tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272286592024-03-07T04:22:44.044-05:00Ranelli RantsSane Opinions in an Unfit World!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger263125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-29065056196886561772013-09-07T04:11:00.001-04:002013-09-07T04:53:04.761-04:00The Claptrap of Chiropractic Care (and other pseudoscientific cures)<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 15.833333015441895px; line-height: 17.5px;">By Frank J. Ranelli</span><br />
<b><i><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif";"><br /></span></i></b>
<b><i><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif";">There is no alternative to medicine. Medicine works,
everything else is quackery.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif";">
<span style="background: white; color: #333333;">Why medicine and "alternative
medicine" is a false dichotomy — and a potentially dangerous or even
lethal one.</span></span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif";"><span style="background: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></i></b></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Daniel_David_Palmer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Daniel_David_Palmer.jpg" width="163" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">D.D. Palmer</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
</span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A reader and interlocutor asks</span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">,<i> “After my car accident I chose acupuncture,
massage and a chiropractor versus painkillers and muscle relaxers. Some would
consider those 'alternative medicines'; some not. What’s your opinion?<span style="color: #cc0000;">”</span></i></span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><i><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif";">
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /><br />
<!--[endif]--></span></i><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Actually, two of the three medical treatments
mentioned are forms of "alternative medicine." Unfortunately, modern
science has conclusively demonstrated acupuncture provides “no measurable
medicinal benefits” beyond "patient confirmation bias," or having a
“placebo effect<a href="file:///C:/Users/NurseSusan/Documents/MSWord/The%20Claptrap%20of%20Chiropractory.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>,”
nothing more. In other words, acupuncture has no empirical, efficacious
benefits in treating ailments, physiological discomfort, or somatic pain (acute
or chronic) whatsoever. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br />Massage Therapy, however, particularly deep tissue
massage, does render an actual attenuation of symptoms, such as soreness, aides
in tissue reparation, and palliative pain relief. (The mechanistic nature of
relief acceded by massage therapy is multifarious, comparatively complex, and
beyond the scope of this exposition; but, it is indeed a proven and effective
form of adjunct medical treatment accepted by the A.M.A. and its respective
boards.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br />Simply put, chiropractic care is a pseudoscience<a href="file:///C:/Users/NurseSusan/Documents/MSWord/The%20Claptrap%20of%20Chiropractory.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 115%;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>, steeped in metaphysical
fatuity and esoteric claims, unfalsifiable, specious holistic assertions, and
plain untestable nonsense — and, in many instances, may cause additional harm
through arterial lining tears in the neck during cervical vertebrae
“subluxation adjustments.” Unfortunately, patient deaths due to stroke, caused
by blood clot formations from the arterial tears while undergoing
"vertebral subluxation" is documented fact, which the chiropractic
community vehemently denies. Chiropractory is akin to homeopathy or faith
healing, for example, which have been thoroughly debunked and discredited as
effective medical treatments.<br /><br />The American Medical Association deems the
practice of chiropractory an "unscientific cult." Numerous books and
countless articles written by epidemiologists, pathophysiologists,
immunologists, etc., muckraking journalists and expert skeptics warn of the unscientific
and disproved pathophysiological claims of chiropractory. In fact, in 2010, The
General Chiropractic Council (GCC) of the United Kingdom released this
statement<a href="file:///C:/Users/NurseSusan/Documents/MSWord/The%20Claptrap%20of%20Chiropractory.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 115%;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>: “<i>The chiropractic vertebral subluxation complex is an historical concept
but it remains a theoretical model. It is not supported by any clinical
research evidence that would allow claims to be made that it is the cause of
disease or health concerns.</i>” </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br />The founder and original expositor of chiropractic
care, D.D. Palmer, was a charlatan, a huckster, and a con man who believed in
the healing properties of magnets. He also rejected pharmacology and rebuffed
the Germ Theory — the unassailable scientific basis for how pathogenic microbes
cause diseases. Sadly, even today, many practitioners of chiropractic care
refute the pathophysiological</span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif";">
</span><span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">role
microorganisms play in illnesses and diseases. Worst still, when Palmer created
the <i>Palmer School of Chiropractic</i> in
1897, he considered it a business endeavor and a religion, not a pedagogical
institution of medicine.<br /><br />Indeed, he averred sans any evidence or peer-reviewed
analyses, "That all disease was caused by interruptions in the flow of
‘innate intelligence,’ a ‘vital nervous energy or life force’ that represented
God's presence in man." No one, to this day, knows exactly what Palmer
meant when he made this overt and inscrutable proclamation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br />Moreover, as a late 19<sup>th</sup> century Spiritist,
the megalomaniacal Palmer fashioned himself as a messianic medical redeemer,
comparing himself in courtroom proceedings to Jesus, Mohammed, and ironically,
Joseph Smith, another infamous and contemporary flimflam artist and founder of
the Mormon Religion. He further and incredulously proclaimed the techniques of
chiropractic care came to him through ethereal “inspiration,” delivered
paranormally by a deceased physician putatively named, Jim Atkinson. That’s a
lot of <i>woo</i> to swallow from a man who
abjured from imbibing proven remedial medications! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">In short, chiropractory, its late founder, the dishonorable
grifter, Daniel David Palmer, and their modern cognatic practitioners are
cranks and quacks who "sell" unscientific medical treatments,
superstition, claptrap, unempirical twaddle, and unproven (or disproved)
medicinal methodologies to an unaware and credulous public. Lastly, as always,
it comes down to money, politics, and avariciousness; chiropractic care is a
billion-dollar industry with a considerable, worldwide lobbyist presence, which
ensures it remains a viable and prosperous business enterprise within the
United States (and internationally) to bilk billions of dollars out of an
uneducated, unsuspecting, gullible, and naive populous. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Segoe UI, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /> In the final
analysis, chiropractory is pseudoscientific, svengalian </span></span><span style="font-family: Segoe UI, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.5px;">skulduggery, </span></span><span style="font-family: Segoe UI, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">which
long ago modern, empirical science and western evidentiary medicine discredited.
However, it remains an available “treatment” as an "alternative
medicine" not due to its proven, evidentiary-based findings, but through
blandished politics, a lack of public education, and simple greed. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br />Consequently, the established and accredited recommendation
is to stick with proven therapeutic or curative methods, such as massage
therapy, physical and occupational therapies, and of course modern, empirical
medicine. In the best interests of your
health and wallet, eschew the fatuous and facile nostrums of chiropractic care
and its bogus hokum. After all, doing so just might save your neck and your
life.<span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">-------------------</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Further Reading:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;">1.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;">“7 Things You Need to Know About Chiropractic
Therapy” — Daniel Florien; </span><a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/unreasonablefaith/2009/04/7-things-you-need-to-know-about-chiropractic-therapy/" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;">http://www.patheos.com/blogs/unreasonablefaith/2009/04/7-things-you-need-to-know-about-chiropractic-therapy/</a><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; text-indent: -0.25in;">2. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; text-indent: -0.25in;">“Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts about
Alternative Medicine” — Edzard Ernst and Simon Singh (Oct., 2009); </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Edzard%20Ernst&search-alias=books&sort=relevancerank" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-indent: -0.25in;">http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Edzard%20Ernst&search-alias=books&sort=relevancerank</a><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; text-indent: -0.25in;">3. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; text-indent: -0.25in;">“Chiropractic” — Wikipedia; </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiropractic#History" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-indent: -0.25in;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiropractic#History</a><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; text-indent: -0.25in;">4. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; text-indent: -0.25in;">“Chiropractic's Dirty Secret: Neck Manipulation
and Strokes” — Stephen Barrett, M.D.; </span><a href="http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/chirostroke.html" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-indent: -0.25in;">http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/chirostroke.html</a><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; text-indent: -0.25in;">5. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; text-indent: -0.25in;">“Chiropractic” — The Skeptics Dictionary,
