MONEY IS POWER EVERYWHERE BUT IS NOT THE ONLY POWER

An article by Adele M Stan points out how little Catholic parishioners understand what the Bishops hierarchy does with their donations.  Most assume it goes to charity but the reality is that more government money (the tax dollars from Atheist to all religions) supports a greater majority of them.  She writes:  " Many of the Catholics that Holden spoke to for his report expressed dismay that the church is spending its political capital and parishioners' money to fight for antiquated and discriminatory notions of sexual morality rather than to defeat the death penalty or advocate for immigrants. At a recent meeting of progressive and liberal religious types I attended in Washington, DC, I heard the same complaint from the Catholics in the room."  For the article in its entirety, click here.

Written by Dominic Holden in the Stranger  he says:  "The American Catholic hierarchy is escalating a campaign against 
gay marriage—and progressive Catholic churchgoers are angry. 
Angry enough to leave. Angry enough to organize. Angry enough to stop tithing. How much money from that donation platter is going into the fight against gays and lesbians, anyway?"

When a religious institution works tirelessly to make laws that control the lives of all others, not of that religion, it shows its own weakness.  If its doctrines were relevant to 2012, they would no longer have to try to play political games with everyone's life. The current whining about contraception and gay marriage makes it very clear, the church is trying to cross the barrier of separation of church and state.  The brainwashed media, such as Chris Mathews, should recuse themselves from commenting their own opinions on these subjects and just report news.  For a business (which I consider all churches to be) to fill itself with pedophiles and then presume to tell the rest of us how to live our lives; which ignores current scientific research; which ignores the benefits of sex and the calming effects of the endorphins produced which can calm down elevated cortisol (the stress hormone) levels;

Working on a 2000 year old myth that God planned sex only for procreation, today's world knows the benefits to the human experience in terms of promoting health and calmness of mood from experiencing the endorphin rush that orgasm brings on.  If this was a sin, then there would be no 'nocturnal emissions' or 'wet dreams' experienced in sleep by both genders.  Nature has always known what is better for man (and woman) than celibate misogynists.

If the Teapartiers really want a less intrusive government, then get out of our bodies (I'm speaking to you in Virginia, especially) and sex lives.. Leave our health to physicians and ourselves, the governments should only see to providing insurance coverage to make a healthy population more possible.

THE LATEST REPUBLICAN WAR: ON WOMEN

Since Bob Dole allowed himself to be the poster boy for Viagra as the solution to erectile dysfunction, in 1998, Viagra became reimbursable by health insurance.  A question was raised today by a woman politician, "What about vasectomy which is also paid for by insurance, is that not for contraception?"  Nita Chaudhary and Shaunna Thomas have an interesting article well worth reading on the issue of contraception for women.  Click here: 

The threat is not only about denying women contraception, the danger is rolling back healthcare coverage.  Many fronts are pouring lava onto the issue.  Virginia has a bill which in this day and age, in the US, is archaic in its handling of women. It requires a woman, without her permission, to have a vaginal violation for an ultrasound which doctors do not recommend and there is no medical reason for it.  Read this

Senator Issa, who must be as great a misogynist as I have watched for quite some time, treated women with total lack of consideration.  House Democrats walked out on a one-sided hearing on contraception, calling it an 'Autocratic Regine'. An article with the details by Laura Bassett and Amanda Terkel should be read by all who believe in not turning the clock back on the treatment of women by thousands of years.  Issa had a panel of all men, with no women represented, defying the custom of allowing the opposite party a witness, and pretended they were concerned and competent to make medical decisions about a woman's body without her consent in their attempt to shame her to prevent her getting an abortion.  Having tried this tactic near clinics and having had the law prevent their coming too close, I don't see how this law can avoid being challenged.  The United States cannot allow women to be treated with such 'rape' of their body, against medical advice, to be forced to bear an unwanted child.

