Where did we put that collective mind?

Shortly after our country became constitutional, Thomas Paine, the author of "Common Sense," the political pamphlet said to be responsible for convincing the common man to rebel against England, exercised his brand new first amendment rights and published another influential pamphlet. It was called "The Age of Reason" and dealt with what he considered to be the problems and excesses of the Christian church. He advocated Deism.

It would be interesting to see what Paine might entitle a pamphlet about today's American political and religious scene. I suspect he would have to change directions to come up with something relevant. Common Sense and Age of Reason have no place.

We have lost our collective minds.

You believe that somebody has taken God out of our public schools? What kind of God do you worship? One of those little statues with fake ruby eyes? A small simulated golden calf? Something that can be conveniently carried from place to place and stored on a shelf when a more prominent place would be uncomfortable?
God with a big G doesn't need defending. He cannot be removed from anyplace that He doesn't want to leave. Wouldn't be much of a God if that were true. He promised that He would always be with anyone who wanted Him around, and when two or more are gathered in His name, you can count Him in. He never asked us to fight for Him. He asked us to love and serve. Everyone. Quit worrying about whether God is at school. I wouldn't blame Him for leaving considering how small we have made Him with our ridiculous, self-serving distractions about Him being expelled as if He had been just another victim of zero tolerance . . . hmmmmm.

You're just concerned that the first amendment right to free exercise of religion is being eroded, right? What about the right of the Muslim, or Jew, or atheist whose child is in the class? Quick, hand me the irony-meter. The reading should be off the charts.

You want government out of your life? Maybe Hollywood could make a movie. . . call it "It's a Not so Wonderful Life." No roads. No clean water. No safe foods. No safe transportation. No child labor laws. No secure monetary or banking system. Quality medical care only if you can afford it. No medicaid. No social security. No military. No protection of your rights by the courts. No prosecution of criminals. No recourse for civil wrongs. No protection of minorities. No protection of exercise of religion and speech. No regulation of utilities. No guarantee of education for children. No organized and funded relief effort for major natural disasters. No regulation of electronic media, communication, or the internet. No restrictions on business.

You don't want government out of your life. You just don't want to have to pay for it.

You believe the deficit will be our downfall, but you insist on cutting taxes? Cut spending you say? Good idea, actually. Medicaid, Social Security, and military. That's where the cuts must come. Cut the pork, you say? Another good idea, except cutting all the pork would not make a dent in the deficit. Besides, you don't mean it. Oh, you mean cut my pork, not yours. But we can't cut enough to handle the deficit. We must reduce it with taxes. Enough to make you tolerate the deficits, is it?

President Obama and the Democrats are to blame for the situation we are in? Finally, you got one right. The economy did not collapse. Financial institutions did not fail. We are not in a depression. The abysmal economic free-fall that began in 2007 was halted and reversed within months. America's standing in the world has recovered. A discernible foreign policy has appeared. Government is acting like government; addressing the economic crisis, making progress on healthcare, financial reform, and justice for minorities.

But that's not what you mean. President Obama and the Democrats are to blame for the bad economy. Really? In the month or two before President Obama took office responsible economists were talking global economic doomsday. Offices with windows on Wall Street were only valuable as a means of potential escape.

Ezra Klein of the Washington Post recently quoted economist Ron Shapiro who dug into labor statistics. Starting in early 2007, the U. S. economy began losing jobs at an alarming rate. During the last two years of the Bush administration and the first six months of the Obama administration, before any of his policies could have taken effect, about 7.7 million jobs had been lost. But three months later,the job loss bottomed out in December, 2009, and job increases, however slow, have continued since. The Bush Administration was responsible for more than 7.7 million of the job losses before the turn around. The Obama administration was responsible for less than 250,000.

The sorry mess we had gotten ourselves into was not President Obama's fault. But this is his recovery, for better or for worse. I think he would be satisfied with that.

And one last thing before I turn in for the night. Good, intelligent people have sent me emails and facebook posts saying that President Obama is an illegal alien, a communist, a socialist, an atheist, a Muslim, a boob, an idiot, a Manchurian candidate, and a liar.

Why? You don't know the guy. He has done nothing that would support any of these assertions.

I guess its the Rage of Treason, or perhaps Common Dense.

A real paine.

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