Battle Hymn of Christian kooks

Are we at that moment in history when the threat to burn 200 Korans in Florida becomes the 21st century equivalent of John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, which was a catalyst to starting our Civil War?

Likely not, but violence will be the result nonetheless.

While the so-called "Christian" pastor in Florida is seriously unhinged from reality, he does represent the unspoken beliefs of millions of Americans who hate Muslims and Islam.

Also, there are millions of Americans who believe that 9/11 was the start of the long war between Islam and Christianity.

Of course, the war is between the civilized world (regardless of religion) and Islamist terrorists.

Yes, Islam has dubious tenets, but, then again, so does Christianity and Judaism.

No religion controls the moral high ground. They've all got skeletons in their closets.

Let them stay there.

The last thing we need is to fight terrorism with any religious underpinning.

Terrorists need to be wiped out. We don't need to pray to Jesus for this to happen.

We need to rely on the minds and militaries of the civilized world to accomplish this.

We don't need creepy pastors needlessly taunting Muslims.

And we don't need so-called "Americans" nodding in agreement as this Florida fool endangers real Americans in foreign lands.

9/11 was a dreadful day. The ninth anniversary should be a time of reflection and commemoration for those who died then and who have died since while fighting terrorists.

For those who want to burn Korans, at least agree on how to spell the name of the Muslim holy book. Is it Koran or Quran?

And, when you've done that, go volunteer for duty in Afghanistan or Iraq. You'll find plenty of Korans or Qurans to burn.

Of course, you won't do that, because, deep down, you're just a coward.

Your truth isn't marching on, but rather falling down.

Robbing the 'Hood

Democrats rob from the rich to give to the poor.

Republicans rob from the poor to give to the rich.

Which side are you on?

Personally, I side with the Democrats.

I know, I was brainwashed by my Catholic upbringing and Jesuit education. Still, that's how I feel.

Republicans want to enrich the richest people in our country by denying the poorest people in our country the table scraps of unemployment compensation.

Well, the GOPers lost that battle, but they'll be back to win the war on the poor. In fact, they won it years ago.

One of the reasons why they won is because many denizens of America's middle class believe that they rub elbows with the ultra-rich when they purchase iPhones, iPads and wide-screen HD TVs on credit cards.

In reality, the middle class is becoming the lower-middle class, or worse, because it purchases those items on credit cards.

What we have then, is a conflict between the lesser-haves and the have-nots.

Meanwhile, the ultra-rich avoid serving in the military or even paying for the ones who die in our overseas wars.

The rich get rich and the poor get children, ain't we got fun.

I know, these are age-old gripes of those who envy the rich.

Still, the gap between the rich and the poor is the widest since the Great Depression. Check this piece for some background. The series at Slate.com is called The Great Divergence and it attempts to chronicle our our slide into the great divide.

Coincidentally, we are groping our way through the darkness of this Great Recession.

In Oregon, we passed ballot measures in January to tax the people who have benefited the greatest over the past 30 years. Predictably, in the rural, and backward, parts of the state, editorialists and GOP candidates still whine about this decisive vote for equity. Get over it. You lost.

In Washington state, where there is no state income tax, voters will decide in November whether to impose an income tax on the rich in their state. Here's hoping that the good people of the Evergreen State pass that income tax and try to restore some balance to the inequities that exist there.

These ballot measures are the only feeble ways to show our anger at the rich for evading their responsibilities to our less fortunate citizens, our soldiers and our country. It's also to get back at them for destroying our economy by shipping our jobs overseas and then betting against Americans via the stock market, hedge funds, credit-default swaps and mortgage-backed securities.

Recently, I saw the White House tribute to Paul McCartney on PBS. There were some great performances on that show. Stevie Wonder showed up and sang "Ebony and Ivory," his No. 1 duet with McCartney from 1982.

Yes, it was widely reviled at the time for being one of the most trite, annoying songs in history, but still, some of the lyrics still hold up after all these years:

"We all know that people are the same where ever you go

there is good and bad

in everyone
we learn to live

we learn to give each other

what we need to survive

together alive."

That pretty much sums it up: What we need to survive.

Is a Rolex watch necessary? Is running water?

You decide.

Kicked to the curb

This past spring and summer, construction crews were hard at work putting in or replacing handicap ramps at intersections throughout the city. This work has been going on for more than five years.

The city found out Wednesday that almost all of the redone handicap ramps are not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

This is how we work in America. We don't want to fund government with taxes (yikes!) so there is little government oversight. Then, we hire private contractors to follow ADA rules and put in the new ramps.

Naturally, these contractors have no idea how to follow basic ADA instructions and the city did no checking on its own because it had no money to do so and, well, private enterprise knows how to do this work better than any city crew could ever do.

Well, this is how private contractors roll: They get paid to do the work incorrectly and then get paid again to fix their own mistakes.

And, we wonder why our country is in this economic hole.

