tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9831783840292294422024-02-19T11:14:47.559-05:00The Water is PoisonGod:Politics:Media
The Water is Poison, and we've been drinking it!konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.comBlogger265125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-85489468893843852552011-04-14T09:54:00.001-04:002011-04-14T09:55:51.393-04:00Proven Lies from Birthers Part 1Amongst the transcripts from the original lawsuit regarding Obama's birth place is an interesting attempt to lie that has spread as fact. The idea that Obama's Grandmother said he was born in Kenya. In fact, here is what Berg tried to push on the courts as fact. <br /><br /> <blockquote> Ron McRae: Amen. I am so thankful. Could I ask her, uh, about his, uh, his actual birthplace? I would like to see his actual birthplace when I, when I come to Kenya in December. Uh, was she present when he was, was she present when he was born in Kenya?.…<br /><br /> Translator: Yes. She says, “Yes she was! She was present when Obama was born.”<br /><br /> McRae: Okay.</blockquote><br /><br /><br />Problem is, that is not true. Here is what the ACTUAL transcript of that interview with Obama's Grandmother says that, in fact, Berg had in his possession! <br /><br /><blockquote> McRae: Okay, uh, when I come in December I would like to go by the, the place, the hospital where he is born. Uh, could you tell me where he was born? Was he born in Mombasa? (Long pause) . . .<br /><br /> Translator: No, no — what? . . . No! Obama was not born in Mombasa. He was born in America.<br /><br /> McRae: Wh-whereabouts, whereabouts was he born? I, I thought he was born in Kenya.<br /><br /> Translator: No he was born in America, not in Mombasa.<br /><br /> McRae: OK. Do you know whereabouts he was born?<br /><br /> Translator: Huh?<br /><br /> McRae: Do you know where he was born? I thought he was born in Kenya. I was gonna go by and see where he was born. . . .<br /><br /> Translator: Sir, she says he was born in Hawaii.<br /><br /> McRae: OK.<br /><br /> Translator: Yeah, in 1960 this was Hawaii, where his father, his father was also marrying there. This was Hawaii.<br /><br /> McRae: OK. . . . I thought you said she was present. Was she, was, was she, was she able to see him being, being born in, in Hawaii? . . .<br /><br /> Translator: No, no! The, the woman was not present. She was uh not, a what — you see, she was here in Kenya, and Obama was born in America. That is, that’s obvious.<br /></blockquote><br />Notice that the person interviewing is trying to trip her up and she still understands what is being asked of her. Yet, with this in his possession we see that Berg and the Birthers are deliberately lying at this point to spread deceit and lies. <br /><br />If you meet a birther, its time to take the gloves off. This is a blatant out right lie. Next time I hear it repeated, I will call it what it is. A lie. And those who push lies are liars. <br /><br />http://factcheck.org/2011/04/donald-youre-fired/konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-79052363425744347422011-04-06T09:10:00.002-04:002011-04-06T09:21:18.012-04:00Its Election Season Again!Its that time of the year again, election season. And the first order of business is reelection Barack Obama as President. I know many disaffected liberals and moderate democrats who are not and have not been happy with Obama. However I intend to lay out the reason you should get your ass out there and support him once again. <br /><br />Reason 1:<br />The Tea Party - Currently the Tea Party is slowly tea bagging the right to death. Nearly all of their legislation makes massive cuts to the ones that can't afford it, while they back up military spending and tax cuts to the rich. Obama has and will continue to oppose nearly everything the idiotic tea party stands for. <br /><br />Reason 2:<br />Iraq and Afghanistan - Like it or not, Obama has withdrawn most of the troops from Iraq and has plans on the table for beginning troop withdrawals from Afghanistan this summer. On top of that, some very keen democrats are crafting a bill that will force him to set a date. If republicans take the Senate and or the White House, we can expect Afghanistan to continue on as is with no change. <br /><br />Reason 3:<br />Republican plans for medicare - Rep Paul Ryans plan for medicare is a near carbon copy of current health care as Obama's plan outlines. After calling it socialism, he steals the idea for medicare. Problem is medicare is a social safety net. He would essentially privatize it. No vouchers, a premium required payment from seniors. Abolishing medicare would be disastrous to this countries elderly. Think about your parents before you vote for a single republican.<br /><br />Reason 4:<br />Corruption - Florida republicans have now made it legal for companies to walk into a congressional office and hand them a check and tell them what they want. They call it a donation to the "leadership fund". Its legal bribary brought to you by the republican party. <br /><br />Reason 5:<br />Workers rights - Republicans are hell bent on destroying workers rights, one union at a time. The governor of Wisconsin plainly said that this was designed to hurt Obama. Destroy the workers to hurt Obama. Republicans are willing to sacrifice middle blue collar america to gain more power. <br /><br />Reason 6:<br />The alternative - Consider exactly who the republican party could offer to replace Obama. Can you think of a single person you would be okay getting elected? The GOP is dominated by far right wing Tea Party conservatives right now. Any one of them would be disastrous to this country if they were elected. <br /><br />These are six but very good reasons to vote for Obama in 2012. This isn't for republicans or conservatives. This is for the democrats. He needs his base to really turn out for him next year. I hope you will all get out and vote and push others to get out and vote for Obama in 2012.konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-55605140793063672512011-03-22T13:02:00.002-04:002011-03-22T13:13:54.442-04:00Libya - The Lessons We Won't LearnOver the last 10 years, we should have learned that we cannot change the middle east. A decade later, we find ourselves still in Afghanistan, no closer to finding Bin Laden, no closer to ending the Taliban forever, than we were when we started. Iraq is still a mess, though better in many respects than before we invaded. But we shouldn't have invaded either. <br /><br />Now, we find ourselves in Libya, bombing with the UN, the same way Iraq started. We are being told that we won't be leading this much longer, but that remains to be seen. The question is again, should we be there? What purpose are we going for? This time there is no lie about WMD's, no lies about involvement in 9/11. But under the guise of civilian lives. This is a civil war. <br /><br />While I am completely with the rebels in Libya, we should support them in other ways besides military action. Why risk our lives, our blood, our treasure, for a war we have no part in starting and no place in? <br /><br />Dennis Kucinich has called for Obama's impeachment for war crimes. Well this is clearly over kill as Obama has the power to do what he did, he didn't declare war. But Obama was certainly wrong in this. There is definitely a sentiment that we don't belong, and the anti-war left that helped him get in office certainly doesn't believe in another military action. <br /><br />Obama is just another in a long line of war mongering presidents who seem to believe our nose belong in everyone else's business.konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-39099584095609811102011-03-16T12:22:00.002-04:002011-03-16T12:29:08.292-04:00The Land of the Rising Sun sees darknessI am a big fan of Japan. I love their animation. I love the culture. I love the heritage and history. I find Japanese women to be exotic and stunning in beauty. So it has pained me greatly to watch events unfolding over the last week. This blog is normally reserve for political vitriol and religious expose', but not today. <br /><br />After a devastating 8.9 earthquake, Japan was devastated by an epic tsunami that hit not only Japan but was large enough to take a 6 foot wave all the way to Hawaii and beyond. If that was devastating enough, it was followed by the break down of cooling in reactors 1 and 2. Then explosions in reactor 3. Then more failures at reactor 4 and another explosion. We now know that it is feared that reactors 5 and 6 will have an explosion or meltdown as well. <br /><br />Yesterday, radiation levels got so high workers had to abandon one of the reactors. The radiation is high enough that it is feared the reactor is melting down. This melt down will release significantly higher amounts of radiation into the air compared to the radioactive steam being let off now due to the water boiling straight out into the air. <br /><br />We can only hope that Japan is able to hold on to a thread of hope as panic begins to set in as the realization that this might be beyond their control takes hold. My thoughts, worries, and concerns rest with Japan and its people right now.konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-88085579041981132442011-03-10T14:02:00.002-05:002011-03-10T14:16:42.255-05:00Bigotry and Union BustingBigotry<br /><br /> Republican Representative Peter King has made bigotry a past time. While American Muslims have been helping to uncover and stop 7 out of the last 10 plots, he and the far right republicans are flying off into paranoia. While most of the plots are coming from Americans these days, not foreign Muslims, he is trying to scapegoat and entire group of people. <br /><br /> Its time we call this POS what he and his kind are. Bigots, of the first degree. They hate what they don't understand. They fear what they deem as too different from themselves. It is ignorance that drives bigotry. We as a people need to rise up and qhite frankly give the finger to representatives likes Peter King. Further, we need to ostracize bigots in our society. Stop remaining quiet. Call bigots out when they decide to open their mouth and spew their ignorance. Perhaps if we ridicule, call out, denigrade, and demonize these bigots for what they are, publicly, and loudly, we will be able to silence the evil of bigotry once again. <br /><br />Union Busting<br /><br /> Well the GOP did it. They effectively busted the public sector unions in Wisconsin. They said FUCK YOU to the majority who is going to attempt to recall them. And why did they do it? Was there no other way? No, there were plenty of ways to cut the budget and even work with the unions who were willing to negotiate. They did it for one reason and one reason only, to hurt Obama and the democrats. Should the 8 republicans get recalled and the governor, and democrats replace all of them, the union will no longer have the power it once had. It will no longer be the driving force for the democrats because it has been massively neutered. <br /><br /> Welcome to Wisconsin, where the working man gets openly, and defiantly beaten into the dirt, all for brazen political gain.konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-64055163433770116312011-03-04T13:04:00.002-05:002011-03-04T13:16:13.049-05:00Tryanny at the GateWell, its been a while since I posted. But a fellow poster at www.yourdiscussionforum.com has inspired me to start blogging again. His name is ace, and you can find him in my list of people I follow. His blog is new, so check it out, give him some feed back, and click his adsense link so the man can make a bit o change! <br /><br />Now, onto why I'm posting today. <br /><br />Wisconsin has been the countries focus for the last couple weeks because of the Governors incessant desire to squash unions in the public sector. But he recently showed another dark part of his heart that really should show even the most ignorant republican what he is really like. He threatened to lay off 1,500 public sector employees if the democrats don't return and allow a vote which will strip them of their right to collective bargaining and the power of the peoples union will be dead. <br /><br />Governor Walker has exposed the reality of what the republicans want. The destruction of your rights as a worker. In states all across the union, a similar fight is starting. They got the power in the House and are now attempting to destroy the unions with great zeal. President Obama obliged the big corporations in the auto deal and helped bust the unions for the auto companies, something no democratic president has ever done. But with the loss of the unions, we lose the middle class as well. Before unions there were no middle class workers. There were the working class and the rich. The working class was always at the bottom of the economic ladder. <br /><br />So what this comes down too is nothing more than the attempted destruction of the middle class so that the rich can walk all over us again. It is class warfare at its most devious and underhanded. They get their tax breaks, they destroy unions, they get tax loop holes, and now their multimillion dollar corporations have no restrictions in political races. They can and will systematically buy up the peoples government and use it as their tool. The process has already begun. The dream of an equal social democracy is dying, being replaced by the reality of a Corporate Fascist regime in which we elect leaders supported by the likes of the uber rich like the Koch Brothers. <br /><br />If we don't wake up america, we will be back in the 1920's, when people down on their luck stood in soup kitchen lines, and lived in boxes. When people worked long hard hours for little money, just barely able to get by. Charles Dickens reality is our future if we don't wake up to the tyranny at the gate.konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-19526368408554805492010-06-25T11:26:00.001-04:002010-06-25T11:26:42.443-04:00I'm Losing Faith in the Country: Part 4 - The Failure of a CountryIn my on going rage that is driving from me the faith I have long held in this country, I am now going to address a subject that is rather vague to describe. So I'll put it in these terms. I am tired of failure. Now, brace yourself because this one is going to go all over the place. Because when I say failure, I mean that I believe that the government is failing me. Personally. I take offense at what has happened and what is going on. But also the people as a whole are failing me and themselves. I'll explain further. This one is going to be tough to write because, discussing it with my wife, I cannot seem to prevent myself from getting worked up and angry by the time I'm half way through. But here goes. <br /><br />I can just simply go through the list of failures in our current government and indeed the politically active in this country. I'll start on the right, because I'm good with pissing off the right. When I talk of the right, I don't just mean republicans or libertarians in congress. I'm talking about all politically active on the right, whether on a forum or email campaigns or actually working for a candidate. And while these views may not encompass ALL of those on the right, they encompass a large enough part that I feel comfortable characterizing the right in this way. I have extensive contact with them both on this forum, in daily life, and in my own family. I grew up with this mindset. <br /><br />For six long years, the republican party, and the right, enjoyed a majority in both the house and the senate, with a republican president. Six years of getting what ever you wanted. There was no compromise. There was only the brutality of ramming through what ever you thought was good. During this time, the republican senate threatened to get rid of the filibuster rules in the Senate, because the democrats had filibustered nearly 60 times in one year. Since that six year period, they have gone on to double that amount of filibuster every single year they have been in the minority. It appears that the filibuster is only "abused" when it is used by democrats. <br /><br />For six years, we saw regulations stripped away. We saw a majority that pushed through imprudent tax cuts focused on the wealthy, an unprecedented two wars at once, and a medicare part D plan that was not paid for. We saw reckless spending like never before. Never in our history had this nation CUT taxes during war time. With the power the right weilded, they created an office of faith based initiatives, an office purely dedicated to giving money to religious groups! We saw the right back and promote a president as he gain and took more power into the executive branch that ever before, including current president Obama. <br /><br />I experienced the rights assault on free speech nearly every day, as my views on the war were called unpatriotic. I watched as the left was silenced routinely by the right calling them traitors, unpatriotic, and anti-american for disagreeing with two wars that we were lied to about. I felt the anguish of being told I don't support the troops because I thought they should be brought home. I was embarassed for this country as a republican president supported by the right, garnered the anger of most nations in the world by our arrogant and foolish actions. A cowboy in the white house. Only to the right would such a thing be looked on in a good fashion. <br /><br />We watched regulation after regulation fall, as we paved the way for a massive financial fail. But then, things changed. The economy tanked, and the republicans lost power. Then, they lost the presidency. So what next?