God Bless the Secular State

I came across a posting by an old friend today regarding the state of our nation and how God feels about it, or would feel about it if a supreme being truly cared that much about the affairs of the youngest empire on the planet.  An interesting argument was made, and it's an argument that I grew up with, and an argument that since I grew up with it, had never realized that it is a very contemporary argument and is completely baseless.  This lie, and it was in the posting I read, made a statement that this country had moved away from God some time ago.  And that because this nation that was based on Christian principles had moved away from God, we're in big trouble.  

The problem with this thought is that our nation was never founded on Christian principles, our nation was founded on the principles of agnostics, atheists, deists, unitarians, and Christians of the enlightenment period who romanticized the beliefs of ancient Greece and Rome(pagans).  Where or how we get Christian principles from that is beyond me.  One man who did a great deal in helping to shape the foundations of our nation, Thomas Jefferson, made sure that God and religion did not make it into our governmental structure.  Other founding fathers like Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, and James Madison all have recorded statements of their opposition one way or another to the involvement of God in the state. 

Thomas Jefferson, it is worth noting was probably a Christian in the best sense of what a Christian should be.  He actually focused on the teachings and moral value of what Christ had to say.  Jefferson, famously now, wrote his own version of the New Testament in which he took out all of the superstitious, supernatural, and miraculous filler.  Commonly referred to as the Jefferson Bible, it focuses on an aspect of Christianity that most Christians, I fear, miss out on.  As a Christian, would I follow the teachings of Christ, or just focus on the supernatural feats and figure that since I can't do those things, I need to worship this guy?  The point of the miraculous happenings in Jesus' ministry was not to awe people into believing in him, but rather to get people to listen to the things he came to teach.  - Charity, pacifism, living a simple life, loving your enemies, giving up your riches - Find me a well off, right wing, fundamentalist, conservative Christian who believes in a strong military, eliminating the 'welfare state',  supporting the state of Israel, and gun rights, and I'll show you someone who has lost the plot.

This isn't a post to beat up on the religious right, as much pleasure as it may give me from time to time.  My intention is to dispel the myth that the United States is somehow or ever was supposed to be a Christian nation.  Simple fact is that it is not, and for that I am glad.  If God cares at all about the mundane everyday politics in our era, I'm pretty sure he'd want government to function effectively without superstitious prejudices getting in the way of guaranteeing people's Liberty, or whatever we think government should do these days.  

If in fact religion or God were supposed to be a part of our state, clearly then, the framers of the Constitution would not have specifically banned religious tests for holding office.  They would not have made sure that the First Amendment guaranteed that in no way would government establish any law that restricts the religious practices or beliefs of an individual.  And most importantly, if the framers of the Constitution wanted God or religion to have anything to do with the business of governing men, they would not have very clearly and specifically guaranteed that our government would never act in a way to establish a specific religion or church.  

It is actually as good for religion in America as it is for the government that we generally try to keep them from too much involvement with one another.  In many European nations with established churches, the numbers of citizens active in religious activities are shockingly low.  America is an exceptional example of a thriving religious community. Funny then that a common complaint of the religious right is that this nation needs to 'come back to God'.  An interesting fact that the religious right doesn't want us to know is that now, more than any time in our history, we have the largest percentage of people who engage in religious activity.  Interesting then when we hear the argument that this nation that we are 'losing sight' of God, and that they need to 'reclaim' America for God.  I don't know, but it sounds like someone isn't being honest with us.

So with that, God bless the Secular State, if it weren't for such a thing, religion would undoubtedly be as dead in America as many Western European nations.  Besides that, could anyone picture President Obama in a funny Papal type hat (of course the President would be the head of the state established church).  Being a religious person myself, the last thing I want is some government, I don't care which one, but some government meddling with the everyday affairs of my religion.  

Media Myth

So, I'm in class today, and we're talking about the age of mass media in which we are currently in.  Political and social scientists argue that today's media is incredibly diverse and chock full of competition.  Their argument behind this belief, a reasonable one, is that at any given moment you can turn on the television or the computer and find news from a multitude of sources out there.  I have though been having a rather hard time with this.  I'm not writing today to tell anyone of the political biases of the mass media, that seems like an argument with no good answer; many people on the right argue that the media has a clear and definite slant to the left, and people on the left argue the same just in the other direction.  What I would argue though is the massive scale in which the modern news media is inefficient, inaccurate, and incompetent.  Furthermore, in no way do I believe that there is a large diversity of voices out there in regards to the mass media; rather a great many voices all spewing the same swill, representing the interests of a few massive corporations.  

