Who Killed “Thou Shalt Not Kill”?

Ring of Fire’s YouTube channel blurb succinctly sets up our featured clip…

“Kyle Rittenhouse, the suspect who allegedly killed two Black Lives Matters protestors in Kenosha, Wisconsin last week has become a hero for the unhinged Right, and a Christian fundraising website has allowed these pro-murder Republicans to raise nearly half a million dollars for his defense. The Republicans are the pro-murder Party, there is no other way to say it. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this disgusting turn of events.“

About all I can add is that America’s Founding Fathers had been wise to insist on the Constitutional Separation of Church and State and, most assuredly, they’d have frowned upon Donald J. Trump’s bastardization, politicization and radicalization of religion, too.

Although I remain a spiritual man, my own interest in organized religion ebbed at the tender age of 12. That’s mainly because I saw the hypocrisy of the adult congregants, who, in actuality, only showed up each Sunday to sport their finery / flaunt their material possessions. Hell, had it been any WORSE, after the benediction, the menfolk would’ve rushed out to the parking lot to rev the engines of their brand spanking new, swank rides. And once the missus and kiddies were all packed aboard, they’d have peeled out to head back to their mansions.

But the hypocrisy did get WORSE…

Half a century later, churches have become bastardized, politicized and radicalized. How else could one explain so-called Christians conveniently suspending the Commandment, Thou Shalt Not Kill, just to justify the cold blooded double homicide, of which Rittenhouse has been accused.

If God is on board with such conduct, on the day I die, I’ll take my chances on that downward escalator ride to the Gates of Hell!

 

Stay Safe at Home! Stay Publicly Masked! Stay Healthy!

 

 

 

 

An Idiomatic “Where Am I” Riddle

 

Straight from the horse’s mouth, I feel like an interminably socially isolating, lone wolf who’s going stag to nowhere; the pandemic’s fish out of water, mad as a hornet, sitting duck; trapped like a lab rat in that weasel leader’s bereft of science, field experiment; condemned to waiting out the uncertain results while sweating like a pig; whipped up into ants in the pants magnitude agitation; succumbing to bats in the belfry mindlessness; driven to go on a homebound, till the cows come home bender where I’ll suffer a bad case of the spins, while pirouetting with pink elephants; the morning after finding me looking like something the cat has dragged in…

Where am I?

Aboard the pandemic era Noah’s Ark

 

Stay Safe at Home! Stay Publicly Masked! Stay Healthy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who’s dying to go to church?

Prior to our sermon, let us all pause to mourn the loss of our global compatriots… the, so far, 342,000 souls, who have perished during this pandemic. Let us express our heartfelt condolences to their grieving families and friends.

Let us all pray, too, for all who have become… or soon will be… sickened by this godforsaken, pitiless virus.

May our Creator see fit to guide our best medical minds on the path to discovery… to help them expeditiously formulate the vital to survival pharmaceuticals, vaccines and therapies that’ll alleviate each and every one of their patients’ suffering. May they shepherd them all onto the road to swift and full recovery.

 

On this Sunday stateside midday, please forgive me for being a tad overdressed in my red, white and blue, stars and stripes regalia. That would seem unavoidable, seeing how I must now address a uniquely domestic issue.

Alas, too many of you, my homeland’s compatriots, are, at present, dying to attend religious services, yet, cannot… must not… due to our prudent governors’ justifiably tough, stay at home rules and regs.

Ordinarily, our 1st Amendment protections would be in play… would fully support our free speech right to express our grievances whenever, wherever, freedom of religion seems endangered. Yet, certainly, you would have to agree that a word such as “ordinarily” does not apply during a raging pandemic… i.e., the dire situation where, so far, in America, alone, there have been 1.66 Million reported cases of COVID-19 and 97,426 reported deaths.

I’m sure that, in spite of your feverish protestations, you cannot deny the fact that, had not such pandemic mitigating strategies been in place, this highly communicable disease would’ve spread vastly faster… that these already grim, alarming (still skyrocketing daily) stats would’ve been astoundingly, astonishingly and astronomically higher.

