The Unclad Soul

National Public Radio (NPR) had a segment this week on the chaos in Libya. With more than forty years of rule under Muammar Gaddafi, Libya had become a thriving country. There were limited freedoms and an unbending system of laws, many of them harsh and restrictive. But the country held together while Gaddafi entered strategic partnerships with the U.S. and European powers, striking deals with defense manufacturers and oil companies. We were apparently fine with his dictatorial rule as long as there was something in it for us. Then, in the fall of 2010, revolt was moving through the Arab world. The U.S. government saw, once again, an opportunity for regime change. The rich oil reserves in Libya and other resources would be the spoils of a limited battle fully supported by the U.S. but mostly fought by NATO troops. Removing Gaddafi was never admitted to as a U.S. mission, but it was carried out nonetheless. It all went bad quickly, however. Gaddafi was beaten, sodomiz...

Domestic gun violence with mass murders of innocent unarmed people. Refusal to pass any meaningful immigration reform. Glaring unjust economic inequality. Unquestionable racial discrimination. Blatant disrespect for the office of president and the function of government. These are vital national issues Republicans perpetuate and will not face. Why do Republican candidates want to be president anyway? Why do Republicans in Congress want to serve? What is it Republican governors, mayors, and elected state officials want? Why are they there? I mean, what possible good do any of them want to do for the country? They refuse to cooperate with president Obama and Democrats. They demagogue. They patronize. They pontificate. They incite discord and often hate. They dismiss the constitution. If they dislike a law they just ignore it. They either distort the truth or outright lie about the economy, about immigration, about abortion, about Planned Parenthood and all the other social and moral i...

I have just finished watching Ken Burns’ magnificent series, “The Civil War.” I saw it when it first aired on PBS some years ago but I wanted to return to it. The racial unrest in our country today is hauntingly and shockingly similar to the racial divide in the country a hundred and fifty years ago. Think of that. We are still fighting that long, bloody, wasteful and savage war.  President Lincoln wanted to keep the Union together, strengthen it against any foreign power, and make America a country free for all of its citizens. But slavery in the South prompted leaders there to secede from the Union and form their own government under a new president, Jefferson Davis. They saw where Lincoln was taking them and they refused to go there. There have been calls for secession again in the past few years. Former Texas Governor Rick Perry was one who flaunted that threat. As usual, it was a political ploy for him and nothing more. But he stirred up people ready to separate t...

In Mario Puzo’s brilliant novel, “The Godfather,” the mafia leaders meet for a critical negotiation to stop the fighting between families and to end the senseless bloodshed. In a room full of the men who wielded the most power a truce was established. Puzo writes, “The other Dons in the room applauded and rose to shake hands with everybody in sight and to congratulate Don Corleone and Don Tattaglia on their new friendship. It was not perhaps the warmest friendship in the world, they would not send each other Christmas gift greetings, but they would not murder each other. That was friendship enough in this world, all that was needed.” This is in a strange way what international political diplomacy is about. It is sitting down with your enemies and trying to find a way to keep from killing each other. It is setting up rules and codes of conduct and lines that can’t be crossed, as well as giving one another something in return, in order to establish an atmosphere of peaceful toleranc...

There are basically two kinds of fear. One is a healthy, informed fear. The other is a neurotic, uninformed fear. If I see an oncologist about various symptoms of dizziness, blackouts, severe nausea and other physiological issues and the doctor after a series of tests tells me I have a massive malignant and inoperable tumor on my spine, I have a legitimate right to be fearful. The facts are in and I must face them. If on the other hand I wake up with a painful stomach ache and spend the day believing I have stomach cancer, then my fear is irrational and probably meaningless. I have nothing to base my fear on except my own neurotic worries that I am dying. This is where we are in America politically and religiously. Huge numbers of our citizens are living in the worst kind of hysterical, obsessive fear based on nothing more than their own gut feelings, and of course, the maddening, overwrought deceitfulness and hype of various forms of media that keep telling us we’re all a...

President Obama’s speech last night on temporary immigration reform was excellent. He was poised, determined and intelligent. He was our nation’s leader; the one many of us have been waiting for these last few years to show real courage. The executive action he will enact is compassionate, sensible, and humane. It does not go far enough for me, but at least, finally, something tangible is being done to address the millions of undocumented living and working in our country, many of them for years.  The Republican’s freak out over this is silly and so over the top it borders on cartoonish. They know they have royally messed up. In spite of their recent election victories they have failed and lost. For now and forevermore the Latino community in this country will be grateful to President Obama, and those Democrats who have supported him in this, for actually doing something to legitimately include them in our society. This nonsense from Republicans that the president’s action has “po...