(online format); </span><a href="http://www.skepdic.com/chiro.html#1" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-indent: -0.25in;">http://www.skepdic.com/chiro.html#1</a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 14.999999046325684px;">Footnotes:</span></span></div>
<div>
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="edn1">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/NurseSusan/Documents/MSWord/The%20Claptrap%20of%20Chiropractory.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> “The powerful placebo
effect: fact or fiction?” — (<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Kienle GS,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Kiene
H.) </span></span><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?uid=9449934&cmd=showdetailview&indexed=google">http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?uid=9449934&cmd=showdetailview&indexed=google</a><br /><br /> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/NurseSusan/Documents/MSWord/The%20Claptrap%20of%20Chiropractory.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 115%;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> “Chiropractic is the most significant
nonscientific health-care delivery system in the United States.” —<a href="http://www.chirobase.org/01General/skeptic.html">William T. Jarvis, Ph.D<br /><br />.</a></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/NurseSusan/Documents/MSWord/The%20Claptrap%20of%20Chiropractory.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 115%;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> “Claims
of Subluxation Causing Disease Prohibited in Great Britain” — (May, 2010); <a href="http://www.chiroaccess.com/News/Claims-of-Subluxation-Causing-Disease-Prohibited-in-Great-Britain.aspx?id=0000165">http://www.chiroaccess.com/News/Claims-of-Subluxation-Causing-Disease-Prohibited-in-Great-Britain.aspx?id=0000165</a><br /><br /> ###</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div id="edn3">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div id="edn3">
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-28373334620503320652012-01-21T12:56:00.002-05:002012-01-21T13:05:26.843-05:00Quote of the Day!<p class="NormalCalibri"><span ><span ><i>“It is the skillful quill of the pointed pen, and not the might of the blunted sword, that can quell even the most ardent of insurrections of inequities.”</i> —Frank J. Ranelli</span></span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-79855441281657529882011-07-18T05:45:00.027-04:002012-02-09T02:53:56.479-05:00NO JUSTICE FOR JON: Florida Judge Kills the Rule of Law on Broken Back of Dead Motorcyclist<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhszulRu-D4qOePLvthU8CYcaB4JrzKzji_V9tQRcx0F70PYfspjTbVfkQBGOxN1Bw9NBOgBCWDWoUze5oJmUTaBFFTKQr77Nv38_Uka9Vu34jNqteIBvKqmNO8vV1yA9VBgkO_/s1600/12454_1188568390583_1119534386_30584192_695529_n.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 258px; height: 269px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhszulRu-D4qOePLvthU8CYcaB4JrzKzji_V9tQRcx0F70PYfspjTbVfkQBGOxN1Bw9NBOgBCWDWoUze5oJmUTaBFFTKQr77Nv38_Uka9Vu34jNqteIBvKqmNO8vV1yA9VBgkO_/s1600/12454_1188568390583_1119534386_30584192_695529_n.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" > <span style="font-style: italic;">Today, America officially died as the last bastion of justice for the wrongfully deceased and their families. Any hint of optimism we may have had left, which was not much, must now be eradicated from our conscience. Abjection is the new standard of jurisprudence in America</span>.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />First, we had O.J. Simpson’s baffling acquittal led by his rhyming lineup of “dream team” lawyers. Then, Casey Anthony's “trial of the century” circus act grants her a staggering verdict of innocence juggled and dropped on our fragile psyche by the incompetent State of Florida. Now, add another name and face to the list of late victims stripped of their due justice: Jon Michael Green.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />On May 3, 2010, Jon Michael Green, age 23, lost his life[1] tragically to a distracted, careless, and negligent driver in Southeast Florida. Jon was traveling eastbound on his 2007 Kawasaki motorcycle in Pembroke Pines, Florida, when a driver named Fran Folic failed to account for Jon in the opposite lane, failed to yield the right of way, and turned left directly into his path, ejecting him from the motorbike instantly. Jon first struck the pavement more than fifty feet away from the initial point of impact, tumbled uncontrollably several more times before finally coming to rest against a sewer drain catch basin.<br /><br />He was unconscious, unresponsive, bleeding profusely, and suffering from a litany of internal and external ghastly injuries. And yes, Jon was wearing a helmet. Jon died less than 48-hours later in a level-one trauma unit from massive and catastrophic injuries.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />Unfortunately, Jon didn’t just die from his body-shattering injuries, his family had to withdraw life support and watch him helplessly suffocate to death in torment. Why? A team of neurosurgeons and trauma specialists unanimously agreed Jon’s injuries were so substantial, so complete and irreversible, that he was a “locked-in” quadriplegic[2] with a fractured and crushed spine, unable to breathe on his own, unable to move at all, not even flutter his eyelids—his condition was beyond grave; it was hopeless.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />Jon’s mind, however, was alert, horrifyingly intact in fact, and keenly aware of his own imminent death. Jon’s only means by which to communicate his mental lucidity: a nurse holding open his eyelids manually while doctors assessed his mental status through a series of simple, “look <span style="font-style: italic;">left</span> for ‘no’ or<span style="font-style: italic;"> right</span> for ‘yes’ questions and answers. Jon’s binary acknowledgments through his left or right eye movements showed they where consistently and appropriately proper. He was trapped silently and impotently inside his own completely broken, hemorrhaging, and dying body. The only compassionate decision afforded to his family was to free Jon’s tortured mind from a flaccid body through death.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />Then, on July 15, 2011, more than a year later, after numerous delays, baseless continuances, and farcical defense shenanigans, in a small, quiet courthouse minus any media attention in Hollywood, Florida, the accused, Fran Folic, was implausibly exonerated of Jon’s death. After nearly five hours of tense courtroom testimony, Judge Arlene Joy Simon acquitted Fran Folic of <span style="font-style: italic;">failing to yield the right of way</span> and, as a result, blameless for Jon’s fatal injuries. The grounds for such an incongruent decision? No Intent.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />A driver of an automobile may now presumably drive carelessly and negligently—according to the dishonorable, perhaps venal, and certainly malfeasant Judge Arlene Joy Simon—so long as their resulting actions (in this case, a tragic and fatal motorcycle crash), do not show deliberate “intent.” Judge Simon shockingly opined, since punishing the driver of the SUV, Fran Folic, would not bring back the dead, she pronounced, against logic and overwhelming and indisputable evidence, the accused was “not guilty.” In the eyes of the State of Florida, and in the homunculus mind of Judge Simon, Fran Folic was not guilty because she and her own two living children had suffered too much angst while waiting for trial. Pity the living. Punish the dead.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />Yes, you read that correctly, a driver can turn left while failing to yield the right of way to oncoming traffic, cause a fatality, and still be acquitted because "the defendant did not intend harm” and “it will not bring your son back." The ignoble Judge Simon uttered this obtuse and obscene verdict from the bench to the decedent’s mother, Susan R. Green, with virtually no deliberation and only moments after closing arguments. Justice, and this justice of the court, is not only blind, deaf to reason, but also callous and cruel.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br /></span></span>J<span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">udge Arlene Joy Simon ruled unconscionably, since the defendant did not <span style="font-style: italic;">willfully</span> intend to strike the motorcyclist when turning left and failing to yield to oncoming traffic, she therefore could not find her blameworthy. Still worse, Judge Simon disregarded the corroborating testimony of a near dozen eyewitnesses and the investigating police detective, evidence, pictures, reports, measurements, calculations, and charts of the crash scene inexorably showing Ms. Folic at fault. Moreover, the judge misconstrued, painfully mangled, and even ignored outright Florida’s traffic statutes and existing laws.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />Parenthetically, while testimony and evidence from a related civil trial are inadmissible in a criminal proceeding in Florida, the defendant, through her liability insurance carrier Allstate, determined Ms. Folic to be the “at-fault driver” and settled the wrongful death claim out of court for an undisclosed amount. Further, Ms. Folic was cited by the Pembroke Pines Police Department, after a four-month homicide investigation, with two moving traffic violations, “failure to yield the right of way through a highway crossing section,” and, “failure to yield the right of way when turning left.” The deceased, Jon Green, was not posthumously cited nor did the police traffic investigation or the homicide investigation uncover any wrongdoing on Mr. Green’s behalf.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">In other words, it was a mockery, a sham; a kangaroo court proceeding in a banana republic presided over by a prejudiced judge. It was a sick joke; a grave transgression perpetrated on the Green family and a courtroom debacle that disgraces the memory of a young, blameless motorcyclist who lost his life at the hands of negligent SUV driver. Or, as one bewildered but astute courtroom observer asked in disbelief, “How is it that you're ‘allowed’ legally to fail to yield to traffic? It makes no sense at all!”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">As a result of this contemptible edict by a legally illiterate judge in Broward County, Florida, a person need not heed traffic laws any longer, as there are no consequences to one’s neglectful actions, even when they </span><em style="font-family: verdana;">fail their</em><span style="font-family:verdana;"> </span><em style="font-family: verdana;">duty of care</em><span style="font-family:verdana;"> to another motorist when operating an automobile. Consequently, going forward, according to the vacant Judge, Arlene Joy Simon of Florida’s 17th Judicial Circuit court, the punishment of </span><em style="font-family: verdana;">lawfully </em><span style="font-family:verdana;">wrong actions is </span><em style="font-family: verdana;">vitiated</em><span style="font-family:verdana;"> when there is </span><em style="font-family: verdana;">no intent</em><span style="font-family:verdana;">. Egregious and negligent accidents and crashes, however, are permissible.