27 Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, to destroy people, and to get dishonest gain.28 Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord had not spoken. 29 The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy; and they wrongfully oppress the stranger.
There is nothing to say about passion that hasn’t been said before, except this, it festers under the skin, like a wound that never quite heals. We search for that salve we can rub across the wound and for a brief moment, it works, then we realize the salve was full of grit and all we have done is taken the top layer off and opened it up to the air.
Damn that hurt, again.
I have become cynical. I weep at the history, I weep in pain some days as well. But I have become cynical. As I look down the barrel of another surgical intervention, I have become furious at the lack of compassion and empathy this nation has for the weak, the aged, the young, the disenfranchised, those different from ourselves. We celebrate the ignorant among us, whether this celebration is through their election to high office or their constant media attention, it is nonetheless a celebration. Meanwhile, we ignore sometimes even vilify those who do good works, those who deserve our attention through their contributions to society, our communities and our lives.
I weep when I consider the consequences of our apathy. I am appalled when I realized we are more concerned with the size of Kim Kardashian’s ass than we are with just how diminished the office of the President is by the disrespect shown to 
this President by every member of the GOP in elected office today. Really people, is this what we have become? I am disgusted that every single Sunday I hear the same tired conspiracy nut jobs (IRS, Benghazi, Sharia Law and Muslims, Guns Guns and More Guns, oh and let’s not forget there is no Global Warming and Make War not Peace).
I shudder when I listen to the first off the Clown Bus to enter the fray officially tell me to ‘Imagine’ a world he envisions, one based on Christians values and morals. I cannot begin to imagine a world where all bets are off and corporations and people in his tax bracket will have all the rights and breaks while the rest of us suffer the consequences of his worldview. This though is the world of no empathy and no compassion Mr. Cruz wants us to imagine.
Of course, Phil Robertson falls right in line with Ted and his ideas. At a prayer meeting yesterday this is what Phil, the patriarch of the Duck Dynasty family had to say about those who didn’t profess a Christian view. This is what we would have to look forward to if Ted became president of the United States of America.
The worst part is, some of this is already happening across this land. Laws to strip those who are not Christian, White, Heterosexual are already being passed. Laws to enable businesses to discriminate against others based on their ‘Christian’ beliefs are passing state legislatures across the land. These new discrimination laws are enabled by people like Ted Cruz and encouraged by the fact that Phil Robertson and his network still exist on without any of us saying no, you are not allowed to say these things and stand on the First Amendment as your protection. You are not allowed to pretend it is just a joke ‘fantasy’ to threaten rape of young girls, decapitation of women, neutering of men simply because they are not of the same faith as you. What the hell is wrong with people they think this is ‘okay’.
Which leads me to the next problem, as a victim of violence I look at this nation and think to myself always when will it end? When is enough ever going to be enough, when will we say as a nation, not another child, another man, another woman will lie in our streets. When will we say not another parent will bury their child, not another child will pick up a gun in play and end up killing their sibling. When will we say enough? When will we say the police are not sanctioned to murder our citizens? When will we say enough? Surely, there comes a point in time when the lives of our citizens are of greater value than the profits of the corporations manufacturing the guns that are killing us. Certainly, at some point enough of us will stop and think, the laws in place today are not protecting anyone but those who are profiting most by our deaths, by the deaths of our children.
Then I saw this and I was brought to my knees. I realized it was us, Elyse over at Fifty Four and a Half simply put it out there and I found it stunningly simple and in your face.
Which leads me here to this, another great example the debate, of what is wrong with us as a nation and a people,. Is this ‘Free Speech’, the First Amendment at its finest? Or is it something worse, something so deeply disturbed I cannot even find the words. You tell me, with no lead in other than to say I had to watch it twice before finally realizing it is parody but also defines the the terrible ease with which anyone could do exactly what this video lays out, step by step.
Well that is my rant for the day my friends. Passion, if we don’t get it and soon we lose everything we stand for as a people, everything we once stood for as a nation. We have been slowly eroded; we have stripped down bare and shown the very worst of ourselves for the past six years. We have shown our dark and ugly side and those of us who should have stood up and spoken up, we did little and said little. We should be ashamed for allowing it to go so far. For those of us with the means to do something, we should be ashamed for not doing enough, for staying home when we should have been in the streets even where we might not have been fully embraced. It is time, it is past time that we push the boundaries and demand the change we need to make this a nation worth living in and fighting for, not just for some people but all people. We cannot afford to do otherwise.
Want to tell A & E what you think about Phil Robertson and Duck Dynasty: aefeedback@aenetworks.com
QBG_Tilted Tiara 
The more our eyes open Val.. the more we see how blind everyone else is.. … Great Rant…
I have been ranting lately, haven’t I.
❤
No more than usual LOL… 🙂 😉
We need more to rant Val… with a level head … that injects some sanity into this chaotic madness we have ruling our nations..
