Author: Rex Nipper

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I’ll Vote for Them

I have been reading the Bible.  I know, that shocks you.  If you haven’t been paying attention, I’m not a fan of religion.  Evangelism has turned a group of organizations built around the betterment of humanity, into a money-making mega conglomerate designed to turn con men (and women) into multi-billionaires.  One NFL player does more for the betterment of humanity than a bucket-load of these bullshit artists.  Not every church is this way, but if the sermon you hear on Sunday spends ANY time telling you how praying will pay your bills, heal your cancer, or make you millions, you’re in the wrong church.  Christianity isn’t about helping you.  It’s about helping everyone else.
I find the Bible fascinating.  For one thing it’s an historical document, mapping the generations and gives insight on how they lived.  It also provides specific details on the stories and lessons told by Jesus to his followers.  So, you can imagine when I started reading the Bible how shocked I became when Jesus wasn’t a right-wing, gun-toten (OK spear-toten) redneck with hatred for anyone not white, wealthy and protestant.  Maybe it’s because there wasn’t any such thing as a Christian back then. Back then they were called “Jews.” A people the right-wing really isn’t too fond of.
OK, full disclosure, I have read the Bible cover to cover more than once in my life.  That’s why I’m confused how the Republican Party has taken so much ownership of the Christian faith.  It’s like if you are anything but Republican and Christian, then we just need to convert you…or kill you.  I don’t understand this idea that if you don’t believe the way I believe then you must be calling me stupid.  No one’s calling you stupid because you’re Christian.  We’re calling you stupid because you’re stupid.  That’s not Christ’s fault.  It’s yours.
I was raised Lutheran. I have Catholic and even Jehovah’s Witnesses for family.  This has caused me to have to learn a lot about all religions.  Still…I’m missing how Trump captured the hearts and minds of the religious set to such an extent that they ignore his treatment of women, minorities, business associates, family, and you know…the truth.  How half the country could sell their souls to the Orange Jesus is far beyond my capacity.    I mean he’s essentially broken the 1st, 2nd, 3rd(OK…guilty), 4th, 7th(countless times), 8th, 9th, and 10thcommandments.  How is this guy able to garner religious support?
There is not one facet within the teachings of the New Testament that fits into the Republican and the President’s platform.  Not one. I suppose you can make an argument for the elimination of abortion.  So yippee! You’re all for the unborn.  What about after they are born?  What support do you offer for a living child who has no way to support, feed, clothe, or educate themselves?  Know what they call a country that lets their newborns die? China.
So, I guess I’m asking someone to tell me how you can be a Christian and not believe in the following:
  • Helping the poor
  • Avoiding war
  • Supporting children (the live ones)
  • Supporting the elderly
  • Supporting the disabled
If you can show me where the Republican platform and Donald Trump have done ANYTHING for the groups mentioned above, I’ll vote for all of them in the next election.
Rex

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Listen

So I’m watching this video today and something the guy said struck me.  He said “white kids today are only told the good part of their history, not the bad.”  All they see are the things that put the actions of our leaders in a light that makes them out to be good people.  None of the bad is shown.  For example, all they see is that Thomas Jefferson was an inventor, politician, and writer who authored the Declaration of Independence.  What they are not taught is that he was also a slave owner, who had an affair (or possibly raped) one of those slaves and fathered children with her. 
There are two opposing perspectives here.  One shows a great man who was instrumental in shaping a nation.  The other shows a degenerate who had low morals and little care for the lives of an entire race.  They’re both the same person.  However, when you spend your entire childhood learning to believe one thing, it’s very difficult to understand that your hero is also and extremely flawed human being.  Think Bill Cosby.

We deal with these challenges today.  You could split them into two groups, but really there are many.  People live in a bubble and only see what is fed to them through social media.  By the way, getting your news on social media is a lot like being a mushroom; you’re kept in the dark and fed shit all day.  People close themselves off from different ideas and ideologies.  Ideas counter to their own are a threat.  This is a very divisive attitude and ultimately what you end up with is war.

I admit it.  I had a very liberal upbringing.  I stared kindergarten in 1970.  The country was just coming to terms with racism being a bad thing.  I was actually taught as early as grade school that our country’s founders were flawed human beings.  We had to understand that both the good and the bad were true.  Until now it has never occurred to me that other people may not have had the same experience.  Even in my Lutheran Sunday School classes I learned the dangers of separating race and religion in a free society.  My mother even took us to different churches to show us how other people approached God and just because it was different, didn’t mean it was wrong. 

