State of Mind: American

There are so many different ethnicities and life styles living in America and for some reason we feel the need to hyphenate certain ethnicities. No other country in the world does that. You do not see an Englishman living in Japan that profiles him self as English-Japanese for example. Or even African living in Mexico labeling themselves as an African-Mexican. It even sounds funny to say. Why is it then that Americans do it here and has become so common place?

In lieu of the recent events taking place in the world (and America), it is even more important than ever that we look into this. That we get to the root of it, see why it is a problem and then fix that problem. Together. I want to look at two specific problems going on in not only in the world abroad, but here on our soil as well before they tear us, Americans, apart.

The first topic I would like to bring up is the violent attacks on homosexuals. This is only going to get worse as the Islamic terrorists attack more. Now, I want to make it clear from the beginning I, personally, do not agree with nor condone the homosexual lifestyle. However, that is hardly the point of this article and should not be the topic of politics today. There are so many life styles that are condemned in the Bible, most people tend to forget about, but love to focus on homosexuality. Anyways, I am not writing this to sermonize or get into the theology. I am writing today to bring up that we don’t hate on the rich man who lives a materialistic life style with a half plastic wife. We don’t badger the gluttonous neighbor at the store that uses the electric powered shopping cart because burning a few extra calories might literally make their heart explode. No, we as Americans love to hate the homosexual.

My first problem with the church here is that being so wrong! Sinfully wrong. Christ did not hate the person no matter the sin. Yes, homosexuality is one that attacks Christianity in a big way. That is the very reason though that it must be “combatted” in the most Christ like manner. We must love the person. My second problem is the blind eye the church turns on the other condemned lifestyles that attack other characteristics of God and Christianity.

Now, as always I have a call to action. If you are a part of the church and don’t like what you have just read, ask yourself why it is that it bothered you so much. Then examine those statements with the heart of God. What does the Bible have to say about those topics, I just wrote about? Then react.

My plea for America, every citizen, resident, man, woman and child, is to acknowledge the homosexual first and foremost as a person. A human being with life. That person ought to be treated with love, dignity and respect simply because they breathe (Wade A. McNair, PhD.). Now, don’t you go reading into that and say, “well let’s make sure they stop breathing. Then, we don’t have to treat them with respect.” Wrong. Then you become a murder and are punishable by law, and justly so. Anyone who we disagree with their lifestyle still has the right to practice that life style as long as it is not causing any harm to anyone else. Every one legally living here in America has the right to pursue happiness. Don’t be confused, that is not saying everyone has the right to happiness, but simply to pursue it. With that being said, the homosexual community (in America) needs to be accepted as Americans. I don’t like the “in your face”, blasphemous attitude of much of that community anymore than the next average Joe or Saintly Susan. However, that does not give me the right to be hateful of the person or group of people.

Now, I hope the homosexual and the LGBT and any other letter I left out will read this article, feel accepted and tone down their “in your face” agenda. This article is just as much to them as it is to the other side. They must not try and be divisive just the same as the conservatives and The Church.

Moving right along to the next topic, that is of the war between the white man and the black man. I do not adhere to political correctness, so I will not even try to pretend. However, I do try very hard to make sure my words and actions are loving to all. Let me clarify when I say to all. To all means to every human living, for there is but one race, that being the human race.

I don’t understand where this deep seeded ethnic/racial hatred comes from. It has been brought up by our Managing Editor (Jonathan DeViney) in conversation that

ModState managing editor on 12 January, 2016, prior to the final State of the Union from President Obama

perhaps it is due to the long past of the black ancestors who were sold into slavery, many were beaten and many died. I would just like to point out that many did not, and once freed many chose to stay with their previous owner because their life was good there. If this is the cause of the hatred, the Africans that were brought over here were not in a place to very easily fight back. Now though the black Americans are in a position where they can fight back. This case is understandable. However, incredibly wrong and un-American. I acknowledge what many Africans went through was awful, horrible, sinful and no amount of words can fix it.

If that is not the reasoning behind this hatred and evil acts, then what is? For that I do not have the answer. But I have a possible solution. If we all, black, white, yellow, brown, or even green, were to not adhere to being a hyphenated American, but were to just be Americans there would be no argument. This goes for all groups (gender, ethnicity, et cetera). If we all act like Americans and we all love and respect one another as humans and fellow countrymen, we would not have the problems that are discussed above. We of course are responsible for our actions and reactions no matter what anyone else says or does to us. We are completely responsible for how we act toward others. We can not pass off the blame because they wronged us first. Let us all act above reproach and treat others how we would want to be treated regardless of how we have been treated.

