Political Me…Snooze

Once upon a time, Friend #1 messaged Friend #2 of mine saying that he had no idea I was so right-wing. Friend #2 (the one that knows me better) said that Daniel is not that right wing it’s just that he is confident in his positions. And that pretty much sums up the difference between those who occasionally dip their toe into the public arena (or cluster &$^%) of ideas and. those who either are paid to bat around political tennis balls for a living or take it up as a hobby. If one is not well versed, or somewhat informed, in politics or the culture, then someone who somewhat is and has a pretty strong stance on any given issue will probably be seen like a Right-Wing Nut Job or a Bleeding Heart Dirty Hippie. In order to sift between the people who read a paragraph or two of what I dribble about leading them to have automatic knee jerk/non-opinion-opinions/girly girl-eye-poking reactions and the people who actually want iron out opposing ideas, I write sometimes with abrasive or sophomoric undertones with near fatal doses of attempted humor. The people who can’t handle it are the people who intellectually yell, “Squirrel” at any opinion not delivered in a nicely wrapped package and get sand caught in various private crevices. They usually respond with multiple comments to the tune of “Why are you being so harsh? Don’t you want to draw everyone into the conversation and inform?” Well, yes and no. The ones I am trying to draw in are people who are moderately to extremely interested in the robust exchange of ideas. The ones I am trying to push away are either the ones who do not have an opinion or the one’s that DO have an opinion but are afraid of confrontation and opt out of discussion for the comfort of “unity.” Just like our Founding Fathers did when some government bureaucrat placed a tax on one of their favorite beverages. So, in a way, I am discriminating between people who can juggle both normal lives with being informed about the country they live and the ones who float idly by and leave their commentary about contemporary American life for random Facebook postings in the late of night to the tune of, “It’s sad that Americans aren’t doing anything to stop poverty in the world. We spend more money on our pets than the homeless.” These “in the moment” statements are not bad in and of themselves but they typically are typed up when the person is feeling emotional due to either a hormone influx, near toxic levels of chocolate consumption, having read the latest Social Gospel book, or having seen a random documentary by an admirer of Che Guevara. One can easily judge the sincerity of these “convictions” if they are still posting or speaking about these issues a month later. People who do not have a set of somewhat firm political and/or philosophical principles, develop the worst possible principles, at the worst possible time.

So that just leaves bitter old me and where I stand in the political and cultural arena. Those who have made an honest attempt to engage in dialogue with me (not that such a phenomenon is difficult or virtuous to achieve) find that while I might appear to be a crazed right wing loon, find me more of a black sheep Conservative. I have given up the term Right-Wing Nazi because I am placing Nazi back with the liberals seeing as how they were National Socialists. So, here are some questions that I think people (Opponents and Proponents) might ask me and I’ll answer them as honest as I can without getting too bored and with minimal vomiting.

Would you describe yourself in the Religious Right category?

If I had to choose based on a life and death situation between the Religious Right and the Religious or Secular Left, I would reluctantly place my loyalties with the Religious Right… but not without a bottle of Baileys and coffee. Whether it’s my natural cynicism or my natural distaste for superficial relationships, I don’t much like many of the people in the Religious Right. As a political movement, they seem to weld together moral behavior with secular law. I never understood why we needed prayer in schools when I can do a “better” job of prayer before and after school OR, better yet, DURING SCHOOL. Did the frequency of prayer in school, after it was abolished in school, go up or down after the government reascended its secular blessing? A blessing, might I add, that we never needed. I don’t think that abstaining from sin should be a political platform.

So are you a liberal on social issues then?

I think you can have liberal ends by conservative means. That means that issues that are usually championed by the Left can also be championed by the Right but Conservatives can achieve their goals differently. Take poverty for example. The Left seems to think that the government can eradicate poverty by taxing evil rich white men. Well, the Left has been proven wrong for the past 30 plus years after the War on Poverty was given an adrenaline shot in the arm. Poverty rates have remain stagnant since President Johnson and lets not forget that the majority of America’s wealthy citizens are liberals.

So who would you handle poverty?

At this point in history, I don’t think we can get government out of the “social justice” profit venture but what I would prefer is that we severely reform the system. How about drug tests for welfare recipients? I know of people who truly need the government’s assistant and they play by the rules and try their hardest to work their way out of poverty. I also know people who abuse the system to buy things that have little to no relation with basic survival needs. If we can get rid of the waste and help the helpLESS and not the clueless, I think most Americans (both liberals and conservatives) would be on board. If we are footing the bill for a safety net that I might one day need to fall on, I want to make sure that net is made in Japan and has a nice springing action that can catapult me out of the welfare mindset. The second method I would enforce is a ground up change from the individual, to their families, to their communities, to their cities, and to their states. What if we reformed the notion of true individualism which means to take care of and build for oneself that will, in turn, take care of the initial needs of, that in turn opens up the individual to conviction and allows the personal liberty to not only look after oneself, but for one’s own family and friends. Do you know of a family member or close friend that has lost their job or has come up on some hard luck? Why not offer money with no strings attached to that person so that they can get back on their feet? Why not offer to help them foreclose on their house and open up your home to them? This might sound old fashioned, but what if we return to the notion of families (which can include close friends) taking care of each other? What if the only thing we expected in return is that the “helped” at some point becomes the “helper?” Do you know how much waste and fraud would vanish if families and friends took BETTER care of each other? And what happens when one’s family is taken care of and everything is “tip-top?” Then these families share some of their fortune and blessings with the surrounding communities in some form or another. We don’t have to take the homeless off the street and take them into our homes, but I think being prosperous means giving out of the goodness of one’s heart and by the conviction of the Divine. Where I think government can step in and help is where the people who are truly alone or whose families are unable to help them. But the aid to those in need (Not in want) must change from the old entitlement system that breeds constant poverty to a system that encourages and heavily suggests freedom from poverty. If the government can help 13 year old girls obtain abortions across state lines without the parents knowledge or consent, I think the government can actually guide the poor out of poverty.

What about social issues like abortion, gay marriage, social justice, the environment?

Abortion: The taking of a life outside of the health of the mother is never an option. And I define health of the mother, for example, if the infant’s shoulder is caught on the mother’s pelvic bone and the mother is hemorrhaging out and the only option is to abort, then I feel it’s up to the couple. I drew upon this example from the T.V show ER where such an incident happened. I am not basing my principle on a T.V show but what I am saying is that things happen during the birthing process and in some rare cases, hard decisions have to be made. Depression, cleft palates and Down’s Syndrome babies are not sufficient reasons for abortion.

Gay Marriage:

I believe marriage is an institution, albeit a dissolving institution, between a man a woman. I base this on both moral, practical and spiritual principles with the latter not affecting public policy. A man and a woman have the necessary “parts” (Huh-uh… he said, “Parts”) for reproduction. A man and a woman also have the natural tendency to reproduce like rabbits given the chance so a committed relationship between a man and a woman who are committed to raising kids, and to buy them fancy cell phones so they can text naked pictures of themselves in their teens, is ideal for any society because it usually produces moderately responsible adults. Having said that, while I have moral qualms with homosexuality, which are based in Biblical principles, I see no where in the Bible where it demands that a government refuse certain rights to homosexual couples. Since it is not a Biblical concept of marriage to leave property to a surviving loved one, visit a loved one in a hospital, be on the same insurance policy, to have “His and His Towels,” I do not see a surface level issue with civil unions. Believe me, no where in the Old or New Testament does it say that it is forbidden for a gay man or woman to leave their estate with their partner or forbids them to have the same Aflac policy. I don’t see the Christian Right get bent of same when some moron old lady leaves her estate to her cat when she dies.

