Up Bush's Butt; Meanwhile, Back at the Oval Office, President Cheney Cleaned His Gun.....RIP Tammy Faye Bakker....

I find myself today longing for a long ago time when these were our scandals....PTL, Jessica Hahn, TammyFaye's mascara stained eyes and the tears; all so over the top with the heated dog house and all that luxury: $250,000 missing, and the fall of a religious theme park that...well, the Wiki can fill in the blanks for you youngsters out there. How could we have known what was in store? Could we fathom the excess that was to come, or that a guy like Scooter Libby could commit traitorous acts at the command of the Vice president of our country and be boldly commuted out of jail, while those who have committed the same or much lesser acts sit in jail for years on end. Was it innocence that gripped the country in delight at the demise of the obnoxious TV preachers who promised a way to heaven, or at least a timeshare, couched in drama and heavy makeup, in return for a little cash from each of you out there? What would we have said if anyone mentioned that surely, one day soon, the Catholic Church would be found to be a bastion of pedophiles and those who would enable them...Priests!! Who could envision, in the face of that heated doghouse so shamefully sold at auction, the incredible excess of a multi-million dollar Greek God party that the Tyco CEO would throw in a house that had golden fixtures and shower curtains worth thousands of dollars (also sold shamefully at auction) bought with the ruined retirement funds of shareholders and built on the backs of the rare and diminishing working class in America? Does it seem like things have, um, escalated a bit?







Tammy Faye Bakker died today, which gave Larry King a reason to live, in the face of a slump in missing blondes in the tropics, and Paris Hilton laying low for at least a week or two... and launched a festival of remembrance that could only happen on a slow news weekend...or not...
And, you would think that people weren't roasting in a desert far away and dying bloody deaths for nothing...
But still, I liked Tammy Faye; not the PTL Tammy Faye, but the later Tammy Faye who lived through her own scandal to emerge a pretty cool Mama who helped the evangelical come closer to terms with differences in people. Still, what a horrendous scarecrow of a woman she had made herself throughout her life, and she died today, surely clasping that makeup bag, as if it was part of her very heart. I'm less able to dismiss the death of Tammy Faye as another superfluous non-news story that is used to distract us from the real story. Of course, it wont be reported, but there was a thing about Tammy Faye that pointed the way towards what has to be a new path in the evangelical community; one of understanding and a more realistic view of life and how we live it now as opposed to what the man on TV is promising us in the afterlife.










I recently rented One Punk Under God, which is the "reality" docu-show that Jay Bakker made not too long ago. I had missed it when it aired on cable, so I ordered it up from my handy dandy mail-order service, and found myself in NYC, on the edge of the Gay Pride parade, watching the whole series, one episode after another. The kid is clearly who he has become largely because of Tammy and her wacky acceptance of the world as she emerged from the closed world of the PTL.
And as a person of faith, (which I personally can't fully understand,) he set out, searching and struggling, through everything that he was ever taught, to find his own truth through his own ministry, run from bars, for everyone, even the "sinners." His ministry looks very different from the starched world that he came from, and he finds himself, a grown man, finally feeling at home with the outcasts and the left behind, who had long ago given up on any hope of acceptance in a community that offers spirituality. Not only did Jay agonize over the church's view on gay people, but he went out and met with the religious gay community, and came to the conclusion that the evangelical church that he had come from was ...um...wrong....which caused him to lose a big part of his income from speaking engagements, and alienated him from certain people, including the delicate balance that he had with his father.
But Tammy was all for her son, and at the very least understanding of his search and open to the differences that he was sorting out in his ministry. She was a free spirit who, even in her slightly disgusting and annoying persona, was uplifting in her braveness and strength. She couldn't breathe, and she could barely get around, but she plugged along....as if she was going to take the empty seat on the View and hold her own pretty well.
So, when the lead story on the local New York City news is something to the effect of "best known for her eyelashes and her wacky fashion," I bristle.
Look at what she did, and look at her kid...she was thebrains of any outfit that Jim Bakker built, and if he was screwing the church secretary, she was plugging along and digging herself out of the hole that he had so masterfully dug for himself....
Reducing Tammy Faye to a clown denies the very real work that she and Jay have both done bravely to try to take back religion from the real clowns who are ruining our country. And I don't mean just old BushCheney; I also include the sheep who are following the fundamentalist line that increasingly relies on the impossibility of magic, with blinders on, and denies the kindness, love, and charity that is supposedly the very foundation of every religion that I can think of.
And thats the rub.

