Fallible Religions

Last weekend I was enjoying a few drinks with three friends discussing social, political and economic issues. We found ourselves in agreement on most issues brought to the table until we reached religion. One of my friends took the helm of the religious ship and started steering, one person always tries to do that. After a few hundreds jabs, arguments and opinions and just when Captain God has ran out of answers on why religion is absolutely ridiculous, he pulled out his ace in the hole and made on final attempt at winning the battle by saying "You cannot judge a certain religion by its followers, in most cases, they were not what was intended."

After that blow, I resigned the conversation, not because I did not have an answer to that but because the conversation just took a philosophical turn that would ignite a whole new topic that would prove my money on drinks that night to be a waste because it will surely leave me sober. So I decided to leave my answer for Fearful Thought:

You absolutely can judge a religion by its followers, because gods by definition are self-proclaimed infallible. If a god is infallible, that means she built her religion for every person of every era. If that is true then surely god would account for human behavior and how humans would respond to the message of that particular religion. If followers of a certain religion are not correctly abiding the rules of said religion then that can only be explained by the shortcomings of that religion [and its god] to correctly predict human behavior and build its message around that.

Divided Nations

World Peace: That was one of the stated aims of the United Nations when it formed in 1945 following one of the bloodiest wars in human history. Almost 65 years later, I revisited this doctrine and examined it a bit further and this is what I found.

The United Nations is nothing but a public relations tool that is used by world powers to put a diplomatic face on their controversial policies and to protect their allies regardless of their innocence.

I know this sounds like a harsh conclusion but here is why the U.N. is a failed organization:

- Since Iran is one of the few remaining allies to Russia in the middle East and one of Russia's biggest weapons purchaser, Russia is very much invested in Iran and its welfare. That is precisely why every time the United States and leading European countries attempt to sanction Iran for its (clearly not) peaceful and civilian nuclear program, Russia comes in and preaches patience and diplomacy. Russia's plea is more like an order because Russia is one of the 5 permanent members of the Security Counsel at the United Nations which gives them the right to "VETO" any action taken by the counsel. That also explains why Russia was not sanctioned, or in any way criticized by the United Nations Security Counsel for invading and destroying the much smaller country of Georgia a year ago.

- Another member of the permanent Security Counsel is China, which also takes full advantage of the "VETO" card in defending North Korea. North Korea is one of the most "openly" hostile dictatorships in the world that publicly announces its warlike mindset and military intentions on a daily basis but fortunately for them, they have a good neighbor in China who threatens to veto every action the Security Counsel attempts to order against North Korea.

- A third example is in 2003 France's Jacques Chirac threatened to veto any resolution that might lead to war against Iraq. France is also a "VETO" holding permanent member of the Security Counsel and at the time, French oil companies held lucrative contracts to Iraqi oil that would be voided once there is a regime change due to a war waged by the United States and allies.

- The final two permanent members of the United Nations Security Counsel with "VETO" powers are the United States and the United Kingdom who wage wars without consequences like the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and block any resolution against their allies, mainly Israel. The United States has issued almost a dozen vetoes to protect Israel from any resolutions by the Security Counsel.

This does not feel like what was intended to be when the Security Counsel was first formed, especially when there are other countries who are bullied by the United Nations simply because they don't have a powerful friend. I think it is time for new members, preferably ones who do not have so much invested in ongoing crises worldwide.

The Just-In-Casers

Religious people do not bother me, I do not hate them or insult them because I pity them. What I do not pity, do not tolerate and absolutely despise are the just-in-casers. Those are the people that are not quite sure there is a God, let alone which religion is correct, but they still go through the religious routine just in case it is right. Here is why these people are in a lose-lose situation.

Let's assume for a second that God does exist and in the end we all will be judged on whether we believed and worshiped him. Religious people will be rewarded and atheists will be burned, but what will happen to the just-in-casers? If God does exist (like he is described by major religions) then he is all knowing and all powerful and if he is all knowing and all powerful, don't you think he will know that these people didn't really quite believe in him or his prophets but just playing it safe, especially when I (a lowly human) can find that out from them after a two minute conversation?

Now imagine that God doesn't exist and upon death we all become nothing but ant food, what then? Well Religious people would have wasted a perfectly good life on worship of an imaginary creature and atheists would have enjoyed (loosely) their lives without the burden of worship, but where does that leave the just-in-casers? The just-in-casers, by definition, go through the religious routines like every religious person, which lands them the short end of the stick, AGAIN!

Moral of the story: take a side. If you keep calling life's little bets, they will add up and clean you out so either go all-in or fold.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

I am sure Einstein razed a few eyebrows when he said that, but man was he right. I want to share a little story about stupidity. Last weekend I was at a friend's house watching football, enjoying a few beers, discussing sports, all is well. Then the conversation switched to politics, and stupidity unveiled its ugly head. My friend said "Oh don't get me started about Obama, apparently we are a Muslim nation now!" I turned my head and asked "How so?" He responded, "He said that in his speech in Iraq."

First of all, the speech he was referring to was in Turkey and the statement he is referring to is this:

"we have a very large Christian population -- we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."

Now, I will not explain further on why my friend is stupid, because he is. Either he actually listened to the speech, in that case I need to call his former University and ask them to revoke his Bachelors degree because the man needs a few more English classes. The alternative is that he did not listen to the speech, in which case I wish they gave out common sense degrees to revoke his.

Had he heard it from someone, I am sure he heard this from his parents, his neighbors, his friends or maybe even uncle Rush but if he believed it without further investigation, Ladies and Gentlemen I give you stupidity.

Afghanistan: Where soldiers go to die

Don't get me wrong, the United States of America can win the war in Afghanistan in a matter of hours if they wanted, "nuke 'em." If you are willing to kill every single Afghan, then time to go home. If you are not ready to do that, then .... it is time to go home.

It is a very simple concept: Afghanistan is a country that cannot be conquered. The Russians tried before (and they are much closer geographically than we are) and failed. You cannot conquer the people's hearts, not when their hearts believe you are an infidel that will burn in hell no matter what you do. America has done many things for Alqaeda and the Taliban to use in recruiting new fighters, and if America tries to take those fighters out, those fighters' family member will become fighters. You can never beat an enemy that is willing (and prefers) to die.

Sending more troops into Afghanistan is as worthless as putting gas into a leaky tank, but we keep ignoring that fact and hope that one of those "strategies" will work. Before sending anymore 18 year old high school graduates to die, we have to decide on the ultimate goal in this war: Capturing Bin Laden? Killing all Alqaeda members? Killing all Taliban members? Killing all extremists? That last one coincides with wiping out most of the population. Lets not forget that this is a country where children played with Osama Bin Laden action figures.

Killing Bin Laden will do more harm than good (if he is still alive). Imagine the "revenge" pamphlets that will flood the streets of Afghanistan. Not to mention, Bin Laden is so old that he might die of natural causes any minute now, killing him will only allow the next murderer in line to take his place. Whoever that person maybe, however different they are from Bin Laden, the one thing that they have to stay constant with Osama on: Killing Americans.

Outside of the goal of getting Bin Laden, nothing else could be done. We cannot take down Alqaeda, the Taliban or the extremists because we are just starting to recognize that they are all the same. No matter how many tribes we try to bribe to help us, we cannot change the mindset of these people, we cannot make them think like we do. This is one leaky tank that cannot be fixed.

I criticize because I care

In many of my blogs this year, I have criticized America and Americans. In many instances I argued that as a country we are doing many things wrong and as a culture we are not what we intended to be. Although I am not refuting or regretting anything I said (I still mean every word), I do believe that I have to set the record straight. I would not rather live anywhere in the world outside of the U.S.

Throughout all of our imperfections as a country and a society, we are perfect.

If you think racism is a problem in the U.S. you should really travel abroad and see how racism in other countries mean mass slaughters and not employee preference. If you think poverty is an issue, you should see the MILLIONS of people that die from hunger in almost every country below the equator. If you think Imperialism is bad, given a chance, every other country in the world would do what we do or worse. You think religion plays too big of a part in government, know that there are places where religion is the government.

No matter what a person brings to the table to criticize this country or its people, one cannot ignore that America is unique in how it always evolves for the best. In no other country in the world, a president is elected from the minority group that couldn't eat at the same restaurant as the majority group 40 years ago. In no other country a person can make themselves rich from nothing by working hard. In no other country I would rather live but here.