My friends, those are the indisputable facts which, regrettably, we now live with.

In closing…

My not wanting to go screeching down the preachy path, I’ll leave you with the following soul searching questions.

† Do we really need structured religious services to verify that God is omnipresent… to feel His love?

† Are not our houses of worship, in actuality, situated within our heads and hearts… our very souls?

† Are you really dying to flock to your church, synagogue or mosque when you could be an asymptomatic COVID-19 carrier?

† Could you live with yourself if you knew your very presence had led to even one more person’s needless agony and death?

When you come up with the correct answers, I’m confident that once you deem your previous protestations petty, you will find yourself traveling upon the glorious, high road of patience.

 

Stay Safe… Stay Healthy… Stay Home!

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t Take this Leap of Faith Sans Parachute!

 

Let’s take a leap of faith that Genesis 1:27 presents to us a flawless narrative, namely, that we were all created in the Image of God. Let’s now expand on that fundamental, yet, relatively ambiguous premise; consider how this resemblance might not be limited to facial features and body types. What if it had been meant to be inclusive of all aspects of human nature; in particular, the vast array of personality types?

To cut to the chase…

If Donald J. Trump is the spitting image of God, what the Hell does that make God?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Holy Week Resurrection To Mull Over?

 

IF you’re [1] an overworked, overtaxed, underpaid, underappreciated working stiff, who [2] hauls around a wallet cram-packed with credit cards, which are [3] issued by banks that charge usurious, 21+ percent interest rates and exorbitant fees while [4] these same banksters pay out only a fraction of 1% interest on your saved, minuscule nest-egg and, concurrently, [5] you can only count on amassing a lifetime of staggering debt from [6] oft purchasing steeply priced, shoddily constructed, broken down (beyond repair) after 90 days “durable goods”, THEN…

Gasp – Gasp – Gasp… Congratulations!

You’ve been doing your (unfair) share to prop up Donny the Kid, his like-minded gang of infantile, sleazeball cronies and their smoke and mirrors economy… a rigged system, which is akin to a figurative choo-choo train, which they’ve permitted to [1] leave the depot sans an engineer [2] chug along full throttle and [3] chase you DOWN, Down, down the rickety clickety railroad tracks until… Until… UNTIL…

UNTIL the Coronavirus had easily caught Trump napping in the “Roundhouse”. At this juncture, that man-child’s crazy train left the tracks and crashed into the face of one of them thar Rocky Mountains… oh… you know… out there… that-a-way… in one of them thar Wild West Red States.

And… ever since… Dow Jones Donny has been [1] chomping at the bit to jump start / breathe new life into his shimmering mirage “economy” while [2] denying ventilators to the Coronavirus victims, who cannot breathe.

Key Question: Is Donny the Kid’s economy… one, which he’s willfully manipulated to favor ONLY THE WEALTHY, really worthy of resurrection?

Hmm… I’m sure you’ll readily agree that this serves up plenty of food for thought for all of us socially isolating souls… especially of the Christian persuasion. We can only hope that… be you devout, secular or anything in between… WE all realize that… no matter what Donny may say to the contrary… in actuality, he has left us nowhere to go during Holy Week and, likely, for plenty more weeks after that.

 

 

Wellness to you all! If you’re ailing, you have my hopes and prayers for a full, speedy recovery. Wherever / whenever we discover a leadership vacuum, it’ll be incumbent on us to do everything we can to save humanity. Staying safe and healthy depends on our flipping off egotistical, partisan hacks while heeding the advice of reputable doctors and scientists. That also depends on our paying attention to these vital to our survival tips…

[1] Practice good hygiene (scrub hands often at least 20 seconds), [2] Cover coughs and sneezes, [3] Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth, [4] observe social distancing protocols (remain at least 2 meters / 6 feet apart [5] wear a protective face mask [6] avoid large crowds, [7] socially isolate /  hunker down at home and [8] self-quarantine if you feel ill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fortune Cookie Blog (Tongue-Twister)

 

If a Priest prefers to preach to pews packed with people while
a powerful pathogen precipitates and perpetuates a pandemic,
to prevent a premature powwow with Pearly Gatekeeper Peter,
the parishioners should promptly Put the Pastor out to Pasture!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prai$e the Lord & Pa$$ the Collection Plate$?

