I really really try not to drag religion into my posts, but GAH some people make me want to scream, so here are a few things:

Leviticus 19:18 - Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

Another way of saying "Vengeance is MINE" saith the Lord. He has already mentioned he is a jealous God, don't go inflicting your wrath on others because that is a privilege reserved for Him alone.

Leviticus 19:34 - But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Hey, that weird guy who doesn't look like us? Love him as yourself. Deal. Neither one of these passages say "love thy neighbor but only if he/she looks/acts/talks/believes just like you". With me so far? Good.

Matthew 22:35-40 - Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Beginning to see a pattern? Ok, let's move on.

Charity - again, note that Jesus does not specify who to help. Ladies and gentlemen, I present Matthew 25:35-46, the parable of the sheep and goats. I have bolded the significant parts.

The Sheep and the Goats
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Again, please note that nothing was specified about color, religion, sexual preference, gender. I am aware of the passages in the bible condemning homosexuality, but I am also aware that in many many passages, THERE ISN'T A WORD SAYING IT'S OKAY TO JUDGE ON BEHALF OF GOD.

I suggest http://www.otkenyer.hu/truluck/six_bible_passages.html as excellent reading for those with open hearts and open minds, or the willingness to try.

And that's all I want to say on the matter at this point. There is no war on Christmas, it's okay to be Takei (It's downright FABULOUS), Jews do not eat Christian babies, Muslims do not consider Christians and Jews to be infidels, and DAMN IT STOP FRUSTRATING ME OR I WILL DO SOMETHING I WILL LATER REGRET. Like take my rants public.

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Barb's been thinking. Nothing good can come of that.

I would like to start things off by quoting a couple paragraphs from the Declaration of Independence, bold font courtesy of yours truly as I will hit on those passages and my interpretation thereof.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

Those are some mighty powerful words, people.

Let's start with the definition on unalienable: "adj. Not to be separated, given away, or taken away; inalienable". Inalienable and unalienable are interchangeable for "unable to be taken away from or given away by the possessor."

So... the rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness are fundamental to the very core of our nature as humans. We can't give them away; we possess them at birth. Got that?

So if I want to marry a rock, tree, horse, or another woman, because that makes me happy and isn't hurting anyone, IT'S WITHIN MY RIGHTS. If I want to wander naked in my own damn house, or smoke a cigar where the smoke won't bother anyone, or eat a triple chili cheeseburger with the works, I am well within my fundamental human rights to do so. I am free to do so.

Moving on to the derivation of power via the consent of the governed: It's a little hard to do that when all these top secret meetings a la "star chamber" or Kangaroo Court are taking place under the radar. Things such as the Patriot Act. First, I don't believe for a minute that huge honking bit of writing was drafted and read within the short time frame between the 9/11 attacks and the date it was passed. There wasn't time for everyone to read it. Sure, let's secretly bug the phone of the guy who is a little darker-skinned and has a funny name. But that's discrimination and racial profiling so we'll tap everyone's lines. Didn't we learn anything from Watergate? Nixon however wasn't the first president to use illegal wiretaps - he was just the first to get caught. From SFgate.com:

Can the president eavesdrop on private citizens without a judge's ok? The high court said 'no' in 1972 Wiretaps: Ruling requires warrants for spying at home. Presidents have approved wiretaps without court orders since the 1940s, but the legality of the practice was thrown into doubt after the Supreme Court ruled in 1967 that electronic eavesdropping was a search, and thus covered by the prohibition on unreasonable searches in the Constitution's Fourth Amendment.

Funny how everyone is fine with the other guy being bugged but is somewhat less sanguine about his own affairs coming to light. This is true on a variety of levels. Anyway - I didn't say it's okay to racially profile or tap lines. I don't recall that coming to a vote for the general population - you know, THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED. How many of you people reading this (or have read this far, at any rate) got an invitation to vote on this? Or on the phenomenal bailouts and golden parachutes and raises in pay for Congress etc? WHY DO I NEVER GET THE MEMO??? What's that, you didn't either? Hmmm....

