The Curse of Anti-Zionism

The Curse of Anti-Zionism
by S. Daily Warren

The moment that the Connecticut tragedy happened a little clock started ticking in my head. How long, I wondered? After 3 days I had my answer: it took 72 hours for some of the more embarrassing representatives of the far right to blame the Newtown massacre on Israel and the Jews. It’s a plague that I’ve noticed growing steadily for the last 20 years, and it has infected much of the patriot and constitutionalist movement that is so vital to the survival of our nation’s soul.

State and federal law enforcement have shown a disturbing trend of lumping all of us in one basket in their perception of domestic dissent: Ron Paul supporters, pro-life activists, constitutionalists, militia members, etc. For law enforcement, the lines become blurred between someone who owns a battle rifle and unflinchingly supports the constitution and a white supremacist, and one of the focal points for that blurring effect happens, predictably, on the subject of the Jewish people. Jewish history and the archeological and DNA evidence supporting the presence of Jews in Israel is a broad subject, and as a definition “Zionism” is a movement supporting the return of Jews to that land and its inherent right of self-defense.

Right away, anti-Zionism becomes murky and the philosophical arguments are specious at best. The list of patriots and patriot organizations who support the 2^nd Amendment, the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights and all the things that go along with it but who do not support Israel is now quite lengthy. For reasons of protocol and liability none of those persons or organizations will be named here, but they are legion and growing in number. Immediately, however, a paradox becomes apparent. Most American patriots identify themselves as Christian, but a great many of the same detest Israel and the very people that produced their Savior. They believe in self-defense and firearm ownership, but reject the concept of self-defense for Israel. These white Anglo-Saxon Protestants and Catholics number about a billion, but believe the entire world order is organized and run by approximately 14 million Jews. At some point it breaks down into silliness.

But the underlying fundamental of the philosophy is both Bible-based and terrifying. It involves prophecy and Armageddon and the book of Revelation which speaks of a return of the Jewish people to Israel, but to the anti-Zionist this is itself proof of the conspiracy and has all been arranged; a manufactured prophetic actualization. Jews, they think, in pursuit of world domination have deliberately manifested and manipulated events to appear to be the fulfillment of New Testament Biblical prophecy, and everything that has happened since 1948 is not “of God”. And they can point to an endless stream of Jewish “bad guys” who are part of a very real conspiracy to overthrown one world order and institute a new. And therein lies the problem: they have a case.

Bernie Madoff, Henry Kissinger, George Soros just to name a few.  The list of who’s who in Hollywood and the beltway, from the gleaming metropolis of New York to the steamy sands of Florida, all have a strong Jewish presence. If one were to ask the question of who’s who in an international subversive movement on the march against individual liberty and basic human rights, the answer would be yes, many of them are Jewish. But after the head count the reasoning comes to an abrupt halt, just as it did after the analysis of the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. The complete answer as to why so many prominent Jews appear to be on the wrong side of freedom is quite simple: they are a talented and educated people with built-in values that promote a sense of identity and unity. And they are a frugal, thrifty people. These values may be blessings from Jehovah or perhaps they’re the natural traits developed by people that have been quite literally run out of nearly every civilized nation in the world. These people of The Book are by definition educated, and as a culture they’ve been reading and writing for longer than perhaps any other group. Add to that a strong sense of family and community values that lend to loyalty and interdependence and you have a recipe for success in almost any economic setting.

Yet the anti-Zionist movement has grown. Once it was the venue of the truly hateful who would rant on about cranial capacity, the lost 13^th tribe that ended up blond-haired and blue-eyed, and other nonsense. They were easy to spot. Now anti-Zionism is in mainline patriot circles, the debacle of the Palestinian issue providing fuel for the fire, although again there’s a disconnect between a Christian group fundamentally opposed to radical Islam that suddenly finds an ally in the PLO.

To bring this brief summary of a fundamental moral flaw in the modern patriot movement full circle, it took 3 days for a leading conspiracy/patriot web site to blame the Connecticut massacre on the Israeli Mossad for the purpose of disarming the American people, as if no one else closer to home was already working on it. The alleged crisis actors perpetrating possible hoax-like aspects of Sandy Hook were identified as Florida Jews who make frequent trips to Israel. But that’s a scant argument to condemn a people who, having been through a Holocaust that decimated half their number in WWII, simply want to return to their ancestral home and be allowed to defend themselves against history ever repeating itself. And no tricks of logic or list of kosher bad guys can straighten out the kinks in the position of hating Jews but loving a Jewish Messiah.

Israel’s not perfect, and neither are the Jewish people. But putting one’s pro or con feeling aside, the anti-Zionist philosophy not only doesn’t pass the common sense test but it is also a dagger at the moral heart of the modern American patriot movement which may be America’s last hope to retain her original nature and commitment to freedom. Hating Jews has a way of turning good guys into bad guys; people who started off with a love of country and freedom but ended up despising an entire race and culture that they probably know little about. To allow anti-Zionism to persist unopposed in the patriot movement immediately loses the moral war to those who can now justifiably point their fingers and say, “See? Racists.” Regarding the future growth and recruitment of active members in this movement, such a position renders the war for hearts and minds unwinnable.

