Richie Havens - 1941/2013 - Follow

Let the river rock you like a cradle

Climb to the treetops, child, if you're able

Let your hands tie a knot across the table

Come and touch the things you cannot feel

And close your fingertips and fly where I can't hold you

Let the sun rain fall and let the dewy clouds enfold you

And maybe you can sing to me the words I just told you

If all the things you feel ain't what they seem

Then don't mind me 'cause I ain't nothin' but a dream

The mockin' bird sings each different song

Each song has wings, they won't stay long

Do those who hear think he's doing wrong?

While the church bell tolls its one note song

And the school bell is tinkling to the throng

Come here where your ears cannot hear

And close your eyes, child, and listen to what I'll tell you

Follow in the darkest night the sounds that may impel you

And the song that I am singing may disturb or serve to quell you

If all the sounds you hear ain't what they seem

Then don't mind me 'cause I ain't nothin' but a dream

The rising smell of fresh cut grass

Smothered cities choke and yell with fuming gas

I hold some grapes up to the sun

And their flavor breaks upon my tongue

With eager tongues we taste our strife

And fill our lungs with seas of life

Come taste and smell the waters of our time

And close your lips, child, so softly I might kiss you

Let your flower perfume out and let the winds caress you

As I walk on through the garden, I am hoping I don't miss you

If all the things you taste ain't what they seem

Then don't mind me 'cause I ain't nothin' but a dream

The sun and moon both arise

And we'll see them soon through days and nights

But now silver leaves are mirrors, bring delights

And the colors of your eyes are fiery bright

While darkness blinds the skies with all its light

Come see where your eyes cannot see

And close your eyes, child and look at what I'll show you

Let your mind go reeling out and let the breezes blow you

And maybe when we meet then suddenly I will know you

If all the things you see ain't quite what they seem

Then don't mind me 'cause I ain't nothin' but a dream

And you can follow and you can follow; follow

.

Rep. Jodie Laubenberg Texas - Yelling Personal Preferences for Privacy Over National Security W/ Texas DL Fingerprinting Law

Too bad Texas only has a part time legislature, meets every two years for six or seven months and then shuts down.  Next official session, the 84^th Legislature meets in January 2015. Texas to an outsider like me it operates on 19^th century Territorial Time and or not real modern Statehood Time IMHO.

Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, the rep who thinks that rape kits cause Abortion, taking away a raped women’s right to the miracle of conception in conjunction with the Rape Daddy’s magic holy spermy thingies (taking sperm out of the Rape Victim’s womb), thinks that fingerprinting people in the Driver’s License bureau is an invasion of privacy.

Ironically, since illegals can’t get a DL to get car insurance because they are (Catch 22) illegal, it is only the God Fearing (?)(cannot find Jodie’s religion affiliation anywhere btw) people of Texas who have to get fingerprinted. God Bless Big Brother Texas. LOL

This in a state that elects a Canadian to the Senate without asking for a valid American Birth Certificate ( half-assed backward ) etc.

http://www.dallasnews.com/investigations/watchdog/20140802-watchdog-lawmakers-say-they-didnt-give-dps-ok-to-fingerprint.ece

Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, R-Parker, says her antenna lifted when her 76-year-old mom visited the Plano driver’s license office recently and was fingerprinted.

“They do not have the legislative authority to do this,” Laubenberg says. “I was there in 2005” when the bill the DPS says gives them permission was enacted. “I guarantee this would have blown up if that was part of the bill.”

The 2005 law said the DPS could collect “an applicant’s thumbprint or fingerprints.” Two sponsors of the original bill have said it wasn’t meant to let the agency collect all 10 prints; only if a thumb wasn’t available, fingers could be used. That was, they say, their intent.

The decision to fingerprint all Texas drivers was handled by DPS through rule-making, not law, Laubenberg said, and that’s not good enough.

“I’m all for supporting DPS, but this one is a privacy issue. And this is one that we need to debate publicly. … I want them to cease taking fingerprints.”

