Todd Akin’s ridiculous “Legitimate Rape” comment reveals how our Beliefs impact our Thinking and vise-a-versa

So, according to Todd Akin, women’s bodies have their own anti-pregnancy defense-mechanism in cases of real rape, i.e., ‘legitimate rape,’ or something to that effect.  Uh, but wait, he’s apologized for that statement.  Says he misspoke.  But the damage is done and now his own party wants him to stand down and resign.

Akin’s comment was ridiculous.  Did he really mean what he said?  At the time he said those infamous words about ‘legitimate rape,’ he seemed to truly believe that he was speaking truth.  And, apology or not, something was revealed in his thinking.  Ergo, what we think, what we believe to be true, what we assume is right, what we take as real and factual, all has a direct impact on our actions, choices, attitudes, and  behavior, and thereby impacts others as well; for we are all interconnected.

This creates a huge challenge for a diverse, democratic, and pluralistic society such as ours.  How do we make good laws, if we can’t even agree on the moral foundations or principles upon which these laws should be based?

What is right and good, the best way to live?  What is wrong and bad, the worst way to live?  And how does one distinguish between the two?  What is the measure of good and right action?  Why, for example, does everyone agree in our society that rape is a very bad thing, while we are not at all in agreement that abortion is a very bad thing?

Is morality only culturally relative, simply a matter of personal choice, tied to a particular person, place, and time?  Or is morality absolute and universal, to be applied in the same way, in the same manner, to everyone, everywhere, regardless of place, time, and person?  Or is it a mixture of both: universal truths applied relatively, tailored to specific time periods and particular cases, places, and people?

Deciding whether one’s action is moral and just, is not always as easy as we’d like to think.  When it comes to questions of morality and justice, as in so many other areas of life, simplistic—one size fits all—answers, seldom do justice.  This is why we need law courts and judges, is it not?  What we need is sound wisdom, insightful discernment, and good judgment—the capacity to discern and make right decisions in the face of conflicting choices or opposing sides.  (Which begs the question, for what do we accept as the basis of sound, wise, and insightful discernment these days?)

This is why perhaps the tendency on both the far left and the far right is to seek authoritative power to become master over their opponents by legislative rule.  That is, rather than seeking good sound-judgment and wise insightful-discernment on many conflicting issues, our present political approach is to polarize and vote for black-and-white authoritarian laws that strike down the individual and particular freedoms of all opposing perspectives and alternative viewpoints—e.g., ban all abortions of any kind, for whatever reason, whatever the cause, outcome, or means.  Or, ban all handheld guns, everywhere, anywhere, for whomever, whatever the need or reason one wanted such a gun.

Opposing sides take godlike positions.  The atheist, rationalist, agnostic unbeliever wants unyielding authoritative laws to protect his/her godlike status in being able to command his/her own life as he/she sees fit.  Meanwhile, the devout religious believer, asserts his/her particular faith, his or her particular understanding and interpretation of God, as THE quintessential True Faith, and speaks as one who speaks for God, with Godlike authority—to whom all are expected to obey and submit.  (I know, for I believe that Jesus is the Messiah, Lord and Savior of all humanity, and believe that you also should receive Him and submit to His Lordship in your life as well.  However, I also believe that it must be a free choice.  That is, you must not ever be forced to become a Christian against your will, nor should you be forced to submit to the dictates of Christian teachings against your will.)

Still, we all believe in morality.  We wouldn’t have laws against rape, robbery, and murder, if we didn’t.  But where then do we draw the line between our differences?  Why do some believe that abortion is not murder, while others of us do believe very much that it is the taking of precious life?  We are not going to get anywhere by simply trying to outmaneuver one another at the voting booth.  A 51% vote in our favor is not going to end the argument, battle, or disagreement as to who is right and who is wrong.  We need to have a serious discussion about our rationale, our beliefs, and about the basis of our moral understandings.  And then we have to find some way to respect our differences, live with our disagreements, while still maintaining integrity with our own convictions—and still remain a united nation.

