Why all the hate?

I've read a lot of posts from people claiming to hate based on political views. I want to know why you would hate me because of my views?

I don't want to stop you from worshipping the way that you want; I only want the right to worship the way that I want, and to do so without you hurling insults and/or rocks at me.

I would prefer not to see homosexuals OR heterosexuals engaging in anything even remotely sexual in public; I do want the right for consenting adults to engage in whatever sexual activities they chose to so long as it is done in private.

I don't want to see abortion become a commonly accepted practice for unwanted pregnancies; if I feel that it is in my best interest to end my pregnancy, I want to have the right to do so. If it is a mortal sin, so be it. It's my body, my life and my soul, and I don't need or want your salvation.

I don't want you to stop living your life according to the morals and values that you hold dear, nor do I want your children to be taught anything that is contrary to those beliefs; I do want the right to live my life according to the morals and values that I hold dear. As long as my actions don't result in the loss of life or limb, or put anyone in harm's way physically, mentally or financially, what business is it of yours?

The next time you feel like you hate someone, ask yourself: What would Jesus do?

Yelling, screaming and hurling insults at me will only drive me farther away, but perhaps if you showed a little respect, a little compassion, if you actually talked to me, I would listen to you.

I might even agree with you.

But first you have to stop yelling at me about how much you hate me.

Ignorance, Intollerance, and You

Yes, my peeps, I have uncovered a goldmine of quotes. Quotes which should leave you with no question as to why the rest of the world hates us or, at the very least, thinks that we're stupid.

Let's start with this gem from Ann Coulter:

"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."

If you truly feel that way, shouldn't you convert their leaders to Christianity before you kill them? Afterwards it's kind of a moot point, don't you think?

"Being nice to people is, in fact, one of the incidental tenets of Christianity, as opposed to other religions whose tenets are more along the lines of 'kill everyone who doesn't smell bad and doesn't answer to the name Mohammed'"

Oh, so that's what you call it when you say we should invade their country, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. So if that's being nice, what would you do to them if you were being 'not nice'?

Here's a nice one from former President George Bush Sr.:

"I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."

Geez, do they not study history? The founding fathers did NOT include 'under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance. It was added because somehow 'under God' was going to make more of a distinction between us and the Soviet Union than capitalism vs. communism did. The Cold War is over. Just let it go. Say 'under God' if you want to, don't say it if you don't want to. It's that simple. Great, I got off topic and now have to find my way back...

And when did believing in God become one of the definitions of an American citizen?

From President George W. Bush:

"I don't think that witchcraft is a religion. I wish the military would rethink this decision."

No one is saying that witchcraft is a religion. Wicca is a religion, one that is far older than Christianity. Surely you aren't about to say that Hindu, Buddism and Islam aren't religions, are you?

There are more examples of the stupidity and hatred of these people at http://www.stephaniemiller.com/ezmoblog/Itemid,89/. This is what the rest of the world hears, folks ~ the condemnation and outright threats.

Of course terrorism -- no matter who the terrorists are -- is wrong. But does it help matters when the quotes above are how Christianity is being portrayed to the world?

The Outsourcing of America

Tell me, when is the last time you called a company and talked to a representative that was actually in the United States?

Are you sure?

Because more and more companies are moving their customer service to India and spending millions of dollars teaching these people to speak flawless English. They even chose American-sounding names so that the customers won't suspect they are talking to someone in India (some names work better than others, of course. If you chose the name Moses Garcia, I'm talking about you.)

Outsourcing is good for the bottom line of Corporate America. The average call center employee in India makes in one day what the average citizen of India would earn in one week.

It's also what their American counterparts working that same call center job would make in one hour. It's cheap labor, and nothing else.

Outsourcing is ruining this country. We don't just outsource call center jobs; we outsource data entry, accounting, and of course manufacturing. The reason your new sweatshirt is so cheap is because it was made by a 7 year old working in a sweatshop in Mexico for 70 cents a day. Now is some kid being forced into basically slavery hurting America? Well, no. But the fact is that kid working for 70 cents a day cost American jobs. That means that there are people unemployed and unable to purchase say, a new home, car, or other items. And that means that the stores and the manufacturers lose that profit. Which means that over time, they make less and less profit.

