I am doing lots of paper shuffling these days. I am finishing up old manuscripts, re-visiting my card and manuscript files and finding all kinds of jewels that I share on my blog, or on Yahoo, or Face Book, or wherever I think it might help.
One recent commentator disapproved of my support of our current president. He tried to turn it into a moral issue, because his view of a certain issue allows him to view the current president as a bad and unpatriotic person.He concluded that my support of the President made me--well,"pretty BAD."
In that same discussion, he further faulted me for referring back to former President Bush on whom I put much of the blame for many of the issues we currently face. I do refer back to President Bush frequently. Fact is, I read many books about the Bush Dynasty and about the family’s political and economic grab for power.
Since I was in Midland, TX at the same time George H. W. Bush was a smalltime wildcatter in West Texas, I did a lot of reading on the Bush family (pro and con)during the Bush years in the White House. I know just a little of how he used his “up East” fortunes to re-position himself as a Texas Patriot and know what West Texas Wildcatters thought of this established Easterner.
The Bush Dynasty has an illustrious, sometimes notorious, reputation (not always patriotic but always personally profitable, in political power grabbing, selling of wartime armaments, investing in the energy industry, et al.One of the books I read was The Book On Bush by Eric Alterman & Mark Green (Viking Press, 2004).
In some notes I took at the time of that reading, I found this interesting quote from when VP Cheney sat for “Face the Nation” on CBS. “Virtually all of the recommendations” claimed Mr. Cheney over the airwaves, “for financial incentives and assistance Tax credits and so forth are for conservation and increased efficiency and renewables. There are no new financial subsidies of any kind for the oil and gas industry” (bold added).
That is an interesting statement in light of the fact that it conflicts with the actual results published by TAXPAYERS FOR COMMON SENSE, the US Public Interest Research Group, and FRIENDS OF THE EARTH. Alterman and Green noted three conflicts in particular (p.19):
1) $28 billion in subsidies and tax breaks on oil, gas, coal and nuclear industries.
2) $3 billion investment credits to develop “clean coal” technology.
3) $500 million in relief to oil and gas from royalties owed the government.
The $28 billion, when added to $33 billion in already scheduled subsidies total $61 billion, or $220 from every American.
I find such irregularities consistent with the code of silence in the White House during Bush-43’s terms and the lack of ethical integrity regarding what is true and false. Thus, the findings on the Iraq War that have since come to light remain quite consistent with the ethics, or lack thereof, that I find in the Political Right that is currently battling to recapture the political stage.
“And so it goes with the issues we face,” wrote George McGovern, that paragon of Protestant liberalism, according to most all far right Christian fundamentalists. Never mind that Mr. McGovern has much to commend him out of his Christian heritage and clergy background. The fact is that Mr. McGovern is a “political liberal” and is so designated by ALL CONSERVATIVES who disagree with him.
I draw these distinctions deliberately because many of my Right Side friends feel very deeply about certain moral, spiritual, ethical issues, as do I. But as for these “issues” we face, Mr. McGovern went on to point out, “Everyone of them has a crucial moral component. It is immoral to pollute the air, water , and soil of God’s creation. It is immoral to permit a fifth of America’s children to grow up in poverty … It is immoral for 800 million of the world’s people to be hungry from birth to death” - or for that matter the $50 million to advirtize during the closing weeks of the 2004 campaign - (McGovern/The Essential America/120, emphasis added).
I believe it is immoral for Mr. Cheney to slant the truth as he did in the opening quote of this article. I believe it was immoral for the Bush Administration to lie about the Iraq War as they did, not to mention treasonous, unpatriotic, and wrong. I believe the recent corporate expenditures in the 2010 Election were obscene and immoral, for a variety of reasons.