The Heart and Soul of Business is actually NOT Profit

Buyer beware!
     Business is business.
          It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there.
               Bull markets, bear markets, loan sharks, sell high, buy low.
                       And money don't grow on trees!

Henry Ford once said, “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.”  So, what is business supposed to be about if not to make money?  That is, what is the heart and soul of business?  Believe it or not, it is NOT making money!

A real business is in business to offer a service, to fill a need, to support and enhance the lives of people.  The profit that comes from providing such service is the reward, so long as it is proportionally reasonable.  Has the American business community lost sight of this basic economic truth?

There have always been loan sharks, robber barons, cheats, liars, and thieves, always will be.  But that is not Main Street America.  Business in Main Street America has always been about providing a service, making a living, not a killing.

A businessperson that says, “There’s a sucker born every minute,” while looking for his/her next victim is not doing real business.  If all a businessperson does is come up with a solution, and then manufactures a need for that solution, no real business is being accomplished.  There are a lot of fraudulent and manufactured schemes in the world of finance, having the sole purpose of taking people’s money away from them.  It’s called scamming, not business.

If the so called bottom line—money, profit, net gain—is all that a businessperson has in mind, his heart is hardened and his soul is dead.  Pity the one who does any business with such a one as he or she.  But a business person who offers a product or service that people truly need and want, and does so with a genuine interest in his/her client’s best interest in mind.  Happy and blessed are provider and buyer; for both have done well and will go home satisfied, knowing that they have served and have been served.

As Charles Dickens said long ago, humanity is our business.  Wake up America!  Let’s go back to the basics regarding the purpose of business.  It’s not about naked profit, winner takes all.  It’s about life.  Remember the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life?  The movie reminds us that the banker should be there to help couples save, invest, and to grow their families and homes.  And in, A Christmas Carol, Scrooge’s transformation reminds us that money is not for selfish, greedy and miserly hoarding, but for investing in human lives, in their needs as well as in their visions and dreams, to make a better world not only for one’s self, but for one’s community, neighbors and friends.

That’s the ideal America, and that’s the ideal business-mindset.  Profit is secondary.  The primary goal of business, any business, should be to provide a service and fill a genuine need in a context of fair-trade and just exchange, to produce opportunity for better, healthier, and more wholesome living—so that all may grow and prosper in the areas that money cannot buy—family life, relationship building, child rearing, and inner growth—mind, heart, and spiritual development.

If you are a business person, keep in mind the following simple truths.

1. Money is neutral, neither good nor bad.  However, money IS powerful and easily corrupts, and the love of money is truly the root of much evil that is done in this world.  Do not let the love of money corrupt your heart.

2. You can’t take it with you.  He who dies with the most toys… still dies!  Naked you came into the world and naked you shall leave the world.  Jesus said what good is it if you gain the whole world and forfeit your soul?

There is no bribing God.  Having all the money in the world will be no protection against Judgment Day.  (Do you really think there will be no Judgment on your life?)

Should Islamic, Sharia Law, be used in American Law Courts?

There is a growing tension and debate over allowing the dictates of Sharia Law as consideration for determining outcomes in our U.S. law courts, so much so that some states have enacted legislation banning the use of “foreign Laws” in their courts (e.g., the State of Kansas).  Such anti foreign-law legislation is clearly aimed at banning the use of Islamic Sharia Law.

Muslim groups, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) are arguing against such bans.  They want the dictates of Sharia Law to be acceptable and applicable in our American court system, when deemed relevant to a case.

I am skeptical and distrustful.  But let me be clear: I am NOT in favor of a militant attitude against Islam and its followers here in America.  This is a free country.  This country is based upon freedom of conscience, freedom of thought, and freedom of religion.  However, I do have my concerns about the creeping-in of Sharia Islamic Law’s influence, its use and application here, within our American courts of law.  Why?