It keeps getting worse and worse. How long before that poison flow beneath out door. Already we are in trouble here too. Secret meetings and secret agendas. New laws dropped on the public at the last minute. The wrong people being given power for the wrong reasons and running with it. The human race as I knew it is eroding. Simple freedoms are disappearing. Even here.
Yes, it is everywhere this terrible erosion. So many of us feel so helpless in the face of it all
I find so much of what is said in the media, and especially on the internet, deeply disturbing. But even scarier to me is this: “without any of us saying no, you are not allowed to say these things and stand on the First Amendment as your protection.”
Remember, Val, that only 60 years ago, that same argument would have been used to shut YOU up? Because what you believe now is mainstream, but would have been heresy to the mainstream back then.
I think we need to debate, argue, say what we think with passion and often anger, but never, ever try to shut one another up with the brute hammer of law.
If anyone believes the fantasy of rape and murder should be protected by the law simply because the victims of that sick fantasy are not Christian, well I think we are are all headed to someplace I don’t want to be a part of.
Yes, we need debate. Yes, we need to talk about our differences. But that, that sick and twisted fantasy of raping little girls, decapitating women, emasculating men simply because they are not Christian no, this is hate speech of the very worst kind and it should not be accepted or protected.
I love the fact that when Ted Cruz made his announcement at that school, the students were forced to be there and many appeared restless and bored. I saw at least two who even walked out! Don’t worry, he won’t last, though I kind of wish he would. It would make for a highly entertaining race!
I think of him and cringe. My issue isn’t that he would gain the nomination, it is that he pulls the party right and with this he creates this acceptance of all the terrible, like Phil Robertson. It is a horror story.
Let’s use our passion to fuel change rather than be caught up in Kardashian nonsense. Hear, hear!
I find Christy, we are all of us stumbling through. It is easy to put blinders on sometimes. Easy to say, I am only one person and thus unable to do anything, so instead I will do nothing. But when we do this, we have allowed ourselves to be sucked into the abyss.
So many things to say about this post, Val. First, thanks for linking to me. I too thought it a powerful video.
But as I was drafting my email to A&E I realized that they don’t really care what I have to say. I think we need to write to the sponsors of the show and put our money where our hearts are — folks who preach this shit should not have a platform standing on my paper products or my frozen foods. Nope.
That being said, Phil Robertson is really no worse than a whole host of folks waiting to watch their non-saved friends, family and acquaintances be tortured, die and go to hell in the Rapture. Most of them, however, look more or less normal.
A&E may not care if you say it, but they might if millions do. Their sponsors might if millions care. See that is the problem Elyse, we start to speak up then we say, well they don’t care so why bother.
Actually I was going to see who their sponsors are and start a boycott. Seriously.
I think we maybe need to do both. Flood A&E and the sponsors.
I’m trying to gear myself up to actually turn that show on (just to record it for the commercials). I need a strong anti-emmetic (you probably know this but they are drugs that keep you from vomiting)
Keep in mind that wide-ranging thoughts and actions are part of the prices one pays for freedoms.
No, sometimes Frank the price is to high. This is not freedom and if this is freedom the price is far to high.
Therefore we shouldn’t have freedom?
Sometimes Frank, you cannot yell Fire in a crowded theater. Sometimes you cannot speak a fantasy of raping young girls, decapitating women and castrating men simply because they do not believe what you believe, and say this is fine and this is good.
This Frank, this is not freedom. This is something other than freedom. This is hate speech. This is pure ugly and this is inciting. If this is freedom and this is what we accept than this is a country not worth fighting for any more.
So then, why are you fighting?
Because I want better Frank, I believe it is worth better
I believe you do, but you are caught in a loop because you say you want better but also say its not worth fighting for.
No, I say if this is what is acceptable and this is what others are willing to defend than it is a nation unworthy of fighting for. I do not believe this is true. What I believe is most do not accept Phil Robertson and other lunatics have the ‘right’ to say these things, incite hate at this level. The problem is, no media ‘news’ agency covered this outrageous ugliness. Not a single one of them. Had a Muslim said these things about a Christian family as a fantasy it would have been everywhere, you and I both know it. But because a Christian said it about an Atheist, no news agency found it news worthy.
That Frank is what I find horrifying.
Wow! What a powerful video! Thanks for sharing it, Val.
On a side note, I tingle with excitement at the thought of Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign. Not that I want him to win, of course! But I’ll revel in the brutal self-deprecation that will slam into his ego, as he travels around the country trying to convince voters his extremist vision is the answer to our national woes. I almost feel sorry for him. He doesn’t see it coming.
There is a piece of me, like you, that looks forward to Mr. Cruz and his humiliation. The problem is of course he will have his followers and they will pant after him like dogs, boosting his ego. The other problem is, with him first out of the gate he will force the already to far right for comfort further to the right in the ignorant belief that is where the base lies.
I am gobsmacked by the degree of ignorance.