Wahrheit oder Fiktion?

"And Jesus said unto them, Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's," says Mark 12:17. The Gospel of Mark is considered almost universally to be the oldest of the New Testament gospels, the source of the rest of the synoptic gospels. It's also one of the most willfully misquoted and misunderstood (if not overlooked out of convenience) outside of the parable of the chances of a rich man getting into heaven and a camel passing through the eye of a needle. When you look at the majority of statements attributed to Jesus in the NT, most of them address that the priority is to care for the poor, the vulnerable--you can't miss it, yet many do because they're hatefully bonkers.

This is not a debate over whether Jesus was the son of God--I don't believe that and never have. That's irrelevant to me, unimportant like whether Paul Bunyan's Ox babe was blue or not, that's about mythology and missing the point because you're an asshole.

What did Jesus mean by the "render" comment? We've had the answer for almost two millennia now, right in front of our faces, just like the Nazarene's stupid disciples who almost never understood what he was going on about. God would have chosen a better lot than those dummies. When you look at orthodox Christianity's many flaws and horrific mistakes, look no further than these small-minded, patriarchal idiots. This was the best God could do? It had to be the Demiurge, but that's a bedtime story for another time. What did he mean? Common sense should be a guide here by posing a few questions: What did Caesar want? What did the Roman emperors want? First, they wanted taxes, but most of all, fundamentally, obedience to their rule and its proscribed laws. For the Jews, this was a tall order, because they had their own set or religious ones, hence why there were money changers in Herod's temple, for example, one of many, and frankly, not an especially big deal, more neurosis that became codified tradition. 

I think what Jesus said was pretty simple. Tell the Romans what they want to hear, go through the motions, but never give them your heart, never yield your soul. That's not a very difficult prescription for living under the occupation of another culture. To be sure, the Romans were brutal occupiers, we don't need to retread over that ground, it's settled. However, when it came to tolerance of indigenous cultures and religions, they weren't all that bad--better than what came after them in most cases in fact. There was a rub for the Jews: like all Roman subjects, they were supposed to acknowledge the divinity of the Emperor. After that, they could worship pretty much as they wished. Just as there's always some asshole heckling at a concert, this wasn't good enough for some people, and like the Christian martyrs that would come decades later, what they were about to engage in was pretty pointless: fighting an uphill battle nobody wanted over abstract concepts that weren't and aren't rooted in reality. When you're a fanatic, you do these things. Politics and religion were inextricably-linked in those days, and this is how one should read the synoptic gospels as well as the esoteric sects of Judaism and the region in that day in general.

Jesus wasn't telling anyone to take up arms here, quite the opposite. He was suggesting the power of ideas and how they cannot be killed, how people can basically lie to their oppressors and keep the lamp lit in their hearts and minds. Yet, so often, this quote is used as an excuse by authoritarian-minded fools calling themselves Christians (they aren't by a long shot) to obey authority under all circumstances, one more divine cop-out exhortation to blindly serve evil.

The last time I checked, Jesus never said, "Give the boss man a blowjob," only to tell the asshole what he wants to hear and to go on doing what you would anyway out of view. But hey, that's must just be me. I must have missed that after I got kicked out of Sunday school for asking too many questions...

On the windborne devastation of Henryville: Mitch Daniels has made more homeless than all the recent tornadoes combined

Still don't believe in global warming folks? It's my opinion that this is a warning, like Joplin, Missouri last year, from the earth. We cannot keep using fossil-based fuels, we cannot keep using petroleum, period. A consensus is forming in the scientific community that 2017 might be the year of no return, however, with carbon dioxide emissions exceeding all predictions, and with the reaction in the atmosphere growing geometrically, that window might be closing sooner than we think. Do we really want to gamble on that? Everyone with their finger in the oil pie says yes. You sure? I know, I know, Jesus is coming.

Speaking of the Naz, crazy Pat Robertson made one of those predictable remarks one usually sees from slavering goobers when someone "takes the Lord's name (What's his name? We don't know) in vain: "Something's going to happen to you for that," always a popular comment at keggers. Yes, yes, Robertson was doing an "I told you so!" version of it when he said tornadoes wouldn't reap destruction "if we'd pray more" as a nation. This is true: there was no weather until the fall of  Man, the fossil record illustrates this clearly. Yesterday I was running the van on some remnants of Adam and Eve (not Adam and Steve, surely), it's true, I saw it, I smelled it. Souls have a smell, after all, especially American ones, which is why we shower so much. Speaking of stink...

How about that outgoing Republican asshole Governor, Mitch Daniels visiting the devastated Henryville, Indiana on Saturday? A journalist asked the small government asshole what he would tell the families of the town who were now homeless (OK to become homeless through natural disaster is acceptable, not so through man-made lay-offs, downsizing, etc.--your fault). Daniels had this empty comment which he feebly blurted out as though someone had told him he'd lost all of his money, or that someone had photos of...you know:

"Well... we love you...and we're with you. And... if it isn't already obvious... It's not just government, it's their neighbors here to help. I would just say to those families that we're going to do everything we can to get you back on your feet, to get you back in business and in your homes."

After being faced with his own general inhumanity because of the destruction around him, the Governor couldn't resist making his inappropriate political statement and experienced premature ejaculation.