So both the retailer and the manufacturer cut back on labor because they are losing profit. And those labor cut backs mean that even more people don't have the income to buy the stuff, which means that there are more labor cuts...and so the cyle never ends as we get stuff cheaper and cheaper but have less and less money to buy it. Because the people that lose their jobs here means that there are less home sales, less car sales...less everything sales. Which means retail jobs are lost.

You get the picture, right?

Now let's add into the equation the fact that our military tanks are made in China. Yes, that China. The ones that have threatened to nuke us. The ones that are allied with Iran. In fact, our economy is being run by China because of the amount of money our government has borrowed from them.

Nervous? Good. You should be. If not, read this article.

Not only are we sending our jobs to foreign countries, we're staking our existence on them continuing to float our loans and sell our military the things that our soliders need. The United States is now the largest exporter of raw materials and the largest importer of finished products.

Congratulations, America. You now meet the definition of a third world country.

Today's Mood: Selfish

My toy! Mine! All mine!

Hijacked conversations

Yesterday, I blogged about how a conversation went from college textbooks to whether or not casinos in Las Vegas will ever be willing to stop taking bets on NBA games. Yes, I know, it boggles the mind.

So now, as promised, I will tackled yet another conversation, this time via email, that took a wrong turn and got lost.

It all started with a stupid joke. Then again, aren't most jokes that get sent via email stupid? Anyway, it was a joke that ended with a punchline about used condoms being turned into bubblegum that was shipped to France. Now bear in mind that I was not an active participant in the argument. An antogonist, perhaps, but not an actual participant.

Anyway, one of the recipients of the joke replied to the sender of the joke, and the sender called the recepient a lover of the French and hater of America because he said the joke wasn't all that funny and that he had nothing against France or its people.

So there's a discussion about France and how, to paraphrase the sender, French people act uppity and put us down unless they need us to bomb something. "Us" being America. Somewhere around this part is where I was brought into this. Not kicking and screaming, mind you; I was a willing non-participating participant who happened to agree with the receipient (hereafter referred to as "R") in his arguments against the sender (hereafter referred to as "S").

The conversation turned from WWII to weapons, specifically who was selling what to whom. That's where I got kind of lost until suddenly S brings Iraq into the dialogue. Then the debate/argument turned to whether or not we were justified invading Iraq, were things better or worse for the Iraqi people, who had better information on the subject...meanwhile, I'm sitting there thinking how the f**k did Iraq get into a conversation about used condoms being recycled into bubblegum and whether or not the joke was funny?

Pay attention in your conversations with other people and you'll probably find that it happens more often than you think. Make a casual conversation about people not making coffee when the pot is empty, and it will turn into a deep discussion on why we didn't use copy paper that was a 92 brightness all along. Mention the recent rise in gas prices and soon you'll be discussing whether ABC will put Lost on hiatus during the upcoming Olympics.

I think this is why our government gets away with so much crap, and we're shocked when we find out about it. It's because we have no attention span anymore. Case in point: Scooter Libby. Whatever happened with him? It seems like one minute we're talking about his bad-sex novel (no, I don't mean that the book is about bad sex, it's a book about sex that is very very bad...and not bad in the good kind of way) and then there's this flurry of stuff going on and suddenly everyone's attention is on whether Iran will stop and nuke Iraq on it's way to nuking Israel.

And so our conversations and our logic are subject to being hijacked, turned in a completely different direction and set on a new course in the hopes that we forget what we were originally after.

Pass the bubblegum.

And just how did we get here?

Ever have a conversation and at the end wonder how in the world you got to that topic? Just for clarity, I'm referring only to those times when all parties have been sober. Conversations that took place when you or one of the other participants were drunk, stoned and/or high do not count, as when one is drunk, stoned or high one generally forgets the protocol of saying "Excuse me, but I'm going to completely change the subject now." And if you were drunk, stoned or high, you probably don't clearly remember any of the conversation anyway.

So today at work, we're minding our own business working and...stuff...when we start talking about books because one of the women is going to college and was telling and showing us a text book for a college class. That led to the topic of how there are books in some really old college libraries that are bound with human flesh. No, seriously! Okay, perhaps I should back up a bit. We started out the morning talking about how whale vomit is used to make the really expensive perfumes, so when the textbook topic came up, books bound with human flesh was just a natural topic to bring up. You know, one gross fact leads to another.

