Broken Thumb Blog

The God of Tony Perkins is a Wuss!

nospam@example.com (Brian Gaither) — Wed, 19 May 2010 21:43:30 -0400

How meager and weak and puny is the god worshipped by Tony Perkins! Surely his is not the god of Israel which turned the Nile to blood and flooded the whole of Earth. Surely his is not the god that plagued Job with boils and death to prove a faithfulness that was never in question. Surely his is not the god which punished the regrets of Lot's wife by making her a pillar of salt. Tony Perkins's god is no god to be reckoned with. For what god, awesome in might and intolerant of sin, would need a mortal man like Tony Perkins to smite the wicked and punish his enemies?

I suppose that Tony Perkins, were he asked, would proclaim himself a tool in the hands of "the one true God." I believe he would tell me that the world has become so corrupt by Satan's temptations and the wiles of sinful man that his god needs an army of mortals clad in spititual armor. I trust he would tell me that this letter is an arrow in the quiver of his god's army, that it is a weapon in the defense of virtue, and that his god's power on Earth depends on it.

If that is true, then Tony Perkins is no instrument in the hand of his god. Tony Perkins is the master, and his god a mere tool. His god is an instrument used to exploit the weakness of those who believe that to punish the "unrighteous" will make them "righteous" to an equal degree. He calls on the wrath of people who should leave it to their god to judge sin and punish the wicked. He is building an army of donors. And with their luchre he lowers his god into the pit of human politics. He makes his god a beggar, a supplicant for the votes of men who are no greater than Job or the Pharoahs of Egypt.

In the end Tony's god will lose this fight. Tony's god could never win, because he is a god who needs a man to save him.

Say What, Your Holiness?

nospam@example.com (Brian Gaither) — Mon, 17 May 2010 21:12:05 -0400

The Pope, in Portugal, claimed abortion and gay marriage to be among the most dangerous threats on earth. Interesting.

I suspect the Pope, having a hotline to God, must have heard of this imminent gay threat from Him. Because I have to believe that in his infallible knowledge, the Pope knows Europe is on the verge of a financial catastrophe. I suspect that he has been informed by someone at the Vatican that the government in Thailand is basically a shambles and there's a real possibility of continued political violence. I suspect that he has been told by at least one or two of the American cardinals that there are hundreds of thousands of troops, American troops -- constituting the most formidable army in the world -- occupying two countries in the Middle East. I suspect someone mentioned to him that there is a hole in the earth, a mile below the ocean, which is spewing raw oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Apparently, not. It seems the Pope actually knows little about the current state of world affairs, except this one thing. He knows that for five centuries the Church has been fighting a losing battle for the soul of Western Civilization. He knows there was a time when the Church controlled every aspect of life in Europe and its political dependencies. A person was not a person until his baptism. That same could not leave earth (for the wonders of Heaven) without his last rites and a burial in dirt blessed by the Church. Anyone lucky enough to be educated recieved his education from the Church. Meanwhile, the great masses who lacked education were involved in an economy related to the building of Europe's cathedrals and feeding its pilgrims. Charity was dispensed by the Church or at its doors. It consecrated wars. And of course it defined the family in terms of the sacrament of marriage -- in so doing, it legitimized the movement of titles and property from one generation to the next. Children born outside the bonds of Church-sponsored matrimony were deemed illegitimate and often became orpans (wards of the Church) to avoid the inconvenience they might cause their "alduterous" or "fornicating" parents.

But science and the printing press began the end of the Church's grip on the lives of Europeans. With time, rational government co-opted the prerogatives of the Church. The State now issues birth certificates and death certificates. The State provides pensions and poor relief. The State provides education to the people. The State governs economic affairs. The State gives license to marry.

The Church has remained relevant under the ascendancy of the State so long as it has been allowed to exercise cultural control over marriage. This relevance is now become marginal, at best. When the State moves from honoring the Church's notion of marriage to honoring its people's notions of marriage, then the Church will become finally and completely irrelevant. The Pontiff, if he knows nothing else, knows that the advent of gay marriage is not truly a threat to the world. But it is an absolute threat to his Church.

