A journal of my opinions, thoughts, essays, rants, and BS. ............GlennDL
We must stop looking to the government to make America a Christian utopia. Our kingdom is not of this world.
When you post something on your timeline your privacy and sharing settings control who can see it and depending on your settings your post appears on other people's wall. So remember when people respond and comment it's not 'just a case of them going to your timeline and being nosy... YOU shared it!
But isn't that what we do on Facebook? It's like being in a room of people and you stand up and say something, don't other people in the room have a right to do the same? Even respond?
Facebook is a big room. You can control who comes into your room with privacy controls and by limiting your friends' list, but if you want something to be private... don't say it in a room of people.
GlennDL
2016
I don't know what you saw, but I saw:
Protestors flinging projectiles at police.
Protestors beating, shoving, and insulting police.
Protestors breaking windows and vandalizing property.
I heard threats of violence, death, and anarchy.
Protesters dragging the American flag across the floor of congress.*
Protesters wearing the flag like a blanket.*
Protesters using the flag and its staff as a weapon.*
The American flag heaped on someone's desk.*
American flags defaced with slogans, pictures, and discoloration.*
Few arrests.
Violence should always face consequences.
I never heard anyone explain any reasoning for the violent attack on our government other than those based on unproven lies and conspiracy.
All references to the protestors' object or goal were expressed as destruction, injury, and overthrow.
To paraphrase critiques of attempts over the summer to raise awareness of rampant social injustices: "What sense does it make to vandalize their own neighborhood," substitute the word government for the word neighborhood.
Did any of the speakers at the protest discourage violence, did they discuss how to proceed peacefully and legally?
Where was the militarized law enforcement that was present at the June 1, 2020, Lafayette Park protest that saw peaceful protestors run over and gassed so that the President could have a photo op?
How many of those protestors (and their defenders) that stormed the Capitol were harsh critics of peaceful protestors over the summer? Where is the outrage from the so-called 'family values' law and order conservatives? They were outraged by a passive protest at football games and the disruption of traffic patterns at other peaceful protests but silent on armed attacks on the government and our constitutional principles.
The hypocrisy of the right-wing/conservative Republican'ts is never more obvious than when they express their self-serving views on patriotism and, in particular, when they claim their views on the American flag. They condemn protestors who do not follow their rigid view of the pledge of allegiance and the national anthem. Failure to stand or recite the pledge is vilified by them, but they're OK with improper display of the flag when they are doing so. They cringe and nash their teeth at any criticism of the anthem's words but don't even know the second and third verses. They condemn people who don't wave the flag and beat their chest in echoing their brand of patriotism but consider it OK to deface the flag with images, colors, and slogans that support their political views. Yet they condemn a man who chooses to kneel (a historical sign of respect) instead of stand during the anthem.
Flag desecration and proper protocols are laid out in the 4 U.S. Code § 8.Respect for the flag but it is not law; it is not enforceable by any degree other than society's level of acceptance. We are all free to accept it as protocol or reject it, but if you reject it, then what are the rules concerning 'respect' for the flag?
That, obviously, is where the right-wing nationalist are: they feel they have the right to decide what patriotism is, what the proper respect for the flag is, what is right for the country. It is what they say it is. They are like the bully on the playground... his rules.
The Bully in Chief
The June 1, 2020, Lafayette Park protest and the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol graphically demonstrate the divisive, illegitimate, and chaotic nature of Donald Trump's presidency and aspirations.
GlennDL
Opinion: Political extremes hijack national symbols
*All of the items followed by the "*" are listed as disrespectful and desecration of the flag under the US Flag Code, but the so-called patriots" have little understanding of either our constitution or the flag code. The irony is that these same "patriots" probably are among those who skewered a black athlete who chose to kneel, a gesture which has never been viewed as a sign of disrespect in history, instead of standing.
Picture: By The White House from Washington, DC - President Trump Visits St. John's Episcopal Church, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90897698
FB-13 TW-
“Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.” Voltaire
After the Arizona shootings a spokesperson for Palin tried to say the ‘bulls eye s’ were not gun sights but ‘surveyor pins’.