I am saying let love be the guiding factor here. That is not to say that I do not believe there is not ever a time and place for harsh words and actions. There are consequences to each one of our actions. It’s one of the laws of physics: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is true in the socio and emotional world as well. Some actions need to be punished, they should not be tolerated. Just as a child that acts out should be punished. That is because we want to train our children to act in the world to make it a better place for us all. The same principle applies today for children and adults equally. Of course children are much easier to train in regards to their behaviors, but adults too can be trained or re-trained how to act in a society that would benefit us all.

Now before I let my psychologist thinking take over, I must return to my original topic of being American. Everyone that is living in America currently as a citizen ought to be an American before they are much of anything else. I am not putting American citizenship and patriotism above religious convictions, but in relations to everyone else we must note the one thing we have in common. That being we are all Americans. We all love this country. We certainly have our issues with her, but if we truly did not love her we would not be a part of her. Thus, that should run how we talk and treat others. Those who do not think America is great and think they would be better off elsewhere, then go elsewhere. To the Americans of Mexican decent, waving the Mexican flag chanting “Vive Mexico”, if you are so in love with Mexico and think she is so great, go back. Go across the border and stay there. If you don’t want to do that it is probably due to the fact that you know America is much greater than anywhere else for many reasons and that is why immigrants from all over the world want to be here. That is why we exist, because people all over the world want a better life. They want the American dream, to come here and have the freedom we possess. Well, come here and have your freedom! But know that the whole reason you are coming here is to be in America, not make America like where you just came from. For if that were the case then there would be no point in coming to America.

We all need to think back to the very fabric of what makes us great and what made us to begin with. We are a nation made of immigrants and will continue to welcome immigrants. Those immigrants must adhere to the American way. I am going to remind us all once more, we all are here because we want to be American. We want what America has, so we must conform to those ways, laws and customs. Just as a man and woman leave behind their families and join together to become a new family so must the immigrant. No, never forget where you came from. Never forget your heritage and customs, but do conform your ways to that of the American, your new family. Let us live by the golden rule. Forgive, but never forget lest we make the same mistake twice. Let us join together as Americans and make it a great place for us all, so that it can be great for us individually.

Hughes, Anny

Six Degrees of Knowin’ Nothin’: [Untitled]

And on the 8th day, God made bears. Lots and lots of bears.

Does this era need introduction? Or, rather, may a suitable introduction be written? I report, you deride.

1: In any rational era, the sudden appearance of lurid photographs of well-known public figures tends to happen without the consent of those captured in the images. Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Anthony Weiner, et al. Notable exceptions to this are of the celebutante variety who sport last names such as Hilton and Kardashian, but then, their deliberate release of self-incriminating material isn’t indicative of a rational era.

That there’s a Stairway to Heaven but a Highway to Hell is indicative of expected traffic volume.

The great Jerry Falwell, Jr., well his undeniable greatness as an Evangelical Christian minister and university president is so ineffable, so vast, that he was no longer able to be confined by any notion of modern decency. If that’s still a thing, that is. Either way, the photograph posted containing the erstwhile head of Liberty University (and descendent of the late and decent Jerry Falwell) is disturbing on several counts. Let’s take a look:

Now, I’m not sure if it’s the ghastly attempt at humor (yeah, “black water”, haw haw haw!), the self-caricature of the gut and the unzipped pants combined with the awful rug on his counterpart (who is not his wife, for those keeping score at home), the fact that students of said Evangelical university get expelled for drinking and/or extra-marital sexual encounters, or that this wasn’t a leak at all that makes this such a disgrace. He could’ve just said it was a faux Black Dog in his glass and been done with it.

The man (so-called) “leaked” it via his own social media aperture, and then delivered a truly abysmal mockery of an apology on-air, and I quote: “I’ve promised my kids I’m going to try to be…I’m gonna try to be a good boy from here on out.” Rock and Roll, Jerry!

Oh and Mrs. Falwell, when your marriage does end, remember: you [expletive deleted] your rebound, and that’s it. You don’t permanently abscond from reality and keep [expletive deleted] them long-term and/or marry them. Especially, I might add, if you plucked them from the extras of “The Walking Dead.”

Silly me. But seriously, though: booze and Evangelicals and social media shouldn’t mix.

