Henry Rollins - Young Person

 

 Young person, you'll find in your life that sometimes your great ambitions will be momentarily stymied, thwarted, marginalized, by those who were perhaps luckier, come from money, where more doors opened, where college was a given, it was not a student loan, it was something that dad paid for. To where an ease and confidence in life was almost a birthright, where for you it was a very hard climb and you will encounter people who never have to pay in full. They get to wreck the room and never have to clean it. They can get all the way through high school and never understand where a dollar comes from because they just get it given to them. 

Okay that happens all the time. Just because you come from nothing you must not let that be something that holds you back. It is easy to loose your moral compass, your decency, your sense of civility, and your sense of community. Very easy. People are getting a little desperate. They might not show their best elements to you. You must never lower yourself to being a person you don't like. There is no better time than now to have a moral and civic backbone. To have a moral and civic true north. This is a tremendous opportunity for you, a young person to be heroic. To be morally upstanding, to be helpful, almost boy-scout like, presidential, to be altruistic. Weakness is what brings ignorance, cheapness, racism, homophobia, desperation, cruelty, brutality, all these things that will keep a society chained to the ground. One foot nailed to the floor. 

It's by being strong in the face of all of that, not lowering yourself to it. You must really go for your own and realize how short life is. You got what you got so you got to make the most of it. You really can't spend a whole lot of time worrying about his, you really have to go for your own. If you have an idea of what you want to do in your future, you must go for it with almost monastic obsession, be it music, the ballet, or just a basic degree. You have to go at it single-mindedly and let nothing get in your way. And that's why your young, that's why you can survive on no sleep, Top Ramen noodles, and dental floss and still look good. And take advantage of that great energy you have and can take an all-nighter. 

All the people you admire from Muhammad Ali to any politician they work and work and work. Some of the greatest thinkers, artists, architects, politicians and other movers, shakers, and creaters, all over the world have come from very meager beginnings. If these people can do it, why not you? You got to keep picking yourself up and reaching for it. And that's the long and short of it.

Toastmasters

 James Madison said "History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance."

Madam Toastmaster, Fellow toastmasters, Comrades  Lest we fall victim to the civilizations of old. Lest we pass into the dust of time, we are quickly nearing the knife edge of defeat when we could be at the apogee of victory. Why must we be brought to this point in time? Why must it be us today and this next generation of people who decide the fate of the future for so many years to come.  Indeed we always decide on our future, but this time, there is an urgency which will not wait for us.  We are facing problems on a scale unprecedented and our systems of governance make sure, that all remains the same to keep the gears working. Not a single system is untouched, some are merely damaged, others in total disrepair.

Often we look through history and exclaim on how backwards a past people were. The trick which we today, must accomplish is, avoiding future generations exclaiming how we were a nation that had everything, and squandered it all away in pettiness.  Our disputes are not beyond reproach but it is the people we have let come into our charge that are.  These people, our elected officials, have wrestled away control of our arguments from us.  They form the debate topics and they put sound bites over the air as truth.  They have taken a hold of us and it is time we recognize this so we may begin to push back.  So what do we do and how do we affect change in our government and within ourselves?

We can start with campaign finance reform.  Who here does not see the inherent conflict of interest, of having business' give money to our elected officials?  Does anyone here not recognize how our votes are diminished by dollars, dollars which then go into the pockets of the powers that be. Corporate controlled news agencies owned by these same money donators only discuss politics with two parties in mind and only their own interests at heart.   According to the Center for Responsive Politics on Mitt Romney's super-pac, the top 100 donors have totaled 80% of all contributions, with an average contribution from all donors at $83,000. They sure do keep the horse race alive.

We can start with American exceptionalism and rabid nationalism.  A new contentiousness is developing which sees the Earth as one living organism, that which what happens on one part of it has an impact on another, environmentally and in regards to our foreign policy.  We are not free from history and that of the rest of the world.  We may be unique in some ways and even better in others but we are not superior in all things.  In fact we lag behind in many areas.  For instance we are the number one jailer in the world . We imprison more than 2 million people compared to China's one million even though they have four times our population and they are a police state!

We can start with refusing to treat money as a commodity in and of itself.  Thomas Jefferson said quote; “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies”, unquote.  Since when did the creation of an item out of nowhere, give that item an intrinsic value?  We need to look at our monetary policy with a critical eye and ask; Is this a system geared towards abuse and control or is it simply altruistic? In case you haven't noticed, the owners and architects of these financial institutions which set up our system to crash in 2008, have gone completely without legal notice.  How many people have they harmed and how much pain have they caused without a single summons being issued?  One can rob a bank for $100 and spend 20 years in jail and yet crash the western worlds markets and get away with record bonuses! They are protected by our so called elite who have no interest in us, beyond pushing our dollars up the pyramid.  Their greed is insatiable.

Lastly,  we can start with ourselves.  We have become entrenched in our ideologies in total disregard for the ideas of a new generation.  There are good ideas out there and there are bad.  We can engage in rational discourse, separating out the bad, and refrain from pure opposition, and embrace views and policy that benefits everyone. Up until  1900 it was said that the accumulation of knowledge doubled every century. At the end of World War 2 every 25 years. Now the doubling is every 2 years and the internet will continue to decrease this time.  With all this new knowledge gained I ask you to break free of your shackles that they have put us in, free you mind, free you choice, and don't listen to them, listen to your heart, your intuition, not their hate, not their propaganda, not that which will bind you servitude.

In refining this speech I was distracted by a recent supreme court ruling that said prisons and jails now have authority, without cause, to strip search you for weapons, drugs, contraband, whatever.  People have been strip searched for minor offences such as too loud a muffler, not having a audible bell on their bicycle, walking their dog without a leash, and other minor offences which should not yield an arrest at all.  Police will use this to humiliate and harass and I advise you to research this further as it is quite infuriating.  We are in trouble in this nation and it is getting worse.  It is no wonder our society is becoming more violent for when a government treats its citizens like animals you get uncivilized behavior.

My friends I don't always know what to do, or what exactly to say but I do know that I can make an impassioned plea for your rationality. To unbind you and myself from fear and desperation.  I implore you don't let them decide for you. There is still hope yet and all is not lost. We can still pull out from this !IF! we pay very close attention.  We need to join hearts in unison and exclaim "If we are not free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!" We will throw ourselves onto the gears. We will revolt with our very existence. We will not go away quietly, we will not be ignored!