The Nuts and Bolts of Heartbreak

Just take two people who are so closely suited to each other as to defy description, two people whose attributes are so alluring, that touch the other's hearts in such a way as to mimic reaching the very finger of God...and then interject human frailty.
Suddenly, the male ego intervenes: "My way or the highway!" or "Obey!" or "Listen to my plan and come along...or GET LOST! why don't you?"
Or the female ego intervenes: "What about MY needs?" or "Don't you care about me?" or "Why won't you let me manipulate you, when you KNOW it will make me FEEL better???"
Both questions answer themselves. To reach God we have to transcend, we have to grasp His love and not our own version of the same. We don't get it our way. The male doesn't get the perfect bodied sex-goddess who is a whore in bed and a saint in the kitchen. And the female doesn't get the thorough planner, the alpha male above all others who elevates her to goddessdom and grants all her wishes...RIGHT THEN/RIGHT NOW...
Instead, both have to seek God. Both have to come to grips with their own futility, their own mortality, their own impending doom as the sands of time run inexorably on, as the male's strength wanes and the female's beauty withers. Both are left - if they survive - with God and God alone...and that's exactly how He intended it. That's exactly how He knew it must be in the context of this fallen world where all choices are reduced to their lowest common denominator.
It's the only way: submit. The male submits to God and the female (poor thing) submits to both, trusting that both will be in line. And the ladies choice is by far the hardest, the most courageous, having to trust both in a world where at least 50% of both have let her down on a regular basis.
But every once in a while someone comes along who gets it. They may not encompass The Path, but they at least recognize that there IS a path and they're doing their best. And that's the best, ladies, that you can hope to find in your challenged state of choices. It's not your fault, well at least post-Eve who takes some culpability for this mess. But you do have to answer for it as males have to answer for everything post-Cain.
We never meant to hurt you.
You were always the being of our dreams, though we lacked the insight to even dream of you when our lives were bereft of even the thought of you.
And now that we know you're out there, that God DID provide exactly what we needed, to see you so close and to experience your love and giving and support and encouragement and transcendence...and then have it all taken away because you suffer the same ailments of sin and fallenness that we males must endure (or either overcome or ignore)....well, my dear, that is the worst punishment of all.
I KNOW I can't live without God. My challenge is to continue to come to grips with that and then submit and love Him on His own terms.
But I FEEL that I can't live without you, ma'am...and you're own fallen nature makes the inscrutable and the unknowable even more so yet without the basic goodness of a perfect God, Lord and Creator. You want a man you can trust but are not yourselves trustworthy. You want him strong yet submissive while retaining your own strength minus submissiveness.
It doesn't work that way, though we all agree you've received the lousiest part of the bargain. I can't help that. All I can do is say....
I love you.
I'll do my best.
I may not know much about The Path, but I know the direction and I will continue on.
And I want you to come with me.
What's more, I may not want to continue if you choose NOT to come, because God Himself said it's not good for man to dwell alone (though I'm pretty sure He mean, "it's not good for ANYONE to dwell alone... even God."
And if I do make it, for one brief moment I'll think how useless it was without you, maybe more than one moment. For this is as much about you as it is about me.
I love you.
I need you.
It's not worth it, at least from my vantage point now, without you.
Please come with me.
Please.....

