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Comments Posted By choicelady

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When You Do That Voodoo That You Do So Well…

It’s a good question, Sue. They have never had a government that cared half so much for the people as for the comfort of the leaders themselves. It’s all rationalized as a “public” building – to which the public never has access. Governments always have beautiful buildings, but the difference lies in who benefits and the discrepancy between them and the people outside the gates. It’s sad to see a lovely building shattered, but perhaps this will begin a rebuilding of the whole of Haiti for all the people, not just the powerful few. Or perhaps not…

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 3:56 pm

Tiger – this is fascinating! For me, it’s like trying to learn all the sects of Christianity (you would BE amazed) never mind Islam and Judaism, etc.

I guess this must be why Pat Baby could so blithely condemn Haitian freedom as the work of the Divvil, but his analysis rests on total ignorance, not knowledge. I know very little about Voodoo other than the fact that, like ANY religion, there is a beneficent version and an ugly one.

A friend who was raised Catholic but not practicing, asked me once why there were people devoted to versions of Christianity that were so morbid, so angry, so hopeless and joyless. I confess I cannot answer other than looking at the adherents and knowing that any religion that professes to have all the answers if you merely obey it seems comforting to those for whom personal judgment has been sadly lacking.

In the history of social movements, religion has played a huge role. We are not the first epoch to have “end times” millennialism, but we have raised it to the highest level. Centuries ago when slaves sought freedom from an oppression that made the US slavery look like a day at the beach (which it was NOT), one can understand why those seeking freedom would also seek powerful spiritual forces in “alliance”. Christianity was a force of oppression from way too many slaveholders – US, French, Spanish. Personal salvation for the other world just does NOT compensate for human misery in the here and now. So why would Haitian slaves turn to an agent of their genocidal oppression? It makes very good sense that they’d return to the animism of their own historical roots, mingle it with what appeared to work within their captivity, and use it as both motive force and embrace of protection while they set about trying to overthrow their vicious oppressors.

Pat, as a tangential member of “The Family” is quite comfortable with oppression – The Family believes hierarchical domination is ordained. He owns diamond mines in Africa the laborers of which are near slaves. The Family emerged after the Seattle general strike during the Depression because the founder was so horrified that common laborers would rise up against the elites – he believed THAT was inspired by the Divvil, too. It must be comforting to those who have wealth and power to embrace this notion of being the elect so that oppression can be rationalized as “God’s will”. Of course, anyone seeking to end their lowly status is in league with evil. When you build that sort of rationale, when you utterly ignore the roots of your own belief, you can justify anything you do as being good, and anything others do in opposition as evil.

I find Voodoo scary because I do not understand it. It’s not my culture, not my tradition. That does not make it evil. It just affirms MY ignorance. Too bad Pat would never own up to his.

Haiti is the most exploited and oppressed nation in the Western hemisphere, and all the wonderful links here show why. The sorrow and the pity is that even in liberation, the people of Haiti could not shake the bonds of domination by ruthless people. We have aided and abetted their poverty and suffering, aided and abetted their political oppression, and now Mr. Robertson wants to add their damnation. Since he and other rich, white people probably have found a way to profit from their exploitation, the question I have is – who’s really in league with evil?

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 3:51 pm

Legalize Marijuana Use: State by State First and then Make it the Law of the Land

Oh please do write that!

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 5:05 pm

Em – I will absolutely second that! I did sexual assault and domestic violence victim intervention, and NO one ever was harmed by someone on marijuana! Not only did we learn that abstractly, we found that out by experience. Alcohol and cocaine – whole ‘nother ball game. Frankly, if I were in charge, I’d GIVE MJ to people convicted of domestic violence! Direct that they HAD to use it. A lot fewer ER visits for their victims, I’d bet.

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 5:04 pm

I am agog at the fact that NEBRASKA has decriminalized it! NEBRASKA!!!!!! Clearly the world has shifted on its axis! NEBRASKA!! I was born there and had family there. It’s slightly to the right of Newt politically, but they decriminalized marijuana! Yikes!!!!