Social Justice:

See previous posting http://clearlycaneda.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/we-should-eat-the-poor/

Environment:

The Left has successfully painted we Conservatives (or us Conservatives) as the villains Captain Planet is always fighting against and yet this is the one issue where common sense is totally avoided. You either agree with Bill Maher or Al Gore on this issue, or you are a Holocaust Denier! Sorry, but I do not want to be lectured by rich people on the evils of Styrofoam cups (which are on every movie set and in every Green Room), florescent light bulbs (which contain mercury), electricity usage (From the comfort of multi-million dollar mansions), and carbon emissions (Which no liberal travels by wind). My philosophy is this, we need the more traditional sources of energy now so we can get to cleaner ones later… faster. We need strict guidelines on carbon emissions and clean fuel like clean coal and natural gas but we need these to buy us time to develop solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal energy so that it BOTH WORKS (Which it doesn’t always work right now) and is COST EFFECTIVE (Only the evil rich can really afford to go all green).

What are your thoughts on War?

Unless we are home with Jesus, we will always be at war at some point in time. If my fellow emo-Christians cannot come to grips with this, then they are in for a big surprise when Armageddon finally comes. I think war is a necessary tool when all other options have failed but there is a big difference between a warrior and a war-monger. William Wallace was a warrior and General Zod was a war-monger; there is a difference. I have sort of a nuanced view of the current War on Terror which I have already explained (And won might I add) in a previous posting http://clearlycaneda.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/the-unavoidable-war-war-on-radical-islam-the-liberation-of-iraq-beyond/

Why do you hate President Obama so much?

Ah yes, the question that you really want to ask! Unlike Liberals, I do not hate any particular President of the United States (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0853096 , http://www.prlog.org/10181278-the-assassination-of-george-bush-its-not-just-about-killing.html ) I have a major issues with the current President’s policies and since many on the Left cannot divorce policy from race, they see me and others like me as racists. Yes, there are racists who hate Obama! And yes, there are racist liberals too. They just are racist towards people it’s okay to be racist towards. Since I am a Conservative, I have the natural inclination and ability to distrust ANYONE who holds or runs for public office. Running for public office is similar to wanting to a monarch… you are a little crazy. And while I can put my support behind a candidate, I will not sacrifice my principles if the politician I am supporting fails to live up their principles. Thus, towards the end of the Bush Administration, I was ready for him to leave office and I might have put a figurative boot to put. Fiscal Conservatives are not suppose to lend out money to fix a problem that a majority of Americans are guilty of… Living Beyond our Means. Which is why I can praise President Obama when he made the difficult decision of taking out Somalian Pirates/Terrorists but rail against him on everything else. I do not (l)ike President Obama because of his policies but HE IS STILL MY President. I did NOT vote for him (Which confuses many young people who voted for him to make a fashion statement) but he is my President. And I only disagree with him on two fronts, domestic and foreign policy, but other than that I think he is a likable guy. And I must say that this in and of itself makes me 50 times more evolved than many on the Left.

But how could you not vote for Hope & Change? How could you not vote for the first Black/African American President?

A.) Hope and Change is the slogan for EVERY Presidential candidate that has ever run. B) Being a Conservative, I strive to try to take race out of every situation just like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. taught me. Thus, I place my vote based on the content of character and the track record of a candidate. I do not have time for “White Guilt” and bean counting. I leave that type of superficiality voting for rabid American Idol viewers. And if you want to get technical, President Obama is our first Bi-Racial President. It’s funny how mixed people, who as young children and teens often have difficulty identifying between the white and black culture, are suddenly embraced by one race. “Hallelujah… my President is finally black.” “Um, yeah, the new President is still white!” And for the record, President Obama does not have any slave blood in him, so lets not worry dwell to heavily on cosmetics. If a candidate has the right platform and a majority of my principles, he’ll more than likely get my vote.   It’s really that simple.

The itch to wrap this up is becoming unavoidable at the moment but I plan on elaborating on further subjects in the future. In the future, if you find yourself procrastinating going to class/work, having a bout with insomnia, or have a kinky taste for schadenfreude or masochism, then serve me up an issue and ask me what my take is on it! I am single and have nothing better to do!!!

Racist Southerners… For Example…

A quick post about Obama’s dramas and racism in the South.  Below is an interview with Kathleen Park and Joan Walsh… both uber liberals.  Then I posted a rebuttal… Read rebuttal first and then go to the source afterwards.

REBUTTAL

Just as the left pioneered “AstroTurf” protesters — homeless people lured to demonstrations with the offer of a free T-shirt and a box lunch — liberals have also specialized in producing fake “insiders” denouncing their alleged group.

There were the “winter soldiers” — fake Vietnam veterans claiming to have personally disemboweled babies in Vietnam. It took 30 years and the publication of the book “Stolen Valor” to establish that the bulk of them were utter frauds who had never seen combat — some had never seen Vietnam. (Shockingly, to this day, the Wikipedia entry on the winter soldiers treats their phony war records as legitimate.)

Then there’s Barry Lynn, alleged “Christian minister,” whose stock in trade is to denounce any mention of religion anyplace, anytime. Look, I’m a Christian minister, but even I have to admit that the sight of a kindergartner praying is terrifying to most folks. (The first person to post Barry Lynn’s bar mitzvah photos or birth announcement (mazel tov!) wins a free copy of my latest book, “Guilty: Liberal ‘Victims’ and Their Assault on America.”)

The latest fake insider/whistleblower is Kathleen Parker, the Barry Lynn of the South. Fresh off her mainstream media tour as a Sarah Palin-hating “conservative,” Parker is now a self-proclaimed Southerner blaming opposition to Obama’s policies on the region’s reputed racism.

Uncannily, this claim struck a chord with Northern liberals!

Throughout the presidential campaign last year, liberals were champing at the bit to accuse Americans of racism for not supporting Barack Obama. That was a tough argument on account of the obvious facts that: (1) for every vote he lost because he’s black, Obama picked up another 20 votes for being black; (2) Obama won the election in (3) a country that’s 87 percent non-black.

So the accusations of racism had to be put on hold until … the first note of dissent from his agenda was sounded.

Inasmuch as Obama was just elected and his policies have turned out to be the most left-wing the country has ever seen, it wasn’t going to be easy to claim the electorate suddenly decided they didn’t like the mammoth spending bills or socialist health care bills because they just noticed Obama is black.

But Kathleen Parker has leapt into the fray to explain that the opposition to Obama’s agenda is pure Southern racism. And she’s from the South, so it must be true!

As she put it on Chris Matthews’ “Hardball”: “One word, Chris — one word. ‘Confederacy.’ I mean, you know, the South is very — I live there, OK? I want to make that clear, too, because I’m not bashing Southerners.”

No, she was certainly not bashing Southerners. This she made clear in her Washington Post column calling for the Republican Party to “drive a stake through the heart of old Dixie.”

How one gets from “we don’t want socialized medicine” to “we hate black people” was a tough equation. As my algebra teacher used to say: “Please show your work.”