Ferguson: PIctures, big and small

Some facts.
Ferguson, Missouri is a predominantly black/African-American suburb of the Midwestern State of Missouri. Missouri, or the "Big Moe" as she is sometimes called, has been famous for its enthusiastic law enforcement since the end of the Civil War, as Missouri was originally a Southern state but was forced at canon-point (meaning the opposing party in our traditional two-party American system) sent troops into our State capitol, and this was not necessarily a bad thing as the keeping of any human being as a slave is....well, a bad thing. And Missouri promoted, utilized and capitalized on slavery. In fact, it made us rich! Ever hear of the Kentucky Derby? Well, that could have been the Missouri Derby because of the wealth, at the time expressed in horses (today it's cars) in a pre-Civil War Missouri.
But then, disaster struck. And by "disaster" I of course mean justice...but that doesn't mean I necessarily agree with said dispensed justice. We Missourians were force to do the right thing, abolish slavery, at gunpoint. Our republican system of government was overthrown, our forces of self-defense thwarted, our way of life destroyed. And the reasoning for this, the explanation for sending armed troops with canon into our State capitol in 1861, was totally justified. No human being, no child of God, should ever....EVER....be demeaned into a state of servitude (much like we have now in the current state of worker relations in the US). Slavery had to end, period. Exclamation point. Maybe even a semi-colon!
But the consequences were terrible. Missouri was laid waste, a prosperous State no more, no longer sovereign (that was forfeit), no longer independent, no longer a happy place to live.Instead we received....occupation. Yes, federal occupation in a political system that did not endorse or sanction a legal federal presence in a formerly independent State.
We've struggled with this ever since. We struggle with it still.
That's the backdrop, the history. Now for the current stuff.
Michael Brown was a thug. He, at a towering 6+feet, beat up shop-owners and plowed his way through criminality and base behavior. He was unhappy and miserable and wanting...and he fulfilled his needs as he saw fit. Mainly through criminality, which is an easy venue in these United sovereign States.
He was wrong. He probably went on a drunken or drug-induced rampage (I have no real facts here, as facts are hard to come by in our argumentative two-party system) and when confronted by the authority that so many of us trust to keep safe and in-line...he rebelled. Yes, the same kind of rebellion that spawned the colonies and provincial government against which we all, as Americans, initially rebelled. He fought back: blindly, stupidly, wantonly. And an officer of the peace responded.
When confronted with this gentleman, who was quite huge by the way, and angry, said officer feared for his life...or at least his respectability as a gainfully employable member of the law enforcement community. These members are endowed with the use of deadly force. One can see the use of deadly...or at least dreadly...force by Michael Brown when he robbed and beat up a shop owner earlier the same day, but one will not see what happened with Officer Wilson when he shot Citizen Brown.
He did. He shot him. Killed him dead. I wouldn't have done the same thing, I'm a softie. I like people and will avoid killing them even at the expense of my own life. But I'm a selfish bastard, quite spoiled, and will gladly employ strong-armed killers to do my dirty work for me, to shoot thugs on a rampage. This is what Officer Wilson did, and he shot straight. He was NOT indicted by a grand jury, which is a respectable political process, and is free of any charges.
My Brown, however...even though dead....is as guilty as the day is long. He beat up a shop keeper, stole valuables, and assaulted a police officer
He died. He was shot. He was shot by Officer Wilson...who is probably looking for another job about now, perhaps in the fast food industry.
And then all orchestrated hell broke loose.
Understand, we're still talking about the same thing here: a two-party system. It's more dangerous than our European counterparts who have a little something by way of political parties for everyone. Here, it's all or nothing. Here, someone MUST win, of one party or the other. Let us jump back in history for a moment....
Missouri has a long history of law enforcement. We were a State in rebellion, so the law naturally came down or else we would have degenerated into anarchy and perished. So when people...yes, even black people, begin to burn down their own neighborhoods and threaten the lives and property of other citizens, law enforcement responds. And that's what happened in Ferguson. The cops came when called, and they did their jobs. I personally don't think the military by way of the National Guard had any place there, but they did keep (and are keeping) the peace. It is ironic that the peace being kept is in the exact same place as the shooting of Michael Brown by a cop, which means the houses and stores that have been burnt to the ground are actually those of supporters of the justice for the young black male who was killed. Crazy, eh? But that's the world we live in. I hate Missouri cops for killing a youth who was justifiably unhappy with his political condition and I love the cops that have kept the peace in the aftermath, just as I love the system that has allowed this to be adjudicated and I hate the system that empowered and exonerated the officer that killed this young black fellow.
If you want to know what's going on in Ferguson, Missouri....that's easy. And hard. It's total confusion. Current events befuddle me, but I do know that slavery hasn't existed for a long time in Missouri nor is it ever a good idea to burn down your own neighborhood. Likewise I know that cops that indiscriminately shoot and kill a Citizen with no repercussions are a threat to the very system of government they have sworn to uphold. Maybe Officer Wilson could have used his Tazer? Maybe he could have shot past Michael Brown's ear and said "Stop! You're really big and scary and black! Don't make me shoot you in accordance with the law!" I don't know.
What I do know is this.........I love all parties involved as my brothers and my sisters and my friends. We're human beings. We should never, EVER be shooting at each other. We have mouths to speak and brains to reason and we should use this. Bless poor Michael Brown and his dead life and his bereaved mother and bless Officer Wilson and his traumatized conscience and his disabled career.
Bless all involved...and to use the words of one for wiser than I: love one another. Please.

These Lies Lie Upon the Lies of Liars Who Lie

Oh, joyous day!
Faux-president Bam-Bam decried unilaterally (according to shameless sell-out Matt Drudge) that....well, I actually don't know what the hell he said because it wasn't what he said he was going to say nor was it what he was expected to say nor am I saying in response to what he didn't say what I'd really like to say. Uh....yeah.
Thank you! If you ever needed any further proof that there is a Satan, this issue pretty much makes it clear.
Okay, let's try to weed through this. The president who can't make law has just decreed that illegal aliens who are in the US in contradiction to US law can now stay as long as they were here before 2010, which is patently unprovable, and they don't have babies who are either anchors or related to anchors or feel as weighty as anchors. So it's amnesty but not amnesty and Obam-bam being bold while being his usual sissy-self and republicans are freaking out as usual over something that didn't quite happen while protestors/supporters are graciously lauding Bam-Bam's action which wasn't exactly what they had in mind but may or not be spun in their favor come morning.
But, you see....that's effing retarded.
Sissy-Bam has already suspended any enforcement of illegals so who cares what year you snuck into America (how's that Marine doing who snuck into Mexico, by the way?) when you'll never be arrested for your crime? If my license plates expire on my car I will face a draconian death squad who will pilfer the last of my bank account to "make it right" but if I sneak into America, sign up for benefits at tax-payer expense while not paying taxes, then send the surplus home to Mehico while living in a 2-room apartment with 20 of my compadres then...well, that's okay.
I don't blame O-what's his name and Where's-he-from? one little bit. He just wants to finish his golf game and retire to Hawaii with his husband and not worry about this anymore. He's always been a figure head and nothing else, and will give no thought whatsoever to the consequences of his actions because, DUH, most Mexicans (whom I LOVE as a people, by the way...as long as they continue to call Mexico home) can never, EVER swim to Hawaii.
So....to sum up: he kinda rubbed our faces in shit but didn't and kinda made illegal immigration legal but didn't and kinda pissed off the Republicans (oh, let's face it: they're ALWAYS pissed off!) but didn't and kinda broke the law but didn't and kinda is president but ISN'T, because he taught constitutional law but seems to be having an 8-year memory lapse on the whole natural-born citizen gig. Thought I forgot, didn't ya! Pfffftt! I did some of the original research in '08, thank you very much.
So! One more time, since I'm dealing with an 8-year old government entity here...you haven't fooled anybody, and by that I mean you've fooled most everybody but they will wake up. I believe in them. I know them. I love them. They'll get it, and...they'll get you. It ain't YOU, Bam-bam,  you tool and shill. But your masters who are looking 20 years down the road at a degraded but still semi-functioning US economy and know that we need cheap labor more than anything, you bastards will pay for what you're doing. Not in my lifetime, assuredly, but in the next. And the nice thing is: I'll be there. I'll see it.
HIS Kingdom comes. You can't stop it. You're beaten and this little chicanery you're pulling on a free people who love and raise families and work hard and try to snatch some semblance of joy from this debacle you continue to engineer...it won't work and the victims you're pulling it on, they will be your judges.
So...hooray for the sell-out Republicans and they're farcical cries of self-righteous displeasure. And hooray for the Demorats and they're self-bloated cries of victory while they choose another far-removed candidate for 2016. And hooray for all the Mexicans whose conscience allows them to come here while I can't go there (I'm going there anyway, by the way, and will take a gun and will bring at least a corner of freedom to that wasted land...but it might be a while). Hooray for all of you and this entire charade you've almost kinda pulled over our almost kinda closed eyes.
Lies upon lies upon lies.

