Sound Off!: January 2008

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Superior

Subject: The Day the Music Died

Buddy Holly to me is far superior an artist than Elvis. Simply because how many of his hits did Elvis write or have any say in how they came to be? Holly was lucky in that he was mentored by Norman Petty and was able to have input on how his music was presented. Very few White artists in those days performed at the Apollo Theater. Holly and the Crickets were the first and they rocked the place. It was sad when Bobby Vee was
anointed as Holly's predecessor. Being a teen idol, Vee was like Elvis. His music was not his. Am still baffled by the City of Lubbock and how long it took leaders there as as it did to recognize Holly as one of their own. Buddy Holly was a pioneer and his music will never die.

--Joe S.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Rap

The Big Lie: American Forces Are Leaving Iraq

I wrote a rap about this:

Iraq gets too much flak
Much worse than smoking crack
And between you and me,
I think that's WHACKED

Yo DJ, bring in that beat!

--George M.

Monday, January 07, 2008

The American Scheme

Subject: The Devil's Bargain: Sweatshops and the American Scheme

Thank you! Thank you for bringing up this problem! For those of you concerned with this and other corporate responsibility issues, a good place to start is www.knowmore.org. Another place to start - buy Cambodian. Cambodian factories have, by far, the best working conditions in all of the developing world. While a lot of their factories aren't ideal, it's a step in the right direction. Another place - buy made in the USA. This is better for the environment, better for our economy, and better for workers. I have been trying to avoid sweatshop-made goods for a while now. It's hard. I try to buy from socially responsible companies and organic, because they usually lead to one another, and it's just difficult. I can give you an idea of what it's like - a clothing company called No Sweat, based on the premise of sweatshop free clothing, was caught using sweatshops.

--inkabinkaboo182

Thanks for your article. There is a dialectical dynamic between labor and capital. There is also a dialectical dynamic or tension between Christian values as they appear in the Bible and as they appear in practice. Democracy was not founded on capitalism. Nor was Christianity. Stalin did serious damage to the socialist movement of Lenin. NAFTA outsources slavery, in effect. So does the use of undocumented workers in this country. The Southerners used the Bible as the moral authority for slavery. I just saw the movie, "Amazing Grace." Englaand outlawed slavery but adopted free trade as their new slavery. As a result, England lost their empire as the division between rich and poor deepened. It is strange how the Christians have allowed themselves to be used by the Republicans. Didn't Jesus upend the tables of the money changers in the temple. Didn't he preach justice and charity and condemn the greedy. Tax breaks and power for the preachers is all it took to buy their loyalty, and the "wedge" issues on guns, gays, and God keep them in the fold of the slave drivers and slave traders. In Europe, you can't go around preaching Christianity because they have seen the damage over the centuries and have actually read the Bible.

--outnow

Sweatshops are good. Something the left never understands. "Close them down, how dare they only pay a dollar a day. How can they hire eight year olds?" Look at the big picture. Close down the sweatshop and they go back to making 25cents a day instead of a dollar. Children working in developing areas help lift the family out of poverty. We had our own sweatshops a 100years ago. It's part of an economy lifting itself out of poverty....

--adamsmith

I have to wonder if you are serious or just being provocative. If you are serious I'd take a long hard look at what you're saying. Wars have been fought over this issue and an economic system that requires slavery as a source of no-cost labor is one to be gotten rid of once and for all.

--Mike169 (responding to adamsmith)

"Jesus, take pity on me! I"m going to die of exhaustion."—Chinese worker after 19-hour shift (From the National Labor Committee's website, www.nlcnet.org, sited above). So, now we're getting to the heart of Pat Robertson's prediction about China being the largest nation for Jesus. "God is Greed, amen."

--mouselion

"Free Trade" means: If a t-post cost a farmer in Egypt 4 hours of labor to purchase that same T-post will cost a farmer in America 4 hours of labor to purchase. The Nafta type trade agreements are getting us ready to "Integrate" with Mexico and Canada. The Government agencys that print everything in spanish are just producing a new class of people that can be called Illiterate, the Citizen.

