An Open Letter to the Right Wing Pundits

To whom it may concern:

I've been paying close attention to you in the wake of President Obama's re-election and I'm a little confused. You say that the people voted for someone who would give them stuff, that the takers won this time. What exactly did you mean by "taker"? I'm rather curious because you seem to be talking out of both sides of your mouth. You say that there should be programs to help the very poor, yet you also decry those programs as being wasteful. You seem to denigrate the poor because they are poor, and I thought that, as good Catholics, you were supposed to help take care of the poor.

You say you want us to have the chance to succeed on our own, yet when we ask for a hand up you slap that hand away. You talk about success and money as if it means a person is better for having them, while complaining that people who have a microwave or refrigerator aren't really poor. How are people supposed to store food without something to put it in? Are you really so full of baloney that you actually believe that?

You say that people should own their own health insurance, but you don't want the insurance companies to be required to cover people with pre-existing conditions. You say the very poor should just go to the emergency room. Well many people die doing that and I don't recall you airing a single story on those people and what should be done to help them. You want to cut Medicaid, or send it back to the states in the form of block grants. What happens when the block grant runs out? Currently the federal government pays when that happens but under your ideas it wouldn't. How would the people left out pay for their health care?

I am not a taker. I am a man who is in the position to need help. I'm currently on food stamps, Medicaid and SSI because of my health problems, both physical and psychological. I didn't ask for these problems, and I sure didn't ask to be demonized by you because I need the help, nor did any of the other people who legitimately need help. Are there people who abuse they system? Yes, of course, but that doesn't mean the program itself is bad.

John Stewart, in a debate with Bill O'Reilly, asked why it was that if you're rich and take advantage of government programs you're a smart business man, but if you're poor you're somehow a taker? (This is me paraphrasing obviously but the point remains the same).

You complain about the minimum wage and want to see it abolished. Let the Free Market tm determine people's wages. Well we had a period like that and wages were a pittance. People had to work three or four jobs to make ends meet. Is that really the model you want to go back to? One where the worker is at the mercy of his employer and has no recourse or protection from them? I suppose it is, since you are the voice of the employer in many cases.

You complain that 48% of the people don't pay any federal income taxes. How much of that percentage are people who make all their money on stocks and dividends? Of course those are the job creators so they don't count I suppose.

You complain about women wanting their health insurance to cover birth control. I'm sorry but many of these same companies will pay for a man's Viagra, and if insurance will pay for that it should also cover birth control. If you want to not pay for it for religious reasons I'm fine with that, provided you stop taking government money. If you take the government's money you should have to abide by the same laws as everyone else and that means insurance companies paying for birth control.

I'm fairly certain that you'll ignore this and go on demonizing the poor, but know that there will always be people like me who are here calling you out for it.

That's all for now

May God bless you and may God be gracious to you

End of line

On Some Changes to My Views

We all grow and adapt throughout our lives. We start off believing in some things, and later on sometimes we change.

Change is never easy and sometimes it can be agonizing. We feel like we're betraying family or friends and the inner conflict we feel can be very hard to overcome.

While my belief in God and Christ are still large parts of my life, my political views have changed drastically in some regards.

I need to start off by saying that I'm pro-life. I have been since I was old enough to understand the issue. That being said I don't like the way that the pro-life community has approached the issue. I don't like that there are groups that bomb clinics. I don't like there are people that post the names and addresses of doctors in the hopes that they get killed by some nut.

I think that if the pro-life community had started opening clinics of their own, offering all services except for abortions, that there might have been fewer abortions over the years.

The other problem, as I see it, is that a large number of self professed pro-lifers only care that a baby is born. Many of them oppose any program to give prenatal care to the mothers and any program to give financial assistance to the poor families that need the help.

When I was younger I was a lot more stringent about the issue than I am now. I still think that abortion is wrong, though I totally understand getting one in the cases of rape or incest, but I just don't think that the fight can be won in the courts or in the legislature. The law is the law and I really don't think that its going to change anytime soon. I think that all the money fighting it in those arenas could be better spent opening free prenatal clinics or starting up charities to help poor families.

I didn't use to think that single payer was the way to go in the health care debate. (This is something I went more in-depth in another entry). Right now I'm on Medicaid and taking oncology medicine for a gastro-intestinal stromal tumor. I've seen what people have to go through when trying to get Medicaid and my stance changed from being against it to being for it. There's just too many people who need help to rely totally on charity. If every church in the country pooled their money, after taking out their operating costs, there still wouldn't be enough money to help all the people that need health care.

On marriage I've gone from thinking that gay marriage was wrong to believing that government should just get out of the business of recognizing marriages. If marriage is a religious institution then it should be kept that way and the government should only recognize civil unions.

Most of what I think now has changed significantly from when I was younger. The core of my beliefs, namely belief in God and Jesus Christ, hasn't changed, but sometimes I feel like I'm betraying my family for thinking the way that I do. I've talked about it with my family and they don't see the changes in my beliefs as a betrayal. In fact they understand why I think the way I do now.

Sometimes though I get depressed and feel bad about it though. I guess that's why I write about things like this. Just trying to work things out in my head.

That's all for now

May God bless you and may God be merciful unto you all the days of your life.

