Check out this article and watch the video:
http://www.examiner.com/x-10853-Portland-Humanist-Examiner~y2009m10d23-NC-Baptist-church-plans-Halloween-book-burning-Video
Wow. Sometimes people still amaze me even though I know in my heart that they shouldn't. I have met a lot of people with all sorts of beliefs and feelings. We are all made differently and, as the saying goes, it takes all kinds, but this really amazes me. I thought that we put these things behind us. Even the Christians should have...
1 Corinthians 13:11 - When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
Are people still this lost and confused in the world? The area where I live, Northern Nevada, is full of a lot of misinformed people who think that hoarding their dollars is more important than the health and education of their community, people who do drugs or drink are accepted as either friends that are just doing their thing or worthless trash that needs to be dealt with instead of realizing that the alcoholic and drug addict are a product, a reflection on their community, and that hate and violence is okay as long as it is against whomever they choose, but I have not met many people with the gall to stand up and say that we need to burn books.
I can see them now, a bunch of older, confused people dancing around their book pyre, speaking in tongues and hissing as if it were nothing more than an old time melodrama.
I believe in freedom of religion and I think it is one of the many brilliant sparks in the Constitution. I believe that these people, whom I wish I could just write off as crazy, but that is not productive, should be able to burn these books if they want. The right of protest is important, but I cannot understand how people are so lost and misguided. Do these people actually think that destroying books is going to change anything? It sounds to me like it is revenge for logic and reason showing how obsolete and ridiculous these people are. Through education we find that these silly acts of childishness are just that, silly and childish.
There is another thing going on here as well: The town has said that setting this bonfire is a safety hazard and that the fire department will stop it. If the church continues with the burning, the FD will put it out and charge the ringleader for the services.
I do give them a certain amount of credit for standing up for what they believe in, something that a lot of us have lost due to apathy. If we as reasonable people stood up in 2000 and protested the election, maybe the Bush/Cheney regime would not have ever happened. It shows that us reasonable people believe in the rule of law and the constitution. By the way, whatever you think about 2000, whether you thought it was fair or stolen, you have to admit that it was very fishy and not everything was on the level there...but I shall move on.
According to the website of the church, they are destroying perversions of the will of God, including many books written by other christian writers as well as various versions of the bible that they see unfit.
First of all, don't you think it rather presumptuous to assume the word of God?? I don't even believe in that great illusionist, but I cannot assume to know what he wants. Even if they go by the word of the bible, they should read the damn thing before making assumptions and learn a little about their actual history.
The very early Christians were considered a cult in ancient Rome, which in turn made them illegal. In order to fight this, they decided to add what we call the old testament to the new testament and therefore claim that this is an actual religion that goes back a long time. this gave them a certain amount of acceptance, especially after Constantine came along.
In the new testament, Jesus, the man that they claim to follow, the man they claim is their lord and savior preached a few, very simple things to live by. He also made this statement that he would tear down the church and rebuild it in three days. This was a great metaphor meaning to turn away the old practices and look forward to the new ones, those simple ideas that are quite often summed up as the Beatitudes.
Here:
Matthew 5:2-10 (New International Version)
2and he began to teach them saying:
3"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Christians today seem to forget that they have a religious obligation to the poor and to make peace, but many choose to follow the old eye for an eye saying or practice hate on others unlike themselves.
On eye for an eye for a second, Jesus specifically said in the book, and mind you this is not me assuming, this is what is says, that eye for an eye is the old way and we do not practice that anymore. Now we practice love and forgiveness, turn the other cheek. Oh how quickly we tend to forget when we are becoming desperate.
I did not mean to turn this into a christian-bashing party or anything. I actually have many christian friends and agree with a few of them, mainly the ones that follow what the book says and don't cram their religion down your throat. I have one friend that never, ever preaches to you. He is willing to speak and educate you on the bible if you would like, but truly understands that it is not his place to convince you of anything. I respect that a lot. It is refreshing in this world to see someone that has great experiences with religion and has used it as a tool to assist him in becoming a better person, not a crutch to fling hate and fear at one another.
This NC Church enjoys this book burning. To them, it is a practice of faith in some twisted way, but to evolved beings, they are nothing but silly, uneducated people. To quote Mickey Knox, "From where you're standing, you're a man, but from where I'm standing, you're an ape."
Let them burn their silly books. Let the people like Limbaugh, Savage, Robertson, and the other right-wing wackos say what they want. It will only be through education that we will evolve as society toward peace and love, not the hate that these people want to spew. It takes us not regulating or looking away, but watching and seeing the ridiculousness of it all to show how weird these people really are. You cannot argue against that which you do not understand or know about.
The Tao teaches us that when you create more laws, you create more criminals. It is with patience and teaching that we will move forward.
I guess this post went a few different directions there, but oh well. Say what you will because I will not shut you up. I will not burn your books. I may call you a moron and laugh at your antiquated superstitions and rituals, but feel free to do them as long as you need to.
That is one of the great things about the internet: People can't burn it. Also, really check out that website of the church. It is almost as funny as the all-powerful TIMECUBE!!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Lies Conservatives Believe
I have several motivations for what follows. I have a sincere desire to see a better world come to pass and to make peace with my conscience. I believe that there are many great people in this nation who will, if given the chance, always do the right thing, and it is my duty to say something when my people have been mislead. Too, I have written the things which follow because I have a sincere love for those soldiers who have given their lives for our country and for those who honor them with local tributes and memorial services which I have witnessed. Jesus said that a man has no greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends. I think of Jesus’ words every time I witness a memorial service for a fallen soldier. Along with that, part of what follows may have kind've a religious tone. I usually don't write or speak this way, but because of the religious nature of some of the right wing notions, this time I have written this way purposely.