After weeks of refusing to watch the Sunday political news shows I ventured into Meet the Press and Face the Nation this morning. Surprise! Nothing has changed. At all. Same tired arguments. Same petty whining. Same worthless questions being asked. Same boring and highly partisan panelists. Same befuddled hosts. And the same miserable unhealthy destructive atmosphere that oozes out of the television and fills one's home environment with toxic poison. I was reduced to switching over to religious TV. Which lasted only seconds before I nearly lost my breakfast. Can anyone tell me what Ed Young is ever talking about? Other than mindless “winning” and “success” and hating gays in the love of Christ. I even, while surfing, watched for a few minutes Adam Levine tell all of us how a particular skin product helps us look fabulous and well present ourselves to the public. And I like Adam Levine but I had to leave the channel immediately before the glow of this last season's The Voi...

The crisis in Syria is basically a civil war. It is a power struggle between conflicting ideologies. It started as an uprising against Assad’s dictatorship and a small faction attempting to have something like democracy without knowing what that really meant for them. Now, however, it has turned into something else. The rebel forces are apparently a jumble of insurgents including members of Al-Qaeda. So if we go in there and do whatever, blow up some of Assad’s military assets, or even topple the regime, do we want terrorists taking over things? How would a gang of Muslim extremists turning the place into an unbending theocracy be better for the Syrian people? Is President Obama simply trying to save face, hoping to keep from looking weak after making previous threats against Assad’s use of chemical weapons? Even with all of the horror that has gone on, there was no real threat to the U.S. Assad had never made any movement against our country (and neither as the world know...

President Obama’s decision to respond to the horror and conflict in Syria makes me think of that line in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” where one of the characters says, “This is as strange a maze as ever men trod.” How do you watch children and women and people of all ages being gassed to death, writhing in convulsions and gasping for air, and not want to immediately do something about it? And yet, how will throwing a few bombs at Assad’s air force do anything to change the dynamic or stop the carnage? I believe President Obama is a man who truly wrestles with all of this. He obviously is counting the political costs, but I do believe he is a man with a conscience. I think he wants to do the right thing, but I’m not sure he knows what is right in this instance. His “red line” comment was careless and not well thought through. It put him in a spot where he is forced now to back it up in some way. But let’s not pretend the Congress and especially all of the Republican/Tea ...

An incident at the recent Missouri State Fair is getting quite a bit of attention. During the bull riding event a clown appeared wearing a ragged sport coat and a cartoon mask of President Obama. The announcer asked the crowd if they wanted to see Obama “run down by a bull.” The crowd cheered and then the announcer said, “We’re going to smoke Obama, man.” At one point another clown walked up and started flapping the lips on the mask. The crowd howled with laughter. The incident was recorded by an eyewitness and then shared with some news sources. Not everyone thought the stunt was funny. The governor of the state and other Republicans and Democrats stated their strong objection to the way President Obama was characterized and disrespected. A spokesperson for the State Fair later issued an apology. But of course the damage had been done and hundreds of families and children watched the spectacle of our nation’s president being made fun of and derided and the clown impersonating...

Dear Mr. Romney, I watched on television at home the final night of your Republican National Convention.  There were certainly some moving moments but there were disappointing ones too.  For me anyway. I thought the older man and woman whose son David you were close to were very sincere and lovely people. I have known people like them in my lifetime and they are genuine and decent in every way.  You were obviously a caring inspiration to them at a very difficult time in their lives. And the woman whose husband and ill daughter you and your wife befriended and loved was a beautiful contribution to your night; so articulate and warmly authentic in her appreciation of you.  But I felt at times these loving people bordered on being exploited in the way they were presented.  The older couple was clearly uncomfortable under the bright lights reading from a teleprompter no doubt for the first time in their lives in front of thousands of people.  ...

Do we care about this presidential campaign?  Probably not.  The thing has degenerated into such loathsome nonsense.  It feeds the anger in our country.  It distorts whatever facts exist whether good or bad.  It pits people against each other.  Makes us choose sides.  Prompts us into silly stupid conflicts that bring out the toxic forces in our human nature and poison all the ground around us and all those standing there. I’d like to live in a country that took care of the sick, the poor, the elderly, the handicapped and disabled and those who have a tough time taking care of themselves.  I simply do not mind paying taxes and having some of my tax dollars go to help meet those needs.  Why would I?  I’m not afraid of expanding social services that help meet needs I would never be able to meet on my own no matter how much money I might have. I think Medicare and Medicaid are terrific resources for the elderly and for those on ver...

We live in a divided and divisive country. In spite of the many advances that minorities have gained in America, racism is still a vicious and unyielding presence among us. Our political system wobbles feebly almost uselessly from the influences of corruption, bullheadedness, favoritism, malaise, haughtiness and indifference. Churches and the religious community once such a force for good and spiritual guidance are now often caught up in partisan political campaigning, serving politicians and clearly ignoring Jesus, not to mention the dispossessed, the sick, the young and the old, the hurting, the addicted, and the lonely. All across the country there hovers in the air a spirit of nastiness, wrangling, antagonism, and bitter discord and discourse. The story is told of a father and son sitting outside their house one summer evening talking and sipping iced tea. The night sky was a bit hazy but brilliant with stars and the son suddenly commented how beautiful the moons were abo...