End of line

Republicans and the 47%

here's been a lot of talk lately about Mitt Romney and his comments on the so called 47% of the country that supposedly are never going to vote for him. An excellent open letter was written by The Bucking Jenny ( http://thebuckingjenny.blogspot.com/ ), go read it, its a well written piece and needs more people sharing it so the word gets out.

This is my take on what he said.

I have to say starting out that I don't know Mitt Romney. I don't know what his life was like, other than it was one of privilege. He never wanted for money a day in his life. Even when he was living on his own with his wife Ann he got by, not by getting a job and working his way through college, but by selling off stocks given to him by his father.

Now I don't have a problem with that in theory. In practice it means that Mitt Romney doesn't really know what its like to struggle, to be of poor health or to have to make ends meet on a budget. It means that he never had to feed himself and his family on food stamps, and while that's not really a bad thing it also means that he's never given a thought as to what the people who do rely on those things go through on a daily basis.

He laments that 47% of the country pays no income tax, a lamentation that is reflected by other Republicans and conservative pundits like Sean Hannity. What Romney, and the punditry don't tell you is that a large portion of that number are people living on Social Security. Another percentage are people making less than $20,000 a year. 

We've had a Republican run for President, namely Rick Perry of Texas, campaign on getting rid of the G.I. Bill on the grounds that it was welfare.

We have Republicans running for office saying that Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are unconstitutional. 

We have Republicans running for office who want to cut funding for food stamps, and Meals on Wheels.

We have Republicans running for office who want to take Medicaid and give it to the states in block grants. To which I ask, what happens when the money runs out? Given to the states in this fashion will require that the states decide on a case by case basis what gets paid for and what doesn't. Hmmmm, that sounds a lot like a "death panel" doesn't it?

The Republicans want to take Medicare and turn it into a voucher program, while at the same time not requiring insurance companies to cover people. I'm sorry but those two positions are mutually exclusive. What happens if a senior has a pre-existing condition? If the insurance companies are not required to cover everyone then all those seniors suddenly have no means of paying for their health care.

Alan Grayson once got in trouble with the right by saying that the Republican health care plan was for the sick to die quickly. Based on the preponderance of the evidence he would seem to be right.

Hannity often screams that the "ebil liberals"  slander conservatives by saying that Republicans want dirty air and water and want kids with autism and seniors to fend for themselves. Actually this is also true. The Republicans want to get rid of EPA, they don't want insurance companies to be required to cover those with pre-existing conditions, they want fewer protections for workers and they want to limit what a person can sue for if injured by a corporation.

On many issues I consider myself to be a social conservative, maybe a social moderate if what some of my online friends tell me. However that being said I cannot vote for a Republican as long as they pay greater homage to Ayn Rand than they do the people of the United States. We the people elect them and they answer to all of us. 

I think that its long past time that we remind them of that.

That's all for now.

May God bless you and may God keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. Amen and Amen

End of line 

An Open Letter to America 2

My fellow Americans

On Monday night April 26th Bill O'Reilly crossed the line.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMZ8nwJCh60

At 3:15 you'll see what I'm talking about. He showed two people being murdered on national television and then went on a rant about how evil the terrorists were who murdered the man and woman in the video. He then went on to derisively state "only Army interrogation for them".

Really.

Bill, you've made the claim for years that you're a moral traditionalist. That you represent what the regular American thinks. Well this past Monday you outed yourself as a moral relativist. You don't believe in tradtional morals, you believe in morality of convience. It's ok to torture people if we think they have information, and if they don't "mistakes happen in war." The kind of morality you espouse makes justification for the torture of prisoners of war because it's more expediant to do that than it is to do things right. The kind of "morality" you endorse is hypocrisy at its worst. You claim that people on the left are all hate mongers and crazies, yet you go on to relentlessly attack anyone who dares to question you or call you the times you're wrong. You attack people all the time and then use the petulant excuse of "they started it."

Bill you're a hypocrite and a liar and worse than those you're an apologist for torture and a propogandist.

You go out of your way to try and destroy GE and conversely the NBC networks, thus costing thousands of people their jobs; but those people don't matter to you. They don't worship at the alter of Bill O'Reilly so they don't matter.

You and people like you dodge every attempt at a legitmate discussion of the torture of our prisoners in the war on terror. "It was effective" you proclaim, or "you want to prosecute someone for having a different opinion", or "do you want the terrorists to win". You don't have a counter to the point that waterboarding is torture and has been since the Spanish Inquisition, nor can you counter the point that we've prosecuted people for the crime of waterboarding so you attack your detractors instead of actually having the conversation.

In showing the video in which two innocent people were murdered and then decrying the use of the army interrogation manual and calling for more torture ("enhanced interrogation" if you want the euphemism) you tried to commit emotional blackmail and that makes you the worst kind of propogandist. The willing one.

I call on you my fellow Americans to make it known that this kind of thing will not be tolerated. We all have freedom of speech but freedom of speech means taking accountability for when you say something outrageous. Bill O'Reilly should be held accountable for what he's said and the black hearted manipulation he attempted with his airing of such a disgusting video. Speak out and let your voice be heard.

My name is John and I am a Christian by belief and an American by birth, of Southern blood and tired of seeing what's happening to our country.