Well, I’m neither a democrat nor a republican; neither a capitalist nor a socialist; but I do consider myself a realist. When I write about the problems with right wing conservatives I am writing about the problems of moderate democrats and common everyday well intentioned people as well. The problem is two fold as I see it: 1) Some people just do not know the truth about our nation; 2) Others can’t understand the truth because of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy, because of its nature, is a malady of deception. Americans, like any other people, tend to believe that they are more intelligent and righteous than they actually are. Let me discuss briefly six lies which many people believe about our nation but do not really think about.
(The following is a work in progress. I am planning on adding references later. However, any of the statements made concerning U.S. foreign policy or references to Jesus can be looked up very easily by quick web searches.)
The first lie is that our country has done more to promote democracy and freedom than any other nation.
Like all of the lies our nation has come to believe, I wish this statement as well as the rest were true, but an accurate telling of history will deny this. From the very beginning and before The United States Constitution was signed into existence, the hope which America offered to “all” men (all people) has never been realized; neither have the most powerful leaders of this nation tried to realize the hopes of equality the Constitution guarantees.
It is a hard truth to accept, but most of the wealth generated in this nation from the very beginning has been made possible by stealing from vulnerable people. The obvious examples are committing genocide against the Native Americans and the enslavement of Africans. Too, as our nation began to prosper from cheaply gotten land and labor, our nation was able to steal large tracts of land from Mexico and exploit cheap labor and cheaply gotten natural resources from Central and South America. After the Spanish American War, our nation was able to not only exploit the people south of our borders, but we were also able to conquer the Philippine people. Our nation is still oppressing and exploiting other people by cheaply taking natural resources which rightly belong to others. One can easily research the tin mines of Bolivia; the overthrow of elected President Allende, by Pinochet's cruel military forces, in Chile for the copper mines; the oil fields of Peru, Columbia, and Ecuador; the fruit wars of Guatemala instigated by the U.S. United Fruit Company; and the cruel repression of public opinion and labor forces in El Salvador and Nicaragua. It does not take much effort to come to the realization that the wars which we are waging at this modern time in Iraq and Afghanistan are about exploiting the natural resources of those lands which we are occupying by force.
From the very beginning, our nation has been extremely hypocritical when it comes to promoting freedom and democracy. Freedom and democracy has never been promoted by our nation in any other country, and it has not been realized by the Native American or the Black African in our own nation until recently. Freedom and democracy for Central America, South America, The Philippines, Israel, and many African Nations, costs too much for most of the policy makers of The United States.
The truth is that our nation has done more to stop democracy and freedom than any other nation. Anytime the people of other nations wanted to keep the wealth which came from the natural resources of their nation or keep more of the wealth from their labor by electing officials which represented their interests more fairly, those movements and leaders were put down by force and dictators were installed by brute military force empowered by stolen wealth and our taxes. [Check out the list of dictators which are and have been supported by our government: < http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/dictators.html >]
The second lie is that capitalism is a good thing for all.
Capitalism in the United States is like a single big apple pie made for a holiday picnic. There are a hundred people who want a piece of the pie. One person takes ninety-nine percent of the pie and leaves one slim piece of pie, equaling one hundredth of the pie, for the ninety-nine people left to fight over. It is well known fact that ninety-nine percent of the wealth in the United States is held by one percent of the population. The rest of us feel fortunate and blessed if we get a single crumb of that wealth to live on. However, there are many who not even get a crumb. It is a plain fact that to succeed in small business and practice any kind entrepreneurship is getting to be harder and harder. Big corporations are monopolizing everything—making things cheaper and cheaper but lowering the common man’s working wage more and more. It is almost impossible for most people to start a successful business in this monopolized country.
The third lie is that if a person works hard in this country she or he will be rewarded.
It doesn’t matter how hard some people have worked; many hardworking people still do not live above poverty level. Many migrant workers who migrate to the states to work are denied health care and never make any better than minimum wage, and some never get paid even minimum wage. Too, millions of hardworking citizens are denied health care because the insurance is too expensive. Most small companies struggle to provide health insurance for their employees; when many small companies try to pass the costs of health care to the employees, the insurance is too expensive for the employees to buy. I’ve known loggers, truck drivers, farmers, and teachers who have worked hard their whole life, but at retirement, they live barely above poverty level—many times because some health issue depleted their savings. Where is their reward? The fact is that a person must be smart and lucky enough to get a good job in order to live a wealthy life and few do.
The fourth lie is those who cannot take of care themselves will be taken care of.
There are thousand of people every year who die because they cannot afford the health care: many drugs and operations to keep them alive are too expensive for them.
The fifth lie is that our nation was founded on Christian principles and that it promotes Christian principles.
In order for a nation to call itself Christian it must live according to the teachings of the founder of Christianity—that would be Jesus Christ. Jesus said that you cannot serve both God and mammon—that is, that a person can not serve money and power and, at the same time, think he or she is serving God. Jesus said that the heart is the eye of the body. If the eye is bad the whole body will be full of darkness. Where a man’s treasure is there will be his heart also. Jesus told a parable about a wealthy man who stored his wealth in barns until they were all full, so he built more barns so that he could store more of his wealth. The man thought to himself, “See, I have much wealth. I will relax and enjoy myself for many years.” But before the man could enjoy his wealth, he died and had to give an account of his wealth to God. This is what Jesus said about people who are rich toward themselves and not rich towards God. At another time, a rich and powerful ruler came to Jesus and asked how he could enter the kingdom of God. Jesus told him to give his wealth away to the poor so that he would have treasure in heaven. Jesus exclaimed, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” The Apostle Paul said that the love of money is the root of all evil. Again in another place, Jesus also said, “To them that are given much, much are expected.” The more power and wealth one has, the more God will expect for that one to take his responsibilities seriously in this life—that is to use the wealth and power for the good of all.
Greed has driven the policies of this nation from the beginning, and the concern of most people in this country is continually economic. According to the teachings of Jesus, this nation is far from what He meant by the kingdom of God, and, according to the teachings of Jesus, this nation will be judged most severely. Many actions of our government are opposed to the teaching of Jesus.
The sixth lie is that the United States is special—more special than all other nations—that it has a special calling from God—like a light on a hill which gives light to the world. This is spelled out in books like “The Light and the Glory.”