Hero

I have never had any heroes. No musicians, actors, artists. No politicians, neighbors, friends or family.  The closest thing I could call heroes were the characters of Star Trek. As corny as it sounds it is true. Although it wasn't necessarily the characters themselves, it was the ideals they had and shared. It was the ideals of what they did, what they accomplished.  They were explorers, diplomats, and scientists.  They often stood at the edge of human knowledge and wanted more. They looked death in the face and fought. They made the tiniest of hope reality. They made us examine ourselves for our own betterment, not for reward or gain but because it was righteous, it was good and correct for its own merit.

Our characters in our stories are always a mirror on us all.  What it means to act or behave in certain manners.  What it means to be human.  Surely our stories don't answer the question but they ask it.  It will never be answered but that does not mean the question is invalid. Only, truthful.  Star Trek is interesting because each alien our crew meets is a trait of our selves.  One species is devious, treacherous and smart. Another consists of the ultimate greedy capitalists. And another yet is violent and brutal, harsh and unpleasant, but they hold honor and integrity above all else.  All this is a mirror on humanity and all of us seem to exhibit these traits, among others, with uncanny single mindedness. There is far too much hatred when compassion should rule out. Far too much fear when understanding is in order.

What are the heroes of today and what do they say of our state of affairs.  Pick any problem out there and there are too few voices standing up to challenge them.  Our terrestrial heroes have failed us but our heroic ideals will live on.  It is often said that America is not a place but an idea.  To live the American idea of independence does not mean to hoard our money and close the world out.  It means to strive ahead with both hands open, ready to grab another and elevate all into a better world.  A place where people take care of other people, in person, in the community, in solidarity with one another.  But we have fallen short of this dream.

What must we do I ask?  How do we change our course for the better?  Our goals in essence are the same.  We need not be divided by politics or charlatans, hucksters who take your mind away from you, who turn you into wage slaves in competition with the man who will work longer harder and with more sacrifices.  They pay you for your time and tax your worth.  You no longer own your labor, we no longer own ourselves.

The revolution will never begin for just like the scabs who usurp the union, they will simply replace you and I.  What we need is a groundswell of the like that would make occupy look like the county fair.  Only when a super majority of people stand for the future will things change. Only when we as a nation no longer tolerate monetary greed, political corruption, the police state, can we begin to change the road we are on.  Our heroes may save the day yet but not the heroes of today, the heroic ideals that we hold most dear to our hearts and the men who follow the righteous path because it is good and for no other reason.

George Zimmerman

http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/seminole_news/031612-911-calls-released-in-Sanford-shooting

The story between the shooter 28-year-old George Zimmerman and the deceased 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was first broken to me by 'The Young Turks'.  The above link will lead you to 911 calls made by the shooter and various residents in an apartment complex in Sanford, FL. According to various sources, Mr. Zimmerman who is a neighborhood watch leader initially observed a 'suspicious' person walking through the gated community.  While on the phone with 911 Zimmerman continued to follow Trayvon Martin even after the 911 operator told him the police are on the way and to stop following the 'suspect'.

What happened immediately before the shooting is unclear but from what I gather, Zimmerman caught up to Martin and confronted him in some fashion.  There was a total of two shots fired and during and after the first shot, some have said a warning shot, Martin can be heard yelling for help and for his life.
It is said that the second shot was the one to end Martins life.  There have been no eye witnesses so far but several reports have stated that Zimmerman had been on the ground at one point in time since his coat was wet and had grass on it. It must be stated that Martin had gone to a convenience store and had iced tea and skittles candy on him at the time.  Although Martin did not live in the complex he was staying with family there.

From all the reports this does not seem to be a case of self defense.  Here's why.  Zimmerman while on the phone with 911, was chasing or tailing Martin even though police were minutes away. Zimmerman called from either his home, clubhouse, or vehicle.  Once cannot claim self defense if you have identified a potential threat (Martin) and then proceed to chase the threat.  If Zimmerman then engaged the potential threat with deadly force, even if they began to fight when Zimmerman caught the threat, the very act of chasing down the threat while you have safe haven elsewhere prohibits self defense. Florida has a law called the 'castle doctrine' which most plainly states that you are awarded legal protection in bona-fide self defense cases where you have a legal right to be, say in your home, business, or even a store. This law will not protect Zimmerman.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/17/2700249/shooter-of-trayvon-martin-a-habitual.html

Top 10 Reasons

....gay people should not get married.  This is a lazy repost but I thought it might be good to touch on the subject.

01) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

02) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

03) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

04) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn’t changed at all like many of the principles on which this great country was founded; women are still property, blacks still can’t marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

05) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of marriages like Britney Spears’ 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

06) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn’t be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren’t full yet, and the world needs more children.

07) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

08) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That’s why we have only one religion in America.

09) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That’s why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven’t adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

from:http://www.stopgeek.com/top-10-reasons-gay-marriage-should-be-illegal.html

Reddit Atheism

Reddit is a social news website that has quite a following.  If you want to know more about atheism, you can go here and check it out. http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/faq#Doatheistsbelieveinghosts or reddit.com.

You can troll the site and find hoards of images like the one above.  It can suck you in and waste an incredible amount of time, so fair warning!

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Here's what happened; in the 1960's, we were at war with the Soviet  union, cold war and a little bit of hot, war in Southeast Asia.  SO, we fear them because they put up Sputnik, which by the way people forget, was an emptied out casing of an intercontinental ballistic missile. Sputnik itself means fellow traveler so it's ll peaceful but it was a ballistic missile head, without explosive, and that was a signal in America and we freaked in America ! NASA got founded on the fear factor of Sputnik. SO then we go to the moon on the fear that Russia will control the high ground. Then we go to the moon, space enthusiast say "OH! We're on the moon by '69, we'll be on mars in another 10 years. They completely did not understand why we got to the moon in the first place. We were at war. Once we saw that Russia was not ready to land on the moon we stopped going to the moon. That should not surprise anybody looking back on it.