Having said all that, we cannot bask in our own greatness and brag about our accomplishments from yesterday, because we need to do something today to brag about tomorrow.

isms...

Today we will discuss why all isms are bad. Every time people cling to an ism, they worship it. Society needs to have more room to develop and evolve (the kind of evolution that even religious people believe in). Once a people start believing in an ism there is no more room to operate, there is no more room for improvement.

I am here to argue that there are NO good isms, not even the good ones.

I could take easy street and throw out obvious bad isms like Extremism, Fascism, Racism, Sexism, Nazism, but I will take the high road and introduce the bad side to a not-so-bad isms.

One example is Capitalism. While we can all agree that Socialism and Communism have failed, we should not celebrate that by clinging on to Capitalism. We saw the ugly side of Capitalism during this year's great depression (which people still labeled as a recession). Every issue we had during the economic downturn could be directly blamed on Capitalism, wall-street greed. Sure it didn't help that we waged two major wars at the time, but that would paint the ugly side of the next ism, Nationalism.

Without Nationalism and the sudden euphoria of Patriotism that fell upon every American after 9/11, Bush would not have dared to bypass congress and line up wars like his College cocaine habit. But we as people fell into the trap again and dazed into the beautiful idea of Nationalism and Patriotism and gave away all of our freedoms in return.

So the next time a great idea comes, please do not make it into an ism, because one day you might want to sit down and improve it.

Two Edged Sword

How should I mourn Michael Jackson? Well lets assume for a second that he is guilty by the following: The number of allegations against Michael Jackson, the response he delivered and the extreme lifestyle he appeared to live, point to one direction, MJ is guilty of being a child molester.

It might sound unfair to judge a person when there has been absolutely no conviction from neither the criminal nor the civic court regarding these allegations, but it is not. In my last blog I used the saying that seems most fitting here: "wherever there is smoke, there is fire." To mourn a man that performed such perverted acts would be almost as horrendous as those acts themselves.

Now lets assume for a second that he is innocent. How could I let one of the greatest artists ever vanish without the proper respect that he deserves? Like his music or not, MJ was a pioneer and an ambassador of his art to the world. Therein lies my dilemma, what am I to do?

Circular Reasoning

In today's blog I will prove that there is no evidence showing the Islamic Holy Book "The Qur'an" as the word of God. In doing so, I will disprove a few myths about the Qur'an that Muslims, often use to glorify the book as being too good to have been created by man. Please keep the hate messages tasteful and to a minimum.

The first "evidence" that Muslims point to when proving the Qur'an is the word of God is the poetic nature of the book. The Qur'an goes beyond a collection of poems which has fundamentally defined the literature of the Arabic language (famous for its poetry). That is precisely why when reading the Qur'an people usually tend to do it in a rhythmic voice. Muslims of today's era cannot help but tear up whenever they hear the truly seductive words from that book and wonder how can a man ever write such beautiful words? The answer to that question is fairly simple: a man can write such beautiful poetry because men of that age did speak in that matter regularly. They did not consider this type of literature rare and glorious but normal chit chat language they use everyday, so it is not beyond comprehension that a well versed man could have written this.

Another point Muslims usually bring up is that Mohammed was an illiterate, so how can an illiterate man write one of the most amazing pieces of art? I will answer this by proposing:

At the age of 25, Mohammed married the older Khadijah, who was a very successful merchant business woman. Mohammed in turn worked with her by traveling the world. It was either by that or living in Mecca, which was a holy place before Islam (since Abraham built the Kaaba), Mohammed has most likely learned to read and write and obtained a copy of other man-made-up books, the Old and New Testaments, which explains why a lot of the biblical stories from those books match the stories from the Qur'an.

Finally, Muslims always claim the Qur'an is perfect and was never altered in anyway. They claim that God spoke those words to Mohammed, through the angel Gabriel, then Mohammed memorized them until he spoke them to his friends, relatives and followers who in turn memorized some, and wrote some on animal skin. Finally about a dozen years after Mohammed died, those people who memorized and wrote those words were asked to bring them forward to put everything in a book. After they put everything in that book, they made a bunch of copies and sent them all over the world to avoid alteration. By the way, the Arabic language (at that point) did not have dots or light vowels. In Arabic and specifically in the Qur'an there are words, phrases and even sentences that would have completely different meaning if you change one light vowel or dot, let alone all of them. The language did not acquire such features until about 200 years later.

Yet Muslims continue to claim the accuracy of the Qur'an and when presented with the above argument, they respond by saying that God said IN THE QUR'AN that he sent us the Qur'an and he will protect it from evil doers. That is what you call circular reasoning.

Wherever there is smoke...

Who makes your decisions for you? TV? Radio? Google? The Pope? Your family and friends? Your Priest? A 20 something blogger who knows HTML?

Believe it or not but most people surrender their free will and decision of every aspect of their lives to one or more of the above. People are running around arguing, passionately, an issue that they themselves know little about, but they are convinced on the issue because someone convinced them with emotion and not with facts. When you are attending a Sunday sermon, you never hear the priest outlining his deductive reasoning steps into why Gays are an abomination or why Darwin was the devil in disguise, but you will hear him say it with emotion.

A person is usually smart, but people are gullible. I have heard people debate a side of an issue that when asked about it, knew little details about the issue itself. A good example is the infamous lady who stood up at a McCain rally and told McCain that she knew Obama was a Muslim, an Arab. What is more shocking is McCain's response "No ma'am he is a good man." McCain's answer aside, why did that woman think that Obama was a secret Arab Muslim? Because she surrendered her free will and decision making to the first pamphlet she read about Obama and it just happens to be one of those pamphlets that had Obama wearing an outfit like the one Bin Laden always wears on TV.

So, if you ask "If I can't trust the Church, the media or Rush Limbaugh, how do I get my information then?" The answer is very simple, use your brain. If you listen to the same story on FOXNEWS and MSNBC, chances are you will hear completely different versions of the story and chances are they are both biased to a disturbing level. But if you accumulate as many facts as possible about the story from those two sources and maybe a few more, you should be able to conclude something that is close to resembling the truth, a lot closer than any news outlet. There are only two rules to follow whilst doing this: your enemy on any issue feels just as justified as you, and chances are he is and wherever there is smoke, there is fire.

Freedom Not Welcomed In France?

This week french president Nicolas Sarkozy announced that "the burka is not welcomed in France." Also this week, french Law Makers announced that they are considering whether the burka threatens the country secularism. The burka is what some Muslim women wear to cover their hair and sometimes their face. Granted my personal beliefs dictate that wearing the burka is demeaning to both men and women and is a symbol of nothing short of ignorance but I also believe that every person who believes in a religion needs therapy.

It should not be up to us to dictate the dress attire of anyone as long as they are not harming others. If a woman chooses (and I use that word very loosely knowing the dynamic of some Muslim households) to wear a burka, then she should have the absolute right to do so. You cannot be a free country and demand women to dress a certain way. A secular country separates religion from the government, but does not dictate the absence of religion from the people. If a government decides to enforce such law, it will tread a very slippery slope. Where does it stop?

Are you going to ask Jews not to wear yamakas? Are you going to ask Christians not to wear crosses? How about the Star of David? A big red Santa Claus hat?

I am not a defender of any religion, especially one that asks its women to cover their faces, but what I do defend against is: Hypocrisy. You cannot ask the people to follow inconsistent rules and more importantly, you cannot ask the people to follow a dress code. There is a term for that, it is called: Fascism.

Why I Stopped Watching Bill Maher

For years now I have watched and admired Bill Maher. Although his ability to present a joke is not the best, his material was superb. Nothing funnier than a joke that blames everything on religion (sad but true). I watched his recent movie, "Religulous" with a big smile on my face, ear-to-ear. His idea about how we claim that we are the best people in the world when we have not proven it resonates greatly with me. His famous claim that they don't hate us for our freedom but they hate us because our armies are in their countries and our oil companies are running the show cannot be more true. I could keep going on and on about how much my moral beliefs aligned with those of Maher but this would be a lot longer than a one page blog.

Recently I was alerted to one disturbing fact about Bill Maher, his Jewish bias. On many occasions Bill Maher has stated over and over that he is a big supporter of Israel and in fact Judaism nearly escaped his comedy in "Religilous." I have no problem with Israel supporters, what I do not approve of is a self-proclaimed atheist who takes every chance available to mock religion but praises and supports a country built on religion. Israel is not just a country for Jews, it is a Jewish country based on Jewish law. How can you mock Evangelicals for their magic underwear belief but turn around and praise an entire country that does not have an official map because the Torah says that its map is from the Niles river to the Euphrates river (that spans four other sovereign nations -Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq-).

