'... and let me remind you as always, that
"It's easier to ask for forgiveness than it is permission".'
That's Bernie's sign out on his weeknights'
"The Bernie Ward Program", At 10 PM to 1 AM Pacific Time on
KGO 810AM, a 50,000 watt radio station broadcasting from San Francisco that it's heard from Tijuana to Canada and as far inland, as las Vegas, 50K watts of power, and Bernie is not afraid to use all of it. You can also listen to him on the web.
"The Lion of the Left" That "Sometimes purrs", "And sometimes roars" But is always ready to tear up the ignorant, "With his intellectual claws"
You'll hear Bernie say that "Most Americans don't deserve America", "The American People are easily stampeded", "They'll give up Freedom and Liberty for a little bit of mythical security" Without the comprehension that they'll end up with neither.
The man who confides of never having a full understanding and/or comprehension as to how it is possible for a civilized society to be railroaded in supporting the incarceration of hundreds of thousands of people in concentration camps ("Relocation Centers"), selected only by their ethnicity, the same way that he found it difficult to understand the actions of "Good Germans", that is... Until 9/11, only until then, he saw how easy it is for it to happen. At the intellectual level, atrocities can be rationalized, but it is different when you see it live it. The "Red scare" is another prime example.
One of the reasons I'm writing about Bernie, is because of my admiration, respect, and the love that I have, along with his other listeners, for him. I want to say how grateful and lucky we are to have him with us on the West Coast, helping us navigate the insanity of these turbulent times, with deep proving questions and plainly spoken daring answers.
He'll discuss, debate and argue any current of past event with logic and passion, sprinkling a healthy humor with only one objective, to make you THINK! To find the answers for yourself, while at the same time, he unabashedly will give you his sometimes opinionionated view as well.
We want to share him with the Nation, to have him syndicated and be heard by a larger audience in which are found ill-informed citizens, hence very easily manipulated with their beliefs . We need voices like his, I know there are many more Liberal Voices out there, in small islands surrounded by cacophonies of "Quackers" (1984) I want them to be heard too, but Bernie I'm familiar with. Check him out sometime and hear callers ask "How do we get you syndicated?" Really, how does syndication work? Anybody?
Other reason I write about him is because the work of Bernie, and so many others, needs to be acknowledged, thanks have to be given, and diaries, columns and articles need to be written.
You'll hear him deplore the shameful showing of democrats, how "Lady D" (Diane Feinstein) Should be removed, how Joe Liebberman is below contempt and how Lady D, together with far too many democrats, are but a notch above Joe, and have to be removed too. Expeditiously!
'And remember, "The world is alive with the grandeur of God" '. It's the sign out of his Sunday mornings program "God Talk" 6 AM to 9 AM Pacific Time, in which the sign out is the only prayer of the program and where no Bible subject is off-topic and it is discussed from The Bernie's perspective, based in his beliefs and convictions, where no false tenet, proclamations or action(s) of ANY organized religion, goes unchallenged.
Where the case for the separation of Church and State is firmly made, not necessarily based on the Constitution, or the Federalist Papers, nor the Treaty of Tripoli for that matter, albeit these points are strongly made, if and when warranted; but it is done by debunking the claim that the USA is a "Christian Nation" He points out that there's nothing that resembles Jesus of Nazareth in these, so called, Christians because these people are "Cultural Christians", that they are Christians simply because their parents also were. People with a knowledge of religion at a second grade level where their religious curiosity and religious learning ended, the same people that when they go to church, "Check their brains at the door and pick up the crayons"
Partisan with scant exceptions in his support for Liberals, non partisan in his resounding, well elaborated and merciless critiques, where his best intellectual shots are reserved for the hypocrisy of religious leaders and the followers of their jingoistic pronouncements who in turn, mindlessly regurgitate them in other public forums.
