PEEVER LAW #92

A WHOLE LOT OF RICH CANNOT COVER UP A WHOLE LOT OF GREED.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it - whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, he is trash.”
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

IT DOES MATTER

• KILLING PEOPLE WITH DRONES IS NOT JUSTIFIED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. IT DOES MATTER HOW YOU CONDUCT YOURSELF IN TIMES OF WAR. NOR SHOULD THEY BE USED FOR SPYING ON CITIZENS. WE HAVE A RIGHT TO PRIVACY.
• ARMING EVERYONE WITH HANDGUNS AND AUTOMATIC WEAPONS IS INSANE. YOU SAY IT'S FOR SAFETY. I SAY IT'S FOR FEAR. IT DOES MATTER.
• YOU PREACH ON AND ON ABOUT THE HUNGRY AND HOW TERRIBLE IT IS THAT CHILDREN GO TO BED HUNGRY AT NIGHT. YET, HAVE YOU EVE HANDED A HUNGRY CHILD A SANDWICH? IT DOES MATTER.
• SO YOU ARE AGAINST ABORTION. AFTER ALL, YOUR MINISTER AND ALL THE RIGHT-WING POLITICIANS THINK IT'S SINFUL. HAVE YOU EVER TALKED TO A WOMAN ABOUT TO HAVE AN ABORTION? HAVE YOU EVER ASKED HER WHY? IT DOES MATTER.
• YOU BELIEVE THAT POLITICIAN WHEN HE SAYS CLIMATE CHANGE IS A BUNCH OF LIBERAL GARBAGE. DID YOU ASK HIM WHERE HE GOT HIS INFORMATION? OR DID YOU ASK TO SEE HIS RELEVANT CREDENTIALS? IT DOES MATTER.
• YOU THINK WHITE PEOPLE ARE SUPERIOR TO ALL OTHERS. CAN YOU HEAR YOUR FATHER OR MOTHERS VOICE WHEN YOU THINK THAT?
• YOU BELIEVE THE RICH SHOULD GET ALL OF THE GOVERNMENT RESOURCES AND THAT THE POOR ARE LIVING HIGH-OFF-THE-HOG ON FOOD STAMPS AND WELFARE. HOW ABOUT I HELP YOU TRADE PLACES WITH SOMEONE WHO IS DOWN AND OUT. YOU TOO CAN LEAD THE GOOD LIFE. IT WILL MATTER.
• YOU THINk THE GOVERNMENT INTERFERING IN OUR PRIVATE LIVES AND PRIVATE TALKS IS A MATTER OF SECURITY AND SAFETY. HAVE YOU GIVEN ANY THOUGHT AT ALL IN TERMS OF WHAT IT MEANS TO OUR DEMOCRACY? IT DOES MATTER.
• WE SEEM TO BELIEVE IT IS ALRIGHT TO TORTURE THE ENEMY IN THE NAME OF FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY. IF SO, THEY CAN DO THE SAME WHEN THEY CATCH US. YOU DON'T THINK IT MATTERS, BUT IT DOES. ENDORSING EVIL ALWAYS MATTERS.

SUNDAY MORNING PRAYER-DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES

   I dreamed of the Holy City, well ordered and just.
   I dreamed of a garden of paradise,
       well-being all around and a good water supply.
   I dreamed of disarmament and forgiveness,
       and caring embrace for all those in need.
   I dreamed of a coming time when death is no more.

Last night as I lay sleeping...
   I had a nightmare of sins unforgiven.
   I had a nightmare of land mines still exploding
            and maimed children.
   I had a nightmare of the poor left unloved,
                                of the homeless left unnoticed,
                                of the dead left ungrieved.
   I had a nightmare of quarrels and rages
             and wars great and small.

When I awoke, I found you still to be God,
   presiding over the day and the night
      with serene sovereignty,
   for dark and light are both alike to you.

