We Are the Vampires by Neil Benson

Vampires are us, not other. When we look into the mirror, they are the twisted reflections of evil within us. This is not to say that all, or even most, people are essentially evil. Rather, the vampire is a metaphor for some of our evil wishes. As much as the myth of the vampire is about sex, it is also about greed. The vampire hungers for the blood of the living and takes it by force, not caring whether the victim lives or dies. Of course, there is the exception. That is when the vampire for personal reasons decides to turn the victim into one of the "undead." Evil breeding evil.


Various legends and myths make Lilith, Adam's first wife, the mother of all vampires or all succubi. According to the myth, Lilith refused to subjugate herself to Adam and demanded to be his equal. She might have been the first feminist. For her defiance, she paid an awful price. The Angels killed her children, and she in turn swore vengeance on the descendent of Adam. There are 4000-year-old stone carvings of Lilith. The presence of the carving does not necessarily make her real. However, for people to have taken the trouble to make carvings of her meant she was of more than minor significance. There are legends of vampires in many other cultures separated from the civilizations that arose in Mesopotamia and its neighboring areas.


I believe one way to look at the vampire is to see the creature as humanity disowning its own evil intent. We invent the creature and give it lust and other qualities we deny exist in ourselves. After millenniums passed, the vampire arrived in literature. First in John Polypore's The Vampyre, then in Carmilla" by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, and finally in Dracula by Bram Stoker. It is worth noting that Lord Ruthven in Vampire and Carmilla both appear as "normal" human beings. However, Dracula is described as thin, with a long white mustache, pointed ears and sharp teeth. He is dressed all in black and has hair on his palms. Jonathan Harker notes his "extraordinary" pallor.

I believe Dracula was depicted to make him an evil looking creature, not one of us. A hundred years pass, and vampires are once again indistinguishable from us. In many novels, they are creatures of great beauty and allure. In recent novels, they have been tamed, and were it not for their thirst for blood and immortality, could probably join the Chamber of Commerce. But in 2007, continuing into 2008 and 2009, a worldwide financial catastrophe brings forth a different vampire. These vampires do not take in blood, nor are they immortal and have inhuman strength. Rather, these vampires sucked the financial blood of the nation that a second Great Depression was only narrowly averted. These vampires are bankers, brokers, heads of investment firms, mortgage agents, and a host of others who fed on society's greed for bigger, better houses.


Vampires will always be among us. For they are "us" in our worst aspects. Whether in the form of the myth or the reality of people so greedy they would destroy an economy, they are us.

Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson Bound for Hell

Just when you think you've heard the ultimate insensitive comment from Rush Limbaugh, he shows you that you have underestimated his ability to be less than a human being. On a recent radio show, his Rushness said,

" Speaking on his radio show Wednesday, Limbaugh said the earthquake has played into Obama’s hands, allowing the president to look “compassionate” and “humanitarian” while at the same time bolstering his standing in both the “light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country.” He added: “We've already donated to Haiti. It’s called the U.S. income tax.”

Conservative columnists on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Show said the following.

“They are deeply insensitive,” said conservative commentator Pat Buchanan on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Sitting next to Buchanan on set, host Joe Scarborough called Limbaugh’s comments “deplorable.” “The insensitivity is stunning,” said the former Republican congressman.

How can Rush Limbaugh consider himself a Christian when he says so many vile things, and holds his fellow men and women in such contempt. It would be interesting to see him attempting to enter heaven and St. Peter holding an inch thick file of the venomous things he has said during his life. Get into heaven? No way. Bound for a much warmer climate.

While Limbaugh received a modicum of support, nobody of note has stepped up to defend Robertson’s claim that Haiti got hit by an earthquake because it is “cursed.”

Speaking about the disaster during his program “The 700 Club” on the Christian Broadcasting Network, Robertson said that when Haiti was still a French colony its leaders “swore a pact to the devil” to get out from “under the heel of the French.”

“They said, ‘we will serve you if you will get us free from the French.’ True story. And so, the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal,’”

No doubt Pat Robertson considers himself a person close to God. Once Robertson shuffles off this mortal coil he is likely to find himself heartily embraced by Satan rather than uplifted into glory and heaven. The man is just plain mean. What he says disqualifies him not only as a Christian, but also as a human being.

The NBC Scandal: The True Story

I was astonished to learn there was a scandal at NBC. But if the New York Times says there was a scandal, then there must have been a scandal. In today's New York Times, Alessandra Stanley, wrote the following.

"Possibly the most incisive joke about NBC's late-night meltdown came from Conan O’Brien’s “Tonight Show” sidekick Andy Richter. “It’s been the most fun I’ve ever had in a show-biz scandal,” Mr. Richter said sardonically to Mr. O'Brien on their set on Tuesday.

The NBC scandal isn’t fun exactly, but it is has produced the kind of must-see-in-real-time television that late-night comedy shows rarely offer anymore."

While it would be foolish to challenge anything said in the New York Times, perhaps the above bears some further investigation। According to Webster's online dictionary, the top three definitions for the word scandal are listed below.

1 a : discredit brought upon religion by unseemly conduct in a religious person b : conduct that causes or encourages a lapse of faith or of religious obedience in another
2 : loss of or damage to reputation caused by actual or apparent violation of morality or propriety : disgrace
3 a : a circumstance or action that offends propriety or established moral conceptions or disgraces those associated with it b : a person whose conduct offends propriety or morality

As I read the above definitions, nothing that has happened with Jay Leno or Conan O'Brien meets any of these criteria. Why should I be an old curmudgeon and ruin the party? After all, the public's appetite for information about scandal seems bottomless. The David Letterman scandal in the fall, was a small prelude to the Tiger Woods scandal. Though Tigers pummeling is far from an end, the day will come when he crawls back onto the golf course to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Or is that outrageously bad boy behavior? Never mind, it's probably the same. It's probably best that I not get involved with such controversies. I have to help my publisher get my vampire novel ready for publication. Vampires. That's a safe subject. You've never heard of a vampire scandals, have you?

