Musings from Southern New Mexico

Author: marc (Page 1 of 59)

I am a scientist interested in laser safety, modeling and simulation, and statistics.

I speak some Spanish, German, and Chinese.

Review: Heathen, Religion and Race in American History

Ms. Lum presents a long and detailed history of the codification of non-Christians as lesser beings or “heathens” through much or most of the modern period. The author presents historical and political events from an Asian vantage, but does not overlook the effects to African and Latin American counties and peoples.

A sizable fraction of the 368 pages were presented in an academic manner. I suppose this stands to reason as the author is an associate professor at Stanford University and the publisher is the Harvard University Press. If I didn’t have such a backlog on books, I would go back over this one with a highlighter to identify organizations and events with which I was unfamiliar (and there were many).

It is apparent that Ms. Lum’s motivation for this book was that the most absurd, outrageous, and overtly racist “policies” (more often, stunts) of the Trump Administration. For highly educated people, the absurdity of many genuinely stupid ideas was baffling. The confusion was exacerbated by the support such ideas had among Evangelical Christians. This book argues that many of the ridiculous ideas increasingly proffered by the American right have roots in religious nativism (my designation, not hers) going back several generations.

I found this book enlightening. And infuriating. This book will certainly explain how so many intrinsically harmful and hateful policies and proposals have come into being. But it may raise your blood pressure to dangerous levels.

Alleged Child Molester Matt Gaetz and Underaged Sex Parties

Dirty old men do what dirty old men do. It was not too long ago that a middle-aged man attending a party with minors (and including some naughtiness) was considered a bad thing.

Like his fellow suspected child molester Donald Trump, Matt Gaetz has always assumed that his status as a rich white Anglo-Saxon protestant male will preclude him having to face justice. He is probably right.

Whether either of the aforementioned individuals (among the numerous repulsive freaks on the Republican side of numerous ballots this go-around) has actually succeeded in their various well-documented attempts at statutory rape, they have each clearly earned the moniker of “dirty old man.”

Every individual who votes for Donald Trump (or the various shitbags who have self identified as his hangers-on) is objectively pro-pedophile.

We Live in Unusual Times

I have always been a bit too optimistic for my own good. In recent years, however, I find that an increasingly difficult part to play. Despite their efforts having failed once in the last two attempts (though he gained well over a million fewer votes than his opponent in each of those), it is apparent that the prostituted media are determined to return a grotesquely unqualified elderly pervert (back in the ’70s and ’80s, a person like Donald Trump was referred to as a “dirty old man”) back into the White House. As the preponderance of the world’s wealth is in the hands of those who actively promote transactional “politicians” (I put that in quotes, as many shitbags will at least do us the courtesy of gaining a minimal competence at lawmaking – people like Paul Ryan, Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, or Elise Stefanik – whereas a pathetic idiot like Trump couldn’t even be bothered to read a brochure on the job throughout a four year tenure) who will do the requisite bidding to increase their fraction of the total increase, I finding it a nearly insuperable struggle to believe that there is even the most forlorn hope for democracy.

When people look to the aggressively ignorant (such as Joe Rogan) to find foundational knowledge and look to the imbecilic (such as Donald Trump) for leadership and wisdom, we cannot expect anything better a future than that embodied in the regimes of Stalin or Hitler.

Nothing Much.

I always have a ton of ideas for writing. Always, that is, except once I am sitting at the keyboard. If I were somewhat smarter, I might consider writing ideas down as I come up with them. But I am dumb and probably incapable of learning. So I sit once again at the keyboard bereft of ideas. I have a thousand that sit just below the surface.

End of a Short Month

As we approach the end of the leap month, the second of the election year, we can say that the trend of the media continues. Free advertising for each unhinged loon, and a detailed critique of each legitimate candidate.

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