2: At times, the headlines write themselves. In their own attempt to swing loose with reality, as it were, Iran has a fabricated aircraft carrier resembling one of those wielded by the United States Navy. “Why”, you ask? An entirely unscripted and well-placed question. For their own propaganda purposes that is, until the entire experiment blew up in their faces. Living out their own version of “delirium tremens”, Iran was so successful in this charade that their accidental destruction of a prop US Navy aircraft carrier poses a threat to a major thoroughfare in the oil trade. Posing an existential threat to traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, and things apparently unbeknownst to Iran such as tides can shift the wreckage, endangering oil tankers.

Give the Ayatollah our best. Speaking of “the best”, if you’re going to challenge the world’s preeminent naval power, you’d better come correct. The Battle of Evermore this is not.

3: Biden must face Trump in debate(s). Yes, it’s answering a “double dog dare” from the POTUS and no, you don’t want to give in to the whims of a bully. But if you don’t follow through then it looks like you’re hiding in a basement and afraid to face Donald J. Trump on the stage. What’s the worst that could happen? They then “triple dog dare” one another to a lindy hop dance-off to the “Misty Mountain Hop” or hand out four sticks (one to both members of each ticket) to swing with? Why would you be afraid of that if you’re in the Biden camp unless, per the Trump camp’s assertions, the former Vice President will be unable to remember whether he’s going to California, or another, “y’know, the thing” that the Founding Fathers said? The great equalizer is the human ego. They’ll debate.

This is an event waiting to go wrong. Don’t hang out with bears. [image credit to Daily Caller & Barstool Sports]

4: Meanwhile, the National Park Service has posted a warning urging American adventurers not to confront bears but, if they do, to not take advantage of their slower companions. And no, this is not made up. Nor is the response of a pack of humans, recently, to a bear arriving in their midst. They didn’t flee or otherwise attempt to discourage the bear; instead they took pictures of their merry band whilst feeding the bear. Good call, ‘Murica.

5: Bill Barr’s appearance was a disgrace for everyone except the Attorney General. For committee chairman Nadler, to open the hearing with that statement was an outrage; and Jordan, thanks for the monologue on things that happened before Barr was back on the job and for God’s sake put your damn coat on!

6: Stat of the Week: the POTUS’ campaign is knocking on 1 million doors a week; the former VPOTUS’ camp is knocking on 0. As in ZERO. Z-E-R-O. This sort of nonsense only seems like nonsenseuntil the time when the levee breaks. Underestimate the mad media genius of The Donald at your peril.

Y’know what? Let’s just cancel everything. If everything’s priority one, then nothing is priority one.

7 June 2020

Black Lives Matter: Let’s cut through the fat together, shall we? Yes or yes? Good. With that, we have a problem in America. Several, actually. We live in a police state, for one thing, and for another, paramount now, is said police state taking a particular interest in African Americans.

Let’s also consider the unbelievable, highly-classified powers of FISA courts to spy unopposed on our own people without their knowledge indefinitely, the ability of the Federal government to suspend the Constitutional rights of American citizens suspected of terrorism via the Patriot Act and the inexplicable repeal of the Smith-Mundt Act (which forbade the Federal Government from using propaganda on American soil). Are you drinking what I’m pouring?

With no malice in my heart toward the many fine police officers across the land (a few I’ve known personally), I say again: we live in a police state.

Over the past decade alone, we have seen increasing examples of the use of excessive force on a disproportionate number of black Americans. Data clearly shows that Whites compose 76.5% of America’s citizenry while Blacks make up 13.4% of it, the former were shot to death by police 370 times versus 235 for the latter.

For those who want to bring out FBI data displaying prevalence of crime amongst inner city black neighborhoods, recall the negligible difference in drug use between whites and blacks and the parity in gun culture between the two.

America glorifies violence, and that crosses ethnic lines. Don’t believe me? Look at what I call “Dollar Voting”, in essence, what we value and spend our money on. What does our art and culture reflect? If we’re being real, it ain’t peace. Does hip hop culture lend itself to violence? Listen to the top ten hits of the genre and get back to me; but before you get back to me, let me know what Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Reed and “The Dukes of Hazzard” were all about while you’re at it.

As for the movement itself, “Black Lives Matter” is driving home a simple point: yes, every house in the neighborhood matters but only one of them is on fire.

We hardly need a hashtag for Blue (Police) Lives Matter; they roam about largely unopposed, vested with a badge and lethal weaponry, and we provide a safety net (union, pension, et cetera) and, in general, blanket support to include the high probability that bad actors aren’t held accountable in court.

All Lives Matter? Do they? Maybe I’d be more decisive in answering these questions if every new episode of “Death By Cop” didn’t always star a black man.

– Jack DeViney

*************

New Orleans Police Department preps for ongoing confrontation and protest throughout downtown.

