There is an elephant in the room that Congress and the president know they must deal with before any meaningful gun-control legislation is possible, but so far they're not talking about it.
The problem involves civilian ownership of paramilitary weapons, such as the ones that were used to commit the Newtown horror. Should we outlaw civilian ownership of those guns and require their owners to surrender them to the government?
The obvious answer would seem to be yes, but if we do that, don't expect that legion of citizens who say we'll have to pry their guns out of their cold, dead hands to play nice and turn in their weapons. They will not! They will claim that the Second Amendment gives them the unqualified right to own guns, and they will defend that right to the death. We'll have an insurrection on our hands.
But if we grandfather in ownership of those weapons, the law will accomplish nothing. The guns would still be out there for at least another hundred years. And we would have destroyed any possibility of having any meaningful gun-control legislation passed into law.
Bottom line: Our only two options appear to be (1) outlaw private ownership of such weapons and invite a revolution, or (2) pass feel-good legislation that won't accomplish anything important.
I don't know of another option, but there has to be one. Maybe some sort of a compromise is possible.
If someone has an idea, I'm sure the folks in Washington would love to hear it.
-Skip
Friday, December 21, 2012
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Corporations: Greed Tempered by Fear
Corporations are not evil, as some people believe. They're just greedy and heartless by nature.
I was reminded of that by a series of articles in the New York Times this week that focused a spotlight on just that: Corporations exist only to make money, and everything else be damned.
As is true of Wall Street itself, greed drives corporations and only fear tempers them. They have no moral compass. They pit cities and even states against one another in bidding wars to find where they can get the most tax breaks, new infrastructure, or whatever else they can get in return for a promise to come to town and create jobs.
But when those plans don't make money for the corporations, or when they don't make enough money -- and often they don't -- the corporations pull up stakes, leave town, and stick us taxpayers with the bill.
Does the principle of greed/fear work for corporations? Of course it does. But not so much for their employees. Corporate profits have risen some 300 percent since the Great Recession began, while the average employee's paycheck during that time has remained about the same, or gotten smaller. (Executives continue to get their bonuses, however.)
As Chris Hedges writes in his book, Death of the Liberal Class, "They (corporations) exploit, pollute, impoverish, repress, kill and lie to make money. They throw poor families our of their homes, let the uninsured die, wage useless wars to make profits, poison and pollute the ecosystem, slash social assistance programs, gut public education, trash the global economy, plunder the U.S. Treasury and crush all popular movements that seek justice for working men and women."
-Skip
I was reminded of that by a series of articles in the New York Times this week that focused a spotlight on just that: Corporations exist only to make money, and everything else be damned.
As is true of Wall Street itself, greed drives corporations and only fear tempers them. They have no moral compass. They pit cities and even states against one another in bidding wars to find where they can get the most tax breaks, new infrastructure, or whatever else they can get in return for a promise to come to town and create jobs.
But when those plans don't make money for the corporations, or when they don't make enough money -- and often they don't -- the corporations pull up stakes, leave town, and stick us taxpayers with the bill.
Does the principle of greed/fear work for corporations? Of course it does. But not so much for their employees. Corporate profits have risen some 300 percent since the Great Recession began, while the average employee's paycheck during that time has remained about the same, or gotten smaller. (Executives continue to get their bonuses, however.)
As Chris Hedges writes in his book, Death of the Liberal Class, "They (corporations) exploit, pollute, impoverish, repress, kill and lie to make money. They throw poor families our of their homes, let the uninsured die, wage useless wars to make profits, poison and pollute the ecosystem, slash social assistance programs, gut public education, trash the global economy, plunder the U.S. Treasury and crush all popular movements that seek justice for working men and women."
-Skip
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Why I am a Jesusian
When asked what my religion is, I reply that I am a Jesusian.
You've never heard of Jesusians because it's a word I coined to describe my religious belief. I think many Christians will agree it describes theirs as well.
A Jesusian is someone who believes Jesus may or may not have been the Messiah (God's chosen one), but his importance was his teaching. Thus, "Jesusian" instead of "Christian."
I'm a Jesusian (pronounced jee-SOO-sian) because I reseached Jesus for 20 years before writing a book about him, and based on the biblical books of Matthew, Mark and Luke, that's what Jesus wanted.
In fact, in those three books, which are short biographies, he is reported to have claimed the Messiahship one time only -- and that time, the only witnessess were people who were trying to have him crucified. He never claimed the title again, although he had plenty of occasions to do so.
There are two reasons Jesus did not want people to label him the Messiah. One, he knew his enemies would crucify him for blasphemy before he could get his teaching out. And two, if people thought he was the Messiah, they would worship him instead of following him.
His first prediction came true about a year after he started teaching.
His second has been coming true among many Christians ever since.
(By the way, the Book of John does quote Jesus often as claiming the Messiahship. But John was written many years after the other three, all of whom certainly would have written about that had it happened. Read Matthew, Mark and Luke as factual stories, and read John as his conclusions.)
-Skip
You've never heard of Jesusians because it's a word I coined to describe my religious belief. I think many Christians will agree it describes theirs as well.
A Jesusian is someone who believes Jesus may or may not have been the Messiah (God's chosen one), but his importance was his teaching. Thus, "Jesusian" instead of "Christian."
I'm a Jesusian (pronounced jee-SOO-sian) because I reseached Jesus for 20 years before writing a book about him, and based on the biblical books of Matthew, Mark and Luke, that's what Jesus wanted.
In fact, in those three books, which are short biographies, he is reported to have claimed the Messiahship one time only -- and that time, the only witnessess were people who were trying to have him crucified. He never claimed the title again, although he had plenty of occasions to do so.
There are two reasons Jesus did not want people to label him the Messiah. One, he knew his enemies would crucify him for blasphemy before he could get his teaching out. And two, if people thought he was the Messiah, they would worship him instead of following him.
His first prediction came true about a year after he started teaching.
His second has been coming true among many Christians ever since.
(By the way, the Book of John does quote Jesus often as claiming the Messiahship. But John was written many years after the other three, all of whom certainly would have written about that had it happened. Read Matthew, Mark and Luke as factual stories, and read John as his conclusions.)
-Skip
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