More than ever, rational voices like Bernie's are needed to facilitate the dialog about how dangerous are the people with fundamentalist views in their social interaction practices, how they pose a real threat to any kind of civilized discourse by injecting their anti democratic and Anti-American positions such as: '"I'm right, therefore everybody else is wrong" And "Must be made to see it our way, by force is necessary", as the Christian Reconstructionists advocate with their Christian Reconstructionist Philosophy
A recently articulated philosophy which argues that it is the moral obligation of Christians to recapture every institution for Jesus Christ. It proclaims "the crown rights of King Jesus." The means by which this task might be accomplished--a few CR's are not convinced that it can be--is biblical law. This is the "tool of dominion." We have been assigned a dominion covenant--a God-given assignment to men to conquer in His name (Gen 1:23; 9:1-7) . The founders of the movement have combined four basic Christian beliefs into one overarching system: 1) biblical law, 2) optimistic eschatology, 3) predestination (providence), and 4) presuppositional apologetics (philosophical defense of the faith).
Gary North, Backward Christian Soldiers? An Action Manual For Christian Reconstruction (Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics, 1984), Glossary
But you'll find the current and more rabidly-dangerous phalange of Christian soldiers, believers in the Dominionist Theory of which George W. Bush is their symbol, hope and tool of their "Holy Struggle" (Stuggle = Jihad (Check out the "George Christ" Pic in the page, complete with robe, halo and resplandecent "Sacred Heart" Finished with peerless quality.))
Dominionism is a term used by some social scientists and critics to describe a trend in Protestant Christian evangelicalism and fundamentalism that encourages political participation in civic society by Christians through appeals to their religious beliefs.
Politically active conservative Christians rarely use the term dominionism as a self-description; many feel it is a loaded or pejorative term. Use of the term is primarily limited to secular and leftist critics of the Christian Right. The term emerged in relation to the Christian Right in the mid-1990s, but became more widely known due in large part to the U.S. presidential election, 2004 where the media attributed Republican wins to "Evangelical" voters in "Red states" who voted for "moral values". Some poll analysts call this claim oversimplistic. It has been claimed to be a kind of Triumphalism.
I hear comments about a East vs West cultural confrontation because of a silly cartoon which it isn't even funny - Whether is racist or no, or it intentionally assigns any aspersions or not, is totally inconsequential because, in the final analyses, it is how it is perceived that matters.
The furor and animosity on both sides that has erupted due to a cartoon acting as a catalyst to deep-rooted intolerance, antagonism and outright violence against each other, with a patina of racism covered with a healthy dose of greed only to be topped with a blind Nationalism. As opposed to what? Really!
"Syrians torch embassies over caricature. Exclaims AP headline. Embassies torched as furor over cartoon grows Chimes Reuters. "Muslim outrage at cartoon spreads." CBS parrots.
Leave it to Fox News to offer a gleam of hope for calming tempers Leaders appeal for calm in Muslim Cartoon Protests" to immediately below give it a spin to as why you should be scared. Very scared!
Rage against caricatures of Islam's revered prophet poured out across the Muslim world Saturday, with aggrieved believers calling for executions, storming European buildings and setting European flags afire.
But the State Department, the entity with a will of it's own that never ceases to grab any opportunity for his own advantage, takes the cake. As it always does when troubled times loom in the horizon for them, by inflaming the altercation and bringing in radical Christianity and secular forces to the contentious issues between the world's great religions. The released statement proclaiming their condemnation of the offensive cartoon was laden with strong exhortations for respect of all religious symbols.
It is so clear that they are very happy to replace the NSA's data mining program with a religious furor controversy.
I just can not help but wonder how long the media whores will go full speed adding flame to the polemic and how soon after that the Repug Congress or Senate will enact a law(s) making it illegal to ridicule religion? How do you think the present Supreme Court would rule were this scenario be a reality and was challenged?
I see it as a real possibility, GOD! The war on Christmas is such a recent memory.
In my Rumsfeldian mode I must say: "Who Knows?", "We can not know the 'unknowable'."
The Corparate's MSM vacuous talking heads are already busy posting as the main question: "How should the West respond?", I can clearly see "Tweety" At "NerfBall" With a confident(?) look of concern asking "Should the West (Or similar thing depending on the day's talking points) Expect Violence from the angry Muslim world and... Blah, blah, blah"?