I’ll give you a ‘for instances.’  Recently a man literally had his hand chopped off, for sheep-stealing (originally it was supposedly a stolen motorcycle).  This astounds me.  This cutting-off of the hand took place earlier this month, Wednesday, August 8th.  It was as a result of the strict application of Islamic Sharia Law; now, today, in the year 2012.  Yes, those who did the hand-cutting were Islamic extremists.  And yes, this happened on the other side of the world, in Mali.  Nevertheless, these Islamic extremists justified their actions on the basis of strict adherence to Sharia Law.  Furthermore, a witness later testified, so I read, that after the Islamists cut-off the young man’s hand, they also put his arm in boiling oil.  Google it, see for yourself.

“That was in Mali, not America.  That kind of thing won’t happen here,” Islamic supporters of Sharia Law will say.  Maybe not, but I have to wonder what will happen here, if acceptance and consideration of Islamic Sharia Law becomes more and more acceptable in our law-courts?

Now, I have to say that I know little about Sharia Law.  I readily admit my ignorance.  Still, I am greatly put-off by what I do see and hear, as to how Sharia Law is used, interpreted and applied by various Islamic adherents around the world.  As I see it, the onus, the burden of proof, is on adherents to Sharia Law—to prove to me, to us U.S. citizens—that the application of Sharia law is not contrary to our own American law system, as to its premises, assumptions, values, and asserted truths—not the other way around.

In fact, the basis of Sharia Law has a very different set of foundational assumptions than do our American laws—especially with respect to religious authority, social justice and its practice, and social values and their implementation.  As it is, we already have a two-way battle going-on between two conflicting world-view assumptions and authorities: the opposing beliefs between secular humanism on the one side and Judeo-Christian beliefs on the other.  Sharia Law introduces a third worldview, a new meta-authority with its own set of foundational premises, assumptions, and propositions.  And at the core, all laws are interpreted and applied on the basis of assumed foundational and universal propositional truths.  For example, I know this much, under Sharia Law, women and men are NOT equal, and women do NOT have the same rights and privileges as do men.  Period!

By writing this, I’m sure to be labeled as Islamophobic.  These days, if you want to discredit a person’s opinion, all you have to do is say that he or she has a phobia about the issue, adding phobic to the end of the subject in question—oh, don’t listen to him, he’s just [in this case] Islam-o-phobic.  To be phobic about something is to have an irrational fear of something.  And that’s the dismissing point, to be irrationally fearful.  And that’s my point.  I don’t think that I am at all being irrational about this.  My fear of Sharia Law makes a lot of sense in the context of today’s world.  At this point, I am not at all convinced that the application of Sharia Law has any rightful place in the law courts of the United States of America.

Two Presidential Mindsets, which do you prefer?

The presidential office is powerful, but not all powerful.  There are always twists and turns, and roadblocks set by the opposing party, two legislative houses that need to agree, etc., and so there are many changes, adaptations, and modifications that happen to a president’s agenda before it’s made real.

Specifics are important.  An economic plan with specific details will tell us a lot about a candidate’s true values, priorities, and preferences.  That’s why candidates seldom, if ever, speak specifics.  All we hear are patriotic platitudes: “If you vote for me, I will create jobs.  I will put America back to work.  I will build America’s future.  Vote for me, because I believe in a strong America!”

Because of this, all incumbents have it easier and harder in an election year—they have a track-record.  The specifics of their governing policies are there, for all to see, either to praise or to condemn—there is no middle-ground.

But then, the problem with looking too hard at the specifics is that the minute details often serve only to confuse and obscure the big picture, the general trend and its consequential direction.  We lose sight of the forest for the trees.  We lose sight of the big picture.  Ever try putting a 5000-piece jigsaw puzzle together without the big picture in front of you?  It is very difficult indeed, if not next to impossible.