Nihil Humani Mihi Alienum Est

nospam@example.com (Brian Gaither) — Mon, 03 May 2010 16:28:00 -0400

Being human is no comfortable state of being. It requires compassion, tolerance, temperance, resilience and patience--none of which is easy to achieve. And these traits are regularly tested because we live in a world full of people similarly struggling with their humanity. It is difficult to suffer the intolerant, to have compassion for the cruel, or to be temperate in the face of extremism.

My friend Tyson once asked me how I reconcile an obvious misanthropy with my secular humanism, and I had no answer for him. For the few weeks following I turned my mental energies toward understanding how it is that I am able to do so. I considered my opinions on mob mentality, individual liberty, free will, tyranny, democracy, republicanism, distribution of wealth, persistence of poverty, crime, war, religion, art, and literature. The exercise was neither comprehensive or strictly organized. It occurred in disjointed moments on the subway, during lunchbreaks, and through conversations with friends.

Tyson's question forced me to evaluate the two facets of my worldview. The first is that people, when left to their own devices, are selfish and self-serving. They seize advantages which accrue benefits to themselves and think little of the consequence to others. In such a world, each of us is responsible for his own safety. Each of us must be constantly vigilant to avoid becoming victims of another's greed, perfidy, or general machinations. The second is that we love success, beauty, and happiness. We have created institutions to pursue and secure personal liberty. Our great artists have wrought masterworks in paint, prose, and poetry. Charity and generosity surface in moments of great calamity.

Knowing these two things, and recognizing man's deep capacity for each, I accept that we must allow people to be what they are. To tame man's negative spirits tames all of man's spirits. We must seek a middle point where our basest motivations are balanced by our noblest pursuits, and when behavior becomes destructive to the social order (rape, murder, theft, fraud) we must condemn and contain it. Otherwise the relative anarchy of pure self-interest will crowd out the beautiful things in life -- no artist will display work which the vandal has equal right to destroy.

So I answered Tyson's original question to my own satisfaction. Nonetheless, I still wonder, "How do we best encourage man's greatness in a healthy productive society? What form does that society take? Can it ever be free of crime? of poverty? Would we honestly want it to be?"

I don't have the answers to these questions yet. But I'll keep thinking, and as I form my opinions, you can expect me to share them.

What to say

nospam@example.com (Brian Gaither) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:09:00 -0500

I was just reading through my archives. Some of this stuff was pretty good. Since I included "writing more" among my New Year's resolutions, I need to increase the frequency of the graffiti here. I'll post some of what I've published on facebook. I'll also post those self-same resolutions.

Conflating the lack of writing with a lack of time is weak. The blog is a decent medium which I ought to employ more.

360 Days Later

nospam@example.com (Brian Gaither) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:31:40 -0500

It's been 12 months, or very close thereto, since I last wrote in here. Anyone whose been watching -- which is safe to guess includes everyone -- knows that this past year has been a rough one for the President.

Apparently no one told him that it's really, really, really hard to change things when people don't really want more than superficial adjustments. But, blinded by a conviction of his own good intentions and lusty for the power to make them real, Obama embarked down this path.

I am recently exploring the meme of homeostasis. The French have a lovely way of putting it which the English doesn't capture. "Le plus ça change, le plus c'est le même chose." No matter what changes we attempt, the norms prevail and find a way to triumph. Which is interesting, because the norms are defined by the vast masses in the middle. The average will always find itself and impose its mediocrity despite our best intentions.

On a micro level, that's fine in so much as you are below average. However, the truth is that to expand the range of the normal requires a shrinking of both the left and right side of a given distribution. Trouble occurs when the range of the normal is expanded and limits the side which is above average.

In this country, everyone wants to believe they can be above average. And when confronted with the impossibility of that fact they enter a state of denial. They are each of them convinced they will beat the odds.

As a society this is healthy. It shifts the normal a little more towards the positive. But in moving the normal in that direction the condition of those below average is become relatively worse. To include more of those below average within the range of the normal would require undermining those above average.