There are in fact only ten companies that control almost all of what anyone can see out there.  When looking into the stakes and ownerships of these massive media conglomerates, only three are not owned in part by some of their competition; Sony, General Electric, and Walt Disney.  This fact doesn't tell the whole truth though, after digging a bit deeper to see where ownership of individual networks and news outlets are concerned, not one of the ten major media companies operate independently of any of their competition.  How can anyone argue that there is a diversity in news and opinion out there when there are ten companies, all working together, providing the public with almost all of their news and information?  

I'm not trying to suggest as some conspiracy theorists do that this puts us somehow on a path toward a New World Order or that all of the media is entirely corrupt.  I believe there are individual journalists and reporters that are reporting on news that they believe to be relevant.  The problem that I see is in the gatekeeping.  That is what stories get reported, which ones get left behind and why.  When the World Trade Organization holds a conference, it's no wonder that none of the major networks like ABC, CBS, or NBC spend much if any time on the situation in the streets outside of the conference.  Disney (ABC), General Electric (NBC), and Viacom (CBS) would lose some of the benefits created for them by the ludicrous free trade agreements made by the WTO.  Surely if the American public were to see their fellow citizens being run down by storm troopers in riot gear for showing their opposition to such deals and organizations, they would be outraged and someone would have to do something about it.  So the simple solution is to keep it quiet.  If the most powerful corporations in industry, technology, and services are the same corporations that serve as our window to the world why would they show the public anything that does not serve their best interest.  

You don't have to be a socialist, progressive, or a libertarian to see this, sadly it seems that only those on the fringe... better yet, those who believe there is something better out there than the stale 'best worst' scenario that is spoon fed to the American public so they don't get too far out of line and disrupt the balance of power, are the ones who are quickest to pick up on this.

What can be done then?   This is where I have trouble.  Being one of those fringe elements, considering myself left of left and favoring ideas bordering socialism my response is to regulate the media industry, keep these massive corporations from becoming too big, and thus making them less harmful to the enlightenment of the American public.  I already know what all of my fellow fringe elements in the Libertarian party will say, and that is we can't trust the government, they are the enemy in the first place.  There are I'm sure a slew of opinions and disagreements in between.  So what do we do? Can we let the free market have it and just stop giving these companies our money?  They're the only ones out there.  My internet service fee each month goes to support one of these ten media giants, in fact if I want internet where I live, I have no option but to give one of them money.  Same thing goes for paid television and a phone line.  Anyone, anything?

Happy Earth Day

It's been 39 years since the first Earth day in 1970.  Environmental awareness is the first step in taking action to make our planet a better place.  Where do we stand in light of Earth Day being recognized annually for almost forty years now?  Well, in some aspects things are definitely better, for example the Cuyahoga river hasn't caught on fire due to pollution since 1969.  In other aspects we are not any better.  Global Warming is a real issue that really has yet to be addressed, unfortunately very rich and very powerful entities stand in the way.  Sad to say, but it's hard to get as rich off of renewable energies like wind, solar, and geothermal.  One more piece of misfortune is that it seems the people at the top would prefer a larger profit margin today regardless of the cost to future generations.  On this Earth Day, I will be writing letters to my representatives in Washington and Lansing and asking them to get with the program and do something about the ever-looming problem of pollution in our nation.  If we really are what they say we are, the greatest nation on the planet, we should not back down from this challenge of finding renewable, clean, and safe forms of producing energy.  The world is not a perfect place, but we should never stop trying. Happy Earth Day.

