"If you're spending more money than you're taking in, you need to spend less of it... or make more of it?

It's hard to escape chatter about the Debt Ceiling crisis these days. Especially so close to the deadline. I'd like to hope this is a wake up call to many Americans at just how off track our government has gone. I can't really say anything good about either side of the political fence. Both Dems and Reps seem to be dancing to the tune of corporate fiddlers. But what really gets me is how irresponsible the Republicans are acting. They are intent on ensuring that Obama is a one-term president, so intent in fact they are willing to throw us all under a bus to do it.

The Republicans in Congress continue to try to push bills that cut from vital social programs like social security and medicare while at the same time protecting their corporate buddies by extending tax breaks for the rich and not plugging tax loopholes. These are the same corporations who are sending much needed jobs overseas for cheap labor and are raking in record breaking profits while the middle class slowly erodes away. I have to wonder what happens to them when we're all dead from starvation or barely living in some slum with no money to spend on their goods. Will they turn on each other like cannibals once their current prey (us) have been rung out so hard we have nothing left for them to take? These Republicans know the bills they are putting forward won't pass the senate and then they blame the Democrats/president for not taking the deals and averting the "crisis" they themselves are manufacturing.

On the same token the Democrats aren't exactly saints. Both sides lie to the public but at least I like hearing the Democrat lies and they try every now and then to throw me a bone. Democrats are just as much corporate puppets as Republicans but at least make some passing effort at trying to keep the sheep (us middle class people) healthy so the corporations can keep milking us. I can't fault the Democrats for not accepting the "plans" the Republicans have put forward. I can however fault the Republicans for not knowing that compromise means BOTH sides give a little.

House Speaker Boehner said "If you're spending more money than you're taking in, you need to spend less of it," and while I can agree with that statement I'd also add an addendum to it. "If you're spending more money than you're taking in, you need to spend less of it and/or make more of it". This is what really bugs me about Republicans. They want to ONLY slash spending and do nothing about increasing revenue. Revenue doesn't always have to include taxes but if the big corporations and wealthy 2% of the country were actually paying their fair share we would have a surplus like we did during Clinton's administration before the Bush Tax Cuts screwed us over. And of course President Obama is the one who is the target of the blame.

I feel a little bad for him. I didn't particularly find him to be a great candidate. I was hoping Hillary would have run and won. I have a feeling if she had everything would be different and possibly better but that could just be wishful thinking on my part. Then again she may have realized what a bumpy ride this administration was going to become and took the smart way out he he. One day I hope our government will get their heads out of their asses and start working TOGETHER to make things better for EVERYONE.

The United States of... Sodom?

Last week I just didn’t have anything to talk about… but this week I want to talk about how republicans are trying to strip out entitlement and assistance programs while at the same time padding their own pockets and denying U.S. citizens jobs and how this is sort of reminiscent of a bible story used to condemn gays! Some parts of this blog post will be paraphrasing from an article I read so bear with me if some of it sounds familiar!

A lot of people think that the story of Sodom being destroyed by god is about gay people… well let’s take a closer look at that story. Some people say the city of Sodom was destroyed because it was overrun by sexually obsessed homosexuals. In fact, the city of Sodom had been doomed to destruction long before. So what is this passage really about? Ezekiel 16:48-49 tell us: "This is the sin of Sodom; she and her suburbs had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not help or encourage the poor and needy. They were arrogant and this was abominable in God's eyes." Funny, this reminds me of republicans trying to continue to allow rich corporations to evade hefty taxes while they ship jobs overseas instead of employing the very country that is making them so wealthy. On top of that they are trying to take away social security and medicare. Did you know I’d probably go hungry and/or become terribly ill and possibly even die without those systems in place? Thanks for trying to kill me.

What’s really interesting is that republicans are usually the party associated with the religious right and “being a good Christian” but I think they conveniently forget that we break God's heart when we spend all we earn on ourselves, when we forget the poor and hungry, when we refuse to do justice or show mercy, when we leave strangers at the gate. These are the people that call me a Sodomite for being gay, but real Sodomites are rich and don't share what they have with the poor. Sodomites have plenty and want more. While millions are hungry, homeless, and sick, Sodomites rush to build bigger homes, buy bigger cars, and own more property -- putting their trust in safer stock portfolios and more secure retirement accounts. That sure sounds like republicans to me. “Let’s cut off any assistance to the needy!” and “Why should I have to pay for someone else’s medicine or housing?”.

