Sunday, March 13, 2011
CATHOLIC PRIESTLY ABUSE: Some protest...
CONGRESSIONAL HEARING: Muslim radicalization?
I have been meaning to write an opinion on the congressional hearings being held by Representative Peter King (R-Long Island , NY
The hearings are about the radicalization of American Muslims and I guess how to prevent said radicalization.
I have not written to date because I was and am confused. Usually, I start with a question of common sense; what are the hearings to accomplish? Well, I don’t really know and I may add, what are the hearings to do that our various police agencies are not already doing?
King has criticized the American Islamic community for not speaking out forcefully enough against radicalization. I had the same criticism some time ago when I felt Islamic leaders were not speaking out enough or if they were speaking out, it was not simple condemnation but more like an explanation.
King has also criticized the American Islamic community for not cooperating with law enforcement enough. How does he know that? What does law enforcement say?
People have criticized his hearings as akin to the Joe McCarthy communist witch-hunt in the 1950s. Is Ford looking for radicalized Muslims in the U.S.
Some Muslims are upset by the hearings (protests) and some are hoping the hearings will show that American Muslims are Americans first and Muslims second?
Still pretty confusing…more later.
NEWT GINGRICH: More hypocritical bullshit...
I recently wrote about Newt Gingrich’s candidacy for U.S. President and how I considered him an absolute REPUBLICAN HYPOCRITE.
Now I read that he has the audacity to appear before the Christian Broadcasting Network and claim that HIS PASSION FOR AMERICA
How is that?
Well, the way he explains it and I understand it, he loves his country so much that he worked way too hard in serving it and that hard work somehow made him do things that were not quite appropriate. Does he think everybody listening to the Christian Broadcasting Network is a banjo playing, tobacco spitting twit? Maybe he does…
The article in the Detroit
Please remember that during this time, Gingrich had the nerve to criticize Bill Clinton for his sort of affair (I did not have sex with that woman) with ole’ Monica.
Newt is now a Catholic and I wonder how his affairs and marriages affect his standing in the Church.
Newt says he has asked God to forgive him…when do you know when He does forgive you or are you just saying that because God forgives everyone?
Does that let you off the hook or are you still a miserable hypocrite?
CATHOLIC CHURCH: 21 active priests suspended...
NEWS ITEM TODAY: The Archdiocese of Philadelphia said it had suspended 21 Roman Catholic priests from active ministry in connection with accusations of sexual abuse or other inappropriate behavior with minors…New York Times, March 13, 2011.
Now let me point out that these are not retired priests who committed sexual abuse years ago, no these are currently serving priests and there are 21 of them.
How did this happen when Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia
A grand jury accused the archdiocese of a widespread cover-up of predatory priests lasting for decades.
I am aware of the cover-up accusations because the whole world now knows that the Catholic Church including the Pope and the Vatican, willfully and with full knowledge of the immense physical and mental damage inflicted on children by these sick-ass priests, did everything in its power to cover-up these abuses as if they never happened. Worst yet, the abusive priests were not disciplined but allowed to move to other parishes and other children.
I was not aware that the practice is continuing to this very day.
I cannot understand how church-attending Catholics can let this go on. I have not read about empty churches, empty collection baskets or protestors at the church doors. These Catholics make a lot of noise about a woman’s right to choose an abortion but sexually abusing children? Well, that is not as important as protecting a fetus, who cares what happens to it after it’s born.
Friday, March 11, 2011
MICHIGAN: Taxing pensions is fiscal reality...
Image via WikipediaFriday, March 11, 2011
To: Canton Observer
Re: Letters on Taxing Pensions
There were many letters to the editor complaining about Governor Snyder’s new budget proposals especially the one taxing pensions. While it is true that Michigan Michigan
Public union pensions are financed by taxpayer dollars and for the life of me, I don’t remember ever being asked if my tax dollars should or should not be used to fund pensions of public union workers. I do remember voting for Governor Snyder with the hope he would straighten out our financial mess here in Michigan, attract more business and create more jobs and given the chance I think he will do just that but I am disheartened by all the voices crying for change as long as it does not affect them. Even my state senator Patrick Colbeck who ran on a platform vowing to finally fix our finances cannot seem to disengage himself from politics as usual and do the right thing and support his governor’s efforts.