Meanwhile however, that entire era galvanised the nation, forget the war, it galvanized us all to dream for tomatoes to think about the homes of tomorrow, the cities of tomorrow, the food of tomorrow, everything was future world, future land the worlds fair, all of this was focused on enabling people to make tomorrow come. That was a cultural mindset that the space program brought upon us and we reaped the benefits of economic growth because you had people wanting to become scientists and engineers who are the people who enable tomorrow and to exist today. And even if you are not a scientist or technologist you will value that activity and that in the 21st century are the foundations of tomorrows economy's and without it we might as well slide back to the cave because that's right where we're headed right now, broke.

I'm tired of saying this but I have to say it again! The NASA budget is 4/10's of one penny on a tax dollar. If I held up a tax dollar and I cut horizontally into it 4/10's of 1% of its width, it doesn't even get you into the ink! SO I WILL NOT ACCEPT A STATEMENT THAT SAYS "WE CAN"T AFFORD IT!"

Do you realise that the 850 billion dollar bank bailout, that sum of money is greater than the entire 50 year running budget of NASA. And so when somebody says we don't have enough money for the space program I'm asking its not that you don't have enough money , its that the distribution of money your spending is warped, in some way that your removing the only thing that gives people something to dream about tomorrow, the home of tomorrow, the city of tomorrow, the transportation of tomorrow, all that ended in the 1970's after we stopped going to the moon, it all ended, we stopped dreaming. SO, I worry that the decisions that congress make doesn't factor in the consequences of those decisions on tomorrow. They're playing for the quarterly report, they're playing for the next election cycle and that is mortgaging the actual future of this nation, tomorrows gone.

If you double NASA's budget up from half a penny on a dollar, make it a penny, go ahead make it a penny,  go ahead be bold, that is enough to go to Mars, soon with people, and go back to the moon and on to asteroids. NASA as best as I can judge is a force of nature like none other and so what worries me is that if you take away the manned program, a program which if you advance frontiers, a program which heroes are made. There's a force operating on the educational pipeline that will stimulate the formation of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and technologists. You birth these people in to society, they're the ones that make tomorrow come.
A half a penny. That buys the space station the space shuttles, all the NASA centers, the rovers, the Hubble Telescope, all the astronauts, all of that, nobodies dreaming about tomorrow anymore. The most powerful agency of the dreams on a nation is currently underfunded to do what it needs to be doing. And that's making dreams come true. How much would you pay....for the universe?

Pat Robertson

Life is stranger then fiction.  Maybe that's because of our poor imagination.  But what we have here is an agreement on something between me/this blog and Pat Robertson.  Don't let me lead you astray, he is an awful bigot, a frothy fecal pile, a religious huckster, and loathsome vacuous sick evangelist and yet we can agree on marijuana, please watch.





They say if you live long enough........I fear that he may have ulterior motives but I'll take any progress I can get.

Pet owners

I found this video on youtube and it is very powerful. Watch first.



I had this experience once and I don't care to repeat it.  We had a doberman, who when he was 15, started to have seizures.  I was also 15 then as well so I knew this dog my whole life.  He could no longer walk all the time and had to have his back legs carried when it came time to go to the 'bathroom'.  He wasn't always disabled for he could walk again in a few days after a seizure.  The adults in my life came to the determination that this was his time and that he should be euthanized.

I can remember that day quite well.  Saying goodbye, knowing that was our last few hours together, made for a strange day indeed.  When our appointment came and he was put on the exam table, I felt rather emotionless.  When the Dr. put the needle in and pushed in the fluid, it was a rather peaceful, almost eventless event. But the part that is ingrained most firmly in my memory was his eyes.  He was looking at me as he fell asleep and I can remember how they almost turned black, as if it was truly a light bulb going out.  His eyes were closing as he grew weaker, until his head was resting on the table.  So there he lay motionless, dead, pain free, while one last goodbye was said and we left for home.

As a male I feel it is a requirement, almost a duty to not show emotion of the sad sort even at events like this. But I can tell you I feel nearly overwhelmed reciting this story, not only in words but in clear memory.  The job that these people do is an unenviable one that I could not do.  At one point in this film the Dr. says you begin to feel like putting a gun in your mouth.  I can see how easy it would be to feel that way and I hope the reader does as well.  According to the Human Society there are about 3-4 million homeless animals euthanized every year.  It should seem immediately apparent there is a moral wrong being committed by our nation.  The best solution it seems is to spay or neuter your pets.  Not only for the quality of life for the animals but for the well being of the people who have to do this ghastly deed that ALL of us are indebted to.

I wanted to promote this video to get the word out, for I do not know what else to do to help.  Education about this topic seems key to any success.  As anyone who has lost a longtime pet can appreciate the work involved for anyone who has to euthanize so many animals.  It is a grave misdeed to breed indiscriminately, to care not for the consequences of breeding too many animals, and for the rest of us to not put social pressure on fellow citizens, friends, and family members who partake in the actions which lead to the wholesale slaughter of otherwise good pets.

Due Process

You know about all those crazy people in the past who said conspiracy theory this murder laws that.  You know, those hucksters that tried to make you fear your government and said the government does not have your interests at heart. Well all fiction aside, Orwell's 1984 is becoming real.  In this video, by The Young Turks, highlighting a talk by Eric Holder, Attorney General of the U.S., who was the overseer of "operation fast and furious", where the U.S. government allowed weapons to be funneled into Mexico, who then later blamed the U.S. for our 'poor' policy of gun control, who gave a talk about assassinating U.S. citizens.  It is now law in the U.S. that the executive branch can now order the killing of U.S. citizens anywhere in the world without regard for what a court may say.  In fact we have already killed some but how many, nobody knows.



http://www.theyoungturks.com/

When will this paranoid insanity end.  We have become a nation of scared denizens.  We can blame both parties here, for this is worse than what Bush II has done.  He may have set the stage but Obama has taken the reigns and is sending freedom down the road to oblivion.  They no longer need to present evidence or show it to a court.  They have no need to make charges.  No lawyer will look into your defense for you no longer have one.  They are now judge, jury, and executioner which is in direct conflict with the constitution.  I don't know why there is no outrage and I am positive many among us would defend these psychotic laws and logic with an appeal for our safety.  We need to get the terrorists.  Terrorists, Terrorists, Terrorists.  Its such a joke in any other context except for this is real life.

