Moral Shallowness Is Still Quite Fashionable

You know, taking on a target like Bill O Riley is almost too easy because he's so easy to expose as a complete and total quack.  But Bill O Riley was the first guest on the Katie Kuric show this afternoon and in that first quarter hour or perhaps sixteen minutes- - he covered a host of topics, and so scant is Bill's knowledge of anything even with that time limitation he had to make it up as he went along, after he ran out of facts, which he didn't have any of.  Of course O Riley started off by saying how he would handle things as president and would crack down on the NSA, and stated that "Obama may be a liberal domestically but he is a conservative on National Security matters".   He then weighed in on the affordable care act.  After the usual obligatory caviats about wanting inter state competetion of Health Care plans, and how people shouldn't be kicked off their policies- - or be barred for pre existing conditions he went on to his main point.  He stated "The trouble with the Obama Health Care plan is that it's basically a Socialist plan for the redistribution of wealth, which is what this President has worked for all his life".   He then moved on to the Kennedy Assassination.   He stated that Oswald acted alone.  He then said "You know all of these Conspiracy buffs sell a lot of books and it's a way for them to make a lot of money.  There is a lot of money to be made as a Conspiracy theorist".   Bill O Riley then talked about his Catholic upbringing and presumably has only the highest morals and turns to God in everything he does, and goes on to say that "Other people get messages from God, too, but they don't act on them".  For people like the next Ted Cruz out there it's music to their itching ears.  The Bible has a thing or two to say about "people with itching ears" and about people just looking for someone to scratch their itch.  I just hope Bill O Riley would not have the hypocrisy to say that he's somehow Opposed to people making money in this life.  If you ask me it's a whole lot more morally justifiable to make money from searching out the Truth than by propagating Lies, the way Bill O Riley does.  If you have read the Jesse Ventura book "63 Reasons why Oswald's bullet didn't kill Kennedy" you know it is as physically impossible for Oswald's bullet to have killed Kennedy as it was for Trayvon Martin to have been on top when George Zimmerman shot him.  But now O Riley has a new book out called "Killing Jesus".  I thought I'd heard it all, but not this spin!  O Riley says that Jesus was killed over the matter of paying taxes.  O Riley says because Jesus said to boycott Roman taxes that this was somehow a fad that caught on and the Roman government had to put a stop to it or they'd lose their Judian tax revenues.  Of course Jesus said TO pay taxes owed to Rome.  In fact, and this will shock many,  at every point where Jesus Christ had a choice to make between siding with the Roman Government or siding with his Jewish bretheren, he chose Rome every time.  It is no exaguration to state that Jesus' loyalty to Rome excees that of John Boehner to the tea party.  In the next place - - - the "money changers" Jesus drove out of the Temple changed Roman currency to the Jewish sheckel for a proper contribution, and all of the doves and pidgeons and such had to have that Kosher tag on their leg or the sacrifice wouldn't be accepted.  To show how "beyond the pale" O Riley's premis is - - that mob in the square that was shouting for Jesus to be Crucified to Pilate- - were in fact Jews, and the Gospel authors plainly intended that they be viewed as such.  And while Pilate pleads for the life of this Jesus of Nazareth -  - Pilate who would presumably WANT Jews to pay their taxes- - is pleading for the life of this Rebel, according to O Riley- - who is advocating that the Jews not pay their taxes to Rome.  But the mob at large wants Jesus - - the "dangerous tax rebel" killed.  On what planet does this scenario make sense even to a warped mind like O Riley's?   It's kind of like if you're a Catholic- - they say you can't worship God unless you've been to their theology schools and learned all about the Nicene trinitarian formula, as if those "Fathers" of the Fourth Century were the most uniquely Intelligent and learned men that ever lived in the history of the World.  Excuse me but I'm not ready to make that leap of Faith.  I too could say "God told me to turn on the Katie Kuric show that afternoon, which I usually don't do".   But I'm not going to do that.  Actually I was thinking "this is a nice, sunny day - I should do something different.  I could have gone to the park and hung out there- - and called my mother and ask what new thing she had done lately.  But instead I turned on Katie Kuric.   The thing is at least Rush Limbaugh has a little "finesse' in his performance on the radio- - which is utterly missing in Bill Riley's delivery, who comes off as one hundred percent arrogant all the time.