In this country those people will first exercise their political muscle. And if that fails they will leave. Under such a scenario, Obama would be able to achieve his objectives. But the end result is akin to cutting off the nation's nose.

People are jealous of what they have. Those in the middle who are convinced they are above average won't abandon their hopes for the sake of Obama's vision. When they elected him they thought he would help them. Now they know they were never the intended beneficiaries, and they have begun to quit their support.

He's not going to get it back.

The Media are Lazy

nospam@example.com (Brian Gaither) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:25:02 -0500

Stories like this are fast becoming trite.

Even though casual observers often compare Florida to its big-state peers (TX, NY, CA), I would argue that it is unique in the Union. On the surface the political issues appear to be the same - sizable ethnic immigrant communities; distinct geographic regions; a blend of urban, suburban, and rural populations; disparities of wealth; etc. But after living in each of these states, I would argue that such a construct is overly simplistic (a topic for another day).

As for the political commentary related to the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Florida, these articles all rely on the following assumptions:

1) Because it's a swing state, Florida is also a bellweather
2) Politics in Florida operate in a manner consistent with politics everywhere else
3) The split within the Republican Party is between two main factions, namely "Moderates" and "Conservatives"
4) The battle between distinct Republican philosophies will be settled in any one electoral contest

I think most of these assumptions are overblown. Good, on-the-ground reporting would investigate the way in which the Republican Party is evolving based on the shifting relevance and priority of certain issues.

Inauguration

nospam@example.com (Brian Gaither) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:22:12 -0500

Inauguration Day is among the most important aspects of our political life as Americans. It reminds us that the presidency is an office which is occupied by citizens. When the time comes, and at the discretion of the voters, they enter. In like manner the time always come when, in their discretion, the voters show them the exit.

For those dismayed by the election of Barack Obama, remember that the time will come when he too must leave the office. For those cheered by the departure of George W. Bush, remember that the time will come when a Republican once again occupies the Oval Office.

Power did not transition today. It resides perpetually with the people. Today, the world witnessed the awesome power of the Republic to renew itself. What is duly done is duly begun, but the virtue of the Republic endures. Long live the Republic!

The Course of Human Events Finds China...Finally

nospam@example.com (Brian Gaither) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 21:41:24 -0500

A group of Chinese has published what amounts to a declaration of rights. It is called Charter 08 and I pulled it from the web this morning. I am posting here for a couple of reasons. First, people need to know about it. Second, it represents the most contagious idea in human history. People have a right to self-determination, and when they assert it we should all support them.

Join the chorus. Download Charter 08. Disseminate it. Help the Chinese people free themselves from the tyranny of authoritarian, one-party rule.Charter08.doc

Very Funny, John...Now, Seriously, Who's It Gonna Be?

nospam@example.com (Brian Gaither) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 20:34:39 -0400

I gotta blog this. I gotta blog this. I gotta seriously, seriously blog this.

John McCain, in his first act of dementia, has chosen a former beauty queen to be his running mate.

Now, lest I seem completely indifferent to this woman's executive experience, let me say that I feel she is eminently qualified to govern one of the few places in the U.S. less populous than her own state, including ND (pop. 640K), VT (pop. 621K), DC (pop. 590K) or WY. (pop. 522K) Likewise, she would be a capable mayor of one of the following U.S. Cities: Baltimore (637K) ranks 20th, Charlotte (pop. 672K) ranks 19th, Memphis (pop. 674K) ranks 18th, or Fort Worth (pop. 681K) ranks 17th.

Hypothetically speaking, since a brisk 3 a.m. run to the toilet could render President McCain a rather stately corpse I wonder how much more or less comfortable I would be with the mayor of Indianapolis negotiating the removal of troops from Iraq. Since Governor Palin's resume also includes multiple terms as a mayor (Wasilla AK) prior to becoming governor I'm sure she will do as well as the mayor of Indianapolis. However, it is worth noting that being the mayor of Wasilla (pop. 9,800) requires winning the support of as many people as it might take to get elected to the Student Assembly of Cornell University.

