Tuesday, February 01, 2005

If elected, I will not serve

Gee thanks, all you folks who offered to campaign for me if I would run for State Senator against the not so closeted Republican we have in office now. Here is a short list of why I will not do so, but thanks anyway.

1. I am employable in the private sector.
Just because I don't want a job doesn't mean I can't get one...Really. (I used to say the same thing about girl friends many years ago before I suckered my dear wife into the chains of matrimony and could quit worrying about why I didn't have a girlfriend.)

2. I have a tendency to say things like, "Oh, Bullshit!" instead of things like, "Oh, that's a good point. We'll have to give that some thought."

3. I don't believe that Jesus wants us to kill Iraqi women and children. See, I am not much of anything, much less, a Baptist. To be elected around here you have to go to a lot of churches and just sit there smiling while preachers say nasty things about the people sitting in other churches saying nasty things about people sitting in other churches. The last church I tried to attend had a good friend of mine as the preacher. He learned fairly quickly to not ask me what I thought about the sermon as we shook hands in the doorway out of there. "Don, that sermon made as much sense as anything else I've heard you say, " I came around to saying and my wife would look very relieved that I hadn't said, "Oh, Bullshit, Don."

4. I'm an honest guy, or nearly so anyway. Nobody I know has anything I want bad enough to steal it from them, and there actually lots of things I won't do for money. This is a major character flaw for a politician. It is nearly as big of a handicap as the inability to lie with a straight face and say things like, "America... will spread... Freedom."

5. I can't lie with a straight face and say things like, "America...will spread...Freedom!"

6. But the number one reason I could not be a State Senator is that I seem to have some kind of sense of things being either "Right" or "Wrong". Right and wrong don't have anything to do with what goes on in Nashville, or anywhere else politicians gather up to act in nefarious ways. You are supposed to be for or against things based on whose idea it was and how it plays in the focus groups. I mean when the representative from Crossville stands up and says his district needs to destroy the environmental regulations that prevent them from dumping poisonous chemicals and sewage into the river that flows right through our towns down here, I would not say something like, "Well, as long as it creates jobs, it's a good thing."

Nope! I would probably say, "Oh, Bullshit!"


Peace,

Steve

*****

I had a message on my answer machine last night from a guy who said he was the Preacher in a "Free Will Baptist" church and wanted to buy a piece of land from me to build a new church on. I don't think so, but "Free will" and "Baptist" don't seem to go together very well. What am I missing here?

*****

Economist Dean Baker drives a stake through the heart of the blood suckers that want to steal Social Security. In order for the privatization scheme to work out like they claim it will, several things have to happen and they claim this in their faceless propaganda. Mr. Baker says step forward, Mr. NeoCon Economist and tell us who you are that makes these claims!

Stock price to earnings rations will have to go from today's already inflated average of 20 to 70 by the year 2050 and all the way to 100 by the year 2060 in order for the private accounts to yield 6.5 percent return over 75 years. Mr. Baker says name yourself, whoever you are.

We will see if any Republican economist steps forward. The bet is that no one will because to do so will simply destroy their professional credibilty.

krugman

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:17 AM

    Steve,

    "Free Will" Baptists....There was a time when Southern Baptists believed in the "priesthood of the believer"....meaning each person could interpret scripture for himself/herself....and one of the main foundations of SBC churches was that each was an democracy...independent, but supported the mission work of the SBC (they were big on missions...especially to Catholic countries and just about anywhere in Africa.)

    Free Will Baptists or Independent Baptists did not belong to the SBC and, in that far-away time, did not support missions (i.e., they did not send money to the "cooperative program". Also, they were considered to be "fundamentalists."

    I'm sure there was more to Free Will than that...but that was a big part of it....also, if memory serves...they were big into "foot washing."

    With the current regressive, ultra-fundamentalist nature of the SBC with it's many declarations, loyalty oaths, resolutions, etc......I'd be at a loss to speculate on what real differences exist now.

    Probably the bit about not sending money to the SBC.

    Sister Faith

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  2. Gee, Sis,

    Thanks for clearing that up...I think. Free will doesn't actually mean free will, it just means they are free to believe what they are told they believe. I accept that since I, personally, am not a "true believer" but rather a "fact" believer that I will not be able to understand things like this. I am very much into the foot washing thing, especially as a prelude to a nice massage and some tickling. Perhaps there is common ground after all.

    WC

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  3. PW - Thanks for the headsup. I missed that show. Dean Baker's site has a good checklist on Bush's piratization of Social Security.

    Buddy Don - One makes choices. The Obed would be a good one. Visit when you can.

    WC

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  4. You guys are so tolerant (sarcasm). If only Christians were as tolerant as you guys.

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  5. Anonymous8:59 AM

    To tennesseejed

    Get back to work on your MBA.

    ReplyDelete