Thus, when voting for a candidate, incumbent or not, it helps first to completely ignore their platitudes—after all, what candidate doesn’t love America and isn’t in favor of a strong and prosperous U.S. of A?   As to specifics, well we know that the non-incumbent candidate will divulge as little as possible, for fear of saying/exposing too much.  We also know that a particular spin will be given to the specifics of the policies already implemented by the incumbent, positive or negative, depending on who’s doing the spinning.

So what should we focus on?  Perhaps we should focus on the mindset.  Take our two presidential candidates this election year—Obama, the incumbent, and Romney, the presidential hopeful.  If we look at the mindset that each represents with respect to the economy for example, what do we see?

Here’s what I see.

The Obama mindset is lower-income and middle-class oriented.  The Obama mindset asks, what is best for the typical, hard-working, middleclass American for whom money is tight, jobs are scares, and for whom worries about their children’s education, healthcare, and income security are daily mounting.

The Romney mindset is wealthy and powerful business broker oriented.  The Romney mindset asks, what is best for the wealthy investor, the banker, the company CEO, and top management, to insure their ongoing prosperity and their empowerment to stay on top of things while riding the waves of economic volatility.

The Romney mindset has a “business is business” attitude.  Government is to protect the business interest, especially big business.  There are winners and there are losers.  No pain, no gain.  Meanwhile there will always be the haves and the have-nots.  That’s just the way it is.  So, free-up businesses to invest what they will, how they will—with little regulation and even less accountability—and all will turn out for the good in the long run.

The Obama mindset has a “business is about people” attitude.  Government is to protect the common man from the threat of monopolies; against, for example, the small and wealthy elite that is gaining in economic power and control at the expense of everyone else.  There must be economic justice, equality of opportunity, protection against a few wealthy powerful elites from getting too big, too powerful, and too controlling over resources that should be available to all in a fair and equitable manner.  There must therefore always be accountability and the necessary regulation to go with it.

Which mindset do you prefer to have in the head of your next president?

Is Our Short Sightedness Leading to the End Times?

Are we worrying about the right things?

Yes, the economy is bad.  We need jobs.  But, believe it or not, there is something worse than no jobs.  Consider having no water for example.  If there’s no available water, literally no water, all the money in the world will do us no good.  Severe drought, melting mountain-icecaps, retreating glaciers, extreme weather patterns, global warming; are we really doing all we can to understand, let alone prevent, the human-factor from making things worse?

As an ordinary citizen, not a scientist, my observation is that something is wrong and things are not as they used to be.  My second observation is that, for years, honest-to-goodness, ordinary and well-meaning scientists have been trying to warn us: we’ve got to do something about global warming—at least make an attempt to reduce the human-factor in the global-warming equation.  However, as far as I can tell, there are certain powers (that stand to lose a lot of money and clout, if we actually took global-warming seriously enough to make a concerted effort at changing our lifestyle because of it) that continue to obstruct this message.

Take the way that our own state of Pennsylvania has handled the Marcellus Shale gas/oil deposits.  Instead of moving slowly and carefully, instead of beginning with a priority of preserving fresh clean water wells, and giving first priority to protecting nature, land, and livestock, the priority was money and profit for oil-companies in the name of so-called job growth.  I predict that this misplaced priority will come back to haunt us in the long run.  Isn’t it becoming all too obvious even for the most casual observer that our next series of international wars will not be over oil but over such basics as available fresh-water and food?

Yes, I know we need jobs.  But we are being way too short-sighted by reducing all decisions to the question of immediate profit (for certain industries, such as the oil-industry) in the name of job-growth.  Politicians, profiteering companies, and profiting land-owners who have gladly and willingly sold access-rights, and apathetic on-lookers, we’re all guilty.  Call me Chicken Little, but I say we are literally destroying our world—while a few are laughing all the way to the bank. 