--WhiteyWard

Ignore 'moral crisis' - though the never-ending pursuit of the cheapest possible labor has left successive places in ruin... the American industrial Midwest saw factories move to the non-union South and from there to Mexico and then to Central America and then to Indonesia and then to China..... how much did it cost to relocate each time and where did the increased profits from cheaer labor go? what was the cost of shutterred facories and vacant housing and unemployed workers? Ignore that. The long term effect is that ALL labor costs are driven down to the lowest possible level - all over the world. A very few profit while the majority slave away for pennies. Having finally reached a point where all mankind COULD earn a living wage and have enough to eat, we seem determined to move backwards in time and concentrate this planet's wealth in FEWER hands... welcome to the new feudalism.

--xrepublican

And we wonder why the world doesn't like us very much...

--dshwa

Heated Discussions

Subject: Religious Tests, Bigotry and the Race for the White House

I was glad to receive this from Rutherford via yourself, and I totally agree
with their eloquent expression of concern.

I was only 14 years old and a supporter of Richard Nixon when John Kennedy
made that speech. I do not remember the details nor whether I actually
heard the speech, but I remember the heated discussions establishing the
significance of the speech. Even then, I knew WHY the speech was being
given.

Growing up in rural NC I can say that Nixon probably got more votes from the
fairly well-to-do Protestants surrounding me than did Kennedy, but I do
believe that Kennedy's aims were achieved. I do believe that the fears that
many had about "papal control" were allayed.

It is interesting to witness today the inability of so many people to
distinguish this "Christian nation" from a "Christian government."
Ironically, the Baptists were a persecuted minority back during the
Revolutionary period. John Leland extracted from James Madison the latter's
solemn promise to fight "establishment" of the Anglican church as the
official state-tax-supported church in Va. That was in Orange Co. near
"Leland-Madison Park" wayside on Rte. 20 east of town, and I used to go down
there to sit at the picnic benches and contemplate the real birthplace of
religious liberty in the US, some 5 years or so before the First Amendment.
Madison was successful. Fortunately.

Many people cite the Declaration of Independence's references to "Creator"
and "Nature's God" as "proof" that the US was intended to have a
Christianized government. As with modern German even today, the nonstandard
written English language of the period (under heavy Anglo-Saxon influence
still) usually capitalized all nouns, as seen in the Declaration and the
written copies of the Constitution. Thus, Jefferson, the primary scrivener
of the Declaration, could have simply been referring to a "creator" and to
"nature's god," but that would likely horrify most folks today. I have no
way of proving any of that, but it is difficult for me to believe that a
known, ardent Separationist and Deist like Jefferson, who also penned the
EXTREMELY anti-clerical "Va. Statute For Religious Freedom" would have
improbably made overt references to a specific deity in the Declaration.
Most modern-day Establishmentarians have never read the Va. Statute. It is
an amazing document, it is still law, but the Va. Supremes have no concern
for its plain language. Unfortunately.

I am sick to death of hearing all these sleazy politicos in both major
parties pleading about their "personal relationship" with the deity du jour.
Mitt Romney dared to put his own religion into play with that speech.
Unlike John Kennedy, he did not attempt to assert any sort of secularity but
instead put his personal beliefs front and center. As far as I am
concerned, having put those beliefs into play, anything goes, like asking
him if he holds to a literal belief in the Book of Mormon.

I went to the Mormon pageant in Canandaigua, NY and I bought a copy of the
Book of Mormon and tried to read most of it. It is tough going. It is
almost utter nonsense, and I just happen to think that if anyone professes
belief in its literal truth, that person (Mitt Romney??) is INSANE!

I personally don't care if anyone is a Mormon. I am obliged to defend their
rights because I have also sworn to support the Constitution. However, I
did not swear to not have personal opinions. And my opinion about literal
Mormonism is that it is a load of crap!

Mitt Romney is a sleazebag, not because he is a Mormon, but because of his
obviously convenient about-face in his professed beliefs. How he does not
get viciously cross-examined about that by the "MSM" (mainstream media) is
beyond me, but they frequently fail to do their job and are not to be
trusted themselves. Even though I disagree, I can accept Ron Paul's
anti-choice beliefs because I do not question his sincerity. Mitt Romney is
a blatant opportunist as far as I can tell. Strange how those who
complained about Bill Clinton's obvious "flip-flops" are so silent these
days about Romney!

Although Rutherford and I are far apart in our respective belief structures,
I am truly grateful for their courage in defining what "separation of
religion and government" must be about. No religion can afford for our
government to take sides.

--Wat E