This doctrine is made most clear politically in the Monroe doctrine called “Manifest Destiny.” The meaning of this term is that the United States has been predestined by God to conquer and progress over other peoples—supposedly influencing the world for democracy and freedom. Such a belief has justified the dehumanization of millions. This justified the genocide of the Native Americans, the enslavement of Africans, the cruel domination of indigenous people and people of Spanish descent south of our borders, and the cruel domination of our country over other peoples of the world by military force and the installment of cruel dictators.
The worship of a nation or any organization above God must be condemned as idolatry. This is what has happened in the United States. Not only has our nation with military force taken natural and cultivated resources which did not belong to us because of blatant greed, but, also, in the name of security and securing power, thousands of innocent people have died in needless wars. Power comes from God—not wealth and military might. What ever special calling this nation has had it has desecrated severely.
One cannot trust in money and power and at the same time think he or she is trusting in God. Jesus instructed his disciples that his followers would be recognize by their love—not wealth and military power. Likewise, a "Chosen Christian" nation will be recognized by its love--not cruelty!
Well, I’m neither a democrat nor a republican; neither a capitalist nor a socialist; but I do consider myself a realist. When I write about the problems with right wing conservatives I am writing about the problems of moderate democrats and common everyday well intentioned people as well. The problem is two fold as I see it: 1) Some people just do not know the truth about our nation; 2) Others can’t understand the truth because of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy, because of its nature, is a malady of deception. Americans, like any other people, tend to believe that they are more intelligent and righteous than they actually are. Let me discuss briefly six lies which many people believe about our nation but do not really think about.
(The following is a work in progress. I am planning on adding references later. However, any of the statements made concerning U.S. foreign policy or references to Jesus can be looked up very easily by quick web searches.)
The first lie is that our country has done more to promote democracy and freedom than any other nation.
Like all of the lies our nation has come to believe, I wish this statement as well as the rest were true, but an accurate telling of history will deny this. From the very beginning and before The United States Constitution was signed into existence, the hope which America offered to “all” men (all people) has never been realized; neither have the most powerful leaders of this nation tried to realize the hopes of equality the Constitution guarantees.
It is a hard truth to accept, but most of the wealth generated in this nation from the very beginning has been made possible by stealing from vulnerable people. The obvious examples are committing genocide against the Native Americans and the enslavement of Africans. Too, as our nation began to prosper from cheaply gotten land and labor, our nation was able to steal large tracts of land from Mexico and exploit cheap labor and cheaply gotten natural resources from Central and South America. After the Spanish American War, our nation was able to not only exploit the people south of our borders, but we were also able to conquer the Philippine people. Our nation is still oppressing and exploiting other people by cheaply taking natural resources which rightly belong to others. One can easily research the tin mines of Bolivia; the overthrow of elected President Allende, by Pinochet's cruel military forces, in Chile for the copper mines; the oil fields of Peru, Columbia, and Ecuador; the fruit wars of Guatemala instigated by the U.S. United Fruit Company; and the cruel repression of public opinion and labor forces in El Salvador and Nicaragua. It does not take much effort to come to the realization that the wars which we are waging at this modern time in Iraq and Afghanistan are about exploiting the natural resources of those lands which we are occupying by force.
From the very beginning, our nation has been extremely hypocritical when it comes to promoting freedom and democracy. Freedom and democracy has never been promoted by our nation in any other country, and it has not been realized by the Native American or the Black African in our own nation until recently. Freedom and democracy for Central America, South America, The Philippines, Israel, and many African Nations, costs too much for most of the policy makers of The United States.
The truth is that our nation has done more to stop democracy and freedom than any other nation. Anytime the people of other nations wanted to keep the wealth which came from the natural resources of their nation or keep more of the wealth from their labor by electing officials which represented their interests more fairly, those movements and leaders were put down by force and dictators were installed by brute military force empowered by stolen wealth and our taxes. [Check out the list of dictators which are and have been supported by our government: < http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/dictators.html >]
The second lie is that capitalism is a good thing for all.
Capitalism in the United States is like a single big apple pie made for a holiday picnic. There are a hundred people who want a piece of the pie. One person takes ninety-nine percent of the pie and leaves one slim piece of pie, equaling one hundredth of the pie, for the ninety-nine people left to fight over. It is well known fact that ninety-nine percent of the wealth in the United States is held by one percent of the population. The rest of us feel fortunate and blessed if we get a single crumb of that wealth to live on. However, there are many who not even get a crumb. It is a plain fact that to succeed in small business and practice any kind entrepreneurship is getting to be harder and harder. Big corporations are monopolizing everything—making things cheaper and cheaper but lowering the common man’s working wage more and more. It is almost impossible for most people to start a successful business in this monopolized country.
The third lie is that if a person works hard in this country she or he will be rewarded.
It doesn’t matter how hard some people have worked; many hardworking people still do not live above poverty level. Many migrant workers who migrate to the states to work are denied health care and never make any better than minimum wage, and some never get paid even minimum wage. Too, millions of hardworking citizens are denied health care because the insurance is too expensive. Most small companies struggle to provide health insurance for their employees; when many small companies try to pass the costs of health care to the employees, the insurance is too expensive for the employees to buy. I’ve known loggers, truck drivers, farmers, and teachers who have worked hard their whole life, but at retirement, they live barely above poverty level—many times because some health issue depleted their savings. Where is their reward? The fact is that a person must be smart and lucky enough to get a good job in order to live a wealthy life and few do.
The fourth lie is those who cannot take of care themselves will be taken care of.
There are thousand of people every year who die because they cannot afford the health care: many drugs and operations to keep them alive are too expensive for them.
The fifth lie is that our nation was founded on Christian principles and that it promotes Christian principles.
