The Shoe That Was Heard Around The World!

So apparently shoe throwers are heroes in today's free societies. Yesterday a bronze sculpture of a shoe was erected in Tikrit (hometown of Saddam Hussein) in honor of the "hero" Muntazer al-Zaidi. Muntazer al-Zaidi is the journalist who stood up and hurled his shoes (one after the other) at former president Bush in a press conference during Bush's unannounced farewell visit to Baghdad last year.

My feelings about this have not changed from day one: Iraq will never join civilized societies if its journalists throw shoes instead of asking questions. The fact of the matter is that al-Zaidi had more power than the average Iraqi because he was able to be in a position to press Bush with serious challanging questions about his policy in Iraq, but he chose to throw his shoes. Regardless of the amount of frustration that man possessed, that is not a solution but a quick "Sara Palin" like way to fame. To my huge disappointment, the Iraqi people took in al-Zaidi to their hearts and now they call him a hero.

The price of freedom is costly and means many things like swollowing your pride when you disagree with someone about an issue and not throwing a shoe at them but maybe discussing the issue more or at least walking away. That is the fundemental question the people of Iraq have to ask themselves, are they willing to make that sacrifice in order to reign freedom in their troubled country? It is a hard and difficult task to achieve. I know this because most people here in the U.S. have not achieved that task and maybe never will.

It is very easy to scream from the top of your lungs, "we are a free society" or "we are a democracy" but that is never tested until someone who possess ideas and morals that are completely different from yours preaches them in front of you and all you can do is discuss it with them. Another way to ensure that you are in fact a free society is when something as horrible as 9/11 happens, you do not throw your laws and morals away and start 2 wars, toss away civil liberties and start torturing people.

Gee Thanks W!

The last thing anyone would want is another cold war, especially when 2012 is not that far away (see Bible Code, Nostradamus, Mayans prophecies). But the only way that could happen is if America's power decreases and Russia's increases, lets examine that, shall we?

Over the last 8 years, America has been too busy "not" fighting Bin Laden in Iraq, "not" fighting Bin Laden in Afghanistan and producing a foreign policy that has been despised by most countries in the world. With the exception of the Georgia battle (which was more like a tickle fight for Russia), Putin has been doing nothing but setting up Russia to be a formidable power once again.

Exhibit A, towards the end of the year 2007 Putin visited Iran and proclaimed that Russia will not help U.S. if it attacked Iran. Putin also set up Azerbaijan's backing of Iran along with a five-nation pact by the Caspian states to ensure that the US will not be able to use the region to stage a military action against Iran. Not to mention the Nuclear Power Plant Russia has been building for Iran over the past decade at the Gulf port of Bushehr.

Exhibit B, because of the United States' failure to present real evidence or reason behind the Iraq war, it opened the door for other powerful countries to attack smaller ones without much resistance. When Russia and Georgia went at it last year, the U.S. had very little to say despite the fact that Georgia is one of America's allies.

Exhibit C, ENERGY. Putin has ordered the complete halt of natural gas supply through Ukraine (which supplied most of Europe) and that illustrated Russia's extraordinary power and influence because that decision left millions of Europeans freezing and begging for gas. One can't help himself but wonder if Russia did demand a political move by those countries, would shutting off their energy be a big motivator, I think so.

Exhibit D, this is the last of the major signs of how powerful and bold Russia is becoming. Just this month Russia announced that it is installing new naval bases in three countries Syria, Libya and Yemen. None of those three countries are U.S. allies or very fond of the West, but naval bases in those countries would provide tremendous strategic advantage to Russia. Yemen would provide the only way from the Arabian Sea (also from Indian Ocean) to the Red Sea (to Mediterranean Sea). A new naval base in Syria would decrease the tremendous strangle hold Israel has of the area and give Syria a top backer.

Former President George W. Bush has weakened this country to an extreme. His two poorly planned, executed and justified wars spread the U.S. army way too thin. His foreign policy has turned away almost every ally away from the United States. His economic policy put the U.S. in an extremely bad shape, so the government has to pool all of its energy towards fixing the economy and nothing else. And his unrelenting, unjustified blind backing of Israel has drawn many countries (mostly Arab countries) to seek counsel with a different power (mainly Russia) and Putin was more than happy to oblige.

