Monday, May 30, 2016

My Guilty Pleasure: The 2016 Libertarian Party Convention


I'm delighted that the Libertarian Party choose two former moderate Republican governors as their presidential and vice-presidential candidates.

As far as I'm concerned the libertarian dystopia imagined by Ayn Rand is as immoral as it is impossible, as witnessed by the fact that no government in history, of any size or duration, ran according to the model of "Atlas Shrugged" - presuming we exclude failed states.

But these two candidates have assimilated libertarian ideas that influenced policies and programs in the real (as compared to the surreal) world and both led administrations in blue and purple (non-failed) states and are arguably at least minimally qualified to be president in the company of Perry, Walker, Kasich, Graham, and Bush.

They will certainly play the part of spoiler, drawing votes from Trump and all but ensuring that Hillary Clinton will begin the first of her likely two terms in office in January, 2017.

That's the guilty part: naked partisanship (not the only naked thing at the Libertarian convention, but I digress).

The less guilty part is that the libertarians, as devoted to ideological purity as only a Green or Sanders supporter can be, actually chose both of them as candidates.

And while they probably had a stiff drink and took a deep breath before doing that, they didn't exactly hold their nose either.

They chose to be players.

As a returning lifelong Republican, I may have booked passage just as the ship is ready to seek it's place on the ocean floor.

But if that happens, or if the surviving party's base looks like Donald Trump supporters, I'll need a new home.

Probably, that would be with the Democrats.


But I'd certainly give a look to a party that believes in fiscal restraint (as in smart, right-sized government rather than as help the makers, screw the takers government) and staying the hell out of people's wombs, gender identities, and sexual orientations and letting them live their personal lives as they see fit.

And whichever way I may go, I'm sure the Libertarians would pick up many of my ilk.

At least for the political moment, the Libertarians have become consequential for the Republican voters at least at the level that Sanders and his followers have become consequential to Democratic voters.

And I'm not the least bit guilty about that aspect of my motivation.

I hope Johnson / Weld hit that 15% target so that the debates have at least a prayer of a chance of being edifying.

Sunday, May 29, 2016

To haters on the Left and Right, I'm only saying this once...


I will do all I can (which admittedly isn't much) to elect Hillary Clinton as the next President of the United States and will vote for her with much enthusiasm.

She is supremely qualified for the job, particularly in the primary job responsibility as Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful, nuclear-capable, military in the history of the world.

She has actual policies on what she intends to do, why it's important, and how she intends to work with Congress to achieve what is politically possible in the face of a total scorched-earth, obstructionist Republican party, just as President Obama has done.

I consider her a moral role model (as I did President Obama) and am envious of what she has done to help marginalized people and communities which make my feeble efforts in those areas look quite anemic.

So, for all my friends on the left and right who feel the need to either trash me or pity me because they have come to a different conclusion, I invite you all to vote Libertarian or Green which, in my estimation, means you've decided to watch the game from the sidelines.

Sorry. But there it is. :-) 

Monday, May 23, 2016

Gifts


I don't want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying. I don't want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen; I want to live on in my apartment.

-Woody Allen


Gifts

I believe all people are heirs to three gifts that free us from anxiety, heal our brokenness, and empower us to fully commit to the mysterious gift that is our life. I came to experience these gifts from a Christian perspective but believe them available to all beyond the particularities of one’s religious or ideological commitments. One need not have explicit Christian theological beliefs, nor participate in explicit Christian community or culture or ethics (worthwhile as all that might be), nor cease being atheists, Muslims, Hindus, etc., to encounter, respond to, and share these freely given gifts.

I have appended both a "secular" as well as a Bible passage for each gift. Each Bible passage is chosen as an example of broad themes in scripture that run through the entire Hebrew scriptures (called the “Old Testament” by Christians) and the New Testament rather than as so-called “proof texts.”

Those who are secular or who have differing religious commitments are cordially invited to skip these because had the Bible never been written, the gifts would still be real. The Bible is the authoritative and exemplary record of the Judeo-Christian communities encounter with these gifts but the gifts precede them and - in fact - are their presupposition and foundation.



The Gift of Realism

We, as individuals and as organizations, can have a realistic grasp of the intimidating and terrifying power of death as we are confronted with death and its anticipatory surrogates appearing in the guise of failure, disappointment, conflict, suffering, and evil in the events of our lives.

[God is not lost to Eliezer entirely. During the hanging of a child, which the camp is forced to watch, he hears someone ask: Where is God? Where is he? Not heavy enough for the weight of his body to break his neck, the boy dies slowly. Wiesel files past him, sees his tongue still pink and his eyes clear.]

Behind me, I heard the same man asking: Where is God now?

And I heard a voice within me answer him:  ... Here He is—He is hanging here on this gallows.
-Wikipedia & "Night" by Elie Weisel


33 When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land[a] until three in the afternoon. 34 At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
-Mark 15:33-34 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)



The Gift of Enduring Value

We, as individuals and as organizations, can have a sense of justified security in the ultimate meaning, purpose, and value of our lives and all its events despite the most fearsome appearances to the contrary.

A reporter once asked Albert Einstein what he considered the most important question one could ask of the universe.

He was said to reply, "Is the universe a friendly place?"
Anecdote (Attributed to Albert Einstein, possibly the most famous thing he never said. J )



For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
-Romans 8:38-39 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)



The Gift of Freedom

We, as individuals and as organizations, can have freedom from the intimidation of death allowing us to fully engage the issues of life, influencing events, private and public, to make our life a blessing for others.

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion. 
-Albert Camus



13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.
-Galatians 5:13 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)



The “Catch”

These gifts cannot be gained by any human effort, whether noble or base. They cannot be gained by beating, fleeing, or negotiating with death or death’s anticipatory surrogates and the attempt to do so corrupts us as persons, communities, and institutions, estranges us from ourselves, and wreaks havoc in relationships between us, others, and the natural environment. The attempt results in a culture of alienation and an ethic of survival in which others are reduced to mere objects to be used or discarded based on their utility to our “immortality project.” These gifts are available as free gifts to all persons and communities, everywhere and always, no matter one’s lot in life - or they are not available at all.

I will no longer mutilate and destroy myself in order to find a secret behind the ruins.― Siddhartha (Hermann Hesse)


23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
-Romans 6:23 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

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