For the sake of immediate gain and eager profiteering, we continue to make things worse with regard to earth’s ability to produce the basic necessities of life—clean drinking water, healthy food-crops, and livable land.  In short, around the world we humans are raping Mother Nature.  For example, China has some of the worst polluted land in the world, which is a direct result of their turbo-charged attempt to become a global economic power equal to that of the U.S.   Economically, they are indeed succeeding in doing so.  But at what cost have they succeeded—to their land, their people, and their natural resources—air, water, animal and plant life?

When the earth can no longer sustain what we humans demand of it, what then?  Yet we refuse to think that there can be, or will be, any severe repercussions to our raping of Mother Nature.

So be it.  But consider this: Jesus actually warned us that these things would happen in the “Last Days.”  Here’s what Jesus said: “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.”  Why, could it be because of the need for fresh-water and basic food necessities?  Note Jesus’ next line: “There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world.  But all this is only the beginning of the birthpangs.”  [See Matthew 24:4-8.]  Jesus also said this: “For at that time there will be great suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.”  [See Matthew 24:21.]  Jesus knew.  He knew that we humans would trash this world and make it next to impossible to live on.  He also knew that there would be much change in the world’s climate pattern—many earthquakes and famine.  And all this is only the beginning of the end.

Am I being too negative, doom and gloom?  Well, look at us.  I mean, seriously, look at the news every night and ask yourself: In just this one issue alone—regarding the handling of earth’s resources—as a whole, globally, internationally, as well as nationally and locally, are we really heading in the right direction; are we really doing what’s necessary to fix what’s going wrong with our water, soil, air, and land usage?  If we’re honest, I’d suspect we’d have to say no, we are not.  We’re too splintered, special-interest-oriented, blinded by our own immediate wants and needs.  Watch and wait.  Is it too extraordinary to think that the day will come when either we or our children or our children’s children will have to say, “We’ve blown it; we have a mess that we cannot buy, work, or pay our way out of.”  What then, the apocalypse?

Another Senseless Shooting in Colorado, but Why!?

We’re curious (not to mention furious).  We ask “Why?”  We wonder, what was his motive?

We want to make sense of the whole thing.

When tragedy doesn’t make sense, it is all the more painful and much more difficult to deal with.  The world has to make sense to us.  It has to have meaning.

Young lives cut short by a shooting madman.  And we have yet to hear why.  Nevertheless, we’re confident that, in time, we will learn.  His story, history, background, reasons, rationale, thinking, purpose, intent, motive, it will all come to light after much investigation.  It has to, because, we have to know why.

Meaning!  What does this mean?  It translates into the challenging question asked of many clergy, “If there is a God, why did God let this happen?”

Well, before we go any further, the immediate need of the families that have been directly impacted by this shooting is that of loving and caring presence and support.  They are hurting.  They are in trauma.  They have suffered great loss.  Our hearts and prayers go out to them.  They don’t need to hear rationales, explanations, or theological treatises on the nature of evil, death, and dying.  They need comfort, love, peace, and the presence of safe and caring people.  God be with them in this time of great loss and sorrow.

Yes.  About God, where is God in such times of tragic and senseless loss?

The truth is, God is here, with us, in our suffering.  There is good reason why one of the many names or titles or “handles,” if you will, that is given to Jesus, is that of the Suffering Servant.  “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin” --> “Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested” (Hebrews 4:12 and 2:18).

God understands our pain our loss and our suffering, in the person of Jesus.  This is why the incarnation, the person, life, suffering/death, and resurrection of Jesus are so central to the Gospel message: “Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me’” (Hebrews 10:5).  By means of the Cross, Jesus knows our loss and is intimately acquainted with our sufferings.  By means of the Resurrection, Jesus gives us Eternal Life, the promise of ultimate peace and consolation.

Life must make sense.  So must evil, pain, suffering, and death.

Don’t get angry at God.  Rather, turn to God for your answer, and receive true comfort, peace, and hope in the face of such seemingly senseless tragedy and loss.