I am constantly bombarded with the idea that the right only teaches one way to pray, or that only one race is special.  In fact, based on reporting and recent Presidential elections, this is how half of the country thinks.  Half of the country thinks that having compassion is crazy.  Think about that for a moment.  I am to believe that half the county believes that being inclusive, providing healthcare for all, and helping the needy, is bat…shit…crazy.  Saving a fetus is a good thing.  Educating and feeding a child…well…that’s just crazy talk. 

However that’s really too simple an observation.  Not every liberal believes in abortion and not every conservative wants to arm a teacher.  There are nuances to every perspective.  This means there’s room for dialog.  We just have to be willing to talk.  That’s the biggest hurdle.  However, when our leaders capitalize on divisions rather than what brings people together it makes it difficult for any one to be heard, and almost impossible for reasonable solutions.     

It is difficult to change someone’s opinion, especially when it is rooted in deep-seated ideologies taught from birth.  Think about it.  Imagine if someone came to you tomorrow and told you everything you knew to be true was actually false, and vise versa.  Would you react with acceptance, or would you tell them to piss off?  A great majority of people will do what they are doing today, hide inside a social media bubble that echoes what they already think.  Change is often painful.  Not everyone can deal with pain. 
So what’s to blame for this?  Really it is ourselves.  Certainly, there needs to be more education across the board to inform children that life is not black and white.  There are a whole lot of colors in the world and we need to understand all of them.  But those of us who believe we are enlightened about the world need to also understand that we may not have all the answers.  There just might be something we can learn from someone who has a different opinion.  Because the best way to get someone to listen to you, is to first listen to them.
Rex
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We Need Fewer Morons


Oh for the love of Christ!  Here we are again, another mass shooting.  This time in Broward County F.L.A.  The land of the hanging chad.  This shit happens so often I don’t even have to watch the news to know what will be said.  On the left politicians will come out say how horrible this is and how we need to do something now.  On the right they are saying it’s too soon to talk about gun laws now is a time for mourning.  What they’re really doing is playing to their base.  What this means is they’re both full of shit.
The gun lobbies that feed money to politicians, are the true killers here.  They have nothing in their eyes but dollar signs.  Even the NRA’s own membership thinks we need stricter gun laws, but as soon as that’s suggested the baby killers on both sides use these tragedies to fill their own pockets.  In fact, I think I’m now going to call the NRA the and anti-gun lobby a new group called the NBKA, the National Baby Killer Association. 
Here’s how fucked up our citizens really are.  President Obama did absolutely nothing to limit the ownership of firearms.  In fact he even did a few things to shore up ownership.  However, that didn’t prevent the NBKA from selling the idea that the red necks were going to lose their guns.  As a consequence gun and ammunition sales went off the charts!  So did the prices.  Then when the orange wonder was elected their sales have TANKED!  So did their prices and their stock.  That’s likely the reason some 19 year old wackjob was able to afford an assault rifle, walk into a crowd of high school kids and shoot them without the least fucking bit of resistance. 
The irony of all this is that people who claim to be staunch supporters of the right to life have absolutely no remorse…NONE…when it comes to killing thousands each year by gun fire.  The same people who stand outside abortion clinics screaming baby killer at law abiding citizens exercising their rights to heath care, themselves support the murder of children every year.  The only difference is they’d prefer them shot in the head.  As long as it’s by assault rifle, you can kill as many babies as you like!
One thing you can bank on is that absolutely nothing will change.  As long as the NBKA is in charge rest assured the baby killing will continue.  The left will say we need fewer guns.  The right will say we need more guns.  Although I will say that the argument for more guns to reduce baby killings is like saying I need more gasoline to put out the gas fire.  Either way both positions are wrong.  What we need is fewer morons.  Figure out that problem and you solve all the others.
Rex
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Happy Birthday Baby!