Another day, another rant

Things seem to be al little askew in the world today... It's no secret that we are currently engaged in two foreign wars, that our economy is in crisis, the government is about to spend a staggering $700+ billion, everyday regular Americans are suffering; losing their jobs, their investments, and their homes, and the health of the planet is in an alarming state.  What's with all of this anyway?  The powers to be in our society would like us all to believe that we are fighting our two wars as an act of self defense.  See, there are these small groups of men, hiding in caves, in remote parts of the world.  And these men are hellbent on destroying our way of life.  They can do it too, because they flew airplanes into buildings in New York, and tragic events like that would destroy our way of life you see... It is tragic what happened on September 11, 8 years ago, but in no way shape or form did i feel threatened in my way of life.  In no way shape or form do I believe that small groups of fanatics living in caves on the other side of the globe have a snowballs chance in hell of tearing down the system in which I live.  Hell, it's hard enough for an American to make a small change to the system.   So it's a ridiculous notion to believe that this "War on Terror" is real, why are we fighting?  Two more likely reasons are the oil pipeline now in place that the Taliban nixed in 1998, and the opium production, also something the Taliban cut down on while in power.  Yes, the Taliban were ruthless, ultraconservative, religious fanatics; but they did a great job in cutting down on their nation's opium production, and it seems made the fatal mistake of not doing business with Western oil companies.  In Iraq, the story has been a little less consistent, but no more believable. First, Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction; chemical, biological, and even nuclear weapons.  He was willing and able to use these weapons against us.  Before we get to the part where after we took over everything, we couldn't find anything, lets go back just a little bit... If Saddam had these weapons, which we know he didn't, how would he attack us with them?  He didn't have an airforce, no navy, and what he did have of a military would be of little use in attacking a nation on the opposite end of the globe, unless i guess they intended to dig a hole to the United States, and send their weapons of mass destruction that way... So why war with Iraq?  It's been rumored that after the sanctions were to be lifted, Hussein planned to start trading his oil in Euros not dollars which could cause considerable damage to US economic interests.  Also perhaps the fact that Saddam routinely acted against the interest of the West's economic powers.  Then there's that line about spreading democracy, and bringing freedom to the Iraqi people.  If the United States government gave two shits about freedom and democracy, they wouldn't have destroyed the bill of rights by passing the Patriot Act, and if invading sovereign nations were how we intended to spread freedom and democracy there are plenty of nations enduring greater tyranny and hardships than the Iraqi people before 2003.  Fortunately for the House of Saud, they have chosen to engage the West as business partners, rather than rivals.  The economy is in crisis and we're about to spend $700+ to try to fix it... Okay, well why is the economy in crisis?  Since 1980 our government has been shifting to more conservative methods of regulating the economy.  Ronald Reagan told us that government was the problem, and since then, government has been peeled back from hampering the profits of bankers, speculators, and the energy industry.  Sadly today the system is imploding on itself.  See that government regulation was in place to sustain the system and keep it from collapsing itself like it did in the Great Depression era.  So now everybody is in a panic, and the new government's solution to fix the problem is to spend an inordinate amount of money... The Republicans and I actually agreed for a minute about something though.  Mine and their opposition to spending $700+ billion from the government.  This agreement was shortlived though, the $700 billion I oppose is being spent in death and destruction, yes that is the budget for military spending in the United States this year.  The Republicans have no problem spending that much government money on death and destruction, but when it comes to helping Americans get back to work, NOWAY PAL not on my watch they say... It's clear to me, they are the party of moral standards in our nation today... Hey I don't care if it costs twice what they have written up, if it puts Americans back to work and puts some regulation back into the system I'm for it. As for the state of the planet, a scientific study released this week showed that the effects of global warming were further along than previously believed, and that the situation looked dire.  Something about this whole mess seems a bit fishy... I care about the planet, so I'm definitely on the clean energy bandwagon... I don't think that we should be fighting these two wars we are in, especially since they are being fought for economic interests mostly having to do with the control of fossil fuels... I realize that this economic mess was created by a lack of interest in sustainability, and a great deal of interest in profitability... Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems that the best and easiest way to fix all of these things at once would be to get away from burning coal and oil, invest in solar, wind, and geothermal power, and that in doing so we would put Americans to work, eliminate the need for these two wars, and save the environment for our children and grandchildren... But what do I know?

It's about time, now get out of the way!

Welcome to my blog. This is my first post. Theres a lot of stuff going on in the world right now, I will be going on, sometimes to great lengths about them. First off, I feel this post is about a week late, but here it goes anyway. IT'S ABOUT FREAKING TIME! We've been tolerating this mental midget in the White House for eight long disappointing years. Good Bye and Good Riddance George W Bush. You will not only be remembered as a poor president, by putting us in this pointless war, ruining our image around the world, and dismantling the economy; you will be remembered as the WORST president. Now these Kool-Aid drinking whacko's on the right are busting Obama, Pelosi, and Reid's chops for taking action to fix the mess they put us into?! Listen here right winger's you've done enough for us, trickle down economics doesn't work, de-regulation doesn't work, pre-emptive war doesn't work, and cutting social programs doesn't bleeding work! I think you've picked up on a pattern here... Look all I'm saying, the American public has endured irresponsible economic policies since the Reagan era, 20 of the last 28 years have seen Republican rule of the executive branch, 12 of the last 14 years have seen Republican rule of the legislative branch, and now we have a right leaning supreme court that Bush stacked, give us a chance. How could anyone know if our socially responsible programs could work? You people haven't let them. How could we know that diplomacy would work abroad? You haven't tried to talk to anyone. And how would we know if good responsible regulation would work in the economy? You people haven't allowed it to happen.