Wonderful Letter to Obama

I rarely agree with Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention on anything political. However, I agree with every sentence of his most recent post on his blog.


Richard Land's Letter to President-elect Obama

I also celebrate our nation's victory over racism and the memory slavery.

We often celebrate our country's history but fail to think about the terrible history of slavery that our history must recognize. It begins from the moment of the first slaves stepping off of a European ship to establish the Jamestown settlement. It continues in the recognition of slavery in the U.S. constitution. The deadly Civil War needed to protect 'a more perfect union.'

The vision of Lincoln, the stands of King, and now the victory of Obama can be celebrated truly as victory. We have come a long way "... to finish the work we are in."

Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address:

Fellow-Countrymen: AT this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.	1
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, urgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.	2
One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."	3
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.	4

Good Study

Sometimes it does take a good piece of science to help people see what should be common sense. Here is a study that relates teens watching sexy TV shows to increased teen pregnancy rates.

Medical Journal Abstract

News article

duh.

I Am Becoming More Impressed with Ron Paul

As have been listening to some economists and successful investors about the current economic problems. It has been enlightening.

Two of the men most critical of the current handling of the American economy seem very wise now, but they were fringe candidates for President --- Ron Paul for the Republican Party and Dennis Kucinich for the Democracy Party.

Representative Kucinich is not as clear perhaps because he is a liberal economic thinker. Liberal economic theory tends to support a mixed economy with regulation. Representative Paul is very clear because he holds to a simple free-market capitalism. However, both disagree with the terrible socializing of our economy through the recent bailout. It is socializing the risk of corporate speculative investing. The risk is not taken by the investment firms because taxpayers will cover the risk of bad speculative investments. Both Kucinich and Paul agree that our current economy has been based on easy credit and not on manufacturing and hard work. Both say, "Why are we trying to save this system as it is?" Both say "The people who permitted the easy credit and participated in the speculation are now trying to keep that system afloat with trillions of taxpayer dollars (or rather taxpayer debt).

Kucinich

Paul

I am trying to pay off my total debt as quickly as possible. Speculative use of borrowed money in the 1920's lead to 10 years of the Great Depression. We are probably in for a similar tragedy.

FDR's First Inaugural Address

These days have been ruled by greed. Freedom's shout was used to open the way for abuse without laws boundaries. The next president would do well to read FDR's First Inaugural Address at the dawn of the Great Depression. Here is an MP3 of the address: "FDR's 1st Inaugural Address"


Below I highlight paragraphs that sound like they are written for today.

---------

President Hoover, Mr. Chief Justice, my friends:

This is a day of national consecration. And I am certain that on this day my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our people impels. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper.

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. And I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; and the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.

More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.

And yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They only know the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

Yes, the money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths.

...


And finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order; there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people's money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency.

These, my friends, are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a new Congress in special session detailed measures for their fulfillment, and I shall seek the immediate assistance of the 48 States.

....

We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it.

In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come.

Franklin D. Roosevelt - March 4, 1933

Nietzsche's Complaint

Here is an excellent summary of Nietzsche's complaint about Christianity in his book "The Anti-Christ".

The Anti-Christ Summary

Christianity's message of submission and other-worldliness enables the priestly class or the pastor class to benefit fully from the power they weld over Christianity's submissive followers. Most certainly Christianity is susceptible to this abuse of power. Time and time again a pastor or priest uses their position to enrich themselves or lord ecclesiastical power over their parishioners.

It is worth Christians knowing their critics with eyes wide open. Nietzsche is one of the most persuasive.

Also, in my last post I identified the platonist excess of certain flavors of Christianity, that is, the dominance of other-world thinking that obscures this-world living. The world-to-come becomes so important that Christians neglect the world and people in front of them. Please note the second comment on the post about Nietzsche. It makes a bold statement on Aquinas's blending of Aristotle and Christianity. His work grounds Christianity back on Terra's firm ground. This world becomes as important in determining our knowledge and action (science, pain, injustice, etc.) as the world to come.

American Fundamental Faith: Fideism

There is a demonstrable connection between the demise of early Greek engineering and science initiated by Thales of Miletus with the zealous followers of Plato. The demise of the rational approach to the world was not Plato's fault. Indeed, Aristotle, Plato's most famous pupil, extended logic theory and the natural sciences with his extraordinary writings. However, zealous platonists and neo-platonists enveloped Plato's theory of knowledge and platonic forms in a religious context that made an unseen world of Forms and Truth a more substantial reality than the world of senses. Christianity adopted this view as well.