<br /><br />The answer was to completely pretend like they weren't even there for the last 8 years. They filibusterd double the amount they cried about previously. Suddenly, they were conservative. Suddenly, lots of people were conservative! Really? Why then was your mouth shut tight when it was your party and your group doing the spending? Did they think we were mad? Insane? Did they think we wouldn't remember all they had done to get us in this mess? And so for two years I have watched this nonsense as one after the other republicans turn conservative claim they are for small government. The same people who called me unpatriotic and unamerican suddenly tried to act like they disagreed with Bush. Really? You were silent before and now you expect me to believe you are angry at "both parties"? Bullshit! And YOu know its bullshit too! It would be better than you spit at me behind my back than to look me in the eye and lie like this. I remember how many on the right supported Bush. Now, its hard to find a single one who supported Bush. Everyone on the right now suddenly "always believed we were spending to much"! The right double the deficit over and over and nothing was said, Now you want us to believe you are so concerned about our childrens future and always were? We aren't stupid or forgetful! <br /><br />But enough about what we already know. On to the left. Did you think you were getting out of this? You aren't! But for this, I need to separate the people from the politicians. Why? Because while the right largely walks in lockstep, and the people believe and do as they are told, the sins of the left are not the same. The left is of larger diversity and thus is not so prone to being sheep. Even still, the words coming out of the mouths of the right are nearly identical from the ones coming out of the politicians and talk show hosts mouths. Even still they believe ridiculous email chains, to a massively greater extent than the left. <br /><br />For the left, politics was about change and hope. After watching the decimation of this country at the hands of Bush, we trust those on the left to make things right. But that isn't what happened, is it? Nearly two years after Barack Obama stood on the podium to the chants of "yes we can", almost nothing has changed. Nothing. <br /><br />We are still in two wars. The president still fights to keep things private when it comes to their legal manuevering. And the courts are still split on the issue. We still have two massive detention centers that are basically black holes. We still hold people indefinitely without bail or court hearing of any time, and without any official charges. We still support and engage in extraordinary rendition. We are still in two wars. New looser FISA regulations allow americans to be taped. The bill was approved by Candidate Obama. Almost nothing of the power that Bush took has been reigned in by Obama. <br /><br />On a legislative front, I couldn't be more disappointed. Democrats lacked the cajones to pass REAL health care legislation. Compromising to get republican votes is only acceptable if it gets that vote. Most of the compromises were for republicans who never intended on working with them to make the bill better. A bill they knew would pass, but worked to make it suck instead of make it better. Most of the republican amendments were approved to get votes. And most of those amendments are pointed out as bad. Health care lobby money flowed freely, and many democrats grew fat on it, right next to their republican colleagues getting the same money. And together they worked to destroy the bill. Together they managed to rid the bill of all but a few good protections. No single payer, no public option, no hard premium caps, no regulations on raising rates. The health care companies essentially won. <br /><br />But there was another chance in the wall street reform bill. It has some FABULOUS amendments for this bill. Yet, again, wall street money flowed, and most of those great amendments were killed. Derivative reform? Watered down after the money whore Blanche Lincoln won her primary. Almost everything else has been stripped out. Something that should have been an easy vote, even for republicans, ended up not getting enough support. 30 democrats, but only 10 republicans, voted to audit the Federal Reserve. What ended up passing was a one time audit. So much for the so called conservatives, and the so called conservadems. Conservative, on both sides of the aisle, stands for "sell out to the banks". And as I will state later, the Fed truly needed to be audited. The bill was nearly salvaged with the consumer protection agency that gets created. Unfortunately, they have exempted the highest bidders. Car dealers will not be subject to the consumer protection rules. As if we all don't know that used car dealers are the sleaziest of the slime. Unbelievable. <br /><br />While people like to get upset at TARP, that really is a small morsel. The real crime is that the Fed has given out over 4.6 Trillion dollars to the banks. Only the 700B TARP was approved by congress. An audit would be nice. To bad it had bipartisan opposition. The banks get 4.6 Trillion dollars, and they use it to get richer. All the while the conservative democrats and republicans convince the rest of the democrats that a stimulus package for the people is just to much to spend. Every job bill and unemployment extension, including the one that just failed in the senate, don't equal HALF of what the banks got if you combined them all! Yet, were is the protests over the Fed? Used up, thats where. Used up on protesting to much spending to give unemployment money in a recession. To much money to help the states meet the budget. The banks have the fools of this country so easily distracted that they are protesting against the good of the PEOPLE! We would rather sit back and ignorantly believe that somehow giving unemployment to people is ruinging the country. People are now put at the bottom of the pile when it comes to priority. PEOPLE! More of my tax money has gone to banks, yet the right and conservative left draw the line at helping states and helping the unemployed? Its more bullshit! <br /><br />And all the while the people on the left have become a justification machine. And I'm guilty of it too! But we are in large part forced to because the criticism from the right is so pathetically wrong! If they would get it right and stop believing nonsense and lies then we could focus on what was actually wrong! But still, where are the protests? Where are the anti-war people? It has been three months since I saw anyone at our weekly war protest. Three months. No one cares any more, democrats are in charge after all. None of the Bush abuses went away! We just stopped caring about them! Writing letters? All find and good by they don't give a flying f**k about our letters and we all know it! We have managed to quell our own outrage over things that really matter! We on the left cheered on the health care bill while amongst ourselves talking about what we didn't like about it. What we should have done is protested, not with those idiots in the tea party, but our own protests, against the very real problems with this bill! We should have protested when Obama sent more troops to Afghanistan. We should have protested when Obama put DRONES on the freakin Mexican border! And when far right wing morons say he hasn't tried to secure the border, slap them in the mouth and ask them how many freakin military drones any republican put on the border! I want a secure border, but not in a manner that causes death and destruction and fear! Freakin military drones!!!!<br /><br />We have failed as a country. We have failed as a people. Our government has failed. And yes, it is both parties. And yes, it is the people too. But all for different reasons. I'm losing faith in this countries ability to handle anything in an age of naive acceptance of email chains. I'm losing faith in a country that only cares about the big problems when it is the party they hate doing it. We cannot continue like this. It will be the death of us all. Contineous war, endless recessions, and ridiculous lawmakers are what we face. <br /><br />Two more examples of what is wrong. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of corporations, giving them the same rights as an individual. How atrocious is that. Amidst the anger at this, the congress wrote up a new law they are trying to pass. The "DICLOSE ACT" which will force all groups to list who donates to them and all companies that choose to support a candidate must put it forward so all can see. Yet, One group after another seems to be exempt. Companies under 1 million people are exempt. The NRA is exempt. And a number of other broad exceptions, have been written in to ensure that our corporations are not really resticted at all. <br /><br />In the middle of the largest eco-disaster in our history, the criticism couldn't be more obscene. The right using a disaster to its benefit by first saying government didn't respond fast enough, then saying it responded too much. Circulating emails that are pure lies, that now have senators who should know better, repeating them. When senators are repeating email chains, I lose hope quickly. When senators apologize for forcing a foreign company to pay people who they have harmed, I lose hope quickly. And yet, the President has angered people because hasn't miraculously found a plan that the experts have apparently missed, that will fix the leak in the gulf. How is any of this helping the situation at all?<br /><br />The government and many of the people have been sucked into a war of propaganda by both sides that has made true change irrelevant and unlikely. I used to laugh at the South Park Addage that voting was like choosing between a sh*t sandwich and a giant douche. I have come to realize that it really is just that. And "voting them all out" is irrelevant as well. The power and money have corrupted them all and will do so to the next generation. There is no stopping it. Debt will swallow us whole eventually. But most people are not smart enough to see that not spending right now will cause greater debt in the future. And I have no hope that it will get better. People will eventually tire of democrats, and vote in republicans. Who will then do what they do best. Say they are conservatives, the continue to ruin the economy. Then the democrats will take over and do what they do best. Bring all kinds of great ideas to the table, the water them down into obscurity. <br /><br />This is our future, our country, that we have allowed to slip away from us. And the problem and the blame lies with us. The people. We allowed things to get out of hand. We allow ourselves to believe then never follow through. We allow ourselves to be convinced by propaganda and email chains. I am losing faith in a country that seems to have lost all sense of reason.konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-37288667579087209832010-06-17T10:46:00.000-04:002010-06-17T10:47:19.340-04:00I'm losing faith in this country: Part 2 - Environmental RantWe are the only industrialized nation in the world that has such a huge amount of truth deniers in it. We are the only industrialized nation in which the truth deniers out number the rationalists. We have a rather large number of people who, for some reason, would rather believe three scientists working for BP, than the thousands working for NASA, NOAA and Woods Hole research centers. As one of my favorite posters, Gary, has pointed out, the evidence is so blatantly and obviously overwhelming, that those on the right must do some seriously ridiculous mental gymnastics to ignore the evidence! <br /><br />Yet, no matter the evidence, people on the whole still listen to Sean Hannity theorize how the extra snow in his yard must disprove modern climate change theory. It would be silly and worth laughing at these morons if it weren't actually dangerous to our childrens future. They are so busy minding our business on the debt, that they don't realize that the biggest threat to this nation is not the debt, but the climate. They are nice and smug in their ignorance, rolling around in it congratulating themselves on their idiocy, like pigs in mud on a hot day! It is obscene to say the least. <br /><br />I would normally post a bunch of evidence, but it is really pointless. I confront these morons with evidence, and they simply ignore it. One person, on this forum once challenged me to show them the evidence. I posted the top three research sites in the world, and that person never even looked at it. Why? Who knows. The likely answer is that they either did look and ignored, or simply refused to look. It is easier to ignore the evidence and keep things status quo, than to be proven wrong and be forced to change! <br /><br />Ten years ago the answer was "we need more evidence". Five years ago it was "we are in the middle of greater solar output". Now, in current era, we set another record heat year, followed by the hottest global first quarter on record, ever, during the lowest solar output on record, and their is no answer. Just silence and more smug mocking. Whats worse, they do their damnedest to continue harming the environment with their push to NOT move any environmental legislation forward! While they smugly look at those who have proven the truth, talking about debt, deficit, and our childrens future, they are in reality flushing our childrens future down the toilet! <br /><br />The evidence is there for all to see. But when you cover your eyes and ears and mouth, like three idiot monkeys, then you not only put the blame for the consequences on your own head, but you multiply it. And passing the buck to later generations is simply unforgivable. This idea of "we need more evidence" is simply stupid. These are the same people who needed almost no evidence to go to war. I guess the right is intent on being the party of the dead and dying. But this effects everyone, the entire world. And truth deniers are going to kill us. I'm losing faith in this country. It is failing on the whole to recognize and act on truth.konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-82415759896927531662010-06-17T10:38:00.002-04:002010-06-17T10:48:15.933-04:00I'm Losing Faith in the Country: Part 3 - The American EmpireThe third part in this series focusing on my continued disappointment with my country, I have gone a different path. I am not going to simply "rant" as the very term indicates someone just spouting off. While I state my opinions in a very "matter of fact way", this particular post is far from a rant. It is a disposition that is founded on some very scary and very disturbing facts. I am speaking of course, about the American Empire. <br /><br />Most people will picture the Romans, or the Greeks, or the Ottomons , perhaps even the Byzantines when they read the word Empire. Some might even site the British Empire. However, these would not compare well to the US in current form. The Empire the US has built is built from bases. Forge under the guise of "nation interests" which this country uses as an excuse to create and keep bases in nearly every country in the world. In fact, of the 194 independent countries listed by the state department, we have military troops and/or operatives in 135 of them. We have troops station in some form or another in 70% of all the countries of the world! <br /><br />While it is hard to gather a true count of just how many troops are abroad, Pentagon and State Department sources list approximately 1.5 million military personel that are stationed abroad, with over 400,000 of them being troops. They range from deployments as small as 1, in the country of Malawi, to nearly 75,000 in Germany. Germany! Is Germany really so much of a threat that we need 75,000 military personel there? <br /><br />What essentially happens is that where ever we go, for any reason, we leave behind our own forces to protect our "national interests". Really bad part is that people don't even seem to be aware of it. Just think back to any deployment you can imagine. Every president in recent history has left troops abroad. Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush 2, and Obama will share in the blame for the same troops that W Bush sent abroad. Because we aren't ever coming home. <br /><br />Whats worse, is that this Empire has grown cocky, and evil. George W. Bush began a wide spread practice of Extraordinary Rendition, which is the kidnapping of suspects and taking them to secret prisons. He also started the practice of using torture. And make no mistake, the memo's are mostly out, there were tortures worse than waterboarding going on. He also started the process of holding people, indefinitely, without trial.<br /><br />President Obama is a unique president in that he ran specifically on taking away such things. Stopping these evil practices devised to use fear as a tactic of control over the world. Yet, nearly two years into his presidency, things have gone awry. The Obama administration defended the act of holding a prisoner without a trial. Extraordinary rendition CONTINUES to this day. And Guantanimo Bay remains open, along with other prisons designed to hold anyone deemd an "enemy combatant". <br /><br />You can be rest assured that we will NEVER really leave Iraq or Afghanistan. Obama has all but said those exact words. We will eventually end the war, but our troops will remain there indefinitely. Note the careful wording of the promise to leave Iraq. "Combat Troops" is the term used to describe the withdrawal. Combat troops may leave, but we will remain in some capacity until we are forced out. That is the hallmark of Empire. Empire goes where it pleases, takes what it wants, and lets you know when you can have your space back, if you can have your space back. <br /><br />When you look at the greater picture, you realize that people don't hate us for our "freedom", rather, they don't hate us at all. They hate the American Empire, oppressive and agressive as any in history. Built not on military conquest of the world, but slowly, over time, moving in and never moving out. With over a quarter million troops abroad excluding Iraq, we have the forces to do serious damage in a very short period of time to who ever doesn't do what we want. And there is no one to stop us. The UN showed that when they said no to Iraq, and we did it any way. Because we are bigger and greater than the UN. We are the only nation whose strength GREW because we refused to pay UN dues after Iraq! We pay so much into the UN that our refusal to pay dues nearly forces their hand. Only an Empire could control a world body in such a fashion. <br /><br />History is a great teacher. It tells us that all Empires fall eventually. Only the people in full force, can slow, stop, and reel in the expansion of Empire. And this is where the problem lies. The people are kept busy and occupied with partisan nonsense. The people are kept busy defending or attacking the opposite party constantly. They use key words to get people riled up. Socialist, fascist, nazi, obstructionists, patriots, unpatriotic, anti-change, pro-oil, pro-big business and numerous other key words designed in their usage to get people angry and upset at the opposing party. This has the effect of turning the eye from the reality at hand. <br /><br />And just what is the reality at hand? The reality of todays world is the escalation of Empire. The Endless War. Endless war is the process this Empire has worked for, for decades, and we now see the culmination of that process. We saw it starting in Vietnam. We saw attempts to give reason to stay at war with Reagan and his dealings with Iran and the USSR. George H. W. Bush saw the down fall of the USSR creating a vacuum. He immediately turn towards another boogie man, another country to invade, Iraq. But that ended very quickly. We did, however, manage to keep troops in the region to secure our "national interests". <br /><br />Clinton managed to put us in several more countries we didn't have forces in at the time in the name of stopping genocide. Genocide happening in a very strategic place, happening right where a major natural gas pipeline was being constructed. Of course, with no resources of need and no strategic advantage, Rowanda was left for dead as millions were slaughtered in a racial cleansing genocide while the US and the world looked on and did nothing. <br /><br />George W. Bush, exercising a principle echoed by the current Administration of never letting a good disaster go to waste, used 9/11 to send troops to Afghanistan. Afghanistan, we are told, refused to hand over Bin Laden. Okay. So why then is Bin Laden still not caught after all this time? Why then was the mission, from the beginning, to unseat the taliban and "rebuild" the nation? <br /><br />Since Iran has been rather lippy, they had to be dealt with. The best way to do that was strategically place yourself, something the first Bush failed to do. So we created a reason to attack a country that never had the ability to strike us. Not even close. We were lied too. But the damage had been done, and the fact that we were lied too, had not impact on their ultimate goal, even if we knew about it. Yet, the genocide in Darfur went unchallenged as millions died in a religious holocaust that rivals any in history. <br /><br />But Obama had the chance to start fresh, and end both wars. But the result came as a surprise, even to me. Afghanistan was escalated. Iraq still holds problems. And we aren't going any where. And Darfur? Nearly forgotten in the minds of the people as the media failed to cover it as more than just a side show. We are kept busy worrying about other things. Healthcare, the environment, taxes, and terrorism. Fear is used as a weapon. Fear of terrorism, fear of being over taxed, fear of being called unpatriotic. And we are the conduit that allows this power to flow. <br /><br />All of this works to keep us unaware the worst danger to this world is the machine that keeps us afraid. And as terms that are all but obsolete in the modern word keep being thrown at the left, like socialism, the majority of the left are kept defending against this absurd claim, while the majority of democrats are sold out to the companies that profit most from endless war. And while the Tea Party crows about taxes and freedoms, they ignorantly work towards allowing corporations more power in the government and over them. Corporations who benefit financially from this endless war. <br /><br />As time marches on and the people kept distracted, the Empire Grows. While people are worrying about republicans and democrats, people are being taken to secret prisons, tortured, held without charge and without evidence indefinitely, and our children are being sent to die on foreign soil for a purpose that has no connection to our freedom. To die in the name of freedom when freedom is not being defended, is an insult to our soldiers. But don't say that out loud. The Empire will hear you, and deem you unpatriotic. And we can't have that. Can we?konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-65869507319114222542010-05-26T16:40:00.001-04:002010-06-17T10:47:51.881-04:00I'm losing faith in this country: Part 1 - Immigration RantImmigration seems like it should be an easy situation to fix. First things first, secure the border. Now, every other country in the world does this with their military. We have a national guard being sent over sees to fight a war of discretion. Bring them home and put them on the border. Next, create and implement a simple straight forward way of becoming a citizen or getting the status to work in this country. Do away with the mountain of bureaucratic trash that they have to go through now. If the object is to monitor who comes in, and to have them pay equal taxes (individually and on a business level) then why make it so difficult? Is it really necessary to make the process go on for years at a time? You are practically encouraging people to cross illegally! <br />Many people like to argue that we don’t need immigration reform, or parts of it. We don’t need a new process path towards citizenship. We don’t need to secure the border. Fact is there are some very good reasons to do both. We can start with human rights. Many of the people who come up here are brought by Coyotes. These are ruthless vile people who abuse people, take advantage of them, manipulate them, and often times enslave them for periods of time. They hold people for ransom for greater sums of money often. People should not be treated like cattle, smuggled across the border and held till their family can pay for their release. Human trafficking is a human rights issue. Soldiers at the border will help address this. <br />One thing few people realize is that these paths traveled by illegal’s are very often littered with trash and debris. There are paths that go through private property and national parks alike, that are as trashed as you can possibly imagine. Yes they exist, just google for them. Snopes has verified that this is not a myth. The pictures of the damage and trash I have seen are horrific. How can we allow our own homeland to be treated like a garbage dump by someone from another country? Why on earth would we allow this to continue? If you are going to come to this country, the least you can do is respect it! <br />Drug violence may be a relatively new aspect brought into this debate, but a prevalent and convincing one. Why should our people have to fear violence from Mexican drug cartels? They shouldn’t. A good healthy dose of National Guard should effectively reduce this problem. Further, it would make Americans living near the border feel safe. And they should. Its our country, not theirs. I applaud Mexico for going after the drug Cartels. But there is no reason it should be allowed to spill onto our soil. We have our own problems with drugs and gangs to deal with. <br />Now, once in, people have a basic right here to have a minimum wage for their job. We have a right to Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, proper working conditions, proper treatment by our bosses, and kids cannot be made to work. Yet, these are not rights afforded to illegal’s working here. And its not fair to them to have to work that way. Its not right for the employers that participate in such actions to get away with it either. Yet they do. No, not all go through this, but enough of them to make it a problem worth solving. <br />Yet, every time this issue comes up, the same partisan bullshit gets spewed. Republicans would like you to believe that democrats are trying to let illegal’s flood in to this country unchecked, that they don’t care about border security, that “path to citizenship” is a code word for amnesty. Democrats would have you believe that all republicans are bigots who don’t want anyone to become a citizen, they just don’t want “those brown people” in their country! Neither view is correct! Both views are based on the kind of ridiculous bias that has plagued this issue for years. And it shows no sign of stopping. <br />President Obama finally sent troops down to the border. 1200 National Guard troops to the border, after republican calls to secure the border. What was the first thing that happened? Complaints by the republicans that Obama isn’t sending enough troops. By whose measure? You finally get what you have been asking for, and the first thing you do is use it as a political tool to score points? Come on! This is not what you were elected to do! John McCain should have applauded the effort, not laud it! We all know this will go on and on, with Democrats watering down legislation in return for more cat calling nonsense from the republicans. When a republican president gets back in office, we can expect every immigration reform bill to be met with calls of xenophobia and bigotry by the right, from the democrats. <br />Time and time again we see this nonsense play out. And it never gets better, it just gets worse. I am losing faith in this countries government, and its ability to get done what needs to be done. I am losing faith in this countries people for their inability to discern truth and reality, and their constant biting onto the bait by the right and the left. I’m losing faith. Its like a bleeding ulcer that I can’t stop. A myriad of reasons increase this wound. A myriad of reasons increase the blood lose. A myriad of reason why I am losing faith in this country. This is only one.konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-28584678474355164272010-05-12T09:06:00.001-04:002010-05-12T09:06:27.456-04:00The Road to American Solvency - The Next 50 YearsThis country has a problem. It is a problem that exists in the rest of the world as well, but one that will get noticeably worse if we don't make changes. That problem is debt. Current debt in this country is around 87% -96% of GDP, depending on who you ask. Thats pretty large. Granted, there are larger debt to gdp ratio's out there. Hungary's debt is 121% of gdp. And if you take the top 20, it only gets bigger. <br /><br />US - 96%<br />HUngary - 121%<br />Australia - 124%<br />Italy - 147%<br />Greece - 170%<br />Germany - 182%<br />Spain - 186%<br />Norway - 202%<br />Finland - 220%<br />Hong Kong - 223%<br />Portugal - 235%<br />France - 248%<br />Austria - 256%<br />Sweden - 264%<br />Denmark - 316%<br />Belgium - 328%<br />Netherlands - 376%<br />Switzerland - 382%<br />UK - 425%<br />Ireland - 1312%<br /><br />And that is at the end of 2009. <br />http://www.cnbc.com/id/30308959/The_World_s_Biggest_Debtor_Nations?slide=1<br /><br />Now, a crowning jewel in the rhetoric merry go round of the tea party is to talk about passing debt on to our children. Well lets not be crass, we are already going to pass on massive debt to our children. And lets not be ideologically ignorant either. Most tea partiers supported Bush for eight years while he passed unfunded medicare programs, prosecuted two wars based on lies, all while cutting taxes twice. If you supported an idiot who decided to increase spending while reducing income, you can't suddenly say you are tired of big government spending. At least not if you want to be taken seriously. <br /><br />So here are the common sense ways to cut and eliminate this debt. And make no mistake, these aren't really that debatable. Not if you are serious about cutting debt and deficits. <br /><br />1. Medicare and medicaid spending must be cut. Now, there are great ways to do this. But first we must acknowledge that this nonsense of the party out of power claiming that the other party will cut your benefits is only designed to scare you, and is used as a political tool. When the republicans said that the democrats medicare waste reduction amendment was designed to cut grannies benefits, and lots of seniors believed them, we must admit that this was stupid on our part. There are lots of ways to cut spending without cutting benefits. To say it is cutting benefits unilaterally is deceitful and should be called out by the party who does it. <br /> A. Allow bidding for medicare prescriptions and allow imports from canada that are fda approved and scanned. Yes we can, and yes we should. <br /> B. If your net worth is measured in multiples of millions, you don't get it. I'm not paying for some rich man or woman to get free health care when <br /> he/she can fund their own clinic.<br /> C. Like Reagan and Clinton, the medicare/SS taxes must be increased.<br /> D. Actually investigate and crack down on medicare/medicaid fraud. <br /><br />2. SS must be made solvent. You can do this by increasing SS taxes. And again, if you measure your worth in multiple millions, you don't get SS. And yes, you still have to pay into it. It isn't going to kill millionaires to continue to pay into a fund for the poor and elderly. <br /><br />3. Bring home the troops. All of them. It is much cheaper to house troops here, that abroad. Couple in the fact that there are hundreds of bases we would no longer have to maintain. Then, you can solve the illegal immigration problem by putting them on the border. Not interested in arguments for immigration reform here. Make a path to citizenship, what ever. But stop the violence at the border the way all other countries do. With your own troops. <br /><br />4. Once you bring the troops home, you can drastically cut the military budget. Without spending money on housing troops abroad, you can effectively reduce the budget without having to cut any other areas of defense. <br /><br />5. Taxes must be raised. Don't like it? Sorry. You can't complain about passing on a debt when you aren't willing to pay for it yourself. So either shut it or own up. If you don't want your kids to own it, then guess who has to pay for it? Thats right, you. So, there are several ways of doing this. One is to have the rich pay more. After all, they have benefited more than the rest of the country, from the system we live in. Why must people continue to insist that we lower taxes even more? Federal taxes are very low compared to history. Eisenhower had the top tax bracket at 90%. For goodness sake open your eyes and stop calling taxes socialism!