Politics And Religion Of Course

God does a drive by to slap a naked guy and find out if he's a fag.

(Well, some people would interpret it that way.)

It is a sad fact that many of us do not know where our rights come from. People think that rights are given by the government, but they are not. Rights are given by God. They are your God Given Rights. Your right to be free, your right to speak your mind, your right to not be harassed and bothered by zealous officials for their own gain, your right to keep private your conversations, letters, your belongings, your activities, your medical information, and your life. God gave those rights to the people and it should be obvious to everyone by now that the government is more concerned with taking them away than with respecting them. What on earth would they want them for anyway? Heck of a lot to ask, isn't it?

It is not our obligation to support the government, it is the government's obligation to support us. I hope that doesn't shock anyone but if it does, good. We don't hear it as much anymore but there was a widespread attack campaign going around that tried to sell America on the nonsense that not supporting the president was being unpatriotic.

Let me state for the record that patriotism is irrelevant. But if you're the type that thinks it matters I can still easily make the point. Supporting your country does not mean supporting the president. The president is not the country. The president is some guy doing a job we are paying him to do. That means he works for US. WE are the boss. Whoever writes your paycheck makes the rules, don't they? Well what makes this different? We write the paychecks for all of these people and yet it seems they think we owe them something. We are some how supposed to be the ones obligated to obey them. Sorry, but by the books, it's supposed to be the other way around.

If you need to pump yourself up on intoxicating notions like patriotism, get clear in your mind what you're so in love with. Is it our ideals of freedom and equality and our constitutional values and system of elected representative government? Or is it some guy, whoever it is doing the job of being president? I don't care two cents whether anyone is offended by criticism of our government's behavior and policies, it's my right as co-employer to criticize what I see as corrupt and illegal. It's my right under the constitution and it's my God Given right to speak my mind about it. Unless you can show me where you out rank God Almighty, then please shut up until you're able to talk in terms of facts and reality.

Something else that really bugs me are the people who can't see bush for what he is on the grounds that he's a godly man. What is that exactly, what does it mean? Do they think he IS God? It's pretty simple to see that he isn't. Hopefully no one is honestly confused on that issue. If they are, I doubt there's anything we can do for them.

By "Godly Man" do they mean that he's a Christian?

Well darling, Charles Manson is a Christian. The Mafia are all Christians. Lee Harvey Oswald was a Christian. 90+ percent of violent criminals are Christian. So are most child molesters. Need I go on? Just "being a Christian" means exactly zip. Isn't Christianity all about works? You know, doing God's will? Getting off your butt and helping people who need help? If all anybody has to do to get away with murder and lying and being a criminal is say, "Gee, I'm a Christian", and you folks just write him a free pass then no wonder we're in this mess. Under this spiffy system, Satan himself could step up and say he was a Christian and you'd bring him home to have dinner at your place.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, religion has no place in government. Every time it worms it's way into the halls of Congress it degrades the very idea of freedom. It's not because our laws are incompatible with God's law, it's because Christianity is so terribly incompatible with God's law. If we didn't leave religion officially out of the picture it would be even worse than it is now, with religious factions all screaming bloody murder about being right and trying to force their ideology on others who want nothing to do with it.

God's primary gift to humanity was to give everyone Free Will - and God doesn't feel any need to interfere with it. Religion interferes with it. Religion always ends up crazy in the corner, rubbing it's hands and plotting how to force everyone else into their personal concept of perfection and Godliness. From the get go, that's all against God's decision to give us free will. His notion of letting us live our lives and learning and doing whatever it is we do in a life time is utterly shit canned by Religion. Religion thinks it knows better than God and is qualified to decide everything about everyone; and judge everyone too. Isn't it God's job to judge? Well you see, that's why religion has no place in the hallowed halls of Congress or in the White House. We have enough insane ideology to cope with already. There isn't much worse than ideological NUTS with power. History bears it out, and common sense makes it simple enough to grasp.

Do we really want these people running the country?

The reality check that is george w bush has woken huge numbers of us up to an uncomfortable fact. His blatant power grabs, illegal actions, and determination to ignore the will of the people is nothing new. It's been status quo for an awfully long time. It's just that this is the first president who's had absolutely no skill or interest in playing the game properly. He's exposed the whole system and now it's wide open for the people to see.

It's all a bit of a scam America. The laws on the books aren't there to keep us free, they're there to clamp down on us and let only some people do as they choose while keeping the rest of us from doing exactly the same things. This is no more obvious than in the realm of making money. High rollers have all the access and get all the permission to position themselves in monopolies that bring them, and only them wealth. If certain people can own and operate casinos, why can't Americans open casinos anytime they like. It would sure create jobs and wealth for a lot of us. Why can't Americans have zesty small time card games in someone's home? Why can't we open our own banks and make up our own kind of money and use it so it doesn't cost us these insane interest charges just to have cash in our pockets? Who died and made the government God? They just step right in and say they've passed laws that keep us from prospering like the chosen few prosper. And for those who don't agree the second most obvious realm applies: using violence and force to control us.

I'm not sure why the common person is not allowed to pepper spray people's eyes and beat them with clubs and shoot them with microwave technology that cooks them from the inside out when the people in government, who are no better or any more entitled than we are, are somehow allowed to do such things whenever they like. Does the mere act of labeling one's self "government" or "law enforcement" entitle you to beat and imprison people for saying things you don't happen to like? Isn't that dictatorship? Clearly any government official or law enforcement type that allows himself to over rule God's law of free will for the people, cannot seriously consider himself to be Christian or "Godly" by any stretch of the imagination. I'm not envious of those folks when they reach the pearly gates and are asked to explain what on earth they were thinking and who the hell they think they are. I would imagine that overruling God's laws will carry a much worse penalty than getting thrown into a prison cell and get treated like trash.

Fortunately, I don't have to worry about that. I'm already in alignment with God's laws. I don't hurt people, I don't judge people and I don't try to control anyone. I have no explaining to do. But herein lies the hypocrisy that so irritates me with religion. They think they are above every law and better than every person they don't personally agree with. They believe that entitles them to all the cruel and unusual punishment they can eke out. And that's exactly how bush thinks and what comes of that attitude is death and war and strife and inequality and every other kind of insult and affront to peace and freedom and human rights that exists.

God's laws are human laws, based on common sense and justice. Until Christians can get step one of that simple truth under their belts I assure you, we don't need religion mixed in with our political system. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.