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Sunday, January 1, 2017

CFL Light Bulbs, The Ebola Virus And Conservatives' Unrelenting Fear Of "The Imperfect"

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Compendium Of Best Pax Posts On "Too Pure Principles" And The Collapse Of Conservatism

"Dog Whistle Politics": Coded Language And The Rise Of Racially Scornful Political Rhetoric


Dirty Trickster Lee Atwater: The GOP SOB At The Heart Of Republican Barbarism (Hidden Mic)

Alan: CFL light bulbs (the spiral ones) "came on the market" about 15 years ago.

Because they contained minute amounts of mercury (as do all fluorescent bulbs), conservatives cranked up the noise machine, representing CFLs as The Fifth Horseman Of The Apocalypse. 

Whenever "conservatives" locate an imperfection that contradicts their precious perfectionsim, they isolate that imperfection from the overall imperfection of the world, making it the fulcrum of a necessary moral "choice" between "Godly Salvation" and "Eternal Damnation." 

It's what they do. 

It's who they are.
Compact Fluorescent Lamp

Now, after a successful run in which the nation's energy expenditure for "lighting" was cut by 70% -- and no one was harmed by trace mercury -- CFLs have lost their competitive edge to LEDs and so the production of CFLs was phased out in 2016.

In two decades CFLs have gone from existential cause celebre to "Eh... Who cares?"

The hysterical disposition of American conservatives -- particularly in their Tea Party (and other fundamentalist) manifestations -- is perhaps the most striking characteristic of contemporary American politics.

Yet this newly-normalized hysteria goes unmentioned as if "the individuals trees" that trigger conservative hysteria are so YUGE they make it impossible to see the forest. 

Since 9/11, self-terrorization has been The National Pastime. 

Other examples of conservatism's frozen posture of cowering freakout (whether a perceived menace is real or not) include Ebola (there is now a 100% effective vaccine); Putin's seizure of Ukraine (notably Putin is Trump's pal and 37% of Republicans think Vlad is a good guy); and the Central American children who briefly flooded across the Tex-Mex border. 

When was the last time anybody even thought about those kids? Maybe it was the last time you hought about CFLs as the crucial public health threat... that no longer is.
Compendium Of Best Pax Posts About The Relationship Between Trump And Putin

"Remember Ebola? The Flood Of Central American Immigrant Children flooding into Texas? Benghazi? Ukraine? ISIS?"

For additional insight, check out the following links.
Faulty Risk Assessment And The Epidemic Spread Of Self-Terrorization

"Do Republicans Do Anything But Piss, Moan, Whine, Bitch?
"Are Republicans Insane?" Best Pax Posts

"There are two ways of lying, as there are two ways of deceiving customers. If the scale registers 15 ounces, you can say: 'It's a pound.' Your lie will remain relative to an invariable measure of the true. If customers check it, they can see that they are being robbed, and you know by how much you are robbing them: a truth remains as a judge between you. But if the demon induces you to tamper with the scale itself, it is the criterion of the true which is denatured, there is no longer any possible control. And little by little you will forget that you are cheating."    


"Conservatives" --- and, in the wake of pussy grabber's election, please remind me "what" conservatives are conserving --- recall the ancient practice of virgin sacrifice. 
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In order to placate "the gods" for the offenses we humans commit, conservatives proceed from one "perfect hero" to another (Rubio, Cruz, Carson, Christie, Perry, Santorum, Huckabee) and -- sound the trumpets! -- Donald J. Trump.

"Are Republicans Insane?" Best Pax Posts

The question -- "Are Republicans Insane?" -- has no validity for Republicans.

To them, it doesn't matter.

Here's why...

Republican presidential candidate, Pat Buchanan, the living American who has served longest as a White House senior staff adviser, observed: “The Republican philosophy might be summarized thus: To hell with principle; what matters is power, and that we have it, and that they do not.” “Where the Right Went Wrong" 
And so Republicans normalize dirty tricks, no longer concerning themselves with Truth so long as lying-and-cheating secure power.

Democrats are actually interested in truth (although, admittedly, not always and everywhere). 

