New Thoughts

Under the spiritual guidance of a good friend of mine, I have come to the conclusion that

1. there is no hell, satan, purgatory, or limbo.
2. those who lead bad lives simply cease to exist when they die.
3. those who lead good lives go on to eternal happiness with the creator.
4. it really doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you live a good life.
5. leading a good life is defined as loving God (if you believe in Him/Her) above everything, and loving your neighbor as you would love yourself.
6. the three athiests I know will be going to heaven, in my opnion, because they are nice, genuinely caring people.
7. the Catholic Church is very wrong on some positions (priest sex abuse scandal, AIDS in Africa, purgatory, infallibility of the pope, forming of conscience, etc.), and is therefore not The Truth.
8. the Catholic Church is the closest to teaching The Truth, even though it's members may not follow it very well.
9. Bush is still better than Kerry or Gore.
   
10. missionaries commonly only want you to see their truth, not The Truth.

More to come later. I have finals in a few weeks, and a test later today. I still need to talk about Bush's visit to Vietnam and his famous quote "We will win unless we quit", abortion, birth control, gay civil rights, end-of-life issues, captial punishment, education, and a few other housekeeping things. Until then, stay tuned.

North Korea

Wait, wait. NK our fault? I don't think so.

Clinton was the one that "helped" their "acute energy shortage" and let them divert the money to the military. Like the article says, the GOP released a video of Maddy Albright handing Kim Jong II a basketball signed by Michael Jordan. Yeah.

Economic sanctions/help worked? Riiiiiight.

Wait a tic, under whose administration was this caught? The Bush Admin, no?
So Clinton's policy's in NK didn't work? They were too soft, you say?
Hmmmm.

I will admin, however, we were probably too hard on Saddam. But he shouldn't have been killing his own people and being a dick in the first place. If Iran would have invaded, the UN would have forced them out.
Well, they would have made a piddily, half-assed attempt to oust Iranian troops, and would have eventually yielded to US Special Forces to take them out. But that's at least an attempt.

Bush's fault my ass.

Judgment Day

Judgment Day (c) 2006. All Rights Reserved.

[Intro:]
[Spoken:] What is wrong with people?
They just don't listen.
They just don't care.
Feels like...


[Verse 1:]
The world is all messed up,
nobody even cares,
the people who've been raped,
get only ugly stares.
All the nations of the earth,
with their prisons all filled,
all hatin' each other,
'cuz their family was killed.

Some people doin' hate crimes,
'Gainst white, Mexican and black,
They're all stuck where they are,
'cuz they have to get back.
Some countries making peace,
While others make bombs,
And all I know is that
the Rapture won't be long.


[Refrain:]
[Female voices:] Judgment day...
[Male singer:] He will remove you from the fray.
[Male voices:] Because it's judgment day...
[Female singer:] The good Lord will carry me away.
[Repeat]


[Verse 2:]
Child molesters gettin' out,
back to society,
nobody ever really cares
if these people should be free.
The immodest lines of fashion
go always up and down,
but maybe parents do not care,
'cuz I've never seen them frown.

Some earthly churches preaching hate,
killing others not a sin.
But is that so advisable,
given the hard times that we're in?
Relationships based just on sex,
it seems so hard to fill,
the emptiness of our cold hearts,
no wonder why we kill.


[Refrain]


[Extro:]
Welcome...to Judgment Day,
the good Lord will carry us away,
all sins will be forgiven, all debts will be fulfilled,
the Lord will come in glory, it's Redemption Day.


Judgment Day (c) 2006. All Rights Reserved.

RIAA

I recently read (albeit online) that the RIAA had sued a family for copyright in fringement even though they didn't own a computer. And a grandmother who had already died. This is ludicrous. Does anybody else see a problem with the troops in Iraq not getting body armor, while kids complain they don't have an iPod and artists (especially rappers) parade around making millions of dollars a year? I do realize that the artists do have a right to copyright "their" music, but don't they make enough money as it is? Are they really doing that much good for society by singing and giving the impression that shooting cops, admiring only the physical side of people, and having frivolous sex is a good thing? Why don't the record labels take every dime they were going to spend creating a marketing a "shoot dem damn cops", "gotta get otta the hood, yo", "get yo ass ova here, bitch", "my humps, my humps, my humps, my lovely lady lums" album and donate it to the funds that go directly to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan? Why are people more concerned with getting the new Tool or rapper CD than their brother, dad, or uncle, fighting in Iraq?

