated human need to be ruled by a powerful man. Witness the simple fact that offered a life free of authoritarianism and superstition, most people refuse it, choosing instead a monarch made of air, whose exploits are recounted in old stories that tell of an invisible, magic king who rules the Earth from the sky. Religion is perhaps the only area in which otherwise rational human beings will agree to believe in something they know isn't real. We even have a word for it--faith. 

In the meantime, the United States--the first nation on Earth that fully understood the dangers of mixing faith and politics--must continue to drain its resources to protect itself from primitive peoples willing to kill and die to impress an imaginary sky king. Ancient conflict snaps at the heels of modernity.

Gus's Party Center

Gus's Party Center was located in the old E.L. bus station, razed by
car salesman Chuck Buckman just before he left town.

Gus Markanton and Dick Forzano
(photos submitted by Bob Moore)

It's alive! It's alive!

by M. Stewart
Yummy! Dutch scientists are on the verge of developing artificial meat in the laboratory, and not just to show they can do it. It appears that someday soon this new "test-tube" meat (right) will replace the factory-grown, antibiotic-laden, steroid-stuffed American meat that we have all grown to love.

It's news like this that takes the edge off the prospect of death.

In politics this weekend, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, whose popularity in his home state of Pennsylvania is akin to laboratory meat, spent his Sunday in Ohio going after President Obama's religion.

According to Santorum, the president's religion "elevates the Earth above man," blinding him to man's increasing need for natural resources. Having given up the Obama-is-a-Muslim position, the new approach is to claim that the president is a New Age pagan whose wacky ideas will lead us down the road to environmentalism.

I've discovered that it is impossible to have a reasonable discussion about current GOP politics. Reason left Republican discourse when John McCain invited Sara Palin to the dance four years ago. Even the excess and hyperbole of satire have become unnecessary. Direct quotes will do.

Around here at least, the Obama administration is in full support of the natural gas boom. In Ohio and Pennsylvania, the gas money is flowing, and anyone who remembers how to work can find a decent job. [Unfortunately, that disqualifies half the people of E. Liverpool.]

Republicans will tell us that this is bad news. Why? Well, even they haven't figured it out, but it is bad news. It's a matter of faith, and Obama is a radical something or other. Let's see, maybe he's a Wiccan who worships the Earth and casts Satanic spells on voters. Yeah, that's it.

Republicans, on the other hand, are in favor of systematically destroying the Earth. Who needs a home planet anyhow, especially when Bible-believing Christians (the only people who matter) are soon to be swept away into the sky for the Rapture?

Finally, Apple has leaked a rumor that the world will soon be blessed with the iPad 3 (or is it 4?). Not only that, hipster educators are lining up at the doors of media outlets around the globe to tell us how students from kindergarten to college can benefit from an iPad-based curriculum. No longer will students need to lug around 100 pounds of clunky old books. Instead, they can obtain "knowledge" by watching YouTube videos, and they can share that "knowledge" on Facebook.

Old-fashioned educators who force students to read, think, carry books, and show up to class will be out of work. This is the era of the e-book, the virtual classroom, the virtual teacher . . . and artificial meat.

And all of this will be manufactured by Chinese communists.

Politics: local and national

by M. Stewart
According to the local newspaper(s), the county Democratic Party has decided not to support incumbent county recorder Craig Brown. Instead, the party will support Brenda Dickey Myers in the upcoming primary election. Allegations of lewd comments to women have dogged Brown, and party officials apparently aren't buying his denials and explanations.

While it's fairly clear what personal qualities are not attractive in a county recorder, I have to wonder what makes a good recorder? Why is this an elected position in the first place? Is there a difference between a Republican and Democratic recorder? What qualifications should a good recorder have?

I'm trying to think if any of our local elected officials have any professional qualifications related to their positions? It seems to me that the only required qualification is membership in one of the local political clubs. You have to be in with one of the Johnsons. Is this an incorrect assumption?

Turning to national politics . . .

Republican presidential candidates continue to characterize the federal mandate that church-owned health organizations stop discriminating against women as a "Obama's war on religion." In America, churches pay no taxes on income and are above the law because of their beliefs.