<br /><br />These five things would lower spending on the top expenses in our budget, and increase revenue. Like anyone who runs a budget, this seems like an obvious answer. Reduce spending, increase revenue. Why is this difficult? <br /><br />Now, some will say this can't be done in a recession. And I agree, you cannot raise taxes in a recession. However, we can stop the military spending and reduce the waste in medicaid and medicare right? That would take a big chunk out of the yearly budget! <br /><br />Its time to put up or shut up America. Either suck it up and do what is needed, or stop crying about passing on debt to our children.konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-52909701021812110152010-04-20T08:42:00.000-04:002010-04-20T09:03:24.213-04:00The Party of Small Government?The Party of Small Government?<br /><br />One of the huge "selling points" from the right is that the republican party is the party of small government. I always considered this a rather crass argument. After all, they don't seem to act like the party of small government when they are in power. Come to think of it, they don't act like the party of small government when they aren't in power. They like to say they are, but a brief look at what they do and what they stand for shows they clearly aren't. Lets first look at what they have done in the recent past to see if they stand for small government. <br /><br />Recent accomplishments:<br />1. Patriot Act which allows domestic spying on US citizens<br />2. War on Iraq without Iraq attacking us<br />3. Expansion of government power via creation of Homeland security<br />4. Expansion of presidential powers via President refusing to allow documentation in a court case because he says so. <br />5. Expansion of presidential powers to authorize any actions at all in the name of homeland security, even on US soil<br />6. Unfunded Medicare Part D plan<br />7. Holding people out charge or trial<br />8. Torturing people then admitting it despite the US's Geneva convention treaty<br /><br />These are the actions of a party that is for small government. These are the actions of a party trying to expand their power. <br /><br />But perhaps what they stand for is small government and extenuating circumstances changed the status quo. Like 9/11. Surely in their hearts they are for small government, right?<br /><br />So what is on their plattform? Small government actions right?<br /><br />GOP Plattform: <br />1. Banning Gay Marriage<br />2. Banning abortion<br />3. Banning certain things from TV<br />4. Banning internet gambling<br />5. Restrictions on internet content<br />6. Continued ban on drugs<br />7. Requiring schools to allow prayer for all school<br />8. Banning flag burning<br />9. Using technology to monitor former felons for the rest of their lives<br /><br />What kind of small government mentality believes in this mass government intervention into peoples lives? The kind of party that does this is the kind of party that believes you are too stupid to notice it, and will lie through their teeth. Words have meaning. You can't just say stuff and do something completely different. The reality is that they are for government intervention in areas they approve of doing it, and against it in things they are against. Oddly enough, they are all for government intervention into your personal life when it comes to moral choices, but against intervention when it comes to providing health care and help for the poor and help for retiring seniors. See the problem here? When you need help, they say no. When you want to live your personal life as you choose, they say no. Small government isn't just small when its convenient. <br /><br />The odd thing is that they have convinced millions of people that they are the small government party. Never mind the fact that they, when in full control, doubled the debt to have unfunded tax cuts, unfunded medicare part D projects that suck, and two wars at one time. What kind of bullshit is that? Not small government by my last check. Yet millions in this country mindlessly chant the cause of small government and check their ballot for republicans. <br /><br />Here is the reality. Here is the way things should be. When you need help, the government should help you out. We the people are the government, so we the people should help people in need. We should ensure the education, health, and retirement of our people, as a society, which will make the over all experience of living, better for everyone. When it comes to personal life, people should be free to live as they choose. It is not your decision on who someone can marry. If they are of age, the government should have no say in it. It is not your decisions or the governments, whether a woman gets a medical procedure or not. It is not your decision or the governments whether you can take drugs or not. It is not your decision or the governments whether or not you can gamble online. Within reason, and the law, it is not yours or the governments place to decide what I can look at on the internet or TV. <br /><br />THAT is productive helpful government. A government that only intervenes to help and do good. A government that leaves life choices to the person living the life. THAT is what government should be. And that is as close to small government as you can get. And the only party that comes close to that is the democratic party.konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-28106631571902603552010-03-15T10:45:00.002-04:002010-03-15T10:53:52.940-04:00GOP's New Contract with AmericaIt is the modern "Contract with America", A Road Map to America's Future.<br /><br />This atrocity is written up by Republican Senator Paul Ryan. And yes, it is horrible for most of America. Here is his website for the bill. <br /><br />http://www.roadmap.republicans.budget.house.gov/<br /><br />This bill would single handedly wipe out years of progressive tax reform and devastate most of America. <br /><br />The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities has this to say:<br />http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3114&emailView=1<br /><br /><blockquote>• The higher one goes up the income scale, the more massive the tax cuts would be. Households with incomes of more than $1 million would receive an average annual tax cut of $502,000.<br /><br />• The richest one-tenth of 1 percent of Americans — those whose incomes exceed $2.9 million a year — would receive an average tax cut of $1.7 million a year. These tax cuts would be on top of those that high-income households would get from making the Bush tax cuts, which are due to expire at the end of 2010, permanent. ...<br /><br />• The plan would shift tax burdens so substantially from the wealthy to the middle class that people with incomes over $1 million would face much lower effective tax rates than middle-income families would. That is, they would pay much smaller percentages of their income in federal taxes.</blockquote><br /><br />The Tax Policy Center claims:<br />http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/numbers/displayatab.cfm?DocID=2683<br /><br />Anybody making less than $20,000 a year would get a break of about $100-$300 on their income taxes. Anybody making $20,000 to $200,000 would get taxed more than now. Anybody making $200,000 to $1,000,000 would rake in the dough. Above a million dollars, the average benefit would come in over half-a-million a year .<br /><br />And the third major tax watch dog group Citizens for Tax Justice have this to say:<br /><br /><blockquote>It’s difficult to design a tax plan that will lose $2 trillion over a decade even while requiring 90 percent of taxpayers to pay more. But Congressman Paul Ryan has met that daunting challenge. This analysis makes obvious that Congressman Ryan’s budget plan has nothing to do with balancing the budget, but has everything to do with creating a system that takes more from the poor and less from the rich.</blockquote><br /><br />The whole article from them is here:<br />http://ctj.org/pdf/ryanplan2010.pdf<br /><br />Thats right ladies and gentle men. The conservative wing of the GOP has come up with a bill to tax the middle class into extinction and give it all to the wealthy, all the while adding 2 Trillion dollars to the deficit! AWESOME! <br /><br />The problem with conservatives is that they aren't. Period. And the ones that are, don't know good policy when it hitting them in the ass.konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-47927926001186729402010-03-05T08:13:00.003-05:002010-03-05T09:03:25.536-05:00There is Something Very Wrong with this CountryThis is a subject that I have been meaning to write about again for sometime. You can call it a rant if you like. Because a rant is exactly what I would call it. The longer I think about it, the more things I can think of to add to it. This rant gets longer every time I ponder it. I can more and more angry until I just want to explode! Which of course leads to an angry rant, which is rarely composed well. So I have to sit back and calm down a bit. And by then, I don't feel like writing it. I'm in a rare place this morning. Placid, calm, and clear headed, while thinking about what is wrong with this country. I have written about it before, so some of this will be redundant. But the good thing about having your own blog is that you can write about what ever you want, when you want. So here goes! <br /><br />There is something very wrong with this country. And it is unique in many aspects to this country. To a far less degree, there is something wrong with the UK and Australia I imagine, but mostly, the United States has something dearly wrong with it. We have become a people who no longer value education. Let me elaborate. The founding of this country saw people like Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and James Madison come to prominence. These were thinkers, people of great intellect who were able to see things as they really were, then. Thomas Paine was one of the great enlightenment intellectuals, as was Thomas Jefferson. Benjamin Franklin was an astute politician AND inventor, and James Madison was one of the finest political and legal minds in this countries history. And they were valued for their intelligence. <br /><br />Through the years, we have seen great thinkers who were able to come up with practical solutions to difficult problems. From John Jay, who wrote many Federalist Papers and became the first Supreme Court Chief Justice, to John Marshall who helped define the way the Supreme Court Works, our Supreme Court has had a myriad of brilliant legal minds. From Thomas Jefferson, who ended the Sedition Act, to Franklin D. Roosevelt who had the courage to do what had never been done in this country, securing us financially for nearly 6 decades before his regulations were largely removed in the late 90's and early 2000's, our Presidents have been intelligent and courageous. Many a Senator and Representative have stood in the halls of congress and stood up for what they believed in and what was best for the country. From John Quincy Adams who served even after he was president, to Ron Paul, we have had a plethora of good congressmen who had the courage to speak up and say the truth. Agree or disagree with Ron Paul, he understands, truly, the effect of spreading our military around the world has on our economy, security, and national perception. And finally, the people, who have chosen these leaders, have in large part made wise decisions through out the year. The extremists and anti-intellectuals have not one in large part. Until now. <br /><br />We have a problem in this country. A raging sweeping torrent of ignorance and anti-intellectualism is dragging us down to the depths. It is frightening to know and understand that Fox News is the largest cable news network in this country. In large part, its watchers have exchanged learning and knowledge, for the opinion of Shawn Hannity and Glenn Beck. On nearly every issue, the opinion of a few crackpots and a news opinion show have garnered more support than scientists and experts in various areas. From Global Warming and evolution, to separation of church and state and corruption, the view of others has become the fact. The entire evening is completely monopolized by opinion shows. Whether its Glenn Beck or Keith Olbermann, the entire cable news evening is dominated by opinionated individuals. <br /><br />It would be one thing if people did their fact checking. I enjoy Keith Olbermann allot, but when ever he says something that is outrageous, my wife and I break out the laptop to find out if its true. Unfortunately, this is not the case with most Americans. Nothing is more disheartening to me than to watch Hannity or Beck with my parents and watch them get angry and upset over things Hannity and Beck say without backing anything up. They simply accept it to be true. My wife is known for asking "I wonder if thats true" when Olbermann makes a new claim. But not most Hannity and Beck watchers. They accept their largely unsupported claims as fact. <br /><br />Online, many of these same viewers enjoy believing they are fact checking by visiting World Net Daily and Newsmax. Unfortunately both of these sites have gotten in trouble for simply making things up to back up their claims! The main source of information for World Net Daily's Obama birth certificate story was a blog in which the person later said it was always intended to be a joke! Newsmax has been sued twice and lost for printing lies and false stories. Yet they remain a bastion of conservative respect! <br /><br />I once did not believe in Evolution. However, I have been studying the actual evidence for evolution for over five years now. I had no clue the vast amount of evidence for evolution. I will go so far as to say that evolution can be proven fact is not a single fossil was ever found. The evidence is strong enough that you could throw out fossil evidence completely and still prove it easily! Yet, how many people believe in their hearts that there is no evidence for evolution? MILLIONS! Whats worse, almost all of them have steadfastly refused to even look at the evidence for evolution. Someone tells them its not true, so they believe it. The worst claims are that if they saw evolution happening in front of them, they would believe it. The problem is, if they looked at the evidence, there are many proven cases of seen and observed evolution NOW! It CAN be seen in real life happening! Yet, they refused to study before having an opinion! <br /><br />Global Warming is another. There are only a few classes of scientists that actually study climate change and the environment. These scientists are nearly 100% in agreement that global warming is happening and is caused by humans. The evidence is enormous for this. Yet most people are content to sit back and believe someones opinion, or a scientist who doesn't work in this field, and believe its not happening or isn't our fault. Some even go so far as to believe its a hoax! Considering who benefits and who doesn't, that claim doesn't even make logical sense! Further, the evidence for global warming is right in front of our eyes and easily accessible to people to go read it. Yet, people simply refuse to go study the evidence. They CHOOSE to remain ignorant on the issue!<br /><br />There are some who believe this country was founded to be a christian nation. Never mind the fact that the writer of the Declaration of Independence was a Deist, that the writer of the Constitution also wrote the Separation of Church and state laws in Virginia, and never mind that our first president is quoted saying that he carries a bible to stop people from questioning him but that he detests christianity, they believe it must be a christian nation! Deliberate and calculated ignorance for their own personal gain! <br /><br />Today, one of the big problems in politics is that we have people who agree with tons of views, yet vote against those views constantly. The people vote in favor of the corporations and against their own best interests repeatedly. Further, the politicians blatantly campaign for their highest bidder lobbyist in everything from health care reform to bank bailouts, but people still believe them! When Mitch McConnell gets up and tells us that Health Care reform is bad for America, shouldn't hte people be asking why he is saying that and why he is getting out there to oppose it, and ask if it could be because he is the second or third largest recipient of health insurance lobby money? Yet, many people trust him and others of his party to tell the truth about health care reform! They have money at stake to see this fail!!!