Parker’s explanation: “Sarah Palin may not have realized what she was doing, but Southerners weaned on Harper Lee heard the dog whistle.” And on “Hardball,” she said: “You don’t position a white woman and a black male and pretend like there’s nothing happening there. There’s a deep history. That’s why I mentioned Harper Lee in there.”

So as I understand it, by nominating a black man for president, the Democrats had checkmated Republicans, who should have done the decent thing by not nominating a white woman for vice president, which would be seen as a deliberate ploy to lure gallant Klansmen into defending the white woman’s honor by voting against Obama!

Called upon to draw a straight line between Sarah Palin and racism, I guess this is as good a try as any.

Any crackpot can put forward lunatic theories. What gives Parker’s slanderous claim punch is her repeated assertion that she’s a Southerner, so she’s giving us the inside dope. To make sure no one misses the point, Parker issues repeated professions — “that’s what we do in the South,” “I am down there,” and “I live there, OK?”

Despite the implication that this Daughter of the Confederacy was virtually homecoming queen at Ole Miss, Parker was born and raised in . . . Winter Haven, Fla. She married a South Carolinian and now splits her time between South Carolina and Washington, D.C.

I’m no Civil War buff, but I’m fairly certain there were no brave Confederate stands at Winter Haven against a superior Northern force — unless those Northern forces were successful dentists from Larchmont. I would lay money that there aren’t a lot of antebellum mansions on magnolia-lined boulevards dotted with statutes of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson in Winter Haven, Fla.

Except for the coasts, Florida never had much of a culture below the northern tier on account of the fact that the area beneath the panhandle consisted primarily of malarial swamps. Northerners got that deep into Florida at the turn of the last century — i.e., about same time as northern Floridians did.

If Parker is a Southerner because she grew up in Winter Haven, then I should be the next spokesman for Gorton’s of Gloucester because I grew up in Fairfield County, Conn. I’ll pose in rain gear at the wheel of my ship, dispensing flinty, down-home Yankee wisdom — “Ya cand get theh from heah” — just like most natives of New Canaan, Conn.

Oh, and one more thing. I was once employed by MSNBC. Speaking as an MSNBC insider, I regret to inform you: We MSNBC-ers hate the military, loathe cops, despise the South and absolutely detest Christians. No really, take it from me — I’m an old MSNBC hand.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=106696

We Should Eat the Poor

Over the 4^th of July, a friend sincerely posted a grim statistic that 20% of Americans live below the poverty line. This concerned this person because, if I could can add some subconscious underpinnings,it was the GREEDY RICH WHITE AMERICA that was spending loads of money on objects that explode. Frankly, I was more concerned that we buy our fireworks from China where they have a horrid record of human rights violations and they are not burdened with Cap and Trade so the fireworks factories can figuratively (Though probably literally) burn oil and pro-democracy dissidents to power their factories. Boy, white guilt really is expensive or, worse yet, Earth unfriendly. But if my friend had tuned an ear towards the American news, he/she would have seen that many American cities had canceled their annual fireworks displays. This is of course absurd because the Stimulus Package has saved us from the brink of financial ruin!!! But there is an underlying psychological neurosis to this school of thought that has crept into Christianity and that is Social Justice. We have heard from the Religious Right about gay marriage, abortion and school prayer, now it is the Religious Left’s turn to implement “new” strategies in the War on Poverty. But the nobility of “helping” the poor has been morphed into idolatry where anything that remotely resembles material possession is hysterically denounced like an Islamofacist reacting to a political cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. Luckily, most of the Religious Left are pacifists, which means they suppress the natural inclination toward violence even in the face of pure evil. It is this same reasoning and philosophy that continues to cut away at Darfur’s population down each day. But where does one draw the line between helping the poor? Do we define helping the poor in terms of passing out sandwiches for years on end or getting the poor off the streets and into programs that will aid them in bettering their lives?

The majority of the Religious Left seem to treat the poverty like they are in a SPCA/Sarah McLachlan commercial. They seem to prefer the most shallow attempts at aid and give lip service to anyone who can stand to listen (Or is suffering from insomnia and needs a good Facebook posting about how Greedy Rich White Christians are in order to lull themselves into a comatose-like slumber). Oddly enough, these dramatic types tend to use the “digital soap box” to prove their point (Apple laptops, the latest cellphones, SUV’s and token overpriced coffee house coffee are all essential to the contemporary self-righteous process). Boy nothing moves the masses into action like hurling guilt grenades from the type of comfort that the Religious Left enjoys; which is considered to be a monarch’s lifestyle in some countries.

What makes the Religious Left’s movement so hollow is that their solution to poverty is no different than recycled Marxist activism: Demonize the productive and semi-productive and raise taxes. The only difference here is that they have Photoshopped God onto a Godless movement. You have heard it said that Jesus was a Marxist but I think Jesus predates Karl Marx thus that would make Marx a Christian… which is ironic because Marx was an atheist. But one does not need the power of the Divine to know that getting government involved will only give a problem like poverty life support and not a clean bill of health. The Religious Left is apparently impressed with the way the U.S government has handled Social Security, Medicaid and the War of Poverty that they welcome the chance for more government intervention. I just love the verse in the Bible where Jesus petitioned the surrounding communities to vote in the Roman politicians who were more empathetic and social justice oriented. On the contrary, if Jesus DID do that, he would have died for our sins a lot sooner than he would have wanted. I will not demean you with scriptures about helping the poor because we all know them, but I will emphasize that there are a lot of commands saying that YOU help the poor. Believe me, no where in the Bible does it say, “I then urge you, brethren, to assuage your guilt… make your petitions known to the governing bodies to take from the workers of the fields and give to the poor in amongst you… ALLU ACKBAR!!!!” Sorry, I added the to the last bit of that sentence. If anything, God commands us to live in modesty (Which CAN be relative; Bill Gate’s modesty is different from my own) and help our surrounding communities. It is even better if families help out their own and their communities. I ask the Religious Left this, “What has been the War on Poverty’s impact on the families in the United States?”

The Religious Left and Hollywood tend to overlap in logic when it comes to helping the poor. For example, click HERE for a demonstration in what is called intellectual political thought of the limousine left. You will notice the guilt over being a man of wealth at 4:55. Limousine Liberals always state that they do not need more money… they do not need tax breaks. Here is how you dissect this lunacy in a manner of seconds; sneak a video camera into a meeting with Seth MacFarlane and his agent discussing, with the FOX Network, his contract renewal after a successful season of Family Guy and see how Seth and company try to pry out a couple of more millions. This is how vapid and bereft the Limousine Left is in Hollywood. It never occurs that a tax break means they, Or their Jewish Accountants have absolute control over where this money goes. Want to help the poor Seth? Cut a check to your local YMCA, Boys and Girls Club or soup kitchen. This will mean that the proceeds will go to those in need and not towards paying for an Argentinian junket to play pelvic-pea-knuckle with a local reporter. No, the Limousine Left would prefer to have an enormous bureaucracy take their money and distribute it. This is, by the way, a diet version of sending foreign aid to corrupt African regimes so tin hopes that they will help their own impoverished citizens. Surely they will not use it for drugs, prostitutes and weapons.