The Spirit of Charity and Giving

As many people know we lost Gary Gygax recently. His loss was especially hard for many of us, though we never met him, because there are a large number of us who found a place to belong. His game encouraged us to be heroes. We got to, in some small way, live out our fantasies and imagine worlds better than our own. The outcasts, the geeks, the nerds, and many of the people who society proper believes to be "weird" found that they weren't so alone in the world, that we had one another and that was ok. We formed a community and though we may disagree wildly we can always come together with the commone experience of being gamers.

Now gamers are, for a variety of reasons, a fairly generous group of people. We give gladdly because we recognize that we've been blessed and we know that reaching out to help others will make the world a better place. We know that we need to do this, not just because it's the right thing to do, but also because if we ever want the world to be what we see in our mind's eye then we need to work to get there. For us it's a matter of recognizing that people who have it worse than us who need help, and having been in the position where we didn't get help, we feel it a matter of course that we're going to help others.

I mention these things because this past Gen Con there was a charity auction held in honor of Gary Gygax's memory. The money was to be donated to Mr. Gygax's favorite charity The Christian Children's Fund. When said charity discovered that the donation money was, in part, connected to the sale of D&D they flattly refused the money. The auction found another sponsor in Fisher House so things sort of worked out for the best, but that's not the point.

The point is that Mr. Gygax was, himself, a Christian. He'd supported the charity for years and not a little of that money very likely came from D&D or other fantasy gaming products he was behind. I find it rather troubling that a charity that's always emphasized the vital need for money to help starving children refused money because they believed it to be somehow tainted by the heathen gamers.

Ladies and gentlemen I am a Christian myself. I've never made a secret of this and I'll talk about it openly and honestly given a chance. Speaking as a Christian I don't understand where this charity is coming from. We wanted to help and we were refused because we ran into the old stereotype of D&D is satanic. That hurts.

Now I'm not going to wish bad things upon the Christian Children's Fund but I would encourage people to write them and calmly explain how they feel about their refusal of funds. Don't curse them out, don't scream and yell; act like the better person. Show them you understand the spirit of giving and charity and be mature in your dealings. They very likely won't listen, people who hold a stereotype that closely rarely do, but we need to be the bigger people in all this. If for no other reason than to show everyone else that they're wrong about us.

That's all for now

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

End of line

An Open Letter to the RNC

To whom it may concern,

My name is John, and I'm 35 years old. I've been a registered Republican since the day I could start voting and I'm speaking out to you as a concerned citizen of these United States.

I am sorely disappointed with the direction that the GOP has taken with this Presidential election. The McCain campaign has run one of the nastiest and sleaziest campaigns that I've ever seen. The constant attacks of character, especially after McCain himself said that Obama was a good man, are unconscienable. They've lied about their own health care plan and have never addressed the fact that their plan would tax health care benefits as income. Replacing those lost benefits with a credit that goes right back to the insurance companies is no benefit and it certainly won't help people who have pre-existing conditions and are unable to buy health insurance anyway.

I don't think I really need to bring up the subtle attempts at the application of terror that you've been using but I will none the less. People do not need to be afraid of an Obama Presidency, McCain himself said that very thing. Yet you surround him with people like Ann Coulter who tend to use words like terrorist, and put emphasis on Obama's middle name. Let's not kid ourselves shall we? We both know what's going on with that and it's disgraceful.

Now we have the accuations that your opponents are attacking "Joe the plumber". There are a couple problems with this line of attack on your part. The first is that McCain brought Joe into the debate. The second is that Joe himself held a press conferance outside his home where he chose to express his thoughts, such as being totally against Soical Security. Now that is his right as an American, however you don't get to complain when it comes out that the person YOU dragged into this election debate turns out to not actually be a liscensed plumber. You also don't get to complain when it comes out that said non-plumber turns out to owe $1000+ in back taxes. How is this the fault of the other side when YOU and YOUR candidate are the ones who brought him up in the first place?

More troubling still are the recent rumblings of the old accusations of American citizens , particularly those on the left, as being "Anti-American". I was deeply offended to see a congresswoman on Hardball say to the world that she wanted the media to do an indepth expose on anyone in congress who's views are "Anti-American." One of McCain's own advocates, also on MSNBC, implied that only those people who voted for McCain were "Real Virginians". It is patently offensive for you to say that because someone may not agree with the party line that they're somehow not really patriotic Americans like you. Remember "Patriotism is the last resort of the scoundrel".

Which brings me to the recent accusation by Rush Limbaugh that the only reason Gen. Colin Powell was endorsing Barak Obama was race. I'd ask that you come out and condem this line of attack but I'd be wasting my breath. Is it really that unrealistic that Gen. Powell thought through this decision carefully and methodically before coming to the conclusion he did? Of course from what I've seen so far I think your answer would be yes.

In conclusion let me say that after this election I will be registering as an indedpendant. I will vote my conscience and only my conscience.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, "I'm not leaving the Republican Party, the Republican Party left me/"

John

On Sarah Palin

I've been paying attention to the Presidential race for a while now and I've come to some conclusions that I thought I'd share with you all.