Shema, Goyimah

"Hear, O' ye nations...."
I don't know what gets into us. I've felt it too, almost like something that runs in the blood, something visceral. Let's face it, let's get real: we don't like Jews. In fact, some of us hate them. Hate them enough to kill.
According to news reports, 5 Israelis were killed today and 7 wounded. 2 Palestinians from East Jerusalem entered the Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue armed with knives, axes and guns and then attacked worshipers there. It is of interest that initial reports describe 4 of the Israelis slain as American Jews (3) and one Briton, one of which was a Levite of the priestly tribe according to Biblical reference. The morning attack ended in a shoot out with responding Israeli police followed swiftly by security forces and, interestingly, spurring an investigation by the FBI. The extension of jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation overseas, while not unprecedented, is of interest.
For once, however, I will set aside the "why" and look into the deeper implications of this vicious assault described in some reports as a "holocaust". This is not an investigative report, mostly because I am not so quick to trust the sources that feed us our brain batter even when they agree with my spiritual predilections. Mostly, I want to know why we as consumers of this information, regardless of its veracity and accuracy, are unresponsive and passive. And that why leads to another why: why do I care? That much I can answer.
The Jewish people gave us, inspired by God if you're a believer, the very Words of God. They received, cherished, transcribed, preserved and thrust forth into the future that all-time bestseller translated into innumerable languages...the Bible. Torah scrolls have survived impossible synagogue fires, been stashed in the ruins of crumbling temples, been smuggled in unmentionable places using unthinkable means, memorized, loved, followed, translated and altogether conveyed that Word to humanity for its betterment. When the British empire sailed upon seas beneath a sun that never set, nearly every vessel carried that Bible to unknown lands. And when American astronauts orbited and then landed on the moon, it was the Bible that was in at least some of their hearts, including the heart of Buzz Aldrin who conducted the Lord's Supper on the surface of our nearest celestial neighbor. I will not write nearly so eloquently about the heritage of Christ Himself and will content myself merely to point out...He was (and remains) utterly Jewish.
So why the hate? Or even, why the general dislike? I can understand, knowing what I know about the history of the GOP and the republican party's pervasive distaste for all things Hebrew, so the attraction of the Jewish people is no mystery to me. They number 14 million on Earth, a population statistic only recently returned to its pre-World War II level after the Nazi decimation. No, decimation is not the proper term, as it comes from Roman sources that reduced the number of people they didn't like by 1/10th. What happened to our Jewish brothers and sisters can only be described as a halving. Naturally they became democrats, by and large. As a minority of minorities it is likewise no mystery that they will lock arms with others of diminished status and number, but there is also the matter of conscience. Many times I've heard the story of New York Jews of affluence and means who forgo their fortunes and futures and take cause with blacks suffering in the rural South. There's genuine humanity there, even applying to those who may not have taken the front lines in the battle for social justice but continue to donate time and money to protect and defend those they do not know, that have no relation to them philosophically or religiously or spiritually, but who simply suffer in ways similar to how they suffered. That's why they're primarily democrats, or better yet liberals. Mainly because they empathize with others likewise suffering but also, as a very honest Jewish person once said to me, because they can afford to be liberal and giving and consumed with charity and compassion. They learned, and having learned they continue to love...and that kind of transcendent love is what this blog is all about. So as you can see, I'm pretty keen on Jews. Mostly.
Now, confession time! I personally have been irritated, affronted, insulted, demeaned and downright injured by my beloved brothers and sisters of the Jewish persuasion, and in no greater way than in divorce proceedings from a Jewish wife of 10 years who burnt every bridge imaginable in her departure. That alone was quite close to being enough to tempting me to join the ranks of man who hold and display a very rabid dislike that may or may not have similar cause. I loved her and she hurt me...so why NOT scream bloody murder about those "dirty Jews"? Well...it would be inhumane, that's why. Even if some stereotypes are steeped in truth it is unconscionable to categorize an entire people based upon the opinions and actions of one, so I won't. But I was tempted, for a time.
Then there was Florida. You'll like this, it was funny. I was on a business trip, parked in the sub-level of a shopping mall away from the sunlight and the humidity and the heat. I may have been looking at a map but I don't recall. An elderly lady, undoubtedly more Jewish than the most black-hatted Hasidic rabbi, stopped by my rolled-down window and asked for directions to a place I don't recall. And the reason I don't recall the specifics of her request was due entirely to her response.
"Excuse me, sir. Do you know how to get to such-n-such?"
"Hmmm...." I pondered out loud, taking my attention away from the map that was as useless as the words about to escape my lips. I may have even put my hand to my chin in contemplation, wondering how I could properly answer this person when I was, quite obviously, an idiot with no idea where I was or what I was talking about...or about to talk about. I never got the chance.
