tales of copper city

Andrew Sullivan gets Obama right

I've written my share of critiques of President Obama, but quietly, and over time, he has shown me how his style is absolutely spot-on for handling a restless and confused Democratic Party and a GOP that has become a train wreck. Here's the best thing I've seen on Obama's outstanding first-term record by Andrew Sullivan in Newsweek.

Some hair-raising beliefs

The theological unease with Romney, a recent NY Times story by Laurie Goldstein, reveals some rather unusual aspects of Mormon theology that make Evangelical leaders nervous.

God has a wife, for example, and Jesus was his son, but not divine. So much for the Trinity.

Carole has recently read When Jesus Became God, by Richard Reubenstein, the story of the creation of the Nicene Creed. I read parts of it some time ago. A violent, ugly story about how Jesus was elevated to "divinity" by warring bishops in Nicea. 

I wonder if the Evangelical leaders have read books like this on Christian origins.  The book is probably widely-read in mainstream Protestant seminaries but the seminarians have to promise not to utter a word about this story to any parishioner.

But apparently the evangelical hatred of Obama trumps that "religious" objection. Racism never dies.  

Is that fair? Well, it's likely more than racism; it's also a deep revulsion to what many evangelicals (and other Tea Party members) feel is Obama's socialist, Islamic plans for the United States.

 I suppose if you grow up believing rather stange and unusual things it's hard to stop.

Both "faiths" have some hair-raising beliefs and origins.

MLK, Jr. and The trip to a small town in Texas

I published this piece on April 14, 2010, and I thought I repost it, given the day, Martlin Luther King, Jr. Day, the day we remember our past: the Civil Rights movement to end segregation and before that there was chattel slavery and a Constitution and political order designed to protect slavery. 

But my trip took place in 1954, in Texas.

 

"Mister, do you think you could get the driver to slow down?  He's going to get us killed."

This from a worried young black man dressed in a suit who had been sitting in the back of the bus.

The young man had first asked the driver to slow down and was told to "sit down or ring the bell and get off the bus."  Then he turned to me.  I was sitting up near the driver.

Did I mention it was 1954? In East Texas?

Here we are

Here's a pic of Carole and me at a downtown party held by one of Bisbee's artists, Gretchen Baer, that we dearly enjoy and love.   She took the pic and sent a copy to Carole and hence...

Here's a link to Gretchen's Facebook page. Gretchen, more than any other artist in town, captures Bisbee in all of its outrageous independence. Here's another link to her work.

Carole, as usual, is beautiful, and I'm, well, tall and so forth.

 

Romney likes "firing people"

Well, finally Romney is catching some real hell.  Romey said he likes "firing people." He now says he meant firing insurance companies and "Obamacare"won't let him do it, which is of course false. And so in truth he's not telling the truth.

But also in truth the company he worked for was Bain & Company, a consulting firm and corporate raider, and finally the former governor of Massachusetts is being attacked by Republicans for being a corporate raider. Which he was. And corporate raiders love to fire people, all over the place.

Here's Matt Viser of The Boston Globe on Romney's response to his love of firing people statement. Ezra Klein at The Washington Post says that Romney's Bain & Company's figures of jobs added, "don't add up."

Why is this perspective on Romney just now breaking into news? We've known for months, years even, that he worked for a company that raids corporations and downsized them.  

Krugman and debt

Today, class is in, and Paul Krugman explains how government debt works, and how and why we never paid off the massive WWII debt.  Our economy just grew faster than our debt. 

As Krugman puts it: "[F]amilies have to pay back their debt. Governments don’t — all they need to do is ensure that debt grows more slowly than their tax base." 

Why is it that clarity is so quickly dismissed in the nation's Capital?

Listening

Listening as a discipline and practice came up at our church here in Bisbee, last Sunday, and I decided to post again a piece I wrote on listening back in 2009.  I need to read this frequently, maybe once a week, to remind myself of how poorly I listen, and how much I need to change that. Listening can become a practice, much like meditation is a practice to Buddhists and others. Perhaps that's my New Year's resolution.  Here's the piece:

 Yesterday, on the Fourth here in Bisbee, 2009, we had a large crowd at our house, watching the parade, eating, and talking. It was a fun day all around and the fireworks last night were spectacular. 

Our house is on the parade route in Warren, one part of Bisbee.  When we lived in Bisbee for 10 years before, from 1996 to 2005, we lived in "Old Town" or old Bisbee up the road and on the canyon walls. Now we are down in the flatlands, still at 4000 feet or so in the high desert.