Abortion has been legal in the United States for several decades now.  The number of abortions sought has decreased markedly.  Unless I have not read the Constitution accurately as to its meaning, states do not have the right to override Federal Law.  Let us hope that this vicious attempt to use women to push someone else's religious beliefs onto them, or used to weaken health care provisions as they now stand must not succeed by these monsters.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN ITS SENILITY

It is not difficult to understand the Catholic Bishops and their stand on contraception.  After all, they are celibate (or, at least a few of them are if they are not gay or pedophiles).  It offends me that their 'words from God' were written almost 2000 years ago. That they stick to the rules set that long ago that touch social, medical and personal issues denies that any progress has been made by man in those thousands of years.  Once there was a time when the more children you had, the more chance of help in your old age.  The world has changed but the only changes I have seen from the Catholic church is that when people stopped going to church because they couldn't understand what was being said, services began to be translated to the language of the country in which they were being delivered.

The very fact that they had the power to make it possible for people to eat meat on Friday suggests that there is room for the church to make some changes to accommodate for man's more functional brain, technology, medical advancements, and much else that happened in those hundreds of years.  What can the Bishops be thinking to assume that people should fight Nature and be celibate or end up with more children than they can support as well as fill the world with more children than it can feed, house, educate and assure medical care.

The 'Catholic Church' has decided what changes it will accept.  It does not seem to accept evolution, but it somehow accepts the world is no longer flat.  Believing nothing which science has told us of the brain, they continue to believe that somehow the soul (which of course can never be researched) has a more influential role in a person's character, life experience and description.  When man knew not what was in the sky, they placed Heaven there.  That leaves us dependent on the beliefs of 2000 years ago with minor exceptions that suited the church hierarchy.  With all the money at the Vatican, it pains me to think that my taxes must pay for 70% of the funds spent by Catholic Charities, a church organization that totally violates my religious beliefs about family planning and contraception.  When will the Church doctrine take  its place in history where it belongs, not in today's world?  It should be viewed along with the Gods of the Greeks, invented in myth to try to explain all that man of the time did not understand...

MY GUESS FOR THE NEXT REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

With the track record of new candidates having a flash and a day in the sun, I would assume Santorum will be insufficient in popularity for the Republican base to be happy with him as a candidate.Since it takes a month or more for the voters to see the lack of appeal each has had for the voters, polls will show Santorum is unelectable as well.

My guess then is that someone will be shoved in at the last minute at the Convention like Jeb Bush or some other 'not well enough known to hate yet' male.  The hope will be that he will be not running long enough for the numbers to go down.  Otherwise, all they have running now are a bunch of sure losers to he country overall.

More important than the presidential campaign will be the House and Senate races.  Maybe enough people will realize how terrible for the country the Teapartiers and those who fell in line with getting Obama out of office rather than doing what is right for the country .have been.

THEY SAY:'WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND

Corporations moved their plants out of the US to have their products made more cheaply by non-union workers willing to work for minimum wage (eve below out own in conditions OSHA would hardly tolerate). Instead of our employers bringing some of those jobs back with pride and lowered profits,   Instead, Canada is moving a plant to Indiana o take advantage of its new 'right-to-work'

"Caterpillar is moving to newly "Right-To-Work" Indiana, offering rock-bottom wages and searching for anti-union managers. Is the US the new source for cheap labor?" writes Herman Rosenfeld. "Caterpillar announced Friday it would close its London, Ontario, locomotive plant after 465 workers there refused to grant concessions that would cut their wages in half."  Caterpillar has its headquarters in Peoria, IL.  An American company is coming back home to revel in the disgusting machinations of the Republican party in failing to defend its workers.  The article states that "Caterpillar posted a record profit of $4.9 billion for 2011, with even higher profits predicted in 2012"  Is this a company of which we can be proud?  Are these corporations who should be permitted to have the opportunity to take advantage of our middle class like this?  Do we dare ask how much Caterpillar influenced Mitch Daniels to make his anti-worker moves?   Will Mitch Daniels have the colossal  chutzpah to claim he is creating jobs with his new policies? 