Well, it turns out that most of the Republican candidates have supported similar mandates in the past. See Before current birth-control fight, Republicans backed mandates. It seems that their war on religion is over now that they want to be president.

And how about Mit Romney accusing challenger Rick Santorum of being a "Washington insider"? Romney, who does not work for a living, has spent the last several years of his life running for president of the United States. Becoming the president is his obsession; running for president might be called his profession. But doesn't the president live in Washington? Or hasn't anyone told him that yet?

On other fronts, American corporation General Motors has reported its largest ever annual profit. In 2011, GM earned $7.6 billion almost entirely from domestic auto sales. Wow! Americans building products that Americans want to buy! That's great news, right? Not for Republican candidates. They've decided it's bad news.

It's a crazy world, I know, but the Republican presidential candidates should keep us all laughing for at least a little while longer. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Is TurboTax and Iranian company?

by M. Stewart
I don't know how you prepare your annual taxes, but for many years I have used TurboTax software, and it has worked well--that is, until this year.

Last night I downloaded the TurboTax 2011 software only to discover that setup was anything but automatic. The setup program crashed several times, requiring multiple computer reboots. For some unknown reason, after one of those restarts, the program did load.

During this process, I attempted to use the TurboTax chatline to find a solution to the problem. After five minutes of waiting for the next available technician, I was told that I would need to talk to another technician. Apparently my chat request had been answered by the wrong guy. When I was "transferred" to the other person, I got lost in chatline purgatory. I waited for ten minutes or so before giving up. I already had two hours into this charade, and my patience had a short fuse.

Anyhow, like I said, the software finally did load, but the standard update screen crashed every time I attempted to update the program files. Hoping that I could proceed without the updates, I began entering data and completed dialogues for the federal return.

When it came time to do the state return, the updater attempted to download the appropriate state data, but as before, it got hung up. In short, I was unable to get the federal and state updates, which means that I could not complete the process. At 2 a.m., I gave up. When I tried this morning, it still didn't work.

When I did a search to see if other TurboTax users were having the same problem, it became clear that my experience was far from unique. This year's software is full of bugs. I contacted my bank in an attempt to stop payment on the transaction but have yet to hear back. I fully expect to eat the $65 I paid for TurboTax Deluxe, and I will end up doing my taxes the old fashioned way--by hand.

If you are a TurboTax user and this year's software worked for you, I'm happy for you. As for me, I'm done with TurboTax forever.

UPDATE: Huntington Bank has refused to stop payment on the pending transaction with Intuit, the maker of TurboTax. The explanation? The bank "cannot stop this type of transaction." Can anyone recommend a local bank that represents the financial interests of its customers? Or have those types of institutions faded into history?

Now onto the news . . .

Iran's decision to announce progress in its nuclear program is, so it seems, yet another attempt to claim peaceful intentions. From the perspective of realpolitik, the announcement is an invitation for an Israeli attack.

While it's difficult to guess the Iranian endgame, it's less difficult to predict the Israeli response. Put simply, Israel is not about to let Iran develop a nuclear weapon. Right now the two sides are waging an assassination war. Well, at least the Israelis are. The bumbling Iranians aren't very efficient in that area.

Witness the recent failed attempt to blow up Israeli diplomats in Thailand. All the Iranians managed to do was blow up themselves and their own C-4 "bomb factory." Last year, an Iranian nuclear facility exploded, killing an undisclosed number of their own technicians and scientists. Obviously, the Persians lack skill in handling explosives. They certainly can't be trusted with a nuke.

Church, state, and blasphemy

For those who think they want no separation between church and state: Saudi writer Hamza Kashgari faces charge of blasphemy after tweetsabout Muhammad.

What did Kashgari write in his blasphemous tweets?

“No Saudi women will go to hell, because it’s impossible to go there twice.”

Another: "On your birthday I find you in front of me wherever I go. I love many things about you and hate others, and there are many things about you I don’t understand.”

By the way, Malaysia, another Islamic theocracy, has since decided to deport the blasphemer and put him on a plane for Saudi Arabia, where most likely he will have his head chopped off in the name of God.