She took one look at me, saw through my ridiculous charade and said brusquely, "You don't know!" and walked away. How dare she! How dare she call me out in my unadmitted ignorance? How dare she see through me and the meaningless self-affirming banter I was about to bless her with that would serve as much purpose to her as a screen door on a submarine? It was rude! It was callous! It was impertinent...and it was 100% correct. She was right. I didn't know, and for one brief awful moment I hated her for being right and me for being an idiot. The doors of my ego were blasted wide open and the terrible sunlight of truth inundated my tidy little Gentile world of white lies and hypocrisy. In that moment, as she stomped away in a huff, I have to admit I hated her just a little, and utterly without cause for I did not indeed have the faintest idea of the place she was asking about and I had every intention of wasting her time with a shallow, deceptive response just to avoid looking like an idiot. It didn't work out to my liking, and later I reflected on her quick, sharp tongue backed by an equally sharp and aggressive brain that, quite frankly, didn't have time for my bullshit. She was old. She could have easily spent the last moments of her life listening to me drone on and on majestically about a subject (her intended destination) that I quite literally knew nothing about.
Shall I go on? Sure, they irritate us with their tiny little sliver of a country surrounded by a billion Muslims that hate them but don't dare attack them. Sure they offend us with their top-notch soldiers, unparalleled intelligence agency and an army of scientists, entrepreneurs and industry movers who have more patents than Edison and Telsa put together. Why shouldn't we be a bit put off when they seem to unashamedly be the funniest, most talents, most inventive and entertaining souls in a Hollywood that they pioneered out of a featureless California desert? Watch the credits of most any major motion picture and you'll see more Goldberg's and Silverstein's than in a directory of New York jewelers. They can't help it. As my biggest, bestest brother once put it so eloquently: when God was handing out brains and talent the Jews kept sneaking back into line.
So are we just jealous, or is it something deeper. As I said, I was married for 10 years to a fine, if troubled, Jewish woman and I loved her fiercely. In her childhood, already brimming with common sense and honesty, she watched on television a political gathering of the KKK and neo-Nazis. This little girl scratched her head at an array of people who hated her though had never met her and said to her mother, "But they're all right there." Meaning, just nuke 'em. They're all bunched up. Her mother just smiled as if to say, "That's not how we do things. It was done to us once and we're not going to go there." Both the little girl's question and her mother's response were equally charming and illuminating. Since boyhood I have wanted little more than to be adopted into the Jewish lifestyle, into a Jewish family, and be a part of that culture and history that brought me my salvation custom tailored by God Himself. And ironically one of the most common prayers of a Jewish rabbi or spiritual leader, be he Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof or the unknown counselor to the Bielski brothers hiding in the forests of Belarus, is this: "God, I know we are the chosen people...but couldn't you have chosen someone else?" Their status in the spiritual realms, as well as the price they've paid for all that talent and history and character, is heart-wrenching.
I don't have any answers in this monologue, only questions. I faced a terrible fact once, not too long ago, when I was more deeply hurt than ever before in my long, strange life by someone who just happened to be Jewish. Her family was as toxic and unhappy as my own. Her life equally tragic. Her sufferings undeserved and unimaginable...but she was Jewish and that was a perfectly plausible reason to hate her on the grounds. It took some real thought and genuine soul-searching to avoid that trap. It's a trap that something in our blood calls out to us to wander into. It's easy to hate Jews, just for being Jews. They're not on my land, they've taken nothing from me and in fact have given me more than I think about on a daily basis, not least of all a Bible to believe in and the bloodline of a Messiah.
I decided to love, just as I once decided to love someone who was at times quite unlovable...just like we all are in God's penetrating eyes. And that decision I will not walk away from, and not solely to avoid or avert the actualization of another Holocaust which seems more and more to be a soberingly real possibility. I have decided to love them because that's what God would do, has done and will always continue to do. They're special: irritating, obnoxious and painfully charming in their abrasiveness and that alone (being abrasive myself) is enough to love them. And I won't even quote the plethora of Bible verses basically commanding us to love them and to pray for their homeland whose peace continues to be wrecked.
Here's what a pragmatic, irritating Jewish person might say to you on the subject of hating Jews with or without cause:
"What good would it do you? Harboring hate only hurts you. And if you're going to hate Jews then maybe that's not such a bad thing. Good luck with that, but if you don't mind I'm going to go stand over here for a little while." A little tolerant, abrasive, pragmatic, irritating and oh-so-wise Jewish common sense would do us all a world of good in a world that seems to be running pretty short on good...especially in the sacred temples of their own historic and hereditary homeland on this bloody, terrible day.
Bless you, my Jewish friends and brothers and sisters. I love you.

