The Uses of God

The various nefarious uses of “God” are dizzying. If there is a God, he/she/it must be enraged. When it comes to claiming divine sanction for actions, Jihadis are probably the front runners, but Chad Littlefield’s Mom ran a close second Wednesday.

After a Texas jury convicted Eddie Ray Routh of murdering her son and Chris Kyle immortalized—one might even say deified—by the film American Sniper, she claimed God granted her the verdict. Though Kyle and Littlefield were texting one another about how wacko they thought Eddie Ray was before he shot them. The Texas jury disagreed with them both and found him sane and cognizant of right and wrong. Nobody seemed to wonder about the effects of a blockbuster film on a jury pool.

Hard for a Critical Eye Q not to conclude that God is a man-made creation invented to sanctify whatever the believer wants. Chris Hitchens wonderful book God is Not Great, will give you chapter and verse.

The Unholy Obligations of the Teacher-Mandatory-Reporter

            As a retired, but still active (substitute) teacher I am required to maintain a current teaching certificate (i.e. send the state $) Blood borne Pathogen and “Mandatory Reporter” certificates. For the latter, last week I sat online for three hours and listened to a string of tawdry stories of abuse behavior collected by the Iowa Department of Health & Human Services and law enforcement across the state

Shockingly, the most prevalent class of abuse—over 80%--is denial of care, that is, caregivers of dependent individuals, who simply aren’t willing or don’t have the resources to make humane arrangements for children or adults dependent on them. Without ever analyzing the societal source of the problem: the poverty that I daresay afflicts many of the people who “commit these crimes,” the nurse who delivered the session repeatedly urged us to file a report.

I came away horrified at finding myself in this horrific position: Without knowing the specifics, on the basis of what little I can observe in a classroom, I am to turn in a caregiver! Fortunately, subbing less than once a week and in high school exclusively, I am highly unlikely to need to. In the interim, horror has given way to anger.

How dare we hang this burden on schools/teachers? Teachers used to be tasked with the intellectual development of a child. Now schools are being held responsible for the physical well-being of kids, teaching everything sex to driver’s ed. I have yet to see an expert make a correlation between all that is demanded of schools and their mediocre performance.

            It doesn’t take a genius—or a Critical Eye—to see something has to give.

Feeling Sorry for Brian Williams

Don’t you feel a little sorry for Brian Williams?

I mean he has compromised his long career, by doing what TV does every moment: exaggerating to the point of lying. Watch even a half hour, and you will be treated outrageous claims for everything from legal drugs to floor cleaners, to foods which promise health, perfect weight and physical beauty. Hype and lies mostly.The way to achieve those things, even after you purchased the potion, food, or machine is personal self-discipline. Which is of course, FREE, and there is no easy way to it.

Yeah, Williams is supposed to be a newsman, but TV, hasn’t been “news” since the days of Walter Cronkite and Eric Sevareid or maybe even before. TV is theater, it overlooks real for the flamboyant and sentimental, which is why we never heard about the Mortgage crisis till we were smack in the middle of it.

The only way to regard TV is with critical eye, like the liar it is.