But in the screen capture [right] of a Palin Tweet she refers to the graphic and the “bulls eye icon” herself.
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NOTE 3: 1-13-2011 More examples of Fearful Rhetoric are listed on the ‘part 2’ post of this article. All future updates will be posted to the ‘comments’ section there [TOTW: Other Examples Of Fearful Rhetoric]. Feel free to post your own comments here or on Facebook. Comments are not moderated before showing, but they are reviewed for civility. Please do not use the ‘Anonymous’ option, use the ‘Name/URL” option with a nickname if you wish to remain anonymous. This will allow responses to you in the comments section to not be confused with anyone else. Thank you: GlennDL.
1. We almost started World War III
2. Mr. Peanut was killed off, then reincarnated as Baby Nut
3. The weather went wild
4. A man named Deval Patrick ran for president
5. Bob Dylan released a 17-minute song about the JFK assassination
6. The Defense Department shared bona fide UFO videos
7. Murder hornets invaded the U.S.
8. Grimes and Elon Musk named their baby X Æ A-12
9. NASA detected a parallel universe in Antarctica where time runs backward, or something?
10. SpaceX launched astronauts into space, sadly left all of us behind
11. A gigantic star 2 million times brighter than the sun just up and … disappeared
12. Kanye West announced he was running for president
13. A bunch of people planted mystery seeds from China, despite that obviously being a bad idea
14. We may have discovered the first proof of extraterrestrial life
15. Wormholes might not kill you!
16. Kellyanne Conway's 15-year-old daughter broke a major news story by telling on her mom
17. Please do not feed the monoliths
from: 17 things you've already forgotten happened in 2020
by Jeva Lange
I’ve had it, yes I have had it. The commercialization of Christmas by corporate America, the lack of tolerance and compassion by so-called Christians, the exploitation of Christmas by so-called religious leaders, their mega-churches, political war chest and TV empires. It baffles me that people seek to define the presence of God in symbols, the presence or absence of Christ in a word, the proof of devotion in tithes, and the identification of worthiness by the choice of political party.
I have no problem with boycotting a corporations product or services based on their practices or policies, but to identify a company as worthy because they prominently portray the word Christmas and unfavorable because they don’t, while at the same time ignoring their policies that encourage third world wages, unsafe working conditions, the use of child labor, and the export of jobs to COMMUNIST nations is so far from responsible it is mind boggling.
The so-called “War on Christmas” is a political hoax:
If you believe that because 86% of the country claims to be Christian that makes us a Christian nation, but at the same time you believe that the remaining 13% are oppressing Christians in this country, then you probably don’t want to read on.
…but, you might want to look at how Christian churches in China have to operate “…within the narrow boundaries of theology and church life dictated by the State Administration for Religious Affairs,…”, or how Christians have been persecuted, oppressed, tortured and killed in the former Soviet Union, modern North Korea, and the middle east. These are places where Christianity is persecuted and oppressed, in America what passes for oppression is little more than differences of opinion about religious choice, the right to practice and the right to refrain.
If your not outraged by the commercialization of Christ and Christmas how can you be upset about someone choosing between “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas”?
War On Christmas 2015
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The following comes from a Facebook discussion:·
WAR ON CHRISTMAS?
I was reading this morning about how the new Starbucks holiday cups are the first strike in this years' war on Christmas.
May I say something as a Christian pastor? The message of Christmas is already lost on much of the church whether or not the season has "Merry Christmas" stamped on it. At this point, the birth of a poor child in the cold darkness is celebrated by lights, glaring music and by the biggest shopping season of the year. Nothing could silence the message of Christmas more than how it is already celebrated.
Let's be clear, if the spirit of Christmas is under attack this year, it is by capitalism which has turned the holiday into a commodity like it does everything else; and by selfish Christians who refuse to to obey Jesus' command to be a good neighbor to those who walk different paths.
As we wander through the mockeries of this holiday season, this Christian is lifting a holiday cup to honor my atheist, Jewish, Muslim, pagan as well as Christian neighbors who share the same hope of "peace on earth and goodwill to all."
Jim Rigby https://www.facebook.com/jim.rigby.12/about
10 Things Christians Shouldn’t Do At Christmas
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