.

Texas’s Rump Parliament DBA TCC Texas Conservative Coalition 501(c)4 - Files Amicus Brief Regarding Marriage Equality

This Brief is filed with the consent of all parties.

No party’s counsel authored this Brief in whole or in part. No party or party’s counsel contributed money intended to fund preparing or submitting the Brief, and no person other than Amicus Curiae, its members, or its counsel contributed money that was intended to fund the preparing or submitting the Brief.

/s/ Russell H. Withers Russell H. Withers

Attorney of record for Amicus Curiae

Texas Conservative Coalition

http://www.scribd.com/doc/235959859/Texas-Conservative-Coalition-marriage-brief

http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2014/08/06/3468086/texas-lawmakers-marriage-brief/

TCC Texas Conservative Coalition Signers of Amicus Brief:

1-Brian Birdwell, Texas Senate

2-Donna Campbell, Texas Senate

3-Bob Deuell, Texas Senate

4-Craig Estes, Texas Senate

5-Troy Fraser, Texas Senate

6-Kelly Hancock, Texas Senate

7-Robert Nichols, Texas Senate

8-Dan Patrick, Texas Senate

9-Ken Paxton, Texas Senate

10-Charles Schwertner, Texas Senate

11-Larry Taylor, Texas Senate

12-Charles “Doc”Anderson, Texas House of Representatives

13-Trent Ashby, Texas House of Representatives

14-Cecil Bell, Jr., Texas House of Representatives

15-Dwayne Bohac, Texas House of Representatives

16-Dennis “Connass” Bonnen, Texas House of Representatives

17-Greg Bonnen, Texas House of Representatives

18-Angie Chen Button, Texas House of Representatives

19-Tom Craddick, Texas House of Representatives

20-Brandon Creighton, Texas House of Representatives

21-Myra Crownover, Texas House of Representatives

22-Gary Elkins, Texas House of Representatives

23-Pat Fallon, Texas House of Representatives

24-Allen Fletcher, Texas House of Representatives

25-Dan Flynn, Texas House of Representatives

26-James Frank, Texas House of Representatives

27-John Frullo, Texas House of Representatives

28-Craig Goldman, Texas House of Representatives

29-Larry Gonzales, Texas House of Representatives

30-Lance Gooden, Texas House of Representatives

31-Linda Harper-Brown, Texas House of Representatives

32-Harvey Hilderbran, Texas House of Representatives

33-Bryan Hughes, Texas House of Representatives

34-Jason Isaac, Texas House of Representatives

35-Phil King, Texas House of Representatives

36-Tim Kleinschmidt, Texas House of Representatives

37-Stephanie Klick, Texas House of Representatives

38-Lois Kolkhorst, Texas House of Representatives

39-Matt Krause, Texas House of Representatives

40-Jodie Laubenberg, Texas House of Representatives

41-George Lavender, Texas House of Representatives

42-Jeff Leach, Texas House of Representatives

43-Tryon Lewis, Texas House of Representatives

44-Rick Miller, Texas House of Representatives

45-Geanie Morrison, Texas House of Representatives

46-Jim Murphy, Texas House of Representatives

47-Rob Orr, Texas House of Representatives

48-John Otto, Texas House of Representatives

49-Tan Parker, Texas House of Representatives

50-Charles Perry, Texas House of Representatives

51-Larry Phillips, Texas House of Representatives

52-Scott Sanford, Texas House of Representatives

53-Matt Schaefer, Texas House of Representatives

54-Ralph Sheffield, Texas House of Representatives

55-Ron Simmons, Texas House of Representatives

56-John Smithee, Texas House of Representatives

57-Drew Springer, Texas House of Representatives

58-Van Taylor, Texas House of Representatives

59-Ed Thompson, Texas House of Representatives

60-Steve Toth, Texas House of Representatives

61-Scott Turner, Texas House of Representatives

62-James White, Texas House of Representatives

63-Bill Zedler, Texas House of Representatives

.

