About That Tea Party Thing...

I was just watching Fox News' live coverage of the Tea Party convention. A few thoughts.

1. All that "smaller government" stuff: Right On!

2. All that "lower taxes" thing: Couldn't agree more!

3. All that stuff about "Former" Speaker Pelosi and "Former Senator Reid"; Took the words right out of my mouth!

4. Defend the nation against Terrorists and Illegal Aliens: You said it, Bruddah!

5. Rebuild the American Economy! Drill, Baby, Drill!: Why, I think I'm gettin' the vapors!

I'm diggin' this thing, lock, stock and barrel. And then....It Happened.

Sarah Palin comes on and starts answering questions. She's looking hot tonight, too. She's making sense. I can dig her rap. There's all this "Run, Sarah, Run" stuff, which is a bit contrived and cheesy, but it's obvious that Palin is eating that shit up, despite the attempt to appear all sheepish and demure. Typical politician crap. Pretty much what you'd expect. I'm still with ya, although "Run, Sarah, Run" is a bit too much.

And then She uttered those words...and they lost me. Thanks a lot, Sarah! It was like coitus interruptus.

She said those magic words; "We shouldn't be afraid to be a God-fearing Nation, again!"

Rousing applause.

Sorry, you've just lost me. I might vomit.

I'm not signing on so that some people who believe in an Invisible Man in the Sky can gain political power. Everywhere that's happened, chaos, and societal and technical stagnation most usually follow. I submit as evidence: The Muslim Caliphates, Confucian China, Ancient Egypt, Byzantium, The Mayan and Aztec Empires, Imperial Spain, Europe in the pre-Reformation days. Besides, most of the folks that I personally know who are Born-Again or Evangelical Christians were some of the biggest fuck-ups on Earth before they "found" God. I certainly wouldn't let most of them watch my liquor cabinet, fuck-all if I want them to write the laws in this country.

Because they were usually drug addicts, ex-hippies, drunks, degenerate gamblers, serial adulterers, and the concepts of God and organized religion offered them away to salvage what was left of their self-esteem. It's cheaper than a psychiatrist, and easier than a 12-step program. All you have to do is suspend belief in reality, which, let's face it, ain't all it's cracked up to be. It's a surrender most folks are willing, perhaps even eager, to make, unless they stop to think about it first.

If you believe in a God that gives the "gift" of Free Will, and then demands that you use it in the way She (God must be female, because no man could concoct such a system of contradictory bullshit and still demand to be worshiped) wanted you to, and if you don't you're doomed, then you might be out of your mind. If you believe that "God has a plan" and "works in mysterious ways" and don't recognize that as a substitute for "I really don't know why things happen the way they do, and I can't be bothered to expend braincells to think any on it", then no wonder you fell for religion in the first place.

However, I'm not all a rainy day when it comes to Faith. If you have it, and it helps you, and it gives you some sort of direction and moral compass, then fine. I just don't have to hear about it (it's all some of you can talk about!), and I certainly don't want you to run a country based on the idea that God talks to you, She answers prayers, or that the Bible is the Ultimate Guide to Everything in the Universe. It's a book written by a bunch of guys with an agenda. So were Mein Kampf and Das Kapital, and people said the same things about those books, too. (Before you start flooding my inbox for daring to equate the Word of God with Communism, you should know that without Jesus, there could be no Karl Marx).

I was raised a Roman Catholic, and attended Catholic schools from 2nd through 12th grade. I probably have had more religion tossed my way than many Evangelicals. It's my considered opinion that it's a tremendous load of crap. And no, that isn't because I've been brainwashed by the Evil Papacy and Denied the True Word, it's because in the final analysis, religion preys upon human emotions: fear, envy, uncertainty, ignorance. It's intention is to manipulate people's emotions in such a way as to affect their behavior, usually in a way which is supposed to benefit The Church (whichever one that is) rather than the individuals who make that church up.

Many people have complained that they haven't been able to get into the Tea Party Convention, and others have complained about the fees required to get into some of those workshops and speaking engagements, and with the frequent references to God flying around there, it's possible that the Godbots Who Can Afford to Be There might be trying to keep their politically-aligned, but probably pagan, compatriots out.

Maybe because for those who have been barred, while may share the ideals of Liberty being discussed, they might not share the Blood of the Lamb.

Until I see something that proves it otherwise, I'm calling this what it appears to be; the same WASP elite (you know, the "Real Americans" -- the rest of us are just visitors to them), bearing a new version of the the White Man's Burden, and commanded to create the New Jerusalem -- the people who Liberals say really run the GOP, and who complain loudly that they really don't -- simply trotting out a new shade of lipstick on the same old pig.

Same crappy taste, nice new package.

If this was truly representative of what the Tea Party hopes to become, then they're making a huge mistake; the Republican Party failed because it was led astray by the prospect of divvying up political spoils to their own advantage in much the same way that democrats had done for generations. Not because it wasn't "faithful" or God-fearing enough -- that's Muslim talk; attributing failure, defeat or setback to a lack of piety, rather than a lack of reason.

If you think you can recreate the Republican party, and make it stronger, by doubling down on Faith, rigorously enforcing srtict orthodoxy, punishing or suppressing independent thought and conscience, then you're delusional. Doing things like that only turns you into the political version of the Ottoman Turks, The Persian Satraps and the Imperial Japanese -- cultures that all ultimately failed. Spectacularly.

Our current problems are here not because we don't pray enough. They're here because we don't think enough.

Less God, more brains, please...

Discuss.