Author: R J Adams

“Wisdom is better than weapons of war. ~ Ecclesiastes 9:18

A not-to-be-missed, hour long ‘special’ on CNN tonight will ask the burning question: “What would Jesus really do?” Pre-program blurb for this foray into Christian hypotheses states:

“The program will consider such issues as whether the war in Iraq has become a holy war, the direction of the Christian political movement, the lingering questions about whether Jesus was married and the connection between the Easter bunny and the resurrection of Jesus.”

Ideologues of the American version of Christianity, Rick Warren, Jerry Falwell, and Paula White will be discussing the burning issues. Anyone in any doubt as to the holy credentials of these stinking rich individuals can check them out at that bastion of truth and logic, The Church Report, which has just published its 2007 list of the fifty most influential (and wealthiest) Christians in America today.

It is interesting – and not a little amusing – to note that George W Bush is listed at No 11, above Rick Warren (16), Paula White (19) and the lowly Jerry Falwell way down at No 40. If this list is a measure of Christianity in America today – God help us all.

The subject matter of this program is strangely mixed. For most of the world, with the exception of the US and parts of the Middle East, the idea that any war can be “holy” went out with WW1. War is unholy, and any other definition is merely politicians justifying their actions.

Why should anyone care if Jesus were married, or not? Would it change one iota his teachings of love and tolerance? As for the Easter bunny, it began as an ancient pagan symbol of fertility, and is now synonymous with the capitalist rape of all things spiritual. Any attempt by this bogus TV panel to disparage the “commercial” aspect of Easter would be hypocritical in the extreme, given their own commercialization of the divinity they profess to represent.

What would Jesus really do if he came back to earth today, in the form Christians believe him to be?

He would demand to be re-crucified. He would demand to be re-crucified on the White House lawn; in Times Square; in the “churches” of Rick Warren, Paula White and Jerry Falwell – and all the others who have corrupted his teachings to their own ends. He would demand to be re-crucified outside the British Houses of Parliament; among the grief-stricken, raped, and starving victims in Darfur and Chad, and then in the center of Baghdad. Finally, He would demand to be re-crucified in Jerusalem, where it all began but has never ended.

At the start of this article I described CNN’s hour long special as “not-to-be-missed”.

I was wrong.

Filed under: Trash

The news recently has been interesting in a number of ways. On the one hand we had George W Bush yesterday telling a closed audience of military personnel and their families, that it was “……..not just the enemy they were fighting in Iraq – but Evil……..”; on the other, Nancy Pelosi was exhibiting a degree of maturity lacking in George W Bush, by engaging “the enemy” in political diplomacy and thus demonstrating that “Evil” was in fact as human as you or I, or for that matter, President al-Assad of Syria.

Never has their been quite such a clear cut illustration of the two faces of America today. George Bush represents the somewhat close-minded, God-fearing, “small town” Americans who, oddly enough, have sacrificed more of their sons and fathers to Bush’s wars – about a fifth of the dead, according to a recent report from the BBC’s James Coomarasamy.

Small town America still believes in “Good” and “Evil”, and views its country as the Light that will eventually overcome Darkness, thus transforming the world into a better and more peaceful place. They close their eyes to the methodology of their president, just as any heavily indoctrinated sect member is blind to the shortcomings of a charismatic leader.

Nancy Pelosi has aptly proved to George Bush that three days of diplomacy can achieve more than five years of war. Talking has to be better than fighting, but to those lacking the necessary skills in verbal communication, fighting usually appears the only alternative, especially so when someone else’s kids are taking and giving the punches. The White House response to Pelosi’s antics surely proves the point. George Bush is only capable of one reaction to any crisis, and that is to bully and threaten. Sadly for him, the historical “Lord Jesus” he professes to worship took a somewhat different view. No wonder the American president is looking more and more bemused by the minute.

If ever there was an advocate for the sane, intellectual face of America, it is surely Nancy Pelosi. US politics are illogical to outsiders, seeming to rely more heavily on vast sums of hard cash rather than common-sense, but given that Pelosi is presently third in line for the presidency, anyone displaying a modicum of sanity and common-sense – whether American or not – must surely be asking why it is Hilary Clinton the Democrats are presently favoring for the White House in 2008?

While George W Bush teeters under a deluge of rationality in the US, across the Atlantic Tony Blair desperately, though unsuccessfully, attempts to wipe Iranian egg from his face after the surprise announcement from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the fifteen British sailors held for thirteen days were to be released. To suggest that the Iranian president, or perhaps Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, had played a royal flush to Tony Blair’s puny pair of deuces, would be an understatement. While various Western commentators have huffed and puffed in vain attempts to make the Iranian move seem nefarious, the plain fact is that for over a week Iranian TV has displayed pictures of well-fed, contented, smiling British sailors while those same commentators have been accusing the Iranians of “coercing” confessions from the poor British unfortunates.

It’s painfully obvious for all to see that “coercion” belongs in Guantanamo Bay or Abu Ghraib, rather than Tehran – at least in this instance. The British government went to great lengths to convince everyone the Iranians were dead wrong, and the Royal Navy was in Iraqi, rather than Iranian, waters. Later, it was revealed -though not by the politicians – that there is no definitive line between the two nations and, quite likely, the boats had strayed into Iranian territorial waters. Certainly, the lads (and lass) of HMS Cornwall appeared happy to agree with the Iranian view, on worldwide television.

There is an epidemic of lying on both sides of the Atlantic. Politicians, whose words we may once have accepted without question, have now proved over and over again that they are untrustworthy. Lying to the electorate who bestowed them with power illustrates vividly the contempt in which they hold the people. Consequently, the people have lost faith in them.

It is long past time for Tony Blair and George W Bush to face the consequences of their appalling decisions and be sidelined in favor of less self-centered and egoistical characters. In Britain, the choice appears somewhat limited.In America, the best choice – by far – is not even in the running.

Filed under: Political ineptitude

My apologies for the dearth of posts lately, and my tardiness responding to comments. The approaching trip to Wales mentioned in an earlier post has consumed my time, due to the technological tangle of communications equipment and services needing to be unraveled, in order to maintain a reasonable level of contact with my wife who will remain behind in the States.

Admittedly, one cellphone might suffice, were it not that certain areas of Wales are left bare of network coverage by some providers, plus I want to use my laptop for emails and general surfing while away.

Roaming charges make the cost prohibitive, and have resulted in the purchase of a new quad-band cellphone, additional “non-roaming” sim cards, and the rental of a multi-network data card for the computer.

With hindsight, it may have been less expensive to have simply paid the roaming charges.

OK, I know some geek is about to point out that had I just purchased such-and-such for $2.50 it would have managed all my needs for under tuppence an hour, but phone technology has never been my forte. I hark from an era when you stuck your finger in a hole, spun the dial half a dozen times and held a heavy, bakelite receiver to your ear. The concept of doing more than answering or receiving calls on a telephone is still foreign to my senses. After all, it’s only of late I’ve mastered engaging with the internet on a computer, which at least was designed for the purpose. Now I have to learn how to do it on a piece of plastic smaller than my hand, with a screen requiring a magnifying glass to read.

It’s all too much. Sometimes I just long for those heady childhood days with two old bean cans and a long length of string.

Life was so much simpler, then.

Filed under: Time saving technologies