At the break of day we submit to you
   our best dreams
   and our worst nightmares,
 asking that your healing mercy should override threats,
    that your goodness will make our
          nightmares less toxic
          and our dreams more real.

Thank you for visiting us with newness
     that overrides what is old and deathly among us.
Come among us this day; dream us toward
     health and peace,
we pray in the real name of Jesus
     who exposes our fantasies.

Walter Brueggemann

THE TAO OF PEEVERISM

THE TAO OF PEEVERISM

• IF YOU THINK YOU CAN ESCAPE THE CHAOS OF THE WORLD, FORGET IT. THE WORLD WAS CREATED OUT OF CHAOS AND WILL END OUT OF CHAOS. IN BETWEEN, YOU HAD BETTER PAY ATTENTION.
• PEOPLE ARE NOT WILLING, OR ALLOWED, TO WORK TO THEIR GREATEST POTENTIAL.
• ANYONE WHO WANTS TO BE A LEADER MUST BE ABLE TO CHOSE WINNERS AS FOLLOWERS. THOSE WHO WILL BE ABLE TO UTILIZE EVERYONE'S POWER AND DETERMINATION TOWARD A COMMON GOOD WILL BE SUCCESSFUL.
• NEVER UNDERESTIMATE YOUR PERSONAL POWER. BUT FIRST, YOU NEED TO FIND IT.
• LAVISH BUILDINGS AND FRENZIED PROFIT-MAKING ARE NOT THE SIGNS OF A WISE SOCIETY. FEEDING THE HUNGRY AND HOUSING THE HOMELESS ARE.
• CAPITALISM USES CUNNING AND DECEIT TO DRESS UP PROFITEERING AND IMPERIALISM.
• DO NOT EXPECT YOURSELF TO BE PERFECT. AFTER ALL, YOU ARE PROBABLY HUMAN.
• LIFE'S THREE BIGGEST VICES: DOING NOTHING. BEING SATISFIED WITH DOING NOTHING. AND DOING SOMETHING THAT AMOUNTS TO NOTHING.
• PEOPLE LIKE THE GOOD-OLD-DAYS. THEY KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT BECAUSE THEY HAVE ALREADY LIVED IT. BUT TRY AS WE MAY, THE GOOD-OLD-DAYS WILL NOT RETURN. THAT IS NOT THE WAY OF THE WORLD. THESE PEOPLE END UP NOT KNOWING WHAT IS WHAT. 
• JUSTICE IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN PROFIT. IMMATURE PEOPLE CRAVE PROFIT AND IGNORE JUSTICE.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“We Americans are not usually thought to be a submissive people, but of course we are. Why else would we allow our country to be destroyed? Why else would we be rewarding its destroyers? Why else would we all — by proxies we have given to greedy corporations and corrupt politicians — be participating in its destruction? Most of us are still too sane to piss in our own cistern, but we allow others to do so and we reward them for it. We reward them so well, in fact, that those who piss in our cistern are wealthier than the rest of us.

How do we submit? By not being radical enough. Or by not being thorough enough, which is the same thing.”
Wendell Berry

PEEVER LAW #45

THE TRUTH IS LIKE WATER: IT'S HARD TO GRASP AND EASY TO CONTAMINATE.

Israel Spied on Iran Talks, Gave Intel to US Lawmakers to Kill Deal: Report

Israel Spied on Iran Talks, Gave Intel to US Lawmakers to Kill Deal: Report



MORE DISGRACEFUL BEHAVIOR FROM OUR RIGHT- WING REPUBLICAN CONGRESS, WORKING IN COOPERATION WITH ISRAEL TO END THE WORLD.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.”
Confucius

PEEVER LAW #63

REVENGE WILL NEVER MEND A BROKEN HEART.

SUNDAY MORNING REFLECTIONS

What do you do when you are called to walk in Jesus' footsteps? How do you get past your indifference? Your selfishness? Your desire to do as you please, not as you are called to do? I wish I had the answers. I wish I could walk the walk, instead of just talking the talk. If I did only half of what it is I think I need to do, I would be at least a thousandth of the way home. My prayer this morning is to help the poor, feed the hungry, heal where I can and cry when I can't.