Randy Rhodes labored for three hours on her show to correct all people's misimpressions about the Affordable Care Act.  In the first place- - the Insurance Companies are not suffering.  Indeed they should welcome the ability to get new, fresh blood (customers) into the system, and low risk healthy ones, too, and they also get the government subsedy to jack up their profits.  And Randy points out that the Republicans finally have that inter state competetion - - in the free market - - they've been clamoring for.  Because unlike now, if you lose your job or have to relocate to another state, you can take your insurance plan with you.  And as we have said "Junk insurance plans" will no longer be offered- - and if you are on a junk insurance plan that guarantees nothing, it won't guarantee you against being financially wiped out with one bad illness- that's for sure.  Insurance Companies consider it an honor to qualify for the Obama Exchange.  Much as people like Bill O Riley are certified as Kosher by the tea party, and therefore qualified as an authority in the "Tea Party Exchange" otherwise known as the "right wing political echo chamber".    At some point it would have to sink in to all those uninsured people in the Red States that their right wing Republican governors are screwing them over- - particularly when they see that people in blue states such as California and New York are prospering.  If Randy Rhodes keeps hammering at it she may get a few genuine converts.  Although it's hard because thanks to people like Bill O Riley and FOX news, people's minds are programmed to shut down when exposed to any information that hasn't passed muster with their overlords such as Sean Hannity and Ted Cruz.  Bill O Riley praised Ted Cruz but said that "Wall Street money would never go for him".  Is that to say that Wall Street itself has now joined the "conspiracy to destroy the Republican party" since now they too are afraid of the consequences of electing someone like Ted Cruz as President?

I have never counsiled with a Catholic Priest, and I have never gone to Confession.  So really I have no idea what the "Catholic experiance" is all about.  So I look to television dramitizations such as Days of our Lives, and see if there is any sort of carry-over to experiances with Pastors that I HAVE had.  I think one thing you can generalize about is that most pastors seem to opperate on the "I'm OK but you're NOT OK" type philosophy.  Take Father Eric.  He jumps all over Nicole and accuses her of a vile deed, which of course she was innocent of and was shocked to know that her Priest was thinking in such Dark terms.  Now Father Eric jumps all over Brady Black for "not being honest with him".  But Father Eric has no conception of the idea about friendship and confiding in a "Safe" environment where what you say won't be broadcast all over town.  Now Father Eric is not even sure he wants to marry Brady and Christine.  But as usual- - these pastors jump all over the Innocent and impute the worst motives to them- - even if they have to make things up - - and yet the "guilty as sin" among them- - somehow get a free pass time after time.  I have noticed an amazing lack of tact and what you call "spiritual and psychological dissernment" in dealing with people both by Father Matt and Father Eric.  Pastors seem to have this "formula" that many therapists fall into the trap as believing in as Cure Alls for everything".  So they prod and squeeze people's words and accounts into one of their cooky-cutter "formulas".   They speak of the virtue of patience tword God- - (sometimes I think waiting for Hell to freeze over would not be a long enough time) and yet they snap at their supplicant parishioners like Dovermans.   And they live for the "Nya - Nya" moment hoping for someone they personally dislike to fall on hard times so they can wag their finger and deliver these shottenfroide type Sermons on Sunday.

I'm going to try and shorten up my postings just a bit.  In personal news- it is a nice day today.  The sky is blue and there is a gradual warming trend going on- - even if it will be a mighty showy Halloween for a whole lot of Americans.  Marsha lent me money for cigarettes and a cup of fresh brewed coffee- - and it's been a while since I've had a decent cup of fresh brewed coffee.  Later on in the afternoon I saw Dr Messina, my psychiatrist.   That visit went well.   My immediate money problems will be over come early Friday morning.  If there is a central difference between the tea party and us normal people is a saying of mine that "The right wing puts theology and political creed first- - the left wing puts People first".   People on the right say they love America but what they claim as History bears little resemblance to the Facts - - and the way America really was at any given time they claim to idolize (and I'm not sure what that is)  But to desguise their hatred of the human race (to borrow from Tassitus) they invent this THING - - this stick they use to beat the common people over the head with.  It could be Corporate Greed, or it could be the Church and Theology.  And they hide behind this THING, this fig leaf of rationalization which they themselves invented, and think that they are fooling - - - God or whoever.  They won't fool History.  Like unruly teenagers they do things on impulse and never stop to think about the end game- - or of the short or long term consequences of their acts.  (Selah)