Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Weapon of Choice

I know the guy's new, but I already don't like him. He hasn't done anything to offend me personally and has said nothing bad about my family, but I disagree with his strong conservative beliefs. There will be no extension of the Catholic church, creating (or rather continuing) a vortex of denial for the issues of birth control, marriage rights (minister and homosexuals) and all that I resiliently stand with a, "why not?"

I've heard he's trying to lighten the whole staunch conservative thing, in an effort to appeal to non religiocons. How exactly would you go about doing that? Hopefully it might be allow same-sex civil unions? Again, why not? Let them have their rights. They deserve as much as you or I do. We're all humans, and are equal under the constitution. At least, it looks good on paper. I know the pope doesn't create U.S. laws, but he has a profound influence on the world. Enough so, that a little blogger like me is talking about him, and I am really no one "important".

I heard an interesting claim the past week, and it's made a lot of sense to me. And I don't just say this as a harsh critic of religion. The pope is a dictator. He is, really. One man, though elected by his best friends (what I see somewhat of as an oligarchy), who rules his own little (though very little) "nation". There is no democratic processes that go on, to my knowledge.

The faithful, then, might (metaphorically) be considered people under a dictator. But as with most dictators, I believe the citizens never really experience truth. Complete honesty and individuality. With a pope, such a powerful influence and Catholic voice he is, the faithful do not always think for themselves. But I guess that's one of the comforts of religion, or cults, or whatever conforming organization you'd like to be a part of.

Dictators always hide behind something. It's the way the oppress their people and deny the truth. It doesn't matter if their weapon is military might, religions obedience, or "democracy". The subtle ones that no one one questions are the ones that we need to keep an eye on.

Sunday, April 10, 2005

We Don't Need No Education...

I have to agree with the Chinese protesters in their cause. It's messy, but they are right. If Japan cannot create honest textbooks that confess their wartime atrocities from World War Two, the history books should not be published. Unless Japan can admit to their crimes (which are in the past and no longer involve current Japanese citizens), the books will be misleading of facts.

Iraq has a newly elected president and he predicts magically American troops will be out of Iraq within two years. I just can't wait. I will celebrate Iraq's democracy as it happens and be critical of the current nation building every step of the way. Too much needs to be fixed at home as far as health care, income disparity, and economic conditions go. Two years for American troops feels like forever and yet it is relatively soon compared to some estimates of complete soldier returns.

The bottom line is we need Iraqi soldiers. Iraqi citizens who are willing to defend their country in a more technologically advanced and (god let's hope) safer Iraq. I've heard things about soldiers being trained that are only part time and are usually farmers. While farmers are an absolute critical necessity, career soldiers are needed for security. Permanent defense.

In some lighter news, this is fantastic. Apparently, an Australian citizen had recently come to the United States, and the first thing he decided to do was to stand outside the capitol building with two suitcases. Police suspected he was a terrorist, possibly a suicide bomber. They tried negotiating with him, but he refused to tell police what was inside his suitcases. He said only that he wanted to talk to the president. The standoff ended with the man being tackled and nobody getting injured.

When the police obtained his bags, the bomb squad blew one up and found that the probably contained a CD player or "a watch or something". I can't help but find that amusing.

Okay, maybe that wasn't "lighter" news, due to the fact he could've been a real terrorist! Our congressman could all be dead right now! As I hope you can tell, I do not seriously mean the previous two sentences in the slightest. The man just wanted to have a chat with W, that's all.

Thursday, April 07, 2005

God to Peter Jennings: You're Next

No joking though, cancer sucks, and Peter Jennings has it. It seems like god doesn't like famous people. They're dropping like things that often are dropped, like expensive china.

First batter is (sorry, baseball just started you see) Terri Schiavo. I'm glad her suffering is over, wether her passing went as smoothly as I would've prefered (euthanasia maybe). Granted, her husband may have done some weird stuff, but I like to think he was looking out for her best interest. What can I say, I agree with the guy despite any shading dealings the right screams about.

The "people's pope" has finally died, as well. Both, I think would've been expected earlier. The pope has been a gross human being, health wise, and this one we were all expecting. From what I've been hearing, there's some strange rituals that they do with a dead pope. These ranging from hitting the pope on the head with a hammer (a special one) to parading him around (well we knew this, but) they do it while his body releases a horrible stench.

After this post had been saved, the pope was buried, providing all with more water cooler debates and blog post ideas. Does anything happy happen in the news...at all?

Too bad Pope, Terri (well it wasn't bad for the latter). They are now both going going gone.

Okay, I'll stop.