I do not believe the Political Right has the right to pick and choose what is ethical and moral, and what is not. We must be consistent in our ethics across a wide spectrum of issues, and our lives must support that consistency. However, I will commend the Political Right for its persistence. One of my favorite ball-players was Mickey Mantle, the slugger from Commerce, OK. Mickey persisted in striking out 1710 times. He topped The Babe’s record of 1330 strikeouts. In the process, he became a peer of Babe Ruth as a homerun hitter. Persistence paid off for Mantle.
Persistence seemingly paid off for those political pundits perpetuating the Right Side irregularities of the 2010 Election. To say the least,they garnered some political victories with their persistence.
THE ONLY THING IS, I do not believe American Democracy can survive those 1710 strikeouts of the Babe, not if they are anything like the eight years of the recent Bush administration.
Warner’s World,
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
11 comments:
Wow, Bro. Warner...(any relation to Daniel Sidney??)
I totally and strongly disagree with your political perspective and your criticisms of the "religious right," Bush/Cheney, etc. I cannot understand how any born-again, informed believer could support the Obama/Holder/Biden/Pelosi/Reid agenda (not saying you do, but inferring so from your commentaries). I still proudly display my Bush 2004 bumper sticker on my car, and I can say to him as I once said to his dad, "I'm proud to say I voted for you, Mr. President." I've met the family three times, also the Reagans (Gorbachev too, and R. Kennedy, etc.) and highly regard them. I'm a Huckabee/Gingrich supporter, very well informed about politics and world affairs (and I speak Russian and Spanish and have lived inside the former USSR/Cuba for over two years, as well as many other places, such as Spain, where I live part-time now)and feel that you need to watch Fox News a bit more! Your allusions to the Bush administration are highly inaccurate (Bush "lied," "tortured," etc.) You should know better!
Didn't mean to post as anonymous, my brother; it just came out that way when I clicked the other option for "name"! Paul Hazen Fausnight, Miami Beach :)
Thanks Paul, appreciate your comments, especially as coming from someone seemingly well informed. Obviously we approach the whole subject rather differently. I remain quite conservative in my fundamental beliefs yet I have read enough bipartisan writings to know how things are slanted, twisted, shaped et al and I stand by what I have written. George 43 is personable enough but I could never support his political agenda or approve of the republicanizing of much of the Christian right. I strongly favor what I consider a biblical approach to social issues neither left nor right, but if you read many of my blogs it isn't hard to track me. You may enshrine the Bush presidency but he frankly made me ashamed and more pro-peace than ever.
Right now I am reading THE ALMOST CHOSEN PEOPLE that details how Christians of all stripes read their interpretations into the Civil War, each to condemn those who differed. Quite intereesting.
As for DS, don't know that I am but do not know that I am not (I grew up close to Grand Junction). Btw, are you any relation to Hazen Fausennaught? An old familiar chog name. Have a very Merry Christmas.
Sorry I think I spelled that name wrong..........
Oh, you have made my day! Actually, the spelling is not too far from the original "fastnacht (or) fassnacht" (I think), which translates roughly to "mardi gras."