Which brings me to my second point. Why is Hollywood so smug (you gotta watch Southpark for this one). Keep refreshing that page, only a few more weeks until the elephant shows you his wise thoughts.

More Email

I got this in another email. Enjoy debating it!

WHAT SENATOR JOHN GLENN SAID
John Glenn said things that make you think a little:

There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq in January 2005. In the fair city of Detroit there were 35 murders in the month of January. That's just one American city, about as deadly as the entire war-torn country of Iraq that month.
When some claim that President Bush shouldn't have started this war to protect our freedom, remember the following acts that were also to protect our freedom:

FDR led us into World War II.
Germany never attacked us; Japan did.
From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost ... an average of 112,500 per year.
Truman finished that war and started one in Korea.
North Korea never attacked us.
From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost ...
an average of 18,334 per year.
John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam conflict in 1962.
Vietnam never attacked us.
Johnson turned Vietnam into a quagmire.
From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost ..
an average of 5,800 per year.
Clinton went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent. Bosnia never attacked us.
He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter three times by Sudan and did nothing. Osama has attacked us on
multiple occasions. In the years since terrorists attacked us, President Bush has liberated two countries, largely crushed the Taliban,
worked diligently to cripple al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors in Libya, Iran, and, North Korea without firing a shot, and
captured a terrorist who slaughtered 300,000 of his own people.
The Democrats, who started the acts of war above, are complaining about how long this war is taking.

But
It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno to take the Branch Davidian compound in Waco. That was a 51-day operation.
We've looked for evidence of chemical weapons in Iraq for less time than it took Hillary Clinton to find the Rose Law Firm billing records.
It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Ted Kennedy to call the police after his
Oldsmobile sank at Chappaquiddick.
It took less time to take Iraq than it took to count the votes in Florida!!!!
Our Commander-In-Chief is doing a good job to protect our freedom from terror!
This war is very difficult, but isn't our security and freedom worth some time and sacrifice?
And, the Military morale is high!
The biased media hopes we are too ignorant to realize the facts.
But Wait .
There's more!
JOHN GLENN (ON THE SENATE FLOOR)
Mon, 26 Jan 2004 11:13
Some people still don't understand why military personnel do what they do for a living. This exchange between
Senators John Glenn and Senator Howard Metzenbaum is worth reading. Not only is it a pretty impressive
impromptu speech, but it's also a good example of one man's explanation of why men and women in the armed
services do what they do for a living.
This IS a typical, though sad, example of what some who have never served think of the military.

Senator Metzenbaum (speaking to Senator Glenn):
"How can you run for Senate when you've never held a real job?"
Senator Glenn (D-Ohio):
"I served 23 years in the United States Marine Corps. I served through two wars. I flew 149 missions.
My plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire on 12 different occasions. I was in the space program. It wasn't my
>checkbook, Howard; it was my life on the line. It was not a nine-to-five job, where I took time off to take the
daily cash receipts to the bank."
"I ask you to go with me ... as I went the other day... to a veteran's hospital and look those men ...
with their mangled bodies . in the eye, and tell THEM they didn't hold a job!
You go with me to the Space Program at NASA and go, as I have gone, to the widows and Orphans
of Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee... and you look those kids in the eye and tell them
that their DADS didn't hold a job. Arlington National Cemetery, where I have more friends
buried than I'd like to remember, and you watch those waving flags.
You stand there, and you think about this nation, and you tell ME that those people didn't have a job?
What about you?"
For those who don't remember ..
During W.W.II, Howard Metzenbaum was an attorney representing the Communist Party in the USA.
Now he's a Senator!
If you can read this, thank a teacher.
If you are reading it in English thank a Veteran.

Obituary

In memory of Patrick David Neidringhaus, May 5th, 1987 to December 22, 2005.
Rest in Peace, friend.

NY Transit Strike

So...what was the point of that?