Government in any form becoming destructive of these ends, right of the people to alter or abolish it, blah blah, governments long established ad infinitum. OK. I believe that the government (or rather, mayors, congressmen, selectmen, senators, assorted squeaky wheels) are trying mightily to become destructive of these ends. See the whole pursuit of happiness. There should be no amendment to the constitution to define marriage.

However, I let Wikipedia define it because I rather like the definition, as it agrees with my interpretation:

Marriage (or wedlock) is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found. Such a union, often formalized via a wedding ceremony, may also be called matrimony.

People marry for many reasons, including one or more of the following: legal, social, libidinal, emotional, economic, spiritual, and religious. These might include arranged marriages, family obligations, the legal establishment of a nuclear family unit, the legal protection of children and public declaration of commitment. The act of marriage usually creates normative or legal obligations between the individuals involved. In some societies these obligations also extend to certain family members of the married persons. Some cultures allow the dissolution of marriage through divorce or annulment.

Marriage is usually recognized by the state, a religious authority, or both. It is often viewed as a contract. Civil marriage is the legal concept of marriage as a governmental institution irrespective of religious affiliation, in accordance with marriage laws of the jurisdiction.

So WHO CARES WHO ANYONE ELSE MARRIES, MARRIAGE IS BOTTOM-LINE A CONTRACTUAL AGREEMENT. Get over it. I don't think churches should have to perform same-sex marriage if it goes against their personal beliefs, but a civil ceremony damn well better provide the exact same rights to a same-sex couple as a heterosexual couple.

governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

This part. I like this part. You may argue about the first bolded part here, about governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes, but the truth is, we did it to England, who at the time was around about 4 or 5 times longer than the current government system we have here. In the grand scheme of things, we are a fairly young country. The second bold part IMHO reflects what I see as society's biggest ill, that of apathy. It is along the lines of "Better the Devil you know than the Devil you don't know." It may not be pleasant but it's what you know and are comfortable with. I see abuses as the illegal wiretapping and the restrictions on our right to assembly currently going on with the OWS movement. I take "usurpations" more literally in the eminent domain issues that have cropped up the past decade. My backyard is small enough and I'll be damned if someone thinks they need my tiny strip of land to put up a bypass or a box store. (By the way, box stores destroy more jobs than they create by the large amounts of overseas purchases, but that's also because we don't make anything over here; see last rant. See my ideas for resolution in the comments on my current profile picture.)

Basically, I feel that OWS has the right idea; maybe poorly organized and executed but they seem to be turning into a more cohesive unit. By the way, I have a job, a pretty damn good one but I'm not going to get out of debt or rich from it. I have student loans, a mortgage, credit card debt, pets and children, a husband, a car - all those things that can create emergency situations that require money I don't have. I am one major illness from being royally screwed. So sue me for trying to pursue my own little American Dream.

The definition of Democracy by Abraham Lincoln: A government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Not a government of the people by the elite and for big business.

Spock: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one." Maybe that's a little socialist for some people.

And to those who feel that OWS is illegal by nature, so was the Declaration of Independence. Is the Declaration of Independence Illegal?

Of course, the Declaration is by no means a legal document in the sense that the Constitution is; the Constitution provides fundamental structure. The Declaration is a poetic manifesto of what should be and how it should come about.

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Dear Senators and Congresspeople,

You are fired. You have failed to do your jobs at being the voice of your constituents.

Dear American People,

Unfortunately, you can't be fired so I will just harangue you.

This situation is our fault. Not Obama's, not Dubya's, OURS. We allowed ourselves to get this way. No one held a gun to our heads. Please look at your hand next time you point your finger - one is pointed at your scapegoat, the other 3 are pointing back at you.

We used to be a nation that manufactured things. We outsourced all that to the so-called "third world" countries because they could produce it cheaper without our lands, skies, water being polluted.. Oh and hey, 10 cents a day to pay the laborers.

We became a service-oriented nation. Thank you for calling; how may we help you? Guess what - we outsourced that, too. So now... we don't produce anything, we don't service anything... Hello? Didn't you see this coming?