Ethical Question, or is it?

Some of my friends accuse me of being a crazy liberal who would believe everything democrats tell him. They think I am gullible because I bought into the made-up theory of Global Warming and Universal Health Care. They think that I should stop supporting Obama and get with the program (Rush Limbaugh's program). Amazingly, one core difference between Democrats and Republicans is Abortion (Because Republicans tend to be more Jesusy) and I actually lean towards the Republican side more often than my friends when it comes to that issue.

I should be clear in saying that I do not support (free-for-all) abortion laws because of moral issues not because some guy told me 2000 years ago. In extreme cases like rape, incest, or disease I believe abortion is like a mercy kill (no pun intended). My decisions, views and opinions on abortion are stemmed ENTIRELY from my number one belief core: Human life is sacred. That is why I do not support late-term abortion. I do not support inconvenience abortion.

The reason that abortion is such a touchy subject because every person has an opinion and chances are it is very different from yours. Here is mine:

I believe abortion should be outlawed except in those cases:

- The fetus is a product of rape.
- The fetus is a product of incest.
- The fetus is very prone to killer diseases.
- The fetus is sick or will be sick (physically or mentally).
- The mother's health is at risk (without McCain's air quotes).

I know that some of the above requirements are general, I did that to ere on the side of caution. What the above requirements strictly prohibits is abortion "because you did not want a kid" or "because it is not the right time in your life." How can the government give a person the kind of power to end the life of a fetus when that same person does not know how to use a condom or contraceptives?

Pat on the Back

As you might know from reading this daily blog, I have been a little harsh on the new President of our country. I have criticized him for things that most would consider insane, like detaining the former president after he was sworn in for war crimes or for bringing a Satanic Symbol in Rick Warren. But after pondering how to look at the new presidency for a long time, I decided it's time to give this administration some time.

It has been one week and he already restored much of the credibility of our country in the eyes of the world and more importantly in the eyes of Americans. He ordered the CIA to shut down "secret" camps, stop torturing, close down Gitmo, and yesterday he extended an olive branch to the Muslim world by saying "America is not your enemy". It is important to understand that all of the above was done not to make America weak but to make her great.

It is important for us to understand why we have such a conflict with terrorists. First, they are religious extremes which is a euphemism for crazy. The second reason why we are in this situation is America's policies towards the Muslim world when it comes to War and Oil. There is no set reason why Muslim terrorists hate us besides those two, even when it comes to religious wars, Islam recognizes Christianity and Judaism as Biblical religions but vice versa.

Muslims make up about 1/6 of the entire world's population and this planet is moving towards globalization faster than anybody has foreseen. This is evident by the global economic meltdown after America's economy failed. We can ignore their presence and influence on the world or we can reach out to them so when religious nuts speak out against America, they would really sound crazy.

Was Socialism Really Founded By The Devil?

If you want to insult someone's patriotism or nationalism, either call him a socialist or a communist. Those two words have slowly but surely transformed from economic structures to curse words. Due largely to the Cold War when witch hunts against communists were a common thing and McCarthyism was at its gravest stage, communism was feared in America. Propaganda against communism during the cold war, dehumanized communists to an extreme degree, same was done in the Soviet Union for Capitalism.

Although Communism is a Political and Economic system where Socialism is just the latter, they agreed mostly on the economy part and disagreed significantly with Capitalism's approach to the economy. Since America won the cold war, it is obvious that Capitalism won, but for how long? The United States economy has shifted towards socialism tremendously during the last 6 months by nationalizing their banking system and bailing out several industries with federal funding.

Just like anything in life, there are great things about socialism (free education) and there are some horrible things (government owning the economy). The question that is seemingly being laid out in this forum is: Why does the United States Government adapt the bad things in Socialism by buying their banking and other industries but not the good things like Universal Health Care or Free Education?

I am not an advocate for Socialism or Communism, they are great theories that are made impossible because of human imperfections, but what I do preach against is Hypocrisy. Do not fight a theory for 50 years and glue it to everything unholy in history and then go back and use some of its ideas. And worst of all when you do use its ideas, do not use the few ideas that help Walstreet whilst Main Street is stuck with $30,000 worth of student loans.