I need to come clean here, so to speak. I am probably the only one of us still qualified to be on the Supreme Court – smoked once and HATED it. The end. Child of the 60s, I never did other drugs, not once, not ever. That said, I think it’s utterly absurd NOT to make marijuana legal. Absolutely stupid to waste our nation’s resources over this plant. I also believe entirely in its medicinal properties and am disgusted by the raids on cancer and AIDS and other patients that used to happen in CA and other places until Obama stopped it. At least at the federal level.

But then I also think decriminalizing drugs in general but regulating access makes huge sense, too. I happen to be of the belief that the introduction of crack, etc. into inner cities was not just an accident. It is a huge industry that involves those same multinational banks we all know and love for the current crisis, and I remember under Clinton when drug money laundering by them was actually prosecuted. It’s not for nothing that a few months ago some agency reported that 99% of our paper money has traces of cocaine – obtained through bank transactions and contact with drug money – it’s that ubiquitous. So if the banks are still laundering, there is some major connection to big criminal syndicates going on. If we wanted to stop this, we could, not through prohibition but through prosecution of finances. We don’t seem to care. Yet.

Instead we go after grandmas with cancer who are just trying to eat. Uh-huh. Yup – that’ll solve the problem.

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 4:32 pm

Hey – would YOU vote for Sarah if you weren’t stoned?

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 4:18 pm

Resolving Differences in House and Senate Health Bills

Mentioned this to a labor union ally, and she said this is untrue because AFL-CIO said it was not very good.

My whole reaction, even as one who taught and loved labor people at Cornell U. over many years, is – HUH?

I am fed up with the nit-picky pesky “hates” that people seem to need to have. It is very discouraging to have people get something beneficial and have them disparage it because it’s not perfect.

I want to tell my allies: PEOPLE!!! REMEMBER 2000-2008!!! No matter what happens to almost anything, it is head and shoulders BETTER!!!! Get over yourselves! Grow up! Get a life!

I really have to learn not to hold things in so much, doncha think?

» Posted By choicelady On January 15, 2010 @ 3:17 pm

KQ – I totally agree that this could definitely increase union membership. But think of it! Hedge Fund Operators Local 101!!! Creepy Bogus Lenders Amalgamated!!! Brotherhood of United Overpaid Executives! Why – the possibilities are endless!

Seriously, thank you for this since it’s VERY GREAT NEWS. I knew they’d find a way!

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 10:12 pm

I’m glad to convey what I know since I talk to congressional staffers, but what I know can be obsolete five minutes later! That’s the problem with the closed doors – we just do NOT know what’s going on. I understand why (so tea baggers don’t run amok)but it’s awfully frustrating!

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 10:09 pm

Indeed!!!

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 4:11 pm

LOL!!! Yes, Em – I mean Potter NOT Reid!

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 4:04 pm

Hi Em – maybe not so much anymore. There are a number of things moving that would clamp a lid on them, and this is part of the deal that has to come if the pro-public option Dems are to pass whatever comes out. That was the best news I heard yesterday! I think the outrage against the insurance companies is felt all the way inside the Capitol by more and more legislators. I have some real hope that the exemption from anti-trust and the need to prove they have to have rate increases will be at least two major provisions of the bill when it’s finished. For me, hope springs eternal!

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 4:03 pm

Hi Em – you made me laugh a lot because with respect to the CA budget, I end my emails to allies: “Pitchforks! Torches! To the streets!”

You have to save that for REALLY big stuff, and Arnold’s disgusting, anti-people budget would be that big stuff.

On the other hand, I don’t see anyone behind me with more pitchforks…Sigh.