Not for nothin’, but when I was 13 years old I had teachers telling me I should just hang it up.  I wasn’t going to amount anything anyway.  I’m happy to say that people like Mr. Day were wrong, so when I look back on my life I’m happy that I’m employed, financially secure, and personally very happy.  I think I have accomplished a lot in my years on this planet.  But when I start getting cocky and think I’ve conquered the world, all I have to do is look over at my wife, the queen of accomplishment, to pull myself back into reality.
We have been married for over five years now.  In fact, it was six years ago this month that we first met in Moab, Utah for our first date.  I will be forever grateful for that day.  It has started a journey for me personally I never thought I’d have.  I adore my her.  She’s my hero and always will be.  When I think of all the things I’ve done in my life they pale in comparison to her.  She’s a mother of three, and grandmother of five, who put herself through law school while raising a family of boys.  I mean…kill me now!  To add insult to injury she opened her own law firm last year and the success even surpassed her own expectations.  She now has a nice office in downtown Colorado Springs, three employees, and is considering bringing on another attorney as well as opening a second office in Nevada.  That’s in ONE year!  She’s done in 12 months what it usually takes people five years to accomplish.  So…it’s pretty humbling when I go to work to manage the projects of a bunch of tech geeks to know that Kim is blazing a trail that few men, let alone women have done. 
I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised.  Four years ago, she decided that she would run five marathons before she turned 50.  This was at a time when she had never run more than say five miles in her life.  But there we were, a year later, a couple of weeks before her 50thbirthday running up and back to the Hoover Dam to finish her fifth marathon that year.  I’d say that’s a lot of work just to earn a glass of chocolate milk at the end of the day.  But no one has ever accused my wife of under doing it. 
I’m not saying that living with a type A++ personality is a total picnic.  God forbid you forget to take your shoes off after she’s cleaned the floors.  Not only that making trips to the Walmart, or the Mall can be a test in patience.  I can shop at a store and in under 15 minutes I get everything I knew I needed before I walked in and that’s it (Home Depot and Lowes not withstanding).  But you go shopping with my wife and 16 and a half hours later you’ve left with everything on her list, plus a new dress, shoes, a sweater or two, presents for all the grandkids and a new Cadillac. 
Also, never contradict her.  She will outright tell you there’s a wrong way to do things, and there’s her way. That’s pretty much it.  It can be quite the challenge to find out that after 47 years you were doing everything the wrong way.  She’s patient with me though…well…for the most part, so I’m thinking by the time I get to be say 97, I might have life all down pat. 
What I can say about this is if you know me personally, or work with me, you know that I adore my wife.  It comes out in everything I say and do and I am constantly trying to make her proud to be married to me.  There hasn’t been one time that I’ve regretted marrying her.  I’ve regretted contradicting her.  I’ve regretted arguing with her.  But I have never regretted being married to her. 
So what brings all this on?  Today she is 53, and planning to run another set of marathons this year.  In fact she’s at the gym now weight training.  And today I wish her the best of days for now and always.  I love her dearly and will be forever dedicated to her for the rest of my life.
Love you baby!

Rex
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Happy Anniversary Baby!

I love you my wife.  Tomorrow it will have been five years since we married and I love you more now than the day we met.  I know I say that a lot but it’s true.  I really do!  The first 47 years of my life were absolutely boring.  I thought I was destined for a life of misery and mediocrity.  Then you came along and the journey has been nothing but amazing!
As you know before we met I was planning on moving to the woods and becoming a hermit.  I had finished with the human race.  I’d had enough.  You changed my plans of never shaving again and only occasionally bathing.  My mother thanks you.  So do the hundreds of individuals who would have met me in the Walmart every Friday for grocery and donut day.  
But seriously, I never expected how much I would come to love you as much as I do, or how much I would come to depend on you over the years.  I know I can by trying, and I know I’m not the best at showing you how I feel sometimes, but you should always know that you are in my heart all day, every day.
There are many moments where I sit and just start smiling about something you have said or done.  You constantly bring me joy.  Where I am weak, you are strong.  I have to say that no one could ask for a better match. 
Not once in the five years we have been together have I questioned the decision to marry you.  Never, not once.  I might joke about it but that’s it.  I don’t even mind never winning an argument.  Although you might throw me a bone once in a while.  But really that’s not important to me.  I just like being with you.  If you decided tomorrow you wanted to pull up roots and move out of the country I’d go.  
I am completely content with you whether we are at the movies, going to the store, or just sitting on the couch listening to the rain hit the side of the house.  It’s not about what we are doing, it’s about just doing it with you.
You are one of the most passionate people I know.  Whether it’s work, running, or that odd sport you call football.  Also, your dedication to your family is very important to me as well.  You have a love for your children and grandchildren that I can’t help but feel if all parents felt that way the world would be a better place.  I know it’s better for me as long as you and I are together. 
Suffice it to say that I can’t imagine being without you.  You are my sun, my moon, and my stars.  You are my friend, my confidante and my lover.  And for that I will always be grateful.  Let’s hope the next 100 years together are as good or better than the previous five.  And yes…I plan to live that long. The banks wouldn’t have it any other way.
I love you!

Me