Give Me Liberty or Give Me "Religion?"

Every time sources like Forbes Magazine, Times Magazine or The Huffington post compile a list of the Happiest Countries on Earth, you always see these countries atop that list: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland and Finland. Another list you will see those countries usually dominate, is the least poverty list. These countries also excel in health care, education, civil liberties, reform and peace (looking at the last 100 years).

The most important list however that these countries top, is the most atheist countries. Sweden has as much as 85% atheism, in Denmark 69% don't believe in God, 68% in Norway, 87% in Switzerland and 59% in Finland.

All of these countries are predominately Christian, but they believe in Christianity as much as we believe in the characters in Lost. Sure they might go to Church every Sunday and maybe have a cross hanging somewhere in their house, but they do not look at life through a Christian Prism. They do not make decisions that will affect their well being or the well being of anyone based on religion but rather on common sense, logic and human emotion. They do not wage wars because of religion, the do not form laws because of religion and they sure do not strip freedoms because of religion.

On the flip side of that coin, lets take a look at countries who are predominately religious. Looking at Christian countries, there is the U.S. and the U.K. who are constantly in war. For the U.S. (counting the cold war) has maybe seen 10 years of peace in the last 60 years. Another set of Christian dominated countries like Mexico and South America, who are at the top of the poverty list (outside of Africa).

The only Jewish dominated country is Israel, and the country is more like a military base than an actual country. Israel has not seen one minute of peace since its origin in 1948.

Muslim countries (practice religion heavily) in the world are three types: full of poverty like Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan. The second type is always at war like Iraq, and the third type is always at war and in poverty like the Gaza Strip, Afghanistan, etc. There is the Gulf Countries exception however, but what those countries have in peace and money they lack in health care, education, civil liberties and reform. Sure you might find the biggest airports and golf courses in the gulf but they also punish women like slaves and chop off your hand if you steal something.

I am not attacking religions but religious people. Religion blinds people to make decisions without logically thinking them through.

I have read that there is a saying Yemeni people are famous for (loosely translated), If leaving religion means advancement, oh soul die before you progress.

No Holy Land, No Oil, No Problem

Africa: the mysterious land of Sheba and The Sphinx, now known for its exotic diseases and never ending wars. Every time an incident occurs in the world, where a few people die of whatever reason, the Western world holds its collective breath in awe. Every time a terrorist attack kills a dozen people in London, an Israeli raid kills 30 people in Palestine, a roadside bomb kills 3 American soldiers in Iraq, the world screams in one breath: Oh the humanity.

Facts, in 1998 200,000 people (mostly women and children) died in armed conflict in Africa. As large as that number is, it is humbled by the number of people who died of AIDS during the same year: 2 Million. During 2003 (18 month period) in Darfur, the smallest fatality estimate is at 50,000 people. In 1994, half a million people (at least) died in 100 days in Rwanda. Most people either know these numbers, or do not want to know them. Why? Where is the UN relief fund? Where is the Coalition Forces? Where is the world's outrage?

The answer to those questions is very simple, Africa does not posses holy land to the three biblical religions, Africa is not known for its oil, Africans tend to be dark skinned (or perhaps more importantly, not white).

Unfortunately, countries like the U.S. and U.K. are ran by religious people and those people do not really posses compassion for African land as opposed to Middle Eastern land. With all due respect to the victims of the Middle East, but their numbers are not even close to the number of dead in Africa. But Middle Easterners live in holy lands and have religion as their conflict.

Ethnic cleansing in Eastern Europe has been a problem during the last 15 years, but nothing compared to Africa's ethnic cleansing, Rwanda alone takes the cake. But those Eastern Europeans were white.

Iraqis are not white nor live in a holy land (at least not Christian holy land) but they seem more like the rope in a tug-a-war match between the world's powers and that is because Iraq has one of the largest oil reserves in the world not to mention the biggest land between Iran and Israel.

I want to make one thing clear, I, like all of us, do feel tremendous compassion to all who suffer in the world...I just feel that sometimes that compassion never crosses the African border.

A New Age of "Responsibility???"

Yesterday Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in to be the next President of the United States. During his long awaited inaugural speech, he preached that his presidency will bring in a new age of responsibility and I started wondering how that sounds like what every other president says when they are crowned but it does not really mean anything.

