Feeding the Poor Has Never Kept One Morsel Off Your Plate

  I have noticed a disturbing trend in the social media. It seems not a day goes by when I don't see a "friend" waxing philosophically about how awful government programs designed to help poor people are. Invariably, these posts come from people who have never suffered a hardship in their lives.  Mostly they come from white, upper-middle-class "Christians" who seem to have forgotten the substantial portions of the Bible in which Jesus is said to have avidly supported helping the poor and, with equal vigor, chastised the rich. "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God"-Mark 10:25 KJV.
  More than any other government program, food stamps are by far the most reviled by the Facebook pundits I see regularly. None of whom have ever been in a situation where they needed any help at all, of any kind, from anyone. Or, at least that is what one would logically conclude after reading their tremendously well-thought posts on the matter. So gifted are these social media economists and policy crafters, that they can usually dismiss the problems of the poor with just two or three witty sentences, with only a handful of misspelled or misused words. Why these folks don't run for public office is anybody's guess. Clearly, they have it all figured out.
  The most recent figures I find say there are roughly 46 million people on food stamps in the United States.  Last year, the U.S. government spent $76.7 billion on food stamps. Despite the minuscule percentage of the people who are abusing the system (we'll define abuse for these purposes as using food stamps when you can afford to buy food without them), the program helped over 16 million children who legitimately face hunger every day as well as their working parents. Since 2001, the U.S. has spent $3.7 trillion on a war in Afghanistan with a stated purpose that is murky at best. The prime target in that war has been dead for over a year, and yet there we still are, wasting ungodly amounts of money "securing" people who do not want us to secure them at all.
  The people I see complaining about the small percentage of food stamp frauds they imagine to be so enormous never, ever mention any reservations at all about their government wasting trillions of dollars to ensure Osama Bin Laden is still dead. That would be unpatriotic or something, in their view, I imagine. It's harder and harder for me to get my head around their views at all lately.
  I don't want to delve any deeper into this topic because discussing people who think the poor are a burden and that anyone who needs help is lazy makes me sick.  On that note, I would simply ask that before you launch into a tirade about how mad you are that your taxes get spent, in part, to feed the poor as well as to kill those awful brown people in the middle east; that you might just look at a poor child and think, instead, there but by the grace of God go I...for those who claim to be religious in addition to being so well read on economics and stuff.

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twitter: @JACarlisle1

The Cheshire Cat, aka Mitt Romney

  When it comes to seizing hold of an opportunity to promote their own self-interests, there exists no more cunning class of person than American politicians. Among American politicians, the Republican party of the last twenty years or so have become absolute grand masters at this.

  If a Republican congressman were strolling down the banks of the Potomac and found a little girl clutching a basket of puppies drowning in the river, he would do nothing at all if the little girl were brown-skinned. He would step down on her head if she were a Muslim or homosexual. The only conditions under which that congressman would save the little girl is if she were rich, if there were cameras rolling nearby to capture the awesome act of altruism, and if there were a way to spin the story so that a Democrat-Commie-Muslim-Fag chucked the little girl and her precious pups into the drink on account of how much she and her pets loved Jesus and freedom. Behind every tragedy, opportunity...or some other, equally nauseating fortune cookie ethos. Theses people are opportunists, make no mistake.

  I have already covered in this blog my feelings about the vitriolic tone of this presidential election and my feelings about how awful our "choices" are this time around. I don't think it is necessary to reiterate my displeasure with the job President Obama has done. I would rather focus on one particularly disgusting gaff perpetrated by Mitt Romney. The guy who claims to love America SO much more than Barack Obama.

  A few days ago, on the anniversary of 9/11 no less, our embassies in Libya and Egypt were assaulted by some of the citizens of those countries. Four Americans were killed, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens. These assailants were, evidently, incensed over some movie they claim depicted their precious (and hyper-sensitive) prophet, Muhammad, in a negative light.

  It is not without some difficulty that I move on from that last paragraph without going into great detail about how religion makes our world a far worse place than it would be otherwise. That is not the topic I set out to report on this time, however, and I'll have to revisit it again later.