I do not have a doubt in my mind that Bill Maher is an intelligent atheist. I do not think that he is a secret Mosad spy trying to brain wash us nor a closet Jew, but I think that he is clinging (maybe subconsciously) to his mother's religion or maybe just a little more acceptance to Israel because of its similarities to us. Sadly that is one form of belief Bill Maher is not free of yet.

To Queen And Country

I am sick and tired of an example after example of how the entire world is surpassing us in everything that makes us us. Fresh off the Iranian example yesterday where democracy (or at least the illusion of democracy) seems to have prevailed when Ahmadinejad's opponents succeeded in getting votes recounted. Another example of our never ending backwards journey is the UK. Britain has started an investigative probe in its involvement in the Iraq war. Mind you that is a war that they did us a favor by participating in, we were the ones who orchestrated it.

Not denying the British people the right to point the finger at their politicians who went along with Dubya's war but where is our investigative probe?

This is not the first time that I have called for an administration wide investigation into many things that took place during the Bush years including the Iraq war and I was criticized for it in the past. I was thought of as naive and unrealistic. I was told that something like this can never happen, well the British are doing it, why can't we?

Let me be perfectly clear, so I don't get all the hate messages from people who do not pay attention to details: I truly believe that Saddam Hussein was an evil tyrant. I truly believe that the Iraqi people are better off without him. I truly believe that Saddam was not even in the top five reasons why Bush decided to invade Iraq (top five however include the infamous three letter word). I truly believe that we could have helped the Iraqi people rid of Saddam in countless different ways that would not yield the 700,000-1,000,00 Iraqi civilian casualty or the 5000+ American soldier casualty, not to mention the Billions of dollars spent. Last fall, Exxon Mobile announced the biggest profitable quarter in the company's (or any company's) history, while most industries in the world were trying to avoid bankruptcy.

Unexpected Lesson

Days after the end of the Iranian elections and after re-elected president Ahmadinejad claimed victory, Iranians took to the street protesting the elections. Many claim that this election was rigged to the benefit of Ahmadinejad against his contender (the more moderate) Hussein Moussavi. Now due to this objection by the Iranian people, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Alkhamenei (sort of like the queen of England) called for an inquiry into this election.

It is not clear what would be changed (if anything) due to this inquiry, but what is clear is the unexpected lesson. Through our American goggles, we view this country as one that is full of people who hate democracy, freedom and justice. Well now, that same country has just out-freedomed us. It is the opinion of most Americans that we have the best democratic free political structure in the world. It is also the opinion of most Americans that Iran is not free nor democratic.

What happened this week should reshuffle ideas and change minds. When we had a controversial elections (to say the least) in 2000, most people were of the opinion off, lets just decide and get it over with. Most people did not care that the president-elect just controversially won because of a state that is governed by his own brother while producing unrealistic results from many counties in that state. On the other hand, no such thing happened in Iran, the only hint of corruption is solely based on the skeptics claiming it is, yet people are storming the streets of Tehran demanding an inquiry into this result.

I am not claiming that there was no foul play in this Iranian elections, chances are there was, but I am asserting that with the least bit of evidence of someone taking the final say away from the Iranian people, made them crazy, just like it should have done to us.

Obama Brings Something New: Common Ground

I watched the much anticipated speech by President Obama from Cairo and read the transcript a few times to get a grasp of how surreal this feels. 8 years removed from one of the biggest roadblocks in Muslim-American relationship, Obama stood in front of thousands of Arab Muslims pleading common ground and moderation. He was firm about terrorism, extremism and America's support of Israel, but at the same time he was accepting of all religions and all people if they desire to live in peace with their neighbors.

It has been a few weeks since the speech, so gaging the effects is difficult but I can't help but see that since then two events happened in the Muslim world that make me smile. The first event is that Afghani and Pakistani villagers are voluntarily fighting the Taliban for the first time in a long time. The second event is that Ahmadinejad might lose his presidency to a more moderate candidate during the current elections due to record numbers of moderate Iranians coming out to vote.

This blogger is not trying to tie the events with the speech but he can't help but enjoy days where the President of the United States is not dodging shoes during a speech at an Arab capital.

Another beautiful thing to see is that now a days both Conservatives and Liberals are not too happy with Obama, which means he is doing a great job because most of us are neither conservative nor liberal. Most of us are moderate. Most of us are conservative in some issues and liberal in others. I heard a quote once that stated: "You know it is a good deal, when both parties leave the negotiation tables unhappy."

The Nazi Administration

Yesterday, John Demjanjuk (born Ivon Demjanjuk) was deported back to Germany for being a suspected Nazi responsible for the deaths of 29,000 Jews while working as a guard in a Death Camp in Poland during WWII. If he is convicted then Justice would be served in a better late than never fashion. I would like to take this opportunity to report a few people who are also responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent civilians: The Bush Administration.

As a quick CAVEAT, I am not belittling the Holocaust or its significance, I however, am using the Holocaust to raise the significance of my accusation of the Bush administration. I truly believe that you deserve every punishment if you are responsible for the death of one innocent person, let alone 29,000. That is specifically why I am taking the time today to accuse the Bush Administration.

I am using the term, the Bush Administration vaguely because I believe there should a formal investigation that should charge who ever is implicated in committing any type of crime the last 8 years.  The investigation should include the Bush Administration's incompetence during the Catrina days, torture and false imprisonment of  thousands of people (they were imprisoned and later exonerated by the Bush Administration) and finally the death of over 1,000,000 Iraqi civilians during the last 6 years not to mention the 5,000 American soldiers who died needlessly in that span.

The question of whether we were just to invade Iraq is not a partisan trick to blame the Republicans, but a valid question that has far greater implications now more than ever. To establish that there was no WMDs in Iraq prior to invading it, is to blame the death of these innocent civilians on the Bush Administration (even those killed by suicide bombers). It is a fact that during the last 30 years (prior to the war in 2003), absolutely no suicide bombings took place in the entire country of Iraq.

Cruel and Unusual Freedom

About a week ago, the White House released those secret memos that pretty much declares America has been torturing people for years now. A few people were against the Obama administration releasing those for security reasons and a few people were outraged over why those people who are responsible for the memos and the torture are not in jail? But the most interesting part of the story came later.  

First Obama declared that he will not prosecute those responsible so America can move forward, then in response to human right groups furious over that statement, he retracted by saying, it is all up to AG Holder.  Granted that is a pretty big flip flop but still the climax is yet to come.  

Fox News held specials trying to explain how putting a man in an extremely small space with insects or simulating drowning by waterboarding is not torture.  

The American public did nothing.

I did not see demonstrations in the streets, I did not see petitions to hold those responsible accountable, I did not see people condemning this self-defined act of torture. 

The fact of the matter is until we speak out (pretty loudly) against what happened, apologize and put rules in place to make sure that the next nut job president will not do the same thing, we have to rid ourselves of the phrase "the greatest country in the world." We have to stop calling ourselves "the land of the free and the home of the brave." We have to admit that we are as human and imperfect as any other nation on Earth and we are not special.

If you do believe that what we did is torture, then you need to ensure the greatness of your country by speaking out against it, but if you do not believe what we did was torture then you need to write a little apology letter to the families of those Japanese soldiers who waterboarded our soldiers (fearing a nuclear attack which did come) then were hanged by us for torture. Let's see Fox News twist this.

Nostradamus, Mayans: What do they know? Part III

In the third and final chapter of this three-part series to discuss the possibility of the end of the world within a decade or two, we will cover mother nature. At the risk of sounding like a nut job liberal who is spreading democratic agenda and lies, I will assume everyone reading this blog believes in Global Climate Change formerly known as Global Warming. If you do not believe in Global Climate Change, I could spend some time explaining how historical trends have been towards warmer temperature, how carbon dioxide is increasing sporadically in the atmosphere as well as methane, how extreme weather has been the norm during the last twenty years, how glaciers are disappearing faster than Madoff's money, how the arctic and antarctic sea ice are melting, or how we can finally see Greenland's coastline because its ice sheet is melting but it wouldn't matter.

