"Prayer" Will Not Suffice

Unfortunately my uncle had taken ill and I went to visit him in the scenic eastern Wisconsin town of Menasha. This necessitated a much loathed drive literally across the heart of Wisconsin because the most direct route goes through the middle-of-freaking-nowhere. Towns such as "Curtiss" and "Seymour" and let's not forget the bustling metropolis of Wausau. Yes, you have your choice of

McDonald's
A&W
and
Subway

for the entire trip in terms of sustenance.

But even more limited is your choice of radio stations, for while there are many radio stations, they all fall into two distinct categories;

Country

or

Jesus stations.

I literally heard a song called "That's Not My Truck in Her Driveway."

Only to change the channel and hear a southern-accented man (of which there are none in Wisconsin) yelling, "Jeeeeeeezus, will saaaaaave yeeeeeeew!"

And there's only so many games you can play to entertain yourself. Games like "count the number of strip clubs" (4 of them - Shooters, Chubby's, The "Rear End, and Up North, NONE of which suggested anything less than metric tonnage on the stage), "Cows and Graveyards" (pick a side, north or south, one gets cows, the other gets graveyards, whichever side gets the most WINS!) and "Pull Over and Go to the Bathroom A Lot Even Though You Don't Have to Go But Really Just Need a Break from the Mundacity."

Regardless, I'd get intermittent reception of Rush Limbaugh or talk radio so I was able to make it, but I heard three things on the radio that made me think and thought this worthy of writing.

The first thing I heard was on the news, this nut job woman who essentially killed her child because when he daughter went into a coma instead of taking her to the hospital, had A PRAYER RING so that God might save her.

The second thing was the on-going saga of the nutjob "naturalistic" parents in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota who made a run for the border so that their son Brian may avoid chemo-therapy and enjoy death-inducing cancer.

But the third was the one that did it. It was a Jesus station I had temporarily tuned into and the radio show host, who was a pastor, was calling on his listeners to PRAY FOR THE COUNTRY SO THEY MIGHT OVERCOME THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION.

Now, it is no secret that I am pretty much anti-religion. I think religion is essentially just a hold-over of ancient forms of government, becoming obsoleted as science proves more and more of their beliefs incorrect, which essentially makes them just cults of brainwashing or "clubs" people join to make themselves feel better. But what particularly irks me is that this displays the "spectator sport" attitude of what I think infects most of the people on the right. They think "praying" is somehow going to help bring about the end of the wave of socialism sweeping the nation. It also makes it incredibly difficult for conservatism, capitalism, or libertarianism to mount a counter-offensive in that the religious right, with inane statements like this, is intertwined, particularly with the Republican party.

Now I know people on the right don't want to hear this, but right now, in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression and as the country IS leaving its historical, constitutionally founded past and RAPIDLY pursuing an anti-freedom, socialist agenda we have REALLY got to shed these irrelevant battles for/against social issues such as gay rights, abortion, etc., and focus on the one that is most pressing and most relevant and that is the economic issue.

The Republican party is delusioned with ancillary arguments and causes that are frankly irrelevant to the future of the nation. It needs to realize the immediate threat is economic. And, being the economist, I will argue that if economic freedom is THE MOST IMPORTANT freedom in that if it is lost, then all other social freedoms will be lost. It is the "key stone" freedom that ensures and guarantees all others (which is why if I am king I will make a constitutional amendment that the governments, state federal and local, cannot confiscate more than 25% GDP). Furthermore more, the Republican party has got to grow a pair and make a clear distinction between them and the democrats. Oh I know the country wants socialism, but look how well you've done for yourselves capitulating to their desires and leaving true republican standards becoming "socialists light." You lost everything. The best thing for the Republican party would be to instead of looking at the next election (which is short termism) start looking long term which means making a clear distinction between them and the socialists, which means standing on principle and STICKING TO IT REGARDLESS OF THE IDIOCY/PARTICULAR MOOD OF THE NATION, and the reason why they should do this is that when the country is suffering in the throes of socialism they will have a clear and distinctly different alternative. Not just "socialism light" which I'm sure will become the next fad in about 15 years or so, but it would more or less guarantee a "reign" of sorts that would last more than 4 years, not to mention complete control of the congress. Heck, to help expedite this, the Republican party could actually become more moralled than the Democrats. The Republican party could go so far as to make it a party by-law that no republican shall have more than three terms in any government office...

Of course I'm just dreaming, but that is certainly more feasible than anybody's prayer being answered to get Obama out of office.