The first among these is that Sarah Palin was chosen, not for her record as a Govenor, but for purely political purposes. There were other female Govenors that had far more experience and were more widely known and respected that McCain could have chosen. Instead he chose someone who very few outside of Alaska had even heard of. Now it is his right as the nominee to pick whoever he wants, to an extent, as his VP, but my understanding is that Joe Lieberman was his first choice. It's also my understanding that the people running his campaign convinced him to choose someone else that was more in line with the Republican base and who wouldn't cause a riot at the Republican convention. In response to this he chose a woman who he had only talked to once on the phone and had only met with personally for fifteen minutes.

Sarah Palin simplly wasn't prepared for the level of srutiny that was headed her way and it's interesting that the McCain campaign has gone out of their way to shield her in a way that would never be tolerated if she was a male VP candidate. Now it is very true that there are those in the bloggosphere and the tabloid rags who were totally out of line in regards to her family, we can all agree on that one. However to equate any questioning of her record or her qualifications to be President as an attack is just insipid pandering.

The recent interviews with Katie Couric have shown that Palin is totally out of her depth in regards to a national election. It's important to remember that Palin comes from Alaska here. Alaska is one of the largest states in the Union we're told, and this is true if one is talking about land mass. In terms of population it's one of the smallest. Their total population is half that of some major cities and, like it or not, that means that she's much more used to small town politics and that just doesn't work on a national level.

It's important for me that you understand that I don't think that Palin is a stupid person. She definitely does have charisma and moxy in spades, not unlike Joe Biden in that regard. What she doesn't have, however, is any national experience. Her answers in recent interviews have been rambling responses that don't really adress the question that she's been asked and no matter how much experience you have you can't do that any more. There are too many means by which the people can call you on it.

Let me ask this one question in closing. Would we demand from any male candidate that their opponent not be condescending in a debate, or not use sarcasm? Shouldn't she be treated like she's one of the big players since she seems to want to play the game at the biggest levels?

Presidential Race

I've had my fill of the disengenuous tripe that's been spewing forth from the lips of Republican nominee John McCain. In light of that allow me to make a few things known to one and all.

1. No one is ever ready to be President. I don't care what McCain, or anyone else says about the matter, nothing can prepare you to be President. Every President has had to learn on the job because every President has governed differently.

2. McCain is not, repeat not, a regulator. He's described himself as "being fundamentally a de-regulator", so any time that he says he's for regulation he's lying.

3. McCain voted against equal pay for women. That's a fact. It's in his voting record and he can't deny it.

4. McCain was one of the Keating Five.

5. In 2001 McCain voted against increased funding for medical care for our verterans. He's voted against increased funding for that several times over the years but he has the utter temerity to then say that he "cares" about the troops. If that's true why vote against the increased medical care? Aren't his fellow vets worth spending the money on?

6. Sarah Palin wasn't McCain's first choice for VP, it was Senator Joe Liebermen. Palin was chosen as a patently transparent attempt to sway Hillary voters to vote for him instead.

7. Living in Alaska and being close to Russia does not, in any way, shape or form, give you foreign policy cred.

8. If you're going to say that you have to leave for Washington immediately, then leave immediately. Don't stop for a sit down interview and then act all indignant when you get called on it.

9. McCain's television ads have been the sleaziest I've ever seen. This after promising that his campaign would be the most ethical ever run. Another lie to the American people.

10. Today McCain said that he would always tell us the truth. Well if that's true then he better own up to all the other lies he's told during his campaign so far because I have no problem with tracking them down and posting them for all to see.

That's just a few of the things I needed to get off my chest. You can agree or not, it's your choice, but right now my vote's behind Barak Obama.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

End of line

Itagaki Is a Jackass

Itagaki, the creator of the Dead or Alive series, and the recent Ninja Gaiden revivals is a colossal jack ass, there I said it.

I don't think I'm alone in thinking this either because he strikes me as being a pretentious twat and I can't be the only person in the world who thinks this about him.

Maybe it's my inner child but I remember a time when games were supposed to be, oh I don't know, FUN. It wasn't about who could make the shiniest game but about things like getting the highscore and having tons of fun while trying. Super Mario Bros, Metroid, and the original Ninja Gaiden games on the NES were like that. They were hard in some areas but they were also fun. People understood them to be what they were, entertainment.

Fast forward to now where you have a man who's claim to fame is creating a fighting game with bouncing boobies and an action game that's an exercise in controler breaking frustration.

Now I'm not adverse to a game having a learning curve but when that curve is the bloody cliffs of dover from the get gothen we have a problem; because at that point it's no longer about having fun but about how much of a twit the programers were.

I think it really comes down to image, and really that all Itagaki has. He's made a point of publicly talking down to and about gamers who don't have the 360, like it was somehow the only machine worthy of him and those filthy people who like other systems were just poor plebians who didn't get it.

No Itagaki you don't get it. You see you are not a rock star. You are a game designer and games are supposed to be fun above all else and you don't seem to get that. Shigeru Miyamoto and Hideo Kojima get that games are supposed to be fun. Sure they can be difficult at times but they're still fun.

You on the other hand seem to think that only an enlightened few should be able to beat your games. This doesn't make you a better designer, it makes you a pretentious twat. Walking around like you're best thing to happen to the industry doesn't make your opinion true, but copping the attitude while also making terrible games makes you a pretentious twat.

Oh and in case you didn't get the message, that also makes you a pretentious twat.

That's all for now

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His Face to shine upon you amen and amen

End of line

Bill O'Reilly and Fox News are in the Tank

O'Reilly's officially lost it. Again.

