Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Lets Revisit the Ten Commandments

Do you know the ten commandments?
Its amazing to think folks actually post them to DEFEND the use of religion in government.... but if they'd read the words rather than just beating their breasts with the tablets... they might find themselves closer to understanding what the true values our nation was founded upon... and maybe rethink their loyalty.

I applaud the conviction and do not question the motives or passion of those who cry out the Commandments for justification... I just don't understand the logic they employ to make their conclusions and choose their allegiance.... They are unknowing victims of a deliberate plot to capture their old-time sense of values for the misguided needs a few, drunk on power who've become corrupt by it's intoxicating allure.


So lets quickly review those Ten Commandments that Republican Neo-Conservatives hold so dear to their core value.

1. I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Aside from actual idol worship... what have we americans done with this commandment? We worship the vanities as though they were god-like... don't we? Beauty, fame, wealth, status, desire and possessions... hell even our tv shows are all about idols and our satisfying our desires. As for Bush... he serves a God greater than the lord.... that's why he used the Lord's own commandments to buy the christian vote.... that's sick.

2. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Kinda screwed here too. no mercy and love from god cuz we're not observing all his commandments- so what's the point ? And I don't know about you.... but the way we honored the death of Ronald Reagan surely bordered on idol-worship...


3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."

I'm guilty of this one- every time I'm in rush hour traffic and some a-hole in an SUV with a Bush sticker cuts me off. Ol GW doesn't take the name in vain, no- he uses the lord's name as a means to win an election, wage war on other nations, and strike fear and respect in the hearts of his own nations people... no there's no vanity in that is there?


4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.

oops, messed up on this one too. No delivery of the sunday paper... heck, no making of the Monday paper too! No TV, no football, no golf, no bars open... just quiet time at home- oh the horror! might actually spend time getting to know our family! And groceries? better have all the fixins in advance, cuz no quick trip to the store for butter.

5. Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

Sure, we are all good with this one right? Isn't defiance an act of adulthood? And look at George W himself- defying his father's instructions not to invade Iraq- as written in Bush41's book.

6. Thou shalt not kill.

This ones a real tuff one- don't kill eggs in a woman's fallopian tube cuz they could possibly become a baby one day... but kill prisoners, detainees, political figures who don't agree with your party, civilians who accidentally were born in countries that you want resources from... insignificant peasants who can be exploited to make merchandise for our society- who die from mistreatment, poor living conditions and/or excessive demands on their productivity. Hmm, how bout giving arms and ammuntion to others that they might be better at killing our enemy... see- then we're just accomplises, not the actual perpetrator. Lets see, kill a three-time offender for petty crimes while letting a corporate leader off with hundreds of offenses-(lets call them counts, sounds much friendlier) offenses of knowingly and deliberately perpetrating wrongdoings resulting in the bilking of tens of millions of family's pensions and stock retirements... or corporations who deliberately proceed with known harmful products because their figures show the cost of settling with the few unfortunate victims, will be far less than the profits yielded by continuation of the product.... surely God would understand that!


7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Lets see, more than half the marriages in America in the last 30 years have resulted in divorce... and the most watched show on television is desperate housewives... hmmm..... nothing wrong here eh ?


8. Thou shall not steal.

Gee God didn't mean other nation's resources, or our social security, or an election or two.... he didn't mean steal our nation's wildlife and nature preserves by contaminating them with business ventures that exploit. He couldn't have meant stealing our money like the response in the 6th commandment.... he certainly wasn't referring to stealing from the coffers of government entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid... not stealing money through the junk bond fiasco of the former pres bush.... he didn't mean steal our trust with false witness or deception.... he was just referring to taking candy at a drug store... or those bad inner-city people who steal stuff from us rich white folk... to pay for their addictions... heck- do you think God doesn't know that through our marketing and legislating, we are stealing a future from our struggling lower and now middle class? Na nothing wrong here.

9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

Oops- another tuff one to deal with.... or maybe not eh? No, God didn't mean it was bad for the Bush administration to lie to all of America about the need for war with Iraq, of the confirmed knowledge of the location and quantities of WMDs.... naw, its not lying to tell america you are not going to advocate "nation-building" as Geo W said repeatedly in his first term of office.... heck even I believed him and gave him my vote in 2000.... but heck he didn't mean to lie.... "it just worked out that way.... honestly"... Just like the miscalculation on mistreatment of prisoners... not a lie, just didn't have all the facts yet.

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

Yeah this one's a real pickle eh, God obviously wasn't referring to a nations resources.... or on a smaller scale a person's rights and entitlements... God wasn't referring to our penchant for taking advantage of others less fortunate than ourselves... raiding their stocks... coveting their desire for health by allowing drug companies to charge outrageous prices for products they manufacture- then creating a demand through advertising with false claims (refer to commandments 9, 8, and 6- and 4 regarding advertising on the sabbath).