If we want to end this nightmare, the only politician which opposes this on all fronts is Ron Paul.  Sadly I have strong doubts he will win and in the past he has said "it is not about winning. It's about the message."  Although he's correct that it's about the message we would be in a superior position if we could get him elected.  I suppose having a constitutionalist in power really is a radical agenda. Who knew?

True Conservative?

As evidenced by this blog, I both enjoy and am vexed by politics.  I have always thought of myself as a conservative, not necessarily a far right winger but probably a conservative moderate.  I have become particularly confused by the rhetoric espoused by the Republican presidential candidates, so I began to investigate what are the issues that separate the two ideals. A search of "am I left or right", or "am I a republican or democrat" reveals many multiple choice quizzes in which to provide an answer.  I find many of these tests to have a unfair bias in the questions and which some questions are outright egregious.  To my slight confusion and surprise, these tests reveal I'm a hard liberal?!

One of my chief concerns in the past has been of gun control or better stated, ones free ability to have arms.  I am guilty of sometimes being a single issue voter for I reason that if a politician doesn't trust the populace to have arms, I cannot trust him to put MY freedom in his charge.  Without knowing who to quote on this statement but I see truth in it, "The second amendment protects all the others."  A quick study of history reveals that every populace who has had sweeping gun control policies, a brutal government quickly follows who often uses violence to further its own aims.  In reading the second amendment, it seems very plain, that the founding fathers intended for private firearm ownership to be a normal part of life but many liberals and democrats have viewed the "militia clause" to mean that only the military or national guard should have access to weapons.  Another short motto as follows, "an unarmed man is a subject, an armed man is a citizen."

With that said I begin to wonder what classification my values fall under and what it would take to slide to the right.  First off I value separation of church and state, as outlined in the constitution, I value the secular state.  I also value environmental standards.  I value individual rights, an almost tripe utterance with no meaning of its own.  I also value free expression, protesting the government and corporations, helping the poor, and smaller government.  Both parties pay lip service to these values but I have to state that the republican party as been the most ardent violator of these principals.

The republican party swaggers up to the podium and invokes god at nearly every turn at the same time they are opposed to the welfare state.  If they believe in the tenants of Jesus Christ, they must also give as much support to the poor as possible and yet giving to the poor seems to be a democratic idea.  Or better stated, the government giving to the poor as opposed to the church giving to the poor and yet the government gives welfare out in orders of magnitude more than the church does.  Very confusing.  When I say welfare state I do not merely mean cheese and milk, I mean all welfare programs, living assistance, unemployment insurance, and yes even health care.  Jesus said, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter heaven."

The environment: Since when did protecting the environment become only a democratic ideal?  I suppose since it 'infringes' on the 'rights' of business to pollute indiscriminately that this becomes a leftist anti-business issue.  I would agree that many environmental policies go haywire as in the case of connecting wind farms to the power grid by not letting power lines be built though the forest. And yet in many, many instances, we let business pollute on a horrendous scale.  When an animal farm dumps it's waste into public rivers and waterways and disrupts all life in that ecosystem, why does bipartisan outrage evaporate?  The same republicans who love the outdoors, who love to go boating, hunting and fishing also pay for this environmental cost for the benefit of a tiny minority.  Very confusing.

Rich Santorum has seen broad support in the party.  I participated in the republican caucus in Spokane, WA and in our precinct Ron Paul narrowly won with Santorum only one vote behind while he took second in the overall county vote.  (http://elections.msnbc.msn.com/ns/politics/2012/washington/republican/caucus/#.T1W1_ocgdTI) Even though Paul took a narrow second in Washington total counts, Santorum has done very well in other parts of the country.  These polling results show that Santorum's views are indeed indicative of the party as a large percentage.  Santorum does not support the separation of church and state but would insert HIS version of the bible into the law of the land.  Would your religious views align with his?  I would be certain that statistics would prove me correct in saying that Santorum's views DO NOT represent the nation as a whole and yet his supporters care not for this fact.  Santorum would fit in very well with middle eastern Imams and Ayatollahs in regards to the structure of government they both pursue. Very confusing.

Expansion of government has been the norm under both parties but it is the republican party that advocates the loudest for smaller government.  And yet it was Bush II and his party that created the Patriot Act, no child left behind, and expansion of the TSA to name only a few. By the way the Patriot Act is anything but and in fact it should be called the 'Repeal the fourth amendment act'. If they want smaller government why have they increased it exponentially. Very confusing. I won't bother much with the TSA here (which gives a good idea for a future post) other than to say; how can normal men and women do this as a job everyday.  It is disgusting what we have become and how did we survive before this aggressive abuse?  Oh, we did just fine.

I really don't understand why conservatism has been reversed to mean abuse of power.  I don't know why 'conserving' our resources by keeping our water and air clean now equates to a 'radical liberal agenda'?.  I would have to suppose by what conservatives call conservation is; keeping the money changers and abusive business in power.  One question which seemed to separate left from right was: Do corporations have a social responsibility or do they simply need to create money for the shareholders?  Certainly the main goal of business or a corporation is to make money but to suggest that a business has no social responsibility is a backwards idea.  They may not need to feed the starving but at the very minimum a corporation should do no harm.  Instead our corporations, as evidenced by the wall street debacle, have become predatory and acutely greedy.

And I haven't covered 'gay rights' which is another anomaly of the republican parties lip service to individual rights.  Very confusing.

We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.- Einstein

Micro Quotes

There is no shortage in this world of racking misery, hate, war, intolerance, greed, suffering, and injustice. In fact there are vast reservoirs of these regular wonders of humanity, ready to be tapped at a moments notice.  In America we are largely saved from the worst, most vile displays but unfortunately we need only to look in the news to find proof of these things.  More disturbing yet, we can look within ourselves to find the same.

Jesus of Nazareth said "Thou shalt love thy neighbor" and "do to others what you would have them do to you".  The Buddha said "everything depends on everything else. The one contains the many and the many contains the one" and "The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you".  The Dalai Lama said "If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." and "We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves." Secular Humanism says "We want to protect and enhance the earth, to preserve it for future generations" and "We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather than despair,  tolerance in the place of fear, love instead of hatred, compassion over selfishness, beauty instead of ugliness"

In every society resides a philosophy.  In fact we can find examples of love and tolerance within these philosophies, often times in large troves, and yet we find people who need no excuse to commit heinous atrocities on one another, either in the name of or in purposeful ignorance of said philosophy. This is why I am glad to be a part of the push back against intolerance and ignorance.  I am willing to take a stand against theocracy. For the secular state I am willing to fight.  For the secular state we live in gives permission to question all things, even the state itself.  Having the freedom of mind to question leads to the betterment of all humanity.  Freedom of mind is the antonym of pessimism, despair, and fear.

