Tag Archives: punishment

American Homeless Being Treated As Criminals?

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Imagine yourself with a good job, a decent hourly wage and health benefits as a perk of your employment. (Like the good old days.)  The thought of becoming homeless never occurs to you. Being homeless is always something that happens to somebody else, correct?

Now add to the above, yearly paid vacation time and sick leave. You have the job and the benefits that the homeless can never dream of.


You have money in your checking account and your savings account and there is at least a month’s wages stuck away safely for emergencies. That is far more than any homeless person could ever have, right?

Your children’s college tuition is secured by their college fund. Do you know of any homeless people with a college fund?  No?  You are lucky! Darned lucky!

You live in a modest ranch-style home on Loopy Lane and your front yard is lush and well manicured.  The dog lives happily out back and there are two cars in your garage.

You know that you are firmly established in the American Middle Class and you feel good about Life, your home, your job, your two and a half kids, the dog and everything.  You have your piece of the American Dream and it seems like nothing can ever take that away from you. You feel you, your family nor your dog will ever have to worry about being homeless.

Then one day, you discover that your workplace, the very manufacturing plant where your Dad and your Grandfather worked their entire lives and raised their families, is being closed down and your job is going to be sent overseas because “The Company Has To Remain Competitive.” (The company wants to obtain the services of people willing to work for slave wages and no benefits.)


You can’t pay the mortgage and you deplete your savings trying to do so. Then it is necessary to dip into the kid’s college fund to make ends meet and soon that is gone as well. You can’t keep up the car payments so the cars get repossessed. You can’t make the mortgage payment so the house gets foreclosed. The wife tells you that she can’t live like this anymore and leaves you, taking the kids with her. Of course, you still have to help support the kids with what little you have in your pockets because there is nothing else left.


Soon, the bank puts that yellow ribbon around your home and later, you sit under a tree and watch the strangers who bought your place at a steal moving their furniture into the premises that you once were so proud of calling “Home.”


You?  Why… you are homeless now!


You went to all those “Agencies” that you once gave your “Fair Share” to– you know the ones… the ones which were supposed to help you out if you ever needed a hand– remember them? Of course, you filled out all their paperwork in an attempt to get some assistance and you were finally told, “We haven’t got anything for you.”


So, you are now living in a box and eating out of a tin can beneath the bridge at 114th Street and, occasionally, you spend the night in a public shelter for people like you and sometimes you get lucky and have a meal at a mission work downtown somewhere. Other than that, you have to depend on the kindness of strangers as you ask whether or not they might spare a dollar. You are homeless.  You are starting to be made to feel like a bum or something, right?


Things feel a lot different now than they did when you had it made, don’t they? Those policemen who once seemed to be your jolly good friends are now following you in a cruiser and telling you to “Move Along” if you happen to fall asleep in a park under a tree or something– the same park you once paid for with your taxes when you were working, before the Right Wing greed mongers destroyed your job and you became…homeless! (Can’t repeat it enough times.)


If you are like most homeless people, you soon learn that if you get caught asking strangers for a hand out, those “Friendly” Law Enforcement Officers might just get nasty with you, put the cuffs on you and treat you to a couple nights in some filthy jails somewhere for begging and panhandling.


What?  You tried to tell them that you were once an honest, hard working taxpayer who served seven years in a combat zone in some Conservative-generated war somewhere and that you have had a streak of bad luck and you need a break?  How well did they listen to you?  Did they mace you?  Did they whack you up against the side of the head with their night stick? Did they throw you on the ground and man-handle you? 


So now, the reality of your situation sets in, right?  You suddenly realize that you can’t just sleep in a public space somewhere regardless of the fact that there are no facilities for the homeless in the place where you find yourself.  You find out that if you do get caught “Napping” in public and you are homeless, you are going to either get the living crud beat out of you or you are going to jail.


You want to know what I am talking about here?


Ask anyone connected with the Occupy Wall Street Movements.  I am sure they will be glad to detail their experiences for you.


You know what is so strange about the way America is beginning to treat Her homeless people?  The strange thing about it all is that the very people who are being such A-wads right now are the very same people who can quickly find themselves homeless too.  But, they just don’t seem to want to believe that for one reason or another. (“It will never happen to me.” Yeah, right!) Idiots!


I guess we can forget things like the First and the Eighth Amendments to The Constitution if we are homeless, right? Those Amendments must apply to someone else except the homeless. It is reported that many Cities in America are getting to be downright “Mean” in their approach to the plight of the homeless. There are police sweeps being mounted that result in injury and the loss of personal property and these sweeps are reportedly getting more and more militaristic in their scope, tactics and nature. (Read the newspapers!)