Take Your God to Work Day

"I don't believe in atheists."
It's one of my favorite quotes, mostly because it's my own and somewhat because it contains both an element of truth and a wee bit of zing. The zing is the fact that those who gather facts quite often mistake their data for wisdom, and then throw them in the faces of others to appease the empty longing they feel in a soul they don't strictly believe in. Such facts of the physical world that want so badly to stand on their own and declare that the physical is the only world fall flat on their faces when confronted with the true fact that for all our advancement there is still no scientist or engineer alive who can make a simple flower from scratch. Intelligent design, which does not disagree with most scientific thought, not only provides a rational explanation of who we are and where we came from (and most importantly what we're doing here), but it also gives us something we all desperately need: something bigger than ourselves that we can believe in.
Here's where atheists get into serious trouble. The do have a god. That god looks back at them from the mirror every day, yet this reflective surface fails to convey even the simple truth of the core of their own belief. There really are no such things as atheists, and for all their knowledge atheists are and by their nature must be the last ones to admit that, least of all to themselves. I may just coin a new term here: selfists.
But one thing selfists have that a true follower of Christ lacks is a place in this world. They actually feel they are a part of it and it is a part of them. I know because I remember and because I've been told point blank that this is so by true believers in non-belief. I am tempted not to waste my time, but that would be a violation of my own core principles for no human being, made in the image of God and whom God finds utterly delightful, is ever a waste of time. Frustrating maybe, even irritating, but not a waste of time even if their destiny remains pitiably devoid of the transcendence back to our Creator we all long for.
So let's take our respective and mutually exclusive "gods" to work today and see what happens.
You're a middle manager of a mid-sized company. Directly under your supervision are one dozen souls who report directly to your authority. Directly above you is upper management, the movers and shakers of the mid-sized company including the owner and, since we must have a "bad guy", a general safety manager.
(Please note that this is entirely fictitious and hypothetical and is not reflective of any actual experiences, any actual company or any actual people....although this safety manager fellow IS a big stupid jerk who should be slapped with a fish.)
We two middle managerial candidates to consider on today's Take Your God to Work Day, a Christian and an atheist, or selfist. The Christian of course is bringing Jesus and the selfist can bring none other than himself. For purposes of clarity and convenience both candidates will be depicted as male, partly for ease in the use of personal pronouns but mostly because girls are pretty and I don't want them getting roughed up in my analysis which will be, at times, rather severe...and also because I fear their anger more than a rampaging Godzilla on PCP.
The Christian considers his dozen employees to be souls.
The atheist considers them to be human resources, which is sad state to be thought of as someone's lump of coal or gallon of gas.
The Christian considers his people to be actually His people, chosen and wonderful and delighted in, made in the image of the living God.
The atheist considers them to be made to work; expendable, expandable and utterly undependable.
If his principles are aright and the Christian is not in love with and conformity to the world and its notions of right and wrong, then he is concerned with their joy, their contentment, their well-being. Surely he expects them to work and to work well. If they don't he sometimes has to make difficult decisions but his first loyalty is to these priceless, precious children of God and not to an amorphous corporation forged out of thin air under the laws of the state, an artificial being possessing legal status as a person, in every sense of the word. While the Christian knows that people always come first and that they matter far more than profits or deadlines, the atheist has bought into the widespread lie that the corporation is a real entity and somehow more than the sum of its parts. I refer to this as the Terminator philosophy, because any corporation is an entity made (or made up) by man yet doesn't really exist as anything more than a concept. All the while it can own property, be sued (good luck with that!) and possesses many of the rights and priviliges of a natural human being...even the power to destroy lives, which is why it's a Terminator to me. If corporation X fires someone on questionable grounds and that human being then commits suicide, the corporation has no conscience or ethical questions to wrestle with. Perhaps even the board members won't care.
The Christian, by contrast, sees it as his responsibility to stand between this tyranny and totalitarianism disguised cleverly as capitalism and deems his to protect his people from all that he can, including and sometimes especially upper management. He knows when his men and women have personal problems, and he cares. He does look after the interests of the corporation because other human beings are dependent upon this artificial person for this substance, but he won't put the company's interests ahead of the well-being of his people. He answers to God, not to the board members or even the dreaded safety manager who has told him time and again that his loyalties are misaligned. Personally I think this safety manager fellow is (hypothetically, of course) just jealous because no one likes him and the middle manager's people love working for their supervisor, but that's just a theory that happens to fit the facts.
The contrast is extensive and could go on interminably, but the saddest aspect is two-fold: 1.) nearly all the business world thinks the Christian wrong and the atheist right, even though they would probably admit they'd rather work for the Christian, and 2.) an arguably few Christians possess the moral courage and unwavering faith in God to tell their safety managers the truth about their loyalty and priorities. They have succumbed to the business model. They have become of the world and in the world. In effect, they have left Jesus at home on Take Your God to Work Day. This is both sad and troubling because in a way it makes the atheist more honest about his principles, even though they may be spiritually bankrupt.
The atheist has a few more things going for him. There are those that will argue his bottom line of a higher profit margin, though when viewed in the long term I would be tempted to dispute this considering that employee turnover for the Christian may be drastically lower than for the atheist. That's neither here nor there. The best part of being an atheist simply must be not having to deal with the Wild Man.
I'm going to be very honest here. God makes me crazy. Totally unpredictable, reckless to the point of irresponsibility (from our limited vantage point) and an absolute crusader/irritant/show-off of the Highest Order. He allows us, His special children, to be put in these horrific situations, work our tails off, try our hardest as we know He wants us to, then what does He do? He leaps in at the last minute when all else has failed and our resources are exhausted and we're at our wit's end and saves the day. Total showboat...and utterly magnificent. I love Him and His way..but He does make me certifiably bat-snot. But to be fair, only He can pull it off though many a mortal (including myself) has tried, and He pulls it off well. But beneath all the stars of heaven....what a busy-body! But don't take my word for it. Anyone who has walked with Him knows that you can't shut Him out of your life. Like the impossible in-law you can bolt the door, turn off the porch light, hide under the covers and pretend you're not home when all of a sudden, in the midst of a crisis or worse when things are apparently going just fine...."TA-DA! It's Me, The Living God here to stir things up! Aren't you glad?" In the words of C.S. Lewis, "God is a transcendental interferer." True, Lord. I love you, but it's true...and I thank You that it is true because I shudder to think what this world would be like without your nosing about. Untold disasters have been averted, untold lives changed and transformed, all because of You.
The atheist doesn't have to deal with this, and when things go awry in his world he throws out words like "karma" and "destiny" and "natural forces" and then tucks himself in for a long night's sleep amidst books and papers that enthusiastically back his untenable position.
I wonder sometimes if, in the dead of night, the atheist is haunted by these words, words that elude him upon awakening, words that would convict him of the pointlessness of his self-deception and denial.
"It's time we awaken to the fact that conformity to a sick society is to be sick." - Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline: the path to spiritual growth.
We need to take Jesus to work with us. Roughly 1/3 of our lives should never be spent outside of the company of Christ. And He's a gentleman, our Lord, and not one to intrude when we blatantly reject His companionship, and to buy into the business model of how to govern our affairs in industry and employment (ie. sans Christ) is to do exactly that. If taking Christ for a ride in your car during rush hour - knowing that the Savior of Mankind is sitting in the seat next to you, watching you, loving you - results in a dramatic reduction in explosions of anger at other drivers, untoward bursts of profanity and lessened use of one's "driving finger", then what sort of powerful results would we see in our lives to have Christ with us each day, every day as we go about the business of our careers?
Lastly, not only do you need Christ at work to keep your moral compass true, but the people you work with need Him there as well. No atheist can be trusted to run into a burning building, he wouldn't risk his own god. But a Christian boss or co-worker is someone you can have next to you, knowing that in their heart is the observation that there is no greater love than someone who would lay down their lives for their friends.
Bring Jesus to work with you. Walk away from shame and towards true love. He wants to come and wants you to trust Him.

