We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old - and that's the criterion by which I'll be selecting my judges. Barack Obama
"Empathy" is the latest code word for liberal activism, for treating the Constitution as malleable clay to be kneaded and molded in whatever form justices want. It represents an expansive view of the judiciary in which courts create policy that couldn't pass the legislative branch or, if it did, would generate voter backlash. Karl Rove
Hello again, alla you shaved monkeys out there in Middle-Earth. Pope Gregory here again to do a bit of blogging. And I don't reckon this one will be very long. I'll of course be doing a blog soon in which we examine Xmas (and Christmas) and where I'll be pointing out that all the celebrating you're doing this part of the year means there may just be hope for you yet. What I'll be touching on in this blog is the subject of Empathy and why it is important to discuss it during this holiday season, seeing that the whole "Peace on Earth, Good Will Towards Men" thing is such utter bullshit.
Unless you've been living under a rock, one truth will tattoo itself on the inside of your skull...people sometimes, and in certain situations consistently, aren't very nice, especially when you're discussing their money, or the lack thereof. The wife and I are continuing to shake our heads as to why oh why did the Republicans get voted back in to at least control of the House of Reps...but then when you see how we actually are, it makes you wonder why you wonder. Not only are a great number of Uhmurkans not intelligent, but they seem to not even think independently and their lives are ruled by ideologies that someone else gave them. And when it comes to money, they will lie, cheat and steal and then laugh all the way to the bank. This is how business is done in Uhmurkah on a consistent basis. The financial crisis was caused by the removal of regulations and oversight, pushed by the GOP, by people who were writing mortgages and wheeling and dealing with all the restraint of a guy playing roulette after half-a-dozen of those free cocktails. They continue to receive big bonuses on Wall Street while the middle class is told to bend over and take it. And in the last election, the electorate, like Kevin Bacon in Animal House said, "Thank you sir, may I have another?"
In other news, while folks are getting evicted from their homes for lack of a few thousand dollars, Derek Jeter thinks he should make over $40 million dollars a year playing baseball (because, you know...he does his commercial work for free...or maybe a free bag of razors.) Big Companies got bailed out, but you never see the CEOs of those companies selling apples on the sidewalk, yet the GOP is against continuing the unemployment benefits. The GOP is the political party of the Conservative Xian who jumps up and down and rolls around on the floor when someone even suggests we say Happy Holidays rather than Merry Christmas, because they object to taking Yeshua bar Joseph out of the holiday. They might try "putting Jesus in their heart" first.
I don't want to harp on the Xians, I've skinned them alive already in this blog, but you can see how the Xians blaspheme the name of their deity by their behavior and how every time they do so, another atheist is born. They leave their churches where after another dose of being accepted by sheep just like them, they then use the N-word right there on the church grounds and talk about Obama being a "Lyin' African" and say that we should not have universal health care and other "Socialist" programs while talking about all our soldiers being "heroes" who are fighting for our freedom while millions die needlessly and lives are otherwise shattered on the other side of the world.
Uhmurkah is a rogue, evil nation, a war-mongering empire that wants to keep the rest of world under its heel and the most patriotic members of this country are the ones who supposedly worship a deity that said that you MUST sell all you have and give it to the poor and that you MUST love all other people as you love yourself and that you MUST be as wise as serpents but be as harmless as doves. Please oh please do go to Iraq and preach Jesus to someone who's father was blown to bits in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Talk about how Uhmurkah is a Christian Nation to one of the "enemy combatants" who was made to strip and pose while some of our fine heroic soldiers had their picture taken with the same proud expression as if they had just killed that prize buck. Witness to that illegal immigrant whose mother died while trying to pass into the US from Mexico. Talk to that person who lost his job because fine upstanding Xians falsely accused him of improper conduct on the job. Talk to that person who cannot get medical care because fine Xian folks don't want their money being spent to take care of someone else. Preach the Good News of Jesus' birth to the person who you don't think should get welfare because they take drugs in order to escape the nightmare that Uhmurkah has become for millions of our people.
ARE THERE NO PRISONS??? ARE THERE NO WORKHOUSES???
Huff huff huff
Why do we put a focus on Peace on Earth, Good Will Towards Men in the holiday season? Why is it that Scrooge's nephew appreciates the time above other times of the year? How is it that after decades of watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and watching A Christmas Carol either on teevee or on stage that it seems to not touch the people that it needs to? Isn't it clear that the story of Rudolph is about? Do we need to call him Rudolph the Homosexual Reindeer before it penetrates?
Now, Rudolph, Santa has strict policy of Don't Ask Don't Tell regarding red-noses. Put this bit of mud over your nose. Yes, I know you were born that way, but everyone else will see it as a lifestyle choice.
Do we need to call it A Christmas Carol Where a Conservative Republican Who Condemned The Liberal Agenda Learns The True Meaning Of Christmas? No, we don't...and yet we see the very people who shouldn't need to hear these stories continue to persecute and bully the "misfits" and continue to be just fine letting others either starve or just get by. By (insert the name of a deity of your choice here)! even A Christmas Carol shows the need for universal health care.
Spirit, will Tiny Pedro live?
No, you selfish bastard, you voted to repeal "Obamacare", and Pedro is the son of an illegal immigrant anyway, so what do you care, he wouldn't be covered anyway, no matter how many times you shout "You Lie" at the President. If these wetbacks are wont to die, then let them do it and decrease the surplus population in Arizona. And by the way, you will die of colon cancer because it was a pre-existing condition and you will die because your excrement will back up into your body. Quite ironic since you were so full of shit before anyhow. Marley was right, you're a hopeless jerk and I'll leaving now so Death can come along and dropkick you down to Hell. So there.
