God ordained trickle up economics

Where do they come up with such nonsense? I thought the Prosperity Gospel was unsupported by the Bible, but that's rather tame. I've also been reading that while Trickle Down Economics has been shown to be a hoax, Trickle Up Economics is doing quite well, thank you, and lives on in the government bailout (where rich people are scrambling to get their slice while Bush is still in office. But now we see some religious justification for it. C. Peter Wagner declared, "God has declared through His prophets that the wealth of the wicked will be released to the Kingdom of God," and, "the enemies' camp will be plundered." Bishop Thomas Murthee, a Wagner colleague, adds, "The Bible says the wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous." He said this just before anointing Saran Palin for governor.

Now I went looking into a searchable online Bible database (bible.com) and went looking just for "wealth" and "wicked." There was no match in the King James Version and in newer translations the only passage that came close was Job 27, where the wicked are described with, "They go to bed wealthy and wake up poor."

Wagner is calling on God's Kingdom to infiltrate "Seven Mountains" of society: business, education, media, and government being four of them. The takeover of business includes permission to plunder the wealth of the wicked so that it can be used to implement a theocracy and wield spiritual warfare. No wonder McCain decries Obama's tax plans as "socialism." This spiritual warfare is supposedly done by:

…mapping strongholds of demons, witches and "spirits of witchcraft", and through driving those out through "spiritual warfare". The result will be the almost complete cessation of crime and addiction, almost 100% Christian church membership, the growth of farm vegetables to enormous size, and a miraculous reversal of environmental degradation.

It is amazing how easily and how completely the Bible can be twisted from its original message of love, grace, and forgiveness. Sheesh.

We're into the Spin Cycle

Tired of all the polling and want the whole mess to be over with? Me too. There are several very unscientific measures of who will win on Tuesday, but which are much more fun -- and maybe just as accurate.

* Jones Soda has sold 14,000 bottles of Yes We Can Cola and only 3,500 bottles of Pure McCain Cola, which is less than the 6,000 bottles of the Ron Paul Revolution Cola. I wonder of the three varieties taste the same?

* 7-Eleven offers presidential cups and the blue Obama cups are preferred to the red McCain cups 60% to 40%.

* Family Circle magazine asks candidate spouses for a favorite cookie recipe and then asks readers to vote for their preference. Cindy McCain's oatmeal butterscotch cookies got 54% of the vote over Michelle Obama's shortbread cookies, which got 44%. The outcome would have been quite different if either recipe included chocolate. Bill Clinton's oatmeal cookie got only 2%.

* Baskin Robbins says that the Whirl of Change ice cream gets 51% of the vote over the Straight Talk Crunch, at 49%. Both flavors contain nuts. Evidently, the other 29 flavors are not factored into the contest.

* If the Washington Redskins win their last home game before the election, the incumbent party stays in power. The game is tomorrow with the Redskins (6-2 record) playing the Steelers (5-2 record).

* KFC is selling t-shirts: the "Left Wing" shirt is chosen 41% of the time, the "Right Wing" at 29%, just behind the shirts with "Left Wing, Right Wing, Tastes the Same to Me" at 30%.

* The Scholastic magazine asks schoolchildren to vote for their preference. The kids have been right 15 times out of 17. They chose Obama 57% to McCain's 39%.

* The freshness test: Jonathan Rauch, senior writer at the National Journal, offers this test proposed by an anonymous government employee. Only once since early in the 20th Century has there been a president who has required more than 14 years to get from his first big elected office to the Oval Office. You do the math.

Careful about relying on endorsements

If you're in the Detroit area and wondering who to vote for beyond the big races, here are the Detroit Free Press endorsements, the town's progressive paper. I will not link to the Detroit News endorsements because that paper is significantly more conservative.


There is one Freep endorsement I quite strongly disagree with: Cliff Taylor for Michgian Supreme Court justice. I've written before that he is a horrible justice, putting ideology over law. He is frequently putting partisan causes ahead of impartial deliberations of what the law says. Even so, the Detroit Free Press, after documenting his many faults, quite reluctantly endorses him. They say Hathaway is as partisan and completely out of her league:

What Hathaway says about how she would simply "follow the law" is not unlike what Taylor says about his philosophy. But in an interview with the Free Press editorial board, Hathaway could not say why she would arrive at different decisions from Taylor, only that she would. She would likely be out of her depth on the high court, and not much more than a reliable, but unexplained, vote that's the opposite of Taylor's. That's not reason enough to put her there.

