If

If hate and anger fuel your acts you do not merit love.

If your greatness lies in your past then you doom your future.

If your mantra is me first, you will end up last.

Does your God set an example by loving everyone, or just the people who love him/her?

If your God does not love everyone, get a new God.

If your God does love everyone, get a new President.

Politics and Religion

I’ve read several fascinating studies recently that demonstrate the area of the brain where both religious and political beliefs reside.  Neuroscientists at USC were able to demonstrate via MRI that the same area of the brain went into defensive mode when either religious or political views were challenged.  Once such defenses are triggered, logic and reason are displaced by entrenchment.  (See https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161223115757.htm).

So that explains it!  I have oft wondered why when discussing politics with friends of differing perspectives they are likely to become hostile, vindictive, name-calling, Trump sycophants.  For liberals and conservatives alike, deeply held beliefs are just that, deeply held and not subject to reason and rational thought.  I have suffered from the belief that once my position is explained as a logical, rational position given what I value most many will agree with me.  No amount of reason will convict an atheist to become a Christian, a conservative to become a liberal, or a bigot to support civil liberties and civil rights.  The attempt to change someone’s mind in either of these arenas are likely a waste of time.  “Never wrestle with a pig.  You get dirty and the pig likes it.”  George Bernard Shaw

So, as a human being capable of reason and logic, why do thoughts about politics and religion become so deeply ingrained?  Why do we become instantly irrational when discussing these beliefs?  If I believe an aspirin a day helps me avoid strokes, and then read that taking a nap does so even better, I am likely to abandon the aspirin for a nap.  I am not upset.  I do not feel the need to defend the aspirin I once believed in, but now I have new data and believe differently.  Such rational thought does not exist in religion or politics.  It may be because it is in those two areas, perhaps more, that we define ourselves.  If our personal definition is grounded in falsehood we do not want to know it and will deny to the point of creating falsehoods or maintain our delusion.  If I see myself as a Christian Conservative any effort that uses facts to persuade me of an error in my positioning is attacking my very self-image.  I cannot allow that to happen.  So we have seemingly rational people walking around believing that giving millionaires more money somehow economically helps poor people, or they believe that the earth is 6,000 years old.  Both of those beliefs have been clearly debunked by knowledge and reason and science.  And yet, for some a challenge to belief based on fact remains grounds for verbal war.  Or worse.

We cannot agree on the most simple of facts because our belief blinders stand in our way and we cannot see.  Clinton received almost 3 million more votes than Trump.  That is a fact.  That fact cannot be swept away because we do not want to believe that fact or that fact is not aligned with what I believe or worse that I engage in fantasy about fraudulent votes are the only way that can be true.  Of 58 Presidential elections, Trump ranks 46^th in the number of Electoral College votes received. Any way you slice it, 46 lies on the number line closer to 58 than to 1^st.  He did not receive the most electoral votes ever, he did not win by a landslide.  He enters office with only a 42% approval rating, the lowest ever recorded.  Those are facts.  

But they are facts that Trumpeters do not believe or are not willing to believe when a fact is a fact is a fact whether one believes it or not.  The same is true for the crowd attending the Trump inauguration.  Yes, it was less than Obama’s crowd and even less than the women’s march the next day.  But for the believer, those facts cannot be right, someone must be to blame, someone must be attacking us for some reason, or somehow these facts are tainted and not valid.  If we believe Trump was elected overwhelmingly and enters the White House with a mandate supported by the largest cheering crowd in history we are denying facts to bolster our belief.  And that is scary.  Because if we cannot deal with facts we cannot lead.  If we cannot take one on the chin, we cannot lead.  If we have to have it our way despite the data, then we cannot lead.  I would go so far to say even using the term “alternative facts” hits a serious delusional position wherein the belief system must, absolutely must win no matter what the facts say.  Such a person should not lead.  They should not teach.  They should not serve in law enforcement or the justice system, they should not be employed in a position that handles a lot of money, or is responsible for a lot of weapons.  They should not be high school referees.  The thought of such a person as President is beyond belief.