Claiming that Fox News isn't in the tank for anyone is like me saying that the sky isn't blue and equally demonstrablly untrue.

For months Fox News has been the Anti-Obama network, going so far as to continue to talk about the Rev. Wright issue long after it stopped being news. They continued to talk about how bad and how inexperienced Barak Obama is and conviently ignoring the gaffes by the McCain camp and leaving Clinton gaffes by the wayside within days of them happening.

O'Reilly claims that he would never work for such a network that was in the tank for a candidate.

Well given Fox News history of trying to destroy the candidacy of Barak Obama where is his resignation, as he claimed he would give?

O'Reilly has a documented hatred for NBC. MSNBC is, by their own admission, a left of center news channel. I believe much of this hatred stems from the fact that Keith Olberman is fairly consistent in calling Bill on the times he gets it wrong. Bill doesn't like being wrong, after all he's the self proclaimed master of the "no-spin zone."

The problem here is that Bill uses a dishonest tactic called "ambush journalism". Where-in he sends one of the people in his employ to ambush interview someone when they're with their families, or going to work, or on vacation. If someone doesn't want to be interviewed their right to privacy should be respected, though their are exceptions to this rule (such as the Hall of Shame segments and such consumer protection stories).

The point here is that Fox News has been in the tank for a Hillary vs. McCain Presidential campaign. This can be proven by simply watching Hannity & Colmes or any number of their other programing.

So Bill where's that resignation you said you would give?

That's all for now

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

End of line

Giving Up a Soldier's Life, or Another Bush Travesty

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080520/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_quran_shooting

The above story truly sickens me. (BTW the punishment for defacing the quran is death in most middle east countries)

The sniper in the above story shot a book. I'll grant you that it was disrepsectful of him to do so, but he's an American citizen with the same right to free speech as you or me. If this was done on an American military base then there was no crime. Those bases are supposed to count as American soil to an extent but apparently the President would rather appease the Iraqi government instead of standing up for one of his own.

Appeasment. I thought we were supposed to be against that kind of thing Mr. President. What would our stalwart ally, Israel, think of us turning over one of our own like this? What would the 4000 of our own dead soldiers, sacrificed for your war, think of this? What would the 43000 soldiers who you sent back to Iraq, despite being classified as being medically unfit to serve, think of this? Of course the questions are rhetorical. You don't care about them in the least. You claim to give up golf, around the time you're having knee problems conviently enough. But of course even this isn't true as there are photographs of you playing golf after your anouncement that you were making that sacrifice in a show of solidarity with the families of our soldiers.

I, as an American citizen and the son and nephew of veterans DEMAND that you not turn over one of our own like this. I DEMAND that he face American punishment, if any at all, and above all else I DEMAND that you pull our troops out of the farce that is the war in Iraq.

That's all for now

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. Make He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen.

End of line

The Nature of Evil

Evil's not a word that we use very much anymore and that's not a good thing. Sometimes it's the only word that can accurately describe a situation. We shouldn't shy away from the Truth of a situation because describing it would make people uncomfortable, that's not honest and it doesn't help solve the problem in question.

Part of the difficulty is that people, by and large, have forgotten what evil really is. I hope, that with this post, I can shed some light on what I think evil is and what we can do to combat it.
One example of evil is the way that the Shank family was treated after Debbie Shank was injured in a horrific accident. She has severe brain damage and needs constant care. Wal-Mart paid for her care until Debbie's husband won a lawsuit on her behalf to help pay for her 24hr care. Wal-Mart then sued the shank family and won because they had a clause in her work contract gave them the right to do so. Their claim was that not only did they HAVE to sue her but they were also being generous and merciful because they were accepting less than they were owed. This is an example of evil. They knew Debbie's condition. They knew that her husband had to divorce her so that she could qualify for medicaid. They knew that her brain damage was so severe that she can't remember that her son died in Iraq and that every time she's told it's like hearing it for the first time.

What Wal-Mart did was evil without question. However the Shank's story was picked up by the media. News shows like Countdown with Keith Olberman showcased this and expressed outrage over the fiendish level of greed that Wal-Mart was showing. This, coupled with consumer outrage (and lots of prayer from Christians I hope) caused Wal-Mart to change their position and, as of today I believe, control over that money is back in the hands of Debbie's ex-husband.
During this story one Glenn Beck actually had the utter temerity to declare that the media was acting like terrorists in the way that they had handled the story. Apparently his stance was that Debbie has signed the contract so she was just out of luck. This attitude and the earlier example involving Wal-Mart itself are examples of the evil of the lack of caring about those who are in genuine need. It's selfishness made manifest and it's an ugly and evil thing.

There's also the evil of trying to lie about someone without actually lying. A good example of this can be found amongst people like Ann Coulter and some other radio personalities (including one who introduced McCain at an event, can't remember his name though) in their continued emphasis on Barak's middle name. Now while it should be abundantly clear to everyone that they're trying to pull a fast one we all know that it won't be.

For those who are wondering this is an example of lying without actually saying the lie. In putting the emphasis on Barak's middle name people like Ann Coulter are, rather coyly, trying to imply that he's a muslim when he's not. When called on it they try to spin the argument to say that they're only using his name and that there's nothing wrong with that.
If that were the case I'd agree but since I know what they're acutally doing I call them on it and call it for what it is. Evil.