So, do you want a Republican partisan or a Democrat partisan?

DL status

Sheesh, my last report was two weeks ago. Time to rectify that. Yesterday I thought things were finally coming along. Today, not so much. The leg aches and I didn't sleep well last night.

The bruise on the right hand has healed though if I press on the base of the palm I get a bit of pain (not something that happens in everyday tasks).

The abrasions on the left elbow have also healed.

However, the left leg is still covered with huge bruises and this is 3 weeks after the accident. The bruises continued to get bigger for quite a while, though not so much in the last few days. Stairs are still a problem, though not as bad as they had been.

I revisited my doctor a week ago. He thought the spreading bruises were due to the pain medication thinning my blood, which then leaked through damaged veins. He switched me to an over-the-counter pain reliever, which works reasonably well, though I'm using the original stuff again because I now have a stuffy ear and the decongestant shouldn't be combined with the pain med. Sigh.

Since my last report my community handbell ensemble has given two concerts and the church group has performed once. I used my stool in all cases. The first concert was an effort because my leg was quite painful that day. The second one went much better.

I made it to the Ruth Ellis Center last week, even up the two flights of stairs (they have no elevator). I'll be back again today to help out during their Halloween party. For lack of anything better I'll wear my old tuxedo and ruffled shirt, the one that is now about 3 sizes too big.

The bicycle is now repaired. When the front wheel was replaced I asked them to also do a "check over" to make sure everything is working properly. The bill was less than $100. Alas, between the injuries and cold weather I probably won't get on it until spring.

After no response from the police in a week I called again. I found the case has been assigned to an officer. I later talked to him and he said he would try to find the girl who stayed with me waiting for my friend to take me to the doctor. The officer was to have done that yesterday. I haven't heard back yet.

Substantial Equivalent to marriage

As the battle rages over a marriage protection amendment in Florida I've seen a series of blog entries comparing Florida's amendment to what was passed in Michigan in 2004. This one looks at the recent Michigan Supremes ruling that banned domestic partner benefits and the lessons to be learned from it.

Similar to Michigan, the Florida amendment does not simply say, "marriage is between a man and a woman," as many state amendments did, but goes on to ban any "substantial equivalent."

In the ruling the Mich. Supremes said it doesn't matter that the amendment promoters claimed it would affect only gay marriage. Fla. supporters are making the same claim. The only thing to go on is the text of the amendment.

That "substantial equivalent" phrase means something or it wouldn't be there, said the Supremes. We can't simply say it doesn't apply to Domestic Partnerships because that would render the language meaningless. Thus, it definitely is about more than gay marriage.

The Mich. Supremes didn't look at what rights and responsibilities were attached to marriage and DPs, they looked at the requirements to enter into each kind of relationship -- and found them similar. No other relationships in Mich. are defined by the sex of the parties and prohibit the relationship based on a close blood connection. In addition, both are limited to two people, require partners to undertake mutual support, and both continue until one party takes steps to terminate it. Many of those are the same requirements for a DP in Broward County, Fla.

A cottage industry of Hope

Shepard Fairey created the now famous Obama Hope poster featuring the candidate's head in cream, blue, and red. It spawned a cottage industry of imitations. The artist's own favorite is the one featuring Alfred Newman of MAD Magazine. Here's the original and 99 imitations.

A collection of testimonies

My Write to Marry entry that I wrote yesterday is 60th out of 245 (as of 3:00 today) on the webpage collecting these stories.

A note to Laney: If you don't see photographers and tabloid reporters camped out on your lawn yesterday's post didn't make you famous. Are you relieved? Or disappointed?

Write to Marry

A blog that I read is promoting a Write to Marry campaign as part of a defeat of Proposal 8 in California, Proposal 102 in Arizona, and Proposal 2 in Florida. I live in Michigan, (which has already lost that battle) and may not have a lot of direct influence on those three states. Even so, here is my part of the effort. You can find out more here. I'd love to hear the stories of my niece CinnaZimt who lives in California.

I've been volunteering at the Ruth Ellis Center in Detroit for a couple months now. Ruth Ellis lived to be 102 and always used her home as a safe haven for gays and lesbians at a time when being out had dire consequences. The Center provides that safe haven for today's youth, giving them a place to be themselves. We offer 2 meals a day, group discussion sessions, laundry facilities, and a warehouse to help them furnish a new apartment. They are exuberant, as young people are, and looking for a way to get their start in the world.