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 12:27 pm

Alternatively, I keep hearing the tax is to be on the insurance companies, not the individuals. Both plans are afloat, but I understand (can’t recall from where) that the WH and Pelosi et al. are pressing for it either to be on REALLY huge plans that mostly are NOT given to working people OR on the companies. With some overall rate control, so they can’t pass that on, this could be very useful as a starting place for eroding the profitability of corporations that provide insurance. Which is a stupid way to provide health care coverage unless it IS controlled as in Europe. I’m OK with the latter. I doubt that the Dems are stupid enough to throw away labor support over this. I hope…

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 12:22 pm

Yes Khirad – THAT Samuel Huntington. I don’t hear much about the Trilateralists either, but that may be because it’s succeeded so well it does not matter so much. It may also be because Bush wanted a UNIlateral US dominance and brought the corporate types with him. God forbid he, as a born again pseudo-Christian, should want to SHARE. Seriously, I think the organization is less needed because they have accomplished so much of what they set out to do in 1975.

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 11:34 am

Gosh Em – the clergy were there with the teabag folks, so your experience is deeply troubling. I’d missed the fact it was AFTER they’d disbanded. That is NOT good. I don’t understand that. Has anyone asked the Capitol cops WHY? Sometimes it takes a direct question to get an answer (true, indifferent, or bad!) I don’t like to read this though – those are leftover Bushie tactics.

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 11:27 am

Indeed! I respect the degree to which the President has left this to Congress and then the degree to which he is now wading in. That is a critical balancing act. He learned from the Clinton debacle that this had to be done by Congress first. He knows from history that now his presence and leadership are essential. I’m very admiring of his respect for the democratic process. Democracy is messy. No way around that.

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 11:23 am

Agreed! My size 5 1/2 (OK – small but mighty) wants the same. But I’m a realist and cannot, as a single payer ally of mine insists, advocate to scrap this plan and go back to the drawing board. There are those 18 million people. How can I say to them, “Too bad. You’ll have to wait 2-10 years to get that breast cancer treatment you need.” I just CANNOT do that to anyone who is facing chronic illness or even death. But that said, I also CANNOT say to people “Too bad. You will have to spend a fortune on your health care and have no choice other than NO insurance again.” I am hoping that Pelosi, Rangle, Waxman, Reid, Dodd, Harkin et al. are being mindful of real human beings in real peril.

Wish to hell I were a fly upon the wall. Where is Harry’s invisibility cloak when you need it?

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 11:20 am

Hi- that would confirm what I was told yesterday save for the fact that it still has to go through some vetting in each house. I think there is still room for input during next week – still in ping pong mode, but I’m not sure how locked it it will be to prevent the delaying tactics of the conservatives. I’m good with CA state stuff. Have to admit The Hill baffles me often. There are rules and exceptions to rules that I think one has to discover from being there. Has the transparency of various Mystic Orders sometimes…NOT.

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 11:00 am

Hi Em – at the same time, a fair number of progressive faith leaders were given the same standards as yours – off to the side, mostly out of sight. It was their belief that the issue was safety – that even though the teabag group was quite small, it was considered potentially very dangerous. So the Capitol police moved to keep the groups very much apart. Since the teabag folks had gotten the first permit, the rest (you, clergy) were in second-class space. I don’t LIKE that, but upon reflection, that might have been a good strategy. The teabag people here in Sacramento last summer were downright scary. I’m usually pretty outspoken, but I avoided them like the plague. So it might not have been designed to silence you so much as to protect you. Can’t say that for sure, but that is what happened to the clergy group.

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 10:51 am

Hi Em – I’m answering above and below – seemed easier.

I learned yesterday from Sen. Sherrod Brown’s (D-OH) staff person on health that no, it’s NOT just for children. If all goes as planned (and I cannot be definite) then everyone with a pre-existing chronic or life-threatening condition and uninsured 6 or more months will immediately go into a catastrophic care pool and be covered. I have no idea what the terms of this might be, but it is intended for those who simply cannot afford or obtain coverage. That would be 18 million men, women, and children right off the bat.

A word about the lack of transparency. Like Colbert’s The Word: tea bag (OK – TWO words). The outrage from the right (and let’s be honest with Ms. AH even the left) has forced them to do this behind closed doors so their energies don’t have to go in putting out fires based on lies (You LIe! and Death Panels!) instead of creating a decent bill. I don’t like it. I do understand it. If I were there, I’d do the same. There are only so many fools a body can entertain in a day.

