The interest rates on Stafford Student loans is set to double from 3.4% to 6.8% on July 1st if congress does not act before then. Both the Senate and House versions of a bill to cap the rates were voted down just before the Memorial Day break. It’s looking unlikely that a bill may pass before the deadline. 

Democrats wish to pay for the bill by closing a tax loophole for wealthy Americans. Republicans want to pay for the bill by repealing a section of the Affordable Care Act. 

I believe the reality is that while Congressional Republicans feel they need to pay lip service to keeping student loan rates low for political reasons, the truth is that they hope the deadline passes and rates double. The reason why is obvious.

Studies by the Pew Research Center, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, and about a million independent social psychologists all indicate a strong correlation between higher education and liberal ideology. By making it harder for people to get a college education or an advanced degree they hope to slowly make America less educated, therefore more Republican. 

As an example I offer “Mr. Frothy” himself; Rick Santorum. Ricky accused President Obama of being a “snob” because he wants “everybody in American to go to college.” This is a curious statement considering Santorum actually has more advanced degrees than Obama does. Santorum went on to imply to a crowd in Troy, Michigan that college professors try to “indoctrinate” students. Obviously Santorum has had enough education to see a correlation between higher education and liberal thinking (obviously in people other than himself) and sees it as a danger to his extreme right wing agenda. My son, who happens to be a college professor, does not indoctrinate students. He simply explains that he will be unable to pass them if they are not Democrats.

I don’t think everyone in America should go to college, but I would hope that higher education would be an aspiration for most young Americans and I do think it should be as assessable as possible. An educated America is a more innovative and prosperous America. Isn’t that part of the American dream? 

Besides, I’m a unapologetic liberal and I want to see the Republican Party crushed like the un-educated cockroaches they are. Opps….did I just say that out-loud?

Over the years several of you have suggested that perhaps it is time for me to stop serving on the staffs of traditional congregations and to start my own church. In fact, many of you have pledged to become charter members. After having several articles published recently over at Revelife and receiving a bunch of arrogant, hateful, and downright crazy comments, I’m not sure I want to go to church with any of those folks so I think I’m going to take you up on your suggestion. 

I’ve been thinking about how my church would work. Here is my plan:

1. Services will be conducted over webcast or Skype. Followers will be asked to set up their laptops in their favorite bar that has free Wi-Fi. Services will be held every Friday after work during happy hour. 
2. Since we will all be at a bar, my sermons will also be a drinking game. I will send out a secret word via email each week before the service. Whenever I use that word in my sermon everyone has to down a shot. 
3. You may have any religious beliefs you wish, but under no circumstances are you allowed to be a dick about them.
4. Since I believe the concept of Separation of Church and State is sacrosanct we will never discuss politics during service times. However, after each service there will be a “fellowship” hour. During the fellowship hour the member that comes up with the best Republican joke gets all their drinks paid for. 
5. Following the great tradition established by so many of the high-profile church leaders that have come before me, I reserve the right to have sex with any female church member whenever I wish. However, I will need to ask my wife’s permission first, so if you are a potential female church member I wouldn’t waste too much time worrying about this one. 
6. I will be accepting donations, but in the spirit of full disclosure I’ll let you know right now that I plan to spend all the money on a new boat. I promise never to spend the money on male prostitutes and blow. 
7. There will be things that we are going to stress as a congregation. Those things are:

Family – Whatever your family may look like. Service – You will be required to find one area of service and stick with it. Be it Habitat for Humanity, your local hospital, or your local shelter/soup kitchen, we believe that church members serve others. Basic Human Decency – We believe in treating everyone with respect and compassion (unless of course that person is Rush Limbaugh; you can kick him in the balls.) Critical Thinking -  At no point is anyone to believe anything I say without thinking through it critically, because most of the time I will be completely full of shit. 

There you go. That’s my church. Please get your registration in early. The first 100 people to sign up will get an autographed head shot and an engraved wall plaque that says “I’m a Charter Member of the First Church of the Cold Skivvies.”

See you at services on Friday. 

Two and half years ago I stopped posting because too many customers were finding my site and declaring that they could no longer do business with me because I had abandoned my ministerial roots and become a tree-hugin, homo-lovin, pinko-commie-bastard, godless reprobate (and they didn’t even know that I occasionally have wet dreams about Hillary Clinton!) 

At the time my plan was to shut down the site completely, but instead I decided to go through six years of posts and meticulously delete any references to my real name and then let the site sit. After two and half years it is now virtually impossible to find this site by googling my name. Since anything you post on the internet is forever, It can be done, but you’d really have to work at. If someone wants to work that hard to find a reason not to do business with me then chances are they are probably a dick and I don’t want their money anyway. 

I moved over to blogspot where I post heart warming little reflections on life and link them to my Facebook page. But at no time can I say something on Blogspot like…

COMPARING RICK SANTORUM TO “FROTHY FECAL MATER” IS AN INSULT TO FROTHY FECAL MATER 

 …without fear of retribution. 

 I really miss that. 

So I’m back. I don’t know how often I’ll post but I need an outlet where I can say exactly what I think, and here is my first topic:

I recently submitted an old post to revelife. Of course I had to do some serious editing before I submitted it, but to their credit they actually published it. Obviously I took a position on a topic (the subject of God’s will) that wasn’t exactly “theologically mainstream.” I was really curious what kind of comments the post would get. So far the post has gotten a about 40 comments and many of them were from people who would not identify themselves as “Christians.” There were pleasant comments from both sides of the fence but I did notice something; the handful of comments that were snippy, condescending, hateful, or downright crazy, were all from Christians. In the post I referenced the story of my mother’s battle with Schizophrenia. One person actually commented that a friend had done research and discovered that Schizophrenia was the result of a generational curse caused by an ancestor dabbling in the occult. 

I thought the Salem Witch Trials happened in 1629, but apparently that kind of crazy still lives on. 

So a quick suggestion for all my Christian friends who believe in the Great Commission and are serious about sharing their faith; stop being assholes. I promise it will go along way toward helping you achieve your goal.

I don’t know if there in anyone left who used to read my drivel. If you’re still here, I’d love for you to say hi!