20161031 (apologetics)

Red is for seeing reality; blue is for blissful ignorance

She said, “I don’t believe in God.”

If you don’t know a person well

You can’t really tell what they

Mean when they say that. It could

Mean she has rejected the Sunday 

School God, the great Santa

Claus of heaven, who dispenses

Life’s joys and comforts. Many 

Have forsaken this God who 

Forsook them first: the God 

Who took the beloved parent;

The God of the infant born dead;

The God of the drunken driver

Who killed their kid in the street.

God’s failures began with toys

Not received, championships

Unwon, promotions missed,

To sickly, burdensome spouses,

Alcoholic children, to good men

Who died in war when cowards

Escaped. This God who sustains

My breathing has given me a 

Bad heart? This God plays 

Favorites who get all they need,

All they want, and fulfilled, 

Die quietly in their sleep. Do 

You need proof there is no

One guiding the stars in their 

Courses? Look from atop the

Parapets on the wicked who 

Prosper while His beloved sons

And daughters suffer disease

And death, pestilence, enemies

Slaughtering their sons, raping

Wives and daughters, sisters,

Laying waste proud monuments.

Great order in the exploding

Universe? A numbskull manager

Of a third rate coffee shop rules

More wisely. Whole nations have

Peopled themselves into poverty

Eating their seed grain before it 

Can die in the baked hardened

Earth. This is how He generously

Supplies His progeny? Somewhere

Along her path she consumed

The red pill and is convinced she

Knows all as things really are.

You keep taking the blue pills

Of willful pretense in a world of

Design and purpose, blissfully

Ignoring evidence to the contrary.

Her honesty stunned me. Always

Presuming myself an expert on

Human nature, I did not see this 

Coming. Just as there are many

Types of atheists and many types

Of believers, some likely doubt 

Their decided rejection just as 

Those who doubt their professed 

Belief. I have no arguments to

Dissuade atheists which they

Do not already know and

Find unconvincing. The 

Proofs of God are no aid here.

The proven Gods are devoid

Of content—who are known

Only as unknowable. At least

With Euclidean theorems we

Learned about triangles.

c. J.S.Manista, 2016

20161028 (just war)

White Helmets struggle to unearth victims from a Syrian government bombing of a schoolhouse where seven children were among the twenty two dead

The conflict in Syria is horrific

And nobody’s learning from it

It appears. While it seems so 

Obvious to the outside world

That the killing should cease

Immediately (or in the long

View, should never have 

Started), since there are so 

Many parties involved, at least

One always stands to gain

Something in their view from

Keeping the carnage going

Just another day longer. In

Addition, the something that

Is gained might not even be

Crucial to that particular

Scene—which is especially

True for the sponsoring

Nations, the US, Saudi Arabia,

Iran, and Russia. Lost in all

The fighting is the ultimate

Welfare of the Syrian people,

Treated on all sides now as 

Unfortunates on whom the 

Buildings collapse. Although

“Barrel bombs” indicate that

Human life itself is still a 

Target which cannot be allowed

To continue at least horribly

Afflicted. Since they are dropped

From helicopters we can surmise

The bombers have a fairly close

View on those whom they bomb

And know that whole groups

Will be killed without distinction

Of innocent young, disabled, or

Elderly. They will be punished

As a group, collectively for the

Sin of living in their own homes.

Such has been Bashar Al Assad’s

Way, as was his father’s. Arguments

Against killing the innocent have

As little sway with him as they 

Do against our own use of drones

And Hellfire missiles to surgically

Remove al Qaeda directors, Taliban

Warlords—surgically in the sense

Of severing heads, limbs from 

Bodies of both the intended and

Unintended—those young, elderly,

Women, or disabled who wrongly

Choose to associate with al Qaeda

Leadership (who may or may not 

Be properly identified). Assad you

May think a cruel warrior, to 

Barrel bomb his own people but

By comparison he is no more

Bloodthirsty than our own soldiers

Who push buttons in New York 

Or Las Vegas to wipe out wedding

Parties or funeral gatherings. It’s

Very like our thinking since 

World War II: If our bombs cannot

Be trusted to hit munitions factories,

Let them hit munitions workers,

Wives and children of munitions

Workers, milkmen and tailors to 

Munitions workers, hell, to the 

Whole damn batch of Japanese and

Germans whose economic or 

Social activity contributed to their

Making war. Punish them all and

Their friends. Fry those babies!

c. J.S.Manista, 2016

20161023 (empathy)

As to whether Dump would accept the results of the election, "I'll keep you in suspense."

When I requested an allowance 

My father told me, “Shine my

Shoes.” He put no store by teens

Getting financial aid by dint

Of age alone. Clothing, food, 

And a roof over my head for the

Projected eighteen years of  

Minority seemed burden

Enough. He quickly retold of 

His own youth that the family

Expected him as a sixteen year 

Old to get a full-time job. If

He wished to stay in the home

He’d have to turn his entire 

Wages over to his mom for

Meals and a bed to sleep in. 

I wasn’t going to be treated 

Like the spoiled rich who 

Dipped their hands in some 

Free flowing stream of bills 

And coins to scoop as much as

They wished. Our place in the 

System was to produce goods 

Or services and demand what

The market would bear. I never

Got an allowance but I was

Allowed to keep all I earned, to

Deposit it in a savings account.

Money for movies or social

Goings out had to be cribbed

From the savings stash. Still

I had to polish my father’s

Shoes which I openly resented

Because no allowance followed.

Sticking my left hand inside 

I felt the crude bumps from

The bones of his feet, the smell,

Which oddly were unnoticeable

When I polished my own. Other

Chores were expected too, not

Spelled out in a published list, 

Limited to these obligations

And no others. Sadly my verbal

Contract consisted mostly of “and

Other duties as assigned.” I

Presume most of us grew up 

Under similar conditions and

Easily identified the thrust 

Of Bob Dylan’s “You Gotta

Serve Somebody.” Maybe that’s

What was missing in Dump’s 

Upbringing to make him the 

Sociopath he is today. He didn’t

Have to polish his dad’s shoes,

Or his own. As for serving 

Somebody—fuggedabodit! 

Today neurologists report they

Can see the empathetic regions

Of the brain scintillate in FMRIs

Of normals while those of narcissists

Stay dark as doom. All is not lost, 

They caution: plasticity allows 

For retraining the brain. Perhaps

In Dump’s youth there was an 

Optimal time for his gyri to 

Respond to the feelings of others

But those lessons were forgone

Because of their wealth. He sailed

On, never troubling those waters. 

His behavior now is limited 

To those practices which

Earlier proved successful—

Whining, bullying, grabbing. 

If only his parents had asked

Him, “Donny, would you 

Want other people to treat 

You the way you just treated

That other little kid?” Then his

Gyri might have sparked to life

To help him become a real boy.

c. 2016, J.S.Manista