So then J (ha ha, no one will ever guess who you are!) starts talking about how he should write a book and then leave it in his Will that when he dies, he wants the book bound with his flesh. And of course how, if he did put that in his Will, his son would just assure everyone that he was smoking some good shit the day he wrote his Will.

Now the only logical place for the conversation to go at this point is...what would happen to J's body after he died? I offered to drive down I-80 with the window open and let the wind carry his ashes onto the windshield of the other vehicles. Then we discussed other places that ashes could be scattered. The State Capital, the lawn of the White House, and Arco Arena were all good choices.

Hopefully by the time J dies, there will be a new arena in Sacramento. In the same line of thought, hopefully by the time J dies, the Kings will be playing like a professional basketball team again. Anyway, J said scatter his ashes on the remains of Arco Arena, that it will probably be an office or something by then.

Which of course led to speculation about whether the Kings would get a new arena, and how Sacramento needs an arena because the acoustics at Arco suck so badly a lot of artists just skip over Sacramento on their tours. And then turned to will the Kings stay in Sacramento, or will the Maloofs move the team to Las Vegas, where the Maloofs own the Palms casino.

Which led to the question of whether or not an NBA team (or any professional sports team) could do well in Las Vegas, and if other casinos would be willing to give up betting on NBA games to get an NBA team to come to town.

In summary, we went from "College textbooks are really expensive" to "I just don't think the casinos in Las Vegas are going to give up the revenue they make from people betting on NBA games" in one conversation. Wow.

Tomorrow, I'll try to tackle how a joke about French bubblegum led to a debate about whether the war in Iraq is just or unjust. And coming up in a future blog: If you're buying a house and someone once died there of natural causes, do you really think the dead person has been waiting for you to buy the place so he/she can haunt you?

Our founding fathers must be so proud

In light of all that has come out about our President spying on American citizens (call it what you want, it still amounts to spying on American citizens) I can't help but think of the words of Benjamin Franklin. Yes, the guy that went and flew a kite during a thunderstorm. Okay, so he wasn't the brightest guy around, but he still made a very true statement: "Those that would sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither freedom nor security."

How do you suppose they would feel, knowing that American men and woman are in a foreign country dying to liberate those people while on American soil the government was hard at work trying to restrict the personal freedoms of Americans? What would they think of a President who feels that the Constitution should be set aside while we fight a war that was never actually declared a war? What would these men, who made it very clear that religion has no place in government, do if they had known that we would one day have an administration determined to make us all conform to the mold of Christian morality?

Since President Bush says he talks to Jesus in the Oval Office, I wonder if he's asked the question, Who would Jesus bomb?

Ignorance is alive and well

First, let me begin by saying that this is NOT aimed at any one person. It is aimed at everyone who, when asked why they were so determined to argue (translation=beat a dead horse) has said "I was on the debate team in high school".

Unfortunately, there seem to be a lot of people out there who like to argue about something and then claim "I was on the debate team." To this I say "BIG F***ING DEAL."

You were on the debate team in high school. Congratulations. I went to law school. Now that we've cleared up which of us has more 'education' on debating...

Welcome to the real world. Leave your silly little rules about how to debate outside. Rules on how to debate a subject are only for those who lack the passion of their convictions and therefore cannot build a good argument. In high school, you were told what side of the argument to debate. You're a grown up now, chose your own damn topic. If you really believe in it, and if your belief is based on facts, research and experience, and not just because it's what your political party of choice has told you to believe, then you'll be able to make a convincing argument. If not, you'll sound like an ignorant, closed-minded fool trying to make points on the playground.

And don't expect that you're going to change anyone's mind, because most likely you are arguing with the person BECAUSE of the passion that they have for the subject. You have as much chance of getting the other person to throw up their hands and say "You're right, what was I thinking? Oh thank you!" as you do of converting a Hindu to Catholicism. The best that you can hope for is to get the other side to agree that you have some valid points.

(BTW, no, I didn't not go on to become an attorney so yes, I am still a member of the human race)