All Lives Matter(?): Two things can be true at once. In fact, very few things in our world are mutually exclusive of themselves. One can, for example, be in favor of the events in the George Floyd case never happening again and find the phrase “Black Lives Matters” offensive. They are not mutually exclusive. Both can be true. This depends on your definitions of words. Words matter. Words have meaning. Facts matter. Facts have meaning.

If by any definition, one is not a racist, but they will not stand shoulder to shoulder with Black Lives Matter signs, or they won’t kneel down in front of a mob of protestors, they become….what? Insensitive? Divisive?

To be true to this point, I believe “All Lives Matter” or “Blue Lives Matter” are equally asinine. We don’t protest on things we agree upon. We don’t stand outside and shout “the sky is blue”!

Are things worse now than the mid-1960’s? Or do we see public discord in 3D now? We report, you deride.

The assertion that a black man can not step from his home without fear of imminent death from a racist ‘Mericuh is as equally preposterous as the media’s “1619” narrative that America is as systemically racist as at any time in our history. Really? Where’s the poll of young, black men asking them if they’d rather live in 1865, 1965 or 2020? I must’ve missed that astute revelation.

Instead of regurgitated statistics that the left/media refuse to acknowledge anyway, how about we come at this from a novel approach. [So] what is your suggestion? I mean, with all of the statistics stating the exact opposite of your point, what are we doing wrong? Are our hiring standards too low? Is training being swept aside to fast-track officers onto beats? Do we provide immunity to officers that is unnecessary and counter-productive? Let’s get to the “nut cutting” as they say.

If we want to turn this into another narrative where the right just refuses to admit there is a substantial issue and is instead hiding behind years of conservative practices…show me! Where are the statistics that support any of this nonsense? That show America is systemically racist and prejudiced against black Americans? Where are the politicians that you are particularly citing as responsible for these aggressions? Or is it just “orange man bad”, with his “basket of deplorables”?

Once again, the left/media have overplayed their hands. We were told millions of Americans would die if we didn’t shut the world down indefinitely. Now if you have a small business and want to re-open smartly so that you don’t lose everything, you’re killing grandma! We were told that if we would just allow LGBT marriages, all examples of bigotry would be history. Now if you’re a Millennial male that won’t go out with a trans-woman (a man by all scientific facts and definitions), you’re a homophobe! And now, if you won’t march to the beat of this drum, well, you’re just a racist. Or worse, an “Uncle Tom.”

It’s tiring. It’s divisive. It’s unnecessary. This issue is one we must agree on, or we don’t have a country. You cannot have law and order if one group is being systematically hunted down and killed by those sworn to protect us.

Facts matter. Statistics matter. Two things can be true at once.

– Michael R. DeViney, Jr.

Fabriqué en Babylon: Meanwhile

With the majority of public discourse non-existent and what discussion does occur usually ending acrimoniously, I recalled a lesson (from the past) learned the hard way: in life, there are times the rules are such that, indeed, sometimes the only way to win is not to play.

Politics is considered the art of the compromise, or “the game of compromise,” to suit the lesson. Now, I don’t know if IQs dropped, if we forgot, if the entire paradigm changed despite the entire pantheon of examples (of public discourse), or if it’s an all-of-the-above that’s closer to where we’re at, but we’ve forgotten. One way or another, it’s that simple.

As “The Great Experiment”, that means that this is a failure as a nation. A failure to even try to communicate and find some semblance of common ground, to find a way to even try to be civil and respect one another’s time to speak, to actually listen to a message before deciding what it means and how we view that meaning, to even agree to try and communicate at all.

You see, the trick is in self-control. Before picking up your pitchforks and torches or, worse, leaving altogether, let the damned man have a few final words.

Fistfight breaks out in Turkish parliament

I say “self-control” is the key, if there is one, because in order for public discourse to function where there’s debate, dialogue and (hopefully) resolution at some point, we must individually approach this forum with the intention of conducting one’s self in a civil manner no matter what the opposition says or how they say it.

The first impulse is outrage, I’m aware, followed by some variant of, “So what do we do when [insert example of national Democrats and/or Republicans] start acting the fool?” And that’s precisely where, following my abandonment of my personal Facebook and Twitter accounts that the lesson learned previously (“sometimes the only way to win is not to play”) I remembered that silence isn’t always concession. Sometimes, it might be easy to think, “Ahp! Yep, see, DeViney’s silent so he’s conceding,” when, the truth is, I’ve also come to embrace another tactic summarized best as, “Let them talk; most people will hang themselves given enough rope.”