And this leads us to the poor themselves. While I believe God’s heart moves for the poor, I do not think he loves them any differently. Having said that, the poor are not Fabergé Eggs and they will not shatter if we require something from the poor in return. And before you anticipate a “Go get a job” speech, let me take joy in disappointing you and by going down a different path in this line of thought. I have worked a little bit with the poor in my past line of work and I have observed a couple of things about the poor. One example is that I notice that some of these individuals have dirty clothes and are malnourished but their guardians find it necessary to supply their children, not with adequate nutrition and clean clothes, but with the latest video game console and the latest video games. I was amazed at the fact that so many poor children knew so much about Halo 3. I did find it heartening that there many poor families living within their means and doing what they could with what they had but unfortunately they are outnumbered. The definition of poverty I possess seems to differ from the mainstream in that when I think about poverty, I think about the movie Slumdog Millionaire where you see an impoverished people fighting tooth and nail just to survive. And I mention this not demean the poor in America but to put into proper context the next time someone preaches to me about the plight of the American poor in order to bring down the mood and appear intellectual.

I think God possesses the ability to differentiate between the helpless/poor in spirit and the clueless. This is why I applaud ministries like the Dream Center in Los Angles or the Sparrow’s Nest in Athens Georgia. Not only do they feed and clothe but they also educate, train and nurture the soul. I think what God had in mind when he said help the poor was to give a portion of your life and the eternal life so that the poor can speak of their poverty using the past tense…while playing Halo 3 in a 68 degree/atmosphere controlled environment of course.

A Funny Patriotic Rant This 4th of July

When you see the people in Taiwan- or anywhere else for that matter- having free elections, it makes you proud that we invented modern democracy. God, I love this country. Now, I don’t want to get off on a rant here, but while I am cynical toward politics and government in general, I am a patriot through and through. I love this country for several reasons, not the least of which is that I know I’m allowed to hate it if I want to. I’ve been patriotic for a long time. I wasn’t quite old enough to be drafted into the army during the Vietnam War, but had I been, you can rest assured that I would have used an American rifle to shoot myself in the foot.

I hate it when foreigners come to American and start badmouthing this place. Because that’s my job. We are a nation that celebrates our Independence Day by barbecuing ourselves into a hot-linked-kielbasa coma, but patriotism, my fellow Americans, should be an around-the-clock, twelve-months-a-year job.

When it comes to fostering patriotism, we have always depended on the unkindness of strangers, countries like Germany, Russia and Iran. And trust me- we need our enemies. I mean without Bluto, Popeye’s just a vegetarian sailor who like anorexic chicks.

But my problem with patriotism is that often it’s all too easy. Where’s the challenge in saying that you’re proud to be an American? Of course you love this place. All you have to do is watch the nightly news to thank the Lord that we don’t live anywhere else. We should be flying the Stars and Stripes every day just for not living in a country with barefoot soldiers, insane heat, flat breads, and giant banners with a pockmarked, beret-wearing leader’s picture on them.

It’s unfortunate that few people take pride in being an American.  You want to dwell on this country’s f!*k-ups? Be my guest … But you might want to remember that when you stomped into CIA headquarters waving your Freedom of Information Act permission slip you were not summarily hustled into a damp sub-basement where a jackbooted sadist with one eyebrow and tinted aviators Elvis wouldn’t even fucking wear is smoking unfiltered cigarettes that smell like a skunk getting a perm as he clamps jumper cables on your nipples and starts humming the love theme from ‘Midnight Express.

-  By Dennis Miller

… An After Thought…

- “We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.” *

- You have unfettered access to the Internet… go to China and see how they treat you!

- America has achieved greater social equality than any other society.

- In America, the destiny of the young is not given to them but is created by them.

- America has gone further than any other society in establishing equality of rights.

- America has the kindest, gentlest foreign policy of any great power in world history.

* Winston Churchill

http://www.naturalnews.com/011530.html

http://www.phillytalkradioonline.com/comment/10-great-things.html

You Know What Really Gears My Grinds?!?! Part 1

For those who really know me, know me as someone who only lends an opinion to any thought that comes across my mind or line of sight. If anyone were to meet anyone on my father’s side of the family, they would know that this is mostly an inherited “gift.” One past time my aunt and I share was when I would break out the ole yearbook and poke fun at the less aesthetically pleasing school folk. I realize that most people are annoyed at someone who so freely share their opinions about life at any given moment so I try to rectify this annoyance with a little humor.

The following rant are thoughts that I have either thought of in the past and never bothered to put down on paper (or in this case digital paper) or stuff I am thinking up right now. I know, exciting stuff isn’t it?  But I am planning on writing a bombshell of a piece on the recent murder of Dr. George Tiller, the Pro-Choice/Death and Pro-Life/Anti-Fetal Brain sucking movement. And, I plan on dropping some quotes from Ann Coulter in hopes of luring liberals and closet moderates (who actually are either liberals or spineless humorless drones) into a feral rage and eventually spasm so much that their spines crack under pressure because they have wandered so far from the point of discussion by attacking a figure-head like Ann Coulter.

Any who, here is what really Gears My Grinds:

Twitter- It is a known fact the the lives of the people on Twitter are a great exaggeration in 150 characters or less. People should stick to the regular stalk site, Facebook.

Hollywood Liberals- Never in your life will you see people who possess all the luxuries and excesses of life (multiple sex partners, VIP preferences to concerts, events, drugs, etc) preach to the pheasants about their lifestyle choices… BUT GO SEE MY MOVIE!!!

The Green Movement- I was sold by the evils of pollution when it was taught to me by Captain Planet, not unwashed/unshaven hippies and rich former Vice Presidents who failed to win elections. The Green movement’s most faithful followers would have us live in grass huts and take down the corporations if they held any kind of elected power. The irony is that they must lie and delude themselves to the point of back tumors in order to convince themselves and others that the Green Corporation is the only corporation that is void of all greed and evil.

Green Light Bulbs- They contain mercury… I’ll stick with Global Warming light bulbs.

Green Energy- Keep it away from the government subsidies and me UNTIL it both WORKS and is AFFORDABLE.

Class Warfare- I don’t like poor people when I am suppose to favor them over the rich. I personally try not to favor anyone which means that discrimination is kept to a minimum. One group does not hold any more sanctity over the other. It appears the mindset is to keep the poor as poor as possible so that they don’t become rich, or at least self-sufficient.

New King James Only Folks- These people suffer from full body dry heaves when you tell them that the Bible was originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Dan Brown had it wrong about the crazy conspiracies of the Catholics; he should have written about the King James crowd.

Anti-Catholic Christians- While I’ll admit that the Catholics have some zany theocratic leanings, I have to afford them the same flexibility towards our own zany Protestant theocratic leanings as well. I can’t reconcile a woman on TBN with two pounds of cake makeup and a haircut that would make medieval British Monarchies jealous with a modest nun on the Catholic channel. And don’t bother bringing up the slaughter record of the Catholics… I think we Christians are about even on the killing fields of innocent people.

White Supremacy- Yes, I know they are the only group that’s 100% politically correct to make fun of and hate but I hate them on based on the Harry Potter/Pure Blood/Mud Blood/Half Blood dilemma. I take pride in being a true Half Blood.

Moderates- To be further ironed out later but being Moderate politically is about is solid as bowl movements after a bout with Taco Bell. This lable seems to be the safe haven for people who do not like political confrontation (Or ANY confrontation for that matter) or hurt feelings. These people tend to be morphed and molded by the political winds which is why Presidential candidates have to contort themselves into odd positions (Both metaphorically and literally) on any given issue to win over the spineless. Being moderate does not mean you hold various positions on various issues… that means you are an Independent and being an Independent, like a Liberal or a Conservative, means you have actually have to stick your neck out and stand up for something and defend your position when an opposing point of view comes along. And having set political position means that YOU have the power to choose the best politician to serve the people. Being a wimpy Moderate is almost like being in a relationship a over powering/domineering husband: you hate being treated the way you do but you figure what he decides will be best. DISCLAIMER: There is no correlation between labels and level of passion about discussing political issues. There are plenty of liberals, conservatives and independents who hate talking about politics which is FINE!

