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The Upside Down World ~ The Blog

Jul 26, 2020
6 min

Regarding the State of My Country

You kind of have to laugh to keep from crying. Sometimes my heart just breaks as I watch the lengths the powers of this world are willing to go to to protect a corrupt, destructive system from even the most reasonable, necessary changes. The pain and suffering they’re happy to inflict on everyone while acting like we don’t deserve any better. I have moments where want to be like some melodramatic woman with a cloth on my head crying out in a psalm: “my country, my country”. W

Dec 16, 2019
2 min

America’s Dark Night of the Soul

Everything is really dark right now. The forces of evil appear are fighting to maintain the upper hand and are clearly determined to drag us as far down the ugly path of cruelty and hatred as they can with willing support from people who ought to know better but are under the thrall of hate and so don’t care. People have revealed themselves and it is bizarre how rare genuinely good people seem to be. And yet, I do believe there’s a well of untapped goodness lurking under the

Feb 22, 2018
1 min

Who Are You Calling a Liar? Parkland Shooting Edition

If we smile or laugh, we’re lying because we should be grief stricken. If we cry hysterically, we’re acting because we’re over the top. If we stumble over our words, we’re having a hard time keeping our lies straight. If we speak eloquently, we’re lying because we’re too composed. If we throw ourselves into another dangerous situation, we’re lying because we should be seeking safety. If we hide away, we’re lying and can’t withstand people asking questions. If we don’t tell an

Sep 26, 2017
3 min

This Is Today’s Test

I really hate that we’re even having this conversation because it’s so damn stupid, but no one is disrespecting the flag. That’s just a bald faced lie. Kneeling is not a gesture of disrespect. It’s a prayerful, reverent position. If Kapernick had said he was kneeling as an act of patriotic fervor, no one except the Jehovah’s witnesses and the Mennonites would have objected. But he’s kneeling to protest a pattern of violence by the state against citizens, particularly black ci

Sep 5, 2017
2 min

Sadly, Being Nice Rarely Changes Things

While I’m usually pretty nice and well behaved here on my blog, it has happened a time or two in real life and on social media that I have been criticized for being too harsh, too dramatic and too provocative. The way I communicate has been called vulgar, bombastic, hateful, angry and divisive. More than one person has tried to plead with me (or shame me) to tone it down. Typically they claim that no one will listen to me because I’m alienating people. Clearly, I have not fou

Jan 24, 2017
2 min

Just How Out of Touch Are Trump and the Radical Right? Here’s the List

78% say Citizens United was a bad decision 63% would support raising the minimum wage to $15/hr 75% would support raising it to $12.50 82% support indexing the minimum wage to inflation 62% believe in debt free public college 46% believe public college should be free 79% support paid family and medical leave 58% support legalizing weed 63% oppose raising the age at which citizens can start collecting Social Security benefits 68% oppose privatizing Social Security 67% support

Jan 24, 2017
1 min

Social Justice, Prophetic Voice Memes

My brain won’t write today, so I made memes. I’m thinking of doing more of these pairing social justice issues with prophetic words of scripture, so if you have suggestions put them in the comments and I’ll see what I can come up with. If you’d like to share these (please), just right click on them and chose “save image as”. #scripture #socialjustice #prophetic #culture #memes #currentevents

Jan 23, 2017
2 min

Your Simple Act of Resistance For the Day 1/23

We’re in a bit of a quandary here with Trump. He is giving every appearance of being a despot in the making. It’s possible, he’s just an idiot savant who is going to be one of our worst presidents and we’ll recover. And maybe our institutions are strong enough to withstand any attempt by him to step too far outside the lines. But after the last year in particular, that seems like a foolish thing to put our hopes in. Institutions haven’t been doing so well for quite some time

Jan 23, 2017
4 min

What’s the Point of Protesting? #womensmarch

shudder and wretch inducing inauguration, the incredibly successful Women’s March on Saturday was balm for a lot of our souls. A reminder that Trump does not have the support of the American people. Which is all well and fine, but what good does protesting actually do? Especially when the aims of the protest are so nebulous and ill defined? Even if we have the numbers, the bad guys have the power. Does all this marching and protesting actually matter? Are we just yelling to

Jan 20, 2017
1 min

Your Simple Act of Resistance 1/20

Use this website to look up your lawmaker’s phone numbers and program them into your phone. You’re much more likely to actually call them if you don’t have to look it up. You’re going to be needing it. According to former legislative staffers, phone calls are the most effective way for constituents to be heard. They have to answer the phones. At least for now. Ready, set, go! Get those numbers programmed! #politics #protest #doit #resistance #politicaladvocacy #currentevents

Jan 19, 2017
2 min

Do You Think They’d Let Me Pet Their Unicorns If I Asked?

Many Trump supporters literally voted for a person who exists only in their head. I first realized that there was something strange going on with Trump and his supporters during the primaries when a seemingly normal man I’m connected to on Facebook shared a Trump ad saying, “this is amazing! Wow. If everyone saw this, Trump would win in a landslide. Finally, someone who gets it.” (Or something like that, I’m working from memory.) So I watched the ad. All it was was Trump maki

Jan 18, 2017
6 min

Going High When They Go Low Isn’t How You Win; You Gotta Fight to Win

There’s an interesting interview with cognitive linguist George Lakoff going around in which he discussed this problem. His thesis, essentially, is that it’s not so much policy differences that make Liberals so unappealing to conservatives. It’s that Liberals have erroneous ideas about how to win people over while Republicans have it down to an art form. He argues, and has been arguing for decades now, that Republicans are masters of messaging and framing while Democrats pref

Jan 16, 2017
1 min

Speaking of Special Snowflakes

#socialcommentary #funny #politics #history #meme #funnymeme #currentevents

Jan 16, 2017
5 min

Understanding the Radical Right

In any conflict, it’s important to keep up with what’s going on with the other side. But between social media and the extreme unpleasantness of dealing with the radical right, a lot of people are in a bubble where they aren’t hearing the conversations taking place among those who are on “the other side”. While I totally understand the impulse to cocoon and support it when necessary for peace of mind and mental health reasons, I do try to stay in contact with people who are on

Jan 14, 2017
2 min

Quick Tips for Evaluating a New Story

Since clearly a lot of people are struggling to differentiate between reliable news and bullshit, let’s talk about something called a primary source. You can think of a primary source as original documentation. So if I’m studying Abraham Lincoln’s relationship with Mary Todd, letters between them would be a primary source. A book written about their relationship which quotes those letters would be considered a secondary source. The further removed from the original documentat

Jan 14, 2017
4 min

Trump’s Responsibility to Avoid the Appearance of All Kinds of Evil

Years ago, I looked out the window and saw my 12-year-old chasing her 6-year-old sister and swinging a baseball bat at her while she rode away on her bike. I saw that they were both laughing which clued me in to the fact that they were playing, but obviously, it was a pretty alarming scene. So I called the 12-year-old over to tell her to stop and demand to know what the hell she thought she was doing. She came over and assured me that they were just playing and she was being