It was only a matter of time:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/afterbirthers-demand-to-see-obamas-placenta,6866/
On a more serious note.... I've never met a rational, thinking person who decided at some point to become irrational and begin believing in say, purple unicorns or for that matter god.
On the other hand I've met plenty of former believers who after careful reflection of all the available evidence decided to become less delusional and more rational. ( I TAKE IT AS A PERSONAL POINT OF PRIDE that one such former believer even told me he fell away from faith after a careful examination of his beliefs caused in part by listening to my logical arguments against religion on the radio.)
Likewise I've never met a progressive who decided that the willingness to look critically at new ideas was vastly overrated and decided at some point to go back to following failed principals. While I'm sure that both of those types of people do exist, I've just never met one. Not one. Again I've heard of conservatives who after careful examination decided that racism, sexism, militarism, corporatism, ethnocentrism, and a whole host of other 'isms' just didn't work when it came to the betterment of the human race and were willing to make the leap to examining new ways of solving problems.
I've never heard of a democrat who decided to become a republican. they say reagan started as a democrat but maybe by the time he made the change he had already lost his mind (ten years ago I talked at length to an eyewitness who says ronnie often didn't know who he was during his first term in office so i suppose anything is possible.)
But I've heard of republicans deciding that 'enough is enough' and changing to the flawed but occasionally noble democratic party.
Today, April 27th, 2011...Republicans everywhere have an excuse to register their disgust for what their party has become (or perhaps has been all along), a haven for racists, sexists, closet homophobes, theocrats, and otherwise reprehensible human beings.
Watching donald trump gloat over the fact that he was able to force the president of the united states to answer his absurd allegations (for no other reason other than because he is a black man) made me ashamed for you. Don't insult my intelligence and say there is/was anything other than good old fashioned racism behind 'the birther conspiracy'.
change parties, only the bigots will question your motives.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
I'll admit it...I'm hooked!
When I was a kid I remember mom telling me that growing up during the depression was an experience that changed her for life. Nothing came easy for mom, or dad for that matter, as the children of struggling mid-west farm families. Of course they grew their own food, raised their own livestock, repaired their own vehicles and farm implements, patched their own houses and barns, and sewed some of their own clothes. Mom knew how to stretch a pound of 'ground round' about fifteen different ways and she was pretty good at turning rags into rugs. Nothing was taken for granted. When it broke or wore out everything was repaired or patched until it could no longer be repaired or patched, and then a different use was found for it. Whenever possible most things were bought second-hand and with the exception of gasoline, heating oil, electricity, and phone service very little was bought on a regular basis.
I say that not as some kind of nostalgic look back at the 'good old days', just a statement of historical fact.
I went to the store today and bought some 'stuff'. If you asked me exactly what I bought, I'd be hard pressed to tell you. I just know I bought some 'stuff' that at the time seemed like a good idea to buy.
I'm addicted to buying. My name is Mark Thoma and I'm an addict. There I said it.
Actually I've known for years that I was addicted to buying.
I get a thrill out of buying. The thrill is bigger the more I spend on a particular object, but it quickly wears off leaving me with the urge to buy again.
George W. Bush knew I was an addict. For that matter so did Bill Clinton, and George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. Barack Obama certainly knows it along with all the people he works for, you know the captains of corporate America. They all get just a little pissed off if I quit buying because it pays their bills. In fact right after that whole attack on corporate America we now refer to as '9-11' Bush realized that the worst thing that could possibly happen was if I (and of course the 300 million other Americans addicted to buying 'stuff') quit buying for even a day or two.
Because that's what we've become during the past 70 years...a nation of shallow consumers. Ever since the end of WWII Americans have shown an absolute single-minded pursuit of buying stuff. And while corporate America has been filling that 'need' they've been busy buying too. Buying politicians, lawyers, judges, lobbyists, pundits, and anyone who can give them an edge in controlling the addicts, like me.
I honestly don't think that most of my fellow American consumer/addicts see anything wrong with buying a lot of stuff. On the contrary. In some weird way they see it as one of the blessings of being American. We saved the world from truly bad guys like Hitler, Stalin, Tojo and Mussolini, and our reward was the ability to buy (or in many cases, take) things that raised a lot of collective eyebrows around the world. Like all that Middle Eastern oil in the 50's and 60's for a penny on the dollar. Or all that South American fruit and coffee for a penny on the dollar. Or all that sub-continent cheap labor for a penny on the dollar.
And as any addict will tell you, he/she doesn't really care where the stuff comes from, or who pays the bill, just as long as it keeps coming.