The politics of failure

M. Stewart
So the Republican mainstream and its television network are upset about the Clint Eastwood Super Bowl halftime commercial about the Detroit auto industry. What else is new?

It looks to me like the Republican Party is working harder than ever to lose the presidential election. Hoping that America will forget that Republican policies led to a meldown of the economy five years ago, Republicans have done everything they can to put a bad spin on every shred of positive economic news that we've had during the past four years.

Obviously, conservatives want the economy to continue to fail so they can appear to be gallant saviors, but the only thing I've heard from Republican candidates is more of the same philosophy that wrecked the economy in the first place. As if to throw it in our faces, the leading Republican candidate is a Richie Rich, Wall Street character who does not work for a living. Not only that, he's a guy that can't keep his foot out of his mouth long enough to keep from laughing out loud at the 99 percent.

Conservative Catholic leaders are all upset because the Obama administration wants them to include birth control in their hospital health insurance plans. The way I see it, being against abortion is a reasonable moral position, but then turning around and opposing contraception is simply idiotic--that is, unless you see religion as a business whose "moral" policies will continue to produce more already branded customers. The Catholic Church preaching to us about morality; that's a good one!

Here's the funny part: Most Catholics agree with the Obama administration. See Majority of Catholics Support Including Birth Control. What's a bishop to do?

Where has the working class gone?

Giants win again

by M. Stewart

Great Super Bowl. It played out pretty much the way I thought it would, which is pretty rare. What I didn't expect was the Patriots' Aaron Hernandez and Wes Welker dropping passes in key situations. Still, the Pats had a chance to win on the final play of the game, and it very well could have happened. It just didn't, and the Giants won again. Congratulation to Tom Coughlin, Eli Manning, and the rest of the Giants. 

After the game, Tom Brady spent a full 30 minutes sulking in the corner of the locker room with a towel over his head. You'd think that after all these years Tom would have developed a little bit of class. His behavior wasn't only classless, it was juvenile. Thanks to his post-game performance, I lost a lot of respect for Brady. He's a spoiled brat. 

I thought Madonna's lip-sync halftime extravaganza was laughable and embarrassingly bad. The whole Cleopatra thing was absurd, but when that was followed by cheerleaders and tumblers, all I could do was laugh. As if that wasn't enough, the narcissism of the "I love Madonna" number was too much. The dancer who threw the finger at the world was an appropriate symbol of the show. 

I say bring back the marching band. 

Jump from poverty to middle class with Newt

by M. Stewart

I see where Newt Gingrich is pouncing on Mitt Romney’s “I don’t care about the poor” comment by replacing “safety net” with a “spider web,” then transforming the metaphor even further by saying that he will provide the poor with a “trampoline” so that they might enter the middle class.

Like Moses, Newt Gingrich is going lead the poor out of bondage by bouncing them into the middle class. Sure he is.

I guess it’s too much to ask of those running for office to be honest or even to make sense. As long as you can put together a clever sound bite, Americans will buy it. I wonder if anyone will ask Gingrich to tell us how his class-jumping trampolines will work and where we can get them. Will they be issued by the government?

A little realism: those we refer to as “the poor” will always be with us. There are no trampolines. At best, government can provide life lines that can be used to climb out of poverty, but like Romney so awkwardly tried to say, those lines already are available. If you are unwilling to expend the energy to climb, you should expect to remain poor. This is an ugly reality that is part of the human experience. Show me a human culture where there has been no poverty.

So let’s be realistic about the poor. A moral society should take care of those who literally can’t help themselves for reasons not of their own making, and it should provide opportunities for those born into poverty to escape its grip. Beyond that, we’re all on our own, and we have to make the best of it. Life isn’t fair, and no politician—certainly not a plutocrat Republican presidential candidate—is going to change that.

I also have noticed that American politicians and media have decided to eliminate what used to be called the “working class.” Now you are rich, poor, or middle class. Why do you suppose that is?

Earth: Self Portrait

NASA Hi-res Blue Marble photos 2012

Romney finds true love in Florida