CEO Jamie Dimon’s response to JPMorgan-Chase loss of almost $6 BILLION is inadequate; Mitt Romney’s response was no better, if not worse!

First it was a $2 Billion loss; then I heard $4 Billion.  Lately I’ve seen that it is almost $6 Billion?  JPMorgan Chase Bank has admitted to a $5.8 Billion dollar loss (will this number rise too?).  That’s Billions of dollars we’re talking about folks!

First question: Why has the number (of actual dollars lost) risen from $2 to $5.8 Billion dollars?  Because, the bank says, its traders initially tried to conceal the true amount they lost.  Oh really?  What a surprise!

Second question: How did this loss happen in the first place?  Apparently it was a trading-bet (or set of trading-bets) in the financial market-game that went sour.  Well isn’t that a shame.

Third question, I have to wonder: What if that same trading-bet (or set of bets) did well, gained instead of lost?  Would these same bank-traders have received bonuses instead of being fired?  Would they have been held-up as role-models for other traders to follow by example?  “We like results.  Do more of the same.”  Yet, is this not the same kind of banking-mentality that got us into this messed-up economy that we’re now in?

But here’s the reality.  Talk to anyone who works at a casino, for example, and the upshot is this: If you bet long enough and hard enough, your winnings will eventually become losses.  Ergo: Banks making bets in the financial market-game are no different: Great gains will eventually become great losses.  It’s that simple.

Here’s a bit of irony.  We cry foul and think very little of a man who causes his family to suffer because of huge betting-losses at gambling casinos, but we somehow think it a matter of business-is-business when banks gamble and sustain great losses in the trading-game, hurting millions of hardworking citizens along the way.  Why is this?

According to Corky Siemaszko of the New York Daily News, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney later dismissed the huge JPMorgan Chase loss as capitalism at work.  That’s it?  Capitalism at work, nothing more!  Let me ask you, do you think that a $5.8 Billion dollar loss is nothing?  And, by the way, do you know where you’re next paycheck is coming from, and do you have job security, and do you have all the income you need or want for your family’s welfare?  Is this really how capitalism is supposed to work?

Folks, we’ve got to de-sanctify Capitalism.  Capitalism is our Holy Cow.  Capitalism is Sacrosanct.  Oh Holy Capitalism!  It is to be received without question, accepted without doubt, and followed without scrutiny.  We worship Capitalism.  Yes we do.  And for that reason we are unwilling to change, modify, tweak, correct, or upgrade the system along the way—even when it is obvious that millions upon millions of people suffer from its sacred mantra: Laissez-Faire!

I saw Jamie Dimon’s response on BBC news.  Dimon is JPMorgan Chase’ CEO.  Here was his catch phrase, “We learned a lot from this.”  Oh really!  Whoopee Do!  So the man admits that he isn’t in total control and that he doesn’t know everything that there is to know about banking and the market system.  How nice, he’s learning.  A good show of humility too, I’ve got to admit that much.   But it’s not good enough.  Not for me, is it for you?

This same man has been fighting vehemently to reduce or to keep-back banking regulation.  This same man has been telling the public and congress that the banks know what they’re doing and so do not need Washington watch-dogs over their shoulders.  Laissez-Faire!! 

How about now, are we still to be convinced that Banks should be allowed to grow as big as they want, and trade as conveniently as they wish, with as little regulation as possible?  Are Bankers—especially those that run, lead, and manage our nation’s largest banks—really as trustworthy as, shall we say, Andy Griffith’s banker might have been in the fictitious town of Mayberry?  Folks, this is the real world we are talking about!  In today’s day and age, no huge institution or system, especially the banking system, should have free reign with little regulation.  Tell your congressional representative to stop cow-towing to the Wall Street/banking industry and start demanding more regulatory oversight.  Remember, Congress is supposed to represent the people!