  Instead, I write this to highlight what a dick Mitt Romney has proven himself to be following these attacks. Before even knowing all the facts about the horrible events in Libya and Egypt, Romney quickly called a press conference. One might think this would be to offer sympathies to those hurt or otherwise affected. One might think this was a chance for Romney to really show his humanity and compassion. One would be totally off-base in either case.

  Romney called the press conference so he could hurl political mud-balls and misinformation. He claimed, completely without evidence, that the President had somehow apologized to the Muslim people for offending them with a movie he had no part in making. Romney stated as if it were a fact that the President sought to comfort those who attacked American citizens instead of vowing justice, which is what the President actually said. Romney pretty much improvised his whole presser. He just made a bunch of shit up and let loose from his tongue. He was in rare form, indeed.

  Besides all the blatant lies Romney told at his press conference, there is something more subtle that I find even more disquieting than the dishonesty. A photographer captured an image of Romney as he came away from the podium that Mitt never intended the world to see. As the nominee walked away from the journalists, a self-satisfied smirk spread across his face, like the cat who just ate the canary. He couldn't have been happier with himself.

  Despite the fact that four American patriots were dead, Romney was just pleased as punch that he had an opportunity to politicize their deaths. How fortuitous for him that these Americans were killed and gave him a chance to look good on camera being all presidential-like. Smugness doesn't look like leadership, Governor Romney. And it is disgusting that you would try to cash-in on the deaths of American citizens. Bad look. Bad move. And we won't forget it. 

Sincerely, America

E-mail: thisistruth4you@gmail.com

tweet: @JACarlisle1

It Isn't a Holiday, Afterall ...

  Today, as anyone with functioning sensory organs knows, is September 11, 2012. The eleventh anniversary of the scariest day most of us here in America can remember in our lifetimes.  A day when every American looked at our fellow countrymen a little differently. We seemed, on that day, to put aside our differences and divisions and instead took our neighbors by their hand, looked into their eyes, and asked (sincerely for once) if there was anything we could do for them. Tragedy really brings us together in ways that we typically never allow.

  In the years that have followed that tragic day we Americans have endured a fallout that has spread its influence outward, encompassing so many aspects of our lives. Whether it is because we lost a loved one in the attacks, or overseas afterwards serving in the military as our troops wage war on this abstract idea "terror." Fire-fighters and policemen have seen their own jobs' stress-levels increased as they are prepared to charge once more into the fray as first-responders should the forces of evil attack us again; only now with the terrible memory of brothers and sisters lost the first time around. This increased stress has destroyed marriages, decayed parental bonds with children, and driven some to the comforts of the bottle or other numbing agents. Those attacks caused ripples.

  Every year around this time, the media go out of their way to provide reminders. News-casters in somber tones relate to us the stories of those lost. They play the footage like a loop on the TV, first one plane violently smashes into the World Trade Center, then, just a few minutes later the second plane explodes through the next building's facade, punching a flaming hole in the sky.  They never fail to include the footage of the buildings tumbling to the ground like a house of cards, or the grotesque, heartbreaking images of the people trapped in the building choosing the painless way out by plunging to their deaths out the window. They usually don't fail to remind us of the sounds those people's bodies made as they hit the ground.

  All of these images and sounds the media play every September 11th instantly transport us back to that day. We each remember every detail of our experiences on that day. Many of us even remember exactly what we wore or ate that day. If we try to eat the same thing or be in the same place, the experience can be truly surreal. It can be overwhelming from an emotional stand-point. I know there is a stretch of highway near my home in Indianapolis that gives me chills if I drive by on a cool, bright morning. It's like I'm 21 again, and afraid for my mother, who was working at a law office in the tallest building in the city.

  I in no way am suggesting that memorials shouldn't be conducted on this day every year. For those who lost loved ones, memorials can be quite cathartic. We all benefit from remembering our lost loved ones. In a way, we keep them alive with us in this way. I do think, however, perhaps we should encourage through a letter-writing campaign, or email petitions, that the major news outlets and TV networks stop playing the footage from that morning in lower Manhattan.