PUBLIC UNIONS: The difference from private sector unions...
It appears that I have “assumed” something that I should not have.
I assumed people were aware of the difference between “public” and “private” unions and that the “Wisconsin ” union battle was all about “public” unions and had nothing to do with “private” unions but here is where the confusion could have occurred…
It appears that all unions (private and public) joined forces to protest what specific state governors were trying to do which is to take control of their state budgets by limiting the expense of public unions in their state; something they cannot do to private unions. Since both types of union workers participated in the protests, people understandably were confused.
Private unions are those unions we are most familiar with such as the UAW (United Auto Workers) here in Michigan
Public unions are unions involved with government(s), federal, state or local. Their members work for organizations that are government owned, supported or regulated.
These types of unions were illegal until, of all states, Wisconsin
They were illegal for a reason and those reasons are even more valid today. These unions amassed members and money which gave them political power that they used to elect politicians that gave them what they wanted which is more money, more members and more clout.
To give the unions what they wanted, politicians would raise taxes. If they could not afford higher salaries, they gave more and more benefits to where the unions now are projected to have 105% more benefits than workers in the private sector. They have extended vacation and sick time, richer and richer pensions, medical insurance and above all, they have job security because it is practically impossible to fire anyone in those unions.
Economists call these unions “economic black holes” because taxpayers keep paying them more and more and getting less and less work out of them. We all have gone to a post office where the workers behind the desk could give a shit about your needs or your schedule; they were on their own time and fuck your time, cannot fire us so there and for many, many years that was the only way to send mail or mail packages so you were at their mercy.
When I was in the service I remember a phrase used often was “good enough for government work” or doing a half-ass job is OK if it is for the government because no one cares since everybody works for the government.
You hardly ever hear anything about public unions because they keep to themselves, negotiating contracts with politicians who are usually in their pocket while no one represents the taxpayers who pay the taxes that go to these unions in the form of wages and benefits.
Also, the unions are in total control of their workers and not the bureaucrats in charge of the departments they are suppose to run; the governor of Wisconsin said enough is enough, if I am responsible to the taxpayers then I must have the freedom to do what needs to be done.
You saw the thousands of unionists converge on Wisconsin
Fiscal reality has set in and now the public MUST be made to see what has been happening with their money all this time. I was shocked to see the facts; I too was naïve about what was really going on with the public unions and if we are to live within our means, those unions need to be controlled or eliminated.
What really boils my blood is the fact that these privileged workers that work ostensibly for us are paid so much more than us or have benefits so much greater than we have and why?
I hope that my feeble attempt at explaining the situation will clarify some things because I firmly believe that once people realize what exactly we are talking about, there is no rational way they would not agree with me unless they are actually members of a public union.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
WISCONSIN VICTORY: Accept it and now go home...
I don’t quite understand this hubbub about the Wisconsin victory against the unions.
First, just because you don’t like the outcome of a legal vote in a legally elected legislature, it does not give you the right to try to overturn the legal vote by illegal means. I haven’t liked many votes that went against what I wanted to happen; did I go nuts and try to forcibly change that vote?
You can either live in this country and abide by its democratic rules or you can get the hell out; there is no other option; you can only change things by democratic means.
It appears unions and union workers do not understand the democratic process. They feel if they make enough noise and disrupt things enough, things will miraculously change in their favor. These are delusional people who have always had their way and now cannot understand why they cannot have what they want.
This is akin to the behavior of small children who don’t know how to behave because their parents don’t know how to discipline them…a swift kick in the ass should show them how to behave and that is exactly what they got in Wisconsin
These brats are screaming that people are trying to destroy the middle class and I am saying that they are not the middle class, they are only in the middle class category by intimidation and vote buying; people in the real middle class get there by hard work and not through union clout.
I am dismayed by the total ignorance of non-union people about what this fight is really about and it has nothing to do with worker rights but everything to do with privileged, corrupt unionists who have screwed the tax payer for many years and want to continue to screw the taxpayer while riding their gravy train and I say the ride is over.
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
SUPREME COURT: Test the damn DNA already...
I just read that the Supreme Court has ruled that prisoners can file federal civil-rights lawsuits that seek DNA testing of crime-scene evidence.
