One of many troubling events

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Back in October Benito Mussolini’s granddaughter won the highest number of votes in elections for Rome’s city council. Rachele Mussolini, who won over 8,200 votes, belongs to the far-right party Brothers of Italy. (The Guardian 7 Oct 2021)

My comment: Extremists are popping up in greater numbers, but pose the most immediate danger in the US. Epicurus might not have liked politicians, but I am sure, we’re he alive today, he would advocate locking up the coup-lovers and racists in order that we all can enjoy true liberty. Fascism, in whatever country, is violent, cruel and corrupt and is the forerunner of national decay, if not violence and collapse.

Careless of lives or just plain stupid?

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U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced yet another challenge from within his own Conservative Party when Brexit Minister David Frost resigned effective immediately from Johnson’s cabinet Saturday. Frost, a member of the House of Lords, had planned to resign next month, but moved his timetable up to protest Johnson’s new COVID restrictions. Instead of implementing vaccine passports, Frost wrote in his resignation letter, the U.K. should “learn to live with COVID.” Earlier this week, 99 Conservative members of parliament voted against the passports in the largest defection of Johnson’s premiership. Frost urged Johnson not to be “tempted by the kind of coercive measures we have seen elsewhere.” [The Associated Press, BBC]

“………… learning to live with covid? Words fail me. I don’t know what these people learn or are told when they go to church, but since when has any religion advocated the selfish refusal to get vaccinated and to wear a mask? When I was a child I learned that christians should have compassion and care for those around them. One wonders what message nowadays comes from the pulpit. The rules laid down by most nations of the world, faced with omicron, simply reinforce the rather obvious – don’t endanger others, whereas “Look after yourself and to hell with everyone else” seems to be the latest message?

Vatican announces new restrictions on Latin Mass

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A Vatican document released last Saturday imposed further restrictions on the pre-Vatican II liturgy, including a prohibition on listing Latin Masses in parish bulletins. A preference for the old Mass is often associated with political conservatism and with a lack of support for Pope Francis.

In his introduction to the document, Archbishop Arthur Roche, the head of the Vatican’s liturgy office, said clergy “must not lend ourselves to sterile polemics, capable only of creating division, in which the ritual itself is often exploited by ideological viewpoints.” Critics have accused the pope of punitively targeting small groups of devout, traditional Catholics while allowing modernist liturgical irregularities to run rampant. [National Catholic Reporter, Reuters]

My comment: In my humble opinion liturgy is unimportant compared with
personal behaviour. By this I include compassion, kindness, generosity, thoughtfulness, politeness, acceptance of diversity, patience, sense of humor; in fact, all the good characteristics of a person trying to live up to Epicurean ideals. There is no Epicurean “liturgy”; decent behaviour, respect and tolerance of the opinions of others are key.

(And, by the way, if I argued that Epicureans should speak ancient Greek when discussing Epicurus you would giggle hysterically. I have nothing against Latin; I scraped through a Latin exam to be accepted by my college many years ago. But speaking it every Sunday is, well, un- modern and faintly ridiculous. The Pope is right).

In the realm of the weird

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Duck recorded speaking to human
Scientists have recorded the first known instance of a duck that has learned to mimic human speech. The duck in in Australia – called Ripper – said: “You bloody fool.” Parrots, songbirds and hummingbirds were thought to be the only birds thought to be able to mimic human speech, though several mammals such as whales, dolphins, seals, bats and elephants can also imitate sounds. (Washington Post 22 September 2021)

My comment: Amazing how some people spend their adult lives. Imagine being a scientist whose only acclaimed triumph is to record a duck speaking to him.
Questions arise, for instance, was alcohol involved?

Tax everyone fairly!

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Not only do billionaires pay lower tax rates than working Americans, they also get to pick and choose when to pay taxes at all. Because they only pay taxes when they sell assets, if they don’t sell their assets, they don’t pay any taxes. That’s how many billionaires ended up with so little annual earnings that many actually had income low enough to qualify for stimulus checks last year (remember, the cutoff was $75,000 a year of income).

