Why do People do This?

Another Blogger had a topic which was Atheism vs. Anti Theologism and what the difference is. There is a large difference. I can put it into perspective by sharing the story of having a quiet Sunday interrupted by some folks that wanted to insinuate themselves into our quiet Sunday to share their spiritual beliefs. For some reason these people seemed to feel empowered by their god of choice to interrupt our quiet Sunday to drop off some paperwork, that were we to actually read and critique in their presence, would not have been favorable to them. Why do they feel justified to share the beliefs which should be private with others. I would never presume to visit any other person's home and share my view of the world with them. So here is the tale:

We were just visited by some Baptist Fundamentalist missionaries here in the Valley, which led us discussing in depth my lack of theology. I've been told to "go to Hell" by those that don't wish to hear of my anti-theological beliefs. I always have to ask "which Hell"? When one does not choose to be a practitioner of organized religion or a believer in any "God" one is often seen as someone who is uncaring or not involved in the betterment of humanity. Such is not the case. Being a caring individual does not have to be an extension of practicing religion, in fact, if one is philanthropic in one's own right, then often times the true benefit reaches the people in need without a middle man reaping some benefit prior to the needy folks receiving their much needed assistance.

Man evolved all over this planet. Associated genesis tales were spread through their communities either in written form or verbal tales. Death has always been a concern since we evolved to have large enough brains to understand cessation of life. Afterlife tales and rituals were propagated to explain the unexplainable. Once we evolved to become smart enough to question our existence and our surroundings we needed to create explanations. Why do many subscribe to the religions of the Middle Eastern and Northern Hemisphere genesis tales, Judaism and Christianity being two that are very popular. The Aborigines in Australia were a society as many as 40,000 years before the first organized societies came into place in the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia. Why do we now not subscribe to the genesis tales of those that have been organized humans for much longer than the Middle East and subsequent European societies? Why does no one take into account the Asians that most likely came across the land bridge into Alaska? They must have had some tales worth sharing and some God worth worshipping.

People will often ask if science is "my God" but no. Our modern science has but scratched the surface of what it means to be human, on a planet a favorable distance from an average sun, in a small system of planets in a medium sized galaxy of billions of stars, with planetary systems of their own that we do not have the technology to visit.

There are so many mysteries but I'm never willing to just write them off to "God" regardless of which one is referred to. Life is too fascinating to just leave it at that. There must be exploration and introspection. "God" is just too easy, and lazy.

Sarah Palin Says

Sarah Palin is a woman who has raised a few children who are poster children for bad behavior, she will be quick to admonish anyone else that does not subscribe to her "Grizzly Mom" style of child-rearing.

Sarah Palin admonishes those that have achieved advanced degrees in our halls of education; she on the other hand will glorify her own attempt at achieving such a degree in our halls of education.

Sarah Palin will spout divisive and inflammatory rhetoric, while admonishing anyone else that does the same.

Sarah Palin will tell the world that she is a talented and practiced hunter of big game, while asking her Dad if that gun will "kick", then ask her father to reload the weapon for her in between her use of said weapon.

Sarah Palin will call for transparency in Government while requiring at minimum, stalling tactics, or actual redaction of the information contained in her emails requested while she was an elected public official.

Sarah Palin would get upon a national stage and proclaim that Alaska was currently undertaking the largest Energy Project in the history of our country, when no such gas pipeline will ever come to fruition.

Sarah Palin will say she took on the Old Boy Network in Oil Production and raised their taxes so that Alaska could reap the benefits. The current Governor is now lowering those taxes so that oil production can continue.

Sarah Palin will say that God opens doors for her, and she hopes to always be cognizant of those "open doors" so she can "plow right through them". God must have a sense of humor, or He has a penchant for Toast.

I'm Runnin' (I was a little bored on this rainy day)

Not certain whether it's poetry or rap! At any rate, I hope that you will find it amusing. Did I tell you I was bored on this rainy day? Iambic pentameter (probably not) meets PDiddy?

Sarah Palin, I'm Runnin':

I'm runnin', I'm runnin'

The post which I'm elected for will end up being nevermore

I'll quit it by half time, because it's so mine

I'll be remembered for ever more for being Governor for a tenth of a score.

But I'm runnin', I'm runnin'

Just to get elected but then I'll be rejectin'

The job; elected to by an angry mob

Of teabaggers and tongue waggers

Takin' what's mine is my new pastime,

And it's past time, for a new civil war, and I'm its' biggest boor!

