QQ : NUMBER FORTY FOUR - OCTOBER 6, 2015

THE MORAL QUOTIENT

Who holds the moral high ground?

There are a multitude of claimants including the Pope, the Ayatollah, ISIS, Mike Huckabee and Roger Waters.

Speaking to God and getting an answer could be a symptom of delusional thinking.  

Getting the answer on a golden tablet or a scroll could be the result of ingesting too many drugs, or it could be a true miracle. Or the mortal conversant could just be a clinical narcissist.

I’m not currently getting a clear response from God on this question.  Her internet may be down.  Reception is not good in Missouri.

QQ 1: AMERICA

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a re-dress of grievances”.

This thing is so full of holes it is a sieve. It is badly written and confuses "rights" with admonitions to lawmakers. No wonder the SCOTUS is confused.

Scientology declares itself a religion and reaps billions in tax benefits.

The right to peaceably assemble is contra-indicated by the militarizing of local police. Courts are accessible, but generally only to the wealthy.  Same with justice.

In addition, "corporations" are now "people",  protected by that disastrously written paragraph.

I hereby establish The Church of QAPEK. Contributions are welcome.

I give the first amendment a 1/10 on the MORALITY HYPOCRISY SCALE.

QQ 2: THE (RAW) IRAN DEAL

The Republican Majority, AIPAC and a number of Jewish Federations suggest we should reject the deal on "moral grounds".

The suggestion is that the entity known as IRAN is inherently evil and inherently immoral, in totality, for all eternity.

Reflecting on her experience in Auschwitz, my mother suggested to me that there were three levels of evil in order:

#3 most evil were the German SS

#2 most evil were the Ukrainian guards

#1 and by far the worst were the Jewish Kapos who made life and death decisions based on their own self-interest and survival.

There is no such thing as inherent, total evil.

I give conservatives' rejection of the Iran deal a 2/10 in MORAL HYPOCRISY.

QQ 3: GOOGLE ......"You can make money without doing evil".

Google survives on "content" and the distorted concept of the "democracy of the internet". Google does not pay for the content that allows it to survive. Google is a thief of the highest order.

I give Google a 3/10 on the MORAL HYPOCRISY SCALE.

QQ 4:. FREUD AND SCHADENFREUDE

We have slaughter in Syria, ethnic cleansing in Africa, starvation in Darfur, the greatest refugee crisis since the Second World War, child poverty in the richest country in the history of the world and the subjugation and incarceration of millions of African-Americans in the US Prison-Industrial-Complex.

What do the activists both left and right focus on?  What do we prioritize? On what basis are we prepared to shut down government?

It's the politics of sex.

From the Supreme Leader to the US Congress. From the Pope to a small town clerk.

They all want to get into our pants as their top priority.

Leave sex to the sexual. Get married already, I really don't care. I'll be wearing my gownless evening strap.

Government stay out of the womb and just for the hell of it, give a Saudi housewife her driver's licence and let her out of the tent.

Beyond that the Caitlin Jenner thing makes me want to barf. WTF. Does his constant presence in my face reflect the true meaning of the first amendment?

He has a penis last time I checked. (Not personally).

At the risk of committing the ultimate, politically-incorrect faux pas, may I suggest that there may be larger, more important issues.

I give this noisy, Freudian agenda a MORAL QUOTIENT of 4/10 in hypocrisy.

QQ 5:. THE EXPECTATION AND REQUIREMENT THAT OUR ARTISTIC ICONS BE "GOOD".

I have no idea if Johann Sebastian Bach was a good man. He had two wives and bore 20 children. We can surmise that he was busy. We cannot judge his goodness.

He created perhaps the greatest musical beauty in the history of man. How shall we judge him in historical retrospect?

Who was Shakespeare? Was there such a person? Was he good?

Pablo Picasso was a prick who treated women as disposable possessions.

He was a fabulous painter who changed our perception of visual art for all eternity.

