As IF Times

link Its not the end of the world when doomsday prophets get it wrong | World news | The Guardian.

There was no point in putting in the effort to comment about this until the fateful moment had passed.  So whew, here we are. Preacher Harold Camping was wrong.  Again. Good news for us.  Bad news for those who stopped bathing, brushing their teeth and who recently took out big loans.   It’s easy to dismiss this recent call for the apocalypse as just another quack job by some fringe nuts.  Until you read about how much money had been spent spreading the fear and the amount of people involved in the doomsday publicity.  From some accounts, over a hundred million dollars was spent to publicize the end of the world, not to mention the untold numbers of followers, new and old.

To most rational people, the level of interest in the campaign must have been a mystery.  Really?  One person was endowed  with the ability to foresee the future, or at least the end of the present?  As preposterous as this seems, how is it any different than any other religion?  Notwithstanding Stephen Hawking’s ruminations, whether  there’s a heaven or a hell may be up for debate, but it may be prudent to hedge your bets.  In the case of some faiths which promise a fixed number of virgins upon death, that claim may be iffier.  Certainly it would be discouraging for the women of that faith.

Still, even more preposterous is the idea that killing certain groups of people in real life will ingratiate you to the supreme poo bah in the next.  But in matters of faith, it’s hard to belittle anything that may give people structure and comfort.  Faith happens to be one of the good traits of human nature.

On the other hand, it’s hard to explain willful stupidity.  In matters of faith, proof is elusive.  In matters of ideology, the evidence is easier to discern.  At the moment, the ideological battle going on for the hearts and minds of the  U.S. voter being waged in the media  has never been more laughable.  Infinitely more stupid than the Rapture claims are the utterances from some media personalities who mysteriously still have jobs.  One of the more recent doozies is from Bill Maher, whose tenuous grip on sanity is slim indeed.  According to Maher, the GOP want a “misogynist, racist and homophobic presidential candidate”.   Hmm.  According to Democratic ads in support of the despised Obamacare program, Republicans want to dump grandma off her wheelchair over a cliff.  And how can we forget the articulate Alan Grayson who stated that the Republican solution to the health crisis is for people to die.  MSNBC talking head Dylan Ratigan says that Republican rhetoric is “based on abandonment of arithmetic and fact”.   According to an AFL-CIO union stooge named Damon Silvers, “republicans literally deny clothing to foster kids to give rich people tax cuts”.  We’re on watch now to see which GOP candidate will be accused of eating babies and small dogs. These are only some of the well known  loons that cater to the contingent of idiots who believe their pearls of wisdom…despite all evidence to the contrary.

Like the Rapture preacher, people are free to say whatever they want in a free society.  And like the Rapture congregation, people can believe what or whom they like when it comes to the media.  However, the sheer scale of naivete at best or stupidity at worst is frightening.  Even more frightening, they all get to vote.  Oy.

link Firefighters union halting federal contributions – Yahoo! News.

The benign image of the affable firefighter who fixes kids’ bicycles, rescues stranded cats in trees and posing for cheesecake calendars when not risking their lives to pull infants from burning buildings is as quaint and passe as the iconic slide pole in the firehouse.  Like the brass poles, which have been put to good use and made notorious by another profession, the image of some firefighters are being associated with some iffier elements.

Who knew that collectively they felt compelled to contribute to political parties as part of their jobs?  What does supporting Democrats have to do with cats in trees?  Most of us have grown up with the image of the fireman as the  gallant and selfless hero.  They were always considered above the fray of partisan activity.  That was left to sleazy businessmen, ambitious politicians and occasionally, the wayward cop.   But not firemen.   Who doubts the intentions of a fireman?

Alas, that profession has fallen victim to the disease that has fatally affected many professions.  The public union.  Like the infamous Teachers unions, firefighters’ unions now exert political influence beyond their expected roles in society.  You would think that their roles are pretty clear, that is to look after the needs of their local constituents.  According to this article however, these unions have been actively supporting national level  politicians sympathetic to union interests.  How is this different than if janitors and tree pruners banded together to have a national voice?  What if they decided that Global warming was a sympathetic cause?

When someone decides on a profession such as firefighter, presumably they do it out of conscious choice.  As far as I know, no one goes into it because they were forced into it or that it was a way to make ends meet to support 4 kids.  Presumably, they liked the lifestyle and job description;  the red trucks and sirens didn’t hurt.  Certainly, there is always the element of mortal danger with the job as well and that’s why we have such respect for them.  But clearly, some in their ranks find it more lucrative to be climbing up political ladders than those propped next to burning buildings.  With the political activism of their unions, it now certainly appears that hooking up their hoses  to the public pension system is the end game for them.   Their burnished image suffers and they’ll be seen as just another self serving union organization.  I’d guess that most of the public isn’t even aware of this.   They may be hosed in ways they didn’t expect.