Admittedly, my Party's talking points have some validity. It is the quality, not necessarily the quantity, of her experience which matters. But it must be mentioned that for the fiscal year 2006-2007 the budget of the State of Alaska was $6.7 billion. By comparison, one would have to go all the way to Number 362 on the list of Fortune 1000 Companies to find an organization with the same level of revenue. So--hypothetically speaking--should President McCain have a brain aneurism while fulminating over legislation passed by Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi, it's good to know that Sarah Palin will have experience with budgets larger than those of Bed, Bath & Beyond or Whole Foods.

I also concede that as governor she does make some life-and-death decisions as head of the Alaska Army National Guard. Wikipedia tells me there are 70 armories and 1850 guardsmen in the state. That means in the event of a call-up Gov. Palin would have authority over as many lives as the junior and senior classes of West Point. Certainly then she is at least half as qualified as the Commandant of the USMA.

So while I trust that John McCain fully believes Gov. Palin to be qualified to assume the Presidency should he be unable to complete his term of office, I think the decision proves his judgment to be suspect.

I am a lifelong Republican. I support my Party. I think Gov. Palin would make an interesting candidate to see in a primary battle someday. However, since she was obviously chosen to bring novelty to the ticket I think that John McCain no longer appears to take this election seriously. As more and more people contemplate this, they will recognize that he himself is not the better candidate for President and will elect Barck Obama.

Congratulations Senator McCain. As you so delight in doing, your maverick actions have once again betrayed the interests of your party. We will not only lose this election, but we may have to spend as many as eight years suffering the effects of your misguided choice.

Words Matter, Especially "Casuist"

nospam@example.com (Brian Gaither) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 22:21:39 -0400

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright has caused a political problem for Barack Obama that is surprisingly not centered on race, radical religiosity, or strident anti-Americanism. Nor is the problem their 20-year relationship or the possibility that Senator Obama secretly harbors the same politics as his pastor.

A preacher's profession is defined by words. Through his sermons he argues a specific morality, advocating a better life for his congregants through the precepts he promotes . His words, being the only tools of his trade, truly matter.

Politicians, like preachers, are defined by what they say. They reach for the right language to make moral and civic precepts acceptable to their audiences. Using words, they reason, promise and persuade. Failing to win support for their positions by those means alone, they cajole, intimidate, and threaten. If they are really good they need only inspire and uplift.

Having made the point that words matter in politics, Senator Obama cannot now tell us that what he says is of consequence while what his preacher says is not. When the man is the message and the message is the man, there is no difference between the preacher and the politician.

That is the problem Reverend Wright poses for Senator Obama.

Comic Books and the Three Emails They Didn't Erase

nospam@example.com (Brian Gaither) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:31:20 -0500

The funniest thing came through my radio the other day. It shouldn't have been funny; every President since Truman has done it, and I should have expected it. Nonetheless I laughed indeed when I heard mention of the "George W. Bush Presidential Library."

Immediately I had a vision of Derek Zoolander and his Center for Kids Who Can't Read Good. Given all the materials that the GWB people will call "classified files which must be hidden to preserve the people of this good nation and to keep them safe from the evildoers," I wondered what small sample of memoribilia and documentation will researchers and guests find in the Bush Presidential Library.

Below are a scant few of the small number of items I expect to be on display or otherwise available to the public.

Captain America, published by Marvel Comics, issues 1-current (bet that Steve Rogers would've found Osama by now)
Flight Suit and Banner with "Mission Accomplished."
Handwritten Letter from GWB to Mike Brown, Dir. of FEMA, dated August 3, 2005. "My Dearest Brownie,..."
The Texas Chainsaw used to massacre Crawford brush.

While it is this man's personal prerogative to establish the library, I wonder how much about the Bush Presidency we will learn that we don't already know. Given that the administration has hidden and deleted as much as possible during his tenure in the Oval Office, we probably already know as much as we ever will. What we do know is probably not worth enshrining and re-visiting. I suspect the whole thing will amount to little more than a sanitized retrospective of a legacy unworthy of commemoration.