Notably, perfectionism is pathognomic of the GOP's central pathology. 

"Is Perfectionism A Curse? Paul Ryan Tells The Truth"

Despite their shortcomings, liberals are interested in truth because, generally speaking, sound epistemology helps devise sound policy. 

If you do not want sea levels rising 2 meters - displacing a billion human beings by 2100 - you have to consider the chemical equation which reveals, as a matter of incontrovertible fact, that burning a gallon of gasoline releases 19.6 pounds of gas, creating a "blanket" of ever-heavier atmospheric CO2 that warms the planet according to scientific principles set forth by Swedish physicist Svante Arrhenius in 1896. (Conservatives can deny science, but not one in a million shuns high-tech medical intervention when "a spot" shows up on X-ray.)

Global Warming's Greenhouse Effect First Posited By Swedish Physicist in 1896
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-relationship-between-fossil-fuels.html
Democrats cheat... but not enough to normalize cheating nor rupture with the rubrics of Truth writ large.
For Democrats, lying and cheating is an intermittent indulgence; for Republicans it is their modus operandi. 

"Dog Whistle Politics": Coded Language And The Rise Of Racially Scornful Political Rhetoric

Dirty Trickster Lee Atwater: The GOP SOB At The Heart Of Republican Barbarism (Hidden Mic)

The Daily Show Interviews Republican Official Who Spills Beans On Deliberate Voter Suppression 
Masquerading As Prevention Of Voter Fraud


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Like the knotty problem of "disproving the existence of God" (or the non-existence of anything else for that matter), it is more fruitful to abandon the quest to prove "who tells the Truth" -- elusive critter that Truth is -- and instead focus which people (particularly in their collective institutional lives) are more dedicated to fabricating falsehood.

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Isaac Asimov Explains Trump's Victory
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2016/12/isaac-asimov-explains-trumps-victory.html

 PolitiFact Finds That Only 1% Of The Things Donald Trump Says Are Entirely True
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2016/08/politifact-finds-that-only-1-of-things.html

Against this backdrop of routine Truth-mangling, it is compensatory for "conservatives" to continually scan the horizon for the next "impeccable hero," a practice that smacks of serial "virgin sacrifice" in which first one and then another "savior" reveals his (or her) clay feet. In this process of ongoing disillusionment (and subsequent rush to sacrifice "the next virgin") it never occurs to conservatives - not even Christian conservatives - to consider Yeshua's own view of the matter: "I do not want sacrifice. I want mercy."

James' Epistle: "Judgment Without Mercy Will Be Shown To Anyone Who Has Not Shown Mercy"

Revealingly, it is mercy-compassion-forgiveness that "conservatives" singularly lack - particularly "Christian" "conservatives."

The Thinking Housewife Almost Never Mentions Mercy, Love, Compassion Or Forgiveness

All 3 Abrahamic Religions Should Be As Ashamed Of Themselves As They Are Now Self-Certain

Are Highly Religious People Less Compassionate?

Conservative Christians Delight In The Punishment And Pain Of Others

Abrahamic Religions Must Deal With Their Own Bronze Age Atavism And Not Just Window Dress

Conservatives, particularly "Christian" "conservatives," do not understand -- indeed their belief system prevents them from conceiving -- that "the medium IS the message" ... whereas The Message Itself routinely devolves to ideological saber-rattling.

It does not matter how much one professes the supremacy of Love if one doesn't actually love. (In Christian terms, this gulf between doctrine and practice may constitute "the unforgiveable sin.")

In the end, mistaking the formulary message for the reality to which the message "points," exempts conservatives from doing anything so long as they "profess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior" (or the Catholic equivalent of attesting to The Infallible Magisterium of the Church) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message

 With every salvific formula now in place, it is no longer necessary to actually live like Jesus.

 Instead -- and paradoxically -- the stage is set for "religious" devolution into self-righteous cruelty.
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And as soon as an individual is locked-and-loaded behind his salvific confession of faith, proclaiming "Jesus is my Lord and Savior," it is only a hop, skip and jump to Pascal's observation:

Americans, Especially Catholics, Approve Of Inquisitorial Torture
Best Pax Posts On Torture

If it is "in the nature of God" to inflict torment, then the devotees of any such punitive God not only "can" but "must" "make themselves in His image" by imitating His infliction of torment. 

