Spirit in the Sky...

When I was in grade school, the mother of one of the kids I hung with was a religious nut job. After hanging out with him after school, I'd be heading home and I'd find a religious pamphlet or card in my jacket pocket. I'd stop and read them and frankly, some of them scared the shit out of the 10 year old me. One day I showed one to my mom. She went nuts, picked up the phone and gave my friend's mother a royal chewing out. My mom, at the time, was a Sunday school teacher at the First Presbyterian Church.

When I started confirmation, I asked a lot of questions and was told time and again I just needed faith, I quit. I un-churched myself at 12. When I explained my reasoning to my parents, they said okay.

Since then I've searched around, I was married to a Catholic, tried that for a while, Took a look at Buddhism, enjoyed the philosophy and meditation, then moved on. I was talked into going to a "Prosperity Gospel" Church for a Sunday service, it was appalling. Tried one of those hip christian churches, the band sucked and so did the lyrics. As an aside, have you ever listened to Christian Rock music? Imagine "Love to Love you Baby" only written about Jesus.

I read this by Stu Rothenberger the other day, he's hitting all the political notes, but...

"For many white evangelicals, their religious and political views are so strongly intertwined that it is almost impossible to separate them. When their views of religion and morality collide with politics, politics often wins out. That’s why it’s naïve to ask why so many white evangelicals continue to support Donald Trump or Roy Moore.

Remember physician Scott DesJarlais (R-TN 4), the pro-life, tea party conservative first elected to Congress in 2010?

DesJarlais admitted pressuring his mistress to have an abortion and acknowledged he had multiple sexual relationships with patients and co-workers. His wife had two abortions. And yet, the Family Research Council, which promotes “traditional marriage and family and advocates for policies that uphold Judeo-Christian values” (according to the Almanac of American Politics, 2016), gave the congressman a 100% rating for 2014. Even more amazing, voters re-elected the Republican in 2012, 2014 and 2016.

The congressman’s hypocrisy is obvious, but no more so than the political behavior of his conservative, evangelical supporters."

When I was a kid, (and as an adult) I noticed that people who were the most "Jesused Up" didn't behave like Jesus would want them too. I know from experience that religious broadcasters are more interested in fleecing their flock than promoting Peace and Love. I had a drink one night with a major market "Christian" broadcaster. After his 3rd whiskey he said, "All you need is an Evangelical in a white suit to front the station and a few cripples in wheelchairs to put the tapes on." His stations got busted for speeding up the tapes, so his white suited Evangelical could stick a few extra commercials in every hour.  The hypocrite had two houses, a collection of classic Rolls Royce automobiles and a condo on the beach. If there is a hell I hope he is burning in the lowest circle. 

A long time friend of mine "found Jesus" quit his job and went to work for Pat Robertson's CBN. The pay was so bad he asked Pat for a raise. Pat said, "let's pray on it." He didn't get the raise!

My friend Walt Wieder, a retired, PhD Unitarian minister, once told me "There is a different view you know."  I get it Walt, I get it.

H/T to Norman Greenbaum for the title...

"What's Goin On"

Interview with with a young "edgy" Nazi in suburban Dayton, Ohio...

“I think he was a guy who really believed in his cause,” he said of Hitler. “He really believed he was fighting for his people and doing what he thought was right.”

Just a normal everyday American with a wife and a cute dog...wears jeans and 100% cotton t-shirts. Yeah and the Auschwitz guards loved their wives and kids too and obviously didn't bring their work home either. 

....The New York Times, for God's sake...they tried to normalize the son of a bitch.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/25/us/ohio-hovater-white-nationalist.html

See the nice young man chanting about Jews in Charlottesville? The Aryan looking guy, He's right up front, you can't miss him. He whined that his fellow students ostracized him when he got back to school after returning from the little Nazi get together last summer. Too bad asshole.

Our president* said "There's fine people on both sides." No there aren't you dimwit.

I grew up knowing for sure Nazis were bad. Then again how bad could they be when their uniform buttons bore the inscription "Gott mit uns". In case your German is shaky it means "God is with us".

They were good Christians just like you and your neighbors. So how bad could they really be?

The guy in the Times story has a dog he loves, just like you do, obviously he can't be a bad guy can he? he's a dog lover, So was Adolf fucking Hitler!

This is not normal...you start with Limbaugh, Glen Beck and Alex Jones and you end up in the Storm Front sewer. And you end up with this guy as an Assistant to the president*? Of course he's been shit canned...but.

The medal on the right is his father's Nazi collaboration medal.

A final note...look and sound familiar?

I rest my case, I can't wait for the "yooouge" military parades, how about you?

...Thanks to Marvin Gaye for the title.

Old man take a look at your life...

It seems appropriate to revisit this post from 2017.