Why Does The G.O.P. Hate America So Much?

Strange Love of the Republican Party Towards America in 2014

Why does the G.O.P. hate America,

Or,

What America is it that it thinks it loves?

.

Ronald Reagan Remembered

.

Mo Brooks, living proof on the validity of the theory of Natural Selection.

Mo Brooks, living proof on the validity of the theory of Natural Selection.

“With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated.” ~~ Charles Darwin

.

Cuban Racism of Ted Cruz and Rafael Cruz Sr. Attacks Barack Obama – Potential Civil Rights Model for a Future Free Cuba

Beer and Pizza Tea Party Immigration Racism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_Cuba

The Cuban census reports that 65% of the population is white while foreign figures report an estimate of the number of whites at anywhere from 20 to 35 percent.[1][2][3] The Economist states that, although the population is now mainly black or mulatto and young, its rulers form "a mainly white gerontocracy"…

A survey[year needed] showed that white Cubans believe that blacks are "less intelligent than whites" (58%) and "devoid of decency" (69%).[3] Racial Politics in Post-Revolutionary Cuba by Mark Q. Sawyer discusses the racial ideology prevalent in the country.[5]

According to anthropologists dispatched by the European Union (EU), racism in Cuban is systemic and institutional.[1] Black people are systematically excluded from positions in tourism-related jobs, where they could earn tips in hard currencies.[1] According to the EU study, black people are relegated to poor housing, were excluded from managerial positions, received the lowest remittances from relatives abroad, and were five times more likely to be imprisoned. Blacks also complained of suffering the longest waits in healthcare.[1]

Esteban Morales Domínguez, a professor in the University of Havana, believes that "the absence of the debate on the racial problem already threatens {...} the revolution's social project".[6] Carlos Moore, who has written extensively on the issue, says that "there is an unstated threat, blacks in Cuba know that whenever you raise race in Cuba, you go to jail. Therefore the struggle in Cuba is different. There cannot be a civil rights movement. You will have instantly 10,000 black people dead".[6] He says that a new generation of black Cubans are looking at politics in another way.[6] 

Barack Obama's victory has raised disturbing questions about the institutional racism in Cuba.[1] The Economist noted, "The danger starts with his example: after all, a young, black, progressive politician has no chance of reaching the highest office in Cuba, although a majority of the island’s people are black."

Ken Doll Hannity vs. Russell Brand II - Personal Attacks for Having a Brain and an Opinion

FOX NEWS KEN DOLL Hannity and "Friends" do personal attacks on Russell Brand for having a brain and an opinion contrary to Fox New's "J" Street Sponsors.

.

St. Jerome Catholic Church Kentucky Politic-ing on its Non-Taxpayer Non-Dime

No Separation of Church and State in Kentucky in St. Jerome’s Politics Fair.

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2014/08/02/candidates-urged-dont-mess-up-at-fancy-farm/13506939/

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes met Saturday for the first time in a year, sparring on the stage at the annual Fancy Farm Picnic in western Kentucky.

With the crowd a bit better behaved than in past years, Grimes hammered on McConnell, listing a series of her policy positions and urging to respond that McConnell "doesn't care."

McConnell for his part took shots at Grimes and a series of gaffes she and her campaign have made…

The crowd of ... was loud and boisterous as always but they didn't chant throughout the entire speeches, largely complying with the request of St. Jerome Catholic Church officials who organize the picnic.

"When you agree with what they say, cheer. If you disagree, boo." Supreme Court Justice Bill Cunningham urged the crowd. "And then shut up and let them go on with their speech."

First Baptist Church of Royal Palm Beach – Cheap Bastards of Christ Dump Hungry Homeless into Jail for $2.25 Worth of Cookies

You can’t get more white in America these days without the white “Christians” not wanting to get their clean paws dirty tending to the poor or other obsolete Jesus bullshit like that.