 Then -- as human psychology always plays out - worshippers of a tormenting God cannot do unto others what they don't also do unto ourselves. 

 They become like the God they worship and -- although they might debate which "side" of God to embody -- "the cruel" or "the kind" -- anyone inclined to authoritarian absolutism tends to reserve kindness for members of his own family-church-tribe; in a word, favoring those who are already "saved," while projecting Godly torment onto those who are outside the family-church-tribe, visiting torment (either directly or through surrogates) on those who are "damned."

The Thinking Housewife: "We Can Be Pretty Sure That Many Good People Are Roasting In Hell"

In the end, it is conservatives' fear of "The Bad Guy," "The Boogie Man," "Satan" that impels them to establish fear-of-evil as their non-negotiable cornerstone.

And so they believe that radical submission to The Letter Of The Law guarantees salvation, the loss of which is The Worst Possible Thing for "The Fearful."

Conservatives Scare More Easily Than Liberals
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/07/conservatives-scare-more-easily-than.html

Scare The Sheep 
And They Will Applaud Military-Industrial Profiteering

Since conservatives are unusually fearful of "not being saved" (unless they are "very good boys and girls") they seek convincing doses of "salvation assurance" by believing themselves virtuous to the extent that they are fearful.

In the process, they lose ALL understanding of John's core insight that "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." 1 John 4:18.

By misunderstanding John, "conservative" "Christians" become Christian in name only and, not infrequently, their topsy turvy adherence to punitive, law-driven Christianity renders them unwitting enemies of The Nazarene.

Nor will conservative Christans contemplate their opposition to the actual "red letter" teaching of Jesus because then they realize that salvation is only rooted in fearless love and sacrificing that fear is The One Thing they cannot do because fear is now central to their spirit-and-psyche and the conversion to fearless love would require the death of the only identity they consider righteous.

The Gospels With The Words Of Jesus In Red

Everything Jesus And The Apostles Had To Say About "The Rich" And "The Poor"

Jesus Walks Back Comments On Poor

Yeshua Excoriates Fellow Pharisees: "The Woe Passages"

"Twelve Steps For The Recovering Pharisee (Like Me)" By John Fischer
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/07/12-steps-for-recovering-pharisee-like.html

"Love Your Enemies. Do Good To Those Who Hate You," Luke 6: 27-42

"Do You Know What You're Doing To Me?" Jesus of Nazareth

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/12/do-you-know-what-youre-doing-to-me.html

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Psychological Projection

The Evangelical Persecution Complex (Projection's Finest Hour?)

Psychological Projection Indicts "The Good Christians," Not The People They Indict

Pope Francis On Fundamentalism: The Horror Of Turning God Into Ideological Pretext

Often, Stinginess And Cruelty Are Christianity's Paradoxical Effects

It Is Important To Know These Things So Religion Doesn't Do You More Harm Than Good

What Too Many Christians Get Wrong

All 3 Abrahamic Religions Should Be As Ashamed Of Themselves As They Are Now Self-Certain

Are Highly Religious People Less Compassionate?

Conservative Christians Delight In The Punishment And Pain Of Others

Abrahamic Religions Must Deal With Their Own Bronze Age Atavism And Not Just Window Dress

"Just A Little Nicer," A Superb Installment Of TED Radio Hour On The Topic Of Compassion

University Chaplain Fired For Preaching Compassion Over "American Sniper" Violence




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On this third day of Christmas, 2016, I join my voice with the angel we heard "on high," announcing the dawn of New Light in a weary world, making clear with the same command -- "Fear Not!" is the only prerequisite -- The One and Only Prerequisite -- for basking in that Light.

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Fear Not!

By falling prey to fear, you are -- in effect -- "damned..." which is to say your life will be subject to the worst possible consequence, Fear Itself.