I did not know this but in 2009, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision, ruled that prisoners had NO Constitutional right to demand DNA testing. OK I can see where the Constitution could not address DNA testing just like it cannot address many modern day issues that were not present when the Constitution was written but…
I guess the 2009 decision left it up to the states to decide if prisoners have rights to DNA testing that could potentially prove their guilt or innocence.
But what I have been hearing and seeing is that state prosecutors (who, as you know, I think are mostly assholes) have opposed the right of prisoners to seek DNA testing to prove their innocence because why?
I feel prosecutors, who are always running for higher office, want a perfect conviction rate so they can say in their propaganda, that they put many BAD guys away…no matter if they were guilty or innocent.
Many hundreds of CONVICTED prisoners, some on death row, have been found innocent by DNA evidence and these asshole prosecutors, knowing this to be true, still want to deny prisoners the right to have DNA evidence tested JUST IN CASE THE DNA CAN PROVE THEM INNOCENT? I am sorry, I just cannot see the logic in their objection except for their fear that their conviction would be overturned and they would be shown to have convicted an innocent man.
The Supreme Court justices that voted AGAINST granting a prisoner the right to at least file a civil-rights lawsuit to have DNA evidence tested were the predictable Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito but not Anthony Kennedy who usually is a swing vote and not part of the extreme right wing. On the other hand, Roberts and Scalia broke with their conservative friends and voted FOR the majority decision…I would have to look at the legal details to answer why they voted the way they voted…maybe later.
BUT I am glad some semblance of reason and fairness prevailed in this decision because I believe that all available evidence, especially DNA evidence that is available and can be tested, should be tested as a matter of course otherwise you cannot absolutely say if a person is 100% guilty or innocent.
Why is this such a hard concept to accept?
Sunday, March 06, 2011
NEWT GINGRICH: Republican hypocrite...
Changing the topic a little; let’s talk about Newt Gingrich running for president.
Now I have no doubt that Mr. Gingrich is a smart man and probably has great ideas for this country and may even make a decent president…all of these things may be true…but he pisses me off big time and I will tell you why.
I really, really don’t like hypocrites of any kind but especially the holier than thou Republican kind.
These are the assholes that like to talk about family values, morality and their love of God and how they try to live like Jesus would want them to but are exposed in the media for soliciting gay sex in airport bathrooms, paying madams for a little on the side or flat out cheating on their wives while extolling the virtues of marriage.
Newt is one such Republican.
Gingrich, 67, readily admits that he is not proud of certain things he did in his life and I can say that most of us can say that also but ole’ Newt, who has been married three (3) times, was a public figure that preached family values while cheating on his wife. Many men cheat, but not all of them are public figures caught in blatant hypocrisy and not all of them are running for president of the United States
He has become a Catholic now and touts the fact that he is older (67) and a grandfather and that somehow cleans his past slate and makes him holy again.
I for one cannot believe anything that man says…ever.
UNIONS: (Plymouth, MI) Do not wish to face reality...
Staying on the subject of unions and struggling municipalities who have huge budget shortfalls because in the dramatic drop in property taxes, I ran into an interesting situation developing in the community of Plymouth, Michigan (next door to Canton) and their fire and emergency medical services.
I noticed a huge ad taken out by the Plymouth Professional Fire Fighters Local 1496. The ad stated how the firefighters / paramedics have been part of the community for many years and have served the community well but now, because of budget constraints, the community wants to do away with the service and contract out for the services to neighboring communities.
The firefighters encourage all who read the ad to come to a special meeting of the city commission, to ostensibly show support for the firefighters union?
This kind of reminded me of the Wisconsin situation where steps need to be taken to balance the budget but unions bring in supporters to impede if not block the necessary measures.
I looked up the details of this issue and found that the township has been working with the fire fighters union to somehow bring down the cost of maintaining a $4 million, 21 firefighters, one inspector and one chief department even suggesting a smaller, 12-hour (instead of a 24 hour) department but it appears that the union would have none of that.
The township supervisor said that the union thought he was bluffing when he said that he may do away with the entire department and farm out the services, but he was not; financial reality was the driving force.
My point is that unions and union supporters do not have a grasp on reality. They want to maintain their status quo even if that is fiscally unsustainable. They don’t care; just make it work or find the money somewhere because we don’t want things to change.
