Tuesday, September 12, 2006
'This hole in the ground'
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Thank your ER for posting Olbermann's editorial.
I have been re-reading the pertinent chapters of the book The Fourth Turning by Strauss and Howell written in 1995-6 and published in 1997. Based on their well documented and defined cyclical analysis of History we are well into another fourth turning of American History. The predictions are absolutly right on but the speed of events is somewhat faster that predicted. If that is so, then the changes that come out of this time will equal in magnitude those that came out of the American Revolution, the American Civil War, and the Depression and WWII.
That said, then we can not pussy foot around any more with these people (the administration, its toady congress, the radio hate mongers, etc.). I think Olbermann is simply the beginnings of a backlash that will pit "Us" against "Them" just like "They" now already think it is. I would like to think that in America that it will be bloodless. But I walked through the blood of American innocents spilled by our own people in 1995. I know of what we are capable. I have little hope that this cycle will be bloodless.
The President in his speech yesterday was correct. We are fighting for Civilization as we know it. But I contend he has the "We" wrong. "He" and "His" are not among my "We".
After all is said and done, Pogo may prove to be the wisest sage of the 20th century when he said, "We have met the enemy and he is us."
Rome only fell to the barbarians at one of its fourth turnings because it was rotten inside. We need to scape out our current American rottenness and cauterize the wound.
If we do not do so, then one way or the other, Facism Is Our Future.
I have been re-reading the pertinent chapters of the book The Fourth Turning by Strauss and Howell written in 1995-6 and published in 1997. Based on their well documented and defined cyclical analysis of History we are well into another fourth turning of American History. The predictions are absolutly right on but the speed of events is somewhat faster that predicted. If that is so, then the changes that come out of this time will equal in magnitude those that came out of the American Revolution, the American Civil War, and the Depression and WWII.
That said, then we can not pussy foot around any more with these people (the administration, its toady congress, the radio hate mongers, etc.). I think Olbermann is simply the beginnings of a backlash that will pit "Us" against "Them" just like "They" now already think it is. I would like to think that in America that it will be bloodless. But I walked through the blood of American innocents spilled by our own people in 1995. I know of what we are capable. I have little hope that this cycle will be bloodless.
The President in his speech yesterday was correct. We are fighting for Civilization as we know it. But I contend he has the "We" wrong. "He" and "His" are not among my "We".
After all is said and done, Pogo may prove to be the wisest sage of the 20th century when he said, "We have met the enemy and he is us."
Rome only fell to the barbarians at one of its fourth turnings because it was rotten inside. We need to scape out our current American rottenness and cauterize the wound.
If we do not do so, then one way or the other, Facism Is Our Future.
# posted by 
: 9:41 AM
: 9:41 AM
So, I'm reading "What's the Matter with Kansas" and "Ordeal of the Union," vol. 1 (full citations at left under WHAT I'M READING.)
On one day, I read a great paragraph in "Ordeal of the Union" that explained how the aristocracy in the South, relying on myth-making, voodoo economics and "values," had hoodwinked the po' white trash into supporting slavery as a "way of life" at all costs, even against their own free-labor self interests.
The next day, I read a great paragraph in "What's the Matter with Kansas" that talked about how the pro-business Republican Party of the present is using myth-making, voodoo economics and "values," is hoodwinking blue-collar, working Americans to vote against their own pocketbooks, against their own jobs and against their own actual safety and security.
Amazing, sickening similarities.
On one day, I read a great paragraph in "Ordeal of the Union" that explained how the aristocracy in the South, relying on myth-making, voodoo economics and "values," had hoodwinked the po' white trash into supporting slavery as a "way of life" at all costs, even against their own free-labor self interests.
The next day, I read a great paragraph in "What's the Matter with Kansas" that talked about how the pro-business Republican Party of the present is using myth-making, voodoo economics and "values," is hoodwinking blue-collar, working Americans to vote against their own pocketbooks, against their own jobs and against their own actual safety and security.
Amazing, sickening similarities.
This just in:
By The Associated Press
The anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks should include the memory of statements that blamed gays and lesbians for bringing God's wrath on the nation, a council of gay-friendly Christians said Monday.