In order for a nation to call itself Christian it must live according to the teachings of the founder of Christianity—that would be Jesus Christ. Jesus said that you cannot serve both God and mammon—that is, that a person can not serve money and power and, at the same time, think he or she is serving God. Jesus said that the heart is the eye of the body. If the eye is bad the whole body will be full of darkness. Where a man’s treasure is there will be his heart also. Jesus told a parable about a wealthy man who stored his wealth in barns until they were all full, so he built more barns so that he could store more of his wealth. The man thought to himself, “See, I have much wealth. I will relax and enjoy myself for many years.” But before the man could enjoy his wealth, he died and had to give an account of his wealth to God. This is what Jesus said about people who are rich toward themselves and not rich towards God. At another time, a rich and powerful ruler came to Jesus and asked how he could enter the kingdom of God. Jesus told him to give his wealth away to the poor so that he would have treasure in heaven. Jesus exclaimed, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” The Apostle Paul said that the love of money is the root of all evil. Again in another place, Jesus also said, “To them that are given much, much are expected.” The more power and wealth one has, the more God will expect for that one to take his responsibilities seriously in this life—that is to use the wealth and power for the good of all.
Greed has driven the policies of this nation from the beginning, and the concern of most people in this country is continually economic. According to the teachings of Jesus, this nation is far from what He meant by the kingdom of God, and, according to the teachings of Jesus, this nation will be judged most severely. Many actions of our government are opposed to the teaching of Jesus.
The sixth lie is that the United States is special—more special than all other nations—that it has a special calling from God—like a light on a hill which gives light to the world. This is spelled out in books like “The Light and the Glory.”
This doctrine is made most clear politically in the Monroe doctrine called “Manifest Destiny.” The meaning of this term is that the United States has been predestined by God to conquer and progress over other peoples—supposedly influencing the world for democracy and freedom. Such a belief has justified the dehumanization of millions. This justified the genocide of the Native Americans, the enslavement of Africans, the cruel domination of indigenous people and people of Spanish descent south of our borders, and the cruel domination of our country over other peoples of the world by military force and the installment of cruel dictators.
The worship of a nation or any organization above God must be condemned as idolatry. This is what has happened in the United States. Not only has our nation with military force taken natural and cultivated resources which did not belong to us because of blatant greed, but, also, in the name of security and securing power, thousands of innocent people have died in needless wars. Power comes from God—not wealth and military might. What ever special calling this nation has had it has desecrated severely.
One cannot trust in money and power and at the same time think he or she is trusting in God. Jesus instructed his disciples that his followers would be recognize by their love—not wealth and military power. Likewise, a "Chosen Christian" nation will be recognized by its love--not cruelty!
Just a Quick One...
This is just a quick announcement:
We have registered and are now functioning with various domain names:
nvfreethinkers.com
nvfreethinkers.net
nvfreethinkers.info
nvfreethinkers.org.
I was just looking to set up the .com, but they had a bundle deal for cheap, so I took it. =)
We have registered and are now functioning with various domain names:
nvfreethinkers.com
nvfreethinkers.net
nvfreethinkers.info
nvfreethinkers.org.
I was just looking to set up the .com, but they had a bundle deal for cheap, so I took it. =)
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Well It Ought To Be...
The philosopher David Hume once wrote this paragraph:
In every system of morality, which I have hitherto met with, I have always remark'd, that the author proceeds for some time in the ordinary ways of reasoning, and establishes the being of a God, or makes observations concerning human affairs; when all of a sudden I am surpriz'd to find, that instead of the usual copulations of propositions, is, and is not, I meet with no proposition that is not connected with an ought, or an ought not. This change is imperceptible; but is however, of the last consequence. For as this ought, or ought not, expresses some new relation or affirmation, 'tis necessary that it shou'd be observ'd and explain'd; and at the same time that a reason should be given; for what seems altogether inconceivable, how this new relation can be a deduction from others, which are entirely different from it.
This is a small paragraph that Hume was not overall concerned with, but it has sparked some debate with philosophers in the past 300 years since. In case you have a bit of trouble understanding what Hume is saying, the basis is this:
The world is a certain way. We say that things should be different sometimes, but how do we know that the world should (ought) to be that way until it is actually that way?
This is a very poignant thought that a lot of people overlook. The idea is that we really cannot claim that things ought to be changed until they are and we can see the overall consequences of those actions. Politics in America and really the world today are ruled by these things that we want to change. We think deep down that there is an issue and that needs to be rectified. Then when things get changed, later there is another issue that occurs which leads to the world needed to make another change or remove the original change, again, sometimes for the better and other times not.
Poor ol' Jimmy...I love Jimmy Carter and while some consider him one of the worst presidents ever, most people recognize that he is one of the best people ever, exemplary in fact. Jimmy gets a bad wrap quite often I think. A lot of things that he tried to change in the 70's got shot down due to politics, and other things that he did change got turned over once Regan came into the picture. The "Malaise" speech was brilliant and very true, but people turned away from it because Jimmy sat up and had the balls to tell people that we needed to change as a society. No one wanted to hear it.
The point being that now we see the effects of those things. We see the world in a terrible ecological state and in the past 28 years, my lifetime, 20 of them were ruled by Republicans who went out of their way to deny the reality and force their dogmatic visions down our throats. People who dislike President Obama are calling him all sorts of terrible names and threatening him and his family. It is sickening to me. Even if I agreed with their principles, and a few I do, I could never call myself a Republican or support them after the display during my lifetime. They call him a socialist, which if you know what a socialist is, then you can clearly see that he is not one. They call him a Nazi which he is no where near. In fact, on that note, the Bush administration went out of their way to use religious dogma and fear tactics for political and social ends which is a simple definition for a fascist, but who cares. We were safe!
We were not safe. All we did was move the battle onto their turf. Thousands of Americans, some of them innocent, have died in this war of lies, this shadow war used to remove the rights of the people, lie to us on many multiple occasions, elect their cronies to high ranking office, and give money to large companies with religious agendas or direct connections to that administration. That is fascism at its purest.
I digress though...