It is wild how balanced our environment is and how anything changed could throw everything off its normal track. A small increase in average temperature or a small increase in the salt level in the oceans could literally mean the end of life as we know it.  We cannot view Katrina as God's way of punishing the sinners in New Orleans. We cannot turn away as tens of thousands die each year because of storms, tornadoes, tsunamis and hurricanes. We need to realize the severity of our passiveness.

Let us discuss how global warming could be catastrophic. Firstly, the miles of ice sheets and glaciers that are melting each year. Those miles of ice would raise sea levels to extraordinary heights, California, Louisiana, Florida, the Eastern Seacoast, Japan, and many islands all over the world would be under water. Not to mention other effects like seawater intrusion and lost wetland.

Another tool in mother nature's toolbox of destruction when talking about global climate change is the rising temperature's effect on extreme weather. As temperature of the oceans rise, hurricanes become more and more frequent and extreme. Droughts and wild fire will increase in staggering numbers along with killer heatwaves.

Last but definitely not least is carbon dioxide.  According to study done at Mauna Loa, Hawaii the concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere has risen 25% in the last 40 years. That number would not be as alarming if it wasn't for a compound that is toxic to the human heart. How about the increasing proportions of the extremely flammable chemical, methane? 

The over-whelming majority of scientists across the world are warning of Global Climate Change, but what do they know?

Nostradamus, Mayans: What do they know? Part II

Yesterday we discussed prophecies by Nostradamus and the Mayans (and many more) regarding the end of the world on December 21st, 2012. While I absolutely do not believe in prophecies or the supernatural, this gives us a good opportunity to talk about the direction of our planet.  I made the claim that the world ending within four years is not impossible and I began making my case.  I started by describing the many possibilities through which the world could face extinction as a product of nuclear war by discussing specific scenarios that are not far fetched.  Today I will discuss starvation or as Nostradamus likes to refer to it: Famine.

We might not know it or notice it but close to 5 Million people die of starvation each year ( that is more than half the population of New York). Famine has been a big part of every society of every era, so why does it pose a global threat now? 

The first issue that makes starvation a bigger deal now than it ever was is the ever-increasing population of the world. The world's population is increasing in staggering numbers and soon enough the bubble will burst and the massive crises will reveal itself to those who are unaware.  The other problem with the world's population is that the increse is usually occuring in countries where the standard of living is below average.  

The second issue is corn which has always been a big part of the world's diet.  Corn is now converted to ethanol fuel which means less of it will be available as food. That is obvious because any battle between the starving Haitian villagers who are forced to eat mud pie (not kidding) and gas for your SUV, you will win.

It is very simple! People will show mercy, compassion and good morals but in the end when there is one piece of bread that is enough for one person and many people are eyeing it, you will make sure that you will be the one that is eating it.

Nostradamus, Mayans: What do they know? Part I

The world will END on December 21st, 2012, at least that is what many prophets have predicted.  Nostradamus wrote about it in his quatrains and the Mayans predicted it before their extremely mysterious disappearance. Along with those two sources, Bible Code researchers as well as historians and archaeologists of ancient Egypt and many other civilizations say that this date is when the world is going to end. At any other period in history if someone would have told you that the world will end in less than four years, you would probably laugh.  That is why I am laughing, but only at the notion that the world might survive another four years.

Fine! So four years might be a bit pessimistic but not as much as you would like to believe, and here is my case:

The first logical choice to cling to is war.  Some might say that the world has survived much harsher conditions and number of deaths during the two world wars, the crusades, etc and they would be right, but none of the participants in those wars possessed weapons like TODAY's nuclear bomb. I know that the U.S. had an A-Bomb and used it in WWII but imagine if Japan also had one then, enough said? A nuclear war between any two nuclear nations would undoubtedly scar the planet beyond repair but the good thing is that it is extremely hard to start a nuclear war.  Unless one of the sides had a lunatic leader like our former president or many of the Russian generals that still think it is the early eighties.  How about something as small as a computer error which launches a nuclear weapon by accident.  

Let me give you a scenario which is not that far from reality. Iran will posses a nuclear weapon sometime in this decade.  Israel and Iran are religious based governments, by definition they are dubbed lunatics. As crazy as some of the U.S. and Russian leaders are, religion isn't a big part when it comes to decision making in those countries, at least not as big as Iran and Israel. If Israel and Iran go at it, Israel would undoubtedly vanish from the planet (because it is only two cities) and Iran would probably go back the stone age, not to mention the countries that surround those two, but that is not the worst part.  The worst part comes when Israel asks the United States for help and the U.S. jumps in and Russia definitely will try and protect its asset and investment in Iran, and there you have it.

Now substitute Israel and Iran with North Korea and another U.S. alley (like South Korea or Japan) and you will see extremely similar scenarios brewing on that end with China protecting North Korea. And the list goes on. It is no secret that we posses the power to end life on this planet, but people are always underestimating how close we are to actually achieving that goal at any given day.

Faith brings happiness

If you read this blog on a regular basis, chances are: you are not happy.  I say this because most religious people cannot stomach my blog for long, so if you follow my blog then you are probably non-religious.  If you are non-religious then you are probably miserable. The happiest, most satisfied people in this world are religious.  Why?

If you are religious, that means that you truly belief in a religion along with its answers about the universe.  To have faith in a particular religion, means to believe in the stories the religion tells you about the past, present and future.  All of your questions are answered.  How was the Earth created? How did the universe come about? Are we alone? What happens after we die? Is there a god? etc.

These questions keep non-religious people up at night. They are on their mind constantly. Since they do not believe a certain religion's interpretation or answers, non-religious people will never stop seeking answers to these questions. They will haunt them until they die, because there are NO acceptable scientific logical answers.  The only way to really know for sure is to die and see for yourself. You will either find yourself standing at the Pearly Gate or just become ant food when you are burried, or (HOPEFULLY) something else in between.

Round Winner: Iran

Regardless of your politics, regardless of your religion, nationality, background or beliefs, contemplate this with an open mind. The United States claims reason under the new administration. Obama has publicly contended that he will meet with Iran under no pre-conditions during his campaign and reiterated that during his speeches following the elections. Yet when the United Nations holds an "anti-racism conference" the U.S. boycotts it because of the presence of Iran's president Ahmadinejad.  This does not sound like the Obama administration we know, it sounds a lot like the former administration.  

The reason behind the boycott by the U.S. is really the reason behind the boycott by Israel.  This conference's agenda includes discussing the Israeli campaign against Gaza and the racism illustrated based on accounts by Israeli soldiers printed in an Israeli newspaper and also based on dozens of reports by humanitarian groups and red cross members who were not allowed into Gaza to help with the relief months after the Israeli offensive. So basically the few countries that have much at stake with Israel boycott the conference like the U.S., Germany and Poland but most countries stayed, listened and participated.  

Here is my issue with the actions of the United States: by doing what we did, we are giving Iran and Ahmadinejad more credibility than he deserves.  The worst thing the United States could have done (and we did) was not let our voice count. Whether you care or not, more and more nations now, know and understand the point view of Iran and are clueless to ours. If you are George Bush or Dick Cheney, that does not matter much to you, but if you are Barack Obama who claims that the United States NEEDS the world's respect and cooperation, then your previous action was the very definition of oxymoron.

Why do they hate us?

I was reading a CNN article today about an American travel author, Beth Whitman, in Veitnam who witnessed a bunch of young American boys horsing around in the streets of Veitnam, during which some of the boys' shirts were ripped off.  The writer claims that simple incidents like this is why there is this image of the "Ugly American."  She argued that those shirts were at least 20, 30 dollars and that amount was more than the average monthly salary of the people in Veitnam.  Later the article goes to argue that maybe America's failed dimplomacy with developing nations might contribute to this image.  I proclaim that none of this is true.  Not true in the sense that these are NOT major contributing factors to the ever-dwindling American image.  

It is not a mystery nor a paradox.  It is extremely simple if we remove our American goggle with which we view the world around us.  We are not hated because we do not help others, we are hated because we hurt others.  We have a stake in major policies all across the world.  We are heavily invovled in almost every nation that is currently suffering from war, poverty or starvation. Offcourse when I say us, I don't just mean the American government or poeple, I also mean American coorporations who mostly shape American policy.  We have started and funded almost every American foe at one point in history.  Saddam Hussein? We funded his party to overthrow the previous party, not to mention we were an extremely strong proponent of his 8-year war against Iran during which 2 million Iraqis and Iranis died.  Matter of fact, most of Iraq's arms were American donated from that war.  Iran? We funded them too.  Actually, we funded both sides of the war at one point, but mostly Saddam.  Bin Laden? Who do you think gave the Taliban and Alqaeda all the weapons and training that they have?  The United States were the number one supporter of those terrorists during the cold war, when Russia was fighting with them (watch Charlie Wilson's War). 