<br /><br />But the nasty underside of this is that the people who know and understand and study and follow the evidence are being demonized in this country. If you believe in anything that is inconvenient to someones world you are labeled as someone trying to push an agenda, or trying to destroy america, or destroy families, or destroy faith yadda yadda yadda! <br /><br />Unfortunately, the group of people MOST responsible for this type of behavior currently are conservatives and the christian right wing. Conservative christians being the worst. They seem to fight with all their heart and soul against anything intellectual. Evolution and global warming are fact. To deny so is to remain deliberately ignorant. When I got home yesterday, one of my family members was on the phone arguing about evolution. "I have never seen any evidence to make me believe evolution is true". Well lucky I walked in. I piped right up. "What was the last book or article or paper you read on evolution and about evidence for evolution". The answer? Crickets. None. Nadda. She had made up her mind that evolution was false, and convinced her self of her own correctness to the point of actually arguing against it without ever picking up a single book discussing the evidence for it. She had read plenty of apologetics against evolution, because that backed up her own ignorant views of science. She pulled out the "its only a theory" nonsense, so I asked her to define a scientific theory and how it is used in science and regarded in science. She didn't know. How can you make a claim about what something IS if you don't know what that think really IS? So I began to enlighten her until she cut me off. "Don't start with all the intellectual garbage". Intellectual garbage. <br /><br />I was discussing global warming on a forum recently and came to the odd conclusion that some people just don't want to know the truth. At one point I listed the top three or four research sites in the world that had websites. People whose entire life is studying the environment. The answer? A site with a physics scientists signing a petition against global warming. Another site with another scientist not in the field of climatology or the environment stating it was a hoax. Not a single scientist that studies the environment listed among them. Whats worse, none of my sites were even ocmmented on, and the person just continued to believe the nonsense they wanted to believe. It was deliberately choosing to remain ignorant. <br /><br />On another forum I used to frequent, I went round and round with one person about this being a christian nation. Their favorite tactic was to take a smidgen of a quote to back up their claim. It is unfortunate for them that every quote was completely out of context once I gave the rest of the letter or statement being given. I completely destroyed every claim made! Easily! Yet, they choose to remain willfully ignorant despite the evidence. Call me one of "those intellectual idiots". Intellectual idiots.<br /><br />And here we come to the problem this country has. This country, by en large, simply ignores or demonizes that which challenges its world view. Whether it is the completely misguided and false view that we have the best health care policy in the world, or that evolution is a fact. Most people demonize the intelligencia and praise the fools who believe despite the evidence. It has become something of a national past time for people to ridicule the really smart people in favor of the now "useful idiots" who give their opinions on tv. This countries problem is that it no longer values intelligence. It values loyalty above all. Remain loyal, keep the faith, don't let your mind be changed. <br /><br />This mindset comes directly from the countries main religion, christianity. Religion, as can be shown over and over, is a poison to a society, and the poison is reaching critical mass in the united states. From useful idiots hold socialism signs who can't define socialism properly, to people arguing in favor of Walmart over their own best interest, this country is suffering from a rash of anti-intellectualism that has not been seen before. When you can't win with the facts, kill the messenger. Don't like what someone is saying? Demonize them as unamerican, unpatriotic, or hating god and religion. Its much easier to do that then address the fact that what you believe is factually inaccurate. Its much easier to NOT read any information and keep your opinion that you know is approved by your group of fools, than to challenge the status quo. <br /><br />This country has a problem. And that problem is stupidity and the vilification of intelligence.konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-81558739089382102952010-03-01T08:24:00.002-05:002010-03-01T08:50:52.371-05:00A Former Christians View on Christians TodayI have neighbors, as most of us do. And my neighbors happen to be very strict and literalist fundamentalist Christians. We have had issues with them, but not for the reasons you might think. We had an issue some time back with their pet cat causing damage to our property and peeing under our house. So, after many attempts to get them to keep the cat inside, we called the neighborhood property manager. And this is where it gets ugly. From that time on, they have shown their true colors, well at least all but the Husband has. See, the wife lied to him about what the property manager said so that they had to get rid of the cat. See, she didn't like the cat and she also holds personal grudges. This is where it gets good. <br /><br />From that point, the war has been waged, on their end, against our kids, through their kids. Spitting on our kids, name calling and insults, throwing ice balls at them, telling them they are going to hell, are all things my kids have gone through. I tried to talk to the dad after hearing some of it myself, but his kids lied and he believes them and thinks I'm just a lying atheist. Typical oblivious moron. <br /><br />This is not the only time when a small issue has turned into a big issue with christians. It seems they like to find a small reason to justify their hatred of me and my family and have no problems using my kids to get to me. The hatred christians have for me is stunning in its openness. Their ability and desire to lie to continue their hatred is appalling. But the idea of allowing that hatred and anger to be directed at children, all under the age of ten, is unfathomable. Its heart wrenching and makes me want to harm them for their actions. However, unlike them, I have morals and standards and ethics that guide my life. <br /><br />Now, spare me the ridiculous claims that "not all christians are like that". Yes yes I know they aren't all like that. But the problem is, given the right situation where no other christians will know about it, christians in general seem to show this startlingly similar behavior pattern. A friend of my mothers thought I was my dad, who is a christian, and sent me an email about how atheists are trying to ruin america and asked me to donate to this organization to fight atheists and their attempts to tear down america. I informed her that this was his son. She knows I'm an atheist. So her email back was an apology saying she knows that I'm not trying to tear down america, that this is just about those few that are. <br /><br />BULLSHIT! Two faced lying christian sack of shit! You can't even be bothered to be honest with me about how you feel? <br /><br />This type of lying behavior is not just common, it is endemic. When christians don't believe anyone is watching them or see's them, they are worse than the worst liar you can find. Is it everyone? No, duh, obviously not. But, I would say from my experience, that there is a good amount that are. And because my parents are christians, and my wife can back this up, I try and give christians the benefit of the doubt. Try to come up with a good reason for their behavior. Yet it always returns to lies to justify their seething hatred of those who don't believe like them. Like the gay movement of "hate the sin, love the sinner", the actions speak louder than words. In their mind, behind the lies and quips they use to build themselves up, the reality is this. "Hate the sin, hate the sinner". And their actions betray this. <br /><br />If there is a god, and the bible is true, I would bet my very soul that less than 1% of professed christians would actually go to heaven. Perhaps less of the so called fundamentalist christians, as they are more self righteous and more prone to lying and hate speak towards those unlike them. <br /><br />Whats worse, its is detrimental to their cause. You know what? My oldest son nearly hates christians. Why? Because every christian child who has found out he comes from a free thinking family turns on him and is mean and cruel to him. Nine years old and he has learned what christians are like when you aren't like them. How can teach him religious tolerance when his foundation is one of cruelty and hatred from this religion? Yesterday we had a little knowledge session in which I was teaching him about the good things that different religions bring to the table of humanity. When we got to christianity, he object to my suggestion that Jesus taught some good moral values. He said this "I see what the bible says, but christians don't act like that. So if they believe in Jesus, then Jesus must have been mean". Good boy, you see the contradiction at such a young age. Shame on christians for forcing my child to understand the cruelty of religion at such a young age. And fuck you for the heart break you have brought upon my children. <br /><br />But unlike you, I don't wish you ill. I don't hope there is a hell that you will go to. Unlike you, I believe in true goodness and kindness for the sake of making humanity a better species and this planet a better place to live. Unlike you I have true morals and ethics developed from society and life experience that speaks to a better life that I can see and feel myself by following them. <br /><br />If Jesus really existed and really was moral, then christians are a disgrace to his memory. A disgustingly dark mirror image of how ugly humanity can be. Christianity as a whole, has become a stain on this earth. Are all christians like this? No, of course not. But I would wager a fair amount that when no one is around, or they think they can get away with it, their Alter Ego fades and what lies beneath is truly ugly.konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-40755806983261539252010-02-03T15:51:00.000-05:002010-02-03T15:52:00.016-05:00Republicans and Conservatives: Out of their minds and losing controlOkay, by now I have railed on this for several days and you might be getting tired of it.....if you are a conservative or a republican. For those of us liberals, thats not the case. We don't tire of making them own up to the reality they tried to push on us. Three issues have caught my attention today. One is one I already pointed out but haVe new details on. Another was one that I missed the last few years. I'll start with that. <br /><br />John McCain. Republican moderate for President. Are you sad that he didn't get in? Sad that such a man of integrity didn't make office? Lets review a few things he has said about the military. <br /><br />He has said that he will listen to the commanders on the ground. You know, the people who are actually in charge that deal with the troops. These people know best for our military.<br /><br />http://www.america.gov/st/elections08-english/2008/September/20080905163810hmnietsua0.4309961.html<br /><br />He has said that he would go with what the military says they need for advice on Gays in the military. But then changes his tune four years later (now) to saying they need to consult congress!<br /><br />http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/02/mccain-the-day-military-l_n_446541.html<br /><br />And again here, rely on the military people to make the decision, even though he believe DADT is working. <br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPLTNoUGPC4<br /><br />So we have John McCain simply saying what ever is politically expedient depending on the atmosphere in his party. <br /><br />Same with allowing gay marriage. <br /><br />Discriminating is wrong, but not allowing gay marriage is the way to go. <br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u2LSWF6d1M<br /><br />But, maybe he wasn't sure?<br /><br />Here is shows his flip flops all over the place. Legal? Yes and no. Civil unions? Yes and no.<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeBw28tX5Nw<br /><br />This is what the "conservative" wing of the republican party has fostered, insane flip flopping from the party that once called John Kerry a flip flopper. THey are out of their mind! <br /><br />But no where is this more evidence than in the bill to create a budget deficit commission. <br /><br />Bill was created and announced by Democrat Kent Conrad and Republican Judd Gregg. It was added on to the bill to increase the US debt ceiling, which by the way, passed. 17 Republican senators joined with democrats in a letter urging President Obama to sign this bill when it passed the Congress. Here is the letter and the people who signed it.<br /><br />http://www.bignews.biz/?id=831381&pg=1&keys=Senator-Kent-Conrad-Fiscal<br /><br />So what happened?<br /><br />What happened is that the bill failed by 7 votes. And 7 republicans who endorsed the bill turned around and voted against it. Enough voted for it to say they were for the commission if need be in the future, but just enough voted against it so Obama couldn't get credit for a budget deficit commission. <br /><br />http://www.whereistheoutrage.net/wordpress/2010/02/01/why-vote-against-your-own-bill/<br /><br />It was a completely political move. Which brings us back to McCain and my final situation to bring up. Pay as you go economics. Paygo economics is the idea that you cannot introduce new spending without cutting something else so that it is deficit neutral. It was introduced by republicans and conservatives in 1990. It has been a staple of republicans fiscal policy when they are not in full control. They only want it when it can't happen. In reality, they aren't fiscal conservatives and have no intention of restricting their own spending in such a fashion. No time is this more evident by the recent rejection of a DEMOCRATIC pay as you go initiative by John McCain and several other republicans.<br /><br />http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/28/mccain-three-other-gopers_n_440745.html<br /><br />In fact, the party that houses nearly all fiscal conservatives, voted 40-0 in the senate AGAINST pay as you go economics! They voted against the principle that you have to pay for programs you want!<br /><br />http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=2&vote=00012<br /><br />Every damn one of them voted against it! Why? You know why! It was fiscal responsibility proposed by a democrat, and they can't have that! They cannot allow President Obama to get credit for a position they are desperately trying to lie their way onto the high ground! <br /><br />Republicans have lost their mind and are out of control. Their partisan ship is so ridiculous at this point that they cannot be trusted to make sound judgements on anything. They simply vote based on whether or not Obama is for it or against it. They have gone from obstructionist to actually working against things beneficial to this country in order to hurt the democrats. This is what you voted for Massasschussetts! Idiocy and partisan actions that harm this country! Wake up America! Through out these punks who obstruct for the sake of obstructing! It is now literally causing harm!konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-23804654596740764232010-02-01T11:14:00.002-05:002010-02-01T11:36:51.489-05:00Conservatives and Republicans have a problem with SincerityConservatives and Republicans in this country have a problem. No, I'm not talking about the obvious problem with reconciling the dichotomy that is the Conservative movement. I'm talking about sincerity. The GOP and the Conservative movement have a problem with sincerity in that they never seem sincere. Confused? Well, if you are a conservative or a republican, then your head is likely in the sand and you are very confused. But if you are a liberal or independent, then you are shaking your head in agreement. <br /><br />Republicans continue to use phrases that get their base lit, yet they don't really mean it. Now, I know, you want specifics, and we will get to them soon, but just think about it for a moment. When you make statements about fiscal conservatism, shouldn't you expect them to act like it? Sure, you would. When you make comments about the deficit, then your actions should belay that deep concern, right? <br /><br />But there is the problem. Lets start with recent history shall we? The President, a democrat if you have been paying attention, decide that the deficit is out of hand. And he is right. So he wanted to create a bi-partisan commission to decide what could and couldn't reasonably be cut. This sounds like a great idea and a great time to force the president to listen to their ideas. After all, they would have an automatic seat at the table! But did they? NO!