The best tool that we have to work with to determine answers of what should be is empathy, which can be broken down to what we know as the golden rule. The golden rule my friends...it makes sense. This is why it is one of the things that they first teach you in school. This may also be why ever major religion in the world has something very similar in its teachings, yet many of the followers choose to ignore it.
If you are sick, don't you want to be given the chance to get better?
If you make a mistake, don't you want a chance to admit and atone for that mistake?
If you were in a position of power, wouldn't you want people to believe that you had what you thought were the best intentions in mind?
If you were in a position of power, would you want your family threatened just because someone did not agree with you?
If you go to a news source, don't you want to trust you are getting accurate reporting?
These are simple questions people.
Overall, we as a society are evolving. We are moving in a forward direction I believe, but just like any idea that is becoming obsolete, the hardcore followers are becoming desperate, lashing out with all that they have left. The McCarthy-based Neocon Republicanism is dying and dying rapidly. Republicans used to be a symbol of the constitution. Now they are a joke, based on fear and revenge, not rights and reason. Do not get me wrong, Republicans will always be around, but they are being forced to evolve with the rest of the world. Hopefully they can put this dark history behind them and start thinking again sometime soon.
Hopefully...but with figureheads like Rush, Beck, Savage, and especially Palin, it is not looking too hopefully.
On that note, I cannot believe that any woman would vote for Palin. She does nothing but a disservice to women everywhere.
In every system of morality, which I have hitherto met with, I have always remark'd, that the author proceeds for some time in the ordinary ways of reasoning, and establishes the being of a God, or makes observations concerning human affairs; when all of a sudden I am surpriz'd to find, that instead of the usual copulations of propositions, is, and is not, I meet with no proposition that is not connected with an ought, or an ought not. This change is imperceptible; but is however, of the last consequence. For as this ought, or ought not, expresses some new relation or affirmation, 'tis necessary that it shou'd be observ'd and explain'd; and at the same time that a reason should be given; for what seems altogether inconceivable, how this new relation can be a deduction from others, which are entirely different from it.
This is a small paragraph that Hume was not overall concerned with, but it has sparked some debate with philosophers in the past 300 years since. In case you have a bit of trouble understanding what Hume is saying, the basis is this:
The world is a certain way. We say that things should be different sometimes, but how do we know that the world should (ought) to be that way until it is actually that way?
This is a very poignant thought that a lot of people overlook. The idea is that we really cannot claim that things ought to be changed until they are and we can see the overall consequences of those actions. Politics in America and really the world today are ruled by these things that we want to change. We think deep down that there is an issue and that needs to be rectified. Then when things get changed, later there is another issue that occurs which leads to the world needed to make another change or remove the original change, again, sometimes for the better and other times not.
Poor ol' Jimmy...I love Jimmy Carter and while some consider him one of the worst presidents ever, most people recognize that he is one of the best people ever, exemplary in fact. Jimmy gets a bad wrap quite often I think. A lot of things that he tried to change in the 70's got shot down due to politics, and other things that he did change got turned over once Regan came into the picture. The "Malaise" speech was brilliant and very true, but people turned away from it because Jimmy sat up and had the balls to tell people that we needed to change as a society. No one wanted to hear it.
The point being that now we see the effects of those things. We see the world in a terrible ecological state and in the past 28 years, my lifetime, 20 of them were ruled by Republicans who went out of their way to deny the reality and force their dogmatic visions down our throats. People who dislike President Obama are calling him all sorts of terrible names and threatening him and his family. It is sickening to me. Even if I agreed with their principles, and a few I do, I could never call myself a Republican or support them after the display during my lifetime. They call him a socialist, which if you know what a socialist is, then you can clearly see that he is not one. They call him a Nazi which he is no where near. In fact, on that note, the Bush administration went out of their way to use religious dogma and fear tactics for political and social ends which is a simple definition for a fascist, but who cares. We were safe!
We were not safe. All we did was move the battle onto their turf. Thousands of Americans, some of them innocent, have died in this war of lies, this shadow war used to remove the rights of the people, lie to us on many multiple occasions, elect their cronies to high ranking office, and give money to large companies with religious agendas or direct connections to that administration. That is fascism at its purest.
I digress though...
The best tool that we have to work with to determine answers of what should be is empathy, which can be broken down to what we know as the golden rule. The golden rule my friends...it makes sense. This is why it is one of the things that they first teach you in school. This may also be why ever major religion in the world has something very similar in its teachings, yet many of the followers choose to ignore it.
If you are sick, don't you want to be given the chance to get better?
If you make a mistake, don't you want a chance to admit and atone for that mistake?
If you were in a position of power, wouldn't you want people to believe that you had what you thought were the best intentions in mind?
If you were in a position of power, would you want your family threatened just because someone did not agree with you?
If you go to a news source, don't you want to trust you are getting accurate reporting?
These are simple questions people.
Overall, we as a society are evolving. We are moving in a forward direction I believe, but just like any idea that is becoming obsolete, the hardcore followers are becoming desperate, lashing out with all that they have left. The McCarthy-based Neocon Republicanism is dying and dying rapidly. Republicans used to be a symbol of the constitution. Now they are a joke, based on fear and revenge, not rights and reason. Do not get me wrong, Republicans will always be around, but they are being forced to evolve with the rest of the world. Hopefully they can put this dark history behind them and start thinking again sometime soon.
Hopefully...but with figureheads like Rush, Beck, Savage, and especially Palin, it is not looking too hopefully.
On that note, I cannot believe that any woman would vote for Palin. She does nothing but a disservice to women everywhere.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Time to Have some Fun!
So those of you that know me know that there is only one major sport that I really care for other than arguing with idiots and that is baseball. As I am writing this we are in the heart of the MLB post season and to lighten up the conversation some I have decided to write a bit about my reflections of this brilliant, yet in some ways dying sport.
Baseball has been played professionally for something like 130 years and the World Series has been played consistently (except in '94) for most of that time. This is a sport that really grew with our country. Through the hard times: The Spanish American War, The Great War, The Great Depression, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and Nixon, baseball has been there to calm the minds and lift the spirits.