We need environmental regulations. I kind of would like to see my children and eventual grandchildren to have a fairly normal life free from birth defects, and to be able to see clear blue skies and drink fresh water. Let's try getting off our collective butt and putting that "good old American know-how" to work for us instead of sitting around because we suddenly as a nation need to be spoon-fed Pablum and play victims. Don't you see? We are making victims of ourselves. We have people wandering around with some sense of entitlement just for existing - I am sorry to burst your bubble, but ... No. You don't deserve kudos and a 50K job just for being here.

I went to a funeral service today; my friend's father just passed away. This was a man who personified the American Dream - and he got there through hard work. He was born in Poland in 1929, had only a sixth-grade education, and spend time in a Nazi concentration camp. He came to America, learned English, got a job, worked his tail off, and eventually opened his own meat-packing plant. This was a man not afraid to try and would always lend someone a helping hand.

So, why can't the generations born here have this same work ethic?

But I digress in part. Bottom line, we got ourselves into this mess, we need to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and get us out of this. We don't do this by starting wars, we don't do this by pointing fingers, we do this by getting off our ass and standing for something. We do this by going back into business for ourselves, we do this by purchasing local-made goods, we do this by putting some REAL PRIDE into what we do. Our forebears did some great things but that does NOT mean we sit on our haunches and rest on their laurels. We can't afford to, nor should we take a sense of entitlement from the success of others. Prove yourself.

Dear Businesses,

Please stop using fear to sell your products. I just heard the most obnoxious ad for a Water Webinar or something to remove toxins such as heavy metals from our drinking water and our bodies. This is a good thing - but don't blame it on the New World Health Order that there exist such toxins. They've been there for a long time - can you say mining? Can you say lack of regulations? News Flash: Love him, hate him, or be indifferent, I really don't believe for a minute that Obama has hordes of secret agents going around in the dead of night putting uranium, arsenic, and lead in the water supply.

Dear Religious Institutions,

Please pay taxes. As the bulk of religion in this country is Christian-based, please heed the word of Jesus and render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and render unto God what is God's. I find it interesting that the Roman Catholic Church is worth about 93 billion dollars (according to figures on the web). Makes me ponder 2 quotes: "No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." and "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."

Dear Tea Party People:

You want smaller government. I'm down for that. Government has no place in my bedroom. Government should not be able to tell me who is acceptable as my life partner. Government needs to keep the roads and bridges safe and make sure the trains run on time.

You want to cut social programs. You want a "Christian Nation". You reek of hypocrisy. Deuteronomy 15:7-11:

"If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, "The seventh year, the year of release is near," and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, "You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land."

I find it odd that people who loudly proclaim to follow the Word of God seem unfamiliar with His words. Or maybe it's okay to pick and choose. I mean, I have new neighbors and they were doing work on a Sunday, but I don't think that's cause to throw stones at them. But then again... I don't consider myself Christian.

Dear Everyone,

I love you and wish the best while we navigate this roller-coaster ride. Remember: We are all in this together, and a house divided cannot stand. It seems that as a nation we are working to bring ourselves down, as we are dividing ourselves. Read the following passage and let me know if there is anything eerily familiar. By the way, this is from Friday by Robert Heinlein. I have bolded the lines I feel are relevant.

What are the marks of a sick culture?

It is a bad sign when the people of a country stop identifying themselves with the country and start identifying with a group. A racial group. Or a religion. Or a language. Anything, as long as it isn't the whole population.

A very bad sign. Particularism. It was once considered a Spanish vice but any country can fall sick with it. Dominance of males over females seems to be one of the symptoms.

Before a revolution can take place, the population must loose faith in both the police and the courts.

High taxation is important and so is inflation of the currency and the ratio of the productive to those on the public payroll. But that's old hat; everybody knows that a country is on the skids when its income and outgo get out of balance and stay that way - even though there are always endless attempts to wish it away by legislation. But I started looking for little signs and what some call silly-season symptoms.

I want to mention one of the obvious symptoms: Violence. Muggings. Sniping. Arson. Bombing. Terrorism of any sort. Riots of course - but I suspect that little incidents of violence, pecking way at people day after day, damage a culture even more than riots that flare up and then die down. Oh, conscription and slavery and arbitrary compulsion of all sorts and imprisonment without bail and without speedy trial - but those things are obvious; all the histories list them.