  For those who lost loved ones in those attacks, it must be gut-wrenching to see that over and over again, every year, like clock-work. To put it in the terms that an individual can relate to, imagine you are one of JFK's kids, and once a year you were made to watch the Zapruder film over and over and have to listen to Walter Cronkite announce your father's death over and over. It has to be the same feeling for people with loved ones on one of those planes. It is a morbid exercise, and only serves to keep Americans angry. It does nothing to memorialize the dead.

 The point is this: September 11th is not a holiday. It is not a day that should be treated like a second Memorial Day. It is not Veterans' Day. Nothing good happened that day, and we continue to give those evil acts power by propping them up and highlighting them. It amounts to, if I may borrow a term from the TV show The Newsroom, Tragedy Porn. I know a few people who were in Manhattan and Washington DC on that day, and I don't believe they spend this day watching a tape loop of the day that changed their lives. I think they would rather go plant a flower in remembrance of the dead, or something equally beautiful and positive. This day is not a holiday, and it should stop being used to sell advertising revenue on The History Channel and NatGeo. So, if you agree, turn off your TV on this 11th day of September, and go create something. Go make something positive. Go make something beautiful, and do so in remembrance. Sure beats the hell out of watching TV with tears rolling down your face.

e-mail: thisistruth4you@gmail.com

twitter: @JACarlisle1

Seriously, What's Your Problem?

  There has recently been a lot of wind issuing from the faces of politicians regarding the ever-controversial issue of marriage equality. This is one of those distraction issues that seems to come up whenever it is convenient to make voters think about anything but what a horrifying mess our world has become. Aside from the extremely homophobic response of some states' governments of amending their constitution to specifically ban gay marriage; very little actually gets done about the issue one way or the other. As far as D.C. goes, the discussion is pretty much exactly where it has been for years. Which is to say, it sits there and doesn't progress toward either side's preferred result.
  Everyone has heard the arguments against it. Everyone knows exactly who the real opponents are and what they think. I have no desire to rehash all the bullet points on the pro or con side of this topic in this article. Instead, I want to use this forum to pose a question to the far-right, fundamentalist evangelicals leading the charge against this. Simply put, what the hell is your problem?
  In all seriousness, what is their problem? Gay men and women getting married has absolutely no impact on their lives whatsoever, and yet they insist that it would somehow make their lives unimaginably awful. Their world would become a dystopian hell-scape ala' Mad Max. Heterosexual couples would become filthy pariahs, scavenging for scraps of food left uneaten by the tiny teacup chihuahuas their fabulous gay overlords feed right in front if them as a constant reminder that they are not worthy of such delicious fare.
  No, I think not. I really don't think this boils down to any concerns about this imagined "sanctity" of marriage being damaged at all. If marriage were so holy-rollin' sanctified, divorce and infidelity defiled all that so long ago there is no one alive who had a great great grandparent who could remember their great great grandparents telling folk stories about it. THAT long ago. Marriage hasn't been close to sanctified for generations, if it ever really was.
  The reality is this: fundamentalists don't want gay people getting married and being happy because they are terrified of what that says about their own failed marriages. If gay people are the wicked spawn of the devil's hatred of goodness or whatever, then how bad does it look if they can hold down a lifetime commitment to loving one another and being true to vows sworn to their spouse in front of God and the state?  How bad does that make them feel about the fact that their first marriage fell apart because hubby had a mid-life crisis and started banging waitresses? Or maybe the Missus found herself in bed with someone else because hubby was never home. They can't keep their marriage together, but some heathen faggots can? Not on OUR watch, by God! Then begins the letter writing to the congressman, and so on.
  In the end, if you're opposed to gay marriage, it says a lot more about what kind of person you are than it does about some nonsense sanctity of "traditional" marriage. It says you are petty and selfish. It says you think only you and people like you are deserving of happiness. It says, once again, that your personal religious superstitions are the standard by which everyone else should live their lives. Why don't you get a hobby that doesn't include ruining other people's lives, please? That would be a pretty Christian thing to do, I think. For what my opinions on that are worth.

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