Do I have hopes? Yup. The parties involved are all progressives save Baucus, whose personal problems with favoritism for his girlfriend have subdued him, and that means a great deal. The Baucus “Never Met an Insurance Donation I Did Not Like” bill is dead. Doesn’t mean we will get the public option (though I wish the WH and Reid would now melt Lieberman into the ground for the 60th vote) but we will likely get a vastly better plan than Baucus’s with a lot of what the House prefers.

Pelosi and Obama are leaning HARD on true affordability and broad access with an emphasis on fulfilling the essential democratic and humane promises of America. This information I derived from Pelosi’s health care consultant yesterday, and I believe it.

One thing I asked Brown’s consultant was whether the conservatives could use delaying tactics, and she said not much – there will be a couple of 60-vote hurdles, BUT when this bill comes forward, IT CANNOT BE AMENDED which leaves out the Reep playbook of stalls and obfuscations!

Because it cannot be amended it is essential that we all express our wants NOW. It really does matter. Write to Reid and Pelosi if no one else – they take email from everyone.

Will this be perfect? Nope. But it can be beneficial to millions if we make clear that we won’t settle for paying for something we cannot afford to use. I really believe we are being heard, and I think this will prove to be a good first step.

Hope that helps?

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 10:45 am

Emerald – We vigorously (and pretty much alone) opposed Gov. Schwarzenegger’s plan to mandate purchase in the private market. There is not even a term in economics for that! Only precedent I can find – feudal tribute. That said, the way they seem to be moving is as Switzerland and Germany started – yes, everyone has to have insurance, but the government (national or state is still an issue) regulates their premiums and makes HUGE provision (unlike CA) for lower-income people to have major support financially AND significant limits to deductibles and out of pocket expenses. MA and CA were proposing (and MA has) deductibles of $5K with OOP at $10K per person per year, and that’s outrageous. What I have read – and who knows if this is still in the works – is real subsidies and the possibility that all preventive medicine for the maintenance of health is NOT subject to deductibles – that would come in for only hospitalization. If those provisions prevail, then this moves us WELL toward truly affordable health care coverage. If it capitulates to the insurance industry and follows the MA plan, it will not. Too many people in MA are using their insurance for only catatrophic care – that is horrible.

My organization is watching closely because what happens with the terms of the mandates does determine the degree of our support or opposition. Our principles of humane treatment of all people rests on understanding that health is a human responsibility, one to the other, and that we must share the abundance of our resources freely even as we practice good stewardship with them. My biggest problem is the bar to documented immigrants – if they have lived here and paid taxes, why the five year wait? That’s outrageous. Compassion AND good health judgements also mean it makes good sense and is a moral imperative that undocumented immigrants be permitted to purchase insurance in the national exchange. Germs and viruses don’t know boundaries. All human beings deserve to have access to some kind of coverage. That also means the House desire to expand community clinics is essential – that is where rural and urban poor as well as undocumented immigrants get the best assistance now. We need a much better network of those.

So much of this hangs on details. We would prefer single payer, but if this follows the Swiss and German models, it will be moving us in the right direction for that. One of the strongest single payer supporters in CA has said if we had absolute rate regulation, you would not NEED single payer. That then remains a way of soothing the savage breast of fear mongers AND achieving what Switzerland and Germany have done.

Getting what you want quietly and through incremental change always struck me as “the American way”!!!! We seem utterly incapable of massive alteration of the status quo, so starting well matters a very great deal. An earlier post (sorry I forgot whose) on Social Security, Medicare, et al. showed how long that took us to get right.

Hope that brings you some small optimism, Em?

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 9:33 am

KQ – you are right on the money.

