Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Papa Frita
Cardinal Ratzinger has been elected Pope.
That reactionary, narrow-minded old crank will do no good for the Catholic Church or for anyone else in the world.
Dogma, hatred, and self-righteousness will continue to overshadow compassion, charity, and reason.
He has, since 1981, been a prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith- the office formerly know as the Holy Inquisition.
He has driven out priests and dissidents of all stripes whenever he had the chance.
He silenced liberation theologian Father Leonardo Boff, the most prominent proponent of efforts to put the church on the side of the Latin American workers and farmers who were seeking a fairer distribution of the region's resources, a fuller democracy and a brighter future for their children.
He has carried out similar campaigns against any Catholic leader brave enough to defy Church doctrine on the rights of women, gays, and the use of birth control.
Clearly, he either doesn't trust Catholics to keep the faith or he doesn't trust himself to do the same, and so he has to avoid even hearing opinions he disagrees with.
The ONLY test of a good leader is whether he leads the fight against poverty, hatred, oppression and hopelessness and for greater freedom, dignity, and truth. In this capacity, Ratzinger has been a resounding failure.
Hopefully, his reign will be short-lived.
This is where you're headed, Kardinal.
That reactionary, narrow-minded old crank will do no good for the Catholic Church or for anyone else in the world.
Dogma, hatred, and self-righteousness will continue to overshadow compassion, charity, and reason.
He has, since 1981, been a prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith- the office formerly know as the Holy Inquisition.
He has driven out priests and dissidents of all stripes whenever he had the chance.
He silenced liberation theologian Father Leonardo Boff, the most prominent proponent of efforts to put the church on the side of the Latin American workers and farmers who were seeking a fairer distribution of the region's resources, a fuller democracy and a brighter future for their children.
He has carried out similar campaigns against any Catholic leader brave enough to defy Church doctrine on the rights of women, gays, and the use of birth control.
Clearly, he either doesn't trust Catholics to keep the faith or he doesn't trust himself to do the same, and so he has to avoid even hearing opinions he disagrees with.
The ONLY test of a good leader is whether he leads the fight against poverty, hatred, oppression and hopelessness and for greater freedom, dignity, and truth. In this capacity, Ratzinger has been a resounding failure.
Hopefully, his reign will be short-lived.
This is where you're headed, Kardinal.
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Octet
A few quotes worth considering.
1.
A neoconservative is a liberal who’s been mugged by reality.
- Irving Kristol
2.
A neoconservative is a socialist who’s been mugged by mythology.
- Anon.
3.
For us, this day is only the interment of an elderly and querulous celibate, who came too late and who stayed too long, and whose primitive ideology did not permit him the true self-criticism that could have saved him, and others less innocent, from so many errors and crimes.
- Christopher Hitchens on the death of Pope John Paul II
4.
However, on religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of 'conservatism.'
- Barry Goldwater
5.
To the average worker, Socialism doesn’t mean much more than better wages and shorter hours and nobody bossing you about.
- George Orwell
6.
What is religion? A scam. What is government? Oppression. What is property? Theft.
- Anon
7.
Rarely if ever do three men of the same profession meet together without forming some conspiracy against the public.
- Adam Smith
8.
Until I have seen evidence of the infallibility of man, I cannot support the imposition of any punishment so cruel as the death penalty.
- The Marquis de Sade
1.
A neoconservative is a liberal who’s been mugged by reality.
- Irving Kristol
2.
A neoconservative is a socialist who’s been mugged by mythology.
- Anon.
3.
For us, this day is only the interment of an elderly and querulous celibate, who came too late and who stayed too long, and whose primitive ideology did not permit him the true self-criticism that could have saved him, and others less innocent, from so many errors and crimes.
- Christopher Hitchens on the death of Pope John Paul II
4.
However, on religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of 'conservatism.'
- Barry Goldwater
5.
To the average worker, Socialism doesn’t mean much more than better wages and shorter hours and nobody bossing you about.
- George Orwell
6.
What is religion? A scam. What is government? Oppression. What is property? Theft.
- Anon
7.
Rarely if ever do three men of the same profession meet together without forming some conspiracy against the public.
- Adam Smith
8.
Until I have seen evidence of the infallibility of man, I cannot support the imposition of any punishment so cruel as the death penalty.