</span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />So, people of Florida and America too, listen up, drive as inattentively as you like with total disregard for public safety, just be confident you didn’t “intend” to speed, or “intend” to run over pedestrians, or “intend” to crash into motorcyclists, etc. Spin the steering wheel in any direction you prefer, spin your wheels as hastily as you desire, mash the accelerator at will—hell, blindfold yourself as you enter the vehicle, but know, no matter the outcome—even death, it’s the intent, or lack thereof, that really matters. Neglect, it seems, even when it results in paralysis and death, is now officially sanctioned by Florida and their deplorable Judge, Arlene Joy Simon.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />I once said modestly, “I navigate the avenues of life best when I traffic in words.” However, this time, I have no words expressive enough to traverse this travesty of injustice.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br /></span></span><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 10"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 10"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Cfranelli%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:applybreakingrules/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:usefelayout/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:SimSun; panose-1:2 1 6 0 3 1 1 1 1 1; mso-font-alt:宋体; mso-font-charset:134; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 680460288 22 0 262145 0;} @font-face {font-family:Verdana; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1593833729 1073750107 16 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:"\@SimSun"; panose-1:2 1 6 0 3 1 1 1 1 1; mso-font-charset:134; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 680460288 22 0 262145 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:SimSun;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:68%;" ><span style="font-family: arial;">Author’s Note:</span></span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:8pt;" ><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:78%;" > A blog in honor of the memory of Jon Michael Green, entitled, <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://jonmichaelgreen.blogspot.com/">NO JUSTICE FOR JON</a>, has been set up by the Green Family so people may voice their outrage publicly over Judge Arlene Joy Simon’s egregiously wrongheaded </span><span style="font-size:78%;"><i style="font-family: arial;">not guilty</i></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:78%;" > verdict and, “to broadcasting the injustice of the malfeasant ruling by the dishonorable Judge Arlene Joy Simon of Florida’s 17th Judicial Circuit court.” Membership is </span><span style="font-size:78%;"><i style="font-family: arial;">not required</i></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:78%;" > to leave a comment (simply chose “anonymous” in the comment box section), but please also consider joining this worthy, cost-free cause to help put an end to </span><span style="font-size:78%;"><i style="font-family: arial;">non sequitur</i></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:78%;" > decisions by activist judges who chose to legislate from the bench, rather than uphold and follow the letter of the law.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">_____________________<br />References and notes:</span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />[1] http://www.vindy.com/news/tributes/2010/may/07/jon-michael-gree/guestbook/</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />[2] “Tetraplegia,” or quadriplegia, is a devastating state of illness or injury that leaves the victim with no motor or sensory function and a complete loss or near total impairment in controlling bowel and bladder, independent limb movement, sexual function, digestion, breathing, including cranial muscle paralysis, and other autonomic functions. A “locked in” quadriplegic usually retains some or most of their mental faculties, typically aware of their grave state, but unable to move or communicate with the outside world in any fashion.</span></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-8688149477406255762010-08-24T04:39:00.006-04:002010-08-24T04:57:27.397-04:00On the Immorality of Christianity<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size:120%;"><b><i><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The languid success of logic and facts to dislodge believers from their mistaken beliefs, calls for a new course in the claim for morality’s mantle; religion fails humanity on ethics.</span><br /></span></span></i></b></span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" ><br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >There appears to be no amount of reason or facts that will extricate believer</span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >s from their cognitive biases, or the nucleus of their intractable, mistaken, and teleological belief</span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >s. Non-theists, in my humble, yet scholarly opinion, need to set aside the Pathos and Logos based argum</span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >ents. Instead, nonbelievers must begin to advocate on the ethical grounds, that, reveal</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgipNJYGA36sgEpqdWLlf1XqVmx97rVQgyty7Z8hgHcsoqEpxEdRteeUwGDkc5JuCq6S__lKuBP_vdmhYttqVAZ5xpddj90WTIBYURANy9R7vpep4qZCu4sObplIJOSM1pc4QTa/s1600/jesus-carrying-cross-bloody.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 5pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 263px; height: 231px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgipNJYGA36sgEpqdWLlf1XqVmx97rVQgyty7Z8hgHcsoqEpxEdRteeUwGDkc5JuCq6S__lKuBP_vdmhYttqVAZ5xpddj90WTIBYURANy9R7vpep4qZCu4sObplIJOSM1pc4QTa/s320/jesus-carrying-cross-bloody.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5508893507420124002" border="0" /></a></span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >ed religion is an antago</span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >nist to humanity's progress and ultimately, its surviva</span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >l. It usurps</span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" > our innate</span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" > nature of goodness, and transgresses on our naturally </span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >earned ethics.<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >Further, consider, the believer</span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" > must first succes</span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >s</span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >fully defend the idea of providence, which they c</span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >annot, and then, the veracity of such a notion, </span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >which has been an abysmal failure for the faithful. The devot</span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >ees of Christ, fortified only with ancient</span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" > apocryphal and worrisome scripture—putting it mildly, canno</span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >t attempt to mount a defense</span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" > that religion offers us a moral mapping of the mind</span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >. In fact, instead, I would argue on the offe</span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >nsive—on the immorality of Christianity.<br /><br />Chiefly, a person of Christian religious belief needs quite a bit of instilling indoctrination, in fact utter brainwashing, to convince one's self that they, for merely being born, are worthy of “Hell” because an alleged ancient ancestor ate of a forbidden fruit—the idea of “original sin.” Christianity edifies, and thereby institutionalizes, the fallacious concept of salvation through willful subjugation and degradation of our native decency. (This is why, mistakenly, “Christ followers” feel they need a "Savior.”)<br /><br />Yet, it takes brutish masochism and sheer madness to accept the outrageously wicked and ghoulish notion of vicarious redemption through prostrating exaltation, and then evangelizing for two millennia the murder of an Antiquity's age, itinerant and eccentric preacher. That a bloody, torturous human sacrifice—the ostensible crucifixion at </span><span style="font-size:85%;"><st1:place><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Calvary</span></st1:place></span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >, found at the center of Christianity—can cleanse away your responsibilities and actions in life. (Actually, there is <em>scant</em> evidence, of any type, for a historical Jesus and<em> zero</em> evidence for a divine Jesus. The dubious and anonymous, not eponymous, four Gospels found in the New Testament, are rife with contradictions and written, at their earliest, decades after a historical Jesus would have lived, if he did at all.)<br /><br />Moreover, the notion of a human oblation, as a means of vicarious redemption—scapegoating, to a perceived, totalitarian deity is antithetical to human morality; it is the essence of immorality as it is incompatible with human sovereignty, self-respect, and even life itself. Therefore, Christianity is not only silent on true morality—reciprocity, altruism, liberty and life, it is a purveyor of a litany of insidious ideas, spanning infanticide to homophobia, the endorsement of slavery—treating neighboring conquered states as farm equipment—to perpetuating misogyny and the bridge to righteous murder.<br /><br />Religion and the Christian belief in particular, is tyranny of the mind, when properly understood, can only be construed, at best, as immoral. Wretchedly, it fetters the believer to fear of punishment even after death. Still worse, Christianity compels its ardent activists to love and worship an ethereal, celestial tyrant in life, learning only of his insidious plan through esoteric, immutable texts. Indeed, a cursory stroll through any number of passages in Leviticus or Deuteronomy, naming only a few books of biblical spite, reveals an unmatched wickedness commanded by Abraham's god.<br /><br />Conversely, morality is innate. Evolution is conclusive on this fact. It is a far better "selector" to the survival of the species—humans, than divinely inspired murder, mayhem, genocide and human enslavement. Christianity, on the other hand, commands compulsory fear, obligatory love, the subjugation of women, and the willful suspension of progressive reasoning via a theology of abject despair.