Jan's Stinkin Blog

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Michigan 11th District: VOTE FOR DR. SYED TAJ

I am in the 11^th Michigan Federal Congressional District which used to be the one represented by Thaddeus McCotter (R) who as you know, imploded after a long time in the House of Representative. He ran for president this year which was very odd since no one knew who he was.

He abruptly resigned (for no apparent reason) with six (6) months left in his term. We later learned that his staff forged signatures required to be filed with the election committee when running for office and are facing jail time.

The 11^th district has been a safe Republican district for many years and Michigan Republicans made sure it remained so when they drew up new boundaries for the district. The district includes Canton, Plymouth, Northville, Novi, Lyons, Milford, Highland, White lake, Livonia, Farmington, Orchard Lake, Waterford, Bloomfield Hills, Birmingham, Troy and Clawson…all rich Republican areas.

Michigan Republicans got rid of Van Buren, Bellville, Westland, Garden City, Wayne and Redford…all poorer areas with a bias towards Democrats…don’t you just love politics?

Anyway, when McCotter resigned right before the primaries, there was a mad scramble for his seat with some candidates running as “write-in” candidates, which never works.

The lone Republican who was registered for the primary election was Kerry Bentivolio, a complete unknown even to the Republican Party which tried to disown him and appoint someone else.

Bentivolio is a political anomaly in that he has no experience in politics and was a reindeer farmer recently. He appears to be a Tea Party twit who ran for the hell of it and lo and behold, he is now the favorite to win in November.

The Democratic challenger is Dr. Syed Taj, a respected Chief of Medicine at Oakwood Hospital who has spent 40 years as a physician and as a small business owner. His campaign is stressing that he is more independent than Democratic and that he will be a great bi-partisan representative in Congress for our district.

The choice seems eminently clear; an educated, independent professional or a reindeer farmer who’s only claim to fame is that he is a “regular” guy.

Why is the reindeer farmer projected to win the race?...because his opponent has a funny (foreign) name and is running under the Democratic banner and the rich 11^th district always votes Republican even if the Republican was a chimp?

Yes, Politics is a dirty business and in many cases, defies logic but if you vote in my district, I urge you break the habit of voting Republican and vote for the better man to represent our district in Congress.

Vote for Dr. Syed Taj for 11^th District Representative.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Who are you Mitt Romney????

I don’t think I have ever seen a presidential candidate like Mitt Romney in my whole adult life.

This man’s plan to become president of the United States was to “pretend” that he has become a right-wing, conservative, red-neck, knuckles dragging on the ground retard to gain the Republican nomination and then, once he had the nomination in hand, to go back to what he was originally, a moderate, intelligent and progressive individual.

You may have been following his flip-flops as he transforms himself right before your eyes, denying all that he said before without even blinking an eye.

If he wins, historians will marvel how anyone was capable of pulling off a remarkable slight-of-hand trick right in front of a national audience.

The Republicans are too embarrassed to challenge Romney on his changing political philosophy from pro-life to pro-choice; from anti Obamacare to admitting that he invented Obamacare and will keep most of it.

Romney promises everything to every one, telling people he will create thousands of new jobs, lower taxes and balance the budget without telling us how he plans on doing that because to those in the know, his promises just cannot come to fruition because they defy all logic…so he is just making noise hoping us idiots will buy into his false promises.

Obama has not helped his own position by his own lackluster performance in the debate and in his sound bites that seem weak and apologetic.

I cannot tell you Romney would be a bad president and for business people like myself, he probably would be a better president than Obama mainly because he would not allow unions to run the White House BUT…

I am thinking that Obama deserves a second term to finish what he started since he was thrust into an impossible situation caused by the Republicans who now want to separate themselves from the BUSH administration, even failing to acknowledge that Republicans were in control for eight (8) years and failed miserably and now they want to fix what they screwed up?

I am sorry but Republicans do not deserve to win this time around; they have already caused enough damage for a lifetime and need to be replaced by either a new bunch of smarter Republicans who actually give a shit about the country or another party altogether like the Libertarians.

Sorry ROMNEY, not this time…maybe next time.

UAW and Matty Moroun in bed together?

Just got back from vacation and I see headlines saying that the UAW’s Bob King and Matty Moroun, owner of the Ambassador Bridge have joined forces and are definitely in bed together…why?...and talk about strange bedfellows?

Moroun wants to nix the new bridge to Canada so he can continue his lucrative monopoly of having the only bridge to Canada in these parts; talk about special interests…one man?

The UAW wants to enshrine UNIONISM into our state constitution and making it a constitutional right that cannot be challenged by anyone.

I guess the deal is that the UAW will urge their members to vote for Proposal 6 allowing Moroun to continue his lucrative bridge monopoly and Moroun will give the UAW millions to help pass Proposal 2 giving unions constitutional powers over labor in Michigan.

What really pisses me off is the fact that both proposals (2&6) are very bad for Michigan and for Michiganians but their backers are playing ads over and over and over again that basically lie like shit about what the real intent of the proposals is.

A new bridge to Canada would be a boon to the state with thousands of new jobs created, an increased flow of goods between the two countries which is attractive to manufacturers who want to be close to their markets and funding provided by Canada…you cannot ask for a better deal…so what is going on?...basic tit for tat…you scratch my back and I will scratch yours and to hell with Michigan and its residents.

Finally some ads are appearing to challenge Proposal 2 or constitutional unionism power grab and pointing out that the proposal has nothing to do with collective bargaining but a very devious way of union power taking control of the state and ask yourself which manufacturer will want to move to Michigan with that kind of union dictatorship in place?…not good for Michigan or its residents.