James 2:15-17
Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

 1 John 3:17-18
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not.

I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen - I believe that people are perfectable, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkled lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women.

I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state.

I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste.

I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like martians in War of the Worlds.

I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman.

I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumble bee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself.

I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck.

I believe that anyone who says sex is overrated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too.

I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system.

I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.”  

Neil Gaiman, American Gods

PEEVER LAW #51

Killing someone because you don't like them, or because they don't agree with you, or because they are a different color, or a different religion, or because they don't like capitalism, or they sing a different song, or wave a different flag, is murder, any way you look at it.

ARKANSAS LEGISLATURE HARD AT WORK

THE BOYS HAVE DONE IT AGAIN. MORE PROOF THAT THEY ARE REALLY LOOKING OUT FOR OUR BEST INTERESTS. A COMMITTEE APPROVED A LAW THAT WOULD MAKE IT ILLEGAL FOR ANY PERSON TO KNOWINGLY LIE TO THE LEGISLATURE. PUNISHABLE BY UP TO 1 YEAR IN PRISON. I DON'T BELIEVE THEY INCLUDED LEGISLATORS LYING TO THE PUBLIC. WE DON'T HAVE NEAR ENOUGH PRISONS.

The New (Deplorable) American Order

The New (Deplorable) American Order

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“These are the times that try men's souls.”
 Thomas Paine, The American Crisis

FLORIDA WEATHER GOOD-POLITICS BAD

I've been to five different states this winter, all with good weather and bad politics.  I'm afraid this appears to be a trend. Either I'm out of touch, or we are headed for a lot of trouble. I am predicting a lot of turmoil over the next two years. If you are poor or middle class, what little you have will soon be gone. THE RICH ARE IN CHARGE, AND INTEND ON GETTING RICHER AT OUR EXPENSE. However, this is not a doomsday prediction. This is only preparation for what is to come.
So far, the right-wing Republicans have blended a message of anti-choice with abortion rights, sexual preference, and pro-gun, pro-war, with their dismantling of the middle class and destruction of the poor. Once people realize this, they will demand justice. We already see this starting. The 60's will look like a picnic. Unfortunately, things will not likely be righted at the polls. The rich have too much control. I HOPE I'M WRONG.

'Mistrust Is Growing': European Leaders Blast GOP Senators for Letter to Iran

'Mistrust Is Growing': European Leaders Blast GOP Senators for Letter to Iran



THIS IS THE WORK OF OUR BOY, TOM COTTON. HE HAS NO RESPECT FOR ANY LEVEL OF PROTOCOL. HE'S A DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN. HE'S A KOCK BABY.

Who Are We? What Do We Americans Truly Value?

Who Are We? What Do We Americans Truly Value?



HERE IN ARKANSAS, ONE IN FOUR CHILDREN GO TO BED HUNGRY AT NIGHT, WHILE THE STATE LEGISLATURE IS BUSY TRYING TO UNDO PRO-CHOICE AND JUST VOTED TO ALLOW SCHOOL TEACHERS TO CARRY GUNS. I'M RUNNING OUT OF PRAYERS, ALTHOUGH IT IS ASKING A BIT MUCH TO MAKE THEM DISAPPEAR. 

Fifty Years On, Gains Achieved by Those Who Bled in Selma Are Under Attack

Fifty Years On, Gains Achieved by Those Who Bled in Selma Are Under Attack



RIGHT-WING REPUBLICANS NEVER GIVE AN INCH. IT ALWAYS COMES DOWN TO HAVING TO TAKE.  WE'RE READY.

PEEVER LAW #58

SINGING THE RIGHT SONG AND PRAYING "GOD BLESS AMERICA" DOES NOT A GOOD CITIZEN MAKE.