I could not help my self wonder "where is the change?" when I was browsing the footage from yesterday's inauguration. The whole ceremony was filled with Christian religious figure after Christian religious figure. I could not help notice there were no ambassadors of the Jewish faith or Muslim faith or Hindu faith present and speaking, not to mentioned that atheist figure that all atheists look up to (not god). You can not call yourself a nation of no official religion and a separation of Church and State and then swear on a Bible and get inaugurated by one of the most intolerant figures in modern day religion.

The second action not-taken that belittles Obama's words that much more was that he allowed a War Criminal to just leave the White House and fly away back to Texas after sitting through his inauguration. Last week Obama commented that he always thought that Bush is basically a "good guy." Lets break down that statement and find out why is it absolutely moronic. Obama has been against the war in Iraq from day one and he voted it against it in Congress. He claimed then that the war was manufactured and there is absolutely no reason for us to be there. The war in Iraq, since 2003, has produced an extremely large number of Iraqi casualties that varies from 90,000 to over 1 million depending on who you ask. So Bush's Manufactured war cost at least 90,000 people (not to mention over 5000 Americans) their lives, how is that not criminal?

Bush left a whole American city drowning and almost 2,000 Americans dead (see the Investigation of State of Emergency declaration), how is that not criminal? How about the torture that was allowed publicly, how is that not criminal? How about stripping regulations from the entire financial industry and therefore allowing the economy to go into the worst shape since the Great Depression, which ruined thousands of lives, how is that not criminal? Allowing the man responsible for all of these actions, a man so hated in the entire world (with a few exceptions) and regarded as an imperialist to fly home with dignity, how is that not criminal?

My favorite part of the inauguration was when the Obamas were dancing the night away, the stock market was plummeting faster than you can say "so help me God!"

Propaganda Like it is 49 B.C.

I spent this three day weekend relaxing at home and catching up on my TV series like House M.D. and Burn Notice (They are very addicting). Halfway between those two shows, I caught a very interesting movie on HBO, it's called House of Saddam. It is a four part HBO and BBC production about the life of Saddam Hussein and his close circle of family and friends since he took over in 1979. The movie covered the history chronologically but was focused on Saddam's inner circle. Some excerpts of the movie showed real life shots of television announcements and news coverage done by Iraqi TV during the Saddam administration and it clearly pointed out how propaganda was the norm for such advertisements.

Even though it was not, Iraqi TV was claiming victory in the Iraq-Iran war, First Gulf War and Second Gulf War up until Saddam's regime was taken down in 2003. At first I was amazed that some people actually believed that propaganda, they had to, otherwise there is no reason to show it. But soon after I realized that propaganda is not new or unique to this century, Caesar used to pay certain people in Rome to go spread good rumors about him, to make him out to be a hero when he was battling the Senate.

Right about the time I was concluding in my head that this happens only in primitive cultures and third world countries, I realized this: American Broadcasting is the biggest propaganda machine that I have ever heard of. The American propaganda machine started back during the second world war, when TV used to air little advertisement pushing towards unity and struggle against the Nazis. Also during the cold war, this machine led us to believe that Communism is just about the end of humanity and we must prevail because we are the good guys. And as recently as this decade, after 9/11 even the NY Times united behind Bush against the "Axis of Evil" when the real culprit was nothing but a bunch of crazy loons that had a grudge against a country. Even the Iraq war (as unpopular as it was from day one, it was pretty damn popular).

It seems like the public does not just accept or even like propaganda, they need it. Our latest example is this Gaza invasion that resulted in almost 1,000 dead Palestinian (most of which are civilians according to the UN) and almost 20 dead Israelis. If you are surprised by those figures at all, then you are not alone because they were grossly under reported by American media. The whole war was under reported. According to current president (Bush, notice today is the last day) there is nothing to sort out because of Hamas, even though the entire world is screaming War Crimes by Israel. It is moments like these that we as people have to remember, when those civilians' friends and family members build up this anger and grow up to hate us and we wonder WHY?

Heaven On Earth!