I am really appalled that these special interests would stoop to this level to gain what they want only for themselves and hell with the rest of us!

The vote has never been clearer:

Vote YES on PROPOSAL 1 and NO on the rest!

Thursday, October 04, 2012

SPIRITUALITY FOR THE NON RELIGIOUS?

Saw an article in the October 1 Free Press that really struck close to home: KEEPING THE FAITH AT HOME; Instilling spirituality in children still matter, even in nonreligious families. The article is actually from the Chicago Tribune and was written by William Hageman.

The subject is timely because even though most Americans consider themselves as “believers” more and more of them say they are “non religious” (40%) even those that term themselves “religious” do not necessarily belong to any “organized” religion or “church”.

In my own case, my family was very Roman Catholic and in particular, Polish Roman Catholic which melds the religion into the ethnic identity. My upbringing followed a strict Polish Catholic regiment practiced by most Polish families in those days and included grade school and high school taught by nuns with all the requisite Catholic sacraments including First Communion, Confirmation, etc.

All the Catholic indoctrination since childhood could not stifle my inquiring mind which had questions that needed answers which eventually led to a life long inquiry into religion(s) with a solid conviction that all religions are man made but also that our human make-up (DNA) demands some form of religious / spiritual constituent in our lives.

My wife who enjoyed her Protestant faith while growing up, promised to raise our children Catholic as required by the Catholic Church in cases of inter-faith marriages…we had a grand Polish / Ukrainian Catholic wedding but early on into our marriage we realized we were not really religious and would not raise our kids in any religious environment.

Which brings us to the article in question which claims: “spirituality” in children still matters even in non-religious families.

I agree that the subject of religion must be talked about if kids are to grow up in the “real” world out there which has a lot of “religion” and “religious issues”. I have always maintained that the more you know about a subject the better so I have always encouraged my kids to take “comparative religion” courses which gave at least a factual introduction to religions and their beliefs; homework consisted of visiting various houses of worship and talking to a member of the religious institution.

Some of our family traditions were based on religious holidays such as Christmas and Easter and were perfect times to discuss their religious aspect as well as maybe the natural as in Mother Nature aspect practiced by our forefathers before those holidays took on religious significance.

I still remember when my parents wanted my kids baptized even if they had to kidnap them to do it, believing that only the baptized could enter heaven. We agreed to it without no problem but I do point out to our kids that the belief that baptism is necessary to enter heaven has now been dropped by the Catholic Church together with the belief in a Purgatory… and we can be cremated now…how times change...and does anybody ask why since those beliefs were welded into our being when I was growing up...did somebody make a mistake?

Even my Catholic family members are having trouble answering some of their kid’s questions after Catechism class because quite frankly, some of the teachings defy logic as the Catholic Church sticks to some of their more indefensible positions on contraception, stem cells, etc. and what about those “naughty” priests.

I think the biggest point we as non-religious people, can make with our kids is to teach them that you don’t have to be religious to be “good”. To be a good and responsible citizen of this earth and behave in an ethical and moral manner towards your fellow man is a “humanist” type of appropriate behavior and not a religious commandment punishable by a trip to hell.

The article points to the fact that the greatest influence on children and their concept of correct behavior and thought comes from the examples that parents set for their children to follow or emulate. Parents have to show what motivates their behavior or thought if there is no religious motivator…why do you behave the way you do.

The other important point to instill into your non-religious kids is how to accept and respect people of religion even if it makes no sense based on your own non-religious belief system. In many cases, “traditions” have taken the place of “belief” and I think ethnic/ religious traditions are a great way of learning various cultures and the history of the tradition(s) development throughout their history…love that stuff.

Anyway, I was glad to see that this topic is getting some exposure and discussion because as we turn more and more secular [but still keep our traditions] our kids and grandkids will need more information from us and help in answering the million questions they will have as they grow up in this modern world of ours.

I still miss what they are saying about instilling “spirituality” into our children…is it something to replace formal religion…more later…

Monday, October 01, 2012

WOMEN PRIESTS because there were women apostles?

As a follow-up to the story about the discovery of a scrap of papyrus that makes reference to Jesus’ wife and to a female disciple, I noticed a piece in the New York Times titled “Women as priests” by Judith Levitt which cites the discovery of the papyrus and its potential impact on the Vatican’s ban on female priests.

The Vatican has opposed the ordination of women based on a variety of reasons with one being tradition and another that Jesus only picked males to be his apostles.

The article states that contemporary theologians, historians and priests have challenged the Vatican’s position on female priests with recent research that suggests Mary Magdalene, among others, may have been an apostle and that women played leadership roles (as priests and bishops) that profoundly shaped the early church as I have suggested on numerous occasions.

The Vatican is so adamantly against female priests that they have made the ordination of women as priests a crime as great as that of priests molesting children…really?

A 2010 poll showed that 59% of Catholics favor the ordination of females as priests and I bet that number has climbed since then and especially since the priestly sex scandal became so public.

I was not aware of a group called Roman Catholic Womenpriests. The group was founded in 2002 when seven women were ordained priests by three Roman Catholic bishops aboard a ship on the Danube River. The group now has 100 ordained women priests and 11 bishops.

They validate their ordination by claiming to conform to the doctrine of “apostolic succession” which is the doctrine validating the pope himself and all priests.

The doctrine of apostolic succession stems from the belief that Peter (the head apostle) was the first pope (on this rock you will build my church) who then passed on his authority to all successive popes.

If research shows that Mary Magdalene as well as other women, were actual apostles of Jesus, then women can legally become Roman Catholic priests according to the apostolic succession doctrine.

The trick here is to produce evidence showing that Jesus had female apostles and having the Vatican accept that evidence as valid…don’t hold your breath.