The list keeps going on and on of wars and revolutions we financed by money, weapons and/or soldiers.  So the next time you go back-packing through Europe, visit the Pyramids or The Great Wall of China, and you get the evil-eye from the locals, do not think that this is because of what you are wearing or how much you spent on your sun-glasses. To think that is just another example of why we are hated.

Futurama Religions

I was reading about religions of the ancient Sumerians, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks and Romans.  While it is very intriguing to compare those religions to modern-day religions (and by modern-day I mean Judaism, Christianity and Islam) the similarities are scary. Judaism is based on mythical characters like Moses who split the red sea to escape the Egyptians who were pretty much tortured by Moses (according to the Bible). The very idea of Judaism is to convince Jews that they are God's chosen people no matter what they do on Earth is intellectually insulting. The story of Jesus's birth and life is almost carbon copy of other kings, prophets and gods like the Hindu god Krishna who was also born of a virgin some 3000 years before Christ was born or Horus son of Isis (Egyptian Goddess) who was also a product of a virgin birth 500 years after Krishna's theology.  Similarities do not end with the virgin birth, where Horus and his father were often referred to interchangeably, he was of royal blood, he had twelve followers, crucified, buried for three days then resurrected.  Krishna's father was a carpenter, his birth was signaled by a star in the east and much more identical traits to those of Jesus. Not to mention other myths that have extreme similarities to Jesus like Mithra of Persia and Attis of Phrygia.  

Similarly, the third holy religion, Islam, does not offer anything new.  Almost all stories in the Qur'an are mentioned in the Bible.  Almost all practices and rules offered by Islam have been offered previously in almost every other religion in the past.  The only new thing Islam offers is the story of Muhammad and how he is the last prophet to this great list of some 44,000 Jewish prophets. That is extremely unfortunate to those who seek to start the fourth holy Monotheistic religion, because God says in the Qur'an that Muhammad is the last prophet he will send.

Which really brings me to the point I wanted to make: to believe in religion makes you ignorant.  To believe in religion is to announce to the world your lack of knowledge of historical facts and your lack of possession of deductive reasoning. It is no coincidence that the relationship between religion and education is inversely proportional, then again only educated people would know what that means.

Gentlemen O' Fortune

You have undoubtedly heard about the pirates that held an American ship captive along with its crew, who were later released with the exception of the captain.  As FBI negotiators are vying to get the captain back from the pirates' "life boat," where he is being held, many questions spring to mind, most important of all is: Are you kidding me?

Forget for a second that this sounds like a story best suited for Johnny Depp, the idea that the United States Navy and the FBI are trying to negotiate the release of an American captive held hostage on a freaking lifeboat by pirates is absolutely ridiculous.  So let me get this straight, we do not negotiate with terrorists but we do with pirates? Where do we draw the line? What if a pirate blows himself up, is he worth negotiating with? What about about a terrorist on a boat?

All of these questions are intriguing but perhaps what is most intriguing is the idea that this is happening.  What I mean is that if it was not for our "invade first, invade again, invade some more, and when everybody is dead, try to form relations through diplomacy, and if that does not work try to buy off the people who are trying to kill you" policy, we would not have half a million American soldiers scattered all over the world.  We have 50,000 soldiers in Germany for God's sake, because you never know when Hitler might be resurrected, or maybe those damn Swedes might start acting funny.  

To have that many soldiers all over the globe fighting one war or another, pirates will become more of a hassle than they should.  When a group of people less armed than your average American gang, give the most powerful nation that much headache, you start wondering that maybe you are spread too thin. Maybe, just maybe at the next opportunity, let Russia or China become the jerk who nobody likes. Who knows, you might like the idea of peace and perhaps even prevent the unnecessary death of a few thousand American soldiers.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

United States president Barack Obama just capped off an overseas trip in two predominately Muslim countries, Turkey and Iraq.  Although the visit to Iraq was unannounced and mostly for troop morale, his visit to Turkey was to make a statement.  In fact, he said that he planned this Turkey visit to be the last stop on his long journey to make a statement. His statement, as he explained it was to show the world the model of a relationship between two countries that bridge the gap between the East and the West.  The question that we find ourselves asking over and over again is: Why is it that no one is burning an American flag when Obama visit their country? Why is it that no one is burning effigies of Obama? Why is it that no one is throwing shoes at Obama?

Short answer is: RESPECT. Obama did not offend, insult or crucify an group of people except for those who mean harm to America. He extended an olive branch to almost all of America's enemies to come to the table and discuss issues and differences with respect. He didn't claim that God is talking to him and he didn't claim that he can see anybodies soul by looking through their eyes. Some people are calling what Obama is doing: Weakening America, I disagree. Because when you extend an olive branch to North Korea and they decline, you instantly get the global support Bush never had. To do the right thing, does not necessarily mean you will get the desired result but nevertheless, you have to do the right thing. 

Sure torturing an "enemy combatant" might get better results in the short run but you will alienate your country and people from the rest of the world as outcasts and war criminals in the long run.  What makes us great has never been reaching for what is easy but for what is right. We used to define our honor and dignity by whether we do the right thing, now we define the right thing by what we do.

Where do you get your morals from?

I was watching a clip from a CNN show from last year where they had on a Christian Reverend and an atheist woman debating the rights of atheists in America.  The atheist woman started speaking about how this country was founded on separation of Church and State and to have the word "God" on every bill and courthouse is unconstitutional. She did not speak out against religious peoples' rights to have those but for atheists' people right not to.

Off course when the Reverend started his argument, he began talking about morals and about why religion is good. He mentioned that it is ok to be an atheist, just do not try and change America. He later compared the atheist movement to the homosexual movement where they "imposed" their lifestyle on people. And then he proceeded by yelling out to her "where do you get your morals from? We get our morals from the Bible and God, where do you get your morals from?"

Right when the atheist woman was ready to answer the question, the clip ended.  I am not sure that she ever had the chance to answer him and with what, but allow me to take in that task in today's blog. I might not be a full-blown atheist but I definitely do NOT believe in ANY religion.  So where do I get my morals from?

Well, first off we have to define morals. If the question means to ask about morals like "Don't kill, Don't rape, Don't steal, Don't torture (except enemy combatants)" then the answer is simple: Laws. Most morals like the aforementioned and others are the same in every religion and every country.  Matter of fact, those "morals" have been around thousands of years before Jesus and the birth of Christianity in many cultures. 

However, if the good Reverend was referring to other "morals" like accepting Jesus Christ as your lord and savior, well those "morals" are unemployed in my book.  It is remarkable to say that America is a "Christian" or a "Religious" nation when only three of the ten commandments are laws (don't kill, don't steal, don't perjure yourself). Also when there is no evidence that our first president was anything but tolerant to all religions and atheists or our second president not believing in the divinity of Christ or our third president not believing Jesus Christ was a "the son of God" or "the promised Messiah."

You have to decide America, either we are wrong and the founding fathers and their beliefs are correct or they were wrong and George W. Bush is corr (my conscious does not permit me to finish this sentence).

Double 'O' 0111

Approximately 1300 computers in over 100 countries have been infected with a virus that makes it vulnerable to cyber attacks.  Those computers include in the offices of the Dali Lama (not sure why does Mr. Lama have offices), NATO offices, other government agencies. The center of this operation appears to be in China which is why most officials blame Beijing. Chinese analyst (offcourse) lined up for interviews denying this allegation and blaming the west for yet another try at ruining China's good name.

My deductive reasoning approach leads me to believe that most likely, China did plan this massive Cyber Espionage but lets examine the impact of this for a second shall we? This new form of James Bond/Michael Westin attack catapults the idea of cyber-spying into the realm of imagination. What movies like Hackers or The Net told us was possible using computers is finally coming to fruition or more accurately: finally known publicly.  I do not doubt that this kind of sophistication has existed for a long time now, but when was the last time you heard of anything with this magnitude and it did not turn out to be a vicious virus by some Romanian kid? 