Back in Junior High, my brother was asked to write a persuasive paper for his literature class, he chose to write a paper on: Given the choice between eternal life in Heaven or Earth, I choose Earth! Now the paper was as provocative as the title in which he thoroughly and ingeniously explained why would he do that.

The first part of his main argument was: According to all biblical religions, Heaven is a reward to true believers, where they will live for eternity, with every request of theirs fulfilled. Basically biblical religions paint Heaven as a place where you wont need to work for anything, everything you would desire is at your service. The second part of his argument was: Happiness is relative, you can't feel victorious without loss, you can't feel hot without ever being cold, you can't feel happiness without ever being sad. So if I am never denied anything in Heaven, how can I EVER feel satisfied?

I do not have to go into the amount of criticism he received from everyone for having such an open mind because just like 90% of people on Earth, he lived within a society of brainwashed, narrow minded crusaders (pun intended).

The main idea of his argument that intrigues me is relativity. I want to take that idea and apply it to our society here on Earth. Everyday you hear on the news that politicians are promising their constituents safer and better living or they declare a war on crime or they declare a war on drugs; however the idea of relativity begs the question: Will anything ever make you feel safe?

Lets take a sample city with a population of 500,000 people. Lets assume there are on average 7 murders, 5 robberies and 18 assaults a week. Lets say that the mayor of said city cranks up the police power and within 5 years those numbers now are 4 murders, 2 robberies and 11 assaults a week. This change might be praised for a short while but soon people will once again complain that their crime numbers are too high. Even if the city quells the murders to 0, people will rant on how their robberies numbers are too high, their assault numbers are too high, their drugs sales numbers are too high, their DUIs are too high, their high school parties are too high and so on. People will always have something to complain about no matter the situation.

If you are a cop in Harlem, NY, you might think a good day is when you do not investigate a murder, while a cop in the Hamptons, NY, would think a good day is not busting a cashier selling a bottle of whiskey to a 20 year-old.

Let the cop from Harlem transfer to the Hamptons and watch him raive about how much nicer and safer the Hamptons is, but wait 5 years for him to get used to the Hamptons and you will catch him complaining about the "crime" rate. And by crime rate I do mean the number of drunk 20 year-olds. Some people call that society's never ending pursuit of perfection, I disagree. I call that relativity.

Insanity Plea!

I watched three Law and Order episodes in a row yesterday. In two of those episodes, the defendants filed an insanity plea for their crimes, so it got me thinking: Where do we draw the line?

The Medical dictionary defines the term Legally Insane as Persistent mental disorder or derangement and Unsoundness of mind. In most jurisdictions of the law, being legally insane could pardon you from your crimes but proving that is not an easy task.

In most Legal Insanity plea trials, each side (defendant and plaintiff) would provide expert opinion in the for of a psychiatrist who will testify in open court to the defendants sanity/insanity (depends on your side) at the time of the crime. We cannot really determine which side is telling the truth and which side is not but we can agree that one of them is wrong, in essence for every such case, one of the two psychiatrists was wrong.

So whether you believe in the merits of such a term (Legally Insane), there are plenty of psychiatrists to back you up. Well I plan to take it a step further, after all this is the Fearful Thought forum. Maybe all murderers who have committed a premeditated murder are in fact insane.

To venture in this direction of the conversation we have to talk about the most important question of the hour: What makes a murderer a murderer?

Scientists from all venues of science have argued this question for years. Some scientists claim that it is purely genetic, others blame it on the upbringing of the person and some say it is a combination of both.

We clearly as a society condemn criminals and do not show them much mercy, but what if the reason they do what they do is an illness? We can all agree that being "born" a murderer is certainly a genetic illness that is beyond your control as a person. Furthermore, being raised a certain way causing you to be disturbed mentally is never something a person decides for themselves. So basically either way, a murderer did not choose to become a murderer, so instead of medical treatment, why do we treat murderers like murderers?

Holy? Book (Part II - The Qur'an)

Yesterday I talked about how the Old and New Testaments encourage certain acts that are considered immoral in today's society. Some of those acts include slavery and murder. Today we tackle the third "Holy" Book, the Qur'an.

In the Qur'an (as in the other two books), women are treated as second citizens. It is hard for me to believe that a strong intellectual woman would believe in something like this

- Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts because God has guarded them. As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them. Then if they obey you, take no further action against them. Surely God is high, supreme. (Quran 4:34).