He could be regarded as a bad man. How shall we judge his art?

I give our moral expectations regarding our artistic icons a 5/10 in MORAL HYPOCRISY.

QQ 6: HIP-HOP AS A CULTURE

What can one say about Kanye West, Dr Dre, other 'rap physicians',  Biggie Small, M&M and Drake that hasn't already been said.

The tradition of poetry spoken to rhythm and music is long established. That is not the problem. Perhaps the problem is the wacky first amendment thing.

“Bitches ain’t sh*t but hoes and tricks / Lick on these nuts and suck the d*ck.” – Snoop Dogg

“Once again I gotta punch a bitch in her sh*t / I’m icy bitch, don’t look at my wrist / Because if you do, I might blind you bitch.” – Jasper Dolphin of Odd Future

“I know she like chocolate men / She got more n*ggas off than Cochran.” – Kanye West

“You ain’t no better because you don’t be f*cking rappers / You only f*ck with actors / You’re still getting f*cked backwards” – Jay

“Slut, you think I won’t choke no whore / Til the vocal cords don’t work in her throat no

“You ain’t gonna let me f*ck you and I feel you / But you gone suck my d*ck, or I’ll kill you.” – Chief Keef

If art is a reflection of the zeitgeist, then the zeitgeist is in very, very, very poor shape.

Hiphop 'culture' gets a 6/10 on my MORAL HYPOCRISY SCALE.

QQ 7: SAUDI ARABIA and THE EMIRATES

In a previous paragraph, I suggested that there is no such thing as inherent, absolute evil. I would now like to amend that statement. 

Evil exists. It is Saudi Arabia. If ever there was an evil empire, then this has got to be it... closely followed by the Emirates. Apparently, the pronouncements of the Saudi Potentate is the expression of God's will.

Slave labor, misogynist, corrupt, criminal, feudal, fundamentally evil in all aspects.

Cut off my hand to spite my face.

A 7/10 on the MORALITY QUOTIENT.

QQ 8: MONSANTO

Patents on seeds. Really? They have a copyright on my carrot? A patent on my potato? A claim on my cabbage?

The absolute peak of evil, the end of the world as we know it.

You own the copyright of seeds?

State of the art bullshit.

Monsanto gets an 8/10 on the MORALITY SCALE.

QQ 9: EVANGELISM

There are many "isms",  but the 'evangel' wins first prize for moral hypocrisy.

The word has a benign, Greek root referring to "good news".  If only that were so.

A more common usage is related to a presentation of the "gospel" as an unquestionable truth.

That is when evangelism, as a presentation of unquestionable truth, the divine truth as expressed by the Ayatollahs of Islam of any variety, Mike Huckabee, and Kim Jong-Il reach a peak of moral insanity.

I'm reminded of the image of Henry Kissinger, kneeling down to pray with Richard Nixon one particularly boozy evening in the Oval Office. I think Bubba Clinton made a much better use of that space...if somewhat less evangelical.

A 9/10 in MORAL OUTRAGE.

QQ 10: THE GLOBAL WARMING 'DEBATE'

Who are some of the largest, per-capita polluters in the world? 

“Benign”  Australia and Canada.

According to the "I-am-not-a-scientist" experts, the  polar bears are just fine;  California, not unlike adolescents,  is going through a ‘phase’; and BP is a person.

The Global Warming deniers get a 10/10 on the MORAL HYPOCRISY SCALE.

QQ 11: ALGORITHMS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The machines have taken over. Drones, drone on as programmed assassins based on computer game technology, the Googles select our participation grid, the TV reflects algorithmic choices at us and we are followed, pursued, categorized, and spied on from birth through death and beyond.

Freedom’s just another word for everything left to lose.

It's 1984 all over again.

It's beyond an 11/10 in MORAL DEGRADATION. God is dead. The Algorithms have taken her place. A.I. has nailed us to a cross.

QQ 12: GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE

Really?