When I am preaching, the humor is meant to expose a truth. The Jews asked for rules and God them the ten commandments. They did not go into exile for having gays, they stoned them to death. They went into exile and lost everything because they violated the ten commandments. Jesus reinforced this thought in that when they asked him which was the most important commandment he told them it was to love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. When I preach I have told gay people that they didn't even make the top ten of sins and Jesus never bothered mentioning them. That "top ten" reference is done in the form of a joke to highlight a point.
Our biggest problem is not that their are homosexuals in America or that if the government approves them being together they can get a tax break and inherit from one another. Our biggest problem is that we have ignored the top ten and the one that Jesus chose. What if we stopped killing one another or stealing from one another (that is aimed at JP Morgan, our financial system and a government that supports the financial system stealing from us) and cheating on one another, breaking our agreements which is lying. It was the institutional (society wide and accepting corruption) that destroyed Israel, not homosexuals.
The effective use of humor is to make a point that people will remember. Often comedy comes from pain. One of my best jokes was told during my colonoscopy with a camera 6 feet up my 5 foot, 8 inch frame. The best story teller with a point was probably George Carlin or for those of you in England, a Texan named Bill Hicks. They told stories and tried to help us see how silly this world is organized.
Robin Williams did improv and was great at it; but, he was even better when he was making a point in a movie, it gave him a point to steer towards. He got a number of awards for his acting and one of the films he made was called "The Best of Times". It is supposedly a comedy; but, is really a film about mistakes, regret and redemption. I am providing you a link to Hulu of the movie.
Hulu - The Best of Times
Now a couple of strange news items.
Yahoo - Why more U.S. companies will flee to Canada. Not complicated, they are moving to Canada to avoid paying taxes. At the same time they want to claim that their jobs are in America. In fact, Burger King is one of the ones that wants to move to Canada and recently supported a change in the rules that now claims that assembling a hamburger should be treated as a manufacturing job. You can write your own joke; but, I assure you, the joke is on us.
Companies in America have asked to be treated as people. I actually believe in that; but, they must then be treated equally as people and pay taxes the same as other residents. In Canada the average person has a higher tax rate than their billion and multi-billion dollar fellow Canadians. The Canadians pay for universal healthcare and America does not. Yet did not Burger King complain about "Obamacare"? The minimum wage is higher in Canada; but, didn't the fast food companies complain about raising the minimum wage? Maybe these companies just love more social programs and don't feel the US is prepared to provide them. Maybe that's why we sent all of our manufacturing jobs to Communist China. I don't think so. The rise of Globalism and the fact that our political class sold us out to the special interests (wealthy that could promise them a return on their vote) means that we do need to reconsider how income tax is calculated.
I would recommend that income tax only be charged by the federal government. I would also eliminate all deductions and have a simple flat tax. For people that make below the poverty line, I would charge not income tax. It makes no sense to tax people on welfare when we pay for that. Lets say everyone, including companies were charged a flat 15% on all profits, inheritance and any manner of income.
Now some might want to ask about bank bailouts or corporate bailouts. As people, I would give them the same benefits as other people on welfare or disability. $300 a month in food subsidies and another $300 in expenses. I don't know what we gave JP Morgan or GM; but, I think it was a lot more, maybe billions. Think about that.
During the 80s and 90s "corporate raiders" bought stock in American companies and then sold the assets off to China. Keep that in mind. You see the companies were worth more for their parts than their regular income, even though they made a regular income. People stopped buying stock for the annual return (dividend or participation in the profit) and more for the stock value (short term valuations).
Educating Humanity - FBI Interrogates NBC Cameraman For Filming UFO - NBC News Report. I don't really care about the post by the blogger. I have no idea what was going on, I am much more interested in why the FBI interrogated a cameraman over what he filmed. Lets say it wasn't a UFO, okay, then what are they afraid it was that was captured on film and why give him a lie detector test? What did he film and more importantly, why give him a lie detector test?
Have a great week.