I have heard a few justifications to this verse from several Muslims, but none gave me an argument with a straight face, except for those who believe that women who disobey you, should be beaten up.

When the Qur'an was not too busy ordering domestic violence, it was clearly asking Muslims to spread Islam by force if necessary.

- Fight against those who believe not in Allah, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth among the people of the Scripture, until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. (Qur'an 9:29).

While spreading the message by force is not an uncommon sighting when it comes to religions (see Crusades, Spanish Inquisition), most religious people deny it.

Passages like those above or the ones I had up yesterday are not rare. If this was not a small daily blog but a paper, I could fill up pages and pages of direct quotation from the "Holy" books that encourage acts that we (civilized society) consider outrageous. That is why when religious scientists attack other religions, they never bring up those passages, because they know that their book is not any more innocent or "Holy."

Holy? Book (Part I - Old and New Testaments)

I was watching a special on TV yesterday that covered how religion has played a major role in almost every war in the last 2000 years. Towards the end of the show, they had on people of faith explaining how their religion does not encourage violence and how those people who commit violent acts in the name of their religion are nothing but rouge cells. So I started thinking about what the Holy Books truly say about violence and other evil deeds.

As righteous as prophets were portrayed, their books were not even close in many areas, slavery for example. The Bible describes slavery as a normal act (as it was at the time) in passages like

" However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. " (Leviticus 25:44)

Not to mention one's like this

"If you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve for only six years. Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom. " (Exodus 21:2)

Or this

"Christians who are slaves should give their masters full respect so that the name of God and his teaching will not be shamed. If your master is a Christian, that is no excuse for being disrespectful. You should work all the harder because you are helping another believer by your efforts. Teach these truths, Timothy, and encourage everyone to obey them." (1 Timothy 6:1)

And then the Bible moves to bigger and better things such as Murder like in this beautifully written passage

"Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD your God must be put to death. Such evil must be purged from Israel." (Deuteronomy 17:12)

Or killing witches

"You should not let a sorceress live." (Exodus 22:17)

Or killing homosexuals

"If a man lies with a male as with a women, both of them shall be put to death for their abominable deed; they have forfeited their lives." (Leviticus 20:13)

Or killing fortune tellers

"A man or a woman who acts as a medium or fortuneteller shall be put to death by stoning; they have no one but themselves to blame for their death." (Leviticus 20:27)

Or killing those who cursed their parents

"All who curse their father or mother must be put to death. They are guilty of a capital offense." (Leviticus 20:9)

And to top things off, apparently God encourages rape

"17 Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, 18 but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man." (Numbers 31:17-18)


So the next time you would like to argue the sanctity of the Bible, please do your homework first.

Hustler' a Congress

On Wednesday Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler, and Joe Francis, CEO of Girls Gone Wild, said that they will ask Congress for a 5 Billion dollar bailout for the Porn Industry. Now some of you will see this as utter shamelessness by people that you might think have no shame to begin with because of their occupation. I assure you that as ridiculous as this is, it is not as rediculous as what the Banking and Auto industry did.

It seems that we only become interested in something if the news covers it extensively, and we only become outraged if the news asks that of us. So after the media covered the Banking Industry bailout negotiations and decision from every possible angle, CNN was outraged, MSNBC was outraged, FOXNEWS (well they are always outraged) and finally CNN started the "top ten to blame" special. Two months ago, if you asked any American about the amount of the bailout, they would tell you 700 Billion dollars. But how many Americans know how the bailout was supposed to be spent, or perhaps more importantly how the bailout is being spent?

How many Americans asked if Congress has given the money it allocated to the Banking Industry?
How many Americans asked what the Banking Industry did with the money it received?
How many Americans asked about what this means to the country in general or them specifically?

Do NOT blame the media. The media is a business, and it is in their best interest to broadcast news that people will watch. If the media felt that Americans want to hear the details about the largest banking deal in history that their government made which sways the American econonmy closer and closer towards the socialists side then the media will cover it. Jerry Springer does not air because the media has no moral standard, it airs because a significant number of the population enjoys watching it.