I helped lead a discussion session on the disparity between what many black churches in Detroit say about gays and what the Bible really says. I used a resource available from Soulforce) http://www.soulforce.org. Of course, being in their early 20s and younger, they asked questions I wasn't quite ready for, such as are there gays in the Bible? Yes, but not obviously. One must read between the lines.

That discussion group featured something else. One of the girls to my left introduced herself and then introduced the other as her fiancée. I don't want to be the one to tell them their love isn't recognized by the state of Michigan or by the federal government.

The issue of marriage hits much closer to home than teens in a drop-in center. For a good number of years the family thought my sister was simply good friends with her housemate. It was only 5 years ago that Laney told us that Anners (their names for each other) are much more than that, they are actually partners, complete with matching rings. Alas, this has been a hellish year for them when Laney had a stroke and she was not covered under Anners' health insurance because Anners works for the city. Laney had to cash out her IRA and become a ward of the state. They've talked about getting married (Windsor is close), but decided it wasn't worth the hassle if Michigan won't recognize it. But not being married hurts.

Cap'n, the warp drives be needing a wee bit a calibration

I wrote yesterday about iVotronic machines that flipped votes. Here is a video done with the county clerk of Jackson County, West Virginia who demonstrates that when the machine is "out of calibration" it won't put a check by the name you touch. I heard unverified reports that the machines are being taken out of service and replaced with paper ballots. I did a Google search on "iVotronics" and got over 4500 hits. There are a lot of news and blog stories about these machines.

You're too smart for the job

Yeah, I know I'm about to comment on a posting several weeks old (it predates Joe the Plumber). But since then I've seen two comic strips that fit this theme well. If you must skip my blathering, at least check out the links below.

We have Palin full of folksy charm and simple language attracting lots of attention. We have Joe Biden who has a command of the issues and is dismissed as boring and professional. Huh? Haven't we been down this road before with Bush?

Perhaps intellectualism is a new wedge issue being waged by the GOP. McCain decries Obama celebrity status yet offers no facts to back up his claims or his policies. Palin stumbles through interviews and is praised as a "breath of fresh air." The claim Obama and Biden are "out of touch" because they are so smart and thoughtful on issues they don't understand your life. Proof? They eat fancy salads with arugula. I agree that I'd prefer a president who is smarter than me.

And now for the comics:
Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller on Sunday, Oct. 12.

Doonesbury by GB Trudeau on Sunday, Oct. 26.

Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind

A "Californian Mormon" eloquently describes why his church is wrong for supporting the various marriage protection amendments.

* Pushing these amendments does nothing for the true goals of the church and works against many of them: teaching people about Jesus, bringing in new members, and performing the various rites and sacraments of the faith.
* The push has spawned disinformation (none of the "Consequences of failure" are true) and fueled a spirit of fear. This violates one of the Top Ten (though the Mormon reference is different).
* The campaign has unleashed broader anti-gay sentiments, ones that contradict recent understandings and teachings about gays. These anti-gay sentiments are not doctrinal in the Mormon church. Is it the church's intent to get involved in other cases of denying rights to gays?
* It encourages families to deny their gay children. Some of the most zealous workers in this campaign have gay kids. Is this to mask their own disappointment? They are sacrificing their children, a practice that God told Abraham to abandon.
* Actual families will be harmed by these amendments -- all those gay couples who have gotten married in Calif. since June. Mormons are being asked to undertake a mission of destruction in the name of God. Jonah asked for destruction on Nineveh and was denied by God because God also loves the citizens of Nineveh and also loves gays.
* There is a spirit of zealousness, righteousness, accomplishment, triumphalism, and pride where there should be a spirit of humility.
* The campaign has distracted the church from other issues of morality, such a sexual abuse of children.
* It is driving gays and their allies away from the church as well as those who disagree with the church's position or its strong-arm tactics.
* The campaign has raised $10 million for a narrow political goal. Some of the families who gave tens of thousands had to sacrifice on other things (like their children's college education). The church as a whole is not able to run many needed (in these though economic times) humanitarian efforts.
* Wealth is becoming a factor in determining fitness for church leadership positions.
* The campaign makes sexuality a higher moral issue than such things as disease, starvation, war, and pollution.
* It makes allies with other denominations who are normally antagonistic to the Mormon church, and will be again once the campaign is over. Why try to fight their battles?
* It is unleashing a fresh anti-Mormon sentiment among people who are usually quite tolerant of other religions and groups, leading to boycotts and discrimination. That discrimination will also hit those Mormons who oppose the marriage amendments.