So yeah, you're right... i don't know what all the fuss is about the ten commandments. We obviously are a nation who holds God in great trust... a nation who leads by example... and shows all other nations the truth that freedom brings... and that's why every nation on earth is begging to become free- just like Americo®....er America! I'm glad the Ten Commandments are on the actual Door to the Supreme Court... and written above their heads so our justices can clearly see how many of the Lord's laws they treat with the same respect and piety they use with our laws. Thank you for helping me to reaffirm my faith in this county and all we stand for..... NOT!

wake up my friends...

These are thinly veiled ploys to gain the respect and vote of true God-Fearing, God-Loving folks like you and me! It's time we stand up for what is true... stop listening to their rhetoric and commandment-breaking. And yes it is both sides of the aisle... Dems and Reps... but to tell you the honest truth, I'd rather have a President who breaks the 7th and 10th commandments than one that only seems to respect the 7th! Either way- we're not in good shape according to God or our Constitution.

Friday, December 24, 2004

Merry Consumerism Day!

Happy holidays to all my friends... on both sides of the aisle.

Thank God we passed that assault weapons bill in time for the holidays. It's hard enough to shoot one deer, let alone eight and that fat liberal, Santa. Hopefully we’ll get that concealed weapon amendment through so we don’t have to lug these heavy rifles around come Easter and St Patty’s day.












Glad we were able to put a stop to this foolish myth in time. Christmas is about consumer spending... er and Jesus Christ... Our Lord and Savior... Defender of our troops- watching over our fair and balanced-and just war, against terror -wherever we may take it. Thankfully someone brought an end to this silly ritual. This fat guy in red, telling us who's been naughty and nice... When we all know that's Donald Rumsfeld's job! Ah yes, now we can safely run out and charge our hard-earned money knowing our future is safe because social security is being transformed to allow us to take a "stake" in our future... and we all know how good we Americans are at saving and investing.

Thank God the gifts we are told we need to purchase to show we really love our family and friends- are made by multi-national corporations who are able to bring us such affordable prices- Helping us to spend even more- and thereby benefitting all those fabulous workers at home and abroad who've labored long and hard-and taken so little... that our christmas tree might show a great bounty beneath it... helping to ease any uncertainty and doubt about our leadership.

And thank God with the death of this Santa fellow, those poor small people in the north pole, can now be free from Santa's tyranny and unjust labor sanctions- We can now take the North Pole off our terrorist-threat nation status- allowing us to focus on Iran, North Korea and Pakistan.

And thank you Congress for clearing the anti-monopoly laws away for Wal-Mart to acquire the entire North Pole toy factory-making them the largest toy distributer in the world... and insuring fair and just treatment of the little elf people.

















-- At least until their jobs can be exported to the Chinese Wal-Mart Division... Giving us even better prices next Christmas!


And not to fear, the fat man’s sleigh will no longer terrorize rooftops and radar screens. Your nation’s leaders will carry presents along with it’s suspects and citizens who are extraordiniarily-renditioned to and from far away lands.



















Those large cargo planes will now have their flight logs altered to say carrying “presents”... Because to those “good” jailers in Egypt, Morrocco, Jordan, Romania, Poland and Yugoslavia... the terror suspects are actually “gifts” from America’s CIA.... thereby allowing our leaders to continue to “not lie” when asked by journalists about transporting prisoners... they’re “gifts”!


















(special thanks to Karl Rove for coming up with that spin!)



















God Bless Us - One in Oil ...er One and All!





With Santa gone,
Its up to us. Dare-
to be different.
ReThink the season.



Sunday, December 19, 2004

Defending the Right's Right to be Wrong.

Not sure where you get your "facts"... much is right, the rest are "right".

I sort of understand where you are coming from... your views have been galvanized years ago, through much truth and reason. I'm not sure i can say the same for today... in fact much of what you stand for is precisely what I stand for... with a few exceptions... but what gets me, is that what you "say" you stand for and what you actually support... are often in stark contrast... were it not for some clever semantics and marketing on the part of your neo-conservative leadership. I really don't understand how this came to be.

I also don't understand the propensity for violence that seems to run deep in your and the others you forwards' comments. I don't think anyone- myself included is thinking of slitting our throats... that is just silly and juvenile. But why the hostility? What's with the macho, muscle-flexing, bar-fight mentality? We are after all a civil nation... We have the ability, for now, to agree and disagree.... and according to the Constitution, we are supposed to be free to do that.

Because I choose to question authority... not tow the line, I'm unpatriotic? You better rethink your own geographic location. There are other countries better suited for ignorance and closed-minded acceptance of what is being fed you from your "friends" in the government. Me, I choose to research what is really written in the "kinder, gentler" laws this administration has shafted... er drafted.