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The Obstructionist Republican Party

What's left of the Republican Party has a new motto. It's "Just Say No" again, and again to anything proposed by the current administration. It could be argued that the Republicans are fulfilling their role as the loyal opposition. However, that argument is terribly thin because it is hard to know what the Republican Party stands for, if it stands for anything at all.

The main mission of the Republican Party seems to be to prevent President Obama from implementing any plan in any area. The Republicans voted against the stimulus package, and offered very little in the way of an alternative that made sense to anybody but fellow Republicans. They were against the bailout of the big three automakers which ought to be interesting the next time they're trying to get votes in Ohio and Michigan.

The essential nature of the current Republican Party position was eloquently stated in July, by Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina. When talking with Republican activists regarding efforts to stop the current health care initiative he said, "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him." If Senator DeMint were interested in serving the interests of the people of South Carolina, he might remember the large percentage of his constituency, which has either no health insurance or inadequate health care coverage. The senator from South Carolina may be prescient in his prediction of Waterloo, but it may be about his own party rather than the president.

The Republicans rightly raise concerns about the amount of money being spent by the Democratic Congress and the Obama administration. Unfortunately, the Republicans are adept at raising concerns, but short on offering realistic alternatives to solving the critical problems facing this country today. The continued absence of meaningful leadership within the Republican Party has allowed Sarah Palin to develop delusions about her ability to run for the presidency in 2012. Perhaps the Republican Party will get its just reward after all.

Health Insurance Companies Cannot Be Trusted with Our Health.

In an article in Slate magazine, Timothy Noah stated, "Private insurance companies dump very sick claimants based on stupid technicalities. That's reason enough to support health care reform." To back up his point, Noah described what is known as "Rescission," which is the process health insurers use to avoid paying out benefits to treat serious illness by finding minor errors in policyholder's paperwork that can justify canceling the policy. John Grisham's Book, The Rainmaker, described this process in detail, and was the basis for the movie of the same name starring Matt Damon.

Noah's article describes two specific instances in which persons were denied critical health care based on the flimsiest of excuses. Actually, it's very simple. Health insurance companies are in the business of making money. Their primary obligation is to their stockholders, not to the people who purchase health insurance from them. Is it fair to castigate everyone working in the health-insurance business? No, but that's besides the point. The system isn't working. That is the point.

This country has the highest level of medical technology in the world, but an inept, fragmentized, and at times highly unethical system of delivering health care services. The current health care system is bankrupting the country and denying critical medical services to millions of people. It is the ethical responsibility of Congress to put in place a better system. Of course, no one wants to put in place a system that can't be funded. Members of both political parties owe it to their constituents to work together to put in place a system that can at least start to provide adequate health care coverage for everyone.

I wanted to keep this post a positive one, except for the comments about the health-insurance industry. However, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Senator Jim Demint of South Carolina. Senator Demint's personal beliefs are more important to him than the welfare of the constituency he is supposed to serve. Otherwise he wouldn't be making reference to stopping President Obama on health care being the equivalent of his Waterloo. Senator Demint created his own personal Waterloo by making this remark.

The Supreme Court and Other Myths about Judges

For two days Sonia Sotomayor has repeatedly stated the mythical mantra that all decisions made by judges are based on the law. She has had to do this while Republican senators have baited her about her "Wise Latina" remark. Again, and again she has reassured each Republican Senator that her decisions have been, and will be, based solely on the law. Did you miss that? Her decisions have been, and will be, based solely on the law. If she were to do this, then she would probably be the first judge in history to accomplish this feat.

Every human being makes decisions based on a variety of factors. The decisions that people make are ultimately based on information they believe to be true. This information is gathered through a filtering process based on people's belief systems, emotions, and a whole host of unconscious and subconscious feelings and experiences that all people possess. To assert that a judge is able to bypass to all past experience, ignore emotions and feelings, and be totally aware of all the subconscious motivations is utter nonsense. Millions of people saw the interview with Chief Justice Clarence Thomas on 60 minutes. Can anyone actually believe that this angry man who grew up with a tyrant of her grandfather does not have his decisions influenced by that experience?

During the current hearings to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, stated that in every major case Supreme Court Justice Roberts sided with the prosecution over the defendant. I'm sure that the Chief Justice could cite his reasons for each and every case, but the sheer consistency on his decision-making pattern speaks to an internal believe system that outweighs the impartiality of the law. Justice Roberts has a view of the way the world should be. The information he gathers on a cognitive basis is filtered through that worldview. To believe that all all his decisions are based solely on the Constitution, legal precedent, and total impartiality beggars the imagination.

The notion that "facts are facts" is also nonsense. I live in the South where the civil war never happened. Rather, there was a war of Northern aggression called by Southerners the War between the States. The southern conceptualization of the civil war is very much alive, and if anyone doubts it, there are many Southerners who would be more than willing to debate the issue. Belief systems structure "facts" and marshal them into a coherent view of the world that enables people to live in a society that make sense to them. Judges, and Supreme Court justices, are not immune to this process and cannot render judicial systems in isolation from the society in which they live in the believes they have about themselves in the world around them. The fact that only one member of the Supreme Court is a woman is testimony to the impact of society. The fact that only one member of the Supreme Court is black or Hispanic is also testimony to the impact of society.