I really do want to vote for a Democrat

There is evidence of voters in states where they can vote early using ES&S iVotronic touch-screen machines watching their Democratic votes being switched to GOP or to a minor party. They aren't even subtle about it, which they could do by displaying one candidate for confirmation and recording another. This has been more than one machine or state or election. If you are faced with one of these machines you should be able to demand a paper ballot.

Those that highlight the problem above wonder if Obama and his staff know about it. Apparently he does. While some sureness of victory is now in Obama's speeches, he has assembled a huge legal team to guarantee ballot security, much of it voluntary. It seems he has created the most extensive grass-roots organization of any presidential campaign.

If McCain must win Pennsylvania why is he spending so much of his dwindling resources in Iowa (where Obama is leading by nearly 12 points)? Might it be because he's written this election off and he's giving Palin as much exposure there to benefit her run in 2012? Then again, some polling sites list Obama ahead in Penn. by over 12 points).

A bit of a backfire

The Mormon Church has been pushing hard for the passage of marriage protection amendments in Calif. and Arizona. They are calling it a directive from God and a test of faith and loyalty. I think the statistics I saw (though I don't remember where) showed they are responsible for about 40% of the yes donations while they are only about 5% of the population. But this push is taking a heavy toll on local congregations. Members complain of being "compared to Satan's minions" and that's mild to those facing excommunication. Others have left the church, at least until after the election, fed up with the mean things being said about gays. But that doesn't stop some from opposing the drive because they feel it mocks their church's theology and then they are dissatisfied with the way their dissent has been handled and the intolerance they feel from fellow members.

And on November 5?

As part of an ongoing series two NPR reporters talked about the election with voters in York, PA. The topic this time around was how will the country be different if led by a black man? First, the positive effect -- black kids would have the ultimate role model. Beyond that the comments from both sides of the racial divide were packed with fear. The whites were afraid that if Obama won blacks would consider this an opportunity for payback of their white oppressors and things could get violent. Blacks were afraid that an Obama win would be intolerable to the most hard-core racists, the ones being stirred up by McCain and Palin, and things could get violent -- at least for Obama. Finally, there is the fear that blacks will turn violent if Obama loses, especially if there is evidence the election was stolen. Hope for a good result on Nov. 4, but be concerned about Nov. 5.

Words have meaning and they matter

Dr. Albert Mohler, one of those rare anti-gay people who (usually) refuse to continue the lies spoken against gays, has a third essay about why he is against gay marriage. I wrote about his first essay, but didn't bother with the second. That can be summarized by saying "the majority is on my side" (except it no longer is). The third essay says that language matters and that language and culture define each other. Words such as "marriage" and "husband" and "wife" are central to civilization and necessary to understand laws, social arrangements, and culture. That's right, say the gays, which is why we aren't satisfied with civil unions, even though they are supposed to be legally equivalent to marriage. Then Mohler takes another step: No longer does "husband" imply straight, which implies "He's one of us." Not allowing gays access to those words means they are set apart -- and condemned. But language and culture define each other. And much of popular culture already assumes gay relationships are the same as straight ones. The meanings of those words is adjusting and gays are no longer set apart. It won't lead to the downfall of marriage and civilization, just to the definitions of marriage and civilization that the fundies are trying to impose.

A sweet Supreme

Michigan Supreme Court nominee Diane Hathaway got a cover article from Between the Lines (Michigan's gay newspaper). Not only does the article talk about how gay friendly she is, it talks about how nasty Chief Justice Cliff Taylor (the guy she's running against) is. The Citizens for Traditional Values rates the Michigan Supremes the "Best Court in America" and ranked by the University of Chicago as last for judicial independence from political pressure. Taylor himself said, "the Liberals on the left can't get any of their lousy ideas accepted and it is the job of the courts to make sure that their efforts to do so are thwarted." Really? Isn't the job of the courts to uphold the law? Attorney Jay Kaplan of the ACLU LGBT project said, "It is virtually impossible to bring a case in Michigan that will promote the civil rights of any minority, let alone LGBT people, with the current configuration of the court." In spite of Taylor's campaign fund approaching $2 million and strong support from the fundies, Hathaway is now slightly ahead in the polls. But there are still lots of undecided and many people don't bother voting for judges. Your vote matters.

