Anybody know who’s president-elect? SLO County District Attorney Dan Dow says he knows a dude who knows.
“The outcome of the election will not be a surprise to God,” Dow posted on his Facebook page. “He is already there in the future. So, there is no need to worry or be anxious.” Underneath Dow’s proclamation was a meme of a pier at sunset overlaid with a verse from Philippians 4:6, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.”
OK! Dear God, please explain separation of church and state to Dow and help him understand how divisive he’s being. Remind him that not all his constituents share his Christian faith, and when they see him flouting state health mandates by announcing that SLO County is a “sanctuary county for worship and praise in church” or posting Bible verses to social media, it makes some of us wonder if, as the chief law enforcement official in the county, he’s committed to following the law or following his own personal ideology.
Also, God, while I’ve got you on the line, please explain to all of us your behavior. You’re omniscient, right? So you know everything. You know even before we’re born whether we’ll be good and worthy of heaven or bad and sent to hell for eternity. I dunno, but it seems a tad mean that you created us as we are, flaws and all, and that you know some of us will be burning in hell for eternity but you make us anyway. I know you sometimes get pissed off and all. I mean, that worldwide flood was a real bummer, not to mention all the smiting, but the whole hell thing seems really vindictive. Just sayin’.
P.S.—God, if the Cheeto-Bandito manages to win a second term, mark me as OK with smiting him. He’s smite-able! No one’s more smite-able in the history of smiting. Remember in 1 Kings 20:30 when you made that wall fall and kill 27,000 soldiers retreating from the Israelites? That was some world-class smiting, and there’s this wall on our southern border, and … well, you know where I’m going. You’re omniscient! Thanks for all that you do!
Speaking of hypocrites, I keep seeing people losing their shit on social media over so-called Trump Trains, those lines of pickup trucks flying American flags and Trump banners and revving their engines through your neighborhoods while you’re trying to read The Atlantic or The New Yorker like a good little left-winger. So you’re fine with Black Lives Matter protests shutting down Highway 101 because—FREE SPEECH!—but eight monster truckers roll down your street and you have an online conniption fit? What gives? Hypocrite much?
Also, Trump Train wrecks, go ahead and drive your stupid gas-guzzlers around with your MAGA hats, “I Hate Libtards” bumper stickers, and trailer hitch testicles as much as you want, but when you park your stupid-ass trucks with your pro-Trump banners in front of the Octagon Barn, which is a voting center, now you’re guilty of voter intimidation, dumbasses.
I personally like MAGA hats. Makes it easier to spot the fascists and racists! Interestingly, despite SLO County Sheriff Ian Parkinson‘s earlier pronouncement that SLO County isn’t a racist place—that BLM protest were examples of SLO County “being trashed over an issue that is truly not here in that form”—turns out there’s now irrefutable proof that SLO County is systemically racist as hell. Lots of SLO County housing deeds still to this very day contain covenants that say, “No persons of any race other than the Caucasian race shall use or occupy any building or any lot, except that this covenant shall not prevent occupancy by domestic servants or a different race domiciled with an owner or tenant.”
What the what? Yes, read all about it in “In the system” (p. 8), where you’ll discover SLO was designed to put white peeps in power like all the other happy towns around the country. Hopefully despite these racist covenants, which by the way are no longer legally enforceable, thank God (and the Supreme Court), most SLOcals are getting woke. As I write this, only 65 percent of cast votes were tallied, but we’re looking like a Biden/Harris county, 59.71 percent to Trump/Pence‘s 38.22 percent.
It also appears we’re supporting Salud Carbajal for another term as the 24th District U.S. Representative. It’s a real squeaker between incumbent 35th District State Assemblyperson Jordan Cunningham (50.75 percent) and his challenger Dawn Addis (49.25 percent). It also appears SLO Towners are willing to give the red-rose-festooned another shot at making SLO into a progressive-environmentalist paradise. Mayor Heidi Harmon currently has 53.93 percent of the vote compared to her closest challenger Cherisse Sweeney at 32.28 percent. Nice try, conservatives, but no Republican cigar!
It also looks like Sweeney’s alliance with SLO council candidate Abrianna Torres has failed. Torres (16.81 percent) trails incumbent Andrea “Andy” Pease (24.60 percent) and former mayor Jan Howell Marx (20.54 percent). In other election news, did you know there’s a Ground Squirrel Hollow Community Services District? Me neither! And get this! Looks like SLO has agreed to raise its sale tax with Measure G-20 (59.61 percent yes). Δ
The Shredder is praying. Send thoughts and prayers to shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Nov 5-15, 2020.
So what you are saying is that if you are a Christian, you are not allowed to publically express your faith on your private page. Or are Christians not allowed to serve our country? Dan is a man of integrity and follows the laws as they are written.
Separation of church and state was not written in our constitution. It is however in Russia’s constitution.
The phrase was written by one of our founders to a church who was worried the government might be able to demand what denomination was to be followed. The writer was reassuring the clergyman that the state was separate from church and had no right to intercede.
The constitution declares that we have freedom AND PRACTICE of our faith.
Further, the supreme court declared in the late 1800s that this was a Christian nation. The decision was unanimous.