This, if matured, would be another blow to the United States policy of building armies instead of students.  Research after research and study after study show that not only most of European countries and countries in Southeast Asia have much better education system than that of the U.S. but countries like South Korea, Argentina and South Africa are also coming up as also better. Other studies show countries with extreme poverty like India or countries with religious extremists for a government like Iran as having a better education system. Off course if you rank the top 10 High Schools and Universities in the world, most of the list would belong to the U.S. but on average, our education system has gone from bad to worst comparatively.

We have turned our focus from education, from science and from innovation and took a back seat in this technological roller coaster ride and gave way to countries like Japan, Korea, China, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Argentina, etc. We are not the country of Thomas Edison and Benjamin Franklin but we are the country of the Octa-Mom and Sarah Palin.

Another U.S. funded war?

The Mexican drug war that has been heating up the last couple of weeks and started to cause some concern that it might spill over the border into U.S. neighborhoods.  Instead of us sitting on our high horse claiming innocence and the need to protect our selves from those scary monsters and ruthless drug cartels, we need to confess.  The first thing we need to admit to is that we are no victims in this war but a causation. We allowed this war to start, funded it with money and guns and now we are scared because it is hitting too close to home, literally.

Mexicans are more of a victim in this billion dollar industry than us. We provide the demand. Economy 101, if there is so much demand, supply will pop up somewhere.  If the U.S. did not demand drugs at the tremendous amounts that we do, the cartels will go bankrupt in a week. We give the cartels reasons to exist, we support the cartels.

According to the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives 95%-100% of the cartel's guns is provided by us. We give (sell) them those guns fully knowing that these guns will be used in every other way but self defense. 

So lets recap, we give the motivation and provide the demand and finally supply them with weapons and now we wonder why has everything gone wrong? Our own Secretary of State claims that we should share the blame because we provided demand that is"insatiable."

Instead of focusing on solving the problem, being the lazy and stupid creatures that we are, Washington is focusing more on border protection. We can triple our border patrol and security but in the end, this is a dam that will eventually falter.  

Modern Day Crusaders

Last week two newspapers in Israel printed eye-witness accounts by Israeli soldiers of other Israeli soldiers abusing their power and targeting female, elder and young civilians in the Gaza offensive. Most of these accounts single out religious soldiers who acted as self-appointed holy warriors, only they were not self appointed.  Several testimonies by Israeli soldiers spoke of rabbis coming to the camps and handing out religious pamphlets and literature and portraying the Gaza offensive as a religious war.

One soldier was quoted "the rabbinate brought in a lot of booklets and articles and their message was very clear: We are the Jewish people, we came to this land by a miracle, God brought us back to this land and now we need to fight to expel the non-Jews who are interfering with our conquest of this holy land. This was the main message, and the whole sense many soldiers had in this operation was of a religious war."

It is amazing how this story was swept under the rug in most American media, in fact with the exception of Reuters News and the New York Times, this story never really saw the light of day. We cannot accuse our enemies of being religious crusaders when our former president was one and our number one ally in the world is doing the same thing. It is moments like these that are burned into the conscious of youths who grow up to hate America.  

No matter how many angles you try and view this issue from, the analysis always comes back the same. In fact, the analysis is almost always the same with every other major problem in this world. Religion kills! Religion might not mean it, but it gives an opportunity for people to be crazy.  Religious extremism comes in all shapes and sizes, you can see it in Afghanistan and Pakistan, you can see it in the Israelis and Palestinians, you can even see it in our religious extremists at home.

We point and laugh when we hear about a religious extremist in some foreign country doing some crazy thing and we call them primitive, even though the Mormon Church baptized Hitler and they believe that all men are created white but those who God has cursed, they are born black, but if they live a good life, they might turn back to white during their lifetime. Or our leaders in one of the two major political parties today, jumping at the opportunity to show their constituents that they do not believe in evolution.

The Audacity of Greed!

Today, more than a few dozens million Americans are unemployed, hundreds of thousands evicted from their homes, trillions of dollars lost in hundreds of industries, the entire world's economy is at the brink of complete failure; what a time for stealing. You would think that this kind of crises would increase awareness towards fraud and theft. You would think that this kind of crises would soften the conscious of thieves to understand the severity of their actions. You would be wrong. 

This economy and its inevitable road towards the abyss seems to bring out the worst in people.  And I am not referring to frauds like Madoff who break the law, I am referring to those that use loopholes in the law to do the same thing Madoff did, steal money. AIG has been the Guinea Pig in this public Inquisition but they are surely not alone.  From CEOs furnishing their offices with more than a million dollars after their company just begged congress for a bailout to AIG (who sought three different bailouts totaling almost 140 Billion dollars) which just paid its executives 165 Million dollars in bonuses.  

The minute this information went public, the public went insane. We could not believe that someone would have the audacity to do something this wrong. Lawmakers are furious not because they care, but because they have to echo their constituents' emotions, even though, those same lawmakers are the ones that handed AIG 140 Billion dollars with pretty much no strings attached. There comes a time when people have to stop trusting the system because of the many obvious things that are wrong with it.  There comes a time when people are fed up with the corruption.  There comes a time when the people who are the majority and the poor become sick of having the minority rich stealing from them and getting away with it. That time was about 2 years ago.

Sí, se puede

Yesterday Mauricio Funes of the F.M.L.N. party claimed victory in El Salvador's general elections by beating the right wing Arena party by a vote of 51%-48%.  F.M.L.N. waged civil war in the 1980s through gorilla warfare, but in 1992 in a peace pact they stopped the war and decided to change the system from within.  The last 4 elections they entered in, F.M.L.N. came up empty against the wealthy-supported Arena but not this year.  

Many doubt F.M.L.N.'s ability to lead a legitimate life by governing a nation fairly, some simply do not think that they are ready. The lesson here is not whether F.M.L.N. can succeed in delivering on their promises of change and unity but that they delivered on their promise of laying down their guns and changing the system in the ballots.

There goes another historic evidence of how brain always wins over brawn, because a gun might give you a temporary fix and relief, but your brain could solve all of your problems.  I am not defending F.M.L.N. or its party members but I am praising them in making that effort to change and change everyone else along with them. 

It is imperative that we understand that there is no militia, gorilla, insurgents or even terrorists that have no real cause or reason for their violence but there is never a good enough reason to kill innocent people.  I am sure F.M.L.N. faced opposition in its transition from an army to a party (perhaps from its own people) but it made the change nevertheless.  Make no mistake, this way is harder and lonelier and sometimes it even looks hopeless but it is the only way. All you got to do is take that first step and people will follow, if you do not believe me, ask those 51% El Salvadorians.

So Funny...It Was Sad!

Last night John Stewart had Jim Cramer on The Daily Show in a highly anticipated debate. It all started back last week when John did this piece on CNBC's incompetence and several obvious bad calls on a number of their shows. One of the clips John showed to illustrate how much CNBC does NOT know more than we do was a clip of Jim Cramer telling people not to sell Bear Stearns stock where the company collapsed only days later.

CNBC in general and Jim Cramer in particular took exception to this piece and defended their position with mainly two arguments. The first was that nobody could have seen this coming and every business analyst makes mistakes and the second was that John Stewart is a comedian and he has the advantage of never being criticized. Stewart replied with more embarrassing clips for the business news conglomerate and they responded with much of the same and that's how we got here.

The interview was much more sobering and serious than many have anticipated but then again if you know Stewart, you should have guessed it. Much like the "Stop hurting America" speech John laid on Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala on "Crossfire," John debating skills were clearly superior. If one was to summarize the debate, one could easily say that Cramer spent much of his time apologizing for his incompetence and Stewart spent much of his time pointing out Cramer's faults and mistakes.

Normally, I am not in favor of lynching and grandstanding but there was neither present at this interview. Stewart was harsh but he was fair. He pointed out Cramer's and CNBC mistakes and lack of responsibility in this great economic downward spiral and spoke for millions of Americans that do not have the opportunity to voice their opinions. Stewart accused Cramer and his station of playing to people's misconceptions and fantasies about the stock market and how they should have pointed out that real wealth is only sure through hard work and not swindling the market, to which Cramer replied “There is market for it and you give it to them,” to which Stewart replied  “There’s a market for cocaine and hookers!" Touche John, Touche.

A Country Ruined

During the aftermath of the 30 dead and 40 wounded in a bombing of a peace conference in Iraq yesterday, experts were warning of a new violence renewed. I started researching Iraq before the second gulf war and found out that during the 15 years before the 2003 war, there has been virtually no reported bombings by any group. Is it possible that we, Americans, have caused this to become a daily event in Iraq?