This is sweet: I just got a mailing from the Democratic State Central Committee trying to look like the NRA, trumpeting that Cliff Taylor voted to ban hunting on private property and that Hathaway is the niece of a former NRA bigwig. The sweetness comes from trying to scare hunters away from a die-hard conservative.

When the wallet is empty

Disney, Ford, McDonalds, a hotel in San Diego, Bolthouse Farms. Those of the boycotts I can think of, companies and businesses targeted for supporting gays or bowing to anti-gay forces. Blogger Stephen Miller suggests an organization doesn't call a boycott to do damage to the targeted company (most companies know to ignore such nuisances), but to use it as a way to rally the troops to send more money.

Another foundation of American law

The US Supremes have long approved versions of the Ten Commandments in government displays as long as they are one part of a display of documents that form the foundation of American law. Thus the Top Ten can be joined with the Magna Carta, the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Pledge of Allegiance, the words of the Star Spangled Banner, and King's "I have a Dream" speech. Not all of these have to do with law, but I won't quibble. South Carolina has added a new member to the list: The Lord's Prayer. They justify it this way (and this text is to be on the accompanying plaque):

"The Lord's Prayer, used to teach people how best to seek their daily needs, is a model of philosophy and inspiration for legal and moral systems throughout the ages. In the colonies, James Oglethorpe brought debtors to freedom in our neighboring State of Georgia in remembrance of 'forgiving our debts as we forgive our debtors'."

Can you say revisionist history?

* Oglethorpe did not bring colonists from England's notorious debtor's prisons.
* This text confuses financial debts with the intended meaning of "sins".
* The guy who describes the prayer as the core of moral systems, one Christopher G. Weeramantry of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, described how each word or phrase of the prayer relates to international law or human rights, but always in a way that leads human rights back to religion. For example, by starting the prayer with "Our Father" we declare basic equality among all humans so that everyone, no matter how lowly, can address the Almighty directly.

This was signed into law this past June.

Sex education that is comprehensive?

The sponsors of abstinence only sex education are about to leave the building and no one in that industry has done enough research to tell if it is effective. That leaves the floor open for proponents of comprehensive sex ed. But, as Laura Beil of Newsweek discovered when getting to know both sides of the issue, comprehensive sex ed. leaves out important parts -- and it isn't only the bit about abstinence. The success of comprehensive programs is measured in "pregnancies prevented, germs not contracted, and kids who enter adulthood with a healthy view of sexuality" (though I wonder how that last one gets measured). The wait-until-marriage message is usually seen as not a part of the world teens inhabit. But a big component of the abstinence message is marriage. They see marriage as a way to protect children and reduce poverty -- unmarried teens find it difficult to rise above poverty and children generally do fare better in two-parent homes. Perhaps we can work to make comprehensive sex ed truly comprehensive.

Contrast with…

Why don't we join the fundies in their defense of marriage and use that as a reason to extend marriage to gays? Um, no. Because our society shouldn't be restricted to their definition of marriage: male breadwinner, female homemaker (and slave), and two children taught to do the same when they grow up. They are so sure this is the only possible configuration for a family they blame all society's ills (including the current economic collapse!) on the breakup of the family. If we play that game we are distracted from finding real solutions to national problems.

Basically conservative?

Newsweek has a pair of commentaries about the political center of America and how a possible Obama presidency will have to alter course to deal with it. The first article, by Jon Meacham, says that America is basically conservative -- using the definition of those who value custom over change, who want to protect their young and way of life, who worry about the expansion of the state, and who dislike condescension of faith, patriotism, and culture. Our view of government is full of cognitive dissonance. We are skeptical of government except when there is a problem that only government can solve or is helping us. We hate to pay taxes yet still expect the government to pay for war, infrastructure, emergencies, and bailouts.

In the last 40 years (since 1968 when Nixon took office) the presidency has been won by Democrats only 3 times (once by Carter, twice by Clinton). Why? The GOP claims their policies are in tune with American values. Dems complain that the GOP is evil geniuses able to use fearmongering to get their way. More likely the GOP seems fatherly and tough, which suits a country that tends toward conservatism. In addition we have a political system, with veto and filibuster, that makes change slow and deliberative, so it is hard to create a government as liberal as we would like. Obama must temper his desires to fit into this reality.

Not so fast, replies Jonathan Alter. We may have been conservative, but we're drifting left now. GOP irresponsibility over the last decade or so has discredited some of their ideas and forced them to act contrary to many others in the economic bailout. Obama now has a chance to propose programs and a budget that won't look silly. He will be able to use government on behalf of the people, a liberal idea.