A homeless man steals some cookies and these cheap bastards as a church that does not pay taxes dumps the dirty hungry homeless onto the jails to support at hundreds or thousands of dollars a day to support by real taxpayers.

Real Moral Authority - BULLSHIT.

A-merican “Christianity” is so fucked up and GOP these days = F.Y.I.G.M. = (wink, nod) = A-men?

I apologize. This kind of stuff makes me so angry about how a gated church in a probably gated community gets tax free and money laundering privileges that the founding fathers never envisioned. Whatever.

The British link below btw mentions Los Angeles - a typo. 

This is a redneck Kristian church in redneck stand your ground Floreeda. 

 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/weird-news/church-presses-charges-after-homeless-man-steals-225-worth-of-cookies-9644921.html

According to a report in the Palm Beach Post, the homeless man had been looking for assistance from the church when he entered the building and found the unguarded cookie jar.

After beginning to tuck into the church’s cookies, the man was greeted by the church's cleaner.

On finding the homeless man, the startled cleaner called the police.

After discussions between police and church members, it was decided that the church would press charges.

The homeless man was then arrested and taken into police custody.

.

Ted Cruz’s White Cuban Racism Shapes American Foreign Policy on Immigration

Ted Cruz besides being a native born Canadian is not Hispanic or Latino and you never hear those terms from the right’s Fox Propaganda Machine used for him.

Ted Cruz is the traditionally racist white Cubano. “Cubano Blanco”. Not a cigar.

Castro when he went Commie, brought down institutional Racism in Cuba in terms of access to education and social services for the black Cubans kept at the bottom of Cuban society for centuries – but that ingrained national traditional racism still exists in Castro’s Cuba.

The words of hate coming out of Ted Cruz’s Mail Order Preacher Certificate dad's mouth against Obama is nothing but traditional centuries old Cuban Racism trying to keep the blacks slaves down in Cuba and inferior to the so-called white Spaniards at the top of the Cuban social heap. 

I have heard before from Hispanics that say they don’t like to travel through Miami’s airport for fear of having to spend any time there and have to encounter the traditional white Cuban (my shit don’t stink) attitude, the degree of venom delivered depending on race and color of the Spanish speaking person wandering the airport, asking for directions, in search of some decent human interface but all they get is that my shit don’t stink Cuban white racism instead.

The GOP had lumped all the Latinos and Hispanics together and think that they are stupid enough to vote for a Cuban like Rubio or Cruz and quite frankly, Latinos and Hispanics can smell the cat under the “friendly” dog overcoat of Cuban American and Cuban Canadian politicians like Rubio and Cruz.

Traditional Cuban racism leeches out in every move, word, Ted Cruz makes against immigrants that are not white and not “pure” Cuban.

.

Gaza – the killing fields of a dying western culture.

all Religion is politics.

The mean desert god of the Jews is blowing up the refugees of Gaza who worship the mean desert god of the Muslims.  All with backing and cash of the mean desert god of the Christians in the United States.

Gaza – the killing fields of a dying western culture.

(a losing game for all parties concerned)

.

Shawn Hannity’s Fox Propaganda Dissected by Irreverent Russell Brand – Gaza Ghetto Uprising

.

Ted Cruz the Self-Hating Hispanic and his Complex Oedipus / Electra Issues

Ted Cruz - Self-Hating Hispanic W/ Oedipus / Electra Issues?

Warning. This may all be categorized as sarcasm or Irish (Yiddish) Dark Humor but really folks, like thirty or forty years ago people like Ted Cruz, Michele Bachmann, Virginia Foxx and Louis Gohmert and a lot more were institutionalized in the non-PC category institution also known as a Mental Hospital.

They outsourced mental health to the streets along with the homeless under the actor/king “Dutch” Reagan and well it is like some episode of Law and Order Criminal Intent where criminals go around and get the homeless all cleaned up and get their photo taken and fingerprint them, sign them onto a million dollar life insurance policy as vice presidents of some bogus offshore corporations and then kill them and collect the insurance money. 