So you have heard of my father...he edited The Gospel Contact in Canada and taught at (then) Alberta Bible Institute, while pastoring the church in Camrose. (Dad seemed always to be the founding pastor of every pastorate where he served.) He was the hardest-working person I've ever known...we were rich in Christian upbringing and godly example--and dined splendidly: my dad was a most-enthusistic cultivator of every vegetable that could be raised...as a gardener, he had that in common with you, I think...I always thought that he had a green thumb up to his elbow! He pastored nearby to F. G. Smith in Ohio and would have him (and L. McCutcheon, Gerald Weaver, etc.) over for revivals. I still have now in front of me the ittle N.T. that Dad gave me after my conversion in one such revival service while still not yet nine years old; it's inscribed with the October 1951 date, my name, and "born again." Dad introduced me to C. E. Brown and Russell R. Byrum in their homes. E. E. Byrum prayed for Dad's mother; Charles Ludwig stayed with us. Elsie E. Egermeier and Verna J. Joiner were each like mothers to me, both in person and through nearly 100 letters from each one to me (but I already had a wonderfully perfect mother, a true saint who sang so sweetly till age 97 the old hymns, although blind for years). One of my greatest regrets was that I did not visit the Holy Land until after my father's passing in 1992. As a true Bible scholar, he would have derived so much pleasure from making such a journey with me while he had the strength to do so. In Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, I chanced to speak with some Mennonite tourists who--I found, to my amazement--had known my father in NE Ohio! Actually, in Ohio for some years until age 13, I lived surrounded by the Amish. My father taught in their one-room school house (eight grades) to supplement his income and to do additional good--as if pastoring, plus feeding half the neighborhood from his five-acres of black muck wasn't enough already--and I signed on for the lucrative job of school janitor (cleaning upstairs and basement...and one could plant corn in that dirt that was tracked in each new day!), all for the princely sum of 15 cents a day. I remember getting off the schoolbus at the little white Amish schoolhouse, and then, after work completed, hiking home the nearly two miles through pastures (of course, I thought the cows were all bulls, ready to charge at me) and little streams. Those were the days, and my dad taught me how to save--and tithe--my little money. I owe so very much--everything--to my loving, godly parents, and I am pleased and honored to have you mention them.
I am sure that we have other good friends in common. On mychog, which I discovered some months ago, I posted my photo only to be "discovered" by family friends after a gap of over 60 years (Whitesel & Gardner/Heffren).
Just think what reunions await us beyond this life! How wonderful to know the lovingkindness of the most wonderfully kind Author of our salvation!
My sister (and I, for a shorter time) cared for my parents for a quarter century in their old age. Now, only I am left, as the youngest. So, I have great respect for you in the role you are fulfilling for your loved one.
May God bless and richly reward you. And may this Christmas be especially blessed for you and yours, with all health and happiness continuing in the future.
I believe this old world will not last too much longer, from all the signs... God bless you, my brother! Again, a very Merry Christmas!
Oh, you have made my day! Actually, the spelling is not too far from the original "fastnacht (or) fassnacht" (I think), which translates roughly to "mardi gras."
So you have heard of my father...he edited The Gospel Contact in Canada and taught at (then) Alberta Bible Institute, while pastoring the church in Camrose. (Dad seemed always to be the founding pastor of every pastorate where he served.) He was the hardest-working person I've ever known...we were rich in Christian upbringing and godly example--and dined splendidly: my dad was a most-enthusistic cultivator of every vegetable that could be raised...as a gardener, he had that in common with you, I think...I always thought that he had a green thumb up to his elbow! He pastored nearby to F. G. Smith in Ohio and would have him (and L. McCutcheon, Gerald Weaver, etc.) over for revivals. I still have now in front of me the little N.T. that Dad gave me after my conversion in one such revival service while still not yet nine years old; it's inscribed with the October 1951 date, my name, and "born again." Dad introduced me to C. E. Brown and Russell R. Byrum in their homes. E. E. Byrum prayed for Dad's mother; Charles Ludwig stayed with us. Elsie E. Egermeier and Verna J. Joiner were each like mothers to me, both in person and through nearly 100 letters from each one to me (but I already had a wonderfully perfect mother, a true saint who sang so sweetly till age 97 the old hymns, although blind for years). One of my greatest regrets was that I did not visit the Holy Land until after my father's passing in 1992. As a true Bible scholar, he would have derived so much pleasure from making such a journey with me while he had the strength to do so. In Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, I chanced to speak with some Mennonite tourists who--I found, to my amazement--had known my father in NE Ohio! Actually, in Ohio for some years until age 13, I lived surrounded by the Amish. My father taught in their one-room school house (eight grades) to supplement his income and to do additional good--as if pastoring, plus feeding half the neighborhood from his five-acres of black muck wasn't enough already--and I signed on for the lucrative job of school janitor (cleaning upstairs and basement...and one could plant corn in that dirt that was tracked in each new day!), all for the princely sum of 15 cents a day. I remember getting off the schoolbus at the little white Amish schoolhouse, and then, after work completed, hiking home the nearly two miles through pastures (of course, I thought the cows were all bulls, ready to charge at me) and little streams. Those were the days, and my dad taught me how to save--and tithe--my little money. I owe so very much--everything--to my loving, godly parents, and I am pleased and honored to have you mention them.