Human Rights for the homeless in America are seemingly under strong attack and as far as I can tell, there are very darned few people even concerned about it.


The Ruling Elite of Conservatism– the ones who control the money and the power– they are seemingly mounting increasingly horrendous assaults on the democratic rights of both the homeless and the working class as a whole and to me, it is sickening and totally Un-American!


There is no reason in the world for anyone to ever consider making homelessness a punishable crime in the United States of America. We are the richest nation on the face of the Earth and all I ever hear is how darned “Christian” we are as a nation and… there is no excuse before God or Mankind for homeless people to be treated like common criminals.  But, I hear that this is what is happening all across this great country– from sea to shining sea and I think it is disgusting!


These homeless people are, in my humble opinion, not criminals.  They are, (Again in my opinion) victims of a system where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and where the Middle Class and the Poor and all who work at any thing, regardless of how menial or low-paying it might be, are expected to shoulder the burden for the whole country and the whole government and I think that scenario is just pure old-fashioned horse manure!


Where are all these “Churches” that, according to Nut Bag Conservatism, are supposed to be doing their civic duty in helping people out when they get into enough trouble to see them cast into the streets with nothing but the clothes on their backs?  Where are these “Holy” instruments of God’s Salvation when one is needed to help?


Hey! I vote for Democrats because Democrats care about people. I am a Liberal because it is the Liberals and the Progressives who will forget about getting rich long enough to lend a helping hand to someone in need. Liberals help the homeless– we do not condemn them to further misery!


If Republicans take the White House in 2012, the horror story I have been telling here in this blog post will get a lot worse and that, friends, is my personal unvarnished opinion! I believe that if you are not homeless right now, you will increase your chances mightily if you make the mistake of supporting Conservatism’s agenda in 2012.


Posted by John Liming (My Political Opinions Entirely).


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IS DEATH PENALTY JUSTICE?