All good sound capitalism I think.

Well I am waiting for the punch line or the last five minutes of the show where the “they” that are sending these goobers to Congress are found out and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Yeah right.

Well anyway Ted Cruz just bumps the Border Bill off the table in the House today even though technically he is like in the U.S. Senate and even though he is not really an American citizen etc.

But considering his signature Daddy’s hard luck road to success story via the Petro Fields of Canada, his daddy escaping being a rent boy for Batista first or was it Castro first…I have to say that either way Rafael “Edward” Cruz is a self-hating Hispanic - without a doubt from this day forward. 

But while we are on the subject of the mentally ill in the GOP these days, not as many in the Dems btw, I have to wonder why a Napoleonic ego like Cruz got the run of the halls of both sides of the Capitol building today. Aside from his split personality, a chameleon that pleases everybody he encounters (gets that from his dad and those rentboy days in Cuba and Austin and Dallas in 1963 etc. – but let’s not go there) – 

I have to mention Ted’s strong feminine side and well I don’t care if he is gay but I really see problems ahead if he is in charge on both sides of Capitol Hill and his unresolved Oedipus / Electra issues with both Mom and Dad that are not dealt with in any known mental health professional manner.  

Kind of reminds me of the joke about what went wrong with little Adolph (you know who)’s potty training. More dark humor?

We know Ted Cruz has Oedipus issues. His mom in out of sight, locked away (?) from “Dad” and all to himself in his apartment complex residence in TX, and of course we know why. Ten words out of her mouth along a personal history timeline would probably set in motion deportation of the whole Texas Cruz clan to Canada and or Cuba or both. That common law marriage stuff and the stuff put on a Canadian birth certificate in 1970 may have genuine statute of limitations crime factors even in Oh Canada. Just my personal opinion btw.

And of course the feminine side of Ted is subject to Dad and his Svengali Heritage Foundation purchased mail order "christian" preacher’s certificate. Talk about outsourcing the crazies to the Street out of the old mental institutions etc.  I think it is called a Daddy/Doll complex, the modern version of Electra in pop psych magazines, Ted's gosh awful awe of the official (dedacted) Dad success story. Whatever.

God help us all if the crazies like Ted Cruz are really in charge in DC. 

photo above - feminine side (right) http://republicansindrag.blogspot.com/

.

The New GOP - With Tits Flowing With Rye Whiskey - Ted Cruz New Speaker of the House and His Pet John Boy Boehner

Not your parents' cloth-coated Republican Party!



.

Speaker of the House Ted Cruz – A Self-Hating Hispanic – Kills Rep. Boehner’s Immigrant Border Bill

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-pn-house-gop-border-crisis-daca-20140731-story.html

Cruz, the hard-line Texas Republican, has been working behind the scenes to stir up conservative opposition to a House GOP plan to approve $659 million to secure the border and handle the flow of 57,000 migrant youths....

The senator's handiwork lighted up the telephone lines in the Capitol after an appearance on a tea party webinar. He further stoked opposition among House Republicans meeting privately over pizza on the eve of Thursday's vote....

Ultimately, Boehner was pressured into attaching a Cruz-inspired bill that would halt the administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program giving 500,000 young immigrants legal status if they remain in school or join the military.


.

.

Tim Torkildson – Fired in Utah for Splainin’ English Language to Utahns Duh!

                                                                                                                    google maps

“Learn English in Utah” says the sign in the window of the strip mall office of Nomen Global Language Center.

Moron – A Homophone for Clarke Woodger? – Owner of Strip Mall NO-MEN Language Center in Provo Utah fired Tim Torkildson for trying to Splain' what a homophobe homophone is. A word that sounds alike but has different meanings.