CNN was really on to something when they debuted the policy debates, featuring an epic duel between Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) versus Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) engaged in an actual, substantive, non-campaign debate. Too bad they didn’t keep the series alive.

In order to pull this off, one must listen to their opponent’s words and, I don’t have chapter and verse from Harvard or Little Sister’s of The Poor and this that or the other study to cite, but I do know that it is humanly impossible for you to absorb as much of what someone else is saying while you’re running your piehole. An easy life “hack” for this (I’m trying to meet you halfway, my fellow Millennials) is to engage in one of America’s most obvious traditions and gently shove, well, pie or any other food one prefers into their gaping maw, which should, advisably, prevent the pie-eater from interrupting while someone else is speaking.

Another idea, and I only mention it in passing, is to teach your children these same concepts so that there’s a generational sort of reboot here, if you will.

Another really good concept, and this brings me back to what we’ve lost in terms of public dialogue, as a nation, as a people, is drop the assumptions. Do I really need to say that, as a Federal republic of 325 million-plus people scattered across 50 nation-states over 3 million-plus square miles, people come from different backgrounds and therefore automatically have their own way of doing things?

Apparently. Just remember: how good is it? Really good.

“Why does any of this matter?” one might ask, certainly a wise and reverent question, and unscripted at that!

As I face the active task of delivering closing remarks that are dually comprehensible and comprehensive, my personal political platform has never stood out more and conversely never kept me directly out of the fray as often. That’s weird. We’re living in a weird era.

As a centrist, I see, for instance, the keen insight President Trump into the general failings of a bloated Federal bureaucracy that feeds right into the national angst of an alienated body of followers who argue the value they get for their investment as taxpayers isn’t worth spending in excess of $4 trillion annually. However crude one views his “one-in, two-out” policy regarding regulations, he was onto something. Specifically, the broader argument that, not because of lack of desire and hardly because of lack of money but because of the inadequacies and failings that are part of the very fabric of a bloated, administrative state; in short, our Federal government is a monstrosity. A monstrosity, I might add, that needs to be shrunk, not given more money.

On the other hand, I also see the benefits of a strong, but limited, leaner Federal government with a decisive Executive having multiple opportunities for reform in bipartisan areas (fringes on both sides notwithstanding) with Congress, and I see those very same opportunities going wanting right now. And that is where, yes, I can see the personality crises stemming from being willing to be at odds with anyone, anytime over anything bringing about, indeed, a sort of “Trump Fatigue.”

That cuts both ways as well: while the people grow weary of the constant drama President Trump’s approach relies upon, they also tire of every single failing in DC being laid at his feet.

The same President who picked a fight (via social media, but of course) with an Autistic foreign teenager over climate change he maintains doesn’t exist to begin with also felt like the status quo that denied opportunities to felons post-release was unfair (See: “The First Step Act”). The very same POTUS who inexplicably disavowed support (however briefly) for our Kurdish allies also did what every Administration since Carter had threatened to by being the American Executive who stood up to Communist China’s underhanded trade practices and illegal valuations of the Yuan (their currency), which gave them unfair advantage(s) in imports/exports against other countries.

I don’t blindly support any politician, and I’m leery of ideologues. I don’t have any heroic, holistic advice on how to approach the President or his (many) conflicts, some contrived and some born of circumstances outside of his control.

These thugs didn’t issue executive orders that restricted travel from other countries into their own. They killed people they didn’t like and/or want. Perhaps a bit of caution, then, before ascribing the President Trump to the ignominious league of names like “Hitler” and “Stalin”, methinks?

But I do know this: the sooner we can get one extreme to stop canonizing every wacky idea the President utters and convince the other side that, no, Sugar, dictators don’t ask other countries to stop immigrants, they just have them shot. Dictators don’t ask, and they don’t Tweet about being treated “very badly” by the judiciary and the media. They don’t have to.

Look at the big picture, and tell me where you’d rather be that would be a better country from which to launch Endeavor A or stand up for Civic Cause B, et al. So, you don’t like the President. I don’t know how much the President likes the President. But you ought to be able to know the difference in there being room for (bigly) improvement in our mixed capitalist system, and in living in a concentration camp as you and your fellow undesirables are systematically exterminated by an authoritarian state.

A dictator? Hitler? Really? See: “Godwin’s Law”

Sound extreme? So do y’all.

State of Mind: American

Hughes, Anny

Six Degrees of Knowin’ Nothin’: [Untitled]

Contrast: Black Lives Matter v. All Lives Matter (et al)

Fabriqué en Babylon: Meanwhile