On Being President

On Being President

I slept in today, but that’s okay because they like me weak. I think the word is pliable. Yes, that’s me: President Pliable! What a legacy.

I drank too much last night, and I don’t trust my doctor; he always has the pills I want but they never make me sharper or better, just softer. Nice guy, though. Always friendly. One more part of all the comforts and pleasures a man could ever want. I feel more like a king than a democratically-elected president of a constitutional republic, and of course…it’s good to be the king. I won’t even write in this diary about the nights I’ve had!

My better half grows more distant. I know things are amiss but it’s almost as if we’re on different paths, as if she’s pursuing something totally apart from me and I know that she is. Most of me wishes her the best, but a big part of me is jealous and afraid, always afraid. There’s the real danger of being killed (the history books were right!) and the dagger slipped between the ribs always seems to come from someone loved and trusted. I would post extra guards on her but I don’t trust the guards either. I don’t trust anyone. My only sleep comes from medication, and for that small blip of freedom I remain forever grateful.

I golf a lot, and the travel is nice. Talk about the first of first class! It gets old though. The food is always the same (I NEVER get to eat what I want, it seems. Dear God, would I like a Big Mac right now!!!) and Air Force One is a prison plane. I don’t like the way the Secret Service looks at me. If they killed or allowed to be killed (hey! I can be generous!) JFK then what would they do to me? And the military scares the living hell out of me, but that’s just the curse of being a Democrat, I suppose.

I never wanted to be an icon. I don’t even know what an icon is! “The first black president”, yeah right. I’m not exactly black and I’m certainly not exactly president. I’ve been told that people wept in the streets when I was “elected”, but I don’t get to speak to them anymore, ever. I hate that. I was able to sneak away from the Secret Service once…once….when I first moved into this lonely, sterile place. That ticked them off royally, me going back to Chicago. They allowed it but hated it, and never allowed it again. At first I thought they were afraid for me, that some klanner would wipe me out in the street. But now the only people with guns I’m afraid of are standing outside my door. Reminds me of the days when I said “to be young, black and male means to be in prison”, and I was right. Still am. The prison I’m now is worse than all the others, and the only parole is obedience. I’m a dog.

I never wanted to be feared either. I just wanted what I’ve always wanted, and what everyone I really know wants…to be loved. And no one loves me, at least that’s what it feels like. The kids look at me funny, Michele doesn’t even talk to me, and my friends aren’t allowed to even call. And I did this, all of it! Just by saying “yes, I can” (lol).  It feels like I’ve run my race, pursued my poor choices to their logical conclusion and isolation, shame and misery is my lot. There are times I wonder if I’m even feared. Nothing seems real. I don’t think I’m capable of love anymore because I’m so alone. If I could fast forward through the next two years I would, and the saddest part is that about 200 million people I call neighbors and constituents wish the exact same thing I do now. I’m so alone.

I miss my mother. I miss my father. I miss being normal, natural, alive. I remember feeling like I could be saved, now it feels like salvation is impossible.  I’ve been placed on the pinnacle and the only true reward I’m experiencing now is that I am denied the freedom to even die. But in my heart of hearts I look at the salvation of others and hope and pray that it’s real, that such a thing can happen to even me. I never wanted this, never asked for it, never guessed it could happen. I miss Hawaii, miss being young and silly and high and in love. I’m the leader of the free world and I love no one, least of all myself. And it doesn’t feel like anyone loves me.