So when I see the game today on television, as much as I enjoy it, I know that being able to watch that game is what is killing it as well. Television ratings now rule the game. They start games later, there are more pauses, and the ticket prices have sky-rocketed.
These three factors lead to the main reason that the sport is in decline and that is because they are no longer marketing, nor have they been in 35 years, to what should be their chief audience.
Kids.
When baseball was truly the national pastime, games quite often started not long after school got out and the tickets were dirt cheap, even when you factor in proportionality of today's money. Kids are shut out of the game unless their parents have a ton of cash, let them stay up late and don't fight them for the remote, or if you are like me, make it a point to have live baseball on the radio (the way it was intended), keep supplies like balls and gloves around for when my boy is ready to start playing catch, and use a huge chunk of a paycheck to take the boy to the Bay Area for three hours of great food, good people, a great game, and what can only really be summed up as Heaven.
To survive the game had to make some concessions, as all of them do, for advertising revenue and all that, but there is a limit to where they are destroying the game. Look at Nascar and Football. Those are two sports that are completely ruled by their advertisers and they are now both abominations of what they once were. A few years ago baseball wanted to put small ads on the bases themselves, on the field. Luckily this got shut down. The base itself is what the game is named after and they're are beautiful white padded squares. An ad would have destroyed one of the last pure items left in sports.
The other reason that the game is dying is because as it may gain some fans, our culture and our current society has moved us away from the game. We got ourselves into a big goddamn hurry and all of a sudden find something like baseball boring. Baseball is a game of total nuance, a cerebral mindset, and patience, but in the end it pays off to one of the best and most unique sports. Of the major sports in the U.S, it is the only one where there is no timer, every field is different, and their two leagues play by different rules. Not only that, it is one of the only sports that you take a scorecard to and fans are encouraged to keep their own score, which in baseball, is a skill. It is one of the few sports that puts one man against a team, then breaks that team up and each one of them then has to challenge your team. One against all, but no one man can control that game. Not only that, but no one team is immune to one great swing of the bat.
You know that hitting a big league fastball is still considered one of the hardest feats in all of athletics.
Anyway...I should stop ranting. I am just saddened that people do not take the time to appreciate things as much anymore. We lost our ability to really relate to rituals and learning to calculate things on a slower pace. We want answers now and are not going to do your silly steps to get them. Another example of this is shaving. We want to get it done with so we get that awful foam in a can stuff and those VERY expensive throw away razors instead of taking the time and learning how to use the "badger and the blade" to get a better shave. We want quantity, not quality. The Wal-Marts of the world have taught us that everything should be cheap and disposable. Those press-board shelves that Wal-Mart sells may only be sixty bucks or whatever, but you will have to buy them 5 time in your life time instead of spending five-hundred bucks on a nice oak shelf that will last your life time and your child's as well.
So it may be a backwards way to say it...but Wal-Mart has destroyed baseball. I know that is not true, but I will admit that I take pleasure in blaming Wally-World for everything.
So now I am rounding third, and heading home...
Baseball has been played professionally for something like 130 years and the World Series has been played consistently (except in '94) for most of that time. This is a sport that really grew with our country. Through the hard times: The Spanish American War, The Great War, The Great Depression, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and Nixon, baseball has been there to calm the minds and lift the spirits.
So when I see the game today on television, as much as I enjoy it, I know that being able to watch that game is what is killing it as well. Television ratings now rule the game. They start games later, there are more pauses, and the ticket prices have sky-rocketed.
These three factors lead to the main reason that the sport is in decline and that is because they are no longer marketing, nor have they been in 35 years, to what should be their chief audience.
Kids.
When baseball was truly the national pastime, games quite often started not long after school got out and the tickets were dirt cheap, even when you factor in proportionality of today's money. Kids are shut out of the game unless their parents have a ton of cash, let them stay up late and don't fight them for the remote, or if you are like me, make it a point to have live baseball on the radio (the way it was intended), keep supplies like balls and gloves around for when my boy is ready to start playing catch, and use a huge chunk of a paycheck to take the boy to the Bay Area for three hours of great food, good people, a great game, and what can only really be summed up as Heaven.
To survive the game had to make some concessions, as all of them do, for advertising revenue and all that, but there is a limit to where they are destroying the game. Look at Nascar and Football. Those are two sports that are completely ruled by their advertisers and they are now both abominations of what they once were. A few years ago baseball wanted to put small ads on the bases themselves, on the field. Luckily this got shut down. The base itself is what the game is named after and they're are beautiful white padded squares. An ad would have destroyed one of the last pure items left in sports.
The other reason that the game is dying is because as it may gain some fans, our culture and our current society has moved us away from the game. We got ourselves into a big goddamn hurry and all of a sudden find something like baseball boring. Baseball is a game of total nuance, a cerebral mindset, and patience, but in the end it pays off to one of the best and most unique sports. Of the major sports in the U.S, it is the only one where there is no timer, every field is different, and their two leagues play by different rules. Not only that, it is one of the only sports that you take a scorecard to and fans are encouraged to keep their own score, which in baseball, is a skill. It is one of the few sports that puts one man against a team, then breaks that team up and each one of them then has to challenge your team. One against all, but no one man can control that game. Not only that, but no one team is immune to one great swing of the bat.
You know that hitting a big league fastball is still considered one of the hardest feats in all of athletics.
Anyway...I should stop ranting. I am just saddened that people do not take the time to appreciate things as much anymore. We lost our ability to really relate to rituals and learning to calculate things on a slower pace. We want answers now and are not going to do your silly steps to get them. Another example of this is shaving. We want to get it done with so we get that awful foam in a can stuff and those VERY expensive throw away razors instead of taking the time and learning how to use the "badger and the blade" to get a better shave. We want quantity, not quality. The Wal-Marts of the world have taught us that everything should be cheap and disposable. Those press-board shelves that Wal-Mart sells may only be sixty bucks or whatever, but you will have to buy them 5 time in your life time instead of spending five-hundred bucks on a nice oak shelf that will last your life time and your child's as well.