Here's the funny thing though. We're supposedly a country of good Christians. And nowhere in the Bible did Jesus tell his disciples to keep buying stuff. In fact he said a person couldn't serve two gods; the first being him and the second being 'stuff'. But today his faithful don't have any trouble with a little bit of mental gymnastics when it comes to that choice. In fact most (a generalization here) get downright nasty if they think someone with less 'stuff', i.e. the poor, tries to take any of theirs.
But I don't have that problem. I don't worship, or follow, or even believe in Jesus or any other god. I only believe in 'stuff'.
All hail 'stuff'.
All hail mammon.
I say that not as some kind of nostalgic look back at the 'good old days', just a statement of historical fact.
I went to the store today and bought some 'stuff'. If you asked me exactly what I bought, I'd be hard pressed to tell you. I just know I bought some 'stuff' that at the time seemed like a good idea to buy.
I'm addicted to buying. My name is Mark Thoma and I'm an addict. There I said it.
Actually I've known for years that I was addicted to buying.
I get a thrill out of buying. The thrill is bigger the more I spend on a particular object, but it quickly wears off leaving me with the urge to buy again.
George W. Bush knew I was an addict. For that matter so did Bill Clinton, and George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. Barack Obama certainly knows it along with all the people he works for, you know the captains of corporate America. They all get just a little pissed off if I quit buying because it pays their bills. In fact right after that whole attack on corporate America we now refer to as '9-11' Bush realized that the worst thing that could possibly happen was if I (and of course the 300 million other Americans addicted to buying 'stuff') quit buying for even a day or two.
Because that's what we've become during the past 70 years...a nation of shallow consumers. Ever since the end of WWII Americans have shown an absolute single-minded pursuit of buying stuff. And while corporate America has been filling that 'need' they've been busy buying too. Buying politicians, lawyers, judges, lobbyists, pundits, and anyone who can give them an edge in controlling the addicts, like me.
I honestly don't think that most of my fellow American consumer/addicts see anything wrong with buying a lot of stuff. On the contrary. In some weird way they see it as one of the blessings of being American. We saved the world from truly bad guys like Hitler, Stalin, Tojo and Mussolini, and our reward was the ability to buy (or in many cases, take) things that raised a lot of collective eyebrows around the world. Like all that Middle Eastern oil in the 50's and 60's for a penny on the dollar. Or all that South American fruit and coffee for a penny on the dollar. Or all that sub-continent cheap labor for a penny on the dollar.
And as any addict will tell you, he/she doesn't really care where the stuff comes from, or who pays the bill, just as long as it keeps coming.
Here's the funny thing though. We're supposedly a country of good Christians. And nowhere in the Bible did Jesus tell his disciples to keep buying stuff. In fact he said a person couldn't serve two gods; the first being him and the second being 'stuff'. But today his faithful don't have any trouble with a little bit of mental gymnastics when it comes to that choice. In fact most (a generalization here) get downright nasty if they think someone with less 'stuff', i.e. the poor, tries to take any of theirs.
But I don't have that problem. I don't worship, or follow, or even believe in Jesus or any other god. I only believe in 'stuff'.
All hail 'stuff'.
All hail mammon.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
What's in a name?
A few years back I started blogging as an outgrowth of my talk radio show. I called my blog site 'We Sell Fear', a reference to something that was told to me when I was selling telecom a few years back. My boss at the time said that any good salesman sells 'fear'. The fear that if you don't buy what he/she is selling your life will somehow be the worse for it. While that may or may not be true when it comes to selling telecom, or used cars, or big screen TVs, or any of the other things we Americans don't think we can live without, it got me to thinking about my earlier (and unbeknownst to me future) life as a TV journalist.
While reporters in my experience generally stick to the facts in a story, that story is then 'sold' to the audience using fear. The anchor introduction (usually written by a show producer) is loaded with obvious, and not so obvious, messages that what you're about to hear could have dire consequences if you don't pay close attention. From the over-the-shoulder anchor (and often over-the-top) graphics, arched eyebrows, hunched shoulders, and serious gaze, to the "could it happen here" copy, the nightly news sells fear every chance it gets. And we buy it. We're hardwired to buy it. It's in or genetic makeup. Animal behaviorists say living creatures that ignore danger don't live long enough to pass their genes onto future generations. Since humans have existed for hundreds of generations we've obviously become quite adept at responding to perceived threats.