As Barney Lerten at KTVZ.com reports, it's going to be an expensive correction:

"The city will have spent about $7.5 million on ADA fixes since 2004, by the end of the current fiscal year, including $3.2 million in long-term debt and about $2.5 million from the general fund.

"Depending on how far from the exact specs they are, city Accessibility Manager Susan Duncan told councilors it could cost anywhere from $2,500 to $5,500 per curb ramp to get them compliant. Do the math, and the total cost ranges from $15 million to $34 million - the latter figure, by comparison, twice the city’s overall $17 million deficit estimate for the next six years."

The goal of private contractors is to rip off the government (actually, taxpayers) and then turn around and blame the government for letting them rip off the government/taxpayers. These contractors put welfare abusers to shame.

It's no wonder Americans have a low opinion of their government. It's also beyond belief that Americans have anything but a low opinion of private contractors or corporations.

The lesson, in this "teachable moment," is to get yours while you can and to hell with everyone else, particularly your own government.

Now that's the American spirit.

White Fright

Glenn Beck attracted a large crowd to the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday, and judging by photographs and video of the crowd, it looks to be almost 100 percent white in a city completely dominated by African-Americans.

Of course, photos and videos can lie. The "lamestream media" will do anything to present their point of view.

We hear that all the time from Beck and his teabagging mate, Sarah Palin. In fact, it is people like Beck, who are a part of this so-called "lamestream" media, making such insane claims.

No one should confuse Beck, though, with sanity. And, he has tapped into that irrational side of Americans. (The gathering Saturday was anything but grassroots. It was Astroturfed all the way. Check this piece for a little enlightenment. Or this essay.)

Beck's most popular phrase is "they just don't understand."

Who are "they" and what don't they understand?

Who knows? Certainly, not Beck or Palin or their teabagging teammates: Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly.

What was clearly obvious at the Beck bash is that a certain segment of white America is running scared, like they've wandered into the wrong neighborhood and don't know how or where to get out.

You hear comments about how people are "afraid" or how they're "scared" about what's happening to our country. You see the bumper stickers about "fearing" our government.

Please.

What these people are afraid of is that black man, a true African-American, is running our country and there isn't a damn thing they can do about it except whine until the cows come home.

What Beck and the teabaggers want to restore in America is the time-honored tradition of racism.

Beck and others talk of "American exceptionalism" (whatever that is) but our racism is no different than the racism practiced by most other nations on this earth. That's not exceptional, but rather painfully mundane and ordinary.

In the 1960s, Democrats had a coalition that included "Dixiecrats," southern racists who still harbored deep resentment over the first Republican, Abraham Lincoln, and would never become Republicans.

Well, the civil rights legislation of the mid-1960s, passed by the majority Democrats, began the long descent of the Republican Party into race-based politics. The GOP, the parent of the teabagging movement, now welcomes and embraces racists, as long as they vote for them.

Richard Nixon devised the "Southern" strategy but it was Ronald Reagan who championed the restoration of "whiteness" in America. Reagan sealed the deal with southern white racists and the south is now reliably Republican.

But, a majority chunk of America is not, including Oregon.

Most Americans can't understand people like Beck, Palin or the thousands who joined them on Saturday in D.C.

And, that's a good thing.

But, what the Beck rally confirmed is that we definitely do not live in a "post-racial" society.

Despite Obama's historic election, racism is still part of the definition of our country. Beck, himself, confirmed this when he called Obama a racist. This is common tactic of racists to deflect attention away from their own racism.

It is up to the rational Americans to reject the race-baiting rhetoric that Beck, Palin and the rest of "hatriots" practice.

They no longer represent the "silent majority" of the 1960s, but rather the "miserable minority" of the 21st century.

Let's make sure they stay a minority for years to come.

Outsourcing America

Now that outsourcing is the basis for a new comedy this fall on TV, we should all laugh together.

Or maybe it should be a ribald guffaw or perhaps a hearty chuckle.

In any case, we know the plot of this TV series well.

Our Fords our made in Hermosillo, Mexico, not far from where our "American" strawberries come from.

Our Mattel toys, Apple iPhones and everything in Lowe's, Home Depot, Walmart and Target come from China.

And if we have trouble with our Chinese-made Dell or HP computers, we can call Bangalore, India, for a little help.

I have, haven't you?

Thank god we have some diversity in our "American" clothing that is now made all over the world, from the Dominican Republic to Bangladesh to Vietnam.

And, aren't those Australian chardonnays good, and cheap. And those Chilean red wines sure taste fine and, yes, they are dirt cheap.

Welcome to the global economy where everything Americans create, produce or patent can be done cheaper somewhere else.

Okay, so we have high unemployment and we're enduring our third jobless recovery in the last 20 years or so, but isn't it amazing how much the price has dropped on those HDTVs.

One of these days, I may even buy one of those Samsungs or Vizios, when I can afford it.

The good thing about America is that we still have the market cornered on ideas and innovation.