In defense of Atheism 2

Another post of point counterpoint in the argument over Atheism, we'll explore 3 more questions in approval of faith and blow them out of the water!

Religion is a force for good. Or people do good things BECAUSE of religion.

This is a half truth.  Of course people do good things because of their faith.  People do good things for all sorts of reasons, some of those reason aren't good at all.  The question we should ask is; Are religious reasons the best reasons for doing good things. No. Religion works from a reward standpoint.  If you do good or live by certain tenants you will go to heaven or be in god's good graces.  This leads, if you did not do these things you would not go to heaven or be in god's good graces.  How is this the highest moral objective?  Isn't doing good for its own sake better?  A humanitarian will go to Africa and feed the poor not to proselytize, like all missionary services do, but because feeding people is noble unto itself.  I find the real moral ideal is to do good because it is good. Not for divine reward.

Somewhat conversely we find just as many occurrences of evil and wrong done in the name of religion as good in the same.  I may have just made you think of an instance on your own.  One only need to pick up the news paper and read the international headlines for the latest suicide bombing or the latest mass grave uncovered.  Steven Weinberg said, "Good people do good things, bad people do bad things, it takes religion for good people to do bad things."  There is no other way to describe the suicide bombing cults or the female genital mutilation community (which is 100% religious) not to mention the Inquisition, heresy trials, and modern day jihad.  So what we have hidden in this religious force for good is also a force for evil.

The bible is true because it says so. The bible is true because it was inspired by god.


I hear this all the time and I can't understand how people don't see the logical blunder in the first statement.  Something is true because it says so?!  I can say ANYTHING, especially if its ridiculous then say its true and you would believe me?  I'm telling you now there is a teapot orbiting mars in an elliptical orbit and it was put there by the first people and this is a true statement.  Would you believe me?  What does the evidence say?  There is NO evidence what so ever to accredit this statement.  WE need to base our ideas on evidence and not word play and logic tricks.  I can then stand in front of you and say, "prove me wrong about my teapot."  Certainly we can't for technology has not gotten us to that point that we can detect any possible thing in orbit of mars but this is no argument for the veracity of my statement.  In fact we can use probabilities to guess within a high degree of certainty that it is untrue. Saying it's true only because it says so is a circular argument and by definition is invalid. The onus is not on the unbeliever, it is on the statement maker.

One day I might like to travel to the Vatican and see the Sistine Chapel.  After my visit I may be 'inspired' to write a book or make a painting, directly because of my visit.  My creative works do not have to about the chapel or even represent it in any way.  The works can be about something else entirely.  My small point here is that inspiration is not enough to prove the works have a direct connection to the origins of the inspiration.

But in defense of the bible, it is said that they were inspired by god, which is to say that this is gods word.  Even if we discount all the contradictions, which there are many, and all the inconsistencies, we are told that this, like the koran, is the perfect word of god.  I would tell you now stop and now go read the bible and tell me, is this book perfect or could we improve upon it?  I say we could easily improve on many facets of the bible from the glaring immoralities, single dimensional characters, ideas that can be interpreted in many different ways, and from what we now know, that the early christians edited the bible.  Israeli researchers and archaeologists confirm this.  If the bible, which is actually many books depending on your exact faith, is the perfect word of god, how can it also be edited by terrestrial beings? Besides all this, there is nothing in the bible or koran in which information is any more advanced than that of a 1st or 7th century man.

Entropy: The universe without god violates the 2nd law of thermodynamics.

This argument usually entails arguing against the big bang model of cosmology.  They make the argument that the universe's energy should be decreasing, a running down towards chaos.  They say "Entropy increases as available energy decreases.  In other words, the purely natural tendency of things is to move toward chaos, not order, and available energy necessary for work is lost (mostly as heat) in this process".  This is true OF A CLOSED SYSTEM.  They purposefully leave that out of the discussion.  The universe is not a closed system.  They are misleading you by giving cherry picked information combined with half truths.

Our solar system from our perspective does seem fairly closed.  So lets run with this for I am attempting at an analogy.  Our Earth is also a mostly closed system.  Only energy waves and some very small bits of metal seem to every leave its surface.  Energy waves are all that is contained in the electromagnetic spectrum. Heat, light, and radar waves all shoot out into space.  But most 'stuff' remains.  IF there was no sun we could imagine how the Earth would eventually cool into a lifeless rock where entropy would increase and concentrations of material in the oceans would dilute and it would become a boring place.  But as the sun sends us energy some chaos occurs and this leads to life rising up, the Earths core being churned up, and weather allowing life to exist on all parts of the planet.  

I hope I have made the distinction clear.  That entropy is talking about closed systems and not the cosmos.  Entropy also says that chaos is more probable than order.  If you fling a pile of rocks out the window, they will land 'willy nilly' and not into a nice rock wall.  However correct this may be in relation to gasses and dilutions of salts in water and the like, this is not an argument against life in its ordered form.  Life is made possible by replicators which by definition cannot evolve towards chaos but life observes an order for it to create repeatable processes.  Just like viewing a nice rock wall is not an argument against entropy, entropy is not an argument against life.

Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum. Here, this video should say it all:




Remember Rick Santorum said that he wanted to 'vomit' about the principals this country was founded on. Thomas Jefferson said "build up that wall" in talking about separation of church and state.  Jefferson knew, along with the other founders, how dangerous theocracies are and that is exactly want Santorum wants to install.  It is beyond belief how he can talk in front of an audience and they clap for this. I guess this is the result when we spend a whopping 5% of GPD on education.

I really want you to watch this next video on Santorum to find out just what a mastermind this guy is and why YOU don't want him in charge.



I had always thought the argument was over. JFK used this speech the help the civil rights movement in the 60's overcome rampant segregation.  But according to Santorum these works make him throw up!  I get so mad having to hear about this guy over and over and over again on the news as if he is actually some sort of expert on these issues. What is very interesting is how he doesn't want college for you and your kids but he went to college himself! I really don't know what to say because if these videos aren't self evident, I don't know what argument would persuade you.  If your a republican vote for Ron Paul or at the least Mitt Romney. MY GOD!

