THERE MAY BE A PAUCITY OF JOY IN THE WORLD, BUT HOPE IS ONCE AGAIN RISING

It has been many years since there feeling of hope and shared commitment for bettering the world has flourished as currently.  There are grass roots springing up to pull together to fight the 1 % that has taken over our country with the cold, cruel and rigid hands of a dictator.  There will be politically elected recalls, people getting signatures for petitions to get referendums on ballots,and the birth of more groups like No-Labels.  Energy is revving palpably.

On this Christmas Eve, as  some are still celebrating Chanukah and all the other celebrations that pull people together for whatever their belief or reasoning, we universally look hopefully to the future.  Will the day come when the rich will let the drawbridge down and see that there are starving children out there while they buy Swarovski studded toilets for $128,000?.  Do these people forget the French Revolution or the Russian revolution and subsequent swing to Communism?  That kind of blatant wealth in the face of poverty should be seen as fragile if one is to have learned anything from history.

Christians should not fool themselves into believing that the USA is a Christian nation.  It is not.  Yes, there are some Christians here but if a true count is taken, among those listed as such are many Atheists. They are the ones who have learned that religion does not create integrity nor morality.  Living with integrity and morality comes from within.  There are many religious people in prisons and there are many immoral people preaching religion,

Whoever wrote "You can't judge a book by its cover." was metaphorically speaking about the cover of religion as much as anything else.  Zealots are not more religious, only more convinced they  (and only they) are right and among the 'chosen' few.  Like all addictions and bad habits, religion will have its fantasies gradually fade in the eyes of the majority.  Religion is, indeed, an opiate of the people as Karl Marx wrote in the 19th C . His views did not convert the world but they didn't die, either.  Just as it took 400 years for the Catholic church to recognize the genius of Galileo, (who said the earth was round).  The concept was ridiculed by ignorant people making similar judgments today from the pulpit, TV evangelism and the Vatican.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER FOR MIDDLES CLASS; POLITICAL DISASTER FOR BOEHNER

Picture of a one-term Speaker of the House

Boehner finally caved in , saying that they had to do the 'right'  thing for the people.  The Washington Post had an interesting view of the cave-in   Jonathan Capehart wrote::  "Boehner’s colossal cave comes after three days of being pummeled by Senate Republicans, President Obama and the Wall Street Journal editorial page, the latter being the equivalent of the Republican principal’s office."

We can't even blame Grover Norquist for the resistance, since it was resisting a tax cut for which they had previously been in favor, not a tax raise.:  Rachel Maddow described his handling of this crisis as a career killer.  Mitch McConnell, made it clear 30 minutes after Boehner said he would not cave-in, that he was on his own! Maddow made it imminently clear that he just was not good at his job with a lovely comparison to Nancy Pelosi
Capehart went on to say: "The American people are the winners in this latest bit of Washington craziness. But Boehner comes out the biggest loser. The man from Ohio has little to no control over his recalcitrant caucus. The inmates are running the asylum. If we didn’t appreciate it during the debt-ceiling crisis last August we most certainly do now.".

BOEHNER: BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD TEABAG

Today I've heard the current House of Representatives called everything from the Kamikaze House  to the party seizing defeat from the jaws of victory  It is said that Boehner has painted himself into a corner because he is so inept at his job.   Rove advises they can wait until Obama goes away on holiday to meet his family and then the House can say that the Democrats have once again walked away from the middle class.

It is felt by staffers that a lifeline was tossed to the House Republicans and they tossed it away.  It appears that McConnell finally realized just how much they have all lost with the stance they have taken for three years.  One who spoke to many Republicans all week said none of them can see a path to victory for themselves. Brian Beutlera reporter for TPM (Talking Points Memo)  talked about some of what was pushing the Republicans who didn't give the ramifications a thought.  (This speaks to their inability to see beyond one issue and thus they can only see their own goal and not what they are doing to the American middle class or their own chances for re-election).  After that, there was a  "Where-do-we-go-from-here moment."  Another comment,  "It will be another Ground Hog Day tomorrow in Washington".

Meanwhile, Romney's whole campaign is to criticize Gingrich and President Obama and ride on his own tooting of horn over his past accomplishments.  When one thinks of the millions of dollars spent on this circus, and how many hungry children would be fed and allowed to be healthier for it, it is a very sad situation that any sane person would see was brought on by the single minded Republicans who do not 'compromise'.  To them, it can only be 'my way', even if millions of American citizens are desperate for food, housing , health care and jobs..

Do not look to Obama to save us all. Vote for him so he can continue fighting for the middle class as he has tried to do since he came into office.  We are too easily influenced by the media who, much of the time, do not know the rules under which he is controlled.

DEMONSTRATING MY SIMPLE MIND

If the rich are 1%, then the 99% mathematically should have more votes, collectively.  What the Republican House has been doing (letting aside McConnell and his control of the Senate in the past three years) are there so many foolish people in the 99% who will vote for more of the same. The thought of that is shocking.  I would assume it is not from understanding the candidates, their real goals and positions which basically do not aim for the better life for the 99% and their descendants. Added to my conjecture  is a Gallup poll that says only 39% say they would re-elect the person they had chosen to represent them in the last election.  The Congress should now be proud of the fact that they have the lowest approval vote since the Gallup Poll was started in the 70s.