Okay, our ideas consist of outsourcing all those dull jobs that Americans no longer want to do for half the wages they used to make. As for innovation, we can always buy all the innovation that is fit to buy with money borrowed from the communist Chinese.

Recently, a federal judge decided that rules, adopted by the Obama administration, relaxing the use of embryonic stem cells for research are illegal because they run afoul of legislation passed by Congress.

The talking heads on TV and radio assure us that the judge's ruling will likely stand.

We don't need to worry because someone else in some other country will gladly use embryonic stem cells in their research.

This makes sense, because the last thing we need to do in this country is find a cure for cancer or diabetes or Parkinson's disease.

I mean, why would a scientist in this country do such a thing when it can be done cheaper in South Korea or China or France or Germany or Japan or Great Britain or, for that matter, anywhere else.

That's the key to America. If it can be produced cheaper elsewhere, without union workers (who make up about 12 percent of our work force) along with their obscene pay and benefits, than we're all better for it.

Of course, anything our non-union engineers or scientists can do, some engineer or scientist in India can do it just as well and for a fraction of the cost. Same goes for our non-union financial analysts.

And when we outsource our teaching jobs, just think, our kids can start learning Mandarin in kindergarten without the dreaded union teachers. Think of the possibilities.

It will be weird, though and take some adjusting, when we outsource our open-heart surgeries, for example, to some guy operating a computer 10,000 miles away.

But, if anyone can do it, we can.

Yes, if a scientist in South Korea comes up with a cure for cancer using embryonic stem cells, we'll just have to import it like everything else.

And, it will likely be cheaper than anything discovered here.

At least, we'll have the moral high ground.

That always matters when there is money to be made.

Now, if we can only outsource our moral high ground. That would be the ticket.

Give us time, I'm sure we can figure that out.

Bend No. 1 again

Yep, what goes up like a spec house in sagebrush, remains unsold like a spec house in Bend's upside down housing market.

It seemed like only yesterday when the Bend Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) had the fastest rate for home appreciation of the 303 MSAs that the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) tracks in its Housing Price Index (HPI).

Now, we're No. 303.

Yep, Bend leads the nation with the worst home depreciation after showing the same lead in the last quarter. Granted, we narrowly edged out Ocala, Fla., -18.59 to -18.55, for worst depreciation over the last year, we'll take the "victory," such as it is.

Check this link for the data. It's on Page 29 of this PDF file.

Who knew that this last year could be worse than the year before?

Well, almost anyone not connected with building/development/real estate/financing industries here. In other words, about 10 people. (Okay, building was just over 30 percent of our local economy, but a healthy economy should be only about 11 percent dependent on building.)

Still, what is Bend to do about the collapse of its economy.

Well, the builders' union wants the city to give builders more fee breaks so that they can finally start building homes again that no one wants to buy. Amazingly, the city sees wisdom in this logic even though the fee break last year did nothing to reverse Bend's 15 percent unemployment rate or make people want to buy overpriced homes.

Foreclosure and default notices still fill the daily's classified section.

Meanwhile, Bend still cannot fill potholes on Reed Market or other heavily used roads. And, as we know, a city that can't fill potholes can't do much of anything. That's what happens when you have inadequate building impact fees to begin with.

Sadly, the FHFA's MSA HPI doesn't rank worst potholes probably because there is no acronym for them.

Acronym or not, Bend has fallen into a huge pothole of home depreciation and the tow truck is nowhere in sight because the AAA card has expired.

Is God a Muslim?

Who knows?

But, what is clear is that a growing number of Americans, my relatives included, believes President Obama is a Muslim.

Here is a link to a story showing how Americans, mainly Republicans, believe Obama is a Muslim, which, in their minds, means he is a terrorist, or worse, a socialist.

This poll was conducted before the uproar over the proposed Muslim center in lower Manhattan gained full jihad status.

Can you imagine what the percentage would be now of those who believe Obama is a Muslim? It could well be a third of all Americans.

Now, not to beat a dead camel, but WTF!

I'm no fan of Islam or any other religion that relegates women to second-class status, or worse.

But, what all this Islamophobia or Obamaphobia, if indeed they are separate but equal, means is that the groundwork is being laid to assassinate Obama.

Fox News and the denizens of hate radio are fomenting such hatred of Obama that an assassination of Obama would seem patriotic and entirely reasonable.

This is how low our country has fallen during this Great Recession.

And, if the mid-term elections don't deliver to Republicans what they expect them to, than Obama's life, and that of his family, are in jeopardy.

It's not entirely unexpected. Read this link from the New Yorker for some insight.

Or, read this link about the ties between Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox News, and the "terror-mosque" funder.

The last time we had a president whose religion was a major issue was 1960, when JFK was elected. And, we all know what happened to him in 1963.

I'm sure that Republicans are smart enough to wait to knock off Obama until after the midterms.

But, as with the election of 1964, it won't matter. Democrats will cruise in 2012.

And, it won't matter if God is a Muslim, a Christian, a Hindu or a Jew.