Being a Minister’s Kid

When I was at the AMA meeting, we ended up, beforehand, briefly talking about what it’s like to be a minister’s kid. I tell people it’s a lot like being a military brat, because that’s the easiest answer, but the truth is that it’s not. Military kids are good friends to make if you’re a minister’s kid, because they know what it’s like to so often be the new kid, but they don’t really know what it’s like to feel like the pet of some large group of people.

In an interview I did, which y’all will be able to read at the end of the month, the interviewer asked me what brought me to the supernatural genre and this light went on–I have never not been in the supernatural genre. Literally, my whole worldview, from the time I was born, was shaped by stories of supernatural beings.

One of the things I’ve been wondering about with this whole Bishop Long thing is what, exactly, is the nature of his calling? I know callings take all kinds of forms. But did he literally hear a voice? Did he just feel called? Was he always just looking for a con he could run?

I sometimes think there is a distinction Christians could do a better job of making for themselves. There’s a difference between being tapped into supernatural energy and being in communication with God, I think. One is the static you get when the radio is working. The other is the station coming in.

I suspect a lot of ministers mistake the former for the latter. Of course, how could you know?

How do you know if you’re crazy? Worse, how do you know if you’re wrong?

It’s funny, I was over setting up a reading for the book and I had heard that the woman who runs the place has great ghost stories. And they were! And I was telling her some stuff and, half way through, I thought, is it weird that I accept, no, know, that places have a vibe, a kind of energy and that I just talk about it like it’s completely apparent to everyone?

It’s so true to me, like if you walk into a room and it’s cold, you don’t really doubt that it’s cold. If you walk in and it feels comfortable or not, I also don’t doubt that. It just seems like available information. I don’t even think of it as supernatural. But it’s woo woo crap–vibes. Places having vibes.

Anyway, I think the only people who really know what it’s like are other ministers’ kids.

Then Let’s Tax the Per Diems Like Extra Income

Seriously, even if you’re too cowardly to vote on what you think you should be paid and are instead basically proudly embezzling from the state so that you can pay yourself what you think you deserve, taxpayers, voters, and other state employees who’ve not had a raise in years be damned, if you’re going to say that it’s income, then let’s tax the per diems as income.

We need a good tax lawyer here, but I have to wonder, at what point does the IRS get involved when legislators start publicly admitting that they’re using per diems as income even though it’s not taxed as such?

Edited to add: Ha, well, so much for shooting off my mouth before I read the whole article. The per diems are taxed. Kind of. The article makes it sound like only the legislators living within 50 miles of Nashville have their per diems taxed. So, they’re income for some folks but not for others? I still say this looks like something the IRS should look into.

When I Start to Think You Have Skeletons in Your Closet, So to Speak

It’s not the discomfort with gay people or even the preaching against gayness. I hate that, but I get it. It’s when you reach for the “cutsey” insults–“in the interest of promoting sanctimonious notions of “tolerance” and “diversity,” we dress up our military like Poochie poodle in a pink sweater.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about the allegations against the Bishop in Atlanta and how it’s worked for years–people who get off on exploiting people who have way, way less power than them preaching against homosexuality because it gives them cover. I really think that the reason they’re preaching so hard against homosexuality now is that they know that, when people have good models for same-sex relationships (both friendly, platonic relationships and sexual), their fucked-up relationships become easier to recognize. It’s one of the reasons they preach so hard about the “proper” roles for men and women. They don’t want their fucked-up relationships being seen for what they are.

And to me, it’s that need to get the extra dig in that just says “I’m deflecting you from looking too closely to what I’m up to.”

Burning Down the House

One begins to wonder if a goal of the McWherter campaign isn’t to demoralize liberals so much that they stop voting. Or maybe to bait some prominent lefties into supporting Haslam, so that they can pounce and be all “See! He’s really the liberal!”

But have they not considered that a. There are no prominent lefties in the state and b. McWherter has no credibility with conservatives.

Plus, here’s the thing. The state legislators have been saying to lefty-er groups “Oh, you have to vote for us, even if you think we kind of stink, because otherwise the Republicans will redistrict us out of existence and then you’ll have no allies.”

Well, when your gubernatorial candidate carries on like McWherter does, we don’t believe we have allies in the Dems in general.

So…

What’s the threat of not voting for you exactly?