Lord please open the eyes of these ungodly liberals to the truth. Help them see and know how much You love them.
Tom, with all due respect (which is none at all), you are a pathetic moron. You are completely ignorant to what the Constitution actually says…and you completely blow up the rest of the First Amendment by denying Dan the right to speak his mind on a personal basis! By your standards, no government employee can ever have a personal opinion! I know, you are all for freedom of speech as long as you agree with what is being said. God bless Dan Dow!
Food for thought. I too was once angry at God, whom in truth I did not know or really even know if I believed in. Oddly enough, science has played a huge role in my coming to have faith in a God I did not know; including the science of time and space with regard to God as correctly referenced by Dan Dow. What you wrote is not new to God. My list was quite a bit longer; my anger and grievances quite deep. What you missed in your argument, as did I for many years, was the greatest gift God gave man(humans). He gave us the ability from the beginning to choose Him or not. He did not create us defenseless either. He actually loved us enough to write His ways onto our hearts and gave us a conscious to bear witness, or not, to His love and His loving ways. There is no greater grief than knowing the gift of choice may result in someone living in rebellion or flat out denying your existence. Many a parent has experienced this very burden and grief on some level. In my anger, I wanted a lot back from life “stolen” from me in my youth. I wanted back what God, out of love for me and those around me, could never give back to me. His denial of my “needs” sure didn’t feel loving. I am so glad now that He didn’t cave to my demands. At the time however, I threw many an emotional tantrum. I even took things that I knew He would never give me, then blamed Him for the bad results of my choices. I did my best to justify much rebellion because of His not stepping in and stopping what was at the foundation of my pain from years past. But then there we are back at choice. How much God grieves over what man does to man; again meaning humankind. Even if we agree God could have stopped the evil committed against many of us in our youth, I had to be willing to look past all the smoke and mirrors blinding me to what ultimately is a loving Creator, just not by human standards and definitions of what love is. God is always an easy target. Thankfully He has really big “shoulders”. He does love you Shredder and my hope would be that you might look deeper into the God who did know you before you were weaved in your mother’s womb. You were wonderfully made, again, not by human standards of what is wonderful, but Gods. It is your choice to separate yourself from him, even eternally. Don’t blame God for your choices. He has a peace for you that surpasses all understanding if you would just welcome Him into the home of your heart. Don’t shred yourself from the truth in love of His presence, and all that His open outstretched arms have waiting for you and ALL who will simply call on His name!
In Christ Jesus’ love, in spirit and truth,
Linda Van Housen-Vadney
Separation of Church and State is not in the Constitution. If Mighty Heighty can use her office to forward the BLM movement…then Dan Dow has every right to announce what he believes!
So, Heidi Mighty can use her office, voice, and influence to support the BLM movement, but our District Attorney cannot voice his own opinion??
Also, separation of church and state is NOT in the Constitution…
Feedback for Shredder: It’s been said by one wiser than me that, “Outer experience is a reflection of inner reality”. When I look at what might be a part of your outer experience, I find the following: You have targeted a particular person, in this case Dan Dow, and made him the object of your own untempered and faulty judgments. You judge him as being divisive. Those of us who know Dan, some of us for probably longer than you’ve been wearing big boy pants, know there’s not even a teeny bit of truth to what you say. So…..Well, well, well. Look at who really is the one being divisive here, actually. I do not see one single thing that you have said that unites your readers. You say “I personally like MAGA hats. Makes it easier to spot the fascists and racists!” Nice. Really? Is that something that unites your readers? NO. Certainly not this one. Since you’ve gone to the trouble of targeting a public figure in a public forum you should know feedback is likely to be broad. Or maybe not if you have previously used up and lost any readership you would have gained in the past. In that case you may have needed to change your pen name. If not, then I doubt many would follow such a divisive author for very long. At least not one who tries to disguise his anger-fueled disrespect and incorrect judgements projected onto a large part of the population. Yes, your anger is quite apparent and cleverly made up but, lipstick on a pig is still lipstick on a pig. When you target people, don’t think your anger can be disguised for long. Better for us all, would be for you to you clean up your anger. Usually underneath all that anger is a bucket of hurt. Hurt people hurt people. And that is what you are trying to do. You’re cleverly lashing out and trying to hurt someone, anyone. Maybe you think that’s normal. It’s not. It’s easy for us to see. We can see through the clever wordsmithing that is actually not very helpful to anyone. And, you’ve not really connected with many of us in a positive way. If you’re hurt and angry, you’d be better off finding a way to privately address that. Resolve it. Heal it. Don’t come in here with your trash and think we will like you or agree with you or read much of what you say. See if you can find common ground without being judgmental. Here’s a hint: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Mathew 7. AND; Mathew 5: You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. So that is how you are perceived here in this public forum. You are seen as an angry person because of unresolved pain. So heal it. Just do it. Here’s another hint….that same wise person also said to me…. “Healing is the application of loving to a part that hurts or is suffering”. Yep. It’s love that you need. But you won’t find it while you are demonstrating your current outer experience because your inner reality needs some clean up. So… off you go! Get busy….Maybe we’ll see some positive changes in your future endeavors. JUST FYI and IMHO
https://billofrightsinstitute.org/founding…