I am sure that we have other good friends in common. On mychog, which I discovered some months ago, I posted my photo only to be "discovered" by family friends after a gap of over 60 years (Whitesel & Gardner/Heffren).
Just think what reunions await us beyond this life! How wonderful to know the lovingkindness of the most wonderfully kind Author of our salvation!
My sister (and I, for a shorter time) cared for my parents for a quarter century in their old age. Now, only I am left, as the youngest. So, I have great respect for you in the role you are fulfilling for your loved one.
May God bless and richly reward you. And may this Christmas be especially blessed for you and yours, with all health and happiness continuing in the future.
I believe this old world will not last too much longer, from all the signs... God bless you, my brother! Again, a very Merry Christmas!
Oh, you have made my day! Actually, the spelling is not too far from the original "fastnacht (or) fassnacht" (I think), which translates roughly to "mardi gras."
So you have heard of my father...he edited The Gospel Contact in Canada and taught at (then) Alberta Bible Institute, while pastoring the church in Camrose. (Dad seemed always to be the founding pastor of every pastorate where he served.) He was the hardest-working person I've ever known...we were rich in Christian upbringing and godly example--and dined splendidly: my dad was a most-enthusistic cultivator of every vegetable that could be raised...as a gardener, he had that in common with you, I think...I always thought that he had a green thumb up to his elbow! He pastored nearby to F. G. Smith in Ohio and would have him (and L. McCutcheon, Gerald Weaver, etc.) over for revivals. I still have now in front of me the little N.T. that Dad gave me after my conversion in one such revival service while still not yet nine years old; it's inscribed with the October 1951 date, my name, and "born again." Dad introduced me to C. E. Brown and Russell R. Byrum in their homes. E. E. Byrum prayed for Dad's mother; Charles Ludwig stayed with us. Elsie E. Egermeier and Verna J. Joiner were each like mothers to me, both in person and through nearly 100 letters from each one to me (but I already had a wonderfully perfect mother, a true saint who sang so sweetly till age 97 the old hymns, although blind for years). One of my greatest regrets was that I did not visit the Holy Land until after my father's passing in 1992. As a true Bible scholar, he would have derived so much pleasure from making such a journey with me while he had the strength to do so. In Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, I chanced to speak with some Mennonite tourists who--I found, to my amazement--had known my father in NE Ohio! Actually, in Ohio for some years until age 13, I lived surrounded by the Amish. My father taught in their one-room school house (eight grades) to supplement his income and to do additional good--as if pastoring, plus feeding half the neighborhood from his five-acres of black muck wasn't enough already--and I signed on for the lucrative job of school janitor (cleaning upstairs and basement...and one could plant corn in that dirt that was tracked in each new day!), all for the princely sum of 15 cents a day. I remember getting off the schoolbus at the little white Amish schoolhouse, and then, after work completed, hiking home the nearly two miles through pastures (of course, I thought the cows were all bulls, ready to charge at me) and little streams. Those were the days, and my dad taught me how to save--and tithe--my little money. I owe so very much--everything--to my loving, godly parents, and I am pleased and honored to have you mention them.
I am sure that we have other good friends in common. On mychog, which I discovered some months ago, I posted my photo only to be "discovered" by family friends after a gap of over 60 years (Whitesel & Gardner/Heffren).
Just think what reunions await us beyond this life! How wonderful to know the lovingkindness of the most wonderfully kind Author of our salvation!
My sister (and I, for a shorter time) cared for my parents for a quarter century in their old age. Now, only I am left, as the youngest. So, I have great respect for you in the role you are fulfilling for your loved one.