<br /><br />Consequently, rational ethics, not revealed religion, satisfyingly obliterates the maladaptive and unethical irrationality believers use to justify their god and even their sect of faith. It is through a systematic breakdown of the illogical fallacies religionists use to prop up their dysfunctional immorality—addictive dependence on a non-existent deity—where we find a conduit conducive to modern, civilized morality, secular and scientific ethics.<br /><br />And so, humankind, despite a vile, prolonged era of religious perversion of our intrinsic virtue, remains moral. We have earned it through millions of years of evolution. While religion stands regrettably as a dark, sinister reminder of the true depravity dogma breeds and passes on to its true believers.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:Verdana;font-size:78%;" >— About the Author —</span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:78%;" > <div style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"> </div> <div><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><br />Frank J. Ranelli is an independent scholar of comparative and contemplative religions, skeptic and critic, author and contrarian essayist. Frank has studied extensively Abrahamic-based religions since 2001, with an emphasis on Metaphysics and Philosophy. His erudite and iconoclastic style of provocative writing has been extensively published, and debated widely, in a variety of news outlets and across the Internet since 2006</span>.</span></div></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;" ></span><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-83409265665529122942008-10-07T06:45:00.002-04:002008-10-07T06:51:14.483-04:00Why Palin is a Danger to Us AllA Ranelli Rumination<br />BY FRANK J. RANELLI<br /><br />Tuesday, October 07, 2008<br /><br /><br />If we are to succeed as a nation, we all must be in utter agreement about who Sarah Palin is as a person; she is stunningly uninformed and breathtakingly overconfident. Orwellian with an outward, Machiavellian patina is an aptly just description of Palin.<br /><br />However, her unconcealed, overt certitude is potentially the biggest problem of all. She has mastered the art of flowery platitudes and sneering contempt. All of which, to the low-information, Neanderthal voters we are all unfortunately witnessing first hand from the right wing political spectrum, combined with her tacky, sophomoric charm, actually makes her very attractive, in a very spine-chilling kind of way. She uses blatantly appealing demagoguery to create eerie exultations among a fringe fraction and faction of Americans – the visceral, not cerebral coterie that follows her with frightening credulity.<br /><br />It is this set of events and actions that concerns me the most. She is a glib, authoritarian person who has a Manichean mindset – a dualist – one who only sees the world as good or evil; no nuance, nothing abstract or ever vague. Moreover, after judiciously studying authoritarian personalities for over two years, I can tell you they are loose with facts but stridently persuasive. They are charming, disarming, almost irresistible, yet completely morally bankrupt and amoral. They are hostile toward intellectuals, takes pleasure in deriding academia and immense pride in their willful ignorance.<br /><br />The problem here is they are masters at using base intellect, <em>not</em> intelligence, to plead to people's pathos. (Many grisly dictators of the past were all "gifted" experts at this tactic.) In essence, they are scheming, devious and capable of anything in order to subvert the will of other people in order to achieve their objectives. And their objectives are not inline or in step with a progressive, balanced America – they are wholly recalcitrant reactionaries.<br /><br />Here, with Palin, we see the pathology and pattern of someone infatuated and fixated on one's identity to the exclusion of others – an inborn need for social dominance (often overlooked as merely being "spirited"), personal ambition bereft of circumspection, outrageously aggrandized bragging, arrogant immodesty, and total insensitivity.<br /><br />It is these sophistry skills and nefarious guile that disturbs me greatly. All of these traits are markers identified in one of only two groups of maladaptive, narcissistic personalities – authoritarians and sociopaths.<br /><br />Do I make these indictments lightly, no, but it has become increasingly clear that Sarah Palin's confrontational convictions are more than a benign personality tick; it is a deeper insight into how she would govern a nation in every respect: Unflinchingly autocratic.<br /><br />Stop her, we must!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-73070975334746229992008-10-03T07:46:00.002-04:002008-10-03T07:59:13.007-04:00Palin Delivers during VP Debate (And We All Saw It.)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMnGXaTabc9eHP1J8KjbN9SEZb-WTG87VPQ1A1HdBpdATPyJDBae55j_gUegaX-a9oiSr09ABve0ErmY5goYnfMFSAp-GtqRaMvgAqFTlvEW2HaHDzQpx24oWZ8alR7ojz0fFg/s1600-h/palin_authoritarian.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252895933764892386" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMnGXaTabc9eHP1J8KjbN9SEZb-WTG87VPQ1A1HdBpdATPyJDBae55j_gUegaX-a9oiSr09ABve0ErmY5goYnfMFSAp-GtqRaMvgAqFTlvEW2HaHDzQpx24oWZ8alR7ojz0fFg/s400/palin_authoritarian.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>BY FRANK J. RANELLI<br /><br /><br /><span style="color:#000000;"><em><strong>Part II of my contrarians view as to why and how Sarah Palin was able to delivery for the McCain camp and reinvigorated the base once again.</strong></em><br /></span><br />:: ::<br /><br />In a recent article, “<a href="http://ranellirants.blogspot.com/2008/10/why-palin-will-win-vp-debate.html#links">Why Palin Will Win the VP Debate</a>”, I made the case that she would win, not on acumen, but on style. I argued that “glib stagecraft” and clever ploys of derision would win out the night. I was harangued for suggesting that the appearance of ineptitude, during recent interviews with the conventional press, was deceiving and hid a crafty doggedness for debating people she opposed. I surmised her entire persona is one of calculated disarmament that veiled a skillful debater. It appears, at least in part, I may have been right.<br /><br />I wish I could take comfort in the fact that I may have been prescient in my prediction about how she would debate, but I am only more and deeply concerned. Truly, I wish I had been wrong, but I have studied authoritarian people, like Sarah Palin, for more than two years now and it takes very little effort to identify one after even a cursory glance, let alone a comprehensive analysis, once you know what to look for and how to diagnose the glaring signs.<br /><br />To be clear, Joe Biden did everything right, virtually mistake free, in order to stay about the ground fire salvos Palin was carefully dispatching to pillory him. Biden offered strong, cogent answers and showed a sparkling command of superiority on the issues. It was not a foreboding performance by Palin that mortally wound Obama, but it did stop the McCain hemorrhaging. Nevertheless, Biden still took on a lot of shrapnel from the beguiling ideologue, and darling of the right, Governor Sarah Palin.<br /><br />In fact, Palin did exactly what she has been trained to do – deliver an uncritical, contemptuous attack of belligerent mockery. Authoritarian people do not think; they act. And they act on instinct and emotion alone. They are always loose with facts but stridently persuasive. They are charming, disarming, almost irresistible, yet completely ethically bankrupt and amoral. She did not understand a single obfuscating, sometimes-mangled answer she gave during the debate, but it did not matter. The base of the party, Joe Six-Pack, loved it.<br /><br />The problem here is they (authoritarians) are masters at using base intellect, <em>not</em> intelligence, to appeal to people’s pathos. (Many barbaric dictators through out history have used this same tactic with stunning and ghastly success.) In essence, they are scheming, devious and capable of anything in order to subvert the will of other people in order to achieve their own objectives.<br /><br />Scientific studies have conclusively proven that hardliner conservatives suffer a “cognitive dissonance”; they grapple with nuance, struggle with vagaries, and reject abstract thinking. They are visceral, not cerebral. They are ill-suited for and not capable of collegial deliberation. Further, most are highly intolerant people when someone does not share their narrow paradigm window view of the world.<br /><br />Last night’s put-on was a recital for Palin – it was not a debate. It was absent any lucidity, clearly forced, though a highly successful presentation of chides, condescension and hollow talking points. Palin was even rude and impertinent toward the moderator and Joe Biden, but this is standard operating procedure for an authoritarian person. Assuredly, it was much to the sheer jubilation of the conservative, irascible base.<br /><br />Have you ever watched Bill O’Reilly shout down a guest, ridicule him or her, or use a sneering outrage of indignation to intimidate the person being ostensibly interviewed? Last night you saw a subdued version of Bill O’Reilly in a skirt with lipstick. The visage changes, but the persona and intrinsic need to dominate by fear is omnipresent. Someone must always be blamed (liberals, gays, intellectuals, minorities, etc.) and they (authoritarians) are never at fault – compromise, tolerance, and humility are not an option.<br /><br />The purpose is to play always to basal fears, ignorance, and prejudices; it is never to sensibly discuss or achieve anything other than to eliminate a perceived threat (liberals, gays, intellectuals, minorities, etc.) – it is Orwellian in every way and driven by pure appeals to the audience's emotions.<br /><br />Palin’s folksy, down home hokum and charm is a veneer than acts as subterfuge to hide a venal, vindictive, and brutal outlook towards anyone who disagrees with her recalcitrant and reactionary –certainly radical and fringe – ideology. She lives in a binary world – one of good and evil only. You can easily speculate on your own as to which side anyone that is antithetical to her belief system (liberals, gays, intellectuals, minorities, etc.) falls in this clash of Manichean thinking.<br /><br />One critical point and it’s worth noting. Sarah Palin is a “compartmental thinker.” She cannot see her duplicitous judgments and incompatible positions, her intense hypocrisy and nonsensical answers, nor can she be facilitated to understand her flawed, uncritical, fealty allegiance. Loyalty to people in positions of power she admires is unchallenged, even when they are as egregious and heinous as those committed by someone the likes of George Bush.