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?