I recognize that as a Republican I am supposed to fawn over the man, this great "Compassionate Conservative." However, I am one of those pesky--but true--Conservatives who cannot stand the way GWB expanded the scope and size of the federal government, waged an unnecessary foreign war at great cost in blood and treasure, and willfully circumvented Constitutional limits meant to constrain the elected agents of a tyranny of the majority.

At least I can laugh at the irony.

Humpty Dumpty Housing

nospam@example.com (Brian Gaither) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:35:21 -0500

So, the federal government has strong-armed some banks into postponing foreclosures, all foreclosures for qualified borrowers, for 30 days.

It will always bother me that politicians can be elected with scarcely more than a modicum of education in macroeconomics. However, their ignorance is a reflection of our own; so I reiterate here that we deserve the representation we elect.

If people were smart enough to read their loan documents, explore their obligations, and inquire of disinterested parties (i.e. their own accountants) then we wouldn't be in this mess. Instead, a wholesale belief in the financial stability of homeownership encouraged bad government policies and predatory lending practices. Add to this mix the loose money tendencies of the Fed and you have a recipe for disaster.

The government created the primary purchasers of mortgages in the secondary market --namely Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac-- and provided them the liquidity for tranching of mortgages. The government encouraged increased housing demand by offering mortgage interest tax deductions. The government failed in its banking oversight role. The government failed in its SEC oversight of the securitized mortgages.

The way the market should work is as follows: Banks foreclose. The available supply of properties increases, at lower average prices. More informed entrants enter the market for fixed-rate mortgages to buy properties at the lower prices. The demand rises to meet the available supply at the new market clearing price.

Rather than let the market clear itself out, the government is jumping back into the fray. It is indirectly creating a price floor which will eventually give way and prices will plummet further.

I understand the government's rationale. It feels the need to uphold the promise of homeownership it has made. It feels the need to rescue banks from their poor lending policies. It feels the need to support local tax rolls. It feels the need to shelter people from eviction.

However, I personally am offended that the government would rescue people (borrowers, banks, and local governments) from the consequences of their unfortunate decisions. Where will be my bailout? I have a car loan that needs to be paid off. I think someone took advantage of me. How about my student loans? I was promised by the government that education was a good thing, but boy I could eat out more often if I answered that letter in my mailbox promising lower student loan payments. Golly, if they snooker me, shouldn't the government help me out?

For anyone curious to know how this will end, review the economic history of Japan from 1990-2005.

Raucus Caucus

nospam@example.com (Brian Gaither) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 01:52:49 -0500

Bruce Chapman of Seattle's Discovery Institute has penned a nice overview of the primary process (both Democratic and Republican) in Washington State. I recommend it for all of you who may be interested in what's going on here.

As for the Potomac Primary tomorrow, I foresee a Huckabee win in Virginia (the sizeable military vote for McCain notwithstanding) and more than a few of the proportional delegates from Maryland going his way. DC belongs to Senator McCain't-Yet-Close-the-Deal.

You can retain me, Governor Huckabee

nospam@example.com (Brian Gaither) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 01:11:53 -0500

It seems that Gov. Huckabee, failing to major in math, also skipped pre-law. The Washington State caucus rules are located on the website for King County here.

Did the State GOP make a stupid mistake in calling the winner here? I don't know enough about what exactly happened. Perhaps Luke Esser got ahead of himself and announced McCain won (which was not appropriate given the close tally so far reported). I doubt that the Washington State GOP would have committed such a blatantly stupid "manipulation" of the results in plain view of the whole country during this highly energized election cycle. At least, I hope not.

Aspiration vs. Inspiration

nospam@example.com (Brian Gaither) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 01:56:57 -0500

Seeking a candidate who merely inspires us is dangerous. It leaves us to susceptible to the emotional manipulations of a candidate with empty charisma or an aptitude for fear-mongering. It exploits the lack of a self-defined political persona, and in a democracy it leads to choices which have enduring consequences.