Those targeted by such comments are "equally victims, 365 days a year of the kinds of teachings the Christian extremists espouse," said the Rev. Mel White, who spoke at a Dallas news conference in front of a colorful collection of 30 religious stoles representing defrocked or closeted gay clergy.
White, a former ghost writer for the Rev. Jerry Falwell and other fundamentalist leaders, said repeatedly: "It's over, it's over."
"We will not anymore stand silently by while they blame us for the ills of this nation, when we are at the very heart of what this nation represents," he said, amid "Amens" from supporters, including several wearing religious robes and clerical collars.
Although Falwell wasn't named, in 2001 he partly blamed the terror attacks on groups that "tried to secularize America," singling out pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays and the American Civil Liberties Union.
"God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve," Falwell said after the attacks in an appearance on "The 700 Club", Pat Robertson's religious TV program. He later apologized.
When reached by phone on Monday, a spokeswoman for Falwell had no immediate comment.
Since 2001, religious groups and political leaders have continued attacking gays, according to the group of about 30 faith leaders who called the news conference during a three-day summit in Dallas.
The participants, who said they were meeting in the tradition of the historic church councils, want to spread a message of peace, said Bishop Yvette Flunder, a United Church of Christ minister from San Francisco. Sponsors included The Fellowship, Dignity USA, the Institute for Welcoming Resources and the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches.
The Dallas council announced no concrete plan of action but said it is "dedicated to reclaiming their faith based on the gospel of inclusion, justice and love."
"Certain religious groups have aggressively sought to define their agenda in the public's mind, through publicity and lobbying, as the Christian agenda," said the Rev. Rebecca Voelkel, a lead organizer and UCC minister. "On the contrary, there is a growing movement of Christian clergy who reject this agenda, for whom bigotry and exclusion have no place in the church."
White, founder of the gay rights group Soulforce, joked in response to a question that even Southern Baptist churches have gay members.
"If all the gay organists quit playing on Sunday morning," he said, "there would be silence in Christendom."
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By The Associated Press
The anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks should include the memory of statements that blamed gays and lesbians for bringing God's wrath on the nation, a council of gay-friendly Christians said Monday.
Those targeted by such comments are "equally victims, 365 days a year of the kinds of teachings the Christian extremists espouse," said the Rev. Mel White, who spoke at a Dallas news conference in front of a colorful collection of 30 religious stoles representing defrocked or closeted gay clergy.
White, a former ghost writer for the Rev. Jerry Falwell and other fundamentalist leaders, said repeatedly: "It's over, it's over."
"We will not anymore stand silently by while they blame us for the ills of this nation, when we are at the very heart of what this nation represents," he said, amid "Amens" from supporters, including several wearing religious robes and clerical collars.
Although Falwell wasn't named, in 2001 he partly blamed the terror attacks on groups that "tried to secularize America," singling out pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays and the American Civil Liberties Union.
"God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve," Falwell said after the attacks in an appearance on "The 700 Club", Pat Robertson's religious TV program. He later apologized.
When reached by phone on Monday, a spokeswoman for Falwell had no immediate comment.
Since 2001, religious groups and political leaders have continued attacking gays, according to the group of about 30 faith leaders who called the news conference during a three-day summit in Dallas.
The participants, who said they were meeting in the tradition of the historic church councils, want to spread a message of peace, said Bishop Yvette Flunder, a United Church of Christ minister from San Francisco. Sponsors included The Fellowship, Dignity USA, the Institute for Welcoming Resources and the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches.
The Dallas council announced no concrete plan of action but said it is "dedicated to reclaiming their faith based on the gospel of inclusion, justice and love."
"Certain religious groups have aggressively sought to define their agenda in the public's mind, through publicity and lobbying, as the Christian agenda," said the Rev. Rebecca Voelkel, a lead organizer and UCC minister. "On the contrary, there is a growing movement of Christian clergy who reject this agenda, for whom bigotry and exclusion have no place in the church."
White, founder of the gay rights group Soulforce, joked in response to a question that even Southern Baptist churches have gay members.
"If all the gay organists quit playing on Sunday morning," he said, "there would be silence in Christendom."
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