I think it is treason to deliberately mislead a nation for something other than it's own best interest. I think it is larson to manipulate laws to help immunize corporations from governance and jurisdiction. I think it is deplorable to manipulate public opinion to support unjust actions against anyone... another country, a person or a corporation. I think it is vile that a man in our nation's highest office deliberately withholds information that brings light to his actions... for if he truly was without sin or error... would not his record exonerate?

So what do we REALLY know... the "islamic terrorists" you are so scared of - represent a miniscule fraction of the people we are terrorizing- in the name of freedom-... just as the number of pedophile priests in the catholic church do not represent the entire roman catholic religion... but to you... anyone wearing a cross, or attending mass on sunday... is the enemy. That does not make sense.

Many AlQieda members and other extremists are evil and need to be brought to justice... but killing 100's of thousands of innocent iraqi, Afghani, islamic and muslim people might make you feel good- but it is wrong, and evil- and the world knows it... but through our twisted information dissemination system here, good people like you are led to believe the contrary. Yes, 40 yrs. ago the media went into vietnam and showed the truth about war. Today, the embedded journalists are not free to report anything-duh. You think the military minds who watched and learned from vietnam would actually let that happen again? We have a "reality TV show called "kill the towel-heads" being played out before us.... and now that the war isn't going so well... the nightly news is not covering is nearly as much... only what they have to show - like the successful suicide attacks that are killing Iraqi citizens... and our brave soldiers... in harm's way.

But why are they in harm's way? You know the answer? Cuz Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, the sanctions were working to keep Saddam in check, and the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan were - for the most part, not interested in the US... just in their day-to-day existence. That is until some corporations began having trouble exploiting the resources from those nations... began to have trouble with Taliban leaders who rose to power in a turmoil that was created when America and Russia began to use people... mid-eastern people, as pawns to their power struggle. We supplied weapons and information to the Afghanis to help them win against the Soviet Union... then we abandoned them to starvation, civil unrest and the hardships of the aftermath of a 25yr war... from the chaos arose an extremist faction who's religious underpinnings helped to give hope to a broken people. (kinda like the right-wing religous folks helped GW regain his post) Meanwhile US corporations like Halliburton and Bechtel .... were trying to create a massive natural gas pipeline across afghanistan... when the radical Taliban leadership booted them from their country because they refused to agree to a fair and equitable price for removing Afghanistan's natural resources. Now with new "freely-elected" leadership, Halliburton is once again in full production. But alas... a pipeline is very hard to defend... and easy to sabotage... so we have to remove the threat to preserve our (US corporations who make huge profits) "right" to their resources... so we decide its better to kill off lots of folks... in the hopes of getting a few "terrorists".... but we can't have the silly press reporting this... and incorrectly presenting "our" side of the story... so we'll embed them and monitor their access to information-and truth. No nothing wrong with that right?

And then to give lip-service to some rhetoric that we need to preserve the institute of marriage... an institution that is so flawed and worthless as now more than half of American marriages in the past 30 years have ended in divorce... oh yeah, don't let some queer people who truly love each other join in a recognized union... far better to promote false affection, spousal abuse, disrupted family units and deadbeat dads.... that make alot of sense.

Oh and don't get me started on abortion.... we can perform late-term abortions on adult human beings - our men and women in uniform-and the innocent civilians.... in the name of war. But don't let a woman decide what is right for her own life. We can have insurance subsidize penis stiffening drugs to encourage procreation... no actually to promote fornication.... but let's not allow the sale or subsidy of birth control pills!!! so now its even a sin to think about having sex if your a woman... but atta boy get your lil willie all stiff and happy for the good-ole boys???? Come-on.... you buy into this too????

Patriot Act.... 971 pages... printed on a sunday night to be given out monday morning before a holiday recess that began the following day.... forced to make a vote before the recess. Sure Dave.... nothing wrong with that. Have you bothered to read it since you are so quick to defend it? I have read portions of it that are reprehensible... and I'm up-in-arms... so who's the one being led?

Do you think all these laws about Clear Sky, and Leave No Child and Homeland Security are actually about what they are named? Now we're gonna give freedom to all the immigrant workers...who do jobs we Americans won't do.... did he actually say that??? won't do... or we refuse to pay anyone enough to live on it... but an undocumented immigrant who doesn't pay tax on the paultry wage can fare better than the poverty of his/her home country... so what did he accomplish with that "great" idea.... now our southern borders are worse than ever with aliens hoping to become citizens, because they'll work at mcdonalds... oh AND we can begin to tax these new citizens. Who cares that the cost of border security has risen and the ability to defend against transgression hasn't. Another great Idea from that Great Republican Team?