May God bless and richly reward you. And may this Christmas be especially blessed for you and yours, with all health and happiness continuing in the future.
I believe this old world will not last too much longer, from all the signs... God bless you, my brother! Again, a very Merry Christmas!
Oh, you have made my day! Actually, the spelling is not too far from the original "fastnacht (or) fassnacht" (I think), which translates roughly to "mardi gras."
So you have heard of my father...he edited The Gospel Contact in Canada and taught at (then) Alberta Bible Institute, while pastoring the church in Camrose. (Dad seemed always to be the founding pastor of every pastorate where he served.) He was the hardest-working person I've ever known...we were rich in Christian upbringing and godly example--and dined splendidly: my dad was a most-enthusistic cultivator of every vegetable that could be raised...as a gardener, he had that in common with you, I think...I always thought that he had a green thumb up to his elbow! He pastored nearby to F. G. Smith in Ohio and would have him (and L. McCutcheon, Gerald Weaver, etc.) over for revivals. I still have now in front of me the little N.T. that Dad gave me after my conversion in one such revival service while still not yet nine years old; it's inscribed with the October 1951 date, my name, and "born again." Dad introduced me to C. E. Brown and Russell R. Byrum in their homes. E. E. Byrum prayed for Dad's mother; Charles Ludwig stayed with us. Elsie E. Egermeier and Verna J. Joiner were each like mothers to me, both in person and through nearly 100 letters from each one to me (but I already had a wonderfully perfect mother, a true saint who sang so sweetly till age 97 the old hymns, although blind for years). One of my greatest regrets was that I did not visit the Holy Land until after my father's passing in 1992. As a true Bible scholar, he would have derived so much pleasure from making such a journey with me while he had the strength to do so. In Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, I chanced to speak with some Mennonite tourists who--I found, to my amazement--had known my father in NE Ohio! Actually, in Ohio for some years until age 13, I lived surrounded by the Amish. My father taught in their one-room school house (eight grades) to supplement his income and to do additional good--as if pastoring, plus feeding half the neighborhood from his five-acres of black muck wasn't enough already--and I signed on for the lucrative job of school janitor (cleaning upstairs and basement...and one could plant corn in that dirt that was tracked in each new day!), all for the princely sum of 15 cents a day. I remember getting off the schoolbus at the little white Amish schoolhouse, and then, after work completed, hiking home the nearly two miles through pastures (of course, I thought the cows were all bulls, ready to charge at me) and little streams. Those were the days, and my dad taught me how to save--and tithe--my little money. I owe so very much--everything--to my loving, godly parents, and I am pleased and honored to have you mention them.
I am sure that we have other good friends in common. On mychog, which I discovered some months ago, I posted my photo only to be "discovered" by family friends after a gap of over 60 years (Whitesel & Gardner/Heffren).
Just think what reunions await us beyond this life! How wonderful to know the lovingkindness of the most wonderfully kind Author of our salvation!
My sister (and I, for a shorter time) cared for my parents for a quarter century in their old age. Now, only I am left, as the youngest. So, I have great respect for you in the role you are fulfilling for your loved one.
May God bless and richly reward you. And may this Christmas be especially blessed for you and yours, with all health and happiness continuing in the future.
I believe this old world will not last too much longer, from all the signs... God bless you, my brother! Again, a very Merry Christmas!
Opa! Sorry about cluttering up your space...it kept telling me my word verification had failed. I didn't mean to stutter-post!
And I guess I'm stuck with the moniker "Anonymous." :)
I had to laugh...I got stuck with that "anonymous" when I first got into blogging and trying to figure it all out. Wow! I thought I had a ton of comments, but all the same ... and what a heritage. Thanks for leaving that (I hope I can get back to it ... it left lots of thoughts and recollections for me. I hope you'll not disappear.
Oh, I gotta get some sleep...it's 1:30 A.M. after a very busy day.
You're welcome to visit me on my Facebook, Paul Hazen Fausnight
God bless you, my friend and brother.
:)
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