When are we, as Americans, going to start taking interest in what matters rather than what is interesting. We have been mutated into a population of severe ADD and most of the time we do not even deny it. I understand that it is human nature to enjoy short, funny and interesting programs but sometimes people must do what is necessary rather than what is enjoyable. More people watch the weather and sports than those who watch the news, so in order to survive news is made to be more interesting and enjoyable. In essence we forced the media to manufacture interesting angles to the good old boring news.

We do not want to see problems, issues, depressing news...We want to see Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Brad Pitt and the media has been more than happy to oblige.

"Belief" it or not!

If you have ever talked to a religious person, you probably have heard them say something similar to "I am a person of faith" in a proud and distinguished manner. Today we tackle the issue of faith. According to the Merriam-Webster's dictionary belief is

- a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing.

and one definition for faith is

- firm belief in something for which there is no proof.


So in our "civilized" society and "progressive" culture, it is a virtue to have firm belief in something, in which there is no proof. In some instances, it is not just a virtue but perhaps a necessity. If someone wants to run for public office anywhere in America, they have to claim at some point during their campaign that they are a person of faith. Last year at a debate for the Republican nomination, politicians jumped at the idea that evolution does not exist. It was as ridiculous as people vying to get the title: the most ignorant person.

Every statistical study and survey I have read that was done to scientists shows that scientists are usually atheists. 93% among all members of the National Academy of Sciences are in fact atheists. I am going to go ahead and make the assumption that scientists are pretty much the smartest category we can tap, it is also the same category where evolution, the big bang and stem-cell research are not controversial but necessary.

If you keep investigating faith and belief, you will find the above argument repeating itself: more educated and smart people have none and more not have lots of it. Now to quell an argument, I do not think that every smart and educated person is an atheist or every religious person is stupid. My argument was if you look at the vast majority of people, this would be the conclusion you arrive at.

It is not a virtue to claim that you are a person of faith, because all it takes is being suppressed in a religious family and brain-washed to believe. Most religious people I know, know less about their religion than I do and still claim that they have faith because God loves them. There is absolutely no difference between Christians, Muslims and Jews in the point that all believe in something for which there is no proof. All three religions claim God and his prophets performed great miracles 5000, 2000 and 1400 years ago but not now. How can I believe in a miracle that happened 5000 years ago when I can not find the truth about much simpler and recent issues. If my wife and I cannot agree on who was the last person to water the plants or take out the garbage, how are we expected to agree on what God told Abraham in the middle of the desert alone, 5 millennia ago? Apparently God does not love me.

True Believers: Do they truly believe?

I was talking to a self-proclaimed religious person yesterday and as always I became frustrated with hypocrisy. I asked the person if she was religious and she said yes, I asked if she truly believed in God, Heaven, Hell, Angels and the whole nine yards and she said yes. Then I asked her if there was any doubt in her mind that her belief is wrong and she emphatically said no. Those answers you will undoubtedly get from any religious person.

The interesting part of the conversation came later though. I asked her about a series of duties that her religion requires her to perform. I asked her whether those duties are optional? She said no, I asked her whether those duties could be put off until a later date? She said no. Then I asked her, why does not she perform all said duties? Her answer astonished me, mainly because of her audacity.

She told me that she was not ready and she did not want to commit and then stop. She said that she realized that those responsibilities were required of her and she recognizes that she is being a bad religious person when she does not perform them. That answer is not as impressive or significant if we did not preface the conversation with those questions. If she did not spend the first twenty minutes of the conversation making sure that I know her belief is unwavering, her answer would not be as hypocritical.

If someone believes in a monotheistic religion fully and does not perform the duties required by that religion, then they do not really believe in that religion. If I knew (not thought but believed) that a certain religion is correct then I am sure to follow every bit and piece, every nook and cranny required of that religion, because I would know that I am making an investment for the afterlife. I would think that every rational person would do the same being in that situation.

Please stop parading your belief in my face especially if that belief is all words and no action.