Anyone could envision him having difficulty achieving a erection merely by his nebbish appearance. Goober was painting a neocon portrait of America that's never going to work, never did, common knowledge since the end of 2008. He knows better than anyone; it must be at the back of his mind at all times. Yes, in such events we get to see what people are really made of, Daniels being no exception. As predicted, he's comprised of ineffectual bullshit as all Republicans and Libertarians are. "Neighbors" will never be enough, and for the Ron Paul crowd (mooks), neither will churches.

"Well...we love you...and we're with you." Fuck you too, asshole. This scumbag has never cared about the fate of the homeless in this country, and then suddenly he does? What's he been doing for all of the unemployed during his unfortunate tenure as an officeholder? Working, as one example, with his fellow Republicans in the state house to end their unemployment benefits, actually hurting them, driving the economy down, destroying jobs. On his way out the door Daniels and the Indiana GOP have passed their right to work law, because "Well...we love you...and we're with you."Even in the aftermath of natural disaster, these people never let up, these lunatics, these criminals, these Republicans.

This guy is the "hope" of the GOP? They want to draft him to run for president? They've finally lost their minds. Expect the Republican Party to die soon, of a self-inflicted wound, so be it. The problem is that their "love" will be "with you" in the form of a shattered environment and economic malaise, maybe even social chaos. Do we ever learn? Of course not, this is America. How many times does it have to be said? Daniels was George W. Bush's budget chief. If we were to be honest, he's greatly responsible for the economic crisis we're in and likely will for years to come. He's made more families homeless than all the tornadoes combined. But he's not a total idiot like others.

Unlike Governor Kasich of Ohio, he took the help from FEMA, and the federal money, anyway. This time he had to dole out money to help people. There are limits to venality because, unless we're mentally ill or damaged organically, we all have an inborn sense or right and wrong. Not helping people after a natural disaster is our moral line in the sand. Why is it alright for government to neglect people rendered homeless as they were in Henryville, but not for everyone else who experienced the same through no fault of their own? That's why he made his little government comment--he was busted outright and he knew it. A good thing for him and what he represents that most Hoosiers and Americans are too stupid to notice it.

Of Mice and Not a Man:

http://consortiumnews.com/2011/05/14/mitch-daniels-architect-of-us-debt-crisis/
 

The Rapture sounds better to me now...

Hey, with all the Christian extremists gone, we'd have housing freed-up for the poor, the homeless. Jesus would be proud. Needless-to-say, I'd go grab a stereo system (their music collection would be LEFT BEHIND). Take that Emperor Constantine, and emperor penguins too!

Top this shit, Sarah Palin...

Sarah says she can see Russia from her house, but I got one better. I can see Jesus from my house, and man, he looks like shit, dudes and dudettes, all carbonized, dust. They say that we're breathing atoms that were inhaled by the likes of Socrates, Heraclitus, Frederick the Great, Hitler, DeGaulle, DaVinci, Ivan the Terrible, FDR, William Blake, Zoroaster, Billy the Kid--everyone that ever lived, ever.

If Jesus was divine, wouldn't we all be touched in some way by him in this manner? Were there ever a human being divine, wouldn't we all be transformed? It's a pipe dream, and I want a suck on that, it must be good shit if it makes logic and reason flee almost entirely...

It's all a fairy tale to enslave you. The miserable need something, some vain hope. How about one that has something to do with life? Drop the death cults. Civilization has been around roughly 11,000 years, a blink in an inky abyss, our temporal universe. We have this time to get things right, and that's it. Even the Old Testament says there is no wisdom beyond the grave. It's better to assume that this is it, the only life we will ever have, and that death is inevitable and frequently a friend bringing release and a well-earned rest. Accept this, and you have part of the key as to how we're going to evolve and survive this century as a species.

"Donwurahboutit" ™

My ex-wife forced me to invent a new word. Let your imaginations run wild, riot, on this one.

"Paul, why do you persecute me?"

Because you're: a liar, a crook, a murderer of gods and men, an exploiter, a rapist, but worst-of-all, a hypocrite. Heal thyself.

God Bless Kathy Griffin

tv--Yeah, I was watching this--because I'm aware that CNN producers have a sense of humor and touch of genius in pairing her with the annoying Anderson Cooper™, who referred charitably to an accurate statement someone made that he's "the Carrot top of news journalism." That he is.

But some assholes were heckling Kathy, and she let them have it as any self-respecting seasoned comedienne would have: "Shut up! ...You know what? Screw you! I'm working! Why don't you get a job, buddy? You know what? I don't go to your job and knock the dicks out of your mouth!" Amen.

You have to lover her irreverence, her brutal honesty, and her unwillingness to take any shit from anyone. Her comments on receiving awards and thanking Jesus are spot-on: "A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. Suck it, Jesus. This award is my god now."

So mote it be. I would marry a woman like this tomorrow, just without the plastic surgery scars. Kathy would agree, and violently.

But what's so enjoyable about the Griffin/Cooper dyad is that she knows what scares him, likely half the reason she made a comment about oral sex. Yet, he's starting to go along with her, he "gets" it, and I think they're both starting to enjoy the interplay. Yes, he reported rumors in New Orleans as truth--he's no journalist, which is OK--but he at least has a sense of humor about himself. Good show for both of them, and here's to a coming decade of Jacobean irreverence.

America could use more women like her, the kind who stir shit up for all the right reasons. Prudes and Puritans everywhere are running for cover, and you gotta love that.

http://www.kathygriffin.net/