Charter Schools: Discriminatory, Racist, Greedy, Corrupt, Thieving, Selfish, and Unneccessary.

P***ed off yet, Gentle Reader? Wait a few, we’ve not yet begun to cite. Charter Schools, each and every one of them, are exemplars of one or more of these despicable human traits. And anyone who supports them, runs them, or sends their kids to them, is likewise possessed of such revolting Teapublican faults. Proof? Here ya go:

Discriminatory? Proven. The GAO nailed charters to a tree in their 2012 report:

Racist? Proven. North Carolina is one example of many showing how racists are using charters to re-segregate:

The charts also show how racial makeups have shifted over time. By 2014, a fifth of charter schools were overwhelmingly — more than 90 percent — white. In 1998, less than 10 percent of charters were that way.

Corrupt and thieving? Yep, Proven. Thieves and con artists have flocked to charters, because they are barely regulated and rarely accountable:

No sector — not local governments, school districts, court systems, public universities or hospitals — misspends tax dollars like charter schools in Ohio.

A Beacon Journal review of 4,263 audits released last year by State Auditor Dave Yost’s office indicates charter schools misspend public money nearly four times more often than any other type of taxpayer-funded agency.

Selfish? You guessed ‘er, Chester, Proven. Charters take resources away from public schools, leading to public schools doing even more with even less, while the charters waste more money and do very little for students. Those who use them are screwing their communities, selfishly

Charters are a scam, engineered by greedy Teabaggers, mountebanks, and charlatans. The reason so many public schools suck is simple: not enough people want to pay for them. You CAN’T get more than what you pay for. But lots of Americans have bought into the idiotic Post-Reagan Voodoo Economics notion that says “Money magically appears if you take it away”. So when they cut school funding and public schools got crappier as a result, they said “let’s take MORE money away and give it to these unaccountable, unqualified, crooked scumbuckets”. And the underfunded public schools got crappier still, and the cycle repeats itself ad infinitum. A self-fulfilling prophecy, created by con artists for their own malevolent purposes.

Want better schools? Pay for them. Hold EVERYONE INVOLVED accountable. Hold OURSELVES accountable. Hold POLITICIANS accountable. EVERYBODY needs to step up, not just the teachers who barely make a decent hourly wage, working in crumbling schools with no supplies; or the students trying to learn in the same underfunded environments.

And yes, hold the profiteering motherf***ers (public and private) who run charters accountable, too.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

PS: We haven’t even talked about the illegality of using taxpayer funds to fund religious schools. That in itself is illegal, but it happens all over the nation.

Mike DeWine – A Strong Argument for the Separation of Church and State

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has well and truly f***ed up: he wrote a letter to the Feds asking that employers not have to pay for birth control coverage if they have a religious objection to contraception. This “religious freedom” red herring is a load of hooey, as we have written before.

General DeWine has been a pretty fair AG thus far: he has done good work on prosecuting human trafficking, pill mills, sexual assault, fraud, and other important law enforcement tasks. But he is clearly out of his depth here.

The current “religious freedom” campaign is not about the freedom of we the people to worship (or not) as we see fit. Rather, it is about employers being able to:
Number A, weasel out of paying for employee health care by using specious religious claims, or
Letter 2, cram their own religion down the throats of their employees, or
Third option, both of the above.

General DeWine was a total right-wing tool in his previous government gigs, and we can see by this recent action that he has not changed one bit since. This is a clear example of why we have (and need to have) separation of Church and State; a concept so important to the Founders that it is set out near the beginning of the Constitution.

When greedy religious fanatics try to manipulate our system for their own benefit, we need to put a stop to it at the outset. It matters not if DeWine is a manipulator or being manipulated; what matters is that we take these attempts to insert religion into our government and squash them flat. And that soon.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

A Week of Harsh Truths, Day Four: The United States is Not a “Christian Nation”, and Never Has Been

The United States of America is a secular nation, founded by (mostly) Christian men. They knew the dangers of a Theocracy, and so ruled one out in the first part of the First Amendment to our Constitution. It’s known as the Establishment Clause, and it goes like this:
“Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”.

Pretty unambiguous, you’d say, and you’d be correct. But lots of corrupt, hateful, greedy, power-mad motherf***ers want to ignore that very clear part of our law and make their own personal church the official church of America. And God help you if you don’t go along, because the Churchies certainly won’t.

People, the law means what it says. If you don’t like the Constitution, feel free to try and amend it. But until then, just obey the friggin’ law. Please?