I will be writing on why we need to fight for a secular state and Santorum gives me a perfect segue on this topic. If you had told me a person said what Santorum says, I would have doubted you, but see it coming from his mouth is just as unbelievable. Santorum is a person who loves having ignorant people give him praise and pandering to uninformed.  How did we get to the point in this country where ignorance is the preferred mode and stupidity trumps knowledge?!  Santorum is the perfect blend of self actualizing lies and ignorance pandering, maybe that makes him the perfect politician?

Just a little more on Jefferson's wall: http://allusionsofgrandeur.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/build-up-that-wall-mr-jefferson/

In defense of Atheism

I would like to post some point counterpoints in defense of Atheism or in the least for anti-theism.

One of the most common things a nonbeliever will hear is; What if you're wrong?

I usually understand this point to be Pascals wager or Pascals Gambit.  Pascal gives a simple cost benefit analysis to defend theism. It states that if there IS a god and you believe, you go to heaven. If there IS a god and you don't believe, you go to hell. Conversely if there isn't a god and whether you believe or not, you have lost nothing.

So that's simple, you must believe right? Well, no.  First on the rebuttle is can you actually fool god?  If a person examines the evidence, eg the bible, koran, ect., and cannot find that to be accurate or true, can he  then say he believes in a vain attempt to enter heaven? Will god not see through this deception? Wouldn't the jealous god of the bible be angry then? Obviously this makes no sense but it gets worse. How about living with self respect. Are you seriously telling me that you can extol the faith when you know it's wrong?! What kind of person would you then become? If god gave us reason and logic, would it not then be wrong to dispose of these?  Wouldn't god want us to search for truth, not settle for self imposed brain washing? It is unhealthy to knowingly believe in a lie.

Pascals wager is really a disgusting attempt at creating self delusion in expense of your self respect, dignity, humanity, health, reason, and all the little things that make us explorers of humanity and the cosmos.  This is "religious hucksterism of the cheapest, vulgarest, nastiest kind that is possible to imagine" AND all this says nothing about believing in the wrong god. Last point here, if this god is so forgiving, so loving, so smart, so wonderful why would he have no room in his 'heart' for honest, decent people who have done nothing wrong at all?

Another arguments goes like this; We would not have morality if not for god or religion.

How long have people been around gives you the easy, fast answer.  If you believe the world is only 6,000 years old, there isn't much I can do here.  If you accept that humanity has been around on the order of 100,000 plus years, it is plain to see that we would not have gotten as far as we did if morality wasn't innate.  Morality also follows cultural development and this usually have a religious element to it but as is also plain religion and the bible or koran have come only in the last 2,000 years. How did humanity get by for 98,000+ years without god? How did the jews who wandered the desert before coming upon MT. Sinai know that murder, rape, perjury, theft were not okay? Of course they knew long before then.

If we could go back say 1,000 years or during the time of the Inquisition, we would see that they followed the bible and its tenets very closely.  They persecuted witches, tortured and killed heretics, endorsed slavery and genocide on an order that would frighten and outrage us today.  We can also read the international headlines and read what most muslim countries offer us in light of gods wisdom.  Cutting off the noses and ears for women who dishonor the family, stoning people for conversing with the wrong interpreters of muhammad, and throwing battery acid in the face of women for attending school. Is muhammad's law just and reasonable, I THINK NOT!

Please don't think we need to be stuck in the bronze age of morality and wisdom of our world.  Is it not apparent that we need to understand our history and moderate our ignorance of issues and topics with care and understanding?  Do you realize modern western culture has moderated christianity to its current standing and the muslin world lags behind us only for the fact that their faith guides their society and not education, science, and reason.  Do not let faith guide your actions anymore.

Y U NO LEAVE COMMENT?

This blog is still a young blog.  June 20th. of 2011 was the first post and after Sept. I almost quit writing at all.  Aiming to forget this blog came the new year. Not quite a resolution but on more of a suggestion that I keep writing, I have been posting new topics and have kept the blog current for about 2 months now.  I have seen a dramatic increase in traffic from before with a lot of traffic occurring most recently.  Total views of this site are not anything to brag about but it has raised the questions; Does my writing reach anyone?  Do people read and care?

I have just relabeled the blog posts into a more concise listing and have come to realize that this blog may lack focus.  My aim is to have a mix of topics and still focus on 3 main issues encompassing Atheism (religion), politics, and entertainment.  After the relabeling I have noticed that many posts are under the philosophy label and this is somewhat of a catch all of coherent ideas and some inane ramblings.  Politics and entertainment both have a high content total and to keep it balanced, I will write more on Atheism; what is it, what it means, and to show its not devil worship.

This posts goal is to generate some level of feedback.  Since I am new to blogging I have no idea on what it takes to get followers or even comments out of people.  As of now not a single person has commented which isn't actually disheartening but it is somewhat like being in the dark.  I have tried to post decent content and make the page look half-well designed.  I have also begun to include more photos and embed more videos for a more entertaining site.

I have searched blog spot posts randomly by using the 'next blog' widget while logged in and many blogs seem very uninteresting.  Sometimes the page that it lands on may have only a tertiary relevance to the blog itself and this single sample is judged for better or for worse.  I can see how some of my older posts are less attractive then my current content.  So then how do I get a person to stick around a little longer?  I can see how a great many people may be put off by the Atheist topics but I try to include enough variety to hook a greater audience.  Is it working?

Tell me what YOU want to see or read about. How do YOU want this blog to look?  Tell me am I relevant to YOU?

An atheist or should I say a human's point of view

At the bottom of this post lies the url for the point of this post.  When you look at a person, what is it you see?  Do you see a baseless individual or something more perhaps?  Do you see a soul or a primate? When you look into the eyes of a child, do you see a muslim child or catholic child or simply a child?

I frequently come across the writings of religious believers and its runs the gamut of reasonable discourse to insane ramblings that seem more akin to the residents of a mental hospital. The worst make flagrant attempts to sway only the most credulous of us into their way of twisted thinking. This gem here was gleamed from the a fore mentioned link: "....anything this side of Hell is mercy. Remember--you deserve to go to Hell."  This is in reference to the 'basic' person; you, me, everyone.  This does not seem fit for a healthy mind to think such of people.