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Blind Justice
(Public Domain Image)
(Wikimedia Commons)
WHY DO CONSERVATIVES FAVOR THE DEATH PENALTY AND LIBERALS OPPOSE IT ?
John R. Liming
Editor And Publisher
The Liming Liberal Digest
Attitudes And Opinions
We All Have Them And These Are Some Of Mine!
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ATTITUDE CAN TEST VALIDITY OF CLAIMS TO “FAMILY AND MORAL CHRISTIANITY”!
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DEATH PENALTY
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Liberals generally find the administration of the death penalty to be abhorrent, Un-Christian, Immoral, Inhuman, Barbaric and Backward.
The natural compassion and true Christian Nature that drives most moral Liberals demands the definition of the death penalty as cruel and unusual and inhumane punishment.  The Liberal believes that Man must not play “God” and that The Divine Creator is the only person privileged to take a life for whatever the reason.
In this attitude toward the bestiality of demanding the life of a condemned criminal, the Liberal view reveals the depth of a “Christian” Ethic that many extremely defensive  Conservatives cannot imagine in their wildest imaginations.
A lot of Conservatives run around shouting from the rooftops about how “Evil,” and “Immoral,” and “Godless” Liberals are, but at the same time, they are licking their chops waiting for news of the next execution in Cell Block 0.
We have seen evidence, especially before the advent of DNA testing, that dozens, perhaps even hundreds of innocent persons have met their death at the hands of some public executioner for a crime that they were, ultimately, exonerated of having committed.
Because of this possibility of inadvertently killing an innocent person and because of the deep-rooted belief that ultimate justice such as death can only be meted out by God, the Liberal prefers the humanity of incarcerating the convicted rather than participating in another murder by taking a life.
The Liberal believes that the old Mosaic Law that demanded an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth has been replaced by the more merciful example of Jesus Christ.
Now, I know from experience that the minute I try to quote Scripture, the bible wavers are going to start telling me, “You are out of context! You are mis-quoting! That is not what that passage of Scripture really means!  The Greek says”… and a  dozen other little arguments to put me down and prove that they are right, no matter what.
But here is the Scripture that I believe touches on the idea of capital punishment and it is found in Matthew, Chapter 5, beginning with Verse 38: “…Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”
39. “But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40.  “And if any man will sue thee at the law, and  take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.
41. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain…”
Now this goes on for awhile and finally comes to verse 44: “But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you;…”
And then on through the end of the chapter.
I cannot find, anywhere in that King James VERSION of the Bible that the Far Right Wing Religious love so much any mention anywhere that  executing a murderer is the appropriate punishment for taking a life.
But then, I have found that many of  those who claim to be  really dedicated Conservatives are, after all, a law unto themselves (In their own minds, anyway)…no one else is right about anything…ever…under any circumstances…and they are so locked in with their thinking as to be unreachable, unteachable;  a stiff necked and stubborn generation…and therefore, it is totally useless to try and reason with them on a rational basis.
In their insistence on the death penalty, a whole lot of  Conservatives who naively claim to operate from the standpoint of “Christian” Morals and Values are deceiving themselves, but they are not fooling an observant nation and perceptive world  around them.
The Conservative side often  seems to tend  to believe that murder-for-murder is the appropriate deterrent to capital crime. 
Since they seem so intent on wanting to re-do The Constitution of The United States in an effort to capture the clearer “Originalist” intent of The Founding Fathers, I am sure that if they were able to achieve that goal, it would be no time at all until they busied themselves with doing the entire justice system   over to the point that holding any opposing viewpoint to theirs would be a capital crime as well.
These are a highly intolerant force in politics.  They desperately hate Gays, they cannot abide immigrants and they definitely have a thing against the elderly and the poor.  I believe with all my heart that many of  the Right Wing “Christian” Extremist’s  believe in the doctrine of “The Survival Of The Fittest” and that they can be,  individually and  collectively, greedy and selfish to the point that they would devour their own if their own showed any sign of weakness at all.
 In my view, many Conservatives tend, generally, to be very expert at taking things away from people.  (Including Life itself, apparently.)
This mind-set operates in an intellectual vacuum that allows for the most henious of potentials.
The Conservative mind-set has demonstrated how it  can generate needless military conflict on the lamest set of circumstances and excuses.
It can deny, without the slightest twinge of conscience, needed financial assistance to the elderly populace.  Thus, this mind-set seeks to rip the guts out of Social Security and Medicare and Aid To Dependent Children and virtually every Social Safety Net program ever enacted by government for the benefit of those who need help the most.
This can happen, because that mindset actually seems to believe  that anyone who has not made themselves rich is a “Bad” person and deserves their poverty and, therefore, is not entitled to any help that might cost “Honest” taxpayers any money.
This is an attitude that is totally opposed to the “Christian” value system claimed by many Conservatives– especially the hard-core ones..the rigid, unflinching, unchangeable, stubborn “Hard” Right or what I like to call “The Far Right Wing Extreme.”
In the administration of Justice, like in everything else, the staunch far Right Wing Conservative Extremist falls far short of the Glory Of God they love to tout as their driving manifesto and they show themselves to be devilishly hypocritical in that respect.
Now! Are all Conservatives like that?  No! Not at all!
There are moderates and there are many shades and varieties of Conservative.  The same is true of the Liberal. There is a whole spectrum of both ideologies that range from the mundane to the Sublime.
Of late, I am of the opinion that the Old Order Conservatives have been infiltrated, and in many cases replaced by a new and more militantly vocal segment who is driven by some kind of general anger at government over most every imaginable issue.
This new order has risen carrying guns to political rallies, carrying Hate Signs proclaiming a willingness to mount an armed insurrection against the government in order to force their policies upon the nation and in general, acting like a bunch of storm troopers.
But, as much as they scream and shout and as much as they wave their yellow flag with the snake on it and as much as they claim to be a “Grass Roots” Movement of “Millions” of “Ordinary” citizens, they are being watched by the rest of America and the world and their claim to being based in “Christian” Ethic is laid absolutely bare before the eyes of the world.
When you watch a few of these assembled morons shouting their slogans and throwing bricks through government office building windows and spitting on members of Congress , you can quickly get a clear idea of exactly why they favor the death penalty.  It is not a very pretty picture, but it is a picture of savage hate that only the far Right Wing Extremist’s can conjure and project so expertly.
Prejudice and intolerance have been their hallmark for many generations now and I, personally, don’t think they are ever going to evolve. I think they gnash their teeth and tear at their garments at the thought of having to share the world with people who do not accept their rigidly hypocritical views on things.
I have seen an example of that in my own household where two people that I loved very much have now totally rejected me because I do not fit their mould of what a “Christian” ought to be. They got into a version of this Far Right Wing Religious craziness and are almost cultic in their adherence to the ravings of some of the absolute lunatics from the ultra-conservative side of the political spectrum.
Read More Right Here: (And when you see the pictures on this link, do not come back to me and deny that any of this is happening.):
The world is watching and waiting.
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