I think you have missed the most alarming symptom of all. This one I shall tell you. But go back and search for it. Examine it. Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms as you have named... But a dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than a riot.

This symptom is especially serious in that an individual displaying it never thinks of it as a sign of ill health but as proof of his/her strength. Look for it. Study it. It is too late to save this culture - this worldwide culture, not just the freak show here in California. Therefore we must now prepare the monasteries for the coming Dark Age. Electronic records are too fragile; we must again have books, of stable inks and resistant paper.

One thing that is really bothering me about the Republican primary - it's a bunch of pointing fingers and slamming Obama and not one potential candidate (well, except maybe Herman Cain) has actually laid out some kind of plan for getting this country back on track. It's just been a bunch of pandering and rhetoric and "Us good, They bad" showboating.

A house divided against itself cannot stand. Yet, that has been what we have been doing, dividing ourselves. Yes, we have a sucky economy right now but that is not something brought on solely by president A or president B, it is something we have brought upon ourselves with our culture of "me me me more more more now now now".

How about ... tax breaks for businesses that keep their factories on American soil and hire documented American workers or immigrants/visitors with a work visa, and increased taxes/tariffs on American businesses that have factories overseas and do their hiring overseas? People talk about a global economy but that will not be a reality without global currency. If we are to remain independent, we have to have a degree of self-sufficiency. this is a must.

How about ... borrowing a page out of Switzerland's book with regards to socialized medicine? How about government subsidy in the form of grants/low-interest loans for med students provided they remain at or above a certain GPA?

How about ... manufacturing the bulk of what we need here instead of outsourcing? We used to produce stuff here. We had factories that made nuts and bolts. We took pride in our work. We took the time to have a toaster repaired because we spent more on it and it could be repaired; it wasn't just a disposable commodity. Planned obsolescence has gone a few steps too far. By all means innovate and improve - but products should be built to last, especially kitchen and other household appliances. We live in a throwaway society and unfortunately that seems to be extending to how we treat other people, as well.

Case in point: recently it was brought up at one of the debates that a 30 year old male with no insurance should be allowed to die, rather than have free/low cost medical care provided. PEOPLE FRIGGIN' APPLAUDED. What is wrong with this picture?

I have pondered running for office. A few reasons why that will never happen, and a lot more reasons why it should never happen. Bottom line is, sometimes feelings need to be hurt, sometimes the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and sometimes things need to be just plain FIXED before they can go back to Standard Operating Procedure. You don't want me in that position of power. I will fix things and you will despise me for it.

Taxes. I have absolutely no qualms about taxing churches/temples/synagogues etc. We have (theoretically) a separation of Church and State but let's face it, the Church has been poking its nose into affairs of the State for a long time, and religion keeps coming up in the debates (and who cares that Huntsman and Romney are Mormons? Mormons are some of the nicest people I know.) Even Jesus said "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and render unto God what is God's." I am not a religious person by any means but hey, when the person you claim to follow says something, shouldn't you, you know, take heed or something? Or does that only apply to other people?

Gay marriage. Good for the economy, at least state coffers or whoever gets the fee for marriage licenses. Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness etc. Churches don't have to marry them, but they should be able to marry whomever. Same as anyone else. I always thought the whole thing was a smokescreen used when someone brought up a hard question, like about jobs or health care. I tell you, I have never been fearful that my job was going to be outsourced to "those damn homosexuals". Let them adopt the children in the orphanages so they can have a family. Win all the way around. You can believe what you like, but remember that separation of Church and State? Yeah, that. If we are going to follow the letter of canonical law there would be a lot of people getting stoned around here, and I don't mean marijuana...

Speaking of which, I would legalize it and tax it. I don't smoke myself but look at the revenue! For those that say it has no proven medical use - ask the 53 year old man dying of pancreatic cancer if he thinks it helps. Ask the glaucoma patient. Plus it's a helluva lot safer than alcohol! Potheads tend to stay in one place; drunkards think they are gods and can drive.

As far as drunk driving - take a page from Sweden's book and stop mollycoddling them and letting them continue to drive. Jail time. Loss of license. MAN UP AND ACCEPT THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR ACTIONS!

There's lots more I could write but I don't want to break my database.... and I have work to do.