So next time the mega-rich whine about how they’re being unfairly persecuted, remember that all we’re asking them to do is pay taxes just like everyone else. This country values a dollar made off a rich investor’s money more than a dollar made off your sweat. We’re not targeting billionaires, we’re saying we want them to play by the same rules as the rest of the country. They’ve just gotten so used to special treatment that an equal playing field looks unfair. (The Patriotic Millionaires, 11 Nov 2021)

My comment: One law for the rich, another for the poor. One of the things that Epicureans have complained about for as long as there has been written history. Others applaud them as they buy legislation that suits their interests. This is not just; it is not acceptable.

Far too few fraudulent votes to change 2020 election

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There were fewer than 475 potential cases of voter fraud in the six battleground states that former President Donald Trump disputed, far too few to change the results of the 2020 presidential election, The Associated Press reported Tuesday after a review of every flagged ballot. President Biden beat Trump in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin by a total of 311,257 votes. The allegedly fraudulent votes weren’t all for Biden, but most were spotted and never added to official vote counts. The AP also found that there was no collusion among the people who cast the fraudulent ballots.

Trump responded to the AP report by repeating his baseless claim that the election was stolen from him through voter fraud. [The Associated Press and The Week, 15 Dec 2021).

My comment: Epicurus loathed politics and wouldn’t discuss them. But there comes a time when you have to accept the truth and stand up for honesty and integrity in public life. The so-called “fraudulent” election. is a glorified vanity project, but it affects every American citizen and is extremely dangerous.

The Rhyme

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Poetry (when calming and evocative) is very Epicurean. All the more so, I maintain, when it is rhymed. Why is that? Is it personal preference?

Poets now despise the rhyme,
Or that’s the affectation.
But nonsense is as nonsense does
And what is worse
Than bad blank verse? –
Gibberish strung a word a line,
Conforming to the fashion?
The wish being father to the thought,
It’s promptly
Found
To
Be
Profound.

Rhymes outdated? That’s just rot!
Some can rhyme, and some can not.

It’s content, not the form, that counts,
And mastery of meaning.
A certain discipline of mind
Is requisite when using rhyme.
So don’t reject the tools at hand,
Misused as they may be.
The means can justify the end.
My point is
Penned.
Enough!
The End!

(Robert Hanrott, sometime in the last half century)

Opus Dei

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Opus Dei is an (extreme) organization within the Catholic Church, dedicated to “seeking holiness” in every aspect of the lives of its adherents, especially at work. Its members are supposed to follow a daily two hour ritual of wearing a spiked metal chain on their thighs. This is intended to remind them of the suffering of Jesus. They believe that this life is a vale of tears, that homosexuals are so by choice, that family planning is the work of the devil, and along with it abortion. They reject the part of the constitution that separates church and State and believe that the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic church was caused by the relaxation of church dogma in the 1970s. There is no such thing as over-population; on the contrary: misery and poverty are nothing when you contemplate the angelic trumpets and the glory of the afterlife. Satan, says one prominent member of Opus Dei, has used the vices of pride, vanity and sensuality to corrupt universities, politics and Protestant churches. The Roman church is all that stands in the way of wholesale damnation.

My comment: I think he has a point.  Where can I buy an iron belt with spikes, anyone?

I think we are lost!

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Drivers drove their vehicles into protestors at least 139 times between late May 2020 and the end of September 2021, killing three people and injuring at least 100. A nationwide analysis indicates that only 75 of the ramming cases led to any charges, with only 4 drivers convicted of felonies. (The Boston Globe).

My comment: To drive recklessly and deliberately at pedestrians raises hatred and inhumanity to levels more appropriate for the Nazi regime than for USA 2021. And not to charge the perpetrators?! I don’t have the detail, but suspect that the demonstrators may have been black. But race and color are not the main point – it is humanity, respect and decency that does, and these civilized aspects of human beings appear to be sidelined and subsumed by political hatred and cruelty.

Epicurus would utterly condemn such attitudes and gladly incarcerate the perpetrators,sine die.

Discrimination under the guise of religion

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The Trump administration created a regulation that vastly expanded religious exemptions for taxpayer-funded contractors in two ways: (1) it expanded the type of organization that can claim a religious exemption to even include for-profit businesses, and (2) it expanded who can be discriminated against in hiring.

What this means is that a much larger swath of federal contractors—which employ more than 20% of the American workforce—can now claim religious exemptions to discriminate even more egregiously in who they employ. The policy is particularly damaging to LGBTQ people, women, religious minorities, and humanists.