It is this stupid, intransigent union mentality that is leading to the demise of unions and not some stealth plan of eradication by the wealthy, powerful anti-union forces.
Saturday, March 05, 2011
MICHIGAN: Money wasted...
Did you know that up to 20,000 college students in Michigan
DETROIT: FBI and SEC looking at Detroit Pension Fund managers...
In my ongoing reporting on the culture of corruption in Detroit Detroit Retirement Fund
The SEC is on the trail of corruption or “pay-to-play games after the Detroit Free Press revealed millions and millions in questionable investments and millions in expenses not quite justified. In other words, the elected trustees and their advisors have been having a grand old time with worker’s retirement money.
It kind of ticks me off that even with the millions paid to these managers of the funds, the managers and advisors, etc. have requested and were given permission to bill the funds for all their criminal attorney defense expenses…something does not smell right.
This should be a huge case as it develops and it will ensnare many prominent people and be one more example how a dying city is served by its elected or appointed officials.
The main man on the hot seat is one RONALD ZAJAC, a Detroit pension lawyer for decades who is being looked at by the FBI and a Federal Grand Jury and unfortunately, of Polish heritage.
UNIONS: The drivel of Bob King...
I just have to comment more on Bob King, president of the UAW, and his unceasing union drivel that is getting major play in our newspapers and in other media…why?
What pisses me off is that the media is not allowing contrarian voices to be heard.
King basically is calling for a class war. He is harkening to the days of Marx and Engels and the Communist Manifesto. In those days (late 1800s) of the industrial revolution, yes, people including women and kids, worked in sweat shops for pennies and lived hand to mouth while the industrialists grew fatter by the minute…those were the conditions that spawned the Communist Manifesto.
Marx envisioned (in England
In the U.S. we had the age of the “Robber Barons” or powerful industrialists that built this country but garnered scorn, as all rich men do, for their business practices that some say exploited the working man.
Unions had a vital role in the history of labor, no one is denying that, but we are in a new age where unions are a DETRIMENT to progress. Unions have become greedy and corrupt and have no place in our new economy…so they must die; thank you and now goodbye.
King keeps harping on the middle class and how unions created the middle class. No one creates a middle class; the economy does. These are people that fit in between the poor and the rich and that is a wide class of people that can also be divided into lower and upper middle class.
Unions and especially the UAW in Michigan US
So yes, the middle class created by the unions was great while it lasted but since that middle class was artificially created; it was and is unsustainable and a new middle class, created by the nascent economy is now in place and growing.
King also harps on the fact that the rich (individuals and corporations) and the right-wing media (FOX?) are in a campaign to kill unions. He laments that in the 50s and 60s, 39% of private sector workers were in unions and now it has dropped to 7%. He attributes that to union bashing and not to global economic conditions. Well, he would since he is fighting a battle he can never win.
King likens the battle in Wisconsin with the battles in Egypt , Tunisia and Libya
He equates blocking the vote in Wisconsin
Like I said, these are the words of a quickly sinking man but this gibberish can and will resonate with the great unwashed, looking for any excuse to fight the inevitable demise of their budget busting privileged status.
True democracy allows for duly elected officials to do the jobs they were elected to do. Blocking that democratic process is not only un-democratic but it borders on anarchy and reminds us of the Bolshevik Revolution where so called “workers” took over the reigns of government, slaughtered millions, and ruled with an iron fist behind an iron curtain of Communism.
That is what Bob King is suggesting and we know that for history not to repeat itself, we need to act and not remain silent.
DETROIT: More power to the emergency financial manager...finally!
As you remember, I have been following the travails of Robert Bobb, the Detroit Public Schools Emergency manager especially with his dealings with the obstructionist, to say the least, elected Detroit School Board.
I have been demanding, from the state that the emergency manager be given specific authority over elected agencies like the Detroit School Board, so he can carry out his mandate to fix the school system without any interference by, in this case, the school board.
The Emergency manager law has been reworked to add what I have been asking for and most in the state support the needed changes but some are saying it goes too far and may interfere with the democratic process since the manager would not only have jurisdiction over and above “elected” officials but (if I understand this correctly) to dismiss any elected official or elected body that is deemed incompetent in maintaining the financial integrity of the institution (school system) in question.
