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.

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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

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

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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