I'm Palin, and failin' is my MO; showin' what I don't know

It's made me rich, and yes I'm still a witch (thanks Reverend Muthee, for NOTHIN')

Queen of Walmart; a bumpit with no brain

Sucking dollars from the stupid and insane

Guess I do owe a shout out to Mr. John McCain

One man's lack of vetting sure did end up abetting

A career of griftin' and stealin'

Darn it, you know his head must be reelin'!

Suck it Couric and O'Reilly too

Only Hannity and Beck are part of my crew

(and VanSusteren, but hey, that's a hard rhyme…just give me some time...)

Got Murdoch in my pocket and Roger Ailes too,

Got Malek and Rove and Krystol wooed.

Just hopin' that Steele knows his place in this world

'Cause only for whites does the great flag unfurl.

I'm Palin and I'm runnin'

Levi's spoils are won, even without the shotgun!

Trig and Tripp and new baby make three

more street cred for Focus on the Family (love ya Dobson ;-)

If that doesn't "sill the dill", I don't know what will

Get used to it folks, y'alls now in the yokes of

Palin 2012, hope my detractors don't delve....

(too deeply, that could be bad…also too I hope that the Mayan calendar is not right and I get to be President for more than just a month and a half.)

XOXO (don't mean it)

SP (but not really)

Teabag Nation. Listen Up.

Informed folks are never gonna get it. The baggers, the honest to god blue collar baggers that have no notion of what it truly takes to run a country are always going to side with the person who displays the characteristics that play so prominently in their own lives.

In the life of a certain segment of Americans, education plays a small role, church going and tithing play a large role. Wanting to be represented in Washington by someone that seems to have the same lifestyle as they do plays a HUGE role. These people are sick and tired of having people smarter and more accomplished than they are representing their interests in the political arena.

Palin is merely pandering to a segment that fits her mentality and the persona she has created.

There is a growing cultural divide in this country. The disenfranchised right don't see a single thing wrong with writing the answers on your hand. They want to be represented by people "just like them" but fail to realize that "people just like them" are not qualified to head up one of the most powerful nations in the world.

This small portion of America that wishes to have a person in charge that is like them and writes their grocery list on the palm of their hand is a segment of our population that better step up their game or learn to speak Chinese, because it will make it so much easier to work in the Chinese factories when we truly lose America, forever.

The politically active far right dream of empowering America through their protests and signage and vocalizations, however, they are not making our country stronger. Their main agenda seems to be making fun of and holding down a President that wants nothing more than to strengthen their position in this country and make this Nation strong again rather than sell out to China and India. (Ya know, those countries that have college graduates working in factories and phone rooms because they can't get a better job with their Master's degrees from America.)

Baggers, educate your children and have them create a bigger, stronger America, or focus or having them learn Chinese. Those are your choices. If you choose option B, learning Chinese, hopefully your kids will have medical insurance over there in China in the factories that they will be working in.

9/11/2001 in Anchorage Alaska

While driving to work we heard that a plane had hit the World Trade Center and there were ongoing news reports via NPR regarding what had taken place in NYC. Our take on it was "wow, they are really big buildings and probably nothing will come of this; freak accident and hopefully everything will be okay (except for those that were initially impacted by the rogue plane)

I dropped my partner off at his workplace in downtown Anchorage and then headed to my office in South Anchorage. As I was driving I was listening to NPR, as we had been our our way to work. News became more grim as I was listening and it became rather intense.

As I was driving to my office I noticed military jets flying low around downtown/west Anchorage and then local radio hosts broke into the NPR feed to let us know that a Korean Air plane was possibly hijacked and that downtown Anchorage was being evacuated.

I turned my car around and called my partner and picked him up at his office downtown. We proceeded home to Wasilla listening to NPR while on the road and we spent the rest of the day on the internet or watching horrific accounts of not one Trade Center impact but two and two buildings falling and then we learned of flight 93 grounding in Pennsylvania.

It was a surreal day. The thing that brought it all home for me was when I was picking my partner up downtown in Anchorage and military jets were literally screaming through the air around the inlet and the downtown buildings. I kept thinking to myself "who would target downtown Anchorage, of all places, for a terrorist attack", but after hearing what had happened elsewhere, I also began to think "why not"?

Luckily the KAL hijack was a mere miscommunication between tower and pilot, but the surreal feeling of that day is still something that I can recreate in my head whenever 9/11 is mentioned.