Lets review this chronologically, first the U.S. forces invade Iraq in 2003 and the Iraqi people rejoice and embrace the invasion for the most part. But how does the U.S. carry out the invasion? They deconstruct the entire Iraqi army and send all soldiers home, they bomb the infrastructure of the government and every ministry (except the Ministry of Oil) and oh yeah, they decide to stay for six or seven years. Those steps, slowly but surely, have turned the Iraqi people against the American army. At this point, Alqaeda terrorists who were coming in through Syria and Saudi Arabia and the Iranian influence from Iran were welcomed guests by the Iraqi people to help kick the Americans out.

Ironically, now when we have no real role in Iraq and turned everything over to the Iraqis, those thousands of terrorists that jumped the borders to attack us are finding new targets: Iraqis. When we speak of the violence in Iraq, we always talk of Sunnis and Shiites, but who are those factions and who is really causing the violence? Could it be the Sunni Alqaeda fighters from Saudi Arabia and Syria and the Shiite militants from Iran and not the actual Iraqis? Most experts in the area would tell you YES.

After 9/11 the question of "Why do terrorists hate us?" was frequently asked by everyone. Well take a gander at another example of how we turned another stable country into the wild wild west.

Lose-Lose War?

Obama is acting like he promised in his campaigns: working hard to end the war in Iraq but doubling down in Afghanistan. That move is really understandable since Osama Bin Laden and his terrorist organization live and are being protected by Afghanis. The only question is: who is going to benefit the most from this escalating war? Here are the candidates:

The best-case-scenario for the United States is for them to catch Bin Laden as soon as possible with the minimum number of casualties.  Even if that happens, some other extremist would take over the reigns and lead Alqaeda after Bin Laden and after the people in the area build up more hate for the U.S. and we are back to square -1.  The worst-case-scenario is that they do not accomplish much and string on this war for a long period of time that will exhaust the United State's resources in the region. Frankly, I do not see any possible outcome that would be good for the United States.

This is definitely not the best thing that could happen to Alqaeda but it is really not the worst. The cons are obvious, Alqaeda members will be hunted down and supplies will be raided and weapons will be confiscated, but the pros are much bigger.  The presence of the U.S. army in Afghanistan and their lack of knowledge of the religion and culture of the area would inevitably cause offense, disrespect and anger which in turn would magnify the hate Afghanis have for Americans.  Hate is the number one recruitment tool terrorist organization use which will make Alqaeda even bigger and stronger. 

As I have mentioned in an earlier blog, Russia has probably been the second biggest benefactor of Dubya after his oil buddies that became insanely wealthy off of him. There is a reason why Putin, in his last message to U.S. while president, offered us access to Afghanistan through Russian soil for non-military supplies. Russia will love nothing more than see the United States sink its teeth in another war that cannot be won. What Russia loves about this war is that the U.S. gets weaker by the minute in every aspect.  Second is that the United States is taking out the same people that they supplied against Russia during the cold war and finally because this war will keep the U.S. busy while Russia's power multiplies exponentially.

Anyway you view this war, the only loser will be us.  There is absolutely nothing that would happen which would make this war worth while. We will never change the ideas and culture of those who live in Afghanistan because their ideas and principles paint us as the evil empire and them as the weak and helpless victims. There is a reason why Pakistan (a Nuclear country) surrendered an entire region to Alqaeda, because they are as strong as the number of people in where they live. They usually say "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" well in this case it is "one man's terrorist is another country's freedom fighter."

Stop turning Lincoln in his grave!

The Republican party was once known as the smart party, the responsible party. Their agenda was based on Fiscal responsibility and small government. Walks in George W. Bush who virtually destroyed the global economy and let behind him the largest government in the history of the U.S. The Republican party used to be great once (last time was probably at the time of Lincoln) why can't it be that again. The answer is simple: Religion.

During the last quarter century, religion has grasped the party and it is not letting go. When we laughed at Bush when he said God wanted him to attack Iraq and cleanse the world of evil, most republicans said "Hallelujah." The problem with religion, any religion, is it brings out the worst in people, religion encourages the blind faith kind of thinking. If your god asks you to bow to him and serve him without any proof of his existence, why can't we agree with our president without any proof of him being right or sane for that matter.

Religion has always encouraged that way of thinking (see crusades, witch hunts, Spanish inquisition, terrorists, middle east, Jerusalem, etc). That is exactly why we see the faces of the Republican party become stupider and more ignorant. Living in that kind of environment encourages ignorance that is why Republican politicians race to prove themselves the most ignorant. Remember last year when asked about evolution in a Republican Debate, most of the standing candidates said that they do not believe in it. In comes Bush, Palin, Jindal, Limbaugh and if you think that these people are crazy stupid, you should not expect any better. Those people are nothing but a product of their environment. If people looked Bush in the face and called him crazy when he opened his mouth and never voted him for president or looked at Palin's shortcomings and pointed them out instead of rallying her like she was the pope, the Republicans would not present the next failed attempt at a new face in Bobby Jindal. Even if he was named after that character from the Brady Bunch.

Universal Health Care: Urban Legend?

The phrase "Universal Health Care" used to clear out a party faster than a 5-0 raid. People always associated it with Socialism and Communism, but now that we are buying our banks and nationalizing most infrastructure programs, "Universal Health Care" does not sound all that dangerous. With the economy dancing between the words "Depression" and "Suicidal" more people have moved towards the uninsured column than ever before. It has gotten so bad that our president who currently resides over a 65% approval rating is pushing for a quasi-Universal Health Care system. Sure his plan does not cover everyone but it is closer to universal than any of its predecessors.

When someone thinks of Universal Health Care, they immediately spring to mind long lines and incompetent care. Who wants another DNV to take care of them?

The longer someone looks at this, the longer they get a better idea of the argument. Expensive health care system is not the worst thing in the world because of its benefits. Because of expensive health care, our hospitals provide world class care using cutting edge methods and equipment that were available because of that much enlarged cash flow. This health care system has provided cures and treatments for diseases that we might have never thought possible with Universal Health Care. However, is that enough?

More than 50 million Americans are currently uninsured with any kind of health care. That is almost 20% of Americans under the age of 65. Those 50 million cannot receive any sort of non-emergency treatment. On average, over 20,000 people have died each year during this past decade solely because of not being properly insured. That is 4 9/11s every year, 4 (5-year) Iraq wars every year, a Vietnam war every three years, get the picture?

Sure moving to Universal Health Care would hinder a lot of expensive research that might one day lead to a cure of a horrible disease but would Universal Health Care halt such research forever? I do not believe so, government and society always adjust to changes big and small. Sure it will be hard and tough, but that should not stop us from trying because 50 million Americans are counting on that.

Discredit to the race?

Have you ever noticed when a person in a minority, like black, commits a crime, he is not viewed as just a criminal but he represents his entire race. Another example is when that man beheaded his wife in New York, he was not just a nut case who had two previous failed marriages but he is A Muslim who beheaded his wife.

We live in a very diverse country where EVERY race, religion and ethnicity is bound to produce a few misfits and criminals, but holding those misfits as the face of their race, religion or ethnicity is hypocritical. Notice I did not say "wrong" but "hypocritical." It is not wrong because if you hold every race, religion and ethnicity to that same standard then it would fair. If every white and Christian killer, murderer and thief, are paraded as the flag holders of their community, we can do the same with other races and religions.

If we do not measure everybody with the same stick then we are the misfits. It did not matter that Timothy McVeigh attended daily mass or that he was Irish, but it matters if a criminal is NOT white and NOT Christian. Why not stop the hypocrisy and come out and reveal our true feelings towards other people's color and religion? Perhaps what Ambrose Bierce said was right, "Hypocrisy is prejudice with a halo"!

Desperate Times are calling...

I was talking yesterday to a relative of mine about the economy (like there is another conversation nowadays), and he had a very interesting view. It started when I described the economy like a sinking ship where the seamen are trying to shovel the water off-board instead of sealing the hole(s) in the ship. It is debatable whether there is a seal big enough for those hole(s) but he claimed he did. His solution was very radical and drastic but he claims it would work. So he started presenting his argument:

Almost all economists agree that this recession was affected extremely by globalization. The fact that Americans are buying Japanese cars and Chinese (everything else) was a catalyst to this downward spiral if not outright caused it. So lets fix that. Block imports on certain industries like the auto industry (A Chevy factory outside the U.S. counts as import). The Ford Focus would look like a bargain when there is no Honda Civics. This way tens of thousands of jobs in that industry would be created. If you do this for a handful of industries, you would create the biggest job surge in American history and catapult the economy right out of this recession. I understand that this is radical but we are not living in ordinary times.