The Boston Mosque Party

The Boston Globe
The Weekly Standard

Evidently Boston city officials gave land (for a reduced price) to a Muslim community (of sorts) for a mosque. It was evidently intended to be a symbol of how America welcomes Muslims. Well, that's just fine and dandy, and I'm sure you would be hard pressed to find somebody who is racist against all Muslims, but shouldn't America welcome all religious groups-or none at all? Silly me, I thought that there was such a thing as "separation of church and state", and that it applied to giving religious organizations (except the Salvation Army) receiving city land for less-than-market value. Although they were going to speak at a nearby college, assisting in fundraising efforts of said college, and build and maintain a playground. My church has a playground, we support an entire Catholic school system, and our priest could certainly lecture at a few colleges around the city, so why weren't we given the land for our church at a reduced price!? The ISB didn't even half to pay half of the conveyed value! And one of the founders of the ISB did raise money for al-Queda back in the day. To me, that's suspicious, but I'm a conservative, "anti-women's rights" (I'm on the border between anti-abortion and pro-life, so therefore, I don't think women should have rights, according to some College Dem.'s-there words, not mine), pro-American-terrorism (Iraq war) redneck. This would probably make me just a bit biased, but maybe my detractors were too (although they would never admit it).

So, the bastion of liberal-facism--Boston, Mass.--supports the Muslim community, but us Christians aren't allowed to have a half-inch cross on the LA city emblem, which, so it happens, is another liberal-facist bastion. In the end, I am absolutely fine with Boston giving this group the land for less than market value, as long as it is done by a referendum, not by a city official. And Catholics can put a freaking cross on the freaking City of Angels. Under the law, the government is supposed to be absolutely fair on these things, no matter what. And while I realize that LA is a long ways away from Boston, and in a separate state, it is still troubling that liberals on one side of the country under-charge Muslims for land, while liberals on the other side of the country won't allow a cross on an emblem, although the city's name is itself blatantly Christian, albeit in Spanish. No liberal bias, my a--.

Another thing I noticed: the ACLU. Assuming that they were absolutely fair, if the ACLU wanted Christian symbols off of courthouse steps (although they were right next to other religion's holy-day symbols), they would naturally not want the city of Boston to under-charge an overtly religious group for the land. They would also not like the city to force religious leaders to give lectures at the nearby college or help the college raise funds (as a religious group). But, searching Google News for "Boston ACLU mosque" (without the quotes) returned zero relavant results. So, it doesn't look like the supposed defender of America's freedoms is defending America's freedoms against essentially spending over $200,000 in tax dollars for a religious organization. However, according to another Google News Search ("Boston ACLU" without the quotes) returns a result stating that the ACLU doesn't want tax dollars in another town being spent to plow snow from church parking lots. So, again, we have a perfect example of how stuck up and stupid the liberal fringe (you're welcome Jim ;D ) in America really is. Don't be fooled, the far-left is only for "Christian separation from the state".

Update: I support the actions of all personal reflections of faith in school. Putting a covering over your head is absolutely cool with me (we have a few women do this at school--they are totally awesome people). Handing out candy canes with Biblical messages attached is perfectly fine with me. You don't want the Biblical message, that's fine. Throw it away. Eat the candy, too. Hell, tear the religious message off, eat the candy, and throw the message away, all right in front of the person who gave it to you. They don't have a right not to get offended, but neither do you. And for God's sake, if you want to sing Christmas carols, fine! But, just to legally cover yourself, allow students to sit out, and sing a few Jewish songs. If somebody still complains, tell them to cram it somewhere (take that how you will, I'm not insinuating anything).

"Go To Hell"

Straight from an Iraqi voter's mouth.

Torture

I'm watching a 60 Minutes thing here. Evidently "rendition" ws setup under the Clinton admin. And his National Security Advisor gave them explicit permission to send terrorists to Egypt (and he knew that they would be tortured there). Evidently in Afghanistan, this guy was beaten and questioned for five months, and it turns out that it was just a case of mistaken identity.
So, it was Clinton and his aides who set this up, not the Bush administration. Yes, the current administration could have sunk the program, but at least they didn't set it up. Furthermore, a guy on 60 Minutes (who worked at the CIA) said that any information they got through torture would most likely just be what the torturers wanted to hear. So, why would the CIA use torture to elicit a confession? That the gleaned information wouldnt be real does make sense.