Rob Zombie- He has yet to make a decent movie. House of a 1,000 Corpses was a rip off of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the remake of Halloween seems like it was made by an angry 30 year old Goth Brat who still has huge trace amounts of anger at “the Man” which is psuedo Freudian for parents.

That’s it for now…

Dissent & Patriotism

You have heard it said as I have, that dissent is the highest form of patriotism.  I know for a fact that you have because that is the only tired phrase we heard for the past eight years of the Bush/Hitler Administration.  If you are an activist liberal, a worker’s progressive foot soldier or a trust-funded college student you probably pride yourself in holding this position.  If you happen to be a traditional person, you probably take great joy in watching brainwashed “dissidents” (I.E- Audiences of Jon Stewart’s and Bill Maher’s shows) violently convulse themselves in regurgitating anti-war chants like, “Bush Lied… Kids Died”, “Racist, Sexist, Anti-Gay… Bush/Cheney Go Away” and “Bush is Hitler.”  — Oddly enough liberals seem only care about: kids dying outside the womb; agree with President Obama’s position on gay marriage and that President Bush is anti-semitic—  However, when you challenge these ideas, a lot of these patriots erect walls protecting their patriotism with the statement, “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism” spray painted on it.  But now that President Hitler has run out of presidential terms to steal (FYI liberals STILL think Al Gore won the 2000 election) I find myself on the other side of the dissent aisle and I am now being lectured to by “true” patriots that opposition towards our current president is unpatriotic and is tantamount to Al Qaeda’s ideology.  Vice President Biden said that it is patriotic to pay higher taxes?!  Philosophers/Scholars like Wanda Sykes and Bill Maher were indignant that Rush Limbaugh wants President Obama to fail (For actual quote, click here).  Maher and Sykes said that that statement was treasonous and in lock step with Osama Bin Laden.  And we all know common wisdom dictates that our comrades on the political and social left are naturally smarter, more tolerant, sexier, articulate, desirable, better in bed, etc.  When one dissects their criticisms of the past Hitler Administration andjuxtapose their loyalty to the Messiah and their new definition of patriotism, one might find oneself at a loss for words.  How did the definition of patriotism change so fast?

I personally have never questioned one’s patriotism if they were in opposition to my viewpoint.  I may find those who disagree slightly idiotic, naive, weak and wrong but at the end of the day, we are still citizens of the greatest nation on Earth… The Great Satan.  But surely compliance is not the highest form of treason!  I was debating a friend about President Bush’s past policies and he jokingly stated, “… You know Daniel, dissent is the highest form of patriotism.”  I retorted, “You know you are certainly right and David Duke is probably one of the finest contemporary patriots America has to offer.  Duke, being a former Grand Wizard of the KKK and former Democrat/Republican politician holds steadfast to the philosophy of white supremacy which is in direct conflict with the founding principles of our great nation.  Duke also holds an anti-war position and you know white liberal guilt comes into play when the left denounces this man as a Holocaust denier but welcomes Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to appease their diversity guilt neurosis.  While we are talking about the pillars of patriotism, maybe we can set up, expand and spackle in other great patriots like Jane Fonda, John Wilkes Booth, William Ayers, Terry Nicols and Timothy McVeigh.

Standing on a platform in front of the White House and saying that our country does not need to be in the Middle East might/might not be patriotic but standing on a platform in front of the White House, holding a sign that equate America to the Third Reich is NOT patriotic.  There is a night and day difference in standing with the Principles of our country and coming out on the other side of the political deep end with burning the flag while wiping your a$$ with a $30 replica of the Constitution purchased the White House gift shop while proselytizing to the masses that you are not going to shave or bath until the troops of the Great Satan/Capitalistic pig nation come home.

I’ll admit that being patriotic is a broad sweeping term and can mean a lot of things.  I once had a HEATED debate with a friend who was extremely right-wing and his “point” (With a straight face) was that the Constitution does not give one the right to be a communist.  I stated that the Constitution absolutely gives you the right to be a communist, just not the right to murder millions of people.  But even in such murky political waters, does having a right make you, ipso facto, patriotic?  I honestly cannot say one way or another but if one’s actions work against the nation’s principles, I can, with a clear conscience say that you are NOT patriotic.

If you donate money to Hamas or any other cult that decapitates real dissidents, then you are not patriotic and hopefully the NSA is wiretapping you right now.  If you were wishing for President Bush’s assassination for the past eight years then you are unpatriotic.  If you were counting the days until President Bush left the office, then you are NOT unpatriotic.  If you are currently counting the days until President Obama leaves the office (Hopefully in ‘12 but doubtful) then you NOT unpatriotic despite what the mainstream liberal thought says.  If you want ill to befall on President Obama, then you ARE unpatriotic.  If you are one of the few racists left in America who cannot stand seeing a black man (Technically half-blood) in the White House, then you ARE unpatriotic.  There are many reasons to dislike and disagree with any elected office but identity is not one of them.  Being a true conservative, one is free from identity politics.  I say let the left, whose existence hinges on race, continue to discriminate based on race.

The End of All Good Things

Memory is not so bridled in our youth. We are too inexperienced and innocent to filter out what we want to remember. I remember the weirdest things about my childhood but there is nothing linear about it. I remember bits and pieces in my Pre-School days; a slight dab or two in my Kindergarten and early primary school endeavors but none so sparse as my memories of her. The passing of time has all but erased the finer details of her. Memories of the heart conjure up feelings that place you on a journey back through time to the precise its birthing. Do you remember how someone smelled, sounded or looked like? These are the memories that go far beyond the basic senses. They are the detailed descriptions of someone that if you tried to describe them, it would take an instant to remember but a lifetime to write those details down. These are the memories that go beyond book learning and regurgitation, bid you to stop whatever you are doing, surrender to your senses and remember. Again, time has smeared some of the memories of her to the extent that I am not sure if I can truly claim the ability to “remember” but in my most solitude thoughts, some things are brought out from the dead and given a new life.

I remember my very existence was derived from her. In her presence I felt safe and secure. It is that sense of security one has when they know that they are safe to explore the world in front of them. I remember distinctive freckles on her skin and some remnants of her laugh. Though I cannot remember much that life nineteen years ago, I can only remember how I felt when she was near to me.

Much of my memory is tainted by the last years of her life where sickness slowly stripped the source of security away. I remember as a young boy, having to care for her and make her feel comfortable. I remember the very day where I was told that she would be taken away from me. There was a numbness there that I could not explain. The news did not hit me with any degree of intensity but more of a mediocre indifference. What did this mean? Then, she was gone and I did not even get to say goodbye. The next morning I remember my father telling the story of her death over and over on the phone. Each repetition of the story brought new tears and I felt like he would soon run out of them. I did not understand and I was too young to try to understand. The only thing I knew at the time was that she was gone. That word, gone, brought painful feelings to me. If someone is gone, they would soon return. I would feel a stab of pain at the sight of someone’s departure but the remedy would be that their absence would be ended by their return. But there was no return for her. There was a void and it left me with unanswered question and I would never receive my answers.