Mr. B & C

Two Strong Arguments for the Separation of Church and State:

This picture taken at the Marengo Christian Church in North Wherethehell, Ohio:

This church has a shooting range out back, which is crazy enough right there: also, it freaks out the neighbors and has raised their homeowner’s insurance premiums (and lowered their property values into the bargain). But that’s all OK by the Marengo Churchies, because evidently Jesus wants us all to pack hidden heat so as to blow each other away. Mr. Blunt and Cranky has read a good deal of Bible, and cannot find any verse in which He said that.

Do you really want to have a government run by a load of homicidal, fundagelical loons?  Because this Christian Patriot Militia would dearly love to run your life. If that doesn’t scare you, you’re pretty much in a coma.

This picture taken at the Bible Baptist Church in West Wherethehell, Ohio:

Evidently, they don’t read enough of the Bible they named their church after: anyone who has knows that God has not governed in person since Adam and Eve got evicted from Eden. Every ruler since who claims to be ruling according to God’s will (like Jim Jones, Pope Innocent III, Khomeini and so on) is just another schmuck like the rest of us. So there really isn’t any way to have God rule us here on earth (which, by the way, Jesus Himself said).

These people really need to have their legal wings clipped, and kept from imposing their Sharia-On-Steroids laws on the rest of us.

Mr. B & C

Mitt Romney Sleazily Uses His Church to Avoid Paying Taxes

Yes, that’s right: one of Willard’s fave tax dodges has milked the Mormon Church’s coffers while paying Romney dividends AND cutting his own taxes (for 15 years):

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-29/romney-avoids-taxes-via-loophole-cutting-mormon-donations.html

Even for a sleazebucket like Mitt, this is truly epic sleazebucketry: stealing money  from  one’s own church AND the rest of us taxpayers. Oh, sure, he might maybe make it up later somehow someday someway.  And it was legal when he first set it up (this type of dodge was made illegal a few months later).

But any way you look at it, this is the behavior of a monetary sociopath.If he’ll steal from God, imagine what he’ll do to YOU.

Mr. B & C

P.S.: You’ll have noticed the snarky, rude phraseology in today’s post. Mr. Blunt and Cranky is returning to his normal programming mode after realizing that he just has no game when it comes being something other than, well, blunt and cranky.

Religious Freedom For Your Church/Boss. Not For You.

Prologue: Not all churches are covered by this post – only the authoritarian ones. Not all businesses, either (this writer’s employer is blessedly rational on this topic, for instance), nor government entities.  So if your organization does not fit the bill, please refrain from getting your hackles up and screeching on the comments section. If it DOES; well then, you are either screwing others or being screwed by others, and so deserve whatever you read below. All clear now on respecting the sensible organizations? Yay.

As discussed previously, there is no government war on religion, regardless of the bushwah that has been dumped into the zeitgeist by the punditocracy and the advertisers they serve (faux “Wars” make for good ratings and that makes money).  Nor does the money that has been invested in creating this false notion make it any more true. A big, well-polished and expensively-promoted turd remains a turd.

Here’s the deal: After removing the money factor, the so-called “War On Religion” is nothing more or less than another tool to help institutions to take away freedom from individuals.  These institutions can be church, state, or businesses, but they all have the same goal of control. Anyone who has been thus affected by a large organization’s attempt to do such is likely nodding their head; anyone who hasn’t is likely scratching their head; and anyone who is trying to make this happen is likely having their head turn purple upon reading this thesis statement.

What allegedly caused the most recent blowup? A requirement that employers pay a few pennies for birth control for their employees who want and need such medical care. So, two things happened: first, there was money involved, and the churches didn’t want to pay it – times are tough and all that, ya know. Second, the more authoritarian churches saw a threat to their control over their flocks, and immediately fought back.

We can tell who is who by their reactions to the resolution of the money problem: most churches shrugged and moved on, problem solved. The Catholic Church, as well as some other authoritarian church, state and commercial groups continued to squawk.  This betrays an agenda that is far more of a threat to our nation than an argument over the price and availability of hormone tablets.

The agenda is to change who controls the lives of the American people:  from themselves to their institutions. Most Americans like to think we are in charge of our lives, but there are many institutions that don’t like that idea at all. Not that this is a new phenomenon: the Islamic Jihads raped, pillaged and murdered many infidels, as did the Crusaders in their time; the Inquisition did likewise to Jews and Protestants; so too did the Marxist/Leninist regimes of the last century.  “Kiss the cross or kiss the sword”, as one tyrant put it. Be controlled or be killed. That is how these types of slimeballs used to assume and maintain control.

In modern times, authoritarian regimes have gotten a bit smarter if no less venal – they would rather keep the sheep alive longer so as to fleece them more often, instead of killing them.  However, this only works for sheep, and not everyone in America aspires to that status.  If people think for themselves, institutions lose control: if people do what they are told, institutions gain control. Not hard to guess which scenario the control-freaks prefer, so they do their best to encourage sheeply behavior.