<br /><br />Hence, Sarah Palin makes resolute statements (such as expanding the powers of the vice president beyond its constitutional bounds) that have no relationship to reality, laws, or facts. These types of detached proclamations are to reinforce her distorted belief of the world through a prism of unquestioned and dangerous beliefs. She is an actor acting on behalf of what she deems is a higher echelon from a higher authority. This is not an accident; it is a dare to defy her and a maneuver that covers up a deep, beseeching cry for legitimacy from a person desperately foundering in a sea of irrelevance and mediocrity. The more you press her, the more deluded she will become and act out, sometimes viciously, if necessary.<br /><br />As Dr. Robert Altermyer suggested (the world’s leading expert on authoritarians), when asked how to deal with an authoritarian person, his reply was stark, “You don’t, and you can’t.” You can only mitigate their influence in society by ensuring they do not obtain positions of power or influence. No amount of rational though can persuade them, as they are quite literally, wholly irrational and mentally unbalanced.<br /><br />Thomas Paine once said, "It is the duty of every patriot to protect his country from its government." After tonight, it is clear that every patriot's duty is to prevent Sarah Palin from becoming the next Vice President of the United States. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-12377391950814908982008-10-01T10:19:00.002-04:002008-10-01T10:27:13.619-04:00Why Palin Will Win the VP Debate<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMCxZsLYT9EZiqwdKr9MGcsrzAeLDss1qJ43eNwvShJGBaim0gVSAevAnwwmjcvz6ZXjJRz61RsjjErZYYow_JGuj0UoBReAUqSkyXzoR4YWACmMCVs86BWQck46U1B1oKftsW/s1600-h/palin-laugh.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252191848686856418" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMCxZsLYT9EZiqwdKr9MGcsrzAeLDss1qJ43eNwvShJGBaim0gVSAevAnwwmjcvz6ZXjJRz61RsjjErZYYow_JGuj0UoBReAUqSkyXzoR4YWACmMCVs86BWQck46U1B1oKftsW/s400/palin-laugh.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><span style="color:#000000;"><strong><em>Palin’s recent gaffes are actually calculated moves to disarm Biden.</em></strong><br /></span><br />BY FRANK J. RANELLI<br />Wednesday, October 01, 2008<br /><br /><br />Sarah Palin’s recent abysmal interviews are a canard. She is not the vapid, seemingly naïve and inexperienced candidate we have been led to believe. The bar of expectation has been deliberately lowered so low that once in front of the debate lectern, she will stun Biden with her slick, pat answers, leaving him flustered and trampled by the hockey mom turned-governor from Alaska.<br /><br />Sound far-fetched or ridiculous? It’s not. Allow me to explain why.Sarah Palin is sandbagging. She is intentionally appearing inept, and at times, outright vacuous and bungling. But she is downplaying and misrepresenting her political skill, guile and debating ability in order to deceive the Obama camp. This was an outright calculated, premeditated ploy in order to lull Sen. Joe Biden into a false sense of security. All of Palin’s botched interviews were done with wily aforethought – they were red herrings and glib stagecraft to hustle Biden.<br /><br />Forget the static currently being transmitted by conservative lackeys feigning consternation over the Palin pick. I have recently watched several video clips from her debates, when she ran for Governor of Alaska in 2006, and she is far more adroit, astute, and shrewd during these debates than recent interviews suggest. In fact, she is a cunning, clever, and crafty woman who knows how to disarm people with her charm and then coldly go in for the kill shot.<br /><br />Vice-presidential debates rarely change the true trajectory or final outcome of presidential elections. If that were the case, Lloyd Bentsen’s legendary 1988 slap down admonishment of Dan Quayle’s ill-advised confessed comparison to John Kennedy would have catapulted Michael Dukakis directly into the Oval Office.<br /><br />However, everyone loves an underdog and this one just happens to be a scheming Pit Bull wearing lipstick from Wasilla. A Palin blistering perform this Thursday night may not be a game-changer in the end for the McCain-Palin camp, but it will stem, at least temporarily, the rising tide and polls currently tacking quite nicely for Obama and Biden. She may or may not know any other Supreme Court cases beyond Roe v. Wade, or a definitive understanding of the Bush Doctrine, but in the end, it may simply not matter.<br /><br />My Prediction:<br /><br />The real Sarah Palin shows up and upstages the elder statesmen Joe Biden, facts, figures, and policy positions be damned.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-41843510043270730262008-09-30T01:23:00.006-04:002008-09-30T02:38:14.177-04:00Religion’s Fruitless Journey<em>A Ranelli Rumination<br /></em>BY FRANK J. RANELLI<br /><br />Written Monday, September 29, 2008<br /><br /><br />All religions, by their very nature, are illogical, fruitless journeys for the weak of mind. Faith is a deceptive and disingenuous path that is a stark dichotomy of danger and delusion. I see faith as a poor attempt to bridge the unknown—a lazy one, barren and hostile toward science and reason, intellect and progression. It requires no evidence, or even credibility, but merely faith itself—which is simply an irrational endeavor into self-delusion out of an innate need, perhaps to assuage one’s own internal doubts about life. I find these ideas personally astonishing and crippling—I see them as a hollow crutch for people who have doubts, fears, and struggle with mortality. Denial of man’s own mortality is the sole purpose he clings to an Iron Age creed and a nonexistent supernatural deity. Ignorance plays a part, but it is more about temporal rejection and acceptance of our own fate and fears. Blindly obedient faith—the uncritical view that fantasy trumps fact—is the indisputable and unpardonable transgression of humanity; it is the wedge that divides our universal commonality into a chasm of intolerable intolerance. Accordingly, proclaiming piousness and quoting apocryphal scripture does not give one the privilege to make a statement of fact sans sufficient and irrefutable evidence, of which, in regards to religion or God, there simply is none.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-31666340992196133642008-09-29T04:04:00.009-04:002008-09-29T06:21:53.505-04:00Bush’s Great Bailout is Merely Fear Du Jour<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBCH0uOfAWiuX9YE6fYfHcj7mecfXtB4QLWeMAbzvGdn2EeiHmBoU9MP99rHhQPZjCrr4Jc9BWcLzw8Y9Icfw6JOVh3aLfbx-2ierJpiZQ2eg1qeoJZmG60YzmfB-lykFhvMEe/s1600-h/Bush_Bleeding_Nation_Dry.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251355854801508242" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBCH0uOfAWiuX9YE6fYfHcj7mecfXtB4QLWeMAbzvGdn2EeiHmBoU9MP99rHhQPZjCrr4Jc9BWcLzw8Y9Icfw6JOVh3aLfbx-2ierJpiZQ2eg1qeoJZmG60YzmfB-lykFhvMEe/s400/Bush_Bleeding_Nation_Dry.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>BY FRANK J. RANELLI<br /><br /><br /><strong><em><span style="color:#000000;">Bush’s bail out of Wall Street is a leap into Robber Baron-style tyranny. Congress must reject this absolutist, radical proposal outright. Rewarding bad behavior on Wall Street, by theft of money obtained through taxpayers on Main Street, is more than perverse it is an insidious act of vile turpitude.<br /></span></em></strong><br />:: ::<br /><br /><br />Unfortunately, President Bush has once again fiendishly wielded fear as a bludgeon to subjugate and savagely browbeat Congress into handing him a blank check – a $700 billion blank check. In the fall of 2003, it was for the now unmitigated debacle in Iraq. Today, it is a diabolic attempt to seal the deal of The Treasury Department’s proposed bail out, which is a naked and obscene nod toward the largest transfer of wealth in human history.<br /><br />As Americans, we have a diseased nation. It is sick with avarice and struck down by false flag fears. Today’s “fear du jour” is the transparent canard presented by President Bush and Treasury Secretary Paulson – that our economy will collapse if we, as a nation, do not act with enormous haste and waste billions of taxpayer’s dollars – immediately. This “me first” malignancy has infected everything over the past eight years from science and religion, to common sense and dignity, and now, fiscal restraint and legislative prudence. It is akin to a malignant cancer that grows exponentially until it kills off the host – society itself.<br /><br />The revised bill Congress is crafting is simple another product built on a propagandist platform put forth by another breathtaking power grab by Bush – this time to aid Wall Street after it has plundered America; it is a distinction without a difference. This plan is not a $700 billion bail out for Wall Street, and it does little, if anything, for Main Street. It is an outright heist borne of an ostensible, yet untrue, exigent initiative that is purely a measure to exploit a coerced, stressed Congress and to extort American’s of our money and our future.<br /><br />This is a dangerous, plenary power grab by the Executive Branch and would simply be legislative-approved despotism if passed in any form or fashion of its current incarnation. Congress must reject this absolutist, radical proposal outright, regardless of how it is larded up or whittled down. True patriotism and real reform must begin with each of us understanding we must help one another for the greater good of the nation. It is not bailing out irresponsible and reckless, colossal-sized corporate institutions that have insatiability fed at the trough of unregulated greed and avarice over the last eight years of Bush imperatives. Rewarding shocking and irresponsible behavior – to the tune of $700 billion – is a formula that emboldens, not condemns, more of the same financial plunder and excessive negligence.<br /><br />We have seen this act before when America was wrongfully handcuffed into Bush’s war of choice in Iraq – a now six-year old, trillion-dollar abyss. The last time Congress rushed recklessly headlong into a dire demand from this administration, we were saddled with the Iraq war and false claims of total annihilation by a Third World, tin pot dictator who was thoroughly contained and never an imminent threat. This time, however, the smoking gun is purported to be an economic disintegration of America’s financial market, and the foreboding smoking gun will come in the form of another Great Depression.<br /><br />The same eerie similarities between Bush’s run up to the Iraq war in 2003 – and the alleged 2008 meltdown on Wall Street are uncanny – the evidence is thin and the lies are obvious. The mushroom cloud never appeared, no weapons of mass destruction were ever found, and Saddam was never in cahoots with Al Qaeda. In fact, the fuzzy logic behind this proposed blatant money grab for the rich can be summed up by what a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com last Tuesday: “It’s not based on any particular data point, we just wanted to choose a really large number.”