I can only speculate what my life would have been like if she were still here and I was whole. Is she proud of me now? Would life be brighter and would there be more joy to be had? Would I not struggle under the burdens I have now? Rabid speculation is all I have to hold onto long after the precious memories of have become distorted. It is be better if I did not remember at all but instead I have shadows of a former love. Nothing is more painful than the blurry reminders of something you once had. And the valley never ends because when something vibrate comes along, the pain of loss reminds you that this can be taken away. Is that not the byproduct of a loss of something too immeasurable- the end of all good things. It comes a point where you become suspicious and wary of good things because their time is limited. So you keep goodness at bay because the pain of the past is more endurable than the new pain of future loss.

There are some things time cannot heal and some scars always stay tender. There are things in this world that leave you shattered beyond complete repair.

The Movie Twilight, Love, Morals and Modernity

Allegra DePazi: Dr. Fell, do you believe that a man can become so obsessed with a woman from a single encounter?”

Hannibal: “Could he daily feel a stab of hunger for her and find nourishment in the very sight of her? I think so. But would she see through the bars of his plight and ache for him?”

I recently viewed Twilight the movie based on the books written by Stephanie Meyer and it moved me in so many ways.  I would invite people who are reading this to refrain, at least until the end of the post, from thinking this will be filled with statements containing, “OMG… I would just die if… Sigh, where’s my romantic story.”  My intention is to pull from the movie (b/c I have not read the books yet) the meanings of passion, love, honor, restraint, discipline and many other virtues I have witnessed.  I cannot remember in the past couple of years a movie with deep meanings such as these becoming so popular.  I must say it was a breath of fresh air.  Now I will not lend to the movie the title of perfection because I believe it is far from that.  The script at times seemed like it was written the night before and the characters seem to have been given very little direction in some moments of the film.  I think that the movie did its best at staying away from sappy Hallmark Channel cliches but it sometimes went down that road of teenage mush.  Nor do I think this the perfect example of love because I doubt we can love that passionately and that zealously 24/7.  I think we can once we leave this world but for now, love is intertwined with doubt, certainty, deserts, oasises, fear and courage.   But the themes that the movie expounded on are what I think need to be examined and admired.

For the purposes of this article, the dilemma is such: Bella (Main character) moves to a small town where she does not know a soul.  She keeps to herself but is not terribly shy.  She is not drop dead gorgeous but is pretty enough for the guys in her new school to compete for her attention.  She assimilates fairly quickly with her friends and becomes intrigued with a particular group of students known as the Cullens.  They are a tightly knit group because, unknown to the rest of the human world, they are vampires.  They are not like other vampires because they only drink the blood of animals.  They do not kill humans for moral and ethical reasons but would still be enemies from such inane groups like P.E.T.A.  Edward Cullen (Another main character) fascinates Bella because of his good looks and uncanny demanor and nature.  Edward Cullen immediately is drawn and fascinated by her for physical and “spiritual” reasons.  He is drawn to her by his own physical need to consume blood.  Just because he and his “family” do not drink the blood of humans does not mean that they still do not crave it.  The need to drink human is intense they just choose not to partake in it.  Bella, for reasons unkown, increases this drive in Edward and he finds himself expending more energy than usual to hold himself back.  Edward, due to own unique abilities as a result of being a vampire, has the ability to the read the minds of people around him but Bella is exempted from this.  No matter how much he tries, he cannot get a read on her which, by the way, is the dilemma for most guys anyway.  Their relationship starts off rocky because he is somewhat rude to her in order to keep her from danger.  But his fascination and deep love for her trumps his hesitancy and he starts pursuing her.  He saves her life on numerous occasions and feels EXTREMELY protective of her in a way that leans more towards the chivilarous and romantic side, though it can be a bit much.  The love he feels for is equally recipricated towards him though he is in constant check of his nature to consume blood.

Edward has been alive since the beginning of the 1900’s and he is not happy at what he is.  He was turned into a vampire in order to survive Spanish Influenza (Which I bet he was peeved when flu shots were invented).  We are led to believe that his hatred of who he is has kept him from loving anyone else.  His foster mother and father are married and his sister Alice is married to his brother Jasper and his sister Rosaline is married to his brother Emmett (Keep in mind they are not really brothers and sisters, they are all more like a Coven of vampires but to the outside world they are a foster family).  We are led to beleive that Edward finds life rather meaningless until this person comes along that knocks him from his comfort zone and he just cannot keep away from her.  He even admits to her that “… I don’t have the strength to keep away from you anymore.”  It’s almost as if the very sight and presence of her takes away the pain from the past and gives him something to live for.  One night, he visits her in her room and things get a little to hot and heavy but he breaks away because he is afraid to lose control with her so they spend most of the night talking and she falls asleep in his arms.

Now, hit stop on the movie, turn one of the cable networks and tell me what you see.  I think you’ll see the tired replayed theme, “If it feels good, do it.”  You will see that hooking up with multiple partners is becoming more and more acceptable as oppose to monogamous relationships.  This is one of the reasons why I don’t watch the Real World because the script is the same;  New people meet during the day and by nightfall, all of them are in the hot tub and making out.  A couple of days later, they are engaged in drunken fights about who cleans the dishes and whose man is who and what slept with whom and that b!#@% spends too much time on the phone.  Most teens and young adults, from what I see and hear, aren’t too far from what they see on television either.  Sexuality is talked about as loosely as sports, gossip and sub-prime mortgages (Ok, not that the last one).  Take any survey with young people and I doubt not that they want to fall in love with someone and share the rest of their life with someone, but the way they go about acheieving that leads them in the opposite direction.

The movie Twilight seems to steer clear of a lot of these perversions of what modern society says relationships ought to be.  Granted, I was told about how a youth pastor did not like the fact that Edward visited Bella late at night and they spent the night together even though nothing happened.  I would be convinced that sleep in the same bed with your girlfriend or boyfriend and not having sex is not a sin if I were 100% confident in human beings.  But lets face it, human beings are impressive at times, but their restraint on their lebedos is nothing short of “impotent.”  Sleeping together with someone who isn’t your wife or husband is NEVER a good idea if your are waiting until marriage to have sex.

Having said that, the most intimate moments of the movie are when Edward and Bella are simply talking to each other.  There is one moment when they are laying down in a field together and the only thing they are doing is looking at each.  You feel awkward at first but I think the awkwardness comes from the fact that we are not use to seeing people on the big screen admiring and finding intimacy with each other without the use of hands and sex organs.  Even in the scene where things could get out of hand, he pulls back and restrains himself for fear of hurting her.  They then spend the night talking and enjoying each other’s company without the cliches we see in movies you can only buy/rent at the Christian bookstore.  Now, I have seen people in relationships and the vibe I get from some of them is, “What can I get out of this relationship?”  “Where are my needs being fulfilled?”  But here you have a relationship where they fulfill each other’s needs in spite of what they want.  Girls and guys, do you hold any standards higher than yourselves?  Does he look out for your well-being even when you don’t want him to?  Does he abuse you?  Do you demean him?

I did some Wikipedia work on the author of Twilight and it turns out the author is a Mormon who does not believe that teeanagers should be reading material that has gratuitous alcohol, drugs and sex.  She wanted to focus on LOVE, not LUST.  Putting aside what you may feel about her spiritual background, one has to admire where she is coming from.  Edward’s attraction goes far beyond sexual fulfillment.  It reminds me of a scene in the movie Hannibal

(Fast forward to 2:47 if you don’t want to see the whole scene). 