So it may be a backwards way to say it...but Wal-Mart has destroyed baseball. I know that is not true, but I will admit that I take pleasure in blaming Wally-World for everything.
So now I am rounding third, and heading home...
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Eugenics...no way!
Most people do not remember or even believe this...but the practice of Eugenics, in some form or another, was still legal in this country as late as 1978. 31 years ago. Not long before I was born....
Eugenics, at its heart, is meant to be the practice of selective breeding in people to weed out the "bad genes", but that is not what it really was. It really was the forced sterilization of people that other people decided should not breed. Examples of this were hardcore criminals such as rapists as well as mentally disabled people. Now, there were cases of "purity" groups (i.e. white supremacists) that attempted to perform this practice on people they decided were beneath them.
I felt kind of dumb that I have never heard of this until a few years back, just the practice, and it was not until recently that I learned about how recently this was still enforced. I cannot even get that word out of my head, Eugenics.
The reason I bring this up is because of a conversation that I overheard the other day about the health care debate. A woman was talking about her anger toward our government and especially the President. She was bitching and ranting saying that "We are not Canada so don't try to make our health care like Canada's". Let me go on a tangent for a second here...
The health care bill that they are trying to pass is NOTHING AT ALL like the Canadian health care system nor does it try or claim to be.
Okay, back to my discussion. She went on to say that this is just a way for lazy people to bleed her dry and that they all need to either get a job or be castrated. I wondered at that moment who she wanted to pay for this castration because if she wants it, it will her money paying the bill and that is just another way to "bleed her dry" I suppose.
Well, the reason this is so enthralling to me was that she was advocating eugenics. For some reason, whether is be her religious, social, or economic beliefs, or may just the way she was raised, she decided that she was perfect and that anyone unlike here was not perfect and therefore deserved to die. Let's not beat around the bush here. To practice eugenics is to advocate death. Don't sugar coat it.
If everyone was like her...I probably would want to die anyway. Hell, I would pull the trigger in that case.
Then is reminded me of the fact that she is a person that constantly bitches about wanting her freedoms and that only her choice of people should deserve those freedoms. What I wanted to say to her at that instant was to call her a Nazi Cow, but that would not have been productive.
Anyway, all of this revolves around Health Care and the ongoing debate in our country. I hear the right say that we have the best health care system in the world. They say this and I wonder how this opinion is being formed. What, to them, is the definition of good health care because I see two glaring facts that counter act that statement:
(Both of these facts come from the CIA World Factbook)
1. We are rated #46 in the world for infant mortality rate, with 6.26/1000.
2. We are rated #35 in life expectancy with an average age of 78.11.
I am not complaining about these numbers. They are actually quite good overall, but to claim that we have the best system in the world while we are no where near the top in really the two major categories that help define health care is just ridiculous. Canada, UK, France, and other European nations with systems far different than ours that they like to just label as socialist or evil, are all above us in these categories.
I am not saying that we need a single-payer system like Canada or that we want a more government run system like in the UK, but something needs to be done. If you don't like this bill, do not worry, it will change once it is passed and we will fix the issues. Do not fret. In the end, even if it is nothing more than a health insurance reform bill and helps regulate this horrible market that is insurance, then at least that is a step in the right direction.
As long as it does not contain money for eugenics, then I think I am happy. =)
Eugenics, at its heart, is meant to be the practice of selective breeding in people to weed out the "bad genes", but that is not what it really was. It really was the forced sterilization of people that other people decided should not breed. Examples of this were hardcore criminals such as rapists as well as mentally disabled people. Now, there were cases of "purity" groups (i.e. white supremacists) that attempted to perform this practice on people they decided were beneath them.
I felt kind of dumb that I have never heard of this until a few years back, just the practice, and it was not until recently that I learned about how recently this was still enforced. I cannot even get that word out of my head, Eugenics.
The reason I bring this up is because of a conversation that I overheard the other day about the health care debate. A woman was talking about her anger toward our government and especially the President. She was bitching and ranting saying that "We are not Canada so don't try to make our health care like Canada's". Let me go on a tangent for a second here...
The health care bill that they are trying to pass is NOTHING AT ALL like the Canadian health care system nor does it try or claim to be.
Okay, back to my discussion. She went on to say that this is just a way for lazy people to bleed her dry and that they all need to either get a job or be castrated. I wondered at that moment who she wanted to pay for this castration because if she wants it, it will her money paying the bill and that is just another way to "bleed her dry" I suppose.
Well, the reason this is so enthralling to me was that she was advocating eugenics. For some reason, whether is be her religious, social, or economic beliefs, or may just the way she was raised, she decided that she was perfect and that anyone unlike here was not perfect and therefore deserved to die. Let's not beat around the bush here. To practice eugenics is to advocate death. Don't sugar coat it.
If everyone was like her...I probably would want to die anyway. Hell, I would pull the trigger in that case.
Then is reminded me of the fact that she is a person that constantly bitches about wanting her freedoms and that only her choice of people should deserve those freedoms. What I wanted to say to her at that instant was to call her a Nazi Cow, but that would not have been productive.
Anyway, all of this revolves around Health Care and the ongoing debate in our country. I hear the right say that we have the best health care system in the world. They say this and I wonder how this opinion is being formed. What, to them, is the definition of good health care because I see two glaring facts that counter act that statement:
(Both of these facts come from the CIA World Factbook)
1. We are rated #46 in the world for infant mortality rate, with 6.26/1000.
2. We are rated #35 in life expectancy with an average age of 78.11.
I am not complaining about these numbers. They are actually quite good overall, but to claim that we have the best system in the world while we are no where near the top in really the two major categories that help define health care is just ridiculous. Canada, UK, France, and other European nations with systems far different than ours that they like to just label as socialist or evil, are all above us in these categories.