A book everyone should read (from the library – it costs a lot these days) is “Crisis of Democracy” by Michael Crozier, Samuel Huntington, and Joji Watanabe. It was published in 1975 and is THE blueprint for building a global economic system. First thing – repress democracy (they call it the democratic distemper) and extablish control by informed elites. Do away with unions to control all wages and thus improve profits. End a free press – they need compliance and free PR. And on and on and on. It was sponsored by the Trilateral Commission and was imported into the White House by Jimmy Carter who was a member. It was he who laid the ground for Reagan, the neo-cons, and the global movement to build a worldwide ruling class with the rest of us subservient to that system. And it’s all come true. It’s not a conspiracy, it’s a blueprint. Always good to know these things – it’s how you start to right the wrongs. BTW – it’s still being used in colleges, so we need to keep up with its directives. The forces of dominance have NOT gone away!

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 12:25 am

My experience with AOG is not good. They were and are in the forefront of a lot of things such as the anti-abortion extremism. John Ashcroft is a deacon or elder in AOG. But as things go these days, they are hardly the worst of them. In terms of hate crimes and acts of violence, most extremists belong to very NON mainstream evangelical or Pentecostal churches – splinters of splinters like Coral Gables and Crystal Cathedral that are non-aligned with any major denomination. Roll your own Christianity has a lot to answer for! Much of it is grounded not in churches but political organizations and movements. It’s gotten very weird.

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 12:13 am

I once saw Alex Baldwin’s kid brother – one of the most extremist RW Christians – say, “I love Jesus! I just LOVE Jesus” to which my response was – gag me with a spoon. It’s creepy. Then I watched that Discovery program – and saw a Jesus that fought BACK against his slaughter, A Jesus that was REAL and HUMAN and determined, brave, not submissive. And it flashed through my mind, “I love you.” I was floored by that. That’s so NOT me! But it opened this flood of understanding that I do the work I do because yes – THAT Jesus, like MLK, Jr. like Gandhi, Mendala, and so many amazing people, stood in front of hate, let his life go – an act of incomparable courage – to profess the truth of love, justice, and a better world. And suddenly, I realized that Baldwin gagged me because his Jesus is HIS alone – embraced for his personal gain (getting saved) while this depiction was of someone I could passionately admire and follow, NOT for my own sake (I think when you die that’s pretty much it) but for whatever I can do to make the world better. It was transformative. The docudrama was the first ever that made Jesus someone worth paying attention to. And he was NOT blonde and blue eyed!

» Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2010 @ 12:08 am

Neither – it’s standard evangelical/Pentecostal views. In the hands of the dispensational folks, it’s become rabid – repent or burn in hell when the End Times are here. But it has permeated all conservative theology – it binds so wonderfully with the self-centered aspects of capitalism. Mainstream Protestantism tends to be Social Gospel oriented – learning from the teachings of Christ and the prophets to bring about paradise on earth for the good of all. KQ – can’t reply to you below, but it Khirad is drawing from the extremist theology that has led vast numbers of RW people to believe this is the end of days for which you must prepare. First comes the Rapture when the saved are whisked into Heaven. Then 7 years of Tribulation which is hell on earth. You can still be saved – the rules are unbelievable – then Christ will come again. One rule – Christians must be nice to Jews. Must be comforting after 2000 years of persecution to know that for 7 years Jews will be accepted. It’s here that extremist Christians such as Hagee make pacts with Israel to fulfill the prophecy of rebuilding the Temple so Christ can return. It’s terribly bizarre.

» Posted By choicelady On January 13, 2010 @ 11:59 pm

One thing I do keep hearing is that the tax would be on the INSURANCE corporations, not the individual. That I could live with. Seems like a sensible thing to do. Trumpka is ever so right to be mad!

» Posted By choicelady On January 13, 2010 @ 9:33 pm

That’s what I’d say!

Most Protestants do not dwell on the suffering – that is not the point for us at all. Mel Gibson’s movie is almost pornographic in that regard. MANY people suffered what Jesus did – crucifixion was commonplace.

In Protestant churches you don’t see the cross with the body hanging on it (sorry Catholic people but I find that unsettling.) It is the empty cross – the symbol of a choice Jesus made, for that’s what it was – a choice , that moves us so deeply.