Allegra DePazi: Dr. Fell, do you believe that a man can become so obsessed with a woman from a single encounter?”

Hannibal: “Could he daily feel a stab of hunger for her and find nourishment in the very sight of her? I think so. But would she see through the bars of his plight and ache for him?”

The sonnet in the Vita Nuova is referenced to in the movie with the name “Vide Cor Meum” since this refers to the Latin words in the prose introduction to the sonnet, which is also part of the Vita Nuova. In this introduction, Dante sets the time to be nine years after his first encounter with Beatrice. She appears to him again, dressed in white and with two other females and greets Dante with all her virtue. Enchanted by her sweetness and gentleness, Dante falls asleep and has a dream. In the dream he sees a mighty figure which says “Ego dominus tuus” (I’m your Lord). Beatrice is instead asleep in this figure’s arms. She brings in her arms what is recognizable as a heart and murmurs the words “Vide cor tuum” (Here’s your heart, where “Vide cor meum” means here’s my heart) while eating part of the heart. The two figures leave and Dante wakes up. He wants to tell what he has seen in the dream and writes the sonnet “A ciasun’alma presa”, the one read by Anthony Hopkins to Pazzi’s wife. Here’s the text:

A ciascun’alma presa, e gentil core,
nel cui cospetto ven lo dir presente,
in ciò che mi rescrivan suo parvente
salute in lor segnor, cioè Amore.
Già eran quasi che atterzate l’ore
del tempo che onne stella n’è lucente,
quando m’apparve Amor subitamente
cui essenza membrar mi dà orrore.
Allegro mi sembrava Amor tenendo
meo core in mano, e ne le braccia avea
madonna involta in un drappo dormendo.
Poi la svegliava, e d’esto core ardendo
lei paventosa umilmente pascea:
appresso gir lo ne vedea piangendo.

[Vita Nuova, chapter 3]

Here’s a free prose translation:
I write this piece of poetry for any soul taken by love and any noble heart,
so that they may write me back their opinion about it. I greets our lord, that is Love.
Love itself appeared suddenly to me when one third of the night had already passed.
If I think back about it I’m frightened.
Love seemed cheerful while bringing in its arms a sleeping woman wrapped in a cloth and in its hands my heart.
Love then woke her up and she ate this burning heart; it then went away crying.

As you may notice this sonnet may appear difficult and strange at first. It’s in fact full of symbols and fulfills the peculiar way of writing about love of the Stilnovo poetical movement. The idea is of an intellectual, erudite love, an absolute master understandable only by the ones who have a similar sensitivity and experience.  ( http://www.greatdante.net/hannibal.html )

Despite the fact that Hannibal is a cannibal, he talks about a deep spiritual and emotional love that goes far beyond carnality and far beyond fantasy.  He is talking about being nurtured by the very sight of someone and that intimacy is not always acheived through sex.  Dennis Miller was talking about spouses on one of his cd’s and he said that your spouse is someone you feel comfortable doing absolutely nothing with.  In other words, spending an evening on the couch talking is better than any dream date on the streets of Paris.

For the sake of disclosure, I am not downplaying the virtures and pleasures of sex.  In fact, I am upholding it and all its ecstasies in the confines of marriage.  I believe it is a personal goal to try, with your spouse, make the face of God blush.  I say that in the context that sex with your spouse, I am told, is one of the most powerful expressions of intimacy, love and yes, physical pleasure.  I believe God wants husbands and wives to have as much sex as possible.  And since God cannot physically blush and is not shock-able, it would seem that it would be a fun, adventurous and futile attempt in getting him to do so.

We have a story on our hands of young love that is white hot with passion but is also kept in check.  They yearn for each other physically which is both natural and spiritual, but they are not willing to go down that road without some major changes (witholding spoilers as I mostly know what happens next).  Christians have this image of sexless prudes which is undeserved because it is only the single followers of Christ that are sexless.  It’s not always fun that way but we know it is something that is meant for your wife or your husband.  I cannot fathom how much sex was going on in the Garden of Eden but from what God tells us about sex is it’s something you should partake in with your spouse and to do it as much as possible.

I guess I was moved by the romatic notion of coming across someone who is not like anyone else in the world.  She is someone that scares and moves you to the very depth of your soul.  She frustrates you because you cannot quite understand everything about her but you have to be near her for because world is lonely, dark and confusing.  She is worth protecting and fighting for and you do anything in and outside your power to protect her from danger.  The mere comparison of maidens and their knights in shining armor annoy you because of their shallowness when juxtaposed to your own discovery.  Maybe such love is rare for people to find but who knows, maybe it’s out there.

Are the Machines Taking Over?!?!

A couple of hundred fortnights ago, I heard someone try to wax philosophical by saying something to the effect, “… I think it’s sad that we rely on technology so much…”  If I remember correctly, the context of that towering force of intellectualism was the constant use of e-mails as oppose to phone calls and/or “analog” letters.  I do waver back and forth about technology and its role in our lives but, unless it’s a lonely Saturday night and I have some extra cash around, I don’t try to contort myself in uncomfortable positions in order to spend valuable brain power to make personal road blocks to the advancement of technology of that improves our lives.  I stand on the side of technology because look at where it has taken us from.  Back in the day, we were drinking out of a water supply that was also our sewer.  Back in the day, dying of Small Pox seemed like an unfortunate but albeit inevitable part of life.  Thank God for medicine!  Are we to wish our lives away and yearn for the days of old where we didn’t rely on insulin injections and latex gloves?  I tend to be annoyed when people try to build “elaborate” Parthenons of nuances about modern life.  These “witty” comments on modernity can do what war, erosion and vandalism did to the actual ruins in about 2 milliseconds with a little logic and common sense.

The human condition is naturally inclined towards new frontiers and the betterment of the quality (and sometimes quantity) of life.  We looked at where we are now and are not satisfied with the results we see.  “Man, my foot hurts!  What do I do?”  Guess what, Dr. Scholls makes a little gel device that you can put in your shoe to aid your arch.  “I do not want my students wasting so much paper and ruin the environment by turning in their term papers.”  Despite the hysteria of the global cooling/warming/climate change corporation (Wait, corporations are bad?!), we have this crazy thing called flash drives and e-mail.  “I am afraid to use maps while driving because the last time I did, I got into a fender bender.”  Solution: There are awesome little fairly priced screens that tell you where to go thus not endangering you or passengers.  “I wish we could do something about the malaria outbreaks in Africa.”  Well, we have this amazing solution that Africans want called DDT that kills mosquitos but the eviromentalists are afraid of what DDT might do to the birds (Wait, this is the regression of human survival).  “This is an unplanned pregnancy, what do I do?”  Unfortunately, there is a procedure called Federal/State Infanticide where… wait, this is another example of technology gone wrong.