What does Tammy Faye Bakker have to do with politics, life, the war, or the condition of society? Well, a huge part of what has gone into the foundation of the ideas espoused by this administration, and what is behind this war and the neocon agenda, are supported by the new fundamentalists, who are rapture-rough-and-ready to go. They have made a joke of people of faith in this country, and whatever the concept of God was that enabled people to try to strive for what was called perfection...or at least the betterment of society....but maybe was just some attempt at overcoming the animal instincts that seem too often to run us.
Its time to take back our country...and, though I am not a religious person, I encourage everyone to take a peek at Jay's DVD to get an idea of what the next generation of evangelists could be like (we could only hope.) Just like those long ago lost ideas of the study of morality, decision making, philosophy, and ethics, it does me some good to think that some insane fringe out there still struggles with the unanswerable questions of the ultimate rights and wrongs in this life. It seems like it should really be pretty damned simple, if you ask me.
RIP Tammy Faye...you were a gutsy old broad...and if there is a heaven, I hope they sell mascara there.















Today we lived through a dangerous couple of hours and we didn't even know it! While Bush was having his butt scoped more thoroughly than Joementum Lieberman could ever have dreamed of (and hey Joe, they found your keys up there!) polyps popping, snippers snipping, and no-such-luck in the big "C" Department but they sure took alot of samples, Old Cheney was president for a while....Filling his own shoes officially for once, while Georgie, king of the world, slept. How did it feel Dick? Was it heady? Was it grand? Did you hold the scepter the whole two hours or were you practicing pushing the button for part of it?
Lets begin impeachment now...OK? I'm tired of positioning and analyzing...lets just do whats right from the gut. If for nothing else, to let future generations know that we cared about this assault on everything that we are, and everything we ever hoped to be....not to mention the law of our land...our laws, our land!

Today is my grandfather's birthday...and yes, he is 97. Happy Birthday Grandpa, and as I said earlier, its pretty great that my kid gets to know the warm and giving guy that he is to him for so many years longer than anyone else we have known might know a great-grandfather...The patience with which he has watched performances, and gone through boxes of creations; the proud way that he displays Will's sculpture next to those of what might be considered to be actual artists of some reputation... and he values them every bit as much.




















It reminds me of how crazy he was about us when we were little, and how, water rushes under the bridge, years just disappear into the air, and no matter what has happened along the way, he has always covered his house with pictures of us and our kids, giving a glimpse through the crack in the tough guy facade, of his feelings beyond just his "responsibility". ...and Grandma (RIP to my real grandmother Mildred, who would have adored and doted on these great-grandkids,) told Mom more than once, that the one summer that we stayed up here in this very house for the whole summer was the one summer that Hi rushed home every night from the city, and his workaholic ways...and then we would then take him by the hand into the woods to show him all the special and wonderful things from the day, like where we had pooped au natural, and the various bugs and bones out there...weren't we only 3 and 4 that summer? ...and isn't Mildred smiling down now to see Will and I living here?...Hi made that possible, and he stood by his promise. Regardless of anything else along the way, I am really thankful that I got to this age and this level of understanding of things that might have been a mystery to me before..., and have the opportunity to know him in all his difficulty and complexity, even if its difficult sometimes. Next year, same bat time, same bat channel, grandpa....you get the Chinese lunch specials and I'll get the cake and candles.

Tomorrow is a NYC day for me and so I again, will miss Sam Seder's excellent Sunday show on Air America Radio. Tune in, stream it...or better, watch it live on the Sammy Cam, where you can instant message with Sam during the commercials. I am thrilled that he will be at the YearlyKos doing some reporting, but also absolutely disgusted that the Green brothers don't seem to have any plan to have an AAR presence there. This, even though Sam will be there and it would cost them little to have him reporting live and remote. What a crock...and what a loss to all of us in the liberal community who are striving to get ourselves out of this mess. Where are we supposed to turn for information and ...comfort now? Lionel?? Forget it...
Ring of Fire and Sam Seder are all thats left of what was great about AAR, and they both still shine brightly...the rest? Not so much! I wish I could stop feeling sad about that.