Tag: nation

Listen to yourselves sometimes…

Dear Close-Minded Woman that pissed me off this week,

Perception is reality. 22% of the worlds population believes in Islam. It’s the worship of a single deity, with that deity’s word outlined in the Qur’an, and the teachings of a prophet named Mohammed. I could just as easily compare it to the Bible, God, and Moses just like my buddy did, and be quite satisfied in being correct…at least until we get into a more detailed description of the religion.

SO…maybe…just maybe…the next time someone greets you with a blessing you should be gracious enough not to act like someone just put a hex on you.

There is this knee-jerk reaction people have when engaging religions not their own that is usually uninformed, uneducated, and almost purely instinctual…almost fight or flight. That is explainable. The possibility that one may be right and the other wrong triggers a fight or flight reaction, most of the time verbally where a person spouts off whatever they can come up with in a few seconds and hide behind their faith in the argument…or worse. When in reality (personally I think religion is a horrible burden on spirituality, being now a tool for business and politic), they are both mutually destructive to one another and will continue to teach at least a small portion of their congregation that the other is the evil one.

The only end to this was to remove religious rule, and we did it.

What scares me most is that some people actually think that adapting the US government into any degree of Christian theocracy would actually protect us.

Separation of Church and State protects us. It has allowed our country to flourish where many other nations have fallen or been turned over in civil war nightmares. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ….” and Article VI specifies that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

I completely understand feeling threatened by belief systems other than your own. I actually understand the feeling more than most. I just don’t understand the need to attack others beliefs to justify your own. Disproving someone else’s religion doesn’t make you right, it makes you a judge where none is necessary.

-Tony

NO…I am NOT a Muslim. I just cant stand religious bullies.




How to lose control of your country…

I don’t really know if there is or was a turning point.

I think it’s slowly been creeping into our nation’s backbone since the Great Depression.

As individuals, as citizens of the United States, we are losing the power of our own individual vote.

The reason? Not simple, and certainly not easy to digest.

The ability of of non-citizens to contribute financially to ANY political figure (or potential political figure) is a clear method to utilize propaganda and advertizing techniques to win an election.

I don’t think this is in ANY manner a level playing field. The Supreme Court just opened up a new venue by which Special Interest and Lobby money will now get their own little shopping spree. That is, businesses may dedicate money in political arenas directly to engage voter opinion. This tactic was just upheld by the supreme court.

Overruling two important precedents about the First Amendment rights of corporations, a bitterly divided Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections. –Adam Liptak, New York Times

He…is…not…kidding!!!

The question is simple. The answer is a mess. How can we as a people justify allowing businesses ANY influence in our voting process, and I am SO including campaign contributions in this question. The interests of businesses should not be given one iota of leverage in the political process, just the same as religious organizations.

Seriously. WHAT THE FRAK MAN?! All the businesses turning this beautiful country into a financial playground need to stop and think. The constitution does NOT provide the rights of a citizen to business entities. In that spirit I simply say, that if a business cannot operate in this country within the scope of existing law, the business is by definition unfit, we need not give a business, specifically BIG business, any venue by which it may influent any political process. That is the duty of the government representatives by way of the voter, not by way of the big businesses wallets.

Unfortunately, somehow we have very directly started giving business MORE freedoms than the it’s own citizens, they sure as hell are getting more tax breaks. But my biggest concern is again the floodgates opened by the Supreme Court today.

The Supreme Court on Thursday handed a new weapon to lobbyists. If you vote wrong, a lobbyist can now tell any elected official, my company, labor union or interest group can spend unlimited sums explicitly advertising against your re-election. –David D. Kirkpatrick, New York Times

I have to think of what this means. I don’t actually need a slippery slope. By permitting this, we have lent businesses and special interests our very First Amendment rights of free speech. I have a HUGE problem with this. It’s one thing when a person buys a hundred people dinner, gets on a podium, and motivates a bunch of people to vote for a specific individual. That is NOT what we’re talking about. We’re actually giving big business and special interest the green light to financially squash opposing politicans and their campaigns.

Did the supreme court just decide to stop acting in the interest of it’s people and instead apply an interest in defending business based on the rights afforded citizens by way of the constitution? The answer on that is simple…hell yes they did and now we’ll have a decade of businesses continually inserting themselves in every big action by the government. WAY TO EFFING GO!!!

This decision should seriously transcend political party..well I think every government decision should be made regardless of party, but the last couple years show us clearly that dems and reps both have led us to ruin by allowing businesses to affect the stability of a nation. Instead…somehow…we come to the conclusion that business can not be regulated in the amount of money the apply towards political elections.

I never thought I’d say this. But our judicial branch has embarrassed me. The people of the Supreme Court are supposed to be the epitome of common sense and the last bastion upholding our freedoms. Instead, you give just decided businesses are the same as the citizens of this country.

Bunch of effing useless lobby lackeys you turned out to be.

-T

I am trying to gather more information regarding today Supreme Court antics. If you happen to run into any PLEASE send them my way.
CNN Article on the proceedings.
NY Times article
NY Times article #2
The LA Times chimes in
TONS more links as the nation reacts to the decision

Oh and FOX News, you are officially absolutely useless. Every news organization on the continent is publishing about this Supreme Court ruling. All you can do is write one little paragraph about what the white house reacted with rather than what the Supreme Court just did. What bunch of retarded sell-outs. Readers can see what I am talking about HERE




Holding a lot of hope for Haiti.

I’ve been reading / watching / listening to so much about Haiti today.

There’s such a huge potential for even more disaster. It’s not that I don’t think that they can’t be helped, it’s that I don’t think there’ll be enough.

A very important word in this tragedy is “infrastructure.” Fundamentally it’s the ability to maintain supplies of food, utilities, support and medical services at levels that sufficiently allow population centers to maintain themselves. Haiti’s infrastructure was knocked out in 30 minutes. The most impoverished nation in the western hemisphere lost what little ability it had to help it’s people. To the world’s credit, it stepped up and is converging and assisting on a very massive, very impressive scale.

But the sucky part about paying attention to world issues is the perspective you get after a while. Watching videos of this now…the reporters are nothing compared to the glimpses I spot everywhere of the indications of the trapped dead. I saw a video of a hotel that collapsed supposedly with a few American unaccounted for. That really is the hard part…when I see the video and immediately stop listening to the reporter because the body counts are spray painted on the structures in the background.

Let me repeat…listening to a grown man crying because he was told his daughter was already rescued when she actually wasn’t…and seeing the body counts spray-painted on the hotel she was staying in. It’s heart wrenching. I asked a good friend tonight if she thought me crazy for wanting to drop everything and head out there to help. Needless to say, I’ve got some kickass friends 😉

Anyhow there is an internal dilemma here. Aside from fund-raising efforts, which tend to suck because the really large assistance organizations also tend to get the least bang for their buck and smaller ones that aren’t effectual enough to accommodate disasters on their own, there are supply drives and such..but the voice of my conscience isn’t satisfied with that at all.

It makes me wonder how much cooler the world would be if society distinguished and rewarded it’s members based only on their contributions in humanitarian endeavors. I know…thinking waaaay too high here. But seriously…it’s a lofty goal that even if improbably attained, would still reward consistently any who aspired to it.

Anyhow. Bottom line. I think Haiti may need far more help to survive intact, and I think it may actually require that we reorganize and rethink our strategy in saving all those people.

Here are links in case you want to help out.
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/impact/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34835478/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/