The Truth is that many of us are so repellent, belligerent and hostile in our behavior towards our fellow men the rest of the year that we have to compartmentalize the idea that we should be nice to each other during just a certain part of the year because many find themselves incapable of being nice to others anytime else. The compartmentalization of observances when I was a "Christian," (but now I'm more "like-Christ" than then) was just one of many incongruous things that made me question the religion. Why focus on Jesus' birth at a certain time of year and then focus on his death and resurrection at another time of year, besides the fact that the pre-Christians, those "godless heathens," had holidays at those times of the year and the Catholic church allowed the folks to keep certain themes of the holidays but layered their symbols on top of them? The Catholic Church actually bridged the gap between the old and the new and it was the abrogation of it and the rise of Protestantism that caused us to lose our way even further from the "Good Ol' Days." But why put these observances into the nice little spaces instead of referring to them throughout the year? Well, the answer is that the average Xian doesn't really bring to mind these theological concepts throughout the year.
Spirituality and having a mature religious life takes work, it requires you to be committed to it. As I touched on in my last episode (and I'm afraid I'm close to having an episode in this episode), Xianity is designed to require very little on your part. As long as you go to church on Sunday and act and dress a certain way, etc...then folks will regard you as an Xian. Are you on Facebook? Regularly posting about how blessed you are and thanking Jesus if it's a sunny day and stuff like that also helps. Meanwhile, continue to fornicate and drink too much and goldbrick at work and generally live in direct opposition to the handy guide book that Yahweh published for you.
It was my actually reading that book objectively without the filter of a Southern Baptist study guide or just via a Sunday School lesson or through the preacher and wanting to focus on my religious life, to be "UberChristian," that I realized why Xianity has become so easy and effortless to practice, because there's nothing really there. All you have to see as evidence is the conduct of these same people who claim to be Xian. Empathy doesn't factor into it. Oh, yes...did you give to the United Way? Did you help build someone a home for Habitat for Humanity? Good. Did you give a few bucks for Haiti relief? Awesome. Then of course you sold all that you had and sold your home and then gave all that money to widows in Iraq and then did you put on sackcloth and ashes in mourning for their loss, since as an Uhmurkan, you are to blame, because we are a Democratic Republic, right? No? You didn't? BUZZ...sorry, you lose, maybe next time.
True Christianity, as laid out in the Bible, is generally impossible unless you're willing to be homeless. That's why the going to church on Sunday is such a big deal and is something an Xian is told to do consistently. Because you have to keep up your conditioning. You have to continually have it bored into your brain that you really are a good person and are faithful to Jesus even if the rest of the week you lied, cheated and stole from others because that's just business in a Capitalistic system, every man for himself, eh?
But Jesus, for all his good traits is also not open to compromise. He is not a team player, it's his way or the Highway to Hell. He is very demanding and spelled it out very succinctly what is required to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. That's just one reason I unhitched my wagon. Another reason as I've noted before is that Jesus is a Semitic deity, along with his dad, Yahweh, and my folks came from Scotland/Ireland/Middle England. He's AC and I'm DC. He says "Erb" and I say "Herb," because as Eddie Izzard pointed out...there's a fucking H in it. He's a little bit country and I'm a little bit rock 'n' roll, etc etc etc.
No, the reason why Christmas (or Xmas) is such a focus for Xians is it is used to reinforce their self-image and when they see businesses, etc use the Happy Holidays or Seasons' Greetings stuff in order to be sensitive to those who observe the Winter Holiday for other reasons, they get upset and...laughably, claim they are being persecuted. Because any attempt to relegate their religion is met with hostility and contempt because they sense that house of cards is getting a bit wobbly and one response is to lash out at others to deflect your own sense that you've been had, but the mature response is to think it over and wonder if maybe another's religion is just as valid as yours. But when you think Xianity is the only game in town, you naturally have to fight and condemn all other religions and all other peoples and you're perfectly okay that we illegally invaded Iraq, because maybe some of our soldiers will convert people to Xianity while they're arresting their neighbors for being "enemy combatants."
Meanwhile...and I'll go into greater detail later on...because the vast majority of these Xians also are the spawn of European immigrants as I am, the whole reason why they are celebrating this season has dishwater to do with the virgin birth of a kid about 2000 years ago because waaay before that, their ancestors were observing the time for different...but similar reasons.
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right
Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right
Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right
It's all right
Jesus, you're an okay guy, really. No, you're better than that, and I feel for you while so many who claim to live in your name are actually blaspheming you. It shouldn't be happening to you, you already suffered so much for them and they drag your good name through the mud and excrement. You're awesomeness covered in awesome sauce. You rock the Casbah, in fact. You were my sunshine, my only sunshine...but you didn't make me happy. I was a misfit (and called a nitwit) and while everyone else was just fine making toys, I wanted to be a dentist...and frankly...several other deities were around before you anyway, who actually ARE the sunshine, not just the bright and morning star. Happy Birthday, anyhow, er...even if...um, you weren't born this time of year...ahem. I would say I'd hope dad finally gives you that (wink wink) special gift this year...but the world isn't ready to accept you yet, they're too busy shooting their eyes out with the gift you gave them.
Selah