When I was a young (26) manager in the radio business we had a Junior Achievement program at the station. I ran some of the sessions with the 12 kids in the program. There was one girl, 17 years old, who was incredibly attractive and sexy beyond her years. A few weeks after the program ended, she showed up at my office one afternoon with a Thank You card and a small gift. She came around the side of my desk while I was looking at the card and the gift and laid a wet kiss with plenty of tongue on me. I didn't return the kiss, I was shocked. Then she said "we should go out sometime," I told her no we shouldn't.

Later in life, I told a woman I knew quite well about the incident, she agreed that I did the right thing and added, "Of course if you had taken advantage of her, you would have never told me about it." At first, I was insulted at her response, but the more I thought about it she was right. Then I told my friend for the longest time I had wondered who was taking advantage of whom. She thought about for a bit and said, "Doesn't matter you were the adult in the room."

I know a guy who lost his wife over an affair with their teenaged neighbor. He was in his 30's, the relationship started when she was 16 and lasted for two years. He cultivated her for a year before the physical stuff started. He seemed to be extremely proud of it. On the surface, he appeared to be completely normal and a bit of a little fuddy-duddy harmless guy. He wasn't.

Another guy told me about being seduced by a mutual friend's wife, they carried on the mutual affair for a year or so. One night while having dinner with the wife and her husband in New York, the husband told the guy how much he enjoyed watching him make love to his wife. The husband had watched through a louvered closet door. He then proposed a threesome. I was stunned. I really couldn't believe it. Did the threesome happen? It did, more than once.

When I was single, living in Boston I used to play wingman for a lipstick lesbian friend. She was a very attractive woman and some of the lines guys used on her made me ashamed to be a man, some were clumsy, some were funny, some were stupid and more than a few were out and out threatening. That was an experience.

Another friend's son came out of the closet when he was a senior in high school. His parents were devastated, then they were mad, then they blamed themselves. When they finally came to their senses, I suggested they have their son talk to a really good man I knew who happened to be gay. Know what the older gay man told the kid? Stay the hell away from older gay men. Find some friends your age, hang out, go to movies, shoot hoops, play pool, arrange flowers, have some fun until you figure out who the hell you are. Just stay away from old guys looking for "chickens". Good advice if you're gay or straight.

I know plenty of men and women who've had affairs, some of them have repaired their relationships, some haven't. The one thing that got them all, in the end, was the lying. Lying to their partners and to themselves. The couples who put it back together stopped lying, the couples who didn't break up.

Life is full of bullshit, when I was in college I was sleeping with a girl who would always say, "we have to stop doing this." Right after she'd say it, she'd start things going again. I hope she has been able to unload that psychological burden after all these years.

What I cannot imagine is what goes on in the mind of a guy who thinks to force a woman to kiss him, or exposing himself or masturbating in front of them or groping them is going to get him. I read somewhere it's not about sex it's about power.

I could write a book about this stuff, but I won't. Thanks to Neil Young for the title.

A Few Things I'm Sure of...

Some guys are disgusting pigs and not just famous powerful guys either...

I know more than a few who look at women as mere objects, guys who have done and said incredibly disgusting things to and at women. An example, I worked with a guy who crawled on his hands and knees into a news booth and fondled a woman while she was reading the news on the air, on the number one station in the market. With tens of thousands of people listening, she calmly pressed the cough button, slapped his face and told him to get the hell out of the booth. She reported him and nothing happened. His excuse? "I was drunk."

I know for sure he is a disgusting son of a bitch.

I've watched guys in bars hit on woman after woman using the same cliched lines on each and everyone one of them as they worked their way around the bar. Did some women buy the bullshit? Probably a few.

I know for sure the evening didn't end well for either one of them.

When I was younger did I participate in misogynistic discussions with other guys? I sure did.

I know for sure I don't anymore, I'd like to think that I've done some growing up after all these years.

When I was single, I was so laid back around women I was asked by one on our third or forth date if I was gay.

I know for sure I'm not gay and so does she.

Have I ever been a disgusting son of a bitch? I have, I cheated on my first wife. I ran through all the the stupid guy excuses, running the gamut of "Everybody does it." to "My wife doesn't understand me." On the the other hand I never pushed the other woman into a relationship, I was an asshole, but nice about it. Not much but it's something, maybe?

I know for sure I regret it. My first wife and I had enough problems without me throwing gasoline on the fire.

Are there females who are disgusting? Yes, I met one, I fell in love with her within a couple of months. After a few more months she told me she was married. It's an ugly story. A movie could be made.

I know for sure that it taught me a lesson, A lesson I should have learned years and years earlier. It set me on a better path in life.

I've always had women friends, friends in the best sense of the word. Friendships that have endured over the years, some of them have lasted from childhood. I cherish them all.

I know for sure a man can have a relationship with a woman that isn't based on getting laid or trying to get laid, know what I mean? It's a nice thing to have in your life.