One of the truisms that drive our political discussion is the blind acceptance that very wealthy people deserve their wealth. In Medieval times, we would have said that God had granted their wealth to them, but today, we simply say that they, or their families, had earned that wealth.

But the question of whether it's a good thing to have a great ( Read more... )

No, sir. I don't like St. Patrick's Day ( Read more... )

( Potential TMI: Teeth )

There's an article going around about a survey done in late 2005 that asked people to estimate wealth distribution in America. Not only were the survey responders wrong, they were hopelessly egalitarian in their estimates of the share of wealth held by the poorest Americans.

At the back of the PDF linked to above is a set of figures. Figure two ( Read more... )

This essay from truthout speaks to many of the arguments made by some of my more radical friends. In essence, the essay says that the fundamental structure of the US, from top to bottom, is dominated by the very wealthiest, and their interests are that of multi-national corporate businesses. Therefore, we are urged to abandon the charade of ( Read more... )

This entire post is lifted from a comment in Dark Christian:

He's definitely dominionist, and specifically NARasite (basically his church is one of those "independent charismatic" congregations where NARasitism tends to fester).

Not only that, but (in another danger sign) the church was founded fairly recently and started out of a NARasite "cell ( Read more... )

There has been some discussion of late about President Obama’s claim of being Christian. Besides the ones who obliviously presume that he must be Muslim, or parse out of unrelated texts the notion that a presumed birthright to Islam is obligatory, there are others who question whether his Christianity is ‘real’. However, many problems arise ( Read more... )

I thought it was tasteless when they had network broadcast TV shows that entirely consisted of people trying to top each other's disgusting behavior. I was appalled when reality TV shows featured people mind-f*cked into behaving cruelly and capriciously with each other despite the presence of cameras and support staff ( Read more... )

I've mentioned a couple of times that I don't like jails: I don't think that they rehabilitate people, but rather the opposite. Rather than reduce crime, jails increase it. We overuse jails in this country for every perceived slight or disruption. What's worse, they are all full and we can't hire enough people to staff the ones we've got, not to ( Read more... )

It finally occurred to me what was so jarring about the stories of Ed McMahon's financial difficulties. For whatever reason, Ed has been unable to pay out for the lifestyle to which he is accustomed since about 2005. Not that this has caused him to make any significant changes, mind you. In this, he is hardly alone or unusual, so other than the ( Read more... )