After his 40 days of agonized solitude trying to decide what to do, Jesus returned to Jerusalem KNOWING that his fate was going to be hideous. That is the choice: to walk into peril for what he believed. It has been similar to the courage of MLK, Jr. and others who consciously risked everything for a better world. That is what makes me cry on Good Friday, not the crucifixion but the CHOICE to stand against the powers of the time and risk everything to proclaim that there could be a vastly better world of equality.

Amazing for then and even for now to have that notion we are all one, all equal, all worthy. He knew that proclaiming equality of all people and defying the powers that be would cost him his life in a horrible way. And he did it anyway.

I never liked Easter because I don’t believe it literally, but a very wise minister told me that what comes is not a phantasm but HOPE. Hope for a better world.

It’s the hope, the possibility, the ability to make change, the focus on our common humanity that drives most of us on.

And if there is anything to which I feel committed as a manifestation of that, it is to assuring that for those in pain, suffering, fear, terror at losing a loved one because you cannot get health care – that all that wretched injustice ends with the health care bill.

We work not for personal salvation but for justice for all people. That is WHY Christ re-entered Jerusalem. Not to save individual souls (no matter what Pat Robertson says!) but to spread the message that we don’t have to be victims of undue power, class warfare, want, pain, or injustice ever again.

And what better way to begin than to assure that people can be healthy?

So yup. That’s what choicelady the Churchlady would say.

» Posted By choicelady On January 13, 2010 @ 9:30 pm

Brilliant analysis Cher! I was finally on a call with Rep. Pelosi’s health care consultant, and we did not get such specifics. This is great – where DID you get the info? It’s just superb.

As far as the religious right (I represent the religious left, so to speak) the rationale lies in things I’ve discussed elsewhere. If you believe in nothing but Jesus as personal salvation, you believe the YOYO principle of life: you’re on your own. The idea of the Common Good – surely embedded in the Sermon on the Mount and the whole message and teachings of Jesus – is rejected. The dovetailing of individual salvation with individualism in the secular world works well for them – look out for No. 1, and hang the other guy. There are those extremists who claim there is a code in the Bible that says that now we’re in the “End Times” before the Second Coming, the teachings of Jesus are no longer operational. Very convenient, if you believe exclusively in the UTTERLY AMORAL FREE MARKET. The mainstream Protestant denominations believe in the Common Good and most Catholics never mind the Bishops. We have a national network supporting key principles that this bill must embrace, and we were told Pelosi and the lead folks in the Senate actually target these goals as well – Accessible, Accountable, Affordable, Inclusive. Nancy Pelosi calls it a bill with a “Triple A Rating”. To see the vision statement (I helped write it) go to faithfulreform.org. It is where the majority of faith people are on this issue.

The religious right is faltering. One has only to listen to Pat Robertson on Haiti to know their own days are numbered.

We support single payer, are part of the CA OneCareNow campaign to get it, but it’s not on the table at the federal level. Instead, we’re building a system that’s rather like that in Switzerland and Germany, based on regulated private insurance. Ours, as theirs was in early days, is imperfect, but I have great hope that the really good stuff will prevail, and that the 18 million who are in dire straits and who will immediately get covered for their chronic or life-threatening conditions, will now find relief.

In Matthew 10 Jesus told the disciples that they needed first – before anything else – to go into the communities and heal the sick. Not miraculously but through the standards of medical care of the time. First heal, then, when people are well, talk about a new form of faith that embraces the equality of all human beings. Any Christians who thinks health care should be private, that you don’t have to care about your neighbor’s well being and that of even the stranger among us, is turning his or her back on their own origins.

Thank you, Cher. This is incredibly helpful.

» Posted By choicelady On January 13, 2010 @ 8:59 pm

Chinese Take Out

And one of the grossest inequities is the support such disgusting behavior gets from the C Street crowd. As long as China is willing to defer to them and make them rich, then forced abortion, infanticide, corruption, poverty, and death matter not at all to The Family. Double standard does not even begin to cover it.

» Posted By choicelady On January 9, 2010 @ 4:06 pm