It was a strange day in Anchorage and every September 11 I remember the feelings of fear and disbelief that ran though my head on that day.

We Don't need no Education

I just realized this was a title of a post I'd done many months ago...I guess that post also had to do with a certain political party not recognizing the value of education. Now here is another post, about a certain political party not recognizing the value of education.

Well, here it is in a nutshell. To those people that are so afraid of our President giving their children advice on why it might be a great idea to remain in school and excel educationally as far as their intelligence will allow, well, keep your kids home. I don't care because even if you deprive your children of a chance to become inspired and perhaps excel beyond your educational level, that's a family issue, within your family.

Me, I'm happy, because so many parents will allow their children to become inspired by our President's speech and they will go on to make advances in medicine, technology, and a whole lot of other fields that will benefit me.

To the parents that keep their children home and ignorant of the importance of education. That's okay too, because the US military-industrial-war-machine always welcomes C students and dropouts as "fresh meat" in their latest war, heck they even recruit them heavily at the local Army/Navy/Marine office here in my town. Wal-Mart also needs your underachieving children; it welcomes them with open arms and pays them $7.15 per hour with NO BENEFITS. Same with any fast food joint.

Here's my heartfelt "thank you" to the parents that keep their kids from hearing Obama's inspirational speech tomorrow.

I'm very happy to know that there will always be dupes to fight unjust wars for me, sell me cheap crap at Wal-Mart and hand me my favorite "guilty" fast food snack through the drive thru window of my local burger joint. These servants will always be here for me because their parents denied the importance of education.

Actually, really, thank you, thank you and thank you again to the parents that are fearful of Obama's pro-education message, because I don't know what life would be like without having your little underachievers in MY life.

Please, keep your kids home, perhaps watching Faux News with you...yes, please do, because if you let these kids get educated, well, it may very well create a disturbance in MY way of life and that is just too horrible to comprehend.

On Ted Kennedy and The Kennedy Legacy

I realized today watching the eulogy for Ted Kennedy presented by President Barack Obama, that we wouldn't have an Obama, a chance for change, a new face in politics and an opportunity to overturn the status quo in this great country, if not for Ted Kennedy.

He was born a child of privilege and certainly faced his demons in his life as did many in his family. Yet, something in this wealthy and entitled family made them think as much of those that have little as those that have much.

That is the legacy he left us. He truly believed in country and had hope that all of us might actually be able to live our lives as Americans based on an idea of equality, regardless of his genetic gift of being born into wealth and fame.

He surpassed the gifts of wealth and genetic "fame" by always thinking of those that were not born into such circumstances.

If only all people could be so kind and so considerate, we might all become "one nation united" for a central cause.

Now is certainly the time to reflect upon the gifts that this man bestowed upon our country; the gift of ignoring race, of ignoring the American "caste" system and treating all human beings in this country and in this world as human beings worthy of being listened to and human beings whose causes are worth fighting for. The world that Ted Kennedy envisioned is one where we all might one day be, to use a sailing euphemism, all be sailing on an "even keel".

There aren't too many people born into a life of privilege that use their voice and power to try to make the world better for the "little guy" that didn't have their advantages. I must applaud Ted and the Kennedys for sticking up for those that were not born under that same golden cloud. I also must applaud them for overcoming much grief yet still continuing their agenda of "liberty for all".

I can't say enough yet I hope I've made my point. This family has had more extraordinary members than any other in our last 6 decades. They could have decided to just be rich and hedonistic and live their lives for themselves, yet many in the Kennedy family have decided to use their voice, their wealth and their power to help those that were not born into such a situation and it makes my heart happy that there are people that are willing to do this.

I can't honestly say that I would be so altruistic had I been born with wealth and power, but I have to admire those that will go the distance for the disenfranchised. Someone in the Kennedy family at some point planted a seed that grew and that seed gave us many, many great politicians and community activists within the Kennedy family. This family gave us people who actually cared about other people and the environment and used the wealth that could have afforded them endless days lounging about in the world's greatest vacation destinations. Instead of hanging out in Ibiza or other destinations of the rich, they spent most of their time fighting for the little guy, and using their loud and powerful voices and influence to help those that weren't born under such great circumstances and this is wonderful.

We can all learn a lesson from how the Kennedy's lived their lives. Detractors will also find unsavory episodes within the lives of the Kennedy's. I still can't help but believe that all of the good that they've done WAY outweighs the personal demons that they have faced down.