Thank god they fired that freak before he splain'ed to his students what a pee pee is called in the dictionary. lol

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2712312/Language-school-blogger-fired-boss-confuses-homophones-homophobes-accuses-promoting-gay-agenda.html

A blogger for a school in Utah has lost his job after he wrote a post explaining what a homophone is and his boss accused him of promoting a gay agenda.

Until his recent dismissal, Tim Torkildson worked as a social media strategist for the Nomen Global Language Center in Provo, a private language school which aims to help students with their English.

One of Torkildon’s tasks was writing about the English language and his last post had focused on explaining what homophones are.

Homophones are words that sound the same but have different meanings and often different spellings such as be and bee, through and threw, which and witch.

When Torkildson’s boss, and the school’s owner, Clarke Woodger read the article he called him into his office and told him he was fired.

English – a second language in Moron Utah!

.

.

I am and or was once a free American

who rates the news? For years I have noticed that the major networks NBC, ABC and CBS all order their stories in the same order 9 times out of ten. And they all run their commercials at the same time, so there is no chance of channel surfing away from a commercial into another network's news. Last night with a humanitarian nightmare in Gaza, all three networks led with a story on "Ebola". Google by the way has a news headline page. Gaza does not rate on the main section. It had yesterday a tiny side headline - one. Does not reflect on the ethic ownership of Google btw - yeah right. Just call me mushroom and feed me more BS in the dark. I am and or was once a free American.

Ambulance Chaser Congress - Will Sue For Booze or Money

.

Oh Yeah - I'm Cool - Ernest Hemingway

pic.twitter.com/MZ5MEGe55c
— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) July 30, 2014

Four Basic Steps to Western Style Atheism

Four Basic Steps to Western Style Atheism

One – Catholic “Christian” – Have never read the New Testament.

Two – Protestant “Christian” – Have read the New Testament at least once.

Three – Agnostic “Christian” – Have read New Testament at least twice.

Four – Atheist (ex-“Christian”) – Have read NT at least three times. Etc. (And or never read IT.)

.

Satanist Religion Fights For Women’s Right To Best Possible Heathcare Based on Religious Beliefs of Its Members Based on Science and Not Superstition

What’s good for the Red State Hillbilly superstitious laws regarding Women’s Health Care is good also to all others regarding the best possible scientific options as opposed to the superstitious “Christian” options of these third word states.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/28/1317272/-Well-well-Satanists-to-use-Hobby-Lobby-to-block-pro-life-propaganda?detail=facebook#

In a statement, the Satanic Temple said that it will use the Supreme Court’s recent Hobby Lobby decision to exempt its believers from state-mandated informed consent laws that require women considering abortions to read pro-life material.

Informed consent or “right to know” laws state that women seeking elective abortions be provided with information about alternatives to the procedure, often couched in language that attempts to personify the fetus. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 35 states currently have informed consent laws, and of those, 33 require that the woman be told the gestational age of the fetus.

In some states, that information consists of pro-life propaganda that links abortion to a higher incidence of breast and ovarian cancers, or discusses “post-abortion syndrome,” a mental condition not recognized by any major medical or psychiatric organization.

Because the Satanic Temple bases its belief “regarding personal health…on the best scientific understanding of the world, regardless of the religious or political beliefs of others,” it claims that state-mandated information with no basis in scientific fact violates its “religious” beliefs.

.

Ayn Rand - The Secret of My Success

Ayn Rand  - 



The Secret of My Success  –  



I don’t give a shit about my neighbor.




.

Broken Communication in America – The Sound of My Voice – Father / Son / Holy Ghost – Limbaugh / Osteen / Maddow

This began the other night when my usual source of “Progressive” information MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow was presenting a propaganda show that night to tell of airline shootings of the last three or more decades and telling us directly or indirectly (subliminally) that America should not go to war with Russia over Malaysian Flight MH17 shot down over the Ukraine / Russian border by Russian terrorists.