World Misses Its Potential by Excluding 50 Percent of Its People

World Misses Its Potential by Excluding 50 Percent of Its People



TAKE CHARGE.

ANOTHER ANNIVERSARY-NUMBER 44

MY WIFE AND I HAVE BEEN MARRIED FOR 44 YEARS. THAT'S A LOT OF LOVE; COMPROMISES; DISAGREEMENTS; WALKS; SEXUAL DANCES; CRYING; AND LAUGHING; GOING ON OVER 44 YEARS. TWO CHILDREN, TWO GOOD CAREERS,  A LOT OF FRIENDS, SEVEN DOGS, TWO CATS, AND NOW, RETIREMENT. WE HAVE SEEN A LOT OF UP'S AND OUR SHARE OF DOWNS, BUT WE HAVE REMAINED TOGETHER, SOME DAY'S BECAUSE OF IT ALL, SOME DAYS IN SPITE OF IT ALL. PEOPLE LIKE TO THINK LOVE IS THE KEY TO MARRIAGE LONGEVITY, BUT LOVE IS ONLY ONE OF THE INGREDIENTS. STUBBORNNESS, TENACITY, AND A REFUSAL TO FAIL ARE ALL PART OF THE EQUATION. IN THE END, YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING AND KNOW YOU ARE IN THE RIGHT PLACE, WITH THE RIGHT PERSON, FOR ALL THE RIGHT REASONS. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO MY WIFE.

From Crispus Attucks to Michael Brown: Race and Revolution

From Crispus Attucks to Michael Brown: Race and Revolution



IT'S TIME.

WHAT DOES THE ARKANSAS WEATHER HAVE IN COMMON WITH RIGHT-WING REPUBLICANS?

We retired to Arkansas for the improved weather, especially in the winter. Our first winter, we had the worst storm they have ever had. It was the first time the news stations used the word "blizzard." Last year, the locals said it was the coldest, and longest, winter they had ever seen. This winter was coming along pretty good. Last night, one inch of ice and about 3-4 in. of snow. Tonight they are calling for the lowest temperature, ever. I'm so glad we are making history. I think the whole thing is due to the fact that Arkansas turned Republican during about this same time-frame. Not just Republican, but right-wing Republican. Bad weather-bad politics. I'm pretty sure the end is near. SEND HELP!

Noam Chomsky: Edward Snowden a True Patriot Who Should be Honored

Noam Chomsky: Edward Snowden a True Patriot Who Should be Honored

PEEVER LAW #48

   When you color outside the lines, there are always repercussions.

SOME DAYS YOU HAVE TO LOOK HARD. OTHER DAYS YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO LOOK. Marc Scibilia - Something Good In This World

SOMEBODY CHECK MY BRAIN

1.  I THOUGHT THE PRESIDENT SAID "NO MORE WAR."
2.  MITCH McCONNELL SAID SOMETHING THAT MADE SENSE.
3. MY BRAIN MUST BE MALFUNCTIONING. I DIDN'T THINK JUST ANYONE COULD COME INTO THIS COUNTRY AND ADDRESS CONGRESS? MUST HAVE BEEN MY MISTAKE. I'M GOING TO INVITE CASTRO. WE COULD USE A LITTLE LECTURE ON REVOLUTION.
4. I'M LEFT HANDED, SO THE RIGHT SIDE OF MY BRAIN IS DOMINANT. THAT'S WHY I DON'T UNDERSTAND RIGHT-WING CHRISTIANS. 
5. THE OLDER I GET, THE LESS INCLINED I AM TO REMEMBER THINGS.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.”
Elie Wiesel

Why Does the FBI Have to Manufacture its Own Plots if Terrorism and ISIS Are Such Grave Threats?

Why Does the FBI Have to Manufacture its Own Plots if Terrorism and ISIS Are Such Grave Threats?



FBI. THE MAKING OF TERRORISTS.