<br /><br />As evidence of the preposterous notion behind this ruse has caught the attention of many, the Washington Post reported on Friday, almost 200 academic economists "have signed a petition organized by a University of Chicago professor objecting to the plan on the grounds that it could create perverse incentives.”<br /><br />Moreover, clarion calls from many notable experts are sounding the alarm and asking Congress to reject this bailout bill. To wit, NYU's Nouriel Roubini, the prophetic thinker who forecasted this meltdown, says “The Treasury plan (even in its current version agreed with Congress) is very poorly conceived and does not contain many of the key elements of a sound and efficient and fair rescue plan.” Harvard's Ken Rogoff, a Former Federal Rerserve and IMF official, insists that the prospect of this bailout is, unto itself, taking a manageable problem and making it into “a more intense crisis.”<br /><br />It took us years to get this deep into our now-financial abyss; hence, we must be vigilant and exercise sound judgment in getting out. This is not a time for rapid-fire, extemporaneous reactions to a boiling-over pot that has been slowly simmering unwatched and headed toward disaster for years.<br /><br />This cannot stand or America will certainly fall into the hands of further greed for a few, while the continuing diminishment of the prospect for a better future ahead for most will suffer dire, if not deadly, consequences. Therefore, we are all equally under attack and must not stand alone, but together in unanimity against Bush’s socialism for the rich at the expense of the American taxpayer.<br /><br />It’s time we, as a nation, put people over profits and bail out the real victims – homeowners and families – and not the wealthy moguls on Wall Street. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-83440104946203538032008-09-23T01:32:00.003-04:002008-09-23T01:54:26.328-04:00Paulson's Plenary Proposal Must be Rejected!Frank J. Ranelli<br /><br /><br />This is not the time for petty partisanship, nor is the time for rushed decisions. The Treasury Department’s proposed bail out is an obscene nod toward the largest transfer of wealth in human history; it is also a leap into Robber Baron-style tyranny. Rewarding bad behavior on Wall Street, by theft of money obtained through taxpayers on Main Street, is more than perverse it is an insidious act of vile turpitude.<br /><br />I refer you to these extreme portions of Treasury Department’s proposed bail out:<br /><br />SEC. 2. PURCHASES OF MORTGAGE-RELATED ASSETS<br /><br />"(b) Necessary Actions.--The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this Act, including, without limitation”<br /><br />SEC. 8. REVIEW<br /><br />“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”<br /><br />NO ONE in our government should be allowed this much power with this little oversight.<br /><br />This is a dangerous power grab by the Executive Branch and simply <em>legislative-approved</em> despotism. Congress must reject this absolutist, radical proposal outright. True patriotism and real humanity must begin with each of us helping one another for the greater good of the nation. It is not bailing out irresponsible and reckless, colossal-sized corporate institutions that have insatiability fed at the trough of unregulated greed and avarice.<br /><br /><strong>Rewarding shocking and irresponsible behavior is a formula that emboldens, not condemns, more of the same financial plunder and excessive negligence.<br /></strong><br />I implore every American to reject this dangerous, plenary proposal – to slow the legislative process down – and to invoke prudence, not haste, during this economic crisis. It took us years to get this deep into our now-financial abyss; hence, we must be vigilant and exercise sound judgment getting out.<br /><br /><strong>This is not a time for rapid-fire, extemporaneous reactions to a boiling-over pot that has been slowly simmering toward disaster for years.</strong><br /><br />It’s time we, as a people and a nation, put people, and our nation, over the profits of Wall Street moguls and plutocrats. This enormous theft of taxpayer’s dollars is an unparalleled sinister crime, with real victims – homeowners and working-class families.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-14925028870359559852008-09-18T04:38:00.002-04:002008-09-18T05:34:00.179-04:00Why America Will Falter<em>A Ranelli Rumination<br /></em>BY FRANK J. RANELLI<br /><br />Thursday, September 18, 2008<br /><br /><br />My own conclusions are rather nihilistic, but history and historians support this theory (See Kevin Phillip’s; <a href="http://www.americantheocracy.net/">American Theocracy</a>). All governments historically – from the ancient Roman Empire to the modern American hegemonic State – always end up expanding until they collapse. This is ubiquitously brought about by over-reaching imperialism, jingoism, exploitation of religion and economic overreach. It is further precipitated by hyperinflation, uncontrollable debt and deficits, combined with reckless leveraging and borrowing. Inevitably, and thusly, leading to an economic crisis and collapse, causing an entropic decay and demise of the nation state. It is akin to a malignant cancer that grows exponentially until it kills off the host – society itself.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-32484107053504421832008-09-18T04:38:00.001-04:002008-09-18T04:39:51.787-04:00Quote of the Day!Frank J. Ranelli<br /><br /><br />“Privatized profits, socialized losses—it’s the Republican way; socialism for the rich.” – Frank J. Ranelli, Wednesday, September 18, 2008Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-78275100638587440422008-09-17T17:33:00.001-04:002008-09-17T17:34:47.016-04:00Quote of the Day!Frank J. Ranelli<br /><br />“Unfortunately, they (Republicans) fiendishly wield religion as a bludgeon to subjugate or silence dissent while they eviscerate any force or form of an egalitarian society that puts people first. Ergo, the unmitigated debacle we now have in Washington that is as dysfunctional as it is diabolic. Democrats are inept and weak, while Republicans are corrupt and nefarious.” – Wednesday, September 17, 2008Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-83659798297522956362008-09-13T19:30:00.002-04:002008-09-13T19:36:43.064-04:00Sarah Palin: A Heartbeat AwayPalin, radical right, radically anti-American!<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;color:#990000;"><strong><em>Watch it!</em></strong></span><br /><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UhWsHHOGPuc&hl=" fs="1" width="425" height="344" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed><br /><br />Palin Cheered On the <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/palin-digest/">Alaskan Independence Party</a>. Six months ago, Palin “told members of the Alaskan Independence Party” — who advocate for a vote on secession from the union — to “keep up the good work” and “wished the party luck on what she called its ‘inspiring convention.’” Palin and her husband attended the party’s convention in 2000, and “for all but two months from 1995 to 2002, the governor’s husband was registered as an Alaskan Independence Party member.” George Clark, the vice chair of the party, claims that Palin was a member of the party “before she got the job as a mayor of a small town.”Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-35350273393774896432008-09-05T03:21:00.006-04:002008-09-05T20:52:22.637-04:00Why Palin is Fair Game<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2vQ-0vnp-i63fffRHoTP5jBAoBgLbiwuJ5VKnNharNwIC55jeaY5-BsmeoxdVaXzdfz2B3e-V9mOJS0JMDPxXd-_37wrVenWh1q2-VAbdoFuNzO_wN3GsJX131opuHwmiwEGE/s1600-h/palin-laugh.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5242436575096806082" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2vQ-0vnp-i63fffRHoTP5jBAoBgLbiwuJ5VKnNharNwIC55jeaY5-BsmeoxdVaXzdfz2B3e-V9mOJS0JMDPxXd-_37wrVenWh1q2-VAbdoFuNzO_wN3GsJX131opuHwmiwEGE/s400/palin-laugh.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>BY FRANK J. RANELLI<br /></div><br /><div>:: ::<br /><br />In principle, I have always agreed with the basic tenets of society’s plea for civility and decorum in politics toward the kids of candidates. However, while the children, as individuals should be held harmless – as they are just merely adolescents – the larger narrative about Sarah Palin is germane and should be out front in the public sphere to debate.<br /><br />I was at the Dublin, Ohio Obama rally on August 30, 2008, a mere 10 feet away from Obama while he spoke and reiterated what is at stake is the very core principles of this nation. Prior to Obama speaking, I circulated in the midst of the VIP section and spoke to a litany of women. They not only panned Palin, they felt betrayed and insulted; that McCain’s attitude was one of ungainly sexism whereas women are interchangeable parts – that one is just as good as the next.<br /><br /><strong>The near ubiquitous “drip, drip, drip” that spills over daily into another scandal, another tabloidesque story, is evidence either Sarah Palin was an exercise in extremely poor judgment by John McCain or Palin is a pure gimmick –a gambit to court and woo Hillary Clinton supporters.<br /></strong><br />The overarching viewpoint is the judgment – or lack thereof – of Palin, her duplicitous actions and double standard, faux Christian values, the exploitation of her infant (and now unwed pregnant daughter) for political expediency; her own failed abstinence only teachings – that clearly does not work, even amongst her own children – and the sum total of her (Palin’s) actions that definitively leads one to conclude she is inept, unwise, reckless, and is unfit to be a heartbeat away from governing this nation as President.<br /><br />It’s not about the children, but it is about her inability to govern and make sound, rational choices – that she believes in Creationism and not science. These flaws need to be exposed and she – as a candidate – needs to be eviscerated for her utter lack of credibility, inexperience, lack of common sense and the extreme fringe values she holds.<br /><br />As one reader of the local newspaper in Wasilla summed her up in a comment to a reporter, “she is a kook.”<br /><br />Palin may have set ablaze the benighted crowd of sheeple evangelists into a gesticulating frenzy of jubilation, but she is dangerous to this nation, dangerous to a progressive America, and cannot be allowed to become the next VP of this nation, or be a hairs breath away from the presidency.<br /><br />Everything from “Troopergate” to “Babygate” is in play when she accepted the nomination as McCain’s VP. Palin could have declined the invitation, but she did not. She could have shielded her family from public scrutiny and spared them the overt embarrassment of her hypocritical stances and statements, but she opted to stand in the national spotlight and allow her disastrous, failed conservative values to be illuminated.<br /><br />And for that reason alone, America has the right and the civic responsibility to vet this woman, leave no stone unturned, for in politics, as it has been said, is a contact sport. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-61060528149234716372008-09-05T02:05:00.001-04:002008-09-05T02:06:51.566-04:00Quote of the Day!FRANK J. RANELLI<br /><br /><span style="color:#000000;">“When compared to Greek and Roman mythology, the contemporaneous tripartite Abrahamic-based religions are no less bizarre; they are only the ephemerally accepted folklore of yore – the zeitgeist of our time.” –Frank J. Ranelli, Wednesday, September 03, 2008</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-3974292657987146962008-08-26T15:30:00.001-04:002008-08-26T15:31:55.210-04:00Quote of the Day!FRANK J. RANELLI<br /><br />“America, the nation that once put a man on the moon, is now a craven crowd of xenophobes and bigots – hostile toward intellectuals, takes pleasure in deriding academia and pride in its willful ignorance.” – Frank J. Ranelli, Sunday, August 26, 2008Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-8899443444090702882008-08-25T01:07:00.005-04:002008-09-17T17:38:00.246-04:00Deities, Dinosaurs, and the Dangers of Religious Dogma<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqg8h2-2sLWWAAnQ9aRZptNJp-Ws0eMQsaQ2J8NhQBENyCjWji9qf1MuqJWYesn9Xv58CxQ4hGQQnQFt-JVISjEMT5moIXU-512qsN7KButwc-UXtcdJpLxhyphenhyphenJ9HuAlGLjdSkI/s1600-h/jesus_dino.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5238318564576041122" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqg8h2-2sLWWAAnQ9aRZptNJp-Ws0eMQsaQ2J8NhQBENyCjWji9qf1MuqJWYesn9Xv58CxQ4hGQQnQFt-JVISjEMT5moIXU-512qsN7KButwc-UXtcdJpLxhyphenhyphenJ9HuAlGLjdSkI/s400/jesus_dino.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>Monday, August 25, 2008<br />BY FRANK J. RANELLI<br /><br /><strong><em><span style="color:#000000;">Curriculum of the ‘Accelerated Christian Academy’ in Mosta instructs kids dinosaurs were used to build ancient pyramids in Egypt.<br /></span></em></strong><br /><br />According to at least one Evangelist pastor, Vince Fenech, of the fully licensed, State-approved Creationist institution, believes and teaches children—ages 4 through 18—that dinosaurs helped build the pyramids. Citing a yet, undiscovered Biblical reference in the Book of Job, Fenech violently strains credulity and incredulously asserts to reporter Raphael Vassallo, of the <em>MaltaToday</em> newspaper, that the Earth was “created in 4004 BC”, and the ancient Egyptians harnessed the power of <a href="http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mesozoic/jurassic/jurassintro.html">Jurassic-period</a> dinosaurs to erect the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza">Great Pyramid of Giza</a>.<br /><br />Pastor Vince Fenech is of course, a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creationism">Creationist</a> and fervent espouser of a bevy of ideas that not only contests his sanity, but also baselessly suspends science in the name of God; chiefly that the Apollo 11 moon landing proves “the universe is still young!”<br /><br />Whether astonished, flummoxed, or simply searching for a good guffaw worthy of a side stitch, <a href="http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2007/10/14/n5.html">click here</a> to read more about Fenech’s problematic canon and piously perverse views on sex and abortion.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-44742963850624264742008-08-22T19:18:00.003-04:002008-08-22T19:29:15.825-04:00Just who is Chet Edwards?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjhsHRVPCZbmUkOQwj0C41ksEiZYgRpVBKbRKXtUBYsgMEaOmhQVeFoRH0KVGPFsdy41rfSyL_MIRcagtnmj6zK0caRkA-uuOTr6fpU28HgYgJbv3VDc1iCI3Hyb2uZnhtOPJO/s1600-h/chet_edwards.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5237488091407434434" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjhsHRVPCZbmUkOQwj0C41ksEiZYgRpVBKbRKXtUBYsgMEaOmhQVeFoRH0KVGPFsdy41rfSyL_MIRcagtnmj6zK0caRkA-uuOTr6fpU28HgYgJbv3VDc1iCI3Hyb2uZnhtOPJO/s400/chet_edwards.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>Friday, August 22, 2008<br />BY FRANK J. RANELLI<br /><br /><strong><em><span style="color:#000000;">The Obama Democratic Veepstakes is approaching a frenetic and feverish pitch. Is it Joe Biden, Evan Bayh, or even Hillary Clinton? Surprisingly, and perhaps to the dismay of many progressives, liberals, and democratic voters the answer may be a resounding, “No.”<br /></span></em></strong><br /><br />The name Chet Edwards outside of Texas, the halls of Congress, or the inside of Nancy Pelosi’s rolodex, is a name unfamiliar to most Americans. So, just who is Chet Edwards? Quietly, yet not completely unnoticed by many politicos and pundits, he is widely considered to be one of Obama’s finalists on his list of candidates for the coveted VP slot.<br /><br />Chet Edwards currently serves <a href="http://edwards.house.gov/html/bio.cfm">the 17th Congressional district of Texas</a> as a moderate democrat. He is a <a href="http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=27087">prolific legislator</a>, with little national exposure, yet has distinguished himself as a centrist with a rather curious and capricious voting record.<br /><br />A telegenic man—with a visage analogous to a televangelist—is also fashionable with Speaker Pelosi. On August 3, 2008, she extolled his “extraordinary credentials” and stated “I hope he will be the nominee” to ABC's "This Week".<br /><br />While Edwards is largely an unknown nationally, he is a productive, if not hectic, lawmaker. In addition, he is the chairman of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee and sits on a bevy of other committees and subcommittees in the House.<br /><br />Filtering Edwards through a democratic prism may prove to be dificult and even a harder sell to hardline progressives as a running mate for Obama. The website <a href="http://www.ontheissues.org/TX/Chet_Edwards.htm">OnTheIssues</a> has amassed an extensive, if not exhaustive list of how Edwards has voted— and where he stands—on more than 24 issues, ranging from abortion to the economy.<br /><br />A close examination of his enigmatic stance on a wide range of policies reveals Edwards voted in favor of the invasion of the Iraq War, gave the nod to telcom immunity, registered an “aye” for the Bankruptcy Reform bill, which now requires partial debt repayment and even stands with John McCain and George Bush on drilling in AWNR.<br /><br />Unfortunately, his conservative chops do not end there, but include a record of anathema toward the gay and lesbian community by casting his lot with Republicans on the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2004 – a Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage. Among prominent liberal and progressive bloggers, he is considered a “Bush Dog Democrat,” an epithet clearly denouncing him as anything but a “Progressive Democrat.”<br /><br />Sadly, Chet Edwards has too often curried favors for the political right, racking up a congressional record that paints his voting sheet more red than blue. His overt penchant for gun rights and arms makers, aversion to raising CAFE standards and <a name="Candidates"></a>endorsement of forest thinning projects certainly will be met with strident condemnation from gun control and environmental groups.<br /><br />Save for a few breadcrumbs meant to throw off “low information” voters from his true political stripes—chiefly his vow to keep social security out of the hands of Wall Street—Chet Edwards is another Repulican-lite masquerading as a Democrat.<br /><br />The Obama campaign in recent days has confirmed Edwards was contacted—and possibly vetted—but has said little else as to his status or standing with Obama as a potential running mate in 2008. Nevertheless, he appears to be in strong contention, helped along by the behest of Nancy Pelosi, as the Democratic Party’s Vice Presidential candidate to oppose Republican John McCain on November 4.<br /><br />While Obama’s pick for VP still remains steep in mystery, Edwards’s sudden emergence into the national spotlight as a high probability candidate for Vice President portends another likely losing centrist ticket for the Democrats. As John Kerry firmly demonstrated in 2004, a center-right campaign for the Democratic Party is a certain death knell.<br /><br />What we do know is that whether any given voter stands for or against Republicans, it is certain when the people are given the choice between a genuine conservative or a fake liberal, America always chooses the authentic contestant, if only for not trying to fool the public – issues, policies and object national needs be damned.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-6285577765633102152008-08-15T13:53:00.001-04:002008-08-15T19:56:15.763-04:00Quote of the Day!“Politics, people, and policy have far more nuance, vagaries, require a deeper understanding, and a higher level of acumen than a 30-second sound byte, a fallacious bumper sticker slogan, or a propagandist cartoon in order to understand them.” – Frank J. Ranelli, August 15, 2008Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-24035023287617369872008-08-09T00:15:00.000-04:002008-08-09T01:00:23.934-04:00Quote of the Day!"Denial of man’s own mortality is the soul purpose he clings to religion and an omniscient, esoteric God. Ignorance plays a part, but it is more about temporal denial and acceptance of our own fate and fears." - Frank J. Ranelli, August 6, 2008Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-67011250773450853622008-08-01T03:47:00.003-04:002008-08-01T03:55:27.652-04:00John McCain Quietly Draws on Social Security While Calling the Program Publicly a “Disgrace”<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkWZRdZ9nUU_ME3Wm_2h99Ot08mFgyJKhu4-EhvNMOMPLyrxAKJQ6BAOJvEiC1Evz-UvoKbamkoUcobvlm4sG8ZFb8c1sNTklQAiMFBMb51haD5Ff7yTT3JblAeY799x2z-G1d/s1600-h/mccain.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5229454556692990546" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkWZRdZ9nUU_ME3Wm_2h99Ot08mFgyJKhu4-EhvNMOMPLyrxAKJQ6BAOJvEiC1Evz-UvoKbamkoUcobvlm4sG8ZFb8c1sNTklQAiMFBMb51haD5Ff7yTT3JblAeY799x2z-G1d/s400/mccain.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>BY FRANK J. RANELLI<br /><br /><br /><span style="color:#000000;"><strong><em>A recent revelation that John McCain personally derives full benefits from the long-standing and popular Social Security program stands in stark contrast to his recent remarks in Denver, Colorado.</em></strong><br /></span><br /><br />Republican presidential nominee John McCain, on July 7, 2008, during a <a href="http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gwHGMYappR5eiPj4JoZ8L-7YUacAD91QISHG1">town hall meeting in Denver</a>, told the small gathering, “Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that's a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace, and it's got to be fixed."<br /><br />The remarks were roundly panned by analysts and Democrats, pointing out that since its inception, Social Security was designed and has always worked effectively in its current format. Whereby current wage earners pay into the system routinely – and in doing so – supply the payroll needed to fund the benefit program for retirees. Democratic Party backer, Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees added, “Social Security has always been pay as you go, with today's workers paying for today's retirees.”