There’s gonna be hell to pay

This week I read about a woman who’s been kicked out of church for not paying her tithes. Now I know what most of you are thinking – that’s pretty mean and un-Christian.

Well, you’re wrong. First African Baptist Church (FABC) of Bainbridge’s Pastor Derrick Mike is perfectly within bounds for turfing Josephine King of Georgia out on her 92-year old ass. Once one buys into the whole religious belief thing, one should sure as hell* expect to pay. Nothing’s free (except the coffee apparently), for anyone of any age.

In the video embedded in this article, you will notice that the FABC is one big-assed Church. It must surely cost a pretty penny to keep that monster suspended like belief afloat. Church management are reasonable to expect payment. It’s all business after all.

* If you’re wondering how an atheist can speak of the surety of hell, wonder no more. Hell does exist – in vast parts of Africa, the Middle East and other parts of the world, being ruled by either religious zealots or dictatorial psychopaths, or being torn apart by either or both.

Bad Bad Badu

If there’s one thing I can’t abide, it’s politicians. If there’s an even worse thing it’s dictatorial politicians.

If there’s a third thing that gets my bile rising, it’s idiots who actually abide despotic politicians.

And so we come to Erykah Badu, the American singer who sang recently for Swaziland’s tyrannical ruler King Mswati III, on his 46th birthday. She even gave the despicable “royal” fucker some presents.

King Tits & Tum at a Reed Dance

I don’t really need to elaborate on why King Mswati III is such a douche-bag. He’s just that; an imperial bag of shit. I’m more irritated about why Badu would sing for His Royal Kleptocrat-ness. It’s not like she desperately needs the money.

Up until I heard about this incident, I quite liked Badu’s singing; well one or two songs at least. I don’t know if I could bring myself to listen to On & On ever again. It would make me think on and on about Mswati lording it over the poor sods unfortunate enough to make up his kingdom, and the15-and-counting wives.

To redeem herself, Erykah would have to take back her presents for starters, and write a song about the true nature of the African despot known as Mswati. Better still, writing a disparaging song about all of Africa’s many dictators would win me back for sure.

In a rich man’s world…

While money can’t buy happiness, it certainly lets you choose your own form of misery. – Groucho Marx

I’ve been listening to If I Were a Rich Man from the musical Fiddler on the Roof repeatedly since last week, and it just makes the smile on my face wider each time (if that’s possible).

But onto slightly more serious business…

Reading through the lyrics of the Abba hit Money, Money Money, one would think that we don’t live in a rich man’s world. But we do!

Only thing is, we will always be the outsiders looking in. I imagine that it must not be easy to make it onto the Forbes Billionaires List. They listed 1645 billionaires last month which I think must have grown since then. If you were on the list and moved down to mere Millionaire status, WTF is wrong with you? I can’t possibly see how you can not be constantly moving up the list because as they say “It takes money to make money.”

I look at this list of people with a certain amount of admiration because according to Forbes, about two-thirds made their own fortune while only 13% inherited it. And one can’t really look down on those who inherit wealth, because it’s really not their fault being born into a rich family. If they use inherited wealth wisely and grow it, I for one have no qualms about it.

The list however does exclude royal families and dictators, both different class of thieves. But I really only have a problem with the latter class because being born into royalty could be viewed the same as being born into a normal rich family. Unless off course they’re a royal pain in the ass and rule their kingdoms brutally like common dictators do.

Naturally, I do harbour a certain bit of envy because I know realistically that I will never make the Forbes Billionaire List, let alone the Millionaire List. And I’m not even going to try…

People aren’t smart: just look at the calibre of politicians that win the votes

I’m not alone in maintaining that democracy is not the best political system; just the best

system we have currently. And politicians who work within a democratic system do so knowing full well that it serves to give them a veneer of respectability, in a lifestyle of villainy.

Not so with common dictators, monarchists, personality cultists and theocrats. They dispense with the niceties of democracy because fear works better for them. You could say this lot are honest rogues.

However politicians don’t exist on their own. They need people. Preferably not so smart people.

Now there’s a scientific study that confirms that people are not so smart when it comes to choosing the right candidates, and that’s why democracies invariably don’t elect the best leaders.

The democratic process relies on the assumption that citizens (the majority of them, at least) can recognize the best political candidate, or best policy idea, when they see it. But a growing body of research has revealed an unfortunate aspect of the human psyche that would seem to disprove this notion, and imply instead that democratic elections produce mediocre leadership and policies.

The research, led by David Dunning, a psychologist at Cornell University, shows that incompetent people are inherently unable to judge the competence of other people, or the quality of those people’s ideas. For example, if people lack expertise on tax reform, it is very difficult for them to identify the candidates who are actual experts. They simply lack the mental tools needed to make meaningful judgments. [People Aren’t Smart Enough for Democracy to Flourish, Scientists Say]

It all simply boils down to the unfortunate incidence of people giving/conceding power to politicians in ways they neither comprehend nor bother to take responsibility for. And that’s never a good thing.

I know; I live in South Africa, where this is amply demonstrated.