Without fear, you become a child of God and, as St. Paul said, you will become "like God" - so completely fearless that there is no room at the inn where fear is an incessant haunting.
Last but not least, I want to delve into conservatives' bottom-line hatred of liberals.

As "baby killers," are already damned. Or, if one doesn't cotton to Christian doctrine, baby-killing liberals are damnable. 

 Loving, compassionate, forgiving people that they pretend to be, "Christian" "conservatives" are giddy that abortion provides non-stop justification for damning liberals to The Unquenchable Lake Of Fire.

During my half century as an adult (and as a student of Comparative Religion), I have studied abortion and, in recent years, it has become clear that the falling U.S. abortion rate would soon dip lower than the abortion rate prior to Roe v. Wade, and over the past year that transition from higher-to-lower abortion rate has become a reality.

 Not only in the United States but even more so in Europe abortion rates are much lower -- a third to a half as frequent -- as in countries where abortion is illegal.

 As a practical matter, those who oppose abortion participate in cultures where abortion is significantly higher than in cultures where abortion is legal and available.

 It is paradoxically true that the illegalization of abortion results in "a mountain of aborted fetuses" whereas the legalization of abortion results in "a hill of aborted fetuses.

 To learn more about abortion and how abortion opponents foster cultures where abortion is much more common than in cultures here abortion is permitted, I recommend the following post:

Abortion, Donald Trump, Conservative Christians And Marley's Chains

***

(Alan: The following segment is corresponence with a physician friend who asked me what I thought of "fact-checker," especially those whose funding/salary comes liberal sources. It is, I believe, synergistic with the thrust of this post.)

As a practical matter, it is always risky to have partisans finance fact-checkers. 

That said, during the 2016 campaign many of my fellow leftists were highly critical of the Clinton family fortune, as well as Hillary's long-time pussy-footing with Wall Street; her absurd claim that she and Bill were "broke" when they left the White House and, perhaps worst of all, her approval of The War Powers Act. (Was their even one conservative who identified Trump's fortune as a warning light for plutocracy?)

Hillary's utterly pragmatic position on The War Powers Act --- as I believe was true and as Time Magazine reported from "the rumor mill" --- caused her to advise Kerry to vote "Yes!" on War Powers 'if he wanted to have a political future.' 

Such pragmatism begs a whole range of inter-related questions about "what" politicians MUST "say and do" in order to "stay in the running" for The Oval Office, The Supreme Court, Cabinet positions, legislative seats, and -- correlatively -- "what" they cannot say... without getting their genitals roasted.

You, Stoltze, I (and many of our friends) would make better White House counsellors than the sons-o-bitches who actually advise presidents. 

Bannon is only the most egregious example of Satanism in high places.

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The very "checkeredness" of your life, and David's life and my life have resulted in the widely-and-deeply informed "judgment matrix" that would make us good counsellors.

However, this same "checkeredness" is also The Reason why we are disqualified at the get-go, not to mention High Officialdom's desire for yes-men and well-groomed sycophants. 

BTW... I recently proposed that every "high office" have "someone" on the payroll whose "checkered"-but-diversely-well-informed-experience would otherwise disqualify them. It is painfully easy to overlook but any one of us could have alerted The Designated Authorities that invading Vietnam and Iraq were at least counterproductive and probably suicidal. 

Of course it doesn't take a genius to realize that, almost always the best military policy is created from the viewpoint that "I am already against the next war."
  
The trouble is that you, Stoltze and I are not lickspittle team players - at least not in the sense that teamwork requires the frame-of-mind described by Henry Miller (who was born on this day in 1891): "One has to be a lowbrow, a bit of a murderer, to be a politician, ready and willing to see people sacrificed, slaughtered, for the sake of an idea, whether a good one or a bad one."

We also must take into account the following political rubric about the non-negotiable need to demonize other human beings whether or not they are demonic - and keeping in mind that they are very rarely the demons politicians must say they are in order to brown-nose his Base:

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Almost always, "life is grey."

American politics -- based on our "winner-take-all" two-party system -- is Black and White.

And so Manichaeism pollutes politics just as it has always polluted Christianity.  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manichaeism

Abrazos

Alan 


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