The most interesting point in all the above discussion is that it does not matter.  Trump won.  Trump is President.  The crowd size, electoral votes, the mandate, the approval rating are all just extraneous facts as opposed to alternative facts.  It does not matter.  Trump won.  What matters is civil liberties, tariffs, pipelines, Mexico, China, Europe, etc.  We are not spending nearly enough time on those issues.

It also matters what the personal characteristics are of this person now our President   Do we really want a President who cannot let go of his belief system even when handed the facts?  Do we want a President who will spend millions on commissions to determine if the facts as he sees them are better than the facts we have, the facts we know, the facts that have already been verified?  Do we want a President whose skin is so thin that he will attack members of the media if he thinks they are putting him in a bad light?  Do we want a President who is not willing to be honest with us about his income taxes whether you care about it or not?  Do we want a President who issues policy, opinion and belief system tenets via Twitter?  Do we want a President whose mantra of “America First” really means “Me First”?  Do we want a President who only knows how to be a top-down boss and does not have a clue how to be a public servant?

And after we honestly answer those questions perhaps we can have a rational conversation about free trade versus tariffs, walls for borders, registry of alternative religious belief systems, rejection of people based on their belief systems and country of origin, more oil pipelines, etc.  Perhaps we can talk about his appointments and the fact that they either know absolutely nothing about the area they are to lead, or are out and out hostile to the department they are to lead.  It is as though the Pope is appointing non-church going atheists as cardinals.

And at last, will my friends who are so quick to vilify and spill vitriol be willing to sit and talk about the America they want to see.  What is your vision?  Do we really want to be known as the nation that built a wall?  Do we really want to be known as the nation that began to register people based on their religious belief?  Do we really want to put ourselves first to the degree that we harm other members of the international family?  What shall we stand for?  What shall we be known for?  In my heart of hearts I truly hope it is to stand for what is right regarding the treatment of any other human being regardless of sex or religious belief, or race, or ethnicity, or handicapping condition, or wealth, or sexual preference or sexual identify.  We should show the world how well diversity can work, not show the world how we are striving to reduce the degree of diversity.  If planet earth, the United States, the 50 states, the cities and towns all devolve to a sense of “me first” we have returned to a new dark age where it is OK to compete with others, it is OK to lie to win, it is OK to persecute those who are different from us, it is OK to continue to allow the billionaires to ride the backs of the middle class.  That is not my view.  I can discuss it rationally. 

I cannot rationally discuss my deep love for human beings, my deep love for education, my deep love for the equal treatment of all, and my deep love of these United States as defenders of liberty including civil liberties.  Those beliefs are tied to my religious beliefs.  I have real difficulty being rational in those areas and am much more likely to become emotional.  How can I possibly say I love God if I hate or fear or persecute my fellow man?  No one born on planet earth, by definition, can be an alien.

Well, perhaps with the exception of Trump.

The Bathroom Bill

State legislatures are proposing laws that would require human beings to use the bathroom (and locker rooms, etc.) based on the gender defined for them physically at birth.  For the vast majority of folks, self-included, this is not a personal issue.  I am both a male biologically and have a male sexual identity.  This is a huge problem for humans who have a gender identity that is in conflict with their biological gender.  These people are referred to as “Trans.”  I am absolutely flabbergasted that some humans propose legislative action to punish Trans for their condition.

The entire notion of civil liberties, individual rights and freedom is centered on protecting the minority from the will of the majority.  The folks who propose legislation that legalizes majority discrimination against the minority are making a public announcement that they do not support civil liberties, individual rights and freedom.  In other words, to propose such legislation promoting discrimination based on sexual identity is un-American and un-Constitutional by definition.  Such proponents, as is so typical of this low-level mental function, use fear to arose the majority to believe that they are somehow threatened by this minority and that the majority must clamp down on them.  It is this kind of thinking that promoted the laws requiring separate education based on race, separate bathrooms based on race, separate water fountains based on race, assigned seating in public places based on race, etc., etc.  It is also the kind of thinking that would deny women the right to vote, deny them the right to own property, etc.  This kind of thinking is tyranny of the majority and is by definition un-American.