I can see where people may have a problem with that provision but as in the case of Detroit, people there were shown to elect incompetent and corrupt individuals as a matter of course and in my mind, could not be counted on to elect competent officials.
Is this stepping on people’s rights under a democracy? Yes it is but if taxpayers in the state have to bail out institutions and cities because of their financial incompetence, some democratic principles may and should be suspended strictly for practical reasons; it makes NO sense to keep individuals in charge that were responsible for the financial calamity the institution found itself in, in the first place.
Friday, March 04, 2011
POPE BENEDICT: The Jewish question...
Another bit of religious news that just popped out was the publication of a new book by Pope Benedict XVI titled “Jesus of Nazareth – Part II”. The main topic is the exoneration of Jews for Jesus’ death.
This is a very positive move on Benedict’s part and he really needs a few positives at this time because everything else going on with the Vatican
The subject of the culpability of Jews in the death of Jesus (God) is centuries old. I have mentioned repeatedly that Christians / Catholics are notoriously ignorant of their own religion especially the historical development of their religion. The ignorance can be blamed on the Church itself in most cases and the Jewish question is a prime example.
Thousands of Jews have been slaughtered throughout history for killing Jesus “Christ Killers”. Even though the slaughter was under the banner of punishing the Jews for what they have done, the reasons for instigating such pogroms were usually political and/or economic in nature as in stealing the property of the Jews once they were killed or limiting their political power or plainly unwilling to pay back the loans they accepted from the Jews.
The Church did not try to dissuade the killers and in some cases actually encouraged them. Only relatively recently, have Popes such as John Paul II and Benedict and some before them, tried to counter the belief that the Jews, as a whole, were responsible for Jesus’ death.
In my own circle, I found that the ignorance of today’s Catholics about Jesus and his Apostles is quite staggering. Many are surprised when I tell them Jesus was a Jew, born a Jew, lived as an observant Jew and died as a Jew; not as a Christian…doh? They are surprised when I tell them ALL the Apostles were Jews and remained Jews; no they did not start another religion.
After Jesus’ death, the Apostles and their group remained together in Jerusalem
The Apostles and their followers were called Jewish Christians and remained observant Jews till the end as part of the broader Jewish religious culture.
The Apostles and their descendents remained in Jerusalem until the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, after which they supposedly moved to Syria
Back to the Jews; many people are unaware that there were many and I mean many, Jesus like prophets screaming that the end is near; there were many during the time of Jesus and many after the crucifixion. The most famous was John the Baptist who is a real historic figure as is Jesus’ brother James but not Jesus who has one mention in an obscure sentence by Jewish historian Josephus and a problematic sentence at that and that is all in all the historic documents of the world that we have…strange don’t you think.
Anyway, the Jewish authorities were having all sorts of problems with these so called messiahs and tried to keep the peace as best they could. The Romans were all about keeping the peace and if one guy got a crowd stirred up too much; down he went.
Please remember that Jesus, at that time, was not elevated to God-hood or even messiah-hood; he was just a plain Jewish trouble maker that had to be dealt with. So to accuse the Jews (Jewish nation) of conspiring to kill CHRIST THE MESSIAH is more than absurd, it is conspiratorial on the part of later New Testament writers.
Those writers were pissed that the Jews were not buying into Jesus (their own man) as some kind of God or Messiah that was foretold in the Old Testament, that would bring victory and glory back to the Jewish nation, hell, Jesus was crucified, what kind of victory is that? What kind of mighty Messiah is that? Do you blame the Jews for laughing at the notion that a dead Jew was somehow their Messiah?
Many cite the phrase from the Gospel of Mathew, “His blood be on us and our children” as proving that a “collective” guilt was borne by all Jews as a curse.
Benedict tries to dispel that in his book which will come out March 10. The problem with Mathew is that he was one of the writers that was pissed at the Jews for not joining the non-Jewish Christians in accepting Jesus as the Messiah and he made his feeling known in his Gospel and for that thousands of Jews had to die through the ages and for that I guess we should be grateful to Benedict for trying to rectify that falsehood.
I have not read the book but applaud the attempt as I condemn the centuries of Church obfuscation as to the matter of the Jews and one of their own, Jesus; the end is near preacher who Paul used as a central figure in his new fangled religion called Christianity.
I am interested in how Benedict handles this issue and once I read the book, I will report…
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