To be sure there are other examples of evil in the world. They happen every day in all parts of the world. Murder, rape, child molesters, assault, etc.

How do we combat this you ask?

Well the answer is simple. The first part of combating it is to realize that God loves all of us and sent His only begotten son, Jesus, to die on the cross for all of us, and that on the third day He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. Accepting Him as Lord and Savior is the most important step. (Remember folks I'm a Christian so this point of view really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.)

Second we have to come together and work towards changing society. We have to change the hearts and minds of the people so we stop accepting things like the aforementioned evils. We have to get our hands dirty. We have to treat one another with love and kindness and care for the poor, the sick, the widows and orphans.

If we did all that then the world would be a much happier place to live. At least I think so anyway.

That's all for now.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His Face to shine upon you.
Amen and amen

End of line.

Truth in Media

I realize that titling this entry "Truth in Media" is something of an oxymoron these days but I stand by the title anyway.

Alright now that that's out of the way we can start in on the meat of things.

Fox News (or should that be Fixed Noise) commentator Sean Hannity lied about the election. I realize this comes as something of a shock to regular viewers of Hannity & Colmes but it's still the truth.

Last night Hannity made the ereoneous claim that Hillary Clinton was leading in the popular vote. Well that's not true by a long shot. The math that Hannity presented only works if you include the votes from Michigan and Florida and then only if you give none of the uncommited vote to Barak Obama, keep in mind this is also ignoring the results of the North Carolina election AND ignored the pledge that both parties signed to not count Michigan and Florida. If you give him the uncommited vote then he's STILL in the lead in both popular vote and delegates. Sorry Hannity, as an American with integrity I can't sit by and allow the misinformation you tried to spread last night to stand. It's just not in my nature.

Now I also have to take some other people to task, Ann Coulter I'm looking in your direction since you're one of them.

There are a lot of conservative commentators who insist on using Barak Obama's full name. I'm pretty sure we all know what it is so I'm not going to be baited on that. Now the problem isn't that they keep using it, it's that they put an emphasis on the middle name. When called on it
they smile and say "well it's just his name. There's nothing wrong with it."

Well I call horse manuere on the lot of them. What they're doing is subtle, which is a miracle in and of itself where some of these people are concerned, and it pretty much embodies everything that's wrong with politics today. In emphasizing Barak's middle name they're trying to say that he's a muslin without outright saying he's a muslim. Now I don't know about the rest of you but I think that's pretty slimey. There's some pretty negative views on Islam right now and implying that someone's a muslim for the express purpose of sabotaging their election is just dirty politics. I used to expect better from the conservative movement but I'm growing increasingly disallusioned with the entire process.

It's long past time we called out the various media outlets when we catch them in a lie or doing something dishonest. At least in my estimation anyway.

That's all for now.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His Face to shine upon you.
Amen and amen

End of line.

Evil Corporate Sleaze Bag Jack Asses

I've seen some things in my time that have made me angry. I've seen news stories that have made my blood boil to the point where I thought I might have an aneurism. Today I saw a story that's got them all beat.

http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2008/03/24/disabled-woman-to-pay-back-wal-mart-for-medical-expenses/

Read the above link. The writer explains it far better than I can right now.This is, without a doubt, one of the most morally reprehensible and blatantly despicable things I've ever seen in my life. What's next Wal-Mart? Are you gonna eat some babies on live television? Maybe kick some homeless people around for the fun of it?

This is wrong. They may have the legal right to do this but it is in no way the right thing to do.

I encourage everyone to stop shopping at this corportate bloodsucking beast and find somewhere else to spend your hard earned dollars. If you must go to Wal-Mart start asking the employees about this story, tell other customers.

If enough of us keep on the media to shine a light on this injustice maybe we can embarass the jerks at Wal-Mart into doing the right thing.

I need to stop now because I'm too angry to continue without completely losing it.

That's all for now

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

End of line

Barack Obama's Speach and the Reaction from the Donkey Fedoras

Strap in tight friends this is going to get rough.

I watched the speach by Barack Obama today that covered his thoughts on race in America and his association with Rev. Wright. I found the speach to be genuine, from the heart and a real attempt by him to reach out to Americans as a whole to help them understand where he's coming from. I greatly respect that while he disagrees with the hateful things that the Rev. Wright has said he maintains a friendship with the man.

To be honest I find the entire bluster over Obama's association with the Rev. Wright to be disengenuous at best and an outright dodge at worst. People don't seem to be willing to talk about the issues with him so they go after his friendships and associations; which have nothing to do with a man being President.

I was moved by Obama's speach and the odds are that I may vote for him at the next election if he's the Democratic nominee. He spoke to things that I had been thinking for a long time. He articulated my own feelings of disenfranchisement and frustration with a system that just doesn't seem to work any more. I applaud Obama for having the courage to step up and speak from the heart on this.

The reaction from most of his critics has been positive. That's good because it shows that people listened to what he was saying and understood the context in which he was speaking. Of course there are always going to be some donkey fedoras and boy was tonight no exception. I'll go through the ones I saw, if only to cool the anger that I feel over what was said.