Israel Bias: Fact or Fiction (Part II)

The second possible cause for America's unwavering support of Israel (regardless of Israel's actions) is America's non-stop support of human rights. This would make sense if we still lived during the holocaust or if Israel is the only oppressed country in the world, but that is not the case. Israel is one of the least oppressed countries in the world, especially compared to countries like half of Africa and southeast Asia. In fact, Israel is probably the strongest nation in the world past the five members of the U.N. security counsel. According to OCHA (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) from 2005 to 2007, 1290 Palestinians have been killed by Israel (222 were children) and in the same time period 86 Israelis (8 of them were children) were killed by Palestine.


Another possible cause is religion, but America's richest and most powerful are mostly Christians and Israel is a Jewish state. Also one would consider that almost 11 million Christians live in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon where there are about only 150,000 Christians in Israel.

So if it isn't money, human rights or religion, what is the reason?

The fact of the matter is that Israel is the only country where being a Jew guarantees citizenship and Jews have been a thriving minority in America for the past 100 years. Americans of the Jewish faith have been involved in every aspect of America's greatness. If you look into the role of American Jews you will see historians, scientists, artists, athletes, lawyers, doctors, politicians and activists, each helped pioneer their respective fields.

So that is how Americans became as protective of Israel as they are of America. And in that case Americans do not allow, even their president, criticize America. If you are not convinced, ask President Elect Obama about the amount of criticism he received for not wearing a flag pin.

Israel Bias: Fact or Fiction (Part I)

I was watching the Daily Show with John Stewart yesterday and it was his first show of the new year and in 3 weeks. Naturally, being a political satirist, he mentioned the Gaza Strip crises quite a few times in the beginning of the show.

John later welcomed his guest, the new moderator of "Meet the Press" David Gregory replacing the late Tim Russert. Once he and David started talking about the Gaza crises, John asked "Why can't any American politician criticize Israel in any way for their behavior?" Which got me thinking, does America have a natural biased towards Israel or does Israel's actions, and those of its enemies, depict America's attitude of the situation?

Interestingly enough, both Stewart and Gregory are of the Jewish faith but perhaps that does not really matter. In order to investigate this matter, we need to establish a few things. First of which is that we are searching for the cause of America's constant and unwavering support of Israel for the past 50 years, and not whether such support actually exists. We also need to agree that such support, while varied between American administrations, never swayed over to the Palestinian/Lebanese/Egyptian/Syrian side. Furthermore, such support has existed since the declaration of the state of Israel in 1948 and more importantly eons before 2001.

Now according to the WRMEA (Washington Report on Middle East Affairs) the United States has given over 84 Billion dollars of financial support to Israel. Other sources claim that figure is a gross underestimate if you include Military weapons the U.S. donated to Israel. The reason I bring the money issue into the discussion is so we can exclude financial reasons, meaning Israel is financially indebted to the U.S. and not the other way around.

Check out my blog Israel Biased: Fact or Fiction (Part II) where I highlight the remains of my argument.

Die Hard - Gaza Strip

I have spent a few hours in the past week or so reading about the current conflict in the "Holy Land" and I have to say that I have been left in awe over this situation. I have always thought that the Israel/Palestine/Lebanon/Syria/Egypt/(every other country in the Mideast) conflict is pretty ridiculous and a clear example on how religion always kills more than it inspires.

I cannot believe that Hamas (AFTER 500 Palestinians dead) is still bombing Israel.
I cannot believe that Israel tries to justify the death of 500 "clearly not Hamas militants" Palestinians.
I cannot believe that Egypt has closed the border with Gaza which makes the only escape route for hundreds of thousands civilians from non-stop bombardment.
I cannot believe that United States President George W. Bush's only response to the situation is "it is Hamas' fault."
I cannot believe that the United Nations is looking at the situation like a kid spectator at a ball game.
Perhaps, more shocking than the rest:
I cannot believe that when religious fanatics act pretty recklessly in the name of religion, it still shocks me.

Here is a thought, how about we try, for one year, to live without religion...just try it...No religious nuts, no killing in the name of god, no cutting people's arms off, no killing your daughters, no waging religious wars....

Actually I fear that fictional world more than the real one, because people need to be lied to and tricked into believing that there is something that exist who is more powerful than them. Many people believe that religion is an invention of man, but why?

People cling to religion because they do not want to think and contemplate about what happens to them once they die, they rather believe in the fairy tale of heaven and hell. How scary is it if there was no such thing as an afterlife? Wow, that's a fearful thought!