Fri. Dec 13th, 2024

Tuned into Sirius News yesterday and they reported Barack O’bama said he will not respond to their “smear campaign” but, instead will “address the issues.”

What are the “issues?” Or is it just one big “issue?”

…avoiding the Great Endarkenment.

Our forefathers chose “reason.” Many of them were Deists, or had Deist tendencies: hence The Bill of Rights; which was inspired by Enlightenment-era ideas, particularly in the religious sphere. Newton, Pascal, Galileo… these greats also helped create the Era of Enlightenment; so Science was considered critical to enlightenment.

It’s hard to imagine that we’re almost 300 years from that era and quickly going… backwards. Despite the McCain camp’s claim that they; and too many who support them; also known as our present President’s “base,” are the ones who want to go forward: the evidence of the opposite is quite obvious. Sarah Palin being protected from witches by spells? Eliminate tax breaks for businesses, taxing health care benefits, “deregulate” the health care industry so they can kick anyone out… or refuse anyone.. for any reason: ungiven?

What’s next? Taxing leeches?

During the 60s: an era Neo Cons loath and love to mock, a small program called Star Trek premiered. Gene Roddenberry’s notion that with good Science and not only multiculturalism, lack of racism and absence of gender discrimination: but also a rejection of speciesism and non-interference, seems so antiquated now. Well, that’s what some Neo Cons wish we all believed. Some days I believe the future may be behind us as I sense the darkness descend.

While doing our laundry Sunday the boob tube there was offering up a Goosebumps marathon. I had never watched a full episode before. It seemed the typical Supernatural, X-File, Sanctuary, Torchwood fare’, but designed for kids, where everything we imagine is real and Science be damned. I enjoy such… in limited doses. Vampires, werewolves, ghosts… anything that clumps, bumps or harrumphs in the night: all real. A son in a family is the star of the series and in one episode turned to his parents and said…

“I know you and Dad want to base everything on Science, but what do you do when you know something’s true anyway?”

Well, the answer to that does exist in Science: you sample, you test, you review the hypothesis. If you can’t prove your hypothesis right, well that doesn’t mean it isn’t: just keep collecting more data. Plus, there’s nothing wrong with believing something’s true, as long as you don’t insist everyone has to accept and agree, is there? Of course, how you act upon that belief is another matter. Challenging is commendable, as long as if you don’t believe in gravity you don’t do it by walking off cliffs, or dropping puppies from your second story bedroom window, just to give two examples.

Oh where, oh where, did our Star Treks go?

Oh where, oh where, did our reason and rational thought processes go?

And that is the crux of the matter. Those who believe, who wish for Dark Ages to return, to help clang the death bell and demand the poor only get willfully given alms amongst Scrooges… demand… no often “insist” we agree, accept, or at least do not dare to question. They have little problem with a government that doesn’t react to a state of National emergency they themselves declared while a plague’s worth of floating bodies rot in the water. They don’t care about torture as long as they think the ends justify the means, or massive: yet missing, amounts of WMD lead to millions being exterminated.

When people will accept anything as probable, running scams and eliminating those who are on to you is soooooooooooooo much easier, isn’t it?

Have we even heard an, “Oops, sorry about that,” yet?

And we won’t, because anti-enlightenment, pro-dark forces always feel justified in the torture, torment and murder: whether heretic, witch or someone who was pointed out as “terrorist” by a neighbor with a grudge. These days every time I hear “liberal” used as a curse word I notice it’s used in the same manner as “witch” used to be. Well, considering spells used to protect Palin, maybe I should revise “used to be” with “is?”

We are getting further and further away from anything remotely like “enlightenment,” to where a candidate can spout any lie they want, a president can declare himself immune from any oversight: do anything he wants, deregulate business and then demand we cough up trillions of dollars to cover their posteriors for implementation of their ill-conceived notions.

Impeachment is off the table?

We’re not going to address the smears, the lies and the utter obscenity of candidates claiming to hold some moral high ground while splattering fecal matter in the form of lies on their opponents?

Barack, if you do not address this, who will? Who will hold up the enlightened lantern and guide us away from suspicion, fear and lies they want the gullible to accept? The path, while darkness gathers, is still somewhat clear. But letting the obsidian shadows gather strength is only a method of achieving failure and more darkness.

It’s up to you.

-30-

Inspection is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over thirty years. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks and into the unseen cracks and crevasses that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.

By Ken Carman

Retired entertainer, provider of educational services, columnist, homebrewer, collie lover, writer of songs, poetry and prose... humorist, mediocre motorcyclist, very bad carpenter, horrid handyman and quirky eccentric deluxe.

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RS Janes
16 years ago

Well, Ken, as you’re probably already aware, Obama is hittng back by exposing McCain’s connections to the Keating Five scandal and I understand he has something on tap regarding lobbyist Vicki Iseman and McCain’s intercession for her clients in the 90s.

With Bush at an all-time record low of 24 percent approval, and Obama gaining strength in the polls after the Palin-Biden debate, I think we may have turned around in our slide to the Dark Ages; most Americans I’ve talked to simply don’t want the Christopublican agenda, even the religious ones. The Republican Religious Right wingnuts can turn out a crowd, which makes their numbers seem greater than they really are, but they still represent no more than 10 million people out of 300 million, IMO, and not all of them agree with each other.

If Obama is elected president, and the Dems make big gains in state and federal seats, I think you’ll see a reorganization of the GOP and the Christopublican nuts relegated to a minor role in the party. I can tell you, from talking to a few of them, that the secular conservative Republicans dislike the religious crazies nearly as much as we do.

Maybe we’ve dodged a fundamentalist bullet this time — I sure hope so.

The All-Mighty Webmaster
Admin
16 years ago

@ Ken Carman:
I think Obama is doing the right thing. By laying back and talking about the issues everyone wants to talk about — namely the economy — he lets McCain look more and more unhinged and angry.

Obama should talk about the McCain and Chalabi connection. That covers several points of being able to judge character — and it is more recent than ‘palling around’ with a former radical whose most recent act of radical activity was probably forgoing his morning prunes.

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