Steve Deace is a fledgling celebrity among religious right wing Republicans. He and them want to turn our system of government into a theocracy. He says that Newt Gingrich is like the Old Testament character King David in that Gingrich has messed up just as King David did, but, they both repented and as God used David mightily, well, so will God use Gingrich. In an article at alternet.org Deace is quoted saying, “Maybe the guy in the race that would make the best president is on his third marriage.” This of course is meant to be a sterling Christian endorsement of Gingrich. Deace is some sort of conservative radio talk show host out of Iowa. The tag line on his web page is, “Fear God. Tell the Truth. Make Money." He jokes on his profile page about barely getting through community college and says that since he’s not all that educated he “believes the Bible is literally true.” He claims that his real genius is “he knows way more about superheroes, Star Wars & Star T...

Rick Santorum’s surge and second place finish in the Iowa caucus represents one of the most cynical aspects of this already bizarre and empty presidential campaign. And that is the so called “Evangelical” vote. Who are these people? Some of them are good and decent church going folks who think they are supporting Christian values. They simply like anyone like Santorum who says religious and conservative things and so they give him their full trust. They are often fearful people who think the world is evil and hope someone will rescue them from life’s hard realities and get rid of drugs and terrorists and divorce and so forth. They think someone like Santorum can do this by legislating morality. Others are angry, ungenerous, bigoted people who hide behind their religious faith and use it to sanction their rejection and dislike and in some cases hatred for gays, blacks, immigrants, and liberals. They do not follow Jesus. They do not really believe his teachings. Read the Ser...

I watched the final Republican debate last night. The candidates were in Sioux City, Iowa and were trying their best to convince voters of their individual bona fides. It was mostly a very disturbing two hours of saber rattling, Obama bashing, and self congratulating nonsense. We have no statesmanship left in this country; certainly not among any of the current Republican presidential candidates, except perhaps for Ron Paul. I have been disappointed in many of President Obama’s decisions but I do see a certain amount of decency in him. The man had a huge task handed to him the minute he walked into the White House. Blaming him for the poor economy is simply refusing to see the reality of how damaging the Bush years were. What troubles me the most, however, about the Republicans running for president is how all of them, except for Dr. Ron Paul, simply pander to voters, promise the moon, trash Obama and all Democrats, thirst for war, and create more division in the country. ...

Newt Gingrich has come out with a public pledge stating he will defend marriage, oppose gay unions, and push for a constitutional amendment that will define marriage as “the union of one man and one woman.” A constitutional amendment! He also pledges his own “personal fidelity” to his current wife and promises to “respect…the marital bonds of others.” Let there be no misunderstanding about the purpose of this statement. It was made only to win the votes of very conservative Republicans and fundamentalist Christians. It has no other relevance. Why didn’t Gingrich make this pledge before now, like when he married his third wife? There is only one reason. He has decided he wants to be the president so he puts out this self-righteous pledge that he will now take marriage seriously. This is the worst kind of political pandering. It’s manipulative and disingenuous. Why not say instead, “I know voters are troubled by my past mistakes and worry if I can be trusted to live by th...

Rick Perry’s latest commercial (see below) is another politician’s bogus attempt to use Christianity as a way to get people to vote for him. The whole performance drips with hypocrisy and slime. Perry cynically mocks gays in the military as a way to slam President Obama and in turn try to make himself look so upstanding and righteous. He deridingly and dishonestly says gays can be open in the military but children can’t celebrate Christmas or pray in school. Huh? Then he says he will end President Obama’s “war on religion.” Again, what in the world is he talking about? There is no war on religion by the president or anyone else. The whole damn country is being taken over by fundamentalist religious fanatics. What we do have in this country are politicians like Rick Perry who will do anything in order to get elected to some high office including trying to manipulate people with trite and outright dishonest religious talk. How disgraceful to insult our gay soldiers who are ris...

When I was a kid growing up in grade school we were graded on our ability to get along with other children. Our report cards listed "citizenship" as a requirement for a student's progress. No one is born a good citizen. Like so many other important lessons in life we learn this from our parents, from the church, from teachers and coaches, and from other significant people in our lives. Hopefully, politicians, people in Congress, military leaders, and others in government are models of good citizenship. But today, we have lost interest in this. There is a distrubing lack of respect for the presidency. Some of it is the result of the behavior of past presidents. Bill Clinton disgraced himself and his office by his crude impulses. George W. Bush was so ill prepared to be president that many of his statements and actions embarassed the nation and diminished his high position. But none of that excuses the raw, obnoxious behavior of so many today who simply disr...