Happy Valentine's Day to all of us struggling to survive as out country decays around us.

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE: OH REALLY?

Apparently the Bishops of the Catholic Church are hallucinating their importance.  They don't agree with the law that says they can have their way as long as others have theirs.  A neighbor of mine was quite firm that the Bishops should have been asked before Obama made a decision.   I said, "Oh really?  Why?"  Not even all Catholics agree with the Bishops.  Why should they be consulted about something that effects non-Catholics?

This 'religious issue' about contraception is being asked to be treated more importantly for Catholics than for other groups.  What about Rastafaris?.Their religion has them smoking cannabis.  "For Rastas, smoking cannabis, usually known as herb, weed, sinsemilla (Spanish for without seeds), or ganja (from the Sanskrit word Ganjika, used in ancient India), is a spiritual act, often accompanied by Bible study; they consider it a sacrament that cleans the body and mind, heals the soul, exalts the consciousness, facilitates peacefulness, brings pleasure, and brings them closer to Jah. (Wiikipedia)  I've not heard that they are exempt from the law to smoke cannabis nor that they are legally permitted to grow it.

When a young Muslim woman, in Florida, tried to get a driver's license with her face covered (a part of her religion) the government (justifiably in my opinion) refused to let her.  It defeats the purpose of a license as an ID, does it not?

I'm sure there are other instances in which our laws interfere with religious beliefs. Female Genital Mutilation is believed to be practiced on more than 92 million girls and women worldwide.  Yet, I believe, we outlaw it in the United States.  It is illegal in the UK but still practiced ritually all too often.. 

The ridiculous argument about the Catholic Church having to pay for what the insurance company gives to women anyway is extremely troubling to me. Since churches are exempt from taxes, why should I (not of their religions) have to pony up my tax dollars for their properties and governmental and local services provided for them?  This is a tempest in a teapot and we should not be given any credit to the Bishops arguments that all women who work for their hospitals, offices, or wherever, who are non-Catholic should not have the rights non-Catholic women have elsewhere.  Santorum's logic would prevent me from voting for him under any circumstances.  He is bringing his religion into decisions that effect all of us, Catholic or not.  Does he realize  HE is violating the Constitution?

SIMPLE THINGS WE TEND TO FORGET

Tonight one of my five TVs had a screen that kept saying 'One Moment Please...This will start soon."  I don't know just how long 'soon' is, so I waited for a very long time before I thought to check a couple of other TVs. Ranting to a neighbor about Comcast again I realized I wasn't being fair to the brave tech who seems to have, after four failed before him, solved the Internet/Phone problem for me.and everything seems to be working after a day and a half..

Like and epiphany, it finally dawned on me that the reason Comcast can offer phone service is not because they own lines now; it is because they use the Internet.  I began to wonder if Vonage might not have been more reliable and cheaper but am not ready to act on that question just yet.

After an hour of conversation with my neighbor (who has always had the same problem I am currently having, as well as information on a few I probably will have (according to her)) she told me not to schedule a service call.  She said, "Wait until 2 AM and then call a tech who can walk you through the problem fix from the 'office' ".  However, she also suggested what I have known for years but forgot to do here; shut the power to the box, plug power back and restart it.  I reached behind, pulled out the AC plug, counted a slow five, put the power back on, the box on, the TV was back.  It had only happened on that one TV that had a cable box connected rather than the other two that had the small converter boxes or the two digital TVs.  The analogs worked.  The two digital boxes also had no problem.  Isolating a problem certainly assists with diagnostics.

It served to remind me about the many times when  a computer doesn't work well, unplug the AC and reboot before calling in the cavalry.  Sometimes a simple reboot without disconnecting the power works.  Why is it that after years of having learned this lesson over and over do I forget it should always be step #1 after checking to see if the power is on?   I guess the moral of the story is that 'Older is not always wiser'.