Not satisfied with my own personal questions about this tragic act of Russian State Terrorism, I resorted to what I did in the dark days of George W Bush and sought foreign English Speaking news sites in the UK, Singapore and Australia to try and get a handle on the truth – something not available in America on this specific incident.

I realized that Rachel was doing a favor for the liberal/progressive party in general and maybe even specifically directly for the White House. That Professor Barry was not going to get off his ass and break a sweat over this one – he only will break a sweat doing hoops btw. But that is his style. George W. Bush’s style was similar as he sat in his tub and painted his toes etc.

I had to stand back and reflect on why I had sought Maddow as a news source and realized that I was seeking a comfort zone source and she had inherited that main source title at MSNBC after they hounded Olbermann into obscurity and back to the sports locker room gig – a job he was not best, but better suited for as far as the establishment was concerned.

But Olbermann was a shouter, a preacher and the sound of his voice gave comfort and his words too in most cases. Olbermann was a bit of a diva and they can easily be gotten rid of etc. – don’t you know.

But was it the sound of Olbermann’s voice that I trusted and maybe not all his words? That by default, Maddow’s voice had now become to me the surrogate Olbermann voice I suppose, (the ghost of Olbernmann past?) and or the surrogate voice of comfort available on the cable airwaves for me at least and my POV. And of course, it is a limited elite audience in America that can afford private cable news and or propaganda. I am certainly not your everyday hoi polloi. Yeah right.

I also in the case of comforting voices harkened back to something said by the Catholic theologian Bill Lindsey over at the Bilgrimage blog somewhere about how his assessment of listening to Rush Limbaugh on long car trips in the South put him to mind to analyze why a babbling tub of lard like Limbaugh had such a wide and hardcore group of listeners. The answer Bill had was that people fell in love with Rush’s voice and no matter what he says, no matter how vain, vulgar or stupid, it is the sound of the voice people are listening to and not the string of words that Rush outputs by the ton on a daily radio message day.

The trick to the magic of communicating at least in America was to trust the snake oil salesman or saleswoman and then the snake oil tastes like sugar candy from that point on in time.

And then there is Joel Osteen with his $100,000 perfect plastic teeth smile doing a nihilistic circle jerk of "success" with his Texas congregation – Christian??? - of reaffirming to his middle-class audience in an indirect oblique manner, that it is okay to cheat on your income taxes so long as you tithe to him - Joel - kinda sorta religion? 

Of course Joel is not political that I know of, but the Catholic U.S. Supreme Court has okay-ed anonymity in political PACs (Citizens United) these days even if tax exempt preachers, Salt Lake City temples or Russian dictators want to fund any looney these days in the Tea Party and its “I don’t give a shit about my neighbor” Ayn Rand pagan libertarian godless philosophy.

I hear he has something like a hundred million mortgage on the former professional basketball  arena he calls a mega-church down there in sub-minimum wage Texas. When the founding fathers gave tax exemption to churches, meeting houses and synagogues and such, those congregations were in wooden buildings and memberships numbered in the hundreds each. How times have changed.

Funny thing. I heard a story about how the safe in his church got robbed one weekend recently in the News. The thieves got away with over half a million dollars which was supposed to be the weekly take  for his local god business.  So people start to think – wow – that times 52 weeks is like twenty six million a year. 

Wow! That is success. Right?

Well being an old war horse in the mortgage business among other things over the years. The thing is this. Twenty-six million income on a 100 million mortgage represents four times income or so. That is the base bottom line for allowing any mortgage or it used to be until politics and the whoring banks along with politicians ruined the mortgage business in this country.  Four times income.  Joel is barely getting by - treading water. Not much of a success in terms of old mortgage business standards. But those are old standards.

Who am I to question the success that the lord has pissed out onto Joel Osteen standing on his humble solid gold preacher pedestal? lol

But many, many, many may never hear the word Jesus out of his mouth during his hour long success story homilies preaching thing – or understand the words. But he has one hell of a comforting voice. Amen?

.