The ironic part of this paper dilemma is that the very same people are worried about this pending onslaught of machines and technology are the people that are pretty steeped in it.  Just imagined some self-involved hipster at the closest Starbucks (or some local coffee house because of distaste of “corporations”) dueling mental mind squirmishes about the evils of modern technology and pecking the observations of the “war” on the keyboards of their IBook (Or if they really love/hate technology, the latest environmentally safe Mac Book Pro) while occasionally doing the sitting icky shuffle to avoid spilling their corporate fair trade coffee because they are constantly being interrupted by a text on their Black Berry or IPhone (Why people who do not make a living via e-mail need Black Berries still escapes me).  I will not not deny that drug addicts react positively to their moment of clarity between the higher conscious hacky- sack games, but they usually do not start preaching about the evils of addiction until they are a couple of years out of the forest.  This questioning of slavery towards technology was sincerely brought up in conversation and I offered my assistance as a tether to reality by sarcastically agreeing with the sentiment by telling a story about a fictional account where our forefathers once pondered the glory days where they did not rely on roofs so much.  A couple years back, a horrible heat wave struck the city of Chicago and many elderly people died because while it gets hot in Chicago, there is usually a insulated glass ceiling where the heat-buck stops and their air conditioners were not made to withstand such hell.  I do not have the moral authority to vocal what their exact last thoughts were but I am sure it was not, “I remember the days when we did not have to rely so heavily on air conditioners.”

Shall I be fair?  There is something to be said when technology, which is suppose to be submitted to OUR will, becomes the ruler of our lives and we all become slaves to it from time to time.    Here are some tea leaves you can read that will warn you if technology is beginning to take over your identity:

The World of War Craft elicits more emotion out of you than the World of Reality.

You can’t walk from your last class to your next class without almost being plowed by a car because you were listening to your IPOD.

You use the GPS in your car to go home.

You have a Second Life and little to no Real Life.

You have become a reverse senior citizen when you can operate anything digital but nothing analog.

You need three T.V shows to watch during the commercials of your intended T.V show.

You think microwaves are too slow.

You think 3G Networks are so yesterday.

If you have ever been moderately to severely sexually attracted to the latest in human robotics.

If your $300.00 + phone has never had a human voice digitally enter through its ear piece.

You constantly check your e-mail/Facebook/Sexual PredatorSpace…errr… MySpace/Twitter and you are not employed as a stock broker or by Mark Zuckerberg, Tom Anderson or Jack Dorsey.

There are technological abuses out in the world today because it is easier to let technology rule our lives rather than improve them.  I am guilty of the preference of sending digital words to someone rather than a voice and it is pretty sad.

When you boil it all down, I take the position that technology needs to be under our dominance and we need to utilitize it with moderation unless one is receiving dialysis; you need that advanced technology.  But what I am also against is the drudged up artificial indignation towards the behavior of human curiosity and advancement.  It is akin to a group of people setting up an Global Warming Concert that outputs tons of cabron emmisions while leaving a pile of trash in its aftermath.  Even the least technology savy amongst us are not as self-righteous as a Mac Book using/Iphone Talking/Twitter using, born-again anti-modernist.  Use technology with care but do not pretend you abhor modernity and all its little digital devices.

The Unavoidable War: War on Radical Islam, The Liberation of Iraq & Beyond

My first official post is on the subject of the aforementioned title with the intention of re-branding the clash of civilizations that was brought to our shores on September 11, 2001 but was largely ignored for the better part of 30 years.  I find it necessary to divide this complicated subject into two parts: Unavoidable War: War on Radical Islam, Iraq & Beyond and Christianity & War.  I chose this topic because it requires very few horses, if any, to drag me the discussion about the Modern Day Nazi Movement, its unholy agenda and what we must do to resist and defeat this unworthy adversary.  I also chose this topic because it has received the least amount of feedback in the past, so, like the endless Anti-Iraq/War/George W. Bush/ Pro-Che Hollywood movies, I will continue to iron out this topic while simultaneously failing to produce a dime at the box office (Or in my case readers).

Before September 11, 2001, I had an isolationist’s view towards the world when it came to the foreign policy of the United States.  I had zero interest in other countries’ affairs outside of humanitarian intervention.  If other countries wanted to self-mutilate and self-destruct, I was convinced that it was not in the best interest of the United States nor worth my energy to ponder on; *a view similar to Libertarians  drug legalization and drug users, minus the increased tax revenue.  Then 9/11 happened and my world shrank and the long ignored threat suddenly became real to me.  We had been attacked on our own soil and, unlike the “nobility” of the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, our citizens were the prime target.  People of all races and faiths were chosen, without their knowledge or consent, to take part in a war of two opposing civilizations.  Our country’s response was to clean out the swamps that produced these terrorists and we (the United States) decided that the first battle in this war was in Afghanistan.  Though this country had not officially attacked us, Al Qaeda, its guests, were under the protection of the Afghan government.  We ended up liberating an entire country where women could only show their faces if they thought corrosives were the best way to ex-foliate their faces.  Not only that, but it was forbidden for the women to be educated and men were not allowed to shave without suffering harsh consequences; *a duress that Joaquin Phoenix seems to think he’s under.  You know, to this day I am still waiting for the radical feminist of this country to release a statement of pride for the liberation of entire country of women without sullying it with diatribes like “Imperialism… Bush Lied Kids Died… Halliburton…” and any other recycled comedian’s Anti-Bush tired performances.  Most feminists believe sucking the brains out of unborn children is the epitome of a woman’s right where as I believe that women should NOT bear a striking resemblance to “Two- Face” Harvey Dent from the Dark Knight and they should have the opportunity at a decent education… I WIN!!!  Huh… I never thought I’d be more of a feminist than the worst of the worst of the worst 60’s generation’s bra- burning Marxist faction.

Then our country turned our attention towards Iraq and its future liberation from a tyrant and I was somewhat hesitant.  In the beginning, I was led to believe that Iraq was an imminent threat and that its possession of WMD’s was the final violation of international.  The following insurgence and the lack of WMD’s left me feeling somewhat betrayed and at this time (2004), I contemplated voting for Senator John Kerry but then I heard him wax this political philosophy and I reluctantly sprinted back to W.

Then I stumbled across an author named Christopher Hitchens who took my position on the Iraq War (And the War on Terror in general), turned it upside down and expanded it to new levels of thought.  For those of you who are not familiar with Christopher Hitchens, he is a best selling author, former Marxist, extreme Anti-Theist/Atheist, journalist and political commentator.  I found his reasoning for the war flawless despite my many disagreements with some of his works.  * Oddly enough, because of this I have more bi-partisan thought churning in my simple mind than the entire stimulus bill.

In order to express my full opinion on my position on the Iraq Intervention and the War on Islamic Terror, I defer to Christopher Hitchens in the following videos…

This particular video gives a quick lesson on Al Qaeda:

How this war will come upon us whether we fight it or not (some repeated material):

The most articulate reason for the war in Iraq: The Iraq Reason Part 1

The Iraq Reason Part 2

The reason I chose this person to project the Right and Moral reasons for the War is because I feel it is the most balanced.  I hope you will see that we indeed share some of the blame for Iraq’s problems but so does Iraq itself, which liberals should like because lamentation, over correction, extreme self-examination is their way to pretending to be both uniquely nuanced and flamboyantly humble when dealing with foreign policy and other cultures that aren’t American Anglo-Saxon (*And if liberals can fit southerners in the equation the better).  You will also notice that this war is indeed a part of a global war against an enemy that has targeted our way of life and will not seem to be satisfied until ALL of its demands are met.  I find that while I don’t worship Western culture like the Jihadist worship their own culture of death, I have yet to find another culture that I am utterly impressed with nor am I likely to find such a culture on the secular level, which I will go into detail the next “breathtaking” post…

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