- The Marquis de Sade
Monday, April 18, 2005
The Fire Next Time
Browsing about the blogs (as I often do) I came upon this little gem in which friendless midlife-crisis sufferer Neo-Neocon waxes nostalgic about the cCold War days of MAD:
So, we face a terrible dilemma: which way lies madness? Perhaps both ways. But the way of preparedness and deterrence seems to be the necessary way to go, as it seems to have been back in those Cold War days. I never thought we'd be feeling so much as a hint of nostalgia for the relative "rock-solidness" of their deterrence--but, regretfully, here we are.Looking back on my comments, perhaps I was a bit harsh. I should've taken her reliance on an incredibly risky gamble for what it was, a message of comfort and hope. After all, what does it matter what the minimum wage is, whether women have abortion rights, whether there's democracy in the middle east etc. if all of us are going to be vaporized anyway? This is something everyone - white, black, gay straight, Jewish, Chistian, Muslim, conservative, liberal, and socialist can get behind. As Tom Lehrer once sang:
When you attend a funeral,Amen to that, brother Tom.
It is sad to think that sooner or'l
Later those you love will do the same for you.
And you may have thought it tragic,
Not to mention other adjec-
Tives, to think of all the weeping they will do.
(But don't you worry.)
No more ashes, no more sackcloth,
And an arm band made of black cloth
Will some day nevermore adorn a sleeve.
For if the bomb that drops on you
Gets your friends and neighbors too,
There'll be nobody left behind to grieve.
And we will all go together when we go.
What a comforting fact that is to know.
Universal bereavement,
An inspiring achievement,
Yes, we will all go together when we go.
We will all go together when we go.
All suffused with an incandescent glow.
No one will have the endurance
To collect on his insurance,
Lloyd's of London will be loaded when they go.
Oh we will all fry together when we fry.
We'll be french fried potatoes by and by.
There will be no more misery
When the world is our rotisserie,
Yes, we will all fry together when we fry.
Down by the old maelstrom,
There'll be a storm before the calm.
And we will all bake together when we bake.
There'll be nobody present at the wake.
With complete participation
In that grand incineration,
Nearly three billion hunks of well-done steak.
Oh we will all char together when we char.
And let there be no moaning of the bar.
Just sing out a Te Deum
When you see that I.C.B.M.,*
And the party will be come-as-you-are.
Oh, we will all burn together when we burn.
There'll be no need to stand and wait your turn.
When it's time for the fallout
And Saint Peter calls us all out,
We'll just drop our agendas and adjourn.
You will all go directly to your respective Valhallas.
Go directly, do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollahs.
And we will all go together when we go.
Every Hottentot and every Eskimo.
When the air becomes uranious,
We will all go simultaneous.
Yes, we all will go together
When we all go together,
Yes we all will go together when we go.
Saturday, April 16, 2005
NAK the Knife
Today is Tax Day, and for most unemployed college students, it doesn't mean anything. However, since I was employed last summer, it stood out to me in a number of ways.
Some of you may know (whether you want to or not) of a company called Vector Marketing. They're basically the front organization for the Cutco Knife Co, which (like it says) makes knives. And their selling model is this: they get young college students to go around to their friends and family and make sales demos. They guarantee a base pay of $15 per sales demo (following a rigid script), and a commission that depends on how much you've sold (it starts at 10% and goes up to 50% after you've sold $20,000 worth). With Bush's economic 'recovery' meaning that all the crappy service jobs I used to apply for are now going to middle-aged professionals, I signed up. How bad could it be?
Well, pretty bad. You become a nuisance to everyone you know, calling them up like some common telemarketer. And I'm not terrible at it; after a couple of months I'd sold $8,000 worth. And don't get me wrong; they are great knives. But not only am I not cut out to be a direct salesman, there are a few aspects of the company culture I disagree with:
- That wonderful base pay is only paid if you DON'T sell anything. It's not added to your commission.
- The attitude of the management staff. Call me a cynical teen, but nobody can be that enthusiastic and cheerful all the time without drugs. And I've never seen a serious business whose 'office' was full of trophies and blaring stupid music.
- They make a liar and an ass out of me. When you work this job, the 'flexible hours' become 24/7, because you are ALWAYS on the lookout for new customers. And that makes for an annoying person
- The constant 'team meetings' are a terrible waste of time. They're at unreasonable hours (8 AM on Saturday and 9 PM on Wednesday) and we're not a 'team'; I can do great and you can stink out loud and it won't affect anyone else. And they're basically 'pep rallies' for the sale of knives which involved heavy use of the word ‘rock’ (and variations thereof). Spare me.
- And they really do want to take over your life. After every team meeting they practically insist (though I always refuse) that everybody go and hang out. They call at least three times a day to make sure you’re busy finding people to sell to. Once, our manager said to us "Are we going to be the group that spends the summer hanging out with our friends and getting ready for college?" the answer he was waiting for was 'no'.