<br /><br />http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/26/senate-rejects-deficit-co_n_437113.html<br /><br />The amendment would have created a group to come up with a combination of tax cuts and spending curbs to be passed by mid term elections. But the republicans all said no, as did a few blue dog democrats. But without fail, every single republican and conservative in the senate voted no. Okay, so thats the Senate. But surely conservatives everywhere were outraged that this did not get passed right? WRONG! There was almost no conservative response to it! Apparently, trying to curb deficit spending is not a big issue to the conservative movement unless it is the democrats NOT doing what they say! <br /><br />But this continues from previous experience as the general norm! As we have seen in my previous post, they pretty much spend away no matter how many taxes get cut. In the past 30 years, they have the highest deficits of any president. They hold the record for deficits and deficit increases. Yet, they are content to sit by and just complain about the deficit! <br /><br />One can only come to the conclusion that Republicans and Conservatives are only concerned with the deficit when Democrats are in power. Other wise, they would have been blowing off steam for the last 30 years, not just during democrat terms! Which leads us to the premise of this post. Republicans and conservatives are not sincere about cutting the deficit, or lowering the national debt. If they were, then they would have jumped right in with the President and his council and demanded a seat at the table. Instead they voted it down. See, when people are sincere, their actions show their sincerity. If it were reversed, then every media outlet would be screaming this about the democrats. But the democrats are at least sincere. They ran on health care, stimulus, and environment, and they are working on bills for all of them currently, whether republicans like it or not. Which shows that they are at least sincere, if not misguided by some peoples view. <br /><br />The "Conservative" response to the health care bill? Same price, covered less, and gave bigger quirks to the health care industry. Sincere about health care? No. Sincere about giving breaks to big corporations? Absolutely. But did they say that to the American public? No. Just the opposite. Because the GOP and the conservative movement are not sincere about what they want to do. They just want power. Which leads me to my third point. <br /><br />Every single government expansion of power into the lives of the individual in the last 30 years has been under Republican rule. The last and biggest one being the Patriot Act. A "Conservative" President with a Republican majority passed the most intrusive governmental power bill ever. And what did conservatives do? Nothing. Mr. and Mrs. Small Government did most of the justification to the country on why they needed the power to spy on US citizens. Why? Because "big government" is only a term they use to try and win votes against democrats. They aren't sincere about having a smaller government. <br /><br />Conservative voters all over this country get ramped up when democrats are in power, but are silent as death when it is a republican in power. Where are these "tea party" favorites when republicans have power? MIA. Because even they aren't sincere in their views. They are sincere as far as wanting republicans and so called conservatives in office, but after that, they don't care. Which is why there where no cries for fiscal restraint for 8 years while Bush was in office. Thats why there were no cries for smaller government for 8 years while Bush was in office. And thats why there were no calls for lowering of spending until the Democrats took power. Because they have a problem. And that problem is sincerity. They lack it because they, as a whole, hate democrats and liberals more than they care about this country. Their actions belay their intent. Watch their actions to judge their intent, not their words. <br /><br />These people are out lying again. They are out making up stuff and their constituents who believe themselves to be conservatives are eating it up. All they while they know they will never attempt to lower the deficit or the debt or government control, because they never have before. Everyone needs a talking point I suppose.konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-61984003886230690752010-01-29T13:33:00.004-05:002010-01-29T13:46:52.545-05:00The Republican Conservative DichotomyIt has long been my joy to witness that pure dichotomy that is the Republican party and the Conservative movement. For those unfamiliar with the term, is refers to the splitting of a whole into two parts. In this case, I'm using it metaphorically in a mutually exclusive sense to refer to Republican Speech versus Republican actions. Two parts of the whole in which nothing can belong simultaneously to both parts. That is to say, their actions cannot match their words. In case you are wondering, this is not a good thing. Now, I'm sure this has not always been the case, but at least since Reagan, the Republicans and Conservatives have had a nasty problem combining the two parts of Conservative politics, what they say, and what they do. We should examine my claim critically, because it is revealing. <br /><br />Fiscal Conservatism. This is one of my favorites because it has long been held that the Republican party and Conservatives in general are the ones that are fiscally conservative. But what is fiscal conservatism? Fiscal conservatism generally encompasses three major talking points. Lower government spending, decrease and eliminate deficit spending, and lower the national debt. Now, in keeping with that principle, we should see all three of these principles working over time in the last thirty years since we have had three republicans presidents and a republican majority for most of that time. They should have made changes that permanently decreased all three. So how did they do? <br /><br />Not to well I'm afraid. <br /><br />http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1982.html <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.ohwy.com/history%20pictures/feddefchart.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 303px; height: 242px;" src="http://www.ohwy.com/history%20pictures/feddefchart.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a> <br /><br />See, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush all ran budget deficits the entire time they were in office. All three are Republicans who ran on and got elected on Conservative principles and values, including fiscal conservatism. Bill Clinton was a democrat and he managed to work from a deficit to a surplus. And before you say it, no, he didn't take from Social Security or anything else. How did he do it? Well, its easy really. Fiscal Conservatism, outside of the political realm, means making sound financial decisions. In other words, the way to reduce your deficit is to take in more than you spend. What these three Republican conservative presidents didn't understand, and what many conservatives don't understand still, is that you cannot lower taxes without increasing the deficit without drastic spending cuts. And they never made drastic spending cuts. So what did they have to spend money on that was so important that they needed to sacrifice the deficit of this nation? They clearly didn't decrease government spending. And, if you look at the history of the national debt as a percentage of the GDP (and thats really what matters) we can see that it went down every year after the Great Depression until Ronald Reagan. It then went up every year until the changes enacted by Bill Clinton, and then it started going down. When George W. Bush took office, it started going up again. <br /><br />http://zfacts.com/p/318.html <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://zfacts.com/metaPage/lib/National-Debt-GDP.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:left;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 408px; height: 250px;" src="http://zfacts.com/metaPage/lib/National-Debt-GDP.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a> <br /><br />So again we see that conservative Republicans are clearly NOT fiscally conservative in any sense of the word. They don't reduce spending, they have increased deficit spending more than democrats/liberals, and have increased the national debt more than democrats/liberals. So how is it that they can claim the title of the fiscally conservative party? It simply isn't true. They say one thing, but their actions are those of someone who spend more, illogically cuts taxes at the same time causing sky rocketing deficits, and politicians who increase the debt. So next time you vote, do yourself and everyone else justice and don't vote for a party that claims fiscal conservatism and responsibility when they clearly are not. <br /><br />Capitalism. This one should be easy. Be all for free market and make only laws which protect that free market from becoming a corporatist fascist entity that runs the country. If you were a dyed in the wool capitalist, you would make laws and tax laws designed to better assist the small business owner and entrepreneur and NOT the big corporations. You would make laws and enforce laws that make sure that Corporations cannot run rough shod over small business and the American consumer by cornering markets and unethical business practices. So, how do they do? <br /><br />Horribly I'm afraid. Never was this more evident when the Graham-Leach-Bliley act was passed in 2000. This act removed the restrictions that prevented investment banks and regular banks from intertwining. Why? Because if the stock market crashed, like during the great depression, the congress and the country didn't want it to be able to take down the entire financial system, like it did recently. Their foolishness nearly caused another great depression when the stock market crashed in 2008. Very little is more dangerous to capitalism than a full blown financial collapse. But this isn't the only one. <br /><br />As any good, well informed, well read capitalist would know, monopoly is the enemy of capitalism. It is the enemy of competition! Adam Smith, author of "The Wealth of Nations" (founding principles of capitalism no less!) had this to say about monopolies. <br /><br />Monopoly...is a great enemy to good management. The Wealth of Nations, Book 1 Chapter 11 Part 1 <br /><br />The monopolists, by keeping the market constantly under stocked, by never fully supplying the effectual demand, sell their commodities much above the natural price. The Wealth of Nations, Book 1, Chapter 6 <br /><br />So, what company does this remind us of? Well, lots of them. For starters, Wal-Mart. They buy products for pennies on the dollar overseas, under stock popular items then sell them for a thousand percent profit all the while still selling them less than everyone else based on where they buy them. They make so much money they can buy more at one time as well. It is market abuse and they are bad for market competition with their deliberate supply manipulation. But they aren't the only ones and they certainly aren't the Republicans or Conservatives fault. Even though they have been in power most of the last thirty years and could have done something about it, they cannot be directly blamed. But what about Health Care? Costs are out of control, and in most states, one company controls 80-90% of market in that state. This is a true monopoly. So why haven't they been taken to court and broken up? Well, its a long story that I will try to shorten. In 1945, the Supreme Court ruled that insurance was indeed commerce and could be regulated by the Federal Government. So the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 was passed give that power to the states, which almost never enforce monopoly laws due to the cost of such a battle. It effectively made the insurance companies regulation free unless there is a law written specifically towards them. <br /><br />Well, it wasn't until recently that this became a problem. Health care insurance companies have become so big that they simply do what they want, including deny coverage after years of paid dues and coverage, or deny payment when its due, or announce that they will raise prices if certain laws are passed. So, being that this is anti-competitive you would think Republicans and Conservatives would be lining up to get this changed right? Well, no. They aren't. In fact, numerous times during the last 30 years, attempts to repeal this have been attempted by democrats, only to find that the Republicans majority simply ignores it and it never makes it out of committee. Or they filibuster its passage and the bill gets set aside. Even when there was a bi-partisan bill with Trent Lott and Patrick Leheay, it still couldn't pass the Republican majority congress. And now, currently, Patrick Leahey is again trying to get it repealed and what is the response? Silence. Nothing at all. And when asked about it, the only thing I ever hear is about not wanting to harm business. And that encompasses the total of their problem with capitalism. When all you care about is the Corporations, laws you make cannot make capitalism thrive. Capitalism requires a strong middle class and the reality that you can truly come from nothing to be rich. The Republicans and Conservatives are clearly not on the side of that little man trying to come up in the world. They constantly side with big Corporations. Even now, the SCOTUS rules in a fashion that the conservatives like, in the Citizens United case. It was a conservative "watch dog" group that was run by regular citizens but funded by massive corporations who put out the movie Hillary during a campaign season. Republicans have backed this group the entire way and still do. They are in essence backing the corporations ability to dump millions into campaigns. This is not capitalism, it is corporate fascism. <br /><br />Family Values and small government. This one is a problem. Why? Because in supporting "family values" you are necessarily stating that you are the purveyor of all knowledge of what is a family value. This arrogance has led them to make some hideously poor choices and decisions. From blocking gay marriage (based on another conservative platform of religion) to violating their own views of small government by trying to stop a family member from pulling the plug on their own comatose wife! Republicans and conservatives have long held the ridiculous dichotomy of SAYING they want smaller government, while simultaneously advocating for government intervention into the every day morality of Americans. Gay marriage and abortion are two of the biggest, but not the only ones. Gays in the military, reducing the rights of children, these are things that clearly should not be on their agenda, but are. They want to tell you who can and can't get married. They want to tell you what medical procedure you can and can't have. They want to dictate who can die for this country based on sexuality. They want to make sure parents have maximum control over their children by shooting down child rights laws. They want all sex education to be abstinence only, with no disease education or real sex ed involved at all, and they fund it fully! All the while the conservatives and republicans of this movement are usually having affairs (like Newt Gingrich) or have gay sex with meth head, prostitutes in airports, and congressional pages (Teg Haggard and several senators). These are the keepers of family values? No! <br /><br />American Exceptionalism. Well, this is less a dichotomy than a simple delusion. The idea that America is simply better than everyone else is just arrogant and ignorant. Any fool can look up the states and see we aren't even in the top ten in health care. We aren't the top ten in quality of life globally. And quality if life rankings for just the America's? Nope, not a single US city in the top five. In fact, for cities globally, the highest ranked US city in the world is Honolulu, at number 28. That’s pretty sad. We aren't the best country in the world. Our citizens aren't the happiest, the healthiest, live the highest quality, or enjoy their lives the most. The arrogance of conservatives and republicans has led to ignorance and a refusal to make changes to better American. It is, in fact, dragging us down every year they are in power, even for a moment! <br /><br />I have simply picked a few key conservative republican platform generalities to show that what REAL conservative Americans vote for, is not happening in the republican party or the conservative movement. Now, I know the response to this already. Dems are the same way. Well, hold on there. Fiscal liberalism says you spend more encourage growth, then when growth occurs, you raise taxes to cover your deficit and recover the debt. Is that not what the democrat party has done and does? Isn't tax and spend what they are accused of? So yes, they do what they say financially. Dems have led the way and will finally lead the way to make insurance companies, and hopefully banks, accountable and keep them regulated. Good for capitalism, unlike what the conservatives do. Family values? Well, pushing for children’s rights, equal rights for all including gays, seems like a great value to have to me. And most do not feel that America is better than the world, but want to improve America via the entity that is best equipped to do that, the government. <br /><br />So no, its not the same for dems. That dichotomy simply doesn't exist within the democrat party or liberal movement. It doesn't. Now, I'm willing to discuss anything, but if you come to the table with that weak argument, you better have some examples that back it up. <br /><br />The simply truth is this. If you are really a fiscal conservative, you can't vote republican. In fact, you should be voting democrat. Why? Because democrats have lowered the debt and decreased and eliminated the deficit when republicans have only raised both. The democratic party is more fiscally conservative than the conservative party. If you want a party that consistently says one thing but its actions clearly do something different, all the while being told that this is conservatism, then vote for the republicans. Go ahead. We all know that what conservatives and republicans really want is to just keep believing they are right, despite the evidence.konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-51763460339926653952009-11-23T09:47:00.001-05:002009-11-23T09:47:31.179-05:00Taxes are Bullshit!Taxes are Bullshit!