In our above clip, The Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian expose greed driven holy rollers, who care more about their bank savings accounts than saving souls / saving humanity, itself. Yes indeed, the survival of our entire global community has been imperiled by the Coronavirus Pandemic. And THAT doth make church attendance dicey… a crapshoot.

And on this Palm Sunday, I, too, would like to weigh in, thusly…

Every ethical, enlightened religious leader, worldwide (purely in the interest of public health), has opted to cancel all church services until it’ll be safe, once more, to go outside (in this case inside). To do otherwise would be tantamount to clergymen meting out death sentences… not only to their parishioners, themselves, but, potentially, to everyone they’d come into contact with subsequently.

Under such dire circumstance, the spreading of this contagion might go unchecked until the very last human being has dropped dead.

If that grim scenario doesn’t scare the bejesus out of the devout… what, pray tell, will?’

OK, perhaps giving it another try might be helpful?

If even a handful of worshipers insist on public masses, then… to quote songwriter P. F. Sloan… “there’ll be no one to save with the world in a grave.”

Or, how about making this bumper sticker length wisdom the phrase that pays?

Freedom of Religion “issues” no one a License to Kill!

If your pastor is flat-out defying the federal, state and local authorities’ recommendations to avoid congregating in large groups, your one and only recourse is to DEFY HIM!

Need anyone even remind that God is omnipresent?

To stay safe, healthy and alive, the advice to follow… uh… religiously… is [1] stay at home, [2] serve up some bread and wine, [3] “park it” in a comfy chair and [4] crack open / curl up with a good book… uh… The Good Book?

 

 

My best wishes that you stay well! If you are ailing, you have my hopes and prayers for a full, speedy recovery. Wherever / whenever we discover a leadership vacuum, it’ll be incumbent on us to do everything we can to save humanity. Please stay safe by continuing to heed the following common sense, disease fighting advice…

[1] Practice good hygiene (scrub hands often at least 20 seconds), [2] Cover coughs and sneezes, [3] Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth, [4] observe social distancing protocols (remain at least 2 meters / 6 feet apart [5] avoid large crowds or (ideally) just stay at home and [6] if ill, self-quarantine.

 

 

 

 

 

Thinking Theo-Logically? Theo-Illogically?

 

As I cast forth these words onto the www, I am overheated by a fired up, coronavirus related ague. Not to worry… in all likelihood, this is no more than a bad case of cabin fever. As such, my mind may’ve become inflamed with delirium… if not utter madness. I’ll leave it up to any cooler headed souls, who may happen by, to determine whether or not my following content is straitjacket worthy… or not…

There’s been some speculation, out there, that the epidemiologists’ and tacticians’ response to the Coronavirus Pandemic (in particular, their social distancing and hunkering down in isolation advice to the masses) has actually driven countless couples… with nothing better to do… to… uh…

To keep this post family friendly / PG-13 rated, let’s just say that as I type these words… as you read them… the amorously-inclined are igniting a nine month long fuse… one which will lead up to a population explosion / baby boom… along about December 25th. No need to mark that down on our calendars… obviously… it already is.

In the Grand Scheme, that cause and effect relationship doth make perfect sense. After all, in the wake of that damned, deadly pathogen, it’d be Mother Nature’s way of… shall we say… kissing and making up?

Or is my premise inherently ill-conceived? Considering the ability for infected, asymptomatic victims to spread this contagion… would not the actual kiss… that typically initiates such interacting… be akin to the kiss of death… namely… the demise of each mommy, daddy and baby-to-be? Anyway, if everyone IS practicing social distancing… shall we say… religiously… how could the required intimacy even come about?

It is that very December 25th timing element (btw… nine months from tomorrow), which now sends my alleged mind soaring… up, up and away… into free association / Biblical mode. Thoughts do flash back… way back… to a Conception of the Immaculate variety… and how this could all relate to healing a multitude of our contemporary ills.