Pat Robertson  reacted with much scorn and Bible thumping about the SNL(Saturday Night Live) skit which had Christ come into the locker room and talk to Tim Tebow and the Brochos Team.  Robertson was scandalized that someone dared to have Christ come in and talk as any responsible Atheist might have challenged the scenario in which Tebow thought that his success was due to Christ.  (Robertson must have missed the very funny South Park episodes with Jesus.) The challenge was whether Christ would favor this team over all others who pray to him.  It challenges those who truly believe that God listens to them totally. They forget that God (and probably his son) helps those who help themselves and that was much of his message.  Robertson forgets the right to free speech and the freedom of religion we are supposed to have in our country. 

When will the voters. who put this totally incompetent group of Norquist robots into one of the most important offices we have in government, realize we need government and we need people representing us who are not guided by pledges to fast talking con men and the naive who think government should not play a major role in our lives?

GAINS AND LOSSES

Christopher Hitchens

Steve Jobs

Natural law tells us 'You win some; you lose some.'.  Among the gains and losses, all of which must be seen as relative, We have recently lost Steve Jobs and Christopher Hitchens.  Both creative in their own way.  Jobs in the ingenuity behind Apple and Mac computers and all the peripheral products.Christopher Hitchens for his insightful writing and his justification for thinking as an Atheist, which may be a far more popular view in our world than any religious leaders would have us think.

Michelle Bachman initially barely won the Iowa primary.  Not too far behind her, which most media glossed over, was Ron Paul who is currently coming up in the polls and seems quite competitive to win the primary in Iowa.  The Republican candidates have all been up and then down in the polls.  Count these as swift gains and losses.

Biggest and most significant loss, our Democracy and the democratic process.  Our Washington governing is critically ill.  The virus killing it may be called 'Republican politicians' whose single purpose is to make Obama a one-term president at the the expense of the poorest people in our country, stunting the mental and physical growth of our young, the hope of our future.There are too many gains and losses to list here today.  A list of the lies being told by our candidates might be a more important priority, in fact.  At least it would be a first in any presidential campaign, would it not?  Next a list of lies perpetuated by some in media, especially those pretty, brainless blondes who think that Pepper Spray is harmless because it is made from a natural product, pepper.

MORE THOUGHTS ON UNITED HEALTH CARE AD

The most recent UnitedHealthCare ad talked about a man who was prescribed two different prescriptions in two different places.  In the ad, he says:' United Health Care caught the error and said I would have been in trouble if I had taken them both.' I deplore this man's lack of attention to his own health care.

Recently I had written a blog with some aspects of the ad that bothered me.  However, I continued to think about the ad and finally connected some dots for myself.  For years as a therapist, I have been telling patients they should not rely on their doctors to keep all their information and urged them to ask questions so they could understand what was prescribed and what it was supposed to do.If this man had talked to his doctor and asked more questions he might have caught the error himself, which would have been safer than taking a chance someone else might find it.

My last blog on the ad commented that the likelihood of catching that prescription error by the insurance company was slim.  While I might be wrong, the ad bothers me because it fosters the illusion that people need not should assume their need to understand their condition and the medicines prescribed for it.  They cannot rely on being protected from doctor's errors by insurance clerks.  Anything which encourages a false dependence troubles me.

Politics seem to be influencing products not approved by the FDA, even when they are natural products which have been sold for years with no complaints,  A company was forced to stop selling a product because it was advertised as being good for health but had not been researched and pulled through the FDA sphincter. All of us need to understand our bodies, what we feed them, and what we ingest to stay healthy.

OUR UNEVEN SOCIETY TODAY

There are many beautiful women, but not all can capitalize on their beauty and acting talent (as some refer to as 'the ability to fake it') as Dame Elizabeth Taylor did.  While we read that 40% of American children are currently homeless, Taylor's jewelry sold at auction for 150 million dollars.

There is something wrong with a system that allows CEOs to cream off the top of profits, 300 times what they earned a generation ago when shareholders had an opportunity to benefit from their investments (they see little of the profits today with all the tax loopholes and whatever else gets withheld from the public).

That athletes and entertainers earn so much money says something about our system as well.  There are many people with talents and skills who cannot compete with those salaries. Brilliant researchers, physicians, surgeons, medical engineers, too name just a few of the unsung heroes in our workers in medical and many other fields.  The people who are figuring out how to make paraplegics walk again are, in my mind, far greater heroes than the guy who breaks a record for touchdowns..

When one hears Romney willing to bet $10,000 on a ridiculous point, Trump bragging about his money, Gingrich letting everyone know how much fools pay him to hear him talk (bragging about getting $60,000 for a talk), and football players (the equivalent of human bulldozers) winning games through brawn and the expertise of the coach and other team players, it is a script for grave political unrest.. We are now seeing it in the Occupy groups but there are people who feel as strongly but are unable to march.  They will fight with other means.  The sad part of it all is that it will take a full generation before we can be brought back into some balance..