For sheer power over the behavior of humans, religion is one with few rivals (mind, it is not all bad – lots of good is done by those with a spiritual bent): it has proven itself a potent force in controlling the thoughts and actions of human beings for millennia.  In this case:  these churches are attempting to control health care decisions that previously belonged to individual American women (“this church does  not believe in birth control, therefore we  will make it difficult/impossible for you to get birth control”. “Oh, and to Hell with your charming little notions of individual religious freedom, by the way”).

Of course, these churches like to pretend they are “victims of Obama’s War on Religion”. Bull-F***ing-S***. Churches can do almost anything they want, as can their followers, and the more realistic among them know this full well: but playing this card helps them to gull the gullible and confound the sensible. Authoritarian churches pretend to be powerless while accreting power. It is a scummy, dishonest and revolting, but regrettably effective and time-honored tactic.

Never mind the Constitution, the laws, or even the words of their own Holy Books; these power-hungry churls are following the path of Paul by setting up their Church as a political and economic force that can dictate terms to civil authorities. Nothing new: it has been done in Constantinople, Rome, France, England, Iran and many other principalities. Now they want to do it to America. It is our responsibility as citizens to not be controlled by such authoritarians: if we roll over and take it like stupid little baa-ing sheep at shearing time, we deserve whatever screwing we get.

Mr. B & C

Tomorrow, the debut of a new feature – The Lying Sack of S*** of The Week

War on Religion? Bull****. (Continued)

There is a lot of hooting and hollering about a “war on religion” in the United States: evidently, our KenyanMuslimChristianSocialistAtheistSatanicCommunistFascistBlackWhiteMaoistGodonlyknowswhatelse butwewillcallhimthateventuallyjustyouwaitandsee Prexy has unleashed all of the demonic forces at his command to take away our freedoms, which he hates us for. At least, that’s what one hears from multiple “news” sources, and in speeches from our “representatives”.

Please, can we all just pay a brief visit to Planet Reality? A few facts to keep in mind:

Number A: The President has doodly-squat  in the way of power over religion. Congress has not much more, the Courts slightly more than Congress: simply put, the three branches of government have very little influence over things churchish. The IRS has more power to regulate religion (via application of tax breaks) than any other public entity, but it usually doesn’t exercise it.

Letter 2: Most Americans are religious, and we can pray, proselytize, tithe, and go to church unmolested: Christians, Moslems, Jews, Wiccans, Unitarians, Mormons, Buddhists, etc. Anybody here been prevented from doing so?

Thirdly: Churches get lots of slack cut for them, in terms of speech, taxes, special services provided by government, and so on. This blogger once saw a  Mike Huckabee political rally at a Babtist church: that sort of thing is forbidden under the tax code, but no one enforced that law, as is usually the case.

Religion permeates virtually every layer and aspect of American society, and anyone dumb enough to try to declare war on it would soon wish they were fighting something easier, like a platoon of rabid Hydras. Might be amusing to watch, but it hasn’t happened, isn’t happening, isn’t gonna happen, and it would fail if it were tried. Calm down.

Mr. B & C

Next Time: So, if there is no war on religion, what is all the fuss about?

War On Religion? Bull****.

In recent months, a long-standing and uncontroversial policy that was enforced by previous administrations without complaint suddenly became The Biggest Threat To Religious Freedom Ever Ever EVER, Such A Huge Huge HUGE Threat, Oh Yes It IS, Oh My Goodness Gracious:

A policy saying that people must be treated equally when it comes to their health insurance benefits.

Wow. Golly Gee Shucks. Jeepers. Yep, sounds pretty much like Satan’s frontal assault on all things churchy…right?

Of course not.  The Bushies enforced this policy for the better part of 8 years and none of these religious organizations raised an eyebrow. So, what changed? Only one teeny tiny little thing: Money.

A change in cost allocations associated with prescription birth control medications was proposed, and THAT is when the churches started screaming. Yes, only when it looked like it might hit the churches in their tender pocketbooks did it turn into a problem. Note this well – the coverage requirement itself was never an issue. Look back to beginning of the century, and you’ll find almost nothing about it in the news or from the pulpit.

Also please note that as soon as the Administration agreed to shift most of the cost responsibility away from the churches, most churches shut up about it. They got what they wanted.  This was never about religion. It was all about the cash.

Brings to mind a little story about a rabbi who caused a kerfuffle in a temple back in the day;  He read the riot act to the money changers who were working therein, after which He proceeded to boot them out of the temple.  Sounds to this writer like the money changers have moved back in – indeed, it sounds as if they are running the joint. 

But this time, the money changers have brought some really slick P.R. types with them, to help keep those pesky rabbis away.

Mr. B & C