<br /><br />Don't get me wrong, I understand taxes are necessary. In fact, I believe current income taxes should be a bit higher for people like myself and those who make more money. But it isn't federal income taxes that are bullshit, though there is a good argument against them as well. Despite the insane rantings of Teabaggers who some how believe their federal taxes, which are lower than they were during Reagan and Bush W, are some how to high, it isn't federal taxes that we need reprieve from. Its every thing else, all the other little taxes that conspire to fuck us over. <br /><br />I get taxed when I buy a car. I get taxed every year on that same car. And I lose it if I don't. In other words, I pay to buy, own, and keep a car. If I don't, I don't get one. That tax restricts my freedom. I pay for the privilege of buying stuff. I pay for the privilege of buying food. I pay for the privilege of winning a drawing, contest, or lottery. I pay if I win in gambling. I pay taxes to buy gas. I pay taxes to use electricity, natural gas, phone service, cable services, cell phone services, internet services. In fact, there isn't a single thing in my house that I didn't either pay taxes to buy, pay taxes to use, or pay taxes to continue to own. It is complete bullshit. <br /><br />Yet, most of these taxes are state, city, and county taxes, not federal taxes. All these damn taxes and for what? Every year, some tax goes up. Yet every year, in all three states I have lived in, they complain of not having enough money. Now, I haven't the time or desire to study the economies of these states, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say there is a good amount of crap that the states are spending money on that doesn't have to do with education, keeping up the infrastructure, or helping those falling on hard times. Why aren't people up in arms about the taxes levied by the states? Nearly all the taxes I pay are paid at the state, local, and county leve, not at the federal level. Whats worse, while I end up paying all these other taxes to the state/local/county, I still get state/local/county taxes taken out of my pay checks. Which means I'm getting doubled taxed. My money is taxed on four levels (fed, state, local, county)and yet, the last three of those levels continue to tax me on everything else I buy and own, which I have no choice but to pay for with money that has already been taxed by them. In fact, if you consider car purchase, you get double, triple, and quadruple wammied on taxes! Paycheck pays state and local and county taxes, then I pay state taxes on the purchase, then I pay county taxes on the property tax every year and the licensing taxes. Taxes upon taxes upon taxes, and Indiana happens to have very low taxes compared to other states! <br /><br />Yet, the stupid teabaggers STILL protest FEDERAL taxes! Either these people are stupid or they are ignorant! Either way, you should consider knowing what you are talking about before you protest it. Why aren't we demanding less spending on the state level? Why aren't we demanding less taxes at the state level? I will tell you why. Because federal taxes are an easy target. You can easily see how many taxes you pay on your federal taxes. Now, there are more taxes than your income tax that goes federal. However, having tracked this for several months now, I can see that most of my money in taxes doesn't go to the federal government, it goes to everyone else in between. And that is why taxes are bullshit!konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-89309700502567866802009-11-13T10:21:00.002-05:002009-11-13T10:42:59.512-05:00The Bible - What's in a story?Today I was reading the Book of Matthew, and an interesting revelation was revealed to me from the education in High School English. I don't want to give it away so I'll just give some examples FIRST before explaining the point I'm getting at. <br /><br />Legend tells us that Matthew was written by the disciple called Matthew. So lets see how his version of Jesus life unfolds. <br /><br />Matthew 1<br />Joseph's dream about Jesus are quoted word for word. <br />Matthew 2<br />Prophecies told to herod by magi word for word.<br />Another dream of Joseph word for word.<br />Matthew 3<br />Words of John the Baptist word for word<br />Matthew 4<br />Jesus led into desert alone, conversation word for word with devil. <br />Words of jesus preaching and calling of first disciples.<br />Matthew 5-9<br />Continues to quote entire speeches word for word, specific events in different downs, even quotes others responses.<br />Matthew 9<br />Matthew finally called. Not traveling with him, but sitting at tax collector booth. <br />Matthew 17<br />Quotes word for word event in which only Peter, James, and John were with Jesus. <br />Matthew 26<br />Judas and the priests quoted word for word. <br />Jesus in Gethsemane, Jesus goes away with Peter James john, but they fall asleep, but Jesus prayer gets quoted word for word. <br />Jesus speaks with Sanhedrin and quoted word for word. <br />Matthew 27<br />Judas conversation with priests and priests words amongst themselves.<br />Jesus comments with Pilot quoted word for word. <br />Pilots discussion with priests after crucifixion.<br /><br />Now, I sited some very specific examples that all have something in common. Have you already figured it out? Thats right, all these stories are told in the third person. But not just in the third person, an all knowing all seeing third person. In English and Literature this is called "narrative mode". That is when you tell the story as an omniscient call knowing narrator of a story. It is used to convey the plot to an audience. In narrative mode, the author can move the story along and fill in every point and close the gap to anyone reading the story. This is a much easier way to fill in the reader without complex plots that slowly show the reader whats going on. <br /><br />This, however, is not the way people convey real events that they experienced. But there are some other problems here. Matthew details conversations that he himself admits he couldn't know. How could he possibly know the words used in Josephs dream? How could he know of any of the events before he was called to be a disciple, never mind know the conversations word for word. How would he know, word for word, the conversation between Jesus and the Devil? He quotes word for word what happened between only three other disciples and Jesus. He quotes conversations between jesus and pilot, Jesus and the Sanhedrin, and Jesus and the priests when Jesus is the only one there. Matthew quotes the conversation Judas has with the priests, on two different occasions! <br /><br />Perhaps the most ridiculous part of the book is when Matthew describes Jesus prayer in the garden. He goes to great lengths to let us know that only three disciples were invited, and they fell asleep. So no one is with Jesus, yet Matthew quotes his prayer? This type of story telling happens in all three gospels. Not a one escapes the ridiculous proposition of the all seeing omniscient narrator. <br /><br />But we know this type of story. The type of story in which every single word spoken, every dream, every silent prayer, thought, and conversation is known to the narrator. It is called a fairy tale. A work of fiction in which the entire plot is laid out line by line, with every dark corner of thought and dream are known and laid bare. <br /><br />Matthew is laid out like any good piece of fiction, complete with good guys, bad guys, negative plot turn, and finally, the happy ending. We know this format, we call it fiction, or fairy tale. Because there is absolutely no way Matthew could have known most of the events I listed above. The very fact that events where recorded that no one could have known about, and done word for word, should tip us off to the fact that this is nothing more than a good story. Whether a real Jesus figure ever existed is made moot by the fact that this story that describes his life is clearly a work of fiction. <br /><br />Any one familiar with fiction should be able to spot this work of fiction. In fact, all of the gospels are written in the same fashion, all of them claiming an all knowing third person who is able to see peoples dreams and hear words spoken when no one is around. But then, thats what happens when you take stories handed down orally, grandly embellished over many decades, then try to make a cohesive story. And there is nothing wrong with that if you just like to read great stories, like that of Odessius. But this is what people are living their life by. You might as well take the moral teachings from a Strawberry Shortcake book as read the new testament for guidance!konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-83719855832307052122009-10-28T12:56:00.000-04:002009-10-28T12:57:25.885-04:00Cursing, Swearing, using Bad Words, NO BIG DEAL! REALY!Cursing, Swearing, using Bad words, no big deal! Really!<br /><br />I have always held that there are no such things as bad words. As such, I will use many of them in this post. If you get offended by such words, then please, stay, because this is for you. I will address the use of swear words in as many forms as I can remember and show why they are no big deal. <br /><br />There are three ways in which swears words are considered bad. <br /><br />1. Words are socially unacceptable<br />2. Words are hijacked from original meanings to mean something deragatory<br />3. And most commonly, they are "bad" words because of ones faith or religion<br /><br />All three purposes are simply not valid and I will show why. And for number three, I will show why it is not valid to say one particular word is bad, biblically. Oh yes, I can argue from the bible as well. <br /><br />1. Some words are bad because they are socially acceptable.<br /><br />I have to admit, this is possibly the worst argument I have ever heard. When I was a christian, I still had a major problem with this. Why? Because words have meaning, and meaning is what is important, no particular word. If I were to call you a mother fucker, you would likely be highly offended. But what if I said "you enjoy intimate relations with your mom"? Now, you would likely think about it for a moment then be upset, but it doesn't have the same power as "mother fucker" because you believe that some how "mother fucker" is a bad word. <br /><br />If I say "fuck you", you will inherently get more upset than if I were to say "screw you" or "violate you" or "do you in the rear". The last two are likely to illicit a law instead of anger. But why? They mean the same thing, and have the same linguistic value as "fuck you" does. When you give words more power based on the sound it makes coming out of someones mouth, you denigrad the meaning and value of words by making one word better or worse than another. You wouldn't the term "they" is better than "them" would you? They mean virtually the same thing. We should apply the same logic to all words. Instead of specific sounds being offensive, we need to look at the meaning of a word. I assure you I can say much more offensive things without the so called "bad words". There is nothing more ridiculous than completely insulting someone without one cuss word then having them get upset at "fuck you". We get upset at these particular words and not others because we UNDERSTAND what they mean. Other language is often not fully understood and doesn't convey the feelings to people any more, like cuss words do. <br /><br />Thus, in society, we decided that, since we don't like these feelings being conveyed, that we can demonize the words that convey them. Whats worse, words in a society, and in meaning, change over time. If you went back 200 years ago and told King George "Fuck You" he wouldn't have the slightest idea what you were talking about. Phrases that have to universal meaning cannot be held as bad. In 100 years, we won't know what the phrase means either. So what you are doing is picking one set of words that convey a specific meaning in any given society time table, and deciding they are bad. That simply is not acceptable. Meaning is important. Meaning and the feelings conveyed are more important than the actual words used. Which leads me to point number 2. <br /><br />2. Some words are bad even though they have valid definitions of use. <br /><br />Bitch, bastard, ass hole. All these types of words have valid meanings associated with them. A bitch is a female dog. A bastard is a son born whose father is not known, and ass is an animal. But they have been hijacked, once again, for the feelings they convey, and by consequence, making them "bad words". Not long ago, I did a random test on some people I knew. I didn't tell them at first, but I did after words. I told one of the women she was a bitch. She immediately got upset at me. Didn't slap me, but she wanted to. I told another woman separately that she was acting like a female dog. She laughed and said she supposed she was. (she happens to be one that thinks swearing is wrong). I did the same with some male co-workers with "bastard". The one called bastard felt hurt and got upset, the one who I used the definition on, said he had no father, didn't even blink. And finally, I called one of my friends an ass hole in anger, and the other a butt hole in anger. You guessed it, the one who I called butt hole just apologize (he didn't need to, I set him up) and the one I called ass hole immediately got defensive and angry. <br /><br />Words have meaning. That meaning is why we get upset. But in place of discerning what someone is saying, we have put in a set of words that are considered "bad words" so that we know what feelings are being conveyed and know when to properly get upset or offended. The problem is that now the words themself are offensive separate from their meanings. If I call you a donkeys butt, or a butt hole, or an ass hole, all three should illicit the same response, but that simply doesn't happen. The demonizing of specific words has, in a way dumbed down our society. Or perhaps, it is just a symtom of that dumbing down. Either way, in the case of these type of words, they cannot be bad words because they are still valid in use of very real things. If I say bitch, why should that get someone more angry than a female dog? They are the same thing, and bitch is still used in dog shows and by dog trainers today. Another word, hell, is sometimes demonize, like when someone says "what the hell" or "go to hell". How can a word be a "bad word" when that word is in the bible? The bible is the most widely read book among those of faith in our country today. Yet most who read it would list "hell" as a bad word. That doesn't even make sense. It is the feelings conveyed, the idea conveyed, that should be what gets to people, not specific words, and especially not words that have actual common uses. <br /><br />3. Swear words are bad because the bible says so. <br /><br />Now, this one is one of my favorites because it is simply a misunderstanding or lack of knowledge that causes this belief. Now, I could go into the myriad of ways in which "using gods name in vain" is specifically bad in the bible. I could go on about how "in vain" doesn't mean the same thing it does now, and that "in vain" is not as good a translation as "in a falsehood" according to the direct hebrew translation bible. This would mean that swearing in gods name, that is, making an oath in gods name, is what it is prohibiting. But thats not nearly as relevant. Why? Because, GOD is a generic term not used in the bible. God and Lord are not the names of God. In the Old Testament, God is given the name El half of the time, and Yahweh the other half of the time. Those of the Yahweh persuasion deemed his name so holy that it couldn't be written or spoken. Thus, in the original OT text, YHWH is written, not Yahweh. These are the names of god, and those are what you should not say in falsehood. God damn it, could mean any god or gods. God is a generic term used for any and every other deity. In english, we capitalize the word to mean THE god, by which we mean the christian god. This capitalization in no way indicates that this is the name of god. It is ignorant to say so! Thus god damn it cannot be taking "the name of the lord your god in vain" because you aren't using "the name of the lord your god in vain". <br /><br />Moving to the new testament, christians like to quote Ephesians 4:29 "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.".