Hate or love his idea, it is intriguing. I mean the shear boldness of this action alone gets attention, let alone the effectiveness. Pros: It might work. Nothing can help an economy more than a jolt of a few hundred thousand jobs. New jobs create new jobs and job loss creates more job loss. Cons: Huge step back for globalization. Such a move would paralyze the global economy since we are the worlds biggest importer of everything. Everything the free market achieved the last 50 years would be set back, but is that such a terrible idea?

We know now that the free market has gotten us in this mess, is it so unbelievable that something other than the free market will get us out?

How Bad Do You Want It?

Freedom of speech is everybody's goto excuse when they utter speech that some people do not like. Every time someone is discussing a sensitive issue that includes religion, race, money or nationality they are sure to follow it with "I am exercising my freedom of speech." How many of those people though are prepared to grant others that same freedom.

Adhering to the freedom of speech is tolerating other people's speech no matter how different it is from yours or perhaps more importantly no matter how much it offends you. Most people who take refuge behind that freedom when they are speaking would probably go insane when their foes do the same.

I am not just talking about public speaking or expressing yourself, rather I am referring to someone completely bashing everything you stand for and praising ideas you have loathed your entire life. For example lets say you are a devoted American Christian and one day walking by a public forum you witness a public speaker that is making a complete mockery of Christianity, insulting your lord, his struggle and dismissing the whole religion as a fairy tale, would you respond? Would you get angry and walk away? Would you approach and confront him? My guess is that a big percentage of devoted Christians would confront the speaker, maybe even violently.

That issue was highlighted a few years ago when a Danish newspaper printed a caricature about the Muslim prophet Mohammad and watched almost a hundred people die in worldwide protests. Muslim protesters set fires to Danish embassies in a number of Muslim countries and Muslim leaders issued death threats because of a caricature. Those events shed some light on why Freedom of Speech is generally not exercised in Muslim countries.

However, we can't bask in glow on this issue because we are not that far off when it comes to being crazed about sensitive topics. For example, we tolerate rappers talking about many issues that one would consider edgy in a violent, sexist and drug endorsing manner but when a rapper raps about terrorism we become outraged (http://www.westernresistance.com/blog/archives/002430.html). Mind you that so much more Americans have died because of terrotorial rap and gang wars than Americans that died due to terrorism. How about that Muslim ACLU activist who was denied bording his plane because he was wearing a t-shirt with Arabic writing (later he won a quarter million dollars from the Airline company).

If we preach freedom then we should not be hypocrites and practice the opposite. No one said it is easy or mundane, but in order to have a completely free society which endorses freedom of speech we have to tolerate people who practice it no matter how much it offends us. Our first president once said "If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter." It is amazing how many backward steps we have taken in 300 years.

White Lie?

Economists and politicians are separated into two different groups when it comes to how they want president Obama handling the current financial situation. Some are advising the president to continue his preached transparency and tell Americans the truth. They argue that Americans are strong and can handle the truth. Others ask the president to be more hopeful to restore consumer confidence, because telling people the truth about the current situation would cause further damage.

On the one hand, I can see why some would want Obama to maintain his approach from his campaign about change. When Obama faced the race issue during the 2008 run, he did not tell people what they wanted to hear, he delivered one of the most thought provoking speeches about race in American history. Every time he was criticized about his proposed policies (like speaking with Iran) by an opponent he maintained them and defended them instead of compromising and politicking.

On the other hand, a person is smart but people are stupid. People are bound to act in mob-like hysteria if learned a crushing truth like "Our economy has failed." If people know how much trouble the banks are in they would race to withdraw all their savings which surely would bankrupt our banks. I am sorry to say Mr. President that you are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Either be who you promised us you will be and risk further damage to our economy OR lie to us and give our economy a greater shot at recovery and risk your place in history.

Merry-Go-Round of Crappy Ideas

More regulation, deregulation, nationalization, tax cuts, tax increases, new deal, etc. Every person has an opinion, economist or not, about how to fix this economy. Problem is those whose opinion's matter are those same people that put us in this downward spiral of an economy. In an earlier piece I have discussed what I thought was the reason for this economic meltdown, so I will not go into the "why", but I will discuss somethings that are surely to be helpful in an economic recovery.

First idea that jumps at the opportunity is ending all major combat abroad. I mean the hundreds of thousands U.S. troops in Iraq and tens of thousands in Afghanistan. I also mean limiting troop presence in our global bases. This elimination would cut Billions of dollars of spending a MONTH. This is not a piece to discuss the merits of any of those wars, but rather on how to save our economy from collapsing which is sure to happen if nothing is done.

Another idea is raising taxes on higher brackets and cutting taxes on lower brackets. A person that makes six figures can afford giving up a few more percentages to the government while people who barely make five figures (majority in America) need that to survive. For those who argue that this is socialism, then we are a socialist country because we already do that, I am just asking to step it up a little bit.

Another way we can try and fix this economy of ours is taxing companies who outsource jobs more heavily and give tremendous tax breaks to companies who create jobs here in America. Companies will stop outsourcing jobs once they realize that they will lose a lot more money in taxes than money saved on exporting those jobs.

If you think those steps are drastic and radical, then you probably are not aware of the depth of the economic hole we are in right now. If you think major troop withdrawal would make America weaker abroad, you are wrong. Troop presence abroad the last eight years is the exact reason why America is weaker and countries like Russia and China rose to our level. If you think we should not punish the rich for being rich, well that is an oxymoron because they flourished the last two decades from our economy, shouldn't they be responsible in helping us fix it? The world is moving on a bullet train (that we once built) and if we keep clinging to our isms then we might just be left behind.

May Not Be Slaves But Still Gladiators

The entire country is in shambles over this new steroid scandal with the best player in the game, Alex Rodriguez. People thought that they put roids behind them after the sluggers from five years ago were disowned by baseball one by one, but people were mistaken. As long as steroids make athletes perform better and as long as we give hundreds of millions of dollars and fame to those who perform better, logic says athletes will use steroids. That is however is not the issue.

Professional athletes in sports like Baseball and Football are nothing more than modern day gladiators we pay to watch them rip each others' life apart, literally. Sure they are not slaves and sure they are getting more money for it than the average person will ever see, but that is never taken into consideration when we watch them meltdown.

These athletes are handpicked before they hit puberty, hand picked by standing out in athletics when they are young. They coast through high school and college on their athletic performances alone and then make it to the pros where they are still fighting to get that ring, that recognition, that Nike contract.

Then we hear about that player who got caught with a gun, drugs, used roids, assaulted his wife or just got plain old crazy and we scream "Oh the humanity." We are the guilty ones, not they. We are the ones who demanded they live this life and become part of this system so we can get three hours of entertainment every Sunday and then we turn around and expect those extremely over-paid athletes who live a life of fortune and fame that we worship, aspire to and admire to act like us. Do you know what this is? When it looks like it and it smells like it and it acts like it, call it what it is: Hypocrisy.

You Can't Handle The Truth (Part II)

Another important factor in this financial collapse would be deregulation. After 8 years of staunch regulation laws passed by the Clinton administration, Bush (and a few key Republican Senators) spent his eight years stripping those regulations out. They separated commercial banks from wall street banks and pushed tremendous deregulation acts through congress. Their excuse is "free market."

The problem with the free market is that it derives itself from greed. Greed makes capitalism work, but too much greed with no watchers, makes for a very bad combination. Even the biggest economic mind of the last thirty years (Alan Greenspan) admitted that this collapse has revealed a huge flaw in the system.

And what happens when you have a market driven on greed and no regulation? In comes people like Angelo Mozilo (founder of Countrywide), Joe Cassano (founding member of AIG), Stan O'Neal (CEO of Merrill Lynch) with their hedge funds and CDOs. Not to mention other types of criminals like Bernard Madoff who are the few that will probably be prosecuted leaving the rest of them enjoying their millions while the rest of us suffer.

Eventually, things will get better, then worse, then better and so on. But because of first two factors I mentioned, this economy will never be like it used to be in the nineties. But we will be fine, at least until the next administration that believes in the "Free Market."