The Second Immaculate Conception could be salvation for whatever will be left of humankind. Fortunately, for us, no disaster, this godforsaken pandemic included, is ever 100 percent efficient. Ergo, the souls who do manage survive will understandably and desperately be in need of an honest to God, spiritual leader’s guidance.

Indeed, my friends, this could be humanity’s do-over in-the-making (as it were).

Let us hope that all, who outlive us, Shalt Not squander the second chance, which such a Second Coming would offer up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two Sons of Fathers Named George

From 1963 through 1969, Republican George Romney served as the 43rd Governor of Michigan (my lifelong home state). Shortly after his reelection in November 1966, via snail mail, he had invited my folks to attend his Inaugural ceremonies, reception and dance.

Neither my father (a chronically low paid, public school teacher) nor my mother (an always overworked homemaker), could even begin to fathom how someone of their humble stations in life, could’ve ever been added to, what had to be, a VIP studded guest list. My parents’ skepticism was warranted, too, seeing how both were hardcore Democrats, who had neither donated one penny to any of Romney’s campaigns, nor (for that matter) had ever even voted for him.

Hell, were it not for the fact that my.father had saved that invitation… that I’m glazing at that actual, historical keepsake as I type these words… I would’ve probably suspected this incident to be dad’s tall tale, or, perhaps, a figment of my own wild imagination?

Anyway… at the time, my father had wisecracked that the only thing he had in common with The Guv was that they both were named George. But, all kidding aside, Republicans of that era… well… at least outwardly… did try to look as if they cared about the “little guy”.

And speaking of the little guy… George Romney had a son named Mitt… yes, THAT Mitt Romney… the very same, present-day U.S. Senator, who, just last week, proved to Utah, DC, America and the world, that he actually answers to an authority who’s much higher than the stoned on power, Donald J. Trump. As such, Mitt had prominently put his spine, scruples and spirituality on display at Donny’s Impeachment Trial… i.e., by becoming the ONE and ONLY Republican to cast his vote to Constitutionally convict and oust the U.S. House Impeached, totally corrupt, guilty and ugly as sin, fake prez.

For Romney, to boldly go where no Trumpian toady has ever gone before, most assuredly, has been tantamount to his committing political suicide. He has bunched up the soiled skivvies of every godforsaken, Trumpian propaganda minister. Indeed, these Orwellian, cranky crybabies… on the lame pretext of defending the totally indefensible Donny… have been throwing on air and online tantrums / going apoplectic in the process of ripping ol’ Mitt A New One. Indeed, Romney will, forevermore, also be Public Enemy #1 within the deep, dark, dank bowels of Donny’s so-called mind. And that doth make the fake prez look genuinely pathetic, petty, undignified and infantile.

While common sense doth advise us not to read too damned much into Romney’s epiphany / public emergence as a holy, moral man… WHAT IF something truly more substantive is in play? Clearly, a person capable of voting to end Trump’s presidency should also be amenable to putting an end to Donny’s deplorable policies… to cite just a few… [1] the caging of immigrant children, [2] the bestowal of needless, lavish tax breaks upon the already obscenely wealthy, [3] the appointment of corruptible SCOTUS and federal judges and… last but not least… [4] the abject neglect of burning, environmental issues.

All the above considered… this son of a father named George now extends my own invitation to another son of a father named George. I implore Mitt Romney to more deeply search his soul. Should he find even more moral courage, I also invite him to join the legions of liberals, who deeply care about finding effective, prompt solutions to all the above-mentioned problems… as well as all of the other ills that plague humankind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fortune Cookie Blog (3-D Spirituality)

 

To profess spirituality is as E-Z as photographing a blessed house of worship.
But, do make sure such a claim isn’t as thin as a smartphone screen’s image.
Adding that third dimension starts with being attentive to the cleric’s homilies;
putting into practice the truths (s)he preaches; uplifting the day to day lives of
who we meet; offering a helping hand to the aged / infirm; being charitable to
the less fortunate; offering enlightenment to all who may dwell in darkness.