<br />Now, to many, this means, no swearing. However, we have already discussed the problem with that. I can say something so foul and insulting that you should be left embarassed with out ever saying a "swear" word. So, is it okay to say something nasty as long as I don't swear? I have met many christians who seem to think so. They never swear but they sure say some mean things about people and too them. Surely you can't think that the christian god is so lame and shallow as to think that only words deemed socially bad are things you can't say? No, that is a ridiculous premise. And until christians stop saying bad things about people in a nice or non-swear word laden way, they cannot claim this scripture for anything, especially swear words. The simple reality about this is this. If I say you are the best damn piano player in the whole fuckin world, that is a nice thing I just said about you. Nothing unwholesome was said of you. Yet if you are a christian, you are likely going to be offended. But I clearly didn't violate any religious principles in the bible. What I violated was your self installed, socially generated sense of what particular words are acceptable. And that is not enough to decide that one particular word, rather than what the words mean, is bad or offensive. <br /><br />Conclusion:<br /><br />In the conclusion I want to address one further complaint about swearing. It is usually given by people who consider them selves intellectuals or intelligent. They like to say swear words are only used by those who aren't smart enough to articulate their feelings. That intelligent people don't need to use swear words. Well, I call them like I see them. And that is bull shit. As long as society views specific words as "bad" then they will continue to have a bigger impact on people than spelling out the actually feeling or action you wish to convey. If I say "I am very angry and am not going to do what you say no matter what you tell me so just leave me alone" it doesn't have the power that "kiss my ass!" does. As well, it shortens the discourse considerably when using swear words to convey feelings either in anger or in jest. Simply using one word over another, as long as it is in proper usage, does not make on inferior or less intelligent. Fact is, if I don't use swear words, many people simply don't understand what I just said. So in some ways, it is easier to communicate with people using swear words. <br /><br />If we want to advance in our society, we must learn to get past such pettying labeling as "bad words". Words are just words. What I am MEANING is much more important than the actual words used. Words are a tool that, in and of themselves, cannot be inherently bad or good, they simply are. They are there to use when we need them to convey actions, requests, feelings, desires, pain, pleasure and so much more. The sooner we learn thes, the sooner we can move on to actually discussing issues that really matter, and give a big FUCK YOU to people whose only recourse in a discussion is to demonize the actual words you use, in place of real discussion.konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-51533694149744957372009-09-17T09:30:00.003-04:002009-09-17T10:01:49.402-04:00God in the Garden: The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and EvilThis is a new series I'm starting that will examine curious parts about the book of Genesis, specifically the beginnings of mankind before, during, and shortly after the Garden of Eden. <br /><br />For the first post in this series I would like to discuss the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Lets read the verse referring to this to begin with. <br /><br /><blockquote>Genesis 2 15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." </blockquote><br /><br />Lets ignore the last part for this moment as I'm sure that "surely die" can be interpreted different ways. But rather, lets take a look at the actual command and circumstances around that command. What do we know from previous verses about the situation?<br /><br />1. Adam was newly created. <br />2. Adam was just put in the garden.<br />3. Eve was not yet created. She was created in verse 18. <br /><br />Taking the first bit of knowledge listed. Adam was newly created. Now assuming he was created as an adult, which the bible doesn't say, but for the sake of argument, lets say he was an adult out right. He was still a child of mind. He had not experienced anything at all up to this point. The bible is clear. He was created, but into the garden god created, and told not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He would have been completely naive. Some things we take for granted would be foreign to him. Death, disobedience, right and wrong, sin, suffering. As a child, these terms would have no meaning to someone who has not experienced them. A child is not born knowing he must obey his parents, he learns it. <br /><br />Being just put in the Garden, he would likely have been curious. Having never seen trees, or animals or anything before. Like a child, he would not have a concept of punishment or discipline. Curiosity would likely over come commands to not do something, as often is the case in children. If you have children then you understand that when you tell a child to NOT do something or NOT touch something for their own good, you can't just leave them to their own devices. If you tell them NOT to touch something, they will likely feel the need to touch it. You must constantly supervise them. There is no reason to believe that Adam would have been any different as his situation was just a like a childs newly brought into the world. <br /><br />Eve was in an even worse situation. She was created AFTER this command, and thus was given the command second hand. She would also have been naive and unaware of the concept of right and wrong. As we move to Chapter 3, we can see that Eve is not just naive, but, likely any gullible child, easily confused. <br /><br /><blockquote>1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"<br /><br /> 2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "<br /><br /> 4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." </blockquote><br /><br />Now, Eve, being child like, would not have been able to defend against this argument. Why? Because god gave no reason, and her information was second hand any way. So like any child, when the fruit was dangled before her, with the promise of being good and that she would learn and know more, she fell for the trick. A child falling for a trick? Today, we call that child exploitation, because we understand that children are not adults, they don't have the capacity or experience to sort through such things on their own. For Eve it was even worse as she would not have any concept of good and evil, right or wrong. <br /><br />She ate the fruit, gave it to Adam, and he ate as well. Now their eyes were opened. It is only now that we see them realize they did something wrong, AFTER they ate the fruit. We see not hesitation on their part BEFORE eating it. Why? Because they didn't know it was wrong, because they had no knowledge of right and wrong. But after eating the fruit, they did. They grew up essentially. <br /><br />So, like any good parent, god took them aside, chastised them and made sure this was a learning moment in which they learned a valuable lesson and they moved on right? After all, they are just children. Right? Wrong. <br /><br />God punishes them by putting them out of the garden, introducing them to pain, suffering, death, and turmoil. I'm sure they learned a valuable lesson that way. <br /><br />God put two children in a garden, put temptation right in front of them, allowed the "father of lies" (satan by most christians beliefs) to go into the garden to tempt them, then punished them vilely for falling for it. What? In the real world, we call this setting someone up to fail. God is supposedly all knowing. So he put them in the garden, and put temptation in the garden, and allow the master deceiver in the gardern, when he absolutely knew the outcome. What kind of parent would put a bowl of pudding on a table, tell the kids not to eat it, leave the room, send someone in that room to coax them into eating the pudding, then storm in and punish them for eating it?<br /><br />Sound cruel and awful? It is. But that is exactly what god did. He set them up to fail. How can someone claim love of another when they set them up to fail, KNOWING they will fail, then punish them? Can you name another human being you would love or respect if they did such a thing? <br /><br />The lesson we can learn from this is a hard one. If god exists, he is not a nice being. He is cruel, spiteful, and will punish even the most naive of persons for just about anything. He will set you up to fail marvelously because he knows exactly what it takes to make you fail. <br /><br />This is one of the first lessons we learn about God in Genesis. If he exists, watch out, because he is looking for ways to trip you up, and he has the upper hand.konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-26125759404494279242009-08-04T11:09:00.002-04:002009-08-04T11:09:59.415-04:00Keith Olbermann - Special Comment on Health Care<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IbWw23XwO5o&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IbWw23XwO5o&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />Naming names and kicking ass! Way to go KO!konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-59635349757852609382009-07-24T11:21:00.003-04:002009-07-24T11:32:09.367-04:00Chris Mattews flays 'Birther' G. Gordon Liddy - Chew on that evidence Birther idiots!<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pL0fijgGP4g&rel=0&color1=0x6699&color2=0x54abd6&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pL0fijgGP4g&rel=0&color1=0x6699&color2=0x54abd6&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />Okay okay okay, so I originally just wanted to have the video up. But this is to much. This guy is a complete fool. He REPRESENTS what is wrong with the entire birther movement. Ignorance. Plan and simple. This evidence was easily researchable, and many people have gotten it just by asking. Yet some how, the birthers don't ever seem to get to the relevant data. They lie and say that the records are sealed, that they aren't allowed to see it, what ever. Its clearly NOT TRUE as the media has all the evidence they seem to be asking for! Its ignorance and deception, and its a hallmark of the far right wing nut establishment! These looney bins are the same ones that gave up the "Tea Parties". What a crock! How can you be taken seriously when you lie about stuff and get caught on national television lying about it?<br /><br />Liddy said that you can't use the BC that Obama showed to get a passport. It was a straight up made up lie. Its not true. In fact, that is EXACTLY what you use to get your passport! Is he a liar or just ignorant? <br /><br />In fact, if you are a birther, answer me that question. Are you a liar or just a ignorant fuck? The evidence you asked for and claim has been denied you was presented in this video. All the evidence and people like you birthers simply revert back to some old kenyan ladies comment? Really? So tell me, are you stupid or a liar? The evidence you asked for is there, in plain view, so which is it? Are you just to stupid to get it, or are you a lying sack of crap trying to destroy someone? <br /><br />Which is? <br /><br />Stupid or Liar?konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-983178384029229442.post-68341840403162077702009-06-10T16:04:00.002-04:002009-06-10T16:17:36.398-04:00Taking Freedom to the WorldTaking freedom to the world. What a grand claim. What a grand desire. What a ridiculous premise. <br /><br />We have heard over and over that it is our job to spread freedom and democracy to the world. To bring an end to tyranny. To free the oppressed. But I have come to realize that it is simply not possible to do. <br /><br />Freedom is not a gift. It cannot be given. It cannot be gained FOR you. It is a right. A right that must be seized and held by the strength of your resolve. Freedom must be purchased in blood if necessary. If it is just given to you, with no sacrifice, you will never appreciate it, never value it, never jealously protect it. If freedom is not taken, it will not be worth dying to keep. Unless you are willing to die to taken it, it means nothing to you, you will take it for granted. <br /><br />In the dark depths of our history, in the waning day light in Philadelphia over 200 years ago, our forefathers committed the people of this land to war. The desire for freedom and independence burst from is shell and lashed out violently at the oppressive british empire. It the fire and blood of the revolution, freedom was born, strengthened, and taken by the force of our collective will! Thousands were willing to die to earn the freedom they so desperately desired. And because of that genesis in blood, because that freedom was taken, demanded, not given, we have remained a free people.<br /><br />Freedom cannot be given. If people are not willing to die to gain freedom, if the light of freedom doesn't burn so brightly that it burns away the chaff, then there can be no freedom. Tyranny only exists because the people allow it to exist. Take Iraq as an example. Why did they live under tyranny so long? Why didn't the people rise up and annihilate tyranny? Because it wasn't so important to them as it is to us. They didn't desire freedom so much as to rise up and fight the tyranny. They don't desire freedom so much that it burns in their hearts and struggles to break free! <br /><br />Spreading democracy and freedom is a pipe dream! Freedom only comes to those willing to have it at any cost. Freedom is the right of all human beings. Yet, it only belongs to those willing to seize it in a death grip and claim their right! What will be the ultimate out come of the nations we "bring democracy and freedom too" when we leave? Are we naive enough to believe that we can "enforce" freedom and democracy on a people unwilling to hold onto it themselves?<br /><br />No. We must no longer partake in "spreading democracy and freedom". We can no longer hold on to childish idealistic views that we even have the power to "bring freedom" to any one. Rather, stoke the fires of freedom through our actions in the world. Stoke the desire to be free, and stand ready to hold out a hand when the peoples of the world throw themselves into the fire and purchase their freedom with their own blood. Until that happens, our soldiers will die for the "freedom and democracy" of absolutely nothing.konquererzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01692272304707484108noreply@blogger.com2