<br /><br />McCain has a vociferous and protracted record of advocating for the privatization of Social Security and cutting benefits for retirees, the disabled, and their dependents, stretching as far back as 1983.<br /><br />More than 42 million Americans are on Social Security – chiefly, the elderly, widows and widowers, and young children whose parents unexpectedly died – allowing them to live independently and out of poverty.<br /><br />However, In spite of John McCain’s yearly salary as a U.S. Senator of <a href="http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/97-1011.pdf">$169,300</a>, and a reported total income in 2007 of <a href="http://www.johnmccain.com/mccainfinancial/">$405,409</a>, public records show that McCain, in fact, personally draws from Social Security. Although McCain and his wife keep separate finances, Cindy McCain, an heiress and direct benefactor of a family beer fortune, maintains an expansive largesse estimated at <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11477.html">potentially $100 million</a>.<br /><br />Incongruently, and in complete conflict with his public views and withering remarks, John McCain received, according to public records, $23,157 in Social Security benefits in 2007 – a welfare benefit that averages nearly $2,000.00 per month.<br /><br />The advocacy group, <a href="http://www.retiredamericans.org/">Alliance for Retired Americans</a>, has launched a campaign to educate its members and the general voter population to attract attention to McCain’s duplicitous, anti-Social Security views. Bemused and angered by McCain’s comments and double standard stance, Director Edward F. Coyle, in a conference call with “leaders of labor and other progressive groups” stated, “Social Security has kept millions out of poverty, and is one our nation’s greatest success stories.”<br /><br />Additionally, since Senator McCain has pronounced Social Security an, “absolute disgrace”, while personally and hypocritically drawing out of the fund, the Alliance for Retired Americans has asked that the Arizona Republican “return his Social Security checks.”<br /><br />Considering the near unanimous condemnation of McCain’s acerbic commentary toward Social Security, while surreptitiously collecting benefits, it is unlikely this will prove to be a success story for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-56251175467580144462008-07-29T13:04:00.006-04:002008-07-29T13:19:19.523-04:00New Orleans: If Only it was Just Billions<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-OKQ58d65s5CzB5qnRtdHw_Pacsvcmi83HthRlXFtQp5dcBxwcc30amqJpaD3Sb-F4hoUW8xkFWrBsTTMrN5SWKCTyzu8cMQfv328OlvWibK6k0QniG6U0vATjEqCw03KLW_7/s1600-h/New_Orleansdevastation.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5228485073522846050" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" height="178" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-OKQ58d65s5CzB5qnRtdHw_Pacsvcmi83HthRlXFtQp5dcBxwcc30amqJpaD3Sb-F4hoUW8xkFWrBsTTMrN5SWKCTyzu8cMQfv328OlvWibK6k0QniG6U0vATjEqCw03KLW_7/s400/New_Orleansdevastation.jpg" width="258" border="0" /></a><br /><div>BY FRANK J. RANELLI<br /><br /><br /><strong><em><span style="color:#000000;">The Bush Iraq and Afghanistan wars will cost the U.S. $2.4 trillion, but some fiscal conservatives and anti-tax crusaders are still fixated on derailing the billions of dollars requisite to restore a city lost to Bush’s incompetence and hubris – the city of New Orleans.</span><br /><br /></em>:: ::</strong><br /><br />An old, annoying, yet benign, viral e-mail is being treated to a sinister makeover and finding its way into e-mail boxes across America. The e-mail, in its original form, was disseminated ostensibly to ask the reader to posit the vastness of a $1 billion. While ruminating on this idea, the letter goes on to show how politicians cavalierly bandy about such a hefty sum in conversation whilst doing the nation’s business.<br /><br />Regrettably and inexcusably, the <a href="http://members.desertusa.com/rockdude/blog/2008/06/06/how_many_zeros_in_a_billion">latest revision</a> of this message is laced with lies, race-baiting, and Jim Crow-style bigotry. Its aim is to subtly, but inextricably blame the catastrophic and unprecedented damage of hurricane Katrina, unleashed on the good people of New Orleans, as not only a product of their presumed slothfulness but as a giant welfare windfall waiting to happen for all whom reside there.<br /><br />The entirely contemptible dispatch contorts and outright fabricates enormous leaps of illogic, Karl Rove-style mathematics, and draws utterly absurd and downright ridiculous conclusions. Playing the Ronald Reagan “welfare queen” card, the e-mail incredulously claims each of the roughly 240,000 city-dwellers of New Orleans will receive a largesse check of $516,528. This insane conclusion—and rather acrobatic and illusionist arithmetic—is misleadingly derived from the aggregate total proposed in and by Louisiana Democratic Senator Mary L. Landrieu’s <a href="http://landrieu.senate.gov/hurricanes/MasterSectionbySection.pdf">Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief and Economic Recovery Act</a> of 2005.<br /><br />Naturally, using even the basest of common sense, any prudent read of the bill neither promises nor suggests anything so outlandish. Rather, it is a wide-ranging laundry list of needed ameliorations to restore a litany of essential services, from education, to housing, to small business and veterans’ needs in order to rebuild the disaster torn area. Money rightly requested to reconstruct a fallen city—struck down by a devastating tragedy—rather than Bush’s senseless misuse of trillions of dollars to wage war in order to lay waste to an entire country.<br /><br />Now, let’s talk <em>trillions</em>.<br /><br />The United States is spending about $8,000 every month per man, woman and child in this country to pursue criminal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the most recent estimates by the Congressional Budget Office that estimates the wars will cost about $2.4 trillion over the next decade. These are unnecessary wars of naked aggression, which were, manifested using false pretenses by the Bush administration, and perpetrated using more than <a href="http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_frank_j__080123_independent_study_fi.htm">935 lies uttered by Bush</a> and his senior cabinet during his time as President thus far.<br /><br />More than one-fourth of the money spent in Iraq and Afghanistan—$705 billion—will go to paying interest on the wars' overhead, which are being funded with borrowed dollars chiefly from China. Outside analysts, such as Nobel Prize winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0110/dailyUpdate.html">largely agree</a> with the CBO’s findings and judgment.<br /><br />The usury alone, which stands at a staggering $705 billion, is more than three times the amount proposed to revive and restore New Orleans. And it is more than 40 times the original figure given to fight both theatres of war in the Middle East initially by the Bush administration.<br /><br />Further, It was only five years ago when Lawrence Lindsey, then-head of the White House's National Economic Council, estimated that the "upper bound" of the cost of going to war with Iraq would be between $100 billion and $200 billion.<br /><br />Therefore and understandably, most people have difficulty comprehending the scale of $2.4 trillion. To grasp a number that vast in size, one should think of it in these terms: 1-billion seconds equals about 32 years, while 1-trillion seconds equals nearly 300 centuries.<br /><br />So, if dollars were time, Bush’s war would go on for more than 700 centuries, the equivalent to 72,000 years of combat, death, and violence. To date, after five-plus years of war, we have lost 4,121 soldiers—many of whom where still in their teens or early twenties— at a rate of virtually two per day killed in a senseless act of barbaric hostility.<br /><br />If the U.S. was at war for 72,000 years, at the current rate of casualties, over the next 700 centuries, George Bush will be directly or indirectly responsible for the pointless deaths of more than 56.4 million young men and women.<br /><br />The current population of the United Kingdom is 60 million. The present population of Italy is also around 60 million inhabitants. The state of California, according to a 2006 U.S. census, estimates the current populace to reside at around 36 million.<br /><br />Now, imagine a war that would take the lives of every single individual who lives in Italy or the U.K. A combat mission that is so immense and long-lasting that it would kill off the state of California nearly twice over again.<br /><br />The above comparisons and analogies might strike a certain cord of hyperbole, but so does the idiotic notion that the people of New Orleans have won a massive welfare lottery as victims vis-à-vis of an enormous natural disaster, yet the proposed government relief is somehow a reprehensible response to people and a city truly in need.<br /><br />The immeasurable, oppressive expenditure of Bush’s wars is a growing and substantial danger to the future financial security of our nation that now measures into the trillions of dollars. They are also acts of unconscionable bloodshed conjured up by sadistic war profiteers through ginned-up intelligence in order to line the coffers of corporate welfare recipients; beneficiaries of obscene private profits and grotesque public losses—both in blood and treasure.<br /><br />Iraq is Bush's madness and Bush's infamy, but we are the ones who will pay for it, and the next 2,400 generations of Americans that will follow us. Then again, when former White House Press Secretary, the late Tony Snow, was asked on the grisly anniversary that marked the 2,000th soldier killed in Iraq, in October of 2005, he coldly replied, “It’s just a number.”</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-73354588869797603372008-07-22T03:41:00.001-04:002008-07-22T03:43:42.042-04:00Quote of the Day!FRANK J. RANELLI<br /><br />“You can’t militarily occupy a nation while trying to negotiate its peoples’ freedom.” -Frank J. Ranelli, July 22, 2008Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27228659.post-1617481223131899252008-07-21T16:45:00.005-04:002008-07-21T17:02:10.455-04:00Warmonger McCain gets it wrong…again!John McCain’s latest effort to extol the false virtues war:<br /><br /><br /><span style="color:#000000;">"When you win wars, troops come home,” John McCain, July 21, 2008<br /><br /><em>Actually,</em><br /><br />“When you wage war, people die.” Frank J. Ranelli, 7/21/2008</span><br /><br />:: ::<br /><br /><span style="color:#990000;">Just another, “War is Peace”, Orwellian quote from John McCain.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0