"… the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears (lit., "itched as to the hearing") they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths." (2 Timothy 4:2-4)

Garofalo is dead-on in her assesssment of the "tea baggers" and their "tea party". Bigots such as these listen to Faux News with their itching ears seeking validation of their narrow world view in which a man of color cannot be a leader. What I found amusing, and even ENCOURAGING about the tea party ruse is that-even in the conservative area where I live-it hardly caused a ripple. President Obama has barely been in office three months, and he inherited an economic disaster. He has the unenviable task of getting our country back on track, and achieving this will take a herculean effort, to say the least. Perhaps more people recognize this than Faux News counted on. Maybe-just maybe-more people are looking for the truth rather than "wandering into myth", such as the tripe that the reactionaries at Faux spew!

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." -Samuel Johnson

 Reagan was a hypocrite and a poseur.  Those of us who were not well off economically suffered through those years. The Reagan whitehouse was corrupt, and Ronnie merely played a part…Just like in the movies! The biggest difference between his movie career and his presidency was that he wore an EAR BUD in Washington and read cue cards in Hollywood. He was the darling of the press, and they, along with the RNC, made him the "IMAGE" that he was. Reaganomics, and folly such as the "Star Wars Defense System" allowed those at the top of the American food chain bled those in the lower economic strata white. Not a homophobe? Google ‘Ronald Reagan and AIDS’ and just see what comes up! Honorable? If importing Columbian cocaine into the U.S. to raise funds for the Iran Contras—all while your First Lady is telling the youth of America to "just say no"—is HONORABLE, then yeah. No you were blinded by the image of Ronnie in a cowboy hat telling you he’s making you safe by handing out over-priced defense cotracts to his old cronies, and accelerating nuclear armament at an alarming rate. Yes, that dazzling image of Reagan swathed in the American flag made so many admire the veneer and ignore the FACTUAL substance of his administration.

When I was a nurse in the ICU at a level I trauma center, I saw agreat deal of death—both sudden and protracted. One thing that I can say is that those patients who could communicate as they were dying would speak of seeing religious figures, angels, and/or dead relatives. I have also seen a large number of people who we successfully recessutated…these people also frequently spoke of their spiritual experiences as they were caught between life and death. In 1997 I had brain surgery, developed cerebral edema, and nearly died; The memory of being readmitted to the hospital in shock are sketchy and fuzzy except for one thing: I heard my grandmother who had died in 1996. During my few semilucid moments, I was praying for my own death because I was in so much pain and I heard my deceased grand mother say "Now Melanie, you know you can’t die yet! You’ve got Michael and Caitie  (my children) to take care of. It’s not your time!". I realize that many people would attribute such occurences to hallucinations due to oxygen deprivation. I, however, cannot. I do believe in God and a spiritual realm, and my faith is that the perfected, corporeal evidence of God was manifested in the person and teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus, who said "Judge not lest ye be judged", "Love thy neighbor as thyself", "Turn the other cheek", and "Ye who are without sin cast the first stone". I respect the teachings of the Buddha, Zoroaster, the Dalai Lama, as well as any and all who have tried to direct humankind to a path of love and positivity. It is one of mankind’s greatest tragedies that some people try to pervert such messages to use religiosity to justify negative agendas. They make the notion of God to be hateful and SMALL. Such is the difference between spirituality and religiosity. So, as Shakespeare said, "There is more in heaven and on earth then is dreamt of in (our) philosophies…".