- The vagueness of the ad that brought me in. It just said 'summer work for students'. That was all. Not a hint of what was to come.
- When you call people to set up appointments, they recommend that you not say what you're doing. Seriously, if the potential customer asks what you're trying to sell, they (vector) recommend that you avoid the question.
- It's basically a pyramid scheme; since they don't pay you anything unless you find people willing to listen to the demo, they can hire as many people as they want and send them out to go sell, flooding the market.
- The customer base just isn't big enough for as many people as they have. After two months, of the two-dozen people who were hired at the same time as me, only two (counting myself) were left. Check out this site for someone else's experience.
So at the beginning of the school year, I quite, never intending to look back. When I would go home for various breaks, the Cutco people would still call me, but I always put them off.
Now, it turns out I’m not free yet. The bastards didn’t do withholding, meaning that I owe the government $250 for Social Security and Medicaid taxes.
First of all, it’s ridiculous not to do withholding. Why should I be given money that I can’t spend? Having it there at all is a useless temptation.
But this experience led me to believe two things: One, capitalism is hideous and soul-crushing. Two, we need to reform the tax system and raise the limit on those kinds of taxes. Why should I have to pay on my 2,000 worth of income but a millionaire only pays on the first $80,000, or whatever it is? Regressive taxes are the enemy of liberty.
Some of you may know (whether you want to or not) of a company called Vector Marketing. They're basically the front organization for the Cutco Knife Co, which (like it says) makes knives. And their selling model is this: they get young college students to go around to their friends and family and make sales demos. They guarantee a base pay of $15 per sales demo (following a rigid script), and a commission that depends on how much you've sold (it starts at 10% and goes up to 50% after you've sold $20,000 worth). With Bush's economic 'recovery' meaning that all the crappy service jobs I used to apply for are now going to middle-aged professionals, I signed up. How bad could it be?
Well, pretty bad. You become a nuisance to everyone you know, calling them up like some common telemarketer. And I'm not terrible at it; after a couple of months I'd sold $8,000 worth. And don't get me wrong; they are great knives. But not only am I not cut out to be a direct salesman, there are a few aspects of the company culture I disagree with:
- That wonderful base pay is only paid if you DON'T sell anything. It's not added to your commission.
- The attitude of the management staff. Call me a cynical teen, but nobody can be that enthusiastic and cheerful all the time without drugs. And I've never seen a serious business whose 'office' was full of trophies and blaring stupid music.
- They make a liar and an ass out of me. When you work this job, the 'flexible hours' become 24/7, because you are ALWAYS on the lookout for new customers. And that makes for an annoying person
- The constant 'team meetings' are a terrible waste of time. They're at unreasonable hours (8 AM on Saturday and 9 PM on Wednesday) and we're not a 'team'; I can do great and you can stink out loud and it won't affect anyone else. And they're basically 'pep rallies' for the sale of knives which involved heavy use of the word ‘rock’ (and variations thereof). Spare me.
- And they really do want to take over your life. After every team meeting they practically insist (though I always refuse) that everybody go and hang out. They call at least three times a day to make sure you’re busy finding people to sell to. Once, our manager said to us "Are we going to be the group that spends the summer hanging out with our friends and getting ready for college?" the answer he was waiting for was 'no'.
- The vagueness of the ad that brought me in. It just said 'summer work for students'. That was all. Not a hint of what was to come.
- When you call people to set up appointments, they recommend that you not say what you're doing. Seriously, if the potential customer asks what you're trying to sell, they (vector) recommend that you avoid the question.
- It's basically a pyramid scheme; since they don't pay you anything unless you find people willing to listen to the demo, they can hire as many people as they want and send them out to go sell, flooding the market.
- The customer base just isn't big enough for as many people as they have. After two months, of the two-dozen people who were hired at the same time as me, only two (counting myself) were left. Check out this site for someone else's experience.
So at the beginning of the school year, I quite, never intending to look back. When I would go home for various breaks, the Cutco people would still call me, but I always put them off.
Now, it turns out I’m not free yet. The bastards didn’t do withholding, meaning that I owe the government $250 for Social Security and Medicaid taxes.
First of all, it’s ridiculous not to do withholding. Why should I be given money that I can’t spend? Having it there at all is a useless temptation.
But this experience led me to believe two things: One, capitalism is hideous and soul-crushing. Two, we need to reform the tax system and raise the limit on those kinds of taxes. Why should I have to pay on my 2,000 worth of income but a millionaire only pays on the first $80,000, or whatever it is? Regressive taxes are the enemy of liberty.
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