The vitriolic words of the right wingnuts on hate radio are all over the airwaves, so many of them ask, literally, for the extermination of these backward people, to hell with them, nuke them, wipe them out. These demonizations are gaining ground
Insanity in a cataclysmically dangerous world poses the most terrifying prospects. Isn't?
Last night I sent Bernie an e-mail proposing this very subject as one of his topics in tomorrow's (Sunday)"God Talk"(6 AM to 9 AM, Pacific Time)
Knowing Bernie I know he will, one of his reactions will be "Holy el crapé" (Personally I like it better than the forbidden, "Shit" Because, as everybody knows, the immoral liberals love the French) - "This stinks all the way, or up and down, to high waters" Or something like that, hard to remember all his sayings, his mastery over the use of the English language at all levels, is superb!
This controversy exudes from all pores: Hypocrisy, Nationalism, insidious duplicity, racism, on, and on...
For who can forget the angry zeal with which they condemned the vicious war against Christianity by these people who hate America and are pro-abortion, add infinitum...
It will be a great show, fun for most of us whereas there will be a segment of the audience with boiling blood due to the cognitive dissonance between what they sense as the truth and their Christian fundamentalist beliefs. It will be a great show! Tune in or connect, will you? And, if you can, check out the additional info in his web page.
Call him, ask him questions, challenge him, discuss, debate, argue, whatever! He loves it and takes on all comers enthusiastically!
Oh! Remember the MSM main question on the issue? "How should the West respond?" To start, let's put it in a more pertinent and logistically feasible task, "How should the US of A respond?"
I'll throw in a drastic solution to tomorrow's conversation.
This controversy is spiraling out of control and I don't think there is anything that will prevent that from happening, rather, what I expect to see is some angry Muslim zealot create and publish material that offends Christianity, or it may be done by one of the whole US of A owned Iraq's media outlets so as to escalate the confrontation to make it us vs them, I know that this scenario would only help the PNAC crowd intentions and interests.
Let's co-opt them, we must not, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES let it become, us vs them. Let's raise and attract the ire of the religious nuts with irreverent and whatever description fits our expressive and creative art in cartoon and caricatures. I'm sick and tired of these opportunistic and hypocritical bastards, we are going to confront them sooner or later. Why not now?
It is about time we place Organized Religion where it belongs, in places of worship, we have to do that in addition to putting Personal Religion and Faith back in the heart and minds of believers. IT IS A PRIVATE MATTER!
Today is a good day to fight for what this Country stands. Let the word go forth, talented cartoonists or not, professional or amateur, CREATE, PUBLISH AND DISTRIBUTE! Let's have the inevitable showdown and see where the political muscle and civic fortitude reside, let the chips fall where they may.
In closing, let me offer some suggestions for cartoons, as a progressive Catholic, a firm believer in the Revolutionarily Social and Religious Message of Jesus of Nazareth who has no scintilla of resemblance to the blondish character with perfectly groomed straight hair and bear, as it would be coming out of a hair salon in San Francisco's Castro District.
I see the blond guy in full rambo regalia with the caption "Onward Christian Soldiers" For the Protestant Fundamentalists.
Another shot is of the Virgin Mary in various degrees of nudity and I'd be tempted to portray her in another cartoon with a huge dildo in her hand just for the Regressively Conservative Catholics and, by the way, if starting with Ratzinger (AKA The Pope), Cardinals, Bishops, Priests and also regressive Lay Catholics, supported Bush and mounted a spiritually violent and vicious campaign against Kerry, going so far as to deny him Communion on the 11/04 Presidential Campaign, did so with the full knowledge that Bushco's war proposal were bogus? Most of us normal people did.
Do they have blood on their hands and are complicit in acts of premeditated murder, war crimes and crimes against Humanity and Nature? I must remind them of the definition of sin and the Catholic Cannon Law of "Primacy of Conscience"? As a Catholic, I refer them to the previous for pondering my question.
And the last one for tonight and just to appease my queer sensibilities, I'd propose a cartoons of Joseph Smith in homosexually suggestive takes just to say to the Mormons: Hello homophobic and hypocrite bastards!
Later. beautiful "Normal People", and
You! Yes, you trolls, bring it on!