The harm is real. It means a taxpayer-funded refugee resettlement program can fire an unmarried woman after she becomes pregnant. It means a building contractor can refuse to hire a transgender man because of the discriminatory religious beliefs of the company’s owner. The bottom line: it distorts the concept of religious freedom to allow someone to weaponize their beliefs against workers.

The Biden administration has proposed a rule that would rescind this carte-blanche to discriminate. The new proposed rule would return the government’s policy to the narrow and discrete religious exemption in place before Trump, and restore the equity, fairness, and, of course, religious freedom that previously existed. (American Humanist Society)

My comment: The religious beliefs and sexual orientation of employees have absolutely nothing to do with employers, unless they affect the smooth running and profitability of the company. This pandering to the views of religious extremists is no doubt a vote-winner among some evangelicals (not all!) but is perverse and cruel.

In my old company we had unmarried women pregnant, homosexuals, etc, a cross-section of humanity; and they were all treated – with humanity. Epicurus is famous for thinking, and acting, likewise. It is called understanding and civilized behavior.

We are anxious about it, too!

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More than half (57%) of child psychiatrists in England are seeing children and young people distressed by the climate emergency, as experts warn that eco-anxiety is growing among under-25s. Although not yet considered a diagnosable condition,levels of “chronic fear of environmental doom” are likely to be underestimated, while international research has found anxiety is “profoundly affecting huge numbers of young people around the world”. (The Guardian 7 Oct 2021)

My comment: I find myself (disgracefully), watching the mayhem caused in six states by yesterdays destructive tornados thanking heaven that I am the age I am. I will not see the finale of global warming and the upheaval it will bring. But the fact is that I, my friends and family, have done our bit to contribute to it, as my grandchildren would tell me were they not nice, polite people. I tried to put solar panels on the roof, but a nearby tree interfered with the light, and would have been wholly ineffective.

Our next car will be electric. I try not to use the current one unless I have to. No, it doesn’t amount to much, does it?

Expect more of the same!

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Tropical storm Wanda was the 21st named storm in the Atlantic season in 2021. All the names on the official storm list were used this year, making it the Atlantic’s third most active year for tropical storms and hurricanes on record. (Bloomberg.com)

Comment: Expect more of the same. Every year. (it must be a hard slog to keep up the lie that climate change is a hoax, but there are devotees who cannot be persuaded otherwise.

Laughter

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“A man without mirth is like a wagon without springs, in which one is caused to jolt disagreeably by every pebble over which it runs.”. Henry Ward Beecher, clergyman and abolitionist. (quoted in the Montreal Gazette)

My comment: Hard as it surely is to keep a sense of humor in these rather grim and hate-filled times, it becomes ever more important to keep a sense of humor and be able to laugh, even as you witness the renewed rise of a fascist and ill-informed spirit.

I don’t recall any account of the humor of Epicurus – his teachings have been recorded in a bit of a dour manner. But the best way of getting over a set of ideas is to get an audience to chuckle with you as you speak. Laughter is endearing, and I bet Epicurus knew it, even if the scribes and witnesses failed to record it on parchment.

A definition of happiness

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“Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city”. (George Burns, quoted in Goodreads.com)

My comment: Witty this is, but Epicurus would have demurred. He coveted his friendships and liked nothing better than to invite friends and acquaintances round for a simple meal and an intelligent discussion (free of party politics).

Cut the military budget!

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$25 billion.

That’s the cost — as Public Citizen has calculated — of producing enough coronavirus vaccine to end the pandemic *worldwide*. And with the emerging Omicron variant, ending the pandemic remains humanity’s most immediate need.

As it happens, $25 billion is also how much Congress could allocate for the military next year over and above, the $753 billion the Biden administration asked for. (By the way, the U.S. spends more on its military than the next 11 countries combined — including China and Russia. And we’ve ended our incredibly expensive military operations in Afghanistan.)

A strong case can be made that our nation’s military spending should be slashed by tens or even hundreds of billions. Surely the Pentagon can get by without an extra $25 billion the White House didn’t even want!

Senator Bernie Sanders has proposed an amendment to the bill setting the military budget for next year that would at least claw back that not-even-requested $25 billion. (Public Citizen 4 Dec 2021)

My comment: All we are doing is keeping the arms manufacturers
profitable- on our dime. One of the principal reasons for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire was the cost of the army. And are we really going to war with Russia over it’s threatened invasion? (No! I hope) or the hostile stance of China (No! I hope).