And I cannot fathom the problem here.  What is the fear?  I guess if you are the kind of male who would look at another male’s sexual organs while you are in the bathroom this may scare you.  I guess if you are the kind of male who would be totally unhinged if a person who looks like a woman has a penis and you saw her penis.  Or, if you are a male and saw the vagina of someone who identifies as a male you would be equally harmed.  So, it seems to me those folks are sick and should not be writing laws.  I for one consciously avoid invading the privacy of my fellow urinal users, keeping my eyes down or up.  Evidently people like Dan Patrick do not do that.

I assume the opposite is true.  Women who enter a stall and shut the door are even less likely to see the genitals of another woman next door.  Why would they care if the ejection of waste comes from a penis or a vagina when both types of organs remain covered?  A female who does not have gender identity issues would not enter a men’s restroom anyway.  A female who has a male gender identity would not approach a urinal, but wait for the next available stall.  A male who has a female gender identity and is dressed as such would scare the likes of Dan Patrick if she walked into a men’s room dressed based on her identity not her genitals.  The opposite would be true if a female who identifies as a male and dresses like a male enters a woman’s restroom.  What is the deal?  Why not write a law making looking at another person’s genitals without mutual consent a misdemeanor, or a mrdemeanor.

Or, the fear that somehow children will be harmed.  So let’s protect little boys in the men’s room from other people, dressed like men, who enter the stall to do their business via female organs.  Let’s protect little girls from using a stall while the person in the stall next to them is using male organs to do their business.  I cannot fathom a biological male with a female sexual identity harming little boys or little girls.  I cannot imagine a biological female with a male sexual identity harming little boys or little girls.  I can readily imagine biological males harming little boys in the men’s room because that is the most frequent from of assault. 

I happen to think that anyone who supports such legislation based on fear of the genitals of another person and banning males who identify as females from the ladies room, and banning females who identify as males from the men’s room is so stupid as to be deemed unsafe.  We need a bedroom bill, no a bathroom bill:

Anyone who supports such blatant discrimination in our nation should be required to receive therapy regarding their sexual phobias and their apparent desire to see the genitals of others in inappropriate settings.  They should be required to pass a psychological exam prior to being issued a marriage license to discourage the reproduction of such fears.  It should become illegal for them to share a bedroom or the back seat of a car with anyone who is equipped with the genitals of the opposite sex.  Perhaps such a bedroom bill will end this nonsense about bathroom bills, or at least end it after one generation.  I believe the sexual dysfunction of such a person is akin to the sexual predators who may use bathrooms as a stalking ground.  We surely would not want sexual predators writing legislation.

It is the sickest of people who seek to persecute others they deem as sick using fear and ignorance as a tactic.  If they are not mentally ill, I suggest they grow up.  Last I heard, though I have not surveyed, every human is equipped with genitalia as well as hearts, minds, livers, lungs, etc.  I am not afraid of the organs of another person, though in most cases I choose not to view those organs.  If another person becomes sexually aggressive or exposes him/herself in appropriate ways we already have legislation to address those behaviors.  We cannot allow the sick to dictate (pun intended as most of the fear mongers and organ lookers are males) their own fears and insecurities into law that would punish minorities; or starts witch hunts, penis hunts or vagina hunts.  That is truly sick.  And though I believe the folks who think this way merit professional help, I do not believe they should be allowed to write laws revealing their phobias.  Let’s replace all the bathroom bills with bedroom bills and we can end this nonsense.  I believe Darwin would agree.

And I am humming one of my favorite Mamma and Pappas tunes, “Go Where You Wanna Go.”

I am the One and Only

I know, and only I know.

I know more than you know.

I know things you would not believe.

I may let you know what I know sometimes.

I know more than the facts

.

What I know is more accurate than the facts

.

I know about things I don’t even know about.

I know things and I do not have to share what I know.

Only I can do these things.

Only I can lead us where I think we need to go.

I have never lost.  I am not a loser.

I beat my enemies all the time.

If you disagree with me you will lose and are a loser.

If you disagree with me you are an enemy.

I gloat when I win.

I brag when I win.

I am always right, even if I change my mind tomorrow

.

I get things done.  I do not need a philosophy.

I can change anything I want.

I can do anything I want.

I have a mandate after a landslide.

What I want is more important than tradition.

What I want is more important than the law or the constitution.

I may not be loved by all, but I am always loved by me.

I am more important than anyone else.

I am the one and only.