Glen Beck: Donkey fedora number one of the night: On Glen's show he berated the speach, and only played partial clips and the proceeded to talk about how lousy the overall speach was. Nice try Glen, but see that speach is on Youtube and anyone who cares can go find it and watch it in its entirty. Those that do will realize you were being a donkey fedora.

Bill O'Reilly: Donkey fedora number two of the night: On Bill's show he also complained about how the speach had too many bad points and how Obama won't recover because he didn't throw the Rev. Wright under a bus. Bill people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. All your press hasn't been exactly positive so you have no right to judge someone else.

Dick Morris, Sean Hannity, and Frank Luntz: Tied for Donkey fedora number three of the night: The very suggestion that a president has to be willing to throw anyone under the bus is patently offensive and is the entire reason I hate politics and politicians. All of you need to grow the frell up and stop being so bloody judgemental. Who Obama is friends with is none of your business. The only thing that you should be talking about are his ideas.

That's all for now all.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

End of line

The Ides of March

The Ides of March are upon us and with them comes the next global protest against the Church of $cientology by the internet group known as Anonymous.

The last protest, held Feb. 10th of 2008, gathered over 7600 people world wide in peaceful protest against the practices and tax exempt status of the Church of $cientology. It was an amazing accomplishment and I salute you Anonymous for pulling it off.

I'd known of the existence of Scientology for a while, I just never knew exactly what it was they believed in. Then I saw the infamous "Trapped in a Closet" episode of South Park and I thought to myself, "Wow that's a whole lot of crazy, but it's their choice." For a long time after that I never even thought about the issue.

Then something happened. I was on YouTube just randomly searching around and I found the Tom Cruise video and watched it. Needless to say I was mildly disturbed by it in many ways. So I started doing some digging. Through that research I discovered Mark Bunker's videos and began watching them with the intent of learning all I could. I checked out numerous websites and kept learning and with each new revelation I became more sure that people like the Wise Beard Man were to be admired for their work and their pickets.

It was then that I saw the first Anonymous video, and for the first time in a long, long time my Faith was rekindled. Not just in the notion that people will come together to fight injustice, but that God was looking out for me. The follow up videos stirred something in my heart and soul that I hadn't felt in a long time and I thank God for letting me stumble on to the videos and I thank Anonymous for posting them.

You are my heroes Anonymous. Keep up the great work. I'll keep writing about the pickets and the other issues I care about. You are showing us once again just what power to the people really means.

That's all for now.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen.

End of line

P.S. For further information about the abuses of Scientology please visit the following websites and come to your own conclusions.
http://www.xenu.net/
http://www.xenutv.com/
http://www.whyaretheydead.net/
http://www.whyweprotest.net/

Thank you

The President, Elections and Protests, oh my

Here we are my friends and compatriots and boy do I have some things to talk about today.

The news just broke that President Bush vetoed a bill that would have banned the use of waterboarding as well as other "harsh interrogation techniques". The truth be told I expected this, though I'm not happy about it in the least. His reason for doing so, at least according to the reports I've seen, are that the CIA needs to do these things as a means of gathering crucial information needed to protect the country. That line of thought doesn't make any sense at all. Every major psychological study on this subject tell us that torture doesn't work as a means of gathering information; because people will say anything to make it stop. Even if you could get valuable information that way there is still the morality of such things. It is reprehensible to torture prisoners and to hold people without charge.

Now some of you will say that it is ok to waterboard and other such things because our enemies would do worse to our people. I'm sorry but that's not the point. The point is that we're the United States of America, we're not supposed to do those kinds of things because its evil and its wrong. As a citizen of the United States I demand that our leaders cease and decist these heinous practices and abide by the rule of law.

This leads me to my second point, the election. I don't know about the rest of you but I'm pretty sick and tired of the nonsense going on here. We have McCain on the republican side, someone who at least seems to want to talk about the issues rather than his opponents' names or whether or not they're qualified. I get the same impression from Barack Obama and I like that. Personally I'd like to see a race between Obama and McCain in the genreal election. I've seen the Clinton years already and I really don't want to go back to that again.

With that being said I have to say that I'm not really surprised at the lengths Senator Clinton seems to be willing to go to in order to be her party's nomination. Now please keep in mind that much of this is purely based on my perceptions, and I don't claim them to be the correct ones. The red phone ad is a prime example of this and I'll show you why. It is my understanding that the ad features images of young people and an infant about to go to bed and asks the question of who the audience would rather have in the white house. That kind of makes me blink because that could be construed as being really racist in a way. I might be wrong in how I precieved this so I'm willing to listen to other people and see what they though. Anyway my point is that Clinton seems to, from my perspective, be coming just short of demanding that she be the nominee no matter what. If that happens, despite who has the popular vote, then I think the Democratic party may have some problems.

My third point today is reminding you all that the Ides of March are fast approaching. This holds some special significance for two reasons, beyond the Shakespear reference that is. The first is that March 15th is L. Ron Hubbard's birthday, not really important to me but it plays into the second reason as to why its an important day. That date is also the date set for a second world wide protest against the Church of Scientology by Anonymous. I can't begin to tell you how thrilled I am at people stepping up and speaking out against the human rights abuses and villianous tactics by the organization behind Scientology. I hope to go to the Michigan protest myself but I can't commit to going because of my health. I encourage everyone to go to www.xenutv.com www.xenu.net www.whyaretheydead.net http://xenutv.wordpress.com/2008/03/02/the-ides-of-march/ and http://www.exscientologykids.com/inde...

