Current Events? [edit]

Alright, so I initially thought that I would blog on a semi-regular basis. But that idea didn’t go so well when I realized that you all probably don’t want to listen to me gripe about what my boss has put me through on any given day. So I’ll probably only be blogging, or something akin to it, whenever I have time and come across things that I feel are worth spending time writing about.

So I actually heard this story on the Jane & Kidd morning show on 99.1 here in Milwaukee, and I was kinda pissed about it. Apparently the top executives of the huge insurance company AIG, went on a HUGE [read 440,000.00 dollars worth] spa retreat only days/hours/rather small amount of time after accepting their portion of the 700 Billion dollar bailout from the Fed/taxpayers.

I wasn’t totally livid, but I believe my first thought was “So, we can take that back, right?” Because, come on, if we bail you out and you go on a spa weekend, I think that what you’re basically telling us (those who bailed you out) that you think we’re dupes. Think about it this way, if you borrowed, oh say 700 dollars from a friend/neighbor/relative as a loan, to bail you out when things were looking pretty bleak for you, and then you take a trip to the Bahamas right after accepting that loan from your friend…I imagine whoever supplied that loan would probably bang your door down and beat you senseless. Or at least demand their money back, right now.

And that’s basically what I see happened here. We (the American people) bailed out a company to stave off huge economic catastrophe (notice the use of loaded language to describe the current market situation) and then were basically given the finger as the executives got into their limos to make a quick getaway. That’s awful, and according to the fed “despicable”. So my question is, what are we going to do about it.

While we can’t beat them senseless, I think we should at least prove to these blustering, pompous, egomaniacal, windbags of businessmen that we will not stand for that. Take the money back, and let the company take the fall, and let them deal with the fallout of the investors and customers. Or fire them, and take away any sort of pension/401K plans and such that they may have. I don’t know, I’m not all that business-y but something should be done to communicate to them that we will not stand for this type of behavior.

Also, later on in the article they talk about laying blame on why the company and the economic crisis is so bad. This is pointless. Its not a matter of who’s fault it is that this happened, although it needs to be addressed so it doesn’t happen in the future. But rather than spending time to point fingers at every possible executive aside from yourself, why not take a pay cut and figure out how to help the economy instead of whining that its all falling apart.

As a child I was not allowed to whine about things, because I was told that whining didn’t accomplish anything. Neither does blaming everything in sight for a problem that is most likely partly your fault. But picking yourself up and fixing the damn problem is a way of dealing with it. So to all those executives who are earning millions of dollars in salaries a year, and who own 6 or so homes around the world. Suck it up and fix it, and stop effing whining!

On another note, I came across this story and was rather intrigued. So I read up on it. I even, as a religious person with a degree for such, decided that the book would be a decent read (if I could ever find it, and I’m working on it. I get to call Alaska at 1pm today). But I also looked up the book on Amazon, and read some reviews. This is just further reason why I will not vote for McCain/Palin.

McCain is aged, and will probably die under the pressures of presidency. Which leaves us with Palin who is a Christian Fundamentalist as the first female president, and a fundamentalist in charge of the most [albeit declining] powerful country in the world. And while I’m religious and all that jazz, I refuse to support fundamentalists in their crusade of viewing the world as strictly black and white. Not to mention that as an avid reader I would never support anyone who wanted to ban books for any reason.

So after reading the reviews and trying to procure a copy for myself, I thought that I should at least mention that this book isn’t a religious way of forcing homosexuality onto the religious community. As I understand it, the book is simply one pastors way of dealing with the increasing number of parishioners who are gay, and the issues that a pastor faces with sexuality. I think this book would be an excellent read, hence the wanting a copy. But I don’t think it should stop there.

I graduated from a conservative (LCMS) Lutheran college, who’s official policy regarding homosexuality is that they do not allow openly gay students to live on campus in the dorms, as it does not keep with the universities policy of living an upright Christian life, or some such drivel. Nevermind that all your jocks are drinking on a dry campus, smoking pot and who knows what, and that everyone is having more sex than you can shake a stick at. But those fags….let me tell ya…

Having graduated from the Lay Ministry Program, with a focus on Youth Ministry, I really think that this book should be read by those entering that field. Mostly because the issue isn’t going away anytime soon. And the age old response to the issue of sexuality by the church to ignore it, hide it, or excommunicate it, just isn’t cutting it anymore.

I believe pastors (aside from those few who research this issue on their own, or have dealt with it in their parishes or what have you) are ill equipped to handle it when a parishioner comes to them expressing issues with sexuality. This book and a number of others would be a hugely beneficial tool to at least open the door and get the church and it’s workers to think about how to address this issue in the best way possible.

I’m also writing something that I don’t know what to call about how Christianity and homosexuality can co-exist. And while it’s not perfect (as a great many things aren’t) these conclusions have helped me find a measure of peace in my own life. So I’m hoping that once they get worked out on paper, they can do the same thing. If you wanna read it or prod me to get it done, or offer comments, I’d be more than happy to accommodate. ^_^

[Edit: So I called Alaska and was able to order the book. I learned two things from that. They will only sell the book to people out of state, and it takes an extra day to ship things from Alaska. For those of you who care to look further into getting a copy of the book in question this is their web address: http://www.goodbooksbadcoffee.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp

Their phone number is on the site and keep in mind their hours are 10am-7pm Monday through Saturday and that's 1pm-10pm Central time. The book itself is about $15 but you pay for shipping. I did the 2-day shipping and it cost me about 40$ to get it here on Monday. Just fyi.]