These religions of 'realists' pursue the 'real' things behind the physical world and the physical world became a shadow of truth and reality. As a result of the popularity of neo-platonism and Christianity, science stopped in Europe for over 1000 years. It wasn't until Thomas of Aquinas resurrected Aristotle's approach to natural science in Christian intellectual circles that Christianity was able to initiate interest in science again. Fideism is an extreme that holds faith as the basis of true knowledge and science is suspect and must be rejected if it conflicts with faith-based revelation. Alternatively, Thomas of Aquinas developed the most complete and consistent philosophy to unify the natural and the supernatural. Science and Theology must be consistent in Thomas's mind because nature and Christianity are both revelations from God. A Thomist accepts a consistent union of science and religion.

The current American fundamentalism in Evangelical culture returns to fideism. We are in a second dark age that distrusts science. I am in agreement with most theologians that science is essentially devoid of any foundations ethics, but 'facts is facts' for science.

Here is a comical post to poke fun at the results of American fideism that has despised science and academia.

The Science Thing

Socialism for the Wealthy: Bush Economics

The Bush revolution 'one-ups' the Reagan revolution in economics for the wealthy. The trickle-down economics of Reagan tried to set up a very free-market system that permitted wealthy entrepreneurs and companies to succeed. The generated new wealth was suppose to 'trickle-down' to the middle and lower classes. While enormous wealth has been generated, the trickle down part was not true in the least. The middle class remained middle class mostly by sending wives into the job market. The single mothers and poor have suffered substantial lowering in standard of living.

The Bush economic revolution extended this theory into socialized economics for the wealthy and huge multi national companies. The Bush administration has excelled in no-competition government contracts for multi-national corporations (Halliburton in particular) and tax breaks and sweet land-grab deals in the West for the exceedingly profitable energy industry. His tax policy also lets the wealthy reduce their tax burden enomously, which only increases the tax burden of the middle class (and their kids through massive debt). Thus, the middle-class tax-payer is funding of the upper class through sweet government contracts and tax breaks for the wealthy. This is not a free market revolution, it is socialism for the wealthy. It has been the largest transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy class in at least 100 years. The repercussions of the transfer is only now being felt by the middle class.

The removal of regulations in the bank and financial sector has given a free hand for speculative manipulation of the economy by the wealthy class and companies. This has now left enormous companies in the housing and financial industry in disarray. The disarray will now again expand the Bush socialism through tax-payer bailouts of the financial industry (Bears and Sterns), the housing loan industry (Fannie and Freddie Mae), and now the insurance industry (AIG). The debt the the American tax payer has just taken on is larger than the debt of Japan and England combined.

The source of the pain for the middle class will be two fold. First, the Federal Reserve Bank will print many billions of dollars to feed into the financial system to keep them afloat. This will increase inflation, which decreases the value of the middle class savings and retirement. Second, the U.S. government will guarantee the loans that these speculative CEO's encouraged their institutions to take on. The middle-class tax payer will be called on to subsidize the salvation of wealthy speculation.

The result will be 10 years of decreasing lifestyles for those who are workers and savers. The wealthy will not be able speculatively increase their wealth, but how many billions does one need to live a decent life in hard times. Indeed, our taxes are going to support the companies that enriched only the wealthy executives, certainly not the common workers. The economy will not have money to generate jobs.

The Bush economic policy has been anything but free market. Rather it has been tax-payer funding of chosen winners. The only way out is to reverse this socialism for the wealthy.

In the 1930's Marriner Eccles, a Utah banker chosen by FDR to modernize the Federal Reserve Board, saw that the economy would not move until the middle class had wealth, which was controlled mostly by a few families at the end of the 1920's. He supported and advised greater regulation of the Banking sector to protect savings accounts from speculative investment practices by Banks and the Banks were required to pay into an insurance program to insure accounts (FDIC). As well, he and FDR practiced the concepts of Keynesian economics that recognized the importance of both private and public components of the economy. When the private component suffered, the public component could be used to generate economic stimulus to smooth out the affects of recessions. FDR put public works projects into place to get money into the hands of the lower classes (work-fare). To finance this effort he also pushed for very progressive taxation policies to get money out of the few wealthy families (Fords, Rockefellers, Guggenheims, ...). These families found tax shelters to avoid most of the taxes being imposed. The Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation were both initiated as tax shelters and have become important private funding sources for altruistic projects. If the Inheritance Tax disappeared, then Foundations would also probably disappear or shrink dramatically.

The New Deal policies will have to return, but a depression will have to be felt before the common person will understand the importance of removing the 'socialism for the rich' that we currently have. We are indoctrinated by the Friedman economic theory supported by the Reagen administration. His theories returned to a complete trust of the 'invisible hand' of the free market. Unfortunately, the invisible hand is manipulated by unregulated speculation by super wealthy investors and by no-bid contracting to super large corporations by the government. The deck is stacked toward the wealthy.