Look into those pages and do your own research. Come to your own conclusions and speak out against injustice.

That's all for now all.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you.
Amen and amen

End of line

The Passing of a Legend

Yesterday Gary Gygax passed away at the age of 69 and an entire community of people mourn his passing.Who was Gary Gygax you ask?

He, along with Dave Arneson, created Dugeons and Dragons the first great table top role playing game. I don't know if they realized at the time just what it was they had created. Where would many of us be without their creation?

I want to take this opportunity, though I never got to meet the man, say thank you. Thank you for creating a place where people like me belong. Thank you for every night spent around a table with friends, eating pizza and taking some measure of enjoyment at lobbing a fireball at an unsuspecting goblin. Thank you for providing an outlet for our imaginations and dreams. You created one of the greatest sandboxes that I've ever gotten to play in. Thank you for reminding us that just because we happen to get older, by no means does that mean we have to grow up.

My prayers and condolences to the Gygax family during this time.

That's all for now. May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His face to smile upon you. Amen and amen

End of line.

Taking a Stand

There are times in life where a person has to take a stand. Times when you have to step up and speak out so that people become aware of a problem or an issue that's important. In recent years I've come to believe that far too few people are willing to do so because it might mean that they're inconvienced in some way. If you're one of those people then this post may not be for you.

There are problems that our country is facing, some of them old, others are new; but they're problems none the less and they have to be dealt with. We have to own up to the fact that we have allowed our civil liberties to be violated via warrentless wiretapping. We've allowed inexcusable practices, like waterboarding and rendition flights, to occur under our watch. People have stood silently while groups like the Church of Scientology have violated people's human rights, as with Lisa McPherson and Paulette Cooper. We, as a nation, have allowed 200,000 of our veterans to sleep on the streets on any given night. We've allowed drugs to rage out of control and many other issues to reach critical mass.

Well as an American citizen I'm calling on my fellow citizens to wake up, rise up and take a stand.
We have to start speaking out and work on the level of the people to bring about real and abiding change. Just changing laws won't do a thing, people have to change first and the only way to do that is to start talking. We have to talk about why we don't put more money into cancer research. We have to talk about why its so wrong to talk about abstinence in sex education as a valid choice and the only 100% way to NOT get an STD or get pregnant. We have to talk about ways to bring about a method by which people who can't afford health insurance can still get health care.

To be sure there are people talking and working on many of these issues. The internet group known as Anonymous, for example, is planning a second protest against the practices of Scientology on March the 15th. I'm glad of this because it means people are getting involved and asking questions. That's not a bad thing, in fact its the only way things ever get changed.

Find an issue that matters to you and get involved. Find ways to help your community become a better place. If all you can do is open a blog and start talking then do that but do something. Your voice matters and its time we united to bring about real and abiding change.

That's all for now.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen.

End of line.

The NIU Shooting and the Blame Game

By now most of the country has heard about the recent shooting rampage at Northern Illinois University. They know that Stephen Kazmierczak was a troubled man who had been diagnosed with an undisclosed psychological illness, one that required him to take antidepressants. However the brain trust at Fox Noise (err I mean Fox "News") chose to interview one John Bruce "Jack" Thompson, who claims to be a Christian, about the shootings. During the course of the interview the game hating, Florida attorney lined out the real cause of the shootings. The real culprit wasn't Steve Kazmierczack, though he did pull the trigger, the real culprit was the videogame Counter Strike. You read correctly there. It was a videogame. An evil, mindcontroling game that forced Steve Kazmierczack to order guns online, load those guns and go out and shoot a bunch of people before turning a weapon on himself.

This is really par for course with J.T. though. A shooting like this occurs and suddenly there J.T. is, proclaiming that he knew this was going to happen because videogames are to blame. In his mind anyone who plays any M rated game is a potential assassin in training. A Manchurian Candidate who's ready, willing and able to kill because videogames told them too. This is, beyond all doubt, one of the dumbest things I've ever heard in my life. A videogame doesn't make you pick up a gun and start killing people. A videogame can never train you to shoot for real because a videogame has no recoil. They don't have the other compensating factors that actual shootists and firing range people are aware of. Of course a little thing like the truth or facts doesn't bother Jack Thompson. Those are things that get in the way of his legacy, which he has repeatedly stated as wanting to be remembered as the man who destroyed the gaming industry.

What people like J.T. do is play the blame game. Rather than talk about substantive matters like the lack of parental authority, good role models, rampant bullying and any number of other issues they talk about things like music, movies and videogames. Now keep in mind that I don't like all music, and there are plenty of movies that I won't support because I don't like what they are about. (Saw and Hostel are examples of these). However a taste for dark music and darker movies isn't the problem The problems are many and varied and we have to stop playing the blame game and actually start talking about the real issues.
I don't mind people speaking out against things they believe are wrong. I'm a firm believer in standing for what's right and honorable. However inserting yourself into a tragedy for the sole purpose of making money and making a legacy are disgusting behaviours and should be shunned.

Lets stop playing the blame game and start talking to one another. Nothing will ever be solved until we do.

That's all for now

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

End of line