Oh and then lets tackle senseless arbitration... we can't have people suing corporations, doctors, or insurance companies without cause! Which I agree- but watch how they word it.... its gonna be much better to be a big corporation when their version gets passed. Not good if you really are hurt by a really bad situation... oh- but thats okay isn't it?

And next on the plate Social Security... sure- it used to be illegal to rob from the coffers of Social Security... however the Republicans have been doing it..."leveraging the principal" since 2000... what a great idea... give the money to the people and allow them to spend it through regulated channels... to invest in their future! Of course there will have to be fees and service charges for the private companies who will be required to handle such an undertaking.... and gee, if the money isn't invested wisely, it may not pay off with the rosey figures this administration has estimated (and we all know how good this administration is about figures??? WMDs?, Iraqi support for our troops? economic recovery?)- so lets believe them that they got these figures right too! After all its just our future- or rather MY future... because the law is cleverly written to make it very clear that the aging population that you are a member of Dave, is clearly not effected - for your vote.

Can you see what a joke it is you are really defending?

And about the ballots.... nice you read up on milwaukee's process... nice that your info blog capitalizes on trinkets of truth that you can expound on to me.... but truth be told... the extra ballots were requested to insure that all voters had a chance to participate in the political process... and the extra ballots insured there would be enough on-hand if requested by people... we had thousands who voted in advance- I was one. I also was one who stood at the polls and watched as the republican poll watchers pushed the ethical limits of privacy as far as they could... I helped to have one belligerent well-dressed republican insurgent removed from one of my precincts for failure to follow rules and causing a scene. But I'll bet that didn't make your "information site" did it? And Wisconsin, as it turns out, wasn't the linchpin to decide the election- Ohio was... and there, the tactics were much worse...and documented. But you won't see that on your news either would you?

Ohio Sec of State Ken Blackwell- head of the re-elect Bush campaign... presides over the vote tally in Ohio.... can you say conflict of interest? Blackwell has all but locked down the the poll registers to stop citizens from revieing the votes... Exit Polls showed stark contradictions to what the "machines" had tallied.... in the Ukrane, exit polls helped to reveal corruption.... here in America- it was just a mistake.... but in Ohio the two companies who supplied vote machines... both staunch Bush supporters... with the help of Blackwell and other RNC legislators in ohio... pushed to have voter machines with no paper trail... no way to validate the vote.... Diebold and ES&S are the largest suppliers of ATM and video Slot machines... both of which have fully operational paper validation systems in place- and arguably both of which have settled many a dispute on folks bank statements and jackpot winnings.... But you're probably right... no tampering could have happened in Ohio. There as little at stake there... not as much as someone getting an incorrect balance on their bank statement! It was just the presidency of the United States at stake- no big deal- right?

You see, its not that I'm anti-American- though its easy for someone to make you think that- I'm anti-corruption of America... and ya know, I think, under all your passionate posturing and rhetoric, you are too. I think you have become an innocent bystander in this intense information society we have developed. You are honest and righteous, I believe you mean well in your intentions and are forceful in your need to stand by your beliefs. And I applaud you for all that.

I'm just sorry so many have been caught up in the deception and corruption dynamic that our society has evolved into. Through little fault of their own, the players at the table of power have manipulated them into thinking you are rightly defending freedom and justice, when in actuality, you are helping them to mislead, disenfranchise and render you unable to regain the powers necessary to harness their all- consuming need for power, control and money.... least of all money... because whoever has the power, controls the money.... even if they give it to us to "control" our destiny- like with Social Security. Its all advertising and marketing. Say one thing, and do another... package it with what they think you want to hear... and do what they want... and trust you won't have time or interest to scrutinize.

Oh and last year I transferred interest of my puter company to my partner and walked away from the business... and the government doesn't support folks who owned a company that don't profit from the transfer of ownership... so I couldn't even get unemployment... not a nickel of government help. I am making ends meet through my own means. I'm living a modest lifestyle and finding new meaning to the difference between "wants" and "needs"... and you know.... I've never felt better!

Walking away from the power-business world was the most difficult thing to do.... but it is so gratifying to know that i no longer help advertising agencies manipulate folks like you into promoting what they want- and actually making you think it was your idea.

But in the end, we all have to live with one another... and its okay that you think one way and I another.... and its my responsibility to try to make a difference... you've been through hard times... deceived by a woman and taken advantage of... I'm just looking out for you.... don't like to see that happen to anyone... especially from their own government.

Its not hate that I'm espousing, its love. Love for my country and what it truly stands for. Love for what freedom and democracy really represent, love for our republic and a true free-market economy- not ruled by multi-national corporations who's power extends beyond any nation's laws or jurisdiction. A country who proudly demonstrates what is good and right in the world.

happy new year

Charlie Koenen
American