The effect all this 'fear selling' has had on millions of TV news consumers was beautifully illustrated in Michael Moore's documentary 'Bowling for Columbine'. Americans have been conditioned to shoot first and ask questions later because hesitation (even a moment's worth) can have deadly consequences when faced with a suspicious looking person doing something questionable in the wrong part of town. At least that's the story we've been 'sold' on the nightly news countless times.
But 'We Sell Fear' was a radio show and when the show ended it seemed only right to move onto another theme for my rantings. So when I started an internet talk show a few months later I went with the acronym DIMFI, which stood for Don't Insult My F'ing Intelligence. The 'DIMFI' show, and blogsite, was a chance for me to discuss the irrational belief most Americans have in the supernatural, which occasionally manifests itself in trips to church or opening a bible, but mostly just hoping that a male deity will look out for our better interests if we ask real nice and hope enough.
Every night I would try to build the show around a rationalist topic posted on the blog site earlier in the day. The show included videos often illustrating the absurdity of religious belief along with a smattering of current events and the occasional caller. After a lot of work, and substantial trial and error, I was even successful in getting some interesting video interviews with well known atheists. But try as I might I could never build the 'live' internet audience to more than about a dozen people. Maybe it was the time slot, maybe it was the fact that asking anyone to invest an hour of their time four nights a week is too big of a commitment, maybe there just aren't that many atheists out there and DIMFI was too narrowly focused on the battle between rationalism and superstition, maybe it was me. But after about five months I grew tired of it and let the DIMFI show go. That was a little over a year ago.
Now I've decided to start another blog, and when I can get a little more time, another internet talk show. As you already know the name of this blog is 'mammonista' a word you might not find in the dictionary but is pretty obviously related to 'mammon' and 'mammonism' the latter which is defined as "the greedy pursuit of riches". While atheists might still be in the distinct minority in America most of us (myself included) are accomplished mammonistas. We love acquiring 'stuff' ignoring the consequences of that acquisition both in terms of how it was made and marketed and the effect it will have on our lives and the greater society. I'd say that in some instances we (and I'm ashamed to say myself included) are even addicted to the acquisition. There was a short period in the recent American past when being a 'mammonista' was distinctly uncool for a significant portion of the American public. The counterculture movement of the late '60s and early '70s was based on the notion that 'stuff' was just 'stuff' and should be left by the side of the figurative (if not literal) road. But in the whole scheme of things the counterculture lasted just a few years and when all was said and done precious few took it to heart while most came to their 'mammonista' senses.
So the mammnista blog site will be devoted to what makes us so uniquely American. Our unfettered and single-minded pursuit of 'stuff'. I say uniquely American because I'm not sure any other modern society is such a slave to mammonism. I find it hard to believe that most Europeans, Asians, Indians, Middle Easterners, Africans, or South Americans, enjoy enough of the basic necessities, to focus their attention on mammon. I may be wrong. And that's not to say that as their standard of living rises (while ours falls) they might not find the leisure time to become the Mammonistas of the next decade. But for now I think we are alone at that top of that mountain.
All hail mammon!
While reporters in my experience generally stick to the facts in a story, that story is then 'sold' to the audience using fear. The anchor introduction (usually written by a show producer) is loaded with obvious, and not so obvious, messages that what you're about to hear could have dire consequences if you don't pay close attention. From the over-the-shoulder anchor (and often over-the-top) graphics, arched eyebrows, hunched shoulders, and serious gaze, to the "could it happen here" copy, the nightly news sells fear every chance it gets. And we buy it. We're hardwired to buy it. It's in or genetic makeup. Animal behaviorists say living creatures that ignore danger don't live long enough to pass their genes onto future generations. Since humans have existed for hundreds of generations we've obviously become quite adept at responding to perceived threats.
The effect all this 'fear selling' has had on millions of TV news consumers was beautifully illustrated in Michael Moore's documentary 'Bowling for Columbine'. Americans have been conditioned to shoot first and ask questions later because hesitation (even a moment's worth) can have deadly consequences when faced with a suspicious looking person doing something questionable in the wrong part of town. At least that's the story we've been 'sold' on the nightly news countless times.
But 'We Sell Fear' was a radio show and when the show ended it seemed only right to move onto another theme for my rantings. So when I started an internet talk show a few months later I went with the acronym DIMFI, which stood for Don't Insult My F'ing Intelligence. The 'DIMFI' show, and blogsite, was a chance for me to discuss the irrational belief most Americans have in the supernatural, which occasionally manifests itself in trips to church or opening a bible, but mostly just hoping that a male deity will look out for our better interests if we ask real nice and hope enough.