If there is a God, please save me.

President Barack Obama

PS – I don’t mean to whine. I’ve got everything. But the next time someone hands me a speech and says “say this” I’m going to lose my freaking mind!!!

The Patron Saint of Transcending Love

Her name is Terri Calvesbert and she's beautiful.
When she was less than 2 years old there was a house fire...many will make big of the details in the ever-present blame game, but I'm relatively sure no one intended to burn a beautiful baby girl beyond recognition. She cooked in her crib. It's the kind of tragedy that wrenches the soul, that sells many newspapers, that inflates the egos of many writers as they tweak reader's souls with poignancy and then tell themselves "job well done" before moving on to the next project. Terri, however, continues... and continues to amaze.
The fire scorched 90% of her infant's body. It destroyed her hair, nose, her lips, her ears, her fingers and one of her feet. She's 17 now, and interested in boys. My heart sings when I think of this girl, for she encompasses....ENCOMPASSES...beauty. I love her, but then again I pretty much love everybody. But she's outdone me, and probably always will: she loves the person who started the fire. It wasn't deliberate, but it was a stupid accident that could have been easily prevented. And what does Terri say? "It's okay. People make mistakes." Understand, please, that because of the scarring Terri's skin doesn't grow and stretch anymore. She has to have surgery just to fit into her own body, and all of them are painful. Even the reporters, at least one of whom is lovingly devoted to Terri's story, have lost track of how many times she's been in the operating room.
You really just have to see this girl in action. She is something to see. Witness her hugging her friends and family with hands that have no fingers. See her go bowling. See her eat french fries. See her smile. But don't take my word for it:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyUsL2PfclY
I remember a day not too distant when I raised my fist to heaven and cursed because something in my daily life didn't go my way. I've raged in traffic, yelled at loved ones who've disappointed me, been angry at pets and strangers and even at God Himself. And never once did I at those times express gratitude that my skin fit, that my fingers could curl into a fist, that I had lips to form around those words of cursing or ears to hear the silent hurt that God must feel when one of His children acts like a spoiled ass. I'm so very important, I thought to myself. And beautiful! And smart and clever and awesome. Pah! The old adage holds true...there are those on this planet whose shoes I am not worthy to latch, and as Terri goes to her high school prom surrounded by people whose own lives have been transcended by her courage and by her very existence, I am reminded of my smallness and inspired to greatness by Terri's own transcendence.
I wish I were a little younger so that I could be her prom date, maybe even sneak a smooch out of the deal. You know, one of those real kisses that means something, that forges a union between two souls...especially when one soul is more mature, more developed, more lovely, more wonderful than my own. Now THAT'S a smooch, one for the record books. I live for such smooches, and always (as a bachelor) seek out someone better than myself. But I'm too old for her, and she's too good for me, although she would be the last to say so. But a man can dream, can't he? And a man can be inspired by the relentless courage and beauty of spirit of someone who has transcended human existence in this thin, material world. Such is Terri Calvesbert. She's my hero. She's my hottie. She knows how to love and knows it well. Free of bitterness and resentment, she's a wonder and I myself wonder if I can ever be like her. But hope springs eternal!
This is not my pity party. This is the opening of my Return to Writing, long overdue. People are my profession, they always come first, they are (after God) what is best in life. I once hated life for a bad car buy from a dealership (well...I DID get ripped off!) and this angel looks in a mirror every day knowing she will never make the standard of superficial uber-hotness that plagues the existence of us all via mass media...and yet she knows more about love and more about life than some of the greatest romantic or philosophical minds that have ever lived. I intend to fulfill what God has laid out for me, to do what I'm good at and what makes me feel good: help people. Watch them transform. Be part of their transcendence. So I'll take a close look at current events and the lay of the land, add a bit of wit and sarcasm, a dose of common sense and a loving slap upside the head and do what I do best.
But my inspiration is a 17 year old girl in the UK who laughs at life and loves in spite of loss. Even now I struggle with my own shallowness as she herself doesn't consider her experiences to be loss, but calls them gain.
I take some comfort from a rather odd concept that satisfies my notion of God's justice. He is the author only of goodness, never of misery and suffering which He hates more than we do. The odd concept is this: once, long ago, in heaven when we were souls in paradise and not yet in human form, God asked us what we would like to do with our lives. When we told Him, He was quite honest about how that would come about, that there would be suffering involved and trial and heartbreak. It would hurt, but we would get there. We would become who we had chosen to be, and God would never force this upon us. The choice was ours, and we chose it.
I chose to help people transcend who they are, to be a part of them realizing their own dream for themselves in Christ's Kingdom, that Kingdom of the Heavenlies that is coming even as I write these words. Nothing brings me more joy than to see people step out of and above themselves, and to be a part of that. Such is my life's work, and one person in particular loved me enough to see through my facades and charades, to see with God's eyes who I could be and wanted to be, and I am thankful.
Terri Calvesbert perhaps chose to love and to spread love. She went for the big enchilada, and for that she is and remains my hero and my inspiration and the most beautiful woman I've ever heard of. She is the patron saint of this blog, in all the strange places it is sure to go in the realms of politics and conspiracies and spiritual warfare.
Thank you, Terri. I love you too.