Let us try to imagine our soul, just now infused into the zygoat of our mothers womb.  Did I ask or better yet, did my soul ask to be created and then infused into this biology?  It seems to me that in any event we all came into this world through no choice of our own. Only now many years after our birth do we now have the ability to even question such things. So here we are 'given' life for which we do not deserve for we are immoral, grotesque, sinners.  We are all apparently just a breath away from being evil.  If you thinks this of us, then we do indeed deserve hell. But fortunately for us all, there is no evidence of any sort that leads, either rationally or logically, to these conclusions.  This evidence include literature, science, history, and even other holy books and scripture.

If the theist god who created the cosmos is to be true, he gave us many faculties in which to learn and disseminate how the world really is.  This quote says much:  "....because ''believing on Christ'' means surrendering everything, giving up everything. If you are not willing to surrender everything,..."  I have heard this before and I'm betting you have as well.  I understand this to mean that we are to give up our logic, reason, skepticism, and even our very inquisitive nature.  Why would god give us these things just for us to dispose of them?  This isn't how you treat a gift.

Would anyone argue that we are not, at a base level, explorers. We all explore the universe, our world, ourselves, human experience, emotion, and a myriad of other 'things'.  Even the religious try to get to the truth, even if they incorrectly discount certain information.  So in our very nature to seek religious truth, the above quote seems to be irreconcilable with what the aim of its objective is.

There is racking misery to be found right here on earth. Fortunately nothing in, on, or above this earth tells me there is a hell waiting for us. Nor is there a heaven where god sits waiting for us to commit thought crime to judge us without appeal.  I cannot submit myself to this willful attempt at intellectual suicide and I implore you not to fall for these tricks they would have you fall into. All this talk of humanity belongs in hell seems very hateful to me. Why would god use hate in order for us to conform to his wishes, which seem to me to be mightily terrestrial.

There is nothing in the bible or koran or any other holy text that suggests they have any special knowledge.  There is nothing in these books that have any information any more advanced than that of a 1st or 7th century man.  A modern wheelbarrow would have been the invention of a lifetime and yet we should listen to them on the creation, workings, and death of the universe? No sir, I will not let this happen. I will not subscribe to ignorance in the face of knowledge. I will not let my mind fall victim to irrational discourse. I will not let my country fall victim to theocratic politicians. And I beg that you will not either.

http://freegracepreacher.blogspot.com/2010/07/letter-to-awakened-sinners.html

HEYYYYYYYY Jackboot!

History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by  controlling money and its issuance. -James Madison

Lest we fall victim to the civilizations of old. Lest we pass into the dust of time. We are quickly nearing the apogee of victory or the knife edge of defeat. Why must we be brought to this point in time? Why must it be us and this next generation of people who decide the fate of the future.  Indeed it always has been this way, but this time, there is an urgency which will not wait for us.  We are facing problems on a scale unprecedented and our systems of governance make sure, that all remains the same to keep the gears working. Not a single system is untouched. Some are damaged many in total disrepair.

Not even the earth itself goes untouched by our consumption. We have it lucky locally but a quick search will bring up many areas who are suffering ecological damage unheard of, even 20 years ago.  Anaerobic lakes and waterways are becoming common and like the oxygen starvation of these biomes, our politics seem to represent fewer and fewer of us while they control more and more.

People will look back at us as we are now and will exclaim in utter disbelief in how backwards we were, as we do now on peoples past . The trick which we must accomplish is avoiding history exclaiming how we were a nation that had everything, and squandered it all away in pettiness.  Our disputes are not beyond reproach but it is the people we have let come into our charge that are.  These people, our elected officials, have wrestled away control of our arguments from us.  They form the debate topics and they put sound bites over the air as truth.  They have taken a hold of us and its time we recognize this so we may begin to push back.

We can start with campaign finance reform.  Does anyone here not see the conflict of interest of having business give money to our elected officials?  Does anyone here not recognize how our votes are diminished when our corporations give millions of dollars each to our hopeful representatives? Our votes have been largely replaced by dollars often times ranging in the hundreds of thousands. Corporate controlled news agencies owned by these same money donators only discuss politics with two parties in mind.  They keep the horse race alive. With the power of the internet we can have a free choice again.  Our candidates can get their message heard at minimal cost and with minimal molestation.

We can start with state primaries occurring at the same time.  As it is now we have states like Iowa and South Carolina deciding for us.  They vote first "weeding out" the less preferable candidates, giving their vote far more weight.  As some of you can attest, those who follow politics, many candidates have fallen away from the "top tier", so called by the popular media due to a minority vote.  We can easily make it a choice to vote for candidates who matter to us, not for the party.

We can start with ourselves.  We have become entrenched in our ideologies in total disregard for the ideas of a new generation.  There are good ideas out there and there are bad.  We can engage in rational discourse, separating out the bad ideas from the good, refrain from pure opposition, and embrace views and policy that benefits everyone. My friends, I ask you to break free of your shackles that they have put us in, free you mind, free you choice, and don't listen to them, listen to your heart, your intuition, not their hate, not their propaganda, not that which will bind you servitude.

Lastly, we can start with refusing to treat money as a commodity in and of itself. Thomas Jefferson had this to say; “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.”  Since when did the creation of an item out of nowhere, give that item an intrinsic value.  We need to look at our monetary policy with a critical eye and ask; Is this a system geared towards abuse and control or simply altruistic? In case you haven't noticed, the owners and architects of these financial institutions which set up our system to crash in 2008, have gone completely without legal notice.  How many people have they harmed and how much pain have they caused without a single summons being issued?  You can rob a bank for $100 and spend 20 years in jail and yet crash the western worlds markets and get away with record bonuses! They are protected by our so called elite who have no interest in us, beyond pushing our dollars up the pyramid. They do not care about us. They do not care about us. Their greed is insatiable. 

Issue of currency should be lodged with the government and be protected from domination by Wall Street. We are opposed to…provisions [which] would place our currency and credit system in private hands. – Theodore Roosevelt

I don't always know what to do, or what exactly to say but I do know that I can make an impassioned plea for your rationality. To unbind you and myself from fear.  I implore you don't let them decide for you. There is still hope yet. All is not lost. We can still pull out from this !IF! we pay very close attention. We need to join hearts in unison and exclaim "If we are not free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!" We will throw ourselves onto the gears. We will revolt with our very existence.