I am not saying that we need a single-payer system like Canada or that we want a more government run system like in the UK, but something needs to be done. If you don't like this bill, do not worry, it will change once it is passed and we will fix the issues. Do not fret. In the end, even if it is nothing more than a health insurance reform bill and helps regulate this horrible market that is insurance, then at least that is a step in the right direction.
As long as it does not contain money for eugenics, then I think I am happy. =)
Monday, October 12, 2009
A New Project...
Welcome all! Welcome to this new project that I am attempting to start here called "NV Freethinkers".
I live here in Northern Nevada and having lived here now for two and a half years I am tired of the lies, misinformation, nepotism, and general apathy that exists in this area. I wanted/needed someplace to write and speak my mind without getting yelled at and where someone might actually listen and want to engage in intellectual debate.
People around this area are so quick to judge and label, so quick to pounce on whatever Fox (Fix) News says that they just spew it back out as if it were gospel, never taking the second to reflect and wonder if they actually agree with their editorials, because, well, let's face the facts, they do not present news. Fox presents opinion and even when they are honestly trying to present facts, they use their amazing powers of rhetoric to frame their facts the way they want to present them.
Anyway, back to the people:
They are not bad people, most of them. A lot of them that I have talked to and are willing to discuss things on a platform of reason and education come to see how badly their politicians, media, and friends have misinformed them about the world. A lot of them though are only interested in lashing out, and if you disagree and show that their points of view do not hold water, then they just attack. It is no longer debating or exchanging ideas. It becomes hostile and argumentative. At that point you might as well just make fun of their haircut because nothing will get through to them.
Like I stated, I have lived in Nevada for over two years and in that entire time I have only met a couple of people that are like-minded, and I do not mean agree with everything that I think, but when we disagree, we are willing to exchange ideas to try to better both of our understanding of what is happening. So for over two years I have been kept relatively silent.
No more.
Today I heard some one talking (yelling is more like it) about their issues with our President and his politics, but they could not back anything they were saying up with actual reason. It became hate, racism, and just ignorance after a bit. For the first time ever I was so disgusted that I walked away from this person. I am a listener and enjoy trying to understand the beliefs of people. I want to know their logic process. I am one who never shuts someone out, but this person today I could listen to no more. I could not speak up either because of where I live and work. I have to maintain a level of decency with my job, but that would not have been possible here.
I hated myself for not speaking up. I realized that the apathy had gotten to me as well. I was sickened by this person's display, but all I could do is walk away. I knew that if I tried to say something, I would just get shut down and yelled. I knew that I would not get a word in and even if I did. It would just fall on deaf ears. What else could I do? Walk away. There is a great song lyrics that says "You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding" and that was how I felt. If I did not leave, then I was condoning this person's rants. I did not want anyone there to confuse me with the people that agreed.
Well, I am tired of being silent.
I know that a blog is a pathetic attempt to be heard, but at least it is an attempt. Also, this blog is only the first step in a multi-pronged attack that I am going to attempt to launch in this community.
It is time that I put my balls out there and hope that no one castrates me. If I don't, I do not think that I will be able to look my child in the eye anymore.
Enough rambling for now. I know it is a long introduction, but I wanted to give you some background. In time, you will know a lot about my background I am sure. I hope to have a few fellow writers join me on this site as well.
G'night.
I live here in Northern Nevada and having lived here now for two and a half years I am tired of the lies, misinformation, nepotism, and general apathy that exists in this area. I wanted/needed someplace to write and speak my mind without getting yelled at and where someone might actually listen and want to engage in intellectual debate.
People around this area are so quick to judge and label, so quick to pounce on whatever Fox (Fix) News says that they just spew it back out as if it were gospel, never taking the second to reflect and wonder if they actually agree with their editorials, because, well, let's face the facts, they do not present news. Fox presents opinion and even when they are honestly trying to present facts, they use their amazing powers of rhetoric to frame their facts the way they want to present them.
Anyway, back to the people:
They are not bad people, most of them. A lot of them that I have talked to and are willing to discuss things on a platform of reason and education come to see how badly their politicians, media, and friends have misinformed them about the world. A lot of them though are only interested in lashing out, and if you disagree and show that their points of view do not hold water, then they just attack. It is no longer debating or exchanging ideas. It becomes hostile and argumentative. At that point you might as well just make fun of their haircut because nothing will get through to them.
Like I stated, I have lived in Nevada for over two years and in that entire time I have only met a couple of people that are like-minded, and I do not mean agree with everything that I think, but when we disagree, we are willing to exchange ideas to try to better both of our understanding of what is happening. So for over two years I have been kept relatively silent.
No more.
Today I heard some one talking (yelling is more like it) about their issues with our President and his politics, but they could not back anything they were saying up with actual reason. It became hate, racism, and just ignorance after a bit. For the first time ever I was so disgusted that I walked away from this person. I am a listener and enjoy trying to understand the beliefs of people. I want to know their logic process. I am one who never shuts someone out, but this person today I could listen to no more. I could not speak up either because of where I live and work. I have to maintain a level of decency with my job, but that would not have been possible here.
I hated myself for not speaking up. I realized that the apathy had gotten to me as well. I was sickened by this person's display, but all I could do is walk away. I knew that if I tried to say something, I would just get shut down and yelled. I knew that I would not get a word in and even if I did. It would just fall on deaf ears. What else could I do? Walk away. There is a great song lyrics that says "You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding" and that was how I felt. If I did not leave, then I was condoning this person's rants. I did not want anyone there to confuse me with the people that agreed.
Well, I am tired of being silent.
I know that a blog is a pathetic attempt to be heard, but at least it is an attempt. Also, this blog is only the first step in a multi-pronged attack that I am going to attempt to launch in this community.
It is time that I put my balls out there and hope that no one castrates me. If I don't, I do not think that I will be able to look my child in the eye anymore.
Enough rambling for now. I know it is a long introduction, but I wanted to give you some background. In time, you will know a lot about my background I am sure. I hope to have a few fellow writers join me on this site as well.
G'night.
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