Every night I would try to build the show around a rationalist topic posted on the blog site earlier in the day. The show included videos often illustrating the absurdity of religious belief along with a smattering of current events and the occasional caller. After a lot of work, and substantial trial and error, I was even successful in getting some interesting video interviews with well known atheists. But try as I might I could never build the 'live' internet audience to more than about a dozen people. Maybe it was the time slot, maybe it was the fact that asking anyone to invest an hour of their time four nights a week is too big of a commitment, maybe there just aren't that many atheists out there and DIMFI was too narrowly focused on the battle between rationalism and superstition, maybe it was me. But after about five months I grew tired of it and let the DIMFI show go. That was a little over a year ago.
Now I've decided to start another blog, and when I can get a little more time, another internet talk show. As you already know the name of this blog is 'mammonista' a word you might not find in the dictionary but is pretty obviously related to 'mammon' and 'mammonism' the latter which is defined as "the greedy pursuit of riches". While atheists might still be in the distinct minority in America most of us (myself included) are accomplished mammonistas. We love acquiring 'stuff' ignoring the consequences of that acquisition both in terms of how it was made and marketed and the effect it will have on our lives and the greater society. I'd say that in some instances we (and I'm ashamed to say myself included) are even addicted to the acquisition. There was a short period in the recent American past when being a 'mammonista' was distinctly uncool for a significant portion of the American public. The counterculture movement of the late '60s and early '70s was based on the notion that 'stuff' was just 'stuff' and should be left by the side of the figurative (if not literal) road. But in the whole scheme of things the counterculture lasted just a few years and when all was said and done precious few took it to heart while most came to their 'mammonista' senses.
So the mammnista blog site will be devoted to what makes us so uniquely American. Our unfettered and single-minded pursuit of 'stuff'. I say uniquely American because I'm not sure any other modern society is such a slave to mammonism. I find it hard to believe that most Europeans, Asians, Indians, Middle Easterners, Africans, or South Americans, enjoy enough of the basic necessities, to focus their attention on mammon. I may be wrong. And that's not to say that as their standard of living rises (while ours falls) they might not find the leisure time to become the Mammonistas of the next decade. But for now I think we are alone at that top of that mountain.
All hail mammon!
Monday, April 4, 2011
An Unholy Alliance
Friends,
Great article on David Michael Green's blogsite entitled "When Pigs Rule" http://www.regressiveantidote.net/
points out a chink in their armor as the oligarchy (with the help of both political parties) does its best to destroy the middle class in the U.S. (actually I'm not that naive, technology, quickly disappearing natural resources - oil in particular - , and planetary degradation, will put all humans in the same boat within my lifetime, the uber-wealthy and everyone else).
But in the near term have you ever wondered what happens when the forces of superstition run up against the forces of greed (or vice versa)?
I've always said that in the end science trumps religion. But actually good old fashioned capitalism may beat it to the punch.
To wit: (from the end of Green's article)
mammonista
Great article on David Michael Green's blogsite entitled "When Pigs Rule" http://www.regressiveantidote.net/
points out a chink in their armor as the oligarchy (with the help of both political parties) does its best to destroy the middle class in the U.S. (actually I'm not that naive, technology, quickly disappearing natural resources - oil in particular - , and planetary degradation, will put all humans in the same boat within my lifetime, the uber-wealthy and everyone else).
But in the near term have you ever wondered what happens when the forces of superstition run up against the forces of greed (or vice versa)?
I've always said that in the end science trumps religion. But actually good old fashioned capitalism may beat it to the punch.
To wit: (from the end of Green's article)
"Telling the truth is the worst crime you can commit, as an incident in New Hampshire this week well proves. The Catholic church has, by all appearances, been little short of a rape factory for decades if not centuries now, and yet conservatives can hardly run fast enough to defend it against the slightest attempt by its victims to gain some meager measure of justice in compensation for the damage done to them. They’ll defend it, that is, unless anyone in the church should make the foolish mistake of speaking truthfully about the effects of regressive policymaking upon the poor and downtrodden. Bishop John McCormack did just that with respect to draconian Republican-proposed state budget cuts in New Hampshire. That caused D.J. Bettencourt, the House Majority Leader there, to call the good bishop a “pedophile pimp”.
Which is probably precisely what he is, but just the same – wow. In case you were wondering what’s really sacred amongst regressives, now you know, pal. Ca-ching, ca-ching."
When/if other ministers begin exhorting their flocks to support sharing the burden (i.e. taxing the rich) to help feed the poor will the rich stand idly by? My guess is they won't. mammonista
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