Speech Time!

The video below is from the movie "The Great Dictator", which was made a little over 70 years ago. Charlie Chaplin took a big risk financing this himself as well as acting in it.  The music track is from Inception, made by Hans Zimmer.  I urge you to read about this movie further for this post is only a portal for more information.



 I'm sorry but I don't want to be, an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible; Jew, Gentile, black men, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each others' happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the good earth is rich, and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men's souls; has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge as made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in man; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all.

Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world. Millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say "Do not despair." The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you; who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder! Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men---machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don't hate! Only the unloved hate; the unloved and the unnatural.

Soldiers! Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it’s written “the kingdom of God is within man”, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy, let us use that power.

Let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill their promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance! Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.

Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

flight

Sail above the earth
dance around the clouds
on wings of flight
and engines of power

Wings of an angel
keep me safe in steel
give me feul
to soar forever

A dream of flight
to own the sky
sail towards the stars
found my home in heaven

Don't want it to end
my dream of flight
keep watch for the ground
To land is to end

Unbelief IS an option.

"I didn't know unbelief was an option." I once heard this, I can't remember where, from a person who formerly believed in a religion.  One of the other statements I have heard was "I didn't realize that there were people that had read my holy book or had looked at religion with an open mind and found no proof. I thought it was simply Christians (or any other religion) and people who haven't yet found god."  Statements of both these kinds are from people who have had little or no contact with a person of non-belief or perhaps a person of another faith, in an open and non confrontational atmosphere.

I wanted to define Atheism and what it means or does not mean.  The dictionary would say:
a·the·ism/ˈāTHēˌizəm/  Noun:  The theory or belief that God does not exist. But this is not quite right. Atheism is not a "belief" that god doesn't exist, it more means that a person can find no evidence to believe in god.  The difference may seem subtle but it is important.  Think of Atheism as a zero point expression.  A baby would be Atheist for they no more believe in god, a religion, or Santa Claus *yet*, for how could they. They can't read or speak!  Atheism is akin to NOT believing in alchemy or astrology.  If you do not believe in these two things, we don't have a word for it!

More often than not, a person who 'invokes' Atheism usually has a good grasp on not only his countries popular religion but also of the other minority ones as well. What is also interesting is that many studies have been conducted, where an Atheist or a person who discounts a religion will actually possess more information of that religion than the general population or even that of the layman's of that religion. I will reference the Pew study here: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1745/religious-knowledge-in-america-survey-atheists-agnostics-score-highest

This is a basic framework for Atheism but like all things, there are shades of colors. For example there are 'strong' Atheists and 'weak' Atheists. A strong one will say god is false versus a weak one will say it cannot be proved true.  This is not contradictory to the above framework.  A weak Atheist should not be confused with Agnosticism, a person who says god may or may not exist and may or never be proved.  Now to muddy the waters a little an Atheist may say, without being an Agnostic, that one day god can be proved to be true, if the evidence proves it to be true.

Even if god were to be proved true it would not prove a specific religion was true. This gives us Deism which many of our nations forefathers were. Others were ambivalent on religion and still more were christians and catholics.  Thomas Jefferson was a Deist but today when it is more sociably acceptable to invoke Atheism but still not politically so, may have called himself an Atheist, along with James Madison, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin.

"Atheists have no morals, since they don't believe in God". This is true in part.  There is nothing in Atheism that says anything on morality or politically or anything besides god. You can be a communist or mad psycho killer and be atheist (which you can be part of any religion and be a psycho killer as well).  More often than not what you will find along with Atheism is being a Secular Humanist. Humanism is for another topic but I can most assuredly tell you, it is not devil worship or the like.  I can pull up many parts of scripture in the bible or koran, which by my western sensibilities are indeed IMMORAL and repugnant. It is undeniably interesting to find out what most religions texts find to be moral but many practitioners of said faith find to be abhorrent behavior.

 I would like for you to view your faith from a critical eye, actually read your holy book, and then challenge your beliefs with debate, either in person or watch debates on youtube, Fora.tv or anywhere else.  I must applaud many christians who would say, "If my faith cannot stand the test of scrutiny, I should not be believing in it."

On closing I would like for you to watch this video. A search on youtube on this video will bring up 3 different parts. Please search for them.

Great by Tony Rogers

http://tonyrogers.bandcamp.com/track/great



Found this little nugget of a song. Normally I hate (read loath) TV commercials for many reasons but every once in awhile one shows up and a gem is to be found within. This song on the above track was featured in a Purina dog food advertisement and the sound hit me just right.

For me this is a tragedy and not a comedy. I'm fighting the notion that the song is talking about pets and will continue with the assumption we are talking about people. For me the singers voice doesn't convey bliss or contentment but a sense of what is wrong. Someone else can see what I could be but I still cannot. I feel within that I have the energy to accomplish, but have no outlet. The person who can see these things remains as a icon, to keep striving for greatness.
At the end though it seems that the feeling remains but its almost a resignation has set in. Or maybe I feel that at the end because the song ends, who's to say?



To a point I was good
Tried to do stuff that I should
Tried to do what you said
Tried to sleep in my own bed
But my bones wouldn’t rest
‘Til I put me to my test
And I remembered what you said

That I could be great
So so great
(let it right out)

Being good isn’t tough
But it’s also not enough
What’s the use enduring birth
If I can’t find what out it’s worth
I need dreams, I need plans
I need you to understand
And I remember what you said

That I could be great
So so great

I can bite off more and I can chew
We may never know what I can do

I could be great
So so great

Early Bird

This image was take by me in Spokane, WA on July 19, 2011 4:18 am.  It is of the Upriver Dam.  This dams purpose is to provide water for a large portion of the city of Spokane. Down river, perhaps 750 ft or so, is the second portion of the facility shown here:

 The electricity generated from the turbines is used to power the water pumps from the regional aquifer.  A Google search will clearly show the 2 damns and how they are arranged.  This third image shows the main spillway section in brighter conditions:

The last two images were also taken by me at approximately 6am.  The images are free to use but please credit my blog if you use the them.