While I am not very religious these days I was taught that God has called us do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our Creator. In the story, Sodom was destroyed because its people didn't take God seriously about caring for the poor, the hungry, the homeless, or the outcast. Kind of sounds like what’s happening in our government as we strip away those assistance programs and continue to allow the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. Hell even some of those bottom level rich people are feeling the pinch and falling into middle class income territory while the tippy top of the biggest pyramid scheme in the world try to fight and stay where they are. But in regards to the story of Sodom, it was common in the times of Sodom for soldiers, thieves, and bullies to rape a fallen enemy, asserting their victory by dehumanizing and demeaning the vanquished. This act of raping an enemy is about power and revenge, not about homosexuality or homosexual orientation. I can say assuredly that as a gay man I find the idea of assaulting and/or raping anyone as abhorrent as any straight person does and most certainly wouldn’t want such an act committed upon my person. The sad thing is acts like this still occur in modern times.

In August 1997, Abner Louima, a young black immigrant from Haiti, was assaulted by several police officers after he was arrested in Brooklyn. Officer Charles Schwarz held Louima down in a restroom at the precinct, while Officer Justin Volpe rammed a broken stick into Louima's rectum. These two men and the three other officers involved in this incident and its cover-up were not gay. This was not a homosexual act. It was about power. The sexual act that occurs in the story of Sodom is a gang rape -- and homosexuals oppose gang rape as much as anyone.

I wonder if republicans are willing to take a look at the parallels they share with Sodom and its people and I wonder if they can see where our country will head if they continue following the destructive course they seem to be. They continue “raping” the land of natural resources without any regard of the consequences, ensuring the rich avoid high taxes, allowing their corporate buddies a free pass to ship much needed jobs out of our country and all the while try to claim some sort of moral superiority. It's kind of scary to see how similar Sodom's story and ours are today.

The Universal Language

As anyone who has known me for awhile can tell you, I have a deep love of music. I originally planned to have my career center around producing remixes for popular artists and lend my own vision to their work. If you ever visit my youtube channel you can listen to some of that work. Back in my 2^nd blog post I talked about how my brain sort of broke and how I went from one place to another in my life and one of the consequences of that journey was the hamstringing of my creativity.

Years ago I’d remix everything and anything under the sun. Virtually every new song to come out had potential to me to be transformed into an expression of my own feelings. As time went on I lost more and more of whatever that magic was that inspired me. That said I look back fondly on that time in my life and I smile when I listen to my old works. Art, in any form, whether it be music, painting, etc, always seems to touch people regardless of barriers like language, ethnicity or age. Obviously not everything appeals to everyone since we are all different, but at its core the various art forms of the world can improve us, broaden us and speak to us on a multitude of levels. I think most people can, at the very least, think of an artist whose music they’ve enjoyed and followed through many years.

Today I find great concern in the fact that our art and music educational programs often seem to be the first targets for budget cuts. Young people are losing quality education in the arts, something that could enrich their lives and inspire them to pursue artistic endeavors. I also see the music industry being transformed more and more into just another factory for mass production and selling to a public that has limited education and experience in truly appreciating fine art. Or perhaps I’m just starting to show my age? I am sure every adult at some point has realized the time of music they loved has passed and a new generation has risen along with a new style of music that they simply can’t connect with. My time was the 90’s and early 2000’s. Today I find only a few things I can connect with and perhaps that colors my views. I just feel the music industry today runs things too much like a business churning out flimsy products en masse and has lost that “heart”, that artistic soul, that goes hand in hand with creating music and sharing it with the world.

It’s not all doom and gloom mind you. There’s still a few artists even today that manage to spark those old feelings of creativity and emotion, but they are much fewer and far between. I believe part of that is the lack of quality arts education that young people have access to these days. For that matter even academic education seems lacking but that’s a topic for another blog entirely. All in all I urge anyone reading to really pay attention to what’s going on in your community regarding arts programs in education. Don’t let the “corner cutters” remove or even shortchange art and music from your family’s lives. Artistic expression is just as important, if not more so, as making money.